If you find a patent number or patent date by this manufacturer that is not on this
list, please contact the Site Historian.
Key to Links for Patent Information
USPTO = U.S. Patent Office .
Images of the actual patent can be viewed on the U.S. Patent Office web site but
a special TIFF viewer must be installed with your browser in order properly work.
More information on how to configure your computer to view these patents can be
found at TIFF image Viewers
for Patent Images.
DATAMP = Directory of American Tool And
Machinery Patents . A sister site to VintageMachinery.org with information
on patents related to machinery and tools. A much easier user interface than the
USPTO's for finding information on machinery patents.
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6,185
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Mar. 13, 1849
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Planing-machine
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Daniel Barnum |
New York, NY |
This patent was litigated in Wilson v. Barnum, Eastern District of Pennsylvania court, May 1849. Wilson was the assignee of the infamous Woodworth patent, 5,315. The Woodworth patent had already been upheld when compared to designs using any variation of a cutterhead achieving the "dip and lift cut"; in the Woodworth design the cutterhead is cylindrical, and the cutters cut into the wood and then back out, which provides a smooth cut and reduces wear when cutting dirty lumber. Other designs had used truncated cones and similar tricks in unsuccessful attempts to evade the Woodworth patent. The Barnum and Wells machine has a "Bramah disk", a horizontal disk carrying the cutters. Rather than using the path of the cutters to achieve the "dip and lift cut", the stock itself is bent slightly as it passes under the cutterhead so as to achieve a dip and lift cut. The majority of the expert opinion heard by the court was of the opinion that this approach was novel and did not infringe. Judge John K. Kane was of the opposite opinion, and granted the requested injunction against Barnum. The Woodworth cartel was rumored to have paid enormous amounts of money in bribes to judges, patent officials, and legislators to maintain and extend their patent monopoly. |
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Planing-machine
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Thomas J. Wells |
New York, NY |
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6,195
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Mar. 20, 1849
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Planing-machine
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Thomas J. Wells |
New York, NY |
This invention uses a slightly conical Bramah-style disk cutterhead with two different types of knives: one type, at the disk periphery undergoes a slight "dishing" motion to sever the wood fibers and roughly plane the board flat. The other type of knife, arranged radially on the cutter disk, contacts the stock only when the grain of the stock is roughly perpendicular to the movement of the knives, producing a clean finish cut. All very nice, but the owners of the Woodworth patent had already used litigation to expand the scope of their patent to include any type of cylindrical or conical cutterhead, and this patent would not have withstood a challenge. See also patent 6,185 for another unsuccessful attempt by Barnum and Wells to avoid the Woodworth cartel. |