Yep...it's humpday triviola

Re: Yep...it's humpday triviola

Bill Earl

Is this a tool for woodworking?

Good question (and hint)

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

Yes, this tool is used for woodworking. But since its invention has been modified to perform non-woodworking duties as well.

T.

Also.....

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

.....it's a power tool.

T.

Re: Also.....

Bill Earl

Tough question Tom. My first guess was way-way off.

I think I know the tool. It came from the UK. The technological problem was in reliably producing the cutting edge. The solution came from Paris. But a lady?

In that era it was common for female scientists and inventors to publish under an assumed (male) name. Maybe your sources are better informed.

No place to go on this one so

Gary Smyth

I'll relate one that works, but maybe not the correct one. Josephine Garis Cochran improved the cotton gin. The gin was invented in 1794 but not into use until the early 1800's. As originally invented, the gin got gummed up often between the fiber and the seeds. The Parisian Lady (who also invented a cranked dish washer) in 1840 used a saw blade type device to pull the cotton into short and long fibers. It is today called combed cotton.

Giant Hint......

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

The French woman was Mademoiselle Crepin.

T.

Re: Giant Hint......

Bill Earl

OK. I had the Bandsaw part, but my source had a Mr. Perin of Paris as the producer of the first viable blade. I guess Mademoiselle Crepin must have done the work and her boss took the credit.

Ahh...there we go.  Answer

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

The bandsaw was the answer. The following gives more info:

With sawing: The first breakthrough was also a wheel on an axle. It was the circular saw. Around 1810, a Shaker woman, Tabitha Babbit, watched her brothers laboriously sawing wood. She realized that a wheel could accomplish that task, so she attached a notched metal disc to her spinning wheel to demonstrate her idea.

And her idea took hold in our heavily wooded continent. Several isolated circular saws had already been made in England and Holland. But here, the circular saw flourished.

However, circular saws were limited by the radius of the disc when they had to make a continuous cut, the length of a log. The band saw would have to be the answer to that problem.

In 1808, even before Sister Tabitha, William Newberry patented a band saw in England. But there was a catch. A continuous metal band had to be held together at some point. It had to withstand high tensile stresses. Newberry's idea was not yet workable.

Not 'til 1846 did another woman, a Mademoiselle Crepin in France, patent means for brazing the ends together. By the late 19th century, band saws were in common use, and their inherently thin kerf began greatly reducing waste in sawmills.