Old Inventors

I'm looking for references to August Merk-Wirz, a Zuirch resident who patented an elecrtic directory board in 1915. According to the online archives of Zurich, I think he invented something called a Fassspund mit Luftreinigungsvorrichtuung in 1914. Google Translate helpfully tells me that this is a "Barrel bung with Luftreinigungsvorrichtuung."

Googling just that word indicates that it might be some kind of purifier.

Consultive Mechanician

The person I'm researching, J. Marcus Boorman of New York, New York, had a singular occupation. He was a lawyer and a "consultive mechanician" according to a mention of him in a mathematical magazine in 1883. (I say singular partly because googling the phrase turns up nothing that is not a reference to the said Mr. Boorman.) This makes me think of some kind of mathematical Sherlock Holmes, except that another writer in a mathematical journal in the 1950s notes that he has "acquired the impression that Boorman seldom if ever produced a reliable result in his calculations."

Any guesses? What do you think a consultive mechanician did in 1883? What would one do now?