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diff --git a/27238-8.txt b/27238-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d5a4cf --- /dev/null +++ b/27238-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2110 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, by Peter C. Welsh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 + +Author: Peter C. Welsh + +Release Date: November 12, 2008 [EBook #27238] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODWORKING TOOLS 1600-1900 *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Greg Bergquist +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +_Cover design after engraving from Diderot._ + + + CONTRIBUTIONS FROM + THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY: + + PAPER 51 + + + + + WOODWORKING TOOLS, 1600-1900 + + _Peter C. Welsh_ + + + SPECIALIZATION 183 + + CONFIGURATION 194 + + CHANGE 214 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 227 + + _Peter C Welsh_ + + + + +WOODWORKING TOOLS + +1600-1900 + + + _This history of woodworking hand tools from the 17th to the 20th + century is one of a very gradual evolution of tools through + generations of craftsmen. As a result, the sources of changes in + design are almost impossible to ascertain. Published sources, + moreover, have been concerned primarily with the object shaped by + the tool rather than the tool itself. The resulting scarcity of + information is somewhat compensated for by collections in museums + and restorations._ + + _In this paper, the author spans three centuries in discussing the + specialization, configuration, and change of woodworking tools in + the United States._ + + THE AUTHOR: _Peter C. Welsh is curator, Growth of the United + States, in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and + Technology._ + +In 1918, PROFESSOR W.M.F. PETRIE concluded a brief article on "History +in Tools" with a reminder that the history of this subject "has yet to +be studied," and lamented the survival of so few precisely dated +specimens. What Petrie found so discouraging in studying the implements +of the ancient world has consistently plagued those concerned with tools +of more recent vintage. Anonymity is the chief characteristic of hand +tools of the last three centuries. The reasons are many: first, the tool +is an object of daily use, subjected while in service to hard wear and, +in some cases, ultimate destruction; second, a tool's usefulness is apt +to continue through many years and through the hands of several +generations of craftsmen, with the result that its origins become lost; +third, the achievement of an implement of demonstrated proficiency +dictated against radical, and therefore easily datable, changes in shape +or style; and fourth, dated survivals needed to establish a range of +firm control specimens for the better identification of unknowns, +particularly the wooden elements of tools--handles, moldings, and plane +bodies--are frustratingly few in non-arid archaeological sites. When +tracing the provenance of American tools there is the additional problem +of heterogeneous origins and shapes--that is, what was the appearance +of a given tool prior to its standardization in England and the United +States? The answer requires a brief summary of the origin of selected +tool shapes, particularly those whose form was common to both the +British Isles and the Continent in the 17th century. Beyond this, when +did the shape of English tools begin to differ from the shape of tools +of the Continent? Finally, what tool forms predominated in American +usage and when, if in fact ever, did any of these tools achieve a +distinctly American character? In the process of framing answers to +these questions, one is confronted by a constantly diminishing +literature, coupled with a steadily increasing number of tool types.[1] + +[Illustration: Figure 1.--1685: THE PRINCIPAL TOOLS that the carpenter +needed to frame a house, as listed by JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS in his _Orbis +Sensualium Pictus_ were the felling axe (4), wedge and beetle (7 and 8), +chip axe (10), saw (12), trestle (14), and pulley (15). (Charles Hoole +transl., London, 1685. _Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library_.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 2.--1685: THE BOXMAKER AND TURNER as pictured by +Comenius required planes (3 and 5), workbench (4), auger (6), knife (7), +and lathe (14). (From Johann Amos Comenius, _Orbis Sensualium Pictus. +Courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library_.)] + +The literature of the subject, both new and old, is sparse, with +interest always centering upon the object shaped by the craftsman's tool +rather than upon the tool itself. Henry Mercer's _Ancient Carpenters' +Tools_, first published in 1929, is an exception. It remains a rich +source of information based primarily on the marvelous collections +preserved by the Bucks County Historical Society. Since 1933, the Early +American Industries Association, both through collecting and through its +_Chronicle_, has called attention to the vanishing trades, their tools +and techniques; the magazine _Antiques_ has occasionally dealt with this +subject. Historians of economic and industrial development usually +neglect the tools of the woodcrafts, and when considering the +toolmakers, they have reference only to the inventors and producers of +machine tools. The dearth of written material is somewhat compensated +for by the collections of hand tools in American museums and +restorations, notably those at Williamsburg, Cooperstown, Old Sturbridge +Village, Winterthur, the Henry Ford Museum, and Shelburne; at the latter +in particular the extensive collection has been bolstered by Frank H. +Wildung's museum pamphlet, "Woodworking Tools at Shelburne Museum." +The most informative recent American work on the subject is Eric +Sloane's handsomely illustrated _A Museum of Early American Tools_, +published in 1964. Going beyond just the tools of the woodworker, +Sloane's book also includes agricultural implements. It is a delightful +combination of appreciation of early design, nostalgia, and useful fact. + +[Illustration: Figure 3.--1703: THE TOOLS OF THE JOINER illustrated by +Moxon are the workbench (A), fore plane (B. 1), jointer (B. 2), +strike-block (B. 3), smoothing plane (B. 4 and B. 7), rabbet plane (B. +5), plow (B. 6), forming chisels (C. 1 and C. 3), paring chisel (C. 2), +skew former (C. 4), mortising chisel (sec. C. 5), gouge (C. 6), square +(D), bevel (F), gauge (G), brace and bit (H), gimlet (I), auger (K), +hatchet (L), pit saw (M), whipsaw (N), frame saw (O), saw set (Q), +handsaw (unmarked), and compass saw (E). (Joseph Moxon, _Mechanick +Exercises_ ..., 3rd ed., London, 1703. Library of Congress.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 4.--1703: ONLY THE PRINCIPAL TOOLS used in +carpentry are listed by Moxon: the axe (A), adz (B), socket chisel (C), +ripping chisel (D), drawknife (E), hookpin (F), bevel (G), plumb line +(H), hammer (I), commander (K), crow (L), and jack (M). (Moxon, +_Mechanick Exercises_ ..., 1703. Library of Congress.)] + +Charles Hummel's forthcoming _With Hammer in Hand: The Dominy Craftsmen +of East Hampton_--to be published by the Yale University Press--will be +a major contribution to the literature dealing with Anglo-American +woodworking tools. Hummel's book will place in perspective Winterthur +Museum's uniquely documented Dominy Woodshop Collection. This extensive +collection of tools--over a thousand in number--is rich in attributed +and dated examples which range from the early 18th through the mid-19th +century. The literature of the subject has been greatly enhanced by the +English writer, W.L. Goodman. Extending a series of articles that first +appeared in the _Journal of The Institute of Handicraft Teachers_, +Goodman has put together a well-researched _History of Woodworking +Tools_ (London, 1964), one particularly useful for its wealth of +illustration from antiquity and the Middle Ages. + + +Specialization + +Given the limitations of precise dating, uncertain provenance, and an +uneven literature, what can be learned about woodworking tools after +1600? In some instances, design change can be noted and documented to +provide at least a general criteria for dating. Frequently, the original +appearance of tools can be documented. For some hand tools, +characteristics can be established that denote a national origin. Not +infrequently a tool's style, decorative motif, or similarity to other +objects that coexisted at a given time can suggest, even in relatively +modern times, the values of the society that produced it. The source of +such information derived from the hand tool is generally visual, +recorded in the tool itself or in pictures of it and supported by +manuscript and printed material. + +Survey the principal printed sources of the 17th, 18th, and 19th +centuries. The first thing that is apparent is a remarkable +proliferation of tool types without any significant change in the +definition and description of the carpenter's or joiner's task. Begin in +1685 with Charles Hoole's translation of Johann Amos Comenius' _Orbis +Sensualium Pictus_ for use as a Latin grammar. Among the occupations +chosen to illustrate vocabulary and usage were the carpenter (fig. 1), +the boxmaker (cabinetmaker), and the turner (fig. 2). "The Carpenter," +according to Hoole's text, "squareth Timber with a Chip ax ... and +saweth it with a Saw" while the more specialized "Box-maker, smootheth +hewen-Boards with a Plain upon a Work-board, he maketh them very smooth +with a little plain, he boarth them thorow with an Augre, carveth them +with a Knife, fasteneth them together with Glew, and Cramp-irons, and +maketh Tables, Boards, Chests &c." Hoole repeated Comenius' plates with +the result that the craftsman's tools and his work have the same +characteristic medieval flavor as the text.[2] + +Joseph Moxon in his well-quoted work on the mechanic arts defined +joinery as "an Art Manual, whereby several Pieces of Wood are so fitted +and join'd together by Straight-line, Squares, Miters or any Bevel, that +they shall seem one intire Piece." Including the workbench, Moxon +described and illustrated 30 tools (fig. 3) needed by the joiner. The +carpenter's tools were less favored by illustration; only 13 were +pictured (fig. 4). The tools that the carpenter used were the same as +those of the joiner except that the carpenter's tools were structurally +stronger. The axe serves as a good example of the difference. The +joiner's axe was light and short handled with the left side of the +cutting edge bezeled to accommodate one-handed use. The carpenter's axe, +on the other hand, was intended "to hew great Stuff" and was made deeper +and heavier to facilitate the squaring and beveling of timbers.[3] By +mid-18th century the craft of joiner and carpenter had been completely +rationalized in Diderot's _Encyclopédie_ and by André Roubo in his +_L'Art du menuisier_, a part of Duhamel's _Descriptions des arts et +métiers_. Diderot, for example, illustrates 14 bench planes alone, +generally used by the joiner (fig. 5), while Roubo suggests the steady +sophistication of the art in a plate showing the special planes and +irons required for fine molding and paneling (fig. 6). + +[Illustration: Figure 5.--1769: THE BENCH PLANES OF THE JOINER increased +in number, but in appearance they remained much the same as those +illustrated by Moxon. (Denis Diderot, _Recueil de planches sur les +science et les arts libéraux_, Paris, 1769, vol. 7, "Menuiserie." +Smithsonian photo 56630.)] + +Despite such thoroughness, without the addition of the several plates it +would be almost impossible to visualize, through the descriptive text +alone, the work of the carpenter and joiner except, of course, in modern +terms. This is particularly true of the numerous texts on building, such +as Batty Langley's _The Builder's Complete Assistant_ (1738) and Francis +Price's _The British Carpenter_ (1765), where building techniques are +well described but illustration of tools is omitted. This inadequacy +grows. In two 19th-century American editions of British works, _The Book +of Trades_, printed at Philadelphia in 1807, and Hazen's _Panorama of +the Professions and Trades_ (1838), the descriptions of the carpenter's +trade are extremely elementary. + +Thomas Martin's _Circle of the Mechanical Arts_ (1813), although far +more thorough than many texts, still defined carpentry "as the art of +cutting out, framing, and joining large pieces of wood, to be used in +building" and joinery as "small work" or what "is called by the French, +_menuiserie_." Martin enumerated 16 tools most useful to the carpenter +and 21 commonly used by the joiner; in summary, he noted, as had Moxon, +that "both these arts are subservient to architecture, being employed in +raising, roofing, flooring and ornamenting buildings of all kinds" (fig. +7).[4] + +In Peter Nicholson's _The Mechanic's Companion_ (figs. 8, 9, and 10), +the all-too-familiar definition of carpentry as "the art of employing +timber in the construction of buildings" suggests very little of the +carpenter's actual work or the improvement in tool design that had +occurred since Moxon's _Exercises_. From Nicholson's list of the tools +required by the carpenter--"a ripping saw, a hand saw, an axe, an adze, +a socket chisel, a firmer chisel, a ripping chisel, an auguer, a gimlet, +a hammer, a mallet, a pair of pincers, and sometimes planes"--there +would seem at first glance slight advance since the 1600's. The +enumeration of the joiner's tools, however, indicates a considerable +proliferation, particularly when compared to earlier writers. By the +early 19th century, the more refined work of joinery required over 50 +tools. + + The bench planes [instructed Nicholson] are, the jack plane, the + fore plane, the trying plane, the long plane, the jointer, and the + smoothing plane; the cylindric plane, the compass and forkstaff + planes; the straight block, for straightening short edges. Rebating + planes are the moving fillister, the sash fillister, the common + rebating plane, the side rebating plane. Grooving planes are the + plough and dado grooving planes. Moulding planes are sinking + snipebills, side snipebills, beads, hollows and rounds, ovolos and + ogees. Boring tools are: gimlets, bradawls, stock, and bits. + Instruments for dividing the wood, are principally the ripping saw, + the half ripper, the hand saw, the panel saw, the tenon saw, the + carcase saw, the sash saw, the compass saw, the keyhole saw, and + turning saw. Tools used for forming the angles of two adjoining + surfaces, are squares and bevels. Tools used for drawing parallel + lines are gauges. Edge tools are the firmer chisel, the mortise + chisel, the socket chisel, the gouge, the hatchet, the adze, the + drawing knife. Tools for knocking upon wood and iron are, the + mallet and hammer. Implements for sharpening tools are the grinding + stone, the rub stone, and the oil or whet stone.[5] + +Reflecting what the text writers listed, toolmakers by the end of the +18th century gave buyers a wide choice. The catalogue of Sheffield's +Castle Hill Works offered 20 combinations of ready-stocked tool chests; +the simplest contained 12 carpenter's tools and the most complex, 39, +plus, if desired, an additional assortment of gardening implements (fig. +11). In 1857, the Arrowmammett Works of Middletown, Connecticut, +producers of bench and molding planes, published an illustrated +catalogue that offered 34 distinct types that included everything from +hollows and rounds to double jointers and hand-rail planes (fig. +12).[6] + +[Illustration: Figure 6.--1774: ANDRÉ ROUBO'S _L'Art du menuisier_ +contains detailed plates and descriptions of the most specialized of +woodworking planes: those used to cut panel moldings. The conformation +of these tools was still distinctly in keeping with the Moxon type and +suggests that, at least in Europe, no remarkable change had yet occurred +in the shape of planes. (André-Jacob Roubo, _L'Art du menuisier_: +Troisième partie, troisième section, l'art du menuisier ébéniste [Paris, +1774]. Smithsonian photo 49790-D.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 7.--1813: THOMAS MARTIN ILLUSTRATED ON ONE PLATE +the tools of the carpenter and joiner dividing them as follows: the +tools most useful to the carpenter, the axe (7), adz (6), saw (24), +socket chisel (13), firmer chisel (5), auger (1), gimlet (3), gauge +(16), square (9), compass (36), hammer (21), mallet (22), hookpin (11), +crow (12), plumb rule (18), and level (19); and the tools most often +associated with joinery, the jack plane (30), trying plane (31), +smoothing plane (34), tenon saw (25), compass saw (26), keyhole saw +(27), square (8), bevel (23), gauge (17), mortise chisel (4), gouge +(14), turnscrew (15), plow plane (29), molding plane (35), pincers (37), +bradawl (10), stock and bit (2), sidehook (20), workbench (28), and rule +(38). The planes are of particular interest since they show clearly a +change in form from those previously illustrated. (Thomas Martin, _The +Circle of the Mechanical Arts_, London, 1813.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 8.--1832: PETER NICHOLSON ILLUSTRATED an +interesting mixture of old and new forms. An updating of Moxon, +Nicholson's carpenter required an axe (1), adz (2), socket chisel (3), +mortise and tenon gauge (4), square (5), plumb rule (6), level (7), +auger (8), hookpin (9), and crow (10). (Peter Nicholson, _The Mechanic's +Companion_. 1st American ed., Philadelphia, 1832. Smithsonian photo +56633.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 9.--1832: THE WORKBENCH DELINEATED BY NICHOLSON +was little improved over Moxon's, although the planes--jack (1), trying +plane (2), smoothing plane (3), sash fillister (7), and plow +(8)--followed the form seen in Martin (fig. 7). The inception of this +shape occurred in the shops of Sheffield toolmakers in the last half of +the 18th century, and it persisted until replaced by metallic versions +patented by American innovators during the last quarter of the 19th +century. (Nicholson, _The Mechanic's Companion_. Smithsonian photo +56631.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 10.--1832: THE BRACE AND BIT, GIMLET, CHISELS, AND +SAWS, having achieved a standard form distinctly different than those of +Moxon's vintage, were, like the plane, slow to change. The metallic +version of the brace did not replace the standard Sheffield type (1) in +the United States until after 1850. For all intent and purpose the saw +still retains the characteristics illustrated in Nicholson. Of interest +is Nicholson's comment regarding the saws; namely, that the double +handle was peculiar to the hand (6) and tenon saws (7), while the +compass (9) and the sash saws (8) had the single handle. In addition the +tenon saw was generally backed in iron and the sash saw in brass. +(Nicholson, _The Mechanic's Companion_. Smithsonian photo 56632.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 11.--EARLY 19TH CENTURY: THE ADVERTISEMENTS OF +TOOLMAKERS indicated the diversity of production. The Castle Hill Works +at Sheffield offered to gentlemen 20 choices of tool chests designed to +appeal to a wide variety of users and purses. The chest was available in +either oak or mahogany, depending on the gentleman's tastes (fig. 49). +(Book 87, Cutler and Company, Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. _Courtesy of +the Victoria and Albert Museum_.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 12.--1857: THE DIVERSITY OF TOOLS available to +buyers made necessary the illustrated trade catalogue. Although few in +number in the United States before 1850, tool catalogues became +voluminous in the last half of the century as printing costs dropped. +(Smithsonian Institution Library. Smithsonian photo 49790.)] + +American inventories reflect the great increase suggested by the early +technical writers and trade catalogues cited above. Compare the content +of two American carpenters' shops--one of 1709, in York County, +Virginia, and the other of 1827, in Middleborough, Massachusetts. John +Crost, a Virginian, owned, in addition to sundry shoemaking and +agricultural implements, a dozen gimlets, chalklines, bung augers, a +dozen turning tools and mortising chisels, several dozen planes (ogees, +hollows and rounds, and plows), several augers, a pair of 2-foot rules, +a spoke shave, lathing hammers, a lock saw, three files, compasses, +paring chisels, a jointer's hammer, three handsaws, filling axes, a +broad axe, and two adzes. Nearly 120 years later Amasa Thompson listed +his tools and their value. Thompson's list is a splendid comparison of +the tools needed in actual practice, as opposed to the tools suggested +by Nicholson in his treatise on carpentry or those shown in the +catalogues of the toolmakers.[7] Thompson listed the following: + + 1 set bench planes $6.00 + + 1 Broad Axe 3.00 + + 1 Adze 2.25 + + 1 Panel saw 1.50 + + 1 Panel saw 1.58 + + 1 fine do-- 1.58 + + 1 Drawing knife .46 + + 1 Trying square .93 + + 1 Shingling hatchet .50 + + 1 Hammer .50 + + 1 Rabbit plane .83 + + 1 Halving do .50 + + 1 Backed fine saw 1.25 + + 1 Inch augre .50 + + 1 pr. dividers or compasses-- .71 + + 1 Panel saw for splitting 2.75 + + 1 Tennon gauge 1.42 + + 1 Bevel .84 + + 1 Bradd Hammer .50 + + 1 _Architect Book_ 6.50 + + 1 Case Mathematical Instruments 3.62-1/2 + + 1 Panel saw 2.75 + + 1 Grafting saw 1.00 + + 1 Bench screw 1.00 + + 1 Stamp 2.50 + + 1 Double joint rule .62-1/2 + + 1 Sash saw 1.12-1/2 + + 1 Oil Can .17 + + 1 Brace & 36 straw cold bits 9.00 + + 1 Window Frame tool 4.00 + + 1 Blind tool 1.33 + + 1 Glue Kettle .62-1/2 + + 1 Grindstone without crank 1.75 + + 1 Machine for whetting saws .75 + + 1 Tennoning machine 4.50 + + Drafting board and square Bevel-- 1.25 + + 1 Noseing sash plane with templets & copes 4.50 + + 1 pr. clamps for clamping doors 2.17 + + 1 Set Bench Planes--double irons.-- 7.50 + + 1 Grindstone 300 lbs @ 6.25 + + 1 Stove for shop--$7.25, one elbow .37 & 40 + lbs second hand pipe $4.00 11.62 + + 1 Bed moulding 2.00 + + 1 Pr. shears for cutting tin.-- .17 + + 1 Morticing Machine 10.75 + + 1 Grecian Ovilo 1.13 + + 1-3/16 beed .67 + + 1 Spirit level 2.25 + + 1 Oil stone .42 + + 1 Small trying square .48 + + 1 pareing chisel .37 + + 1 Screw driver .29 + + 1 Bench screw .75 + + 1 Box rule .50 + + 1-3/4 Augre .41 + + 11 Gouges 1.19 + + 13 Chisels 1.17 + + 1 small iron vice .52 + + 1 pr. Hollow Rounds .86 + + 4 Framing chisels 1.05 + + 1 Grove plough & Irons--Sold at 4.50 5.00 + + 1 Sash plane for 1-1/4 stuff 1.50 + + 1 Copeing plane .67 + + 1 Bead 1/4-- .75 + + 1 Bead 3/4 1.00 + + 1 Rabbit (Sold at .92) .92 + + 1 Smooth plane 1.50 + + 1 Strike Block .92 + + 1 Compass saw .42 + + 6 Gauges 1.83 + + 1 Dust brush .25 + + 1 Rasp, or wood file .25 + + 1 Augre 2 in. .76 + + 1 Augre 1 in. .40 + + 1 Do 3/4 .30 + + 1 Spoke shave .50 + + 1 Bevel-- .25 + + 1 Box rule .84 + + 1 Iron square 1.42 + + 1 Box rule 1.25 + + 1 Spur Rabbit (Sold--1.17) 1.33 + + 1 Pannel plane 1.25 + + 1 Sash plane 1.25 + + 1 pr. Match planes 2.25 + + 1 Two inch chisel or firmer-- .42 + + 1 Morticing chisel 3/8 .25 + + 1 Large screw driver 1.00 + + 1 Pr. small clamps .50 + + 1 pr. Spring dividers .92 + + 1 do-nippers .20 + + 1 Morticing chisel 1/2 in. .28 + + 1 Ovilo & Ostrigal 3/4-- 1.25 + + 1 Scotia & Ostrigal 5/8-- 1.08 + + 1 Noseing-- 1.08 + + 1 Pr. Hollow & rounds 1.33 + + 1 Ogee-- 1/2 inch 1.00 + + 1 Ostrigal 7/8 inch 1.00 + + 1 Bit-- .15 + + 1 Beed 1/2 inch .83 + + 1 Claw hammer .67 + + 1 Fillister 2.50 + + 2 Beeds at 5/8 1.83 + + 1 Pair Quirk tools 1.50 + + 1 Side Rabbit plane .83 + + 1 Large steel tongued sq. 1.71 + + 1 Saw & Pad .67 + + 1 pr. fire stones .50 + + 1 small trying sq. .50 + + 1 Set Bench planes double ironed without + smooth plane 6.00 + + 1 Bench screw .75 + +[Illustration: Figure 13.--EARLY 18TH CENTURY: In addition to their +special function and importance as survivals documenting an outmoded +technology, the hand tool often combines a gracefulness of line and a +sense of proportion that makes it an object of great decorative appeal. +The dividers of the builder or shipwright illustrated here are of French +origin and may be valued as much for their cultural significance as for +their technical importance. (Smithsonian photo 49792-G.)] + +By 1900, the carpenter's tool chest, fully stocked and fit for the +finest craftsman, contained 90 or more tools. Specialization is readily +apparent; the change in, and achievement of, the ultimate design of a +specific tool is not so easily pinpointed. Only by comparing +illustrations and surviving examples can such an evolution be +appreciated and in the process, whether pondering the metamorphosis of a +plane, a brace and bit, or an auger, the various stages of change +encountered coincide with the rise of modern industrial society. + +[Illustration: Figure 14.--1688: FRONTISPIECE FROM JOHN BROWN, _The +Description and Use of the Carpenter's Rule_, London, 1688. (Library of +Congress.)] + + +Configuration + +Hand tools are often neglected in the search for the pleasing objects of +the past. Considered too utilitarian, their decorative appeal--the +mellow patina of the wood plane or the delicately tapered legs of a pair +of dividers--often goes unnoticed. Surprisingly modern in design, the +ancient carpenter's or cabinetmaker's tool has a vitality of line that +can, without reference to technical significance, make it an object of +considerable grace and beauty. The hand tool is frequently a lively and +decorative symbol of a society at a given time--a symbol, which, +according to the judges at London's Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851, +gives "indications of the peculiar condition and habits of the people +whence they come, of their social and industrial wants and aims, as well +as their natural or acquired advantages."[8] The hand tool, therefore, +should be considered both as an object of appealing shape and a document +illustrative of society and its progress. + +[Illustration: Figure 15.--18TH CENTURY: Cabinetmaker's dividers of +English origin. (Private collection. Smithsonian photo 49789-B.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 16.--1783: CABINETMAKER'S dividers of English +manufacture, dated, and marked T. Pearmain. See detail, figure 17. +(Smithsonian photo 49792-C.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 17.--1783: DETAIL OF CABINETMAKER'S DIVIDERS +showing name and date.] + +[Illustration: Figure 18.--18TH CENTURY: Carpenter's dividers of English +origin, undated. (Smithsonian photo 49792-B.)] + +On first sight, it is the conformation rather than any facet of its +technical or social significance that strikes the eye; perhaps the most +decorative of tools are early dividers and calipers which, prior to +their standardization, existed in seemingly endless variety. The great +dividers used by the shipbuilder and architect for scribing and +measuring timbers not only indicate building techniques (accession +61.548) but also document 17th-and early 18th-century decorative +metalwork, as seen in figure 13. Well before the 17th century, artists +and engravers recognized them as intriguing shapes to include in any +potpourri of instruments, either in cartouches or the frontispieces of +books (fig. 14). + +[Illustration: Figure 19.--1855: THE FRONTISPIECE FROM EDWARD SHAW, _The +Modern Architect_ (Boston, 1855), shows the carpenter's dividers in the +foreground unchanged in form from those illustrated in figure 18. Of +further interest in Shaw's plate is the dress of the workmen and the +balloon frame of the house under construction. (Smithsonian photo +49792-A.)] + +The two pairs of cabinetmaker's dividers illustrated in figures 15 and +16 suggest significant changes in the design of a basic tool. The +dividers shown in figure 15 are English and would seem to be of early +18th-century origin, perhaps even earlier. They are Renaissance in +feeling with decorated legs and a heart-shaped stop on the end of the +slide-arm. In character, they are like the great dividers shown in +figure 13: functional, but at the same time preserving in their +decoration the features common to a wide variety of ironwork and wares +beyond the realm of tools alone. The dividers pictured in figure 16 are +a decided contrast. Dated 1783, they are strongly suggestive of +Sheffield origin. Gone is the superfluous decoration; in its place is +the strong, crisp line of a tool that has reached nearly the ultimate of +function and manufacture, a device which both in general appearance and +precise design is very modern in execution. Equally intriguing are the +smaller, more slender dividers (accession 319557) of the 18th-century +house-builder as seen in figure 18, a form that changed very little, if +at all, until after 1850--a fact confirmed by the frontispiece of Edward +Shaw's _The Modern Architect_, published in Boston in 1855 (fig. 19). +The double calipers of the woodturner (fig. 20) have by far the most +appealing and ingenious design of all such devices. Designed for +convenience, few tools illustrate better the aesthetic of the purely +functional than this pair of 19th-century American calipers. + +[Illustration: Figure 20.--EARLY 19TH CENTURY: THE DOUBLE CALIPERS of +the woodturner permitted double readings to be taken without changing +the set of the tool. Inherent in this practical design is a gracefulness +of line seldom surpassed. (Private collection. Smithsonian photo +49793-C.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 21.--1704: THE FLOOR PLANE OR LONG JOINER of +Norwegian origin exhibits the characteristic decoration of the stock and +mouth, patterns common on tools of northern European and Scandinavian +origin. (_Courtesy of the Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, Norway._)] + +Intended to establish proportion and to insure precision, it seems a +natural consequence that dividers and calipers should in themselves +reflect the same sense of balance and grace that they were designed to +govern. Still, even the most prosaic examples of woodworking tools, +completely divorced from the quasi-mathematical devices of measure and +proportion, have this quality and can be admired solely as decorative +objects. This is most evident in the three European bench planes +illustrated in figures 21, 22, and 23: one Norwegian, dated 1704; one +Dutch (accession 319562), dated 1756; and one German, dated 1809. The +Norwegian and German examples, with their elaborately carved bodies and +heart-shaped mouths, are typical of the type that Swedish and German +colonists in America might have used in the 17th and 18th centuries. +They are important for that reason. Also, all three exhibit elaboration +found on other material survivals from these countries in their +respective periods. For example, the incised rosette of the Dutch plane +(fig. 22) is especially suggestive of the rosettes found on English and +American furniture of the 1750's and 1760's, specifically on high +chests. + +The decorative motifs that characterized European tools of the 17th and +18th centuries obscured technical improvement. By contrast, in England +and America, tools gained distinction through the directness of their +design. Following English patterns, tools of American make were +straightforward. Only later, in new tool types, did they imitate the +rococo flourish of their European predecessors. In America, as in +England, the baroque for things functional seemingly had little appeal. +This is particularly true of woodworking planes on which, unlike their +continental cousins, embellishment is rarely seen. Exemplifying this +tradition are three early 19th-century American planes: a plow, for +cutting channels of various widths on board edges, marked "G. White, +Philda" (fig. 24); a rabbet, for notching the margin of boards; made +by E.W. Carpenter of Lancaster, Pennsylvania (fig. 25); and a jack or +foreplane, for rough surfacing (accession 61.547), made by A. Klock and +dated 1818 as seen in figure 26. + +[Illustration: Figure 22.--1756: THE HIGHLY elaborated stock and +rosette-incised wedge of the smoothing plane recall the decoration on +furniture of the period. The plane is of Dutch origin. (Smithsonian +photo 49792-F.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 23.--1809: THIS BENCH PLANE of German origin is +dated 1809. It is of a traditional form that persists to the present +day. The planes pictured in figures 21, 22, and 23 are similar to the +type brought to North America by non-English colonists. (Private +collection. Smithsonian photo 49793-F.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 24.--ABOUT 1818: This plow plane, used to cut +narrow channels on the edges of boards, was made by G. White of +Philadelphia in the early 19th century. It is essentially the same tool +depicted in the catalogues of Sheffield manufactures and in the plates +from Martin and Nicholson. The pattern of the basic bench tools used in +America consistently followed British design, at least until the last +quarter of the 19th century. (Private collection. Smithsonian photo +49794-E.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 25. 1830-1840: THE DESIGN OF the rabbet plane, +used to cut a groove of fixed width and depth on the edge of a board, +was not improved upon in the 19th century. The carpenter's dependence on +this tool lessened only after the perfection of multipurpose metallic +planes that could be readily converted to cut a "rabbet." (Private +collection. Smithsonian photo 494789-H).] + +The question of dating arises, since only the Klock piece is firmly +fixed. How, for example, is the early 19th-century attribution arrived +at for the planes inscribed White and Carpenter? First, the nature of +the stamped name "G. White" is of proper character for the period. +Second, G. White is listed in the Philadelphia city directories as a +"plane-maker" between the years 1818 and 1820, working at the back of 5 +Filbert Street and later at 34 Juliana Street. Third, internal evidence +on the plane itself gives a clue. In this case, the hardware--rivets and +furrels--is similar if not identical to that found on firearms of the +period, weapons whose dates of manufacture are known. The decorative +molding on the fence of this plane is proper for the period; this is not +a reliable guide, however, since similar moldings are retained +throughout the century. Finally, the plane is equipped with a fence +controlled by slide-arms, fixed with wedges and not by adjustable screw +arms. After 1830, tools of high quality, such as White's, invariably +have the screw arms. The rabbet plane, made by Carpenter, is traceable +via another route, the U.S. Patent Office records. Carpenter, +self-designated "toolmaker of Lancaster," submitted patents for the +improvement of wood planes between 1831 and 1849. Examples of +Carpenter's work, always stamped as shown in figure 27, survive, both +dated and undated. There are several of his planes in the collections of +the Bucks County Historical Society, and dated pieces are known in +private collections. + +Inherent in the bench planes is a feeling of motion, particularly in the +plow and the rabbet where basic design alone conveys the idea that they +were meant to move over fixed surfaces. Of the three examples, only the +brass tippings and setscrew of the plow plane suggest any enrichment, +and of course these were not intended for decoration; in later years, +however, boxwood, fruitwood, and even ivory tips were added to the more +expensive factory models. Also unintentional, but pleasing, is the +distinctive throat of the rabbet plane--a design that developed to +permit easy discharge of shavings, and one that mass manufacture did +not destroy. + +[Illustration: Figure 26.--1818: THE JACK PLANE, used first by the +carpenter for rapid surfacing, is distinguished primarily by the bezeled +and slightly convex edge of its cutting iron. As with the plow and the +rabbet, its shape is ubiquitous. Dated and marked A. Klock, this +American example follows precisely those detailed in Sheffield pattern +books. (Smithsonian photo 49794-C.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 27.--1830-1840: DETAIL OF the rabbet plane (fig. +25) showing the characteristic stamp of E.W. Carpenter. (Smithsonian +photo 49794-D.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 28.--ABOUT 1631: THE PRECEDING ILLUSTRATIONS +emphasize the divergent appearance of European and Anglo-American tools. +This, however, was not always the case. The woodworker's shop by the +Dutch engraver Jan Van Vliet suggests the similarity between English and +European tool types in the 17th century. Note in particular the planes, +axe, brace, and auger as compared to Moxon. (Library of Congress, +Division of Prints and Photographs.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 29.--1690: THE CABINETMAKER'S SHOP from Elias +Pozelius, _Orbus Pictus nach Zeichnugen der Susanna Maria_ _Sandrart_, +Nürnberg, 1690. (Library of Congress.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 30.--1568: THE WOODWORKER'S SHOP from Hans Sachs, +_Eygentliche Beschrerbung Aller Stande ... mit Kunstreichen Figuren_ [by +Jost Amman], Frankfurt, 1568. (Library of Congress.)] + +The divergence from European to an Anglo-American hand-tool design and +the approximate date that it occurred can be suggested by a comparison +of contemporary illustrations. The change in the wooden bench plane can +be followed from the early 17th century through its standardization at +the end of the 18th century. Examine first the planes as drawn in the +1630's by the Dutchman Jan Van Vliet (fig. 28), an etcher of Rembrandt's +school at Leiden, and also the examples illustrated by Porzelius (fig. +29) and by Jost Amman (fig. 30). Compare them to Moxon's plate (fig. 31) +from the _Mechanick Exercises_ (3rd ed., 1703) and to the splendid +drawing of the bench plane from André-Jacob Roubo's _L'Art du +menuisier_, published in 1769 (fig. 32). In all of them, the rounded +handle, or tote, and the fore-horn appear, characteristics of both +European and English planes of the period before 1750. The similarity +ends with the mass production of hand tools from the shops of the +English toolmaking centers, principally Sheffield. An illustration from +a pattern and design book of the Castle Hill Works, Sheffield, dating +from the last quarter of the 18th century (fig. 33), shows the achieved, +familiar form of the bench planes, as well as other tools. The use of +this form in America is readily documented in Lewis Miller's +self-portrait while working at his trade in York, Pennsylvania, in 1810 +(fig. 34) and by the shop sign carved by Isaac Fowle in 1820 for John +Bradford (fig. 35). In each example, the bench plane clearly follows the +English prototype. + +[Illustration: Figure 31.--1703: DETAIL OF THE BENCH PLANES from Moxon's +_Mechanick Exercises_.] + +[Illustration: Figure 32.--1769: ANDRÉ-JACOB ROUBO'S PRECISE RENDERING +of the bench plane retains the essential features shown by Moxon--the +rounded tote or handle and the curved fore-horn. (André-Jacob Roubo, +_L'Art du menuisier_, 1769.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 33.--EARLY 19TH CENTURY: The bench plane +illustrated in Roubo or Moxon is seldom seen in American tool +collections. The bench planes, smoothing planes, rabbets, and plows +universally resemble those shown in this illustration from the pattern +book of the Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. (Book 87, Cutler and Company, +Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. _Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert +Museum._)] + +[Illustration: Figure 34.--ABOUT 1810: LEWIS MILLER WORKING AT HIS BENCH +in York, Pa. In a predominantly Pennsylvania-German settlement, the +plane used by Miller conforms to the Sheffield type illustrated in the +catalogue of the Castle Hill Works as shown in figure 33. (York County +Historical Society, York, Pa.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 35.--1820: JOHN BRADFORD'S shop sign carved by +Isaac Fowle is a unique documentary of early 19th-century tool shapes +and is in the Bostonian Society, Boston, Mass. (Index of American +Design, The National Gallery, Washington, D.C.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 36.--1703: THE JOINER'S brace and bit--a detail +from Moxon, _Mechanick Exercises_ ..., London, 1703. (Library of +Congress, Smithsonian photo 56635.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 37.--1769: ROUBO'S ILLUSTRATION OF THE BRACE and +bit differs from Moxon's only in the precision of the delineation. +Contrast this form with that of the standard Sheffield version in figure +38 and the metallic braces illustrated in figures 40 through 44. From +these plates can be seen the progression of the bitstock toward its +ultimate perfection in the late 19th century. (André-Jacob Roubo, _L'Art +du menuisier_, 1769.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 38.--EARLY 19TH CENTURY: THE MASS-PRODUCED VERSION +of the wooden brace and bit took the form illustrated in Book 87 of +Cutler's Castle Hill Works. (_Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert +Museum._)] + +[Illustration: Figure 39.--18TH CENTURY: THE TRANSITIONAL FORM of the +wooden brace and bit incorporated the overall shape of the mass-produced +version but retained the archaic method of fastening the bit to the +chuck. The tool is of Dutch origin and suggests the influence of +Sheffield design on European tools. (Smithsonian photo 49792-E.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 40.--1769: ROUBO ILLUSTRATED THE METALLIC BRACE +and, in addition, suggested its use as a screwdriver. (André-Jacob +Roubo, _L'Art du menuisier_,1769.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 41.--ABOUT 1775: FORD, WHITMORE AND BRUNTON made +and sold clockmaker's braces of metal with a sweep and shank that was +imitated by American patentees in the 19th century. (Catalogue of Ford, +Whitmore and Brunton, Birmingham, England. _Courtesy of the Birmingham +Reference Library._)] + +[Illustration: Figure 42.--1852: NEARLY ONE HUNDRED YEARS after Roubo's +plate appeared, Jacob Switzer applied for a patent for an "Improved Self +Holding Screw Driver." The similarity of Switzer's drawing and Roubo's +plate is striking. (Original patent drawing 9,457, U.S. Patent Office, +Record Group 241, the National Archives.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 43.--1866: THE SIMPLICITY AND STRENGTH of the +brace proposed by J. Parker Gordon is in sharp contrast to the heavily +splinted 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.)] + +[Illustration: 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.)] + +The carpenter's brace is another instance of divergent design after a +common origin. Refer again to Van Vliet's etching of the woodworker's +shop (fig. 28), to the detail from Moxon (fig. 36), and from Roubo (fig. +37). All show the brace in a form familiar since the Middle Ages, a +shape common to both delineators and craftsmen of the Continent and the +British Isles. But, as the plane changed, so changed the brace. 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 surprise, 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 Bettle +heads, and Iron-wedges." + +[Illustration: Figure 45.--19TH CENTURY: THE UPHOLSTERER'S HAMMER is an +unknown; it is not dated, its maker is anonymous, as is its user. It is +of American origin, yet of a style that might have been used in England +or on the Continent. This lack of provenance need not detract from its +significance as a material survival. This hammer, the brace (fig. 46), +the bevel (fig. 47), and the compass saw (fig. 48) are sufficiently +provocative in their design to conjure some image of a technology +dependent upon the skilled hand of craftsmen working in wood and of the +relationship between the hand, the tool, and the finished product. +(Smithsonian photo 49793-A.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 46.--18TH CENTURY: THE BRACE AND BIT in its +nonfactory form conforms to a general design pattern in which none of +the components are ever precisely alike. This aspect of variety of +detail--sophistication, crudeness, decorative qualities or the +like--reflects something of the individuality of the toolmaker, a +quality completely lost in the standardization of the carpenter's brace. +(Smithsonian photo 49794-A.)] + +English tool design in the 18th century also influenced the continental +toolmakers. This can be seen in figure 39 in a transitional-type +bitstock (accession 319556) from the Low Countries. Adopting an 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 +manufacture. No less a contrast are metallic versions of the brace. +These begin to appear with some regularity 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 +1769, 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 Switzer's idea was +his delineation of the brace itself, which he described as "an ordinary +brace and bit stock" (U.S. pat. 9,457). The inference is that such a +tool form was already a familiar one among the woodworking trades in the +United States. Disregarding the screwdriver attachment, which is not +without merit, Switzer's stock represents an accurate rendering of what +was then a well-known form if not as yet a rival of the older wooden +brace. Likewise, J. Parker Gordon's patent 52,042 of 1866 exemplifies +the strengthening of a basic tool by the use of iron (fig. 43) and, as a +result, the achievement of an even greater functionalism in design. The +complete break with the medieval, however, is seen in a drawing +submitted to the Commissioner of Patents in 1865 (pat. 51,660) by Milton +V. Nobles of Rochester, New York.[9] Nobles' creation was of thoroughly +modern design and appearance in which, unlike earlier types, the bit was +held in place by a solid socket, split sleeve, and a tightening ring +(fig. 44). In three centuries, three distinct design changes occurred in +the carpenter's brace. First, about 1750, the so-called English or +Sheffield bitstock appeared. This was followed in the very early 19th +century by the reinforced English type whose sides were splinted by +brass strips. Not only had the medieval form largely disappeared by the +end of the 18th century, but so had the ancient lever-wedge method of +fastening the bit in the stock, a device replaced by the pressure-spring +button on the side of the chuck. Finally, in this evolution, came the +metallic stock, not widely used in America until after the Civil War, +that embodied in its design the influence of mass manufacture and in its +several early versions all of the features of the modern brace and bit. + +[Illustration: Figure 47.--18TH CENTURY: The visually pleasing qualities +of walnut and brass provide a level of response to this joiner's bevel +quite apart from its technical significance. (Private collection. +Smithsonian photo 49793-B.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 48.--18TH CENTURY: THE HANDLE OF THE COMPASS SAW, +characteristically Dutch in shape, is an outstanding example of a +recurring functional design, one which varied according to the hand of +the sawer. (Smithsonian photo 49789-C.)] + +Henry Ward Beecher, impressed by the growing sophistication of the +toolmakers, described the hand tool in a most realistic and objective +manner as an "extension of a man's hand." The antiquarian, attuned to +more subjective and romantic appraisals, will find this hardly +sufficient. Look at the upholsterer's hammer (accession 61.35) seen in +figure 45: there is no question that it is a response to a demanding +task that required an efficient and not too forceful extension of the +workman's hand. But there is another response to this implement: namely, +the admiration for an unknown toolmaker who combined in an elementary +striking tool a hammerhead of well-weighted proportion to be wielded +gently through the medium of an extremely delicate handle. In short, +here is an object about whose provenance one need know very little in +order to enjoy it aesthetically. In a like manner, the 18th-century +bitstock of Flemish origin (fig. 46), the English cabinetmaker's bevel +of the same century (fig. 47), and the compass saw (accession 61.52, +fig. 48) capture in their basic design something beyond the functional +extension of the craftsman's hand. The slow curve of the bitstock, never +identical from one early example to another, is lost in later +factory-made versions; so too, with the coming of cheap steel, does the +combination of wood (walnut) and brass used in the cabinetmaker's bevel +slowly disappear; and, finally, in the custom-fitted pistol-like grip of +the saw, there is an identity, in feeling at least, between craftsman +and tool never quite achieved in later mass-produced versions. + +[Illustration: Figure 49.--EARLY 19TH CENTURY: THE DESIGNATION +"GENTLEMAN'S TOOL CHEST" required a chest of "high-style" but +necessitated no change in the tools it held. (Book 87, Cutler and +Company, Castle Hill Works, Sheffield. _Courtesy of the Victoria and +Albert Museum_.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 50.--19TH CENTURY: THE SCREWDRIVER, which began to +appear regularly on the woodworker's bench after 1800, did not share the +long evolution and tradition of other Anglo-American tool designs. The +screwdriver in its early versions frequently had a scalloped blade for +no other purpose than decoration. (Smithsonian photo 49794.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 51.--1870: THE USE of a new material prompted a +departure from the traditional in shape and encouraged surface +elaboration. The tendency, however, was short lived and the +mass-produced metallic plane rapidly achieved a purity of design as +pleasing as its wooden predecessors. (Private collection. Smithsonian +photo 49789.)] + +Occasionally, ruling taste is reflected in the design of the carpenter's +equipment. Notable is the "gentleman's tool chest" (fig. 49) advertised +in the pattern book of the Castle Hill Works. The bracket feet, brass +pulls, and inlaid keyholes imitate the style of the domestic chest of +drawers of the period 1790 to 1810--undoubtedly, features included by +the manufacturer to appeal to a gentleman of refined taste. In contrast +to this Sheffield product is the plate from Shaw's _The Modern +Architect_. The concept of the builder-carpenter as a gentleman still +prevails, although the idea in this American scene is conveyed in the +mid-19th century through fashionable dress. The tools and in particular +the tool chest reflect only the severest of functional lines (fig. 19, +p. 196). + +In deference to ruling taste, some tools lost for a time the clean lines +that had long distinguished them. The screwdriver, simple in shape +(accession 61.46) but in little demand until the 1840's, occasionally +became most elaborate in its factory-made form (fig. 50) and departed +noticeably from the unadorned style of traditional English and American +tools. The scalloped blade, influenced by the rival styles rather than a +technical need, seemed little related to the purpose of the tool.[10] +No less archaic in decoration was the iron-bodied version of the plow +plane (fig. 51). The Anglo-American tradition seems completely put +aside. In its place is a most functional object, but one elaborately +covered with a shell and vine motif! Patented in 1870 by Charles Miller +and manufactured by the Stanley Rule and Level Company, this tool in its +unadorned version is of a type that was much admired by the British +experts at Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition in 1876. What prompted +such superfluous decoration on the plow plane? Perhaps it was to appeal +to the flood of newly arrived American craftsmen who might find in the +rococo something reminiscent of the older tools they had known in +Europe. Perhaps it was simply the transference to the tool itself of the +decorative work then demanded of the wood craftsmen. Or was it mainly a +compulsion to dress, with little effort, a lackluster material that +seemed stark and cold to Victorians accustomed to the ornateness being +achieved elsewhere with the jigsaw and wood? Whatever the cause, the +result did not persist long as a guide to hand-tool design. Instead, the +strong, plain lines that had evolved over two centuries won universal +endorsement at the Centennial Exhibition. The prize tools reflected +little of the ornateness apparent in the wares of most of the other +exhibitors. American makers of edge tools exhibiting at the Centennial +showed the world not only examples of quality but of attractiveness as +well. + +[Illustration: Figure 52.--19TH CENTURY: THE AMERICAN AXE WAS UNEXCELLED +in design and ease of use. European observers praised it as distinctly +American. At the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 Collins and Company of +New York City was singled out as one of the outstanding manufacturers +exhibiting these axes, a reputation that persisted. (_Tools for all +Trades_, Hammacher, Schlemmer and Company, New York, 1896. Smithsonian +photo 56625.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 53.--1876: DISSTON AND SONS LONG CONTINUED to +remind prospective buyers of the company's success at the Philadelphia +Centennial Exhibition by retaining the "Centennial Saw, No. 76" as a +brand name. (_Illustrated Catalogue_, Baldwin, Robbins and Company, +Boston, 1894. Smithsonian photo 56627.)] + + +Change + +American hand tools in 1876 did not achieve the popular acclaim accorded +the Corliss engine, yet few products shown by American exhibitors were +more highly praised by foreign experts. It seems justified to suggest +that American edge tools displayed at the Centennial had reached their +high point of development--a metamorphosis that began with the medieval +European tool forms, moved through a period of reliance on English +precedents, and ended, in the last quarter of the 19th century, with the +production of American hand tools "occupying an enviable position before +the world."[11] + +[Illustration: Figure 54.--1809: THE INTRODUCTION of the gimlet-pointed +auger followed Ezra L'Hommedieu's patent of 1809. From this date until +its general disuse in the early 20th century, the conformation of the +tool remained unchanged, although the quality of steel and the precision +of the twist steadily improved. (Wash drawing from the restored patent +drawings awarded July 31, 1809, U.S. Patent Office, Record Group 241, +the National Archives. Smithsonian photo 49790-A.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 55.--1855: RUSSELL JENNINGS' improved auger bits, +first patented in 1855, received superior citation at the Philadelphia +Centennial; in the years following, the trade name "Jennings" was seldom +omitted from trade catalogues. (Original wash drawing, patent drawing +submitted by R. Jennings, U.S. Patent Office, Record Group 241, the +National Archives.)] + +The tool most highly praised at Philadelphia was the American felling +axe (fig. 52) "made out of a solid piece of cast steel" with the eye +"punched out of the solid." When compared to other forms, the American +axe was "more easily worked," and its shape permitted an easier +withdrawal after striking.[12] + +Sawmakers, too, were singled out for praise--in particular Disston & +Sons (fig. 53) for "improvements in the form of the handles, and in the +mode of fixing them to the saw." The Disston saw also embodied an +improved blade shape which made it "lighter and more convenient by +giving it a greater taper to the point." Sheffield saws, once supplied +to most of the world, were not exhibited at Philadelphia, and the +British expert lamented that our "monopoly remains with us no +longer."[13] + +[Illustration: Figure 56.--1894: THE PERSISTENCE OF "JENNINGS" AS A +TRADE NAME is suggested by the vignette from the "Illustrated Catalogue" +of Baldwin, Robbins and Company, published in 1894. (Smithsonian photo +56628.)] + +Augers, essential to "the heavier branches of the building trade ... +[and] in the workshops of joiners, carpenters, cabinetmakers, turners, +carvers, and by amateurs and others," were considered a "most important +exhibit" at the Centennial. The auger had attained a perfection in "the +accuracy of the twist, the various forms of the cutters, the quality of +the steel, and fine finish of the twist and polish." The ancient pod or +shell auger had nearly disappeared from use, to be replaced by "the +screwed form of the tool" considerably refined by comparison to +L'Hommedieu's prototype, patented in 1809 (fig. 54). Russell Jennings' +patented auger bits (figs. 55-56) were cited for their "workmanship and +quality," and, collectively, the Exhibition "fully established the +reputation of American augers."[14] Likewise, makers of braces and bits +were commended for the number of excellent examples shown. Some were a +departure from the familiar design with "an expansive chuck for the +bit," but others were simply elegant examples of the traditional brace, +in wood, japanned and heavily reinforced with highly polished brass +sidings. An example exhibited by E. Mills and Company, of Philadelphia, +received a certification from the judges as being "of the best quality +and finish" (fig. 57). The Mills brace, together with other +award-winning tools of the company--drawknives, screwdrivers, and +spokeshaves--is preserved in the collections of the 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.[15] + +[Illustration: Figure 57.--1876: JAPANNED AND SPLINTED WITH HEAVY BRASS, +this brace was among the award-winning tools exhibited at the Centennial +by E. Mills and Company of Philadelphia. (Smithsonian photo 49792-D.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 58.--1827: THE BENCH PLANES exhibited at +Philadelphia in 1876 were a radical departure from the traditional. In +1827 H. Knowles patented an iron-bodied bench plane that portended a +change in form that would witness a substitution of steel for wood in +all critical areas of the tool's construction, and easy adjustment of +the cutting edge by a setscrew, and an increased flexibility that +allowed one plane to be used for several purposes. (Wash drawing from +the restored patent drawings, August 24, 1827, U.S. Patent Office, +Record Group 241, the National Archives.)] + +[Illustration: 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.)] + +It is the plane, however, that best exemplifies the progress of tool +design. In 1876, American planemakers were enthusiastically credited +with having achieved "an important change in the structure of the +tool."[16] Although change had been suggested by American patentees as +early as the 1820's, mass production 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).[17] It is evident, even +in its earliest manifestation, that the quest for improvement 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.[18] + +By far the greatest number of patents was concerned with perfecting an +adjustable plane iron and methods of constructing the sole of a plane so +that it would always be "true." Obviously the use of metal rather than +the older medium, wood, was a natural step, but in the process of +changing from the wood to the iron-bodied bench plane there were many +transitional suggestions that combined both materials. Seth Howes of +South Chatham, Massachusetts, in U.S. patent 37,694, specified: + + This invention relates to an improvement in that class of planes + which are commonly termed "bench-planes," comprising the foreplane, + smoothing plane, jack plane, jointer, &c. + + The invention consists in a novel and improved mode of adjusting + the plane-iron to regulate the depth of the cut of the same, in + connection with an adjustable cap, all being constructed and + arranged in such a manner that the plane-iron may be "set" with the + greatest facility and firmly retained in position by the adjustment + simply of the cap to the plane-iron, after the latter is set, and + the cap also rendered capable of being adjusted to compensate for + the wear of the "sole" or face of the plane stock. + +The stock of Howes' plane was wood combined with metal plates, caps, and +screws. Thomas Worrall of Lowell was issued patent 17,657 for a plane +based on the same general principle (fig. 60). Worrall claimed in his +specifications of June 23, 1857: + + the improved manufacture of [the] carpenter's bench plane or + jointer as made with its handle, its wooden stock to which said + handle is affixed, and a separate metallic cutter holder, and + cutter clamping devices arranged together substantially as + specified. + +Finally patentees throughout the 19th century, faced with an increasing +proliferation of tool types, frequently sought to perfect multipurpose +implements of a type best represented later by the ubiquitous Stanley +plane. The evolution of the all-purpose idea, which is incidentally not +peculiar to hand tools alone, can be seen from random statements +selected from U.S. patents for the improvement of bench planes. In 1864 +Stephen Williams in the specifications of his patent 43,360 stated: + + I denominate my improvement the "universal smoothing plane," + because it belongs to that variety of planes in which the face is + made changeable, so that it may be conveniently adapted to the + planing of curved as well as straight surfaces. By the use of my + improvement surfaces that are convex, concave, or straight may be + easily worked, the face of the tool being readily changed from one + form to another to suit the surface to which it is to be applied. + +The announced object of Theodore Duval's improved grooving plane (pat. +97,177) was "to produce in one tool all that is required to form grooves +of several different widths." None was more appealing than Daniel D. +Whitker's saw-rabbet plane (pat. 52,478) which combined "an adjustable +saw with an adjustable fence or gage, both being attached to a stock +with handle similar to a plane, forming together a tool combining the +properties of the joiner's plow and fillister" (fig. 61). Nor was +Whitker's idea simply a drawing-board exercise. It was produced +commercially and was well advertised, as seen in the circular reproduced +in figure 62. + +[Illustration: Figure 60.--1857: IN A VARIETY OF ARRANGEMENTS, the +addition of metal plates, caps, and screws at the mouth of the plane, as +shown in Thomas Worrall's drawing, proved a transitional device that +preserved the ancient shape of the tool and slowed the introduction of +bench planes made entirely of iron. (Wash drawing from U.S. Patent +Office, June 23, 1857, Record Group 241, the National Archives.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 61.--1865: NOT ALL MULTIPURPOSE INNOVATIONS +resulted from the use of new materials. Daniel D. Whitker patented a +combination saw and rabbet plane little different from one illustrated +by André-Jacob Roubo in his _L'Art du menuisier_ in 1769. (Wash drawing +from U.S. Patent Office, October 4, 1865, Record Group 241, the National +Archives.)] + +In sum, these ideas produced a major break with the traditional shape of +the bench plane. William Foster in 1843 (pat. 3,355), Birdsill Holly in +1852 (pat. 9,094), and W.S. Loughborough in 1859 (pat. 23,928) are +particularly good examples of the radical departure from the wooden +block. And, in the period after the Civil War, C.G. Miller (discussed on +p. 213 and in fig. 63), B.A. Blandin (fig. 64), and Russell Phillips +(pat. 106,868) patented multipurpose metallic bench planes of excellent +design. It should be pointed out that the patentees mentioned above +represent only a few of the great number that tried to improve the +plane. Only the trend of change is suggested by the descriptions and +illustrations presented here. The cumulative effect awaited a showcase, +and the planemakers found it at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 held +in Philadelphia. + +[Illustration: Figure 62.--ABOUT 1865: THE PROGRESS OF AN IDEA from an +18th-century encyclopedia through an American patentee to commercial +reality can be seen in this flier advertising Whitker's saw-rabbet. +(Smithsonian Institution Library. Smithsonian photo 56629.)] + +The impact of these new planes at the Exhibition caused some +retrospection among the judges: + + The planes manufactured in Great Britain and in other countries + fifty years ago were formed of best beech-wood; the plane irons + were of steel and iron welded together; the jointer plane, about 21 + inches long, was a bulky tool; the jack and hand planes were of the + same materials. Very little change has been made upon the plane in + Great Britain, unless in the superior workmanship and higher + quality of the plane iron.[19] + +The solid wood-block plane, varying from country to country only in the +structure of its handles and body decoration, had preserved its +integrity of design since the Middle Ages. At the Centennial, however, +only a few examples of the old-type plane were exhibited. A new shape +dominated the cases. Designated by foreign observers as the American +plane, it received extended comment. Here was a tool + + constructed with a skeleton iron body, having a curved wooden + handle; the plane iron is of the finest cast-steel; the cover is + fitted with an ingenious trigger at the top, which, with a screw + below the iron, admits of the plane iron being removed for + sharpening and setting without the aid of the hammer, and with the + greatest ease. The extensive varieties of plane iron in use are + fitted for every requirement; a very ingenious arrangement is + applied to the tools for planing the insides of circles or other + curved works, such as stair-rails, etc. The sole of the plane is + formed of a plate of tempered steel about the thickness of a + handsaw, according to the length required, and this plate is + adapted to the curve, and is securely fixed at each end. With this + tool the work is not only done better but in less time than + formerly. In some exhibits the face of the plane was made of beech + or of other hard wood, secured by screws to the stock, and the tool + becomes a hybrid, all other parts remaining the same as in the iron + plane.[20] + +The popularity of Bailey's patented planes (fig. 65), the type so +praised above, was by no means transitory. In 1884 the Boston firm of +Goodnow & Wightman, "Importers, Manufacturers and Dealers in Tools of +all kinds," illustrated the several planes just described and assured +prospective buyers that + + These tools meet with universal approbation from the best + Mechanics. For beauty of style and finish they are unequalled, and + the great convenience in operating renders them the cheapest Planes + in use; they are SELF-ADJUSTING in every respect; and each part + being made INTERCHANGEABLE, can be replaced at a trifling + expense.[21] + +By 1900 an advertisement for Bailey's planes published in the catalogue +of another Boston firm, Chandler and Farquhar, indicated that "over +900,000" had already been sold.[22] + +Other mass-produced edge tools--axes, adzes, braces and bits, augers, +saws, and chisels--illustrated in the trade literature of the toolmakers +became, as had the iron-bodied bench plane, standard forms. In the last +quarter of the 19th century the tool catalogue replaced Moxon, Duhamel, +Diderot, and the builders' manuals as the primary source for the study +and identification of hand tools. The Centennial had called attention to +the superiority of certain American tools and toolmakers. The result was +that until the end of the century, trade literature faithfully drummed +the products that had proven such "an attraction to the numerous +artisans who visited the Centennial Exhibition from the United States +and other countries."[23] + +[Illustration: Figure 63.--1870: THE METALLIC VERSION OF THE PLOW PLANE +later produced by Stanley and Company was patented by [Charles] G. +Miller as a tool readily "convertible into a grooving, rabbeting, or +smoothing plane." In production this multipurpose plow gained an +elaborate decoration (fig. 51) nowhere suggested in Miller's +specification. (Wash drawing from U.S. Patent Office, June 28, 1870, +Record Group 241, the National Archives.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 64.--1867: THE DRAWING accompanying B.A. Blandin's +specification for an "Improvement in Bench Planes" retained only the +familiarly shaped handle or tote of the traditional wood-bodied plane. +This new shape rapidly became the standard form of the tool with later +variations chiefly related to the adjustability of the plane-iron and +sole. (Wash drawing from U.S. Patent Office, May 7, 1867, Record Group +241, the National Archives.)] + +Collins and Company of New York City had been given commendation for the +excellence of their axes; through the end of the century, Collins' brand +felling axes, broad axes, and adzes were standard items, as witness +Hammacher, Schlemmer and Company's catalogue of 1896.[24] Disston saws +were a byword, and the impact of their exhibit at Philadelphia was still +strong, as judged from Baldwin, Robbins' catalogue of 1894. Highly +recommended was the Disston no. 76, the "Centennial" handsaw with its +"skew back" and "apple handle." Jennings' patented auger bits were +likewise standard fare in nearly every tool catalogue.[25] So were bench +planes manufactured by companies that had been cited at Philadelphia for +the excellence of their product; namely, The Metallic Plane Company, +Auburn, New York; The Middletown Tool Company, Middletown, Connecticut; +Bailey, Leonard, and Company, Hartford; and The Sandusky Tool Company, +Sandusky, Ohio.[26] + +An excellent indication of the persistence of the Centennial influence, +and of the tool catalogue as source material, is seen in Chandler and +Farquhar's illustrated pamphlet of 1900. Their advertisement for +Barber's improved ratchet brace (fig. 66), a tool much admired by the +Centennial judges, amply illustrates the evolution of design of a basic +implement present in American society since the first years of +settlement. The Barber brace represents the ultimate sophistication of a +tool, achieved through an expanded industrial technology rather than by +an extended or newly found use for the device itself. It is a prime +example of the transition of a tool from Moxon to its perfected form in +the 20th century: + + These Braces possess the following points of superiority: The Sweep + is made from Steel; the Jaws are forged from Steel; the Wood Handle + has brass rings inserted in each end so it cannot split off; the + Chuck has a hardened Steel antifriction washer between the two + sockets, thus reducing the wear. The Head has a bearing of steel + balls, running on hard steel plates, so no wear can take place, as + the friction is reduced to the minimum. The Brace is heavily + nickel-plated and warranted in every particular. We endeavor to + make these goods as nearly perfection as is possible in durability, + quality of material and workmanship, and fineness and beauty of + finish.[27] + +[Illustration: Figure 65.--1900: AMERICAN PLANEMAKERS had been cited at +the Philadelphia Centennial as having introduced a dramatic change in +the nature of the tool. Although wood-bodied planes continued to be +used, they were outdated and in fact anachronistic by the close of the +19th century. From the 1870's forward, it was the iron-bodied plane, +most frequently Bailey's, that enlivened the trade literature. +(Catalogue of Chandler and Farquhar, Boston, 1900. Smithsonian photo +55798.)] + +[Illustration: Figure 66.--1900: FEW TOOLS SUGGEST MORE CLEARLY the +influence of modern industrial society upon the design and construction +of traditional implements than Barber's ratchet brace. It is not without +interest that as the tools of the wood craftsman became crisply +efficient, his work declined correspondingly in individuality and +character. The brace and the plane, as followed from Moxon through the +trade literature of the late 19th century, achieved perfection in form +and operation at a time when their basic functions had been usurped by +machines. (Catalogue of Chandler and Farquhar, Boston, 1900. Smithsonian +photo 56626.)] + +The description of Barber's brace documents a major technical change: +wood to steel, leather washers to ball bearings, and natural patina to +nickel plate. It is also an explanation for the appearance and shape of +craftmen's tools, either hand forged or mass produced. In each case, the +sought-after result in the form of a finished product has been an +implement of "fineness and beauty." This quest motivated three centuries +of toolmakers and brought vitality to hand-tool design. Moxon had +advised: + + He that will a good Edge win, + Must Forge thick and Grind thin.[28] + +If heeded, the result would be an edge tool that assured its owner "ease +and delight."[29] Throughout the period considered here, the most +praiseworthy remarks made about edge tools were variations of either +"unsurpassed in quality, finish, and beauty of style" or, more simply, +commendation for "excellent design and superior workmanship."[30] The +hand tool thus provoked the same value words in the 19th as in the 17th +century. + +The aesthetics of industrial art, whether propounded by Moxon or by an +official at the Philadelphia Centennial, proved the standard measure by +which quality could be judged. Today these values are particularly valid +when applied to a class of artifacts that changed slowly and have as +their prime characteristics anonymity of maker and date. With such +objects the origin, transition, and variation of shape are of primary +interest. Consider the common auger whose "Office" Moxon declared "is to +make great round holes" and whose importance was so clearly stressed at +Philadelphia in 1876.[31] Neither its purpose nor its gross appearance +(a T-handled boring tool) had changed. The tool did, however, develop +qualitatively through 200 years, from a pod or shell to a spiral bit, +from a blunt to a gimlet point, and from a hand-fashioned to a +geometrically exact, factory-made implement: innovations associated with +Cooke (1770), L'Hommedieu (1809), and Jennings (1850's). In each +instance the tool was improved--a double spiral facilitated the +discharge of shavings, a gimlet point allowed the direct insertion of +the auger, and machine precision brought mathematical accuracy to the +degree of twist. Still, overall appearance did not change. At the +Centennial, Moxon would have recognized an auger, and, further, his +lecture on its uses would have been singularly current. The large-bore +spiral auger still denoted a mortise, tenon, and trenail mode of +building in a wood-based technology; at the same time its near cousin, +the wheelwright's reamer, suggested the reliance upon a transport +dependent upon wooden hubs. The auger in its perfected form--fine steel, +perfectly machined, and highly finished--contrasted with an auger of +earlier vintage will clearly show the advance from forge to factory, but +will indicate little new in its method of use or its intended purpose. + +Persons neither skilled in the use of tools nor interested in technical +history will find that there is another response to the common auger, as +there was to the upholsterer's hammer, the 18th-century brace, or the +saw with the custom-fitted grip. This is a subjective reaction to a +pleasing form. It is the same reaction that prompted artists to use +tools as vehicles to help convey lessons in perspective, a frequent +practice in 19th-century art manuals. The harmony of related parts--the +balance of shaft and handle or the geometry of the twist--makes the +auger a decorative object. This is not to say that the ancient +woodworker's tool is not a document attesting a society's technical +proficiency--ingenuity, craftsmanship, and productivity. It is only to +suggest again that it is something more; a survival of the past whose +intrinsic qualities permit it to stand alone as a bridge between the +craftsman's hand and his work; an object of considerable appeal in which +integrity of line and form is not dimmed by the skill of the user nor by +the quality of the object produced by it. + +In America, this integrity of design is derived from three centuries of +experience: one of heterogeneous character, the mid-17th to the +mid-18th; one of predominately English influence, from 1750 to 1850; and +one that saw the perfection of basic tools, by native innovators, +between 1850 and the early 20th century. In the two earlier periods, the +woodworking tool and the products it finished had a natural affinity +owing largely to the harmony of line that both the tool and finished +product shared. The later period, however, presents a striking contrast. +Hand-tool design, with few exceptions, continued vigorous and functional +amidst the confusion of an eclectic architecture, a flurry of rival +styles, the horrors of the jigsaw, and the excesses of Victorian taste. +In conclusion, it would seem that whether seeking some continuous thread +in the evolution of a national style, or whether appraising American +contributions to technology, such a search must rest, at least in part, +upon the character and quality of the hand tools the society has made +and used, because they offer a continuity largely unknown to other +classes of material survivals. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] W.M. FLINDERS PETRIE, "History in Tools," _Annual Report Smithsonian +Institution_, 1918, pp. 563-572 [reprint]. + +[2] JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS, _Orbis Sensualium Pictus_, transl. Charles +Hoole (London, 1685), pp. 130, 143. + +[3] JOSEPH MOXON, _Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works_, +3rd. ed. (London, 1703), pp. 63, 119. + +[4] MARTIN, _Circle of the Mechanical Arts_ (1813), p. 123. + +[5] PETER NICHOLSON, _The Mechanic's Companion_ (Philadelphia, 1832), +pp. 31, 89-90. + +[6] _Catalog_, Book 87, Cutler and Co., Castle Hill Works, Sheffield [in +the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London]; and +_Illustrated Supplement to the Catalogue of Bench Planes_, Arrowmammett +Works (Middletown, Conn., 1857) [in the Smithsonian Institution +Library]. + +[7] York County Records, Virginia Deeds, Orders, and Wills, no. 13 +(1706-1710), p. 248; and the inventory of Amasa Thompson in LAWRENCE B. +ROMAINE, "A Yankee Carpenter and His Tools," _The Chronicle_ of the +Early American Industries Association (July 1953), vol. 6, no. 3, pp. +33-34. + +[8] _Reports by the Juries: Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All +Nations, 1851_ (London, 1852), p. 485. + +[9] U.S. patent specifications cited in this paragraph may be found at +the U.S. Patent Office, Washington, D.C. + +[10] In 1865 George Parr in his application for an improved screwdriver +stated categorically that the scalloped blade served no purpose other +than decoration. See U.S. patent 45,854, dated January 10, 1865. + +[11] Francis A. Walker, ed., _United States Centennial Commission, +International Exhibition, 1876, Reports and Awards, Group XV_ +(Philadelphia, 1877), p. 5. + +[12] Ibid., p. 6. + +[13] Ibid., pp. 9-10. + +[14] Ibid., pp. 11-12. + +[15] Ibid., pp. 14, 44, 5. + +[16] Ibid., p. 13. + +[17] Restored patent 4,859X, August 24, 1827, National Archives, +Washington, D.C. + +[18] U.S. pat. 16,889, U.S. Patent Office, Washington, D.C. The numbered +specifications that follow may be found in the same place. + +[19] Walker, ed., _Reports and Awards_, group 15, p. 13. + +[20] Ibid. + +[21] _Tools_ (Boston, 1884), p. 54 [in the Smithsonian Institution +Library]. + +[22] _Tools and Supplies_ (June 1900), no. 85 [in the Smithsonian +Institution Library]. + +[23] Walker, op. cit. (footnote 19), p. 14. + +[24] _Tools for All Trades_ (New York, 1896), item 75 [in the +Smithsonian Institution Library]. + +[25] See _Baldwin, Robbins & Co.: Illustrated Catalogue_ (Boston, 1894), +pp. 954, 993 [in the Smithsonian Institution Library]. + +[26] Walker, op. cit. (footnote 19), p. 14. + +[27] _Tools and Supplies_, op. cit. (footnote 22). + +[28] _Mechanick Exercise_ ..., p. 62. + +[29] Ibid., p. 95. + +[30] Walker, op. cit. (footnote 19), pp. 31-49. + +[31] _Mechanick Exercises_ ..., p. 94. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +_Book of trades, or library of the useful arts._ 1st Amer. ed. +Whitehall, N.Y., 1807. + +_Boy's book of trades._ London, 1866. + +_The cabinetmaker in eighteenth-century Williamsburg._ (Williamsburg +Craft Series.) Williamsburg, Va., 1963. + +COMENIUS, JOHANN AMOS. _Orbis sensualium pictus._ Transl. Charles Hoole. +London, 1664, 1685, 1777, et al. + +COTTER, JOHN L. _Archeological excavations at Jamestown, Virginia._ (No. +4 in Archeological Research Series.) Washington: National Park Service, +1958. + +DIDEROT, DENIS. _L'encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, +des arts et des métiers._ Paris, 1751-1765. + +EARLY AMERICAN INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION. _Chronicle._ Williamsburg, Va., +1933+. + +GILLISPIE, CHARLES COULSTON, ed. _A Diderot pictorial encyclopedia of +trades and industry._ New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1959. + +GOODMAN, W.L. _The history of woodworking tools._ London: G. Bell and +Sons, Ltd., 1964. + +HOLTZAPFFEL, CHARLES. _Turning and mechanical manipulations._ London +[1846]. + +KNIGHT, EDWARD HENRY. _Knight's American mechanical dictionary._ New +York, 1874-1876. + +MARTIN, THOMAS. _The circle of the mechanical arts._ London, 1813. + +MERCER, HENRY C. _Ancient carpenters' tools._ Doylestown, Pennsylvania: +The Bucks County Historical Society, 1951. + +MOXON, JOSEPH. _Mechanick exercises._ 3rd ed. London, 1703. + +NICHOLSON, PETER. _The mechanic's companion._ Philadelphia, 1832. + +PETERSEN, EUGENE T. _Gentlemen on the frontier: A pictorial record of +the culture of Michilimackinac._ Mackinac Island, Mich., 1964. + +PETRIE, SIR WILLIAM MATTHEW FLINDERS. _Tools and weapons illustrated by +the Egyptian collection in University College, London._ London, 1917. + +ROUBO, ANDRÉ-JACOB. _L'art du menuisier._ (In Henri-Louis Duhamel du +Monceau, _Descriptions des arts et métiers_.) Paris, 1761-1788. + +SACHS, HANS. _Das Ständebuch: 114 Holzschnitte von Jost Amman, mit +Reimen von Hans Sachs._ Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, 1934. + +SINGER, CHARLES, et al. _A history of technology._ 5 vols. New York and +London: Oxford University Press, 1954-1958. + +SLOANE, ERIC. _A museum of early American tools._ New York: Wilfred +Funk, Inc., 1964. + +TOMLINSON, CHARLES. _Illustrations of trades._ 2nd ed. London, 1867. + +WELSH, PETER C. "The Decorative Appeal of Hand Tools," _Antiques_, vol. +87, no. 2, February 1965, pp. 204-207. + +---- U.S. patents, 1790-1870: New uses for old ideas. Paper 48 in +_Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology:_ Papers 45-53 +(U.S. National Museum Bulletin 241), by various authors; Washington: +Smithsonian Institution, 1965. + +WILDUNG, FRANK H. _Woodworking tools at Shelburne Museum._ (No. 3 in +Museum Pamphlet Series.) Shelburne, Vermont: The Shelburne Museum, 1957. + + + U.S. Government Printing Office: 1966 + + For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing + Office Washington, D.C., 20402--Price 70 cents + + _Paper 51, pages 178-228, from_ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN + + [Illustration] + + CONTRIBUTIONS FROM + THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY + AND TECHNOLOGY + + SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION · WASHINGTON, D.C. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, by Peter C. 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