Necessity is the Mother of Invention  

NBHS Historian/Claudia Houston

January is a good month to reflect on the past, and at the New Bern Historical Society, we like to review old newspaper articles.  An article from the Raleigh News and Observer written in 1938 by local reporter and Historian Gertrude Carraway reminded us why.  Her article was about five inventors of note from New Bern.  How many do you know?

The hard-luck story of noted jeweler John Gill was the featured article.  According to National experts, in 1829, Mr. Gill invented the first revolving gun.  However, he did not patent the firearm as he did not understand the necessity of doing so. In 1835, just as Mr. Gill finally arrived in Washington, DC, to attempt to file a patent, he learned Samuel Colt had beaten him to it and received a patent for the same gun. Though Mr. Gill was duped, he had no time or money to pursue his original claim.

Gabriel T. Rains and his brother, George Washington Rains, were nicknamed the “Bomb Brothers.”  Both men, sons of a local cabinet maker, attended and graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and served in the Army.  When North Carolina seceded from the Union, both men resigned their commission and joined the Confederate States of America. Gabriel became head of the Torpedo and Harbor Defense Bureau for the Confederacy, and his inventions earned him the moniker of the father of modern torpedoes and depth bombs. George Washington Rains made these torpedoes and bombs effective through fuse priming. He built the Confederacy's powder mills and munitions factories in Augusta, Georgia. After the War, in 1867, he became a professor of chemistry at the University of Georgia and later patented many improvements in the steam engine.

Dr. Frederick Devereaux Lente invented an early instrument for blood transfusion. He graduated from the University of North Carolina and continued his studies in Paris. He became the head of gynecology and child diseases at the University of New York in New York City and invented several instruments for gynecologists.

Lt Charles T. Wootten, son of renowned photographer Bayard Wootten, graduated from the US Naval Academy. While serving at Annapolis as an officer, he invented a range-finding device for battleships. The Wootten Scope was a firing system that allowed moving ships to target airplanes in flight.

We have added several other notable New Bern Inventors not included in Ms. Carraway’s article.

Dr. Jason Bell Alexander took out US patent No. 41898 for a calculating machine on March 15, 1864. This machine was never produced, but one known model survives at the Smithsonian. Dr. Alexander submitted patents for a siphon bottle, bottle stopper, and automatic railroad switch and six patents for improving oil-burning lamps.

Gilbert S. Waters invented the Buggymobile in 1899, a gasoline-powered vehicle, but he could not obtain bank funding to manufacture his invention. No one could imagine driving a buggy without horses. Mr. Waters was still driving around New Bern in the 1930s and getting 40 miles per gallon of gas. His buggymobile is displayed at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. This was the first gasoline-powered vehicle built in the South.

Sara Marshall Boone was enslaved in New Bern. She, her husband, and her family escaped to New Haven, CT, before the Civil War, where she became a seamstress. She learned to read and write with the help of her local Church and filed a patent for the modern-day version of the ironing board in 1898.

The most famous New Bern inventor is Caleb Bradham, the inventor of Pepsi-Cola.  Bradham was a pharmacist in New Bern who created the drink in 1898. He originally called it "Brad's Drink" and made it with sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, kola nuts, nutmeg, and other additives. The drink became immensely popular, and Bradham developed it into a business headquartered in New Bern.  Unfortunately, due to the price of sugar after World War I, Caleb Bradham filed for bankruptcy on May 31, 1923.

These are just a few of the noted New Bern inventors.  Who else have you discovered?