Calvin Luther Goddard was born on January 22, 1822, in Covington, Wyoming County, New York. He was the son of Levi and Fanny (Watson) Goddard and a descendant of English and Scotch ancestors who settled in New England in the seventeenth century. His youth was passed mainly on his father’s farm.
Goddard acquired a meager education and secured a bit of experience in business by buying and selling wool and metal in the Rochester markets. When he was nineteen years old, he desired a better education, went to Geneva, New York, in the spring of 1841 to attend a preparatory school, and in the autumn of that year entered Yale College.
He took the full classical course and graduated with the class of 1845. His straitened circumstances during these four years necessitated an economy of living which is said to be without parallel in the history of Yale.
It is said that for three of the four years in college, he lived chiefly on Graham crackers and water at an expense not exceeding $15 a year, and maintained a perfect physical condition by strenuous walks for which he gained the sobriquet of “Steamboat Goddard. ”
For a year following his graduation, Goddard taught in a classical school in New York City and then became a clerk in a burring-machine manufacturing establishment in that place, continuing in that capacity for eight years.
In 1854, he gave his attention to devising better methods than those in use for the thorough cleansing of wool. A considerable proportion of both foreign and domestic wools contain, among other extraneous matters, burs which become embedded in the locks of wool on the sheep and by their wiry hooks cling to the wool with such tenacity that if not removed before carding and spinning, they cause constant breakage of the yarn and are even visible and felt in the finished goods.
Goddard set about designing special machinery to extract these burs and succeeded in perfecting and patenting a “burring picker, ” a machine which not only cleansed the wool from dust and other extraneous substances but removed the burs whole.
Upon obtaining his patent (1866), he organized a company and began the manufacture of burring machines in New York City. He subsequently devised the steel ring and solid packing burring machine and feed rolls as attachments to carding machines.
These devices he also manufactured in his plant at Second Avenue and 22nd Street. His success was immediate, and his machines were soon recognized as wholly indispensable to the proper manufacture of woolen fabrics.
He continued his manufacturing activities in New York until 1875 when his business was transferred to Worcester, Massachusets, where he directed its affairs until his death.
Goddard was the recipient of many medals for his inventions, including the special gold medals of the World’s Fairs, at London (1862) and Paris (1867).
Goddard is best known for perfecting and patenting a “burring picker, ” a machine which not only cleansed the wool from dust and other extraneous substances but removed the burs whole. He subsequently devised the steel ring and solid packing burring machine and feed rolls as attachments to carding machines. His success was immediate, and his machines were soon recognized as wholly indispensable to the proper manufacture of woolen fabrics.
Goddard married Gertrude Griggs Quimby, daughter of Amos and Abby Quimby, of Milton, New York, on December 19, 1846. Of their four children, two survived him at the time of his death in Worcester.
