FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 



workman. With such a machine the workman con- 

 sumed no more time or effort than in manipulating 

 the more simple device, but when he had finished trac- 

 ing the pattern before him he had carved not merely 

 a single piece of wood, but perhaps eleven other dupli- 

 cate pieces equally well. Obviously such machines 

 greatly reduced the cost of mechanical carving, since 

 one operator performed the work of twelve. 



Another modification soon made it possible for very 

 unskilled workmen to do duplicate carving. In place 

 of making the guiding, or pilot tool, in the pantographic 

 series, actually perform work of cutting, this was used 

 as a dummy in the machines, merely following the sur- 

 face of a piece of carving and guiding the duplicate 

 tools. In this manner a carved model was used in 

 place of a board with the pattern outlined upon it, 

 the dummy chisel passing over every part of the sur- 

 face, causing the other chisels in the series to follow 

 the course of the pilot chisel, but cutting instead of 

 merely passing over it. 



As the result of this arrangement a skilled workman 

 was no longer required to do the carving. Given a 

 carved model, a boy could guide the dummy chisel 

 over its surface and make duplicate carvings as well 

 as a highly paid man. The carved model could be 

 used an indefinite number of times, and duplicate 

 carvings could be turned out for a very trifling sum. 



Nor was the quality of some of this machine-made 

 carving to be despised, even from the standpoint of 

 the hand-carver. By using carefully adjusted sets of 

 chisels of various sizes, almost all kinds of delicate 



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