Carpenter's Combination Tool, Patent Model
date: label: date made
content: 1867
name: label: maker
content: Graham, John
notes: label: Description
content: This combination bevel and try-square tool served as a model for patent application number 70,547 submitted by John Graham of Ludlow, Vermont November 5th, 1867. The tool combines several carpentry tools including a bevel, marker, gauge, try-square, and level (what Graham describes as an “indicator”). When the square was placed upon a surface, the indicator would point vertically to 12 o’clock if the surface was level, varying to the left or right if not. The indicator was Graham’s main claim to invention in his patent, but he additionally claimed “the combination of one or more supplemental movable or adjustable squares, with a try-square.” This claim in the patent essentially made Graham’s invention an early multi-tool, a carpenter’s Swiss-army knife of bevels, levels, and squares.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Hand Tools
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content: Work
label: See more items in
content: Industry & Manufacturing
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.210834.01
label: accession number
content: 210834
label: patent number
content: 70,547
label: catalog number
content: 210834.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gauge
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 19.2 cm; 7 9/16 in