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Alfred J. Pool (Manufacturer)

This drilling machine consists of a wooden frame, an adjustable clamp and a central drill operated by means of a handle. It was used for drilling wheel hubs. It was made by Alfred J. Pool of Chipstable, Somerset, around 1897. It was purchased by the donor at an auction of the estate of Alfred J. Pool on his death in 1957.

1 drilling machine: wood; iron

MERL Exhibition label – ‘Drilling machine, c.1880 // This is a hand-operated machine for drillings holes into wood at variable angles. The frame that supports the drill can be tilted and fixed to create the right angle relative to the piece of wood secured on the bed beneath. // It was made and used by W.H.Pool & Sons, a firm that began as wheelwrights in the Somerset village of Chipstable in 1847. // Alfred and his brother William Pool began to build oil engines in the late 1890s and over the following 30 or so years installed around 200 in farms and workshops in the west country. // Alfred Pool died in 1957 at the age of 93. As well as being an engineer and inventor, he ran the small family farm with his brother, and had been an enthusiastic photographer in his youth. // The Museum has a number of other items associated with Alfred Pool, including a small steam engine and one of his early cameras.’, ‘More on Pool Engines’ by Geoff Bryant, in ‘Stationary Engine’ Nov. 1979, p.6 – ‘The firm of W. H. Pool & Sons was started in 1847 as wheelwrights in the village of Chipstable, four miles or so from Wiveliscombe in Somerset. The two brothers Alfred and William joined their father when they left school, to make threshers, hayrakes, etc., in fact all sorts of farm machinery. They started experiments with engines in the late 1890’s and by the turn of the century were making engines from 1 to 14 h.p. It appears that 200 engines were produced, the castings to Pool’s patterns were made by ‘Gunns Iron Foundry’ of Tiverton in Devon, and ‘Easton & Johnsons Foundry’ in Taunton. The skew gears were rough cast by the ‘Blackstone Company’, but all brass work – big end and main bearings being cast at Chipstable by the Pool Brothers and workers, and all castings were also machined and finished by them. // … // Alfred Pool died in 1957 at the age of 93, his brother died some years before. There was a sale of their effects and one scrap merchant bought 57 tons of scrap. The engines, including the first one they built were sold for £6 each and broker up on site.’, Letter from MERL to Prof. W. E. Minchinton, 19 February 1965 – ‘He [Alfred J. Pool] was a general engineer at Chipstable in North Devon and he also was quite active in taking photographs between 1880 and 1900. His forebears had been craftsmen in the village. His father died in 1907 at the age of 90 and one gathers that the family did everything from wheel-wrighting to coffin making. It also appears that his grandfather and grandmother kept a shop in the village where they sold groceries and draperies, which was carried on until 1946 by Mr. Poole’s sister.’

Chipstable

1897 - 1897

Drilling machine, Bit, drill

Wood, Metal, iron

Pool, Alfred J. (Collector)