PHOTO: Haskell Canoe weight test. 3,200 pounds are supported by a 57-pound canoe. Henry Haskell, wearing a bowtie, is third from the right. Photo in the public domain.
By Mark Videan
LUDINGTON – Henry Haskell held three other patents, in addition to the one for the Carrom board. One of these was for the design of an “Aero-plane body” granted in 1920, one for a wooden shoe insole (1922), and another for a waterproof glue material (1924.)
He had applied for a glue patent in 1918 and was producing and using it since 1913. The glue was made from a mixture of water, dried albumin (a protein found in blood) and sodium silicate. He obtained the blood from the Chicago stock yard slaughterhouses. Using this glue, he constructed a layered composite of crossed grains of wood sheets, today called plywood. He branded this material Haskelite.
Using hydraulic presses in a process he devised, Haskell was able to mold a canoe out of one piece of this plywood. Due to the extremely strong, durable and waterproof properties of his Haskelite, he was able to make the canoes without any internal framing or ribs. The Haskell Boat Company, incorporated in 1917, made 600 canoes in its first year in business and sold them for $50 each.
Haskell had a second factory in Grand Rapids, which stopped making canoes in 1918 to make plywood exclusively for the U.S. government and its allies during World War I. His plywood was used to produce over 3,000 military airplanes. From 1923 until 1934 the factory returned to making canoes, boats, paddles and oars.
At the same time, he was also producing shaped wooden aircraft parts for commercial airplanes. For the next 30 years, most of the parts the company made were the wings and fuselage, based on his patent from 1920. In 1919, the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, the Curtiss NC-4, was made with Haskell’s plywood.
Haskell and his wife Elizabeth, who taught Latin at Ludington High School, had three children and belonged to the Congregational Church in Ludington. He served on school and library boards and was the county probation officer. He remained with his company until 1930 and died in Detroit at age 78.
Mark Videan enjoys board games, card games and trivia. He creates the word puzzles found on the back page of Freshwater Reporter.
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