The "Bed Rock" Emery Works, 1883

The "Bed Rock" Emery Works

Chenango Union, Aug. 30, 1883

 

These works were started in Guilford, New York [Chenango Co.], last October, by Mr. Heaton, the owner, as an entirely new departure for emery wheel manufacture.  The first building was only 80x30 feet, one story in height, and before the roof was upon it, the orders were 170 ahead.  Since that time only about  one order out of three has been filled, and the wheels made have been sent to Mr. Heaton's old customers in nearly every State of the Union. All the wheels that have been so far made--some thousands--have been made by Mr. Heaton with his own hands, who in addition to making his own goods has kept his own books, done his own correspondence, and in fact, all the work with his own hands, having burned the midnight oil most thoroughly.  The works are now being enlarged by the addition of a second building, 50x24 feet, two stories high, and when this is finished additional help will be employed.  It speaks well for the old adage that "He who by the plow would thrive, must either hold himself or drive," that since last October not a single wheel made in these works has burst or come to grief in any way, and only two single wheels sent back for being too hard, while the same customers that sent their orders in last October, still send for "More goods same as before."

 

Mr. Heaton is, by training and profession, a Civil and Mechanical Engineer, who regularly served an articled pupilship to his profession.  He is a son of the Rev. Dr. Heaton, who was for some years the Rector of Guilford.  The old gentleman is now Vicar of Graine, in Kent, England, Mr. Heaton and his sister, Mrs. I.F. Sherwood, of Guilford, being the only members of the family in this State. 

 

Mr. Heaton has taken out some 70 patents in the last 20 years, and has let people take them, and as a rule, swindle him out of them.  During the late war, he invented and patented the armor for war vessels, called "Heaton Armor," which was used by the United States, and which Admiral D.D. Porter, in his report on Iron Clads of 1864, said saved his fleet at the passage of Vicksburg, from destruction.  Mr. Heaton spent $30,000 in perfecting and introducing his invention to the United States government, as well as in a nine years' law suit against the government to recover compensation for its use; but he never has been paid one cent for his outlay.  When he was nonsuited, on the ground that a citizen must not sue the government, etc. etc. in 1869, and his case sent to the court of claims, he gave it up in disgust, and turned his attention to chemistry and the manufacture of emery wheels, and has continued ever since a faithful, earnest, worker in his field, being one of the oldest emery wheel makers now before the public.  He improves upon all he comes in contact with, and when he saw that emery wheels were dangerous and liable to burst and kill the user, he invented the system of wire strengthening, which renders the bursting of an emery wheel about impossible, and applied for a patent in 1877.  Others got hold of his invention, and after six years suit, and an outlay of some $8,000, he has just obtained a decision of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, awarding the patent for the invention to him, as the prior inventor.  He is, not without reason, a little sour on the U.S. Government, and says it is already rotten.  If we had had his experience, perhaps we too would think so. 

 

Mr. Heaton was the President and Managing Director of the Heaton Emery Works of Albany, N.Y., but finding it impossible to reconcile his ideas of thoroughness with directors' sons and hangers on, holding fat berths, and not earning their pay, he sold out his interest in the company and went to Guilford to enjoy the saying, that "from little acorns do great oak trees spring."  At present his Bed Rock Works are the smallest Emery Works in the world, but they have a record cleaner and freer from failure than any other.  We wish him luck, and feel certain he will grow to be an institution of the county, of which it will have cause to be proud.