The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-29
did a large business President Renwick

did large business. President Renwck of the San Joaquin Electric railroad joined with the inventor in inviting the representatives of the eastern lines to witness the tests of the new concrete tie
 The invitation brought out score of
 eastern mllionaires. capitalists, promot- CTS, engineers, railroad officers and others interested in the seemingly extraordinary results achieved by the concrete tie. Tests made for the party. who were guests of President Renwick. served to
 convince the visitors. and the deal for
 the sale of the concrete tie and rail fast ener was consummated.
 Another deal which will be comprised in the S17, GOO purchase is the sale of the patented machine which automatical- ly manufactures the ties at the rate of $500 per day. This machine was invented by a disciple of Gates, Roy E. Cagle, of Lodi. Cal, who has followed out Gates ideas and has worked in close touch with the aged inventor.
 Gates has been working on the concrete tic for about 10 years. When the merits of concrete were widely exploited, Gates conceived the idea of a concrete tie as a substitute for the wooden tie. He fore- saw that there was time coming when the railroads would be seeking something
 more durable and less expensive.
 He cast thousands and thousands of concrete ties in those years, and was not disheartened when they failed to stand tests and crumbled and crackled under the vibration of heavy traffic.
 One day about two years ago Gates
 was leaning against barbed wire fence. He was almost at the last ditch. His
 meager funds were almost gone He was almost ready to give up, but the barb wire suggested a means whereby he could re-enforce the concrete. T will just cast some of these barbed wires in the concrete he thought. It was a happy thought, and one that afterward proved to be worth millions.
 Ties were cast with barbed wire strands running lengthwise. Tests showed that 36 strands twisted in a certain manner obtained the best results Yet, even then capitlists. whose names are known throughout the world, and who are de- lighted to buy at a bargain the patent rights of the Civil war veteran, would pay no attention to the offer which Mr. Gates made to them. They regarded his ideas as those of one of the myriad of imbecile inventors with which railroad officials are pestered.
 The identity of the purchasers of the
 
 President Renwick of the San Joaquin Valley railroad was reported to have said that Edward Green, son of Hetty Green. was heading the syndicate. When | asked If the statement as published was correct MT. Renwick said that the matter as published locally could be accepted as authentic. Many of the capitalists and engineers who bought rights to the con-
 crete tie prefer to keep their names out of the transaction as they work merely in the interests of the eastern railroads. As a result of the demonstration and of further tests conducted in the easy, Gates was made the offer which places him in the millionaire class His invention comes at the right time for wooden ties are becoming so scarce that huge importations are now taking place from Mexico and more particularly I from the Island of Hokkaido, North Sea Province, Japan. The first shipments of oak railway ties from Hokkaido began in 1906. and have increased to such an ex- tent that the tie export industry ranks second only to the fisheries there. In 1907 46,000000 feet of ties were exported from Hokkaido to San Francisco. Be- | sides this large quantities of ties were
 sent to China and Australia. The exportar ton, of ties this year will exceed thas of 1907: The demand Is three times greater than the supply. and the tendency
 is toward an annual increase of from 10
 to 15 per cent in the value of ties. The Hokkaido forests from which the
 best oak ties are secured are under the
 ownership and administration of the Jap anese government, and so keen Is the de-
 mand for ties that Japan has set upon a reforestation scheme whereby the timber areas will be divided into 60 districts and one district will be cut each year and will then be immediately replanted The average ties exported come in two sizes 6 feet by inches and feet by inches In California the market for ties has ir- creased to such an extent that the Santa
 Fe railway has planted 1000 acres of
 eucalyptus. a fast-growing hard wood, originally imported from Australia. Great quantities of ties are annually carried
 from British Columbia to South Africa
 and India in wind tanners. These. how ever, are pine ties and have not the life that the oak ties possess.
 In the effort to save the ties from decay all sorts of preparations and treatments for preserving the ties have been devised but none has proved to be thoroughly effective
 Gates has been willing to take chances all his life. and the persistency learned Tn per1ectlng ms. Ideas has stood him in good stead in driving a fair bargain with the representatives of the railroads. ''If I wasn't 60 years o4d I wouldn't have sold the tie for less than s1O00O0,O OO0,' said Gates.
 He does not expect to spend $17,5o0. GOO or fiftieth of that amount during the | rest of his life. He will expend some of the money he receives In perfecting and introducing another invention, which is called the continuous rail." The rail in question is non-warpable, cannot be spread, is cheaper to lay, and Is more durable than the ordinary rail, according 10 the inventor. He calls attention to the fact that trains running over a continuous