Will Carleton told how Timby, who was born in Duchess County, N. Y., in 1819, had invented a floating drydock at the age of 16.
"Some older men told the boy that his invention was no good in salt water," said Mr. Carleton. "Then they took it over to Austria and made $4,000,000 out of it. When Timby was 19 years old he was crosiing New York Bay on a ferryboat and saw the round, turret-like shape of Castle Williams on Governors Island blazing in the sunlight. This suggested to him the idea of the revolving turret, which has revolutionized modern naval warfare.
"Timby made forty to fifty good inventions, but he reaped such meagre rewards from them that he frequently had to walk the streets. We human beings don't know what the subtle connection is between the soul and the body. But I believe that Theodore Ruggles Timby is conscious of the tribute we are paying to him and knows that we are going to take his body home."
"The casket containing the dead inventor's remains was carried to the Dock Department tug Manhattan and around Governors Island within sight of Castle Williams, the vessel making the same trip which the ferryboat in which Timby had been inspired with his first revolving turret idea had made.
"The body will be taken to Washington this morning on a special train on the Baltimore & Ohio. The burial will be in the Oak Hill Cemetery at the capital."
--Old B-Runner
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