Walter Hunt

Walter Hunt "the forgotten inventor" was born in Martinsburg on 29 July 1796. To find work as a young man, he moved to Watertown, where by 1820, he had invented a flax-spinning machine. In 1826, he established a shop in New York City, where he would go on to invent the sewing machine and the first repeating rifle, among many other useful and not so useful things. To settle a $15 debt, he invented the safety pin and sold the rights to his debtor. Hunt died on 8 Jun 1859.

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