mT wood working. 

 Hi Tooii 

 js] BanehFUnea. 





-^'-" ^x^-*^^ 





f ^1 1_) . ' 



J • 



v^./v^/ 



Figure 59. — ^1857: The addition of metallic parts to critical areas of wear as suggested by M. B. Tidey did 

 not at first radically alter the design of the bench plane. (Wash drawing from U.S. Patent Office, 

 March 24. 1857, Record Group 241, the National .Archives.) 



Smithsonian Institution (accession 319326). Today 

 as a group they confirm "the remarkably fine quality 

 of . . . both iron and steel" that characterized the 

 manufacture of American edge tools in the second 

 half of the 19th century.'^ 



It is the plane, however, that best exemplifies the 

 progress of tool design. In 1876, American plane- 

 makers were enthusiastically credited with having 

 achieved "an important change in the structure of 

 the tool." " Although change had been suggested by 

 American patentees as early as the 1820's, mass pro- 

 duction lagged until after the Civil War, and the use 

 of this new tool form was not widespread outside of 

 the United States. Hazard Knowles of Colchester, 



Connecticut, in 1827, patented a plane stock of cast 

 iron which in many respects was a prototype of later 

 Centennial models (fig. 58)." It is evident, even in 

 its earliest manifestation, that the quest for improve- 

 ment of the bench plane did not alter its sound design. 

 In 1857, M. B. Tidey (fig. 59) listed several of the 

 goals that motivated planemakers: 



First to simplify the manufacturing of planes; second to 

 render them more durable; third to retain a uniform 

 mouth; fourth to obviate their clogging; and fifth the 

 retention of the essential part of the plane when the 

 stock is worn out.'* 



15 Ibid., pp. 14, 44, 5. 

 "' Ibid., p. 13. 



1" Restored patent 4,859X1 August 24, 1827, National Ar- 

 chives, Washington, D.C. 



1^ U.S. pat. i6,88g, U.S. Patent Office, Washington, D.C. 

 The numbered specifications that follow may be found in the 

 same place. 



218 



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



