From Rick B
Monday, September 26, 2005
"The South Bend Tribune", Thursday, September 21, 1961, page 49
HARVEY COVER DIES AT AGE 94
Invented Goggles for Industrial Workers.
Harvey S. Cover, inventor of industrial goggles, died at 3:15 a. m. today in the
River Park Nursing Home at the age of 94. He resided at 3905 S. Michigan St. where he
operated the firm of H. S. Cover Manufacturers.
Born in Genners, Pa., on March 1, 1867, Cover had lived in South Bend since 1890,
coming here from Goshen. He attended Purdue University, West Lafayette, and graduated
from Armour Institute, Chicago, with an engineering degree.
Cover became interested in dust protection for industrial workers while he was
employed as a youth in a flour mill.
In 1894 he made his first respirator, a face mask to protect industrial workers from
dust. Several models of his respirator were used in factories throughout the world and in
the diamond mines of South Africa and the nitrate mines of Chile. His work also was
adapted to the manufacture of gas masks in World War I.
Copied by Germans.
In the early 1900's Cover also invented goggles for motorists. The goggles,
which grew out of his invention of a face protector for firemen, were copied by German
manufacturers and from 1908 to 1912 Cover sued his imitators five times in federal courts,
winning two of his suits and collecting a 10-cent royalty for each pair of German goggles
shipped into the United States.
In later years he also made goggles for swimmers. His inventions first were
manufactured by the former Western Rubber Co. of Goshen.
"Life begins at 65," Cover once said, explaining that he had done his best
work since that age. He maintained an experimental laboratory in his home.
Funeral on Saturday.
Cover married Katie Berkheiser on June 26, 1895. She died in 1950.
Surviving are a daughter, Miss Estelle C. Cover, of South Bend; a son, Harold, of
Anaheim, Calif.; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and a sister, Miss Lillie
Cover, of Warren, Ind.
Friends may call after noon Friday in the Welsheimer Funeral Home where services will
be conducted at 2 p. m. Saturday by Rev. Kenneth R. Hemphill, pastor of First Methodist
Church. Entombment will be in the Highland Mausoleum.
Cover was a member of the church, the Indiana Academy of Science, the South Bend
Round Table and the Octogenarian Club.