Between 1832 and 1845 John Gore of Brattleboro, Vermont, made steam engines, a tooth-setting machine for sawmill blades, and harvesters. He spent time in Springfield, MA, and New Bern, NC, to build steam engines under contract, and he also moved for a time to Fredonia, NY, and during his time there he obtained a patent on a harvester (also termed a "mowing machine") that he would put considerable effort into. Stiff competition and extensive litigation in defense of his patent rights prevented him from profiting from his harvester even though the patent term was extended.

Gore is best remembered for designing and building a particularly early automobile, a steam-powered carriage which he first put on the road in 1837 and used for about a decade. Gore died in 1880 at age 75.

Information Sources

• From 1836-09-09 Vermont Phœnix.

  Notice To Saw Mill Owners And Others. The subscriber has now for Sale and continues to Manufacture, his approved Machines, at John Gore & Co.’s Blacksmith Shop, in Brattleboro, for the purpose of Bresting Saw Mill and Circular Saws, of every description, which he believes is the best constructed machine that has yet been offered to the public. Nathaniel Bangs.

• 1849 New England Merchantile Union Business Directory, page 249, lists "Steam Engines. Jno. Gore (manufacturer), Brattleboro'."
• 1893-03-24 The Windham County Reformer (Battleboro, VT), page 3, in an article on Vermont Inventors.

  One of the most brilliant improvements that have been made in this class of farming instruments is the mowing machine of John Gore of Brattleboro, while living for a short time in New York, who returned to Brattleboro to complete his work. He attempted to reproduced the shear cut or motion and cut, a pair of hand shears, whereby one horse with his machine was able to do as much work as two with other machines. This for a time bid fair to drive out other forms, but it was find in practice that in time the sand and grit would accumulate, destroy the cutting edge of the knife, and render the machine inoperative. O. R. Chapin of Springfield, further improved the machine, while there have been a vest number of minor improvements relating to the harvesting knife, boxes, seats, frames, wheels, etc.

  ...John Gore of Brattleboro was the inventor of a steam wagon or carriage, which he constructed and operated about the country. It was driven by an engine of several horsepower and was an object of especial interest. It was seen during a period of several years, running about the country, but finally was dismantled and put to other uses, the engine being employed for a long time by Jonas Cutler in operating his bakery.

• From the 1922 book Annals of Brattleboro 1681-1895, volume II, by Mary R. Cabot, pages 640-641.

  John Gore, a mechanic and inventor of genius, died in this village, March 15, 1880, at the age of seventy-five. Mr. Gore came to Brattleboro in early life, and for several years was in business here as a steam boiler maker. Following this, under the patronage of Chester W. Chapin, he engaged in a similar business in Springfield, Massachusetts, building both engines and boilers for steamboats on the line then plying between Springfield and Hartford. He also, under Mr. Chapin's patronage, went to Newbern, North Carolina, where he built machinery for boats in which Mr. Chapin was interested. At a period later than this Mr. Gore was again in business in this town. In 1856 and 1857, partly for the relief of a lung difficulty, he went to Fredonia, New York, where he assisted in the development of one or more patents. In the course of his life Mr. Gore made several important mechanical inventions, some of which were of great practical value. Foremost among them was the invention of the adjustable mowing machine box, an appliance which lies at the foundation of the successful manufacture and operation of mowing machines, but for which he never received any adequate pecuniary return. In his general knowledge of mechanics and subjects connected therewith, Mr. Gore was surpassed by but few men in the country. He was an accomplished mathematician and had a very considerable knowledge of astronomy.

  Mr .Gore was born in Halifax. Older residents recalled, with lively interest, the fact of his construction of a steam road wagon, about the year 1835, which was the local wonder of the day.

  It was a practical steam vehicle which in most respects resembled a single-horse wagon, yet it had a good boiler and a two-cylinder engine, with cylinders approximately three inches in diameter. This boiler was made of U-shaped tubes one and one-half inches in diameter and so placed that the lower ends of these tubes served as a grate, while the flame followed them toward the top. "Thus does Vermont establish its right to priority in the field of automobile engineering, between the Atlantic and Pacific."

  It was built at a cost of about $600 and was in existence nearly ten years. Its speed on an ordinary carriage road was a dozen or more miles an hour. So may horses were frightened that, during the latter part of its career, the selectmen forbade its appearance on the public highly unless a boy ran ahead blowing a horn.

• From an article in Vermont Historical Magazine by Henry Burnham.

  In 1832, and from that time to 1845, John Gore manufactured in this place stationary steam engines and boilers. He also made machinery used on steamboats for freight business on Connecticut river. In 1837 he constructed a steam carriage, for use on common roads, which we have seen ascend some of the hills in this village by the power of steam alone.

• 2024-01-12 Brattleboro Reformer article: John Gore's steam-powered success story (written by The Brattleboro Historical Society and saved for posterity below).

  BRATTLEBORO — Creativity and commerce can prove to be elusive companions. This was the case with John Gore. You probably haven’t heard of him, even though he was a steam-power pioneer and local mechanical virtuoso.

  In 1803, John Gore was born in Halifax, Vermont. He moved to Brattleboro and opened a blacksmith shop with his brothers. He also became very involved in the design and construction of steam boilers and engines. His mechanical genius became well-known to many.

  Gore’s reputation for building steam-powered systems grew to the point where, in the 1830s, he was hired by a Connecticut River shipping merchant to build engines and boilers for steamboats that transported freight between Springfield, Massachusetts, and Hartford, Connecticut. He even traveled as far south as North Carolina to work on steamboats owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt. These ships would transport goods and people between New York and the Carolinas.

  In 1837, John Gore began traveling on Brattleboro roads in a wood-fired, steam-powered carriage that he had been tinkering with for a few years. Inventors around the world were applying steam power to all sorts of creative devices. In the early 1830s, Vermont newspapers reported on steam-powered carriages that were in operation in Europe. This may have been where Gore got the idea to try his own version of a horseless carriage.

  Gore’s vehicle was pretty basic. It was a two-seat carriage that was modified to accommodate the boiler system. He positioned a wood-fired, steam-powered, two-piston engine in the back of the carriage, and the power was transferred to the rear wheels with a sprocket and chain. The rear wheels were about five feet in diameter, and the carriage could travel between 12 and 15 miles per hour. The firebox was located below the two cylinders. Gore needed to carry the necessary wood fuel in the carriage with him. The vehicle was very noisy and proved to be a great distraction to horses and oxen who were also traveling on the roads.

  A local newspaper article reported that “this steam-carriage met with a serious objection” from the townspeople. While the carriage could turn more easily than a wagon pulled by an animal, and it didn’t require the services of a livery stable, most people did not want it on town roads. The horseless carriage was loud, smelly, moved too quickly, and spewed smoke everywhere. The article went on to explain that the only way this method of transportation could be safe for Brattleboro’s streets would be to “dispense entirely with horses.”

  In the 1830s, this was an impractical suggestion. Gore had spent about $600 on his horseless carriage, and while there were advantages to the steam-powered vehicle, people were not ready to embrace the new technology. It would be another 12 years before a steam-powered railroad train would arrive in Brattleboro.

  After many complaints were lodged with the Select Board, it was decided that Gore would be liable for damages likely to occur from frightened horses who might upend carts, wagons, and carriages. At one point, Gore was told that the only way he could travel on Brattleboro’s roads would be if he had someone run ahead of the machine and honk a horn to warn horse and oxen-drawn vehicles that his steam-powered carriage was on the way.

  John Gore operated the horseless carriage for almost a decade and used the vehicle to visit his relatives in Bernardston, Massachusetts. During one of his trips back from Bernardston, he drove off the edge of a Guilford road and crashed his carriage when trying to avoid a horse-drawn vehicle coming from the other direction. Gore decided to abandon the carriage on the side of the road. When it was clear that he was not interested in repairing the vehicle, a local baker salvaged the steam engine and used it in his bakery for years.

  John Gore began with a blacksmith shop in the 1830s and, through the decades, continued with various machine shops on Bridge Street and Canal Street.

  Gore was an inventive tinkerer. He worked with Ithiel Richardson to create what they called an “atmospheric telegraph.” This steam-powered pneumatic tube system could force paper and small packages quickly through an air-tight tube from one place to another. Richardson would attempt to market the device as a new way to deliver mail from one town to another. This did not prove practical, but the technology was used on a smaller scale to better effect. Richardson would go on to propose a steam-powered hovercraft that could quickly move passengers and freight from one place to another over bodies of water. He sought investors for such a contraption, but this did not pan out.

  Gore’s relationship with Richardson would sour as they also worked on improving horse-drawn mowing machines for farmers. Farmers were looking for versatile cutting machines that could easily adjust for different crop-cutting situations. Richardson and Gore each produced their own adjustable mowing machines. Each claimed the other had stolen patented ideas to create their new machines. This conflict resulted in lawsuits and newspaper ads declaring that Gore’s Green Mountain Mower was better than Richardson’s model.

  John Gore would pass away in 1880 and is buried in the family plot at Prospect Hill Cemetery. During his last few decades, he focused on mowing machines and lived in the American House at the bottom of Main Street. His accomplishments were rarely mentioned in local publications until the automobile became an accepted form of transportation in the early 1900’s. It was then that old-timers would tell stories of the wood-fired, steam-powered carriage that operated in town seventy years earlier, and those stories would make their way into the local press.

  People remembered John Gore as a tall, powerful man with a quick wit, a mathematical mind and a quiet demeanor. Astronomy was his major hobby. He built large steam engines to power buildings like the Windsor State Prison. He also built large engines to power steamboats that traveled major waterways, like the Connecticut River and the Atlantic Ocean. For his own enjoyment, he built a wood-fired, steam-powered carriage and used it to visit his folks in Bernardston. He never gained great financial rewards from his creations but was remembered fondly as someone who was quick to help others solve mechanical issues that were troubling them.