Tacks He was born in
Sutton, Massachusetts. He had a fondness for mechanical employment, and was associated with his brother in the manufacture of tacks by hand. This process was exceedingly slow and tedious, and his first
machine, made and patented in 1806, was a mechanical tack-maker, which could fabricate five hundred tacks per minute, each much better than tacks made by hand. He sold the rights to his machine for $5,000.
Machine tools for gun making and pattern copying lathe . Blanchard then turned his attention to gun barrels, and invented a
machine tool that streamlined the process of their manufacture. Hired by the
Springfield Armory during its construction, Blanchard finished the machine in 1822. The machine
turned and finished gun barrels in a single operation; the
octagon portion of the barrel was finished by changing the action of the
lathe to vibratory motion. This invention was afterward extended to the turning of all kinds of irregular forms.
Steam transportation Turning his attention to transportation, Blanchard invented a "steam wagon" before the introduction of railroads in the
United States, and in 1831 created a powerful upriver steamboat that was used on the
Connecticut River and the West, both of which he invented and patented in
Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1851, he designed and created a machine that could bend dense and strong wood. Blanchard also constructed machines for cutting and folding
envelopes at a single operation, and several
mortising machines. == Patents ==