I am trying to learn if the following is still protected by copyright law as the Canadian Inventors web page wishes to publish the item below and other items on my Canadian born inventor great grandfather who had his business and lived in Worcester, Ma., for many years, but need to learn first if the items are still protected. Any ideas on finding this out? The publishing company is out of business and I can't find anything about it on the web. It may have been bought. If the copyright was not renewed it would have been up in 1958. I am going to submit this query to the various Mass mailing lists I belong to in order to see if anyone else might be able to help me on this. I have already E-mailed a slew of libraries in Massachusetts. =========================Jacqueline Sleeper Russell======== HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRIES Their INCEPTION, Growth And Success By ORRA L. STONE Volume 11 Illustrated Boston-Chicago THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING CO. (The Library of Congress number for History of Massachusetts Industries is 30-10682. It was published in 4 volumes in 1930) Pages 668 - 672 FRANK HENRY SLEEPER Frank Henry Sleeper, President of SLEEPER & HARTLEY, Inc., of Worcester, a corporation engaged in the manufacture of spring making and wire forming machinery, enjoys merited fame as an inventor. He was born in Coaticook, Quebec, Canada, November 26, 1862, a son of Wright and Philinda (Cole) Sleeper, and was there reared and educated. After his graduation from Coaticook Academy he learned the trade followed by his father, who was a machine builder, and made rapid progress, so that at an early age he began his career as a contracting engineer. Since that time he had been engaged in the designing and building of special machinery, as well as electrical and steam engineering. For many years he confined his business to Canada, but his reputation as an inventor and builder extended far beyond the limits of the Dominion, and in 1907 his services were solicited by the MORGAN SPRING COMPANY, of Worcester. Mr. Sleeper accepted their offer and was engineer for the company for four years, or until 1911, when he embarked in business under his own name. He is president of SLEEPER & HARTLEY, Inc, and spends but a short time each year in Worcester, residing for the winter months in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he owns a beautiful home, and the remainder of the year at his summer home on Lake Massawippi in the Province of Quebec, Canada. During his active working years Mr. Sleeper has invented, designed and built approximately five hundred different successful machines. The boldness and originality of his conceptions is only equaled by the remarkable perfection of the mechanical details. In every field entered he has produced new types of improved machinery, marking radical advances upon anything previously done. In the early '90s he was a pioneer on the development of electrical apparatus, including continuous current generators and motors with fields wound in series, shunt and compound. He achieved the almost unbelievable in producing a series-wound constant-potential generator. In 1891 he built what was probably the first self-starting, single-phase, alternating current motor made in Canada, and also designed both alternating current generators and motors of an induction type. Other electrical inventions include a great variety of transformers and automatic voltage regulators for three-wire systems and for industrial generators subject to fluctuations of speed. He was the inventor of several lifting jacks, among them the jack so well known under the name of the "Norton Jack." In the field of machine tools he built new types of engine lathes, upright drills, punches and shears, and presses; in the typographical field he invented and built printing presses, paper cutters, etc. The rotary steam engines which he invented and built were remarkable for their high speeds and steam economy; other inventions in this line also include condensers and rotary pumps, but the field in which he will be remembered longest is that of special automatic wire forming machinery. Here his inventions include a very large number of special wire forming machines, wire rolling machinery of many kinds, spring coiling and spring winding machinery, spring setting, spring grinding and spring hooking machinery. It is impossible to enumerate these machines in detail but mention should be made of the remarkable Flexible metallic Tube Coiling Machines; the equally remarkable Tungsten Filament Coiling Machines for producing Tungsten filaments of the coiled type used in incandescent lamps, which last machine proved to be the keystone in the nitrogen lamp industry; and a new type of noiseless wire nail machine. To this list should be added machines for armoring BX and Parkway Cable, staple machines, swaggers for screw wire, and continuous wire drawing machinery. On December 3rd, 1883, Mr. Sleeper was married in Coaticook, Canada, to Miss Lilla Anne Hopkinson. They are the parents of three daughters: Lotta Frances, the wife of William H. Blount, sales engineer of SLEEPER & HARTLEY, Inc.; Ethel May, the wife of Raymond Russell, an insurance man of Worcester; and Verna Lilla, the wife of William H. Welch. ====================================================== HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS INDUSTRIES; their inception, growth and success: Author: STONE, Orra Laville, 1873 - Publication: Boston, Chicago, S .J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1930 This is a four volume set. The following entries are listed: Vol. II, page 1800 - Sleeper and Hartley, Inc. Vol. III, page 666 - Sleeper and Hartley, Inc. Vol. III, page 668 - Sleeper, Frank H. FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: History of Massachusetts industries; their inception, growth, and success;. LC Control Number: 30010682 Type of Material: Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.) Brief Description: Stone, Orra Laville, 1873- History of Massachusetts industries; their inception, growth, and success; by Orra L. Stone. Boston, Chicago, S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1930. 4v. illus., plates, ports. 27cm. CALL NUMBER: HC107.M4 S7 ======================================================