Figure 15. — Improved bench plane patented by George E. Davis. 

 Patent 12787, May i, 1855. 



"durability, economy and convenience." Lightness 

 and durability motivated both Birdsill Holly of 

 Seneca Falls, New York, and George Davis of Lowell, 

 Massachusetts. Holly, in 1852, suggested a means 

 by which the width of the throat of the plane could 

 be adjusted for various types of work — flexibility 

 achieved in a metal medium that would have been 

 most difficult in wood (fig. 14). In 1855, Davis 

 described an "iron plane-stock and a new method of 

 attaching the cutting irons to the stocks to be used by 

 carpenters and woodworkmen" (fig. 15). Davis' 

 patent specification stated: 



The nature of my invention consists in constructing the 

 main body of planes, molding tools. &c., of metal, which 

 being ver\' thin, presents little or no impediment to the 

 shavings passing out as they are cut from the wood, using 

 an iron or wood handle attached to these planes. By means 

 of the lower portion of the plane stock thus made, the hand 

 of the operator is very near the face of the plane when it is 

 used and consequently equally near the face of the stock 

 which is being dressed. And my invention farther consists 

 in securing the cutting Irons to the iron or other plane or 

 tool stock, by means of a single screw (instead of the old 

 chip) which screw secures both the cap and the cutting 



iron together, and both of them to the iron tool or plane 

 stock, and by forming a lip in the back part of the throat so 

 as to fill it and thus give a smooth even surface to the face of 

 the plane .... 



Two patentees — E. G. Storke, in I860, most likely 

 an inmate of Auburn prison at Auburn, New York, 

 and Ellis H. Morris, in 1870, of Salem, Ohio — speci- 

 fied innovations designed to make metallic planes 

 move more easily over wood surfaces (figs. 16 and 

 17). To this end, Storke wrote in his specification 

 that '"it has long been known to mechanics that 

 metallic planes have adhered to the wood much closer 

 than wooden planes," and to correct this, he recom- 

 mended grooving, fluting, or channeling the face of 

 the plane. Morris confirmed the friction-reducing 

 value of the longitudinal grooves in his specification 

 and added that "casting the body of the plane with 

 a series of intersecting ribs, covering the entire face," 

 resulted in a tool of greater lightness and strength. 



Fascinating among these patent drawings of metallic 

 planes are those that depart from traditional shapes; 

 and, interestingly, although the several patentees 

 succeeded in introducing new forms, they were all 



124 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .\ND TECHNOLOGY 



