President Andrew Jackson Signs a Patent for a Sausage-Cutting Machine

In 1835, Peter Fahnestock and John Monn, Jr., applied for a patent for a sausage cutting machine. The patent claim was: “The meat in this machine is to be cut between two vertical disks one of which is turned by a winch whilst the other is stationary. One of these disks is made concave to admit the meat from a hopper and they are both furnished with knives so placed as to pass each other towards the periphery the knives are more numerous than near the centre the meat being fed through an opening near the axis and delivered through another at the periphery. The claim is to the application of knives to a face wheel and to the other parts which are necessary in the particular arrangement of such a machine. This differs from the sausage machines previously patented…”

The patent office approved the application. Document signed as President, Washington, March 11, 1835, granting Peter Fahnestock and John Monn, Jr. for “a new and useful improvement in the sausage cutting machine” for the term of 14 years. The Great Seal of the United States with ribbon is still present. The document is countersigned by Secretary of State John Forsythe.

Full patents signed by Jackson are uncommon, this being the third we can recall having carried.