Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-07-26

not be fathomed 1t refused to do It's work
properly. The owners struggled for
months. and finally gave it up. This
despised appliance Mr.. Pendergast
brought.
He set the wheel in the tub of his
own mill. and the experience of the former
owner was repeated. The wheel would
turn for a short time, then there would
be rapidly increasing loss OF power,
and finally it would stop altogether Mr..
Pendergast worked over Il without sue
cess and finally called in an expert ma
chnist. Nothing could be done to better
the situation. and at last both the expert
and the foreman of the mill, at the end
of day spent in useless tinkering, urged
Mr.. Pendergast TO take the thing out the
next day and put back the Old wheel.
That night after the family had gone
20 bed Mr.. Pendergast left the house and
made his way to the mill. Unaded he
unfastened the top of the great wheel
tub. slid 1t back and crawled into the
wheel, Thea inch by inch he felt over the
mass of wood ana iron. At last his sem
sitlve finger tips touched a piece of
wood that was slightly roughened. and
perscvering. he found another This was
" mere lne friction originated. Working
through the night ne believed as he put
the cover into place just before daylight
that he had solved the difficulty Then he
slipped back into the house.
After breakfast the three men gathered
again at the mill.
well, Mr. Pendergast. are you ready
to put back the old wheel?" asked the
foreman.
Lets turn on the water and give her
one more try as she is" said Mr.. Fender
CAST.
When the pressure came the saw be-
gan to hum and a log was pushed into
place. The teeth tore through the hbre
and In n twInklng It was sliced into
boards.
"Oh. we'll she's done that once or
twice before said the expert grimly
Let's give her another.
They gave her" another II went the
same way as the first, and the saw sang
merrily on. A third log followed and then
the two men who were not in the secret
stood back and looked at each other.
Finally the foreman said.
Now what do you suppose has got
into the old thing? Come on. We'll Just
feed her logs till she's ready to quit"
after that, and she never quit. Neither
did the foreman nor the expert machnist
ever know of the blind mans descent into
the wheel tub that night. 1t suited his
sense of humor better to do the work and
then hear their comments when the re
suits appeared. 1t was not until mont D
afterwards that he told his brother John.
and it is John and not Fred who now tells
the story.
While the sawmlll was still hourlshing,
Mr.. Pendergast experimental from time
to time with what he believed was an I'M
provement upon the common type of
broom. This broom was made from
shorter lengths of broom corn, and the
head was detachable from tho handle,
The two parts of the broom were held
together by n strong clamp controlled
by thumb screw, and when the head
had worn out another could easily be
substituted Moreover, the construction
made the broom elastic and at the same
time most effective in it's work
When the sawmlll at Rochester was
burned In 1900, Mr.. Pendergfast moved 10
Waltham, where his brother John and
his wife We're living. Together they In
terested John Hallard, also a blind man.
in the new type OF broom, and their
manufacture was begun on a small scale.
BY the time the broommakng was we'll
under way, however, Mr.. Pendergast was
at work upon mop. This Is held by the
same handle that was used for the broom.
1t is some 10 Inches In width, and the top
is reinforced with stiffening, bound with
tape and sewed through and through upon
machine, With no metal to come in con-
tact with highly polished floor or mop
board, the device had advantages which
won it immediate recognition
1t was at about this time that Mr..
Pendergast first met Charles F. F.
Campbell manager of the experiment sta
ton.
Mr.. Campbell quickly saw the possibilities
of the mop-and- broom making industry for
the blind, and recognized the genius of
the blind man who had devised machinery
that would turn out these things at
minimum of coat lie and Mr.. Pender-