Nelson Gavit (25 January 1810 – 24 January 1876) was an American

industrial designer Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advance of the manufactu ...

, manufacturer and insurance executive based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Gavit founded the Gavit Paper Machine Works, which became one of the largest American manufacturers of paper making machinery and

paper mills A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...

during the nineteenth century.

Background

Gavit was born in 1810 into a family of

papermakers Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a special ...

Lebanon, Connecticut Lebanon ( ) is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 7,142 at the 2020 census. The town lies just to the northwest of Norwich, directly sou ...

. In 1833 he married Eliza Murray and the couple had a large family. Gavit moved to Philadelphia, the center of American publishing at the time, and began manufacturing paper making equipment in 1835. Gavit was active in local politics as a Republican. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Gavit lent his name to pro-Union business organizations and advertising.

Industrial work

Gavit Paper Machine Works operated at the same Philadelphia address for nearly 40 years. One of his customers was

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

, who bought equipment for the first paper mill in the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

. As an industrial designer, Gavit was awarded US patent 10,889 for an industrial paper-cutting machine in 1854, which allowed a web or roll of paper to be automatically cut into sheets of varying lengths. He was awarded a second patent in 1874 for an “improvement in machines for grinding rolls .e., rollers��. The practical application of the latter design was to produce smooth faces on steel rollers capable of improving the surface polishing of paper during manufacture. Gavit's industrial work was awarded silver medals for paper-industry machinery at the 1874

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

exhibition. Two years later he installed a complete paper machine at the American Centennial Exhibition in 1876. The report of the awards noted that it ran “almost constant operation” through the entire exhibition. Gavit’s calenders, improved deckle frame, and paper cutter were commended specifically by the judges. In his later years, Gavit entered the banking and insurance business. For several years, he served as vice-president of Safeguard Insurance Company of Pennsylvania. How long he remained an investor and officer of the firm is not known. Gavit died in Philadelphia in 1876. He is buried in the

West Laurel Hill Cemetery West Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1869, is in size, and contains the burials of many notable people. It is affiliated with Laurel Hill Cemetery in nearby Philadelphia. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavit, Nelson 1810 births 1876 deaths Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery Papermakers People from Lebanon, Connecticut Businesspeople from Philadelphia 19th-century American businesspeople