It is amazing how much an old shoe box will hold. Have you ever opened a book and something wonderful fell out? Have you ever found anything stuck behind a drawer in your desk? The Curatorial Department at Naper Settlement receives hundreds of donations a year. Sometimes the real treasure isn’t found until much later.
Take, for example, the long-lost patent information folded neatly in an old book on sailing ships. The book was printed in 1820 and owned by Joseph Naper. Recently a volunteer was cleaning the book and preparing it for inventory, re-housing and cataloging.
The pages of the book were spotted with brown foxing, a type of mold, fly specked, and silverfish eaten. Among these pages was a single sheet of thick paper with a hand-written diagram and description of what appears to be a horseless wagon. The ink is dark brown and fades from heavy to light – no doubt indicating each time the author dipped the quill into the ink well.
The diagram and text were drawn or written in a clear hand. The ink is made easier to read by placing a yellow piece of plastic sheeting over the page. The light reflecting through the yellow filter makes the ink “brighter.” There is no date on the document but it references a drawing, “I submitted in 1828 after completion of the schooner, Telegraph.”
The wagon in the drawing is fitted with springs that can be wound like a clock or toy. Once released, the wagon is self-propelled. The description describes the benefit of a self-propelled wagon as a means to convey cargo easily from a ship to a warehouse.
Although 99.44 percent of this article is true – Joseph Naper did not invent a horseless wagon! The tradition of playing practical jokes is centuries old and is most likely adopted from the Roman festival of Hilaria and the birth of the new year which was originally celebrated after the first day of Spring. April Fool’s!
