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Title: The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
Author: Byrn, Edward W.
Language: English
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[Illustration: STEAM AND ELECTRICITY.
The 70,000 Horse-Power Station of the Metropolitan Street Railway, New
York.]
THE PROGRESS
OF
INVENTION
IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
BY
EDWARD W. BYRN, A.M.
“Δός που στω, και την γην κινἡσω.”
(Give me where to stand, and I’ll move the earth.)
--_Archimedes._
MUNN & CO., PUBLISHERS
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OFFICE
361 BROADWAY, NEW YORK
1900
COPYRIGHTED, 1900, BY MUNN & CO.
ENTERED AT STATIONER’S HALL
LONDON, ENGLAND
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Printed in the United States of America by
The Manufacturers’ and Publishers’ Printing Company,
New York City.
PREFACE.
For a work of such scope as this, the first word of the author should be
an apology for what is doubtless the too ambitious effort of a single
writer. A quarter of a century in the high tide of the arts and
sciences, an ardent interest in all things that make for scientific
progress, and the aid and encouragement of many friends in and about the
Patent Office, furnish the explanation. The work cannot claim the
authority of a text-book, the fullness of a history, nor the exactness
of a technical treatise. It is simply a cursory view of the century in
the field of invention, intended to present the broader bird’s-eye view
of progress achieved. In substantiation of the main facts reliance has
been placed chiefly upon patents, which for historic development are
believed to be the best of all authorities, because they carry the
responsibility of the National Government as to dates, and the attested
signature and oath of the inventor as to subject matter. Many
difficulties and embarrassments have been encountered in the work. The
fear of extending it into a too bulky volume has excluded treatment of
many subjects which the author recognizes as important, and issues in
dispute as to the claims of inventors have also presented themselves in
perplexing conflict. A discussion of the latter has been avoided as far
as possible, the paramount object being to do justice to all the worthy
workers in this field, with favor to none, and only expressing such
conclusions as seem to be justified by authenticated facts and the
impartial verdict of reason in the clearing atmosphere of time. For sins
of omission a lack of space affords a reasonable excuse, and for those
of commission the great scope of the work is pleaded in extenuation. It
is hoped, however, that the volume may find an accepted place in the
literature of the day, as presenting in compact form some comprehensive
and coherent idea of the great things in invention which the Nineteenth
Century has added to the world’s wealth of ideas and material resources.
In acknowledging the many obligations to friends who have aided me in
the work, my thanks are due first to the Editors of the _Scientific
American_ for aid rendered in the preparation of the work; also to
courteous officials in the Government Departments, and to many
progressive manufacturers throughout the country.
E. W. B.
_Washington, D. C., October, 1900._
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE PERSPECTIVE VIEW.
CHAPTER II.
CHRONOLOGY OF LEADING INVENTIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER III.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
The Voltaic Pile. Daniell’s Battery. Use of Conducting Wire by Weber.
Steinheil Employs Earth as Return Circuit. Prof. Henry’s Electro-
Magnet, and First Telegraphic Experiment. Prof. Morse’s Telegraphic
Code and Register. First Line Between Washington and Baltimore. Bain’s
Chemical Telegraph. Gintl’s Duplex Telegraph. Edison’s Quadruplex.
House’s Printing Telegraph. Fac Simile Telegraphs. Channing and Farmer
Fire Alarm. Telegraphing by Induction. Wireless Telegraphy by Marconi.
Statistics.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.
Difficulties of Laying. Congratulatory Messages Between Queen Victoria
and President Buchanan. The Siphon Recorder. Statistics.
CHAPTER V.
THE DYNAMO AND ITS APPLICATIONS.
Observations of Faraday and Henry. Magneto-Electric Machines of Pixii,
and of Saxton. Hjorth’s Dynamo of 1855. Wilde’s Machine of 1866.
Siemens’ of 1867. Gramme’s of 1870. Tesla’s Polyphase Currents.
CHAPTER VI.
THE ELECTRIC MOTOR.
Barlow’s Spur Wheel. Dal Negro’s Electric Pendulum. Prof. Henry’s
Electric Motor. Jacobi’s Electric Boat. Davenport’s Motor. The Neff
Motor. Dr. Page’s Electric Locomotive. Dr. Siemens’ First Electric
Railway at Berlin, 1879. First Electric Railway in United States,
between Baltimore and Hampden, 1885. Third Rail System. Statistics.
Electric Railways, and General Electric Company. Distribution
Electric Current in Principal Cities.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.
Voltaic Arc by Sir Humphrey Davy. The Jablochkoff Candle. Patents of
Brush, Weston, and Others. Search Lights. Grove’s First Incandescent
Lamp. Starr-King Lamp. Moses Farmer Lights First Dwelling with
Electric Lamps. Sawyer-Man Lamp. Edison’s Incandescent Lamp. Edison’s
Three-Wire System of Circuits. Statistics.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE TELEPHONE.
Preliminary Suggestions and Experiments of Bourseul, Reis, and
Drawbaugh. First Speaking Telephone by Prof. Bell. Differences between
Reis’ and Bell’s Telephones. The Blake Transmitter. Berliner’s
Variation of Resistance and Electric Undulations, by Variation of
Pressure. Edison’s Carbon Microphone. The Telephone Exchange.
Statistics.
CHAPTER IX.
ELECTRICITY, MISCELLANEOUS.
Storage Battery. Batteries of Planté, Faure and Brush. Electric
Welding. Direct Generation of Electricity by Combustion. Electric
Boats. Electro-Plating. Edison’s Electric Pen. Electricity in
Medicine. Electric Cautery. Electric Musical Instruments. Electric
Blasting.
CHAPTER X.
THE STEAM ENGINE.
Hero’s Engine, and Other Early Steam Engines. Watt’s Steam Engine. The
Cut-Off. Giffard Injector. Bourdon’s Steam Gauge. Feed Water Heaters,
Smoke Consumers, etc. Rotary Engines. Steam Hammer. Steam Fire Engine.
Compound Engines. Schlick and Taylor Systems of Balancing Momentum of
Moving Parts. Statistics.
CHAPTER XI.
THE STEAM RAILWAY.
Trevithick’s Steam Carriage. Blenkinsop’s Locomotive. Hedley’s
“Puffing Billy.” Stephenson’s Locomotive. The Link Motion. Stockton
and Darlington Railway, 1825. Hackworth’s “Royal George.” The
“Stourbridge Lion” and “John Bull.” Baldwin’s Locomotives.
Westinghouse Air Brakes. Janney Car Coupling. The Woodruff Sleeping
Car. Railway Statistics.
CHAPTER XII.
STEAM NAVIGATION.
Early Experiments. Symington’s Boat. Col. John Stevens’ Screw
Propeller. Robt. Fulton and the “Clermont.” First Trip to Sea by
Stevens’ “Phœnix.” “Savannah,” the First Steam Vessel to Cross the
Ocean. Ericsson’s Screw Propeller. The “Great Eastern.” The Whale Back
Steamers. Ocean Greyhounds. The “Oceanic,” largest Steamship in the
World. The “Turbinia.” Fulton’s “Demologos,” First War Vessel. The
Turret Monitor. Modern Battleships and Torpedo Boats. Holland
Submarine Boat.
CHAPTER XIII.
PRINTING.
Early Printing Press. Nicholson’s Rotary Press. The Columbian and
Washington Presses. König’s Rotary Steam Press. The Hoe Type Revolving
Machine. Color Printing. Stereotyping. Paper Making. Wood Pulp. The
Linotype. Plate Printing. Lithography.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE TYPEWRITER.
Old English Typewriter of 1714. The Burt Typewriter of 1829. Progin’s
French Machine of 1833. Thurber’s Printing Machine of 1843. The Beach
Typewriter. The Sholes Typewriter, the First of the Modern Form,
Commercially Developed into the Remington. The Caligraph, Smith-
Premier, and Others.
CHAPTER XV.
THE SEWING MACHINE.
Embroidery Machine the Forerunner of the Sewing Machine. Sewing
Machine of Thomas Saint. The Thimonnier Wooden Machine. Greenough’s
Double-Pointed Needle. Bean’s Stationary Needle. The Howe Sewing
Machine. Bachelder’s Continuous Feed. Improvements of Singer. Wilson’s
Rotary Hook, and Four-Motion Feed. The McKay Shoe Sewing Machine.
Button Hole Machines. Carpet Sewing Machine. Statistics.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE REAPER.
Early English Machines. Machine of Patrick Bell. The Hussey Reaper.
McCormick’s Reaper and Its Great Success. Rivalry Between the Two
American Reapers. Self Rakers. Automatic Binders. Combined Steam
Reaper and Threshing Machine. Great Wheat Fields of the West.
Statistics.
CHAPTER XVII.
VULCANIZED RUBBER.
Early Use of Caoutchouc by the Indians. Collection of the Gum. Early
Experiments Failures. Goodyear’s Persistent Experiments. Nathaniel
Hayward’s Application of Sulphur to the Gum. Goodyear’s Process of
Vulcanization. Introduction of his Process into Europe. Trials and
Imprisonment for Debt. Rubber Shoe Industry. Great Extent and Variety
of Applications. Statistics.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHEMISTRY.
Its Evolution as a Science. The Coal Tar Products. Fermenting and
Brewing. Glucose, Gun Cotton, and Nitro-Glycerine. Electro-Chemistry.
Fertilizers and Commercial Products. New Elements of the Nineteenth
Century.
CHAPTER XIX.
FOOD AND DRINK.
The Nature of Food. The Roller Mill. The Middlings Purifier. Culinary
Utensils. Bread Machinery. Dairy Appliances. Centrifugal Milk Skimmer.
The Canning Industry. Sterilization. Butchering and Dressing Meats.
Oleomargarine. Manufacture of Sugar. The Vacuum Pan. Centrifugal
Filter. Modern Dietetics and Patented Foods.
CHAPTER XX.
MEDICINE, SURGERY AND SANITATION.
Discovery of Circulation of the Blood by Harvey. Vaccination by
Jenner. Use of Anæsthetics the Great Step of Medical Progress of the
Century. Materia Medica. Instruments. Schools of Medicine. Dentistry.
Artificial Limbs. Digestion. Bacteriology, and Disease Germs.
Antiseptic Surgery. House Sanitation.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE BICYCLE AND AUTOMOBILE.
The Draisine, 1816. Michaux’s Bicycle, 1855. United States Patent to
Lallement and Carrol, 1866. Transition from “Vertical Fork” and “Star”
to Modern “Safety.” Pneumatic Tire. Automobile the Prototype of the
Locomotive. Trevithick’s Steam Road Carriage, 1801. The Locomobile of
To-day. Gas Engine Automobiles of Pinkus, 1839; Selden, 1879; Duryea,
Winton, and Others. Electric Automobiles a Development of Electric
Locomotives as Early as 1836. Grounelle’s Electric Automobile of 1852.
The Columbia, Woods, and Riker Electric Carriages. Statistics.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE PHONOGRAPH.
Invention of Phonograph by Edison. Scott’s Phonautograph. Improvements
of Bell and Tainter. The Graphophone. Library of Wax Cylinders.
Berliner’s Gramophone.
CHAPTER XXIII.
OPTICS.
Early Telescopes. The Lick Telescope. The Grande Lunette. The Stereo-
Binocular Field Glass. The Microscope. The Spectroscope. Polarization
of Light. Kaleidoscope. Stereoscope. Range Finder. Kinetoscope, and
Moving Pictures.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PHOTOGRAPHY.
Experiments of Wedgewood and Davy. Niépce’s Heliography. Daguerre and
the Daguerreotype. Fox Talbot Makes First Proofs from Negatives. Sir
John Herschel Introduces Glass Plates. The Collodion Process. Silver and
Carbon Prints. Ambrotypes. Emulsions. Dry Plates. The Kodak Camera. The
Platinotype. Photography in Colors. Panorama Cameras. Photo-engraving
and Photo-lithography. Half Tone Printing.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE ROENTGEN OR X-RAYS.
Geissler Tubes. Vacuum Tubes of Crookes, Hittorf, and Lenard. The
Cathode Ray. Roentgen’s Great Discovery in 1895. X-Ray Apparatus.
Salvioni’s Cryptoscope. Edison’s Fluoroscope. The Fluorometer. Sun-
burn from X-Rays. Uses of X-Rays.
CHAPTER XXVI.
GAS LIGHTING.
Early Use of Natural Gas. Coal Gas Introduced by Murdoch. Winsor
Organizes First Gas Company in 1804. Melville in United States Lights
Beaver-Tail Lighthouse with Gas in 1817. Lowe’s Process of Making
Water Gas. Acetylene Gas. Carburetted Air. Pintsch Gas. Gas Meter.
Otto Gas Engine. The Welsbach Burner.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CIVIL ENGINEERING.
Great Bridges, Pneumatic Caissons, Tunnels. The Beach Tunnel Shield.
Suez Canal. Dredges. The Lidgerwood Cable Ways. Canal Locks. Artesian
Wells. Compressed-Air Rock Drills. Blasting. Mississippi Jetties. Iron
and Steel Buildings. Eiffel Tower. Washington’s Monument. The United
States Capitol.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
WOODWORKING.
Early Machines of Sir Samuel Bentham. Evolution of the Saw. Circular
Saw. Hammering to Tension. Steam Feed for Saw Mill Carriage. Quarter
Sawing. The Band Saw. Planing Machines. The Woodworth Planer. The
Woodbury Yielding Pressure Bar. The Universal Woodworker. The
Blanchard Lathe. Mortising Machines. Special Woodworking Machines.
CHAPTER XXIX.
METAL WORKING.
Early Iron Furnace. Operations of Lord Dudley, Abraham Darby, and
Henry Cort. Neilson’s Hot Blast. Great Blast Furnaces of Modern Times.
The Puddling Furnace. Bessemer Steel and the Converter. Open Hearth
Steel. Regenerative Furnace. Siemens-Martin Process. Forging Armor
Plate. Making Horse Shoes. Screws and Special Machines. Electric
Welding, Annealing and Tempering. Coating with Metal. Metal Founding.
Barbed Wire Machines. Making Nails, Pins, etc. Making Shot. Alloys.
Making Aluminum, and Metallurgy of Rarer Metals. The Cyanide Process.
Electric Concentrator.
CHAPTER XXX.
FIRE ARMS AND EXPLOSIVES.
The Cannon, the Most Ancient of Fire Arms. Muzzle and Breech Loaders
of the Sixteenth Century. The Armstrong Gun. The Rodman, Dahlgren, and
Parrott Guns. Breech-Loading Ordnance. Rapid Fire Breech-Loading
Rifles. Disappearing Gun. Gatling Gun. Dynamite Gun. The Colt, and
Smith & Wesson Revolvers. German Automatic Pistol. Breech-Loading
Small Arms. Magazine Guns. The Lee, Krag-Jorgensen, and Mauser Rifles.
Hammerless Guns. Rebounding Locks. Gun Cotton. Nitro Glycerine, and
Smokeless Powder. Mines and Torpedoes.
CHAPTER XXXI.
TEXTILES.
Spinning and Weaving an Ancient Art. Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny.
Arkwright’s Roll-Drawing Spinning Machine. Crompton’s Mule Spinner.
The Cotton Gin. Ring Spinning. The Rabbeth Spindle. John Kay’s Flying
Shuttle and Robt. Kay’s Drop Box. Cartwright’s Power Loom. The
Jacquard Loom. Crompton’s Fancy Loom. Bigelow’s Carpet Looms. Lyall
Positive Motion Loom. Knitting Machines. Cloth Pressing Machinery.
Artificial Silk. Mercerized Cloth.
CHAPTER XXXII.
ICE MACHINES.
General Principles. Freezing Mixtures. Perkins’ Ice Machine, 1834.
Pictet’s Apparatus. Carré’s Ammonia Absorption Process. Direct
Compression, and Can System. The Holden Ice Machine. Skating Rinks.
Windhausen’s Apparatus for Cooling and Ventilating Ships.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
LIQUID AIR.
Liquefaction of Gases by Northmore--1805, Faraday--1823, Bussy--1824,
Thilorier--1834, and others. Liquefaction of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Air,
by Pictet and Cailletet in 1877. Self-Intensification of Cold by
Siemens in 1857, and Windhausen in 1870. Operations of Dewar,
Wroblewski, and Olszewski. Self-Intensifying Processes of Solvay,
Tripler, Lindé, Hampson, and Ostergren and Berger. Liquid Air
Experiments and Uses.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MINOR INVENTIONS,
AND
Patents of Principal Countries of the World.
CHAPTER XXXV.
EPILOGUE.
CHAPTER I.
THE PERSPECTIVE VIEW.
Standing on the threshold of the Twentieth Century, and looking back a
hundred years, the Nineteenth Century presents in the field of invention
a magnificent museum of thoughts crystallized and made immortal, not as
passive gems of nature, but as potent, active, useful agencies of man.
The philosophical mind is ever accustomed to regard all stages of growth
as proceeding by slow and uniform processes of evolution, but in the
field of invention the Nineteenth Century has been unique. It has been
something more than a merely normal growth or natural development. It
has been a gigantic tidal wave of human ingenuity and resource, so
stupendous in its magnitude, so complex in its diversity, so profound in
its thought, so fruitful in its wealth, so beneficent in its results,
that the mind is strained and embarrassed in its effort to expand to a
full appreciation of it. Indeed, the period seems a grand climax of
discovery, rather than an increment of growth. It has been a splendid,
brilliant campaign of brains and energy, rising to the highest
achievement amid the most fertile resources, and conducted by the
strongest and best equipment of modern thought and modern strength.
The great works of the ancients are in the main mere monuments of the
patient manual labor of myriads of workers, and can only rank with the
buildings of the diatom and coral insect. Not so with modern
achievement. The last century has been peculiarly an age of ideas and
conservation of energy, materialized in practical embodiment as
labor-saving inventions, often the product of a single mind, and
partaking of the sacred quality of creation.
The old word of creation is, that God breathed into the clay the breath
of life. In the new world of invention mind has breathed into matter,
and a new and expanding creation unfolds itself. The speculative
philosophy of the past is but a too empty consolation for short-lived,
busy man, and, seeing with the eye of science the possibilities of
matter, he has touched it with the divine breath of thought and made a
new world.
When the Nineteenth Century registered its advent in history, the world
of invention was a babe still in its swaddling clothes, but, with a
consciousness of coming power, was beginning to stretch its strong
young arms into the tremendous energy of its life. James Watt had
invented the steam engine. Eli Whitney had given us the cotton gin. John
Gutenberg had made his printing type. Franklin had set up his press. The
telescope had suggested the possibilities of ethereal space, the compass
was already the mariner’s best friend, and gunpowder had given proof of
its deadly agency, but inventive genius was still groping by the light
of a tallow candle. Even up to the beginning of this century so strong a
hold had superstition on the human mind, that inventions were almost
synonymous with the black arts, and the struggling genius had not only
to contend with the natural laws and the thousand and one expected
difficulties that hedge the path of the inventor, but had also to
overcome the far greater obstacles of ignorant fear and bigoted
prejudice. A labor-saving machine was looked upon askance as the enemy
of the working man, and many an earnest inventor, after years of arduous
thought and painstaking labor, saw his cherished model broken up and his
hopes forever blasted by the animosity of his fellow men. But with the
Nineteenth Century a new era has dawned. The legitimate results of
inventions have been realized in larger incomes, shorter hours of labor,
and lives so much richer in health, comfort, happiness, and usefulness,
that to-day the inventor is a benefactor whom the world delights to
honor. So crowded is the busy life of modern civilization with the
evidences of his work, that it is impossible to open one’s eyes without
seeing it on every hand, woven into the very fabric of daily existence.
It is easy to lose sight of the wonderful when once familiar with it,
and we usually fail to give the full measure of positive appreciation to
the great things of this great age. They burst upon our vision at first
like flashing meteors; we marvel at them for a little while, and then we
accept them as facts, which soon become so commonplace and so fused into
the common life as to be only noticed by their omission.
To appreciate them let us briefly contrast the conditions of to-day with
those of a hundred years ago. This is no easy task, for the comparison
not only involves the experiences of two generations, but it is like the
juxtaposition of a star with the noonday sun, whose superior brilliancy
obliterates the lesser light. But reverse the wheels of progress, and
let us make a quick run of one hundred years into the past, and what are
our experiences? Before we get to our destination we find the wheels
themselves beginning to thump and jolt, and the passage becomes more
difficult, more uncomfortable, and so much slower. We are no longer
gliding along in a luxurious palace car behind a magnificent locomotive,
traveling on steel rails, at sixty miles an hour, but we find ourselves
nearing the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in a rickety, rumbling,
dusty stage-coach. Pause! and consider the change for a moment in some
of its broader aspects. First, let us examine the present more closely,
for the average busy man, never looking behind him for comparisons, does
not fully appreciate or estimate at its real value the age in which he
lives. There are to-day (statistics of 1898), 445,064 miles of railway
tracks in the world. This would build seventeen different railway
tracks, of two rails each, around the entire world, or would girdle
mother earth with thirty-four belts of steel. If extended in straight
lines, it would build a track of two rails to the moon, and more than a
hundred thousand miles beyond it. The United States has nearly half of
the entire mileage of the world, and gets along with 36,746 locomotives,
nearly as many passenger coaches, and more than a million and a quarter
of freight cars, which latter, if coupled together, would make nearly
three continuous trains reaching across the American continent from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The movement of passenger trains is
equivalent to dispatching thirty-seven trains per day around the world,
and the freight train movement is in like manner equal to dispatching
fifty-three trains a day around the world. Add to this the railway
business controlled by other countries, and one gets some idea of how
far the stage-coach has been left behind. To-day we eat supper in one
city, and breakfast in another so many hundreds of miles east or west as
to be compelled to set our watches to the new meridian of longitude in
order to keep our engagement. But railroads and steam-cars constitute
only one of the stirring elements of modern civilization. As we make the
backward run of one hundred years we have passed by many milestones of
progress. Let us see if we can count some of them as they disappear
behind us. We quickly lose the telephone, phonograph and graphophone. We
no longer see the cable-cars or electric railways. The electric lights
have gone out. The telegraph disappears. The sewing machine, reaper, and
thresher have passed away, and so also have all india-rubber goods. We
no longer see any photographs, photo-engravings, photolithographs, or
snap-shot cameras. The wonderful octuple web perfecting printing press;
printing, pasting, cutting, folding, and counting newspapers at the rate
of 96,000 per hour, or 1,600 per minute, shrinks at the beginning of the
century into an insignificant prototype. We lose all planing and
wood-working machinery, and with it the endless variety of sashes,
doors, blinds, and furniture in unlimited variety. There are no
gas-engines, no passenger elevators, no asphalt pavement, no steam fire
engine, no triple-expansion steam engine, no Giffard injector, no
celluloid articles, no barbed wire fences, no time-locks for safes, no
self-binding harvesters, no oil nor gas wells, no ice machines nor cold
storage. We lose air engines, stem-winding watches, cash-registers and
cash-carriers, the great suspension bridges, and tunnels, the Suez
Canal, iron frame buildings, monitors and heavy ironclads, revolvers,
torpedoes, magazine guns and Gatling guns, linotype machines, all
practical typewriters, all pasteurizing, knowledge of microbes or
disease germs, and sanitary plumbing, water-gas, soda water fountains,
air brakes, coal-tar dyes and medicines, nitro-glycerine, dynamite and
guncotton, dynamo electric machines, aluminum ware, electric
locomotives, Bessemer steel with its wonderful developments, ocean
cables, enameled iron ware, Welsbach gas burners, electric storage
batteries, the cigarette machine, hydraulic dredges, the roller mills,
middlings purifiers and patent-process flour, tin can machines, car
couplings, compressed air drills, sleeping cars, the dynamite gun, the
McKay shoe machine, the circular knitting machine, the Jacquard loom,
wood pulp for paper, fire alarms, the use of anæsthetics in surgery,
oleomargarine, street sweepers, Artesian wells, friction matches, steam
hammers, electro-plating, nail machines, false teeth, artificial limbs
and eyes, the spectroscope, the Kinetoscope or moving pictures,
acetylene gas, X-ray apparatus, horseless carriages, and--but, enough!
the reader exclaims, and indeed it is not pleasant to contemplate the
loss. The negative conditions of that period extend into such an
appalling void that we stop short, shrinking from the thought of what it
would mean to modern civilization to eliminate from its life these
potent factors of its existence.
Returning to the richness and fullness of the present life, we shall
first note chronologically the milestones and finger boards which mark
this great tramway of progress, and afterward consider separately the
more important factors of progress.
CHAPTER II.
CHRONOLOGY OF LEADING INVENTIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
1800--Volta’s Chemical Battery for producing Electricity. Louis Robert’s
Machine for Making Continuous Webs of Paper.
1801--Trevithick’s Steam Coach (first automobile). Brunel’s Mortising
Machine. Jacquard’s Pattern Loom. First Fire Proof Safe by Richard
Scott. Columbium discovered by Hatchett.
1802--Trevithick and Vivian’s British patent for Running Coaches by
Steam. Charlotte Dundas (Steamboat) towed canal Boats on the Clyde.
Tantalum discovered by Ekeberg. First Photographic Experiments by
Wedgewood and Davy. Bramah’s Planing Machine.
1803--Carpue’s Experiments on Therapeutic Application of Electricity.
Iridium and Osmium discovered by Tenant, and Cerium by Berzelius. Wm.
Horrocks applies Steam to the Loom.
1804--Rhodium and Palladium discovered by Wollaston. First Steam Railway
and Locomotive by Richard Trevithick. Capt. John Stevens applies twin
Screw Propellers in Steam Navigation. Winsor takes British patent for
Illuminating Gas, lights Lyceum Theatre, and organizes First Gas
Company. Lucas’ process making Malleable Iron Castings.
1805--Life Preserver invented by John Edwards of London. Electro-plating
invented by Brugnatelli.
1806--Jeandeau’s Knitting Machine.
1807--First practical Steamboat between New York and Albany (Fulton’s
Clermont). Discovery of Potassium, Sodium and Boron by Davy. Forsyth’s
Percussion Lock for Guns.
1808--Barium, Strontium, and Calcium discovered by Davy. Polarization of
Light from Reflection by Malus. Voltaic arc discovered by Davy.
1809--Sommering’s Multi-wire Telegraphy.
1810--System of Homœopathy organized by Hahnemann.
1811--Discovery of Metal Iodine by M. Courtois. Blenkinsop’s Locomotive.
Colored Polarization of Light by Arago. Thornton and Hall’s Breech
Loading Musket.
1812--London the First City lighted by Gas. Ritter’s Storage Battery.
Schilling proposes use of Electricity to blow up mines. Zamboni’s Dry
Pile (prototype of dry battery).
1813--Howard’s British patent for Vacuum Pan for refining sugar.
Hedley’s Locomotive “Puffing Billy.” Introduction of Stereotyping in the
United States by David Bruce.
1814--London Times printed by König’s rotary steam press. Stephenson’s
First Locomotive. Demologos built by Fulton (the first steam war
vessel). Heliography by Niépce. Discovery of Cyanogen by Gay Lussac. The
Kaleidoscope invented by Sir David Brewster.
1815--Safety Lamp by Sir Humphrey Davy. Seidlitz Powders invented. Gas
Meter by Clegg.
1816--The “Draisine” Bicycle. Circular Knitting Machine by Brunel.
1817--Discovery of Selenium by Berzelius, Cadmium by Stromeyer, and
Lithium by Arfvedson. Hunt’s Pin Machine.
1818--Brunel’s patent Subterranean and Submarine tunnels.
Electro-Magnetism discovered by Oersted of Copenhagen.
1819--American Steamer Savannah from New York first to cross Atlantic.
Laennec discovers Auscultation and invents Stethoscope. Blanchard’s
Lathe for turning Irregular Forms.
1820--Electro-Magnetic Multiplier by Schweigger. Discoveries in
Electro-magnetism by Ampere and Arago. Bohnenberg’s Electroscope.
Discovery of Quinine by Pelletier and Caventou. Malam’s Gas Meter.
1821--Faraday converts Electric Current into Mechanical Motion.
1822--Babbage Calculation Engine.
1823--Liquefaction and Solidification of Gases by Faraday, and
foundation of ammonia absorption ice machine laid by him. Seebeck
discovers Thermo-electricity. Silicon discovered by Berzelius.
1824--Discovery of metal Zirconium by Berzelius. Wright’s Pin Machine.
1825--First Passenger Railway in the world opened between Stockton and
Darlington. Sturgeon invents prototype of Electro Magnet. Beaumont’s
discoveries in Digestion (Alexis San Martin 1825-32).
1826--Discovery of Bromine by M. Balard. Barlow’s Electrical Spur Wheel.
First Railroad in United States built near Quincy, Mass.
1827--Aluminum reduced by Wohler. Ohm’s Law of Electrical Resistance.
Hackworth’s Improvements in Locomotive. Friction Matches by John
Walker.
1828--Neilson’s Hot Blast for Smelting Iron. Professor Henry invents the
Spool Electro Magnet. Tubular Locomotive Boiler by Seguin. First
Artificial production of organic compounds (urea) by Wohler. Thorium
discovered by Berzelius. Yttrium and Glucinum discovered by Wohler.
Nicol’s prism for Polarized Light. Woodworth’s wood planer. Spinning
Ring invented by John Thorp.
1829--Becquerel’s Double Fluid Galvanic Battery. George Stephenson’s
Locomotive, “Rocket,” takes prizes of Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
Importation of “Stourbridge Lion,” the first locomotive to run in the
United States. Daguerreotype invented. Discovery of Magnesium by Bussey.
1830--Vanadium discovered by Sefstroem. Abbe Dal Negro’s Electrically
operated pendulum. Ericsson’s Steam Fire Engine.
1831--Faraday discovers Magnetic Induction. Professor Henry telegraphs
signals. Professor Henry invents his Electric Motor. Locomotive “John
Bull” put in service on Camden and Amboy R. R. Chloroform discovered by
Guthrie. McCormick first experiments with Reaper.
1832--Professor Morse conceives the idea of Electric Telegraph. First
Magneto-Electric Machines by Saxton in United States and Pixii in
France. Sturgeon’s Rotary Electric Motor. Baldwin’s first locomotive,
“Old Ironsides,” built. Link Motion for Locomotive Engine invented by
James. Chloral-hydrate discovered by Liebig.
1833--Steam Whistle adopted by Stephenson. Hussey’s Reaper patented.
1834--Jacobi’s Rotary Electric Motor. Henry Bessemer electro-plates lead
castings with copper. Faraday demonstrates relation of chemical and
electrical force. McCormick Reaper patented. Carbolic Acid discovered by
Runge. Perkins’ Ice Machine.
1835--Forbes proves the absence of heat in Moonlight. Burden’s horse
shoe Machine.
1836--The Daniell Constant Battery invented. Acetylene Gas produced by
Edmond Davy. Colt’s Revolver.
1837--Cooke and Wheatstone’s British patent for Electric telegraph.
Steinheil discovered feasibility of using the earth for return section
of electric circuit. Davenport’s Electric Motor. Spencer’s experiments
in electrotyping. Galvanized Iron invented by Craufurd.
1838--Professor Morse’s French patent for Telegraph. Jacobi’s
Galvano-plastic process for making Electrotype Printing Plates.
Reflecting Stereoscope by Wheatstone. Dry Gas Meter by Defries.
1839--Wreck of Royal George blown up by Electro Blasting. Jacobi builds
first Electrically propelled Boat. Fox Talbot makes Photo Prints from
Negatives. Professors Draper and Morse make first Photographic
Portraits. Mungo Ponton applies Bichromate of Potash in Photography.
Goodyear discovers process of Vulcanizing Rubber. Lanthanum and Didymium
discovered by Mosander. Babbit Metal invented.
1840--Professor Morse’s United States patent for Electric Telegraph.
Professor Grove makes first Incandescent Electric Lamp. Celestial
Photography by Professor Draper.
1841--Artesian well bored at Grenelle, Paris. Sickel’s Steam Cut-off.
Talbotype Photos. M. Triger invents Pneumatic Caissons.
1842--First production of Illuminating Gas from water (water gas) by M.
Selligue. Robt. Davidson builds Electric Locomotive. Nasmyth patents
Steam Hammer.
1843--Joule’s demonstration as to the Nature of Force. Erbium and
Terbium discovered by Mosander. The Thames Tunnel Opened.
1844--First Telegraphic Message sent by Morse from Washington to
Baltimore. Application Nitrous Oxide Gas as an Anæsthetic by Dr. Wells.
1845--Ruthenium discovered by Klaws. The Starr-King Incandescent
Electric Lamp. The Hoe Type Revolving Machine.
1846--House’s Printing Telegraph. Howe’s Sewing Machine. Suez Canal
Started (fourteen years building). Crusell of St. Petersburgh invents
Electric Cautery. Use of Ether as Anæsthetic by Dr. Morton. Artificial
Legs. Discovery of Planet Neptune. Sloan patents Gimlet Pointed Screw.
Gun Cotton discovered by Schönbein.
1847--Chloroform introduced by Dr. Simpson. Nitro-Glycerine discovered
by Sobrero. Time-Locks invented by Savage.
1848--Discovery of Satellites of Saturn by Lassell. Bain’s Chemical
Telegraph. Bakewell’s Fac-Simile Telegraph.
1849--Bourdon’s Pressure Gauge. Lenticular Stereoscope by Brewster.
Hibbert’s Latch Needle for Knitting Machine. Corliss Engine.
1850--First Submarine Cable--Dover to Calais. Collodion Process in
Photography. Mercerizing Cloth. American Machine-made Watches.
1851--Dr. Page’s Electric Locomotive. The Ruhmkorff Coil. Scott Archer’s
Collodion Process in Photography. Seymour’s Self-Raker for Harvesters.
Helmholtz invents Opthalmoscope. Maynard Breech Loading Rifle.
1852--Channing and Farmer Fire Alarm Telegraph. Fox Talbot first uses
reticulated screen for Half Tone Printing.
1853--Gintl’s Duplex Telegraph invented. Electric Lamps devised by
Foucault and Duboscq. Watt and Burgess Soda Process for Making Wood
Pulp.
1854--Wilson’s Four Motion Feed for Sewing Machines. Melhuish invents
the Photographic Roll Films. Hermann’s Diamond Drill. Smith and Wesson
Magazine Firearm (Foundation of the Winchester).
1855--Bessemer Process of Making Steel. Hjorth invents Dynamo Electric
Machine. Ericsson’s Air Engine. Niagara Suspension Bridge. Dr. J. M.
Taupenot invents Dry Plate Photography. The Michaux Bicycle.
1856--Hughes Printing Telegraph. Alliance Magneto Electric Machine.
Woodruff Sleeping Car. First commercial Aniline Dyes by Perkins. Siemens
Regenerative Furnace.
1857--Rogues’ Gallery established in New York. Introduction of Iron
Floor Beams in building Cooper Institute. Siemens describes principle of
Self Intensification of Cold (now used in ice and liquid air machines).
1858--Phelps Printing Telegraph invented. First Atlantic Cable Laid.
Paper pulp from Wood by Voelter. First use of Electric Light in Light
House at South Foreland. Giffard Steam Injector. Gardner patents first
Underground Cable Car System.
1859--Discovery Coal Oil in United States. Moses G. Farmer subdivides
Electric Current through a number of Electric Lamps, and lights first
dwelling by Electricity. Great Eastern launched. Osborne perfects modern
process of Photolithography. Professors Kirchhoff and Bunsen map Solar
Spectrum, and establish Spectrum Analysis.
1860--Rubidium and Caesium discovered by Bunsen. Gaston Planté’s Storage
Battery. Reis’ Crude Telephone. Thallium discovered by Crookes, and
Indium by Reich and Richter. Spencer and Henry Magazine Rifles. Carré’s
Ammonia Absorption Ice Machine.
1861--McKay Shoe Sewing Machine. Calcium Carbide produced by Wohler.
Col. Green invents Drive Well. Otis Passenger Elevator. First Barbed
Wire Fence.
1862--Ericsson’s Iron Clad Turret Monitor. Emulsions and improvements in
Dry Plate Photography by Russell and Sayce. The Gatling Gun. Timby’s
Revolving Turret.
1863--Schultz white gunpowder.
1864--Nobel’s Explosive Gelatine. Rubber Dental Plates. Cabin John
(Washington Aqueduct) Bridge finished (longest masonry span in the
world).
1865--Louis Pasteur’s work in Bacteriology begun. Martin’s Process of
making Steel.
1866--Wilde’s Dynamo Electric Machine. Burleigh’s Compressed Air Rock
Drill. Whitehead Torpedo.
1867--Siemens’ Dynamo Electric Machine. Dynamite Invented. Tilghman’s
Sulphite Process for making Wood Pulp.
1868--Brickill’s Water Heater for Steam Fire Engines. Moncrieff’s
Disappearing Gun Carriage. Oleomargarine invented by Mege. Sholes
Typewriter.
1869--Suez Canal Opened. Pacific Railway Completed. First Westinghouse
Air-Brakes.
1870--The Gramme Dynamo Electric Machine. Windhausen Refrigerating
Machines. Beleaguered Paris communicates with outer world through
Micro-Photographs. Hailer’s Rebounding Gun Lock. Dittmar’s Gunpowder.
1871--Hoe’s Web Perfecting Press set up in Office New York Tribune. The
Locke Grain Binder. Bridge Work in Dentistry. Mount Cenis Tunnel opened
for traffic. Phosphorus Bronze. Ingersoll Compressed Air Rock Drill.
1872--Stearns perfects Duplex Telegraph. Westinghouse Improved automatic
Air Brake. Lyall Positive Motion Loom.
1873--Janney Automatic Car Coupler. Oleomargarine patented in United
States by Mege.
1874--Edison’s Quadruplex Telegraph. Gorham’s Twine Binder for
Harvesters. Barbed Wire Machines. St. Louis Bridge finished.
1875--Lowe’s patent for Water Gas (illuminating gas made from water).
Roller Mills and Middlings Purifier for making flour. Gallium discovered
by Boisbaudran. Pictet Ice Machine. Gamgee’s Skating Rinks. First Cash
Carrier for Stores.
1876--Alexander Graham Bell’s Speaking Telephone. Hydraulic Dredges.
Cigarette Machinery. Photographing by Electric Light by Vander Weyde.
Edison’s Electric Pen. Steam Feed for Saw Mill Carriages. Introduction
of Cable Cars by Hallidie.
1877--Phonograph invented by Edison. Otto Gas Engine. Jablochkoff
Electric Candle. Sawyer-Man Electric Lamp. Berliner’s Telephone
Transmitter of variable resistance (pat. Nov. 17, ’91). Edison’s Carbon
Microphone (pat. May 3, ’92). Discovery of Satellites of Mars by
Professor Asaph Hall, and its so-called Canals by Schiaparelli.
Liquefaction of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Air by Pictet and Cailletet.
1878--Development of Remington Typewriter. Edison invents Carbon
Filament for Incandescent Electric Lamp. Gelatino-Bromide Emulsions in
Photography. Ytterbium discovered by Marignac. Birkenhead Yielding
Spinning Spindle Bearing. Gessner Cloth Press.
1879--Dr. Siemens’ Electric Railway at Berlin. Mississippi Jetties
completed by Capt. Eads. Samarium discovered by Boisbaudran, Scandium by
Nilson, and Thulium by Cleve. The Lee Magazine Rifle.
1880--Faure’s Storage Battery. Eberth and Koch discover Bacillus of
Typhoid Fever, and Sternberg the Bacillus of Pneumonia. Edison’s
Magnetic Ore Concentrator. Greener’s Hammerless Gun. Rabbeth Spinning
Spindle patented.
1881--Telegraphing by Induction by Wm. W. Smith. Blake Telephone
Transmitter. Reece Button Hole Machine. Rack-a-rock (explosive)
patented.
1882--Bacillus of Tuberculosis identified by Koch, and Bacillus of
Hydrophobia by Pasteur. St. Gothard Tunnel opened for traffic.
1883--Brooklyn Suspension Bridge Completed.
1884--Antipyrene. Mergenthaler’s first Linotype Printing Machine
invented. Bacillus of Cholera identified by Koch, Bacillus of Diphtheria
by Loeffler, and Bacillus of Lockjaw by Nicolaier.
1885--Cowles’ Process of Manufacturing Aluminum. First Electric Railway
in America installed between Baltimore and Hampden. Neodymium and
Praseodymium discovered by Welsbach. Welsbach Gas Burner invented.
Blowing up of Flood Rock, New York Harbor. “Bellite” produced by Lamm,
and “Melinite” by Turpin.
1886--Graphophone invented. Electric Welding by Elihu Thomson. Gadolinum
discovered by Marignac, and Germanium by Winkler.
1887--McArthur and Forrest’s Cyanide Process of Obtaining Gold. Tesla’s
System of Polyphase Currents.
1888--Electrocution of Criminals adopted in New York State. Harvey’s
Process of Annealing Armor Plate. De Laval’s Rotary Steam Turbine.
“Kodak” Snap-Shot Camera. Lick Telescope. De Chardonnet’s Process of
Making Artificial Silk.
1889--Nickel Steel. Hall’s Process of Making Aluminum. Dudley Dynamite
Gun. “Cordite” (Smokeless Powder) produced by Abel and Dewar.
1890--Mergenthaler’s Improved Linotype Machine. Photography in Colors.
The Great Forth Bridge finished. Krag-Jorgensen Magazine Rifle.
1891--Parsons’ Rotary Steam Turbine. The Northrup Loom.
1892--The explosive “Indurite” invented by Professor Munroe.
1893--Acheson’s process for making Carborundum. The Yerkes Telescope.
Edison’s Kinetoscope. Production of Calcium Carbide in Electric Furnace
by Willson.
1894--Discovery of element Argon by Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsey.
Thorite produced by Bawden.
1895--X-Rays discovered and applied by Roentgen. Acetylene Gas from
Calcium Carbide by Willson. Krupp Armor Plate. Lindé’s Liquid air
apparatus.
1896--Marconi’s System of Wireless Telegraphy. Buffington-Crozier
Disappearing Gun.
1897--Schlick’s System of Balancing Marine Engines. Discovery of Krypton
by Ramsey and Travers.
1898--Horry and Bradley’s process of making Calcium Carbide. Discovery
of Neon and Metargon by Ramsey and Travers; Coronium by Nasini; Xenon by
Ramsey; Monium by Crookes, and Etherion by Brush. Mercerizing Cloth
under tension to render it Silky.
1899--Marconi Telegraphs without wire across the English Channel.
Oceanic launched, the largest steamer ever built.
1900--The Grande Lunette Telescope of Paris Exposition.
CHAPTER III.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
THE VOLTAIC PILE--DANIELL’S BATTERY--USE OF CONDUCTING WIRE BY
WEBER--STEINHEIL EMPLOYS EARTH AS RETURN CIRCUIT--PROF. HENRY’S
ELECTRO MAGNET, AND FIRST TELEGRAPHIC EXPERIMENT--PROF. MORSE’S
TELEGRAPHIC CODE AND REGISTER--FIRST LINE BETWEEN WASHINGTON
AND BALTIMORE--BAIN’S CHEMICAL TELEGRAPH--GINTL’S DUPLEX
TELEGRAPH--EDISON’S QUADRUPLEX--HOUSE’S PRINTING TELEGRAPH--FAC
SIMILE TELEGRAPHS--CHANNING AND FARMER FIRE ALARM--TELEGRAPHING BY
INDUCTION--WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY BY MARCONI--STATISTICS.
In the effort to lengthen out the limited span of life into a greater
record of results, time becomes an object of economy. To save time is to
live long, and this in a pre-eminent degree is accomplished by the
telegraph. Of all the inventions which man has called into existence to
aid him in the fulfillment of his destiny, none so closely resembles man
himself in his dual quality of body and soul as the telegraph. It too
has a body and soul. We see the wire and the electro-magnet, but not the
vital principle which animates it. Without its subtile, pulsating,
intangible spirit, it is but dead matter. But vitalized with its
immortal soul it assumes the quality of animated existence, and through
its agency thought is extended beyond the limitations of time and space,
and flashes through air and sea around the world. Its moving principle
flows more silently than a summer’s zephyr, and yet it rises at times to
an angry and deadly crash in the lightning stroke. At once powerful and
elusive, it remained for Professor Morse to capture this wild steed,
and, taming it, place it in the permanent service of man. On May 24,
1844, there went over the wires between Washington and Baltimore the
first message--“What hath God wrought?” This was both prayer and praise,
and no more lofty recognition of the divine power and beneficence could
have been made. It was indeed the work of God made manifest in the hands
of His children.
Popular estimation has always credited Prof. Morse with the invention of
the telegraph, but to ascribe to him all the praise would do great
injustice to many other worthy workers in this field, some of whom are
regarded by the best judges to be entitled to equal praise.
The practical telegraph as originally used is resolvable into four
essential elements, viz., the battery, the conducting wire, the
electro-magnet, and the receiving and transmitting instruments.
The development of the battery began with Galvani in 1790, and Volta in
1800. Galvani discovered that a frog’s legs would exhibit violent
muscular contraction when its exposed nerves were touched with one metal
and its muscles were touched with another metal, the two metals being
connected. The effect was due to an electric current generated and
acting with contractile effect on the muscles of the frog’s legs.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
From this phenomenon, the chemical action of acids upon metals and the
production of an electric current were observed, and the voltaic pile
was invented. This consisted of alternate discs of copper and zinc,
separated by layers of cloth steeped in an acidulated solution. This was
the invention of Volta. From this grew the Daniell battery, invented in
1836 by Prof. Daniell of London, quickly followed by those of Grove,
Smee, and others. These batteries were more constant or uniform in the
production of electricity, were free from odors, and did not require
frequent cleaning, as did the plates of the voltaic pile, which were
important results for telegraphic purposes. The Daniell battery in its
original form employed an acidulated solution of sulphate of copper in a
copper cell containing a porous cup, and a cylinder of amalgamated zinc
in the porous cup and surrounded by a weak acid solution. In the
illustration, which shows a slightly modified form, a cruciform rod of
zinc within a porous cup is surrounded by a copper cell, the whole being
enclosed within a glass jar.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--DANIELL’S BATTERY.]
The second element of the telegraph--the conducting wire--was scarcely
an invention in itself, and the fact that electricity would act at a
distance through a metal conductor had been observed many years before
the Morse telegraph was invented. In 1823, however, Weber discovered
that a copper wire which he had carried over the houses and church
steeples of Göttingen from the observatory to the cabinet of Natural
Philosophy, required no special insulation. This was an important
observation in the practical construction of telegraph lines. One of
even greater importance, however, was that of Prof. Steinheil, of
Munich, who, in 1837, made the discovery of the practicability of using
the earth as one-half, or the return section, of the electric conductor.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--PROF. HENRY’S INTENSITY MAGNET.]
The third element of the telegraph is the electro-magnet. This, and its
arrangement as a relay in a local circuit, was a most important
invention, and contributed quite as much to the success of the telegraph
as did the inventions of Prof. Morse. It may be well to say that an
electro-magnet is a magnet which attracts an iron armature when an
electric current is sent through its coil of wire, and loses its
attractive force when the circuit is cut off, thereby rendering it
possible to produce mechanical effects at a distance through the agency
of electrical impulses only. For the electro-magnet the world is chiefly
indebted to Prof. Joseph Henry, formerly of Princeton, N. J., but later
of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1828 he invented the energetic modern
form of electro-magnet with silk covered wire wound in a series of
crossed layers to form a helix of multiple layers around a central soft
iron core, and in 1831 succeeded in making practical the production of
mechanical effects at a distance, by the tapping of a bell by a rod
deflected by one of his electro-magnets. This experiment may be
considered the pioneer step of the telegraph.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.
HENRY.
STURGEON.
]
Great as was the work of Prof. Henry, he must share the honors with a
number of prior inventors who made the electro-magnet possible.
Electro-magnetism, the underlying principle of the electro-magnet, was
first discovered in 1819 by Prof. Oersted, of Copenhagen. In 1820
Schweigger added the multiplier. Arago in the same year discovered that
a steel rod was magnetized when placed across a wire carrying an
electric current, and that iron filings adhered to a wire carrying a
voltaic current and dropped off when the current was broken. M. Ampere
substituted a helix for the straight wire, and Sturgeon, of England, in
1825 made the real prototype of the electro-magnet by winding a piece of
bare copper wire in a single coil around a varnished and insulated iron
core of a horse shoe form, but the powerful and effective electro-magnet
of Prof. Henry is to-day an essential part of the telegraph, is in
universal use, and is the foundation of the entire electrical art. It is
unfortunate that Prof. Henry did not perpetuate the records of his
inventions in patents, to which he was opposed, for there is good reason
to believe that he was also the original inventor of the important
arrangement of the electro-magnet as a relay in local circuit, and other
features, which have been claimed by other parties upon more enduring
evidence, but perhaps with less right of priority.
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--MORSE’S FIRST MODEL PENDULUM INSTRUMENT.]
The fourth and great final addition to the telegraph which crowned it
with success was the Morse register and alphabetical code, the invention
of Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, of Massachusetts. Prof. Morse’s invention
was made in 1832, while on board ship returning from Europe. He set up
an experimental line in 1835, and got his French patent October 30,
1838, and his first United States patent June 20, 1840, No. 1647. In
1844 the United States Congress appropriated $30,000 to build a line
from Baltimore to Washington, and on May 24, 1844, the notable message,
“What Hath God wrought?” went over the wires.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--THE MORSE CODE.]
Morse’s first model, his pendulum instrument of 1837, is illustrated in
Fig. 5. A pendulum carrying a pencil was in constant contact with a
strip of paper drawn beneath the pencil. As long as inactive the pencil
made a straight line. The pendulum carried also an armature, and an
electro-magnet was placed near the armature. A current passed through
the magnet would draw the pendulum to one side. On being released the
pendulum would return, and in this way zigzag markings, as shown at 4
and 5, would be produced on the strip of paper, which formed the
alphabet. A different alphabet, known as the Morse Code, was
subsequently adopted by Morse, and in 1844 the receiving register shown
at Fig. 7 was adopted, which finally assumed the form shown at Fig. 8.
The alphabet consisted simply of an arrangement of dots and dashes in
varying sequence. The register is an apparatus operated by the combined
effects of a clock mechanism and electro-magnet. Under a roll, see Fig.
8, a ribbon of paper is drawn by the clockwork. A lever having an
armature on one end arranged over the poles of an electro-magnet,
carries on the other end a point or stylus. When an electric impulse is
sent over the line the electro-magnet attracts the armature, and the
stylus on the other end of the lever is brought into contact with the
paper strip, and makes an indented impression. A short impulse gives a
dot, and a long impulse holds the stylus against the paper long enough
to allow the clock mechanism to pull the paper under the stylus and make
a dash. By the manipulation of a key for closing the electric circuit
the short or long impulse may be sent, at the pleasure of the operator.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--MORSE RECEIVER.]
This constituted the completed invention of the telegraph, and on
comparing the work of Profs. Henry and Morse, it is only fair to say
that Prof. Henry’s contribution to the telegraph is still in active use,
while the Morse register has been practically abandoned, as no expert
telegrapher requires the visible evidence of the code, but all rely now
entirely upon the sound click of the electro-magnet placed in the local
circuit and known as a sounder, the varying time lengths of gaps between
the clicks serving every purpose of rapid and intelligent communication.
The invention of the telegraph has been claimed for Steinheil, of
Munich, and also for Cooke and Wheatstone, in England, but few will
deny that it is to Prof. Morse’s indefatigable energy and inventive
skill, with the preliminary work of Prof. Henry, that the world to-day
owes its great gift of the electric telegraph, and with this gift the
world’s great nervous forces have been brought into an intimate and
sensitive sympathy.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--PERFECTED MORSE REGISTER.]
Whenever an invention receives the advertisement of public approval and
commercial exploitation, the development of that invention along various
lines follows rapidly, and so when practical telegraphic communication
was solved by Henry, Morse, and others, further advances in various
directions were made. Efforts to increase the rapidity in sending
messages soon grew into practical success, and in 1848 _Bain’s Chemical
Telegraph_ was brought out. (U. S. Pats. No. 5,957, Dec. 5, 1848, and
No. 6,328, April 17, 1849.) This employed perforated strips of paper to
effect automatic transmission by contact made through the perforations
in place of the key, while a chemically prepared paper at the opposite
end of the line was discolored by the electric impulses to form the
record. This was the pioneer of the automatic system which by later
improvements is able to send over a thousand words a minute.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--HOUSE PRINTING TELEGRAPH.]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--STOCK BROKER’S “TICKER,” WITH GLASS COVER
REMOVED.]
In line with other efforts to increase the capacity of the wires, the
_duplex telegraph_ was invented by Dr. William Gintl, of Austria, in
1853, and was afterwards improved by Carl Frischen, of Hanover, and by
Joseph B. Stearns, of Boston, Mass, who in 1872 perfected the duplex (U.
S. Pats. No. 126,847, May 14, 1872, and No. 132,933, Nov. 12, 1872).
This system doubles the capacity of the telegraphic wire, and its
principle of action permits messages sent from the home station to the
distant station to have no effect on the home station, but full effect
on the distant station, so that the operators at the opposite ends of
the line may both telegraph over the same wire, at the same time, in
opposite directions. This system has been further enlarged by the
quadruplex system of Edison, which was brought out in 1874 (and
subsequently developed in U. S. Pat. No. 209,241, Oct. 22, 1878). This
enabled four messages to be sent over the same wire at the same time,
and is said to have increased the value of the Western Union wires
$15,000,000.
In 1846 Royal C. House invented the _printing telegraph_, which printed
the message automatically on a strip of paper, something after the
manner of the typewriter (U. S. Pat. No. 4,464, April 18, 1846). The
ingenious mechanism involved in this was somewhat complicated, but its
results in printing the message plainly were very satisfactory. This was
the prototype of the familiar “_ticker_” of the stock broker’s office,
seen in Figs. 10 and 11. In 1856 the Hughes printing telegraph was
brought out (U. S. Pat. No. 14,917, May 20, 1856), and in 1858 G. M.
Phelps combined the valuable features of the Hughes and House systems
(U. S. Pat. No. 26,003, Nov. 1, 1859).
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--RECEIVING MESSAGE ON STOCK BROKER’S “TICKER.”]
_Fac Simile_ telegraphs constitute another, although less important
branch of the art. These accomplished the striking result of reproducing
the message at the end of the line in the exact handwriting of the
sender, and not only writing, but exact reproductions of all outlines,
such as maps, pictures, and so forth, may be sent. The fac simile
telegraph originated with F. C. Bakewell, of England, in 1848 (Br. Pat.
No. 12,352, of 1848).
The Dial Telegraph is still another modification of the telegraph. In
this the letters are arranged in a circular series, and a light needle
or pointer, concentrically pivoted, is carried back and forth over the
letters, and is made to successively point to the desired letters.
Among other useful applications of the telegraph is the _fire alarm
system_. In 1852 Channing and Farmer, of Boston, Mass., devised a
system of telegraphic fire alarms, which was adopted in the city of
Boston (U. S. Pat. No. 17,355, May 19, 1857), and which in varying
modifications has spread through all the cities of the world,
introducing that most important element of time economy in the
extinguishment of fires. Hundreds of cities and millions of dollars have
been thus saved from destruction.
Similar applications of local alarms in great numbers have been extended
into various departments of life, such as _District Messenger Service_,
_Burglar Alarms_, _Railroad-Signal Systems_, _Hotel-Annunciators_, and
so on.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.--TELEGRAPHING BY INDUCTION.]
For furnishing current for telegraphic purposes the dynamo, and
especially the storage battery, have in late years found useful
application. In fact, in the leading telegraph offices the storage
battery has practically superseded the old voltaic cells.
_Telegraphing by induction_, _i. e._, without the mechanical connection
of a conducting wire, is another of the developments of telegraphy in
recent years, and finds application to telegraphing to moving railway
trains. When an electric current flows over a telegraph line, objects
along its length are charged at the beginning and end of the current
impulse with a secondary charge, which flows to the earth if connection
is afforded. It is the discharge of this secondary current from the
metal car roof to the ground which, on the moving train, is made the
means of telegraphing without any mechanical connection with the
telegraph lines along the track. As, however, this secondary circuit
occurs only at the making and breaking of the telegraphic impulse, the
length of the impulse affords no means of differentiation into an
alphabet, and so a rapid series of impulses, caused by the vibrator of
an induction coil, is made to produce buzzing tones of various duration
representing the alphabet, and these tones are received upon a telephone
instead of a Morse register. The diagram, Fig. 12,[1] illustrates the
operation.
[1] From “Electricity in Daily Life,” by courtesy of Charles
Scribner’s Sons.
To receive messages on a car, electric impulses on the telegraph wire W,
sent from the vibrator of an induction coil, cause induced currents as
follows: Car roof R, wire _a_, key K, telephone _b c_, car wheel and
earth. In sending messages closure of key K works induction coil I C,
and vibrator V, through battery B, and primary circuit _d_, _c_, _f_,
_g_, and the secondary circuit _a_, _h_, _i_, charges the car roof and
influences by induction the telegraph wire W and the telephone at the
receiving station.
In 1881 William W. Smith proposed the plan of communicating between
moving cars and a stationary wire by induction (U. S. Pat. No. 247,127,
Sept. 13, 1881). Thomas A. Edison, L. J. Phelps, and others have further
improved the means for carrying it out. In 1888 the principle was
successfully employed on 200 miles of the Lehigh Valley Railroad.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.--WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY, INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACES,
OCTOBER, 1899.]
_Wireless Telegraphy_, or telegraphing without any wires at all, from
one point to another point through space, is the most modern and
startling development in telegraphy. To the average mind this is highly
suggestive of scientific imposition, so intangible and unknown are the
physical forces by which it is rendered possible, and yet this is one of
the late achievements of the Nineteenth Century. Many scientists have
contributed data on this subject, but the principles and theories have
only begun to crystallize into an art during the first part of the last
decade of the Nineteenth Century. Heinrich Hertz, the German scientist,
was perhaps the real pioneer in this line in his studies and
observations of the nature of the electric undulations which have taken
his name, and are known as “Hertzian” waves, rays, or oscillations.
Tesla in the United States, Branly and Ducretet in France, Righi in
Italy, the Russian savant, Popoff, and Professor Lodge, of England, have
all made contributions to this art. It will aid the understanding to
say, in a preliminary way, that electric undulations are generated and
emitted from a plate or conductor a hundred feet or more high in the
air, are thence transmitted through space to a remote point, which may
be many miles away, and there influencing a similar plate high in the
air give, through a special form of receiving device known as a
“coherer,” a telegraphic record. The “coherer,” invented by Branly in
1891, is a glass tube containing metal filings between two circuit
terminals. The electric waves cause these filings to cohere, and so vary
the resistance to the passage of the current as to give a basis for
transformation into a record.
In March, 1899, Signor Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian student, then
residing in England, successfully communicated between South Foreland,
County of Kent, and Boulogne-sur-mer, in France, a distance of
thirty-two miles across the English Channel. Signor Marconi used the
vertical conductors and the Hertz-oscillation principle, and his system
is described in his United States patent. No. 586,193, July 13, 1897.
His patent comprehends many claims, a leading feature of which is the
means for automatically shaking the “coherer” to break up the cohesion
of the metal filings as embodied in his first claim, as follows:
“In a receiver for electrical oscillations, the combination of an
imperfect electrical contact, a circuit through the contact, and
means actuated by the circuit for shaking the contact.”
The Marconi system of wireless telegraphy was practically employed with
useful effect April 28, 1899, on the “Goodwin Sands” light-ship to
telegraph for assistance when in collision twelve miles from land and in
danger of sinking. It was also used in October, 1899, on board the
“Grande Duchesse” to report the international yacht race between the
“Columbia” and the “Shamrock” at Sandy Hook, as seen in Fig. 13. Lord
Roberts also made good use of it in his South African campaign against
the Boers. According to Signor Marconi its present range is limited to
eighty-six miles, but it is expected that this will be soon extended to
150 miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 13A.--THE COHERER.]
Marconi’s receiving apparatus is shown in Fig. 13A, and consists of a
small glass tube called the coherer, about 1½ inches in length, into the
ends of which are inserted two silver pole pieces, which fit the tube,
but whose ends are 1/50 inch apart. The space between the ends is filled
with a mixture composed of fine nickel and silver filings and a mere
trace of mercury, and the other ends of the pole pieces are attached to
the wires of a local circuit. In the normal condition the metallic
filings have an enormous resistance, and constitute a practical
insulator, preventing the flow of the local current; but if they are
influenced by electric waves, coherence takes place and the resistance
falls, allowing the local current to pass. The coherence will continue
until the filings are mechanically shaken, when they will at once fall
apart, as it were, insulation will be established, and the current will
be broken. If, then, a coherer be brought within the influence of the
electric waves thrown out from a transmitter, coherence will occur
whenever the key of the transmitter at the distant station is depressed.
Mr. Marconi has devised an ingenious arrangement, which is the subject
of his patent referred to, in which a small hammer is made to rap
continuously upon the coherer by the action of the local circuit, which
is closed when the Hertzian waves pass through the metal filings. As
soon as the waves cease, the hammer gives its last rap, and the tube is
left in the decohered condition ready for the next transmission of
waves. It is evident that by making the local circuit operate a relay,
in the circuit of which is a standard recording instrument, the messages
may be recorded on a tape in the usual way.
[Illustration: FIG. 13B.--DIAGRAM OF THE TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER.]
In Fig. 13B is shown the diagram of circuits. The letters _d d_ indicate
the spheres of the transmitter, which are connected, one to the vertical
wire w, the other to earth, and both by wires _c′ c′_, to the terminals
of the secondary winding of induction coil, c. In the primary circuit is
the key _b_. The coherer _j_ has two metal pole pieces, _j¹ j²_,
separated by silver and nickel filings. One end of the tube is connected
to earth, the other to the vertical wire _w_, and the coherer itself
forms part of a circuit containing the local cell _g_, and a sensitive
telegraph relay actuating another circuit, which circuit works a
trembler _p_, of which _o_ is the decohering tapper, or hammer. When the
electric waves pass from _w_ to _j¹ j²_ the resistance falls, and the
current from _g_ actuates the relay _n_, the choking coils _k k′_, lying
between the coherer and the relay, compelling the electric waves to
traverse the coherer instead of flowing through the relay. The relay _n_
in its turn causes the more powerful battery _r_ to pass a current
through the tapper, and also through the electro-magnet of the
recording instrument _h_.
The alternate cohering by the waves and decohering by the tapper
continue uninterruptedly as long as the transmitting key at the distant
station is depressed. The armature of the recording instrument, however,
because of its inertia, cannot rise and fall in unison with the rapid
coherence and decoherence of the receiver, and hence it remains down and
makes a stroke upon the tape as long as the sending key is depressed.
The principal applications of wireless telegraphy so far have been at
sea, where the absence of intervening obstacles gives a free path to the
electrical oscillations. The system is also applicable on land, however,
and no one can doubt that if the Ministers of the Legations shut up in
Pekin had been supplied with a wireless telegraphy outfit, neither the
walls of Pekin nor the strongest cordon of its Chinese hordes could have
prevented the long sought communication. The full story of mystery and
massacre would have been promptly made known, and the civilized world
have been spared its anxiety, and earlier and effective measures of
relief supplied.
As the art of telegraphy grows apace toward the end of the Nineteenth
Century, individuality of invention becomes lost in the great maze of
modifications, ramifications, and combinations. Inventions become merged
into systems, and systems become swallowed up by companies. In the
promises of living inventors the wish is too often father to the
thought, and the conservative man sees the child of promise rise in
great expectation, flourish for a few years, and then subside to quiet
rest in the dusty archives of the Patent Office. They all contribute
their quota of value, but it is so difficult to single out as
pre-eminent any one of those which as yet are on probation, that we must
leave to the coming generation the task of making meritorious selection.
To-day the telegraph is the great nerve system of the nation’s body, and
it ramifies and vitalizes every part with sensitive force. In 1899 the
Western Union Telegraph Company alone had 22,285 offices, 904,633 miles
of wire, sent 61,398,157 messages, received in money $23,954,312, and
enjoyed a profit of $5,868,733. Add to this the business of the Postal
Telegraph Company and other companies, and it becomes well nigh
impossible to grasp the magnitude of this tremendous factor of
Nineteenth Century progress. Figures fail to become impressive after
they reach the higher denominations, and it may not add much to either
the reader’s conception or his knowledge to say that the statistics for
the _whole world_ for the year 1898 show: 103,832 telegraph offices,
2,989,803 miles of wire, and 365,453,526 messages sent during that year.
This wire would extend around the earth about 120 times, and the
messages amounted to one million a day for every day in that year. This
is for land telegraphs only, and does not include cable messages.
What saving has accrued to the world in the matter of time, and what
development in values in the various departments of life, and what
contributions to human comfort and happiness the telegraph has brought
about, is beyond human estimate, and is too impressive a thought for
speculation.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.
DIFFICULTIES OF LAYING--CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES BETWEEN QUEEN
VICTORIA AND PRESIDENT BUCHANAN--THE SIPHON RECORDER--STATISTICS.
Among the applications of the telegraph which deserve special mention
for magnitude and importance is the Atlantic Cable. For boldness of
conception, tireless persistence in execution, and value of results,
this engineering feat, though nearly a half century old, still
challenges the admiration of the world, and marks the beginning of one
of the great epochs of the Nineteenth Century. It was not so brilliant
in substantive invention, as it added but little to the telegraph as
already known, beyond the means for insulating the wires within a gutta
percha cable, but it was one of the greatest of all engineering works.
It was chiefly the result of the energy and public spirit of Mr. Cyrus
W. Field, an eminent American citizen. Three times was its laying
attempted before success crowned the work. The first expedition sailed
August 7, 1857, and consisted of a fleet of eight vessels, four American
and four English, starting from Valentia on the Irish coast. On August
11 the cable parted, and 344 miles of the cable were lost in water two
miles deep. In 1858 a renewal of the effort to lay the cable was made.
Improvements were added in the paying out machinery, and a different
manner of coiling the enormous load of cable on the vessels was resorted
to, and provisions also were made to protect the propeller from contact
with the cable. On June 10 the telegraphic fleet steamed out of Plymouth
harbor. It consisted of the U. S. frigate “Niagara,” with the
paddle-wheel steamer “Valorous” as a tender, and the British frigate
“Agamemnon,” with the paddle-wheel steamer “Gorgon” as a tender. After
three days at sea, terrible gales were encountered and much damage
resulted. The vessels were to proceed to midocean, and the portions of
the cable carried by the “Niagara” and “Agamemnon” were to be spliced,
and the two vessels were then to sail in opposite directions to their
respective coasts. The first splice was made on the 26th of June. After
paying out two and a half miles each, the cable parted. Again meeting
and splicing, forty miles each were paid out, and the cable again
parted. On the 28th another splicing was effected, and 150 miles each
were paid out, and again the cable parted, and the expedition had to be
abandoned. After much financial embarrassment and adverse criticism, the
courageous and public-spirited directors who had control of the
enterprise dispatched another expedition, which sailed July 17, 1858.
The two vessels, “Niagara” and “Agamemnon,” with their tenders,
proceeded to midocean, and following the same method of connecting the
ends of their respective cable sections, they sailed in opposite
directions. On August 5, 1858, Mr. Cyrus Field announced by telegram
from Trinity Bay, on the coast of Newfoundland, that Trinity Bay in
America, and Valentia in Ireland, 2,134 miles apart, had been connected,
and the great Atlantic cable was an established fact.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--ORIGINAL ATLANTIC CABLE, FULL SIZE.
Consists of seven copper wires (4) to form the conductor, a wrapping (3)
of thread, soaked in tallow and pitch, several layers (2) of gutta
percha, all surrounded by a protecting coat of mail (1) of twisted
wires.]
On August 16, 1858, the first message came over from Queen Victoria to
President Buchanan of the United States, as follows:
“_To the President of the United States, Washington:_
“The Queen desires to congratulate the President upon the
successful completion of this great international work, in which
the Queen has taken the deepest interest.
“The Queen is convinced that the President will join with her in
fervently hoping that the Electric Cable which now connects Great
Britain with the United States will prove an additional link
between the nations whose friendship is founded upon their common
interest and reciprocal esteem.
“The Queen has much pleasure in thus communicating with the
President, and renewing to him her wishes for the prosperity of the
United States.”
to which the President replied as follows:
“WASHINGTON CITY, Aug. 16, 1858.
“_To Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain:_
“The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her
Majesty, the Queen, on the success of the great international
enterprise accomplished by the science, skill, and indomitable
energy of the two countries. It is a triumph more glorious,
because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror
on the field of battle.
“May the Atlantic Telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to
be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred
nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse
religion, civilization, liberty and law throughout the world. In
this view will not all nations of Christendom spontaneously unite
in the declaration that it shall be forever neutral, and that its
communications shall be held sacred in passing to their places of
destination, even in the midst of hostilities?
(Signed)
“JAMES BUCHANAN.”
Great rejoicing on both sides of the ocean followed, and the public
print was filled with accounts of the enterprise. The following
selection from the _Atlantic Monthly_ of October, 1858, is an apostrophe
in lofty sentiments of verse, which to-day stirs the Twentieth Century
heart as a joyous prophecy fulfilled:
Thou lonely Bay of Trinity,
Ye bosky shores untrod,
Lean, breathless, to the white-lipped sea
And hear the voice of God!
From world to world His couriers fly,
Thought-winged and shod with fire;
The angel of His stormy sky
Rides down the sunken wire.
What saith the herald of the Lord?
“The world’s long strife is done!
Close wedded by that mystic cord,
Her continents are one.
“And one in heart, as one in blood,
Shall all her peoples be;
The hands of human brotherhood
Shall clasp beneath the sea.
“Through Orient seas, o’er Afric’s plain,
And Asian mountains borne,
The vigor of the Northern brain
Shall nerve the world outworn.
“From clime to clime, from shore to shore,
Shall thrill the magic thread;
The new Prometheus steals once more
The fire that wakes the dead.
“Earth, gray with age, shall hear the strain
Which o’er her childhood rolled;
For her the morning stars again
Shall sing their song of old.
“For, lo! the fall of Ocean’s wall,
Space mocked and Time outrun!
And round the world the thought of all
Is as the thought of one!”
O, reverently and thankfully
The mighty wonder own!
The deaf can hear, the blind may see,
The work is God’s alone.
Throb on, strong pulse of thunder! beat
From answering beach to beach!
Fuse nations in thy kindly heat,
And melt the chains of each!
Wild terror of the sky above,
Glide tamed and dumb below!
Bear gently, Ocean’s carrier dove,
Thy errands to and fro!
Weave on, swift shuttle of the Lord,
Beneath the deep so far,
The bridal robe of Earth’s accord,
The funeral shroud of war!
The poles unite, the zones agree,
The tongues of striving cease;
As on the Sea of Galilee,
The Christ is whispering, “Peace!”
After a few months of working, the cable became inoperative, but its
success was a demonstrated fact, and in 1866 a new cable was laid by the
aid of that monster steamer “The Great Eastern,” since which time the
cable has become one of the great factors of modern civilization.
Probably the most important of the inventions relating to submarine
telegraphs is the siphon recorder, invented by Sir William Thompson, now
Lord Kelvin (U. S. Pat. No. 156,897, Nov. 17, 1874). It is called a
siphon recorder because the record is made by a little glass siphon down
which a flow of ink is maintained like a fountain pen. This siphon is
vibrated by the electric impulses to produce on the paper strip a zigzag
line, whose varying contour is made to represent letters. In the
illustration, Fig. 15, _m_ is an ink well, _o_ a strip of paper, and _n_
the ink siphon, one end of which is bent and dips down into the ink
well, and the other end of which traces the record on the moving paper
strip _o_. The siphon is sustained on a vertical axis _l_, and its
lateral vibration is effected as follows: A light rectangular coil _b
b_, of exceedingly fine insulated wire, is suspended between the poles N
S of a powerful electro-magnet energized by a local battery. In the
coil _b b_ is a stationary soft iron core _a_, magnetized by the poles N
S. The coil _b b_ is suspended upon a vertical axis consisting of a fine
wire _f f_, and the delicate electrical impulses over the submarine
cable enter the coil _b b_ through the axial wire _f f_ as a conductor,
and cause a greater or less oscillation of the coil _b b_ between the
poles N S of the electro-magnet. The coil _b b_ is connected by a thread
_k_ to the siphon, and pulls the siphon in one direction, while the
siphon is pulled in the opposite direction by a helical spring attached
to an arm on the siphon axis _l_. The jagged lines seen in Fig. 16 spell
the words “siphon recorder.”
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--SIPHON RECORDER.]
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--SIPHON RECORDER MESSAGE.]
To-day there lie in submerged silence, but pulsating with the life of
the world, no less than 1,500 submarine telegraphs. Their aggregate
length is 170,000 miles; their total estimated cost is $250,000,000, and
the number of messages annually transmitted over them is 6,000,000.
Thirteen cables work daily across the Atlantic, and an additional one is
being laid from Germany. Messages now go across the Atlantic and are
received on the siphon recorder at the rate of fifty words a minute,
and at a cost of twenty-five cents a word. Our guns may thunder in the
Philippines, and the news by cable, traveling faster than the earth on
its axis, may reach the Western Hemisphere under the paradoxical
condition of several hours earlier than it occurred. Cablegrams to
Manila cost $2.38 a word, and the cable tolls for our War Department
alone are costing at the rate of $325,000 a year. The logical outcome is
a Pacific cable, a bill for which, connecting San Francisco and
Honolulu, has already passed the United States Senate.
Messages from the Executive Mansion at Washington to the battlefield at
Santiago were sent and responses received within twelve minutes, while a
message dispatched from the House of Representatives in Washington to
the House of Parliament in London, in the chess match of 1898, was
transmitted and a reply received in thirteen and one-half seconds.
To-day the cable with the still small voice, more divine than human,
speaks with one accent to all the nations of the earth. Differing though
they may in tongue and skin, in thought and religion, in physical
development and clime, the telegraph speaks to them all alike, and by
all is understood. Truly it fulfils the prophecy so gracefully expressed
in the verses quoted, and has become the common bond of union among the
nations of the earth.
CHAPTER V.
THE DYNAMO AND ITS APPLICATIONS.
OBSERVATIONS OF FARADAY AND HENRY--MAGNETO-ELECTRIC MACHINES OF
PIXII AND OF SAXTON--HJORTH’S DYNAMO OF 1855--WILDE’S MACHINE OF
1866--SIEMENS’ OF 1867--GRAMME’S OF 1870--TESLA’S POLYPHASE
CURRENTS.
In the last thirty-five years of the Nineteenth Century there has grown
up into the full stature of mechanical majority this stalwart son of
electrical lineage. As the means for furnishing electrical power it
stands to-day the great fountain head of electrical generation, and in
its peculiar field ranks as of equal importance with the steam engine.
Until about 1865 the voltaic battery, which generated electricity by
chemical decomposition, was practically the only means for producing
electricity for industrial and commercial purposes. It was through its
agency that the telegraph, the electric light, and many other
discoveries in electricity were made and rendered possible. Its cost and
limited amount of current, however, restricted the limits of its
practical application, and although its current could furnish beautiful
laboratory experiments, its mechanical work was more in the nature of
illustration than utilization. But with the advent of the dynamo
electricity has taken a new and very much larger place in the commercial
activities of the world. It runs and warms our cars, it furnishes our
light, it plates our metals, it runs our elevators, it electrocutes our
criminals; and a thousand other things it performs for us with secrecy
and dispatch in its silent and forceful way. But what is a dynamo? To
the average mind the most satisfactory answer would be--that it is
simply a machine which converts mechanical power into electricity.
Attach a dynamo to a steam engine, and the power of the steam engine
will, through the dynamo, become transformed or converted into a
powerful electric current. Any other source of mechanical power, such as
a water wheel, gas engine, wind wheel, or even a horse or man, will
serve to operate the dynamo; its primary and sole function being to take
power and convert it into electricity.
The stepping stone to the dynamo in its development was the
_magneto-electrical machine_. This is a machine founded upon the general
principle observed by Faraday in 1831 and 1832, and also by Prof. Henry
about the same time, that when a magnet is made to approach a helix of
insulated wire it causes a current of electricity to flow in the helix
as long as the magnet advances. If the magnet is passed through the
helix, the current is reversed as soon as the magnet passes the middle
point. The principle is the same if the magnet be made to approach and
recede from the poles of an electro-magnet having a helix wound around a
soft iron core. Likewise the same result occurs if the electro-magnet
with its helix is made to approach and recede from a permanent magnet,
the current in the helix flowing in one direction when it approaches the
permanent magnet, and in the opposite direction when leaving the said
magnet. The movement of the two elements in relation to each other
requires some force to overcome the repellent and attractive actions,
and this force is converted into electrical energy. This is the
principle of the magneto-electric machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.--PIXII MAGNETO-ELECTRIC MACHINE, 1832.]
Saxton in the United States and Pixii in France were the first to
produce organized devices of this class for generating electricity from
magnetism. Pixii’s machine (1832) consisted of a permanent horse-shoe
magnet which was caused to revolve in proximity to an armature upon
which was wound a coil of insulated wire. On March 30, 1852, Sonnenberg
and Rechten obtained a United States patent, No. 8,843, for an
electrical machine for killing whales, and on August 19, 1856, Shepard
obtained U. S. Pat. No. 15,596 for the machine which came to be known as
the “Alliance” machine. Both of these machines had permanent field
magnets, and were early types of magneto-electric machines. The
efficiency of these magneto-electric machines was necessarily limited to
the strength of the inducing field magnets, which, being permanent
magnets, were a positive and fixed factor. It was an easy step to
substitute electro-magnets for permanent magnets, as the field or
inducing magnets, and also to excite the (electro) field magnet by
voltaic batteries, but the important step which resulted in the machine
which is called the “dynamo” (from the Greek “Δυναμις”--power) was yet
to come.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--HJORTH’S DYNAMO ELECTRIC MACHINE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 19.--HJORTH’S DYNAMO ELECTRIC MACHINE, PLAN VIEW.]
This step consisted in taking the current induced in the revolving helix
or armature (by the field magnets) and sending it back through the coils
of the field magnets which produced it, thereby increasing the energy of
the field magnet coils, and they in turn with an increased efficiency
and reciprocal action induce still stronger currents in the armature
coils, and so a building up process, or principle of mutual and
reciprocal excitation, is carried on until the maximum efficiency is
reached. This principle was the discovery of Soren Hjorth, of
Copenhagen, and is fully described in his British patent, No. 806 of
1855, for “An Improved Magneto-Electric Battery.” As the prototype of
the dynamo, it is worthy of illustration. In the illustration, Figs. 18
and 19, _a_ is a revolving wheel bearing the armature coils, _C_
permanent magnets, _d_ electro-magnets (field magnets), and _g_ the
commutator. Quoting from his specifications, he says: “The permanent
magnets acting on the armatures brought in succession between their
poles, induce a current in the coils of the armatures, which current,
after having been caused by the commutator to flow in one direction,
passes round the electro-magnets (field magnets), charging the same and
acting on the armatures. By the mutual action between the
electro-magnets and the armatures an accelerating force is obtained,
which in result produces electricity greater in quantity and intensity
than has heretofore been obtained by similar means.”
Although the principle of the dynamo was clearly embodied in the Hjorth
patent, its value was not appreciated until some time later. Eleven
years later Wilde (U. S. Pat. No. 59,738, Nov. 13, 1866), employed a
small machine with permanent magnets to excite the coil-wound field
magnets of a larger machine. But Siemens (British Pat. No. 261 of 1867),
taking up the principle employed by Hjorth, dispensed with his
superfluous permanent magnets, having found that the residual magnetism,
which always remained in iron which has once been magnetized, was
sufficient as a basis to start the building up process. Farmer,
Wheatstone and Varley also recognized this fact about the same time.
Siemens’ patent also was the first embodiment of what is known as the
bobbin armature. Gramme and D’Ivernois (British Pat. 1,668 of 1870, and
U. S. Pat. No. 120,057, of Oct. 17, 1871), were the first to bring out
the continuously wound ring armature.
Active development now began in various types and by various inventors,
including Weston, Brush, Edison, Thomson and Houston, Westinghouse, and
others, who have brought the dynamo to its present high efficiency.
The revolving coils of the dynamo are called the armature, and the fixed
electro-magnets are called the field magnets, and these latter may be
two or more in number. When two are used they are arranged on opposite
sides of the armature, and form what is known as the bipolar machine. A
larger number constitutes the multipolar machine. The field magnets in
the multipolar machine usually are arranged in radial position around
the entire circumference of the revolving armature, and are held in a
fixed circular frame. To give a clear idea of the principles of the
dynamo, the bipolar machine is best suited for illustration, and is here
given in Figs. 20 and 21, in which Fig. 20 represents the dynamo
complete, and Fig. 21 a detail of the end of the armature and
commutator. This armature consists of coils or bobbins of insulated
wire, each section having its terminals connected with separate
insulated plates on the hub, which plates are known as the commutator.
When any section of the armature approaches the pole of a field magnet,
the current induced in that section of the armature coils by the field
magnet, is taken off from a corresponding plate of the commutator by
flat springs, seen in Fig. 20, and known as brushes. The field magnets A
and B, Fig. 20, are shown with only a few turns of wire about them for
clearer illustrations of the connections, which are made as follows: The
wire _a_ is extended in coils around the field magnet B, and thence
around field magnet A, and thence to the upper brush on the commutator,
thence through the wire coils or bobbins of the rotary armature C, and
thence by the lower brush to the wire _b_. The terminals of the wires
_a_ and _b_ extend to the point of utilization of the current, whether
this be electric lights, motors, or other applications. In this
illustration, the circuit, it will be seen, passes through both the
coils of the field magnets and the coils of the armature, involving the
principle of mutual excitation.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.--BIPOLAR DYNAMO.]
There are two principal kinds of dynamos--those producing the
alternating currents, and those producing the continuous current. In the
first the current alternates in direction, or is composed of an infinite
number of impulses of opposite polarity: one polarity when a section of
the armature coil is approaching a north field magnet pole or receding
from a south pole, and the other polarity when receding from a north
field magnet pole and approaching a south pole. In the continuous
current machine, the commutator and brushes are so arranged as to take
up all the impulses of the same polarity and conduct them away by one
brush, and gathering all the impulses of the opposite polarity and
conducting them away by another brush. Thus the current of each brush,
in the continuous current machine, is always of the same polarity, and
the polarity of one being always positive, and that of the other
negative, the current flows continuously in the same direction. A third
species of dynamo is the pulsatory, in which the current flow is
invariable in direction, but proceeds in waves.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.--ARMATURE OF BIPOLAR DYNAMO.]
A change in the character of the current generated by the dynamo is made
by what is known as the “transformer,” in which the principle of the
induction coil is made available. In this way, for instance, the high
potential currents generated by the powerful water wheels at Niagara
Falls are taken twenty miles to Buffalo, and are there transformed into
other currents of lower potential, suited to incandescent lighting and
other various uses. A similar scheme is in process of fulfillment in the
establishment of a water power electric plant near Conowingo, Maryland,
on the Susquehanna River, to furnish electrical power to Baltimore,
Wilmington and Philadelphia.
An important development in electrical generation and transmission is to
be found in what is known as the _polyphase_, _multiphase_, or
_rotating_ current, pioneer patents for which were granted to Tesla May
1, 1888, Nos. 381,968, 381,969, 382,279, 382,280, 382,281 and 382,282.
Realizing the possibilities of the dynamo, the Legislature of New York
in 1888 passed a law, which went into effect in 1889, in that State,
substituting death by electricity for the hangman’s noose. The criminal
is strapped in the chair, seen in Fig. 22, one terminal of the wire from
the dynamo is strapped upon his forehead, and the other to anklets on
his legs, and like a flash of lightning the deadly energy of the dynamo
performs its work.
Not the least of the applications of the dynamo is its use in
electro-metallurgy for plating metals, and also for promoting chemical
reactions. The electric furnace, stimulated into higher heat by the
dynamo than can be otherwise obtained, has brought about many valuable
discoveries, and made great advances in various arts. The metal
aluminum, and the hard abrasive or polishing and grinding material known
as “carborundum” are the products of the electric furnace, and so is the
product known as “calcium carbide,” which, when immersed in water, gives
off acetylene gas and is a product now universally used for that
purpose, and rapidly increasing in commercial importance.
[Illustration: FIG. 22.--ELECTROCUTION CHAIR.]
In Fig. 23 is seen the Acheson electric furnace for producing
carborundum. The electric current traverses the furnace through a series
of horizontal electrodes at each end, and highly heats a central core of
carbon, which is disposed in a mass of silicious and carbonaceous
material, and which latter is converted by the heat into silicide of
carbon, or carborundum. In Fig. 24 is shown a continuous electric
furnace constructed as a revolving wheel, under the Bradley patents. Rim
sections 5 are placed on the wheel on one side and filled with a mixture
of carbon and lime, through which the electric current is passed from
the dynamo _g_. The heat of the current fuses the mass and converts it
into calcium carbide, and as the wheel slowly revolves the rim sections
5 are removed from the opposite side, and the mass of calcium carbide,
seen at _x_, is broken off. The electrolytic production of copper
through the agency of the dynamo amounts to 150,000 tons annually, and
the commercial reduction of aluminum by the electric furnace has grown
from eighty-three pounds in 1883 to 5,200,000 pounds in 1898, and its
cost has been reduced to about 33 cents per pound.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.--PART SECTIONAL VIEW OF CARBORUNDUM FURNACE.]
The storage battery, holding in reserve its stored up electric energy,
also owes its practical value entirely to the dynamo which charges it,
and thus makes available a portable source of supply.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--BRADLEY ELECTRIC FURNACE FOR PRODUCING CALCIUM
CARBIDE.]
To contemplate the dynamo with its clumsy, enormous spools, it suggests
to the imagination of the average observer the gigantic toy of some
Brobdingnagian boy--but the dynamo is no toy. It is the most compact,
business-like, and dangerous of all utilitarian devices. To touch its
brushes may be instant death, for the dynamo is the prison house of the
lightning, and resents intrusion. Hidden away from public gaze in some
sequestered power house, and working night and day like some tireless,
dumb, and mighty genii, it sends its magnetic thrills of force silently
through the many miles of wire extending like radii from some great
nerve center through the conduits in our streets, and stretching from
pole to pole like giant cobwebs through the air. Responding to its
force, thousands of little incandescent threads leap into radiant
brightness and shed their mellow and genial light in our offices, our
stores, hotels, and homes. Brilliant arc lamps, rivaling the sun in
power, make night into day, and produce along our streets coruscations,
silhouettes, and dancing shadows in spectacular and unceasing pageants.
From the towering lighthouses of our coasts its beams are thrown
seaward, and a beacon for the mariner shines beyond all other lights.
The great search light of our ships is in itself but a hollow mockery
until the dynamo whispers in its ear the word “light!” and then its
beam, reaching for miles along the horizon, discovers a stealthy enemy,
or signals the safe return to port. The mighty force of the dynamo
entering the electric motors on the street cars turns the wheels and
transports its load with scarcely a passenger inside realizing how it is
all done. The same energy turns the electric fan, and with kindly
service soothes the weary sufferer, and at another place remorselessly
takes the life of the condemned criminal. The dynamo is one of the great
factors of modern civilization, and its potential name, like that of
“dynamite,” rightly defines its character.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.--MODERN MULTIPOLAR DYNAMO.]
CHAPTER VI.
THE ELECTRIC MOTOR.
BARLOW’S SPUR WHEEL--DAL NEGRO’S ELECTRIC PENDULUM--PROF. HENRY’S
ELECTRIC MOTOR--JACOBI’S ELECTRIC BOAT--DAVENPORT’S MOTOR--THE NEFF
MOTOR--DR. PAGE’S ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE--DR. SIEMENS’ FIRST ELECTRIC
RAILWAY AT BERLIN, 1879--FIRST ELECTRIC RAILWAY IN UNITED STATES,
BETWEEN BALTIMORE AND HAMPDEN, 1885--THIRD RAIL SYSTEM--STATISTICS
ELECTRIC RAILWAYS AND GENERAL ELECTRIC CO.--DISTRIBUTION ELECTRIC
CURRENT IN PRINCIPAL CITIES.
Although the electric motor of to-day depends for practical value
entirely upon the dynamo which supplies it with electric power,
nevertheless the motor considerably antedated the dynamo. The genesis of
the electric motor began in 1821 with Faraday’s observation of the
phenomenon of the conversion of an electric current into mechanical
motion. In his experiment a copper wire was supported in a vertical
position so as to dip into a cup of mercury, while a small bar magnet
was anchored at one end by a thread to the bottom of the cup and floated
in the mercury in upright position. The mass of mercury being connected
to one pole of a battery, and the vertical wire to the other, it was
found that when the circuit was completed by clipping the wire into the
mercury, the floating bar magnet would revolve around the wire as a
center.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.--BARLOW’S WHEEL.]
In 1826 Barlow, of Woolwich, made his electrical spur wheel, Fig. 26,
and in 1830 the Abbe Dal Negro, in Padua, is said to have constructed a
sort of vibrating electrical pendulum, both of which devices were crude
forms of magnetic engines. Dal Negro’s machine, see Fig. 27, consisted
of a magnet A, movable about an axis situated about one-third of its
length, and the upper extremity of which was capable of oscillating
between the two branches of an electro-magnet E. A current being sent
into the electro-magnet, passed through an eight-cupped mercurial
commutator C, which the oscillating magnet controlled by means of a rod
_t_ and a fork F. When the magnet had been attracted toward one of the
poles of the electro-magnet this very motion of attraction acting upon
the commutator changed the direction of the current, and the magnet was
repelled toward the other branch of the electro-magnet, and so on.
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--DAL NEGRO’S ELECTRIC MOTOR.]
In 1828 Prof. Joseph Henry produced his energetic electro-magnets
sustaining weights of some thousands of pounds, and gave prophetic
suggestion of the possibilities of electricity as a motive power. In
1831 he devised the electric motor shown in Fig. 28, which is described
in Prof. Henry’s own words as follows:
“A B is the horizontal magnet, about seven inches long, and movable on
an axis at the center; its two extremities when placed in a horizontal
line are about one inch from the north poles of the upright magnets C
and D. G and F are two large tumblers containing diluted acid, in each
of which is immersed a plate of zinc surrounded with copper; _l m s t_
are four brass thimbles soldered to the zinc and copper of the batteries
and filled with mercury.
“The galvanic magnet A B is wound with three strands of copper bell
wire, each about twenty-five feet long; the similar ends of these are
twisted together so as to form two stiff wires _q r_, which project
beyond the extremity B, and dip into the thimbles _s t_.
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--PROF. HENRY’S ELECTRIC MOTOR.]
“To the wires _q r_ two other wires are soldered so as to project in an
opposite direction, and dip into the thimbles _l m_. The wires of the
galvanic magnet have thus, as it were, four projecting ends; and by
inspecting the figure it will be seen that the extremity _p_, which dips
into the cup _m_, attached to the copper of the battery in G,
corresponds to the extremity _r_ which dips into the cup _t_,
connecting, with the zinc in battery F. When the batteries are in
action, if the end B is depressed until _q r_ dips into the cups _s t_,
A B instantly becomes a powerful magnet, having its north pole at B;
this, of course, is repelled by the north pole D, while at the same time
it is attracted by C; the position is consequently changed, and _o p_
comes in contact with the mercury in _l m_; as soon as the communication
is formed, the poles are reversed, and the position again changed. If
the tumblers be filled with strong diluted acid, the motion is at first
very rapid and powerful, but it soon almost entirely ceases. By
partially filling the tumblers with weak acid, and occasionally adding a
small quantity of fresh acid, a uniform motion, at the rate of
seventy-five vibrations in a minute, has been kept up for more than an
hour; with a large battery and very weak acid the motion might be
continued for an indefinite length of time.”
Following Prof. Henry came Sturgeon’s rotary motor of 1832, Jacobi’s
rotary motor of 1834, Fig. 29, which had electro-magnets both in the
field and armature; Davenport’s motor of 1834, Zabriskie’s motor of
1837, in which a vibrating magnet converted reciprocating into rotary
motion; Davenport’s motor of 1837 (U. S. Pat. No. 132, Feb. 25, 1837),
Fig. 30; Page’s rotary motor of 1838, Walkley’s motor of 1838 (U. S.
Pat. No. 809, June 27, 1838); Stimson’s motor of 1838 (U. S. Pat. No.
910, Sept. 12, 1838); Page’s motor of 1839, Cook’s of 1840 (U. S. Pat.
No. 1,735, Aug. 25, 1840); Elias’ motor of 1842, invented in Holland;
Lillie’s motor of 1850 (U S. Pat. No. 7,287, April 16, 1850); the Neff
motor of 1851 (U. S. Pat. No. 7,889, Jan. 7, 1851), of which
illustration is given in Fig. 31, and Page’s motor of 1854 (U. S. Pat.
No. 10,480, Jan. 31, 1854). In 1835 Davenport constructed a small
circular railway at Springfield, Mass.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--JACOBI’S ROTARY ELECTRIC MOTOR.]
In 1839 Prof. Jacobi, with the aid of Emperor Nicholas, applied his
electric motor to a boat 28 feet long, carrying fourteen passengers, and
propelled the same at a speed of three miles an hour. About the same
time Robert Davidson, a Scotchman, experimented with an electric railway
car sixteen feet long, weighing six tons, and attaining a speed of four
miles an hour. In 1840 Davenport, by means of his electric motor,
printed a news sheet called the _Electro Magnet and Mechanics’
Intelligencer_. In 1851 an electric locomotive made by Dr. Page in
accordance with his subsequent patent of 1854, drew a train of cars from
Washington to Bladensburg at a rate of nineteen miles an hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--DAVENPORT MOTOR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 31.--NEFF MOTOR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 32.--WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC MOTOR.]
All these motors were operated by voltaic batteries, and on account of
the cost of the latter but little practical use of the electric motor
was made until the dynamo was invented. In 1873 an accidental
discovery led to the rapid practical development of the electric motor.
It is said that at the industrial exhibition at Vienna in that year, a
number of Gramme dynamos were being placed in position, and a workman
in making the electrical connections for one of these machines,
inadvertently connected it to another dynamo in active operation, and
was surprised to find that the dynamo he was connecting began to revolve
in the opposite direction. This was the clue that led to the important
recognition of the structural identity of the dynamo and the modern
type of electric motor. The dynamo and the electric motor then grew into
development together, and the same inventors who brought the dynamo to
its present high efficiency, produced electric motors of corresponding
principles and value. In the illustration, Fig. 32, is shown a modern
electric motor. It is a Westinghouse two-phase machine, of 300 horse
power, of the self starting induction type, designed to operate at a
speed of 500 revolutions per minute when supplied with two-phase
currents of 3,000 alternations per minute and 2,000 volts pressure.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--SIEMENS’ FIRST ELECTRIC RAILWAY.]
The most important application of the electric motor is for street car
operation. The first electric railway was that of Dr. Werner Siemens, at
Berlin, in 1879, an illustration of which is given in Fig. 33. The first
electric railway in America was installed at Baltimore in 1885, and ran
to Hampden, a distance of two miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--OVERHEAD TROLLEY CAR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC TROLLEY SYSTEM.]
The familiar overhead trolley cars, and the far superior conduit trolley
system, represent perhaps the largest use made of electric motors. The
motors are arranged under the cars in varying forms adapted to the
structure of the car. In the overhead trolley, shown in Fig. 34, the
current is taken from the overhead wire by a flexible trolley pole, and
in the conduit system a trolley known as a plow extends from the bottom
of the car through a narrow slot in the top of the conduit and makes a
traveling contact with the conductor rails within the conduit, which
carry the electric current. Fig. 35 is an end view of a street car of
the latter type, with the conduit and conductor rails in cross section.
The current goes from one rail to one bearing surface of the plow,
thence to the motor on the car and back to the other bearing surface of
the plow and the other conductor rail in the conduit.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--THIRD RAIL SYSTEM ON THE N. Y., N. H. & H.
RAILROAD--FRONT END OF MOTOR CAR.]
A third system, which has supplanted to some extent the use of steam on
short line railways, is the so-called third rail system, of which an
example is seen in Fig. 36. A third conductor rail is placed between the
usual track rails, and from this conductor the current is taken by a
sliding shoe on the car, and carried to the motor and thence through the
car wheels to the track rails. To reduce danger from the live rail, the
third rail in some systems is made in sections, and, by an automatic
switching process as the car moves along, only the sections of the rail
beneath the car are brought into circuit, all other portions being cut
out.
The use of electric motors has greatly extended, cheapened, and
expedited the street car service. All the principal thoroughfares of
cities and even towns are now so equipped, and radiating suburban lines
extend for miles from the city, affording for five cents a pleasant and
cheap excursion for the poor to the green fields and fresh air of the
country.
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--ELECTRIC RAILWAY MOTOR, CLOSED.]
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--ELECTRIC RAILWAY MOTOR, OPENED.]
Figs. 37 and 38 show an electric motor used on street cars, as made by
the General Electric Company. Externally it presents the appearance of
some curious, uncouth, cast iron box, which, to the uninitiated, piques
the curiosity, and when opened adds no explanation of its real
character. In it, however, the electrician finds a most interesting
combination of metal and magnetism.
[Illustration: FIG. 39.--ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE OF B. & O. TUNNEL IN
BALTIMORE.]
In Fig. 39 is shown one of the most powerful electric locomotives ever
constructed. It was built in 1895 by the General Electric Company for
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, to draw trains through the long tunnel
from the Camden Street Station in Baltimore, for the purpose of avoiding
smoke and gas in the tunnel, which is 7,339 feet long. The locomotive
weighs ninety-six tons, or twenty-five tons above the average steam
locomotive. It was designed to draw 100 trains daily each way, moving
passenger trains of a maximum weight of 500 tons at thirty-five miles an
hour, and freight trains of 1,200 tons at fifteen miles an hour. It has
two trucks, and eight drive wheels of sixty-two inches diameter. There
are four motors, two to each truck, each rated at 360 horse power.
Other important applications of the electric motor are, the propelling
of automobile carriages, small boats, and fish torpedoes, operating
steering gear for ships, passenger elevators, rock drills in mines,
running printing presses, fans, sewing machines, graphophones, and in
all applications where space is limited and cleanliness a desideratum.
According to Mulhall there were in 1890 in the United States and Canada
about 645 miles of street railway operated by electricity. This about
concluded the first decade of the life of the electric railway. Some
idea of the rapid increase in this field may be had by the statement of
the same authority that there were in 1890, at the end of this first
decade, forty-five additional electric railroads in course of
construction, aggregating 512 miles of way, which nearly doubled the
previous existing mileage.
In 1898 it was estimated that there were in the United States 14,000
miles of electric railroads, with a nominal capital of $1,000,000,000,
and employing 170,000 men. In the same year a single electrical contract
was entered into between the Third Avenue Railroad and the Union Railway
Company of New York, acting as one, and the Westinghouse Electrical and
Manufacturing Company, amounting to $5,000,000. This was for the
electrical equipment of their respective railway lines, and is the
largest electrical contract ever made. The change in equipment from
other motive power to the electric is rapidly going on in all
directions, and the rapid succession of trains will doubtless cause it,
for passenger traffic on short lines, to eventually supersede steam.
The eighth annual report of the General Electric Company shows for the
year 1899 orders received for railway and other electrical equipment
amounting to $26,323,626; goods shipped, $22,379,463.75; profit on same,
$3,805,860.18. The growth of its business from 1893 to 1899 shows the
following per cent. of increase: In 1893, 36 per cent. above 1892; in
1894, 126 per cent. above 1893; in 1895, 10 per cent. above 1894; in
1896, 60 per cent. above 1895; in 1897, 60 per cent. above 1896; in
1898, 21 per cent. above 1897; in 1899, 51 per cent. above 1898.
The capitalization in electrical appliances in the United States in 1898
is estimated at $1,900,000,000, most of which is devoted to industries
in which the electric motor is used. The export of electrical apparatus
from this country amounts to more than three million dollars annually,
and it is said that there are eight times as many electric railways in
the United States as in all the rest of the world combined.
The use of electrical current in twelve principal cities in the United
States was distributed in 1898 as follows:
Lamps, arcs, and motors in sixteen candle power equivalents.
Boston 616,000
New York 1,718,000
Chicago 1,278,000
Brooklyn 322,000
Baltimore 224,000
Philadelphia 488,000
St. Louis 303,000
San Francisco 231,000
Buffalo 125,000
Rochester 184,000
Cincinnati 201,000
New Orleans 81,000
Boston makes the largest use of electrical current in proportion to its
population of any city in the world. Rochester is next. Both of these
cities employ in electrical units of 16 c. p. equivalents, more than one
electric lamp for every man, woman and child in their respective
populations.
The dynamo and the electric motor have together wrought this great
development. The dynamo takes mechanical power and converts it into
electrical energy, and the electric motor takes the electrical energy
and converts it back into mechanical power. Standing behind them both,
however, is the steam engine, and these three afford a beautiful
illustration of the law of correlation of forces. The force starts with
the combustion of coal under the boiler of the steam engine. When carbon
unites chemically with oxygen, it is an exothermic reaction that gives
off heat as correlated energy. The influence of heat on the molecules of
water in the boiler causes them, by repellent action, to assume the
qualities of an elastic gas, and this expanding as steam drives the
piston of the steam engine. The steam engine overcomes by force the
resistance existing between the dynamo’s field magnets and armature
coil, and sets up in the latter the correlated force of an electric
current, and the electric current, traveling to its remote destination
by suitable conductors, enters the coils of the electric motor in
reverse relation to that of the dynamo, and in producing the reverse
effect between the armature and field magnets, electrical energy is
converted back into mechanical power. It is not possible to obtain in
the electric motor the full equivalent of the dynamo’s current, nor in
the dynamo the full equivalent of the steam engine’s power, nor in the
steam engine the full equivalent of the chemical energy in the
combustion of coal. Loss by radiation, by conduction, by friction, and
by electrical resistance precludes this, but while there is loss in a
utilitarian sense there is no real loss, for force like matter, is
indestructible, and the proof of this universal law by Joule, in 1843,
constitutes one of the highest triumphs of philosophy and one of the
most important discoveries of the Nineteenth Century.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.
VOLTAIC ARC BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY--THE JABLOCHKOFF CANDLE--PATENTS OF
BRUSH, WESTON AND OTHERS--SEARCH LIGHTS--GROVE’S FIRST INCANDESCENT
LAMP--STARR-KING LAMP--MOSES FARMER LIGHTS FIRST DWELLING WITH
ELECTRIC LAMPS--SAWYER-MAN LAMP--EDISON’S INCANDESCENT LAMP--
EDISON’S THREE-WIRE SYSTEM OF CIRCUITS--STATISTICS.
The popular idea of the electric light is, that it is a very recent
invention, since even the younger generation remembers when there was no
such thing in general use. It will surprise many readers, then, to know
that the electric light had its birth in the first decade of the
Nineteenth Century. In 1809 Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that when two
pieces of charcoal, which formed the terminals of a powerful voltaic
battery, were separated after having been brought into contact with each
other, at the moment of separation a brilliant arc of flame passed from
one piece of charcoal to the other, producing a temperature of 4,800°
F., and that the intensity of the light exceeded all other known forms
of light. Various improvements in the organization of devices were made
for holding the two pieces of carbon, which in time assumed the form of
two pencils in alignment, as in Fig. 40, and devices were provided for
feeding one carbon toward the other as they burned away. Clock mechanism
for thus regulating the feed was first employed, which served to
automatically keep the carbons a definite distance apart, this being a
necessary condition of the arc. For many years, however, the use of such
a light was confined to laboratory illustration, for the reason that it
could only be produced at great expense by a large number of voltaic
batteries. Nevertheless very efficient electric lamps working by voltaic
batteries were devised by Foucault, Duboscq, Deleuil and others as early
as 1853. With the advent of the dynamo, however, the electric light grew
rapidly and developed into conspicuous use. Even before the true dynamo
was invented the magneto-electric machine was employed for producing an
electric current to supply electric light. The so-called “Alliance”
generator was, in 1858, used in the South Foreland lighthouse in England
to supply the arc lamps, and the beams of the electric light then, for
the first time, were turned seaward as a beacon for the mariner.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.--SIMPLE ELECTRIC ARC LAMP.]
[Illustration: FIG. 41.--JABLOCHKOFF CANDLE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 42.--WESTON ARC LAMP.]
Among the early developments of the electric light was the Jablochkoff
candle, see Fig. 41, brought out in 1877. In this device two parallel
sticks of carbon G G were separated by a non-conducting layer of kaolin
I, and were held in an asbestos ferrule A. Metal tubes T T connected the
conducting wires F F to the carbons. The arc of flame passed from the
top of one carbon to the other, fusing the separating layer of kaolin,
and the whole burned down together as a candle. This form of electric
light was extensively used in Paris in 1877, and also in London, and
attracted considerable attention.
[Illustration: FIG. 43.--ARC LAMP FEED MECHANISM.]
From the Jablochkoff candle the arc light has resumed the form of two
vertically aligned carbons, and after passing through various forms and
patterns, of which the Weston lamp, Fig. 42, is a modern type, has come
into such universal and conspicuous use for lighting the streets of our
cities, and is so well known to-day, that but little need be said of its
development, since its real character has undergone no change in
principle, the improvements relating chiefly to means for regulating the
feed of the carbons and maintaining them at a uniform distance apart, so
as to avoid flickering. This result is obtained by automatic mechanism
operated by the electric current acting upon electro-magnets, as shown
in Fig. 43, in which the electro-magnets raise the upper carbon when it
is too close to the lower carbon, and lower the upper carbon when the
space becomes too great from burning away. Among those who have
contributed to the development of the arc light the names of Brush,
Weston, and Thomson and Houston are most conspicuous, and the patents of
Brush, No. 203,411, May 7, 1878, and No. 212,183, Feb. 11, 1879, and
Weston, No. 285,451, Sept. 25, 1883, are the most representative
developments.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.--NINE THOUSAND CANDLE POWER ARC LAMP.]
The applications of the arc light have been brilliant beyond the dreams
of the most sanguine inventor. In the illustrations number 44, 45 and
46, is shown a gigantic electric light beacon manufactured by Henry
Lepaute, of Paris, and first exhibited in this country at the Chicago
World’s Fair, in 1893. It consists of two great lenses, each nine feet
in diameter, between which, in their focus, is placed a 9,000 candle
power arc light. The great lantern, Fig. 45, is carried by a vertical
shaft, which terminates at its lower end in a hollow drum, which latter
floats in a bath of mercury. Although the weight is estimated at several
tons, so sensitive is its poise on the mercury that the enormous lantern
may be easily rotated by the pressure of one’s finger. Each lens
consists of concentric segments, see Fig. 46, 190 in number, surrounding
a central disk, which together cause the rays to issue in parallel
lines. The nine-foot beam of light thus projected is of 90,000,000
candle power, and if placed at a sufficient altitude to avoid the
curvature of the earth’s surface, its light would be visible at the
range of 146.9 nautical miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.--NINETY MILLION CANDLE POWER BIVALVE LENS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 46.--FRONT VIEW OF LENS.]
Better known to the patrons of our excursion boats and the visitors to
our splendid battleships, are the electric search lights. The greatest
example of all search lights, however, is not to be found on the sea,
but in the picturesque altitudes of the Sierra Madres in Southern
California. At the summit of Mount Lowe, in the neighborhood of
Pasadena, is the largest search light in the world, shown in
illustration, Fig. 48. It is of 3,000,000 candle power, stands eleven
feet high, and its total weight is 6,000 pounds. Its light may be seen
for 150 miles out on the ocean, and as its powerful beam is thrown from
mountain top to mountain top hundreds of miles apart, it adds the
illumination of art to the sublimity of nature, and seems a fitting
jewel to this lofty crown of Mother Earth.
[Illustration: FIG. 47.--SEARCH LIGHT WITH MACHINE GUN REPELLING NIGHT
ATTACK OF TORPEDO BOAT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 48.--SEARCH LIGHT ON MOUNT LOWE, CALIFORNIA.]
Brilliant as is the arc lamp, far more in evidence is the incandescent
lamp. The little glass bulb with its tiny thread of light we find
everywhere. Popular opinion and the decision of the courts accord this
invention to Thomas A. Edison. The evolution of the incandescent lamp
is, however, interesting, and may be briefly sketched as follows:
[Illustration: FIG. 49.--FIRST INCANDESCENT LAMP, BY PROFESSOR GROVE,
1840.]
[Illustration: FIG. 50.--STARR-KING LAMP.]
In 1845 there appeared in the _Philosophical Magazine_ a description of
what was probably the first incandescent electric light. It was devised
in 1840 by William Robert Grove, the inventor of the Grove battery, and
is illustrated in Fig. 49. It is stated that he experimented and read by
it for hours. It was described as follows:
“A coil of platinum wire is attached to two copper wires, the lower
parts of which, or those most distant from the platinum, are well
varnished; these are fixed erect in a glass of distilled water, and
another cylindrical glass, closed at the upper end, is inverted over
them, so that its open mouth rests on the bottom of the former glass;
the projecting ends of the copper wires are connected with a voltaic
battery (two or three pairs of the nitric acid combination), and the
ignited wire now gives a steady light. Instead of making the wires pass
through the water, they may be fixed to metallic caps well luted to the
necks of a glass globe.”
In 1845 August King patented, in England, an incandescent lamp, having
an unsealed platinum burner, and also a carbon in a vacuum. Mr. King
acted as agent for an American inventor, Mr. Starr, and the lamp came
to be known as the Starr-King lamp, shown in Fig. 50. The burner was a
thin plate or pencil of carbon B, enclosed in a Torricellian vacuum at
the end of an inverted barometer tube, and held between the terminals of
the connecting wires leading to a battery. In 1859 Moses G. Farmer
lighted his house at Salem, Mass., by a series of subdivided electric
lights, which was the first private dwelling lighted by electricity, and
probably the first illustration of the feasibility of subdividing the
electric current through a number of electric lamps.
In 1877 William E. Sawyer applied for a United States patent for an
electric engineering and lighting system, and in January, 1878, entered
into a partnership with Albon Man, and the “Sawyer-Man” lamp, see Fig.
51, was produced. In this an incandescent rod of carbon was inclosed in
an atmosphere of nitrogen. This marked the beginning of a period of
great activity in this field, which finally resulted in the well known
form of electric lamp shown in Fig. 52, which was patented by Edison,
No. 223,898, January 27, 1880. The distinctive features of this lamp
consisted in a bowed filament of carbon of very thin, thread-like
character, which was made of paper or carbonized cellulose. This, when
sealed in a vacuum, would not burn away, but would give the proper
incandescence, and by its small transverse dimension and high
resistance to the current, permitted a proper distribution of the
electric current to a number of lamps, without a special regulator for
each lamp; and which could also be made so cheaply that the lamp could
be thrown away when the burner was finally broken. Edison’s claim on
this feature of the electric lamp was sharply contested in an
interference in the Patent Office by Sawyer and Man, with the decisions
alternating first in favor of one and then of the other, but which
finally resulted in the grant of a patent to Sawyer and Man, on May 12,
1885. A struggle then began in the courts, which on October 4, 1892,
terminated in a decision by the United States Court of Appeals (Edison
Electric Light Company vs. United States Lighting Company), awarding the
incandescent lamp to Edison.
[Illustration: FIG. 51.--SAWYER-MAN LAMP.]
[Illustration: FIG. 52.--EDISON’S ELECTRIC LAMP.
_A_--Exhausted globe. _B_--Carbon filament. _CC_--Wires sealed in glass.
_D_--Line of fusion of two parts of globe. _EF_--Insulating material.
_G_--Screw-threads. _HI_--Metal socket. _J_--Fixture arm _K_--Circuit
controlling key.]
In the early demonstration given by Edison great disturbance was caused
in the stock exchanges among the holders of gas shares, as the
sensational reportings in the press seemed to indicate that gas was to
be superseded entirely. This uneasiness on the London Stock Exchange
amounted on October 11, 1878, to a veritable panic, but while the
electric light has more than fulfilled the prophecy made for it in many
directions, gas shares still continue to be good stocks.
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--ELECTRIC LIGHT CIRCUIT.]
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--EDISON’S THREE WIRE SYSTEM OF ELECTRIC LIGHT
CIRCUITS.]
Closely allied to the practical use of the incandescent lamp is the
method of supplying and regulating the current from the dynamo. Although
the alternating current is used for arc light, only the continuous
current can be used for the incandescent lights, and the relation of
the dynamo and the incandescent lamps is shown in Fig. 53, in which L
represents the lamps between the main conducting wires leading from the
dynamo, which latter has the coils of the field magnets arranged in a
shunt or branch circuit, in which is interposed a regulator R in the
form of a resistance coil with movable switch lever, by which more or
less of the current is allowed to flow through the field magnet coils to
suit the work being done. In late years automatic regulators have been
provided for accomplishing this result. In Fig. 54 is shown what is
known as the Edison “three wire system,” patented March 20, 1883, No.
274,290. In this two dynamos are used as at D¹ D², and the three wires
emerge from the dynamos, one from the negative pole of one dynamo,
another from the positive pole of the other dynamo, and the third or
middle one is connected to both the other poles (positive and negative),
of the two dynamos. For purposes of illustration, this may be compared
to a three-storied arrangement of current, the upper wire representing
the third story, the middle wire the second story, and the bottom one
the first story. The fall from either story to the next represents the
working energy, but from the top wire to the bottom would be equal to a
fall from the third story to the first. The purpose of this arrangement
is to save expense in copper wire, for while three main wires are used
instead of two, the aggregate weight of the wires (when the lamps are
arranged as shown), may be made so much less than two heavy wires as to
make a very great saving in copper.
The uses of the incandescent light are legion. Besides those which are
of common observation it is used for lighting the interior of mines,
caves, and the dark apartments of ships, and does not foul the air. It
is also used by divers in submarine operations; in the formation of
advertising signs, and in pyrotechnics, but perhaps one of the most
extraordinary uses to which it has been put is in exploring the interior
of the human stomach and other cavities of the body, a patent for which
was granted to M. C. F. Nitze, No. 218,055, July 29, 1879.
When an electric lamp is arranged with the opposite ends of the carbon
burner connected, one to the outgoing, the other to the incoming wires
from a dynamo, so as to be bridged across, this arrangement is said to
be “in multiple” or “in parallel,” and the lamps bear the analogy of
horses drawing abreast, and when the opposite ends of the carbon burner
are placed in a gap or break in either the outgoing or the incoming
wire, the arrangement is said to be “in series,” and the lamps bear the
analogy of horses in tandem.
Explanation of electric nomenclature can best be given by the analogy in
hydrostatics of a stream of water passing in the hose pipe from a
fire-engine. The “watt” indicates the sum total unit of electrical power
for a definite period of time, and in the hose pipe would be
represented by the effective force of a definite volume of water,
passing at a definite pressure, during a definite period of time. “Volt”
is a pressure unit of electro-motive force, and would be represented by
the power of the engine. “Ampere” would be the quantity, or volume unit,
or cross section of the hose pipe, and the “ohm” would be the unit of
frictional resistance. The “watt” then would be the “volt” multiplied by
the “ampere”; thus 500 watts would be 10 amperes at 50 volts, or 50
amperes at 10 volts. Low tension circuits, such as are used for
incandescent lights, range from 100 to 240 volts and are harmless.
Trolley circuits are usually 500 volts, and will kill an animal, but are
not necessarily fatal to man. High tension currents from 2,000 to 5,000
volts, such as are used for arc lights, are fatal.
Of all modern inventions, not one has advertised itself in such a
spectacular way as the electric light. Those who have seen the
magnificent electrical displays at the Chicago Fair, the electrical
celebrations in New York, and the Omaha Exhibition, need no introduction
to its marvelous splendors and beauties. In the annual report for 1898
of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, its statement
shows that for that city alone the gross earnings were $2,898,021. There
were 9,990 users of the electric light, 443,074 incandescent lamps, and
7,353 arc lights. It is estimated that the electric light stations and
plants in the United States alone amount to $600,000,000. In the year
1899 a single manufacturing concern (The General Electric Company)
received orders for 10,000,000 incandescent lamps, which is about
one-half of the present annual production. Sixteen years ago the lamps
were $1 each; to-day they can be bought for 18 cents.
What the future has in store for the further development of the electric
light no one may dare predict. Already a different form or manifestation
of electric light has been demonstrated, in which neither the electric
arc nor the incandescent filament is used, but a peculiar glow is seen
disassociated from a direct material habitation, and produced by
currents of enormous frequency and high potential, in accordance with
the patent to Tesla, No. 454,622, June 23, 1891. Other worthy inventors
in this field are at work, and its development will be one of the
interesting problems of the Twentieth Century.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE TELEPHONE.
PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS AND EXPERIMENTS OF BOURSEUL, REIS AND
DRAWBAUGH--FIRST SPEAKING TELEPHONE BY PROF. BELL--DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN REIS’ AND BELL’S TELEPHONES--THE BLAKE TRANSMITTER--
BERLINER’S VARIATION OF RESISTANCE, AND ELECTRIC UNDULATIONS BY
VARIATION OF PRESSURE--EDISON’S CARBON MICROPHONE--THE TELEPHONE
EXCHANGE--STATISTICS.
Τηλε (far), and φωνη (sound), are the Greek roots from which the word
telephone is derived. It has the significance of transmitting sound to
distant points, and is a word antedating the present speaking telephone,
although this fact is generally lost sight of in the dazzling brilliancy
of this latter invention. In the effort to hear better, the American
Indian was accustomed to place his ear to the ground. Children of former
generations also made use of a toy known as the “lovers’ telegraph”--a
piece of string held under tension between the flexible bottoms of two
tin boxes--which latter when spoken into transmitted through the string
the vibrations from one box to the other, and made audible words spoken
at a distance. These expedients simply made available the superior
conductivity of the solid body over the air to transmit sound waves. The
electro-magnetic telephone operates on an entirely different principle.
It is a marvelous creation of genius, and stands alone as the unique,
superb, and unapproachable triumph of the Nineteenth Century. For
subtilty of principle, impressiveness of action, and breadth of results,
there is nothing comparable with it among mechanical agencies. In its
wonderful function of placing one intelligent being in direct vocal and
sympathetic communication with another a thousand miles away, its
intangible and mysterious mode of action suggests to the imagination
that unseen medium of prayer rising from the conscious human heart to
its omniscient and responsive God. The telegraph and railroad had
already brought all the peoples of the earth into intimate communication
and made them close kin, but the telephone transformed them into the
closer relationship of families, and the tiny wire, sentient and
responsive with its unlimited burden of human thoughts and human
feelings, forms one of the great vital cords in the solidarity of the
human family.
It is a curious fact that many, and perhaps most, great inventions have
been in the nature of accidental discoveries, the by-products of thought
directed in another channel, and seeking other results, but the
telephone does not belong to this class. It is the logical and
magnificent outcome of persistent thought and experiment in the
direction of the electrical transmittal of speech. Prof. Bell had his
objective point, and keeping this steadily in view, worked faithfully
for the accomplishment of his object in producing a speaking telephone,
until success crowned his work. He probably did not realize at first the
full magnitude of the achievement, but looking at it from the end of the
Nineteenth Century, he might well exclaim in the language of Horace:
“_Exegi monumentum acre perennius_.”
Prof. Bell’s conception of the telephone dates back as far as 1874. His
first United States patent, No. 174,465, was granted March 7, 1876, and
his second January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. It is generally the fate of
most inventions, even of a meritorious order, to languish for many
years, and frequently through the whole term of the patent, before
receiving full recognition and adoption by the public, but the meteoric
brilliancy of this invention at its first public announcement astonished
the masses, and inspired the admiration of the savants of the world.
When exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, in 1876, it
was spoken of by Sir William Thomson, and Prof. Henry, as the “greatest
by far of all the marvels of the electric telegraph.”
[Illustration: FIG. 55.--PHILIP REIS’ TELEPHONE.]
It is always the fate of the author of any great invention to be
compelled to defend himself against the claims of others. It is one of
the failings of human nature to lay claim to that which somebody else
has obtained, and is an old story which finds its first illustration in
the squabbles of childhood. When a troop of prattling boys hunt
butterflies among the daisies, and some sharp-eyed youngster has
captured a prize, there are always others of his mates to cry, “I saw it
first,” and men are but grown-up boys. So in the history of the
telephone, Prof. Bell has found competitors for this honor, and it is
astonishing to know how close some of these prior experimenters came to
success without reaching it. In 1854 Bourseul, of Paris _suggested_ an
electric telephone, and in 1861 Philip Reis _devised_ an electric
telephone which would transmit musical tones. Daniel Drawbaugh, of
Pennsylvania, is alleged to have made an electric telephone in
1867-1868, and his claims against the Bell interests were fought
vigorously in the Patent Office, and in the courts, but without success.
Elisha Gray’s claims perhaps came nearer to establishing for him a share
in the honor of inventing the speaking telephone than any other, for he
filed a caveat in the United States Patent Office upon the same day
(February 14, 1876), upon which Prof. Bell’s application for a patent
was made. But in the contest in the Patent Office with Gray, Edison,
Berliner, Richmond, Holcombe, Farmer, Dolbear, Volker, and others, it
was decided that Prof. Bell was the first to make a practically
effective speaking telephone, and this conclusion has been sustained by
the courts. Reis was a poor German school teacher at Friedrichsdorf, and
in 1860 he took a coil of wire, a knitting needle, the skin of a German
sausage, the bung of a beer barrel, and a strip of platinum, and
constructed the first electric telephone. A typical form of his
transmitter, see Fig. 55, was a box covered with a vibrating membrane E,
and provided with a mouth-piece at one side. A platinum strip F was
attached to the membrane or vibrating diaphragm E, and a platinum
pointed hammer G rested lightly on the platinum strip F. The hammer G
and platinum strip F were connected to the opposite ends of a wire,
which had in its circuit a battery and a receiver. Air vibrations in the
nature of sound waves in the box caused the diaphragm E to vibrate, and
a separating make-and-break contact between the platinum strip F and the
platinum point of hammer G caused a series of separate and distinct
broken impulses to traverse the battery circuit and be received upon the
receiver, which latter consisted of an iron rod with a coil of wire
around it. That Reis’ transmitter did alternately make and break the
circuit, seems clear from his own memoir. A translation from this
memoir, taken from the annual report (Jahresberichte) of the Physical
Society of Frankfurt am Main for 1860-1861, reads as follows:
“At the first condensation (of air vibrations) the hammer-shaped little
wire _d_ (G in our illustration), will be pushed back. At the succeeding
rarefaction it cannot follow the return vibration of the membrane, and
the current going through the little strip (of platinum) remains
interrupted so long as until the membrane driven by a new condensation
presses the little strip against _d_ (the hammer G) once more. In this
way each sound wave effects an opening and closing of the current.”
[Illustration: FIG. 56.--PROF. BELL’S TELEPHONE, MARCH 7, 1876.]
Reis evidently did not know how to make the vibrations of his diaphragm
translate themselves into exactly commensurate and correlated electric
impulses of equal rapidity, range, and quality. If he had done this, he
would have had a speaking telephone, but a make-and-break contact could
never do it, and hence he in his later instruments attached to them a
telegraphic key in order that the sending operator might communicate
with the receiving operator. If Reis’ telephone had been a speaking
telephone, this would have been unnecessary. Furthermore, it is
inconceivable how the intelligent, progressive, and scientific Germans
could have failed to have given to a speaking telephone in 1860 the
immediate honor and attention that it deserved. In America, the Bell
speaking telephone, invented in 1876, was known all over the civilized
world the same year. Reis’ broken contact circuit would transmit musical
tones, because musical tones vary chiefly in rapidity of vibration,
rather than in range, or quality, and the chattering contacts of Reis’
telephone would transmit musical tones because said contracts could be
adjusted to the practically uniform range of vibration. Prof. Bell,
however, had made a special study of articulate speech, and knew that
speech was not essentially musical, but was composed of an irregular and
discordant medley of vowel and consonant sounds, whose vibrations varied
not only in pitch or rapidity like musical tones, but also in the
quality or kind of vibrations as to range and loudness. In his
invention, therefore, he did not make and break the circuit as did Reis,
through the contact points, but he used the more sensitive plan of a
constantly closed circuit, and merely caused the current to undulate in
it by a principle of magnetic induction. This principle was first
discovered by Oersted, and developed into the well known fact that when
a piece of iron is moved back and forth from the poles of an
electro-magnet an induced current is made to oscillate in the helix of
the electro-magnet. The difference between Reis’ separating
make-and-break circuit, and the Bell continuous but undulating current,
might be illustrated by the difference between the impulses delivered by
the beating of the drum sticks on the head of a drum, on the one hand,
and the alternate pulling and slackening of a kite cord, on the other.
In the successive impacts on the head of a drum there could not be so
sensitive a transfer of motion to the lower head of the drum as there
would be transferred to the kite by the movement of the hand holding the
kite cord. Reis’ plan resembled the broken drum beats, and Bell’s the
kite cord, which always preserved a certain amount of tension. Bell
accomplished his object by the means shown in Figs. 56 and 57, in which
Fig. 56 represents his first patent of March 7, 1876, and Fig. 57 his
second patent of January 30, 1877. In both cases the current was a
continuously closed one, and was not alternately made and broken as by
the separating contacts of Reis. Prof. Bell caused the vocal air
vibrations to undulate or oscillate the continuously closed circuit by
the principle of magnetic induction as follows (see Fig. 56): He caused
diaphragm _a_, when spoken against, to vibrate the armature _c_ in front
of the electro-magnet _b_, but without touching it, and as the armature
approached and receded from the electro-magnet it induced an undulating
but never broken current in the helix of this electro-magnet and along
the line to and through the helix of the electro-magnet _f_ at the
distant receiver, and this undulating current, influencing the armature
_h_, which touched the diaphragm _i_ but not the electro-magnet,
produced in the attractive influence of the magnet on this armature and
diaphragm, vibrations of the same rapidity, range, and quality as those
vocal vibrations that acted upon the first diaphragm _a_. In other
words, the sequence of transference was air vibrations in A, mechanical
vibrations of diaphragm _a_, electrical undulations traversing the line,
induced vibrations in armature _h_ and diaphragm _i_, and air vibrations
again resolved back into sounds of articulate speech, the same as those
spoken into A. It will be perceived that in the Bell telephone both
transmitter and receiver were of identical construction. This is better
shown in Fig. 57 of his later patent, in which the horizontal line below
the electro-magnet on one side represents a metal transmitting
diaphragm, and the horizontal line under the electro-magnet at the other
side was the receiving diaphragm. Not only were the sounds thus
reproduced, but as the circuit was continuous and never broken by any
separating contacts, the extreme sensitiveness of the electric
vibrations set up by magnetic induction was such that the discordant and
irregular quality of the vibrations of articulate speech were
transferred and reproduced with exact fidelity, as well as the musical
tones, and this rendered the speaking telephone a success. In later
telephones the current is actually transmitted through the contacting
points, but this only became practicable after the carbon microphone
transmitter was invented, in which the essential undulations of the
electric current were produced in another way, _i. e._, by the
application of the important discovery that the varying of the pressure
on carbon, by vibration, varied its conductivity, and in this way
produced the same result of undulating a current without breaking it.
This in no wise detracts from the value of the principle of the
continuous undulating current discovered and employed by Prof. Bell,
between which and the breaks of the hard platinum points of Reis there
is a difference as wide as the difference between success and failure.
[Illustration: FIG. 57.--PROF. BELL’S TELEPHONE, JANUARY 30, 1877.]
The form in which Prof. Bell’s telephone was placed before the public
was not that shown in the patents, but it quickly assumed the well-known
shape of an elongated cylinder forming a handle, with a flaring
mouth-piece at one end. This development in form is credited to Dr.
Channing in 1877, and it is the familiar form to-day, whose internal
construction is shown in Fig. 58. The handle is made of hard rubber, and
the cap or mouth-piece, which is screwed thereon, is also of hard
rubber. The diaphragm A, of thin ferrotype plate, is clamped at its
edges between the cap, or mouth-piece, and the handle. The compound
magnet B is composed of four thin flat bar magnets, arranged in pairs on
opposite sides of the flat end of the soft iron pole piece _c_ at one
end, and the soft iron spacing piece _d_ at the other end, the magnets
being clamped to these pieces with like poles all in one direction. The
end of the pole piece _c_ extends to within 1/100 to 2/100 of an inch of
the diaphragm, or as near as possible so that the diaphragm does not
touch it when it vibrates. On the pole piece _c_ is placed a wooden
spool on which is wound silk-covered wire (No. 34, Am. W. G.). This wire
fills the spool, and its ends are soldered to two insulated wires which
pass through a flexible rubber disc _f_ below the spool and extend
respectively to the two binding posts at the opposite end of the handle.
The current passes from one binding post and its connecting wire,
through the wire on the spool, and thence to the other connecting wire
and binding post. When used as a transmitter, vocal vibrations acting
mechanically on the diaphragm A produce undulatory vibrations by
magnetic induction in the spool of wire, which are transmitted to the
other end of the line; and when used as a receiver, the undulatory
vibrations from the remote end of the line produce mechanical vibrations
in the diaphragm, which set up air vibrations that are reproductions of
articulate sounds.
[Illustration: FIG. 58.--LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF BELL TELEPHONE.]
Although the Bell telephone is both a transmitter and receiver, in
practice a more sensitive and better form of transmitter has taken its
place. That most generally used and best known is the “Blake
transmitter,” which was brought out about 1880. This employs two
important elements. The first is the carbon microphone, which is a means
for producing the undulations in the current by the variations in
pressure on carbon contacts, and the second is an induction coil
operated by a local battery, whose primary circuit passes through the
contacts of the carbon microphone, and whose secondary circuit passes
over the line. These fundamental elements of the Blake transmitter were
the inventions of Berliner and Edison, and were made in 1877. The broad
idea of producing electric undulations by varying the pressure between
electrodes by vocal vibrations, was a large bone of contention in the
Patent Office between various inventors. An application for a patent for
the same was filed in the Patent Office by Emile Berliner, June 4, 1877,
which was contested in an interference by Gray, Edison, Richmond,
Dolbear, Holcombe, Prof. Bell, and others. After fourteen years of
litigation the patent was finally awarded to Berliner. The patent
granted to him November 17, 1891, No. 463,569, is a valuable one, and
has become the property of the American Bell Telephone Company. The
application of a low resistance conductor (carbon) in a microphone was
invented by Edison as early as 1877, but his patent, No. 474,230, did
not issue until May 3, 1892, on account of the interference with
Berliner on the broader principle.
[Illustration: FIG. 59.--BLAKE TRANSMITTER.]
[Illustration: FIG. 60.--DIAGRAM OF CIRCUITS IN BLAKE TRANSMITTER.]
The Blake transmitter takes its name from the inventor of its mechanical
features, who has assembled in it the fundamental principles of Berliner
and Edison in a sensitive and practical mechanical construction, covered
by minor patents, dated November 29, 1881. It is the little box in the
middle of the familiar telephone outfit into which the talking is done.
Its internal construction is shown in Fig. 59. To the rear of the door
is secured the cast iron circular ring A, inside of which lies the
Russia iron diaphragm B, cushioned at its edges with a rubber band. A
circular seat a little larger than the diaphragm is formed in the iron
ring, and on this seat the diaphragm rests. A short, thin metal plate
attached to the ring A on the right hand side clamps the diaphragm in
position by resting squarely on the rubber edge of the diaphragm. Its
function is like that of a hinge, which allows the diaphragm to freely
swing inward. A steel damping spring is secured to the ring at the
opposite edge of the diaphragm, and has its free end provided with a
rubber glove on which is cemented a thin piece of fluffy woolen
material. The padded end of the damping spring rests against the
diaphragm and prevents excessive vibration. The iron ring A has at its
bottom a projection holding an adjusting screw, and to a similar top
projection is attached by screws a brass spring, from which depends
another casting C, supporting the microphone apparatus, which is best
shown in the diagram, Fig. 60. In this diagram A is one terminal of the
battery connected by wire S to the hinge H of the box. From the other
leaf of the hinge the wire M passes to K, where it is soldered to the
upper end of a German silver spring I. At K this spring is clamped and
insulated from the iron work by two pieces of hard rubber. On the lower
end of the spring I is soldered a short piece of thick platinum wire,
whose ends are rounded into heads, one of which bears against the
diaphragm N, and the other against the carbon button J. This button is
attached to a small brass weight, and is supported by a spring R,
clamped at its upper end to the metal support T. This spring is
surrounded its entire length by rubber tubing to deaden vibration. The
transmitter is adjusted by screw O, which, acting upon casting T, brings
the carbon button, the platinum heads, and also the diaphragm N, against
each other with a regulated pressure. The current passes from the part K
to the spring I, the platinum head, carbon button J, and its supporting
spring R, to metal casting T, and ring V, thence by wire L to the lower
hinge G, by wire P to the primary of the induction coil, and thence by
wire Y to binding post B, the two binding posts A B being the two
battery terminals. The secondary wire E of the induction coil has its
ends connected by wires X and W with the two binding posts C B, which
are the line terminals, or one the line terminal and the other the
ground connection. It will thus be seen that the primary current passes
through the transmitter, and the secondary traverses the line. The most
familiar forms of the telephone are those seen in Figs. 61 and 62, but
the ideal form is rigged in a cabinet or little room, which excludes all
extraneous interfering sounds.
[Illustration: FIG. 61.--WALL TELEPHONE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 62.--DESK TELEPHONE.]
With the Bell receiver and the Blake transmitter a good practical
telephone system may be constructed, but the improvements which have
been made in the short life of the telephone are beyond adequate
description, or even mention. They relate to the call bell, the battery,
the switchboard, meters for registering calls, conductors, conduits,
connections, lightning arresters, switches, anti-induction devices,
repeaters, and systems. Among those most prominently identified with its
development are Bell, Edison, Berliner, Hughes, Gray, Dolbear and
Phelps. The activity in this field is best illustrated by the fact that
the art of telephony, begun practically in 1876, has at the end of the
Nineteenth Century grown into some 3,000 United States patents on the
subject.
[Illustration: FIG. 63.--TELEPHONE EXCHANGE.]
That which has given the telephone its greatest commercial value is the
“exchange” system, by which at a central office any member of a
telephonic community may be instantly put into communication with any
other member of that community. For this purpose, see Fig. 63, a
continuous switchboard is arranged along the side of a large room and
occupies most of that side of the wall. It comprises a great array of
annunciator drops, spring jacks with plug seats, and connecting cords
with metal plugs at their opposite ends. Each subscriber is connected to
his own spring jack and annunciator drop, and his call to central
office (from his magneto-bell) throws down the annunciator drop which
bears the number of his telephone, and announces to the attendant his
desire to communicate with another. To insure the attention of the
attendant, a tiny electric lamp is by the same action lighted directly
in front of her, which acts as a pilot signal to call her attention to
the drop. The attendant now puts a plug in that spring jack, which
automatically restores the drop, and she then asks the number which the
subscriber wants, and, upon ascertaining this, puts the plug at the
other end of the connecting cord into the spring jack of the subscriber
wanted, and by this action disconnects her own telephone. As every
telephone subscriber has in the central office an apparatus exclusively
his own, it will be seen that a telephone community of several thousands
of subscribers involves an imposing array of multiple connections, and a
great expense in construction. Girls are chosen as exchange attendants
because their voices are clearer. Every telephone jack, however, does
not have its Jill, for each girl has charge of a hundred or more jacks,
and wears constantly on her head a telephone of special shape, embracing
her head like a child’s hoop comb, but terminating with an ear-piece at
one end that covers one ear. She is too busy to waste time in adjusting
an ordinary telephone to her ear, and so wears one of special design all
the time.
In the twentieth annual report of the American Bell Telephone Company,
for the year 1899, the number of telephones in use January 1, 1900, by
that company alone, in the United States, was 1,580,101; the miles of
wire were 1,016,777, and the daily connections for persons using the
telephone were 5,173,803. The gross earnings of the company were
$5,760,106.45, and it paid in dividends $3,882,945. The total number of
exchange stations of the Bell Company in the principal countries of the
world are: United States, 632,946; Germany, 212,121; Great Britain,
112,840; Sweden, 63,685; France, 44,865; Switzerland, 35,536; Russia,
26,865; Austria, 26,664; Norway, 25,376. The United States has nearly
85,000 more than all the others put together.
Since the expiration of the Bell patents many smaller companies have
sprung up, and the number of telephones in use has more than doubled in
the last five years. Long distance telephony is now carried on up to
nearly 2,000 miles, and one may to-day lie in bed in New York and listen
to a concert in Chicago, and the vocal exchange of business and social
intercourse between cities has become so large a feature of modern life
as to justify the organization of a great company for this service
alone.
In the Old Testament, Book of Job, xxxviii. chapter, 35th verse, it is
written: “Canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto
thee--‘Here we are?’” For thousands of years this challenge to Job has
been looked upon as a feat whose execution was only within the power of
the Almighty; but to-day the inventor--that patient modern Job--has
accomplished this seemingly impossible task, for at the end of this
Nineteenth Century of the Christian Era, the telephone makes the
lightning man’s vocal messenger, tireless, faithful, and true, knowing
no prevarication, and swifter than the winged messenger of the gods.
CHAPTER IX.
ELECTRICITY--MISCELLANEOUS.
STORAGE BATTERY--BATTERIES OF PLANTÉ, FAURE AND BRUSH--ELECTRIC
WELDING--DIRECT GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY BY COMBUSTION--ELECTRIC
BOATS--ELECTRO-PLATING--EDISON’S ELECTRIC PEN--ELECTRICITY IN
MEDICINE--ELECTRIC CAUTERY--ELECTRICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS--ELECTRIC
BLASTING.
A prominent factor in the electrical art is the _Storage Battery_,
Secondary Battery, or Accumulator, as it is variously called. A storage
battery acts upon the same general principle as the ordinary galvanic or
voltaic battery in giving forth electrical current as the correlated
equivalent of the chemical force, but differs from it in this respect,
that when the elements of a primary battery are used up, the battery is
exhausted beyond repair. With the storage battery, it may be regenerated
at will by simply subjecting it to an electric current from a dynamo.
The dynamo stores up in this battery its electric force by converting it
into chemical force, which is imprisoned in chemical compounds that are
formed while the power of the dynamo is being applied. These chemical
compounds are, however, in a condition of unstable chemical equilibrium,
which is undisturbed so long as the poles of the storage battery are not
connected, but when connected through a circuit, the instability of the
chemical compounds asserts itself, and in passing back to a condition of
normal equilibrium the disruption gives off the correlative equivalent
of electric current stored up in it by the dynamo.
Probably the earliest suggestion of a storage battery is by Ritter in
1812, in his “secondary pile.” This device consisted of alternate discs
of copper and moistened card, and was capable of receiving a charge from
a voltaic pile and of then producing the physical, chemical, and
physiological effects obtained from the ordinary pile. The first storage
battery of importance, however, was made by Gaston Planté in 1860, which
consisted of leaden plates immersed in a 10 per cent. solution of
sulphuric acid in water. In Fig. 64 is shown a modification of the
Planté type of storage battery, composed of a series of plates shown on
the left. Each of these plates is built up, as shown in detail in Fig.
65, of lead strips corrugated and arranged in layers alternately with
flat strips, within perforated leaden cases. The corrugation of the
leaden laminæ gives greater superficial area, and the alternation of
flat and corrugated strips keeps them properly spaced, so the sulphuric
acid solution may penetrate and act upon the same. Each plate section
has a rod to connect it with its proper terminal. When the charging
current is applied, the positive lead plate becomes covered with lead
peroxide (PbO₂) and finely divided metallic lead is deposited on the
negative plate. When the battery is being discharged the peroxide of
lead gives up one of its atoms of oxygen to the spongy metallic lead
deposited on the other plate, and both plates remain coated with lead
monoxide (PbO).
[Illustration: FIG. 64.--PLANTÉ STORAGE BATTERY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 65.--ENLARGED DETAIL OF PLANTÉ PLATE.]
The most important development of the storage battery was made by
Camille A. Faure, in 1880 (U. S. Pat. No. 252,002, Jan 3, 1882). In the
early part of 1881 there was sent from Paris to Glasgow a so-called “box
of electric energy” for inspection and test by Sir William Thomson, the
eminent electrician. It was one of the first storage batteries of M.
Faure. The illustration, Fig. 66, shows a battery of this type in which
the lead plates covered with red lead (Pb₃O₄) replace the plain lead
plates in the Planté cell. The action of the battery is that when a
current of electricity is passed into the same, the red lead on one
plate (the negative) is reduced to metallic lead, and that on the other
is oxidized to a state of peroxide (PbO₂). These actions are reversed
when the charged cell is discharging itself. The elements of this
battery consist of alternate layers of sheet lead, and a paste of red
oxide of lead. These are immersed in a 10 per cent. solution of
sulphuric acid in water. Many minor improvements have been made in the
storage battery, covered by 716 United States patents, most of which
relate to cellular construction for holding the mass of red lead in
place. The most notable are those of Brush, to whom many patents were
granted in 1882 and 1883.
[Illustration: FIG. 66.--STORAGE BATTERY--FAURE TYPE.]
The storage battery finds many important applications. For furnishing
current for the propulsion of electric street cars it has proved a
disappointment, on account of the vibrations to which it is subjected,
and the great weight of the lead, which in batteries of suitable
capacity runs up into many thousands of pounds. The storage battery
finds a useful place, however, for equalizing the load in lighting and
power stations, and is there brought into action to supplement the
engine and dynamo during those hours of the day when the tax or load is
greatest. It is also used to keep up electrical pressure at the ends of
long transmission lines; for telegraphing purposes; for isolated
electric lighting; for boat propulsion; the propulsion of automobile
carriages; and in all cases where a portable source of electric current
would find application. The great growth of automobile carriages in the
past year has greatly stimulated the output of storage batteries. One
large company (The Electric Storage Battery Company), manufactured and
sold storage batteries for the year ending June 1, 1899, to the amount
of $2,387,049.91, and there are many other manufacturers.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.--ELECTRIC WELDING.]
_Electric Welding_ was invented by Prof. Elihu Thomson, of Lynn, Mass.,
and patented by him August 10, 1886, No. 347,140-42, and July 18, 1893,
No. 501,546. It is useful for the making of chains, tools, carriage
axles, joining shafting, wires, and pipes, mending bands, tires, hoops,
and lengthening and shortening bolts, bars, etc. For electric welding a
current of great volume or quantity, and very low electro-motive force,
is required. Thus a current of from one to two volts, and one to several
thousand amperes, is best suited. Referring to Fig. 67, the current from
the dynamo is conducted to one binding post of the commutator 3, which
is arranged to send the current through one-sixth, one-third or one-half
of the primary wire P of a transformer or induction coil. The other
binding post of the commutator 3 extends to one terminal of an isolated
primary coil 4, and the other terminal of this coil connects with the
dynamo. The coil 4 is provided with a switch to regulate the amount of
current. The rods to be welded are placed in clamps C C′, C being
connected with one terminal of the secondary conductor S, and the
movable clamp C′ with the other. When the current is turned on C′ is
moved so as to project one of the surfaces to be welded against the
other, and as they come in contact they heat and fuse together, as shown
at W. Larger apparatus has been devised to weld railroad joints on the
roadbed, and for other applications.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.--GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY BY COMBUSTION.]
_The generation of electricity_ for commercial purposes is almost
entirely dependent upon the dynamo, as this is cheaper than the voltaic
battery. The dynamo, however, must be energized by a steam engine. The
direct production of electric energy by the combustion of coal would be
the ideal method. A process invented by Edison (Pat. No. 490,953, Jan.
31, 1893), is interesting as an effort in this direction, and is
presented in Fig. 68. A carbon cylinder D is suspended in an air-tight
vessel B, and is surrounded by oxide of iron F, the whole being placed
above a furnace. The temperature being raised to a point where the
carbon will be attacked by the oxygen, carbonic oxide and carbonic acid
will be formed, which are exhausted by the suction fan E. A constant
current of electricity is given off from the two electrodes through the
wires, the metallic oxide being reduced and the carbon consumed.
[Illustration: FIG. 69.--RUDDER AND MOTOR OF TROUVÉ’S ELECTRIC BOAT,
1881.]
_Electrical Navigation_ began with Jacobi, who made the first attempt on
the Neva in 1839. He used voltaic apparatus consisting of two Grove
batteries, each containing sixty-four pairs of cells, but little
progress was made in this field until the secondary battery was
perfected. In 1881 Mr. G. Trouvé made an application of the storage
battery and electric motor to a small boat on the Seine. The electric
motor, which was located on top of the rudder, as seen in Fig. 69, was
furnished with a Siemens armature connected by an endless belt with a
screw propeller having three paddles arranged in the middle of an iron
rudder. In the middle of the boat were two storage batteries connected
with the motor by two cords that both served to cover the conducting
wires and work the rudder. Electric launches have in later years rapidly
gained in popularity. Visitors to the Chicago fair will remember the
fleet of electric launches, which afforded both pleasure and
transportation on the water, at that great exposition, and to-day every
safe harbor has its quota of these silently gliding and fascinating
pleasure crafts. Fig. 70 is a longitudinal section and a general view of
one of these launches.
[Illustration: FIG. 70.--MODERN ELECTRIC LAUNCH.]
_Electro-plating_ is one of the great industrial applications of
electricity which had its origin in, and has grown into extensive use
in, the Nineteenth Century. It originated with Volta, Cruikshank, and
Wollaston in the very first year of the century. In 1805 Brugnatelli, a
pupil of Volta, gilded two large silver medals by bringing them into
communication by means of a steel wire with the negative pole of a
voltaic pile and keeping them one after the other immersed in a solution
of gold. In 1834 Henry Bessemer electro-plated lead castings with copper
in the production of antique relief heads. In 1838 Prof. Jacobi
announced his galvano-plastic process for the production of electrotype
plates for printing. In the same year he superintended the gilding, by
electro-plate, of the iron dome of the Cathedral of St. Isaac at St.
Petersburgh, using 274 pounds of ducat gold. In 1839 Spencer described
an electrotype process and carried the date of his operations back to
September, 1837. In 1839 Jordan also describes an electro-plating
process. In 1840 Murray used plumbago to make non-conducting surfaces
conductive for electro-plating. In 1840 De Le Rive made known his
process of electro-gilding, employed by him in 1828, and in the same
year (1840) De Ruolz took out a French patent for electro-gilding, and
in the following year formed electro deposits of brass from cyanides of
zinc and copper. In 1841 Smee employed his battery for electro-plating
with various metals. In 1844 there were published the electro-plating
experiments of Dancer, made in 1838. In 1847 Prof. Silliman imitated
mother-of-pearl by electro-plating process.
[Illustration: FIG. 71.--ELECTRO-PLATING ESTABLISHMENT.]
In the last half of the century the production of electrotype plates for
printing in books, and for the production of rollers for printing
fabrics, and the extensive art of electro-plating with gold, silver,
nickel and copper, has grown to enormous proportions, but the
fundamental principles have not materially changed. The dynamo, however,
has generally supplanted the voltaic battery in this art. The deposition
of silver and gold on baser metals not only increases the ornamental
effect, but prevents oxidation. Silver plated goods for the table and
articles of vertu are to be found everywhere. Nickel is employed for
cheaper ornamental effect, and copper finds a large application for
electrotypes for printing and for coating iron castings as a protection
against rust. In Fig. 71, which shows the interior of an electro-plating
establishment, the dynamo is shown on the right connected by wires with
two horizontal rods running along the wall and across the various tanks
containing the plating solution. On the tanks are rods supporting the
articles to be plated, which are suspended in the solution. Similar rods
support the opposite electrodes of the tank. Wires connect these rods to
the rods on the side of the wall, and to the opposite poles of the
dynamo.
[Illustration: FIG. 72.--EDISON’S ELECTRIC PEN.]
_The electric pen of Edison_, brought out in 1876 (U. S. Pat. No.
196,747, Nov. 6, 1877), is one of the simple applications of
electricity, which for a number of years was in quite general use for
making manifold copies of manuscript. In the illustration, Fig. 72, this
is shown. It comprises a stylus _b_ reciprocated in a tube _a_ by the
vibratory action of an armature _k_ over the poles of an electro-magnet,
supplied with a suitable current and vibrating contacts _l h_. The
stylus was rapidly reciprocated, and as the operator traced the letters
on the paper, the stylus produced a continuous trail of punctures which
permitted the paper to be used as a stencil to make any number of
copies. It has, however, been rotated out of existence by manifolding
carbon paper, and the almost universal use of the typewriter.
[Illustration: FIG. 73.--ELECTRIC CAUTERY.]
_Electricity in Medicine._--The superstitious mind is prone to resort to
mysterious agencies for the cure of diseases, and for many years men of
no scientific knowledge whatever have been employing this seductive
instrumentality for all the ills that flesh is heir to. That it has
valuable therapeutic qualities when rightly applied no intelligent
person will doubt, and it is unfortunate that for the most part it has
been in the hands of charlatans who sell their wares, and rely upon a
faith-cure principle for the result. Still there have been intelligent
experimenters in this field, and it is one of much promise for further
research.
In the first century of the Christian Era (A. D. 50) Scribonius Largus
relates that Athero, a freedman of Tiberius, was cured of the gout by
the shocks of the torpedo or electric eel. In 1803 M. Carpue published
experiments on the therapeutic action of electricity. The discovery of
induction currents by Faraday in 1831 brought a new era in the medical
application of electricity, in the use of what is known as the Faradaic
current. The first apparatus for medical use, which operated on this
principle, was made by M. Pixii in France, and the first physician who
employed such currents was Dr. Neef, of Frankfort. The medical battery
is a well-known and useful adjunct to the physician’s outfit. Electric
baths are also common and effective modes of applying the electric
current. An early example of such a device is shown in the U. S. patent
to Young, No. 32,332, May 14, 1861. The electric cautery and probe are
also scientific and useful instruments. The cautery consists of a loop
of platinum wire carried by a suitable non-conducting handle, with means
for constricting the white hot loop of wire about the tumor or object to
be excised. It was invented in 1846 by Crusell, of St. Petersburgh. A
form of the electric cautery is shown in Fig. 73, in which _a_ is the
platinum wire loop whose branches slide through guide tubes, the ends
being attached to a sliding ring B. The current enters through the wire
at the binding posts at the end of non-conducting handle A, and heats
the platinum loop, _a_, red hot. The loop, _a_, being around the object
to be excised, is constricted by drawing down the handle ring B.
Of the various applications of electricity in body wear and appliances
there is scarcely any end. There are patents for belts without number,
for electric gloves, rings, bracelets, necklaces, trusses, corsets,
shoes, hats, combs, brushes, chairs, couches, and blankets. Patents have
also been granted for electric smelling bottles, an adhesive plaster,
for electric spectacles, scissors, a foot warmer, hair singer, syringes,
a drinking cup, a hair cutter, a torch, a catheter, a pessary, gas
lighters, exercising devices, a door mat, and even for an electric hair
pin and a pair of electric garters.
_Electrical Musical Instruments_ include pianos, banjos, and violins,
all of which are to be played automatically by the aid of electrical
appliances. In the illustration, Fig. 74, is shown a modern electrical
piano. A small electrical motor 1, run by a storage battery or electric
light wires, turns a belt 3, and rotates pulley 4 and a long horizontal
cylinder 5 running beneath the keyboard. Above this cylinder is the
mechanism that acts upon the keys. It consists of a series of brake
shoes which, when brought into frictional contact with the cylinder 5,
are made to act on small vertical rods which bring down the keys just as
the fingers do in playing. The selection of the proper keys is made by a
traveling strip of paper perforated with dots and dashes representing
the notes, which strip of paper passes between two metal contact faces,
which are terminals of an electric battery. When the contacts are
separated by the non-conducting paper the current does not flow, but
when the contacts come together through the perforations the current is
completed through an electro-magnet, and this is made to bring the
proper brake shoe into position to be lifted by the cylinder 5, which
rotates constantly.
[Illustration: FIG. 74.--ELECTRIC PIANO.]
_Electro-blasting._--In 1812 Schilling proposed to blow up mines by the
galvanic current. In 1839 Colonel Pasley blew up the wreck of the “Royal
George” by electro-blasting. On Jan. 26, 1843, Mr. Cubitt used
electro-blasting to destroy Round Down Cliff, and in our own time the
extensive excavations in deepening the channel and removing the rocks at
Hell Gate, from the mouth of New York harbor, was a notable operation in
electro-blasting, and doubtless owes its success largely to the electric
current employed.
Only the briefest mention can be made of the induction coil and the
electrical transformer, of electric bells and hotel annunciators, of
electric railway signalling, and electric brakes, of electric clocks and
instruments of precision, of heating by electricity, of electrical
horticulture, and of the beautiful electric fountains. These, however,
all belong to the Nineteenth Century, and include interesting
developments.
_Electro-chemistry_ and the _electrolytic refining of metals_ represent
also, in the applications of electricity, a large and important field,
more fully treated under the chapters devoted to chemistry and metal
working.
CHAPTER X.
THE STEAM ENGINE.
HERO’S ENGINE, AND OTHER EARLY STEAM ENGINES--WATT’S STEAM
ENGINE--THE CUT-OFF--GIFFARD INJECTOR--BOURDON’S STEAM GAUGE--FEED-
WATER HEATERS, SMOKE CONSUMERS, ETC.--ROTARY ENGINES--STEAM HAMMER--
STEAM FIRE ENGINE--COMPOUND ENGINES--SCHLICK AND TAYLOR SYSTEMS OF
BALANCING MOMENTUM OF MOVING PARTS--STATISTICS.
When the primeval man first turned upon himself the critical light of
introspection, and observed his own deficiencies, there were born within
him both the desire and the determination to supplement his weakness,
and become the ruling factor in the world’s destiny. The strength of his
arm unaided could not cope with that of the wild beast, he could not
travel so fast as the animal, nor soar so high as the bird, nor traverse
the waters of the sea like the fish. The magnificent power of the
elements first inspired him with awe, then was worshiped as a god, and
he trembled in his weakness. Then he began to invent, and seeing in
physical laws an escape from his fears, and a solution for his
ambitions, he trained these forces and made them subservient to his
will, and established his right to rule. Out of the maze of the
centuries a steam engine is born--not all at once, for that would be
inconsistent with the law of evolution--but gradually growing first into
practicability, then into efficiency, and finally into perfection, it
stands to-day a beautiful monument of man’s ingenuity, throbbing with
life and energy, and moving the world. What has not the steam engine
done for the Nineteenth Century? It speeds the locomotive across the
continent faster and farther than the birds can fly; no fish can equal
the mighty steamship on the sea; it grinds our grain; it weaves our
cloth; it prints our books; it forges our steel, and in every department
of life it is the ubiquitous, tireless, potent agency of civilization.
Does the ambitious young philosopher predict that electricity will
supersede steam? It is not yet a rational prophecy, for the direct
production of electricity from the combustion of coal is still an
unsolved problem, and behind the electric generator can always be found
the steam engine, modestly and quietly giving its full life’s work to
the dynamo, which it actuates, and caring nothing for the credit,
unmindful of the beautiful and striking manifestations of electricity
which astonish the world, but humbly doing its duty with a silent faith
that the law of correlation of force will always lead the way back to
the steam engine, and place it where it belongs, at the head of all
useful agencies of man.
The Nineteenth Century did not include in its discoveries the invention
of the steam engine. The great gift of James Watt was one of the
legacies which it received from the past, but the economical, efficient,
graceful, and mathematically perfect engine of to-day is the product of
this age.
[Illustration: FIG. 75.--HERO’S ENGINE, 150 B. C.]
The genesis of the steam engine belongs to ancient history, for in the
year 150 B. C. Hero made and exhibited in the Serapeum of Alexandria the
first steam engine. It was of the rotary type and was known as the
“aeolipile.” During the middle ages the spirit of invention seems to
have slept, for nearly eighteen centuries passed from the time of Hero’s
engine before any active revival of interest was manifested in this
field of invention. Giovanni Branca in 1629, the Marquis of Worcester in
1633, Dr. Papin in 1695, Savary in 1698, and Newcomen in 1705, were the
pioneers of Watt, and gave to him a good working basis. Strange as it
may appear, there was in 1894 and probably still is in existence in
England an old Newcomen steam engine (see Fig. 76), which for at least a
hundred years has stood exposed to the weather, slowly rusting and
crumbling away. It is to be found in Fairbottom Valley, half way between
Ashton-under-Lyne and Oldham, and is the property of the trustees of the
late Earl of Stamford and Warrington. It is erected on a solid masonry
pillar 14 by 7 feet at the base, which carries on its top, on trunnions,
an oak beam 20 feet long and 12 by 14 inches thick. This beam is braced
with iron, and has segmental ends with a piston at one end, and a
balance weight at the other. The piston and pump rods are attached by
chains. The cylinder is of cast iron, 27 inches in diameter, and about
six foot stroke, the steam entering at the bottom only. It was formerly
used for pumping a mine.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.--OLD NEWCOMEN ENGINE.]
The distinct and valuable legacy, however, which the Nineteenth Century
received from the past, was the double acting steam engine of James
Watt, disclosed in his British Pat. No. 1,321, of 1782. Prior to this
date steam engines had been almost exclusively confined to raising
water, but with the invention of Watt it extended into all fields of
industrial use. Watt’s double acting engine is shown in Fig. 77. It
comprised a cylinder A, with double acting piston and valve gear E F G
H; the parallel motion R for translating the reciprocating motion of the
piston into the curved oscillatory path of the walking beam; a condenser
chamber K, with spray I, for condensing the exhaust steam; a pump L J to
remove the water from the condenser, and also the air, which is drawn
out of the water by the vacuum; a water supply pump N; the automatic
ball governor D, and throttle valve B. Two pins on the pump rod L strike
the lever H and work the valve gear, and a collecting rod P and crank Q
convert the oscillations of the walking beam into the continuous
rotation of the fly wheel.
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--WATT’S DOUBLE ACTING STEAM ENGINE.]
Watt’s automatic ball governor is shown in Fig. 78 and its function is
as follows: When the working strain on an engine is relieved by the
throwing out of action of a part of the work being performed, the engine
would run too fast, or if more than a normal tax were placed on the
engine, it would “slow up.” To secure a regular and uniform motion in
the performance of his engine Watt invented the automatic or
self-regulating ball governor and throttle valve. A vertical shaft D is
rotated constantly by a band on pulley _d_. Any tendency in the engine
to run too fast throws the balls up by centrifugal action, and this
through toggle links _f h_, pulls down on a lever F G H, and partially
closes the throttle valve Z, reducing the flow of steam to the engine.
When the engine has a tendency to run too slow the balls drop down, and,
deflecting the lever in the opposite direction, open the throttle valve,
and increase the flow of steam to the engine. This double acting engine
of Watt marks the beginning of the great epoch of steam engineering, and
his patent expired just in time to give to the Nineteenth Century the
greatest of all natal gifts.
[Illustration: FIG. 78.--WATT’S AUTOMATIC GOVERNOR AND THROTTLE VALVE.]
Steam engines are divided into two principal classes, the low pressure
engine, using steam usually under 40 pounds to the square inch, and the
high pressure engine, using steam from 50 to 200 pounds. In the low
pressure engine there is the expansive pressure of the steam on one side
of the piston, aided by the suction of a vacuum on the opposite side of
the piston, which vacuum is created by the condensation of the
discharging, or exhaust steam, by cold water. As there are two factors
at work impelling the piston, only a relatively low pressure in the
boiler is required. In the high pressure engines there is no
condensation of the exhaust steam, but it is discharged directly into
the air, and this type was originally called “puffers.” Familiar
examples of the low pressure type are to be found in our side wheel
passenger steamers, and of the high pressure type in the steam
locomotive.
[Illustration: FIG. 79.--PRINCIPLE OF CUT-OFF.]
One of the most important steps in the development of the steam engine
was the addition of the cut-off. Prior to its adoption steam was
admitted to the cylinder during the whole time the piston was making
its stroke from one end of the cylinder to the other. In the cut-off
(see Fig. 79), when steam is being admitted through the port _p_, and
the piston is being driven in the direction of the arrow, it was found
that if the steam were cut off when the piston arrived at the position
1, the expansive action of the steam behind it in chamber _a_ would
continue to carry the piston with an effective force to the end of its
stroke, or to position 2. This of course effected a great saving in
steam. Various cut-offs have been devised. Perhaps that most easily
recognized by most persons is the one seen in the engine room of our
side wheel steamers, of which illustration is given in Fig. 80. This was
invented in 1841 by F. E. Sickels, and was the first successful drop
cut-off. It was covered by his patents, May 20, 1842, July 20, 1843,
October 19, 1844, No. 3,802, and September 19, 1845, No. 4,201. A rock
shaft _s_ is worked by an eccentric rod _e_ from the paddle wheel shaft.
The rock shaft has lifting arms _a_ that act upon and alternately raise
the feet _c_ on rods _b b_. One of these rods _b_ works the valves that
admit steam, and the other the valves that discharge steam. The valve
rod that admits steam has a quick drop, or fall, to cut off the live
steam before the piston reaches the end of its stroke. In Fig. 81 is
shown the celebrated Corliss cut-off and valve gear, in which a central
wrist plate and four radiating rods work the valves. This valve gear was
covered in Corliss patents, No. 6,162, March 10, 1849, and No. 8.253,
July 29, 1851.
[Illustration: FIG. 80.--SICKELS’ DROP CUT-OFF VALVE GEAR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 81.--CORLISS CUT-OFF AND VALVE GEAR.]
Among other important improvements in the steam engine are those for
replenishing the water in the boiler, and the Giffard Injector is the
simplest and most ingenious of all boiler feeds. It was invented in 1858
and covered by French patent No. 21,457, May 8, 1858, and U. S. patent
No. 27,979, April 24, 1860. Prior to the Giffard Injector, steam boilers
were supplied with water usually by steam pumps, which forced the water
into the boiler against the pressure of the steam. The Giffard Injector
takes a jet of steam from the boiler, and causes it to lift the water in
an external pipe, and blow it directly into the boiler against its own
pressure. So paradoxical and inoperative did this seem at first that it
was met with incredulity, and not until repeated demonstrations
established the fact was it accepted as an operative device. Its
construction is shown in Fig. 82. A is a steam pipe communicating with
the boiler, B another pipe receiving steam from A through small holes
and terminating in a cone. C is a screw rod, cone-shaped at its
extremity, turned by the crank M, and serving to regulate and even
intercept the passage of steam. D is a water suction pipe. The water
that is drawn up introduces itself around the steam pipe and tends to
make its exit through the annular space at the conical extremity of the
latter steam pipe. This annular space is increased at will by means of
the lever L, which acts upon a screw whose office is to cause the pipe B
and its attached parts to move backward or forward. E is a diverging
tube which receives the water injected by the jet of steam that
condenses at I, and imparts to the water a portion of its speed in
proportion to the pressure of the boiler. F is a box carrying a check
valve to keep the water from issuing from the boiler when the apparatus
is not at work. G is a pipe that leads the injected water to the boiler.
H is a purge or overflow pipe, K a sight hole which permits the
operation of the apparatus to be watched, the stream of water being
distinctly seen in the free interval. Fig. 83 shows the application of
the injector to locomotives, which are now almost universally supplied
with this device.
[Illustration: FIG. 82.--GIFFARD INJECTOR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--INJECTOR ON LOCOMOTIVE.]
To keep the pressure in the boiler within the limit of safety, and
adjusted to the work being performed, is an important part of the
engineer’s duty, and this he could not do without the steam gauge. One
of the best known is the Bourdon gauge, shown in Fig. 84, constructed on
the principle of the barometer invented by Bourdon of Paris in 1849 and
patented in France June, 1849, and in the United States August 3, 1852,
No. 9,163. A screw threaded thimble B, with stop cock A, is screwed in
the shell of the boiler, and a coiled pipe C communicates at one end
with the thimble and is closed at the other end E and connected by a
link F, with an arm on an axle, carrying an index hand that moves over a
graduated scale. The coiled pipe C is in the nature of a flattened
tube, as shown in the enlarged cross section, and is enclosed in a case.
When the steam pressure varies in this flat tube its coil expands or
contracts, and in moving the index hand over the scale indicates the
degree of pressure.
[Illustration: FIG. 84.--BOURDON’S PRESSURE GAUGE.]
In line with the development of the steam engine must be considered the
efforts to economize fuel. These may be divided into the following
classes: Increased steam generating surface in boiler construction;
surface condensers for exhaust steam; devices for promoting the
combustion of fuel and burning the smoke, and feed water heaters. Even
before the Nineteenth Century Smeaton devised the cylindrical boiler
traversed by a flue, but the multitubular steam boiler of to-day
represents a very important Nineteenth Century adjunct to the steam
engine. Our locomotives, fire engines, and torpedo boat engines would be
of no value without it. Sectional steam boilers made in detachable
portions fastened together by packed or screw joints also represent an
important development. These permit of the removal and replacement of
any one section that may become defective, and are also capable of being
built up section by section to any size needed. For promoting the
combustion of fuel the draft is energized by blasts of air or steam, or
both, either through hollow grate bars, jet pipes in the fire box, or by
discharging the exhaust steam in the smoke pipe. Surface condensers pass
the exhaust steam over the great surface area of a multitubular
construction having cold water flowing through it. Feed water heaters
utilize the waste heat escaping in the smoke flue to heat the water that
is being fed to the boiler, so that it is warm when it is injected into
the boiler, and the furnace is relieved of that much work.
[Illustration: FIG. 85.--BRANCA’S STEAM TURBINE, 1629.]
[Illustration: FIG. 86.--SECTION OF PARSONS TURBINE OF 1891.]
In the reciprocating type of steam engine the inertia of the piston must
be overcome at the beginning of each stroke and its momentum must be
arrested at the end of each stroke, and this involves a great loss of
power. If the power of the steam could be applied so as to continuously
move the piston in the same direction this loss would be avoided. The
effort to do this has engaged the attention of many inventors, and the
devices are called rotary engines. The most successful engines of this
kind are those of the impact type, in which jets of steam impinge upon
buckets after the manner of water on a water wheel, and which are known
to-day as steam turbines. The earliest of these is Branca’s steam
turbine of 1629 (see Fig. 85) and the most important of this class in
use to-day are those of Mr. Parsons, of England, and De Laval, of
Sweden. The internal construction of the Parsons turbine is seen in Fig.
86 and is covered by British patent No. 10,940, of 1891, and United
States patent No. 553,658, January 28th, 1896. A series of turbines are
set one after the other on the same axis, so that each takes steam from
the preceding one, and passes it on to the next. Each consists of a ring
of fixed steam guides on the casing, and a ring of moving blades on the
shaft. The steam passes through the first set of guides, then through
the first set of moving blades, then through the second set of guides,
and then through the second set of moving blades, and so on.
[Illustration: FIG. 87.--PARSONS COMPOUND STEAM TURBINE, ON PLURALITY OF
PROPELLER SHAFTS.]
In the application of his turbine to marine propulsion Mr. Parsons
employs a plurality of propeller shafts and steam turbines, as seen in
Fig. 87, and covered under United States patent No. 608,969, August 9,
1898.
[Illustration: FIG. 88.--DE LAVAL’S STEAM TURBINE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--DE LAVAL TURBINE GEARED TO DYNAMO.]
The De Laval turbine, as shown in Fig. 88, is of very simple
construction, consisting only of a steel wheel with a series of buckets
at its periphery enclosed by a circular rim, and a series of steam
nozzles on the side with diverging jet orifices directing steam jets
against the buckets. A speed of 30,000 revolutions a minute may be
attained by this construction. In Fig. 89 is shown a 300 horse-power
steam turbine of the De Laval type applied to a dynamo; to which this
type of engine is peculiarly adapted. The dynamo is seen on the extreme
right, the steam turbine on the extreme left, and the drum-shaped
casing between contains cog-gearing by which the high revolution of the
turbine wheel is reduced to a proper working speed for the dynamo.
Within the last few years application of the Parsons steam turbine has
been made to marine propulsion with very remarkable results as to speed.
The small steam craft, “The Turbinia,” built in 1897, and supplied with
three of Parsons’ compound steam turbines, developed a speed of 32¾
knots, and more recently the torpedo boat “Viper” has with steam
turbines attained the remarkable speed of 37.1 knots, or over 40 statute
miles an hour. About 2,000 United States patents have been granted on
various forms of rotary engines.
In the transportation building of the World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893
one of the most conspicuous objects of attention was the model of the
great Bethlehem Iron Co.’s steam hammer, standing with its feet apart
like some great “Colossus of Rhodes” and towering 91 feet high among the
models of the great ocean steamers and battleships which are so largely
dependent upon the work of this Titanic machine. Its hammer head, in the
working-machine, weighs 125 tons, and many of the seventeen inch thick
armor plates for our battleships have been forged by its tremendous
blows.
In 1838, during the construction of the “Great Britain,” the largest
steamship up to that time ever built, it was found that there was not a
forge hammer in England or Scotland powerful enough to forge a paddle
shaft for that vessel. The emergency was met by Mr. Nasmyth, of England,
who invented the steam hammer and covered it in British patent No.
9,382, of 1842 (U. S. Pat. No. 3,042, April 10, 1843). A modern example
of it is seen in Fig. 90. It consists of a steam cylinder at the top
whose piston is attached to a block of iron, forming the hammer head and
sliding vertically in guides between the two legs of the frame. Valve
gear is arranged to control the flow of steam to and from the opposite
sides of the piston, and so nicely adjusted is the valve gear of such a
modern steam hammer that it is said that an expert workman can
manipulate the great mass of metal with such accuracy and delicacy as to
crack an egg in a wineglass without touching the glass. To the steam
hammer we owe the first heavy armor plate for our battle ships and the
propeller shafts of our earlier steamships. In fact it was the steam
hammer which first rendered the large steamship possible. Mr. Nasmyth
not only invented the steam hammer, but the steam pile driver as well.
[Illustration: FIG. 90.--STEAM HAMMER.]
For quick action, nicely adjusted machinery, and showy finish the steam
fire engine is a familiar and conspicuous application of steam power. A
dude among engines when on dress parade, and a sprinter when on the run,
it gets to work with the vim and efficiency of a thoroughbred, and is a
most business-like and valuable custodian of life and property. The
first portable steam fire engine was built about 1830 by Mr. Brathwaite
and Capt. Ericsson in London. In 1841 Mr. Hodges produced a similar
engine in New York City. Cincinnati was the first city to adopt the
steamer as a part of its fire department apparatus. To-day all the
important cities and towns of the civilized world rely upon the steam
fire engines for their longevity and existence. Time economy in getting
into action is the great objective point of most improvements of the
fire-engine, and one of the most important is the keeping of the water
in the boiler hot when the engine is out of action at the engine house,
so that when the fire is built and the run is made to the scene of
action, the water will be hot to start with. This attachment was the
invention of William A. Brickill, and was patented by him August 18,
1868, No. 81,132. In the illustration, Fig. 91, the two pipes passing
from the engine through the trap door in the floor connect with a water
heater in the basement below, which heater maintains a constant
circulation of hot water in the steam boiler. Couplings in these pipes
serve to quickly disconnect the engine when the run to the fire is to be
made.
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--STEAM FIRE ENGINE WITH WATER HEATING
ATTACHMENT.]
Among other useful applications of the steam engine are the steam plow,
steam drill, steam dredge, steam press, and steam pump, of which latter
the Blake, Knowles, and Worthington are representative types.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--THE SIX-CYLINDER QUADRUPLE EXPANSION ENGINES OF
THE “DEUTSCHLAND,” 35,640 HORSE POWER.]
The highest type of modern steam engines is to be found in the compound
multiple-expansion engine, in which three or more cylinders of different
diameters with corresponding pistons are so arranged that steam is made
to act first upon the piston in the smallest cylinder at high pressure,
and then discharging into the next larger cylinder, called the
intermediate, acts expansively upon its piston, and thence, passing into
the still larger low pressure cylinder, imparts its further expansive
effect upon its piston. The fundamental principle of the compound engine
dates back to the time of Watt, its first embodiment appearing in the
Hornblower compound engine, as described in British patent No. 1,298, of
1781, but modern improvements have differentiated it into almost a new
invention. A fine example is shown in Fig. 92, which represents the
quadruple expansion engines of the “Deutschland,” the new steamer of the
Hamburg-American Line. The two high pressure cylinders, however, do not
appear in the illustration, being too high for the shops. They stand
vertically, however, upon the two bed plates which appear at the top of
the two low pressure cylinders. In each set of six cylinders the two low
pressure cylinders are in the middle, the two high pressure cylinders
immediately above them or arranged tandem, while at the forward end is
the first intermediate cylinder, and at the after end is the second
intermediate. The low pressure cylinders are 106 inches in diameter, the
intermediate cylinders are 73.6 inches and 103.9 inches respectively,
and the two high pressure cylinders are 30.6 inches, and the steam
pressure is 225 pounds. Its improvements comprehend the systems of
Schlick, patented in the United States November 23, 1897, No. 594,288
and 594,289, and Taylor, patented November 22, 1898, No. 614,674, which
embody fine mathematical principles for balancing the momentum of the
great masses of moving parts, so that the engine may run up to high
speed without vibrations and damaging strains upon the hull.
Mulhall gives the steam horse power of the world in 1895, not including
war vessels, as follows:
Stationary. Railway. Steamboat. Total.
The World 11,340,000 32,235,000 12,005,000 55,580,000
United States 3,940,000 10,800,000 2,200,000 16,940,000
The increase in steam power in the United States has been from 3,500,000
horse power in 1860, to 16,940,000 horse power in 1895, or about five
fold within thirty-five years.
Prof. Thurston says that in 1890 the combined power of all the steam
engines of the world was not far from 100,000,000[2] horse power, of
which the United States had 15,000,000, Great Britain the same, and the
other countries smaller amounts. Taking the horse power as the
equivalent of the work of five men, the work of steam is equivalent to
that of a population of 500,000,000 working men. It is also said that
one man to-day, with the aid of a steam engine, performs the work of 120
men in the last century.
[2] Prof. Thurston’s estimate doubtless includes war vessels, which
Mulhall’s later estimate does not (see Mulhall’s “Industries and
Wealth of Nations,” 1896, pages 4 and 379).
The influence of the steam engine upon the history and destiny of the
world is an impressive subject, far beyond any intelligent computation
or estimate. It has been the greatest moving force of the Nineteenth
Century. The labor of 100,000 men for twenty years might build a great
pyramid in Egypt, and it remains as a monument of patience only, but the
genius of the modern inventor has organized a machine with muscles of
steel, far more patient and tireless than those of the Egyptian slave.
He gave it but a drink of water and making coal its black slave, and
himself the master of both, he has in the Nineteenth Century hitched his
chariot to a star and driven to unparalleled achievement.
CHAPTER XI.
THE STEAM RAILWAY.
TREVITHICK’S FIRST LOCOMOTIVE--BLENKINSOP’S LOCOMOTIVE--HEDLEY’S
“PUFFING BILLY”--STEPHENSON’S LOCOMOTIVE--THE LINK MOTION--STOCKTON
AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY, 1825--HACKWORTH’S “ROYAL GEORGE”--
“STOURBRIDGE LION”--“JOHN BULL”--BALDWIN’S LOCOMOTIVES--WESTINGHOUSE
AIR BRAKES--JANNEY CAR COUPLING--THE WOODRUFF SLEEPING CAR--RAILWAY
STATISTICS.
The fact that more patents have been granted in the class of carriages
and wagons than in any other field, shows that means of transportation
has engaged the largest share of man’s inventive genius, and has been
most closely allied to his necessities. The moving of passengers and
freight seems to be directly related to the progress of civilization,
and the factor whose influence has been most felt in this field is the
steam locomotive. Sir Isaac Newton in 1680 proposed a steam carriage
propelled by the reaction of a jet of steam. Dr. Robinson in 1759
suggested the steam carriage to Watt. Cugnot in 1769 built a steam
carriage. Symington, in 1770, and Murdock, in 1784, built working
models, and in 1790 Nathan Read also made experiments in steam
transportation, but the Nineteenth Century dawned without any other
results than a few abandoned experiments, and the criticism and
disappointment of the inventors in this field.
[Illustration: FIG. 93.--TREVITHICK’S LOCOMOTIVE, 1804. THE FIRST TO RUN
ON RAILS.]
The father of the locomotive and the first inventor of the Nineteenth
Century who directed his energy to its development was Richard
Trevithick, of Camborne, Cornwall. In 1801 he built his first steam
carriage, adapted to carry seven or eight passengers, which was said to
have “gone off like a bird,” but broke down, and was taken to the home
of Capt. Vivian, who afterward became a partner of Trevithick. An old
lady, upon seeing this novel and, to her, frightful engine, is said to
have cried out: “Good gracious! Mr. Vivian, what will be done next? I
can’t compare it to anything but a walking, puffing devil.” On the 24th
of March, 1802, Trevithick and Vivian obtained British patent No. 2,599
for their steam carriage, and a second one was built in 1803 which was
popularly known as Capt. Trevithick’s “Puffing Devil.” In 1804, at Pen y
Darran, South Wales, a third engine was built, which was the first
steam locomotive ever to run on rails. It is seen in the illustration,
No. 93. It had a horizontal cylinder inside the boiler, a cross head
sliding on guides in front of the engine, the cross head being connected
to a crank on a rear gear wheel, which in turn meshes with an
intermediate gear wheel above and between two other gear wheels on the
running wheels. A fly wheel was on the crank shaft. The steam was
discharged into the chimney, and the whole engine weighed five tons, and
it ran, when loaded, at five miles an hour. In 1808 Trevithick built a
circular railway at London within an inclosure, and charged a shilling
for admission to his steam circus and a ride behind his locomotive. The
engine here employed was the “Catch Me Who Can,” and had a vertical
cylinder and piston, without the toothed gear wheels shown in the
illustration.
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--BLENKINSOP’S LOCOMOTIVE, 1811.]
In Fig. 94 is shown Blenkinsop’s locomotive of 1811. This was employed
at the Middleton Colliery in hauling coal. It had cog wheels engaging
teeth on the side of the rail. The fire was built in a large tube
passing through the boiler and bent up to form a chimney. Two vertical
cylinders were placed inside the boiler, and the pistons were connected
by cross heads, and, by connecting rods, to cranks on the axles of small
cog wheels engaging with the main cog wheels. It drew thirty tons weight
at three and three-quarter miles an hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 95.--HEDLEY’S “PUFFING BILLY,” 1813.]
In 1813 “Puffing Billy” was built by Wm. Hedley. There were (see Fig.
95) four smooth drive wheels running on smooth rails, which wheels were
coupled together by intermediate gear wheels on the axle, and all
propelled by a gear wheel in the middle, driven by a connecting rod from
the walking beam overhead. Hedley’s locomotive was used on the Wylam
railway, and was said to have been at work more or less until 1862.
Most prominent among those who took an active interest in the
development of the locomotive were George Stephenson and his son,
Robert. Stephenson’s first locomotive was tried on the Killingworth
Railway on July 27, 1814. In 1815 Dodds and Stephenson patented an
arrangement for attaching the connecting rods to the driving wheels,
which took the place of cog wheels heretofore employed, and in the
following year Stephenson, in connection with Mr. Losh, patented the
application of steam cushion-springs for supporting the weight of the
locomotive in an elastic manner.
In 1825 the Stockton and Darlington Railway, in England, was opened for
traffic, with George Stephenson’s engine, “Locomotion,” and was put
permanently into service for the transportation of freight and
passengers.
[Illustration: FIG. 96.--HACKWORTH’S LOCOMOTIVE, “ROYAL GEORGE,” 1827.]
In 1827 Hackworth produced the “Royal George” (see Fig. 96), whose
cylinders were arranged vertically at the rear end of the boiler, and
whose pistons emerged from the cylinders at the lower ends of the
latter, and imparted their power through connecting rods to cranks on
the opposite ends of the axle of the rear driving wheels in a more
direct manner than heretofore, and doing away with the overhead
mechanism heretofore employed in most engines. Hackworth also improved
the steam blast, put on the bell, and greatly simplified and modernized
the appearance of the locomotive.
[Illustration: FIG. 97.--GEORGE STEPHENSON’S “ROCKET,” 1829.]
In 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was completed, and the
directors offered a prize of £500 for the best locomotive. George
Stephenson’s “Rocket,” shown in Fig. 97, attained a speed of 24⅙ miles
an hour, and took the prize. Its success, however, was marred by the
first railroad fatality, for it ran over and killed a man on this
occasion. It embodied, as leading features, the steam blast and the
multitubular boiler, which latter was six feet long and had twenty-five
three-inch tubes. The fire box was surrounded by an exterior casing that
formed a water jacket, which, by means of pipes, was in open
communication with the water space of the boiler.
[Illustration: FIG. 98.--“STOURBRIDGE LION,” 1829.]
The first practical locomotive to run on a railroad in the United States
was the “Stourbridge Lion,” seen in Fig. 98. This was imported from
England, and arrived in New York in May, 1829, and was tried in that
year on a section of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company’s railroad. The
boiler was tubular, and the exhaust steam was carried into the chimney
by a pipe in front of the smoke stack as shown. It had vertical
cylinders of thirty-six inch stroke, with overhead grasshopper beams and
connecting rods.
[Illustration: FIG. 99.--LOCOMOTIVE “JOHN BULL,” 1831.]
In Fig. 99 is shown the “John Bull,” now in the National Museum at
Washington, D. C. It was built by Stephenson & Co. for the Camden &
Amboy Railroad, and was brought over from England and put into service
in 1831. During the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, after a
long rest in the Washington Museum, it made its way under its own steam
to Chicago, drawing a train of two cars a distance of 912 miles without
assistance. It further distinguished itself while there by carrying
50,000 passengers over the exhibition tracks, and although sixty-two
years of age at the time, showed itself quite capable of performing
substantial work.
[Illustration: FIG. 100.--BALDWIN’S “OLD IRONSIDES,” 1832.]
Most of the early locomotives used in America were imported from
England, but our inventors soon commenced making them for themselves.
The Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, has had a notable career
in the field of locomotive construction. “Old Ironsides,” built in
1832, was the first Baldwin locomotive, and it did duty for over a
score of years. It is shown in Fig. 100. It had four wheels and weighed
a little over five tons. The drive wheels were 54 inches in diameter,
and the cylinder 9½ inches in diameter, 18 inches stroke. The wheels had
heavy cast iron hubs with wooden spokes and rims and wrought iron tires,
and the frame was of wood placed outside the wheels. The boiler was 30
inches in diameter and had 72 copper flues 1½ inches in diameter, 7 feet
long. The price of the locomotive was $4,000, and it attained a speed of
30 miles an hour, with its train.
[Illustration: FIG. 101.--EIGHT-WHEEL PASSENGER EXPRESS LOCOMOTIVE,
1863.]
[Illustration: FIG. 102.--EXPRESS PASSENGER LOCOMOTIVE, 1881.]
In Fig. 101 is shown a standard type of passenger locomotive of the
period of 1863, and in Fig. 102 is illustrated the period of 1881, which
latter represents perhaps the greatest epoch of railroad building in the
history of the world. According to Poor’s Manual, $1,000,000 a day was
the estimated cash outlay on this account for the three years up to the
close of 1882, during which period 28,019 miles of railroad were opened
up in the United States, or more than enough to girdle the entire earth.
Some idea of the wonderful growth of the railroad industry during this
period is given by the following tables, which represent the yearly
production of locomotives by the Baldwin Company alone for forty years
prior to this period:
1842 14
1843 12
1844 22
1845 27
1846 42
1847 39
1848 20
1849 30
1850 37
1851 50
1852 49
1853 60
1854 62
1855 47
1856 59
1857 66
1858 33
1859 70
1860 83
1861 40
1862 75
1863 96
1864 130
1865 115
1866 118
1867 127
1868 124
1869 235
1870 280
1871 331
1872 442
1873 437
1874 205
1875 130
1876 232
1877 185
1878 292
1879 398
1880 517
1881 555
1882 563
1883 557
The present capacity of the Baldwin works is one thousand locomotives a
year, and they have built up to this date about fifteen thousand
locomotives, or nearly one-half of all the locomotives in use in the
United States.
The successive steps of the development in detail of the various
features of the locomotive are distributed over a long period, and are
somewhat difficult to trace. The turning of the exhaust steam into the
smoke stack was done by Trevithick as early as 1804, but its effect was
greatly increased by Hackworth about 1827, who augmented its power by
directing it into the chimney through a narrow orifice. This and the
tubular locomotive boiler by Seguin in 1828, the link-motion in 1832,
the steam whistle by Stephenson in 1833, the Giffard injector in 1858,
and the Westinghouse air brake of 1869, are the most prominent features
of the locomotive.
[Illustration: FIG. 103.--STEPHENSON’S LINK MOTION.]
The link motion has been claimed both for the younger Stephenson and W.
T. James, of New York, the latter being probably its real inventor. Its
purpose is to reverse the engine and also to cut off steam in either
direction, so that it may act expansively. The form of link motion most
generally used is shown in Fig. 103, and is known as Stephenson’s. A B
are two eccentrics projecting in opposite directions from the center of
the common drive shaft, their rods being connected at their outer ends
by a curved and slotted link C D. In the slot of this link plays a pin
E, carried by a pendent swinging lever G F, which lever is jointed at
its lower end to the slide valve rod H. A T-shaped lever I L K M has one
arm at I connected by a rod with the slotted link at C. The opposite arm
is provided with a counter weight at K to balance the weight of the link
C D and eccentric rods, and the upright arm is connected at M to a rod
operated by a hand lever P within easy access of the engineer. When the
link C D is lowered the eccentric B imparts its throw to pendent lever G
F and valve rod H, and the eccentric A will only swing the end C of the
link without imparting any effect to the valve. When link C D is drawn
up so that pin E is in the bottom of the slot, the eccentric A is active
and B inactive, and as A has an opposite throw to B, the action of the
valve is reversed. If link C D be drawn half way up, the pin E becomes
the center of the oscillation of the link, and the valve rod is not
moved at all. By adjusting the link nearer to or further from the
central position, the throw of the slide valve may be made shorter or
longer, and the steam cut off at a later or earlier period in the stroke
of the piston.
[Illustration: FIG. 104.--LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE NO. 999.]
Fig. 104 is a type of the best modern express locomotive. This is the
famous 999 of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. Its
cylinders are 19 × 24 inches, driving wheels 86½ inches in diameter,
weight 62 tons, steam pressure 190 pounds. This engine hauls the Empire
State Express at a speed of 64.22 miles an hour, excluding stops, or
more than a mile a minute.
[Illustration: FIG. 105.--COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVE.]
In securing a higher efficiency and a greater economy in the use of
steam, the most recent developments in the locomotive have been in the
application of the principle of the compound expansion engine, in which
two or more cylinders of different diameters are used, the steam at high
pressure acting in the smaller cylinder, and being then exhausted into
and acting expansively upon the piston of the larger cylinder. A fine
example of the compound locomotive is shown in Fig. 105. The cylinders
are arranged in pairs, the small high pressure cylinder above, and the
larger low pressure cylinder below, both piston rods engaging a common
cross head. The application of this principle of the compound engine is
said to involve a saving in coal of over 25 per cent.
Prominent among modern improvements in steam railways is the air brake.
This invention is chiefly the result of the ingenuity of Mr. George
Westinghouse, Jr., who, beginning his experiments in 1869, took out his
first patents on the automatic air brake March 5, 1872, Nos. 124,404 and
124,405, which have since been followed up by many others in perfecting
the system. The principle of the air brake is to store up compressed air
in a reservoir on the locomotive by means of a steam pump. This air
passing through a train pipe connected by hose couplings between cars
charges an auxiliary reservoir under each car. This reservoir is
arranged beside a cylinder having a piston and a triple valve. Pressure
in the train pipe is maintained constantly, and the power to work the
piston to apply the brakes comes from the auxiliary reservoir beside it,
which is set into action by a sudden reduction of pressure in the train
pipe by the engineer through a special form of valve on the locomotive.
The air brake is capable of stopping a train at average speed within the
distance of its own length, and so great a safeguard to life and
property is it, that its application to a certain number of cars on
every train is made compulsory by law.
The automatic car coupling is another important life-saving improvement.
Many thousands of these have been patented, but the “Janney” coupling,
patented April 29, 1873, No. 138,405, is the most representative type.
The year 1900 is to witness the compulsory adoption of automatic car
couplings on all cars. The “block system” of signals, by which no train
is admitted on to a given section of track until the preceding train has
left that section, improved switches, which are not dependent upon the
memory of men, and steel rails, which constitute nine-tenths of all
tracks and serve to increase the stability of the track, are further
modern safeguards against danger.
Sleeping cars were invented by Woodruff, and patented Dec. 2, 1856, Nos.
16,159 and 16,160. These, with the palace cars of Pullman and Wagner,
the special refrigerator cars for perishable goods, cars for cattle, and
cars for coal, multiply the equipment, swell the traffic, and supply
every want of the great railroad systems of modern times.
The first railroad in the United States was built near Quincy, Mass., in
1826. The Pacific Railway, the first of our half a dozen
transcontinental railways, was completed in 1869. The great
Trans-Siberian Railway is nearing completion, and in the Twentieth
Century a Trans-Sahara Railway will probably relieve the burdens of the
camel, as it has already done those of the horse.
At the end of the year 1898 there were in use in the United States
36,746 locomotives, 1,318,700 cars, and the mileage in tracks, including
second track and sidings, was 245,238.87, which, if extended in a
straight line, would build a railway to the moon. The money investment
represented in capital stock and bonds was $11,216,886,452. The gross
earnings for the year 1898 were $1,249,558,724. The net earnings were
$389,666,474. Tons of freight moved were 912,973,853. Receipts from
freight were $868,924,526. Number of passengers carried was 514,982,288.
Receipts from passengers were $272,589,591, and dividends paid were
$94,937,526. Add to the above the elevated railroads and street
railroads, which are not included, and the immensity of the railroad
business in the United States becomes apparent. In 1898 the United
States exported 468 locomotives, worth $3,883,719. Mulhall estimates
that the steam horse power of railroads in the world amounted in 1896 to
40,420,000, of which the United States had more than one-third. He also
states that the railways in the United States carry _every day_, in
merchandise, a weight equal to that of the whole of the seventy millions
of persons constituting its population; that the total railway traffic
of the world in 1894 averaged ten million passengers and six million
tons of merchandise _daily_; and that the total railway capital of the
world reached in that year, 6,745 million sterling, or about
thirty-three billion dollars.
It is said that the highest railway speed ever attained by steam prior
to 1900 was by locomotive No. 564 of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern
Railroad, made during part of a run from Chicago to Buffalo. In this run
86 miles were made at an average rate of 72.92 miles an hour. The train
load was 304,500 pounds, and the 86 mile run included one mile at 92.3
miles an hour, eight miles at 85.44 miles an hour, and thirty-three
miles at 80.6 miles an hour. On May 26, 1900, however, an experiment on
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, made by Mr. F. U. Adams between Baltimore
and Washington, demonstrated that by sheathing the train to prevent
retardation by the air, an average speed of 78.6 miles an hour was
obtained, and for five miles on a down grade a speed of 102.8 miles an
hour was reached.
The largest and most powerful locomotives in the world are those being
built for the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad for hauling long
trains of iron and ore, one of which has just been completed. Its
cylinders are 24 × 32 inches; drive wheels, 54 inches diameter; weight,
125 tons; draw bar pull 56,300 pounds, and hauling capacity 7,847 tons.
One of these mammoth engines is capable of drawing a train of box cars,
loaded with wheat, and more than a mile long, at a speed of ten miles an
hour. This load of wheat would represent the yield of 14 square miles of
land. No doubt it would greatly astonish our forefathers to know that at
the end of the century we would have iron horses capable of carting
away, at a single load, the products of 14 square miles of the country
side, and do it at a gait faster than that of their local mail coach.
CHAPTER XII.
STEAM NAVIGATION.
EARLY EXPERIMENTS--SYMINGTON’S BOAT--COL. JOHN STEVENS’ SCREW
PROPELLER--ROBT. FULTON AND THE “CLERMONT”--FIRST TRIP TO SEA BY
STEVENS’ “PHŒNIX”--“SAVANNAH,” THE FIRST STEAM VESSEL TO CROSS THE
OCEAN--ERICSSON’S SCREW PROPELLER--THE “GREAT EASTERN”--THE
WHALEBACK STEAMERS--OCEAN GREYHOUNDS--THE “OCEANIC,” LARGEST
STEAMSHIP IN THE WORLD--THE “TURBINIA”--FULTON’S “DEMOLOGOS,” FIRST
WAR VESSEL--THE TURRET MONITOR--MODERN BATTLESHIPS AND TORPEDO
BOATS--HOLLAND SUBMARINE BOAT.
The application of steam for the propulsion of boats engaged the
attention of inventors along with the very earliest development of the
steam engine itself. Blasco de Garay in 1543, the Marquis of Worcester
in 1655, Savary in 1698, Denys Papin in 1707, Dr. John Allen in 1730,
Jonathan Hulls in 1737, Bernouilli and Genevois in 1757, William Henry
(of Pennsylvania) in 1763, Count D’Auxiron and M. Perier in 1774, the
Marquis de Jouffroy in 1781, James Rumsey (on the Potomac) in 1782,
Benjamin Franklin and Oliver Evans in 1786 and 1789, John Fitch in 1786,
and also again in 1796, and William Symington in 1788-89 were the early
experimenters. Papin’s boat was said to have been used on the Fulda at
Cassel, and was reported to have been destroyed by bargemen, who feared
that it would deprive them of a livelihood. Allen, Rumsey, Franklin, and
Evans (1786) proposed to employ a backwardly discharged column of water
issuing from a pump. Jonathan Hulls and Oliver Evans (1789) had stern
wheels. Bernouilli, Genevois, and the Marquis de Jouffroy used paddles
on the duck’s foot principle, which closed when dragged forward, and
expanded when pushed to the rear. Fitch’s first boat employed a system
of paddles suspended by their handles from cranks, which, in revolving,
gave the paddles a motion simulating that which the Indian imparts to
his paddle. Symington’s boat of 1788 (Patrick Miller’s pleasure boat)
had side paddle wheels. Symington’s next boat, built in 1789, and also
owned by Patrick Miller, was of the catamaran type, _i. e._, it had two
parallel hulls with paddle wheels between them.
Such was the state of this art when the Nineteenth Century commenced its
wonderful record. No practical steam vessel had been constructed, as
the efforts in this direction were handicapped by the crudeness of all
the arts, and were to be regarded as experiments only, most of which had
to be abandoned. The seed of this invention, however, had been sown in
the fertile soil of genius, conception of its great possibilities had
fired the zeal of the inventors in this field, and the new century was
shortly to number among its great resources a practical and efficient
steamboat.
[Illustration: FIG. 106.--SYMINGTON’S STEAMBOAT, 1801.]
The first steamboat of the Nineteenth Century was the “Charlotte
Dundas,” built by William Symington in 1801, see Fig. 106, and used on
the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1802. She had a double acting “Watt
engine,” which transmitted power by a connecting rod to a crank on the
paddle-wheel shaft. The boat had a single paddle wheel in the middle
near the stern, and was intended only for canal use, in the place of
horses. It was abandoned for fear of washing the banks.
[Illustration: FIG. 107.--STEVENS’ TWIN SCREW PROPELLER AND ENGINE,
1804.]
In 1804 Col. John Stevens constructed a boat on the Hudson, driven by a
Watt engine, and having a tubular boiler of his own invention and a twin
screw propeller. The engine, boiler, and twin screws are shown in Fig.
107. The same year Oliver Evans used a stern paddle wheel boat on the
Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It was driven by a double acting high
pressure engine, and geared so as to rotate wagon wheels by which it was
transported on land, as well as the paddle wheels when on the water. It
was in primitive form both a locomotive and a steamboat.
[Illustration: FIG. 108.--THE “CLERMONT,” 1807.]
In 1807 Robert Fulton built the “Clermont,” and permanently established
steam navigation on the Hudson River between New York and Albany. Fulton
in 1802-1803, while living in Paris with Mr. Joel Barlow, and with the
aid and encouragement of Chancellor Livingston, of New Jersey, had built
an earlier steamboat 86 feet long, and although it broke down owing to
defects in the strength of the hull, he was so encouraged that he
ordered Messrs. Boulton & Watt, of England, to send to America a new
steam engine, and upon his return to America he built the “Clermont.”
This vessel, although not the first steamboat, was nevertheless the
first to make a voyage of any considerable length, and to run regularly
and continuously for practical purposes, and Fulton was the first
inventor in this field whose labors were not to be classed as an
abandoned experiment. The “Clermont” as originally built was quite a
different looking boat from that usually given in the histories. A model
of the original construction is to be found in the National Museum at
Washington. In the winter of 1807-8 she was remodeled as shown in Fig.
108. She then appeared as a side wheel steamer, whose wheels were
provided with outer guards and enclosed in side wheel houses, and whose
shaft had outer bearings in the guards, which were not in the original
boat. The hull was 133 feet long, 18 feet beam, and 7 feet depth. The
“Clermont’s” engines were coupled to the crank shaft by a bell crank,
and the paddle wheel shaft was separated from the crank shaft, but
connected with it by gearing. The cylinders were 24 inches in diameter,
and 4 foot stroke. The paddle wheels had buckets 4 feet long with a dip
of 2 feet. She made the first trip from New York to Albany of 150 miles
in 32 hours, and returned in 30 hours, which was the first voyage of any
considerable length ever made by steam power.
The honor of inventing the steamboat has been claimed for many
inventors, and that many worthy experimenters had been working in this
field, and that Fulton had the benefit of their experience is true. The
fact is, however, that the evolution of any great, invention is a slow
and cumulative process, the product of many minds, and while the
proposers, suggesters, and experimenters are entitled to their share of
the credit, it is the man who achieves success and gives to the public
the benefit of his labors whom the world honors, and in this connection
the name of Fulton stands pre-eminent, for although the “Clermont” was
264 years later than the steamboat of Blasco de Garay, the “Clermont”
marks the beginning of practical steam navigation, and whatever the
claims of other inventors may be, it is certain that steam navigation,
established by Fulton in 1807, on the Hudson, preceded the practical use
of the steamboat in any other country by at least five years, for it was
not until 1812 that Henry Bell, of Scotland, built the “Comet,” that
plied between Glasgow and Greenock, on the Clyde, and not until 1814 was
a steam packet used for hire on the Thames in England.
At the same time that Fulton was in Paris making his first experiments
with the steamboat, Col. John Stevens, the most celebrated boat builder
and engineer of his day, was actively experimenting in America in the
same line. Having in 1804 made the first application of steam to the
screw propeller, he in 1807 built the “Phœnix,” which was driven by
paddle wheels. The “Phœnix” was constructed shortly after Fulton’s boat,
but was barred from use on the Hudson by the exclusive monopoly obtained
by Fulton and Livingston from the State Legislature, and she was
accordingly taken from New York to Philadelphia by sea, which was the
first ocean voyage by a steam vessel.
The first steamboat on the Mississippi was the “Orleans,” of 100 tons,
built at Pittsburg by Fulton and Livingston in 1811. She had a stern
wheel, and went from Pittsburg to New Orleans in 14 days.
Although the first trip out to sea was made in 1808 by Col. Stevens’ son
in taking the “Phœnix” from New York to Philadelphia, no attempt had
been made to cross the ocean until 1819. In this year the “Savannah,” an
American steamer of 380 tons, performed this feat, and had the honor of
being the first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic. In 1824 the
“Enterprise,” an English steamer, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and went
to India.
[Illustration: FIG. 109.--SCREW PROPELLER OF THE “ROBT. F. STOCKTON,”
ERICSSON’S PATENT, 1836.]
The screw propeller employed by Colonel Stevens in 1804 was not a new
invention with him, as popularly supposed, but had its origin early in
the preceding century, being a mere development of the ancient wind
wheel. In 1836 it was further developed by Francis P. Smith and by Capt.
John Ericsson, then living in England. Ericsson took out British patent
No. 7,149, of 1836, and United States patent No. 588, of Feb. 1, 1838,
and built several screw steamers, and through Capt. Robert F. Stockton,
of the United States Navy, succeeded in having a screw steamer, the
“Robert F. Stockton,” built in accordance with the plans of his patent
and sent to the United States. The arrangement of her machinery is seen
in Fig. 109. She had two propellers on the same axis, but revolving in
opposite directions, one being on the central shaft and the other on a
concentric tube. The engines were coupled directly to the propeller
shafts, which feature was one of Ericsson’s improvements, and has
continued to be the approved form to this day.
In the early history of steam navigation the side wheel steamer was the
favorite, and was employed for ocean travel as well as for inland
waters. In 1840 the “Brittania,” the first Cunarder, commenced the
career of that celebrated line. This vessel had side wheels, as did also
the “United States,” shown in Fig. 110, which was the first American
steamer built expressly for the Atlantic trade. In 1852 the United
States mail steamer “Arctic,” of the Collins line, was regarded as the
greyhound of the Atlantic, her time being 9 days, 17 hours and 12
minutes. She also had side wheels.
[Illustration: FIG. 110.--STEAMER “UNITED STATES,” 1847.]
Side wheel steamers for inland waters, and screw propellers for sea
service, however, in time established their fitness for their respective
scenes of action. In side wheel steamers the most notable improvements
have been in stiffening the hull by braces, and the adoption of
feathering paddle wheels, whose function is to cause the paddles to
enter and leave the water in vertical position without dragging dead
water. Manley in 1862, and Morgan in 1875, patented practical forms of
the feathering paddle wheel. In screw propellers, Woodcroft in 1832, and
Griffiths at a later period, made valuable improvements. The surface
condenser was used by Hall in 1838 on the steamship “Wilberforce,” and
Sickels in 1841 invented the drop cut-off.
[Illustration:
{“GREAT EASTERN,” SCREW AND PADDLE WHEELS, 1858. LENGTH,
FIG. 111.--{692 FEET, SPEED 12 KNOTS.
{“OCEANIC,” TWIN SCREW, 1899. LENGTH, 704 FEET, SPEED, 20
{KNOTS.]
In 1854 the “Great Eastern” was begun and was finished in 1858. This was
the largest steam vessel ever built up to this time, and has continued
to hold the record for size up to the year 1899, when her dimensions
were exceeded by the “Oceanic,” which ships are put in comparison in
Fig. 111. The length of the “Great Eastern” was 692 feet, beam 83 feet,
depth 57½ feet, draft 25½ feet, displacement 27,000 tons, and speed 12
knots. She was designed by the English engineer Brunel, and was intended
for the Australian trade. She had both a screw propeller and paddle
wheels at the side, with four engines coupled to each. The paddle wheel
engines had steam cylinders 74 inches in diameter, with 14 foot stroke,
and those of the screw engines were 84 inches in diameter and 4 foot
stroke. Collectively they were of 10,000 horse power. The paddle wheels
were 56 feet in diameter, and the screw propeller 24 feet. On her first
voyage to New York, across the Atlantic, in 1860, she carried from 15 to
24 pounds of steam and consumed 2,877 tons of coal. Her cost was
$3,831,520. This mammoth vessel was too large and unwieldy for the uses
for which she was designed, and proved a bad investment. She served,
however, a most useful purpose, by virtue of her great bulk, steadiness,
and carrying capacity, for relaying the Atlantic cable in 1866, and
others in 1873-1874.
In 1874 the “Castalia” was built. This was a steamer with two parallel
hulls, decked across, and designed for greater steadiness in crossing
the English Channel. The “Bessemer” steamer, designed for the same
purpose, and built about the same time, had four paddle wheels, and the
entire cabin was hung on pivots, so that it could not partake of the sea
motion.
In later years great improvements have been made in reducing the weight
of the engines, in forced blast, steam steering gear, anchor hoisting
devices, water-tight bulkheads, surface condensers, electric lights, and
signalling devices. By the year 1880 the standard form of marine engine
for large powers had become the compound double cylinder type, expanding
steam from an initial pressure as high as 90 pounds. In 1890 triple
expansion engines had become common, employing three cylinders, and
using steam with an initial pressure as high as 180 pounds. In 1890
McDougal’s whale-back steamers were introduced. See United States
patents No. 429,467 and 429,468, June 3, 1890, and No. 500,411, June 27,
1893.
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--STEAMBOAT “PRISCILLA.”]
In no country in the world are such fine examples of side wheel steamers
to be found as in the United States, and in no country are there such
splendid reaches of inland waters as theatres for their performances.
The “Priscilla,” shown in Fig. 112, of the Fall River Line, plying on
Long Island Sound, and the “Adirondack,” on the Hudson, are fine
examples of this type. The “Priscilla,” which is said to be the largest
river boat in the world, is 440 feet 6 inches long and 93 feet breadth
over the guards. She is driven by double compound inclined engines, has
feathering paddle wheels 35 feet in diameter and 14 feet face, and her
speed is over 20 miles an hour. The “Adirondack,” whose engines and
feathering paddle wheel are shown in Fig. 113, is 412 feet long and 90
feet breadth over guards. The engines and paddle wheels of the
“Adirondack” are distinctly representative of the modern American side
wheel steamer.
[Illustration: FIG. 113.--ENGINES AND PADDLE WHEEL OF STEAMER
“ADIRONDACK” ON THE HUDSON RIVER.]
The largest and in many respects the highest type of marine architecture
is to be found in the modern ocean greyhound for transatlantic trade. In
recent years the rival companies have vied with each other in the effort
to excel, and steamships of larger size, greater speed, and more perfect
equipment have followed each other, until it would seem that the limit
had been reached. In the accompanying table the largest and most recent
steamers are placed in comparison with the “Great Eastern.”
DIMENSIONS OF THE LARGEST OCEAN STEAMERS.
==============+======+=======+======+======+========+=========+=======
NAME OF | DATE.|LENGTH | BEAM.|DEPTH.|DRAUGHT.|DISPLACE-|MAXIMUM
SHIP. | | OVER | | | | MENT. |SPEED.
| | ALL. | | | | |
--------------+------+-------+------+------+--------|---------+-------
| | FEET. | FEET.| FEET.| FEET. | TONS. | KNOTS.
Great Eastern | 1858 | 692 | 83 | 57½ | 25½ | 27,000 | 12
Paris | 1888 | 560 | 63 | 42 | 26½ | 13,000 | 20
Teutonic | 1890 | 585 | 57½ | 42 | 26 | 12,000 | 20
Campania | 1893 | 625 | 65 | 41½ | 28 | 19,000 | 22
St. Paul | 1895 | 554 | 63 | 42 | 27 | 14,000 | 21
Kaiser Wilhelm| 1897 | 649 | 66 | 43 | 29 | 20,000 | 22.35
der Grosse | | | | | | |
Oceanic | 1899 | 704 | 68 | 49 | 32½ | 28,500 | 20
Deutschland | 1900 | 686½ | 67⅓ | 44 | 29 | 22,000 | 23½
==============+======+=======+======+======+========+=========+=======
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--“KAISER WILHELM DER GROSSE.”]
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--“OCEANIC” COMPARED WITH BROADWAY BUILDINGS.]
The “Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse,” owned by the North German Lloyd
Company, and built in 1897, is shown in Fig. 114, and for three years
held the record as the fastest steamship afloat. The “Kaiser Wilhelm”
was followed by the “Oceanic,” in 1899, of the White Star Company, which
is the largest ocean steamer ever built, exceeding the proportions of
the “Great Eastern.” Just what the dimensions of the “Oceanic” mean, as
given in the preceding tables, can be best illustrated by the
accompanying Fig. 115, in which she is juxtaposed with several blocks of
large buildings on Broadway, New York, opposite City Hall Park. If the
“Oceanic” were placed on end beside Washington’s Monument, at the United
States Capital, she would tower 150 feet above the top of the same. An
ordinary brick house four rooms deep and three stories high could be
built with its length crosswise in her hull. There is accommodation for
410 first-class passengers, 300 second-class passengers, and 1,000 third
class, and as her crew will number 390, the total number of souls on
board, when she carries her full complement, will be 2,100.
The latest achievement in marine architecture, however, is the
“Deutschland,” built for the Hamburg-American Company. The “Deutschland”
is not quite so large as the “Oceanic,” but is of higher speed, her
maximum speed of 23½ knots an hour exceeding that of any other ocean
steamer. The “Savannah,” the first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic,
made the trip in 1819 in 26 days. The “Deutschland” in her eastward trip
September 4, 1900, crossed the Atlantic in 5 days 7 hours and 38
minutes, which is the fastest time on record. The “Deutschland” is of
35,640 horse power, her two bronze propellers are 23 feet diameter, and
weigh 30 tons, and her propeller shafts are 25 inches in diameter. The
cranks of her propeller shafts, like those of the “Kaiser Wilhelm” and
the “Oceanic,” are set according to the Schlick system, to reduce
vibration. The “Deutschland’s” engines are seen in Fig. 92, and in
general appearance the ship resembles the “Kaiser Wilhelm.” Still larger
and possibly swifter steamships are in process of construction, viz.:
the “Kaiser Wilhelm II.,” by the North German Lloyd Company, and a
mammoth unnamed ship by the White Star Line, whose length of 750 feet
will exceed all others.
It may be interesting to note in familiar terms what these enormous
traveling palaces comprehend in equipment. For the safety and comfort of
passengers, the great length reduces the pitching, bilge keels prevent
rolling, and the Schlick system of cranks neutralizes vibration in the
engine. Strong bulkheads, and double bottoms with air-tight
compartments, impart buoyancy in case of collision. Boilers are placed
in separate water-tight compartments, so that damage to one does not
disable the others. Powerful pumps are arranged to discharge inflowing
water, and the best of life boats are provided. Spacious dining rooms,
promenade decks, drawing rooms, pianos, library, smoking room, state
rooms, cabins for children, toilets, baths, medicine stores, a printing
office, and electric lights everywhere, furnish every want and satisfy
every luxurious taste. The cuisine includes a refrigerating plant, the
finest ranges, and provisions galore. It may be interesting to the
housewife to see the market list of a modern transatlantic steamer. A
specimen is partially represented in the following: 25,450 pounds of
fresh meat, 3,250 pounds of fish, 6,370 pounds of game and poultry,
12,715 pounds of bread, 43 barrels of flour, 3,938 pounds of butter,
1,307 pounds of coffee, 2,790 pounds of sugar, 102 pounds of tea, 7,220
pounds of fresh fruit; 1,230 gallons of milk, 26,106 eggs, 29,180
oranges and lemons, 7,033 bottles of mineral water, 1,800 bottles of
beer, 2,688 gallons of beer in casks, 1,240 bottles of wine, 630 bottles
of champagne, 1,600 heads of lettuce, 800 jars of preserved fruits, and
other things in proportion.
In the matter of size the “Oceanic” surpasses all previous efforts in
ship building, but ocean steamers do not reach the highest speed
attainable. The little “Turbinia,” a 40 ton craft equipped with a
compound rotary steam turbine of the Parsons type, has attained a speed
of 32¾ knots an hour. An even greater speed has recently been attained
by the larger boat, “Hai Lung,” constructed in England for the Chinese
Government, which vessel was equipped with reciprocating engines, and is
credited with having made a run of 18½ knots at an average speed of 35
knots an hour. The highest speed ever attained, however, is by the
British torpedo boat “Viper,” which is 210 feet long, and, like the
“Turbinia,” is equipped with the Parsons steam turbines. In a recent
trial the “Viper” covered a measured mile at the rate of 37.1 knots, or
about 43 miles an hour.
In many respects the most important branch of steam navigation in recent
years has been its war vessels. The great navies of the world at the end
of 1898[3] ranked as follows: England, 1,557,522 tons; France, 731,629
tons; Russia, 453,899 tons; United States, 303,070 tons; Germany,
299,637 tons; Italy, 286,175 tons, and they all owe their efficiency
entirely to steam. The first steam war vessel was built in 1814 by
Fulton for the defence of New York Harbor, during the then existing war
times. She was known as the “Demologos” (voice of the people), or
“Fulton the First.” As shown in the original designs, Fig. 116, she is a
double ender, whose sides were to be 5 feet thick. In her middle was a
channel way or well containing a protected paddle wheel 16 feet in
diameter, 14 feet wide, and having a dip of 4 feet. A single cylinder
engine turned the paddle wheel on one side, and was balanced by the
boiler on the other side. Although intended to have only twenty guns,
she was equipped, when finished, with thirty long 32-pounder guns and
two Columbiad 100-pounders. It was proposed also to have submarine guns
suspended from each bow. An engine was also to be used to discharge hot
water on the enemy, and a furnace was to be provided for heating the
cannon balls red hot. She was 156 feet long, 20 feet deep, and 56 feet
broad, and was regarded as a very formidable vessel. Her cost was
$278,544. Iron-clad floating batteries were first used in 1855 in the
Crimean war, and shortly afterward the French built the first sea-going
iron-clad, “Gloire,” followed in 1859 by the British iron-clad,
“Warrior.”
[3] The figures represent a selective list which excludes about 15 per
cent. of old and inefficient vessels.
[Illustration: “DEMOLOGOS”
Figure I^{st} Transverse section A _her Boiler,_ B _the steam Engine,_ C
_the water-wheel,_
EE _her wooden walls 5 feet thick, diminishing to below the waterline as
at_ FF.
_draught of water 9 feet_ DD _her gun deck._
Figure II^{d} _This shews her gun deck. 140 feet long,
24 feet wide; mounting 20 guns_ A _the Water wheel_
Figure III^{d}
_Side View_
FIG. 116.]
The civil war in 1861 brought with it a novel and striking form of war
vessel known as the “Monitor.”[4] It was built from plans of Capt.
Ericsson, an engineer of the ripest experience, skill, and attainments,
who had then come to make his home in the United States. He undertook to
construct for the Navy Department of the United States some form of iron
clad steam batteries of light draft, suitable to navigate the rivers and
harbors of the Confederate States. The “Monitor” was the result. The
salient features, shown in vertical cross section in Fig. 117, are a low
deck projecting but a few inches above the water line, so as to present
as little target as possible to the enemy, and a revolving and heavily
armored turret containing the battery of guns. In 1862 the Confederate
forces had reconstructed a steam vessel with a chicken-coop-shaped
covering of armor, that proved a formidable engine of war, which was
practically invulnerable to the attacks of ordinary war vessels, and was
doing great damage to the Union vessels. In the spring of 1862 the
“Monitor” met the “Merrimac” in engagement in Hampton Roads, and
established the great value of the turret monitor.
[4] The revolving turret was invented and patented by Theodore R.
Timby, No. 35,846, July 8, 1862, and No. 36,593, September 30,
1862.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.--CROSS SECTION OF “MONITOR.”]
Vessels of the “Monitor” type still form useful parts of the United
States Navy, in which the “Monterey” and “Monadnock” are its most
representative types. The “Monadnock,” which is a double-turret coast
defence monitor, is shown in Fig. 118. Although regarded by some as
unseaworthy on account of the low seaboard and small buoyancy, the
monitor has cleared itself of such suspicion, for in the recent war with
Spain both the “Monadnock” and “Monterey” sailed across the Pacific
Ocean by way of Honolulu to Manila, a distance of 7,000 miles, and
joined the fleet of Admiral Dewey without mishap or delay.
[Illustration: FIG. 118.--MONITOR “MONADNOCK.”]
No patriotic American citizen would expect to read an account of modern
war vessels without finding special mention of those two splendid
types of their class, the battleship “Oregon” and the armored cruiser
“Brooklyn,” whose performances during the late war with Spain
contributed so much to the honor and glory of the United States Navy,
and demonstrated the skill and efficiency of our American shipbuilders.
Before the war began the “Oregon” was stationed on the Pacific Coast,
where she had been built, and it was desired that she should join the
fleet of Admiral Sampson in Cuban waters. Leaving Puget Sound on March
6, 1898, this floating fortress of steel, weighted with her enormous
guns and 18-inch thick armor, made the long journey of over 14,500 miles
around the southern end of the western continent, and up to Jupiter
Inlet on the Florida coast, arriving there on the 24th day of May, and
was not delayed an hour on account of her machinery, the only stops
being made for coal. Immediately after coaling at Key West she took her
place in the blockading line at Santiago, and in the great battle of
July 3 quickly developed a power greater than that attained on her trial
trip and a speed only slightly less, easily distancing all other ships
immediately engaged except the “Brooklyn,” and in connection with the
“Brooklyn” forced the fleetest of the Spanish cruisers to surrender.
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--BATTLESHIP “OREGON.”]
The “Oregon” is shown in Fig. 119. She is an armored battleship of the
first class, built by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco, and
launched Oct. 26, 1893. Her length is 348 feet, beam 69¼ feet, draft 24
feet, displacement 10,288 tons, maximum speed 16.79 knots, and coal
capacity 1,594 tons. Her side armor is of steel plates 18 inches thick,
and her deck is, 2¾ inches thick. On the turrets the armor is from 6 to
15 inches thick, and on the barbettes it is from 6 to 17 inches thick.
Her engines are of the twin screw, vertical triple expansion direct
acting inverted cylinder type. The stroke is 42 inches, and the
diameters of the cylinders are 34½, 48, and 75 inches, respectively. The
battery consists of four 13-inch breech loading rifles, eight 8-inch
breech loading rifles, four 6-inch, twenty 6-pounder rapid fire guns,
six 1-pounder rapid fire, two Colts, one 3-inch rapid fire field gun,
and three torpedo tubes. The 13-inch guns weigh 136,000 pounds each, are
39 feet 9¼ inches long, are set 18 feet above the water, can be moved
through an arc of 270 degrees, and throw a projectile of 1,100 pounds a
distance of 12 miles, and with a power which at 1,000 yards would
perforate a mass of steel 2½ feet in thickness. The cost of the “Oregon”
was $3,180,000.
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--ARMORED CRUISER “BROOKLYN.”]
The “Brooklyn” is shown in Fig. 120, and enjoys the distinction of
having borne the brunt of the fight of July 3, 1898, having been hit
over forty times in that engagement without being disabled. She was
built by the William Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Company, of
Philadelphia, was launched Oct. 2, 1895, and cost $2,986,000. She is an
armored cruiser, and is one of the latest and most speedy of that type.
She is 400 feet 6 inches long, 64 feet 8 inches breadth, 24 feet draft,
9,215 tons displacement. Her engines are the twin-screw vertical triple
expansion type, imparting a speed of 21.91 knots an hour. Her maximum
indicated horse power is 18,769, and her coal capacity is 1,461 tons.
Her battery consists of eight 8-inch breech loading rifles, twelve
5-inch rapid fire guns, twelve 6-pounder rapid fire, four 1-pounder
rapid fire, four Colts, two 3-inch rapid fire field guns, and four
Whitehead torpedo tubes. Her side armor is 3 inches thick, her turrets
5½ inches, her barbettes from 4 to 8 inches, and her deck from 3 to 6
inches. She also has a water line protection of cocoa fibre to
automatically close up an opening made by a shot.
Although not a steam vessel, it would be regarded as an omission not to
mention among war vessels the “Holland” submarine boat, brought into
notice in 1898 by the Spanish American war, and designed to dive below
the surface and make attack below the water level. Torpedo boats of this
type have been acquired by, and now form a part of, the United States
Navy.
Among all the types of steam war vessels which have claimed popular
attention the most interesting in proportion to its size is the torpedo
boat, for none represent such concentrated pent-up energy and deadly
effect as this little demon of the sea. A mere shell in construction,
with engine and boiler built for highest speed, and crew suffering
untold discomforts and dangers below, this modern engine of destruction,
with the speed of an express locomotive, and the helplessness and deadly
intent of a scorpion, darts up to the monster battleship under cover of
darkness, and before being discovered discharges a torpedo and delivers
a mortal wound in the side of the big ship which sends her to the
bottom, perishing perhaps itself in the destruction which it works. The
United States has 37 of these torpedo boats. The torpedo boat destroyer
is a larger and swifter boat, whose special duty it is to overtake and
destroy this dangerous little fighter.
[Illustration: FIG. 121.--SHIPPING OF ALL NATIONS. RATIO OF STEAM TO
SAILS.]
The growth of steam navigation during the present generation has been
wonderfully rapid. The accompanying diagram, Fig. 121, from Mulhall’s
“Industries and Wealth of Nations,” shows in 1860 30 per cent. of steam
to 70 per cent. of sailing vessels, while in 1894 the ratio is 80 per
cent. of steam to 20 of sailing vessels. The same authority estimated
the total horse power of steam vessels in the merchant marine of the
world in 1895 to be 12,005,000. Add to this the growth of the past five
years, and about 4,000,000 horse power for the steam war vessels of the
world’s navies, which were not included, and the total horse power of
the steam vessels of the world would not be far from twenty million.
This cursory review, in a single chapter, cannot adequately treat this
great subject, for a whole library is needed to cover the field. Suffice
it to say, however, that among the great scenes and acts in the theatre
of human action, no figure has occupied so much attention, and none
played so important a part in the drama of life, as the steam vessel.
Its stage setting has been the majestic waters of the earth, and on it
the play of the great warships has vied in power and grandeur with the
flash and vehemence of the lightning, and the whirl and turmoil of the
elements. Tense with a deep meaning which no stage simulation could
approximate, and with the smoke of conflict for a drop curtain, it has
laid tragedies upon the pages of history, and changed the maps of the
world; while behind the scenes the great passenger steamers, with their
uninterrupted traffic of human freight, are more silently, but none the
less surely, stirring the peoples of the earth into the homogeneous
ferment of civilization, and slowly moulding nations into the solidarity
of a common brotherhood.
CHAPTER XIII.
PRINTING.
EARLY PRINTING PRESSES--NICHOLSON’S ROTARY PRESS--THE COLUMBIAN AND
WASHINGTON PRESSES--KÖNIG ROTARY STEAM PRESS--THE HOE TYPE REVOLVING
MACHINE--COLOR PRINTING--STEREOTYPING--PAPER MAKING--WOOD PULP--THE
LINOTYPE--PLATE PRINTING--LITHOGRAPHY.
The art preservative of all arts it has been rightfully called. Before
its birth generation after generation of the human family lived and
died, and each was but little wiser, and but little better than its
predecessor. Tradition was the misty, vague, and sometimes wholly false
dependence of the living, and the experiences of mankind were, in the
words of an eminent writer, but like the stern lights of a vessel, which
only illumined the pathway over which each had passed. But printing
gives to the present the cumulative wisdom of the past, and marks a
great era of growth in civilization. It conserves and preserves man’s
thoughts and makes them immortal, so that each generation comes into
existence with a richer legacy of ideas, and is guaranteed a higher
plane of existence, and a more exalted destiny.
Printing from letters engraved on blocks of wood is an ancient art,
having had its origin in China many centuries before the Christian era.
The Chinese method, which is still followed, was to write their
characters with a brush on a sheet of paper, and while still wet, the
piece of paper was laid face downward on a smooth piece of board to
transfer the ink lines, and then all except the ink lines on the board
was cut away. Thus they have one type plate for each book page. Printing
with movable type, _i. e._, with a separate type for each letter, which
may be repeatedly set up into forms of varying composition, is
practically the beginning of the modern art of printing. This invention
is usually ascribed to Johann Gutenberg, of Mentz, about 1436.
[Illustration: FIG. 122.--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S PRESS, 1725.]
In the earliest printing presses the form was locked up in a tray, and
placed upon a platform, and the platen was then brought down upon it by
turning a screw in a cross bar above. The first printing press of this
type was made by Blaew, of Amsterdam, in 1620, which had a spring to
cause the screw to fly back after the impression was taken. The press
upon which Benjamin Franklin worked in London in 1725 is of this
pattern, and is to be seen in the National Museum at Washington. It is
almost entirely of wood, and is shown in Fig. 122. About the beginning
of the Nineteenth Century Lord Stanhope invented a press entirely of
cast iron, in which the oscillating handle operated a toggle to force
down the platen in taking the impression. The bed traveled on guide
ways, and the tympan and frisket were hinged to fold back and lay in
elevated position.
[Illustration: FIG. 123.--THE WASHINGTON PRESS.]
The “Columbian” press was the first important American improvement. It
was invented by George Clymer, of Philadelphia, and is shown in his
British Pat. No. 4,174 of 1817. A compound lever was employed for
applying the power. The “Washington” press was patented in the United
States by Samuel Rust, April 17, 1829. In this press (see Fig. 123) the
platen is forced downwardly by a compound lever applied to a toggle
joint and is raised by springs on each side. The bed is run in and out
by turning a crank on a shaft which has a pulley and belt passing around
it.
As so far described the presses were worked by hand power. An important
step in the advancement of this art was made by the introduction of
_power presses_ worked by steam. These arranged the type on the surface
of a cylinder. Probably the earliest form of rotary cylinder press is
that invented by Nicholson, British Pat. No. 1,748 of 1790. Its main
features are described as follows: “The types, being rubbed or scraped
narrower toward the foot, were to be fixed radially upon a cylinder.
This cylinder with its type was to revolve in gear with another cylinder
covered with soft leather (the impression cylinder), and the type
received its ink from another cylinder, to which the inking apparatus
was applied. The paper was impressed by passing between the type and the
impression cylinder.”
The first practical success, however, in rotary steam presses was
achieved by König, a German, who in 1814 set up for the _London Times_
two machines, by which that newspaper was printed at the rate of 1,100
impressions per hour. He obtained British Pat. No. 3,321 of 1810, No.
3,496 of 1811, No. 3,725 of 1813, and No. 3,868 of 1814. König’s machine
was in 1827 succeeded by that of Applegath and Cowper, which was simpler
and more rapid.
Many improvements upon the methods for handling the paper were
subsequently devised, and double cylinder presses were made which were
able to print 4,000 sheets an hour. In 1845 the firm of R. Hoe & Co.,
which had already been for years engaged in the manufacture of printing
presses, brought out the Hoe Type Revolving Machine. The first one of
these was placed in the office of the _Philadelphia Ledger_ in 1846, and
had four impression cylinders, printing 8,000 papers per hour. The
constantly increasing circulation of newspapers, however, continued to
make insatiable demands for more rapid work, and to meet this demand the
Hoe company in 1871 brought out their continuous web press, in which the
paper was furnished to the machine in the form of a roll, and after
being printed was separated into sheets. This principle of action gave
promise of unlimited speed, and required important reorganization in all
parts of the machine. To meet these conditions of increased speed more
rapid drying ink had to be produced to prevent blurring, paper of
uniform quality and strength had to be made, means had to be devised for
printing the opposite side of the web, and severing devices for cutting
the web into sheets were needed, but perhaps the most important feature
was the device called a gathering and delivering cylinder, whereby the
papers could be gathered and disposed of as fast as they could be
printed, and much faster than human hands could work. This was the
invention of Stephen D. Tucker, and it is the mechanism upon which the
speed of the modern press depends, for it would obviously be useless to
print papers faster than they could be taken from the machine in proper
condition. Many patents were taken by Messrs. Hoe & Tucker covering
various improvements, prominent among which were No. 18,640, Nov. 17,
1857; No. 25,199, Aug. 23, 1859 (re-issue No. 4,429); No. 84,627, Dec.
1, 1868 (re-issue No. 4,400); No. 113,769, April 18, 1871; No. 124,460,
March 12, 1872; No. 131,217, Sept. 10, 1872. The first rapid printing
press of the Hoe Company was set up in the office of the _New York
Tribune_ in 1871, and its maximum output was 18,000 an hour. This marked
the great era of rapid newspaper printing, and following it many further
improvements, such as devices for folding and counting the papers
automatically, have been added, until to-day the great Hoe Octuple
Press, shown in Fig. 124, is the wonder of the Nineteenth Century. It
prints 96,000 papers of four, six, or eight pages in an hour, or at the
rate of 1,600 a minute, and these papers are not only printed, but in
the same operation and by the same machine are cut, pasted, folded, and
counted automatically. Fifty miles of paper of the width of an ordinary
newspaper pass through it each hour from its several rolls. The machine
weighs over 60 tons, and is composed of about 16,000 parts, and yet its
touch is so deft, and its members so delicately and accurately adjusted
that it does not tear the tender sheet as it flies through the
machine--so fast that one-fifth of a second only is required to print a
page.
[Illustration: FIG. 124.--HOE OCTUPLE PRESS. PRINTS, CUTS, PASTES, FOLDS
AND COUNTS NEWSPAPERS AT RATE OF 1,600 A MINUTE.]
The latest development in the printing press has been in color printing,
which has recently been introduced in the illustration of some of the
largest daily newspapers. Such a press contains from 50,000 to 60,000
parts, and its cost is from $35,000 to $45,000.
Collateral with the development of the printing press are three
important branches of the art--stereotyping, paper making, and type
setting.
_Stereotyping_ was the invention of William Ged, of Edinburgh, in 1731,
and was introduced into the United States by David Bruce, of New York,
in 1813. The stereotype is simply a moulded duplicate of the type face
as set up, the duplicate being cast in the form of a single block of
metal, by first taking an impression in plastic material from the faces
of the type, after being set up, to form the mould, and then casting, in
an easily fusible metal, an exact duplicate of this type face in this
mould. This art prevents the wear on the movable type involved in
printing, and also avoids the locking up into permanent forms of a large
body of valuable type, since a form may be set up, stereotyped, and the
type then distributed and set up into another form. Stereotyping,
although used in book printing, was not thought practical for newspaper
work until about 1861, because of the length of time required for the
formation and drying of the mould and the casting of the plate; but
about this time great expedition in the formation of the plate was
attained by the employment of a steam bed to dry the mould, and a novel
form of papier maché matrix, or mould, which could be conveniently
disposed around the cylinders of type. The dampened and plastic papier
maché sheets are beaten into the face of the type form by means of
brushes, are then removed, dried, and used as moulds to cast the
stereotype plate from. A stereotype plate can now be made in about seven
minutes.
[Illustration: FIG. 125.--PAPER PULP BEATING ENGINE.]
_Paper Making_ is an important adjunct of the printing art, and its
formation cheaply into long rolls of uniform strength is an essential
condition of success in the rapid web-perfecting printing press. A
Frenchman named Louis Robert about 1799 was the first to make a
continuous web of paper, and in 1800 he received from the French
Government a reward of 8,000 francs for his discovery. His invention was
subsequently taken up and carried to a success by the great English
paper makers, the Fourdrinier Brothers, whose name has been given to the
machine. In the Fourdrinier process rags are ground to a pulp by a
revolving beater (Fig. 125) working in a tank of water. The pulp, duly
beaten, refined, screened, and diluted with water, is then piped into
the “flow-box” of the Fourdrinier machine. The “flow-box,” shown on
right of Fig. 126, is a deep rectangular chamber extending across the
full width of the machine, from which the pulp flows out in a thin
stream onto an endless belt of 70-mesh wire cloth which runs over end
rollers. To prevent the stream of pulp from flowing laterally over the
edges of the belt, two endless rubber guides or bands, two inches square
in cross section, travel with the belt over the first twenty feet of its
length, and run over two pulleys above the wire cloth. The upper half of
the wire cloth belt is supported by and runs over a series of closely
juxtaposed rollers. As the pulp passes from the “flow-box” the particles
of fibre float in it just as an innumerable multitude of particles of
cotton fibre would float in a stream of water. To unite and interlace
the fibres the wire cloth belt is given a lateral oscillating or shaking
movement, which serves to interlock the fibres. Meanwhile the water
strains through the wire cloth, leaving a thin layer of moist interlaced
fibre spread in a white sheet over the surface of the belt. The
separation of the water is further assisted by suction boxes which
extend across close beneath the upper run of the belt and are connected
to suction pumps.
[Illustration: FIG. 126.--FOURDRINIER PAPER MACHINE.]
The wire cloth with its layer of moist pulp now passes below a roll
which compresses the fibre, and then leaving the machine seen in Fig.
126 it passes below a second and larger roll covered with felt, which
presses out more of the water. The fibre next passes to the “first
press,” where it is caught up on an endless belt and passed between two
rollers where more water is pressed out of the sheet. Then it passes
through a “second press,” and finally the sheet commences a long journey
up and down over a series of steam-heated drying rolls, by which the
sheet is dried.
_Wood-Pulp._--When a purchaser of one of the New York dailies reads the
morning’s voluminous edition, he little realizes that he holds in his
hands the remains of a billet of wood as large as a good-sized club, yet
such is the case. Originally made from the fibres of the papyrus plant,
and later from rags beaten into a pulp, paper for the printing of books
and newspapers is now made almost entirely of wood. In the formation of
paper pulp from wood two processes are employed, one known as the soda
process, and the other the sulphite process. In both cases the wood is
cut into fine chips, and then digested in great drums with chemicals to
extract the resinous matter and leave the pure fibrous cellulose, which
resembles raw cotton in texture. This industry was developed by Watt and
Burgess in 1853 (U. S. Pat. No. 11,343, July 18, 1854), who invented the
soda process; by Voelter (U. S. Pat. No. 21,161, Aug. 10, 1858), who
devised means for comminuting or shredding the wood; and by Tilghman (U.
S. Pat. No. 70,485, Nov. 5, 1867), who invented the sulphite process.
The logs, usually of spruce or poplar, are first split, as seen at the
bottom of Fig. 127, then placed in the chipper, where a revolving disc
with knives cuts them into small chips, which are fed to an elevator and
raised to a screening device, seen at the top, to remove saw-dust, dirt
and knots. In the sulphite process the chips are then delivered into the
digesters shown in Fig. 128, which are supplied with sulphurous acid
generated in a plant shown in Fig. 129. In the digesters the gummy and
resinous matters are dissolved by the heat and chemicals, and the woolly
fibre left behind is bleached, washed, and dried, and afterwards made
into paper upon the Fourdrinier machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 127.--CHIPPING LOGS FOR PAPER PULP.]
[Illustration: FIG. 128.--DIGESTER FOR WOOD PULP.]
[Illustration: FIG. 129.--SULPHUROUS ACID PLANT FOR MAKING WOOD PULP.]
It was stated by the _Paper Trade Journal_ in 1897 that the increase in
paper making in the United States during the 15 years preceding amounted
to 352 per cent., due chiefly to the growth of the wood pulp industry.
The Androscoggin Pulp Mill, established in Maine in 1870, was one of the
pioneers in this field. In that State the industry had grown in 1897 to
over $13,000,000 and gave employment to more than 5,000 men, but the
State of Maine is excelled by both New York and Wisconsin in this
industry, for in the same year New York mills had a daily capacity of
1,800,000 pounds; Wisconsin, 670,000; Maine, 665,000, and other States a
less capacity. There are over 1,000 paper mills in the United States,
and their combined daily capacity amounts to over 13,000 tons. In 1898
the United States exported over five million dollars’ worth of paper,
and over fifty million pounds of wood pulp. Of the total amount of paper
produced in the world Mulhall estimated it in 1890 to be 2,620,000,000
tons annually. This amount is greatly increased at the present time, and
by far the larger part of it is manufactured from wood.
In 1891 the _Philadelphia Record_ in an experimental test as to speed,
cut trees from the forest, converted them into paper, and then into
printed newspapers, all within the space of 22 hours. At a later period
in Germany, where the wood pulp art began, even this expeditious work
has been excelled. The trees were felled in the morning at 7:35,
converted into paper, and presented at 10 A. M. in the form of printed
newspapers, with a record of the news of the forenoon. The great naval
edition of the _Scientific American_ of April 30, 1898, consumed a
hundred tons of wood pulp paper, and was therefore built upon a material
foundation of 125 cords of wood, which cleared off over six acres of
well-set spruce timber land. It is mainly wood pulp that has enabled
books and newspapers to be made so cheaply, for they are now furnished
at a less price than the cost of the paper made in the old way from
rags.
[Illustration: FIG. 130.--LINOTYPE MACHINE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 131.--LINOTYPE MATRIX.]
[Illustration: FIG. 132.--SPACING OF ASSEMBLED LINE OF MATRICES.]
_The Linotype._--The most revolutionary and perhaps the most important
development in the printing art of this century has been the linotype
machine. The laborious, painstaking, and expensive feature of printing
has always been the setting and redistribution of the types, since each
little piece had to be separately selected and placed in the composing
stick, and the line afterwards “justified,” which means an apportionment
of the space between the words so as to make each line of type about the
same length in the column. The same separate handling of each piece was
again involved in restoring the type to the case. Machines for thus
setting and distributing the type had been devised, but the operation
was so involved, and required so nearly the discretion of the thinking
mind, that all automatic machinery proved too complicated and
impracticable. In 1886, however, a machine was placed in the office of
the _New York Tribune_ whose performances astonished and alarmed the
old-time compositor. It rendered it unnecessary to handle the type, or
even to have any separate type at all. It was the Mergenthaler Linotype
machine, which automatically formed its own type by casting a whole line
of it at a time. The first machine was invented in 1884, and patented in
1885, but it was subsequently reorganized and greatly improved in Pats.
No. 425,140, April 8, 1890; Nos. 436,531 and 436,532, Sept. 16, 1890,
and No. 438,354, Oct. 14, 1890. It is shown in the accompanying
illustration (Fig. 130). By manipulating the keyboard, which resembles
that of a typewriter, each lettered key is made to bring down from an
inclined elevated magazine a little brass plate of the shape shown in
Fig. 131, and which plate is called a matrix, because it bears on its
edge at _x_ a mould of the type letter. There is a matrix plate for
every letter and character used. These little matrices are spaced by
wedges, as seen in Fig. 132, and are assembled, as in Fig. 133, along
the side of a mould wheel having a slot in it which forms a channel
between the aligned type-moulds or matrices on one side and the
discharge mouth of a melting pot, in which molten type metal is
maintained in a fluid state by a subjacent gas-burner. In the melting
pot there is a cylinder and plunger, and when the plunger descends, it
forces the molten metal up through the discharge spout into the slot of
the mould wheel, and against the letter mould _x_ of each one of the
composed or aligned matrices. The wheel is then turned with the
matrices, and the metal in its slot is afterwards discharged in the form
of a linotype slug, seen in Fig. 134, which is a metal plate bearing on
its edge a completely moulded line of type ready for setting up in the
form for printing. The jagged notches in the tops of the matrices (Fig.
131) are for co-operation with a distributer bar (not easily explained)
for restoring the matrices to their appropriate magazines after being
used. There are altogether about 1,500 of the little brass matrices. The
machine is about five feet square, weighs 1,750 pounds, and costs $3,000
each. Notwithstanding this expense these Linotype machines have to-day
made their way into nearly all the daily newspaper offices of the
civilized world, even to Australia and the Hawaiian Islands. In the
composing rooms of the daily newspapers and the larger book printing
offices we find great rows of these Linotype machines, each doing the
work of from four to five men. There are now in use in America something
over 5,000 Linotype machines; and in other countries about 2,000, making
7,000 in all. Each machine may be adjusted in five minutes to produce
any size or style of type, and it gives new, clean faces for each day’s
issue, with none of the ordinary troubles of distributing type. The
cheapness of composition, due to the machine, has led to an enormous
increase in the size of papers, in the frequency of the editions, and
has correspondingly increased the demand for labor in all the attendant
lines, such as paper-making, press-making, the attendants on presses,
stereotyping, etc. In the Boston Library, which keeps its catalogues
printed up to within 24 hours of date, the Linotypes print in 23
languages.
[Illustration: FIG. 133.--CASTING THE LINE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 134.--A LINOTYPE.]
When the Linotype machine was first patented it was not regarded by
printers generally as a practical machine, but only one of the many
complicated, theoretical, but impracticable organizations which the
Patent Office has to deal with. Its history, however, has been unique.
It is practically the product of the brain of a single man, Ottmar
Mergenthaler, a most ingenious and indefatigable inventor living in
Baltimore. It was exploited under the powerful patronage of a syndicate
of newspaper men, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in
perfecting it before any practical results were obtained. To-day it
stands a triumph of human ingenuity, ranking in importance with the
rotary web-perfecting press, and is probably the most ingenious piece of
practical mechanism in existence.
Of the three forms of printing attention has been given thus far only to
the leading branch of the art, which is _type printing_, or “_letter
press_,” as it is called, in which the characters are raised in relief
and receive ink on their raised surfaces only. A second branch of the
art is _plate printing_, in which the lines and characters are engraved
in intaglio in a plate, and which, being covered with ink, and the
surface of the plate wiped clean, leaves the ink in the undercuts, which
is taken up by the paper when pressure is applied through a roller.
Plate printing is a very old art, the plate printing press having been
ascribed to Tomasso Finiguerra, of Florence, in 1460. The reciprocating
table bearing the engraved plate, and the superposed pressure roller
turned by hand through its long radial arms, is an ancient and familiar
form of press which has been in use for many years. This method of
printing finds application in fine line engraving in works of art, card
invitations, and bank note engraving. Very ingenious automatic machines
have been invented and were in use a few years ago by the United States
Government for printing its bank notes, but have since been displaced by
the old hand machines. To the credit of the machine, it should be said,
that it was from no fault in the machine that this retrograde step was
taken, but rather the disfavor of the labor organizations.
_Lithography_ is another and quite important branch of the printing art,
in which the lines and characters are drawn upon stone with a kind of
oily ink to which printers’ ink will adhere, while it is repelled from
the other moistened surfaces of the stone. Lithography was invented in
1798 by Alois Senefelder, of Munich. It finds its greatest application
in artistic and fanciful work in inks of various colors, and its
development into chromo-lithography in the Nineteenth Century has grown
into a fine art. Our beautifully colored chromos, prints, labels, maps,
etc., are made by this process. A more recent and quite important
development of this art is photo-lithography, which will be more fully
considered under photography.
Many collateral branches of the printing art are interesting in their
development, such as calico printing, the printing of wall papers, of
oil cloth, printing for the blind, book binding, type founding, and
folding and addressing machines, but lack of space forbids more than a
casual mention.
Printing is perhaps the greatest of all the arts of civilization, and
the libraries and newspapers of the Nineteenth Century attest its value.
If Benjamin Franklin could wake from his long sleep and enter the
composing rooms of our great dailies, and witness the imposing array of
linotype machines, more resembling a machine shop than a printing
office, and then visit the press room and see the avalanche of finished
papers flying at the rate of 1,600 a minute, neatly folded, and counted
for delivery, he would doubtless be overwhelmed with emotions of wonder
and incredulity, for broad-minded man as he was, he could have no
conception of such progress.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE TYPEWRITER.
OLD ENGLISH TYPEWRITER OF 1714--THE BURT TYPEWRITER OF 1829--
PROGIN’S FRENCH MACHINE OF 1833--THURBER’S PRINTING MACHINE OF
1843--THE BEACH TYPEWRITER--THE SHOLES TYPEWRITER, THE FIRST OF THE
MODERN FORM, COMMERCIALLY DEVELOPED INTO THE REMINGTON--THE
CALIGRAPH--SMITH-PREMIER--THE BOOK TYPEWRITER AND OTHERS.
Occupying an intermediate place between the old-fashioned scribe and the
printer, the typewriter has in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century
established a distinct and important avocation, and has become a
necessary factor in modern business life. Chirography, or hand writing,
reflecting, as it did, the idiosyncrasies of each writer, was not only
slow, but when employed was, in most cases, in the haste and press of
active business reduced to an illegible scrawl. For the use of reporters
and others requiring extra speed, stenography, or short hand, was
resorted to, but there was a distinct need for some easy, quick,
legible, and uniform record of the busy man’s correspondence and copy
work, and this the modern typewriter has supplied.
Like most other important inventions, the typewriter did not spring into
existence all at once, for while the practical embodiment in really
useful machines has only taken place since about 1868, there had been
many experiments and some success attained at a much earlier date. The
British patent to Henry Mills. No. 395 of 1714, is the earliest record
of efforts in this direction. At this early date no drawings were
attached to patents, and the specification dwells more on the function
of the machine than the instrumentalities employed. No record of the
construction of this machine remains in existence, and it may fairly be
considered a lost art. In quaint and old-fashioned English, the patent
specification proceeds as follows:
“_ANNE_, by the grace of God, &c., to all whom these presents shall
come, greeting: _WHEREAS_, our trusty and well-beloved subject, Henry
Mills, hath by his humble peticon represented vnto vs, that he has by
his greate study, paines, and expence, lately invented, and brought to
perfection “_An Artificial Machine_ or _Method_ for the _Impressing_ or
_Transcribing Letters Singly_ or _Progressively_ one after another as in
_Writing_, whereby all _Writing whatever_ may be _Engrossed_ in _Paper_
or _Parchment_ so _Neat_ and _Exact_ as not to be Distinguished from
_Print_, that the said _Machine_ or Method, may be of greate vse in
_Settlements_ and _Publick Recors_, the Impression being deeper and more
Lasting that any other _Writing_, and not to be erased, or
_Counterfeited_ without _Manifest Discovery_, and having therefore
humbly prayed vs to grant him our Royall Letters Patents, for the sole
vse of his said Invention for the term of fourteen yeares.”
“_Know Yee_, that wee,” etc.
The first American typewriter of which any record remains is that
described in the patent granted to W. A. Burt, July 23, 1829. It was
called a “Typographer.” It had a segment bearing the letters of the
alphabet and corresponding notches acting as an index. A superposed
lever, which could be worked up and down, and also moved laterally, was
provided with a series of type, arranged in a segmental curve, so that
any type could be brought into place on the subjacent paper by swinging
the lever over to and down into the proper notch in the index segment
below. A restored model of this is to be found in the U. S. Patent
Office.
[Illustration: FIG. 135.--FRENCH TYPEWRITER, 1833.]
The first organized typewriter in which separate key levers were
provided for each type is a French invention. It is to be found in the
French patent to M. Progin (Xavier), of Marseilles, No. 3,748, Sept. 6,
1833 (Brevets d’Invention, Vol. 37, 1st Series, pl. 36). It was called a
Typographic Machine, and is shown in the illustration (Fig. 135).
Upright key levers _s_ are arranged in a circle around a circular plate
_n_. They have hook-shaped handles at the upper end, and terminate
below in forks that are pivoted to the shanks of type hammers, to raise
and lower them. These hammers are inked from a pad, and at a central
point deliver a printing blow on the paper below. The paper is held
stationary, and the whole nest of levers was moved over the paper for
each letter printed. The circular index plate _n_ had marked on it
opposite the respective levers the letters and characters represented by
said levers. Besides printing letters, the device was to be used for
printing music, and for making stereotype plates.
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--THURBER TYPEWRITER.]
On Aug. 26, 1843, Charles Thurber, of Worcester, Mass., took out Pat.
No. 3,228 for a Printing Machine. Under the patent he constructed the
machine shown in Fig. 136. This differed somewhat from the form shown in
his patent, in that the machine shows a paper feed roller which does not
appear in the patent. This machine was found among the effects of Mr.
Thurber after having lain neglected and unnoticed for many years, and
its damaged parts were restored by Mr. H. R. Cummings, of Worcester. The
types are carried on the lower ends of a circular series of depressible
bars, which are spring seated in a horizontal rotatable wheel. By
turning the wheel any type can be brought to the front, and a stationary
guide controls its descent as it makes the impression. An inking roller
is seen on the right, which inks the faces of the type. In front of the
type wheel is a horizontal roller to which the sheet of paper is
attached by clips. Finger pawls, working into ratchets at the ends of
the roller, serve to rotate it after each line is printed. By means of a
handle, seen projecting from the right hand side of the frame, the
roller is shifted longitudinally on its axis rod after each letter has
been printed. This appears to be the first embodiment of the feed roller
rotating to bring a new line into range, and having also a longitudinal
feed, but as these movements were required to be separately executed by
the operator, the work of the machine was necessarily very slow. Just at
what time this old Thurber machine was constructed it is impossible to
state in the light of present information, but as the feed roller did
not appear in Thurber’s patent of 1843, it is possible that the claim to
authorship of the feed roller having both a rotary and a longitudinal
movement may be maintained in behalf of J. Jones, whose Pat. No. 8,980
of June 1, 1852, appears to be the first dated record of such a feed
roller. Jones was also the first to provide a spring to automatically
retract the paper carriage to the position for beginning a new line, the
spring being put under tension by the movement of the paper carriage in
printing.
[Illustration: FIG. 137.--BEACH TYPEWRITER.]
Prominent among those whose genius has served to perfect the typewriter
occurs the name of A. E. Beach, for many years of the firm of Munn &
Co., and well known to the readers of the _Scientific American_. Mr.
Beach’s first model of a typewriter was made in 1847. It printed upon a
sheet of paper supported on a roller, carried in a sliding frame worked
by a ratchet and pawl. It had a weight for running the frame, letter and
line spacing keys, paper feeding devices, line signal bell, and carbon
tissue. It had a series of finger keys connected with printing levers
which were arranged in a circle, and struck at a common center. This
machine was said to have worked well, but was laid aside for further
improvement. In the meantime he constructed a typewriter to print in
raised letters, without ink. This machine, which was intended primarily
for the use of the blind, is illustrated in Figs. 137 and 138. It was
first publicly exhibited in operation at the Crystal Palace Exhibition
of the American Institute in the fall of 1856, where it attracted great
attention and took the gold medal. The embossed letters were printed on
a ribbon of paper which ran centrally through the machine. The printing
levers were arranged in a circle in pairs, one riding on the top of the
other. When the operator pressed a key, the two printing levers of each
pair answering to the letter key were brought together, the paper being
between them. The printing type were at the extremities of the levers,
one lever having a raised letter, and its mate a sunken or intaglio
letter, which, seizing the paper strip between them, like the jaws of a
pair of pincers, impressed therein an embossed letter. The patent for
this machine was granted June 24, 1856, No. 15,164, but the machine
showed a much higher degree of development than appeared in the patent.
This machine was the earliest representative of the circular basket of
radially swinging type levers, combined with finger keys assembled in a
keyboard at one side, which is now an almost universal feature, and the
suggestion which it handed down to subsequent inventors has doubtless
done much to make the typewriter the practical machine that it is
to-day.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--CENTRAL SECTION OF BEACH TYPEWRITER.]
Up to the year 1868, however, typewriting machines were mere
illustrations of sporadic genius occuring here and there as the pet
hobby of some humanitarian seeking to help the blind, or supplement the
deficiencies of the tremulous fingers of the paralytic. It had not yet
come to be regarded as of any special use, nor had even the demand for
such a device been forcibly felt, until the last quarter of the
Nineteenth Century began to accumulate its wonderful momentum of
progress and prosperity. The man whose genius finally brought forth a
practical typewriter, and made a permanent place for it in the daily
business of the world, was C. Latham Sholes. As joint inventor with C.
Glidden and S. W. Soule, all of Milwaukee, he took out patents No.
79,265, of June 23, 1868, and No. 79,868, of July 14, 1868. These,
together with Sholes’ Pat. No. 118,491, of Aug. 29, 1871, formed the
working basis of the first typewriters that went into office use. These
typewriters were first introduced to the general public under the
management of the original inventors (Sholes, Soule and Glidden) about
1873, and at first used only capital letters. On Aug. 27, 1878, a
further patent. No. 207,559, was granted to Sholes, and about this time,
after five years of uncertain and precarious business existence, the
machine was taken for manufacture to E. Remington & Sons, at Ilion, N.
Y. Since this time the well-known “Remington” has built up for itself a
reputation and a commercial importance that has given it first place
among typewriters. In the nine years from 1873 to 1882, it is said that
less than 8,000 machines had been manufactured. In the year 1882
Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict obtained control of the machine, and during
the fourteen years following it is said that nearly 200,000 “Remingtons”
were made and sold. It is said that 1,000 men are now employed in
making this machine, and that the present output is about 800 machines a
week, despite the fact that it has a half dozen worthy competitors for
public favor. The modern Remington, seen in Fig. 139, is too well known
to require special description. Besides the Sholes patents, it embodies
the improvements covered by patents to Clough & Jenne, No. 199,263, Jan.
15, 1878; Jenne, No. 478,964, July 12, 1892, and No. 548,553, Oct. 22,
1895, and also a patent to Brooks, No. 202,923, April 30, 1878, a
characteristic feature of which latter is the location of both a capital
and small letter on the same striking lever, and the shifting of the
paper roller by a key to bring either the large or small letter into
printing range.
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--REMINGTON TYPEWRITER.]
The earliest rival of the Remington was the Caligraph, made by the
American Writing Machine Co. This well-known machine, introduced in the
decade of the eighties, was made under the patents of G. Y. N. Yost,
March 18, 1884, No. 295,469; March 17, 1885, No. 313,973; and July 30,
1889, No. 408,061. The most modern form of the Caligraph is known as the
“New Century,” which is shown in the accompanying illustration, Fig.
140. The Caligraph uses a separate type lever and key for each letter,
and by a system of compound key levers the touch is rendered easy, even,
and elastic, and perfect alignment and freedom from noise are among the
objects sought in its mechanical construction.
[Illustration: FIG. 140.--NEW CENTURY CALIGRAPH.]
Next among the earlier typewriters is to be mentioned the “Hammond,”
made under the patents to J. B. Hammond, No. 224,088, Feb. 8, 1880, and
290,419, Dec. 18, 1883. A distinguishing feature of the machine is that
the printed work is in full view, so that the operator can see what he
is doing. The impression is made by an oscillating type wheel, to which
a variable throw is imparted by the key letters to bring any desired
letter into printing position. When the letter is brought into printing
position a hammer, arranged in the rear of the sheet of paper, is made
to force the latter against the type to produce the impression by the
same movement of the key that brought the type wheel into printing
position.
[Illustration: FIG. 141.--SMITH-PREMIER TYPE BAR RING.]
Of later machines, none has met with more popular favor than the
Smith-Premier, manufactured under the patent to A. T. Brown, No.
465,451, Dec. 22, 1891, and others. A leading feature of this is the
type-bar ring of its printing mechanism. In all typewriters accurate
location of the impression is essential to proper alignment of the
letters, and proper alignment is the _sine qua non_ of typewriting. The
old pivoted type bars were liable to wear at the joint, and the
slightest looseness at this point would so multiply the lateral play at
the end carrying the type that the letters would soon become irregularly
placed and out of alignment. In the Smith-Premier this is reduced to a
minimum by making a short type bar, and arranging each upon an
oscillating rock shaft, the bearings at whose ends are so widely
separated as to permit little or no lateral play in the type bar. A view
of this type bar ring with tangentially arranged rock shafts disposed in
circular series is seen in Fig. 141, while the full machine is given in
Fig. 142. In this latter view there is also shown the cleaning brush for
quickly cleaning at one operation all of the types of the outer ring. It
is simply a circular brush mounted upon the end of a tool resembling a
carpenter’s brace, and is a useful and convenient adjunct to the
machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 142.--SMITH-PREMIER AND CLEANING BRUSH.]
In 1891 the “Densmore” typewriter first made its appearance before the
public. It was named after James and Amos Densmore, who had been
connected with typewriting interests from the time of Sholes’ first
practical machine. The Densmore is made under patents to A. Densmore,
No. 507,726 and 507,727, of Oct. 31, 1893. It has ball-bearing type bar
joints, giving accurate alignment and light key action, the platen rolls
to show the work, and the carriage locks at the end of the line,
protecting the writing.
Noted for its clear, sharp print, the “Yost” typewriter comes in for its
share of praise. It is made under the patent to Felbel and Steiger,
March 26, 1889, No. 400,200. It does not employ an inked ribbon
interposed between the type and the paper, as do most typewriters, but
its type-bearing levers, when at rest, occupy a position in which the
type are all arranged within and bear against a circular inking ring or
pad, and when a key is struck, its lever, by a peculiar and ingenious
movement, leaves the inking pad, moves inward and backward toward the
center, and then rises and strikes an upwardly directed blow in the
center, and prints the letter on the paper. As the printing is done
directly from the type, the letters are formed with sharp and clear
outlines that give beauty and neatness to the print. Alignment is
insured by a center guide hole through which the type end of the lever
passes in striking the paper.
Among machines of simple organization may be mentioned the
Blickensderfer, which is a wonderfully simple and effective little
machine, first made under the patent to Blickensderfer, No. 472,692,
April 12, 1892. Like the Hammond, it belongs to the class of typewriters
which employ a rotary type wheel, which is given a variable throw, from
the depression of the keys, to bring the proper letter into printing
position; but unlike the Hammond, its type wheel advances to contact
with the paper, a little felt ink-roller being brought into contact with
the type wheel to ink it as the latter moves. The printed work is in
full view, the line spacing may be varied to any fractional adjustment,
and the action is quite free from noise. With its mechanism reduced to
the fewest and simplest parts, the whole machine weighs only six pounds,
and it differs in many respects from the ordinary typewriter. Since its
introduction a few years ago, its growth in popularity has been very
rapid.
Another recently appearing machine is the “Oliver.” This has type bars
which are normally above the work. Each bar is loop shaped, hinged at
its lower ends, and bearing the type letter on the bend at the upper
end. They are arranged in two series, one on each side of the center,
and in printing each loop swings down like the wing of a bird. As the
printing is from the top, and the ribbon is moved away from in front of
the line immediately after the printing blow, the writing is always
visible to the operator. This machine is manufactured under various
patents to Thomas Oliver, the first of which was No. 450,107, granted
April 7, 1891. Further improvements are covered by subsequent patents,
Nos. 528,484, 542,275, 562,337, and 599,863. The Oliver has made many
friends for itself by its fine alignment and visible writing, and shares
with the other standard machines a considerable patronage.
It is not practicable to give a full illustration of the state of the
art in typewriters, as it has grown to an industry of large proportions.
Nearly 1,700 patents have been granted for such machines, and more than
100 useful and meritorious machines have been devised and put upon the
market. Among these may be mentioned the Hall, Underwood, Manhattan,
Williams, Jewett, and many others.
[Illustration: FIG. 143.--ELLIOTT & HATCH BOOK TYPEWRITER.]
Besides the regular typewriters, various modifications have been made to
suit special kinds of work. The “Comptometer” used in banks is a species
of typewriter, as is also the Dudley adding and subtracting machine,
known as the “Numerograph,” and covered by patents Nos. 554,993,
555,038, 555,039, 579,047 and 579,048. Typewriters for short hand
characters, and for foreign languages, and for printing on record and
blank books, are also among the modern developments of this art. In the
latter the whole carriage and system of type levers move over the book.
The Elliott & Hatch book typewriter, Fig. 143, is a well-known example.
In attachments, holders for the copy have received considerable
attention, and simple and practical billing and tabulating attachments
have been devised which expedite and facilitate the statements of
accounts and other work requiring numeration in columns. The Gorin
Tabulator is one of those in practical use.
In point of speed the typewriter depends entirely upon the aptness of
the operator. For ordinary copying work, where much time is occupied in
deciphering the illegible scrawl, probably forty words a minute is the
average work. When taken from dictation, seventy-five words a minute may
be written, and in special cases, when copying from memory, a speed of
150 words a minute has been maintained for a limited time. It was
estimated that there were in use in the United States in 1896 150,000
typewriters, and that up to that time 450,000 had been made altogether.
In the last four years this number has been greatly increased, and a
fair estimate of the present output in the United States is between
75,000 and 100,000 yearly. In 1898 there were exported from the United
States typewriting machines to the value of $1,902,153.
The typewriter has not only revolutionized modern business methods, by
furnishing a quick and legible copy that may be rapidly taken from
dictation, and also at the same time a duplicate carbon copy for the use
of the writer, but it has established a distinct avocation especially
adapted to the deftness and skill of women, who as bread winners at the
end of the Nineteenth Century are working out a destiny and place in the
business activities of life unthought of a hundred years ago. The
typewriter saves time, labor, postage and paper; it reduces the
liability to mistakes, brings system into official correspondence, and
delights the heart of the printer. It furnishes profitable amusement to
the young, and satisfactory aid to the nervous and paralytic. All over
the world it has already traveled--from the counting house of the
merchant to the Imperial Courts of Europe, from the home of the new
woman in the Western Hemisphere to the harem of the East--everywhere its
familiar click is to be heard, faithfully translating thought into all
languages, and for all peoples.
CHAPTER XV.
THE SEWING MACHINE.
EMBROIDERING MACHINE, THE FORERUNNER OF THE SEWING MACHINE--SEWING
MACHINE OF THOMAS SAINT--THE THIMONNIER WOODEN MACHINE--GREENOUGH’S
DOUBLE POINTED NEEDLE--BEAN’S STATIONARY NEEDLE--THE HOWE SEWING
MACHINE--BACHELDER’S CONTINUOUS FEED--IMPROVEMENTS OF SINGER--
WILSON’S ROTARY HOOK AND FOUR-MOTION FEED--THE MCKAY SHOE SEWING
MACHINE--BUTTONHOLE MACHINES--CARPET SEWING MACHINE--STATISTICS.
“With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags,
Plying her needle and thread--
Stitch! Stitch! Stitch!
In poverty, hunger and dirt,
And still with a voice of dolorous pitch,
She sang the ‘Song of the Shirt.’”
In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote and published his famous “Song of the Shirt,”
in which the drudgery of the needle is portrayed with pathetic fidelity.
It is not to be supposed that any relation of cause and effect exists
between the events, but it is nevertheless a singular fact that about
this time Howe commenced work on his great invention, which was patented
in 1846, and was the prototype of the modern sewing machine. If the
sewing machine had appeared a few years earlier, the “Song of the Shirt”
would doubtless never have been written.
From the time of Mother Eve, who crudely stitched together her fig
leaves, sewing seems to have been set apart as an occupation peculiarly
belonging to women, and it may be that this was the reason why in the
history of mechanical progress the sewing machine was so late appearing,
for women are not, as a rule, inventors, and none of the sewing machines
were invented by women.
In all the preceding centuries of civilization hand sewing was
exclusively employed, and it was reserved for the Nineteenth Century to
relieve women from the drudgery which for so many centuries had enslaved
them.
Embroidery machines had been patented in England by Weisenthal in 1755,
and Alsop in 1770, and on July 17, 1790, an English patent, No. 1,764,
was granted to Thomas Saint for a crude form of sewing machine, having a
horizontal arm and vertical needle. In 1826 a patent was granted in the
United States to one Lye for a sewing machine, but no records of the
same remain, as all were burned in the fire of 1836. In 1830 B.
Thimonnier patented a sewing machine in France, 80 of which, made of
wood, were in use in 1841 for sewing army clothing, but they were
destroyed by a mob, as many other labor-saving inventions had been
before. Between 1832 and 1835 Walter Hunt, of New York, made a
lock-stitch sewing machine, but abandoned it. On Feb. 21, 1842, U. S.
Pat. No. 2,466 was granted to J. J. Greenough for a sewing machine
having a double pointed needle with an eye in the middle, which needle
was drawn through the work by pairs of traveling pincers. It was
designed for sewing leather, and an awl pierced the hole in advance of
the needle. On March 4, 1843, U. S. Pat. No. 2,982 was granted to B. W.
Bean for a sewing machine in which the needle was stationary, and the
cloth was gathered in crimps or folds and forced over the stationary
needle. In 1844, British Pat. No. 10,424 was granted to Fisher and
Gibbons for working ornamental designs by machinery, in which two
threads were looped together, one passing through the fabric, and the
other looping with it on the surface without passing through.
The great epoch of the sewing machine, however, begins with Elias Howe
and the sewing machine patented by him Sept. 10, 1846, No. 4,750. Almost
everyone is familiar with the modern Howe sewing machine, and it will be
therefore more interesting to present the form in which it originally
appeared. This is shown in Fig. 144. A curved eye-pointed needle was
carried at the end of a pendent vibrating lever, which had a motion
simulating that of a pick-ax in the hands of a workman. The needle took
its thread from a spool situated above the lever, and the tension on the
thread was produced by a spring brake whose semicircular end bore upon
the spool, the pressure being regulated by a vertical thumb screw. The
work was held in a vertical plane by means of a horizontal row of pins
projecting from the edge of a thin metal “baster plate,” to which an
intermittent motion was given by the teeth of a pinion. Above, and to
one side of the “baster plate” was the shuttle race, through which the
shuttle carrying the second thread was driven by two strikers, which
were operated by two arms and cams located on the horizontal main shaft.
As will be seen, this machine bears but little resemblance to any of the
modern machines, but it embodied the three essential features which
characterize most all practical machines, viz.: a grooved needle with
the eye at the point, a shuttle operating on the opposite side of the
cloth from the needle to form a lock stitch, and an automatic feed.
[Illustration: FIG. 144.--HOWE’S SEWING MACHINE, 1846.]
Howe first commenced his work on the sewing machine in 1844, and
although he had made a rough model of that date, he was too poor to
follow it up with more practical results until a former schoolmate,
George Fisher, provided $500 to build a machine and support his family
while it was being constructed, in consideration of which Mr. Fisher was
to receive a half interest in the invention. In April, 1845, the machine
was completed, and in July he sewed two suits of clothes on it, one for
Mr. Fisher and the other for himself. Notwithstanding the success of
his machine, which on public exhibition beat five of the swiftest hand
sewers, he met only discouragement and disappointment. He, however,
built a second machine, which was the basis of his patent, and is the
one shown in the illustration. After obtaining his United States patent
Howe went to England with the hope of introducing his machine there,
but, failing, he returned to America, some years later, only to find
that his invention had been taken up by infringers, and that sewing
machines embodying his invention were being built and sold. These
infringers sought to break his patent by endeavoring to prove, but
without success, that Howe’s invention was anticipated by the abandoned
experiments of Walter Hunt in 1834. Howe won his suit, and the
infringers were obliged to pay him royalties, which, for a time,
amounted to $25 on each machine. Howe then bought the outstanding
interest in his patent, established a factory in New York, and from the
profits of his manufacture, and the royalties, he soon reaped a princely
fortune of several million dollars. In six years his royalties had grown
from $300 to $200,000 a year, and in 1863 his royalties were estimated
at $4,000 a day.
A patent that occupied an important place in sewing machine feeds was
that granted to Bachelder May 8, 1849, No. 6,439, in which a spiked and
endless belt passed horizontally around two pulleys. This patent
contained the first continuous feed, and it was re-issued and extended,
and ran with dominating claims on the continuous feed, until 1877.
[Illustration: FIG. 145.--WILSON SEWING MACHINE, 1852.]
In connection with the development of the sewing machine the name of A.
B. Wilson stands next in rank to that of Howe. Wilson invented the
rotary hook carrying a bobbin, which took the place of the reciprocating
shuttle. This was patented by him June 15, 1852, No. 9,041, and is shown
in Fig. 145. He also invented the far more important improvement of the
four-motion feed, which is a characteristic feature of nearly all
practical family sewing machines. This four-motion feed was pooled in
the early sewing machine combination with the Bachelder and other
patents, and earned for its promotors a far greater pecuniary return
than the original Howe sewing machine itself. Estimates place this
profit high in the millions. The four-motion feed was patented December
19, 1854, No. 12,116, and it is a comparatively simple affair. Divested
of its operating mechanism, it consists simply of a little metal bar
serrated with forwardly projecting saw teeth on its upper surface, to
which bar, by means of an operating cam, a motion in four directions in
the path of a rectangle is given. The serrated bar first rises through a
slot in the table, then moves horizontally to advance the cloth, then
drops below the table, and finally moves back again horizontally below
the table to its starting point.
Upon these two important features--the rotating hook patented by Wilson
in 1852, and the four-motion feed, patented in 1854--a large and
important business was built. In this business Mr. Nathaniel Wheeler was
associated with Mr. Wilson, and the well-known Wheeler & Wilson machines
are the result of their enterprise and ingenuity.
[Illustration: FIG. 146.--ORIGINAL SINGER SEWING MACHINE.]
Contemporaneous with the Wheeler & Wilson machine were other excellent
machines, among which may be mentioned the Singer machine, patented Aug.
12, 1851, No. 8,294, by Isaac M. Singer, the original model of which is
shown in Fig. 146. The Singer machine met the demands of the tailoring
and leather industries for a heavier and more powerful machine. A
characteristic feature was the vertical standard with horizontal arm
above the work table, which was afterwards adopted in many other
machines. Singer was the first to apply the treadle to the sewing
machine for actuating it by foot power in the place of the hand-driven
crank wheel. In 1851 W. O. Grover and W. E. Baker patented a machine
which made the double chain stitch, characteristic of the Grover & Baker
machine. James E. A. Gibbs invented and covered in several patents from
1856 to 1860 the single-thread rotating hook, which was embodied in the
Wilcox & Gibbs machine. In addition to these, the “Weed” machine, made
under Fairfield’s patents; the “Domestic” machine, made under Mack’s
patents; and the “Florence” machine, made under Langdon’s patents, were
other representative machines, which, in a few years after Howe’s
patent, helped to revolutionize the art of tailoring, introduced the
great era of ready-made clothing and ready-made shoes, emancipated women
from the drudgery of the needle, and increased the efficiency of one
pair of hands fully ten fold.
In 1856 the owners of the original sewing machine patents formed the
famous “sewing machine combination,” for the establishment of a common
license fee, and for the protection of their mutual interests. The
combination included Elias Howe, the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing
Company, the Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company, and I. M. Singer &
Co. The following summary of machines made by the leading companies from
1853 to 1876 illustrates the early growth of this industry:
Manufacturer. 1853. 1859. 1867. 1871. 1873. 1876.
Wheeler & Wilson
Manufacturing Co. 799 21,306 38,055 128,526 119,190 108,997
The Singer
Manufacturing Company 810 10,953 43,053 181,260 232,444 262,316
Grover & Baker Sewing
Machine Co. 657 10,280 32,999 50,838 36,179 ....
Howe Sewing Machine
Company .... .... 11,053 134,010 90,000 109,294
Wilcox & Gibbs
Sewing Machine Co. .... .... 14,152 30,127 15,881 12,758
Domestic Sewing
Machine Company .... .... .... 10,397 40,114 23,587
From the foregoing table it will be seen that as far back as a quarter
of a century ago the output of machines was over a half a million a
year. By 1877 all of the fundamental patents on the sewing machine had
expired, but the continued activity of inventors in this field is
attested by the fact that to-day there are many thousands of patents
relating to the sewing machine and its parts. Besides those relating to
the organization of the machine itself there is an endless variety of
attachments, such as hemmers, tuckers, fellers, quilters, binders,
gatherers and rufflers, embroiderers, corders and button hole
attachments. Every part of the machine has also received separate
attention and separate patents, all tending to the perfection of the
machine, until to-day, with all fundamental principles public property,
and endless improvements in details, it is difficult to discriminate as
to comparative excellence.
There is to-day a great variety of sewing machines on the market,
standard machines for ordinary work, and special machines for numerous
special applications. It is said that one concern alone manufactures
over four hundred different varieties of sewing machines.
One of the most important and revolutionary of the applications of the
sewing machine is for making shoes. Prior to 1861 shoemaking was
confined to the slow, laborious hand methods of the shoemaker. Cheap
shoes could only be made by roughly fastening the soles to the uppers by
wooden pegs, whose row of projecting points within has made many a man
and boy do unnecessary penance. Hand sewed shoes cost from $8 to $12 a
pair, and were too expensive a luxury for any but the rich. With the
McKay shoe sewing machine in 1861, however, comfortable shoes were made,
with the soles strongly and substantially sewed to the uppers, at a less
price even than the coarse and clumsy pegged variety. The McKay machine
was the result of more than three years patient study and work. It was
covered by United States patents No. 35,105, April 29, 1862; No. 35,165,
May 6, 1862; No. 36,163, Aug. 12, 1862; and No. 45,422, Dec. 13, 1864,
and its development cost $130,000 before practical results were
obtained. A modern form of it is shown in Fig. 147. In preparing a shoe
for the machine, an inner sole is placed on the last, the upper is then
lasted and its edges secured to the inner sole. An outer sole, channeled
to receive the stitches, is then tacked on so that the edges of the
upper are caught and retained between the two soles. The shoe is then
placed on the end of a rotary support called a horn, which holds it up
to the needle. A spool containing thread coated with shoemakers’ wax is
carried by the horn, and the thread, with its wax kept soft by a lamp,
runs up the inside of the horn to the whirl. The latter is a small ring
placed at the upper end of the horn, and through which there is an
opening for the passage of the needle. The needle has a barb, or hook,
and as it descends through the sole the whirl lays the thread in this
hook, and as the needle rises it draws the thread through the soles and
forms a chain stitch in the external channel of the outer sole. As the
sewing proceeds, the horn is rotated so as to bring every part of the
margin of the sole under the needle. With this machine a single operator
has been able to sew nine hundred pairs of shoes in a day of ten hours,
and five hundred to six hundred pairs is only an average workman’s
output. It is said that up to 1877 there were 350,000,000 pairs of shoes
made on this machine in the United States, and probably an equal or
greater number in Europe. Shoes made on this machine were strongly made
and comfortable, but they could not be resoled by a shoemaker, except by
pegging or nailing, and the soles were furthermore somewhat stiff and
lacking in flexibility. To meet these difficulties, a new machine known
as the “Goodyear Welt Machine,” was patented in 1871 and 1875, and
brought out a little later. This sewed a welt to an upper, which welt in
a subsequent operation was sewed by an external row of stitches to the
sole. This gave much greater flexibility, and the further advantage of
enabling a shoemaker to half sole the shoe by the old method of hand
sewing. This advanced the art of shoemaking in the finer varieties of
shoes, and to-day nearly all men’s fine shoes are made in this way. The
introduction of the sewing machine into the shoe industry made a new era
in foot wear, and it is said that no nation on earth is so well and
cheaply shod as the people of the United States.
[Illustration: FIG. 147.--MCKAY SHOE SEWING MACHINE.]
A buttonhole does not strike the average person as a thing of any
importance whatever. The needlewoman, however, who has to patiently
stitch around and form the buttonholes, knows differently, and when this
needlewoman, working in the great shirt factories and shoe factories, is
confronted with the many millions of buttonholes in collars, cuffs,
shirts and shoes, the great amount of this painstaking and nerve
destroying labor becomes appalling. For cheapening the cost of
buttonholes, and reducing the hand labor, various buttonhole machines
and attachments to sewing machines have been devised. Patents Nos.
36,616 and 36,617, to Humphrey, Oct. 7, 1862, covered one of the
earliest forms, but the Reece buttonhole machine, which is specially
devised for the work, is one of the most modern and successful. It was
patented April 26, 1881, Sept. 21, 1886, and Aug. 20, 1895. These
machines mark an important departure, which consists in working the
buttonhole by moving the stitch forming mechanism about the buttonhole,
instead of moving the fabric. An illustration of the machine is given in
Fig. 148. Upon this machine 10,010 button holes have been made in nine
hours and fifty minutes. The machine first cuts the buttonhole, then
transfers it to the stitching devices, which stitch and bar the
buttonhole, finishing it entirely in an automatic manner. The saving
involved to the manufacturer by this machine over the hand method is
several hundred per cent., but the relief to the needlewoman is of far
greater consequence.
[Illustration: FIG. 148.--REECE BUTTONHOLE MACHINE.]
Many striking applications of the sewing machine to various kinds of
work have been made. A recent one is the automatic power carpet sewing
machine, made and sold by the Singer Manufacturing Company. It was
patented by E. B. Allen in 1894. This machine in general appearance
resembles a miniature elevated railroad. It consists of an elevated
track about thirty-six feet long, sustained every three or four feet
upon standards, and having clamping jaws, which hold together the upper
edges of the two lengths of carpet to be sewed together. A compact
little stitching apparatus, not larger than a tea-pot, is actuated by an
endless belt from an electric motor at one end. The little machine runs
along and stitches together the upper edges of the suspended carpet
lengths, and as it crawls along at its work, it strikingly reminds one
of the movements of a squirrel along the top of a rail fence. This
machine will sew five yards of seam every minute, fastening together
evenly and strongly ten yards of carpet, and entirely dispensing with
all hand labor in this roughest and most trying of all fabrics.
Probably no organized piece of machinery has ever been so systematically
exploited, so thoroughly advertised, so persistently canvassed, and so
extensively sold as the sewing machine. With their main central offices,
their branch offices, sub-agencies and traveling canvassers in wagons,
every city, village, hamlet, and farmhouse has been actively besieged,
and with the enticing system of payment by instalments there is scarcely
a home too humble to be without its sewing machine. The retail price of
sewing machines bears no proper relation to their cost, but this price
to the consumer results from the liberal commissions to agents, and the
expensive methods of canvassing. In the early days of the sewing machine
its sales were chiefly for family use, but this is now no longer the
case. While almost every family owns a sewing machine, it is only
brought into requisition for finer and special varieties of work, since
nearly all the clothing of men, women and children can now be purchased
ready made, at a price much less than the cost of the material and the
labor of making it up. A man to-day buys a ready-made shirt for fifty
cents, which fifty years ago would have cost him $2. This has largely
transferred the sphere of action of the sewing machine from the family
to the factory. Great factories now make ready-made clothing for men,
women and children, shirts, collars and cuffs, shoes, hats, caps,
awnings, tents, sails, bags, flags, banners, corsets, gloves,
pocketbooks, harness, saddlery, rubber goods, etc., and all these
industries are founded upon the sewing machine, which may be seen in
long rows beside the factory walls, busily supplying the demand of the
world. With this transition in the sewing machine foot treadles are no
longer relied on, but the machines are run by power from countershafts.
This, in turn, has opened up possibilities of much higher speed and
greater efficiency in the machine. Inventors have found, however, that
high speed is handicapped with certain limitations. Beyond a certain
speed the needle gets hot from friction, which burns off the thread and
draws the temper. Cams and springs, moreover, are not positive enough in
action, as the resilience of the spring does not act quickly enough, and
so more positive gearings, such as eccentrics and cranks, must be
employed. Despite these difficulties, however, the modern factory
machine has raised the speed of the old-time sewing machine from a few
hundred stitches a minute to three and four thousand stitches a minute.
The United States is the home of the sewing machine, and New York City
is the center of the industry, probably 90 per cent. of the sewing
machine trade being managed and handled there. German manufacturers are
making great efforts to compete in this field, but American machines are
generally regarded as the best in the world.
Among those prominently interested in the machine in its early days were
Orlando B. Potter and the law firm of Jordan & Clarke. The latter were
attorneys representing some of the prominent inventors in litigation,
and in this way Mr. Edward Clarke became interested in the business, and
it was he who in 1856 instituted the system of selling on the instalment
plan. For some years before his death Mr. Clarke was the president of
the Singer Company.
Recent statistics in relation to the sewing machine industry are
difficult to obtain, partly by reason of the great extent and
ramifications of the business, and partly by reason of the unwillingness
of the larger companies to give out data for publication. At the Patent
Centennial in Washington, in 1891, Ex-Commissioner of Patents
Butterworth made the statement that “Cæsar conquered Gaul with a force
numerically less than was employed in inventing and perfecting the parts
of the sewing machine.” The great Singer Company, with headquarters at
New York, operates not only a factory at Elizabethport, N. J., employing
5,000 men, but also other factories in Europe and Canada, the one at
Kilbowie, Scotland, employing 6,000 men. Of the total of 13,500,000
machines made by this company from 1853 to the end of 1896, nearly
6,000,000 have been made in factories located abroad, but directly
controlled and managed by the New York office. It is stated that the
present output of the American factory of the Singer Company amounts to
over 11,000 weekly, or more than half a million annually. Although so
many sewing machines are made abroad, the exports from the United States
for 1899 amounted to $3,264,344.
In the early days of the Howe sewing machine it was denounced as a
menace to the occupations of the thousands of men and women who worked
in the clothing shops, and the struggles of the inventor against this
opposition and discouragement form an interesting page of history. But
it had come to stay and to grow. Some 7,000 United States patents attest
the interest and ingenuity in this field, in the neighborhood of 100,000
persons make a living from the manufacture and sale of the machine,
millions find profitable employment in its use, and from 700,000 to
800,000 machines are annually manufactured in the United States. The
output of all countries is estimated to be from 1,200,000 to 1,300,000
annually.
The sewing machine has for its objective result only the simple and
insignificant function of fastening one piece of fabric to another, but
its influence upon civilization in ministering to the wants of the race
has been so great as to cause it to be numbered with the epoch-making
inventions of the age. It has created new industries. It has given
useful employment to capital, has extended the lists of the wage earner,
and increased his daily pay. It has clothed the naked, fed the hungry,
and warded off the ravages of cold and death; but, best of all its
tuneful accompaniment has lightened the heart and smoothed the pathway
of life for Hood’s weary working woman, to whose tired fingers and
aching eyes it has brought the balm of much-needed rest.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE REAPER.
EARLY ENGLISH MACHINES--MACHINE OF PATRICK BELL--THE HUSSEY
REAPER--MCCORMICK’S REAPER AND ITS GREAT SUCCESS--RIVALRY BETWEEN
THE TWO AMERICAN REAPERS--SELF RAKERS--AUTOMATIC BINDERS--COMBINED
STEAM REAPER AND THRESHING MACHINE--GREAT WHEAT FIELDS OF THE
WEST--STATISTICS.
In the harvest scenes upon the tombs of ancient Thebes the thirsty
reaper is depicted, with curved sickle in hand, alternately bending his
back to the grain and refreshing himself at the skin bottle. For more
than thirty centuries did man thus continue to earn his bread by the
sweat of his brow. Even to the present time the scythe, with its cradle
of wooden fingers, is occasionally met with, and it is to the older
generation a familiar suggestion of the sweat, toil, bustle and
excitement of the old harvest time. But all this has been changed by the
advent of the reaper, and ere long the grain cradle will hang on the
walls of the museum as an ethnological specimen only.
The first reaper of which we find historical evidence is that described
by Pliny in the first century of the Christian Era (A. D. 70). He says:
“The mode of getting in the harvest varies considerably. In the vast
domains of the province of Gaul a large hollow frame, armed with
comb-like teeth, and supported on two wheels, is driven through the
standing grain, the beasts being yoked behind it (in contrarium juncto),
the result being that the ears are torn off and fall within the frame.”
This crude machine has in late years been many times re-invented, and it
finds a special application to-day for the gathering of clover seeds,
and is called a “header.”
The first attempt of modern times to devise a reaper was the English
machine of Pitt, in 1786, which followed the principle of the old Gallic
implement, in that it stripped the heads from the standing grain. The
Pitt machine, however, had a revolving cylinder on which were rows of
comb teeth, which tore off the heads of grain and discharged them into a
receptacle. In 1799 Boyce, of England, invented the vertical shaft, with
horizontally rotating cutters. In 1800 Mears devised a machine
employing shears. In 1806 Gladstone devised a front-draft, side-cut
machine, in which a curved segment-bar with fingers gathered the grain
and held it while a horizontally revolving knife cut the same. In 1811
Cumming introduced the reel, and in 1814 Dobbs described a wheelbarrow
arrangement of reaper in which he used the divider. In 1822 the
important improvement of the reciprocating knife bar was made by Ogle,
which became a characteristic feature of all subsequent successful
reapers. It was drawn by horses in front. The cutter bar projected at
the side. It had a reel to gather the grain to the cutter, and the grain
platform was tilted to drop the gavel. In 1826 Rev. Patrick Bell, of
Scotland, devised a reaper that had a movable vibrating cutter working
like a series of shears, a reel, and a traveling apron, which carried
off the grain to one side. This machine was pushed from behind, and,
with a swath of five feet, cut an acre in an hour. It was, however, for
some reason laid aside till 1851, when it was reorganized and put in
service at the World’s Fair in London in competition with the American
machines. All the earlier experiments in the development of the reaper
were made in England. Grain raising was in its infancy in the United
States, and near the end of the Eighteenth Century the Royal
Agricultural Society of England had stimulated its own inventors by
offering a prize for the production of a successful reaper, and
continued thus to offer it for many years. There is no evidence,
however, that the preceding machines attained any practical results,
and it remained for the fertility of American genius to invent a
practical reaper which satisfactorily performed its work, and continued
to do so. Quite a number of patents for reapers were granted to American
inventors in the early part of the century, among which may be mentioned
that to Manning, of Plainfield, N. J., May 3, 1831, which embodied
finger bars to hold the grain and a reciprocating cutter bar with
spear-shaped blades.
[Illustration: FIG. 149.--PATENT OFFICE DRAWING, HUSSEY’S REAPER,
DECEMBER 31, 1833.]
Cyrus H. McCormick, of Virginia, and Obed Hussey, of Maryland, were the
men who brought the reaper to a condition of practical utility.
The commercial development of their machines was practically
contemporaneous, and their respective claims for superiority had about
an equal number of supporters among the farmers of that day. Hussey,
originally of Cincinnati, but afterwards of Maryland, was the first to
obtain a patent, which was granted December 31, 1833. An illustration of
the patent drawing is given in Fig. 149. It embodied a reciprocating saw
tooth cutter _f_ sliding within double guard fingers _e_. It had a front
draft, side-cut, and a platform. The cutter was driven by a pitman from
a crank shaft operated through gear wheels from the main drive wheels.
His specification provided for the locking or unlocking of the drive
wheels; also for the hinging of the platform, and states that the
operator who takes off the grain may ride on the machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 150.--PATENT OFFICE DRAWING, McCORMICK’S REAPER,
JUNE 21, 1834.]
On June 21, 1834, Cyrus H. McCormick, of Virginia, obtained a patent on
his reaper. In Fig. 150 appears an illustration of his patent drawing.
This had two features which were not found in the Hussey patent, viz., a
reel on a horizontal axis above the cutter, and a divider L, at the
outer end of the cutter, which divider projected in front of the cutter,
and separated in advance the grain which was to be cut from that which
was to be left standing. McCormick’s machine had two cutters or knives,
reciprocated by cranks in opposite directions to each other. This
feature he afterward abandoned, adopting the single knife, described by
him as an alternative. This machine was to be pushed ahead of the team,
which was hitched to the bar C of the tongue B in the rear, but
provision was made for a front draft by a pair of shafts in front, shown
in dotted lines. The curved dotted line beside the shafts indicated a
bowed guard to press the standing grain away from the horse. The divider
L had a cloth screen extending to the rear of the platform.
Neither Hussey nor McCormick appears at that time to have been cognizant
of the prior state of the art, and as the patent law of 1836 had not yet
been enacted, there was little or no examination as to novelty, and no
interference proceedings as to priority of invention, and consequently
their respective claims were drawn to much that was old, and probably
much that would have been in conflict with each other under the present
practice of the Patent Office. In the _Scientific American_, of December
16 and 23, 1854, in a most interesting series of articles on the reaper,
the Hussey machine is fully described. The first public trial was on
July 2, 1833, before the Hamilton County Agricultural Society, near
Carthage, O., and its success was attested by nine witnesses. Great
stress was laid by Mr. Hussey on the double finger bar, _i. e._, a
finger bar having one member above and the other below the knife. The
_Scientific American_ said the machine was a success from the first;
that “in 1834 the machine was introduced into Illinois and New York, and
in 1837 into Pennsylvania, and in 1838 Mr. Hussey moved from Ohio to
Baltimore, Md., and continued to manufacture his reapers there up to the
present time.”
In 1836 Hussey was invited by the Maryland Agricultural Society for the
Eastern Shore to exhibit his machine before them. On July 1 he did so,
and made practical demonstration of its working to the society at
Oxford, Talbot County, and again on July 12 at Easton. On the following
Saturday it was shown at Trappe, and it was afterwards used on the farm
of Mr. Tench Tilghman, where 180 acres of wheat, oats and barley were
cut with it. The report of the Board of Trustees of the society was an
unqualified commendation of the practicability, efficiency and value of
the machine, and a handsome pair of silver cups was awarded to the
inventor. The report was signed by the following well-known residents of
the Eastern Shore: Robert H. Goldsborough, Samuel Stevens, Samuel T.
Kennard, Robert Banning, Samuel Hambleton, Sr., Nichol Goldsborough, Ed.
N. Hambleton, James L. Chamberlain, Martin Goldsborough, Horatio L.
Edmonson, and Tench Tilghman.
Hussey made and sold his machine for years. In the _American Farmer_, of
October, 1847, an agricultural journal printed at Baltimore, the
advertisement of his machine appears with full price lists of the
different sizes of machines, and also of an improvement in the manner of
disposing of the grain, which was the invention of Mr. Tench Tilghman,
and was adopted by Hussey on his reaper.
[Illustration: FIG. 151.--THE McCORMICK REAPER OF 1847.]
While Hussey was at work at his reaper, McCormick also was busily
engaged with his, and he took his second patent January 31, 1845, No.
3,895. This related to the cutter bar, the divider, and reel post.
McCormick’s next patent was dated October 23, 1847, No. 5,335, and in
this the raker’s seat was to be mounted on the platform as shown in Fig.
151. McCormick’s last named patent also covered the arrangement of the
gearing and crank in front of the drive wheel, so as to balance the
weight of the raker. In the same year Hussey took out his patent of
August 7, 1847, No. 5,227, for the open top and slotted finger guard,
which is an important part of all successful cutter bars.
[Illustration: FIG. 152.--THE MANN HARVESTER OF 1849.]
The rivalry between the McCormick and Hussey machines continued for many
years, and they were frequently in competition both in America and
England. The stimulus of this rivalry doubtless had much to do with the
development and success of the reaper. Both Hussey and McCormick asked
for extensions of their patents, but they failed to get them. In 1848,
pending McCormick’s extension proceedings, facts were introduced by him
to show that his invention of the reaper antedated Hussey’s, and that he
had made his machine as early as 1831, and had used it then on the farm
of Mr. John Steele, in Virginia. This claim to priority was supported by
the publication of a description of the machine, and certificate of its
use, in the _Union_, a newspaper published at Lexington, Va., September
28, 1833, and although no adjudication was ever made on this issue, this
fact, together with Mr. McCormick’s success in the contest in England in
1851, and his subsequent persistence and activity in improving,
developing and introducing the reaper, has so distinguished him in this
connection, that to-day his name is as commonly associated with the
reaper as is Fulton’s with the steamboat, or that of Morse with the
telegraph. To Mr. McCormick more than to anybody else the perfection of
the reaper is due. In the spring of 1851 McCormick placed his reaper on
exhibition at the World’s Fair in London. Hussey also had his machine
there, and they were the only ones represented. The machines were tested
in the field, and astonished all who saw them operate. The Grand Council
medal, which was one of four special medals awarded for marked epochs in
progress, was given to McCormick, and the judges referred to the
McCormick machine as being worth to the people of England “the whole
cost of the exposition.” It is only fair to state that Hussey was not
present to direct the trial of his machine, and that in a subsequent
trial another jury decided in his favor, and His Royal Highness, Prince
Albert, ordered two of Hussey’s machines in 1851--one for Windsor and
the other for the Isle of Wight. The Duke of Marlborough also gave his
personal testimonial to Mr. Hussey as to the excellence of his machine.
In 1855, at a competitive trial of reapers near Paris, three machines
were entered. The American machine cut an acre of oats in twenty-two
minutes, the English machine in sixty-six minutes, and the Algerian in
seventy-two. In 1863, at the great International Exposition at Hamburg,
the McCormick reaper again took the grand prize. While in Paris in 1878
Mr. McCormick was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences as
“having done more for the cause of agriculture than any living man.” Mr.
McCormick continued to the end of his days, in 1884, to devote his
entire energies to the development of the reaper, and well deserved the
princely fortune that resulted from his indefatigable labors, a good
portion of which fortune he spent during his life in the cause of
education and acts of philanthropy. The inventory of his estate, filed
in the Probate Court of Cook County, Ill., showed $10,000,000 as the
reward of his genius and industry, and is an object lesson of the reward
of merit for the ambitious youth of the Twentieth Century.
[Illustration: FIG. 153.--THE MARSH HARVESTER OF 1858.]
[Illustration: FIG. 154.--THE CHAMPION REAPER.]
In the development of the reaper one of the first deficiencies to be
supplied was automatic mechanism for taking the grain from the
platform. In November, 1848, F. S. Pease took out patent No. 5,925 for
a rake whose teeth projected up through slots in the platform, and moved
back and forth to deposit the grain upon the ground. On June 19, 1849,
J. J. & H. F. Mann took out patent No. 6,540 on a machine employing the
principle of an endless band for carrying the cut grain to the side of
the machine, where it passed up an inclined plane and accumulated in a
receptacle to form a gavel, which was clumped upon the ground. This
machine is shown in Fig. 152. On July 8, 1851, W. H. Seymour took out
patent No. 8,212 for a self-raker, and this machine marks the beginning
of the era of self-raking reapers, which for a quarter of a century in
various modifications continued to be used, until displaced by
subsequent improvements in binding devices. In 1853 the Sylla and Adams
machine was brought out, the patents for which were bought by the
Aultmans, and the Aultman and Miller, or “Buckeye” harvester, was
manufactured thereunder. The general form of the modern harvester has
followed along the lines of the Mann machine of 1849. The development
began by replacing the gavel receptacle on the right of that machine
(Fig. 152) with a platform on which stood men who rode on the machine as
they bound the grain. An early and important example of a harvester of
this class is given in the Marsh machine, patented August 15, 1858, No.
21,207, and shown in Fig. 153. To this type of machine the self-binding
devices were subsequently applied, but before they materialized many
other improvements in self-rakers were made and applied, among which may
be mentioned the combined rake and reel of Owen Dorsey, of Maryland
(1856), sweeping horizontally across the quadrantal platform; the
McClintock Young revolving reel, carrying a rake; the Henderson rake
(1860) used on the Wood machine; the Seiberling dropper (1861), which
consisted of a slotted platform which moved to discharge the gavel; and
the various improvements covered by Whiteley’s patents, which were
embodied in the Champion reaper, of Springfield, O., and which is shown
in Fig. 154. This machine had a combined rake and reel of the Dorsey
type, whose arms moved over a circular inclined and stationary cam, and
whose rakes had a horizontal sweep over the platform, and a vertical
return over the wheels.
[Illustration: FIG. 155.--THE LOCKE WIRE BINDER OF 1873.]
The next step, and, perhaps the most important one, in the development
of the reaper, was in providing automatic devices for binding the gavels
of grain into sheaves. John E. Heath, of Ohio, in patent No. 7,520, of
July 22, 1850, was the pioneer, and he used cord. Watson, Renwick &
Watson, in patent No. 8,083, of May 13, 1851, and C. A. McPhitridge, in
patent No. 16,097, of November 18, 1856, quickly followed in the attempt
to provide such a device, the former using cord and the latter wire. But
the problem was not an easy one to solve. On November 16, 1858, W. Grey
took out patent No. 22,074, for starting the binding mechanism by the
weight of the bundle. Probably the first to complete a binding
attachment that was partly automatic, and to attach it to a reaping
machine, were H. M. & W. W. Burson, of Illinois. On June 26, 1860, and
October 4, 1864, W. W. Burson patented a cord binder, and in 1863 one
thousand machines were built. These machines, however, used wire, and
being assisted in their operations by hand labor, were not truly
automatic. On February 16, 1864, Jacob Behel, of Illinois, obtained a
patent, No. 41,661, for a very important invention in binders. He showed
and claimed for the first time the knotting bill, which loops and forms
the knot, and the turning cord holder for retaining the end of the cord.
On May 31, 1870, George H. Spaulding took out patent No. 103,673 for a
binder which automatically regulated the bundles to a uniform size.
Sylvanus D. Locke, of Wisconsin, was the next inventor who undertook to
solve the problem. He took out patents No. 121,290, November 28, 1871,
and No. 149,233, March 31, 1874, and many others. In 1873 he associated
himself with Walter A. Wood, and they built and sold probably the first
automatic self-binding harvester that was ever put upon the market. The
Locke wire binder of 1873 is shown in Fig. 155. The use of wire,
however, for binding grain, involved certain objections in that it
required a special cutting tool for cutting the sheaves at the thresher,
and it was not easy to remove the wire, and parts of it were likely to
go through the thresher. Inventors accordingly concentrated their
attention on the use of twine or cord. Marquis L. Gorham, of Illinois,
built a successful twine binder, and had it at work in the harvest field
in 1874. This machine, covered by patent No. 159,506, February 9, 1875,
not only bound by cord, but produced bundles of the same size. The grain
in this machine is delivered by the elevator of the harvester upon a
platform, where it is seized by packers and carried forward into a
second chamber, where it is compacted by the packers against a yielding
trip, so that when sufficient grain is accumulated, the trip will yield
and start the binding mechanism into operation. The ball of cord carried
on the machine has one end threaded through the needle and fastened in a
holder. The grain is forced against the cord by the packers, and when
the binder starts the needle encircles the gavel, carrying the cord to a
knotting bill, and the end is again seized by the rotating holder, the
loop formed, the ends of the band severed, and the bound bundle is
discharged from the machine. A gate, which has in the meantime shut off
the flow of grain, is now drawn back, and the operation is repeated. On
February 18, 1879, John F. Appleby took out a patent, No. 212,420, for
an improvement on the Gorham binder. In Fig. 156 is shown a modern
automatic self-binding reaper which embodies the fundamental principles
of McCormick and Hussey, the inclined elevator and platform shown by
Marsh, and the automatic binding devices of Behel, Gorham and Appleby.
[Illustration: FIG. 156.--MODERN AUTOMATIC SELF-BINDING REAPER.]
This machine, under favorable conditions, with one driver, cuts twenty
acres of wheat in a day, binds it, and carries the bound bundles into
windrows, and with one shocker, performs the work of twenty men, and
does it better, the saving in the waste of grain over hand labor being
sufficient to pay for the twine used in binding. It is said that the
self-binding reaper has reduced the cost of harvesting grain to less
than half a cent a bushel.
It is estimated that more than 180,000 machines of the self-binding type
are now produced yearly, the manufacturers in Chicago alone turning out
more than three-fourths of this number. It is not possible to do justice
to all the worthy workers in this great industry. Nearly 10,000 patents
have been granted on reaping and mowing machines, and the conspicuous
names of Whiteley, Wood, Atkins, Manny, Yost, and Ketchum, in addition
to those already mentioned, are only a small part of the great army of
inventors who have contributed to the development and perfection of the
reaper.
In 1840 it is said there were but three reapers made. To-day the total
number of self-binding harvesters, reapers and mowers in use is
estimated to be two millions. The growth of this industry in the four
earlier decades is as follows (the relatively small increase between
1860 and 1870 being accounted for by the Civil War):
1840. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880.
Machines made 3 3,000 20,000 30,000 60,000
Immediately succeeding this period the automatic cord binder was put
into use, and within five years the increase in output of reapers and
mowers was very great. In 1885 more than 100,000 self-binding harvesters
and 150,000 reapers and mowers were built and sold. In 1890 two
manufacturing establishments in Chicago made more than 200,000 machines,
half of which were self-binders and the other half reapers and mowers,
and these two institutions alone employed in their various branches of
manufacturing and selling 10,000 employees. In 1895 the output of the
largest of these manufacturing establishments was 60,000 self-binding
harvesters, fitted with bundle carriers and trucks, 61,000 mowers,
10,000 corn harvesters, and 5,000 reapers, making 136,000 machines in
all. In 1898 the output of this one factory for the year was 74,000
self-binding harvesters, 107,000 mowers, 9,000 corn harvesters, and
10,000 reapers, amounting to 200,000 machines. This output, together
with 75,000 horse rakes, also made, averaged a complete machine for
every forty seconds in the year, working ten hours a day. The estimated
annual production of all factories in this class of agricultural
implements is 180,000 self-binding harvesters, 250,000 mowing machines,
18,000 corn harvesters, and 25,000 reapers.
[Illustration: FIG. 157.--STEAM HARVESTER AND THRESHER.
The wheat is headed, threshed, cleaned and sacked by this machine in one
continuous operation.--Cutter, 26 feet wide; Capacity, 75 acres per
day.]
[Illustration: FIG. 158.--FIFTY HORSE POWER STEAM PLANTING COMBINATION.
Traction engine pulling sixteen 10-inch plows, four 6-foot harrows, and
a drill.]
There were exported in the year 1880 about 800 self-binding harvesters,
2,000 reapers, and 1,000 mowers. In 1890 this was increased to 3,000
self-binding harvesters, 4,000 reapers, and 2,000 mowers. The total
value of mowers and reapers exported in 1890 was $2,092,638. The growth
subsequent to 1890 is well attested by the exports for 1899, which for
mowers and reapers was $9,053,830, or more than four times what it was
in 1890. These exported machines harvest the crops of the Argentine
Republic, Paraguay, and Uruguay, of South America; carry their
labor-saving values to Australia and New Zealand; traverse the wheat
fields along the banks of the Red Sea and the Volga, and are used
throughout all the continent of Europe.
[Illustration: FIG. 159.--A WESTERN HARVEST SCENE (LEFT SECTION OF
VIEW).]
[Illustration: FIG. 159.--A WESTERN HARVEST SCENE (RIGHT SECTION OF
VIEW).]
With the self-binding harvester performing the work of twenty men,
cutting and binding the grain, and arranging the bundles in windrows, it
would seem that perfection in this art had been reached, but the
tendency of the age is to do things on a constantly increasing scale,
and so the latest developments in harvesters comprise a mammoth machine
(Fig. 157) propelled across the grain fields by steam, and which by the
same power cuts a swath from 26 to 28 feet wide, threshes it at once as
it moves along, blows out the chaff, and puts the grain in bags at the
rate of three bags per minute, each bag containing one hundred and
fifteen pounds, and requiring two expert bag sewers to take the grain
away from the spout, sew the bags, and dump them on the ground.
Seventy-five acres a day is its task. A companion piece to this machine
is illustrated in Fig. 158, which shows the same power utilized for
planting. A powerful steam traction engine of fifty horse power hauls
across the field a planting combination of sixteen ten-inch plows, four
six-foot harrows and a seeding drill in the rear. Such great reaping
machines only find useful application in the enormous wheat fields of
California and the Pacific Coast States, where the dry climate permits
the grain to ripen and dry sufficiently while standing in the field.
Moreover, only the heads of the grain are cut, the straw being left
standing. Some conception of the enormous scale upon which grain is
raised in the Western States may be gotten from the dimensions of the
farms. It is said that Dr. Glenn’s wheat farm comprises 45,000 acres;
the Dalrymples’, in North Dakota, 70,000; and Mr. Mitchell, in the San
Joaquin Valley, in California, has 90,000 acres. The Dalrymple farms in
1893 had 54,000 acres in wheat, and employed 283 self-binding reapers to
harvest the crop. There is a single unbroken wheat field on the banks of
the San Joaquin River, near the town of Clovis, in Madera County,
California, which comprises 25,000 acres, or nearly forty square miles
of wheat--a veritable sea of waving grain. The field is nearly square;
each side is a little over six miles long. If its shape were changed to
the width of one mile, the field would then be forty miles long. It has
been said of the grain fields of the West, that the men and teams eat
breakfast at one end of a furrow, take dinner in the middle of the
row, and at night camp and sup at the end of the same row. With a field
of such proportions it is not difficult to see how this may be true. The
cultivation and garnering of crops from such vast areas can only be
appreciated by comparisons. If it were one man’s work to plow such a
field, even with a double gang plow, cutting a furrow twenty-four inches
wide, he would travel 105,600 miles, which would be equivalent to going
around the world four times. If he plowed twenty miles a day, it would
take 5,280 days. To harrow would require as long, and to plant would
take about the same time, or about forty-three years altogether. A full
lifetime would be required to plant the crop, and a second generation
would be required to reap it. But great results require great agencies,
and so great labor-saving machines, operated by armies of men, are
brought into requisition, and with these the crop is both planted and
reaped. A long procession of self-binding harvesters, following close
one behind the other, makes quick work of it, and before the weather
changes this great field is mowed, its crop garnered, and bread supplied
for the hungry of all lands.
The exports of wheat to foreign lands in 1898 were 148,231,261 bushels,
worth $145,684,659, and the exports of wheat flour for the same year
were 15,349,943 barrels, worth $69,263,718. The total yield of wheat in
the United States for 1898 was 675,148,705 bushels.
With the fertile earth, and its prolific inventors, the United States
has become the richest country in the world. What its future is to be no
man may say, but its destiny is not yet fulfilled, and it is pregnant
with potential possibilities.
CHAPTER XVII.
VULCANIZED RUBBER.
EARLY USE OF CAOUTCHOUC BY THE INDIANS--COLLECTION OF THE GUM--EARLY
EXPERIMENTS FAILURES--GOODYEAR’S PERSISTENT EXPERIMENTS--NATHANIEL
HAYWARD’S APPLICATION OF SULPHUR TO THE GUM--GOODYEAR’S PROCESS OF
VULCANIZATION--INTRODUCTION OF HIS PROCESS INTO EUROPE--TRIALS AND
IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT--RUBBER SHOE INDUSTRY--GREAT EXTENT AND
VARIETY OF APPLICATIONS--STATISTICS.
Most all important inventions have grown into existence by slow stages
of development, and by successive contributions from many minds, not a
few having descended by gradual processes of evolution from preceding
centuries. Vulcanized rubber, however, is not of this class. It belongs
exclusively to the Nineteenth Century, and owes its existence to the
tireless energy of one man. The value of the crude gum had been
previously speculated upon, and for years attempts had been made to
utilize it, but not until Goodyear invented his process of vulcanizing
it did it have any real value. This process was an important, distinct
and unique step, entirely the work of Mr. Goodyear, and it has never
been superseded nor improved upon to any extent. Charles Goodyear was
born in New Haven, December 29, 1800, and his life, beginning two days
in advance of the Nineteenth Century, furnishes an extraordinary
illustration of the struggles and trials of the inventor against adverse
fortune, and is a pathetic example of self denial, indefatigable labor,
and unrequited toil. Of feeble health, small stature, poor, and
frequently in prison for debt, he made the development of this art the
paramount object of his life, and with a pious faith and unfaltering
courage for thirty years he devoted himself to this work. Money he cared
nothing for, except in so far as it was necessary to carry on his work,
and he died July 1, 1860, poor in this world’s goods, but rich in the
consciousness of the great benefit conferred by his invention upon the
human race.
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--COLLECTING THE GUM.]
India rubber, or caoutchouc, as it is more properly called, is a
concentrated gum derived from the evaporation of the milky juice of
certain trees found in South America, Mexico, Central America and the
East Indies. The South American variety is called _Jatropha elastica_,
and the East Indian variety the _Ficus elastica_. The South American
Indians called it _cahuchu_. The province of Para, south of the equator,
in Brazil, furnishes the largest part and best quality of gum. The tree
from which the gum exudes grows to the height of eighty, and sometimes
to one hundred feet. It runs up straight for forty or fifty feet without
a branch. Its top is spreading, and is ornamented with a thick and
glossy foliage. The gum is collected by chopping through the bark with a
hatchet and placing under each series of cuts a little clay cup formed
by the hands of the workman. About a gill of the sap accumulates in each
cup in the course of a day, and it is then transferred to receiving
vessels and taken to camp. The first use of the gum was made by the
South American Indians, who made shoes, bottles, playing balls and
various other articles from it. Their method for making a shoe was to
take a crude wooden last, which they covered with clay to prevent the
adhesion of the gum. It was then dipped in the sap, or the latter was
poured over it, which gave it a thin coating. It was then held over a
smoky fire, which gave it a dark color and dried the gum. When one
coating became sufficiently hard another was added, and smoked in turn,
and so successive coatings were applied until a sufficient thickness was
obtained. When the work was completed it was exposed for some days in
the sun, and while still soft the shoes were decorated as the fancy or
taste of the maker suggested. The clay forms were then broken out, and
the shoe stuffed with grass to keep it in shape for use or sale. In 1820
a pair of these clumsy shoes was brought to Boston and exhibited as a
curiosity. They were covered with gilding, and resembled the shoe of a
Chinaman. Subsequently considerable numbers of these shoes were brought
from South America, and being sold at a large price, they served to
stimulate Yankee ingenuity into devising methods of making them from the
raw material, which being brought as ballast in the ships from Brazil,
could be had cheaply. In France some attention had been given to the
material, and the rubber bottles of the Indians had been cut into narrow
threads which were woven into strips of cloth to form suspenders and
garters. In England an application of it in thin solution had been made
by a Mr. Macintosh, who spread it between two thicknesses of thin cloth
to form Macintosh water-proof coats. The first practical use of the gum
on a large scale was instituted by Mr. Chaffee in Roxbury, Mass., about
1830. He dissolved the gum in spirits of turpentine and invented
steam-heated rolls for spreading it upon cloth. Companies were formed to
exploit the products, and in the fall and winter of 1833 and 1834 many
thousands of dollars’ worth of goods were made by the Roxbury Company,
but the business proved a total failure, for in the summer the goods
melted, decomposed and became so offensive as to be worse than useless,
while the cold of winter rendered them stiff and liable to crack. With a
knowledge of these facts and conditions Charles Goodyear commenced his
experiments, believing that there was a great future for this material
if it could only be prevented from melting in summer and stiffening in
winter. He tried mixing it with many materials, first using magnesia,
which, however, proved ineffective. On June 17, 1837, he took out patent
No. 240, in which he proposed to destroy the adhesive properties of
caoutchouc by superficial application of an acid solution of the metals,
nitric acid with copper or bismuth being specially recommended. He also
claimed the incorporation of lime with the gum to bleach it. Under this
process Mr. Goodyear made various articles in the form of fabrics, toys
and ornamental articles, using the fabric to make clothing for himself,
which he wore to demonstrate its value and wearing qualities. A striking
word picture of Mr. Goodyear at this time is given by the reply of a
gentleman who, being asked by a man looking for Mr. Goodyear as to how
he might recognize him, replied, “If you meet a man who has on an India
rubber cap, stock, coat, vest, and shoes, and an India rubber money
purse in his pocket, without a cent of money in it, that is he.”
Many useful and artistic articles were made under this first patented
process, including maps, surgical bandages, etc., and were brought by
Mr. Goodyear to the notice of President Jackson, Henry Clay and John C.
Calhoun, from whom he received very encouraging letters. His efforts,
however, to introduce his process commercially were not attended with
success. Capitalists and manufacturers had been rendered so conservative
by the large loss of money in the Roxbury Company, that they were
disinclined to have anything further to do with it. Practically alone he
was obliged to continue his work. By the kindness of Mr. Chaffee and Mr.
Haskins he was allowed the use of the valuable machinery standing idle
in their factory at Roxbury, and he made shoes, piano covers, table
cloths and carriage covers of superior quality, and from the sale of
these, and of licenses to manufacture, he for the first time was able to
support his family in comfort. Mr. Goodyear had not yet discovered,
however, the process of vulcanization, upon which the rubber industry is
founded. In 1838 Mr. Nathaniel Hayward, of Woburn, Mass., who had been
employed in the bankrupt rubber company, discovered that the stickiness
of the rubber could be prevented by spreading a small quantity of
sulphur on it. The same result had also been noticed by a German
chemist. On Feb. 24, 1839, Mr. Hayward procured the patent, No. 1,090,
on his process, and assigned it to Mr. Goodyear. The patent covered a
process of dissolving sulphur in oil of turpentine and mixing it with
the gum, and also included the incorporation of the dry flowers of
sulphur with the gum, the product afterwards being treated by Mr.
Goodyear’s metallic salt process. This was the starting point of
vulcanization, for vulcanization consists simply in admixing sulphur
with the rubber, and then subjecting it for six to eight hours to a
temperature of about 300°. Its effect is to so change the nature of the
gum to prevent it from melting or becoming sticky under the influence of
heat, or of hardening and becoming stiff under the influence of cold,
the vulcanized gum remaining elastic, impervious, and unchangeable under
all ordinary conditions. This great discovery of the influence of heat
on the sulphur treated gum was quite accidental and wholly unexpected.
Heat above all things was the agency which in all previous observations
was most to be feared, for it was this more than anything else that
melted down, decomposed and destroyed all of his manufactured articles.
While sitting near a hot stove engaged in an animated discussion
concerning his experiments, a piece of the gum treated with sulphur,
which he held in his hand, was, by a rapid gesture, thrown upon the
stove. To his astonishment, he found that this relatively high heat did
not melt it, as heretofore, and while it charred slightly, it was not
made at all sticky. He nailed the piece of gum outside the kitchen door
in the intense cold, and upon examining it the next morning found it as
perfectly flexible as when he put it out. Goodyear had discovered the
process which afterwards came to be known as “vulcanization.” The
discovery was made in 1839, but was not accepted by those to whom it was
submitted as possessing any importance. Prof. Silliman, of Yale College,
however, in the fall of 1839 testified to the results claimed for it by
Mr. Goodyear--that it did not melt with heat, nor stiffen with the cold.
On June 15, 1844, Mr. Goodyear took out his celebrated patent, No.
3,633, covering this process, in which he not only used sulphur, but
added a proportion of white lead. The proportions named were 25 parts of
rubber, 5 parts of sulphur, and 7 parts of white lead, the ingredients
either to be ground in spirits of turpentine, or to be incorporated dry
between rolls. The odor imparted by the sulphur was to be destroyed by
washing with potash or vinegar. This patent was reissued in two
divisions Dec. 25, 1849, and again on Nov. 20, 1860, and was extended
for seven years from June 15, 1858, which was the end of the first term.
Under this patent two kinds of rubber were made and sold--“soft rubber,”
containing only a small proportion of sulphur, while the other, known as
the “vulcanite,” “ebonite,” or “hard rubber,” had from 25 to 35 per
cent. of sulphur and was subjected to a longer heat.
The history of this patent is a remarkable one. Immensely valuable as it
was, Goodyear reaped but a small share of the profit, for in the midst
of his poverty and necessities he was obliged to sell licenses and
establish royalties at a figure far below the real value of the rights
conveyed. Some idea of the great value of the business which Mr.
Goodyear had developed may be had from the fact that the companies who
held rights under the patent for the manufacture of shoes paid at one
time to Daniel Webster the enormous fee of $25,000 for defending their
patent interests.
With the idea of extending his invention Mr. Goodyear visited England in
1851, where he found that Thomas Hancock, of the house of Macintosh &
Co., had forestalled him, although not the inventor. A peculiar
provision of the English patent law, which gives the patent to the first
introducer, permitted this. Nothing daunted, however, he organized a
magnificent exhibit for the Great International Exhibition held in
Crystal Palace at Hyde Park, London, in 1851. This exhibit cost him
$30,000, and he called it the Goodyear Vulcanite Court. It comprehended
an elegantly constructed suite of open rooms made of hard rubber
ornamented with handsome carvings, and furnished with rubber furniture,
musical instruments, and globes made of rubber, and it was also carpeted
with the same material. For his exhibit he received the “Grand Council
Medal,” which was one of the highest testimonials of the exposition.
This exhibit was afterwards moved from London to Sydenham, where it was
exposed and used as an agency for some years for the sale of rubber
goods.
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--MACHINE FOR GRINDING AND WASHING CRUDE
RUBBER.]
Mr. Goodyear had obtained a French patent for his invention, and at the
Exposition Universelle in Paris, in 1855, he fitted up at an expense of
$50,000 two elegant courts with India rubber furniture, caskets and rich
jewelry, and for this exhibit he had conferred upon him by the Emperor
Napoleon the “Grand Medal of Honor” and the “Cross of the Legion of
Honor.” It was a singular instance of the irony of fate that the
decoration of the “Cross of the Legion of Honor” should have been
conveyed to him while imprisoned for debt in “Clichy,” the debtors’
prison in Paris. The lofty courage of the man was well illustrated at
this time in his reply to his wife’s solicitous inquiries as to how he
had spent the night while in prison. He said, “I have been through
nearly every form of trial that human flesh is heir to, and I find that
_there is nothing in life to fear but sin_.” The declining years of his
life were full of sorrow, pain and affliction, and at his death in 1860
his estate was $200,000 in debt. He lived long enough, however, to see
his material applied to nearly five hundred uses, giving employment in
England, France and Germany to 60,000 persons, and producing in this
country alone goods worth $8,000,000 a year.
[Illustration: FIG. 162.--MAKING RUBBER CLOTH.]
The greatest of all applications of rubber are to be found in the
manufacture of boots and shoes. The number of attacks of cold,
rheumatism, and death-dealing diseases from wet feet, that have been
averted by the use of rubber shoes, can never be estimated, but perhaps
it is safe to say that the rubber shoe has done more to conserve the
health of the human family than any other single article of apparel.
In the manufacture of shoes the finest quality of rubber is received in
wooden boxes 4 × 2 × 1½ feet, containing about 350 pounds in lumps of 1
to 75 pounds. These lumps are cut to suitable size, and are then ground
and washed in the machine shown in Fig. 161, water and steam being
sprayed on the rubber during the operation. It is then worked into
sheets or mats between rolls. From the grinding room the sheets are
taken to the mixing room, where lampblack, sulphur and other ingredients
are added, and worked into it by being passed many times between heated
rolls, the sheets being finally reduced to a thickness of less than 1/32
of an inch. The rubber sheets are then applied to a cloth backing by
cloth calendering rolls, shown in Fig. 162, which are steam heated and
by great pressure serve to incorporate the sheets of rubber and cloth
into intimate and inseparable union. Out of this rubber fabric, which is
made of different thicknesses for the upper, sole and heel, the patterns
for the shoe are cut, and the parts are deftly fitted around the forms
by girls, and secured by rubber cement, as shown in Fig. 163. The shoes
are then covered with a coat of rubber varnish, and are put into cars
and run into the vulcanizing ovens, where they remain from six to seven
hours at a temperature of about 275°. The goods are then taken out, and
after being inspected are boxed for the market. The vulcanizing is a
very important part of the manufacture of a rubber shoe, for it is
absolutely necessary in order to give them stability and wearing
qualities. A shoe that had not been vulcanized would mash down, spread,
become sticky and go to pieces after a few hours’ wear.
The rubber shoe industry of the United States is carried on by about
fifteen large companies, representing an investment of many millions of
dollars, most of which companies are located in Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and Connecticut.
Some idea of the immensity of this industry may be obtained from the
import statistics. In 1899 the United States alone imported crude rubber
to the extent of 51,063,066 pounds, as much as 1,000,000 pounds a month
coming from the single port of Para. The export of manufactured rubber
goods for the same year amounted to $1,765,385. The statistics for Great
Britain for 1896 showed the imports of rubber to that country to be
one-third more than the imports of the United States. Germany also is a
large consumer. The great Harburg-Vienna factories cover sixty-seven
acres, are capitalized at 9,000,000 marks, and employ 3,500 hands. Much
fine technical apparatus, toys, and balls are made here, the daily
output of balls reaching 8,000. These, with the Noah’s arks of India
rubber animals, are the delight of the little ones all over the world.
Although so much in evidence about us, India rubber is not by any means
a cheap material. Costing only five cents a pound when Goodyear
commenced his experiments, it is now worth a dollar a pound, and is
therefore much more expensive than any of the ordinary metals, woods, or
building materials. Many substitutes in the form of compositions of
various ingredients have been devised and patented, but no real
substitute for nature’s product has yet been found. For many years old
and worn out rubber goods were thrown away as worthless. Now all such
rubber is reclaimed, and used in many grades of goods which do not
require a pure gum. Insatiable as the demands of the trade may appear,
there is no need to fear a rubber famine, for the forests of trees in
South America and the East Indies are practically inexhaustible, and in
the rich alluvial soil of their habitat nature’s processes of growth
rapidly restore the decimation.
[Illustration: FIG. 163.--MAKING RUBBER SHOES.]
Since the time of Goodyear, the amplification of this art and the
multiplication of uses for rubber, and its increased commercial
importance, have gone on at such a rate of increase that to-day we may
be said to be living in the rubber age. Its uses and applications are
legion, and they extend literally from the cradle to the grave. When the
baby comes into the world its introduction to India rubber begins at
once with the nursing bottle and the gum cloth, and when the aged
invalid takes leave of the world his last moments are soothed with the
water bag and the rubber bed, and between these extremes we find it in
evidence everywhere about us. In wearing apparel it extends from the
crown of the head to the sole of the foot--rubber cap, coat, gloves, and
shoes. The man has it in his suspenders and his pipe stem, the woman in
her garters and dress shields, and the baby in its teething ring and
rattle. The soldier stands on picket duty in the rain, and the rubber
blanket protects him from rheumatism. If wounded, the surgeon dresses
his mangled limb with rubber bandages, and when he gets well he has a
rubber cushion on the end of his crutch, or on the foot of his
artificial leg. If wounded in the mouth perhaps the government gives him
a set of artificial teeth on a rubber plate. The rubber mat greets you
at the front door, a little pad cushions the door stops and the backs of
chairs, and a ring seals the mouth of the fruit jar. The whole array of
toilet articles, including combs, brushes, mirrors, shoe horns, etc.,
are made from it. In the parlor it is found in picture frames and the
piano cover; in the bath room the wash rag, water bag, rubber cup, and
hose pipe of the shower bath are all made of it; in the play room are
found rubber balls and toys of all kinds; in the kitchen the clothes
wringer and the table cloth; in the dining room the handles of knives,
and the tea tray, and what is more useful and more ubiquitous in the
office than the rubber band, the rubber ruler, the pencil eraser, or the
fountain pen? But these are only a few of the personal and indoor uses
and applications. Rubber belting for machinery, fire engine and garden
hose, steam engine packing, car springs, covers for carriages and the
big guns of the navy, life preservers, billiard table cushions, and
chemical and surgical apparatus in endless variety. The electrical world
is almost entirely dependent upon it for the insulation of our ocean
cables and electric light wires, for battery cups, and the insulating
mountings of all electrical apparatus. The pneumatic bicycle tire could
not exist without rubber, and the modern application of it to this use
alone amounts to nearly four million pounds annually. Every automobile
carriage takes twenty-five pounds of rubber for each tire, or 100 pounds
altogether. This great and growing industry, together with the now
common use of rubber tires on horse-drawn vehicles, raises the sum total
of rubber employed in the arts to an enormous figure.
That the sap of an uncultivated tree in a swampy, tropical, and malarial
forest, thousands of miles from civilization, should cut so great a
figure in the necessities of modern life, seems strange and
unaccountable on any basis of probabilities. It is only another
illustration of the possibilities of the patient and persistent work of
the inventor. Charles Goodyear took this nearly worthless material, and
made of it, as Parton said in 1865--“not a new material merely, but a
new class of materials, applicable to a thousand divers uses. It was
still India rubber, but its surface would not adhere, nor would it
harden at any degree of cold, nor soften at any degree of heat. It was a
cloth impervious to water; it was a paper that would not tear; it was a
parchment that would not crease; it was leather which neither rain nor
sun would injure; it was ebony that could be run into a mould; it was
ivory that could be worked like wax; it was wood that never cracked,
shrunk nor decayed. It was metal, ‘elastic metal,’ as Daniel Webster
termed it, that could be wound round the finger, or tied into a knot,
and which preserved its elasticity like steel. Trifling variations in
the ingredients, in the proportion and in the heating, made it either
pliable as kid, tougher than ox hide, as elastic as whalebone, or as
rigid as flint.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
CHEMISTRY.
ITS EVOLUTION AS A SCIENCE--THE COAL TAR PRODUCTS--FERMENTING AND
BREWING--GLUCOSE, GUN COTTON AND NITRO-GLYCERINE--ELECTRO-CHEMISTRY
--FERTILIZERS AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS--NEW ELEMENTS OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY.
The foundation stones of empirical discovery, upon which this science is
based, had been crudely shaped by the workmen of preceding centuries,
but the classification and laying of them into the structure of an exact
science is the work of the Nineteenth Century. The glass of the
Phœnicians, and the dyes and metallurgical operations of the Egyptians,
involved some chemical knowledge; much more did the operations of the
alchemists, who vainly sought to convert the baser metals into gold, but
these were only the crude building stones, out of which the great
complex modern structure has been raised. In the Sixteenth Century the
study of chemistry, apart from alchemy, began, and some attention was
given to its application to the uses of medicine. Aristotle’s four
elements--fire, air, earth and water--were no longer accepted as
representing a correct theory, and new ones were proposed only to be
found as erroneous, and to be superseded in time by others.
Briefly traversing the more important of the earlier steps, there may be
mentioned the phlogiston theory of Stahl in the earlier part of the
Eighteenth Century; the discovery of the composition of water by
Cavendish in 1766; of oxygen by Priestly and Scheele in 1774; the
electro-chemical dualistic theory of Lavoisier in the latter part of the
Eighteenth Century, followed by a rational nomenclature established by
Guyton de Morveau, Berthollet and Fourcroy; the doctrine of chemical
equivalents by Wenzel in 1777 and Richter in 1792; Dalton’s atomic
theory; Wollaston’s scale of chemical equivalents; Gay Lussac’s law of
combining volumes; Berzelius’ system of chemical symbols and theory of
compound radicals; contributions of Sir Humphrey Davy and Faraday in
electro-chemistry, and Thenard’s grouping of the metals. These
interesting phases of development of the old chemistry have been
followed by the new theory of substitution, by Dumas and others. This
change, beginning about 1860 and running through a period of nearly
twenty years, has gradually supplanted the old electro-chemical
dualistic theory and established the present system.
Among the important and interesting achievements of chemistry in the
Nineteenth Century is the _artificial production of organic compounds_.
All such compounds had heretofore been either directly or indirectly
derived from plants or animals. In 1828 Wohler produced urea from
inorganic substances, which was the first example of the synthetic
production of organic compounds, and it was for many years the only
product so formed. Berthelot, of Paris, by heating carbonic oxide with
hydrate of potash produced formiate of potash, from which formic acid is
obtained; by agitating olefiant gas with oil of vitriol a compound is
produced from which, upon the addition of water and distillation,
alcohol is formed; he also re-combined the fatty acids with glycerine to
form the original fats.
In the classification of this science, it has been divided into
inorganic chemistry, relating to metals, minerals and bodies not
associated with organic life, and organic chemistry, which was formerly
limited to matter associated with or the result of growth or life
processes, but which is now extended to the broader field of all carbon
compounds. In later years the most remarkable advances have been made in
the field of organic chemistry. The four elements carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen have been juggled into innumerable associations, and
in various proportions, and endless permutations, have been combined to
produce an unlimited series of useful compounds, such as dyes,
explosives, medicines, perfumes, flavoring extracts, disinfectants, etc.
The most interesting of these compounds are the _coal tar products_.
Coal tar, for many years, was the waste product of gas making. Forty
years ago about the only use made of it was by the farmer, who painted
the ends of his fence posts with it to prevent decay, or by the
fisherman, who applied it to the bottoms of his boats and his fishing
nets. To-day the black, offensive and unpromising substance, with
magical metamorphosis, has been transformed by the chemist into the most
beautiful dyes, excelling the hues and shades of the rainbow, the most
delightful perfumes and flavoring extracts, the most useful medicines,
the most powerful antiseptics, and a product which is the very sweetest
substance known. The aniline dyes represent one of the great
developments in this field. In 1826 Unverdorben obtained from indigo a
substance which he called “Crystalline.” In 1834 Runge obtained from
coal tar “Kyanol.” In 1840 Fritzsch obtained from indigo a product which
he called “Aniline,” from “Anil,” the Portuguese for indigo. Zinin soon
after obtained “Benzidam.” All these substances were afterward proved to
be the same as aniline. Perkins’ British patent, No. 1,984, of 1856, is
the first patented disclosure of the aniline dyes, and represents the
beginning of their commercial production. This combines sulphate of
aniline and bichromate of potash to produce an exquisite lilac, or
purple color. The first United States patent was in 1861, and now there
are about 1,400 patents on carbon dyes and compounds, the most of which
belong to the coal tar group. In dyes artificial alizarine, by Graebe
and Lieberman (Pat. No. 95,465, Oct. 5, 1869); aniline black, by
Lightfoot (Pat. No. 38,589, May 19, 1863); naphthazarin black, by Bohn
(Pat. No. 379,150, March 6, 1888); artificial indigo, by Baeyer (Pat.
No. 259,629, June 13, 1882); the azo-colors, by Roussin (Pat. No.
210,054, Nov. 19, 1878); and the processes for making colors on fibre,
by Holliday (Pat. No. 241,661, May 17, 1881), are the most important.
The artificial production of salicylic acid, by Kolbe (Pat. No. 150,867,
May 12, 1874), marks an important step in antiseptics. Artificial
vanilla, by Fritz Ach (Pat. No. 487,204, Nov. 29, 1892), represents
flavoring extracts; and artificial musk, by Baur (Pat. No. 536,324,
March 26, 1895), is an example of perfumes. In medicines a great array
of compounds has been produced, such as antipyrin, the fever remedy, by
Knorr (Pat. No. 307,399, Oct. 28, 1884); phenacetin, by Hinsberg (Pat.
No. 400,086, March 26, 1889); salol, by Von Nencki (Pat. No. 350,012,
Sept. 28, 1886), and sulfonal by Bauman (Pat. No. 396,526, Jan. 22,
1889). To these may be added antikamnia (acetanilide), the headache
remedy, and saccharin, by Fahlberg (Pat. No. 319,082, June 2, 1885),
which latter is a substitute for sugar, and thirteen times sweeter than
sugar. Among the more familiar products of coal tar or petroleum are
moth balls, carbolic acid, benzine, vaseline, and paraffine.
In the commercial application of chemistry the work of Louis Pasteur in
_fermenting_ and _brewing_ deserves special notice as making a great
advance in this art. His United States patent, No. 141,072, July 22,
1873, deals with the manufacture of yeast for brewing.
The manufacture of _sugar_ and _glucose_ from starch is an industry of
great magnitude, which has grown up in the last twenty-five years.
Water, acidulated with 1/100th part of sulphuric acid, is heated to
boiling, and a hot mixture of starch and water is allowed to flow into
it gradually. After boiling a half hour chalk is added to neutralize the
sulphuric acid, and when the sulphate of lime settles the clear syrup is
drawn off, and either sold as syrup, or is evaporated to produce
crystallized grape sugar, which latter is only about half as sweet as
cane sugar. Glucose syrup, however, has largely superseded all other
table syrups, and is extensively used in brewing, for cheap candies, and
for bee food. Our exports of glucose and grape sugar for 1899 amounted
to 229,003,571 pounds, worth $3,624,890.
An important discovery, made in 1846, was that carbohydrates, such as
starch, sugar, or cellulose, and glycerine, when acted upon by the
strongest nitric acid, produced compounds remarkable for their explosive
character. _Gun cotton and nitro-glycerine_ are the most conspicuous
examples. Gun cotton is made by treating raw cotton with nitric acid, to
which a proportion of sulphuric acid is added to maintain the strength
of the nitric acid and effect a more perfect conversion. Besides its use
as an explosive, gun cotton when dissolved in ether has found an
important application as collodion in the art of photography.
Nitro-glycerine only differs in its manufacture from gun cotton in that
glycerine is acted upon by the acids, instead of cotton. Pyroxiline,
xyloidine, and celluloid are allied products, which have found endless
applications in toilet articles and for other uses, as a substitute for
hard rubber.
The applications of chemistry in the commercial world have been in
recent years so numerous and varied that it is not possible to do more
than to refer to its uses in the manufacture of soda and potash, of
alcohol, ether, chloroform, and ammonia, in soap making, washing
compounds and tanning, the production of gelatine, the refining of
cotton seed and other oils, the art of oxidizing oils for the
manufacture of linoleum and oil cloth, the manufacture of fertilizers,
white lead and other paints, the preparation of proprietary medicines,
of soda water and photographic chemicals, the manufacture of salt and
preserving compounds, in the fermentation of liquors and brewing of
beer, the preparation of cements and street pavements, the manufacture
of gas, and the embalming of the dead.
The most interesting and, in many respects, the most important,
development of the last twenty-five years has been in
_electro-chemistry_. Electro-chemical methods are now employed for the
production of a large number of elements, such as the alkali and
alkaline earth metals, copper, zinc, aluminum, chromium, manganese, the
halogens, phosphorus, hydrogen, oxygen, and ozone; various chemicals,
including the mineral acids, hydrates, chlorates, hypochlorites,
chromates, permanganates, disinfectants, alkaloids, coal tar dyes, and
various carbon compounds; white lead and other pigments; varnish; in
bleaching, dyeing, tanning; in extracting grease from wool; in
purifying water, sewerage, sugar solutions, and alcoholic beverages. The
present low price of _aluminum_, reduced from $12 per pound in 1878 to
33 cents now, is due to its production by electrical methods. Among the
earliest successful processes is that described in patents to Cowles and
Cowles, No. 319,795, June 9, 1885, and No. 324,658, August 18, 1885, in
which a mixture of alumina, carbon and copper is heated to incandescence
by the passage of a current, the reduced aluminum alloying with the
copper. This has now been superseded by the Hall process (Pat. No.
400,766, April 2, 1889), in which alumina, dissolved in fused cryolite,
is electrolytically decomposed. Practically all the copper now produced,
except that from Lake Superior, is refined electrolytically by
substantially the method of Farmer’s patent (Pat. No. 322,170, July 14,
1885). All metallic sodium and potassium are now obtained by
electrolysis of fused hydroxides or chlorides (Pats. No. 452,030, May
12, 1891, to Castner, and No. 541,465, June 25, 1895, to Vautin). The
production of caustic soda, sodium carbonate, and chlorine by the
electrolysis of brine, is carried on upon a large scale, and will
probably supersede all other methods. Nolf’s process (Pat. No. 271,906,
Feb. 6, 1883), and Caster’s (No. 528,322, Oct. 30, 1894), employ a
receiving body or cathode of mercury, alternately brought in contact
with the brine undergoing decomposition, and with water to oxidize the
contained sodium. _Carborundum_, or silicide of carbon, is largely
superseding emery and diamond dust as an abradant. It is produced by
Acheson (Pat. No. 492,767, Feb. 28, 1893), by passing a current of
electricity through a mixture of silica and carbon. _Calcium carbide_, a
rare compound a few years ago, is now cheaply produced by the action of
an electric arc on a mixture of lime and carbon, as described by Willson
(Pats. Nos. 541,137, 541,138, June 18, 1895). Calcium carbide resembles
coke in general appearance, and it is used for the manufacture of
acetylene gas, for which purpose it is only necessary to immerse the
calcium carbide in water, and the gas is at once given off by the mutual
decomposition of the water and the carbide.
_Agricultural chemistry_ is another one of the practical developments of
the Nineteenth Century. A hundred years ago the farmer planted his
crops, prayed for rain, and trusted to Providence for the increase; he
was not infrequently disappointed, but was wholly unable to account for
the failure. To-day the intelligent farmer understands the value of
nitrogen, has ascertained how it may be fed to his crops through the
agency of nitrifying organisms, or he has his soil analyzed at the
Agricultural Department, finds out what element it lacks for the crop
desired, and in chemically prepared fertilizers supplies that
deficiency. The chemical analysis of drinking water has also
contributed much to the knowledge of right living and to the avoidance
of disease and death, which our forefathers were accustomed to regard as
dispensations of Providence.
America has furnished some eminent chemists in the Nineteenth Century,
who have made valuable contributions to the science, notably in the
field of metallurgy. It is a fact, however, which must be admitted with
regret, that America has not in the field of chemical research occupied
the leading place she has in mechanical progress. The European
laboratory is the birthplace of most modern inventions in the chemical
field, and this is so simply by reason of the fact that these more
patient investigators have set themselves studiously, systematically and
persistently to the work of chemical invention. It is said that some of
the large commercial works in Germany have over 100 Ph. D.’s in a single
manufacturing establishment, whose work is not directed to the
management of the manufacture, but solely to original research, and the
making of inventions. The laboratories in such works differ from those
in the universities only in being more perfectly equipped, and more
sumptuously appointed. The result of this is seen in the fact that in
1899 the United States imported coal tar dyes alone to the extent of
$3,799,353, and 5,227,098 pounds of alizarine, most of which came from
Germany, and for which we paid a good price, since the German
manufacturers control the United States patents. The alizarine dyes are
for the most part the artificial kind made by German chemists. Prior to
1869 the red alizarine dye was of plant origin, being obtained from
madder root, and it cost $2 a pound. The German chemist produced an
artificially made product, which took the place of the madder dye, and
was sold at $1.20 a pound. At the end of the patent term (seventeen
years) the price fell to 15c. a pound, showing that the product was
produced at a profit of more than $1.05 a pound, and as millions of
pounds were imported annually, it is estimated that $35,000,000 was the
price paid the German chemists for their foresight in combining science
with business. Many United States patents granted to foreign chemists
are still in force, and the rich reward of their skill is reaped at our
expense.
_Discovery of elements._--In the early days of chemical knowledge, fire,
air, earth and water constituted the insignificant category of the
elements, which was as faulty in classification as it was small in size.
Gradual splitting up of compounds, and an increase in the number of
elements, has gone on progressively for some hundreds of years, until
to-day the list extends well on to one hundred elementary bodies. Those
which belong to the credit of the Nineteenth Century are given in the
table following, with the name of the discoverer, and the date of its
discovery.
ELEMENTS DISCOVERED IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
ELEMENTS. DISCOVERER. YEAR.
Columbium Hatchett 1801
Tantalum Ekeberg 1802
Iridium Tenant 1803
Osmium Tenant 1803
Cerium Berzelius 1803
Palladium Wollaston 1804
Rhodium Wollaston 1804
Potassium Davy 1807
Sodium Davy 1807
Barium Davy 1808
Strontium Davy 1808
Calcium Davy 1808
Boron Davy 1808
Iodine Courtois 1811
Cyanogen Gay Lussac 1814
(Comp. rad.)
Selenium Berzelius 1817
Cadmium Stromeyer 1817
Lithium Arfvedson 1817
Silicon Berzelius 1823
Zirconium Berzelius 1824
Bromine Balard 1826
Thorium Berzelius 1828
Yttrium Wohler 1828
Glucinum Wohler 1828
Aluminum Wohler 1828
Magnesium Bussey 1829
Vanadium Sefstroem 1830
Lanthanum Mosander 1839
Didymium Mosander 1839
Erbium Mosander 1843
Terbium Mosander 1843
Ruthenium Claus 1845
Rubidium Bunsen 1860
Caesium Bunsen 1860
Thallium Crookes 1862
Indium {Reich } 1863
{Richter}
Gallium Boisbaudran 1875
Ytterbium Marignac 1878
Samarium Boisbaudran 1879
Scandium Nilson 1879
Thulium Cleve 1879
Neodymium Welsbach 1885
Praseodymium Welsbach 1885
Gadolinium Marignac 1886
Germanium Winkler 1886
Argon {Raleigh} 1894
{Ramsey }
Krypton { Ramsey } 1897
{ Travers }
Neon {Ramsey } 1898
{Travers}
Metargon { Ramsey } 1898
{ Travers }
Coronium Nasini 1898
Xenon Ramsey 1898
Monium Crookes 1898
Etherion (?) Brush 1898
Whether or not these so-called elements are really true elementary forms
of matter, which are absolutely indivisible, is a problem for the
chemists of the coming centuries to solve. The classification has the
approval of the present age. What new elements may be found no one may
predict. Mendelejeff’s _periodic law_, however, suggests great
possibilities in this field. Allotropism, in which the same element will
present entirely different physical aspects, is also a significant and
suggestive phenomenon, for in it we see carbon appearing at one time as
a crude, black and ungainly mass of coal, and at another it appears as
the limpid and flashing diamond. In more than one mind there is a
lurking suspicion that there may, after all, be only one form of
primordial matter, from which all others are derived by some wondrous
play of the atoms, and if so the old idea of the alchemist as to the
transmutation of metals may not be entirely wrong. The Twentieth Century
may give us more light.
CHAPTER XIX.
FOOD AND DRINK.
THE NATURE OF FOOD--THE ROLLER MILL--THE MIDDLINGS PURIFIER--
CULINARY UTENSILS--BREAD MACHINERY--DAIRY APPLIANCES--CENTRIFUGAL
MILK SKIMMER--THE CANNING INDUSTRY--STERILIZATION--BUTCHERING AND
DRESSING MEATS--OLEOMARGARINE--MANUFACTURE OF SUGAR--THE VACUUM
PAN--CENTRIFUGAL FILTER--MODERN DIETETICS AND PATENTED FOODS.
If called upon to name the most important of all factors of human
existence, that which underlies and sustains all others, even to life
itself, everyone must agree that it is _food_. A remarkable fact in this
connection is that all animal life lives and thrives by eating some
other thing that is or has been alive, or is the product of organic
growth. The vegetarian may pride himself upon his higher ideals of
living, but after all his fruit, vegetables, and cereals belong to the
great category of living organisms, and are to a certain extent sentient
and conscious, for even the plant will turn to the sun. The beasts of
the field and fowls of the air live by preying upon other weaker animals
and birds, these upon plants and grasses, and the plants and grasses
upon the decaying mosses and organic mould of the soil, and the mosses
upon still lower organisms. The big fish of the sea eat the little fish,
the little fish the small fry, and these in turn live upon worms and
animalcula, and so on all the way down to protoplasm. Omniverous man, in
spite of his boasted civilization and enlightment, not only eats them
all, flesh, fowl, fish, grain and plants, but lives exclusively upon
them. But he can _only_ live on that which has been produced by the
mysterious agency of life, and this furnishes a significant suggestion
for the philosopher, for it may be that life itself is only an
accumulated active power or unitary force regenerated in some
metamorphic way from vital force stored up in the bacteria of organic
food, and necessarily connected therewith in an endless chain of
reproductions, and if this be true, the hope of the scientist as to the
synthesis of food from its elements must ever remain a philosophic
dream, because the scientist cannot create a bacterium.
It has been said that when a man eats meat he thinks meat, and when he
eats bread he thinks bread, and when he eats fruit he thinks fruit. It
is not clear that the quality or character of man’s food is so closely
correlated to his thought, but that it has its influence cannot be
doubted. It would be safer to say, however, that when a man eats meat he
acts meat, and when he eats bread he acts bread, for the muscular energy
and aggressive potentiality appear to be much more closely related to
the quality of his food than are his thoughts. May it not be that the
powerful achievement of the British Empire was directly related to its
roast beef? Is not the listless apathy of the Chinese due to a diet of
rice? Is not the dominant and masterful power of the lion or the eagle
related to a carniverous diet, and the mild and placid temper of the ox
the reflex expression of his vegetable food? It is quite true that our
potentialities are largely represented by what we eat, and our food
therefore becomes a most interesting topic, not only by virtue of its
indispensable quality, but by reason also of the possibilities of
development in the betterment and elevation of the human race.
From the earliest times even down to the present day man’s food has been
the same--flesh, fish, cereals, fruits and vegetables. The development
of the present century has not extended this category, but it has been
directed to an increase in the supply, an improvement in quality, the
preservation against decay and waste, and its intelligent selection and
adaptation to the special needs of the body. Progress manifests itself
in the great field of agriculture, in improved processes and machines
for milling; in butchering, packing and handling meats; in preserving
and drying fruits; in the preparation of canned goods, in dairy
appliances, in cake and cracker machines; in the manufacture of sugar;
in the great advance in cookery; in the science of dietetics, and in
thousands of minor industries.
In agriculture the raising of grain has extended in the Nineteenth
Century to enormous proportions. More than ten thousand patents for
plows, as many for reapers, and a proportionate number of planters,
cultivators, threshers, and other implements and tools represent the
extent to which inventive genius has been directed to the increase of
the yield in the harvest field.
This yield in the United States for the year 1898 was:
Corn 1,924,184,660 bushels
Wheat 675,148,705 bushels
Oats 730,906,643 bushels
Rye 25,657,522 bushels
Barley 55,792,257 bushels
Buckwheat 11,721,927 bushels
Potatoes 192,306,338 bushels
[Illustration: FIG. 164.--ROLLER PROCESS OF MAKING FLOUR, WEGMANN’S
PATENT.]
For converting the grain into flour, the inventors of the Nineteenth
Century have made revolutionary changes. Milling processes within the
last twenty-five years have been completely transformed by the
introduction of the roller mill and middlings purifier. Formerly two
horizontal disk-shaped stones or burrs were employed, the lower one
stationary and the upper one revolving in a horizontal plane and crudely
crushing the grain between them. In all modern mills these have been
entirely displaced by porcelain rolls revolving on horizontal axes and
crushing the grain between them. The first of these roller mills is
shown in pat. No. 182,250, to Wegmann, Sept. 12, 1876. (See Fig. 164).
The outer rolls _d e_ are pressed against the inner ones _a c_ by a
system of weighted levers, and scrapers below remove the crushed grain
from the periphery of the rolls. Many subsequent improvements have been
made, one type of which employs a succession of rolls which act in pairs
on the grain one after the other and reduce it by successive gradations.
[Illustration: FIG. 165.--MIDDLINGS PURIFIER.]
The _middlings purifier_, see Fig. 165, comprehends a flat bolt or
shaker screen _b_, of bolting cloth, arranged as a horizontal partition
in an enclosing case through which passes an upward draft of air
produced by suction fan D at the top. This air passing up through the
bolting screen lifts the bran specks and fuzz from the shaken material
as it passes downward through the screen, brushes K being arranged below
to keep the screen constantly clean. A representative and pioneer type
of this machine is seen in Pat. No. 164,050 to George T. Smith, June 1,
1875, from which the view is taken. The useful effect of the roller mill
and middlings purifier is to save the most nutritious and valuable part
of the grain, which lies between the outer cuticle and the white starch
within, and which breaks up in fine grains and is of a golden hue. This
portion of the grain was formerly unseparated, and was mixed with the
middlings and bran as an inferior product. Modern analysis has disclosed
its superior food value, and the roller mill and middlings purifier have
provided means by which it can be separated from the bran and
incorporated with the flour, thereby greatly adding to its wholesome
character and nutritive value, and imparting to the flour the rich
creamy tint which characterizes all higher grades.
Minneapolis, Minn., is the great center of the milling interests of the
United States. The Pillsbury Mills are located there, and the “Pillsbury
A.” which is said to be the largest in the world, has a capacity of
7,000 barrels per day.
In 1877-78 disastrous flour dust explosions at Minneapolis brought
about the development of the dust collector, for withdrawing from the
air of the mills the suspended particles of flour dust, which not only
invited explosion, but rendered the air unfit to breathe. Washburn’s
Pat. No. 213,151, March 11, 1879, is an early example.
The use of crushing rolls has also developed a great variety of new
foods, such as cracked wheat, oatmeal grits, etc. These crushing rolls
have sometimes been made hollow, and are steam heated, and as they crush
the grain they simultaneously effect the cooking or partial conversion
of the starch, and the product is known as hominy flake, ceraline,
coralline, etc., which furnish popular breakfast foods when served with
cream.
[Illustration: FIG. 166.--DOUGH MIXER.]
[Illustration: FIG. 167.--BRAKE, OR KNEADING MACHINE.]
In the field of cookery such activity has been displayed that the
average kitchen to-day is a veritable museum of modern inventions. Egg
beaters, waffle irons, toasters, broilers, baking pans, apple parers,
cherry stoners, cheese cutters, butter workers, coffee mills, corn
poppers, cream freezers, dish washers, egg boilers, flour sifters, flat
irons, knife sharpeners, can openers, lemon squeezers, potato mashers,
meat boilers, nutmeg graters, sausage grinders, and frying pans in
endless array; all patented and clustered around the modern cooking
range as a central figure, and all presenting points of excellence in
the matter of economy and convenience, or the betterment of result. The
most extensive application of inventive genius is to be found in the
large manufacturing bakeries, which make and sell the millions of pounds
of crackers and cakes that fill the bins and shelves of the grocery
store. In these manufactories the dough is prepared by a mixer, see Fig.
166, which consists of a spiral working blade revolving in a trough, and
capable of handling half a dozen barrels of flour at a time. It is then
put through a kneading machine, called a “brake,” shown in Fig. 167, and
is then ready to be converted into crackers or cakes on a great machine
25 feet long, which finishes the crackers and puts them in the pan ready
for the oven. This machine, see Fig. 168, receives the dough at A, where
it is coated with flour and flattened into a sheet between rolls. It is
then received on a traveling apron B, has the flour brushed off by a
rotary brush C, and is then cut into crackers or cakes by vertically
reciprocating dies D. At E a series of fingers press the cakes down
through the sheet of dough, while the surrounding scraps are raised on a
belt F and delivered into a suitable receptacle. The separated cakes at
B′ are then delivered into pans at G, the pans being fed on the
subjacent belt at G′. Such machines, costing nearly a thousand dollars,
produce from forty to sixty barrels of crackers a day, enabling them to
be sold at about 5 cents a pound at retail.
[Illustration: FIG. 168.--CRACKER AND CAKE MACHINE.]
_Dairy Appliances_ have come in for a large share of attention at the
hands of the Nineteenth Century inventor. There are about sixteen
million milch cows in the United States, and their contribution to the
food stuffs of the day in milk, butter, and cheese is no insignificant
factor. There have been over 2,700 patents granted for churns alone, and
besides these there are milk coolers, cheese presses, milk skimmers, and
even cow milkers. The centrifugal milk skimmer is an interesting type of
this class of machine. In the old way the milk was set for the cream to
rise, which it did slowly from its lighter specific gravity. In the
centrifugal skimmer the milk is continuously poured in through a funnel,
and the cream runs out continuously through one spout, and the skimmed
milk at the other. An illustrative type of this machine is shown in
Fig. 169. A steam turbine wheel near the base turns a vertical shaft
bearing at its upper end a pan which rotates within the outer case. The
milk enters through the faucet at the top, and as the pan within
rotates, the heavier milk, by its greater specific gravity, is thrown to
the outer part of the pan and passes out through the larger of the two
spouts, while the lighter cream is crowded to the center and passes out
of the upper spout, which opens into the center of the pan. Patents to
Lefeldt & Lentsch, No. 195,515, Sept. 25, 1877, and Houston and Thomson,
No. 239,659, April 5, 1881, represent pioneer milk skimmers of this
type.
[Illustration: FIG. 169.--CENTRIFUGAL MILK SKIMMER.]
Closely allied to the dairy appliances are the incubator and the bee
hive, both of which have claimed a large share of attention, and for
which many patents have been granted.
One important and characteristic feature of the present age is the
conservation of waste in perishable foodstuffs. Fruits, vegetables, fish
and oysters were suitable food to our forefathers only when freshly
taken, and any superabundance in supply was either wasted by natural
processes of decay, or was fed to the hogs. To-day thousands of patented
fruit dryers, cider mills, and preserving processes save this waste and
carry over for valuable use through the unproductive winter months these
wholesome and valuable articles of diet. Even more important is the
_canning industry_, by which not only fruits are maintained in a
practically fresh condition for an indefinite time, but oysters, meats,
fish, soups, and vegetables are also put up in enormous quantities.
To-day the grocer’s shelves present an endless array of canned tomatoes,
peaches, corn, peas, beans, fish, oysters, condensed milk, and potted
meats, which constitute probably three-fourths of his staple goods. The
tin can is in itself a very insignificant thing, not entitled to rank
with any of the great inventions, but in the every-day campaign of life
it is playing its part, and working its influence to an extent that is
little dreamed of by the casual observer. It renders possible our
military and exploring expeditions; it holds famine and starvation in
abeyance; it gives wholesome variety to the diet of both rich and poor;
and it transfers the glut of the full season to the want of future days.
Perhaps no single factor of modern life has so great an economic value.
Simple as is the tin can, quite complex machines are required to make
it. Originally such machines were operated by hand or foot power, but
within the last 25 years power machines have been devised which
automatically convert a simple blank or plate of sheet metal into a
finished can. Of the many patents granted for such machines the most
representative ones are 243,287, 250,096, 267,014, 384,825, 450,624,
465,018, 480,256, 495,426, 489,484.
In the process of putting up canned goods the products are filled into
the cans, and the caps, or heads, are soldered on. These caps have a
minute hole in the center for the escape of air and steam in the process
of cooking and sterilizing, which is conducted as follows: A large
number of cans are placed on a tray swung from a crane and the cans
lowered into one of a series of great cooking boilers. The cover of the
boiler is then closed and fastened by lugs, and steam turned on until
the goods in the can are thoroughly heated through. During this process
the air and steam escape through the little vent hole from the interior
of each can. The cans are then removed, the vent hole closed by a drop
of solder, and the goods thus hermetically sealed in a cooked or
sterilized condition will keep for a long period of time.
_Sterilizing._--During the last quarter of the century, which has
witnessed the growth of the wonderful science of bacteriology, a class
of devices known as sterilizers has come into existence, whose primary
function is to kill the germs of decay by heat. This has had in the
canning industry an important commercial application. An example is
found in the patent to Shriver, No. 149,256, March 31, 1874. In some of
these devices the receptacles containing the food stuffs are in large
numbers placed within the heating chamber, and by devices operated from
the outside the cans or bottles are opened and shut while within the
steam filled chamber. A late illustration is found in patent to Popp _et
al._, 524,649, August 14, 1894.
_Butchering and Dressing Meats._--Chicago is the leading city of the
world in this industry, and Armour & Co. the largest packers. In the
year ending April 1, 1891, they killed and dressed 1,714,000 hogs,
712,000 cattle, and 413,000 sheep. They had 7,900 employees, and 2,250
refrigerating cars were employed for the transportation of their
products. The ground area covered by their buildings was fifty acres,
giving a floor area of 140 acres, a chill room and cold storage area of
forty acres, and a storage capacity of 130,000 tons. In addition to its
meat packing business the firm has separate glue works, with buildings
covering fifteen acres, where 600 hands are employed, their production
in 1890 being 7,000,000 pounds of glue, and 9,500 tons of fertilizer.
Since 1891 this great business has increased until to-day it is said
that the army of workmen employed is greater than that of Xenophon, that
the firm pays out in wages alone, half a million dollars every month,
that four thousand cars are required to carry the products of their
factory, and whose business amounts to the enormous sum of one hundred
million dollars annually.
[Illustration: FIG. 170.--KILLING AND DRESSING PORK.]
There are from forty to fifty million cattle raised in the United
States, and an equal amount of sheep. The number of hogs raised has
diminished somewhat in the past few years, but from 1889 to 1892 more
than fifty million were maintained. The process of slaughtering and
dressing pork, as practiced to-day, is a continuous one, and is well
illustrated in Fig. 170, in 13 operations. The animals are driven into a
catching pen at 1, where they are strung up by one leg, and secured to a
traveling pulley on an overhead rail. At 2 the animal is instantly
killed by a knife thrust that reaches the heart; at 3 he is dumped into
a vat of scalding water, kept hot by steam pipes, where the hair is
loosened (see detail view Fig. 171). A series of oscillating curved
arms, shaped like a horse hay-rake, dips the carcass out of the scalding
vat and deposits it upon the table 4 (Fig. 170), where it is attached to
an endless cable that drags it through a scraping machine at 5. This
takes off the hair, as shown in detail view Fig. 172. At 6 (Fig. 170)
the remnants of hair are removed by hand, and at 7 the skin is washed
clean. At 8 the carcass is inspected, and the throat cut across; at 9
the entrails are removed; at 10 the leaf lard is taken out; at 11 the
heads are severed and tongues removed; at 12 the carcass is split into
halves, and at 13 the sections are ready to be run into the cooling
room.
[Illustration: FIG. 171.--SCALDING TO LOOSEN THE HAIR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 172.--SCRAPING OFF THE HAIR BY MACHINERY.]
From 10 to 15 minutes only are required to convert the living animal
into dressed pork. Every part of the animal is utilized. The lungs,
heart, liver and trimmings go to the sausage department. The feet are
pickled or converted into glue. The intestines are stripped and
cleaned for sausage casings. The soft parts of the head are made into
so-called cheese, and the fat is rendered into lard. The finer quality
of bristles goes to the brushmakers, and the balance is used by
upholsterers for mixing with horse hair. The blood is largely used for
making albumen for photographic uses, as well as in sugar refining, for
meat extracts, and for fertilizers. The bones are ground for fertilizer,
and even the tank waters are concentrated and used for the same purpose.
_Oleomargarine._--About 1868 M. Mege, a French chemist, commissioned by
his government to investigate certain questions of domestic economy, was
led into the study of beef fat, and to make comparisons of the same with
butter. He found that when cows were deprived of food containing fat
they still continued to give milk yielding cream or fatty products. He
therefore concluded that the stored-up fat in the animal was then
converted into cream, and that it was practicable, therefore, to convert
beef fat into butter fat. Physiology taught that in the living animal
the change was wrought through the withdrawal of the larger part of the
stearine by respiratory combustion, while the oleomargarine was secreted
by the milk glands, and its conversion into butyric oleomargarine
effected in the udder under the influence of the mammary pepsin. In the
process of making butter by the ordinary method of churning the cream,
the finely divided butter fat globules are united into masses,
containing by mechanical admixture from 12 to 14 per cent. of water or
buttermilk carrying a fractional per cent. of cheese. This buttermilk
contributes somewhat to the flavor, but at the same time furnishes a
ferment which ultimately spoils the butter by making it rancid. It is a
purely accidental ingredient, and one not at all desirable. To some
extent the same may be said of the soluble fats which give to the butter
its variable though characteristic flavor. They are unstable compounds,
decomposing readily, and furnish the acrid products which make “strong”
butter. M. Mege sought to imitate the natural process of butter-making,
which was first to separate from the oily fat of suet the cellular
tissue and excess of stearine or hard fat; second, to add to the oil a
sufficient proportion of butyric compounds to give the necessary flavor,
and third, to consolidate the butter fat without grain, and to add at
the same time the requisite proportion of water, salt, and coloring
matter, to make a compound substantially the same in composition,
flavor, and appearance, as butter churned from the cream, and all this
without adding to the original fat anything dietetically objectionable,
and without submitting it to any process capable of impairing its
wholesome quality. These objects were fairly obtained in the product
known as oleomargarine, the United States patent for which was granted
to Mege Dec. 30, 1873, No. 146,012.
The process in brief is to take fresh beef fat, which is first chopped
up and thoroughly washed. It is then placed in melting tanks at a
temperature of 122° to 124° F, and the clear yellow oil is drawn off and
allowed to stand until it granulates. The fat is then packed in cloths
set in moulds and a slowly increasing pressure squeezes out the pure
amber colored oil, leaving the stearine behind. This sweet and pure
yellow oil is then churned with milk for 20 minutes until the oil is
completely broken up, and a small quantity of annato, a vegetable
coloring matter, is added to give a yellow color. The product is then
cooled in ice, and after a second churning with milk it is salted and
finished like butter. Chemical analysis shows oleomargarine to have
substantially the same constituents and in almost the identical
proportions of pure butter. It is equally wholesome, and while it does
not have the same rich flavor, it has the advantage that it keeps
better, and is not so liable to become rancid or strong. The
oleomargarine industry is closely related to the beef packing industries
of the United States, and its growth has been enormous. Notwithstanding
the stringent laws on the subject, much of the oleomargarine made is
sold for, and by the average purchaser is not distinguishable from, pure
butter. In 1899 there were 80,495,628 pounds of oleomargarine made in
the United States, or more than a pound for every man, woman, and child
in the country. The internal revenue tax paid on it was $1,609,912.56.
The exports for the year 1899 were 5,549,322 pounds of the artificial
butter, and 142,390,492 pounds of the oleo oil prepared for conversion
into the complete product by simply churning with milk.
_Sugar._--Sugar-cane, beets, and the sap of the maple constitute the
sources from which sugar is extracted, but the cane furnishes by far the
largest supply. When crushed between rolls it yields 65 per cent. of its
weight as juice, and 18 per cent. of this juice is sugar. It is
concentrated by evaporation at a low temperature, the crystallized
portion being known as “raw” or brown sugar, which is subsequently
refined, while the uncrystallized portion forms molasses.
[Illustration: FIG. 173.--VACUUM PAN FOR EVAPORATING THE SYRUP TO
PRODUCE SUGAR.]
In the process of refining, 2 or 3 parts of raw sugar, with one of water
containing a little lime, ground bone black, and the serum of bullocks’
blood, is heated by the passage of steam through it. The albumen of the
serum coagulates and rises to the surface in a scum which entangles the
impurities and bone black, leaving the syrup light in color. The latter
is then filtered through bone black until it is colorless and is then
evaporated in the vacuum pan, which is the important invention of the
century in sugar making. Heat has the effect of converting the
crystallized sugar into the uncrystallized variety, and hence the
evaporation must, to prevent this, be conducted at a low temperature.
Contact with the air is also objectionable. These conditions are
provided for by conducting the evaporation in a vacuum, which lowers the
evaporating temperature and avoids contact with the air. The vacuum pan
was the invention of Howard, an Englishman. (British Pat. No. 3,754, of
1813). As constructed to-day it is an enormous vessel (see Fig. 173),
capable of holding 7,000 or more gallons, and yielding 250 barrels of
sugar at a strike. In this a vacuum is maintained by a condenser, the
vapors passing from the pan to the condenser through the great curved
pipe rising from the top, which pipe is five feet in diameter. A gentle
heat is applied through internal steam-heated coils which connect with
an external series of steam inlet pipes on one side, and a corresponding
series of steam outlet pipes on the other. A large discharge valve for
the concentrated syrup closes the bottom of the pan. After concentration
the crystallized sugar is separated from the syrup by a centrifugal
filter, in which the liquid is thrown from the crystallized sugar by
centrifugal action. The first centrifugal filter is shown in British
patent to Joshua Bates, No. 6,068, of 1831. This, however, revolved
about a horizontal axis. The present form of centrifugal filter is a
cylinder revolving about a vertical axis, the sides of the cylinder
being formed of filtering medium, through which the liquid is thrown by
centrifugal action, while the sugar is retained within. This was the
invention of Joseph Hurd, of Mass., U. S. Pat. No. 3,772, Oct. 3, 1844;
re-issue No. 607, Sept. 29, 1858, which patent was extended for seven
years, from Oct. 3, 1858. The diffusion process, which extracts the
juice by cutting the cane in slices and soaking in water; the bagasse
furnace, which dries and burns the expressed cane stalks as fuel, and
the manufacture of glucose and grape sugar by the reaction of sulphuric
acid on starch, are interesting allied features of this industry which
can only be briefly mentioned. Most of the sugar consumed in the United
States is imported, much raw sugar being imported and refined here. The
imports for the year 1899 were 3,980,250,569 pounds, and the per capita
consumption in 1898 was 61.1 pounds a year.
_Aids to Digestion._--It is only during the last part of the Nineteenth
Century that the world has learned how to live. “What is one man’s food
is another man’s poison” has been a trite old saying for many years, but
the reason why has only in late years been fully understood. The
physiology of digestion, the relative digestibility of different
articles of food, and their nutritive values, have received of late
years the earnest attention of physicians and students of dietetics and
have contributed much to the quality and kind of food, and a knowledge
of when and how to eat it. We know that the starchy foods are digested
by the saliva, which is an alkaline digestion; that meat, fish, eggs,
cheese and the albumenoids are digested in the stomach by the gastric
juices (pepsin and hydrochloric acid) which is an acid digestion, and
that the remaining portions of starch, the sugars, and fats are digested
in the intestines, and that this is also an alkaline digestion, and this
has helped to solve the problem for us. We also know that starch is an
excellent food, provided the vital powers are sufficiently stimulated by
fresh air, sunlight, and exercise to digest it, as do the horse and the
ox when they eat corn, but we know furthermore that the sedentary
occupations of modern life leave many stomachs in a condition unable to
assimilate starch, and so bread, oatmeal, potatoes and such simple
staples, instead of nourishing the body, ferment in the enfeebled
stomach, produce acids and gas, and lay the foundation for serious
chronic diseases. The student of chemistry and dietetics knows to-day
that one part of diastase will effect the conversion of 2,000 parts of
starch into grape sugar, as a preliminary step to its digestion, and so
by treating starchy matter with substances containing diastase (derived
from malt) a partial transformation is effected which will materially
shorten and assist its digestion. This fact has been largely made use of
in the preparation of easily soluble or pre-digested foods, examples of
which are found in patent to Horlick (malted milk), No. 278,967, June 5,
1883; to Carnrick (milk-wheat food), Dec. 27, 1887, No. 375,601; and
Boynton and Van Patten (cereals and diastase), 344,717, June 29, 1886.
_Beverages._--Pure water, nature’s own gift, has ever supplied every
legitimate need of the human race, but civilized life has greatly
extended its list of drinks, much to its own detriment. Soda water,
whiskey, beer, ginger ale, tea, coffee, and chocolate represent enormous
industries, and probably all do more harm than they do good. Much
inventive genius in the Nineteenth Century has been bestowed upon the
soda water fountain, on stills, and processes for aging liquors and
processes for brewing beer, on cider and wine presses, on bottling
machines and bottle stoppers, on devices for carbonating waters, and in
coffee and teapots. The trend of the times is shown in the following
figures, which represent the per capita consumption of beverages in the
United States for 1898: tea, .91 of a pound; coffee, 11.45 pounds;
wines, .28 of a gallon; distilled spirits, 1.10 gallons; and malt
liquors 15.64 gallons. The largest per capita increase since 1870 has
been in malt liquors, and the next in coffee. In tea and distilled
spirits there has been a decrease, while the consumption of wines is the
smallest of all and has varied but little.
CHAPTER XX.
MEDICINE, SURGERY, SANITATION.
DISCOVERY OF CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD BY HARVEY--VACCINATION BY
JENNER--USE OF ANÆSTHETICS THE GREAT STEP OF MEDICAL PROGRESS OF THE
CENTURY--MATERIA MEDICA--INSTRUMENTS--SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE--DENTISTRY
--ARTIFICIAL LIMBS--DIGESTION--BACTERIOLOGY, AND DISEASE GERMS--
ANTISEPTIC SURGERY--HOUSE SANITATION.
In the early gropings through the uncertain light of first progress, man
was accustomed to ascribe the ills of his flesh to the anger of the
gods, and in his craven and abject superstition made peace offerings.
Later he learned to locate the cause within himself, and constructed the
theory that the fluids of the body had become disordered. The
characteristic feature of progress in the Nineteenth Century, in this
field, has been in the accurate tracing of the relation of cause and
effect, and with the discovery of true causes has grown efficient means
of treatment. The old expedients of charms, incantations, conjuration
and exorcism gave place first to intelligent medication, and this in
turn is rapidly giving way to the prevention of disease by improved
conditions of sanitation and right living. The ounce of prevention has
been found to be worth more than the pound of cure. With the improved
knowledge of physiology, anatomy, chemistry and biology, which the
century has brought, the intelligent physician was able to make a
logical and for the most part a correct diagnosis, but supplemented with
the microscope, that great revealer of the unseen world of small things,
corporeal existence itself becomes an open book, and from the principles
of organic evolution to the germ theory of disease the mystery of life
and death is being slowly revealed.
When the Eighteenth Century gave birth to the Nineteenth, its great
natal gift in medicine was vaccination. Jenner in 1798 for the first
time announced his discovery of this great boon to the human race. In
1799 Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, in Boston, obtained virus from Jenner and
vaccinated four of his children, and in 1801 Dr. Valentine Seaman
obtained virus from Dr. Waterhouse and performed the first vaccination
in New York. During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries the annual
death rate from smallpox in London ranged from 2 to 4 per 1,000 of
population. In 1892 it was only 0.073 per 1,000.
It is also stated on good authority that the mortality from smallpox in
England alone, was 20,000 a year less after the introduction of
vaccination than it was in the preceding century, and that its benefits
to the world at large have been so great that the lancet of Jenner has
saved more lives than were sacrificed by the sword of Napoleon.
Each century in modern history has been marked by some important
discovery in the field of medicine. The Seventeenth Century was notable
for the discovery of the circulation of the blood by Harvey; the
Eighteenth Century brought with it vaccination by Jenner. The Nineteenth
Century’s greatest gift in this field has been anæsthesia, or
insensibility to pain. Nature has wisely endowed man with nerves of
sensation as danger signals for the conservation of life. Accident and
disease, however, are the inseparable concomitants of human existence,
and suffering and pain the ineffaceable legacies of mortality. Sometimes
these nerves of sensation are no longer useful as monitors, and in the
unavoidable emergency of accident, surgical operations, child birth, and
certain diseases, suffering can do no good, and then pain--that Prince
of Terrors--thrusting his presence upon the hapless victim, racks body
and limb, calling forth groans, and shrieks and writhings, till the poor
sufferer, possessed with a dominating agony which displaces all thought
of life, memory of friends, and love of God, breaks down in unutterable
distress, and prays for death and oblivion. To this poor sufferer
insensibility is next to heaven. For the past half century all the
formidable operations of the surgeon have been performed with the aid of
anæsthetics and without suffering to the patient, producing happy
recoveries, and greatly contributing to the success of the result by
relieving the surgeon of the distraction of the patient’s pain, and the
interference of his involuntary movements. Quite a number of anæsthetics
are known and used to-day. Those more generally employed are--naming
them in the order of their first application--nitrous oxide gas, ether,
and chloroform. Nitrous oxide gas is chiefly used for the extraction of
teeth. Sir Humphrey Davy, in 1800, was the first to observe the peculiar
quality of nitrous oxide gas, which gave it the name of “laughing gas,”
from the fact that it caused those inhaling it to act in a manner
exhibiting an abnormal exhilaration. Dr. Horace Wells, a dentist of
Hartford, Conn., in 1844, had the gas administered, experimentally, to
himself during the operation of extracting a tooth, and was the
discoverer of its useful application as an anæsthetic.
The greatest discovery, however, in anæsthetics is the application of
ether for this purpose. Ether as a chemical product has been known for
several centuries, and as early as 1818 Faraday pointed out the
similarity between the effects of ether and nitrous oxide gas. Dr.
Morton, a dentist, of Boston, first applied it as an anæsthetic Oct. 16,
1846, being guided largely in its selection and use by Dr. Jackson, an
eminent chemist of the same city. On Nov. 12, 1846, U. S. Pat. No. 4,848
was issued to them for this invention. In the latter part of December of
the same year Dr. Liston, an eminent English surgeon, performed the
operation of amputating the thigh while the patient was under the
influence of ether.
Chloroform, discovered by Guthrie in 1831, was first applied as an
anæsthetic by Sir James Y. Simpson, of Edinburgh, in 1847. Of the two
leading anæsthetics, ether is more generally used in the United Sates
and chloroform in Europe. Ether is less dangerous, but its
administration is more difficult and disagreeable. It is said on the
highest authority that in the Crimean War chloroform was administered
25,000 times without a single death, and ether is even safer than
chloroform. In the hands of a skillful physician practically no danger
is to be apprehended from the use of either of the two agents. A little
over fifty years ago any severe or prolonged surgical operation involved
such irresistible pain that the patient’s writhings were required to be
restrained by powerful muscular assistants, and by straps which bound
the patient to the table, and when it is remembered that a false cut of
a hundredth part of an inch might be fatal, the haste, the disquieting
influence upon the surgeon, and the interference with the accuracy of
his hand, added greatly to the percentage of unsuccessful operations, as
well as to the prolonged agony of the patient. Contrast this with the
present methods of using anæsthetics, and we find the patient dropping
into a quiet and peaceful sleep before the operation, and awakening
thereafter to find, to his astonishment, that it is all over, and that
recovery is only a question of careful nursing.
_Materia Medica._--Many important contributions have been made to the
pharmacopœia in the century. In 1807 the remedy known as ergot was
brought to the notice of the profession by Dr. Stearns, and named by him
pulvis parturiens. Iodine was first used as a medicine in 1819 by Dr.
Coindet, Sr., of Geneva. Quinine was discovered by Pelletier and
Caventou in 1820, although Peruvian bark had long been used for the same
purpose. Chloral hydrate, discovered by Liebig in 1832, was applied in
medicine in 1869 by Dr. Liebreich, of Berlin. Carbolic acid was
discovered in 1834 by Runge. Artificial seidlitz powders were first put
up under Savory’s British Pat. No. 3,954, of 1815. Veratrum viride,
lobelia, worm seed, and chloroform were all introduced in the first part
of the century. The sulphates of morphia, strychnia, atropia and other
alkaloids are of comparatively recent addition to the pharmacopœia, and
the iodide of potash, tincture of iron, digitalis, bichloride of
mercury, sub-nitrate of bismuth, boracic acid and gallic acid, chlorate
of potash and Dover’s powders have become standard remedies within a
hundred years. In the latter part of the century the new remedies
derived from coal tar have occupied an important place. Of these may be
mentioned antipyrine, by Knorr (pat. Oct. 28, 1884), phenacetin, by
Hinsberg (pat. March 26, 1889), salol, by Von Nencki (pat. Sept. 28,
1886), sulfonal, by Bauman (patented Jan. 22, 1889), antikamnia
(acetanilide), and many others, besides new and valuable antiseptic
compounds, such as salicylic acid and formalin. A characteristic feature
of the modern practice of medicine is in improved forms of its
administration. Sugar-coated pills, gelatine capsules and cod liver oil
emulsions make the remedy much less disagreeable to take, and very
ingenious and effective machines have been devised for putting up
remedies in such forms.
[Illustration: FIG. 174.--THE OPHTHALMOMETER.]
_Instruments._--Laennec’s discovery in 1819 of auscultation, and the
stethoscope, for determining internal conditions by sound, was a great
step in diagnosing diseases. The binaural stethoscope was invented by
Cammann in 1854, and a later improvement is the phonendoscope, by
Bianchi. The opthalmoscope is an instrument for inspecting the interior
of the eye, which was invented by Prof. Helmholtz, and described by him
in 1851. The laryngoscope, for obtaining a view of the larynx, was said
to have been constructed by Mr. John Avery, of London, as early as 1846.
The opthalmometer, Fig. 174, is a comparatively recent invention. It is
designed to ascertain variations in corneal curvature for the correction
of corneal astigmatism. Electric lights with reflectors are arranged on
each side of the patient’s head, while the operator looks into the eye
with a telescope. The sphygmograph, a little instrument to be strapped
on to the wrist to record the action of the pulse, was first reduced to
a practically useful form by Marey in 1860. A later development of these
devices, by Verdin, known as the sphygmometrograph, is shown in Fig.
175. The endoscope, for looking into the urethra, and the cystoscope,
for looking into the bladder, are other useful instruments of the modern
practitioner. Greater than them all, however, is the modern X-ray
apparatus, for locating foreign substances in the body and making
visible the bones through the flesh, for which see special chapter. The
use of the thermometer in recording the progress of fevers is also a
valuable modern application, and the list of instruments and small tools
is beyond enumeration. There are series of obstetrical appliances,
instruments relating to bone surgery, to the taking up of arteries,
cupping instruments, trepanning instruments, speculums, hypodermic
syringes, electric cauteries, fracture appliances, instruments for
lithotrity, bandages for varicose veins, atomizers, breast pumps,
inhalers, nasal douches, trusses, pessaries, catheters, abdominal
supporters, and an endless variety of proprietary articles, such as
electric baths and belts, plasters, chest protectors, liver pads, and so
forth, all of which are practically the products of the Nineteenth
Century. The surgeon of to-day can straighten the eyes of a cross-eyed
man, or take the bow out of his bandy legs, can make him a new nose of
his own flesh, patch his skull with a silver plate, remove the stone
from his bladder, supply him with a wind-pipe, wash out his stomach, and
perform many other operations even more difficult. Among such more
important operations may be mentioned ovariotomy, which was first
performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell, of Danville, Kentucky, in 1809, and
the tying of the great arteries. The operation of lithotrity, for
removing stone from the bladder by crushing the stone, was introduced by
Civiale, 1817-1824, who devised successful instruments and modes of
using them. In 1836 to 1840 Richard Bright, an English physician, made
important researches and discoveries in relation to the functions and
diseases of the kidneys, and established the nature of the so-called
“Bright’s disease.”
[Illustration: FIG. 175.--VERDIN’S SPHYGMOMETROGRAPH, FOR RECORDING THE
ACTION OF THE PULSE.]
_Schools of Medicine._--While the regular school of medicine (called by
some “Allopathy”) has held the leading place in medicine, various other
schools have sprung up in the Nineteenth Century, all of which represent
advances in a knowledge of the laws of health, and the modes of
preventing and curing diseases. Hahnemann, in his “_Organon der
Rationellen Heilkunde_,” in 1810, gave homœopathy its name, and reduced
it to a system. The doctrine of _similia similibus curantur_ (like cures
like), has gained great popularity in the latter part of the century.
Hydropathy, as a school, also made its appearance in the early part of
the Nineteenth Century. Priessnitz was its first disciple, and the
_Grafenberg cure_, established in 1826, was a noted institution for many
years. The useful application of water in the form of baths and cold
packs, has been known for centuries, and will always be used as a
valuable agency in sickness and in health. The “Thompsonian” system of
treating diseases was covered by patents in 1813, 1823 and 1836, and
attained considerable notoriety in the early half of the century.
Sweating by hot bricks and hot tea made of “Composition Powders,”
vomiting with lobelia to produce relaxation, and a fiery liquid for
cramps, called “No. 6,” were the chief remedies, and very few boys who
had once taken the treatment were ever willing afterwards to admit that
they were sick. In the latter part of the Nineteenth Century
_electro-therapeutics_ has received a large share of attention, many
forms of medical batteries have been devised, and probably no more
promising field of study and research exists in the whole domain of
medicine.
_Dentistry._--George Washington had false teeth, and it is said that the
teeth of some of the mummies of Egypt had gold fillings, but it
remained for the Nineteenth Century to establish dentistry as an art,
and its influence in securing better mastication and digestion of food,
more sanitary mouths and shapely faces, cannot be estimated. Few people
can be found to-day who have not either filled teeth, bridge work, gold
caps, or artificial sets of teeth. The most important advance in the art
was in the invention of the rubber plate for holding the porcelain
teeth. This was the invention of J. A. Cummings, and was covered by him
in his patent No. 43,009, June 7, 1864. In more recent years
“bridge-work” represents the most important advance. In this practice
one or more artificial teeth are firmly held in the place of missing
teeth by a strong bridge-piece of metal, which at its ends is anchored
to the adjacent natural teeth. This was first done by Bing (British Pat.
No. 167, of 1871), and was afterwards patented in somewhat different
form in the United States by J. E. Lowe, No. 238,940, March 15, 1881,
No. 313,434, March 3, 1885, and Richmond, May 22, 1883, No. 277,933.
Porcelain and gold crowns and dental pluggers run by electricity
represent other important advances in this art. It is said that there
are 20,425 dentists in the United States, and that in 1899 they employed
in their practice 20,499,000 false teeth.
_Artificial Limbs._--With the successful work of the surgeon came the
effort to repair, as far as possible, the loss of the limb. Until about
the middle of the Nineteenth Century the survivor of an operation was an
unsymmetrical, unique, and pitiful object. The peg-leg of Peter
Stuyvesant lives in history, and the arm-hook of Capt. Cuttle is
familiar to every reader. The first United States patent for an
artificial leg was granted to B. F. Palmer, Nov. 4, 1846, No. 4,834.
Wooden legs with a restricted back and forward ankle motion and a
spring, were constructed by A. A. Marks from 1853 to 1863. On Dec. 1,
1863, a patent, No. 40,763, was granted to Mr. Marks for the use of
sponge rubber for constructing artificial feet and hands that dispensed
with the articulated joints, and made a great improvement. In patent No.
366,494, July 12, 1887, to G. E. Marks, the foot and leg portion of a
wooden leg are made from wood which grows with a crook, as at the root
of a tree, where the strength and lightness of a continuous natural
grain is obtained at the instep. About 300 patents have been granted for
artificial legs and arms. Modern improvements have extended to every
detail of construction, and so perfect to-day is the average wooden leg
that it is hardly to be detected. Men with wooden legs ride horseback,
are expert users of the bicycle, and have even performed feats on the
tight rope. The inventor’s genius has not stopped at repairing limbs,
however, for artificial eyes, artificial ear drums, the audiphone, foot
extensions for short legs, crutches, braces, abdominal supporters, and
various other applications to supplement the defects of the body have
been devised.
_Digestion._--The physiology of digestion had, perhaps, the first real
light shed upon it by Beaumont’s observations from 1825 to 1832. A
Canadian boatman, Alexis San Martin, was wounded in the abdomen from a
charge of buckshot, and the wound healed, leaving a permanent opening in
the stomach, through which the operation of digestion could be observed.
This furnished visible evidence of the relative digestibility of
different kinds of foods, and the general functions of the stomach. The
peculiar and different conditions governing the digestion of the starch
foods, the albumenoids (such as meat and fish), and the sugars and fats,
have been clearly ascertained, and “what is one man’s food is another
man’s poison” is now susceptible of intelligent diagnosis and effective
adjustment. Of late years the stomach has been greatly aided in its
functions by prepared or predigested foods. The action of diastase, in
converting starch into grape sugar, has been taken advantage of, and
cereals treated with diatase, malted milk, lactated and peptonized
foods, have proven a boon to the enfeebled digestion, while the
intelligent study of dietetics has done much to relieve the physician
and promote the health of the individual by right living.
_Bacteriology._--Although Leeuwenhoeck discovered the bacterium in
1668-1675, up to 100 years ago disease and death were largely regarded
as dispensations of Providence, and with fatuous resignation were
accepted as inevitable. The microscope and the study of bacteriology,
however, have revealed to us the presence of minute living organisms or
germs, which are everywhere around us, infesting the air, the earth, the
water, our food, our bodies, and all organic matter in countless
millions. These infinitely small beings multiply with a rapidity and
fecundity that bewilders the imagination. Their method of multiplication
is by fissiparism--that is to say, each splits into two independent
beings that separate and afterwards lead independent lives. It is said
that there is one species in which not more than six or seven minutes
are required for the division to take place. A single individual might
consequently produce more than a thousand offspring in an hour, more
than a million in two hours, and in three hours more than the number of
inhabitants on the globe. They are known as micro-organisms, of which
the bacteria are the most important. The bacteria are further divided
into species, and names are given them to distinguish the different
forms. The little rod-shaped ones are called _bacilli_: the spheroidal
ones _micrococci_ or _cocci_. If they cling together in chains they are
called _streptococci_; if of a spiral or corkscrew form they are called
_spirallae_. The curved bacilli are called “_comma_” _bacilli_, from
their resemblance to the punctuation mark of that name. The presence of
peculiar forms of these bacteria in diseases has so suggested the
relation of cause and effect as to have given rise to the so-called
“germ theory” of disease. Now we know with reasonable certainty that
cholera, diphtheria, typhoid fever, whooping cough, mumps,
cerebro-spinal meningitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, hydrophobia, and
many other diseases have each its specific cause in the form of a
microbe.
[Illustration: FIG. 176.
BACILLUS OF TUBERCULOSIS IN SPUTUM. BACILLUS OF DIPHTHERIA
(KLEBS-LOEFFLER).
BACILLUS OF TYPHOID FEVER.
(Photo-Micrographs, 1,000 diam., by William M. Gray, M. D.)]
[Illustration: TERTIAN FORM. AESTIVO-AUTUMNAL FORM.
FIG. 177.--BLOOD OF MAN. SHOWING PARASITE OF MALARIA (LAVERAN).
(Photo-Micrographs, 1,000 diam., by William M. Gray, M. D.)]
Henle, a German physiologist, as early as 1840, maintained the doctrine
of _contagium vivum_, or contagion by the transmission of living germs.
Certain classes of diseases have also long been known as zymotic, or
ferment diseases. Louis Pasteur’s work, however, marks the first
definite and important results in the study of bacteriology, and he is
the father of the “germ theory” of disease. He exploded the previously
held theories of scientists concerning the spontaneous generation of
living things, and clearly established and promulgated the knowledge of
disease germs. Commencing his great work about 1865 with the
investigation of the silk worm plague in France, he discovered it to be
due to parasites, and checked it. He also gave great attention to the
subject of fermentation, proving it to be caused by micro-organisms.
Taking up the diseases of men and animals, he gave practical value to
the truths of his theory in the treatment of hydrophobia, diphtheria,
and other diseases, using the principle of vaccination to destroy or
render innocuous the toxins or disease-producing poisons derived from
living germs. Working along the same lines must be mentioned Dr. Koch,
whose success in detecting the microbes which cause consumption and
cholera has made him famous the world over. Of the great variety of
these little microbes which have been separately identified, many are
innocuous, and, in fact, subserve many important and useful purposes in
nature, while others are to be as much dreaded as the deadly cobra or
the rattlesnake. A few typical examples of the latter are given in Figs.
176 and 177, multiplied 1,000 diameters. The illustrations represented
in Fig. 177 show the parasites that cause malaria, or fever and ague.
The dark bean-shaped cells are the normal blood corpuscles, and the few
speckled cells are those infested with the malarial parasites. It is now
believed that the mosquito is the active factor in the dissemination of
malaria, and it is, therefore, to be remembered that this pestiferous
little insect not only inflicts a painful and disagreeable sensation
with his puncture, but innoculates the system with poisonous malarial
germs at the same time.
[Illustration: FIG. 178.
TUBE CONTAINING CULTURE OF BACILLI OF TUBERCULOSIS.
TUBE CONTAINING CULTURE OF COMMA BACILLI OF CHOLERA.]
For the study of bacteria they are propagated artificially in a test
tube--_i. e._, a substance called a “culture” is prepared from some
organic material which, like the substances of the human body, is
favorable to their propagation. Such culture media are found in beef
blood, gelatine, beef extracts, meat broth, milk, etc. An ordinary
test-tube is supplied with some of the culture medium, and is then
sterilized over the fire to destroy all interfering germs. Material
infected with the microbe is then placed in the test-tube by a
sterilized platinum wire and the tube closed by raw cotton. It is then
placed in an incubator oven and is subjected to a gentle heat. In a
little while the microbes begin to develop and increase, forming
colonies, in which they swarm by the million, and present the clotted
appearance seen in Fig. 178. The separation of different bacteria
existing in the same material, so as to isolate each species and get
what is called a “pure culture,” has been greatly promoted by Prof.
Koch’s method of _plate culture_. In this the propagation of bacteria is
effected upon a sterilized glass plate under a bell jar in such a thin
layer as to facilitate the segregation of species, enabling them to be
counted under the microscope and picked out and sown in another culture
to get an unmixed crop of a definite species. Such a culture so
multiplies the same microbe, to the exclusion of others, as to permit it
to be easily identified and studied.
According to the practice in modern municipal health regulations, the
test as to when a child recovering from diphtheria is incapable of
disseminating the disease is by test culture. A swab of cotton is rubbed
against the interior walls of the child’s throat to secure the germs (if
present), and the swab is then placed in a “culture” in a test-tube and
the tube put in an incubator. If, after the period of incubation, no
colonies of the germs develop, it is accepted as evidence that the
diphtheria germs are no longer present in the throat, and the child is
released from quarantine.
It is the presence of these specific microbes in the fluids or solids of
the system which constitutes the disease, and for the cure of the same
the intelligent physician of to-day looks less to medication, and more
for some agent that will destroy the germ, neutralize its effect, or
render the body tolerant thereto. Out of the knowledge of disease germs
has grown the great era of antiseptic surgery, inaugurated by Sir Joseph
Lister, about 1865. Carbolic acid, the bichloride of mercury, and
formalin are the most efficient weapons against the dreaded microbe.
To-day every surgeon in the civilized world sterilizes his knife, and
conducts the treatment of wounds and all operations by antiseptic
methods, in accordance with a knowledge of the deadly influence of the
ubiquitous microbe, and the result has been to so reduce the risk to
life that even capital operations are no longer coupled with the
apprehensions of death. Every hospital, board of health, and organized
medical and sanitary body predicates its laws and modes of treatment
upon the principles of bacteriology.
_House Sanitation._--The permanent home of the microbe is the sewer, and
sanitary plumbing, designed to exclude from the house the germ-laden and
disease-breeding gases from the sewer, constitutes one of the great
advances of the century. About 3,500 patents have been granted for water
closets and bath appliances, and about 900 patents on sewerage alone,
the most of which are directed to improved conditions of sanitation.
[Illustration: FIG. 179A.--STREET CONNECTIONS, MODERN SANITARY HOUSE
PLUMBING.]
[Illustration: FIG. 179.--MODERN SANITARY HOUSE PLUMBING.]
An illustration of the plumbing and sewer connections of a modern house
is given in Figs. 179 and 179A. The sewer pipes are shown in solid
black, the unshaded pipes (in outline only) are air ventilation pipes,
the single black lines are cold water pipes, and the dotted lines hot
water pipes. The important sanitary feature in modern plumbing is to
keep all sewer gas and disease germs out of the house. For this purpose
traps have long been used under the wash basins, closet hoppers, and
sinks; but the back pressure of sewer gas would sometimes bubble through
the trap into the house, and besides the water in passing out from a
basin would sometimes, by a siphon effect, pass entirely out of the
trap, leaving it unsealed. Both these results are prevented by the air
ventilation pipes which connect with the discharge side of every trap in
the house and lead to a stack extending out through the roof. This
prevents pressure of sewer gas on the water seal of the trap, destroys
the siphon action of the trap and allows a circulation of air to be
taken in from the sidewalk on the house side of the running trap and
through the sewer pipe of the house, and thence through the air vent
pipes to the roof.
The great science of bacteriology, dealing with these smallest of living
things, only came into existence with the microscope, and it was a field
which was not only wholly unknown and unexplored a few years ago, but
there was no suggestion visible to the eye to direct attention to it,
until the lens began to reveal the secrets of microcosm. What
development the future may bring no one can predict, but to the
biologist and the physician no more promising field exists. Certain it
is that the knowledge already gained is of incalculable benefit, and
constitutes one of the greatest eras of progress the world has known,
for with the noble army of patient, devoted, and self-sacrificing
physicians, the discoveries of the scientist, our boards of health, our
hospitals and asylums for the insane, our quarantine laws, our modern
plumbing and improved sanitation in the home and public departments,
there is no reason why the life of man should not be extended far beyond
the three-score and ten years, and the 50 per cent. of population dying
in childhood saved for useful lives and citizenship.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE BICYCLE AND AUTOMOBILE.
THE DRAISINE, 1816--MICHAUX’S BICYCLE, 1855--UNITED STATES PATENT TO
LALLEMENT AND CARROL, 1866--TRANSITION FROM “VERTICAL FORK” AND
“STAR” TO MODERN “SAFETY”--PNEUMATIC TIRE--AUTOMOBILE, THE PROTOTYPE
OF THE LOCOMOTIVE--TREVITHICK’S STEAM ROAD CARRIAGE, 1801--THE
LOCOMOBILE OF TO-DAY--GAS ENGINE AUTOMOBILES OF PINKUS, 1839;
SELDEN, 1879; DURYEA, WINTON AND OTHERS--ELECTRIC AUTOMOBILES A
DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES AS EARLY AS 1836--GROUNELLE’S
ELECTRIC AUTOMOBILE OF 1852--THE COLUMBIA, AND OTHER ELECTRIC
CARRIAGES--STATISTICS.
However superior to other animals man may be in point of intellect, it
must be admitted that he is vastly inferior in his natural equipment for
locomotion. Quadrupeds have twice as many legs, run faster, and stand
more firmly. Birds have their two legs supplemented with wings that give
a wonderfully increased speed in flight, and fish, with no legs at all,
run races with the fastest steamers; but man has awkwardly toddled on
two stilted supports since prehistoric time, and for the first year of
his life is unable to walk at all. That he has felt his inferiority is
clear, for his imagination has given wings to the angels, and has
depicted Mercury, the messenger of the gods, with a similar equipment on
his heels. We see the ambition for speed exemplified even in the baby,
who crows in exhilaration at rapid movement, and in the boy when the
ride on the flying horses, the glide on the ice, or the swift descent on
the toboggan slide, brings a flash to his eye and a glow to his cheeks.
A characteristic trend of the present age is toward increased speed in
everything, and the most conspicuous example of accelerated speed in
late years is the bicycle. It has, with its fascination of silent motion
and the exhilaration of flight, driven the younger generation wild with
enthusiasm, has limbered up the muscles of old age, has revolutionized
the attire of men and women, and well-nigh supplanted the old-fashioned
use of legs. It is the most unique and ubiquitous piece of organized
machinery ever made. The thoroughfares and highways of civilization
fairly swarm with thousands of glistening and silently gliding wheels.
It is to be found everywhere, even to the steppes of Asia, the plains
of Australia, and the ice fields of the Arctic.
The true definition of the bicycle is a two-wheeled vehicle, with one
wheel in front and the other in the rear, and both in the same vertical
plane. Its life principle is the physical law that a rotating body tends
to preserve its plane of rotation, and so it stands up, when it moves,
on the same principle that a top does when it spins or a child’s hoop
remains erect when it rolls.
[Illustration: FIG. 180.--THE DRAISINE, 1816.]
A form of carriage adapted to be propelled by the muscular effort of the
rider was constructed and exhibited in Paris by Blanchard and Magurier,
and was described in the _Journal de Paris_ as early as July 27, 1779,
but the true bicycle was the product of the Nineteenth Century. It was
invented by Baron von Drais, of Manheim-on-the Rhine. See Fig. 180. It
consisted of two wheels, one before the other, in the same plane, and
connected together by a bar bearing a saddle, the front wheel being
arranged to turn about a vertical axis and provided with a handle for
guiding. The rider supported his elbows on an arm rest and propelled the
device by striking his toes upon the ground, and in this way thrusted
himself along, while guiding his course by the handle bar and swivelling
front wheel. This machine was called the “Draisine.” It was patented in
France for the Baron by Louis Joseph Dineur, and was exhibited in Paris
in 1816. In 1818 Denis Johnson secured an English patent for an improved
form of this device, but the principle of propulsion remained the same.
This device, variously known as the “Draisine,” “vélocipède,”
“célérifère,” “pedestrian curricle,” “dandy horse,” and “hobby-horse,”
was introduced in New York in 1819, and was greeted for a time with
great enthusiasm in that and other cities.
[Illustration: FIG. 181.--VELOCIPEDE OF 1868.]
On June 26, 1819, William K. Clarkson was granted a United States patent
for a vélocipède, but the records were destroyed in the fire of 1836. In
1821 Louis Gompertz devised an improved form of “hobby-horse,” in which
a vibrating handle, with segmental rack engaging with a pinion on the
front wheel axle, enabled the hands to be employed as well as the feet
in propelling the machine. Such devices all relied, however, upon the
striking of the ground with the toes. Their fame was evanescent,
however, and for forty years thereafter little or no attention was paid
to this means of locomotion, except in the construction of children’s
carriages and velocipedes having three or more wheels.
In 1855 Ernst Michaux, a French locksmith, applied, for the first time,
the foot cranks and pedals to the axle of the drive wheel. A United
States patent, No. 59,915, taken Nov. 20, 1866, in the joint names of
Lallement and Carrol, represented, however, the revival of development
in this field. Lallement was a Frenchman, and built a machine having the
pedals on the axle of the drive wheel, and it was at one time believed
that it was he who deserved the credit for this feature, but it is
claimed for Michaux, and the monument erected by the French in 1894 to
Ernest and Pierre Michaux at Bar le Duc gives strength to the claim. The
bicycle, as represented at this stage of development, is shown in Fig.
181. In 1868-’69 machines of this type went extensively into use.
Bicycle schools and riding academies appeared all through the East, and
notwithstanding the excessive muscular effort required to propel the
heavy and clumsy wooden wheels, the old “bone-shaker” was received with
a furor of enthusiasm.
[Illustration: FIG. 182.--VERTICAL FORK OF 1879.]
In 1869 Magee, in Paris, made the entire bicycle of iron and steel,
solid rubber tires and brakes followed, and the front wheel began to
grow to larger size, until in 1879 the bicycle presented the form shown
in Fig. 182. This placed the weight of the rider more directly over the
drive wheel, and was known as the “vertical fork.” It gave good results
but for the accidents from “headers,” to which it was especially
liable. Means to overcome the danger were resorted to, and the “Star”
bicycle represented such a construction. In this the high wheel was
behind and the small one in front, and straps and ratchet wheels
connected the pedals to the axle. In 1877 Rousseau, of Marseilles,
removed the pedals from the wheel axle and applied the power to the axle
by a chain extending from a sprocket wheel on the pedal shaft to a
sprocket wheel on the wheel axle. By gradual steps, initiated in
Starley’s “Rover” in 1880, (see Fig. 183), the high front wheel was
reduced in size, until the proportions of the modern “Safety” (Fig. 184)
have been obtained. Strange to say, these proportions have, through
nearly a century of evolution, gone back to those employed in the old
“Draisine,” where the two wheels were of the same size. The modern
“Safety,” however, is quite a different machine. Its diamond frame of
light but strong tubular steel, its ball bearings, its suspension wheels
and pneumatic tires impart to the modern bicycle strength with
lightness, and beauty with efficiency, to a degree scarcely attained by
any other piece of organized machinery designed for such trying work.
[Illustration: FIG. 183.--“ROVER,” 1880.]
[Illustration: FIG. 184.--MODERN “SAFETY.”]
The most important of all modern improvements on the bicycle was perhaps
the pneumatic tire. This was not originally designed for the bicycle,
but was patented in England by R. W. Thompson in 1845 and in the United
States May 8, 1847, No. 5,104. Its application to the bicycle was made
in 1889 by Dunlop, United States patent No. 435,995, Sept. 9, 1890, and
453,550, June 2, 1891. It furnishes not only an elastic bearing which
cushions the jar, but also makes a broader tread that renders cycling on
the soft roads of the country at once practical and delightful. The
chainless wheel, which connects the axle of the pedal crank with the
axle of the rear wheel by a shaft with bevel gears, is the most recent
form exploited by the manufacturers, but it is doubtful whether it
presents any points of superiority over the chain type. All of the parts
of the bicycle have come in for a share of attention at the hands of
inventors, differential speed gears and brakes having received especial
attention. The Morrow hub brake, which applies friction to the rear
wheel hub by back pressure on the pedal, is a popular modern form. The
first back-pedal brake is shown in United States Pat. No. 418,142, to
Stover & Hance, Dec. 24, 1889.
Among the many modifications of the bicycle as used to-day may be
mentioned the drop frame, which has made cycling possible for ladies,
the tandem, for two riders, the sextet or octet, carrying six or eight
riders and resembling a centipede in movement and an express train in
speed: the ice velocipede, in which two runners are combined with a
spiked driving wheel, and the hydrocycle, or water velocipede, in which
the drive wheel, formed with paddles, is used to propel a buoyant hull
through the water.
In point of speed there seems to be no limit to the bicycle. In a test
made on the Long Island Railroad in the summer of 1899 between a wheel
and an express train, the bicyclist, riding on a plank road between the
rails and protected behind the train by a wind break, covered a mile in
57⅘ seconds, and while going at top speed of more than a mile a minute,
overtook the train, was caught by his friends on a rear platform and
pulled on board, bicycle and all. This is the first instance on record
of overtaking and boarding an express train going at the rate of
sixty-four miles an hour, and yet it is said that the rider (Murphy) was
not doing his best.
Nearly 5,000 patents have been granted on velocipedes and bicycles. Most
of them were for bicycles which, as improved to-day, are not only as
fleet as the birds, but almost as countless in numbers. It is estimated
that in 1889 the total product of bicycles in this country reached
200,000 machines annually. In 1892, after the general adoption of the
pneumatic tire, a great increase followed, which has grown from year to
year until in the year 1899 a conservative estimate for the output in
the United States is 1,000,000 wheels annually, worth from thirty to
fifty million dollars. Each bicycle tire takes about two pounds of pure
rubber, or four pounds to the wheel. The annual output in wheels
consequently consumes about 4,000,000 pounds, or 2,000 tons of rubber.
Ten years ago there were not more than twenty-five legitimate
manufacturers of bicycles in the United States. In 1897 there were over
200 concerns in the business. It is estimated that there are to-day
between 150 and 155 regular manufacturers, exclusive of the mere
assemblers of parts. The Pope Manufacturing Company, which occupies the
leading place, employed in 1888 about 500 hands. To-day their shops give
employment to 3,800 workmen, which furnishes a significant object lesson
as to the importance and growth of the industry.
_The Automobile._--Gliding silently along our city streets without the
customary accompaniment of the clatter of the horse’s hoofs, the
automobile suggests to the average observer a very recent invention.
This is, however, not the case. The automobile is older even than the
locomotive, and is, in fact, the early model from which the rail
locomotive was evolved. As early as 1680 Sir Isaac Newton proposed a
steam carriage in which the propelling power was the reactionary
discharge of a rearwardly directed jet of steam. Cugnot, in 1769, built
a steam carriage, which is still preserved in the museum of the
Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris. Hornblower also in the same
year devised a steam carriage. Watt’s patents of 1769 and 1784
contemplated the application of his steam engines to carriages running
on land. Symington in 1770, and Murdoch in 1784, built experimental
models. In 1787 Oliver Evans obtained a patent in Maryland for the
exclusive right to make steam road wagons. Nathan Read in 1790 also
patented and built a steam carriage.
Of these, Cugnot represents the pioneer in the heavier forms of
self-propelled vehicles, but the steam carriage which best deserves to
be regarded as the prototype of the modern passenger automobile is that
of Trevithick, in England, who may also be considered as the father of
the locomotive. On Christmas eve, 1801, this steam carriage made its
experimental trip along the high road carrying seven or eight
passengers. The next day the party, with Trevithick in charge of the
engine, visited Tehidy House, the home of Lord Dunstanville. They met
with an accident, however, and the carriage turned over. It was placed
under shelter, and while the party were at the hotel regaling themselves
with roast goose and popular drinks, the water in the engine boiled
away, the iron became red hot, and nothing combustible was left either
of the carriage or the building in which it was sheltered. On March 24,
1802, Trevithick and Vivian obtained a British patent, No. 2,599, on
this device, and another carriage was built, and in the spring of 1803
started a run from Camborne to Redruth, but it stuck in the mud. It was
popularly known as Capt. Trevithick’s “Puffing Devil.” It was
subsequently reconstructed in London and run upon the streets of that
city. Fig. 185 presents an illustration of the first steam automobile.
The cylinders and pistons were enclosed within the fire box in the rear.
Clutches (called striking boxes) on the axle of the front gear wheel
allowed either running wheel to move independently of the other in
turning. A pair of small front steering wheels was arranged to turn
about a vertical axis and was manipulated by a handle bar. A brake was
provided for in the specification, as were also variable gears for
changing speed, and an automatic blower for the fire. The carriage had
an elevated coach body mounted on springs, and the running wheels were
of large size, adapted to the higher speed and lighter uses of passenger
traffic.
[Illustration: FIG. 185.--TREVITHICK’S STEAM CARRIAGE, 1801.]
It is not possible to trace the succeeding steps in steam carriage
development by James and Anderson, by Gurney, in 1822, by Marcerone and
Squire in 1833, by Russel in 1846, and many others; it is sufficient to
know that bad roads and the success attending the steam locomotive on
rails diverted attention from the steam road carriage, and not until the
latter part of the Nineteenth Century was there any marked revival of
interest in this field. Then came first the ponderous road engine, known
as a traction engine, and used for heavy hauling; and this in the last
decade has been followed by the modern steam motor carriage, an example
of which is seen in Figs. 186 and 186A, which represent the “Locomobile”
and its actuating mechanism. The fuel used is gasoline, stored in a
three-gallon tank under the footboard. The boiler, which is arranged
under the seat, is a vertical cylinder wrapped with piano wire for
greater tensile strength, and contains 298 copper tubes. The engine,
which is seen in Fig. 186A, is arranged in upright position under the
seat, in front of the boiler, has two cylinders, 2½-inch diameter and
4-inch stroke, a Stephenson link-motion and an ordinary D-valve.
Sprocket wheels and a chain connect the engine shaft to the rear axle.
The engine runs from 300 to 400 revolutions per minute and develops
from four to five horse power. It has a muffle for the steam exhaust
and the whole weight is 550 pounds. It is one of the lightest and
cheapest of automobiles, runs easily at ten to twelve miles an hour, and
is an efficient hill-climber. Although naming the steam automobile first
because of its earlier genesis, it is not to be understood as
representing at present the most popular type of motor carriage,
although it bids fair to become so.
[Illustration: FIG. 186.--“LOCOMOBILE” STEAM CARRIAGE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 186A.--THE FOUR HORSE POWER ENGINES OF
“LOCOMOBILE.”]
In France and the continent of Europe the type employing an explosive
mixture of gasoline and air is most frequently found, and in England and
the United States the electric motor with the storage battery is chiefly
used.
In automobiles of the explosive gas type probably the earliest example
is found in the British patent to Pinkus, No. 8,207, of 1839. In France
Lenoir, in 1860, is credited with being the pioneer. Among modern
applications the patent to George B. Selden, No. 549,160, occupies a
prominent place. This was only granted Nov. 5, 1895, but the application
for the patent was filed in the Patent Office May 8, 1879 so that the
invention described has quite an early date, and some broad claims have
been allowed to the inventor. In the last decade many applications of
the explosive gas engine to road carriages and tricycles have been made,
especially in France. Representative motor carriages of this type are to
be found in the United States in the Duryea and the Winton. An
illustration of the latter is given in Fig. 187. The form shown
represents a phaeton weighing 1,400 pounds; the motor is of the single
hydrocarbon type, and is simple, powerful and compact. It is also free
from noise and vibration, and is under control at all times. The maximum
speed is eighteen miles an hour.
[Illustration: FIG. 187.--WINTON AUTOMOBILE. HYDROCARBON TYPE.]
Probably the most popular type of the automobile in the United States is
the “electric.” The application of the electric motor to the propulsion
of vehicles dates back to quite an early period. It is said that as far
back as 1835 Stratingh and Becker, of Groeningen, and in 1836 Botto, of
Turin, constructed crude electric carriages. Davenport, in 1835,
Davidson, in 1838, and Dr. Page, in 1851, built electric locomotives
which ran on rails. The prototype of the electric automobile, however,
is best represented in the French patent to M. Grounelle, No. 7,728,
Feb. 7, 1852 (2 Ser., Vol. 25, p. 220, pl. 46.) This shows a perfectly
equipped electric automobile. It did not have a practical electric
generator, however, for the storage battery was not then known. A large
sulphate of copper battery was employed, which could through the agency
of a train of gears give only a very slow speed. This road carriage,
however, only needed a storage battery to make it a well organized and
efficient electric automobile. It is believed by many that electricity
fulfills more of the necessary conditions of a successful motive power
for motor carriages than any other power. It is clean, compact,
noiseless, free from vibration, heat, dirt and gases, and is under
perfect control. Its chief objection is that it is only possible to
recharge it where electric power is available, and in this respect it is
inferior to the gasoline motor, whose supply may be conveniently
obtained at every city, village, and country store. The Columbia
two-seated Dos-a-Dos (Fig. 188), Woods’ Victoria Hansom Cab, and the
Riker Electric Delivery Wagon are representative types of the modern
electric automobile.
[Illustration: FIG. 188.--THE COLUMBIA “DOS-A-DOS.”]
All of the motor carriages illustrated are of American make, and for
lightness, grace, and efficiency they have no superiors. A peculiar and
recent type which attracted much attention and took the gold medal at
the Motor Carriage Exposition at Berlin, held in September, 1899, is the
Pieper double motor carriage. It has both a benzine motor and an
electric motor, which can be worked separately or together, and yet is
said to be lighter than most electric carriages. On a long journey,
remote from electrical supply, the benzine motor is used not only to
propel the carriage, but by running the electric motor as a dynamo or
generator, recharges the storage battery. On level, easy roads, where
the power required falls below the maximum power exerted by the benzine
motor, the electric motor changes automatically to a dynamo and the
surplus force of the benzine motor is converted into current and stored.
In running down hill or stopping the carriage, the momentum of the
vehicle is also received by the electric motor acting as a dynamo and
brake, and is stored as electricity in the battery, which is thus in an
ordinary journey kept constantly charged.
It is not probable that man will ever be able to get along without the
horse, but the release of the noble animal from the bondage of city
traffic, which was begun only a few years ago with mechanical street car
propulsion, promises now to be extensively advanced by the substitution
of the motor carriage and the auto-truck for team-drawn vehicles. The
rapidity with which this industry has grown, and its promise for the
future may be realized when it is remembered that so far as practical
results are concerned it has all grown up in the last decade of the
Nineteenth Century, and yet to-day it is said that there are already in
the United States about 200 incorporated concerns with an aggregate
capitalization of some $500,000,000, organized to build automobiles, to
say nothing of the vast number of individuals who are experimenting in
this field. The greatest activity, however, is to be found in France,
which claims over 600 manufacturers and has in use 6,000 automobiles out
of a total of 11,000 in all of Europe.
The most significant suggestion for the future of the automobile is that
the cost of maintenance and all things considered, it is in some
applications cheaper than the horse-drawn vehicles of the same
efficiency. In a consular report of Oct. 16, 1899, forwarded to the
State Department by Mr. Marshal Halsted, consul at Birmingham, Mr. E. H.
Bayley, an English authority, is quoted as saying that in operating
heavy motor vehicles for hauling, the cost is three half-pence (three
cents) per net ton per mile, as compared with 18 to 24 cents per net ton
per mile by horse-drawn vehicles. In England much attention is being
given to this subject.
As before stated, the modern automobile cannot be considered as a new
invention so far as fundamental principles are concerned. Its success,
in late years, is to be credited to the perfection of the arts in
general, and as essential factors contributing to this may be named the
refinement of steel, giving increased strength with lightness, the
increased efficiency of motive power, the vulcanization of rubber, the
mathematical nicety of mechanical adjustment, the reduction of friction
by ball bearings, the wonderful developments in electricity and
improvement in roads.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE PHONOGRAPH.
INVENTION OF PHONOGRAPH BY EDISON--SCOTT’S PHONAUTOGRAPH--
IMPROVEMENTS OF BELL AND TAINTER--THE GRAPHOPHONE--LIBRARY OF WAX
CYLINDERS--THE GRAMOPHONE.
Following closely upon the discovery of the telephone the phonograph
came, literally speaking for itself, and adding another surprise to the
wonderful inventions of that prolific period. It was in the latter part
of 1877 that Thomas A. Edison showed to a few privileged friends a
modest looking little machine. He turned the crank, and to the
astonishment of those present it said. “Good morning! How do you do? How
do you like the phonograph?” Its voice was a little metallic, it is
true, but here was presented an insignificant looking piece of mechanism
which was undeniably a talking machine and one with an unlimited
vocabulary. So-called talking machines had been made before, of which
the Faber machine was a type. These, by an arrangement of bellows to
furnish air, and flexible pipes in imitation of the larynx and vocal
organs, made laborious and wheezy efforts to imitate the mechanical
functions of the throat and tongue in articulate speech, but the method
was fundamentally faulty and no success was attained. Edison followed no
such leading. His phonograph made no attempt at imitating in
construction the complex organization of the human throat, but was as
wonderful in its divergence therefrom and in its simplicity as it was in
the success of its results. The machine was patented by him Feb. 19,
1878, No. 200,521, and its life principle is simply and clearly defined
in the first claim of the patent, as follows:
“The method herein specified of reproducing the human voice, or
other sounds, by causing the sound vibrations to be recorded
substantially as specified, and obtaining motion from that record as
set forth for the reproduction of sound vibrations.”
The invention was a striking and interesting novelty and at once
attracted the attention of scientific men as well as the general public.
Its first public exhibition was about the latter part of January, 1878,
before the Polytechnic Association of the American Institute, at New
York. It spoke English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Hebrew with
equal facility. It imitated the barking of a dog and crowing of a cock,
and then catching cold, coughed and sneezed and wheezed until it is said
a physician in the audience proposed sending a prescription for it. It
was also suggested by an irreverent man that it might take the place of
preachers in the rendition of sermons, while another thought that as it
reproduced music with equal facility it might take the place of preacher
and choir both. In the spring of 1878 it was exhibited at Washington by
Edison and his assistant, Mr. Batchelor. Mr. Edison was the guest of Mr.
U. H. Painter, and in his parlors it was shown to a party of gentlemen.
From Mr. Painter’s house the machine was taken to the office of the
Assistant Secretary of the Interior, thence to the Academy of Sciences,
in session at the Smithsonian Institution, and at night it was taken to
the White House and exhibited to President and Mrs. Hayes.
[Illustration: FIG. 189.--FIRST PHONOGRAPH.]
The form of the first phonograph is shown in Fig. 189. It consisted of
three principal parts--the mouthpiece A, into which speech was uttered,
the spirally grooved cylinder B, carrying on its periphery a sheet of
tin foil, and a second mouthpiece D. The cylinder B and its axial shaft
were both provided with spiral grooves or screw threads of exactly the
same pitch, and when the shaft was turned by its crank its screw
threaded bearings caused the cylinder to slowly advance as it rotated.
The mouthpiece A had adjacent to the cylinder a flexible diaphragm
carrying a little point or stylus which bore against the tin foil on the
cylinder. When the mouthpiece A was spoken into and the cylinder B was
turned, the little stylus, vibrating from the voice impulses, traced by
indentations a little jagged path in the tin foil that formed the
record. To reproduce the record in speech again, the mouthpiece A was
adjusted away from the cylinder, the cylinder run back to the starting
point, and mouthpiece D was then brought up to the cylinder. This
mouthpiece had a diaphragm and stylus similar to the other one, only
more delicately constructed. This stylus was adjusted to bear lightly in
the little spiral path in the tin foil traced by the other stylus, and
as the tin foil revolved with the cylinder its jagged irregularities set
up the same vibrations in the diaphragm of mouthpiece D as those caused
by the voice on the other diaphragm, and thus translated the record into
sounds of articulate speech, exactly corresponding to the words first
spoken into the instrument. In Fig. 190 is shown a further development
of the phonograph, in which a single mouthpiece with diaphragm and
stylus serves the purpose both of recorder for making the record and a
speaker for reproducing it, a trumpet or horn being used, as indicated
in dotted lines, to concentrate the vibrations in recording and to
augment the sound in reproducing.
[Illustration: FIG. 190.--SECOND FORM OF PHONOGRAPH.]
The phonograph is in reality a development of the phonautograph, which
was an instrument invented by Leon Scott in 1857 to automatically record
sounds by diagrams. There is a model of Scott’s phonautograph in the
National Museum at Washington, D. C, and it consists of a chamber to
catch the sound waves and an elastic diaphragm with stylus working on a
revolving cylinder bearing a sheet of paper coated with lampblack. The
phonograph’s record-making mouthpiece, with its diaphragm and stylus, is
substantially a phonautograph, but instead of simply causing the stylus
to trace a record on carbon-coated paper and stopping with this result,
Edison traced a record in a substance--tinfoil--which was capable of
mechanically translating that record into sound again by a mere reversal
of the function of the stylus and diaphragm. This was the very essence
of simplicity and logical reasoning. All records had been heretofore
traced for visual inspection only. Edison’s record was not for visual
inspection, but was endowed with the mechanical function of reproducing
sound.
From the first Edison believed that his phonograph was to fill an
important place in the business activities of the world, since here
seemed a silent but faithful stenographer which reproduced the words of
the speaker with absolute fidelity, even to the quality of emphasis and
inflection, and which made no mistakes, was always even with the speaker
in its work, and asked no questions. For a number of years, however, the
invention lay dormant and served no other purpose than that of a
scientific curiosity or an amusing toy. The difficulty of its practical
application largely existed in the perishable form of the record, which,
being in tinfoil, was liable to be mutilated and distorted, and was not
well adapted for storage or transportation.
A few years after the announcement of Mr. Edison’s invention. Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell, the distinguished inventor of the telephone, with
his associates, Messrs. Chichester A. Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter,
directed their attention to the improvement of the phonograph. Dr. Bell
had received from the French government, upon the recommendation of the
French Academy of Sciences, the Volta prize of 50,000 francs as a
recognition of his successful work in acoustics and the invention of the
telephone, and with this sum he built the Volta Institute in Washington
and carried on the work of developing the phonograph.
On May 4, 1886, Chichester A. Bell and Sumner Tainter obtained patents
Nos. 341,214 and 341,288, which covered a great improvement in the
record of the phonograph. This invention substituted for the tinfoil
sheet a surface of wax, which was finally fashioned into a cylinder, and
instead of merely indenting the record on tinfoil the stylus cut a
distinct groove or kerf in the wax cylinder as it revolved, dislodging
therefrom a minute filament or shaving and forming a record which was
not only far more positive in its translating effect and more easily
transported and stored, but was also less perishable, and besides it
could be easily effaced without loss of the cylinder by simply smoothing
off the surface of the cylinder again when it was desired to make a new
record. This invention quickly grew into practical use, and is known as
the “Graphophone.”
[Illustration: FIG. 191.--THE GRAPHOPHONE, RECORDING AND REPRODUCING
DEVICES.]
In Fig. 191 is shown on the left a cross section of the diaphragm,
recording stylus, and wax cylinder, of the graphophone, the stylus
plowing a tiny groove in the wax cylinder in the act of recording the
speech, and on the right is shown the reproducing stylus traversing the
record groove in the wax cylinder, and the diaphragm chamber with which
the ear tubes are connected. The grooves in the wax, although giving
forth mechanical movement that is translated into sound, are very
minute, being only 6/10,000 of an inch deep.
When the possibilities of the graphophone became known, capital was
quickly supplied for its commercial exploitation, and the Columbia
Phonograph Company was organized. At the present time, owing to the
great increase in the business, the control of the graphophone business
is vested in two branches, the Columbia Phonograph Company, which has
charge of the selling, and which has offices throughout all the
principal cities of this country and some of the larger ones of Europe,
and the American Graphophone Company, which attends to the manufacturing
branch, and whose factory is located at Bridgeport, Conn., where, it is
said, that in 1898 the production of the factory reached the point of
one graphophone for every minute of the day, making a total daily output
of 600 machines. Although the Bell and Tainter patents of 1886 represent
the basic principles of the graphophone, its development and perfection
have been contributed to in many subsequent improvements by Messrs.
Bell, Tainter, McDonald, and others. The more important of these are
covered by patents No. 375,579, Dec. 27, 1887; No. 380,535, April 3,
1888; No. 527,755, Oct. 16, 1894, and No. 579,595, March 30, 1897.
At the beginning of this industry it was thought that the principal use
of the instrument would be found in business applications, to take the
place of the stenographer, but it proved difficult to revolutionize
office methods, especially as the earlier machines were somewhat
intricate, and the business man had no time to divide in engineering a
machine. These difficulties, however, have been so far overcome by
modern improvements and simplification of the machine that its use in
business houses as an amanuensis has become quite common. The greatest
use of the graphophone is, however, for amusement purposes. Its songs,
orchestral and solo renditions, and its humorous monologue reproductions
constitute to-day a great library of wax cylinders, regularly catalogued
and sold by the thousands. It will readily be understood that the
formation of the cylinders must constitute a great business of itself
when it is remembered that many record cylinders accompany each
graphophone, and that the latter are turned out at the rate of one a
minute by a single company. Many thousands of these cylinders are made
daily. Some are sent out simply as plain wax cylinders, onto which the
records are made by the voice of the purchaser, while others have
records made for them of popular music, monologues in dialect, humorous
speeches, etc. The waxy composition, which is in reality a species of
soap, is melted in huge pots, and then passes from one floor to
another, undergoing a refining process in its progress, and finally
reaches the molds. These molds are arranged in rows around a horizontal
wheel about eight feet in diameter. The wheel is kept revolving, and a
man on one side is kept constantly busy in filling the molds with the
molten material as they reach him. A half revolution of the wheel brings
the filled molds to the other side of the room, and by that time the
material has hardened sufficiently to enable another attendant,
stationed there, to remove the cylinders from the molds. Thus the wheel
is kept going, receiving at one side a charge of the melted wax and
discharging at the other molded cylinders, which are afterwards turned
true on the surface. The record-making department is both unique and
interesting. Here the records of music are produced, and they are made
by bands and performers engaged for the purpose, many of which,
operating at the same time, produce such a medley as to be scarcely
distinguishable to the visitor. The records are tested by about half a
hundred women, each of whom has a little compartment or booth framed in
by glass partitions. The duty of the tester is to decide upon the merits
of the record by actually listening to it on the graphophone.
A very important feature in record-making, from a commercial standpoint,
is in means for cheaply duplicating records. If every record cylinder
had to be made by the separate act of a performer such records would be
very expensive. An original record is first made by some celebrated
musician or speaker, and this record is afterwards multiplied and
reproduced in large numbers. For this purpose an original record by
suitable mechanism is made to take the place of the speaker or singer,
and so multiplies and reproduces the original record. The duplicating of
records was contemplated by Edison from the first, as seen in his
British patent, 1,644 of 1878, and later appliances for accomplishing
such results are covered under Tainter’s patent, No. 341,287, Bettini’s,
No. 488,381, and McDonald’s, No. 559,806. The diaphragms used in the
recorders and reproducers are made of French rolled plate glass, thinner
than a sheet of ordinary writing paper. The recording stylus is shaped
like a little gouge to cut the little grooves in the wax, while the
corresponding stylus of the reproducer has a ball-shaped end to travel
in the groove. Both the recording stylus and reproducing ball are made
of sapphire, chosen on account of its hardness, to resist the great
frictional wear to which they are subjected. When a record is to be
effaced from a cylinder, it is turned off smooth on a sort of lathe, and
the cutting tool or knife for this purpose is also made of sapphire.
The latest, loudest, and most impressive form of the talking machine is
the “Graphophone Grand.” This has a horn attachment exceeding the big
horn of a brass band in size, and the wax cylinder is about four inches
in diameter. Its reproductions in music and speech are so full and
strong as to be clearly heard at the most remote part of a large hall,
and its versatile voice lends effective rendition to all sorts and kinds
of sounds, from the inspiring chords of “A Choir Invisible” to the
grandiloquent and facetious rattle of a noisy and hustling auctioneer.
[Illustration: FIG. 192.--MODERN PHONOGRAPH.]
It is not to be understood, however, that the graphophone is the only
speaking machine on the market, for about 250 patents have been granted
on phonographs and graphophones. The National Phonograph Company, under
many later patents granted to Mr. Edison, manufactures and sells the
phonograph shown in Fig. 192, which is a very ingenious and effective
instrument. This modern form of phonograph is actuated either by
electricity or spring power, is regulated by a speed governor, and
bifurcated ear tubes connect with the diaphragm case, which tubes are
placed in the ears when the instrument is operated.
[Illustration: FIG. 193.--THE GRAMOPHONE RECORDER.]
The gramophone is also another speaking machine. This is the invention
of Mr. E. Berliner and covered by him in patent No. 372,786, Nov. 8,
1887. An illustration of the gramophone recorder is given in Fig. 193.
Instead of a wax cylinder this machine employs a flat disc on which the
record is formed as a volute spiral groove, gradually drawing toward the
center. It is produced as follows: A zinc disc is covered by a thin film
of acid resisting material, such as wax or grease, and is placed in a
horizontal pan, mounted to revolve as a turn table about a vertical
axis. A stylus and diaphragm, with speaking tube attached, are arranged
above the disc, and when spoken into the vibrations of the diaphragm
cause, through the stylus, a record to be traced through the wax, down
to the zinc. As the waxed disc and pan are revolved, the stylus and
diaphragm are gradually moved by gears toward the center of the disc.
While the record is being traced the waxed disc is kept flooded with
alcohol from a glass jar, seen in the cut, to soften the film and
prevent the clogging of the stylus. The disc, when completed, is then
rinsed off and etched with acid, chromic acid being used, to prevent
liberation of hydrogen bubbles. The etched disc is then electrotyped to
form a matrix, and from this electrotype hard rubber duplicates of the
original record are molded, which are capable of giving 1,000
reproductions. These rubber discs are placed on the reproducing
instrument, which is arranged to cause the stylus to freely trail along
in the spiral groove, and when the disc is rotated under the said stylus
its record is converted into articulate speech. Such flat disc records
give quite loud reproductions, are not easily destroyed, and may be
compactly stored and transported. In the gramophone the diaphragm stands
at right angles to the record disc and the stylus does not vibrate
endwise to make a path of varying depth, as in the phonograph and
graphophone, but the stylus vibrates laterally and traces a little
zigzag line.
The cost of a talking machine is from $5 to $150. The wax cylinders cost
from 25 cents to $3.00, and the cylinders will hold a record of from 800
to 1,200 words, equivalent to about three or four pages of print in an
octavo volume. An important part of such machines is the motor, which
must maintain a uniform rate of speed, and much ingenuity has been
displayed on this part of the machine. Probably the largest use of the
phonograph or graphophone is for home amusement and exhibition purpose.
The coin operated, or “nickel-in-the-slot” machine, finds a popular
demand, while its utilitarian use as an amanuensis, or stenographer, is
as yet a subordinate one.
Although twenty-one years of age, and of full growth, the phonograph is
ever a wonderfully new and impressive device. When listening to it for
the first time the conflict of emotions which it excites is difficult to
analyze. A voice full of human quality, of clear and familiar
enunciation, and speaking in the most matter of fact way about the most
matter of fact things, proceeds from an insignificant and insensible bit
of metal, presenting the apparently anomalous condition of speech
without a speaker. When convinced that there is no trick, astonishment
struggles with admiration and a desire for a personal introduction. We
speak into it, and have the unique experience of listening to our own
voice emanating from a different part of the room, instead of our own
mouths. It is really difficult to believe one’s own senses, and no
wonder that it inspires the superstitious with a feeling of awe. If Mr.
Edison had lived a few centuries earlier, and had produced such an
instrument, his life might have paid the penalty of his ingenuity, for
without doubt he would have been classed as a wizard, and of close kin
to the evil one.
The phonograph is the truth-telling and incontrovertible witness whose
memory is never at fault, and whose nerves are never discomposed by any
cross-examination. As evidence in court its word cannot be doubted, and
the witness confronted by his own utterances from the phonograph must
yield to its infallible dictum. The dying father, unable to write, may
dictate to it his last will and testament, and leave a message for his
loved ones, and long after the sod is green on his grave, that message
would still be audible, and fresh and true to all the tender inflections
of the heart’s emotions. By its aid the Holy Father, at Rome, may give
his personal and audible blessing to his children throughout the world,
though separated by thousands of miles. Who can tell what stories of
interesting and instructive knowledge would be in our possession if the
phonograph had appeared in the ages of the past, and its records had
been preserved? The voices of our dead ancestors, whose portraits hang
on the wall, and the eloquent words of Demosthenes and Cicero would be
preserved to us. In fact, we should be brought into vocal contact with
the world’s heroes, martyrs, saints, and sages, and all the great actors
and teachers whose personalities have made history, and whose teachings
have given us our best ideals. But perhaps the most practical and best
characterization of the phonograph is given in Mr. Edison’s own terse
words. He says: “In one sense it knows more than we know ourselves, for
it retains the memory of many things which we forget, even though we
have said them. It teaches us to be careful of what we say, and I am
sure makes men more brief, more businesslike, and more
straightforward.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
OPTICS.
EARLY TELESCOPES--THE LICK TELESCOPE--THE GRANDE LUNETTE--THE
STEREO-BINOCULAR FIELD GLASS--THE MICROSCOPE--THE SPECTROSCOPE--
POLARIZATION OF LIGHT--KALEIDOSCOPE--STEREOSCOPE--RANGE FINDER--
KINETOSCOPE AND MOVING PICTURES.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the
light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”
Thus early in the account of the creation is evidenced man’s
appreciation of the value of vision. Of all the senses which place man
in intelligent relation to his environment none is so important as
sight. More than all the others does it establish our relation to the
material world. When the babe is born, and its little emancipated soul
is brought in contact with the world, its wondering gaze sees the
panorama of visible things touching its eyes, and it stretches forth its
tiny arms in the vain effort to pluck the stars, apparently within its
reach. Distance and time add their values to light and vision, and as
his life expands to greater fullness, the perspective of his existence
creeps into his consciousness, and he finds himself farther away, but
still peering beyond into the infinity of distance, searching for the
visible evidence of knowledge. From the earliest times man learned to
spurn the groveling things of earth, and to delight his soul with the
marvelous infinity of the sky and its heavenly bodies. _Nunc ad astra_
was his ambitious cry, and in no field has his quest for knowledge been
more skillfully directed, faithfully maintained, or richly rewarded than
in the study of astronomy. Many important discoveries in this field have
been made in the Nineteenth Century, among which may be named the
discovery of the planet Neptune by Adams, Leverrier and Galle in 1846;
the satellites of Neptune in 1846, and those of Saturn in 1848 by Mr.
Lassell; the two satellites of Mars by Prof. Asaph Hall in 1877; and the
discovery of the so-called canals of Mars by Schiaparelli in 1877. But
the purpose of this work is to deal with material inventions rather than
scientific discoveries, and the leading invention in optics is the
telescope.
Who invented the telescope is a question that cannot now be answered.
For many years Galileo was credited in popular estimation with having
made this invention in 1609. But it is now known that, while he built
telescopes, and discovered the mountains of the moon, the spots on the
sun’s disk, the crescent phases of Venus, the four satellites of
Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and made the first important astronomical
observations, the invention of the telescope, as an instrument, could
not be rightly claimed for him. Borelli credits it to Jansen &
Lippersheim, spectacle makers, of Middelburg, Holland, about 1590;
Descartes credits it to James Metius; Humboldt says Hans Lippershey (or
Laprey), a native of Wesel and a spectacle maker of Middelburg in 1608,
naming also Jacob Adriansz, sometimes called Metius and also Zacharias
Jansen.
The great impetus given to the study of astronomy by Galileo, in 1609,
was followed up by Huygens in 1655 with his improvement, by Gregory’s
reflecting telescope of 1663, and Newton’s in 1668. In 1733 Chester More
Hall invented the achromatic object glass of crown and flint glass. In
1758 John Dolland reinvented and introduced the same in the manufacture
of telescopes. In 1779 Herschel built his reflecting telescope, and in
March, 1781, he discovered the planet Uranus. In 1789 he built his great
reflector. It was while the latter telescope was exploring the heavens
that the Nineteenth Century began, and in the early part of this century
Herschel laid before the Royal Society a catalogue of many thousand
nebulæ and clusters of stars. Among the great telescopes of the
Nineteenth Century may be mentioned that made in London in 1802 for the
observatory of Madrid, which cost £11,000; the great reflecting
telescope of the Earl of Rosse, erected at Parsonstown, in Ireland, in
1842-45. This was 6 feet diameter, 54 feet focal length, and cost over
£20,000; the magnificent equatorial telescopes set up at the National
Observatories at Greenwich and Paris in 1860; Foucault’s reflecting
telescope at Paris, 1862, whose mirror was 31½ inches diameter, and
focal length 17¾ feet; Mr. R. S. Newall’s telescope, set up at Gateshead
by Cookes, of York, in 1870; object glass, 25 inches, tube, 30 feet; Mr.
A. Ainslie Common’s reflecting telescope, Ealing, Middlesex, 1879,
mirror, 37½ inches diameter, tube, 20 feet; the telescope at the United
States Observatory, at Washington, 1873, object glass, 26 inches, tube,
33 feet long; and the large refracting telescope by Howard Grubb, at
Dublin, for Vienna, 1881.
[Illustration: FIG. 194.--TELESCOPE AT LICK OBSERVATORY.]
In more recent times the great refracting telescope by Alvan Clark &
Sons, for the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton, California, in 1888,
attracted attention as superior to anything in existence up to that
time. This is shown in Fig. 194. The supporting column and base are of
iron, weighing twenty-five tons. This rests on a masonry foundation,
which forms the tomb of James Lick, its founder. The tube is 52 feet
long, 4 feet diameter in the middle, tapering to a little over 3 feet at
the ends. The object glass is 36 inches in diameter, and weighs, with
its cell, 530 lbs. The steel dome is 75 feet 4 inches in diameter, and
the weight of its moving parts is 100 tons. This instrument was
perfectly equipped with all gauges, scales, photographic and
spectroscope accessories, and fulfilled the condition imposed in the
trust deed of James Lick, of being “superior to and more powerful than
any telescope made.” It is a giant among instruments of precision, and
its ponderous aspect still asserts the dignity of its purpose, and
impresses even the frivolous visitor with a silent and thoughtful
respect.
It is not to be understood, however, that the great Lick telescope still
maintains its supremacy. The Yerkes telescope, which was exhibited at
the World’s Fair Exposition in 1893, at Chicago, had an object glass of
3.28 feet in diameter and a focal distance of 65 feet, and it moved
around a central axis in a vast cupola or dome 78 feet in diameter. The
Grand Equatorial of Gruenewald, at the recent Berlin Exposition, was
even still larger, since its object glass was 3 feet 7 inches, or nearly
2 inches larger than the Yerkes.
[Illustration: FIG. 195.--GREAT TELESCOPE, PARIS EXPOSITION. 1900.]
Even these great instruments have now been excelled in the Grande
Lunette, of the Paris Exposition, in 1900. When it is remembered that an
increase in the diameter of any circular body causes, for every
additional inch, a vastly disproportionate increase in the
cross-sectional area and weight, it will readily be seen how handicapped
the instrument maker is in any increase in the power of such a
telescope. An increased diameter of a few inches in the glass lens means
an enormous increase in the cross section, its weight and the
difficulties attending its successful casting free from imperfections,
and the perfect grinding and polishing of the lens. An increased length
of the tubular case of the telescope is liable to involve, from the
great weight, a slight bending or springing out of axial alignment when
supported near the middle for equatorial adjustment, and a few feet
increase in the diameter of the massive and movable steel dome add
greatly to the weight and incidental difficulties of constructing and
delicately adjusting it. The great Lunette, see Fig. 195, changes
entirely the method of manipulating the telescope, and also, in a
measure, its principle of action, so as to avoid some of these
difficulties. Its tube, instead of being pointed upwardly through the
slot of a movable dome, and made adjustable with the dome, is laid down
horizontally on a stationary base of supporting pillars, and an
adjustable reflecting mirror and regulating mechanism, called a
“siderostat,” is arranged at one end, to catch the view of the star, or
moon, and reflect it into the great tube, and through its lenses on to
the screen at the other end. The tube is 197 feet long, and the object
glass or lens is a fraction over 4 feet in diameter. There are two of
these, which together cost $120,000. The siderostat is supported on a
large cast iron frame, and is provided with clockwork and devices for
causing the mirror to follow the movement of the celestial object which
is being viewed. The entire weight of the siderostat and base is 99,000
pounds, the movable part weighs 33,000 pounds, and the mirror and its
cell weigh 14,740. The mirror itself is of glass, weighs 7,920 pounds,
is 6.56 feet in diameter, and 10.63 inches thick. To facilitate the
free and sensitive adjustment of this great mirror its base floats in a
reservoir of mercury. The entire cost of the instrument is said to be
over 2,000,000 francs. With the wonderful strides of improvement in all
fields of invention, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the
revelations in astronomy may keep pace with those of mundane interest,
and that great discoveries may be made in the near future. The average
individual does not bother himself much about the calculation of
eclipses, or the laws which govern the movements of an erratic comet. He
is, however, intensely personal and neighborly, and what he wants to
know is, Is Mars inhabited? and if so, are its denizens men, and may we
communicate with them? The wonderful regularity of the so-called canals,
of apparently intelligent design, already discovered on the surface of
Mars, has stimulated this neighborly curiosity into an expectant
interest, and who knows what marvelous introductions the modern
telescope may bring about?
[Illustration: FIG. 196.--PROF. ABBE’S STEREO-BINOCULAR.]
Many minor improvements have been made in recent years in the form of
the telescope known as field and opera glasses. Probably the most
important of these is the Stereo-Binocular, invented by Prof. Abbe, of
Germany, and patented by him in that country in 1893, and also in the
United States, June 22, 1897, No. 584,976. This gives a much increased
field, and also an increased stereoscopic effect, or conception of
relative distance, by having the object glasses wider apart than the
eyes of the observer. The field is also flatter, the instrument rendered
very much smaller and more compact, and no change of focus is required
for changing from near-by to remote objects. The rays of light, see Fig.
196, enter the object glasses, strike a double reflecting prism, and are
first thrown away from the observer, and then striking another double
reflecting prism, arranged after Porro’s method, are returned to the
observer in line with the eye-piece.
[Illustration: FIG. 197.--MODERN MICROSCOPE.]
_The Microscope._--Just as the telescope reveals the infinity of the
great world above and around us, so does the microscope reveal the
infinity of the little world around, about, and within us. Its origin,
like the telescope, is hidden in the dim distance of the past, but it is
believed to antedate the telescope. Probably the dewdrop on a leaf
constituted the first microscope. The magnifying power of glass balls
was known to the Chinese, Japanese, Assyrians and Egyptians, and a lens
made of rock crystal was found among the ruins of Ninevah. The
microscope is either single or compound. In the single the object is
viewed directly. In the compound two or more lenses are so arranged that
the image formed by one is magnified by the others, and viewed as if it
were the object itself. The single microscope cannot be claimed by any
inventor. The double or compound microscope was invented by Farncelli in
1624, and it was in that century that the first important applications
were made for scientific investigation. Most of the investigations were
made, however, by the single microscope, and the names of Borelli,
Malpighi, Lieberkuhn, Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Swammerden, Lyonnet, Hewson
and Ellis were conspicuous as the fathers of microscopy. For more than
two hundred and fifty years the microscope has lent its magnifying aid
to the eye, and step by step it has been gradually improved. Joseph J.
Lister’s aplanatic foci and compound objective, in 1829, was a notable
improvement in the first part of the century, and this has been followed
up by contributions from various inventors, until the modern compound
microscope, Fig. 197, is a triumph of the optician’s art, and an
instrument of wonderful accuracy and power. Its greatest work belongs to
the Nineteenth Century.
Multiplying the dimensions of the smallest cells to more than a thousand
times their size, it has brought into range of vision an unseen world,
developed new sciences, and added immensely to the stores of human
knowledge. To the biologist and botanist it has yielded its revelations
in cell structure and growth; to the physician its diagnosis in urinary
and blood examinations; in histology and morbid secretions it is
invaluable; in geology its contribution to the knowledge of the physical
history of the world is of equal importance; while in the study of
bacteriology and disease germs it has so revolutionized our conception
of the laws of health and sanitation, and the conditions of life and
death, and is so intimately related to our well being, as to mark
probably the greatest era of progress and useful extension of knowledge
the world has ever known. In the useful arts, also, it figures in almost
every department; the jeweler, the engraver, the miner, the
agriculturalist, the chemical manufacturer, and the food inspector, all
make use of its magnifying powers.
To the microscope the art of photography has lent its valuable aid, so
that all the revelations of the microscope are susceptible of
preservation in permanent records, as photomicrographs. A curious, but
very practical, use of the microscope was made in the establishment of
the pigeon-post during the siege of Paris in 1870-71. Shut in from the
outside world, the resourceful Frenchmen photographed the news of the
day to such microscopic dimensions that a single pigeon could carry
50,000 messages, which weighed less than a gramme. These messages were
placed on delicate films, rolled up, and packed in quills. The pigeons
were sent out in balloons, and flying back to Paris from the outer
world, carried these messages back and forth, and the messages, when
reaching their destination, were enlarged to legible dimensions and
interpreted by the microscope. It is said that two and a half million
messages were in this way transmitted.
_The Spectroscope._--To the popular comprehension, the best definition
of any scientific instrument is to tell what it does. Few things,
however, so tax the credulity of the uninformed as a description of the
functions and possibilities of the spectroscope. To state that it tells
what kind of materials there are in the sun and stars, millions of miles
away, seems like an unwarranted attack upon one’s imagination, and yet
this is one of the things that the spectroscope does. A few commonplace
observations will help to explain its action. Every schoolboy has seen
the play of colors through a triangular prism of glass, as seen in Fig.
198, and the older generation remembers the old-fashioned candelabras,
which, with their brilliant pendants of cut glass cast beautiful colored
patches on the wall, and whose dancing beauties delighted the souls of
many a boy and girl of fifty years ago. This spread of color is called
the _spectrum_, and it is with the spectrum that the spectroscope has to
deal. The white light of the sun is composed of the seven colors: red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. When a sunbeam falls
upon a triangular prism of glass the beam is bent from its course at an
angle, and the different colors of its light are deflected at different
angles or degrees, and consequently, instead of appearing as white
light, the beam is spread out into a divergent wedge shape, that
separates the colors and produces what is called the spectrum. This
discovery was made by Sir Isaac Newton, in 1675.
[Illustration: FIG. 198.--PRISM AND SPECTRUM.]
In 1802 Dr. Wollaston, in repeating Newton’s experiments, admitted the
beam of light through a very narrow slit, instead of a round hole, and
noticed that the spectrum, as spread out in its colors, was not a
continuous shading from one color into another, but he found black lines
crossing the spectrum. These black lines were, in 1814, carefully mapped
by a German optician, named Fraunhofer, and were found by him to be 576
in number. The next step toward the spectroscope was made by Simms, an
optician, in 1830, who placed a lens in front of the prism so that the
slit was in the focus of the lens, and the light passing through the
slit first passed through the lens, and then through the prism. This
lens was called the “Collimating” lens. With these preliminary steps of
development, Prof. Kirchhoff began in 1859 his great work of mapping the
solar spectrum, and he, in connection with Prof. Bunsen, found several
thousand of the dark lines in the spectrum, and laid the foundation of
_spectrum-analysis_, or the determination of the nature of substances
from the spectra cast by them when in an incandescent state.
[Illustration: FIG. 199.--KIRCHHOFF’S FOUR-PRISM SPECTROSCOPE.]
The form of Kirchhoff’s spectroscope is given in Fig. 199. The slit
forming slide is seen on the far end of the tube A, and is shown in
enlarged detached view on the right. The collimating lens is contained
in the tube A. The beam of light entering the slit at the far end of the
tube A, passes through the lens in that tube, and then passes
successively through the four triangular prisms on the table, and is
successively bent by these and thrown in the form of a spectrum into the
telescopic tube B, and is seen by the eye at the remote end of said
tube B. The greater the number of prisms the wider is the dispersion of
the rays and the longer is the spectrum, and the more easily studied are
the peculiar lines which Wollaston and Fraunhofer found crossing it. It
was the presence of these black lines on the spectrum which led to the
development of the spectroscope and established its significance and
value. The work which the spectroscope does is simply to form an
extended spectrum, but this spectrum varies with the different kinds of
light admitted through the slit, the different kinds of light showing
different arrangement of colored bands and dark lines, and such a
definite relation between the light of various incandescing elementary
bodies and their spectra has been found to exist, that the casting of a
definite spectrum from the sun or stars indicates with certainty the
presence in the sun or stars of the incandescing element which produces
that spectrum. This application of the spectroscope is called
_spectrum-analysis_, and by rendering any substance incandescent in the
flame of a Bunsen burner, and directing the light of its incandescence
through the spectroscope, its spectrum gives the basis of intelligent
chemical identification. So delicate is its test that it has been
calculated by Profs. Kirchhoff and Bunsen that the eighteen-millionth
part of a grain of sodium may be detected.
The useful applications of the spectroscope are found principally in
astronomy and the chemical laboratory, but some industrial applications
have also been made of it in metallurgical operations, as, for instance,
in determining the progress of the Bessemer process of making steel, and
also for testing alloys. Many hitherto unknown metals have also been
discovered through the agency of the spectroscope, among which may be
named caesium, rubidium, thallium, and indium.
The field of optics is so large that many interesting branches can
receive only a casual mention. The polarization of light, first noticed
by Bartholinus in 1669, and by Huygens in 1678, in experiments in double
refraction with crystals of Iceland spar, were followed in the
Nineteenth Century by the discoveries of Malus, Arago, Fresnel,
Brewster, and Biot. Malus, in 1808, discovered polarization by
reflection from polished surfaces; Arago, in 1811, discovered colored
polarization; Nicol, in 1828, invented the prism named after him. The
Kaleidoscope was invented by Sir David Brewster in 1814, and British
patent No. 4,136 granted him July 10, 1817, for the same. The reflecting
stereoscope was invented by Wheatstone in 1838, and the lenticular form,
as now generally used, was invented by Sir David Brewster in the year
1849.
Among the more recent inventions of importance in optics may be
mentioned the Fiske range finder (Patent No. 418,510, December 31,
1889), for enabling a gunner to direct his cannon upon the target when
its distance is unknown, or even when obscured by fog or smoke. The
Beehler solarometer (Patent No. 533,340, January 29, 1895), is also an
important scientific invention, which has for its object to determine
the position, or the compass error, of a ship at sea when the horizon is
obscured. There is also in late years a great variety of entertaining
and instructive apparatus in photography, and improvements in the
stereopticon and magic lantern.
The most interesting of the latter is the Kinetoscope, for producing the
so-called moving pictures, in which the magic lantern and modern results
in the photographic art, have wrought wonders on the screen. The
old-fashioned magic lantern projections were interesting and instructive
object lessons, but modern invention has endowed the pictures with all
the atmosphere and naturalness of real living scenes, in which the
figures move and act, and the scenes change just as they do in real
life.
The foundation principle upon which these moving pictures exist is that
of persistence of vision. If a succession of views of the same object in
motion is made, with the moving object in each consecutive figure
changed just a little, and progressively so in a constantly advancing
attitude in a definite movement, and those different positions are
rapidly presented in sequence to the eye in detached views, the figures
appear to constantly move through the changing position. The theory of
the duration of visible impressions was taught by Leonardo da Vinci in
the fifteenth century, and practical advantage has been taken of the
same in a variety of old-fashioned toys, known as the phenakistoscope,
thaumatrope, zoetrope, stroboscope, rotascope, etc.
The phenakistoscope was invented by Dr. Roget, and improved by Plateau
in 1829, and also by Faraday. A circular disk, bearing a circular series
of figures is mounted on a handle to revolve. The figures following each
other show consecutively a gradual progression, or change in position.
The disk has radial slits around its periphery, and is held with its
figured face before a looking glass. When the reflection is viewed in
the looking glass through the slits, the figures rapidly passing in
succession before the slits appear to have the movements of life. The
thaumatrope, which originated with Sir John Herschel, consists of a thin
disc, bearing on opposite sides two associated objects, such as a bird
and a cage, or a horse and a man. This, when rotated about its diameter,
to bring alternately the bird and cage into view, appears to bring the
bird into the cage, or to put the rider on the horse’s back, as the case
may be. The zoetrope, described in the _Philosophical Magazine_,
January, 1834, employs the general principle of the phenakistoscope,
except that, instead of a disc before a looking glass, an upright
rotating drum or cylinder is employed, and has its figures on the
inside, and is viewed, when rotating, through a succession of vertical
slits in the drum.
The earliest patents found in this art are the British patent to Shaw,
No. 1,260, May 22, 1860; United States patents, Sellers, No. 31,357,
February 5, 1861, and Lincoln, No. 64,117, April 23, 1867. In Brown’s
patent, No. 93,594, August 10, 1869, the magic lantern was applied to
the moving pictures, and Muybridge’s photos of trotting horses in 1872,
followed by instantaneous photography, which enabled a great number of
views to be taken of moving objects in rapid succession, laid the
foundation for the modern art.
[Illustration: SHOOTING GLASS BALLS.
FIRING DISAPPEARING GUN.
FIG. 200.]
In Fig. 200 is shown a succession of instantaneous photographs of a
sportsman shooting a glass ball, and the firing of a disappearing gun. A
multiplicity of views extending through all the phases of these
movements, when successively presented in order, before a magic lantern
projecting apparatus, gives to the eye the striking semblance of real
movements. In practice these views are taken by special cameras, and are
printed on long transparent ribbons that contain many hundreds, and even
thousands of the views. Edison’s Kinetoscope is covered by patent No.
493,426, March 14, 1893, and his instrument known as the Vitascope, is
one of those used for projecting the views upon a screen. In Fig. 201 a
similar instrument, called the Biograph, is shown, in which the seeming
approach of the locomotive makes those who witness it shudder with the
apparent danger.
[Illustration: FIG. 201.--BIOGRAPH IN THE THEATRE.]
To secure the best results, the ribbon with its views should remain with
a figure the longest possible time between the light and the lens, and
the shifting to the next view should be as nearly instantaneous as
possible. This problem has been admirably solved by C. F. Jenkins, who,
in 1894, devised means for accomplishing it, and was one of the first,
if not the first, to successfully project the views on a large screen
adapted to public exhibitions. His apparatus is shown in Fig. 202. An
electric motor, seen on the left, drives, through a belt and pulley, a
countershaft, and also through a worm gear turns another shaft parallel
to the countershaft, and bearing a sprocket pulley, whose teeth
penetrate little marginal holes in the ribbon of views, and, drawing it
down from the reel above, deliver it to the receiving reel on the right.
On the end of the countershaft, just in front of the sprocket wheel, is
a revolving crank pin or spool, which intermittently beats down the
ribbon of views, causing the latter to advance through the vertical
guides in front of the lens by a succession of jerks. This holds each
view for a maximum period before the lens, and then suddenly jerks the
ribbon to bring the next view into position. In the Kinetoscope the
animated pictures not only present the movements of life, but, by a
combination with the phonograph, the audible speech, or music fitting
the occasion, is also presented at the same time, making a marvelous
simulation of real life to both the eye and the ear.
[Illustration: FIG. 202.--JENKINS’ PHANTASCOPE.]
Among the latest promises of the inventor is the “Distance Seer,” or
telectroscope, which, it is said, enables one to see at any distance
over electric wires, just as one may telegraph or telephone over them.
The surprises of the Nineteenth Century have been so many and so
astounding, and the principles of this invention are so far correct,
that it would be dogmatic to say that this hope may not be realized.
To the sum total of human knowledge no department of science has
contributed more than that of optics. With the telescope man has climbed
into the limitless space of the heavens, and ascertained the infinite
vastness of the universe. The flaming sun which warms and vitalizes the
world, is found more than ninety millions of miles away. The nearest
fixed stars visible to the naked eye are more than 200,000 times the
distance of the sun, and their light, traveling at the rate of 190,000
miles a second, requires more than three years to reach us. Although so
far away, their size, distance, and constitution have been ascertained,
and their movements are scheduled with such accuracy that the going and
coming thereof are brought to the exactness of a railroad time table.
The astronomer predicts an eclipse, and on the minute the spheres swing
into line, verifying, beyond all doubt, the correctness of the laws
predicated for their movements. The wonders of the telescope, the
microscope, and the spectroscope are, however, but suggestions of what
we may still expect, for science abundantly teaches that the eye may yet
see what to the eye is now invisible, and that light exists in what may
now seem darkness.
No man may say with certainty what thought was uppermost in Goethe’s
mind when, grappling in the final struggle with the King of Terrors, he
exclaimed “Mehr licht!” It may be that it was but the wish to dispel the
gathering gloom of his dimming senses, or perchance the unfolding of an
illuminated vision of a brighter threshold, but certain it is that no
words so voice the aspirations of an enlightened humanity as that one
cry of “More light!”
CHAPTER XXIV.
PHOTOGRAPHY.
EXPERIMENTS OF WEDGEWOOD AND DAVY--NIÉPCE’S HELIOGRAPHY--DAGUERRE
AND THE DAGUERREOTYPE--FOX TALBOT MAKES FIRST PROOFS FROM
NEGATIVES--SIR JOHN HERSCHEL INTRODUCES GLASS PLATES--THE COLLODION
PROCESS--SILVER AND CARBON PRINTS--AMBROTYPES--EMULSIONS--DRY
PLATES--THE KODAK CAMERA--THE PLATINOTYPE--PHOTOGRAPHY IN COLORS--
PANORAMA CAMERAS--PHOTO-ENGRAVING AND PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY--HALF TONE
ENGRAVING.
“Art’s proudest triumph is to imitate nature.”
When nature paints she does so with the brush of beauty, dipped in the
pigment of truth. The tender affection of a ray of light touches the
heart of a rose, brings a blush to its cheek, and life, becoming the
bride of chemical affinity, blooms into surpassing beauty and
loveliness. Photography is closely allied to nature’s painting, for just
as light brings into existence nature’s living beauties, so does light
fix, preserve, and perpetuate these beauties by the same subtile and
mysterious agency of a quickened chemical affinity. Photography is both
an art and a science, and as such is both beautiful and true. It is an
art intimately associated with the tenderest affections of the human
heart in keeping alive its precious memories. By it the youthful
sweetheart of long ago, the loving face of the departed mother, and the
cherished form of the dead child are brought back to us in familiar
presence, while our great men have become the every-day friends and
ideals of the common people. What an enrichment and satisfaction it
would have added to our lives if the art had been coeval with history,
and all the world’s exalted scenes and faces had come to us through the
camera with the knowledge of absolute truth and fidelity. But not only
in portraiture is photography a great art, for it catches the stately
pose of the mountain, the grandeur of the sea, the beauty of the forest,
or the majesty of Niagara Falls, and brings them all home to us, even to
the vision of the bed-ridden invalid. The camera alike records the
secrets of the starry heavens and the bacteria of the microscopic world.
Hanging on the tail of a kite it photographs the face of mother earth,
and, acting quicker than the lightning, it catches and defines the path
of that erratic flash. It plays the part of a private detective, and its
testimony in court is never doubted. The architect, engineer, and
illustrator find it in constant requisition. By the aid of the Roentgen
Rays, it locates a bullet in a wounded soldier, and takes a picture of
one’s spinal column. In fact, it sees and records things both visible
and invisible, acts with the rapidity of thought, and is never mistaken.
The art of photography, named from the two Greek words φωτος γραφη (the
writing of light), is a comparatively new one, and belongs entirely to
the Nineteenth Century. It was known to the ancient alchemists that
“horn silver” (fused chloride of silver) would blacken on exposure to
light, but there was neither any clear understanding of the nature of
this action, nor any application made of it prior to the year 1800. We
now know that the art of photography is dependent upon the actinic
effect of certain of the rays of the spectrum upon certain chemical
salts, notably those of silver and chromic acid, in connection with
organic matter. The rays which have this effect are the blue and violet
rays at one end of the spectrum, and even invisible rays beyond the
violet, the red and yellow rays having little or no such actinic effect.
That which made photography possible for the Nineteenth Century was the
philosophical observation of Scheele, in 1777, upon the decomposing
influence of light on the salts of silver, and the superior activity of
the violet rays of the spectrum over the others in producing this
effect. In 1801 Ritter proved the existence of such invisible rays
beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum by the power they
possessed of blackening chloride of silver.
_Earliest Application of Principles._--The first attempt to render the
blackening of silver salts by light available for artistic purposes, was
made by Wedgewood and Davy in 1802. A sheet of white paper was saturated
with a solution of nitrate of silver, and the shadow of the figure
intended to be copied was projected upon it. Where the shadow fell the
paper remained white, while the surrounding exposed parts darkened under
the sun’s rays. There was, however, no means of fixing such a picture,
and in time the white parts would also turn black.
_Introduction of Camera._--The camera obscura, a very old invention
designed for the use of artists in copying from nature, was at a very
early period brought into this art, but it was found that the chemicals
employed by Wedgewood and Davy were not sufficiently sensitive to be
affected by its subdued light. In 1814, however, Joseph Nicéphore
Niépce, of Chalôns, invented a process that utilized the camera, and
which was called “Heliography,” or sun drawing. In 1827 he discarded
the use of silver salts, and employed a resin known as “Bitumen of
Judea” (asphaltum). A plate was coated with a solution of this resin and
exposed. The light acting upon the plate rendered the resin insoluble
where exposed, and left it soluble under the shadows. Hence, when
treated with an oleaginous solvent the shadows dissolved out, and the
lights, represented by the undissolved resin, formed a picture, which
was in reality a permanent negative. The process, however, was slow,
requiring some hours.
_The Daguerreotype._--In 1829 Niépce and Daguerre became partners, and
in 1839, after the death of the elder Niépce, the process named after
Daguerre was perfected (British patent No. 8,194, of 1839). He abandoned
the resin as a sensitive material, and went back to the salts of silver.
He employed a polished silver surfaced plate, and exposed it to the
action of the vapors of iodine, so as to form a layer of iodide of
silver upon the surface, which rendered it very sensitive. By a short
exposure in the camera an effect was produced, not visible to the eye,
but appearing when the plate was subjected to the vapor of mercury. This
process reduced the time required from hours to minutes, and as it
involved the production of a latent image, which was subsequently
developed by a chemical agent, it represented practically the beginning
of the photographic art as practiced to-day. Daguerre sought also to
permanently fix his pictures, but this was accomplished only imperfectly
until 1839, when Sir John Herschel made known the properties of the
hyposulphites for dissolving the salts of silver. In 1844 Hunt
introduced the protosulphate of iron as a developer.
_Production of Positive Proofs from Negatives._--This was first done by
Mr. Fox Talbot, of England, between 1834 and 1839. In his first
communication to the Royal Society, in January, 1839, it was directed
that the paper should be dipped first in a solution of chloride of
sodium, and then in nitrate of silver, which, by reaction, produced, on
the face of the paper, chloride of silver, which was more sensitive to
the light than nitrate of silver. The object to be reproduced was laid
in contact with the prepared paper, and exposed to the light until a
copy was produced which was a negative, having the lights and shadows
reversed. A second sheet was then prepared, and the first or negative
impression was laid upon it, and used as a stencil to produce a second
print which, by a reversal of the lights and shadows, formed an exact
reproduction of the original. In 1841, British patent No. 8,842 was
obtained by Mr. Talbot, for what he called the “Calotype,” and which was
afterward known as the “Talbotype.” A sheet of paper was first coated
with iodide of silver, by soaking it alternately in iodide of potassium
and nitrate of silver, and was then washed with a solution of gallic
acid containing nitrate of silver, by which the sensitiveness to light
was increased. An exposure of some seconds or minutes, according to the
brightness of the light, produced an impression upon the plate, which,
when treated with a fresh portion of gallic acid and nitrate of silver,
developed into the image. After being fixed it formed a negative from
which any number of prints might be obtained. The Talbot process
represented a great advance in this art. Glass plates to retain the
sensitive film were introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1839, and were a
great improvement over the paper negatives, which latter, from lack of
transparency and uniformity in texture, had prevented fine definition
and sharpness of outline. Blue printing was also invented by Sir John
Herschel in 1842, and he was the first to apply the term “negative” in
photography. In 1848 M. Niépce de St. Victor, a nephew of Daguerre’s
former partner, applied to the glass a film of albumen to receive the
sensitive silver coating.
_Collodion Process._--The most important step in the preparation of the
negative was the application of collodion. This is a solution of
pyroxilin in ether and alcohol, which rapidly evaporates and leaves a
thin film adhering to the glass. M. Le Gray, of Paris, was the first to
suggest collodion for this purpose, but Mr. Scott Archer, of London, in
1851, was the first to carry it out practically. A clean plate of glass
is coated with collodion sensitized with iodides of potassium, etc., and
is then immersed in a solution of nitrate of silver. Metallic silver
takes the place of potassium, forming insoluble iodide of silver on the
film. The plate is then exposed and the latent image developed by an
aqueous solution of pyrogallic acid, or protosulphate of iron. When
sufficiently developed, the plate is washed, and the image fixed by
dissolving the unacted-upon iodide of silver with a solution of cyanide
of potassium or hyposulphite of soda. This completed the negative or
stencil from which the positives are printed by passing rays of light
through it upon sensitive paper.
_The Ambrotype_ succeeded the Daguerreotype, and was produced by making
a very thin negative by under exposure on glass, using the collodion
process, and, after drying, backing the glass with black asphaltum
varnish or black velvet, causing the dense portions of the negative to
appear white by reflected light, and the transparent portions black.
Such pictures were quickly made, and were much in vogue forty years ago,
but are now obsolete. A modification of the ambrotype, however, still
survives in what is known as the “tin-type” or “ferro-type.” In the
tin-type the collodion picture is made directly upon a very thin iron
plate, covered with black enamel, which both protects the plate from
the action of the chemicals in the bath, and forms the equivalent of the
black background of the ambrotype.
_Silver Printing._--A sheet of paper, previously treated with a solution
of chloride of sodium and dried, is sensitized in an alkaline bath of
nitrate of silver. When the paper is exposed under a negative, the light
through the transparent parts of the negative reduces the silver,
converting the chloride, it is supposed, into a metallic sub-chloride of
silver which becomes dark or black, and constitutes the main portion of
the picture. The image is then fixed by dissolving out the chloride of
silver unaltered by light in a bath of hyposulphite of soda. After
fixation, the image is well washed in several changes of water to
eliminate all traces of the hyposulphite of soda and prevent the
subsequent fading of the darkened portions of the picture and the
yellowing of the whites. If the printed image is immediately fixed, it
will have a red color. To avoid this it is washed first in water and
then immersed in a chloride of gold toning bath and fixed.
_The Platinotype Process_ is one in which potassium chloroplatinite and
ferric oxalate are converted by light into the ferrous state, and
metallic platinum is reduced when in contact with the ferrous oxalate of
potash solution. The unacted upon portions are dissolved out by dilute
hydrochloric acid, leaving a black permanent image. This process is
characterized by simplicity, sensitiveness in action, permanence of
print, and a peculiarly soft and artistic quality in the picture.
British Patent No. 2,011, of 1873, to Willis, is the first disclosure of
the platinotype.
_Carbon Printing_ is a process in which lampblack or other
indestructible pigment is mixed with the chemicals to render the
photograph more stable against fading from the gradual decomposition of
its elements. Mungo Ponton, in 1838, discovered the sensitive quality of
potassium bichromate, which led up to carbon printing. Becquerel and
Poitevin, in Paris, in 1855, were the first to experiment in this
direction, and Fargier, Swan, and Johnson were successors who made
valuable contributions.
_Emulsions._--A photographic emulsion is a viscous liquid, such as
collodion or a solution of gelatine, containing a sensitive silver salt
with which the glass plate is at once coated, instead of coating the
plate with collodion or gelatine, and then immersing it in a sensitizing
bath. The desirability of emulsions was recognized as early as 1850 by
Gustave Le Gray, and in 1853 by Gaudin. Collodion emulsion with bromide
of silver was invented by Sayce and made known in 1864. In 1871 Maddox
published his first notice of gelatine emulsion, and in 1873 the
gelatine emulsions of Burgess were advertised for sale. In 1878 Mr.
Charles Bennett brought out gelatino-bromide emulsion of extreme
sensitiveness, by the application of heat, and from this time gelatine
began to supersede all other organic media.
_Dry Plates_ were a great improvement over the old wet process, with its
tray for baths, its bottles of chemicals, and other accessories.
Especially was this the case with out of door work, which heretofore had
involved the carrying along of much unwieldy and inconvenient
paraphernalia. With the dry plate process only the camera and the plates
were needed, and this step marks the beginning of the spread of the art
among amateurs, and the great snap-shot era of photography, growing into
a distinct movement about the year 1888, has since spread over the
entire world. The first practical dry plate process (collodion-albumen)
was published in 1855 by Dr. J. M. Taupenot, a French scientist.
Russell, in 1862; Sayce, in 1864; Captain Abney, for photographing the
transit of Venus in 1874; Rev. Canon Beechey, of England, in 1875; Prof.
John W. Draper, of the University of New York, and the Eastman Walker
Company, of Rochester, were the chief promoters of dry plate
photography. The practical introduction began about 1862 with the
application of the alkaline developer.
The progress of the photographic art may be approximately noted as
follows:
_Process._ _Time Required._ _Introduced._
Heliography 6 hours’ exposure 1814
Daguerreotype 30 minutes’ exposure 1839
Calotype or Talbotype 3 minutes’ exposure 1841
Collodion process 10 seconds’ exposure 1851
Collodion emulsion (dry plate) 15 seconds’ exposure 1864
Gelatine emulsion (dry plate) 1 second exposure 1878
_Mechanical Development._--The photographic camera is but an adaptation
of the optical principles of the old camera obscura, which has been
credited to various persons, including Roger Bacon in 1297, Baptista
Porta about 1569, and others. The essential elements of the camera
obscura are a dark chamber, having in one end a perforation containing a
lens, and opposite it on the back of the chamber a screen upon which an
image of the object is projected by the lens for the purpose of enabling
it to be directly traced by a pencil. The photographic camera,
introduced by Daguerre in 1839, adds to the camera obscura some means
for adjusting the distance between the lens and the screen on which the
image falls. This was accomplished by making the dark chamber adjustable
in length by forming it in two telescopic sections sliding over each
other, and in later years by the well-known bellows arrangement. A
luminous image of any object placed in front of the lens is thrown in an
inverted position upon the screen, which is of ground glass, to permit
the image to be seen in focusing. When the proper focus on this ground
glass is obtained a sensitive plate is put in the plane of this screen
to receive the image.
[Illustration: FIG. 203.--KODAK.]
It is not possible to trace all the steps of development of the camera
which have brought it to its present perfection. Most of the
improvements have had relation to the lens in correcting chromatic and
spherical aberration, and in shutters for regulating exposure, in stops
for shutting out the oblique rays and holders for the sensitive plate.
The “Iris” shutter, so-called from its resemblance in function to the
iris of the eye, consists of a series of tangentially arranged plates
which open or close a central opening symmetrically from all sides.
The ordinary camera of the photographic artist is too familiar an object
to require special illustration. It has been looked into by the rich and
the poor, and the high and the low, all over the whole world. Between
the traveling outfit, and the “look pleasant, please!” of the
peripatetic artist, and the handsome studios of the cities, it is hard
to find an individual in the civilized world who has not posed before
its lens. Through its agency the great man of the day has found himself
in evidence everywhere; the country maiden has many times experienced
the delicious thrill of satisfied vanity as she posed before it, and the
superstitious savage is paralyzed with fear lest the mysterious thing
should steal his soul.
[Illustration: FIG. 204.--FOLDING KODAK.]
In 1851 the first instantaneous views were made by Mr. Cady and Mr.
Beckers, of New York, and also by Mr. Talbot, who employed as a flash
light a spark from a Leyden jar. In 1864 magnesium light was employed by
Mr. Brothers, of Manchester, for photographic purposes, and about 1876-8
Van der Weyde made use of the electric light for the same purpose.
The _roller slide_, or roll film, was invented by A. J. Melhuish, in
England, in 1854 (British patent No. 1,139, of 1854). The films were,
however, of paper. In 1856 Norris produced sensitized dry films of
collodion or gelatine (British patent No. 2,029, of 1856). In later
years apparatus for utilizing the roll film has been greatly improved
and extensively applied by Eastman, Walker & Co., of Rochester, N. Y.
About 1888 a new thing in the photographic world made its appearance. It
was a little black leather-covered rectangular box, about six inches
long, with a sort of blind eye at one end closed by a cylindrical
shutter, substantially as seen in Fig. 203. This shutter was wound up by
a spring operated by a pull cord. In the back of the box was a film or
ribbon of sensitized paper wound upon one spool, and unwinding therefrom
and winding onto another spool, and being distended as it passed so as
to form a flat surface which was directly in rear of the lens. A thumb
piece or key on the top, and a push button on the side, were the only
suggestions of the operative mechanism within. When the button was
pressed the shutter for an instant passed from in front of the lens, and
as quickly covered it again, but in this brief interval an image had
been flashed upon the sensitive ribbon or film, and a snap-shot picture
was taken. By a simple movement of the thumb piece or key, the receiving
roll was made to take up the exposed section of the sensitive film and
bring another section into the range of the lens, for a repetition of
the operation. This little instrument was slung in a case looking like a
cartridge box, and its sensitive roll was able to receive 100 successive
pictures. When the roll was exhausted, it was removed and developed in a
dark room. The device was placed upon the market by the Eastman Company,
and it was called the “Kodak.” The advertisement of the company, that
“You press the button and we do the rest,” was soon realized to be
founded in fact, and in a short while the great era of snap-shot
photography had set in. To-day this form of camera is a part of the
luggage of every tourist, traveler, scientist, and dilletante. In fact,
it has become the familiar scientific toy of man, woman, and child,
interesting, instructive, and useful to all. In Fig. 204 is shown a
modern form of Kodak, which is made in various sizes and is foldable for
compact and convenient portability.
A very convenient and useful development in films is to be found in the
cartridge system, by which the film may be placed in and removed from
the camera in broad daylight. The film has throughout its length a
backing of black paper which extends far enough beyond the ends of the
film to allow it to be unwound, so far, in making connection with the
roll holder, without exposing the film to light, and also to allow it to
be removed without exposure to light, after all the exposures have been
made.
[Illustration: FIG. 205.--HAND PREMO.]
Among the many other ingenious and useful hand cameras may be mentioned
the “Premo,” made by the Rochester Optical Company, and shown in Fig.
205. The “Premo” is arranged for either snap-shot or time exposure, is
adapted to be either held in the hand or mounted upon a tripod, and is
furnished for use either with glass plates or roll films. In Fig. 206 is
shown the “Premo” for stereoscopic work, in which two pictures are taken
at once, a sufficient distance from each other to produce the effect of
binocular vision and give the appearance of relief when viewed through
the stereoscope. Brett’s British patent No. 1,629, of 1853, appears to
be the earliest description of a stereoscopic camera.
[Illustration: FIG. 206.--STEREOSCOPIC CAMERA.]
There have been 2,000 United States patents granted in photography, most
of which have been taken in the past thirty years, and great efficiency
and detail in both the chemical and mechanical branches of the art have
been obtained.
The useful applications of the art have been numerous and varied.
_Portrait making_ is probably the largest field. This was first
successfully accomplished in 1839 by Professor Morse, of telegraph fame,
working with Prof. John W. Draper, of the University of New York.
_Celestial Photography_ began with Prof. Draper’s photograph of the moon
in March, 1840, and Prof. Bond, of Cambridge, Mass., in 1851. In 1872
Prof. Draper photographed the spectra of the stars, and in 1880-81 the
nebulæ of Orion, and in 1887 the Photographic Congress of Astronomers of
the World, organized in Paris, began the work of photographing the
entire heavens. In late years notable work has been done at the Lick
Observatory by Prof. Holden. In 1861 Mr. Thompson, of Weymouth,
photographed the bottom of the sea, and Prof. O. N. Rood, of Troy, N.
Y., the same year described his application of it to the microscope. In
1871 criminals were ordered to be photographed in England, and in
America the Rogues’ Gallery became an institution in New York as early
as 1857, ambrotypes being first used. In 1876 the Adams Cabinet for
holding and displaying the photos was invented. To-day the New York
collection amounts to nearly 30,000, while that of the National Bureau
of Identification at Chicago approximates 100,000. It is a striking
illustration of the law of compensation that the counterfeiter who
invokes the aid of photography to copy a bank note is, by the same
agency of his photo in the Rogues’ Gallery, identified and convicted.
_Photography in Colors_ has been the goal of artists and scientists in
this field for many years. Robt. Hunt, in England, in 1843, and Edmond
Becquerel, in France, in 1848, made evanescent photographs in colors,
but little progress was made until about the last decade of the
Nineteenth Century. Franz Veress in 1890, F. E. Ives (United States
patent No. 432,530, July 22, 1890), W. Kurtz (United States patent No.
498,396, May 30, 1893), Gabriel Lippmann in 1892 and 1896, Ives in 1892,
M. Lumière in 1893, Dr. Joly in 1895, M. Villedien Chassagne, and Dr.
Adrien, M. Dansac and M. Bennetto, all in 1897, represent active workers
in this field.
[Illustration: FIG. 207.--PANORAM-KODAK.]
Among recent developments of the camera may be mentioned the wide angle
lens, which permits larger images to be made on the plate from small
near-by objects, and the telephotographic camera, which gives a large
image of remote objects, such as an enemy’s fort, and the panorama
camera, which is designed to cover a broad field. For this purpose the
lens is movably mounted for a semi-circular swing, and the image is
flashed across a curved film in the case. The Eastman Panoram-Kodak,
seen in Fig. 207, is an external illustration of this type, and in Fig.
207A is shown a sectional view of another make of panorama camera which
clearly shows the internal construction.
[Illustration: FIG. 207A.--SECTIONAL PLAN OF PANORAMIC CAMERA.]
As allied branches of the photographic art, photo-engraving,
photo-lithographing, and half-tone engraving are important developments
of the Nineteenth Century.
Photo-engraving is a process by means of which photographs may be used
in forming plates from which prints in ink can be taken. The process
depends upon the property possessed by bichromate of potassium, and
other chemicals, of rendering insoluble under the action of light,
gelatine or some similar substance. A picture is thus produced on a
metal plate, and the blank spaces are etched out by acid, leaving the
lines in relief as printing surfaces. When the operation is reversed,
and only the _darks_ are etched in _intaglio_, to be filled with ink, as
in copper-plate engraving, it is called photo-gravure. Mungo Ponton, in
1839, discovered the sensitive quality of a sheet of paper treated with
bichromate of potash. In 1840 Becquerel discovered that the sizing had
an important function, and Fox Talbot, in 1853, discovered and utilized
the insolubility of gelatine exposed to light in presence of bichromate
of potash. In 1854 Paul Pretsch observed that the exposed parts of the
gelatine did not swell in water. One of the first suggestions of
photo-engraving appears in the British patent No. 13,736, of 1851, of
James Palmer. In recent times great perfection in details has been
obtained by Mr. Moss, of the Photo-Engraving Company, and others. The
Albert-type and Woodbury-type are early modifications of this art.
In _photo-lithography_ the photograph is transferred to the stone, and
the latter then used to print from, as in lithography. The operation
consists: 1, in making the photographic negative; 2, printing with it
upon transfer paper coated with gelatine and bichromate of potash: 3,
the transfer paper is then given a coat of insoluble fatty transfer ink
from an inking stone; 4, all ink on surfaces not reached by the light
being on a soluble surface is washed off, leaving the insoluble lines
acted upon by light forming the picture; 5, the washed transfer sheet is
then applied to the stone, and the remaining inked lines of the design
are transferred to the stone; 6, the stone with transferred lines will
now receive ink from the ink rolls on these lines, and repels ink from
all other surfaces, which latter are made repellent by being kept
constantly wet, as in ordinary lithography. The first attempts in this
art were by Dixon, of Jersey City, and Lewis, of Dublin, in 1841, who
used resins. Joseph Dixon, in 1854, was the first to use organic matter
and bichromate of potash upon stone to produce a photo-lithograph. In
1859 J. W. Osborne patented in Australia, and in 1861 in the United
States, a transfer process which gave such great impetus to the art that
he may be considered its founder and chief promotor. His United States
patents are No. 32,668, June 25, 1861, and No. 33,172, August 27, 1861.
[Illustration: FIG. 208.--PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY.]
For photo-lithography only line drawing, type print, or script, without
any smooth shading, can be employed. The most extensive application of
photo-lithography is in the reproduction of the Patent Office drawings,
which amount to about 60,000 sheets weekly. The contracting firm, which
is probably the largest in the world, also prints each week by
photo-lithography 7,000 copies of the _Patent Office Gazette_, of about
165 pages each, including both drawings and claims, and also reproduces
specifications without errors or proof reading, thus saving about 200
per cent. in cost over type setting. This art is also largely employed
for printing maps, and the reproduction of the pages of books by this
process has flooded the stores and news stands with cheap literature.
[Illustration: FIG. 209.--DIAGRAM SHOWING PRODUCTION OF DOT.]
_Half-tone engraving_ enables a photograph to be reproduced on a
printing press, and for faithfulness in reproduction and low cost has
revolutionized the art of illustrating, as nearly all books, magazines,
and newspapers are now illustrated by this process. Before its
introduction it was not possible to reproduce cheaply in printers’ ink
shaded pictures like photographs, brush drawings, paintings, etc.
Half-tone engraving renders it possible to thus print on a press, with
printers’ ink, reproductions of photographs or any shaded picture, in
which the soft shadows fade away in depth to white by an imperceptible
tenuity. It does so by breaking up the soft shadows into minute stipples
which form inkable printing faces in relief, by the interposition of a
fine reticulated screen between the camera lens and the sensitive plate.
This forms a sort of stencil negative through which the copper plate is
etched, which latter is thus converted into a relief plate whose raised
surfaces left by the etching may receive ink and print like an ordinary
relief plate. By making the screen lines very fine (80 to 250 meshes to
the inch), the visible effect of the shading is so far preserved that
the photograph may be reproduced in printers’ ink with but little
depreciation. At first, bolting cloth was used for the screen, but at
present two glass plates, with closely ruled lines, laid crosswise upon
each other, form the screen. A characteristic distinction of half-tone
work is the regularly stippled surface, formed by the stenciling out of
a portion of the picture by the screen, which may be easily seen with
any magnifying glass. It is called half-tone process because half of the
tones or shadows are preserved, the other half being stenciled out. The
use of gauze screens was first described by Fox Talbot in British patent
No. 565, October 29, 1852.
[Illustration: FIG. 210.--TRIMMING FILM.]
In the making of a half-tone negative, the photograph, painting, or wash
drawing which is to be reproduced, is set up in front of the camera,
which is arranged on an inclined runway, as seen in Fig. 208, and an
exposure is made on a plate prepared by the wet collodion process (see
page 304). The shadows of the picture are broken up into stipples or
dots by the interposition of a cross-lined screen arranged in the plate
holder between the lens and the sensitive plate, so that the picture
taken is “half-toned” or stippled. Fig. 209 illustrates the relation of
the parts, in which the picture to be copied is seen on the right, the
camera lens in the middle, and the cross-lined screen on the left in
front of the sensitive plate.
[Illustration: FIG. 211.--STRIPPING FILM.]
[Illustration: FIG. 212.--PRINTING BY ELECTRIC LIGHT.]
The image on the plate is then developed and fixed, and in order to
secure a printed image exactly like the copy as to right and left
position it is necessary to reverse the negative. This is done by
cutting the film square, as seen in Fig. 210, and then peeling it off
the glass, as seen at Fig. 211, and transferring it to another glass
plate in reversed relation. The copper printing plate is produced as
follows: The plate is first polished, as seen at the top of Fig. 213,
and is then sensitized with a solution of organic matter and an alkaline
bichromate. The face of the reversed negative is laid flat against and
in direct contact with the face of the sensitized copper plate, and
tightly held thereto by the screw clamps of the half tone printing
frame. The printing on the sensitized copper face through the stippled
or half-tone negative is then effected either by daylight or by the
electric light. The application of the electric light for this purpose
is shown in Fig. 212. The copper plate is then taken out and subjected
to the three lower operations seen in Fig. 213. It is first developed
under a stream of water from a faucet, seen on the left, and is then
taken in a pair of pliers and held over a gas stove, as seen at the
bottom, to “burn-in” the image, and then placed in a tray containing an
etching bath of chloride of iron seen on the right, by which the copper
is eaten away around the little stipples, and the latter, representing
the half tones of the original picture, are left raised, or in relief,
to form the inkable surfaces of the printing plate. So fine are these
stipples, however, that the picture is to the eye perfectly reproduced.
The several views illustrating this process are made in this way, the
lines of the reticulated screen being 175 to the inch. The plate is next
subjected to the mechanical operation of “routing out” or cutting away
the undesirable portions by a routing machine, seen in Fig. 214. It then
receives further mechanical treatment to correct imperfections and
finish its edges, and is finally mounted upon a block ready for the
printer.
[Illustration: FIG. 213.--TREATMENT OF COPPER PLATE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 214.--ROUTER AT WORK ON HALF-TONE PLATE.]
The most striking application made of photography in recent years is in
the production of so-called moving pictures, in which a series of
photographic figures thrown upon the screen have all the motion of
animated scenes which have been caught and imprisoned by the swiftly
acting and never failing memory of the camera, to be again turned loose
in active play through the Kinetoscope or Biograph. Perhaps the most
valuable contribution to science at the end of the century made by this
art is in surgery, for photographing through opaque bodies by the aid of
the Roentgen rays, but for the latter subjects treatment in separate
chapters must be reserved.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE ROENTGEN OR X-RAYS.
GEISSLER TUBES--VACUUM TUBES OF CROOKES, HITTORF AND LENARD--THE
CATHODE RAY--ROENTGEN’S GREAT DISCOVERY IN 1895--X-RAY APPARATUS--
SALVIONI’S CRYPTOSCOPE--EDISON’S FLUOROSCOPE--THE FLUOROMETER--SUN
BURN FROM X-RAYS--USES OF X-RAYS.
The majority of people have been accustomed to regard light as something
to be excluded and controlled by opaque screens just as effectively as
rain is excluded by a tin roof, or cold is kept out by a brick wall. The
shady retreat furnished relief from the garish day to the primitive man,
and the opaque shades and Venetian blinds of modern civilization exclude
the excess of light at our windows. Sunshine and shadow have, in fact,
been correlated conditions to the ordinary observation of man since time
began. The last few years of the Nineteenth Century, however, were to
witness the discovery of a new kind of light ray which, in its behavior,
subverted all previous conception of the nature and action of light. It
was a species of electric light, which we are accustomed to regard as
brilliant, but this light ray was invisible to the eye. It could not be
refracted or bent from its course by a prism or lens, and it was so
subtle, penetrating and insidious, that it could not be barred out like
sunlight, but passed readily through many opaque substances, such as
wood, flesh tissue, paper (even a book of 1,000 pages), as well as some
of the metals. The lighter the weight of the substance, or less its
density, the easier these rays passed through it, or the more
transparent such bodies were to the rays. The heavier metals, like
platinum, gold and lead, were practically opaque, or allowed none of the
rays to pass through them, while the very light metal aluminum was about
as transparent to these rays as was glass to ordinary light, and for
that reason this metal could form window panes for such rays, while
excluding other light. Most organic substances are transparent or
semi-transparent to these rays, and hence such rays readily pass through
the body of an individual, being only intercepted in part by the denser
parts of the anatomy, such as the bones, so that a man in such light no
longer casts a well-defined shadow of his outline, but the shadow
disclosed is that of a skeleton, by virtue of the greater density of the
bones. Any object of higher density, such as a ring upon the finger,
clearly establishes its shadow by virtue of its greater density.
Likewise, any foreign object in the body, such as a bullet from a
gun-shot wound, or a foreign body accidentally swallowed, is perfectly
disclosed and located by the shadow which it casts. As these light rays
have been characterized as invisible, it may be difficult to understand
how invisible rays can cast a visible shadow, and it should be here
stated that when these unseen rays fall upon certain chemical substances
the latter are made to glow with a peculiar fluorescence, and a screen
made of such fluorescing materials will light up where the rays fall
upon it, and remain dark at the points where the rays are intercepted by
a substance opaque to such rays, thus outlining a shadow.
Not only do these light rays in passing through the body tissues
(transparent to them) cast a shadow of the bones or any foreign objects,
but by the application of photography to these shadow pictures a species
of photograph, called a radiograph, or skiagraph, may be taken, and thus
any foreign body, such as a bullet, may be definitely located in the
human body and quickly extracted, without the element of doubt which
beset the old method of diagnosis, which, at best, was only intelligent
guessing. Not only are foreign bodies so located, but the fractures of
the bones may also be accurately observed, studied and adjusted. Stone
in the bladder may be discovered, and the condition and movements of the
heart and lungs ascertained.
This new kind of light ray was discovered November 8, 1895, by Prof. W.
C. Roentgen, of the Royal University of Wurzburg, and was named by him
the “X-Ray,” probably because the letter x in algebraic formula
represents the unknown quantity, and the hitherto unknown and elusive
quality of this light suggested to Prof. Roentgen this appropriate name.
As before stated, a peculiar quality of the X-Rays is that they are not
visible to the eye. A beam of X-Rays, thrown into a dark chamber through
an aluminum window, would produce no illumination whatever in the room,
but such rays would still penetrate the room, and if a fluorescing
screen were placed in their path it would instantly light up. It is not
surprising, therefore, that these subtle rays should have so long eluded
the observation of the scientist.
A brief sketch of the conditions leading up to the discovery of the rays
is necessary to a proper understanding of the same.
[Illustration: FIG. 215.--THE CATHODE RAY.]
Every student of physics remembers the old-time lecture room
experiments in which the Geissler tubes, with their beautiful play of
colored lights, illustrated the action of the electrical discharge from
the glass plate machine or the Ruhmkorff coil, on rarified gaseous
media. Electrical experiments in high vacua by Sir William Crookes, and
by Hittorf and Lenard, have greatly added to the present knowledge in
this field, and paved the way to the discovery of Prof. Roentgen. It was
known that a vacuum tube, variously called after the names of these
scientists, as a Crookes, Hittorf, or Lenard tube, having platinum
electrodes sealed in its ends, would, under the static discharge of
electricity through it, give peculiar manifestations of light. One of
the conducting terminals of such tubes was called, in electrical
parlance, the “anode,” from the Greek ανα (up) ὁδος (way), meaning the
way up or into the tube, and referring to the entering path of an
electric current, or its positive pole; while the other was called the
“cathode,” from κατα (down), ὁδος (way), meaning the way down or out,
and referring to the outgoing path of an electric current, or its
negative pole. When such glass tube, partially exhausted of air,
received through its anode and cathode terminals a discharge of static
electricity, a peculiar manifestation of light is seen between the anode
and cathode terminals. At the anode it appears as a peach blossom glow,
and at the cathode it appears as a bluish green light. If the exhaustion
of the air in the tube is carried very high, approaching a perfect
vacuum, or to about one millionth of the atmospheric pressure, the glow
light at the anode disappears, and that at the cathode increases until
it fills the entire tube with its characteristic light. This is called
the “cathode ray,” or “cathodic ray,” an illustration of which is given
in Fig. 215, where the cathode ray is seen in a Crookes tube emanating
from the negative pole N or cathode _a_, and casting a shadow of the
Maltese cross _b_ into the end of the tube, as seen at _d_. Many of the
characteristics of the cathode ray had been observed prior to Prof.
Roentgen’s discovery, which, briefly stated, grew out of the following
observation: He noticed that when a vacuum tube illumined by the cathode
ray was completely masked or covered up by an external shield of black
paper, so that no illumination of the tube was visible to the eye, there
still passed through it certain subtle rays of light, invisible to the
eye, but which would instantly illuminate a sheet of paper coated on one
side with barium platino-cyanide, even at a distance of two yards or
more, and that these invisible light rays were capable of passing
through many substances opaque to ordinary light. He also discovered
that these rays could be made to take a shadow photograph on a sensitive
plate without even exposing the plate in the usual way, the X-Rays
passing freely through the opaque ebonite or pasteboard screen of the
plate holder. It did not take the scientific world long to realize the
immense importance of this discovery, and to-day X-Ray apparatus
constitutes the greatest addition to the surgeon’s resources that has
ever been made in the form of mechanical appliances, since by its aid
any foreign body in the human frame of greater density than the flesh
may be at once definitely located and extracted, or any fracture of the
bone disclosed, as the case may be. In the illustration, Fig. 216, is
shown an X-Ray photograph of the hand of a gentleman whose thumb bone
has been destroyed by disease.
[Illustration: FIG. 216.--X-RAY PHOTO OF HAND, SHOWING DISEASED THUMB
BONE.]
Soon after the announcement of Prof. Roentgen’s discovery, apparatus was
devised for seeing with the naked eye the image formed by the shadow of
the X-Rays. Prof. Salvioni constructed such a device and described it
before the Rome Medical Society as early as February 8, 1896. He called
it the “cryptoscope.” It was quite a simple affair, and consisted of an
observation tube with a lens, having in front of it a screen of
fluorescing material, such as platino-cyanide of barium. When the object
to be examined, the hand, for instance, was held in front of the
fluorescing screen, and the X-Rays from the vacuum tube fell upon the
hand, located between the vacuum tube and the fluorescing screen, a
shadow of the bones was cast on the fluorescing screen by virtue of the
greater density of the bones, which shadow was clearly discernible to
the eye at the end of the observation tube. By this device one was able
to see his own bones through the flesh. A device, invented by Edison and
called the “fluoroscope,” was constructed on substantially the same
principle. This used a tapered observation tube like the old-fashioned
stereoscope box, which had at its outer wide end the fluorescing screen,
and its small end fashioned to fit the forehead and strapped thereto so
as to enclose both eyes. This device is shown in Fig. 217, in which an
X-Ray vacuum tube is housed in a wooden box, on which the hand of the
patient, or other part to be viewed, is laid, the X-Rays passing readily
through the top of the box and casting a shadow of the bones of the
hand, or foreign body, on the fluorescing screen of the observation
tube. Edison’s experiments also led him in constructing his fluorescing
screen, after testing a great number of substances, to select the
chemical known as calcium tungstate, instead of the barium
platino-cyanide, since the calcium tungstate appeared to give better
results in fluorescing. Many other chemicals can be used, however, for
making the fluorescing screen, such as the sulphides of calcium, barium
and strontium. A recently discovered and powerful fluorescing substance
is the double fluoride of ammonium and uranium, discovered by Dr.
Mecklebeke. Such fluorescing materials are spread in a thin layer on the
side of the screen next to the observer in the viewing apparatus.
[Illustration: FIG. 217.--EDISON’S SURGEON’S X-RAY APPARATUS.]
It is not to be understood that such viewing apparatus is necessary in
taking a surgical photograph. In such case only the X-Ray tube, means
for exciting it, the patient’s body, and the sensitive photographic
plate, are essential factors, the patient’s limb or body being
interposed between the light tube and photographic plate, so as to cause
the X-Rays emanating from the tube to cast the shadow of the patient’s
bones, the bullet in his body, or other foreign object, directly upon
the photographic plate, the sensitive and conscious plate obeying the
will of these subtle rays, and receiving the impress of their actinic
effect under conditions which it denies to ordinary light.
[Illustration: FIG. 218.--COMPLETE X-RAY APPARATUS IN USE.]
For exciting the vacuum tube any electrical machine capable of throwing
a series of sparks across a gap of about five inches is sufficient.
Various electrical machines may be used for this purpose, the Holtz, or
the Wimshurst glass plate machine, the Ruhmkorff, or induction coil, or
even the high frequency transformer. A good example of a complete X-Ray
apparatus is that in use at the Army Medical Museum at Washington, made
by Otis Clapp & Son, and shown in Fig. 218. The electrical generator is
of the Wimshurst type, and is shown in a large glass-enclosed cabinet on
the right. The glass disks within are rotated either by a small electric
motor shown on the floor, or by a hand crank above. The X-Ray tube, of
globular or bulb shape, is shown just above the patient’s hip, and its
opposite poles are connected by wires to the opposite electrodes of the
generator. When the current is switched on by the operator, the bulb is
illuminated with the cathode rays, and the X-Rays, proceeding therefrom
through the clothing and flesh of the patient, cast a shadow of the
patient’s hip joint upon the photographic plate placed on the cot
beneath the patient.
[Illustration: FIG. 219.--X-RAY FOCUS TUBE.]
In the effort to secure greater sharpness in the image cast by the
X-Rays, various forms of vacuum tubes have been devised. That shown in
Fig. 219 represents one of the most important improvements. K is the
cathode plate, formed of a concave disk of aluminum, which focuses the
rays at a point near the center of the bulb. At this point a plate of
platinum A, which metal allows practically none of the X-Rays to pass
through it, is mounted on the anode in such an angular position that it
gathers the focused rays and reflects them through the side of the tube.
They thus make a sharper shadow than when radiating from the more
extended surface of the glass.
[Illustration: FIG. 220.--LOCATING A FOREIGN BODY IN THE BRAIN.]
In Fig. 220 is shown an X-Ray tube, as applied for locating a foreign
body in the brain cavity, in which view the patient’s head is interposed
between the X-Ray tube and the fluorescing screen, or photographic
plate, as the case may be; while Fig. 221 shows the application of the
same devices to the body. In both these views the particular form of
X-Ray apparatus is known as the “Fluorometer,” made under the Dennis
Patent, No. 581,540, April 27, 1897, and it is devised with reference to
more accurately locating the foreign object by its shadow, for which
purpose adjustable bracket-sights, seen in Fig. 221 on opposite sides of
the body, are provided for bringing the X-Rays into proper alignment for
projecting the shadow of the foreign body in true indicative position on
the fluorescing screen, while a cross hatched grating behind the body,
graduated in aliquot spaces of an inch, furnishes a measured field, and
forms an easy and quick means of platting the position of said object.
In the position of parts in the two figures the horizontal line, on
which the foreign object lies, would be determined, but it would not
indicate how deep in the object was, _i. e._, whether it was in the
middle, or on one side. To determine this the fluorescing screen and
grating are placed under the patient, and the X-Ray tube above, and the
vertical line of the object is thus obtained. Both the vertical line and
horizontal line having been obtained, it will be obvious that the
foreign object will lie at the intersection of these two lines, which
establishes for the surgeon its definite location.
[Illustration: FIG. 221.--X-RAY APPARATUS APPLIED TO THE BODY.]
It has been observed by Prof. Elihu Thomson, and also by Dr. Kolle, that
the X-Rays are not absorbed and destroyed by the sensitive chemicals of
a single photographic plate, but so potent and penetrating is their
influence that the rays pass through and produce an image on a number of
plates, placed one behind the other, thus affording means for
multiplying the image at one exposure.
Among other uses of the X-Ray may be mentioned its capacity to detect
spurious from genuine gems, the diamond giving a distinct color from its
imitations, as do also most other precious stones.
A peculiar physiological effect of the X-Rays is their capacity to
produce a severe effect on the skin, somewhat resembling sunburn. Such
result, produced by long and continued exposure, has sometimes so
deranged the skin tissues as to make sores that resulted in the entire
loss of and renewal of the skin.
The discovery of the X-Ray by Prof. Roentgen may be fairly considered
one of the most wonderful scientific achievements of the century, and
his first memoir in 1895 is so full, clear and exact, as to have left
very little more to be said about it. It is to-day, as it was found by
him in 1895, the same mysterious, unseen, but positive force, a species
of electrical energy without a domicile, and needing no conductor, a
form of light passing through closed doors, invisible itself, and yet
lighting up certain substances with a halo of glory, and radically
changing and decomposing others. Rivaling the sun in actinic power, and
writing its autograph with an unseen hand, it is truly called the X-, or
unknown, ray.
CHAPTER XXVI.
GAS LIGHTING.
EARLY USE OF NATURAL GAS--COAL GAS INTRODUCED BY MURDOCH--WINSOR
ORGANIZES FIRST GAS COMPANY IN 1804--MELVILLE IN UNITED STATES
LIGHTS BEAVER-TAIL LIGHTHOUSE WITH GAS IN 1817--LOWE’S PROCESS OF
MAKING WATER GAS--ACETYLENE GAS--CARBURETTED AIR--PINTSCH GAS--GAS
METER--OTTO GAS ENGINE--THE WELSBACH BURNER.
For many centuries the going down of the sun marked a cessation of man’s
labors, and among his first efforts toward increasing his efficiency was
the prolongation of his hours of vision by artificial illumination.
Beginning with a shell for a lamp, a rush for a wick, and the fat of his
game for oil, the first crude lamp was made, and while it shed but a
feeble and flickering light, man ceased to go to sleep with the fowls
and the beasts, and continued his labors and amusements into the night.
For many centuries the lamp held its exclusive sway, and probably will
ever find a useful place; but with the discovery of coal gas and its
practical manufacture the nights of the Nineteenth Century have been
made to represent illuminated illustrations of the world’s progress.
Coal gas can hardly be claimed as an invention, however, for natural gas
from the bowels of the earth had been observed and used in China from
time immemorial. The holy fires of Baku on the shores of the Caspian and
elsewhere were also thus supplied. The first steps toward its artificial
production began in the latter part of the Seventeenth Century with Dr.
Clayton. Bishop Watson, in 1750, and Lord Dundonald, in 1786, also
experimented with combustible gas made from coal, but the man who more
than any other contributed to its practical manufacture and introduction
was Mr. Murdoch, of Redruth, Cornwall, England. In 1792 Murdoch erected
a gas distilling apparatus, and lighted his house and offices by gas
distributed through service pipes. In 1798 he so lighted the steam
engine works of Boulton & Watt, at Soho, near Birmingham; and in 1802
made public illumination of the works by this means on the occasion of a
public celebration. In 1801 Le Bon, of Paris, used a gas made from wood
for lighting his house. In 1803-4 Frederick Albert Winsor lighted the
Lyceum Theatre, took out a British patent No. 2,764, of 1804, for
lighting streets by gas, and established the National Light and Heat
Company, which was the first gas company. In 1804-5 Murdoch lighted the
cotton factory of Phillips & Lee at Manchester, the light being
estimated as equal to 3,000 candles, and this was the largest
undertaking up to that date. In 1807 Winsor lighted one side of Pall
Mall, London, and this was the first street lighting. A disastrous
explosion occurred shortly afterwards, and such eminent men as Sir
Humphrey Davy, Wollaston, and Watt expressed the opinion that it could
not be safely used; but the so-called “coal smoke” had come to stay, and
in 1813 Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament were lighted
with gas. In 1815 there was general adoption of gas in the streets of
London, and shortly afterwards in Paris. In 1805-6 David Melville, of
Newport, R. I., invented a gas apparatus and lighted his house with it.
He took out United States patent March 18, 1813, and in 1817 contracted
with the United States to supply for a year the Beaver Tail Lighthouse.
In 1815 James McMurtrie proposed the lighting of the streets of
Philadelphia; Baltimore commenced the use of gas in 1816, Boston in
1822, and New York in 1825.
[Illustration: FIG. 222.--A COAL GAS PLANT.]
In Fig. 222 is shown a diagrammatic illustration of the principal
features of a gas works, as employed throughout the greater part of the
Nineteenth Century. On the left is seen the furnace, in which is
arranged above the fire a series of retorts, which are in the nature of
horizontal closed cast iron boxes. Only one of the series is visible in
the view. Their ends project out beyond the furnace walls, and have
doors for giving access to the interior, and each retort outside the
furnace is connected by an upright pipe to an elevated cylinder called a
_hydraulic main_. When the retort is charged with coal through its end
door, and is heated red hot by the subjacent fire of the furnace, a
heavy gas is driven off from the coal, which passes up the pipe to the
_hydraulic main_, where it partially condenses and leaves its heavier
portions in the form of coal tar and ammoniacal liquor. The gas then
passes through the series of bent pipes, which form a _condenser_, where
other remaining portions of the tar and other impurities are condensed,
and drawn off from time to time in the little well shown on the left of
the coil. From the condenser coils the gas passes into the _purifier_,
shown on the right of the coils as an enclosed case having a series of
shelves on which is spread slaked lime, which takes up from the gas
impurities in the form of sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid. From
this _purifier_ the gas passes downwardly through a pipe into a large
gas holder whose lower end is sealed in a water tank, and which gas
holder is balanced by weights and chains passing over pulleys. With the
gas holder, the distributing mains of the city are made to connect to
receive their supply. When the gas holder is full it is buoyed up by the
lighter gas, and occupies an elevated position, and as its supply is
used up, the gas holder settles down into the water.
In the operation of gas making many valuable secondary products are
formed. The coal in the retorts is not entirely consumed, but is reduced
to the condition of coke, and in this form is sold for fuel. The
ammoniacal condensations are purified to form ammonia, while the coal
tar, which but a few years ago was little more than a waste material, is
now a valuable commercial product, being extensively used in the
manufacture of the aniline, phenol, and naphthalene dyes, also in
medicines and perfumes, and being used in crude form also as an
important element in street paving compositions.
_Water Gas._--In 1875 an important era in gas making was inaugurated by
the introduction of what is known as “_water gas_,” so called for the
reason that water in the form of steam is decomposed and its hydrogen,
mixed with carbonic oxide gas, is mingled with a heavier carbon gas from
oil, and is converted at a high temperature into a permanent, stable
illuminating gas, at a much lower cost than coal gas.
[Illustration: FIG. 223.--LOWE’S WATER GAS APPARATUS, PATENTED SEPTEMBER
21, 1875.]
Fontana was the first to notice the decomposition of steam by
incandescent carbon to form hydrogen and carbonic oxide. Ibbetson’s
British patent, No. 4,954, of 1824, represents the first application of
this principle. This was followed by Alexander Selligue, who, in 1834,
obtained a French patent, No. 9,800, and in 1842 produced water gas at
Batignolles, a suburb of Paris. Sanders’ United States patent, 21,027,
July 27, 1858, was the basis of an experiment tried at the Girard House
in Philadelphia. These, with Siemens’ British patents, Nos. 2,861, of
1856, and 972, of 1863, for methods of constructing furnaces, constitute
the earlier steps in the development of water gas, although many other
patents were granted prior to the latter date for various methods and
forms of apparatus. The practical production and successful commercial
use of water gas, however, began with T. S. C. Lowe, who obtained United
States patent No. 167,847, September 21, 1875, and revolutionized the
gas making industry. In less than a dozen years from the date of his
patent 150 cities and towns in the United States were using water gas,
and in 1886 the Franklin Institute gave to Mr. Lowe a grand medal of
honor for his invention, which of those exhibited that year was believed
to contribute most to the welfare of mankind by cheapening the cost of
light. Fig. 223 represents an illustration of the Lowe apparatus as
shown in his patent, and whose operation is as follows: Valves 9 and 10
being open, an anthracite coal fire in generator chamber 1 gives off
carbonic oxide gas, which passes down pipe 2 and enters the base of
superheater 3, where mixing with air coming down pipe 4, it burns to
form an intense heat. The chamber, 3, is filled with loose pieces of
fire brick, which are soon heated white hot. Valves 9 and 10 are then
closed and steam is taken from an upright boiler, 6, and carried by a
small pipe, 7, to the incandescent mass in chamber 3, and passing down
through it is superheated. This superheated steam passes from the bottom
of chamber 3 to the bottom of chamber 1, and then up through the mass of
red hot coal. The intensely hot steam is thus decomposed into hydrogen
and oxygen, and the oxygen unites with the carbon of the coal to form
carbonic oxide gas. As hydrogen and carbonic oxide burn with only a
feeble blue flame, these gases are now made richer in light giving
carbon at this point by the addition of oil contained in an elevated
tank, 8. This, dripping on the incandescent coal in chamber 1, is
volatilized, and at the same time enriches and combines with the
hydrogen and carbonic oxide to form a permanent illuminating gas (water
gas) that passes up pipe 5 and through the flues in boiler 6, to outlet
13, and thence on in the usual way to the condenser, scrubber and gas
holder, which are not shown, and merely act to purify the gas. As the
excessively hot water gas passes through the boiler flues it furnishes
the necessary heat to generate the steam. The air used in the process is
forced at 12 into a drum in the smokestack, 11, and is heated by the
escaping products of combustion. In practical operation there are two
(or more) of the steam superheating chambers 3, working alternately, and
one of them is being heated up while the other is superheating the
steam.
Water gas has neither the illuminating nor the heating qualities of coal
gas, and it is also much more poisonous. According to O. Wyss, one-tenth
of 1 per cent. of uncarburetted water gas renders the air of a room
injurious to health, and 1 per cent. is fatal to all warm-blooded
animals. Notwithstanding these facts, however, its extreme cheapness and
fairly satisfactory light have carried it into such general use that
to-day it is said that two-thirds of all gas made in the United States
is carburetted water gas.
_Acetylene Gas_ is a combination of two parts carbon and two parts
hydrogen. It was discovered in 1836 by Edmond Davy, who produced
carburet of potassium, and evolved acetylene gas therefrom by
decomposing it with water. It was long known as _klumene_, and when
burned it produced an intense white light. For a long time it was only
produced in a small way in the laboratory. It is now made commercially
by the mutual decomposition of water and calcium carbide, the latter
giving off, when brought in contact with the water, acetylene gas, which
rises in bubbles. In the reaction the carbon of the carbide unites with
a portion of the hydrogen of the water, producing acetylene gas (C₂H₂),
while the calcium of the carbide unites with the oxygen of the water and
the remaining portion of the hydrogen and forms calcium hydrate, or
slaked lime, which precipitates as a slush.
The union of carbon with an alkali metal, first accomplished by Davy in
1836, was followed in 1861 by the combination of carbon with calcium by
Wohler. It was not, however, until the electrical furnace became an
agency in chemical reaction that calcium carbide was made on a
commercial scale. The production of acetylene gas for illuminating
purposes began with the operations of Thomas L. Willson in 1893, and his
patents, Nos. 541,137 and 541,138, of June 18, 1895, and 563,527 and
563,528 of July 7, 1896, cover the chemical process, the product, and
the mode of operating. The reaction is a very simple one. A mixture of
lime and carbon is subjected to the heat of an electric arc, and the
carbon combines with the calcium of the lime to form calcium carbide,
which appears on the market as dirty black stone-like lumps. The
simplicity of the method of generating acetylene gas from this substance
by merely bringing it in contact with water has greatly stimulated
invention in this field. The art began practically in 1895, and since
that time more than 500 patents have been granted for acetylene gas
apparatus.
[Illustration: FIG. 224.--ACETYLENE GAS APPARATUS.]
A very simple apparatus for the purpose is shown in Fig. 224, in which a
vessel containing water has an inverted bell or cylinder within it, open
at its lower end. A basket or cage is suspended within the inner
cylinder, and contains a few lumps of calcium carbide, which are first
immersed in the water by being forced down by the rod supporting the
same, which passes through a stuffing box. Acetylene gas is immediately
generated and its pressure forces the level of the water down in the
inner cylinder, causing it to rise in the annular space between said
cylinder and the case. As the water level descends in the inner chamber
it passes out of contact with the calcium carbide, and the generation of
gas is discontinued until some of the gas is drawn off or consumed at
the burners, whose pipe is shown connecting with the gas space of the
inner cylinder. When so drawn off, the pressure in the inner cylinder is
relieved, and the water therein rises to contact again with the calcium
carbide and renews the generation of gas. This principle of automatic
action is a very old one, and will be recognized by the student as that
of the Dobereiner lamp of the chemical laboratory, invented by Prof.
Dobereiner, of Jena, in 1824.
[Illustration: FIG. 225.--MULTI-CHARGE ACETYLENE GAS GENERATOR.]
In acetylene gas apparatus a great variety of methods are employed for
bringing the water and carbide into contact. Instead of the automatic
pressure level principle described, many devices discharge a regulated
quantity of powdered calcium carbide into the water, while in another
form the water is discharged upon the calcium carbide. An example of the
latter is given in Fig. 225, which represents the Criterion generator. A
number of receptacles containing charges of calcium carbide are made to
successively receive a regulated quantity of water, the gas being
collected in a rising and falling holder.
Acetylene gas finds its principal uses for isolated plants, and in
country houses. One form of using it is to compress it under high
tension in cylinders, but this method has been attended with some
disastrous explosions, and is discriminated against by the insurance
companies.
Calcium carbide is now made in a large way by the Willson Aluminum
Company, at Spray, N. C., and also at Niagara Falls and at Sault St.
Marie, Mich., and its cost is between 3 and 4 cents per pound.
Acetylene gas has an acrid, garlicy odor, and burns with an intensely
white flame, and so superior is it to coal gas in illuminating power
that it only requires a pipe of one-third the diameter of that used for
coal gas to produce the same illuminating effect.
_Carburetted Air_ is another form of illuminating gas which has found
some useful applications. This consists simply of air forced through
some light hydrocarbon, such as naphtha, benzine or gasoline, and so
saturated with the vapors of these volatile substances as to become an
inflammable mixture. Many patents have been granted for apparatus
operating on this principle, and it has been put to some practical use
in country houses, and seaside resorts.
_Pintsch Gas_ is another special application. It is a gas made from oil
and compressed in storage cylinders by means of pumps for portable use.
It is stored under a pressure sometimes as high as 150 pounds to the
inch, its pressure being reduced at the burners through the agency of
pressure regulators. It is used for lighting railway cars, buoys, and
lightships.
Gas making has probably been the most extensive and important of all the
commercial chemical operations of the Nineteenth Century, and with it
has come a great array of minor inventions as accessories. Among these
first came the gas meter and pressure regulator. With the introduction
of gas into houses some means of determining the amount consumed as a
basis of payment was required, and for this purpose the gas meter was
devised. The first gas meters were known as wet meters, and effected a
measurement by passing the gas through a liquid and rotating a wheel
therein. The wet meter was invented by Clegg (British patent No. 3,968,
of 1815), and the dry meter, by Malam (British patent No. 4,458, of
1820), and improved by Defries (British patent. No. 7,705, of 1838). The
gas regulator is simply a little automatic apparatus whereby the
variation of pressure in the gas main is reduced and the flow rendered
perfectly uniform at the burner. It effects a saving of gas by
preventing it from blowing when the pressure is too great, and also
gives a more steady and uniform light.
Among the great number of mechanical devices which have grown out of the
use of gas may be mentioned the gas range for heat, the gas engine for
power, and the Welsbach burner for light. The gas range has contributed
much to the domestic economy of the city house. It gives an immediate
heat in the kitchen for all culinary and domestic purposes, without the
incidental objections of having to transport fuel and remove ashes. It
is put into or out of action in an instant, saves labor and time, and
avoids the heat and discomfort of a coal stove during the hot months of
summer. It is organized in principle after the Bunsen burner, whereby a
perfect combustion of the carbon is obtained with maximum heating effect
and without smoke or deposits of lampblack.
[Illustration: FIG. 226.--OTTO GAS ENGINE.]
The Otto gas engine, seen in Fig. 226, is a pioneer and representative
type of a great number of explosive gas engines, which in recent years
have become active competitors of the steam engine where only small
power is required. The Otto engine is covered by patent No. 194,047,
August 14, 1877. Patents No. 222,467, 297,329, 336,505, 358,796,
320,285, 386,211 and 549,160 represent important developments in this
art.
[Illustration: FIG. 227.--WELSBACH GAS BURNER.]
_The Welsbach burner_ for improving the quality of gaslight, and
economizing its consumption, is also well and favorably known. It
utilizes the Bunsen burner principle to make a very perfect combustion
of the gas, with the greatest possible heat and the least smoke, and
then directs its great heat on to a refractory body which will not burn,
but glows with a brilliant white incandescence. The Welsbach burner was
brought out in 1885. The United States patent therefor was granted
October 7, 1890, to Carl Auer Von Welsbach, No. 438,125. The Welsbach
light is a development of the Drummond, or limelight, invented by Lieut.
Drummond, of England, in 1826. This latter exposed a piece of quick lime
to the intensely hot flame of the oxy-hydrogen blow pipe, which was
invented by Dr. Robt. Hare in 1802. The piece of lime glows with an
intense brilliancy approximating that of the electric light. The
Welsbach burner, see Fig. 227, operates on the same general principle,
except that the refractory body, which is heated to incandescence, is a
tubular sleeve of netted fabric first steeped in a solution of the salts
of refractory earths, and then incinerated by heat to burn out the
textile fibre and leave the refractory earthy oxides as a skeleton of
the fabric, and which is called a “mantle.” This mantle is suspended
above the flame arising from a proper admixture of air and gas, and is
heated thereby to a brilliant incandescence which furnishes the light.
In the Welsbach burner the light seen does not proceed directly from the
combustion of the gas, but from the white hot mantle. The light is a
very pure white one, does not distort or falsify colors, and effects a
great saving of gas. An important improvement upon the mantle is covered
by Rawson’s patent, July 30, 1889, No. 407,963, for coating the mantles
with paraffine or analogous material to toughen them and prevent them
from breaking in packing and transportation.
_Natural Gas._--No review of gas lighting would be complete without some
reference to the development incident to the use of the natural gas
flowing from the internal reservoirs of the earth. Such gas has been
known and utilized for centuries in China, and was conveyed by the
Chinese in bamboo pipes to points of utilization. The discovery of coal
oil in the United States in 1859, and the great advances made in the
methods and apparatus for sinking oil wells, have resulted in the
discovery of numerous wells of natural gas, whose values were quickly
perceived and utilized by their owners. The village of Fredonia, N. Y.,
was probably the first to be lighted by natural gas, and a flow from a
well at West Bloomfield, N. Y., opened in 1865, was carried in a wooden
main more than twenty miles to the city of Rochester. Many wells of
natural gas have since been found at various points, and so extensive
has been its use for cooking, heating, lighting and metallurgical
processes, that thousands of patents have been taken for various forms
of burners, pressure regulators and other appliances for utilizing the
same. The annual production of natural gas in the United States for 1888
was valued at $22,629,875. There has, however, been a steady decrease in
the past ten years. The amount produced in 1897 was $13,826,422. The
insatiable demands of modern civilization must some day exhaust the
supply, and what will take place when the subterranean chambers are
relieved of their burden is a question for the geologists to answer.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CIVIL ENGINEERING.
GREAT BRIDGES--PNEUMATIC CAISSONS--TUNNELS--THE BEACH TUNNEL SHIELD
--SUEZ CANAL--DREDGES--THE LIDGERWOOD CABLEWAY--CANAL LOCKS--
ARTESIAN WELLS--COMPRESSED AIR ROCK DRILLS--BLASTING--MISSISSIPPI
JETTIES--IRON AND STEEL BUILDINGS--EIFFEL TOWER--WASHINGTON’S
MONUMENT--THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL.
Almost entirely of an outdoor character, and necessarily on public
exhibition, the engineering achievements of the Nineteenth Century have
always been conspicuously in evidence, challenging the admiration of the
public eye. They represent man’s attack upon the obstacles presented by
nature to his irrepressible spirit of progress. Difficulties apparently
insuperable have confronted him, only to melt away under his persistent
genius until nothing seems impossible. He has connected continents with
the telegraph, has crosshatched the land with railroads, penetrated the
bowels of the earth with artesian wells, opened communication between
oceans with the Suez Canal, reclaimed territory from the sea in Holland,
pierced mountain ranges with tunnels, drained marshes, irrigated
deserts, reared lofty structures of masonry and steel, spanned waters
with magnificent bridges, opened channel-ways to the sea, built beacons
for the mariner, and breakwaters for the storm beaten ship.
Probably the most important branch of engineering work is railroad
construction, already considered under steam railways. Closely related
to the railroad, however, is bridge building, and many of these noble
structures hang between heaven and earth, conspicuous monuments of the
engineer’s skill.
[Illustration: FIG. 228.--THE FORTH BRIDGE. LARGEST VIADUCT IN THE
WORLD. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH WHEN IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION. LENGTH, 8,290
FEET; HEIGHT ABOVE WATER, 361 FEET; MAIN SPANS, 1,710 FEET LONG, 150
FEET HIGH.]
_The Forth Bridge._--This massive structure, of the cantilever type, is
shown in Fig. 228. It was begun in 1882 and finished in 1890, and is the
largest and most costly viaduct in the world. It is built across the
Firth of Forth, and is the most important link in the direct railway
communication of the North British Railway, and associated roads,
between Edinburgh on the one side, and Perth and Dundee on the other.
The total length of the viaduct is 8,296 feet, or nearly 1⅝ miles. The
extreme height of the structure is 361 feet above the water level, and
the foundations extend 91 feet below the water level. The two main spans
are 1,710 feet, and these both give a clear headway for navigation of
150 feet height. There are over 50,000 tons of steel in the
superstructure, and about 140,000 cubic yards of masonry and concrete in
the foundation piers. The three main piers consist each of a group of
four masonry columns faced with granite, 49 feet in diameter at the top,
and 36 feet high, which rest on solid rock, or on concrete carried down
in most cases by means of caissons of a maximum diameter of 70 feet to
rock or boulder clay.
No intelligent conception of the enormous size of this great structure
can be obtained except by comparison. Estimating from the bottom of the
masonry piers to the towering heights of the cantilevers, it reaches
above the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome, and is only a little short of the
height of the greatest of the pyramids of Egypt. The cost of the bridge
is given as £3,250,000 or nearly $16,000,000.
_The Brooklyn Bridge._--Having for its successful construction and
maintenance the same foundation principle upon which the spider builds
its web, this magnificent bridge of steel wires spans the East River
between New York and Brooklyn, with a total length of 5,989 feet, and in
length of span and cost is second only to the great Forth Bridge. It is
shown in Fig. 229, and among suspension bridges it ranks first. It has a
central span of 1,595½ feet between the two towers, over which the
suspension cables are hung, and has a clear headway beneath of 135 feet.
It has two side spans of 930 feet each between the towers and the shore.
[Illustration: FIG. 229.--THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. LONGEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE
IN THE WORLD. TOTAL LENGTH, 5,989 FEET; SPAN BETWEEN TOWERS, 1,595 FEET
6 INCHES.]
The suspension towers stand on two piers founded in the river on solid
rock at depths of 78 and 45 feet below high water, and they rise 277
feet above the same level. There are four suspension cables 15½ inches
in diameter, each composed of 5,282 galvanized steel wires, placed side
by side, without any twist, and arranged in groups of 19 strands bound
up with wire. These cables have a dip in the center of the large span of
128 feet, rest on movable saddles on the top of the towers to allow for
slight movement of the cables due to expansion and contraction, and are
held down at the shore ends by massive anchorages of masonry. The bridge
has a width of 85 feet, and has two roadways, two lines of railway, and
a foot way. It was begun in 1876 and opened for traffic in 1883, and its
cost was about $15,000,000. It fulfills a great function for the busy
metropolis, and it hangs in the air a monument in steel wire to the
genius of the Roeblings.
_Masonry Bridges._--The largest and finest single span of masonry in
America, and believed to be the largest in the world, is to be found
about 9 miles northwest of the city of Washington. It is known as the
Washington Aqueduct or Cabin John Bridge, and is seen in Fig. 230. It
extends across the small stream known as Cabin John Creek, and carries
an aqueduct 9 feet in diameter, that supplies the National Capital with
water, its upper surface above the water conduit being formed into a
fine roadway. It is 450 feet long. Its span is 220 feet, the height of
the roadway above the bed of the stream is 100 feet, and the width of
the structure is 20 feet 4 inches. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs was the
engineer in charge of its construction. It was begun in 1857 and
finished in 1864, with the exception of the parapet walls of the
roadway, which were added in 1872-3. Its cost was $254,000. Only one
other masonry arch has ever been built which equalled this in size. The
Trezzo Bridge, built in the fourteenth century, over the Adda in North
Italy, and subsequently destroyed, is said to have had a span of 251
feet, but the Washington Aqueduct Bridge at Cabin John is a noble work
in masonry, and when standing beneath its majestic sweep, and viewing
the regular courses of masonry hanging nearly a hundred feet high in the
air, and springing more than a hundred feet from the embankment upon
either side, one loses sight of the principles of the arch, and the
fear that the mass may fall upon him gives way to the impression that
nature has bowed to the genius of man, and suspended the law of gravity.
[Illustration: FIG. 230.--CABIN JOHN BRIDGE, NEAR WASHINGTON, D. C.
LARGEST MASONRY ARCH IN THE WORLD. LENGTH, 450 FEET; SPAN OF ARCH, 220
FEET; HEIGHT, 100 FEET.]
Among the patents granted for bridges the most important are those
relating to the cantilever type, among which may be mentioned those to
Bender, Latrobe, and Smith, No. 141,310, July 29, 1873; Eads, No.
142,378 to 142,382, September 2, 1873, and Clarke, No. 504,559,
September 5, 1893.
_Caissons._--For submarine explorations the ancient diving bell, which
was said to have been used more than 2,000 years ago, has given place to
diving armor, while for more extensive local work the pneumatic caisson
is employed. The latter was invented by M. Triger, a French engineer, in
1841. An early example of it is also given in Cochrane’s British patent
No. 3,226, of 1861. It consists of a vertical cylinder divided into
compartments, its lower open end resting on the river bottom. Compressed
air forced into the lower compartment forces the water back, while the
men are at work, the intermediate chamber forming an air lock, by which
entrance to, or egress from, the lower working chamber is obtained. The
pneumatic caissons of Eads (patents Nos. 123,002, January 23, 1872, and
123,685, February 13, 1872) and Flad (patent No. 303,830, August 19,
1884) are modern applications of the same principle. The sinking of
shafts through quicksand, by artificially freezing the same and then
treating it as solid material, is an ingenious modern method shown in
patents to Poetsch, No. 300,891, June 24, 1884; and Smith, No. 371,389,
October 11, 1887.
_Tunnels._--Less conspicuous than bridges, by virtue of their
underground character, but none the less important, are these mole-like
means of communication. Especially difficult of construction for the
reason that the nature of the soil or rock is largely unknown, and for
the reason also that the work may have to encounter faults in rocks, and
springs or quicksands in the earth; nevertheless the demands of the
railroads for shortening the distance of travel and economizing time
have stimulated the engineer to expend millions of dollars in piercing
the earth with these great underground passageways.
_The Mont Cenis Tunnel_ was constructed to establish railway
communication between France and Italy through the Alps. It was begun in
1857, and after having been in progress of construction for thirteen
years, was opened for traffic in 1871. This tunnel was commenced by hand
borings, being for the most part through solid rock, and its progress up
to 1862 was so slow that it was estimated that thirty years would be
required for its construction. Its earlier completion was due to the
introduction of rock drills operated by compressed air, which trebled
the rate of advance, and which device made a new epoch in all
rock-boring and mining operations. This tunnel was cut from both ends at
the same time, and so accurate were the surveys in establishing the
alignment of the two headings through the mountain mass, that, although
the tunnel was more than 7½ miles long, when the two headings came
together in the middle, only a difference of one foot in level existed
between them. When it is remembered that most of the 7½ miles of tunnel
was cut through solid rock, by boring and blasting, the immensity of the
undertaking can be appreciated. As completed the tunnel is 8 miles long,
and wide enough for a double track railway.
_The St. Gothard Tunnel_ is another tunnel through the Alps, which
involved even a longer and deeper cut through the mountains than the
Mont Cenis Tunnel. This is 9¼ miles long, and it was begun in 1872, the
headings joined in 1880, and the tunnel opened for traffic in 1882.
Although by far the largest undertaking yet made, the improvement in
rock-boring machinery enabled it to be constructed much more rapidly and
at less expense.
The Arlberg is still another Alpine tunnel. It is 6½ miles long, was
commenced in 1880, and opened for traffic in 1884.
Tunneling under rivers presents many more difficulties than driving
through the hardest rock. This is so by reason of the inflow of water.
Among successful tunnels of this kind may be named the Mersey and Severn
tunnels in England, opened in 1886, and the St. Clair tunnel between the
United States and Canada. The histories of the abandoned Detroit and
Hudson river tunnels are object lessons of the difficulties encountered
in this class of work.
An important engineering invention for tunneling through silt or soft
soil is the so-called “shield.” This was first employed by the engineer
Brunel in the construction of the Thames tunnel, which was begun in 1825
and opened as a thoroughfare in 1843. The shield, as now used, is a sort
of a cylinder or sleeve as large as the tunnel, which sleeve, as the
excavation proceeds in front of it, is forced ahead to act both as a
ring-shaped cutter and a protection to the workmen, its advance being
effected by powerful hydraulic jacks or screws which find a back bearing
against the completed wall of the tunnel. As the digging proceeds the
shield is advanced, and a section of tunnel is built behind it which, in
turn, furnishes a bearing for the jacks in the further advance of the
shield.
This latter improvement was the invention of the late Alfred E. Beach,
of the _Scientific American_, and was covered by him in patent No.
91,071, June 8, 1869, and was used in driving the experimental pneumatic
subway constructed by him under Broadway, New York, in 1868-9, and also
in the St. Clair River tunnel and the unfinished Hudson River tunnel and
other works.
Subsequent improvements made upon the shield by J. H. Greathead of
England and covered by him in United States patents Nos. 360,959, April
12, 1887; and 432,871, July 22, 1890, have greatly added to the value
and efficiency of this device, and made it one of the leading
instrumentalities in tunnel construction.
_Suez Canal._--It is said that the undertaking of connecting the
Mediterranean and Red Seas was considered as long ago as the time of
Herodotus, and a small channel appears to have been opened twenty-five
centuries ago, but was subsequently abandoned. In 1847 the subject was
again taken up for serious consideration, the work begun in 1860, and
finished in 1869, at a cost of £20,500,000, or more than a hundred
million dollars. The canal starts at Port Said, on the Mediterranean, a
view of which with its ships of all nations and the canal reaching far
away in the distance is seen in Fig. 231. The canal extends nearly due
south to Suez on the Red Sea, a distance of about 100 miles, through
barren wastes of sand and an occasional lake. It was originally formed
with a bottom width of 72 feet, spreading out to 196 to 328 feet at the
top, and of a depth of 26 feet, but has since been increased in
transverse dimension to accommodate the great increase in travel.
[Illustration: FIG. 231.--PORT SAID ENTRANCE TO SUEZ CANAL, SHOWING
HARBOR WITH SHIPS OF ALL NATIONS, AND THE CANAL REACHING AWAY IN THE
DISTANCE.]
Sixty great dredges were employed on the work, and the dredged material
was discharged in chutes on to the bank. The canal was the work of M. De
Lesseps, the eminent French engineer, and has proved a great success
from both an engineering and financial standpoint. The stock is mainly
held in England, having been bought from the Khedive of Egypt. In 1898
the ships passing through the canal during the year reached the
remarkable number of 3,503. The rate of tolls is 10 francs (about $2)
per net ton. The gross tonnage of ships passing through in 1898 was
12,962,632, the net tonnage 9,238,603. The total receipts for the year
were 87,906,255 francs (about $17,500,000), and the net profit
63,441,987 francs (about $12,500,000). An average size ocean liner pays
about $5,000 for the privilege of sailing through this great ditch.
Admiral Dewey’s ship, the “Olympia,” returning from the Philippines,
paid for her toll $3,516.04, and the “Chicago,” $3,165.95. Going the
other way, our supply ship “Alexander” paid $4,107.99, while the
“Glacier” paid $5,052.38. Ships making the passage through the canal
move slowly on account of the washing of the banks, about 22 hours
being required, but the shortening of the travel of ships going east and
west, and the saving of life, property, and time, involved in avoiding
the circuitous and stormy passage around the Cape of Good Hope, has been
of incalculable benefit to the world.
[Illustration: FIG. 232.--HERCULES DREDGER.]
With the construction of canals and harbors, great improvements have
been made in dredges. Some of these are of the clam-shell type, some
employ the scoop and lever, others an endless series of buckets. An
example of the latter, used on the Panama Canal, is seen in Fig. 232.
Still another form, and the most recent if not the most important is the
hydraulic dredger, which, by rotating cutters, stirs and cuts the mud
and silt, and by powerful suction pumps and immense tubes draws up the
semi-fluid mass and sends it to suitable points of discharge. The best
known of the latter type is the Bowers hydraulic dredge, covered by many
patents, of which Nos. 318,859 and 318,860, May 26, 1885; 388,253,
August 21, 1888; and 484,763, October 18, 1892, are the most important.
For surface excavations in solid earth the Lidgerwood Cableway is an
important and labor saving device. A track cable is stretched from two
distant towers, and a bucket holding well on to a ton of earth is made
to travel on a trolley running on said cable track, rising at one end
out of the excavation, and dumping at the other end to fill in the
excavation as the cutting progresses, all in a continuous and
economical manner. This device is made under the patent to M. W. Locke,
No. 295,776, March 25, 1884, and comprehends many subsequent
improvements patented by Miller, Delaney, North and others. The Chicago
Drainage Canal is a work just completed, which largely employed these
devices. This canal was designed to connect the Chicago River with the
Mississippi River, so as to send the sewage of Chicago down the
Mississippi instead of into Lake Michigan. Although it cost $33,000,000
and required seven years for completion, the labor-saving cableways
greatly cheapened its cost and shortened the time of its construction.
Among the leading inventions relating to canal construction may be
mentioned the bear-trap canal-lock gate (patents Nos. 229,682, 236,488
and 552,063), and the Dutton pneumatic lift locks. The latter provide
ease and rapidity of action by a principle of balancing locks in pairs,
and are covered by his patent No. 457,528, August 11, 1891, and others
of subsequent date.
_Artesian Wells_ represent an important branch of engineering work, and
they are so called from the province of Artois, in France, where they
have for a long time been in use. Extending several thousand feet into
the subterranean chambers of the earth, they have brought abundant water
supply to the surface all over the world, from the desert sands of
Sahara to the hotels of the modern city; they have contributed oil and
gas in incredible quantities to supply light and heat, and have made
valuable additions to the salt supply of the world.
They are driven by reciprocating a ponderous chisel-shaped drill within
an iron tube, six inches more or less in diameter, which is built up in
sections, and moved down as the cutting descends. The drill is
reciprocated by a suspending rope from machinery in a derrick, and in
order to give a hammer-like blow to the chisel a pair of ponderous iron
links coupled together like those of a chain, and called a “_drill jar_”
connect the drill to the rope. As the sections of the link slide over
each other they come together with a hammer blow at the moment of
lifting that dislodges the drill from the rock, and on the descending
movement they come together with a hammering blow immediately after the
drill touches the rock to drive it into the same. The first United
States patent for a drill jar is that to Morris, No. 2,243, September 4,
1841. When an oil well ceases to flow, it is rejuvenated by being
“shot,” which is quite contrary to the ordinary conception of prolonging
life. For this purpose a dynamite cartridge is exploded at the lower end
of the well, which shatters the rock, and, in opening up new channels
of flow for the oil, renews the yield. Many patented inventions have
been made in the field of well boring, and the discovery of coal oil in
the United States in 1859 has developed a great industry and built up
enormous fortunes. The amount of petroleum produced in the United States
in 1896 was 60,960,361 barrels, the largest yield on record. In 1897 the
amount was 60,568,081 barrels.
Of less consequence than the artesian well, but finding many useful
applications, is the drive well. A metal tube with a perforated lower
end is driven down by hammers into the ground, and furnishes a quick and
cheap source of water supply. This was invented by Col. Green in 1861,
in meeting the necessities of his military camp during the civil war,
and was patented by him January 14, 1868, No. 73,425.
_Rock Drills._--In mining and tunneling through rock, the rock drill has
been the implement of paramount importance and utility. For boring by
rotary action the diamond drill is most effective. This uses bits set
with diamonds which, by their extreme hardness, cut through the most
refractory rock with great rapidity. It was invented by Hermann and
patented by him in France, June 3, 1854.
More important, however, is the compressed air rock drill, in which a
piston has the drill bit directly on its piston rod and cuts by a
reciprocating action. The piston is actuated by compressed air admitted
alternately to its opposite sides in an automatic manner by valves. The
compressed air conveyed to the drill in the tunnel or mine not only
operates the drill, but helps to ventilate the tunnel. As early as 1849
Clarke and Motley, in England, invented a machine drill, and in 1851
Fowle devised a similar machine, having the drill attached directly to
the piston cross head. The Hoosac and Mont Cenis tunnels greatly
stimulated invention in this field, and among the notable drills of this
class may be named the Burleigh, Ingersoll, and Sergeant. The Burleigh
drill was brought out in 1866, and was covered by patents Nos. 52,960,
52,961 and 59,960 of that year, and 113,850 of 1871, and the Ingersoll
drill, by patents No. 112,254, and No. 120,279, of 1871.
[Illustration: FIG. 233.--BLOWING UP FLOOD ROCK.]
_Blasting._--The discovery of nitro-glycerine in 1846, followed by its
convenient commercial preparation in the form of dynamite, gave a great
impetus to blasting. Notable as the largest operation of the kind in the
century is the blowing up of Flood Rock, in the path of commerce between
New York City and Long Island Sound. The dangerous character of this and
other rocks in this vicinity gave long ago to this channel the
significant name of Hell Gate. The undermining of the rocks by shafts
and galleries is seen in Fig. 233, and the final blowing up of the same
in a single blast was the culmination of a series of similar operations
at this point tending to safer navigation. On October 10, 1885, 40,000
cartridges, containing 75,000 pounds of dynamite and 240,000 pounds of
_rack-a-rock_, were, by the touching of a button and the closing of an
electric circuit, simultaneously exploded. In the twinkling of an eye
nine acres of solid rock were shattered into fragments by the prodigious
force, and a vast upheaval of water 1,400 feet long, 800 feet wide, and
200 feet high, sprang into the air in tangled and gigantic fountains. As
the termination of the most stupendous piece of engineering of the kind
the world has ever seen, and with spectacular features fitting the
enormous expense of $1,000,000, which the work cost, this final scene
put an end to the menaces of Flood Rock, and wiped out of existence the
worst dangers of Hell Gate.
[Illustration: FIG. 234.--CROSS SECTION MISSISSIPPI JETTIES.]
_Mississippi Jetties._--The broad bar and shallow waters at the mouth of
the Mississippi involved such an obstruction to commerce that in 1872 it
received the attention of Congress, resulting in the building, by Capt.
Eads, of the celebrated jetties. They were begun in 1875 and finished in
1879, and cost $5,250,000. The channel obtained was 30 feet deep and 200
feet wide. Its construction involved the building across the bar and out
into the Gulf of Mexico two long reaches of parallel embankments, called
jetties. This was effected by sinking mattresses of willow branches
bound together and weighted with stone. These were laid in four layers,
and when submerged, and resting upon the bottom, were covered with a
layer of loose stone, and this in turn was surmounted with a capping of
concrete blocks, as seen in cross section in Fig. 234. These jetties so
concentrated the flow of waters into a narrow channel as to cause its
increased velocity to wash out the mud and silt and deepen the channel.
The immensity of the work may be measured by the quantity of material
used in its construction, which included 6,000,000 cubic yards of willow
mattresses, 1,000,000 cubic yards of stone, 13,000,000 feet (board
measure) of lumber, and 8,000,000 cubic yards of concrete. The
mattresses were laid 35 to 50 feet wide at the bottom, which width was
considerably increased by the superimposed layer of stone, and the
jetties extended 2¼ miles into the sea. Their influence upon commerce is
indicated by the fact that before their construction the annual grain
export from New Orleans was less than half a million bushels, and in
1880, the year following their completion, it was increased to
14,000,000 bushels.
[Illustration: FIG. 235.--INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION MODERN STEEL BUILDING.]
_High Buildings._--A distinct feature of modern architecture is the
enormously tall steel frame building known as the “sky scraper.” The
increasing value of city lots first brought about the vertical extension
of buildings to a greater number of stories, and the necessity for
making them fireproof, coupled with the desire to avoid loss of interior
space, due to thick walls at the base, made a demand for a different
style of architecture. To meet this a skeleton frame of steel is bolted
together in unitary structure, the floors being all carried on the steel
frame, and the outer masonry walls being relatively thin, and carrying
only their own weight. In Fig. 235 is shown an example of the interior
structure of such a building. The vertical columns are erected upon a
very firm foundation, and to them are bolted, on the floor levels,
horizontal I-beams and girders, stayed by tie rods, which I-beams
receive between them hollow fireproof tile to form the floor. The outer
masonry walls are built around the skeleton frame, as seen in Fig. 236,
and the details of connections for the floor members appear in Fig. 237.
[Illustration: FIG. 236.--ENCLOSURE OF STEEL FRAME BY MASONRY.]
[Illustration: FIG. 237.--DETAILS OF INTERNAL CONSTRUCTION.]
The construction of iron buildings began about the middle of the
century. In 1845 Peter Cooper erected the largest rolling mill at that
time in the United States for making railroad iron, and at this mill
wrought iron beams for fireproof buildings were first rolled. In the
building of the Cooper Institute in New York City in 1857 he was the
first to employ such beams with brick arches to support the floors. The
unifying of the iron work into an integral skeleton frame, for relieving
the side walls of the weight of the floors is, however, a comparatively
recent development, and this has so raised the height of the modern
office building as to cause it to impress the observer as an obelisk
rather than a place of habitation. An earthquake-proof steel palace for
the Crown Prince of Japan is one of the modern applications of steel in
architecture. It is being built by American engineers, and is to cost
$3,000,000.
[Illustration: FIG. 238.--THE EIFFEL TOWER. HEIGHT, 984 FEET. TALLEST
STRUCTURE IN THE WORLD.]
[Illustration: FIG. 239.--WASHINGTON’S MONUMENT. HEIGHT 555 FEET, 5½
INCHES. HIGHEST MASONRY STRUCTURE IN THE WORLD.]
_Eiffel Tower._--Loftiest among the high structures of the world, and
significant as indicating the possibilities of iron construction, the
Eiffel Tower of the Paris Exposition of 1889 was a distinct achievement
in the engineering world. It is seen in Fig. 238. It is 984 feet high,
and 410 feet across its foundation, and has a supporting base of four
independent lattice work piers. In the top was constructed a scientific
laboratory surmounted by a lantern containing a powerful electric light.
The total weight of iron in the structure is about 7,000 tons, the
weight of the rivets alone being 450 tons, and the total number of them
2,500,000. The level of the first story is marked by a bold frieze, on
the panels of which, around all four faces, were inscribed in gigantic
letters of gold the names of the famous Frenchmen of the century. The
summit of the tower was reached by staircases containing 1,793 steps,
and by hydraulic elevators running in four stages. The cost of this
structure was nearly $1,000,000.
_Washington’s Monument._--Next in height to the Eiffel Tower, and being,
in fact, the tallest masonry structure in the world, this noble obelisk,
by its simplicity, boldness and solidity, challenges the admiration of
every visitor, and gratifies the pride of every patriot. It is seen in
Fig. 239, and is 555 feet 5½ inches high, 55 feet square at the base,
and 34 feet square at the top. The walls are 15 feet thick at the base,
and 18 inches at the top, and its summit is reached by an internal
winding staircase and a central elevator. At the height of 504 feet the
walls are pierced with port holes, from which a magnificent view is had
of the capital city and surrounding country. The summit is crowned with
a cap of aluminum, inscribed _Laus Deo_. The foundation of rock and
cement is 36 feet deep and 126 feet square, and the total cost of the
monument was $1,300,000. The corner stone was laid in 1848. In 1855 the
work was discontinued at the height of 152 feet, from lack of funds. In
1878 it was resumed by appropriation from Congress, and completed and
dedicated in 1885, under the direction of Col. Thomas L. Casey, of the
United States Corps of Engineers.
_The Capitol Building._--Representing the heart of the great American
Republic, and overlooking its Capital City, this grand building, shown
in Fig. 240, is a poem in architecture. Massive, symmetrical and
harmonious, its highest point reaches 307½ feet above the plaza on the
east. It is 751 feet 4 inches long, 350 feet wide, and the walls of the
building proper cover 3½ acres. Crowning the center of the building is
the imposing dome of iron, surmounted by a lantern, and above this is
the bronze statue of Freedom, 19 feet 6 inches high, and weighing
14,985 pounds, the latter being set in place December 2, 1863. The dome
is 135 feet 5 inches in diameter at the base, and the open space of the
rotunda within is 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet high.
The corner stone of the original building was laid in 1793 by
Washington. The first session of Congress held there was in 1800, while
the building was still incomplete. The original building was finished
in 1811. In 1814 it was partly burned by the British. In 1815
reconstruction was begun, and completed in 1827. In 1850 Congress passed
an act authorizing the extension of the Capitol, which resulted in the
building of the north and south wings, containing the present Senate
Chamber and Hall of the House of Representatives. The corner stones of
the extension were laid by President Fillmore in 1851, Daniel Webster
being the orator of the occasion, and the wings were finished in 1867.
Since this time handsome additions in the shape of marble terraces on
the west front have added greatly to the beauty and apparent size of the
building.
[Illustration: FIG. 240.--THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL. LENGTH, 751⅓ FEET;
WIDTH, 350 FEET; HEIGHT, 307½ FEET; BUILDING COVERS 3½ ACRES.]
It is not possible to give anything like an adequate review of the
engineering inventions and achievements of the Nineteenth Century in a
single chapter, and only the most noteworthy have been mentioned. The
modern life of the world, however, has been replete with the resourceful
expedients of the engineer, and the ingenious instrumentalities invented
by him to carry out his plans. There have been about 1,000 patents
granted for bridges, about 2,500 for excavating apparatus, and about
1,500 for hydraulic engineering. In mining the safety-lamp of Sir
Humphrey Davy, in 1815, has been followed by stamp mills, rock-drills,
derricks, and hoisting and lowering apparatus, and lately by hydraulic
mining apparatus, by which a stream of water under high pressure is made
to wash away a mountain side. Apparatus for loading and unloading,
pneumatic conveyors, great systems of irrigation, lighthouses,
breakwaters, pile drivers, dry-docks, ship railways, road-making
apparatus, fire escapes, fireproof buildings, water towers, and
filtration plants have been devised, constructed and utilized. Many
gigantic schemes, already begun, still await successful completion,
among which may be named the draining of the Zuyder Zee, the Siberian
railway, the Panama and Nicaraguan Canals, the Simplon tunnel, the new
East River Bridge, and the Rapid Transit Tunnel under New York City;
while a bridge or tunnel across the English Channel, a ship canal for
France, connecting the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean, a tunnel
under the Straits of Gibraltar, and a ship canal connecting the great
lakes with the Gulf of Mexico, are among the possible achievements which
challenge the engineer of the Twentieth Century.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
WOODWORKING.
EARLY MACHINES OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM--EVOLUTION OF THE SAW--CIRCULAR
SAW--HAMMERING TO TENSION--STEAM FEED FOR SAW MILL CARRIAGE--QUARTER
SAWING--THE BAND SAW--PLANING MACHINES--THE WOODWORTH PLANER--THE
WOODBURY YIELDING PRESSURE BAR--THE UNIVERSAL WOODWORKER--THE
BLANCHARD LATHE--MORTISING MACHINES--SPECIAL WOODWORKING MACHINES.
Surrounded as we are in the modern home with beautiful and artistic
furniture, and installed in comfortable and inexpensive houses, one does
not appreciate the contrast which the life of the average citizen of
to-day presents to that of his great-grandfather in the matter of his
dwelling house appointments. A hundred years ago most of the dwellings
of the middle and poorer classes were crudely made, with clap-boards and
joists laboriously hewn with the broad ax, and the roof was covered with
split shingles. Uncouth and clumsy doors, windows and blinds, were
framed on the simplest utilitarian basis, and a scanty supply of rude
hand-made furniture imperfectly filled the simple wants of the home.
To-day nearly every cottage has beautifully moulded trimmings, paneled
doors, handsomely carved mantels and turned balusters, all furnished at
an insignificant price, and art has so added its æsthetic values to the
furniture and other useful things in wood, that beautiful, artistic and
tasteful homes are no longer confined to the rich, but may be enjoyed by
all. This great change has been brought about by the sawmill, the
planing machine, mortising and boring machines, and the turning lathe.
Pre-eminent in the field of woodworking machinery, and worthy to be
called the father of the art, is to be mentioned the name of Gen. Sir
Samuel Bentham, of England, whose inventions in the last decade of the
Eighteenth Century formed the nucleus of the modern art of woodworking.
_The Saw_ was the great pioneer in woodworking machinery, and the
circular saw has, in the Nineteenth Century, been the representative
type. Pushing its way along the outskirts of civilization, its
glistening and apparently motionless disk, filled with a hidden, but
terrific energy, and singing a merry tune in the clearings, has
transformed trees into tenements, forests into firesides, and altered
the face of the earth, the record of its work being only measured by the
immensity of the forests which it has depleted. It is not possible to
fix the date of the first circular saw, for rotary cutting action dates
from the ancient turning lathes. The earliest description of a circular
saw is to be found in the British patent to Miller, No. 1,152, of 1777.
It was not until the Nineteenth Century, however, that it was generally
applied, and its great work belongs to this period. The preceding saws
were of the straight, reciprocating kind. The old pit-saw is the
earliest form, and in course of time the men were replaced by machinery
to form the “muley” saw, the man in the pit being replaced by a
mechanical “pitman,” which accounts for the etymology of the word. With
the “muley” saw the log was held at each end, and each end shifted
alternately to set for a new cut. The first development was along the
lines of this form of saw, and to increase its efficiency the saws were
arranged in gangs, so as to make a number of cuts at one pass of the
log. This type was especially used in Europe, but on the up stroke there
was no work being done, and hence half of the time was lost. This and
other difficulties led finally to the adoption of the circular type,
whose continuous cut and high speed saved much time and presented many
other advantages. A representative example of the circular saw is given
in Fig. 241.
[Illustration: FIG. 241.--PORTABLE CIRCULAR SAW.]
With the increased diameter and peripheral speed of the circular saw,
however, a grave difficulty presented itself. The saw would heat at its
periphery, and its rim portion expanding without commensurate expansion
of the central portion, would cause the saw to crack and fly to pieces
under the tremendous centrifugal force. This difficulty is provided for
by what is known as “_hammering to tension_,” _i. e._, the saw is
hammered to a gradually increasing state of compression from the rim to
the center, thus causing an initial expansion or spread of the molecules
of metal of the central parts of the saw, which is stored up as an
elastic expansive force that accommodates itself to the tension caused
by the expansion of the rim, and prevents the unequal and destructive
strain, due to the expansion of the rim from the great heat of friction
in passing through the log.
Mounted upon a portable frame, this machine was put to its great work
upon the logs in the forests of America, and for many years this type of
sawmill held its sway, and an enormous amount of work was done through
its agency. Among its useful accessories were the set-works for
adjusting the log holding knees to the position for a new cut, log
turners for rotating the log to change the plane of the cut, and the
rack and pinion feed, by which the saw carriage was run back and forth.
Following the rack and pinion feed came the rope feed, in which a rope
wrapped around a drum was carried at its opposite ends over pulleys and
back to the opposite ends of the carriage, which was thereby carried
back and forth by the forward or backward movement of the drum.
[Illustration: FIG. 242.--DIRECT-ACTING STEAM FEED SAWMILL CARRIAGE.]
The greatest advance in sawmills in recent years, however, has been the
steam feed, in which a very long steam cylinder was provided with a
piston, whose long rod was directly attached to the saw carriage, and
the latter moved back and forth by the admission of steam alternately
to opposite sides of the piston. This type of feed, also known as the
_shot gun_ feed, from the resemblance of the long cylinder to a gun
barrel, was invented about twenty-five years ago, by De Witt C.
Prescott, and is covered by his patent, No. 174,004, February 22, 1876,
later improvements being shown in his patent, No. 360,972, April 12,
1887. The value of the steam feed was to increase the speed and
efficiency of the saw, by expediting the movement of its carriage, as
many as six boards per minute being cut by its aid from a log of average
length. An example of a modern steam feed for sawmill carriages is seen
in Fig. 242. With the modern development of the art the ease and
rapidity of steam action have recommended it for use in most all of the
work of the sawmill, and the direct application of steam pistons
working in cylinders has been utilized for canting, kicking, flipping
and rolling the logs, lifting the stock, taking away the boards, etc.
[Illustration: FIG. 243.--METHOD OF SHAPING AND HOLDING LOG FOR QUARTER
SAWING.]
Beautifully finished furniture in quartered oak has always excited the
pleasure, and piqued the curiosity of the uninformed as to how this
result is obtained. Fig. 243 illustrates the method of sawing to produce
this effect. The log is simply divided longitudinally into four
quarters, and the quarter sections are then cut by the vertical plane of
the saw at an oblique angle to the sawed sides, which brings to the
surface of the boards the peculiar flecks or patches of the wood’s grain
so much admired when finished and polished.
[Illustration: FIG. 244.--AUTOMATIC BAND RIP SAW.]
The _Band Saw_ is an endless belt of steel having teeth formed along one
edge and traveling continuously around an upper and lower pulley, with
its toothed edge presented to the timber to be cut, as seen in Fig. 244,
which represents a form of band saw made by the J. A. Fay & Egan
Company, of Cincinnati. A form of band saw is found as early as 1808, in
British patent No. 3,105, to Newberry. On March 25, 1834, a French
patent was granted for a band saw to Etiennot, No. 3,397. The first
United States patent for a band saw was granted to B. Barker, January 6,
1836, but it remained for the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century to
give the band saw its prominence in woodworking machines. That it did
not find general application at an earlier period was due to the
difficulty experienced in securely and evenly joining the ends of the
band. For many years the only moderately successful band saws were made
in France, but expert mechanical skill has so mastered the problem that
in recent years the band saw has gone to the very front in wood-sawing
machinery. To-day it is in service in sizes from a delicate filament,
used for scroll sawing and not larger than a baby’s ribbon, to an
enormous steel belt 50 feet in peripheral measurement, and 12 inches
wide, traveling over pulleys 8 feet in diameter, making 500 revolutions
per minute, and tearing its way through logs much too large for any
circular saw, at the rate of nearly two miles a minute. A modern form of
such a saw is seen in Fig. 245. Prescott’s patents, Nos. 368,731 and
369,881, of 1887; 416,012, of 1889, and 472,586 and 478,817, of 1892,
represent some of the important developments in the band saw.
[Illustration: FIG. 245.--MODERN BAND SAW FOR LARGE TIMBER.]
When the band saw is applied to cutting logs the backward movement of
the carriage would, if there were any slivers on the cut face of the
log, be liable to force those slivers against the smooth edge of the
band saw, and distort and possibly break it. To obviate this the saw
carriage is provided with a lateral adjustment on the back movement
called an “off-set,” so that the log returns for a new cut out of
contact with the saw. Examples of such off-setting are found in patents
to Gowen, No. 383,460, May 29, 1888, and No. 401,945, April 23, 1889,
and Hinkley, No. 368,669, August 23, 1887. A modern form of the band
saw, however, has teeth on both its edges, which requires no off-setting
mechanism, but cuts in both directions. An example of this, known as
the telescopic band mill, is made by the Edward P. Allis Company, of
Milwaukee.
A saw which planes, as well as severs, is shown in patents to Douglass,
Nos. 431,510, July 1, 1890, and 542,630, July 16, 1895. Steam power
mechanism for operating the knees is shown in patent to Wilkin, No.
317,256, May 5, 1885. Means for quarter sawing in both directions of log
travel are shown in patent to Gray, No. 550,825, December 3, 1895. Means
for operating log turners and log loaders appear in patents to Hill, No.
496,938, May 9, 1893; No. 466,682, January 5, 1892; No. 526,624,
September 25, 1894, and Kelly, No. 497,098, May 9, 1893. A self cooling
circular saw is found in patent to Jenks, No. 193,004, July 10, 1877;
shingle sawing machines in patents to O’Connor, No. 358,474, March 1,
1887, and No. 292,347, January 22, 1884, and Perkins, No. 380,346, April
3, 1888; and means for severing veneer spirally and dividing it into
completed staves, are shown in patent to Hayne, No. 509,534, November
28, 1893.
_Planing Machines._--While the saw plays the initial part of shaping the
rough logs into lumber, it is to the planing machine that the
refinements of woodworking are due. Its rapidly revolving cutter head
reduces the uneven thickness of the lumber to an exact gauge, and
simultaneously imparts the fine smooth surface. The planing machine is
organized in various shapes for different uses. When the cutters are
straight and arranged horizontally, it is a simple _planer_. When the
cutters are short and arranged to work on the edge of the board they are
known as _edgers_; when the edges are cut into tongues and grooves it is
called a _matching machine_; and when the cutters have a curved
ornamental contour it is known as a _molding machine_, and is used for
cutting the ornamental contour for house trimmings and various
ornamental uses.
The planing machine was one of the many woodworking devices invented by
General Bentham. His first machine, British patent No. 1,838, of 1791,
was a reciprocating machine, but in his British patent No. 1,951, of
1793, he described the rotary form along with a great variety of other
woodworking machinery.
Bramah’s planer, British patent No. 2,652, of 1802, was about the first
planing machine of the Nineteenth Century. It is known as a transverse
planer, the cutters being on the lower surface of a horizontal disc,
which is fixed to a vertical revolving shaft, and overhangs the board
passing beneath it, the cutters revolving in a plane parallel with the
upper surface of the board. The planing machine of Muir, of Glasgow,
British patent No. 5,502, of 1827, was designed for making boards for
flooring, and represented a considerable advance in the art.
With the greater wooded areas of America, the rapid growth of the young
republic, and the resourceful spirit of its new civilization, the
leading activities in woodworking machinery were in the second quarter
of the Nineteenth Century transferred to the United States, and a
phenomenal growth in this art ensued. Conspicuous among the early
planing machine patents in the United States was that granted to William
Woodworth, December 27, 1828. This covered broadly the combination of
the cutting cylinders, and rolls for holding the boards against the
cutting cylinders, and also means for tongueing and grooving at one
operation. The revolving cutting cylinder had been used by Bentham
thirty-five years before, and rollers for feeding lumber to circular
saws were described in Hammond’s British patent No. 3,459, of 1811, but
Woodworth did not employ his rolls for feeding, as a rack and pinion
were provided for that, but his rolls had a co-active relation with a
planer cylinder, or cutter head, in holding the board against the
tendency of the cutter head to pull the board toward it. A patent was
granted to Woodworth for these two features in combination, which patent
was reissued July 8, 1845, twice extended, and for a period of
twenty-eight years from its first grant, exerted an oppressive monopoly
in this art, since it covered the combination of the two necessary
elements of every practical planer.
Following the Woodworth patent came a host of minor improvements, among
which were the Woodbury patents, extending through the period of the
third quarter of the Nineteenth Century, and prominent among which is
the patent to J. P. Woodbury, No. 138,462, April 20, 1873, covering
broadly a rotary cutter head combined with a yielding pressure bar to
hold the board against the lifting action of the cutter head.
In modern planing machinery the climax of utility is reached in the
so-called _universal woodworker_. This is the versatile Jack-of-all-work
in the planing mill. It planes flat, moulded, rabbeted, or beaded
surfaces; it saws with both the rip and crosscut action; it cuts tongues
and grooves; makes miters, chamfers, wedges, mortises and tenons, and is
the general utility machine of the shop.
In Fig. 246 is shown a well known form of planing machine. Its work is
to plane the surfaces of boards, and to cut the edges into tongues and
groves, such as are required for flooring. This machine planes boards up
to 24 inches wide and 6 inches thick, and will tongue and grove 14
inches wide.
[Illustration: FIG. 246.--24-INCH SINGLE SURFACER AND MATCHER.]
_Wood Turning._--To this ancient art Blanchard added, in 1819, his very
ingenious and important improvement for turning irregular forms. A few
efforts at irregular turning had been made before, but in the arts
generally only circular forms had been turned. With Blanchard’s
improvement, patented January 20, 1820, any irregular form, such as a
shoe-last, gun-stock, ax-handle, wheel-spokes, etc., could be smoothly
and expeditiously turned and finished in any required shape. In the
ordinary lathe the work is revolved rapidly, and the cutting tool is
held stationary, or only slowly shifted in the hand. In the Blanchard
lathe the work is hung in a swinging frame, and turned very slowly to
bring its different sides to the cutting action, and the cutting tool is
constructed as a rapidly revolving disk, against which the work is
projected bodily by the oscillation of the swinging frame, to
accommodate the irregularities of the form. In order to do this
automatically, a pattern or model of the article to be turned was also
hung in the swinging frame, and made to slowly revolve and bear against
a pattern wheel, which, acting upon the swinging frame carrying the
work, caused it to advance to or recede from the cutting disc exactly in
proportion to the contour of the model, and thus cause the revolving
cutters to cut the block as it turns synchronously with the model, to a
shape exactly corresponding to said model.
[Illustration: FIG. 247.--BLANCHARD LATHE.]
In Fig. 247 is shown a perspective view of Blanchard’s lathe, as
patented January 20, 1820. H is a swinging frame, carrying the model T
of a shoe last, and a roughed-out block U, partly converted into a shoe
last. A sliding frame, fed horizontally by a screw, carries a pattern
wheel K, that bears against the pattern T, and a rotary cutter E, acting
against the roughed-out block U. The revolving disk-shaped cutter E is
rotated by a pulley and belt from a drum, which latter is made long
enough to accommodate the travel of the frame. The pattern T and block U
are advanced to contact respectively, with pattern wheel K and cutter E
by the swinging action of frame H, and as the pattern T and block U are
slowly revolved, the travel of T against K is made to react on frame H
and regulate the advance of U against E, with the result that the rough
block U is cut to the identical shape of the pattern T.
Among modern developments in this art may be mentioned the patents to
Kimball, No. 471,006, March 15, 1892, and No. 498,170, May 23, 1893, the
latter showing ingenious means whereby shoe lasts of the same length,
but varying widths, may be turned. A polygonal-form lathe is shown in
patent to Merritt, No. 504,812, September 12, 1893; a multiple lathe in
patents to Albee, No. 429,297, June 3, 1890, and Aram, No. 550,401,
November 26, 1895; a tubular lathe in patent to Lenhart, No. 355,540,
January 4, 1887; and a spiral cutting lathe in patent to Mackintosh, No.
396,283, January 15, 1889.
[Illustration: FIG. 248.--MORTISING MACHINE.]
_Mortising Machines_ have exercised an important influence in mill work
in the joining of the stiles in doors, sashes and blinds, and in the
making of furniture. The Fay & Egan machine is seen in Fig. 248. The
self acting mortising machine was among the numerous early contributions
of Gen. Bentham in woodworking machinery, and was described in his
British patent No. 1,951, of 1793, a number of them having been made by
him for the British Admiralty. Brunel’s mortising machine for making
ships’ blocks is another early form described in British patent No.
2,478, of 1801. As representing novel departures in this art, the
endless chain mortising machine shown in Douglas patent, No. 379,566,
March 20, 1888, may be mentioned, and reissue patent, No. 10,655,
October 27, 1885, to Oppenheimer, and No. 461,666, October 20, 1891, to
Charlton, are examples of mortising augers.
_Special Woodworking Machines._--Of these there have been great numbers
and variety. No sooner does an article become extensively used than a
machine is made for turning it out automatically. Indeed, machines for
cheaply turning out articles have, in many cases, led the way to popular
use of the article by the extreme cheapness of its production.
Among various automatic machines for making special articles may be
mentioned those for making clothes pins, scooping out wood trays,
pointing skewers, dovetailing box blanks, cutting sash stile pockets,
cutting and packing toothpicks, making matches, boxing matches,
duplicating carvings, cutting bungs, cutting corks, making umbrella
sticks, making brush blocks, boring chair legs, screw-driving machines,
box nailing machines, making cigar boxes, nailing baskets, wiring box
blanks, applying slats, gluing boxes, gluing slate frames, making
veneers, bushing mortises, covering piano hammers, making staves and
barrels, making fruit baskets, etc.
It is impossible to give in any brief review a proper conception of the
immensity of the woodworking industry in the United States. It is
estimated in the Patent Office that about 8,000 patents have been
granted for woodworking machines. Besides this there are about 5,000
patents in the separate class of wood sawing, about an equal number for
woodworking tools, and these, with other patented inventions in wood
turning, coopering, or the making of barrels, wheelwrighting, and other
minor classes, give some idea of the activity in this great field of
industry.
The exports of wood and wooden manufactures from the United States in
1899 amounted to $41,489,526, of which $15,031,176 were for finished
boards, $4,107,350 for barrels, staves and heads, and $3,571,375 for
household furniture, but this is only an insignificant portion, for with
a prosperous country, an abundance of wood, and a thrifty and ambitious
nation of home builders, the home consumption has been incalculable.
CHAPTER XXIX.
METAL WORKING.
EARLY IRON FURNACE--OPERATIONS OF LORD DUDLEY, ABRAHAM DARBY AND
HENRY CORT--NEILSON’S HOT BLAST--GREAT BLAST FURNACES OF MODERN
TIMES--THE PUDDLING FURNACE--BESSEMER STEEL AND THE CONVERTER--OPEN
HEARTH STEEL--SIEMENS’ REGENERATIVE FURNACE--SIEMENS-MARTIN PROCESS
--ARMOR PLATE--MAKING HORSE SHOES--SCREWS AND SPECIAL MACHINES--
ELECTRIC WELDING, ANNEALING AND TEMPERING--COATING WITH METAL--METAL
FOUNDING--BARBED WIRE MACHINES--MAKING NAILS, PINS, ETC.--MAKING
SHOT--ALLOYS--MAKING ALUMINUM, AND METALLURGY OF RARER METALS--THE
CYANIDE PROCESS--ELECTRIC CONCENTRATOR.
Take away iron and steel from the resources of modern life, and the
whole fabric of civilization disintegrates. The railroad, steam engine
and steamship, the dynamo and electric motor, the telegraph and
telephone, agricultural implements of all sorts, grinding mills,
spinning machines and looms, battleships and firearms, stoves and
furnaces, the printing press, and tools of all sorts--each and every one
would be robbed of its essential basic material, without which it cannot
exist. Steam and electricity may be the heart and soul of the world’s
life, but iron is its great body. King among metals, it gives its name
to the present cycle, as the “Iron Age,” and the Nineteenth Century has
crowned it with such refinements of shape, and endowed it with such
attributes of utility, and such grandeur of estate, that its powers in
organized machinery have, for effective service, risen to all the
functions and dignity of human capacity--except that of thought.
A crude gift of nature, in the mountain side, it remained, however, a
sodden mass until extracted, refined, and wrought into shape by the
genius of man. Yielding to the magical touch of invention, it has been
cast in moulds into cannon, mills, plowshares, and ten thousand
articles; it has been drawn into wire of any fineness and length to form
cables for great suspension bridges; it has been rolled into rails that
grill the continents; into sheets that cover our roofs; and into nails
that hold our houses together. It has been wrought into a softness that
lends its susceptible nature to the influence of magnetism, and has been
hardened into steel to form the sword and cutting tool. From the
delicate hair spring of a watch to the massive armor plate of a
battleship, it finds endless applications, and is nature’s most enduring
gift to man--abundant, cheap, and lasting.
Metallurgy is an ancient art, and the working of gold, silver and copper
dates back to the beginning of history. Being found in a condition of
comparative purity, and needing but little refinement, they were, for
that reason, the first metals fashioned to meet the wants of man. Iron,
somewhat more refractory, appeared later, but it also has an early
history, and is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible (Genesis
iv., 22), in which reference is made to Tubal Cain as an artificer in
brass and iron. The iron bedstead of Og, King of Bashan, is another
reference. That it was known to the Egyptians and the Greeks at least
1000 B. C., seems reasonably certain. The Assyrians were also acquainted
with iron, as is clearly established by the explorations of Mr. Layard,
whose contributions to the British Museum of iron articles from the
ruins of Ninevah include saws, picks, hammers, and knives of iron, which
are believed to be of a date not later than 880 B. C.
Iron ore is usually found in the form of an oxide (hematite), and its
reduction to the metallic form consists in displacing the oxygen, which
is effected by mixing carbon in some form with the ore, and subjecting
the mixture to a high heat by means of a blast. The carbon unites with
the oxygen and forms carbonic acid gas, which escapes, while the
metallic iron fuses and runs out at the bottom of the furnace, and when
collected in trough-shaped moulds, is known as pig iron.
[Illustration: FIG. 249.--PRIMITIVE IRON FURNACE OF HINDOSTAN.]
The first iron furnaces were known as _air bloomeries_, and had no
forced draft. The first step of importance in iron making was the forced
blast. An early form of blast furnace is shown in Fig. 249, which
represents an iron furnace of the Kols, a tribe of iron smelters in
Lower Bengal and Orissa. An inclined tray terminates at its lower end in
a furnace inclosure. Charcoal in the furnace being well ignited, ore and
charcoal resting on the tray are alternately raked into the furnace. The
blowers are two boxes, connected to the furnace by bamboo pipes, and
provided with skin covers, which are alternately depressed by the feet
and raised by cords from the spring poles. Each skin cover has a hole in
the middle, which is stopped by the heel of the workman as the weight of
the person is thrown upon it, and is left open by the withdrawal of the
foot as the cover is raised. The heels of the workman, alternately
raised, form alternately acting valves, and the skin cover, when
depressed, acts as a bellows. The fused metal sinks to a basin in the
bottom of the furnace, and the slag or impurities run off above the
level of the basin at the side of the furnace.
The great modern art of iron working dates from Lord Dudley’s British
patent, No. 18, of 1621, which related to “The mistery, arte, way and
meanes of melting iron owre, and of makeing the same into cast workes or
barrs with seacoales or pittcoales in furnaces with bellowes of as good
condicon as hath bene heretofore made of charcoale.”
The next step of importance after the blast furnace was the substitution
of coke for coal for the reduction of the ore, which was introduced by
Abraham Darby, about 1750.
Next came the conversion of cast iron into wrought iron. This was mainly
the work of Mr. Henry Cort, of Gosport, England, who, in 1783-84,
introduced the processes of puddling and rolling, which were two of the
most important inventions connected with the production of iron since
the employment of the blast furnace. Mr. Cort obtained British patents
No. 1,351, of 1783, and No. 1,420, of 1784, for his invention. His first
patent related to the hammering, welding, and rolling of the iron, while
in his second patent he introduced what is known as the reverberatory
furnace, having a concave bottom, into which the fluid metal is run from
the smelting furnace, and which is converted from brittle cast iron,
containing a certain per cent. of carbon, into wrought iron, which has
the carbon eliminated, and is malleable and tough. This process is
called _puddling_, and consists in exposing the molten metal to an
oxidizing current of flame and air. The metal boils as the carbon is
burned out, and as it becomes more plastic and stiff it is collected
into what are called blooms, and these are hammered to get rid of the
slag, and are reduced to marketable shape as wrought iron by the
process described in his previous patent. Mr. Cort expended a fortune in
developing the iron trade, and was one of the greatest pioneers in this
art.
The first notable development of the Nineteenth Century was the
introduction of the hot air blast in forges and furnaces where bellows
or blowing apparatus was required. This was the invention of J. Beaumont
Neilson, of Glasgow, and was covered by him in British patent No. 5,701
of 1828. This consisted in heating the air blast before admitting it to
the furnace, and it so increased the reduction of refractory ores in the
blast furnace as to permit three or four times the quantity of iron to
be produced with an expenditure of little more than one-third of the
fuel.
[Illustration: FIG. 250.--MODERN HOT BLAST FURNACE.]
An illustration of a modern blast furnace plant is given in Fig. 250. A
is the furnace, in which the iron ore and fuel are arranged in alternate
layers. The hot air blast comes in through pipes _t_ at the bottom,
called tuyeres. As gas escapes through the opening _b_ at the top, it is
first cleared of dust in the settler and washer B, and then passes
through the pipe C to the regenerators D D D, where it is made to heat
the incoming air. The gas mixed with some air burns in the
regenerators, and, after heating a mass of brick within the regenerators
red hot, escapes by the underground passageway to the chimney on the
right. When the bricks are sufficiently hot in one of the regenerators,
gas is turned off therefrom, and into another regenerator, and fresh air
from pipe H is passed through the bricks of the heated regenerator, and
being heated passes out pipe F at the top and thence to the pipe G and
tuyeres _t_, to promote the chemical reactions in the blast furnace.
In the earlier blast furnaces a vast amount of heat was allowed to
escape and was wasted. The utilization of this heat engaged the
attention of Aubertot in France, 1810-14; Teague in England (British
patent No. 6,211, of 1832); Budd (British patent No. 10,475, of 1845),
and others. To enable the escaping hot gases to be employed for heating
the hot blast regenerators a charging device is now used, as seen at a
in Fig. 250, in which the admission of ore and fuel is regulated by a
large conical valve, and the gases are compelled to pass out at _b_ and
be utilized.
Among the world’s largest blast furnaces may be mentioned the Austrian
Alpine Montan Gesellschaft, which concern owns thirty-two furnaces. This
is said to be the largest number owned by any one concern in the world,
but most of them are of small size and run on charcoal iron. The
furnaces of the United States are, however, of the largest yield, and
the leading ones of these are:
No. Annual capacity
Furnaces. in tons.
Carnegie Steel Co. 17 2,200,000
Federal Steel Co. 19 1,900,000
Tennessee Coal and Iron Co. 20 1,307,000
National Steel Co. 12 1,205,000
The present annual output of pig iron in the United States is about ten
million tons, of which these four companies make about one-half.
[Illustration: FIG. 251.--PUDDLING FURNACE.]
When the iron runs from the bottom of the blast furnace it is allowed to
flow into trough-like moulds in the sand of the floor, and forms pig
iron. Pig iron can be remelted and cast into various articles in moulds,
but it cannot be wrought with the hammer, nor rolled into rails or
plates, nor welded on the anvil, because it is still a compound of iron
and carbon with other impurities, and is crystalline in character. To
bring it into wrought iron, which is malleable and ductile, it is
puddled and refined, which involves chiefly the burning out of the
carbon and silicon. The pig iron is remelted (see Fig. 251) in the
tray-shaped hearth _b_ from the heat of the fire in the reverberatory
furnace _a_, the reverberatory furnace being one in which the materials
treated are exposed to the heat of the flame, but not to contact with
the fuel. The hot flame mixed with air beating down upon the melted iron
on hearth _b_ for two hours or so, burns out the silicon and carbon, the
process being facilitated by stirring and working the mass with tools.
During the operation the oxygen of the air combines with the carbon and
forms carbonic acid gas, which, in escaping from the metal, appears to
make it boil. When the iron parts with its carbon it loses its fluidity
and becomes plastic and coherent, and is formed into balls called
_blooms_. These blooms consist of particles of nearly pure iron
cohering, but retaining still a quantity of slag or vitreous material,
and other impurities, which slag, etc., is worked out while still, hot
by a squeezing, kneading, and hammering process to form wrought iron
that may be worked into any shape between rolls or under the hammer.
[Illustration: FIG. 252.--BESSEMER CONVERTER DURING THE “BLOW.”]
_Bessemer Steel._--Steel is a compound of iron and carbon, standing
between wrought iron and cast iron. Wrought iron has, when pure,
practically no carbon in it, while cast iron has a considerable
proportion in excess of steel. Steel making consists mainly in so
treating cast iron as to get rid of a part of the carbon and other
impurities. Of all methods of steel making, and in fact of all the steps
of progress in the art of metal working, none has been so important and
so far reaching in effect as the Bessemer process: It was invented by
Henry Bessemer, of England, in 1855. About fifty British patents were
taken by Mr. Bessemer relating to various improvements in the iron
industry, but those representing the pioneer steps of the so-called
Bessemer process are No. 2,321, of 1855; No. 2,768, of 1855, and No.
356, of 1856. The process is illustrated in Figs. 252, 253 and 254. The
converter in which the process is carried out is a great bottle-shaped
vessel 15 feet high and 9 feet wide, consisting of an iron shell with a
heavy lining of refractory material, capable of holding eight or more
tons of melted iron, and with an open neck at the top turned to one
side. It is mounted on trunnions, and is provided with gear wheels by
which it may be turned on its trunnions, so that it may be maintained
erect, as in Fig. 252, or be turned down to pour out the contents into
the casting ladle, as in Figs. 253 and 254. At the bottom of the
converter there is an air chamber supplied by a pipe leading from one of
the trunnions, which is hollow, and a number of upwardly discharging air
openings or nozzles send streams of air into the molten mass of red hot
cast iron. The red hot cast iron contains more or less carbon and
silicon, and the air uniting with the carbon and silicon burns it out,
and in doing so furnishes the heat for the continuance of the operation.
When the pressure of air is turned into the mass of molten iron a tongue
of flame increasing in brilliancy to an intense white, comes roaring out
of the mouth of the converter, and a violent ebullition takes place
within, and throws sparks and spatters of metal high in the air around,
producing the impression and scenic effect of a volcano in eruption. In
fifteen minutes the volume and brilliancy of the flame diminish, and
this indicates the critical moment of conversion into tough steel, which
must be adjusted to the greatest nicety. When the carbon is sufficiently
burned out the blast is stopped and the converter turned down to receive
a quantity of ferro-manganese or spiegeleisen (a compound of iron
containing manganese), which unites with and removes the sulphur and
oxide of iron, and then the lurid monster, with its breath of fire
abated, and its energy exhausted, bows its head and vomits forth its
charge of boiling steel, to be wrought or cast into ten thousand useful
articles.
[Illustration: FIG. 253.--POURING THE MOLTEN METAL.]
[Illustration: FIG. 254.--SIDE VIEW, SHOWING TURNING GEARS.]
Like most all valuable inventions, Mr. Bessemer’s claim to priority for
the invention was contested. An American inventor, William Kelly, in an
interference with Mr. Bessemer’s United States patent, successfully
established a claim to the broad idea of forcing air into the red hot
cast iron, and United States patent No. 17,628, June 23, 1857, was
granted to Mr. Kelly. The honor of inventing and introducing a
successful process and apparatus for making steel by this method,
however, fairly belongs to Mr. Bessemer, to whose work was to be added
the valuable contribution of Robert F. Mushet (British patent No. 2,219,
of 1856) of adding spiegeleisen, a triple compound of iron, carbon and
manganese, to the charge in the converter. This step served to regulate
the supply of carbon and eliminate the oxygen, and completed the process
of making steel. The Holly converter, covered by United States patents
No. 86,303, and No. 86,304, January 26, 1869, represented one of the
most important American developments of the Bessemer converter.
The importance of Bessemer steel in its influence upon modern
civilization is everywhere admitted. It has so cheapened steel that it
now competes with iron in price. Practically all railroad rails, iron
girders and beams for buildings, nails, etc., are made from it at a cost
of between one and two cents per pound.
In recognition of the great benefits conferred upon humanity by this
process, Queen Victoria conferred the degree of knighthood upon the
inventor, and his fortune resulting from his invention is estimated to
have grown for some time at the rate of $500,000 a year. In a historical
sketch of the development of his process, delivered by Sir Henry
Bessemer in December, 1896, before the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers at New York, Mr. Bessemer was reported as saying that the
annual production of Bessemer steel in Europe and America amounted to
10,000,000 tons. The production of Bessemer steel in the United States
for 1897 was for ingots and castings 5,475,315 tons, and for railroad
rails 1,644,520 tons. The extent to which steel has displaced iron is
shown by the fact that in the same year iron rails to the extent of
2,872 tons only were made, as compared with more than a million and a
half tons of Bessemer steel.
In the popular vote taken by the _Scientific American_, July 25, 1896,
as to what invention introduced in the past fifty years had conferred
the greatest benefit upon mankind, Bessemer steel was given the place of
honor.
A recent improvement in the handling of iron from the blast furnace is
shown in Fig. 255. Heretofore, the iron was run in open sand moulds on
the floor and allowed to cool in bars called “pigs,” which were united
in a series to a main body of the flow, called a “sow.” To break the
“pigs” from the “sow,” and handle the iron in transportation, was a very
laborious and expensive work. The illustration shows two series of
parallel trough moulds, each forming an endless belt, running on wheels.
The molten cast iron is poured direct into these moulds, and as they
travel along they pass beneath a body of water, which cools and
solidifies the iron into pigs, and then carries them up an incline and
dumps them directly into the cars.
[Illustration: FIG. 255.--CASTING AND LOADING PIG IRON.]
_Open Hearth Steel_ is not so cheap as Bessemer steel, but it is of a
finer and more uniform quality. Bessemer steel is made in a few minutes
by the most energetic, rapid and critical of processes, while the open
hearth steel requires several hours, and its development being thus
prolonged it may be watched and regulated to a greater nicety of result.
For railroad rails and architectural construction Bessemer steel still
finds a great field of usefulness, but for the finest quality of steel,
such as is employed in making steam boilers, tools, armor plate for war
vessels, etc., steel made by the open hearth process is preferred. It
consists in the decarburization of cast iron by fusion with wrought
iron, iron sponge, steel scrap, or iron oxide, in the hearth of a
reverberatory furnace heated with gases, the flame of which assists the
reaction, and the subsequent recarburization or deoxidation of the bath
by the addition, at the close of the process, of spiegeleisen or
ferro-manganese. The period of fusion lasts from four to eight hours.
The advantages over the Bessemer process are, a less expensive plant and
the greater duration of the operation, permitting, by means of
sampling, more complete control of the quality of the product and
greater uniformity of result.
The British patents of Siemens, No. 2,861, of 1856; No. 167, of 1861,
and No. 972, of 1863, for regenerative furnaces, and the British patents
of Emile and Pierre Martin, No. 2,031, of 1864; No. 2,137, of 1865, and
No. 859, of 1866, represent the so-called _Siemens-Martin_ process,
which is the best known and generally used open hearth process.
[Illustration: FIG. 256.--SIEMENS REGENERATIVE FURNACE.]
_The Siemens Regenerative Furnace_, in which this process is carried
out, is seen in Fig. 256. Four chambers, C, E, E′, C′, are filled with
fire brick loosely stacked with spaces between, in checker-work style.
Gas is forced in the bottom of chamber C, and air in bottom of chamber
E, and they pass up separate flues, G, on the left, and being ignited in
chamber D above, impinge in a flame on the metal in hearth H, the hot
gases passing out flues F on the right, and percolating through and
highly heating the checker-work bricks in chambers E′ and C′. As soon as
these are hot, gas and air are shut off by valves from chambers C and E,
and gas and air admitted to the bottoms of the now hot chambers C′ and
E′. The gas and air now passing up through these chambers C′, E′, become
highly heated, and when burned above the melted iron on hearth H produce
an intense heat. The waste gases now pass down flues G, and impart
their heat to the checker-work bricks in chambers C and E. When the
bricks in E′ C′ become cooled by the passage of gas and air, the valves
are again adjusted to reverse the currents of gas and air, sending them
now through chambers C and E again. In this way the heat escaping to
the smoke stack is stored up in the bricks and utilized to heat the
incoming fuel gases before burning them, thus greatly increasing the
effective energy of the furnace, saving fuel, and keeping the smoke
stack relatively cool.
_Armor Plate._--In these late days of struggle for supremacy between the
power of the projectile and the resistance of the battleship, the
production of armor plate has become an interesting and important
industry.
Three methods are employed. One is to roll the massive ingots directly
into plates between tremendous rolls, a single pair of which, such as
used in the Krupp works, are said to weigh in the rough as much as
100,000 pounds. Usually there are three great rollers arranged one above
the other, and automatic tables are provided for raising and lowering
the plates in their passage from one set of rolls to the other. The man
in charge uses a whistle in giving the signals which direct these
movements, and without the help of tongs and levers the glowing blocks
move easily back and forth between the rollers. The men standing on both
sides of the rollers have only to wipe off the plates with brooms and
occasionally turn the plates.
[Illustration: FIG. 257.--14,000-TON HYDRAULIC PRESS FORGING AN ARMOR
PLATE.]
The second method utilizes great steam hammers weighing 125 tons, and
striking Titanic blows upon the yielding metal. The most modern method,
however, is by the hydraulic press forge, now used in the shops of the
Bethlehem steel works in the production of Harveyized armor plate. In
Fig. 257 is seen the great 14,000-ton hydraulic press-forge squeezing
into shape a port armor plate for the battleship “Alabama.” After
leaving the forge, the plate is trimmed to shape by the savage bite of a
rotary saw and planer, seen in Figs. 258 and 259, whose insatiable
appetites tear off the steel like famished fiends. The plate is then
taken to be Harveyized by cementation, hardening, and tempering, as seen
in Figs. 260, 261, and 262. The 125-ton mass of metal representing the
plate in the rough, and weighing more than a locomotive, is thus handled
and brought to shape with an ease and dispatch that inspires the
observer with mixed emotions of admiration and awe.
_Making Horse Shoes._--Anthony’s patent, April 8, 1831; Tolles’, of
October 24, 1834, and H. Burden’s, of November 23, 1835, were pioneers
in horse-shoe machines. Mr. Burden took many subsequent patents, and to
him more than any other inventor belongs the credit of introducing
machine-made horse shoes, which greatly cheapened the cost of this
homely, but useful article. Nearly 400 United States patents have been
granted for horse-shoe machines.
[Illustration: FIG. 258.--ROTARY SAW, CUTTING HEAVY ARMOR PLATE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 259.--ROTARY PLANER, TRIMMING HEAVY ARMOR PLATE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 260.--THE CEMENTATION FURNACE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 261.--HARDENING THE PLATE BY JETS OF WATER.]
[Illustration: FIG. 262.--OIL TEMPERING.]
_Making Screws, Bolts, Nuts, Etc._--Screw-making according to modern
methods began between 1800-1810 with the operations of Maudsley. Sloan,
in 1851, and Harvey, in 1864, made many improvements in machines,
operating upon screw blanks. The gimlet-pointed screw, which allows the
screw to be turned into wood without having a hole bored for it, was an
important advance in the art. It was the invention of Thomas J. Sloan,
patented August 20, 1846, No. 4,704, and was twice re-issued and
extended. In later years the rolling of screws, instead of cutting the
threads by a chasing tool, has attained considerable importance, and
provides a simpler and cheaper method of manufacture. Knowles’ United
States patent of April 1, 1831, re-issued March 1, 1833, described such
a process, while Rogers, in patents No. 370,354, September 20, 1887; No.
408,529, August 6, 1889; No. 430,237, June 17, 1890, and No. 434,809,
August 19, 1890, added such improvement in the process as to make it
practical.
In the great art of metal working the names of Bramah, Whitworth,
Clements and Sellers appear conspicuously in the early part of the
century as inventors of planing, boring and turning machinery for
metals. Our present splendid machine shops, gun shops, locomotive works,
typewriter and bicycle factories, are examples of the wonderful
extensions of this art. In later years the field has been filled so full
of improvements and special machines for special work, that only a brief
citation of a few representative types is possible, and even then
selection becomes a very difficult task. Many special tools,
particularly those designed for _bicycle work_, have been devised, as
exhibited by patent to Hillman, August 11, 1891, No. 457,718. In
_turning car wheels_, an improvement consists in bringing the wheel to
be dressed into close proximity to the edge of a rapidly revolving
smooth metal disk, whereby the surface of the wheel is melted away
without there being any actual contact between the wheel surface and the
disk. This is shown in patent to Miltimore, August 24, 1886, No.
347,951. In _metal tube manufacture_ three processes are worthy of
mention: (1) Passing a heated solid rod endwise between the working
faces of two rapidly rotating tapered rolls, set with their axes at an
angle to each other, as shown in Mannesmann’s patent, April 26, 1887,
No. 361,954 and 361,955. (2) Forcing a tube into a rapidly rotating die,
whereby the friction softens the tube, and the pressure and rotation of
the die spin it into a tube of reduced diameter, shown in patent to
Bevington, January 13, 1891, No. 444,721. (3) Placing a hot ingot in a
die and forcing a mandrel through the ingot, thereby causing it to
assume the shape of the interior of the die, and greatly condensing the
metal, shown in patents to Robertson, November 26, 1889, No. 416,014,
and Ehrhardt, April 11, 1893, No. 495,245.
In _welding_, the employment of electricity constitutes the most
important departure. This was introduced by Elihu Thomson, and is
covered in his patents Nos. 347,140 to 347,142, August 10, 1886, and No.
501,546, July 18, 1893. In _annealing_ and _tempering_, electricity has
also been employed as a means of heating (see patent to Shaw, No.
211,938, February 4, 1879). It supplies an even heat and uniform
temperature, and is much used in producing clock and watch springs. The
making of iron castings malleable by a prolonged baking in a furnace in
a bed of metallic oxide was an important, but early, step. It was the
invention of Samuel Lucas, and is disclosed in his British patent No.
2,767, of 1804.
The _Harvey process_ of making armor plate is an important recent
development in _cementation_ and _case hardening_, and is covered by his
United States patents No. 376,194, January 10, 1888, and No. 460,262,
September 29, 1891. It consists, see Fig. 260, in embedding the face of
the plate in carbon, protecting the back and sides with sand, heating to
about the melting point of cast iron, and subsequently hardening the
face. The Krupp armor plate, now rated as the best, is made under the
patent to Schmitz and Ehrenzberger, No. 534,178, February 12, 1895.
In _coating with metals_, the so-called “galvanizing” of iron is an
important art. This was introduced by Craufurd (British patent No.
7,355, of April 29, 1837), and consisted in plunging the iron into a
bath of melted zinc covered with sal ammoniac. In more recent years the
tinning of iron has become an important industry, and machines have been
made for automatically coating the plates and dispensing with hand
labor, examples of which are found in patents No. 220,768, October 21,
1879, Morewood; No. 329,240, October 27, 1885, Taylor, _et al._, and No.
426,962, April 29, 1890, Rogers and Player.
In _metal founding_ the employment of chill moulds is an important step.
Where any portion of a casting is subjected to unusual wear, the mould
is formed, opposite that part of the casting, out of metal, instead of
sand, and this metal surface, by rapidly extracting the heat at that
point by virtue of its own conductivity, hardens the metal of the
casting at such point. The casting of car wheels by chill moulds, by
which the tread portion of the wheel was hardened and increased in
wearing qualities, is a good illustration. Important types are found in
patents to Wilmington, No. 85,046, December 15, 1868; Barr, No. 207,794,
September 10, 1878, and Whitney, re-issue patent, No. 10,804, February
1, 1887.
In _wire-working_ great advances have been made in machines for making
_barbed wire fences_. The French patent to Grassin & Baledans, in 1861,
is the first disclosure of a barbed wire fence. This art began
practically, however, with the United States patent to Glidden and
Vaughan for a barbed wire machine, No. 157,508, December 8, 1874,
re-issued March 20, 1877, No. 7,566, and has assumed great proportions.
A machine for making wire net is shown in patent to Scarles, No.
380,664, April 3, 1888, and wire picket fence machines are shown in
patents to Fultz, No. 298,368, May 13, 1884, and Kitselman, No. 356,322,
January 18, 1887. Machines for making wire nails were invented at an
early period, but the product found but little favor until about 1880,
when they began to be extensively used, and have almost entirely
supplanted cut nails for certain classes of work, since their round
cross section and lack of taper give great holding power and avoid
cutting the grain of the wood. In 1897 the wire nails produced in the
United States amounted to 8,997,245 kegs of 100 pounds each, which
nearly doubled the output of 1896. The output of cut nails for the same
year was 2,106,799 kegs.
The bending of wire to form chains without welding the links has long
been done for watch chains, etc., but in late years the method has
extended to many varieties of heavy chains. The patents to Breul, No.
359,054, March 8, 1887, and No. 467,331, January 19, 1892, are good
examples.
An interesting class of machines, but one impossible of illustration on
account of their complication, are machines for making pins. In earlier
times pins had their heads applied in a separate operation. Making pins
from wire and forming the heads out of the cut sections began in the
Nineteenth Century with Hunt’s British patent No. 4,129, of 1817. This
art received its greatest impetus, however, under Wright’s British
patent No. 4,955, of 1824. A paper of pins containing a pin for every
day in the year, and costing but a few cents, gives no idea to the
purchaser of the time, thought and capital expended in machines for
making them, and yet were it not for such machines, rapidly cutting
coils of wire into lengths, pointing and heading the pins, and sticking
them into papers, the world would be deprived of one of its most
ubiquitous and useful articles. Many tons of pins are made in the United
States weekly, and it is said that 20,000,000 pins a day are required to
meet the demand.
In the metal working art the making of firearms and projectiles has
grown to wonderful proportions. Cutlery and builders’ hardware is an
enormous branch; wire-drawing, sheet metal-making, forging, and the
making of tools, springs, tin cans, needles, hooks and eyes, nails and
tacks, and a thousand minor articles, have grown to such proportions
that only a bird’s-eye view of the art is possible.
In the _making_ of _shot_, the old method was to pour the melted metal
through a sieve, and allow it to drop from a tower 180 feet or more in
height. David Smith’s patent, No. 6,460, May 22, 1849, provided an
ascending current of air through which the metal dropped, and which, by
cooling the shot by retarding its fall and bringing a greater number of
air particles in contact with them, avoided the necessity of such high
towers. In 1868, Glasgow and Wood patented a process of dropping the
shot through a column of glycerine or oil. Still another method is to
allow the melted metal to fall on a revolving disk, which divides it
into drops by centrifugal action.
_Alloys._--Over 300 United States patents have been granted for various
alloys of metals. The so-called _babbit metal_ was patented in the
United States by Isaac Babbit, July 17, 1839, and in England, May 15,
1843, No. 9,724. This consists of an antifriction compound of tin, 10
parts, copper, 1 part, and antimony, 1 part, and is specially adapted
for the lubricated bearings of machinery. _Phosphor bronze_, introduced
in 1871, combines 80 to 92 parts copper, 7 of tin, and 1 of phosphorus
(see United States patents to Lavroff, No. 118,372, August 22, 1871, and
Levi and Kunzel, No. 115,220, May 23, 1871). The addition of phosphorus
promotes the fluidity of the metal and makes very clean, fine and strong
castings. In alloys of iron, _chromium steel_ is covered by patents to
Baur, No. 49,495, August 22, 1865; No. 99,624, February 8, 1870, and
No. 123,443, February 6, 1872; _manganese steel_, by Hadfield’s patent,
No. 303,150, August 5, 1884; _aluminum steel_, by Wittenström’s patent,
No. 333,373, December 29, 1885, and _phosphorus steel_, by Kunkel’s
patent, No. 182,371, September 19, 1876. The most recent and perhaps
most important, however, is _nickel steel_, used in making armor for
battleships. This is covered by Schneider’s patents, Nos. 415,655, and
415,657, November 19, 1889.
In 1878 England led the world in the iron industry with a production of
6,381,051 tons of pig iron, as compared with 2,301,215 tons by the
United States. In 1897 the United States leads the world in the
following ratios:
Tons Pig Iron. Tons Steel.
United States 9,652,680 7,156,957
Great Britain 8,789,455 4,585,961
Germany 6,879,541 4,796,226
France 2,472,143 1,312,000
The United States made in that year 29.30 per cent. of the world’s
production of pig iron, and 34.58 per cent. of its steel. The total
output of the whole world in that year was 32,937,490 tons pig iron, and
20,696,787 tons of steel.
_Metallurgy of Rarer Metals._--Although less in evidence than iron, this
has engaged the attention of the scientist from the earliest years of
the century. The full list of metals discovered since 1800 may be found
under “Chemistry.” The more important only are here given. Palladium and
rhodium were reduced by Wollaston in 1804. Potassium and sodium were
first separated in metallic form by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1807, through
the agency of the voltaic arc; barium, strontium, calcium and boron by
the same scientist in 1808; iodine by Courtois in 1811; selenium by
Berzelius in 1817; cadmium by Stromeyer in 1817; silicon by Berzelius in
1823, and bromium by Balard in 1826. Magnesium was first prepared by
Bussey in 1829. Aluminum was first separated in 1828 by Wohler, by
decomposing the chloride by means of potassium. Oersted, in 1827,
preceded him with important preliminary steps, and Deville, in 1854,
followed in the first commercial applications. In late years the
metallurgy of aluminum has made great advances. The Cowles process heats
to incandescence by the electric current a mixture of alumina, carbon
and copper, the reduced aluminum alloying with the copper. This process
is covered by United States patents to Cowles and Cowles, No. 319,795,
June 9. 1885, and Nos. 324,658 and 324,659, August 18, 1885. It has,
however, for the most parts been superseded by the process patented by
Hall, April 2, 1889, No. 400,766, in which alumina dissolved in fused
cryolite is electrically decomposed.
In the metallurgy of the precious metals probably the most important
step has been the _cyanide process_ of obtaining gold and silver. In
1806 it was known that gold was soluble in a solution of cyanide of
potassium. In 1844 L. Elsner published investigations along this line,
and demonstrated that the solution took place only in the presence of
oxygen. McArthur and Forrest perfected the process for commercial
application, and it is now extensively used in the Transvaal and
elsewhere. It is covered by their British patent, No. 14,174, of 1887,
and United States patents No. 403,202, May 14, 1889, and No. 418,137,
December 24, 1889, which describe the application of dilute solutions of
cyanide of potassium, not exceeding 8 parts cyanogen to 1,000 parts of
water: the use of zinc in a fine state of division to precipitate the
gold out of solution, and the preparatory treatment of the partially
oxidized ores with an alkali or salts of an alkali. By this
solution-process gold, in the finest state of subdivision, which could
not be extracted by other processes from the earthy matters, may be
recovered and saved in a simple, practical and cheap way.
[Illustration: FIG. 263.--EDISON MAGNETIC CONCENTRATING WORKS. THE GIANT
CRUSHING ROLLS.]
[Illustration: FIG. 264.--EDISON MAGNETIC CONCENTRATOR.]
In the working of ores of gold and silver the old method of comminution
of the rock and the separation of the gold and silver by amalgamation
with mercury has given birth to thousands of inventions in stamp mills,
amalgamators, ore washers, concentrators and separators. In the
treatment of iron ores, and especially those of low grade, the magnetic
concentrator is an interesting and striking departure. This method goes
back to the first half of the Nineteenth Century, an example being found
in the patent to Cook, No. 6,121, February 20, 1849. Edison’s patent,
No. 228,329, June 1, 1880, is however, the basis of the first practical
operations in which magnets, operating by attraction upon falling
particles of iron ore, are made to separate the particles rich in iron
from the sand. In Fig. 263 is shown the Edison magnetic concentrating
apparatus. The ore, in masses of all sizes up to boulders of five or six
tons weight, is dumped between the giant rolls, and these enormous
masses are crunched and comminuted more easily than a dog crunches a
bone. These gigantic rolls are six feet in diameter, six feet long, and
their surfaces are covered with crushing knobs. They weigh with the
moving machinery seventy tons, and when revolved at a circumferential
speed of 3,500 feet in a minute, their insatiable and irresistible bite
soon chews the rock into fragments that pass into similar crushing rolls
set closer together until reduced to the desired fineness. The sand is
then raised to the top of the concentrating devices, shown in Fig. 264,
and is allowed to fall in sheets from inclined boards in front of a
series of magnets, of which four sets are shown in the figure. These
magnets deflect the fall of the particles rich in iron (which are
attracted), while the non-magnetic particles of sand drop straight down.
A thin knife-edge partition board, arranged below the falling sheets of
sand, separates the deflected magnetic particles from the
straight-falling sand. These magnetic particles are then collected and
pressed into little bricks, which are now so rich in iron, by virtue of
concentration, as to make the final reduction of the iron in the blast
furnace easy and profitable. More recent developments in this art are
shown in patents to Wetherill, No. 555,792, March 3, 1896, and Payne,
No. 641,148, January 9, 1900.
In the production of copper the well-known Bessemer process for refining
iron is now largely used, as shown in patent to Manhes, No. 456,516,
July 21, 1891, in which blasts of air are forced through the melted
copper to remove sulphur and other impurities. Electrolytic processes of
refining copper are also largely used, as described in Farmer’s patent,
No. 322,170, July 14, 1885.
The production of metals, other than iron, in the United States for the
year 1897, was as follows:
Gold, 2,774,935 ounces; worth $57,363,000.
Silver, 53,860,000 ounces; worth $32,316,000.
Copper, 220,571 long tons.
Lead, 212,000 short tons.
Zinc, 99,980 short tons.
Aluminum, 4,000,000 lbs.; worth (37½ cents lb.) $1,500,000.
(This was three times the product of 1896.)
Mercury, 26,691 flasks; worth $993,445.
Nickel, 23,707 pounds; worth (33 cents pound) $7,823.
CHAPTER XXX.
FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES.
THE CANNON THE MOST ANCIENT OF FIREARMS--MUZZLE AND BREECH LOADERS
OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY--THE ARMSTRONG GUN--THE RODMAN, DAHLGREN
AND PARROTT GUNS--BREECH LOADING ORDNANCE--RAPID FIRE BREECH LOADING
RIFLES--DISAPPEARING GUN--GATLING GUN--DYNAMITE GUN--THE COLT AND
SMITH & WESSON REVOLVERS--GERMAN AUTOMATIC PISTOL--BREECH LOADING
SMALL ARMS--MAGAZINE GUNS--THE LEE, KRAG-JORGENSEN, AND MAUSER
RIFLES--HAMMERLESS GUNS--REBOUNDING LOCKS--GUN COTTON--NITRO-
GLYCERINE AND SMOKELESS POWDER--MINES AND TORPEDOES.
Strange as it may appear, the evolution of an enlightened civilization
and the deadly use of firearms have developed in parallel lines. What
relation there may be between the adoption of the teachings of Christ to
men to love one another, and the invention of increased facilities among
men for killing one another, is a problem for the philosopher. Is it
because killing at long range is less brutal, or does the deterrent
influence of this increased facility operate as a check appealing to the
fear of the individual, or is the cannon one of God’s missionaries in
working out the great law of the survival of the fittest? Whatever it
may be, there does seem to be some relation of cause and effect between
the two factors, and doubtless all three of the causes have exercised a
contributory influence. In the olden days the wage of battle was almost
universally decided by the strength of brawn, and the higher qualities
of mind were subservient. The advent of firearms has changed all this.
It has made the weakest arm equal to the strongest when supported by the
same or a superior mental equipment, and this has made a great step
toward the supremacy of the intellectual against the attack of the
physically strong. In the fifth century the great civilization of Rome
fell under the ruthless attack of the northern barbarian. Could such a
thing have been possible with the gates defended by Gatling guns,
magazine rifles, and dynamite shells? On the contrary, we find to-day a
handful of trained soldiers equipped with modern firearms putting to
flight a horde of ignorant savages. The history of modern wars is filled
with illustrations of the shifting of the contest among men from an
issue of brute force to a contest of brains, and of the support rendered
the latter by firearms. But is war really necessary, and may we not
hope that it shall cease? We can only say that the ideal sentiment of
beating the sword into the plowshare is as yet the dream of the
optimist, for man has gone right along in perfecting the arts of war and
raising the execution of firearms to such a deadly efficacy, that the
Nineteenth Century in a paramount degree has been conspicuously notable
for its advances in this art. Invention after invention has followed in
such rapid succession, even to the last years of the Nineteenth Century,
until war now assumes the conditions of suicide and annihilation.
No coherent history of firearms and explosives is possible in any short
review. The cannon, bombard or mortar, musket, pistol and petard, all
belong to former centuries, and in one form or another extend back to
the most ancient times, but they have grown in the Nineteenth Century
into such accuracy and distance of range, into such rapidity of action,
into such multiplied efficiency in repeating systems, into such energy
of explosives, and such convenient embodiment and penetration of
projectile, that these subjects must needs be considered in separate
divisions.
[Illustration: FIG. 265.--MUZZLE LOADING CANNON OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.]
_The Cannon_ is the most ancient of all firearms, and, like gunpowder,
is believed to have had its origin with the Chinese. In the Eleventh
Century the vessels of the King of Tunis, in the attack on Seville, are
said to have had on board iron pipes from which a thundering fire was
discharged. Condé, in his history of the Moors in Spain, speaks of them
as used in that country as early as 1118. Ferdinand, in 1309, took
Gibraltar from the Moors by cannon, and in 1346 the English used them at
the battle of Crécy, and from that time on they became a common weapon
of warfare. In the first cannon used the balls were of stone, and some
of them were of enormous size. The bronze cannon of Mohammed II., A.
D., 1464, had a bore of 25 inches, and threw a stone ball of 800 pounds.
The _Tsar-Pooschka_, the great bronze gun of Moscow, cast in 1586, was
even larger, and had a bore 36 inches in diameter. Early in the history
of the cannon the breech-loading feature was introduced. In Figs. 265
and 266 are shown illustrations from the Sixteenth Century, Fig. 265
representing a muzzle loader, and Fig. 266 a breech-loader.
[Illustration: FIG. 266.--BREECH LOADING CANNON OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.]
Passing through various stages of development, the cannon came down to
the Nineteenth Century, and was known generally as ordnance or
artillery, and specifically as cannon or heavy guns, mortars for
throwing shell at a great elevation, and howitzers for field, mountain,
or siege, and which latter are lighter and shorter than cannon, and
designed to throw hollow projectiles with comparatively small charges.
The feature of importance in the cannon which contributed most to its
efficiency was the rifling of the bore with spiral grooves. This, by
giving a rotating effect to the projectile, caused it to maintain a
truer flight by taking advantage of the law of physics that a rotating
body tends to preserve its plane of rotation. The rifling of the barrels
of firearms is, however, of very ancient origin. The British patent to
Rotsipen, No. 71, of 1635, is an early disclosure of this art. The
patent was granted him for
“Fourteen yeares if he live soe long.” * * * “To draw or to shave
barrells for pieces of all sortes straight even and smooth, and to
make anie crooked barrell perfectly straight with greate ease, and
to _rifle cutt out_ or screwe barrells as wyde or as close or as
deepe or as shallowe as shalbe required, with greate ease.”
The rifle grooves, however, were first made spiral or “screwed” by
Koster, of Birmingham, about 1620, while straight grooves are said to
have been in use as far back as 1498. In Berlin there is a rifled cannon
of 1664 with thirteen grooves. Rifled cannon were first employed in
actual service in Louis Napoleon’s Italian campaign of 1859, and were
first introduced in the United States service by General James in 1861.
About the middle of the Nineteenth Century a great impetus was given to
the development of artillery by the Crimean War, followed by the Civil
War of the United States.
In England the Armstrong gun was introduced about 1855, and was covered
by British patents No. 401, of 1857; No. 2,564, of 1858; No. 611, of
1859, and No. 743, of 1861. This originally consisted of an internal
tube of wrought iron or gun metal, with cylindrical casings of wrought
iron shrunk on. It was afterwards improved in what was known as the
Fraser gun. In Germany the operations of Krupp as a gun maker began to
be notable about this period. In the United States, Colonel Rodman
devised a means of casting guns of large calibre, by having a hollow
core through which water was circulated to rapidly cool and harden the
metal in the vicinity of the bore, and to relieve the unequal strain in
cooling. He obtained patent No. 5,236, August 14, 1847, for the same.
The Dahlgren gun was patented August 6, 1861, Nos. 32,983, 32,984, and
32,985, by Admiral Dahlgren, U. S. N. The improvement covered the
adjustment of the thickness of the metal at the breech of the gun to the
varying pressure strains along the bore. These guns were distinguishable
by the smooth bulbous breech of great thickness and curvilinear contour.
The Parrott gun, patented October 1, 1861, No. 33,401, and May 6, 1862,
No. 35,171, comprehended a form of hooped ordnance in which the breech
was re-enforced by an encompassing hoop or sleeve, which was shrunk on.
[Illustration: FIG. 267.--THE KRUPP BREECH MECHANISM.]
_Breech-Loading Ordnance._--While the breech-loading cannon is several
centuries old, and was, in fact, one of the first forms of that firearm,
it is to this principle of action that the rapid fire and great
execution of the modern weapon are chiefly due. The earliest of existing
forms of breech mechanism is that which comprehends the channeling of
the breech transversely to receive a tapered plug, which permits the
charge to be placed in the open rear end of the gun in front of the
channel, and the transverse plug then closed behind the charge. This is
described in Hadley’s British patent No. 577, of 1741; was first
patented in the United States in a modified form by Wright and Gould,
No. 22,325, December 14, 1858, and afterwards came to be known as the
Broadwell system, being developed by him and covered in patents No.
33,876, of December 10, 1861; No. 43,553, July 12, 1864, and No. 55,762,
June 19, 1866. This general principle is still employed by Krupp in
some of his guns, and as used by him is shown in Fig. 267. The
transverse channel through the breech is tapered, and the sliding breech
block X is slightly wedge-shaped to fit tightly therein. When the breech
block is withdrawn for loading, as shown, a sleeve S, shown in dotted
lines, is temporarily arranged in alignment with the bore and gives
smooth passage way to the charge to a position in front of the breech
block. This sleeve is then withdrawn, the breech block forced in, and is
there locked by a turn of the threads of a locking screw _b_ into the
corresponding recesses _a_ in the breech. A detachable wrench _e_ may be
applied either to the screw _d b_ to turn it to lock or unlock, or to
the traversing screw _c_, which, by engaging with a nut (not shown),
runs the breech block in and out.
[Illustration: FIG. 268.--INTERRUPTED THREAD BREECH MECHANISM.]
By far the most popular principle of the breech block, however, is that
of the interrupted thread, shown in Fig. 268, in which the plug, when
closed, has its axis in alignment with the axial bore of the gun. Its
threads are interrupted by longitudinally arranged channels, and the
breech of the gun has corresponding threads and channels. When the plug
is pushed into the gun, the screw threads of the plug enter the channels
of the breech, and a rotary turn of the screw plug then locks its
threads into those of the breech. The screw plug is supported by a
carrier hinged at one side to the gun, and arranged to swing the plug
into axial alignment with the bore, or be thrown to one side to admit
the charge. The patents to Chambers, No. 6,612, July 31, 1849 (re-issue
No. 237, April 19, 1853), and to Cochran, No. 26,256, November 29, 1859,
are the earliest American examples of this principle of action, and are
believed to be the original inventions of the same.
In one form or another this construction enters into most all modern
breech mechanisms. Among the forms used by the United States are the
Driggs-Seabury, the Dashiell, and the Vickers-Maxim. To prevent the
expanding gases from driving through the crevices of the breech block,
expanding or swelling rings, known as gas checks, are arranged on the
front of the breech block. De Bange’s patent, No. 301,220, July 1, 1884,
covers the most popular form.
[Illustration: FIG. 269.--SIGHTING A SIX-INCH RAPID FIRE GUN.]
The elements of efficiency of the modern rapid-fire breech-loading rifle
are to be found in the following features: First, in the increased
length of the gun, which, for a 6-inch gun is now as much as 25 feet,
the increased length lending a longer period of expansion for the
explosion of the powder charge, and imparting a correspondingly higher
momentum; secondly, in the fixed ammunition, which means a cartridge
case in which a metallic shell encloses the powder charge, and is
connected with the projectile, and third, in the great improvement and
rapidity of action of the breech mechanism, which permits as many as
eight rounds per minute to be fired. In Fig. 269 is shown a 6-inch
rapid-fire gun of the United States Navy, loaded, and being sighted for
fire. Rapid-fire guns of this class represent the most effective form of
modern ordnance. It was largely such rapid fire batteries of Admiral
Dewey’s squadron that swept the Spanish fleet out of existence at
Manila, and that demolished the fleet of Cervera at Santiago by the
awful hail of shells poured into his ships. These relatively small guns
throw a shell six miles, and the striking energy of their projectiles at
the muzzle is equal to the penetration of iron plate 21 inches thick, or
16 inches of steel. When the gun is loaded, it is held in the forward
position by coil springs, inclosed in cylinders and holding a recoil
seat for the trunnions, and also has two pistons traveling in cylinders
filled with glycerine. When the gun is fired, the recoil causes it to
slide back, carrying the pistons, and the recoil is checked by the
resistance of the glycerine traveling through an opening past the
pistons. After full recoil, the gun is automatically returned to its
forward position by the action of the coil springs, which are compressed
during the recoil. The gun crew is protected by Harveyized steel plate 4
inches thick, and the gun is so delicately mounted on ball bearings that
its great weight of 7½ tons responds readily to the slight pressure in
training the same.
[Illustration: FIG. 270.--RANGE OF SIXTEEN-INCH GUN.]
Powerful as these guns appear to be, their big brothers in the revolving
turrets are far more so. While not so nimble in action, the great power
of these guns of the main battery, and the elaboration and completeness
of mechanism for operating them, for supplying them with ammunition, and
for rotating the turrets, constitute a complete world in ordnance in
itself. As the gun increases in size, its cost both in construction and
service increases in a greatly disproportionate ratio. A 6-inch
breech-loading rifle costs $64.40 for each discharge, while a 12-inch
gun costs $458 for each discharge. The largest guns of our battleships
are of 13 inch calibre, and about 40 feet long, but larger ones are
employed for sea coast defenses. The great 16-inch 126-ton gun, now
building for the United States at the Watervliet arsenal, is 49¼ feet
long, over 6 feet in diameter at the breech, and it will have an extreme
range of over twenty miles. Its projectile will weigh 2,370 pounds, and
it will cost $865 to fire the gun once. The accompanying view, Fig. 270,
will give graphic illustration of the range of this gun. If fired at its
maximum elevation from the battery at the south end of New York in a
northerly direction, its projectile would pass over the city of New
York, over Grant’s Tomb, Spuyten Duyvil, Riverdale, Mount St. Vincent,
Ludlow, Yonkers, and would land near Hastings-on-the-Hudson, nearly
twenty miles away, as shown in our map, Fig. 271. The extreme height of
its trajectory would be 30,516 feet, or nearly six miles. This means
that if Pike’s Peak, of the Western Hemisphere, had piled on top of it
Mont Blanc, of the Eastern Hemisphere, this gun would hurl its enormous
projectile so high above them both as to still leave space below its
curve to build Washington’s Monument on top of Mont Blanc, as shown in
Fig. 270.
[Illustration: FIG. 271.--RADIUS OF ACTION OF SIXTEEN-INCH GUN.]
_The Disappearing Gun._--The importance of secreting the location of the
battery in coast defences, and the better protection of the gunners,
have suggested a species of gun carriage which would permit the gun to
be normally hidden behind and under the protection of the parapet, and
be only temporarily elevated to a position above the parapet while
firing. Various forms of this have been devised. General R. E. De Russy,
Corps Engineers, U. S. A., devised such a carriage in 1835. Moncrieff,
of England, was one of the first to put in practice such a form of
carriage. United States patents covering this invention were granted him
as follows: No. 83,873, November 10, 1868; No. 115,502, May 30, 1871,
and No. 144,120, October 28, 1873. Its principle of operation was to
utilize the force of the recoil as a power to raise the gun into firing
position. The gun is fulcrumed in a lever frame provided with a
counterpoise which more than balances the gun. When the gun is fired the
recoil raises the counterweight, and the gun descends and is locked in
its lower position. When loaded and released the counterpoise raises the
gun again to firing position.
Among later gun carriages of this type of American construction may be
mentioned those devised by Spiller, Gordon, Howell, and others, but the
one most generally known is the Buffington-Crozier, covered by patents
No. 555,426, February 25, 1896, and No. 613,252, November 1, 1898. This
carriage, sustaining the 8 and 10 inch breech-loading rifles at Fort
Wadsworth for the defence of New York harbor, is shown in Figs. 272
and 273, Fig. 272 representing it in its lowered position, and Fig. 273
in its elevated position for firing. The trunnions of the gun rest in
bearings at the upper ends of the pair of levers, which latter are
fulcrumed near the middle to horizontally sliding carriages connected to
hydraulic cylinders that move backward as the gun recoils. These
cylinders move over stationary pistons which have orifices that allow
the liquid to pass from one side of the piston to the other. As the gun
recoils and the levers turn to the horizontal position, the forward ends
of the levers are made to raise vertically an immense leaden
counterweight, weighing 32,000 pounds, which ordinarily over-balances
the weight of the gun on the levers. This cylindrical counterweight is
seen raised on the left of Fig. 272. In firing, the energy of the recoil
is absorbed partly by raising the counterweight, and partly by the
resistance of the hydraulic cylinders, and when the gun reaches its
lowest position it is caught and retained by pawls. After loading the
pawls are tripped, and the greater gravity of the counterweight raises
the gun to firing position again. Ten shots from an 8-inch gun on this
carriage have been fired in 12 minutes 21 seconds.
[Illustration: FIG. 272.--BUFFINGTON-CROZIER DISAPPEARING GUN, LOWERED.]
[Illustration: FIG. 273.--BUFFINGTON-CROZIER DISAPPEARING GUN, ELEVATED
FOR FIRING.]
_The Machine Gun._--During the Civil War a gun made its appearance
which, although of small calibre, rivaled in its deadly effectiveness
the wholesale slaughter of the cannon. It was a new type, and was known
as the machine gun, or battery gun, in which balls of comparatively
small size were discharged uninterruptedly and in incredible succession.
It was the invention of Dr. R. J. Gatling, and was covered by him in
patents No. 36,836, November 4, 1862, and No. 47,631, May 9, 1865, and
in many subsequent patents for minor improvements, and is now
universally known as the Gatling gun. It consisted of a circular series
of barrels mounted on a central shaft, and revolved by suitable gears
and a hand crank. The cartridges were automatically and successively fed
into the chambers of the barrel, and its several hammers were so
arranged in connection with the barrels that the whole operation of
loading, closing the breech, discharging and expelling the empty
cartridge cases was conducted while the barrels were kept in a
continuous revolving movement by turning the hand crank. In Fig. 274 is
shown a modern example of the Gatling gun equipped with the Accles feed.
Ordinarily the gun has ten barrels, with ten corresponding locks, which
revolve together during the working of the gun. When the gun is in
action there are always five cartridges going through the process of
loading, and five empty shells in different stages of being extracted,
and many hundred shots a minute can be fired. Many modifications of this
gun have been made by Hotchkiss and others. Maxim, Nordenfelt, and
Benet have each made valuable inventions in machine guns of a somewhat
different type, some of which utilize the force of the exploding charges
to react on the feed and firing mechanism, and thus furnish the power to
continue the consecutive operation of the gun, so that no hand crank is
required, but the gun works itself with an incessant hail of balls until
its supply of cartridges is exhausted.
[Illustration: FIG. 274.--GATLING GUN ON UNITED STATES ARMY MODEL
CARRIAGE.]
_The Dynamite Gun._--Most impressive to the layman, and most
demoralizing to the enemy, is this latter day form of ordnance. The
first efforts to hurl dynamite shells from a gun were made with
compressed air for fear of prematurely exploding the sensitive dynamite
in the gun, which would be more disastrous to the gunners themselves
than to the enemy. The Zalinski dynamite gun was of this class, and the
first which attained any notoriety. Foolhardy as it might appear, Yankee
genius was led to believe that dynamite shells could be fired with
powder charges, and this is now done in a practical and safe way in the
Sims-Dudley Dynamite Gun. This is manufactured under the fundamental
patents of Dudley, Nos. 407,474, 407,475, 407,476, of July 23, 1889,
which cover a method of exploding a charge of powder in one gun barrel,
and causing it to compress the air in front of it, and force it into
another barrel behind the dynamite shell, so that this relatively cool
body of air is interposed between the hot powder gases and the
dynamite. Fig. 275 represents Dudley’s patent drawing. C is the powder
charge in barrel A, and H is the dynamite shell in barrel G. The front
of barrel A is connected to the rear of barrel G behind the dynamite
shell by the tube F. When the powder C explodes, all the air in barrel A
and tube F is driven out and acts on the dynamite shell H to discharge
it without allowing it to come in contact with the hot powder gases. A
frangible plate D closes the end of barrel A, but blows out above a
certain pressure to avoid bursting strain in the gun. The Sims patent,
No. 619,025, February 7, 1899, covers a more simple and practical form
of constructing a gun on this principle, and the gun as used in the
United States is constructed in accordance with this latter improvement.
[Illustration: FIG. 275.--DYNAMITE GUN, DUDLEY’S PATENT, JULY 23, 1889.]
_Small Arms._--Pistols and guns are the two classes into which the
layman divides small arms, although in latter years this classification
has been much disturbed by the western frontiersman, who calls his
pistol a gun, and by the artillerist, who also calls his cannon a gun.
_The pistol_ may be defined as a small arm held in one hand to be fired.
It is an ancient weapon, but had attained no special importance or
popularity prior to the Nineteenth Century. The duelling pistol, with
its long barrel, its hair trigger and inlaid stock, and the derringer,
with its short barrel of large bore, were the popular forms. Not until
the revolver made its appearance did the pistol attain any importance.
Colt is popularly credited with having invented this, but it is really a
very old principle. In the Alte Deutscher Drehling Der Ruckladungs
Gewehre, by Edward Zernin, 1872, Darmstadt and Leipzig, is shown an
ancient form of match lock revolver, said to belong to the period
1480-1500. It is probably the same as the match-lock revolver in the
museum of the Tower of London, which is also credited to the Fifteenth
Century. In the British patent to Puckle, No. 418, of 1718, is shown and
described a well-constructed revolver carried on a tripod, and of the
dimensions of the modern machine gun. The inventor naïvely states that
it has round chambers for round balls, designed for Christians, and
square chambers, with square balls, for the Turks. The first revolving
firearm in the United States was made by John Gill, of Newberne, N. C.,
in 1829. It had fourteen chambers, and was a percussion gun, but was
never patented. The first revolver patented in the United States was
that to D. G. Colburn, June 29, 1833. The revolver of Col. Samuel Colt
was patented February 25, 1836, (re-issue No. 124, October 24, 1848),
and again August 29, 1839, No. 1,304; September 3, 1850, No. 7,613, and
September 10, 1850, No. 7,629. It was the first practical invention of
this kind, and it embodied as a leading feature the automatic rotation
of the cylinder in cocking by a pawl on the hammer engaging a ratchet on
the end of the cylinder.
[Illustration: FIG. 276.--SMITH & WESSON REVOLVER DISCHARGING SHELLS.]
Various types followed, such as the old pepper box, patented by Darling
April 13, 1836; the self-cocking pepper box, patented by Allen, No.
3,998, April 16, 1845; the four sliding barrels of Sharp, No. 6,960,
December 18, 1849, and many others. The most popular and successful,
however, of the succeeding types is that of Smith & Wesson, shown in
Fig. 276, and covered by many patents. One of its most important
features is the simultaneous extraction of the shells by an ejector,
having a stem sliding through the cylinder. This was the invention of W.
C. Dodge, patented January 17, 1865, No. 45,912, re-issue No. 4,483,
July 25, 1871. In Fig. 277 is shown Smith & Wesson’s latest pattern of
Hammerless Safety Revolver, with automatic shell extractor and
rebounding lock.
[Illustration: FIG. 277.--SMITH & WESSON SELF ACTING HAMMERLESS
REVOLVER.]
The latest development in this class of arms is the _automatic magazine
pistol_, designed for the use of the officers of the German army, and
adapted to fire ten shots in as many seconds. Only a slight pressure on
the trigger is necessary, as it is not required to perform the work of
turning any other part by the trigger, as is the case in the
self-cocking revolver. The pressure of gas at each explosion does all
the work of pushing back the closing piece of the breech through the
recoil of the shell, extracts and ejects the shell, cocks the hammer,
and also compresses recuperative springs, which effect the reloading and
closing of the weapon, all of these functions being performed in proper
sequence at each explosion in a fraction of a second. The act of firing
thus prepares the pistol for the next shot automatically. In Fig. 278
are shown two makes of pistol of this type. No. 1 is known as the Mauser
(United States patent No. 584,479, June 15, 1897); No. 2 shows it with
an extemporized stock, to be used as a carbine in firing from the
shoulder. This stock is hollow and forms the holster or case for the
pistol. At No. 3 is shown the Mannlicher pistol (United States patent
No. 581,296, April 27, 1897), which is another form of the same type. In
the Mauser the breech moves to the rear during recoil. In the Mannlicher
the barrel moves to the front, leaving space for a fresh cartridge to
come up from the magazine below. The calibre of this pistol is 0.3
inch, and the initial velocity 1,395 feet. At 33 feet the ball passes
through 10¾ inches of spruce, at 490 through 5 inches, and its extreme
range is 3,000 feet, or more than half a mile. When empty it is quickly
re-charged with cartridges, which are made up in sets of ten in a case
and inserted in one movement.
[Illustration: FIG. 278.--AUTOMATIC PISTOLS.]
_Breech-Loading Guns._--Although the breech-loading principle was well
known prior to the Nineteenth Century, it remained for this period to
give it effective development. The first United States patent for a
breech-loading gun was to Thornton and Hall, May 21, 1811. It was a
flint lock, and many of these arms were made at Harper’s Ferry Armory in
1814, and issued to the troops, one being given by order of Congress to
each member of Congress to take home with him to show to his
constituents. The present style of break-down gun was invented by Pauly,
in France, and is to be found in his British patent No. 3,833, of 1814.
Lefaucheux, of Paris, however, made this form of gun practical.
Minesinger, in United States patent No. 6,139, February 27, 1849,
supplied the important improvement of making the front edge of the
metallic cartridge shell thinner than elsewhere, so as to expand by the
pressure of the exploding charge, and swell to a tight fit of the
barrel. The Maynard rifle, first patented May 27, 1851, No. 8,126, was
one of the earliest practical forms of breech-loaders.
_Magazine Guns._--Walter Hunt’s United States patent No. 6,663, August
21, 1849, was the first on a magazine firearm of modern type. It had a
sliding breech block carrying the main spring and firing pin. The
Spencer rifle was one of the early ones that came into use. This had a
row of cartridges in the stock, and was first patented March 6, 1860,
No. 27,393. It was this weapon which in the Civil War gave proof of the
deadly efficacy of the breech-loading magazine gun, and its superiority
to the old style military arm. Another type of magazine firearm which in
the last half century has gained great prominence and popularity is the
so-called “Winchester.” This has its cartridges arranged in a tube below
and parallel with the barrel, and they are fed in a column to the rear
by a helical spring as fast as they are used up at the breech. The
pioneer of this type is the arm patented by Smith & Wesson February 14,
1854, No. 10,535, re-issued December 30, 1873, No. 5,710. This was
subsequently improved as to the extractor by B. F. Henry in patent No.
30,446, October 16, 1860, re-issued December 7, 1868, No. 3,227, and was
manufactured and favorably known for many years as the _Henry rifle_.
This rifle was also used in the Civil War. O. F. Winchester subsequently
re-organized it in patent No. 57,808, September 4, 1866, and the arm in
late years has taken his name.
_The Needle Gun_, of Prussia, represents an early form of breech loader,
and may be considered the prototype of the modern bolt gun. The needle
gun has in the place of the swinging hammer a rectilinearly sliding
bolt, carrying in front a needle which pierces the charge and ignites
the fulminate by its friction. Its construction permits the fulminate
to be placed in advance of the powder, which thus burns from the front,
and is entirely consumed in the gun, instead of being partially blown
out of the gun, as may occur when ignited in the rear. The needle gun
was invented by Dreyse in 1838, was first introduced about 1846, and
gave effective service in the Prusso-Austrian war of 1866. The
_Chassepot_, brought out in 1867, United States patent No. 60,832, was a
French development of the Prussian needle gun.
About 1879 two forms of magazine guns appeared which have become types
for most all subsequent guns of this class. Both of them employed the
bolt system as previously embodied in the needle gun, but added to it
the magazine principle and changed the method of supplying and feeding
the cartridges. One was the invention of James Lee, and the other was
the joint invention of Colonel Livermore, of the Corps of Engineers, and
Major Russell, of the Ordnance Department, U. S. A. In the Lee, whose
name has been much in evidence in late years, there was a relatively
small detachable box (see Fig. 279) capable of holding five cartridges
and designed to be filled and then placed in a slot opening centrally
under the gun, below the receiver, and directly in front of the trigger
guard. A spring within the magazine fed the cartridges up into alignment
with the barrel. Lee’s first patent was No. 221,328, November 4, 1879.
[Illustration: FIG. 279.--LEE’S MAGAZINE RIFLE, PATENTED NOVEMBER 4,
1879.]
The Livermore-Russell gun, patented October 28, 1879, No. 221,079, had a
magazine opening transversely in the upper edge of the stock behind the
bolt, and the cartridges were fed to the barrel beneath the bolt. The
important feature of the gun, however, was a cartridge case slotted on
its side and detachable from the gun, and each bearing a group of five
cartridges, which were to be thus made up in small packets and carried
in the belt or cartridge box of the soldier. This idea was subsequently
developed by Livermore and Russell in patent No. 230,823, August 3,
1880, and this feature, viewed in the light of the importance
subsequently attained by the “clip” in the Mauser and Mannlicher guns,
may be fairly considered the pioneer of this idea of grouping cartridges
in made-up packets for bolt guns. Its great advantage is the large
number of shots that may be fired in a short space of time without an
excessive weight in the gun itself.
Subsequent patents for improvements were taken by Lee as follows: No.
513,647, January 30, 1894, and No. 547,583, October 8, 1895, and the gun
used by the United States Navy is modeled along the lines of Lee’s
invention.
[Illustration: FIG. 280.--KRAG-JORGENSEN MAGAZINE RIFLE.]
_The Krag-Jorgensen Magazine Rifle_ was patented June 10, 1890, No.
429,811, and February 21, 1893, No. 492,212. It is the arm adopted by
the United States infantry service, and is seen in Fig. 280. The fixed
magazine chamber, shown in the cross section, passes through the breech
laterally below the barrel, and is filled with cartridges on one side of
the gun, which cartridges pass through the breech laterally, and,
turning a curve, enter the barrel from the opposite side. When the bolt
is drawn back by the knob handle a cartridge is fed up into position to
enter the barrel, and when pushed forward the cartridge is forced into
the bore of the gun, and at the same time a spiral spring is put under
tension to set the hammer of the gun, which carries a firing pin at its
front end. When the trigger is pulled the hammer and firing pin plunge
forward to explode the cap in the cartridge, and when the handle of the
bolt is drawn back again to extract the empty shell, a fresh cartridge
rises to take its place.
_The Mauser Rifle_ is shown in Fig. 281. This is the arm of which so
much was heard during the recent war with Spain, and against which our
soldiers had to contend. Five cartridges are carried in a magazine
immediately in front of the trigger, and are fed up by a subjacent
spring, one at a time, centrally through the breech into line with the
barrel, as the bolt with the knobbed handle is worked back and forth.
The cartridges are carried by the soldier in groups of five in a “clip,”
which is a simple strip of metal with inturned parallel edges, which
enclose the flanged heads of the cartridges as they project at right
angles to the clip. To transfer the cartridges to the magazine, the
clip with its cartridges is placed above the barrel, and the cartridges
forced down out of the clip into the magazine. In the Mannlicher gun,
adopted by the German army, the clip which holds the cartridges is
itself inserted into the magazine, along with the cartridges.
[Illustration: FIG. 281.--THE MAUSER RIFLE AND CLIP.]
The modern trend of development in firearms has been toward the
reduction of calibre, the standard for small arms being 30/100. The lead
bullets are covered with a seamless jacket of harder metal (Geiger’s
patents, No. 306,738 and 306,739, October 21, 1884), which prevents the
“leading” and fouling of the gun, and the distortion of the bullet.
Modern magazine guns permit twenty-five to thirty shots a minute as
single loaders, and besides they hold in reserve five cartridges. They
have a killing range of a mile, and the cost of the cartridge is 3.2
cents. At a trial at the Washington Navy Yard a few years past a steel
projectile 1.07 inches long and 32/100 calibre penetrated solid iron
1.15 inch thick, fired at an angle of 80°. It also penetrated 50 inches
of pine boards, and its range was estimated at three miles.
[Illustration: FIG. 282.--THE GREENER HAMMERLESS GUN.]
_Hammerless Guns._--Among improvements in shot guns the so-called
“hammerless” feature is a noteworthy departure. This hides the hammers
in the breech and cocks them by the act of breaking down the gun. In
Fig. 282 is given a section and plan view of the Greener mechanism,
which was patented July 6, 1880, No. 229,604, and was one of the first
guns of this kind put on the market. The hammers A are constructed as
elbow levers. Their upper ends have each a round point adapted to strike
through a small hole in the breech onto the cap of the cartridge. The
lower front portions of the hammers are extended forward and curved
inwardly toward each other, so that their inner ends nearly meet. C is a
pendent hook jointed to the barrel, and when the latter is tilted, as
shown in dotted lines, the hook acting upon the forwardly projecting
arms of the hammers turns them backward to the cocked position, in which
they are retained by the dogs B engaging with their notches. As the
hammers move back the mainspring is compressed, and when the dog B is
removed from the notch by pulling on the trigger, the hammers are
released and the gun fired.
_The rebounding lock_, now universally applied to shot guns, is another
comparatively recent improvement. This promotes safety by causing the
hammers to be normally and automatically held away from the firing pins.
The first practical form of this lock was patented by Hailer, July 26,
1870, No. 105,799, in which a single spring serves to deliver the blow
of the hammer and also withdraws the hammer from the firing pin. A
marked tendency in shot guns in late years is toward a reduction in
bore, many sportsmen now using a 28 gauge in preference to the old
regulation 12.
Nearly 5,000 patents have been granted in the United States for
firearms, and about 2,400 for projectiles. The most important of the
latter is the torpedo, of which the Whitehead, or fish torpedo, which
supplies its own means of propulsion, is the best known and most used.
It was first brought out in 1866 by Whitehead, at Fiume, a port of
Hungary. The Gathmann aerial torpedo, weighing 1,800 pounds and carrying
625 pounds of wet gun cotton, is designed to be fired from a gun 44 feet
long and 18 inch bore, and is supposed to have a range of ten miles.
Tests are about to be made under special appropriation of Congress, and
if its claim can be substantiated, it may become the most destructive
engine of warfare known.
_Explosives._--The invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese,
and at a period so far back that its origin is buried in antiquity. It
is believed to have been known since the time of Moses, something very
like it being mentioned in the ancient Gentoo laws of India 1,500 to
2,000 B. C. For many years it was thought that Roger Bacon invented it
in 1249, but it is now known that he was only a factor in its
development. Most likely the saltpetre of the plains of China came first
in accidental contact with the charred embers of a prehistoric fire, and
to the observant man the oxygen-giving saltpetre furnished the charcoal
with its means of energetic combustion for the first time.
Gunpowder consists of about 75 parts of saltpetre (nitrate of potash),
15 of charcoal, and 10 of sulphur, the proportions varying somewhat with
the use to which it is to be applied. In ordinary combustion the air
supplies the necessary oxygen. In gunpowder the presence of the air is
not necessary, as the saltpetre has imprisoned in its composition a
large quantity of oxygen which furnishes to the carbon and sulphur the
means for its combustion, gasification and enormous expansion.
Originally, gunpowder was pulverulent, like that used in fire works, and
had but little propelling force. The making of it in grains (“corned”)
is ascribed to Berthold Schwarz, a German monk, about 1320, and this, by
promoting the rapidity of its burning, added greatly to its effective
force, and gave a new impetus to firearms.
In the early part of the Nineteenth Century there were but few
improvements in either the composition or manufacture of gunpowder. The
introduction of the percussion cap, which exploded the charge by a blow,
in the place of the old flint lock, was, however, a notable advance.
Alexander John Forsyth, a Scotch clergyman, was the first to apply a
percussion or detonating compound, as set forth in his British patent
No. 3,032, of 1807. The embodiment of such compounds in the little
copper caps was made about 1818, and has been claimed by various
parties. Manton’s British patent No. 4,285, of 1818, describes a thin
copper tube filled with fulminate and struck sidewise by the hammer to
explode it. Joshua Shaw took a United States patent on a percussion gun,
June 19, 1822, and the copper percussion cap was said to have been
introduced in the United States by him in 1842. The embodiment of the
charge of powder and ball in brass and copper shells was done in France
by Galay Cazalat as early as 1826. Drawn metallic shells were made by
Flobert and Lefaucheux, in 1853, and Palmer, in 1854. Drawn copper
cartridges with center fire were introduced in the United States, and
patented by Smith & Wesson August 8, 1854, No. 11,496, and solid headed
shells by Hotchkiss, August 31, 1869, No. 94,210.
[Illustration: FIG. 283.--SUBMARINE MINE. CHARGE, 250 POUNDS DYNAMITE.]
In 1846 a new and distinct development in explosives was made in the
discovery of gun cotton by Schönbein, and of nitro-glycerine in 1847 by
Sobrero. The former is made by the reaction of nitric acid, aided by
sulphuric acid, on ordinary raw cotton, which, while changing the
physical aspects of the cotton but little, gives to it a terrific
explosive energy. Nitro-glycerine is made in a somewhat similar way by
treating glycerine with nitric and sulphuric acids. At first it found no
practical applications, except as a homœopathic medicine for headache,
but about 1864 Nobel commenced its manufacture for explosive uses, and
since that time nearly all the great blasting operations have been
performed through its agency. Its most familiar form is _dynamite_, or
giant powder, Nobel’s patent, No. 78,317, May 26, 1868, which is simply
nitro-glycerine held in absorption by some inert granular solid, such as
infusorial earth, and is thus rendered safer to handle and more
convenient to use. A suggestive application of the terrible power of
these explosives is in submarine mines. The instantaneous and dastardly
destruction of our battleship, “The Maine,” with 250 of her crew, in
Havana harbor, February 15, 1898, by one of these agencies, is a
harrowing illustration. Fig. 283 represents one of these submarine mines
carrying 250 pounds of dynamite, and Fig. 284 is an instantaneous
photograph at the moment of explosion.
[Illustration: FIG. 284.--EXPLOSION OF A MINE. BASE OF WATER COLUMN, 100
FEET WIDE, HEIGHT, 246 FEET.]
_White gunpowder_, or wood powder, was invented by Captain Schultz, of
the Prussian army. It is made by treating granulated wood with a mixture
of nitric and sulphuric acids, which, acting upon the cellulose of the
wood, convert it into an explosive something of the nature of gun
cotton. The grains are afterward saturated with saltpetre. This was
patented in the United States June 2, 1863, No. 38,789, and in Great
Britain, No. 900, of 1864. Dittmar’s powder is another of the same
general nature, covered by United States patents No. 98,854, January
18, 1870; No. 99,069, January 25, 1870, and No. 145,403, December 9,
1873.
Among the high explosives of more recent date may be mentioned:
_Tonite_ (gun cotton and barium nitrate), British patents No. 3,612,
of 1874, and No. 2,742, of 1876.
_Rack-a-rock_ (potassium chlorate and nitro-benzene), United States
patent No. 243,432, June 28, 1881; British patent No. 5,584, of
1881.
_Bellite_ (ammonium nitrate and nitro-benzene), United States
patent No. 455,217, June 30, 1891; British patent No. 13,690, of
1885.
_Melinite_ (picric acid and gun cotton), British patent No. 15,089,
of 1885.
_Lyddite_, not patented, but believed to be substantially same as
melinite, and containing for its active ingredient picric acid,
which is a compound formed by the reaction of nitric acid on
carbolic acid.
_Cordite_ (nitro-glycerine, gun cotton, and mineral jelly or oil),
British patent No. 5,614, of 1889; United States patent No.
409,549, August 20, 1889.
_Indurite_ (gun cotton and nitro-benzene, indurated), United States
patent, No. 489,684, January 10, 1893; British patent, No. 580, of
1893.
In recent years smokeless powders have largely superseded all others.
These contain usually nitro-cellulose (gun cotton), or nitro-glycerine,
or both, made up into a plastic, coherent, and homogeneous compound of a
gluey nature, and fashioned into horn-like sticks or rods by being
forced under pressure through a die plate having small holes, through
which the plastic material is strained into strings like macaroni, or
else is molded into tablets, pellets, or grains of cubical shape.
Prominent among those who have contributed to this art are the names of
Turpin, Abel and Dewar, Nobel, Maxim, Munroe, Du Pont, Bernadou and
others.
In the recent years of the Nineteenth Century great activity has been
manifest in this field of invention. In the United States more than 600
different patents have been granted for explosives, the larger portion
of them being for nitro-compounds, which partake in a greater or less
degree of the qualities of gun cotton or nitro-glycerine. The influence
exerted by them has been incalculable. Subtile as is the force
imprisoned in inter-atomic relation, it has been the power behind the
boom of the cannon; it has lent itself to the driving of great tunnels
through the solid rock; it has lifted the coal and ore from the solid
embrace of the mountain, and the building stone from its sleep in the
quarry; it has opened up channels to the sea, canals on land, and in
both war and peace has been one of the great agencies of civilization.
CHAPTER XXXI.
TEXTILES.
SPINNING AND WEAVING AN ANCIENT ART--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY--
ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE--CROMPTON’S MULE
SPINNER--THE COTTON GIN--RING SPINNING--THE RABBETH SPINDLE--JOHN
KAY’S FLYING SHUTTLE AND ROBERT KAY’S DROP BOX--CARTWRIGHT’S POWER
LOOM--THE JACQUARD LOOM--CROMPTON’S FANCY LOOM--BIGELOW’S CARPET
LOOMS--LYALL POSITIVE MOTION LOOM--KNITTING MACHINES--CLOTH PRESSING
MACHINERY--ARTIFICIAL SILK--MERCERIZED CLOTH.
Far back in the obscuring gloom of a prehistoric antiquity, man wore
probably only the hirsute covering which nature gave him. As he emerged
from barbarism, sentiments of modesty marked the evolution of his mind,
and this, together with the need for a more sufficient protection
against cold and heat, suggested an artificial covering for his body. At
first he robbed the brute of his fleecy skin and wore it bodily. Later
he learned to spin and weave; next to food and drink, clothing became a
fundamental necessity, for without it his life could not extend outside
of the limited zone of the tropics. Food and drink were to be found as
nature’s free gifts, but clothing had to be made, and its manufacture
constituted probably the oldest of all the living arts. The making of
cloth may be said to be coeval with history. The Old Testament of the
Bible is replete with references to spinning and weaving, and the cloths
wrapped about the mummies of ancient Egypt, although thousands of years
old, were of exceeding regularity and fineness.
So old an art, and so great and continuous a need for its products
necessarily must have resulted in much development and progress. When
the Nineteenth Century began, the world already enjoyed the results of
Hargreaves’ spinning-jenny, Arkwright’s roll-drawing spinning machine,
the mule spinner, the cotton gin, and the power loom, all of which were
most radical inventions, equaling in importance, perhaps, any that have
followed.
Prior to the invention of the _spinning-jenny_, the loose fibre was spun
into yarns and thread by hand on the old-fashioned spinning wheel, each
thread requiring the attention of one person. In 1763 Hargreaves
invented the spinning-jenny (see Fig. 285), in which a multiplicity of
spindles was employed, whereby one person could attend to the making of
many threads simultaneously. For this purpose the spindles were set
upright at the end of the frame, and the rovings or strips of untwisted
fibre were carried on bobbins on the inclined frame. The rovings
extended from these bobbins to a reciprocating “clasp” held in the left
hand of the workman, and thence extended to the spindles at the end of
the frame. The workman drew out the rovings by moving the clasp back and
forth, and at the same time turned the crank with his right hand to
rotate the spindles. Hargreaves’ machine is shown and described in his
British patent, No. 962 of 1770.
[Illustration: FIG. 285.--HARGREAVES’ SPINNING JENNY.]
The next important step in spinning was the introduction of drawing
rolls, which were a series of rolls running at different speeds for
drawing out or elongating the roving as it was spun into a thread. This
was mainly due to Arkwright, a contemporary of Hargreaves. The principle
of the drawing rolls had been foreshadowed in the British patents of
Louis Paul, No. 562, of 1738, and No. 724, of 1758, but Arkwright made
the first embodiment of it in practically useful machines, which were
covered by him in British patents No. 931, of 1769, and No. 1,111, of
1775. Arkwright’s spinning machine is shown in Fig. 286, the drawing
rolls being shown at the top of the figure.
[Illustration: FIG. 286.--ARKWRIGHT’S ROLL-DRAWING SPINNING MACHINE.]
Following these important inventions came the mule spinner. This was
invented by Crompton between 1774 and 1779, but was never patented. It
combined the leading features of Hargreaves and Arkwright. The spindles
were mounted on a wheeled carriage that traveled back and forth a
considerable distance from the drawing rolls, which were mounted in
bearings in a stationary frame. The long travel of the carriage back and
forth, and the simultaneous twisting and drawing of the yarns, produced
threads of great fineness and regularity. The value of the long travel
of the carriage may be briefly noted as follows: When the threads or
slivers emerge from the drawing rolls they are not absolutely of uniform
size, and the thick portions do not twist as tightly as the thinner
portions. The stretching and drawing of these thicker parts down to a
uniform size by the receding of the carriage is the distinctive feature
of its action. As the thread has greater tensile strength at the thinner
hard-twisted parts than it has at the thicker untwisted parts, it will
be seen that the stretching action is localized on the thicker untwisted
parts of the thread, which are thus brought down to uniform size by
elongation. The drawing and twisting of the thread is effected as the
carriage runs out, and when the carriage runs in these twisted lengths
are wound around the spindles. The rendering of the action of the mule
automatic or self-acting in its travel back and forth was the invention
of Richard Roberts, of England, and was covered by him in British
patents No. 5,138 of 1825, and No. 5,649 of 1830. The mule spinner shown
in Fig. 287 is a good modern example of this machine.
[Illustration: FIG. 287.--MULE SPINNING MACHINE.]
One of the most important of the early inventions in the textile art was
the _cotton gin_. This was the invention of Eli Whitney, of
Massachusetts, and was patented by him March 14, 1794. Prior to its use
the picking of the cotton fibre from the bean-like seed with which it is
compactly stored in the boll was entirely effected by hand, and it was a
slow and tedious process, and about 4 pounds per day was the average
work of one man. The cotton gin, shown in Fig. 288, is a device for
doing this by machinery in a rapid, thorough, and expeditious manner.
The cotton, mixed with seed, is fed to the roll box J, in which a sort
of reel F continually turns the cotton. The bottom of the roll box is
formed with a grating of parallel ribs E, between which project the
teeth of a gang of circular saws C, which pull the fibre through between
the ribs and deliver it to the revolving brush B, which beats the fibre
off the teeth of the saws and produces a blast that discharges the
fleece through the rear of the gin. The cotton seed, which are too
large to pass between the ribs with the fibre, drop out the bottom of
the roll-box. With the aid of the cotton gin the efficiency of one man
is raised from four pounds per day to several thousand pounds per day,
and the culture and manufacture of cotton fibre was revolutionized and
greatly stimulated by providing a mode of putting it into merchantable
condition at a reasonable price. It is said that the crop of cotton
increased from 189,316 pounds in 1791 to 2,000,000,000 pounds in 1859.
The cotton gin, as invented by Whitney more than a hundred years ago, is
still in use, substantially unchanged in principle, but its efficiency
has been raised from 70 pounds per day to several thousands. The cotton
crop of the United States for 1899, which was handled by the modern gins
at this rate, amounted to 11,274,840 bales, of about 500 pounds each, or
more than five thousand million pounds. But for the cotton gin this
great staple would have only a very limited use, and one of the greatest
of the world’s industries would have practically no existence.
[Illustration: FIG. 288.--COTTON GIN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 289.--MODERN SPINNING SPINDLE.]
A modern step of importance in spinning was the _ring frame_. Ring
spinning was invented by John Thorp, of Rhode Island, who took out two
patents for the same November 20, 1828. The leading feature of the ring
frame is the substitution of a light steel hoop or traveler running upon
the upper edge of a ring surrounding the spindle in lieu of the flyer
formerly employed. The thread passes through the hoop as it is wound
upon the spindle. In modern times ring spinning has attained
considerable proportions, especially in cotton manufactures.
Nearly 3,000 United States patents have been granted in the class of
spinning, and many valuable improvements in the details of construction
in spinning machinery have been made in recent years. The most
important, perhaps, are those relating to spindle structure, whereby the
speed and efficiency of spinning machines have been greatly increased.
Prior to 1878 the speed of the average spindle was limited to 5,000
revolutions a minute. In 1878 improvements were made which doubled its
working speed and permitted as high as 20,000 revolutions a minute. This
result was accomplished by making a yielding bolster. The bolster is an
upright sleeve bearing, in which the spindle revolves, and against which
is sustained the pull of the band that drives the spindle. By making
this bolster or sleeve bearing to yield laterally by means of an elastic
packing which surrounds it, a much greater freedom and speed of
revolution were obtained. The preliminary step in this direction was
made by Birkenhead in patent No. 205,718, July 9, 1878. In the same year
this idea was perfected by Rabbeth. The bolster was placed loosely in a
bolster case of slightly larger diameter than the bolster, and the
bottom of the spindle had a free lateral movement as well as the top, as
shown in his patent No. 227,129, May 4, 1880. With such perfect freedom
of movement, the spindle at high speed could find its own center of
revolution, and an indefinitely high speed and quadrupled efficiency
were attained. The Draper Spindle is shown in Fig. 289 as one of the
most modern and representative of spinning spindles. Considering the
great speed of the modern spindle and the fact that a single workman
attends a thousand or more of them, the record of progress in this art
becomes impressive. In 1805 there were only 4,500 cotton spindles at
work in the United States. In 1899 there were 18,100,000.
_Weaving._--A woven fabric consists of threads which run lengthwise,
called the “warp,” crossed by threads running transversely, called the
“woof,” “weft,” or “filling,” which latter are imprisoned or locked in
by the warp. In a simple loom the warp threads are divided into two
groups, the threads of one group alternating with those of the other,
and means are provided for separating these groups to form a
wedge-shaped space between them called a “shed.” Through this shed the
shuttle which carries the woof or filling thread is sent crosswise the
warp threads. Means are provided for changing the inclination and
position of the two groups of warp threads in relation to each other, so
as to lock in the filling, and put the warp threads in position to
receive the next filling thread. For this purpose the warp threads,
usually horizontal, are each passed through a loop, and every alternate
loop is attached to a frame called a “heddle.” The intervening loops and
threads are attached to another frame or “heddle,” and the two heddles
by being worked, one up and the other down, separate the warp threads to
form the shed. Formerly the shuttle was thrown by hand through the shed.
In 1733 John Kay, of England, took out British patent No. 542, for the
flying shuttle and picking stick, by which the shuttle was struck a
hammer-like blow and driven like a ball from a bat across the warp, and
was struck by a similar stick on the other side, to be returned in the
same way. This gave a much more rapid action than could be obtained by
hand-throwing, and enabled one weaver to do the work of two or three. In
1760 Robert Kay invented the drop box, by which different shuttles
carrying different colors of thread were employed.
The _power loom_, however, marked the first great growth in the art of
weaving. The enormously increased quantity of cotton spun by Arkwright’s
machinery made a demand for increased facilities for weaving it into
cloth. Dr. Cartwright, of England, foresaw and met this demand in his
_power loom_, in which all of the intricate operations were performed by
power-driven machinery. His invention was not extensively introduced
until about the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. One difficulty
experienced was that the warp threads, from their fuzzy nature, had to
be dressed with size, and this required the loom to be stopped from time
to time, and necessitated the services of a man to dress or size the
warp threads. This difficulty was overcome, however, by Johnson &
Radcliffe, about 1803, by the sizing and dressing of the yarns by
passing them between rollers and coating them with a thin layer of paste
before being put into the loom. Dr. Cartwright was granted British
patents No. 1,470, of 1785; No. 1,565, of 1786; No. 1,616, of 1787, and
No. 1,676, of 1788, but being unable to maintain any monopoly under his
patents he was compensated by Parliament with a grant of £10,000.
[Illustration: FIG. 290.--MODERN JACQUARD LOOM.]
_Jacquard Loom._--This most notable step in the art of weaving was made
at the very beginning of the Nineteenth Century. It enabled all kinds of
fabrics, from the finest to the coarsest, to be cheaply woven into
patterns having figured or ornamental designs. Jacquard, a native of
Lyons, conceived the plan of his great invention in the last decade of
the Eighteenth Century, and on December 28, 1801, took out French patent
No. 245, on the same. His invention was not, in fact, a new form of
loom, but rather an attachment to a loom which was universally
applicable to all looms. Before his invention, figured patterns of cloth
could only be made by slow and laborious processes. Jacquard’s invention
consisted in individualizing and differentiating the movement of the
warp threads, instead of operating them in constant groups. This
individualizing of the movement of the warp threads allowed any warp
thread to be held up automatically any length of time, or let down,
according as was necessary to form the figure of the pattern. This was
accomplished by making a chain of articulated cards, like a slatted
belt, and perforating these cards with varying arrangements of holes.
The cards were successively and intermittently fed to a set of needles,
which latter, by rising and falling, raise or lower the warp threads
attached to the same. By perforating these cards differently, and
arranging them so that when one card was brought in front of the needles
it would let certain needles through the perforations and hold the
others back, it will be seen that each card controlled the action of a
different set of needles, and the sequence of the series of cards
effected the necessary change in the needles and movement of the warp
threads to form the growth of the figure in the fabric.
In Fig. 290 is seen a modern form of Jacquard loom, showing at the far
end the chain of perforated cards. Jacquard received a bronze medal at
the French Exposition in 1801, was decorated with the Cross of the
Legion of Honor, and the gratitude of his countrymen was attested by a
pension of 6,000 francs, and a statue erected to his memory at Lyons in
1840.
Subsequent improvements and developments of the Jacquard loom have
carried its work to great nicety and refinement of action. In the chain
of pattern cards it is said that as many as 25,000 separately punched
cards or plates are sometimes used in weaving a single yard of brocade.
The great variety of elaborate designs of delicate tracery in silk, rich
patterns in brocades, and gorgeous figures in carpets, attest the value
of Jacquard’s important step in this art.
Nearly 5,000 United States patents have been granted in the class of
weaving. In the early part of the century much notable work was done.
Steam was applied to looms by William Horrocks (British patent No.
2,699, 1803). From 1830 to 1842 there were brought out the fancy looms
of Crompton, the application of the Jacquard mechanism to the lace frame
by Draper, and the carpet looms of Bigelow. In 1853 Bonelli sought to
improve on the Jacquard mechanism by employing electro-magnets to effect
the selection of the needles, instead of perforated cards (British
patent No. 1,892, of 1853).
Among more recent developments is the _Positive Motion_ loom of Lyall,
patented December 10, 1872, No. 133,868, re-issue No. 9,049, January 20,
1880. The distinguishing feature of this is that the shuttle is not
thrown or impelled as a projectile through the wedge-shaped space
(shed), between the two sets of warp threads, but is positively dragged
back and forth through the same by an endless belt attached to the
shuttle carriage and running first in one direction and then in the
other to drag the shuttle through.
[Illustration: FIG. 291.--CROMPTON FANCY LOOM.]
It is not to be understood that the positive motion loom has superseded
the flying shuttle. The latter is still the leading type, of which the
Crompton fancy loom, shown in Fig. 291, is a representative
illustration.
The tendency in late years in the art of weaving has been toward
labor-saving devices, a reduction in the cost to the consumer of all
kinds of textile fabrics, and the extension of the loom to the weaving
of new kinds of materials. Prominent among these are the inventions in
the loom for weaving plain fabrics made between the years 1881 and 1895,
shown in patents to Northrop, No. 454,810, June 23, 1891; No. 529,943,
November 27, 1894, and Draper, No. 536,948, April 2, 1895. This loom, as
usual, employs a single shuttle, but as the weft becomes exhausted
another bobbin is automatically supplied to the shuttle without
stopping the operation of the machine. During the year 1895 the first
loom for weaving an open mesh cane fabric having diagonal strands was
invented. Patents to Morris, No. 549,930, and to Crompton, No. 550,068,
November 19, 1895, were obtained for this. Prior to this time two
distinct machines were necessary to produce this fabric, and the
operation was slow and expensive. Between 1893 and 1895 two machines
were invented, upon either of which the well-known Turkish carpets can
be woven. Patents to Youngjohns, No. 510,755, December 12, 1893, and to
Reinhart von Seydlitz, No. 533,330, January 29, 1895, disclose this. The
drawing of warp threads into the eyes of the heddles and through the
reed of a loom requires great skill, and prior to 1880 was performed by
hand at great expense. In 1882, however, a machine for doing this was
invented, thereby dispensing with the old hand method and cheapening the
operation. Patents to Sherman and Ingersoll, No. 255,038, March 14,
1882, and Ingersoll, No. 461,613, October 20, 1891, were granted for
this machine.
To-day the shuttle flies at the rate of 180 to 250 strokes a minute, and
yet the complex organization of the machine works with an energy, a
uniformity, an accuracy and a continuity that leaves far behind the
strength of the arm, the memory of mind, and the accuracy of the human
eye, and yet, if the tiny thread breaks, the whole organization
instantly stops and patiently waits the remedial care of its watchful
master.
_Knitting Machines._--Knitting differs from weaving, braiding, or
plaiting in the following respects: In weaving there are longitudinal
threads called warp threads, which are crossed on a separate weft or
filling thread. In braiding or plaiting all the threads may be
considered warp threads, since they are arranged to run longitudinally,
and instead of locking around a separate transverse thread at right
angles, they extend diagonally and are interwoven with each other. In
netting and knitting, however, there is but a single thread, which, in
netting, is knotted into itself at definite intervals to leave a mesh of
definite size, while in knitting the single thread is merely looped into
itself without any definite mesh. Knitted goods have the peculiarity of
great elasticity in consequence of this formation of the fabric, and for
that reason find a special application in all garments which are
required to snugly conform to irregular outlines, such as stockings for
the feet, gloves for the hands, and underwear for the body.
Weaving, braiding, and netting are very old arts, but the art of
knitting is comparatively modern. It is believed to have originated
about the year 1500 in Scotland. In 1589 William Lee, of England, is
credited with making the first knitting machine. It is said that the
girl with whom he was in love, and to whom he was paying his attention,
was so busy with her work of hand knitting that she could not give him
the requisite attention, and he invented the knitting machine that they
might have more time to devote to their love affairs. Another version is
that he married the girl and invented the machine to relieve her weary
fingers from the work of the knitting needle, and still another is that
the machine was the leading object of his affections, to the neglect of
his sweetheart, who “gave him the mitten” before he had knitted one on
his machines.
[Illustration: FIG. 292.--BRANSON 15/16 AUTOMATIC KNITTER.]
The earliest circular knitting machine was by Brunel, described in
British patent No. 3,993, of 1816. Power was applied to the knitting
frame by Bailey in 1831, and the latch needle was patented in the United
States by Hibbert, January 9, 1849, No. 6,025. This patent was extended
for seven years from January 9, 1863, and covered a very important and
universally used feature of the knitting machine. Research has shown,
however, that the latch was not broadly new with Hibbert, as it appeared
in the French patent to Jeandeau, No. 1,900, of April 25, 1806. Among
the earlier knitting machines, the straight reciprocating type was most
in evidence, and of which the Lamb machine was a popular form. The
increased speed and capacity of the circular machine have, however,
caused it to largely supersede the others. In the circular machine a
circular series of vertical parallel needles slide in grooves in a
cylinder, and are raised and lowered successively by an external
rotating cylinder which has on the inner side cams that act upon the
needles. The Branson 15/16 Automatic Knitter, shown in Fig. 292, is a
good modern illustration. It performs automatically fifteen-sixteenths
of the various movements which ordinarily would be performed by hand on
a hand machine. Its salient features are covered by patents No. 333,102,
December 29, 1885, and No. 519,170, May 1, 1894. About 2,000 United
States patents have been granted in the class of knitting and netting,
and the value of hosiery and knit goods in the United States in 1890 was
$67,241,013.
An important branch of the textile art is cloth finishing, whereby the
rough surface of the cloth as it comes from the loom is rendered soft
and smooth. One method is to raise the nap of the cloth by pulling out
the fibre by a multitude of fine points. Originally this was done by
combing it with teasles, a sort of dried burr of vegetable growth,
having a multitude of fine hook-shaped points. Machines with fine metal
card teeth are now largely used for this purpose, and of which the
planetary napping machine of Ott, patent No. 344,981, July 6, 1886, is
an example. Another method of finishing the cloth is to iron or press
it. Plate presses were first used in which smooth plates were folded in
alternate layers with the cloth and pressure then applied, but in later
years continuous rotary presses have been employed, that of Gessner,
patent No. 206,718, August 6, 1878, re-issue No. 9,076, 9,077, February
17, 1880, is one of the earliest examples of a continuous rotary press.
The old Gessner presses of Saxony were the pioneers in this field. A
modern Gessner cloth press is seen in Fig. 293.
[Illustration: FIG. 293.--MODERN “GESSNER” CLOTH PRESSING MACHINE.]
In the field of textiles there are many related arts and machines. There
are hat felting and finishing machines, darning machines, quilting
machines, embroidering machines, processes and apparatus for dyeing and
sizing, machines for printing fabrics, machines for making rope and
cord, machines for winding and working silk, and in treating the raw
material there are cotton-pickers, cotton baling presses, cotton openers
and cleaners, flax brakes and hackling machines, feeding devices, wool
carding and cleaning apparatus, all in variety and numbers that defy
both comment and count.
In fabrics every class of fibre has been called into requisition. Flax,
wool, silk, and cotton have been supplemented with the fibres of metal,
of glass, of cocoanut, pine needles, ramie, wood-pulp, and of many other
plants, leaves and grasses.
_Artificial silk_ is made out of a chemically prepared composition, and
the fibres are spun by processes simulating not only the act of the
silkworm, but its product in quality. Vandura silk was spun from an
aqueous solution of gelatine by forcing it through a fine capillary
tube, but it attained little or no practical value. A far more important
artificial silk is covered by the patents to De Chardonnet, No.
394,559, December 18, 1888; No. 460,629, October 6, 1891, and No.
531,158, December 18, 1894, and also in subsequent patents to Lehner and
to Turk. These all relate to the manufacture of artificial silk by
spinning threads or filaments from pyroxiline (solution of gun cotton),
collodion, or some such glutinous solution which evaporates rapidly,
leaving a tiny thread, having most of the characteristics of silk and
produced by the same method employed by the silk worm when it expresses
and draws out its viscid liquid. The De Chardonnet artificial silk took
a “Grand Prix” at the Paris Exposition in 1889, and the industry is
growing to considerable proportions. Large works are in operation at
Besançon, in France, producing 7,000 pounds per week, and it is said
that the plant is to be increased to a capacity of 2,000 pounds a day.
Similar works at Avon, near Coventry, England, have an equal capacity,
and other factories are about to be established in Belgium and Germany.
_Polished_ or _diamond cotton_ is a lustrous looking article of a soft
silky nature, formed by plating the threads with a liquid emulsion of a
waxy and starchy substance, and polishing the threads with rapidly
revolving brushes.
_Mercerized Cloth._--In late years a distinct novelty has appeared on
the shelves of the dry goods stores. Beautiful, filmy fabrics, and
lustrous embroidery thread, not of silk, but so close to it in
appearance as to be scarcely distinguishable, have gained much
popularity and attained a large sale. They are known as _mercerized_
goods. About the middle of the century John Mercer, of England, found
that when cotton goods were treated with chemicals (either alkalies or
acids), a change was produced in the fibre which caused it to shrink and
become thicker, and which imparted also an increased affinity for dyes.
He took out British patent No. 13,296, of 1850, for his invention, but
practically nothing further was done with the process. Recently the
important step of Thomas and Prevost of mercerizing under tension gave
some new and wonderful results. United States patents No. 600,826 and
No. 600,827, of May 15, 1898, disclose this process. The cloth or
thread, while being treated chemically, is at the same time subjected to
a powerful tension that causes the fibres (softened and rendered
glutinous by the chemicals) to be elongated or pulled out like fibres of
molten glass, giving it the same striated texture and fine luster that
silk has, and by substantially the same mechanical agency, for it is the
elongation of the plastic glutinous thread from the silk worm that gives
the thread its silky luster, by a process which has a familiar
illustration in the molecular adjustment that imparts luster to spun
glass or drawn taffy.
Standing in the light of the Twentieth Century, and looking back through
past ages, we find the art of spinning and weaving in an ever present
and unbroken thread of evidence all along the path of history--through
wars and famine, floods and conflagrations; through the progress and
decay of nations, through all phases of change, and the vicissitudes of
centuries, it has never been relegated to the domain of the lost arts,
but has remained a persisting invention. It has been a paramount
necessity to the human race, indissolubly locked up with its continuity
and welfare, and will ever continue to supply its work in maintaining
the greater fabric of human existence.
CHAPTER XXXII.
ICE MACHINES.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES--FREEZING MIXTURES--PERKINS’ ICE MACHINE, 1834--
PICTET’S APPARATUS--CARRÉ’S AMMONIA ABSORPTION PROCESS--DIRECT
COMPRESSION AND CAN SYSTEM--THE HOLDEN ICE MACHINE--SKATING RINKS--
WINDHAUSEN’S APPARATUS FOR COOLING AND VENTILATING SHIPS.
Very few people have any correct conception of the principles of
ice-making. Most persons have heard in a vague sort of way that
chemicals are employed in its manufacture, and many a fastidious
individual has been known to object to artificial ice on the ground that
he could taste the chemicals, and that it could not therefore be
wholesome. Such is the power of imagination, and such the misconception
in the public mind. Nothing could be more erroneous, nor more amusing to
the physicist, since no chemicals ever come in contact with either the
water or the ice. An intelligent understanding of the operations of an
ice machine involves only a correct appreciation of one of the physical
laws governing the relation of heat to matter, and the forms which
matter assumes under different degrees of heat. We see water passing
from solid ice to liquid water and gaseous steam, by a mere rise in
temperature, and conversely, by abstraction of heat, steam passes back
to water, and then to ice.
When one’s hands get wet they get cold. A commonplace, but convenient
proof of this is to wet the finger in the mouth and hold it in the air.
A sensible reduction of temperature is instantly noticeable. A more
pronounced illustration is to wet the hands in a basin of water, and
then plunge them in the blast of hot, dry air coming from a furnace
register. Instead of warming the hands, as many would suppose, this
will, as long as the hands are wet, produce a distinct sensation of
increased cold. It is due to rapid evaporation, which in changing the
water from a liquid to a gaseous form, abstracts heat from the hands.
Evaporation may be effected in two ways. The common one is by applying
extraneous heat, as under a tea kettle, in which case the evaporated
vapor is hot by virtue of the heat absorbed from the fire. The other way
is to reduce pressure or produce a partial vacuum over the liquid
without any application of heat, in which case the vapor is made cold.
As early as 1755 Dr. Cullen observed this, and discovered that the cold
thus produced was sufficient to make ice. An incident of evaporation is
the passing from the limited volume of a liquid to the greatly increased
volume of a gas. Water, for instance, when it changes to a vapor,
increases in volume about 1,700 times; that is, a cubic inch of water
makes about a cubic foot of steam, and when evaporation takes place from
a reduction of pressure, this involves a dissipation of heat throughout
the increased volume, and the corresponding production of cold. When,
however, matter changes from a liquid to a gas, or from a solid to a
liquid, a peculiar phenomenon manifests itself, in that a great amount
of heat is absorbed and, so far as the evidence of the senses goes,
disappears in the mere change of state. It is called _latent heat_. In
such case the heat becomes hidden from the senses by being converted
into some other form of intermolecular force not appreciable as sensible
heat, and producing no elevation of temperature. In illustration, if a
pound of water at 212° F. be mixed with a pound of water at 34° (both
being matter in the same state), there results two pounds of water at
the mean temperature of 123°. If, however, a pound of water at 212° be
mixed with a pound of _ice_ at 32° (matter in another state), there will
not be two pounds of water at the mean temperature of 122°, as might be
expected, but two pounds at 51° only, an amount of heat sufficient to
raise two pounds of water 71° being absorbed in the mere change of ice
to water without any sensible raise in temperature. This absorbed heat
is called latent heat, and it plays an important part in artificial
freezing. A familiar illustration of the absorption of heat in changing
from a solid to a liquid is found in the admixture of salt and ice
around an ice-cream freezer. These two solids, when brought together,
liquefy rapidly with an absorption of heat that produces in a limited
time a far greater degree of cold than that which could be obtained from
the ice by mere conduction, since the reduction of temperature proceeds
faster by liquefaction than can be compensated for by the absorption of
heat from the air. Were this not true, ice cream could not be frozen by
a mixture of salt and ice. Many such freezing mixtures are known, and a
few have been made commercially available, but they cannot be
economically employed in ice-making, and it is therefore only necessary
to consider the development of the more common principle of evaporation
and expansion, in which the change from a liquid to a gas occurs. The
volatile liquid which was first employed was water, but as it did not
vaporize as readily as some other liquids, more volatile substitutes
were soon found, among which may be named ether, ammonia, liquid
carbonic acid, liquid sulphurous acid, bisulphide of carbon and
chymogene, which latter is a petroleum product lighter and more volatile
than benzine or gasoline. As these liquids were expensive, it is obvious
that their vaporization could not be allowed to take place in the open
air, since the reagent would thus be quickly dissipated and lost, and
hence means were devised to condense and save this valuable volatile
liquid to be used over again. The vaporization of the volatile liquid to
produce cold, and its re-condensation to liquid form to be used over
again in an endless cycle of circulation, seems to have been first
effected by Mr. Perkins, of England, whose British patent No. 6,662, of
1834, affords a simple and clear illustration of the fundamental
principles of most modern ice machines. His apparatus is shown in Fig.
294. A tank _a_ is filled with water to be frozen or cooled. A
refrigerating chamber _b_, submerged in the water, is charged internally
with some volatile liquid, such as ether. When the piston of suction
pump _c_ rises a partial vacuum is formed beneath it, and the volatile
liquid in _b_ being relieved of pressure, evaporates and expands into
greater volume, the vapor passing out through pipe _f_ and upwardly
opening valve _e_. This vapor is rendered intensely cold by expansion,
and this cold is imparted to the water in tank _a_ to freeze it. A more
scientific statement, however, is that the cold vapor absorbs the heat
units of the water, and taking them away with it, lowers the temperature
of the water to the freezing point. When the piston of pump _c_
descends, valve _e_ closes, and the vapor, laden with the heat units
absorbed from the water, is forced through the downwardly opening valve
_e′_, and through pipe _g_ to a cooling coil _d_, around which a body of
cold water is continually flowed. This water, in turn, takes the heat
units from the vapor, and passes off with them in a constant flow, while
the vapor of ether is condensed into a liquid again by the cold water,
and passing through a weighted valve _h_, goes into the evaporating or
refrigerating chamber to be again vaporized in an endless circuit of
flow. It will be seen that the heat units from the water in tank _a_ are
first handed over to the cold ether vapors passing out from chamber _b_,
and by this vapor are then transferred to the flowing body of water
surrounding the coil _d_. The result is that the heat units carried off
by the water flowing around coil _d_ are the same heat units abstracted
from the water in tank _a_, which water is thus reduced to congealation.
[Illustration: FIG. 294.--PERKINS’ ICE MACHINE, 1834.]
Among later ice machines of this type the Pictet machine was a
conspicuous example. This employed anhydrous sulphurous acid as the
volatile agent, and is described in United States patent No. 187,413,
February 13, 1877; French patent No. 109,003, of 1875.
[Illustration: FIG. 295.--THE PICTET ICE MACHINE.]
In Fig. 295 is represented a vertical longitudinal and also a vertical
transverse section of a Pictet ice machine. A is a double acting suction
and compression pump, D and E are two cylinders which are similarly
constructed in the respect that they are both provided with flue pipes
and heads for a double circulation of fluids, one fluid passing through
the pipes while the other passes through the spaces between the pipes,
much like the condenser of a steam engine. The cylinder D is the
refrigerator where the volatile liquid is evaporated to produce cold,
and the cylinder E is the condenser where the gasified vapor is cooled
and condensed again to liquid form to be returned to the refrigerator.
The action is as follows: The pump A by pipe B draws from the chamber in
the refrigerator D containing the volatile liquid, causing it to
evaporate and produce an intense degree of cold which is imparted to the
liquid surrounding it and filling the tank. This liquid is either brine,
or a mixture of glycerine and water, or a solution of chloride of
magnesium, or other liquid which does not freeze at a temperature
considerably below the freezing point of water. Now, this
non-congealable liquid being below the freezing point, it will be seen
that if cans H be filled with pure water, and are immersed in this
intensely cold non-congealable liquid, the water in the cans will
freeze. This is exactly what takes place, and this is how the ice is
formed. As the volatile liquid is drawn out of the refrigerator D
through pipe B by the pump A it is forced by the pump through pipe C and
into the chamber of the condenser E. A current of cold water is kept
flowing around the pipes in E, coming in through a pipe at one end and
passing out through a pipe at the other end. The compressed and
relatively hot gases are by the contact of this cold water along the
sides of the pipes cooled and condensed into a liquid again, which
passes up the small curved pipe F and is returned to the refrigerator D,
to be again evaporated by the suction of the pump to continue the
production of cold. In large plants the non-congealable liquid and cans
of water to be frozen are (in order to get larger capacity) carried to a
large floor tank in a removed situation.
One of the earliest methods of producing ice in a limited quantity was
by evaporating water by a reduction of pressure and causing the vapor to
be absorbed by sulphuric acid, which has a great affinity for the water
vapor. Mr. Nairne, in 1777, was the first to discover the affinity that
sulphuric acid had for water vapor, and in 1810 Leslie froze water by
this means. In 1824 Vallance obtained British patents No. 4,884 and
5,001, operating on this principle, in which leaden balls were coated
with sulphuric acid to increase the absorbing surfaces, and which
apparatus was effective in freezing considerable quantities of ice.
The _carafes frappees_ of the Parisian restaurant were decanters in
which water was frozen by being immersed in tanks of sea water whose
temperature was reduced below freezing by the vaporization of ether in a
reservoir immersed in the sea water. Edmond Carré’s method of preparing
_carafes frappees_ involved the use of the sulphuric acid principle of
absorption, and to that end the aqueous vapor was directly exhausted
from the decanter by a pump, and the said vapor was absorbed by a large
volume of sulphuric acid so rapidly as to freeze the water remaining in
the decanter.
[Illustration: FIG. 296.--COMPRESSION PUMPS OF ICE PLANT.]
Probably the earliest practical ice machine to be organized on a
commercial basis was the _ammonia absorption machine_ of Ferdinand
Carré, which was a continuously working machine. It is disclosed in
French patents Nos. 81 and 404, of 1860, and No. 75,702, of 1867; United
States patent No. 30,201, October 2, 1860. In this case advantage is
taken first of the very volatile character of anhydrous ammonia, in the
expansion part of the process, and, secondly, of the great affinity
which water has for absorbing such gas. Strange as it may appear, the
production of ice in the Carré process begins with the application of
heat. It must be understood, however, that this forms no part of the
refrigerating process proper, but only a means of driving off or
distilling the anhydrous ammonia gas (the refrigerant) from its aqueous
solution. Ammonia dissolved in water, known as aqua ammonia, is placed
in a boiler or still above a furnace. The pure ammonia gas is thus
driven off from the water by heat under pressure, similar to that in a
steam boiler, and passes direct to a condenser, where, by cold water
flowing through pipes, the pure gas is liquefied under pressure. The
liquefied gas is then admitted to the evaporating or refrigerating
chamber, where it expands to produce the cold, and is afterward
re-absorbed by the water from which it was originally driven off in the
still, to be used over again. Machines of this type are known as
absorption machines, for the reason that the volatile gas is after
expansion re-absorbed by the liquid in which it was dissolved, and is
continuously driven off therefrom by the heat of a still. Absorption
machines were the outgrowth of Faraday’s observations in 1823. A bent
glass tube was prepared containing at one end a quantity of chloride of
silver, saturated with ammonia and hermetically sealed. When the mixture
was heated, the ammonia was driven over to the other end of the tube,
immersed in a cold bath, and the ammonia gas became liquefied. It was
found by him then that if the end containing the chloride was plunged in
a cold bath and the end containing liquid ammonia was immersed in water,
the heat of the water made the ammonia rapidly evaporate, the chloride
at the other end of the tube absorbed the ammonia vapors, and the water
around the end of the tube containing the liquefied ammonia was
converted into ice, by the loss of its heat imparted to the ammonia to
volatilize it. It only needed the substitution of water for the chloride
of silver, as an absorbing agent for the ammonia, and mechanical means
for economically working the process in a continuous way to produce the
Carré absorption machine. The most common form of ice machine to-day is,
however, what is known as the _compression_ or _direct_ system, in which
the absorption principle is dispensed with, the ammonia being compressed
by powerful steam pumps, then cooled to liquid form by condensers, and
then allowed to expand from its own pressure through pipes immersed in
brine in a large floor tank, in which cans containing pure water are
immersed, and the water frozen. Fig. 296[5] shows the compression pumps,
and Fig. 297 the floor tanks, of such a system. Many hundred cans
filled with pure water are lowered into the cold brine of the tank, and
their upper ends form a complete floor, as seen in Fig. 297. When the
water in the cans is frozen, the cans are raised out of the floor by a
traveling crane and carried to one of the four doors seen at the far end
of the room. The ice in the can is then loosened by warm water, and the
block dumped through the door into a chute, whence it passes into the
storage room below, seen in Fig. 298. In the can system the water is
frozen from all four sides to the center, and imprisons in the center
any air bubbles or impurities that may exist in the water. The plate
system freezes the water on the exterior walls of hollow plates, which
contain within them the freezing medium. In freezing the water
externally on these plates all impurities and air bubbles are repelled
and excluded, and the ice rendered clear and transparent.
[5] By courtesy of “Ice and Refrigeration.”
[Illustration: FIG. 297.--FLOOR TANK OF CAN SYSTEM.]
[Illustration: FIG. 298.--STORAGE ROOM OF ICE PLANT.]
An ice plant, employing what is known as the “can” system and capable of
producing 100 tons of ice in twenty-four hours, requires a building
about 100 feet wide and 150 feet long, on account of the great floor
space needed to accommodate the freezing tank, and the great number of
cans which are immersed in the same. A radical departure from this style
of plant is presented in the Holden ice machine. This does not require a
multitude of cans and a great floor space, but a lot 25 by 50 feet is
sufficient, for the ice is turned out in a continuous process like
bricks from a brick machine. The machine works on the ammonia absorption
principle, but the freezing is done on the outer periphery of a
revolving cylinder, from which the film of ice is scraped off
automatically and the ice slush carried away by a spiral conveyor to one
of two press molds, in which a heavy pressure solidifies the ice into
blocks, which are successively shot down from the presses on a chute to
the storage room, as seen in Fig. 299.
[Illustration: FIG. 299.--HOLDEN ICE MACHINE.]
The foregoing examples of ice machines give no idea of the great
activity in this field of refrigeration in the Nineteenth Century. Over
600 United States patents have been granted for ice machines alone, to
say nothing of refrigerating buildings, refrigerator cars, domestic
refrigerators, and ice cream freezers, etc. Among the earlier workers in
ice machines, in addition to those already named, may be mentioned the
names of Gorrie, patent No. 8,080, May 6, 1851, followed by Twining,
1853-1862; Mignon and Rouart, in 1865; Lowe, in 1867; Somes, in
1867-1868; Windhausen, in 1870; Rankin, in 1876-1877, and many others.
An application of the ice machine which attracted much attention and
attained great popularity for a while was that made in the production of
artificial _skating rinks_, in which a floor of ice was frozen by means
of a system of submerged pipes, through which the cold liquid from the
ice machine was made to circulate. The earliest artificial skating rink
is to be found in the British patent to Newton, No. 236, of 1870, but
it was Gamgee, in 1875 and 1876, who devised practical means for
carrying it out and brought it into public use. His inventions are
described in his British patents No. 4,412, of 1875, and No. 4,176, of
1876, and United States patent. No. 196,653, October 30, 1877, and
others in 1878.
The Windhausen machine was one of the earliest applications for
_cooling_ and _ventilating_ ships. This machine operated upon the
principle of alternately compressing and expanding air, and is described
in United States patents No. 101,198, March 22, 1870 (re-issue No.
4,603, October 17, 1871), and No. 111,292, January 24, 1871. To-day
every ocean liner is equipped with its own cold storage and ice-making
plant, refrigerator cars transport vast cargoes of meats, fish, etc.,
across the continent, and bring the ripe fruits of California to the
Eastern coast; every market house has its cold storage compartments, and
to the brewery the refrigerating plant is one of its fundamental and
important requisites.
The great value of refrigerating appliances is to be found in the
retardation of chemical decomposition or arrest of decay, and as this
has relation chiefly to preserving the food stuffs of the world, its
value can be easily understood. This branch of industry has grown up
entirely in the Nineteenth Century, and the activity in this field is
attested by the 4,000 United States patents in this class.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
LIQUID AIR.
LIQUEFACTION OF GASES BY NORTHMORE, 1805; FARADAY, 1823; BUSSY,
1824; THILORIER, 1834, AND OTHERS--LIQUEFACTION OF OXYGEN, NITROGEN
AND AIR BY PICTET AND CAILLETET IN 1877--SELF-INTENSIFICATION OF
COLD BY SIEMENS IN 1857, AND WINDHAUSEN IN 1870--OPERATIONS OF
DEWAR, WROBLEWSKI, AND OLSZEWSKI--SELF-INTENSIFYING PROCESSES OF
SOLVAY, TRIPLER, LINDÉ, HAMPSON, AND OSTERGREN AND BERGER--LIQUID
AIR EXPERIMENTS AND USES.
Until quite recently the physicist divided gaseous matter into
condensable vapors and permanent vapors. To-day it is known that there
are no permanent gases, since all the so-called permanent gases, even to
the most tenuous, such as hydrogen, may be made to assume the liquid and
even the solid form. The average individual knows very little about
hydrogen, but he is very well acquainted with air, and when he was told
that the air that he breathes--the gentle zephyr that blows--the wind
that storms from the north, or twists itself into the rage of a cyclone
in Kansas--may be bound down in liquid form, and imprisoned within the
limits of an open tumbler, or be bottled up in a flask or even frozen
solid, he was at first impressed with the suspicion of a fairy story.
Seeing is believing, however, to him, and the striking experiments from
the lecture platform, the approval of the scientists, and the
sensational accounts of it in the press, have not only been convincing,
but have completely turned his head and made him a too willing victim of
the speculator. Liquid air is a real achievement, however, and while it
is astonishing to the layman, the physicist looks upon it in the most
matter-of-fact way, for it is only a fulfilment of the simplest of
nature’s laws, and entirely consonant with what he has been led to
expect for many years.
The liquefaction of gases has engaged the attention of the scientist
almost from the beginning of the century. In 1805-6 Northmore liquefied
chlorine gas. This was done again in 1823 by Faraday. In 1824 Bussy
condensed sulphurous acid vapors to liquid form. In 1834 Thilorier made
extensive experiments and demonstrations in the liquefaction of carbonic
acid gas. In 1843 Aime experimented with the liquefaction of gases by
sinking them in suitable vessels to great depths in the ocean. Natterer,
in 1844, greatly advanced the study of this subject by both novel
methods and apparatus. Liquefaction of air was attempted as early as
1823 by Perkins, and again in 1828 by Colladon, but it was not
accomplished until 1877. In this year the liquefaction of oxygen, by
Pictet, of Geneva, and Cailletet, of Chatillon-sur-Seine, was
independently accomplished. Pictet used a pressure of 320 atmospheres
and a temperature of -140°, obtained by the evaporation of liquid
sulphurous acid and liquid carbonic acid. Cailletet used a pressure of
300 atmospheres and a temperature of -29°, which latter was obtained by
the evaporation of liquid sulphurous acid. In 1883 Dewar, Wroblewski and
Olszewski commenced operations in this field, and greatly advanced the
study of this subject. In January of 1884, Wroblewski confirmed the
liquefaction of hydrogen, which had been imperfectly accomplished by
Cailletet before. In the liquefaction of oxygen and nitrogen, the
principal component gases of air, the liquefaction of air itself
followed immediately as a matter of course.
Air has usually been held to consist of four volumes of nitrogen and one
volume of oxygen, with a very small proportion of carbonic acid gas and
ammonia. Recent discoveries have definitely identified new gases in it,
however, chief among which is argon. For all practical purposes,
however, air may be considered simply a mixture of the two gases;
nitrogen, which is inert and neither maintains life nor combustion; and
oxygen, which performs both of these functions in a most energetic way.
Air is more dense at the surface of the earth, and becomes continually
more rarified as the altitude increases, until it becomes an
indefinitely tenuous ether. Light as we are accustomed to regard it, the
weight of a column of air one inch square is 15 pounds, and this tenuous
and unfelt covering presses upon our globe with a total weight of
300,000 million tons.
Liquid air is simply air which has been compressed and cooled to what is
called its critical temperature and pressure, _i. e._, the temperature
and pressure at which it passes into another state of matter, as from a
gas to a liquid. To liquefy air it is compressed until its volume is
reduced to 1/800, that is to say, 800 cubic feet of air are reduced to
one cubic foot. This requires a pressure of 1,250 to 2,000 pounds to the
square inch.
The important step in liquefying air cheaply and on a large scale was
accomplished by the discovery of what is known as the
_self-intensifying_ action. This dispenses with auxiliary refrigerants,
and causes the expanding gases to supply the cold required for their own
liquefaction by an entirely mechanical process. It consists in
compressing the air (which produces heat), then cooling it by a flowing
body of water, then passing it through a long coil of pipes and
expanding the cool compressed air by allowing it to escape through a
valve into an expansion chamber, where its pressure falls from 1,250
pounds to 300 pounds, which produces a great degree of cold; then taking
this very cold current of air back in reverse direction along the walls
of the coil of pipes, and causing said returning cold air to further
cool the air flowing from the compressor to the expansion tank, and
finally delivering the cold return flow to the compressors and
compressing it again from a lower initial point than it started with on
the first round, and so continuing this cycle of circulation through the
alternating compressing and cooling stages until the air condenses in
liquid form in the bottom of the expansion chamber. This successive
reduction of temperature by the air acting upon itself is called
_self-intensification_ of cold, and it has an analogy in the
regenerative furnace, where the augmentation of heat corresponds to the
augmentation of cold in the self-intensifying action.
[Illustration: FIG. 300.--THE SELF-INTENSIFYING PRINCIPLE OF PRODUCING
COLD, USED TO LIQUEFY AIR.]
This principle of self-intensification was first announced by Prof. C.
W. Siemens in the provisional specification of his British patent No.
2,064, of 1857, but it does not seem at that time to have been carried
out with any practical result. The first embodiment of the principle in
a refrigerating apparatus is by Windhausen--United States patent No.
101,198, March 22, 1870. Solvay, in British patent No. 13,466, of 1885,
gave further development to the idea, and following him came the
operations of Prof. Tripler, who was the first to liquefy large
quantities of air and to introduce it to the American people. Lindé,
Hampson and Ostergren and Berger are more recent operators in this field
of self-intensification, and Lindé’s British patent, No. 12,528, of
1895, may be regarded as a representative exposition of the principle. A
simplified form of the Lindé apparatus is seen in Fig. 300. C is an air
compressing pump, whose plunger descending compresses the air and forces
it out through valve I, pipe 2, and coil 3. The coil 3 is immersed in a
flowing body of water in the condenser W, the water entering at Y and
passing out at Z. The cold compressed air then passes through pipes 4
and 5, pipe 5 being arranged concentrically within a larger coil 7. The
cold air flowing down pipe 5 escapes through a valve adjusted by handle
6, into the subjacent chamber L, and expanding to a larger volume,
produces a great degree of cold; this cold expanded air then passing up
the larger and outer pipe 7 flows back over the incoming stream of air
in pipe 5, chilling it still lower than the condenser W did, and this
cold return flow then passing from the top of coil 7 descends through
pipe 8 to the compressing pump C, and as its piston rises, it enters the
pump through the inwardly opening valve 9, and here it undergoes another
compression and circuit through the pipes 2, 3, 4, 5, but it is
compressed on its second round of travel at a lower temperature than it
had initially, and so this circulation of air going to the chamber L,
expanding, and returning over the inlet flow pipe 5, successively
cooling the latter and also successively entering the compressor at a
continually lower temperature at each cycle of circulation, finally
issues through the valve at the lower end of pipe 5, and expands to such
a low temperature that it condenses in chamber L in liquid form. Fresh
accessions of air are furnished to the apparatus through valve 10 as
fast as the air is liquefied. The inlet flow to the liquefying chamber
is shown by the full line arrows, and the return flow to the compressor
by the dotted arrows, and the explanation of the term
_self-intensification_ is to be found in the cooling of the incoming air
in pipe 5 by the outflowing air in the surrounding pipe 7, and the
repeated reductions of temperature at which the air is returned to the
compressor.
[Illustration: FIG. 301.--COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF LIQUID AIR.]
[Illustration: FIG. 302.--VESSEL FOR TRANSPORTING LIQUID AIR.]
In Fig. 301 is shown the liquefier of a modern liquid air plant, in
which liquid air is being drawn into a pail from the liquefier. Liquid
air evaporates very rapidly, and produces the intense cold of 312° below
zero. There is no known way to preserve it beyond a limited time, for,
if put in strong, tightly closed vessels, it would soon absorb enough
heat to vaporize, and in time would acquire a tension of 12,000 pounds
per square inch, and would burst the vessel with a disastrous explosion.
If left exposed to the air, which is the only safe way to transport it,
it is quickly dissipated. A shipment of eight gallons from New York to
Washington for lecture purposes shrunk to three gallons in two days’
time. It may usually be kept longer than this, however, as the jarring
of a railway train promotes its evaporation and loss. A small quantity,
such as a half pint, will boil away in twenty-five to thirty minutes.
The only way to preserve it for any length of time is to surround it
with a heat-excluding jacket. The simplest and most effective means for
doing this in the laboratory is to surround it with a vacuum. Fig. 302
shows a specially devised vessel for the commercial transportation of
liquid air. A double walled globular vessel has between its walls air
spaces and non-conducting packing. The liquid air in the interior
chamber vaporizes gradually, and escaping through the outwardly opening
valve at the top, expands around the air space surrounding the inner
vessel. From this space it reaches the outer air by a valve at the
bottom of the outer vessel. The liquid air in evaporating is thus
carried around the body of liquid air in the center, and surrounding it
with an intensely cold envelope, prevents the transmission of heat to
the inner vessel. To withdraw the liquid air, a pipette or so-called
siphon tube, shown in detached view, is substituted for the valve at the
top.
[Illustration: FIG. 303.--SEPARATION OF LIQUID AIR INTO ITS
CONSTITUENTS.
Evaporation of Nitrogen.
Evaporation of Nitrous Oxide.
Evaporation of Pure Oxygen.]
As to the uses of liquid air it may be said that up to the present time
it has attained little or no practical application. There are two
principal ways in which it may be utilized; one is to employ its
enormous expansive force to produce mechanical power, and the other is
as a refrigerant. As a means for obtaining motive power it is a fallacy
to suppose that any more power can be obtained from its expansion than
was originally required to make it. It is like a resilient spring in
this respect, that it can give out no more power than was required to
compress it. In some special applications, however, as for propelling
torpedoes, where its cost is entirely subordinate to effective results,
it might prove to be of value. For blasting purposes also it presents
the promise of possible utilization. As a refrigerant for commercial
purposes, and for supplying a dry, cool temperature to the sick room,
and for the preparation of chemicals requiring a low temperature to
manufacture, it might find useful application. Inasmuch as the nitrogen
of liquid air evaporates first, and leaves nearly pure liquid oxygen, it
may also be employed as a means for producing and applying oxygen. Good
illustration of this is given in Fig. 303, in which at 1 is shown a
vessel filled with liquid air. The gas first evaporating is nitrogen,
and a lighted match applied to the surface of the liquid is quickly
extinguished, since nitrogen does not support combustion. As the level
of the liquid falls by evaporation, the remaining portions become richer
in oxygen and poorer in nitrogen, and nitrous oxide gas is then given
off, which supports combustion as seen at 2; and when the last portions
of the liquid are being evaporated, as at 3, it is practically pure
oxygen, which gives a brilliant combustion of a carbon pencil, or even
of a steel spring when the latter is heated red hot. Already Prof.
Pictet has formulated a plan for the commercial production and
separation of the ingredients of liquid air--the nitrogen, carbonic
acid, and oxygen being separated by their different evaporating
temperatures with a view to applying them to various industrial uses.
All of the commercial applications of liquid air, however, depend upon
its cost of production, which seems at present an uncertain factor.
According to the claims of some it may be produced at a cost of a few
cents a gallon. More conservative physicists say that it costs $5 a
gallon.
[Illustration: FIG. 304.--LIQUID AIR EXPERIMENTS.
1. Magnetism of oxygen. 2. Steel burning in liquid oxygen. 3. Frozen
sheet iron. 4. Explosion of confined liquid air. 5. Burning paper. 6.
Explosion of sponge. 7. Freezing rubber ball. 8. Double walled vacuum
bulb. 9. Boiling liquid air.]
However this may be, the phenomena which it presents are both
interesting and instructive. In Figs. 304 and 305 are shown some of the
experiments. At No. 1 a test tube containing liquid air, from which the
nitrogen has escaped, is strongly attracted by an electro-magnet,
showing the magnetic quality of oxygen. At No. 2 is shown the combustion
of a heated piece of steel in liquid air, which has become rich in
oxygen by the evaporation of the nitrogen. At No. 3 a tin dipper, which
has been immersed in liquid air, has become so cold and crystalline that
it breaks like glass when dropped. At No. 4 liquid air imprisoned in a
tube and tightly corked up, blows the stopper out in a few minutes with
explosive effect. At No. 5 a piece of paper saturated with liquid air
burns with great energy, and at No. 6 a piece of sponge or raw cotton
similarly saturated explodes when ignited. At No. 7 a rubber ball
floated on liquid air in a tumbler is frozen so hard that when dropped
it flies into fragments like a glass ball. The white, snow-like vapor
seen falling over the edges of the tumbler is intensely cold and heavier
than ordinary air. At No. 8 is illustrated the preservation of liquid
air by surrounding it with a vacuum in a Dewar bulb. At No. 9 a flask of
liquid air is made to boil by the mere heat of the hand. A more striking
experiment still of the same kind is to place a tea kettle containing
liquid air on a block of ice. The block of ice is relatively so much
hotter than the liquid air that the liquid air in the kettle is made to
boil. At No. 10, Fig. 305, a heavy weight is suspended by a link
composed of a bar of mercury frozen solid in liquid air. So hard is the
mercury frozen that a hammer made of it will drive a tenpenny nail up to
its head in a pine board. In No. 11 a layer of liquid air on water at
first floats because it is lighter than water. As the lighter nitrogen
evaporates, the heavier oxygen sinks in drops through the water. At No.
12 a tumbler of whiskey is frozen solid by immersing a tube containing
liquid air in it. The frozen block of whiskey with the cavity formed by
the tube is shown on the left. It is a whiskey tumbler made out of
whiskey. A more sensational experiment is to substitute a tapering tin
cup for the tube, then fill it with liquid air and immerse it in water.
In a few minutes the tapering tin cup has frozen on its outer walls a
tumbler of ice. This may be carefully removed, and the ice tumbler is
then filled with liquid air rich in oxygen, which, by maintaining the
cold of the ice tumbler, keeps it from melting. A carbon pencil or a
steel spring heated to redness will now, if dipped in the liquid oxygen
in the ice tumbler, burn with vehement brilliancy and beautiful
scintillations, involving the anomalous conditions of a white hot heat
and active combustion in the center of a tumbler of ice, without melting
the tumbler. In experiment 13, Fig. 305, a jet of carbonic acid gas
directed into a dish floating in a glass of liquid air is immediately
frozen into minute flakes, producing a miniature snow storm of carbonic
acid. In experiment 14 an electric light carbon heated to a red heat at
its tip, is plunged vertically into a deep glass of liquid oxygen. A
most singular combustion takes place. The heat of the carbon evaporates
the oxygen in its immediate vicinity, and the carbon burns with great
brilliancy and violence, forming carbonic acid, which is largely frozen
in the liquid before it reaches the surface, and falls back to the
bottom of the dish, so that the combustion is maintained and its
products retained within the dish. A beefsteak may be frozen in liquid
air to such brittleness that it is shattered like a china plate when
struck a slight blow. The intense cold of liquid air does not destroy
the vitality or germinating power of seed, but produces serious
so-called burns on the flesh that destroy the tissues and do not heal
for many months, and yet for a moment the finger may be dipped in liquid
air with impunity because of the gaseous envelope with which the finger
is temporarily surrounded.
[Illustration: FIG. 305.--LIQUID AIR EXPERIMENTS.
10. Frozen mercury. 11. Liquid oxygen in water. 12. Frozen whisky. 13.
Carbonic acid snow. 14. Combustion of carbon pencil.]
CHAPTER XXXIV.
MINOR INVENTIONS
AND
PATENTS IN PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.
If the reader has been patient enough to have reviewed the preceding
pages, the impression may have been formed that the notable inventions
referred to represent all that is worth while to consider in this great
field of human achievement. It would be a fallacy to entertain such a
thought, for the little stars out-number the big ones, and the twigs of
the tree are far more numerous than its branches. The great things in
life are comparatively few and far between, and the bulk of human
existence is made up of an unclassified mass of little things, sown like
sands along the shore of time between the boulders of great events. So
also in invention is its warp and woof made up of a multitude of little
threads behind the gorgeous patterns of meteoric genius. Every hour of
the day of modern life is replete with the achievements of invention.
Look around the room, and there is not a thing in sight that does not
suggest the material advance of the age; the books, the furniture, the
carpets, the curtains, the wall paper, the clock, the mantels, the house
trimmings, the culinary utensils, and the clothing, all represent
creations of this century. So full is the daily life of these things,
and so much of a necessity have they all become, that their commonplace
character dismisses them from conspicuous notice. Take the most
matter-of-fact and prosy half hour of the day, that at the time of
rising, and see what a faithful account of the average man’s everyday
life would present. The awakening is definitely determined by an alarm
clock, and the sleepy Nineteenth Century man rolling over under the
seductive comfort of a spring bed, takes another nap, because he knows
that the rapid transit cars will give him time to spare. Rising a little
later his bare feet find a comfortable footing on a machine-made rug,
until thrust into full fashioned hose, and ensconced in a pair of
machine-sewed slippers. Drawing the loom-made lace curtains, he starts
up the window shade on the automatic Hartshorn roller and is enabled to
see how to put in his collar button and adjust his shirt studs. He
awakens the servant below with an electric bell, calls down the
speaking tube to order breakfast, and perhaps lights the gas for her by
the push button. He then proceeds to the bath, where hot and cold water,
the sanitary closet, a gas heater, and a great array of useful modern
articles present themselves, such as vaseline, witch hazel, dentifrices,
cold cream, soaps and antiseptics, which supply every luxurious want and
every modern conception of sanitation. His bath concluded, he proceeds
to dress, and maybe puts in his false teeth, or straps on an artificial
leg. Donning his shirt with patented gussets and bands, he quickly
adjusts his separable cuff buttons, puts on his patented suspenders,
and, winding a stem-winding watch, proceeds down stairs to breakfast. A
revolving fly brush and fly screens contribute to his comfort. A cup of
coffee from a drip coffee-pot, a lump of artificial ice in his tumbler,
sausage ground in a machine, batter cakes made with an egg beater,
waffles from a patented waffle iron, honey in artificial honey comb,
cream raised by a centrifugal skimmer, butter made in a patented churn,
hot biscuits from the cooking range, and a refrigerator with a well
stocked larder, all help to make him comfortable and happy. The picture
is not exceptional in its fullness of invented agencies, and one could
just as well go on with our citizen through the rest of the day’s
experience, and start him off after breakfast with a patented match, in
a patented match case, and a patented cigarette, with his patented
overshoes and umbrella, and send him along over the patented pavement to
the patented street car, or automobile, and so on to the end of the day.
Some of the minor inventions are really of too much importance to be
passed without comment. The _cable car_ is a factor which has cut no
small figure in the activities of city life. The first patent on a
slotted underground conduit between the rails, with traction cable
inside and running on pulleys, was that to E. A. Gardner, No. 19,736,
March 23, 1858. Hallidie, in San Francisco, in 1876, directed his
energies to a development of this system, and brought it to a degree of
perfection and general adoption that made it for many years the leading
system of street car propulsion. To-day, however, it represents but a
decadent type, being largely supplanted by the superior advantages of
electricity.
_Passenger elevators_ constitute one of the conspicuous features of
modern locomotion. Without them the tall office buildings, hotels, and
department stores would have no existence; the Eiffel Tower would never
have been dreamed of, and the expenditure of vital force in stair
climbing would have been greatly augmented. The passenger elevator has
for its prototype the ancient hoist or lift for mines, but in the latter
half of the Nineteenth Century it has developed into a distinct
institution--a luxurious little room, gliding noiselessly up and down,
actuated by a power that is not seen, and supplied with every appliance
for safety and comfort, such as governors, safety catches, automatic
stops, mirrors and cushioned seats. The principle of the screw, of
balance weights, of the lazy tongs, and other mechanical powers have
each found application in the elevator, but steam, hydraulic power, and
electricity constitute the moving agencies of the modern type. The
patent to E. G. Otis, No. 31,128, January 15, 1861, marks the beginning
of its useful applications.
Of close kin to the elevator are the _fire escape_, _dumb waiter_ and
_grain elevator_, each of which fills a more or less important function
in the life of to-day.
What more ubiquitous or ingenious illustration of modern progress than
the _American stem winding watch!_ Up to the middle of the century all
watches were made by hand throughout. Each watch had its own
individuality as a separate creation, and only the privileged few were
able to carry them. In 1848 Aaron L. Dennison, a Boston watch maker,
began making watches by machinery, and the foundation of the system of
interchangeable parts was laid. A small factory at Roxbury, Mass., was
established in 1850, which four years later was moved to Waltham. In
1857 it passed into the hands of Appleton, Tracy & Co., and was
subsequently acquired by the American Watch Co. As presenting some idea
of the great elaboration involved in this art, it was estimated a few
years ago that 3,746 distinct mechanical operations were required to
make an ordinary machine made watch. A single pound of steel wire is
sometimes converted into a couple of hundred thousand tiny screws, and
another pound of fine steel wire furnishes 17,280 hair springs, worth
several thousand dollars. The absolute uniformity and perfect
interchangeability of parts in the American watch have been obtained by
substituting the invariable and mathematical accuracy of the machine for
the nervous fingers and dimming eyes of the old time watchmaker, and the
American machine made watch, discredited as it was at first, stands
to-day the greatest modern advance in horology.
_Friction Matches._--In 1805 Thenard, of Paris, made the first attempt
to utilize chemical agencies for the ordinary production of fire. In
1827 John Walker, an English druggist, made friction matches called
“congreves.” In 1833 phosphorus friction matches were introduced on a
commercial scale by Preschel, of Vienna. In 1845 red phosphorus matches
(parlor matches) were made by Von Schrotter, of Vienna, and in 1855
safety matches, which ignited only on certain substances, were made by
Lundström, of Sweden. Prior to the Nineteenth Century, and in fact
until about 1833, the old flint and steel and tinder box were the
clumsy and uncertain means for producing fire. To-day the friction match
is turned out by automatic machinery by the million, and constitutes
probably the most ubiquitous and useful of all the minor inventions.
Step into any of the great department stores and the genius of the
inventor confronts you in the _cash carrier_ whisking its little cars
back and forth from the cashier’s desk to the most remote corners of the
great building. The first of these mechanical carriers adapted for store
service was patented by D. Brown, July 13, 1875, No. 165,473. Not until
about 1882, however, was there any noticeable adoption of the system,
when practical development was given in Martin’s patents, No. 255,525,
March 28, 1882; No. 276,441, April 24, 1883, and No. 284,456, September
4, 1883. Go to the lunch counter, and the _cash register_ reminds you
that the millenium of absolute honesty is not yet realized. The _bell
punch_ on the street car and the burglar proof safe with its
_combination locks_ are other suggestions in the same line. The first
_fire proof safe_ is disclosed in the British patent to Richard Scott,
No. 2,477, of 1801. The _time lock_, which prevents the safe from being
opened by anyone except at a certain period of daylight, was invented by
J. V. Savage, and was covered by him in United States patent No. 5,321,
October 9, 1847. The practical adoption of time locks began about 1875
with the operations of Sargent, Stockwell and others, and to-day they
constitute one of the most important features of bank safes and vaults,
and represent a marvelously beautiful and accurate example of mechanical
skill.
The Otto _gas-engine_, and the Ericsson _air-engine_ are important
developments in power producing motors, and the improvements in
_pavements_ and in _street sweepers_ for cleaning them, contribute to
the cleanliness, sanitation, and æsthetic values of city life. The
_cigarette machine_, which continuously curls a ribbon of paper around a
core of tobacco to form a rope, and then cuts it off into cigarettes, is
an important invention in the tobacco industry, however doubtful its
hygienic value to the world may be. The _lightning rod_ has brought
protection to homes and lives, and the _incubator_ has become the hen’s
wet nurse. In agriculture, the reaper has been supplemented with
threshing machines, seeders, drills, cultivators, horse rakes and plows.
In the farm yard appear the improved carriage and wagon, the well pump,
the wind wheel, the fruit drier, the bee hive, and the cotton and cider
press. In the kitchen, the washing machine, the churn, the cheese press,
ironing machine, wringer, the rat trap, and fruit jar. In the house, the
folding bed, tilting chair, carpet sweeper, and the piano. In heating
appliances, steam and water heating systems, base burning and Latrobe
stoves, hot air furnaces, gas and oil stoves. In plastics there are
brick machines, pressed glass ware, enameled sheet iron ware, tiles,
paper buckets, celluloid and rubber articles. In hydraulics there are
rams, water closets, pumps, and turbine water wheels. In mining there
are stamp mills, ore crushers, separators, concentrators, and
amalgamators. In the leather and boot and shoe industry there is a great
variety of machines and appliances. The paper industry, with book
binding machines, and paper box machines, is a fertile field of
invention. Steam boilers, metallurgical appliances, soap making,
chemical fire extinguishers, fountain pens, the sand blast, bottle
stoppers, and a thousand other things present themselves in
miscellaneous and endless array. These are, however, only some of the
things which the limitation of space precludes from individual
treatment, but which are none the less important in making up the great
resources of modern life, and, for the most part, represent the
contributions of the Nineteenth Century not heretofore considered.
The observant and thoughtful reader finds just here occasion to inquire
the meaning of this great rising tide of progress which has so
distinguished the Nineteenth Century. It is largely due to the Patent
Law, which justly regards the inventor as a public benefactor, and seeks
to make for him some protection in the enjoyment of his rights. If a man
be in the possession of a legacy by the accident of birth, the law of
inheritance rules that it is rightfully his. The finding of a thing,
whether by jetsam, flotsam, or the lucky accident of a first discovery,
this also makes good his title, if there be no other owner. There is,
however, a right of property which is higher than all others, and in
which there is coupled with the possession of the thing the sacred
function of its creation. The right of a mother to her child is of this
nature, and like unto it is the right of the inventor to the creation of
his genius. In the last two centuries of the world’s history this right
has been recognized by an enlightened civilization, and provision made
for its enjoyment in the grant of patents, and if there be any right
more strongly entrenched than another in the eternal verities of equity
and justice it is this. Our first crude patent law was enacted in 1790,
but not until 1836 was the present system adopted. Our own and
comparatively new country has, therefore, not yet had a hundred years of
existence under our present Patent System, and yet to-day it outstrips
the world both in its material resources and in its wealth of patented
inventions. The accompanying diagram, Fig. 306, illustrates in a graphic
way just what relation the United States bears to the other leading
countries of the world in the matter of patents granted, and when it is
remembered that under our system a patent can only be granted for a new
invention, while in some of the other countries it is not essential to
the grant, the richness in invention of the United States, with its six
hundred and fifty thousand patents, can be better appreciated. This is a
greater number than has been issued by Great Britain and France put
together. Connecticut is the most productive State in invention in
proportion to its people, and Edison is the most prolific inventor. From
1870 to 1900 he has taken 727 United States patents, and there are from
twenty-five to thirty other American inventors each of whom has taken
100 or more patents.
[Illustration: TOTAL NUMBER PATENTS TO JAN 1^{ST.} 1900
(FOREIGN PATENTS FOR 1899, ESTIMATED)
RATE OF ISSUE OF U.S. PATENTS
FIG. 306.]
The year 1790 was notable in two events, the birth of our patent system
and the death of Benjamin Franklin. That grand old philosopher, with a
prescience of future greatness to come from the genius of the inventor,
is said to have expressed the wish before he died that he might be
sealed up in a cask of old Madeira and be brought to life a hundred
years in the future, that he might witness the growth of the world. Who
can tell what his emotions would be if he were with us to-day? It is
said, when he first saw the fibres of the string diverge, and the spark
pass from the cord of his kite, and the lightning was for the first time
obedient to the will of man, that he uttered a deep sigh and wished that
that moment were his last. To this poor knowledge of electricity he
would now have added all the wonders and powers of the telegraph, the
dynamo, the telephone, and the great modern electrical science; to his
primitive hand press he would have contrasted the Octuple perfecting
press, turning out papers at the rate of 1,600 a minute; his modest
type-setting case would be replaced by a great array of linotype
machines, and he would find several acres of woodland sacrificed to
produce the wood-pulp paper of a single edition of a New York daily.
Would he not realize indeed that truth is stranger than fiction, and
fact more wonderful than fancy’s dream!
CHAPTER XXXV.
EPILOGUE.
Whatever the future centuries may bring in new and useful inventions,
certain it is that the Nineteenth Century stands pre-eminent in this
field of human achievement, so far excelling all other like periods as
to establish on the pages of history an epoch as remarkable as it is
unique. Never before has human conception so expressed itself in
materialized embodiment, never has thought been so fruitfully wedded to
the pregnant possibilities of matter, never has the divine function of
creation been so closely approximated, never has such an accretion of
helpful instrumentalities and material resources been added to the
world’s wealth--not merely the miserly and inert wealth of gold and
gems, but the wealth of an enlarged human existence. This life itself is
but a limited span; beginning in infancy, expanding to highest
achievement in middle age, and declining at the end, it quickly passes
away, and another generation follows. Growth and decay with all living
things mark the immutable law of nature, and the inevitable fate of
mortality. The rose blossoms into beauty, fades, and decays. The bird in
the air, and the beast in the field, each plays his part and passes to
the great unknown, leaving no record; man himself is mortal, but his
work is immortal. The inspired conception of his best thought, the
materialized embodiment of his work in useful agencies, and the
subjugation of the laws of nature to his service, all endure and live
forever in his inventions. These partake of the breath of life, and in
their immortality are of kin to the soul. Cities may grow up and vanish,
civilizations may decay, and man himself may degenerate, but the
principle of the lever and the screw, once discovered, is for all time
perfect, invariable and immortal. Every invention made is another
permanent gift to posterity. All of enduring wealth that the present
gets from the past are its ideas reduced to a working basis. All else is
but dross, or evanescent dreams which vanish into oblivion in the light
of a larger knowledge. But ideas wrought into practical, substantive
things, tried and proven true, these are inventions--immortal
creations--and of these the Nineteenth Century has borne fruit in
paramount abundance, and this legacy it now bequeaths to the coming
century.
To follow conventional methods, the final chapter of a book should be an
“In conclusion” with a “finis” and a dismantled torch, but the history
of invention will ever be a continued story. There is no end in this
field. The trusteeship of the Twentieth Century man is great, and great
his responsibilities; but his restless and dominant spirit knows no
decadence, and his mental endowment and material equipment, without
parallel in history, are a guarantee of future achievements. Will not
the chemist learn how to produce electricity direct from the combustion
of coal, or solve the problem of the synthesis of food? Will not the
American continent be parted by an inter-oceanic canal, or the rough
waters of the English Channel be avoided with a submarine tunnel? May
not a ship canal through France to the Mediterranean give to that
country the connected enjoyment of riparian rights, without passing the
frowning battlements of Gibraltar, or might not a tunnel under the
Straits of Gibraltar put Europe and Africa in direct railway
communication? The relation of electricity to life is a field of
pregnant possibilities, and may we not also learn to swap the surplus
heat of summer for the winter’s cold, and by an equalization of their
two extremes bring eternal spring and joy to the animated world? Shall
we not yet stand on the North Pole, or looking away into space may we
not extend a neighborly welcome to our brothers in Mars, if any there
be? It is permitted to dream in this field, for it is this reaching out
into the unknown that plats the boundaries of an extended world, and
adds to the possessions of man.
The old man in his dreams of the past rejoices in his achievements, for
he has stolen the fires of Prometheus and forged anew the thunderbolts
of Jove for the arts of peace. Delving into the secret recesses of the
earth, he has tapped the hidden supplies of nature’s fuel, has invaded
her treasure house of gold and silver, robbed Mother Earth of her
hoarded stores, and possessed himself of her family record, finding on
the pages of geology sixty millions of years’ existence. Peering into
the invisible little world, the infinite secrets of microcosm have
yielded their fruitful and potent knowledge of bacteria and cell growth.
Pain has been robbed of its terrors by anæsthesia; the heat of the sun
has been brought down in the electric furnace, and the cold of
inter-stellar space in the ice machine and liquid air. With telescope
and spectroscope he has climbed into limitless space above, and defined
the size, distance, and constitution of a star millions of miles away.
The north star has been made his sentinel on the sea. The lightning is
made his swift messenger, and thought flashes in submarine depths
around the world. Dead matter is made to speak in the phonograph, the
invisible has been revealed in the X-Rays, coal has been made his black
slave, steam the breath of the world’s life, and all of nature’s forces
have been made his constant servants in attendance.
With such a retrospect, the sage of the Nineteenth Century may lie down
to quiet rest, with an assuring faith that what God hath wrought is
good, and what is not may yet be.
INDEX.
Abbe’s Stereo-Binocular, 289
Absorption Process, Ice Making, 441
Acetylene Gas, 333
Adirondack, Steamer, 141
Agricultural Chemistry, 225
Aids to Digestion, 243
Air Blast, 374
Air Brakes, 129
Air, Carburetted, 336
Alloys, 389
Aluminum, 225-390
Ambrotype, 304
Anæsthesia, 246
Anæsthesia by Chloroform, 247
Ancient Iron Furnace, 372
Aniline, 222
Annealing and Tempering, Electricity in, 387
Antikamnia (Acetanilide), 248
Antipyrine, 248
Antiseptic Surgery, 256
Antiseptics, Coal Tar, 223
Archer’s Collodion Process Photos, 304
Arc Lamp Feed, 66
Arc Lamp, Simple, 64
Arc Lamp, Weston, 65
Arc Lamp, Large, 65-69
Arkwright’s Drawing Rolls, 421
Arlberg Tunnel, 346
Armored Cruiser, 150
Armor Plates, Manufacture of, 383
Artesian Wells, 350
Artificial Limbs, 251
Atlantic Cable, 32-37
Automatic Ball Governor, 104
Automatic Telegraph, 22
Automobile, 265-272
Automobile Statistics, 271
Babbitt Metal, 389
Bachelder Sewing Machine Feed, 186
Bacteriology, 252
Bain’s Telegraph, 22
Baldwin’s Locomotives, 126
Band Saws, 364
Barbed Wire Fences, 388
Barlow’s Electric Wheel, 48
Battery, Storage, 88
Battleships, 150
Beach, Alfred E., Tunneling Shield, 346
Beach’s Typewriter, 174
Bell & Tainter’s Improved Phonograph, 276
Bell’s Telephone, 77
Bentham, Sir S., Invents Woodworking Machinery, 360
Berliner’s Telephone, 82
Bessemer Steel, 376
Beverages, 244
Blake Telephone Transmitter, 83
Blanchard’s Lathe, 368
Blast Furnace, 374-375
Blasting, 351
Blasting, Electro, 99
Blenkinsop’s Locomotive, 119
Blickensderfer Typewriter, 180
Bloomeries, Air, 373
Body Appliances, Electric, 97
Book Typewriter, 181
Bourdon’s Steam Gauge, 107
Bicycle, 259-265
Bicycle Speed, 264
Bicycle Statistics, 265
Binding Devices for Reaper, 203
Biograph, 298
Bipolar Dynamo, 42
Brake, Bicycle, 264
Bramah’s Planer, 366
Branca’s Steam Turbine, 109
Branson’s Automatic Knitter, 431
Breech Mechanism, Interrupted Thread, 399
Bridge, Brooklyn, 342
Bridge, Cabin John, 344
Bridge, Forth, 340
Bridges, Masonry, 342
Bridge, Trezzo, 344
Bright’s Disease, 250
Brooklyn, Armored Cruiser, 151
Brooklyn Bridge, 342
Buildings, High, 353
Burt’s Typewriter, 172
Butchering and Dressing Meats, 237
Buttonhole Machine, 191
Cabin John Bridge, 344
Cablegrams, First, 33
Cable Statistics, 36
Cable, Submarine, 32
Cable Tolls, 37
Cableway, Lidgerwood, 349
Caissons, 345
Calcium Carbide, 225
Calcium Carbide Factories, 336
Calcium Carbide Furnace, 46
Caligraph Typewriter, 177
Calotype, 303
Camera, 306
Camera Obscura, 306
Camera Shutter, 307
Canal, Chicago Drainage, 350
Canal, Suez, 347
Candle, Jablochkoff, 64
Canning Industry, 235
Cannon, Breech-Loading, 397
Cannon Invention, 395
Caoutchouc, 210
Capitol Building, 357
Caps, Percussion, 416
Carafes, Frozen, 441
Carbolic Acid, 247
Carbon Microphone, 82
Carbon-Printing, Photography, 305
Carborundum, 225
Carborundum Furnace, 45
Carburetted Air, 336
Car Coupling, 129
Carpet Sewing Machine, 192
Carré’s Ice Machine, 441
Cartwright Invents Power Loom, 426
Car Wheels, Turning, 387
Cash Carrier, 461
Casting Pig Iron, 379
Castalia, Steamer, 140
Cathode Ray, 321
Celestial Photography, 310
Cementation, 385-387
Centrifugal Filter, 243
Centrifugal Milk Skimmer, 235
Chain Bicycle, 263
Chair, Electrocution, 44
Champion Reaper, 202
Charlotte Dundas, Steamboat, 134
Chemical Telegraph, 22
Chemistry, 221-227
Chicago Drainage Canal, 350
Chill Molds, 388
Chipping Logs, Wood Pulp, 162
Chloral Hydrate, 247
Chronology of Inventions, 7-14
Circular Saw, Hammering to Tension, 362
Circulation of Blood, 246
Civil Engineering, 340-359
Clermont, Steamboat, 136
Cloth, Finishing, 432
Cloth Presser, 432
Coal Gas Works, 330
Coal Tar Dyes, Statistics, 226
Coal Tar Products, 222
Coating with Metal, 387
Code, Morse, 20
Collecting Rubber, 211
Collodion Process Photography, 304
Color Photography, 311
Color Printing Press, 159
Columbia Electric Automobile, 270
Columbian Press, 156
Compound Expansion Engine, 115
Compound Locomotive, 128-130
Compound Steam Turbine, 109
Concentrator, Magnetic, 392
Continuous Web Press, 157
Cooper, Peter, Rolls Iron Beams for Buildings, 354
Cord Binding Reaper, 203
Corliss Valve Gear, 106
Cort Makes Wrought Iron, 373
Cotton, Diamond, 434
Cotton Gin, 423
Cracker and Cake Machine, 234
Crompton Invents Mule Spinner, 422
Cryptoscope, Salvioni’s, 322
Cuisine, Ocean Steamer, 145
Culture, Bacteria, 255
Cut-Off, Sickel’s, 105
Cut-Off, Steam, 104
Cyanide Process, 391
Daguerreotype, 303
Daguerre’s Invention, 303
Dahlgren Gun, 397
Dal Negro Electric Motor, 49
Daniell Battery, 16
Darby Makes Iron with Coke, 373
De Laval’s Steam Turbine, 111
De Lesseps Builds Suez Canal, 347
Demologos, First War Vessel, 146
Densmore Typewriter, 180
Dentistry, 250
Desk Telephone, 86
Deutschland’s Engines, 115
Digesters, Wood Pulp, 163
Digestion, 252
Disease Germs, 253
Double Hull Steamer, 140
Dough Mixer, 232
Draisine Bicycle, 260
Drawing Rolls, Spinning, 421
Dredges, 349
Drill Jar, 350
Drills, Rock, 351
Drinks, 244
Drummond Light, 338
Dry Plate Photography, 306
Dudley’s Early Ironworking, 373
Duplex Telegraph, 23
Duplicating Phonograph Records, 279
Dust Collector, Flour Mills, 232
Dyes, Coal Tar, 223
Dynamite Gun, 405
Dynamo Armature, 43
Dynamo, Bipolar, 42
Dynamo, Description of, 42
Dynamos, Different Kinds, 42
Dynamo Electric Machine, 38-47
Dynamo, Gramme and D’Ivernois, 41
Dynamo, Hjorth, 40
Dynamo, Multipolar, 47
Dynamo, Siemens’, 41
Dynamo, Wilde, 41
Eads, Caissons of, 345
Earthquake-Proof Palace, 355
Edison’s Electric Lamp, 67-73
Edison’s Carbon Microphone, 82
Edison’s Concentrating Works, 392
Edison’s Electric Pen, 96
Edison’s Kinetoscope, 297
Edison’s Three Wire System, 72-74
Edison’s X-Ray Apparatus, 323
Eiffel Tower, 355
Electric Automobile, 270
Electric Body Appliances, 97
Electric Cautery, 97
Electric Furnace, 44
Electric Furnace, Acheson, 45
Electric Furnace, Bradley, 46
Electric Lamp, Edison’s, 67-73
Electric Lamp, Sawyer-Man, 67-73
Electric Lamp, Starr-King, 66
Electric Launch, 93-94
Electric Light, 63-75
Electric Light Beacon, 65-69
Electric Light Circuit, 74
Electric Locomotive, 59
Electric Motor, 48-62
Electric Motor, Barlow’s Wheel, 48
Electric Motor, Dal Negro, 49
Electric Motor, Davenport, 51-52
Electric Motor, Dr. Page, 51
Electric Motor, Faraday, 48
Electric Motor, Henry, 50
Electric Motor, Jacobi, 51
Electric Motor, Neff, 52
Electric Motor, Prof. Henry’s, 50
Electric Motor, Railway, 58
Electric Motor, Westinghouse, 53
Electric Musical Instruments, 98
Electric Pen, Edison’s, 96
Electric Piano, 98
Electric Railway, First, 54
Electric Railway Statistics, 60
Electric Telephone, 76
Electric Welding, 91
Electrical Generation, Polyphase, 43
Electrical Navigation, 92
Electricity Direct from Fuel, 92
Electricity in Medicine, 96
Electricity, Miscellaneous, 88-99
Electro-Blasting, 99
Electro-Chemistry, 225
Electrocution, 44
Electro-Magnet, Henry’s, 17-18
Electro-Magnetism by Oersted, 18
Electro-Magnet, Sturgeon’s, 18-19
Electro-Plating, 93
Elements, New, 227
Elevators, Passenger, 459
Elliott & Hatch Typewriter, 182
Emulsions, Photography, 305
Engine, Gas, 337
Engine, Rotary, 109
Epilogue, 465-467
Ericsson’s Monitor, 148
Ericsson’s Screw Propeller, 137
Etherization, 246
Excavating Quicksand by Freezing, 345
Explosives, High, 419
Facsimile Telegraph, 24
False Teeth, 251
Faraday Converts Electricity Into Power, 48
Farmer Utilizes Electric Light, 67
Farms, Large, 207
Fastest Railway Speed, 131
Fastest Speed, Steam Vessel, 146
Faure Storage Battery, 90
Feathering Paddle Wheel, 138-141
Feed, Sewing Machine, 186-187
Fermenting and Brewing, 223
Field, Cyrus W., 32
Fields, Large, 207
Films, Photographic, 308
Filter, Centrifugal, 243
Fire Alarm Telegraph, 24
Firearms and Explosives, 394-419
Firearms, Early, 395
Fire Engine, Steam, 114
First Cable Message, 33
First Dynamo, 40
First Electric Light in Dwelling, 67
First Gas Company, 330
First Incandescent Lamp, 66-72
First Locomotive, 119
First Ocean Voyage, 137-145
First Phonograph, 274
First Photographic Portrait, 310
First Railway in U. S., 131
First Rubber Shoes, 212
First Telegraphic Message, 15
First Telegraphic Signal, 18
First War Vessel, 146
Flood Rock, Destruction of, 352
Flour Mills, 230
Fluorometer (X-Ray), 326
Fluoroscope, Edison’s, 323
Focus Tube, X-Ray, 326
Food and Drink, 228-244
Food Products, Statistics, 229
Foods, Patented, 244
Forging Press, 383
Forth Bridge, 340
Fourdrinier Machine, 161
Franklin’s Printing Press, 155
Fulton, Robert, 134
Fulton’s Demologos, 146
Galvani’s Experiment, 16
Galvanizing, 387
Gas, Acetylene, 333
Gas Checks, Ordnance, 398
Gas, Coal, 330
Gas Engine, 337
Gases, Liquefaction of, 447
Gas Lighting, 329-339
Gas Meter, 337
Gasoline Automobile, 268
Gas, Water, 332
Gatling Gun, 405
Gauge, Steam, 107
Gelatine Films, Photography, 308
Germs, Disease, 253
Gessner’s Cloth Press, 432
Giffard Injector, 105
Glucose, 223
Gold, Cyanide Process, 391
Goodyear Discovers Vulcanization, 214
Goodyear Introduces Rubber Into Europe, 214
Goodyear’s Experiments With Rubber, 212
Gramophone, 280
Grande Lunette Telescope, 287
Grape Sugar, 223
Graphophone, 277
Great Eastern, 138
Greathead Improves Tunneling Shield, 347
Grove, Prof., Electric Lamp, 66-72
Gun Cotton, Making, 224
Gun, Magazine, 411
Gun, Disappearing, 401
Gunpowder, 416
Gun, 16-inch, 401
Gunpowder, White, 417
Guns, Hammerless, 414
Gutenberg’s Movable Type, 154
Hackworth’s Locomotive, 121
Half Tone Engraving, 314
Hammer, Steam, 112
Hammond Typewriter, 178
Hargreaves Invents the Spinning-Jenny, 421
Harvester, 195
Harvest Scene, 208
Harvey Process, 387
Hayward Adds Sulphur to Rubber, 213
Heddle, 426
Hedley’s “Puffing Billy”, 120
Heliography, Niépce, 302
Henry’s Electric Motor, 50
Henry’s First Telegraph, 18
Hero’s Engine, 101
Hjorth Dynamo, 40
Hoe Printing Press, 157
Holden Ice Machine, 443
Holland Submarine Boat, 152
Homœopathy, 250
Horrocks Applies Steam to Looms, 428
Horseshoes, Manufacture of, 383
Hot Blast Furnace, 374
House Printing Telegraph, 24
House Sanitation, 256
Howe’s Sewing Machine, 184
Hussey’s Reaper, 196
Hydraulic Dredges, 349
Hydropathy, 250
Ice Machine, Holden, 443
Ice Machines, 436-446
Ice Plant, 442
Ice Skating Rinks, 445
Incandescent Lamp, 66
India Rubber Statistics, 217
Injector, Giffard, 105
Instantaneous Photos, 308
Iron and Steel Statistics, 390
Ironclad Monitors Cross Ocean, 148
Ironclads, 147
Jablochkoff Candle, 64
Jacobi’s Electric Boat, 92
Jacobi’s Electric Motor, 51
Jacquard Loom, 427
Janney Car Coupling, 129
Jenkins’ Phantascope, 299
Jetties, Mississippi, 352
John Bull, Locomotive, 124
Kaiser Wilhelm, Steamer, 142
Kaleidoscope, 294
Kelly’s Process Making Steel, 377
Kinetoscope, 297
Kirchhoff’s Spectroscope, 293
Kneading Machines, 233
Knitting Machines, 430
Kodak Camera, 307-309
König’s Rotary Press, 157
Krag-Jorgensen Magazine Rifle, 413
Krupp Gun, 398
Laryngoscope, 249
Latch Needle for Knitting Machine, 432
Lathe, Blanchard’s, 368
Laughing Gas, 246
Launches, Electric, 94
Leading Inventions, Nineteenth Century, 7-14
Lee Invents Knitting Machines, 431
Lee’s Magazine Rifle, 412
Lick Telescope, 286
Light, Electric, 63
Light, Rapidity of Travel, 299
Lime Light, 338
Link Motion, 128
Linotype Printing, 165
Liquid Air, 447-457
Lister’s Antiseptic Surgery, 256
Lithography, 170
Lithotrity, 250
Locke Wire Binder, 203
Locks, Pneumatic Lift, 300
Locomobile, Steam, 267
Locomotive, Electric, 59
Locomotive, Largest, 132
Locomotive, Steam, 118
Loom, Jacquard, 427
Loom, Positive Motion, 429
Loom, Power, 426
Lovers’ Telegraph, 76
Lowe’s Water Gas Apparatus, 332
Lyall Positive Motion Loom, 429
Machine Gun, 405
Magazine Pistol, 409
Magnetic Concentrator, 392
Magneto-Electric Machine, 38-39
Malarial Parasite, 254
Mann Harvester, 200
Mantles for Welsbach Burner, 338
Marconi’s Wireless Telegraphy, 27
Marsh Harvester, 201
Matches, Friction, 460
Matching Machines, 366
Materia Medica, 247
Mauser Rifle, 413
McCormick Reaper, 197-199
McKay Shoe Sewing Machine, 190
Meats, Dressing, 238
Medical Electricity, 96
Medicines, Coal Tar, 223
Medicine, Surgery, Sanitation, 245-258
Mege’s Oleomargarine, 239
Melville Introduces Gas in U. S., 330
Mercerized Cloth, 434
Mergenthaler Linotype Machine, 166
Metal Founding, 388
Metallurgy, Early History of, 372
Metal Production in the United States, 393
Metal Tube Making, 387
Metal Turning, 387
Metal Working, 371-393
Meter, Gas, 337
Michaux’s Bicycle, 261
Micro-photographs in Beleaguered Paris, 291
Microscope, 290
Middlings Purifier, 231
Milk Skimmer, 235
Milling, Flour, 230
Mills’ Typewriter, 171
Mines, Submarine, 417
Minor Inventions, 458-464
Molding Machines, 366
Monitor Monadnock, 149
Mont Cenis Tunnel, 345
Monument, Washington, 356
Morrow Bicycle Brake, 264
Morse Telegraph, 19
Mortising Machines, 369
Morton and Jackson Patent Anæsthesia, 247
Moving Pictures, 295
Mule Spinner, 422
Musical Instruments, Electric, 98
Muybridge’s Photos Trotting Horses, 297
Nails, Wire, 388
Nasmyth’s Steam Hammer, 112
Natural Gas, 329-339
Navies’ Tonnage, 146
Navigation, Electric, 92
Navigation, Steam, 133
Needle Gun, 411
Newcomen’s Engine, 102
Nicholson’s Rotary Press, 156
Niépce’s Heliography, 302
Nitro-Glycerine, 224
Nitrous Oxide Gas, 246
Northrop Loom, 429
Oceanic, Largest Steamer, 139-143
Octuple Printing Press, 158
Old Ironsides, Locomotive, 125
Oleomargarine, 239
Oliver Typewriter, 181
Open Hearth Steel, 380
Opthalmometer, 249
Opthalmoscope, 249
Optics, 284-300
Ordnance, Breech-Loading, 397
Oregon, Battleship, 150
Ore Separator, Magnetic, 392
Ostergren and Berger Liquid Air, 450
Otto Gas Engine, 338
Pacific Railway, 131
Paddle Wheel, Feathering, 138
Panorama Camera, 311
Paper Making, 159-165
Paper Making, Speed in, 165
Paper Making Statistics, 165
Paper Pulp Beater, 160
Parsons Steam Turbine, 109
Patented Foods, 244
Patents, 462
Perfumes, Coal Tar, 223
Perkins Invents Ice Machines, 438
Persistence of Vision, 295
Phantascope, 299
Phenacetin, 248
Phenakistoscope, 295
Phœnix, Steamboat, 136
Phonautograph, 276
Phonograph, 273-283
Phosphor Bronze, 389
Photo-engraving, 312
Photographic Experiments, First, 302
Photographic Positives, 303
Photographic Roll Film, 308
Photographs by Artificial Light, 308-316
Photography, 301-318
Photography, Celestial, 310
Photography, Half Tone Engraving, 314
Photography in Colors, 311
Photo-lithography, 312
Photo-micrographs, 253
Piano, Electric, 98
Pictet Ice Machine, 439
Pictet’s Researches, 455
Pieper Automobile, 271
Pig Iron, 375
Pigs, Casting, 379
Pins, The Manufacture of, 389
Pintsch Gas, 336
Pistols, 407
Pixii Electric Machine, 39
Planing Machines, 366
Planté Storage Battery, 88-89
Plate Printing, 169
Platinotypes, 305
Pneumatic Caissons, 345
Pneumatic Tires, 263
Poetsch Method of Tunneling, 345
Polarization of Light, 294
Polyphase Generation, 43
Ponton, Mungo, Photography, 305
Precious Metals, Statistics, 393
Premo Camera, 309
Preparing Rubber, 215
Preserving Food, 235
Printing, 154-170
Printing Telegraph, 23-24
Priscilla, Steamer, 142
Progin’s Typewriter, 172
Progress Photographic Art, 306
Puddling Furnace, 373
Pulp, Wood, 161
Pulse Recorder, 249
Purifier, Middlings, 231
Quadruplex Telegraph, 23
Quarter Sawing, 363
Queen Victoria, First Cablegram, 33
Quinine Discovered, 247
Rabbeth Spinning Spindle, 425
Railway Motor, Electric, 58
Railway Statistics, 131
Railway, Steam, 118
Range Finder, 295
Rapid Fire Gun, 400
Rare Metals, Metallurgy, 390
Reaper, 195-209
Reaper Statistics, 205-206
Rebounding Lock, 415
Recorder, Siphon, 35
Reece Buttonhole Machine, 191
Regenerative Furnace, 381
Register, Morse, 21-22
Reis’ Telephone, 78
Remington Typewriter, 176
Return Circuit, Earth, 18
Review of Century, 3-6
Revolvers, 408
Revolving Turret, 147
Rifling of Firearms, 396
Ring Frame, Spinning, 425
Rock Drills, 351
Rocket, Locomotive, 122
Rodman’s Method of Casting Guns, 397
Roentgen Rays, 319-328
Rogues’ Gallery, 310
Roller Mill, Flour, 230
Roll Film, Photography, 308
Rotary Engine, 109
Rotary Hook Sewing Machine, 187
Rotary Press, 156
Rover Bicycle, 263
Rubber Cloth, 216
Rubber, India, 210-220
Rubber Shoes, 217-218
Safes, Fireproof, 461
Safety Bicycle, 264
Safety-Lamp, 359
Saint’s Sewing Machine, 184
Salol, 248
Salvioni’s X-Ray Tube, 322
Sanitation, 245
Sanitation, House, 256
Savannah, Steamer, 137-145
Saw, 360
Saw, Circular, 361
Sawmill Carriage, 362
Sawyer-Man Electric Lamp, 67-73
Saxton Electric Machine, 39
Schlick System, 116
Schools of Medicine, 250
Screw Propeller, 135-137
Screws, Bolts, etc., 383
Screws, Gimlet Pointed, 385
Screws, Rolling, 386
Screw Steamer, Stevens’, 134
Search Light, 70-71
Seidlitz Powders, 247
Self-Binding Reaper, 203
Self-Raking Reaper, 202
Sewerage, Sanitary, 256
Sewing Machine, 183-194
Sewing Machine Statistics, 188-193
Sheathing Railway Train, 132
Shield, Tunneling, 346-347
Shoe Sewing Machine, 190
Sholes’ Typewriter, 176
Shot Making, 389
Shuttle, Flying, 426
Sickel’s Cut-off, 105
Siemens’ Electric Railway, 54
Siemens-Martin Steel, 381
Siemens’ Regenerative Furnace, 381
Silk, Artificial, 433
Silver Printing, 305
Singer Sewing Machine, 187
Siphon Recorder, 35
Skating Rinks, Ice, 445
Skeleton Construction, 353
Skimmer, Milk, 235
Sleeping Car, 131
Small Arms, 407
Smith-Premier Typewriter, 178
Snap-Shot Camera, 309
Solarometer, 295
Spectroscope, 292
Spectrum, 292
Spectrum Analysis, 293
Speed Across Atlantic, 145
Speed, Railway, 131
Sphygmograph, 249
Sphygmometrograph, 249
Spindle, Spinning, 425
Spinning-Jenny, 420
Spinning Spindle, 425
Statistics, Steam Navigation, 152
Steam Automobile, 266
Steamboat, 133
Steamboat, Fulton’s, 136
Steam Cut-off, 104
Steam Engine, 100-117
Steam Engine, Hero’s, 101
Steam Engine, Newcomen, 102
Steam Engine, Watt’s, 103
Steamer, Swinging Cabin, 140
Steam Feed Saw Carriage, 363
Steam Fire Engine, 113
Steam Gauge, 107
Steam Hammer, 112
Steam Harvester and Thresher, 206
Steam Locomotive, 118
Steam Navigation, 133-153
Steam Navigation Statistics, 152
Steam Planting, 206
Steam Power Statistics, 116
Steam Railway, 118-132
Steam Turbine, 109
Steel Alloys, 389
Steel, Open Hearth, 380
Stephenson’s Link Motion, 128
Stephenson’s Locomotives, 121-123
Stereo-Binocular Field Glass, 289
Stereoscope, 294
Stereoscopic Camera, 310
Stereotyping, 159
Sterilizing Food Stuffs, 236
Stethoscope, 249
Stevens’ “Phœnix”, 136
Stevens’ Screw Steamer, 134-135
St. Gothard Tunnel, 346
Stockton & Darlington Railway, 121
Storage Battery, 88
Storage Battery, Faure, 90
Storage Battery, Planté, 88
Storage Battery, Ritter, 88
Stourbridge Lion, Locomotive, 123
Submarine Boat, 152
Suez Canal, 347
Sugar Making, 241
Sulfonal, 248
Surgery, 245
Surgical Instruments, 249
Symington’s Steamboat, 134
Synthesis Organic Compounds, 222
System, Third Rail, 57
Talbot’s Photographic Prints, 303
Talbotype, 303
Taupenot’s Dry Plates, 306
Telegraph, Edison’s Quadruplex, 23
Telegraph, Electric, 15-31
Telegraphic Conductor, 17
Telegraphing by Induction, 25
Telegraph Statistics, 30
Telegraph, Wireless, 26
Telephone, 76-87
Telephone, Bell, 77
Telephone, Blake Transmitter, 83
Telephone, Bourseul, 77
Telephone, Drawbaugh, 77
Telephone Exchange, 86-87
Telephone, Gray, 77
Telephone, Reis, 78
Telephone Statistics, 86
Telephone, Undulatory Current, 79
Telephone, Variable Resistance, 82
Telescope, 285
Telescopic Discoveries, 284
Textiles, 420-435
Thaumatrope, 295
Thimonnier’s Sewing Machine, 184
Third-Rail System, 57
Thompsonian System Medicine, 250
Thompson, Sir William, 35
Thorp Invents Ring Spinning, 425
Three Wire System, 72-74
Thurber’s Typewriter, 173
Ticker, Stock Broker’s, 23-24
Timby’s Revolving Turret, 147
Time Locks, 461
Tolls, Suez Canal, 347
Tonnage World’s Navies, 146
Tools, Machine, 386
Traction Engine, 206
Transformer, 43
Trevithick’s Locomotive, 118
Trevithick’s Steam Carriage, 266
Tripler, Liquid Air, 450
Trolley, Overhead, 55
Trolley, Underground, 56
Trouvé Electric Boat, 92
Tube Manufacture, 387
Tunneling Shield, 346
Tunnels, 345
Turbine, Steam, 109
Turbinia, Steamer, 111
Turret Monitor, 148
Typewriter, 171-182
Typewriter, Oldest, 171
Typewriter for Blind, 174
Typewriter Statistics, 182
Utilizing Heat from Blast Furnace, 375
Vaccination, 245
Vacuum Pan, Sugar, 242
Vacuum Tubes, 321
Valve Gear, Corliss, 106
Velocipede, 261
Vertical Fork Bicycle, 262
Viper, Torpedo Boat, 111
Vitascope, 297
Voltaic Arc, 63
Voltaic Pile, 16
Vulcanized Rubber, 210
Wall Telephone, 85
Washington Monument, 356
Washington Press, 156
Watch, Stem-Winding, 460
Water Closets, 256
Water Gas, 331
Watt’s Steam Engine, 103
Wax Cylinder, Phonograph, 277
Weaving, 425
Wegmann’s Roller Mill, 230
Welding, Electric, 91
Wells, Artesian, 350
Wells, Petroleum, 350
Wells, Dr., Produces Anæsthesia, 246
Welsbach Gas Burner, 338
Westinghouse Air Brake, 129
Westinghouse Electric Motor, 53
Wheat Produced, 209
Whitney Invents Cotton Gin, 423
Willis Invents Platinotypes, 305
Wilson’s Sewing Machine, 186
Windhausen Cold Storage Device, 445
Winsor Introduces Gas in London, 330
Winton Automobile, 269
Wire Bending, 388
Wire Fences, 388
Wireless Telegraphy, 26
Wood Pulp, 161
Woodruff Sleeping Car, 131
Wood Turning, 368
Woodworker, Universal, 367
Woodworking, 360-370
Woodworth Wood Planer, 367
World’s Blast Furnaces, 375
X-Rays, 319
X-Ray Apparatus, 324
X-Ray Focus Tube, 326
X-Ray Photograph, 322
X-Ray Surgery, 325
Yerkes Telescope, 287
Yost Typewriter, 180
Zoetrope, 297
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well described and illustrated, making a handsome volume. It is
tastefully printed and bound. Acknowledged by the profession to be the
=STANDARD WORK ON MAGIC=. Send for large illustrated circular, sent free
to any address.
MUNN & CO., Publishers.
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OFFICE,
361 Broadway, New York.
MECHANICAL MOVEMENTS,
POWERS, DEVICES AND APPLIANCES.
By GARDNER D. HISCOX, M. E.
Author of “Gas, Gasoline, and Oil Engines.”
Large 8vo. 402 Pages. 1649 Illustrations, with Descriptive Text. Price,
$3.00.
A Dictionary of Mechanical Movements, Powers, Devices and Appliances,
embracing an illustrated description of the greatest variety of
mechanical movements and devices in any language. A new work on
illustrated mechanics, mechanical movements, devices and appliances,
covering nearly the whole range of the practical and inventive field,
for the use of Machinists, Mechanics, Inventors, Engineers, Draughtsmen,
Students and all others interested in any way in the devising and
operation of mechanical works of any kind.
THE CHAPTERS TREAT OF:
I. Mechanical Powers.
II. Transmission of Power.
III. Measurement of Power.
IV. Steam Power--Boilers and Adjuncts.
V. Steam Appliances.
VI. Motive Power--Gas and Gasoline Engines.
VII. Hydraulic Power and Devices.
VIII. Air Power Appliances.
IX. Electric Power and Construction.
X. Navigation and Roads.
XI. Gearing.
XII. Motion and Devices Controlling Motion.
XIII. Horological.
XIV. Mining.
XV. Mill and Factory Appliances.
XVI. Construction and Devices.
XVII. Draughting Devices.
XVIII. Miscellaneous Devices.
_Send for descriptive Circular._
GAS ENGINE CONSTRUCTION,
A PRACTICAL TREATISE DESCRIBING IN EVERY DETAIL THE ACTUAL BUILDING OF A
GAS ENGINE.
By HENRY Y. H. PARSELL, Jr., Mem. A. I. Elec. El., and ARTHUR J. WEED,
M. E.
Large 8vo. Handsomely Illustrated and Bound. 300 Pages. Price, $2.50.
This book treats of the subject more from the standpoint of practice
than that of theory. The principles of operation of Gas Engines are
clearly and simply described, and then the actual construction of a
half-horse power engine is taken up, step by step, showing in detail the
making of a Gas Engine. First come directions for making the patterns;
this is followed by all the details of the mechanical operations of
finishing up and fitting the castings, and is profusely illustrated with
beautiful engravings of the actual work in progress, showing the modes
of chucking, turning, boring and finishing the parts in the lathe, and
also plainly showing the lining up and erection of the engine.
Dimensioned working drawings give clearly the sizes and forms of the
various details. The entire engine, with the exception of the
fly-wheels, is designed to be made on a simple eight inch lathe, with
slide rest. The book closes with a chapter on American practice in Gas
Engine design, and gives simple rules so that anyone can figure out the
dimensions of similar engines of other powers. Every illustration in
this book is new and original, having been made expressly for this work.
SEND FOR DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULAR.
MUNN & CO., Publishers,
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN OFFICE
361 Broadway, New York
Transcriber's notes
This text uses the text from the original work, including
inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, punctuation, etc., except as
mentioned below. The spelling of English (omniverous, millenium), non-
English words (licht, tuyeres, frappees) and names (Swammerden, Mege)
has not been corrected either, except as listed below.
Depending on the hard- and software and their settings used to read
this text, not all characters and symbols may display properly or
display at all.
Remarks on the text:
p. vii and 371: the list of contents lists Electric Concentrators, the
text deals with Magnetic Concentrators.
p. 171/172 (text of patent): one closing quote mark is missing.
p. 291, Swammerden: this refers to Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680).
p. 373, condicon: possibly error for condicion or a similar word.
p. 239, M. Mege, a French chemist: this refers to Hippolyte Mège-
Mouriès (1817-1880).
p. 408, Alte Deutscher Drehling Der Ruckladungs Gewehre: the reference
is to Alte Rückladegewehre: Alt-Deutscher Drehling.
p. 428, photograph: the chain of perforated cards is hardly visible in
the original work.
Index: the entries are not fully alphabetically sorted; this has not
been changed.
The order of subjects as given in the table of contents and in the
chapter headings is not always the order in which the text gives them;
the table of contents is sometimes slightly different from the chapter
headings; this has not been changed. The table of contents is not
complete: many subjects are not listed.
In several instances the author uses knots for distance and knots per
hour and feet for speed; this has not been changed.
Changes made:
Footnotes and illustrations have (where appropriate) been moved in
order not to interrupt the text.
Some obvious punctuation errors have been corrected silently.
If both ligature and single letters occur in the same word in the text
(with the exception of the advertisements), these have been
standardised: ae/æ to æ (anæsthetics); e/é to é (Carré, Lindé,
Niépce); oe/œ to œ (homœopathy, Phœnix).
The original work uses fractions of the form 1⁄2 as well as 15-16.
These have been standardised to x⁄y or changed to the appropriate
Unicode character.
p. v: Nitroglycerine changed to Nitro-Glycerine as elsewhere
p. vi, Chapter Photography: The Platinotype added as in the chapter
heading
p. 6: Kinetescope changed to Kinetoscope as elsewhere
p. 7: Hahneman changed to Hahnemann
p. 9: Perkin’s changed to Perkins’
p. 10: Rhumkorff changed to Ruhmkorff
p. 11: Foucalt changed to Foucault; Herman’s changed to Hermann’s
p. 15: ecomony changed to economy
p. 29: choking coils _k k_ changed to choking coils _k k′_ as in
illustration
p. 35: Gallilee changed to Galilee
p. 37: Somnenberg changed to Sonnenberg
p. 41: and other changed to and others
p. 47: corruscations changed to coruscations
p. 51: Badensburg changed to Bladensburg
p. 87: Chrstian Era changed to Christian Era
p. 88: Plante changed to Planté
p. 89: PLANTE changed to PLANTÉ (2x)
p. 92: commerical changed to commercial
p. 93: electrictiy changed to electricity; TROUVE’S changed to
TROUVÉ’S
p. 95: St. Petersburg changed to St. Petersburgh
p. 97: atached changed to attached
p. 98: whch changed to which
p. 105: colon in list of patents changed to comma (2x) as elsewhere
p. 108: Ninetenth Century changed to Nineteenth Century
p. 129: air-brake changed to air brake as elsewhere
p. 133: Pennsylvaina changed to Pennsylvania
p. 150: greater that changed to greater than
p. 153: for from changed to far from
p. 159: sterereotyping changed to stereotyping; Edinburg changed to
Edinburgh as elsewhere
p. 160: the the wire cloth changed to the wire cloth
p. 182: vearly changed to yearly
p. 188: Manufacturning changed to Manufacturing
p. 235: ilustrative changed to illustrative
p. 237: half a millions changed to half a million
p. 240: carry- a fractional per cent. changed to carrying a fractional
per cent.
p. 247: irresitable changed to irresistible
p. 248: acetanalide changed to acetanilide; OPHTHALMOMETER changed to
OPTHALMOMETER as elsewhere
p. 250: rationallen Heilkunde changed to rationellen Heilkunde
p. 253: bactilli changed to bacilli
p. 260: vélocipéde changed to vélocipède; celérifère changed to
célérifère
p. 261: vélocipéde changed to vélocipède
p. 265: Metiers changed to Métiers
p. 285: Middeburg, Middleburg changed to Middelburg
p. 301: Niepce's changed to Niépce's
p. 309: advertisment changed to advertisement
p. 324: currrent changed to current
p. 389: fire-arms changed to firearms as elsewhere
p. 395: must must changed to must
p. 401: Moncrief changed to Moncrieff
p. 412: Livermore-Russel changed to Livermore-Russell; Russel changed
to Russell
p. 416: pulvurulent changed to pulverulent
p. 425: effciency changed to efficiency
p. 462: latrobe stoves changed to Latrobe stoves
p. 469: Acetanalide changed to Acetanilide
p. 470: Cemementation changed to Cementation.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century." ***
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