About the Elliott Legacy
Sterling Elliott, the museum's namesake, was many things including a civil rights activist, a women's advocate, a lobbyist, and social reformer. It is, however, for his inventions that he was best known and best remembered.
While Sterling Elliott may not be a household name, many of his inventions remain in use throughout American households today. In fact, most of Elliott's inventions were created to provide practical solutions to everyday problems. Here are just a few of his over 100 patents.
Your car's rack and pinion steering uses the principles of Elliott's patented steering knuckle mechanism, originally developed for his quadricycle. In fact, car manufacturers paid royalties to Elliott for the use of this patent until it expired in 1907.
If you ride a bike – and you're a woman – you should know that Elliott invented the first manufactured American bicycle for women, and campaigned strongly for your right to ride.
The problem of cracked eggs was greatly reduced by Elliott's invention of the egg carton.
Have you ever used a paper cup? Elliott invented one that folded for storage and reuse.
Two of Elliott's most successful inventions involve the mass assembly and distribution of published material. One of his first patents was for an ingenious knot-tying machine that automatically sewed pamphlet pages together. Other inventors had tried and failed to perfect this technique. This is the invention that prompted Edison to call Elliott a genius!
To meet the challenge of sorting, updating and addressing nearly 100,000 copies of his weekly publication, Bicycle World, Elliott invented an addressing machine with automatic feed and a changeable address section. This machine transformed mailing for offices across the United States and abroad.
Elliott continued to patent inventions until his death in 1922. Come to the Elliott Museum to learn more about this remarkable man, and how his creativity changed history!
