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Early New Haven Mfg. Co. planer

Robert Lang

Stainless
Joined
Apr 3, 2007
Location
Minneapolis, MN
This is about the planer I brought back from Arkansas back in 2008.

Original thread when the planer was advertised;

Antique Machine Tools F/S


Thread when I went to pick the planer up.

Planer recovered from Arkansas


I now have an id on the maker of the planer and a rough date it was made.
It is a New Haven Manufacturing (Mfg.) Co. planer made around the mid to late 1850's.
I originally thought the planer was made around 1850 to 1860.
I later second guessed myself on the date to the middle to late 1860's, which was wrong.

At the time, I was unsure of the maker.
There were many certain design and construction characteristics and styling that indicated New Haven Mfg., but the legs threw me.
I had never seen legs like that on any New Haven machine.
I did have an 1855 ad for New Haven Mfg., showing a lathe with legs like the planer.
I discounted the illustration of the lathe in the ad as being a New Haven.
It did not look like any New Haven lathe I had ever seen.
Also I had seen the same lathe illustration in another article that was unrelated to New Haven.
I figured it was just a printers block that the printer was using.

I was recently doing some research on Scranton & Parshley of New Haven Ct.(David Scranton, John Parshley).
I came across something that indicated that the Ford Museum had something on Scranton & Parshley lathes.
I told PM member esbutler about it.
He contacted the museum and they sent him a scan of a Scranton & Parshley lathe flyer. This flyer would date around 1849 to 1851.
When I saw the lathe illustrated in the flyer, I knew the lathe in the 1855 New Haven ad was the same maker and was indeed a New Haven Mfg. lathe.
This clinched it for the legs on the planer.
The lathe in the Scranton & Parshley flyer and the 1855 New Haven Mfg. ad are quite unique.
Both are chain feed and have dual controls, one at the head stock and one at the tail stock end.
Both have the same tail stock with the quill clamp on the side. Both have the same gearing on the head stock end.
The 1855 ad has a slightly different saddle and of course the newer legs.

Scranton & Parshley would become New Haven Mfg., Co. in 1852.
The New Haven city directories are not all on the internet.
The ones I found are , 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1847, 1849, 1852, 1856, 1863, 1868, 1869, 1871 and 1872.

David Scranton was born in 1800.
He is listed in the 1840 directory as a machinist at the location which would become New Haven Mfg.'s location.
It does not say what David was making.
In 1847 David has Soloman Johnson as a partner.
In 1849 David now has John Parshley as a partner at the same location of 2 Howard St.
In the 1849 Scientific American, Scranton & Parshley have ads for only making lathes.
In 1850 they add planers driven by rack and pinion.
In 1851 they add upright drills and gear cutters.
In 1852 Asahel and Henry Pierpont come in. Asahel is the financier, ie the money man.
In 1852, with David, John, Asahel and Henry, they change the name to New Haven Manufacturing Co.
In late 1852 John Parshley leaves and goes across the street to 5 Howard St. and starts his own company of John Parshley.
In late 1856 John Parshley dies and his estate, company and property are liquidated.
David Scranton stays with New Haven Mfg. until his death in 1873. In the 1872 directory he is listed as one of the directors of the company.

Attached are the Scranton & Parshley flyer, the 1855 New Have ad and an article from 1860.
The 1860 article does not say the maker of the lathe, just the seller, but it is a New Haven Mfg. lathe.

Rob
 

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Pictures of the planer from Arkansas.

Rob
 

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I recently saw a picture from another PM member of a lathe he has acquired that looks to be very similar to the lathe you pictured from that article. I’m sure he will elaborate..
 
Pictures of my small 3' New Haven Mfg. Co. planer of the same vintage as the Arkansas one, mid to late 1850's.
Someone long ago removed the four legs and added the iron frame to mount a motor drive under the planer.
I bought this along time ago at an auction in Watford City, North Dakota.

Rob
 

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I recently saw a picture from another PM member of a lathe he has acquired that looks to be very similar to the lathe you pictured from that article. I’m sure he will elaborate..

I think I know the one you are talking about.
That is what spurred the new look into Scranton & Parshley and New Haven Mfg.

Rob
 
An early Scranton & Parshley or New Haven Mfg. upright drill.
Also the legs of an early New Haven Mfg. lathe.

Rob
 

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Some early New Haven ads I found some time ago on the internet.

Rob
 

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Some more early New Haven ads that I own.

Rob
 

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Interesting and heartening the provenance you give to the Arkansas Planer.

I also note this is a "five sheave" planer seemingly for two belts. Quite early for that in my limited observation.

I have yet to establish in my own mind whether the 5 sheaves are an "anti-squeal" effort or whether the 5 sheaves have to do with allowing a "quick return" in machining efficiency.

Probably the earliest place I have positively identified a five sheave is in 1860ish era advertisements for Shepard, Lathe & Co. planers. I suspect the adoption was widespread by then.

We know so little of what motivated and inspired these machinists. What they have left is an iron legacy - and we try to discern what we can. Those who forget the past etc etc.

Thanks Rob.

Joe in NH
 
Any chance this drill is a New Haven?

Hi Bill,

Hard to say. We just don't have very much on early New Haven drills.
I don't think it is. One unique feature is the groves cut into the round column.
This serves as a gear rack for elevating the table. I have a few pictures of unknown drills using that feature.
The drill in your picture does look like a Matteawan or Leonard's.
One little feature on New Haven drills is the top. See the attached pictures.

Rob
 

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  • New Haven Mfg. Co. drill 1b_LI.jpg
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I also note this is a "five sheave" planer seemingly for two belts. Quite early for that in my limited observation.

I have yet to establish in my own mind whether the 5 sheaves are an "anti-squeal" effort or whether the 5 sheaves have to do with allowing a "quick return" in machining efficiency.

Probably the earliest place I have positively identified a five sheave is in 1860ish era advertisements for Shepard, Lathe & Co. planers. I suspect the adoption was widespread by then.

Joe in NH


We had talked about this once before.
There were a very few builders in the 1850's who were using 5 pulleys.
I don't think the 5 pulleys on the New Haven from Arkansas are original.
I probably thought they were at the time I bought it but not now.
Usually New Haven put the drive pulleys on the same side as the outside gears, but not always.
If you look at the outside gears, in the picture, you will see an open bracket.
I think this planer had three drive pulleys on this side and two additional small gears.
I think it should be like the drive on my early 3' New Haven.

Rob
 

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Any chance this drill is a New Haven?

I was just going through my pictures looking for more pictures of upright drills with the groves cut into the round column.
I had some pictures, from the Ford Museum, of the inside of a machine shop.
I had the pictures listed as unknown drill. I had zoomed in on the drill when I downloaded the pictures.
I had not looked at them for awhile.
It is an 1860's New Haven Mfg. drill like the one in the ad I posted.

Rob
 

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There were a very few builders in the 1850's who were using 5 pulleys.
I don't think the 5 pulleys on the New Haven from Arkansas are original.

Can you tell us which are the "driven" pulleys and which are the idlers?

A three pulley single belt planer typically has the center as idler and the two outer a geared forward/reverse. The gears can be made to offer "quick return."

A three pulley double belt has the center as driver - direct connected to the bull gear (although there may be intermediate gears) The two outer pulleys are "idlers." My now sold Pratt & Whitney 1877 "No. 1" was this way. Ed Battison thought this one of the most successful arrangements. "P&W did it right with small belts moving fast." he said.

One imagines introducing another layer of pulleys between the center driver and the outside idlers might reduce belt squeal, particularly if the shifter mechanism was not "timed" and the two belt shifters work "together" (i.e connected to the same action in the planer.) This is where we left the last conversation.

OR there may have been more timing involved, more gearing involved, possibly intermediate gearing - and this to get a quick return - that if it were not done in the pulley sizing.

Interesting the "flip over weight" on the side of the Arkansas planer.

As I say, I haven't examined a LOT of these - and Joshua Rose doesn't address everything in minutia. In fact 19th century planer design was kind of "you buy the car and drive it" without a lot of the rationale described. Or even thought about.

Today we're challenged a bit by the variables. And as you say the changes. Or in my case the broken parts!

Joe in NH
 
Can you tell us which are the "driven" pulleys and which are the idlers?

A three pulley single belt planer typically has the center as idler and the two outer a geared forward/reverse. The gears can be made to offer "quick return."

A three pulley double belt has the center as driver - direct connected to the bull gear (although there may be intermediate gears) The two outer pulleys are "idlers."

Joe in NH

I knew at one time, which were the driven pulleys, but don't recall now.
This would have been a single belt drive like the small New Haven.

Rob
 

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  • New Haven Mfg. planer 2.jpg
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