Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1902-06-03
Roxs aa Inventors.

The man who built the iron bridge at
Sunderland, John Ericsson, was a
skilled engineer at the age of II. He
was then In charge of a section Of one
of the great Swedish canals, and 600
men employed upon it looked to him
for direction in their daily work.
Young Ericsson was one of the very
few infant prodigies who have not
been failures when they grew up. At
the age of IL he invented new form
of sawmill.
OF the sawmill he constructed a
| working model. The saw blade he
made of an old watch spring, moved
by a crank constructed Of broken
teaspoon, and his only tools were a
knife, a file and gimlet. 1t was
| this same wonderful inventor who Ia
ter on drove big ship across the
Atlantic by hot-air engine-a form
of mechanism safe, sure and speedy,
and only barred from practical use on
the score Of expense.
The name Brush is inseparably con-
nected with the Brush electric light,
and Charles F. Brush, its inventor, is
another genius who showed his in
ventive powers at an early age. Be
fore he was IA he had constructed
new form of electric motor, and had
also invented an electric apparatus for
lighting it and turning it off again.
Next year he made a microscope,
grinding the lens himself.
1t is rather curious that Edison's
first invention of any Importance was
caused-by a longing to avoid tedious,
monotonous work. When, as a boy of
IA, he was night telegraph clerk, it
was his duty to report himself every
half hour to the head Office by tele-
graphing the word ''six." This was
to prove that he was not asleep. Edi-
son, however, had no idea of sleep
ing, but preferred to take little ex
ercise in the open air at night. So he
got over the difficulty by cutting suit
able notches on a wheel and attaching
this to the works of cheap clock.
This primitive apparatus would trans
mit the signal automatically twelve
times at intervals of half an hour.
Edison's very first invention was at
the tender age of II. He erected toy
telegraph line, but could not manage
to purchase materials for battery. So
he caught big black cat and endeav-
ored to obtain the necessary current
by rubbing the fur of the creatures
back and using the wretched animals
four feet as terminals.
All lamps up to near the end of the
eighteenth. century had solid wicks like
pieces of~cord and no chimneys. 1t
was not until the year 1873 that
fiat wick was made. A year later
Swiss chemist named Aime Argand in
vented a circular form Of burner; but
though a vast improvement on the rope
wick, the light was still f1ickering and
uncertain. One day Argand's small
brother wandered into his work room
and picked up an empty oil flask, with
which he began to play. At last he
fitted 1t over the circular wick, by the
light of which his elder brother was
working. In a moment the fame
burned up white and brilliant, and the
secret of the lamp chimney was made
clear.
Cast iron cement was boys inven-.
ton, though the-name of the boy who
invented it is not known. One day
William Murdoch, the man who first
applied coal gas to Illuminating pur-
poses, went into workshop of Boul-
ton and Watt, in which he was en-
ployed, and began to hunt for a tool
he wanted in his tool chest. He found
everything in confusion and a work
man told him he had seen one of the
boys at 1t few days before. Among
other upsets, some sal ammoniac had
been split on quantity of iron-filings,
and the resulting mixture had bitten
into the blade of his saw. This COM
pound was the first cast iron cement.