The unlimited field which is open to inventors, and the boundless fertility of ideas which is constantly busy in filling this field, are both strikingly illustrated in the invention here represented. In working wood by carpenters and others, a great deal of labor is expended in sawing boards lengthwise—“ripping” them, as it is called—and this work requires not only a true eye and hand, but a certain measure of skill which is the result of long training. By this machine, the operation is performed by any boy, however inexperienced, or any workman, however unskillful. (more…)
This is a New Zealand saw fitting shop. Mr. Fraser surely seems to have a pretty complete assortment, and it is interesting to note from his letter that Disston Saws are in almost universal use in New Zealand.
Henry Disston & Sons, Inc., 238 St. Asaph St.,
Philadelphia, Pa. Christchurch, N.Z.
Gentlemen:
I have forwarded you a photo which no doubt will be of interest, being a saw repair shop in New Zealand, and shows that over ninety per cent. of the saws in use here are Disstons, and with my sixteen years experience as a saw expert, with Mr. S. Frasee, whose photo is shown, but now has returned after over fifty years both working and repairing saws.
We are both of the same opinion that Disston Saws excel all others.
Wishing you continuous success, I remain,
Yours, etc.
Robert J. Fraser.
Of the early history of this manufacture it may be sufficient to state that until the early part of the seventeenth century, at which time Edward Gunter invented the line of logarithms graduated upon a sliding scale, which solves problems instrumentally in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically, the trade never assumed sufficient importance to cause it to be followed by persons who had no other occupation, and to make it worthy of being designated a craft.
Up to that time the best measures had been made by the mathematical instrument makers; but this ingenious invention of Gunter, by reason of its universal applicability to measuring purposes, called into existence another class of workmen, superior to those who had hitherto chiefly made the notched sticks similar to those used in many rural districts at the present day, but still somewhat distinct from the opticians and makers of such instruments as quadrants, sextants, and the finer kind of optical and mathematical instruments. The first men who were worthy of the name of rule-makers were to be found only in London; but after a time the trade gradually extended itself to Wolverhampton and Birmingham. (more…)
The present demand for hard-wood finish for the interior of dwellings in what might be called cabinet-work style, is tending to displace the ordinary house joiners, and to put in their places men who heretofore have been simply cabinet makers. The style of finish in vogue necessitates the employment of workmen of the greatest skill. Ordinary carpenters, or even joiners of moderate skill, stand very poor chances of turning out satisfactory work where every joint must be invisible, and where neither paint nor putty is allowable.
This demand for house finishing has taken many men from the regular cabinet-making shops into those shops which also engage in house work. At present the pay is better upon house finishing than upon regular shop work, while the additional advantage of being more certain of steady employment in those shops which conduct both branches of the business than in those which carry on but one, takes many men away from the latter. (more…)
It is often hastily assumed by employers that artisans wearing glasses are not so well fitted to do certain classes of delicate work as those who depend exclusively upon their natural eyesight. This notion, it would appear, is a mistaken one, and in a recent work on the subject, Mr. R. B. Carter mentions one very remarkable proof of the harmlessness of using glasses—and even of employing a single glass.
Among watchmakers it is an unavoidable necessity of their calling to work by the aid of a single glass, and they appear to enjoy an enviable immunity from eye diseases. It is, he says, exceedingly uncommon to see a working watchmaker among the patients of the opthalmic department of a hospital, and he entertains little doubt that the habitual exercise of the eye upon fine work tends to the development and preservation of its powers.
The persons who suffer most, according to Mr. Carter, from popular prejudice and ignorance on the subject of spectacles, are men of the superior artisan class, who are not engaged on work which requires good eyesight, and who, at the age of 50 or sooner, find their power of accomplishing such work diminishing.
It is, he tells us, a rule in many workshops that spectacles are altogether prohibited, “the masters ignorantly supposing them to be evidences of bad sight, whereas the truth is they are not the evidences of bad sight at all, but only of the occurrence of a natural and inevitable change, the effects of which they entirely obviate, leaving the sight as good for all ordinary purposes as it ever was.”
Mr. Carter adds that “in many shops in which they are not prohibited they are still made an excuse for a diminution of wages; and the result of these practices is that hundreds of good workmen struggle on, perhaps for years, doing their work imperfectly, when a pair of spectacles would instantly enable them to do it as well as at any former period. In the present state of knowledge there is no excuse for rejecting a man’s services, or for diminishing his payment, because he requires spectacles, unless it can be shown that, even when he is furnished with them, his sight is below the natural standard of acuteness.”
Persons who are condemned to the use of spectacles will thank Mr. Carter for thus coming forward as their champion.
Carpentry and Building – August 1880
Quotations from:
Eyesight, Good and Bad: A Treatise on the Exercise and Preservation of Vision
Robert Brudenell Carter – 1880
The painting is John Cuff and his assistant (1772) by Johann Zoffany, commissioned by George III. John Cuff (1708-72) was a Fleet Street optician, maker of spectacles and microscopes.
