5. John White's 



Press-Screw Manufactory 



The remarkable feature of this chapter, which 

 describes a screwcutting lathe and its operation 

 that the author first observed when he was under 

 10 years of age, is the exactness and entire plausi- 

 bility of the detailed information concerning it. 

 Within my knowledge, there exists from this 

 period no American lathe for heavy work in iron, 

 nor have I discovered any contemporary docu- 

 ment that shows a useful picture of one. For 

 example, the patent drawing of the i 798 screw- 

 cutting lathe of David Wilkinson, of Providence, 

 is a restoration, made after the Patent Office fire 

 of 1836, and in view of Wilkinson's later attempts 

 to obtain compensation from Congress for in- 

 venting a machine (the lathe) that was then in 

 wide use in government arsenals, the detailed 

 resemblance of the restored drawing to the 

 original machine is open to question. 



It should be noted that the making of large iron 

 screws was possible without either an engine 

 lathe or one like John White's, described below. 

 Records of the U.S. Mint mention the purchase 

 of screws for coining presses as early as 1792," 

 and the surviving press from this period, now on 

 display in the Philadelphia Mint, indicates that 

 a rugged screw with a long pitch and deep 

 square threads was within the capability of early 

 shops. It is probable that many of the screws 

 made at this time in Philadelphia were, like those 

 made in England, hogged out of the solid by a 

 judicious combination of cold chisel, hammer, 

 file, brawn, and skill. 



John White's shop was on Market Street, west 

 of the Permanent Bridge over the Schuylkill. 44 

 The remoteness of the location, a mile and a half 

 from the author's home, no doubt accounts for 

 Sellers visiting it only during summer vacations. 



1 remember the time when every boy must possess 

 an original Barlow knife. 45 At that time the same 

 may be said of the Southern tobacco grower and 

 cotton planter. They must have screws for their 

 presses, and these screws must be of John White's 

 make; no others would be accepted if these could be 

 obtained, not even imported screws. 



I now propose to describe, as well as I can, without 

 the help of drawings, White's mode of operating, and 

 the tools he used in making his screws. I can fix the 



13 The sum of S21 was paid to George Breining for cutting a 

 screw in 1792; $50 to Reynold and Sharpless for cutting a 

 screw and nut in 1795; an d ' n ' 797, Adam Eckfeldt built a 

 screw coining press on contract (Frank H. Stewart, History 

 of the First United States Mint, Camden, N.J., privately printed, 



'9 2 4- PP- 75. 8a . 1 79>- 

 " Philadelphia city directories give this location for John 



date at 181 6, from the fact that I watched with great 

 interest his entire process at various times during my 

 summer vacations of 1816 and 181 7. Engine lathes 

 with gearing to cut screws of various pitches were 

 unknown at that time. The screws he cut for cotton- 

 presses and paper mills were of two kinds — one called 

 the lantern head, a large globe head with holes 

 through it, crossing at right angles for wooden press 

 levers; the other with a square body slightly tapered 

 to receive a trundle or lantern wheel of four bars, 



White, blacksmith, through 1820, lending weight to Sellers's 

 impression that White died before 1821. John White, black- 

 smith, of 54 Frankford Road, appeared later, but it seems 

 likely that this was another man. 



' 5 A discursive account of the Barlow knife is in Laurence A. 

 Johnson, "The Barlow Knife," Chronicle (Early American In- 

 dustries Association), (June 1959), vol. 12, pp. 17,20. 



31 



