Tin Plate and the Tinker
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Vol. 4 No. 2, April 1951 by Gillian W.B. Bailey Although the manufacture of tin plate had -long been a monopoly of Bohemia, about 1620 the industry spread to Saxony...
Early American Industries Association Blog
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Burning Brands or Marking Irons
Excerpted from the The Chronicle Vol. 31 No. 3, September 1978 by John R. Grabb Methinks the realms of England, France and Ireland Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood As did the...
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The Staff of Life in Colonial America
Excerpted from The Chronicle Vol. 39 No.1, March 1986 by Charity Gedney Charity Gedney has been deeply involved as a volunteer worker in various collectors’ societies for many years. She says she deplores the...
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Cider Making in the 1870s
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Vol. 29 No. 2, June, 1976 By Daniel B. Reibel Apples were a favorite fruit of American farms. The trees would grow anywhere and they did not require a great...
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The Forming Machine: How the manufacturing of hats went from 6 to 600 per day
Excerpted from The Chronicle Volume 51, No 2, June 1998 by Debbie Henderson, Ph.D. The felting process is thousands of years old. Felt has been used for shelters, blankets, shoes, and fabric for...
An X-ray of a Dovetail Joint, & Letters and Comment on Puzzle Mallet
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1977 by Christopher Tahk While the skill of a joiner is evident in the quality of his cabinetwork, it may also he apparent in the tools...
Butter Churns
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Vol. II, No. 10, June 1939 By William S. Sprague A churn has been defined as “a vessel in which milk or cream is agitated to induce the separation of...
A Brickyard in New England
Excerpted from The Chronicle Vol. 32, No. 2 (June 1979) By Daniel B. Reibel This little scene, frozen in time between 1895 and 1900, shows a part of the operation of a brickyard in...
EAIA Today
We are nearing the end of summer here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It is hot, humid and we suffer from occasional showers and downpours which seem to run right off. But September...
James Wilson, Pennsylvania Chairmaker
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Vol. 32, No. 4, December 1979 By Donald L. Tuttle and Joyce Baudin, Illustrations by Linda Scharf-Jones Chairmaking in small shops in eastern Pennsylvania reached its peak shortly after the...
Craftsmanship and Art in an Early Tool Chest
The following is excerpted from The Chronicle Vol. VI, No. 2, April 1953 By W. Parker Crutchfield “The man who built that must have been a bachelor ” announced a lady tourist who was...
Baby Walkers
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Vol. 23, No. 1, March 1960 by Edward Durrell Perhaps you could not call a baby walker a tool but it certainly isn’t a toy and I am sure in...
‘Whatsits’
By John Verrill, Executive Director, Early American Industries Association One of the pleasures of working in the EAIA office is getting frequent requests to identify tools whose purposes are unknown to the inquirer. We...
Street Lighting
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Volume III, No. 17, October 1948 By Bertram K. Little The 18th century brought great advances in street lighting both abroad and for the first time in this country. By...
The Bygone Cobbler
Excerpted from The Chronicle, Volume III, No. 10, March 1947 By Jared Van Wagenen The community tanner and cobbler have disappeared together. Both of them represented the same phase in our industrial development; each...