Evening journal., 1912-03-14
NEW MEMS OF YESTERDAY
The Chance Meeting That
Led TO a Great Invention
By Holland

Shortly after the close of the Civil
War, the late Samuel Ingersoll of
Stamford, Conn.-the first man of
science, in America, at least, to adapt
motor to a wagon, he being com
PEELED to use steam because at that
time gasolene was unknown-chanced
to meet upon railway train between
Stamford and New York city a con-
tractor who complained bitterly of the
delay occasioned on an important job
by the difficult character of some OF
the rock cutting to be done. Finally,
as though the idea had suddenly oc-
CURED to him, this contractor said:
"lngersoll, you have done a good
deal of inventing; there are a good
many of your inventions in use Now,
/ wonder whether you cannot invent
machine which will take the place of
hand labor in drilling rocks? / don't
see why it cannot be done. but / don't
know how il can be done.
lngersol twined the fingers Of both
hands together, habit he sometimes
had when he was in deep thought. Ho
seemed for a moment completely alb
sorbed in an idea that had suddenly
come to him. AT last he turned to the
contractor and said:
81 think / see way by which | can
make exactly what you want. You want
a machine driven by power which Will
! drill holes rapidly in rocks"
THAT is exactly what | want, said
| the contractor. "And I'll tell you what
I'll do with you. If you will make n
machine of that kind, show me the
model so that / can see how it works,
! will if it is satisfactory, give you
500 for it,"
"Ill do t,"Mr Ingersoll replied;
and in the course of two or three
weeks he carried to this contractor
not merely the model of his apparat-
us, but one which had been actually
built and was ready for service. A
thorough test was made of IT, Certain
| improvements were suggested and
adopted but the fundamental idea of
| the nyention-Ingersolrs original
conception-has been preserved from
that day to this, and it may be seen
wherever the steam rock drill is em-
ployed 10 do in "A day what once It
took score or more of men TO ac-
cOmplish by hand in the same work
ing period.
This rock drill is one of the inven-
tions of the last half of the nine
teenth century which have served to
change the face Of the globe by OPEN
ing up regions 10 civilization which
were at the time of our Civil War
practically unknown. 1t made possible
the very rapid railway construction in
the mountainous districts of this coun-
try which began shortly after the
close of the Civil War. But for it the
Panama canal would not now be near
ing completion with such startling
like rapidity. II enabled New York to
secure a new water supply from the
heart of the Catskill Mountains, to cut
a tunnel through the solid rock q
thousand feet below the surface of the
Hudson river in little over years
time.
II has been estimated by competen
engineers that the rock drill has in
creased the wealth Of the world with
| in the past forty years by hundreds o
millions of dollars More than on
leading engineer of the world ha
linked Mr.. Ingersoll's name with tina
Of George Westinghouse, that Of 81
Henry Bessemer, and that of Thoma
A. 1dison-all inventors Of apparat
uses which have been able to cOnsum
mate colossal constructive triumph
in the last half century. And yet tn
only money that Samuel IngersOl
ever made out OF his greatest achieve
ment was that insignificant $40
which the contractor agreed to pay
he could produce a power machin
which would satisfactorily drill hole
In rock.
| Copyright, 1912. by r. J. Edwards
All rights reserved.)