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The fame sweep extended to the patent record: no Farnsworth-form inventor stands for this ground
Lead:Extended now to the patent record — the one record that sweep had never been run against — the result holds, and is printed at chapter size because it is this section's central negative. No inventor of national standing, no Farnsworth-form figure whose invention remade a field and whose name a textbook carries, is seated, born or raised in New Carlisle on the record worked here. The town's famous name is Richard Risley Carlisle, and his line is stated at its truth: he is a performer. Born in New Jersey in 1814, founder-purchaser of this townsite in 1835, he became Professor Risley, originated the foot-juggling act that still bears his name, carried a Western circus to Yokohama in 1864 and brought an Imperial Japanese troupe to America and Europe in 1866-67 — a career of performance, management and transmission of other performers' art, documented in a full scholarly biography. He held no patent, invented no device, and is not improved by being called an inventor. The inventors this ground does hold are the five working names of this section's first article — a sign-printer, an ampoule machine, a heating tape, an appliance diagnostic, a pressure transmitter — honest, local, and none of them famous. That contrast, not a manufactured genius, is the town's invention story at its true size.
Sources:
- Frederik L. Schodt, Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe (Stone Bridge Press, 2012) — Risley's career as acrobat, troupe manager and carrier of Japanese performers to the West; reviewed, Japan Society, https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=385
- Circus History — American Circus Anthology, Richard Risley Carlisle: the Risley Act introduced 1841-42, one of two circus acts named after real persons, https://www.classic.circushistory.org/Thayer/Thayer3o.htm
- Banked frame as assigned: Notable People fame sweep — four names into national notice, no inventor among them