Kenneth L. Cope – författare

Here is the first book to identify American builders of planers, shapers and slotters, who operated throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Written in the style of the author’s previous groundbreaking books on the American machine tool industry, this volume provides the reader with invaluable information on over 300 makers. Some are very well known, but many have previously gone virtually unrecognized by researchers. More than 1000 illustrations, taken from original catalogs and contemporary periodicals, show how these machines developed: starting out in the early 1800s as crude, hand-built copies of English machines and becoming, over the course of a century, monster machines weighing nearly one million pounds, unmatched elsewhere in the world. Numerous machine accessories, such as chucks, dividing heads, milling attachments and keyseating attachments, among others, are identified and illustrated. In addition, the book includes a glossary of terms used in describing the various types of planers, shapers and slotters, and provides illustrations that help identify the individual parts of the machines.

Tool collectors will appreciate this well organized, comprehensive catalog of American wrenches and their makers. Following a list of wrench patent dates with the names of their makers is the catalog of wrenches, organized alphabetically by maker. Each entry includes a short history of the company and their wrenches with illustrations of each wrench, in b&w. An appendix contains an interview with Loring Coes.

Through the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th, barrel makers followed the same path taken by many other woodworkers . . . they moved from hand tools to the large, efficient new machines that were the products of the Industrial Revolution. They built factories to house the machines and turned out thousands of barrels, kegs, and similar containers a day. Kenneth Cope’s book, in the pattern of his previous books on the American machine tool industry, provides more than 530 illustrations of these cooperage tools, taken from original catalogs and contemporary periodicals. Along with the illustrations is a brief history of the individual maker, chronicling the various machines that each made. Included, as well, are reproductions of four catalogs: E. & B. Holmes 1891 catalog and ca. 1910 or 1915 Q catalog, L. & I.J. White 1912 catalog, and the D.R. Barton 1905 catalog. An illustrated glossary of terms used and an appendix giving a brief look at the English and French cooperage industries in the corresponding period are also provided.

Here again is one of Ken Cope's major reference works on the history of technological innovation. Anyone interested in wagons and carriages, particularly in wheelwrighting, and in the history of technology will enjoy and benefit from this book. Mr. Cope continues his series with an alphabetic listing of the inventors and builders of American carriage and wagon makers’ machinery and tools and, as before, accompanies his descriptions with many illustrations from old catalogs and trade journals. There is, as well, a comprehensive Glossary of terms. Anyone interested in wagons and carriages, particularly in wheelwrighting, and in the history of technology will enjoy and benefit from this book.

Here is the companion volume to Ken Cope's previous works on machine tools, carriage making machinery and cooperage machinery. Factories filled with the machinery described in the previous works, from the smallest drill presses to giant planers, could not have existed without a reliable and sufficient power source. The steam engine was that source, from the start of the industrial revolution to the general availability of electric power distributed from large, central generating stations in the early 20th century. Smaller size engines, made for farms and small industries such as cheese factories, greatly reduced the manpower required and therefore the cost of the final product to the consumer. The nearly 1000 illustrations show the development of the steam engine from 1800 to 1900 in a great variety of sizes, styles, and designs. Many designs shown proved impractical and were soon discarded; other designs such as the Corliss engine were made by scores of firms for scores of years. Along with the illustrations is a brief history of the individual maker, chronicling the various engines that each made.