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CHISHOLM, William, inventor, born in Loch-gelly, Fifeshire, Scotland, 12 August, 1825. He was apprenticed to a dry-goods merchant in Kircaldy at the age of twelve, but abandoned that occupation three years later, and was for seven years a sailor. In 1847 he settled in Montreal, Canada, and became a builder and contractor. In 1852 he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where his brother Henry had settled. He removed to Pittsburgh and remained there until 1857, when he returned to join his brother in the Cleveland rolling-mills. He withdrew from the active management of that corporation two or three years later, engaged in the manufacture of spikes, bolts, and horseshoes, and, after demonstrating by experiments the practicability of the manufacture of screws from Bessemer steel, organized the Union steel company of Cleveland, which began operations in 1871. He afterward devised new methods and machinery for manufacturing steel shovels, spades, and scoops, and established a factory for the new industry in 1879. In 1882 he began to make steam-engines of a new model, adapted for hoisting and pumping, and transmitters for carrying coal and ore between vessels and railroad ears.

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