Biography of Inventor Jacob Perkins

Jacob Perkins  was an American  inventor,  mechanical engineer, and  physicist. He was responsible for a variety of important inventions, and made significant developments in the field of anti-forgery currency. Jacob Perkins Early Years Perkins was born in Newburyport, Mass., on July 9, 1766, and died in London on July 30, 1849. He had a goldsmith  apprenticeship during his early years and soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical inventions. He  eventually had 21 American and 19 English  patents. He is known as the father of the refrigerator. Perkins  was elected a Fellow of the  American Academy of Arts and Sciences  in 1813.   Perkins Inventions In 1790, when Perkins was just 24, he developed machines for cutting and heading nails. Five years later, he earned a patent for his improved nail machines and started a nail manufacturing business in  Amesbury, Massachusetts. Perkins invented the bathometer (measures the depth of water)  and  the  pleometer  (measures the speed at which a vessel moves through the water). He also invented an early version of the refrigerator  (really an  ether  ice machine). Perkins  improved steam engines (radiator for use with hot water central heating - 1830) and made improvements to guns. Perkins also invented  a method of plating shoe-buckles. Perkins Engraving Technology Some of Perkins greatest developments involved engraving.  He started a printing business with an engraver named Gideon Fairman. They first engraved school books, and also made currency that was not being forged. In 1809, Perkins bought the stereotype technology (prevention of counterfeit bills) from Asa Spencer, and registered the patent, and then employed Spencer. Perkins made several important innovations in printing technology, including new steel engraving plates. Using these plates he made the first known steel engraved USA books. He then made currency for a Boston Bank, and later for the National Bank. In 1816 he set up a printing shop and bid on the printing of currency for the  Second National Bank  in Philadelphia. Perkins Work with Anti-ForgeryBank Currency His top-notch American bank currency received  attention from the  Royal Society  who were busy addressing the massive problem of forged  English bank notes. In 1819, Perkins and Fairman went to England to try to win the  £20,000 reward for notes that could not be forged. They pair showed sample notes to the  Royal Society  president Sir  Joseph Banks. They set up shop in England, and spent months on example currency, still on display today. Unfortunately for them, Banks thought that unforgeable also implied that the inventor should be English by birth. Printing English notes ultimately proved a success and was carried out by Perkins in partnership with the English engraver-publisher Charles Heath and his associate Fairman. Together they formed the partnership  Perkins, Fairman and Heath which was later renamed when his son-in-law, Joshua Butters Bacon, bought out Charles Heath and the company was then known as  Perkins, Bacon.  Perkins Bacon  provided banknotes for many banks and foreign countries with  postage stamps.  Stamp production started for the British government in 1840 with stamps that incorporated an anti-forgery measure. Perkins Other Projects Also concurrently, Jacobs brother ran the American printing business, and they made money on important fire safety patents. Charles Heath and Perkins worked together and independently on some concurrent projects.