The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-11-24


spouse was working. Meditating
upon how he could make that piece
ofiron hard enough for a tap, he was
led to a rather rude experiment, the
results of which have in the end
made him richer man than he ever
dreamed of being.
It 50 happened that from a dis
tant relative, q Roman Catholic
priest in Ireland, our friend had in
herited 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. "lf only could get
that into this iron in the proper pro-
portion, / 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
ley and adding, without any partic-
ular reason for so doing, some salt
peter and common salt, made a paste
with this solution and a hard
grudged saucerful of the little re-
naming -four there was in the house.
He then forged the tap, and, envel-
oping it in the paste, put the whole
into luted iron box and exposed it
to heat for two hours in a black
smiths fire. To his joy and sur
prise, when he took it out, it was
hard enough to cut cast steel. The
grapple was finished, and forty dol
lars flowed into the family treasury
of Thomas Sheehan. He went back
to his old work, disguised with pat
ents, and resolved never to have any
thing to do with one again. But the
remembrance of the tap, hardened
in so unique a manner, still haunted
him. Having a great deal of case
hardening to do, he thought one day
he would repeat the experiment up
on large scale, which he did with
perfect success.
For twelve months he went on to
experiment, purchasing the mater
| ials with his own money, and work
ing in secret by night, and at odd
i hours. Atthe end of twelve months,
he reconsidered his sentence of con-
demnation on patents, and applied
for one on his process, which was
granted September 4, 1860. the claim
being for com mbination of damaged
-four, potash ley, or ley from hard
wood ashes, inter, common salt and
sulphate of zinc, for case hardening
iron.
In 1857 he patented an improve
ment on the above named process,
the Improvement being the substitu,
ton of water impregnated with car.
bonic acid for the ley of potash OIL
wood ashes.
In 1868 he took out another pat
ent for an entirely new process, which
cousisLs in the use of raw limestone
charcoal, black oxide of manganese
sal soda, common salt, and pulver
Ized rosin, combined, for converting
iron into steel, which is now widely
used, and from which he has reapeC
quite a fortune.
No less than twenty.three of tht
leading railways in America now usC
this process, under license from thu
patentee, for hardening the links
guides, pins, and nuts of locomo
Jives, effecting, We are told, no lesi
saving than from five to six hun
dred dollars annually on each loco
motive, in obvisting the lost motion
consequent upon the wear of links
guides and pins.
The inventor has already received
for licenses under his patent o
1858, $29,650, and has just sold th,
remainder of his patent in Americi
for $4,000. lion the day he brok,
his tap in Dunkirk, it had lasted til
he finished his job, or if he had theI
had twenty-five cents, he would, il
all probability, to-day have been I
poor mechanic, working at his forg,
IN the Erie Railway shops, and 1
process of national importance, in it
effects upon the great railway sys
TEN of the country, might neVe
have been given to the world.
Never, perhaps, mas the old ad
age, "Necessity is the mother Of in
vention," received a more apt illus
tration, and never was the occasion
al value of an untoward acciden
more signally demonstrated.-Sciep
ttJac american.
How to Know the Age of Horse.