Dominis’ patent papers claimed a new instrument for measuring sails
What does the patent for measuring sails have to do with the Governor of Hawaii? Read on…
Who was John Dominis?
John Dominis was a ship captain who arrived in New England from Trieste in 1819. As the captain of a trading vessel out of Boston Harbor, he did a great amount of business in China, and also in the fur and salmon trades on the Pacific coast. Dominis moved with his wife and young son, John Owen, to Honolulu in 1837. In 1842, he received a patent on an instrument for measuring canvas for ship sails. He signed the application “John Dominis of the Sandwich Islands.”
After having made what in those times was a fortune ($96,000), he built Washington Place, then referred to as “the grandest mansion in all Honolulu.” In 1846, he set off for China, in search of exotic oriental furnishings for his new home, but he was never heard from again. He was presumably lost at sea.
Historic Landmark
Dominis never got a chance to live in the mansion he had spent four years building, but his wife Mary and their young son John moved in, taking in boarders to pay her bills. Until she died in 1889, Mary Dominis waited and watched from the windows of Washington Place, hoping to see her husband return. Washington Place has, since 1922, served as the official residence of the Governor of Hawaii.
In 2007, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. John Dominis, Jr. grew up to marry the last Queen of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Queen Liliuokalani, and to become the Governor of Oahu and Maui.
The Instrument of Measuring Sails Patent
John Dominis’ Instrument for Measuring Sails received Patent # 2,790 on September 30, 1842. Sails were generally constructed by sewing together strips of cloth or canvas, and much material was wasted in the process. This device, along with the inventor’s mathematical scales and tables, permitted sail makers to size and cut a roll of canvas more accurately. The scales and tables led to better layouts, so the needed shapes of material could be cut with minimal waste.
Dominis, in his patent papers, claimed that he “invented new and useful mathematical scales and tables for determining the gores, roaches, and proportions of sails for cutting the same from rolls of canvas. As sails of different kinds and for different vessels are formed of strips of cloth or canvas sewed together, after they are cut to proper shapes and lengths, and as it is customary to cut said strips from what is usually termed a roll or bolt of canvas, it becomes desirable to accomplish the same, with as little waste of material as possible, or in other words so to measure the lengths and gore of each strip that when the whole are sewed together, the sail thus formed shall possess the required shape, and in nautical language set well when adjusted and exposed to the action of the wind.”
John Dominis’ invention found a new way to solve an existing problem of the time for sea captains.
For more information on the history of patent models, take a look at my book Inventing a Better Mousetrap: 200 Years of American History in the Amazing World of Patent Models, available now on Amazon. Read an excerpt here.
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