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This article begins by tracing the experiments and technology that went into the development of various methods of pipelines and tubing systems for moving maple sap from trees to boiling areas in the sugarbush. The majority of the article focuses on the efforts of three men who were working simultaneously during the 1950s to make a plastic tubing system for sap gathering a reality. These men were George Breen of Jamaica, Vermont; Nelson Griggs of Montpelier, Vermont; and Robert Lamb of Liverpool, New York.
Because space for images and photographs in the published article was limited, I was only able to include a few photographs of Breen, Griggs, and Lamb. With this website, I am happy to share a few more images that accompany the article and better illustrate their efforts, experimental designs, and the resulting commercial products of these creative men.
George Breen
George Breen was a sugarmaker from Jamaica, Vermont who decided that there must be a better way to gather sap than laboriously hauling pails of sap through the snow. This led him in 1953 to begin to experiment with flexible plastic tubing to use gravity and the natural pressure in trees to move sap from the tree to a collection point. In time, Breen’s experiments caught the attention of the 3M Corporation and together they created, patented, and marketed the Mapleflo sap gathering system. Here are a few photos of Breen at work in his sugarbush working with his early tubing design.
George Breen holding an example of his experimental spout and tubing in his Jamaica, VT sugarbush. Image Credit: University of Vermont Special Collections – Malvine Cole Papers.George Breen installing spout and tubing in his Jamaica, VT sugarbush, circa 1956. Image Credit: University of Vermont Special Collections – Malvine Cole Papers.George Breen inserting experimental tubing spout at taphole. Image Credit: University of Vermont Special Collections – Malvine Cole Papers.Breen’s Jamaica, VT sugarhouse with tubing line running in from the sugarbush, circa 1956. Image Credit: University of Vermont Special Collections – Malvine Cole Papers.Late 1950s Cover of 3M’s Mapleflo plastic tubing system, the patented commercial result of George Breen’s tubing experiments and invention. Image credit: collections of the author.Late 1950s diagram and illustration of 3M’s Mapleflo plastic tubing system, the patented commercial tubing system based on the experiments of George Breen. Image credit: collections of the author.
Nelson Griggs
Nelson Griggs was an engineer with an interest in maple sugaring and an idea that plastic tubing might be a viable alternative and improved method of gathering maple sap in the sugarbush. In 1955, while working as a engineering consultant with the Bureau of Industrial Research at Norwich University, in Northfield, Vermont, Griggs partnered with the University of Vermont’s maple research team to put his flexible plastic tubing ideas to the test in the sugarbush of the Proctor Maple Research Farm. The following are some photos related to that research.
Nelson Griggs installing experimental plastic tubing at Proctor Maple Research Farm in 1955. Image credit: 1956 issue of Vermont Life magazine.Nelson Griggs, center in striped sweater, with members of the Proctor Maple Research Farm research crew in the spring of 1955. Probable names of men in the photo include, University of Vermont (UVM) Professor, Dr. Fred Taylor on the far left, second from left UVM Extension Forester Ray Foulds, third from left UVM Professor, Dr. James Marvin. Image credit: UVM Special Collections – UVM Maple Research Collection.Examples of recently discovered original Griggs spouts and and tubing assemblage used in 1955 experiments and preserved in the University of Vermont Special Collections. Photo by author.Griggs experimental spout in use with plastic insert in taphole central metal connector, and flexible plastic tubing at other end. Image credit: Marvin and Green February 1959 article in UVM Agriculture Experiment Station Bulletin 611.
Robert Lamb
Bob Lamb was in the chainsaw and boat motor sales and repair business in the Syracuse, New York region, mostly working with the logging and marine industry when in 1955 he was asked by a sales contact in forestry business if he could help come up with an idea for moving maple sap using tubing. Lamb put his creative mind to work and developed and marketed his Lamb Sap Gathering System, later named the Naturalflow Tubing System. The following are images related to the early years of Bob Lamb’s tubing design.
International Maple Museum Centre display of early experimental spouts, fittings, and tubing, designed and tested by Bob Lamb. Photo by author.Bob Lamb demonstrating the use of a battery powered, backpack mounted drill. Image credit: 1963 Lamb Naturalflow Tubing System catalog, collections of author.Sales brochure for Lamb Sap Gathering System from 1958, the first year Lamb tubing was commercially available. Collections of author.Image of the Lamb Tubing System’s early installation method as a ground line with long drop lines. Image credit: 1963 Lamb Naturalflow Tubing System catalog, collections of author.Display in the International Maple Museum Centre created by Mike Girard showing the spouts, fittings, and tubing components and arrangement of the early commercial version of Lamb’s Naturalflow Tubing System. Photo by author.
The Warner Sap Spout has it beginnings with James F. Warner, but its full story comes to life with the inclusion of his later partner, George D. Jarvis. Warner was born in Vermont in 1837. In the 1860 census he was a farm laborer in Jericho and by the 1870s and early 1880s, was a farmer and civil war veteran from Essex, VT. By the mid-1800s and 1890s Warner was working as an architect and builder in Essex with an additional business cleaning, repairing, and tuning pianos and organs.
Image of a young George D. Jarvis.
George De Alton Jarvis first appears in Burlington around 1882 managing a Singer sewing machine store. By 1890 Jarvis was working as a piano and organ salesman for G.H. and C.F. Hudson in Burlington, Vermont. He later went on to work for McKannon Bros. & Co. selling pianos before buying out McKannon Brothers and opening his own Geo. D. Jarvis & Son in Burlington in 1905.
However, Jarvis also had a side hustle as a peddler of patent medicines. Working under the trade name of Dr. Geo. D. Jarvis, for which there is no evidence of his ever earning a Doctorate in Medicine or any other field. Jarvis traveled around New England selling his Burlington Brand Extract of Lemon and Jarvis’ Blood Renovator. He was also part of the Burlington Extract Company who produced and sold Jarvis’ Cough Balsam. The Burlington Extract Company was initially incorporated in 1903 and reincorporated in 1905, this time with Jarvis as a shareholder.
Examples of bottles of Dr. Geo. D. Jarvis’s patent medicines. Photos of bottles Courtesy of Jerry Russin, Jr. and the Vermont Bottle Man Duane E. Chase of Jeffersonville, VT.Drawing from C.F. Warner’s 1893 sap spout patent (US509,980).
James F. Warner obtained his first patent design for a one-piece cast iron sap spout in 1893 with another patent for an improved design obtained in 1899. Exactly when in the 1890s and from where Warner began to manufacture and sell his patents is not entirely clear, presumably out of Essex. There are many examples of variations on the Warner Sap Spout that display elements that progress between the 1893 and the 1904 designs. Although Warner obtained his first patent in 1893 it appears that he used this design only generally in the initial production of his spouts. As discussed in detail in Hale Mattoon’s Maple Spouts Spiles Taps & Tools, over the 1890s and early 1900s Warner continued to make slight modifications to his designs never really adhering to the specifics of the patent image from any given year. One particular variation of the Warner spout was referred to as the “Jim Sap Spout” and in 1898 it was reported in various newspapers that James Warner of Essex had received an order from Canada for 20,000 “Jim” Spouts.
Drawing from C.F. Warner’s 1899 sap spout design patent (USD31,860).
Presumably it was the piano and organ business that brought Warner and Jarvis to know each other. In 1902 these men began working together on sap spout designs with Warner assigning his 1904 patent design to George D. Jarvis. In June 1902 Warner applied for a patent and the following year in April 1903 both men jointly applied for a new patent on a spout design with slight modifications to Warner’s design from a year earlier, notably the inclusion of the hook, an eyelet in the top tab for securing a pail cover.
Drawing of C.F. Warner’s 1904 sap spout patent (US76,324).
So sure were they of their plans, a few months before they had submitted their shared patent design in April 1903, they had begun advertising and promoting their new patent pending spout under the company name of Geo. D. Jarvis & Co. Notable in the patent images and description are that the 1904 spout could be made with or without a hook as part of the single cast piece. However, according to maple spout expert Hale Mattoon, sap collectors have yet to find an example of the 1904 spout with the hanging hook.
Drawing from C.F. Warner and G.D. Jarvis’ 1905 sap spout patent (US801,755).
The 1904 and 1905 designs of the Warner sap spout was immediately successful, catching the attention of maple equipment king G. H. Grimm who in January of 1904 challenged George D. Jarvis to a $100 wager to see which spout, the Grimm spout or the Warner spout, would draw the most sap from the same tree in a given amount of time. It is unclear if the challenge was accepted and if the two spouts ever faced off in this head to head competition.
Curiously, one never reads about James Warner’s role in the company after 1903 and it was never clear what were the terms of their partnership. As an experienced salesman, Jarvis was well aware of the value of trusted and recognizable brand names and as part of the Geo. D. Jarvis & Co business selling maple sugaring equipment, he offered other items under the Warner brand name, including sap pails and sap pail covers.
February 1903 advertisement for the Warner Sap Spout based on Warner and jarvis’ 1905 patent. Note the patent applied for and manufactured by of Geo. D. Jarvis & Co.1908 advertisement for Geo. D. Jarvis & Son piano sales in Burlington, Vermont.
In 1905 George D. Jarvis was operating two enterprises with similar names, one for Jarvis & Company for sugar making supplies and one with his oldest son De Forest Clinton Jarvis as Jarvis & Son for piano and organ sales, with both businesses listed at 45 Church Street. The piano sales business continued until 1915. Around 1910 Jarvis further expanded his Burlington businesses to open the Jarvis Palace Garage with his son De Alton Matthew Jarvis on South Winooski Avenue for automobile parts and repair.
1924 advertisement for the Leader Evaporator Company sales of the Warner Sap Spouts.
James F. Warner died of heart disease in 1907 in Essex, Vermont at the age 69. In the late 19-teens, Jarvis began to close up and sell his interest in his various business ventures. Around 1920 George D. Jarvis sold the patent rights to the Warner sap spout to the Leader Evaporator Company who continued to manufacture the Warner Sap Spout for many more decades. In 1921 Jarvis retired to Orange City, Florida where he remained until his death from cancer in 1927. George Jarvis’ son De Forest C. Jarvis went on to become a well-known medical doctor in Barre and in 1958 was the author of the best-selling book Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide to Good Health which sat on the New York Times best seller list for two years and sold over a million copies.
Image of Eben Willis’ 1877 patent design for maple sap spout that was never manufactured.
The history of the Willis Sap Spout is a curious story of business partners, misleading patent claims, and changing manufacturers. The Willis Sap Spout began with Eben Willis obtaining a patent in April 1877 (US189,330) for a rather curious sap spout design. Willis was a farmer and sugarmaker from Colton, New York who designed an odd-stubby-shaped cast iron spout with a sharp sloping channel at the front, a pin to suspend a bucket from its handle and a lower hook to suspend a bucket as an alternative hanging method. It has been long suspected by expert sap spout collectors that this 1877 patent design by Willis was never put into production, and according to testimony by Willis in a later court case it is true that no spouts under the April 1877 patent design were ever produced.
Image of Willis’ 1891 sap spout patent design, sold with patent dates of both 1877 and 1891 embossed on the side. This is the first Willis Sap Spout.
The first Willis Sap Spout actually produced looks nothing like the true 1877 patent design and was curiously embossed with a “PAT’D” on one side and “1877” on the other side and featured a square apex (point inserted into tap hole) and both an open and closed top channel for sap. Contrary to the claimed patent date, this Willis spout was designed and first manufactured beginning sometime after 1877; however, it wasn’t actually patented until 1891 (US455,784). In addition to the incorrect 1877 patent date, many of this version of the Willis Spout were embossed with the correct patent date of 1891 as well.
Advertisement flyer for Willis & Spear sale of the Willis Sap Spout, showing an open channel variation on the 1891 patent design.
Willis entered into a 50-50 partnership in 1879 with local Canton mill owner and banker James Spear for patent ownership and the production and sale of the Willis Spout. In these early years Willis & Spear handled the sale and distribution of the spout themselves and listed their business location as Troy, New York, although both men were longtime Canton residents. The Willis Spout was clearly being produced and sold in sufficient quantities by 1880 to have gotten the attention of C.C. Post, the manufacturer of the Eureka Sap Spout. C.C. Post claimed that Willis and his spout manufacturer, Floyd Chamberlin & Company, had infringed on his patent claims with their design.
Article that appeared in the Burlington Free Press in February 1880 describing a patent infringement meeting between C.C. Post and the manufacturers of the Willis Sap Spout.
According to Post, upon examination by “two chosen patent law experts”, Floyd, Chamberlin & Company agreed that it was an infringement and ceased production immediately. While it may be true that the manufacturing company may have elected to cease production, Eben Willis himself took a much different view and declared in his local newspaper that he would not be intimidated by C.C. Post. This seems to be the case and in 1887 Eben Willis, operating as Willis and Spear, contracted with Charles Millar and Sons out of Utica, New York for the exclusive sale of the Willis Sap Spout in the United States, with plans to produce at least 100,000 spouts a year. The sap spouts were actually manufactured at a foundry in Connecticut who shipped the spouts to Millar and Sons. Around this time, Willis also contracted with the James Smart Manufacturing Company, LTD in Brockville, Ontario for the sale of the spout in Canada.
1889 advertisement for Charles Millar & Sons sale of the Willis Sap Spout.
In 1886 it was announced that Eben Willis had designed and would soon be manufacturing an arch to support sap pans, although further information on the success or design of this arch has not yet been found. Similarly, in 1891 Willis claimed in the local paper to have designed and patented his own evaporator and would soon begin production; however, no evidence of an evaporator design attributed to Willis, let alone a patent, has been found.
1901 advertisement for the Hunting-Weekes Company sale of the Willis Sap Spout showing both open and closed channel variations on the 1898 skeleton apex design.
After Spear unsuccessfully requested that they dissolve their partnership, with Willis “buying out” Spear, James Spear sued Willis in 1890 to recover the value and profits from his half of ownership of the patent, manufacturing and sale of the Willis Sap Spout. Willis attempted to claim that their partnership was based on the April 1877 patent (US189330) which was a design that in fact was never used to produce the Willis spout. Instead, Willis claimed that Spear had no claim to the actual Willis Sap Spout that was produced and sold. Unfortunately, for Willis, he lost the case against him as well as two appeals and in the end the partnership was fully dissolved, and Willis was forced to compensate Spear for $5000.
Image of Willis’ 1898 patent design featuring the skeleton style apex on the portion of the spout that rest in the sap hole and permits sap to enter the spout channel.
In 1898 Willis was awarded another design patent (US606613) for a spout similar to the 1891 design with the key difference being the square apex being replaced with a cross-shaped apex sometimes called a skeleton apex. Interestingly, Willis repeated his earlier fudging of patent dates when he falsely stamped an earlier patent date of 1891 on the 1898 patent design. The Willis Sap Spout made on the skeleton apex design that was awarded a patent in 1898 were sometimes embossed with “PAT’D” and “1891”, as well as the more accurate “1898” and even “1899”. Testimony from the partnership and patent ownership court case between Spear and Willis noted that “from time to time different alterations and improvements have been made to the spout” further explaining the many subtle variations now found to vex the antique sap spout collectors. See Hale Mattoon’s book Maple Spouts Taps & Tools for illustrations of all the variations of the Willis Sap Spout.
Following the end of the contract with Millar and Sons, around 1900 Willis contracted with the Hunting-Weekes Company of Watertown, New York to be the exclusive sale representatives of the Willis Sap Spouts. Eben Willis died at age 83 on July 31, 1906 in Canton, New York, bringing production and sale of the Willis Sap Spout to an end.
Charles Covil Post, better known as C.C. Post, was the inventor and maker of one of the first and most widely used, mass produced metal maple sap spouts. Born on January 18, 1831 in Hinesburgh, Vermont, Post was the son of A.H. Post, an industrious builder, farmer and cheese maker.
C.C. Post tin shop in old brick general store on Main Street in Hinesburgh, Vermont.
As a young single man C.C. Post worked as a farmer, but soon after his marriage in 1851 Post shifted to the metal work business, opening C.C. Post’s stove and tinware shop in Hinesburgh near the corner of Main Street and Mechanicsville Road. At the time, Post occupied the former Hinesburgh general store, a brick building built in 1820 at the center of town.
1857 Map of Hinesburgh, Vermont showing location of C.C. Post tin shop.Advertisement from 1863 for the sale of Cook’s Sugar Evaporator with C.C. Post of Hinesburgh as the sales agent.
C.C. Post’s entry in the maple sugar equipment business came in late 1862 or early 1863 when he secured the rights to manufacture and sell the Cook’s Sugar Evaporator. Introduced in 1859 by Daniel McFarland Cook out of Mansfield, Ohio, the new Cook’s evaporator introduced a maze-like network of baffles that facilitated the continuous flow of sap into syrup, notably more advanced and efficient than the commonly used flat pans and kettles of the time. As a result the Cook’s evaporator saw immediate popularity; however, no one was manufacturing the units locally. With the first Cook’s evaporators manufactured in Ohio and shipped to Vermont, becoming the exclusive agent for sale in Vermont quickly spread the name C.C. Post among maple sugar makers.
Image from C.C. Post’s first sap spout design patent awarded in 1868 (US84032).
Although there is no indication C.C. Post was ever a sugarmaker, he know the business and basics of its operation and began to develop his own ideas on sap spout designs and in November 1868 was awarded a patent for his first sap spout design (US84032). Having his own sap spout to sell along with the popular Cook’s evaporator, in 1869 C.C. Post focused his metal manufacturing efforts from general tin and stove works to just making sap spouts and selling maple sugaring equipment. With this focus on maple equipment making he briefly moved his operation from Hinesburgh to Waterbury for the year 1869 then in 1870 moved his business and home to Burlington.
Advertisement for C.C. Post’s Eureka Sap Spout from 1869 with his location listed as Waterbury, Vermont as he transitioned his operations from Hinesburgh to Burlington.
Post later sold his tin works building in Hinesburgh in 1881 to John S. Patrick who started the Reed and Patrick tin works. While in Burlington, Post initially resided on Colchester Street before later buying a lot at 83 North Union Street and building a home there in 1877. It is unclear where exactly C.C. Post carried out the foundry work of pouring the hundreds of thousands of cast iron metal taps he made. There was once a large barn that was possibly workshop or warehouse on the property behind the house on North Union Street. The house was listed in Burlington directories as both his residential and the official business address for his maple hardware business. Current owners of the house informed me that the barn was in poor condition and torn down. A block of eight condos were more recently built on the site of the former barn.
Aerial shot of C.C. Post house at 83 North Union Street in Burlington, Vermont.
From the get-go C.C. Post called his spout the Eureka and as arguably the first widely available cast iron spout was very popular and used extensively across the maple industry. While more expensive than the commonly used tubular wood spouts, cast iron spouts were durable, nested snugly in the taphole, were less prone to getting sour during the season, and were easily washable for years of continued use.
Portrait drawing of C.C. Post.
The Eureka sap spout was probably the most popular and best-selling sap spout in the 1870s and 1880s and Post didn’t hesitate to defend his spout designs against possible patent infringement. In 1879 C.C. Post declared, contrary to the claims by F.E. Lord that the Boss Sap Spout did not infringe on the patent for the Eureka Sap Spout, the Boss design infringed on a design owned by Post that was originally patented to James B. Sargent in 1868 (US76530), later owned and re-issued by Post in 1878 (USRE8495). A history of the Boss sap spout will be covered in a later post. In another case with the makers of the Willis Sap Spout dating to 1880, patent law experts were consulted and as reported in the Burlington Free Press that “the Willis sap spout and bucket hanger was decided to be so clearly an infringement that the manufacturers decided to at once discontinue its manufacture and sale.”
Image from one of C.C. Post’s later sap spout design patents awarded in 1871 (US117326).
Post continued to tweak his sap spout design and was awarded at least two more patents for new sap spout designs (US117326 and US117457) on July 25, 1871. He also developed a unique metal sap pail in 1870 that featured an indented or curved face at the point of the hanging hole to more tightly fit against the curve of the tree (US107407). It is interesting to study and compare the designs in Post’s patents and the images of spouts that appear in his advertisements, since the drawings are sometimes very different.
Advertisement for C.C. Posts Eureka Sap Spouts No. 1 and No.2. Notice the claim of over 11 million spouts sold.
Even more interesting is to look at the actual preserved examples of C.C. Post’s spouts in various antique maple spout collections. To learn more about these spout variations I highly recommend consulting Hale Mattoon’s comprehensive book Maple Spouts Spiles & Taps and Tools. Mattoon has done an incredible job of analyzing and describing these many subtle differences and changes that occurred with Post’s new patent designs and production changes.
Image of evaporator patent from J.F. Ferguson and C.C. Post awarded in 1884 (US308407).
In 1884, in conjunction with Burlington-based dairy equipment manufacturer and tin worker James F. Ferguson, C.C. Post was awarded a patent for a maple sap evaporator (US308407); however, despite both men being experienced with making and selling metal tools and equipment to the maple industry, there is no indication that this evaporator design was ever put into production.
Following the marriage of his daughter Lora L. Post to Charles C. Stelle of Brooklyn, New York in 1892, C.C. Post sold his sap spout and maple equipment business to his new son-in-law Stelle and retired from business. With the sale to Stelle, the business address for the manufacturing of Eureka spouts moved from 83 North Union Street in Burlington to 81 Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.
1894 advertisement for Chas. C. Stelle’s sales of Eureka Sap Spouts with a Brooklyn business address.
C.C. Post died in October 1899 in Burlington, Vermont at age 68, either from the complications of a spinal injury from a bicycle accident, as reported in his obituary, or from the effects of a stroke as reported on his death record. With his death, the value of C.C. Post’s property and estate totaled $167,000 which was divided evenly among his five surviving daughters.
Although not a lot is known about Charles C. Stelle, who was better known in Brooklyn as a real estate agent, he carried on the production, sales and promotion of the Eureka sap spout into the early 1900s. In 1912 Stelle came up with his own modification to Post’s Eureka spout and obtained a patent on his design modification (US104834). Advertisements for the sale the Stelle-Eureka sap spout continued to appear through 1916, after which it appears that sales and production by Stelle ceased. Charles C. Stelle passed away at age 61 in his Huntington, New York home in 1924.
