Leonard Bailey and his Woodworking Planes

An Unrecognized Genius of the American Industrial Revolution

Paul Van Pernis and John G. Wells

New Englander Leonard Bailey was one of the inventive geniuses of the

American Industrial Revolution. His designs and patented inventions solved

problems with woodworking planes that had plagued craftsmen for centuries. His

planes allowed woodworkers to transition from the age of wooden carpenter’s

planes to modern, metallic, fully adjustable planes suitable for any kind of

woodworking. His plane designs are still in use throughout the world and are

essentially unchanged from the planes he first made in the 1860’s. He deserves

more credit than he has received among America’s great inventors.

This book covers the thirty-two-year period in Leonard Bailey’s life

between 1852 when he began inventing, making and selling woodworking

tools in Winchester, Massachusetts, through his years at the Stanley Rule & Level

Company from 1869–1874, and ends in 1884 when he worked in Hartford,

Connecticut, and sold his Victor Tool business to the Stanley Rule & Level Company.

Globe Pequot / Astragal Press

Pages: 248 • Trim: 9 x 12

978-1-931626-40-8 • Hardback • November 2019 • $55.00 • (£42.00)

978-1-931626-45-3 • eBook • November 2019 • $42.50 • (£33.00)

Subjects: Technology & Engineering / Reference

Leonard Bailey and his Woodworking Planes

An Unrecognized Genius of the American Industrial Revolution

Hardback

eBook

Summary

New Englander Leonard Bailey was one of the inventive geniuses of the

American Industrial Revolution. His designs and patented inventions solved

problems with woodworking planes that had plagued craftsmen for centuries. His

planes allowed woodworkers to transition from the age of wooden carpenter’s

planes to modern, metallic, fully adjustable planes suitable for any kind of

woodworking. His plane designs are still in use throughout the world and are

essentially unchanged from the planes he first made in the 1860’s. He deserves

more credit than he has received among America’s great inventors.

This book covers the thirty-two-year period in Leonard Bailey’s life

between 1852 when he began inventing, making and selling woodworking

tools in Winchester, Massachusetts, through his years at the Stanley Rule & Level

Company from 1869–1874, and ends in 1884 when he worked in Hartford,

Connecticut, and sold his Victor Tool business to the Stanley Rule & Level Company.

Details

Globe Pequot / Astragal Press

Pages: 248 • Trim: 9 x 12

978-1-931626-40-8 • Hardback • November 2019 • $55.00 • (£42.00)

978-1-931626-45-3 • eBook • November 2019 • $42.50 • (£33.00)

Subjects: Technology & Engineering / Reference

Author

Paul Van Pernis is a retired family practice physician whose lifelong passion has been

the study of woodworking and antique American hand tools. A past president of The

Early American Industries Association, he is a collector of antique tools and an expert

on the legacy of Leonard Bailey. He resides in Ashland, Wisconsin, where he practiced

medicine from 1978 to 2014.

The late John G. Wells was a well-known Bay area architect from 1956 to his

death in 2018. His lifelong hobby was collecting antique American hand tools.

He published over 240 articles on the topic for such publications as The Gristmill and

The Chronicle. His personal tool collection was widely considered to be the best and

most comprehensive collection of Patented American Metallic Planes in the country.