More on Jenkins & Lingle

1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Jenkins & Lingle

It turns out that Jenkins & Lingle were not best known for their turbine, but rather Jenkins' cushioned steam hammer.  William Jenkins had joined the Bellefonte Machine Shop as a machinist in 1866, and worked his way up through the ranks, so that when the partnerships rearranged in 1875, the shop became a partnership of William P Duncan, Jenkins, and J.H. Lingle, trading under the name W. P. Duncan and Co. When Dunacn retired the firm became Jenkins & Lingle, and Jenkins retired in 1902 [1].  In 1892 the machine shop was along Spring Creek in the heart of town, just downstream from the Bush House hotel.


According to Bellefonte through the Years, Jenkins was known for his hammer and turbine, as well as inventions in the continuous rolling, low-water alarms for steam boilers, a burner for coal oil, and various tools including a rake, hoe, clevis (a connecting link for hoisting), and an "ice creeper".  A quick search of Google Patents shows that Jenkins held at least 15 patents:

Patent no.	Date	Invention
466,790	Mar 10, 1891	Power Hammer
498,473	Mar 24, 1892	Car-Coupling
532,202	Mar 8, 1894	Hydrocarbon-Burner
532,379	Nov 4, 1893	Oil-Burner
578,242	Apr 1, 1896	Method of Making Picks or other Tools
612,001	Oct 16, 1897	Stamping or Punching Press
612,002	Dec. 9, 1897	Tool-Head
613,207	Aug 10, 1898	Tool [mfg. process for hatchets, etc.]
671,381	Dec 8, 1899	Hoe
736,971	Jul 26, 1902	Power-Hammer
740,865	Apr 17, 1903	Clevis
741,671	Dec 26, 1902	Art of Manufacturing Rakes
831,954	Jul 28, 1905	Ice-Creeper
838,417	Sep 19, 1906	Weeder
912,131	Mar 28, 1907	Friction Gearing

(There seems to be some confusion on whether this Jenkins is Jr. or Sr.  A William R. Jenkins Jr. of Williamsport patented a farm gate in 1874 [patent 155,953], though he lived in Williamsport -- could this have been the Bellefonte WRJ's son?)