The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1921-01-21
Five-Cent Invest
ment Gave Him
a Good Idea

Fourteen years ago a tall Illinois
master mechanic with mutton-chop
whiskers strobe despondently to and
fro in the Baltimore and Ohio station
at Twenty-second and Chestnut streets
Philadelphia. He was utterly discour-
aged. For seventeen year, he had
been studying liquid fuel and working
to perfect an oil burner which would
make oil superior to coal as a heat
producer. His dream was that oil
would be the fuel of the twentieth
century. Now, after fourteen years
of endless experiments, Of labor by day
and night, his dream had faded away.
Or, so it seemed His experiments
had been carried on among the oil
wells of California, where oil was
then plentiful. He worked nights,
alone at home. Hundreds of sheets
of paper were covered with drawings
made on his kitchen table. The first
successful test of his first perfected
burner was made with the kitchen
range.
The test decided him. Laying
small brass casting on the table, he
said to his wife, 1--WE turned the trick.
That burner will play a big role in
revolutionizing industry in this coun-
try, or l miss my guess. l resigned
today. l leave for New York at the
earliest possible moment-there is the
place to bid for success"
Six months he travelled in and about
New York, seeking manufacturer
who would give his burner trial.
None was interested in trying to heat
powerplant boilers, run great furnaces
or mills with a liquid fuel! Besides,
oil was expensive. And the little
brass burner was quite different from
anything they had ever seen before,
in fact, it and it's inventor were rather
queer"
Weary, discouraged, turned down
everywhere, the inventor shook the
dust of New York from his big shoes
and believing that he might get
"nibble" in the City of Brotherly Love,
travelled that way The cold shoulder
again Every promoter, every engi-
neer, ever mechanic turned him down.
He turned to the station, plunged his
hand despondently into his pockets.
fingered a single fve-cent piece left
in one of them, and asked himself
that question which in our day has
become classic: where do we go from
here?"
Againts one of the walls of the sta
ton the Westerner saw one of those
prehistoric el-in-the-slot contrap-
lions which simultaneously vend your
fortune, scrap of music, and your
weight The triple bargain and the
nickel in the inventors pocket made
connections in his brain. He knew his
weight; he was beyond caring about
his fortune; but he lid care for music
Here goes,'' he said to himself, my
last nickel for a farewell swan song,
and then back he would go to the old
job"
In fell the coin. The music tinkled.
And out fell tiny ticket, bearing 1904
pounds" on one side, and on the other
the words Perseverance will bring
you success"
The advice from the delphic ma
chine stuck in the discouraged mans
mind. 1t challenged him. He couldn't
dismiss it from his thoughts why,
l have perseverd," he kept saying to
himself; 81 am on the way to success;
/ must keep on. l will keep on"
While in this mood, he picked up his
bag and, instead of starting for Cali
fornia, took a return train to New
York.
4 On this train he got acquainted with
a man who told him of firm in New
Haven that was interested in oil burn
ers. The inventor went straight on to
New Haven. He found there his first
purchaser, the National Wire Corpora
ton of that city. His burner has been
used there successfully ever since.
Meanwhile, the one patent has grown
to thirty-eight patents the efficiency
of oil burners has increased over one
hundred per cent; and DR.. w. N. Best,
r r G II broadway New York
City, furnishes burners for sixty-fve
per cent of the oil consumed in the
works of the different manufacturers
of the United States.
Now, at the age of fifty-seven, liv-
ing in affluence, loving his job so that
he cannot leave it, in spite of many
resolutions to do so, Doctor Best has
grown mellow with kindly, helpful