The Lowell directory : containing the city record Volume 1861
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
(In the future murder is anonymous. Drones are used to str...)
In the future murder is anonymous. Drones are used to stream to social networks, but they can be modified, made to kill.
When the inventor of personal drones is assassinated, his son, Ion Langley a virtual reality actor knows he's next. Hiding out at a remote cabin he discovers a curious black orb that grants him superhuman abilities. Now, he’s being hunted by the U.S. government as an enemy of the state.
But when a false flag operation carried out by a former congressman and a deranged pirate rocks the nation, the actor decides to play the role of a lifetime. A revolutionary superman.
Will Ion be able to stop drone terrorism while contending with a power-hungry politician and a crazed homicidal pirate?
Only time will tell.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
Joshua Merrill was an American chemist and pioneer oil refiner.
Background
Joshua Merrill was born on October 6, 1820, at Duxbury, Massachusetts. He was the sixth child and fourth son of Abraham Dow Merrill and his first wife, Nancy (Morrison) Merrill. On his father's side he was descended in the eighth generation from Nathaniel Merrill who settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1635, and on his mother's from John Morrison who emigrated from Scotland to Londonderry, New Hampshire, around 1720. His grandfather, Joshua Merrill, served in the War of 1812, and his father was a successful Methodist minister, who served charges in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Education
Merrill's formal education, which he received in the grammar school at Lowell, was short, for he left school at the age of fifteen to work for an elder brother who was engaged in Boston in the manufacture of paper hangings.
Career
Merrill was employed by both Luther Atwood and Samuel Downer, oil merchants, who were to become pioneers in the development of mineral oils. In 1852 the first coal-oil made for sale in the United States was produced by Luther Atwood and manufactured as a lubricant by the United States Chemical Company at Waltham. This product was known as "Coup Oil, " and Merrill was engaged in 1853 to introduce it to the market. He continued in this capacity after Downer secured control of the company in 1854. In 1856 George Miller & Company of Glasgow, Scotland, appealed to Downer for assistance in the manufacture of coal tar, and Luther Atwood and Joshua Merrill were sent to aid in the erection of a factory. In the years following 1856, Merrill carried on ceaseless experiments in the production of both lubricants and illuminants from a hydrocarbon base, manufacturing them from Trinidad asphaltum, Cuban chapapote bitumin, and particularly, in the years 1857 and 1858, from albertite, a bituminous coal obtained from Albert County, New Brunswick. While Merrill and his associates were in the midst of their experiments with albertite, turning out large quantities of various kinds of hydrocarbon oils, and rapidly developing the business into a position where it was endangering the prestige of whale and sperm oil, there came the news of the discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania. Downer reorganized his business into the Downer Kerosene Company and set out for the oil regions to ensure a supply of raw materials, while Merrill and his assistants turned their talents to the problem of refining the new product.
Achievements
Many of the most important technological processes and discoveries in the early days of the oil business were worked out in the laboratories of the Downer Kerosene Oil Company. Among these should be particularly noted Merrill's invention in 1869 of a method of distilling by steam at so low a temperature that the partial decomposition, which usually takes place in oil distillation at high temperature, might be avoided, thereby producing less odorous paraffin lubricating oils. In 1869 also Joshua patented a rosin oil and in 1870 Rufus S. Merrill received a patent which was assigned to his brothers, Joshua and William, for a process and burner for "the production of light from heavy hydrocarbons. " So important was the work carried on in the Downer company that a reliable expert said in 1872 that he found it "generally acknowledged" that to Merrill "more than to anyone else, belongs the honor of bringing this manufacture to its present advanced state" and that "an account of his labors and discoveries in this connection would provide a nearly complete history of the art". When Downer disposed of much of his interest in the company in 1871, Merrill and his three brothers took over the management and Joshua became president. He was also a senior partner in the firm of Joshua Merrill & Son, dealers in petroleum.
(In the future murder is anonymous. Drones are used to str...)
Religion
For almost half a century Merrill was a generous benefactor of the Tremont Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and one of the most prominent Methodist laymen of Boston, serving for many years as president of the Boston Wesleyan Association and as trustee of Boston University.
Views
While in Scotland, Luther Atwood and Joshua Merrill discovered new methods of obtaining oil from coal and succeeded in purifying it of its offensive odor. This opened up the possibility of hydrocarbon oils for illumination, and Atwood and Merrill, who had gone to Scotland to manufacture lubricating oil, returned to manufacture illuminants. After the trying experiences which he had encountered with albertite and other bituminous products, he found the problems of refining petroleum relatively easy, especially after Luther Atwood's process of distillation, known as "cracking, " was successfully applied to the new material.
Connections
Merrill married on June 13, 1849, Amelia S. Grigg, who with three daughters and one son survived him.
