Daniel Treadwell was born on October 10, 1791, in
Ipswich, Massachusetts. His first invention, made at an early age, was a machine for making
wooden screws. In 1818 he devised a new form of
printing press, and in 1819 went to
England, where he conceived the idea of a power press. This was completed in a year after his return, and was the first press by which a sheet was printed in North America by other than hand power. It was widely used, and in
New York City large editions of the
Bible were published by its means. In 1822, in conjunction with Dr.
John Ware, he founded the
Boston Journal of Philosophy and the Arts. Treadwell was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1823. In 1825 he was employed by the city of
Boston to make a survey for the introduction of water, and in 1826 he devised a system of turnouts for railway transportation on a single track. He completed the first successful machine for spinning
hemp for cordage in 1829. Works capable of spinning 1,000 tons a year were erected in Boston in 1831. Machines that he furnished in 1836 to the
Charlestown Navy Yard made all the cordage for some time for the
U. S. Navy. These machines were used in
Canada,
Ireland, and
Russia. One of them, called a circular hackle or lapper, was generally adopted wherever hemp was spun for coarse cloth. From 1841 to 1845 Treadwell devised a method for making
built-up guns which resembled the process that was subsequently introduced by Sir
William Armstrong. He patented it in 1844 through an agent and received government contracts, but the great cost of his cannon prevented a demand for them. He later filed a case against
Robert Parrott about the
Parrott rifles, but lost it in 1866, with
S.D.N.Y. court deciding that his claim was invalidated by a 1843 British patent to John Frith. From 1834 to 1845, he occupied the chair of
Rumford professor at
Harvard University. Also, theology was one of his interests; he is fictionalized as the theologian of
Tales of a Wayside Inn by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Treadwell died in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. ==Works==