The New York herald., 1920-01-25
YOUNG LAD DEVISED
THE MODERN SKATE
Everett H. Barney Was Only Nine.
teen When He Patented the Clamp
Idea, Eliminating Wooden Top
BY CLARENCE S. HUTT.

|
| Did you ever stop to compare the skates
you see on ring and lake today with
pictures of the old wooden top. curled
iron toe skate Of couple of generations
ago and the days when Mr. Pickwick
gently trusted himself to the English ice,
after a hearty holiday dinner? AS in
nearly everything else the progress Of
these last six or seven decades has been
almost phenomenal.
| Much of it in this 1neNis the result OF
the ideas developed by Massachusetts
lad in the forties as he skated day after
day UP and down the rivers of his native
State. That lad devised the idea of the
clamp skate, which he patented i'm 1854, of
the all metal skate and the strapess skate
So keen was his interest in skates and
their development that in 1866 he turned
from the manufacture of guns in which
he had been engaged during the civil war,
to the establishment of a business for the
manufacture of his skate inventions. So
was founded the Barney and Berry skate
business. Everett III. Barney, the lad OF
whom we speak. devoted the rest of his
long life to this business. Recently, since
his death, the business has been acquired
by the Winchester Repeating Arms Com
pany.
| Barney was great lover of skating. He
found, however, that the only skates avail
able were heavy and clumsy. that the
straps collected snow and slush, which
caused cold feet and kindred discomforts
and required frequent stopping to remove
the accumulations Of ice which formed
about them. Being of an inventive turn
and working ut the time in his fathers
big woollen mill at SaXonville-Eraming-
ham, young Berry began to devise means
OF removing these Inconvenience, and
! from the practical experiences he had as a
skater he developed the improvements
which brought him fame and fortune.
! The first Improvement was the substi-
tuition of metal top for the heavy and
clumsy wooden foot rest. This reduced
the weight, but Barney found 1t still left
all the Inconvenience of the straps at toe
and heel to gather the chilling slush. He
then hit upon the radical Improvement Of
the clamp. The first step in this process
which was the basis of the 1854 patent was
clamp across the toe of khe skate. which
still left 4 strap at the heel. The idea
worked we'll, and was soon expanded to
include clamp at the heel. This new
clamp, however. which did away with the
straps, was lengthwise of the skate instead
of across the heel, and the two were soon
connected UP. When Barney devised the
idea of the side lever controlling the two
clamps complete new skate had been
evolved, which proved immensely popular.
Other Barney inventions followed. one Of
the chief of which was the unique oval
metal button in the heel, which he in
vented to do away with the old fashioned
long screw in the heel Of the skate which
had to be screwed up into the heel of the
shoe. This button fastened into a hole
in a metal plate which had to be fastened
to the heel of the boot. This device never
proved so popular. however, as the all
clamp skate after the side lever was at
tached to it,
Mr. Barney was only nineteen years Of
age when he patented the clamp idea in
1854. 1t was dozen years later before
he started the manufacture Of skates on
business basis, although he had made in
his fathers shop, where the machinery
was available for mis- use, models of all the
skates he invented. These skates he tried
out repeatedly under the most exacting
conditions on the ice. In the six
ties he was engaged in gun manu-
facture, and for him is claimed the inven-
ticn Of the first complete breech loading
shotgun. He had invented a series Of i'm
provements on the guns on which his firm
was working. which included breech blocks,
shell extractors and other valuable parts.
and when these had been added there was
the breech leading shotgun complete.
Barney entered into partnership with
John Berry in Springfield in 1866 for the
manufacture Of skates. He bought out
the Berry interest in the business two
years later and continued the development
of the skate under the Barney & Berry
name. Today 1t is the motto Of the COM
pany which he founded that '1n every
land where water freezes the Barney 4
Berry skates are known
Barneys inventive genius was shown in
number Of other inventions besides those
concerning skates and guns. In 1868 he
invented cheQue protecting device which
would pe-fcrate cheques with figures up to
sl,OoO,OO0 and print the words cancelled"
paid and the like. He designed a new type
of racing canoe in the eighties which revo-
lutionized this type Of craft He also in
vented life saving Sled based OH the
watertight compartment idea: ideas for
bicycles. bird shelters and many other
articles which he did not make use OF
himself
Mr. Barney was a/great lover of flowers
and rare plants and devoted himself to
botany as a hobby His beautiful estate
at Springfield. which he left to the city as
n memorial park. is a lasting tribute to
Cxia ,f,xrr. Ii. It,,,