Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-10-07
MANY INVENTIONS.
RHODE ISLAND HAS PRODUCED MEN
WHO HAVE DONE MUCH.


Of Their Best Known NAehines-How
Ara Arnold Was Cheated Ont Of the
Royalties of His Compound Motion."
During the pas. hundred years the in
vento-s % Rhode Island have ooatrihuted
largely 20 the present perfection OF the
machinery used IN modern shops SnG mills
Some az them have more than state o. s
Rational reputation. and the value Of their
inventions hiss been recognized wherever
power lss been applied 10 machinery, both
slide lathe, Daniel Wilkinson, WAS s Rhode
Island -an, who. having nSds nothing
out Of his universally used device, was
paid SO. 600 by congress = few years before
his desth because the government hsd
adopted the mechanism fo- its shops The
inventor of the brsidinS machine was $
native az this state. and like Wilkinson
he lived TO see others accumulate fortunes
by misunderstanding the machine OF his in
yenGion-
The builder OF the first successful power
loom introduced into Rhode Island mills
was paid 81. 500 for the machine thst wSs
invaluable to cotton manufacturers and
enabled them 70 increase production TO sn
incalculable extent There are Others
whose names are not familiar to the pub
lie, although their inventions withoat ms
terisl alterations hsve been universally
employed upward Of seventy years One
OF these is AKA Arnold, = pioneer manutSc-
turer Of Rhode Island and an Inventor
whose name was perhaps more prominent
rksn that Of any other man interested in
cotton mills fifty yesrs ago.
Aza Arnold was the son OF Benjamin
Arnold, one of the Providence county poo
PIE Of that name, and Isabella, daughter of
PaUl Greene, Of PotowonUt Neck. Hewas
born st PawtCcket in IsSl, and learned the
carpenters trade with John Smith, OF
Wexford. but sfterw2-d was maChinist.
and in 1872 operated the Butterfly factory
in company with George Smith, who was
his uncle by marriage. Their business
WAS making wooden blankets. At this
time lie invented the endless rowing" for
carding machines. Previous to this all
rowing was made by the carSiinC machines
in short rolls. which had TO be Pieced to-
gether in spinning. Fifty or sixty years
ago there were scattered over the couu-
try. wherever there was l-horse water
power. carlinS machines that worked up
the farmers wool into these short rolls of
rowing TO be spun into yarn on the farm
er's hand spinning machine.
At this date, 1912, owing TO the war with
England, it WAS impossible to import files,
and he invented q machine for cutting
them, upon which files We're made for their
own use and for sale; but it was dropped
possible to import them again. In ISIS he
invented the compound notion" or as
he called it, the "diiferentisl motion"
mechanism for compromising two different
motions or rates of speed to produce a
third rate that should be the constant diff
ferential of the two, however much they
might change or differ.
This was, rs Zerah Colburn, the great
arithmetician, expressed it, solving by
mechanism an arithmeticsl problem that
could not be solved by figures because Of
their running into series OF circulating
decimals. This motion he applied to the
speeder, machine used to prepare cotton
rowing for spinning, and patented it in
1928. It's value was quickly appreciated,
as it enabled the manufacturer to turn of
three skeins where he formerly had two
and the quality OF the products was i'm
proved almost in the same ratio. 1t was
testified in court by prominent manu-
facturers that it was worth to them five
dollars per spindle per annum. 1t was
quickly adopted, and some Rhode Island
manufacturers paid n royalty, but the
Lowell and the Fall River companies re-
fused. and suits were brought against
them. After years of delay to send agents
abroad to find IL the invention was not
previously known there the cases came to
trial The objection OF the opposition was
that n negative expression in one part OF
the specification was not repeated in an
other part, and Judge Story said to the
counsel for defense, III that is your only
objection Mr.. Arnold can surrender his
patent and have that corrected, and come
back here in two weeks ready to 80 on
with the trial"
Accordingly he surrendered his patent
but instead OF receiving it back in two
weeks it was held in the patent Office for
months. and in the meantime the whole
To-, L l..
1898 was repealed, and the new code OF
1886 WAS passed, so that when his patent
was returned it was under the new law
and having no patent under the old law,
he was cut of from entering suits for in
Engagements under that law. He did not
know the cause of this fatal detention of
his patent in the office until the latter part
Of his life. When he was n solicitor Of
patents in Washington he found in the
archives OF the patent Office letter from
the leading counsel for the defense in his
case to the commissioner of patents say
ing, Hold on to that patent till you hear
from me-" referring to his surrendered
patent. This. which he had never sus-
pected, fully explained to him how he had
been defeated in his suit by the chicanery
of the lawyers.
benjamin Arnold, of East Greenwich
one of the sons of Mr.. Aza Arnold, is one of
the best known of living Rhode Island in
ventorS.
Among his many inventions is new
system of gearing-which is in extensive
use in many dii- erent forms-for gaining
power at the expense of speed. This con-
sists of external Cearwheel having
an internal gearwheel having great
err number of teeth, the inner wheel
being placed on an eccentric on the shaft
so as to engage its teeth with those of the
outer gear at one side, when the shaft and
eccentric revolved, one of the Cearwheels
being held fast and the motion taken from
| the other. The gain in power and reduc-
ton in speed is in inverse ratio to the diff