Canton (N.Y. ) Commercial Advertiser, May 11, 1926
First Rotary Snowplow
Beecher's Snowplow Recalls Old Time Form of Implement Supplanted by Big Rotary
First Rotary Model was Made in Gouverneur by Blacksmith, Who Refused Railway Offer.
Gouverneur, N.Y., May 7. - The story published in Tuesday's Commercial Advertiser, related in riding on a locomotive back of a snow plow on a northern New York railway over 70 years ago, brings to mind the old form of snowplow which was more in the nature of a plow, with beak, than the plow now used on all snowbelt railways. The old plow was quite effective, but the big rotary plow is a more powerful implement, able to cast the snow far from the steel rails, so that there is a broad right of of way not so readily filled in.
In this connection it is interesting to know that a Gouverneur blacksmith first conceived the idea of the rotary form of plow and built a model, pounding it out in his smithy. This the railway company was willing to buy but the smith was ill advised by wide friends who told them there was a fortune in it. A sum was offered that in its day, 50 years ago, would have been an ample fortune for most people, but he wanted about four times what was offered, and the result was that he didn''t sell, and the railway got the idea and worked out the rotary independently and almost on the same lines that the blacksmith's model carried.
The following is a clipping taken from a Gouverneur paper about 10 yeas ago, which relates the finding of the old model after it had been hidden in the dust and rubbish for 40 years:
"A relic of by-gone days was discovered a few days ago by Ehpriam E. Osler, of this village, while he was engaged in removing the old buildings from the John Bouck lot, at the corner of Main and Wall streets, where the new garage of Seaker-Graves Motor Company is now going up.
"Over 40 years ago the late John Bouck, who was a well known blacksmith of this village as well as a man who possessed much ingenuity, invented a rotary snowplow for use on railroads. It was the first idea of the kind put forth and it attracted much attention from railroad companies throughout the country. Mr. Bouck worked a long time on this model in secret and he finally had it patented.
"It was along the lines of the present rotaries in use, taking the snow into the front and blowing it out of an opening in the side, throwing it far afield. The model, weighing 200 pounds was hammered out by hand, aside from the heavy sheet iron covering, and it worked to perfection when turned by means of a crank, and Mr. Bouck exhibited it to many of his friends after it was completed. It is said that a New York Central official made an offer of $20,000 for it but he refused to sell for less than $80,000.
"This sum was too high for the railroad company to entertain and they set about to figure out a plow of their own and succeeded. Mr. Bouck, believing that they had encroached upon his idea, took the matter up through the late Judge Porter, of Watertown and he found that the Bouck patent had not been infringed upon. A short time later the Bouck model disappeared and it was thought that the inventor had broken it up for junk and it was soon forgotten.
"When Mr. Osler was clearing away some old timbers that had been used in a shed, which stood at the rear of the old blacksmith shop, his pick went through a rotten plank and penetrated the ground several inches, striking something metallic. He at once started to investigate and was considerably astonished when he uncovered the once-famous snowplow, which had been buried intact by the inventor.The model was found to be in good condition notwithstanding the many yeas it had reposed to the soil. It was found to be considerably rusted, but can be operated by means of a hand crank. The outfit was to have been mounted on trucks and the mechanism of the plow was to have been operated by means of a chain belt on sprocket wheels, deriving its power from the truck axle. The whole was to have ben pushed by a locomotive as the ordinary plow is now handled. Mr. Osler has stored the old model and will retain it as a souvenir of other days."