THE SPLIT BAMBOO ROD 129 



that I have been able to find bears the date 

 1805, as appears farther on. One Clark of 

 London was said to be " the unrivalled maker " 

 of such rods, and from this it is natural to 

 infer that other rodmakers were at that time 

 working bamboo into rods. 



The first split bamboo rod to be made in 

 America was produced by Samuel Phillipe, of 

 Easton, Pa., in 1845, according to Dr. James 

 A. Henshall, who has devoted a great deal of 

 time to obtaining the facts. This was a four- 

 strip rod. 



The first six-strip split bamboo rod to be 

 made anywhere was the invention of Hiram 

 L. Leonard, then of Bangor, Maine. The late 

 William Mitchell himself a veteran rod- 

 maker said that the Leonard rods were put 

 on the market about 1870. No improvement 

 worthy of the name has ever been invented to 

 replace six strips for rod joints, and to-day 

 they are conceded to be the last word in rod- 

 making. Seven-strip rods were at one time 

 made, notably by Edward Vom Hofe, of New 

 York, now deceased; and eight-strip rods have 

 been and are still occasionally made by a num- 

 ber of firms; while rods in which the butts are 

 very heavy as salmon and salt-water rods 

 are commonly made of six pairs of strips. In 



