8. Isaiah Lukens and Joseph Saxton 



Two of the most attractive personalities de- 

 lineated by Sellers were those of Lukens and 

 Saxton, both small town boys who became out- 

 standing craftsmen and innovators. Lukens, 

 nearly 30 years older than Sellers, is seen as 

 patient preceptor and friend of all boys of mechan- 

 ical bent who came his way. Sellers and 

 Saxton, who was about 10 years older than 

 Sellers, became fast and life-long friends. 



Isaiah Lukens was born in 1779 near Horsham, 

 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, less than 

 20 miles north of Philadelphia. 73 He grew up to 

 the trade of clockmaker and watchmaker, in 

 which his father was engaged. He was about 32 

 when he went to live in Philadelphia, taking up 

 residence in his shop in back of 1 73 Market Street, 

 probably near Fourth Street. 74 In the 1813 city 

 directory he was listed as "turner &c." He 

 built many tower clocks, his most noted commis- 

 sion being that in 1828 for the clock to be installed 

 in the restored tower of the old State House, now 

 Independence Hall. 75 



At the first election of officers of the Franklin 

 Institute in 1824, Lukens was made vice-president, 

 an office that he held for many years. Having 

 become interested in the then new surgical opera- 

 tion of crushing stones in the bladder in order 

 to permit flushing out the fragments, he devised 



an improved lithontriptor, a claw-like instrument 

 that could be manipulated externally. In 1825 he 

 journeyed to England to introduce his instrument 

 there, but apparently it was coolly received. 76 

 He returned home in 1827 or 1828. He died in 

 1846. 



Lukens was a fine craftsman in the best tradi- 

 tion, and his most proficient pupil was Saxton. 



Joseph Saxton was born in Huntingdon, 

 Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Juniata, in 

 1 799. The second of 1 1 children, he was put 

 to work at the age of 1 2 in his father's nail factory, 

 and he was apprenticed for a time to the village 

 watchmaker. When he was 18 he made his 

 way to Philadelphia, traveling by boat to Harris- 

 burg and thence overland on foot to his destination. 



After having mastered the skills that Lukens 

 could teach him, Saxton visited England in order 

 to enlarge his knowledge. 77 In the several years 

 that he spent in London, principally as an as- 

 sistant to Jacob Perkins in his Adelaide Gallery, 

 Saxton became acquainted with some of the 

 outstanding engineers and scientists of his day. 

 Among his acquaintances was the celebrated 

 Faraday, lecturer extraordinary of the Royal 

 Institution in Albemarle Street. It was Saxton 

 who in 1833, building upon the discoveries of 

 Faraday and others, devised a successful though 



73 A sketch of Lukens's life appeared in the Journal of the 

 Franklin Institute (December 1846), vol. 42, pp. 423-425. 

 Another is in Charles Coleman Sellers, "Portraits and 

 Miniatures of Charles Willson Peale," Transactions of the 

 American Philosophical Society, (June 1952), vol. 42, pt. 1, p. 132. 



74 "Back of 1 73 High Street" in 181 3 and 1820 city directories. 

 Numbering at this time was continuous from the Delaware River 

 westward. Nathan Sellers's store, at 231 High, was next below 

 the northeast corner of Market and Sixth, and across from 

 No. 190, Washington's presidential mansion(Mcmoirs, book 17). 

 However, George Escol recalled Lukens's "little shop of two 

 stories in what had originally been built for a stable of an Arch 



St. house. It was on a little alley that ran north from Arch St. 

 near 3rd on the opposite side of the same alley was Tom Says 

 rooms." This was probably between 1820 and 1825, before he 

 went to England. Later, according to Sellers, his shop was at 

 9th and Market Sts. (letter from George Escol Sellers to 

 Coleman Sellers, May 4, 1895, in Peale-Sellers papers, MSS, 

 American Philosophical Society Library). 



75 Isaiah Lukens contract with Francis Gurney Smith for 

 making a clock for the State House steeple, April 7, 1828 (in 

 collections of Historical Society of Pennsylvania). 



76 British patent 5255, September 15, 1825, and U.S. patent 

 of December 30, 1826. No record of the U.S. patent survives 



52 



