Editing Louis Gathmann (section)

==Career==
He moved to the [[United States]] in 1864,{{sfn|Louis Gathmann's Private Observatory|1881|page=150}} and eventually moved to [[Chicago]] where he lived until the end of the 19th century, when he moved to [[Washington, D.C.]] He started his career designing equipment for mills and farms,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Notes|journal=The Northwestern Miller|date=December 18, 1901|page=1253}}</ref> and held numerous [[patent]]s. By the 1880s, Gathmann's patents were in such demand that he had to form a company to help track and produce his designs. This company, known as the Garden City Mill Furnishing Company, made [[milling machine]]s which were sold all over the globe.<ref name=amateur>{{cite news|title=An Amateur Astronomer|newspaper=Scientific American|date=April 17, 1886|page=8582|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPA8AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+%22Garden+City+Mill%22&pg=PA8582|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref>

By the 1880s, Gathmann had made enough money to have his family moved to the United States from [[Prussia]].{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} He also had four mansions built, two in Chicago, one in Washington D.C., and one in [[Baltimore, Maryland]].{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} Gathmann was very interested in [[astronomy]] and had three [[observatory|observatories]] built in the Chicago area during the 1880s, one of which was a domed observatory tower which he had installed on the side of his mansion on [[Lincoln Avenue (Chicago)|Lincoln Avenue]].<ref name=amateur />{{sfn|Louis Gathmann's Private Observatory|1881|page=150}} 

In the 1890s, Louis had invented a "Sectional Telescope Lens"<ref name=amateur /> (US Patent 531,994, and 591,466). The design called for using individual pre-ground disks of glass mounted in a black matrix. The entire assembly would then be ground as if it were a traditional single-piece telescope lens blank. This would allow for a faster and cheaper method of producing large diameter telescope lenses for institutional observatories. He had been in negotiations with Alfred Huntington Isham to produce a 100-ft diameter telescope for the Proctor Memorial Fund, with the plan calling for an international observatory on Mt. San Miguel and renaming the mountain as Mt. Gathmann. <ref>{{cite book|last=Schoenherr|first=Oswell|title=The Bonita Museum and Cultural Center|location=Bonita, Ca.|date=2009}}</ref>

Louis was also involved in 19th century weather modification projects, and in 1891 received a patent (US Patent 462,795) for a rain-making in which liquid [[carbon dioxide]] was released into the atmosphere by explosion (either from an artillery shell or by being carried aloft by a balloon).{{sfn|Advisory Committee on Weather Control|1958|page=iv}} He also wrote a book on the subject, ''Rain Produced At Will''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gathmann|first=Louis|title=Rain Produced At Will|location=Chicago, Ill.|date=1891}}</ref> The book included a chapter by the scientist [[Simon Newcomb]], and another by [[Edwin J. Houston]] who would later go on to co-found [[General Electric]]. After World War II, when General Electric was experimenting with [[Rainmaking]] (now called [[Weather modification]]) Stanford Law Review stated: "In fact, if one Gathmann were alive today, and his patent had not long since expired, he might have an action for patent infringement."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Who Owns the Clouds? |journal=Stanford Law Review |date=November 1948 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=43–63 |doi=10.2307/1226157 |jstor=1226157 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1226157 |access-date=2008-12-07}}</ref>

From the 1890s on, Louis Gathmann focused on ordnance development. The largest gun designed by Gathmann was the 18-inch Gathmann Gun,{{sfn|Faust|1909|page=91}} which was a coastal defense gun manufactured by [[Bethlehem Steel]] under Emil Gathmann (head of Bethlehem Steel's Ordnance Section, and one of Gathmann's sons).<ref>{{cite news|last=Gathmann|first=Emil|title=Gathmann's 18-inch Torpedo Gun|newspaper=Scientific American|date=May 18, 1901|pages=313–314|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPA8AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+%22Garden+City+Mill%22&pg=PA8582|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref> The gun was tested at [[Sandy Hook (New Jersey)|Sandy Hook]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Testing the Gathmann 18-Inch Gun|newspaper=Collier's|date=November 30, 1901|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HokjAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+gun+%22Sandy+Hook%22&pg=PA536|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref> but the projectile performed far worse than traditional armor-piercing rounds.<ref>{{cite book|last=Maxim|first=Hiram|title=Dynamite Stories and Some Interesting Facts About Explosives|location=New York|publisher=Stokes and Co.|date=1916|pages=6–8|postscript=none}}; {{cite news|title=Gathmann Guns Fails to Do Its Work|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 16, 1901|postscript=none}}; {{cite news|title=Death of Louis Gathmann|newspaper=Scientific American|date=June 6, 1917|page=591|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CbsxAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+gun+%22Sandy+Hook%22&pg=PA591|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref> Louis was also involved with early aircraft development and had attempted to develop a helicopter,<ref>{{cite news|last=Throne|first=J. Frederick|title=An Era of Air-Ships|newspaper=Munsey's Magazine|date=February 1904|pages=650–651|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMImAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+flight&pg=PA650|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref> but his successes came in developing fuses for high-explosive ordnance.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gathmann|first=Emil|title=Torpedo Safety Devices|journal=United States Naval Institute Proceedings|date=December 1900|pages=631–632|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05ojAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+fuses&pg=PA631|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref> Newspapers reported in the spring of 1915 that Gathmann invented the German 42-cm [[Big Bertha (howitzer)|Big Bertha]] howitzer, and that these plans were subsequently stolen from the U.S. Patent Office. But these rumors were false, as no such blueprints were ever filed.<ref>{{cite news|title=Stolen Gun Plans A Myth|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 7, 1915|page=22}}</ref>

During [[World War I]], Louis conceived a multi-hull naval armor design which incorporated buffer zones, shocks and deflectors.<ref>{{cite news|title=Protecting a Battleship With a Belt of Air|newspaper=Popular Science|date=July 1916|pages=18–19|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yygDAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Louis+Gathmann%22+naval+armor&pg=PA18|access-date=September 1, 2014}}</ref>