Leonard Bailey and his Woodworking Planes: An Unrecognized Genius of the American Industrial Revolution

By: Paul Van Pernis and John G. Wells

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Synopsis: New Englander Leonard Baileywas one of the inventive geniuses of theAmerican Industrial Revolution. His designs and patented inventions solvedproblems with woodworking planes that had plagued craftsmen for centuries. Hisplanes allowed woodworkers to transition from the age of wooden carpenter&’splanes to modern, metallic, fully adjustable planes suitable for any kind ofwoodworking. His plane designs are still in use throughout the world and areessentially unchanged from the planes he first made in the 1860&’s. He deservesmore credit than he has received among America&’s great inventors.This book covers the thirty-two-year period in Leonard Bailey&’s lifebetween 1852 when he began inventing, making and selling woodworkingtools in Winchester, Massachusetts, through his years at the Stanley Rule & LevelCompany from 1869–1874, and ends in 1884 when he worked in Hartford,Connecticut, and sold his Victor Tool business to the Stanley Rule & Level Company.