YALE INVENTIONS

I. THE SUBMARINE AND TORPEDO

(DAVID BUSHNELL, Class of 1775)

By

ROBERT W. NEESER

There is an entry in the acts of the Governor and Council of Safety of Connecticut, under date February 2, 1776, that "Mr. Bushnell, by request of the Governor and Council, appeared before them and gave an account of his machine for blowing up ships." This was none other than the terrible "Turtle" which David Bushnell of Saybrook, Connecticut, projected in his Freshman year at Yale, in 1771, and perfected about the time of his graduation from the College.

The external shape of the submarine vessel bore some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells floating in the water tail down. It was a little over seven feet long and six feet deep, large enough to hold the operator and sufficient air to last him half an hour. There was an ingenious water-gauge, a compass, an oar, formed on the principle of an old-fashioned screw, for propelling the vessel, and another oar which caused the vessel to sink or rise. There was also a ballast tank and a heavy lead keel which could be released in case of emergency. Behind the vessel, above the rudder, was attached a magazine containing one hundred and fifty pounds of powder which was fired by a percussion device, timed by means of clockwork. A rope extended from the magazine to a wood screw which the operator was expected to screw into the bottom planking of the enemy's ship before releasing the magazine for explosion.

Bushnell made many trials with the "Turtle" before attempting an attack against the British ships on the coast. "In the first essay with the submarine vessel," he wrote, "I took care to

prove its strength to sustain the great pressure of the incumbent water, when sunk deep, before I trusted any person to descend much below the surface." Great difficulty was experienced in finding a skilful operator for the vessel. The first man he trained. was "a master of the business," but he was taken sick in the campaign of 1776 at New York, and Bushnell was obliged to find another volunteer. Under the direction of Sergeant Ezra Lee, the "Turtle" made an attack upon the 64-gun ship Eagle in New York harbor. The British vessel was at anchor and Lee successfully navigated the submarine under her. In attempting to fix the wooden screw into her bottom, however, he struck a bar of iron. He sought another place in the ship's hull, but, "not being well skilled in the management of the vessel," he lost the Eagle. After seeking her for some time under water, Lee was compelled to come to the surface, where he made good his escape, without the magazine, however, which exploded off Governor's Island to the consternation of the enemy.

Two subsequent attacks were made against British ships with the submarine. In one of these the operator succeeded in placing the "Turtle" under the hostile man-of-war, but the tide ran so strong that the little vessel was swept away, and nothing further could be done before the enemy came up the river and unsuspectingly pursued and sunk a vessel which had their dread enemy on board. Bushnell tells us that he later recovered his submarine, "but found it impossible to prosecute the design further."

In the following winter Bushnell exhibited a new invention "for annoying ships" to the Governor and Council of Connecticut. It was a floating torpedo in the shape of a keg, designed to explode by contact. His first attempt was made in the Delaware River, and the alarm of the British soldiery on that memorable Christmas night was the inspiration of the song of "The Battle of the Kegs."

David Bushnell served throughout the Revolutionary War as captain in the corps of sappers and miners. At his death, an unfinished model, evidently that of a torpedo, was found among his effects, which showed that, notwithstanding his disappointments, his mind still clung to his life's work.

II. THE COTTON GIN

(ELI WHITNEY, Class of 1792)

By

JOSEPH W. ROE

Eli Whitney was born on a farm in Westboro, Massachusetts, in 1765, and graduated at Yale in 1792. His attention was turned to the cotton gin in the fall of 1792, through a conversation with a number of planters who were visiting the widow of General Nathaniel Greene, near Savannah.

The cultivation of long staple cotton had begun seven years. before, but its production was confined to the Sea Islands, and was, therefore, sharply limited. The short staple or green cotton could be grown throughout the South but was commercially valueless unless an efficient means were developed for separating the staple from the seed. With the hand methods then known, the cleaning of a single pound constituted a day's work.

Whitney secured some raw cotton, attacked the problem, and within a few weeks had developed the cotton gin which has remained almost unchanged in its essential elements to this day. The effect of the invention was immediate and far-reaching. In 1784, eight bales of cotton had been seized by the customs authorities at Liverpool on the ground that they could not have been produced in the United States. From less than o of the world's supply, the American crop rose in one generation to over %. It made the prosperity of the South, and indirectly but very materially affected New England and, in fact, the whole country. But the very value of the invention made it almost impossible for Whitney to defend his patent against infringe

ment. He became involved in numberless suits, and only after years of litigation established his claims and succeeded in obtaining from various sources amounts which, all told, about equaled his expenses.

Recognizing that he would never receive an adequate return from the cotton gin, he turned to the manufacture of an unpatented article, by new methods, in a shop which was open to all. In 1798 he obtained a contract for 10,000 muskets for the United States Government, established the Whitney Arms Company in New Haven, and developed there the modern interchangeable system of manufacture. While he was not the first to propose this system, he was the first to make it a commercial success, and to demonstrate that articles could be produced not only interchangeably but at prices even cheaper than by the old hand methods. In doing so he developed the commercial use of jigs, fixtures, and limit gauges, and made the beginnings of a number of important modern machine tools.

Simeon North, a gunsmith of Middletown, Connecticut, shared with Whitney to some degree in this work, and with them modern interchangeable manufacture had its inception. Of the two, Whitney was by far the more influential. From their shops interchangeable methods spread to other gun makers, to the clock makers, and later, as they were developed, to other industries, such as the manufacture of sewing machines, typewriters, and bicycles. The skill of the New England mechanics in this type of manufacture has had much to do with the manufacturing supremacy of the United States.

Whitney's invention of the cotton gin is well known and its tremendous economic effect is universally recognized. Few, however, realize that he affected modern industry almost as profoundly in a second and entirely different field. Eli Whitney was a wise, far-seeing business man, a great mechanic, and an inventor who contributed immeasurably to the agricultural and manufacturing wealth of the nineteenth century. Robert Fulton placed him with Arkwright and Watt as one of the three of his contemporaries who had done most for mankind.

III. THE TELEGRAPH

(SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE, Class of 1810)

By

EDWARD L. MORSE

The story of the invention of the Telegraph by Samuel F. B. Morse is too well-known to need detailed description, but certain essentials of the invention cannot be too often nor too strongly emphasized, and certain other facts will be of particular interest to all Yale men.

It was while Morse was a student at Yale, from which he graduated in 1810, that the seed was sown which eventually grew and bore fruit in one of the epoch-making inventions of the world. Under Professors Day and Silliman he was introduced to that mysterious fluid which, in later years, he was to be the first to tame to the use of man. On March 8th, 1809, he writes to his parents:-"Mr. Day's lectures are very interesting. They are upon Electricity. The whole class taking hold of hands, formed the circuit of communication, and we all received the shock apparently at the same moment." This was the germ which, lying dormant for over twenty years, finally took root and burst into glorious flower, and to Yale is granted the proud privilege of having planted that seed.

The actual invention, as everyone knows, occurred on board the packet-ship Sully in October, 1832. The essentials were very simple but were entirely different from any other form of telegraph devised by others. It was their very simplicity which compelled the admiration of scientists and practical men of affairs alike, and gradually forced into desuetude all other systems, until