— The only extant Harrison Sewing Machine patented in 1859.
Unbelievable find; the first sewing machine of James Harrison Jr. of New York, NY, ever to be found! Harrison patented his invention on August 9, 1859, and August 30, 1859.
The patents and the patent model in the Smithsonian Institution were the only items know before about James Harrison's invention. Harrison's machine utilizes a barbed or bearded needle which sewed from below the stitch-plate. Unlike the barbed needle on the Boynton sewing machine, the needle on Harrison's machine rotated while moving up and down.
The most ingenious idea Harrision claimed in his patent application for which patent no. 25,013 was issued is a lever operated by the power shaft which is powered by the hand-crank wheel in the back of the machine. This semicircular lever transferres the movement to the front of the machine to direct the thread to the barbed needle. Harrison called this lever “switch-lever”. What ever the reason, his machine was a failure too as the Boynton. However, his machine seems to be further developed than the Boynton sewing machine.
Harrison claimed as his invention in his patent application: “The switching-lever n, constructed and operated, as herein set forth, for directing the thread to the beard or barb of the needle and preventing the escape of the thread therefrom,” read more>>
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—Jordan L. Mott pyramid stove from 1835
Exceedingly rare and very early Mott pyramid stove patented on July 21, 1835 by Jordan L. Mott of New York City, NY.
This stove measures only 20 inches in height and is a few ounces short of 40 lbs; early stoves were in general smaller than later stoves. The size of a parlor stove was not determined yet in 1835; this stove used cheap Pennsylvania Anthracite as fuel.
Mott states in his patent in part, “the outside shall be fluted, ribbed, or grooved, so as to expose a larger surface to the motion of the external air, as this mode of forming them, will tend to prevent them being over heated, by its intended radiation.” Increasing the surface also prevented the cast iron from crcaking.
Mott also protected his invention to cast the parts so they interlock. Mott states in his patent that he intends to keep the parts of his stoves in place by, “rims or ledges, and corresponding grooves, or hollows, being cast upon their touching sides to keep them in their places...”
He made other claims in his patent but the two aforementioned ideas, the ribbed surface to increase heat transfer, and the rims or ledges and corresponding grooves are incorporated in the stove offered here for sale, read more>>
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—First Telephone, the Coffin Set manufct. by Charles Williams, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, for the National Bell Telephone Co. of 1878.
Exceedingly rare historic Telephone, Bell´s first Telephone manufactured by Charles Williams, the telephone every museum and collector is looking for!
Both, his mother and his wife, were deaf. This profoundly influenced Bell's life. He intensely researched acoustics, sound and human hearing and speech. His interest and research on hearing devices eventually culminated in Bell being awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone on March 7, 1876. Bell considered his invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study.
Two individuals, Thomas A. Watson and Charles Williams Jr., played an important role in Bell's success perfecting and manufacturing the first commercially successful Telephon, read more>>
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—Early, unknown Watson Sewing Machine
Earliest Watson sewing machine ever to be found resembling the machine in the drawing of the patent papers to the patent issued to William C. Watson on November 25, 1856.
The casting is so delicate that the machine was prone to be destroyed by breaking; especially the arm moving the needle up and down and the hand-crank wheel. The Watson was only manufactured for a very short period of time as the manufacturer, Joel Chase, was sued by Potter and Wheeler for infringment of the A.B.Wilson patent which was re-issued on 22nd January 1856; this is the reason why any Watson machine is hard to find. The machine sold for only $10 and could have been a big success; read more>>
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—The only known extant EVEREADY Lady Liberty, or Statue of Liberty Novelty Light ever to be found!
Unbelievable find! Most collectors do know about this novelty light as catalogs have been found, proving that this light was actually offered back in the 1890´s. However, none have been found to this day other then the one offered here.
Bill Utley wrote in his book, considered by many collectors the “bible” for flashlight and novelty light collectors:
“The Birdsall 1896 catalog offered a Statue of Liberty Electric Novelty with the torch illuminated with a bulb powered by a dry cell battery. It was offered with, or without a music box. Conrad Hubert offered a similar novelty in his 1898 Ever Ready catalog. The Statue was continued in Ever Ready catalogs until 1904. Neither Birdsall nor Ever Ready Statues of Liberty have been located to date.” I contacted Bill Utley after finding this Statue of Liberty Novelty Light and asked him if in the 15 years after publishing his book, one would have been found. His answer was, “I´ve never seen one Peter, so you have the only one that I know of. Congratulations!”
Bill Utley. read more>>
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— Charles Lane Poor Line of Position Computer
This exceedingly rare navigation instrument is called “Line of Position Computer,” and is essentially a mechanical navigator or circular slide rule for determining one's location, either from morning or afternoon sightings for longitude or from the St. Hilaire method of finding the line of position.
Despite the extensive references in the literature, Poor´s Line of Position Computer was not a commercial success and only very
few examples are known to exist, “[t]he scarcity of surviving examples suggests the government and general public had little interest
in the instrument. Indeed, aviators preferred inspection tables over slide rules for navigation,”
The National Museum of American History.
Charles Lane Poor (January 18, 1866 — September 27, 1951) was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Edward Erie Poor. He graduated from the City College of New York and received a Ph.D. in 1892 from Johns Hopkins University. Poor became an American astronomer and professor of celestial mechanics at Columbia University from 1903 to 1944, when he was named Professor Emeritus. He published several books on astronomy and a monograph disputing the evidence for Einstein´s theory of relativity in the pre-war years before the theory became firmly established. Poor published a series of papers that reflect his lack of understanding for the theory of relativity, read more>>
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—Exceedingly rare and fine quadruple Clepsammia or Hour-Glass, probably the finest extant example from the 17th century in the world.
Only scientists and noble men could afford an instrument like this back in the 17th century. Therefore, only few were ever made. Once dropped to the ground, the instrument was destroyed.
Most individuals never heard of a clepsammia from the 17th century, not even of a single double bubble clepsammia. There is nothing to be found on Google; that is how rare these are. I was only able to find records of two other 17th century quadruple clepsammias or hour-glasses. The other two are not complete and have missing parts. The one I'm offering here is in all original complete preservation, and this after 400 years!
Incredible find; Nathaniel Potter the II, son of immigrant Nathaniel Potter who came to the USA in 1628 from England, brought this quadruple clepsammia somewhen between 1650 and 1700 from one of this trips to Europe back to the United States. A descendant, 13 generations removed, had it in his possession until five years ago when I bought it from him.
In the last five years I did a lot of research. However, I was only able to find records of two other quadruple early 17th century clepsammias or hour-glasses through my research; this is an incredible rare object of which most collectors have not even seen pictures of, even advanced collectors. Imagine, this delicate object with its hand-blown glass spheres was never dropped in 400 years! I also have never seen an image in any of the many books about scientific instruments out there; this is how rare these early 17th century clepsammias or hour-glasses are!
The leading collector in the field, famous French writer and intellectual, Jacques Attali, owns one of the other two known extant instruments. His quadrupple sand-glass is pictured in his book, “Mémoire de Sabliers.” read more>>
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—Exceedingly rare and very ornate early battery Novelty Light, the only one known of its kind!
Thomas A. Edison worked tirelessly on his incandescent light bulb which he finally perfected in 1879. This remarkable invention did away with open flames and their inherent danger to start all kinds of fires. It was also the first necessary step to replace the portable candlestick or candle light with a battery powered light. First attempts were made with wet-cell batteries but for obvious reasons the liquid acid used in such “portable” lights proved to be impractical. Another necessary invention had to be made to make the portable light practical; the dry-cell battery. French inventor Georges Lionel Leclanche invented the Zinc-Carbon dry cell BATTERY and protected his invention with US Patent no. 64,113 which issued on April 23, 1867.
Several improvements were necessary to get to the point were Zinc-Carbon dry-cell batteries were save to use in portable lights, read more>>
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—The Adding Machine of Pierre Fardoil c. 1700
Very early machine for adding and subtracting numbers from 0-100 in the shape of an astrolabe. The machine - signed “Pierre Fardoil à Paris” is hand-crafted in steel and brass, measures 5-1/2 inches in height and is in perfect working condition.There are less than ten other models of calculators known which were invented or made before circa 1700.
Fardoil’s contribution to the development of mechanical calculating devices is the introduction of his mechanism which enables the operator to read the result without counting the dividing marks on a circular scale of a disc shaped adding machine. Fardoil achieved this improvement by utilizing a planetary gear turning two round scales underneath two stationary hands ten times over the entire range of the calculator. The two scales show the numbers from 0-9 for additions and for subtractions respectively. This simple use of a planetary gear enabled Fardoil to provide a read-out in the range of 0-100 without the need of a carry-over from 9 to 10, 20, 30, etc.
Unlike the very early calculators by Schickard, Leibniz, Pascal, Grillet, and others, Fardoil's calculator was a true “pocket calculator” as it is flat and would fit in any pocket. read more>>
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—Exceedingly rare, maybe the only one extant, CORONET Base Burner Stove.
This rare stove is called CORONET, and was manufactured by Thomas, Roberts, Stevenson, Co., in Philadelphia, PA, and is a very early base burner stove based on a patent issued in 1874. Base burner stoves from the 1870´s are basically none extant; the only images I could find were images on trade-cards or images out of sales-catalogs from the time.
This very rare and impossible to find base burner stove has ten doors with a total of 25 Mica windows and is a truly illuminated or radiant stove.
Approximately 145 year old, this stove is in surprisingly good condition and all complete and original, including the finial. The fine castings are crafted in the Eastlake style and are of superior quality. read more>>
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— SOLD ITEMS ... SOLD ITEMS ... SOLD ITEMS ... SOLD ITEMS
ITEMS BELOW ARE SOLD ! ENJOY THE PICTURES AND THE DESCRIPTIONS.....Leave a comment - Edit - Delete
— The only known sewing machine based on Cook´s Patent of 1863. Sold!
Cook´s machine is the failed attempt to manufacture a running stitch machine which does not need the constant interaction with the machine during sewing. William G. Cook claimed in the patent specification, “Its object is to avoid the necessity of stopping the machine and taking out the work when a certain length has been performed, which is so great an objection to other machines of this class, and render continuous the stitching of a piece of cloth of any length.”
The need to remove the needle from the machine each time the crimping gears had pushed fabric onto the needle to its capacity was the drawback of running-stitch machines. The needle used on running-stitch machines was just an ordinary needle.
Cook´s Patent was an attempt to improve the running stitch machine by eliminating the constant need to remove the needle. Cook devised a complicated mechanism to achieve this. However, his invention created too much friction in its mechanism to render his machine operational.
Cook´s machine was manufactured by the Demorest Manufacturing Company in Williamsport Pennsylvania and sold by, Mme Demorest on 473 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
The machine bears the serial number 85 and is without any doubt the only extant machine of its kind; read more>>
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— One of only four known instruments crafted by Richardson & Co., Rochester NY, a nine Key Bugle. Sold!
Samuel W. Richardson was born in 1803 in Connecticut. By 1832 he was living in Winchester, NH working for Graves & Co. It was here where Richardson learned to build some of the finest brass instruments.
Eventually Richardson moved to Rochester, NY. Beginning in 1847, Richardson set up shop as an instrument maker in Rochester, New York, with address, Curtis Building, h. 47 N. Clinton. For whatever reasons, Richardson was not successful in selling instruments and was thereafter listed as an upholsterer, a foreman in a perfumery factory, a patent leg maker (in 1866, after the civil war there had to be a great demand for artificial legs), and also as a machinist.
His instruments are of the highest quality and finest workmanship but due to his limited success as a manufacturer of instruments only four are known at this time.
Samuel W. Richardson died around 1872. read more>>
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— Early, ca 1820, James Watt Model Steam Engine. Sold!
Possibly the finest model of an original period Model from ca 1820, featuring a four column rotative James Watt vertical steam engine of the reciprocating beam type with double-action low-pressure single-cylinder, Watt's “parallel motion” linkage, and Watt's centrifugal speed governor.
If the reader knows of the wereabouts of a finer model anywhere in the world, I would love to hear about it; please leave a comment with the pertinent info for everybody else to see. Please correct me and leave a comment, thanks!
James Watt is considered the father of the industrial revolution and was one of the most important engineers and scientists in history. Some scientists argue that the design of the parallel motion (or double-acting engine) patented by Watt in 1784, should serve as the starting point of the “Anthropocene Epoch” - the unofficial interval of geologic time in which human activity began to substantially alter Earth's surface, atmosphere, and oceans. read more>>
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— Charles Page Reciprocating Electro-Magnetic Engine of 1838. Sold!
At that time (1830's and 1840's) it was still open whether Electromagnetic motors should be rotating or reciprocating machines, i.e. simulate a plunger rod of a steam engine.
While Davenport's motor was resembling a rotating design,
Pages motor was based on the plunger type, resembling a steam egine by which
Page replaced the piston generating the force transmitted to the flywheel by a
beam with four electric magnets.
This working demonstration model was crafted by Daniel Davis Jr., sometime after July 1838 and was mentioned in Benjamin Silliman's American Journal of Science, vol. XXXV, 1838, page 264; the oldest Scientific Journal in the United States, founded in 1818.
It is estimated that less than five of these models have survived and are only to be found in museums or major private collections. read more>>
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— Exceedingly rare and early Hatfield Adding Machine patented in 1854. Sold!
There are probably only eight of these early American Adding Machines known to exist. Aaron L. Hatfield was born in Pennsylvania in 1819 and as a 35 year old man, he invented, patented, manufactured, marketed and sold these adders or adding machines himself while he was living in Lewisburg PA, USA.
As an inventor he patented improvements in pruning shears, pumps, and bag holders.
He moved to Green Springs Ohio and worked as photographer, more specifically, as ambrotypist. He moved again to Constantine in Michigan to work yet in a different occupation; he is listed there as watchmaker. Aaron Hatfield was a man with many talents.
This adding machine is capable to add up numbers up-to 9,999. A simple mechanism performs a carry-over for every operation which goes above 99. The serial number of this machine is 399; read more>>
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—The finest figural Sewing Machine; the “Lady” or “Cora Munro” Sold!
Grace Roger Cooper´s claim that this machine was actually manufactured despite the fact that no machine had ever been found is now confirmed. In her book, former curator of the Textile Division of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, made this claim based on her observation that two different inventors, independent from each other, used this attractive machine as model for their application for a patent for an improved feeding mechanism.
One of the inventors was George Hensel of New York City for which patent 24,737 was issued on July 12, 1859. Since Hensel´s patent application was for an improvement in the feed, there was no need to put a highly decorative head unless such a machine was commercially available. The patent specifications merely state that the head is “ornamented.”
Sidney Parker of Sing Sing, New York, also used a “Lady” or “Cora Munro” head and was issued patent number 24,780, on the same date as the Hensel patent. Parker´s patent also covered an improved feeding mechanism.
The design of this machine is based on a character in James Fenimore Cooper´s Last of the Mohicans, called “Cora Munro,” read more>>
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—W. Younger 1847 Washing Machine Patent Model, Sold!
William Younger of Huntington Tennessee had the unusual idea to use a wheelbarrow as the place for his invention, a washing machine, so the machine could easily be moved around. In 1847, he was among the first to patent a washing machine and his patent was issued on November 6th, and the number 5353 was assigned to his invention. The patent papers describe the function of his washing machine in part as, “what I claim therein as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is - The combination with the driving roller A, of the toothed roller C, fluted roller B, and rubbing board E; the board E, rubbing the clothing, and the rollers B and C, pressing upon and changing the position of the clothing as they are revolved, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.”
read more>>
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—The only Sextuple Safe-Time-Lock extant. Sold!
Only 13 were ever built, none were believed to be extant till this Yale And Towne Sextuple or model EE Safe-Time-Lock was found! This is the only extant safe-time-lock with a redundancy of five clock movements!
This time-lock is based on Emory Stockwell’s patent with number 363’920, issued on May 31, 1887, read more>>
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—Earliest known Blow Accordion with 10 keys. Sold!
Very early blow accordion, first half of the 19th century, with 10 ivory keys and two registers. The instrument is unsigned, but believed to be American made. Blow accordions are also called Flute Harmonicas. read more>>
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— Sargent & Greenleaf model 4 Safe Time Lock of 1878. Sold!
Exceedingly rare Safe-Time-Lock manufactured by Sargent & Greenleaf in Rochester NY. On page 196, John Erroll states in his book, “American Genius, Nineteenth-Century Bank Locks and Time Locks,” that Sargent made 365 of the fourty-six-hour Model 4, of which fifteen are thought to remain today.
This early version was introduced in 1878 and has two forty-six-hour movements and had white enamel dials. read more>>
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—The only known extant Spencer Electric Co., Potbelly Candlestick Telephone (serial no. 32!) Sold!
Almost impossible to find, a telephone which is unknown to the large and very active community of telephone collectors, the Spencer Potbelly Candlestick Telephone. I could not find a picture or any record in any publication in the field of historic telephony, or on the Internet! The only records I could find are three patents issued to James H. Spencer and Malcolm S. Keyes, both of New York City, N.Y., a description in the Scientific American Supplement issue of January 29, 1898, and a description of the novel transmitter published in the Electrical World and Engineer, Volume 34, page 248.
There are many telphone related patents issued and no actual hardware was ever found; this was true about the US Patents with the numbers 596'834, issued on January 4, 1898, and the consecutive numbers 624'696, and 624'697, both issued on the same day, May 9, 1899, untill this telephone was found to prove that it was actually manufactured. The serial number of 32 is an indication that there where not many made.
This candlestick telephone with the novel form of transmitter patented by Spencer and Keyes was manufactured by the the Spencer Electrical Company, 163 Greenwich Street, New York City, N.Y.
A description of the novel transmitter, published in the Electrical World and Engineer, Volume 34, page 248, states: “The object of the invention is to avoid metallic vibrations, only the intended actual sound being properly transmitted. To accomplish this result, Mr. Spencer employs novel means of supporting the diaphragm,” read more>>
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—Peerless Whittler Pencil Sharpener, with three rotating knifes. Sold!
This is an exceedingly rare version with the three cutting knifes of the Peerless Pencil Pointer. If you are an experienced collector, you know that the last one of these showed up on eBay two years ago with a buy it now price of $950.00. The machine sold as soon as it was listed.
Whittler applied for a patent and started manufacturing before the patent issued. In short order, he first manufactured a machine with just one rotating knife, then two, and finally three. The patent never issued and Whittler had to seize production, hence, the machine is very scarce, read more>>
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—Rare, and in fine condition, H. H. Scott model LK-150 Stereo HiFi Vacuum Tube Power Amplifier in perfect working order. Sold!
The pinnacle of HiFi design with vacuum tube technology, the legendary Power Amplifier model LK-150 designed by H.H. Scott in the early 1960's. Producing 75 Watts RMS per channel, this amplifier is a beast! This amplifier comes with its original instruction booklet and other original documentation, read more>>
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—Early version (serial # 160!) of the 1921 three bank Noiseless Portable Typewriter in very good condition. Sold!
This rare machine has the second lowest serial number of any known Noiseless Portable Typewriter there is; the serial number is 160! In the first year of production in 1921, only 200 of these machines were manufactured and these machines are different than the machines builtin the following three years before Remington bought the company, read more>>
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