La Verne Noyes was an American inventor and manufacturer. Noyes worked for the organization of the Department of Commerce and Labor; and was one of the first advocates of the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Background
La Verne Noyes was born on January 7, 1849 on his father's farm in Genoa, Cayuga County, New York, United States. He was the son of Leonard R. and Jane (Jessup) Noyes. He was descended from James Noyes who emigrated from England and in 1633 became pastor of the Congregational church in Newbury, Massachussets. When La Verne Noyes was five years old his parents journeyed west to Springville, Linn County, Iowa, and there undertook the conversion of wild prairie land into a farm and home.
Education
Noyes entered Ames Agricultural College, now Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa, in 1868.
Career
In 1872 Noyes was assistant in the department of physics. His duties involved particularly the design and construction of much of the equipment used in the classroom and this experience, coupled with his earlier mechanical training on the farm in repairing machinery and tools, stimulated his genius for invention.
Noyes returned to his home where he again assisted his father and for a time had charge of the sale of farm implements in the village store at Marion, near by. He thus had opportunity to perceive the shortcomings of the existing farm machinery and to note the direction in which it needed improvement.
In 1874, when twenty-five years old, he established a business in Batavia, Illinois, for the manufacture of haying tools and carried it on successfully for about five years. Among the improvements he perfected during this time was a horse hay fork, patented June 22, 1878.
In 1879 he moved to Chicago and established a plant for the manufacture of a wire dictionary holder which he had first devised at the request of his wife. This undertaking was extremely profitable almost from the start, and gave him the opportunity to continue his inventive work in farm machinery. Thus in the succeeding decade he sold manufacturing rights to twelve patented inventions, including tractor wheels, a harvester reel, a sheaf carrier for self-binding harvesters, and a cord-knotter for grain binders.
About 1886 he began giving serious attention to the possibilities of improving the windmill.
The business grew so rapidly that it required the enlargement of the manufacturing plant until it covered some ten acres.
He was particularly interested in the utilization of his air motor for the generation of electric power.
While his business absorbed much of his attention, he was engaged in many enterprises for the public good.
He made generous gifts to his alma mater, Iowa State College, and to a number of charities in Chicago, but his two outstanding philanthropies were gifts to the University of Chicago: first, the Ida Noyes Hall, a social center for women, erected as a memorial to his wife, who died in 1912, and second, the La Verne Noyes Foundation for the education of honorably discharged soldiers of the World War and their descendants.
Achievements
After three years of experimentation resulting in the invention of numerous improvements, Noyes organized the Aeromotor Company in Chicago and began the manufacture of steel windmills, which reduced the cost of wind power to one-sixth of what it had been previously. Besides his "air motors" he manufactured specially designed steel towers for his windmills and for electric power lines and wireless stations, gasoline engines, and water-supply goods.
Noyes was president of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association for two years and also of the board of trustees of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and of many other educational and charitable institutions.
Connections
On May 24, 1877 Noyes married Ida Elizabeth Smith of Charles City, Iowa.
