An Unmarked Grave for Timby-- Part 7: A Man of Many Inventions and Litttle Profit

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

An Unmarked Grave for Theodore Timby-- Part 3: A Memorial Service Two Years After Death

From Find-A-Grave.

From the October 13, 1911, New York Times  "Late Honors Paid To Inventor Timby:  His Body Taken to Battery Park Where Speakers Credit Him  as Inventor of Monitor.  Ericsson Came After Him Using Revolving Turret Idea, Which Revolutionized Naval Warfare--  Timby to Rest in Washington."

Almost a thousand persons collected around the bandstand yesterday afternoon to witness a memorial service in honor of Theodore Ruggles Timby, the inventor of the revolving turret for the battleships,  who died in obscurity in Brooklyn two years ago, sixty years after he made his invention known.and for which he was never compensated.

Timby conceived then idea for the revolving turret in 1841, after showing a small ivory model of the invention to John C. Calhoun. Timby's friends have always inssted that John Ericsson, who has received credit for inventing the first "Monitor" appropriated Timby's design without giving Timby sufficient credit or turning over to him enough of the Monitor profits.

--Old B-Runner

Theodore Timby-- Part 3: Where Should the Credit for a Revolving Turret Go?

In later years, a controversy followed as to credit for the idea of a revolving turret or battery tower.  Ericsson arguing that the idea for a revolving fort long antedated the 19th century.  Thus it was  one of the concepts  of military engineering that belonged as common property.

Supporters of Timby pointed to his earlier  caveat as proof that credit should go to him.

It seems clear that the  honor of first publicly urging this form of gun housing on governmental authorities belongs to Timby, while the honor of first using the idea in actual construction goes to Ericsson, who may or may not have known of Timby's design.

In 1857 and 1862, Timby received patents for a barometer; in 1869, he patented a turbine water wheel, amd in 1871, a gun carriage; he also devised  a process of  printing terrestrial globes in colors and a process for quickly ripening coffee.

His inventions seem to have brought little financial return, however,  and his family was supported in part by friends who memorialized Congress and the New York state legislature in his behalf.

--Old B-Runner

Theodore Timby-- Part 2: About Those Revolving Turret Patents

During the 1850s, he urged the revolving battery on  Emperor Napoleon III, but it appears that his innovation was not accepted by anyone until 1861-1862.  Then it was utilized by inventon John Ericsson as a distinctive feature on his first  Monitor.  (Some say it was the ship's most distinctive innovation.)  

After the Monitor proved successful, Timby, then a resident of Worcester, Massachusetts,  was granted two patents on July 8, 1862 (No. 35,846 and No. 35,847), for a revolving battery tower discharging guns by electricity,

In September he received another patent for a revolving battery tower.  Ericsson's associates in the business of building  monitors for the government acquired these patents almost at once and thus silenced  all claims if infringement.

--Old B-Runner

Theodore Ruggles Timby

From Prabook.

He was born  on April 5, 1822,  in Dutchess County, New York,.  He was the son of George W. and Sarah (Johnson) Timby, formerly of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

He grew up on his father's farm and attended common schools.

During his teens, he is said to have invented a form of floating drydock.  As early as 1841, he exhibited a model and plans for a revolving  battery for coast desfense to the War Department in Washington, D.C..  He siad he came up with the idea from Castle William on Governors Island in New York.

He seems to have come up with a similar idea for ships of low freeboard (the Monitor was a ship of low freeboard).

On January 18, 1843,  he filed a caveat covering the invention of  the revolving turret for use on land or sea.  It appears that  in the spring of the same year, he sent a model to China by Caleb Cushing, the United States minister there.  In June he exhibited a model to President  Tyler and his cabinet.

Nothing came of these efforts.

--Old B-Runner

So, Who Was Theodore Timby-- Part 2: What Did Ericsson Do?

Meanwhile, a Swedish-born architect named John Ericsson had submitte a proposal to build an ironclad warship for the Union Navy.  The Monitor was built for $195,000 and was sold to the Navy for  $270,000.  Timby received a  5 percent  commission of $13,500.

Timby spent much of his life in Saratoga Springs, New York, having moved there in 1860.

He patented a wide variety of other inventions such as a door sash, water wheel, paper cutter, needle case and a globe clock that was sold in such great numbers that some can still be seen at auctions today.

There was an effort in the early 1900s to give credit to Timby for his turret  invention.  The Washington Post stated in 1909, shortly after his death that "John Ericsson has for years monopolized all of the credit for inventing and building the Monitor, but as a matter of fact he was a joint inventor with Theodore Timby." 

--Old B-Runner

So, Who Was Theodore Timby?-- Part 1: The Revolving Turret

In the last post I wrote that the USS Monitor was designed by John Ericcson (which I knew) and Theodore Timby.  But, who was Theodore Timby?  I'd never heard of his name.  Turns out, he had a whole lot to do with the success of the Monitor.

From Wikipedia.

THEODORE TIMBY

Theodore Ruggles Timby (5 April 1809 - 9 November 1909) is credited as the inventor of the  revolving gun turret that was used on the USS Monitor.  (I always was of the opinion that that was Ericsson's invention.)

He was born in Duchess County, New York.  Early in his life, at the age of 16,  he invented  a method for raising ships out of the water for repairs by  sinking a water-filled box beneath it and then forcing the water out through pumps in order to raise it.

Throughout the 1840s, Timby perfected a revolving gun turret for use on the land and water.  He constructed a  21-foot long model and brought it to Washington, D.C., but met with little success as war was not imminent.  However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, Timby brought his model to the Abraham Lincoln White House, and this time met with much more success.

Something About This New Kind of a Ship to Be Called the Monitor.  --Old B-Runner

Alexander Thomas Doig of the USS Mercedita-- Part 1: From Scotland

From the Descendants of Robert Doig of Scotland site.

He was engineer on the USS Mercedita in its battle with the CSS Palmetto State in 1863 which I wrote about recently.  The ship was commanded by Henry Stellwagen.

ALEXANDER THOMAS DOIG was born 4 December 1821 in Of Dundee, Angus, Scotland.  Died 16 April 1869 at 406 Hicks Street in Brooklyn, New York and buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

In 1841, he was an engineer living on Milton Street in West Derby.  In 1844, he was living in Montreal and then emigrated to New York state about 1846.

The June 29, 861, issue of "Scientific American" mentions an A. Doig, an engineer, who developed a new refrigerated journal (bearing) box for steamship application..  The signature on the patent confirms it was Alexander Doig.

--Old B-Runner

The Spanish Submarine Inventor: Narcis Monturioli i Estarriol

From Wikipedia.

Like I said in the last post, I had never heard of this man and his submarine. 

Narcis Monturiol i Estarriol (1819-1885) was a Spanish inventor and the first man to develop and air independent and combustion-driven submarine.  He solved the fundamental problem of underwater navigation with the first fully operational submarine.

The Ictineo I was 23 feet long, powered by humans and developed to help harvest coral.  He invented it in 1859 and made fifty dives in it before it was accidentall destroyed January 1862 when a cargo vessel ran over it.  This must have been the submarine that Confederate agent Quinterro wrote about from Mexico.

The Ictineo II was launched on October 1864, still powered by humans.  Monturiol continued experimenting and came up with a chemical combination which put out heat and oxygen.  He planned to have the heat power a small steam engine on the boat.

On October 1867, he ran the ship by steam on the water's surface and in December, he ran it submerged.

It worked, but lack of money doomed his submarine.

So, Another Sub-Marine Vessel.  --Old B-R'er