Samuel Leeds Allen

Samuel Leeds Allen (May 5 1841-March 28 1918) was an American inventor and industrialist, whose most famous invention was the Flexible Flyer, the world's first steerable runner sled.

Allen was born in 1841 in Philadelphia, the son of John C. Allen and Rebecca S. Leeds. Both of Allen's parents were members of the Society of Friends, as was Allen.

His revolutionary sled was first developed and tested in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania but many throughout the years have chosen his home across from Stokes Hill in Moorestown Township, New Jersey as the symbolic birthplace of the Flexible Flyer despite Breidenhart having been built 5 years after the invention.

Allen was awarded almost 300 patents for a wide range of farming machinery, including the fertilizer drill, seed drill, potato digger, cultivator, furrower, pulverizer, grass edger and numerous other farm implements. In order to provide year-round employment for his workers producing farm equipment, Mr. Allen sought to create a product that could be sold during the winter. His passion for sledding led him to develop a series of sleds and sled improvements. Allen was issued U.S. Patent number 408,681 on August 13, 1889 for the Flexible Flyer.

External links

* [http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/themes/flexflyr.htm United States Patent and Trademark Office: The Story of the Flexible Flyer]
* [http://www.njinvent.org/2004/allen.html New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.co.burlington.nj.us/info/history/township/moorestowntownship.htm Breidenhart: Allen's home in Moorestown Township]
*US patent|408681