Electric whale killer and steam driven elevators

 

The Patent Office's History of the Invention of Clothes Pins

Improved Subway Train

1862

SMOKE CONSUMING LOCOMOTIVE—The Subterranean railway in London is traveled by a newly invented engine, which, while in open air, works like a common locomotive, but when in the tunnel, consumes its own smoke, or rather makes one, and by condensing its own steam, gives of not a particle of vapor. It is stated that on a trial trip, as long as this engine remained in open air it fizzed and simmered like any other locomotive; but the instant it entered the tunnel it condensed its steam, and scarcely a mark of vapor was perceptible, while from its flues into the smoke box being damped, not the least smell of smoke was given off—not even the most distant lamps down the side of the tunnel were dimmed in the slightest degree.  

Life Size Daguerreotypes

 Oct 23, 1853 Weekly Placer (CA)

Mr.  Mayall, in England, has succeeded, after much study, in producing daguerreotype views of life size. London deems the feat extraordinary.

 An Electric Butter Churn

November 18, 1850 New York

The undersigned having purchased from Mr. R.S. Sherman, the Right, Title and Interest, in the sale and manufacture of his Patent Electric Churn Dash, for the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and Connecticut, now offers the same for sale at a great Bargain, would prefer selling the whole together to one or more individuals, but will sell them separately if desired by purchasers, All applications for this “invaluable invention” to farmers if addressed to him will meet with prompt attention. The Dash can be seen at Ives’ Hotel, Goshen, and at Wm, Harts Canaan Conn.

Also for sale the right for several Southern States.  W. B. BANGE

Naponack, Ulster Co. N.Y. Nov 18, 1850

Electric Machine to Kill Whales

Butte, CA Record Dec 24, 1853

"...The apparatus is composed of  twelve magnets,  arranged in opposite rows. Between these are placed two cylinders carefully joined and covered with isolated copper wire, to which very rapid rotary movement can be communicated by means of a mechanism adapted to that purpose. As it is intended to stun the whale, the least motion of the cylinders causes it to give out very perceptible shocks; which, upon an accelerated motion becomes entirely too strong for anyone to encounter with safety. The isolated wires are placed along the lines to which the harpoon is attached, in such way that the other end of them is placed in direct communication with the electro magnetic machine the instant the harpoon touches the whale."

A Steam Driven Elevator

April 13, 1853 Cecil Whig (Maryland)

“Getting Up Stairs”—A hotel is about to be erected in Albany eight stories high. A person seated in an elegantly arranged car, strikes a bell to indicate the floor to which he desires to be conveyed, whereupon, by means of a steam “dummy,” they are elevated to the proper terminus, thereby obviating the difficulty experienced in “getting up stairs.”

An Elevator With a Catch to It

In the previous blog post I mentioned a steam driven elevator.  Elisha Otis and his sons were tinkerers who wound up working for others.  One menial task was cleaning junk out of a basement of a large building. Otis didn't trust the ropes with a simple pulley and hoist.  They were liable to part and plunge him to the floor. He invented a safety catch.  He received few orders for his new safety elevators until he set up an exhibit at the 1853 World's Fair in New York. There, he dramatically went up on one of his new inventions and then the crowd gasped in horror as a workman above slashed the rope.  The elevator did not fall.  After that orders for his invention in creased.  Ever the inventor, Otis soon developed a specialized steam engine to allow the elevators to go up and down easily. 

 A Flying machine

November 8, 1856 San Francisco

The San Francisco Sun describes a flying machine, ten by twenty feet in diameter, which is soon to be put to the test in that vicinity. The inventor is a Maine Yankee S.S. Richardson. There seems to be an impression he means to make a fly of it. 

                         Harper's Magazine April 1858

Phonography was an early version of shorthand.  It began to be used in courtrooms to transcribe all words.  There were generally only written summaries of a case before. 

 

Speaking Tubes for the Government

Dec 22, 1849

The New Republic states that a gentleman from New York, now in Washington City, proposes to connect the President House, and the Capitol and the several departments, with gutta percha speaking tubes, lid underground, and to guaranty that ordinary conversation can be carried on between remote points with as much fidelity as if the different parties were in the same room.

August 20, 1859, Harper’s Magazine

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