| 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: |
| Eagle Square Company |
| | Status | Location |
| Historic Maritime III (1800-1840): Boomtown Years & the Dawn of the Industrial |
| Revolution |
| Measuring Tools |
| 121906T1 | Framing square | bio | DTM |
| Malleable iron, 12" x 24 ", signed "S. HAWS PATENTED WARRANTED STEEL". |
| This square is clearly hand stamped, with increments of inches on one side and a complex numeration of board rule (?) on |
| the other. Of particular interest is the notation "STEEL"; though clearly not cast steel, this mark may suggest the use of |
| either blister steel or puddled steel. Alternatively, it may suggest an awareness that malleable iron, having a carbon content |
| greater than wrought iron, is a form of low carbon steel and is so marked. The hand stamping on the square suggests it was |
| made prior to 1850, pre-dating the use of the dividing machine for marking squares as well as the availability of domestically |
| made cast steel. Whatever "steel" was used in this square was most likely made in Vermont, which at this time had not only |
| cementation furnaces for making blister steel but also reverbertory furnaces for decarburizing or fining cast iron, in which the |
| knowledgable forge masters could halt the decarburization process to produce puddled steel -- a surprisingly common form |
| of steel before the Civil War. |
| 040103T9 | Framing square | bio | photo | DTM |
| Forged iron, 24" by 15", signed "HAWES Patent 1825" "$3.50" with owner's mark "Charles Scot". |
| DATM (Nelson 1999) indicates Silas Hawes made squares in Shaftsbury, VT, 1814 - 1828, but that several other local makers |
| also marked their squares "HAWES PAT". These were predecessors to the famous Eagle Square Co. organized in 1859. A |
| fine example of a used hand forged, hand stamped square of the early days of the republic. |
| Historic Maritime IV (1840-1865): The Early Industrial Revolution |
| Measuring Tools |
| 090508T1 | Framing square | bio | DTM |
| Steel, 24" x 16", signed "D. J. GEORGE" "WARRANTEED STEEL". |
| Dennis J. George of Shaftsbury, Vermont worked from 1846 - 1859 and then merged into Eagle Square. |
| Measuring Tools (Except Machinist Tools) |
| 63001T3 | Framing square | bio | DTM |
| Cast steel, 12" x 24", signed "J. Essex CAST STEEL WARRANTED No 1". |
| DATM (Nelson 1999) lists Jeremiah Essex as making squares in Bennington, Vermont, 1830 - 59 before merging with the |
| Eagle SQ Co. in 1859. The variety of numeration on this square reflects the increasing complexity of construction |
| techniques in the early years of the Industrial Revolution and may reflect changing measurement needs for constructing |
| newly introduced balloon frame buildings. |
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