The Life of
Theodore Ruggles Timby
© 2022 Christine
M. Wands
all rights reserved
Theodore Ruggles Timby, 1819-1909
Meridian, New York, was certainly home to smart and imaginative individuals, but there was one village resident that surpassed all the others in the volume of his patents, and in his ability to be at the center of controversy for his entire life.
Theodore Timby may have been one of the most interesting people in Meridian’s history. He had a larger-than-life personality and an inventive genius that kept his name in the public eye from the age of twenty-one until his death at the age of ninety. His tactics concerning the Tempest Insurance Company showed us another side to his inventiveness. He indulged in shameless self-promotion, evaded censure when it was well-deserved, and failed at multiple attempts to get money (that he may or may not have deserved) from the US government.
Timby
was born in Dover, Dutchess County, in 1819[1]
to George Washington Timby, Sr., and Sarah Johnson Timby. The Timby family was
peripatetic; their six children were born in at least five separate places
around upstate New York as George moved from farm to farm as a laborer. One son
was born in Massachusetts. Before coming to Cayuga County, the family lived in
Chenango, Steuben, and Tompkins Counties.
Theodore
was probably in Meridian (then still called Cato Four Corners) by 1831. His
father, and his older brother Augustus R Timby, were in the area and were both
baptized that year in the village Baptist Church. Theodore was baptized there
eight years later. Two other siblings, Benjamin, and Emaline, were baptized
there in 1851. [2]
In
1844, Timby married Charlotte Ware (Wears), who was born in Madison County. Her
father, Newman Ware, a cooper, moved to the Meridian area with his family by
1835, when he became a member of the Baptist Church. Newman was from
Middlefield, Massachusetts, from whence many Meridianites emigrated in the 19th
century.[3]
Theodore
and Charlotte had four children: Theodore, Cecelia, Judson, and Mary. Both sons
died young. In addition to Augustus, two other siblings of Theodore were in the
area: Benjamin and Emeline. There were also baptized in the Baptist Church.[4]
The
Cato Citizen reported that he was remembered “by old settlers” as being
“very suave and of striking appearance,” and that he introduced climbing roses
to the community. He was also said to have planted currant cuttings “bottom
side up so they grew like trees instead of bushes.” [5]
As
an inventor, Theodore Ruggles Timby started early, designing a floating dry
dock while he was just seventeen. While living in Meridian, he was granted at
least seven patents: an apparatus for raising sunken vessels, a stone dressing
machine, a manner of connecting the body with the runners of sleighs, two
improvements on water wheels, a removable handle for sad-irons, and a method
for changing the diameter of a water wheel. (A list of his inventions is at the
end of this document.)
Timby
was a force to be reckoned in the community. He was raising a family, paying
his slip tax at the Baptist Church, getting involved in politics, and dreaming
up new inventions at the same time he was declaring himself a farmer in census
records. He built at least one house. It still stands on the west side of the
Bonta Bridge Road, the third house south of the main street.
Timby’s home in
Meridian (from the collection of CIViC Heritage, Cato, NY)
Timby’s home in
2022 (author’s collection)
Before
he left the village under a cloud in 1855, he served in 1853 as the Inspector
of Elections for the Town of Cato[6]
and was one of nine delegates from Cayuga County to the Whig Senatorial
Convention, 24th District.[7]
In
January 1843, Timby had filed a caveat with the US Patent Office for a
“revolving tower to be used on land or water.”
A caveat, now no longer used, was an official notice of intent to patent
an invention, was in force for a year after its filing, and could be renewed.
The document included a description of the invention and drawings but was not an
actual patent claim. That he filed the caveat, which was not renewed, but never
the patent, would cause controversy for decades to come, and eventually cost
him dearly.
Between
1851 and 1855, he appears to have taken a break from inventing things. In 1853,
he had become the Secretary of, and agent for, the newly created Tempest
Insurance Company of Meridian. This turned out be a turning point in his life
in Meridian.
The
Tempest Insurance Company was created in early 1853 by a group of Meridian
businessmen. Many other groups throughout New York State created similar
companies following the passage of New York’s general insurance law in 1849.
An
insurance journal reported, “During the years from 1849 to 1853, about sixty
different mutual fire insurance companies came into existence…infesting the
land like frogs in Egypt…for nearly eighteen months they apparently waxed fat,
and everything went on swimmingly; but as soon as losses began to happen the defects
of the system showed themselves.”[8]
At
that time in American history, the economy was booming. The California Gold
Rush expanded the supply of money. Railroads were transporting substantial
numbers of settlers westward and making huge profits while doing so. Credit was
readily available, and the economy was rapidly expanding.[9]
People
in rural America operated on credit during those years, and did not often have
cash. The capital of the Tempest Insurance Company consisted entirely of
promissory notes. Even the premiums paid by policyholders were promissory notes.[10] When
they began doing business in 1853, their capital consisted of $100,000[11],
all basically IOUs. By the next year, they claimed that their capital had grown
to $250,000.[12]
One of many advertisements in the Genesee Farmer throughout 1854.
In
their second year of business, they instituted a public relations effort by
donating a $3,000 policy to William H. Seward, then a U.S. Senator from New
York. The policy covered Seward’s home in Auburn, and was referred to as a
“compliment,” since “such a manifestation from an Incorporated Institution is
rare, inasmuch as all Incorporated Companies have always been considered as
soulless.”
In
the letter to Seward that accompanied the policy, T.R. Timby, as Secretary of
the firm, stated,
The
Directors of the Company are, many of them, personally known to you. The
Company is perfectly reliable, as they are established on a reliable basis; and
we take none but first-class risks. You will please accept of this Policy from
us, as a remuneration in part, for the many favors received from your generous
hand. Be assured, sir, should you meet with a loss, our portion of the same
would be paid, while the walls were smoking, should you notify us in time. [13]
All
this self-promotion appears to have worked; the company did a lot of business
throughout New York State, and even had clients as far away as Michigan, whence
many central New Yorkers had moved during that period. Records in the
collection of the CIVIC Heritage Museum in Cato, New York, tell of a busy company
that issued hundreds of insurance policies.
Collection of documents and policies of
The Tempest Insurance Company in the collection of the CIVIC Heritage Museum,
Cato, NY
In
the company’s third year, the State of New York was eager to examine the books,
as they did for all such companies chartered in New York. By the end of 1854,
the company had not made the required reports to the state.[14]
This effort was to ensure
that the company was still solvent and conducting business in an orderly manner.
The effort did not go well.
William
Barnes, Superintendent of the state’s Insurance Department, sent James
Henderson, Special Commissioner, to do the inspection. He arrived in Meridian
on May 21, 1855. His report began:
In
compliance with my commission to investigate the affairs of the Tempest
Insurance Company, Meridian, I went there on Monday, the 21st… for
that purpose. The Secretary, T.R. Timby, was absent. I then went two miles to
the residence of the President, Parsons P. Meacham and laid before him my
business. We then found the secretary’s clerk, [E.H.] Northrup, and proceeded
to the office. There seemed to be evident confusion at once, as they were
almost entirely ignorant of the concerns of the Company. When I called for the
capital, assets, etc. they said they were locked up and Mr. Timby had the keys,
and the only fact that I could establish, that the number of policies issued
from January 1st to 18th, 1855, inclusive was 124.
Mr.
Meacham told Mr. Henderson that the company was planning to re-organize, and
implied that to issue a report at the time “would make no difference.” Henderson realized that he was getting
nowhere, and said he would be back on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the clerk, Mr.
Northrup, sent him a note that Timby was not going to be home on Wednesday, so
coming then would be fruitless. (It was later discovered that Northrup had met
Timby in Auburn on Tuesday, and that Timby then headed for Albany.) Henderson
said that he would be back in Meridian on Friday, and that he would tolerate no
further delay.
He
arrived in the village on Friday, only to learn that Timby had gone to
Rochester “for the purpose of getting up a new company.” He headed back home to
Weedsport, but Mr. Meacham followed him and asked him, as a “special favor to
wait until next Monday, 28th, before reporting; said that Timby
would probably succeed at Rochester, and whether he did or not, something would
be done, and he would see me on Monday.”
Monday
came with no word from anyone at the company. On Tuesday, Henderson went to
Conquest to take a statement from H.F. Hale, formerly the clerk of the company,
and Rev. Goss, a local minister, who was formerly a director of the company.
Henderson’s
report said that Hale and Goss “hope…that now Timby will succeed in getting up
the new Company, which will assume the assets and liabilities of the old
Company, and thus spare them the disgrace that they feel is settling upon
them.”
Hale’s
statement indicated that while he had worked for the company for about two
years, he had resigned in January, feeling that he “was doing wrong to continue
in the service of a Company whose business was carried on so illegally and
unjustly.” He told Henderson that the
January report had stated the premium notes on which policies had been issued
amounted to $100,000, but that they were not more than $800 or $900. The same
report had indicated that there was $20,000 on deposit in the Cayuga County
Bank, but Hale said that such a sum had never existed. When Timby returned from
Auburn, Hale asked him if Henderson had managed to get the information he
sought. Timby replied, “I guess not much. I had the key in my pocket.” He told
Hale he did manage to get $20,000 from the bank. Hale’s final comment was “I
consider the whole matter unsound and dishonorable.”
Goss
indicated that “he was grossly imposed upon by Timby and deceived” and that he
was “satisfied that a majority of the board of directors, were, and have been
all the time, led along by Timby, and relied upon what he said, more than upon
their own knowledge or judgment.”
Henderson’s
report concluded: “I know some of the board to be men of high standing, and
feel that they have been caught in bad company. I have endeavored to give you
in detail what I have done, or could do, trusting I may be honorably discharged
from a very unpleasant duty,”[15]
That
spelled doom for the company.
Timby
eventually resigned from the company, but not until December.
Timby’s Letter of
Resignation from The Tempest Insurance Company
from the Meacham family papers collection at the CIVIC Heritage Museum, Cato,
New York
Timby
had left town by the fall of 1855[16], moving to Syracuse, where he engaged
in another company with a similar name.[17]
From
an Auburn newspaper:
Tempest Insurance Company
The
following letter is in reply to one from F.A. Rew, Esq., making inquiries with
regard to the above named company. We understand that quite a number of persons
in this vicinity have taken policies of insurance in that concern:
Comptroller’s
Office, Albany, March 6, 1856
F.A.
Rew, Esq.:
Sir:
The Tempest Ins. Co., formerly at Meridian, in Cayuga Co., was examined under
the direction of the late Comptroller Cook, and the result of such examination proves it to have been under
the management of a smart Secretary, by name Timby. It is bogus,
or in other words, good for nothing. There is no company of that name in
any part of the State Lawfully authorized to do business.
Respectfully,
A.W. Lee, Ins. Clerk[18]
Eventually,
the company did reorganize as “The Tempest Insurance Association,” in December
1855, as a “joint partnership in which…the entire individual responsibility of
the Partners is pledged for its liabilities.”
When
Timby decamped, in the fall of 1855, he was heavily in debt. Possessions left
behind were taken by the county sheriff.[19] Where he went is not documented, but he and
his family boarded in Syracuse for as long as a year. A Mrs. Charles L.
Chandler remembered meeting Timby, his wife, and their two children when she
and her husband were boarding at the same place. She remembered the date as
being 1850. She called Timby “a gentleman of the old school, brilliant and
quite able to put out the line of literary work of which he is the author.” [20] Her memory was certainly faulty as to the
date, since Timby had remained in Meridian until 1855, according to US and New
York State censuses, newspaper accounts, and other records.[21],
[22]
Timby
filed his next two patent applications, for a mercury barometer and a traveling
casket, from Medina, in Orleans County, in 1857 and 1858. During that time,
many family members, including his parents, his brother Benjamin, and sister,
Emaline Schuyler, were all living with 15-20 miles of Medina, so that is the
likely explanation for his moving there. The next evidence for Timby’s location
came in 1862, when he was applying for patents from Worcester, Massachusetts.
It is unknown why or when he moved there.
His
inventiveness continued. His next patent was granted in August 1863, for a
solar time-globe. By then, he was living in an upscale neighborhood (in a brick
house valued at $10,000)[23]
in Saratoga Springs, New York, where his occupation was listed in censuses and
city directories as “inventor.” He lived there until his wife Charlotte died,
probably in late 1870. That year’s census, early in the year, showed only Charlotte
living in Saratoga Springs with her daughters and her son-in-law, Frank H.
Walcott, a druggist. Theodore’s name showed up in Manhattan in that census,
living in a boarding house with his occupation listed as “paper mfg.” One can
conjecture that after his wife died and his daughter married, he moved on alone.
Where his daughter Mary was remains a mystery.
His
life in New York City was only a temporary thing. By the end of 1870, he was
applying for patents from Tarrytown, New York. It is likely that is when his
daughter Clementina Cecelia Timby Walcott moved to Nyack, New York, directly
across the Hudson River from Tarrytown. So, Timby is again moving near family.
In 1879, patent applications, when he was sixty years old, were coming from
Nyack.
Six
years later, he was living in a boarding house on F Street NW, three blocks
from the White House in Washington, DC. He filed a dozen applications while
living there. Some newspaper accounts indicated his whereabouts as Chicago in
1893[24]
and Philadelphia in 1898.[25]
His
final destination was Brooklyn, New York. That was where he filed his final
seven patents beginning around 1904. A 1900 newspaper account says that Timby was
a guest of Mrs. Virginia Chandler Titcomb,[26]
and he appears to have remained her guest until his death in 1909.
After
Timby’s death, the Brooklyn (NY) Times Union told of their meeting:
Timby
came to live in Brooklyn a little more than ten years ago. It was through a
meeting he had had with Lady Alice Carolyn Carvell in the Hotel Astor. She
spoke to her friend, Mrs. Virginia Chandler Titcomb…regarding the man and how
he had been cheated out of the credit for his invention. Mrs. Titcomb,
well-known and brilliant artist, looked him up and found him walking the
streets, and hungry. She took him and after learning his story began to work to
get him recognition from the Government.
She
spent all her money, and she was a rich woman when she found him, in this
endeavor. She even mortgaged her property from which indebtedness she was
relieved by friends. She sold even her most prized paintings to aid him.[27]
Mrs.
Titcomb was an interesting character in her own right. She was a member of the
Hudson River school of artists and painted in oils. One of her paintings was of
the Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. A
firebrand in the cause of women’s rights, she was president of the National
Industrial Union, which gave women employment, and provided classes in the fine
arts, music, and the domestic arts.[28]
A political activist and friend of Henry Ward Beecher [29],
she served as president of the Women’s Republican Union League in Brooklyn,[30]
and fought for women’s suffrage, even speaking at the national convention of
the National Council of Women on the same panel as Susan B. Anthony.[31]
Her role as founder and president of the Patriotic League of the Revolution[32]
gave her the podium that she used to advocate for Theodore Timby from the time
of his arrival in Brooklyn until his death.
Virginia Chandler
Titcomb,
from Women in Music and Law, by Florence E.C. Sutro, 1895
In
addition to dreaming up new inventions, Timby tried his hand at writing. In
1888 he founded a magazine, the “Congress Magazine,” in Washington DC. He published four books, including “Bridging
the Skies” (1883), “Beyond,” (1889), “Stellar Worlds and other
Didactic Literature” (1896), and “Lighted Lore for Gentle Folk,” (1902). Some
of these are still available, in both in original and reprint editions. The
“Lighted Lore” is a collection of uplifting aphorisms and poetry. His classical
references therein indicate that the “common school education”[33]
attributed to him must have been excellent – or he managed to educate himself
throughout his lifetime. One of the items is of especial interest, considering
his activities as Secretary of the Tempest Insurance Company:
Bridging the Law.
Bridging
an honest and lawful route to final success, even in this world, is a failure
and a crime. Many have made the experiment, and as many efforts have failed.
There is no success minus self-respect.[34]
Timby
received praise for his inventive genius and was awarded three honorary
degrees: the A.M. degree from Madison University in 1866, the Sc.D. degree by
the University of Wooster (now the College of Wooster in Ohio) in 1882, and the
LL.D. degree from the University of Iowa in 1890.
The
reason for Mrs. Titcomb’s ascending the podium to shout out the praises of
Theodore Timby was his most important invention, a “revolving tower to be used
on land or water.”
The
whole thing began in 1841. Timby was 21 years old and living in Cato Four
Corners (In some of his narratives about the visit, he said he was nineteen.).[35]
He visited New York City for the first time
and took a ferry across the harbor to Jersey City to catch a train for
Washington, DC, his ultimate destination. In one of many interviews about that
trip, he told this story about the day the idea came to him and the subsequent
events. This story was repeated, nearly word for word, in multiple interviews
over the years:
It
was a clear bright day, and as the ferry glided smoothly over the water I stood
at the bow and scanned every passing object with minute scrutiny.
At
last we came in sight of old Castle Williams. Somehow the round brick structure
fascinated me strangely. Even after the queer old fortress, pierced for three
tiers of guns, had been left far behind me my thoughts were still upon it.
Suddenly it occurred to me that if the structure were so built as to revolve
upon a vertical center, the guns pointing arbitrarily up stream could be used
at will down stream or at any point of the compass at which an enemy might
chance to present itself. Of course, in order to do this it would have to be of
iron construction.
This
idea clung to me so persistently that the next day but one after my arrival in
Washington I made a rude pencil sketch of the revolving turret, illustrating
but little more than the bare principle.” [36]
By
this time I was full of boyish enthusiasm over what I dreamed might prove to be
a great invention. At first I was at a loss what to do. Then came the thought
that I would enlist the interest and influence of the great and powerful
members of Congress.
The
fame of John C. Calhoun, then in the United States Senate [and former Secretary
of War in the cabinet of James Monroe], had made his name familiar in every
country town, and guided by some freak or fancy, I determined to seek an
audience with the eloquent southern statesman.
I…went
to the..Senate, with a heart beating like a triphammer. Almost to my surprise,
the Senator at once responded in person and gave me an attentive and patient
hearing, carefully examining my crude sketch… He not only acknowledged the
originality and possible importance, but asked me if I could not produce
something better in the way of an illustration than the rude sketch…
When
I went down those stairs - well - I walked on air! The following day I went to
Baltimore and hunted up an ivory turner. He agreed to make me a model, which he
did by aid of the drawing and personal suggestions as I stood by him and
watched my conception take material form under his skillful chisels.”
Castle Williams on Governor’s
Island in New York Harbor
(ChrisRuvolo, CC BY-SA 4.0
<https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>,
via Wikimedia Commonsused under license)
He
returned to Washington with the model and presented it for Calhoun’s
examination.
After
a close scrutiny of the little model, which I have always carefully kept and
still have, he sent for Senator William G. Preston of South Carolina. Then they
introduced me to other Senators of their acquaintance. Without an exception
they all approved of the probable practicality and importance of my invention
and suggested that I submit it to the chief of ordinance and chief of
engineers.” [37]
Timby
did so, presenting his idea and the model to George Bumford, Second Chief of
ordnance for the US Army Ordnance Corps, as well to the chief engineer, who both
appear to have thought it was an excellent idea.
Later on, Timby’s
model also was presented to a committee from the army and the navy, who
determined the cost made it impractical. [38]
In
1842, he decided that a larger model, in iron, was necessary. The model was
built in the Phoenix Foundry on East Water Street in Syracuse, next to the Erie
Canal,[39]
at a cost of $5,000 (nearly $160,000 in 2021 dollars).
This
was to be an expensive endeavor, so he developed a partnership with three men
to build it: a Mr. Beard of Fayetteville, Mr. Pitcher of Syracuse, and a Mr.
Stiles of Baldwinsville. The men who did the work were George Herrick
(superintendent under Timby’s direction), Samuel Stapely, Alfred Dunk, a Mr.
Poole, Mr., Duel, Charles Herrick, and Richard Dudgeon. Joel C. Northrup, a
fellow inventor from Syracuse, remembered the building of the model and its
later exhibition in New York City:
The
machine was built upon a platform about seven feet square. On it was a circular
track on which the turret rested and it was equipped with segments of cog gear
that were connected with cog pinions on shafts in the floor of the platform and
were driven by two small engines. This turret was made of boiler plate, and was
about seven feet in diameter. It had a narrow deck on which the cannon were
placed. Of guns there were a number and they were discharged each in their
turn.
These
cannon were of bronze metal, in fact both the guns and the carriage. The guns
were about six inches long and the wheels were three inches in diameter. There
was a center part in the platform, which passed through the hub at the spider
which was connected with the segment rear at the base of the turret. The
turning of the turret was like the turning of the swing bridge in Salina
Street, except that it was turned by an engine.
Mr.
Stiles procured a platform car and the machine was loaded onto it at the shop
door. It was taken to New York and placed on the balcony of the City Hall on
exhibition. George Herrick went with it as engineer.
“The
Franklin Institute was in progress that week, and I went down to exhibit a
press which I had built there on my patent and which entered in the name of
Wheeler & Young, the builders.
“Mr.
Herrick got me to assist him in the exhibit at the City Hall on the day that
President Tyler was escorted through the city on his way to Boston to celebrate
the Bunker Hill monument.”[40]
In
June of 1843, the exhibition of the model was described as “a new instrument of
warfare, or rather an old instrument on a new principle…a fort containing one
hundred guns, in four rows…of twenty-five guns each… The whole arrangement was
pronounced by several military men...present to be perfect so far as this experiment
was concerned; should the plan succeed on an extended scale, it would be one of
the most tremendous and effective engines of defense ever invented.”[41]
This description doesn’t sound like the
model described by Mr. Northrup, but perhaps the writer also looked at
drawings, or was just exaggerating.
Another
viewer of the model, displayed at the corner of Greenwich and Liberty Streets
in New York, declared that “in no other way can so great a number of guns be
brought to bear upon an object in so short a time.”[42]
In
addition to presenting the idea to the US government, Timby shopped his idea
internationally. Caleb Cushing, US Minister to China for a few months in 1844,
presented the concept to the Chinese government (although Timby remembered it
as happening in 1843), and later, in 1856, Timby himself went to France and the
revolving turret was shown to Napoleon III,[43]
returning to New York on the steamer Fulton from Le Havre on July 17,
1856, empty handed, less than a year after leaving Meridian in the autumn of
1855. In 1857, he applied for a new passport, saying “my old one was dated May
10, 1856 & is about extinct by hard usage.” [44]
About
five years after Timby left Meridian, the Civil War began, and a year into the
war, the Battle of Hampton Roads took place between the Ironclad
Massachusetts-built Merrimac (renamed the Virginia by the
Confederacy) and the Union’s ironclad, the Monitor. Neither won this
battle, but the Monitor’s innovative design helped it hold its ground
against the Merrimac. The Monitor later sank off Cape Hatteras in
a gale. (Its wreck was found in 1973, and the gun turret was salvaged in 2002.)[45]
The
revolving turret was the Monitor’s distinguishing feature. John
Ericsson, the Swedish engineer, designed the ship, and he claimed credit for
the entire ship. It was a major innovation in war vessels. The Monitor’s appearance
initially generated laughter. It was called a “cheesebox on a raft” and
“Ericsson’s folly,” but that strange new look gave it an advantage. Since most
of the ship was at or below the water line, with only its turret in view, it was
not much of a target for other ships’ guns.
Plans of the Monitor. (Public Domain)
Timby
had continued to work on the revolving turret idea since filing his caveat in
1843. He must have been aghast when the Monitor was built with just such
a turret. Months after the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac
at Hampton Roads in March 1862, in July and September, he finally filed three patents
concerning the revolving turret idea.
Improvement in
Revolving Battery-Towers, July 1862, US Patent 35846
Improvement in
Discharging Guns By Electricity, July 1862, US Patent 35847
Improvement in
Revolving Battery-Towers, September 1862, US Patent 36593
Swedish
engineer John Ericsson directed the building of the Monitor with his
partners, C.S. Bushnell, John A. Griswold, and John F. Winslow, under contract
to the U.S. government. The contract read that if they would build an “Ironclad
Shot Proof Steam Battery” in one hundred days they would be paid $275,000
(about $8.5 million in today’s dollars). Ericsson’s motivation was clear when
he stated to Thomas F. Rowland, who owned the shipyard where the ship was to be
built, “You want money. I want fame. You can do the mechanical work on this
vessel in your shipyard, but it is my conception, and it must be understood
that it was built here in my parlor.”[46]
Ericsson’s conviction of his superior skills as an engineer and ship designer,
and the lack of any credit for the turret’s invention being given to Timby was
the beginning of a controversy that continued for the next half century.
John Ericsson,
1803-1889
(Public Domain)
Several
companies participated in the construction of the ship, including manufacturers
of iron, engines, lumber, paint, boilers, anchor, propellor, and so forth. It
was built at the Continental Ironworks, at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York.[47]
The Monitor
at sea. (Public Domain)
The
ship was built as promised. Timby heard of the ship’s design and approached the
partners, telling them that the primary design of the ship was his own. “In
1862, I entered into a written agreement with the contractors and builders of
the original Monitor… for the use of my patents covering the revolving
turret for which they paid me $5,000 [$135,797 in 2021 dollars] as a royalty on
each turret constructed by them.”[48]
Most accounts say that he was paid for three such turrets.
Photo of the Monitor,
featuring Timby’s revolving gun turret. Photo from the National Archives.
In
1885, John F. Winslow supported Timby’s claim in a letter to Timby about “the
two-gun turret invented and patented by you and first used on the original Monitor,
built in 1862, under the supervision of Captain John Ericsson, engineer.”[49]
Nevertheless,
Ericsson continued to receive praise for the ship that changed naval warfare
forever. His supporters has remained strong, as a statue was built in 1903 to
honor his achievements at the Battery in New York City.[50]
Another memorial, authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1916, was dedicated in
1926. It is in Washington, DC near to the Lincoln Memorial.[51]
There have been three warships in the US Navy honoring Ericsson, as well as a
replenishment oiler.[52]
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, January 1863.
Meanwhile,
others were in Timby’s camp and doing whatever they could to give him the
credit they thought he deserved. Less than a year after the Monitor and Merrimac
fired on one another, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine January 1863 edition
featured an article entitled, “The Revolving Tower and Its Inventor.” The
article praised the turret, saying “a new and powerful element has been
introduced into naval warfare.” It went
on to say that “the inventor of the Revolving Tower, as we shall show from
unimpeachable documentary evidence, is Theodore R. Timby, an American citizen,
a native of the State of New York.”
The
article tells the story of the “mere boy” who came up with the idea, that he
filed a caveat with the Patent Office for “a revolving metallic tower, and for
a revolving tower for a floating battery to be propelled by steam.” It went one
to say that “this document thus placed on official record, shows beyond all
possibility of cavil that more than twenty years ago Mr. Timby had not only
conceived the general idea of a revolving gun-tower, but had brought it into
practical form, and laid public legal claim to his invention – a claim which
has never been abandoned or legally contested.”
Timby’s
reaction to the beginning of the Civil War was to create yet another model of
his turret, and he exhibited it to the governors of Rhode Island and Maine, to
the heads of federal departments, foreign ministers, and the Army and the Navy.[53] But, as we have seen, these efforts led
nowhere, and he eventually had to plead with the Monitor’s contractors
for some little recompense for the use of his invention.
Broadside
Championing Timby’s Cause, 1842
(Courtesy Aaron Noble, New York State Museum)
Timby’s
inventiveness continued. He designed a wide variety of items, but later
returned to turrets, both on land and sea. In the 1880’s, he filed more than
fifteen patents for ideas relating to turrets and defensive installations. Other
patents concerned ore processing, coffee roasting, aging wines and liquors, and
he also returned to water wheels, which related to earlier inventions made when
he was still in Cato Four Corners.
One
patent during those years was for a heating, ventilating, and cooling system.
Timby formed a company in 1889: The National Heating and Ventilating Company.
It began with a capital of $3 million. Former Surgeon-General William Alexander
Hammond was president, and Timby was second vice president. The company, using
the “Timby System” could provide heating services to an entire town from one plant.[54]
Advertisements
for the company touted the system’s merits: the system “cannot but be
regarded as one of the greatest inventions of modern times…It heats in winter,
cools in summer, thoroughly ventilates at all times, and deodorizes, fumigates,
and disinfects when required so to do…The system has been in successful
operation for nearly a year, winter and summer, in the Lawrence Building, 615
and 617 14th Street, Washington, DC”[55] There appears to be no further record of the
company after 1893.
In
1890, the New York State Legislature passed a resolution asking Congress to
give Timby national recognition for his invention.[56]
Timby
himself never stopped trying to get official recognition for his revolving
turret. In 1898, General John H. Ketcham, a Congressman from Dutchess County,
New York, presented a bill to Congress asking for an appropriation of $500,000
“as compensation for services rendered the government through the invention of
the revolving turret for warships and harbor defenses.”[57]
The
next year, Timby’s turret was one of the exhibits in the “vast museum” of the
Patent Office in Washington. “One of the most attractive of them all is the
model of the turret. We have been accustomed, all our lives, to believe that
Captain John Ericsson invented the turret for the celebrated Monitor,
which revolutionized naval warfare… But the fact is that Mr. Theodore R. Timby,
then a young man, in 1841, invented and patented the turret which made the Monitor
successful and gave Ericsson undying fame.”[58]
Another
bill went before Congress in 1900, “for the relief of Theodore Ruggles Timby,”
introduced by Congressman Bingham. It was referred to the Committee on Claims.[59]
Others
became enmeshed in the effort. A group of women in Brooklyn who were members of
the “Patriotic League of the Revolution,” gathered in 1900 “to correct an
error… which is taught in the schools and academies throughout the country, and
which has wrought a great injustice towards a benefactor and an American
citizen.” Timby’s benefactor, Mrs. Virginia Chandler Titcomb began the League
in 1887. The group planned to urge the US Senate to grant Timby credit.[60] In addition, the group planned to author a
book concerning the history of Timby and his turret, to be introduced into
schools to “correct the omission in school histories.” The State Superintendent
of Schools Skinner promised to assist in the effort.[61]
The
League presented a memorial to Congress in 1902 requesting recognition of Timby
for his invention. The memorial told the tale of the young man in New York
harbor, his invention after seeing Castle Williams on Governor’s Island, and
the meager $5,000 royalty paid to him. The memorial stated that “it was thus to
Theodore R. Timby, the American, and not to John Ericsson, the Swede, that the
defeat of the Merrimac and the revolution of naval warfare were due.”[62]
Portrait originally
published in the January 1902, edition of Successful American magazine.
Original caption: “THEODORE R. TIMBY, M.A., S.D., LL.S., Inventor of the
Revolving Gun Turret, now a Resident of Brooklyn, N, Y.”
Timby
continued to press his case. In 1904, the New York Times said of Timby,
“There is no fighter like an old fighter, especially when his fight is made in
the courts or ‘agin’ the Government.” Timby was filing with the US Court of
Claims, still upset that besides the royalties paid for the Monitor, he
has received nothing for the use of his turret, nor for his 1862 patent of the
device that fired guns with electricity. He stated that Ericsson did not apply
for a patent for the Monitor’s turret, and that he was paid royalties
for it. That was proof, he said, that Ericsson believed Timby’s caveat to be
good. He was hoping for “a settlement soon,”[63]
Timby’s
request before the Court of Claims:
Be
it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby appropriated, out of any
money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of three hundred
thousand dollars as compensation of Theodore R. Timby for the use of his
invention and the infringement of said patent upon revolving turrets, and the
sum of two hundred thousand dollars for the compensation of said Timby for the
use of his invention and the infringement of his patent for the sighting and
firing of guns by electricity, which said sum shall be in each case in full
satisfaction of all claims for such use and infringement and that for the
relinquishment of all right to claim any further compensation for the use of
the same by the United States.
The
claim, filed in December 1906, stated that the government built fifty-five
ironclad vessels using sixty-eight turrets of Timby’s design during the Civil
War and that the government also adopted and used his invention using
electricity to discharge heavy guns. He claimed that he received no
compensation for such use.
The
efforts continued, but the Court of Claims was not on Timby’s side. The Court
reasoned that since Timby “did not keep the caveat alive,” that the Monitor
was constructed according to Ericsson’s plans, and that Timby had nothing to do
with the ship’s construction. Additionally, the Court said that the “principle
of a revolving turret was not a new idea when Timby filed his caveat, but that
the principle of revolving towers or batteries
to be used in battle has long been known, and such towers or batteries
were in use centuries since, and even before the invention of gunpowder…Guns
were fired by electricity at least one hundred and fourteen years before Mr.
Timby took out his patent.” So, in December 1907, the Court denied the claim.[64]
So
that was that for Mr. Timby. He died two years later at the age of ninety in
Mrs. Titcomb’s home in Brooklyn. His funeral was held there, with his coffin
covered with an American flag, with a card that said, “From friends who know
Timby-Turret-Truth and who will make it known to the world.” [65]
He
left behind “an invalid daughter and a disabled granddaughter wholly without
support.”[66]
It is unknown what happened to that daughter, presumably Mary Timby, and her
child. Mrs. Titcomb was credited with having “saved his daughter and
granddaughter from pauperism,”[67]
“having found that he had a daughter and a granddaughter living in want and she
took her in also; she sacrificed all her property.” [68]
His
death did not stop the controversy. Twelve days after his obituary appeared in
the New York Times, The New York Sun reported on a meeting of
“The Captain John Ericsson Memorial Society of Swedish Engineers,” at which
Professor William Hovgaard of MIT delivered a paper. Hovgaard did not pull any
punches. His paper tended “to disprove all of Timby’s claims except that did
conceive of the idea of a freak turret.”
Hovgaard stated “The design, if such it could be called was amateurish
and was nothing but an adaptation to guns of the revolving tower used in
ancient and medieval warfare…Ericsson had been acquainted with the old idea of
revolving turrets and had often speculated on its application to ship guns.” He
asserted that Ericsson had presented the idea of a low-decked ship with a
revolving tower to Napoleon III in 1854.[69]
In
Sweden, Ericsson is still revered. The Mosaic Ballroom in Stockholm City Hall,
covered in millions of gold mosaic tiles, features designs commemorating events
in Swedish history, and honoring Swedish heroes. One such design features
Ericsson, with an Eagle, and the initials “U.S.” above him.
Stockholm City
Hall, the Mosaic Ballroom, and Ericsson’s image
(author’s collection)
At
the time of Ericsson’s and Timby’s pilgrimages to France, Napoleon III was
establishing a modern French navy, with steam-powered armored ships. A
revolving turret would have been useful, but the emperor was not interested.
Syracuse,
which had long attempted to claim Timby as their own, even though he only had
his model built there, took up Timby’s cause in 1910. Prominent Syracusans were
“gathering evidence...which proves Syracuse man [sic] originated Revolving
Turret.” A committee of New York state residents were working for Timby’s
recognition, as well as “liquidating the accumulated obligations of Mr.
Timby…and…have provided suitable temporary burial for his body.”[70]
One of those committee members, W.B. Cogswell, was incensed that a U.S. battleship
carried John Ericsson’s body back to Sweden and felt that such honors belonged
to Timby instead.[71]
Mrs.
Titcomb’s Patriotic League continued the fight. They called for a mass meeting
to remove Timby’s body from his Brooklyn grave and arrange for a burial with
honors in Washington, DC. The announced that that they had found documents that
proved Timby’s claim.[72]
The
news of the search for documents reached Iowa, where Martin Van Buren, a former
resident of Meridian and one of the original founding members of the Tempest
Insurance Company, had settled. Van Buren’s daughter, Mrs. George Porter,
remembered that Mr. Timby had visited her father several times in Iowa, most
recently in 1870, and had given him some drawings relating to the revolving
turret. Mr. Porter stated “Mr. Timby and Mr. Van Buren were well acquainted
with each other when both resided in the east, and when Mr. Van Buren came
west, he was still interested in the inventor’s work, and gave him assistance.
Just how Mr. Van Buren came to be in possession of the old drawings I do not
know, unless they were sent to him, and were never called for again.” The
drawings showed “the working of the revolving turret, on both a ship and for
coast defence [sic].”[73]
The
movement to gain recognition for Timby also included raising funds to buy back
Mrs. Titcomb’s home in Brooklyn, which she had lost in her efforts to support
Timby. “We shall give back to the woman who cared for him in his last years the
home she lost in so doing.”[74]
Timby’s
supporters began to clamor for his body to be transported to Washington on a
U.S. battleship,[75]
but the Acting Secretary of the Navy disapproved the idea, which had been
presented to Congress.[76] Winthrop felt that providing a naval vessel
for such purposes would be tantamount to endorsing Timby’s claims of being the
inventor of the turret and that such claims had not been proved. Several members
of Congress were ready to continue the fight [77],
but the fight was in vain.[78]
Those
who fought to have Timby’s body moved to Washington were eventually successful,
although there were no naval ships involved. Ceremonies were held at the
Battery in New York in October 1911, where the body lay in state close to
Ericsson’s statue. A Dock Department boat carried his remains around Castle
Williams, and speakers declared “that honor was due both to Timby and Ericsson”
and that “there is glory enough for both.” One speaker, the poet Will Carleton,
was not quite so even-handed: “The fact remains that the Monitor was never
rebuilt for any length of time, bur the revolving turret has been used ever
since in divers [sic] parts of the world.”[79]
Upon
its arrival in Washington on 13 October 1909 a memorial service was held at the
First Congregational Church, where General Nelson Miles and officers of the
Army and the Navy were speakers. The coffin was draped in American flags. It
was buried the next day.[80]
Timby’s
body now rests in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC alongside his wife,
Charlotte, and sons Judson and Theodore.[81]
During
his lifetime, Timby was always ready to talk about his life and his inventions.
He often bragged about the important men he had known in his lifetime, claiming
that such men as William H. Seward, Millard Fillmore, Jefferson Davis, Henry
Clay, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Commodore Vanderbilt, and General Grant,
among others, had been close personal friends. Indeed, they may have met, but
no records appear to indicate that there were any strong friendships.[82]
One
man who never met him, but heard about him from Timby’s childhood friends, was
Gilbert Purdy. He was the oldest member of the Navy, 71 years old and in charge
of the hold of the USS Olympia. Such an achievement garnered him some
recognition by the press, and he reminisced with reporters in 1899. Some of his
facts were not totally accurate, but his characterization of Timby was
interesting.
I
was born back of Poughkeepsie, in Unionvale. Perhaps you didn’t know it, but
Theodore Timby, a farm laborer’s son from Dover, the town next to mine,
invented the Monitor turret. He patented it in 1841, but they said it would
cost too much to build it and it lay there in the patent office until Ericsson
saw it. I asked about Timby when I got back from the war, and they told me he
was the biggest lunkhead that was ever in a schoolhouse. [83]
Timby
was certainly not a lunkhead, but that farm boy grew up to be the most inventive
and most famous Meridianite.
[1] Depending on the source, Timby was
born in 1816, 1820, 1922, or 1823. Census records disagree, as do Timby’s own
accounts.
[2] Meacham, Anna May, The Baptist
Church at Meridian New York, 1810-1988: The Survival of a Rural Church, Havens,
William H., editor, Salem, MA: Higginson Books, printers, 2006.
[3] Massachusetts Births and
Christenings, 1639-1915, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCV5-HYW
: 5 January 2021), Newman Wears, 1787.
[4] Meacham, Anna May, Ibid.
[5] Cato (NY) Citizen, 20
January 1927.
[6] Auburn (NY) Cayuga Chief,
25 December 1853.
[7] Auburn (NY) Journal, 19
October 1853.
[8] Dana, William, editor, The
Merchants’ Magazine and Commercial Review, Volume 46th, New
York: William B. Dana, publisher, 1862.
[9] “Panic of 1857,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1857, accessed 3 October 2021.
[10] Meacham, Anna, quoted in “Local
Business History Outlined Before Cato Rotary Club Meeting,” Weedsport (NY)
Cayuga Chief and Chronicle, 5 December 1968.
[11] Barnes, William, New York
Insurance Reports, Volume 3, 1899.
[12] Undated Advertisements, Niagara
Falls (NY) Gazette, 1854.
[13] “Substantial Compliment,” Albany
(NY) Evening Herald, undated issue, 1853.
[14] Barnes, William, New York
Insurance Reports, Volume 2, 1860.
[15] Barnes, William, Ibid.
[16] Barber, Oliver L., Counsellor at Law,
“Clute vs. Fitch” Reports of Cases in Law and Equity Determined in the
Supreme Court of the State of New York, Vol. XXV, Albany (NY): W.C. Little
& Co., Law Booksellers, 1858.
[17] “Theodore
Timby, of Cato, Was Noted for Many Early Inventions”, Cato Citizen, 8 March
1962.
[18] “Insurance Companies,” Auburn
(NY) Weekly Journal, 9 April 1956.
[19] Reports of Cases in Law and Equity
determined in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Clute v. Fitch, p.
407.
[20] “Moving Turret Invented Here,” Syracuse
Post-Standard, 10 May 1909.
[21] United States Census, Town of
Cato, New York 24 July 1850.
[22] New York State Census, Town of
Cato, New York, 7 June 1855.
[23] 1865 New York Census,
Saratoga Springs, New York, 9 June 1865.
[24] Postville (IA), Graphic, 21
December 1893.
[25] Hermitage (MO) Gazette, 1
June 1898.
[26] “Timby’s Friends Claim He Invented
Monitor, Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 24 June 1900.
[27] “Timby’s Body to Go to
Washington,” Brooklyn (NY) Times Union, 1 September 1911.
[28] “National Industrial Union. The
Summer Branch Established at Asbury Park,” The Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 7
July 1895.
[29] “Genius at Home,” Brooklyn (NY)
Daily Eagle, 15 July 1894.
[30] “Gold Vase for Mrs. McKinley,” Brooklyn
(NY) Daily Eagle, 17 November 1896.
[31] “Women’s Work – The National
Council Enters the Second Week in Washington,” The Pensacola (FL) News, 26
February 1895.
[32] “In the State Departments,”
Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 9 April 1894.
[33] Meacham, Anna May, “Theodore
Timby, of Cato, Was Noted for Many Early Inventions,” Cato (NY) Citizen, 8
March 1962.
[34] Timby, Theodore Ruggles, LL.D., Lighted
Lore for Gentle Folk, New York: Morningside Publishing Co., 1902.
[35] “Invented the Turret – Theodore R.
Timby, Now and Old Man, Tells How He Hit Upon It,” Washington (DC) Evening
Star, 23 December 1893.
[36] “The Blue and The Gray,” Defiance
(OH) Republican Express, 8 March, 1894.
[37] “Invented the Turret,” Washington
(DC) Evening Star, 23 December 1893.
[38] “Local Inventor Forgotten Designer
of Ship Credited with Saving Union,” Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard, 27
December 1954.
[39] “In Honor of Timby,” Syracuse
Herald, 19 April 1911.
[40] Recollections of Joel C Northrup,
in “Invented by Dr. Timby,” Syracuse Herald, 21 May 1909.
[41] “Revolving Steam Battery,” New
York Herald, 7 June 1843.
[42] “A Novel Battery,” New York
Evening Post, 7 June 1843.
[43] “Our Sea Coast,” Watertown (NY)
Herald, 5 March 1887.
[44] United States Passport
Applications, 1795-1905, Roll 65, vol 140141, 1957 Sep-Oct., familysearch.org.
accessed 22 October 2021.
[45]
“Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack,” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Monitor-and-Merrimack
, accessed 2 October 2021.
[46] Church, William C., The Life of
John Ericsson, 2 vols., New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890.
[47] Thompson, Stephen, The
Construction of the U.S.S. Monitor, New York: Page Publishing, 2019.
[48] “Navy, Covington,” Cincinnati
(OH) Commercial Tribune, 21 March 1909.
[49] Untitled article, Syracuse (NY)
Sunday Herald, 17 March 1889.
[50] “The Battery,” NYC Parks, https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/battery-park/monuments/454, accessed 1 November 2021.
[51] “John Ericsson Memorial,” National
Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/nama/planyourvisit/john-ericsson-memorial.htm, accessed 1 November 2021.
[52] :YSS Ericsson,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ericsson, accessed 30 March 2022.
[53] “The Revolving Tower and Its
Inventor,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, No. CLII, Vol. XXVI, January
1863.
[54] “The National Heating and
Ventilating Company,” The Rockland (NY) County Journal, 20 April 1889.
[55] National Popular Review, an
Illustrated Journal of Preventive Medicine, several issues, 1893.
[56] “To Honor Dr. Timby,” Washington
(DC) Post, 15 July 1910.
[57] “Seen and Heard in Many Places,” The
Philadelphia (PA) Times, 13 June 1898.
[58] “Washington Letter,” Rome (NY)
Semi-Weekly Citizen, 4 September 1889.
[59] Journal of the House of
Representatives of the United States, Washington, DC: United States
Printing Office, 1900.
[60] “Women Take Up His Case,” Brooklyn
(NY) Citizen, 24 June 1900; “Concerning Monitor Turret,” Brooklyn (NY)
Daily Eagle, 1 July 1900.
[61] “Women Writing a Book,” New
York Times, 8 July 1900.
[62] “Inventor of Monitor Turret,”
New York Sun, undated issue, 1902.
[63] “For 40 Years He Has Pressed His
Claim, New York Times, 25 April 1904.
[64] “60th Congress, First
Session – Findings in Case of Theodore R. Timby.” Document 126, 19
December 1907.
[65] “Heap Honors on Timby Bier –
Floral Turret Shows Friends’ Faith in Inventor’s Claim,” The Brooklyn (NY)
Daily Eagle, 13 November 1909.
[66] “Late Honors Paid to Inventor
Timby,” New York Times, 3 October 1911.
[67] “Row Over Monitor’s Inventor
Assumes Munchausen Proportions,” Jackson (MS) Daily News, 16 March 1911.
[68] “Movement to Honor Theodore
Ruggles Timby,” The Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 7 April 1911.
[69] “Three Story Timby Turret,” New
York Sun, 24 November 1909.
[70] “W.B. Cogswell to Lead Fight for
Dr. Timby,” Syracuse (NY) Post-Standard, 21 January 1910.
[71] “Timby, Inventor of the Turret,” Syracuse
(NY) Post-Standard, 22 February 1911.
[72] “American, Not Ericsson,” Tipton
(IN) Daily Tribune, 11 February 1911.
[73] “Original Drawings of Inventor
Found,” Muscatine (IA) Journal, 11 February 1911.
[74] Movement to Honor Theodore Ruggles
Timby,” The Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 7 April 1911.
[75] “From Potter’s Field to Fame,” Wichita
(KS) Beacon, 27 February 1911.
[76] “Disapproves Proposition,” The
San Antonio (TX) Light¸ 14 August 1911.
[77] “Demand a Warship,” The
Washington (DC) Post, 14 August 1911.
[78] “No Warship to Carry Body of Dr.
Timby,” Syracuse (NY) Herald, 26 August 1911.
[79] “Full Honor is Paid T.R. Timby’s
Memory,” Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, 13 October 1911.
[80] “Memory of Dr. Timby to Be Honored
Tonight,” Washington (DC) Evening Star, 13 October 1911.
[81] Memorial ID 23639069,
Findagrave.com, accessed 4 November 2021.
[82] “John Brown’s Secret Motive,” The
New York Sun, 13 May 1904.
[83] “Veteran of Three Wars,” Milford
(IA) Mail, 5 October 1899.
Timby's Inventions
|
Date
|
Residence Given on Patent Application
|
Designed Floating Dry Dock (age 17), not patented |
1836 |
n/a |
US2572 Apparatus for Raising Sunken Vessels and Other Submerged
Bodies |
4/21/1842 |
Auburn, NY |
US2582 Machine for Dressing Stone |
4/23/1842 |
Auburn, NY |
US2613
Manner of Connecting the Body with the Runners of Sleighs |
5/7/1842 |
Auburn, NY |
Filed a Caveat with the US Patent Office for a Revolving Tower
for Land or Water |
1/18/1843 |
Cato, NY (Assumed) |
US3763 Improvement in Water-Wheels |
9/27/1844 |
Cato, NY |
US4845 Improvement in Water-Wheels |
11/10/1846 |
Cato Four Corners, NY |
US7464 Water Wheel - method for Increasing or Diminishing its
Diameter |
6/25/1850 |
Cato Four Corners, NY |
US7992 Removable Handle tor Sad-Irons |
3/18/1851 |
Meridian, NY |
US18560 Mercury Barometer |
11/3/1857 |
Medina, NY |
US21384 Traveling Casket |
8/31/1858 |
Medina, NY |
US35846 Improvement in revolving battery-towers |
7/8/1862 |
Worcester, MA |
US35847 Improvement in Discharging Guns in Revolving Towers by
Electricity |
7/8/1862 |
Worcester, MA |
US36593 Improvement in Revolving Battery-Towers |
9/30/1862 |
Worcester, MA |
US36871 Improvement in Portable Warming Apparatus |
11/4/1862 |
Worcester, MA |
US36872 Improvement in Mercurial Barometers |
11/4/1862 |
Worcester, MA |
US38193 Improvement in Solar Time-Globes |
7/7/1863 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
USRE1525 Improvement in Solar Time-Globes (re-issue ifUS38193 of
7/7/1863) |
8/18/1863 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US40519 Improvement in Solar Time-Pieces |
11/3/1863 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US47584 Improvement in Globe Time-Pieces |
5/2/1865 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US47585 Improvement in Globe-Clocks |
5/2/1865 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US62574 Improvement in Hoes |
3/5/1867 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US65451 Ventilating Door (House Ventilator) |
6/4/1867 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US73674 Paper-Cutter |
1/21/1868 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US87445 Improved Railway Car-Wheel |
3/2/1869 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US87446 Improved Case for Preserving Butter, Cheese |
3/2/1869 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US90134 Improved Umbrella-Fastening |
5/18/1869 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US90608 Improvement in Toilet Pin Cases |
5/25/1869 |
Saratoga Springs, NY |
US91580 Improvement in Turbine Water-Wheels |
6/22/1869 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US93449 Improvement in Toilet Pin-Case |
8/10/1869 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US96166 Improvement in Thimbles |
10/26/1869 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US102622 Improvement in Sash-Fasteners |
5/3/1870 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US102730 Improvement in combined Thread and Needle-Cases |
5/3/1870 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
USD4499 - (design patent) Design for a Medal |
11/29/1870 |
Tarrytown, NY |
USD4622 - (design patent) Thread and Needle-Case |
1/31/1871 |
Town of Saratoga, NY |
US120552 Improvement in Railway Freight-Cars |
10/31/1871 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US120553 Improvement in Gun Carriages |
10/31/1871 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US121023 Improvement in Railroad Spikes |
11/14/1871 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US122682 Improvement in Construction at Railways |
1/9/1872 |
Tarrytown, NY |
Timby's Inventions
|
Date
|
Residence Given on Patent Application
|
US122683 Improvement in Water-Meters |
1/9/1872 |
Tarrytown, NY |
UA124174Improvement in Railway Rails |
2/27/1872 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US124175 Improvement in Railway Rails |
2/27/1872 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US131313 Improvement in Portable Wardrobes |
9/10/1872 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US135173 Improvement in Plant-Protectors |
1/21/1883 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US135386 Improvement in Car-Axle Lubricators |
1/28/1873 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US136284 Improvement in Springs for Vehicles |
2/25/1873 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US 136791 Improvement in Car-Axles |
3/11/1872 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US153691 Improvement in Cooking-Stoves |
8/4/1874 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US145258 Improvement in Railway Ties |
12/02/1873 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US171447 Improvement in Spikes |
12/21/1875 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US171448 Improvement in Spikes |
12/21/1875 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US168809 Improvement in Attachments for Cooking-Stoves |
10/11/1875 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US172798 Improvement in Attachments for Cooking-Stoves |
1/25/1876 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US181224 Improvement in Cooking-Stove Attachments |
8/15/1876 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US173690 Improvement in Attachments for Cooking-Stoves |
2/15/1876 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US173691 Improvement in Attachments for Cooking-Stoves |
2/15/1876 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US180962 Improvement in Apparatus for Manufacturing Solar Salt |
8/6/1876 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US198435 Improvements in Salt-Cellars and Napkin-Holders |
12/18/1877 |
Tarrytown, NY |
US217754 Improvement in Ore and Rock Crushers |
7/22/1879 |
Nyack, NY |
US224492 Cooking-Vessel |
2/10/1880 |
Nyack, NY |
US225665 Ore-Crusher |
3/16/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US246345 Ore Separating & Amalgamating Machine |
8/23/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US239203 Coast Defense |
3/22/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US239202 Coast Defense |
3/22/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US240786 Coast Defense |
4/26/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US243007 Car-Axle |
6/14/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US246987 Subterranean System of Coast Defense |
9/13/1881 |
Nyack, NY |
US273913, Steam Cooker |
3/13/1883 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US281651 Combined Amalgamator & Separator |
7/17/1883 |
Nyack, NY |
US296251 Apparatus for Treating Ores |
4/1/1884 |
Nyack, NY |
US312230 Tower & Shield System of Fortification |
2/10/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US312231 System of Firing Battery Guns in Turrets by Electricity
|
2/10/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US312232. Revolving Tower and Shield System of Fortifications |
2/10/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US330642 Revolving Tower System of Fortifications |
11/17/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US330638 Revolving Tower System of Fortifications |
11/17/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US330639 Revolving Tower System of Fortifications |
11/17/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US330640 Revolving Tower Fortifications |
11/17/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US330641 Revolving Tower System of Fortifications |
11/17/1885 |
Nyack, NY |
US344758 Gun Carriage for Revolving Turrets |
6/29/1886 |
Washington, DC |
US379744 Heat and Power Supply System |
3/20/1888 |
Washington, DC |
US465298 Apparatus for Heating, Cooling, and Ventilating |
12/15/1891 |
Washington, DC |
US418581
Revolving-Tower Fortification |
10/22/1889 |
Washington, DC |
US413582 Sighting Platform for Revolving Turrets |
10/22/1889 |
Washington, DC |
Timby's Inventions
|
Date
|
Residence Given on Patent Application
|
UA462602 Process of Purifying Iron and Steel |
11/3/1891 |
Washington, DC |
US475637 Apparatus for Evaporating Brine |
5/24/1892 |
Washington, DC |
US474271 Revolving-Tower Fortification |
5/3/1892 |
Washington, DC |
US485999 Process of and Apparatus for Aging Liquors |
11/8/1892 |
Washington, DC |
US486000 Apparatus for Aging Wines, Spirits, or Other Liquors |
11/8/1892 |
Washington, DC |
US496759 Process of and Apparatus for Aging Wines |
5/2/1893 |
Washington, DC |
US527564 Apparatus for Aging Wines or Distilled Liquors |
10/16/1894 |
Washington, DC |
US660602 Method of Ripening Coffee |
10/30/1900 |
New York, NY |
US673227 Apparatus for Seasoning Coffee |
4/30/1901 |
New York, NY |
US754943 Method of Roasting Coffee |
3/15/1904 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US749340 Coffee-Treating Machine |
1/12/1904 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US741389 Mechanism for Utilizing Wind-Power |
10/13/1903 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US769330 Machine for Aging Liquors |
9/6/1904 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US777569 Car-Wheel Axle |
12/13/1904 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US779978 Water-Wheel |
1/10/1905 |
Brooklyn, NY |
US857317 Lines for Vessels |
6/18/1907 |
Brooklyn, NY |