Meeting Dates
Oct 29 '07
Minutes for Oct 29, 2007 7:00 p.m.
Attended: Jo Cameron, Rebecca Townsend, Jason Putnam, Roslyn Strong, Joe McSwain, Larry Beidel, Sue Carlson, Ruth Bryant, Marsha Potter, Andy Abello, Bruce Cameron, John Pels, and guest speaker Jack Sarmanian
A brief business meeting was held before introducing the evening's speaker. The minutes of September 27 were accepted pending completion. The Treasurer reported a balance of $1,459.78, reflecting 18 new memberships, interest in the amount $0.78, and an expenditure of $32.80 for postage.
Since the fourth Thursday this year is Thanksgiving Day, the next meeting is re-scheduled to Thursday, November 29, 2:00 p.m. at the Edgecomb Eddy School. We will continue our inventory.
Our speaker was Dr. Jack Sarmanian of Shore Road, psychologist with the Falmouth school system, and collector and dealer of old hand tools. He displayed an array of wood planes, to show the evolution and variations of this basic tool, which has been found in Roman and medieval ruins, almost the same as the colonial-era heavy wooden block enclosing a blade of iron or steel. We learned about the slave Caesar Cello in Massachusetts, who earned his freedom by making and selling planes of birch or beech wood from roughly 1758 to 1763. Leonard Bailey (1850-1869) was the first to patent a design for a transitional plane, the whole plate as well as blade made of metal. Planes of this sort were common from the 1850s through the 1920s.
Jack showed us a selection of molding planes, and in particular, Stanley's package of different sized and shaped interchangeable molding blades. The Stanley and Millers Falls companies were important makers of all-metal planes. The last maker of wooden planes, the Auburn Tool Company, closed in 1928.
Then, Jack showed us his library of reference works, complete toolmakers' catalogues and collectors' guides. When he finds a new piece for his collection, he talks to the owner and other experts, to find out as much as possible about the piece. He checks his purchase against these many lists, and makes complete labels for each piece in his collection. The several antique tool enthusiasts in the audience were delighted with this information!
John Pels brought along an immense spiral with a jaw-like contrivance at one end for possible identification. Suggestions ranged from "giant corkscrew" to some kind of caulking device, or for leading a thick thread through a narrow aperture or something to do with sailmaking.
Our thanks to Jack Sarmanian for an entertaining and instructive evening, in line with the EHS 2007 theme of Early Industry!
Respectfully submitted,
Joanna M. Cameron
Secretary