Copeland & Chamberlain Caliper; Patented June 25th 1878; Worcester, MA

C

c5h5nino

Aluminum

Joined

Oct 30, 2015

• Feb 20, 2019

• #1

Hello all,

I purchased this interesting caliper recently. It was patented by H. C. Wight on June 25th, 1878 (No. 205,225). Picture is from Ken Cope's American Machinist's Tools Patent Directory.



The caliper is marked with a manufacturers name that is listed in the EAIA Directory of American Toolmakers (pictured below), but the spelling on the tool is slightly different (Chamberlin vs. Chamberlain.

Does anyone have a similar caliper? Or has anyone seen one in the wild? Any information would be helpful.

 

C

c5h5nino

Aluminum

Joined

Oct 30, 2015

• Feb 20, 2019

• #2

One more picture...

 

J

javan.dempsey

Aluminum

Joined

Jun 26, 2012

Location

Asheville, NC

• Feb 20, 2019

• #3

Interesting piece. Here's a link to the patent in google patent directory, which has scans of the art at higher res, along with the typically mangled machine transcoded patent docs. US205225A - Improvement in calipers - Google Patents

 

rivett608

Diamond

Joined

Oct 25, 2002

Location

Kansas City, Mo.

• Feb 21, 2019

• #4

Nice piece! I’ll check to see what I have.

 

L

L Vanice

Diamond

Joined

Feb 8, 2006

Location

Fort Wayne, IN

• Feb 21, 2019

• #5

javan.dempsey said:

Interesting piece. Here's a link to the patent in google patent directory, which has scans of the art at higher res, along with the typically mangled machine transcoded patent docs. US205225A - Improvement in calipers - Google Patents

Click to expand...

Go to the USPO site to see scans of the original patent publication, so there is no spelling issue.

Patent Images

Larry

 

rivett608

Diamond

Joined

Oct 25, 2002

Location

Kansas City, Mo.

• Feb 21, 2019

• #6

I don’t have one. What I do have is a shop made copy. Someone who was to cheap to buy one or who knows, maybe it is the inventors prototype. That would take proof.

If you look at the inside between the rails you can see this was made from a rule as it is graduated on the inside.

 

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Wlodek

Aluminum

Joined

Nov 15, 2018

• Feb 21, 2019

• #7

This pattern was often encountered in watchmaking measuring devices in the 19th century.

 

C

c5h5nino

Aluminum

Joined

Oct 30, 2015

• Feb 22, 2019

• #8

That is a really nice example!

 

J

javan.dempsey

Aluminum

Joined

Jun 26, 2012

Location

Asheville, NC

• Feb 24, 2019

• #9

L Vanice said:

Go to the USPO site to see scans of the original patent publication, so there is no spelling issue.

Patent Images

Larry

Click to expand...

Larry, fwiw, if you click the "download PDF" option from google, it includes the art and original app scans also. However, always good to mention alternatives.

Google's site has it's caveats, but it offers a more flexible/powerful tool if you learn out to utilize the expression options of the search engine, and isn't limited to US patents, but it can be finicky. Like many random books, it's often better for finding "something interesting" than something "specific" unless you know the actual patent number.