Eagle Square Manufacturing Co. - a history

 The University of Vermont holds in its collection the records for the Eagle Square Company of Shaftsbury, VT.  It is now digitized and available to researchers.

http://cdi.uvm.edu/findingaids/collection/eaglesquare.ead.xml

Its first paragraph clearly states that Silas Hawes was not the inventor of carpenter squares. Good. We need to lay that myth to rest.


When I became curious about what tools were used for the layout of buildings in the British Colonies and the early United States, information about them seemed non-existent.  It was hard even to find what library might be a place for me to go to research, if I had been free to go traveling for a week. I found a few cabinet maker's tool boxes: the Bennington Museum owns one. But it was not easy to find lists of  tools a master carpenter would have owned. It still isn't.

Information about the history of carpenter squares was part of what I wanted to know about. I still do. They were widely manufactured here, and  40 early squares are stored in the vaults of the Bennington Museum. But there is no repository of information about their use or popularity, just local stories like the one that says Hawes invented the squares.

So I am posting what resources I find here.

7/6/17: update. I have been reading Joseph Moxon's 1683 book which includes descriptions of tools and how to use them, carpenter squares among them. For more information read: http://www.jgrarchitect.com/2017/06/joseph-moxon-mechanick-exercises-london.html

Scribe Rule to Square Rule and Carpenter Squares

Here is a post on Will Traux's blog about the rapid transition from the use of Scribe to Square Rule in Timber Framing. (He explains what those different rules mean.) The comments are an important part of the discussion.

http://bridgewright.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/a-now-two-century-old-overnight-turn-on-a-paradigm/

I have also seen  the rapid change from one system to the other starting around 1820.

I thought this could partially explain why accurate carpenter squares became so popular after 1820, why so many mills sprung up along Paran Creek in North Bennington and Shaftsbury, Vermont, to manufacture the squares, why after being wiped out by the disastrous flood in 1852, the factories were quickly rebuilt.

The comments to the original post discuss the need for standardized dimensions when using the Square Rule system. I think they make a good argument that standard measurements were not essential.

So I haven't a answer, yet.

carpenter squares in 1503

Here are carpenter squares in use in the early 16th century in Germany.

The print comes from Robert Lawlor's Sacred Geometry, Philosophy and Practice, p. 7. The wood cut by Gregor Riesch is from his book Margarita Philosophical, published in Baden,1503. Lawlor's description reads:

"Geometry as a contemplative practice is personified by an elegant and refined woman, for geometry functions as an intuitive, synthesizing, creative yet exact activity of mind associated with the feminine principle. But when these geometric laws come to be applied in the technology of daily life they are represented by the rational masculine principle: contemplative geometry is transformed into practical geometry."

I add this to the posts on carpenter squares, geometry, and regulating lines to follow up on some ideas I'm thinking about.

a) Carpenter squares were in regular use centuries before Silas Hawes of Shaftsbury, Vermont, made his first steel square in 1815, beginning what became The Eagle Square Co. Local lore wants Hawes to be the inventor of the carpenter square, but it isn't so.

b)The practice of geometry has since its beginning been an intellectual, philosophical process - 'contemplative' in the words of Lawlor - as well as a practical skill called Practical Geometry.

c) The intertwining of design - contemplative and theoretical  - and practice in construction unraveled during the Industrial Revolution. As the master-carpenter and master-mason evolved into the separate professions of architect, engineer, and builder each lost parts of the knowledge and skills, as well as the understanding and appreciation of what the others was doing.

d) Notes added 1/7/2019:
The woodcut is a wonderful window into geometry, crafts, tools, even education in late Middle Ages.
The woman is using a compass,  a tool that historians often overlook.
The famous Geometers (Google it!) were men - some of our best thinkers: Plato, Archimedes, Pythagoras, etc., not 'contemplative' nor 'feminine' as Robert Lawlor writes. I would describe them excellent, theoretical, logical, careful thinkers who also understood how to use Geometry for Practical purposes..
The word 'feminine' has little relevance in a discussion about Theoretical and Practical Geometry.

Old First Church Geometry - the plans - Part 1

The Old First Church in Bennington, Vermont, was designed using the geometry of circles.

This is a simple introduction.


Here is the cross section (interior view facing east) of the church.

Measured drawings of the church were done in the 1930's by Denison Bingham Hull, the architect who oversaw the renovation of the church removing the Victorian overlay which obscured its original form.  He, the minister, Vincent Ravi Booth, and the workmen worked closely together to restore and rebuild the interior.

Here is the circle with its six overlapping circles with the 'daisy wheel' and the box and roof of a building frame set within the daisy wheel outlined  in red. This pattern has been documented on enough different buildings that I think it can be considered a commonly known layout.

Here is the Old First Church Section set within the daisy wheel.
The center of the circle is the Bible. Not the pulpit or the minister.










In medieval English construction, the builder (master mason/ master carpenter) often left
 a visual note, indicating how he used geometry to design the structure. As I explore the designing of the Old First Church I wondered if the pattern in the fan light over the main door was not also a guide to the design of the church.
I explored the geometry of the fanlight in this post.

Designing the Old First Church, an introduction

What determined the design of the Old First Church?
What did Lavius Fillmore consider first?

Much was already determined.
Glenn M. Andres in his article, "Architectural elegance: Lavius Fillmore's Refinement of the New England Meeting House", The Walloomsack Review, the journal of the Bennington Museum,  Volume 2, October 2009, says the church committee drew up the plan: The meeting house would be "70 feet by 52 feet with porch, cupola and tower". The framing system was timber post and beam. His partner, Oliver Abel, would be the carpenter and joiner.  The layout was the usual:  1) A two story meeting space - the sanctuary - with a raised pulpit for sermons. Families sat on the main floor. The balconies had sections for young men, young women, servants, people of color, and prisoners, and 2) An entry - the porch - for protection against the weather, for late comers and after meeting mingling.

In the drawing, the porch is under the the steeple, the sanctuary itself to the right. Note the dome over the center.

This church in 1805 felt the congregation itself, the gathered body of those who believed, to be its focus. Church services were held in the morning and continued in the afternoon on Sunday. The minister's sermons could be 2 hours long. The congregation often spoke as well. The acoustics of the space were thus very important.

 Could  Lavius Fillmore create an interior where the minister could preach, the congregation participate, and everyone hear? The traditional solution had been a sounding board - a six ft. diameter solid wood wheel that hung about 4 feet above the preacher to bounce his voice out toward the people in the pews.
Fillmore had been experimenting with acoustics in the churches he built in Connecticut, constructed domes of various shapes to bounce the sound. Here in Bennington he could try again.

Note that the dome is not a semi-sphere. Its cross section is an ellipse. A half circle would bounce the sound from a speaker to only one place, as a mirror does light. An ellipse could send the sound in many different directions. And so it does. Today, 200 years later, someone speaking in the church can be heard by everyone else, whether that speaker is in the pulpit or in a pew.

This dome, its shape, placement, and support seems to me to be to be the place where the design began.

The sanctuary is a wonderful space to hear music. In 1805, singing was mostly a cappella. Instruments were hand held - flute, viola, harp, horn, drum - no organ or piano. Hymn writing and singing was just beginning. I am not sure music would have been considered in the design.

The illustration is "Measured Restored and Drawn by Denison Bingham Hull, Architect". Hull was  the architect who restored the building in 1936.

The Dutch House at Bucksteep Manor by Laurie Smith

 Laurie Smith's book, The Dutch House at Bucksteep Manor, A Geometric Design and 18th Century Hand Tool Workshop covers the workshop he gave in Massachusetts in 2009 for the Timber Framers Guild.  Laurie Smith is a timber framer, historian, and researcher of the use of geometric design in medieval England.
His workshop with Jack Sobon brought together "geometrical design methods and the use of 18th century hand tool techniques for the major timbers". (quote from the foreword of his book, p.iv)

Laurie Smith begins with analysis of the geometry used to design and frame 6 colonial Dutch houses in the Hudson River valley of New York. That understanding, based on measured drawings, became the basis for the frame built at the workshop.

Following the workshop Laurie Smith spoke at TFG's Eastern Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. The frame of the Dutch house had been erected in the hotel auditorium, but Laurie did not refer directly to it, the course, or the research he had done to prepare. Instead he spoke about his work in England and Wales. It was fascinating.

I attended the conference specifically for his talk as I had read his articles in Timber Framing, the TFG  journal. Later we began to correspond by e-mail. Our latest conversations have been about the Old First Church and the Luykas Van Alen House, both of which I have written about in this blog.

The drawings in the book of the regulating lines, the circle geometry of the 6 houses are clear and beautiful. For me they are a tutorial.
The measured drawings are also a gift. I am very familiar with colonial houses in eastern New England where I spent most of my life. I do not know as well the Dutch framing used in these 6 houses. It is similar to what I see in the part of the Hudson River watershed where I live today. Drawings such as these are not easy to come by, so I am reading them carefully. My thanks to Jack Sobon for the documentation.

For more information, and some pictures, about Laurie Smith and his work see:
http://www.timberframersguild.org/confs/confeast2011/GEOMETRICAL%20DESIGN%20WEEKEND%202011-A4.pdf

Geometry of the Old First Church, Bennington, VT, part 1 of 2

The Old First Church in the Old Center of Bennington, Vermont, was built in 1805. The congregation, needing a new building, hired the master builder/architect Lavius Fillmore of Connecticut. He had already constructed several churches in Connecticut. He built 2 more in Vermont. 

The church as been in use since it was built. It has an active congregation.

I am one of the docents (tour guides) for the church. We open the church during the week for visitors. We answer tourists' questions about church customs in 1805, theology, local and New England history, and sometimes even its architecture. We encourage people to walk around the church and the cemetery.

When there are no visitors I am just in the space. It has wonderful proportions, light, and curves.





One part of the building I have been studying is the window sash pattern. The upper windows are arched:  double hung windows with half circle tops. There are also Palladian windows. Where did the shapes of the curves in the arches come from?



Fillmore had a design in mind. How did he show the carpenter/joiner making the sash how those pointy pieces of glass and the muntins, the wood that holds them in place, were to be fashioned?





The use of circle geometry to determine the regulating architectural lines of buildings was common knowledge in 1800. So I began my exploration with circles.

Here is what I have found:
The top diagram shows the 5 panes of the Palladian windows with their arch. The lower diagram is the simpler 4 pane wide window.


The circle which determines the shape of the half circle arch, also determines the shape of the 'pointy' panes within the arch. The circles come and go in both directions. It is the center half circle which contains the expansion, 'centering' it.
Once I saw that, it was so obvious! I felt as if I had not played with my compass enough when I was little!

I thought I'd try the pattern in the arch over the main front door....

This pattern is more complex. The circle is surrounded by its 6 circles, starting with points on the left and right sides of the circle. The crossing points of the outer circles are centers for the curved segments in the center half circle. The pattern is then repeated starting at the top and the bottom points of the circle, or a 30* shift from the first pattern. The 2 patterns are combined to make the scalloped edge.



Well, what about that 3 leafed  'flower' - 'crown' -  in the center?

 

 

I am not sure. Here is what I can draw in -  the lines are determined by  little circles inside the others. If the circle were full, not a half, there would 6 little circles would fit, so the pattern still comes from a base of 6. But what determines the size of those circles?
I don't know. I do think the answer will be obvious when I find it.

 

 

9/15/2021: See the next post for the geometry as laid out by Laurie Smith.