USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1928. Volume III > Part 39
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JOSEPH SACHS
Joseph Sachs, of Hartford, who is chief engineer, electrical division, Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, was born in New York city August 17, 1870, and is a son of Louis (Von) Sachs (Von not generally used now), who with other German seekers for greater political freedom, followed in the trend of Carl Schurz, and came to America about the middle of the last century.
The public schools and The College of the City of New York, supplemented by private instruction, constituted his early basic educational training, which has been supplemented by continued search for higher scientific and engineering knowledge, as well as a very thorough matriculation in the school of experience.
His business career in electrical work started with the Sprague Electric Motor Company of New York prior to 1890. When the Sprague Company was taken over by the Edison Machine Works (now the General Electric Company), of Schenectady, New York, he entered the employ of that company in the testing department. It was soon apparent that Mr. Sachs possessed marked inventive and creative ability. Attention and thought directed to needed improvements resulted in 1892 in the invention and development of an original system of surface contact (trolleyless) electric railway. At about this time he also conceived and developed the first practical non-arcing enclosed fuse of the present cartridge type, for which he received United States patent in 1894. His engineering work about 1892 included installa- tion of a pioneer commercially successful magnetic iron ore separating plant. The period between the years 1893 and 1898 found him engaged in extensive invention and development work, including the auxiliary electric fire alarm (operating the street fire alarm box from the interior of adjacent buildings), signals for cable and electrical railways, electric typesetting machinery, heating and melting metals elec- trically, electric switches, fuse protective devices, etc. He was also engaged in engineering investigation and development work on electrical canal boat propulsion and haulage, resulting in the invention of a system of electrically operated "haulers" traveling on suitably supported ways on the canal bank and controlled from the boat. Some of his investigations and labors in electrical boat propulsion and haulage appear in a volume entitled "Electrical Boats and Navigation," of which he was co-author with T. C. Martin. Although still a very young man, his capabilities and accomplishments were rapidly bringing him to the front in this then comparatively young, but already great electrical industry. Due to his extensive and diversified experience in electrical engineering and knowledge of patent matters, he was fre- quently called on to act as expert in many patent suits and litigation. His engineer- ing work in that five year period likewise included designing and supervising the construction and installation of isolated electric plants.
Prior to 1900 Mr. Sachs had presented numerous papers and discussions and delivered many lectures upon electrical canal boat propulsion, conduit electric rail- ways, motor road vehicles, electric elevators, fuses vs. circuit breakers, safe and accurate fuse protective devices, National Electrical Code and other subjects, before scientific and technical organizations and societies, including the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the New York Electrical Society, American Institute (New York), Brooklyn Institute, Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, etc. Articles and papers by him appeared in technical publications of the day, including the Electrical
(Photograph by The Johnstone Studio)
JOSEPH SACHS
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1
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World, Electrical Engineer, American Electrician, Electric Power, Cassier's Maga- zine and Harper's Weekly. Between 1895 and 1898 Mr. Sachs delivered many popular lectures on electrical topics through the free lecture system of the New York public schools and was a member of the faculty of the Electrical Engineers Institute (Cor- respondence Instruction). He was also on the editorial staff of the Electrical World, writing many articles on new plants and developments. During 1895-1899 he was associated with the municipal electrical inspection department of the city of New York, making extensive examinations, inspections, tests and reports on electrical installations. In 1896 Mr. Sachs made a pioneer investigation for Appleton's Ency- clopedia on motor vehicle development in the United States. These extensive papers, articles and lectures principally based on his engineering work, research, inventions and developments indicate that he had risen to a point of world wide authority upon such matters.
The exhaustive investigations and research in the several fields in which he worked as presented in his papers and writings have been most valuable contribu- tions to the literature and development of the electrical art. In 1900 he presented a paper, "Evolution of Safe and Accurate Fuse Protective Devices," before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and also in 1903 before the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. These were pioneer and basic presentations of his enclosed fuse research and invention. The importance of this contribution to the electrical industry is indicated in the award to him in 1903 (over other claimants) of the John Scott legacy medal by the Franklin Institute for his pioneer work and invention in electrical fuse protective devices.
In 1898 Mr. Sachs became associated with the Johns-Pratt Company, now the electrical division of Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, as consulting and chief engineer, and from that time to the present he has devoted most of his efforts to the development, manufacture, exploitation and sale of enclosed fuse protective devices, switches and other electrical accessories based on his own inventions. The Sachs Noark enclosed fuse was the pioneer of present universally used enclosed safety fuses, and the business which has been developed amounts to millions of dollars annually. For a long time the patented in- ventions of Mr. Sachs controlled this field and were the basis of the extensive busi- ness in electrical devices of the Johns-Pratt Company. However, the versatility of his work is indicated by the fact that in addition to the fields already mentioned he has been actively interested in the development of electrical appliances and equip- ment for motor vehicles and a wide variety of fittings used in electrical wiring and construction work.
His association with the Johns-Pratt Company, or its successor, Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, as consulting and chief engineer has been practically continuous from 1898 until 1928 with the exception of a few years fol- lowing 1905 when he was president and manager of the Sachs Company, working in the same field-fuse protective devices and accessories-and for a short period when he was vice president of the Sachs Laboratories, Incorporated, developing his various inventions in other fields. For more than thirty years his activities have been par- ticularly in the development and exploitation of his numerous and diversified inven- tions. Aside from his most notable achievements in the invention and development of electrical fuse protective devices, electrical switches and meter service installa- tions, his work includes electrical canal boat haulage, fire alarm systems, trolleyless electric railway, electric railway construction materials and fittings, electrical type- setting machines, electrical drive and control for motor vehicles, electric automobile accessories, particularly the extensively used electric primer. In the smaller things electrical his successful and largely used inventions include practically the entire gamut of the electrical accessory field-fuses, cutouts, snap switches, sockets, attach- ment plugs, time switches, safety enclosed switches, meter service installation devices, shade holders, lamp locks, magnet base portable and others.
Some ten years ago Mr. Sachs applied his inventive efforts and abilities to the development of safe protective electrical service equipment, providing central station and consumers with a complete service installation unit, which, in addition to the service controlling switch and cutout, combined in itself other essentials providing greater safety, operating efficiency and economy. This pioneer development has become the standardized practice with the great majority of electric light and power utilities throughout the United States, and millions of these so-called standardized
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protective meter service outfits are now in use. Closely related to this meter service installation development work is the so-called enclosed externally operated safety switch. The Sachs types of safety switches have been of considerable value in adding to the safety of electricity utilization.
Some concept as to the magnitude of Mr. Sachs' work as an inventor may be gathered from the fact that he has been granted more than one hundred and fifty United States patents covering inventions in the electric safety fuse and switch art and also nearly one hundred United States patents covering various other electrical inventions, making a total of nearly three hundred diversified United States patents during the past thirty years. At this writing Mr. Sachs has pending in the United States Patent Office nearly 100 separate applications for patents.
Mr. Sachs married (in New York city) Caroline Norman, June 5, 1895. They have a daughter and a son: Margaret N., now the wife of John Jackson Bissell, a son of Mrs. George Jackson Bissell of Pittsburgh, where they reside; and Kelvin N., who married Elizabeth Hatheway, daughter of Mrs. Curtis R. Hatheway, of Litch- field, Connecticut. The latter is still a resident of Hartford.
Mr. Sachs has made his home in Hartford since joining the Johns-Pratt Company in 1898. He is a member of the Hartford Club, The Hartford Golf Club, The Get- Together Club of Hartford, the Wampanoag Country Club, and the Church Club of Connecticut. He and his family are Episcopalians, being communicants of St. John's Episcopal church of Hartford, of which he is a vestryman. His political allegiance is always given to the republican party. While his business activities have made constant demand upon his time, he has yet found opportunity for active interest in civic affairs and endorses all measures of progressive citizenship. Aside from the previously mentioned connections, his interests have been in the line of manufacture and of technical and scientific investigation. He is a Fellow of the American Insti- tute of Electrical Engineers and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The National Electric Manufacturers' Association (active in standards and general work), and the Hartford Engineers' Club. Mr. Sachs' philosophy of his working life is summed up in the following: A belief in the bigness of little things on the theory that "trifles make perfection-but perfection is no trifle"; that suc- cessful engineering involves about ten per cent knowledge of engineering principles and ninety per cent application of practical common sense based upon experience; and he agrees with Edison that, contrary to the common belief, invention involves ten per cent inspiration and ninety per cent perspiration. He does not regard his own career as spectacular, but the world attests his outstanding ability and the excellence of his work. In the Electrical Industry, general engineering and business circles he is regarded as an authority on matters electrical and admired and honored for what he has accomplished.
GEORGE L. HUNT
George L. Hunt, general agent of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany at 805 Main street, Hartford, was born in Essex, Connecticut, May 25, 1889, and is a son of Gustavus S. and Ellen M. (Pratt) Hunt, who were likewise born in Essex. The father died when about thirty years of age.
After attending the public schools of his native village George L. Hunt con- tinued his studied at the Suffeld School of Suffield, Connecticut. After his textbooks were put aside he spent a short time in the employ of James A. Bill of the Springfield Knitting Company. Following the death of Mr. Bill in 1910 he removed to Hartford and secured a position as reporter on the Hartford Courant, remaining with that paper for about a year. He next acted as membership secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association until April, 1912, also as executive secretary for Connecticut of the Men and Religion Forward Movement and likewise did special writing for several publications. On the 1st of April, 1912, he became associated with the Phoenix Life Insurance Company as its agent in Hartford and so continued until July, 1913, when he became supervisor for the company in Connecticut and Rhode Island under the management of Clayton W. Wells, thus continuing until the fall of 1914. For five years thereafter he did special reorganization work for the Phoenix Mutual Company in the south, with headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia, and from
(Photograph by Marceau)
GEORGE L. HUNT
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1919 until 1921 acted as manager for the Phoenix Mutual at Cleveland, Ohio. In July of the latter year he became superintendent of agencies for the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, remaining with that corporation until March, 1924, when he returned to Hartford as general agent for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company, entering into active association with Lee C. Robens, who died about a year later. Mr. Hunt has since maintained the agency under his own name and has developed a business of substantial and gratifying proportions, having many representatives and doing a volume of business which makes his agency a valuable contributing factor to the prosperity of the parent organization. He is widely and favorably known in insurance circles and was chosen the first president of the Hart- ford Life Underwriters Association and also became president of the Connecticut Underwriters Association, in both of which he still holds membership.
On the 24th of March, 1920, Mr. Hunt was united in marriage to Miss Helen A. Kohn, of Albany, New York, a daughter of Henry H. Kohn, who for thirty years was general agent in that city for the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt have a daughter, Susan Roberts, born February 19, 1925, and they reside at No. 133 Westerly terrace. Mr. Hunt belongs to the Advertising Club, to the Rotary Club and along strictly social lines to the Hartford, Hartford City and Hartford Golf clubs. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and Mystic Shriner and is popular with his brethren of the fraternity, who find him a genial companion, while in all the circles in which he moves he is esteemed for his friendly disposition and unfeigned cordiality. He stands as a high type of the New England citizen, holding to the high standards and traditions of this section of the country and at the same time displaying in his life the spirit of modern progress.
JUDGE GEORGE H. DAY
Judge George H. Day, who has presided over the sessions of the city police court of Hartford from July, 1923, until October 1, 1927, when he resigned, and who since July 15, 1919, has been a member of the law firm of Shipman & Goodwin, was born September 22, 1891, in the city which is still his place of residence, his parents being George H. and Katharine (Beach) Day. The father, who was long a prom- inent and well known manufacturer here, departed this life November 11, 1907.
In the acquirement of his education Judge Day attended successively the public schools of Brooklyn, Connecticut, a private school, Hamlet Lodge and Pomfret School at Pomfret, Connecticut, where he remained as a student for six years. He thus qualified for advanced study in college and matriculated as a student in Yale Uni- versity as a member of the class of 1913 and at his graduation received the A. B. degree. He afterward spent one year as a student in the Yale Law School and then entered the Harvard Law School, being graduated in 1916 with the LL. B. degree. The same year he was admitted to the bar and then began practice by entering the law office of Bennett & Goodwin as a law clerk. He has remained with this well known and prominent firm ever since through its various changes in partnership and became a member of the firm on the 15th of July, 1919, the firm style remaining Shipman & Goodwin since that date. He has thus been closely connected with some of the most eminent members of the Hartford bar and through this association and the development of his powers has risen gradually in the field of law until his stand- ing today gives him a very gratifying place among Hartford's able attorneys. He belongs to the Hartford County Bar Association and in 1920 he was called to public office, being appointed prosecuting attorney for Hartford, whereupon he entered on a three years' term in that position. With his retirement in July, 1923, he was ap- pointed judge of the city police court and his service on the bench fully justified the confidence reposed in him by his colleagues and contemporaries, while the general public bore further testimony as to his uniform fairness and impartiality in his court rulings. His name also figures in business circles inasmuch as he is an officer and director in various corporations which feature in the material development of the city.
On the 18th of April, 1917, Mr. Day was married to Miss Grace Phelps Allen, a daughter of John Hall and Lillian (Denniston) Allen, of Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
ALBERT J. MIDDLEBROOK
(Photograph by Blank & Stoller)
LOUIS S. MIDDLEBROOK
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terminated his life on the 10th of March, 1927. He had worked his way steadily upward with the paper company through his capability and loyalty and enjoyed in full measure the confidence and respect of those whom he served.
Mr. Middlebrook belonged to the Yale Athletic Association and was a member of the baseball committee of the graduate board of control in 1921. He held mem- bership in St. John's Protestant Episcopal church in Bridgeport. At his passing it was written of him: "It is right and fitting to give tribute to a purposeful life, and the affection, admiration and respect that the character of Louis S. Middlebrook inspired. It represents the world's expression of appraising human sympathy and grief. But in the more intimate sense, in those feelings which lie far beyond the power of words to convey, and held sacred as a part of the spiritual nature with which we are endowed-from these well-springs that hold and, in a measure, assuage grief, there will continue to pour forth an agony of soul and a passionate resent- ment that the pathway ahead, ablaze with the joy and purposes and aspirations of life, should be obliterated by the great shadow. . It is not now the purpose to do more than to record the high esteem in which he was held, the great confidence that was reposed in his integrity and ability, and his broadening respon- sibilities. Rather it is now the purpose to speak of him in the intimacy of the friend- ship that developed through the years, to express the unbounded affliction felt by those who were associated with him and to convey to his surviving father and brothers our belief that the bonds of affection by which he held us makes our loss, with theirs, irreparable."
When one contemplates a career so full of promise suddenly cut short, there is a feeling that such ability must have its opportunity and that a life beyond must hold the chance for his purposes to reach their fulfillment, feeling, as James Whit- comb Riley has expressed it:
I cannot say, and I will not say That he is dead. He is just away! With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand He has wandered into an unknown land
And left us dreaming how very fair It needs must be, since he lingers there, And you-oh you, who the wildest yearn For the old-time step and the glad return
Think of him faring on, as dear In the love of There, as the love of Here.
Think of him still as the same, I say, He is not dead-he is just away.
WILLIAM CONVERSE SKINNER
When death called Colonel William Converse Skinner on March 22, 1922, there passed from the scene of earthly activities one who by right of honored family con- nection, of successful achievement and of high personal qualities deserved to be num- bered with the most valued and esteemed citizns of Hartford. As manufacturer and financier he exerted a marked influence over the business development of the city and his influence was equally marked in those fields of labor which make for civic standards and for the uplift of a community in intellectual and moral lines.
He was born in Malone, New York, January 26, 1855, his parents being Dr. Calvin and Jane (Blodgett) Skinner. Back of him was an ancestry honorable and distinguished. He was a direct descendant of Thomas Skinner, who came to America from England about 1650; of Samuel Roberts, an early settler of Stratford, Connecticut; of John and Priscilla (Mullens) Alden, of the Mayflower; of Deacon Edward Converse, of Charlestown and Woburn; of Sir Thomas Billing, of Rowell, England. His collateral lines are many, his membership in the Society of Colonial Wars being based on nine ancestors with seven additional lines, and admission to the Sons of the American Revolution was gained on the service of Calvin Skinner and five additional lines.
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Sergeant Thomas Skinner was born in England in 1617, and between the years 1649 and 1652 he came to America with his wife, Mary, and two sons, Thomas and Abraham. For a short time he kept an inn at Malden, Massachusetts, and in 1654 bought a lot of fifteen acres with house. He was admitted a freeman, May 18, 1633, and in 1680 was chosen selectman and given direct oversight of the town of Malden. He was made sergeant of the Malden Company of the First Regi- ment. His son, Abraham Skinner, born in Chichester, England, died in Malden prior to 1698 and his wife, Hannah, died January 14, 1725. He was in the Mount Hope campaign against the Indians in 1675 and was in the Narragansett fort in 1676. His son, Abraham Skinner (II), was born in Malden, April 8, 1681, and died in Wood- stock, Connecticut, December 24, 1776. In 1718 he married Tabitha Hills, who was born in Malden in 1690, and late in life they removed to Woodstock, Connecticut, where Tabitha Skinner died July 13, 1771. Their son, Deacon William Skinner, one of nine children, was born in Malden, Massachusetts, July 16, 1720, and died in Wood- stock, Connecticut, January 30, 1807, having removed with his parents to that city when a young man. In 1763 he was elected deacon of the South church and served with "singular discretion, wisdom and fidelity" for forty-three years. He participated in the siege of Louisburg in 1745 and in 1757 was commissioned ensign in the Fif- teenth Company, Eleventh Connecticut Regiment. He immediately responded to the Lexington Alarm and served in the Revolutionary war as a member of Captain Ephraim Manning's company in the Woodstock Militia and in Captain Paine's com- pany, Eleventh Regiment, Connecticut Militia. In 1744-45 he married Thankful Mascraft, who was born January 23, 1721, and died in Woodstock, April 16, 1805.
Their son, Calvin Skinner, great-grandfather of William C. Skinner of this review, was born at Woodstock, October 12, 1746, and died at Thompson, Connecticut, July 15, 1777, from fever contracted in the camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He was a private of Captain Joseph Elliott's company, Killingly (Conn.) Militia, march- ing on the Lexington Alarm in April, 1775, and a corporal in Lieutenant Paine Con- verse's company, Eleventh Regiment, Connecticut Militia. He served in the vicinity of New York and entered upon the memorable winter spent by General Washington's army at Valley Forge, there remaining until stricken with fever. He was married February 12, 1775, at Thompson, Connecticut, to Eleanor Porter, who was born there March 19, 1753, and died at Royalton, Vermont, September 15, 1813.
Their two children were Sally and Calvin Skinner. The latter was born No- vember 23, 1777, after his father's death, and died at Royalton, Vermont, August 23, 1843, having removed thither with his mother and stepfather, Lieutenant Zebulon Lyon. The careful management of his business affairs brought him success. In 1809 Lieutenant Lyon deeded him a large farm on White River in Royalton, since known as the Skinner homestead. He was married November 13, 1803, to Sally Billings, who died in Royalton, April 25, 1850. They were loyal members of the Congregational church and their lives were an inspiration to those who knew them. This worthy couple had ten children.
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