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Early New Haven Mfg. Co. planer

The complex of New Haven's buildings in 1879.
Center of picture.
You can see Audubon Street, which was Howard St.

New Haven's newer office on 30 Whitney, which is now a Subway.
The Dunkin'Donuts was a pattern storage.

David Scranton's grave.

Rob
 

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Some interesting early ads by Scranton & Parshley and New Haven Mfg. that were in the Scientific American.

Rob
 

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It's interesting to see how light their lathes were.

They are light. It's funny, in the same ad (post #42, attachment 3) it says the 12' lathe weighs 4,000 lbs and the 15'7" lathe weighs 450 lbs.. I think they forgot to add the extra zero at the end. It probably weighed 4,500 lbs. Jake
 
It’s always interesting to me what the cost of these machines were back then ... The average weekly wage in 1860 for a machinist was $9.48 ... that was for a 60 hour work week when people worked 6- 10 hour days. A chuck in the one ad was $15.00!! Roughly two weeks of long hard hours! In comparison the average wage of a basic machinist/Cnc operator is said to be around $20 per hour give or take... so if my math is correct that chuck would cost around $1,880.00 today.
 
The Inflation Calculator

What cost $9.48 in 1860 would cost $273.33 in 2019.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2019 and 1860,
they would cost you $9.48 and $0.34 respectively.

What cost $15 in 1860 would cost $432.48 in 2019.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2019 and 1860,
they would cost you $15 and $0.53 respectively.

So in 1860 a worker would work roughly two long weeks of 60 hours each.
So in 2019 a worker would work about 1-1/2 weeks of not so hard 40 hours.

I guess you could say we've made some progress. I won't bother to get an hourly wage comparison.

The inflation calculator is nice in that it goes back to 1800.

Of course the usual comparison is "An ounce of gold will buy one very fine man's suit, a good cigar, and a good meal." This has not changed much in 150 years.

Joe in NH
 
The Inflation Calculator



So in 1860 a worker would work roughly two long weeks of 60 hours each.
So in 2019 a worker would work about 1-1/2 weeks of not so hard 40 hours.

I guess you could say we've made some progress. I won't bother to get an hourly wage comparison.

The inflation calculator is nice in that it goes back to 1800.

Of course the usual comparison is "An ounce of gold will buy one very fine man's suit, a good cigar, and a good meal." This has not changed much in 150 years.

Joe in NH

I broke it down hourly in 1860 ... which comes out to be 0.158 per hour... I divided that into the cost of a chuck at $15.00 which comes out to about 95 hours of work in 1860 to make $15.00.. not quite two weeks worth of work. So if I had to apply the same amount of worked hours (95) multiplied by the present average machinist pay ($20.00) that would put it at roughly $1900
 
I did some more searching but didn't find much. I did find some new finds of earlier machine tools but I'll save that for latter discussion. Attached below was found by searching about Asahel Pierpont.
View attachment 279320

Actually there is quite a bit out there on Asahel Pierpont and some on Henry Pierpont, his son.
It's funny how they got things wrong in the 1914 article.
Asahell Pierpont was born in Connecticut in 1796 and died in 1880. He did not come from Springfield.
I am not sure about his early life but in 1834 he is listed in the firm of Pierpont & Hotchkiss as door lock and latch manufactures in New Haven.
This firm did quite well and this is where he made his money.
After Hotchkiss died the firm became Pierpont, Mallory & Co.
Pierpont retired from that company in 1852 and went in with Scranton & Parshley.
It appears Asahel Pierpont did not stay with New Haven Mfg. for very long.
By 1855 he was out speculating in oil. There is a fair amount out there on his involvement in oil, which I did not read in depth.
I also ran across two patents by him. One for a boot jack and one for soldering wire ferrules. I did not check for any others.

A little info on the lock making.
Yale Under God - Roberta Buckingham Mouheb - Google Books


Attached are New Haven directory pages from 1840 and 1852.

Rob
 

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  • 13 Scranton, David 1852.jpg
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Some old threads came to mind when I was searching John Parshley. The remains of an orante planer at the Cass Shop and the running ornate matching planer at the Iowa Steam Launch museum. They were possibly identifed as early Planers of John Parshley. Did anyone find concrete evidence to pin the maker down?
 
Some old threads came to mind when I was searching John Parshley. The remains of an orante planer at the Cass Shop and the running ornate matching planer at the Iowa Steam Launch museum. They were possibly identifed as early Planers of John Parshley. Did anyone find concrete evidence to pin the maker down?

Time for some John Parshley info.

I believe the Cass one to be a Parshley, but we will never know for sure.
The Iowa one is interesting. It says Bishop cast in the top.
I still think it is a Parshley.
In the various Scranton & Parshley and John Parshley ads, they say they will supply rough or finished castings of their machines to others.
I think the Iowa one is one of them.
I have not been able to find a lot on John Parshley.
He was born in Connecticut. What year I don't know.
At some point he went to Massachusetts. His wife is from Massachusetts and his first three children(all girls I think) were born in Massachusetts.
His fourth child, John Parshley Jr. was born in Connecticut.
John Parshley died in late 1856. I don't know from what. Sadly John Jr. died in 1857 of typhoid fever.

A John Parshley ad from 1855. It was right below the 1855 New Haven ad.

Rob
 

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As a follow up to my post #52 above.

Scranton & Parshley and John Parshley ads.

Rob
 

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Ads for the sale of John Parshley's estate.
These ran from the end of 1856 through 1857 and the start of 1858.

Rob
 

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Thanks Rob. I really enjoyed this thread full of information. Who knows if somewhere in some book or library there may be a New Haven advertisement with an engraving of your planer.
 
Who knows if somewhere in some book or library there may be a New Haven advertisement with an engraving of your planer.

That would be nice. I would like to find more early New Haven Mfg. ads.

I found that New Haven envelope on the internet. Tried to enlarge it.

A picture of a nice New Haven planer I got from esbutler.
This shows what the pulley drive should look like on my 1850's one from Arkansas.

Rob
 

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I am still bummed about the New Haven planer that was only hours from me across the border in Canada. Only hours also where I have a cabin and property to at the very least store it. I didn't have a passport or trailer large enough then but do now if it was still in existence I would hitch my gooseneck grab my passport and head north. I last heard from the seller in August of 2016. I emailed him in October as he had dropped the price to free as it said time was running out. He did not reply to my email so It is most likely scrappers grabbed a heavy free priceless planer. She had the heart legs and fluted middle legs.
New Haven planer.jpg
 
I'll keep my eye out for it but I doubt it still is in existence. There are plenty of early machine tools still in hiding all over the country. I'll hopefully be ready for the next find. My new rig can tow up to 35K lbs and a payload of 5K alone. Maybe someday it may bring home some other early find.
 








 
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