Part 20 (2/2)
In the autue, sailed from Havre for New York in the shi+p Sully It happened that there were on board some scientists who had been interested in electrical develop turned on electricity Morse knew little about it, except what he had learned in a few lectures heard at Yale; but when so it took a current of electricity to pass through a wire, and when the ansas that the passage was instantaneous, his interest was aroused
”If that is the case,” he said, ”and if the passage of the current can be ence cannot be transmitted instantaneously by electricity”
The coreat idea, went on deck, and at the end of an hour had jotted down in his notebook the first skeleton of the ”Morse alphabet” Before he reached New York, he had s and specifications of his invention, which he seerasped clearly and coh its details orked out only by laborious thought It was necessary for hi, and not until three years later was the first rude instrument completed Two years more, and he had a short line in operation, but it was looked upon as a scientific toy constructed by an unfortunate drearess, exhibited his invention and asked aid to construct an experihed at, and for twelve years an extraordinary struggle ensued, Morse laboring to convince the world of the value of his invention, and the world scoffing at him His own situation was forlorn in the extre was his only reat invention, he found painting utterly ile roo at the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets in New York City--a room which served as studio, workshop, parlor, kitchen and bedroo such money as he could earn for his experi himself in consequence
But at last the tide turned He was appointed to a position in the University of the City of New York, which provided hiain appeared before Congress This time, he found some backers, and by a close vote, at the last hour of the session, an appropriation of 30,000 was ton and Baltiht and enthusiasm, the inventor went to work, and on the twenty-fourth day of May, 1844, the first ht!”
The wonder and ained than described Morse offered to sell his invention to the government for the sum of 100,000, but the Postmaster General, a thickheaded individual na that in his opinion, no line would ever pay for the cost of operation!
It was inevitable that rival claimants for the honor of the invention should crop up on every side, but, after years of bitter litigation, Morse succeeded in defending his title, and honors began to pour in upon hi that the Sultan of Turkey, supposedly the hted of all rulers, was the first e Morse as a public benefactor That was in 1848; but the ress was called by the Emperor of the French to devise soreat inventor But perhaps thetesti of the Morse ates were present from every state in the Union, and at the close of the reception, Williaraph Coraph instrument before the audience was in connection with every other one of the ten thousand instruments in America, and that, beside every instrue Then a young operator sent this raph fraternity throughout the world Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good-will to nity, simplicity and kindliness, bent above the key, and sent out, ”S F B Morse” A storm of enthusiasotten by any who took part in it The proudest boast of e Death came to the inventor a year later, and on the day of his funeral, every telegraph office throughout the land was draped in s all the credit for the invention of the telegraph, it should, in justice to one man, be pointed out that it would have been impossible but for a discovery which preceded it--that of the electro-reat physicist, first of Princeton, then of the Smithsonian Institution, this invention is chiefly due We have already spoken of Professor Henry's work in science, but none of it was more important than his invention, in 1828, of the net--a coil of silk-covered ound in a series of crossed layers around a soft iron core, and in 1831, he had used it to produce the ringing of a bell at a distance It is this raph instrument--is essential to it, and is the foundation of the entire electrical art Let it be added to this great scientist's credit that he never sought to patent any of his inventions, giving them, as Franklin had done, free to all the world
The struggle which Morse raph and the injustice shown Eli Whitney by the people of the South, were as nothing when compared with the trials of that most unfortunate of all inventors, Charles Goodyear, whose story is one of the les without experiencing the deepest adarded as a hopeless lunatic
Charles Goodyear was born at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1800 While he was still a child, his father ed in the hardware business, in which his son joined hih to do so But the panic of 1836 wiped the business out of existence, and Goodyear was forced to look around for some other means of livelihood He had been interested for some time in the wonderful success of some newly-established India-rubber coht an India-rubber life-preserver Upon exa an improve his improvement to the manufacturer The manufacturer was impressed with the new device, but told Goodyear frankly that the whole India-rubber business of the country was on the verge of collapse, and indeed, the collapse caoods which the rubber co out were not durable The use of rubber had begun about fifteen years before, first in France in the land where a manufacturer na a layer of rubber between two layers of cloth Then, in 1833, the Roxbury India-Rubber Coanized in the United States, and on-covers, caps, coats, and other articles were anized and seehroad to fortune, when a sudden reverse caon-covers, caps and coats to sticky masses with an odor so offensive that they had to be buried So the business collapsed, the various companies went into bankruptcy, and the very name of India-rubber came to be detested by producers and consumers alike
It was at this time that Charles Goodyear appeared upon the scene--unfortunately enough for himself, but fortunately for humanity--and determined to discover some method by which rubber could be made to withstand the extremes of heat and cold From that time until the close of his life, he devoted himself wholly to this work, in the face of such hardshi+ps and discouragean his experinesia as a substance which,properties; but a an to ferlass
His stock of money was soon exhausted, his own valuables, and even the trinkets of his ere pawned, but Goodyear never for an instant thought of giving up the probleain he believed he had discovered the secret by boiling the solution of rubber and nesia in quicklime and water, when he found to his dismay that a drop of the weakest acid, such as the juice of an apple, would reduce an apparently fine sheet of rubber to a sticky ht direction wasfrom a piece of rubber with aqua fortis, he found that the chee in the rubber, which would now stand a degree of heat that would have ” India-rubber, and after careful tests, patented the process, secured a partner with capital, rented an old India-rubber works on Staten Island, and set to work, full of hope But commercial disaster swept away his partner's fortune, and Goodyear could find no one else ould risk his money in so doubtful an enterprise
Indeed, in all Ahtest hope of accoarded him as a lunatic, and especially when he made himself a suit of clothes out of his India-rubber cloth, and wore it on all occasions One day afor Goodyear asked one of the latter's friends hoould recognize him if he met him
”If you see a man with an India-rubber coat on,” was the reply, ”India-rubber shoes, India-rubber hat, and in his pocket an India-rubber purse with not a cent in it, that's Goodyear”
The description was a good one, for that purse had been without a cent in it for a long tier
For he had not yet discovered the secret ofIndia-rubber permanent, as he found when he tried to fill a contract for a hundred and fifty s were apparently perfect, but in less than a an to soften and ferment and were thrown back on his hands All his property was seized and sold for debt; his family was reduced to the point of starvation, and friends, relatives and even his wife joined in de that he abandon this useless quest
Goodyear was in despair, for he had just made another discovery that seemed to promise success--the discovery that sulphur was the active ”curing” agent for India-rubber, and that it was the sulphuric acid in aqua fortis which had wrought the changes in rubber which he had noticed in his experi the properties of a sulphur-cured piece of rubber to an incredulous crowd in a country-store, he happened to let it fall on the red-hot stove To his amazement it did not melt; it had shrivelled some, but had not softened
And, at last, he had the key, which was that rubber ree of heat, would be rendered iree of heat? He experi-stove, and in every other kind of oven to which he could gain access; he induced a brick-layer to rew yellow and shrivelled, for he and his fahbors; more than once, there was not a ht seriously of shutting hiet to New York, but was arrested for debt, and thrown into prison Even in prison, he tried to interest men with capital in his discovery, for he needed delicate and expensive apparatus, and at last two brothers, Williareed to advance him a certain sum The laboratory was built, and in 1844, Goodyear astonished the world by producing perfect vulcanized India-rubber with econo and desperate battle had been won!
Did he reap a fortune? By no means! In one way or another, he was defrauded of his patent rights In England, for instance, another man who received a copy of the Alish rights in his own name In 1858, the United States Commissioner of Patents said, ”No inventor, probably, has ever been so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the parlance of the world as 'pirates'”
Worn out ork and disappointment, Goodyear died two years later, a bankrupt But his story should be remembered, and his memory honored, by every American
Near a little reat pyra ranite also quarried from those mountains, and bears upon it two names, Nils Ericsson and John Ericsson The monument marks the place where these two men were born The life of the former was passed in Sweden and does not concern us, but John Ericsson's name is closely connected with the history of the United States
He was the son of a poor miner, and one of his earliest recollections was of the sheriff cooods in payment of a debt He was put to work in the iron mines as soon as he was able to earn a few pennies daily, and he soon developed a ree of eleven, he planned a pue of twelve, was e of the construction of the Gotha shi+p canal, and was soon hie of a section of the work, with six hundred men under him, one of as detailed to follow hi instru a war shi+p, at the age of eleven
In 1826, at the age of twenty-three, he went to England to introduce a flaine which he had invented He remained there for eleven years, and then a fortunate chance won hi with a screw or propeller for steamboats, instead of the paddle-wheels as used by Fulton, and finally, equipping a small boat with two propellers, offered the invention to the British admiralty But the admiralty was skeptical The United States consul in Liverpool happened to be Francis B Ogden, a pioneer in steaation on the Ohio river He was impressed with Ericsson's invention, introduced him to Robert F Stockton, of the United States navy, and on their assurance that the invention would be taken up in the United States, closed up his affairs in England and sailed for this country
His first experih no fault of his A shi+p-of-war called the Princeton was ordered by the government and completed She embodied, besides screw propellers, many other features which uished company boarded her for her trial trip, and it was decided also to test her big guns But at the first discharge, the gun burst, killing the secretary of state, the secretary of the navy, the captain of the shi+p, and a number of other well known men As a consequence, the experi fro the Princeton