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145. WOOD WORKING ;.,,:.^„^„ i ,..„W /;> v./w-V 



Figure 33. — Improvement in the manufacture of socket liammers and hatchets 

 patented by Phineas Eastman. Patent 1247, July 17, 1839. 



inventors for the combination tool (fig. 36) ; but in 

 addition to this, Dodge included in his specification a 

 significant comment: "For household use," he wrote, 

 "no tools are more frequently in requisition than the 

 hammer and the screw-driver." Here, indeed, was 

 evidence of a changed society, a new order of things 

 marked by mass-produced hardware available within 

 the home — fixtures applied by two basic tools, one 

 of which had been scarcely known a hundred years 

 before. 



In 1867, Henry Cheney, of Little Falls, New York, 

 received letters patent for an "Improvement in the 

 construction of Hammers." Although lacking the 

 social commentary of Ward's patent, Cheney, by 

 illustration (fig. 37) and description, clearly termi- 

 nated the evolution of the clawhammer when he 

 wrote: 



This invention relates to a new manner of forming the 

 sockets of wrought-iron hammers, and consists in making the 

 same of malleable iron, and brazing, soldering, or otherwise 

 securing it to the head. 



Hammers are generally made of cast iron but \vrought- 

 iron hammers are far superior, and in greater demand than 

 any other kind. But it is not only very difficult to form the 

 socket on a wrought-iron hammer, but also to find sound 

 enough iron to form the socket on. 



My invention is designed to overcome all these difficulties, 

 and to provide a hammer which combines the strength and 

 durability of a wrought-iron hammer with the facility of 

 construction of a cast-iron hammer. 



A represents the head of a hammer made of wrought-iron 

 of the usual shape. B is the socket, cast of malleable iron, 

 in the usual shape, and provided with tapering tips, or 

 flanges, a a, which fit into corresponding recesses in the 

 head A, as shown in fig. 2. The socket is brazed, soldered, 

 riveted, or otherwise secured to the head. The face and 

 claws of the hammer may be made of steel, and the most 

 improved kind of hammer can thus be made at the least 

 possible expense. The handle C of the hammer is made in 

 the usual manner, and secured in the ordinary style. 



Thus, the hammer head as once forged by the local 

 smith had become an anachronism by contrast to the 

 crisp, efficient lines achieved by Cheney. 



PAPER 48: UNITED STATES PATENTS NEW USES FOR OLD IDEAS 



135 



