Leon Fisk wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jan 2009 05:08:21 -0500, "Rob H."
wrote:

Just posted the latest set:

http://55tools.blogspot.com/


Rob

1506 Is a Clapboard Gauge. Similar to Patent 354,680:

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=354680


I don't know how you solved that one!

The history of the clapboard fascinates me. The Pilgrims brought tools
but could not build adequate housing until Indians showed them how. The
colonists began calling weather boards "clapboards". That kind of
construction was almost unknown in England. Poor New Englanders used
wood sheathing without clapboards. It wasn't weatherproof and houses
didn't last long.

A century earlier, Verrazzano had loved his stay with Indians on the
Narragansett bay. Among other things, he loved their gentility, the
quality of their housing and boats, and the efficiency of their
manufacturing.

On Cape Cod, Pilgrims were impressed to find a fort built like a
European fort and ropes and nets manufactured like English ones. They
mentioned boards. I had thought clapboards had always been sawed, but
that didn't come about until 1780 or so. Before that, they were split
and shaved.

Indians in New England had board beds large enough for several adults.
They were known for large, comfortable dome houses made of poles covered
with mats. This construction allowed them to take their "siding" with
them if they spent summers at the shore and winters inland. For
permanent structures, I wonder if they used clapboards.