USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 25
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At the age of twenty David Brooks left college and took a position as Instruc- tor of Mathematics in the United States Navy. In 1845 he left the service and engaged with his friend, Henry O'Reilly, in the construction of telegraph lines. He was one of those present when the first telegraph poles were erected in Philadelphia in front of the old Nelson House at Broad and Willow streets, and was connected with the putting in operation, December 25, 1845, in conjunction with James D. Reid, of the first commercial line in America, and, in fact, the first telegraph line in this country erected after the success of the original line between Baltimore and Washington had been established. It was built between Lan- caster and Harrisburg, Pa., and the first message over it was received by him. It was, in fact, the first telegraphic message sent in Pennsylvania, and was, it is believed, the first sent in the country outside of those transmitted over the government experimental line between Baltimore and Washington; and ever since then he has wielded a large influence in the telegraphic affairs of this country.
In 1846 Mr. Brooks constructed the line of the Atlantic and Ohio Company between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, a distance of three hundred and sixty miles, and sent the first message, December 25, 1846, across the Alleghenies from the latter to the former city. In 1847 he constructed the first " repeater," known as the button repeater, based upon the Morse idea of the second or local circuit. This was used at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the transmission of the speech of Henry Clay, delivered at Lexington, Ky., on the Mexican war. The report of that speech was carried by an express, which consisted of relays of horses, to Cincinnati, and was transmitted thence by telegraph to New York for the New York Herald, and was considered a remarkable feat in those days. The arrange- ment of the repeaters, and Mr. Brooks' connection with the work, brought his name prominently into notice in telegraphic circles.
Mr. Brooks had an early partial conception, though not a complete under- standing, of Ohm's law-that fundamental equation from which all electrical problems are determined. The line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was often broken by falling trees. The insulator used was simply a trough or groove
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of glass on the top of a pole; there was no fastening of the wire to the insulator. Whenever the line broke the wire would slip back each way and lie upon the earth, thus grounding the current. The strength of the current he found to be inversely in proportion to the distance from the break, and by that means he formed an approximate idea of the location of the interruption.
In 1850 Mr. Brooks was appointed by the United States Court as an expert to give a written description of the Morse and Bains systems of telegraphy, and in the voluminous reports of the attendant trial his statements and opinions are repeatedly cited.
In 1851 Mr. Brooks sailed for Mexico in the bark " Rosina," taking with him men, materials and instruments for the construction of the first telegraph line in that country between Vera Cruz and the City of Mexico. This work was accomplished during the ensuing six months. There was then no railroad in that country, and the construction party were obliged to live in tents in their passage over the Cordilleras. Upon his return from Mexico, in the spring of 1852, he was employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in the construc- tion and management of their telegraph lines between Philadelphia and Pitts- burgh. In 1854 he was made Superintendent and Manager of the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph lines. This company was absorbed by the Western Union in 1862, and Mr. Brooks was appointed District Superintendent of that company at Philadelphia, which position he held until 1867, when he resigned, and has since then devoted himself almost exclusively to the development of his inventions.
After several unsatisfactory attempts Mr. Brooks introduced an insulator which bore his name, and which was, after many severe tests, found to be excellent and was largely used. The visit of Cromwell F. Varley, the English electrician, however, and the care he induced in reducing the resistance of the wires by careful selection of material and perfect joints, greatly removed the difficulty of insulation, and the simple glass insulator, "double-petticoated," as it is called, has become all but universal.
Mr. Brooks has latterly devoted his attention to underground telegraphs, and has visited Europe several times to investigate the result of methods in vogue there. His system consists chiefly in the use of oil in the thorough saturation of cables, and it has been successfully employed in connection with the telephones of New York. In the centre of the city a cable containing four hundred wires, so fine that they are enclosed in a diameter of 178 of an inch, has been laid in iron pipes two thousand four hundred and eighty feet in length, of an inside diameter 2 1% inches, and filled and saturated with oil, which have been for some time in suc- cessful use. Within a half mile eight hundred separate circuits have been thus established. Mr. Brooks is President of two underground telegraph companies, and is a Director in a third.
C. R. D.
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CYRUS CHAMBERS, JR.
C YRUS CHAMBERS, JR., notable for his career as a successful inventor and in the practical walks of business, is a native of Chester county, Pa., having been born near Kennett Square in 1833. His fondness for machinery, exhibited in early boyhood, was fostered by the surroundings of his father's woollen mill, where he commenced a career of usefulness as a bobbin boy at an early age. Having access to the repair shop and such tools as it contained, a profusion of wind-mills, water-wheels and a complete working model of his father's fulling mill, constructed by him without assistance or instruction, attested the good use of his spare hours in his chosen field, and demonstrated his possession of an inherent and natural talent for mechanics. Many practical lessons in the prin- ciple of steam-engineering were obtained through the construction of several miniature steam-engines, and when but about sixteen years of age he made a complete working high-pressure beam-engine, constructed principally of gold and silver. The engine, boiler, stack and plate on which the whole rests weighed less than one-half ounce, and when exhibited at the Sanitary Fair, held in Logan Square, Philadelphia, in 1864, was believed to be the smallest working steam- engine in the world.
At the earnest solicitation of his family he had shortly before this engaged in the study of dentistry with his elder brother, Edwin, but the desire and longing to build machinery was ever dominant, and about the second year of his profes- sional study the invention of what is now known in the book and newspaper world as Chambers' Folding Machine was conceived. This production proved to be the basis of the business of the firm of Chambers Brothers & Co., of Phila- delphia, of which Mr. Cyrus Chambers, Jr., has been sole proprietor since the death of his elder brother in 1875.
Many difficulties were encountered in the introduction of this new machine at a time when labor-saving appliances were regarded with less favor than now, but surmounting all these the first one produced was finally put in practical operation at the Bible-printing establishment of Jasper Harding & Son. Mr. Chambers built it with his own hands, having made the larger part of the lathe on which the work was turned, using for his forge his mother's cooking stove.
Experience with this machine proved the entire practicability of the invention, and associating with him his brother Edwin, under the above-mentioned firm- name, they rented a fifth-story room on Pemberton Court, Philadelphia, with one-horse power, purchased such tools as they thought adapted to their wants and limited capital, and commenced the manufacture of book-folding machines.
While the firm was still young and engaged in the development of Mr. Cham- bers' invention, expensive patent suits were brought against them, one case extending over eight years. But strong in their conviction of right, and encour-
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aged by the many good friends they had made, the case was closely contested under the guidance of wise counsel and good expert testimony, and was finally decided in their favor. Their machine had, in the meantime, been perfected, and was gradually being adopted by leading binders and publishing houses.
Having, meanwhile, undertaken in addition to making their folding machine the manufacture of sewing machines by contract, their increasing business demanded larger and more convenient quarters, and in the fall of 1860 they established themselves in the Sherman building at the south-west corner of Seventh and Cherry streets. Then came the trying times immediately preceding the war of the rebellion. Mr. Conger Sherman, their landlord, whose confidence and esteem they had won, urged them to engage in the manufacture of arms, promising such financial assistance as the new departure might require. The ingenuity of the Quaker-bred mechanic was found ready and equal to this call, and soon machinery was devised and the establishment actively engaged in manufacturing cavalry scabbards and in the conversion of old-fashioned flint-lock muskets into modern percussion guns, and thus doing its part towards assisting the sorely-pressed Government in equipping the defenders of the Union with needed arms and accoutrements.
Cyrus Chambers, Jr., possessed of the true inventor's mind that does not rest with the successful accomplishment of one enterprise or idea, had been at work upon a machine for the manufacture of building-bricks, and, after a well-systema- tized series of experiments had been conducted, this new invention was put into practical operation. The field was a broad one. It was one in which large sums had been sunk in unsuccessful experiments, and from which many inventors had turned away disheartened. The Chambers Brick Machine was so radically different from other efforts in this line of invention that Mr. Chambers' original patents were granted without a reference or a single word of correction or abridgment of his claims-a record almost unparalleled.
The development and general introduction into commercial use of these two inventions has been pre-eminently Mr. Chambers' life-work, although numerous other less prominent devices have been perfected by him occupying widely different fields. The same excellent mechanical construction, careful, minute study of the requirements and indomitable perseverance have been exercised in perfecting each of these various inventions, and won for the machines thus pro- duced acknowledged positionsas the best of their classes. At the same time he has built up a prosperous manufacturing business which disburses large sums annually among Philadelphia's industrial classes, and demonstrated that he possesses that attribute so rare with the inventor-practical business capacity.
The firm made the final location of their works at Fifty-second street, near Lancaster avenue, in West Philadelphia, where, in 1871, they purchased about three acres of ground and erected thereon extensive buildings, fitting them with the best tools procurable for their especial business.
The Chambers Book-Folding Machine has long been an acknowledged neces-
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sity in all large publishing houses, and is a prominent feature in the binderies of those firms noted for fine work. The recognition of its merits has not been confined to the United States, for they have been introduced into the establish- ments of English, French and German publishers. The introduction of his folding and pasting machine, by means of which sixteen and eight-paged papers were not only folded, but had their leaves pasted in place at the back, thus enabling subscribers to receive their papers in convenient form for reading, marked a distinctive departure in the publishing of periodicals and the abolish- ment of large, cumbersome sheets.
In the introduction of the brick machine Mr. Chambers has had to combat not only the usual antipathy to new machines and processes of manufacture, but also the distrust on the part of the brick manufacturers engendered by the failure of other machines intended to do away with the laborious task of tempering and moulding bricks by hand. Recognizing from the beginning that different clays required different treatment, and that a process entirely successful in one locality and in one nature of material, would not answer at all in another, great care has been exercised in the placing of his machines, and would-be purchasers, attracted by the seemingly perfect working machines, have been counseled by him against its purchase or adoption when he deemed it unsuited for use in their clay. This has resulted in making the Chambers Brick Machine universally successful wher- ever used, and caused its general adoption by the brick manufacturers of promi- nence in any city where it has been introduced. In Philadelphia, a city remark- able for the number of houses constructed of brick, probably two-thirds of the entire supply of common brick are made on the Chambers machine, while in Chicago their output, commencing a few years ago at thirty-five thousand bricks per day, is now about one million five hundred thousand per day. Each year has witnessed marked changes and improvements suggested by a careful observ- ance of the machine in different clays, and is resulting in a much more extended use of the Chambers process than was at one time deemed possible.
Mr. Chambers' marked success in the tempering and moulding of brick only served to spur him to further accomplishment in this field of invention, and his attention was next turned to the operation of drying bricks preparatory to their being placed in the kiln for burning. In this department of brick manufacture great progress has been made within the past three years, and a system of drying- tunnels has been perfected by him whereby the bricks may be dried ready for burning in from sixteen to twenty-four hours, according to the nature of the clay. It is only by considering the very different circumstances under which the brick manufacture of to-day is conducted compared with the industry twenty-five years ago, that the great value of Mr. Chambers' inventions and processes may be estimated.
ยท An article of universal consumption, the use of which is identical with our earliest civilization, had been permitted to drift along in its various operations of manufacture very much as described in Biblical history. The work was per-
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formed almost entirely by manual labor, and of necessity practically out-of-doors, exposed to all the inclemencies and interruptions of bad weather, which circum- stance alone more than doubled the work and rendered large losses unavoidable. Through Mr. Chambers' ingenuity and persistent effort this has all been changed and, in fact, a complete revolution has been effected thereby. The work may now be conducted under cover as a regularly systematized manufacturing busi- ness at all seasons of the year, and without regard to the condition of the weather, whereas, in former times, if the sun did not shine brickmakers could not work, and operations are now accomplished within twenty-four hours with great advantage to the quality of the product that formerly required from one to two weeks for their completion.
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F. GUTE-UNST.
THILA.
WILLIAM FRISHMUTH.
WILLIAM FRISHMUTH.
C OL. WILLIAM FRISHMUTH, a prominent chemist, was born in the year 1830, at Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Germany. From his sixth to his tenth year he went to a public school in the city of Gotha, and then to the High School, called "Gymnasium Ernestinum," in the same city. After that he studied chemistry at Saxe-Weimar, and then spent one year under the tuition of Prof. F. Waehler, an eminent chemist in Germany, now deceased. After completing his studies as a practical chemist he determined to travel extensively over the world, and emigrated to the United States, of which country he became a citizen. Here he devoted his time to chemistry; but, after remaining in New York about six months, he sailed to Central America. Arriving at Chagres he travelled across the Isthmus of Panama with the intention of going to California, but, becoming sick with the Isthmus fever, he returned from Panama to Chagres, now Aspin- wall, and after recovering went thence to Cuba. Leaving there he visited Jamaica and San Domingo, and from there went in a sailing vessel to South America, stopping at Rio Janiero, Brazil, and thence around Cape Horn to Val- paraiso, Chili, and to Peru. From there he returned in a sailing vessel around Cape Horn to New York after an absence of two years. He remained in that city for a while, devoting his attention to chemistry, until he was induced to migrate to the New England States, through which he travelled extensively, remaining a short time in various cities and towns, until 1855, when he came to Philadelphia, where he has ever since had his residence. Here he has mostly applied himself to the study and practice of chemistry, particularly devoting his attention to the production of sodium, potassium, aluminium and other metals, this line of investigation being his favorite branch of the science. He produced rare and alkaline metals from 1856 to 1859, making in that time one hundred and forty-two pounds of sodium, twenty-two pounds of potassium, and about thirty pounds of aluminium, a greater quantity than any other chemist in the United States, which he sold for very high prices for experimental purposes. He devoted his entire attention to chemistry until 1860, when he engaged in politics and became a bitter opponent of slavery. He took a very active part as an anti-slavery man, became a strong adherent of the Republican party, and has remained a consistent member of it up to the present date.
During Abraham Lincoln's first campaign for the Presidency he travelled through portions of the States of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Massa- chusetts, addressing the German citizens from the stump, and he became intimately acquainted with Mr. Lincoln. The latter liked him so well that he urged him to accompany him to Washington to witness his inauguration, which he did.
When the war broke out he received an appointment as a special secret agent from the War Department by personal request from Mr. Lincoln to Gen. Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War. He performed his duties to the benefit of his
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adopted country and the satisfaction of his superiors in the War Department. He had very dangerous and difficult duties to perform, frequently at the imminent risk of his life, in detecting spies and ferreting out other traitors against the Union. In 1861 he detected and captured three desperate characters who were acting as spies upon the government, near Roach's Mill, Va., after a diligent, scrutinizing and life-endangering search for them. For this service Mr. Lincoln rewarded him with $200 in gold from his private purse, and gave him permission to raise a regiment of cavalry for active service in the army. With the sanction of Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, he raised the Twelfth Pennsylvania Volun- teer Regiment of Cavalry, which was accepted by President Lincoln ; but some trouble occurred with minor officers in the regiment, which it is not necessary to mention here, and he resigned his commission as Colonel. He immediately received from President Lincoln a reappointment as a special secret agent, and served in that capacity to the close of the war.
After the war he studied law with C. N. Sidebotham, Esq., and was appointed a Commissioner of Deeds by Gov. Marcus L. Ward, of New Jersey, and also received a commission as Notary Public from Governor Geary, of Pennsylvania. From the latter he also received the commission of Colonel of the First Regiment Cavalry, N. G. P.
In 1879 he returned to his profession of chemistry, and discovered a new nickel-plating solution in connection with aluminium, for which he secured patents. He also resumed experiments to produce aluminium by cheaper pro- cesses, in which he fully succeeded and obtained patents all over the world. He is engaged in this business yet, and is continually making new discoveries.
In November, 1883, he cast the aluminium apex for the Washington monu- ment at the National Capital in a pyramidal form. The apex weighs exactly one hundred ounces, is ten inches in height, and measures six inches at the base. The metal was produced by him from North Carolina corundum. The apex is to this day as perfect and bright as it was when first put on, and forms the tip of the lightning-rod of the monument, which is the highest in the world, being five hundred and fifty-seven feet ten inches.
Of late years he has directed his attention to improvements in electro-lighting. During the present and past year (1888) he has received letters-patent for a new system of lighting houses with primary batteries instead of dynamos, for im- provements in various kinds of batteries, and for a portable electric lamp that may be carried around to any locality.
Colonel Frishmuth is a member of Cavalry Post, No. 35, G. A. R., the State Fencibles, and the Scheutzen Verein. He is a charter member and was the first Commander of Hand-in-Hand Council, No. 990, "American Legion of Honor." He is a member of a number of singing societies, including " The Mannerchor," "Young Mannerchor," "German Society" and "Cecilian Singing Society." He is a contributing member of the German Hospital, and is noted for his acts of kindness and liberality to the poor of all classes and nationalities.
E. T. F.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHILA.
WILLIAM W. GRISCOM.
WILLIAM WOODNUTT GRISCOM.
W ILLIAM W. GRISCOM, whose name is prominently known among the elec- tricians of the country, was born in Philadelphia, July 6, 1851. His ancestry on both sides were Friends, who came to America among Penn's early colonists, and among their names may be found those of Lloyd, the first Governor of Pennsylvania, Carpenter, Griscom, Stuart, Acton and others of the prominent men of early colonial times. His father, Dr. John D. Griscom, married Miss Margaret Acton, and they had three children- Clement A. Griscom, Hannah W. Griscom and W. W. Griscom. In his early childhood he displayed a fondness for abstruse research which was remarkable for his years, being a self-taught student of mineralogy at seven, and of chemistry and electricity at ten. After a preliminary education he entered the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in 1870, receiving his Master's degree in 1873. After his graduation, his health not being robust, he went to Europe, where he spent five years travelling from place to place, and enjoying a somewhat desultory study of art, languages and science. In the winter of 1875 he returned to Philadelphia, and began the study of law in the office of the late E. Spencer Miller, Esq .; but, his health again becoming impaired, he retired to country life, where he renewed the pursuit of the elec- trical studies which had attracted him as a lad and which have absorbed his later years.
In 1879 Mr. Griscom perfected the motor, now well known as Griscom's Motor, which first brought him prominently before the electrical world. It was exhibited at the electrical exhibition at Paris, and was largely discussed in the periodicals of North and South America, Europe and India. For this invention the Franklin Institute awarded him the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal in 1881, and later he received medals from a number of other institutions for the same invention. In 1880 he organized the Electro-Dynamic Company of Philadel- phia for the manufacture of this motor, with the co-operation of such prominent men as Henry H. Houston, Joseph D. Potts, Clement A. Griscom and W. W. Harding. Mr. Griscom was selected as President, and under his direction it has developed into one of the best known electrical manufacturing companies in the country. It is now the oldest electrical motor company in the world The offices and factory are located at 224 Carter street, Philadelphia. Mr. Griscom has made for it many valuable inventions in the field of electric lighting, electric traction and electric storage, which are briefly touched upon below. The first of these was the Griscom Motor, above referred to, patented in 1880, which con- sists of an armature surrounded by a square or circular field, and which has been largely copied in the Manchester type and Swiss models. It was chiefly remarkable for the great power developed for its light weight. With this early
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motor he was the first to observe the phenomenon which he called double induction. His method of motor suspension, patented in 1880, has proved of considerable value in such widely different fields as dentistry and ship building, enabling boring, drilling and other work to be accomplished in difficult positions. His automatic battery of 1880, with its convenient arrangement for varying the internal resistance as a means of regulation, has been made in very large num- bers, and proved one of the most convenient primary batteries for producing for brief periods large currents under perfect control. Many thousands of this kind of cells are in use in all parts of the world. This was followed by his multi-polar motor of 1884, and an efficient form for low speeds, and in the same year he produced his disc armature-for alternating currents, which was efficient and ingenious. In 1886 he early observed that the usual method of using accumu- lators would greatly increase the first cost of lighting; in fact, that the accumu- lators cost about as much as all the rest of the electric lighting plant. This fact was likely to limit their use to places where storage was of paramount impor- tance, and it threatened to prove fatal to the general introduction of the storage system for general lighting. After a prolonged study of the subject, in which many difficulties arose and were overcome, he perfected the half-direct system, in which the accumulators played a number of parts. During the hours of moderate consumption of electricity they were charged with the surplus power ; during the period of half consumption they were idle; during the period of heavy consumption they supplemented the engine and dynamo; and during the hours of very light consumption they furnished the light alone. Formerly a battery sufficient to supply one thousand lights at night required a dynamo and steam- engine of like capacity to charge by day. By his method, however, a plant of one thousand lights was supplied by a dynamo of five hundred lights capacity and a battery of five hundred lights. In a town, for example, the storage plant would run from noon until ten P. M .; from noon until four p. M. nearly all the current would be stored in the battery; from four until six the lamps would take all the current the steam plant would produce, and from six until nine the battery would supplement the engine, supplying one thousand lights in all. From nine until ten consumption would fall off, the engine would shut down, and the batteries would carry all the lamps in ordinary use from ten P. M. until noon of the following day. In this manner a plant would require to be run but ten hours, and yet supply the town with all it needed for twenty-four hours and with no additional first cost, because the storage and generating plant for five hundred lights each cost about the same as an ordinary plant of one thousand lights, and with manifest economy in running cost, because one set of engineers, firemen and laborers would suffice for the twenty-four hours. In this connec- tion were devised and patented the consumers' switch, the automatic consumers' switch, and the compound ammeter switch, the compound cell regulating switch for the automaticregulation of electrical circuits, and four methods of distribution of electricity which has made the system complete.
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