The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-01-09

have, perhaps, eclipsed those Of any other
decade, while the Inventions of the past
quarter OF a century have almost made
revolution in some of the domestic and me-
chancal affairs of life. Step by step the
advance has gone on from the slow and
cumbersome stagc-cOach, which would
take a long and wealisomc journey Of. per
haps, three days, from Rutland to New
York, to the spendidly furnished and lux
uriously appointed palace car. which,
drawn by the iron horse. compasscS the
continent in six days. AMI from The slow
and laborious tackDgs and winnings Of the
sailing vessel, to the magnificent and fairy
like floating palaces which navigate our
lakes and rivers.
With most great improvements tue pro-
erosion has been gradual, slow and sure.
1t is seldom that one inventor makes, at a
single stroke, a long stride in any partcu-
lar branch of mechanics, though lucky
or gifted Gcw have, by Il happy thought,
made radical changes and positive improve
mcnls-doing away with the old and es.
tablishilg the new-aS for instance the
| electric telegraph, the sewing machine, and
a number of other comparatively modern
| inventions, which we are 50 accustomed to
| see in daily use that we are apt TO forget
that the world did not always have them.
Vermont in the oltcn time was mainly
an agricultural state. AS such she could
never hope TO be other than poor, but the
development Of her vast resources of mar
bic, slate and minerals, gives her wealth
of which she may well be proud To the
| aid of modern inventions she is peculiarly
| indebted in the development of these re-
sources. Rutland county contains, perhaps,
the largest proportion of this wealth, in
her quarries of marble and slate. These
quarres were opened and somewhat dcvel-
oped by hand labor, but by the invention of
the steam channeling machine and the
diamond drill results are achieved which
were impossible by hand labor, ono machine
doing the worl; o. twenty-five or thirty
men. The marble interest is largely in
debted for these improvements to the invent
i've genius of Geo. ]. Wardwell of Rut-
land.
The improvements in machinery for con-
verting the marble into slabs after It is
taken from the quarry, nave KEPT pace
with, or even been in advance of those in
quarrying. Almost any old graveyard in
this section contains specimens of the mar
bic, mostly from Dorset, in Bennington
county, and Tinmouth, where it was first
qaarried, and which was split and wrought
into slabs by the slow and laborious process
of wedges and chisels The invention (by
Vermonter we believe of the old open
dulum mill was the first step in the march
of improvement. Ii was a crude affair,
compared with tie present mills, and con-
sisted of a cumbersome frame containing
the saws, suspended by ropes from the top
of the mill, and swung by pendulum of
timber attached TO crank underneath.
This was, of course, great Improvement
on the hand process, and marked the begin
ning of the marble trade as an important
industry. As the demand increased it
was soon found to be too slow, and I'M
provcment was demanded The 'belt
mill, SO called from its being run by belt
instead of gearing, was introduced. This
dispensed with the pendulum, and gave
motion to the gangs By means of
fly wheel, crank and pitman.
The ropes were discarded, aud the gangs
suspended by short iron rods, attached to n
cross-bar. For the experiments which re-
suited in these Improvements credit is
mostly due TO the enterprising firms of
Sheldon, Morgan IL Slason, of West Rut-
land, and Adams IL Allen OF Fairhaycn.
After few years these gangs were sus-
pended by an invention of |. G. Merriam.
in which the gangs were suspended upon
four screws, one at each corner Although
somewhat complicated and expensive, this
was great improvement on anything then
in use, In all these gangs heavy timber
frame, with massive cast iron head blocks
has been used These head blocks, from
the nature of the metal, were liable to frac-
turc with the great strain put upon them,
and the heavy frames added much to the
power required to drive the mill. Mr.. L.
Il. Clogston, an accomplished mechanic
from Boston, was the first TO make i'm
provements in this direction. He invented
and patented light wrought iron frame,
strong enough to sustain much more strain
| than tho old fron,a onI vnt fnll, nno Aha,
less in weight. This, too, enabled him to
make wider gang. Heretofore gangs
were only four-and-a-half to five feet in
width, but with this frame they are ex-
tended even to twelve feet, and wide
gang is now considered indispensable in
every mill.
Not content with improving the frame,
merely, Mr.. Clogston thought he saw a
chance TO improve upon the screw gang.
Under the patronage of Messrs. J. Adams
" Sons, Of Fairhayen, who fitted up a shop
for the purpose, he constructed and set up
gang in their mill, which, though it en-
bodied some of the old, contains many new
and entirely novel features. In place of
the screws he has invented a device which
docs its work to perfection and yet is sim
plicity itself, and everyone vino examines
1t "wonders why it was not thought of be-
fore" His method of "feeding down" the
gang is also new, effective and simple, and
can be raised and lowered at pleasure.
This gang runs with light power, noise
less, and can be run at higher rate of
speed than any other, and does CORE
spondingly large amount of work. 1t has
been critically examined and tested by
some of our largest marble producers and
pronounced success, and is evidently des-