Leonard Bailey (May 8, 1825 in
Hollis, New Hampshire
Hollis is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 8,342 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, having grown 9% from the 2010 population of 7,684. The town center village is listed ...
– February 5, 1905 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
) was a
toolmaker
Tool and die makers are highly skilled crafters working in the manufacturing, manufacturing industries.
Tool and die makers work primarily in toolroom environments—sometimes literally in one room but more often in an environment with flexible, ...
and
cabinet maker
A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (solid ...
from
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, United States, who in the mid-to-late nineteenth century patented several features of
woodworking
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
History
Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked b ...
equipment. Most prominent of those patents were the
planes
Plane most often refers to:
* Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft
* Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface
* Plane (mathematics), generalizations of a geometrical plane
Plane or planes may also refer to:
Biology
* Plane ...
manufactured by the Stanley Rule & Level Co. (now
Stanley Black & Decker
Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a ''Fortune'' 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware, and a provider of security products. Headquartered in the Greater Hartford city of Ne ...
) of
New Britain, Connecticut
New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol ...
.
Commonly known as Stanley Bailey planes, these planes were prized by woodworkers of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, and remain popular among today's wood craftspeople. A type study of his patented planes and the rest of the Stanley line may be found at Patrick Leach's "Blood and Gore".
[Patrick Leach']
Blood and Gore
/ref>
Bailey's design ideas are still used by Stanley and other plane manufacturers to this day.
References
1825 births
1905 deaths
Tool and die makers
Furniture makers
People from Hollis, New Hampshire
19th-century American inventors
Inventors from New Hampshire
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