Today in Wheeling History: August 7—Charles W. Ebeling, Wheeling machinist and inventor whose patents trace an arc from local industrial machinery to Hollywood's sound-film revolution, filed a divisional patent for his "Reciprocating Motor" (1913).
Charles W. Ebeling was a mechanical inventor based in Wheeling, West Virginia, in the early 20th century, credited with a string of patents that trace an unusual arc from industrial machinery to the birth of sound film. His earliest known patents, filed between 1910 and 1912, covered an enameling table, a sand-blast apparatus, and a dredger for pulverulent material — practical devices suited to Wheeling's pottery, glass, and steel industries. On August 7, 1913, he filed a divisional application, later granted as U.S. Patent 1,129,964, for a "Reciprocating Motor" that refined the tilting mechanism of his earlier enameling table, using cushioning chambers to soften the piston's stroke. That same year, Ebeling joined fellow Wheeling residents T. A. Westmyer, H. H. Dunlevy, and George E. House in incorporating the R. & E. Singing Picture Company, capitalized at $250,000 to manufacture phonographs and talking and moving-picture machines — an ambitious, and short-lived, local venture into the emerging entertainment technology business. Through the 1910s, working out of Wheeling and nearby Elm Grove, Ebeling patented stylus-guiding attachments, sound-reproducing machines, and film-synchronization devices, often assigning half-interest to his Wheeling backer Harrison W. Rogers. By the mid-1920s Ebeling had relocated to New York, continuing to develop sound-on-film technology for Harrison W. Rogers, Inc. and later General Talking Pictures Corporation, patenting motion-picture screens, synchronous motors, and sound-head mechanisms into the early 1930s — carrying Wheeling's early machine-shop ingenuity into Hollywood's sound revolution.
To learn more: Google Patents - Reciprocating motor (https://tinyurl.com/5n82ppxp), Espacenet - US1129964A Reciprocating Motor (https://tinyurl.com/yc5zfwpp), Google Patents - Charles W. Ebeling (https://tinyurl.com/ymmt3nhe), Phonozoic - U. S. Phonograph Patents Issued in 1918 (https://tinyurl.com/3uj584a5), Google Books - The Iron Age (https://tinyurl.com/bdzkbx35), Electrical World [February 13, 1915] (https://tinyurl.com/a6z3h5n5), Wheeling Intelligencer - News Briefs (https://tinyurl.com/2hjumwms)
Photo credits: Wheeling Intelligencer, U.S. Patent Office
Charles W. Ebeling was a mechanical inventor based in Wheeling, West Virginia, in the early 20th century, credited with a string of patents that trace an unusual arc from industrial machinery to the birth of sound film. His earliest known patents, filed between 1910 and 1912, covered an enameling table, a sand-blast apparatus, and a dredger for pulverulent material — practical devices suited to Wheeling's pottery, glass, and steel industries. On August 7, 1913, he filed a divisional application, later granted as U.S. Patent 1,129,964, for a "Reciprocating Motor" that refined the tilting mechanism of his earlier enameling table, using cushioning chambers to soften the piston's stroke. That same year, Ebeling joined fellow Wheeling residents T. A. Westmyer, H. H. Dunlevy, and George E. House in incorporating the R. & E. Singing Picture Company, capitalized at $250,000 to manufacture phonographs and talking and moving-picture machines — an ambitious, and short-lived, local venture into the emerging entertainment technology business. Through the 1910s, working out of Wheeling and nearby Elm Grove, Ebeling patented stylus-guiding attachments, sound-reproducing machines, and film-synchronization devices, often assigning half-interest to his Wheeling backer Harrison W. Rogers. By the mid-1920s Ebeling had relocated to New York, continuing to develop sound-on-film technology for Harrison W. Rogers, Inc. and later General Talking Pictures Corporation, patenting motion-picture screens, synchronous motors, and sound-head mechanisms into the early 1930s — carrying Wheeling's early machine-shop ingenuity into Hollywood's sound revolution.
To learn more: Google Patents - Reciprocating motor (https://tinyurl.com/5n82ppxp), Espacenet - US1129964A Reciprocating Motor (https://tinyurl.com/yc5zfwpp), Google Patents - Charles W. Ebeling (https://tinyurl.com/ymmt3nhe), Phonozoic - U. S. Phonograph Patents Issued in 1918 (https://tinyurl.com/3uj584a5), Google Books - The Iron Age (https://tinyurl.com/bdzkbx35), Electrical World [February 13, 1915] (https://tinyurl.com/a6z3h5n5), Wheeling Intelligencer - News Briefs (https://tinyurl.com/2hjumwms)
Photo credits: Wheeling Intelligencer, U.S. Patent Office
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