New Britain herald., 1922-01-05
SPENCER AT 88
 TRIES0UT FLYING
New Britain Inventor EDIargeS
 Field Of Experiences

Britain, who taught Abraham l.in- coln to fire Spencer rifle, who dinol | With Grant and foote on Foote's flag ship two days before the Union fleet ran the batteries nt Nieksburg; who built and operated the first success
 ful automobile in cC.lnectcut, and who is now studying a'laton, having already made more than twenty
 flights has, at SS, applied for mem hership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
 Mr. Spencer, who was born June 20, 1923 at south Manchester, Conn, began the study of mechanics in 1SA6 under his grandfather, an artillery man and armorer in the Revolution ary army. He has applied for mem ! hership in the American Society of I Mechanical Engineers to keep in | touch with the development of the engineering profession and to help i In the society's work to promote the arts and sciences connected with en- gineering and mechanical construc- | ton.
 | Wicked Knife For Saw
 It was at the age of 2l that Mir. Spencer did his first mechanical work l by making q back saw. He nicked an old carving knife on the edge Of an axe, and with this sawed off his grandfather's Revolutionary musket to make a carbine. Then in 1S4S he built successful working model of q steam engine with a l-inch bore and 2-inch stroke, from information ,fni aI In. n1l al z strooks philosophy.
 Mir. Spencer served as machnist from lS48 to 1853 with Samuel Loomis and with the Cheney Broth CTS, of South Manchester, Conn. Next he worked as d locomotive machinist in the shops of the Niagara Falls di- vision of the New York Central Rail- road at Rochester, New York Under Col. Samuel Colt he helped to install the machinery in the present Colt armory at Hartford, serving there as a gunsmith from 1854 to 1857. He did his first work as an inventor for the Cheney Brothers where he work ed as a machinist and inventor from 1857 to 1862, studying drafting under Hezekiah Conant a Hartford invent or.
 Inycnts Thread Machine
 In 1858 MT. Spencer invented the automatic thread spooling machine, which revolutionized the thread in dustry and brought the Coats com panv to America. In 1860 he patent cd the Spencer repeating rife, after three years of experimentation. This io1, 1 I. .lol breechloading and repeating rife us- ing metallic cartridges, was the first to be adopted by the United States About 200, ,000 being issued to the Union army during the Civil War.
 The first automobile to be built and successfully operated in Connecticut vas built by Nr. Spencer in 1882 ItI was as superintendent of the Spencer Rifle company of Boston that he dem onstrated the Spencer rifle to General Grant and Flag Officer Foote on the | latter's flagship, two days before the | Union fleet ran the batteries at Nicks- | burg. During the years 1S62-1S65, he was active at the front, instructing the Union troops in the use of the Spencer gun, in August, 1863 teach
  gun. s -5-e--
 Between 1866 and 1883 he invented the so-called Spencer Roper repeating shot gun, the first practical repeating shotgun, and formed company to build it at Amherst. Mass. In 1888 | he founded with Charles F. Billings, the Billings and Spencer company of Hartford, to manufacture shotguns The shotgun did not make money, but a fine drop-forging plant destined to be known the world over was laid down.
 During the period 1868 to 1876, MT. | Spencer developed the board drop and various drop forging processes and various drop forging processes and in 1873 invented the automatic screw machine. To manufacture these ma chimes in 1876 he founded the Hartford Machine Screw company with George A. Fairchild. In 1880, after inventng the so-called pump" or trombone" action repeating rifle and repeating shotgun, he founded the Spencer Gun company at Windsor, to build the guns. In 1883 he traveled through Europe with his partner, Albert Bier stadt demonstrating the pump gun before the high commands of Eng land, France, Italy, Austria and Ger many
 From 1885 to 1912, MT. Spencer was engaged in development work upon automatic screw machines and l steam autom obiles, nventing the Spencer double and automatic and the Universal fife spindle automatic screw and in the same year be- came associated with the New Britain Machine company as mechanical en- gineer.