Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-11-17
A True and Remarkable story.

IN lCDO WI HOlliiN DIttIulls llON us
well as then of Dunkirk, New York, fore
man in the blacksmith department of the
Erie Railway shops Mt that place,
patented, through the Scientific Ameri-
can Patent Agency, q submarine grapple,
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 in
troduce it, completely exhausted Mr..
Sheehan's means, and reduced him to the
EXTREMIST poverty. Now Mr.. Sheehan,
though not fortunate in inventing, max
ing, and selling submarine grapples, had,
in conjunction with his good spouse, been
eminently successful in increasing his
family, which comprised eight children
at the close of the year of struggle above
mentioned
Eight children, and an empty larder,
are rather stern facts when Il father is
called upon to meet them and in this
case our inventors troubles were
increased by the not unnatural cont
plants of his wife, who accused him OF
having left good situation to pursue a
chimera thus reducing his family to
pauperism. In fact, the good woman
was decidedly bitter, and her acerbity,
added to the really desperate condition
of Mr. Sheehan's finances, produced in
him a mental state under which como
mon '-zaso vl.u'e pofnss---sntIy gone to
the bad
Not so our inventor. He kept "A stiff
upper lip, and sought long and anXiously
to provide support for the hungry mouths
that appealed to him for food
L 81 L.. .N IL =
of this critical period in Mr.. Sheehan's
life to discover that his failure had been
due, in great measure, to the derelictions
of n partner whom he had taken in with
him to aid in conducting the grapple
business, and who he found had taken
undue advantage of his position, selling
wares for which no returns were ever
made to the firm, and otherwise miscon-
ducting himself
Just at this crisis Mr.. S. d. Colwell,
an old friend of Mr.. Sheehan, and General
Freight Agent of the Erie Railway, at
Dunkirk, Glanced to meet our inventor
in the streets of that thriving town, and
accosted him, with
Wen, Thomas, how are the grapples
/ hear they have used you up"
Yes was the answer; "the grapples
have done my business; | wish | had
never seen them"
Throw 'em away" advised Mr.. Col.
well. Have you any now finished?"
81 have one almost DONE" said
Thomas.
" Finish that; | will pay you forty dol
lars for it, and have it used for picking
up coal at the dock The money viii
help you in your present emergency, and
you can go back to your old place in
the shop and earn Il good living for your
family"
Il WILL" said Thomas.
Back to his humble home went our in
ventor with new hope in his breast, and
set himself to finish the grapple with all
due speed. But, alas, upon what slender
threads do the fortunes of men hang A
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 new one or
he could not go 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 in the grapple, re-
fused, for the two very good reasons
first, 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 word-spice that made it
very unpalatable to Thomas. But he
bethought him of 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 he required for the tap.
To this merchant ha hind aud g,,,,a
what reluctant to prefer his request, be-
gan beating about the bush; and, finally
straying into politics, hot words passed
between them, and our friend. feeling
his manliness would suffer too keenly hy
asking credit for the steel, came away
without it.
With no definite purpose he went
home, pondering upon how he should
surmount this, now no tritling, obstacle
of the broken tap.
He found his wife making ley for soft
soap, but her acidity in no way neutral
lied by the alkaline reaction. DespOnd-
cnt and discouraged, he sat down, in no
very enviable mood, when he chanced to
spy piece of iron lying near one of the
tubs at which his spouse was working.
Meditating upon how he could make that
piece of iron hard enough for a tap, he
was led 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 rel
ative, a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland,
our friend had inherited quite a 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. "If only could get that
INTO this iron in the proper proportion, |
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 lev and ad-
ding, without any particular reason for so
doing, some saltpeter and common salt.
made paste with this solution and a
hard grudged saucerful of the little re-
naming flour there was in the house
ne then forged the tap, and, enyeloping
IL In the paste, put the whole into a luted
IRON box and exposed it to heat for two
hours in blacksmith's fire. To his ioy
ana surprise, when he took il out, il was
hard enough to cut cast steel. The crap
pie was finished, and forty dollars flowed
INTO the family treasury of Thomas Shee-
nan. He went back to his old work, dis
gusted with patents, and resolved never
to have anything to do with one again.
But the remembrance of the tap, harden
ed in so unique "A manner, still haunted
him. Having great deal of case hard
ening to do, he thought one day he would
repeat the experiment upon large scale,
which he did with perfect success.
For twelve months he went on TO ex-
pertinent, purchasing the materials with
his own money, and working in secret
by night, and at odd hours. At the end
of twelve monts, he reconsidered his sen
tenee of condemnation ON patents, and
applied for one on his process, which
was granted September 4, 1860, the claim
beng Tor a combination of damaged
Hour potash ley, or ley from hardwood
ashes, inter- common salt, and sulphate
Of zinc, for case se-hardening iron.
In 1857 he patented an improvement
IN the above named process, the i'm