An Honor Roll of Inventors

American inno­va­tion, some­thing we take for grant­ed today, has deep roots in our cul­ture.  The U.S. Constitution, rat­i­fied in 1788, includ­ed what is now known as the intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty clause, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, which gave Congress the pow­er “to pro­mote the Progress of Science and use­ful Arts, by secur­ing for lim­it­ed Times to Authors and Inventors the exclu­sive Right to their respec­tive Writings and Discoveries.”

One of the first orders of busi­ness of the new Congress in April 1790 was pas­sage of the U.S. Patent Act.  That July the patent board—Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox and Edmund Randolph—issued the first patent to Samuel Hopkins for a potash-mak­ing process.  After years of steady growth, the one mil­lionth patent was issued in 1911.  Since then progress has been near­ly expo­nen­tial, with 2024 mark­ing the 13 mil­lionth patent issued.

Searching the patent data­base I found 137 patents issued to Clark Countians pri­or to 1952.  The ear­li­est record­ed was to Dr. Thacker V. Bush in 1832 for a tra­cheator, an instru­ment for treat­ing croup in poultry. 

A num­ber of Winchester paten­tees turned their inven­tions into suc­cess­ful businesses.

The most pro­lif­ic of our inven­tors, by far, was Louis T. Hagan (1862−1917) with twelve patents issued in his name.  He and his broth­er Charles, both tal­ent­ed mechan­ics and machin­ists, found­ed the Hagan Gas Engine works.  Their fac­to­ry on East Broadway pro­duced a thou­sand engines a year, from very small up to 1,000 horse­pow­er.  The Hagan Engine with its patent­ed car­bu­re­tor sold well all across the coun­try.  Their sta­tion­ary engines were wide­ly used in the oil fields of Texas dur­ing the ear­ly part of the cen­tu­ry.  Louis also invent­ed the pop­u­lar Hagan gas grate, still found in many old homes in Winchester.

George Tomlinson (1873−1953), a Michigan native, held six patents.  He estab­lished the Tomlinson Lumber Company on Magnolia Street, which con­tin­ues today as the Freeman Corporation.  Tomlinson’s most prof­itable patents were for col­lapsi­ble tables.  He man­u­fac­tured these in var­i­ous sizes.  Tomlinson tables are prized by antique col­lec­tors today.

In 1895 five McCormick broth­ers began mak­ing blue­grass seed strip­pers at their black­smith shop on Boonesboro Road.  They enlarged their man­u­fac­tur­ing oper­a­tions at a new shop on Lexington Road, where Starbucks is now locat­ed.  The brothers—Sam, Dick, Trigg, John and Cliff—produced the only blue­grass seed strip­pers man­u­fac­tured in Kentucky.  Three patents were issued for their strip­pers:  one to Sam, one to Sam and Trigg, and one to Dick and Trigg.

Another Winchester man, William N. Sewell (1862−1950), held six patents for a vari­ety of inven­tions.  Sewell, who had worked for the rail­road in Lexington for a time, held three rail­way-relat­ed patents.  He turned his patent for col­lapsi­ble box­es into a local busi­ness mak­ing lunch box­es, the Winchester Novelty Works on Lexington Avenue, across from Central Baptist Church.

Margaret Donaldson (1875−1959) patent­ed “new and use­ful Improvements in Underwaists.”  These under­gar­ments were in com­mon use in the ear­ly 20^th cen­tu­ry.  She formed the Premier Manufacturing Company in Winchester.  The com­pa­ny rent­ed the third floor of the Perry Building (now the Winchester Sun build­ing) to pro­duce under­waists of Margaret’s design.  Margaret sold the com­pa­ny, and the own­ers moved oper­a­tions to Lexington and then to Chaffee, Missouri.

Four oth­er Clark County women held patents—Annette Hurst (cook­ing pan), Molly Griffith (bak­ing pan), Dorothy Bonnell (car­bu­re­tor), and Myra Gay (shoul­der bag)—and one African American—Dr. John H. Tyler (put­ty-less win­dow sash).

Many of the inven­tions had an agri­cul­tur­al focus:  plows, grain drills, hemp brakes, con­vey­ors, fence stretch­ers, etc.  Surprisingly, a large num­ber were rail­road-relat­ed, such as car cou­plers, ties, and sig­nals.  A few fit only a mis­cel­la­neous category—John J. Eubank (umbrel­la), A. H. Hart (vot­ing machine), Eldon Fox (dis­play rack), Bert Noblette (slip-proof san­dal), Tandy M. Quisenberry (lady’s skirt gauge), and John W. Smiley (card game).

In clos­ing we note that Clark County’s mul­ti­ple patent hold­ers include S. J. Conkwright, William Woolcott, Joseph V. Morton and John W. Crain with four each; Miner T. Perkins, Eugene A. Bagby, Roger Eades, A. H. Hart and Warren Elkin with three each.