{{use mdy dates|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox engineer |image = |image_size = |caption = |name = Abel Buell |birth_date = February 1, 1742 |birth_place = Killingworth, Connecticut |death_date = March 10, 1822 |death_place = New Haven, Connecticut |education = Goldsmith apprentice |spouses = Mary, Lettuce, Rebecca |parents = John and Abigail |children = William, Abel, Mary, Benjamin, Jeremiah, Sally |discipline = Inventor, cartographer |institutions = |practice_name = |significant_projects = Published the first map of the new United States created by an American |significant_design = Patented a lapidary machine; <br> Invented a minting machine |significant_advance = |significant_awards = }} '''Abel Buell''' (1742–1822), born in Killingworth, Connecticut, was a goldsmith, silversmith, jewelry designer, engraver, surveyor, printer, type manufacturer, mint master, textile miller, and counterfeiter in the American colonies.<ref name="Robinson"/> In 1784, Buell published ''A New and Correct Map of the United States of North America Layd down from the latest Observations and best Authorities agreeable to the Peace of 1783''; it was the first map of the new United States created by an American.<ref name="usgs">{{cite web|url=https://rmmcweb.cr.usgs.gov/outreach/lewisclark/emergingnation.html |title=Maps of An Emerging Nation: The United States of America 1775-1987 |access-date=2008-06-03 |date=2003-10-30 |publisher=usgs.gov |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109015235/http://rmmcweb.cr.usgs.gov/outreach/lewisclark/emergingnation.html |archive-date=2009-01-09 }}</ref> He was also an inventor. He invented a lapidary machine to cut and polish gems, a minting machine that could product 120 coins per minute, and machines for planting onions and corn.<ref name="LOCexhibit"/> He was the first man to design and cast type in the United States.<ref name="LOCexhibit">{{cite web |url=http://loc.gov/exhibits/mapping-a-new-nation/overview.html |title=Mapping a New Nation: Abel Buell's Map of the United States, 1784, Exhibition Overview |access-date=2015-05-18 |date=2015-08-18 |publisher=loc.gov}}</ref>
==Early life== As a child, Abel Buell apprenticed with a goldsmith. By age 19, he was financially secure and married. In 1755, Buell was apprenticed in Madison, Connecticut, to master silversmith and his future brother-in-law, Ebenezer Chittenden. Chittenden has the distinction of having produced more individual, surviving silver pieces, than any other silversmith in Connecticut.
==Career== thumb|upright=1.25|''A New and Correct Map of the United States'', 1784 map by Buell Buell gained notoriety at an early age as a counterfeiter by altering five-pound note engraving plates into larger denomination plates. His sentence was to be branded above the forehead under the scalp, loss of a portion of his right ear, and life in prison, plus forfeiture of all his lands and estates. Because of his youth, he served little time in prison and only the top part of his ear was cut off, but the authorities permitted it to be sewn back on. In 1765, Buell received a patent for a lapidary machine, making him the first Connecticut resident to receive a patent. After creating a ring on that machine, and presenting it to the prosecuting attorney, Buell's counterfeiting sentence was pardoned.<ref name="Robinson"/>
In 1770, Buell moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and went to work for cartographer Bernard Romans. After the American Revolutionary War ended, Buell used the minting machine he had invented to mint the State of Connecticut's first official copper coins. Connecticut coppers were struck from 1785 to 1788 by Buell. Buell engraved the dies for the Connecticut copper coinage as well as the dies for the Fugio cents - America's first coinage. By 1784, Buell cut punches for, and cast his own type and published the first American-made map of the United States. The wall map measured 43 × 48 inches, was printed in four sections, and hand-applied watercolor gave the map its color.<ref name="usgs"/> In 1789, Buell went to England on behalf of a group of investors to steal the secrets of cotton manufacturing from the British and bring that knowledge back to America. While there, he gained both practical knowledge and a sum of money that allowed him, upon his return, to establish one of Connecticut's first cotton mills.<ref name="Robinson"/> In later life, Buell joined with David Greenleaf to fashion some of the first steel swords manufactures specifically for the U.S. government. These swords were later used in the War of 1812 and were in service through the U.S. Civil War.
==Death== Squandering or giving away all the money he earned, Buell died in 1822 at the New Haven Almshouse.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite web |url=http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/finearts/decor/metal/history/buell.htm |title=Abel Buell |access-date=2008-06-03 |date=2007-07-15 |publisher=robinsonlibrary.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514234652/http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/finearts/decor/metal/history/buell.htm |archive-date=2008-05-14 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Leaving little behind, he is known mostly because of the biography researched and written by Lawrence C. Wroth and a biography by Christopher McDowell.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hemphill, II |first=John M. |date=July 1959 |title=Reviewed Works: Abel Buell of Connecticut: Silversmith, Type Founder & Engraver by Lawrence C. Wroth; Shop Records of Daniel Burnap, Clockmaker by Penrose R. Hoopes |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=439–441 |jstor=1916967}}</ref> The U.S. Library of Congress received a donation of his rare map of the United States, and on November 11, 2013, mounted an exhibition showcasing it entitled "Mapping a New Nation: Abel Buell’s Map of the United States, 1784". The map was displayed in the Thomas Jefferson Building and online. The exhibition noted that it was the first map to be copyrighted in the United States.<ref name="LOCexhibit"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last=Hugo |first=E. Harold |author2=Harlow, T.R. |title=Abel Buell, a Jack of all trades, & genius extraordinary: his life and trials, illustrated by some of his works, a chart and a writing sheet with an advertisement made from the original copies in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society |year=1955 |location=Meriden, Conn |publisher=The Timothy Press |oclc=2103801}} * {{cite book |last=Mackall |first=L.L. |year=1930 |title=Abel Buell, the first type cutter and caster in English America: A review |location=Mount Vernon, N. Y. |publisher=Privately printed |oclc=213729468}} * {{cite book |last=Wroth |first=Lawrence C. |title=Abel Buell of Connecticut: Silversmith, Type Founder & Engraver |orig-year=1926|year=1958 |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |oclc=3493213}}; revised and expanded edition, Middletown, CT: Wesleyah University Press, 1958 * McDowell, Christopher R.: Abel Buell and the History of the Connecticut and Fugio Coinages, Colonial Coin Collectors Club, 2015.
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}} * Mapping a New Nation: Abel Buell’s Map of the United States, 1784, online exhibition, Library of Congress [http://loc.gov/exhibits/mapping-a-new-nation/index.html]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Buell, Abel}} Category:1742 births Category:1822 deaths Category:18th-century American artisans Category:Surveyors Category:Millers Category:People from Killingworth, Connecticut Category:American cartographers Category:18th-century American inventors Category:American fraudsters Category:Artists from New Haven, Connecticut Category:People from colonial Connecticut Category:People of Connecticut in the American Revolution Category:Inventors from Connecticut Category:Silversmiths from the Thirteen Colonies