The recently discovered books of the syndicate of capitalists who backed Ericsson in the building of the first Monitor show, according to Timby's friends, that Timby claim to the revolving turret idea was recognized by the syndicate to such an extent that they paid him several thousand dollars in royalties on the first four monitors.
These few thousand dollars, although he had been exhibiting the device for almost twenty years and had taken out patent papers for it, were all the returns he ever got for it, and when he died in Brooklyn two years ago, he was in debt and left an invalid daughter and a disabled granddaughter wholly without support.
His friends, among who are the Rev. Dr. I. K. Funk, Park Commissioner Stover, and Will Carleton, the poet, have been trying to raise a trust fund for the daughter and granddaughter, and have been trying to persuade the Federal authorities at Washington to honor the inventor's memory in some way.
Mr. Timby's remains since his death have laid in a public vault in Evergreen Cemetery. The Rev. H. A. Tupper, Park Commissioner Stover, Will Carleton, and others attempted to persuade Congress and the Navy Department to assign a battleship to carry Timby's remains from this city to Washington, but the application has never come to anything.
--Old B-Runner
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