Temple Toggle Iron
date: label: date made
content: ca 1859
name: label: inventor
content: Temple, Lewis
notes: label: Description
content: Very little is known of Lewis Temple's early life. Born around 1800 to slave parents in Richmond, Virginia , by 1829 he had moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he married. By 1836, he had a blacksmith shop on a local wharf, where he made shipsmithing items like spikes, harpoons, rigging elements, cargo hooks, barrel hoop and other iron ship fittings.
label: Description
content: Temple developed a simple but significant refinement to the harppon: the so-called Temple toggle iron or gig. This feature at the tip of a harpoon offered a more secure way to hook into a whale. Unfortunately, Temple never patented his idea, which swiftly achieved widespread application throughout the world's whale fisheries. He died in May 1854, unrecognized and in debt.
label: Description
content: While Lewis Temple did not invent the toggle, his invention made it better. The first barb at the tip of the dart was designed to penetrate the whale's flesh, and the second barb also went straight in. A small wooden peg holding the lower barb in place would then break when the whale pulled away, allowing the barbed head to swivel away from the shaft. The new T-shape of the barb prevented the dart from pulling out of its wound.
topic: label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Work
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content: Natural Resources
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content: Transportation
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content: On the Water exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gifts of Wilfred A. and Daniel J. Mack Jr
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.330535A
label: catalog number
content: 330535a
label: accession number
content: 294088
objectType: label: Object Name
content: harpoon, toggle
label: Other Terms
content: harpoon, toggle; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: textile (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 3/4 in x 33 1/2 in x 8 in; 4.445 cm x 85.09 cm x 20.32 cm