Luther Childs Crowell was an American famous inventor of 280 Patents.
Background
Luther Childs Crowell was descended from Yelverton Crowell, who with his brother Thomas settled on Cape Cod in 1638. Luther was the son of Francis Baker Crowell, a ship’s captain, and Mehitable Hall Crowell.
Though both parents were of the same surname, they were not related. Both were born on Cape Cod, the father in South Yarmouth and the mother in West Dennis, and it was in the latter place that Luther was born on September 7, 1840.
Education
By the time he was seventeen he had not only completed the courses of the local schools but had also attended an academy and spent a year studying medicine privately with a physician.
Following his adventures in higher education he entered the merchant marine service and at the end of four years was offered a captain’s commission, which he declined. The reason for this, apparently, was his intense interest in aeronautics.
Career
He had moved to Boston and on June 3, 1862, obtained a patent for an aerial machine.
He immediately proceeded to develop the mechanism, but the business failure of his chief backer put a stop to the work. He then turned his attention to the development of another idea which had been suggested in the course of his work on the aerial machine; namely, a machine to make paper bags. For this he received a patent in 1867.
Five years later he devised the square-bottomed paper bag universally used today and also the machine for making it; and while legal proceedings arising out of infringement of this patent were still in progress, he invented the side-seam paper bag and then sold partial rights in all his bag patents to the infringing company. Improvements in printing machinery next attracted Crowell and by 1873 he had devised and patented a sheet-delivery and folding mechanism.
This invention marked a distinct forward step in the development of printing machinery and was quite ahead of its time, so that the first opportunity to introduce it did not come until two years later when it was combined wih a new press purchased by the Boston Herald. The combination machine was the first rotary folding machine whereby newspaper sheets, singly or collectively, were delivered folded as complete products.
For the next few years Crowell devoted his time wholly to improving his mechanism, being unable financially to enter into the general manufacture of it. Meanwhile R. Hoe & Company, in their various printing-press experiments, found that some of their devices encroached upon Crowell’s inventions, and offered him not only a substantial sum of money for partial rights in his paper-bag improvements and sheet-delivery mechanism but also a liberal salary to join them. He accepted and in 1879 entered the employ of this firm where he remained until his death. He could now work to his heart’s content and during the following ten years he perfected the double supplement press, and followed this with double and quadruple presses and the combined pamphlet-printing and wire-binding machines.
Although a resident of New York City he died at his old home in West Dennis.
Achievements
Membership
He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and of the Franklin Institute.
Personality
Crowell gloried in being a “Cape Codder. ” He despised shams and expressed himself freely and fearlessly in all matters.
Connections
On August 18, 1863, he married Mrs. Margaret D. Howard of Boston.