Here is the second volume in Dana Batory’s series of guides to the major woodworking machinery manufacturers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Covered in this volume are Parks Machine Co., the Boice-Crane Co., Baxter D. Whitney & Son, and Crescent Machine Co. All these manufacturers built a full line of woodworking machines, but most became especially known for a particular group, e.g., Boice-Crane produced medium size and capacity machines that were ideal for home shops, school shops and small business woodworkers; Whitney was famous for its thickness planers and spindle shapers, as well as for a large collection of cooperage machines; and Crescent won renown for its bandsaws and table saws, and for its Universal Wood-Worker, a combination machine. As in his first volume, the author provides a history of each manufacturer, as well as a description of the evolution of its product lines over the years. Accompanying the histories are many illustrations taken from the catalogs of the period. This is a mine of information about old woodworking machines and the companies that made them.
