US Patent: 344X
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Air Pump
Air Pump Ventilator for Ships, Mines, Etc.
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Patentee:
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| Richard Robotham (exact or similar names) - Hudson, Columbia County, NY |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Granted: |
Oct. 10, 1801 |
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Joel Havens
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Description: |
| Most of the patents prior to 1836 were lost in the Dec. 1836 fire. Only about 2,000 of the almost 10,000 documents were recovered. Little is known about this patent. There are no patent drawings available. This patent is in the database for reference only.
Richard Robotham, a native of Nottinghamshire, England, was an inventor in Hudson, New York. Although located well up the Hudson River, the town of that name was a home port for whalers and seal hunters in the latter part of the eighteenth century and a processing center for oil from sperm whales and elephant seals.
The announcement of a $100 prize by the American Philosophical Society for "the most simple, convenient & effective method of ventilating a ship at sea, without manual labour" prompted Robotham to design his Ventilator. In March 1801, Robotham addressed a letter "To the President of the Philosophical Society Philadelphia" that TJ passed along to the society without endorsing it or recording it in SJL. In that letter, Robotham suggested that one might use ductwork and a bellows to pump foul air from the lowest part of a ship's hold, but he did not present a detailed plan for a ventilator and evidently had not tried the method himself. Robotham went forward with the creation of a ventilator in 1801. His design, which used a bellows as he had suggested in his letter to the APS, was operated by a person working a lever and would not have met the criterion of a ventilator that did not require manual effort. On 10 Oct. 1801, Robotham received a patent on his "air pump ventilator for ships, mines, &c." and he promoted the device, which he licensed for a fee, through newspaper advertisements, a broadside, and published letters of endorsement." Richard Robotham, Description of the Air-Pump Ventilator, for the ventilating of Ships, Mines, Prisons, Hospitals, etc., printed broadside.
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, V34, 2007, originally written 11 Jun., 1801, pgs. 312-314
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