The toggle iron harpoon was designed
in 1848 by Lewis Temple, a blacksmith, this was the standard harpoon in
American whaling from the mid-19th through the early 20th centuries. The
toggle iron harpoon was also called "Temple's Toggle" and "Temple's Iron".
Lewis Temple was born in 1800 as
a slave in Richmond, Virginia. He obtained his freedom and moved to New
Bedford, Massachusetts in 1929 where he worked as a blacksmith.
Blacksmith - Harpoon
Heroes in the Ships - Lewis
Lewis Temple’s innovation substantially
improved the efficiency of the hunt and was rapidly adopted. However, as
he did not patent his invention he made little money on it. From Heroes
in the Ships - African Americans in the whaling industry.
Clifford Ashley said in his book,
The Yankee Whaler, that Temple's harpoon was "the single most important
invention in the whole history of whaling."
Biographies of famous black inventors.
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