Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1900-01-20
Invented by Martin r. Christensen
Simple Device.

o'Inple UeVICe.
Three months ago, Martin r. Chris
tensen. mechanical engineer resid-
ing at I25 East Exchange ST., patented
ma, hine for making steel balls, used
in bearings. Thursday he disposed of
a four-ffths interest in the invention
for 5000 cash.
Last summer Mr.. Christensen went
to Cleveland TO work on his invention.
He has invented things before, hut
nothing that was of as great import
ance as this. Since the invention OF
ball bearings, years ago, there have
been numberless ways, all expensive
and difficult, of making them. They
have been forged, turned out in
lathes ground on peculiarly shaped
grindstones, and cast and then pol
ished. In all of these processes many
of the balls were defective and had
to be thrown away. Many of them
cracked under the tests because the
fiber of the steel had been injured in
the process. The perfect balls were
expensive and made one of the prin-
clpal elements of cost in high grade
bicycles. Cleveland has always been
an important center in the manufac-
ture of these steel balls and for that
reason Mr.. Christensen went there to
perfect the machine he had thought
out
He had a machine built and set 1t
up in the Snider g. Hughes shop at
the corner of Hamilton and Coe SITS.
When 1t was perfected it made steel
balls at the rate of 65,0OO a day and
it took only n boy to attend it. The
process is what machlnists call a
pretty one. Cubical pieces of steel,
hot, each of which Is TO be made into
a ball, are fed into the top OF the ma
chine, one at time. The principal
parts of the machine are cone of
steel two or three feet high and Il
cover of steel that fits over ii. In
the face of the cone Is groove that
winds around 1t from the top to the
bottom, growing smaller as ii nears
the bottom. On the inner surface of
the cover is another groove that just
matches that in the cone. The cone
is kept whirling all the time and
when n piece of steel is put in at the
top 1t is worked downward through
the spiral groove, which rolls it ON
all sides and in all directions, and
drops 1t out at the bottom of the ma
chine a perfect sphere of steel. The
tibcrs of the steel are not cut and are
instead packed together more tightly
than when cut from the rod into the
rough pieces to be fed into the mill
1t is said that when the balls come
from the machine they are perfectly
polished and truly spherical.
When Mr.. Christensen got his pat.
ent he assigned n one-fifth interest in
it to a gentleman In Cleveland Sow
eral Cleveland firms that Investigated
the invention began negotiations for
its purchase but Wednesday New
York man, representing syndicate
Of Eastern people closed the deal that
made himself and his associates own
ers of the patent. Mr.. Christensen
sold outright all his interest in the in
but Mr.. Marboch made n bar
gain by which he still retains frac-
tional interest in the invention. The
New Yorker handed Mr.. Christensen
the check for $4,000 Wednesday eve.
ming In the Office of Lynch & Dorer.
the attorneys who secured the patent
and went back to New York with the
papers the next morning.
Mr.. Christensen is man of about |
30 years and has been engaged in the
work of mechanical engineer all |
MS life. His wonderful machne.which |
IS expected to revolutionize the max |
ng of steel balls for bearings, is
about twice the size of sewing ma
,hine and practically noiseless in it's
operation. The patent attorneys who
made the sale say that the Cleveland
people could have secured the inven-
ion If they had not been slow. The
machine, after running
| month here, was packed mp and sent
East for the inspection Of the New
York syndicate.
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