. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. they strongly imply that the accepted view of a per- sisting and predominantly agrarian society might be revised in favor of an interpretation that mechanization well entrenched much earlier in the 19th century than generally credited. Again, to de- termine the validity of this, a close counting and analy- sis of the patents issued would be revealing and help- ful to the cultural historian. Granted that the full impact of iron and steam is realized later, it remains a challenging fact that patentees, before 1850, seemed consumed with t
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. they strongly imply that the accepted view of a per- sisting and predominantly agrarian society might be revised in favor of an interpretation that mechanization well entrenched much earlier in the 19th century than generally credited. Again, to de- termine the validity of this, a close counting and analy- sis of the patents issued would be revealing and help- ful to the cultural historian. Granted that the full impact of iron and steam is realized later, it remains a challenging fact that patentees, before 1850, seemed consumed with the application of both in proposing new ways of doing things. With the patent records as a historical guide, the manufacturing debut of the United States at the Great Exhibition at London's Crystal Palace in 1851 no longer seems an unexpected display of inventiveness, but an achievement for which the country had long prepared. Examine closely the period 1790 to 1870 in terms of the Patent Office record and what is suggested. First, a society seeking, often naively, a mechanical solution to almost every problem of the day, one that devised agricultural machines, woodworking ma- chines, machines to spin thread, remove smut, or pare apples. Inventors found themselves seduced by the mechanical, and many of them either designed beds "precisely upon the principle of a windless" (fig. 8) or, like John Wade, applied the same ideas to "making and taking in sail by means of a revolving yard on which the sail is wound" instead of reefed (fig. 9). Secondly, a society takes shape that is alread\- well advanced in finding new uses for iron and steel and how to mold them. The cast-iron plow (fig. 10), the steel-bladed spade (fig. 11), iron-bodied carpenter's tools (figs. 12-20), and the sheet-metal lifeboat (fig. 38) are primary examples. It seems quite natural to find that Jethro Wood of Poplar Ridge, New York, should state in the specification for his patent that he had
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