Figure 43. — 1866: The simplicity and strength of the brace proposed by J. 

 Parker Gordon is in sharp contrast to tlie heavily spUnted sides of the 

 wooden brace commonly used in mid- 19th-century America. (Original 

 patent drawing 52,042, U.S. Patent Office, Record Group 241, the 

 National Archives.) 





Figure 44. — 1865: Milton nobles' patent perfecting the chuck which held 

 the auger bit was an important step along the path which led ultimately 

 to the complete acceptance of the metallic brace. Barber's ratchet brace 

 shown in figure 66 completes the metamorphosis of this tool form in the 

 United States. (Original patent drawing 51,660, U.S. Patent Office, Record 

 Group 241, the National Archives.) 



{Continued from page 202) 



The standard form of this tool as it was used and 

 produced in the United States in the 19th century 

 can be seen in another plate from the catalogue of 

 the Castle Hill Works at Sheffield (fig. 38). This 

 English influence on American tool design is no sur- 

 prise, since as early as 1634 William Wood in New 

 England's Prospect suggested that colonists take to the 

 New World "All manner of Ironwares, as all manner 

 of nailes for houses . . . with Axes both broad and 

 pitching .... All manners of Augers, piercing bits, 

 Whip-saws, Two handed saws, Froes . . . , rings for 

 Settle heads, and Iron-wedges." 



English tool design in the i8th century also influ- 

 enced the continental toolmakers. This can be seen 

 in figure 39 in a transitional-type bitstock (accession 

 319556) from the Low Countries. Adopting an 



PAPER 51: WOODWORKING TOOLS, 16 00-19 00 



English shape, but still preserving the ancient lever 

 device for holding the bit in place, the piece with its 

 grapevine embellishment is a marked contrast to the 

 severely functional brass chucks on braces of English 

 inanufacture. No less a contrast are metallic versions 

 of the brace. These begin to appear with some regu- 

 larity in the U.S. patent specifications of the 1840's; 

 their design is apparently derived from 18th-century 

 precedents. Roubo (fig. 40) illustrated a metal 

 bitstock in i 769, as did Ford, Whitmore & Brunton, 

 makers of jewelers' and watchmakers' tools, of 

 Birmingham, England, in their trade catalogue of 

 1775 (fig. 41). Each suggests a prototype of the 

 patented forms of the 1840's. For example, in 1852, 

 Jacob Switzer of Basil, Ohio, suggested, as had Roubo 

 a hundred years earlier, that the bitstock be used as 

 a screwdriver (fig. 42); but far more interesting than 



209 



