QUOTE;Meanwhile, in America, a separate line of reel design was beginning to emerge. To begin with, the majority of American reels were home-made affairs having crude wooden spools with iron seats. In the early nineteenth century many Americans were still importing their reels, or making their own. Old timers often fished with discarded wool spools, bound into frames by the local tinsmith. But the native industry was gearing up, and single-action brass or German silver reels with curved handles soon became common. George Snyder, a watchmaker and silversmith from Paris, Kentucky, is believed to have made the first quality reels in the United States, sometime between 1805 and 1810. Snyder realised that there was a need for a reliable multiplying reel, and he set down to invent one. Within a few years, other firms had started up, including Meek, Hardman and Milam, between them responsible for the further perfection of the design of the multiplying reel. These "Kentucky reels" were distinguished from British multipliers by the fact that they worked, and it wasn't long before designs emerged that were capable of casting a line directly from the spool; a trick that you didn't try twice with a British reel. Several innovations were first seen on American reels, among them the balanced crank handle and the first free-spool mechanism." End Quote.
Source; www.flyfishinghistory.com
Doug