Jesse Armour Crandall (October 20, 1834 – August 3, 1920) was an American inventor and toy-maker. He had taken out over 150 patents on toys in his 75 years of inventing.
['']Popular Science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
'', Volume 47, July 1920, p. 45. Crandall's father, Benjamin Potter Crandall, was also a toy-maker as well as three of Jesse's brothers (Benjamin, Charles Thompson and William Edwin). Unlike his brothers who remained primarily associated with their father's toy business in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Jesse started his own company in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. It was a friend, perhaps
Henry Ward Beecher
Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery trial. His r ...
, who named him "The Child's Benefactor". This became his trademark and slogan.
Baby and Doll Carriages
![1916 ad - NY NY Evening World](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/1916_ad_-_NY_NY_Evening_World.jpg)
Crandall's father had begun selling
baby carriage
Various methods of transporting children have been used in different cultures and times. These methods include baby carriages (prams in British English), infant car seats, portable bassinets (carrycots), strollers (pushchairs), slings, backpacks ...
s in the 1830s which were billed as "the first baby carriages manufactured in America." Jesse designed a tool to drill the ten evenly spaced holes in carriage wheels at the same time when he was only eleven years old.
Crandall was issued a number of patents for improvements and additions to the standard models. These included adding a brake to carriages, a model which folded, an oscillating axle, and designs for parasols and an umbrella hanger. An 1867 Crandall doll carriage model with a leather hood was once on display at the
Museum of the City of New York
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...
.
[ As of October 2010, it was still in the Museum's collection.
]
Toy Horses
Crandall is credited for inventing the Shoo-fly design of the rocking horse
__NOTOC__
A rocking horse is a child's toy, usually shaped like a horse and mounted on rockers similar to a rocking chair. There are two sorts, the one where the horse part sits rigidly attached to a pair of curved rockers that are in contact wit ...
in 1859 and in 1861 he was issued a patent for a spring-loaded rocking horse. Both designs differed from the traditional bow rocker and were quite popular until the 1880 Marqua safety stand. Maqua's design was seen with disdain by purists. As a young man, after making a hobby horse
The term "hobby horse" is used, principally by folklorists, to refer to the costumed characters that feature in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around the world. They are particularly associated with May Da ...
nearly the size of a pony, he gave it to a boy who was to later become King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
. The popularity of these larger toy horses affected adults also as author Nathaniel P. Willis wrote about it in ''Health and Happiness on Horseback''. Actor Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson III, commonly known as Joe Jefferson (February 20, 1829 – April 23, 1905), was an American actor. He was the third actor of this name in a family of actors and managers, and one of the most famous 19th century American comedia ...
rode across the stage of what became the Winter Garden
A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime.
History
The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtro ...
theatre on a Crandall designed horse. Benjamin P. Jr. was described as the "self-styled 'inventor of the hobby horse'" and was issued a patent for an improved model of combined rocking horse and swing in 1873.
However, Jesse had patented what he called a hobby horse as shown in his 1859 patent application illustration.
Building Blocks
The Crandall toy-makers included Jesse, his father and brothers and Jesse's cousin, once removed, Charles Martin Crandall
Charles Martin Crandall (May 30, 1833 – Jun 25, 1905) was an American inventor and toy-maker. He was best known for various toy blocks, "Crandall's Acrobats", "Noah's Dominoes", "Illuminated Pictorial Alphabet", "District School", "Menagerie", "P ...
. Also, Benjamin P. Crandall Sr.'s brother, Nathan T. Crandall, was listed as a toy-maker in 1840s business directories sharing the same address.[ Among the toys designed were children's building blocks with unique features. Charles M. Crandall's design of tongue and groove interlocking blocks was used to construct an enormous palace exhibited in the 1876 International ]Centennial Exposition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
held in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.[Provenzo, Eugene F. et al, ''The Complete Block Book'', Syracuse University Press 1983, p. 16. ] In 1880 the Crandall family provided an exhibit of an Egyptian obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
weighing over 200 tons in New York's Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
which was widely popular. That was followed by Jesse's design of nested blocks, which was patented in June 1881. These "nesting blocks" allowed for convenient storage and remain popular today. William Edwin Crandall was awarded a patent for a toy obelisk in September 1882.
Other Inventions
Other inventions by Jesse included toys and non-toys. Various improvements on velocipedes came both from Jesse and his father. One of Jesse's involved use of a newly designed treadle and earned a gold medal at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition; Crandall's Sandometer or "The beach brought to your home" in 1879 was a rather novel idea. An artificial arm was invented in 1915; however, Jesse did not attempt to patent it - probably from a combination of the money and effort spent on defending earlier patents and a philanthropic viewpoint. He also invented an invalid chair, which President Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
's daughter was reported to use, One puzzle was a result of getting two painter's hooks entangled and the difficulty in getting them separated. This type of puzzle was still popular in the 1960s.[
]
References
Further reading
* Provenzo, Eugene F.; Brett, Arlene: ''The Complete Block Book'', NY: Syracuse University Press 1983.
* Freeman, Ruth Sunderlin; Freeman, Larry: ''Cavalcade of Toys'', Century House, Watkins Glen, New York, 1942
* McClintock, Inez Bertail; McClintock, Marshall: ''Toys in America'', Public Affairs Press
Public Affairs Press ( – mid-1980s) was a book publisher in Washington, D.C., owned and often edited by Morris Bartel Schnapper (1912–1999).
History
According to notional successor Peter Osnos of the 1997-founded PublicAffairs: For f ...
, Washington, 1961
See also
Charles Martin Crandall
Charles Martin Crandall (May 30, 1833 – Jun 25, 1905) was an American inventor and toy-maker. He was best known for various toy blocks, "Crandall's Acrobats", "Noah's Dominoes", "Illuminated Pictorial Alphabet", "District School", "Menagerie", "P ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crandall, Jesse Armour
19th-century American inventors
20th-century American inventors
Toy inventors
Toy designers
1834 births
1920 deaths
People from Westerly, Rhode Island
People from Washington County, Rhode Island
People from Brooklyn
Defunct toy manufacturers