The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-11-30
HOW AN INVENTOR STRUGGLED AND WON

LII tHc ioctcNtytc AWeF1cdfl we Hnd SCOTy Vi
the struggles and .triumphs of an inventor,
(which is worth observation. The substance
of it is as follows:
In 1858, Thomas Sheehan, of Dunkirk, N.
Y, foreman in the blacksmith department ON
the Erie railway shops at that place. patented
a submarine grapple, which, though an ingeni-
GUS invention, proved to be one for which there
was little demand This was his first inyen-
ton; and the cost of its completion, together
with one years struggle to manufacture and
introduce it, completely exhausted Mr.. Shee-
hans means, and reduced him to the EXTREMIST
poverty. He was, in fact, in pretty nearly the
same condition as Palissy the potter, at the
moment of his greatest distress. A wife and
eight children in Sheehan's family were re-
duced to the verge of destitution, and Mrs.
| Sheehan became uncOmmOnly bitter.
| Just at this crisis, S. D. COlwell general
agent OF the Erie Railroad at Dunkirk, chanced
to meet Mr.. Sheehan in the street of that
town and accOsted him with:
"Well, Thomas. how are the grapples7
hear they have used you up."
eyes" was the answer, the grapples have
done my business; wish | had never seen
them"
Throw 'em away" advised Mr.. ColwelI
Have you any now finished!"
II have one almost dOne," said Thomas
"Finish that; will pay you forty dollars
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 60 back to
your place In the shop and earn a good living
for your family"
"I will" said Thomas
Back to the humble home went the inventor
with new hope in his breast, and set himself to
Tntch fha aDpla 1,,a Pnf
upon what slender threads do the fortunes of
men hang! A tap. the only one our inventor
had ofthe size required, suddenly broke asunder.
and as it was essential to the progress of the
work, he must have new one or he could not
60 on.
In this strait, he applied to his wife to lend
him twenty-five cents TO buy him the necessary
steel to forge the tap But she having no faith
in the grappe, refused, for two very good reas-
ons-frst, that she believed the money would
be thrown away if she gave it to her husband;
and the second, that she had not the money to
give him, even if SO disposed. The refusal was
seasoned with some very hot word-spice that
made it very unpleasant to Thomas. But he
bethought him of a merchant who, in brighter
days, had seen the color of his money, and who,
perhaps, would now give him credit for the
small modicum of steel required for the tap.
reluctant to prefer his request, began beating
about the bush; and finally straying into poll
tics, hot words passed between them, and our
friend. feeling his manliness would suffer too
keenly by asking credit for the steel, came
away without it.
With no definite purpose he went home, pom
dering upon how he should surmount this, now
no trifiing obstacle, of the broken tap. He
found his wife making lie for soft soap. but her
acidity in no way neutraiiZed by the alkaline
reaction. Despondent and discouraged, he sat
down, in no very enviable mood, when he
CHANGED to spy piece of iron lying near the
tubs at which his spouse was working. Medi-
tating how he could make that piece of iron
hard enough for a tap, he was led to try rather
curious experiment, the results of which in the
end made him richer man than he ever
dreamed Of being. .t
1t SO happed that from q distant relative, q
Roman Catholic priest in Ireland. our friend
had inherited quite library of works on chem
istry, some of them rare and valuable. He had
read some of these books to very good purpose.
There is surely carbon in that lye," thought
he, If could only get that into this iron in
the proper proportion, should have steel, and
With little hope or faith that he should sue
ceed, he took some of the lye, and adding,
without any particular reason for so doing,
some saltpeter and common salt, made paste
with this solution and hard grudged saucerful
of the little remaining flour there was in the
house. He then forged the tap, and enveloping
it in the paste, put the whole into luted iron
box and exposed it to heat for two hours in a
backsmith's fire. To his 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 Mr.
Sheehan. He went back to his old work, dis
gusted with patents, and resolved never to have
anything to do with one again. But the re-
membrance of the tap still haunted him. Hav-
ing great deal of casehardening to do, he re-
peated the experiment upon large scale, and
with perfect success. For twelve months he
went on to experiment, purchasing the mate
rial with his own money, and working in secret
by night, and at 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 in 1860, the
claim being for a combination of damaged -four.
potash lye, or lye from hardwood ashes. nitre.
common salt, and sulphate of zinc, for case.
hardening iron. In 1867, he patented an i'm
provement on the above process. In 1863 he
took out another patent for an entirely new
process, which consists in the use of raw lime
stone, charcoal, black oxide ofmagnese, sal soda,
common salt and pulverized rosin, combined,
for converting iron into steel, which is now
widely used, and from which he has reaped
quite fortune. No less than % of the leading
RAILWAYS in America nou nsa th;o nrooocs nm