Yes he was Scott.
The oldest production airbrush manufactured was the Walkup in 1885:
The Thayer & Chandler Model A came out shortly after in 1900. Olaus Wold of the Wold airbrush company was a former employee of Thayer & Chandler, as was Jens Paasche.
There are some cool pictures of the old airbrushes on his web site:
http://www.topgun-airbrush.com/
Click on the 'Collection' link.
Mike
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not
to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools
for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know
how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. " Charles Spurgeon