1915ca RADIO-CONTROLLED TORPEDO US coastal U-boat defense letters patent etc

Description

[RADIO-CONTROLLED TORPEDO, WWI ERA; DEFENSE AGAINST U-BOATS, COASTAL DEFENSE; INVENTION AND PATENT DEVELOPMENTS] ARTHUR ENOCH ERICSON (spelling of last name used by him, though sometimes written by others as Erikson or Erickson), inventor
, aspects of the radio torpedo for which he was awarded patents and attracted the interest of American, British, Canadian, Italian, French, and Russian military from the early years of the 20th century until after World War II…one letter from his patent attorney Samuel Owen Edmonds reports that the British Patent Office at the request of the British Admiralty and Army Council orders the “prohibition of the publication of communication in any way of the invention and application for a patent for it in any enemy or neutral country, and of application being made for the [patent] protection of the invention in any allied country or in any of the British Dominions”… “among radio men”, Ericson’s radio torpedo was preferred to Hammond’s for its “simplicity, accuracy, rapid construction, cheaper, wider scope of the system itself for other distant controls than radio torpedos” (quotes are from parts of letters quoted below)…parts of the archive are:
a bound Canadian patent dated December 25, 1917, with seal and hand-signed by the Deputy Commissioner of Patents George F. O’Halloran to Arthur Enoch Ericson of Manchester, Massachusetts for Radio-Controlled Torpedoes
, also recording that Enoch has given one-fourth interest to Gurth Adleburt Whipple, of Binghamton, New York,
17 double-spaced legal-size pages original ribbon typed copy of the submitted patent application with notice that it has been granted
followed by brief notarized statement by Erikson, and 2 pages of detailed drawings with Erikson’s signature by his lawyer, the 15 pages specifying Erikson’s inventions making for improvements to the radio torpedo are highly detailed and technical (as required to support the patent being given), but a few brief samples are, “which may be the two sides of a 110 Volt alternating-current circuit are connected through switch 28, when the latter is closed…including the relay armature 25…The motor will accordingly rotate in the same direction for periods of five seconds each…In the drawings cut-out 51 is open, the rudder being hard-over in its left hand position…contacts of the two series being arranged alternately, a control relay, a switch, means for energizing said relay when said switch is in one position, and while said contact maker engages contacts of the other series…a circuit adapted to be closed when all of said selective devices are actuated…”, near fine, minimal wear, some minor edgewear, all content legible, Ericson was granted patent Number 181340 for “Radio-Controlled Topedoes” from the Canadian government on December 25, 1917
///// DIVISIONS OF THE ARCHIVE: Arthur Enock Ericson (spelling of last name used by him, though sometimes written by others as Erikson or Erickson), 6 letters
, 5 typed and 1 handwritten, from U. S. Naval Radio Station, North Truro, Mass.(see Note below), dated between May 21, 1917, and September 28, 1917, variously about getting parts for the invention of the radio torpedo he is working on, developments of it, recognition by some that his inventions regarding radio control are better than ones invented by the noted inventor John Hays Hammond Jr. (see Notes below), financial and time constraints on his work on his invention, and the isolation and dreariness of the Navy station at North Truro, samplings from the letters are, “I am glad to note however the difference of opinion between my torpedo and Hammond’s among radio men. Everyone seems [to] have preferences for mine and I feel confident of some action soon from the navy…The end of the war will not hamper the sale of this torpedo to the U. S. Navy. This country will always buy anything that is good…I have the model all built, but the Decile motor was a failure, so I sold it and bought various necessary apparatus…First, I shall need a 1 H. P. elec. Motor with storage batteries…Second, I shall need a coherer receiver…The principle points to be mentioned are the simplicity of the system, the accuracy, and the difficulty of interfering with same, as in the case if used to attack submarines, the torpedo may be controlled from either ship or shore at a range of 3 to 8 miles…The explosive capacity is also at builder’s option…There is no better method of defense against U-boat attack…The points of superiority over Hammond’s is simplicity, accuracy, rapid construction, cheaper, wider scope of the system itself for other distant controls than radio torpedos.”, with 2-page Ericson handwritten notarized document dated July 27, 1917, in which Ericson assigns Whipple “one-fourth” interest in any “invention for new and useful improvements in Radio-Controlled Torpedos”
///// Samuel Owens, Counsellor at Law, Specialty Patent Causes, Mutual Life Building, 32 Liberty Street, New York, a noted patent attorney of the period, 47 typed letters
nearly all hand-signed by a secretary, nearly all to Arthur E. Ericson at different Massachusetts addresses including Ericson Radio Experimental Station, Beverly, Mass., and a few to Ericson’s partner G. W. Whipple in Binghamton, NY, dated from January 10, 1916, to May 12, 1922, about specifics of patent applications to the U. S. and foreign governments of Britain, France, and Russia, progress and status of these at the various patent offices, including a few itemized billings, samplings from the many letters are, “I enclose herewith your application, Case 2036, entitled Improvement in Radio-Controlled torpedoes, together with prints of the drawings and assignment of one-quarter interest to G. A.Whipple…[I am] unable to appreciate precisely the methods you propose to employ because of the meagerness of the written description…Getting somewhat down to details, it seems to me the steering motor is operated in one direction when the relay R1 in Fig. 4 is energized…Also please explain the function of the different condensers…now received official action on the application [from the U. S.Patent Office]…More than half of the claims stand allowed, while others have been either rejected or criticized upon certain prior patents…The official action on your application is quite gratifying inasmuch as nine of the fourteen claims made in your behalf now stand allowed…I can decide better [on advising Ericson] after I have received your comments on the Hammond patent…I have now received from the Patent Office formal allowance of your application…the final fee of twenty dollars may be paid, and the patent issued….Herewith I beg to hand you original letters patent No. 1,228,892, granted June 5, 1917, on Mr. Ericson’s invention in Radio-Controlled Torpedoes…I have yours [letter] of the 27th [1917] inquiring re: cost, procedure, etc. for obtaining foreign patents on the Ericson invention…this procedure can be avoided if we can put up an argument to show that filing of the British application was delayed by war conditions…You can obtain a patent in France under their nine months extension by war decree if the application be filed before October [1917]…same applies to Italy…file in France, Canada, Italy, and Russia at once…a communication from the British Patent Office dated September 7 [1917] stated that upon the request of the Admiralty, the Comptroller will delay the acceptance of the complete specification, and hereby orders the prohibition of the publication of communication in any way of the invention, of application being made for the protection of the invention in any enemy or neutral country, and of application being made for the protection of the invention in any allied country or in any of the British Dominions without the consent of the Admiralty and Army Council…I would advise your sending a copy of your patent to the Naval Consulting Board in Washington…the French government considers it unwise to have the invention disclosed to the enemy during the war…the second and third year taxes are now payable in France on this French Patent [1920 letter]…All of the patents that I applied for in your name were duly issued except in the case of the Russian application…My impression is that the hearing [before the U. S. Naval Advisory Board] was not had or if had noting came of it [1922].”
///// G. A. Whipple (Gurth Adleburt), 28 letters typescript hand-initialed “GAW”
, except one handwritten, a few with handwritten additions, dated between November 27, 1915, and July 14, 1919, the large majority on stationary with business letterhead Jonas M. Kilmer (father) and Willis Sharpe Kilmer (son) in Binghamton, NY, with engravings of the Kilmer Building and the Press (Kilmer) Building with a note running partly across the lower parts of them “Absolutely Fire Proof”, all addressed to Ericson in various places in Massachusetts including Naval Reserve Radio School, Section 5, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., samplings from the letters are, “[P]lace the matter in the hands of a Patent Attorney…I am writing the Marconi Company to get from them the method of handling your salary and to advise them of our arrangement. As soon as I receive a reply payments will be forwarded to you regularly…I will take up the matter of having a torpedo on board the ‘Remlik’ [presumably with Willis Sharpe Kilmer, the yacht’s owner]. It is quite likely the Commodore [handwritten above “Captain” which has been crossed out] might enjoy seeing it on board…Enclosed please find check for forty-eight dollars and eighty-nine cents…Will send you money any time you want it…remember, there is one great point to keep in mind, everything must be kept an absolute secret. you may be throwing away a fortune by a little carelessness somewhere…I called the lawyer, Samuel O. Edmonds, and told him what we wanted…is alright because he is a friend of an inventor here in Binghamton [NY] who is a friend of Mr.Kilmer’s and of mine…Now if I finance this deal, please let me know what you idea of my share in the profits should be…Edmonds is a lawyer of considerable professional repute. He has done a lot of work for Edison and other big men with the most speedy results…I am satisfied with the arrangement you suggest of receiving one-forth of the proceeds…I don’t take much stock in the German Crank Proposition, wouldn’t matter so much if they destroy your invention so long as they don’t get hold of the idea…I don’t think it possible to carry you on the payroll of the [yacht] Remlik. Mr. Kilmer has given strict orders to cut down expenses…It would seem advisable to me for you to get out of the yachting business and the steamship business and secure employment that would mean a permanent position with a chance for future advancement…the Patent Office has done fairly well in accepting nine of the fourteen claims…You know whether it is feasible to go ahead with Hammond’s [see notes below], or ‘interference’…I have told Edmonds to go ahead with the presentation of your case…I thought that you would stay on board the Remlik and pack and properly store the wireless plant [December 1916, about six months before the yacht was purchased by the Navy, indicating Ericson was already associated with the Kilmer business, which was presumably contributing to the development of Ericson’s radio-controlled torpedo]…I will try to find out something about your retention, and see if we [Kilmer company] can arrive at some arrangement…[handwritten at bottom] the boat will remain tied up for some time to come. Watch the Germans…I saw [patent attorney] Edmonds the other night in New York. He spoke favorably of the patent. He said that we had been lucky in having so many of the applications accepted…We can go to the authorities in Washington…Edmonds says this is a particularly advantageous time…I will send you a check in a few days for the 1,000 ohms relay. I understand that Hammond [noted inventor in the field of radio control] spent a lot of money in putting his propositions on the market…I think the simplicity of your idea is going to count for a great deal…If [your] thing [radio-controlled torpedo] is good for anything at all, it will be most advantageous in coast defense, and we have some coast as you and I know…I am writing [patent attorney] Edmonds today about patents in foreign countries…I am gladly surprised to hear that the Hammond torpedo has been rejected by the navy…[handwritten at bottom” We will do our business through Edmonds. He is straight…I am enclosed 0…I do not know where I am going to get the money, but we will go ahead with the propositions and take a chance on the money later…Why did they reject John Hayes Hammond’s radio controlled torpedo?…Filing of these blanks cost 0. I had to borrow the money…I am in touch with several men of means here in Saratoga and it has occurred to me it might be advisable to put this proposition [of the radio-controlled torpedo] up to some of them…Speed in this matter is important. The war may be shortly…It ought to be a good defense proposition and steamships might be able to launch it against submarines…Hammond’s inventions is [sic] made useless [because superseded by more developed inventions], but had Hammond waited until now to sell his he would have failed, because yours is a superior machine…[letter dated Aug. 9, 1916, on United States Hotel, Saratoga, letterhead, ’G. A. Whipple’ signature is above typescript ‘Secretary to Willis Sharpe Kilmer, Binghamton, N.Y.’]…the Remlik is just laying quietly at Ulmer Park [Brooklyn]…the patent will be issued the fifth [letter on Hotel Vanderbilt stationery with letterhead dated May 10, 1917]…I will either get someone who is influential in Washington to place this matter before the proper authorities, or else arrange to have you do this yourself…I will be there [Binghamton] if I don’t get in the army…I do not see any objection in taking in taking this matter up with the Naval Advisory Board, especially if you have confidence in your friend Lieut. H. C. Gauler…The Remlik has been turned over to the government…I saw a news account the other day where a boat was used by the Germans which must have been propelled by a wireless from the shore…I am informed by other inventors that the game in Washington is a big graft and you have to come across strong to get anything by certain officials. Of course I do not know this to be the fact but it is quite probable because of the unlimited opportunity afforded such nefarious work at this time…I will probably go into the army this summer…the Tanks seem to offer the most interest and I will try for that first…Just got out of the Tank Corps. Have wondered [if] you had been relieved from government service. Has anything developed regarding our patent?…There was tremendous graft in any government operations and especially in the launching of new inventions. What our enterprise required was a clever promoter. Please write me herein Salamanco…[last letter dated July 14, 1919, with Whipple & Whipple, Attorneys-at-Law, Salamanca, N.Y letterhead];
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS:
(a) 8 Ericson handwritten legal pages (7 full, plus 1 line on page 8) headed “John Hammond Patents 1912 to 1927”, (b) blueprint titled “Ericson Radio Controlled Torpedo”, 17” x 13-1/2” with 4 figures, (c) 3 letters from the Naval Consulting Board of the United States, Office of the Secretary, 10 Park Row letterhead and Thomas A. Edison, President, at top of list of four officers dated Sept. 28, Oct. 17, Oct. 18, 1917, to Whipple informing him about the status of Ericson’s submission for consideration for use by the Navy, letters worn with tears and loss of lower right part of one with loss of about half of the signature, (d) 6 newspaper clippings on Ericson plus a black-and-white photograph
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NOTES: GURTH ADLEBURTH WHIPPLE:
1876-1952, “If the official celebration of conservation's 50 years in New York state which begins at Lake Placid next week produced no other benefit, the compilation of a history of those 50 years by Gurth Whipple, well known to the people of The Binghamton Press area….” (Press and Sun Bulletin, Binghamton, NY, August 27, 1935)…author of A History of Half a Century of the Management of the Natural Resources of the Empire State 1885-1935 (1935) and Historical Trees of the State of New York (1930), and others…related to the Kilmers by marriage…on two of his letters to Ericson, he signs about typescript identifying himself as secretary to Willis Sharpe Kilmer…Whipple’s mention that he is “tak[ing] up the matter of having a torpedo on board the ‘Remlik” indicates Kilmer would have known about Ericson’s work on the radio-controlled torpedo, and very likely had some investment in it though Whipple does not note this directly… (online sources, content of Whipple letters);
USS REMLIK (SP-157:
sometimes spelled Remlick, a yacht acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War I…converted into an armed patrol craft and assigned to protect ships from German submarines in the North Atlantic…The U.S. Navy purchased Remlik from her owner, Willis Sharpe Kilmer of Binghamton, New York, on 1 June 1917 for use as a patrol vessel during World War I. (online sources) ;
SAMUEL OWEN EDMONDS:
prominent patent attorney active in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries…in 1896 as seen in a letter in the Thomas A. Edison Collection at Rutgers University, Edmonds was involved in patent matters relating to Edison’s invention of the cylinder phonograph…on June 17, 1914, he appeared before the Committee on Patents, House of Representatives, to make a statement based on his “practice of the patent law of more than a quarter of a century” regarding the Oldfield Revision and Codification of the Patent Laws being considered. (online sources);
WILLIS SHARPE KILMER:
1869-1940, son of Jonas M. Kilmer and Julia E. Sharpe…a marketing pioneer, newspaperman, horse breeder, entrepreneur, patent medicine manufacturer…perhaps best known for advertising and promoting his uncle's Swamp Root patent medicine formula [Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root Kidney Liver & Bladder Cure and offshoots] until it became a household name… (wikipedia)…The decline in the patent medicine business led Kilmer to branch out into other businesses. He was extensively involved in real estate, owning a landmark family mansion in Binghamton, NY, constructing the twelve story Press Building in downtown Binghamton as a home for another new business he created, The Binghamton Press Co., building several other less-prominent buildings in downtown Binghamton, and three racing stables and estates — Sun Briar Court in Binghamton, Court Manor in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Remlik, on the banks of Virginia’s Rappahannock River [today part of Urbanna, VA]. Kilmer's private yacht Remlik (the name being Kilmer spelled backwards) was purchased by the US Navy during World War I and converted into the USS Remlik (SP-157) armed patrol vessel. (wikipedia and other online sources];
U. S. NAVY RADIO STATION, NORTH TRURO, MA:
A Naval Radio Station for intelligence monitoring was established at the Cape Cod Highland Light in 1904. The Navy Direction Finding Station at North Truro assumed great importance during World War I and was guarded by a detachment of U.S. Marines. (U.S. Naval High Frequency Direction Finding Sites during World War I and World War II. Part 2 Updated: 01 Jun 08);
JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, JR.:
1888-1965, American inventor known as “The Father of Radio Control”. Hammond’s pioneering developments in electronic remote control are the foundation for all modern radio remote control devices, including modern missile guidance systems and drones. (wikipedia).