Stanley Plane Features Timeline MegaChart

Stanley Plane Features Timeline MegaChart
Trapped in frames? Go to MegaChart home page
The material found here is presented for educational and research purposes.
Contents

Additional information from generous corrrespondents, where you'll
discover that there's still work to be done, and questions as yet unanswered.

Tables of Miscellaneous Data

The Database MegaChart appears as two vertically synchronized frames with no added comments.
(BE PATIENT AT DOWNLOAD - THE ENTIRE FILE IS NEARLY 700k !)
PLEASE read all of this page to understand how the chart works.
Scroll vertically to the desired design element at left, then right-left
in the right hand panel to find the era in which it was manufactured.
All of the elements of a truly "correct" plane will appear
vertically within a common period of their use by Stanley.
AT LEFT:
The list of telltale Design Features.
Plane Type and Year headers (bright purple background) are repeated 3 times for accessibility.
Use the center vertical scrollbar to index both sides upward and downward together.
AT RIGHT:
A left-to-right timeline showing the years 1867-1967 and plane Types for those years.
The time duration(s) of each design element (shown as dots in pastel backgrounds).
Use the right side horizontal (bottom) scrollbar to scroll the Date/Type array right and left.
NOTE: Frames presentation is required to allow scrolling in both directions.
It works well in Firefox, Netscape, and MSIE.

The RIGHTMOST vertical scrollbar is slaved and has no effect.
If you move it, it will just bounce back to match the Features List.
Use only the center vertical and the right horizontal scrollbars.
When the Features List (left) is scrolled, the Date/Type array (right) will follow it vertically.
The Date/Type array will stay wherever you put it in time, left to right.

Acknowledgements
The original and seminal work of Roger K. Smith in his two volumes devoted to the identification and segregation of antique tools, particularly of the Stanley planes, has provided the basis for continuing interpretive work such as that presented in The Stanley Bench Plane Dating Page found at Jay Sutherland's site. The major effort by Patrick Leach to collect and share uncountable observations, detail, photographs and commentary at his site, "Patrick's Blood and Gore." greatly enlarges the lore and brings to it invaluable practical insight. It's Pat and Roger who have written the wealth of detail from which this chart was brought to life, and Jay whose lists suggested its architectural genesis.
There is much new data, thanks to the efforts of Jim Davey of New South Wales. Because of his exceptional interest, patience, and knowledge, Jim has not only been a great contributor, but a good friend as well. He's developed an interesting wood-tool web site, which is worth a visit if for no other reason than to meet a fellow student, all-round nice guy, and craftsman non pareil.
The chart is old and new information - Roger's and Pat's and Jay's and Jim's - checked, corrected, beaten into submission, and arranged in an all-inclusive spreadsheet format. In addition, Jim has performed (is performing) the monumental task of line-checking the chart for accuracy. No guarantees of perfection, but we've done our best to make it accurate.
If you discover any omissions or errors, please send a note and we'll make an effort to set things right.
For those who'd like to have the base data spreadsheet, it's included in a zip file containing both Lotus (parent) and Excel (derived) formats. I can't view it in Excel, so can't vouch for fidelity of translation. If it's off, you might use the HTML presentation as a guide for making corrections. AS well, additions and corrections have been added only to the derived HTML documents, so that the database is no longer accurate.

Created by JWPopp (Poppajohn) on 10/26/2006. Rev. 02/13/2007. HOME: See link within PoppaJohn's Dustbin.
Please send comments or suggestions to jwpopp@primeshop.com
I make no claims to copyright so long as none of this is repeated for profit. In any other case, feel free to download and use it in any way that's helpful.
CAUTION: Since this is based on the work of others, use care to ensure that you don't violate their copyrights or expressed wishes.