Background
He was born on May 5, 1838 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of James and Catherine (Snyder) Shaw.
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Thomas Shaw
Edit ProfileCareer
Shaw was compelled to go to work at a very early age when his father, a merchant, lost everything in a coal-mining venture. He worked in grocery stores and other such places until he was sixteen, when he apprenticed himself to a machinist. His mastery of the machinist's trade was rapid and he soon began serious invention, his first patent (April 27, 1858) being for a gas meter.
About this time he began working in the Cyclops Machine Works in Philadelphia, and in a comparatively short time became superintendent. When the William Butcher (later Midvale) Steel Works was organized in 1867, Shaw took over the superintendency of this plant as well. By this time he had a number of other inventions to his credit, including steam gages, a stone crusher, and a grinding machine.
Later he turned his attention to iron and steel manufacture. In the course of the succeeding three years he devised a process for rolling and applying steel tires to cast-iron and invented the bolster and semi-elliptic spring for railroad cars, a centrifugal shot-making machine which eliminated the usual shot tower, and a steam-power hammer, as well as several other valuable devices of general utility. One of the simplest, yet most useful of these was the spring-lock nut washer patented in 1868 and put to immediate and almost universal use on railroads.
About 1871 Shaw gave up his connections with the Midvale and Cyclops companies to devote his whole time to the development and introduction of his own inventions. He established a manufacturing plant in Philadelphia, which he maintained until his death. The scope of his inventions, which was unusually wide, involved engineers' special appliances, oil burners, United States standard mercury pressure gages, hydraulic pumps, noise quieting nozzles and mufflers for locomotives and steamships, steam engine and pump governors, pile drivers, power hammers, miners' safety lamps, and apparatus for testing and recording mine gases.
Shaw's pile driver, patented in 1868 and 1870, was unique in that it made use of the explosive force of gunpowder and in one operation could drive a forty-foot wood pile, fourteen inches in diameter, its entire length into firm ground without injuring the timber. It was successfully used in driving most of the piles for the United States Naval Station at League Island, Philadelphia.
Another very original and valuable invention was an apparatus to detect and record deadly gases in mines, for which he received a series of patents between 1886 and 1890. The Shaw gas tester was officially adopted by Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as by Germany and Russia.
During his later years Shaw received many offers for his services from foreign governments, all of which he declined. He died at Hammonton, New Jersey.
Achievements
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Thomas Shaw was an inventor and patented two hundred patents, including gas meter, ress mold for glass, a gas stove, and a sewing machine. Being a superintendent of Midvale Steel Works, he inventions steam gages, a stone crusher, and a grinding machine. He was an inventor of pile driver, that was unique in that it made use of the explosive force of gunpowder. One more his extra popular invention was an apparatus to detect and record deadly gases in mines.
Connections
He married Matilda Miller Garber and had a daughter.
