In roughly the 1870s, Cyrus Paige Bachelder made a universal trimmer. He also patented a couple of railway switches.
Information Sources
- A Cyrus P. Bachelder of Franklin, NH, received an 1867 patent for a rail-car coupling. There is also an an 1885 burglar-alarm patent and an 1894 trolley-car coupling patent that were granted to Cyrus P. Bachelder of Pawtucket, RI. These are the only C. P. Bachelder patents we have found, and the dates bracket the estimate date of the universal trimmer.
- The 1898 book, Batchelder, Batcheller Genealogy, by Frederick Clifton Pierce, has the following brief entry:
CYRUS PAIGE BACHELDER (Jacob, Jacob, Abraham, Jethro, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, Stephen), born Franklin, N. H., July a, 1830; m. Fitchburg, Mass., Aug. 1, 1854, Olive J. Farnham, b. Hartland, Me., Sept 10, 1835; m. 2d, at Pawtucket R-. L, Dec. 12, 1882, Luanda A. Lorimer, b. Sept 10, 1848. He is the patentee of the Bachelder switch. Res. Franklin, N. H., and Pawtucket R. I.