All that Tim said about dating and overlap…

Can’t be sure when Boring Machines as we know them gained dominance, but I would guess they would have been a must have item, within just a few years of their availability.

I started doing patent searches a few years back, first through the Patent Office website, then made easier when Google started digitizing the world. Starting with bridge truss patents, a task greatly simplified with the publication of Kemp’s book a few years back.

At some point I started looking for boring machines, because I had bought a mystery machine in Ohio the summer I was part of the Malabar crew that is in pristine condition, appearing almost unused. Well it doesn’t just have that appearance, it is, it is so complicated that it simply never worked well enough to be put to use…

Like so many boring machines it has no makers mark. I found it and plenty of others you never heard of, and some other oddities in the looking – Here’s a sprinkling.

The earliest, of the as we know them, ass clamp, two-fisted herty gerty, pattern, I’ve come across dates to ’54 – There may well be earlier patents I didn’t find ~

http://www.google.com/patents?id=RINOAAAAEBAJ&dq=12078

But other varations were played at –

http://www.google.com/patents?id=t5pCAAAAEBAJ&dq=4251

http://www.google.com/patents?id=MCdCAAAAEBAJ&dq=3776

Not for timberwork, but worth a look, the low number is puzzleing , the same man holds No’s 7 & 8 –

http://www.google.com/patents?id=lrA-AAAAEBAJ&dq=5+blanchard+mortising+machine

A curious twist on the theme -

http://www.google.com/patents?id=VHRtAAAAEBAJ&dq=33324

The overly complicated version that got me looking –

http://www.google.com/patents?id=j9xPAAAAEBAJ&dq=248508

Wooster had some competition in the square hole variations, including this oddity –

http://www.google.com/patents?id=DppPAAAAEBAJ&dq=99064&jtp=1

Versions on the theme continued to be patented right to the close of the century, and as we know they continued to be listed in catalogs up through the 1920’s –

http://www.google.com/patents?id=liFDAAAAEBAJ&dq=625008

I have a largish fleet I don’t use much, kinda fond of my electron driven chain and hollow chisel mortisers.

Chains go back into the 19th century , mostly stationary things for the sash & door industry – But here’s a portable model, how’d you like to pull mortise duty cranking this thing all day ?

http://www.google.com/patents?id=HZVmAAAAEBAJ&dq=1170120