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March 22, 1939
J. H. iv:arsnall (white),
Cashiers, N. C.
Mecnanic.
Douglas Carter, writer.
THE INVENTOR
Original Names
J. H. Larshall
Changed Names
Buck Sanders
THE IEVENTOR
"Ly motor will revolutionize the airplane industry if I
ever get it built," said suck Sanders, mechanic. "It's got
everything they've been looking for: small size, great power,
cheap fuel, everything. I'm just afraid solpeone will beat me
to it, like everything else I have invented."
Buck is short, blond, and wiry, and his head is unusually
large. Few stores have hats large enough for him, and he
seldom wears one. He is very muscular, and walks on the sides
of his feet, with toes turned out. bach new pair of shoes
becomes quickly misshapen. He was born in 1.05, the third of
eight, children, five boys and three girls. In his early days
he drove a delivery wagon for a grocer, but he soon became
interested in the automobile business, learned tne mechanical
side
ever
well
of it, and, with two minor exceptions, has followed it
since. He is known as an expert mechanic. He did not do
in school, and dropped out after spending three years in
the seventh grade.
garage in a remote
"Valves cause
He now operates a small filling station and
mountain section that attracts many tourists.
most of the trouble today with gasoline motors
but my motor doesn't have any valves. A lot of power is lost
in the avera;e motor becaune the valve sprinns have to be very
stiff, and it ta'c_es Dower to overcome the tension when the valve
opens. 1'n doinz, away with all that. ry otor works on an
entirely new principle. I've seen every kind of notor now in
use, and there's nothing on the riarket like mine. I use 'earn,
too, in the notor itself, and if it i ever used for nutemobiles
and trucks, there won't have to be any trnnanisiolon used with
it. It'll be ;.)owerful enough to be connect_ d direct with the
wheels all the time. It can be aade to turn almost any fuel:
from crude oil on un."
nomethinn like a Diesel engine`,
"Ao. it's nothinn like the Diesel, except that it can be
nade to burn low-?;rnde fuel. It would almost burn sawdust!"
"You snid, 'If I ever net it built.' How do you know it
will do t'nose things, if you haven't buitt It
"Because I know machinery. I've desilned the motor, and I've
ions over the denign 20 or 30 times tryir to find some flaw or
mistake, and tnere isn't any. I'm tryinn to net n working model
built, but it's a slow job, without any noncy. If I had the
tine, and the money about a,C00 would do it I could have
a nodel built and patented in no tims at all. 16'ell, it would
take a month or so. dl the parts have to be nade bn hand, you
know. It'll make me a millionaire, if so eone doesn't boat no
to it. It's really very simple, and I don't nnow wh7 someone
hasn't built it already. Its simplicity is one of its main
features. There's nothing complicated at n11 nbout it. Nothing
to give trouble. No delicatn parts,
"In 192S I invented an autonatio carburetor choke for auto
mobiles. 7ery few dr!vers know how to use the choke rieht, and
one day it dawned on me that a perfectly simple choke could be
made to operate eutomatioally, 7.;eyond the driver's control. I
was workine; for John Bryoon atthe time, and you know he was
supeosel to be the !Aost mechanic in ton. I told him ebout
idea, and he just laughed. He didn't laugh at the idea of the
automatic choke I didn't moan that* He lauehed at the way I
nlanned to solve the problem. In other words, he said it wouldn't
work. Me could :;ce that an automatic choke would be a lood thing,
but he couldn't see that Thad invented one. It discouraged no.
thought maybe he was riht. He knew more about those things
than I did, then, or so I thoueht. :.4e I gave it up for a while.
3,at I kept thinkieg about it, and I eoeldnft see any reason why
it shouldn't work. I made up my rind to build one, and try it
on ely own car. I worked on it In my spare te, but before I
eot it flnIshed, the sane thine wee patented by somebody else,
and wae broueht out on the Farrmobilel Identically the same
thi;1 John didn't have much to ay when he eaw It. Todny,
about hrtlf the care on the earket have that oho e half the
new ones, I mean, Just about all the expeesive care heve it.
The man who patented it is rich, and I thought of it two years
before he did/ et least, I thoueht o t two years befere it
came out. If I had gone ahead when I first thought of it, I
wouldn't be here today, 706 be sailing around somewhere in my
yacht. And ehon I ejet ey motor built, if vn not too late,
I'm going to build a platform up on the public equare, and
going to stand there and tell a lot of the dirty
around town what I think of then!'
It see -7,1; that 13uck hes had Aweral serious disagreeelents with
people in the autoreobile busieeeJ) in the town where he was born,
and whore he has spent most of his life. His laet important job
there 4es elven up because the owner of the busineee interfered
elth the -acme:ewe nt of the repeir shop. Luo. lens the service
manaeer, but he w s not given a free hand,
k3 a young men, about 18, he wa erplored to drive a wealthy
man end hi wife to alr erioh, and they lied him so well they
wanted to adopt him, but he refused. He liked them, too, but
he did not care to be their edoeted son. ffe lived with them a
few eonths, aflI than eot a job as a helper in a gara7e. He
wor'7ed eio way up to a nechaniels poriti n but in about a year
he tired of A.orida, Lnd returned to Is home, He immediately
secured a job as a mechanic', and built u_ a eood reputation for
efficionoy. Later, for a few nonths, he ensaeed in a miring
enterprise with two other nen, but it was unsuoceseful. t
another time he beee,:qe interested in avietion, and learned to
fly. Three or hie brothers are avintors (or were: one wea killed
in an acicient.
For :Amy year Buck wac the man to whom other mechanics b.ouelt
their troubles when they could not eolve then. 72.ucic never fated.
No job was too tough or too compliceted for hie. About five
mont e ago, in October, he learned of a elice in thc mountains
about 65 -ile
401. 111.
awny where there is a smell eereanent settlement
and a rather lare nAe.her of autombile tourists durinl the
warer ,TAonthe. Tho ifl.wiO had, been opereting the filling
station an.4. lara-!,e there vv:s anxious to sell out, so Buck at
what 'Ione, he oolld so:5A1of t had to bc borrowed and bought
thr business.
"It's been pretty hard this winter, he said, "but 7- managed
somehow to kee2 7oin;, and I expect to nake sone real extney this
noutl to finish my motor, I hope. I've had to et
olriner.
those :ountaineers in the abit of brinling their care and
truoks to no when they need repairs, and that made it necessary
to do a lot of work that I dilnIt make drything on, but it'll
the en4. Before I went out there, when a nanls car
or tarlc: broke dow ,e tried to fix it himnelf, usually with
i_aii-order parts, but 'Sive lot them coeinl to me now. where
are .00d many cars and trucks in that country, and the nearest
other !;arale is 12 niles rvin:7- across a hi,11 -7.1ountain ride in
;1nother county. It's not -uch of 0, either. The reechanics
are just countr7 boys with very little ev)erlences and I've
even ot them sendin-1 work to e.ry ieea is to just let along
the best I can duri. the cell part of the year, and then 7rinke
my year's orofit during the tourist s son. Tourists pay- Oaeh,
you know, and 7aost of them are used to pity lricer. 7'11 make
some noney this Asiemr, ell right. The to':xists re already
beginnin to come, Last .Aln,lay there were at leeat 2cr cars
frori other A.ates, and I puflaped zas all day lon. obody needed
an: repairs, but there'll be plenty of thet in tt. just wait
be -in
until those flat -country oars 112 in the rlountaln and
go haywire!
"I _ii,;ht even -al-7e some raeney next winter.
sho
those notives out there thut they can get Nst as :good service
at my place us they can in town. I charge then resonnhle
prices, and do :7„y Lest work, o;'' course, and 1 believe by next
winter I'll have ail the business in the southern part of the
county. Th can't do any good fixing their own ears, anyhow.
I can EIave 'en time and money, and give Itore atisfn,ction,
and they're bo.7,inning to catch on. That fellow I bou:eht the
place from wasn't even a mechanic! 3e was unpopu14,,r, too.
main,g friends with everybody out there. o get
some woldin:1 bus'nese, too. Those famers are bringin, me their
broken plows and thin -;s to weld, and last wok a woman got re
to braze a cowbell! eh, I'll get a1on all ritt, even if
somebody does beat ee to that noterin
"Din't you :ention sa,e other inve tiors, too?"
t ought of the electro razor aout five years before
it was patented. I didn't give up the idea at buildin:„; one until
it ca::,e on the :arket, but it was naturally too late then. iy
Idea VS th one they used, but there wasn't anything could
du about it after they patented it.
A t !?Ir awfully tou:eh
beard: my whiskers are Just like wire. Very few harbors have
razors good eno41 to give "le a clear shave without teafi g
face up, so I usuall: shave myself, but It's n mean job, even
with a good razor, one day in a barter oho I ct to lookin
at :In electric hair clipper, and just for fu, I tried it on .3r
beard. it didn't wore: very good, but ritt then said to
myself, hy couldn't e fellow use the same principle and build
an electric razor that woelshave close that's exactly
what they did. ,L,11 the electric razors on the _-eire:et use that
same principle. There are some slight differences in the details,
but the erinciple Is the same.
"Thee, aboat e year ;o, I teoeell of electric toot brueh.
meV17:17 teat woeld clean the teeth and ..!ive the gums the proper
eansee. fe.eryody laughed at that! They thoelht it was a good
jol:e, but it h':sn't been two eonthe sece ere was patented!
Didn't you sec that picture in the paer, showle3; the Eollyeood
ectre!s tryin; out the new electric toothbrush
"No, but saw a eieture in the 2aeer this morni that e ht
interest yau. It is a eicture of a yetere eotoro built in
California for a new 7ilitary airplene.
It weilhs 412 pounds,
develops 5C0 hereepower, and only uses eit lallone of third-
rade per hoer at cruisin3 seeecl."
"v:hat?" It was a etout.
"TleA's rie,ht. What does your rotor look like
"hat 'the hell does that California eotor looe lien?"
"it' e rather flat, and circular, and 300M5 to have two sets
of cylinders, tut you can't toll very much about it from the
picture."
"Great lrod Almihty! 1-y notch! But malft,e not. Ileybe not.
My rotor t'at size ought to turn up 1,(0C horsepower.