Many men in Cobourg were enterprising men. They took out patents on a variety of inventions. Henry Ruttan had a patent for a new mode of ventilating buildings, John Cleghorn took out a patent for an "improved threshing machine", William White made improvements to a "Smut Machine" and Richard Dover Chatterton (editor of the Cobourg newpaper) applied for a patent to improve the paddle wheel. An ambious group.