

'^*'t . ^^/ '-^A 



James lUnjiie's Jmprocef/ Ifood Smr. 



J'i^.l 









Figure 29. — Improved wood saw patented by James Hayne on August 9, 1859; reissue no. 1526, August 25, if 



although there is less width at the middle of the blade or 

 blank, (occasioned by the scallops a a, which scallops are 

 necessary in order to preserve the symmetry of the article,) 

 yet there is greater thickness, and, consequently, requisite 

 strength. 



The sheets or plates are rolled of different thicknesses 

 and widths, according to the size and quality of the tool 

 designed to be made therefrom, and dies or punches are 

 made of different sizes to correspond. 



It is obvious that this process is a great saving in the cost 

 of manufacture. At least one hundred per cent, is saved by 

 this process, and a more uniform, perfect, and better article 

 is produced, and furnished to the public at a much less 

 expense. 



It is doubly rewarding to those interested in the 

 provenance of design characteristics to repeat Parr's 

 statement that the scalloped blade, still retained 

 today in screwdrivers of British manufacture, was not 

 intended to impro\e the function of the tool but 



rather "to preserve the syminetry of the article. ""[!] 

 In much the same fashion as the screwdriver, the 

 common clawhammer eluded the illustrators except 

 as a symbolic device in art. Primarily, this seeins 

 due to the persistence of mortise and tenon architec- 

 ture where the treenail took the place of the nail and 

 where the auger and wooden-headed maul were the 

 builder's most frequent companions. But with the 

 coming of the cheap nail and the balloon frame, the 

 clawhammer became a more familiar object. In the 

 patent drawings will be found the most precise ren- 

 derings of the hammer, graphic evidence that fairly 

 establishes this as the earliest appearance of the claw- 

 hammer as it is known today. 



A New Hampshire man, Phineas Eastman, of 

 Canaan, in 1838, sent to Washington his specifications 

 for an improvement in "the Manufacture of Socket 

 hammers & hatchets" that detailed the construction 



132 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIOXS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .AND TECHNOLOGY 



