The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1917-12-03

| facturer Of Irvine binders, then con-
Quoted small machine shop at
Heart Prairie, Wis. He permitted
Appleby to use his tools and encour-
aged him in his work
Mr.. Applebys first knotter was de-
signed in 1858 when he was only
eighteen years of age. During the next
ten years there was a lull in his &C
| tivities in the line of invention part
ly because he served four years in the
Civil war as member OF a WiscOn-
sin regiment In 1868 he obtained pat
ents on a binding device to be used in
connection with a low-down or nom
elevator machine This combination
was not successful. In 1873 Mr.. APP
pleby went to Beloit, Wis, where he
worked for Parker e Stone, manufac-
| turers of harvesting machines. A
year later he built wire binder
Dates near Beloit The machine work
ed well, but Mr.. Dates refused to be-
| come enthusiastic over it, claiming
that the wire would get into the
straw and kill his stock. Reports of
similar character had come from 9TH
err places where wire binders were
| tried, and Parker & Stone hesitated
of the machine.
Mr., Appleby then made the declara-
ton that he would invent a binder to
be used with Irvine. Parker & Stone
were skeptical, but one year later, in
1874, they decided to finance Mr. APP
pleby in his efforts to produce a
Irvine binder. In designing the latter
Mr.. Appleby used the same knotter he
had invented in 1858 He also de-
signed mechanism for operating the
knOtter, guard on the needle, pack
| ers, bundle COMPRISING device and
| the bundle sizing mechanism and
trip. Patents were obtained on all of
these devices and in 1878 Parker &
Stone began the manufacture of ma
chimes embodying all of them. In that
year lis machines were produced I'M
der the SUPPLEMENTARY of Mr. Apple
by and all were sold
About that time Cannon & Deer
| ing, predecessors of the Deering Har-
vester company, became interested
and in 1879 built a considerable num-
Der of machines. During the same
year Hoover & Gamble of Miamis-
burg, Ohio, also built few Appleby
! binders which were successfully
operated. Parker & Stone continued
, manufacturing the machine, and en-
| larging their operations. In 1880
these three firms produced several
| Der being turned out of the Deering
plant By 1884 the doom Of the wire
| binder had been sounded and the re-
| vOlution in methods of harvesters
had been accomplished and accepted
| by all manufacturers.
In the fall of 1881 William N
Whitley, then the head of the Cham
Ohio, who had been experimenting
largely with lOw-down and other
| binders since 1875, bought the inter-
ests Of Mr.. Appleby and his assignees
| in his many patents. Other manu-
| facturers had obtained licenses or
shop rights so arranged with Mr.
Whitley therefor. From that time on
practically all the manufacturers con-
tinued building the Appleby type of
| binders upon the Marsh type of har-
vesters, each applying special or dis
tinctive devices in accordance with
| his bent. The only machine which
differed from the others in some of
| it's principles was that built by the
Wood company
In 1881 Mr.. Appleby, having sold
all of his patents, became connected
with the Minneapolis Harvester
| Works, Minneapolis in the capacity of
superintendent Here he continued
| his inventions and subsequently OBJ
| tanned number Of different patents
on both elevator and low-down bind
ers.
| Abaut fourteen years ago Mr.. APP
pleby turned his attention to the
need of a machine for picking cotton
He believed it was possible to pro-
duce a successful mechanical cotton
picker and he proceeded in his me
thodical systematic way in that di-
homa and lived there for a period,
making a study of the needs of the
planters. In 1909 he obtained a pat
ent on a cotton picking machine
which he called the Dixie" A num-
Der of these machines have been pro-
duced and marketed.
The funeral services were attended
by a number of prominent figures in
the harvesting machine trade and
there was also present Waldo Stone,
a son of Gustavus Stone of the firm
of Parker & Stone, who had cooper
ated so extensively with Mr.. Appleby
in the production of the Appleby
binders. The services were in charge
of Grand Army post to which the
decedent belonged, and at the con-
clusion of the G. A. R. rites, Mr..
Stone delivered an address in which
he set forth in glowing terms the
achievements and fame of the dead
inventor.-Farm Implement News.