Rufus Porter

Rufus Porter (May 1, 1792 - August 13, 1884) was an American painter, inventor, and founder of Scientific American magazine.

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Porter was born to a relatively prosperous farming family in West Boxford, Massachusetts, one of six children, and started school at age 4. At age 12 he attended Fryeburg Academy for six months. In 1815 he married Eunice Twombly of Portland, Maine; before she died in 1848, she bore him ten children. (In 1849 he remarried, to Emma Tallman of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and fathered another six children.) By 1816 Porter was living in New Haven, Connecticut where he conducted a dancing school and began painting portraits. In 1818-1819 Porter made a trading voyage to the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii.

Related Topics:
Boxford, Massachusetts - Fryeburg Academy - Roxbury, Massachusetts - New Haven, Connecticut - Pacific Northwest - Hawaii

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By 1819 Porter had returned and started his artistic life in earnest. He traveled by coach and on foot, painting portraits throughout New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. He became a prolific muralist between ca. 1825 and 1845, decorating some 160 houses and inns in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and as far south as Virginia. From simple silhouettes and ivory miniatures on to scenes of entire towns or harbors, Porter spread his art throughout New England. His murals were generally executed in a large scale on dry plaster walls by a combination of freehand painting and stenciling. Some murals were in full color, others in monochrome, with the foliage sometimes stamped in with a cork stopper instead of being painted with a brush. Often he would do portraits of the principal household members where he was doing the murals.

Related Topics:
New York - New Jersey - Maryland - Virginia - Connecticut - Massachusetts - Maine - New Hampshire - Vermont - New England

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During much of this time, and afterwards, Porter was a prolific inventor. During 1825-1826 he published four editions of A Select Collection of Valuable and Curious Arts, and Interesting Experiments. He invented a portable camera obscura that let him make silhouette portraits in less than 15 minutes. (He charged 20 cents apiece for them.) He experimented with a wind-powered gristmill, a washing machine, a corn sheller, a fire alarm, a rope-making machine, and a camera. He invented clocks, railway signals, churns, a distance measuring appliance, a horsepower mechanism, a churn, a life preserver, a cheese press, and a revolving rifle. Typical of his inability to capitalize on his genius, he sold the rights to the revolving rifle to Samuel Colt for $100; Colt eventually developed it into the famous Colt 45.

Related Topics:
Camera obscura - Samuel Colt - Colt 45

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In 1841 he bought an interest in the New York Mechanic, which he published and edited in New York. In this journal he published his plans for the rotary plow, hot air ventilation system, and advertised his general patent agency run in connection with the paper. However he soon gave up the magazine. In 1845 he started a new weekly, Scientific American, but 10 months later sold it to Orson Desaix Munn and Alfred Ely Beach .

Related Topics:
New York Mechanic - Scientific American

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In 1849 Porter planned to build an 800-foot steam-powered airship with accommodations for 50 to 100 passengers, aiming to convey miners to the California Gold Rush. He had already built and flown several scale models in Boston and New York. He advertised New York-to-California service, asking a $50 down payment for a $200 fare, and began building immediately. His first "aeroport" was 240 feet long; it was destroyed by a tornado. Later that year, he began a 700-foot version with new backers, but during a showing of the almost-complete dirigible on Thanksgiving day, rowdy visitors tore the hydrogen bag and destroyed it. In 1854 his third attempt ended with technical troubles.

Related Topics:
Airship - California Gold Rush

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Porter died on August 13, 1884, and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, West Haven, Connecticut.

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