b. ? 1825 and d. October 26, 1887

American inventor. On September 12, 1854, he patented an improved method of uniting the sheet-metal slats of revolving shutters for store-fronts and in 1856 a new plaster-supporting metallic surface for fireproof partitions, metallic lath.

Iron is not only the soul of every other
manufacture, but the mainspring perhaps of
civilized society.

—Francis Horner

No way has been found for making heroism easy,
even for the scholar. Labor, iron labor, is for him.
The world was created as an audience for him;
the atoms of which it is made are opportunities.

—Greatness: Emerson

Take heart, all who toil! all youths in humble
situations, all in adverse circumstances. If it be
but to drive the plough, strive to do well; if only to
cut bolts, make good ones; or to blow the bellows,
keep the iron hot. It is attention to business that
lifts the feet higher up on the ladder.

1663—The first wire-mill in England was erected at Mortlake.

1840—Robert Sterling Newall, of Gateshead, patented wire rope for submarine telegraph cables.

1841—Presses for shaping and cutting metal forms were invented by T. Griffiths.

1888—John N. Golding invented and patented his first machine for making expanded metal.

b. October 26, 1777 and d. September 16, 1856

American inventor. In 1804 he invented cut nails and devised the first machinery for their manufacture.

The true epic of our times, not arms and the
man, but tools and the man,-an infinitely wider
kind of epic.

—Carlyle

The painful smith, with force of fervent heat,
The hardest iron soon doth mollifie,
That with his heavy sledge he can it beat
And fashion to what he it list apply.

—Spencer

Where sleep they, Earth? By no proud stone
Their narrow court of rest is known;
The still, sad glory of their name
Hallows no mountain into fame;
No, not a tree the record bears
Of their deep thoughts and lonely prayers.

—The Graves of Martyrs

1777—First factory for the manufacture of cold-cut iron nails was opened at Cumberland, R. I.

1613—John Ravenson obtained a patent for smelting iron with bituminous coal and in 1619 another was granted to Lord Dudley. It was not until 100 years later that it came into general use.

1759—The Carron smelting was established; following Dr. John Roebuck’s invention, iron was made by the use of mineral coal.

1833—Frederick W. Geisenhainer obtained a patent for the use of the hot blast with anthracite coal.