A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 40

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273

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TUFFER'S Proverbial Philosophy.

It is a trite saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Perhaps the very necessities which confronted the pioneers of this country, and which have met us frequently in the progress of our civilization, have called forth the creative facul- ties, and stimulated that inventive genius which is a peculiarity of the American citizen. But ne- cessity can hardly account for the fact that the people both north and south of our national border do not manifest such inventive genius. Their necessities have been as great as ours but they are far behind us with their inventions. Be the cause what it may, the United States leads the world in this respect.

The people of LaPorte county have manifested something of the inventive genius which is pecu- liar to the nation, a few instances of which may be mentioned. In 1840 Mr. Thomas C. Reynolds of Westville invented a self-propeller attachment to a steam engine. He was born in Wayne county, Indiana, June 16, 1827. His parents were Levi and Hannah Reynolds of North Carolina and Tennessee, respectively. He was reared on a farm and educated in a subscription school which was taught in "a log shanty" with slab benches for seats. Mr. Reynolds became a watchmaker and engine repairer. In the days when the individual was a general manufacturer Mr. Reynolds would

make nearly ten watches a year on an average for several years. He came to this county with his parents in 1833, at a time when five hundred In- dians were camped at Petro's grove, near the present town of Westville.

In the summer of 1845 Mr. E. Owen of La- Porte, patented and manufactured a ditching ma- chine. A cut of this machine occupied half a newspaper page and was a very impressive object. The inventor informed the agricultural community generally that his machine was in successful oper- ation, to which he invited the attention of all having marsh or wet lands to drain dry, prairie to fence, and hedge, dyke or mill races to build. He described the necessity and importance of his machine, and was well aware of the imposition often practiced upon the people by patents ; but his machine was an exception to this and those in- terested were invited to come and see it work. It would cut a ditch of any desired length, deep or shallow, in any land where a plow could be used.

It is said that John S. Fosdick, for many years a dentist of wide and favorable reputation, living in LaPorte, in an early day invented a gun which was very like the Gatling gun so famous at the present time. Dr. Fosdick was a very ingenious man, the son of George and Mary (Strong) Fos-

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dick, of Massachusetts and Virginia. They came west in 1830 and settled in Niles, Michigan, and in 1836 removed to LaPorte county, located in Coolspring township, and engaged in farming. Dr. Fosdick early devoted himself to the study and practice of dentistry. He made some pro- gress in the study of general medicine and at- tended a medical college for that purpose, but abandoned it for dentistry. He became eminent in his profession.

The famous McCormick reaper and binder is said to have had its origin in LaPorte county. Mr. Jacob J. Mann was carrying on a country wagon and blacksmith shop in Westville in 1848. His son, Henry F. Mann, had learned the wagon- maker's trade with his father. Together they in- vented the sickle in sections, but McCormick got hold of the invention, there was trouble between McCormick and the Manns on account of it, and this trouble on one occasion took Hon. C. H. Cathcart to Washington on behalf of the Manns. The Mann harvesting machine was first manu- factured in 1848, at which time application was made for a patent which was granted on June 19, 1849. In that year ten of the machines were made, and put in operation during harvest time, but they had defects which it was necessary to overcome. This occupied the minds of the inventors until 1853, when they made another machine embracing many improvements for which they filed a caveat. In 1855 they made application for a second pat- ent which was granted to J. J. and H. F. Mann on June 3, 1856. The improved machine was exhibited at the Indiana State Fair held at La- fayette in 1853, and was looked upon with so much favor by the farmers and examining committee that it was awarded the first premium, though there were several popular machines competing with it.

The inventors and patentees of this valuable machine encountered many difficulties, but they succeeded in manufacturing quite a number of their machines for each harvest, and also in hav- ing them made by other parties, among whom was John D. Stewart, of LaPorte. Within twenty years about two thousand of these machines were made and put into use in the harvest field. The Mann harvesting machine was put in competition with others at fairs on many a hotly contested field trial, and almost always came off with the

highest honors. In 1857 Mr. Henry Mills of Noble township invented the binding car attach- ment to the Mann reaper, for riding and binding, which invention came into almost universal use. on reaping machines.

In 1857 we find advertised in LaPorte, H. F. Mann's Great Western Iron Mower. The adver- tisement contained a cut of the machine, which looked very much like those of the present day. It was claimed that the machine was compact, durable, not likely to get out of repair, and of light draft, being for two horses. The frame work was of wrought iron, the drive wheel was four feet in diameter, it was furnished with two sickles, one smooth and one with serrated edge, having three extra sections for each, either of which could. be used as the grass to be cut required. There- were also three extra guards and one extra small pinion furnished. The cash price was $100, and the usual guarantee was furnished. On June 24,. 1857, this machine had a public test near West- ville. The grass chosen was light, short and difficult to cut but the mower did exceedingly clean work. There is a long list of the names of influential men in the county who witnessed this trial and gave the machine their approval.

Jacob J. Mann passed away in the early part of 1868 at Westville. His son, however,. remained in the county for several years and plied his inventive genius, and in 1876 we find him in Pittsburg still studying to improve agricultural machinery and engaged in developing a com- bined two-wheeled mower and harvester upon which the binders could ride and bind.

The invention of a fanning mill by a worthy citizen brought an industry to LaPorte. About the year 1858 Ellis Michael, then at the head of the construction department in the Lake Shore Railroad shops, realizing the possibilities of a device that would separate the grain from the- chaff after it was flailed, invented what is now the Michael fanning mill. He commenced the con- struction of these machines in the woodshed in the rear of the little house at the corner of Monroe and Ludlow streets, making them entirely by hand. He retained his situation with the railroad com- pany, using only his spare time in the new busi- ness. He would make a couple of mills and then take them himself to some little town and sell them, from which he procured the money to make.

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other machines. In this manner he began the every little while and clean off the earth sticking business which years after made him a wealthy man. Slowly but surely he worked his way to the front. With perseverance and strict economy he placed himself on a sure footing. P. G. Winn was made a partner, and one horse furnished the power to manufacture the machines. E. F. Michael soon purchased Mr. Winn's interest and the firm name became E. Michael & Company. Ellis Michael afterwards sold a portion of his interest to Henry Sands and the institution, which had now assumed large proportions, was incorporated in 1887 under the name of the E. F. Michael Company. On January 1, 1897, Charles H. Michael succeeded to the control of the entire business. He has im- proved the machine and enlarged the manufac- turing plant. It is marvellous how thoroughly his mills will separate different kinds of grain from each other, and all grains from the chaff, chess, etc. In 1903 Mr. C. H. Michael was granted a patent on an adjustable chair.

There are many other patents on agricultural machines and implements which have been granted to citizens of LaPorte county. Indeed, the Rumely company have taken out so many patents that it would be next to impossible to give an account of them in a chapter like this. This is almost certain to be the case with a large manu- facturing plant like that of the Rumely company or the Haskell & Barker Car Company. From time to time improvements are made, or new things invented, which it is considered necessary or wise to cover with patents, and this is accord- ingly done.

Soon after the death of David Bradley, founder of the great agricultural manufacturing company located now near Kankakee, Illinois, a writer in a newspaper said: "While visiting Jack Spiller's famous farm in Newton county, Indiana, he wit- nessed the trial of a Bradley plow. It was repre- sented that the new fangled implement would scour, and the trial drew a crowd from miles around. Much to the delight of the farmers pres- ent, the plow did the work as represented, and they imagined that the zenith of agricultural implement invention had been reached. Up to this time no manufacturer had succeeded in making a plow that would scour in heavy black or clay soil." This must have been about the year 1850. Before that time the plowmen were compelled to stop

on the mold-board, either with the heel or better with a little paddle which they carried for the purpose. It was a great change when they began to hold plows that would throw off all the black soil and remain bright and clean. But the changes were as great with other implements, and though not instantaneous they came very rapidly. At first it was necessary to beat out wheat and oats with flails, or tread it out on smooth ground floors with oxen or horses in the oriental style, but threshing machines came to the farms almost before the railroads and all this was changed. It was necessary to clean out the chaff by throw- ing the grain up into the air and letting the wind blow the chaff away, but fanning mills came into use and one was needed on every farm. Next came the separator machines. In each July many laborers would go to the great grain fields on Door Prairie, where a good cradler would receive often $2 per day for his work, and from three to four acres was considered a good day's work. But the mowing and reaping machines came. They were unloaded from the cars and taken out to the farms, and men no longer swung the cradles hour after hour and day after day. At length came that triumph of human invention, the great har- vesting machine, cutting the grain, raking it. into bundles, binding those bundles and dropping them in the field, all done by a machine drawn by horses driven by a rider. At first people traveled on horseback or in ox wagons, then in larger two- horse farm wagons. Then came buggies and car- riages, and men trained their horses to the harness instead of to the saddle. In later years the farmers had good covered carriages, so that the most stylish carriage of the millionaire was but little in advance of the vehicles used by many well-to-do citizens. And as LaPorte county is the oldest, the most populous, and the wealthiest of the northwestern counties, here as might be ex- pected costly carriages made their appearance first. Is not the present time better than the good old days?

Mr. Lewis H. Wilkinson, son of Lewis A. Wilkinson of Scipio township, was also an inven- tor. He was educated in LaPorte, married Miss Elizabeth A. Rice, a school teacher, was engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements at Michigan City and LaPorte, was afterwards in

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the employ of the Champion Machine Company of Springfield, Ohio, as their traveling salesman in the southern states, and was the patentee of an improved cultivator which was manufactured for a time in Kankakee, Illinois, after breaking up the inventor and his father.

Mr. Antipas J. Bowell invented a rotary steam engine, and a power for churning, etc. This consisted of a tilted disk outside of the kitchen, from which by a belt the power was transmitted to the churn inside. The disk turned by the weight of an animal, which must walk or hang by the rope with which it was tied. Sheep were tried, but the creature would lie down and bleat. Then dogs were used; and it is said that every heavy dog in the community learned to run away when headed for the churn.

Mr. Edward Dolman, of Wanatah, has pat- ented a middlings purifier, and has invented other flouring appliances not patented.

Even if this were all there is to tell of the in- ventions of LaPorte county, it must be seen that they have had no little influence on the industries of the country. But this is not all. In 1861 Mr. H. F. Mann, then of LaPorte, invented a breech- loading rifle cannon which was then regarded as a wonderful thing. He made arrangements at Pittsburg to have a gun manufactured of cast steel, five and a half feet long, and with a three- inch bore, which would do some fast shooting. The gun was completed and submitted to the au- thorities at Washington. The inventor claimed that it was superior to the Whitworth and the Armstrong guns. Steps were immediately taken to secure the patent in this country, which was soon issued. This gun was a small affair, requir- ing but half an ounce of powder to a charge, and throwing but a twelve ounce ball, but it was of extraordinary range; it threw a ball easily two miles, which was then considered a great distance. It was submitted to the officers of the ordnance bureau at Washington for trial 'and inspection, and among others who examined it was Captain Rodman, the inventor of the celebrated Rodman gun. He was highly pleased with it, and advo- cated that guns of a larger calibre be made on the same principle. The trial of the gun was very satisfactory, the government desired a trial of a larger piece of the same kind, and Mr. Mann re- turned to Pittsburg to have one made. Singer,

Ninick & Company, the manufacturers of the first gun, were applied to again and they soon cast a steel ingot for a field piece of about nine hundred pounds, and the gun was soon completed. It was nine and a half feet long and shone like a mirror. Its diameter at the muzzle was five and a quarter inches and at the breach eight and three- quarters inches. Its weight was nine hundred and seventy pounds and the diameter of the bore was three inches, and rifled. The casting was without a flaw, which was then very difficult to ac- complish. The gun required a charge of three- fourths of a pound of powder and fired an eight pound ball. The arrangement for loading was very simple and perfect. It was impossible for it to become foul or get out of order. It could be discharged thirty times a minute, or faster than it could be served. The advantages claimed for it were great range compared with its weight, rapidity of firing, and nonliability to get out of order. Its great strength was derived from its being cast steel. This material was one hundred and forty-seven thousand pounds to thirty-two thousand pounds of the ordinary gun metal. The new piece was tried in Pittsburgh with the ordi- nary trial charge-one and one-half pounds of powder and an eleven pound ball, and stood the test well. Another trial was made in the same place to test the power of the shot on iron plates, and the trial was very satisfactory. The follow- ing week the gun was taken to Washington for trial there. One test was made on July 24, 1862, of which the Washington Republican of July 25 speaks as follows :

"Yesterday afternoon, in company with Miles Greenwood, Esq., the eminent iron manufacturer of Cincinnati, and H. F. Mann, Esq., of Indiana, we had a delightful ride to the eastern branch of the Potomac where we spent an hour on the gov- ernment experimental battery grounds witnessing the rigid tests to which various siege guns and field pieces are subjected. These grounds are lo- cated at the foot of the grand avenue, on the bank of the river, where several small buildings have been erected with earth thrown up around them, and in which the guns are placed and their charges fired into the deep bank on the opposite side of a small ravine. They are being tested by naval officers under the direction of Captain Dahlgreen of the navy.

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"We were much pleased with the new, breech- loading, rifled, eight-pound gun invented and patented by H. F. Mann, Esq., of LaPorte, In- diana, and manufactured at Pittsburg. It is made of steel, about 6 feet in length, 3-inch bore, and requires 3-4 of a pound of powder to throw a projectile of 8 pounds.

"We understand its range and accuracy were tested at the navy yard and found to be all right. It is now undergoing the further ordeal of firing 1000 rounds (353 having been fired), with a view of testing the endurance of the gun, of which there seems to be no doubt. Guns of the largest calibre can be made on the same principle."

The result of the trial was that Mr. Mann ob- tained an order from the government for an eight- inch rifle cannon of the same kind, which was completed at Trenton, New Jersey, in September, 1863, and was fired ten proof rounds in the fol- lowing October. It was then removed to Wash- ington, and thence to Fortress Monroe, where it was fired twenty rounds in 1864, and in 1867 was again successfully tested under the direction of General Rodman, chief ordnance constructor of the government. In the early part of 1874, at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Mann, the gun was removed to the West Point foundry, where it was bored up to eight and four-tenths inches and rifled, after which it was taken to the government proving grounds at Sandy Hook in New York harbor where it was tested under the direction of a board of ordnance officers with very satisfactory results, using twenty-five to thirty-five pounds of powder, and one hundred and seventy pound con- ical projectiles. The results obtained compared · favorably with results obtained in this country and in Europe with government guns of the best standards.

During the Civil war, when sugar was so high in price and the farmers were raising and experi- menting with sorghum as a substitute, and when also great quantities of maple sugar were made, a very useful and necessary invention was put upon the market by Mr. A. H. Miller called the Rotary Sugar Evaporator. Wherever this invention was used and its practical workings observed, it gave great satisfaction and was pronounced superior to any other ; and even in Illinois where Cook's evaporator was invented and where the proprie- tors lived, Miller's took the precedence. Mr.

Miller also did more than any other man to dis- cover a process of refining sorghum syrup, and was more successful than others in his experi- ments and inventions in that direction.

The Brooks turbine water wheel was invented in 1854. Improvements were made upon it from time to time by E. B. Brooks and his brothers, and in 1871 M. A. Brooks took out a patent for an improved water wheel. The first one was made in LaPorte by Brooks & Husselman. These wheels were afterwards manufactured at the machine works of J. N. Brooks and have been very extensively used in the west.

In the year 1859 George W. Miles, of Michi- gan City, invented a Felloe Bending Machine which was afterwards used in the LaPorte wheel factory and was improved by that concern.

In 1872 W. W. Smith, of LaPorte, invented and manufactured a very ingenious machine for the shaving of spokes. This was used by the LaPorte Wheel Company.

In the seventies Mr. George F. Smith, of Michigan City, invented and patented a refrigera- tor, and the Smith Refrigerator and Manufact- uring Company was organized in that city, of which Mr. Smith was vice-president and general superintendent. The company had four large two-story buildings, employed scores of hands and did a thriving business. The refrigerator was constructed on high scientific principles, it was a perfect dry-air cooler, and the demand for it was so great that the company could not keep up with their orders. Mr. Smith became the author of a number of valuable inventions, among which was a mortise slide gauge.

The LaPorte Herald of April 19, 1862, has the following: "We have seen a musical novelty at the melodeon manufactory of Mr. Nichols in this city, containing rare qualities. Mr. Nichols has just completed an invention which will add well earned laurels to his reputation as a manufacturer, already as extensive as any man need desire. It is put up in a compact and neatly arranged case and affords greater extremes of power and quali- fications than we ever before heard in an instru- ment made with reeds."

In January of the present year the newspapers contained a notice of the death of J. G. W. Ro- mans, of Weymouth, Massachusetts. He was formerly a resident of LaPorte county and visited

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here the year before his death. He lived in Door Village, where he leaves many friends. He was a natural mechanic, having worked as finisher in the car factory at Michigan City and in Chicago before going east, where he had charge of the erection of hotels, paper mills and other import- ant buildings. During his leisure he applied him- self to the study of electricity, in which he became both practical and thorough. He was a noted inventor, and among the products of his fertile brain were a vending machine, the center square for mechanics, a railroad signal and a weighing machine, completed a short time before his death.

Mr. Romans was born in Ohio, July 14, 1849, and came with his parents to this county when quite young. At the age of twenty-five he went to Boston and after a few years went to live in Maine. He was married at Lewiston, Maine, in 1879 to Augusta Horne, and soon after went to Weymouth, Massachusetts, which afterwards was their home. Mr. Romans died at his home at Elmwood Park of valvular disease of the heart. He left a wife and two children, a son, Charles W., and a daughter, Mrs. Lena M. Semple.

The Michigan City News of January 12, 1904, contained the following :

"The incandescent gas burner invented by C. A. Bluhm, of this city, and on which a patent was recently granted, promises to become extremely popular with consumers of gas for illuminating purposes throughout the United States. Mr. Bluhm, G. S. Van Deusen and Charles Rozean, of this city, have formed a distributing company, which will be known as C. A. Bluhm & Company, and which will be the sole handler of the new burner. The Burnham Manufacturing Company of Connecticut will manufacture the new burner, the first consignment of which will be placed on the market within a few days. The Bluhm burner is an improvement over the Welsbach burner in many respects. The adjustment is far superior to that of the Welsbach burner, a better light is produced and less gas is burned ; a ten-cent man- tel will last three times longer on a Bluhm burner than a forty-cent mantle will last on a Welsbach burner. The new burner has been tested in Chicago and several other large cities of the United States and has given entire satisfaction, and already there is a great demand for the article."

Recently Mr. Fred S. Whipple, dispatcher at Michigan City for the Michigan Central Railroad, has invented a switch heater, a practical test of which was made in that city on Sunday, January IO, at a split switch east of the drawbridge. The test was thorough and the device accomplished all that was expected of it and even more. A patent heating device has long been needed in places like this, where cold and snow storms hinder the operation of switches and require large forces of men with shovels to keep them open, and the wonder is that no one thought of such an inven- tion as Mr. Whipple's before this time. The heater is a simple metal box which is placed be- tween two adjacent ties under the switch rails. Its length is somewhat more than the width of the track. Within it are two gasoline burners which are fed from a tank that stands near the switch target. The heat from the box melts the snow as rapidly as it falls, so that the switches can not be- come clogged with snow or ice. One of the chief features of the device is that there is a drainage system connected with it by which the water is carried away as rapidly as it is formed from the snow. The top of the box is dished, so the water passes along to the ends, where it is carried into the ground below the front line and is there ab- sorbed. The switch is thus always dry and free to be operated. During heavy snow storms the railroad companies have to employ an army of men along the route to keep the split switches clear. The force employed is in addition to the regular section and yard forces; but with the invention of Mr. Whipple all the switches in a yard can be cared for by one man. It would only be necessary for him to light his burners and then proceed to some other occupation. The cost of running the device is only a cent an hour and the heater has commended itself to practical railroad men.

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A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana, Part 40

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1273

Author: Rev. E. D. Daniels
Publication date: 1904
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1273