Lorenzo Beach patented a horse rake in 1860, and his son, Henry Lloyd Beach, began manufacturing the rake. Henry received an 1867 scrollsaw patent, followed by an 1868 horse-rake patent. By 1870 he was manufacturing scrollsaws.
Beach continued to improve and diversify his line of scrollsaws, and he achieved considerable success with them. He later diversified into other woodworking machinery, primarily tablesaws and related resaws and crosscut saws.
In 1889 Beach took on a partner, and operated as Beach, Brown & Co.
By 1893 Beach was again selling scrollsaws under his own name, and Beach's son, Harry Wilber Beach, was selling the tablesaw that Beach, Brown had introduced.
Henry L. Beach died in the early 1900s, and the business was taken over by his son, operating as H. W. Beach. By 1911 the business of H. W. Beach had been succeeded by Beach Manufacturing Co., which was making and selling the Beach line of products.
Ad from May 1898 issue of "The Wood-Worker"
Serial Numbers
Formula: Typical Beach Serial Number: 77FO5. First two digits give the year of manufacture. Letter gives month of manufacture: J-Jan, F-Feb, M-March, A-April, Y-May, U-June, L-July, G-August, S-Sept., O-Oct., N-Nov., D-Dec.
Information Sources
- 1872-03-27 American Artisan, page 200 has an article on Henry L. Beach's "Spiral-spring Scroll-saw".
- From a genealogy page: Henry Lloyd Beach "was a machinist and established a factory to manufacture his father's horse hay rake. He later invented and manufactured a line of scroll-sawing machinery and other wood working tools, winning a variety of prizes at trade shows and fairs. In 1890 he began serving as president of the First National Bank of Montrose, Pennsylvania. An account of his life and family is given in J. H. Beers & Co., Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1900, at pp. 188-190. He died sometime after 1900."
- Various references give the business name as Henry L. Beach, or H. L. Beach, or Henry Lloyd Beach.
- 1870 to 1894 ads, 1870, 1873 and 1876 articles in Manufacturer & Builder.
- From The Railroad, Telegraph, and Steamship Builders' Directory, 1888: a listing under wood-working machinery for "Beach, H. L., Montrose, Pa."
- An 1889 article and 1890 ad in Manufacturer & Builder are for Beach, Brown & Co., makers of "Beach's Celebrated Scroll Sawing Machines" and other machines recognizable as Beach machines.
- Listed in Planers, Matchers & Molders in America as active in 1897.