Uri Emmons built a carriage-fed wood planer in 1824. The planer used knives mounted on rotating disks, and cut on both the forward and reverse travel of the carriage. It was hand-powered and was known locally as the "Flim-Flam," which isn't surprising given the limited performance that could be expected from a hand-powered machine of this size. Emmons received patent X5,467 in 1829 for a roll-feed version of his planer. Even though it appears that Emmons never implemented the feed-rolls, this was a significant innovation that directly influenced subsequent planer designs.

Emmons's design was superior to the 1828 Woodworth design in using feed-rolls which allowed higher throughput than a reciprocating carriage. Woodworth licensed Emmons' patent rights which gave his patent syndicate a monopoly on the wood-planing business in the USA. In 1843 Emmons' patent was not granted an extension and so it expired at the end of its 14-year term. In 1845 Woodworth's son had his father's patent reissued, incorporating Emmons's improvements. Check out patent RE71 for some wonderfully clear drawings of a machine combining Woodworth's and Emmons' innovations.

So far as we know, Uri Emmons only ever made one planer.

Information Sources

• Chandler W. Jones' out-of-print 1984 book, Planers, Matchers and Molders in America, gives the information on the 1824 Emmons planer, including the "Flim-Flam" description.
• , in an 1852 article, claimed that Emmons's design was superior to the original 1828 Woodworth design, and further alleged (apparently correctly) that Woodworth's son had his father's patent reissued to incorporate Emmons's improvements. Such an action would have been illegal because a reissue can only fix errors in the original patent specification; it must not introduce new ideas. As detailed in our history of the Woodworth planer, such chicanery was typical of owners of the Woodworth planer patent.
• A blog article by Zvi Rosen includes information on the Woodworth/Emmons business relationship. Rosen notes that Woodworth licensed Emmons' 1829 patent. Emmons' patent was not extended, and in 1856 the Woodworth patent was expanded to includes key features of the Emmons patent.