Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1871-11-16
4 (si:..M.AlikiEl.E. HISTORY.
How ir,: nirr struggled and stO
hmm til Sl.i..lt Alu.:ri.:.n

How nn inr: ntor struggled and Won
lr',rn the Srinilir Al,l'riru".
In 1853, Mr.. Thomas S.lrrhan, Of
D,ukirk, New York, foreman in illr
blacksmith department. OF the Erie raul
way shops at that place, patented Il
"u''n;r'lr g'app'r, Which, though Al
ingenious nlErntlOn, proved to he one
for which there was little demand. Tili,
WIS his frs; invention: and the cost ct
its completion, together with ni,r Vt. nr'%
struggle to manufacture and lutr,ni,tvr
ii, completely exhausted Mr. Sl,rr|luu.
l.u".ns, AMI rriluccl l,im to the rXtr,>-
NEST poverty. lie WAS, in fact, III pynt-
t." lnnr v the same condition as l'ali;;v
thc Potter, ut the moment Of the great
est distress. a wife and eight child
red in Shcclan's S family were reduced
t. the verge Of lestitutio,, and MAS.
Shrrhan became 1unomnoniy bitter.
Just ut thus crisis, Mr.. = d. N;,ld-
we'll, General Freight Agent of the
Eric Railroad, at D;mkirk, cllanceI to
r'c.'t Mr.. Sheehan III the streets OF the
town, and :'ctust,el lima, with:
We'll, Thomas, how Mc the grapplcs?
l hear they have used You up"
Yes,' wa; tIlc answer, "thc Crap
pics, have done my business; [ wish 1
had never seen thrm.'
Throw 'cm away" lyisel Mr.
Caldwell. Have yo,, any finished 2"
81 have one ain.~*t tlonc,' said
Thomas.
:" Finish that, will pay YOU $40 for
it, and have it used for picking up cuii
on the dock. The money viii hci p you
in your present emergency, ami yuu
can get back to your old place in the
shop and earn II good living for your
family.'
81 will,' said Thomas.
Back to his humble home went the
inventor, with new hope in the breast,
and set himself to finish the grappl>:
with all due speed. But, upon what
slender threads DO the fortunes Of met,
hang! A tap, the only one our luv,il-
tor had of the size required, suddenly
s>liuppc'l asuntlcr, and, as it Wa: essen
tial to the progress Of the work, he
must hayo new one or Inc could not
go on.
In this strait, nc applied to his wife
to lend him twenty-five cents to buy the,
necessary steel to forge the tap. But
she, having no faith i'll the grapplc, re-
fused, for two very good reasons--tirst,
that she believed t|t1 money would be
thrown away if she gave il to her has
band; and second, that she had not
the money to give him, even if 50 dis
posed. The refusal WAS reasoned with
somo very hot word spice that made it
very unpalutable to Thomas. But he
! lnf .1,t T., -
! brighter days had seen the color of his
money, and who, perhaps, would ROW
give him credit for the small modicum
of steel he required for the tap.
! TO thismcrchant he applied and, some
what rcluctalt to prefer his request,
: began beating about the bush; aud fin
ally straying into politics, hot words
i passed between them, and our friend,
feeling his m:nl1ncss would suffer too
kccnly by asking credit for the steel,
came away without it.
! With no le!initc purpose he went
home, pon1er!ng upon how he should
s,lrmo1lnt this now 40 tritling obstacle
of the broken tap.
He found his wife making lyo for
soft soap, bnt her aci,lity in no way
neutralizcd by the alkaline rcaction--
! Dcspondcnt and discouraged, he sat
down, in no very e,yiablo mood, when
1 he Glanced to spy piece OF iron lyinS
near the tubs ut which his spouse was
working. 3IeditatirG upon how he
could make that piece OF iron hard
enough fox IL tap, he Was ]ul to a rather
rude experiment, the results of which
have in the end made him richer man
/ than he ever dreamed Of being.
1t 50 happened that from Il distant
relative, a Roman Catholic priest in
Ireland, our friend had inlcvitcl quite
, Il library of works on chemistry, some
of thcrl rare and valuable. He had
read some Of these books to very good
purpose tThcre il surely carbon il,
that ley,' thought he. ''ii [ only
could get tha4 into this iron in the pro
per proportion, l should have steel, and
from that my tap, and SO finish my grap-
pie"
With little hope or faith that he
should succeed, !tc took some Of the
Icy, and adding, without any particular
reason for 80 doing, some Saltpctrc and
common salt made q paste OF this sol1l-
ton and q hard yrudgcd sauccrful OF the
little remaining flour there was in the
house. He then forged the tap, cnvcl-
oping it in the paste, put the whole
into d lifted iron box and cSposcl it to
the heat for two hours i'll Il blacksmith's
fire. 70 his joy and surprise, when he
took it, ont it WAS hard enough to|clltcas
steel. The grnr1,.e vas finished and
forty dollars flowed into the trcasnry
Of Thomas Shcehan. He went back to
his old work, disGlstrl with patents,
ant, resolved never to have anything to
Ito with one again. i;nt the rclurm-
hrance Of the tap, hardened in 50 un-
iquc a manner, still lia.'.t"l hin. Hav
ing il great deal of sp-l,ar}cning to
do, he thought one day he would repeat
/ the experiment upon IL larger scale,
which lie did with perfect SUCCESS
! For twelve months ne went Oh to cX
pertinent, purchasing the material with
his own money, (anl working in secret
by night, and odd hours. At the end
OF twelve months he rcronsilcrcu his
sentence OF condemnation ON patents,
and applied for one on his process,
which was granted Scptrmltr4, 1860,
the claim being for a combination OK
damaged flour, potash lyc, or lye from
1tNl>i N'''A 't>ll\H, llllE, i'lliN'I Httlt,
and s,lphatc Of zinc, for cnsr-|lardcn-
ing iron. In 1867 he patented nn i'm
provemcnt on the above named process.
In 1908 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 p!lvcrizcd ros1n,
combined, for converting iron into steel,
which is now widely used, and from
which he rcapcl quite Il fortune
No less than twenty three oft}lc lead
ing railways i'll America now use this
process, under license fro,u the pa
tcntcc, for hardening; the links. guides,
pms and nuts OF locomotives, clfcrtiny,
we arr told, no less /. saving than from
five to six hundred dollars annually o',
crch locomotive, III obviating the lost
motion consequent upon tllc wctr OF
links, guides andpins.
The inventor has already received Cor
licenses under his patent of 1868, S:4;9,
GjO, and has ust sold the rr1nainrr OF
his patent in America for SlJ,OOU.
: Military Matters.
Military changes have been made by
the President, Transferring; the state ui
North Carolina from the Department Ol
the East to the Department. Of The
South. The Indian Territory nortl, Of
Texas and south ui Kansas Is added to
tI,,, |, ,,f 'I,r.r ,,,,i,r ..,,,n-