Thomas Jefferson Inventor

Thomas Jefferson as an Inventor

Thomas Jefferson was both an innovator and an inventor. The late 1700's were when his inventing became recognized. During this time periods he designed and built eleven different machines and tools in order to make a better use of his time and for practicality in his world. He developed a new plow to aid in his farming and a crude copying machine so that he could make many copies quickly of the letters, which he wished to write. His inventions can be placed into four categories: office, home, farming, and time keeping.

Time keeping was very important to Jefferson, as president and secretary of state he had a very busy schedule and when he was at Monticello he needed to be able to keep track of those times.
To make his schedule easy Jefferson invented the great clock. This Clock Took track of 7 days and controlled the time displayed inside the home and outside to the fields. Jefferson also invented a sundial from which he found novelty.

Monticello was a mansion that is worthy of much acclaim without the inventions Jefferson placed inside of it. In the dining room there were two dumbwaiters that the servants could use to send wine from the cellar to the dining room. In Monticello Jefferson also invented the idea of placing a bed in an opening between two rooms so that he had easy access to either of the rooms. These beds were hung by chain and could be raised into the ceiling. There also is a pair of glass doors in between the main hall and the parlor of Monticello. These doors open "automatically' via gears in the floor that make both doors open when one is pushed open.

Farming was obviously an important part of Jefferson's life. Plows of his day were ineffective so he innovated the design of the plow and invented the moldboard plow of least resistance. In 1787, Jefferson invented a macaroni machine based on the designs he saw in France.

Official duties were high for Jefferson; he spent much of his time in his office.
It is only natural that a man with his inventive mind would invent things for the office. Jefferson received a copy machine of sorts from James Watt. Thanks to the help of Jefferson, giving Watt advice on how to improve the machine Jefferson was the true innovator of this machine. Writing in bulk was very important for Jefferson, he also perfected the polygraph, which today holds a different meaning then it did in his time. Jefferson's polygraph had two pens attached to a stick so that writing with one of the pens made a duplicate copy through the other pen. For his office Jefferson also innovated on the revolving chair. He added a writing arm and a leg rest to the revolving chairs thus creating a new piece of furniture. Jefferson also created a revolving book stand for his desk that could hold up to five books and each book holder could be folded vertically to make a small box. In his service as the United States Secretary of State there was a very divisive foreign policy. To be able to communicate freely with the people he needed to about foreign policy and have no fear of the letters being intercepted Jefferson created the wheel cipher. This could scramble and unscramble messages that the code could be changed. His design was the basis for the American design of the cipher in World War
One.

Jefferson's scientific eye was to only increase practicality of daily tasks. All of his inventions show how he wanted to make life easier. But, there are three inventions that stand out as the ones that impacted America the most. Of Jefferson's view to create an agrarian society, the most important invention in his eyes must have been his plow. This plow made life much easier and was much more efficient at plowing then those of old design. Another important invention of his was the wheel cipher. The wheel cipher was used in WWI. The cipher also succeeded in making issues of national security unknown for the common good of the citizens of the United States. The third invention, which impacted the United States citizen, was the polygraph, this made making many letters much easier, it also made it much more practical to be able to keep a copy of all of ones letters on file with themselves so as to not have to completely rewrite the letter to keep it for their own records.