Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2509

Typed pages written by Frances Alice Norton (later Frances Norton Manning), 10 Montague Terrace, Brooklyn Heights, New  York  but approved by Heath, when acting as publicist for him in the early 1940s

 

 

 

 

Spencer Heath

 

Selinda Amelia Payne (Mother)

Born in central New York State. Went to Virginia as a young woman and married Spencer Anson Heath, son of Horace Heath.

 Horace Heath was born in New York State, near Albany.

 Spencer Anson Heath was born in New York but moved to Virginia when he was very young. Selinda and Spencer were married about 1875 in Virginia.

 Spencer Heath was born January 3, 1876 in Vienna, Virginia. Place of birth was “Idlewild” home of Mrs. Heath’s mother and father. Mr. Heath’s father died before Mr. Heath was born and therefore his mother went to her parents’ home.

 Mrs. Heath continued living with her parents and then went about providing for herself and son. They moved to Washington D.C. to “educate her son”. (Mr. Heath makes the comment he took his children to the country to educate them.) In Washington, D.C. young Spencer had a newspaper route and as he put it “honored the educational system and lent luster to the schools”.

 Attended Public schools in Washington. Favorite studies were Science, Geography, Geometry. They “taught me to hate studies particularly because I was made to memorize everything in italics. I had to learn the whole Constitution and as I was in Eighth Grade confused the Constitution with matters of Religious import, however, the good of it, I dug out myself and didn’t learn from school. I was absorbed in Science and speculative philosophy, during my teens and continued through High School in Washington D.C. (Central High School). Then I went to Corcoran Scientific School which was a Department of the Columbia University, now known as George Washington University. I didn’t go long enough, so they didn’t graduate me. No diploma on merit. They wanted more time and more money.”

 At about twenty, Spencer Heath went to work with an engineering firm Johnson and Morris, Engineers in Washington, under “Hell snorting” Tom Eagan. “He had a stream of profanity in every word he said, unless a lady was present and then his profanity vanished. I heard so much cussing with Tom I didn’t use any myself” said Mr. Heath.

 Mr. Heath then took a Business course at night with the idea he would go to the middle-West and wanted to be prepared. His mother had a very unusual operation which was performed by Dr. James Tully Vaughn, who received high honors because of the success of the operation.

 At Corcoran Scientific School, Mr. Heath took an Engineering course. “Guess I would have had a degree if I’d gone on with it” was again his comment. He liked engineering and it was then he went to Chicago. He went to Chicago in about 1898. He took a room in Englewood (Chicago’s South side) and tried to get a job. He was six feet tall. Medium brown hair. Blue eyes. “I didn’t like shaving, so grew a mustache and Van Dyke. I worked for Walker-Doolittle and Co. treading bricks. “I put an ad in the Tribune for a job and went after replies, but there were none. I finally walked into an office of an Engineer in the La Salle Bldg. A thin chap hired me with this offer: ‘I’ll pay you what you are worth.’ It sounded like Heaven to me. I worked about a week as a draughtsman, doing preliminary drawings for Harbor improvements for Port Arthur Texas, and then this nervous, strange looking individual called me into his office and I thought he was going to let me go. But he said he couldn’t make me out — ‘but I told you I’d pay you what you’re worth and I will. You’re a draughtsman alright, but you’re slow.’ He paid me $2.00 a day, and if he had said $20.00 I couldn’t have been happier. I worked at $2.00 a day until the job was finished and then set sail for Elgin, Illinois.

 A Michigan girl, whose name Marie Holm was attending The Peoples Church in Washington, presided over by the Scotch blacksmith Alexander Kent. The Church had bicycle clubs, and that was how they met. She was blonde (a super blonde) and beautiful. (Swedish) Her eyes were gray-blue. She was one of the first stenographers in the country and was Secretary to Admiral Francis Dickens in Washington.

 After Mr. Heath had been in Chicago some time they corresponded, as he had proposed to her before he left Washington. She said she would marry him. It was about 1897 when the proposal took place. They were married in Grand Rapids, June 2, 1899. It was a home wedding at a friend’s and by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Methodist ministeress. /See Wikipedia on Shaw./

 Before returning to Washington to be married (between 1898 and 1899) Mr. Heath worked in Elgin at the Elgin Watch Company working on machinery, although he had gone there as a draughtsman. However, they told him he would make a better draughtsman after working on the tool making machines. They advanced him to $18.00 a week, after having started at $12.00. On the Friday before the Wednesday when he was to be married, he left them to arrive in Chicago Saturday morning. Spent the day buying wedding clothes and a job. He got a job at the Western Electric Company in the experimental department. Had a hard time getting that job. The employment officer asked what kind of machine he could run, drill press, punch press, and as Mr. Heath put it “I sassed him back,” and the answers so puzzled him that he sent for Mr. Williamson, the Supt. Mr. Heath had sold him on the idea he had a creative mind.. Therefore the experimental department. Put him on at $20.00 a week and wanted him to go to work. Mr. Heath told him he had to get married.

 Returning to Chicago, they took an apartment and Mr. Heath saw Mr. Williamson and asked for more time, that they had to find a place to live. Mr. Heath said he had his wife with him, and Mr. Williamson asked if they would like to go through the Western Electric plant. They had a personally conducted tour, and being in the experimental dept. he had to have various parts and always got special attention for his introduction had been when Mr. Williamson, the Supt. had escorted him through with a lady in a velvet gown, big hat and white furs. “Life became very complicated. The apartment was so small, that they finally found a larger apartment. Marguerite, their first daughter was born in Chicago Sept. 21, 1900. Lucile was the second daughter born fall of 1902 (November 22) and the third was Beatrice, born August 11, 1904.

 In Chicago, Mr. Heath redesigned for the Crane Company their lines of valves (about 1900) then to Purdy and Henderson in Chicago. At Purdy and Henderson, structural Engineers, there was a new type of work, highly conventionalized and some purely arbitrary things were rejected and as Mr. Heath’s protests kept coming through to Mr. Hall that he wasn’t earning his pay. They had in mind, making a checker out of him and for that reason he had been put on various strange jobs. A time basis gave him about $25.00 a week.

 Mrs. Heath returned to Washington on a visit and talked to her previous employer Admiral Dickens (he was the man who Commanded the Maine) and the Admiral suggested Mr. Heath come to Washington and take a Civil Service for Navy Dept. engineering. He took his Civil Service engineering examination and became officially a draughtsman in connection with depots for coal. He had a very wide wage in this regard, architecturally, and otherwise. The job became an appointment and so he resigned from the Chicago firm.

 Living in Washington, Mr. Heath took a night course in Law at the National University and took his B.A. He didn’t believe in graduations but read in the paper he had “Graduated and been presented with a medal on the stage of the National theatre.” He got the medal, but not through presentation. The medal was for having made the highest marks of the class, about year 1905 (?) Then he continued in same school and got his Masters Degree and became a virtual authority, for students came to him to help settle questions. He liked Law immensely and as in Elgin, they called his “classes” The Log Cabin University…because while employed by the Elgin Watch Company, the men in the plant, Swedish and German came to him for help. Being a born teacher, Mr. Heath formed quite a group and unofficially “taught” such subjects as shop math.. and preliminary engineering and elementary which the men called “figurin”…

 The Masters degree came through about 1910 in Law.

 In the Navy Dept. his pay was $1,200.00 a year. He left the Navy job to get a better job in the Navy at $1,600.00. They had to work at the Navy Yard because the Govt. wouldn’t give them money to have swivel chairs.. After about a year, he resigned to practice Law. Law practice was confined to Engineering clients and he had some good clients. Patent work came through and the biggest client was Christopher and Simon Lake, submarine manufacturers, and Christopher was leaning toward aeronautics. In aeronautics, Mr. Heath handled all their patent work and joined the Aero Club of America which was just forming. The Wrights, and the pioneer sportsmen and Inventors. The Aero Club merged with the Society of Automotive Engineers during World War one and now meet in the Engineers Bldg. in New York. About 1925, Mr. Heath resigned from the Aero Club.

 In 1909, with the Christopher Lake firm Mr. Heath went to Bridgeport in early summer and spent several months there. Mr. Heath then had occasion to design aeroplane propellers for this firm. Their marine designer didn’t want to handle air designs at all. Mr. Heath studied it thoroughly and became very much interested in it and developed some new ideas of design which were accepted and returned to his office in Washington (Address 918 F St). “I hired a man and made one or two plane propellers and sold them to some experimenters who were being financed by Emile Berliner.” Then Mr. Heath was put in charge of Berliner’s attorneys and then Berliner undertook to manufacture engines (plane) similar to the French aeroplane engine called “Gnome” (about 1909).. Mr. Heath became Gen. Mgr. and Consulting engineer of this enterprise in addition to the legal work in connection with Berliner patents.

 About 1909 (or 1910) Mr. Heath designed the wings for his Helicopter with which Mr. Berliner was experimenting. These designs covered different sets and sizes and then Berliner began the manufacture of these engines (the Gnome) and then during this time Mr. Heath had a small experimental lab where he manufactured his own propellers under the name of “Paragon” (Trade name). This was during the time he was with Berliner.

 That factory was in Washington, D.C. and started with one man. He never invested a dime in it and the returns came in before he had to pay wages or material. The business was never financed. Private experimenters who had planes they hoped to fly had seen an ad in the Aeronautical Journal and the money came in C.O.D. for the first propellers. The money came in before he had to pay it out, therefore he prospered.

 The fees earned in practice brought a nod from the Navy Dept. heads who had laughed when Spencer Heath resigned to go into private Law Practice. One fee brought more than the entire stipend earned while with the Navy.

 By the end of 1911 the propeller business had developed so far Mr. Heath had to have a regular factory and so he canvassed a lot of cities around for a factory site and in March 1912, found a small factory in Baltimore. He then dropped his connection with Mr. Berliner and other clients. The propeller business was very interesting to Mr. Heath and he saw a future beyond his Law work. The first year profits averaged about $5,000 ahead and as he puts it, “It was the most money he had ever had.” But it became the basis for his propeller business.

Three years followed of great struggle. 1912, 1913 and 1914.

There was not enough volume, although he had experimenters, Gov’t Contracts, both Army and Navy but he built up a great reputation with the Navy. He became an unofficial purchasing agent for the Navy and were constantly seeking his judgment in aeronautics. Mr. Heath flew with Jack Towers, now Admiral John Towers (head of Navy aeronautics) ..

In Law school Mr. Heath was President of the Debating society and copyrighted Heath’s Parliamentary Table, Published by John Byrne..Wash. It was used and commended by Chairman Jenkins of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Single sheet answering instantly all questions which might arise in Parliamentary Law procedure in any Parliamentary meeting. It was eventually sold to the Law Book Trade of Washington.

In 1915, 1916 Govt. business picked up and by early 1917, business reached its peak when the war ended. Mr. Heath designed and built, in advance of its need, many special machines of various types for mass production of aeroplane propellers and used them so effectively he became the largest manufacturer in that line. Credited with 75 to 80% of the business of everything in the country, it may well be said Spencer Heath was the Henry Kaiser in the propeller business of the last War.

 Contracts for this country, Canada and many Foreign countries were handled through Mr. Heath. The orders came through in hundreds of thousands and in one case the contract came to over a million dollars. During the year 1916 to 1918 Mr. Heath had five propeller factories running at the same time. All these factories were in Baltimore. Before the War Mr. Heath popularized quartered white Oak which he had been successful with. “A propeller is so fragile if it strikes a bird, it flies to pieces and and wrecks the machine (this was during the early years) Propellers made of Oak, they could fly into a stone wall and bounce back again. An attempt to exclude Oak and substitute mahogany was made at the instigation of the mahogany trade, however Mr. Heath would not recommend the use of it and would not use it, if he could avoid its use. When mahogany was used, it proved bad and at loss.

 On the design of these early propellers, Mr. Heath found certain Govt. specifications defective in his opinion and he corrected the defect in design and proceeded to manufacture the corrected design and the Govt. engineers, learning of this correction, had all propellers delivered, condemned and refused further acceptance .. because the correction had been made and according to the rules Govt. specifications must hold. Orders for suspension of orders were held up through personal contact of Mr. Heath with the officials while Mr. Heath continued manufacturing as corrected. The report came through propellers were breaking in the air. Mr. Heath went to the Navy field and said..”I understand my propellers were breaking in the air”..”Your propellers? Like hell they are” came back..”Yours are the only ones not breaking..what we want to know is why we can’t get more of them..” The answer was “Because the Govt. held up my orders and wouldn’t let me ship any more.” Orders then went through with the corrected design.

 Mr. Heath developed the first automatic propeller controlled by engine power to change its pitch. This was the first and up to that time only successful one. That principle is in use today in propellers on all but the smallest ships.

 Business from 1919 to about 1929 was mostly development and in 1929 Vincent Bendix was attracted by the demonstrations of this propeller and offered negotiations that finally resulted in taking over all patents, pending applications and several Companies owned by Mr. Heath and services of Mr. Heath as research engineer with exclusive right to use the name of Heath. So Mr. Heath handled research for Bendix, spent some of the time abroad and travelled somewhat extensively in the research engineering field.

 In early 1917, War dept. subsidized Mr. Heath to improve and develop automatic wind fans for driving electric generators for current in radio. These radios were on aeroplanes and were constant speed wind fans to drive generators supplying electric current for the radio apparatus at all speeds. This line of manufacture was successful and the production following was extensive requiring three separate factories ..couldn’t get one big enough in Baltimore.

 In about 1918, Mr. and Mrs. Heath were divorced. In 1920 he married again and in 1958 was divorced again. All of Mr. Heath’s daughters are married, Marguerite his first is Mrs. Merton McConkey and lives in Lansing, Michigan. They have two children. Lucile married Ian Crawford MacCallum and they have two children and they live in Washington, D.C. The third daughter Beatrice has two children and she married Irvan Thomas O’Connell and they live in Winchester, Virginia. Beatrice /their daughter/ attends Bennington college in Vermont.

 Spencer Heath MacCallum is about 13.

 Spencer Heath’s permanent home is Baltimore. Roadsend Gardens, Elkridge, Maryland. New York home 11 Waverly Place, Gramercy 7-9060.

 In Maryland Mr. Heath’s hobby is horticulture .. his Estate in Maryland is 110 acres between two Boulevards, it has a three-family house and cottage. Tenants occupy it now but Mr. Heath visits when he isn’t writing a book.

 Of theatres he picks the shows critics knock, to see why critics knock them.

 He dislikes regular hours and the details of correspondence. He has a divine sense of humor and makes light of his own seriousness in regard to his work. He likes poetry and books. He is a fine musician and has composed a number of lovely themes. He wrote in /words of/ one syllable The Lords Prayer and has written verse and a Library of articles.

SUMMARY:- Spencer Heath as a personage is a lovable, brilliant and steadfast visionary. To this man whose work has been with Engineering discoveries comes the beautiful tribute of logic and forward thinking. Spencer Heath does not look back ever. His mind is as flexible as a young sapling and as open as the wide, blue sea … he has no fixations or phobias. He has not retired into his mind or opinions to relate the experiences of his accomplishments or years. He takes things in high .. and never in reverse.

Today he is giving his time and his thought to the book he has written and the articles he has written to straighten a few cogs in the wheels and in an attempt to lift the burden of conflict and tumult..

I say .. “If Spencer Heath took the time to write it and think it .. I’ll take the time to read it and tell others to read it .. for the thoughts and work of this man..are of importance to us all…and not to be shelved, begged or overlooked.”

 

Frances Alice Norton