LEWIS TEMPLE
(1800-1854)
Inventor
In 1829, Lewis Temple moved from his native Richmond,
Virginia to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Bringing his
blacksmithing skills with him, Temple was able to
open his own blacksmith shop on the waterfront by
1836. In this whalecraft shop he is said to have made
over 58,000 harpoons over thirty years. In 1848, he
invented a pivoting harpoon head, the “Temple
Toggle.” The two-piece head “locked into
the whale's flesh, thereby preventing the harpoon
from being dislodged” when the whale thrashed.
Although Temple never patented his revolutionary invention
and others profited from it more than he, his invention
is said to have been “the most important innovation
in whaling since the twelfth century.” Commemorating
Temple's contribution to the whaling industry
is a life-size statue outside the New Bedford Free
Public Library.
Little is known of Lewis Temple's life before
his arrival in New Bedford. In the Massachusetts port,
he married and raised a family. He participated in
the temperance movement and in abolitionist activities.
When he disrupted a pro-slavery lecture in 1847, he
was arrested for “rioting.” Temple fell
into a construction hole in 1853 and never recovered
before his death in 1854.
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