Background
William Worth Burson was born on his father's farm near Utica, Venango County, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel and Mary (Henry) Burson.
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A race for liberty; or, My capture, imprisonment, and escape
(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.
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A Race for Liberty: Or, My Capture, Imprisonment, and Escape (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from A Race for Liberty: Or, My Capture, Imprison...)
Excerpt from A Race for Liberty: Or, My Capture, Imprisonment, and Escape Whatever tends to teach a lesson of usefulness, and keep alive a spirit of patriotism and laudable ambit-ion has its mission, and should be encouraged. The dark days of the Great Rebellion have passed away; and light is spreading throughout our favored land. Now that peace has been restored to our lately dis tracted country, we should calmly survey the past, with unprejudiced minds, and profit by its teachings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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William Worth Burson
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Education
When William was nine years old his parents migrated in stages to McDonough County, Illinois, and a year later settled in Fulton County where young Burson passed most of his boyhood and early manhood, sharing the experiences of pioneer life which included a limited education.
William Burson entered Lombard University, Galesburg, Illinois, graduating with the first class in 1856.
Career
Reared to the occupation of farming and early developing considerable mechanical ingenuity, Burson became much interested in the improvement of farm machinery, his first work in this field being the designing of a self-rake reaper in 1858.
He then turned to grain binders and on June 26, 1860, received a patent for a twine binder. This was attached to his self-rake reaper and operated by hand. Twine, however, was not easily obtained, and Burson adapted his machine to use wire.
On February 26, 1861, he obtained a patent on this improvement and that year twenty-five binders were made and used in the harvests from Vandalia, Illinois, as far north as Red Wing, Minnesota. The following year fifty more were made, one of which was entered in the great reaper trial at Dixon, Illinois, and proved a decided sensation. Emerson & Company of Rockford, Illinois, manufacturers of the Manny reaper, immediately contracted to build 1, 100 binders for Burson who in 1863 moved with his family from Yates City, Knox County, Illinois, to Rockford.
In the course of building these machines he devised and patented two improvements, March 3 and August 11, 1863, respectively. Prejudice against wire binders, however, developed, and their cost at war prices operated against them; while the machines were eventually sold, a profitable market could not be established and their manufacture was discontinued.
Burson then returned to twine binders, patenting certain improvements in 1864-65 which resulted in a practical machine. The following year he began experimenting with automatic knitting machinery and in the succeeding twelve years devised and patented a number of machines for the manufacture of knit goods and hose.
On April 23, 1870, the first hose were knit on his machine in Rockford, and in 1872, with the perfection of his parallel row machine, Rockford's great knitting industry was definitely launched. In 1878 Burson withdrew from the knitting business to devote his whole time to invention, and in the succeeding thirteen years made many improvements in knitting and grain harvesting machinery, totalling about fifty patents.
In 1892 William Burson organized the Burson Manufacturing Company for the manufacture of knitting machinery and accepted the vice-presidency of the Burson Knitting Company, manufacturer of knit goods.
Achievements
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William Burson was one of the famous inventors and manufacturers for his time, whose primary interest was lying in the area of the improvement of farm machinery. His first achievement in this field was the designing of a self-rake reaper in 1858. Then the invention of a twine binder followed for which he received a patent as well. Another great invention that he produced was automatic knitting machinery, which he devised and patented for the manufacture of knit goods and hose. After this achievement he made many improvements in knitting and grain harvesting machinery, totalling about fifty patents, so consequently all of this led to the establishment of the Burson Manufacturing Company for the manufacture of knitting machinery, where he served as the vice-president of the Burson Knitting Company.
Works
book
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A Race for Liberty: Or, My Capture, Imprisonment, and Escape (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from A Race for Liberty: Or, My Capture, Imprison...)
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A race for liberty; or, My capture, imprisonment, and escape
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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A Race for Liberty: Or, My Capture, Imprisonment, and Escape (Classic Reprint)
Connections
William Burson married Emily S. Wilson of New Jersey, October 5, 1856, who with three children survived him at the time of his death in Rockford.
References
- The History of Winnebago County, Ill: It's Past and Present, Containing a History of the County, It's Cities, Towns, Etc;, A Biographical Directory of ... Portraits of Early Settlers and Promin
- American Agricultural Implements, Vol. 1 of 2: A Review of Invention and Development in the Agricultural Implement Industry of the United States (Classic Reprint)
