Charles Francis Brush.
The development and general use of the “arc” electric light is to a very great extent the outcome of the researches of Charles F. Brush. While the “arc” was by no means unknown to electricians prior to Mr. Brush’s development of it, it was he who was responsible for its becoming a commercial possibility. Mr. Brush was born in Euclid, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, March 17, 1849. His father was Colonel Isaac Elbert Brush, his mother being Delia Wissner (Phillips) Brush. Both parents came from old lines of American families. After periods spent in public schools in Ohio, Mr. Brush attended the Cleveland high school and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1869. From the first he displayed a fondness for electricity and chemistry, and subsequent to his graduating became an analytical chemist and consulting chemical expert in Cleveland. All this time, however, he was studying electricity, foreseeing the time when it would be one of the chief factors of modern civilization. In 1877 he devoted himself entirely to electrical affairs and a year later presented to the public the light with which his name is identified. In 1880 the Brush Electric Company was formed and the “arc” light grew in favor. A year later it was introduced into England and on the continent. Nevertheless Mr. Brush had the usual experience of inventors, but was successful in litigation and has the satisfaction of knowing that his claims of priority of invention have been recognized by the leading scientific societies in the world. He is interested in a number of electrical enterprises, is a member of many clubs and scientific and charitable institutions. In 1875 he married Mary E. Morris, of Cleveland, by whom he has three children.
Santos Dumont.
Santos Dumont, who has attained world wide publicity in connection with his daring and novel experiments in ærostatics, is still a young man. He was born in Brazil in 1873 and is of French ancestry, although his father was also a Brazilian by birth. The Santos Dumont plantations at San Paulo are said to be the largest in the country in question, so large indeed that a small railroad runs around it, which is used for the transportation of labor and products. At an early age Santos Dumont developed a taste for mechanics and the railroad was his constant study and delight. When still a boy he was sent to France to be educated, and in that country, some thirteen years since, began to experiment with automobiles, abandoning them, however, in 1893, for ærostatics. His first ascents were made in spherical balloons, but he quickly adopted those of cylindrical form. He has practically invented the dirigible balloon of to-day through the medium of his ingenious arrangement of screws, rudders, motors, cars, shifting weights, etc. He was the first to give up the net and attach his car to the balloon itself. On July 12, 1901, he sailed from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and around in Paris. He has made over half a dozen machines and is engaged on others. During his experiments he has had more than one narrow escape from death, but these have had little or no effect upon his nerve or his enthusiasm.
Peter Cooper Hewitt.
Peter C. Hewitt—who is much in the eye of the scientific world by reason of his invention of an electric “convertor” and his discovery of a wonderful method of electric lighting—is the grandson of the late Peter Cooper, the philanthropist. Mr. Hewitt was born in New York city in 1861, his father being Abram Stevens Hewitt, who held the office of mayor of the metropolis from 1887 to 1889. After being educated by private tutors, he entered the Columbia university, New York city, and on graduating therefrom studied for some years in a technical school in New Jersey. Afterward he became connected with the glue factory established by his grandfather and owned by his father. But that bent toward scientific investigations which seems to have been born in him, prompted him to devote himself to experimental work in the laboratory. A portion of the result of such work has already been alluded to. There are not wanting indications that the electric light devised by Mr. Hewitt will, to a very great extent, take the place of that now furnished by the arc or incandescent filament. It is described as “soft sunlight.” Mr. Hewitt is married, his wife being Lucy, daughter of the late Frank Work. He is popular socially, and his private charities prove that he has inherited his grandfather’s great-heartedness to no small degree.
John P. Holland.
John P. Holland, the inventor of the submarine boat which bears his name, is an Irishman by birth. He is now about sixty years of age, hale, hearty and devoted to the task of improving the wonderful craft of which he is the creator. Mr. Holland reached this country early in the 70’s, but long before that he had come to the conclusion that much of the naval warfare of the future would be done beneath the water rather than on its surface. He states that his convictions in this respect were the outcome of a newspaper account of the fight between the Monitor and Merrimac, which he read about two weeks after the occurrence of that historical conflict. From that time on, he began to form plans and make models for submarine torpedo boats or destroyers. He not only had to contend with great mechanical difficulties, but even when his boat was so far perfected that it could be submitted to the authorities, he encountered prejudices and opposition of the strongest. As the matter now stands, the most conservative of naval experts have become convinced of the importance of the Holland submarine, that, too, not only in this country but abroad. The United States now owns a number of the boats, as does Great Britain. Mr. Holland, when he first came to this country, was a school teacher, and, like the majority of inventors who are not capitalists, had a hard time of it for many years. He was at length fortunate enough to interest some moneyed men in his invention and was enabled to devote himself entirely to it. It is said that his creations provide for every contingency, both above and below water. It was only after prolonged tests of their efficiency that the U. S. government added them to the navy.