, 1876-09-15
CORRESPONDENTS.
SEQUIM PRAIRIE, CLALAM Co., W.T.. I
September 2, 1876. !
PROFESSOR WATKINS.

III my ldSJ DIolnlSeu W give your
readers an account of the venerable
Professor of Sequim and his various
inventions. As he is known among
his acquaintances as Yank, and by
his numerous acquaintances as Old
Yank, a name he delights in, will
use the short name as being more
euphonious and easier written than
Professor, and proceed secundum ar
TEN to my description. Yank is
natural born mechanic and inventor;
complete specimen of dowp-e east
Yankee of the New Bedford breed.
At one time he was engaged in the
baking business in Port Townsend,
and his pies and doughnuts, his gin
gerbread, aud regulation baked beans
drew to his shop a crowd of idlers
who would sit on his counter and
watch an opportunity to pilfer. This
drew out the inventive part of Old
Yank's nature, and he constructed a
row of needles attached to whalebone
springs under his counter, with strings
leading to distant parts of his shop.
When lounger seated himself on
the counter, Yank would pull string
driving a needle with thrilling effect
into the person of the offender, who
would light out into space at once,
and retire with the firm belief that he
was an injured party. A celebrated
schooner captain named Melvin, the
bold and intepid navigator, once sat
on .Yank's counter and received
dart from darning needle that made
him leave suddenly. He did not
know what had stung him, but as
suning very prophetic look he ex-
claimed, "Boys, guess there's some
thing in this shop besides ginger
bread. l reckon it must be galliniL~
pers."
The next invention of Yank's was
after he had moved to Sequim Prairie,
which consisted in rigging a common
coffee-mill with a wheel and crank
and grinding his own wheat into
-four. He next invented a wheelbar-
row with the wheel in the confer like
boats centreboard. This wheel
barrow can carry three times as much
as an ordinary barrow and with less
amount of labor-a really practical
and useful invention. He next in
vented and built of wood a moving
machine which cuts swath IL feet
wide. This machine has less gearing
than an ordinary moving machine,
has driving wheels six feet high and
works easily and satisfactorily. All
the inventor now needs to make it
perfect success,is some capital which
will enable him to substitute iron for
the wood he has been obliged to use
in his experiment.
For several winters past he has
employed the long evenings and
rainy days in the manufacture of 6d-
dies from the native wood found in
the vicinity, such as fir, cedar and
bird's.eye maple, and has succeeded
in making some instruments of very
fine tone, which he proposes to take
, to Port Townsend during the Sep
tember term of court.
He next made a patent churn.
Then he. made two wheeled car
riage on the pinciple of the old-fash-
ioned wooden spring chaises, set on
a thoroughbrace, formerly so common
in Massachusetts,. This gig of Yank's
is all wood, thoroughbraces and all,
and is pronounced the easiest riding
vehicle in Clalam county. His last
and crowning effort has been to con-
struct horizontal windmill on the
turbine principle. He told me he
started in to build something to turn
the coffee mill to grind wheat, but,
said he "my ideas have fructifed so
fast, as 1 have progressed in the
work, that l have exceeded myself,
and l find l have power sufficient to
turn a set of French burr stones,
saw-mill for small stuff, and turn
ing lathe" This windmill is a real
success, and if he can get a set of
three feet French burrs to attach to
it, he will be able to grind all the
wheat on the prairie, which will be
an immense saving to the farmers.
After Yank has completed his mill
he says he intends to make machine
for taking bones out of herring, like
the machines they have for that pur-
pose at East Machias. This consists
of an instrument similar to a Jews
harp, which is held firmly between
the teeth. The herring is introduced