Background
Joseph Saxton was born on March 22, 1799 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of James and Hannah (Ashbaugh) Saxton. His father was engaged in banking and also was the proprietor of a nail factory.
Joseph Saxton was born on March 22, 1799 in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of James and Hannah (Ashbaugh) Saxton. His father was engaged in banking and also was the proprietor of a nail factory.
Joseph obtained an ordinary education, later he was then apprenticed to a watch-maker for two years. In 1817 he went to Philadelphia in the hope of educating himself.
Saxton worked at his trade in this city for about eleven years and eventually became associated with Isaiah Lukens, a celebrated machinist. During this time he constructed an astronomical clock with a compensating pendulum and escapement of his own design, and also made the clock for the belfry of Independence Hall.
He acquired a wide reputation in Philadelphia for his great ingenuity but, in a desire to enlarge his knowledge, he went to England in 1828 where he soon became connected with the Adelaide Gallery of Practical Science in London and made a name for himself through the construction and exhibition of scientific novelties and apparatus.
He met many noted engineers, scientists, and mechanicians, and through these friends was introduced to Michael Faraday and to the meetings of the Royal Society. His association with scientists spurred him to go forward with numerous original experiments. He constructed and exhibited in 1833, before the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Cambridge, a magneto-electric machine which produced a brilliant spark, decomposed water, exhibited an intense light between the charcoal points, and gave a rapid series of heavy shocks. Unfortunately, through his failure at the time to publish a description of this machine, the credit for the invention was given to another.
During his residence of nine years in England, Saxton acquired a number of British patents, including a locomotive differential pulley, an apparatus for measuring the velocity of vessels, and a fountain pen. As early as 1829, he improved the medal-ruling machine so that it was capable of copying without distortion the designs of medals and coins.
He returned to Philadelphia in 1837 to accept the appointment of constructor and curator of the standard weighing apparatus of the United States Mint, having declined the position of director of printing machinery of the Bank of England. During his connection with the mint he designed and constructed the large standard balances used for the verification of the standard weights of the government's assay and coining offices.
In 1843 he joined the United States coast survey in Washington, as superintendent of weights and measures and served in this capacity for the next thirty years. His first work in this new position was the construction of the standard balances, weights, and measures subsequently presented to each state of the Union for insuring uniformity of measures in all parts of the country. He also constructed much of the complex apparatus employed by the Coast Survey, and altered the Survey's dividing engine so that it was completely automatic, driven by a water-turbine of his own design. He also patented an anthracite coal-burning stove, a fusible metal seal, a hydrometer, and an ever-pointed pencil.
He died in 1873.
Saxton was one of the fifty original members of the National Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Quotes from others about the person
According to his biographer, Saxton "possessed more wisdom than learning".
Saxton was married in 1850 to Mary H. Abercrombie of Philadelphia who, with their daughter, survived him.