American Metal Planes

The Metallic Woodworking Plane: An American Contribution to Hand-Tool Design
Author(s): Peter C. Welsh

Source: Technology and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter, 1966), pp. 38-47
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Society for the History of
Technology
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Plane
TheMetallicWoodworking
AN AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO
HAND-TOOL DESIGN
PETER C. WELSH
At Philadelphiain 1876,David McHardy, the Britishexpert judging

the quality of handtools exhibitedin the Centennial,observedthat "the
marked advance in the improvementof workmen's tools which has
been made during recent years is justly due to the inventive genius of
American citizens."Many tools were considered outstandingand re-
ceived commendation.Among them were Americanfelling axes "made
out of a solid piece of cast-steel,"Disston'ssaws, which were so fine
that they caused Sheffieldsawmakersto lament that their "monopoly
remainswith us no longer," and American-madeaugers, which were
notable for the "accuracyof the twist, the various forms of cutters,
the quality of the steel, and the fine finish of the twist and polish."The
generalimprovementin handtools was apparentalso in Barber'sratchet
brace manufacturedby the Miller'sFalls Company. It was an imple-
ment that combined steel, ball bearings,and nickel plate in sharpcon-
trast to the traditionalwooden brace with its leather washers, brass
splints,and naturalpatina.1
But of all the noticeable changes in the design and construction of
woodworking tools, by far the most importantwas in the bench plane.
By 1876,Americanshad, accordingto the BritisherMcHardy, achieved
"an important change in the structure of the tool."2 It would seem
reasonableto suggestthat the Centennialmarkedthe recognition,inter-
nationally,that one of the most prosaic of implements,the carpenter's
plane, had at last undergone a considerablestructuraltransformation,
MR.WELSHis a curator in the Office of the Director of the Museum of History
and Technology, Smithsonian Institution. He is in charge of a series of museum
halls devoted to the Growth of the United States, a project intended to interpret
American civilization in terms of its material artifacts. He is the author of a book
on the history of American tanning.
1 Francis A. Walker (ed.), United States Centennial Commission. International
Exhibition, 1876. Reports and Awards Group XV (Philadelphia, 1877), pp. 7-14.
2 Ibid., p. 13.
38
The MetallicWoodworkingPlane 39
one that involved a change in the materialof constructionand, in some
instances,a change in form or shape. It was a change that embodied
the mainfeaturesof technologicaldesignoutlinedby John A. Kouwen-
hoven: it was simple,light, strong, and widely available.3It is not this
writer'sintention to suggest that this change occurred as if by magic;
rather, it was a relatively slow process, one best traced through the
patent records.The transformationof the plane did not lag far behind
that of the other tools. In fact, in its developmentit was typical of the
early stages of mechanizationwhen, as Giedion has shown, Americans
reshapedthe implementsof nearly every trade.4
There is no evidence that technological conservatisminhibited the
adoptionof the metallicplaneby Americancarpentersand joiners.Like
the Americanax, the plow, or the scythe, the metallicplanerepresented
in its new form a shape which could be admiredas a work of indus-
trial art. It was at the PhiladelphiaCentennialthat this quality of the
metallic plane first attractedattention.Its evolution as a form new to
the nineteenth century had begun with a series of American patents.
Although few ideas submittedby patenteescame to fruition as manu-
factured tools, these ideas neverthelesssuggest what motivated inven-
tors; why metal was preferableto wood in the constructionof bench
planes;and, in general,in their variety and extent, why it was no sur-
prise that a basic tool shape had changed so radically.5
* * *
Traditionally, bench planes, whether British, European, or Ameri-

can, were formed of the best hard woods (principally beech). Their
basic shapewas that of a rectangularblock with a handleand a cutting
iron. The dimensions of planes varied according to the degree of
straightnessrequiredin the work, anywherefrom severalinches to thir-
ty inches in length. The plow plane for cutting grooves and the more
specializedmolding planes had distinctiveshapes;however, they were
still, for all intents and purposes,solid wood blocks designedto hold a
cutting device that could be moved acrossa piece of work. The plane
3 See John A. Kouwenhoven, Made in America (Newton Center, Mass., 1948),
p. 65.
4 Siegfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command (Oxford, 1948), p. 147.
5 An examination of all
surviving drawings and specifications of woodworking
tools between 1790 and 1870 in the National Archives indicates that this particular
segment of the patent records is a valid index to change, to the cause of change,
to the use of new materials of construction, and to the evolution of new shapes.
This is particularly true of the patents for woodworking planes; collectively they
support both Kouwenhoven's and Giedion's assertions.
40 Peter C. Welsh
irons (blades) were made of steel and iron welded together. If any sig-
nificantchange had occurredthrough severalcenturiesof plane manu-
facture, it was in the higher quality of steel provided for the cutting
irons. Essentially,the solid wood-block bench plane had preservedthe
integrity of its over-all appearancesince the Middle Ages, and when
variationoccurredit was usually in the conformationof the handle or
"tote"and in the extent of decoration,either on the body of the plane
or aroundthe plane'smouth (see Fig. 1). In Scandinaviaand Germany
the wood-bodied plane is still widely used.6
In Americanexperience,tool shapestended to follow Englishprece-
dent. Thus, for the early period Moxon7 served as a guide; after the
mid-eighteenthcentury, American tool patternsfollowed the lead of
Sheffieldand Birminghamtoolmakers.8This was singularly the case
with the planes.The persistentand unchangingnature of the wood-
bodied bench plane is establishedin such illustratedcommentariesas
Thomas Martin'sCircle of the MechanicalArts (London, 1814), the
Americanedition of Peter Nicholson's Mechanic'sCompanion(Phila-
delphia, 1832), the voluminoustrade literaturein both countries after
1850,and by the numerousplanesthat survive (see Figs. 1, 5). In short,
the hand plane was the most familiarof tools, one common to every
workbench.
But what McHardy and other observerssaw at the Centennialwas
indeed something dramaticallydifferent, if not altogether new. The
contrastwith the traditionalplane shape was so pronouncedthat Mc-
Hardy dubbedit the "Americanplane,"an implement
constructedwith a skeleton iron body, having a curved wooden
handle;the plane iron is of the finest cast-steel;the cover is fitted
with an ingenioustrigger at the top, which, with a screw below the
iron, admits of the plane iron being removed for sharpeningand
setting without the aid of the hammer,and with the greatestease.
The extensivevarietiesof the plane iron in use are fitted for every
requirement;a very ingenious arrangementis appliedto the tools
for planing the insides of circles or other curved works, such as
6 Thebest over-all discussionof the plane from earliesttime to present is in W. L.
Goodman, The History of Woodworking Tools (London, 1964).
7
Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises: or the Doctrine of Handy-Works (Lon-
don, 1703).
8 See the illustrations of bench
planes in the pattern books of the Castle Hill
Works, Sheffield, ca. 1830 (Collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum),
and those in the Illustrated Supplement to the Catalogue . . . of Bench Planes . . .
Manufactured at the Arrowmammett Works, Middletown, Conn. (Middletown,
1857) in the SmithsonianInstitution'sTrade Catalogue Collection.
FIG. 1.-Wood-bodied bench plane, 1818. (From the Collections of the Smithsonian Institution,
access. No. 61.547. Photograph courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.)
FIG.2.-Knowles's iron-bodied bench plane, 1827. Hazard Knowles's patent of August 24,1827,
was the prototype for what was later called the "American Plane." (Wash-drawing in Restored
Patent Drawings, U.S. Patent Office Records. Courtesy of the National Archives, Washington, D.C.)
4
FIG. 3.-Hybrid bench plane, Bailey's patent, 1867. (Photograph courtesy of the Smithsonian
Institution.)
FIG. 4.-This metallic grooving plane was patented in 1870 by C. G. Miller and subse-
quently manufactured by the Stanley Company. (Photograph courtesy of the Smithsonian
Institution.)
FIG. 5.-American plane. Stanley plane advertised in trade catalogue of Chandler &
Farquhar, Boston, 1900, in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution. (Photograph
courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.)
FIG. 6.-Wooden plow plane was made by a Philadelphia planemaker about 1820. (Photograph
courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.)
stairrails,etc. The sole of the planeis formed of a plate of tempered
steel about the thicknessof a handsaw,accordingto the length re-
quired,and this plate is adaptedto the curve, and is securely fixed
at each end. With this tool the work is not only better done but in
less time than formerly. In some exhibitsthe 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 partsremainingthe
sameas in the iron plane.9
* * *
Americanpatenteesas early as the 1820'shad begun to submit speci-

fications for cast-ironplane stocks, which at first were similarto Ro-
man examplesfrom antiquity.Unlike the English and Continentalver-
sions,these planessoon becamecompletelymetallicratherthan metallic
shellsthat held wooden bodies.In 1827,HazardKnowles of Colchester,
Connecticut,in the first importantAmericanpatent to advocatea radi-
cal changein bench-planedesign,suggesteda numberof advantagesto
be gained by substitutingiron for wood in the constructionof planes
(Fig. 2). "It is more durable,"wrote Knowles, "thanthe common stock
of wood." Unlike a wooden plane, one made of cast iron "will always
keep in the same condition."The metallic plane will remaintrue, will
not become worn and hollow at its center, and the plane mouth will
retaina constantwidth. Best of all, thought Knowles, such a plane "can
be afforded at a much cheaper price."'0Thirty years later, in 1857,
M. B. Tidey outlined the goals that motivated metallic plane-makers.
They were simple and direct:
First to simplify the manufacturingof planes;second to render
them more durable;third to retaina uniformmouth;fourth to ob-
viate their clogging and fifth the retention of the essentialpart of
the planewhen the stock is worn out."1
Generally, the specificationssubmittedto the commissionerof pat-
ents reflect the samebasic reasonsfor change outlinedby Knowles and
Tidey. Others, however, displayedattitudeswidely prevalentin nine-
teenth-centuryAmerican society. In the 1830'sAlexis de Tocqueville
had characterizedthe Americanmind as "originaland inventive,"one
which viewed traditionand form with contempt. Americansfound in-
novationeasy. Throughoutthe patentrecordsthe languageof the speci-
ficationssuggestsa widespreadand sympatheticattitudetoward change,
9 In Francis A. Walker, op. cit., p. 13.
10Restored Patents (unnumbered),
August 24, 1827 (National Archives, Washing-
ton, D.C.).
11U.S. Patent no. 16,889.
42 Peter C. Welsh
and in them de Tocqueville's general comments are given particular
meaningby such words and phrasesas great easeand convenience,per-
fectly true and uniform, facility, strength, much quicker, durability,
precision,and accuracy.Taken togetherwith the technicalcapabilityto
do so, such a litany explainsin part the dispositionof inventorsto alter
a form as traditionalas the bench plane.
William Foster, a residentof the District of Columbia,had patented
a plane in 1843.He claimed,as had Knowles and others,that it would
"runlight and easy" and that it would be far superiorto other planes
in "durability,economy and convenience."12Lightness and durability
motivatedboth BirdsillHolly of Seneca Falls, New York, and George
Davis of Lowell, Massachusetts.Holly, in 1852, suggested a means by
which the width of the throatof the planecould be adjustedfor various
types of work-a flexibility achieved in metal that would have been
most difficultin wood.13In 1855,Davis describedan iron-bodiedplane
stock that had as a distinctivefeature "a new method of attachingthe
cutting irons to the stocks."In his specificationDavis stated:
The nature of my invention consists in constructing the main
body of planes, molding tools, etc., of metal, which being very
thin, presentslittle or no impedimentto the shavingspassingout as
they are cut from the wood, using an iron or wood handleattached
to these planes.By means of the lower portion of the plane stock
thus made, the hand of the operatoris very near the face of the
planewhen it is used and consequentlyequallynear the face of the
stock which is being dressed.And my inventionfurther consistsin
securingthe cutting irons to the iron or other plane or tool stock,
by meansof a single screw (insteadof the old chip) which screw
secures both the cap and the cutting iron together, and both of
them to the iron tool or plane stock, and by forming a lip in the
back part of the throat so as to fill it and thus give a smooth even
surfaceto the face of the plane.14
* * *
Patenteeswere concernedwith fixing firmly the cutting blade of the

planeas well as makingit adjustable.To accomplishthis they proposed
to modify the wood body by affixingmetal parts. As a result, transi-
tional or hybrid planesdeveloped (see Fig. 3). In 1863,Seth Howes of
South Chatham,Massachusetts,devised such a plane, one that retained
12U.S. Patent no. 3,355. 13 U.S. Patent no. 9,094.
14U.S. Patent no. 12,787. Davis' plane was
equipped with a double cutting
blade, a late eighteenth-century British innovation to speed the upcurl of shavings
through the mouth of the plane.
The Metallic Wood'working Plane 43
its traditional shape, but one that also included metal caps, plates, and
screws. Howes wrote:
This invention relates to an improvement in that class of planes
which are commonly termed "bench-planes," comprising the fore-
plane, smoothing-plane, jack plane, jointer, etc. The invention con-
sists 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 man-
ner 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 ca-
pable of being adjusted to compensate for the wear of the "sole" or
face of the plane stock.15
Thomas Worrall of Lowell, in 1857, had specified a similar improve-
ment by affixing "a separate metallic cutter holder, and cutter clamping
devices" to the wooden stock of a bench plane.16Even earlier, William
Reynolds in 1832 had requested what seems to be the basic patent for a
device to control and adjust the double iron (blade) arrangement used
with trying planes.l7 The combination of metal with the older wood
forms took many directions. In 1835, for example, James Herman modi-
fied ordinary tongue-and-groove planes by inserting metal rollers to
help the fence move more easily.18 Even the molding plane became a
hybrid, as exemplified by William Blye's patent of 1849, which provides
for the attachment of an adjustable metal gauge, one that could be set
to govern the width of the molding being cut. The hybrid forms per-
sisted, and in the 1880's the Gage Tool Company of Vineland, New
Jersey, introduced a self-setting bench plane with a wood stock and an
15U.S. Patent no. 37,694.The plane types referred to in the Howes patent are all
described in Henry C. Mercer, Ancient Carpenter'sTools (Doylestown, Pa., 1951),
pp. 98-133. The fore or jack plane was used for initial rough surfacing of boards.
The cutting edge of its blade, unlike other plane blades, was basilled or ground
on the underside. The jointer was a long form of trying plane used for the more
exact leveling of board edges and smoothing. It was usually 28-30 inches in length.
Its blade was flat rather than convex. The coffin-shapedsmoothing plane was used
to level areasinaccessible to the larger bench planes, i.e., corners and joints.
16 U.S. Patent no. 17,657.
17Restored Patents (unnumbered), July 7, 1832 (National Archives, Washington,
D.C.).
18Restored Patents (unnumbered), August 27, 1835. The fence referred to by
Herman was a strip of wood, either simple or elaborate, applied to a plane. It
paralleled the line of cut and gave an established margin against which the plane
could be moved. The fence, sometimes fixed and sometimes adjustable,was an in-
tegral part of molding, grooving, and plow planes.
44 Peter C. Welsh
iron superstructurethat carriedthe adjustingscrews and caps. In 1887,
Carpenter,the journal of the United Brotherhoodof Carpentersand
Joiners,indorsedthe tool as one possessing"manypoints of superiority
over excellent planes already on the market";although "these planes
cost more at first the differenceis made up many times in a year's use
in time saved and superiorwork." An interestingfeaturewas the Gage
Company'soffer to remodel old planes with their new self-adjusting
fixtures,thus truly creatinga hybrid tool.19
Other practicalproblemspromptedpatentsthat involved iron-bodied
planes.In 1869,E. G. Storke of Auburn,New York, wrote that "it has
long been known to mechanicsthat metallicplaneshave adheredto the
wood much closer than wooden planes."To correct this he recom-
mended grooving, fluting, or channelingthe face of the plane, a com-
mon characteristicof the modern smoothing plane.20The following
year, Ellis H. Morris of Salem, Ohio, confirmedthe friction-reducing
value of the longitudinal grooves and added that planes of greater
strengthand lightnesscould be constructedby "castingthe body of the
plane with a seriesof intersectingribs, covering the entire face."21
* * *
The increasing proliferation of tool types also prompted the all-

purposetool idea. The innovatorwho wished to perfect a combination
tool usually departedfrom traditionaldesignsand hybrid solutionsand
arrivedat a new form for the bench plane.For example,in 1859,Wil-
liam Loughboroughof Rochester,New York, patenteda plane whose
shapehad little resemblanceto the traditional.It resultedfrom the pat-
entee'singenuityin constructinga single "ironstock for fillisters,dados,
rabbets, match-planes,and panel-plows."22Elements varied, but in
nearlyall casesthe planestock is similarin form to later Stanleymodels.
In 1864, Stephen Williams perfected a device which he called the
"universalsmoothingplane,"a tool which could be easily "adaptedto
the planing of curved as well as straight surfaces."23The announced
purposeof Theodore Duval'simprovedgroovingplanewas to "produce
19 "A New Self-Setting Plane," Carpenter (December, 1887), p. 5.
20 U.S. Patent no. 96,052. 21 U.S. Patent no. 109,037.
22 U.S. Patent no. 23,928. The fillister cut notches,
overlaps, and panel inserts.
The dado cut a classical molding. The rabbet notched boards. Match planes cut
corresponding tongue-and-groove jointures in board edges, and the plow, equipped
with cutting irons of various widths, cut narrow channels on the edges of boards
to hold fittings. See Mercer, op. cit., pp. 98-135.
23 U.S. Patent no. 43,360.
in one tool all that is required to form grooves of several different
widths."24
After the Civil War, C. G. Miller (1870) and RussellPhillips (1870)
contributed multipurposemetallic bench planes of excellent design.
Miller'splane (Fig. 4), produced by Stanley, was readily "convertible
into a grooving,rabbetingor smoothingplane."25It was RussellPhillips,
however, who specifiedbest the so-calledmultipurposeurge: "This in-
vention [wrote Phillips] combines in one implement elementary fea-
tures now only found in several independenttools, the result being a
great saving in space in transportation,as well as in stores and carpen-
ters'shops,and enablinga mechanicto obtain,at smallcomparativecost
and in a compactand efficientform, the substitutesfor severalclassesof
planes."26The pattern for the combinationtool was well established
when Amos Fales'"VariableBench Planes"were advertisedin Carpen-
ter as "the greatest combinationplane on earth," one that "takes the
place of more than eighty differentwood planes."27
The achievementof a multipurposetool, in each case, representeda
substantialchangein bench-planedesign away from the familiarwood-
block version. Although the ubiquitousStanley plane is the symbol of
the modern, all-purposemetallic plane, its antecedentswere a mass of
Americanpatentssubmittedin the period after 1827.Knowles, Lough-
borough,Phillips,and the othersall contributedto the evolution of this
new tool form, but one patentee,LeonardBailey, as W. L. Goodman
points out, is of particularinterest.28It was the Bailey patented plane
that was acclaimedat the Centennial.McHardy describedit factually,
but the trade literaturewas more effusive as it stressed,as advantages,
the very points which prompted its invention. Bailey's planes "meet
with universalapprobationfrom the best Mechanics."The finish of
these new planes was "unequalled,"and their convenience rendered
them "thecheapestPlanesin use."Beyond this, they were "Self-Adjust-
ing" and all partswere "Interchangeable."29
The date that the use of Bailey'splane becamewidespreadis difficult
to pinpoint;however, all indicationspoint to the decade of the 1870's
and particularlythe yearsimmediatelyfollowing the Centennial.It is of
interest that in 1851, in an extended section on planes, no mention of
the iron-bodied variety was made by Appleton's Dictionary of Ma-
24U.S. Patent no. 97,177. 26 U.S. Patent no. 106,868.
25 27 Carpenter
U.S. Patent no. 104,753. (April, 1887), p. 8.
28 See U.S. Patent no. 67,398
(August 6, 1867). See Goodman, op. cit., pp. 88-105.
29Trade Catalogue of Goodnow & Wightman, Importers, Manufacturers and
Dealers in Tools (Boston, 1884), p. 54, in SmithsonianInstitution Collection.
46 Peter C. Welsh
chines, Mechanics, Engine-Work and Engineering.30By 1876, one

American manufacturer had produced 80,000 metallic planes, and in 1880
in the new Appleton's Cyclopaediaof Applied Mechanics,the reader
is informed that "adjustable iron planes have very largely come into
use in this country, and in many particulars are more convenient and
effective than wood-stocked tools."31 Bailey's planes were now de-
scribed and illustrated in Appleton's Cyclopaedia. By 1900, Bailey's
model alone had exceeded the 900,000 mark in numbers sold32 (see
Fig. 5).
* * *
In 1876, "the American plane" made its world debut. Its evolution
had been the result of a quest for a stronger, cheaper, lighter, and more
flexible tool. Its achievement was called an example of the "inventive
genius of American citizens." Within the context of the Centennial this
was high praise for an object whose very presence amid examples of
power machinery of all types seemed incongruous. The wood-bodied
version of the bench plane had been a primary tool in the carpenter's
chest. It had been, in fact, the symbol of hand craftsmanship in wood.
At the Centennial the metallic plane was acclaimed as a new form, not
as a new tool; and as a symbol it could stand for the advance of Ameri-
can industrial technology and the quality of the functional design sense
of her mechanics and engineers. Other contrasts are suggested by the
two versions of the bench plane. For example, the wooden plane was
compatible not only with its user but the products he shaped. Tool,
craftsman, and finished product reflected qualities in the society such as
individuality and variety, and each had an affinity for the other (see
Fig. 6). The wood-bodied plane, in addition, had a relationship in scale
with other objects of pre-industrial America. In appearance alone the
old form of the plane impresses a viewer that the level of precision
achieved by the use of the tool depends upon the hand of the craftsman.
By contrast, the metallic plane, in the machined sameness of its new de-
sign, suggests no real relationship to the craftsman who used it. The
craftsman's tool had taken on the impersonality of the machine that
made it, and the idea of precision was now centered in the tool rather
than in its user.
The form of the plane, in brief, had reached perfection at a time
30 (New York, 1850-51), 2 vols.
31 See Francis A. Walker, op. cit., p. 13; and Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Applied
Mechanics (New York, 1880), II, 547.
32 Trade
Catalogue of Chandler and Farquhar,No. 85 (Boston, 1900), in Smith-
sonian Institution Collection.
when its function was being rapidlyreplacedby machinery.Carpenters
and joiners during the last quarterof the nineteenthcentury sadly be-
moanedthe fact that woodworking was no longer an art but rather a
tradein which machinesof iron and steel did all the work.33"The MA-
CHINE," as the GermanFriedrichGoldschmidtobservedat the Cen-
tennial,was "the essentialelement in the life of North Americans."34
The decadeswhich saw the mechanizationof agriculturaland manu-
facturingtechniqueshad correspondedroughly with those that hadwit-
nessed the development of the metallic plane, commencing with
Knowles'spatent in 1827and ending in a most demonstrablefashionin
1876. The transformationof the plane from a wooden to a metallic
form, from a non-standardto a standardizedimplementin design and
parts,and from a crudely adjustable,single-purposetool to a precisely
set, multipurposedevice is in a single instancean index of the change in
structureand design of hand tools generally.
What had seemed to observersat the Centennialto be a most recent
Americancontributionto hand-tooldesign had been in reality the evo-
lution of a tool in a society rapidly changing from rural handicraft
techniquesto those of an urbanindustrialtechnology. In this processit
is worth noting that, as the plane was perfected, the role of the wood-
working craftsmandiminished.What standsas an achievementby Vic-
torian Americansof functional design, on the one hand, was accompa-
nied on the other (in the areaof the tool's use), by a loss of restraintin
architectureand the decorative arts. The metallic plane only empha-
sizes furtherthe dichotomy which the Centennialpresentsbetween the
sound functionaland efficientdesignof the tools of productionand the
uninhibitedarray of objects produced by them.
The metallic hand plane and objects like it are in a real sense the
vernacularexpressionof Victorian America. They incorporatedthat
beautywhich Emerson,in his essay on "Art,"had claimedwould not be
found in England'spast or in Ancient Greece but rather "in the field
and woodside, in the shop and mill."
33 Carpenter (July, 1887), p. 4.
34From Friedrich Goldschmidt, Die Weltausstellung in Philadelphia und die
Deutsche Industrie (Berlin, 1877), as quoted in Friedrich Klemm, A History of
Western Technology, trans. Dorothea Waley Singer (New York, 1959), p. 329.

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The Metallic Woodworking Plane: An American Contribution to Hand-Tool Design

Author(s): Peter C. Welsh

At Philadelphiain 1876,David McHardy, the Britishexpert judging

Traditionally, bench planes, whether British, European, or Ameri-

Americanpatenteesas early as the 1820'shad begun to submit speci-

Patenteeswere concernedwith fixing firmly the cutting blade of the

The increasing proliferation of tool types also prompted the all-

chines, Mechanics, Engine-Work and Engineering.30By 1876, one

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