[Illustration: FIG. 248.--MORTISING MACHINE.] _Mortising Machines_ have exercised an important influence in mill work in the joining of the stiles in doors, sashes and blinds, and in the making of furniture. The Fay & Egan machine is seen in Fig. 248. The self acting mortising machine was among the numerous early contributions of Gen. Bentham in woodworking machinery, and was described in his British patent No. 1,951, of 1793, a number of them having been made by him for the British Admiralty. Brunel’s mortising machine for making ships’ blocks is another early form described in British patent No. 2,478, of 1801. As representing novel departures in this art, the endless chain mortising machine shown in Douglas patent, No. 379,566, March 20, 1888, may be mentioned, and reissue patent, No. 10,655, October 27, 1885, to Oppenheimer, and No. 461,666, October 20, 1891, to Charlton, are examples of mortising augers. _Special Woodworking Machines._--Of these there have been great numbers and variety. No sooner does an article become extensively used than a machine is made for turning it out automatically. Indeed, machines for cheaply turning out articles have, in many cases, led the way to popular use of the article by the extreme cheapness of its production. Among various automatic machines for making special articles may be mentioned those for making clothes pins, scooping out wood trays, pointing skewers, dovetailing box blanks, cutting sash stile pockets, cutting and packing toothpicks, making matches, boxing matches, duplicating carvings, cutting bungs, cutting corks, making umbrella sticks, making brush blocks, boring chair legs, screw-driving machines, box nailing machines, making cigar boxes, nailing baskets, wiring box blanks, applying slats, gluing boxes, gluing slate frames, making veneers, bushing mortises, covering piano hammers, making staves and barrels, making fruit baskets, etc. It is impossible to give in any brief review a proper conception of the immensity of the woodworking industry in the United States. It is estimated in the Patent Office that about 8,000 patents have been granted for woodworking machines. Besides this there are about 5,000 patents in the separate class of wood sawing, about an equal number for woodworking tools, and these, with other patented inventions in wood turning, coopering, or the making of barrels, wheelwrighting, and other minor classes, give some idea of the activity in this great field of industry. The exports of wood and wooden manufactures from the United States in 1899 amounted to $41,489,526, of which $15,031,176 were for finished boards, $4,107,350 for barrels, staves and heads, and $3,571,375 for household furniture, but this is only an insignificant portion, for with a prosperous country, an abundance of wood, and a thrifty and ambitious nation of home builders, the home consumption has been incalculable. CHAPTER XXIX. METAL WORKING.