Howland's Hoisting Apparatus

Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc., The, Mar 2004 by Hall, Elton W

A Nineteenth-Century "Come-Along"

On September 18, 1866 George L. Rowland of Topsham, Maine, received patent no. 58,103 for his hoisting apparatus and stump puller. The machine is basically a jack achieving considerable mechanical advantage through leverage which could be reversed for lowering objects into place by the same motion. Six months later George and William M. Howland were granted patent no. 63,251 for their improvement, an additional pawl that provided a means to double the speed of the hoist.

Of course, a patent is of no value unless you can go into production and achieve sonic sales. By the early 18GOs, Edward O. Holmes, Jr., had established himself as a manufacturer and dealer in French burr millstones, mill machinery, and furnishings of every description, as well as paint and putty mills, and all machinery used in the manufacture of paints, improved turbines and water wheels. By 1865 his clerk, John W. Blanchard, Jr., had entered into a partnership with him, and Holmes & Blanchard began doing business at "9 & 1 1 Haverhill St., Boston." Beginning in 1868 their advertisements in the Boston directories stated that they were "Sole manufacturers of Howland's Patent Hoisting Apparatus and Stump Puller, by the use of which one man will lift or lower one or two ton's weight or two men will pull the largest stumps." It was offered in two sizes at $35 and $50.

EAlA Executive Director Elton W. Hall is a frequent contributor to The Chronicle. IHs review of the book, Collecting Houses, also appears in this issue.