Figui'e 20. — Carpenter's coMBiNATiON plane 

 patented by Russell Phillips. Patent 106868, 

 August 30, 1870. 



had already produced 80,000 iron bench planes.'* 



The patent drawings of tools, particularly the 

 planes from 1820 forward, confirin McHardy's 

 statements, and in addition, they document original 

 appearance and, on occasion, even reflect attitudes 

 that prompted innovation. The original appearance 

 of a plane, for example, is often impossible to de- 

 termine after years of disuse, particularly after gather- 

 ing dirt and dust beneath an old carpenter's bench 

 which had been long before relegated to the barn as 

 a handy roost for chickens. The character of a tool's 

 finish is frequently severely altered, but the watercolor 

 drawings submitted by many a patentee will provide 

 the restorer with an excellent guide to original color 

 and desired finish. 



The patent drawings richly document the fact 

 that, in wood at least, the basic design of the hand 

 plane had reached perfection and that innovators 

 when not seeking to break entirely with traditional 

 forms were most often concerned with minuscule i:n- 

 provements or, as already seen, with combining 



'" United States Centennial Commission. International exhibition, 

 1876. Reports and Awards, Group 1-36, edit. Frances A. Walker; 

 Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott and Co., 1877-1878. See Group 

 15 (builders' hardware, edge tools, cutlery, etc.), p. 13. 

 McHardy was the English judge appraising the quality of edge 

 tools at the Centennial E.xposition at Philadelphia in 1876. 



Figure 21. — Improvement in tongue .\nd groove planes 

 patented by Emanuel W. Carpenter on January 30, 1830 

 (restored patent 5807X). 



several functions within one tool. Emanuel Carpen- 

 ter's patent of 1830 for the improvement of tongue 

 and groove planes, and that of 1838 for a method 

 of making and applying the screw arms on all types 

 of planes are splendid examples: in each, the basic 

 shape of the plow, the molding plane, and the smooth- 

 ing plane remain unchanged (figs. 21 and 22). 

 Similar is William Reynolds' delineation of the 

 trying plane to support his patent application of 1832 

 for the control and adjustment of the double iron 

 (blade). No alteration appears in the body of the 

 plane itself, and the drawing stands as a first-rate, 

 contemporary illustration of one of the most familiar 

 of woodworking tools (fig. 23). Few contemporary 

 illustrations excel the watercolor representation of 

 James Herman's tongue and groove planes submitted 

 to the Commissioner of Patents in 1835 (fig. 24). 

 Again, nothing new, not even a screw arm, disturbs 

 the familiar configuration of these planes, and only 



128 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CtJNTRIBUTKJNS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



