| |
 |
|
 |
| Patent
stamp on lateral lever. |
|
Close-up
of side lugs. |
These planes, manufactured over the 10-year period by both companies,
were a mix of metal and wood transitional styles. They can be
found either with or without the lateral lever and, in the case
of the wood transitionals, marked with either the Standard Rule
Company or Upson Nut Company mark on the toe. Some versions
were made that replicated the Stanley method for affixing the
lever cap, using a center screw rather than the side lug mechanism.
By 1893 the tool division of the Upson Nut Company was sold
to the ever-expanding Stanley Rule and Level Company and the
manufacture of these planes ceased.
 |
|
 |
| Blade
adjustment mechanism. |
|
Plane
disassembled. |
The rapid growth of the personal entrepreneur in post-civil
war USA was responsible for an abnormal amount of technological
change, not only in manufacturing methods but also in the subsequent
large number of start-up companies that had relatively short
working lives. In some ways there is almost a replication of
that atmosphere in the high-tech boom of the last 20 years.
Then, as now, for every success story there are multiple failures,
allowing for corporate takeovers or the elimination of a particular
product line. The Standard Rule Company planes were clearly
an exercise in attempting to have a larger market share by using
innovation to bring a newer, better product to the buying public.
The three patents, two owners and the discontinuation of the
planes in a 10-year working period all seem to suggest that
the manufacture of the planes was based on a boardroom decision,
not on the actual usability of the plane.
D.S. Orr |
|
