Object number
51/332
Collection
Description
An auger is a boring tool used in a variety of woodworking trades to bore long deep holes. It consists of an iron shank with a T-shaped handle at one end and a boring device at the other. In the case of a spiral auger, this is twisted into a spiral shape like a corkscrew. This spiral auger was used at R. Middleton & Sons' wheelwrights workshop in Eddington, Hungerford.
Physical description
1 spiral auger: iron shank and blade; wooden handle
Archival history
MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'A revolutionary step in the design of augers was the invention in 1770 by Phineas Cooke of the Spiral Auger. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce voted him a bounty of thirty guineas for the invention. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century however, that the instrument generally superseded the old down cutting shell augers which had been in use for centuries. The spiral auger differs from the shell auger in that its shank is twisted in a spiral, it is not sharp sided and does not cut downwards, but only discharges the shavings. Its spiral centres in a pivot screw end in two horizontal blades facing opposite directions which so engage the grain after the pivot screw penetrates it that no preliminary start hole is required. The blades cut directly downwards and the shavings pared off as the tool is turned travel upwards along the spiral and fall out at the top of the hole. Like the shell auger, the spiral auger cuts a perfectly cylindrical hole although it cannot be used for boring large holes 'with the grain' since the thin parings cut at right angles to the grain would break off. // This spiral auger which was used in the wheelwrights’ shop at Hungerford measures 19 inches from the top of the handle to the tip of the pivot screw. The wooden handle is 14 inches wide and through its centre the tapered iron top of the auger shank has been driven and top clenched across the grain. The square iron stem of the shank, 9 inches in length widens to form the rather broad spiral of the auger which is 7 inches in length. The two streams of the spiral end in a pair of horizontal blades, each .5 inches wide. The sharpened sides of the blades are upturned to corner cut the hole as the tool is turned. Finally there is a pivot point .6 inches long, which starts the penetration into the wood.'
Object name
Material
Associated subject
External document
- L:\MERL\Objects\JISC 2012\35 series negatives\Scans\35_449.tif - High resolution image
