It is very hard to invent anything. I was idly wondering who "invented" the parabolic rod - Paul H. Young, or Charles Ritz? Young is said to have
experimented with compound tapers as early as 1927, while Ritz capitalized on the outcome of the damage done to some of his traditionally-tapered rods, brought
about by the famous accident caused by a delivery boy on a bicycle. It appears that each knew what the other was doing, and developed a cooperative
relationship, since in his 1948 catalog Paul Young says of his "parabolic trout fly rod" that "this number is
an exact duplicate of the model loaned me by the foremost exponent of this highly efficient action."
But I forgot all about Young and Ritz when I read this passage from Fishing in American Waters by Genio C. Scott, published in 1869 (excerpt from page 173):
"FLY RODS. - Rods made from split bamboo are unquestionably the best in use… A fly rod should not be under twelve feet in length, and I had rather have it six inches over, or so made with duplicate top and third joints as to make it either twelve or twelve feet six, though my longest rod is only twelve feet and two inches long. I prefer a single action rod to the one of double action or a "kick in the handle," though the latter may send a fly farther, and deliver it more gracefully, but it lacks the snap of the single action to strike."
Compare that paragraph with this one by Paul H. Young, describing the parabolic action fly rod, in the circa 1955 PHY catalog (the one with Ned Jewett holding up an Atlantic salmon on the cover), page 12:
"On delivery of the cast, the lower half of the rod gets in its power inpulse while the upper half is still flexed. Then, as the tip straightens, a seemingly second power impulse applies, which straightens a long line or shoots an abundance of line, if desired."
Scott says that this action "may send a fly farther"; Young says that it "shoots an abundance of line." Scott says that the fly may be delivered "more gracefully"; Young says that it "straightens a long line," which would deliver the fly gracefully.
In spite of nearly a century of progress in rodbuilding materials and techniques, wouldn't you say that Genio Scott's "double action" rod with a "kick in the handle" sounds an awful lot like Paul H. Young's "parabolic" rod that provides a "second power impulse"...? In fact, in the same catalog Young also said of his Para 16 that "it has double action." Did they have the same idea in mind - which Scott described only a few short years after the Civil War?
But I forgot all about Young and Ritz when I read this passage from Fishing in American Waters by Genio C. Scott, published in 1869 (excerpt from page 173):
"FLY RODS. - Rods made from split bamboo are unquestionably the best in use… A fly rod should not be under twelve feet in length, and I had rather have it six inches over, or so made with duplicate top and third joints as to make it either twelve or twelve feet six, though my longest rod is only twelve feet and two inches long. I prefer a single action rod to the one of double action or a "kick in the handle," though the latter may send a fly farther, and deliver it more gracefully, but it lacks the snap of the single action to strike."
Compare that paragraph with this one by Paul H. Young, describing the parabolic action fly rod, in the circa 1955 PHY catalog (the one with Ned Jewett holding up an Atlantic salmon on the cover), page 12:
"On delivery of the cast, the lower half of the rod gets in its power inpulse while the upper half is still flexed. Then, as the tip straightens, a seemingly second power impulse applies, which straightens a long line or shoots an abundance of line, if desired."
Scott says that this action "may send a fly farther"; Young says that it "shoots an abundance of line." Scott says that the fly may be delivered "more gracefully"; Young says that it "straightens a long line," which would deliver the fly gracefully.
In spite of nearly a century of progress in rodbuilding materials and techniques, wouldn't you say that Genio Scott's "double action" rod with a "kick in the handle" sounds an awful lot like Paul H. Young's "parabolic" rod that provides a "second power impulse"...? In fact, in the same catalog Young also said of his Para 16 that "it has double action." Did they have the same idea in mind - which Scott described only a few short years after the Civil War?
but there is hard evidence
that some rods were made of split bamboo in England before that date by Higginbotham of the Strand, London in the very early years of the 1800's , but they
were not in common use and the experiments in making them petered out.
