HAVING been identified with the milling machine and its remarkable progress for nearly thirty years, and being one of the pioneers in bringing it to public notice, it has been suggested that a partial record of my experiences would interest your readers.
In the year 1865 I invented a bench vise, known afterwards as the "Union" vise, of which in the succeeding five years some 40,000 were made and sold by the Union Vise Co., of Boston, which was organized for its manufacture.
This vise, of cast iron, had its front jaw and base in one piece, the rear jaw having tenons on each side, and travelling in grooves on the base. In its experimental stages these grooves and tenons were finished on a planer, the time required to fit the jaws of a 4 inch vise occupying the time of a good hand just about a whole day.
My first attempt to save time and expense on this part of the vise was to rig up a milling attachment for an engine lathe. I fitted to the ways of the lathe a saddle having a circular prolongation dropping between the ways. This projection or cylinder was bored out to receive a corresponding cylinder cast in one piece with a bed above, which received a carriage having a movement of about 13 inches, at right angles with the lathe spindle and operated by a screw and crank. The solid projection was kept from turning by a large key, and was adjusted vertically by a screw. This arrangement was certainly crude, though I note that the same contrivance has been made the subject of a recent patent. The milling cutters were of course connected with, and driven by the lathe spindle.
Primitive as was this device, it demonstrated at once the superiority of milling irregular surfaces over planing, and I at once began my search for a suitable milling machine.
To my great surprise I was unable for a long while to find any form of milling machine except what is commonly known as the "Lincoln" pattern. This style not being adapted for my purpose. I began studying up something to meet my requirements, when, in a small shop in New York city I happened to find a machine in use in which the work table was connected to a knee which travelled vertically upon the face of a standard or column.
This plan, which was in line with my own ideas, attracted my attention, and after a careful examination of it I proceeded without delay to interview the maker. I offered him an order, provided he would make such changes and improvements as I suggested. These changes he was very reluctant to make, but finally agreed to build the machine as I wanted it, for a liberal consideration. This machine proved a valuable auxiliary for a short time, while the tools for manufacturing the vise were in progress, but as the front jaw and base needed to be grooved on both sides, it was early apparent that a double machine was a necessity for economical production. I therefore designed a milling machine with two independent adjustable heads, or what would now be termed a Duplex machine, which proved a remarkable success, and some of these machines are running at this time, after twenty-nine or thirty years, in exactly the same form as originally made, and without any improvements being found necessary.
Meanwhile I was busy perfecting designs for a better and more powerful "Standard" milling machine, in which I was as successful as in the Duplex, except that so far from its being perfect at the start, I have continued in my improvements ever since without feeling that perfection has even yet been reached.
As in milling the back jaws of the vises the cutters were required to cut on both sides at once, or top and bottom, I was at first much troubled by the constant breakage of the cutter teeth, owing to back lash in the feed screw and nut. To overcome this I devised a compensating nut, which, with a suitable form of screw, gave a rigid and positive feed, and thereafter I had no further trouble from breakage of cutters.
It will be seen that in this arrangement I had solved the problem of feeding with the cut. I patented this device in 1872, and although several patents have since been issued for the accomplishment of the same result, I have never seen anything else which I consider so perfect, and in this opinion I have the indorsement of another inventor, who called on me to sell the shop right for the use of a compensating nut of his own.
While giving much time and study to perfecting the Standard machines and to increase their efficiency, it was two or or three years before I thought of building milling machines for the market. My improvements, however, had attracted the attention of visiting machinists, and it was often suggested to me that tools which so reduced the cost of manufacture in my particular line would prove equally effective in other places.
As one instance of reduction of cost I may state that when I first fitted the jaws of a 4 inch vise on planers, the labor cost was about $2.50 each, but when my different milling machines were fairly at work the labor cost was brought down to 7 cents each.
When I began seriously to entertain the project of building machines for sale, I was opposed by some of my stockholders, one of whom, the treasurer of the company and largest stockholder, inquired rather sarcastically "Who wants milling machines?" concluding his remarks by assuring me that I would "never live long enough to sell one." Being persistent, however, the experiment was tried, and truth compels me to say that my efforts for the first year resulted in the sale of one milling machine only. The second year the sales increased to nine, and by the winter of 1870-71 the milling machine business had assumed such proportions that the vise business was disposed of to the Backus Vise Co., of Miller's Falls, Mass., which was soon afterwards merged into the Miller's Falls Co., who have continued to make the vise to the present time.
In April, 1871, the works of the Union Vise Co. were destroyed by fire, and in June, 1871, the Brainard Milling Machine Co was organized for the purpose of making milling and kindred machines alone, and the manufacture has been successfully prosecuted to the present time.