The practice of recording family likenesses predates the 1839 invention of photography by thousands of years, as seen in sculptures and paintings. Illuminated family records commemorated births, deaths, and marriages. This watercolor family record from Poland, Maine, recorded the marriage of Miss Betty Haskel and Mr. Jonathan Bennet, as well as the birth dates of their nine children.
Pregnancy and raising children filled the daily lives of many women in the eighteenth century. Marriages, births, and deaths were primarily community affairs prior to the mid-19th century. Family occasions were marked by a gathered congregation, a village, or a household that routinely included servants, apprentices, lodgers, and visitors.
Swasey’s patent concerned the setting of teazles ( thistle-like plant heads) in the wires of the large napping cylinder. He also claimed certain springs and levers that shifted the cloth rollers in and out of gear. This shifting of the cloth rollers caused the cloth to come in contact with the teazles as the cloth was wound forward and then disengaged the cloth from the teazles as the cloth rewound.
In this way, the cloth could roll from one cylinder to another as long as necessary to ensure a well-napped surface. Also, the shifting of gears did not require a person to match and unmatch the gears. Friction bands on the ends of the cloth rollers, together with hanging weights, kept tension on the cloth even.
Bickford N. Hemenway from Rockland, Maine, received a U.S. patent for an improvement on adjustability of school desks. Patent no. 129559 was issued on July 16, 1872.
This model contains a mechanism that allows the desktop to be adjusted in height. The desktop has a crevice to hold pencils and an inkwell. It is made of dark wood. Only the desktop has survived, and there is a crack down it's middle. It should be noted that while the application for the patent emphasizes an improvement for school desks, the text of the patent specifications also mentions the use could be applied to writing desks in offices and counting houses.
We are not aware of any additional information about the inventor/patentee.
By the late 1860s, railroads were vital to American commerce. This is the U.S. patent model for a rotating multiplication table used to compute freight charges. It was patented by Albert Sinclair of West Waterville, Maine, in 1869.
The instrument has a cylindrical metal case painted black, with metal feet at each end. The case contains a rotating cylinder covered with a printed table of numbers, which represent amounts charged for shipping given quantities of freight at given rates. A long narrow opening across the case shows one line of this table. The rate charged (from 1 to 50 cents per hundred pounds) is given at the far left of the table, with total fees indicated for weights from 1 to 9, 10 to 100 (by tens), 200 to 1,000 (by hundreds), and 10,000 to 50,000 (by ten thousands) pounds. A paper sticker glued above the window lists these weights, as well as the cost of shipping the weights for rates of 1/4 cents, 1/2 cents, and 3/4 cents per hundred pounds. Such costs are added on to the figure shown in the table if the rate is not a whole number.
A blue paper sticker pasted to the case below the window gives instructions. A mark on it reads: SINCLAIR'S FREIGHT COMPUTER (/) FOR RAILROADS AND GENERAL FREIGHTING BUSINESS, (/) By the use of which, all multiplication and division in computing Freight is dispensed with. A reward of Ten Dollars is offered to the first person who can find an error of one cent in the computation of this machine or table.
Albert Sinclair also took out a patent for a broom earlier in 1869. The 1870 U.S. Census lists an Albert Sinclair, boardinghouse keeper, living in Lewiston, Maine, with his wife, Martha, and several children. Lewiston is about fifty miles southwest of Waterville. The 1860 census lists this Albert Sinclair and his family as living in Kalmar, Minnesota, where he was a farmer, thirty-nine years old, and born in Maine.
References:
U.S. Census records.
Albert Sinclair, “Broom,” U.S. Patent 92,483, July 13, 1869.
Albert Sinclair, “Improvement in Price-Calculating Devices,” U.S. Patent 97,974, December 14, 1869.
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to Lucius S. Chandler and Samuel N. Silver, of Auburn, Maine, August 27, 1878, no. 207391.
The engine has four single-acting, horizontal cylinders arranged in a block like the chambers of a revolver. Connecting rods form the four pistons connect to pins on crank disks on a common shaft. The head ends of the four cylinders open into a drum-like exhaust chamber. A rotary valve of peculiar construction revolves in the exhaust chamber close to the ends of the cylinders and opens the cylinders to the exhaust chamber or to the pressure inlet pipe, which forms the hollow stem of the valve, in proper sequence. The hollow stem of the valve passes out of the forward side of the exhaust chamber through a gland and bearing. It carries a spur gear that meshes with a pinion on a lay shaft, which parallels the cylinders and is turned by a bevel gear pair at the crankshaft.
Reference:
This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
Beginning in the 1750s, some American insurance companies issued metal fire marks to policyholders to signify that their property was insured against fire damage. The fire marks bore the name and/or symbol of the insurer, and some included the customer’s policy number. The company or agent would then affix the mark to the policyholder’s home or business. For owners the mark served as proof of insurance and a deterrent against arson. For insurance companies the mark served as a form of advertising, and alerted volunteer firefighters that the property was insured.
The Protection Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Thomaston, Maine issued this tinned sheet iron fire mark in 1849. When issued, the oval mark bore the initials “P.M.F.I.Co.” The text is almost indiscernible due to the effects of fire, possibly the Great Fire of Portland, Maine in 1866.
Large basin or bowl with plain rim, rounded sides and flat bottom; no foot ring. Overall heavy wear. Very brittle, water-stained piece of paper partially affixed to underside of well bears handwritten inscription (in faded ink) of the history of this basin and its line of descent. Black circle on rim face around possible stamped initials and on underside of well around possible touchmark.
This model was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office with the application for the patent issued to William K. Rhodes, of Portland, Maine, June 29, 1869, no. 91869.
The model represents a horizontal inclined water-tube boiler with solid headers and horizontal baffling. Each header is constructed with its outside face vertical and the tube sheet perpendicular to the tubes so that the front header has a larger volume at the top to be used as a steam reservoir, while the back header has a larger volume at the bottom for water.
Reference:
This description comes from the 1939 Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States Museum Bulletin 173 by Frank A. Taylor.
Although Joseph Francis is the best-known inventor of lifesaving boats in the 19th century, other people from diverse walks of life developed their own ideas for improving safety at sea. Among these were two fishermen from Peaks Island near Portland, Maine, Alpheus G. and Abram T. Sterling, who patented their design for lifeboat improvements in 1874.
In the Sterlings’ design, the hold below the boat’s watertight deck was fitted with a rubber “air reservoir,” which conformed to the shape of the boat. A series of “apertures,” or openings, in the hull allowed water into the space around the air-filled chamber. This water-ballast helped the boat resist capsizing while air sealed inside rubber fenders and in a second interior chamber preserved the vessel’s buoyancy. The rubber air-filled reservoir was also meant to prevent the boat’s sinking if it hit an obstruction.