What hath Chubb wrought?

[jeffkn1]

The Bartlett brothers' purchase of Chubb in 1891 proved to be fortuitous in more than one way. With the smoking ruins in Post Mills they also received the Chubb patents, such as his 1880 reel seat, making possible the simplified and lower cost manufacture of rods and contributing immensely to the rapid expansion of the industry. Only the introduction of beveling machines in the 1870's had a greater impact. Those two, the beveler and the Chubb-patent seat made with drawn tubing, were the two major stepping stones that brought split bamboo from Murphy's rods of the Civil War years to the Montague annual mass production of hundreds of thousands of rods. The beveler and the Chubb seat were nearly as significant as the wheel and the internal combustion engine were to automobiles.

A typical full metal seat of soldered construction, in this case on an unmarked rod. This style will be familiar to Leonard scholars and may be (almost certainly) made by Philbrook & Payne. Eight indivdual parts are cut, shaped, and soldered together, and then the sliding band is added. Expensive to make. Leonard was paying a little under $5 for these in the late 1870's.

In 1880, Thomas Chubb patented a method of making a reel seat using drawn sheet metal, either brass or nickel silver in this case. An undated catalog price list for these showed that this particular one, brass and 7/8" diameter, priced out at thirty cents including the band. In my view, this singlehandedly drove the explosion in rod production in the late 1800's, all other advances considered, even the beveler.

[Woodlakejag]

Fascinating history- thanks for posting.

[WaterOuzel]

Fascinating history- thanks for posting.

+1

James

[cwfly]

Thanks, Jeff.
Very clear and very concise.
And very important.

[Greg Reynolds]

This is great Jeff. The forum would benefit from more posts of this nature from our in-house historians.

[headwaters]

Awesome, Jeff! Thanks for sharing these insights.

[steeliefool]

The sale to Montague ushered in Capitalism's slow march toward mass production via machine and the decline of craftsmanship as the norm. Also the advent of fly fishing for sport and not the table, as well as an increase in population. And of course, intellectual property is equally important to the sorting out of things. Purely speculative on my part,

[Gnome]

And in the February 9 1882 we have the following advertisement
EDit; The above statement is wrong that ad appeared in the Oct 22 1885 issue of Forest&Stream, Rod&Gun not the Feb 9 date, sorry about that to many F&S.R&G out at the same time.



Mass production early for sure, and supplying his wares to all, not just the trade

[roycestearns]

Jeff

In my view, this singlehandedly drove the explosion in rod production in the late 1800's, all other advances considered, even the beveler.

Interesting ... I'd never considered the reel seat hardware as the lead on production. I like the thinking behind your premise.

Not arguing, just thinking out loud, the time consuming part of a rod is making a blank, reel seats didn't have to be metal for a production rod, but six strips were required. All the wood with bands seats could have continued into high production? CF Orvis (not high production) but quantity, produced reel seats without soldering brass. Maybe the Chubb parts enabled a lower cost high production rod than other options, but not single handedly drove the rod production explosion?

Thoughts?

[flyrodman]

Brought Jeff Knapp back posting on the board, everyone wish Jeff Knapp, "Happy Birthday" today. Your friend, Richie Shelton

[chestatee]

Happy Birthday Jeff and thanks for your incredible contributions to our cherished pursuit.

[cdmoore]

Thanks, Jeff. Always like to hear a bit about Chubb, the old factory site just up the road from me. I don't yet have a Chubb from those early days. Would be fun to find a small Chubb brookie rod one day.

[jeffkn1]

Thanks, Jeff. Always like to hear a bit about Chubb, the old factory site just up the road from me. I don't yet have a Chubb from those early days. Would be fun to find a small Chubb brookie rod one day.

Chris

Were you living there before the place was razed?

[jeffkn1]

To the multitudes of birthday wishers, thankya, thankya verra much.

[cdmoore]

Unfortunately, nope, but AFAIK you can still see where it once stood. I have yet to look up the resources at the local historical society. One of these days.

I assume you have read the article on Chubb in AMFF Journal? I don't have the citation in front of me, but, if accurate, I recall it was quite a good read.

I do wonder what small shop makers there might have been in VT at the time of Orvis and Chubb. Certainly, there must have been some spin offs or just skilled craftspeople who didn't want to work in a factory setting? Were there any big name makers associated with Chubb? One always hears about Bangor / Brewer and Central Valley and a few shops here and there elsewhere across the country, but it stands to reason that some skilled artisans "graduated" from Chubb. Where did they land?

Thanks again for the reel seat info.

Chris

[jeffkn1]

I read the AMFF article but don't recall the particulars. I also have the issue of Art of the Angler with Jerry Girard's fine piece on Chubb.
I have the names of four of Wheeler's men from the winter of 1884-1885, and I tracked them all to see if any carried on with rod making. One of the four, Charles Marston, did, though not in a business of his own. Around 1894 he left Farmington and moved to Post Mills where he worked for Chubb. In 1900, the US census shows him living in Montague City, working as a foreman in the "rod shop". He was 5 housing units away from Elmer Hart who had served as Thomas Chubb's right hand man and was now a superintendent at Montague. By 1910, Varney was a rod maker living next to Hart, so you had veterans from the shops of Leonard, Wheeler, and Chubb living within 5 doors of each other. Marston and his wife Georgie worked for Montague up into the late 1920's after which he retired from rod making 40+ years after starting with Charles Wheeler.
Five or ten years ago, ebay had a listing for a lot of a half dozen (?) clear, sharp cabinet photos of the Chubb factory, including an employee group shot taken outside. Someone handwrote the names of nearly everyone on the front of the photo. I was the underbidder on this rare lot. It would make an interesting project to track those people through Ancestry.com

[canesterdf]

Great stuff Jeff and Happy Birthday and to a great year ahead ! Best,Paul

[Dustnstuff]

Welcome back Jeff,
Just a bit more to add to this post.
Within 50 to 60 miles of the Chubb plant,
I have found 4 small rod shops operating during the
late 1800's
S. W. Goodridge of Grafton, Vt
Ed Smith of Pittsfield, Vt (just north of Killington)
W.S. Trumbull of Potter's Place, NH
Emery of Chelsea, Vt
All these makers could have come from the Chubb factory
during the down time after the fires closed down production.
Examples I have or seen, show Chubb hardware.
Over the years there have been a few post on the forum
about these makers, but little has come to light so far.
Dustnstuff

[roycestearns]

D&S

S. W. Goodridge of Grafton, Vt
Ed Smith of Pittsfield, Vt (just north of Killington)
W.S. Trumbull of Potter's Place, NH
Emery of Chelsea, Vt
All these makers could have come from the Chubb factory
during the down time after the fires closed down production.
Examples I have or seen, show Chubb hardware.

Goodridge may have used Chubb hardware, but the family had significant family import business in Grafton, I can't see him working for Chubb.
And I believe that Ed Smith Pittsford, came from the C F Orvis shop based on butt hardware and cases.
I'd add WM Whitney, Burlington 1876-1894, George H Swift and Hiram Eggleston both makers in Manchester VT pre 1870's.

[Old Creel]

Thanks Jeff and all. Great info!!