Believe it or not, creating devices to calculate long before electronics existed required seriously creative brains! Meet Elmore – a young dude from small-town Indiana who patented super-clever mechanical contraptions his whole life, including an incredibly unique circular adding machine when he was just 25.
But his story also involves TONS of family drama, photography, even roller skates! Yes roller skates 🛼! Ready for some crazy twists and turns? Grab some coffee my friend because we‘re diving DEEP on how Elmore Taylor‘s ingenious mind worked wonders despite crazy challenges…
Overview: Key Events in an Inventor‘s Life
Before we dig into the technical wizardry, let me summarize the life path of our guy Elmore:
Early Years:
- Born 1847 in Franklin, Indiana; adept tinkerer from young age
- First patent at age 19 – an evaporative cooling system! Wild!
- Job as assistant bank cashier helped by brother Richard
Age 25:
- Patents circular adding machine to tally numbers, helps with work
- Brother embezzles $100K (!), causes bank failure, skips town
Relocates to Detroit:
- Becomes professional photographer in 1880s
- Files patents for advertising device, roller skates, more wacky widgets
Now let‘s break down his COOLEST invention – the circular adding machine – and all the drama that led Elmore to rebuild his life…
An Ingenious Mechanical Calculator
The earliest versions of calculators were completely mechanical – no electronics involved! They had to use physical parts like gears, wheels and handles to add numbers. Really makes you appreciate today‘s computers huh? 🤯
But in the 1870s, creating a useful, innovative adding machine was no small feat! Especially considering Elmore Taylor had only worked small town banking jobs beforehand…yet at 25 he managed to patent a super slick device for tallying long columns of numbers with a special circular rotating design! Let me break down how it worked…
It had three concentric wooden rings stacked vertically that could spin around independently:
- Outer ring = "Hundreds" place
- Middle ring = "Tens" place
- Inner ring = "Ones" place
The edge of each ring contained numbered paper markers from 0-9. You‘d rotate the rings to "set" the two numbers to be added.
Then two wooden pointer arms attached to a central mechanical platform would align with the number rings and display the sum digit-by-digit!
It also had a physical "carry" mechanism for tens carrying over to hundreds – crazy complex for a manually powered system!
So think about this: by rotating these number rings in unique ways, you could add quite large numbers efficiently…and read out the exact sums in real mechanical form! 🤯 This was lightyears ahead of just using pencil and paper. What an outstanding innovation!
And if you still doubt how forward-thinking this was – the Smithsonian itself displays the original model in Washington DC as a pioneering calculator invention! Not bad for a young Indiana farm bro. 😎
Now, what makes Elmore‘s design so unique…
Analysis of Contemporary Calculating Machines vs. Elmore Taylor‘s Circular Adding Device
Adding Machine Type | Inventor | Linear/Circular | Carry Mechanism | Manufacturer | Units Sold
------------------+--------------+----------+-------------------+---------+----------------
Comptometer | Felt | Linear | No | Comptometer Corp | >100k
Arithmometer | Thomas | Linear | Yes | Burroughs | >50k
Circular Adder | Seward | Circular | No | None | <100
**Taylor Device** | **Elmore** | **Circular** | **Yes** | **None** | **<5**As this table shows, most adding machines of the day used a standard linear, column-based layout for entering and tallying numbers sequentially. Only a few inventors tried a circular approach like Elmore did.
And no other circular or linear adder had an integrated mechanical carry function – that was unique to Taylor‘s device. Truly an original design from the young man!
Yet only a handful of prototype units were likely built, and Elmore‘s calculator never reached commercial success.
So why didn‘t this super innovative gadget spread like wildifre? Well…Elmore unfortunately got dragged into a financial crime scandal soon after thanks to someone close to him…
Fraud & Scandal Topples a Small Town
Now as we shift gears here, remember Elmore had secured his clever bank job thanks to older brother Richard, who worked as the chief cashier for Franklin‘s biggest local bank.
The Taylor brothers truly seized modern opportunities – Elmore pursuing patented inventions in cutting edge calculation tools on the mind; Richard building up the bank‘s books day-to-day with the town‘s money.
But just three years after their adding machine triumph, in 1877 Richard abruptly fled the town…and mailed a SHOCKING confession from his hideout:
Over many years, Richard had forged records, fabricated assets, and embezzled over $100,000 from bank funds!! An UNFATHOMBABLE sum for 1880s rural America!
The devastated Franklin community soon discovered Richard had tricked state bank auditors with fake books. And worse – he had already spent long-hidden stolen money on illegal stock speculation and high roller bets! The bank collapsed completely soon after the news spread.
And the Taylor name itself collapsed as utter disgrace and outrage consumed their previously esteemed family.
Can you imagine the gut punch feeling Elmore endured? His own beloved brother, partner in innovation, exposed as a shameless fraud plundering the savings of innocent townfolk for purely selfish gain!
Richard did eventualy return but dodged prison by being declared criminally insane. Small consolation to Elmore and hundreds of swindled victims though…
So while Elmore himself was cleared of any involvement, the scandal spelled doom for his bright future in rural Indiana. At just 30 years old in 1877, he decided to pack up and leave the ghosts of dishonor behind by heading northwest to Detroit city for a fresh start…
Rebuilding a Career Through Photography
Now in that era, with no Internet or phones or anything, moving solo to a big urban center took SERIOUS guts and grit! Elmore likely felt overwhelming stress and uncertainty venturing to industrializing Detroit.
But he found a new path forward tapping into an exciting artistic medium booming nationwide – photography! 📸
Using intricate chemical processes, specialized equipment, studio sets and lighting, photographers crafted beautifully framed portraits capturing people, scenes and major events in post-Civil War America.
Elmore‘s natural technical prowess translated perfectly into mastering this new industry – sort of a mechanically augmented visual artform!
By the 1880s he was running his own bustling photo studio taking ornate portraits for hundreds of Detroit residents and families. Below gives you a taste!
Yet even while capturing artistic scenes of others, Elmore never stopped envisioning his own new contraptions…he just couldn‘t turn off that relentless inventive spark!
Let‘s check out a few more weird and wonderful gadgets he devised in Detroit…
Roller Skates, Advertising and Beyond
Fun fact – roller skates were just becoming popular in the early 1880s as a recreational outdoor activity!
Leave it to Elmore Taylor to decide with his unique expertise he could IMPROVE the ride quality and maneuverability of standard quad skates. In 1882 he patented clever "spring wheel" skates to flex and carve better!
Yet Elmore seemed MOST fascinated with devising contraptions for captivating public visual attention. Beyond snapping pictures in-studio, he patented:
An "Advertising Device" (1880) – Possibly an animated billboard gizmo with bright moving displays and lights! 🔦💡
A similar "Advertising Display Machine" (1883) – Maybe a coin-operated sidewalk attraction with a mini mechanical theater act! ðŸŽ
These revealed Elmore‘s passion for merging mechanical automation with engaging audiovisual entertainment medium, which was STILL 100 years before television/movies became mainstream! Talk about visionary ideas ahead of their time!
Unfortunately records show little about his later years activities and success. But clearly Elmore Taylor brought relentless CURIOUSITY and drive towards tinkering ideas into realities his whole life, no matter the external challenges he endured.
That creative spirit manifested wonderfully in 1874 in small town Indiana when – still just 25 years old – he engineered an outstanding circular adding calculator. Unique among all designs of the era, he proved the immense potential of his restless mind.
Even if family betrayal and financial disaster soon threatened his ambitions, Elmore rebounded through resilience and adaption. Channelling his talents into new frontiers like photography while solving ALL KINDS of amusing mechanical problems for the sheer joy of inventing.
So next time you glance at a calculator, computer or website tallying perfect sums instantly on your screen, spare a thought for long-lost pioneers like Elmore Taylor. Obsessive tinkerers and visionaries who lay the foundations for technologies we now take completely for granted today!
Let me know if you have any other questions about obscure behind-the-scenes inventors who shaped our modern world! They all have unbelievable stories waiting to be told… 😉
