Daniel Pettibone to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 20 November 1818]
From Daniel Pettibone
[ca. 20 Nov. 1818]
[Mo]st Excellent sir—
I take the liberty to call to your Recollection to the small hand axe that I presented to your excellency in the year 1807—as a specimen of a new & useful improvement I had made on edge-tools—sir—you was pleesd to observ that it was your opinion that the improvement I had made was worth (to the public) all the Gu-gauze Patents that had been granted since the formation of the Patent Law as it would effect almost every individual more or less—
P.S. I have made very great improvements in warming public building—and May be of Some use to the Colledge that is proposed to be erected near to your place—I am sir your Most obedt Servnt
Daniel Pettibone
RC (ViW: TC-JP); undated; salutation torn; with enclosed printed circular on same sheet between letter and postscript; addressed: “His Excellency Thomas jefferson Esqr Monticillo Verginia”; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 20 Nov. 1818 received 6 Dec. 1818 and so recorded in SJL, with endorsement and SJL entry applying to both cover letter and enclosure.
Daniel Pettibone (1770–1820), smith and inventor, was baptized in Bloomfield, Connecticut. He received patents for a variety of inventions, including improvements in welding cast steel to iron, boring gun barrels, warming rooms, and manufacturing tools, and he published several pamphlets about his inventions. Pettibone lived in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Boston before settling in about 1810 in Philadelphia, where he died (Connecticut Church Records, State Library Index, Bloomfield Congregational Church, 1738–1924 [1958], 167; I. Fayette Pettibone, Genealogy of the Pettibone Family [1885], 24; ; Windham [Conn.] Herald, 29 Mar. 1804; Georgetown Washington Federalist, 5 Mar. 1806; Pettibone to TJ, 12 Jan. 1808 [ViW: TC-JP]; , 2:736–7, 801; DNA: RG 29, CS, Pa., Philadelphia, 1810; Wilmington American Watchman and Delaware Republican, 21 Dec. 1811; Census Directory For 1811 [Philadelphia, 1811], 233; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 18 June 1813; Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Memoirs 8 [1867]: 143, 270–1; J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia. 1609–1884 [1884], 3:2261, 2271; The Philadelphia Directory and Register, For 1820 [Philadelphia, 1820]; New-York Columbian, 8 Feb. 1820).
gu-guaze: presumably a variant of “gew-gaw.” Pettibone received patents for his rarefying air stove in 1808 and 1812. His heating system was adopted for warming multiple public buildings in Philadelphia and installed about 1820 in the United States Capitol (, 68, 113; Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 3:2271; , 2:737, 801; , 41:315 [28 Jan. 1846]).