Background
George Barnard Grant was the son of Peter Grant, a ship-builder, and his wife, Vesta Capen. He was born on December 21, 1849, in that part of Gardiner, Maine, then known as Farmingdale.
He was a great-grandson of Capt. Samuel Grant, one of the pioneers in the settlement of Maine, and was descended from Peter Grant of Inverness, Scotland, who with his three brothers came to Massachusetts Bay Colony from Plymouth, England, on the ship Mary and John, in May 1630.
On his mother’s side he was descended from Barnard Capen, who came from England about 1630 and in 1633 was granted land in Dorchester, Massachusets, where he died in 1638.
Education
George Barnard Grant prepared for college at Bridgton Academy, studied for three terms in the Chandler Scientific School of Dartmouth College, and in 1869, entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard College, where he completed the four years’ course in three years, receiving the degree of B. S. with the class of 1873.
He had a strong scientific and mechanical mind and while a student at Harvard devoted much study to the invention of a calculating machine which would save time and labor in arithmetical computations involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
During his college course, he published “On a New Difference Engine, ” in the American Journal of Science and took out his first patents with reference to calculating machines, one in 1872 and another in 1873.
After his graduation, he continued his study in this line.
Career
Grant was hampered by lack of funds to construct the mechanical calculators, embodying his invention, until through the efforts of Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, Fairman Rogers of Philadelphia assumed the financial responsibility for the construction of the machine, which was duly completed and exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.
This calculating machine, known as “Grant’s Difference Engine, ” was about five feet in height by eight feet in length; it weighed nearly 2, 000 pounds and consisted of some 15, 000 pieces; its cost was about $10, 000, most of which was contributed by Rogers, who provided that the machine should be a donation to the University of Pennsylvania.
In connection with Grant’s development of the calculating machine, he placed on the market two models, the first called the “Barrel, ” or “Centennial” model, which was shown at the Centennial Exposition together with the Difference Engine, and the other a “Rack and Pinion” model, of which 125 were sold.
Both of these models were sturdy and reliable in operation and their use did much to break down the then prevalent deep-seated prejudice against the use of calculating machines in business.
Shortly after his graduation, as a result of his calculating-machine work, he started a machineshop for gear-cutting in the old Waverly House in Charlestown, Massachusets, and became one of the founders of the gear-cutting industry in the United States.
He later moved his shop to Boston and incorporated his business under the name of “Grant Gear Works Inc. ,” which he conducted as long as he lived, and which was continued under the same name after his death; he also established two other gear-cutting shops, one in Philadelphia, incorporated under the name of “Philadelphia Gear Works Inc. ,” which he conducted until he disposed of it in 1911, and the other in Cleveland, Ohio, incorporated under the name of “Cleveland Gear Works Inc. ,” which he disposed of after a few years.
He never ceased to study the problems of calculating machines, and during the last years of his life he conducted considerable experimental work in connection with the development of such machines.
He died, on August 16, 1917, in Pasadena, California.
Personality
Grant was a resident of Malden, Massachusets, first in that part known as “Linden, ” in 1878, and in that part known as “Maplewood” in 1882.
He moved his residence to Lexington in 1887, and later to Pasadena, California, but became a resident of Lexington again before his death. He traveled widely in both America and Europe.
