LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 C/flSS 
 
A PATHFINDER 
 
 DISCOVERY, INVENTION 
 AND INDUSTRY 
 
-- G t*ll,*-a 3 Br 
 
(5 
 
 A PATHFINDER 
 
 DISCOVERY, INVENTION AND INDUSTRY 
 
 HOW THE WORLD CAME TO HAVE AQUADAG 
 
 AND OILDAG; ALSO, CARBORUNDUM, 
 
 ARTIFICIAL GRAPHITE AND OTHER 
 
 VALUABLE PRODUCTS OP THE 
 
 ELECTRIC FURNACE 
 
 THE FIRST OP A SERIES, OP EDUCATIONAL 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OP 
 
 EMINENT INVENTORS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THB PRESS SCRAP BOOK 
 
 208 BROAD WAT, NBW YORK 
 
 1010 
 
TP140 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The subject of this work has for a number of 
 years had in process of preparation a history of 
 his life and work. It has not >been his intention 
 to publish it, his sole purpose being to record 
 the events of his life for the benefit of his family 
 and friends. Recently he permitted the pub- 
 lishers to read this autobiographical sketch, and 
 in view of the prominence he has attained, we 
 urged him to give, to the youth and young men 
 of the country, this life-story, and with much 
 hesitation he finally assented to such publica- 
 tion, and we here give it in his own words, with 
 the belief that it may prove of very material 
 benefit to many of the young men of the world, 
 relating, as it does, his boyhood inspirations, 
 struggles as a young man, contentions against 
 many vicissitudes, his persistent dedication of 
 himself to a fixed purpose, his final triumphs, 
 and the acceptance of the results he has attained 
 by the scientific and industrial world. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS 
 
 200345 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 To Ambitious Youth everywhere, particu- 
 larly those who need a realization of their own 
 mental and physical ability, as well as a proper 
 conception of the world's appreciation of ac- 
 complishment, to inspire them to their greatest 
 efforts to win success, this modest work is dedi- 
 cated. Should it be the inspiration that arouses 
 one life and awakens it to its own possibilities 
 guiding one to devote his life and efforts as a 
 leader in the world's work, the object of its 
 publication will have been effected. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Preface 
 Dedication 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I The World's Recognition . . . . . ,. 15 
 
 II Dr. Acheson's Ancestors .... . \. 23 
 
 III Dr. Acheson's Story; Birth to Sixteen Years 
 
 of Age 26 
 
 IV Sixteenth to Twenty-second Year ... 31 
 V Twenty-second to Twenty-fourth ] Year . 41 
 
 VI At Menlo Park 54 
 
 VII In Europe 69 
 
 VIII Twenty-eighth to Thirty-fifth Year ... 83 
 
 IX Discovery and Development of Carborundum 97 
 
 X Graphite 116 
 
 XI Egyptianized Clay; Direct Reduction of 
 Aluminum and Silicon; Production of 
 Siloxicon, Lubricating Graphite, Aqua- 
 dag and Oildag ..... V . . 123 
 
 XII Societies and Clubs . . . V . . . ; t 131 
 
 XIII Papers Written and Read . . VvVV.> 133 
 
 XIV Honors Conferred . . . /; . . . 135 
 XV Conclusion 137 
 
, 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE WORLD'S RECOGNITION 
 
 There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 rough-hew them how we will. Shakespeare. 
 
 IT requires a most thorough knowledge and 
 careful study of the lives of men, who have 
 become eminent in various fields, to realize 
 fully the force and truth of the above quotation. 
 Could we but know the heart-secrets of men 
 who have won renown for great works, we would 
 learn that moving them irresistibly toward 
 higher things was a prompting to which their 
 inspiration responded. There is a wealth of 
 enlightenment and education in reviewing such 
 lives, and the presentation of the Perkin Medal 
 to Dr. Edward Goodrich Acheson on January 
 aist, 1910, has brought into new prominence 
 an inventor whose life work and achievements 
 make a fascinating story. Twice has his 
 scientific research won for him the John Scott 
 Medal, presented by the Franklin Institute of 
 
Philadelphia. The American Academy of Arts 
 and Sciences has also awarded him the famous 
 Rumford Medals. An additional great honor 
 came to him when the University of Pittsburg 
 recognized his work by conferring upon him the 
 Degree of Doctor of Science. The award and 
 presentation of the Perkin Medal came as a 
 tribute of appreciation from fellow -chemists 
 and electro-chemists of the United States, who 
 thus frankly and generously recognized his 
 position in the field in which he has so success- 
 fully labored. 
 
 The Perkin Medal was first presented to the 
 noted English scientist, Sir William H. Perkin, 
 in recognition of his services to art and industry 
 in developing the uses of coal tar, for which he 
 was also knighted by King Edward VII. It is a 
 gold decoration given now yearly to the Ameri- 
 can Scientist who has accomplished the most 
 valuable work in applied chemistry, and its 
 presentation to Dr. Edward Goodrich Acheson 
 by the unanimous vote of committees represent- 
 ing the Society of Chemical Industry, the 
 American Chemical Society and the American 
 
 16 
 
Electro-Chemical Society, showed marked 
 acknowledgment and appreciation of the fact 
 that Dr. Acheson ranks with the eminent of his 
 profession, in the application of his talents and 
 his energy and industry to the betterment of 
 mankind, the advancement of science, and the 
 improvement of the conditions under which we 
 live. 
 
 The session of the Society of Chemical Indus- 
 try, at which the presentation was made, was 
 presided over by Maximilian Toch, Chairman of 
 the New York section of the Society, and Pro- 
 fessor C. F. Chandler, of Columbia University, 
 made the presentation in the presence of about 
 one hundred members and guests. Professor 
 Chandler, speaking as a Past President of the 
 Society of Chemical Industry, in reviewing 
 Dr. Acheson's life work, said in part: 
 
 "Dr. Acheson possesses the rare merit of 
 combining the inventive, the constructive, and 
 the organizing faculties. He has been most 
 successful in discovering entirely new materials 
 suitable for a great variety of purposes, which 
 have become indispensable to the world. He 
 
has also been able to devise most perfect 
 methods and appliances for producing his new 
 products on a large scale, and to organize and 
 finance great companies to put his inventions 
 into successful operation. 
 
 "His efforts have not been directed merely 
 to improving processes and products previously 
 known. He has made entirely new departures 
 and created new industries, supplied previously 
 unknown materials for use in the arts and indus- 
 tries, and he has discovered uses for his new 
 materials and processes for their application. 
 He is a representative electro-chemical engineer, 
 and it is eminently proper that he should have 
 been selected by the great chemical societies 
 of this country to receive the Perkin Medal." 
 
 Dr. Acheson, in accepting the Medal, said: 
 "In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, 
 the world was ready for another step forward 
 in the chemical arts. It was ripe for the birth 
 of a new industry until then unknown indus- 
 trial electro-chemistry. The field of research 
 and development for the electro-chemist will be 
 practically limitless, and will extend beyond 
 
 18 
 
what the world is now considering the 'con- 
 servation of natural resources' for they will 
 create valuable products from wastes not now 
 dignified by the title of resources." 
 
 With a set of experimental apparatus set 
 up in the room, Dr. Acheson, the discoverer of 
 carborundum and artificial graphite, demon- 
 strated some of his newer investigations and 
 their wonderful results while the learned and 
 distinguished audience looked on with deeply 
 gratified interest. Dr. Acheson's discoveries 
 of Oildag and Aquadag, attracted the closest 
 observation and most earnest expressions of 
 applause as well as surprise. 
 
 Dr. L. H. Baekeland, speaking as President 
 of the American Electro-Chemical Society, said 
 in part : 
 
 "What is more to the credit of Dr. Acheson 
 than anything else, is the fact that he under- 
 took experiments which probably had been 
 attempted several times before, without suc- 
 cess, by people who had more theoretical prep- 
 aration than he. But his unusual keenness of 
 observation, his logical faculty, and more than 
 
 19 
 
 
anything, his appreciation of what was of pre- 
 ponderant importance, and of secondary inter- 
 est, brought him results, where others had 
 failed, and by which he opened a new field of 
 chemical investigation and industrial applica- 
 tions. 
 
 "Dr. Acheson stands as a living example to 
 many a chemist, loaded with theoretical knowl- 
 edge and paper wisdom, and light in judgment 
 or common sense. He entered into a new road 
 with very little knowledge to guide him, but 
 he had an open mind, a fertile brain, a con- 
 structive faculty, and the talents of the tire- 
 less, intelligent experimenter. Whatever he 
 took up he started from the beginning, and 
 developed to the end. 
 
 "His very failures were changed into vic- 
 tories through practical channels. His work on 
 carborundum was initiated by an experiment 
 so simple and so meagre in results, that few 
 people would have found an incentive to fur- 
 ther investigation. Later on, when in the manu- 
 facture of carborundum, he had to battle with 
 irregularities, due to a partial dissociation of 
 
 20 
 
the silicon carbide, he created a new industry, 
 the manufacture of artificial graphite. In the 
 same way, he gave us Siloxicon, a product 
 which seems to have a considerable future. 
 
 "In constructing the great road of indus- 
 trial progress, very few of us are pathfinders; 
 some are surveyors, other ones constructors, 
 others again are merely switchmen, a brake- 
 man and conductors. Dr. Acheson not only 
 was a pathfinder, but he has been a constructor, 
 conductor, switchnian everything. By his 
 manifold abilities and good judgment, he has 
 been able to develop his discoveries into com- 
 mercial successes. He has shown us that an 
 inventor or a scientist is not necessarily a 
 theoretical dreamer unfit for executive or prac- 
 tical work." 
 
 Dr. Wilder D. Bancroft, of Cornell Univer- 
 sity, speaking as President of the American 
 Chemical Society, said in the course of an inter- 
 esting and entertaining address: 
 
 "To make carborundum he needed elec- 
 trodes, so he invented graphite. A suitable 
 refractory was needed to keep the heat in the 
 
 21 
 
furnace, and Mr. Acheson thereupon prepared 
 siloxicon. The furnace had to have brick walls 
 at first, and they were promptly forthcoming in 
 the form of Egyptianized Clay. In order to 
 keep everything running smoothly, including 
 the three automobiles which he had acquired 
 in the meantime, Mr. Acheson prepared the 
 lubricating graphite which he has shown you 
 to-night as Aquadag and Oildag. * * * * 
 You may consider Mr. Acheson's discoveries 
 as scientific inventions or as dividend payers. 
 It makes no difference. They stand all tests, 
 and they mark him as one of the great invent- 
 ors of the world/' 
 
CHAPTER II 
 DR. ACHESON'S ANCESTORS 
 
 The Acheson family is of ancient Scottish 
 origin, and the name is derived from a contrac- 
 tion of the baptismal name of " Archibald, " 
 in Scottish abbreviation " Archie." It was 
 spelled in various ways in the early records of 
 Scotland, appearing as Achinson, Akinsonn, 
 Atkinson, etc. The name first occurred in For- 
 farshire, in the east of Scotland, and can be 
 traced back to about the middle of the fifteenth 
 century. At the close of that century, we find 
 the spelling of the name definitely taking its 
 present form, first as Achesonne, then in the 
 course of two generations, abbreviated to Ache- 
 son. We find the Acheson's intermarried, about 
 1500, with the noble family of Grey, Alexander 
 Achesonne, who married Isobelle Grey, having 
 been direct ancestor of the family to which Dr. 
 Edward Goodrich Acheson belongs. Alexander 
 Achesonne was also progenitor of the noble 
 
 23 
 
family of Gosford, whose genealogy is given in 
 Burke's Peerage. The first baronet of the 
 family was Sir Archibald Acheson, of Hadding- 
 ton, North Britain, son of Captain Patrick Ache- 
 son, of Edinburgh, and the sixth baronet, Sir 
 Archibald Acheson, was elevated to the peerage 
 of Ireland, July 2oth, 1776, as Baron Acheson, 
 and was made Viscount Gosford, of Market Hill, 
 County Armagh, Ireland, June 2oth, 1785. The 
 fourth Earl of Gosford has been Vice-Chamber- 
 lain to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra since 1901. 
 
 The Goodrich family, from which Dr. Edward 
 Goodrich Acheson is descended on the maternal 
 side, is of English origin, and the exact date of 
 the arrival of the first of the name in America 
 is unknown. The family had already given 
 distinguished names to American annals in the 
 eighteenth century, several of its members 
 achieving lasting fame in literature, theology, 
 and the sciences, including astronomy and 
 mathematics. 
 
 Dr. Acheson's grandfather, David Acheson, 
 immigrated to America from Belfast, Ireland, 
 and settled in Washington, Pa., at a time when 
 
 24 
 
that extreme southwestern section of the state 
 still had some of the old frontier associations 
 and surroundings. Grandfather Acheson was 
 gifted with a high degree of intelligence, energy, 
 and enterprise, and was quick to comprehend 
 the resources and grasp the opportunities of 
 the growing state. He prospered in business 
 and gained the esteem of his neighbors, who 
 elected him to the legislature, to which he was 
 three times re-elected. He founded a family 
 which acquired great distinction in Pennsyl- 
 vania. One of his sons, Marcus W. Acheson 
 was Judge of the United States Circuit Court 
 for the Third Judicial District, which includes 
 the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela- 
 ware; another Alexander Acheson was Judge 
 of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and 
 another son, William Acheson, was the father 
 of the subject of our sketch. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 DR. ACHESON'S STORY BIRTH TO SIXTEEN 
 YEARS OF AGE 
 
 I was born in the "round corner" at the 
 intersection of Main and Maiden Streets, in the 
 town of Washington, Pennsylvania, on the Qth 
 day of March, 1856, and was the sixth child 
 and second son of William and Sarah Diana 
 (Ruple) Acheson. My father was in the gro- 
 cery business, his family living over and back of 
 his store, and consisting of himself, my mother, 
 one brother, William eight years my senior 
 two sisters, Margaret and Ellen six and four 
 years my seniors respectively myself, and two 
 sisters, Jean and Belle, one and three years my 
 juniors. 
 
 In 1 86 1 our family moved to Monticello, 
 situated on the Allegheny River, some forty- 
 seven miles above Pittsburgh, and three above 
 Kittanning, the County Seat of Armstrong 
 County, Pa. The property and village of Mon- 
 
 26 
 
ticello and a furnace located there had been 
 purchased by an uncle and other gentlemen of 
 Pittsburgh and my father. My father was 
 made manager, and in view of the fact that his 
 past life had not in any sense prepared him for 
 that of a manufacturer, and more particularly 
 an iron manufacturer, with its multitudinous 
 ramifications, cares and responsibilities, I con- 
 sider that his selection for so responsible a posi- 
 tion was solely due to his sterling qualities of 
 uprightness, energy, and all-around worth. He 
 became successful as a furnaceman, the "Mon- 
 ticello Irons" made under his management 
 attaining quite a reputation for high quality. 
 
 My boyhood days at Monticello were, as I 
 remember them, one round of pleasure. I con- 
 fined myself, however, to the strictly boyish 
 pursuits; my Summer days being spent in fish- 
 ing, boating, hunting, and spending many hours 
 about the furnace, where I think I was some- 
 what of a favorite with the workmen. In the 
 Winter I attended the "District School" con- 
 ducted by one of the neighboring farmers. 
 
 I think it was in 1869 I went in company 
 
 27 
 
with R. D. Laughlin, whose uncles lived at and 
 owned Stewardson Furnace, situated some seven 
 miles from my home, to a boarding school at 
 North Sewickley, Beaver County, Pa. I re- 
 mained there for one school year, and afterward 
 went with young Laughlin to an Academy, 
 sometimes called the "School in the Mountains," 
 at Belief onte, Centre County, Pa., situated in 
 the midst of the Allegheny Mountains. Here I 
 commenced my first real work at study. I was 
 beginning to form some conception of what my 
 future life might be. I had no taste for the lan- 
 guages, but much fondness for mathematics. 
 I was deeply interested in geometry, trigon- 
 ometry and surveying, and the following inci- 
 dent which occurred at the time of one of my 
 visits at home during a vacation illustrates my 
 mathematical tendencies. 
 
 At Monticello Furnace, there was a ferry 
 crossing the river, the boat being attached by 
 means of a moving wheel to a wire rope stretched 
 across the river. I believe as the results of high 
 water in the river and extra high chimneys, this 
 rope caught upon the smokestacks of a boat and 
 
 28 
 
fell across its deck. The captain of the boat had 
 the rope cut in two with a cold chisel, thus effect- 
 ually destroying it for further use in ferry work. 
 It was at this time that I came home and the 
 matter of determining the length for a new cable 
 was under discussion. My geometry, trigon- 
 ometry, and surveying being fresh in my mind, 
 and believing that I had an opportunity for dis- 
 playing my boyish knowledge, I secured the 
 boards forming the head of a barrel, fastened 
 them together by appropriate cleats to make a 
 complete disc, graduated the edge into three 
 hundred and sixty degrees, mounted on it a 
 cross-bar with sights at each end, the whole being 
 supported by a suitable staff. I laid off a base 
 line on one shore of the river, and from the 
 extremities measured with my crude theodolite 
 the included angles between the line and the 
 supporting point of the cable on the opposite 
 side of the river and determined the distance 
 between the supports of the proposed cable on 
 the opposite sides of the river. You can prob- 
 ably readily imagine that neither my father nor 
 others had much confidence in the result of my 
 
 29 
 
engineering feat, but I remember that after the 
 distance had been determined in some other 
 manner, it was found that my calculations were 
 approximately correct. This I look upon as my 
 first practical engineering, and occurred, I be- 
 lieve, when I was in my sixteenth year. 
 
 During the Fall term in 1872, I was suddenly 
 called home, my father having already antici- 
 pated the financial catastrophe that over- 
 whelmed the country in 1873-4. This ended 
 my school days. While still in my seventeenth 
 year, and with practically but three years school- 
 ing, I found myself brought suddenly face to 
 face with the necessity of making for myself a 
 livelihood. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SIXTEENTH TO TWENTY-SECOND YEAR 
 
 My first employment after this recall from 
 school was that of time-keeper at the furnace. 
 This permitted of my devoting considerable 
 time to mechanical and other pursuits. My 
 father took much interest in mechanics, and I 
 can yet remember his suggesting to me that I 
 devote my thoughts to the accomplishment of 
 something of value. He pointed out the need 
 of an improved means of drilling holes in the 
 rocks and slates in the coal mines where blast- 
 ing was required. He offered to meet any ex- 
 penses I might incur in my efforts to perfect a 
 boring machine. I set to work at the problem, 
 and before me I now have the papers of a Caveat 
 of the United States Patent Office issued to me 
 under date of March 5th, 1873, for "Improve- 
 ments in Process of Mining Coal, Ore, Clay, 
 Etc." This notes my first entry into the 
 United States Patent Office at the age of seven- 
 
teen. I also have before me a full itemized bill 
 of William Fisher of Pittsburgh, dated April 
 25th, 1873, for the labor and material entering 
 into the construction of a Boring Machine I 
 had him make for me. The total cost I find 
 was $154.65 ; the bill being receipted June, 1873. 
 The machine worked fairly well, but owing to 
 my inexperience, I had designed it too heavy 
 and it was cumbersome to handle. In 1886, 
 I saw this same machine in a machine shop at 
 Kittanning, where it was doing efficient work 
 as a drilling machine. 
 
 In the early part of 1873, my father was 
 taken seriously ill with heart disease, from which 
 he had suffered for some years. He was finally 
 relieved by death on the 2oth day of June, 1873. 
 
 Immediately following my father's death, a 
 great financial panic came down upon the 
 country. The iron business was crushed by 
 the depression. The company in which my 
 father's estate was placed was carried into 
 bankruptcy in 1874. All that was left to my 
 mother and her family was a one-half interest in 
 a coal property that my father and brother 
 
 3 2 
 
had fortunately bought some years previously. 
 Both my father and brother had transferred 
 their holdings in this property to their wives, 
 and the income from this was all that was left 
 to their families. 
 
 I think it was in 1873, when seventeen years 
 old, I made my first practical acquaintance with 
 Electricity. I bought a number of cheap yel- 
 low metal watches. Fitting up galvanic bat- 
 teries, I secured a number of my mother's silver 
 forks and with them as anodes, silver plated the 
 watch cases, and sold them at an increased 
 price. When my mother's effects were divided 
 among her children, my "anodes" were properly 
 deducted from my allotment. 
 
 With my old relics, I found a notebook con- 
 taining entries made in those boyhood days, 
 and amongst them are a number of quotations 
 from Shakespeare and other sources, which I 
 think have had much to do with moulding my 
 character. Here are a few of them: 
 
 "Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour/' 
 "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew 
 them how we will." 
 
 "Life's but a walking shadow." 
 
 33 
 
"The worst is death, and death shall have his day." 
 "Hope to enjoy is little less in joy, than hope en- 
 joyed." 
 
 I am somewhat uncertain of the dates of 
 the various changes that I made during the 
 next succeeding years, but I think the following 
 history is, in the main, correct. In October, 
 1874, I went to Reynoldsville, Pa., where a 
 brother-in-law, W. H. Smith, husband of my 
 sister Ellen, was Engineer-in-Charge of opening 
 coal mines and laying railroads to them. I 
 was employed for a short period with his civil 
 engineering corps, and then became a clerk in a 
 dry goods and notion store in Reynoldsville. 
 After a short service here, I was called back to 
 Monticello, which had been leased from the 
 assignees by the uncles of my friend, R. D. 
 Laughlin, and they were engaged in converting 
 a very large stock of Lake Superior ore and 
 other supplies into salable iron. My brother, 
 William, was managing the furnace for the 
 Messrs. Laughlin, and I was placed in the gen- 
 eral store as clerk. 
 
 When the stocks on hand were worked up 
 and the furnace finally and for all time stopped 
 
 34 
 

 
 operations, I went to Emlenton, a station 
 on the Allegheny Valley Railroad, where my 
 brother-in-law, W. H. Smith, was then located 
 as Engineer-in-Charge of the construction of a 
 narrow gauge railroad from Emlenton to Clarion 
 through a newly discovered oil territory. I 
 was employed in various capacities in the corps. 
 While there I met a gentleman by the name of 
 Kendle from Buffalo, N. Y., who was represent- 
 ing parties owning a patented apparatus for 
 regulating the supply of water to steam boilers, 
 and for giving an alarm by whistle in event of 
 the water becoming dangerously low in the 
 boiler. I became much interested and believed 
 the affair a good one. I brought the matter 
 to the attention of a brother-in-law, Dr. T. M. 
 Allison of Kittanning, Pa., husband of my sister 
 Margaret, and induced him to join me in buying 
 the right to the patent for Pittsburgh and the 
 County of Allegheny, Pa. We paid one thou- 
 sand dollars for this right, the Doctor loaning me 
 the money to pay for my half. I went to Pitts- 
 burgh and established myself in a room on the 
 second floor of a bank building at the corner of 
 
 35 
 
Wood and Sixth Streets. The room to the best 
 of my recollection, contained nothing but a 
 washstand, an office table, two chairs and a cot, 
 and served me as office and bedroom. On the 
 glass in the door, I had painted the name of the 
 firm "Acheson & Allison," and the line of 
 their business. As the results of strenuous 
 efforts over much time, I secured orders for and 
 placed two of the regulators, one in a machine 
 shop and the other in a rolling mill. 
 
 Using my office as a bedroom, I took my 
 meals at a restaurant, one of those where you 
 get your meals by the card, each one being re- 
 corded by a hole in the pasteboard. Expenses 
 went on without an income, times got gloomy, 
 and I had contracted a debt with the restaurant 
 keeper. Things were so desperate I resolved on 
 a change. I went to the head office of the Alle- 
 gheny Valley Railroad and inquired for Mr. 
 Thomas M. King, General Superintendent of the 
 Railroad. Mr. King had been entertained at 
 my home and would know me by name. I saw 
 him, told my story, and applied for a position. 
 He told me to return at a certain hour the next 
 
 36 
 
day, and if he were not in to have his Secretary 
 call him by telegraph. I called as told and found 
 him out. His Secretary called him up and found 
 him at Parker Station. Mr. King asked that 
 I call at his office the next day at a certain hour, 
 which I did and learned from him I could have 
 the position of ticket clerk at Parker, at a salary 
 of fifty dollars per month, provided I furnished 
 bonds for one thousand dollars. I thanked 
 him, called upon my uncle, M. W. Acheson, then 
 a prominent lawyer of Pittsburgh, afterwards 
 Judge of the Circuit Court of the Third Judicial 
 District of the United States*, stated my case 
 to him and he went on my bond. I immediately 
 reported to Mr. King and received a pass to 
 Parker. I settled up my business affairs in 
 Pittsburgh, which were largely covered by con- 
 veying my office and household effects to the 
 restaurant proprietor for his account against 
 me, and on the following evening I was in Parker, 
 where I was duly installed in my new work. 
 
 I think it was early in 1877 that I went to 
 Parker, which was at that time the centre of 
 
 * Died of apoplexy June 21st, 1906. 
 
 37 
 
the then stirring petroleum country of America. 
 A narrow gauge railroad ran from the Parker 
 Station out to and through the oil country of 
 Millers Town, Cams City, and adjacent terri- 
 tory. Great crowds of people would come in 
 on this road and take trains on the Allegheny 
 Valley Railroad, making my duties lively and 
 strenuous. 
 
 Early in life I developed an acute pride and 
 was quick to resent any accusation of dishonesty 
 or evil intent. This was well illustrated by an 
 incident which occurred here. One day several 
 men came into the gentlemen's room in the sta- 
 tion. I recognized them as lumbermen, who 
 had probably come down the River on rafts of 
 timber a class of men usually rough and un- 
 couth. One of them came up to the ticket win- 
 dow and bought a ticket to a point up on the 
 Clarion River. After having left the window, 
 he presently returned and accused me of having 
 given him short change. I protested against 
 his accusation, when he said, "It is all right for 
 you to claim innocence, but I saw you take the 
 bill from the change," or words to that effect. 
 
 38 
 
The ticket window was fairly large and not pro- 
 tected, as is now the custom, with wire grating. 
 Instantly my arm was outstretched and I struck 
 the man in the face with my fist. A great tur- 
 moil ensued. The agent and clerks hurriedly 
 locked all doors, expecting the raftsmen to 
 make a general assault. Much to my gratifica- 
 tion and the relief of the office force, the man 
 whom I had struck presently returned and apolo- 
 gized, saying he had been mistaken, having 
 found his change all right. 
 
 I think I remained at Parker about six 
 months. I went to Pittsburgh on the last pas- 
 senger train that passed over the Allegheny 
 Valley Railroad before it was shut down by the 
 great railroad strike of 1877. A general reduc- 
 tion of ten per cent, was made in the wages and 
 salaries of the employes of the railroad ; my fifty 
 dollars was thereby reduced to forty-five dollars. 
 The railroad station was on the East bank of 
 the Allegheny River, while the city of Parker 
 was on the West side. There was but one place 
 for me to board a hotel adjoining the station, 
 and I was required to pay thirty dollars per 
 
 39 
 
month. The balance out of my salary was not 
 large and the end of the year 1877, saw me once 
 more with W. H. Smith as a member of a Civil 
 Engineer Corps in Bradford, McKean County, 
 Pa. Mr. Smith was now Engineer-in-Charge of 
 the construction of a narrow gauge railroad 
 from Bradford, Pa., to Clean, N. Y. I had so 
 far progressed in years and experience that I 
 was made Resident Engineer of a Division from 
 the town of Gilmore to the New York State line. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 TWENTY-SECOND TO TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR 
 
 I look back on my life and experience while 
 on this work with much real pleasure. Being 
 but twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, with 
 a strong, rugged constitution and unbounded 
 enthusiasm, I was ready to meet and enjoy any 
 hardships encountered. The country was wild, 
 rough and heavily timbered. It was in the 
 first acts of development into the most busy and 
 bustling of oil territories. My boarding-house 
 and headquarters were in a rough, frame house, 
 little more than a shanty, in the forest not far 
 from the New York State line. The house ac- 
 commodated not only our engineering party, 
 but a number of oil well drillers and teamsters. 
 The first floor consisted of a small front room, 
 containing pine benches and a wood stove, the 
 time of year being Winter; back of that was a 
 dining-room, with a long pine table and benches 
 on each side, and still back of that, the kitchen. 
 
 4i 
 
My bed consisted of a rough board box filled 
 with straw in a room over the front room down- 
 stairs; the stovepipe from the wood stove passed 
 up at the foot of my bunk and out through a 
 large hole in the roof. At night the fire went 
 out and many mornings I have awakened and 
 found a tolerable good coating of snow on my 
 bed coverings, it having entered through the large 
 opening around the stovepipe where it passed 
 through the roof. Along the house, outside of 
 the front door, was a shelf or bench on which 
 were tin basins to be used in washing; the nec- 
 essary water was obtained from a brook passing 
 the door by breaking the ice covering it. 
 
 On the completion of the railroad construc- 
 tion, I secured a position as tank gauger with 
 the United Pipe Lines Company in Bradford. 
 The United Pipe Lines Company was a sub-com- 
 pany of the Standard Oil Company. They had 
 a great network of pipes throughout the oil 
 territory. These pipes were connected to the 
 oil tanks at the wells and conducted the oil to 
 large storage tanks located at convenient ship- 
 ping points. A tank gauger 's duties were to 
 
 42 
 
ride about the country, usually on horseback, 
 and, with a steel tape line, accurately measure 
 the depth of the tank, its circumference at var- 
 ious points between its top and bottom, these 
 varying owing to the tank being smaller at the 
 top than the bottom ; note was also made of the 
 thickness of the staves forming the tank, and, 
 if any, how much and where, supports and cross- 
 pieces, known as "dead wood," were placed 
 inside of the tank. These measurements and 
 information were entered in a note book and 
 transcribed in the office in Bradford; and from 
 them, Mr. R. M. Sayer, the Superintendent, and 
 his sister as his assistant, calculated out a skele- 
 ton of a table of capacity for the tank measured, 
 which w r as identified by a number the gauger 
 nailed on it after measuring. 
 
 The skeleton for the table of capacity, as 
 prepared by the Superintendent, was handed to 
 one of the gaugers and with it as a basis, he pre- 
 pared and filled out a complete table, this work 
 being done by him after he returned to the office 
 from his field work, and for it he was paid a cer- 
 tain price per table. I found this work very 
 
 43 
 
much to my liking and quite remunerative, 
 receiving three dollars per day for gauging, and 
 sometimes making as much as six dollars extra 
 by filling out tables. I became quite expert in 
 making the tables, and made a rather good, clear 
 figure. This evidently impressed the Super- 
 intendent, for, wishing to have some tables used 
 by him and his sister in calculating the skeleton 
 tables, made in the new, he set me to work copy- 
 ing them. They were very extensive, consisting 
 of a great mass of figures. There was absolutely 
 nothing about them that would inform one how 
 they were made, nevertheless they excited my 
 curiosity and made me envious of the superior 
 knowledge of Mr. Sayer. 
 
 Here my restless, inquisitive nature asserted 
 itself and I commenced the calculations for, and 
 construction of, a set of tables from which to 
 rapidly compute the capacities of tanks. To 
 put them in a permanent form, I sent to New 
 York and had a very handsome, strong, leather- 
 covered book made. The book is now before 
 me and on the fly leaf is printed : 
 
 44 
 
Tank Gangers' Pocket Tables. 
 
 Circumference and Diameter of Circles, 
 
 Barrels per Inch, Deadwood Tables, Etc. 
 
 E. G. ACHESON, 
 Bradford, Pa., August i, 1878. 
 Each page is ruled and appropriate headings 
 printed. It contains about six hundred pages and 
 I had filled about one-third of it with the results 
 of my tedious calculations, when Mr. Sayer 
 learned of my work upon it and discharged me. 
 Settling up my affairs, I took a train for 
 Monticello where my mother and two younger 
 sisters still lived. On the train I found Mr. 
 Daniel O'Day,* Manager of the United Pipe 
 Lines Company. I related my story to him, and 
 he told me to return to Bradford, and on his 
 return he would investigate my case. 
 
 Not long after my return home, I suffered the 
 greatest loss of my life the counsel and guiding 
 spirit of my mother, who died November i3th, 
 1878, after having been for several years a 
 patient, uncomplaining invalid. It is to her 
 guiding spirit I owe my fixed purposes in life 
 
 *Died September 13th, 1906. 
 
 45 
 
and many, if not all, of my almost miraculous 
 escapes from the snares which beset my way as 
 a young man. 
 
 My two sisters, Jean and Belle, wished to go 
 to the Seminary at Washington, Pa. I con- 
 cluded to go with them to Washington, with the 
 hope of obtaining a position on a Civil Engin- 
 eering Corps, which was about to take the field 
 for the preliminary survey of a proposed rail- 
 road to be called the Pittsburgh Southern, 
 which was to run south from Pittsburgh to 
 Morgantown, West Va. I secured a position 
 on this work, a Mr. McConahey was Chief Engin- 
 eer of the Survey, and I was appointed his First- 
 Assistant. 
 
 I think the surveying party left Washington, 
 Pa., for Morgantown, West Va., on December 
 3ist, 1878. We went by narrow gauge railroad 
 to Waynesboro, and there, being a heavy snow 
 on the ground, by sledges to Morgantown. 
 When on the hill, overlooking the Monongahela 
 River and still some five miles from Morgan- 
 town, our sledge broke down. The night was 
 bitter cold, I remember the thermometer stood 
 
 46 
 
at zero. I was taken with severe pains in my 
 stomach. This, I think, was the beginning of 
 the stomach trouble from which I suffered for 
 many years. When our sledge broke down, it 
 was late at night and impossible to obtain 
 a suitable conveyance. Our party of fifteen 
 started to walk. My pains increased and be- 
 tween two of the axmen of the party, I was 
 partly carried to Morgantown, where we arrived 
 at two o'clock in the morning. Shortly after 
 arriving, the pains increased beyond my endur- 
 ance, and I was given a hypodermic injection of 
 morphia. I remember I slept for something 
 like twenty hours, and remained confined to 
 my room for seven days. I then took the field, 
 and, with the transit at the head of the party, 
 run a line towards Pittsburgh for eighty-five 
 miles, tramping continuously in snow. 
 
 After the completion of this survey, I left 
 my sisters in Washington and returned to Brad- 
 ford and was put back on the force of Tank 
 Gaugers, having agreed to the demands of Mr. 
 Sayer.that I give up, while in his employ, the 
 book of tables I was making, cease to work upon 
 
 47 
 
the subject, and work in an outlying territory 
 with the town of Duke Centre as my head- 
 quarters. I went to Duke Centre and had as a 
 co-worker, a man by the name of Bates. After 
 being there some weeks, I became restless and 
 could not resist the temptation to occupy my 
 evenings on my old line of calculations. Not 
 long after this, I was called in to Bradford by 
 Mr. Sayer, and there told that Mr. Bates had 
 picked up a piece of paper from the floor of the 
 room we jointly used as an office, had brought 
 the paper to Mr. Sayer, and he recognized my 
 writing and figures, and also that the figures on 
 the paper indicated I was once more calculating 
 out my tables. I acknowledged he was correct, 
 and was removed from Duke Centre to Bradford 
 where I was confined to making out tank cap- 
 acity tables from the skeletons prepared by 
 Mr. Sayer or his sister. For this work I was 
 paid by the piece, and I noticed there was a 
 gradual falling off of the amount allotted to me. 
 The evident intention of Sayer was to starve me 
 out. At this time Mr. Sayer got married and 
 went on a trip with his bride to Lake Chautau- 
 
 48 
 
qua, leaving in charge of the office a Mr. King, 
 one of the gaugers. Mr. Saver's sister performed 
 all the calculating relating to the small oil tanks 
 employed at the oil wells, but the field measure- 
 ments of the large iron storage tanks of the 
 Pipe Lines Company were forwarded to Mr. 
 Sayer, who made the calculations and returned 
 the results to the Bradford Office. 
 
 It happened one morning, after I had com- 
 pleted the meagre work that had been allotted 
 to me, I went out on the street and up town, re- 
 turning about noon to see if there was more 
 work to be had. I found the office in a great 
 uproar. A large iron storage tank had been 
 completed somewhere in the territory the pre- 
 vious day, the field measurements taken and 
 sent forward to Mr. Sayer. Immediately after 
 being measured, the tank was partly filled with 
 oil and the Bradford Office wished to know the 
 amount of oil it contained in order to report it 
 to the head office at Oil City. Mr. Sayer's cal- 
 culations would not return until the following 
 day. While I was in the office, Mr. Snow, the 
 Superintendent of the United Pipe Lines, came 
 
 49 
 
in and asked me if I could calculate the capacity 
 of the tank. I answered "Yes." He said to 
 proceed; I did. The tank held approximately 
 twenty-five thousand barrels of oil. My figures 
 were used that evening to report to Oil City. 
 The next day Mr. Sayer's figures arrived and 
 were found to differ five barrels from mine. Mr. 
 Sayer was advised of the discrepancy and by 
 return mail acknowledged he had made an error 
 of five barrels in his calculations. He was re- 
 moved from the superintendency. Had I been 
 older, I probably would have been made Super- 
 intendent of Tank Gauging, but, under the cir- 
 cumstances, an experienced man was brought 
 from the Parker field for the position and I was 
 moved into the offices of the United Pipe Lines 
 and made assistant to Mr. Charles R. Huntley, 
 who was in charge of the department known as 
 "Oil Freshening," i. e., the collecting of the 
 storage dues from the operators and issuing cer- 
 tificates that no charges stood against it. Mr. 
 Huntley has remained a friend ever since. He 
 is now identified with many industries in and 
 about Buffalo; the General Manager of the 
 
 50 
 
Buffalo General Electric Company, and a Dir- 
 ector of the International Acheson Graphite 
 Company. 
 
 While in this position I received seventy- 
 five dollars per month, and during my spare time 
 I became much interested in scientific subjects, 
 particularly electrical ones. I was a constant 
 reader of the ' 'Scientific American," the leading 
 or only publication of the times keeping in close 
 touch with the rapidly expanding electrical 
 field, such as the telephone and Edison's work 
 on lighting. My studies were much stimulated 
 by close association as room-mate with a Mr. 
 Kuno Kuhn, who was the Superintendent of a 
 large oil company, and a man well informed on 
 scientific subjects. I devised plans for a small 
 dynamo and had one built in a local machine 
 shop. It was faulty in design; the bearings 
 were too light and the workmanship on it was 
 not good. The armature struck the field and 
 I could not make it work. 
 
 I became so much enraptured with electrical 
 work that I concluded to sever my connection 
 with the United Pipe Lines and seek an opening 
 
in that field. I notified the Pipe Line officers 
 of my intention. They tried to dissuade me by 
 offering to increase my salary to ninety dollars 
 per month. Their efforts, however, were with- 
 out avail, and I left, I think, late in the Fall of 
 1879, going down to Monticello, where my 
 brother still lived. He, my sisters and friends, 
 opposed my going to New York to look for 
 electrical work, as was my intention. I was 
 persuaded to join my brother in the business of 
 mining iron ore. My two younger sisters, Jean 
 and Belle, and I started into housekeeping, I 
 spending my time superintending about sixty 
 men mining iron ore at various mines located 
 on the Allegheny River and Red Bank Creek. 
 
 While some profit was derived from the ore 
 mined, it was largely expended and lost in 
 searching for deposits that were not remunera- 
 tive, or failed to exist at the points where open- 
 ings were made. 
 
 By the Fall of 1880, I had concluded there 
 was no promising future in the iron ore business 
 in the Valley of the Allegheny, and once more 
 became restless to go East and cast my lot with 
 
 5* 
 
the electrical industry. I wrote to Mr. Edward 
 Weston of Newark, N. J., for a position. Dr. 
 Weston, now the manufacturer of the well- 
 known electrical measuring instruments, was 
 then a large manufacturer of electro-plating 
 dynamos, which was at that time one of the 
 foremost departments of electrical work. He 
 replied that he could not offer me employ- 
 ment. This did not quench my desire and 
 determination. 
 
 S3 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 AT MENLO PARK 
 
 My sisters and I broke up housekeeping. 
 They went to Philadelphia to attend school, 
 and I, with a new suit of clothes on my back, 
 which I still distinctly remember, and one hun- 
 dred dollars in my pocket my return from ore 
 mining started for New York, a City I had not 
 up to that time seen. 
 
 I stopped off at Newark and called on Mr. 
 Weston. When he came into the office of the 
 Works in answer to my card, which had been 
 taken to him, he exclaimed at once, "I wrote you 
 I could not give you employment." I replied 
 I knew that to be the case, but I came on never- 
 theless. 
 
 I went on to New York City. I called at all 
 of the electrical establishments whose names 
 and addresses I could find, the medical battery- 
 manufacturer's predominating. I came near 
 getting an opening at the Western Electrical 
 
Works, which made telegraph instruments, etc. 
 When I called there, I was told they were in need 
 of a young man to test instruments, that a young 
 man had already applied for the position, and in 
 case he was not on hand the next morning, I 
 could have the place. I returned early next day 
 and to my sorrow was told the young man had 
 reported. I remember this was on Saturday. 
 I was getting desperate. Edison and his labor- 
 atory at Menlo Park were then much in the pub- 
 lic eye. I had little hope of securing an opening 
 there, but, as a desperate, final resort, took the 
 train out to Menlo Park. I climbed the low 
 hill from the station, entered a small brick build- 
 ing in the corner of a large fenced inclosure. 
 The building contained the office down stairs 
 and Edison's library up stairs. I handed my 
 card to a boy in the office with the request to 
 see Mr. Edison. He took the card and disap- 
 peared, presently returning, he opened a small 
 wicket gate and inviting me to enter, conducted 
 me out of a rear entrance of the office, across a 
 vacant lot and into a long two-story frame build- 
 ing. He took me upstairs and into a room cov- 
 
 55 
 
ering the entire second floor containing a num- 
 ber of long pine tables, the walls being lined with 
 shelves holding bottles. At one of the tables 
 sat three men, the centre one in a colored calico 
 shirt, without coat, was introduced as Mr. 
 Edison. The one on his left I knew afterward to 
 be Mr. William J. Hammer, and the one on the 
 right as Mr. Francis R. Upton. Mr. Edison, 
 placing one hand to his ear to indicate I should 
 speak loudly, asked, "What do you wish?"; I 
 replied "Work." He replied, with perhaps 
 impatience, "Go out to the machine shop and 
 see Krussi," and returned to the work absorb- 
 ing his attention. Mr. Hammer kindly told me 
 to go down stairs, pass back through the labor- 
 atory, cross the yard to a one-story brick build- 
 ing and inquire for Mr. Krussi, who was the 
 Superintendent . 
 
 I followed Mr. Hammer's directions and 
 entering the machine shop, found myself in a 
 small office, almost completely filled with a 
 large draughting table, over which a man was 
 working. An attendant received my inquiry 
 for Mr. Krussi, and while he was gone I was very 
 
 $6 
 
busy preparing myself, loading my gun, so to 
 speak. The draughting table inspired me. I 
 had, had some experience using the tools of a 
 draughtsman in my civil engineering work. 
 Presently a tall, foreign-looking gentleman 
 entered and asked me what I wanted. This was 
 Mr. Krussi. On the spur of the moment, I am 
 afraid I told a white lie. I replied, "Mr. Edison 
 sent me to you for you to put me to work." 
 "What kind of work?" he asked; "Draughting," 
 I said. "All right, "he replied. " Mr. Hornig needs 
 an assistant. Can you report for duty Monday 
 morning ?" I assured him I could. So it hap- 
 pened that the i2th day of September, 1880, 
 while still in my twenty- fifth year, saw me 
 installed in Mr. Edison's employ at Menlo Park, 
 N. J. Mr. Krussi soon learned of the decep- 
 tion I had played upon him, and held me under 
 suspicion for a long time. 
 
 Menlo Park, in the Fall of 1880, was com- 
 posed almost entirely of Edison's interests. 
 There was the Pennsylvania Railroad station, 
 a hotel, at which I boarded, the homes of Mr. 
 Edison, Charles Batchelor, and Francis Upton 
 
 57 
 
three or four boarding houses, Edison's labora- 
 tory, office, machine shop, and a new building 
 to be used as a lamp factory, the first of its kind 
 ever constructed. There were probably two 
 hundred men employed in the Edison works and 
 great activity existed. A few days after I was 
 at work, I took up the subject of perfecting the 
 small dynamo I had made while in Bradford. 
 I found it so faulty that I concluded to build a 
 new one. I had the necessary iron castings 
 made at Newark, and with the help of a co- 
 worker, Martin Force, to set the tools in the 
 lathe, I worked in the machine shop at night, 
 where I was permitted the use of the tools. Mr. 
 Edison several times stopped at the lathe at 
 which I was working and watched me intently. 
 I presume he had forgotten me and had to 
 inquire who I was. Edison was then but thirty- 
 three years of age, although world-renowned by 
 reason of his great telegraph inventions. The 
 World was at that time looking expectantly to 
 Menlo Park for the solution of practical electric 
 incandescent lighting. After I had been at 
 Menlo Park long enough to feel at home, I 
 
 58 
 
showed Edison the small dynamo I had made at 
 Bradford and asked his opinion of the ideas in- 
 volved. He said it was like the one designed by 
 Siemens, and told me to go over to his library 
 and get from Dr. Moses, the librarian, a certain 
 book in which I would find a machine like mine 
 described. I did so and found, as he had said, 
 Siemens' dynamo almost exactly the same as 
 the one I was working on. I remember the 
 book contained a photograph of the machine, 
 and it was a fair picture of my own machine, 
 design of the frame and all. I then changed the 
 design to that of a rotating transformer. 
 
 Shortly after this personal acquaintance was 
 formed with Mr. Edison, I was transferred from 
 the position of Assistant to Mr. Hornig, to the 
 drafting room devoted to making the drawings 
 for Mr. Edison's patent applications and more 
 special work in which Mr. Samuel D. Mott was 
 principal draftsman. 
 
 Mr. Edison was at this time working upon 
 an electric meter to be used in connection 
 with central station distribution. I became ac- 
 quainted with the requirements of the case and 
 
 59 
 
the urgent need of such an instrument. What 
 appeared to be a happy thought occurred to me 
 for the method and design of a meter. I made a 
 drawing of my proposed instrument, and the 
 next time Edison came into the room, I showed 
 it to him. He seated himself on a high stool at 
 the drawing table, put his arms on the board 
 and his head, face down, on them, and seemed 
 lost for some time in thought. After some min- 
 utes he raised his head and addressing me said, 
 "I do not pay you to make suggestions to me 
 how do you know but I already had that idea, 
 and now if I use it you will think I took it from 
 you." I assured him I considered anything I 
 could produce while in his employ and pertain- 
 ing to his interests, belonged to him; that my 
 thinking on those lines was due to my being in 
 his laboratory and cognizant of his needs and 
 lines of work. He made a test of my meter 
 scheme, and, notwithstanding it looked so feas- 
 ible, it proved a failure. Immediately after this 
 incident, I was taken from the drafting room 
 and placed in the original experimental depart- 
 ment. I was now in my glory. I had a large 
 
 60 
 
room under my supervision, equipped with all 
 the conveniences required, balance room, muffle 
 furnaces, air pressure, gas, electricity, steam 
 bath cabinet, etc. I was thrown into associa- 
 tion with most agreeable companions. I, at 
 this time, formed a close friendship with Dr. 
 Edward L. Nichols, who had recently returned 
 from Europe where he had followed an exten- 
 sive course of study in the foremost universities 
 of the Continent. He was at this time doing 
 special scientific work for Edison. The Doctor 
 is now Professor of Physics at Cornell Univer- 
 sity. I made a number of special investiga- 
 tions for Edison, especially on the filament for 
 the incandescent lamp. I had every oppor- 
 tunity to use my inventive faculties. 
 
 I think it was in the following December 
 that I was one day called by telephone to go 
 down to the new lamp factory and see Mr. 
 Edison. When I arrived at the factory, I found 
 Mr. Edison, Francis R. Upton, Charles Batche- 
 lor, and Edward H. Johnson in conference; 
 these three gentlemen were partners of Edison 
 and looked after various departments. I was 
 
 61 
 
ushered into their presence, and Edison informed 
 me that Mr. Batchelor, who was in charge of the 
 construction, development and operation of the 
 lamp factory, was soon to sail for Europe to pre- 
 pare for the exhibit to be made at the Electrical 
 Exhibition to be held in Paris during the com- 
 ing Summer, and that he wished me to take 
 charge of the factory. I demurred and said I 
 would much prefer to remain in the laboratory 
 on experimental work. He said that lamp manu- 
 facturing was still experimental, and he was 
 kind and frank enough to say he wanted me to 
 take hold of it because I was a thinker. He 
 won the day and under Mr. Batchelor's instruc- 
 tions I began my duties. I think it was the 
 third or fourth day after I had been there, that 
 the following conversation occurred between 
 Batchelor and myself. "Mr. Batchelor, how 
 much am I to get here as salary?" I asked. 
 "How much have you been getting at the lab- 
 oratory?" he answered. "I was getting seven 
 dollars and fifty cents per week." "Well, I 
 think we can do a little better here," he said. 
 "You will have to pay me one hundred dollars 
 
 62 
 
per month if you wish me to remain. I was 
 getting seventy-five dollars and could have had 
 ninety dollars per month from the Standard Oil 
 interests, but I threw that aside to enter experi- 
 mental work," I replied. "That is more than 
 we can afford to pay," he said. I told him I 
 was of the same opinion, owing to my inexperi- 
 ence, but he would have to excuse me from con- 
 tinuing. I did not return the next day. Mr. 
 Upton, against his will, was required to take 
 charge and relieve Mr. Batchelor. 
 
 I sat around my boarding-house for several 
 days and spent most of the time wondering if 
 I had made a mistake. Finally I brought my 
 courage up to the point of walking up to the 
 laboratory. When I entered I met Edison, and 
 he laughingly joked me about not being able to 
 stand the work at the lamp factory. Then he 
 said, "There in the end of the room is an 
 hydraulic press; have it put in order, and make 
 for me a small graphite loop like this (making a 
 sketch like a horseshoe). I want the loop one 
 inch outside diameter, the filament to be twenty- 
 five thousandths of an inch wide and two thou- 
 
 63 
 
sandths of an inch thick. I will have steel plates 
 made for you to press sheets between and a die 
 made for punching out the filaments. When 
 you make one capable of mounting in a lamp, I 
 will give you a prize of one hundred dollars." 
 All of which was done as he wished, and I 
 received the one hundred dollars. I find I now 
 have in my safe an ordinary visiting card on 
 which is pasted one of these graphite loops, and 
 on the card is written: 
 
 "Menlo Park, N. J., Feb. n, 1881. 
 Hydraulic pressure one hundred tons. (This 
 referred to total pressure on a sheet of graphite 
 about one and three-quarters inches by four 
 inches from which the loops were punched.) 
 Thickness fifteen ten-thousandths of an inch. 
 This loop won one hundred dollars as a prize; 
 the prize being offered by T. A. Edison to the 
 undersigned, 
 
 E. G. ACHESON." 
 
 Mr. Edison then entered into an agreement 
 with me to make thirty thousand of these fila- 
 ments. I engaged a man and a boy to help me, 
 and became so expert at making them that I 
 was earning twelve dollars per day by the time 
 sixteen thousand had been turned out. Edison, 
 
 64 
 
at this time, was occupied in New York, building 
 the first electric lighting station in Pearl Street. 
 The filaments I was making of graphite pro- 
 duced a magnificent light, but they did not last 
 long in use, disintegrating rapidly. I had made 
 sixteen thousand of them and then went to Mr. 
 Upton and told him that I was not happy in 
 making an inefficient article, notwithstanding 
 I was realizing, for me, a great deal of money. 
 I considered it a waste of money and would 
 much prefer to throw up my contract. He 
 wrote to Mr. Edison about the matter, and in a 
 few days I received the following letter: 
 
 "New York, April 20, 1881. 
 Mr. E. Acheson, 
 
 Menlo Park, N. J. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 You had better go into the lamp factory and 
 learn the lamp business in all its details. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Thos. A. Edison. " 
 
 I at once knew this meant my preparation 
 for a sojourn in Europe as expert in electric 
 lamp manufacturing. I now returned to the 
 lamp factory, which I had a few weeks before 
 
 65 
 
left, but under very different auspices. I went 
 through all of the departments, learning to do 
 the work with my own hands. The filaments were 
 then made of bamboo. I fashioned the wood fibre, 
 carbonized them, mounted them on their plati- 
 num wires, which I had sealed in glass, for the 
 base of the lamp, called "inside part." I sealed 
 the "inside part" into the glass globe, exhausted 
 the air from the lamp, sealed and tested it and 
 prepared it for shipment. I studied the details 
 of the various machinery and apparatus of the 
 factory, and made myself competent to con- 
 struct and operate one. My relations with 
 Edison at this time may be gathered from the 
 following letter: 
 
 "Menlo Park, N. J., May 2nd, 1881. 
 Mr. E. G. Acheson: 
 
 Please come up to the laboratory and bring 
 one of those nickel molds in which they bend the 
 fibre to carbonize it, and press a piece of plum- 
 bago the thickness of the mold. It is, I believe, 
 one-eighth of an inch and then hollow it out for 
 the nickel piece to allow the carbon to draw up. 
 After you have got it, have Dr. Haid pass the 
 gas over it. I want to see if we cannot make 
 these little plated molds out of plumbago using 
 
 66 
 
the nickel piece to put straight on the fibre. 
 If we could use these, it would save a great deal 
 of money. Also try some experiments on getting 
 the best mixture of litherage and glycerine, 
 also the right proportions of plaster of Paris 
 for the sockets of the lamps. 
 
 We are lame on these points. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Edison." 
 
 While I was thus preparing myself for the 
 specific work of electric incandescent lamp 
 manufacturing, I was at night diligently at 
 work studying electrical distribution, measure- 
 ment, and the science generally. At this time 
 the literature devoted to electrical science was 
 limited. I have here before me a book to which 
 I owe much; it is certainly dry reading, but I 
 worked hard over its contents. It is entitled 
 " Reports of the Committee on Electrical Stand- 
 ards, appointed by the British Association for 
 the Advancement of Science," published under 
 date of 1873. 
 
 After I had fairly well mastered the lamp 
 business, Edison had me prepare a complete set 
 of instruments for measuring the efficiency of 
 lamps. These consisted of a Rheostat, Con- 
 
 67 
 
denser, Galvanometer, Standard Cell, Resistance 
 Coils, Wheatstone's Bridge, and Photometer. 
 This last mentioned instrument was the only 
 one built under my supervision and according 
 to my design. A description of this Photometer 
 is given in the volume " Dynamo-Electricity" 
 by George B. Prescott, 1884. 
 
 68 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 IN EUROPE 
 
 Everything possible having been done to 
 prepare for a very complete exhibit of Edison's 
 electrical inventions at the coming International 
 Electrical Exposition in Paris, and it having 
 been decided I should go over as First Assistant 
 to Mr. Batchelor, who was Chief Engineer and 
 Edison's representative, I sailed out of New 
 York Harbor on board the French liner 
 "Amerique" on the 2oth day of July, 1881, 
 nine months and eight days from the day I 
 entered Mr. Edison's employ at Menlo Park. 
 
 Mr. Batchelor, his wife, and two little daugh- 
 ters were on the vessel. I enjoyed the voyage 
 immensely. This trip is memorable, not only 
 as being my first experience on the ocean, but 
 more especially for the formation of the acquain- 
 tance of two gentlemen, who have always since 
 been close friends. One was Mr. John S. Huyler, 
 a confectionery manufacturer of New York, who 
 
 69 
 
was making his first trip to Europe for the pur- 
 pose of studying the business in its cities, and 
 the other was Mr. Frank L. Freeman,* a patent 
 lawyer of Washington, D. C., who was going to 
 Paris as a United States Commissioner to the 
 International Electrical Exhibition. Mr. Free- 
 man has since procured for me thirty-nine United 
 States Patents. 
 
 At the Exposition I was First Assistant, but 
 had charge particularly of the testing apparatus. 
 Edison's exhibit contained the only complete set 
 at the Exposition. An International Committee 
 composed of Mr. William Crookes, now Sir Wil- 
 liam Crookes, Major R. Y. Armstrong, both of 
 England, and Prof. G. F. Barker of Philadelphia, 
 was appointed to determine the relative effi- 
 ciencies of the incandescent lamps exhibited. 
 These comprised those of Edison, Maxim, Sawn 
 and Lane-Fox. Mr. H. Crookes, son of Sir Wil- 
 liam, and I assisted in making the measurements. 
 
 Mr. Edison's interests were in charge of Mr. 
 Batchelor, myself and four assistants, amongst 
 whom was a Mr. James C. Hippie, who had come 
 
 * Died March 5th, 1907. 
 7 
 
over from Menlo Park as a special expert in the 
 glass working of the Edison lamp. He and I 
 became closely associated, and many years after- 
 wards he was employed by me in my Carbor- 
 undum interests. 
 
 At the close of the Exposition, I and the rest 
 of the Edison staff transferred our attention to 
 the construction of machine shops and lamp 
 factories at Ivry-sur-Seine for the Society Edison 
 Continentale of Paris, France, a Company 
 formed to operate the Edison patents in Europe. 
 While devoting the most of my time to the fac- 
 tory building, as occasion would permit, I was 
 sent out to install small lighting plants in other 
 countries. These plants were used as exhibits 
 and formed the basis for the formation of com- 
 panies to work the Edison patents. My first 
 experience of this kind was the installation of 
 electric lights in the drawing-rooms of the great 
 Scala Theatre of Milan, Italy. Then I installed 
 a plant in a museum in Brussels, Belgium; after- 
 wards started off an installation in the Hotel 
 de Ville, Antwerp, Belgium; then an installation 
 in the Restaurant Kramopolsky, Amsterdam, 
 
Holland. These were the first in these several 
 countries. 
 
 It was while building the lamp factory at 
 Ivry that Nicola Tesla first came into my life. 
 Tesla was a Montenegran, had received a fine 
 education and had been employed in Budapest 
 on telephone work. A Mr. Puskus, a Director 
 of the Paris Edison Company, was interested in 
 the Telephone Company of Budapest and 
 brought Tesla to Paris. He was placed with me 
 and it was my business to inform him in 
 the electric lighting business. He progressed 
 rapidly, and, in after years, became world- 
 famous for his schemes and inventions. 
 
 After the season closed at the Scala Theatre 
 of Milan, (this Theatre only remained open for 
 two months in the Winter of each year) the in- 
 stallation I had placed in it was to be moved over 
 to the Cafe Biffi in the Galleria Vittoria Eman- 
 uele, the engine and dynamo which I had placed 
 in the Royal Entrance to the Theatre were to 
 remain where I placed them. I was at this time 
 in Amsterdam and an engineer by name of 
 Seuble was sent to Milan to make the change. 
 
 72 
 
One day when in Brussels I received a telegram 
 from the Paris office to report there prepared to 
 go to Italy. I immediately took the train 
 for Amsterdam, got together my effects, and 
 returned through Brussels to Paris. Here I 
 learned the lights in the Cafe Biffi had failed; 
 why, no one knew. Having originally put the 
 plant in the Scala, I was well acquainted with 
 its details. I knew the field in the dynamo to 
 be crooked and I suspected Seuble had over- 
 loaded the dynamo, which had a capacity of 
 sixty lamps. I reasoned the armature of the 
 machine had been overheated, rubbed the field 
 and stripped the wires off. There was in the 
 Paris factory what was called a boring bar, for 
 boring out the fields of dynamos, and I took this 
 heavy piece of machinery with me in the passen- 
 ger coach, over the Alps, into Italy. On arriv- 
 ing in Milan, I found the dynamo just as I had 
 expected, Seuble having overloaded it. I bored 
 out the field, re-micaed the commutator, con- 
 nected up the windings, and, I think, in three 
 days had the lights going in the Cafe Biffi. I 
 
 73 
 
was expected to return to Paris after the Italian 
 interests were put in order. 
 
 An Edison Company had been formed in 
 Milan, with Professor Columbo as President. 
 This Company wished me to remain with them 
 and asked me to make them a proposition. If 
 I remember correctly, I was then getting a 
 salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per month 
 from the Paris Company, and I told the Italian 
 Company I would remain as their Engineer at 
 a salary of three hundred dollars per month. 
 They accepted my terms. When the news of my 
 action reached Paris, a Mr. Baily, who was Man- 
 aging Director of the Paris Company, wrote to 
 me demanding that I sever my connections with 
 the Milan Company, return to them the excess 
 in salary I had received and return to the employ 
 of the Paris Company. He also wrote Professor 
 Columbo to discharge me. When this letter was 
 received, I was installing a plant at Bergamo. 
 I also had a letter from Professor Columbo in 
 which he advised me to pay no attention to the 
 requests of Mr. Baily. However, I wrote Mr. 
 Baily that I would remain with the Italian Com- 
 
 74 
 
pany. Shortly after this Professor Columbo 
 went to Paris and from there to America with 
 Mr. Baily. The following letter was written 
 after Mr. Baily had boarded the steamer and 
 mailed at Queenstown: 
 
 "S. S. 'Arizona,' 5th Aug. '82. 
 My dear Acheson : 
 
 I was too busy to write you the last few days 
 I was in Paris. Mr. Columbo is with me, as you 
 know probably. Referring to your letter, you 
 will find your interests advanced by following 
 the counsel I give you, to not think of treating 
 on your own account. You have experience 
 enough to understand that our Cie Continentale 
 will always have more consideration with the 
 Italian or any other company it may be allied 
 with than you or any other individual can have. 
 Do not try to go too fast, because at the end of 
 six months from now you will not be so far ad- 
 vanced as you would have been by using a little 
 more patience. You must be content to grow 
 with the affairs you are with and as it grows. 
 Your path has widened out somewhat, as I told 
 you it would, and it will continue to widen if 
 you show yourself equal to the situations you 
 are placed in, and do not make it impossible 
 by impatience for those to serve you who would. 
 You ought now to put yourself to instruct with 
 all your might and cordially, the persons put 
 
 75 
 
with you to learn, in making installations and 
 running wires. You are disposed to be consti- 
 pated on this I think, and don't let yourself out 
 enough. It isn't what is in a man but what gets 
 out that makes an impression on the world. 
 The work I have spoken of above is your work 
 for now, but if you act wisely you will have more 
 important work two months hence. Try and 
 make your mark to-day without fretting over 
 to-morrow, and I think you will be surprised to 
 find out how to-morrow will take care of itself. 
 I hope you will take pride in advancing the 
 interests of our Companies and you will find 
 they will take care of you, and don't get into 
 any side currents or by-ways. 
 
 The above is dictated by a desire to advance 
 you. Prof. Columbo and I without doubt shall 
 talk of a good many things before we get back 
 and you will not be forgotten. You can write 
 me for a week out after you get this at 65 Fifth 
 Avenue. Baily." 
 
 I consider the criticism contained in this 
 letter as unjust. The "future" Mr. Baily 
 referred to was, I think, my being sent into Ger- 
 many. I had introduced the light into Holland, 
 Belgium and Italy, and superintended the con- 
 struction of the lamp factory at Ivry-sur-Seine, 
 France, and the prospects were for the early 
 
introduction of the light into Germany, and the 
 building of a lamp factory at Berlin. I was 
 being made use of, and I was willing to serve 
 the Company's interests, but I did not think I 
 was being justly paid for what I was doing. 
 
 The Italian Company bought an old theatre 
 located in the center of the City and converted 
 it into a central electric lighting station, the 
 dynamos and engines and boilers being brought 
 from America. I made frequent trips into 
 neighboring cities and towns to install isolated 
 plants. Among others I placed one in Udine to 
 the northeast of Venice; one in Genoa; one in 
 Pisa, within sight of the celebrated * 'Leaning 
 Tower"; one in Bergamo; one upon the side of 
 the Alps above Lake Maggiora. 
 
 The necessity of getting all our supplies 
 through the Paris Company and the strained 
 relations between me and that office made it 
 rery unpleasant for me, and I decided to sever 
 my connections with the Italian Company. I 
 sent in my resignation, and, at the request of the 
 President, remained until an Engineer, Mr. John 
 Lieb, came over from New York to relieve me. 
 
 77 
 
I believe I left the service of the Italian Com- 
 pany about the beginning of the year 1883. I 
 left Milan and returned to Paris, having been in 
 Italy about seven months, and this without 
 having seen Florence, Rome, Naples, or any of 
 the Southern part. I had taken no holidays, 
 following business closely. 
 
 I arrived in Paris with some little money in 
 my pocket and a number of ideas in my head to 
 the effect that heat energy could be economi- 
 cally converted into electrical energy. I estab- 
 lished myself in a small hotel in Rue d'Auntin 
 near the Avenue de FOpera. I had two adjoin- 
 ing rooms, one as a bedroom, the other I made 
 into sort of a laboratory and shop. I worked 
 here under tremendous pressure for about five 
 months, without meeting with any success. I 
 ran out of money and cabled to my brother 
 William. He responded with one thousand 
 dollars. My health began to break and I was 
 feeling miserable in every way. I resolved to 
 go over to London; I do not remember that I 
 had any particular object in view. I packed up 
 my effects and crossed the Channel, going to the 
 
 78 
 
Queens Hotel, London. The day after my 
 arrival a most pronounced case of jaundice was 
 developed throughout my system. I certainly 
 was miserable. The hotel people evidently did 
 not care to have me about and recommended 
 to me a boarding house on Rittenhouse Square. 
 I moved my effects to this house, which was con- 
 ducted by a kindly old lady. I was feeling 
 extremely sick, low spirited, money practically 
 all gone and no doctor to attend me. One 
 bright day I dragged myself out on the pave- 
 ment in front of the house, in order to get the 
 heat of the sun. I had been there some time 
 when I recognized a familiar face in the passing 
 throng. It was James Holloway, whom I had 
 last seen as a machinist in the machine shops at 
 Menlo Park. He was apparently pleased to see 
 me. In a few minutes he learned my circum- 
 stances and very kindly offered to take me to his 
 home. He would not hear of a refusal. He 
 gathered together my effects, I settled up with 
 my landlady, and off we went to Holloway's 
 home on High Holborn. Jim, as I called him, 
 had been sent some time previously to London, 
 
 79 
 
his former home, by Mr. Edison to assist in the 
 introduction of the electric light. He had 
 married, the second time, and was at the time 
 I met him in charge of the electric lighting plant 
 of the Holborn Restaurant, and was living 
 nearby with his wife and his wife's mother. 
 
 Holloway procured a doctor for me and he 
 and his family gave me every attention of which 
 their limited means permitted. I was extremely 
 sick, although not actually confined to my bed. 
 I do not know how long I was in this condition, 
 but now think the turning point came with, or 
 as the result of, the following incident. I 
 could with some difficulty get out into the street 
 and sun, and once when out was taken with an 
 intense desire for bananas. I purchased one- 
 half dozen at a nearby stand and smuggled them 
 into my room and ate them all. In a few days I 
 had recovered from all danger, and I learned 
 from my friends that neither they nor the doctor 
 had expected to see me get well. Did the ban- 
 anas do it? 
 
 After I was again well, Holloway became 
 interested in my experiments on the conversion 
 
 80 
 
of heat energy into electricity, and introduced 
 me to Mr. Gordon, who was at the head of the 
 restaurant on High Holborn and the collection 
 of great hotels known as the "Gordon Hotels." 
 Mr. Gordon and a brother-in-law together fur- 
 nished me with capital for once more taking up 
 my line of experiments, and these were con- 
 tinued without success until well into Decem- 
 ber, 1883, when I learned that Mr. Samuel Insull, 
 Mr. Edison's private secretary, was in London 
 at a certain hotel. I had known Insull at Menlo 
 Park, and called to see him and related my cir- 
 cumstances. He cabled to Edison in New York 
 and received in reply cabled instructions to 
 furnish me with transportation to America. I 
 returned to America on the S. S. "Arizona," 
 landing in New York on the fourth day of Jan- 
 uary, 1884. My roving about had given me 
 considerable self-reliance, or what is popularly 
 called "nerve," as is illustrated by this incident: 
 I came over from England as a first-class pas- 
 senger on a ticket furnished by Mr. Insull. I 
 was completely out of money, and when we 
 fastened to the pier in the North River, New 
 
 81 
 
York, I went down to my state room to have my 
 baggage brought up and found the door locked. 
 This may have been for some other reason, but 
 I thought the steward had locked it up so I could 
 not move out until I had given him a tip. I 
 went up on deck, out on the pier and at a car- 
 riage stand engaged a carriage to take me and 
 my baggage to a family hotel on Eleventh Street. 
 I asked the officer in charge of the stand to loan 
 me five dollars in United States money until I 
 arrived at the hotel. He at once handed me the 
 money and I went down, tipped the steward, got 
 my effects, drove to the hotel, went in, registered 
 as coming from London, England, asked the 
 hotel clerk to accommodate me with a few 
 dollars United States money, which he did. I 
 paid my debt and transportation to the cabman, 
 and found myself once more settled in America 
 after two and one-half years of strenuous life 
 in Europe. 
 
 82 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 TWENTY-EIGHTH TO THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR 
 
 The following day I reported to Mr. Edison's 
 office at No. 65 Fifth Avenue. Mr. Edison 
 was in Florida, but he had left word that I 
 was to take up a line of experiments at his lab- 
 oratory, which was then in New York City. The 
 Edison Electric Light Company was at this time 
 about to commence the construction of an up- 
 town central station, the Pearl Street Station 
 having proven a success. A few days after I 
 commenced work at the laboratory, I was 
 informed that Mr. Edison had telegraphed from 
 Florida that he wished me to take the position 
 of Engineer of the proposed new central station. 
 I did not consider myself capable for this respon- 
 sible position. Much progress had been made 
 during the preceding two years, and my work 
 in Europe had not kept me in close touch with 
 the advance. I did not think the position pro- 
 posed by Edison would be congenial to me, and 
 
I am inclined to think Edison was not accur- 
 ately estimating my capacity, qualifications 
 and tastes. I declined to take the position and 
 remained for some time in the laboratory until 
 a scheme for controlling electric currents, regu- 
 lating dynamos, etc., occurred to me and carried 
 me once more into experimental work, which 
 resulted in my again leaving Edison's interests. 
 My experiments proved a failure, and then 
 through the kindness of Mr. Samuel Mott, I was 
 introduced to Captain Gardner of the Consoli- 
 dated Electric Light Company, a concern own- 
 ing the Sawyer-Man patents on electric lamps. 
 They had a small lamp and dynamo factory in 
 Brooklyn. From Captain Gardner I obtained 
 an appointment as Superintendent of the lamp 
 department of their factory, a Mr. Edward R. 
 Knowles being General Superintendent. 
 
 I now entered upon, perhaps, the most im- 
 portant period of my life. The lamp factory 
 was a very small affair occupying the third floor 
 of a power building. I was paid twenty-five 
 dollars per week at the beginning of my employ- 
 ment, but owing to the economies I introduced 
 
 84 
 
and the increased output, this was soon increased 
 to thirty-five dollars. After I had been there 
 some time, the company of which a Mr. Thayer 
 of Boston was President, undertook a reduction 
 of expenses and re-organization. Mr. Knowles 
 was relieved of his position, and Mr. Thayer 
 wished me to take the General Superintendency, 
 with my salary reduced again to twenty-five 
 dollars per week. I objected to this arrangement 
 and left the employ of the Company. 
 
 For some time I had been much in love with 
 a Miss Margaret C. Maher, and I, a world- 
 wanderer, at this critical time when I was out 
 of a position and practically penniless, proposed 
 marriage to her, and she, with evident confi- 
 dence in my ability to provide for her, accepted 
 me as her partner for life. 
 
 Miss Maher, having been raised in the 
 Catholic faith, desired to be married in that 
 church, and we were married by the Rev. W. 
 Keegan in the Church of the Assumption, 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., December i5th, 1884. 
 
 While with the Consolidated Electric Light 
 Company, I had met and become acquainted 
 
 85 
 
with Mr. William P. Shinn, who was one of the 
 Directors of the Company. I had also met 
 another Director, Mr. W. C. Andrews, who was 
 also President of the New York Steam Heating 
 Company, Mr. Shinn being Vice-President of 
 that Company. I had a project for the con- 
 struction of a new style of dynamo, and went 
 to see these two gentlemen about it. At that 
 time I was a great student of Faraday's works, 
 and I took with me to Mr. Shinn's office one 
 of the books of Faraday's, "Experimental 
 Researches in Electricity," and showed to Mr. 
 Shinn why I thought from Faraday's results my 
 plan would prove practical. 
 
 Mr. Shinn and Mr. Andrews concluded to go 
 into the project, each of us holding a third 
 interest. Quite a large machine was built in 
 the shops of the Steam Heating Company on 
 Eighteenth Street, New York. My wife and I 
 moved from Brooklyn, where we had been 
 boarding on Jay Street, to a boarding house on 
 Eighteenth Street, New York. 
 
 The dynamo we built was a failure, for while 
 it would produce a current of immense amper- 
 
 86 
 
age, the voltage was absurdly low. It was 
 another failure added to my long list. 
 
 Just at this critical moment I chanced to 
 meet one day on Broadway, at the corner of 
 Eighteenth Street, John S. Huyler, whom I 
 had not seen since the days of the Exposition 
 in Paris, back in 1881. I think we were both 
 delighted to meet, having formed an attach- 
 ment on the S. S. "Amerique" in going to 
 France. 
 
 We exchanged news hurriedly of what had 
 happened to each since we parted. Huyler con- 
 ducted me to his confectionery store nearby at 
 No. 863 Broadway, and told me he was inter- 
 ested in a plant over on Hudson Street, in which 
 a Mr. Clark was conducting experiments on the 
 manufacture of insulated wire for electric work. 
 He said he had then expended a great many 
 thousands of dollars, and was slowly forming the 
 opinion that the whole thing was no good. He 
 wanted me to join forces with him, and either 
 carry it to a success or call it off. I told him 
 how I was situated, and could not leave the 
 gentlemen I was with in the lurch. He said he 
 
 37 
 
would buy them out; I told him my venture was 
 a failure. He insisted, and together we went 
 down to Mr. Shinn's office at No. 22 Cortlandt 
 Street. 
 
 The sale and purchase was completed, Mr. 
 Huyler paying to Messrs. Andrews and Shinn 
 twelve hundred and some odd dollars and cents, 
 the exact amount expended in building the 
 machine and paying me a salary of twenty-five 
 dollars per week. 
 
 Huyler took me over into his employ, paying 
 me twenty-five dollars per week. The dynamo 
 I had built was moved from the shop of the 
 Steam Heating Company and placed in a sub- 
 cellar of a power building on Hudson Street, in 
 which Mr. Clark had his wire insulating plant. 
 I moved my wife from the boarding house on 
 Eighteenth Street to a private flat on One 
 Hundred and Twenty-fourth Street occupied by 
 my friend Mr. Samuel Mott, he and his family 
 going for a trip of some duration into the 
 country. 
 
 I set myself earnestly at work upon Mr. 
 Huyler's problem, and ere long convinced my- 
 
 88 
 
self, him and others interested, that their wire 
 insulating project was worthless, and in course 
 of time the plant was shut down. 
 
 I now induced Huyler to lend his aid to some 
 experiments I wished to make on the production 
 of an anti-induction telephone wire, using the 
 dynamo in the sub-cellar. He consented, and 
 on a salary of fifteen dollars per week which he 
 paid me, I worked for weeks in this room, two 
 floors underground. My project was to take 
 a rubber-covered wire, coat it with graphite, 
 pass it through a copper solution and plate on 
 it a tube of copper; next braid cotton over the 
 tube; then soak the cotton with asphaltum; 
 then cover the whole with a lead pipe or cover- 
 ing. I made up some in this manner, but they 
 only served as samples. The scheme was good, 
 the central wire and surrounding insulated tube 
 of copper acting as the two conductors for a tele- 
 phone circuit, their relative positions to each 
 other entirely eliminating cross-talk and induc- 
 tion. I took out patents on the process of 
 making this wire. 
 
 While I was engaged on this work, our 
 
 89 
 
daughter Veronica Belle was born, and shortly 
 afterward Mr. Mott returned to town, and I 
 moved my family into a flat on Forty-third 
 Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. 
 I cannot say I then looked upon life as a bed 
 of roses, with an income of fifteen dollars per 
 week, a rent of thirty dollars per month to pay, 
 and three people to clothe and feed. The sub- 
 cellar was an abominable place in which to 
 work, and I can now remember that I usually 
 left there, after a day's work, cold and almost 
 numb from my feet to the waist. Had I not 
 had a remarkable constitution, I do not think 
 I could have survived this period, and, indeed, 
 it is possible that some of the loss of health I 
 afterwards experienced for some years, may be 
 charged to my struggles at that time. 
 
 Things were looking rather desperate when 
 my brother William, who was still living at 
 Monticello, which had been renamed Gosford, 
 came to New York and wished me to go out to 
 Gosford and conduct some experiments on the 
 reduction of iron from its ores by the use of 
 natural gas, which was then quite plentiful in 
 
 90 
 
that vicinity. My work with the wire not being 
 very encouraging, Mr. Huyler assented to my 
 going. 
 
 I moved my wife and child to Gosford, and 
 we were provided with accommodations in my 
 brother's house, with his family. Experiments 
 were undertaken, but they were unsuccessful 
 and disappointing. I would mention one little 
 incident that occurred while at work, which had 
 a bearing on my after acts. I passed natural 
 gas into a highly heated furnace in which I had 
 placed some clay articles, and, when cold, I 
 found them thoroughly impregnated with car- 
 bon, and I thought they were rendered harder. 
 Things came to a standstill for want of capital, 
 and I again turned my thoughts to my anti- 
 induction telephone wire. I made a trip to 
 Pittsburgh to see Mr. R. S. Waring, President 
 of the Standard Underground Cable Company, 
 with the hope of interesting him. I opened 
 negotiations with him for the sale of my patent. 
 In the meantime, I moved my family to a board- 
 ing-house in Kittanning, a town three miles 
 down the Allegheny River from Gosford. It 
 
 9 1 
 
was about forty-four miles from Kittanning to 
 Pittsburgh. 
 
 I was out of money completely, and I saw 
 time would pass in the selling of my patent. 
 I pawned my watch-chain and bought a monthly 
 ticket between Kittanning and Pittsburgh, and 
 made daily trips to the City. I soon learned 
 that Mr. George Westinghouse was negotiating 
 with Mr. Waring to get control of the Cable 
 Company. I went to see Mr. Westinghouse, 
 and proposed to sell him my patent. The nego- 
 tiations between Westinghouse and Waring 
 came to a finish, the latter selling his interest in 
 the Cable Company to the former. 
 
 Mr. Westinghouse bought my patent in the 
 interest of the Cable Company, paying me 
 seven thousand dollars in cash and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars of the stock of the Standard Under- 
 ground Cable Company, which was then cap- 
 italized at three million dollars, and engaged 
 me for a term of three years as electrician to the 
 Cable Company, at a salary, I think, of two 
 thousand dollars per year. I paid over to Mr. 
 Huyler five thousand dollars to reimburse him 
 
 92 
 
for any expenses incurred on my account, and 
 to my brother I paid two thousand dollars 
 against his expenses. Before my monthly ticket 
 expired, I was settled. 
 
 This was late in 1886. I now moved my 
 family to Pittsburgh, and went to housekeeping. 
 I am afraid my new riches made me reckless, 
 but I wished my wife to be as comfortable as 
 possible. I furnished our home as well as I 
 thought we could afford, bought a cow, a horse 
 and carriage, engaged a man to attend the barn 
 and drive, all of which was beyond my means. 
 The capital of the Cable Company was reduced 
 from its three million dollars to one million 
 dollars, thereby reducing my stock to sixteen 
 thousand, six hundred and sixty-six dollars. 
 
 I found the work with the Cable Company 
 very agreeable. I made trips to other cities to 
 superintend the laying of cables underground, 
 or investigate troubles that would arise; thus I 
 did work in New York City, Philadelphia, Chi- 
 cago, Detroit, Washington City and Buffalo. 
 While holding this position, I made my first 
 appearance as the author of a paper before an 
 
 93 
 
audience, and followed it with a number of 
 others. 
 
 When the three years expired, I formed a 
 syndicate of gentlemen, among whom was the 
 late Christopher Magee of Pittsburgh, and again 
 took up experiments on the conversion of heat 
 energy into electricity. We rented an aban- 
 doned electric railway power house in Allegheny 
 City. Here I worked for several months with 
 indifferent success. In the Fall of 1890, I 
 thought that with a small electric lighting plant 
 in some town, I could make the plant pay its 
 way by night lighting, and use the dynamo for 
 experiments during the day. I looked about 
 for a suitable location, and decided on Monon- 
 gahela City, thirty miles from Pittsburgh on the 
 Monongahela River. 
 
 Mr. Magee and the majority of the members 
 of my syndicate declined to go into the light 
 company. I got together another party of 
 gentlemen, among whom was my friend John 
 S. Huyler, and Joseph W. Marsh, Secretary of 
 the Standard Underground Cable Company. 
 
 The Monongahela Electric Light Company 
 
 94 
 
was organized and incorporated for forty thou- 
 sand dollars, a suitable building purchased, and 
 the necessary engines, dynamos, etc., installed. 
 The Company commenced to furnish light to its 
 customers on the 2oth day of November, 1890. 
 I now arranged to move my family to Mon- 
 ongahela City, it having increased on January 
 25th, 1887, by the birth of our son, Edward 
 Goodrich; again, on September 8th, 1888, by 
 the birth of our son Raymond Maher; and again, 
 on May i4th, 1890, by the birth of our daughter 
 Sarah Ruth. I bought a small house, paying 
 for it in part with a mortgage, and moved my 
 family from Roupe Street, Pittsburgh, where 
 they then lived. If I remember rightly, the 
 purchase of this house, which I gave to my wife, 
 and settling my family in it, exhausted what was 
 left of the sixteen thousand, six hundred and 
 sixty-six dollars worth of cable stock. I closed 
 out the indebtedness I had incurred in the 
 Second National Bank of Allegheny by selling 
 and assigning the Cable Company's stock owned 
 by me, to Mr. J. N. Davidson, President of the 
 Bank. 
 
 95 
 
After I was located and all the capital I could 
 raise invested, I realized that electric lighting in 
 a small town was no play. Monongahela City 
 had a gas plant, owned by the two local banks. 
 My plant was not meeting expenses, and not 
 being able to get the assistance of the town's 
 local paper, conducted by ' 'Chill" Hazzard, I 
 resolved on a determined effort. The town was 
 entirely in the hands of the Republican Party; 
 I myself was of that persuasion. I had hand 
 bills printed immediately preceding a town 
 election; had boys carry them about the town 
 and push them under the house doors. The 
 election came off, the Town went Democratic, 
 and electric lights were put on the streets. 
 
 96 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF 
 CARBORUNDUM 
 
 I did quite a great deal of experimenting 
 during the Winter on various lines. I think it 
 was in February, 1891, I was working on the 
 making of rubber synthetically. I succeeded 
 in producing a small piece, when at this critical 
 moment Mr. John S. Huyler came from New 
 York to see our plant. He was not pleased with 
 the prospects. He looked on it with great dis- 
 favor, and said he had just invested consider- 
 able money in a rubber tree grove in Mexico, and 
 they intended to produce more rubber than the 
 World would use. He advised me to shut the 
 plant up and "throw it into the Monongahela 
 River." With this, he left me to my own 
 resources. His remarks discouraged me regarding 
 rubber; I dropped the subject and resolved 
 to endeavor to produce an artificial abrasive. 
 Through inexcusable negligence or careless- 
 
 97 
 
ness, I made no record of my experiments 
 on rubber production, and have to-day but 
 a hazy idea of how I produced this small 
 sample. 
 
 The value of a good abrasive was brought 
 to my attention by a remark incidentally made 
 in 1880 by Dr. George F. Kunz of Tiffany & 
 Company, New York. I also remembered the 
 observation of clay impregnated with carbon I 
 made at Gosford, and I decided to make 
 experiments on impregnating clay with carbon 
 under the influence of electric heat. 
 
 An iron bowl, such as plumbers use for hold- 
 ing their melted solder, was attached to one 
 lead from a dynamo and filled with a mixture 
 of clay and powdered coke, the end of an arc 
 light carbon attached to the other lead was 
 inserted into the mixture. The percentage of 
 coke was high enough to carry a current, and a 
 good strong one was passed through the mixture 
 between the lamp carbon and bowl until the 
 clay in the center was melted and heated to a 
 very high temperature. When cold, the mass 
 was examined. It did not fill my expectations 
 
 98 
 

 but I, by sheer chance, happened to notice a 
 few bright specks on the end of the arc carbon 
 that had been in the mixture. I placed one on 
 the end of a lead pencil and drew it across a pane 
 of glass. It cut the glass like a diamond. I 
 repeated the experiment, and collected enough 
 of the material to test its abrasive qualities. I 
 mounted an iron disc in a lathe, and, oiling its 
 surface, applied the material which adhered, 
 and with this revolving disc I cut the polished 
 face off the diamond in a finger ring still owned 
 and worn by me. 
 
 I now made a small furnace of bricks, and 
 after much and patient work, had what I con- 
 sidered enough to take to the lapidaries in New 
 York City. 
 
 A friend by the name of W. C. McCallister, 
 a druggist of Monongahela, and I started for 
 New York. On the way we coined a name for 
 my new and, as yet, unnamed material. Under 
 the impression, without any chemical analysis, 
 that it was composed of carbon and corundum, 
 I called it Carborundum. 
 
 Owing to unforeseen circumstances, I found 
 
 99 
 
it necessary to return to Monongahela City with- 
 out having presented the subject of Carborun- 
 dum to anyone who might be interested in it 
 in New York City. A few days later I returned 
 to New York with my new material, which was 
 contained in a little vial. I had a diamond 
 cutter on John Street use some of my product to 
 repolish the diamond I had ground, and the 
 remainder he bought from me at forty cents per 
 carat, or approximately eight hundred dollars 
 per pound, and with the proceeds I purchased a 
 microscope to help me in studying the structure 
 of Carborundum. 
 
 A great deal of time and energy were 
 expended in an effort to develop a trade with 
 the Lapidaries, but the consumption of abrasives 
 in this line was small, and mainly covered by 
 the refuse matter from diamond cuttings and 
 -chippings. 
 
 I gradually increased the size of my furnace 
 and sent samples to various emery wheel manu- 
 facturers to be made into small wheels. With- 
 out exception, these companies reported that 
 it was not possible to make the material up into 
 
 100 
 
successful wheels. Not discouraged, I under- 
 took experiments on these lines. 
 
 I organized The Carborundum Company, and 
 incorporated it for one hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand dollars on the 2ist day of September, 1891. 
 One-third of the capital stock was issued to the 
 stockholders of the Monongahela Electric Light 
 Company in compensation for the services that 
 The Carborundum Company had received from 
 the Light Company. 
 
 A new field opened up at this opportune 
 moment for Carborundum. Mr. George West- 
 inghouse had secured the contract for lighting 
 the Columbian Exposition buildings in Chicago, 
 the Exposition was to be held in 1893. The 
 Edison Electric Light interest secured an in- 
 junction, restraining Westinghouse from making 
 a lamp of one piece of glass; Westinghouse de- 
 vised a lamp made of two pieces, fitted together 
 with a ground joint as a stopper fits into a bottle. 
 He found small Carborundum wheels to be the 
 most efficient means for grinding the joint 
 between these two pieces. I made with my own 
 hands some sixty thousand small wheels for this 
 
 101 
 
work, and received from the Westinghouse 
 Electric and Manufacturing Company over seven 
 thousand dollars for them. With this money, 
 The Carborundum Company bought its first 
 dynamo; its electric current up to that time 
 having been furnished from the dynamos of the 
 Monongahela Electric Light Company. 
 
 I think it was in January, 1893, I sent out 
 twelve thousand lithographed cards to that 
 number of dentists. In one corner I punched 
 a hole one-half inch in diameter, and in it I 
 placed a Carborundum wheel of that diameter, 
 and one-sixteenth of an inch thick. The cards 
 being made of soft, heavy paper, the wheels 
 were held firmly. On one side of the card were 
 lithographed the words: "The Compliments of 
 the Season and a Carborundum Wheel. Try 
 me wet or dry;" on the reverse side was a price 
 list. By return mail I received sufficient orders 
 and money to pay for the cards, wheels and 
 postage. These wheels I had made myself. 
 
 I had two small kilns built, and went earn- 
 estly to work to make a high grade vitrified 
 wheel. The success of these wheels caused Mr. 
 
 IO2 
 
Lee S. Smith of Pittsburgh, who was in the 
 dental supply business, and whom I had en- 
 deavored formerly to interest in Carborundum 
 dental goods, to wish the sole agency for the 
 product. He placed an order for five thousand 
 dollars worth of wheels and points, and with 
 this money, the Carborundum Company made 
 an exhibit at the Chicago Exposition, and 
 much attention was attracted to the material. 
 As a result of this exhibit, I sold, before the 
 close of the year 1893, through a Mr. Wissen- 
 burger, to an Austrian Bank (known as the 
 Landerbank of Vienna) my patents for Austria- 
 Hungary, receiving for the sale twenty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 I should have stated earlier, that some 
 months after the discovery of Carborundum, I 
 learned from analyses I had made that it was 
 a compound of carbon and silicon, and not 
 alumina, the formula being S i C. 
 
 Early in the year 1894, 1 went over to Europe 
 to work my patents in France, taking with me 
 an engineer by the name of Frederick Boiling, 
 a German who had been in America for some 
 
 103 
 
years. I operated a furnace and made Carbor- 
 undum in the electric plant at Ivry-sur-Seine, 
 where I had worked twelve years before. 
 
 A Mr. Deichmann, to whom I had given the 
 right to handle my German patents, came down 
 to Paris from Berlin, and informed me that he 
 had formed a syndicate of millionaires who 
 were ready to organize a company and buy my 
 German patents. Their headquarters were at 
 Iserlohn, Westphalia. 
 
 Mr. Boiling and I went with Mr. Deichmann 
 up to Iserlohn, and I was entertained at the 
 home (called a castle) of Mr. Hebers, a very 
 wealthy man and a member of the Prussian 
 Diet. I think I was there about a week, and I 
 cannot praise too highly the hospitality extended 
 to me. One day I received a telegram asking 
 me to meet a Dr. Rapporport, a representative 
 of the Landerbank of Vienna, in Paris. I 
 answered that I would receive him at eleven 
 o'clock on a certain day, at the Hotel Conti- 
 nental, Paris. This hurried up my German 
 friends, and a meeting was convened in the ball- 
 room of the castle, at which all the members of 
 
 104 
 
the proposed Deutsch Carborundum Werke 
 were present. A corporation lawyer had been 
 brought for the occasion from the City of 
 Dortmund. 
 
 Instead of making a contract between the 
 proposed company and myself, as I had 
 expected, the day was spent in forming and 
 executing a power of attorney from me to Mr. 
 Deichmann. Under this power, he was to enter 
 into a contract to sell the patents for sixty 
 thousand dollars, twenty of which should be in 
 cash, and forty in stock of the proposed 
 company. 
 
 In drawing up the power of attorney, the 
 German gentlemen wished to have embodied in 
 it an agreement on my part that Mr. Deichmann 
 should contract with the German company that 
 they should not make less than four per cent, on 
 the company's capital. I refused to agree to 
 such a guarantee, as I would not be the manager 
 of the company, and all of the gentlemen were 
 perfectly cognizant of my refusal. 
 
 After the day's work was over and the power 
 of attorney duly signed, an elaborate banquet 
 
 105 
 
was served. I was to meet Dr. Rapporport 
 the next morning in Paris. The last train had 
 left Iserlohn, and I was driven twelve miles in 
 Mr. Heber's family coach to Hagen, on the 
 main line to Paris. The next morning at 
 exactly eleven o'clock, Dr. Rapporport called 
 on me and stated that the Landerbank wished 
 to secure more territory, and he was authorized 
 to negotiate for the German patent. He further 
 stated that they would pay me sixty thousand 
 dollars cash for it. I had to tell him that it was 
 too late, as I had sold it the previous day. 
 
 Within the next few days, I sold the Lander- 
 bank my patent interests in France, Belgium, 
 Switzerland, Italy, and a pending application in 
 Russia, for the sum of sixty thousand dollars 
 cash. 
 
 In the Fall of that year, I received at Mon- 
 ongahela City, from Mr. Deichmann, a booklet 
 containing a copy of the contract he had made, 
 as my attorney, with the Deutsch Carborun- 
 dum Werke, the By-Laws of the Company, etc., 
 and a long letter explaining why, in his judg- 
 ment, he thought it was wise to sign the contract 
 
 106 
 
with its Fifth Clause agreeing that I guarantee 
 the Company to earn four per cent, on its capital. 
 The Company had already paid me ten thou- 
 sand dollars, fifteen hundred of which I had 
 paid over to Deichmann as his commission. On 
 receiving his letter and booklet, I cabled over 
 canceling the entire affair, later repaying to the 
 defunct company the ten thousand dollars. 
 I have gone thus fully into this transaction to 
 illustrate how one may, by a narrow margin, 
 miss the opportunity to accept a good offer, i. e., 
 the offer of the Landerbank. 
 
 My business having been completed in 
 Europe, I returned home by way of London, 
 where I wished to find my old friend Holloway. 
 After quite a search, I found him living in the 
 outer part of London. He was out of a position, 
 and confined to bed with an attack of lumbago. 
 I had the pleasure of reciprocating, in part, his 
 former great kindness to me. 
 
 When in Mr. Hollo way's home I noticed an 
 old-fashioned Grandfather's Clock, and on 
 inquiry was told that it had formerly been the 
 property of Michael Faraday. Mrs. Holloway's 
 
 107 
 
mother had known Faraday personally, and knew 
 this clock to have been in his possession. A few 
 months after returning to America, I received 
 by express this same clock, as a present from 
 Mrs. Holloway, and it now stands in my home 
 in Lundy's Lane, Niagara Falls. 
 
 On my return home from Europe, I heard 
 much of the electrical development at Niagara 
 Falls, and going there, looked over the prospects 
 for success of the development, prices for power, 
 etc. On returning to Monongahela City, I con- 
 vened a meeting of my Board of Directors, and 
 laid before them a plan of moving to Niagara 
 Falls, and there build and equip a plant for one 
 thousand horse power. At this time the Mon- 
 ongahela plant used one hundred and thirty- 
 four horse power, and, owing to the high price 
 of the Carborundum produced, but one-half the 
 production was sold. In view of this condition 
 of the plant at Monongahela City, my Niagara 
 Falls scheme was too much for the conservative 
 Directors, and they resigned and left the room. 
 Fortunately for the future of Carborundum, I 
 was in control of its destiny. I organized a new 
 
 108 
 
board; had the Company authorize the issue of 
 seventy-five thousand dollars worth of bonds; 
 placed the money I had brought from Europe 
 (with the exception of twenty-six thousand 
 dollars which I paid to Mr. J. S. Huyler for his 
 interests, he being dissatisfied with my policy) 
 at the service of the Company. 
 
 Contracts were entered into with the Niagara 
 Palls Power Company. Substantial brick build- 
 ings were erected and provision made for large 
 development. My means began to run low, 
 and it was necessary to raise more. Times were 
 depressed, all business being at a standstill. I 
 made a great struggle to sell the Company's 
 bonds. The Company had no funds to place 
 the necessary machinery in the new buildings. 
 Finally, on the sixth day of July, 1895, I sold 
 to Pittsburgh Bankers, whom I shall hereafter 
 designate "A" and "B", fifty thousand dollars 
 of the bonds, giving them as a bonus twelve 
 thousand, five hundred dollars of the Com- 
 pany's capital stock, which had previously been 
 raised to two hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 The Niagara Falls works were started in the 
 
 109 
 
Fall of 1895, it being the second one to take 
 power from the Niagara Falls Power Company, 
 the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, now the 
 Aluminum Company of America, being the first. 
 
 The emery wheel companies would not buy 
 the Carborundum, and it became necessary for 
 me to devise and perfect a method of making 
 wheels; to build a department for that work, 
 and carry a stock of finished wheels. All this 
 required time and much money. 
 
 In order to be nearer my work at Niagara 
 Falls, I leased the premises No. 41 Fargo Ave- 
 nue, Buffalo, N. Y., on the 5th day of August, 
 
 1896, and moved my family there from Monon- 
 gahela City. My family now consisted of my 
 wife and seven children; George Wilson, John 
 Huyler and Margaret Irene having been born 
 March 2nd, 1892, October 3ist, 1893, and June 
 loth, 1896, respectively. 
 
 Under the patent laws of Germany, it was 
 necessary for me to work my patents in that 
 country early in 1897. I entered into a con- 
 tract with "A" and "B" under date of April i3th, 
 
 1897, whereby they secured a one-half interest in 
 
 no 
 
the German patent in consideration of fifty- 
 five hundred dollars. They advanced [the 
 money to carry out the working and put the 
 business into shape. 
 
 I now entered upon the most trying period 
 of my checkered career. I left for Germany, 
 taking with me my old friend, James C. Hippie, 
 to assist me in my work. 
 
 I took with me a letter of credit from "A" 
 and "B" for twenty-five thousand dollars, and, 
 with Hippie to assist me, operated furnaces and 
 made Carborundum in the town of Dauben, a 
 few miles from Dresden. The necessary elec- 
 tricity was obtained from the town's electric 
 lighting station. 
 
 In Dauben was an emery wheel firm by the 
 name of George Voss & Company, and I closed 
 a contract with them to continue operating the 
 small plant I had built, and to purchase from 
 the American Company about twelve thousand 
 dollars worth of Carborundum goods, as a stock 
 for the German trade. 
 
 I left Hippie there and returned home, hav- 
 ing been gone about three months and expended 
 
 in 
 
two thousand five hundred dollars of the 
 twenty-five thousand dollars taken over. One 
 half of my expenditures were met by me, the 
 other half by "A" and "B." 
 
 The last department of manufacture added 
 to the Niagara Falls plant was made after my 
 return from Europe. It was the manufacture 
 of Carborundum paper and cloth. I had had a 
 number of emery paper manufacturers make 
 some, and I believed it would be a valuable 
 addition to our Works. To raise the required 
 fifty thousand dollars for this department, I 
 gave "A" and "B" forty-six thousand dollars of 
 the capital stock of the Company as a bonus for 
 their loaning the money to the Company. The 
 capital of the company was at that time three 
 hundred thousand dollars, having been raised 
 from its former two hundred thousand dollars 
 for the purpose of buying the Canadian patents 
 from me, I giving to "A" and "B" three-fourths, 
 or seventy-five thousand dollars of the one 
 hundred thousand dollar purchase price. 
 
 "A" and "B" were now in control, I having 
 given them as bonuses for the advancement of 
 
 112 
 
money to the Company forty-six and fifty-eight 
 hundredths per cent, of its total capital stock, 
 to which they added by purchase from other 
 stockholders enough to increase their holdings 
 beyond the half. Their advancements to the 
 Company were all in the form of personal notes 
 at six per cent. 
 
 Shortly after they obtained control, they de- 
 manded the retirement of the Secretary and the 
 Treasurer, Mr. William H. Arison and Mr. H. 
 H. Williams, and put in their places Mr. F. W. 
 Haskell and Mr. F. H. Manley. 
 
 One evening in August, 1898, I left my home 
 on Fargo Avenue to take the eleven o'clock train 
 for Pittsburgh, for one of my frequent inter- 
 views with "A" and "B." Within five hundred 
 feet of my house door, I was garotted by three 
 men and knocked insensible by being struck 
 twice on my head. I recovered quickly, and 
 found I had been robbed of my watch and chain, 
 further depredations being prevented by the 
 approach of persons on the street. 
 
 Toward the close of the year, I was taken 
 seriously ill, due, I think, to the many trying 
 
 "3 
 
circumstances in which I had been placed, and 
 the knowledge that it was the purpose of "A" 
 and "B" to remove me from the Presidency of 
 The Carborundum Company, Mr. Haskell hav- 
 ing already been, at their instigation, placed in 
 practical control. I was confined to my bed 
 for five weeks, my mind being so affected that I 
 was for two weeks in an unconscious condition. 
 
 On July ist, 1901, Mr. F. W. Haskell was 
 made President of The Carborundum Company, 
 I having been removed by "A" and "B" from 
 that position. The business of the Company 
 was then on a fine basis, being ready to enter 
 upon a period of great prosperity, but no profits 
 had yet been made. I had created an entirely 
 new industry, worked out and patented the 
 many details of manufacture, created a stock to 
 supply demands from the trade, proved the value 
 of Carborundum as an abrasive and established 
 a demand for the same, and all this while the 
 country was passing through a great financial 
 depression. 
 
 On January ist, 1910, the Company was 
 using ten thousand electrical horse power, and 
 
 114 
 
was producing Carborundum at the rate of ten 
 million pounds per year, the capital of the Com- 
 pany having been increased to six hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 GRAPHITE 
 
 In 1895, 1 secured a United States Patent for 
 purifying carbon. In 1896, I obtained a United 
 States Patent on the manufacture of graphite. 
 On the iyth day of January, 1899, I secured 
 still another one in this series i. e., on the 
 manufacture of graphite articles. 
 
 Realizing that I was completely out of power 
 in The Carborundum Company, and knowing 
 the necessity of accomplishing something for 
 my family, I concluded to form a Graphite 
 Company to operate my patents. 
 
 I told "A" and "B" of my purpose, and they 
 immediately demanded forty per cent, of the 
 stock of the proposed company under an old 
 agreement made between them and myself on 
 July 1 6th, 1896, whereby it was proposed to 
 organize a Carbon Company, they ("A" and 
 "B") furnishing the capital. This was never 
 carried out, and I thought all parties had aban- 
 
 116 
 
doned their claims under it, "A" and "B" not 
 having expended one cent. I objected to their 
 claim for forty per cent, but nevertheless it was 
 clear to me that if I did not pay them tribute 
 under that old contract, I might have difficulty 
 in securing capital for my proposed enterprise. 
 We compromised by my agreeing to present 
 them with twenty-five per cent, of the capital 
 stock of my new company. 
 
 I proceeded with my plans and organized 
 the Acheson Graphite Company, with one million 
 dollars capitalization. It was incorporated 
 under the laws of the State of New Jersey on 
 January 26th, 1899. I sold one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars preferred stock of the Company, 
 and with this money developed the business. 
 
 The Company leased suitable ground from 
 the Niagara Falls Power Company, and con- 
 tracted for one thousand horse power of 
 electricity. 
 
 During February and March, 1900, I filed 
 applications for patents on Graphite manufacture 
 in England, France, Belgium, Germany, Aus- 
 tria, Italy, Spain and Russia. I then organized 
 
 117 
 
a company under the title, of International 
 Acheson Graphite Company with a capitaliza- 
 tion of three million dollars to operate these 
 patents in Europe. It was incorporated under 
 the laws of the State of New Jersey, March i5th, 
 1900. 
 
 I found it inconvenient to live in Buffalo and 
 spend so much time on the railway, and wished to 
 provide my family with a permanent home, and 
 having an opportunity in 1900 to buy a property 
 of twenty-one acres on Lundy's Lane, Niagara 
 Falls, Ontario, I purchased it. To provide the 
 money to purchase, improve and furnish it, I 
 sold to "A" and "B" thirty-five thousand dol- 
 lars worth of my Carborundum stock, and with 
 the proceeds, which amounted to thirty-five 
 thousand dollars, I settled my family at Lundy's 
 Lane. The property, home and contents I pre- 
 sented to my wife. 
 
 My family had, while living in Buffalo, been 
 further increased by the birth of our daughter, 
 Jean Ellen, on November i6th, 1898, and 
 Howard Archibald on April ist, 1900. When I 
 moved my family from Buffalo to Lundy's Lane, 
 
 118 
 
we numbered eleven all told, my wife and I 
 with five sons and four daughters. 
 
 The graphite articles, as made by the Ache- 
 son Graphite Company, such as electrodes, 
 plates for motor and dynamo brushes, bulk 
 graphite for dry batteries and paint pigment, 
 seemed to fill at once a much needed require- 
 ment, and the business of the Company grew 
 accordingly. A plant was built and equipped 
 with one thousand horse power of electricity. 
 
 Believing that it would be to the best inter- 
 ests of all concerned to merge the two Graphite 
 Companies under the title and with the capi- 
 talization of the International Company, I 
 called the necessary meetings to act on it, and an 
 agreement was executed between them under 
 date of May ist, 1900. 
 
 "A" and "B" opposed the merger and went 
 into the New Jersey Court of Chancery on June 
 27th, 1900, for an injunction restraining the 
 Companies from merging. I retained Mr. J. B. 
 Dill to defend the Graphite Company's interests, 
 and, after hearing the case, Judge Emery handed 
 down a decision and order under date of July 
 
 119 
 
2oth, 1900, granting a preliminary injunction 
 so worded as to indicate that, on final hearing, 
 permission to complete the merger might be 
 granted by the Court. 
 
 "A" and "B" thereupon approached me for 
 a compromise. This was arrived at on the follow- 
 ing basis. I agreed to have issued to them the 
 amount of stock due them under the merger or 
 one-twelfth plus one-half the difference between 
 the twelfth and their original fourth or one-sixth, 
 they agreeing to convert The Carborundum Com- 
 pany's notes held by them into twenty-year 
 bonds, doubling the capital of the Company to 
 permit of so large an issue, the new stock to be 
 issued to the stockholders pro rata with their hold- 
 ings ; to have The Carborundum Company begin 
 paying dividends; to have The Carborundum 
 Company employ me as Consulting Engineer for 
 five years at a salary of five thousand dollars 
 per year. These conditions being mutually 
 agreed to, the merger was completed. 
 
 My health was very bad in 1902. I was 
 worried over the disconnected state of my 
 affairs. I then was possessed of about twenty- 
 
 120 
 
two per cent, of the capital stock of The Car- 
 borundum Company, seventy-two per cent, of 
 the International Acheson Graphite Company, 
 and some other scattered interests. I con- 
 ceived the idea of forming an incorporated com- 
 pany of my family, and dividing its stock 
 amongst my wife and children, and, as a result, 
 I incorporated on January 5th, 1903, under the 
 laws of New Jersey, The Acheson Company, 
 with authorized capital of ten thousand dollars 
 divided into one hundred shares. Of these one 
 hundred shares I gave to my wife thirty-four, 
 retaining the remainder in the interests of my 
 children. To The Acheson Company I trans- 
 ferred all my holdings. 
 
 Owing to severe stomach troubles and an 
 operation thereon, I was entirely unfit to attend 
 to business from the early Spring of 1903 to the 
 Fall of 1905, and was absent from home much 
 of this period. 
 
 I again assumed the responsibilities of my 
 office, which was that of President, in the late 
 Fall of 1905. I practically reorganized the 
 official staff and management of the Company 
 
 121 
 
and it at once entered upon a period of great 
 prosperity. 
 
 By the first of January, 1910, the Company's 
 plant was using five thousand electrical horse 
 power in its furnaces and the amount of graphite 
 being produced was at the rate of more than ten 
 millions of pounds per year. 
 
 122 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 EGYPTIANIZED CLAY; DIRECT REDUCTION OP 
 
 ALUMINUM AND SILICON; PRODUCTION OF 
 
 SILOXICON, LUBRICATING GRAPHITE, 
 
 AQUADAG AND OILDAG 
 
 Having worked out the process of manufac- 
 turing practically pure graphite, which I believed 
 to be better than the natural products, I early 
 in 1901 took up experiments having in view 
 the use of my graphite in the making of 
 crucibles. The graphite was not successful as 
 it then existed, but the experiments led me into 
 a study of clays, that had rather an unlocked 
 for result. I discovered that when a clay mod- 
 erately weak in strength and plasticity was 
 treated with tannin, extract of straw, and other 
 plant extracts, it was increased in those prop- 
 erties. The particles of the clay were reduced 
 so fine that they would pass through a fine filter 
 paper, and would remain permanently suspended 
 in water. I believe this to be an explanation 
 
 123 
 
of why the Egyptians used straw in making 
 brick, and I called clay so treated and dried 
 "Egyptianized Clay." 
 
 In 1900 I became interested in experiments 
 having in view the reduction of various metals 
 directly from their oxides, and on December 
 4th and 2oth, 1900, and on January 2oth, 1903, 
 I filed applications for patents pertaining to this 
 line of work, all of these applications resulting in 
 the issue of patents. Under the methods therein 
 set forth, I could produce a direct reduction of 
 silicon and also aluminum. All rights pertain- 
 ing to silicon under these patents, I sold to The 
 Carborundum Company for five thousand dol- 
 lars, and the process was developed and con- 
 siderably improved by Mr. F. J. Tone, and has 
 grown to quite a department in The Carborun- 
 dum Company. The process for the direct 
 reduction of aluminum, as set forth in the patents, 
 avoids the necessity of resorting to the electro- 
 lytic methods as practised under the Hall and 
 other processes. 
 
 In the late Fall of 1902, I made application 
 for two patents which were issued under date 
 
 124 
 
of March lyth, 1903, one of them being for a 
 method of producing compounds containing 
 silicon, oxygen and carbon, and the other for a 
 refractory material, this latter product having 
 the typical formula of Si 2 C 2 O, and was called by 
 me Siloxicon, a word coined from the names of 
 the three elements entering into its composition. 
 
 I did quite a great deal of work toward the 
 commercial manufacture of Siloxicon, but owing 
 to the poor condition of my health during the 
 following two or three years, my thoughts were 
 carried away from this, and on again taking up 
 a line of experiments, my attention was irresist- 
 ibly drawn toward the production of lubricating 
 products of graphite. 
 
 In 1906 I made a few experiments having in 
 view the possible increasing in value of Carbor- 
 undum as an abrasive. The experiments were 
 a failure for the purpose I had in mind, but I 
 found in the output of the furnace a small 
 amount of a very soft, unctuous, non-coalescing 
 graphite which I immediately recognized as an 
 ideal lubricating product. 
 
 I at once went into experiments to perfect 
 
 125 
 
the manufacture of this graphite, and developed 
 commercial methods of producing what I thought 
 to be a nearly perfect product. Patents were 
 applied for and under date of November 2oth, 
 1906, one was issued to me under the title 
 "Production of Graphite." This I assigned to 
 the International Acheson Graphite Company. 
 
 The Graphite Company is now placing this 
 graphite mixed with grease upon the market 
 under the copyrighted name of Gredag, the 
 word being formed from the first three letters of 
 grease, and the initial letters of "disintegrated 
 Acheson-Graphite. ' ' 
 
 Late in the Fall of 1906, the thought occurred 
 to me to apply to graphite the treatment that 
 I had applied to clay and see if I could not make 
 it remain suspended in water. The treatment 
 proved satisfactory, the graphite being reduced 
 to so fine a state of subdivision that it would 
 readily pass through a fine filter paper and 
 remain permanently suspended in water. I 
 defined the treatment as "deflocculation" and 
 spoke of the graphite as being deflocculated. 
 Experiments showed deflocculated graphite sus- 
 
 126 
 
pended in water formed an excellent lubricant, 
 and it further had the remarkable quality of pre- 
 venting the rusting of metal which had been 
 immersed in the water carrying the graphite. 
 This new lubricant consisting of deflocculated 
 graphite and water, I called Aquadag, the word 
 being formed from the word "aqua" and 
 the initial letters of "deflocculated Acheson- 
 Graphite." In the following Spring I succeeded 
 in transferring the deflocculated graphite from 
 the water medium to an oil medium, in which it 
 also remained suspended, and this I called Oil- 
 dag. Various tests of a severe and exhaustive 
 nature showed Oildag to be a very superior 
 lubricant, and some authorities have expressed 
 the opinion that it would extend the possible 
 life of the natural petroleum lubricating oils 
 four times. 
 
 Patents were taken out in twenty-three 
 countries, (they including practically the indus- 
 trial world) on the various processes of manu- 
 facture and the products produced as Aquadag 
 and Oildag, and I also trade marked the words 
 "Aquadag" and "Oildag" in those countries. 
 
 127 
 
Wishing the International Acheson Graphite 
 Company to become owners of these new inter- 
 ests I had acquired, I concluded to sell the 
 patents, trade marks, and various interests to it, 
 and the necessary meetings of the directors and 
 stockholders were held to consider and act upon 
 the advisability of an increase in the capitaliza- 
 tion for the purchase of these interests. Fav- 
 orable action was taken and the Company 
 accepted my offer of sale. 
 
 Under date of June srd, 1907 "A" and "B," 
 by and through counsel, appeared in the Court 
 of Chancery of New Jersey and brought suit to 
 prevent the said purchase by the International 
 Acheson Graphite Company of my interests in 
 Aquadag and Oildag, and as a part of their bill 
 of complaint, they stated as follows : 
 
 "And your orators show and charge the fact 
 to be that the said business proposed to be under- 
 taken is not part of the business for which the 
 said corporation (International Acheson Graphite 
 Company) was organized, and that to engage in 
 it is to embark the capital of said Company in a 
 new and distinct enterprise not contemplated 
 
 128 
 
upon the organization of the said Company; 
 that the said processes claimed to be covered 
 by the said letters patent are new and untried 
 and have never been used with commercial 
 success; that they are experimental and unde- 
 veloped and at the present stage it is impossible 
 to tell whether or not they can be made com- 
 mercially successful or whether or not they 
 infringe upon patented processes." 
 
 When the papers were served upon me per- 
 taining to this suit, I immediately withdrew 
 my offer of sale of my various interests relating 
 to Aquadag and Oildag to the International 
 Acheson Graphite Company, and under date of 
 May 25th, 1908, I organized and incorporated 
 the Acheson Oildag Company under the laws of 
 the State of New York, and to this Company 
 I assigned all my rights and interests pertaining 
 to Aquadag and Oildag. 
 
 In looking back over my life work and re- 
 sults produced, I believe these last two produc- 
 tions, viz., Aquadag and Oildag, will prove to be 
 of more value to the world than any of the pre- 
 ceding products. Much yet remains to do in the 
 
 129 
 
way of perfecting the details of manufacture, 
 company organization and exploitation of the 
 products, but the indications at the present 
 time (1910) are that they will be very quickly 
 appreciated and accepted by the manufacturing 
 and industrial world. 
 
 After having solved the problems pertain- 
 ing to deflocculation of graphite and other 
 insoluble, non -metallic, non- fused, inorganic 
 amorphous bodies, I found that the addition of 
 an electrolyte to the solution, such, for instance, 
 as acids or the solution of ordinary salt, would 
 cause a flocculation of the suspended matter 
 and sedimentation would occur, and I then real- 
 ized that in Nature we had cases of this kind 
 continuously before us; for example, the sus- 
 pended matter of the Missouri and Mississippi 
 Rivers, and the effect of salt water or other 
 electrolytes in causing sedimentation furnish 
 a very satisfactory explanation of the for- 
 mation of the deltas and bars at the mouths of 
 the rivers where they enter salt water, as, for 
 instance, the delta of the Nile and the bars of 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 130 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 
 
 Dr. Acheson is affiliated in the manner 
 stated with the following societies, organiza- 
 tions and clubs : 
 
 Charter Member and Past President of the 
 American Electro -Chemical Society; Charter 
 Member and Vice-President of the American 
 Institute of Chemical Engineers; Fellow of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of 
 Science; Member American Institute of Elec- 
 trical Engineers; Member American Chemical 
 Society; Member American Ceramic Society; 
 Member National Geographic Society; Member 
 Franklin Institute; Member Royal Society of 
 Arts, England; Member Chamber of Commerce, 
 New York State; Member Chamber of Com- 
 merce, Buffalo; Member University Club, Wash- 
 ington, D. C. ; Member Chemists Club, New York 
 City; Member Buffalo Club, Buffalo, N. Y.; 
 
Member Park Club, Buffalo, N. Y.; Member 
 Niagara Club, Niagara Falls, N. Y. ; Member 
 Automobile Club of America, New York City. 
 
 132 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 PAPERS WRITTEN AND READ 
 
 Dr. Acheson has read the following papers 
 before the various named Societies at the dates 
 given: 
 
 Disruptive Discharges and Their Relations 
 to Underground Cables, before the National 
 Electric Light Association, August 29th, 1888. 
 
 Lightning Arresters and the Photographic 
 Study of Self-induction, before the American 
 Institute of Electrical Engineers, January 8th, 
 1889. 
 
 Carborundum; Its History, Manufacture 
 and Uses, before the Franklin Institute, June 
 2ist, 1893. 
 
 Graphite; Its Formation and Manufacture, 
 before the Franklin Institute, March i$th, 1899. 
 
 Egyptianized Clay; before the American 
 Ceramic Society, February, 1904. 
 
 Discovery and Invention; before the Mining 
 Engineers' Club, Massachusetts Institute of 
 
Technology, March gth, 1906; Sibley College of 
 Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, 
 May, 1906; Schenectady Branch of American 
 Institute of Electrical Engineers, October i2th, 
 1906; Lafayette College, October i8th, 1906. 
 
 Seventeen Years of Experimental Research 
 and Development, before the American Acad- 
 emy of Arts and Sciences, April 8th, 1908. 
 
 Deflocculation of Graphite, before the Amer- 
 ican Institute of Electrical Engineers, July i ith, 
 1908; American Chemical Society, July i2th, 
 1908; Syracuse Branch of the American Chemi- 
 cal Society, October i6th, 1908; American 
 Electro-Chemical Society, October i;th, 1908; 
 American Mining Congress, November i3th, 
 1908. 
 
 The Electro-Chemist and the Conservation 
 of our Natural Resources, before the American 
 Electro-Chemical Society, May 6th, 1909. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 HONORS CONFERRED 
 
 Many honors have been conferred upon Dr. 
 Acheson, prominent among them being the 
 following : 
 
 John Scott Medal (Franklin Institute) 1894, 
 for invention of Carborundum. 
 
 Gold Medal, Trans-Mississippi and Inter- 
 national Exposition, Omaha, Neb., 1898, for 
 Artificial Graphite. 
 
 Grand Prix, Exposition Universelle Inter- 
 nationale, Paris, France, 1900, for Carborun- 
 dum and Artificial Graphite. 
 
 John Scott Medal (Franklin Institute) 1901, 
 for Artificial Graphite. 
 
 Gold Medal, Pan-American Exposition, Buf- 
 falo, N. Y., 1901, for Artificial Graphite. 
 
 One of the one hundred "Captains of Indus- 
 try" who breakfasted with H. R. H. Prince 
 Henry of Prussia in New York on February 26, 
 1902. 
 
 135 
 
Grand Prize, Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
 tion, St. Louis, Mo., 1904, for Carborundum and 
 Artificial Graphite. 
 
 Count Rumford Premium, American Acad- 
 emy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, Mass., 1908, 
 for new industrial products of the electric 
 furnace. 
 
 The degree of Sc. D. was conferred upon 
 Dr. Acheson by the University of Pittsburgh, 
 Pa., February i2th, 1909. 
 
 The Perkin Medal awarded by Perkin Medal 
 Committee, January aist, 1910. 
 
 136 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 In reviewing Dr. Acheson's life as related 
 by himself, one is naturally inclined to attempt 
 an analysis of the qualifications which he evi- 
 dently possesses and which have enabled him to 
 surmount difficulties and accomplish the results 
 attained. One cannot fail to be impressed with 
 the number of times he converted failures into 
 successes, these almost invariably being the 
 results of observing very small effects that would 
 ordinarily escape the notice of an experimenter. 
 Another characteristic that deserves more than 
 passing note was his desire to tread unknown 
 paths, as shown by the fact of his having entered 
 entirely new fields of research, fields previously 
 unexplored, or if attempts had been made at 
 exploration, the results reported were rather of 
 a kind to have caused one to avoid them. These 
 points were well brought out by a statement 
 recently made by a gentleman holding a very 
 
 137 
 
eminent position in the electro-chemical indus- 
 tries of the United States, and being very con- 
 cise, we repeat it herewith in his words: 
 
 "Dr. Acheson observed the transformation 
 of carborundum at high temperatures into 
 graphite, and drew from this and similar 
 observations, conclusions respecting the effect of 
 impurities upon amorphous carbon, whether 
 normally present therein or derived from exter- 
 nal sources, in determining its conversion into 
 graphite. Based upon these conclusions and 
 upon a long experimental study of the trans- 
 formation of carbon by heat, he founded a new 
 industry, to wit: the manufacture from such 
 cheap forms of carbon as petroleum coke, anthra- 
 cite coal, etc., of practically uniform grades of 
 electric furnace graphite, of a degree of purity 
 adapted to their intended uses, and by reason of 
 their purity and uniformity, far superior to the 
 crude, impure and variable natural product. 
 He developed also electric furnace methods 
 which have rendered possible the transforma- 
 tion of vast quantities of carbon into graphite, 
 thereby commercializing the industry. He also 
 
 138 
 
developed the present industrial methods for 
 the graphitization of electrodes and other shaped 
 bodies of carbon, and these electrodes, by reason 
 of their homogeneous character and freedom 
 from impurities and extraneous bonding agents 
 have, in many applications, completely sup- 
 planted the crude and unsatisfactory baked 
 carbon electrodes upon which the art of electro- 
 chemistry, in its infancy, was forced to rely. 
 It has often been stated that electro-chemistry, 
 supplanting the wasteful chemical and metal- 
 lurgical methods of the past and present, is 
 destined to become the predominant agent in 
 the conservation of the resources of the 
 world; and it may safely be asserted that 
 electro-chemistry owes its astounding modern 
 growth, first to the development of the dynamo, 
 and second to the production of Acheson- 
 Graphite Electrodes. For the development of 
 the great industry of electrolytic caustic and 
 bleach, for example, their use has been indispen- 
 sable. Dr. Acheson was pre-eminently and 
 absolutely a pioneer in the graphite art. He 
 was not a mere improver upon an existing art, 
 
but he made a great invention, discovered a new 
 art, never known before and blazed the way as a 
 pathfinder for future generations." 
 
 This characteristic of searching out new and 
 untrodden paths is again illustrated in a very 
 forcible manner by his work on the defloccula 
 tion of graphite and other amorphous bodies 
 and the application of deflocculated graphite to 
 the problem of lubrication. Lubrication is one 
 of the most important problems with which man 
 has to contend, entering as it does into every 
 phase of civilized life. The manufacturing and 
 handling of lubricants has been the basis of 
 some of the largest and most powerful organiza- 
 tions of modern times, and it has received the 
 attention of our leaders in scientific thought. 
 
 In the judgment of those competent of form- 
 ing opinions for the world, who have investi- 
 gated Dr. Acheson's products known as Aquadag 
 and Oildag, he has in these materials, to a large 
 extent, solved the problem of lubrication for 
 future generations. In an address by Dr. 
 Charles F. Mabery delivered by special request 
 before the American Society of Mechanical 
 
 140 
 
Engineers at their January meeting of 1910, he 
 presented the results of very exhaustive and 
 prolonged tests that he had made to determine 
 the efficiency of Aquadag and Oildag for gen- 
 eral lubrication, and in this address he stated: 
 
 "Deflocculated graphite has peculiar prop- 
 erties; it remains suspended indefinitely in 
 water, but is quickly precipitated by impurities. 
 On account of its extreme subdivision a very 
 small amount suspended in water serves for 
 efficient lubrication. From numerous and long- 
 continued trials it appears that thirty-five one 
 hundredths per cent, serves an adequate purpose 
 and that a larger proportion is superfluous. It 
 is certainly remarkable that such a small quan- 
 tity of graphite is readily distributed by water 
 between a journal and bearing while sustaining 
 a load of seventy pounds per square inch of 
 bearing surface, and that under high-speed 
 conditions it maintains an extremely low 
 co-efficient of friction." 
 
 And in conclusion, he said: 
 
 "The results presented in this paper, with 
 reference to the uses of graphite as a solid lub- 
 
 141 
 
ricant, indicate that in the deflocculated form 
 it can readily be applied with great economic 
 efficiency in all forms of mechanical work. One 
 of the most characteristic effects is that of a 
 surface-evener, by forming a veneer, equalizing 
 the metallic depressions and projections on the 
 surfaces of journal and bearing; and being 
 endowed with a certain freedom of motion under 
 pressure, it affords the most perfect lubrication. 
 In automobile lubrication the great efficiency 
 of graphite, in increasing engine power, in con- 
 trolling temperatures, and in decreasing wear 
 and tear on bearings, has been brought out in a 
 series of tests conducted by the Automobile 
 Club of America. In connection with the reduc- 
 tion in friction of lubricating oils by graphite 
 the extremely small proportion necessary is 
 worthy of note; the proportion used in this work 
 is equivalent to one cubic inch of graphite in 
 three gallons of oil. The curve of temperature 
 for Aquadag, an increase but slightly above that 
 of the surrounding atmosphere, demonstrates 
 an important economic quality of controlling 
 temperatures in factory lubrication, thereby 
 
 142 
 
avoiding the danger of highly heated bearings, 
 which are frequently the cause of fires. 
 
 "In the observations described in this paper, 
 and in fact in all the work that has been done 
 in this field, there is not a more impressive 
 example of the efficiency of graphite in lubrication 
 than that presented in the curves of friction and 
 temperature of water and graphite; for water 
 serving merely as a vehicle and completely 
 devoid of lubricating quality, the graphite is 
 permitted to perform its work without aid and 
 with no limiting conditions. 1 ' 
 
 143