The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-08-09
Inventions Lost
Through Accident
From the New York Press

From the New York Press
- AME and fortune await the man who will
r rcdiscovcr any oi the many scientific Sc
= crets which have been lost in the last
| twenty Nears In that time many vau
able inventions have hccn lost Nv reason Of the
| sudden death or the deliberate design oi the in
| ventors. Ideas which no money can huy back
| have been shown TO the world for short time
and then have been withdrawn
Years ago John Weymouth, NJ Wolverhamp
| ton, England Invented a plan for utilizing the
force of heat and exhibited one Of the simplest
| cheapest and most useful engines imaginable,
| run by that power Then ho deliberately de-
| prived the world of its benefit. He was an
engineer and inventor. and before he invented his
heat engine had patented dozen succesSiu dp,
nlanccs which still bear his name. Weymouth
devoted himself 10 harncSsng the heat of an
| ordinary hrc and makrg new power out ot
| II. Tie idea was laughed al by all his friends
hut after -four years experimenting he produced
a stationary heat engine that gave double the
power Of steam engine of the same size at one.
third Of the cost, and also a small model heat
locomotive, large enough to draw a truck with
| a man in it. He invited committee ~ enci
| nNcrs and scientists, among whom Professor
| Huxley and Forbes Brown, 10 witness the work
| of his new invention. They did so and declared
| that the two engines worked to perfection. The
invention made great stir al the time and
Naymouth had any number of offers Of huge
| sums for H. But, for no apparent reason, Way
mouth refused either to bring out the invention
| himself or to sell the secret lie said that he
| was satisfied simply TO have succeeded in what
| he had undertaken and shortly before his death.
| two years after, he DESTROYED all the papers
and plans for explaining the system and rc
moved the essential parts n the engines The
engines are still in the possession of Way
| mouths heirs hut no ono over has been able
TO make anything out Of them.
Still stranger was the famous loss of the rccipe
| for the manufacture OF diamonds fifteen wears
ago Herbert Warner. who alone discovered
| and held the secret Of diamond making. did not
| live To wreck the diamond industry, as people
thought he would, and the circumstances of the
| loss were mysterious and tragic Inferior dia.
| mands can still he produced artifcially, but
| only at cost of about ten times their value
| Warner. after years of eyrcrimenting, was able
| to turn out genuine diamond Of large size
| aud Of the first water, at the cost of the small
| fraction Of the complete stones worth IIa
| like Weymouth. manufactured his diamonds he.
| fore an audience of scientists, and produced
| three fine stones, which tested and pro.
| nouncod tsulte,s Two of them are still in cy.
| istence. and are the greatest curiosites the
| jewel world has ever seen. But within a fort.
| night of this triumph, before any OF the new
| stones were put On the market Warner dis.
| appeared from his house in Harley street. Lon.
| don, leaving NO trace whatever So complete
was his disappearance that from that day TO
| this not the smallest explanation has been hit
upon.
| Eight years ago wonderful new metal called
| "talium' was hcralded widely as a great and
| useful discovery. II was alloy of various
metals electrically treated and wa, 81 rer cent
| lighter than steel stronger tougher and costing
| so per cent. less to produce. 1t was discovered
| h. V1,. Al
| experiment, It was subjected publicly 10 all
sorts Of tests and stood the all Talium was
| going TO revolutionize construction. Railway
| trains constructed NJ il wou'd he able 70 travel
| at double their former srccd, and all sorts of
| edged tools would he kccncr and lighter when
| made of the new metal. Steamships, carrispes-
| everything was 10 he made Of 'talum." Over.
| come by the magnitude Of his success Adams
| lost his reason, and as he had kent the secret
| II the manufacture Of the metal entirely 10
| himself il lost to the world when his reason
| hod. lie died raving lunatc, and no papers
| explaining his method were ever found All
the tools and models which Adams constructed
Of "taliun" still exist, hut So far no man
| has been able 10 discover the method by which
| the amalgam blended
| The extraordinary perpetual lamp" Of Henry
| Mills, which he invented, perfected and proved
the worth of twelve years ago, was lost in a
| different manner The Mills lamp was an in
| Candcsccnt light produced without any using
M Of matcrials--it had nothing to do with com.
| hustion, and the "hame" Of it was perfectly
| cold, It was certainly one NJ the most won.
derful inventions Of the age and not at all cN.
| nCnSve. Mills made two of these llmps and
demonstrated their absolute success; but an rx.
| traordinary thing happened before the invcn.
| ton was put at the disposal of the public. On
| the night of March 20, lsS9, Mills laboratory
| in Hampstead England broken into, both
l,pTl g.
describing tho invention, involving years n
| work stolen. There was not the smallest clue
! N the burglars Even tho reason of il is not
known-whcher it was malice jealousy or Their.
| No use has been made of the stolen papers
| Mills who depended those papers, set to work
| again; but two months later he fell in ~ ~.
phoid and died, and the world was thus deprived
| Of his secret
Six years ago an EnGshman named Shaw.
bridge announced that he had invented a now
| explosive, 10 which he gave the name Of "fll.
| mite" Experiments with "mlmte" proved
that in an ordinary service rife it could send
| bullet six miles. and il was shown that q
proiectilc fired by "iulmtc" possessed ten times
the penctratNe force of one propelled by
| "cordite.' 1t was a terribly destructive cxplo
| sivc, and one Of the good things about II was
that it did not strain in any way the gun in
| which II was used The British government en-
tered into negotiations with Shawhrdge for the
purchase NJ his invention, but he was killed in
an explosion in his laboratory before the nego
tiations were completed. The explosion wreck.
ed the entire house, and the fire which followed
DESTROYED whatever papers describing the man.
ncr Of making "tumie" the inventor may
have left
| II was sheer vanity or perhaps "Cusscdness"
that kept Grant Finay from giving TO the world
the benefit of his invention for the total aho.
tion of smoke, lie evolved a simple system by
which any fire or light could he made Ia con.
sumo its own carbon, and though he demon.
straed the usefulness NJ the invention many
times, he obstnately refused to put It on the
market or 10 sell the secret Of IT, His own
| house, lust outside Glasgow, was fitted with his
system, which did not cost him $50 for the
entire building, and no iot Of smoke ever was
emitted there All his fires consumed their own
smoke, and he was fond oi showing the ef-
| hcaoy Of his invention 10 his guests, but never
would he explain the working of it, and he died
two years ago, carrying his secret with him to
the grave week before his death he had all
The "ant'smoke" apparatus stripped from his
house and destroyed.