US Patent: X245 - Machine for making ivory combs


	Home\| FAQ	Search:Advanced\|Person\|Company\| Type\|Class	Login


Quick search:	Patent number:	Patent Date:

US Patent: 245X

Machine for making ivory combs

Patentee:

Phineas Pratt (exact or similar names) - Essex, CT

USPTO Classifications:

Tool Categories:

woodworking machines : specialty woodworking machines : comb making machines

Assignees:

None

Manufacturer:

Not known to have been produced

Witnesses:

Unknown

Patent Dates:
Granted:	Apr. 12, 1799

Patent Pictures:

USPTO (New site tip)
Google Patents
Report data errors or omissions to steward Jeff Joslin

Description:

This patent's specification and drawings were lost in the Patent Office fire of December 1836, and so little is known about this patent.

See also the slightly earlier patent X200, especially the description and the link to a court case.

The 2009 book "Ivory's Ghosts", by John Walker, describes this patent comb-making machine. "An ingenious combination of flywheels and fan belts, thin circular saws and adjustable precision clamps on a wooden stand, it greatly shortened the time required to cut the teeth of combs, thereby mechanizing the manufacture of perhaps the single most popular ivory object in history. A fundamental shift in ivory's importance had occurred...Pratt's invention initiated the transformation of world trade in ivory."