Biography – Nelson Stow, Inventor of the Flexible Shaft

BORN: Windsor, New York, on September 12, 1828
[as reprinted from Cassier’s magazine v. 27 Nov. 1904-Apr. 1905. Article by Leon Mead]

Like many other inventions, the flexible shaft was the product of suggestion or association of ideas. In the course of a chat with Nelson Stow just before his death, a few months ago, remembering to have seen the flexible shaft mentioned in an authoritative book as one of the twelve greatest inventions of the last century, I asked him how the thought first came to him of this new method of transmitting power.

“It was away back in 1857,” he said, “that one day, while watching a work-man in my whip factory twisting and bending back and forth a piece of whalebone to get it in proper shape for use, the idea of the flexible shaft came to me like a flash. So clearly did the idea take form in my mind that I ordered the man to quit the job he was doing, and together we immediately set about to work out some tangible result of this mental suggestion, which I briefly explained to him. Thus my first flexible shaft, or rather the so called core of it, was made of whalebone, but it demonstrated the value of the principle, and to all intents and purposes it was the same as the core afterwards made of wound wire.”

Mr. Stow went on to say that for a time he was very enthusiastic over his invention, but meeting with discouragement, not only from mechanics in his own employ, but from others whose opinions he sought, he did not apply for a patent until twelve years later. His application was rejected, on the ground that the casing in which the core revolved was so nearly like the tubing of a certain drop light as to infringe on that patent. Considering this an absurd reason, as it doubtless was, he investigated the matter further, and finally, in 1872, obtained a patent.

It happened that Mr. Stow was a great lover of horses, and, quite naturally, when the idea of the flexible shaft entered his mind, he thought only of its application to the currying and cleaning of horses. Indeed, for some time his conception of it was confined to these particular uses. But gradually it began to dawn on him that this device for the transmission of power could be put to many other uses as well. At the time he received the patent, however, he was still unaware of its great importance to the world and of its many possible practical applications.

The value of his invention was soon recognised by other men, though when it came to them as a commercial enterprise they treated it in the cold, derogating manner so often assumed in business transactions. Mr. S. S. White, of Philadelphia, however, bought what was loosely called the “dental right,” and which meant the use of the shaft in dentistry work, for $10,000; he also entered into a contract with Mr. Stow by the terms of which the latter was to manufacture the shaft for him, and this he continued to do until the patent expired in 1889.

Soon after selling the “dental right” to Mr. White, the inventor disposed of his half interest in his English patent to George Burnham, of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, for $4000, and engaged to “manufacture the shaft on a royalty for Mr. Burnham, who was to market the output for all mechanical purposes, apart from dentistry.

At the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, Mr. Stow received one of the three highest medals for new inventions, the other two being awarded, respectively, to Thomas A. Edison and George Westinghouse. From that time the flexible shaft, wherever it could be employed at all, was rapidly introduced.

“Yes,” said Mr. Stow, in answer to my question, ” its uses are almost limitless, to say nothing of its time and labour-saving advantages. It is indispensable to the dentist, who uses it constantly in boring teeth, —probably you have experienced the delightful thrills that attend the shaft’s usually successful search after one’ s nerves; it may be used to crop your hair so close that you will hardly know yourself from a convict; it does the same kind of work on horses; it is invaluable in polishing marble, steel, and other materials; and it is used very extensively in mining, bridge building, and railway construction ; it is found in every first class machine shop.”

He might have added that, as a driving factor, the flexible shaft enters into the work of wood carving, cloth cutting, sand papering, marble and mining drills, sash, door and blind boring, and into the construction of surgical instruments, time recorders, die work, etc. The greatest rival of the flexible shaft at the present time is compressed air; but, on the other hand, the development of driving power by electricity has wonderfully helped it. Its use has brought into existence many special portable tools which have a province peculiarly their own.

Besides the Stow Manufacturing Company, of Binghamton, New York, the original and largest manufacturers of flexible shafts in the world, there are four or five other firms in this country that make them, the patent having expired. In Europe about the same number of concerns make flexible shafts, identical in principle with the Stow, but varying somewhat in the details of construction.

Mr. Stow possessed many of the characteristics of the typical inventor, including the faculty of getting the worst end of a bargain. He belonged to that class of men of genius who are poor, but honest, and who seem fated to sell their patented rights for a mess of pottage. Along in the seventies, I am told, when he was in prosperous circumstances, his manly countenance beamed with a satisfaction most pleasant to behold; it was as Dickens said of Mrs. Fezziwig’s face, “one vast, substantial smile.” At that time he had cordial relations with men of wealth, such as S. S. White, George Burnham, and Mr. Struthers, of Philadelphia, — the Mr. Struthers who had the contract for building the Philadelphia City Hall for $6,660,000, and which, before its completion, cost far more than that amount. It was in fluting one of the granite columns of this building that the flexible shaft was first tested for this kind of work.

Mr. Stow was particularly proud of the confidence reposed in him by Mr. White, who allowed him the unwatched freedom of his large place of business, at the corner of Twelfth and Chestnut Streets. This privilege was granted to only two or three other outsiders, who were regarded as strong enough to resist the temptations to be found there in the shape of ideas for patents. At different times, while wandering through the rooms of this establishment and noting the many and varied labour-saving devices there collected, Mr. Stow gave Mr. White suggestions which afterward resulted in several valuable patents issued to the latter. It was in these rooms, too, that Mr. Stow learned not to tell all he knew, or to reveal his sudden inspirations, especially those that were patentable.

Nelson Stow was a thorough American on the paternal side, while his mother’s ancestors were of Dutch-Huguenot descent. He delighted in showing his friends a time stained, crumpled discharge paper handed down from his grandfather, Samuel Stow, who served at intervals throughout the War of the Revolution, and afterward became one of the pioneer settlers of Broome County, New York. He would tell you that he himself was born at Windsor, Broome County, New York, on September 12, 1828, his home for many years past having been in Binghamton, New York. Like many country boys, he cared little for education, but attended the district school for several winters, and afterward a select school taught by an able instructor.

“I notice you spell your name without the final e” I remarked.
“Yes,” he answered, “I suppose the Stows all came from the same stock.”

Democratic simplicity distinguished the man in other ways than the retention of his name in its original form, though in his more prosperous days he is said to have been rather fond of driving fast horses. At one time he owned a unique span of horses, one black and one white; at another time he had a pair of beautifully matched black horses that he was wont to drive tandem through the streets of Binghamton, when that style of driving was something of a novelty. Though he cared little for his personal appearance, he always wore a silk hat, regardless of time, place, or the happy-go-lucky condition of his other apparel.

Mr. Stow engaged in various enterprises during his’ long life, — carriage-making, whip manufacturing, and early in the sixties, during the oil excitement in Northwestern Pennsylvania, he was one of the pioneer losers at Titusville. He secured the charter for, and built and equipped the first horse car line in Binghamton, in which city he later became involved in real estate speculation which left him penniless. At the time of his death he was in his seventy-seventh year. For a long time he had been feeble and broken in health; but, like an old war horse at the smell of gunpowder, when the subject of patents was breached, he aroused himself, his features brightened, and the old fires of ambition shone in his eyes. But the old energy had vanished long before he passed away, and in its place was the apathy of age, so far as the world in general concerned him. Where his sympathies were enlisted, however, he showed a noble kindliness of heart; perhaps the years healed the bitterness of his disappointments. Even in his old age he possessed a strong personal magnetism, and had very many loyal friends.

Mr. Stow, during his life, took out twenty patents. A few years ago he invented a pan or griddle greaser, important only as a stepping-stone to an idea for a novel kind of paint brush. The bristles of the greaser were held in place by pressure, thus doing away with the generally used glue and much of the consequent shedding of the bristles. The small royalties he received from the sales of this brush provided him with the bare necessities of life during his last years.