The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-31

This reads like a feat of legerdemairl,
but similar ones are executed day after
day in the Bristol shop
Mr.. Herreshoff has not ben blind all
of his life. The trouble came on gradu-
ally, when he was about 16 years of
and the quiet, shaded streets Of sleepy
Bristol grew fainter and fainter. until
they faded away completely. But he
had already acquired a love of build
Ing OF boats and the water. In the old
days Bristol was something of a sea-
cayed and the old hulks of form er
queens of the deep lie rotting at their
sides. The only signs of maritime life
at the place are the bustling shops Of
the Herreshoffs.
Until the last few years the concern
has mainly been identified with the
building of wonderfully fast steam
craft. notably the eorpedo boat Srilet-
to, which created furore in naval cir
cles the world over ten years ago by
her marvellous speed. It was deemed
an experiment when the brothers took
up the building of sailing craft. But
it was in this very work that the blind
man gained fame forty years ago.
He Was a Boy Designer.
Friends say that when small boy.
as soon as he was trusted with peck
ct knife, he whitfield out miniature
yachts and boats of all styles. At the
age of Is he built a good-sized catboat
for sailing on the bay, and its lines
were so full of power and speed that
it won all the scrub races Of the day.
That boat gave the young designer
local fame which is now only bounded
bV the circle Of the earth
All that he had seen prior to his af-
fiction he can summon up before him
and his memory in this respect down
to the minutest detail is most remark
able. From a description he can set
up himself a most intricate piece of
machinery and explain its workings
anc defects. 1t was ne VINO invented
the coil boiler as appliel to axtraoIdi-
narily fast steam vessels. He attends
solely to the making Of contracts for
steam craft, and only a week ago was
in Washington consulting with officials
Of the navy department concerning
the construction of new torpedo boats.
How He Works.
Mr.. Herreshof is at the shops every
morning when he is at home before
o'clock. He goes to a stand in the out
er Office without any assistance and
hangs his hat and coat on their &C
customed pegs. Without a seconds
hesitation he walks some distance to
his desk, takes out a bunch of keys, Sc
lectS the right one in a flash, and
throws open the desk. Its many pig
con holes are filled with papers and
documents of all kinds, and although
he has never seen one he can pick out
any particular paper he may want
simply through memory and his sense
of touch, which has bean developed to
truly wonderful degree.
A secretary reads all the mornings
mail to him, and when each letter has
been gone over, Mr.. Herreshoff dictates
the answer. He is kept minutely in
formed of all the doings in the yard,
and in this way he keeps a perfect pic
ture in his mind Of the workings of the
whole vast establishment.
His Method of Planning.
Mr.. Herreshoff's method of planning
inventions is unique. Sometimes for
half day he sits at his desk with his
head resting on his hands, thinking.
Great problems in mathematics he can
work out in this way, and wonderful
devices in mechanics are evolved with
out the aid of secretary, pen or paper.
All the models of vessels to be built
are submitted to him. His brother Nat
invariably has a tiny model made on
the lines to be pursued in the con-
struction of new craft, and this mod
ell is given to the elder brother. If the
work is of extreme Importance, like
the building of a cup defender, the eld-
er Herreshon sometimes sits for days
rubbing his hands lightly over the
model, thus getting a perfect picture
of the lines of the boat in his mind.
Many changes suggest themselves to
him, and he works them out with
mathematical precision to show their
correctness. A few inches more of
depth at a certain point may mean the |
added power Of several hundred square |
feet of canvas, or the alteration of ar
angle, even the fraction of a degree, |
may reduce the friction so that the |
speed Of the craft is accelerated with |
out injuring its heavy weather capa- |
cities.
Mr. Herreshoff, as the noon hour
comes around, goes to the hat stand, |
and although there may be half |
dozen hats and coats hanging upon it
he picks his own without a tumble |
and goes off to his lunch. In the after (
noon he often goes down to the boat |
slip where the boats are built, anu
seemingly watches the progress of the
work. If a stranger is about, he kind
" explains all the work, and tells more
about the boat in five minutes than the
laynan could understand in five weeks
by simply looking at it.
This blind man with his wonderful