Isaiah Lukens

Life & Legacy

Isaiah Quinby Lukens (24 August 1779 – 12 November 1846) was an American clockmaker, gunsmith, machinist, and inventor from southeastern Pennsylvania. He was a founding member and first vice president of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. He was elected to membership in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in June 1812, where he served as curator for multiple decades beginning in 1813. In 1820, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Lukens was blinded in one eye by "a chip of steel when dressing a grindstone" (c.1816), after which he took Joseph Saxton as his assistant. According to George Escol Sellers, whose father was close friends with Lukens, "he called [Saxton] his pupil, and he did honor to his preceptor".