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Scottish
American Inventors
As
Scotland gave to the world the knowledge of the art of logarithms,
the steam engine, the electric telegraph, the wireless telegraph,
illuminating gas, the knowledge of chloroform, and many other
important inventions, it was to be expected that the inventive
faculty of her sons would not fail when transplanted to this
country.
Hugh Orr
(1717-98), born in Lochwinnoch, inventor of a machine for dressing
flax, took a patriotic part in the war of the Revolution by
casting guns and shot for the Continental Army, besides doing
much to encourage rope-making and spinning. His son, Robert,
invented an improved method of making scythes and was the first
manufacturer of iron shovels in New England. William Longstreet
(1759-1814), a New Jersey Scot, invented and patented an improvement
in cotton-gins called the "breast-roller," also a
portable steam saw-mill. As early as 1790 he was at work on
the problem of the application of steam power to the propulsion
of boats, but lack of funds prevented operations until 1807,
the same year in which Fulton launched his steamboat. His son,
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790-1870), became President of
South Carolina College. Robert Fulton (1765-1815), of Ayrshire
origin through Ulster, was, as every one knows, the first to
successfully apply steam to navigation. Hugh Maxwell (1777-1860),
publisher and newspaper editor, of Scottish descent, invented
the "printer's roller" (patented in 1817), cast his
own types and engraved his own woodcuts. Henry Burden (1791-1871),
born in Dunblane, inventor of an improved plow and the first
cultivator, was also the first to invent and make the hook-headed
railroad spike "which has since proved itself a most important
factor in railroad building in the United States." His
"cigar boat" although not a commercial success was
the fore-runner of the "whale-back" steamers now in
use on the Great Lakes. William Orr (1808-91), manufacturer
and inventor, born in Belfast of Ulster Scot parentage, was
the first to manufacture merchantable printing paper with wood
fibre in it, and made several other improvements and discoveries
along similar lines. Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-84), inventor
of the reaping machine, was descended from James McCormick,
one of the signers of the address of the city and garrison of
Londonderry presented to William III. after the siege in 1689.
Of his invention the French Academy of Sciences declared that
by its means he had "done more for the cause of agriculture
than any other living man." James Blair (1804-84), born
in Perth, Scotland, was the inventor of the roller for printing
calico; and Robert M. Dalzell (1793-1873) was inventor of the
"elevator system" in handling and storing grain. Samuel
Colt (1814-62), inventor of the Colt revolver, and founder of
the great arms factory at Hartford, Conn., was of Scots ancestry
on both sides. He was also the first to lay a submarine electric
cable (in 1843) connecting New York city with stations on Fire
Island and Coney Island. Thomas Taylor, inventor of electric
appliances for exploding powder in mining, blasting, etc., Chief
of the Division of Microscopy (1871-95), was born in Perth,
Scotland, in 1820. Duncan H. Campbell, born in Greenock in 1827,
settled in Boston as a lad, by his numerous inventions, "pegging
machines, stitching machines, a lock-stitch machine for sewing
uppers, a machine for using waxed threads, a machine for covering
buttons with cloth," laid the foundation of New England's
pre-eminence in shoe manufacturing. Gordon McKay (1821-1903),
by his inventions along similar lines also helped to build up
New England's great industry. Robert Dick, (1814-93), born in
Bathgate, Linlithgowshire, died in Buffalo, lecturer, newspaper
editor, writer, preacher, and inventor, was inventor of the
mailing machine used in nearly every newspaper office on the
continent. Alexander Morton, (1820-60), the perfector if not
the inventor of gold pens, was born in Darvel, Ayrshire. James
Oliver, born in Roxburgh, Scotland, in 1823, made several important
discoveries in connection with casting and moulding iron, was
the inventor of the Oliver chilled plow, and founder of the
Oliver Chilled Plow Works, South Bend, Indiana. The business
established by him is now carried on in several cities from
Rochester, New York State, to San Francisco, and south to Dallas,
Texas. William Chisholm, born in Lochgelly, Fifeshire, in 1825,
demonstrated the practicability of making screws from Bessemer
steel, organized the Union Steel Company of Cleveland, (1871),
and devised several new methods and machinery for manufacturing
steel shovels, scoops, etc. His brother, Henry, was the first
to introduce steel-making into Cleveland, and might justly be
called "The Father of Cleveland." Andrew Campbell
(1821-90) was the inventor of many improvements in printing
machinery, and of a long series of devices comprising labor-saving
machinery relating to hat manufacture, steam-engines, machinists'
tools, lithographic and printing machinery, and electrical appliances.
William Ezra Ferguson (b. 1832), merchant and inventor of the
means of conveying grain on steam shipments without shifting,
was of Scottish ancestry. Alexander Davidson (b. 1832) made
many inventions in connection with the typewriter, one of the
most important being the scale regarding the value of the letters
of the alphabet. As an inventor he was of the front rank. Andrew
Smith Hallidie (b. 1836), son of a native of Dunfermline, was
the inventor of steel-wire rope making and also the inventor
of the "Hallidie ropeway," which led up to the introduction
of cable railroads. James Lyall (1836-1901), born in Auchterarder,
invented the positive-motion shuttle (1868) which revolutionized
the manufacture of cotton goods. He also invented fabrics for
pneumatic tyres and fire-hose. James P. Lee, born in Roxburghshire
in 1837, was inventor of the Lee magazine gun which was adopted
by the United States Navy in 1895. His first weapon was a breech-loading
rifle which was adopted by the United States Government during
the Civil War. Later he organized the Lee Arms Company of Connecticut.
The production of the telephone as a practical and now universally
employed method of "annihilating time and space" in
the articulate intercourse of the human race will forever be
associated with the name of Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh
in 1847. By its means he has promoted commerce, created new
industries, and has bridged continents, all the result of "sheer
hard thinking aided by unbounded genius." To Dr. Graham
Bell we are also indebted for the photophone, for the inductoin
balance, the telephone probe, and the gramophone. During the
war he designed a "submarine chaser" capable of traveling
under water at a speed of over seventy miles an hour, and he
has made important experiments in the field of aeronautics and
in other arts and sciences. The mother of Thomas Alva Edison
(b. 1847), it may here be mentioned, was of Scottish parentage
(Elliott). The originator of the duplex system in the manufacture
of railroad tickets was William Harrison Campbell (1846-1906),
of Scottish parentage. William Malcolm (1823-90), also of Scottish
parentage, was the inventor of telescopic sights, an invention
adopted by all civilized governments. His attainments were better
known and appreciated in Europe than in his own country. Daniel
McFarlan Moore, electrician and inventor, of Ulster Scot descent,
was inventor of the Moore electric light. James Peckover, born
in England of Scottish and English ancestry, invented the saw
for cutting stone and a machine for cutting mouldings in marble
and granite. Rear-Admiral George W. Baird (b. 1843), naval engineer,
invented the distiller for making fresh water from sea water,
and patented many other inventions in connection with machinery
and ship ventilation. James Bennett Forsyth (b. 1850), of Scottish
parentage, took out more than fifty patents on machinery and
manufacturing processes connected with rubber and fire-hose.
John Charles Barclay, telegraph manager, descendant of John
Barclay who emigrated from Scotland in 1684, patented the printing
telegraph "said to be the most important invention in the
telegraph world since Edison introduced the quadruplex system."
Alexander Winton, born in Grangemouth in 1860, inventor and
manufacturer, successfully developed a number of improvements
in steam engines for ocean going vessels, founded the Winton
Motor Carriage Company in 1897, and patented a number of inventions
in connection with automobile mechanism. The works of the company
at Cleveland, Ohio, now cover more than thirteen acres. The
first to expound and formulate the application of the law of
conservation in illumination calculations was Addams Stratton
McAllister (b. 1875), a descendant of Hugh McAllister, who emigrated
from Scotland c. 1732. He also holds several patents for alternating-current
machinery, and has written largely on electrical subjects. Richard
Dudgeon (1820-99), born in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, was distinguished
as a machinist, inventor of the hydraulic jack and boiler-tube
expander.
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