JVLy earliest recollection of Jacob Perkins was 

 as associated with Murray, Fairman, Draper, Under- 

 wood, etc., as bank-note engravers. I think my 

 father's acquaintance dated back of that, as I have 

 heard him relate having been summoned as an expert 

 in a suit for infringement of Perkins' tack machine for 

 cutting and heading tacks in one operation, the ground 

 of the defense being so imperfect a specification that 

 no one could construct a machine from it. 



After my father had answered that he had neither 

 seen the machine nor read the specification, the latter 

 was handed to him. After he had carefully read it, 

 he was asked if he could construct a machine from it. 

 His answer was, "Yes." 



He was then asked to explain how he would proceed 

 to do so. The deficiency in the specification was the 

 want of describing the mode of transferring the cut 

 tack to the heading tool. When my father came to 

 that part, he went on describing how he should 

 construct it, and its operation. When asked if he 

 found that portion in the specification, his answer was, 

 "No; but it would naturally suggest itself to any 

 mechanic as the simplest mode; in fact there were 

 only two ways of accomplishing it." He then 

 described the other mode that would answer the 

 purpose, but it was not so simple and effective. 



Two machines then in the court were uncovered in 

 which both plans had been adopted — the first 

 described in the original Perkins" machine, the other 

 in the infringing one. This testimony decided the 

 sufficiency of the specification, and the Perkins 

 company gained their suit. I think this was previous 

 to Perkins coming to Philadelphia, and that an 

 intimacy was at that time established. 



Perkins had perfected the most important work or 

 invention of his life — the annealing of cast steel, so as 



/ 



Figure 9. — Jacob Perkins (1766-1849). From 

 Appleton's Dictionary of Machines, Mechanics, 

 Engine-work and Engineering, 2 vols. (New York, 

 1867). 



to substitute it for copperplate engraving, and re- 

 hardening the plates, transferring to soft steel rollers 

 or dies, from which, after hardening, plates could be 

 multiplied. This manipulation, together with the 

 beautiful scroll-work of Spencer's ingenious geo- 

 metrical lathe or rose engine, became, and still 

 continues, one of the most important features of our 

 American banknotes. [3] 



Perkins prepared the plates and the firm of Murray, 

 Draper, Fairman & Co. did the engraving, with 

 Spencer doing the lathe work. 31 



31 Bathe and Bathe (cited in note 26 above), p. 73n, give a 

 very brief sketch of Asa Spencer (d. 1847). The Spencer 

 geometric lathe is described and illustrated in British patent 

 4400, October 11, 181 9, taken out under the name of Jacob 

 Perkins. Lathe drawings are on sheets 1 and 2 of 6. A 

 description of the machine and an example of the work pro- 

 duced by Spencer's lathe are in Journal of the Franklin Institute 

 (1826), vol. 2, pp. 106-108 and plate. Short notices of George 

 Murray and Gideon Fairman are in Scharf and Westcott 

 (cited in note 14 above), vol. 2, pp. 1 057-1058. 



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