The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-08-21
THOMAS BLANCHARD.
The Inventor of Machines for Turning
Irregular Forms.

Irregular Forms.
A brief biography of Thomas Blanch-
ard, the inventor Of the mechanical com
bnation for turning irregular forms,
who died at Boston in 1865, has just
been issued. The writer, Asa ii. Waters,
says that although the name of Thomas
Blanchard is not so popularity known as
many others who have achieved fame
from single inventions. the writer boldly
asserts that " it may be questioned
whether another inventor can be named
in this country or in Europe, during the
last century, who has produced so many
different labor-saving machines, applica-
BILE to such great variety of uses and
which have contributed so largely to the
common necessities, comforts and econ
omies of life. This language may seem
eXtravagant, but it must be remembered
that not an armory exists in this coun-
try or in England where guns are made
hardly human being that wears boots
or shoes-scarcely vessel that sails upon
the ocean--not school where states are
used-not carpet laid down, but that
owes tribute to the genius of Thomas
Blanchard for producing articles cheaper
and better. The same may be said of
carriage wheels, plows, shovels and
various articles of furniture. Latterly,
his machines have been applied to cary
ing, to architectural designs and even to
statuary-much to the surprise of artists.
Indeed, there seems to be no limit to the
uses made of Blanchard's inventions, and
it is impossible mt present to enumerate
them. One can hardly go into a tool
shop, a machine shop, or n workshop of
any kind, wood or iron, where motive
power is used, in which he will not find
more or less of Blanchard's mechanical
motions.
Blanchard was native of Sutton,
Mass, and was born June "a, 1888. His
father, Samuel, was a farmer, and lived
on poor, remote strip of land, where
| there was absolutely nothing to suggest
mechanical motion. While on the
farm Thomas gave little if any promise
of the latent powers within him. There
was nothing in his surroundings to eX-
cite them. He was misplaced; schools
| were remote and he seldom attended,
for he was afflicted with perverse i'm
pediment of speech, so that the boys
called him Stammering Tom" At the
age of eighteen he was engaged by his
elder brother, Stephen, to assist him in
his tack mill. which he had just started
| in West Millbury. Young Thomas duty
| was to head the tacks in a vice, with n
hand hammer, one by one. Once in a
| mechanic shop his dormant genius began
| to wake up. Ere he had spent many
months heading tacks, one by one, he
| had designed, constructed and put in
operation machine which would cut
and head them at one motion twice rs
fast us the ticking of a watch, and better
| finished than those made by hand. So
perfect was it in design and construc-
ton it was continued in use more than
i cold IN ha still ~,
existence, and experts who have seen it
say no essential Improvement has ever
been made upon it. The reputation of
the boys success in his brothers tack
factory led Mr.. Asa Waters, who had in
the same town of Millbury an armory,
where he manufactured arms for the
government, to send for the budding in
ventor, and there young Blanchard at
almost a glance at the old processes for
shaping gun-barrels, suggested an i'm
provement by which the irregular butt of
the barrel could be turned by machinery.
and afterward produced machine for
turning out the gun-stock. The germ of
the stocking machine lay in that calm
motion, and it was then and there, as he
afterward said, that the idea of his
world-renowned machine for turning ir-
regular forms first flashed through his
mind, although it required some months
to elaborate and bring it out. Blanch-
ard was afterward called to the Spring
| field armory, where his machines were
| introduced and adopted by the govern
ment. His machine for producing ir-
regular forms was applied to a vast num-
| brr of special purposes. Unlike, many
other inventions, this was really the dis
covery of Il new principle in mechanics,
whereby the machine is made the obedi-
ent, faithful servant of man, to work out
his designs after any given model, be it
| round or square, crooked or straight,
however irregular, and made to repro
duce the original shape exactly. every
time. This perfect uniformity of Blanch-
ards work suggested the idea of having
all the parts of the guns made at the ar
lercIlan geabe. Hitherto they had been
fitted separately, like Swiss watches
and carefully lettered or numbered.
| This is the method in all our workshops,
even to the bolts of Il carriage or a COM
mon bedstead, and woe to him who mis-
| placed one. 1t was Blanchard who first
rendered possible the accomplishment of
the desired result with respect to arms,
and to him the writer gives the credit of
| the origin of the uniformity system "
which has revolutionized mechanic pro-
cesscs in all our workshops; perfected
and greatly cheapened mechanic pro-
| ducts, and driven from use the old sys-
ten OF numbering.
Blanchard realized but little pecu-
niarily on his patents, for they We're so
pirated upon that he had to spend many
thousands of dollars in defending his
rights in the courts. He succeeded in
| getting an extension of his patent for
producing irregular forms, but at the
end of the extension he had made prac-
tically nothing on it, and began to think
of trying for second extension; but
such thing was unprecedented, and
| Blanchard. knowing that great opposi-
tion would be made to another renewal,
thought he would resort to little strata
gem. He fitted up machine for turning
busts from marble blocks, took it to
Washington, obtained plaster casts of
the heads of Webster, Clay, Calhoun
and Others, and exhibited the busts in
the rotunda of the Capitol. The men,
bers were quite astonished when they
found that these busts were wrought
out by machine, and that they were
more exactly like the originals than any
human hand could make them. 1t pro-
duced great sensation. They all sup
posed it Il new invention. Blanchard
said, mo not a new invention, but a
new application of an old one of mine
from which l never realized much, and |
want the patent renewed" A resolution
was introduced in the Senate by Web
ster to renew it for a term of years, and
it was rushed through without delay.
When the news was first prOclaimed