| Birth: | 9 Jul 1766 in Newburyport, Essex Co., MA |
| Death: | 30 Jul 1849 in London, Middlesex, England |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | Matthew Perkins b. 29 May 1725 in Ipswich, Essex Co., MA |
| Mother: | Jane Noyes b. 5 Oct 1731 in perhaps Ipswich, Essex Co., MA |
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| Hannah Greenleaf (Wife) b. 20 Dec 1770 in Essex Co., MA
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| Marriage: | 11 NOV 1790 in Essex Co., MA |
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Individual:
[He was a] mechanician, inventor, was born July 9, 1766, in Newburyport, Mass. Among his inventions is a machine for cutting and heading nails at a single operation. He was the originator of using steel, instead of copper plates, for engraving banknotes. (Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century, p. 734.)
About 1790 Perkins built a machine to cut and head nails in one operation, but the plant he opened to exploit it was ruined by an extended lawsuit over the invention. He subsequently devised a method of bank-note engraving that made counterfeiting extremely difficult. Failing to attract American interest in the process, Perkins and his partner set up a factory in England and in 1819 began printing notes for local banks; after 1840 the factory was also authorized to print Britain's first penny postage stamps.
Perkins also experimented with high-pressure steam boilers and in 1823 devised means to attain working steam pressure of 800-1400 psi. He built a Woolf-type steam engine (1827), designed an improved paddle wheel (1829), and invented a means for the free circulation of water in boilers (1831), which led to the design of modern water-tube boilers. He was awarded a medal by the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts for his method of ventilating ships' holds. (www.britannica.com)
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