Thomas Parker-Tainter Gate pt2

 

Thomas Parker returned to Menomonie following his 3 years of service in the Civil War as a Lieutenant with the 20^th USCT. His last assignments were spent working alongside US Army Engineering Battalions rebuilding coastal forts and waterworks access sites. During that time, he learned, honed, and refined his skills as an engineer, surveyor, and waterworks control specialist. Upon returning to Menomonie in 1865, he went back to work for Knapp, Stout and Co. Company. He was later elected as County Surveyor in 1869 and again in 1878. His work for K. S & Co. placed him in direct contact and responsibility for their many dams and waterways. His experience and travel during the war provided him with the unique knowledge and tools needed to correct many of the dam problems that K.S.& Co were experiencing. Creating sufficient water flow from a holding pond and stopping that flow quickly required skilled workmen operating under dangerous conditions. Rasmus Larson, a worker at the Downsville dam was opening a sluice-way with two other men when he was suddenly tossed into the air by the weight of the sluice gate. He was thrown into the holding pond, washed through an open sluice-way, and drowned, his body was found 3 weeks later. The Menomonie mill was forced to shut down completely in August 1878 due to lack of water to feed logs and run the mill. The shutdown was from releasing too much water from the mill pond while attempting to float logs down to the Downsville mill. It was an expensive mistake that affected the company and the men who were left without work until the rains and natural flow were able to raise the pond water level back to working capacity.

Patent #168524 was revolutionary in its design concept allowing a single operator to open and close a sluice-way gate without the normal hazards associated with sluice-way gates. The design made it possible to manage the flow of water to maintain, increase or restrict that release and do it quickly and efficiently. The patent was issued to Thomas Parker, Inventor on October 5, 1875. This early design idea was to be the inspiration for his invention patented in 1880, the subject of this article. Parker’s revolutionary concept involved setting the sluice-way gate at an angle to the horizontal pressures of the water and the mechanisms by which it could be raised and lowered into any position between fully opened and fully closed. The angle of the gate allowed for the water pressure to assist in the opening of the gate rather than oppose it and the mechanism attached to it allowed it to remain at any selected opening and allowed the gate to close as easily as it opened. In May 1879 Parker and J. B. Tainter were issued a patent as co-inventors for a minor improvement to patent #168524 as patent #214324. The new Parker Gate, the one now known throughout the world as the ‘Tainter Gate’ was invented and patented by Thomas Parker on April 13, 1880. This patent carried assignee's, Andrew Tainter, Jeremiah Burnham Tainter, and James Downing each being one quarter owner with Thomas Parker, Inventor patent #226455. By June 4^th, 1880, Thomas Parker was no longer the owner of these patents, having given title to J. B. Tainter and his wife, Maggie Tainter, who also received the shares owned by Andrew Tainter and James Downing. The only thing left for Thomas Parker was the claim of Inventor.

Parker and his family moved to Jackson County, Minnesota for less than a year in 1879 and he returned to Menomonie building or repairing dams and installing sluice-ways for K. S. & Co Company. By May 16, 1887, Thomas Parker had filed for a new patent on a completely innovative design of gate. This patent #372040 was issued to him on October 25, 1887, and an improved version #418876 was patented January 7, 1890. These patents remained in his ownership. These patents were improvements of what was known as a ‘Bear Trap’ gate and his ingenious alterations allowed them to operate automatically or by a single operator using water valves. Parker spent most of his time traveling the United States selling and installing his invention until tragedy struck his family and did not stop. Parker returned from installing his new gates in Oregon to see his son William graduate Valedictorian before Thomas and his son, George, went to Alabama on Government business. Thomas worked on the waterways assisting the Corp of Engineers open the waterways for commerce while George was employed building a ship for the government. When that ship was launched, George was on board the maiden cruise when he caught a severe cold. He returned to Menomonie in mid-December, but Thomas remained until August 1891. Mrs. Parker had gone to a sanitarium at Battle Creek, Michigan in January 1891 for medical treatment. Parker surveyed Gould’s Addition to Menomonie near the fairgrounds at the end of August 1891 while tending to his son, George who was ill from his time in Alabama. George never recovered, dying tragically on September 11, 1892, from ‘consumption’ now known as Tuberculosis. In November 1892, Thomas Parker’s son William was nominated for County Surveyor on the Republican ticket while Thomas ran on the Democrat and Prohibition tickets for the same office, William won. His term in office was cut short when he contracted Tuberculosis and left for dryer climate in New Mexico with his father in March 1893. Thomas Jr graduated high school in 1893, Thomas Parker Sr. died of Tuberculosis March 3, 1894. Thomas Jr died of Tuberculosis at age 19 in December 1894, and Susan J Parker remarried to David Rogers, and she lived beyond his death in 1915.

Jeremiah Burnham Tainter co-invented on patents as stated previously. None of those patented devices are called ‘Tainter Gate.’ The actual sluice-way gate, commonly known as the Tainter Gate was solely invented by Thomas Parker and his ownership of the patent, ability to sell or issue the rights to use the patent were either sold by him or taken from him. The records showing the transfer of Thomas Parker’s share of ownership being given to Jeremiah’s wife appear as if it were an added insult to removing his ownership rights. Patent #226455 was the invention of one individual, Thomas Parker. Ownership of the patent does not justify taking away the title of inventor. Jeremiah Burnham Tainter began working for his big brother in the slaughterhouse and butcher shop of the K. S. & Co. He worked his way up the ladder to become the proprietor of the horse stable where there was a blacksmith shop owned by the company that likely worked alongside Parker during his development of the new Gate. Jeremiah observed the processes and made some suggestions along the way which led to either forced or friendly agreement to share in the improvements of his earlier gates. Those patents were also assigned to Andrew Tainter, Jeremiah Tainter, and James Downing with Parker's share turned over to Jeremiah’s wife. The two follow up patents made by Jeremiah were called ‘improvements’ to the design invented by Parker. To my knowledge, neither of those patents earned a red cent and by the practical eye, were worth exactly that much. The lack of usable or salable improvements does not transfer rights as or claim of inventor of the gate. Jeremiah Burnham Tainter had never been a millwright, a surveyor, engineer nor was he ever skilled at the unique art of inventing such complex devices or educated in doing so. He was not a designer or a natural inventor of complex engineering devices. I do not lay fault on Jeremiah for the misappropriation of the sluice-way gate, it became that by default, lack of knowledge by those who jumped to a conclusion, and made worse by the tragic, untimely events that destroyed a family with so much more to contribute and a right to be honored for Thomas Parker’s inventive mind.

Thomas Parker made his final work of engineering wonder another vast improvement in the water control field. His patents #372040 October 25, 1887, improvement #418876 January 7, 1890, and refinement #426953 April 9, 1890, were retained by him alone and he spent the last years of his life promoting and installing them around the country with remarkable success. In my research, I came across some blueprints made by the U.S. Engineers office in Chicago, Illinois dated March 27, 1890. These were a design for Lock No. 34, of 5’ lift and 8’ guard walls and crib dam with High Water Pass closed by Parker Gate on the Mississippi. A note on the page: “A similar gate s used for controllable sluices in dam across Rock River at head of the feeder near Dixon Illinois.” These are the ‘Tainter Gates’ before they were mistakenly changed from Parker Gates. The passage of time, the thousands of references that wrongly indicate the inventor and the impossible task of changing direction ensure that Thomas Parker will never receive the honors he deserves, inadvertently stolen from his legacy by time. It may not shake the world, but I must admit that it gives me great satisfaction to be able to discover and spread the truth about the man who walked the path to fame but humbly just kept moving forward leading by example and not by greed. Ironically, Lt. Thomas Parker is buried directly across the road from the Tainter plots atop the hill. On the south side, behind a large tree, you can see a plain marble veteran marker that is fading with time, embossed, Lt. Thomas Parker 20^th USC. Give him a salute next time you have a chance to tour through that beautiful cemetery called Evergreen.