A REMARKABLE MECHANICAL GENIUS

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 481, 11 August 1914, Page 7

A REMARKABLE MECHANICAL GENIUS

r «- There lives m Amherst, U.S.A., &■ genius ', — one of the most versatile, inventive, and ' dexterous of men. His name is E. A. f Thompson, known locally as "Unci© ' Eddie." Uncle Eddie is the town tinker ; , but so 'distinguished, not only as a tinker but as a man and a scientist, that last ' spring Amherst College, which with its j scholastic traditions has preserved its im- [ j agination, conferred upon him the degree of Master of Science. —-Send It to "Uncle Eddie." — "* Nofc long ago,"' t»ay& Ray St'^uiard Baker, m ai most fascinating^ ar- : tide m the 'American Magizine,' - "one of th© younger instructors at the eoileg© had a piece of scentii fie mechanism which h© revered very ' highly. He revered it particularly because p it was made m Germany, and therefore seemed to perform its operations more ■ scientifically. It got broken. H© packed • it tenderly m a box and sent it to the New ' York agents with the idea that it must be returned to Germany for repairs. Not long afterward he went to Uncle Eddie's I shop, and what was hi 6 amazement and s consternation to find his precious mechanism spread >out on the bench m Uncle Eddie's shop. The New York agents informed him that they had sent the work to E. A. Thompson, of Amherst, because i there was no other man m America who knew so well how to make th© necessary repaiis. One of the professors of Amherst '< College had a fine microscope .which he had used for years m his scientific work. It got out of order, and Ihe took it to LTucle Eddie,- well knowing, thafV if Uncle 1 Eddie could not fix it there was no one who could. When Uncle Eddie finally returned it the professor found that it was not merely repaired ; it was transformed. It was cleai'er m its definition than ever before. — An -Authority on Optics. — "He had become -"deeply interested m the microscope, and scon found that while th© immediate difficulty was trivial tlie real defect was serious, being nothing less ' than a defective lens. Now, one of the j most delicate operations known to mechani- , cai practice is the grinding of lenses for I telescopes and microscopes ; but this is i one of the many things that Uncle Eddie knows perfectly well how to do. So he I reground the professor's lens, refitted it, > and sent. the microscope horne — all m the • day's work. He said he enjoyed doing it. ' There aTe few men m th© country, peri. -haps, who know more about optics on the mechanical side than this tinker m his ' alley shop at Amherst. He can set up a > telescope complete, and if any parts hap--1 pen to be missing he can go to his, shop - and make them. Twic© m the last- 20 > years he has been half around the world ' as an expert m th© mechanics of .the tele--1 scope. When professor Todd went to • Japan m 1896. and again when he went to ! Tripoli m 1905 to observe ellipses of th© ' sun, Uncle Eddie went with' "him to set up and care for the instruments. He has r also invented a number of cunning devices ■ for telescopic Avork, one a. diaphragm for use m stellar photography, which is as successful m operation as .it is novel m construction. — Early Struggles. — "Uncle Eddie wa* born a. Yankee of the Yankees, on the Maine coast, the son of a sailor of the far seas who died when he was a young child. His mother had a desperate struggle with poverty, and Uncle Eddie never saw a day of schooling after he was 13 years old. And yet all his life long he has been ardently devoted, through every kind of obstacle, to the pursuit of knowledge. He wanted to be an artist, a sculptor, and is really gifted m that direction, but there was no way for him to get instruction^ no money to pay for it, no time to practise. He had to work. Fortunately he got hold of several /volumes of reports of the United •Statesyratent Office. He seized upon these with thirsty eagerness, and, patiently copying the drawings and laboriously studying the descriptions, he acquired the foundation of his knowledge of the mechanical arts. He also began a practice which has continued all his life, of examining with studious care every sort of unfamiliar machinery that came under his eye. — A Passion for Learning. — "Along m the seventies he came to Amherst as the manager of a successful hat -manufacturing establishment. Here for a number of year^' he made "money, and built a home on a hill for the wife he had married ; but whether making money or m poverty, his passion for learning was always the commanding interest of his life. He fitted up a small laboratory m his factory, and began to study mineralogy and geology. He got \ acquainted with the professors m Amherst College and m the Agricultural College.. He would take an hour off to attend a lecture, and work longer m the evening to make up for it, and the light m his study often burned late at night. From mineralogy he wept on to chemistry. Chemistry and physics led him on to optics, which he attacked with great enthusiasm, and he not only acquired the art but mastered the science. —How He Got Work m the Mills.— " Changes m the ownership of the hat factory involved Uncle Eddie's resignation, and he went to Providepce, Rhode Island, and finally applied for work m the mills of the American Screw • Company. The manager said : ' There isn't anything open ; but if you care to go m on the floor as a learner at 75 cents a Aveek, we'll try it.' ' That's what I am — a learner,' said Uncle Eddie, and m he went. "The first day there didn't seem much to dOj^fio He sat and watched a troubled workman who was trying to handle nine machines making small screws. They wcudn't work well. There were many skips and mieete : the whole operation was inefficient. Uncle Eddie Avatched them all day long and cam© early the next monning and took two of them out, set them on a bench, and began taking them apart. Ax, 4 o'clock the" two machines AA'ere reassembled and adjusted, placed' m position, and between 4 and 6 Uncle Eddie made more screws Avith his two machines than the other workman, did with the remaining teven. He turned the product over to the now delighted operator and readily got permission to overhaul the other machines. Two months later the ■'manager came into the room, took him by tlio arm, ar.d kd him to the large adjoin-, ing shop, and remarked : ' Everything here is running at cross purposes. The machines are out of order and the men discouraged. I -jin going to put you m charge of the Avhole shop, to do Avith it Avhat you like.' — Back m the Alley Shop. — "Here Uncle Eddie continued with great success for nearly tAvo years ; but his home m Amherst^ to whioh his family Avere greatly devoted, and the opportunities here for further study, brought mm back again, and here he is to-day, quite contented, m the shop m the alley behind the Baptist Church, whero you can have anything m the Avorld repaired, from a tin Avhistle to a telescope. He i 6 iioav fascinated with

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm)mmmeimmmmmrvj^.!^ biology, and is reading Wilder's ' History of the Human Body.' And incidentally he is helping Professor Wilder, the author of the book, m making models of the heads of various primitive men, his skill as a modeller m clay here coming to useful fruition. I warrant, before he is through with it, he will know as much about biology and anthropology as many of tim professors. He is saving up botany until after he gets to be a hundred years old, and wants something easy to do. Uncle Eddit is not rich, but comfortable ; he is not famous beyond the limits of his own town ; but somehow, it seems to me, he has lived a genuinely successful life.