In 1886, lumberyard foreman R. E. "Edwin" Linham had a serious fall that resulted in a broken lower back that pressed on his spinal cord. He apparently used his convalescence to develop some ideas related to a dado and molding cutting "machine", which was a cutterhead that could be mounted on a mandrel or arbor. In early 1890 he applied for several patents related to the machine and associated cutters. Unfortunately his health worsened and he died, age 30, before the year was out, leaving behind a wife and two young children.

His wife, Herma "Hermie" Linham, pursued the patents and in May of 1891 three patents were awarded for cutters to be used by his machine; in April 1892 another five patents were awarded for cutters. At some point Linham Dado Machine Company was formed (this may have occurred before Edwin died) and manufacture began. The 1897 catalog from prominent woodworking machinery supplies Chas. A. Strelinger & Co. devotes two pages to the Linham cutterhead and cutters.

In about 1900 Linham Dado Machine Company sold the business to another Mansfield manufacturer, the Ohio Brass Co., which continued making the cutterheads and cutters for three or four years.

From September 1903 The Wood-Worker

Information Sources

• From the 1894 book The Scotch-Irish in America. Proceedings and Addresses of the Sixth Congress at Des Moines, IA., June 7-10, 1894.

  Black, Moses, Mansfield, O. 1894.
  Born at Ramelton, County Donegal, Ireland; parents Scotch-Irish Presbyterians; merchant and manufacturer; Manager and Treasurer of the Linham Dado Machine Co.; Mr. Black is one of several brothers who were born at Ramelton, Ireland, the birthplace of Mr. Robert Bonner, President of the Society; they were companions and friends of Mr. Bonner in his boyhood; one of them was Mr. Andrew Black, who died at Springfield, O., a few months before the fifth Congress assembled at that city, and of whose life and character such high tribute is paid in our fifth volume; all of the brothers came to America and are successful business men; they are a typical Scotch-Irish family, and represent the best qualities of their race.

• An 1897 catalog from Chas. A. Strelinger & Co. of Detroit has two full pages dedicated to the Linham dado machine and its cutters.
• The Annual Report of the Secretary of State to the Governor of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending November 15, 1902 has a list of dissolution of Ohio corporations, including Linham Dado Machine Company of Mansfield, filed on 1902-06-04.
• The findagrave web page on Robert Edwin Linham provides some key genealogical information on Linham and confirms that Hermie Linham was his wife.