Auger Points Was Originally Published As a Complement
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1 Auger Points was originally published as a complement to a talk made by Robert Carlson before the Early Trades & Crafts Society on September 22, 1970. It was reprinted in October of 1973 on the occasion of the Fall Meeting of Tools and Trades in Massachusetts, at which Mr. Carlson also spoke. It is now reprinted for the Mid-West Tool Collectors' Association. Auger Points is largely composed of articles by Mr. Carlson published in the Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association to whom grateful acknowledgement is due. March 1975 NOTE: The following were in the EAIA Chronicle: “On the Origins of the Spiral Auger” Volume XX, December 1967, pages 49-51. “Nomenclature and Variations of Parts of the Spiral Bit” Volume XXI, June 1968, front cover. 2 ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SPIRAL AUGER By Robert H. Carlson and Thomas A. Stevens ACCORDING to Dr. Henry Mercer, in his book that is the bible It is accepted by Knight, Dr. Mercer, George Rhine, of tool collectors, Ancient Carpenters' Tools, F. M. Fieldhaus, Peter Welsh and others (including these writers) that Ezra "throws light on the obscure origin of the spiral auger." (1) L'Hommedieu's spiral auger was the prototype of its class. This phrase is perhaps one of the greatest under-statements Later patentees merely refined or improved, sometimes only ever made in the antique tool field. The origin of the spiral hopefully, its basic function. It may well be that L'Hommedieu auger is not only obscure --- it is also baffling, mysterious, and "formalized," to use our modern jargon, the spiral auger, frustrating. We suspect it will continue to be so in spite of the rather than invented it, in the common acceptance of the term. research efforts of tool historians. This paper, therefore, It seems almost impossible that the action of the screw as a should not be considered as a definitive work, but rather as an lifting and discharging device was not applied to wood-boring exploratory effort. It is an attempt to collect and collate the until the first decade of the Nineteenth Century. Archimedes, work of others in this area, and combine that work with recent perhaps the true "inventor" of the screw, utilized the principle research by the authors, in the hope that more facts will be in his water-raising device 250 B.C., and it was adapted for unearthed in the future that will begin to form a pattern. other purposes by Leonardo da Vinci and countless others Dr. Mercer's research is impressive and well down through the centuries. In fact, when we examine the documented. His citation of "Mr. Phineas Cook's New scanty documentation on old tools, we find evidence that the Constructed Spiral Auger," (an advancement that he properly screw principle was indeed applied to boring tools, perhaps points out is not authenticated in British patents and is "not better referred to as hole-making tools, but in a primitive and noticed by Holtzaffel") (2); and his illustration of "A Spiral abortive fashion. Auger from Madeira" (3); indicate his careful, world-wide and One of the earliest auger illustrations known is in the scholarly treatment of this difficult and poorly-authenticated invaluable Mercer, a "Pod Auger of the 15th Century." (5). area of tool history. However, it should be pointed out that his This is a copper engraving of the "Holy Family" and St. "Coal Miners Spiral Auger from Madeira" was dredged up in Joseph is boring a plank with a large T-auger, which, as the harbor of Funchal, circa 1900. Yet Mercer says "possibly Mercer notes, "the sides of which are twisted more than in the of the 18th century." He then states, "if this striking relic of the photo engravings of other examples shown here." Although sea had a definite date, it would be more significant." We the delineation is poor, close examination indicates that it could not agree more. But lacking a "definite date," we cannot looks very much like a crude spiral auger, Figure 1. If so the help but question this "remarkable specimen." By the late principle was lost or abandoned, for in Moxon's illustration of 1800's, it could well have been a rusty import from America the tools of the joiner, Mechanick Exercises, 1703, we see a that somehow found its way from a ship to the bottom of the brace and bit, Figure 2, H, this is a quill or spoon bit; a gimlet, harbor. For the earliest well-documented date of the spiral I, evidently a screw point developing into a side-cutting pod; auger (always excepting Cook's Auger of 1770) is July 31, and an auger, K, a T-handled tool, again with a screw 1809. In that year, Ezra L'Hommedieu of Saybrook, point that develops into a side cutting pod; Connecticut, was granted a patent for his double-podded center screw auger. (4). It is true that there are several other names associated with the invention, or, perhaps a better term, the development of the spiral auger, Knight, in his American Mechanical Dictionary, 1872, credits Lilly and Gurley, both of Connecticut, with the invention, circa 1800. However, there are no records of patents issued to either of them, although we do have records of a Nineteenth-Century auger factory in Gurleyville, a section of the town of Mansfield, Connecticut. Patent records indicate that C. Hoxie, Hudson, New York, obtained an auger patent on June 12, 1804, and later on June 26, 1824, for an "auger for boring post-holes." The latter could be an auger for boring holes in fence posts or one for boring holes in the ground to receive the posts, as would be found in present day post-hole augers. The titles in the Index of Patents do not help us here, listing, "Augers, Earth; Augers, Earth-Boring, Excavating; Augers, Post; Augers, Post-Hole; Augers, Well," etc. Since many of the early patents were destroyed in the Patent Office fires, it is not always possible to determine what the patent name means. Another early patent was granted to W. Hale, of Champlain, New York, on February 7, 1807. These are the only patent dates found earlier than Ezra L'Hommedieu's of 1809. Fig. 2. From Moxon, Mechanick Exercises, 1703 3 Thus, we find that at this early period the center- One wonders why more efficient cutters were not associated screw action, starting and pulling the tool into the wood was with it. Martin also shows a gimlet, Figure 3. Number 3. The recognized and used, but an effective method of discharging engraving is poor, but certainly there is no indication of a the chips from the hole was lacking. A century later, Thomas screw point; again a retrogression. On the other hand, we Martin illustrated the tools of the carpenters and joiner, and have another illustration of the same period, circa 1810, that his first figure was a nose auger, Figure 3, Number 1 (6). It is presents a paradox; "Lewis Miller Working at his Bench in somewhat disconcerting to find that, 110 years after Moxon, York, Pa." (7). This crudely drawn, but basically clear picture, the principle of using the screw to aid the worker has been shows what is definitely a spiral auger, Figure 4. This seeming discarded, and seemingly we have retrogressed to the contradiction, however, may well be caused by the difference laborious procedure of starting the hole with a gouge, forcing in locale, for it is emphasized and perhaps partially explained the half-cylinder end-cutting tool into the wood by main force in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1880, in an article on hand and weight for a few inches until it is clogged with shavings, tools. We quote, "America has long taken the leading then withdrawing to clear the tool. Martin also shows a brace originating thoughtful improvements of this kind and the result and bit, Figure 3, Number 2, but this is quite clearly a is apparent in the rapid manner in which the use of edge tools countersink, rather than a boring tool. However, it is and appliances of American patterns is now everywhere interesting to note that the brace, which is clearly pictured, is a extending." The same article continues -- referring to nose- very sophisticated tool. It is obviously one of the first of the augers, quill, and center-bits; "English wood-boring tools beautiful Sheffield type wood braces with brass quarter-plates indeed offer a considerable field for improvement. Imported that carried through as late as 1900 and are so much admired substitutes for the above are already [!] to be met with, by casual observers as well as collectors. amongst others the twisted centre-bits [we assume that this is an oblique reference to a spiral-auger], and the expanding centre-bits, [evidently what we would call an expanding bit], both of which appear to be an advance in the right direction, although they have not yet come largely into use". This in England in 1880! But as a matter of fact, this time lag evidently exists to some extent even now. Figure 3. From Martin, The Circle of the Mechanical Arts, 1813. William Marples & Sons, Ltd. of Sheffield illustrate a shell [nose] auger in their 1959 catalogue as well as standard types of spiral augers. Perhaps this is weight of tradition; perhaps as a special purpose tool; perhaps as a continuing reprint -- we cannot say, but it is startling to find it offered for sale some 150 years after it should have been obsolescent. And if England seems somewhat backward in the development of boring tools, evidently, Middle Europe was even more so.