| 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 | MH |
| Forged iron or steel, 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 reverbatory furnaces for |
| decarburizing or fining cast iron, in which the knowledgeable 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 | MH |
| 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. This is 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 (Except Machinist Tools) |
| 63001T3 | Framing square | bio | DTM | MH |
| 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 Square |
| 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. |
| 090508T1 | Framing square | bio | DTM | MH |
| 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. |
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