Last year before the WIA annual event I posted “Covington, Kentucky, 1913: A Family Mystery” (which can be read here). This extensive post brings my research into the history of my father and prolific American inventor, C. W. Vogt (1891-1973), up to date, with archival photos and documents.

Vogt Family Background

It is worthwhile to get a broader picture of his background than I have previously provided. The military invention we will look at is the result of his being exposed to the intricacy of timepieces and high level mechanical engineering.

 

His father, Adam Vogt , was an horologist (clockmaker and repairer) and jeweler. It  was said of my father Clarence that after Christmas there wouldn’t be a toy not taken apart and analyzed, as he did at age five with his first watch.

 

Adam was also involved in real estate and manufacturing. He and his brother Henry Vogt were Notable Men in Louisville. Their joint company was Vogt Brothers Manufacturing.

 

Fire hydrants produced there still dot our landscape.

A young C. W. invented for them a coal stoker and coal crusher, both of which failed.

Henry Vogt

started his own dynastic company, the Henry Vogt Machine Company.

 

 

 

It became a leader in valves and refrigeration.

 

For a cool look at a salesman’s travel book for them click here.

C. W. Vogt

 

attended Cornell University for two years, absorbed what education he felt they could offer him, and then went to work for Vogt Brothers and the Henry Vogt Machine Company. He developed a strong dislike for his uncle. Upon asking for a raise he was told that until he could do every job in the plant better and faster than everyone on the shop floor, no promotion was possible. Talk about Old School…

Delay detonation mechanism.

It was likely that during this time he began work on his military invention. The trip to England in 1914, mentioned in the previous post, could have well been related to its early development. The first reference I’ve found, below, reveals the process to have taken years:

From “Industrial Refrigeration”   Volumes  54-55    February 1918

“Clarence Vogt, of Louisville, Kentucky,  in recognition of his work in perfecting  a time explosive on which government authorities have been working five years,  has been made a captain in the United States regular army. Captain Vogt’s invention has an automatic delayed firing mechanism for high explosive shells and is covered by forty claims. Up to the time of enlisting in the Ordinance Department last August practically all of his time was devoted to the refrigerating line. By reason of his being a member of the American Society of Engineers, Capt. Vogt was qualified for appointment as first lieutenant without having to study at a training camp. He is the son of  Mr. Adam Vogt, president of the Vogt Brothers Mfg. Co., of Louisville, and was manager of that company at the time he joined the colors. Captain Vogt is twenty- six years of age.”

Here is a short section of text followed by drawings of the device. If anybody with solid engineering savvy wants to read the complete text I’ll be happy to furnish them the whole patent. I am as baffled now reading through the pages as I was in 1965 when he showed them to me in England!

 

 

 

 

Clarence Vogt brings ice cream machinery into the 20th century.

“The crank, industrial crank, mold, disher and shallow freezer all came into use by the end of the 19th century, but one more innovation bears mentioning. In 1926, Louisville, Kentucky, inventor Clarence Vogt designed and built the first continuous process freezer, bringing the mass production of ice cream products full circle.” eHow.com.

I grew up hearing about his role as inventor of the process for creating continuous frozen ice cream and other food products but until recently there was no documentation. This recently uncovered clipping from the Courier Journal is the first public announcement of his revolutionary invention which would become the “Votator”.

Louisville Courier Journal March 5, 1926.

“INSTANT FREEZER TO REVOLUTIONIZE ICE CREAM INDUSTRY, LOUISVILLIAN SAYS.

    ” Something new has been accomplished in Louisville in freezing liquids, which will revolutionize the ice cream industry and provide a new business for the city, according to C. W. Vogt, inventor and refrigeration expert, who heads a company recently formed for the manufacture of his machines.  Mr. Vogt made the announcement Sunday.

    The new process can not only be used in ice cream manufacture, but is also applicable to other lines, including the freezing of eggs, proper chilling of lard and other materials, he said.

     The apparatus, according to its inventor, saves 80 percent of the space now being devoted to ice cream machines, saves 50 percent of the labor involved, and in addition is instant and continuous. Through the old system of ice cream manufacture Mr. Vogt said twenty-four or more hours were required to prepare cream for the market after it was frozen.

Makes any amount

Mr. Vogt’s machines will make from a small quantity to 600 gallons an hour and the cream is ready for consumption as soon as it runs from the spigot of the new machine. Fifteen patents in all have been applied for on the principles evolved by Mr. Vogt. The smaller machines now being manufactured by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company and the Louisville Electric And Manufacturing Company, suitable for hotel use, will supply instant cream for large banquets and the hotel trade as well.

    A mixture of the cream is inserted in the machine, it passes through a rather small tube which is connected to the ordinary refrigeration system and comes out of the spigot at the turn of a switch. The mixture is under pressure and the air is supplied by a small piston. The mixture is under a continuous pressure of about fifty pounds.

    As it passes through the tube, for a distance of two feet, it is agitated by a special contrivance which touches no metal part of the machine and thus does not produce frictional heat. At the end of the tube near the delivery spigot, the tube widens and the agitator moves faster, due to the greater diameter of the paddles. The brine is controlled automatically to insure proper temperature.

Manufactures See It

    The contrivance produces more cream from a given mixture than any yet evolved, Mr. Vogt said, because it saves waste. Not only does it save waste, but one kind of mixture can be put in as soon as the other has run out. Thus, he said, it is possible to run through two or more flavors in succession without halting the operation of the machine. It fills directly to cups, mold, or any sort of container.

    Due to the rapidity of freezing and the continuous agitation under pressure, the flavor and homogeniety of the mixture is retained, he said. The machine is the forerunner of others which will be developed later, he said.

    Ice cream manufacturers from the Middle West and the South have been drawn to Louisville by the demonstrations given here during the last two or three months. Several large concerns have become interested in the process and indicate that they will freeze eggs and other products by the machines as soon as they can be produced, Mr. Vogt said.

    The first machine will be delivered this week to a Louisville caterer. This machine takes no more space than an ordinary small table and will be able to produce the product continuously. Mr. Vogt said any of the machines can be operated by low-powered motors and are so simple that they can be installed anywhere there is a refrigerating system and an electric light circuit.

Chemical Tests Made.

  Tests are being made in laboratories to determine whether the new machine has improved the product by adding new values to the frozen foods, Mr. Vogt said. A company has been formed by Louisville capital to exploit the machine. Mr. Vogt is president and general manager; David C. Liggett, vice-president and sales manager; C. B. Kniskern, secretary and treasurer and G. O. Wymond, sales engineer. The board of directors consist of Richard Bean, Lee Miles, A. W. Lissauer, Louis Hollenbach, Walter H. Girdler, Arthur H. Almstead, and Mr. Vogt. No stock is being sold by the company, which is a closed corporation, it was announced.

Other uses later will be made of the principles discovered here, it was said. After careful surveys and consultations,  Mr. Vogt said, it developed that no previous use had been made of the principle involved in the process.”

Board member Walter H. Girdler was himself the founder of a dynastic corporation bearing his family name. In following years the Girdler Corporation developed the Votator. It brought them fame and success in the food industry.

C. W‘s comments about his invention, that “other uses later will be made of the principles discovered here” and that it would “provide a new business for the city,” were clearly born out in this advertisement from 1947.

 

 

My father went to work for the Girdlers. Here is a fine portrait of him as vice-president of the Votator division.

 

He struck off on his own within a few years. More ice cream inventions followed. Working with the Reynolds Aluminum Company he combined his expertise in refrigeration and packaging in the mass production of the Eskimo Pie.

 

 

Later he developed the MelORols.

 

C. W. Vogt enjoyed a long, successful life as a development engineer and inventor. His mind brimmed with ideas. He brought an amazing number of them to fruition.

 

 

Acknowledgements.

I would like to thank:

Charles Winheld, a literal stranger on a train, who kindly assisted me in negotiating my father’s patents on the US Patent Offices data base. (220 patents from 1925 to1971-  click here to see them) and got the ball rolling for me.

Gary Falk, writer, musician, and historian from Louisville who has written extensively on the Girdlers. He betook himself to visit the Free Library and photocopy the newspaper article about the Votator, which otherwise would not have come to light.

My sister, Sarah Vogt, whose brilliant research on European databases uncovered the delay- action patent. She has also contributed photos, links, and lots of enthusiasm.
Duke Briscoe for much appreciated technical computer help.
Emily Postma, C. W.’s first daughter and my half-sister. She sent me Buddy’s (her name for our father) high  school/college scrap book last year, and, through our many conversations, helped me get a handle on the personal side of his life during his highly productive years of the 30s and 40s.

For the benefit of my curious niece, Gina, who has asked “what’s a shooting board?” here is a definition and some pictures. From Webster: “(Joinery), a fixture used in planing or shooting the edge of a board, by means of which the plane is guided and the board held true.”

So, why the word “shoot” in reference to using a plane against the edge or end of a workpiece? Perhaps its origin is the word “chute,” an early device, like this one. Tom Fidgen has contributed this insight from a friend of his in the U.K and some in Australia who like the ramped board:

“They seem to like the ramp for not only the reduced wear on the iron but they seem to especially like the mechanics of the ‘chute action’..instead of the horizontal push and pull it’s the down hill or falling motion..a’ chute’ like a slide or water fall- the ramp really starts making sense when we think of it with those other images.”

In woodworking parlance edges and ends are “shot,” and unlike mammals and animals who never make it any farther after being shot, wood pieces are now good to go!

Another question that has been posed is why the appliance that holds the work at 45 degrees to its thickness is called a “Donkey’s Ear.” Any thoughts?

When my dedicated “Super Chute”web page is up there will be good quality photos.

The molding profile I wanted for the top was not readily gotten from router bits, so the block plane was the tool for the job. The shape was drawn on each corner and the end grain worked first. On the exit side of the board I worked to the shape and there was then no “spelching”as the plane moved to that edge. Very pleasant work.

Next up was drilling the holes for the dowels to pass through the shelves and into the underside of the top. For this I made a jig with bushings. Once the shelf holes were drilled I then re-drilled them, but not the top, with a fractionally larger bit.

Finishing would obviously need to be done prior to assembly. With all these parts it seemed a good idea to have a tidy system to keep them together and without difficulty when applying the rust stain and finish. For the leg pieces I made a stand with vertical dowel supports and spacers, and for the shelves and tops I made frames with small screws protruding.

There needed to be precision in the length of dowels prior to clamping the piece together. Dowels would be glued into the tops of each block to a particular depth. I cut a thinner diameter dowel to a certain length, inserted it into a block and tapped a glued dowel from above until it bottomed out against it.

The assembly process went well. Remember that forty-five degree line that I had scribed on the top end grain of the leg blocks? In the clamping stage it was the reference for the blocks to be positioned. : tape with pencil marks on the shelves and legs. The first round of clamping was with the top upside down and the top course of blocks. Afterward it was shelf and blocks. What I found was that the clamps needed to be moved very slightly to position the force so that, with a raking light from behind, there was no light where the blocks and shelves met. Very slight adjustments to the clamps made an important difference.

Finally the little stand stood proudly and squarely on its feet, awaiting its first load of documents, assignments, invoices, or, who knows?

The fun part of this design is making the legs appear to go through the shelves. The method I settled on is doweling, again inspired by Krenov who used them in his cabinetwork. Looking ahead to the assembly stage makes you realize that you need a way to faithfully track the individual leg pieces and have them stay in the right alignment. Also it should be noted that wood movement in this situation could be a problem because if the shelves expand in thickness the force will be in line against the glued dowels. If they shrink in thickness, gaps can appear. The work was done at the lowest cycle of humidity of the year, I’ve kept the shelves 1/4″ thick, and am hoping they wont thicken up appreciably during the summer.

Here’s how the process went for the legs. They were prepared into rectangular blanks, marked and numbered, crosscut into sections, and holes drilled for dowels. One key step was to mark a forty-five degree line on the top of each section from the center to the inside corner. This was the reference for later assembly. Also, a small nail hole was drilled along that line and inside of the eventual leg circumference. These temporary, removable nails provided a way for the blanks to stay fixed and not rotate around the dowel when the shaping was done.

As the pictures show, a nail was placed into the first block, placed against a stop, and the next block above it tapped tightly against it. After that process I inserted temporary dowels that were sanded in the drill press to be fractionally smaller. Then the blocks were assembled, taped together, and the layout lines drawn on for band sawing. After that they were put in between some puppets and further layout lines drawn. The drawknife, spokeshave, block plane, file and sandpaper process brought them to their final shape.

Next time: shaping the top, finishing, and assembly.

Why a woodworker Part 3  Final

“I derive a certain pleasure from an awareness of our gift of wood. Beside giving me it’s chemical and utilitarian benefits, like the fireplace that ‘warms the soul as well as the body,’ the tree and its wood are a most necessary part of my life’s aesthetic enjoyment.” (Eric Sloane, A Reverence For Wood, Author’s Note)

The aesthetic feeling for wood furniture was passed from Curly Ballou to his daughter, my mother, Frances Anne. When my parents were married in 1946,  my father commissioned a set of classic Hitchcock chairs.

They were custom stenciled by F.W. Hunter in New Milford, Connecticut. They currently grace our homemade dining table. It’s odd that these traditional chairs work with a modern design (in my view). The stenciling has faded and almost goes unnoticed, but the painted curves of the leg posts and back splats compliment the curved legs of the table and the edges of the top. They are too delicate for today’s sitters, though. I hope someday to study with Peter Galbert and make my own chairs.

To complete my three part post on “Why a woodworker” I’ll present photos of and comment on six more pieces of furniture that I grew up with which have come down to our family.

The first is this dough box. Growing up, I knew this as a stand for our family television. My mother did educate me as to it’s original purpose (while I munched on Twinkies, most likely). What eventually dawned on me were the joints, dovetails, the geometric shape, a hopper, and the wide, knot-free pine boards. It was clearly made in a remote time when people used their hands to make necessary items for their daily sustenance and their available material was lumber from huge trees.

Not everything made in earlier times had to be of strict utilitarian design. These maple bed posts from the bed in my parents’ room had really interesting turnings and there were slight variations from one to the other. I must have run my hands over these shapes thousands of times.

My mom referred to this next one as a “pail bench.” Coming in from the barn the farmer would put his recently filled milking pail on it. My grandmother used it as a coffee table in front of her couch, which she called a “divan.” I like the simple semi-circular cut-outs and the splayed ends. Even simple day- to- day objects had some flair.

There was more flair on the contoured shape of this mirror.

The plinth of this chest of drawers works very effectively to offset the straight rectangle of this chest of drawers.

Lastly, there is a “tavern table,” as my mother called it. It has a very wide, single board top, tapered legs with edge beading and a single, centered flute, and a whittled drawer pull. In its time I imagine that friends pulled up to this board and shared food, stories, and discussed the events of the day. Today an appliance rests on top of it which allows me to share stories (no food, but recipes) with people around the globe. While sitting by it I so often examine the hand shaped edges, run my finger tips over the protruding square nail heads, notice the seasonal wood movement as the thirty inch wide top shrinks or expands relative to the breadboard ends( which it has done for … a couple hundred years?) and feel an incredible gratitude to be involved in the age old tradition of woodworking.