m^F^ 



Figure 34. — Hammerhead designed by Cliarles Hammond. 

 Patent 4934, January 19, 1847. 



But perhaps more indicative of the increased use 

 of iron and steel than any of tlie above was Josepli 

 Francis' patent of March 26, 1845 (fig. 38), for the 

 manufacture of sheet-iron boats "pressed into form" 

 from a one-piece die and matrix. 



Lastly, the patent records reveal a society in which, 

 as Samuel F. B. Morse wrote Fenimore Cooper in 

 1833, "Improvement is all the rage." '" The era that 

 believed passionately in the perfectability of the in- 

 dividual chose mechanical as well as spiritual means 

 to achieve it. Of course, these are neither new nor 

 original revelations. What is new and significant is 

 to find them supported in such depth, in a place long 

 known but little explored. 



Often the historian is required to define culturally 

 a broad span of years — to bound, so to speak, a 

 period's limits and its accomplishments in terms of 

 ideas and events. Contrast James Wood's improved 

 spade of 1825 (fig. 11) with Carmichael and Osgood's 

 excavator of 1846 (fig. 39); or Ezra L'Hommedieu's 

 auger of 1809 (fig. 40) with Merrick's screw wrench 

 (fig. 41) of the 1830's and 1840's? Note the manually 

 operated shovel, albeit of steel, that together with 

 blasting powder, the pickax, and the Irish, opened the 

 era of canalization. Compare it to the steam- 

 operated, iron-jawed excavator that readied the 

 course of railroads and canals, diverted rivers. 



" Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals, edit. Edward 

 Lind Nforse (Boston, 1914), vol. 2, p. 22. See Samuel Morse 

 to James Fenimore Cooper, Feb. 21, 1833. 



Figure 35. — Improvement i.n uammirs patenicd b\ W. G. 

 \Vard. Patent 56838, July 31, 1866. 



dredged harbors, and vastly speeded the construction 

 of civil works and conserved human resources. Do 

 not these objects, in fact, meaningfully define the 

 period by illustrating its several le\'els of technology? 

 If nothing more, they are an indication of the rapid 

 change that took place in American life in the span 

 of 80 years. 



Other patents document this in an equally signifi- 

 cant and dramatic manner. Consider the L'Hom- 

 medieu double-podded, center-screw auger and the 

 Merrick screw wrench. Each is of interest in itself. 

 For instance, L'Hommedieu's patent specification of 

 the auger is full of information. 



136 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



