Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Notes

Text printed in italics in the original work are represented between
underscores as in _text_. Small capitals have been transcribed as
ALL CAPITALS. ^{text} represents a superscript text, _{text}
respresents a subscript text.

More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.

INVENTORS AT WORK

PROFESSOR ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.]

Inventors at Work

With Chapters on Discovery

By George Iles

Author of “Flame, Electricity and the Camera”

Copiously Illustrated

New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1907

Copyright, 1906, by
GEORGE ILES

_Published October, 1906_

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian

TO MY FRIEND
JOSEPHUS NELSON LARNED
OF BUFFALO, NEW YORK

CONTENTS

PAGE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xxi

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. FORM

Form as important as substance. Why a joist is stiffer than a
plank. The girder is developed from a joist. Railroad rails are
girders of great efficiency as designed and tested by Mr. P. H.
Dudley 5

III. FORM CONTINUED. BRIDGES

Roofs and small bridges may be built much alike. The queen-post
truss, adapted for bridges in the sixteenth century, neglected
for two hundred years and more. A truss replaces the Victoria
Tubular Bridge. Cantilever spans at Niagara and Quebec.
Suspension bridges at New York. The bowstring design is an arch
disguised. Why bridges are built with a slight upward curve. How
bridges are fastened together in America and in England 18

IV. FORM CONTINUED. LIGHTNESS, EASE IN MOTION

Why supports are made hollow. Advantages of the arch in
buildings, bridges and dams. Tubes in manifold new services.
Wheels more important than ever. Angles give way to curves 39

V. FORM CONTINUED. SHIPS

Ships have their resistances separately studied. This leads to
improvements of form either for speed or for carrying capacity.
Experiments with models in basins. The Viking ship, a thousand
years old, of admirable design. Clipper ships and modern
steamers. Judgment in design 52

VI. FORM CONTINUED. RESISTANCE LESSENED

Shapes to lessen resistance to motion. Shot formed to move
swiftly through the air. Railroad trains and automobiles of
somewhat similar shape. Toothed wheels, conveyors, propellers
and turbines all so curved as to move with utmost freedom 65

VII. FORM CONTINUED. ECONOMY OF LIGHT AND HEAT

Light economized by rightly-shaped glass. Heat saved by well-
designed conveyors and radiators. Why rough glass may be better
than smooth. Light is directed in useful paths by prisms. The
magic of total reflection is turned to account. Holophane Globes.
Prisms in binocular glasses. Lens grinding. Radiation of heat
promoted or prevented at will 72

VIII. FORM CONTINUED. TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS

Tools and implements shaped for efficiency. Edge tools old and
new. Cutting a ring is easier than cutting away a whole circle.
Lathes, planers, shapers, and milling machines far out-speed the
hand. Abrasive wheels and presses supersede old methods. Use
creates beauty. Convenience in use. Ingenuity spurred by poverty
in resources 89

IX. FORM CONTINUED. ABORIGINAL ART

Form in aboriginal art, as affected by materials. Old forms
persist in new materials. Nature’s gifts first used as given,
then modified and copied. Rigid materials mean stiff patterns.
New materials have not yet had their full effect on modern
design 108

X. SIZE

Heavenly bodies large and small. The earth as sculptured a little
at a time. The farmer as a divider. Dust and its dangers. Models
may mislead. Big structures economical. Smallness of atoms.
Advantages thereof. Dust repelled by light 120

XI. PROPERTIES

Food nourishes. Weapons and tools are strong and lasting.
Clothing adorns and protects. Shelter must be durable.
Properties modified by art. High utility of the bamboo.
Basketry finds much to use. Aluminium, how produced and used.
Qualities long unwelcome or worthless are now gainful. Properties
created at need 135

XII. PROPERTIES CONTINUED

Producing more and better light from both gas and electricity.
The Drummond light. The Welsbach mantle. Many rivals of carbon
filaments and pencils. Flaming arcs. Tubes of mercury vapor 154

XIII. PROPERTIES CONTINUED

Steel: its new varieties are virtually new metals, strong, tough,
and heat resisting in degrees priceless to the arts. Minute
admixtures in other alloys are most potent 163

XIV. PROPERTIES CONTINUED

Glass of new and most useful qualities. Metals plastic under
pressure. Non-conductors of heat. Norwegian cooking box. Aladdin
oven. Matter seems to remember. Feeble influences become strong
in time 180

XV. PROPERTIES CONTINUED. RADIO-ACTIVITY

Properties most evident are studied first. Then those hidden from
cursory view. Radio-activity revealed by the electrician. A
property which may be universal, and of the highest import. Its
study brings us near to ultimate explanations. Faraday’s
prophetic views 197

XVI. MEASUREMENT

Methods beginning in rule-of-thumb proceed to the utmost
refinement. Standards old and new. The foot and cubit. The metric
system. Refined measurement as a means of discovery. The
interferometer measures 1/5,000,000 inch. A light-wave as an
unvarying unit of length 208

XVII. MEASUREMENT CONTINUED

Weight, Time, Heat, Light, Electricity, measured with new
precision. Exact measurement means interchangeable designs, and
points the way to utmost economies. The Bureau of Standards at
Washington. Measurement in expert planning and reform 219

XVIII. NATURE AS TEACHER

Forces take paths of least resistance. Accessibility decides
where cities shall arise. Plants display engineering principles
in structure. Lessons from the human heart, eyes, bones, muscles,
and nerves. What nature has done, art may imitate,--in the
separation of oxygen from air, in flight, in producing light, in
converting heat into work: Lessons from lower animals. A hammer-
using wasp 245

XIX. QUALIFICATIONS OF INVENTORS AND DISCOVERERS

Knowledge as sought by disinterested inquirers. A plenteous
harvest with few reapers. Germany leads in original research. The
Carnegie Institution at Washington 267

XX. OBSERVATION

What to look for. The eye may not see what it does not expect to
see. Lenses reveal worlds great and small otherwise unseen.
Observers of the heavens and of seashore life. Collections aid
discovery. Happy accidents applied to profit. Popular beliefs may
be based on truth. An engineer taught by a bank swallow 279

XXI. EXPERIMENT

Newton, Watt, Ericsson, Rowland, as boys were constructive. The
passion for making new things. Aid from imagination and trained
dexterity. Edison tells how the phonograph was born. Telephonic
messages recorded. Handwriting transmitted by electricity. How
machines imitate hands. Originality in attack 299

XXII. AUTOMATICITY AND INITIATION

Self-acting devices abridge labor. Trigger effects in the
laboratory, the studio and the workshop. Automatic telephones.
Equilibrium of the atmosphere may be easily upset 329

XXIII. SIMPLIFICATION

Simplicity always desirable, except when it costs too dear.
Taking direct instead of roundabout paths. Omissions may be
gainful. Classification and signaling simpler than ever before 340

XXIV. THEORIES HOW REACHED AND USED

Educated guessing. Weaving power. Imagination indispensable. The
proving process. Theory gainfully directs both observation and
experiment. Tyndall’s views. Discursiveness of Thomas Young 355

XXV. THEORIZING CONTINUED

Analogies have value. Many principles may be reversed with
profit. The contrary of an old method may be gainful. Judgment
gives place to measurement, and then passes to new fields 366

XXVI. NEWTON, FARADAY AND BELL AT WORK

Newton, the supreme generalizer. Faraday, the master of
experiment. Bell, the inventor of the telephone, transmits speech
by a beam of light 387

XXVII. BESSEMER, CREATOR OF CHEAP STEEL. NOBEL, INVENTOR OF NEW
EXPLOSIVES

Bessemer a man of golden ignorances. His boldness and
versatility. The story of his steel process told by himself.
Nobel’s heroic courage in failure and adversity. His triumph at
last. Turns an accidental hint to great profit. Inventors to-day
organized for attacks of new breadth and audacity 401

XXVIII. COMPRESSED AIR

An aid to the miner, quarryman and sculptor. An actuator for
pumps. Engraves glass and cleans castings. Dust and dirt removed
by air exhaustion. Westinghouse air-brakes and signals 417

XXIX. CONCRETE AND ITS REINFORCEMENT

Pouring and ramming are easier and cheaper than cutting and
carving. Concrete for dwellings ensures comfort and safety from
fire. Strengthened with steel it builds warehouses, factories and
bridges of new excellence 429

XXX. MOTIVE POWERS PRODUCED WITH NEW ECONOMY

Improvements in steam practice. Mechanical draft. Automatic
stokers. Better boilers. Superheaters. Economical condensers.
Steam turbines on land and sea 446

XXXI. MOTIVE POWERS, CONTINUED. HEATING SERVICES

Producer gas. Mond gas. Gas engines. Steam and gas engines
compared. Diesel engine best heat motor of all. Gasoline motors.
Alcohol engines. Steam and gas motors united. Heat and power
production together. District steam heating. Isolated plants.
Electric traction. Gas for a service of heat, light and power 457

XXXII. A FEW SOCIAL ASPECTS OF INVENTION

Why cities gain at the expense of the country. The factory
system. Small shops multiplied. Subdivided labor has passed due
bounds and is being modified. Tendencies against centralization
and monopoly. Dwellings united for new services. Self-contained
houses warmed from a center. The literature of invention and
discovery as purveyed in public libraries 478

INDEX 489

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PROFESSOR ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL _Frontispiece_
BELL HOMESTEAD, BRANTFORD, ONTARIO _facing_ 2
Lens of ice focussing a sunbeam 5
Rubber strip suspended plank-wise and joist-wise 7
Board doubled breadthwise and edgewise 7
Telegraph poles under compression. Wires under tension 8
Rubber cylinder, flattened by compression, lengthened by tension 9
Rubber joist compressed along top, extended along bottom 10
Girder cut from joist 10
Rubber I-beam suspended flatwise and edgewise 10
Girder contours simple, built up, in locomotive draw-bars 11
Steel ore car 12
Bulb angle column, New York Subway 12
Strap rail and stringer, Mohawk & Hudson R. R., 1830 13
PLIMMON H. DUDLEY _facing_ 14
Dudley rails 16
Steel cross-ties and rails 17
King-post truss 18
Frames of four sides 19
Cross-section Arctic ship “Roosevelt” 20
Pair of compasses stretch a rubber strip 20
Queen-post truss 21
Upper part of roof truss, Interborough Power House, New York 21
Two queen-post trusses from a bridge 22
Palladio trusses 22
Burr Bridge, Waterford, N. Y. 23
Howe and Pratt trusses 24
Baltimore truss 25
Whipple Bridge 25
Simple cantilevers 26
Victoria Bridge, Montreal, original form 27
Victoria Bridge, Montreal, present form 28
Cantilever Bridge, near Quebec 29
Kentucky River Cantilever Bridge 30
Arch Bridge, Niagara Falls 31
Bowstring Bridge, Philadelphia 32
Williamsburg Bridge, New York City 33
Continuous Girder Bridge, Lachine, near Montreal 34
Rubber strip supported at 4 points, and at 2 points 34
Plate girder bridge 35
Lattice girder bridge, showing rivets 36
Bookshelf laden and unladen, showing camber 36
Pin connecting parts of bridge 37
Bridge rollers in section and in plan 38
Girder sections in various forms 39
Rubber cylinders solid and hollow compared in sag 40
Handle bar of bicycle in steel tubing 40
A sulky in steel tubing 41
Pneumatic hammer in steel tubing 41
Fishing rod in steel tubing 41
Bridge of steel pipe 41
Arch bridge of steel pipe 42
Spiral fire-lighter 42
Spiral weld steel tube 42
Largest stone arch in the world, Plauen, Germany 43
Church of St. Remy, Rheims, France 43
Curve of suspended chain 44
Dam across Bear Valley, California 44
Ferguson locking-bar 45
Hand-hole plates, Erie City water-tube boiler 46
Bullock cart with solid wheels 47
Ball thrust collar bearings 48
Rigid bearings for axles of automobiles 48
Hyatt helical roller bearing. Ditto supporting an axle 49
Treads and risers of stairs joined by curves 49
Corner Madison Square Garden, New York 50
Two pipes with funnel-shaped junction 50
MODEL BASIN, U. S. NAVY, WASHINGTON, D. C. _facing_ 54
Viking Ship 56
Clipper ship “Young America” 58
Steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II 60
Cargo steamer 61
U. S. Torpedo-boat destroyer 62
Cross-sections of ships 63
Racing automobile. Wedge front and spokeless wheels 66
Bilgram skew gearing 67
Grain elevator 68
Robins conveying belt 68
Ewart detachable link belting 69
Curves of turbines 70
Steel vanes of windmill 70
Pelton water wheel and jet 71
Luxfer prism 74
Fresnel lens 74
Lamp and reflector a unit 75
Inverted arc-light 75
Sacramento perch totally reflected in aquarium 77
Diagram illustrating total reflection 78
Holophane globe, sections 79
Holophane globe, diffusing curves 80
Holophane globe, three varieties 80
Holophane globe, and Welsbach mantle 81
Wire shortened while original direction is resumed 81
Four mirrors reflect a ray in a line parallel to first path 82
Prisms for Zeiss binocular glasses 82
Sections for Zeiss binocular glasses 83
Tools for producing optical surfaces 84
Bi-focal lens for spectacles 85
Canadian box-stove 86
Canadian dumb-stove 86
Tubing for radiator 87
Gold’s electric heater 87
Stolp wired tube for automobiles 87
Corrugated boiler 88
Pipe allowing contraction or expansion 88
Carving chisels and gouges 90
Lathe cutters 90
Ratchet bit brace 90
Eskimo skin scraper 91
Double tool drill cutting boiler plate 91
Common drill compared with ring drill 92
Twist drill 93
How a tool cuts metal 94
Dacotah fire-drill 94
Lathe, with parts in detail 95
Compound slide rest 96
Blanchard lathe 96
Turret lathe, with side and top views 97
Ericsson’s Monitor 98
Iron planer 99
Iron shaper 99
Milling machine 100
Milling cutters with inserted teeth 100
Milling cutters executing curves 101
Emery wheels 102
Carborundum wheel edges 102
Rolls to reduce steel in thickness 104
Gourd-shaded vessel, Arkansas 108
Gourd and derived pottery forms 109
Pomo basket 109
Bilhoola basket 110
Bilhoola basket, a square inch of 111
A free-hand scroll: same as woven 111
Yokut basket bowl 112
Sampler on cardboard 115
Bark vessel and derived form in clay 115
Vase from tumulus, St. George, Utah 116
Wooden tray. Clay derivative 116
Shell vessel. Earthen derivative 116
Electric lamps in candle shapes 117
Notre Dame de Bonsecours, Montreal 118
NEW AMSTERDAM THEATER, NEW YORK _facing_ 118
Cinders large and small on hearth 120
Cube subdivided into 8 cubes 121
Cube built of 27 cubes 122
Two rubber strips, varying as one and three in dimensions,
compared in sag 127
Air bubbles rising in oil 128
Dvorak sound-mill 132
Beam of light deflects dust 133
DR. CARL FREIHERR AUER VON WELSBACH _facing_ 156
Boivin burner for alcohol 157
Alcohol lamp with ventilating hood 158
Welsbach mantle 159
Tantalum lamp 160
Tungsten lamp of Dr Kuzel 160
Hewitt mercury-vapor lamp 161
SECTIONS PEARLITE AND STEEL _facing_ 164
CLEANING CARS BY THE “VACUUM” METHOD _facing_ 164
Open hearth furnace 165
PROFESSOR ERNST ABBE _facing_ 182
Bliss forming die 184
Bliss process of shell making 184
Mandolin pressed in aluminium 185
Pressed seamless pitcher 185
Barrel of pressed steel 185
Range front of pressed steel 186
Pressed paint tube and cover 186
Norwegian cooker 189
Aladdin oven 190
Mayer’s floating magnets 193
Alum crystal, broken and restored 194
Marble before and after deformation by pressure 195
PROFESSOR ERNEST RUTHERFORD _facing_ 202
PROFESSOR A. A. MICHELSON _facing_ 214
Michelson interferometer 215
Light-wave distorted by heated air 216
Ancient Egyptian balance 219
Rueprecht balance 220
Earnshaw compensated balance wheel 223
Riefler clock 224
Photometer 227
Compass needle deflected by electric wire 230
Compass needle deflected by electric coil 231
Maxwell galvanometer 231
Weston voltmeter 232
Micrometer caliper measuring 1/1000 inch 236
Plug and ring for standard measurements 237
Two lenses as pressed together by Newton 237
Newton’s rings 238
Flat jig or guide 239
Deciduous cypress 247
Deciduous cypress, hypothetical diagram 248
Section of pipe or moor grass; of bulrush 251
Human hip joint 252
Valves of veins 252
Built-up gun 253
Achromatic prisms and lens 255
Three levers 256
Arm holding ball 256
Beaver teeth 258
Narwhal with twisted tusk 259
Lower part of warrior ants’ nest, showing dome 260
Wasp using pebble as hammer 260
Cuban firefly 263
DR. R. S. WOODWARD _facing_ 276
Perforated sails for ships 292
Edison phonograph 312
TELEGRAPHONE 314 _and facing_ 314
GRAY TELAUTOGRAPH 315 _and facing_ 318
Hussey’s mower or reaper 321
Mergenthaler linotype, justifying wedges 323
Schuckers’ double-wedge justifier 324
Two wedges partly in contact, and fully in contact 325
Polarized light shows strains in glass 327
Stop-motion 330
Dexter feeding mechanism 331
Schumann’s “Traumerei” in musical score and on Pianola roll 334
Mechanism of Pianola 335
AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE 336 _and facing_ 336
Blenkinsop’s locomotive, 1811 345
Notes on loose cards in alphabetical order 350
Sectional bookcase, desk and drawers 351
Burke telegraphic code 353
Burke simplified telegraphic signals 354
Pupin long-distance telephony 367
Water-gauge direct and reversed 370
THOMAS ALVA EDISON _facing_ 374
Cube-root extractor 376
Square-root extractor 377
Sturtevant ventilating and heating apparatus 380
Bicycle suspended from axle 382
Telephones receiving sound through a beam of light 395
Selenium cylinder with reflector 398
Perforated disc yielding sound from light 399
SIR HENRY BESSEMER _facing_ 402
First Bessemer converter and ladle 406
New Ingersoll coal cutter 418
Drill steels 418
SCULPTOR AT WORK WITH PNEUMATIC CHISEL _facing_ 418
Haeseler air-hammer 419
Rock drill used as hammer 420
Little Giant wood-boring machine 420
Water lifted by compressed air 421
Harris system of pumping by compressed air 422
Hardie nozzle for painting by compressed air 423
Vacuum renovators for carpets and upholstery 424
Injector sand-blast, Drucklieb’s 425
Vertical receiver, inter- and outer-cooler 426
Concrete silo foundation 431
Concrete silo 432
MANSION IN CONCRETE, FORT THOMAS, KENTUCKY _facing_ 432
Wall of two-piece concrete blocks 434
Ransome bar for concrete 436
Corrugated steel bar 436
Thacher bar 436
Kahn bar 437
Hennebique armored concrete girder 437
Monier netting 437
Expanded metal diamond lath 438
Tree box in expanded steel 438
ROYAL BANK OF CANADA, HAVANA _facing_ 438
Lock-woven wire fabric 439
Column forms for concrete, Ingalls Building, Cincinnati 440
Section of chimney, Los Angeles, Cal. 441
Coignet netting and hook 442
Section of conduit, Newark, N. J. 442
Water culvert 443
River des Pêres Bridge, Forest Park, St. Louis 444
Memorial Bridge, Washington, D. C. 444
Francis vertical turbine wheel 446
5000 HORSE-POWER ALLIS-CHALMERS STEAM ENGINE _facing_ 448
Smoke-jack 449
POWER HOUSE, INTERBOROUGH CO., NEW YORK, exterior _facing_ 450
Schmidt superheater 451
POWER HOUSE, INTERBOROUGH CO., NEW YORK, interior _facing_ 452
De Laval steam turbine, sections 453
WESTINGHOUSE-PARSONS STEAM TURBINE _facing_ 454
Combustible gas from a candle 458
Taylor gas-producer 460
Four-cycle gas engine 463
Fire syringe 467
Sturtevant fan wheel, without casing 472
Sturtevant Monogram exhauster and solid base heater 473
NEW YORK CENTRAL R. R. ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE WITH FIVE-CAR
TRAIN _facing_ 476

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Aid in writing this volume is acknowledged in the course of its chapters. The author’s grateful thanks are rendered also to Dr. L. A. Fischer, of the Bureau of Standards at Washington, who has revised the paragraphs describing the work of the Bureau; to Mr. C. R. Mann of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory, University of Chicago, who corrected the paragraphs on the interferometer; to Mr. Walter A. Mitchell, formerly of Columbia University, New York, who revised most of the chapters on measurement. Mr. Thomas E. Fant, Head of the Department of Construction and Repair at the Navy Yard, Washington, D. C., gave the picture of the model basin here reproduced. Mr. Walter Hough of the National Museum, Washington, D. C., contributed a photograph of the Pomo basket also reproduced here. Mr. John Van Vleck and Mr. Henry G. Stott of New York, Mr. George R. Prowse and Mr. Edson L. Pease of Montreal, have furnished drawings and photographs for illustrations of unusual interest. Mr. George F. C. Smillie, of the Bureau of Engraving, Washington, D. C., Mr. Percival E. Fansler, Mr. Ernest Ingersoll, and Mr. Ashley P. Peck, of New York, have read in proof parts of the chapters which follow. Their corrections and suggestions have been indispensable.

Professor Bradley Stoughton, of the School of Mines, Columbia University, New York, has been good enough to contribute a brief list of books on steel, supplementing the chapter on that theme written with his revision. Had it been feasible, other chapters would have been supplemented in like manner by other teachers of mark. In 1902 the American Library Association published an annotated guide to the literature of American history, engaging forty critics and scholars of distinction, with Mr. J. N. Larned as editor. It is hoped that at no distant day guides on the same helpful plan will be issued in the field of science, duly supplemented and revised from time to time.

* * * * *

In the present volume the author has endeavored to include in his survey the main facts to the close of May, 1906.

NEW YORK, September, 1906.

INVENTORS AT WORK