Carl Edgar Myers Inventions Information

Carl Edgar Myers ((1842-03-02)March 2, 1842 – (1925-11-30)November 30, 1925) was an American businessman, scientist, inventor, meteorologist, balloonist, and aeronautical engineer. He invented many types of hydrogen balloon airships and related equipment. His business of making passenger airshipballoons and instrument balloons at his "balloon farm" was well known throughout the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He invented a machine for varnishing fabric that would make it impervious to hydrogen so that the finished product could be made into large envelopes for lighter-than-air balloons.

Myers also experimented in making artificial rain in areas where rain was deficient for agriculture. He made oxy-hydrogen balloons that were exploded at high altitude to cause rain. He contracted with the U.S. government and lumber companies to make these balloon "bombs" for the production of man-made rain.

Myers was a manager for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and the superintendent of their Aeronautic Concourse for balloon demonstrations and aerial races. He made balloon military warships and inventions that could be used for defense in case of attack by air by foreign interests and demonstrated at the Fair.

Myers, born March 2, 1842, was of German descent and the son of Abram Myers and Ann Ela Myers. His birthplace was Fort Herkimer in New York state, but he grew up in the nearby town of Mohawk. Myers attended a school run by a scientist, which stimulated his scientific curiosity. At school he became interested in the principles of electricity and all related matters.

Myers earned extra money from fulfilling requests for art work and building mechanical gadgets for others. He spent most of this money on materials for his experiments and on science books. He spent his extra time in workshops and laboratories to learn scientific principles, and his spare time in the woods to learn about nature. He was a leader among his classmates and the local teenagers.

Myers had mechanical understanding and improved many devices. One was a patented invention of a kerosene lamp damper that reduced considerably the flame's smoke. Another innovation, of which he was proud, was an automatic self-recording mercury barometer that memorialized its measurements on a paper strip; with this meteorological instrument he kept a continuous barometric record that covered a span of 30 years.

Myers made his own electrical-mechanical apparatuses and tools. He turned his interests, hobbies and experiments into early entrepreneurial ventures that earned money for him. He became at one time or another a delivery agent, bill collector, bank clerk, carpenter, chemist, electrician, gas-fitter, mechanic, photographer, plumber, printer, telegrapher, and writer.

On July 5, 1861, at nineteen Myers became a teller and cashier at the Mohawk Valley Bank. General Francis E. Spinner was the treasurer of the bank at the time. His first year as a trainee was without pay. Myers then received a salary of $100 per year, being higher than normal since he put in extra attention to his work habits. He opened his own little telegraph office in July 1863 within the counting office of the bank. This was the first telegraph office for the town of Mohawk, New York. He constructed all the necessary telegraph equipment needed and taught himself Morse code. Myers' income from this bank telegraph business was one-half of his total income. He eventually had to give up being a part-time telegraph operator within the bank, as his bank responsibilities took up most of his time. He turned over the telegraph business to the local post office with Austin Shall as the operator.

Myers worked at Mohawk Valley Bank for six years. During this time he developed an interest in counterfeit money. He collected counterfeit bills and assembled a scrapbook of these for study. He then had another book of genuine bills; he then compared the two to learn the counterfeiters' techniques. He became an expert in detecting counterfeit bills. This became a valued interest to the bankers and Myers was given all the bank notes to pass through him for approval of genuineness. This ultimately became a basis for the present day method of detecting counterfeit bills.

Myers resigned from the bank in 1867 and moved to Hornellsville, New York. There he bought a photography gallery and ran the business for several years. Myers met Mary Hawley in Hornellsville and married her on November 8, 1871. She was 7 years younger, being born in 1849. In 1873 Myers took up an interest in making hydrogen gas and ballooning. The couple moved back to Mohawk from Hornellsville in 1875 and began activities of balloon manufacturing and flying. Mary became his lab assistant and later a balloon pilot known as Carlotta, the Lady Aeronaut.

Myers built his first balloon in the summer of 1878 in Mohawk Valley. It was over 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter and could contain 10,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas. The balloon material with its valve weighed almost one hundred pounds. The envelope material was high quality cotton cloth that was unbleached. It was varnished with linseed oil gum thinned with turpentine. Myers invented machinery that applied the coats of varnish onto fabric of silk or cotton. There were several coats of varnish applied to make a balloon envelope impervious to hydrogen. The first of these patented machines, that took fourteen days to construct, was in operation for seven years. Myers made sixty hydrogen balloons in sixty days in 1891. He built a set of ten hydrogen gas balloons in five days in 1892.[A]

In 1889 Myers purchased the Gates Mansion Victorian style house with five acres of property that was located near Frankfort, New York, previously owned by Fred Gates of the Diamond Match Company. Here Myers and his wife went into the business of manufacturing passenger balloons and specialty purpose gas balloons, many for the US government. The balloons that had just been assembled were partially inflated outdoors to test if they held the hydrogen gas properly. Because of the large balloons half inflated and laid out on the property grounds, it gave the impression they were growing large mushrooms or some unusual new farm crop. In time some people realized they were really making balloons and it became known as the Frankfort "balloon farm."

The three story mansion house was broken up into workshops and living quarters. The workshops were a chemistry lab, a print shop, a shipping room, a carpentry work area and machine shop facilities. The attic above the third story was devoted entirely for all the machines and associated tools necessary for the construction of airships. One first floor room was a large library with many books on aeronautics and science, where Myers researched often and brainstormed with his wife. There were out-buildings scattered throughout the five acres that contained gas engines, chemical labs, and furnace facilities.

Newspapers reported that Myers had a monopoly on the making of hydrogen gas balloons and was the only producer in the United States of these balloons for the government. A loft in the Myers house was made available for a sewing area of balloon materials to make the large balloons. The fabric material was patterned, sewed together into large strips, and made ready for varnishing. He had a patent of a fabric made from sea island cotton that was used for the varnish application. Myers' patented varnish formula made the fabric impervious to hydrogen. The varnish used to seal the fabric material for the balloon envelopes was prepared in a low pit outdoors in a ravine behind the house. This was below ground level so the fabric being prepared was sheltered from the wind. It also provided a fire-pit in case the flammable material caught on fire. There was a water-hose handy for putting out a fire.

The liquid varnish was made with a large iron kettle that had a cover on it. Fire was applied under the kettle for the "cooking" of the raw linseed oil formula. The oil mix "cooked" for four to eight hours to a consistency of gum. The gum material was thinned to the consistency of syrup and poured into a sloping vat that lead into a Myers' patented machine apparatus of various rollers, squeezers, and scrapers. They acted by pressure of springs and weights.

The raw wound fabric of silk or cotton was fed from large rollers into Myers' varnishing machine for processing. The processed wet fabric, soaked with varnish, was rubbed and pressed so the varnish would go into all the pores. The excess varnish was then removed and the wet fabric cloth hung outdoors in bright sunshine for 6 to 12 hours like laundry. The processed fabric had the elastic properties of rubber. This patented varnish that Myers invented was able to seal the balloon material to hold the hydrogen gas, that otherwise would penetrate even glass and metal. The silk or cloth fabric used required eight to ten applications of the varnish to seal properly to be thoroughly impervious to hydrogen gas.

This same general area of the property was used also for the drying of the varnished fabric. This consisted of twenty foot high clothes line-type poles that were 100 feet apart and further protected by wind-break fences of canvas. Between the poles were strung wires for laying the wet varnished fabric onto for drying. After drying the fabric was then rewound onto rollers and varnished over and over again several more times to each side and thoroughly dried each time. Each application of new varnish added a thin layer.

The basement of the house was used for generating hydrogen gas and pure oxygen. The hydrogen making apparatus consisted of a tank half filled with water. This tank was also filled with iron filings from Navy cast-iron projectiles. Sulfuric acid was added into the tank of water and filings, which was slowly decanted. The acid separated the water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The iron filings absorbed the oxygen gas which allowed the hydrogen to go up through a pipe into a wash-barrel, which had another pipe to the balloon envelope. The freed hydrogen gas then filled the balloon, which had a lifting ability of 60 pounds per 1,000 cubic feet of gas. The balloon was held down to the ground by sandbag weights so that when filled it didn't float away. A 50 feet (15 m) diameter balloon would hold 65,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas giving the filled balloon a lifting ability of about 4,000 pounds.

Myers was known as the "Flying Dutchman" and the "Mohawk Dutchman" because of his location, name, and being a balloonist. His technology was developed to the extent that the balloons he made could hold hydrogen gas in an envelope for up to five days – outdoors in all kinds of weather.

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