<^ 



i 



I 



r_i J 



JUlJ 



t 



Figure 23. — Double-iro.\ irmng 

 William B. Reynolds on July 7, 

 7158X). 



PLANE patented by 

 1832 (restored patent 



will arrest the further working of the tool without thought or 

 care on the part of the workman. While with the ordinary 

 tool, without this self-regulating gage, the tool will continue 

 to cut until the whole board is wasted, and its operation 

 must be carefully watched by the workman, to arrest it at 

 the proper time, and then the work will not be as perfect and 

 uniform as with the gage D, added. 



Fleming's patent only slightly modified the usual 

 shape of the plane, and sought either to ease, to make 

 more accurate, or to strengthen it. Metal additions 

 did not always alter the configuration of the plane, 

 and the old wood shapes persisted, only to be changed 

 when, as seen above, metal entirely replaced wood 

 in the body of the tool. 



Patent drawings of tools other than planes give 

 positive evidence of tool shapes at a given date. 

 Observe the ferruled handles on the drawing knife 

 patented by Edmund Richards in 1836 (fig. 26), or 

 the scored handle and exaggerated claw on the 

 "hammer-hatchet" patented by Joel Howe in 1834 

 (fig. 27). These details are particularly helpful guides 

 to the more precise dating of tools in general. The 

 ubiquitous spokeshave, always an enigma to those 

 asked to date it, should be considerably less so with 

 Ira L. Beckwith's patent drawing of 1837 (fig. 28) 

 as a reference point. Although Beckwith's innova- 

 tion — the insertion of a steel roller to facilitate drawing 

 the shave — is relati\ely unimjMrtant, his specification 



Figure 24. — Roller-grooving planes patented by James 

 Herman on August 2 7, 1835 (restored patent 9055X). 



for a bo.xwood body and the configuration of the 

 shave itself represent the standard form of this tool 

 in the 19th century. No less significant is the 

 drawing (fig. 29) of James Hayne's frame for a wood 

 saw, first patented in 1859 and reissued in 1863 — a 

 prototype of all subsequent bucksaws. 



The carpenter's chest is rounded out by Joel Bryant's 

 mortising gauge (fig. 30) and Peter Bradley's adze 

 (fig. 31); both represent the perfected form of each of 

 these implements — shapes that were mass-manufac- 

 tured and thus survive today in great quantity, 

 frequently passing as ancient woodworking tools. 



But it is not just in the tracing of the evolution of 

 design that these visual materials are helpful; they 

 also help to document the first extended use of new 

 tools. The screwdriver, for example, is not a common 

 tool prior to the 1840's. It was not until the appear- 

 ance of the mass-manufactured, gimlet-pointed, wood 

 screw that American inventors begin to patent screw- 

 drivers in any great number. Before this date, re- 

 liable drawings of this tool are few in number. In 

 1865, George Parr of Buflfalo, New York, specified 

 an invention that gives not only an accurate picture 

 of the screwdri\er (fig. 32) of the period, but suggests 

 as well the general advance in toolmaking. In the 

 standard form required by the Patent Ofiice, Parr 

 communicated: 



130 



BULLETIN 24 1 I CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



