Existing comment:
Hand-cut comb, around 1840
Comb box label, around 1850
Machine-made comb, around 1890
Craftsmen cut combs by hand, until in the 1790s inventor Phineas Pratt of Connecticut created a way to saw combs with a machine that saved time and labor. This effort helped transform the Lower Connecticut River Valley into the U.S. ivory center by the Civil War. |