Louden Rope Lock Carrier
date: label: date made
content: ca 1898
notes: label: Description
content: This rope lock carrier was designed by the Louden Machinery Company to be used with their overhead monorail system. This system could be used to transport hay or equipment around the barn, making it easier and faster to complete work. Industrial businesses began using the monorail system inside factories to transport equipment and waste quickly and efficiently around the building. Louden quickly capitalized on this use and began adjusting the design in order to best meet industrial needs. The monorail system surpassed the agricultural products in sales by the 1920s, and it is the only part of the company which remains in business today (2013).
label: Description
content: William Louden was born in 1841 in Cassville, Pa but his parents had moved to Iowa before he turned a year old. Louden had a small build and was often sick as a child, which made it harder for him to complete his farm chores. He learned at an early age he would have to change the tools he used since he could not change his physique to be better suited for farm work of that era. In 1867, he had applied for his first two patents, one was a device used to lift and stack hay and the other was used to carry hay into the barn. While not an instantaneous success, his device allowed barn architecture to dramatically change from single to two-level structures, therefore doubling the usable space.
label: Description
content: Louden started his first agricultural business in 1868, working out of space on his father-in-law’s farm. In 1870, he moved his operation into Fairfield, IA. He struggled the first few years and in 1877, he was forced to file for bankruptcy. Undeterred, he spent the next 7 years traveling to farms in the area, installing his equipment and developing a consumer base for his products. In 1887, he founded Louden Machinery Company and in 1892, he incorporated, naming his brother as President and himself as Vice-President in order to focus more on the invention and production side of the business. Over the next 40 years, Louden Machinery would apply for approximately 100 patents for various inventions and improvements, including the all steel cow stall, individual automatic drinking cup, flexible barn door hanger and the supertrack overhead carrier.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture and Natural Resources
label: See more items in
content: Agriculture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.75A09.06
label: catalog number
content: 75A09.06
label: accession number
content: 1987.0226
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Rope Lock Carrier
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 in x 10 1/2 in; 33.02 cm x 26.67 cm