A paradox of the Strong's National Hall of Fame not having inducted the spinning top yet is that it is in Rochester, NY, the home of The Toycrafter. But Rochester has a long relation with tops: it seems to have been the birthplace of self-winding tops, at least in the US.
The top on the left was patented by George Aishton in 1899. I had wanted one for a long time as few wooden tops from that time have the names of the inventors/makers on them.
Here is a drawing from the patent that says that he lived in Rochester:
The "Beauty Top" on the right was made by Ideal Novelty Co. of Rochester:
Both are good quality, perfectly balanced and have the same color pattern, so I assumed they were from the same manufacturer. The Beauty Top says Patent Allowed, so I assumed it was the earliest of the two. Here they are spinning side by side:
But then, other Rochester patents for the same concept issued in the following couple of years started popping up!
By William Patchin
By Philip Koscialowski
By George Hynes
By Edwin McAll
Many times I have found patents that cover the same idea (the problems of the US patent system are not new), but five patents from the same city in a couple of years is too much!
I don't think this can be a coincidence. Probably they all saw the same spinning top, or perhaps another device with a similar mechanism. Perhaps the inventor was a street vendor who they all knew was not going to apply for a patent. Who knows?
By the way, Hynes has an earlier patent for a top from 1894. It is the same concept that five years later James Irving would patent for his Irving's Wizard top.
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Topic: Rochester's self-winding tops (Read 4202 times)