Background
William Bullock was born in 1813 in Greenville, New York, of parents of whom nothing is known. At the age of eight he was an orphan.
(Hardware catalog circa 1850.)
Hardware catalog circa 1850.
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William Bullock was born in 1813 in Greenville, New York, of parents of whom nothing is known. At the age of eight he was an orphan.
An elder brother in Catskill gave William a place in which to live and put him to work immediately to learn the trade of iron founder and machinist. Bullock seems to have shown great aptitude in these crafts, becoming expert even before completing his apprenticeship. At the same time he taught himself pattern-making and devoted his leisure time to the study of all books on mechanics that he could secure.
When twenty-three years old William Bullock left his brother's home and started a machine shop of his own in Prattsville, New York. Besides the varied work that he could pick up he devised several mechanical contrivances amongst which was a shingle-cutting machine.
Armed with this, perfected during the two years in Prattsville, Bullock went to Savannah, Georgia, to engage in shingle manufacture. This venture was not successful, however, and in a short time he returned North, this time to New York City where he set up shop and made hay and cotton presses of his own design and also artificial legs.
He gave up this business in 1849 and began a patent agency and shop in Philadelphia. The only products known from this shop were three of his own invention, --a grain drill, a seed planter, and a lath-cutting machine, for which he received patents between 1850 and 1854. In connection with his agency Bullock started printing a daily newspaper, The Banner of the Union, which he continued from 1849 to 1853.
This experience turned his attention to printing-machinery and the balance of his life was devoted to improving the press. He worked simultaneously on three ideas, --a mechanical paper feed, a more rapid cutting method, and the printing of both sides of the paper. By the time he was satisfied with his improvements and undertook the manufacture of a single press embodying all of them, fifteen more years had passed.
During this time he was at work in Philadelphia, then in New York, and finally after 1859 in Pittsburgh where the presses were made under United States Patent 38, 200, issued April 14, 1863.
One of these installations was for the Philadelphia Public Ledger, and just as the last test on the press was being made Bullock's foot was caught in the driving belt and so badly crushed that he died nine days after the accident at the age of fifty-three years. It is said that he had imparted many of his ideas for improvements to one of his faithful employees and that after Bullock's death these ideas were brought to perfection and incorporated in the later presses.
On April 3, 1867 he was making adjustments to one of his new presses that was being installed for the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper. Bullock tried to kick a driving belt onto a pulley. His leg was crushed when it became caught in the machine. After a few days, he developed gangrene.
On April 12, 1867, Bullock died during an operation to amputate the leg. He is buried in Union Dale Cemetery on Pittsburgh's North Side.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
(Hardware catalog circa 1850.)
According to report, Bullock was married and had a daughter living in Pittsburgh, but no definite information can be found concerning his surviving family.