i«*iiiiiiiil mmm^mm T3 Jr. / '^ Digitized by the Internet Archive . in 2011 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www/archive.org/details/conquestsofinven1921park CONQUESTS OF INVENTION CONQUESTS OF INVENTION CYRUS H. Mccormick .-. elias howe .-. thomas A. EDISON .-. WILLIAM MURDOCK .-. ROBERT FULTON .-. GUGLIELMO MARCONI ,-. CHARLES GOODYEAR .r. GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE ELI WHITNEY .'. GEORGE STEPHENSON JAMES WATT .-. WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT .-. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL BY MARY R. PARKMAN A Author of "Fighters for Peace," "Heroes of To-day," "Heroines of Service," etc. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1921 MASS. o Copyright, 1921, by The Century Co. Printed in U. S. A. PREFACE This volume is an attempt to present in a clear readable form the story of some epoch- making inventions. Its only claim to ^'a place in the sun^' rests on the care which has been taken to consult and sift all available material, and to select that which is likely to prove inter- esting and significant to the general reader. The author wishes to acknowledge gratefully valuable assistance given by employees of the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Con- gress; also by Mr. J. 0. Martin of the Bell Telephone Company, and Miss Louise T. Lati- mer and Miss Ethel Bubb of the Public Library of the District of Columbia. Especial thanks are due to Miss Cornelia Whitney, teacher of history in the Washington Normal School, for help in the preparation and revision of manu- script and index, and for many vitally helpful suggestions. Washington, D. C. July, 1921. V CONTENTS PAGI5 Conquests of Invention . 3 The Conquest of the Reaper Cyrus Hill McCor- mick .... 8 King Cotton 29 The Story of the Spin- ning-Jenny .... James Hargreaves 38 The Barber Who Became a Knight .... Richard ArJcwright 49 The Poet of Many In- ventions .... Edmund Cartwright 54 The Yankee Who Crowned King Cotton . . . Eli Whitney . . 63 By-Products .... ...... 80 Inventions in the Home 85 The Inventor of the Sew- ing-Machine . . . Elias Howe , . 87 The Day of Rubber 107 A Knight-Errant of In- vention Charles Goodyear , 110 Light-Bringers 135 A Finder of Buried Treasure .... William Murdoch . 139 The Franklin of Our Times Thomas Alva Edison 159 vii CONTENTS PAGE Transportation and Progress . . i. . . Ii89 The Conquest of Steam , James WaU . . 191 Pioneers of Invention 217 The Man Who Gave America the Steamboat Bohert Fulton . . 222 Stephenson and the Loco- motive George Stephenson 242 The Inventor of the Air- Brake George Westing- house .... 275 The Steel Age 293 The Story of Bessemer Steel William Kelly . . 298 Machines lot the Millions Henry Ford . . 310 The Conquest of the Air Samuel Pierpont Langley . . . 325 . Wilbur Wright . 330 Orville Wright . 330 Old Signals and New . 347 The Father of the Tele- graph Samuel F. B. Morse 350 The Story of the Tele- phone Alexander Graham Bell .... 379 Wireless ..... Guglielmo Marconi 396 VIU LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS PAGB Crusoe's Harrow xii First Plow 5 Team Work 5 A Pioneer's Harvesting 9 The Cradle 15 MeCormick's Reaper 22 A Primitive Loom 31 Bonanza Farming in the Northwest .... 32 Kay's Fly-Shuttle 44 Hargreaves' Spinning- Jenny 47 Sir Richard Arkwright 52 Power Loom 60 Cotton Gin 77 Elias Howe 88 Howe's Sewing-Machine . . . . . . .97 Charles Goodyear 112 Murdock's Model of Locomotive 147 Murdock's Gas Generator 153 Mr. Edison at his desk using the t describe . . 160 James Watt striving to improve Newcomen's en- gine 209 Robert Fulton 224 ix LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS PAGE The ** Clermont ' ' and its mighty descendant, the ^'Lusitania'' 241 An Early Eailway Coach 262 Stephenson's "Rocket" 269 Locomotive John Bull and Train, 1831. Built by George Stephenson and Son, for America . . 273 Westinghouse "Frog'' 283 The Air-Brake 287 George Westinghouse 288 Eastern Clay Furnace with Goat-skin Bellows used in production of the famous Damascus Blades 294 A Roman Blast Furnace on a hill-top to catch the breeze 301 Raising the lump in early days in America . . 303 The Bessemer Process 305 The Open-Hearth Process 305 First American Automobile, Duryea's Model . 320 Orville Wright 337 Wilbur Wright 337 A Signal Tower 348 Samuel F. B. Morse 352 The Morse Telegraph 365 Morse's Original Telegraph Instrument now in the National Museum in Washington, D. C. .369 The Crov/d Listening to President Harding's Address 384 Laying the Underground Cable to Washington . 394 BEGINNINGS OF DISCOVERY AND INVENTION WE have all followed with breathless in- terest the adventures of Robinson Cru- soe on his island. We watched him as he met the difficulties and problems of life alone with none to help him build a house or to sell him food or clothing. We saw how he learned to be his own carpenter, farmer, butcher, baker, and candlestick-maker. But suppose Robinson had not had the help of the things saved from the wrecked ship. And suppose he had never seen a plow, a boat, an umbrella, or any of the many other things he managed to make. He brought with him from the wreck guns and gunpowder, hammers, saws, nails, and other tools. He brought, too, the knowledge of how these things might be used to good purpose. Can you imagine the story if Robinson Crusoe had been without this help? xi DISCOVERY AND INVENTION That is the story of man on the unexplored island of the world. He had to learn to make his own weapons and tools. He discovered that a stone was better than his fist with which to Crusoe 's Harrow. deal a blow, and that a piece of rock that gave a place for his hold was better than a round stone. Since such rocks were rare, a stout piece of a tree or an animal 's antler might be fastened to the stone. So man fashioned the first ham- xii DISCOVERY AND INVENTION mer. Centuries passed before lie discovered metals and learned how to melt them to his uses in a fire. Most fascinating of all the chapters of man's progress is that one which tells abont the be- ginnings of discovery and invention. When a start had been made it was inevitable that he should go on step by step. The vast forest is not more wonderful than the sprouting acorn. The marvel of creation is shut up in a tiny seed. So it is in the winning of the first crude tools and weapons that we find the real romance of invention. When man conceived the idea of making for himself a harder fist, a longer arm, and a sharper tooth, than those of his own body, he had learned the great lesson. The whole world was his. He had but to knock and a door to new gains and possibilities flew open to his touch. The story of man's progress tells of the way that the spirit to dare and do saw in each obstacle not a wall to stop the onward march, but a door to which he must find the key. And what of the finding of the key? Was it ever won through accident or luck? Was it luck that saw in the thorn that held together two xiii DISCOVERY AND INVENTION pieces of deerskiii the way to make a nail and a needle 1 Was it mere accident that made man see in the sapling that flew back as he bent it the promise of the spring-trap to capture his food and the bow to speed his arrows? Many apples had fallen to the earth before Newton saw his apple. It took a Watt to bridge the space between the steaming kettle and the steam-engine. ^ ^ God gives the bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest." Nature holds all the keys to the house of life, but man must find them and fit them to each need. XIV CONQUESTS OF INVENTION ^ CONQUESTS OF INVENTION'^ Whether they delve in the buried coal; or plow the up- land soil, Or man the seas, or measure the suns, hail to the men who toil ! It was stress and strain in wood and cave, while the primal ages ran, That broadened the brow, and built the brain, and made of a brute a man . . . Toil is the world's salvation though stern may be its ways; Far from the lair it has led us — far from the gloom of the cave — Till lo, we are lords of Nature, instead of her crouching slave ! And slowly it brings us nearer to the ultimate soul of things ; We are weighing the atoms, and wedding the seas, and cleaving the air with wings . . . And luring the subtle electric flame to set us free from the clod — Oh, toiling Brothers, the earth around, we are working together with God! With God, the infinite Toiler, who dwells with His humblest ones, And tints the dawn and the lily and flies with the flying suns. Edna Dean Proctor. CONQUESTS OF INVENTION THE story of the development of civilization is one with the story of man's conquests through invention. It is only in the power of mind that man is first among the creatures of earth. Puny in strength compared with the beasts of the jungle, he has reinforced his arm with weapons sharper than the tiger's tooth and surer than the lion's spring. His sight is weak compared with that of the hawk or the eagle, but he has made for himself magic glasses to bring the stars near and to reveal the marvels of the world invisible to the naked eye. Less fleet of foot than the dog or the deer, he has har- nessed steam and electricity to carry him over land and sea and to send his thought and spoken word across the world with the speed of light- ning. 3 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION Eveiywhere he has conquered through mind, — through applying reason and ingenuity to the problems that nature presents. The world chal- lenged his powers at every turn, and as he met the challenge fairly and squarely, he rose step by step in the scale of existence, winning through struggle a fuller and freer life. First, living by hunting and fishing, he was the prey of famine when game was scarce or when rival tribes invaded his hunting-grounds. This hard life of uncertainty and warfare was greatly improved when the hunter learned to tame animals and to live by the milk, the meat, the wool, and the skins, of his flocks and herds. The change brought about by the domestication of sheep and cattle marks a distinct advance in civilization. It was not, however, until with agriculture a supply of food was assured which made a wandering life in search of fresh fields unnecessary, that permanent homes were built, and a new step in civilization reached. With this new stage came the desire for beautiful possessions, and the handicrafts were devel- oped. Men became masters of the arts of weav- ing, of painting, and of wood-carving, and in 4 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION working" out their fancies in leather and in metals. Then, as cities grew, the demand for quicker First Plow Team Work and cheaper ways of making things led to im- provement after improvement in labor-saving tools and devices, until finally a new age — the age of machinery — ^had dawned when *4ron 5 CON^QUESTS OF IJSrVE:^TIOI^ men ' ' did in a moment the tasks that had form- erly required weary days. The scythe yielded place to the harvester that cut, bound and threshed the grain. As the sharpened stick of the first farmer had been succeeded by the steel plow, so this in turn gave way to the steam plow and the tractor which made possible the cultiva- tion of thousands of acres with less expenditure of man-power than had been required by a hun- dred acres under more primitive methods. The spinning-wheel and hand-loom were replaced by cotton and woolen mills; the hand-made gar- ments fashioned by the mother of the family were replaced by machine-made clothes from great factories. Cities were lighted by gas and electricity. Eapid transportation could now bring the fruits of the tropics to those who '^ never felt the blazing sun that brought them forth''; and all peoples into closer relation one with another. The paper that we read at our breakfast-table gives us news of all the world. These are some of the conquests of invention. But let us remember that conquests do not al- ways lead to a golden age of prosperity and peace. Let us not dream that the greatness of 6 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION our country can be measured by the size of our cities or the power of our big machines. Unless these things help to make people better and happier, unless they give fuller life and liberty, they have not really added to our civilization. For the chief wealth of a nation is to be found in the content of its people ; and civilization de- pends upon the understanding, the industry, and the generous spirit with which all work together shoulder to shoulder. Let us not put our faith in the bigness of our machines but in the strength and courage of the men who labor. And, since **men are square,'' our faith will not be in vain if they are given an equal chance and a square deal. The triumphs of invention and the increase of wealth will then mean not new difficulties and dangers but a true conquest. THE CONQUEST OF THE EEAPER Cyeus Hall McCormick (1809-1884) IT is strange that after all the years that have passed over the world since men be- gan to plant wheat they still gather in the har- vests slowly and painfully by hand, — much as they did in Bible times/' said a hard-working Virginia farmer one day. He was speaking aloud a thought that had come to him more than once, and for Robert McCormick to think meant to act. He could think even when he was swing- ing a heavy cradle under a July sun, when most harvesters were conscious of nothing but aching backs and addled brains. And, in a log workshop that stood next the farmhouse, he worked away on every rainy day as industriously as ever he made hay when the sun shone. Here there was a forge, an anvil, and a carpenter's bench, and here he put together much of the furniture that made the home comfortable, as 8 CYRUS HALL MoCORMICK well as tools and machines for making the farm work easier. *^It will perhaps be a farmer who invents A Pioneer's Harvesting some better way of getting in the wheat than by sickle or cradle," he said to himself over and over. **And what if it shonld happen that Robert McCormick is that farmer!'' So he 9 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION set himself to the task of making something to lighten the labor of the next harvest time. ^^What is that funny thing for?'^ asked his little son Cyrus, who stood in the door of the workshop one day looking with wide eyes at the queer big machine his father was making. ^'What are you putting all those sickles on sticks for?'' ^^It 's to cut wheat, my boy," said the father, '4f I can only make it work. When our horses pull it along it should cut as much grain as several men without getting a crick in its back, or having to stop to mop its brow and drink cider." The boy liked to see the lively twinkle that came in his father's eyes when he was happy over an idea. It must indeed be jolly to know how to make what you wanted, and nothing could be better fun than to discover new ways of doing things. He, too, would learn the cun- ning of tools. So, on the days when his father worked over his reaper, Cyrus stayed near by, watching and keeping up a rap-a-tap of his own with hammer and nails. There were, it seemed, many difficulties in 10 OYEUS HALL McCORMICK the way of getting a macliine-reaper to do its work as it should. The whirling rods whose task it was to whip the wheat np against the line of waiting sickles found the wiry, bending grain unexpectedly obstinate. It got so twisted and tangled and bunched that the machine was choked and the sickles helpless. If only the wheat could be depended on to grow straight and even till the great moment of the harvest ! If it were never wet or bent to earth by storms ! If the ground itself were free from unpleasant bumps and hollows! ^^You '11 find that there is nothing yet to take the place of honest toil, Friend McCormick," said the neighboring farmers, winking at each other slyly with a solemn relish. *^I don't look to see the day when work will be out of date,'' replied Robert McCormick, quietly. ^^But I do hope that the day is not far off when we shall be able to do more things, — to get more that is worth while by the sweat of the brow!" He did not give up try- ing to make a machine that would reap his grain, but he worked and experimented within his workshop where no one but those of his own 11 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION family knew of his attempts and his failures. Of aU the children, the boy Cyrus watched with particular sympathy and interest. He knew that his father was a wise man. Even the clever lawyers and the most learned min- ister of that part of Virginia came a long way to talk with him and ask his advice. Besides, he understood all the marvels of tools, and could fashion things deftly with his hands as well as picture them with words. That farm between the Blue Eidge and the AUeghanies was at once a home and an inde- pendent community. The wool of their own sheep was spun into yam and woven into cloth for their winter clothes and blankets. Shoes were cobbled there, too, and stockings, caps, and mufflers were knitted in odd moments. There were days when soap was boiled, candles molded, meat cured, and the various kindly fruits of the earth dried and preserved. To have been a child in that home was in itself a practical education. Cyrus's mother may never have heard that the ideal training for a child is that where head, heart, and hand have 12 CYRUS HALL McCORMICK chance for free and natural exercise, but she acted as if she had. Mrs. McCormick believed in hard work, but she was never too busy with her own affairs to do a good turn for a friend. Happening along one day when some neighbors were rush- ing about trying to save some hay from a storm, she tied up her horse, seized a rake, and fell upon the task with all her might. ^*If we don^t make haste the rain will beat us, ' ' she said. Though a woman who was always ready to turn her hand to the work of the moment, she knew, too, how to enjoy life. She loved to walk among her flowers, to see her pet peacocks strut about the lawn, and to ride behind a pair of spirited horses. There were no dull days to one of her ambition and power of enjoyment; each hour was full of rich possibilities. Not Robert McCormick, but Cyrus, the son of this wise, progressive father and energetic, ambitious mother, was destined to give the world the first successful harvesting machine. ^'How the past lives in each one of us in all that we do!" said Cyrus McCormick thought- fully, years after his reaper had brought 13 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION wealth to his family and prosperity to many. ^^As I owed to my father my turn for invent- ing, so I owed to my mother the ambition and determination to turn my work to good account by making my invention a business success/' There was, too, something of the stanch, never-say-die courage of his long line of Scotch- Irish forefathers in the strength of purpose with which he forged ahead despite all diffi- culties. But if we must look to his past to explain the power of a man, we must find in his present the circumstances that make his opportu- nity. The thousands of hardy pioneers who had marched westward taking up the limitless, fertile lands that the Louisina purchase brought to the newly formed nation, found their farming with wooden plows, sickles, and scythes a life-destroying round of drudgery for a bare subsistence. Is it any wonder that many of them dropped sowing and harvesting to push still farther westward for adventure and for gold? Is it any wonder that the hard struggle for a poor living in a rich, unworked country sharpened the wits of the workers and led them 14 CYBUS HALL McCOEMICK to seek out ways of saving labor? The indus- trial revolution to win freedom from the tyranny of toil followed the political revolu- tion. Machines for spinning and weaving came c ^'4:1^1 The Cradle into being. The steel plow took the place of the hoe, the cradle succeeded the sickle, and still the fields of grain cried out for a new way of gathering in the harvest. Eobert McCormick was not the first farmer 15 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION to rebel against the liot toil of the swinging scythe or cradle. Many had tried to devise ways of making some sort of reaper. Cyrus McCormick, who made the machine that stood the test and won success, was the forty-seventh inventor of a harvester. ^^I began to work on my reaper when I was a boy sitting on a slab bench in the ' Old Field School,' looking at the daylight through the window that was just a gap where an upper log had been cut away,'' he said. ^^I had borne the heat and burden of the long summer days in the wheat fields and I knew what work meant. As I sat in my father's workshop watching him struggle with his reaper I whittled a smaller cradle that would not be so back-break- ing to swing as the one that had fallen to my lot, and my thoughts flew faster than the flying chips. The reaper must win out." The ^^Old Field School" got its name be- cause it was built on one of those stretches of land, starved and overworked by the wasteful farming of single crops that took all and gave nothing to the soil. The very spot where he was sent to peg away at spelling and arithmetic 16 GYRUS HALL McCORMICK was an object-lesson. Farmers certainly went about things in stupid ways or there wouldn't be old fields. Nature didn't work after that fashion. How the old earth renewed her strength year after year! Cyrus MoCormick decided to study survey- ing, showing his inventive turn here by cleverly fashioning the quadrant that he was to use. ^*I shall be ready to mark out the new fields that your reaper will conquer one of these days, ' ' he said to his father. But after fifteen years of effort Robert Mc- Cormick gave up the struggle. The reaper promised well, and it did cut the grain, — but only to toss it about in a tangled mass. *^Not much gained after all the planning and contriving!" said the father ruefully. *^It is good, and I shall make it my business to prove it, ' ' vowed Cyrus. He believed in the reaper as he believed in his father and for the sake of both he mightily resolved to carry on the work to the day of success. So he began where his father left off. The reaper must be something more than a powerful mowing-machine. It must meet the 17 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION practical problem of dealing with the grain as it stood in the field, divide it systematically for the cutting and handle it properly when cut. Look now at the model of the first machine that harvested real wheat in a real field. Re- member that forty- six other inventors had struggled without success for the same end. All of them had failed to deliver the grain in a way to make their inventions a practical saving of time and labor. Cyrus McCormick's reaper had at the end of its knife a curved arm or divider to separate the grain about to be cut from the rest. There was also a row of fingers at the edge of the blade to hold it firmly in the posi- tion to be cut. Then that same knife had not only the forward push as the horses drew the machine over the field, but it also gave a side sweep so that none of the grain could escape as it fell on a platform from which it was raked by a man who followed the harvest. The practical economy of this practical farmer's reaper was shown first in the way the shafts were placed on the off-side so that it could be pulled, not pushed, the horses walk- 18 CYRUS HALL McCORMICK ing over the stubble while the cutter ran its broad swath through the bordering grain; and second, in the way the big driving wheel that turned the reaping-blade also carried the weight of the machine. Compared with the complete harvesters that we know to-day, this was indeed an uncouth, clattering, loose-jointed contrivance, — but it worked. Drawn by two horses, it cut six acres of oats in one afternoon, the work of six laborers with scythes. It was as if Hercules had appeared to add to his great labors a still greater work. Nowhere was help needed as it was in the harvest fields, for grain must be cut when it is ripe. All that cannot be reaped in a few days is spoiled. A farmer might plant his wheat, the fields might laugh with the golden plenty, but if there were not laborers enough at the right moment there could be no bread. The short reaping-season also made a special difficulty for the inventor. So short a time there was for putting his machine to the test, — ■ so long a time to wait before fresh fields of waving grain made another trial possible ! There were, as we have seen, difficulties 19 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION enough in the way of making a machine to cut grain; but there was a harder task than that of cutting wet wheat in a bumpy, hillocky field. There was the obstinate prejudice of ignorant men who feared anything that spelled change. Look at Cyrus McCormick when he brought his machine for a public exhibition near Lex- ington, in 1832. There were as many as a hun- dred interested or curious spectators, — ^law- yers and politicians eager to see a new thing, farmers with excited, doubting faces, and sullen laborers who feared that this monster might steal their daily bread. Young McCormick 's strong, serious face was pale but determined. He did not wince even when his reaper side-stepped at a particularly ugly hump in the hilly field. ^^Here, here, young man!'' cried the owner of the field. ^ ^ That 's enough now ! Stop your horses ! Can 't you see that you are ruining my wheat r' The red-faced farm-hands were no longer tongue-tied. ^^Any one might know it was all humbug!" rumbled one. ^^We '11 keep to the good old cradle yet, — ■ 20 CYRUS HALL MoCORMICK eh, boysT' jeered another. A group of picca- ninnies, teeth agleam with mirth, chuckled and turned handsprings of delight. Cyrus McCormick looked about at men and boys, calloused and bent by toil that yielded them less than a nickel an hour through long days of twelve and fourteen hours. *^We are all slaves to the things we know and are used to,'' he said to himself. ^*I shall have to go slow, but I '11 be sure. ' ' Farmers and laborers, no more than the jovial negro boys, dreamed that the thing they feared and ridiculed would prove the great bread-giver that was destined to set them all free. At just the moment, however, when Cyrus McCormick was resigning himself to defeat a champion rode to the rescue. *^You shall have the chance you are after," said a man who had been watching McCormick and his machine narrowly. ^^Just pull down that fence over there and see what you can do in mi/ field." Here was new hope and fairly level ground. The inventor drove gratefully to the test and laid low six acres of wheat before sundown. 21 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION He had made good. The conquering reaper was driven in trinmpli into Lexington, where it was put on exhibition in front of the court-house. '^That machine is worth a hundred thousand McCormick^s Eeaper dollars!'' declared a learned professor of a finishing school for young ladies with solemn emphasis. But young McCormick knew it would prove nothing more than a fortnight's wonder unless he could first make machines and then 22 GYRUS HALL McCORMICK make farmers buy them. The inventor would have to turn manufacturer and promoter. And if Cyrus McCormick had not been an inspired man of business as well as an inventor the reaper would probably have been as the forty- six other attempts at harvesting-machines. For several years he worked away, — farming to earn his bread and the chance to go on studying the way his reaper behaved under all conditions. A happy day came when a new sort of cutting-edge handled wet grain almost as well as the dry. The future looked really bright when, in 1842, after ten years of toil without encouragement and without capital in his father's little log workshop, he succeeded in selling reapers to seven farmers who were interested to the extent of one hundred dollars each. The great day of the reaper really dawned, however, when it first saw the prairies. Here on the vast fertile plains of the Middle West the harvest so far outstripped the power of the harvesters that the cattle were allowed to feed in the wheat-fields that the farmers were unable to cut. "When Cyrus McCormick saw the Hlinois 23 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION prairies at harvest time, — saw men, women and little children toiling frantically to save as much of the wheat as possible during the short time of crop-gathering before the heads of grain were broken down and spoiled, — ^he knew that the time had come for him to leave his log workshop. **I must make my reapers, myself, to be sure that they are made right, ' ' he said, * ' and I must pick out the right place for getting material and shipping the machines through the "West." There were anxious hours spent in studying the map for the most favorable spot on the waterway of the Great Lakes. The hour of the inventor's destiny had indeed struck when he selected Chicago as the site of his future fac- tory. It certainly took faith and imagination to see in the rude little collection of unpainted cabins huddled together on a dismal swampy tract without sewers, paved streets, or rail- roads the place of opportunity for a big busi- ness. But as Cyrus McCormick had seen in vision his machine triumphantly gathering up for the use of man harvests that would vanquish the fear of famine, and give daily bread to 24 CYRUS HALL McCORMICK hungry thousands that should people the vast lands of the untouched West, he now saw a great city rise in the place of this dreary, strug- gling little frontier settlement. The story of the success of McCormick through the building up of his business was now one with the story of the prosperity of the prairie states and the growth of Chicago as a leading railway- and shipping-center, and mis- tress of the wheat markets of the world. Year by year as the country grew and the task of reaping harvests for ever-increasing hordes of hungry peoples from many lands who came seeking bread in the generous new states, the power of the reaper grew. Other inventors added to its strength. It was a proud day when the self-raking, self-binding machine passed over the great wheat-fields, one driver on the high seat triumphantly replacing a score of sweating farm-hands that the old method of farming had employed. To-day every child who has been to the coun- try thinks the brisk self-binders and the great community threshing-machines as natural a part of the farm world as the sheep and the 25 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION cows. He sees a huge tractor fed by oil or gasolene pull plows, harrows, harvesters, and threshers ; or sometimes a dauntless little Ford gaily leading now one and now another sort of planting or cultivating machine along the furrows. None of these things seems strange or particularly remarkable. To him the miracle will be seen in that first rude reaper put to- gether by Cyrus McCormick in the little log workshop among the Virginia hills. 26 KING COTTON East and west, and north and south, Under the crescent, or under the cross, One song you hear in every mouth, Profit and loss, profit and loss. John Davidson. KING COTTON ONE of the most despotic rulers of modern affairs is King Cotton. To look at him in Ms flowering time he seems hnmble enough, — a near cousin to the simple hollyhock of our gardens and the pink mallow of marshy fields. But the way his blossom changes its color in the second day of blooming, from white or pale yellow to haughty red, shows his imperial spirit; and when his bolls are full of their snowy harvest, the peculiar twist of their woolly fibers which makes them better for spinning than the fibers of any other plants, proves his power. Men are but pawns to be moved about at will in the royal game that King Cotton plays. Now his whim is for water-mills, and he calls the spinners out among the hills beside brisk, tumbling streams. Now he claps his hands and behold a new order of steam-engines summons the workers to toil in cities where coal is easily 29 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION brought and where smoke blackens the sky! Will he not perhaps to-day prove his right to rule by building great central power-stations that will make it possible for his subjects to live under the blue heavens and breathe the air of fields and gardens once more 1 The story of the way King Cotton gradually extended his sway in the world of men furnishes an interesting instance of the way one step in advance compels another. Nothing can exist of itself alone untouched by what is going on about it, for one life overlaps the lives of others and a pebble of change thrown into the sea of humanity starts ripples and echoes that grow in ever-widening circles. As people became acquainted with neighbor- ing peoples they began to know new wants. The homespun garments from their own sheep or the flax in their gardens no longer seemed enough for their needs. They looked longingly at the soft silks and gay calicoes from other places. So trade began. Industry was no longer content to remain within doors and meet the needs of one household. As the world widened through the discovery 30 KING COTTON and settlement of new lands, the possibilities of trade widened. The broad fields of the col- onies existed to furnish crops of opportunities A Primitive Loom for skilled workers and clever traders at home. *'We must make better cloth than the New England mothers can, so that they will want to 31 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION buy from us/' said the weavers of Old Eng- land. And the new market for their goods made them seek ways to save labor so that it might be possible tc turn out more, as well as better, cloth. Before the days of machinery there were three chief steps in the process of converting by hand the tangled cotton fiber, as it was sent from the fields, into cloth. First the threads had to be untangled or straightened. This was done by *' carding," or combing the fibers with stout, stiff brushes called cards. Then the carded wool, where all the fibers lay parallel, was spun, that is drawn out into loose yarn and twisted at the same time to make the fibers curl and cling together, thus forming a firm thread. The spinning-wheel was turned by the foot, and while the fiber was drawn out by hand it was at the same time twisted by a whirling spindle, called a ' ' flyer. ' ' Now the thread was ready for the loom of the weaver, — a hand-loom, of course, where the warp threads were stretched vertically over a wooden frame, and the woof threads were woven across by means of a large wooden needle called a shuttle. Behold now the 32 © KING OOTTON finished cloth, which must be bleached and dyed the desired color, or, — if fignres were required as in calico, — stamped with hand dies or stencils. In all this process the spinning stage was the slowest and the most tedious. A practical worker at a loom could weave the yarn fur- nished by six spinners. Then, when a certain clever weaver, one John Kay, managed in 1738 to make this wor^i lighter and quicker by in- venting the *^ fly-shuttle," the cry for more yarn made the need for some improvement in the methods of spinning even more urgent. The necessity led to the invention. Another skilled weaver, James Hargreaves, whose chief trial it was to secure a sufficient supply of spun yam or *^weft" for his loom, invented in 1764 a machine by which one worker could spin eight threads at once. Soon improvements were made so that thirty threads could be drawn out at a time. ^^The more the merrier," sang the spin- ning-jenny. But it remained for another man, Eichard Arkwright, to devise a scheme of revolving rollers to draw out strands firm enough to serve 33 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION as warp threads. This in turn called for an invention that should bring together the good points of the two spinning-machines ; and Sam- uel Crompton made what he called humorously a ^^mule," because it was a cross between the spinning- jenny of Hargreaves and the *^ water- frame" of Arkwright. It could spin a thread at once firm and fine, — fine enough to make pos- sible the manufacture of muslin cloth. The force of genius could no farther go; To make a third he joined the other two. Now the spinning, far from lagging behind, served as a spur to advance in other directions. A new device for carding was introduced, and in 1785, a loom operated by water-power or steam was invented. Cloth was woven with a speed and finish undreamed of a few years be- fore, and the cry was all for more cotton for the busy looms. Then came Eli Whitney, the man of the hour, whose cotton-gin could remove the seeds from a thousand pounds of cotton in a day, where before, working with hand-tools, a man could at best clean no more than ^ve pounds. A sup- 34 KING COTTON ply of raw material was now assured. The plantations of our Southern States were de- voted to the service of King Cotton, whose power seemed limitless and who scattered a golden largess among his followers. *^ Cotton is king! Long live the king!'' was the cry. But let us not forget that each conquest brings its trials and its problems. The spin- ning-jenny met a real need, saved much work, and made clothing cheaper and better. But it also introduced a new temptation and a serious problem. It was such a simple machine that even a child could manage it; and manufac- turers were not slow to seize the idea of larger gains through smaller wages. The problem of child labor in the cotton-mills came with the '^conquest'' of this invention, and all that this problem has entailed in wrong and suffer- ing. And we cannot run or leap; If we cared for any meadows, it were merely To drop down in them and sleep. "For all day, the wheels are droning, turning; Their wind comes in our faces, 35 CONQUESTB OF INVENTION Till our hearts turn, our heads, with pulses burning, And the walls turn in their places : Turns the sky in the high window, blank and reeling, Turns the long light that drops adown the wall, Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling; All are turning, all the day, and we with all. And all day the iron wheels are droning, And sometimes we could pray, ^0 ye wheels,' (breaking out in a mad moaning), 'Stop! be silent for to-day!'" So it was that King Cotton who had seemed to be ^'a merry old soul'* showed that he did not always rule wisely and well, and for the good of all his subjects. If some were growing rich and happy under his sway, many others were poor and miserable. But perhaps the worst thing that a wrong- headed monarch can do to helpless people is to lead them into war. It is certain that King Cotton must answer to this charge. For he offered such rich rewards through slave labor in the cotton-fields that the plantation-owners could only think of any change that threatened these gains as a danger to be fought to the last ditch. This led to the Civil War, — a terrible five years when brother fought against brother 36 KING COTTON to further the power and to extend the rale of King Cotton. The result of that conflict proved that cotton is not king. It was shown that man could rise to an intelligent control of the outer conditions of his life. Though at first it seemed as if the war and the freeing of the plantation slaves had destroyed the cotton industry, yet after thirteen years of peace the cotton-planters with wage- earning negroes had won once more the leader- ship in the cotton markets of the world. Now three fourths of the cotton that the world uses is grown in our Southern States. A free South has won through the raising of cotton, varied with crops of corn, rice, potatoes, and other food-stuffs, a prosperity far greater than that of the South which bowed down before cotton as king. 37 THE STOEY OF THE SPINNING-JENNY James Haegeeaves (!-1778) WHAT a story that spinning-wlieel in the corner could tell if we bnt knew the way to set it spinning the thread of the adventnres that it saw and shared! It would tell of days of toil and busy evenings when all the life of the home was set to the tnne of its unceasing whirr. It wonld tell of weary workers who spun and wove until backs were bent and eyes were dimmed. For, in the homespun days of old, the hours of labor were long and the time of rest scant for those who had the task of spinning cotton, wool, or linen fiber into thread and then weaving it into the stuff from which the clothes of the world were made. We think sometimes that spinning-songs were all happy, light-hearted tunes sung by some fair Priscilla or gentle Patience as she 38 JAMES HAEGREAVES drew out the yarn for the cloth that was to provide her own household with soft linen and wool for winter wear. That is truly a pleasant picture, but we must turn from that glimpse of life in the more favored homes to another scene in a weaver ^s cottage, where all of the family were working together to make cloth. At one side Sister Sue and Betty were helping Mother spin yarn, while over in the corner Jack and small Jenny were busily ^* combing^' the tangled bunches of wool and cotton so that the threads all lay in one direction, making a soft, fluffy roll ready for the spinning. ^^ Are n't you glad that Father made us this fine comber r' said Jack. *^The heavy old brushes that all the other folks use would have been too much for you, Jenny. It 's lucky for us that Father is a carpenter as well as a weaver. I tell you, he can make things ! And he 's the fastest weaver anywhere about." James Hargreaves was indeed a master weaver. Put to work when a tiny lad, he had learned nothing from books but much from the school of life as he worked at his carpenter's bench or, through the long winter evenings, at 39 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION his loom. And Necessity, that stern mother of invention, had led him to fashion more than one contrivance to save labor. The machine that carded or straightened out the threads of raw fiber for spinning was his latest triumph. How the children clapped their hands to see it do quickly and easily the work that would have taken them several hours of toil with the clumsy brushes. ** Pretty, pretty pet!'' cooed little Jenny, drawing the *'slubbin" or ^*rove'' of fleecy cotton from the carder and stroking it gently as she hugged it close in her arms. In fancy she held for a moment the doll of her dreams. The mother looked up from her turning wheel and smiled at her smallest helper. ^'Well done, precious poppet!" she said. *^ There is a beau- tiful rove ready for mother to spin. If only there were more of us to turn wheels now, so that your poor father would not have to go about buying yarn from the village spinsters for his weaving ! ' ' She sighed and set her wheel turning even faster as she thought of the busy loom that was always hungry. Work as they did early 40 JAMES HAEGEEAVES and late, they could not supply all the yarn needed by the flying shuttle. How dear were the bread and meat for hungry boys and girls, and how cheap was all their toil! ^* Never mind, Mother dear,'' and small Jen- ny drew close to look up in the kind, troubled face. * ^ Soon I shall be a big spinster, too, and I '11 spin so fast that you will never have to go out to get weft away from home." **My Jenny is a good child," said Mistress Hargreaves. ^* What should we ever do without our busy helpers?" she added, nodding at the other children. *^Who is there!" she called, hearing a hand fumbling at the latch. The door of the cottage opened slowly and in staggered a figure bent from toil over the loom and weary now from the long walk in search of the heavy bundles of yam which he carried strapped on his shoulders. *^I did not look for you back so soon, James. Better luck this time?" called his wife cheerily. In her haste to help him put down his load of yarn the spinning-wheel was thrown over and Jenny laughed to see that the spindle which 41 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION was standing straight up now had not ceased to turn and whirr merrily. **Look, look!" she cried, clapping her little hands. **Why, yes! Look, Mother!" said James Hargr eaves, wonderingly. He knelt on the floor beside the child. **It may be," he added to himself, ^'it may be that we can make a new spinner that shall do the trick of turning a number of spindles at once. ^^Do you see what your topsy-turvy wheel may teach us, Janie?" he said looking up at his wife. **I think I see a way to make a machine to spin for me faster than ten spinsters. Then you and the children will not have to work all the time to keep my loom in yam. Little Jenny can play a bit, as is her right." ^*I want to help you, Father; Jenny's a big girl now," said the child, looking up at him through her tangle of curls. ^^ Father will make him a Jenny that shall spin faster than even Mother can, — than she could if she turned six wheels!" exulted the weaver. In a flash of inspiration he had pio- 42 JAMES HAEGEEAVES tured a single wheel turning a row of whirling spindles. For some days the loom in James Har- greave's cottage was idle while the inventor fashioned the machine which he had planned in that moment when he had seemed to see the things of his world not only as they were but as they might be through the help of his won- derful idea. It was indeed a proud day when his dream became a working reality, and his new machine was spinning yarn to the tune of eight whirling spindles. First playfully, and then quite in the way of matter-of-fact habit, they called this latest helper *^ Jenny.'' *^ After a while we can make our spinning- jenny do still more for us,'' declared the weaver hopefully. **But we must take care to guard our secret and let no one guess about our magic yarn. You remember what they did to John Kay!" ''John Kay? Who is he?" asked Mistress Hargr eaves wonder ingly. ''Not remember about John Kay! And you a weaver's wife!" exclaimed James Har- greaves. "He was the man who made the fly- 43 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION shuttle that saves us so mucli time and labor. Don^t you mind how hard it was to throw the shuttle before we had the spring hammers and cords at each end of the loom to send it back II .niiiiiiiiiiiMUM/.j)iiiTrM;...|iu.. "rjf^i^ S^ Kay's Fly-Shuttle and forth? The making of cloth was indeed slow work then. It is easy to forget how hard things used to be when we complain about the way we find them now/' he added thoughtfully. ''But what of John Kay I Surely he was rewarded for his workT' interrupted the wife. 44 JAMES HAEGREAVES **Say you so, my JanieT' returned tlie weaver darkly. * ^ Do you not know that people always fear a new thing? Any change seems a danger. The weavers were sure the fly-shut- tle would rob them of work and bread. And even the rich who should have known better said that this invention would fill the poor- houses with paupers for them to feed. Have you not heard of how the riots forced John Kay to shut up his mill at Leeds and how a mob broke into his house and destroyed everything in itr' ^^And what of John Kay himself f breathed the wife anxiously. *^It is said that his friends managed to smug- gle him away in a wool sheet/' replied Har- greaves, * ^ and that he is now living in exile in France, poor and friendless, while rich clothiers who have stolen his patents are growing richer and all weavers have reason to bless his name." In fact, in that very year, 1764, when Har- greaves was working out the first model of his spinner, John Kay, whose invention had brought wealth to many and given England a leading place in the markets of the world for 45 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION the manufacture of cotton and woolen goods, died poor and neglected in a foreign land. **But why can't people see that if you save them work they can do more ? And that things will be so much cheaper that people can buy more 1 ' ' protested Mistress Hargreaves. * ' They must see that your spinner which saves so much work is a good thing!" *'Most people cannot see past to-morrow's dinner," replied James Hargreaves. *^If they think that is in danger, it is useless to try to show them that things may be better after a while. No, I shall keep my spinning- jenny, as I keep my Janie and my wee Jenny in my own home. We will work quietly together here and earn the right to rest and comfort in our old age." So the days passed. The weaver's loom was never idle now, nor was he ever seen away from home bargaining with the spinsters of the village for weft to satisfy his flying shuttle. Then it began to be whispered about that this independent weaver had something concealed in his cottage which gave him an advantage 46 JAMES HAEGREAVES over all Ms neighbors, and might even threaten to rob them of their bread. ^^His little Jenny can turn its wheel and do more work in a day than a grown woman can Hargreaves ' Spinning- Jenny in a week," it was said. The rumor passed quickly from mouth to mouth ; the pale, heavy- eyed weavers were beside themselves with wrath and jealous fear. An angry mob broke into Hargreaves 's house and compelled him to 47 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION flee for his life. The first spinning- jenny was hacked to pieces and trampled underfoot. ^^My poor spinning-jenny!" mourned the in- ventor, sadly. * * She was a thrifty, good wench, true to her name! But we sha'n^t give up nor shall she," he added hopefully. It was not in the nature of James Hargreaves to despair. Driven from his home near Black- burn, he went to Nottingham, where he found a partner and set up the first spinning-mill in England. He could not, however, spin the thread of a happier fate for himself. His pa- tents were stolen, and though at the time of his death there were twenty thousand * ^jen- nies" in England, the Widow Hargreaves re- ceived only four hundred pounds for the in- ventor's share in the Nottingham factory. You cannot kill an idea, however. ** Truth crushed to earth will rise again," and though many inventors seem to have been robbed of the fruits of their labor, the inventions which they gave to the world triumphed. The spirit of the worker lives then in his work, and the inventor conquers through the conquest of his invention. 48 THE BAEBER WHO BECAME A KNIGHT Richard Arkwright (1732-1792) THE story of the barber Arkwright is a merry tale of a man who seemed from the first destined to succeed. He took up Har- greaves's work but not his hard lot. For the Fates had spun for this clever lad a bright thread of golden success. The youngest of a family of thirteen chil- dren, Richard Arkwright was early put to the trade of a barber. *^I shall prove all my life that thirteen can be a lucky number; I '11 be the best barber in London/' he vowed. He went at his work with a will. ^ ' The fair- est shave in merry England for a penny," was his watchword in a day when men of the razor were charging twopence. Over the entrance to his basement shop he hung his sign bearing the challenge of his motto. But not for long was he content to live by 49 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION cutting beards and giving shaves. '*My real chance lies in the way of wigs," said Master Dick. And in the day when all the rich and great coveted finer locks than nature had given them, he managed to furnish the fashionable wig-makers with the best hair and a magic dye that was in itself a fortune. See how one thing leads to another. In his travels about the country in search of fair locks and curling ringlets, this alert and enter- prising barber became interested in the new spinning- jenny and its work. ** There is just one trouble," he heard a weaver declare. *^The jenny's threads are not strong enough for the warp ; so the foundation of our cotton goods must be made of linen." **That seems a poor sort of contriving," said Arkwright. *'Now I have never been one to content myself with half-way measures. Per- haps you weavers will have to call in a barber to finish you off, give you a good clean shave, ' ' he added with his merry laugh. But he set himself to the task seriously, so seriously, indeed, that his wife, who was some- thing of a shrew, declared, *^You 11 starve your 50 EICHAED AEKWRIGHT poor family, scheming when you should be shav- ing!'' And she proved how much in earnest she was by breaking into bits the queer con- trivance he had managed to put together. But the spirit of the inventor was not so easily broken. *^The time has come for me to work under another roof, ' ' he said with calm determination, *^for my attempt shall go on in spite of all the shrews in England!" We are not told if this shrew was tamed. We only know that she failed to put a check on the inventive zeal of Eichard Arkwright. He went on with his experiments, more resolved than ever to solve his puzzle. Engaging the help of a clever clock-maker, he developed a machine called the *^ water-frame,'' which, driven by water-power, carried the carded cot- ton through pairs of turning rollers, each suc- ceeding pair revolving more rapidly than those before, until at last it drew out a yarn strong and firm enough to be used for the lengthwise or warp threads. English cotton cloth could now hold its own ; and to this day we find in the large cotton-mills both in England and America 51 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION the clever barber's method of drawing out strong threads for the warp while the principle of the spinning- jenny is employed in the pro- duction of the weft or the woof threads. Now the one-time barber had a chance to prove himself not only an inventor but also an excellent business-man. He did not leave it to others to reap the benefits of his invention. Groing to Nottingham, he became the ruling partner in a manufacturing firm which before long produced the first British calico, and a fortune for the enterprising Arkwright. ^* Water-power wisely employed and a genu- ine business talent together made the barber's fortune,'' it was said. It was, however, some- thing more than these that went into the build- ing of this successful man's prosperity, some- thing that might be called four-square man- power. When he harnessed his will to a task it seemed as if he could move mountains. One thing that perhaps more than another indicates the measure of the man was the way in which he set himself to the study of grammar when nearing the age of sixty. **When I was but a small lad I was put to work. If then I 52 Sir Richard Arkwright RICHAED ARKWEIG^HT was not too young to earn my living, I am not now too old to learn to write and spell cor- rectly.'' So the great *^ captain of industry'' whose business cares occupied all his working- hours took time from his small allowance for rest to make up for the shortcomings of his early schooling. To a friend who wanted to know why one of the richest men of the realm should vex him- self with such tasks, he said, '^That man is indeed poor who does not know or care where he lacks." The barber, turned inventor and manufac- turer, amassed a fortune of half a million pounds — ^vast wealth for those times — and was awarded the distinction of knighthood for his services to his country. 53 THE POET OF MANY INVENTIONS Edmund Caut weight (1743-1823) THE parson is a right good sort and a clever 'nn that books could not addle nor the fine ways of rich folks spoil/' A bluff old British farmer, red-faced and shrewd, had stopped his plow at the end of a furrow to have a word with a neighbor across a hawthorn hedge. Both men were looking after the gracious figure of a man who had not been too much occupied with his thoughts to rein in his horse for a friendly greeting as he passed by. **He always rides just so, at a walk, though any one can see he is at home in the saddle," replied the other approvingly. ** Mayhap he thinks of his Sunday preaching as he goes about,'' said the farmer. **He thinks o' more things than Sundays," 54 EDMUND CAETWRIGHT declared the other. ^*He thinks what he can do to help folks on Mondays and Saturdays as well. Have you heard what he did when Carter ^s lad was so bad off with the fever? He said to the mother, ^Have you some yeast handy? I know a case where a glass of it drove away a sickness like this. Will you let me try what it can do?' And bless you! of course they let him have his way. Had he not told them about a cure for a sick cow and how to save their wheat crop ? The lad began to get better that same day.'' ^^And he 's as handy with tools as if he had not been born to books, ' ' returned the farmer. * * Many 's the time he '11 show you how to patch up and contrive things to make work a bit easier. They say he 's a wonderful friend when a loom needs a bit of tinkering." The gentle parson was at that moment think- ing of the hard work that fell to the lot of the cottagers in his parish. **Poor people! All of them old before they have had a chance to be young!" he said to himself. *^No time to walk out under the sky, to stretch their hearts as 55 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION well as their legs and breathe freely the air of heaven. ' ' He sighed heavily, but soon shook himself free of his troubled thoughts and began to hum a happy air. A lark rose from the field, filling the sunshine with song. The parson's heart sang and his horse's hoofs seemed to beat out a tune. He was putting the gladness of the day into words — for since the time he first tasted the joys of learning and poetry at Ox- ford, Edmund Cartwright had loved to set his thoughts to music — ^when he was roused by a merry greeting. ^'How many miles away were you this time, friend Poet?" called the squire, from his gar- den. *^Not to look at a neighbor when he hails you twice ! And here are some gentlemen from Manchester you will want to talk with. They can tell you all about the new spinning-machine you were so curious to hear of. ' ' ^^Does the poet take an interest in me- chanics I ' ' asked one of the visitors. ^ ' Behold a man who can use his hands as well as his head!" cried the squire, heartily. *^I am indeed interested in devices for saving 56 EDMUND CARTWEIGHT labor,'' said Cartwright, ''and anything that promises to make lighter the load of the weavers must be of particular concern to us; for, surely, of all people, their toil seems the hardest. ' ' ' ' They will have to work harder than ever to keep up with the increased output of the spin- ning-mills, ' ' was the reply. ' ' The day is passed when the loom can keep ahead of the supply of spun yarn." ''But cannot some machine be devised for weaving, as Arkwright's has met the problem of spinning!'' asked the parson eagerly. "No, that is a different matter," the Man- chester gentleman assured him. "It is clearly impossible. You cannot make a mechanical de- vice to take the place of the deft hands of the weaver. ' ' But Edmund Cartwright was not convinced. "I have seen an automaton play a game of chess," he contended. "If it is possible for a machine to make the complicated moves in that game, it is certainly reasonable to enter- tain the idea that a machine can be framed to 57 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION make and repeat successively the three move- ments involved in weaving. ' ' During the following weeks the poet-parson was observed to be even more absent-minded than was his wont ; and the face he turned upon his Sunday congregation bore the marks of eager thought. *^ Parson is surely working up something new," was the remark. Indeed, so fast did his ideas take shape that his hands lagged behind. He called in a car- penter and smith to work for him and a weaver to lay warp threads on the machine they fash- ioned. Then threads of heavy material, like that used in making sails, were indeed woven into cloth by the new device. In a letter to a friend Edmund Cartwright wrote : As I had never before turned my thoughts to the details of mechanism either in theory or practice, nor had seen a loom at work, nor knew anything of its construction, you will readily suppose that my first loom must have been a rude sort of machinery. The warp was laid perpendicularly, the reed fell with a force of at least half a hundred weight, and the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the machine, at a slow rate, and for only a short time. Conceiving in my 58 EDMUND CAETWEIGHT simplicity that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured what I thought a most valuable property by a patent, 4th of April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove; and you will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom in its general principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not till the year 1787, that I completed my invention, when I took out my last weaving patent, August the 1st of that year. So determined was Cartwright to make Ms invention of practical service that he devoted his modest fortune to starting a factory where the newly discovered steam-engine of Watt furnished the power. This was in 1789. Two years later a Manchester firm signed a contract for fonr hundred looms, but here the weavers, whom he sought to help, nearly wrecked the venture. *^His ^men of iron' will starve out workers of flesh and blood,'' they declared. And one might the factory was burned, and with it hundreds of the machines which represented the entire wealth of the gen- erous inventor. ^^The ways of business are too much for a simple scholar," lamented the poet-parson whimsically. **My poor earthen pot could not 59 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION hold its own with the brass ones in the stream of commerce/^ But the merchants and factory-owners of Power Loom Manchester came to his rescue, begging Parlia- ment to recognize the value to the nation of his invention by an award that should at least 60 EDMUND CARTWRIGHT cover his losses; and a grant of ten thousand pounds was made to the inventor of the power- loom. This gave the poet, who had proved himself a mechanical genius as well as a scholar, the opportunity to try his hand at new devices. One of these was a wool-combing machine. Turning his attention to the farmers' prob- lems, he contrived machines to aid in planting and in reaping, also a device for kneading bread to lighten the labor of his own kitchen. Then he began to speculate on the possibility of making the steam-engine play a part in water travel. We are told that, when Robert Fulton was studying painting in England under Ben- jamin West, he met the enthusiastic inventor, who showed him a model he had fashioned of a boat propelled by steam. * ^ Mark my words, ' * declared Edmund Cartwright, *^the day is surely coming when steam will furnish the power in transportation both by land and water. ' ' But never while turning his hand to practical inventions did the gentle scholar lose his in- terest in poetry. *^At eighty he was still as 61 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION merry and alert as a youth,'' the poet Crabbe says of him in his letters. ^'Few persons could tell a good story so well. I can just remember him, the portly, dignified old gentleman of the last generation, grave and polite, but full of humor and spirit. " 62 THE YANKEE WHO CROWNED KING COTTON Eli Whitney (1765-1825) THAT lad will never make a proper farmer, Mr. Whitney. Yon Ve let him potter about and tinker with tools until he has lost all taste for hard work. ' * Mr. Whitney had been showing his neighbor a fiddle which the clever fingers of his twelve- year-old boy had fashioned. **Yes, he 's not much use in the fields, but he 's fair crazy to be at the work-bench. I tell him that it 's all very well to have a turn at the tools on winter evenings, but that woodworking and the like will never make his fortune," re- plied Farmer Whitney. ** Still, he comes by his taste naturally enough. There 's many a fireside hereabouts that knows the comfort of chairs I Ve made, and you yourself know where to come when your wagon needs a new 63 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION wheel. But I Ve never been one to neglect my crops for any fancy," lie added. ^^ Perhaps I '11 prove that I '11 not neglect my crops either; only they may be a different sort from those most people grow," pnt in the lad, boldly. It was soon proved that Eli Whitney conld not only make and mend fiddles bnt also do many another job requiring skilful fingers. At the time of the Eevolutionary War, when he was still a boy in his early teens, he turned out a very profitable crop of nails — then in great demand because of the interrupted trade with England — and at various kinds of wood- work and metal-work he proved that he could surpass any mechanic in town. Indeed, the boy's business grew so that he set out to find a helper. This search took him forty miles from the little Massachusetts village, Westboro, where he had been born. This was the longest journey into the world he had yet made, and the mile-stones of that journey were the workshops that he visited. ^^I brought back some one to help me turn out nails," said Eli, ^'and I also brought back 64 ELI WHITNEY many useful notions that were of use in the tasks ahead.'' After the close of the war brought an end to the demand for Eli's home-made nails, he was not slow to find opportunities in other di- rections. To-day it was a fashion in ladies' bonnets that made a market for a certain sort of long pins ; to-morrow he made such cleverly turned walking-sticks that another market for his wares was created. Here was a jack of all trades who seemed destined to prove himself a master of each. **Well, there seems little doubt but what you have proved you can bring out crops of your own," admitted Eli's father. ^'A first-rate mechanic need never know want. " **But I am not sure that I want to be a me- chanic. I want to go to Yale College and have a look at the world of books," was the astonish- ing reply. *^Well, Eli, you have always been a queer one," said Mr. Whitney, but there was a note of pride in his voice. ''At nine you begged to leave your books for the work-bench and now at nineteen you want to go to school again. 65 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION "Wliat do you think about it, wifef he added. *^Why it is certain that Eli has neither the money nor the book-learning to take him to col- lege, ' ' was the matter-of-fact reply of the step- mother who always prided herself on doing her full duty, but who often went about it in a way that won small thanks. *^He has learned to make a good living; why should he plan to spend money instead of providing for him- self r' It was now quite clear to the young man that he could look for no help from others. He would have to make his own way. The odd jobs that filled his shop had a new interest. They were helping him on his road to college. And as he worked at his bench a book was always handy to keep him company. For four years he steered a straight course — working and saving, earning and learning — never for a moment losing sight of his goal. Any kind of work that offered the best return was eagerly seized. At planting and harvesting times he did farm work; in the winter months he taught school; and always the skilled me- 66 ELI WHITNEY chanic was ready to find time for the tasks that came to his shop. When young Whitney was twenty-three his father said, ^^You shall not have to wait longer for your chance. I will lend you what is needed in addition to your savings; I have faith that you will pay back what is given you both in money and in opportunity." We may say here in passing that within three years of Eli Whitney's graduation he had re- paid his father the money borrowed; and as for his use of the opportunities which a broader education offered, all the succeeding years of his life tell that story. The young man soon made himself at home in his new world of books. He was not ashamed to find himself some seven years older than most of his classmates. ^'I have surely gained something from my experience with practical work," he said to himself, ''that should help me to make good use of all I have a chance to learn here." In those days college courses were not great- ly in advance of what most high schools offer to-day, and there were no technical or engi- 67 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION neering departments to meet the needs of young men with gifts like those of Eli Whitney. Still his talent conld not be hidden. One day a piece of delicate experimental apparatus was found to be in need of repair. ^^We must send that abroad where it was made, ' ' said the instructor. ^ ' There is no place on this side of the water where it can be handled. ' ' ^^Let me see what I can do with it/' said young Whitney. ^^I '11 promise not to leave it any the worse." Within a few days he asked the teacher to test his work. ''Why, I can hardly believe that it was ever out of order! You are certainly at home with tools!'' exclaimed the professor. ''A first-rate mechanic was spoiled when you took it into your head to come here," said a carpenter who was employed about the college buildings. When young Whitney was graduated, in his twenty- seventh year, he decided to take a po- sition as teacher and to read law in his spare time. A school in the South seemed to offer a ELI WHITNEY good opening, and lie took passage on a boat sailing from New York to Savannali. This voyage proved a journey into a new life. One of his fellow passengers, the widow of Nathanael Greene, the famous general of the Eevolution, took an interest in this brilliant young Northerner who was seeking his fortune in the South, and invited him to her home in Savannah. ^'You must begin to know Georgia by seeing what plantation life is like. Be one of our family until you find where you really want to take root," said Mrs. Greene. Mulberry Grove was a beautiful estate twelve miles from Savannah, which had been confis- cated at the time its owner took arms against the Colonies, and had been given to General Greene by the state of Georgia, in recognition of his services to his country during the Revo- lution. *^I seem to have stepped on a new planet, a happier star than that which knows the patch on the map we call New England,'' said the visitor as he looked at the live-oaks hung with festoons of soft gray moss and at the glossy- leaved magnolias where mocking-birds sang 69 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION and jewel-like Inimming-birds darted abouu. In the fields beyond the grove that surrounded the mansion stretched the fields of rice and cotton where the negroes sang and whistled as they worked. At night Whitney loved to hear the negroes singing the old plantation airs as they sat in front of their cabins picking seeds from the ** vegetable wool.'^ It was a tedious task, and an overseer had to keep sharp watch to nudge the idle and spur on with a word the too-lively ones who were ready to drop their task for fun by the way. There were, however, the holiday times when banjos were brought out and all the evening was given over to merry- making, — to singing and dancing and a feast of watermelon or roasted corn. ^^ There is only one thing to mar my enjoy- ment of your happy South, ' ' said Whitney one day. ^^I have just received news that makes it seem likely that I must leave it. Instead of a hundred guineas as salary, my school now pro- poses to pay me only fifty. Of course I cannot accept that.'' ^* Surely not,'' agreed Mrs. Greene, heartily. 70 ELI WHITNEY ''But do not leave Georgia until we liave a chance to prove there is a much fairer fortune in store for you here. Go on with the reading of law as you had planned, at Mulberry Grove for the present. The children will be overjoyed to learn that their new playmate whose wonderworking fingers are always ready to make or mend toys for them is not going away to keep school just yet." Indeed, Whitney's mechanical turn had proved of service on more than one occasion. That very evening, when Mrs. Greene cried out in vexation that her embroidery frame was fashioned so clumsily that it tore her delicate work, her guest came to the rescue and con- structed one more to her fancy. This incident was fresh in her mind next day when some visiting planters were speaking of the work of picking out cotton-seed from the fiber as the great handicap of the cotton in- dustry. *^If only there were some machine to do this work, what a fortune there would be in our fields!'' said Major Pendleton, who had been a comrade of General Greene. 71 CONQUESTS OP INVENTION '^Ask Mr. Whitney to make yon one!'' ex- claimed Mrs. Greene. ^ ' He can make anything. ' ' Major Pendleton looked curiously at the young man. *^Is it possible that we have an inventor among us?" he said banteringly. ^'Well, if you can work some magic to do this job, you 're the man for us." *^It is a new problem, gentlemen," replied Whitney, modestly. ^^I come from the North, where we never see the snow of your cotton- fields^ as it grows in the boll. But let me make a few experiments with your * vegetable wool.' It may be that something will come of it." The next day Eli Whitney began his experi- ments by trying to pull the cotton-seeds from the lint by hand. ^^No wonder your negroes need a strict overseer to keep them at this task!" he exclaimed. ^^I must see if there are not some machine fingers that will not tire to do this tedious job in place of fingers of flesh and blood." In a basement room of Mrs. Greene's man- sion he set up a work-bench and faced the prob- lem squarely. In course of time he constructed a ^ ' gin. ' ' Its plan was simple enough : A num- 72 ELI WHITNEY ber of circular saws, so closely grouped on a shaft as to make a roller of points or teeth, seized the cotton as it was fed into the machine and pulled it through a sort of grating where it was separated from the seeds, which fell un- broken below the saws to the bottom of the hopper. A brush revolving rapidly in the op- posite direction from the roller cleared the teeth of lint. This was the cotton-gin, which, turned by hand, did in a moment with its hun- dreds of points the work which had formerly been done slowly and painfully by as many hands. It was no harder to turn that first cotton-gin than if it had been an ordinary grindstone, but what if it could have ground out the story of the hard work that had gone to its making! Its inventor had not only to construct the ma- chine but also to make most of his tools and make over his material. For instance, when he wanted sheets of iron plate for his circular saws there was none to be had. While he was wondering where he might find something to serve his purpose, Mrs. Greene's small daugh- 73 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION ter came to her friend ^Vho could make any- thing'' with a request. '* Please make a cage for my bird," she begged. ^ ' Here is a box of wire Mother got for it. I know you can make a beautiful cage. ' ' Mr. Whitney always looked pleasant when he was asked to do something, but now his face shone as if the sun had suddenly come from behind a cloud. ' * This wire sets me free from my cage ! " he said with a laugh of triumph. ^'Your singer shall have a very palace of a cage, and there '11 be enough left to serve the turn of my cotton- picker ! ' ' As the bird sang on his new perch, Mr. Whit- ney whistled at his bench. His happy tune did not change when he found that the wire was too thick and that he must draw it out to a suit- able size. Nor did it quite die away when he found that he would have to fashion tools for this task. The wire was made of the required thinness and then a long series of experiments was made with different lengths and different arrangements until at last the right thing was hit upon. 74 ELI WHITNEY There had been a discouraged moment when Whitney could not see what was to be done to prevent the clogging of the wire teeth with the fiber. *^It seems to me something of this sort might keep you swept clean!'' laughed Mrs. Greene, picking up the brush from the hearth and bran- dishing it over the choked cylinder. ^'Why, of course!'' cried Whitney, echoing her laugh. ^'It takes a woman to help us out when we can't see what is right before our eyes ! I '11 put in another brush roller to spin around in the opposite direction and snatch off with its bristles the lint that gets caught in the wire teeth." When this was accomplished, Mrs. Greene cried, * ^ Now let us call the neighbors in ! " Her assembled friends — many of whom were planters — ^were not slow to recognize what this invention would mean to them and to the South. ^'And it should mean a gold-mine to you, young man," they declared warmly. ^* Don't delay to take out a patent, or to send us a sup- ply of gins." * * I hate to throw my study of law overboard, 75 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION and to strike out on the stormy sea tliat wrecks most inventors/' said Whitney, donbtfuUy. ^*I certainly have little spirit and no money for the struggle. ' ' Then Phineas Miller, the manager of Mrs. Greene's estate, said, **Let ns form a partner- ship. Yon furnish the brains and I '11 risk the cash needed." Whitney, who knew that Mr. Miller was as good as his word, agreed ; and the firm of Miller and Whitney was then and there formed. May 27, 1793. There were troublous times ahead for the firm. Despite the great wealth that the inven- tion brought to the planters, they sought to avoid sharing any of it with the inventor. Dis- honest men attempted to make similar gins, thus infringing his patent. There was a long and discouraging fight before Whitney could secure even a small part of the reward that should have been his. At last some of the Southern states levied a tax on gins in order to make an award to the man who ^^had crowned King Cotton." South Carolina gave $50,000; North Carolina $20,000; Tennessee $10,000; and the other states together about $10,000. If 76 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION Eli Whitney and his stanch ally, Phineas Mil- ler, had been working chiefly for a golden har- vest, they would have been disappointed and embittered men. But no one could look at Whitney — tall, com- manding, and kindly, a man of many interests and many friends — as one whose worth or whose happiness was to be measured by the dollar-mark. His inventive brain was always alert. Now he made a venture in the employ- ment of cement for the foundation and walls of his house, saying, * ' The day is not far distant when this material will play a great part in the building of our cities. ' ' Now he busied himself with constructing various tools and machines as some need suggested to his original genius the way in which it might be met. But for none of these things would he take out patents. **The experience I have had with patents in the case of the cotton-gin will last me through life,'' he used to say. What the cotton-gin meant in the develop- ment of the South may be indicated by noting that in 1796 cotton was so abundant that some 78 ELI WHITNEY plantation-owners began to fear that the mar- ket would be flooded. *'Well!'' cried one planter, gazing in awe at his bumper crop, ^'this is the end of cotton! There ^s enough in my gin-house to-day to make stockings for all the people in America.'' He was unable to picture what the South was des- tined to do in clothing the people of the world. Eli Whitney was the man whose invention had brought this new tide of prosperity. He was the kingmaker who gave American cotton its power and place in the markets of the world. 79 BY-PEODUCTS A WISE man once said that *'a weed is a plant whose use has not yet been found out.'' Our ignorance is measured by what we waste. Advance in knowledge and increased efficiency are measured by the removal of waste. Meat-packers find a use for all parts of the ani- mals in which they deal. The person who de- clared, *^ To-day all of the pig serves some purpose, except the squeal, ' ' was trying to em- phasize the way in which modern industry uses much that was formerly thrown aside. The story of the wealth that lies in the re- moval of waste is well illustrated by the story of the by-products of cotton. For hundreds of years, when the fibers that could be spun into thread had been separated from pods and seeds, the remainder was cast aside as useless. To-day, leaves, pods, and seeds make a most valuable fodder for cattle; the fluff that clings .80 BY-PRODUCTS to the seeds as they pass through the gin makes felt hats; other waste fiber is converted into paper; the root furnishes a useful drug, and the bark of the cotton-stalk makes excellent bags and mats. The uses of the seeds, which before 1860 were thrown away, would fill a volume. After the valuable oil which they contain is extracted to serve in the preparation of food- stuffs, medicine, and soap, the remainder is utilized as a food for cattle and also as a much- prized fertilizer. Indeed, we can begin to understand why cot- ton is called the '^ money crop" of the South when we pass in review but a few of its prod- ucts. Dr. Scherer in his book, ^'Cotton as a World Power," quotes from a North Carolina professor of agriculture this spirited para- graph : You get up in the morning from a bed, clothed in cotton. You step out on a cotton rug. You let in the light by raising a cotton window-shade. You wash with soap made partly from cottonseed oil products. You dry your face on a cotton towel. You array yourself chiefly in cotton clothing. The "silk" in which your wife dresses is prob- ably mercerized cotton. At the breakfast table you do not get away from King Cotton; cottolene has probably taken 81 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION the place of lard in the biscuit you eat. The beef and the mutton were probably fattened on cottonseed meal and hulls. Your "imported olive oil" is more likely from a Texas cotton farm than from an Italian villa. Your "but- ter" is probably a product of Southern cottonseed. The coal that bums in the fire may have been mined by the light of a cotton-oil lamp. The sheep from which your woolen clothing came were probably fed on cotton-seed. The tonic you take may contain an extract of cotton root- bark. Your morning daily may be printed on cotton waste paper — and even in the skirmish it tells about, the con- tending forces were clothed in khaki duck, slept under cot- ton tents, cotton was an essential in the high explosives that were used, and when at last war had done its worst, surgery itself called cotton into requisition to aid the injured and dying. 82 INVENTIONS IN THE HOME Work — ^work — ^work, Till the brain begins to swim; Work — work — work, Till the eyes are heavy and dim! Seam, and gusset, and band, Band, and gusset, and seam, Till over the buttons I fall asleep, And sew them on in a dream! "The Song of the Shirt"— Thomas Hood. INVENTIONS IN THE HOME THE inventions that set women free from household slavery mark important steps in hnman progress. When the mother of the home had to spin and weave the cloth, and make as well as mend all the clothing of her family, there was little time for anything but drudgery. We pity the savage mother with her baby strapped on her back as she hoes corn, cuts wood, and carries water. There is no room for thought or fancy, for smiles or tears, in such a life. She is only a dull, heavy-eyed beast of burden. But how many women of our America in ^'the good old days'' had a like fate! How many housewives worked from dawn to dark, day in and day out, at tasks that were always doing and never done ! Most of them were old and worn as if with age before they had a chance to be young. Many of them went mad ; 85 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION their hearts and minds were crushed by the ceaseless, changeless grind as between heavy millstones. To-day, women, freed from household slav- ery, can give better care and training to their children than was possible in the old days. The housekeeper and drudge gives place to the home-maker. And, since ^^the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world" — because the welfare of the men and women of to-morrow depends upon the happiness and well-being of the children of to-day — so what has brought advance to the women has brought progress to the race. When you help a man your gift may stop with him, but when you help a mother you give to a family. 86 THE INVENTOR OF THE SEWING- MACHINE Elias Howe (1819-1867) A SMALL boy of six years was busy stitch- ing wire teeth into the heavy ^* cards'' that were to be used in straightening out the cotton fiber in the mills of New England. His father was a hard-working farmer, but he could not coax from his stony fields crops large enough to feed eight hungry children, so he had to turn his hand to other tasks such as grinding meal for the farmers of the neighborhood, saw- ing and planing boards and splitting shingles. The boys and girls of the family early learned how to help out in various tasks, for one pair of hands could not do everything. * ^ Maybe some day I '11 make a mill to stitch these old cotton cards," boasted the little boy, whose fingers soon tired. 87 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION Elias Howe was never tired, however, watch- ing his father's mills at work, and it was a proud day when he conld help with the grinding and the sawing. He was a lively lad and full of fun; and he managed to make merry while he worked about the busy machines or took his part in the farm tasks. The ways of machinery were his chief delight. ^^The boy takes after his uncles; they were never happy unless they were working with tools and contriving new ways of doing things," said his father. The two brothers of the older Elias Howe had more than an ordinary inventive turn. One of them, William Howe, invented a truss or supporting frame that is still in use for roofs and bridges. Little Elias Howe was constantly getting val- uable ideas from what went on about him, and his ready skill with tools was won through doing the everyday tasks of home and farm that fell to his lot. Those were times when one did not at once go to a store to buy what was needed in the way of household utensils and farm equipment. People first studied how to 88 Courtesy of The Mentor Elias Howe ELIAS HOWE make or mend what was at hand. Elias became an adept in the art of piecing together and mak- ing over things. As he learned by doing his wits became as nimble as his fingers, and his cheerfulness over a task made him a general favorite. ^^No one like Elias for grit and gumption/' people said. *^He is a hard-working lad, but easy company. And a boy who sticks to things the way he does has something in him that deserves to succeed. '^ Elias Howe went to school in his native vil- lage — Spencer, Massachusetts, about twenty miles from Worcester — during the winter jXLonths; and in the spring of his twelfth year he began to work for his **keep'' on a neigh- boring farm. ** There '11 be one boy less to feed at home," he said. ^*And I'll learn the A-B-C's of farming, ' ' But the boy, though wiry and willing, had never been strong, and, moreover, a trouble- some lameness made him unfitted for heavy farm work. So he went back to work in his father's mills until he was sixteen, when he 89 CX)NQUESTS OF INVENTION started as apprentice in a machine-shop at Lowell. When, two years later, a panic led to the closing of all the mills in that town, Howe went to Boston, where he found a place in the shop of Ari Davis, a manufacturer and repairer of surveying-instruments and timepieces. *' Davis was an odd duck — ^you wouldn't think to look at his queer head that it held so many ideas,'' Howe said years later. ^'But instrument-makers and inventors of different machines knew where to go for help and sug- gestions, as bees know where to find honey. Nothing could have been better for me than the experience I got in Davis's shop. It was there that my idea of the sewing-machine was born. A man who was trying to invent a knitting- machine dropped in one day. ^Why bother about that thing?' said Davis. ^Why don't you make a sewing-machine?' " , Young Howe listened carelessly. He did not dream that the turning-point in his life had been reached. His attention was caught by the boastful emphasis with which he heard Davis declare, **A sewing-machine would be no great wonder! I could make one, myself!" Then 90 ELIAS HOWE the idea flashed into the mind of the appren- tice, who since he was a tiny boy, had longed to make machines, that he might be the fortunate inventor. **Many people try things; few have the per- severance to carry their attempts on to suc- cess,'' he said to himself. *'I shall win by sticking to this idea till something comes of it. There should be fame and fortune in it, for it will save hands much weary work. It will mean a new life to women who, like my mother, have a family of children to keep in clothes.'' So he set to work with a will. As a starting- point, Howe knew machinery as an Indian knew woodcraft. He could hardly remember the time when he had not understood the ways of wheels, ratchets, and springs. At Lowell he had had practical experience with spinning- machines and power-looms. He was, moreover, used as we have seen, to exercising ingenuity in making things. So it was not quite a leap in the dark when he said, ^ ^I will make a sewing- machine ; I will not turn my face from the task till I have won success. ' ' Perhaps if he could have seen the dark way 91 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION ahead his heart might have faltered. Would the bright fortune that beckoned at the end of the long road have been able to lure him on despite all the trials and hardships that were to test his soul before he was to see any result of his work? As Howe watched his wife sewing he tried to imagine a machine that would be able to go through the same motions. This led him off on a false trail. There were many attempts and many failures before the idea suddenly flashed through his brain that his machine was not obliged to move as the hand did. Why should his mighty stitcher that was to do the work of many hands not move in a manner of its own? **A mere trifle — like a chance thought — often seems to be the thing that changes a whole life story/' said Howe. ^^But perhaps there is no such thing as chance. It may be what we call little things are those that really count for most.'' At any rate, the idea of a machine working out a new stitch was the turning-point in the story of his invention. Machines that made a chain-stitch were in existence ; he had probably 92 ELIAS HOWE seen or heard of one of these. He dreamed, however, of making something that would work in a new and better way. It is small wonder that he imagined a shuttle as playing a part in his machine, for all his life he had seen shuttles flying to and fro in looms. ^^Why not make a sort of loom stitch where one thread is woven in and out with another T' he said to himself. There were more trials and failures, but he realized exultingly that he was on the right track. At last he hit upon his lock- stitch, where his needle plying ever up and down in the same spot threw, when under the cloth, a loop which was interwoven with the thread from a shuttle that clicked back and forth at regular intervals. Elias Howe was now sure that he had a good thing, but he knew that there were many points in which his machine needed improvement. He must have time to experiment and to make a perfect model. What was he to do? He had to earn the living of his family; and with all his skill and hard work he often received only nine dollars a week. That gave him no chance to save or to work on his invention. 93 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION ^*At that time I was frequently so tired when I came in from my day's work,'' said Howe, ^ ^ that I could do nothing but go to bed, longing for a rest without a to-morrow calling me out to the same grind. I made up my mind that the only chance of bettering myself and my family lay in the direction of my invention, so I went to live at my father's house. He had faith in my venture, and for a while under his roof I gave all my time to the sewing-machine. ' ' *^ Young Elias Howe is a clever workman," said the neighbors, shaking their heads, ^*It is a pity that he spends his time on queer inven- tions when he ought to be getting steady em- ployment. ' ' This chapter in Howe's life came to a sudden close. A fire destroyed his father's shop and for a time left the older man without means to help his son. But if trouble seemed ever to be dogging the footsteps of young Howe, Hope stood at the turn of the road to give him cour- age. He found a friend in need, a friend who had just come into a tidy legacy and who dreamed of a lucky stroke that would suddenly turn it into a real fortune. 94 I ELIAS HOWE **Come and live with me,'' said George Fisher. *^Your family will have a comfortable home while you spend all your time on the sew- ing-machine. We will form a partnership and when success comes we will share the profits.'' *^But I must work and save long enough to get money for necessary tools and materials for my model, ' ' protested Howe. * ^ Turn to your partner ! ' ' said Fisher. * * Here is five hundred dollars which I will risk in the cause. ' ' After months of work, when each of the part- ners was wearing a suit of clothes stitched on the completed model, it seemed as if success must be at hand. But, behold, an unforeseen difficulty! Here was the wonderful invention ready and waiting for a world that did not seem to know or care that it stood in need of just what the Howe sewing-machine could supply. Clothing manufacturers shook their heads. **It will cost us a great deal of money to make a new start with your machines," they said. *^Why should we do that and perhaps bring down on us riots from people thrown out of 95 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION work, when we are doing very well just as we are?'' But Howe refused to take this rebuff seri- ously. *'It may take a little time/' he said, '^but in the end people can't help seeing that what saves labor lengthens life. That is only common sense." The next step was to take out a patent. *^That means a journey to the Patent Office," said Howe. *^But where am I to get the money for the fare to Washington? I cannot look to Fisher for another loan ; he will rue the day he ever heard of me and my sewing-machine." **Will you man an engine for a while?" he was asked. ** Another locomotive engineer is badly needed just now." <lG,'if, ^V ^> ^1!^^ « Courtesy of The Mentor Charles Goodyear CHAELES GOODYEAE spirit of the boy^s ancestor, Stephen Goodyear (who was, after Governor Eaton, the chosen leader of the first settlers of New Haven) made him long to blaze a new trail. *^I think that my place is in the world of busi- ness after all,^' he said when people asked why he had given up the idea of college. ^ ^ I like to work with hands and head together." At seventeen he went to Philadelphia, where he served for four years as apprentice to a hardware merchant, endeavoring to master every phase of the trade. Then he returned to his father's shop. He soon showed a wonder- ful skill in the use of tools and a cleverness in contriving ways of improving the various implements turned out by the Goodyear manufactory. ^ ^ His gift was in the way of mechanics, after all," people said. But Charles knew better. * ' I have no natural knack that way," he explained to one of his friends. ^*In fact, I even hate the whirr and whirl of machinery. But I long to make poor, clumsy things better. They seem to cry out to be improved. I should want to do it even if I 113 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION did not have to earn a living. It should be pos- sible for a business man to show that he cares for something more than the money that comes in and to live according to a better maxim than that which says : ' Things should be made so that they will not last too long. ' ' ' When Goodyear was twenty-four years old he married and two years later set up in Phila- delphia a hardware store stocked with goods from his father's workshop. After he had suc- ceeded, despite the general prejudice against American-made articles, in building up a trade that reached to many sections of the country, his business failed because his kindly, trusting nature led him into giving credit wherever it was asked. Money was slow in coming in and some dealers who had taken his goods and his credit never met their bills. There came dark days when Goodyear, who assumed full respon- sibility for his firm, was put in prison for debt. Never for a moment losing heart, however, he had his bench brought to the jail and worked there to complete inventions that he was sure would be the means of repaying all his creditors as well as meeting the needs of his family. 114 CHAELES GOODYEAE ^^It must have been a bitter experience to go under through no fault of yours," Goodyear 's friends said, ^^and to see others who had more capital to weather the days of bad debts reap a harvest out of the business you had built up and the goods of your own making.'' '^Well," Goodyear replied, with his slow, thoughtful smile, ^^I don't think you can prove the worth of a man — or of his career — in dollars and cents. I am not disposed to grieve because others have gathered the fruits of my planting. Man has real cause for regret when he sows and no one reaps." For ten years Charles Goodyear was con- stantly besieged by the demands of those who held claims against Eis business, and through the harsh laws of the time he was again and again imprisoned, since he refused to declare himself bankrupt. This would have meant free- dom from all claims, but at the cost of turning over all that remained of his business, including his unfinished inventions. ^^And I did not want to be released from any- thing; I only asked the chance to pay to the last penny," Goodyear mourned. ^*But it is cer- 115 CONQUESTS OF INVENTION tain that if one^s conscience is clear and his purpose trne he can find that even an experience such as mine is not without its silver lining. For I know that it is possible to find happiness everywhere, even within prison walls. ' ^ Later, Goodyear must have more fully appre- ciated that the trouble which made him yield first and last all the rewards of his agricultural inventions to others was a blessing in disguise, since because of it he turned his efforts into an entirely new channel where lay his real life- work. One day while looking about a New York wareroom containing rubber goods, he chanced to observe that the life-preservers were defec- tive, and, returning a few days later, he offered the merchant an improved tube for inflating them. *^You are a clever inventor," declared the gratified merchant. **Now, if you could only manage to hit on some way to prevent rubber from spoiling in hot weather you might make a fortune for yourself and at the same time save our factories from failure. We have risked all 116 CHAELES GOODYEAE our capital in this business and unless help comes we must go to the wall.'' Charles Goodyear looked at the man in amaze- ment. It seemed impossible that they should have gone so far without first having overcome that difficulty. In a flash he remembered how