Manufacturers Index - Mellen Battle
Mellen Battle
Albany, NY, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class:
Wood Working Machinery
This page contains information on patents issued to this manufacturer.
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X1,257
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Apr. 04, 1810
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Wheel wright's labor saving machine
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Mellen Battle |
Albany, NY |
This is one of the relatively few early (pre-1822) patents whose drawing and specification survive intact. The 1877 book by M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica, has a few mentions of inventor Mellen Battle. "...a most ingenious and accomplished machinist, a Welshman, named Evan Thomas, who was much resorted to for advice and assistance... He aided Mellen Battle... in constructing a machine for the making of wagon wheels. ... Mellen Battle... advertised in December 1810, what he termed the American Wheelwright's Labor Saving Machine; it being a machine for making all kinds of carriage wheels, also also spokes, axe helves, &c. He obtained a patent in 1809. This Battle deserves to be remembered as the man who built the only steamboat that has ever traversed the Mohawk above the falls at Cohoes... Mellen Battle was building a steamboat for the Mohawk, designed to ply between between Schenectady and Little Falls. It was quite peculiar in construction, the steam being used not for the working of paddles, but to put in motion poles that were to reach the bottom of the river and push the boat onward. These poles, of which there were two on a side, were jointed to the upper extremity of upright beams, and were made by means of cranks to rise alternately out of the water, and to set themselves again on the bottom. The boat was a failure, and never made more than a single trip..."
From "A Review of the First Fourteen Years of the Historical, Natural History and Library Society of South Natick, Mass.", 1884: "Mellen Battle, the next owner, bought the estate November 16, 1816. He was an ingenious mechanic, and invented some improvement in wheels, or a method of manufacturing them, which led to the erection of a factory at the southerly end of the dam in this village, for the purpose of supplying the market with his goods. But this enterprise proved a failure..." |
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1,681
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Mar. 12, 1812
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Boat Propeller
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Mellen Battle |
Herkimer, NY |
FX patents are fractional X patents. This patent is #1681 1/2 and it was probably missed during the original numbering of X patents because the inventor received two patents on the same day (see also patent 1,690, which also provides some information on the inventor's work on steamboats). This patent's drawing survives but the specification was lost in the 1836 fire at the Patent Office. |
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X1,690
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Mar. 27, 1812
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Steamboat propelled by poles
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Mellen Battle |
Albany, NY |
This patent's specification was recovered, or restored, after the 1836 fire at the Patent Office, but the drawing was lost.
The 1877 book by M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica, describes this invention. "(Mellen) Battle deserves to be remembered as the man who built the only steamboat that has ever traversed the Mohawk above the falls at Cohoes... Mellen Battle was building a steamboat for the Mohawk, designed to ply between between Schenectady and Little Falls. It was quite peculiar in construction, the steam being used not for the working of paddles, but to put in motion poles that were to reach the bottom of the river and push the boat onward. These poles, of which there were two on a side, were jointed to the upper extremity of upright beams, and were made by means of cranks to rise alternately out of the water, and to set themselves again on the bottom. The boat was a failure, and never made more than a single trip..." |
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X5,702
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Nov. 06, 1829
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Compound steam engine
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Mellen Battle |
Albany, NY |
This patent's drawing and specification were restored after the 1836 fire at the Patent Office. |
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1,820
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Oct. 14, 1840
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Improvement in the manner of propelling boats upon canals or other shoal water by the agency of steam
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Mellen Battle |
Albany, NY |
The inventor's surname is spelled "Battel" on this patent but his earlier patents used the spelling "Battle".
This boat is, at first glance, a convention paddle-boat with the paddle-wheel mounted amidship. However, in shallow water the paddle-wheel is meant to push directly against the bottom of the river- or canal-bed. |
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