Monadnock Moment No. 117

Era 4: Expansion and Reform - 1800 to 1860

Moses Morse and the Common Pin

Did you know that it was a former Keene resident whose invention made the common pin widely available to the general public? Moses L. Morse, born in Sutton, Massachusetts in 1781, lived in Keene during the first decade of the 19th century. He worked as a watch and clock maker.

Morse had returned to Massachusetts by 1810. It was during the War of 1812 that Morse, aided by Oliver Hall, devised a machine for the production of pins with solid heads. The pin had actually been invented thousands of years earlier. Prior to Morse's time, however, pins were made by hand and were rare and expensive. Morse's invention made production quicker, so that pins were less expensive and more readily available.

Moses Morse, like so many other contributors to American Industrial progress, has been virtually forgotten. He did not patent his machine and Lemuel Wright, who patented a similar machine in England in 1824, is often credited with the first pin producing machine. Moses Morse, one time resident of Keene, passed away in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1831. One year later John Howe of Connecticut received the first United States patent for a pin making machine and began the first truly successful pin manufacturing company in this country.