BABBITT, ISAAC (1799-1862), American inventor, was born in Taunton, Mass., on July 26, 1 7 99. He was trained to be a goldsmith and thus had some opportunity to experiment with metals, in which work he succeeded in making the first britannia ware produced in the United States (1824). Ten years later he went to Boston and while employed there by the South Boston Iron Co., in 1839, he made one of the types of alloy now known as Babbitt metals. They are hard compositions of tin with antimony and copper, and are used for bearings. For this invention he received a gold medal from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association and an award of $20,000 from Congress. He became a manufacturer of this metal and of soap. He died in Somerville. Mass., on May 26, 1862.