Fishing Eeels. 



189 



Another device for the same 

 purpose is the " Gem " drag 

 handle furnished by Malcohn A. 

 Shipley, which operates in the 

 same way as just described, 

 though constructed on a different 

 principle. The friction device 

 consists of a thumb-screw con- 

 taining a strong spiral spring, by 

 which the desired amount of 

 friction is exerted by simply turn- 

 ing the thumb-screw. Both of 

 the devices mentioned operate! 

 by drawing the shaft of the spool 

 against the handle. 



The following account of the history of the Kentucky 

 Eeel was contributed by me to the " Outing " Magazine, 

 for December, 1900; it is reproduced here as a matter of 

 record, no one else now living being in possession of the 

 data : 



Evolution of the "Kentucky Eeel."* 



The multiplying fishing reel originated in Kentucky 

 about the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. It has 

 been asserted that it was first made in England, but I have 

 been unable to find any reference to it, even in the oldest 



*As Assistant Chief of the Fislieries Department of the World's 

 Columbian Exposition, at Chicago, in 1893, I had charge of the 

 Angling Building, and, among other exhibits, I had a collection 

 of " Kentucky reels," embracing those of Snyder, the Meeks, Hard- 

 man, Milam, Sage, and others. It showed the evolution, of the 

 reel from the old-fashioned, home-made wooden spool, mounted by 

 the local tinsmith, to the fine productions of the present time. 

 This article is based on that collection. The pen-drawings of the 

 oldest reels are by Mr. Charles Bradford Hudson, except several 

 by myself. 



