Walter Hunt
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| Walter Hunt | |
|---|---|
 Walter Hunt |
|
| Born | 29 July 1796 |
| Died | 8 June 1859 (aged 62) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | inventor |
| Known for | fountain pen sewing machine safety pin flax streetcar bell hard-coal-burning stove street sweeping machinery, velocipede ice plough |
Walter Hunt (1796–1859) was an American mechanic. He lived and worked in New York state. Through the course of his work he became renowned for being a prolific inventor, notably of the sewing machine (1833), safety pin (1849), a forerunner of the Winchester repeating rifle, a successful flax spinner, knife sharpener, streetcar bell, hard-coal-burning stove, artificial stone, street sweeping machinery, the velocipede, and the ice plough[1].
Hunt did not realize the significance of a good load of these when he invented them; today, many are widely-used products. He thought little of the safety pin, selling the patent for a paltry sum of $400 (roughly $10,000 in 2008 dollars)[2] to the company W R Grace and Company, to pay a man to whom he owed $15. He failed to patent his sewing machine at all, because he feared that it would create unemployment among seamstresses. (This led to an 1854 court case when the machine was re-invented by Elias Howe; Hunt's machine shown to have design flaws limiting its practical use). Like Howe, Hunt is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
Some of his important inventions are shown here with drawings from the patent.
 Fountain pen |
 Safety pin |
 Nail making machine |
 Sewing machine |
 Swivel-Cap Stopper |
 Inkstand |
 Firing cock repeating gun Patent 6663 |
 Ice Boat |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Marshall Cavendish, p. 845.
- ^ Discoveries
[edit] References
- Marshall Cavendish Corporation, Inventors and inventions. New York : Marshall Cavendish, 2007. ISBN 9780761477617, p. 845 ff.
- Hunt, Clinton N. Walter Hunt, American inventor. New York: C. N. Hunt, 1935. OCLC 250585694
- Kane, Joseph Nathan. Necessity's child : the story of Walter Hunt, Americaʼs forgotten inventor, Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1997. ISBN 9780786402793
[edit] External links
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