The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1897-02-19

After more than thirty years of wait.
ing and suffering in an absolute allegi.
ance to an idea, and incessant battling
for his rights against fabulous capital,
A. B. Bowers, of this city, has won a
victory that has few parallels in the lie.
gal history of the United States. 1t is
not so long ago that he was avoided by
his friends as a crank. He was re-
duced to pitiable poverty and seemed
to see the end of life in misery. He
had borrowed until lending had become
the poor subterfuge for gift. He had
trespassed on the good nature of his
friends until patience was exhausted
and he was Stunned. He was pitied,
then abused, but he chung to his idea,
and to-day, by decision of the high
est tribunal in the United States, he
can command millions of dollars as
the master of gigantic undertakings
that may never lose their profit.
A. B. Bowers is the practical master
of the dredging world. Wherever
dredging operations may be under
taken he must be paid royalties. He
has enormous plants in Tacoma, Kan
sas, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston,
and wherever else men may wish to
use the great machines that are the
products of his brain he must be paid
tribute.
In 1864 Bowers was an engine er and
surveyor. He was prosperous in his
profession until the idea entered his
head that he would invent dredger to
revolutionize the great business in
which so many had failed. Everything
sacrificed to that idea 1t was not long
before Bowers was looked on as
crank. His own affairs were neglected
until he lost all business and was re-
duced to the verge of starvation.
Still he chung to his idea. He made
drawings and models and showed them
to his friends. They laughed at him,
but he felt sure of his ground. He
made model, living as best he could,
borrowing, at enormous rates of inter
est and expecting some day to pay.
His friends INDUCED him until he be-
came tiresome, and he was even refused
admission to their offices. Patent ag-
encies would have nothing to do with
him, and for years on the streets of
this city he was familiar figure, poor
ly dressed, poorly fed and, his friends
said, unsound in mind.
More than once he had nothing to
eat, but he was loyal to his own idea.
Some day, he said, his dredger would
be recognized and he would be rich.
He wanted to go to Washington to get
a patent. His friends gave him the
money to get rid of him. He obtained
his patent and returned. He induced
A. E. Davis to try his experiment.
Davis did so, and then took the dredg-
er out in the bay and sunk it.
That was the last of the reverses that
came to Bowers. His dredger was re-
cognised in the east. He received
thousands of dollars in royalties and
came back to San Francisco to pay his
debts. He paid them all with COM
pound interest. Then rivals began to
steal what he had earned during so
many years of trial. Bowers had to
fight for his rights in court against
Won Schmidt and a score of others.
Bowers won in the circuit court
and the losers appealed. Through
eight years of litigation, Attorneys
Boone and Miller fought his case, and
on Monday the Circuit Court of APP
peals gave him the final judgm ent.
The case can go no further, and Bowers
is master of the dredging world.-San
Francisco Examiner.