Millers
Falls No.1, 3 & 5 eggbeater drills
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Millers Falls
No.1 eggbeater drill;
Type 5 - The first
type with the back-support wiper that supports the thrust between the main
gear and drive pinion. Also the first No.1 type with a side handle. And
the 3-jaw, no-springs chuck patented on September 20, 1896. Compare
this frame to that of Type 6, following. This method of supporting
the heavier loads applied when turning the newly developed twist bits is
imperfect - one would also have to adjust the spacing between the main
gear and the drive pinion, and there is no means to do this. Without
the missing adjustment, the back-support wiper cannot keep the two gears
in mesh on their pitch lines. Compare to the "little rail road car wheel"
(LRRCW) roller applied to the No.2 style drills developed at about the
same time by Millers Falls. Neither gear support method was ever
patented. Perhaps the claims of the patented outboard gear wiper
(US Patent No. 544,411, granted to H.D. Lanfair on August 13, 1895, and
assigned to Goodell-Pratt) precluded any such protection. The back-support
wiper and the Lanfair patented wiper were eventually copied by several
manufacturers; the LRRCW was never imitated, even though it was the best
gear-support method in both application and theory.
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