INVENTORS OF THE PLANER
In almost no case is the crediting of invention more difficult than in
that of the planer. Not only was this tool the product of many men but
no single man stands out clearly as Maudslay, for instance, does in the
development of the lathe. The invention of the metal planer has been
claimed in England on behalf of Spring of Aberdeen, James Fox, George
Rennie, Matthew Murray, Joseph Clement and Richard Roberts. The planer
was in use in the United States so early that it may also have been
invented independently in this country, though, without doubt, later
than in England.
With the planer as with the lathe, the French were the pioneers.
Plumier, a French writer on mechanical subjects, published in 1754 a
description of a machine which had been used for some years, consisting
of two parallel bars of wood or iron connected at their extremities.
The article to be planed was fixed between them, and a frame guided
between the same bars was moved lengthwise by a long screw and carried
a tool which took a planing cut from the work. The machine was intended
for ornamenting the handles of knives and was said by Plumier to have
been an English invention. A planing machine invented in 1751 by
Nicholas Forq, a French clock maker, for the purpose of planing the
pump barrels used in the Marly water works to supply the fountains
at Versailles, is shown in Fig. 17. These pump barrels were made up
of wrought iron staves bound together by hoops. There were quite a
number of these barrels from 10 inches to 4 feet in diameter and
from 7 feet to 10 feet long. The illustration, taken from Buchanan’s
“Mill Work,” published in 1841,[48] is not complete, as it lacks the
carriage carrying the planing tool which was not shown on the original
drawing. The general construction of the machine however is quite
clear. The built-up barrel is shown in place. The cutter was carried
backward and forward between two parallel iron bars set horizontally
through the cylinder. Either the tool or the pump barrel must have been
given a rotative feed. Its action was therefore equivalent to planing
on centers, and it is said to have done this fairly large work in a
satisfactory manner.
[48] Buchanan: “Practical Essays on Mill Work and Other Machinery.”
London, 1841. Volume of Plates.
[Illustration: _NOTE.--The spots on the photograph were the yellow
stains of age on the original plate_
FIGURE 17. FRENCH PLANING MACHINE BY NICHOLAS FORQ, 1751]
Bentham described a planer in his well-known patent of 1793 and Bramah
in his patent of 1802. Matthew Murray is said to have built one in 1814
to machine the faces of D-slide valves, which were originally invented
by Murdock in 1786 but improved by Murray in 1802. Richard Roberts
built a planer in 1817 which is, without doubt, the earliest planer
now in existence. It is in the South Kensington Museum in London and a
picture of it is given in Fig. 20.[49] It will be seen that the modern
planer design was already beginning to take shape. The chisel and file
marks on the bed and ways indicate that it was itself made without
the use of a planer. It had vertical and horizontal feeds, an angular
adjustment and separate tool-feed for the head, and a hinged clamp for
the tool to allow it to lift on the return stroke. The table, which was
hand-operated through a chain drive, was 52 inches long by 11 inches
wide.
[49] No. 1619. Cat. M. E. Collection, Part II, p. 272.
George Rennie built a planer in 1820 with a movable bed operated by
a screw and furnished with a revolving cutting tool.[50] James Fox
built one in 1821, capable of planing work 10 feet, 6 inches long, 22
inches wide, and 12 inches deep, to plane the bars of lace machines.
Joseph Clement made his first planer in 1820 to plane the triangular
bars of lathes and the sides of weaving looms. Some years later he
built his “great planer,” a remarkable machine from both a mechanical
and a financial standpoint. A very full description of it was given by
Mr. Varley in the “Transactions of the Society of Arts” in London in
1832,[51] illustrated by a set of copper plates made from Clement’s own
drawings. Clement’s reputation of being the most expert draftsman of
his day is well borne out by these drawings. In this planer two cutting
tools were used, one for the forward and one for the return stroke. The
bed ran on rollers, mounted on a concrete foundation, which were said
to have been so true that “if you put a piece of paper under one of the
rollers it would stop all the rest.” It was fitted with centers and
was used for planing circular, spiral and conical work as well as flat
work. It took in work 6 feet square and was hand-driven. The cutting
speed must have been low, for “the power of one man was sufficient to
keep it in motion for ordinary work, though two were employed to make
long and full cuts both ways.” For more than ten years it was the only
one of its size and it ran for many years night and day on jobbing
work, its earnings forming Clement’s principal income. Smiles says
that his charge for planing was 18 shillings, or $4.32, per square
foot, which amounted to about £10 per day of twelve hours, or, with two
shifts, to about $100 a day.[52] On this basis he must have machined
an average of about 11 square feet in twelve hours.
[50] Buchanan, p. xlii.
[51] Vol. XLIX, p. 157.
[52] Smiles: “Industrial Biography,” p. 306. Boston, 1864.
By 1840 the design of the planer had become fairly well settled and
its use general. In America, planers were built by Gay, Silver &
Company of North Chelmsford, Mass., as early as 1831. Pedrick & Ayer
of Philadelphia are also said to have built a planer at about the same
time. The early American tool builders will be taken up in a later
chapter.
Little is known of the personalities and histories of some of these
men, such as Spring of Aberdeen. Spring’s name is mentioned by Smiles
in his “Industrial Biography”[53] as one of the inventors of the
planer, but no further reference is made to him.
[53] p. 223.
James Fox was the founder of a well-known firm of machine-tool builders
in Derby. He was originally a butler, but his mechanical skill turned
him toward the design and building of lace machinery. The gentleman in
whose employ he had served furnished him with the means of beginning
business on his own account, and he soon obtained work from the
great firms of Arkwright and Strutt, the founders of modern cotton
manufacture. His planer, built about 1814, was used in the manufacture
of this machinery. It is described by Samuel Hall, a former workman
under Fox, as follows: “It was essentially the same in principle as the
planing machine now in general use, although differing in detail. It
had a self-acting ratchet motion for moving the slides of a compound
slide-rest, and a self-acting reversing tackle, consisting of three
bevel wheels, one a stud, one loose on the driving shaft, and another
on a socket, with a pinion on the opposite end of the driving shaft
running on the socket. The other end was the place for the driving
pulley. A clutch-box was placed between the two opposite wheels,
which was made to slide on a feather, so that by means of another
shaft containing levers and a tumbling ball, the box on reversing was
carried from one bevel-wheel to the opposite one.”[54] This planer was
in regular use as late as 1859. The driving and reversing mechanism
described above is almost exactly that used on Clement’s great
planer, built a dozen years later. Fox is said to have also invented
a screw-cutting machine, an automatic gear cutter and a self-acting
lathe, but the evidence in regard to their dates is uncertain.
[54] _Ibid._, p. 315.
George Rennie was the brother of Sir John Rennie. They succeeded to
the business founded by their father, the elder John Rennie, one of
Watt’s best-known workmen and next to Murdock the most important of
his assistants, who built the Albion Flour Mills in Black Friars,
where one of the first rotative engines was installed about 1788. The
mill was a great success until it burned down a few years later. John
Rennie’s connection with it established his reputation and he shortly
after started out for himself as a millwright and founded the business
which his two sons carried on for many years and which had a great
influence throughout all England. Sir William Fairbairn was one of
those who worked for George Rennie and furnishes another example of the
cumulative influence of a succession of strong mechanics.
Matthew Murray was born at Stockton about 1765. He was apprenticed to
a blacksmith and soon became an expert mechanic. He married before
his term of apprenticeship expired and as it was difficult to find
sufficient work near Stockton, he left his wife behind him as soon as
he was free and set out for Leeds with his bundle on his back. He
obtained employment with a John Marshall who had begun the manufacture
of flax machinery near Adel. Murray suggested improvements which
brought him a present of £20 and rapid promotion until he soon became
the first mechanic in the shop. He sent for his wife and settled down
in Leeds, remaining with Mr. Marshall for about twelve years. He
formed a partnership with James Fenton and David Wood and started an
engineering and machine-building factory at Leeds in 1795. Here he
began the manufacture of steam engines and soon established a high
reputation, pushing Boulton & Watt hard. Murdock was sent down to
Leeds, called on Murray, was received cordially, and was shown freely
over the entire work. On visiting the Soho works a short time afterward
Murray was received cordially by Murdock, and was invited to dinner
but was told that there was a rule against admitting anyone in the
trade to the works. Under the circumstances Murray was indignant and
declining the invitation to dinner left without further delay. A little
later Boulton & Watt attempted to “plug him up” by buying the property
adjoining his factory, and this tract of land remained vacant for
over 50 years. He improved the D-slide valve and did much work toward
simplifying the design of the steam engine. The flat surfaces required
in this type of valve led to the building of his planer. Mr. March, a
well-known tool manufacturer of the next generation, went to work for
Murray in 1814. Mr. March said the planer was in use at that time. “I
recollect it very distinctly,” he continues, “and even the sort of
framing on which it stood. The machine was not patented, and like many
inventions in those days it was kept as much a secret as possible,
being locked up in a small room by itself, to which the ordinary
workmen could not obtain access. The year in which I remember it being
in use was, so far as I am aware, long before any planing machine of a
similar kind had been invented.”[55]
[55] _Ibid._, p. 316.
Like many of the owners of that time Murray lived directly opposite
his works and he installed in his house a steam heating apparatus
which excited much wonder and which must have been one of the first
in use. He built the first locomotive which was put to successful
commercial use. Trevithick had invented a steam road-engine with
a single steam cylinder and a large flywheel, which had attracted
considerable attention, but was wholly impracticable. It was important,
however, as it had one of the first high-pressure engines, working
above atmospheric pressure. In 1811 Blenkinsop of Leeds, taking his
idea from Trevithick, had a number of locomotives built to operate a
railway from the Middletown collieries to Leeds, a distance of 3¹⁄₂
miles. Blenkinsop was not a mechanic and the work was designed and
executed by Matthew Murray. Murray used two steam cylinders instead
of one, driving onto the same shaft with cranks set at right angles,
and therefore introduced one of the most important features of modern
locomotive design. These engines were in daily use for many years and
were inspected by George Stephenson when he began his development of
the locomotive. Murray’s design formed the basis from which he started.
The engines, however, were operated by a cog-wheel driving onto a
continuous rack laid along the road bed. It was not until a number of
years later that Hedley and Stephenson established the fact that the
wheel friction of smooth drivers would furnish adequate tractive power.
The old Blenkinsop engines, as they were called, hauled about thirty
coal wagons at a speed of 3¹⁄₄ miles an hour.
Murray’s most important inventions were connected with the flax
industry and for these he obtained a gold medal from the Society of
Arts. At the time they were developed, the flax trade was dying. Their
effect was to establish the British linen trade on a permanent and
secure foundation. All the machine tools used in his establishment were
designed and built by himself and among these was the planer which was
unquestionably one of the earliest built. He made similar articles for
other firms and started a branch of engineering for which Leeds became
famous. He was a frank, open-hearted man, and one who contributed
greatly to the industrial supremacy of England.
Joseph Clement was born in Westmoreland in 1779.[56] His father was a
weaver, a man of little education but of mental ability, a great lover
of nature and something of a mechanic. Joseph Clement himself had only
the merest elements of reading and writing. He started in life as a
thatcher and slater, but picked up the rudiments of mechanics at the
village blacksmith shop. Being grateful to the blacksmith, he repaid
him by making for him a lathe which was a pretty creditable machine. On
this he himself made flutes and fifes for sale and also a microscope
for his father to use in his nature studies. As early as 1804 he began
to work on screw cutting and made a set of die-stocks, although he
had never seen any. He worked in several small country shops, then
in Carlisle and in Glasgow, where he took lessons in drawing from
a Peter Nicholson and became one of the most skillful draftsmen in
England. Later he went to Aberdeen and was earning three guineas ($15)
a week designing and fitting up power looms. By the end of 1813 he
had saved £100. With this he went to London, meaning sooner or later
to set up for himself. He first worked for an Alexander Galloway, a
ward politician and tradesman who owned a small shop. Galloway was
a slovenly manager and left things to run themselves. When Clement
started in he found the tools so poor that he could not do good work
with them, and immediately set to work truing them up, to the surprise
of his shopmates who had settled down to the slipshod standards of the
shop. Seeing that Clement was capable of the highest grade work, one of
his shopmates told him to go to Bramah’s where such workmanship would
be appreciated.
[56] The best information on Clement comes from Smiles’ “Industrial
Biography,” Chap. XIII.
He saw Bramah and engaged to work for him for a month on trial. The
result was so satisfactory that he signed an agreement for five
years, dated April 1, 1814, under which he became chief draftsman and
superintendent of the Pimlico works. Clement threw himself eagerly into
the new work and took great satisfaction in the high quality of work
which was the standard in Bramah’s establishment. Bramah was greatly
pleased with him and told him, “If I had secured your services five
years since I would now have been a richer man by many thousands of
pounds.” Bramah died, however, within a year and his two sons returning
from college took charge of the business. They soon became jealous of
Clement’s influence and by mutual consent the agreement signed with
their father was terminated. Clement immediately went to Maudslay &
Field’s as chief draftsman and assisted in the development of the
early marine engines which they were building at that time. In 1817 he
started in for himself in a small shop in Newington, with a capital of
£500 and his work there until his death in 1844 is of great importance.
[Illustration: FIGURE 18. MATTHEW MURRAY]
[Illustration: FIGURE 19. RICHARD ROBERTS]
As already pointed out, he had been working for many years on the
problem of screw cutting. Maudslay had carried this to a more refined
point than any other mechanic. Profiting by Maudslay’s experience,
Clement began the regular manufacture of taps and dies in 1828, using
the thread standards developed by Maudslay as his basis. He introduced
the tap with a small squared shank which would fall through the
threaded hole and save the time of backing out. He is said to have been
one of the first in England to employ revolving cutters, using them to
flute his taps. While he may have used such cutters, he was certainly
not the first to do so, as they were in use in France at least thirty
years earlier. He did important work in developing the screw-cutting
lathe, again improving upon Maudslay’s work and increasing the accuracy
of the device. He was given a number of gold medals for various
improvements in it, as well as for his work on the planer. We have
already referred to his “great planer” and will only say here that of
those who contributed to the early development of this machine none
have had a greater influence. He executed the work on Charles Babbage’s
famous calculating machine, which attracted so much attention eighty
years ago and was probably the most refined and intricate piece of
mechanism constructed up to that time.
Clement was a rough and heavy-browed man, without polish, who retained
until the last his strong Westmoreland dialect. At no time did he
employ over thirty workmen in his factory, but they were all of the
very highest class. Among them was Sir Joseph Whitworth, who continued
his work on screw threads and brought about the general use of what is
now known as the Whitworth thread.
Richard Roberts, the last of those mentioned as inventors of the metal
planer, was born in Wales in 1789. Like most of the early mechanics
he had little or no education, and as soon as he was strong enough
he began work as a laborer in a quarry near his home. His mechanical
aptitude led him into odd jobs and he soon became known for his
dexterity. He finally determined to become a mechanic and worked
in several shops in the neighborhood. He was employed for a time as
pattern maker at John Wilkinson’s works at Bradley, and is one of the
few links between Wilkinson, who made the first modern metal-cutting
tool--his boring machine--and the later generation of tool builders.
He drifted about, a jack-of-all-trades--turner, millwright, pattern
maker and wheelwright--to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and finally
up to London, where, after being with Holtzapffel for a short time, he
found work with Maudslay in 1814 and remained with him several years.
His experience here was valuable as he came in contact with the best
mechanical practice. The memoir of Roberts in the “Transactions of
the Institution of Civil Engineers”[57] states that he worked on the
Portsmouth block machinery, but this could hardly have been true, as
that machinery was in operation by 1808. He ceased roving and did so
well that he determined to return to the North and begin business for
himself.
[57] Vol. XXIV, p. 536. 1864.
He started at Manchester in 1817 and there he spent the best years of
his life. Few inventors have been more prolific or more versatile.
Within a year or two he had made one of the first planers, already
described; had invented the back-geared headstock, having the cone
pulley running loose upon the main spindle,[58] shown in Fig. 21, and
made other improvements in the screw-cutting lathe; invented the first
successful gas meter and built gear-cutting, broaching and slotting
machines and an improved beam-scale. Holtzapffel says: “Probably no
individual has originated so many useful varieties of drilling machines
as Mr. Richard Roberts.” Throughout his book he frequently illustrates
and describes tools and machinery designed by Roberts, crediting him
with the invention of the slotter and key-seater, which he thinks was
an outgrowth of Brunel’s mortising machine, Fig. 11. Roberts’ punching
and shearing machinery was the standard for that time.[59]
[58] _Ibid._, p. 537.
[59] Holtzapffel: “Turning and Mechanical Manipulation,” Vol. II, pp.
568, 900, 920-922. London, 1847.
[Illustration: FIGURE 20. ROBERTS’ PLANER, BUILT IN 1817]
[Illustration: FIGURE 21. ROBERTS’ BACK-GEARED LATHE]
By 1825 his reputation had so increased that his firm, Sharp, Roberts
& Company, was asked by a committee of the cotton manufacturers of
Manchester to undertake the development of an automatic spinning
mule. The spinners were the highest paid labor in Lancashire textile
industry, but they were difficult to work with and prone to strike on
a moment’s notice, closing the mills and throwing other workmen out of
employment. The operators asked Roberts repeatedly to help them but he
gave them no encouragement, as the problem was conceded to be difficult
and he said he was not familiar with textile machinery. He had been
thinking over the problem, however, and the third time they called
on him he said that he now thought he could construct the required
machinery. The result was the invention in 1825 of his delicate and
complex automatic spinning mule in which hundreds of spindles “run
themselves” with only the attention of a few unskilled helpers to watch
for broken threads and mend them. This was one of the great textile
inventions and has had an enormous influence on the development of the
cotton industry. The next year, 1826, he went to Mülhouse in Alsace
and laid the foundation of modern French cotton manufacture. Later he
invented and patented a number of other important textile machines.
With the development of the railway his firm began the manufacture of
locomotives. They built more than 1500, and established a reputation
equal to that of Stephenson & Company in Newcastle. The engines were
built interchangeably to templates and gauges, and Roberts’ works were
one of the first in England to grasp and use the modern system of
interchangeable manufacture.
In addition to all that has been mentioned, he invented the iron
billiard table, a successful punching and shearing machine, the most
powerful electro-magnet then made, a turret clock, a cigar-making
machine and a system of constructing steamships and equipping them with
twin screws having independent engines.
With a wonderful mechanical genius, he was lacking in worldly wisdom
and was a poor business man. He severed his connection with Sharp,
Roberts & Company, became involved financially and finally died at
London in 1864 in poverty. At his death a popular subscription, headed
by Sir William Fairbairn and many of the nobility, was started to
provide for his only daughter as a memorial of the debt which England
owed him. The memoir of him in the “Transactions of the Institution
of Civil Engineers” closes with the following words: “The career of
Mr. Roberts was remarkable, and it should be carefully written by some
one who could investigate impartially the numerous inventions and
improvements to which claim could justly be laid for him, and who, at
the same time, would, with equal justice, show where his inventions
have been pirated.” It is a great pity that this was never done.
He was a rugged, straightforward, kindly man, of great inventive power.
He improved nearly everything he touched or superseded it entirely
by something better, and neither his name nor his work should be
forgotten.