We’re still pursuing the elusive ‘invention’ merit badge

Only 10 American Boy Scouts earned the “invention” merit badge during the three years that it existed (from 1911-14), and seven of the recipients remain unidentified. 

David L. Eby, who is the official historian for the Erie Shores Council based in Toledo, Ohio, said he believes “invention” is the most famous merit badge in national Scouting history, at least among collectors. 

It was one of the original 57 merit badges first authorized by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1911.

Eby said BSA’s National Committee on Badges, Awards and Scout Requirements terminated the “invention” merit badge because the requirements were too hard, and it was too costly to the Scout’s family. 

“You had to literally invent some ‘useful article’ and get a patent on it,” he said. “In1914, the filing fee for a new patent was $15 and the fee to issue a patent was another $20. $35 is not a lot today, but it was back then (about $1,053 in today’s dollars).” 

On top of that, add whatever costs were incurred in creating the invention – supplies, raw materials, equipment and so forth, Eby mentioned. 

The three known recipients of the “invention” merit badge were: Stephen H. Porter of Fayetteville, N.Y.; Frederick L. Maywald Sr. of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Graeme Thomas Smallwood of Washington, D.C. 

Porter’s claim to fame is that at age 18, he was the first Scout to earn all 57 merit badges. 

Maywald was a 43-year-old Scout leader. In that era, Scout advancement was available to youths and adults, and troop leaders were encouraged to earn merit badges to serve as an example for their Scouts to follow. Maywald worked as a chemist and held numerous patents. Eby said he believes Maywald’s merit badge invention was an “oil separator.”

Graeme Thomas Smallwood 

 

Smallwood, who earned 51 of the 57 merit badges, had the honor of being awarded his Eagle Scout rank at age 17 during a ceremony at the White House in 1914. First Lady Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson, actually pinned the badge on his uniform. 

Later in 1914, Smallwood served as one of four Eagle Scout sentries at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. He appeared in press service photographs of the event that were distributed worldwide.

 

Smallwood’s “invention” merit badge patent was for a “false sleeve” to be attached to the Scout uniform. 

The problem, as Graeme Smallwood saw it, was that early Scouts sewed their merit badges onto the right sleeve of their uniforms. If they changed uniforms as they grew, they would have to snip the badges from the first uniform and stitch them onto the new one.

 

With his invention, merit badges could now be sewn onto the false uniform sleeve, that could be attached over the regular sleeve and removed as desired “to keep your badges from being soiled while out in the field,” he once commented.

 

Smallwood’s invention was actually put into production and sold by the BSA. 

“With the advent of the merit badge sash in 1924, the false uniform sleeve uniform went out of use, although some still exist among advanced collectors,” Eby said. 

The inventor of the sash is a Scouting mystery for another day. 

Smallwood’s place in the annals of Scouting history is enhanced through his service as an Army officer during World War I. He and his wife, Dorothy Hubbell Smallwood, had three children. 

A son, Grahame Thomas Smallwood, who became an airline executive, once served as a member of the national BSA Executive Committee.