Louis Gathmann (August 11, 1843 - 1917), engineer and an inventor, started his career designing equipment for mills and farms and is notable for holding numerous patents. 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 Garden City, made milling machines which were sold all over the globe.
Gathmann was born in Hanover, Prussia. He moved to America in 1864, and went to Chicago in 1865 where he lived until his death.
By the 1880s Gathmann had made enough money to have his family moved to America from Prussia. He also had four mansions built, two in Chicago, one in Washington DC, and one in Baltimore.
Gathmann was very interested in astronomy and had three observatories built in the Chicago area during the 1880s, one of which was a tower which he had installed on the side of his mansion on Lincoln Ave. In the 1890s Louis had invented a "Sectional Telescope Lens".
From the 1890s on, Gathmann invented several weapons of massive destruction, including the gun that Krupp based their Big Berthas on. Another famous gun designed by Gathmann was the Gathmann Gun, which was a 18-inch coastal defense gun manufactured by Bethlehem Steel under Emil Gathmann (head of Bethlehem Steel's Ordnance Section, and one of Gathmann's sons). The gun was tested at Sandy Hook, but was abandoned because of its cost and impracticability.
When Gathmann died in June of 1917 he held more patents then any other person alive at that time, and his death was mentioned in papers all over the globe, from the Chicago Tribune, to the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Gathmann was mentioned in the "Who's Who" and "Who Was Who" books up through the 1960s.
Sources: Gathmann History, http://gathmannpast.tripod.com
