If you find a patent number or patent date by this manufacturer that is not on this
list, please contact the Site Historian.
Key to Links for Patent Information
USPTO = U.S. Patent Office .
Images of the actual patent can be viewed on the U.S. Patent Office web site but
a special TIFF viewer must be installed with your browser in order properly work.
More information on how to configure your computer to view these patents can be
found at TIFF image Viewers
for Patent Images.
DATAMP = Directory of American Tool And
Machinery Patents . A sister site to VintageMachinery.org with information
on patents related to machinery and tools. A much easier user interface than the
USPTO's for finding information on machinery patents.
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7,087
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Feb. 12, 1850
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Planing-machine
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Nicholas G. Norcross |
Middlesex County, MA |
This patent covers two important features: the planer pressure bar, and the use of air currents to blow the wood chips into a "conductory", a passage, that carried them safely away. This patent was litigated all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court where it prevailed against the Woodworth patent. See the VintageMachinery.org link on this page for more information.
Some years after this patent was issued, Henry D. Stover was granted a patent, 30,993, that had a similar "conductory" feature. Stover then set up a patent holding company, the Boston Conductory Co., to try to secure licensing fees from the users of many different machines that used a similar principle. Stover would not take any of those users to court because he apparently realized that his patent would not withstand close scrutiny due to the existence of prior art in the form of this Norcross patent. A coalition of planing machinery makers publicized this fact and the Boston Conductory Co. disappeared. For another important Norcross planer patent, see 10,844. |
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30,993
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Dec. 18, 1860
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Wood-planing machine
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Henry D. Stover |
New York, NY |
This patent was at the center of a huge scandal involving the Boston Conductory Co.—a company owned by this inventor, Henry D. Stover. See Manufacturer & Builder 1877 p. 104. |