| The Davistown Museum |
| Center for the Study of Early Tools |
| Scattered throughout The Davistown Museum are tools by important manufacturers who are also the subject of |
| information files compiled by the museum. This is a listing of our holdings for: |
| Brown & Sharpe |
| | Status | Location |
| Historic Maritime IV (1840-1865): The Early Industrial Revolution |
| Machinists' Tools |
| 50402T7 | Wire gauge | bio | DTM |
| Steel, 3 1/4" diameter, signed "J. R. Brown & Sharpe Providence R.I. standard wire gauge 0 - 30". |
| Joseph R. Brown and Lucian Sharpe worked together from 1853 to 1866, before the formation of Darling, Brown and Sharpe |
| in 1866. This mark, however, was used after this date. DATM (Nelson 1999, 120). |
| The Industrial Revolution (1865f.): Classic Period of American Machinist's Tools |
| Measuring Tools |
| 111900T7 | Dividers | bio | DTM |
| Steel, 3 3/8" long, signed "B.S. Mfg Co Prov. R.I. USA". |
| Brown & Sharpe, a major competitor of Laroy Starrett in Athol, MA; The first mass produced micrometer was designed by J. |
| R. Brown in 1856. |
| 30101T1 | Gear tooth vernier caliper | bio | photo | LPC | MHC |
| Steel in leather box, 4 1/15" long, 4 1/4" high, signed "Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. Providence RI USA 20.2DP". |
| Representative of the florescence of the New England toolmaker and L. S. Starrett's principal 20th century competitor. The |
| English measure caliper is an uncommon LBS product. |
| 111900T6 | Inside calipers | bio | DTM |
| Steel, 2 3/4" long, signed "B.S. Mfg Co Prov. R.I. USA". |
| Inside calipers is used to measure the diameter of a cylindrical hole. They have rounded tips that are bent away from each |
| 111900T8 | Outside calipers | bio | DTM |
| Steel, 2 3/4" long, signed "B.S. Mfg Co Prov. R.I. USA". |
| 102100T18 | Rule | bio | DTM |
| Cast steel, 6" long, signed "J. R. BROWN & SHARPE PROVIDENCE R. I. U,S, ST'D". |
| This signature preceeds the later B S Mfg. Co. (Brown and Sharpe). |
| Shipwrights' and Mariners' Tools |
| 032203T7 | Wire gauge | bio | photo | DTM |
| Steel, 3 1/2" diameter, signed "J R Brown & Sharpe Providence RI" "LBS" "Standard Wire Gauge". |
| The Directory of American Toolmakers (Nelson 1999) lists J. R. Brown, a predecessor of Brown & Sharpe, as working from |
| 1853 - 1866, but continuing to use this mark after that date on some tools. A typical tool in the increasingly complex tool kit |
| of a ca. 1880 shipyard worker. |
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