The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1871-11-04
A Remarkable History.
How nm 1nventor struggled and Won

In the Scientific ADleTIcdn we llIu d
story of the struggles and triumphs OF an
inventor which is worth preservation.
The substance of it is as follows:
In 1868 MIR. Thomas Sheehan. of Dun>
kirk, New York, foreman in the blacksmith
department of the Erie railway shops at that
place, patented submarine grapple, when,
though an ingenious invention, proved to be
one for which there was little demand. TINS
was his first invention and the cost OF lis
completion, together with one years strug-
Gle to manufacture and introduce 1T, COM
pletely exhausted Mr.. Sheehan's means, and
reduced him to the EXTREMIST poverty, tie
was, in fact, in pretty nearly the same con
dition as Palissy, the Potter, at the moment
of his greatest distress. wife and eight
children in Sheehan's family were reduced to
the verge of desttution, and Mrs. Sheehan
became uacoElmonly bitter.
Just at this crisis, Mr.. S. d Coiwe!l,
General Freight Agent of the Erie railroad,
at DuEkirk, chanced to meet Mr.. Sheehan in
the streets of that town and accosted him,
with
We'll, Thomas, how are the grapples2 l
hear they have used you up"
Yes" was the answer, "the grappies
have done my business wish had never
seen them"
Throw 'em away" advised Mr.. Colwell,
Have yon any now finished 2''
Il have one almost done," said Thomas.
Finish that; l will pay you $40 for it,
and have it used for picking up coal at the
dock. The money will help you in your
present emergency, and You can go back to
your old place in the shop and earn good
living for your family"
81 will - said Thomas.
,ol- q bn la ont 10
tor, with new hope in his breast, and set
himself to fnish the grapple with all due
speed. But, upon what slender threads do
the fortunes of men depend 4 tap, the
only one our inventor had of the size required
suddenly snapped asunder. and, as it was
essential to the progress of the work, he
must have a new one or he could not go Cd.
In his straight. he applied to his wife to
lend him twenty five cents to buy the nee
essary steel to forge the tap. But she hav-
ing no faith in the grapple, refused, for two
very good reasous-frst, that she believed
the money would be thrown away if she gave
it to her husband and second. that she had
not the money to give him, even if so dis
posed. The refusal was seasoned with some
very hot spice that made it very unpalata-
BILE to Thomas. But he bethought him of a
merchant who. in brighter days Lad seen the
y
now give him credit for the small modicum
Of steel he required for the tap.
TIE this merchant to prefer his request,
he began beating about the bush and finally
straying into politics, hot words passed be-
| tween them, and our friend, feeling his man.
illness would suffer too keenly by asking
credit for the steel, came away without it.
With no definite purpose he went home
ponderipg upon how he should surmount this
! now no trifing, obstacle of the broken tap.
He found his wife making lye for soft soap
but her acidity in no way neutralized by the
alkaline reaction. Despondent and discour-
! aged, he sat down. in no very enviable mood
when he chanced to spy piece of iron lay
| ing near the tubs at which his spouse was
working. Meditating upon how he could
make that piece of iron hard enough for a
! tap, led him to rather rude experiment, the
results Of which have in the end made him
| a richer man than he ever dreamed of being
It SO happened that from distant rela-
tive, Roman Catholic priest in Ireland, oul
| friend had inherited quite library of works
on chemistry; some of them rare and valua-
| BILE. He had read some of these books to
very good purpose. There is surely carbon
in that lye," thought he. "If only could
get that into this iron in the proper proper
ton, should have steel, and from that my
tap, and SO finish my grapple."
With little hope or faith that he should
succeed, he took some of the I've, and adding
without any particular reason for go doing
some ssitpetre and common salt. made a
! paste with this solution and a hard grudged
saucerful of the little remaining -four there
was in the house. He then forged the tap
and enveloping il in the paste, put the whole
into luted iron box and exposed it to heat
r L ,
| joy and surprise when he took it out. it was
| hard enough to cut cast steel. The grapple
was finished. and forty dollars flowed into
The family treasury Of Thomas Sheehan.- -
He vent back to his old work, disguised with
patents, and resolved never to have anythin
to do with one again. But the remembrance
of the tap, hardened in SC unique manner
still haunted him. Having a great deal OF
case hardening - do, he thought one day he
would repeat the experiment upon a large
scale, which he did with perfect success.
For twelve months he went on to expert
ment. purchasing the materials with his own
money. and worked in secret by night and
at odd hours. At the end of twelve months
he reconsidered his sentence of condemn alton
on patents, and applied for one on his pro,
cess, which was granted September 4. 1860
the claim being for a combination of dam,
aSeu Hour' potash Iye, or Iye from hardwood
| ashes, nitro, common salt, and sulphate Of
zinc, for case hardening iron. In 1867 he
patented an improvement on the above
named process. In 1868 he took out another
patent on an entirely new process. which
consists in the use of raw limestone. char
coal, black oxide of manganese, sal soda,
common salt, and pulverized rosn, COM
biued, for converting ircn into steel, which
is now widely used, and from which he bas
reaped quite fortune.
No less than twenty>three of the leading
railways in America now use this process,
under license from the patentee, for harden.
ing the links, guides, pins, and nuts of loco
motives. effecting. we are told. no less sa,
wing than from five to six hundred dollars
annually on each locomotive, in obviating
the lost motion consequent upon the wear q
links, guides and pins.