The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-01-02
MECHANICAL ARTS SECTION OF
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.
WORK OF GEO. C. MAYNARD
Curator of Technology Comes from
a Long Line Of Inventive
Ancestors.

ClOA VI IuC ANoI1OAdl NuoCuIA Is TIA
in which are shown the historical
relics and specimens, illustrating the
progress of invention in mechanical
arts, frim the clumsiest arquebus
down to the Krag-Jorgensen rifle, and
sections Of the different Atlantic
cables from the first to the last of
these great chains that bind the OH
World to the New.
The history of this section, as we'll
as that of the curator of technology,
Mr.. George c. Maynard, who, by the
way, is a descendant of DR.. Edward
Maynard, the inventor of the famous
Maynard rifle and carbine, used dur
ing the civil war by the union armies,
is of even greater interest than the
object lessons in the history of me-
chanical arts which line the walls and
fill the cases of this quarter of the
National Museum.
Mr.. Maynard is a figure in the scien-
tific life of the capital, and is one of
the few prominent men of science
who are not university graduates. He
is an example of the power of hered-
ity. The Maynards have been. inven-
tors and engineers for the last 100
years, and his abilities are due, there
fore, to the advantage of a long line
of gifted ancestors. Born in 1849,
in Ann Arbor, Mich, he early in life
displayed a fondness for mechanical
pursuits. AS a boy he was the best
shot in the county where he lived,
and knew more about guns than any
one in Ann Arbor. At the age of II
he learned telegraphy, following this
up by studying chemistry, until finally
he became a member of a party of
engineers sent out by the government
to determine the longitude of the
great lakes by lei of telegraphy.
1t was while thus engaged that he
formed the acquaintance of Prof.
James G. Watson, n of the greatest
mathematicians and astronomers of
his day, and who afterwards became
the head of Michigan university. The
meeting of the two resulted in an
arrangement whereby Watson agreed
to teach Mr.. Maynard physics, while
the latter, in return for the lessons.
taught Prof. Watson telegraphy. The
agreement proved satisfactory to both.
Later Mr.. Maynard conducted a drug
store, continuing his studies and ex-
periments in chemistry until the out
break OF the civil war, when he came
to Washington as an officer in the
telegraphic branch of the army sig
nal service. At the end of the strug-
gle he secured the position of chief
OF the Western Union telegraph SER
vice in the capital, which post he
filed for several years.
When Gen. Myer organized the
United States weather bureau he Sc.
cured the services OF Mr.. Maynard,
who. became the first chief of the
department of %telegraphy of this arm
OF the government service. Some
time after this he resigned to embark
in business on his own account as an
electrical engineer, in which capacity
he, in 1878, constructed the teleg-
raphic system connecting the capital
and the various departments of the
United States government, a system
which is in use today. He also built
the police telegraph system through
out the city and district, and, in 1877,
in perfecting his new telephone sys-
tenn, subsequently becoming agent OF
the Bell Telephone company in Wash
ington.
Some time prior to this, in 1866,
he and other local telegraphers in
augurated a movement which, viewed
IN the light of twentieth century
science, was of the utmost value and
benefit to the electrical branch of the
mechanical arts, however little the
attention which it attracted at the
LlLlc VI iLS III CAoI yCo1
he and others organized the Telegra-
phic Historical society, for the mu-
tual instruction of it's members and
for the preservation of the first tele-
graph, telephone and electrical de-
vices invented and then in course of
invention.
Had If not heen for the stems taken
by this body to preserve all documents
and relics of the history of electrical
science the magnificent exhibit now
in the National Museum would have
been impossible. AS the president of
this society. he was deputied to call