Book 3 — INVENTORS.

Alexander Graham Bell.

Alexander Graham Bell, whose name is so clearly associated with the invention and the development of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, March 3, 1847. He was educated at the Edinburgh and London universities, and on graduating went to Canada in 1870, in which country he spent two years endeavoring to decide on a vocation. Later he located in Boston, where he became professor of vocal physiology at the Boston university. It was during this period that he became interested in and made an exhaustive series of experiments culminating in an application for a patent which was granted February 14, 1876. The history of the invention, which is second in importance only to the electric telegraph, is well known to the public. Without going into details, it is only necessary to say that Mr. Bell, like all other successful inventors, had to face and overcome the popular prejudices, and had to protect his rights in the courts through interminable law suits. The place that the telephone fills in the social and commercial economy of the world to-day is also too well known to need emphasis. Professor Bell is also the inventor of the photophone, and is interested in the current scientific efforts of the American association to promote the teaching of the deaf and dumb. Scientific honors have been showered upon him in connection with his inventions. In 1881 the French government awarded him the Volta prize, and he is the founder of the Volta bureau. He is also the author of many scientific and educational monographs.

Charles Francis Brush.

The development and general use of the “arc” electric light is to a very great extent the outcome of the researches of Charles F. Brush. While the “arc” was by no means unknown to electricians prior to Mr. Brush’s development of it, it was he who was responsible for its becoming a commercial possibility. Mr. Brush was born in Euclid, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, March 17, 1849. His father was Colonel Isaac Elbert Brush, his mother being Delia Wissner (Phillips) Brush. Both parents came from old lines of American families. After periods spent in public schools in Ohio, Mr. Brush attended the Cleveland high school and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1869. From the first he displayed a fondness for electricity and chemistry, and subsequent to his graduating became an analytical chemist and consulting chemical expert in Cleveland. All this time, however, he was studying electricity, foreseeing the time when it would be one of the chief factors of modern civilization. In 1877 he devoted himself entirely to electrical affairs and a year later presented to the public the light with which his name is identified. In 1880 the Brush Electric Company was formed and the “arc” light grew in favor. A year later it was introduced into England and on the continent. Nevertheless Mr. Brush had the usual experience of inventors, but was successful in litigation and has the satisfaction of knowing that his claims of priority of invention have been recognized by the leading scientific societies in the world. He is interested in a number of electrical enterprises, is a member of many clubs and scientific and charitable institutions. In 1875 he married Mary E. Morris, of Cleveland, by whom he has three children.

Santos Dumont.

Santos Dumont, who has attained world wide publicity in connection with his daring and novel experiments in ærostatics, is still a young man. He was born in Brazil in 1873 and is of French ancestry, although his father was also a Brazilian by birth. The Santos Dumont plantations at San Paulo are said to be the largest in the country in question, so large indeed that a small railroad runs around it, which is used for the transportation of labor and products. At an early age Santos Dumont developed a taste for mechanics and the railroad was his constant study and delight. When still a boy he was sent to France to be educated, and in that country, some thirteen years since, began to experiment with automobiles, abandoning them, however, in 1893, for ærostatics. His first ascents were made in spherical balloons, but he quickly adopted those of cylindrical form. He has practically invented the dirigible balloon of to-day through the medium of his ingenious arrangement of screws, rudders, motors, cars, shifting weights, etc. He was the first to give up the net and attach his car to the balloon itself. On July 12, 1901, he sailed from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and around in Paris. He has made over half a dozen machines and is engaged on others. During his experiments he has had more than one narrow escape from death, but these have had little or no effect upon his nerve or his enthusiasm.

Peter Cooper Hewitt.

Peter C. Hewitt—who is much in the eye of the scientific world by reason of his invention of an electric “convertor” and his discovery of a wonderful method of electric lighting—is the grandson of the late Peter Cooper, the philanthropist. Mr. Hewitt was born in New York city in 1861, his father being Abram Stevens Hewitt, who held the office of mayor of the metropolis from 1887 to 1889. After being educated by private tutors, he entered the Columbia university, New York city, and on graduating therefrom studied for some years in a technical school in New Jersey. Afterward he became connected with the glue factory established by his grandfather and owned by his father. But that bent toward scientific investigations which seems to have been born in him, prompted him to devote himself to experimental work in the laboratory. A portion of the result of such work has already been alluded to. There are not wanting indications that the electric light devised by Mr. Hewitt will, to a very great extent, take the place of that now furnished by the arc or incandescent filament. It is described as “soft sunlight.” Mr. Hewitt is married, his wife being Lucy, daughter of the late Frank Work. He is popular socially, and his private charities prove that he has inherited his grandfather’s great-heartedness to no small degree.

John P. Holland.

John P. Holland, the inventor of the submarine boat which bears his name, is an Irishman by birth. He is now about sixty years of age, hale, hearty and devoted to the task of improving the wonderful craft of which he is the creator. Mr. Holland reached this country early in the 70’s, but long before that he had come to the conclusion that much of the naval warfare of the future would be done beneath the water rather than on its surface. He states that his convictions in this respect were the outcome of a newspaper account of the fight between the Monitor and Merrimac, which he read about two weeks after the occurrence of that historical conflict. From that time on, he began to form plans and make models for submarine torpedo boats or destroyers. He not only had to contend with great mechanical difficulties, but even when his boat was so far perfected that it could be submitted to the authorities, he encountered prejudices and opposition of the strongest. As the matter now stands, the most conservative of naval experts have become convinced of the importance of the Holland submarine, that, too, not only in this country but abroad. The United States now owns a number of the boats, as does Great Britain. Mr. Holland, when he first came to this country, was a school teacher, and, like the majority of inventors who are not capitalists, had a hard time of it for many years. He was at length fortunate enough to interest some moneyed men in his invention and was enabled to devote himself entirely to it. It is said that his creations provide for every contingency, both above and below water. It was only after prolonged tests of their efficiency that the U. S. government added them to the navy.

William Marconi.

This is eminently the age of young men, and William Marconi is a case in point. He was born at Marzabotto, Italy, September 23, 1875, his father being an Italian and his mother an Englishwoman. After being educated at the universities of Bologna and Padua, he, at a very early age, began to evidence a liking for scientific pursuits. Happily for the world at large, Marconi’s father was so placed financially that he could permit of his son following his inclinations to the utmost. After some preliminary work, young Marconi instituted a series of experiments in order to test the theory, which at that time was a theory only, that electric currents under certain conditions are able to pass through any known substance. The result was that when but fifteen years of age he invented an apparatus for wireless telegraphy, which attracted the attention of Sir William Henry Preece, engineer and electrician-in-chief of the English postal service. The apparatus was tested in England and with success. For the next few years Marconi was engaged in perfecting his system. Public attention was called to his further successes in 1897 by messages being sent from Queen Victoria on land to the Prince of Wales (now King Edward), some miles distant on the Royal yacht. Later the British government engaged Marconi to install a number of wireless stations around the southern coast of England, and from that time on, wireless telegraphy has become an accepted fact with civilized governments all the world over. He came to this country in 1889, where he made more experiments and organized and incorporated a company for the commercial use of his methods. At the present writing messages have been successfully sent between England and America, a greater number of liners are equipped with the Marconi apparatus, and the same remark applies to the warships of the United States and European powers.

George Westinghouse.

George Westinghouse was born at Central Bridge, New York, October 6, 1846. Ten years later his parents removed to Schenectady, where he was educated in the public and high schools, spending much of his time in his father’s machine-shop. During the Civil war he served in the Union army. At its close he attended Union college, Schenectady, for two years. In 1865 he invented the device for replacing railroad cars on the track. In 1868 he invented and successfully introduced the Westinghouse air-brake. From time to time he has modified and improved this, one of the most notable of his inventions. He is also the inventor of many other devices connected with railroads, such as signals, automatic and otherwise, electric devices of several sorts and other things which make for the efficiency of transportation in general. He is the president of twelve corporations, a member of many scientific societies, and is also the recipient of medals and decorations from the king of Italy, the king of Belgium and other European notables. It is not too much to say that without the Westinghouse inventions railroading as we know of it to-day would hardly be possible. Apart from adding much to the safety of railroad travel, the Westinghouse brake permits paradoxically enough of speeds being attained which would not be possible under old-time conditions. Mr. Westinghouse’s inventive genius has been largely rewarded in a financial manner.