The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1893-06-16

HENRY GoEBEL4
yers for the defense have brought out an
entirely new claimant, Or rather claimant
SO old that he had been forgotten. His
name is Henry Goebel; he is "A years old;
he is native of Hanover, Germany, and he
is pauperl That is what it amounts to,
for he is an inmate of the German Masonic
home in Tappan, N. Y, and has been for
two years
His history is &. romance in applied
science. In boyhood he was apprenticed
to the watchmaker's trade and for many
years worked only enough to secure
meager support and devoted all the rest of
his time to experimenting. He invented
an entirely new set of tools in his trade
and many otherimprovements, but was so
ignorant of or Indifferent to business that
he patented none Of them. The troubles Of
1913 drove him to the United States where
be begun to experiment in electricity and
soon had an arc light in operation on top of
his house He insists that the fire depart
ment was called out. OF his incandescent
lamp he says;
"My first filament was fine copper wire,
This did not do at all. so tried flaments
of platinum wire. got little glow, which
was encouraging, but that was all The
wire melted. The vacuum was very bad in
deed. | saw it wouldn't do at all, so set
to work to invent an air pump which would
work
"The result was the invention Of the mer-
curry air pump. | got this patented after
ward, but not in the improved shape they
use it now. But my pump worked all
right. fastened a long, slender glass tube
to my cologne bottle and filled the whole
thing, bottle and tube, with mercury
Then turned it upside down, and the emer-
curry settled down in the tube, leaving a
| beautiful yacuut in the bottle Then
sealed the neck Up with a bunsen burner.
That was all right. but my filament was
all wrong Every sort Of metal filament
melted as soon as it got hot enough to give
any satisfying light"
He gives in detail the experiments by
which he was led to use carbon, just as
Edison did. Being very impracticable
man, he secured no patents and made no
money, but married young and became
the father of IA children, of whom seven
are living, all too poor TO give him good
home. Since the lawyers got hold of him,
however, be has been lodging in tene-
ment house in New York city with his
married daughter He is Il fine looking
and lively old gentleman. extremely popu-
lar at the Masonic home and always at
work on some mechanical contrivance
The Edison company's lawyers smile
when the story is mentioned and add; "All
this was brought to our attention in 1882
and we were asked to buy Mr. Goebel's
work, but there was really nothing to buy
He is wonderful old man and has done
much curious experimenting, but in this
lamp affair bis work is of no practical value
whatever and has no legal standing. All
this is set down III the minutes Of the Edi
son company for 1882" Oddly enough fol
born inventor, MIR, Goebel takes the samt
view of the money value Of his work, bEt
says as the lawyers want his testimony
they can have it, AS 0,000, 600 or so ar,
involved few historic notes are Of interest
Soon after the discovery of galvanism Sil
Humphry Davy invented the yoltaic arc
In 1912, by using battery of 1900 cells, ht
produced an intensely brilliant arc measur
ing five inches, but it was pretty nearly n:
expensive as burning diamonds In 1888
Professor Dumas of Paris produced bril-
liant light which was much cheaper, cost
ing only Sc a minutel Yet he prophesiet
Edison. declaring that in time genius
would arise TO make the light both contin
uous and cheap. Sixteen years later Staff
and Foucault in England produced an elec
trio light system apparently so cheap tha
company was organized, and there was /
panic in gas stocks, In 1862 Faraday prac
ticalized the electric light ina British light
house, In 1878 the Iablochkotf candle wa
officially declared success in lighting
Paris.
Many Americans were meanwhile expert
menting, and in 1879 Edison solved tn
problem. The interests involved may b
Judged from these figures: The Unite'
States then had $400,0 900 invested in gas
New York and vicinity owning about SS5
100000 of it; England had 500,0OO0O0, o
which S60,000,000 was in London; PaIi
alone had S40,O00,000, and Germany som
. e50,OO00O0
Greeting Friends In Public.