Most histories of woodworking machinery attribute the development of the inside molding machine, or sash sticker, to C. B. Rogers & Co.; these histories all seem to derive from the book A History of the Planing Mill, written by a another manufacturer of sash stickers, Charles R. Tompkins. Tompkins' book, and several history articles written by Tompkins, fail to mention Alfred T. Serrell, whose work preceded Rogers'. There is evidence that this was a deliberate avoidance (and rewriting of history) by Tompkins and was not merely due to ignorance.

Prior to 1848, Alfred T. Serrell, a New York City manufacturer of wood moldings, developed a machine for making moldings, especially window sash. He hired Thomas Reeves & Co. of Elizabeth street, New York, a builder of clocks and special machinery, to build his molding machine. John Lawrence, at first an employee of Serrell's and in 1847 becoming a partner, worked with Serrell to make further refinements on the molding machine, Reeves would also build those improved machines.

In 1848 molding manufacturer Alfred T. Serrell of New York City received patent no. 5,575 for a planing and molding machine using a combination of a feeding device plus rotating cutters and a stationary plane.

In 1848 Serrell applied for, and was granted, a patent (no. 5,575) for his planing and molding machine; the patent was assigned jointly to Serrell and Lawrence. The patent specification describes a feeding device, rotating cutters, and a stationary plane. It seems that they key innovation was the feeding device, which allowed the machine to be configured to put pressure on only those parts of the stock that were to be removed by the cutting of the molding, since the feedworks otherwise left visible marks on the stock. There must have been some "prior art" that prevented Serrell from obtaining a patent on his feed mechanism by itself but Serrell was indisputably the first to use the combination.

Serrell's molder design proved to be a good one, and imitators appeared. Serrell sued one maker, Collins & Pell, for patent infringement. But they only used two of the three elements of Serrell's patent, and the patent protection was limited to the combination of all three. In 1851 Serrell surrendered the patent and obtained a reissue, no. RE187, which covered the feeding device in combination with either the rotating cutters or the stationary plane. Serrell once again sued Collins & Pell, and this time he won, though the financial settlement was relatively modest.

In the meantime, in 1849 Lawrence amicably terminated his employment with Serrell and opened a molding factory of his own. Serrell and Lawrence split the patent rights for New York City with Serrell taking the western portion of the city and Lawrence the eastern portion. Lawrence had new machines built by Reeves to serve his territory. In 1852 Lawrence was the first to use "side heads", additional vertical spindles on either side of the main cutterhead to plane and/or mold the edges of the molding; again, this modified machine was made for him by Reeves & Co. Tompkins credits C. B. Rogers & Co. as being the first to run side heads, though that occurred a decade after Lawrence had already done so.

It seems most likely that the patent was licensed to other molding manufacturers in other parts of the country but so far we have not confirmed any specifics. Some established woodworking machinery manufacturers were building sash stickers that seemingly infringed on Serrell's and Lawrence's patents, including C. B. Rogers & Co., Charles R. Tompkins, James A. Woodbury, and William Sellers & Co.; the Woodbury and Sellers machines appear to have been licensed versions whereas the Rogers and Tompkins machins were unlicensed. Serrell and Lawrence seem to have tired of fighting patent battles and did not file as many infringement lawsuits as one would expect, and worse, they found themselves as defendants in a potentially costly patent dispute.

In 1852 the litigious and deep-pocketed holders of the Woodworth planer patents sued Serrell and Lawrence for infringement, and in response Serrell and Lawrence disclaimed any part of the Serrell patent that conflicted with the Woodworth patent, the result being the re-reissued no. RE243. The remaining Serrell patent must still have been valuable, however: the US patent laws of the time allowed a patent to be extended—typically for an extra seven years beyond the original 14-year patent term—if the patent holder had to spend a lot of money defending their patent. Despite Serrell's spotty record of defending his patent, in 1862 he successfully applied for a seven-year extension to his patent.

In 1863, John Lawrence received patent no. 39,996 for a multi-piece pressure block for planers; this patent was assigned to Serrell.

Some machines built for licensees of the Serrell and Lawrence patents had machines built by one "Tillton" of Bank street in New York. More research is needed on this maker.

Information Sources

• From the New York Public Library's New York City Directory collection:
  • 1838-39 Longworth's New York Register and City Directory page 564: "Serrell Alfred T. fancy cases 295 Pearl".
  • 1839-40 Longworth's New York Register and City Directory page 585: "Serrell Alfred T. fancy cases 118 Chatham h. 19 Henry".
  • 1840-41 Longworth's New York Register and City Directory page 563: "Serrell Alfred T. fancy cases rear 28 Cherry h. 122 Forsyth".
  • 1841-42 Longworth's New York Register and City Directory page 629: "Serrell Alfred T. fancy cases rear 28 Cherry h. 38 Eldridge".
  • 1842-43 T. Longworth & Son's New York Register and City Directory page 518: "Serrell Alfred T. fancy cases rear 28 Cherry h. 38 Eldridge".
  • 1842-43 Doggett's New York City Directory page 303: "Serrell Alfred T. fancycases, 38 Eldridge".
  • 1843-44 Doggett's New York City Directory page 303: "Serrell Alfred T. fancycases, 151 Monroe".
  • 1844-45 Doggett's New York City Directory page 311: "Serrell Alfred T. fancycases, 213 Broome".
  • 1845-46 Groot & Elston's New York City Directory page 371: "Serrell Alfred T. fancycases, 213 Broome".
  • 1846-47 Doggett's New York City Directory page 351: "Serrell Alfred T. fancycases, 213 Broome".
  • 1847-48 Doggett's New York City Directory page 366: "Serrell Alfred T. New York moulding, planing mill, would moulds of all kinds, 87 Elizabeth, h. 213 Broome".
  • 1848-49 Doggett's New York City Directory page 365: "Serrell Alfred T. New York moulding, planing mill, would moulds of all kinds, 87 Elizabeth, h. 213 Broome".
  • 1849-50 Doggett's New York City Directory page 378: "Serrell Alfred T. New York moulding, planing mill, 87 Elizabeth, h. 213 Broome.
  • 1850-51 Doggett's New York City Directory page 451: "Serrell Alfred T. mouldings, W 37th n. Av 8, 134 Laurens & 19 av. 8, h. W 37th n. Av. 8".
  More work is needed with the post-1851 directories.
eli>Articles in 1848-1862 Scientific American.
• 1850-51 Doggett's New York City Directory "Serrell Alfred T. mouldings, W 37th n. Av 8, 134 Laurens & 19 av. 8, h. W 37th n. Av. 8". Similar listings appear in 1855 and 1860 NYC directories.
• 1852 legal proceeding, Ritter and Kneeland v. Serrell and others, where the holder of an exclusive right (granted in 1851) to use the Woodworth patent in a territory sued Serrell and others for infringing and asked for an injunction. The defendants produced a license issued to them granting them that same exclusive right in that territory and issued in 1846. Some arguments centered on the 1846 contract being for a "planing, tongueing and grooving machine" and the 1851 contract being for a "moulding planing machine". The court dismissed that quibbling and dismissed the request for an injunction because the 1848 license was void.
• 1857 lawsuit Alfred T. Serrell v. Denmark P. Collins and Abijah Pell. Serrell sued the defendants for infringing his 1848 molder patent, which covered the combination of feeding device, rotating cutters, and stationary plane. After the patent was issued Serrell found that others copied his machine but using only two out of the three things, usually omitting the stationary plane. Serrell then surrendered the original patent and obtained a reissue that covered the use of the two things and not necessarily the third. The defendants claimed prior art in the Woodworth patent and also a machine stated to have been made by Horace V. Seigler and one Howe, in which a spiked feed roller was used to feed the work into cutters, but the evidence was weak and the jury decided for Serrell, awarding $2000 in damages for infringing between the time of the reissue and the filing of the suit.
• 1858 Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, Volume VI—Issues 163-168, page 85, in a report on awards issued at the Fair of the American Institute: "Alfred E. Serrell, 208 West Thirty-seventh street, New-York, for a moulding machine. (A silver medal having been before awarded.) Diploma."
• 1863 American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1862, Volume 2, page 702.

  A machine for planing mouldings was patented by A. T. Serrell, May 16, 1848, and extended for seven years from May, 1862, in which a strip of wood sawed diagonally, so as to save material, is fed into the machine by a roller that only acts upon the parts where most wood has to be cut away, thereby not injuring the portion of the wood required for the moulding itself. A rotary cutter gives shape to the moulding, and a stationary plane smooths off the surface. This machine is in extensive use in many parts of the country.

• December 1887 The Wood Worker page 16, in an article titled, "The First Molding Machines", written in response to an earlier article by Charles R. Tompkins which credited the development of molding machines to C. B. Rogers & Co.

  In the latter part of 1846, Mr. Alfred T. Serrell of New York City, commenced to manufacture wood moldings on a machine invented and patented by himself, and built in New York. Claim for patent: "A series of feed ring or rings in combination with a rotary cutter or cutters and stationary plane or planes, to work irregular shaped of of wood—i.e., moldings," and was the first molding machine. Afterward several attempts were made to break the patent, and the cup device (or quart measure as it was called) run on a saw arbor was cited as a previous invention, but was thrown out by the court.

  Mr. John Lawrence, of New York, an employee of Serrell from his start, became a partner in 1847, and in 1848 withdrew, with half the patent right, and established himself on the east side of New York, Serrell holding the west side. Both men are living and still in business in New York, and to these two the business of making moldings and molding machines, is indebted for most of the valuable points and devices now in use on molding machines.

  Thomas Reeves & Co., kept a little machine shop in Elizabeth street, New York, building tower clocks and special machinery, and built the first molding machine for A. T. Serrell, and others later for Serrell & Lawrence, all previous to 1848, and the claim for C. B. Rogers & Co., as making the first successful molding sticker, is incorrect, moldings being made successfully at least two years before their first sticker was put on the market. They avoided the Serrell patent by calling it a sash "sticker," and were obliged to pay royalty to the "Woodworth" patent for feed rolls, held by Mr. Gibson, of Albany. So much for the C. B. R. & Co. claim, furnished by "information" etc., and with the "I think" and "I believe," "so and so," etc., as to their credit of inventing the first molding machine. Mr. Lawrence, in 1852, built his first molder with side heads or upright spindles, Reeves & Co. doing the work. Previous to building this machine, the lumber was ripped off the edge to the width of molding wanted, both sides planed on the "quart measure" (used as a jointer at the present date), then re-sawed on a bevel, to get two pieces of worked molding out of the stock, fed under the cutter head, with bevel ring, and the edge finished by planes, held to the stock by weights. After the "Woodworth" patent ran out, Mr. Lawrence connected the top and bottom rolls to drive together, and used a long roll on the bottom, and fluted roll on top, with the corner slightly rounded. A device, to hold the stock down firm, close to the cutters, was also invented by him, consisting of several pieces of iron, called fingers, to reach close to the cutters, and form a "reverse" held by weight bar. This original pressure-bar is even now in his possession, and the device in various forms is now used on many makes of machines, the patent (bought by S. A. Woods Machine Co. of Boston, Mass.) having run out. Mr. L., also has the original patent papers, for the original molder, in his possession, also for other essential parts later.

  These machines were all inside molders and built of iron, except the frame of the first one; so the statement, that previous to 1862 all machines were outside machines, is not correct. (The mandrel ran on points, with the cutter head and pulley in between.) Neither does the credit of first building molding machines of iron, belong to H. B. Smith, as stated, but to T. Reeves & Co., who also made the first slotted square head under verbal instructions from Lawrence, neither of whom thought it worth the trouble and expense of a patent and defending it.

  The many law suits, arising from other parties infringing on the "Serrell" patent, kept Serrell & Lawrence in hot water almost continually, and involved many others. Messrs. Collins & Pell, Wm Sellers, and one or two others, built and run their molding machines (Tillton, in Bank street, New York, doing the work on some; all iron). Other parties in Brooklyn, Jersey City, Newark, etc., did the same, and although game, the pressure was too much for the patentees, and molders were built right and left all over the country, by now prominent firms. In 1860, not 1864 or 1865, Jas. A. Woodbury, of Boston (now S. A. Woods Machine Co.), built six 12-inch inside molders, with under cylinder to plane the under side first, and in addition to royalty paid for the use of several patents held by Lawrence, allowing him several hundred dollars for information, drawings, etc., on the cost of one of these machines, for his own use in New York, and the writer, when a long lad, used to feed this machine, at least three years previous to the date as given, when C. B. Rogers and C. R. Tompkins first put their 12-inch molder on the market; and there are also in New York at the present time, several well known mill men, who ran or worked on molding machines for Serrell or Lawrence in 1846. (signed, Wood Moldings.)

• Documents related to the Serrell-Woodworth legal proceedings sometime spell "Serrell" as "Serrill", and if you are searching for more information on Serrell you should also search for that spelling variant.