unday Bee
PART TH&TE
HALF-TONE
PAGES 1 TO 4.
advertise m THE
OMAHA DEE
BEST IN T1IE WEST
The Omaha
,VOL. XXXVIII NO. 41.
OMAIIA, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 28, 190!).
SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS.
GENIUS THAT TURNS ITS DREAMS INTO REAL WEALTH
Eight Omaha Men Who Have Lightened the Labors and Increased the Happiness of Mankind by Inventions
' I r.':- y : 1
jJ''.T 'A Uf 'vir i
T. F. STROUD.
OUSTAVE ANDF.'EEN.
PERPETUAL motion machines have ever and
always been the standbyB of Inventors
but not the kind who get somewhere with
it elr brain bnbies. Resting on a shelf in
tho office of D. O. Barnell, machine de
signer cijJ patent attorney tn the Paxton block is
a pei put oal motion machine that does not move at
all. it i.-i a wooden contrivance of the roughest
workmanship, about eighteen Inches square.
"Vhcn I was working with the Sharp Machine com
pany seme years ago," said Mr. Barnell, " a man
came in with cn order for some rear wheels he
wBiitid n.a:!c. L!ke every man who ha-, tackled
peii)ctual notlcn, he didn't want to tell anyone
what he v 38 working on, but aftr awMlc ho did.
Tbeu he v m.tcd a half horsepower Epriug made.
No tre had ever htard of a spring rated by horse
powci, but cn a description we ordered what he
thcught he wanted. When It came by express In
due t!mo rrd was thrown on' the office floor the
foreman got a Jong window pole, put a hook In one
end and carefully pushed the spring to one side.
It was fastened with a clip, but If it ever got loose
it would be more dangerous than dynamite. When
the Inventor came we asked him If he knew' how
to take off the steel clip and loosen such a spring.
He said h did and took it away. He never showed
up again and 1 always have wondered If the spring
killed him when' he tried to handle it."
So the old wooden model stands today as a me
mento of the roan who may have been killed. Its
wheels were sawed from the ends of logs and poles
and are far from being true; the teeth were cut In
the wheels with a knife and altogether the thing looks like
It was cut out with a dull saw, a left-handed cleaver and an Italic
jack-knife. It ttill lacks the one spring that was to make It perfect.
Unlike some other inventors, the tribe in Omaha has devoted
its energies to real conveniences for use in the home, on the farm
and in commercial life. Little things that everybody will want prove
the most successful, and on this line a Milwaukee inventor secured
a patent in October, 1907, for a back scratcher. It is very simple,
too. You get a long wire handle with a tin clamp on one end, into
which you fit a segment of corncob. Then you unloosen your collar
and shirtband, presumably, and run the itch eradicator down and
up over the spot where the itching bacilli lurks. Old Scotchmen tell
of a simpler contrivance at the crossroads in ancient Scotia, where
a person might back up and rub his shoulders hard against a scratch
ing post, and murmur, "God bless the duke of Argyle," thus com
pleting the charm.
Inventors Are Seldom Fleshy
Aside from Qua Andreen and Tom Stroud, there are no fat men
among the inventors of Omaha. County Comptroller Emmett Solo
mon. "Court" Carrier and C. O. Mlchaelson are typical Inventors,
lean, keen, smooth-faced, vigorous and optimistic to a degree that
would please even President Taft. Solomon has been of a mathe
matical turn of mind all his life; and even when he was driving
his old-time pacer, Ed Rosewater, to a record he was mechanically
ticking oft the seconds so that the nag should not go a second too
fast to bar him from eligible races. As an accountant having to do
with tax figuring tor a number of years, it was the most natural
thing in the world that be should turn out a calculating machine
which will figure percentages and mills simply by moving a pointer
on a celluloid face which is marked oft in tens, hundreds and thou
sands. It la called the Modern Calculator, and is in use in a good
many tax offices of this and other states. It wipes out the need for
endless multiplication by substituting therefor simple addition.
The county comptroller is atso the Inventor of a folding chicken
coop that has appealed to poultry shippers. For awhile It was made
at Bennington, in this county, but is now being made and handled
from St. Joseph, Mo. A third invention by Mr. Solomon is a rear
end fender for street cars, designed to prevent folks getting off one
car and running in front of another. He is certain that if the con
trivance Is ever put into use generally It will prevent many a person
from being maimed or killed.
On of the oldest and best known of the mechanics of Omaha,
who is also employer and Inventor, Is Gustav Andreen, proprietor of
the Omaha Safe and Iron works. Mr. Andreen has weathered all
storms, Industrial and financial, for thirty years, and hundreds of
examples of his faithful workmanship are to be found in the city
today. Andreen'B principal Invention is an automatic fire shutter,
which Is in general use. It cau be opened from the Inside without
raising windows, singly or in a series up to fifty windows. Firemen
can open the Andreen shutter from the outside simply by directing
a strong stream of water against It. Mr. Andreen has four patents
on bis shutter. He is also the originator of the Nebraska fire escape,
so-called, which for strength, durability and simplicity so com
mended Itself to state officials that when the Nebraska specifications
for fire escapes were being drawn up some years ago Andreen's es
cape was used as the basis. At one time Mr. Andreen had a com
bination vault lock about perfected, but got to dealing with some
eastern lock-makers, and Boon they bad the patent. "That's an old
story and of no Interest to anyone now," says this old-world master
workman, "and auch things are in the history of every man who
baa engaged In the task of inventing."
Which saying of Andreen's recalls the tact that the late Albert
BJoberg la credited with many of the Ideas that were finally worked
Into the United States voting machine which Is used in this city
and county at elections. BJoberg never realised anything on his In
ventive bent. '
George H. Lee la an Omaha manufacturer who makes machines
that take the place of natural mothers, chickabiddy mothers. Incu
bators are bis long ault, and the perfection of the operation thereof
MICHAELSON.
V ' i tlh ,i ii ' '
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GEORGE H. LEE.
I . " . . Y
EMMETT SOLOMON. COURT CARRIER.
F 1MM J
M. B. KENDIS.
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((' K
HUFFMAN.
engages the thought of his brain day and night and Sundays. Hav
ing the eggs, three things are necessary, says Mr. Lee, to make them
hatch, and these he names In order: Proper amount of heat. Just
the right ventilation and moisture refined to an exact degree. By
having these three essentials properly under control, Lee will almost
undertake to make china eggs give up the fluffy, ridiculous llttlov
strutters that grow into most delectable "springers," and occasionally
Into most execrable rubber-like things suitable only for table deco
ration, not for tooth use. Mr. Lee, for Instance, had to Invent a
hygrometer of his own before be was satisfied that he had become
Intimately acquainted with the almost defunct duty of hens, to hatch
chickens. What is hygrometer? Why, it is one of the twenty
five inventions credited to Mr. Lee and his associates on the books
of the patent office in Washington; concretely, it is the automaton
on an incubator that determines the amount of moisture. Lee and
his company do not brood much any more, but they do furnish
broeders, with some little fancies of their own attached that make
the machines in demand.
T. F. Stroud & Co. send the name of Omaha far and wide on a
line of dirt moving tools, wagons, scrapers, dirt elevators, excavators
and the like. The merit of the Stroud machines lies more or less
in certain little wheels, cams, levers and other parts that have from
time to time been invented, changed, modified and made better by
Mr. Stroud himself and Pete Relnhardt, his right-hand man. The ,
Stroud machinery is in use on the Panama canal, and seme of it has
been shipped to Germany. Everyblg railroad job is also a gathering
place for what this factory turns out.
Railroad men are generally clever enouga to do anything, and
not infrequently they do inventorlal stunts. C. S. Carrier, ticket
agent at the city office of the Milwaukee, Is the Inventor of what is
known as a check and ticket protector, and the same is being put
on the market by a responsible eastern concern that handles such
things. Carrier's invention stamps on a check the exact amount
and on a ticket the exact date, In such a way that, it is claimed, there
is absolutely no possibility of changing the sum or the date and
getting away with the bogus thing. Similar machines put out by
earlier inventors are very costly and have proved in some ways in
accurate; but Carrier's is cheap, costing about $20, and Is unbeatable
and eternally correct. He worked on It for years, and is pardon
ably proud of his star performance.
Martin Myers' Inspiration
Going home on a car some two and a half . years ago, Martin
Meyer saw a woman who was overly anxious o alight. He endeav
ored to stop her, but in vain; and another death was added, wlthlu
a day or two, to the list of people killed in Omaha through street car
accidents. This accident, with its fatal termination, gave Mr. Meyer
a heart shock and a brain shock. The result was a study of the pos
sibility of preventing such accidents, and later on the completion of
a model, application for a patent and the granting of same by the
government Today Mr. Meyer's invention is being tested on cars of
the Omaha & Council Bluffs Street Railway company and is making
good, so far as can be judged from its operation. The Meyer guard
covers the front and rear platforms of closed cars, each guard being
operated independently by the conductor or motorman. It can also
be used on open cars, and can then be operated by the conductor
from any point in the car. It works easily, automatically fastens
when let down, is rigid and can be instantly raised or lowered. On
the open cars the conductor can pass alocg Inside the guard to col
lect fares, or any other person standing on the footboard Is held
from a possibility of falling unless he deliberately drops downward.
Soon, if this device comes Into general use, Omaha street cars will be
talked of by travelers passing to and fro across the country as having
a distinction worthy of mention.
Oscar A. Albrecht la an Omaha inventor who is In line, as bis
friends predict, to make a fortune. He will shortly be turning out
flat and tubular shoe and belt laces with tips attached. He Is not
ready to go Into details as yet, for the reason, as he says, that he has
bad to Invent a material from which to make bis machine after per
fecting the machine Itself. Mr. Albrecht says be now has this ma
terial about perfected. It will be made by molds, and the inventor
asserts that the different parts will not need any attention from a
machinist after being taken from the molds. Heretofore the attaching
of tips to shoe laces has been a tedious and time-wasting process.
John Huffman of the Neville block is one of the busiest among
the local geniuses. His most fruitful piece of work is a wagon end
gate, now being marketed by Paxton & Huffman. He has also se
cured patents on a saw-filing machine, a rotary street car adver
tising device, a self-working water elevator, a car ventilator, a trail
ing fender for street cars, a horseshoe in which caulks can be re
newed without removing the shoe and a policeman's club. The lat
ter seems to be just what the coppers have long been seeking. Made
of Bole leather on a steel spiral, it is strong, resilient and its maker
says will grow better as it gets older.
Richard C. Taylor of 2462 South Seventeenth street holds pat
ents on advertising strap hangers and an antl-sneak thief garment
holder, that will also hold umbrellas against unknown borrowers.
Helps for Automobiles
O. W. Hanson has secured patents on a speed gear for automo
biles, the point of which is that two gear wheels will serve all the
purposes of many now in use. In this connection it will not be vio
lating any confidence to say that County Comptroller Solomon Is
awaiting a patent on a contrivance for automobiles that will enable
them to pull out of any sort of mud hole, no matter how desperate
in character, by their own power. "It Is so simple a tblng that It
seems ridiculous no,one ever'thought of it before," says Mr. Solo
mon. Thomas B. Kimball, the architect, Is associated with Mr. Solo
mon in the development of this Invention.
M. D. Houck has developed and secured the right to make and
market a mechanical toy that he feels will add greatly to the gayety
of Juvenile piay.
Two men named Luklo and Wolf are tue inventors of a five
horse hitch for plows, by the peculiar construction of which five
horses hitched to a plow can all walk on the land and the plow will
still run straight in the furrow.
Paxton & Mitchell of 2322 Maney street are the holders of
patents on a metallic packing for engines. A man named Bateker
is also the Inventcr of a metallic packing, but as in all things of this
kind, where large corporations have to be dealt with, progress in
getting a profitable market is slow. Every purchasing , agent of a
railroad or similar large user of packings la from Missouri, and they
originally lived at the center of the "show me" district.
Dr. H. W. Allwlne holds patents on a swaging machine to be
used by dentists that Is said to be not nearly as fearsome as its
name would indicate. y
John Haarmann of the Haarmann Vinegar and Pickle company
turned his attention successfully to a steam boiler and excavating
machine built on somewhat unique llnea; so much so that he was
granted patent. v
George A. Lang of the Monarch billiard hall has not walked
about bis tables in vain, since he has perfected a cushion rail, the
merit of which made it patentable, and it is in use In his own hall
and elsewhere.
Charles O. Mlchaelson, who does his work in the Sharp plant
at Tenth and Howard, bas the Omaha flavor all over him. He is
saturated with It, Inside and out. "I have been a newsboy here,"
says Mr. Mlchaelson, "and I have owned Omaha real estate too
heavily at the wrong time. I served my apprenticeship in the old
Union Pacific shops, have mined and made money and lost It; but
for a lifetime almost Omaha has looked good to me."
Mr. Mlchaelson owned at one time the Omaha Machine shop,
well known In the days before the panic of 1893, when he was hit
bard, in common with others. Afterward he went to mining In tho
Cripple Creek district, and the money he made he spent largely in
developing mining machinery. To this line he now devotes his at
tention exclusively, working at the lathe himself and giving the
most minute personal care to every piece at every machine. His
hopes are now based on a rock crusher that, as be puts it, "is a dyna
mite gun working on rock, and street paving stonea are not too hard
to be crushed like egg shells." Mr. Mlchaelson Is
also the inventor of a placer mining machine, and
of concentrators and crushers for use at mines, and
today' he faces the prospect of being again rich,
with as much equanimity as he accepted the wrong
turn of fortune's wheel in the trying days. He has
had flattering offers for his rock crusher, but in
sists on perfecting it and holding it himself.
Theodore Ponsar, a millwright, has been devot
ing himself In a winning Way to the development of
alfalfa milling machinery, for which there Is a big
demand all over the west today, cspecally In Ne
braska. A patent notebook holder Is the child of the
brain of F. W. Mosher of the business college bear
ing his name.
E. Oehrle Is an Omaha mechanic who has'been
prolific In the line of combination tools, squares,
levels and things of that kind. Some of his contri
vances are marvels In their way.
II. F. Reed has secured patenta on a steel whit
fletree that promises well.
C. E. Niece of 2007 Cass street secured letters
patent on an envelope which cannot be opened with
out breaking the seal, just to make trouble for
those who pry when they should not.
W. J. McCoy of South Omaha holds rights from
the United States for a cement block machine, and
R. D. Owens has secured similar rights on a cement
fence post. i
The bettering of farm machinery appealed to
E. O. Orendorff, as it does to many men; so he went
ahead and worked out an attachment to open fur
rows for a corn planter.
M. B. Kendls Is musical in his leanings as an Inventor, and
some practical merchandise of a musical nature bears his name.
The thing by which he reckons to be known and remembered, how
ever, has to do with cards, not cards that are called when someone
is running a bluff, but juBt ordinary calling cards. Needing some
of the engraved kind one day, and being told he would have to wait
until a plate could be made, Kendls grew Impatient and determined
he would turn out a machine to engrave cards while you wait. After
much tribulation and stubborn tusseling with the innards that are
bo complex as to make their achievements look astonishingly simple,
when they are set to work by the proper touch, Mr. Kendls has
about got to the point where the ordinary man can pass up the hand
engraver. He will put on the market shortly a machine three feet
long and eighteen Inches high. Sighting one, and wanting some
cards, you walk up, drop in a cent, spell out your name in the kind
of type you fancy, by means of keys or buttons, and In a jiffy you
have five cards of neatly engraved character. For 6 cents you can
thus get twenty-five cards. Mr. Kendls says he can sell the machine
for $25, and expects to make a stake from It to buy all the sinkers
and Java he will need for the balance of his life.
Ever put up a clothes line for your wife on wash day, and have
a little twitch or two reaching up and ty:ng knots on nails or the
limbs of trees? Yes, ot course. Well, Kendls he has put out an in
vention to hold the entente cordlale at an easy level between man
and wife, even on wash day. He took a little wire, some brain powder,
a modicum ot patience, a few smiles at putting one over so easily, and
today several hundred thousand of the resulting contrivances are In
use throughout the country, with Kendls drawing spending money
steadily. His musical inventions touch on the easement of bass
drums and the Instant changing of a cornet tone from A to B flat.
Some Minor Inventions
Harry B. Brown is a kid In years, but the inventive afflatus
is his. He lives at 4911 Underwood avenue, and his particular pride
is ad envelope in which the pay of employes is to be placed, with
small cards or discs carrying advertising. The trick In this envelope
Is a slip of paper, with a gummed flap, to be fastened down, holding
the advertising matter. The envelopes are then delivered free to
large firms, and In the free division they place the pay. As soon as
the envelope is torn the advertisements fall Into the hand with
the money, and perforce, are examined and read. Mr. Brown has
refused a substantial sum for his patent.
Charles Trobec of. 1105 South Thirteenth street is a railroad
baggage man who wa3 made to realize that, if the travelers had
seemingly unbearable troubles, the man behind the counter also
could lay claim to a bit of aggravation himself now and again. To
avoid mistakes and minimize possible "llukes" In delivering bag
gage, Mr. Trobec produced a machine to cut holes In metal or paste
board baggage checks, and to get the pieces of Impedimenta claimed
the travelci or expressman must present a check that will exactly
match in perforations the house check. Mr. Trobec expects his de
vice to come into general use sooner or later.
B. A. Karr, with the Sunderland Roofing and Supply company,
Tenth and Douglas streets, is working on a machine which com
bines the principles of the loop-the-loop, leap-the-gap, Ferris wheel,
scenic railway and switchback all combined. He has been figuring
on bis invention for over a yeai, but now cxpocts to have it com
pleted very soon and will place it in one of the amusement parks.
Several bids for the contrivance have been received by the inventor,
who bas patented his work at every stage. Mr. Karr says bis ma
chines means a new thrill for lovers who take park outings.
C. A. Wicks is an Omaha man who has devcted a lot of atten
tion to perfecting various devices for advertising In street cars,
among others a mobile endless canvas scheme, operated by a small
electric motor. It will be turning continually and bringing new ad-
r vertisementa Into sight all the time.
In this review undoubtedly some Omaha Inventors have been
overlooked; but enough Lave been named to Indicate that original
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