I wish to point out a gross misconception perpetuated in your article of Nov. 1, 2018 entitled “Hammer Museum receives hammer boon.” Specifically, the claim that David Maydole invented the adze-eye hammer has been conclusively disproven. This claim appears to originate from James Parton’s glowing biography in “Captains of Industry or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money,” published in 1884. Parton claims that Maydole invented the adze-eye in 1845. Maydole was granted three patents (186,588; 186,590; 196,917) for dies for forging adz-eye hammers in 1877. Henry Cheney was granted US Patent 66,298 in 1867 for a process of brazing or welding a malleable iron socket [adze-eye] to a wrought-iron or steel hammer head. At least two other men received patents related to adze-eye hammers before either Cheney or Maydole. Charles Hammond of Philadelphia was granted U.S. Patent 14,058 on 08 Jan 1856. Phineas Eastman of Canaan, NH was granted U.S. Patent 1,247 on 17 Jul 1839. Clearly David Maydole was NOT the inventor of the adze-eye hammer. Whether or not his company grew to be the largest hammer company in the world is also debatable, but we’ll leave that for another day.
Jeff Cheney, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Henry Cheney Hammer Company History Curator