USA > Connecticut > Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial; representative citizens, v. 11 > Part 37
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Later the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Company, to whom Mr. Emery had sold his patents, disposed of them in turn to William Sellers & Company. Mr. Sellers designed a fifty-ton testing machine which was built under Mr. Emery's pat- ents and placed in the Watertown Arse- nal, Watertown, Massachusetts, where Mr. Emery's large machine was already in use. Under these patents machines were also built by William Sellers & Company for several of the technical schools and colleges in the United States and Europe. The War Department ex- hibited one of these machines in the Gov- ernment Building at the Columbia Expo- sition in Chicago in 1893, the machine afterward going to Sibley College, Cornell University.
After the Yale & Towne Manufactur- ing Company sold his patents to William Sellers & Company, Mr. Emery resigned his position with them and resumed the designing of cannon and projectiles in which he had been interested during the Civil War. He designed a gun carriage for a twelve-inch rifle for the War De- partment under the supervision of the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications. This design was never completed for the reason that its construction required more money than had been appropriated. While with the Yale & Towne Manufac- turing Company he designed and built a car dynamometer for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to make autographic records of the drawbar pull of locomo- tives, the dynamometer having a capacity of 28,000 pounds. Several years later, in 1902, he was asked by Mr. Vogt, me- chanical engineer of the Pennsylvania railroad, to consider designing and con- structing another dynamometer for them, as the old one was entirely inadequate to measure the loads given by the increased size of locomotives.
Mr. Emery was confined to his room with a broken knee cap at that time, but decided he could undertake the work, and he designed and built a car dynamometer of 100,000 pounds capacity, the Pennsyl- vania railroad designing and building the car therefor. The dynamometer was put into service in 1906 and is still in service. In the meantime the continued growth of locomotives and the introduction of the electric locomotive have made the ca- pacity of this instrument inadequate, and at present (1920) Mr. Emery is rebuilding certain parts of this machine to increase its capacity to measure 150,000 pounds drawbar pull instead of 100,000 pounds. In order to calibrate this instrument it was necessary to have a very accurate method of measuring hydraulic pressure, and he designed and constructed an ap- paratus for measuring hydraulic pressure up to 3,000 pounds per square inch, sensi- tive to 0.005 pound per square inch. In order to adjust the weights for this ma- chine a special scale, having very great accuracy and sensitiveness, was con- structed, using "Emery" plate fulcrums instead of knife edges. Later an im- proved form of this apparatus, having a capacity of 4,000 pounds per square inch, was built by him for the Bureau of Stand- ards.
The next important undertaking which engaged the attention of Mr. Emery was the construction of two testing machines for the Bureau of Standards in Washing- ton. One was for loads of 230,000 pounds tension and compression, and the other for loads of 1,150,000 pounds tension and 2,300,000 pounds compression, on speci- mens of any length up to thirty-three feet. While building these machines, Mr. Emery also constructed a machine to calibrate testing machines, which was in- stalled in his laboratory in Glenbrook, Connecticut. The calibrating machine is
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for loads of 4,000,000 pounds and it will show distinctly a variation of one pound in the load. The calibrating machine has eight twenty-five-hundred-pound stand- ard weights, each adjusted to a probable error of not more than one part in eight hundred thousand on the scale previously mentioned.
These testing machines embodied im- provements over his earlier testing ma- chines, and contained a new form of "Emery" plate fulcrum, and the E. & T. Fairbanks & Company, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, saw the machine and believed that these fulcrums could be adapted to railroad track scale, and working in con- junction with them and with the Penn- sylvania railroad, Mr. Emery designed and built such a scale, which was installed in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and was entirely successful in its operations. The scale was redesigned to embody certain fea- tures which were developed in the con- struction and test of the first scale, and this design was adopted by the Penn- sylvania railroad as their standard for track scales, and is built by them in their own shops and also by the E. & T. Fair- banks & Company in St. Johnsbury, Ver- mont.
During the first year of its use eighty million tons were weighed on this scale, which was located in Tyrone, Pennsyl- vania, without impairing in the least its sensitiveness or accuracy, whole trains passing over the scale at the rate of four miles an hour, each of the cars being weighed separately without stopping the train. Besides these trains which were weighed, many thousand more cars passed over that scale the first year for classification, and over seven thousand locomotives also passed over it. At the end of the year the scale was retested and pronounced as accurate as when first set up.
In the winter 1910-II Mr. Emery de- signed a track scale testing car for the United States Bureau of Standards. That car carries 100,000 pounds of standard weights and goes all over the United States testing the track scales of the rail- roads and industries. Mr. Emery con- structed a model of it, one-twelfth of the regular size, for the United States Bureau of Standards, for them to exhibit at the San Francisco Exposition. A second car, also equipped with 100,000 pounds of standard weights, was built for the Bu- reau of Standards in 1915. Eight of these weights, each weighing 10,000 pounds, were adjusted to one part of 1,000,000. The Department of Agriculture had him design and build for them a scale that would weigh a hive of bees in one room, the weighing being done in another room. The temperature of the inner room be- ing maintained within one-tenth of a degree for long periods, to determine the temperature at which a colony of bees would eat the least honey. For the United States Bureau of Standards, Mr. Emery has built a set of test levers of 50,000 pounds capacity for calibrating testing machines.
Very early in his study of the construc- tion of ordnance, Mr. Emery conceived the idea of constructing guns by hydrau- licly expanding either a single forging or a series of concentric forgings, by the use of hydraulic pressure on the interior, thus putting the required initial strains into the metal instead of by the method of shrinking one part onto another. This also raises the elastic limit of the metal, and guns so made are much stronger than when the parts are shrunk together. These ideas were embodied in patents taken out by him both in this country and in many foreign countries. He tried many times to interest the gun manufac- turers and the War and Navy depart-
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ments in this process, but was unable to do so until in 1918 the Navy Department authorized the construction by him of a four-inch gun. This was hydraulicly ex- panded, using hydraulic pressures up to 107,000 pounds per square inch, and tests of this gun have fully proved the value of his process. A pressure of 40,000 pounds per square inch gave the original forging a permanent deformation, but after the process was completed it re- quired 75,000 pounds per square inch to give an additional permanent deforma- tion. This process has been adopted by the Navy Department for small guns (3" to 6") and in time will probably be adopted for large guns also. This process will enable the gun builder to construct a gun which will be lighter and stronger than the present gun, in less time, from very much less ingot metal, and with very much less machinery, reducing the cost 20% to 30%. Eventually the government will probably save large amounts of money by this invention, but unfortun- ately for Mr. Emery his patents will have expired before any considerable applica- tion can be made.
During the World War Mr. Emery spent a large portion of his time in trying to get this process of gun construction adopted, and at the same time his labor- atory was building tools and various mechanisms for the government. While in Washington, in June, 1919, Mr. Emery was run over by an automobile, shattering one bone of his right arm, telescoping his left wrist, and badly breaking his ankle, but fortunately all the breaks healed well in spite of his advanced age, eighty-five years, and at present he spends some time at his office almost every day.
Mr. Emery married, March 3, 1875, in Westmoreland, Oneida county, New York, Mrs. Fannie B. Myers, a widow, born September 1, 1838. By her first
marriage Mrs. Myers became the mother of a daughter, Margaret King, now the wife of George A. Clyde, of Rome, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Emery were the par- ents of a son, Albert Hamilton, Jr., born August 25, 1876, who was prepared for college in King's School, Stamford, and in 1898 graduated from Cornell Univer- sity with the degree of Mechanical Engi- neer. Since then he has been associated with his father in the latter's scientific work. Mr. Emery, Jr., married Julia E. McClune, of Ithaca, New York, and they have two children, Louise, born October 7, 1905, and Albert Hamilton (3), born December 26, 1910. Mrs. Emery, Sr., passed away on April 28, 1907.
It would seem from a study of his career that the predominant trait in the character of Albert Hamilton Emery, apart from his mechanical genius, has al- ways been a perseverance which never relaxed its efforts and a courage which refused to be daunted by any difficulties or disappointments, however great. We see this in the narrative of his earlier life, which shows how the various inventions on which he was then engaged formed a basis for the brilliant achievements of his later years, and how the obstacles which he encountered and the repeated discour- agements which it was his lot to endure did but stimulate him to renewed and larger efforts. In the States of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, the one his birthplace and the scene of his early endeavors, and the others for many years the centers of his greatest renown, his fame is. and always will be most inti- mately cherished. In a larger sense his native land feels that he belongs to her, but even by her he cannot be wholly claimed. His name will go down in his- tory as that of one of the world's in- ventors.
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ALLEN, Lauren M.,
Physician.
A physician who for twenty-seven years has practiced successfully. in the same community becomes so inseparably asso- ciated with its most vital interests as to render the narrative of his career almost identical with a history of his home town. This is especially true of Dr. Allen, whose professional reputation, high as it is, is almost equalled by that which he enjoys as a public-spirited citizen of South Nor- walk.
The name of Allen, or Allin, is derived from the British, and is thought to be a corruption of Aelianus, which signifies sun-bright. It is also said to come from the root word Al, meaning mountainous, high and bright. In the Gaelic it signifies fair, handsome, the word being Aliune, and the Irish Alun has the same meaning. The English Allan, or Allen, said to have been first spelled Alan, means all-con- quering. As a personal name it was first borne by the Bard of Britain, an uncle of Caractacus, who had a long line of kings for ancestors. The name came into prom- inence after the Conquest, the chief gen- eral of William's army at the battle of Hastings having been Alan, Duke of Brittany, who made England his home and became the third richest man in the kingdom. Thenceforth the name grew in number and importance.
(I) George Allen, born in 1568, in Eng- land, came to America in 1635 and settled in Saugus, Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1637 he joined with Edmund Freeman and others in the purchase of the town- ship of Sandwich, and settled there in the same year. When the town of Sandwich was incorporated he was chosen deputy, the first office in the town, and served in that capacity for several years. He is rep-
resented by Bowden as having been an anti-Baptist in England, but be that as it may, he was a member of the church in Sandwich, and Rev. Benjamin Fessenden reports both George and Ralph Allen as having been previously members of the church in Roxbury. George Allen was the father of ten sons, some of whom pre- ceded him to America and settled near Boston. After the purchase of Sandwich, most of them with their families moved thither, and settled near their father's residence. George Allen died in Sand- wich, May 2, 1648. In his will, naming his wife, Catherine, as executrix, with Ralph Allen and Richard Brown as over- seers, he named his five sons, Matthew, Henry, Samuel, George, Jr., and William ; and also made provision for his "five least children" without naming them.
In 1774 the Rev. Joseph Thaxter, of Edgartown, Massachusetts, whose wife was Mary Allen, a descendant of George Allen, obtained from England the de- scription of the coat-of-arms borne by the Allens in the old country, which is as fol- lows :
Arms-Sable shield. A cross potent with a border engrailed, or.
Crest-A demi-lion argent, holding a rudder gules, hawks and nails or.
Children of George and Catherine Al- len: I. Samuel, went to Braintree; left a will. 2. William, married, 1649, Pris- cilla Brown, daughter of Peter Brown, of the "Mayflower," and a signer of the Compact. He had no children. By his will, 12th month, 17, 1697, he devised his estate to his nephew, Daniel, son of his brother, George Allen, Jr., provided he maintained his widow Priscilla for her life. 3. George, Jr., of whom further. 4. Ralph, married, 1643, Esther, daughter of Wil- liam and Jane Swift, died 1698. 5. Mathew, married, June, 1657, Sarah Kirby; re-
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moved to Dartmouth. 6. Henry, re- moved to Milford, 1666, died at Stratford, 1690. 7. Francis, married, July 20, 1662, Mary Barlow, and left six daughters. 8. James, died July 25, 1714, at Tisbury. 9. Gideon, removed to Milford, Connecticut. IO. Thomas (probably). 11. Judah, bur- ied at Sandwich, February, 1649. 12. Caleb, buried at Sandwich, June 27, 1647. The sons William, George, Mathew, Ralph and Francis, died at Sandwich, Massachusetts, and left wills proved and recorded.
(II) George Allen, Jr., son of George and Catherine Allen, was born in 1619. He is mentioned as liable to bear arms in Sandwich in 1643.
(III) Daniel Allen, son of George Al- len, Jr., was born in Sandwich, Massachu- setts, in 1663. He and his wife, Beth- sheba, were the parents of Gideon.
(IV) Gideon Allen, son of Daniel and Bethsheba Allen, was born in May, 1686, and died June 25, 1750. The Sandwich records mention the removal of Gideon to Milford, and the Milford records give Gideon of Milford and later the same Gideon as living in Fairfield, and if it were not for the early age of Gideon when Joseph was born, the line would seem clearly established. Children of Gideon Allen : Joseph, of whom further; Eben- ezer, married, November 12, 1731, De- borah Bennett; John, married, January 17, 1750, Abigail Jessup ; David, married, October 11, 1739, Sarah Gold.
(V) Joseph Allen, son of Gideon Allen, was born June 25, 1702. He married Rachel Bennett, and they were the par- ents of: Joseph (2), born February 16, 1725; Hannah, born September 20, 1727; Rachel, born July 28, 1728; Elnathan, born June 23, 1729; Mary, born August 24, 1732; Thomas, born July 2, 1733; Mary (twin of Thomas) ; John, born June 16, 1736; Benjamin, of whom further.
(VI) Benjamin Allen, son of Joseph and Rachel (Bennett) Allen, was born October 4, 1743, and died March 27, 1827. At one time he owned land on the east side of the. Saugatuck river, extending from the sound to Ball Mountain and in- land about one mile. He is buried in Greens Farms Cemetery, Westport, Con- necticut. A sister of Dr. Allen now (1921) resides on part of the original Al- len estate. Benjamin Allen married Rhoda Allen, daughter of John Allen.
(VII) Delancey Allen, son of Benja- min and Rhoda (Allen) Allen, was born February 24, 1783, in Westport, died there, November 17, 1833, and is buried in Greens Farms Cemetery. He married, February 10, 1805, Cloe Fillow, daughter of Isaac and Adah (Waterbury) Fillow. The Fillows descend from John Fillow, who came with the French Huguenots sometime in the seventeenth century.
(VIII) Isaac Allen, son of Delancey and Cloe (Fillow) Allen, was born Feb- ruary 15, 1812, in Westport, where he re- ceived his education in the public schools. He learned the carpenter's trade, and after working for a time as a journeyman, went into business for himself as a con- tractor and builder. This business he conducted successfully until advancing years forced him to retire. Mr. Allen married, June 21, 1838, Eunice Ann Mur- ray, daughter of Seymour and Ann Eliz- abeth Seckler (Elsworth) Murray, the former practically all his life a master me- chanic in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That was in the days of wooden men-of-war. The Elsworths were of English descent, and the Murrays (MacMurrays) of Scotch descent. Mr. and Mrs. Allen were the parents of the following children: Ann Elizabeth Murray, deceased; Armenia, married Rev. R. S. Putney, of Westport ; Orlando I., of Westport, now deceased ; Emma Louise, who married Theodore
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Allen, of Westport; Isabella, who mar- ried Charles Augur, of New Haven; Lau- ren M., mentioned below; and Elmer E., of Westport. Isaac Allen and his wife were both very active members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
(IX) Lauren M. Allen, son of Isaac and Eunice Ann (Murray) Allen, was born June 12, 1857, in Westport, and re- ceived his preparatory education in the public schools of his native town. In 1880 he received from the College of Phy- sicians and Surgeons of New York the degree of Doctor of Medicine. After serving for a time as an interne in Bellevue Hospital, Mr. Allen ยท opened an office in Brooklyn, New York. and for twelve years practiced in that city. In 1893 he moved to South Nor- walk, where, in the course of a few years, he established himself as one of the leading physicians of the community. He is a member of the staff of the Norwalk Hospital, and also conducts a flourishing private practice. The professional organ- izations in which he is enrolled include the Norwalk Medical Association, the County and State Medical societies, and the American Medical Association.
In the business world Dr. Allen is rep- resented by his association with the John R. Wrigley Paper Box Company, Inc., being president of the company. He affil- iates with Old Well Lodge, No. 108, Free and Accepted Masons; and Butler Chap- ter, Royal Arch Masons, both of South Norwalk; also with Clinton Command- ery, Knights Templar, of Norwalk; and Pyramid Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport.
Dr. Allen married (first) October 8, 1879, Kate M. Shaffer, daughter of James Edward and Mary Eliza (Bennett) Shaf- fer, of Brooklyn, and they became the par- ents of one daughter : Katherine Charleta,
now the wife of Carl D. Mexcur, of Bloomfield, Connecticut, and mother of three children: Anna, Carl, and George. Dr. Allen married (second) January 14, 1918, Helen Becker, daughter of Frank C. and Amelia Frances (Grupe) Becker, of South Norwalk. Dr. and Mrs. Allen are members of the Congregational church.
The career of Dr. Allen has been fruit- ful. He is numbered among the most esteemed citizens of his home community, and his professional record is rich in re- sults of genuine and enduring value.
BELDEN, Charles Denison, Broker, Man of Fine Tastes.
Many thoughts of the past will be awakened by the appearance of this name, and impressions, so deep that time has been powerless to efface them, will glow with almost pristine freshness as the minds of old friends and former business associates revert to events and scenes of bygone years. Throughout the long period during which Mr. Belden was a figure of prominence in the brokerage cir- cles of Wall street, New York, he re- mained a citizen of Stamford, Connecti- cut, ever maintaining an unwavering and helpful interest in the advancement of all that could minister to the welfare and progress of his home community. The name of Belden is an extremely ancient one, and with the lapse of centuries has assumed a great variety of forms. Those which have been, at different periods, in use in the New England branch, are Bayldon, Belden, and Belding. This last form is very erroneous and has been wholly discarded by certain lines.
Bayldon Manor was in the Angle king- dom of Deira,-hence came the immortal youths seen by Saint Gregory at Rome, and at the sight of whom he exclaimed,
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non Angli, sed Angeli! Bayldon has been the seat of the family of that name since a period prior to the reign of King John, and ever since the Norman Conquest it has been a chapelry in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Bayldon Hall is not far away and is still in a good state of preser- vation. The fact that it stands on an emi- nence seems to render probable the idea that the family name may be derived from Bael, or Bel, meaning fire, a flame, or the sun, and Don, a hill, and that the hill on which Bayldon Manor stands may have been selected for one of those on which sacrificial fires were burned in honor of Bael. The fact that high places were chosen for these fires seems to render this idea more probable than the one which assumes that the name signifies merely a beacon hill. The family, since our earliest knowledge of it, has been distinguished in English history.
Richard Bayldon, founder of the New England branch of the race, was born in Yorkshire, England, and in 1635 settled at Wethersfield, Connecticut. He died in 1655, and many of his numerous descend- ants have won fame and honor in both civil and military life. The Bayldon escutcheon, like most others, has varia- tions, the form displayed by the descend- ants of Richard Bayldon being the fol- lowing :
Arms-A fesse between three fleur-de-lis sable. Motto-God my leader.
It is worthy of note that the motto ap- pears to be peculiar to the coat-of-arms of the New England branch.
David Belden, father of Charles Deni- son Belden, was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, and in his infancy was de- prived, by death, of his father. He was taken by his widowed mother to New York City, and as he grew to manhood entered business life. In partnership with
his brother-in-law, George Brainerd, he conducted a flourishing wholesale gro- cery concern, retiring a number of years before his death. As a young man Mr. Belden was a member of the Militia Regi- ment, which was the forerunner of the famous Seventh. He married Catherine Louisa Brush, whose family record is ap- pended to this biography.
Charles Denison Belden, son of David and Catherine Louisa (Brush) Belden, was born January 9, 1844, in New York City, and received his education in the pri- vate school of Clark & Fanning. Inherit- ing from his father an inclination for the active career of an executant, he early con- nected himself with the grocery business. It was not long, however, before he was drawn, by his taste and aptitude for fi- nance, into the arena of Wall street, where, as a stock broker, he found full scope for his talents. He was a man whose word carried weight and as the years went on, his fund of experience and the honorable success which he had achieved caused his advice to be fre- quently sought by young men entering upon the active work of life, and also by older men who found themselves in need of counsel in relation to some problem of unusual difficulty. A few years before his death he retired, being ably succeeded by his son.
As may be supposed, the strenuous life of a Wall street broker left Mr. Belden little leisure for orders or fraternities. His only association of that nature was with the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution. In his youth he was actively interested in athletics and as he grew older, hunting and fishing became his favorite recreations. Withal, he was a man of literary tastes, spending some of his happiest hours in his library.
Mr. Belden married Sarah R. Allen,
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whose ancestral record is appended to this biography, and they became the par- ents of three children : Edith, born April 26, 1872, wife of Charles W. Palmer, of New York City; Agnes, born February 10, 1873, married George D. Arthur, also of New York City, and has one child, George D. (3); and William Allen, born June II, 1875, and now, for some years, the successor of his father in business.
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