Robert Davy Eaglesfield of Indianapolis was an early pioneer of direct motor driven (DMD) woodworking machinery and received patents for various improvements in this class including molding machines and a stock-feeding mechanism. A 1920 molder patent was jointly assigned to Eaglesfield and Anton Vonnegut, who was the founder and owner of the Vonnegut Moulder Corp. The stock-feed patent, awarded 1930, was assigned to Oliver Machinery Co. The 1920 molder design was apparently not produced by Eaglesfield; rather, it was produced under license by Vonnegut.

When the Eaglesfield Moulder debuted in The Wood-Worker in June of 1918, the ad stated that sales would be through dealers. The next month the ad, which was attributed to R. D. Eaglesfield, stated that the Vonnegut Machinery Company would handle all the sales and distribution. All subsequent issues showed the Eaglesfield Moulder in ads from the Vonnegut Machinery Company. This continued until 1922 when it is speculated that a change of arrangement was made between Eaglesfield and Vonnegut, since the advertisements shifted from the "Eaglesfield Moulder" to the "Vonnegut Eaglesfield Moulder" to the "Vonnegut Moulder."

Parallel to this, in 1920 R. D. Eaglesfield began to advertise a DMD swing saw, then later other DMD machines handled by R. D. Eaglesfield. In 1923 the company had moved manufacturing to Brazil, IN.

As early as June of 1927, and possibly earlier, the company became known as Indiana Foundry, Machine and Supply. It is not clear if the company was sold or simply renamed at this point. Indiana Foundry, Machine and Supply continued for many years after this.

In 1929, Oliver Machinery Co. purchased Eaglesfield-Link

Information Sources

• From posting to oldwwmachines list. The poster, Stephen Thomas, has a tablesaw with direct motor drive (DMD), where the arbor is an extension of the motor shaft.
• An ad in a 1920 issue of The Wood-Worker shows their new direct-connected swing saw; another ad in the same issue is for Vonnegut Machine Co., and shows their Eaglesfield molder.
• Ads in 1955-56 Hitchcock's Wood Workers Digest Directory for used "direct motor driven ball bearing swing saw" and "hand block belt sander."
• An owwm.org posting says that R. D. Eaglesfield's molder design was produced by Vonnegut and not by Eaglesfield's company.