they strongly imply that the accepted view of a per- 

 sisting and predominantly agrarian society might 

 be revised in favor of an interpretation that f.nds 

 mechanization well entrenched much earlier in the 

 19th century than generally credited. Again, to de- 

 termine the validity of this, a close counting and analy- 

 sis of the patents issued would be revealing and help- 

 ful to the cultural historian. Granted that the full 

 impact of iron and steam is realized later, it remains 

 a challenging fact that patentees, before 1850, seemed 

 consumed with the application of both in proposing 

 new ways of doing things. With the patent records 

 as a historical guide, the manufacturing debut of the 

 United States at the Great Exhibition at London's 

 Crystal Palace in 1851 no longer seems an unexpected 

 display of inventiveness, but an achievement for 

 which the country had long prepared. 



Examine closely the period 1790 to 1870 in terms 

 of the Patent Office record and what is suggested. 

 First, a society seeking, often naively, a mechanical 

 solution to almost every problem of the day, one that 

 devised agricultural machines, woodworking ma- 

 chines, machines to spin thread, remove smut, or 

 pare apples. Inventors found themselves seduced by 

 the mechanical, and many of them either designed 

 beds "precisely upon the principle of a windless" 

 (fig. 8) or, like John Wade, applied the same ideas 

 to "making and taking in sail by means of a revolving 

 yard on which the sail is wound" instead of reefed 

 (fig. 9). 



Secondly, a society takes shape that is alread\- well 

 advanced in finding new uses for iron and steel and 

 how to mold them. The cast-iron plow (fig. 10), the 

 steel-bladed spade (fig. 11), iron-bodied carpenter's 

 tools (figs. 12-20), and the sheet-metal lifeboat (fig. 38) 

 are primary examples. It seems quite natural to 

 find that Jethro Wood of Poplar Ridge, New York, 

 should state in the specification for his patent that he 

 had "very little use for wrought iron" and wanted it 

 clearly understood that the "principle metallic ma- 

 terial" of his plow was "cast iron" — a material which 

 he felt made it "stronger and better, as well as more 

 lasting and cheap." It is interesting to note that Wood 

 was completely wrong concerning the relative strength 

 of wrought and cast iron, although correct about 

 their longevity and price. No less surprising is the 

 improvement in making shovels and spades — patented 

 by James Wood of Philadelphia on February 10, 

 1825 — that called for blades made "from a single 

 piece of steel rolled to the proper dimensions and 

 not hammered." Similarly, Hazard Knowles of 



Figure 14. — Impro\'ement in metal BtNCH planes patented 

 by Birdsill Holly. Patent 9094, July 6, 1852. 



Colchester, Connecticut, inventor of the bench plane 

 with a cast-iron stock, informed the Commissioner of 

 Patents on August 24, 1827, that wood no longer 

 seemed the best structural material even for the 

 most traditional implements: 



The peculiar excellency of this kind of stock consists in 

 this. That it is more durable than the common Stock of 

 wood, that the face of it unlike that of the wooden will 

 always keep in the same condition and not be like that 

 constantly subject to wear and hollowness in the centre, 

 and that the opening thro which the shaving passes will 

 always retain the same width and that it can be afforded 

 at a much cheaper price. 



William Foster, a resident of the District of Colum- 

 bia, patented a cast-iron bench plane in 1843 (fig. 13) 

 and as had Knowles, he claimed that it would "run 

 light and easy," being far superior to other planes in 



PAPER 48: UNITED ST.A.TES PATENTS NEW USES FOR OLD IDEAS 



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