George Rennie built a planer in 1820 with a movable bed operated by a screw and furnished with a revolving cutting tool.[50] James Fox built one in 1821, capable of planing work 10 feet, 6 inches long, 22 inches wide, and 12 inches deep, to plane the bars of lace machines. Joseph Clement made his first planer in 1820 to plane the triangular bars of lathes and the sides of weaving looms. Some years later he built his “great planer,” a remarkable machine from both a mechanical and a financial standpoint. A very full description of it was given by Mr. Varley in the “Transactions of the Society of Arts” in London in 1832,[51] illustrated by a set of copper plates made from Clement’s own drawings. Clement’s reputation of being the most expert draftsman of his day is well borne out by these drawings. In this planer two cutting tools were used, one for the forward and one for the return stroke. The bed ran on rollers, mounted on a concrete foundation, which were said to have been so true that “if you put a piece of paper under one of the rollers it would stop all the rest.” It was fitted with centers and was used for planing circular, spiral and conical work as well as flat work. It took in work 6 feet square and was hand-driven. The cutting speed must have been low, for “the power of one man was sufficient to keep it in motion for ordinary work, though two were employed to make long and full cuts both ways.” For more than ten years it was the only one of its size and it ran for many years night and day on jobbing work, its earnings forming Clement’s principal income. Smiles says that his charge for planing was 18 shillings, or $4.32, per square foot, which amounted to about £10 per day of twelve hours, or, with two shifts, to about $100 a day.[52] On this basis he must have machined an average of about 11 square feet in twelve hours. [50] Buchanan, p. xlii. [51] Vol. XLIX, p. 157. [52] Smiles: “Industrial Biography,” p. 306. Boston, 1864. By 1840 the design of the planer had become fairly well settled and its use general. In America, planers were built by Gay, Silver & Company of North Chelmsford, Mass., as early as 1831. Pedrick & Ayer of Philadelphia are also said to have built a planer at about the same time. The early American tool builders will be taken up in a later chapter. Little is known of the personalities and histories of some of these men, such as Spring of Aberdeen. Spring’s name is mentioned by Smiles in his “Industrial Biography”[53] as one of the inventors of the planer, but no further reference is made to him. [53] p. 223.