Finding Aids

A.R. Moen (1799-1867) was a traveling agent for the Collins & Company, a tool manufacturer. In the letter to the company, Moen discusses and provides a sketch of a new axe he has invented.

Andrew Campbell (1821-1890) was an important inventor and manufacturer of printing presses and president of the Campbell Printing Press Company of Brooklyn, New York. His papers include biographical data, correspondence, accounts, patents and records concerning Campbell's inventions.

Charles Milton Cooper (1900-1971) was a chemical engineer and an executive at the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont company. His papers primarily include notes and photographs produced during his time conducting bubble formation experiments at the DuPont Company’s Belle Plant, in Charleston, West Virginia.

Charles Shambelan (1930-2018) was a chemist and senior research fellow at the DuPont Company's Pioneering Research Laboratory from 1959 to 1990. Throughout his career at the DuPont Company, Shambelan made signifcant contributions to the development of Sontara, for which he holds several patents, and Kevlar. This collection consists of two items: a bound volume of Shambelan's patents and publications, and one group photograph of Pioneering Research Laboratory staff in January 1981.

Elmer Sperry (1860-1930) was one of America’s electric pioneers. He founded the Sperry Gyroscope Company in order to develop, manufacture, and market marine gyrostabilizing devices. The papers document Sperry's research and development work and entrepreneurial activities.

Fred C. Ielfield (1864-1948) was a mechanical engineer and inventor. This collection consists of twelve patents for mail canceling and postmarking machinery, corn-husking machinery, and a cereal cutter, all invented by Ielfield.

Geoffrey David Austrian (1930-) is an author and journalist. He first became interested in the life of Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), inventor of the puched-card system of data processing, while working for the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), the firm that grew out of Hollerith's invention. This collections includes the research materials Austrian used to write the book Herman Hollerith: Forgotten Giant of Information Processing. Austrian's research includes notes from interviews with Hollerith family members and copies of materials from the IBM archives and other repositories, including the New York Public Library.

The Hendrick Manufacturing Company was the nation's largest manufacturer of perforated screens. The company was founded by an inventor and entrepreneur, Eli E. Hendrick (1832-1909) in 1885 in Carbondale, Pennsylvania and remained in the hands of Hendrick's descendants until the 1980s, when it was sold. Hendrick's business ventures also included refining lubricating oils and cold storage refridgeration for argricultural produce. This collection consists of records detailing businesses founded by Hendrick and his descendants, including lubricating oil, refrigeration, and metal perforation, especially the Hendrick Manufacturing Company.

Hudson Maxim (1853-1927) was an inventor and chemist best known for his work in the development of smokeless gunpowder and military explosives. This collection includes a copy of an agreement between Maxim and E.I. du Pont de Nemours (October 17, 1897), whereby Maxim sold to the company his patents for smokeless powder. Also included is correspondence with du Pont family members and government agencies related to smokeless powder; the machine gun designed by Maxim; and Maxims's book, Defenseless America, an anti-pacifist polemic.

Hudson Maxim (1853-1927) was an inventor and chemist best known for his work in the development of smokeless gunpowder and military explosives. This collection focuses on Maxim's attempt to float his inventions in England during the late 1890s, his anti-pacifist crusade and war-era activities, and his work at Lake Hopatcong.

Jackson Hunsicker (1948-2017) invented the Memo Mate in the mid-1990s. It was a small personal recording device that could store up to twenty seconds of audio. The Memo Mate was marketed as a handy way to remember appointments, phone numbers, directions, and the location of a car in a large parking lot. The Memo Mate was a successful invention, selling close to 10 million units. Hunsicker's papers on the patenting and marketing of Memo Mate document the typical process and pitfalls of patenting and marketing by a lone inventor. The collection consists of the legal correspondence of the patent application process and subsequent contractual disputes, along with schematics and designs, and possible names and logos. Hunsicker’s invention represents a demonstration of the patent process as well as a contribution from a woman inventor to the field.

Brothers Louis Edward Levy (1846-1919) and Max Levy (1857-1926) founded a photoengraving business in Baltimore in 1875. In 1877, they moved to Philadelphia and reorganized the firm as the Levytype Company. Here they introduced their invention (jointly patented on January 4, 1875) of a new photochemical engraving process, which they called "Levy-type." The bulk of the papers consists of incoming correspondence relating to orders and shipments from 1895 to 1920, and includes letters from all parts of the United States, Europe (especially England and Germany), and more distant places such as India, Australia, and Chile.

Michael Somerville Withers (1926-1985) was a mechanical engineer and an inventor. He worked at the DuPont Company from 1953 to 1983. Withers is the holder/co-holder of fourteen United States patents for plastic laminates and heat exchangers. Withers's papers document his career with the DuPont Company on plastic laminates, heat exchangers, and seal rings. The papers are organized into seven series: Sabine River Works; Experimental Station; Nafion Laminator; Heat exchangers/heaters; Vespel seal rings; Pneumatic tension device; and Trade catalogs, pamphlets, and articles.

Nora C. Edwards (1869-1962) was the manager and inventor for the Edwards Skirt Supporter Company, established around 1903 in Spooner, Wisconsin. Her papers are both personal and business and consist of letters she received from family members, agents, friends, and patent attorneys.

Oliver Evans (1755-1819) was a Delaware-born inventor who pioneered the high-pressure steam engine and created the first continuous production line. The collection consists of documents assembled by C. Walter Mortenson's (1915-1996) campaign to have Evans inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was a chemist and inventor of Neoprene artificial rubber and Nylon synthetic fiber. He worked as a chemist in E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company's Fundamental Research Program from 1928 until his death in 1937. The records include the handwritten transcripts of a series of interviews with persons who knew and worked with Carothers, conducted in 1978 and 1979. The interviews were conducted by Adeline Bassett Cook Strange (1917-2004), a teacher, researcher, and volunteer who spent her life dedicated to various charitable projects around Wilmington, Delaware.

Paul Arthur, Jr., (1915-2000) spent most of his career as an industrial research chemist in the Central Research Department of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, where his most notable achievement was his work on Crolyn, a type of magnetic tape which was used primarily in the instrumentation, video, and computer industries. This small collection, assembled by Arthur's sister, Dorothy Arthur, consists of press releases, photographs, and published clippings related to Arthur's career with the DuPont Company.

Penrose Robinson Hoopes (1892-1976) was a mechanical engineer, inventor, author, and horologist. He specialized in the design of factory equipment, particularly high-production automatic machinery. This collection consists of documents pertaining to Penrose R. Hoopes' career as an engineer and inventor. Hoopes' work includes machine designs for the American Chicle Company, Campbell Soup Company, Johnson and Johnson, and the Ferracute Machine Company. The bulk of the collection material spans from 1923 to 1968, with some patent material and typescript excerpts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection includes correspondence and blueprints related to Hoopes' work as a designer and inventor, as well as employee records, manuscript material, photographs, trade pamphlets, and bibliographic information.

Richard Imlay (1784-1867) was a railroad car manufacturer and inventor. The papers document his marketing of his patent for an improvement in the mode of supporting the bodies of railroad cars and carriages.

Robert "Bob" Allan Olodort (1946-2019) was an inventor, industrial designer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his invention of the "Stowaway," a portable, full-size keyboard that folds up to be pocket-size. It was used for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) like the Palm Pilot. Olodort invented the first computer label printer, the Smart Label Printer, among many other wireless mobile products. He holds dozens of U.S. and foreign utility and design patents. The Robert Olodort archive documents the industrial design process from both an inventor's and an entrepreneurial standpoint. The collection shows the development of a concept into a final product through product research, notes, correspondence, sketches, mechanical drawings, and prototypes. It provides valuable insight into how proprietary technology can be monetized by patenting and maintaining company relationships through development, licensing, and purchase agreements. The records also document business operations with financial files, board of directors files, and investor files. While none of the record sets are complete, there is a large enough sampling for a researcher to comprehend the complexity of design and business practices.

Roy J. Plunkett (1910-1994) was the discoverer of Teflon, while working as a chemist at the DuPont Company. Plunkett's laboratory notebook documents the discovery of Teflon at DuPont's Jackson Laboratory in 1938. The notebook documents the experiments that led to the effective control of the rapid and explosive polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene gas into a solid polymer.

Royal Earl House (1814-1895) was an American inventor who patented an electic telegraph that could print Roman character letters and an electro-phonetic receiver for use in telegraphy. The collection is comprised of twenty-nine letters to House regarding his suit against the Bell monopoly for the phonetic telegraph, from 1885 to 1891.

Sara Armstrong Mahler (1930-2004) was a pediatric doctor and an executive in the Clinical Division at the DuPont Pharmaceutical Company from 1964 to 2001, where she was involved in both the domestic and foreign development and approval of drugs and radiopharmaceutical imaging products. Mahler invented Symmetrel, an antiviral therapy initially used to treat influenza until widespread drug resistance developed; however, it is still an effective treatment for Parkinson's Disease. This small collection consists of two items related to her time at the DuPont Pharmaceutical Company and her invention of Symmetrel. There is one newspaper clipping and one prescription, the first prescription issued for Symmetrel in 1967.

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) was an American chemist known for inventing Kevlar. The papers of Stephanie L. Kwolek chronicle her work over a forty year span at the DuPont Company. The collection includes patents, journal articles, awards, subject files, and speeches that were either produced by or aided Kwolek in her work.

Walter Ervin Burton (1903-1995) was a technical writer, photographer, and inventor. He worked as a staff photographer and reporter for the Akron Times, Time Press, and Herald Publishing Companies. He became a freelance writer in 1927, contributing hundreds of articles to various magazines. This collection consists of nine handwritten diaries detailing the life and work of Walter E. Burton. As a freelance writer and inventor, Burton worked at home, creating and/or researching mechanical projects and writing them up for journals. He spent much of his time puttering and experimenting in his basement, meticulously recording each project, its completion, amounts paid him, etc. All of the diaries contain full-page entries for each day of the year. The run of diaries is incomplete; years included are 1957, 1960 to 1962, 1982, and 1984 to 1987. Researchers interested in the development and process of analyzing the mechanics of devices would find this collection of particular significance.

Wayne W. Light (1882-) was a lawyer andlight delivery vehicle inventor. The collection consists of items amassed by Light to document his attempts to become an automotive inventor and manufacturer.

William M. Henderson (1831-1904) was a mechanical engineer and inventor who spent most of his career in Philadelphia. The papers consist of two items: a scrapbook, which pertains to Henderson's career and inventions, and an atlas of twenty-nine plates of Bessemer and rolling-mill machinery.