The planing machine, next to the saw, is perhaps the most important
agent for the conversion and manipulation of wood in use; and before
proceeding to consider it, in its present form, says the author of
this article, Mr. F.H. Morse, in the _Northwestern Lumberman_, it may
not be out of place to notice briefly its origin and history.
The first man to employ power in the operation of smoothing the
surface of wood was Sir Samuel Bentham, of London, England, and to him
belongs the honor of having discovered the principle upon which all
planing machines operate. A brief personal notice of this remarkable
inventor will serve to show under what circumstances the planing
machine originated. His education was secured at the Westminster
school of London, and, as far as can be ascertained from the meager
records of his life that have come down to us, was of the most
thorough kind, both classical and scientific, that could be obtained
at that time (1770). When his education was finished, he was bound to
the master shipwright of the Woolwich dockyard, to whom he served an
apprenticeship of seven years, acquiring in that time a practical
knowledge of the methods of working in both wood and iron then in
vogue, and receiving the best scientific instruction that the
development of that period afforded. After his term of apprenticeship
had expired, he spent about two years in looking up the local
peculiarities of other shipyards whose methods of working differed in
some respects from those of the Woolwich mechanics.
In 1779 he was ordered by the government to examine into the progress
of shipbuilding in Northern Europe, and in carrying out this
commission he repaired to Russia, where he invented the first machine
for planing wood. Its mode of operation, whether reciprocating or
rotating, it is impossible to ascertain positively, but the conclusion
arrived at, after referring to the specifications of his first patent,
which was issued in 1791, is that it worked upon the former principle
by means closely analogous to the operation of planing by hand. He
seems to have made no use of his venture in Russia, though he resided
there several years and filled several important positions under the
Russian Government. He returned to his native country in 1791 and
joined his brother, Jeremy Bentham, who had at that time just received
an appointment from the government to introduce industrial prisons in
England. To utilize the unskilled labor of the convicts, the talents
of Sir Samuel were called into use, and he devised a number of new
machines, the greater part of which were for working wood. For want of
a more suitable place, these machines were constructed at the
residence of Jeremy Bentham, which was thus converted into the first
manufactory for woodworking machines. This factory was established in
1794, but was soon found to be too small for the purpose, and another
building was occupied. In a lecture before the Society of Arts, in
1853, Professor Willis, referring to the shops of the Benthams, stated
that "there were constructed machines for all general operations in
woodwork, including planing, molding, rebating, grooving, mortising,
and sawing, both in coarse and fine work, in curved, winding, and
transverse directions, and shaping wood in complicated forms; and
further, as an example, that all parts of a highly finished window
sash are prepared, also all parts of an ornamented carriage wheel were
made so that nothing remained to be done by hand but to put the
component parts together."
In 1797 the Admiralty consented to the introduction of such of these
machines as could be used to advantage in the different dockyards, and
they were manufactured under the direction of Jeremy Bentham, and
forwarded from time to time to Portsmouth and Plymouth, where they
were used with good results, performing all that was claimed for them.
Bentham was joined in 1810 by another genius (formerly in the employ
of the brothers) by the name of Brunel, who had invented several
valuable machines, among which was one for shaping block shells, which
seems to have had Bentham's indorsement. As Inspector General, in
1803, Sir Samuel advised the Admiralty to introduce many of his new
machines, and also to permit the use of steam engines; accordingly,
the dockyards were fitted with engines for sawing, planing, boring,
tenoning, mortising, etc. The labor saved by their use can be inferred
from the fact that Brunel, who had assisted in their construction,
received as a premium for his inventions the amount saved in the yards
by their use in one year, which reached the respectable sum of
$80,000. In the same year the government settled with Jeremy Bentham,
after arbitration, and allowed him for machines furnished the yards
and prisons, $100,000. We learn from testimony given before the
arbitrators that "Sir Samuel Bentham prepared a system of machinery
for the employment of men without skill, and particularly with a view
to utilizing convict labor. In 1793 patents were taken out on these
inventions to secure their exclusive use for the prisons." The
testimony states that no skill was required in the use of these
machines; they were introduced into the dockyards and worked by common
laborers. It was claimed that nine tenths of the labor was saved by
the use of Bentham's machines, which proves that they were at least
effective, which cannot be said in all cases of those of modern
manufacture.
The patent of Bentham, issued in 1793, is doubtless one of the most
remarkable ones ever issued, both for the importance of the inventions
it protected and the clearness with which they and the principles on
which they operated are described. Richards, in referring to that
section of this patent which relates to rotary tools for woodcutting,
quotes the inventor as saying: "The idea of adapting the rotative
motion of a tool with more or less advantage, to give all sorts of
substances any shape that may be required, is my own, and, as I
believe, entirely new."
For those not skilled in nor acquainted with the nature and extent of
the various operations in wood conversion which come under the head of
shaping with rotary cutters, it will be difficult to convey an idea of
the invention here set forth; it includes, indeed, nearly all
operations in woodworking, and as an original invention may be said to
consist in the discovery of the fact that flat surfaces, or surfaces
of any contour, can be properly prepared by the action of rotating
tools. It is not to be wondered at that such an operation should not
have been sooner discovered, for even at the present time there are
few processes in treating material which seem so anomalous as that of
planing a flat surface with cutters revolving in a circle of a few
inches in diameter.
In reference to planing mouldings, it is said: "If the circumference
of a circular cutter be formed in the shape of any moulding, and
projecting above the bench no more than necessary, the piece being
shoved over the cutter will thus be cut to a moulding corresponding to
the cutter--that is, the reverse of it, just as a plane iron cuts the
reverse. If a plane cutter, such as that above spoken of for cutting a
groove in the breadth of a piece, be made so thick, or, as we might be
apt to say now, so broad, or so long, as to cover the whole breadth of
the piece, it will present the idea of a roller. This I call a cutting
roller; it maybe employed in many cases with great advantage to
perform the office of a plane."
The cutting roller of Bentham is the present cutter block of England,
or the cutting cylinder of America, and after what has been quoted it
may be seen that the idea of rotary planing and moulding machines had
been fully grasped by Bentham. He goes on as usual to the various
conditions which attach to the process of planing, and says further:
"if a cutting roller of this sort be placed with its axis horizontal
and the bench beneath, it may be made to rise and lower. The bench
(machine) may be very readily adjusted, so as to determine the
thickness to which a piece will be reduced by being passed under the
roller." "To gain time, cutters may be applied to different sides of a
piece at once, and such of them as make parallel cuts may be mounted
on the same spindle."
These extracts would not be out of place in an explanatory lecture or
essay on woodcutting at the present day, and cannot help awakening
surprise that they should have been written eighty-three years ago,
when there had, so far as we know, been no precedents, nor even
suggestions from previous practice.
The foregoing shows that nearly all the fundamental principles, upon
which woodcutting by machinery in its present development depends,
were familiar to Sir Samuel Bentham, and though his name has been
almost forgotten, it may be safely asserted that he gave to the world
more useful inventions than any other man of his age. His work shows
throughout a constant method and system of reasoning, which point
rather to a life of persistent labor than to one of what would
ordinarily be called genius. That latter quality he must certainly
have possessed in the highest degree, for without it even his
knowledge and experience could not have been equal to the work he
accomplished. Directed to different ends, his talent and genius would
doubtless have secured for him a fame that would live for years,
though it does not seem possible that he could have conferred upon the
world a greater benefit.
* * * * *