Fred Divine's life is explained in Michael Sinclair's book "Fishing Rods by Divine" (1993) now out of print.

The book is a reference for all bamboo collectors as well.

It is interesting to read on Mr Sinclair's website that "during the 1890's business boomed". In fact, as I tried to summarize in my angling history page, it is during this period of the late 19th century that the industrial revolution (mass production) started to take off, one can see. And not often in favour of quality as those Leonard's worker and commonpupils such as Edward Payne, Eutis "Billy" Edwards, Thomas Chubb, Fred Thomas and Fred Divine himself document it al with their l running away to start their own operation with a lot more of detail, reportedly.

Until that moment (early 1890s), Divine had been making fishing rods in hard wood. He then improved and experimented a lot, giving a variety of fishing rod for collectors today, including a curious "twisted" or spiral rod (patented in 1892) which was discontinued because too labour intensive to produce.

Fred died in a dramatic accident in his shop in 1900 but the operation continued until 1936.

There si a nice summary of "known Divine rods" made from Michael Sinclair's book here.

It is also interesting to see from the same website as above that Divine rods were selling for $8-$10 in 1884. The equivalent purchasing power of about $200-$230 of today's money (set in 2008). How do I know? Check it here and have fun!

From Fred Divine back to the old bamboo rods main page

Sources: source: http://paducahmichael.u.yuku.com/; http://home.pacbell.net/burlltd/knownrod.htm