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Patent holder profile

Joseph H. Hawkins and the Improved Gridiron Patent

Hawkins enters this package as a patent-record page first: a West Windsor inventor whose 1845 gridiron patent shows domestic and culinary technology in the antebellum Black patent trail.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

Hawkins is a public-record memory story.

The Hawkins page extends the first public sequence into domestic and culinary technology. CultureUp publishes it as a patent-record profile while keeping biography, occupation, family, and community context as open source needs.

Unique holder rank 4 / grant rank 5Status: publish_readySource grade: A-

Patent: 3973: Improved Gridiron
Issue date: 1845-03-26
Place: West Windsor, New Jersey
Record strength: A- patent-record strength: Baker/Murray recovery context and patent text support the invention row, issue date, and West Windsor place anchor.
Identity evidence: Strong enough for a publishable patent-record profile with a visible biography caveat; the patent does not become private lineage proof.
Why this record matters: Hawkins shows why the archive should include domestic and culinary technology, not only industrial or famous-first examples.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 3973 for an improved gridiron for broiling, dated March 26, 1845.
Patent text names Joseph H. Hawkins of West Windsor, Mercer County, New Jersey.
Legal-history scholarship places Hawkins in the antebellum African American patent trail.

What remains open

Biography, family, occupation, and community context need more public sources.
CultureUp should not promote lineage or identity claims beyond the reviewed public evidence.

Article profile

Read the person, place, invention, and record separately.

CultureUp keeps each layer visible so a patent record does not get stretched into claims the source trail cannot support.

The patent record

The public patent text identifies Joseph H. Hawkins of West Windsor, New Jersey, U.S. Patent No. 3973, an improved gridiron for broiling, dated March 26, 1845.

The person in the record

The public profile remains patent-first. It does not claim a full biography, occupation, family line, or commercialization trail.

Place attached to the claim

West Windsor, New Jersey is the current place anchor from the patent text. Local context remains a source gap.

The invention

The invention is a domestic and culinary technology record. CultureUp includes household and food technologies as part of technical public memory.

Business, labor, and use

The patent supports inventorship and place. It does not prove manufacturing, commercial use, local standing, or the wider household labor context.

What the record cannot prove

The patent does not prove a full biography, private family record, lineage, business outcome, or community role.

Patent records

Grant trail

Grant rank and unique-holder rank are shown separately so repeat patentees do not distort the chronological sequence.

Grant rank 5Holder rank 4utility patentmedium high

3973: Improved Gridiron

Joseph H. Hawkins / 1845-03-26

Patent text verifies the public invention record; biography and community context remain thinner than the patent trail.

Residence: West Windsor, New Jersey
Category: domestic / culinary technology
Source status: medium high
Primary sources: 2 mapped

Source trail

Claims stay tied to source limits.

Patent record

Patent text, case-file context, or patent-image trails that can support inventor, title, number, date, place, and claim language.

patent text mirrorpatent text

US3973A - Joseph H. Hawkins Gridiron

Google Patents / 1845 patent record

Supports: Shows Joseph H. Hawkins of West Windsor, New Jersey, patent No. 3973, an improved gridiron for broiling, publication date March 26, 1845.
Limit: Patent text verifies the invention record but not a complete biography or community lineage.
Last checked: 2026-06-08
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3973A/en

Under review

Useful sources that open sequence or identity questions but do not yet justify public rank changes.

legal-history scholarshiplegal-history context

Invention of a Slave

University of Kentucky College of Law repository / 2018

Supports: Explains slavery, patent oaths, legal capacity, and mentions free antebellum African American patentees including Robert Benjamin Lewis.
Limit: Strong context source, but Robert Benjamin Lewis needs a dedicated primary patent-record reconciliation before changing public rank cards.
Last checked: 2026-06-08
Source URL: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub/619/