Englishman Spent Fortune After Fortune
Experimenting With New Ideas,
but Died a Millionaire.
Samuel Cunliffe-Lister, Lord Masham, whose air-brake is used on many
British railroads and who invented the first successful wool-combing
machine, started, in 1837, at Manningham, Yorkshire, England, in company
with his elder brother, a small worsted-spinning establishment. Both
brothers had worked at the trade since childhood, and both were capable
men. For a time the business prospered. Then it began to drop off and the
elder partner accused Samuel of wasting his time and energy in
experimenting with toys when he should devote his efforts exclusively to
building up the enterprise they had started. The discussion almost
terminated in a rupture between the two, but a couple of the toys were
patented and as machines in the worsted-spinning business they brought in
a fair profit.
But another cause for dissension arose. As fast as money came in for early
inventions it was spent in experimenting on other things. Several times
Cunliffe-Lister spent what would then be looked upon as a fairly
comfortable fortune in trying to perfect his ideas, and, despite his
income, he continually hovered on the verge of bankruptcy.
Perfects His Wool-Comber.
At last, in 1865, he perfected the wool-comber, a machine that takes the
raw material, thoroughly cleanses it, and straightens the fiber, leaving
it ready for the carder to take in hand. Its enormous utility was
instantly recognized, and the wool-working towns and cities of England
and the United States were supplied with the new machines. During the
subsequent years the inventor received every year, from this machine
alone, an income that seldom fell below two hundred thousand pounds.
The first form of the wool-comber was far more perfect than the first form
of most machines. Nevertheless, Cunliffe-Lister spent enormous sums of
money in making improvements on it, and on one occasion, when several
hundred of the machines were ready for shipment, he held them up in order
that there might be incorporated in them certain improvements he had just
made. His partners protested that the machines embodied all the features
the purchasers had paid for. The inventor was obdurate, and every one of
the machines had added to it the improvements, and all the alterations
were made solely at his expense.
Head Not Turned by Fortune.
The immense fortune he had made from this and other inventions never for
an instant turned him from his work and experiments. Like Edison, he had
the ability to concentrate his mind for long periods, to work for long
stretches with little rest, and to apportion to his assistants the
experiments that he could not personally perform. He could have retired
thirty-five years ago and been assured of a large income for the remainder
of his life, but he preferred to stick to his work to the last.
"You've got your fortune now," said one of his friends; "why don't you
stop working?"
"I didn't work simply to acquire wealth," he replied. "I value the money
chiefly for what it will enable me to do."
His second great invention was the air-brake, introduced by him at about
the same time Westinghouse introduced his air-brake in America. The
English inventor, however, experienced little difficulty in having his
device adopted, for he had already made a name for himself, and the
English railroad officials were willing to give the benefit of thorough,
practical tests to what he brought them. The tests proved the efficiency
of the brake, and its general adoption added greatly to the inventor's
already large income.
He worked incessantly, experimenting in all branches of science, and his
improvements in mill machinery, in railroad devices and steel working are
of immense value. For weeks at a time, the expense of his experiments
averaged a thousand pounds a day. In spite of this, the enormous income he
received from his patents more than kept pace with his expenses, and when
he died, early last February, he was one of the richest men in the United
Kingdom.