The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition

              BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
903
1878, He started west at once, and for a year made his home in Minneapolis, devoting his time to the study of the English language and the American methods of milling.
In 1880 he made a complete set of the purifiers invented by himself, for the Dundas Roller Mills, at Dundas, Minnesota, this being his first work in the United States.
In 1883 Mr. Prinz removed to Milwaukee, and for some time devoted himself entirely to the perfection of a number of his inventions. At that time the Milwaukee Dust Collector Company was organized solely for the manufacture of the Prinz Dust Collector, a machine that has been of inestimable benefit to millers. In 1886 Mr, Prinz began business for himself at No. 659 East Water street, Milwaukee, engaging in the manufacture of all kinds of milling machinery, but particularly devoting himself to the production of such ma¬ chines as had been invented and patented by him¬ self. In 1888 Mr, Prinz attended the millers' convention at Buffalo, New York, and there met Mr, Henry C. Ran, with whom he organized the Prinz & Ran Manufacturing Company, the name under which the firm has since conducted business.
Mr. Ran was born in Milwaukee in 1854, and is a thoroughly practical milling machinist, having been identified with some of the largest concerns in the country, among others that of Messrs, Chisholm Brothers of Chicago, the Bradford Mill Company of Cincinnati,  and the Great Western
Manufacturing Company of Leavenworth, Kansas. Since the organization of the present company the business of the firm has rapidly increased until at the present day their machines may be found in every state in the Union, and some few have been exported. The firm finds more than it can do in the manufacture solely of the inven¬ tions of Mr. Prinz, and at times finds it impossi¬ ble to keep pace with the orders.
Among the most valuable of Mr. Prinz's inven¬ tions might be mentioned : Prinz's Improved Bar¬ ley Grader and Cockle Separator, a combination machine for removing cockle and broken kernels from barley, that is invaluable to brewers and maltsters; Prinz's Improved Cockle Separator, for removing cockle from wheat, used by millers ; Prinz's Iron Prince Smutter, for scouring wheat, removing by friction all dirt and fuzz. Besides these, Mr, Prinz has invented and patented many improvements for machines used in the modern methods of milling, and has been of material assistance in lessening the labor incident to the manufacture of flour.
In politics Mr, Prinz is an independent Repub¬ lican, and while he has but little time to devote to political affairs, his prerogative is always exer¬ cised for the greater good of his party.
In 1873 Mr. Prinz married, at Zurich, Cathe¬ rine Gonzenbach, a native of Switzerland, and to them have been born twelve children, eight of whom are now living.
NAPOLEON   B.  VAN   SLYKE,
MADISON,  WIS.
NAPOLEON B. VAN SLYKE was born in Saratoga county. New York, December 21, 1822. His father was a civil engineer, a protege of Governor DeWitt Clinton, who was engaged in the construction of the " lower aqueduct" of the Erie Canal when the subject of this sketch, his only child, was born. He was afterwards em¬ ployed in the famous "deep cut" of the Dela¬ ware and Hudson Canal; then, in connection with DeWitt Clinton, Jr., upon the ship canal con¬ necting the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers; also the first section of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, from Georgetown to Harper's Ferry.    He
died at the age of thirty-one, leaving his wife Laura (Mears) Van Slyke, who died eleven years after.
Left an orphan at the age of nine, with a mother chiefly dependent upon her son, who worked when and where he could, from sixpence to half a dollar a day, earning his board, clothing and schooling, his education being at the com¬ mon schools, with two years, academic instruc¬ tion. Upon arriving at maturity he worked upon and carried on a farm from 1845 to 1850, when he removed to Syracuse New York, kept books, and then engaged in the salt trade there for him¬ self till 1853, when he settled for life   where he