During the 1850s through 1880s, New Jerseyite Halsey H. Baker was a professional inventor and entrepreneur. His earliest patent, in 1857, was for a rotary planer whose cutterhead was a vertical disk with cutters mounted near the edge of the flat surface, a concept similar to the much later Delta Uniplane. By 1858 Baker was advertising his invention for sale under his own name, H. H. Baker. By 1865 "Baker's Rotary Planer" was being manufactured by J. P. Stillman & Co. of Westerly, RI.

Information Sources

• April 1858 American Agriculturalist page 127, classified ads: "Baker's Rotary Planer.—The Cheapest and Best Planing Machine ever made. Six sizes Prices $25 to $75. Address (for full information) H. H. BAKER, New-Market, New-Jersey." The same ad ran in the May and June issues but not in subsequent issues.
• 1865 New England Business Directory, page 146, ad from Stillman, Brother & Co., Westerly, R. I., manufacturers of "Baker's Rotary Planing Machines, Moulding, Tenoning & Mortising Machines" among other items.
• H. H. Baker and J. P. Stillman were both witnesses on an 1866 water-wheel patent, 54,792.
• Undated sales flyer of two pages, "Baker's Rotary Planner Manufactured by J.P. Stillman and Co., Machinists, Westerly, R.I."