Jacob Perkins
| Jacob Perkins | |
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Portrait of Jacob Perkins by Thomas Edwards (printed by Pendleton's Lithography), 1826
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| Born |
July 9, 1766 Newburyport, Massachusetts |
| Died | July 30, 1849 (aged 83) London, England |
| Residence | United States, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Inventor, mechanical engineer, physicist |
Jacob Perkins (9 July 1766 – 30 July 1849) was an American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical inventions and eventually had twenty-one American and nineteen English patents. He is known as the father of the refrigerator. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1813.
Jacob went to school in Newburyport till he was 12 and then was apprenticed to a goldsmith in Newburyport named Davis. Mr. Davis died three years later and Jacob (only fifteen) continued the business of making gold beads and added the manufacture of shoe buckles. When he was twenty-one he was employed by the master of the Massachusetts mint to make a die for striking copper coins, this was the cent bearing an eagle and an Indian.
In 1790 at the age of 24 in Byfield, he created machines for cutting and heading nails. In 1795 he was granted a patent for his improved nail machines and started a nail manufacturing business on the Powwow River in Amesbury, Massachusetts.
During the War of 1812 he worked on machinery for boring out cannons.
He worked on water compression and invented a bathometer or piezometer to measure the depth of the sea by its pressure.
He created some of the best steel plates (as noted from English Engravers) for engraving, and started a printing business with engraver Gideon Fairman. They started with school books (The Running Hand, eight pages long), and also made currency that was not being forged. In 1809 he bought the stereotype technology (prevention of counterfeit bills) from Asa Spencer, and registered the patent, and then employed Asa Spencer. Perkins made several important innovations in printing technology, including new steel engraving plates. Using these plates he made the first known steel engraved USA books (The Running Hand, school books, 8 pages each). He then made currency for a Boston Bank, and later for the National Bank. In 1816 he set up a printing shop and bid on the printing of currency for the Second National Bank in Philadelphia.
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