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Inventors

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings

Found in 34 Collections and/or Records:

A. R. Moen letter to Collins and Co.

 Collection
Accession: 1946
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1830 September 16

Andrew Campbell papers

 Collection
Accession: 1314
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1840-1926

Charles M. Cooper papers

 Collection
Accession: 2275
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1925-1968

Charles Shambelan patents and scientific publications

 Collection
Accession: 2764
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1959-1990

Elmer Ambrose Sperry papers

 Collection
Accession: 1893
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1876-1931

Elmer Sperry photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1985-257
Abstract:

Elmer A. Sperry (1860-1930) was an electrical engineer who established the Electric Light, Motor, and Car Brake Company in 1883 and then founded the Sperry Electric Mining Machine Company in 1886. After selling his patents to General Electric, he went to work for the company as a consultant. This collection includes original materials, as well as copy work from other sources and images which show Sperry's inventions; there is some ephemera, family photos, employees, and views of the Sperry Company's Brooklyn drafting rooms.

Dates: 1847-1945

Floyd Hamilton Fish Jr. pneumacel photographs

 Collection
Accession: 2013-248
Abstract:

Floyd Hamilton Fish Jr. (1923-2009) was a mechanical engineer and inventor at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company between 1954 and 1986. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company more commonly referred to as the DuPont Company. Fish helped invent pneumacel, an inflated polyester foam. These records are a small group of documents relating to Fish's role in the pneumacel project and his attempt to revive it after his retirement, as well as the hiring process for engineers at DuPont and the activities of the Kennett Pike Association.

Dates: 1953-2005

Fred C. Ielfield patents

 Collection
Accession: 1043
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1901-1946

Geoffrey D. Austrian research notes on Herman Hollerith

 Collection
Accession: 2353
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1860-1990; Majority of material found within 1890-1929

Hendrick Manufacturing Company records

 Collection
Accession: 2409
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1861-1980; Majority of material found within 1870-1920

Hudson Maxim papers

 Collection
Accession: 0509
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1889-1925

Hudson Maxim papers

 Collection
Accession: 2147
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1851-1925

Hudson Maxim photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1996-312
Abstract:

Hudson Maxim (1853-1927) was an inventor and chemist best known for his work in the development of smokeless gunpowder and military explosives. The collection consists primarily of photographs, many of which are portraits, of Hudson Maxim and his family, friends, and associates.

Dates: circa 1890-1925

Levy family business papers

 Collection
Accession: 1272
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1888-1920

Louis E. and Max Levy photograph album

 Collection
Accession: 1976-252
Abstract:

The 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". This album contains personal cyanotype photographs of their homes, travels, friends and family.

Dates: circa 1886-1893

"Men of Progress -- American Inventors" engraving

 Collection
Accession: 1980-202
Abstract:

Christian Schussele (1824-1879) was an artist and teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. John Sartain (1808-1897) was a Philadelphia printmaker and engraver, and director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The engraving is a group portrait of nineteen nineteenth-century American inventors and industrialists, collected around a table with examples of their inventions, and beneath a portrait of Benjamin Franklin.

Dates: 1863

Michael Somerville Withers papers

 Collection
Accession: 2781
Abstract:

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.

Dates: circa 1950s-1970s

Oliver Evans nomination to the National Inventors Hall of Fame

 Collection
Accession: 2479
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1984-1987

Oral history interviews on Wallace Carothers

 Collection
Accession: 1994-311
Abstract:

Wallace Hume Carothers (1896-1937) was 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. This collection contains five interviews conducted in July and August of 1978 with Wallace Carothers’s friends and colleagues. The interviewees primarily share stories and focus on their feelings surrounding Carothers’s personality, work, and suicide.

Dates: 1978

Oral history project notes on Wallace Hume Carothers

 Collection
Accession: 1985
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1925-1979; Majority of material found within 1978-1979

Paul Arthur, Jr. papers

 Collection
Accession: 2536
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1967-1994; Majority of material found within 1967-1977

Penrose R. Hoopes papers

 Collection
Accession: 1344
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1909-1974

Richard Implay papers

 Collection
Accession: 1760
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1836-1858

Robert Olodort archive

 Collection
Accession: 2769
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1978-2019

Roy J. Plunkett laboratory notebook

 Collection
Accession: 1991
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1937-1940

Royal Earl House papers

 Collection
Accession: 1995
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1885-1891

Sara Armstrong Mahler miscellany

 Collection
Accession: 2318
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1967; 2001

Singer Manufacturing Company brochure

 Collection
Accession: 2005-238
Abstract:

The Singer Manufacturing Company, once the world's leading producer of sewing machines, was incorporated in 1863 as the successor to I.M. Singer & Co., established in 1851. This item is an illustrated 8-page brochure for Singer Sewing Machines, advertising the Singer No. 27 and the Singer Cabinet Table.

Dates: circa 1900

Stephanie Kwolek photographs

 Collection
Accession: 2014-202
Abstract:

Famous chemist and Kevlar inventor Stephanie L. Kwolek (1923-2014) was a research associate at DuPont for forty years. These photographs document her career.

Dates: 1938-1995

Stephanie Kwolek photographs and videotapes

 Collection
Accession: 2014-248
Abstract:

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923-2014) was an American chemist known for inventing Kevlar. She worked for the DuPont Company for forty years. Kwolek's main area of research was polymers, including high-performance fibers. This collection contains photographs, albums, slides and videotapes related to Kwolek's career and achievements, including her work on Kevlar.

Dates: circa 1920; 1948-2010; Majority of material found within 1970-1997

Stephanie L. Kwolek papers

 Collection
Accession: 2607
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1937-2014

Walter E. Burton diaries

 Collection
Accession: 2837
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1957-1987

Wayne W. Light miscellany

 Collection
Accession: 2446
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1905-1918

William M. Henderson papers

 Collection
Accession: 2267
Abstract:

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.

Dates: 1847-1893