ll @^1^ BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henrg m. Sage 1891 /\-zoziod loklmk 5901 Cornell University Library T 39.G57 Eminent engineers; brief biographiies of t 3 1924 003 916 230 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003916230 4\\\C'{ Eminent Engineers T ▼ ▼ Brief Biographies of Thirty-two of the Inventors and Engineers who did most to further mechanical progress T T T DWIGHT GODDARD, Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers. igo6. The Derry-Collard Company, New York. List of Americans T T T Pages. Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790) 9-16 John Fitch (1743-1798) 18-26 Nathan Read (1759-1849) 29-34 Oliver Evans (17SS-1819) 36-41 Rob..'rt Fulton (1765-1815) 43-48 John Stevens (1749- 1838) 57-58 Robert L. Stevens 57-S8 Eli Whitney ( 1765-1825) 60-69 Thomas Blanchard (1788-1864) 70-77 Elias Howe (1819-1867) 78-84 John Ericsson (1803-1889) 86-98 Peter Cooper (1791-1883) loo-iio George H. Corliss (1817-1888) 110-121 Alexander L. Holley (1832-1882) 122-131 William R. Jones (1839-1889) 132-138 James B. Eads (1820-1887) 140-149 List of Europeans ▼ T T Pages. Richard Arkwright (1722-1792) 150-154 'J'homas Nevvcomen ( -i7So) I55-I59 James Watt (1736-1819) 160-166 Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) T68-172 William Mitrdock (1754-1839) 174-180 William Symington (1864-1831) 182-188 Richard Trevithick (1771-1833 > 190-196 Henry Maudsley (1770-1831) 198-204 George Stephenson (1781-1847) 206-215 I. K. Brunei (1806-1859) 216-226 James Nasmyth (1S08-1890) 228-233 Alfried Krupp (1812-1887) 234-239 Charles Babbage (1791-1871) 240-253 Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803-18S7) 254-260 Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) 262-269 Sir William Siemens (1823-1883) 270-2S0 Benjamin Franlilin. 1705-1790 From painting by Joseph Seffrien DuppIissiSy i^Sj Oivned hy John BigehiVj Nc-zv York Benjamin Franklin. T T T There are good reasons for including the name of Benjamin Frankhn in a list of American inventors. He was born in Boston, 1705, of English ancestry, who, for three or four generations in a straight line, had been blacksmiths. His father was a candle maker and, after a very limited education, Benjamin was set at this work. It was so repugnant to him that he threatened to run away to sea. His father had sense enough not to force him too far and apprenticed him to his older brother James, who was a printer. This was more to his taste, especially as it gave him better opportunity to read. He became an omnivorous reader, sitting up till early morn- ing to read the books he had borrowed, or bribed other boys to borrow for him. He began to write verses and essays for the paper published by his brother when only thirteen years old, sending them in under an assumed name and enjoying the speculations of his brother and the other printers as to who the real author might be. He very early began to appreciate excellence of thought and style in good literature and regret his own lack of edu- cation. He set to work witJj determination to overcome this and succeeded rarely. His abilities becoming known, he was used more and more by his brother for important work and, when difficulties arose from a too free criticism of those in authority and James was arrested and his Franklin. paper suppressed, Benjamin was freed from his appren- ticeship and made the owner and editor of the paper, so that pubHcation could be resumed. When James was released, Benjamin took advantage of his freedom to run away to New York and Philadelphia. He had already become proficient as a printer, knew how to make ink, engrave type and make the other knick-nacks of a print- ing shop. He landed in Philadelphia in a happy-go-lucky fashion, when only nineteen years old, in 1725. He found work in a printing shop, made friends rapidly and in a year was sent to London by Gov. Keith, without money, on a wild goose chase to buy type and printing machinery. He was in London for a 3'ear and a half, making friends as usual, working for the best printers, learn- ing all he could about his trade and reading everything he could lav his hands on. When only 23, he entered his first partnership, whose entire burden he was obliged to assume within a few months. With great energy he pushed this enterprise to an immediate success, and soon gained the reputation of being the best printer in Amer- ica. He showed an amazing range of resources, and scented business in most unsuspected sovuxes. Before long he was Government printer, and was given profitable contracts to print money by different Colonies. Soon he began to publish books, and opened a salesroom in con- nection with the printing-office, where he kept for sale not^ only his own printing, but also imported books, and sold soap, salves, indentured servants, stationery ; pictures, liquor, cheese, cod, cloth, stoves, tea, spectacles, etc., etc., etc. Everything he touched went. His good sense and exhaustless resources won prompt success in everything. Other printers published almanacs. He enlivened his with Poor Richard's sayings until it was in demand from 10 Franklin. Massachusetts to Georgia. He laid his plans to publish a newspaper, but his rival got the start of him ; so he waited until it failed, when he bought it in cheap. Im- mediately it changed character, and became the first real nezvs paper in America. Its pages were enlivened by some of Franklin's best work. He did not hesitate to use its columns for poking fun at high and low, exasper- ating his competitors and booming his own enterprises. Among the novel features he introduced were advertise- ments, illustrations, and letters to the editor. In 1766 he sold out to a partner for a handsome sum. Meanwhile, he had undertaken other business ventures, all of which prospered, till he became one of the rich men of America. As early as 1743 he began to accept public office, and from that time on he was continuously in the public service. He was successively Chairman of Com- mittee of Safety, Colonel of Pennsylvania militia. Bur- gess to Pennsylvania Assembly, Postmaster of Philadel- phia, Deputy Postmaster General for the Colonies, Agent for the Colonies to England, Commissioner to Canada, Commissioner to France, Minister to France, President of Pennsvlvania, and in each place he used his very great abilities to expedite public affairs. Franklin was a many sided man and it is hard to say on which he was the greatest. Was he most notable as a statesman? It might be. His native good sense, shrewdness and wealth of resource — combined in one eminently genial, tactful, patient and persistent — made him an ideal diplomat. He sought in everything to alia}- friction and bring about friendly rela- tions. He was far-seeing in his attitude toward the union of the Colonies, relations with foreign nations, framing II Franklin. of the Constitution, slavery, taxation and a monetary sys- tem, but never sought to force his ideas on others in a way that would leave a sting behind. As Burgess for Pennsylvania, combating the avari- cious claims of the Proprietors ; as the energetic Post- master General for the Colonies ; as the conciliatory agent of the Colonies in England, during the increasing perplex- ities and animosities of the years just preceding the Rev- olution ; as the astute Commissioner to France to nego- tiate aid and recognition for the rebellious Colonies ; as the forbearing first Minister to France ; as the first Presi- dent of Pennsylvania, he stood head and shoulders above his fellow colonials, above all save one — General Wash- ington. Jefiferson said that he had been associated with both these men, and never heard either speak more than ten minutes at a time, and then only on the most important points. John Adams, in one of his fits of littleness, con- trasted his own services in Congress, claiming to have been, himself, "active and alert in every branch of busi- ness, * * * constantly proposing measures, sup- porting, * * * opposing, * * * discussing and arguing on every question," with the services of Franklin, who was seen, he says, "from day to day, sitting in silence, a great part of the time fast asleep." Yet Frank- lin was appointed on every important committee, and Adams on few. And yet we oftener think of Franklin as a scientist. His particular friends in England and on the Continent were scientists — Hartley, Hume, Herschel, Lavoisier, Priestly. His letters were read with attention, and printed by the leading scientific societies of England and France. 12 Franklin. He was the founder of the American Philosophical Soci- ety. He was honored with degrees by Yale, Harvard, St. Andrew's, Edinburgh and Oxford because of his real con- tributions to scientific knowledge. He discovered in 1743 that storms travel in an opposite direction to the wind. In 1746 he began his investigations of the oneness of magnetism, electricity and lightning, that culminated in his statement of the true nature of electricity, and its positive and negative states. It was cjuite characteristic of Franklin to turn this knowledge to some useful pur- pose — of which we shall speak later. His discovery and charting of the Gulf Stream was also appreciated by the scientific world. He first suggested the electrical origin of the aurora, and made original research in regard to sunspots, shooting stars, heat values of different colors, light, heat, fire, air, evaporation, tides, rainfall, geology, wind, whirlwinds, water-spouts, ventilation, sound and ether. He appears to have been in correspondence, at some period of his life, with about ever)' scientist of note of his generation. As has been said, he inherited mechanical faculties from a long line of blacksmith ancestors. As a printer's apprentice he had exceptional training under the most skillful English craftsmen, and learned also the art of making ink, engraving and t)pe-casting. In later years his printing-office won a high reputa- tion for the excellence of its product. He made the first copper-plate press seen in this country, and experimented with stereotyping. He was a natural mechanic, and in his scientific let- ters he often speaks of "little machines that I have made." He made very man;,- little inventions, but, as he made no 13 Franklin. effort to perfect them and did not believe in patents, it is natural that little came of most of them. We will therefore speak onl_v of a few of the more important. It was quite characteristic of Franklin to turn every observation to some practical use. Thus, when he observed the great waste of fuel in the open fire-places of his day, he proposed to have the heat, after ascending, to descend and heat the surrounding air before entering the chimne)'. From this came the now well-known Franklin stove, which has for over a century and a half heated our liomes with a saving of three-quarters of the fuel. Again, when experimenting to prove the oneness of electricity and lightning, he thought also how to prevent the danger from descending lightning, and invented the now universally-used lightning rod. After observing the experiment of bringing music from glass tumblers partially filled with water, he de- signed his famous "harmonica," that was more curious and musical than useful. When the cook threw greasy water overboard, all on board might have seen the effect it produced on the wake of the ship, but it was Franklin alone that grasped its sig- nificance and proposed to the world the possibility of using oil during times of tempest, to quiet the violence of the waves. Then there was the proposal that he made to use copper plates to print on china. Before Argand made his lamp, Franklin had constructed a lamp with a pipe in the midst, "which supplied fresh and cool air to the lights." He read that the Chinese divided the holds of their boats into separate chambers by tightly-caulked parti- tions, and at once suggested the advisability of doing the same in our larger ships. He drew up a plan for fire- 14 Franklin. proofing a house. He invented double spectacles for dis- tance and reading. He constructed a novel clock. He suggested improvements in letter-copying presses and printing presses. Washington writes of "visiting a machine at Dr. Franklin's (called a mangle) for press- ing, in place of ironing clothes from the wash." And yet some of us always think of Franklin as a writer. Here again his many-sidedness is baffling. Was he best revealed as a humorist ? Certainly his Poor Rich- ard's proverbs have been most widely printed, even to this day, of American writings. Franklin easily takes his place as the first of that captivating companv of American humorists — witty, sane, true, cheering — that our own ever-refreshing Mr. Dooley shows to be still with us. Some of his best works from a literary point of view were his short essays, written during his latter years in France, for the entertainment of his friends. He was better revealed, however, in his journalistic writings, which began when he was sixteen and for fifty years made him the dread of his political opponents. His facility with words, read)' satire and keen sense of humor made him a tower of strength to whatever cause he espoused. Then his letters were eagerly sought, and whether political, business, social or philosophical, were models of their kind — clear, logical, convincing, brilliant, always cheerful and good-humored. His autobiography was one of the most popular ever written. His philosophical and scientific papers were always straightforward, luminous and informing. He avoided drafting state papers, wrote only one book and few long essays, and yet he was unquestionably the foremost American writer of his age. Together these qualities and faculties made him the 15 Franklin. greatest man of America even to this day, worthy to be classed with the greatest of all time. Physically he was about five feet ten inches high and quite stout. By nature he was inclined to be indolent, and self-indulgent. He was far from being a saint, but his rare good sense kept him from excess. He was born in 1705, and died in 1790. He had lived a long life in a genial, generous, useful fashion, per- mitting a rare good sense to be the handmaid of a warm love for his fellow men. He closed it as he himself had sung six years before the summons came : "If Life's compared to a Feast, Near Four-score Years I've been a Guest, I've been regaled with the best, And feel quite satisfyd. 'Tis time that I retire to Rest ; Landlord, I thank you ! — Friends, Good Night." T T T 16 :*-^:?N.-*««i^j-w.%^^«^ i* Fitch's Stcanibuat i7yo John Fitch. 1743-1798 T T T In the latter years of his life John Fitch looked back on an incident of his childhood as a harbinger of the ill- luck that persistently followed him to his grave. He was only five years old when left alone in the house with his younger sister. She accidently set fire to a bundle of flax. John, seeing it afire, although it was pretty heavy, tugged it to the fireplace and then ran after the second bundle and dragged that to the fireplace and stamped on it until it was extinguished, thus saving the house and his little sister. He was badly burned, and while still smarting his older brother came in and with- out a word of enquiry, boxed his ears and beat him Fitch. severely. When his father returned later he also gave another beating. Certainly his whole life is a story of hard experience, whether we call it luck or see in it a natural cause and effect. John was born in 1743 at Windsor, Conn. His father was a stern, close man, typical of New England, who wasted no outward show of affection on his children. At ten he was taken from school and set to work on the farm. He had a strong desire for learning, and young as he was worked overtime to get money with which to bu}' a geography. At twelve he had learned a little of surveying. At thirteen he received the grudging con- sent of his father to go to school for a few months more. At this time he learned some more surveying. Then he went back to farm work, had a few months before the mast, and then started in to learn the trade of a clock- maker. His usual hard luck attended him, and after three years he purchased his freedom, having been kept almost entirel}- at farming, with a smattering of general brass- work, but in total ignorance of clock or watch making. Then he had a run of good luck, went into brasswork on a capital of twenty shillings, and in two years had paid all his debts, had fifty pounds ahead, and had learned to clean clocks. Then hard luck set in again. He went into the manufacture of potash, that interfered with his brass busi- ness, took him to another part of the State, and ultimately ruined him. To make it doubly unfortunate, it brought him in contact with the one who became his wife. She proved to be a scold, and made his life so unbearable that he finally closed up his affairs and left her forever. For some months he roamed about as an itinerant 19 Fitch. laborer, passing from Albany to New York and Trenton. Here he learned to make brass buttons and silversmith's work. When trade was dull, he set out peddling brass buttons, and did well. Then opportunity offering he bought "the finest set of silversmith tools in America," and began making silver and brass buttons in quantity with such success that at the breaking out of the Revolu- tion he was worth 800 pounds. Being an earnest patriot he sought military appoint- ment, but was set aside for other men. He found plenty of work as armorer for the State of New Jersey until the British approached, when he left with others. For sev- eral years he followed the American army as a peddler, bringing supplies from the cities to the army. He made a good deal of money at this, but it being in paper currency and depreciating rapidly, he invested it in Western land warrants. Then to insure these investments he secured an appointment of deputy surveyor, and went to Kentucky, and located his lands. In 1782 he made a second trip down the Ohio, but was captured by the Indians, and lost all his property. He endru'ed much suffering for several months, and was then in the hands of the British for months more. While with them, with his usual industry, he cultivated a garden and began to make brass buttons. When captured he had kept possession of an engra\-- er's tool, and with this made other tools, until he had a vise, lathe and forge. With these tools he made brass and silver buttons, clocks, and repaired watches. After his release he was forty days en route to New York, and about penniless. At this time the disposition of the Northwest lands was being considered. Fitch, from his knowledge of the region, felt that a good profit might be made from a pre-survey. Fie formed a company, and 20 Fitch. in three seasons roughly surve_\ed over 200,000 acres. Congress finally disposed of the land in such a way that he had no advantage from his pre-surve\-. In 1785 he had his first idea of a steam wagon, but after tr^-ing for a week to draft one, he gave it up for what seemed to him the more feasible j)lan of a boat pro- pelled by steam. At this time he had never seen, and, as he avers, never heard of a steam engine. In a few weeks' time he had completed his plans, and showed them to his friend, Rev. 'Mr. Irwin, who produced a book from his library giving a description of a Watt engine. It came as a surprise lo Fitch, who had supposed himself to be the inventor of the steam engine as well as the steamboat. At first he was "very much chagrined," but set to work to make a working model. The model was made and tried about July, 1785. It worked all right, but the small pad- dle-wheel being relativeh' deep in the water lost much power. After spending more time on his experiments lie began seeking aid from individuals and Congress, but to little purpose. Sept. 27, 1785, he presented to the Amer- ican Philosophical Societ}' a full description and model of his boat. In this model he employed an endless chain with blades on it passing over rolls on the sides of the boat. He sought assistance from Franklin, but received none, and in a short time Franklin presented a paper himself to the Philosophical Society, in which he suggested using oteam to propel boats. Franklin's plan was to pump water from the front and discharge, under pressure, at the stern. During the winter of 1785-86 Fitch sought state as- sistance from Washington, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, and Delaware. He received encoui- 21 Fitch. agement, but no financial aid. It was during these jour- neys that he heard of Rumsey, but as his was a mechan- ical boat and not a steamboat, he felt no uneasiness. In the spring of 1786 he heard that one Donaldson, to whom he had shown his plans, claimed to have invented a steamboat and was going to apply to the State of Penn- sylvania for exclusive rights. Angered at this, Fitch at once applied for exclusive rights, and was fortunate in getting in his application first. Without waiting he hur- ried to New Jersey, and made the same application, which was granted. Then Fitcli set to work to form a com- pany to build a steamboat, in which he was successful. The next difficulty was to construct a steam engine. There were at this time only three in the country, and they were old atmospheric engines, used for pumping out mines. After trying to find some one capable of making one, Fitch decided to make it himself, with the aid of Henry Voight, an ingenious watch-maker. They first made a model cylinder one inch in diameter. Then they made one of three inches. They bought a skifi^ and tried various de- vices — "a screw of paddles," an endless chain, and one or two other modes — that worked indifl^erently. Then Fitch thought of a series of paddles, operated by cranks, that worked very well, arid when the engine was applied, moved the skiff at a satisfactory speed. It was then decided to build a larger boat with a twelve-inch cylinder. In spite of the success with the model, money came very slowly and Fitch again tried to get assistance from the State. Although he failed in this, he did succeed, in 1787, in getting exclusive rights to use steam and fire for the propulsion of boats in Pennsyl- vania, Delaware and New York. With this encouragement the larger engine was be- Fitch. gun. The drawings and full description of this engine have been lost or destroyed, but Fitch used steam at both ends of the cylinder, and employed a separate jet con- denser with air pump. It is interesting to note that Watt secured his patent for a double-acting engine in 1782, but did not make a second engine on that principle until 1787, which is the snme }ear in which Fitch made this larger engine for his steamboat. While they had the correct idea, they were ignorant of the correct proportions, and that which followed showed how much they were embarrassed. After a long series of mishaps, the boat was tried, Aug. 22, 1787, in the presence of most of the convention for framing a Federal Constitution. The boat went about forty miles at the rate of three or four miles an hour, somewhat less than was expected. It was enough, how- ever, to encourage another attempt. Just at this time Runisey .appeared and claimed that his mechanical boat of 1784 was operated by steam, and sought to secure the rights already granted to Fitch. Then followed a most vexatious fight of words that lasted for years. Rumsc)- had considerable money and influence on his side, and Fitch was almost alone, having only a com- pany of discouraged stockholders to back him up. The fight went on with disheartening slowness and indefinite- ness. In 1788, in the midst of this discouragement, it was decided to build a larger boat. After no end of trouble, it was decided to use the old twelve-inch cylinder, and a pipe boiler on a narrower boat, with one set of oars only at the stern. The discouragements continued : more of the stockholders dropped out, others interfered with the de- sign of the machinery, and Fitch became very irasci- Fitch. ble. He was treated as an importunate visionar}-, laughed at by street loafers, and avoided by men of means. Still he kept at it : in rags and desperation. The costly experi- ments went on, the boat caught fire, and at last the river froze up and stopped work for the winter of 1789. In the spring of 1790 the boiler was changed, and other altera- tions made, but without success. At last Fitch made up his mind that the trouble was in the condenser and made a proposal to improve it. His suggestion was treated with scant consideration, but finally assented to. The result was gratifying. April 16, 1790, the boat was tried in the face of high winds, and went "amazingly swift." For the first time the public journals condescended to notice the invention. The boat was run frequently to Burlington at a speed of seven and eight miles an hour. After June she made regular trips until winter set in, covering no less than 2,000 miles. At times, she made as much as nine and ten miles an hour. C)n one da}' she made ninety miles, at an average with and against the tide of seven and a half miles an hour. Fulton was unable to meet this record in the "Cler- mont" seventeen years later. During the fall of 1790 every effort was made to build a second steamboat in order to save their exclusive rights to the waters of \^irginia and the Northwest. They almost succeeded, but a violent storm wrecked their boat at the point of completion. During the winter of 1790-91 the legal sparring for patent rights went on and new troubles among the stock- holders made the life of Fitch miserable. While they were waiting the tardy action of the pat- ent commissioners, it was decided to sell rights in France. Fitch. The patent was granted to Fitch Aug. 26, 1791, but al- most duplicate patents were granted at the same time tc Rumsey — with intimations that they were at liberty to fight it out in the courts. Although spasmodic efl'orts were made to complete the new boat, the prospect of continued lawsuits and the mishaps of experimental construction dampened the ardor of the stockholders, until one after another lost interest. By September the boat was completed, but the wooden case of the boiler leaked so badly that the effort was a failure. Then Fitch, now in extreme povert\-, made all manner of desperate efforts to raise monc\' to complete the boat, but all his ciTorts ended in disappointment. He became almost a monomaniac, and in 1792 seriously con- sidered suicide. In anticipation of this event, he pre- pared a detailed accomit of his life and the history of the steamboat, which he deposited with the Philadelphia Li- brary, with instructions that it was not to be opened for thirty years after his death. Here ends the history of the Fhiladelpliia boats, ex- cept the fact that the materials were sold at auction in 1795- In 1793 Fitch was sent to France in connection with the sale of the French rights, but being inisuccessful he left the drawings and specifications with the ^Vmerican consul, Vail, and came home ( 1794) as a sailor. These drawings and specifications were afterward loaned to Rob- ert Fulton, and were in his possession for some months. Upon his return Fitch made a steamboat out of a ship's yawl. The engine c\iinder was of wood, the boiler was an iron pot, but the interesting thing was a horizon- tal shaft with a vertiable screw propeller at the stern. This was successfully run on a fresh-water pond near the site of the old Tombs prison in New York. Fitch. Fitch went from here to Philadelphia, and then to Kentucky to look up his lands. He found them overrun with squatters, and commenced several lawsuits to dis- possess them. In extreme poverty and discouragement he deliberately set about self-destruction. In a fit of sick- ness, sometime in July, 1798, he committed suicide. In physique he was tall and thin, with black hair and piercing black eyes. He was a man of sterling character, of natural modesty, high integrity, great industry and per- serverance. Under the stress of constant misfortune he became garrulous, impatient, passionate and morose — the natural result of continued misfortune upon one who feels his superiority and honesty. As a mechanic he was rather more ingenious and industrious, than of notable ability. He was a "tinker" rather than an engineer, and it is noticeable that when- ever he applied himself to making brass buttons or re- pairing clocks and guns, he prospered. His so-called hard luck came when he attempted engineering problems that were beyond his abilities or training. He doubtless should have credit for inventing the steamboat, but it needed a greater man than he to gather up the results of his experiments and those of Syming- ton, Cartwright, Stevens, and others, and by the power of a greater engineering ability, to correctly design and pro- portion the steamboat that was to survive. For this Ful- ton should have credit. There is something pathetic in the discouragement of the one who, failing, yet prophesies that a man more powerful than he will take his ideas and win the honor that he craved and had missed. But that was Fitch's luck to the end. 26 Nathan Read 1759-1849 From an engraving, the plate for which was made by St. Memin, Phila. , 1902 28 Nathan Read. T T ▼ The name of Judge Nathan Read ought not to be omitted from the Hst of early Americans who made con- tribution to tlie beginning of steam locomotion and steam, navigation. Read was a r^Iassachusetts man, born at Warren in 1759, of English ancestry who came to America as early as 1632. His father and wife's uncle were high officers in the Revolutionary Army and he was connected with some of the wealthy and most respected families of his day. At the age of nineteen years he entered Harvard Col- lege, intending to study for the ministry. He became a fine Hebrew scholar and graduated Valedictorian of his class. He was a tutor at Harvard College until 1787, when he left to stud}- medicine. He tired of medicine in a year and opened an apoth- ecary shop in Salem to which he gave attention until 1795. It was during these ^-ears that his bent for mechanics appeared and apparenth- he devoted no little time to ex- periments and building models, especially of boilers and engines for land vehicles and boats. His claim to our attention is due to his inventions at this time and will be considered more in detail later on. In 1791 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1795 he gave up the 29 Read. apothecary store and removed to his farm in Danvers. In 1796 he, with others, erected the Salem Iron Works for the manufacture of chain, anchors, and other articles of iron for ship building, Read having the chief superin- tendence. While here he designed and patented in 1798 a machine for cutting and heading nails that gave a good line of business for many years. In 1800 he was ap- pointed a member of Congress and re-elected the follow- ing term. In 1802 he was appointed a Special Justice and in 1807 removed to Belfast, Maine, where for many years he was Chief Justice of the Court in Hancock County. He had a fine farm here of 400 acres and thereafter gave most of his time to agriculture and interest in educa- tional institutions. He never could forget his early taste for mechanics, however, and indulged at frecjuent inter- vals in mechanical experiments from which resulted the invention of several useful agricultural implements. The one thing that Judge Read did in the mechanical line for which he should receive the highest credit was the invention of the multitubular boiler that made the loco- motive and the steamboat possible. As early as 1788, when Read was at his apothecary store, he became interested in the mechanical propulsion of boats and wagons. Others were interested also, but were mainly considering the method of propulsion, with little thought of the source of power other than horses or men. Read fitted out a boat with side wheels on a double crank shaft, running in grooves across the sides of the boat, so placed that he could operate the cranks with his hands instead of oars. He used this boat at Danvers in 1788. At this same time, and the following year, he was experimenting with a steam cu'^ine and boiler, which he used on both a boat and a ^\•agon. 30 Read. To thoroughly understand and appreciate the novelty of Read's inventions, it will he well to recall what others had done before him and the extent at this time of knowl- edge ahout steam and engines. In England it was only 1782 that Watt had invented double acting steam engines and only one or two years previous to Read's experiments had they become com- monly known. Symington secured his first steamboat patent in 1787 and an experimental boat was made the next year. Murdock made his model locomotive in 1784. In America, Fitch made his first steamboat in 1785 and his second in 1787 and did not actually have one run- ning regular trips until 1790, while the Livingston-Roose- velt-Stevens boat was not made until 1798 and Fulton's "Clermont" did not come until 1807, twenty years after Read's experiments. Fitch's experiments were made with a single tube boiler set in brick. His engine used steam at both ends but he was able to obtain steam of onl)- eight to ten pounds and used a cumbersome condenser. Read heard of his experiments and made up his mind that if steam navigation was to be a success this outfit must be reduced radically in weight. As a result of his study, he built a model of a vertical multitubular boiler to be made of copper or iron with 78 tubes arranged in circles. The outside rows of tubes were open top and bottom and the inner rows were shorter and open onl\' at the top, the space thus left at the bottom served as a firebox. There was a double shell with a hole in the bot- tom where the grate was placed. The water filled the tubes and space between the shells and was supplied from a supplementary tank placed above the boiler which could be filled and closed, when the 31 Read. connection to the boiler could be opened so that the water would pass to the boiler by gravitation. The flame passed among the tubes and by a flue through the upper space between the double shells and through the water tank to preheat the supply. When we recall the exceedingly heavy and crude boilers made of brick and castings which were used by Watt, Fitch and all others we appreciate what an advance was this portable boiler of Read's. In addition to the advantage of its lightness, it at once made it possible to secure steam of high pressure. Fitch and others were only able to secure eight to ten pounds pressure while Read advocated and was able to supply steam of 15 to 20 pounds pressure and thus made a source of energy that was practical for use on boats and wagons without a condenser. He also made a model of a high pressure engine tak- ing steam at both ends and designed to run either with or without a condenser. His first models included a boat with paddle wheels on a shaft on which there were two gears, designed to be operated by flexible teeth spanning the gear and engaging the top and bottom of the gears alternately as the piston moved back and forth. The paddle wheels could be raised and lowered as the boat was loaded or empty. There are some grounds for believing that he pro- posed to use the simple crank connection also — as he cer- tainly used them for hand power. Having the endorsement of the Academy of Science and a number of prominent men. Read went to New York in 1790 to a]iply for Government assistance and monopoly. He found there seeking the same ends. Fitch, Rumsey and Stevens. The discussions that arose resulted in the pass- age of the first national patent law. Read discovered in Read. reading French records that side wheels had already been proposed in France and being under the conviction that his application must contain on!)- novel devices, he re-wrote his application, substituting a chain of paddles running over shafts placed fore and aft, the lower section in the water to propel the boat and the returning section being above and entirely out of water. When his first applica- tion was read before Congress the proposal to apply the invention to land carriages provoked so much ridicule that Read omitted that claim in his revised application. Congress, in 1791, as we all know, granted patents to all four, Fitch, Rumsey, Read, and Stevens, with per- mission to fight it out in the courts if they were found to conflict. Fitch's patent was for applying tlie force of steam for propelling a boat by forcing water through a tube, and to cranks and paddles. Rumsey's was for the same and for an improved method of generating steam by passing a small quantity of water through an incurvated tube placed in a furnace, both for boats, and every species of engines and for rais- ing water. Stevens' patent was much the same as Rum- sey's. Read's patent was for his multitubular boiler, im- proved cylinder, and a boat with chain wheels. It is thus seen that while Fitch, Rumsey, and Stevens were granted patents that involved mutual interference, the patent of Read did not clash with the others. Had Read made the same effort to bring his patent into actual use as did the others, he would doubtless have succeeded where they failed, for he was a good engineer and when success did come in later years to Fulton for the steamboat, and to Stevenson for the locomotive, in 33 Read. each case the successful device was the multitubular boiler and the high pressure cjlinder that Read had invented. How slow was the evolution, is seen in the fact, that i6 years elapsed after Read's patent was granted, before Fulton's "Clermont" made its successful trip, and 38 years before the multitubular boiler was first applied to the loco- motive in Stevenson's Rocket, which alone was success- ful in the Rainhill trial. Judge Read lived on for many years, but evidently made no great effort to put his inventions to practical use. His easy going nature, his comfortable circumstances, and even his uncommonly good education hade him less in- clined to cope with the obstacles that lay in the path of the successful introduction of the steamboat and locomotive a generation before the times were ready to receive them. Even Fitch's tremendous earnestness failed to do it and Stevens' wealth did not avail. Judge Read had a tall fine figure with an intellectual face, was modest, and unobtrusive, but active and inter- ested in all that had to do with the higher life of the com- munity. He lived to be ninety years of age, dying in 1849, but retained to the end the full possession of his in- tellectual powers, and enjoyed to the last the delights of his beautiful estate at Belfast. ^ T T y 34 Oliver Evans. From a rare engra'ving~by W.'^G. yachon^ in possession of Ridgeway Library ^ Phtl.^ and Wytnan & Gordon, Worcester. 35 Oliver Evans. Oliver Evans had within him the making of a great engineer. He was born near Newport, Del., in 1755 or 1756, of farmer parentage. At fourteen he was appren- ticed to a wheelwright, but continued his eager efforts to secure an education by studying by the light of burning shavings after the long work hours were ended. While still an apprentice, the idea came to him that there ought to be some way of propelling land carriages without animal power. He gave much thought to it, but made no advance until he heard of the experiment of plug- ging water in a gun-barrel and exploding it in a forge fire. Evans' active mind saw at once that here was the power he wanted. He met with a book that described the old atmospheric engine. He was astonished to find that they made no use of the elastic force of steam. He went at his problem with renewed ardor, and soon declared to his friends that he could make a steam-carriage, but only met ridicule on every hand. He made many experiments, and persevered for some time, but at last, when his means were exhausted, gave it up for a time. At twenty-three years of age he invented a machine for making card teeth, but was defrauded of all profit. Soon after he invented a machine for pricking the card, cutting, bending and setting the teeth, but being dis- 36 E vans. couraged from his failure to derive any profit from his first invention, never Ijuilt one. At twenty-five he married and went into business with his brothers, who were millers, and who appreciated his mechanical talents. He at once began that series of in- ventions that ultimatel)' revolutionized the manufacture of flour. His inventions in this line included the grain ele- vator, the convenor, the hopper-boy, the drill, and the de- scender. The}- efifected a saving of over one half in the cost of labor, made a better flour and produced more than twenty-eight pounds of superfine flour to the bushel. \ arious applications of these inventions comprise about all that is used even until now for the movement of grain in the manufacture of flour. The same inventions are also at the basis of all modern s}'stems of conveying. These inventions were made in 1783, and were so successful that his own mill ran after starting, with prac- ticall}- no attention. He spent thousands of dollars and four or five years of time, but his efiforts to have others adopt them were at first entirel}' unsuccessful. In 1786 he succeeded in securing exclusive rights in the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland. To facilitate the sale of these licenses he wrote his first book, "The ^Millwright and ]\Iiller's Guide."' Not many were sold, but a great many were distributed. His agents traveled during the next thirteen rears over 100,000 miles, selling these licenses. At first the^' had small success. The inventions were called "rattle-traps," and one old German is reported say- ing, "Now dis mus peen sum tamp lazy fellow to mak dem gondrivers." His was one of the three patents granted the first year of the national patent law, but the patent had expired before any amount of business had been realized. Through 37 Evans. some technicality he was denied a reissue, and millers at once hegan to adopt it. After a full hearing, in 1808, he received a reissue of his patent, and greatly increased the charge for using. These things involved him in many and costly law-suits, but toward the end the patents were profitable. When he asked for the exclusive rights to his milling inventions, in 1786, he asked also for protection in build- ing steam road-wagons. Pennsylvania ignored the rerpiest as being too visionary for attention. Maryland granted it on the plea of onlv one man, who said that no one else wanted the right and it could do no possible harm. In the years that followed he diligenth' sought some one to supply the means. He showed drawings and explained his plans to a number of men, capitalists and scientists, but in vain. Some time during these years he sent an agent to England with drawings of his engine. They were shown to a number of men interested, but failed to secure financial assistance. In 1801 he decided to build an engine at his own expense, and before it was done it had cost him $3,700 and financially ruined him. It had a six-inch cylinder and eighteen-inch stroke ; was set up in public view, and used to grind plaster and saw marble. It was a mechanical success and permanently identified him with the steam- engine industry. In 1802 he received an order to build an engine to run a boat which was being built at New Orleans. It was built and installed, but the boat was almost at once stranded by floods in an inaccessible jjlace. This ended the project, with a loss of some $15,000. The engine was removed and used to run a saw-mill successfully until the 38 Evans. mill was burnt by incendiaries. Ten years later it was used to run a cotton-|)ress. In 1803 I'. vans liej^an business rcL^ularl)- as a builder of steam en.<;ines. ( )ne of bis first orders was from the municipalit)- for a steam-dredger to clean tbe docks. As his shop was some. mile and a half from the river, he decided to mount the scow on wheels and run it as a steam wagon as far as the river. This was done, and for several days it was on exhibition running about one of the public scjuares. F.vans has the honor, therefore, of making the first successful steam-wagon, in 1804. It was a crude afl'air, with a c\'lin(ler of onh' five inches and nineteen-inch stroke. When afloat he substituted a paddle-wheel at the stern, and at once the boat started ofl^ and had no difficulty in passing all other craft on the river. The engine was far too small for the loatl, and hence the speed was not enough to convince scoffers as to its usefulness, but Evans offered, on a wager of $3,000, to construct a road-wagon that would run on a good, level road against the swiftest horse they could produce. He also tried to make a contract with a turnpike company to construct a steam freight-wagon to run either on the best roadbed or on rails, but both efforts failed to awaken interest. At this time, about 1805, he began writing his second book, "The Young Engineer's Guide." It was intended to be very complete and "abstruse," but as his engine ven- tures nearlv ruined him for the second time, he abbre- viated it and called it "The Abortion of the Young Engi- neer's Guide." It suggested proportions for a steam en- gine as follows : Cylinder, twent}' inches diameter, five- feet stroke, running under a boiler pressure of 194 to 220 pounds per square inch, and gave certain rules for cut- off. It recommended a cast-iron boiler three feet in diam- 39 Evans. eter, and twenty feet long, with fire at one end, returning through a single internal flue. The Columbian engine was afterward built on these proportions. In 1807 he established the Mars works for the con- struction of steam engines, and bv 1812 records ten en- gines in use, and in 1816 speaks of fifty. He wrote also two or three "Addresses" to the people of the United States that reveal the straits to which he was reduced at times. In one of these he says that he destroyed at one time, in sheer discouragement, the drawings and records of eighty inventions. In 1819 his machine shop and foundry was burned by an incendiary, a boy of twenty. The news of it hastened his death. It is to be regretted that Oliver Evans failed to receive the financial support that he desired and needed to pro- duce a road-wagon or steamboat according to his ideas ; it is to be regretted, because Oliver Evans exhibited in all the work that he did produce, an exceptional mechanical judgment. He probabh' would not have produced a perfect loco- motive or steam boat but he would have done something creditable and have hastened the coming of the practical. When we remember that he lived at the very beginnings of the use of power machinery, that he was poor and was thwarted at every advance by the selfish conservatism of the capitalists of his day, we can appreciate the obstacles against which he struggled and understand the compara- tively small measure of fame that has been his reward. If he had lived in later times he would have been an engineer of rank. He did enough, however, in introducing the high-pressure steam engine to deserve the credit paid him in the following: 4C. Evans. "Wherever the steam-miU resounds with the hum of industry, whether .^'rinding flour on his native Schu\lkill or cutting logs in Oregon, there do you find a monument to the memory of OHver Kvans." T T T 4T Robert f ulton. 1765-1815 42 Robert Fulton. T T T Robert Fulton was the first American engineer of real ability and training. He was born in a small inland town of Pennsylvania in 1765 of Irish parentage. His father died when he was young, leaving him with a slight education and the early obligation of self-support. Fortunately he had a passion for mechanics and drawing, so that before he was seven- teen he was supporting himself as an artist and drafts- man in Philadelphia. By the time he was of age, he was enabled to establish his mother in a home of her own and to go himself to England to stud\- painting with the cele- brated ^^'est. He remained in England some years, a suc- cessful artist, and made many acquaintances and friends among the gentry and nobility who were of great assist- ance to him in his later undertakings. When he was only nineteen he had taken out an English patent for improv- ing transportation and as early as 1793 there are records of his projects to improve inland navigation. In 1794 came inventions for sawing marble for which he was honored by a British society. About this time also, he invented a machine for spinning flax and making rope. The forerunner of our modern power shovels was his invention also. In 1796 his plans for a cast-iron aqueduct were ac- 43 Fulton. cepted and it was constructed across the river Dee, in Scotland, and at least one bridge built from his designs. He published a book in 1796, when thirty-one years old, on Improvements in Canal Navigation, that brought him great honor. It was at this time also that he became interested in political economy and sociology and wrote treatises on these suljjccts that were well received. In fact to the end of his life he consistently looked upon all his mechanical interests in the light of tjicir probable effect on the increase of human happiness. His undertakings were greatly aided by the many beautiful and accurate draw- ings with which his skill as an artist and draftsman enabled him to freely illustrate his prospectuses and speci- fications. About 1797 he went to France to introduce his canal improvements, but finding little interest he turned his at- tention to other subjects. In 1797 he made his first ex- periments in the submarine use of explosives. These ex- periments were carried out with extreme minuteness and precision and gave him a fund of accurate information that enabled him to make an early success of his torpedoes. He was led through these experiments to the subject of submarine navigation in general. He made many fine models but was delayed by the lukewarmness of the French government. At length Bonaparte came into power and in 1801 gave him such assistance as enabled him to carry his experiments to a triumphant success. He had perfect control of his boat in sinking, rising, advanc- ing and turning. He remained under water several hours, traveled a number of miles and returned to his starting point. Then he ex])erimented with bombs and torpedoes from these submarine boats, blew up an old hulk and tried hard to Ijlow up some of the visiting English ships, 44 Fulton. liut found them too wary for him. This faikirc dampened the In-ench interests and they ceased to aid him. The English government, liowever, took him up and, although his experiments were notahly successful, thev dallied and delayed, evidentl}- content to have withdrawn him from the French. The)- would have supported him perhaps if he had been willing to give them a monopolv of his inventions and he was willing to do this with the single exception of his own country-. Discouraged in his efforts to obtain aid from Eng- land, in t8o6 he returned to America and carried on his experiments under the patronage of the United States government. In t8io Congress appropriated $5,000 for further experiments, but through a misunderstanding the proposed torpedo attack was inconclusive, for a time the government withdrew its aid and I^ulton gave his atten- tion to steam navigation in which, all along, he had been interested. Many minds had been at work on the problem of steam navigation and with some measure of success. There were Papin, Ifulls, d'Anxiron, and ITenry before the davs of Fulton, and Watt, Fitch, Ivumse}-, Roosevelt and Sym- ington in his own da}-, who all succeeded in propelling ex- perimental boats by steam. Cut Fulton was the first who really made a practical antl commercial success. Fulton certainly had knowledge of and access to the plans and experiments of some at least of these experimenters, and his success was not so much b\- new inventions as bv more correcth' understanding the mechanical problems involved and h\ designing and proportioning his boat, engines and paddles to meet them. We have no knowledge of when Fulton first turned his attention to steam navigation, but as early as 1793 he 45 Fult on. had made experiments and plans in which he had great confidence. In 1801 Chancellor Livingston met him in Paris, and together they made many calculations and drawings. As we have before intimated, others were at work on the same problem, and Livingston himself had already, in 1798, received a monopoly of the steam navi- gation in the waters of New York. There were records of experiments at this time by others, but nothing that was conclusive. Fulton at this early date was abreast of all others in his experiments, and he, more than any other, had a fund of exact knowledge of displacement, bouyancy, friction and power required. In 1803 he experimented in France before the French Institute with a boat 66 feet long, eight feet wide, so suc- cessfully that he at once ordered an enlarged engine of Boulton & Watt to be sent to America. In 1803 the monopoly granted to Livingston was transferred to Ful- ton and Livingston, and extended for twenty years. As soon as Fulton returned to America, he began to build his boat that was launched in 1807. This boat was called the Clermont and was 133 feet long, 160 tons dis- placement. Her engine had a 24-inch cylinder, 4 feet stroke and a l)oiler 20 feet long, 7 feet deep and 8 feet wide. She was successfully launched, and, after correct- ing a defect in the length of the paddles that Fulton's quick ear had detected, at once made the trip to Albany and returned with perfect success. Soon after she contin- ued to run regular trips to Albany, and always well loaded with passengers. From this time on steam navigation was a commercial success. Mr. Fulton took out from time to time patents on improvements, and in company with Liv- ingston defended their sole right to the steam navigation of New York waters. 46 Fulton. I^'ulton's carl}' interest in canal navigation led him, on his retnrn to America, to become interested in the pos- sibilit}' of connecting the great lakes and the Hudson river b\' canal. He was appointed a commissioner to investi- gate the matter in 1811, and his calculuations and sugges- tions were of value when the canal was finally built. Returning to Fulton's experiments in explosives and submarine navigation, \\'e find that in 1814 a committee of the citizens of New York were appointed to consider some proposals of Mr. Fulton for defending New York har- bor. He exhibited a model war vessel to be propelled by steam, and to carry strong batteries. The committee re- ported favorably, and the National Congress authorized the President to cause to be built one or more of these floating batteries for the defence of the waters of the United States. A sub-committee was appointed to build the ships, and Robert h'ulton was appointed the sole engineer. It was his soul that animated the whole under- taking. At the same time Fulton presented a model of a sub- marine boat to the government, by whom it was approved, and he began its construction, but before it was com- pleted Fulton died, Februarv 4, 1815, at the early age of Mty. The building of the submarine boat was abandoned, but the frigate was carried to completion, and successful- 1\- launched. July 4, 1815, she made her first trip with full armament to the ocean and back, a distance of fifty- three miles, at the average rate, with and against the tide, of five and a half miles an hour. As we have seen, the steamboat was only one of the mechanical problems with \\hich Fulton interested him- self and mechanical problems were only one of the de- partments in which his varied powers were employed. He 47 Fult on. was an artist of high merit, a civil engineer of abihty, a social philosopher of deep insight and warm afifection. He was conversant with the French, German and Italian lan- guages and an excellent mathematician. His fame was honestly earned by habits of careful experimentation, research and calculation. His conclu- sions were preserved in elaborate notes and beautifully drawn plans. Personally he was tall and slight, with an attractive face, beautiful eyes, high forehead, and an abvmdance of dark curly hair. He was modest, friendly, enthusiastic and cheerful — one who easily made and retained many friends. The universal lespect for Fulton's greatness showed itself at his death. Legislatures adjourned, state and city governments attended his funeral, and honor rarely, if ever, given to a private citizen, who had never held an office. ▼ ▼ ▼ 48 John Stevens 1749-1S38 By kindnas of Col. E. Sfei'ens, Hobokeii From painting l>y unknoion ai (iit 50 John Stevens. T T T The story of John Stevens and his sons is ver_v differ- ent from that of John Fitch and Oliver Evans. These latter were hampered by povert}' and scant education, that limited their usefulness and filled their da\s with dis- couragement. On the contrary, John Stevens and his sons were favored with every advantage that position, wealth and education could give. John Stevens was born in 1749, in New York, of wealthy parents, and was educated at what is now Col- umbia College, both as a civil engineer and lawyer. As a }Oung man he held many important positions. He was a member of the commission authorized to define the boundary between New York and New Jersey. He was a A'ice-president of the council of the colony of New Jersey, a member of the first Continental Congress, Treasurer of the State of New Jersey from 1776 to 1779, Colonel in the Continental Army, and President of the New Jersey convention held to ratify the Constitution of the United States. Mr. Stevens' interest in steam began about T787, after seeing John Fitch's efforts of that year to propel boats b}- steam. PTe was interested in the framing of the national patent law, and was one of the first group to seek a patent. Fitch, Read, Rumsey and Stevens contested for the first 51 Stevens. exclusive patents in steam engineering. Stevens' plan was much the same as that of Rumsey, and in a way he joined efforts with the latter to break down the claims of Fitch. Their boiler was a continuous pipe, bent about in a brick furnace, connected at the lower end to a reservoir of water and delivering steam at the other. Read's claim was for a genuine multitubular boiler. They all received patents, with permission to fight it out in the courts. About 1797 Chancellor Livingstone and Nicholas J. Roosevelt secured provisional protection from the state of New York for exclusive steam navigation. Roosevelt ap- parently furnished the mechanical ideas, and, in after years, had much to do with the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi. Stevens and Brunei, the English engi- neer, and afterward builder of the first Thames tunnel, joined with them to build the first steamboat. It was com- pleted in 1798, but was not able to meet the requirements of the state. They tried a horizontal centrifugal wheel on a boat of 30 tons drawing, drawing water at the bottom of the boat and discharging it under pressure at the stern. Soon after, the company was broken up, Livingstone becoming Minister to France, where he met Fulton, and the rights were transferred to them. Li 1804, after several years' experimenting, Stevens built a screw steamer. It was 25 feet long by 4 feet wide, with a five-foot screw, with four lilades set at an angle of 35°. The screw was fairly well designed and approxi- mated the design now adopted. The engine was a double direct-acting, non-condensing engine with 4j>^-inch cylin- der and 9-inch stroke. The boiler was of the water tubu- lar type, with 81 tubes made of 5-s bore gun barrels, about 52 Stevens. i8 inches long', plugg-cd at one end and protruding hori- zontall)- from a central drum. This was patented in 1803, and two years later in England. The next year he altered this boat to a twin- screw steamer, which seems to be the first of this type made. The boat was only fairly successful, and not fast enough to secure the coveted exclusive rights, or to be re- produced. Even Stevens had so little faith in the screw as to aljandon it in his later boats. Thirty years later, in the evolution of the steamboat, the screw propeller reap- peared in much the same t^pe that Stevens favored in 1804, and the credit for its successful introduction passed to Ericsson. r>Y this time Stevens' second son, Robert L., born in 1787, began to be his active assistant. Together they designed the Phoenix, which was ready for trial within a few weeks of Fulton's success. This boat was a side- wheeler. 50 feet long, 12 feet wide and 7 feet deep. The exclusive right to New York waters having gone to ^'ul- ton by priority of success, Robert boldly steered the Phoenix out to sea, weathered a gale and brought her up the Delaware, where she was in use for many years. Stevens, from this time on, used his very great wealth and influence to break down the Fulton monopoly. In 181 1 they established the first steam ferry from New York to Hoboken to be a part of their stage and express line to Philadelphia. In 1812 he advocated, before the Erie Canal Com- mission, a double-track railroad from Albany to Lake Erie to be built instead of the canal. He gave full plans and estimates of cost, and proposed a speed of twenty to thirtv miles an hour. His suggestions were reasonable 53 "1 Jiiibi'il ,J,.Slcvi'iis. Presidenl CS,A RR.iS,-T.Ci>. By the kindneis of Col. E. A. Steven 54 Stevens. and statesmanlike, 1)ut were unheeded. In 1830 the South CaroHna raih'oad was suceessfull)- l)uilt on these same plans. In 18 1 3 he designed the douhle-huU ferr}-boat, with one internal ^vheel operated by horse power. In 18 1 5 he, with his sons, secured the first charter granted in the United States for a railroad. It was designed to run between Raritan and the Delaware as part of their ferry and stage line, but was never built. In 1823 ihev secured a charter for a railroad from Philadelphia to Lancaster, which became the first link in the great Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1824 he secured a patent for railroad construction, and when seventy-seven (in 1826) built the first locomo- tive that actually pulled a load, on a track, in America. It was onl\- an experiment, but it ran on a circular track of 5-foot gauge and 220- foot circumference, pulling a half dozen people at the rate of twelve miles an hour. The father, John Stevens, died in 1838. He was a verv energetic man, with a keen sense of the commercial value of mechanical improvements. He was an enthu- siastic botanist, an excellent classical scholar, a student of philosoph}-, and a statesman. Having ample means, it is no wonder that his name is comiected with so manv inven- tions and improvements. His eldest son, John C, became a famous yachtsman, the founder of the Ne\v York Yacht Club, and an owner of the America tliat first won the world's championship. The second son, Robert L,, was born in 1787, and became his father's assistant in 1804, and after 1807 took the lead in marine and railroad engineering. In 18 1 2 he gave much attention to bombs and explo- 55 Stevens. sives, inventing a successful elongated percussion shell that was purchased b_\- the United States. He proposed a circular iron-clad battery for harbor defense, which was to be anchored in the center, and slow- ly manoeuvred by two screw propellers on the outside. It was never built. In 1815 he built the Philadelphia, which had a speed of eight miles an hour. In 1818 he invented the cam-board cut-off that enabled him to use steam expansively. In 1 82 1 he designed the now common ferry-boat with over-hanging sides and slips with spring posts. In the years that followed he improved Watt's walking-beam construction, substituting slides for parallel motion to piston rod ; invented the split water-wheel, improved on the balanced valve for beam engines, placed boilers on wheel-guards, increased boiler pressure to fifty pounds, used iron trusses for hull construction, and was one of the first to use anthracite coal under boilers. In 1827 he built the North America, the largest steamboat up to that time. She had a pair of engines 44/-2 inches diameter, 8-foot stroke and 24 revolutions. She attained a speed of fifteen miles an hour, and used the now common type of return tubular boiler. In 1830 he became President and engineer of the Camden & Albany Railroad. He decided to abandon the wood stringers with flat iron rails, and invented the now standard T rail, which he designed to spike by hook- headed spikes directly to the sleepers. He went to Eng- land to purchase these rails, and succeeded in doing so only after great perseverance in overcoming the natural conservatism and mechanical difficulties. He bought the famous "John Bull" locomotive from the Stephensons. In 1832 he designed the locomotive pilot, and invented 56 Stevens. the bogie truck, forms of vestibule cars and methods of wood preservation. In 1842 Congress authorized him to construct an iron-chid after his designs, making an appropriation for that purpose of $250,000. It was to be 250 feet long, 40 feet wide and 28 feet deep, with 700 horse power. Fre- quent changes in plans and specifications delayed con- struction. At the time of his death in 1856 the plans called for a boat 410 feet long, 45 feet wide, 5,000 tons displacement, with twin screw engines.' It was to have only two feet free board, with four and one-half inches of iron armor, backed up by five feet of oak. The turret was to be scpiare and immovable, enclosing depressible guns. Congress alternately favored and rejected the pro- ject until Edwin A. determined to complete at their own expense. It is said that the family spent millions on this ship. \Mien Edwin A. died in 1868 he bequeathed the ship and $1,000,000 for its completion to the State of New Jersey. The bequest was accepted, and the work entrusted to General iMcClellan. The plans were un- wisely altered, the money exhausted, and disputes as to the ownership having arisen, the work was abandoned, and for years the boat lay in a grass-grown, improvised dock at Hoboken. In 1881 the boat was broken up and sold for scrap. The fourth son, Edwin A., inherited his father's commercial ability, and as early as 1820, when only twen- ty-five \ears old, was made trustee of his father's estate, which he managed with conspicuous success. In 1825 the brothers bought the Union Line of stages and ferry from New York to Philadelphia. It was a financial success until merged into the Camden & Amboy Railroad, of which Robert was President and Edwin 57 Stevens. Treasurer. The latter manag'ed the finances without pass- ing a dividend for thirty-five years. He took great interest in the arrangements for rail- road management and re])orts, so that the jVmerican sys- tem of railroad transportation is in large measure his cre- ation. He made elaborate experiments as to the resistance of iron armor to cannon shot, and determined on four and one-half inches to resist a sixty-four poimd spherical shot. He devised man>- useful appliances, the Stevens plow, the closed fire-room for forced draft, but was rather an administrator than an engineer. At his death in 1868 he bequeathed $650,000 for the foundation of Stevens Institute. Of the three the father had the characteristics of an inventor — the tenacious fondness for the children of his own brain. Robert was the practical engineer, taking advantage of everything that came to his attention. His many in- ventions and improvements all tended toward simplicity and practicality. Edwin was the best financier of the three, and had his full part in the success of this remarkable family. T T T 58 Eli JFhitney 1765-1825 60 Eli Whitney. While the American mechanic with all his ingenuit)', self reliance and sensible energy, stands out clearly as a type, it would be difficult to designate which one among the man_v inventors and engineers was the most typical. Perhaps Eli Whitney comes as near as any. He was born in 1765 in Westboro, i\Iass. His father and ancestors were of English descent and for the times were counted to be well-to-do farmers. Eli's own early da}'s were spent near the soil, but his meclianical tastes asserted themselves in spite of his inheritance and father's disapproval. As a lad his skill with tools became famous, and he was more and more kejit busy with neighjjorhood repairs, and in- creasingly to his father's profit. He turned his hand to making and repairing chairs and furniture, violins, canes, nails, and other small articles of wood and of iron. His mechanical curiosit)- led him to take apart his father's watch, which, fortunately, he was able to put together again correctl)'. In time he made better tools for himself so that he was able to make excellent steel knives. With the breaking out of the Revolution the price of nails ad- vanced, and, when still in his teens, with his father's per- mission, he began to make nails as a regular business. This little business grew until he had one or two men working for him. With the close of the war the profit in 61 Whitney. nails failed and he turned to making ladies' hat-pins, achieving, by his artistic skill, quite a monopoly. His early schooling had been quite limited ; he seemed to have taken to mathematics rather more easily than to his other studies. At nineteen he set himself to obtaining a college education. His father discouraged the plan, but by dint of teaching school, and his savings from me- chanical pursuits, he was able to graduate from Yale in 1792, when twenty-seven years old, having paid his own way through. To us of these more generous days, it seems rather hard on the boy, after having earned so much and show- ing such promise, that his father could not have helped him, at least a little. While teaching school he found time to work with tools, and at college made repairs of the scientific appara- tus with such precision and neatness as to astonish his instructors. After graduation he went South to accept a position as private teacher, only to find the position filled and himself stranded. The widow of General Greene, herself a Northerner, but living near Savannah, invited him to make her house his home, and encouraged him to begin at once his law studies. He was able to do her sev- eral favors in a mechanical wav, and she. in turn, intro- duced him to prominent visitors to the house. One day the topic of conversation was the depressing condition of agriculture in the South, and the uselessness of raising much "short staple" cotton, because of the difficulty of separating the seed from the fiber. (One negro could separate about a pound a day, although what was done was (lone in the evening, after the field and house labor was over for the day.) Mrs. Greene suggested that they give the problem to 62 Whitney. Mr. Whitney for solution. At that time lie had never seen seed cotton, but a bunch was found, and he gave himself up to inventing a machine to do the work. Mrs. Greene gave him every assistance, and Mr. Miller, the manager of her estates, who afterwards married her, fitted up a room for liis accommodation, and should have no small credit for inciting him to persevere in the undertaking. The design was soon decided upon, but the absence of materials delayed construction. He was obliged to make all his o\\'n metal parts ; even wire was not to be bought in the State of Georgia. In six or eight months the construction was so far advanced that there was no doubt of its success. It consisted of two parallel cylinders, one made up of concentric rows of sharp hook teeth, and the other of brushes. The teeth drag the cotton through a grid that is not large enough to permit the seed to pass ; the cotton is brushed off into one bin and the seed drops back into another. A two-horse power gin run by a rude water-wheel and attended by one man could clean 5,000 pounds in a single day. The cleaned fiber formed only about one-quarter of the gross weight. It thus did the work of from 1,000 to 1,500 men. Mr. Miller and Mr. \Miitney formed a partnership for its manufacture. Mr. \\'hitney, from a characteristic desire to perfect his ma- chine, delayed securing a patent. Of course it was impos- sible to keep such an event secret, and one night the build- ing was broken into, and the machine carried off. In this way the invention became jjublic property, and before Mr. Whitney could secure a patent there were a number of machines built and in operation. Mr. AVhitney immed- iately returned to Connecticut. lie made every effort to perfect the machine, seciu'e a patent, and manufacture in sufficient quantities to meet the demand. The invention 63 Whitney. was made in 1792-3. The year 1794 was spent in secur- ing the patent and beginning the manufacture. Suddenly, in the spring of 1795, his shop, with all his machines and papers, was destroyed by fire, leaving him penniless, with a debt of $4,000 at high rates of interest. It was their intention at first to engage in ginning cotton themselves and maintain a monopoly of the busi- ness ; but their delay in getting machines at work, their hesitancy, and later on their inability to supply machines, almost forced others into the business, so that when he began to defend his patent rights he met not only the re- sistance of infringing makers, but the opposition of plant- ers also, whose gratitude naturally went to the ones who had most promptly supplied the machines, and at lowest rates. Steadily but surely, and carefully as ever, Whit- ney began again the manufacture of gins, but it was not for several years that he could supply any quantity, and finally he apparently gave up the manufacture entirely. By 1795 he began lawsuits to defend his rights, but it was not until 1797 that the issue of the first suit was announced, and, after all his exertions, it was unfavorable. From this time on, the vexatious lawsuits, often a score at a time, dragged along. Judges would often charge in his favor, while juries would decide against him. He found it well nigh impossible to collect royalties, much less to sell machines, in the face of general infringement. In 1801 Whitney sold a general right to use the patent to the State of South Carolina, and the next year North Car- olina began to reimburse him by a tax on each gin. Ten- nessee also made a contract, which it afterward repudi- ated, however. Iiut Georgia persisted in (len\ing him any return. In 1807 a most important decision was given in his favor. It was of little avail, however, because the life 64 Whitney. of his patent had nearly expired and it had taken nearly all he had received from one direction to cover the ex- penses of litigation in another. In the course of these thirteen years of lawsuits, Mr. Whitney made six journeys by chaise to the South. His partner died in 1803, and from henceforth he defended his rights alone with remark- able patience and ability. In 1812 he made application to Congress for a renewal of his patent. He made a power- ful plea, showing the immense value of the invention to the nation, the large fortunes that had come to individual planters, and contrasted the meager returns to himself, which had been swallowed up in defending his patent. In the face of this cogent plea. Congress refused to renew the patent. When we consider what his invention had accom- plished, it seems almost incomprehensible that Congress should have refused the recjuest. It had revolutionized the cleaning of cotton, one gin doing the work of a thousand men. It had revolutionized the agriculture of the South, and later of Egypt and India, by giving them in short, staple cotton, a crop that in a few years trebled the value of their land, paid off their debts, and gave employment to men, women and chil- dren. It increased the cotton crop in the United States from 2,000,000 pounds (mostly "long staple") in 1791 to more than a billion pounds fifty years later. The exports increased from 138,000 pounds in 1792 to 860,000,000 pounds fifty years later. It made "Cotton King" for nearly a century, at one time constituting seven-tenths of the national exports. It at once rendered valuable millions of acres of land along the Gulf, and quickly setled and added four immense states to the Federal Union. It changed the clothing of the world from wool and flax to cotton, and with Arkwright's spinning jetty, made Eng- 6.5 . Whitney. land the foremost manufacturing nation of the world. For this inestimable gift, Whitney netted almost noth- ing. In his petition to Congress he said that his entire receipts up to 1812 had not been equal "to the value of the labor saved in one hour by the machines then in use in the United States." Whitney became convinced, as early as 1798, that the gin might never be a source of income to him, and therefore began to look about for something else. His invention and many litigations had brought him into wide acquaintance with national officials and affairs. At that time Congress was considering the manufacture, in this country, of her arms, and Mr. Whitney proposed to undertake the work. He was given an order for 10,000 muskets, 4,000 to be delivered in one year, and the balance in two years. Mr. Whitney went at the undertaking in his usual thorough and systematic way. He developed a water-power, erected suitable and adequate buildings, con- sidered ways and means for a larger and better product, designed machinery to effect it, and trained workmen to skill in the new employment. The contract was signed in January, 1798, but the difficulties were greater than anticipated, and delayed the fulfillment of the contract. It was eight years, instead of two, before it was completed, but the progress of the enterprise, and the character of the product as delivered, was so satisfactory otherwise, that Congress treated him with the greatest consideration. His shops at New Haven became the Mecca of govern- ment officials, manufacturers, traveling notables, and for- eigners, and that which he could show was well worth a journey, for his innovations in the manufacture of arms were as epochal as his invention of the cotton gin. Hith- erto all such things, and machinery in general, had been made one by one, as it were or at best the main parts were 66 Whitney. made one I53' one. Skilled workmen would make entirely a single machine, or object or part; so that while the fin- ished products were similar, the}' were not exactly alike or interchangeable. Moreover it took a high degree of skill to effect a satisfactory result, and the production was therefore limited. The manufactures of the world were on this basis. All firearms used in America at that time were imported from England and made after that method. At the time this contract was awarded to Whitney, similar contracts were given to others, and all failed to fulfill the contract. Had Whitney followed this English, and usual method, he would doubtless have failed also, but his admirable judgment led him to make an entirely new departure. His plan was to make the parts of the nmskets as far as possible by machinery, and so exactly duplicates of each other as to be interchangeable. To accomplish this result he planned to carry each separate part through its successive operations in lots of hundreds and thousands. Professor Olmstead, in speaking of him, in 1832, says : "His genius impressed itself on every part of the manufactory, extending even to the most common tools, all of which received some peculiar modification, which im- proved them in accuracy, or efficacy, or beauty. His ma- chinery for making the several parts of a musket was made to operate with the greatest possible degree of uniformity and precision. The object at which he aimed, and which he fully accomplished, was to make the same part of dif- erent guns, as the locks, for example, as much like each other as the successive impressions of a copper-plate en- graving." A visit to the old shops and to the grandson of Mr. Whitney, failed to discover any details as to the machines 67 Whitn( T- with which he accomplished the resuks. All seem to have disappeared with the lapse of years and business changes. Hand milling machines with hard brass bearings were at least part of the outfit. It is to be regretted that no record even remains of what these machines were. As early as 1822 Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of War, admitted that Mr. Whitney's improvements were saving the government at her two arsenals, $25,000 per annum. The value of Mr. Whitney's services in the introduc- tion of the system of interchangeable parts, is appre- ciated the more when we recall that English muskets were being made by the old hand method as late as the Crimean War in 1858. At that time, being utterly unable to get an adequate supply of arms by the old method, she asked Sir Joseph Whitworth, to fit out her arsenals with his special machine tools. Whitney's system not only revolutionized the manu- facture of muskets, but was the basis of American super- iority in all manufactures. It made possible the produc- tion of any and all machinery in enormous quantities, with the greatest speed and the highest precision. Think of muskets, revolvers, knives, shoes, gloves, screws, watches, knitting machines, sewing machines, typewriters, bicycles, agricultural machinery, and the multitudinous list of mod- ern necessities that are absolutely dependent for their eco- nomical production upon this system inaugurated by Mr. Whitney ! Think of these things and pay tribute to his genius. Eli Whitney was a gentleman. He was large of stat- ure, with an attractive presence and genial, winning wavs. His splendid mind, developed by the best education of the day, and varied experience, mellowed by a generous, lov- 68 Whitney. able disposition, made him calm, dignified and strong. Patience, steadiness, persistence were also striking char- acteristics. As a mechanic he was remarkably skillful and precise, with great resources and sound judgment. He was a man of business rather than an engineer. His ar- rangements, even of common things, were marked by sing- ular good taste and a prevailing principle of order. His mind was remarkably well disciplined. He could com- mand it to such a degree that there was no confused or in- complete thinking. Even after long interruptions he could resume consideration at the point where he left off, with no hesitancy or necessity for reconsideration of ground already gone over. He was perfectly able to resist the subtile temptation that besets inventive minds, to fritter away one's mental strength on a thousand and one attract- ive suggestions. He could hold his acute mind closely to the thing in hand, and that which his judgment said was best worth thinking about. He was far from being nar- row-minded, but was deeply interested in the larger ques- tions of government, literature, science, art and religion, delighting in nothing more than friendly converse with cultivated minds. Socially he had many and intimate friends. He cor- responded with some of his schoolmates throughout life, and children were invariably drawn to him by his caress- ing ways. He had a personal acquaintance with every President to the time of his death, with most of the lead- ing statesmen, scholars and business men of his day. But to none did he reveal his best gifts more freely and hap- pily than to his own family and workmen. He died in 1825 after a long and severe illness, but in his deepest suf- fering he never failed in serenity and kindly consideration for others, the marks of a true gentleman. 69 Thomas Blanchard 1788-1864 From photograph oivned hy F. S. Blanchard, Worcater, Mass. 70 Thomas Blanchard. T ▼ T Thomas Blanchard started out in life under very dis- couraging circumstances. His father was a New Eng- land farmer, of Huguenot descent, who added to his in- come by doing blacksmith work for his neighbors. Thomas was born in 1788, at Sutton, ]\Iass., the fifth of six sons. As a boy he was far from promising stut- tering badly, and counted by some to be half foolish. He took little interest in farming or study, and spent his time whittling shingles, making windmills and miniature water wheels. As he grew older he became interested in iron work, and as his father refused him the use of his forge, he saved up all the charcoal he could gather and hid it be- hind a wall. Then he built a rude forge and used an old wedge driven into a log for an anvil, waited until his par- ents were absent and tried his hand at working iron. At thirteen he heard of an apple-paring machine, and after patient experimenting and repeated trials succeeded in making a machine that would pare more apples than a dozen girls at the winter " bees." This success deepened his inventive interest and made him of less use on the farm, so when eighteen his father sent him to work for an elder brother who made tacks in the neighboring town of West ]\Iillbury. Here he was put at the monotonous task of heading the tacks by hand. The points were first cut from strips, and then had to be 71 Blanchard. picked up by the thumb and finger, gripped in a vise, and headed by a blow. He was given a certain number to be made each day. One of the first tilings he made here was a counting machine that would ring a bell when the re- quired number was complete. His brother forbade him spending any time in these idle projects, but his inventive genius could not be suppressed. He began to consider a machine to cut and head tlie tacks at one operation. The idea came to him long before he had the skill or means to construct. For six long years he worked at the idea, ex- pending everything he could earn to buy materials, throw- ing away the old as new improvements suggested them- selves, carrying the models about with him from place to place, persisting in spite of ever)' discoviragement. He be- came so poor that his own brother refused to trust him for groceries, even when his family was actually suffering. At last it was a success ; it made much better tacks than could be made b}' hand, at the rate of five hundred a minute. It was sold for $5,000, which placed Blanchard in comfortable circumstances. The tacks were all sold, for some years at least to one house, who kept the source of supply secret and realized handsomely on the sales. At this time the attempt was being made by the Gov- ernment to manufacture its muskets in this countr\- ; one of the shops making the attempt was located at Millbury. The barrels had been n:ade by hand, but the process had been so far improved that the straight part of the barrel was then being turned in a lathe. There was an irregular enlargement at the butt where it was joined to the stock that still had to be finished by hand at consi(lera1)le ex- pense. Blanchard's inventive powers becoming recog- nized, he was sent for and asked if he could get up a ma- chine that would do this. He looked the machine over 7^ Blanchard. carefully and then, beginning a low monotonous whistle at the same time swinging one foot, he relapsed into deep thought. It was not long before he suggested the addition of a certain cam motion to the lathe that would permit turning the cylindrical part and the oval end at the same operation. The knowledge of this coming to the attention of the Government, he was sent for to introduce it at the Spring- field Armory. While the workmen were gathered around to witness its operations, one said to another, "Well, John, he has spoiled your job." Still another exclaimed that "he could not spoil his, for he could not turn a gun stock." Blanchard overhearing the remark answered "I am not so sure of that, but I will think of it a while." On his way home soon after, the whole principle for turning irregular forms came to him. In a short time Blanchard had built a wooden model of his idea, and, sure enough, it turned a miniature gun stock with perfect accurac}'. The principle is this : A pattern and block to be turned are fitted on a common shaft, that is so hung in a frame that it is adapted to vibrate toward or away from a second shaft that carries a guide wheel opposite and press- ing against the pattern, and a revolving cutter wheel of the same diameter opposite the block to be turned. During the revolution of the pattern the block is brought near to or away from the cutting wheel, reproducing exactly the form of the pattern. The beauty of the invention is that by varying the relative sizes of the guide wheel and cutting wheel, any variation in size relative to the model can be secured, and ])y reversing the transverse motion of the cutting wheel, a perfect right and left can be made from the same pat- tern. Then by varying the transverse speed of the cut- 73 Blanchard. ting wheel in relation to the guide wheel, the object is made either longer or shorter than the model. Blanchard immediatel}- secured a patent and was paid by the Government to set one up at the Harper's Ferry Armory, and later at the Springfield Armory. The intro- duction of this machine opened up the way to others. Blanchard was placed in charge of stocking muskets at the Springfield Armory, and during the next five years introduced no less than thirteen machines for the better manufacture of muskets. The most important of these was a machine for making the irregular recesses in the stock for the barrel, lock, etc. The idea for this machine came to him, it is said, from watching the labors of a wood-boring insect. One of the common applications of this invention is the well-known die sinking machine and upright milling machine. The fame of these inventions spread to Eng- land and two committees of the British Parliament came to America for the sole purpose of investigating these re- ported inventions. The second committee left an order for $40,000 worth of Blanchard machinery. While Eli Whitney began the system of interchange- able parts in the manufacture of muskets, it was these dozen or more machines of Blanchard's that made it oos- sible to carry out the system in its completeness. Being thus occupied in Government work, opportun- ity was open to infringers of the patent to apply it in other ways. During the first term of the patent no less than fifty machines were put in operation for various purposes, turning shoe lasts, wheel spokes, tackle blocks and hat forms, from which he derived no benefit. The patent was originally granted in 1820, and was twice renewed, a very unusual proceeding. 74 Blanchard. One of the elder Clioate's clever sayings is preserved with the granting of this second extension. Elanchard was in doubt as to his success and to help his case along set up his lathe in the Capitol at Washington and began to turn marble busts of \Vebster, Cla)- and others from plaster casts. After he won his case — Choatc in reporting to his clients said, "Oh, Blanchard, same down here and 'turned the heads' of the members so nicch- that he won his case." In the early history of this invention the question of reality of invention was contested b>- one of his neighbors. A hearing was granted, to be held on the village green. The neighbor, who was a brass worker b_\' trade, presented a beautifully made model in brass, while Blanchard's model was a crude wooden affair, but the evidence was altogether in his favor, and little was heard afterward of this contestant for the honor of inventing the lathe for irregular forms. lUanchard had many troubles in defending his patent, and even to the end realized but a comparatively small amount directly from the invention. By this time Blanchard came to considerable repute as a mechanical expert, and was frequently employed henceforth in lawsuits and investigations in that capac- ity. In 1825 Blanchard became much interested in the subject of steam road wagons. AVhile still at the Spring- field Armorv he made a working model that was very suc- cessful and for which he received a i^atent. He had ideas also about rails and turnouts, but his efforts to organize a companv or secure capital, first in Boston and later in New York, having failed, he apparently abandoned the idea. 75 Blanchard. In 1826 an effort was made to improve the navigation of the Connecticut river. At first steamboats were tried, but the rapids were so great that it was a faihire. Then a canal was built around the worst rapids, and Blanchard was asked to design a steamboat, which he did, but it was also unsuccessful. This failure deepened his interest, and he made an elaborate study of the whole question, the re- sult of which was an important improvement. The im- provement consisted in locating the paddle wheel at a par- ticular distance beyond the stern, where the water set in with the greatest velocity. Hitherto the wheel had been located close up to the stern or at the sides. By Blanch- ard's discovery the maximum resistance to the paddles was secured, and a steamboat could be driven up rivers whose rapids had hitherto prevented steam navigation. He also built boats with two engines driving the wheel shaft by cranks set at 180 degrees on the ends, which secured the more constant power needed to ascend strong rapids. The result of his efforts was to move the head of navigation from Hartford to Springfield, and double the travel and transportation between the two places. He even navigated the rapids 150 miles beyond Springfield. Proving that small rivers could be successfully nav- igated by steamboats, brought Mr. Blanchard many appli- cations for assistance. By 1830 he had boats running on the Allegheny and other tributaries of the Ohio, and so established his method of construction that it came into general use. Another of his inventions was the process of steaming wood for bending. Hitherto when bent sticks were re- quired for ship construction and other purposes, the woods were searched for satisfactory timbers. Mr. Blanchard made more money by far from this invention than any 76 Blanchard. other. The U. S. Government paid him $50,000 for the right to use it in ship construction alone. He received the first year from a manufacturer of school slates over $2,000 in royalties. It was immediately used in carriage work for wheel rims, and thills, for bent furniture and endles^ other purposes. He also made inventions in woolen machinery and other purposes, the details of which have been forgotten. In all he secured twenty-four patents. Although he started in life under such unfavorable conditions, he won out in the end. He overcame his stut- tering, improved his personal appearance, made up by observation and experience for his lack of education, and bv his inventions changed his early poverty for compara- tive wealth. He was able before he died to fulfill an asser- tion made to the villagers of West Millbury, when in ex- treme poverty and youthful awkwardness he was railed against for his shiftlessness, that he would yet "drive up through here in a coach and four." He died in 1864, leaving a widow, whom he had mar- ried only ten months before. She still survives him, bringing closely home to us the recentness of the origin of things mechanical that now seem as though thev always had been. ▼ T T 77 Elias Howe Portrait through kindnen oj IV. S. Heffernan, Spaicer^ Mass. 78 Elias Howe. Unlike many of the great inventors, Elias Howe is idcMititied with only one invention, the sewing machine. He was born in Spencer, Mass., 1819. His father was a farmer, who Iiad a small mill for grinding grain. The inventive faculty seems to have run in the blood, for one uncle, William, designed the first truss bridge erected in this country, the well-known Howe Truss over the Connecticut at Springfield : and another uncle, Tyler Howe, invented the spring bed. He was a younger son of a large family, and was set at work at light tasks when only six years old, setting the wire teeth in cotton cards ; then he helped his father in the mill until eleven. His only schooling was received during the summer term for a very few years. At eleven he was bound out to a neighboring farmer, but being of slight physique, and not at all strong, was soon released and re- turned to work with his father until sixteen. He seems to have preferred mill work to farming. Then he left his home to work as a machinist in Lowell, Cambridge and Boston. At twenty-one he was counted a good machinist, but rather inclined to sug- gest different ways of doing things than of following in- structions. With this disposition and his poor health he received small pay and irregular employment. He was already married, and even with the coming of children, 79 Howe. his wife found it necessary to take in sewing to eke out tlie family income. At one time, when working for Ari Davis in Boston, he overheard a conversation between his employer and an inventor of an unsuccessful knitting machine. Mr. Davis advised him to drop it, and invent a machine to do plain sewing. Howe overheard the remark and remembered it. One day when at home, sick and discouraged, he watched his wife sewing, far into the night, and the determination to invent a sewing machine took complete possession of him. He was well fitted for the task. He was a good machinist, and had been constantly employed on new spin- ning and weaving machines. At first he worked evenings, and at intervals when out of work, but finally gave up regular work altogether. Meanwhile his father had moved to Cambridge, and started a shop for slitting palm leaf for hats. Elias went to live with him. He set up a lathe in the attic, and con- tinued his efforts. He first tried a double ended needle, with an eye in the centre, and worked on it for a whole }ear before becoming convinced that it would never work, then he tried one device after another until the summer of 1844, when the idea came to him of making the eye at the point of a grooved needle, and locking the stitch by an- other thread carried by a shuttle. It is said that the idea came to him in a dream. He dreamed that he was before a king who ordered him to perfect his sewing machine at once, or forfeit his head. He dreamed that he tried and tried and failed, and that the savage warriors advanced to lead him to execution. Then he noticed that they were armed with spears, and that the spears had holes near their heads. This was the founda- tion idea of the modern sewing machine. 80 Howe. His first model was completed in October, 1844, and although made of wood and wire, and crude to an extreme, would actually sew. In this model he used a curved needle vibrating on an arc, with the cloth to be sewn held verti- cally, and carried along by points on the side of a disk, that revolved slowly toward the needle. Its capacity was three hundred stitches a minute. While Howe had great faith in his invention he was in dire poverty. He only left his invention to do odd jobs when absolutely obliged to provide food for his family. To make matters worse, his father's shop burnt down, closing his source of aid. He thought he needed $500 to construct a machine. Finally an old schoolmate, named Fisher, a coal and wood dealer, agreed to board him and his family, furnish a workroom, and advance $500. Con- sequently Howe moved into Fisher's house, and during the winter of 1844-5, the sewing machine was constructed. It was not until late in 1845 that Howe secured his patent. Meanwhile he did his best to awaken interest in the machine. Everyone praised it, but no one would in- vest a dollar. He had it on exhibition in a Boston cloth- ing factory for two weeks. He offered to sew any seams that were brought to him and did so in one-seventh the ordinary time of doing the same work by hand. He offered to sew five seams in less time than five other seams of equal character could be sewn by the fastest sewers that could be produced and won in the trial that followed. The judge in his sworn statement said that Howe's work was the neatest and strongest. But fear of the journeymen's enmity and the high cost kept all the tailors from buying. Completely discouraged, Fisher withdrew from the partnership, but Howe kept doggedly at it. Forced bv sheer hunger, he gave it up for 81 Howe. a short time to be a locomotive engineer. His health failed him at this, and for want of anything else to do, he again sought to sell the sewing machine. Unsuccessful in this country, he sent his brother to England to try and sell it. William Thomas, a corset and umbrella maker, bought the machine and right to use it in his business for $1,250. He also hired Elias to come o-ver and work for him for $15 a week. There was also a verbal agreement that Thomas was to obtain an English patent and give Howe $15 for every machine built and sold in England outside of his business. This royalty was never after acknowledged or paid. It is said Thomas made over $1,000,000 from the ownership of this English patent. Elias went over, and for a few weeks worked for Thomas. Then he was dropped, and tried to find other work ; then made one or two sewing machines, which increasing poverty forced him to pawn. Then he pawned his patent papers, and worked his way back to America as a cook on an emigrant steamer. Arriving in New York, he learned that his wife was dying, but was unable to go to her, until his father sent him a few dollars. He hast- ened to her, and was with her a few hours before her death. She who had cheerfully and loyally suffered with him, was denied a share in the wealth that soon was to be his. Following closely on this great sorrow, the news came of the loss at sea of all his household goods, leaving him absolutely penniless and in debt. This was the proverbial darkest hour before the dawn. During his absence in England, imitations of his sewing machine had been sold to great advantage, and the possi- bilities of the invention began to be appreciated. Howe's patent proved to be well drawn, and in the suits that fol- 82 Howe. lowed left no shadow of doubt as to his rights. Royalties began to flow in, and after the crucial suit against Singer was decided in 1854, the money value of the invention be- came fully apparent. In 1863, his royalties were $4,000 a day, and totaled, it is said, above $2,000,000. Judicial decisions affirmed again and again that, "no successful sewing machine has ever been made which does not contain some of the essential devices of this first attempt." Another authority said that every adult since the day of its invention is indebted $200 for the savings due di- rectly to the sewing machine. Elias Howe was a fine looking man, with a large head and flowing hair. His bitter struggle with poverty through so many years left him reserved, quiet and charitable. During the Civil War, such was his patriotism that, al- though very wealthy, he enlisted as a private soldier in a Connecticut regiment, and went to the front. Then in the dark days that followed, he accepted the lot of a common soldier without complaint. When the Government funds ran low, and there was no money with which to pay them, he went without as they went without. One day a ragged soldier appeared at brigade head- quarters, and asked to see the pay-master. He waited his turn, and then asked if it was known when the I7tli Con- necticut would receive their pay. He was answered rath- er brusquely that when the Government sent the money they would get their pay, and not before. He asked how much was due them, and wrote a draft for the amount, some $31,000, and received a Government receipt. In a few days he received his $28.60 in back pay just the same as the others. In 1867 he received the cross of the Legion of Honor 83 Howe. from France. The same year this kind hearted and be- nevolent man took a severe cold, from which he died when only forty-eight years of age. T T T 84 (3^^c.^ 'T^i- 86 John Ericsson. T T T John Ericsson was a great engineer. He was born in Vermland, West Central Sweden, in 1803, where his fath- er was an inspector of mines. His father's people were miners who had come to be owners and operators of small mines. His father was a man of refinement, well educated and a good mathematician. His maternal ancestors were of Flemish and Scotch blood, who came into the country as military officers under Gustavus Adolphus. His rela- tives, therefore, included families of rank and wealth. His mother was a woman of unusual presence and ability. She was tall, beautiful, intellectual and of great firmness of character. To her was John indebted doubtless for his strongest characteristics. John had one, an older brother. Nils, who was also of exceptional ability, and as director of imperial railroads was later made Baron Ericsson. John was precocious and very early showed the bent of his later years, by insisting on making his letters after his own fashion and spending hours in sketching the ma- chinery of the mines, when other children were at play. 1811-1814 were trying times for Sweden and many were ruined in business, among them this family of Erics- son. They suffered severely for a time but after the father had secured work on the newly begun Gota Canal the for- tunes of the family improved. 87 Ericsson. When the father went to work on the Gota Canal, John was eight years old, and it was at this early age, in the offices of the company, that he first learned to draw to scale and make maps. By the time he was ten years old he could make accurate drawings. His father secured instruction for him in architectural drawing from Pohl, who was renowned in his day, from Lieut. Bradenburg, who was the most accomplished draftsman in the Mechan- ical Corps of the Swedish Navy, from Pentz, a German military engineer, and others. The lad's drawings were brought to the attention of Count Platen, the chief of the Mechanical Corps of the Navy, who was so impressed that the boys were made naval cadets and later, when only 12 and 14, were detailed as "canal pupils" to the drawing office of the canal and John was set to work making the finished drawings for the archives. When thirteen he was made assistant leveler, and at fourteen full and only leveler at one of the stations and responsible for all the local calculations and records. The ability to fill such a position shows unusual natural ability and training. At seventeen he entered the Swedish Army. As a soldier he continued his studies of land sur- veying and took great interest in the mathematics of artil- lery. He was employed in drawing the maps for a military survey of Jemtland which were paid for by the number produced. He won a prize for the excellence of his work and was so indefatigable that for a time he was carried on the pay roll as two persons, so as not to awaken sus- picion of favoritism. Also in experimentss that resulted in the construction of a flame engine. With this his love for a military life waned and, although now a Lieutenant at twenty-two, secured a leave of absence and went to 88 Ericsson. England in 1826. The Crown Prince, his friend, secured for him a commission as Captain, which he accepted and at once resigned, but to the end of his Hfe cherished this one title, Captain in the Swedish Army. His flame engine did not prove successful and so he settled down to work in England. He became junior part- ner in a firm of machine builders, under the firm name of Braithwaite & Ericsson. In this connection he rapidly developed as a mechanical engineer. There followed from his pencil a combined gas and steam engine, a marine hot air engine, a pumping engine, and air compressor. He used this latter in 1828 to transmit power, the first use of compressed air for this purpose. In 1829 he patented a mechanical draught for marine boilers, a sur- face condenser, and also devised the plan of placing boil- ers and engines below the water line. This same year brought forth also his steam fire en- gine, the one now in universal use. This connection with Braithwaite put Ericsson at the beginnings of locomotive construction, and his "Novelty" was the only one that really competed with Stevenson's "Rocket" at the Rainhill trial. Both used steam blast, but the Novelty had also a mechanical draught, better springs, horizontal connection to cranks, was lighter and far speedier, going at the rate of nearly one mile a minute and 32 miles an hour. It was an experimental engine and built altogether too light for the service. After several delays owing to breakage and defects due to construction rather than to the principles involved, Ericsson withdrew the engine be- fore it had covered the required distance. It was char- acteristic of Ericsson to do this without consulting his partner. In spite of these accidents and withdrawal many 89 90 Ericsson. at the time thought it to be a better engine than Stephen- son's Rocket. With this Ericsson appears to have dropped locomotive construction. In the years that followed inventions came from his prolific brain at the rate of three and four a year. A suc- cessful steam turbine, that he would have done well to have developed, a rotary engine, a process for making salt. In 1832 came the original use of an independent pow- er blower for marine boilers and a new rotary engine. Man)' of these inventions that had to do with steam were not very successful, but served to spur Ericsson on to get, if possible, a substitute, so he gave more and more attention to his original invention of the heat engine. In 1833 he patented a caloric engine that had a regen- erator in connection with it and for years he continued to try and make it a success, but was as continuously baffled, because he, like everyone else at that time, considered heat to be a substance instead of a form of motion. He found that the heat from a handful of fuel could not be used in- definitely, although it was not until fourteen years later that the true theory of heat was understood and the error of these gropings in the dark discovered. Ericsson's early caloric engine was constructed all right, but the expectation of its efficiency was exagger- ated. Other inventions were a sounding instrument, a motor for canal boats, a hydrostatic weighing machine, a machine for cutting files and a semi-rotary engine. Just previous to 1833 he began experiments designed to do away with the paddle wheels of steamers, that re- sulted in 1835 in the invention of the screw propeller. In 1837 he built an engine coupled directly to the propeller shaft. This was a success from the start and although 9^ Ericsson. slow to be accepted in the years that immediately followed, in time steadily won its way to almost universal use. John Ericsson married in 1836 an attractive young lady of good family, but domestic duties hung heavy on his shoulders. He had no quarrel with her and always pro- vided liberally for her support, but his heart was with his inventions — not at home. Although she afterwards came to him at New York, she did not remain long, but soon returned to England where she died years later without ever seeing him again. In spite of his many inventions, perhaps because of their number, the firm of Braithwaite & Ericsson failed in 1837 and for a short time Ericsson was in the poor debt- ors' prison. Before this Ericsson had become acquainted with a wealthy U. S. Consul named Ogden and a U. S. Naval officer named Stockton. With their assistance an iron steamer of 70 ft. length and 50 h. p. was built, and al- though strikingly successful, awakened no particular inter- est. These men appreciated Ericsson and encouraged him to go to America to seek the recognition that the British admiralty were too conservative to give. With this small steamer Ericsson crossed to America in 1839 and at once found interest and work. He won a prize for his steam fire engine, received orders for his pro- peller and engine on lake vessels and later, on coastwise steamers. He built also one of the first compound marine engines. At that time also began the intimate relations that existed for a half century between Ericsson and Del- ameter, the New York engine builder. In 1841 Capt. Stockton secured an order from the U. S. Government for a 600 ton screw steamer, to be known as the "Princeton." As far as the government were con- 92 Ericsson. cerned they had dealings with Stockton only, but the latter came privately to Ericsson for each drawing as it was needed and asked him to include any and all new ideas of value, which he did. The only contract he had was pri- vate letters from Stockton, saying that he would be paid, in time, not only for his services, but also for the use of his patents. Among the novel features introduced by Ericsson were the screw propeller, double, direct acting, semi-cylindrical engines placed below the water line, a i2-inch wrought iron, hooped gun with self-acting lock and friction recoil gear, telescopic funnel, mechanical draught and many other original devices. The steamer was an unqualified success, but Stock- ton in making his report forgot altogether to credit Erics- son for his part and, when the latter put in a bill for two years' services and expenses, refused to endorse it. The claim was again and again allowed by the Government, but was never paid, nor was anything ever given him for the use of his patents. To add to the unpleasantness Stockton had added an- other twelve-inch gun of his own design that burst while on exhibition before a large and official company. Many were killed and injured and the success of the steamer as a whole was clouded for some time. Stockton had omitted to credit Ericsson for his co- operation in the design and construction of the steamer but did not hesitate to blame him publicly for this disaster. The real facts were soon known, however, and Ericsson has always received the credit and honor for the Prince- ton's construction, if not the pay for it. By 1843 there were fifty steamers fitted out with screw propellers. The same year he built a twin screw 93 Ericsson. steamer and little by little the propeller was adopted by all maritime nations. Some of his minor inventions at that time were instru- ments to measure distances at sea, hydrostatic gauge, fluid meter, alarm barometer, pyrometer, rotary fluid meter and sea lead. He still continued his studies as to the nature and application of heat as a mechanical force. He built eight caloric engines between 1840 and 1850 and the ninth in 185 1 was counted a success. A ship of 2000 tons with caloric engines having four cylinders each of 168 and 137 inches diameter, was built and successfully tried in nine months and a half from the laying of the keel, a remark- able illustration of the correctness of Ericsson's designs and of his industry and energy. "Up to that time (1853) no stronger or finer ship had been built in the United States" than this, the "Ericsson." But it was at the same time a mechanical triumph and a commercial failure. The principle has never again been used for large units, but increasingly for small purjDoses, where economy, sim- plicity and safety are of more account than space and first cost. For this invention Ericsson received later on the rarely given Rumford medal. The next year, 1854, Erics- son designed and sent to the Emperor of the French com- plete plans for a turret warship. This was the training that Ericsson received for forty years previous to the outbreak of the Civil War, con- tinually grappling with the mechanical problems of artil- lery, war ships and motive power. Although an officer of the Swedish Army and intimately connected with marine construction for war purposes for thirty years, he was still looked upon by government officers as a civilian and, when he offered his services to President Lincoln for the crea- 94 Ericsson. tion of an adequate navy, he was disparaged. Neverthe- less, when the real pinch came and the improvised South- ern gunboat Merrimac was almost ready to sweep the anti- quated wooden gun ships from her way to the unpro- tected harbors of the rich North, it was Ericsson and he alone who was ready and able to design and construct a new engine of war capable of meeting and overcoming this new peril. So skeptical were the officials of his abil- ity to do this that his offer was at first declined. He was too proud to beg for the privilege, but at last his friends deceived him into believing that it had been decided to give him the contract, but that it was necessary first for him to go to Washington and explain his plans in detail. So he went, and learned after entering the room the real facts. After earnest persuasion he consented to explain his plans, which he did so eft'ectively that in four hours he was given the order and in five short months the Monitor was turned over to the Government. It was ordered September 14, keel laid October 25, steam applied Decem- ber 30, launched January 30, delivered to the Government February 19, 1862. Ericsson designed everything and everything was constructed under his eye — hull, turret, steam machinery, anchor hoist, gun carriage, everything. In a huifdred days from the laying of the keel the engines were put in motion under steam. Ericsson's work during this time was herculean ; the slightest mistake, break, delay, would be ruinous. He had done what he promised — provided an impregnable battery, armed with the heav- iest gun known, hull shot-proof from stem to stern, rud- der, propeller and anchor protected, and of light draught. The battle was fought March 9, 1862, and so decisive was the result that it marked the passing of wooden ships 95 Ericsson. of war and the coming of heavily armed and armored, revolving turret, battle steamers. Although universal honor flowed in upon Ericsson, both from home and abroad, the transition was not easily made, but little by little it was made and fame and for- tune were the rewards of his genius. Bear in mind this transition was not from one style of ship to another, but was a passing from the sailor to the engineer, from hand- to-hand fighting subject to uncertain wind and tide, to nice calculations of mass efficiency, flight of projectiles, armor versus cannon, and the sure efifectiveness of steam and electricity. In all this Ericsson was the pioneer. During and immediately following the war he brought forth improvements continuousl)', not only in tur- ret armor-clads but in repeating rifles, flying artillery, friction recoil gear, torpedoes and engines. These were not isolated inventions, but were practi- cal improvements that were made in the course of the design and construction by him of scores of important armor-clads for different European and American govern- ments. As late as 1887 he was still in communication with the United States Navy Department, this time as to the value of the type of vessels favored by Secretary Whitney's administration. In steam engineering he held to the last for two cylin- ders, bringing their combined power to bear on a common crank shaft and at right angles to each other. He believed in using the expansibility of steam, but disbelieved in a multiplicity of cylinders. Toward the latter end of his long life he gave much thought to the heat energy of the sun and methods for utilizing it. This brought him into controversy with the foremost scientists of the day, not at all to his discredit. 96 Ericsson. During- this stud}- of twenty years he constructed some nine solar engines. In the earlier ones he used the sun's rays to heat air but found the mechanism too cum- bersome. A small hot air engine suggested bv it has been immensely successful, however. Later on he favored using the concentrated solar rays to make steam, and his latest model on a very large scale was mechanically a conspicuous success. Ericsson was primarily a draftsman. For nearl}' seventy years, every day in the year, he labored over the drawing board, seldom less than twelve hours a day. Is it a wonder that the output was prodigious ? His draw- ings were remarkably accurate to the minutest detail and needed only to be implicitly followed. In constructing novel war ships under rush orders, work would be begun with the first drawing and be car- ried on simultaneously in a dozen different shops and yards. As an inventor he was versatile and prolific, running ahead often of his ability to construct. His name stands ])rincipally for the hot air engine, the steam fire engine, surface condenser, the screw propeller, the turret, armored war vessel, the -aiitorpobiie' torpedo and the solar engine. He was a notably great engineer, but his peculiar mental make-up, keeping him at continual odds with his contemporaries, prevented him from being as useful and as honored as otherwise would have been the case. As an engineer he saw things as he thought they ought to be, rather than as they are. He was a mechan- ical "seer" and therefore forever at war with the faulty present. He seemed to comprehend the essentials of a problem at once and to proceed directly to the simplest solution. He made constant use of mathematical com- 97 -.. - Ericsson. putations as a basis and test of his designs, and rarely failed to convince when he was willing to explain. He came to have unlimited confidence in his own judgment and something of contempt for that of others. In one of his letters he said that "he supposed Provi- dence had endowed him with greater abilities than an}' other mortal." He was a Swede of the Swedes, tall, strong, honest and intensely patriotic, but a man of hasty, ungovernable temper, of a proud, passionate spirit that resented the least interference. Finding so few congenial associates he more and more withdrew himself from society and lived the life of an eccentric and hermit. Sticking so closely to his draw- ing board, year after year, never mingling with others, or keeping posted as to the work of others, he lost the advan- tages of criticism and comparative study and paid the penalty of his isolation. He made a great deal of money and spent it lavishly on his experiments, generously on his friends, sparingly on himself. He died in 1889, aged eighty-six years, and with the passing of the years his frailties are more and more forgiven and his genius recognized. ▼ TV 9S By the kindness of Dr. R. W. Raymond 100 Peter Cooper. Peter Cooper was Ijoni in the city of New Yorlc in 1791. His ancestors on l)Oth sides were men of comi)ara- tive wealth and worth. During" the Revohition his father and maternal grandfather occupied places of rank in the patriot arm}'. After the war his father made hats, suc- cessively in New York, Catskill and Brookl3'n. Finding this unprofitable he sold out and bought a brewer)', first at Peekskill and then at Newburg. Peter followed his father and worked with him until seventeen years old, \vhen he became apiM'cnticed to a coach-maker in New York. Up to this time he had had but a few months' schooling, but was industrious, bright, and eager to learn. Although he had his full share of boyish spirits, he had character enough to resist the temptation to idleness, and used every opportunity to increase his knowdedge and skill. He fitted up a room as a workshop where he lived, and gained considerable skill as a wood-carver. He devised a machine for mor- tising wdieel-hubs that was the first of its kind in the countr)'. He also invented a tide-mill and a compressed- air motor for ferry-boats. During this time he received his acquaintance with apprentice boys, their ways and dangers and needs, that was the seed of ^\hich Coojier Union was the fruit. When he was twenty-one, his employer offered to lOI Cooper. set him up in business as a coach-builder, but he declined. Instead he went to Hampstead, Long Island, where his brother was, and engaged with a man who was making machines for shearing cloth. Here he found also the one who, for nearly sixty years of married life, proved to be an ideal wife, industrious, wise and sympathetic. In his old age he called her " his guardian angel." In three years he saved enough money to buy the right for New York State and commenced the manu- facture of these shearing machines on his own account. It proved very successful for a time, owing to certain improvements that he made, until the demand for Amer- ican cloths died out after the War of 1812. The principle of this improvement was the same as the one now universally used in mowing-machines. He made a model of a machine for the latter purpose and used it to cut grass in his yard long before others made and patented similar machines. With the passing of the demand for his shearing- machines, he turned his shop into a furniture factory and then sold it for what he could get. At thirty-three he purchased a lease of property in New York, where the Bible House now stands, opposite the Cooper Union, and began selling groceries. Three years later he leased a glue factory and began making glue, oil, whiting, isinglass, etc. After twenty years in this location, he removed the business to Brooklyn, where it is still continued. This was the most profitable of his early ventures and the foundation of his fortune. His many contrivances improved and cheapened the product, while his industry and apphcation (he was for many years his own superintendent, bookkeeper and salesman) built up the business until he had a practical monopoly of the 102 -oo per. trade in this country. Speaking of these early days he said, "I was always planning and contriving, and was never satisfied unless I was doing something difficult, something that had never been done before, if possible." In 1828 there was great excitement over the building of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Peter Cooper was led by two men into a land speculation. They deceived him as to their financial ability, and he was later obliged to carry the whole. He thus came into the possession of 3,000 acres of land within the limits of Baltimore. To make some use of the property he erected upon a part of it the Canton Iron Works. The ore he dug from one part of the land, and the charcoal he made from wood on another part. In this venture he showed his char- acteristic audacity. He designed and built novel kilns of a spherical section twenty-four feet in diameter and hooped with iron. The venture was only partially suc- cessful, but it gave him an introduction to the iron busi- ness, with which he was ever after so largely identified. Within a year he sold out the iron works and deter- mined to sell the balance of the land for the first offer he received. The first offer proved to be nearly as much as he had paid for it. He accepted it, and took a large part of his pay in stock at 40. This stock began to advance at once, and in a short time he closed out his holdings at 230. Meanwhile the promoters of the B. & O. R. R. were becoming discouraged over the difficulties they encount- ered. At last about thirteen miles of road were con- structed, but the nature of the country forced them to make curves with radii as low as 400 feet, and grades of eighteen feet to the mile. English practice made 900 feet the limit, and predicted failure for anything less. 103 Cooper. When the fortunes of the road were at their lowest ebb, Peter Cooper volunteered to make a locomotive that would successfully run the curves and haul loads. He used a small brass cylinder, of 3^4 inches bore and 143/4 inches stroke. His boiler was 20 inches in diameter, and about 5 feet high, half of which was fire-box, the balance with two, perhaps more, vertical tubes made from musket- barrels. At first the connection to the wheels was made by a device patented by him in 1828 to transfer reciprocal motion to axial by means of an endless chain and a prod and a hook on the piston-rod. This was tried in 1829, but was not very successful, so Cooper substituted the usual crank motion for the endless chain, and employed gearing to increase the speed. This was tried in 1830, running the thirteen miles one way in ']2 minutes, and the return in 57 minu- tes. The locomotive weighed about a ton and carried about four tons, including one car and fort)'-two per- sons. Anthracite coal was used, with fan draft. The engine developed about 1.43 horse-power, and was run for two or three weeks. The interest in this diminutive locomotive lies in the fact that it was the first actual locomotive used in America. It lost a contest with an old gray horse, drawing a load on a parallel track, but proved enough to revive interest in the railroad and carry it to ultimate success. During these years Mr. Cooper had been interested in many other things. He developed his tide-mill to compress air, and then to drive an endless chain two miles long set up on poles in the East River. His pur- pose was to prove the feasibility of driving canal boats in the Erie Canal, then building, by means of an endless 104 Cooper. chain, in the bed of the canal, to be operated by the over- flow and fall of water to different levels of the canal. His experimental chain in the East River was a suc- cess, and Governor Clinton, who was one of those who visited it, gave him $800 for the right to use the invention in the canal. It was never employed there, but the prin- ciple has been proven very successful on the Rhine and other European rivers. Another of his inventions was a marine torpedo, to be operated from shore by two steel wires. One was built, but an accident broke the wires and he abandoned the experiment. Another was a plan to utilize the explo- sive power of chloride of nitrogen in aerial navigation. Still another was a series of buckets, or cars, car- ried on an endless track up to a sand-bank on one part of his Baltimore property. The sand was thrown into a hopper placed over the moving cars, which was then car- ried and dumped in a valley he wanted to fill. The cars returned bottom-side up on the under side of the track. This device, which is common enough now, was quite novel in 1827. After closing out his Baltimore property, Mr. Cooper started a machine-shop in New York city, which he leased in a year to another. Then, after two years, owing to the failure of the lessee, he was obliged to take it on again. He made it over into a rolling-mill and wire fac- tory, and ran it for several years. Then he removed it to Trenton, N. J., and greatly enlarged it. In successive years he added to its equipment by the erection of the largest blast furnaces then known, at Phillipsburg, the purchase of the Andover mines, for which he built a railroad of eight miles over a rough country to bring ore down to his furnaces at the rate of 105 Cooper. 40,000 tons a )'ear, and the purchase of the Ringwood property of 11,000 acres of coal and iron lands. This was formed into the Trenton Iron Company, and later redivided, a part going under the name of Cooper & Hewitt. Peter Cooper was fortunate in having at this time a son, Edward Cooper, and a son-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt, who were able and ready to assume the immediate charge of the iron works, which, under their combined over- sight, developed for a time into the most progressive works in the country. There was tried the Bessemer process (1856) for the first time in America; there were rolled also (in 1854) the first iron beams for structural purposes ; and, later on, they were pioneers in trying the open-hearth furnace and the use of basic linings. So great were the services of Peter Cooper and Abram S. Plewitt in the early development of the steel industry of the United States that each received from the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain the famous Bessemer gold medal. As early as 1850 Mr. Cooper became interested in the inventions of Cyrus Field, and in 1854 became presi- dent, which office he held for twenty years, of the New York, New Foundland & London Telegraph Co., organ- ized to lay an Atlantic cable. Through all the vicissi- tudes of this company Peter Cooper was the prime mover. His faith was unwavering, his energy persistent, and his credit the foundation of the ultimate success of the enter- prise. This was, in the end, perhaps the most profitable of all his undertakings, a well-merited reward for his faith and effort. As early as 1810, when Peter Cooper was an appren- tice in New York, he had his first desire to do something 106 Cooper. for the apprentice boys of that city. It became a fixed purpose in his life at that time, but did not tal<:e form until about 1828, when he was in the grocery business. At that time he had a conversation with a gentleman who had recently visited a polytechnic school in Paris, and who was enthusiastic about its advantages to working boys. He determined at that time to found a similar insti- tution for the working bo}s and girls of New York. To this end he began buying land in the lilock at the junction of Third and Fourth Avenues and Eighth Street. The pvirchases were completed about 1854, and he began the erection of the building. It was a large building at the time, of six stories, built of brick, stone and iron, and required several years for its completion. The building is notable in several respects. The great audience-room is in the basement ; it includes elevators, and required for its construction iron beams, which were rolled at his Trenton Iron Works, the first in this country. The land and building cost $630,000, and was designed to accom- modate, besides the great audience-room, a large reading- room, museum, library, a great many class-rooms and laboratories, and, on the street floor, stores, whose rental would be an income for the support of the classes. His object was to provide an institution where free instruction could be given in all practical and artistic branches to working boys and girls. He called it the Union for the Advancements of Arts and Science, his desire being that his gift should be only a nucleus to which others would add their gifts, but the Legislature, in grant- ing the charter, changed the name to the Cooper Union. From the beginning the institution had the advan- tage of Abram S. Hewitt's great organizing ability. Still it was especially the child of Peter Cooper. He visited 107 Cooper. the building dail}', and as years passed by he loved noth- ing better than to sit on the platform evenings to enjoy the lectures and discussions. He would spend hours with the superintendent of the building, arranging for the better accommodation of the increasing classes. He would come with visitors, great men of wealth and posi- tion, and after showing them the equipment and the use- fulness of the plant, make oportunity to urge upon them the duty and pleasure of every rich man doing something in a public way for the education and uplifting of the common people. Among the many he thus met and influenced were such men as Marshall Field, A. T. Stewart and Andrew Carnegie. The latter has publicly declared that he re- ceived his strongest incentive to philanthropy from the words and example of Peter Cooper. J\'Ir. Carnegie has emphasized his indebtedness by a gift of $600,000 to the endowment of the Union. The children and friends of A'Ir. Cooper have added their gifts, until now the endow- ment, and the 3000 students require the entire building. The great hall has given voice for forty years to the ex- pression of public opinion on all the vital questions of the day. Mr. Cooper, as early as 1825, began to show an inter- est in civic affairs. The present efficient organization of the public schools, the fire department and water supply are largely the result of his untiring zeal. He was deeply interested during the Civil War in national affairs, his interest taking the practical form of running his iron works on government orders at the smallest profit. He loaned his money to the government freely and actively promoted expression of the public opinion that marked 108 Co oner. the turning point of the tide, and the second election of Lincohi. After the war he iilentified himself with the "green- l^ack" party, and was their nomination for President of the United States in 1876. His stand in this regard is looked upon by his friends as a mistake that was to be explained by declining powers incident to old age, and his intense SA'mpatli)- with the common people and their troubles. His was a nofile life. At a reception given in his honor in 1874, when he was eighty-three }'cars of age, he said : "While I ha\-e al\\ ays recognized that the object of business is to make monc)- in an honorable manner, I have endeavored to remember tliat the object "of life is to do good." Nobly and trul)' he lived up to this reasonable canon. His audacious energy never led him far astray, checked as it was by the soundest of good sense and the kindest of temperaments. He died in 1883, aged ninety-two vears, and his almost unprecedented funeral showed but inadequately the loving regard of his fellow citizens. ▼ ▼ ▼ log George H. Corliss 1817-18S3 Presented hy E. K. Hill E>q. Corliss Steam Engine Works 110 George H. Corliss. T ▼ T The name of Watt easil)' takes the place of first importance in the history of the steam engine — and probably the name of George H. Corliss would, by general consent, be given the second place. The import- ance of his inventions, and the excellence of his engineer- ing achievements, is remarkable when we consider how little his inheritance and his early associations contributed to that end. His father was a country physician — rather noted for his surgical skill, which probably explains the mechan- ical instincts of his son George. George was born in 1817 at Easton, Washington County, New York. He had a good country school edu- cation, and attended an academy at Carleton, Vt., for a time. In after years he related that he studied the ele- ments of algebra while watching with a gun, for a wood- chuck to come out of his hole. In 1837 he was clerking in a country store at Greenwich, N. Y., during which time an indication of his mechanical and executive ability showed itself. A spring freshet carried away the only convenient bridge. The local builders declared it impos- sible to erect even a temporary bridge for weeks to come. Young Corliss constructed an emergency bridge in ten days at an expense of only fifty dollars. This country store was in connection with one of the early cotton factor- ies, and part of his work was to measure the cloth from III Corl iss. the mill. It was a place of considerable responsibility, for young Corliss apparently had the entire charge of this and of selling all sorts of goods "on account." The next year he opened a country store of his own, but soon tired of it and sold out in less than a year. Up to this time he had not seen the inside of a ma- chine shop, and had no especial interest in that direction. It must have been very soon after, however, that he be- came interested in the possibility of constructing a sewing machine. He invented one and secured a patent in 1842. This was some years before Howe secured his patent. Corliss' device passed needles and thread through in op- posite directions at the same time. To perfect this inven- tion and to arrange for the construction, Corliss went to Providence in 1844. The Company to whom he went — h'airbanks, Bancroft & Co. — then doing a machine and engine business, were not long in recognizing his talent, and in persuading him to drop for a time his sewing ma- chine, and enter their employ as a draftsman on engine designs. Within a year he was admitted to the firm, and within two years he had made the invention that revolu- tionized the construction of steam engines. Corliss was at this time, 1846, only 29 years of age. In 1848 he en- tered into a partnership under the name of Corliss, Night- ingale & Co., and this company built the first engine em- bodying these improvements. This company was incor- porated in 1856 as The Corliss Steam Engine Co. His original patent was dated 1849, but was re-issued in 1851 and again in 1859. Hitherto all engines were controlled by a throttle valve that could only be varied in its operation by hand. As such a valve was necessarily some distance from the cylinder, the waste of steam was considerable, and it was 113 Corliss. impossible to operate it quickly enough to cut off steam (luring a part of a stroke. Mr. Corliss' invention was the combination of a regulator with a liberating valve gear and sliding valves. It did away with the wasteful throttle valve, placed the valves close to the cylinder, auto- matically opening and closing them, within limits, at any point of the stroke, thus allowing the steam to be used expansively. The first one constructed was a beam en- gine with a diameter of 30 in., stroke of 6 ft. and indicated 260 H. P. It had four flat slide valves, the two upper for supply and the two lower for exhaust. The transmission was by rods and toothed segments from a central disc operated by a crank and rod from an eccentric on the engine shaft. The cut-off was controlled by a trip operated from the governor and adjustable with- in limits at pleasure and automatically by the governor. When the catch was thrown out the valves were closed by weights with a dash pot to prevent excessive jar. This device permits the valve motion to act rapidly while open- ing and closing a port, and yet to move slowly in ap- proaching the port and after it is well opened, thus secur- ing ample port openings, permitting full admission and very slight frictional resistance. The construction of this engine was followed by two others of the same size and all were so successful that land was purchased and exten- sive works erected. The second type substituted cylindrical for flat slide valves, which have since been characteristic of all of the Corliss valve gear. They were first used on a horizontal engine built in 1850. The third type was designed in 185 1 or 1852. It has cylindrical valves operated by rods from the central "3 Corliss. reciprocating disc. The trips were the well known "Crab Claw" and weights were used to close the valves. This was the t)'pe first known in Europe and was the starting point for all later variations. In 1858 he invented a fourth valve gear which was not patented, and which is now seen in what is known as the Harris-Corliss type. The difference was in the manner of tripping the cut-off and the working of the valve lever. A fifth type was exhibited for the first time at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. The fundamental construction was the same, but in detail the mechanism was entirely new. The most noticeable innovation was the substitu- tion of springs for weights in closing the valves. This was really patented as early as 1859 but became gener- ally known only after the Paris Exhibition. A sixth form was designed in 1874 and 1875. The valves were closed by atmospheric pressure, weights or springs being no longer used. The reciprocating disc was centrally placed, but the operating rods were mounted in pairs, using two pins, instead of four, as formerly. There was a seventh variation also but it was relative- ly unimportant, except that the disengagement was more exact and certain. In 1880 an eighth valve-gear was designed and put on the market. This is known as the "wrist-lever type" of valve-gear. Mr. Corliss anticipated the demand for higher piston speeds and saw that this would necessitate larger port openings, in order to get the highest efficiency from the steam. To get the full benefit of the larger port openings, it was necessary to operate the steam and exhaust valves much more rapidly than in the valve-gears in general use. This he accomplished by his improved wrist-lever type T14 Corliss. of gear, whiclT he designed and built in 1885 and 1886. This, without question, was the best and most efficient Corliss type of valve-gear and is still exclusively used on the Corliss engines built at the original Corliss Works. This invention of the automatic cut-off was a far reaching improvement. It so approved itself that the Cor- liss principle is seen in a majority of the steatn engines built since his day. It was found to be extraordinarily satisfactory and economical. Mr. Corliss himself had such faith in it from the beginning that he did not hesitate to accept in payment for his engines a proportion of the guaranteed savings in coal consumption. Some of his guarantees seemed wildly extravagant, but he was always able to do better than he promised, and usually to his financial advantage. Mr. Phillips, an old associate of Mr. Corliss, gives several instances of such guarantees : "In 1855 he put an engine and boilers into the James Steam Mill at Newburyport, Mass., the price for engine and boilers to be five times the amount of coal saved in one year. The old engines, which were 24x48 (con- densing developing about 180 H. P.) used on an aver- age for the five years preceding Mr. Corliss' contract, 10,483 lbs. of coal per day, and were fair examples of the engines in use before Mr. Corliss' time. "The new engines were found to use but 5,690 pounds per day, making a saving in a single )-ear of $3,946.84, coal being reckoned at $6.00 per ton, making the total price paid to Corliss & Nightingale for a 180 H. P. condensing engine and boilers, $19,734.22." "In 1856 a new engine was put into the Ocean Steam Mills in Newburyport, Mass., Mr. Corliss agree- ing to take the old engines (which previous to this were 115 Corliss. considered b)- the owners first-class machines) and the saving of fuel in two and one-half years, or the sum of $3,000 cash. The Mill Company decided (having doubt- less in mind the experience of their neighbor, the James Steam Mill) to pay the $3,000, a wise decision, as the saving amounted to that in two years." "In 1852 a new engine was put into the rolling mill of Crocker Brothers & Co., in Taunton, Mass., guaran- teeing to do one-third more work than the old engine was doing, and when five tons of coal was used per day, but two tons should be used to do the same work. Forfeit $1.00 per pound for every pound per day used above that amount. Another contract which sounds hazardous but which shov.'s the faith which Corliss and his partners had in the engine, was that made with the Washington Mills at Gloucester, N. J., wherein they agreed to put in an engine of about 200 H. P. for the sum of $7,100.00 and forfeit $5,000.00 for each ton per day of coal above four tons which should be used in driving the mill. This con- tract was entered into knowing that about nine tons per day were used with the old engines.'' This type of engine was particularly valuable to cot- ton and other mills where regularity of speed was essen- tial. In spinning, especially, it was necessary to have an even speed. If the speed increased it resulted in broken thread. If it decreased it resulted in diminished produc- tion. The control was so sluggish, with the old type of engines, that the engines were run at a comparatively slow speed, in order that they could be throttled before they reached so high a speed as to be disastrous. The Corliss engine could be safely speeded to the highest rate permissible, without danger of racing; so efifective was the regulation that a variation of work from 60 H. P. 116 Corliss. to 3G0 H. P. within a minute did not perceptibly affect the speed of the engine. Probably the engine that brought Mr. Corliss the most notice was that built for the Centennial Exhibition. It would not be considered large in these daj's, but at that time it was counted extraordinarily large. Mr. Cnrliss was one of the original members of the l'2xecutive Com- mittee. He suggested that they secure a single engine to furnish all the power necessary for the exhibition, but the others thought it a too hazardous undertaking, but later — after being unable to make satisfactory arrange- ments otherwise — they accepted J\Ir. Corliss' proposal and authorized him to construct such an engine. The engine had two upright cylinders 3' 4%" i" diameter, with ten feet stroke. The beam was 27' ijs" between centers and weighed twenty tons, and was suspended 30 feet above the floor. The connecting rods were 2'4 feet long. The fly wheel was 29' 10" in diameter, two feet face and had 216 teeth. The pinion was 9' n]-!" diameter with 72 teeth. The crank shaft was 18 inches in diameter. The cylinders were double jacketed. The entire engine weighed over 600 tons. They ran on 30 pounds pressure, the shaft making 36 revolutions, and could develop 2800 H. P., although they were called upon for onl}- about 1000 H. P. It was placed in the center of JMachiner)- Hall and ran without a hitch from begining to end. Its starting and stopping marked the hours of opening and closing the exhibition. The engine was built in nine months and 26 days at a very large expense to Mr. Corliss above the amount received from the management of the Exhibition. It attracted the attention of every one, not only for its imposing and beautiful design, but for the excellent work- "7 Corl iss. manship and its silent, regular running. It seemed to mark the acme of all the wonderful engineering works gathered together from all the world. As time passes a larger measure of credit is given to Mr. Corliss for his invention than was granted by some of his contemporaries. For fifteen years after he began construction, his road was beset with legal difficulties. His patent was granted in 1849, ^ind almost immediately he was opposed by owners of patents granted to Fred- erick E. Sickels in 1842 and 1845. Both sides engaged tlie best lawyers in the country, and every charge and counter-charge was bitterly contested. Mr. Sickles gained his experience in marine engine construction, and very unwisely limited his patented claims to lifting, tripping and cushioning puppet valves. Corliss claimed the same for slide valves. Sickels de- vised a water dash pot to cushion his valves. Corliss de- vised an air cushion to prevent the weight that closed the valve from slamming. Sickels' invention enabled him to cut off the steam at any point of the stroke, but this cut oft' was adjustable only by the hand of the engineer, and according to his judgment. Corliss' invention enabled him to cut off the steam, up to half the stroke, automatically, by the nice precision of the governor. Asa Gray, President of the American Academy, said to him, on presenting the Rumford Medal, "Your engine embodies within itself a principle by which it appropriates the full, direct and expansive force of the steam and measures out for itself at each stroke, with the utmost precision, the exact quantity necessary to maintain the power required." At the time he was with Nightingale, Mr. Corliss 118 Corl iss. made an unsuccessful effort to apply his principle to the locomotive. A reference is made to it in the story of Alex- ander Holly, who was a draftsman at the time, with Mr. Corliss. There are reasons why the principle is not ap- plicable to locomotive or marine engines, but for station- ary and pumping engines, it is the first and perhaps the best. Mr. Corliss has invented other machines, notably a gear cutter, and his engineering ability is seen at its best in the large number of heavy, special machine tools which he designed for use at his engine works. They are being used to-day and hold their own in comparison with the most modern. He built a number of large pumping engines and at one time engaged in a prolonged duel with the municipal grafters of Boston over a contract for sewage pumping engines. Mr. Corliss' proposition was for four engines having a guaranteed duty of 90,000,000 foot pounds, with boilers and all appurtenances, erected complete, for $180,- 000. Instead, a contract was placed which cost the city of Boston some $475,000. Mr. Corliss offered a guar- antee of service far in excess of the favored choice, and to convince, offered to construct and operate at his plant, and at his expense, one of these engines, before pro- ceeding with the contract. In Mr. Corliss was a rare combination of conserva- tism with apparent venturesomeness, but his uniform suc- cess proved that his venturesomeness was not inconsistent with conservatism, but was based on knowledge and wise faith. His engineering judgment was quite remarkable, and was well matched by an equally sound financial sense. For an inventor he was singularly under self control. He 119 Corli iss. would doubtless have succeeded in any line of engineer- ing, but having given his mind to engines, he refused to be drawrn off to anything else. He was big enough to dis- cern the possibilities of his department and to develop it to keep pace with his own growth. Personally, he was always courteous, but somewhat reserved, and a strict disciplinarian, although genial and approachable to his friends and his humblest employee could always approach him with as much ease as anv officer of his company and always feel assured of the same courteous attention. One of his mottoes in business was, that "The highest standard of workmanship and the best materials of their respective kinds," were the only ones to be considered in the manufacture of his products. His sterling character was as much in evidence in private life as in business. His contributions to educational and charitable objects were not only most liberal, but always, in a marked de- gree, cheerfully given, although known only to his im- mediate family and the recipients. He was a devoted Christian in the highest sense of the term. There is a story told that illustrates the benevolence of his character : At the time the workmen began to break ground for the pumping works at Providence, they dis- turbed a nest of young birds and Mr. Corliss had them move to another part of the grounds for a few days until the young birds were able to take care of themselves. His clearness of mind is seen in his business corre- spondence, in law cases, in the brevity of his patent claims, and in the grasp of affairs generally. He was highly honored by his townsmen, engineering associates and scientific associations. He received a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 120 Corliss. 1867 in competition with over a hundred other engine builders. He received the Rumford Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1870. Al- though not an exhibitor, he was given a Grand Diploma of Honor at Vienna, in 1873, because his improvements were seen in so many of the different engines exhibited. The Institute of France gave him, in 1868, the Montyon prize and in 1886 the King of Belgium made him an officer of the Order of Leopold. He was a state senator in 1868, 1869 and 1870 and a presidential elector in 1876. He died in 1888. Probably no single inventor since Watt has enhanced the efficiency of the steam engine as did he. When we consider the part that the steam engine has played m modern economics, this is a high distinction, indeed. T T ▼ 121 Alexander Lyman Holley 1832-1881 122 Alexander Lyman HoUey. ▼ T ▼ In the memory of the engineers whose generation is now passing, the personality^ of Alexander Lyman Holley stands out in fair colors. His enthusiasm was conta- gious, his genial good-fellowship irresistible, and his elo- quence captivating. But these qualities were of but pass- ing value except allied, as they were in him, with those other qualities of intellect and character that made him not only singularl}- attractive, but exceptionally efTective in the material development of our national life. His an- cestors were well-to-do Connecticut folk. His father, at one time Governor of the state, was a manufacturer of cutler)- in the small village of Lakeville, in Salisbur}-, Conn. Alexander was born there in 1832. As a boy and young man he was full of sports and jollity, a leader among his fellows in adventure and daring. He enjoyed school and study when it h.ad to do with the sciences, but had a corresponding distaste for it when it had to do with languages and the classics. He studied successively in village school, academics, private tutor and Brown University. He revealed very early a natural talent for keen observation, with an un- usual ability for recording the same in writing and draw- ings. When missed from sight he was usually to be found near some steam engine or other machinerj^, drawing the parts to be sure that he thoroughly understood them. Holl( •y- Some of his sketches made when only nine years of age, on a visit to Niagara Falls, are still extant, and are creditable to the draftsman. From this time on his letters are filled with descriptions, sketches and comments of the engines and machinery that he has seen. He also found increased interest in writing and dis- cussion. At 17 he had made a list of essays that he had written, and was publishing one "paper" called "Gun- cotton," and another called "Locomotive," beside sending contributions to other journals. One of his essays, 1850, was an exhaustive description on the manufacture of cut- lery, in which he gave in detail a "description of the mechanical, chemical and manual operations performed on certain raw materials to convert them into the means, implements and materials for manufacturing pen and pocket knives." This was but the beginning of a long and varied list of essays, descriptions, editorials, books and orations, with which he filled his life to its close. He graduated from Brown in 1853 with honors. Fie had already passed from being an interested observer of steam engine construction into the ranks of the partici- pants. In 185 1 he invented an excellent cut-off and an oscillating engine, neither of which were patentable, owing to the broad claims of previous inventors. His gradu- ating oration was on "The Natural Motors," and he en- tered at once the employ of Corliss & Nightingale for the production of a locomotive. Fie worked as draftsman, machinist, and subsec|uently ran this trial locomotive until it proved to be unfit. In later years in one of his felicitous after-dinner orations before the A. S. M. E., he referred to this locomotive as being a cross between Mephistopheles and a Colorado mule, having an inborn cussedness. Strange to say, she showed excellent indica- 124 Holl( T- tor cards, and he went on to sa)- : "Well, once in. a while, when she had been jackassing over the road about four hours behind time, and we had pinched-barred her into the round-house, we used to pull out these indicative cards and talk them over right before her, and we would look at her and ask one another why in thunder an engine that could make a card like that would act as if the very old-chief engineer was in her. And next morning she would rouse up and pull the biggest train that ever had been over the road, ahead of time." Corliss gave up making locomotives with this, and so Holley left, too, for his heart was in them. He trav- eled through the country trying to obtain employment in some locomotive shop, until when completely discouraged he was taken on at Jersey City. While working here in 1855 he married happily. While at work for Corliss he had written articles for Colburn's Railway Advocate, and through them was brought to the attention of Zerah Colburn. This bril- liant engineer and editor was attracted to Holley, and from being a contributor to the Advocate he became edit- or and partner. In 1856 he was sole editor and owner. Then for several }ears he threw himself heart and soul into journalistic work. He traveled over the country, became acquainted with every engineer of note, and every phase of railroad progress, but the paper failed. Then in 1857 Colburn and Holley went to Europe and made a careful study of European railroad practice, the results of which were preserved in a sumptuous folio. This book was not a mere description and compilation of data, but entered into a minute comparison of mechan- ical construction, an analysis of costs, and finally traced the British superiority of the day to the credit of a super- 125 Holl( T- ior road-bed. Colburn's part was probably tbe greater in this work, but Holle}' did much, and the work which fol- lowed, "Railway Practice in America^" was altogether his. Holley became now a correspondent of the N. Y. Times, sending in over 200 articles between 1858 and 1863, which attracted attention and which gave the Times the highest position of authority on engineering topics which a daily newspaj^er ever occupied. In 1859 he made a second trip to Europe and in i860 a third, dividing his writings between the Times and the American Railway Review, of which he became mechan- ical editor. Pie also secured patents for a variable cut- off and a rail chair. He was also mechanical editor for Webster's Dictionary, and assisted E. A. Stevens in loco- motive changes on the Camden & Amboy R. R. At the breaking out of the Civil War in 1861, Holley oft'ered his services as an ins]:)ector of steamboats, or any other position where his engineering experience would be of service. Although endorsed by a splendid list of great engineers, politics lost liim an appointment, and left him free to continue his editorial work. The Stevens Battery coming into prominence owing to the war, Holley was asked by Mr. Stevens to make an expert examination, and later to make a trip to Europe to gain information as to the best use to make of it. This gave Holley the opportunity to make an exhaustive studv of everything connected with war ships, ordnance and armor. The results were embodied in 1864 in a large volume that became an authority in its department. Before this work appeared Holley had become inter- ested in another direction that was to lead him into a field from which he was to gather his brightest laurels. 126 Holl( T- He was sent to England in 1863 to investigate the Bes- semer process for making steel. It had been tried in an experimental way by Cooper & Hewett, but with them, as in England, the difficulties encountered had proven to be a serious setback to its introduction. Alexander Holley's keen observation recognized the inherent value of the process, and he secured for his clients the sole American license. He returned, was admitted to the firm of Griswold, Winslow & Holley, and began in 1865 the construction of a Bessemer steel plant at Troy, N. Y. From this time on his energies were largely given up to the engineering problems of this process. In 1867 he designed and built the works at Harrisburg, Pa. Then in 1868 he rebuilt the works at Troy. In the years that followed he designed the works at North Chicago, Joliet, and the Edgar Thompson works at Pittsburgh. The latter he valued as his most con- spicuous success. Then the licensees formed themselves into an asso- ciation of Bessemer steel manufacturers, of which Holley became the consulting engineer. In this capacity the works at St. Louis, Cambria, Bethlehem and Scranton were built. Holley, more than any one else, is to be credited with the marvelous practical and commercial success of this process, and all the train of resulting benefits, cheap railroads, bridges and general construc- tion that made this the age of steel. Mr. Robert W. Hunt, in speaking of Holley's pre- eminent services in enormously increasing the produc- tion and cheapening the cost by the high excellence of his general plans, credits him with the following partic- ular improvements : Raised furnaces and converters, top 127 Holley. supporters, hydraulic cranes, use of three ingot cranes, location of converter in relation to pit and furnaces, im- proved ladle crane, a single operating point for all cranes, ladles and converter, use of cupolas instead of reverber- atory furnaces, an intermediate, accumulating ladle placed on scales, an improved ladle bottom. These were not all that he contributed, but were the most radical and con- spicuous. These improvements, together with the contribu- tions of other engineers, raised the output per unit fif- teen fold. The success of this invention of Bessemer probably had a more profound effect upon the social fab- ric than any other single proposition except the invention of the steam engine, and a large part of its practical suc- cess is due to Alexander Holley. Hitherto he had shown mainly his critical acumen ; in this he revealed equally great creative faculties. He received in all sixteen pat- ents, ten of which refer to improvements in the Bessemer process, the last of which, made almost on his death-bed, was for a removable shell for the converter, to be used especially for the newly introduced basic lining. While alwa}-s loyal to the Bessemer process, his interest did not end there. He gave much thought also to the Siemens-Martin open-hearth process, and the fur- naces of this style built, with him as consulting engineer, were for some time the finest in the country. He believed in the Pernot furnace, the Thomas-Gilchrist patents and the basic lining, and had an influential part in their prac- tical introduction. With his entrance into constructive engineering practice, he by no means gave up his literary labors. In 1869 we find him editor for a year of Van Nostrand's Eclectic, while his contributions to general magazines and 128 Holl( 7- technical journals were continuous. His confidential re- ports on Bessemer practice continued for many 3ears, sent only to members of the Bessemer Association, were said to be a mine of accurate information, and of highest literary merit. He collaborated on an extensive series of illustrated articles on American iron and steel works for the London Engineering. He wrote notable articles for mechanical cncyclopje- dias, and a steady stream of technical papers and address- es for the various scientific societies of which he was an honored member. His literary style was graphic, clear and often brilliant, which made even his most technical essays interesting. He was a member of a government commission on standard tests, and of the Board of Judges of the Centen- nial Exhibition. In 1865 he was elected a trustee of Rensselaer Poly- technic, and always after had a deep interest in technical education. In later years he delivered lectures on metal- lurgv and engineering subjects before the Colum- bia School of JVIines and Stevens' Institute. He was pres- ident of the Institute of Mining Engineers in 1875, a vice- president of the Civil Engineers in 1876, a founder of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a member of the British Institute of Civil Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, and a recipient of the Bessemer gold medal. At the meetings of these scientific associations his genial good-fellowship, his always interesting and in- structive professional papers, and his capital after-dinner speeches, won him a most hearty welcome. One of the most praiseworthy results of his influence was the esprit dc corps that he infused into the engineer- 129 Holl( 1' ing profession. It was he who suggested and brought about the practice of uniting pleasure with business at the meetings of these societies, by planning for excur- sions to convenient points of interest, workshops and engineering enterprises, and also the habit of inviting the wives to accompany them on these trips. No bancjuet was complete without some poem or speech from Holley. He had a charming presence, a pleasant voice under perfect control, and an always felicitous choice of words. His wit was genial and sparkling, leaving no sting be- hind, and gliding naturally and easily into the technical and thoughtful. He loved pictures, scener\' and art of every kind. He was himself no mean architect and artist. It was he who designed the beautiful Charter Oak chair, now pre- served in the State House at Hartford. His habit of careful observation, trained from child- hood, placed him in possession of an immense fund of information. It was his habit, also, to make elaborate notes of his observations, and to preserve them in care- fully indexed note-books. He was an engineer rather than an inventor. lie had a brilliant, versatile intellect, a genius for hard work, indomitable perseverence, and bouyant enthusiasm. This very evident ability, together with those other qualities of heart, his modesty, his friendly sincerity, his perfect willingness to give more than he received, a loving dis- position and a sunny temperament, bound his associates to him with the rarely combined bonds of admiration and affection. He was fairly loved by his associates. His fund of accurate information, his engineer's passion for truth, his correct judgment, together with his transparent sincerity and attractive personality, gave him an unusual 130 Holl( 1' influence over men. There was no place in his great heart for professional jealousy. He was an acknowledt^-ed authority by mechanical, civil and mining engineers alike, and capitalists entrusted their millions to him in perfect confidence. He began life in perfect physical health, but his habit of intense and prolonged application told on him at last. As early as 1875, when only forty-three years of age, he began to feel the effects of the enormous strain. He was seriously ill in 1881, but recovered only to collapse again in 1882, from which he never rallied. Unconsciously he pictured his own end one night at Pittsburgh, ^^'hen he had been called from a sick bed to respond to a gift of plate from his associates. What could be more beautiful and pathetic than his closing words on that occasion : "xA.mong us all who are working hard in our noble profession and are keeping the fires of metallurgy aglow, such occasions as this should also kindle a flame of good- fellowship and atTection which will burn to the end. Burn to the end! — perhaps some of us should think of that, who are 'burning the candle at both ends.' Ah ! well, may it so happen to us that when at last this vital spark is o.wdized, when this combustible has put on incombus- tion, when this living fire flutters thin and pale at the lips, some kindly hand may ' turn us down,' not ' under-blown,' — by all means not 'over-blown' — some loving hand may turn us dciwn, that we may, perhaps, be cast in a better mold." T ▼ T 131 William Richard Jones 1839-1889 132 William Richard Jones. T ▼ T "The most important man in the Carnegie scheme." Such is the high praise given to William R. Jones. He was par excellence a captam of inclustr}^ His father was a clergyman, who came to this country from Wales in 1832 and was located in Pittsburgh and Hazleton, Penn. William, his eldest son, was born in 1839. His father died when he was quite young, so that he was forced to begin work with a very limited schooling. He was apprenticed to the Crane Iron Company of Catasauqua when only ten years of age, first in the foun- dry and afterward in the machine-shop. No small part of his subsequent success is due to his thorough training in these two fundamental branches of the iron industry. By fifteen he was earning journeyman's wages. In 1856 we find him at Philadelphia working as a machin- ist with I. P. Morris & Co., then in Clearfield County, dur- ing a commercial depression, as a lumberman and farm hand. In 1859 he is a machinist in the employ of the Cambria Iron Company ; three months later he goes to Chattanooga, Tenn., employed by a blast-furnace com- pany, where he remains until 1861, when, by the breaking out of the Civil War, he is forced to flee with his young bride. A year later he enlists in the 133d Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, is wounded, but rises to the rank of corporal. At 133 Jones. the expiration of his enhstment he returns to the Cambria Iron Company, but soon raises a company of men and, as their captain, re-enhsts in the 194th Pennsylvania Vol- unteers, and serves to the close of the war. The latter part of the time he was Provost jMarshall for the city of Baltimore, a position requiring both tact and firmness, and for which service he received honorable mention. Then he retm'ns again to Johnstown to be assist- ant to George Fritz, the chief engineer of the Cambria Iron Company. In this position he is busied in designing and constructing the famous Bessemer plant and bloom- mill, under the direction of two of the most brilliant of American mechanical engineers, Alexander L. Holley and George Fritz. Following the death of Fritz, Jones resigned from the service of the Cambria Company. So well had he done his work that Holley, who had designed the Edgar Thompson Steel Works at Braddock, selected him to be the master mechanic. Holley was at this time consulting engineer of the Associated Bessemer Manufacturers, and acquainted with all the principal steel men. He looked upon Jones as the best practical administrator among them all. Later Jones became the general superintendent, and still later, in 1888, consulting engineer to all the Carnegie companies. In these years he erected their great Bes- semer plants, the remarkable series of blast furnaces known as A, B, C, D, E, F and G, and the gigantic roll- ing mills ; he met and overcame all the contingencies of daily operation and intense competition that culminated in making these establishments the finest in the world and a transcendent financial success. A dozen patents stand to his credit and all have to 134 Jones. do with tlie manufacture of steel. The first was granted in 1876, a device for operating Bessemer ladles, and the last, in 1889, considered to be the most important, a meth- od for mixing in receiving tanks the metal from blast furnaces. But his fame docs not rest upon these few patents. Like all mechanical engiricers engaged in the practical administration of affairs, he invented and devised far more than he patented. Invention was to him a neces- sary incident of dail)- routine. These vast concerns are not born full grown. En- gineers' plans are never perfect on first presentation. Errors arc to be corrected, omissions supplied, inter- ferences adjusted, methods simplified by incessant watch- fulness and practical mechanical judgment. There is also a struggle for existence and a sur- vival of the fittest among steel plants as among animals. A com])arison of daily reports, a searching of costs, the stimulus of competition — all compel constant improve- ment or defeat, and time has shown that Jones was to be trusted to keep the mechanical equipment of the Carnegie plants ahead of all competitors. Here were thousands of men employed, and the selec- tion and management of men measures, in large degree, the success or failure of an}' enterprise. In these things Ca])tain Jones was pre-eminent. Un- der his control vast forces were co-ordinated, warring elements harmonized, .selfish interests dominated, and the whole organization vitalized, until the production of a single blast furnace went up before his death from 350 tons a week in 1872 to nearl)' 2,800 tons per week. One of the wires to this Carnegie system was rival- ry between heads of departments. Rewards were given 135 Jones. for record outputs, these were made the standard, and woe betide him who fell short. It was competition, bitter and relentless, engender- ing strife and hard feeling, and yet none dared to let up on the terrible pace. Jones was not responsible for this. He was too high spirited to stand it himself, and when his protests were unheeded, he sent in his resignation again and again, onl}^ to be won back ; he was too valuable a man to lose. "You can imagine the abounding sense of freedom and relief when I go aboard ship and sail past Sand}' Hook," once said Andrew Carnegie to Captain Jones. "My God, think of the relief to us," exclaimed Jones. When Carnegie offered him a partnership he de- clined, but accepted "a thundering big salary," $50,000 a year, when salaries of ten were few and far between. When Carnegie was taken to task by some of the other steel manufacturers for paying such a salary, he responded that he would be glad to pa}' double if he knew of any more like him. Under Jones' management men worked as never before or since. His unerring mechanical judgment, his organizing ability, his unfailing energy, his resistless en- thusiasm, won their hearts, and they responded loyally as to a recognized and trusted master. In his dealings with them Jones was considerate and sympathetic, at the same time forceful and deter- mined. He attempted an eight-hour day at the Edgar Thompson, but when it was shown that it was falling slightly behind the others, it was vetoed. When called upon to resist extreme demands his opposition was open and above board, so that even in 136 Jones. the very fiercest of the conflict he retained the good win of his opponents. It was characteristic of him, at the time of the Johns- town flood, to take several hundred workmen from Brad- dock by special train. The track was destroyed ten miles from Johnstown, but Jones marched the men overland, and was the first outside assistance to reach the scene of destruction. Under his trained direction, they rendered invaluable service in the work of rescue and relief. He was a member of the American Institute of Min- ing Engineers, and, although the leading iron and steel expert of the country, persistently refused to accept office or read papers. He was also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and of the British Iron and Steel Institute. He was a man of considerable property, of stalwart figure, and attractive face. His striking portrait shows a remarkable likeness to that of the greatest of Roman commanders, Julius Caesar, save only the e3'es, which belonged to Jones alone, keen, alert, laughing and hon- est, characteristic of the real man. His tragic death was a striking close to such a life. Blast furnace C had been in trouble for several days. The regular organization was unable to bring it under control. Captain Jones assumed personal charge of affairs, and while directing the work an explosion occurred in the furnace which caused a rush of gas and molten cinder to fly in all directions. Several men were badly injured, and he was not only horribly burned, but was blown against an iron cinder car, fracturing his skull. He suffered in- tense agony for two days, and died September 28, 1889. In the resolutions offered by the managers of the Carnegie properties, it was said : 137 Jones. "We would not forget that the commander fell at the head of his men, at the post of duty, amid the roar of the vast establishment which was his work and is his monument." T T T 138 James B. Eads 1820-1887 Kindness of Louis Ho- 140 James B. Eads. T T T In these (la_vs of gigantic enterprises, canals, bridges, tunnels and harbor improvements, it is strange that we hear nothing of ship railwa)S, and yet that was the pro- posal in his mature years of one who was a master of construction, but who died before it could be realized. James B. Eads was an engineer who left behind him colossal works of immense usefulness to his country. His father and mother were both of the more refined classes of our great American cosmopolitanism, he from JMar)'- land, she of Irish blood. The father, however, while not poor, was far from prosperous, and moved first to Cincin- nati, and then to Louisville, and then to St. Louis. James was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1820. lie was nine years old when they floated down the Ohio to Louisville. It is reported that at this earl)- age he was intensely interested in machinery, listening carefully to the engineer's explanation of his engine, and remember- ing so clearly that when only eleven years old he made, in a little workshop his father fitted up for him, a com- plete little engine. Besides this he made models of saw- mills, steamboats, and other machinery that came to his notice. He had slight education, but a fondness for reading that grew in him with the years. When he was thirteen, his father decided to move to St. Lonis, and sent his wife, two daughters and James 141 Eads. on ahead, intending to follow with supplies for opening a shop. The boat on which they went caught fire one cold morning, and the passengers were landed scarcel_v clothed and with no baggage, on the very spot, it is said, where, years later, Eads was to plant one pier of his great bridge. But Mrs. Eads was not one to be discouraged. She im- mediately opened a boarding-house, and James did his best selling ap])les on the street and running errands. One of the boarders was a dry goods merchant, who, seeing the bo_\''s industry, set him at work as a clerk, and per- mitted him the free use of his library. From these books he gained his first theoretic knowledge of science when nineteen. After five years of this indoor life, his health failing, he left it to be a clerk aboard a ^Mississippi steamer. From this time on his life was intimately connected with this great river. He came to know and understand it as none other ever did. Its vast flood unceasingly roll- ing on to the sea ; eating away its banks on one side only to pile up the sediment on the other, making bars in a night; eating its way through a bend to jjour in torrents through a new channel that leaves the old miles away ; uprooting giant cottonwood trees and depositing them in the open channels, a menace to the shi])ping and anchor- age for a new bar. With all the skill of a race of born pilots, steamers and flat-boats were everywhere wrecked and left with their valuable machinery and cargoes. After three years as clerk, in 1842, wdien twenty-two, Eads went into business with a firm of boat-builders, his part being to raise these sunken boats. His first contract was to raise a barge-load of pig lead sunk 212 miles from St. Louis. A hired professional diver refused to descend when he saw the swift current, 142 Eads. and so Eads himself went down in an improvised diving- bell, made out of a whiskey hogshead. For three years he kept at it and devised many arrangements to facilitate his work. He built powerful wrecking-boats, fitted with great pumps to draw out the sand, and derricks that would lift the barges by main force from the bottom. It was a harzardous business, but his energy and cleverness, and boldness made a success of it. He used to say that there was not a stretch of fifty miles from Galena to the mouth but where he had walked on the river bottom. He gave it up to marry, and went into the manufac- ture of glass — the first factory west of Pittsburgh, but in two years it failed in spite of his extraordinary energy, and left him $25,000 in debt. Then he rejoined his former partners in the wreck- ing business, and worked harder than ever. In ten )'ears his debts were paid and his firm was worth a half million dollars. He began to give attention to the obstructions of the current, and took contracts to clear the channel and improve harbors. In 1856 he went to Washington and offered to con- tract with the government to clear the channels of the ^lississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Arkansas rivers, and to keep them clear for a term of years. The bill passed the House, but was defeated in the Senate. In 1857, when thirty-seven years ok', he retired frosn business and made his first trip to Europe. .\t the break- ing out of the Rebellion, four years later, Eads at once took a prominent part in Missouri and national affairs. When the question of the control of the Mississippi came up, Eads was the man of the hour. Lincoln called it the "key to the whole situation." At the request of the 143 Eads. government Eads prepared a statement of his views and plans that were adopted by the Navy Department, but the War Department claimed jurisdiction, and subor- dinated Eads to an officer. At first Eads' suggestions were overruled, and in July, 1861, bids were asked for the construction of seven iron-clad river boats. Eads' bid was lowest in price, and quickest in time. Eads agreed to deliver the boats in sixty-four days. It was a time of turmoil and financial distress ; mills were idle, and skilled labor scarce. Eads, with his intense energy and con- siderable wealth, threw himself into the work. Machine shops and foundries were set to work, timber was brought from eight difl^erent states, telegraph wires to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were kept busy for hours. The first iron plating used in war was ordered to be rolled in three states ; in two weeks 4,000 men were at work on these boats, miles apart, day and night, seven days a week. But as usual the government delayed the work by altering the plans, demanding better work than originally intended, and delaying pa3rments. The boats were not built within the sixty days, but were launched within a hundred days, and engaged in battle before being paid for. Eads began them a rich man, but was financially in- volved before they were finished, and Congress had ap- propriated their cost. These boats were 175 feet long and 513^ feet beam, practically flat-bottom scows, pro- tected on four sides by heavy oak planking slanting up and in. The front was also iron-clad. These were the first iron-clads ever in actual battle. They were very faulty in design, but did excellent work all through the war. Before they were completed Eads was authorized to construct another boat after his own designs for Gen- 144 Eads. eral Fremont. This was of twice tlie tonnage and more completely iron-clad. In 1862 Eads was anthorized to build two tnrreted iron gunboats, and later the order was increased to six. As this was immediately after the battle of the Monitor and Merrimac the government insisted on using the dou- ble Ericsson turrets on four, but permitted Eads to use his own design of a single turret with guns worked by steam on two, on his guarantee to replace them, if unsat- isfactory, with Ericsson turrets at his own expense. These proved successful and were fired seven times faster than the Ericsson guns. Besides these fourteen boats, Eads converted seven transports and built four mortar boats. Captain Mahan speaks of these boats built by Captain Eads as the "backbone of the river fleet throughout the war." At this time Captain liads was the most important citizen of St. Louis. He had a beautiful residence outside the cit}', and entertained lavishly. He was a very busy man, now at his ship-yards, now at Washington, now at the front watching his boats in action. He made man)' in- ventions — new guns,' and carriages, new methods of oper- ating turrets, applying steam to artiller}', etc. He intro- duced his inventions not only at Washington, but to the German and Russian governments. He was appointed special agent of the Navy Department to visit European navy )-ards. But this strenuous life told on him, and be- fore the close of the war he had a serious collapse. After the war he traveled in Europe extensively, and in 1867 made an important address before a convention assembled at St. Louis to consider Mississippi river im- provements, and the same }'ear a St. Louis company, of which Eads was chief engineer, was authorized to con- 145 Eads. struct a bridge over the Mississippi, with the ahnost un- heard-of spans of 500 feet — fifty feet clear above the river. Eads' plans were severely criticised, but generally as being unnecessarily strong. His plans called for two river piers of heavy masonry built up from rock founda- tion. One of these was 1 10 feet below the surface of the river, 90 feet of which was through mud and sand. To sink these massive piers Eads' genius manifested itself. It was the deepest submarine work that had ever been done, and called for the highest engmeering skill. From his fertile mind came designs of air-tight metal caissons, sand-pumps, air-locks and conveyors. The superstructure consisted of three steel arches, by far the largest ever con- structed up to that time. Two were 502 feet long, and one 520 feet. They were built out from the piers and met at the centre without staging below. The bridge was seven years in building, and stands to-day a monument to its builder, establishing his standing as an engineer above dispute. The next field for his talents was the Cjuestion of an open channel to the Gulf. Eighteen feet was the deepest channel ever obtained up to 1875, and this was only inter- mittent ; a severe storm from the Gulf or high water from the river would undo in a single night the work of months of dredging and stirring. Jetties had been pro- posed years before, but were generally condemned as "difficult to build, impossible to maintain, and excessively costly." In 1875 Eads came forward with an offer to construct jetties on one of the passes, to secure and maintain a twenty-eight-foot channel at a cost of less than one half the estimate of government engineers, on a contract which provided payment only in case of success. 146 Eads. Tu hand over the most important engineering- work ever undertaken by the government to a private citizen, after a method just condemned by six out of seven of her ablest mihtary engineers, made Congress hesitate. But the open channel was highly desirable, and Eads was fin- ally given permission to construct his jetties on one of the smaller passes — to secure and maintain for twenty years a depth of twenty-eight feet. The small pass was far more difficult than the larger erne that Eads desired, and twenty years was a long time to wait for pay, but Eads went at it wjth his usual energy. First of all, the work was to be financed with the outcome problematic and dividends twenty years away. Then the work was planned, organized and pushed. Af- ter all his plan was simple and successful. It was based on his belief that the amount of sediment a current would carry was directly proportionate to its velocity, so he nar- rowed the channel by jetties and the river scoured its own channel. But there were many difficulties, and Eads, as usual, made many devices and arrangements to further his work. The opposition and derision continued until one day an Atlantic liner a]5peared at the New Orleans docks and the jetties were saved. Tn 1879, a little over four )ears after they were be- gun, government inspectors reported a maximum depth of thirty-one feet and minimum of twenty-eight of the required width. Eads was promptly paid all except $1,- 000,000, retained as a guarantee for their maintenance. The work has been wonderfully successful, and plainly increased the value of the whole Mississippi val- ley, and raised New Orleans from the eleventh to the second exjDort city of-the nation. 147 Eads. But this did not end his activity ; he at once set about urging the national government to apply the same prin- cipals to the entire alluvial basin. He served on the Mis- sissippi River Commission, but the plan proposed by him was too vast and costly to be adopted, and after two years he resigned. He was now sixty }ears old, and an authority on harbor and river improvements. He traveled much and gave much professional advice, notably as to St. Johns, Columbia and Sacramento rivers, and the harbors of Toronto, \"era Cruz, Tam])ico and Vicksburg. He also declined very flattering offers from Brazil, Turkey and Portugal. His two most important reports were on the estuar}' of the Mersey at Liverpool and Galveston Har- bor. The publication of the Dc Lesseps Interoceanic Canal Plans in 1879 gave Eads his opportunity to propose the famous ship railway across the isthmus at Tehuantepec. It consisted of a cradle l^ig enough to float the largest ship resting on 1,500 wheels on a dozen parallel rails. His route was 2,000 miles shorter than the Panama and, ac- cording to his calculations, cheap, ([uickly built, safe and rapid, easily maintained and increased. The plan was declared feasible by a large array of engineers, but was ahead of the times and lapsed with his death. He gave six years of his ripest powers to this enterprise, and gave it up only with his life in 1887. In 1884 he received his highest honor, the Albert medal. He belonged to many societies in the United States and England. He was an engineer of extreme boldness and energy, self-educated, largely and exceedingly practical in all his ventures, and eminently :^uccessful as a business pro- 148 Eads. nioter. In person he \vas slight, but dignified and impres- sive. He was notalily punctilious in dress and behavior, which, together with his masterly powers of conversation, persuasion and explanation, gave him remarkable influ- ence over men. While rather severe in manner he was genial at heart, loved stories, hospitality, good books and chess. The latter game he could play blindfolded, or carry on three games at once. He was typical of the West, self-made, self-confident, bold and courageous, with enthusiastic energ'v that was almost inexhaustible. T T T 149 Sir Richard Arkwriglit 1722-1792. 150 Richard Arkwright. T T ▼ It is a long cry from Dick ArkwriHit, tlie ionoraiit S' impecunious barber, to Sir Riciiard Arkwright, the mil- honaire manufacturer, but they are one and the same. He was born in 1732, in Lancashire, at a time when the social condition of English labor was at lowest ebb. He is interesting to us, especially because to his gen- ius the world is indebted not only for the first cotton pow- er machinery, which was the ver\' beginning of power machinery of any kind, but also for that elaborate organi- zation that made modern factory mamifacture and busi- ness administration so great a success as to entirely sup- ersede in the course of years the primitive cottage pro- duction and sale. He was a long time getting a start. In the first place his parents were poor and he was the youngest of thir- teen children. He seems to have given up shaving in 1760, when nearly thirty years of age, to travel about buying and selling hair. At about the same time he se- cured a secret process for dyeing hair that gave him a monopoly of the best business. Having once tasted the sweets of success from the possession of manufacturing secrets, patent rights and monopolies, he went on from one thing to another, unre- mittingly, to the time of his death. First he dabbled in perpetual motion, and in trying 151 Arkwright. to find a mechanic who could make some wheels, became acquainted with a clock-niaker named Kay, who had worked with Hargreaves, the inventor of the spinning jenny, and one Hayes, the inventor of some sort of a spin- ning arrangement. This connection turned his thoughts toward cotton manufacture, and was the indirect cause of much subse- quent trouble and vexatious litigation. His enemies claimed that his ideas were not original, but were stolen from Hargreaves and Hayes and therefore not patent- able, but Arkwright claimed originality and the courts in the end sustained him. The whole story of his subse- quent inventions, incessant mental activity and tremend- ous energy certainly endorses his claim. Before his day, cotton was wholly spun by girls and women in their homes, at starvation wages and in unsat- isfactory quantities. Arkwright's invention was to draw the cotton through a double pair of rolls, the second of which re- volved faster than the first and to do it by water power. It increased the output enormously, from one spinner and one thread to one spinner and a score of threads, at greatly increased speed. A second gain of even more value was made, for by this arrangement the thread could be twisted hard and fine enough to serve also for warp, where before only wool and linen had been used. So great was the economy of this and other of Ark- wright's inventions that what one man and four chil- dren could now spin, before had required 600 women and girls. This invention was the very foundation of the world's gigantic cotton industry. Of course other men had been at work on this same 152 Arkwright. ]ii'obleni with varying- success, and when its worth was estabhshed contested bitterly his claims to priorit}- and forced him to defend his rights against general infringe- ment. Arkwright had t(.) meet these difficulties and also the dangers tliat followed fn^mi the anger and fears of the down-trodden laborers, whose calling ^vas threatened and who did again and again riotousl}- destroy every trace of the new machines, lest their condition be made still worse. But his extraordinar\- intellect and will once aroused, he plunged witli amazing ardor into the perfecting of his machinery, the defense of his ])atents, the construction of factories of unprecedented size and the general business administration of his multitudinous affairs. In 1767 he obtained his first patent. In 1 771 he erected his tirst mill. Then follows a series of improve- ments in carding, roving and spinning that were so com- plicated, various, and }'et so admirabl_\- adapted to the end in view, as to excite admiration. Although unused to business, he S3stematized liis affairs and arranged his works so wdsely that the main features remain unaltered to the present. His energy was phenomenal. He worked incessantly from five in the morning until nine at night. If obliged to go from place to place, he traveled with four horses at full speed so as not to be delayed. He even separated from his wife, that home demands need not interfere with business. After he became conscious of his lack of education, and even late in life, he continued to give an hour a day to the study of grammar, and another hour to improve his writing, when others would have been asleep. After 1776 profits began to be realized, and from 153 Arkwright. then on wealth flowed in abundantly. He was made High Sherifif in 1786, and knighted by George HI at consid- erable cost to himself. He was naturally very strong physically, but during the last years of his life suffered severely from asthma. H^e died at home in 1792, aged sixty years, worth over a million dollars, an immense wealth for those days. His most marked traits were energy, industry and perseverance. These traits combined to give him an astonishing power of transacting business, and raised the ignorant barber from poverty to rank and affluence. T T ▼ 154 Thomas Newcomen. T T T Concerning the personal history of this engineer very Httle is known and }et the engine which bears his name was the very first nse of steam in a successful steam engine. It was so successful that it held the field almost without dispute for the half century preceding the epoch making inventions by James Watt. There is no record of his birth, but the house in which he lived was standing until comparatively recent years, on Lower street, Dartmouth. It was apparently a house of the better class and there are numerous indications of his respectable standing and connections. The parish church contains a group of memorials of his near relatives which all bear the mark of comparative wealth, but nothing re- mains to indicate the days of Thomas. Smiles follows the removal of the family northward but there the traces disappear completely. He was a blacksmith and ironmonger by trade and as such had a high standing for excellent workmanship. It happened that Capt. Savery, the inventor of the vacuum pump, lived at Modbury which was only fifteen miles dis- tant. He made a great many experiments and in one place it is recorded that he complained of the difficulty he had in getting machinist labor of sutificient skill to do his work. This gives color to one story of the beginning of Newcomen's interest in the use of steam which is that 155 Newcomen. * Savery had him do more or less of his work. At any rate the experiments of Capt. Savery were common knowl- edge and must have been known b}' such a skilled work- man as we know Newcomen to have been, and who lived only fifteen miles distant. We also know that Newcomen had drawings of Savery's pump and set one up in his garden with which to experiment, but Switzer, who was a friend of Savery, says that although Savery received in 1705 the first patent for the use of steam, (it is interest- ing to know that this is also the first recorded patent of any kind) that Newcomen was fully as early in his ex- perimental work and failed in securing priority because of Savery's more intimate relations with the government. The Newcomen patent was granted in 1707 to three asso- ciates, Newcomen, Cawley and Savery. There is no doubt that Newcomen was the real inventor. Cawlev was a glazier who was his assistant and Savery was included, it is generally accepted, because of his strenuous insist- ance that any use of the condensation of steam was an infringement of his 1705 patent. The true facts are that Newcomen's invention was radically different from that of Savery or any other single person. Papin invented the cylinder and piston as a means for transforming energy into motion. At first he used the explosive force of gun- powder, and later the use of the expansive force of steam to raise the piston, and then by removing the fire to cause it to fall again. He made no fiirther use of this principle. Savery discovered that the sudden condensation of steam made a vacuum that he utilized to draw up water. His pumps wer', actually used to drain mines but were never satisfactory. They had to be placed within the mine to be drained, not over forty feet from the bottom and then could be used to force up water an additional height of 156 New comen. perhaps lOO feet. Ikyond this the process must be re- peated. It will be noticed that the water to be forced came into direct contact with the steam which was contained in a solid vessel. In addition tremendous pressures were necessary, as high as twelve hundred pounds per square inch were secured and with the materials for construction at hand frequent and disastrous explosions were the result. Newcomen used Papin's cylinder and piston, and Savery's principle of the condensation of steam to pro- duce a vacuum. But unlike I'apin he used the expansive force of steam to do this work and unlike Savery he used a cylinder and piston actuated by alternate expansion and condensation (.)f steam to transform heat into mechanical motion. Thus it is seen that Newcomen like a good engineer constructed his machine from the suggestions of his pre- decessors. At first he made a double c}linder using the space between for condensing water. This was not ver\' satisfactory. The vacuum was secured very slowl}- and imperfectly. In 171 1 they attempted to erect an engine for draining a mine but failed. The next year they suc- ceeded in erecting it but it was slow and ineffective. To operate it required two men and a boy. The boy's work was to alternately open and close the valves to the con- densing water and to the boiler. One day the engine made two or three motions quickly and powerfully. New- comen immediately examined the cylinder and founfl a small hole, through which a small jet from the water that was on top of the piston to make it steam tight, was spurting into the cylinder. He appreciated the signifi- cance of the incident at once, dispensed with the outer water jacket and injected the water for condensation, 157 Newcomen. through a small pipe in the bottom of the cylinder. It was a success at once and increased the speed of the engine from eight to fifteen strokes a minute, besides getting the advantage of a good vacuum. In 1 713 a pump was erected in Leeds and the boy who was hired to open and shut the valves, in an effort to make his work easier, rigged up a contrivance of strings and levers that operated the valves from the mo- tion of the working beam overhead. This made the en- gine automatic and marked another stage in its evolution. This boy, Humphrey Potter, afterwards became a good workman and was sent to Hungary to erect the first engine set up there. This valve motion was afterward improved by Henry Beighton in 17 18. This engine as it was now constructed and remained to be until the days of Watt consisted of an underground furpace, over which was placed a semi-spherical boiler the flat side of which had a deep spiral groove along which the flame and heat passed to the chimney in which at first was no damper even. Immediately above the furnace was the cylinder, braced in place by the timbers of the build- ing. About twelve to thirty feet above was the cistern for condensing water from which descended a pipe to the bottom of the cylinder. Another pipe carried the water of condensation to the hot well. Henry Beighton also used this water for boiler supply. High above was the huge wooden working beam pivoted on the wall of the building. The piston was suspended from the beam by a chain that was kept central by winding on an arc on the end of the working beam. From this beam also came the rod and pegs for operating the valves. From the other end of the working beam outside the engine house and directly over the pit mouth was at first another 158 Newcomen. chain, connecting to a single acting solid pump plunger. At first the boiler bottoms were made of copper and the tops of lead. Later on sheet iron was used, but not until 1743 was cast-iron used for this purpose. The steam space was eight or ten times the cylinder capacity. The third engine to be erected was at Ansthorp. It had a 23- inch cylinder, 15-inch stroke, 9-inch water plunger, and raised the water in two lifts of 37 yards each. For this Newcomen was to receive $1,250 a year for which he was to operate and keep it in repair. In the years that fol- lowed the size of these engines increased until Smeaton erected some with cylinders of six feet in diameter. By the aid of these engines the mines could be sunk to twice the depth possible before, but the expense was very great, involving in one case $15,000 a year for coal for the engine. It was a model of one of these engines that came into the hands of James Watt for repairs that set his mind at work upon the problem and resulted in the modern high pressure reciprocating engine. Newcomen himself was a man of verv great modes- ty and worth. He was very religious and was accustomed to preach in Baptist chapels wherever Sunday found him. No record of his death is known, but it is supposed that with the increase of the vexations of business com- petition he retired northward to private life and died about 1750. 159 James Watt I 736-1 8 1 9 This cut ivi2i madf [row a has reliefs Jra-iv?! up hy hamn2erin\r from a s//cft of hronzc It is framed in old En^liih oak. Found in a junk shop in I^c-ju York. 160 James Watt. T T ▼ The name of James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, is famiHar to all, but even if the name is well known his great learning and various accomplishments are seldom appreciated. The lines of his genius run back to very worthy an- cestors. His grandfather was a teacher of mathematics, a magistrate and a church elder. His only uncle was a surve)'or; his father a magistrate, town treasurer, ship- wright and merchant ; his mother a suj^erior woman of the Clan Muirheid. James, the great engineer, was born at Greenoch, 1736. His health was very delicate as a child, and he grew up "a mother's boy." Frec|uent headaches prevented his regular attendance at school and even to the day of his death interfered with his work, but in spite of almost overwhelming obstacles, he kept steadily at his research- es and continually added to his attainments. Even as a lad he was remarked for his studious ways — and the in- cident is well attested of his aunt scolding him for sitting idly by the fire watching the steam from the kettle con- dense on the inside of a cup. When only fifteen he had studied natural philosophy, anatomy and made many experiments in chemistry and electricity. He was interested also in his father's shop, became quite skillful with tools— ?i,nd, made and repaired 161 Watt. some of the instruments his father sold to ships. In this way he became acquainted with astronomical instruments, telescope and quadrant — and these led him to the study of astronomy. When eighteen he went to Glasgow, appren- ticed to a mathematical instrument maker, and there, through an uncle, who was a professor, became acquainted with a number of college professors. Later he goes to London for better instruction in the art of making instru- ments. When twenty, in 1756, he was a skilled artisan and returned to Glasgow and set up a shop of his own. In a short time he had some troubles with his trade guild and his friends among the college professors made a place for him within the college grounds, ostensibly in order to make repairs on college apparatus. This was a very congenial place to him. He was in daily contact with the best educated men of the day — busied with the instruments and apparatus for advanced research. All this time he was studying and acquiring a broad scientific knowledge and he was soon looked up to even h\ the elder professors as an authority in scien- tific matters. It was during this time that his thoughts were turned particularly to the use of steam for mechan- ical purposes. Many a man before him had dreamed and experimented and died in poverty and discourage- ment, to blaze a way toward possible success. The French engineer, de Cans, who lived in England about 1612, seems to have been the first to notice that heat applied to water in a containing vessel would, if a perpendicular tube was inserted nearly to the bottom of the vessel, elevate the water in it and, if the heat was oreat enough, expel the water through the tube. Forty years later the Marquis of Worcester noted a "water commander" as one of the hundred inventions 162 Watt. that he had "perfected." He used steam to lift water to a height. But after loaning above a half million dol- lars to his forgetful King, he was forced to die in poverty, avoided as an importunate visionary. It was twenty years later in 1683, that Sir Samuel Morland proposed a method for using steam as a me- chanical force, but his method appears to have been a rep- etition of de Caus' experiment. He is the first, however, that determined the volume of steam to be 2,000 times that of water. Thus far the pressure of steam was only used directly against the surface of water to propel a jet of water. In 1690 Papin, another French engineer living in England, made a distinctly new proposal, namely the insertion of a piston in the vertical tube, for the trans- fer of the motion to a more convenient mechanism. Papin was tr_\ing to perfect a lifting machine and only used steam to produce a vacuum, which he secured by alter- nately placing and withdrawing the fire under the cylin- der. He made no use of this invention himself, but left to those who came after the knowledge of two new prin- ciples — the use of the condensibility of steam by simple exposure to cold, as a moving force and a method for communicating the moving force of steam to bodies upon which it could not act directly. The next advance was made b)' Captain Savery in 1698. It is said that he noticed one day, when he acci- dentally immersed his heated pipe in cold water, that the water immediately rose up into the tube. He applied this principle to raising water from a depth and thus had the first suction steam pump. He produced his vacuum be- dashing cold water over the heated cylinder. Captain Savery was a man of great ingenuity and 163 Watt. made many improvements in his pump, but it was never a great success. In 1 718 Dr. Desaguliers contrived a method for con- densing the steam of a Savery pump, by injecting a small stream of cold water into the vessel. At about this same time Thomas Newcomen invented the engine that bears his name. He used Papin's principle of a steam-produced vacuum under a piston, but improved upon it by condens- ing his steam with injected cold water as proposed bv Desaguliers. This atmospheric engine was found to be immediately useful in pumping out deep mines and other purposes but proved to be very costly in operation. It was a model of this engine that came into the hands of Watt for repairs in 1763, that set his keen wits at work for its improvement. It was quite characteristic of Watt that in undertaking the repair of this crude model, he first made a careful study of the properties of steam. His pains were rewarded by several valuable discoveries and the first accurate determination of the ac- tion of heat on water under pressure. He came to the conclusion that the Newcomen engine had one prime de- fect, the necessity of cooling the cylinder at every stroke in order to condense the steam. This he avoided by mak- ing the condenser separate from the cylinder. It was a success from the start and by leaving his cylinder con- tinuously at 212 degrees, he not only saved three-quar- ters of the fuel necessary to operate, but the power was decidedly increased by reason of the more perfect vacu- um produced. In trying to make his piston tight enough to keep out air and at the same time not impede its motion, Watt was led to his second great invention. You will recall that Newcomen made no use of the expansive force of steam. 164 Watt. Watt substituted for the atmospheric pressure upon the piston, a second suppl}- of steam and used above as well as below alternate steam and vacuum. By this contriv- ance Watt for the first time made use of the expansive force of steam as a prime mechanical power and overcame a second radical defect of previous engines. These are the main grounds upon wliich rest the fame of Watt as the inventor of the modern steam engine, but the improvements in detail of his finallv perfected engine show equally the high qualities of a great engi- neer. The manner in which this kindly inventor was en- abled to make a commercial success of this invention is another story and is more closely connected with the life of Matthew Boulton, wliich follows. His inexhaustible ingenuity is seen also in the multitude of contrivances apart from those in connection with the steam engine. He was called upon to repair an organ which led him to a study of the theory of music — and certain of his dis- coveries as to the nature of musical vibrations proved to be correct — and made the instruments manufactured by him, organs, violins, flutes, to be of exceptional value. One organ made by him cost $10,000. He invented a machine for drawing in perspective. In 1769 he was emplo)-ed by the magistrates of Glas- gow to survev and construct a canal nine miles long to provide easv access to neighboring coal fields. In this he proved himself to be an excellent engineer but poor business administrator. In the \ears that followed he was engaged in man)- important engineering projects, bridge-building, harbor improvements and canals. In 1770 he suggested a spiral propeller for moving canal boats. In 1772 he had invented a time piece, and a micrometer. 1774 brought forth improved quadrant and 165 Watt. other surveying instruments. 1784 a steam tilt hammer was invented, a locomotive engine, and a little later a smoke consuming device. From this on his prolific in- ventiveness was more and more devoted to improving the steam engine. These two years were simply filled with various inventions and discoveries, especial mention being made of his research into the composition of water. In- dependently of his great attainments in mechanics, J\Ir. Watt was a wonderful man. He was a man of tireless zeal and application and to every problem he brought the same discriminating judgment and amazing resources. Probably no man of his time possessed so much, so var- ied, and such exact information. His knowledge was not at all limited to science, but covered all branches. He was equally learned in metaphysics, medicine, architecture, music, law and most of the modern languages. His re- markable quickness of apprehension, his unfailing mem- ory and "a certain rectifying and methodizing power of understanding" enabled him to hold at command the widest information. In his extraordinary mind every con- ception was at once condensed into its simplest form and arranged in its proper place for immediate use. Per- sonally he was shy and reserved, but warm-hearted and easily affected. He was greatly honored by the most il- lustrious of his contemporaries. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Doctor of Laws and one of only eight foreign members of the French Institute. He died in 1819, aged 84 years. 166 Matthew Boukon 1728-1809 This cut luas made jrom a fine ivood engrafing {^3^2 h ^^}^) h ^i^^i^f^ Sharpy London, iSoijfrom a painting by Sir William Beachley 168 Matthew Boulton. ▼ ▼ T Afalthew ISoulton was born in Birmingham, Eng., in 1728. His fatlier was a successful manufacturer of artis- te metal work. After a fairly good education young P.oulton was taken into the firm when onl)' twenty-one and so capable was he that in a very few years the entire management was given up to him. Discovering a new- method for inlaying steel, he built up an enormous indus- try at Soho. It was the largest shop of its kind in the world, employing above eight hundred workmen with sales of as high as $200,000 per 3'ear. They manufactured all manner of artistic iron, steel, brass and silver work together with scientific instruments and general hardware. Besides emplo\ing workers in metals, he had those who could work in tortoise shell, gems, glass, enamel and marble. He employed the very best artists for his designs and the most skilled artisans he could find. His agents were in ever}' great city of the continent and from his works went the artistic adorn- ments of the most splendid palaces of Europe. As an illustration of the nicety of his art, it is said that he exhibited at a fair in France, a needle perfect in shape and finish, which, when the head was unscrewed, revealed w'ithin an equally perfect needle and within that another and another, until a half dozen exquisite needles were found to be neatly packed each within the size larger 109 Boulton. than itself. In whatever he did he determined to do better work than was done anywhere else in the world and, keen as he was for commercial success, he was far more interested in the real worth and the artistic excel- lence of his product. In 1767 Boulton had constructed at the great Soho works a steam pump after the plans of Savery and had thus become interested in the problem of steam, and hearing of Watt's improvement entered into correspond- ence with him. Mr. Watt not having any money of his own with which to develop his inventions, entered into partnership with Dr. Roebuck, an extensive specu- lator in iron works and coal mines, but whose many venures kept him in a chronic state of financial uncer- tainty, so that after eight years of dissatisfaction it was dissolved and another arranged between Boulton and Watt. The same year, 1775, that saw the beginning of the American Revolution, saw also the beginning of the manufacturing of steam engines by the new firm at the great Soho works. They obtained an extension of twenty-five years to the life of their patent and began at once an energetic effort to introduce their engine. They first built a pumping engine with a cylinder of twelve inches and set it up at Soho. This they ex- hibited to visitors and offered to set one up anywhere free of expense, for one third of the saving in coal over the common Newcomen type. As three-fourths of all the coal burned was wasted in the old engines their profits theoretically would have been enormous. This first engine proved to be, however, but the beginning of many troubles. Already Watt had given eight years' thought to it and it was six years since the 170 Boulton. patent of 1769 was granted. Their first troubles had to do with the mechanical difficulties of manufacture. There were no tools capable of machining such large work. Smeaton, the best mechanic of the da)', doubted, on this ground alone, the success of the steam engine. It was a real difficulty, because the success of a recip- rocating steam engine is measured b\' the relative absence of friction, which is conditioned b\- the precision of manufacturer. Little by little, however, special tools were invented and, what was of most importance, a school of machinists were educated who were capable of working to the required standard. A second class of troubles had to do with the col- lections of royalties for the use of the new engines. Most of the earlier ones were set up at the mines in Cornwall and never paid anywhere near the agreed amount. The oversight of these engines and the collection of the dues devolved in large part upon Mr. Watt, to whom it was extremeh' distasteful. When he became thoroughly dis- couraged, Mr. Boulton with his tactful address would go and straighten the matter out. There were continuous law suits over collections and patent rights until i799- Mr. Boulton's affairs, apart from the engine industry, became involved also and absorbed much of the profits of the engine building. But in spite of these discourag- ing circumstances both Boulton and Watt continually improved the engine, patenting successively various axial motions, governors, throttles and devices for using steam expansively. Little by little they won out, not only in the engine industry but also along other lines. Their mutual im- provements in coinage and coining machinery were espe- 171 Boulton. cially successful and brought them immense business, not only in England but in all Europe. These two men perfectly supplemented each other. Watt was a consummate engineer, of faultless judgment and unlimited resources, but so shy and easily discour- aged that he was utterly unfitted to introduce and make a commercial success of his inventions. On the contrary, while Boulton was a rare crafts- man himself, he was preeminently a commercial organizer and promoter. He was a man of exceedingly attractive presence and of fascinating address, which, together with his wealth and education, placed him on terms of inti- macy with kings and nobles all over Europe. Boulton died in 1809, aged eighty-one. Watt lived two years longer, and the firm was continued for years after by their sons. ▼ ▼ T 172 William Murdock 1754-1839 174 William Murdock. ▼ ▼ ▼ William Murdock was for fifty years the mechani- cal expert for Boulton and Watt in the development and introduction of the steam engine. His father was a miller and millwright of Bellow Mills, near old Cum- nock. Ayrshire, Scotland, and was highly esteemed for his uprightness and mechanical skill. His son, in after years, loved to show, resting on a pillar on his lawn, an old cast-iron bevel gear that his father had made. The inscription upon it was as fol- lows : "This pinion was cast at Carron Iron Works by J. Murdock of Bellow Mills, Ayrshire, 1760, being the first tooth gearing ever used in mill work in Great Britain." William was born in 1754 and earl)- showed a marked bent for mechanical pursuits. He had little schooling and secured his by no means ordinary intellectual equip- ment by close and patient effort. In 1776 he offered himself to Boulton and Watts as a mechanic. He was a big, overgrown country boy with nothing to commend himself. Watt was away, and Boul- ton with no interest was sending him away, when he noticed a curious looking hat in his hand. He asked him of what it was made. The reply was, "Of timmer wood. I turned it mysel', sir, on a bit lathey of my own making." This curiosity so aroused the interest of Mr. Boulton that 175 Murdock. he hired Murdock on the spot for fifteen shiUings a week at the shop, seventeen when away, and eighteen when in London. For fifty )ears he stayed with the firm and became their most trusted adviser in all mechanical undertakings of any importance. He was incessantly busy contriving, inventing and improving the product of the firm. The greatest of all the early difficulties of Boulton and Watt was with the Cornish mining captains. Watt spent much time there, but without Murdock he never would have succeeded. Murdock worked night and day overcoming the mechani- cal difficulties. Once when an expensive engine had been installed it failed to work after a little, and the angry miners started to mob Murdock. He was a giant in size and strength. He forced his way among them, went at the engine again and removed the difficulty. Then they carried him on their shoulders in gratitude instead of mobbing him. But greater than the mechanical difficul- ties was the unwillingness of the mining captains to pay the agreed royalty. They tried to corrupt Murdock, and it took all the resources of his genius to maintain the rights of his principals. On one occasion, at Chacewater, it is said, when a company wanted him to meet them and offered him bribes to betray his firm, he shut the door and actually thrashed them. He did his best to the end, and only left when his life was seriously threatened. His zeal at Cornwall quite won Watt's heart. Boulton wanted to send Murdock away to erect engines to Scotland and the continent, but Watt would not listen to it. Murdock was the only man he could trust at the factory. If any work required particular attention. Watt always directed that "William" should do it. 176 Murdock. Until 1780 he only received twenty shillings a week. Then he asked for an increase, and Boulton shrewdly satisfied him with a present parth- from the Cornish min- ers and partly from himself. Although he received no other advance at that time, he remained faithful. Even when tempted with a partnership, he refused to leave his old friends. In later ^cars they treated him more gener- ously, and although he never became a full partner, he was counted the chief mechanical superintendent and adviser. After i8to he received $1000 a year in lieu of a share in the profits. He was a very skillful craftsman, besides being quick-sighted and indefatigable. If Watt wanted an idea of his put into mechanical shape, no one but "William" could do it to his satisfaction. If anything went wrong with the engine anywhere, the owners soon learned that it was quickest put to rights if A'lurdock could be secured. He made a great many inventions and improvements to facilitate the manufacture of the engines, machines for casting, boring, turning and fitting. He devised a machine for turning oval forms, and used the endless screw and gear for boring. He invented the well-known cement for iron made from cast-iron chips and sal ammoniac, and it became an extensive product at Soho. Smiles credits Murdock with the invention of the famous "sun and planet" motion for avoiding Pickard's patent on the crank motion. The patent was granted the firm for this in 1782, and Watt describes it as "his sixth arrangement revised and executed b>- William Murdock." In a letter dated the same year Boulton attributes it to Murdock, and Parks reports an interview with Watt, at which Murdock was 177 Murdock. present, during which Murdock spoke of this device as his, and Watt did not contradict him. In 1784 Murdock made a model locomotive of extreme simplicity that ran about the streets with no trouble whatever, but when Watt heard of it he wrote Boulton to "gently counsel" Murdock to give it up, lest it withdraw his interest from their work. That it was developed no farther goes to prove that this also was Murdock's invention rather than Watt's, as is sometimes asserted. He invented in 1785 an oscillating engine. In 1799 there was a patent granted him for an improved method for the construction of steam engines. It included a dozen suggestions, but the most noteworthy was the pro- posal of a D-slif!e valve in the place of four poppets that Watt used in his double engines. Murdock was more than an excellent craftsman, however. He had some-, thing of Watt's habit of mind, and was constantly think- ing and studying over mechanical and scientific questions. As early as 1792 he began a study of different inflammable gases. His interest began from assisting Boulton in some of his chemical experiments, and his studies were carried on almost wholly in the night. He experimented with various substances — peat, wood, other substances, and coal of various kinds. He used an iron retort, and copper tubes of considerable length. He burned the gas at apertures of various shapes and sizes, and remarked the value of washing the gas in water. In 1794 he spoke about a patent on gas for illuminating purposes, but Boulton and Watt were too busy to attend to it, although later they expended large sums in the manufacture of gas producing machinery. In t8o2, to celebrate the peace of Amiens, Murdock 178 Murdock. lighted by gas the whole front of the Soho works. This striking illustration of the usefulness of gas led Boulton and Watt to light their factory by this means. Other firms followed, and by 1805 gas came into general use. In 1808 he read his famous paper on illuminating gas before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and was awarded the Rum ford gold medal. In 1809 he discovered a method of refining porter by the use of fish skins in place of costly isinglass. That was very successful and profitable. In 1810 came his patent for boring stone. It was a pet scheme of his also to use compressed air as a source of power. He used it to drive an engine, operate a hoist, and suggested the transmission of letters and parcels in tubes by exhausting the air, and experi- ments of his led his pupil, Samuel Clegg, to the project of the atmospheric railway. Mr. Fairbairn tells of his pulverizing peat, com- pressing it into form and then polishing it into a beauti- ful jet black. It was a whimsical suggestion of his, also, that the streets of London be made into a huge tread-mill, so that the energy of the walking multitude might be stored for useful purposes. In 1824 Mr. Charles Dupin gives an account of the great meeting called to erect a monument to the memory of Watt, and records that reverence was made to the most interesting man present, a venerable man whose services should also be rewarded b)- some mark of public gratitude, and at the mention of the name, William Mur- dock, the great audience rose at once to honor him. In 1830 he withdrew from active work and lived quietly near Soho until he died in 1839, ^ged eighty-five 179 Murdock. years. He was buried in the same church near Boulton and Watt, and a fine bust by Chantry marks the spot. There is also an excellent oil portrait in the hall of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of which he was a member. William Murdock added to his mechanical sense a scientific mind, modest, unambitious ways, and a zealous friendship that made men love and respect him. In nobility of character as in stature, he towered above his fellow men. ▼ T T i8o A etc. 243 Babbage. By subtraction again we get the second order of differences, 2 — 2 — 2, etc. Now, to find any term, we have only to add the con- stant 2 to the last known difference of the first order to the last known square, to produce the following square : To illustrate, what is the square of 11 ? The square of 10=100, the square of 9=81, 100 — 81 = 19 2+19+ 100=121, the square of 11. This is comparatively a sim- ple table. There are tables in common use that have five, six, and even seven orders of differences, before the con- stant is found. Mr. Babbage, in 1822, wrote to the Prime Minister of England and asked Government assistance in constructing a Difference Engine that could calculate up to twenty places of figures, and that would also print auto- matically the results. The Treasury referred the request to the Royal So- ciety, for an opinion as to the merits of the invention. They reported promptly that it was "fully adequate to the attainment of the objects proposed by the inventor." Soon after, in 1823, the sum of $7,500 was appropriated to this end. Mr. Babbage at once set to work to construct the en- larged and automatic Difference Engine. Draftsmen were set to work making the drawings. Mr. Joseph Clement, out of Maudsley's men, was given charge of the mechan- ical part, and for four years the work proceeded. Tools had to be designed and constructed to meet the demand for extreme accuracy, even workmen had to be trained to a nicety of execution before unheard of. In 1827 the expense incurred had amounted to $17,000, of which Mr. Babbage had advanced nearly $10,- 000. At this time his health was poor and he went to Italy, leaving minute instructions to be followed in build- 244 Babbage. ing the machine and placed $S,ooo at their disposal. Per- ceiving that the probable expense would be considerable, he asked the Government for another grant. Lord Wel- lington incjuired of the Royal Society for an investigation as tO' whether the project was worth proceeding- with. The Society gave "their decided opinion in the affirma- tive." In 1829 the Government made another grant of $7,500. By this time the expense had reached $35,000. Lord Wellington then personally examined the machine, and the Government made a grant of $7,500 more, with the suggestion that the calculating part be separated from the printing device. Li 1830 still another grant of $15,000 was made by the Government. In 1832 the Government constructed a fire proof workshop near Mr. Babbage's residence to con- tain the costly drawings and machinery which had accu- mulated during the years. In 1B33 a portion of the ma- chine was put together, which completely justified the ex- pectation. It could calculate, and did so with absolute accuracy, tables of three orders of differences up to six- teen figures. Meanwhile difficulties arose between Mr. Babbage and Mr. Clement, who had charge of the construction. The latter had an increasing sense of the value of his part of the work, and his charges grew apace. At length Mr. Babbage secured consent to have Government en- gineers examine all accounts before being paid. There being some delay in paymets, Mr. Babbage was accus- tomed to advance monev. In 1834, he declined to do this longer, and the result was that Mr. Clement withdrew, taking with him man}' of the best workmen and all the special tools that he had designed and built, which ac- cording to the custom of the day he had a right to do, 24.T Babb age. even though the Government had paid for them. Then there were vexatious delays, as to whether the Government would meet Mr. Clement's terms or secure some one else for the construction. Meanwhile an entirely new idea came to Mr. Babbage by which he could construct a calculating machine of far greater range than the Difference Engine. Mr. Babbage felt that it was not right to ask the Government to com- plete the first machine without making known to them his new discovery. Perhaps also, and it would be quite nat- ural, he rather hoped that the Government would abandon the old and start at once the construction of the new. At any rate, while the question was being discussed, political questions became involved and the matter was not de- cided until 1842, when it was definitely given up. The part of the machine that was completed was sent to the Museum of King's College, London, and later sent to South Kensington and the uncompleted parts distributed among friends and institutions, as souvenirs. The entire cost of this machine to the Government, exclusive of the fire proof building, had been $80,000. Not one penny came to Mr. Babbage as a recompense for his labors of twenty years. In addition to what the Government had expended on the construction, Mr. Bab- bage had also expended fully as much more and consider- able sums for personal expenses, experiments, travel, and research. Although this machine was never completed, it has been thought by some tlrat the money had been well expended, because of the habits of extreme accuracy and precision that were introduced into English machine construction, by the many workmen and draftsmen who received their training under Babbage and Clement and 246 Babbage. then passed on to other shops, carrying with them the skill and method there acquired. The construction of machine tools was certainly greatly enriched by the necessities involved in the con- struction of this invention. From 1828 to 1839, Mr. Babbage had been Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. He had made several journeys to the Continent and written many let- ters and essays. One book, published in 1834, called "The Economy of Machines and Manufactures," summed up his consideration of the manufactures of the time. This book was widely printed and read for sev- eral decades, and did much to extend the modern sys- tem of manufacture by machinery. Once only, in 1832, he tried to enter public life, but was defeated. The Analytical Calculating Machine. It was not decided by the Government of England to discontinue the construction of the Difference Machine until 1842, almost ten years after work upon it had ceased. Meanwhile Mr. Babbage had given much thought and ex- pense in perfecting his new and vastly more complicated calculating machine. The Difference Engine was designed to calculate tables by simple addition of the proper differences. The Analytical Engine was designed to work out the algebraic development of any formula whose law was known and to convert it into numbers. In fact, Mr. Babbage de- clared that if constructed it could solve any algebraic problem the successive steps of which could be conceived 247 Babbage. of by the human mind, do it automatically and print the result without the possibility of error. In a letter Mr. Babbage thus describes it : "It is intended to include loo numbers, susceptible of changing^each may consist of 25 figures * * * any given function which can be expressed by addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, extraction of roots, or the elevation of powers, the machine will calculate its numerical value ; it will afterward substitute this value in place of V or any other variable and will calculate the second function with respect to V ; it will reduce to tables almost all equations of finite differences." In the Difference Engine the exact method for add- ing was immaterial because a simplification of it only affected one or two hundred parts, but in the Analytical Engine, the mechanism for performing the elementary operations of adding, subtraction, dividing and multiply- ing became so important that any change affected thou- sands upon thousands of parts. In fact the machine could only exist by inventing for it a mechanical method of addition of the utmost simplicity. It is said that Mr. Babbage and his assistants designed and partly con- structed over twenty different methods before the de- sired simplicity was attained. The system of addition finally decided upon was extremely simple and yet it not only added all digits at once, but included in the total all amounts carried and what is more wonderful, had an "anticipating carriage." that included in the total all the amounts carried of the carryings. Thus any addition could be performed auto- matically at one operation, without the necessity of a sub- sequent operation to include the carryings. The engine was not a combination of machines, the 248 Babbage. one to add, another to subtract, another to (Hvide, but was designed as one machine, so arranged that any oper- ation, or any combination of operations, could be per- formed automaticaUy at will. It consisted in the main of two sets of columns, the one called the mill and the other the store. The mill consisted of a series of columns made up of discs, into which was placed the Cjuantities about to be operated. The store consisted of a larger number of columns into which all the variables about to be operated upon were placed, and into which all those quantities, which had arisen by result of other operations were placed. He thus separated the operations from the objects acted upon. "All the shifts which have to take place, such as carrying, borrowing, etc. — changing addition into sub- traction, or shifting the decimal place, are affected by a system of rotating cams, acting upon or actuated by bell cranks, tangs, clutches, escapements. These clutches and bell cranks control the process effected, or being them- selves suitably directed, secure that the proper process should be performed on the proper suljject matter and duly recorded or used as required." The columns that make up the store contained a series of wheels that received the results of operations performed by the mill and served as a store of numbers yet to be used. The wheels gear into a series of racks, which in turn are operated by cards. These cards were the new thought that came to Mr, Babbage when he was constructing the Difference En- gine and which brought him visions of the possibilities of the new machine and led him to lose interest in the old. 249 Babbage. The cards themselves were no new invention. They were invented by Jacquard to control the introduction of threads in weaving brocade. It flashed into ]\Tr. Bab- bage's mind that he could use these cards to indicate successive operations in a calculating machine that, with this equipment, would have a power over complicated arithmetical operations that would be nearly unbounded. These cards were perforated by different combina- tions of holes and were then linked together as a chain and arranged to pass successively over a set of wires. The wires, corresponding to the holes, would drop through and indicate by suitable connections the desired operations of the mill. Having the machine, all that human brains are called upon to do is to perforate successive cards and then operate the machine, when the desired opeiations would follow without possibility of error. In the Analytical Engine there were two principal sets of these cards, one to indicate operations, one to indicate the columns of variables upon which the results are to be presented. These cards thus arrange the various parts of the machine and then execute the processes. Illustration, (i) in.v-\-Hy=::d (2) in'x-{-n'y^d' dn — d n (3) -^■= mn' — m'n d'm — dm' (4) y~ inn' — ni'ii To find the value of .r and y eleven successive op- 250 erations must be performed, as indicated in the following tables : e 1 Cards of thL- operations. Vanable can Columns on which are in- scribed the prinutive data. ? u c el 1g 5S. Columns acted on hy each operation. Columns that receive the residt of each operation. Indication of change of value on any column. statement of resulu. 1 -'o 2 'Vo = w 1 X 'V, X -v, = 'Ve l'V, = 'V, 1 'V^ =„„' % = « 2 „ X 'V, X 'V, = ■V, VV3='V3l t'v, = iv, ; 'V, =m'n % = d 3 „ X 'V, X 'V, = 'Vs / 'V^ = 'V2 1 I'v, = »v, ; 'V3 =dn' 'V3 = m' 4 „ X 'V5 X 'V, = 'V, i'V5='V, 1 I'v, =»v, 1 'V, =rf'» 'V, = „' 5 „ X 'Vo X >V, = 'V.o /'V„ = "V„1 J-v, = »v., -1 \ 'Vj = »V3 / ■¥,„ = <<'». IV, = d' 6 „ X 'V, X 'Vj = 1V|, lV,, =