Background
Hyatt was born in Starkey, New York, in 1837. He was the son of John Wesley Hyatt, a blacksmith, and Anne (Gleason) Hyatt. His great-grandfather, Stephen Hyatt, was a native of England.
Hyatt was born in Starkey, New York, in 1837. He was the son of John Wesley Hyatt, a blacksmith, and Anne (Gleason) Hyatt. His great-grandfather, Stephen Hyatt, was a native of England.
Young John's common-school education was supplemented by a year at Eddytown Seminary, where he excelled in mathematics.
At the age of sixteen he went to Illinois and became a printer – a trade that he followed for ten years. Early in life, however, his mechanical and inventive ability became apparent. At the age of twenty-four he patented a device for sharpening kitchen-knives, which involved a new method for making solid emery wheels.
While at Albany, N. Y. , working as a journeyman printer, he saw an offer of $10, 000 by Phelan & Collander of New York for a substitute for ivory suitable for billiard-balls. Experimenting nights and Sundays in the hope of gaining the reward – scarcely a proper Sunday pursuit for a youth christened John Wesley – he obtained several plastic compositions none of which was good enough for billiard-balls, but out of pressed wood he began to make checkers and dominoes. To manufacture these he and his two brothers established the Embossing Company of Albany, a successful corporation, under the mechanical direction of the youngest brother, C. M. Hyatt.
In 1868-69 John Hyatt continued to seek a substance suitable for billiard-balls and achieved success with a combination of paper flock, shellac, and collodion. The ball he produced has been widely adopted. Having noticed the dried "artificial skin" left after evaporation of liquid collodion, he continued experimenting with nitrocellulose as a foundation for plastics, despite his scant knowledge of chemistry. Although heating a substance similar to guncotton under pressure is a dangerous practice, and he was ignorant of the efforts of Alexander Parkes, Daniel Spill, and others to utilize soluble pyroxylin in the making of plastics, he nevertheless discovered the important fact on which the invention of celluloid is based, namely, that a mixture of nitrocellulose, camphor, and a small amount of alcohol can be made soft enough by heat to mold, but becomes hard again under atmospheric conditions. His experiments differed from those of Parkes in that he made a hard mass soft by heat and pressure, whereas Parkes tried to harden liquids and doughs.
Hyatt's experiments were begun in Albany with the help of his brother, Isaiah Smith Hyatt, who later interested New York capitalists to invest in a celluloid factory in Newark, whither the Hyatts removed during the winter of 1872-73. John developed the complicated technique of celluloid and designed the special machinery for its manufacture and manipulation. Something of a revolution in industry was brought about by this successful utilization of a cheap synthetic substitute for costly natural substances. The prior rights of the invention of celluloid were disputed by the Englishman Spill, who had invented xylonite before the date of the Hyatts' patent, No. 105, 338, July 12, 1870, but the latter was sustained by the courts. Hyatt also obtained many patents on machinery for manufacturing commercial articles and novelties from celluloid.
In 1881-82, he and his brother Isaiah took up the problem of filtration and purification of water and started the Hyatt Pure Water Company. Coagulants had previously been used to purify water, but it had been necessary to put the chemical into a large tank or reservoir, agitate the water, and allow it to stand for twelve to twenty-four hours in order that the impurities might settle to the bottom. The Hyatts patented a process by which a coagulant is added to the water while it is on the way to the filter, so that no large settling basin is required and no time is lost. The Hyatt filters can be washed by simply reversing the current. Many paper and woolen mills, as well as many cities, adopted them, and in 1887 Hyatt introduced them in Europe.
In 1891-92 he devised a type of rollerbearings to reduce friction on machinery and moving parts. The important Hyatt Roller Bearing Company, at Harrison, N. J. , was a result. Like others of his inventions, these rollerbearings show mechanical advantages which only a practical and ingenious technician would foresee. His versatility is further shown by his invention of a sugar-cane mill, on which he worked between 1891 and 1901. It obtained a higher extraction of juice from the cane by a smaller expenditure of power, and it used a lighter and cheaper machine than others and had various mechanical advantages typical of Hyatt's designs, such as ease of separation and of cleaning. The pressed cane from this mill was dry enough to use as fuel – an economical achievement.
Other Hyatt inventions include: in 1900, a sewing-machine capable of sewing fifty lockstitches at once and suitable for making machinebelting; in 1901, a machine for cold rolling and straightening steel shafting; in 1875, machinery for making a slate for school use; in 1878, a substance containing bone and silica, called "bonislate, " suitable for billiard-balls, buttons, knifehandles, etc. ; in later years, a method of solidifying American hard woods to make bowling balls, golf heads, mallets, etc. ; and in 1870, a machine for turning out billiard-balls.
His death occurred at Short Hills, N. J.
He was married on July 21, 1869, to Anna E. , daughter of Edward Taft, and they had two sons.