Background
Benjamin Babbitt was born in Westmoreland, New York on May 1, 1809. His parents were Betsey (Holman) Babbitt, and Nathaniel Babbitt, a blacksmith, tavern owner and ensign in the militia of Oneida County, New York.
Benjamin Babbitt was born in Westmoreland, New York on May 1, 1809. His parents were Betsey (Holman) Babbitt, and Nathaniel Babbitt, a blacksmith, tavern owner and ensign in the militia of Oneida County, New York.
Benjamin's boyhood was characterized by a minimum of educational advantages and a maximum of labor. Arduous work on the farm and in the blacksmith shop, relieved by hunting and trapping expeditions, laid the foundations of a strong physique and at the same time whetted the appetite of the boy for larger opportunities.
At the age of eighteen he left the farm, but so valuable had he become to his father that the parental objections were overcome only by an agreement whereby the boy consented to pay his father $500 annually for five years. This money he obtained by hiring out in the winter as a lumberman, and in the summer as a mechanic. Babbitt was a mechanical genius and intensely eager to learn. His application made him, within three years, an expert wheelwright, steam-pipe fitter, file maker, blacksmith, and general mechanic. He persuaded some of his fellow workmen to rise an hour earlier so that they might quit work an hour sooner two days a week, and induced a professor from Hamilton College at Clinton, New York, to come to Utica on those days and conduct a class in chemistry and physics. This was Babbitt's introduction to chemistry.
By the time he was twenty-two he had acquired not only a foundation knowledge of mechanics, but enough money to establish a machine-shop at Little Falls. Here he labored for twelve years manufacturing pumps, engines, and various kinds of farm machinery. Among his products at this time was one of the first workable mowing machines in this country. After his mill had been twice destroyed by floods, Babbitt left for New York, leaving accounts amounting to $5, 000, which owing to the dishonesty of his agent he never received. Arriving in New York in 1843, he turned his restless brain for a moment from mechanics to chemistry, developed an original and cheaper process of making salaratus, put it on the market in convenient packages, and eventually became the dominant figure in the manufacture of salaratus.
He soon added a yeast baking-powder, one of the earliest baking-powders made, a soap powder, and various brands of soap. He also manufactured soda and potash. "Babbitt's Best Soap" became a household word, and his soap business brought him an immense fortune. His interest in soap manufacture never flagged; he was taking out patents in this field as late as 1886, and practically all of the apparatus in his factories was of his own invention. Improved methods of putting up caustic alkali, extracting glycerine, bleaching palm-oil, and boiling soap are among the inventions to his credit. His early factory was in New York, but the plant was later moved to New Jersey. Babbitt's interests were as diverse as his brain was ingenious. Between 1842 and 1889, 108 patents were issued to him for his own inventions, and these covered almost every conceivable field. His first patent (October 7, 1842) was for a pump and fire engine, his second (1846) for a brushtrimming machine, his third for a car ventilator.
Like other inventors and manufacturers, he turned his attention during the Civil War to ordnance and armor-plates, and this interest remained with him all his life, one of his latest patents being an improvement in ordnance. He patented an ordnance projector and a mould for casting gun-barrels, and spent much time in designing an "armoured fighting craft with steam controlled steering gear and the vitals protected by coal bunkers" with a "screw at the bow and stern so that the vessel might be propelled in either direction or turned almost in the center".
After the war Babbitt became absorbed in the steam-engine. He was granted six patents for the use of steam, and eight for new types of steam-boilers. In the same field he patented an automatic boiler feeder, an apparatus for cleaning a steam-generator, a rotary engine, and a balance-valve. He also experimented on gas-engines. In his later life he became interested in the use and control of air, inventing an air-pump, an air compressor, wind motors, pneumatic propulsion of various types, and air-blasts for forges. He likewise turned his attention to new methods for steering and propelling vessels, for which he obtained several patents. In 1882 he patented a plan for an elevated railroad structure over the Erie Canal, upon which engines could draw the canal boats.
Babbitt invented most of the machinery he used in his production plants. He held more than 100 patents. In addition to inventions concerning his own field of business, his invention ideas ranged from wind motors, to gun barrels, armor plate, ventilators, steam engine appliances, canal boats and artificial icemakers.
Unlike many inventive geniuses, Babbitt possessed an interesting personality. With curly hair, broad face, large features, and ready smile, he left an impression of high intelligence and a capacity for human enjoyment and friendship. A close friend of P. T. Barnum, he has often been compared with him as an advertising genius. He was one of the first to advertise by giving his products away, and to adopt the custom of advertising on stage curtain Babbitt was the typical ingenious Yankee carried to the 11th degree - a jack of all trades and a master of most.
He was married to Rebecca McDuffie, by whom he had two daughters.
