The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-12-18
STATE NEWS.


several towns.
The st. Adams Foundry company
has received orders for its fodder shred
ders for points in Mexico, where they
will be used for cutting sugar cane.
"A company from North Adams,
Mass, has bought the old tunnel ore bed
in Dover and about 70 acres of land adj
Joining it. The bed will be reOpened
and force of men put to work getting
out iron.
The district of Vermont leads all
others on the northern frontier in the
number of entries made under the GUS
toms law. 1t has $4,000, Chicago had
10000. Detroit 1000 and Port Huron a.,
600 There were only five districts in the
United States that took more entries than
Vermont during the past year, and the
State is 18th in the total amount of rev.
venues collected.
-Itis understood that the Vermont
building at the worlds fair is to be con-
structed entirely of Vermont's materials
with granite from Barre, marble from
Rutland, slate from Fair Haven, etc. 1t
is proposed to erect a one-stoTy building,
with 1900 square feet of flooring. In en-
tering upon their work the Vermont
managers are beginning to feel that the
State appropriation will not be sufficient
to pro vide for creditable State repre-
sentation, and it is said that they will en-
deavor to raise $4,000 more by private
subscriptions, in shares of 500 each.
Nelson L. Hungerford died at his
home in Franklin of pneumonia Saturday
morning, aged "a years. He enlisted
from Highgate in the war as one of the
original members of L company, LIST
Vermont cavalry, but was discharged six
months later, being physically unable to
endure the strain. He was appointed
to position in the st. Adams custom
house about 1867, with the rank of Deputy
collector. This Office he held until rota-
ted out with the advent of the Cleveland
administration in 1885. Since then he
has lived with his family at Sheldon and
at Swanton. Moving to Franklin few
months since.
Fred A. Emory of Washington, D. c.,
has an article in the Brattleboro Re
former on vermont as Natal State"
He thus speaks of Thomas Davenport,
who was formerly Vermont blacksmith
and the inventor of the electrical motor:
"While living at Forestdale he became
very much interested in experiments in
recharging cylinder with magnetic and
steel teeth for the purpose of attracting
iron from the pulverized ore. He was
induced by interest to buy the magnet
used in these experiments at Crown
Point. This magnet was composed of
three pounds of iron and copper wire and
two zinc and copper cells and would at
tract 100 pounds of iron. In company
with Orange A. Smally, brother enthusi-
asst, he set to work to utilize this power
In July, 1884 he had perfected the model
of what is claimed to be the embodiment
of the principal of the electrical motor
Davenport's machine consisted of
wheel on which two stationary magnets
were placed near the rim of the wheel.
The south poles of the stationary mag.
nets attracted the north poles of the re-
volving ones until the opposites were
parallel. The conducting wire from the
battery would then reverse the polarity
of the stationary magnet, and thus repel
the tn pole of the revolving one, caus-
ing the wheel to rotate. The petition
and specification for patent were pre-
pared by Prot Turner of the Middlebury
college and bear date of January /, 1885,
F. l.. Pope, in an interesting article on
this invention states that in order to in
sulate his wire the poor inventor was
actually driven to the necessity of tear
ing into strips his wife's much priced
wedding dress. Mr. Davenport came to
Washington, but the journey had so far
depleted his finances that he was forced
to return to Vermont without filing his
application or depositing his model.
This he sold to the Rensselaer, college,
Troy, n. Y. In the winter of 1856,
Mr.. Davenport completed circular rail
way on which locomotive propelled by
the novel motive power travelled with
great speed. About this time accounts
of the rotary motion acquired by Moritz
Herman Won jacob began to reach this
country, but the inventors, though con-
temporaneous, were independent In
1910, Davenport began to issue in New
York a scientific journal called "The
Electro-Magnet' and ran the press by
electricity. Davenport's motor was
patented, but the patent expired in Feb
uary, 1852. Davenport was also the in
ventor of a machine for the electric trans
mission of messages. His apparatus con-
sisted 26 wires, each one connecting a
letter and key. When the key was
touched the letter at the opposite end of
the wire responded. In this way the
message was spelled. Prof. Samuel B.
Morse was, it is stated, frequent visitor
to Davenport's rooms, where the model
of the last device was ON exhibition.
Various articles which have recently
appeared in the Electrical Engineer, re-
ports of the transactions of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers, and