What do a Model-T Ford, a movie projector, a supermarket register, and an early twentieth century textile mill have in common? No, this isn’t some sort of joke. Rather, the answer is the subject of this month’s Yankee Ingenuity column.

Most people know that the first part of the American Industrial Revolution was powered by water and that New England’s early mills were built on or near rivers so that they could harness the power of moving water to drive the machinery used to automate manufacturing tasks. However, many people do not understand how water was actually used for this purpose. In fact, I must admit that I did not fully understand this process until I recently accompanied my oldest daughter on a school field trip to the Belknap Mill.

Traditional water powered mills used a flow of water to turn a water wheel or turbine that was attached to a shaft. The turbine shafts in textile mills were coupled to large gears that transferred the power from the turbine shaft to a large central drive shaft, which turned chains and/or belts that transferred the power to other parts of the mill where it was used to drive the machines. In many mills, including the Belknap Mill in Laconia, endless belts were the primary means for transferring this power. In these mills, large flat belts were stretched between the central drive shaft and smaller "line shafts" in other parts of the mill. Smaller endless belts were then stretched between the line shafts and the machines themselves. The stretching of the endless belts between the shafts created the friction necessary to engage the shafts such that the turning of the central drive shaft caused the large endless belts to rotate. The rotation of the large endless belts rotated the line shafts, which in turn rotated the smaller endless belts attached to the machines.

This use of endless belts to transmit power survived the change from water turbines to steam engines as the primary sources of power, and the later change from steam engines to modern internal combustion engines and electric motors. In fact, endless belts are currently used in a vast array of products including automobiles, motion picture projectors, supermarket registers, and vacuum cleaners, to name but a few. (Hint: This is the answer to my riddle).

Endless belts were traditionally manufactured from strips of leather that were sewn together. Unfortunately, these belts were prone to stretching and the friction between the shaft and the belt would cause the leather to become smooth over time, each of which resulted in slippage of the belt. In response to these problems, leather belts began to be replaced by belts using fabrics that were coated with India rubber. This change occurred at least as early as 1857, when Robert Hale of Roxbury, Massachusetts was granted U.S. Patent No. 17,216 for his machine for making India rubber belts.

As time went on, different materials and methods were utilized in the manufacture of endless belts. Further, the use of endless belts had expanded beyond their traditional use in manufacturing processes and they were used extensively in other applications, including many in the fledgling automotive industry. In fact, the manufacture of belts for the automotive industry was the first order of business for the Arthur S. Brown Manufacturing Company of Tilton, New Hampshire.

Arthur S. Brown was a young telegrapher for the Boston and Maine Railroad when he arrived in Tilton a few years before the turn of the century. He fell in love with a local woman, Belle Peabody, whom he married in 1898, and became associated with Tilton Woolen through his wife’s family connections. In 1912, Mr. Brown opened his own company and began the production of endless belts for use in automobiles. At that time, Mr. Brown’s company produced flat endless belts and Mr. Brown nearly went bankrupt during his first years in business. However, the fortunes of Mr. Brown and his company would be forever changed by his Yankee ingenuity and the ingenuity of his employees.

Ludovic Shiatte went to work for Mr. Brown in 1916 as a shop worker and eventually advanced to the position of overseer and plant superintendent. In 1922, Mr. Shiatte began work on the design of an endless belt that would have no stretch to it. He collaborated with Mr. Brown and the company’s bookkeeper, Gertrude Knapp, in connection with his design and the culmination of their work was the endless power transmission belt described in United States Patent No. 1,545,206, which issued on July 7, 1925.

The endless power transmission belt of Patent No. 1,545,206 was manufactured by forming a loop having a desired size from a strand of twine, string or yarn and then winding another strand of string or yarn around the loop until the body of the belt was built up to the desired size. The key to this winding operation was to maintain a constant tension on the strand being wrapped around the loop so that the entire body of the belt would be under uniform tension. Once fully wound, the body was wrapped with a tape covering and stitched together in a certain manner in order to obtain the desired shape. If a belt having a round cross section were desired, the belt would be stitched transversely at a number of locations around the belt. If a belt having a v-shaped cross section were desired, the belt would be stitched at only three locations so as to form a triangle.

The belts produced by the Arthur S. Brown Manufacturing Company came to be known as Tilton Endless Belts and were used extensively by Henry Ford, most notably in the Model T. In fact, it was rumored that Ford was so impressed with the belts that he wanted to buy the company. Mr. Ford visited Tilton in the 1920’s along with two similarly famous traveling companions; Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone, and toured Brown’s factory. It is ironic that Ford later ended his relationship with Mr. Brown when Firestone starting making rubber V-belts. However, the relationship did help to reverse the fortunes of the Arthur S. Brown Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Schiatte, who continued to work for the company until his death in 1947, was co-inventor of another invention with Mr. Brown and Ms. Knapp, who married and became Gertrude Sedgley. Mr. Brown continued to innovate and to collaborate with Mrs. Sedgley on innovations to endless belts until Mr. Brown’s death in 1957. This collaboration resulted in the issuance of a number of other patents directed both to round belts and flat belts and their inventions helped the company to develop into a successful worldwide business.

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I would like to thank Roger Amsden and the very helpful librarians at the Hale Memorial Library in Tilton for their assistance with my research on this column.

Michael (Mike) Persson is a Registered Patent Attorney and is the Managing Director of the law firm of Lawson & Persson, P.C., in Laconia, where his practice focuses primarily on intellectual property law and litigation. Mike serves as Treasurer of the Belknap County Economic Development Council and the Belknap County Bar Association, and on the boards of The Salvation Army and the Lakes Region Rotary Club. Mike lives in Laconia with his wife and two daughters and may be reached by phone at 603-528-0023, or via email at mike@laconialaw.com.

A 1953 advertisement for Arthur S. Brown Manufacturing Company of Tilton. Brown’s patented "Tilton Endless Belts" were used in the Model-T Ford, in factories, movie projectors and a number of other applications