YANKEE STEAM-UP - Key Persons

Dolbear had an elevated antenna, and essentially what he was doing was exciting the area around his antenna electrostatically, and the electrostatic field went out. 1880 was the same year that Edison perfected the light bulb. Also, the evolution of electrical signaling engineering was ignited about that time, mostly by Edison. But there were other prominent people, like Amos Emerson Dolbear, who was a professor at Tufts College, and neither Edison, nor Dolbear, nor anybody else understood the electromagnetic wave. That waited on Heinrich Hertz's research, which came a decade or so later. But these guys knew the effects, and they were experimenting with it. And Dolbear had an elevated antenna, and essentially what he was doing was exciting the area around his antenna electrostatically, and the electrostatic field went out. This is not radio waves, it's just an electrostatic field, and Dolbear was able to signal over a mile away from Tufts College. Dolbear's patented receiver was nothing but an electrostatic receiver…basically two metal diaphragms very close to each other, so that as the voltage varies on them, the electrostatic attraction moves the diaphragms and makes sound. This is an actual Dolbear 1881 wireless receiver. That has to be one of the earliest wireless devices around. It's described here in this 1881 Scientific American. Dolbear, naturally, tangled with Marconi. Marconi had a lot of money because his mother was a very wealthy woman, and he ran to the courts immediately…he was a very action-minded guy. He would sue you at the drop of a hat. Anyway, all of these newspaper clippings are about Dolbear's difficulty with Marconi. Anyway, Dolbear was a pioneer, but a forerunner-type pioneer.

CORLISS, GEORGE H., a mechanical engineer and manufacturer, was born in Easton, Washington Cо., N. Y., June 2, 1817. He completed his education at an academy in Castleton, Vt. His inventive genius first manifested itself in constructing a machine for sewing boots, shoes, and heavy leather, but up to the age of twenty-four he never had seen the inside of a machine-shop, nor, with the exception of the sewing-machine, had he ever exhibited any marked inclination for invention. In 1844 he took up his residence in Providence, R. I., and soon after associated himself in business with John Barstow and Edwin J. Nightingale under the name of Corliss, Nightingale & Co., for the manufacture of steam-engines. It was here that he began the development of his inventions of improvements in steam-engines, and in 1848 he completed and successfully set in operation an engine whicli embodied the essential features of what is known the world over as the "Corliss engine." During the same year the present works of the Corliss Steam-engine Company, in Providence, were commenced. They have a capacity for employing 1000 men - a statement, however, which fails to show the magnitude of the establishment, so effective are the labor-saving appliances introduced, most of which were devised by Mr. Corliss himself. His letters patent for improvements in steam-engines were granted March 10, 1849. The great service Mr. Corliss has rendered the world through his inventions is recognized by the awards made to him by the highest scientific authorities. In 1867, at the Paris Exhibition, he carried away the highest competitive prize, although there were in competition more than one hundred engines. The late Mr. J. Scott Russell, the distinguished English engineer, who was one of the British commissioners to this exhibition, in his official report thus speaks of the Corliss engine: "The American engine of Corliss everywhere tells of wise forethought, judicious proportion, sound execution, and exquisite contrivance." In 1870 the Rumford medals of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences were awarded to Mr. Corliss; in presenting which Dr. Asa Gray said that "no invention since Watt's time has so enhanced the efficiency of the steam-engine as this for which the Rumford medal is now presented." In 1873 the award of the grand diploma of honor from the Vienna Exhibition was a distinction exceptionally noteworthy, from the fact that Mr. Corliss had sent neither engine nor machinery there, nor had he any one to represent him. Foreign builders had sent engines claimed to be built on his system, and placed his name on their productions. Hence the jurors awarded to Mr. Corliss "the diploma of honor" as "a particular distinction for eminent merits in the domain of science, its application to the education of the people, and its conducement to the advancement of the intellectual, moral, and material welfare of man." In 1879 the Institute of France bestowed upon Mr. Corliss the Montyon prize, which in the Old World is the highest honor known for mechanical achievements. In 1872, Mr. Corliss, under an act of Congress providing for the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of American independence, was appointed a commissioner for the State of Rhode Island at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, and was chosen one of the executive committee of seven who were entrusted with the preliminary work. The great engine furnished by Mr. Corliss for this exhibition increased his already world-wide fame. The cost of this undertaking exceeded $100,000. Prof. Radinger of the Polytechnic School of Vienna, pronounced this engine one of the greatest works of the day " systematic in greatness, beautiful in form, and without fault, … in every detail a masterpiece." This engine has been transferred to the town of Pullman, near Chicago, where it furnishes the motive-power for the extensive works of the Pullman Car Company. The latest efforts of Mr. Corliss have been directed to the adaptation of his engine to the pumping machinery of waterworks, and unprecedented practical results have already been achieved by these efforts.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Edwin Howard Armstrong was a giant in many respects. That picture was given to us by the gentleman on the left, who was Mr. Charles R. Underhill. He started Armstrong on his distinguished career because Armstrong lived in the neighborhood of Mount Vernon, in New York. And Underhill lived a couple houses away… and very quickly, young Armstrong found out that Underhill was the man to go to find the answers to questions that bothered him. So, as Underhill's son has told it to me, that's the fellow, the younger guy on the right we knew…Armstrong would come over and sit in Underhill's office while Underhill was at the drafting board pushing his sliderule, and he would ask him questions, and Underhill would answer the questions. This would go on for hours. Underhill was very impressed with the staying power of the young fellow, because he was just a kid. He would ride over on his bike. Anyway, that's how we happen to have that picture.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• President of the William

Gardiner C. Sims, president of the William A. Harris Steam Engine Company, died at his home in Providence, R. I., on March 20,1910. Mr. Sims was born in Niagara Falls, N. Y., July 31, 1845, and was educated there in the public schools. He began his engineering career with a four year apprenticeship at the locomotive works of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R. Co., West Albany, N. Y., afterward entering the Navy Yard at Brooklyn, N. Y., but returning to his former employers after three years to become their chief draftsman. He next became superintendent of the J.C. Houdley Engine Works at Lawrence, Mass. Here he met Pardon Armington, with whom he formed a partnership for the manufacture of steam engines, both men devoting their entire time to experimental work as a result of which they gave to the world the quick-running engine, in opposition to the established engineering practice and precedents. They built the first successful engine for Thomas A. Edison, which was sent to the Paris Exposition with his first dynamo, in 1881. In 1876 Mr. Sims spent eight months at the Centennial Exposition and was appointed democratic commissioner from the State of Rhode Island to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1892, where he was made chairman of the Exposition committee on electricity and electric and pneumatic appliances, and was a member of the committee on machinery and transportation. At the outbreak of the war with Spain, Mr. Sims volunteered, and was appointed Chief Engineer by the Navy Department and ordered to the navy yard at Boston. For his work in this branch of the service Mr. Sims was made a lieutenant-commander and received congratulatory letters from Secretary Long and Engineer-in-Chief George W. Melville. At the close of the war he was summoned by the War Department to assume the position of superintending engineer of the United States Army Transport Service, and discharged his duties with honor until the completion of the work. He was appointed police commissioner in 1902, and at the time of his death was connected with the William A. Harris Steam Engine Company of Providence, R. I. Sims was a founder of Armington & Sims Engine Co. and at his death was president of the William A. Harris Steam Engine Company. Gardiner C. Sims was on the board of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now URI. He was also Vice President of the GLOBE NATIONAL BANK, No. 48 Weybosset Street, Providence, RI, and was president of the City Machine Company.

"The American engine of Corliss everywhere tells of wise forethought, judicious proportions and execution, and exquisite contrivance."

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Moving, now, over to this stiff aristocrat, Bill Marconi. What Marconi was, was a powerful organizer and a business man, and a pretty grabby guy, if you come right down to it, and he succeeded in building giant wireless stations all over the world… tremendous stations… The most famous station in this area, of course, was the one down at Wellfleet. And what with the ocean rising and the storms, the land that it was situated on is all gone and washed away into the ocean. And it was what they called MCC, for Marconi Cape Cod originally…it later became WCC when RCA took over the Marconi interest. WCC was a very famous shore station for ships. In the early days, radio was mostly a very useful tool for steamers going to sea, so they could communicate to the shore, messages for the passengers, both directions, and also they could send SOS and other necessary things. And they could warn other ships of ice flows like the problem on the Titanic, and unfortunately, as everybody knows these days because of the big centennial of the Titanic thing, that the steamer, California, was within sight of the Titanic, and it wanted to advise the Titanic to go slow because there were ice flows all over the place. And the operator on the Titanic was sending "CQD, CQD" distress signal, but the California's operator had gone to bed because it was midnight. The captain came down…he saw the rockets going up…and he came down to the wireless room and found the operator asleep, so he didn't want to bother him. He didn't understand the Morse Code, so he didn't understand the messages. He assumed that all the rockets…was just the Titanic celebrating their maiden voyage. And tragically, he steamed right along, and he could have rescued most of the people, but that's part of the tragedy.

Job Titles:

• Secretary of the Board of Directors

Braun shared the Nobel Prize in 1909 "in recognition of contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy", and later invented the cathode ray tube. He went on to be one of the founders of the Telefunken Company. And Telefunken was, of course, a giant competitor of Marconi. Karl Ferdinand Braun was a giant. He died in New York in 1918. He was, as a young man, a professor in Strasbourg University in Alsace, and he had a class of women… this is pioneering in itself… these were physics students and Braun was their teacher. Anyway, he also invented the cathode ray tube, and this is an original Braun cathode ray tube, which was a gift of Professor Chaffee at Harvard, whom I knew when I was a student there. And that is how he gave it to the museum as a friendly gesture. In Europe, and most of the rest of the world, up until recently, these were known as Braun Röhres. "Röhre" is the word for "tube" in German. It's curious that that cathode ray tube, in all its parts, is identical to this Western Electric one, which was built in 1930. That's a lot of years between them. But, they're identical in detail. Braun was in New York throughout World War I, and in the days before MIT's benefactor, George Eastman, of the Kodak Company appeared, many people carried a sketchpad to make a little sketch of where they've been as a souvenir of the trip. This is Braun's sketchpad, and it shows the Palisades of New Jersey on the Hudson River, and the next picture shows Bannerman's Island, partway up the Hudson River with a steamboat in the middle. And here…Tesla was a friend of Braun's…and this is a personal note from Tesla to Braun, and it has Tesla's personal card here. Braun taught physics and mathematics, and several people…trained mathematicians, have come in and commented that there's an error on this work. I wish you could copy that, Fred, and analyze it for me and tell me what the mathematical error is! I doubt it.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors
• Author

Job Titles:

• President of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Communications Receivers
• the Cosmic Inventor

A Fessenden was a consulting engineer to the Submarine Signal Company. One of his accomplishments was the invention of the Fathometer. The company was purchased by Raytheon in 1946. Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was born in 1866 in East Bolton, Canada. He worked for Thomas Edison from 1886 until 1890 developing flame-proof electrical insulation. He then married Helen May Trott and moved to the Westinghouse Laboratories in Newark, NJ. His first patent (1902) in the wireless field was for an electrolytic rectifier he called a "liquid barreter". It was made from a fine metal wire dipped in dilute acid. After working at Purdue University, the Western University of Pennsylvania, and the US Weather Bureau he obtained funding from two Pittsburgh investors and started NESCO (National Electric Signaling Company). The BO station in Brant Rock, MA was established in 1905. A 420 Ft. high tubular antenna with an insulated base was setup and held in place with guy wires that used the same technology that Roebling developed for the Brooklyn Bridge. From Brant Rock on Christmas Eve in 1906 Fessenden became the first person to broadcast musical and vocal programs over the air. The broadcast was heard by US Navy and United Fruit Company wireless operators in ships along the east coast since the receivers were equipped with appropriate rectifiers. The Christmas program was picked up as far south as Norfolk, VA. He invented and patented the heterodyne principle in 1902, a high-density car parking system, and a light weight air cooled engine. He later joined the Submarine Signal Company in Boston and invented the Fathometer. This photo of Fessenden was taken on November 12, 1931 at his house in Chestnut Hill, Ma just eight months before his death. Fessenden's lab in Brant Rock. At the right is the alternator. On the bench at the left is the Multiple Arc Apparatus with Rotary Electrodes. Reginald Fessenden, very, very early, was experimenting with electrostatic effects… wireless, if you will. And he was doing it really before Marconi started doing it. He had a wealth of patents also. I'm very fortunate in that…I've lost count of the number of times I've been to Bermuda…literally…and I got to know about Fessenden's in-laws. He married a Bermudian lady, and his house is this one right here, which still stands in Bermuda.

Job Titles:

• Author
• Director of the New England Wireless

Job Titles:

• Marconi 's Professor

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Treasurer of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board of Directors

The great ancestor of the subject of this sketch, William Harris, came to America from Bristol, England, in the ship "Lyon", in company with his brother Thomas and the world-renowned Roger Williams. He was one of the first settlers of Providence in 1636, one of the twelve to whom Williams deeded land in 1638, and one of the 12 original members of the First Baptist church. Subsequently, he had a long controversy with the founder of the state which was characterized by a good deal of warmth on both sides. William Andrew Harris was born in Woodstock, Conn. on the 2d day of March, 1835, the family consisting of three sons. His parents came to Providence while he was a child, and after remaining until 1840 they removed to North Adams, Mass. At the age of 11 he returned to Providence, where he has since resided. After having attended the Fountain street grammar school for about three years, the principal being Mr. Albert A. Gamwell, a famous teacher in his day, he entered the high school in 1849, where he remained until the spring of 1851, when he left to attend a boarding school at South Williamstown, Mass. While attending the high school he was one of the carriers of the ‘Providence Journal', retiring therefrom, as he well remembers, on the anniversary of Washington's birthday, February 22d, 1851, he playfully remarking to one of his young companions who asked what the cannon-firing was for, that it was because he had got through carrying the ‘Journal'. And here it may be remarked that to have been a carrier of the ‘Providence Journal' in its early days is a distinction which gives a justifiable degree of pride to many of the prominent citizens of the ‘City of Roger Williams'. Young Harris, during the winter of 1851-2, remained at home practicing drawing. In March of the latter year he entered the Union Bank of Providence as clerk, where he remained three years. In 1855 he engaged in the employ of the Providence Forge and Nut Company, now known as the Providence Tool Company, as draughtsman. The following year he accepted a similar position with the Corliss Steam Engine Company. Here he remained eight and one-half years. On the 1st of August, 1864, he began building the Corliss engine on his own account, paying the inventor, the late George H. Corliss, a stipulated royalty. At first he occupied an old building on Eddy street which was used during the ‘Dorr War' as the headquarters of Thomas Wilson Dorr's adherents. For four years Mr. Harris carried on business here. In 1869 he exhibited one of his ‘Corliss Engines' at the American Institute in New York city. The ‘New York Tribune', in describing it, gave it the name of the ‘Harris-Corliss Engine'. Since 1870, the date when the patent on the Corliss engine expired, Mr. Harris has manufactured it, with his own and other patented improvements, under the name originally given it by the ‘Tribune'. Mr. Harris started his present extensive works on the corner of Park and Promenade streets, west of the Union railroad station, on the 17th of November, 1868. The premises occupy nearly 150,000 square feet of valuable land. The buildings, constructed expressly for the business, consist of a machine shop, blacksmith shop, iron foundry, brass foundry, pattern shop and pattern storehouse, and other structures. A large force of skilled workmen, varying with the fluctuations of business from 200 to 400, is employed in the establishment, the most amicable relations at all times existing between the employer and the employees, ‘strikes' being an unheard of thing here. A large part of the machinery and tools were invented and made especially for these works, the product of which consists of stationary engines varying from 20 horse-power to 2,000. The establishment, when run on its full extent, is capable of turning out half a million dollars' worth of merchandise annually, which is shipped to all parts of the United States, and to Cuba, Mexico and Spain. Fifty years ago a prominent feature of the arts and trades throughout New England was the apprentice system, a thing now almost unknown. But in Mr. Harris' establishment this commendable feature is still kept up. Briefly stated, the system, as devised by him and improved and perfected by the experience of years, makes his works a manual or industrial training school of the best and most practical kind, covering a period of three years, that being the term of apprenticeship. During this time the learner is thoroughly taught to execute every part of the complex work in the best manner, so that when his apprenticeship is ended he is the master of a good trade, and can, if he chooses, find employment where he learned the business. A large proportion of the workmen employed by Mr. Harris have thus been instructed under the direct supervision of his superintendent and foremen, thereby securing skilled mechanics and a total exemption from the friction which so often exists between employer and employed. Every man in the establishment thoroughly understands what is expected of him, and upon compliance therewith merits and receives the approbation of the proprietor. In the war of the rebellion Mr. Harris entered the service of his country as a member of the 10th Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers, and after serving the full period of his enlistment he received an honorable discharge. He is a much esteemed comrade of Prescott Post, No. 1, G. A. R., of Providence; served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of Cammander-in-Chief Rea; was chosen a member of the council of administration of the Department of Rhode Island at the annual encampment in 1890; and at the annual encampment in 1891 was chosen as delegate-at-large to the national encampment to be held in Detroit, Michigan, in August, 1891. In politics Mr. Harris is a republican. He has represented his ward in the city council, and for four successive years (1882-6) he was chosen representative to the general assembly. He married, September 8th, 1859, Eleanor F. Morrill, of New Hampshire. They have two sons, Frederick W. and William A., Jr. Mr. Harris is a Unitarian in religious belief, and has for many years been a regular worshiper at the First Congregational church in Providence. As a citizen he is widely known throughout the state and universally respected by all classes. By his uprightness of character and other sterling qualities he has won an honorable position in business and social circles in the city where he has so long resided. "Since 1870, when the patent on the Corliss engine expired, Mr. Harris has manufactured it, with his own and other patented improvements, under the name 'Harris-Corliss Engine'." →