The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-11-18
A REMARKABLE HISTORY.
How an Inventor Struggled and Won
From the Scientific American

How an Inventor Struggled and Won
From the Scientific American.
In 1858, Mr.. Thomas Sheehan, of
Dunkirk, New York, foreman in the
department of the Erie rail
way shops at that place, patented
submarine gapple, which, though an
ingenious invention, proved to be one
for which there was little demand. This
was his first invention; and the cost of
its completion, together with one years
struggle to manufacture and introduce
it, completely exhausted Mr.. Sheehan's
means, and reduced him to the eXtre-
NEST poverty. He was, in fact, in pref
ty nearly the same condition as Palsy
the Potter, at the moment of the great
est distress. A wife and eight child
red in Sheehan's family were reduced
to the verge of restitution, and Mrs
Sheehan became uncommonly bitter
Just at this crisis, Mr. S ID. Cald-
well, General Freight Agent of the
Erie Railroad, at Dunkirk, CHANGED to
meet Mr. Sheehan in the streets of the
town, and accosted him, with:
"Well, Thomas, how are the grapples?
l hear they have used you up"
Yes, was the answer, g the crap
pies, have done my business L wish |
had never seen them"
Throw 'em away" advised Mr.
Caldwell :" Have you any finished -
81 have one almost DONE" said
Thomas.
g Finish that, / will pay you $40 for
it, and have it used for picking up coal
on the dock The money will help you
in your present emergency, and you
can get back 10 your old place in the
shop and earn a good living for your
family"
" will, SAID Thomas.
Back to his humble home went the
and set himself to finish the grapple
with all due speed. But, upon what
slender threads do the fortunes of men
hang ! A tap, the only one our inven-
tor had of the size required, suddenly
snapped asunder, and, as it was essen
tItl to the progress of the work, he
must have Il new one or he could not
90 on.
In this strait, he applied to his wife
to lend him twenty-five cents to buy the
necessary steel to forge the tap. But
she, having no faith III the grapple, re-
fused, for two very good reasons-frst,
that she believed the money would be
thrown away if she gave it to her hus-
band; aud second, that she had not
the money to give him, even If SO dis
posed. The refusal was reasoned with
some very hot word spice that made il
very unpalatable to Thomas But he
bethought him of merchant who, Ill
brighter days had seen the color Of his
money, and who, perhaps, would now
give him credit for the small modicun
of steel he required for the tap.
To this merchant he applied and, some,
what reluctant to prefer his request,
began beating about the bush; and fin.
ally straying into politics, hot words
passed between them, and our friend,
feeling his manllness would suffer toe
keenly by asking credit for the steel,
came away without it.
With no definite purpose he went
home, bordering upon how he should
surmount this now no trifiing obstacle
of the broken tap.
He found his wife making I've foi
soft soap, but her acidity III no way
neutralized by the alkaline reaction
Despondent and discouraged, he sal
down, in no very enviable mood, when
he CHANGED to spy piece of iron lying
near the tubs at which his spouse was
working. Meditating upon how he
could make that piece of iron hard
enough for Il tap, he was Lad to rather
rude experiment, the results of which
have in the end made him richer man
than he ever dreamed of being
1t SO happened that from distant
relative, Roman Catholic priest in
Ireland, our friend had inherited quite
library of works on chemistry, some
of them rare and valuable. He had
read some of these books to very good
purpose. "There is surely carbon in
that ley" thought he. elf | only
could get thal into this iron in the pro
per proportion, | should have steel and
from that my tap, and SO finish my crap
pie"
With little hope or faith that he
should succeed, he took some of the
ley, and adding, without any particular
reason for so doing, some saltpetre and
common salt, made paste of this solu-
tion and hard grudged saucerful of the
little remaining flour there was i'll the
house. He then forged the tap, envel-
oping it in the paste, put the whole
into lifted iron box and exposed it to
the heat for two hours in a blacksmith S
fire. To his JOY and surprise, when he
took it, ont it was hard enough to Icutcas
steel The grape was finished and
forty dollars flowed into the treasury
of Thomas Sheehan. He went back to
his old work, disguised with patents,
and resolved never TO have anything to
do with one again. But the remem-
brance Of the tap, hardened in SO lln-
ique ii manner, still haunted him. Hav-
ing great deal of hardening to
do, he thought one day lie would repeat
the experiment upon larger scale,
which he did with perfect success.
For twelve months he went on TO eX
pertinent, purchasing the material with
his own money, land working III secret
by night, and odd hours. At the end
Of twelve months he reconsidered his
sentence of condemnation on patents,
and applied for one on his process,
which was granted September 4, 1860,
the claim being for combination Of
damaged -four, potash I've, or I've from
hard wood ashes, nitre, common salt,
and sulphate of zinc, for case-harden-
ing iron. In 1867 he patented an i'm
provement on the above named process.
In 1903 he took out another patent for
an entirely new process, which consists
in the use of raw limestone, charcoal,
black oxide of manganese, sal soda,
common salt, and pulverlzed rosln,