Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Treasures of Innovation at the Smithsonian

We had the opportunity last weekend to visit the Smithsonian's current exhibit on innovation and enterprise.  What a treat!   Below are just some of the items on display.

This is the 1837 prototype receiver for Samuel B. Morse's telegraph.  By sending electric pulses, Morse was able to record a message as a wavy line on a strip of paper.  Morse was an excellent artist, so it's no surprise the frame is an artist's canvas stretcher.

Monday, October 12, 2015

A Thin Slice of the Industrial Revolution: The Rowley Village Forge Site

I've made it my hobby these last few years to visit historic sites related to the Industrial Revolution in New England.  Some of the locations I've written about on this blog include the Saugus Iron Works, Slater Mill, Mount Hope Finishing CompanyAmes Shovel Collection, the entrepreneurs buried at Mount Auburn here and hereLowell mills, and homage to the steam age at the Waltham Watch Company and the Yankee Steam-Up. With a perfect Columbus Day weekend upon us, it seemed like a good time to organize yet another great Industrial Revolution adventure--but this one only about 2.5 miles from home.

Lockwood Forest is a conservation area of 100 acres which abuts Fish Brook, a tributary of the Ipswich River, and some 2,000 additional acres of conversation land in my hometown of Boxford.  There are miles of trails and, depending on the season, hikers and horses or snow-shoe-ers and x-country skiers.  This weekend the horse-and-riders were out and about.

In 1670, local entrepreneurs constructed the Bromingum Iron Forge on Fish Brook.  Better known as the Rowley Village Forge, it was run by Henry Leonard, a skilled English ironworker who also played an important role at the ironworks in Braintree, and at the the Saugus Iron Works.

Here's the trail in to the forge site.