Patent Model of a Book Clamp

Jones, Joshua W. · ca 1865

This patent model demonstrates an invention for a clamp for holding books while they were backed; the invention was granted patent number 50597. Joshua Wiestling Jones (born 1831) was apprenticed to the printing and binding trades. For a time he worked with the binder W. O. Hickok and helped in building Hickok's prototype paper-ruling machine. Later he worked in public printing, particularly at the state printing house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Jones pioneered the use of electric arc lighting in Harrisburg, one of the first American cities to adopt the system.