1846-1912
Adoniram Judson Applegate
Jeweler/Inventor Massachusetts
Peter Wilson Applegate and Allice Ann Mount had a son on 16 May 1846 in Cambridge, MA, and named him Adoniram Judson Applegate. In 1871 he married Hanna Elizabeth Pratt. By the time of the 1880 census, when A. J. was 34 and Hanna was 28, they had a daughter named Alice (age 7) and a son named William (age 1). Mr. Applegate reported his occupation as that of watchmaker.
Though we have learned very little about his early life and his family life, we know that Adoniram Judson Applegate and his friend Burt Shattuck received a patent for a reversible broiler on 24 February 1880. This reversible broiler was about 8 inches by 3 inches, made of metal and described thusly:
Applegate and Shattucks patent provides a “means whereby the holding-clamp frames may be reversed, end for end, in their relative position in the handles, for as to put food placement between the said clamp-frames to be cooked evenly, or so that when the portion nearest the fire is fully cooked that portion furthest from the fire may be turned into the position of the former, so as to be cooked without over cooking the portion previously cooked…” (Patent number224.761)
Both Adoniram Judson Applegate and Burt Shattuck are listed as patentees but Adoniram Applegate is listed as the assignee. The original model, listed as object number 2015.14.3125, is in the collection of the Rothschild Patent Model Collection at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, DE. The reversible broiler of Adoniram Judson Applegate went into production on the day of its patent, February 24, 1880.[1]
But by 1888 A. J. Applegate is again listed as a jeweler in the Cambridge city directory. At the turn of the century census, 1900, A. J. Applegate is 53, and rents a home he shares with his wife, Hanna, and son, William Augustus, who is 21 years old. By 1906 he lists his occupation as manager. He died on January 18, 1912, in Belmont, MA.
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[1] Adoniram Judson Applegate, https://museumcollection.hagley.org/persons/4529/burt-e-shattuck