The Detroit times., 1910-11-22
AMERICAN INVENTIONS
By FREDERIC il HASKIN
MANUFACTURES

cent experiments In the use of the va
cuum principle have demonstrated
that In the future II will be possible
TO ship ice-cream and other perish
ables all over the world, without theifH
ever coming into contact with Ice
either In preparation or shipment.
consignment OF ice-cream was shipped
last year from Washington to Seattle
and then back 10 Washington by way
or San Francisco and New Orleans
and when opened II was In as good,
condition as when II started.
The modern machinery for bottlinG
waters and other liquids was perfect}
ed by American genius. One can
scarcely travel far enough away froml
the borders OF the United States to|
get beyond the range of the infiuence|
OF the American. This is illustrated
In the fact that on the banks OF the
river Jordan there Is a bottling works.
equipped with American bottling maj
chinery. engaged In bottling the water
OF the river Jordan for pious people,
throughout the world. The great del
mand for bottles In the United Stated
has led inventors to perfect a machineI
for the mechanical blowing Of them,
II is found that this machine is one
OF the greatest labor-savers ever del
vised. and that II produces better and
more uniform bottles than were made|
by the old.fashioned hand method.
Even thermometer tubes are now fre-
quently blown by machinery.
One OF the most striking cases or
laborsaving as applied to American
industry Is that of mechanical shoe
making. Under the old-fashioned cob
bier method II required the shoemaker
two days to produce pair OF shoes.
Today that same pair Of shoes may
be made in twenty minutes. There
are sixty operatives and forty-flve ma
chimes utilized In the process. In the
shoe-making world, as In many other
industries, the patents have been
made a temporary monopoly. The
machines are only leased, and a por-
ton OF the cost of every shoe we
wear is made up OF the royalty charg-
ed by the holders OF the patent
rights.
The steam-driven sawmill Is tho
product OF American genius for max
| ing the best use of power. Without
the modern sawmill 1t would be i'm
possible 10 furnish the vast supplies
OF manufactured lumber demanded by
the country. The first steam sawmiil
was a queer little machine, with ca
pacity of only few thousand feet of
| lumber a day. Now the huge mills,
turning out thousands OF feet OF lum-
Der q year, find the sawdust alone 10
be worth more than the entire product
OF the first sawmills.
II requires billions of boxes to carry
the berries and fruits OF the country
TO the urban consumer. III these had
to be manufactured by the old-fash
ioned hand process they would be SO
e. -2ensive as to make their use aimosl
prohibitive. The same ingenuity that
has made 1t possible for an American
inventor TO produce a bit which VIII
bore a square hole, has made II pos
sible TO evolve a machine which when
fed strips OF thin lumber, turns out
completed boxes. One girl and box.
making machine will turn out 10000
berry baskets day. r 1000 grape
baskets.
| Every year witnesses the issuance
of patents which so eliminate the la
Dor cost OF manufacture as to mater
ially reduce the cost OF the output or
the factories. The machinists uni
versally agree that there is still much
room for progress. They see In the
electric furnace the greatest step for
ward since the invention of the blast
furnace and the converter, and be-
Jieve. with the late Pig Iron Kelly,
that II will supplant them both and
that the resultant Improvement In
iron and steel and their products, to-
sether with lowered cost, will give the
American factory a new lease on
world supremacy
Tomorrow-MIning and Metal'urgy.