The Evening post. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1888-1889, 1888-11-06
A RIVAL TO KELLY.
Tho Machine Upon which an Inventor
Has Worked for Twenty Years.

from what would be number II on Car
roll street, between First and Second
streets southeast, there is u substantial
brick workshop. The entrance is from
u corner of the alley.
The lower lloor of the shop is empty,
with a barrel and few boards lying
about hero and there and from the fur
ther side pair of riclicty stairs leads to
the upper lloor-thc workshop proper.
In the Workshop.
The shop is supplied with Two or three
| benches, Uttered with tools. couple of
lathes, a small portable forge and an
| anvil Ii is Il large room. well lighted
| BY windows on two sides, and tile tools
| are lying about in industrious confusion.
In the corner furthcst from the stair
way by which the woillrnom is reached,
fastened against the upholstered brick
| wall, is the result of the genius twenty
two years of study and toll
inc result is covered by a worlSman's
| Dlue blouse hung ovCrsit and ocGunics no
more space ON the wall than a mans
| hack would.
The Ambitious Inventor.
If you go there you will be met at
the door down stairs by man i'm his
shirt sleeves, his head covered by
| greasy, black, soft hat and a clay pipe
| projecting from brown-and-whitc beard
thnt, like his bair, has gone long un-
! trimmed.
The Fate of Inventors.
lie will toll you that every great invcn-
| ti0n or discovery proves the world to
have been II fool from the beginning TO
that time. So, he will say, every in.
yentor or discoyorer finds the world
| pOoh-p0ohing him and his inventions and
he has to fight this world that is so slow
to realize what il is to its own advantage
TO realize, to make his living. So it was
with Harvey when he discovered the cir
| culltlOn of the blood: with Columbus
when he discovered America; with every
discnverer including himself. All these
dlscovorcrs proved by their discoveries
that for thousands of years the world
had been in error and by their lives that
the world was lOath to see its error and
lemuneratc its teacher. Our inventor
may also tell you, gesturlng the while
| with his clay pipe between his toll
hardened fingers, how he has lived for
months on two cents worth of corn meal
II day. All this, too, while possessed of
| an idea that he know would revolution
ize the world and make him a millionaire
if it was given only half II chance.
BY this time you have reached the
| upper lOOF OIL inc SHOP anu bllb IllNeHloF
is Teverently taking off the blue blouse
that protects his invention from dust
and prying eyes
The PonderIift.
You see against the wall q wooden
wheel, mounted so that it turns easily on
wooden plank that is nailed against
the wall. The front of the wheel, which
is about thirty-eight inches in diameter,
is covered with complicated arrange
ment of levers made of strips of iron
and brass and winding in and out among
them is a stout cord, one end of which
passes down from q pulley near the
center of the wheel and has brick
wrapped in brown paper dangling at its
end, yard or so below the wheel. The
other end of the string, after winding in
and out among the levers on the wheel,
passes over pulley at the end of brass
} lever that projects an inch or SO beyond
the circumference of the wheel and is
tied to big screw driven into the plank
From the upper edge of the wooden
wheel, whose motion when the Pom
derlift," as the inventor calls it,-rollinG
, the sonorous word over his tongue lllSC
choice morsel-is in operation, is os
clllatory, going half way around and
, then back, projects another brass lever
an inch.
| vi lut Gnu VI lIlo lcNNI 10 AZ ilpiO iiiu'
which piece of string is tied, and here
it is that the power is applied.
: What is the Ponderlift" designed t.
| do?
Arrival of the I<eely Motor.
Some days ago the inventor went be
fore Justice of the Peace O'Ncill anC
swore that 81, the undersigned, on oatl
depose that my invention, called the Pom
h. n
9 sXty-siX pounds of eXtFaneous powe
D and thirty -four pounds of inherent power
= that is TO say, the total cost including
. six pounds, weight moving Mt the sam
o speed. John Lee Cooper" To this aiii
davit is appended an Endorsement b,
George Schilling, well-llnown machinis
/ and instrument maker, to the effect tina
these measurements are not exaggerated
S Anyone interested in dynamics will sc
+ that this is the same old problem of max
n ing nothing do sOmething-of maxim
!. water run up hill,
After he has shown his visitor this aft
} dayit Inventor Cooper viii take sma
', brass spring scale with graduated mark
IL on brass plate on one side of which til
IL Indicator marks the number OF pound
y pull exerted on the hook at the end, an
with it weigh the brick. 1t weighs
% tri1c over four pounds.
1t Then he will hook the scale into tn
), strings attached to the lever at the uppC
l. side of the wheel and pull it slowl
v around to the left
II The brick weight hanging from til
a. cord below the PonderlifG' rises.
a How the Motor Worked.
a AS he pulls the inventor calls off til
amount of power eXerted, as shown b
p the scale, "pound and half; now its
al pound and three-quarters two pounds
70 three pounds; now you see that its ge
II ting less as we complete the half inches
now its two pounds again; now its one
l. now its nothing" as the lower lew
=. that was at the top before approachC
~ the perpendicular below, opposite whel
~ it started at the top, The inventor say
l, that the lever he pulled on traVelc
~ nearly half the whole circumference {
~ the orbit of the lever, fifty inches, or
no be exact, seven inches less than ha
this circumference, eighteen inches an
NJ u fraction
" This was done with the energy c,
~ erted tluctuating from forty-cigl
u, ounces to nothing, an average of abol
e. twenty-fOur ounces,
nd This raised the brick, which weigl
n tmile over four pounds, about siNt
n, five ounces, a distance of thirteen al
# onc-half inches.
~ There is no need to verify the inve
of tors figures, because as they are, tn
vi show that MIR. Cooper has gone
IL twenty-five years of trouble, and made
clum complicated machine to
.I,,,, l,,,F al 4 a..