George W. Snyder (c.1780 – February 10, 1841) was an American

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

and

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. He is credited with inventing the first American-made

fishing reel A fishing reel is a hand- cranked reel used in angling to wind and stow fishing line, typical mounted onto a fishing rod, but may also be used to retrieve a tethered arrow when bowfishing. Modern recreational fishing reels usually have fittings ...

in 1820.

Kentucky Reel

Snyder was born in the same county as

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

—

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the Englis ...

. In about 1803 he went to

Paris, Kentucky Paris is a home rule-class city in Bourbon County, Kentucky. It lies northeast of Lexington on the Stoner Fork of the Licking River. Paris is the seat of its county and forms part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. As ...

(then called Hopewell), and died there on February 10, 1841, aged 60 years old. He was a skillful watchmaker and silversmith; being a good practical angler, and seeing the necessity for a rapid multiplying reel for

black bass Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have of ...

fishing with the live minnow, he proceeded to invent one. Snyder's first reel was made for his own use, about 1810. He afterward made reels for members of his club, and others. Snyder's reel was a trolling reel designed for

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling method that uses a light-weight lure—called an artificial fly—to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. The light weight requires casting techniques significantly diffe ...

, named the Kentucky Reel. Without

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

protection, the Kentucky Reel was quickly copied by many others, including Meek, Milam, Sage, Hardman and Gayle. These artisans were trained in jewelry fabrication and were experienced in cutting gears, constructing small parts, and doing precision work. In time, the Kentucky Reel was

mass-produced Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

by the emerging factories located in the

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

, where they could be produced at a fraction of the cost and time required for hand-built construction. The availability of more affordable fly reels greatly stimulated the sales and popularity of fly fishing equipment, and was soon applied to bait casting reels, resulting in a surge in the popularity of fishing as a pastime among all levels of American society.

New York Reel

During the middle of the 19th century, another fly reel was invented in New York City. The "New York Reel" was usually made out of brass or nickel silver, and it was much heavier than the Kentucky Reel. It had a serpentine crank or a "ball-handle".Kerr, Charles. "Learning How to Fish". Accessed December 6, 2011. http://www.howtofishguide.com/tackle/history-fishing-reel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snyder, George Fishing equipment 19th-century American businesspeople Businesspeople from Kentucky People from Paris, Kentucky 1780 births 1841 deaths

Kentucky Reel

New York Reel

See also

References