Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small]

MR. SELDEN AT THE LEFT OF THE PICTURE.

He is returning in his automobile to the home his father had left seventy years before in an ox cart.

Mr. Selden told me a story which illustrated the sort of mechanical ignorance which prevailed during the period he was trying to gain recognition for his patent. In 1890, when the overhead trolley cars were installed in Rochester, a wellknown citizen, one who had pooh-poohed Mr. Selden's invention, came into Mr. Selden's office and pointed through the window at a passing trolley car. "I wish you'd tell me George," he said, "how the little wheel at the end of that long arm gets enough grip on the wire to push the car along.

Mr. Selden tried to interest almost every client he had in the invention; he laid it before dozens of firms manufacturing carriages and agricultural implements. Two men to whom he offered a half interest in his patent for a very meagre consideration, rejected the offer with contempt and expressed pity for Mr. Selden's family. They classed Mr. Selden and so did hundreds of otherswith the crack-brained pursuer of perpetual motion. Some of the manufacturers declared that the invention was not operable; some that, even if the machine

would run successfully, it would be of value merely as a curiosity-no sane human being would care to go bumping along upon a sort of rapid-fire gun. Of all the men he wrote to and interviewed, only two gave him genuine encouragement. With both men he made, at different times, a conditional arrangement for the manufacture of his self-moving carriage. In each case he thought success, recognition, were coming at last. fate was still against him. Before operations could be begun, one man failed, the other died.

But

The unbelief of others did not make Mr. Selden lose confidence in his engine, but, since no manufacturer would regard it seriously, he dismantled it, and for years and years it was stored away with the trunks and old furniture of the family. For a time, during this period of its retirement, the engine lay in the cellar, and while here it was put to an odd use. One day, one of Mr. Selden's sons, then a very small boy, was prowling about the cellar, and he discovered in a cylinder of the engine the family cat and a litter of new kittens. This engine, despised

1

[ocr errors]

of men, but later to be famous and to be the foundation of Mr. Selden's fortune-this engine the lying-in hospital of a cat!

But success and prosperity were awaiting Mr. Selden. When Daimler and Benz (who began their automobile experiments about 1885, and who are credited with being the fathers of the automobile revival in Europe) and other European inventors had proved that the gasoline motor was not only practical but had a great commercial future, American manufacturers commenced to awake. The beginning of this interest came about 1893; but it was not till 1896 that the first American-made automobile was put on the market, and not till 1899, when there were in the United States only fifty automobiles, that the interest began to have any volume. Mr. Selden now found a very different attitude toward his patent. In 1899, twenty years after his invention had begun to beg for recognition, he entered into a contract with an old and prominent Eastern automobile. company. This contract licensed the

company in question to manufacture automobiles under the Selden patent, and granted the company power to issue sublicenses to other manufacturers.

A considerable number of American manufacturers have refused to take out licenses under the Selden patent, their contention being that their automobiles are not infringements of Mr. Selden's invention. Mr. Selden's claim, of course, is that his patent is the basis of the modern gasoline automobile. The case is now being thoroughly tested by a suit brought by Mr. Selden and the company holding his license against three prominent unlicensed manufacturers.

About two years ago Mr. Selden had his 1878 engine fitted up and mounted on a carriage, the work all being done in accord with the specifications of the patent application of 1879. This automobile is now in frequent use. It weighs about 700 pounds, and can carry three persons at a speed of about eleven miles an hour.

Mr. Selden's activity as an inventor has not been limited to the field of the

[graphic]

MR. SELDEN AT THE FRONT OF THE AUTO, HIS SON AT THE LEFT, LOOKING ON. Even an automobile inventor is not immune from breakdowns. This trouble occurred while Mr. Selden was on his way to visit his ancestral Connecticut home.

self-propelling vehicle, though of course the automobile has been the supreme interest of his inventional career. He has invented a hard rubber tire, a traction device to prevent the slipping of wheels, improvements on a hoop-splitting machine, a power-driven type-writer and several other devices. He and his two sons, both of whom are inventors, are at present engaged upon inventions which aim to improve certain details of the present-day automobile.

Mr. Selden's financial reward was a

long time in coming, but now that it has come it is a most gratifying one. The royalty on all automobiles manufactured and imported under the Selden patent is one and one-fourth per cent of the list price, and of this Mr. Selden gets a substantial share. The royalty for 1903, 1904, and 1905 amounted to $814,183. As the number of automobiles sold is increasing heavily, and as the patent has still six years to run, Mr. Selden is in way of becoming that great rarity-a millionaire inventor.

When the Sun Grows Cold By Paul P. Foster

K

S the sun growing colder? Is its heat diminishing? Is it to be expected that, at some remote day, the vivifying warmth which now sustains abundant life upon the earth will die out and that black, icy, silence and death will settle down over the terrestrial ball? For the express purpose of answering these questions-of such profound and vital importance to the future of the human race-a great and unique observatory has been established on the summit of Mt. Wilson in California. The funds for the building and maintenance of this great observatory, with its new and tremendously powerful instruments, have been furnished by the Carnegie Institution at Washington, D. C.

Mount Wilson is situated near the cities of Pasadena and Los Angeles, a few miles from the Pacific, and was selected after careful preliminary investigation by trained astronomers as the

ideal site from which to study the sun. The conditions here surpass those of any other observatory. Cloudless days, dry atmosphere, absence of dust, wind and mist, with thickly wooded mountainsides, which lessen the radiation. noticeable on bare mountain summits, combine to make this the spot of all others for solar observations. Unlike nearly all older observatories, which are situated near large cities or universities, regardless of the conditions essential for the observation of the heavenly bodies, the site of the Solar Observatory was chosen entirely because of its pre-eminent fitness for the work in hand.

While the sun is 300,000 times nearer the earth than any other known star, our knowledge of it is meagre and only one of the twenty-two large refracting telescopes at the older observatories has attempted to make any systematic study of it. Solar research under the ideal conditions which prevail at Mount Wilson should result in a marked increase of our

[graphic]

LOOKING OUT OVER AN OCEAN OF CLOUDS.

Fog seen from the summit of Mt. Wilson, where observations of the sun are being made.

[graphic]

MT. WILSON, CALIFORNIA, SHOWING TRAIL TO ITS SUMMIT.

The great Carnegie Observatory is located on the top of this mountain. It is twenty miles from Los Angeles.

« PreviousContinue »