Kishwaukee College and neighboring Northern Illinois University offered air-brush classes for many years 
in their technology divisions.  There were always stories about how the air-brush was invented 
by someone local from the Rockford, Illinois, area but nobody seemed to know the exact history.  In time, 
Northern lost their outstanding air-brush instructor, Dr. Edwin T. Boyer, and the technology division 
he taught under changed to the Engineering Technology division where air-brush courses were dropped.  

  During the spring of 1993, Kishwaukee College instructor Mark Schwendau had a student take air-brushing
with him independent study.  Oddly, the class she took with him was the last class she needed to conclude 
her MFA degree from NIU.  The student, who does not wish to be named, discovered an inconsistency 
between three texts as to who the inventor of the air-brush was.  Three texts listed Charles Burdick, 
Abner Peeler and Liberty Walkup as the inventor of the air-brush.  Schwendau encouraged his student to 
research the area further and within three months she had conclusive proof, (a copy of the original 
patent out of Chicago) Mount Morris, Illinois, native Liberty Walkup was indeed the inventor 
of the air-brush by December of 1882.

  It was discovered that Walkup had purchased the patent from Peeler, but Peeler had a patent for a theory 
and did not have a prototype that worked well.  Peeler was a jeweler from Webster City, Iowa, and sold Walkup 
his 1878 patent idea for a "paint distributor" to Walkup for $10.  Walkup refined and perfected Peeler's 
1882 patent design for atomizing liquid pigment and repatented the "air-brush".  The name was said to be 
given the device by Walkup's wife, who would later be founder of the Illinois Art School where the new 
device would be taught.

And Burdick?  The student discovered that he had patented a similar device in London, England, after he 
relocated there without giving up his citizenship to America.  He made claim to being the first American 
inventor of the air-brush but now that is known not to be true and one must question his motives of leaving 
his native country to secure a patent in a foreign country.   His patent was granted in  London, England, 
in 1884 after the Walkup re-patent of 1882.  One must remember this was a time before international 
copyright and patent laws.

  So, why should you care about this story?  The air-brush was the forerunner to the spray paint gun which 
now paints so many products of today (like your car).  Critics have said air-brush art is not art however, 
the air-brush, properly  used, can produce "photo-realistic" renderings that rival all other forms of 
artistic medium.  The critics now attack computer generated art as non-art.  Today we see finger nails painted 
by air-brush,  murals on vehicles, decorations on cakes, and trendy designs on t-shirts.  Microsoft's 
C.E.O., Bill Gates, even thought enough of the air-brush to include one in his Windows "Paint" program as 
have most other creators of similar programs.  Many of the companies that make air-brushes today are still 
located in and around Illinois, Walkup's home sate.

  Schwendau went on Rockford television NBC affiliate in 1997 in a 3 minute segment where he was 
interviewed about the Walkup findings as a "Little Known Fact About Rockford".

  And now for something completely different; Air-brush artist and scholar, Dr. Andy Penaluna of 
the University of Wales, stumbled onto the Walkup story about the same time as Schwendau's Kish student.  
Dr. Penaluna, also an author on air-brush articles and books, visited Rockford, Illinois, to use and photograph 
the last known copy of the Walkup air-brush.  Penaluna had an agreement to do this so long as he did not 
reveal the identity of the owners, something that annoys Schwendau to this day.  Penaluna and Schwendau 
have become friends via the Internet and Penaluna recently got Schwendau's blood up when he told him, 
"I just missed seeing you this last summer (1997) when I was out your way and picked up an original 
Walkup air-brush paitning at a garage sale in Mt. Morris, for a quarter."  Penaluna also beat Schwendau 
at ownership of a Walkup airbrush.

  Schwendau has a reward offer out for any "Air-brush Manufacturing Company at Rockford" or "Rockford 
Manufacturing Company" memorabilia.  He has future goals of having the Ogle County Historical Society 
put up historical markers at Walkup's birth and resting places south of Mt. Morris, Illinois.  He wants 
to display Walkup's products in the library of the college where he teaches.