Barnes’ Metal Working Machinery, Price List and Descriptive Catalogue (Catalogue 48), originally published by W.F. & John Barnes Co., Rockford, IL, 1897. 6 x 9 paperback, 48 pages. This ORIGINAL catalog from 1897 is in very good condition. There is some soiling and scuffing of the front and back covers. The pages are clean, except for some dark foxing on the upper outside corner of each page (this foxing extends only as far as the page numbers). There is a hole drilled or punch in the top corner next to the spine, with string through the hole. Sometime after the end of the U.S. Civil War, young John Barnes bought a threshing machine, left his home in central New York state, and began working his way from farm to farm, moving ever westward in search of profit and a place to call his own. Just when he reached the area of northern Illinois around Rockford, is uncertain, but here Barnes and found employment with Emerson Talcott and Company, manufacturers of harvesting machinery, based on his previous experience as a model maker. The tediousness of carving wooden models by hand soon led Barnes to develop a foot-power woodworking scroll saw. The interest attracted by the vastly increased productivity made possible by his machine quickly convinced John Barnes to devote full time to manufacturing these foot-power tools. He soon brought his two brothers, W. F. and B. Frank, from the east, and in 1869, Barnes incorporated the business in Rockford. as W. F. and John Barnes Co. The Barnes foot-powered scroll saw quickly found favor in the building industry for turning out intricate ornaments for cornices, ornate balustrades for stairways, and other rococo decorations. While increasing production of their scroll saw, the Barnes brothers recognized the need in their own shop for other power tools - a circular saw, a foot-power wood lathe, a foot-power former and mortiser. Almost as soon as each new machine was designed, built, and put to use in the Barnes manufactory, wider commercial interest was soon generated , and so these new tools were added to the gradually expanding Barnes line for sale to other manufacturers. By the early 1880s, the Barnes brothers had also begin developing metal-working machinery, including an open-frame single-spindle drill press, a horizontal radial drill, and an adjustable screw press. Originally intended for use in their own factory, before long the tools were being also being sold to outside customers. Over a period of years, more than 70,000 drill presses were furnished to various industries. Among the early customers was Henry Ford, who ordered a Barnes drill press in 1881 for his experimental shop. In the 1920s and 1930s, the focus of the Barnes enterprise gradually shifted to its metal-working machinery, including the development – again, for their own use -- a machine which milled, drilled, tapped and faced, much like a special production machine of today. This machine was among the very first multiple operation machine tools in the world. One result was an order from the Ford Motor Company received in 1934 for what can be considered one of the first automatic progress-through or transfer type machines in major assembly line manufacturing operations. The machine was for diamond-boring cylinders in the Ford motor block to extremely close tolerances. By 1937, the focus of the Barnes company had completely shifted to automotive assembly machinery, and their production of foot-powered machinery had ceased. After World War Two, the company underwent a series of ownership changes, with the latest being the 1998 purchase by LeBlond Ltd. of Amelia, OH. What we have reprinted here is the complete catalog of foot power lathes from 1914. The original was actually 6 x 9 in size, but the edges of many of the pages were slightly burnt, and the back of the catalog was in especially bad shape. The back has not been reproduced for this reprint, but it featured a picture of one of the lathes show within. The front cover of the original was also in poor condition, but, if we may say so ourselves, we have done an outstanding job of cleaning it up and reproducing it. Another problem was the chemical staining on the title page, which features pictures of the Barnes manufacturing facilities in Rockford, but the photocopy comes out very nice with just some “ghost” shadowing from the damage. The machines and accessories pictured and described are: Barnes’ Friction Disk Drill Barnes’ Upright Drill No. 1 Barnes’ 20-inch Drill with Self Feed and Automatic Stop Oil Attachment Barnes’ Three-Spindle Drill Barnes’ Upright Drill No. 1 1/2 Barnes’ Upright Drill No. 2 Barnes’ Upright Drill No. 5 Barnes’ Adjustable Screw Press Barnes’ Water Emory Grinder Lathe No. 4, 7-inch Swing Screw Cutting Lathe No. 4 1/2 , 7-inch Swing Screw Cutting Lathe No. 5, 11-inch Swing Compound Rest Follower Rest Hand Rest Screw Cutting Lathe No. 5 1/2 , 13-inch Swing Screw Cutting Lathe No. 6, 13-inch Swing Lathe No. 6 Grinding and Polishing Machine Hand Turning Tools Lathe Tools Lathe Dogs W. Butcher’s Cast Steel Turning Chisels W. Butcher’s Cast Steel Turning Gouges Hand Turning Tools Chick Drills Steel Lathe Arbors Turners’ Sizer Bell Centering Punch Westcott’s Little Giant Drill Chuck A New Turret-Head Lathe Tool Westcott’s Patent Combination Lathe Chuck The Skinner Patent Combination Chuck Independent 4-Jaw Chuck Amateur’s Geared Scroll Chuck Amateur’s Level Chuck Champion Scroll Chucks Champion Independent Jaw Chucks The Weir “Model” Drill Chuck Morse Patent Twist Drills Steel Sockets for Taper Shank Drills
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