Sample Item A1-2

Here is a sample item from the catalogue. The text is from page two while the picture is shown on the opposing page (page three). Every item is pictured in the catalogue.

A1-2: Whitmore, A.E.: Patent Registering Calipers. Patented July 20, 1869. Original Patent Model. Length: 6.5 Inches. Those who don't understand tool collectors look at them as poor souls who have nothing better to do with their lives than to accummulate more hammers or more wrenches or more of any kind of ugly, dirty thing than someone else. For those who do understand, however, the truth is so very much more. To be certain, there are things to be had, treasures to be brought home and discoveries of great moment that lie a Continent away or as near as the neighbor's barn; but focusing on the things, the wrenches, the planes or the hammers, misses almost all of what makes seeking out tools such a fascinating pastime. This tool collecting is, after all, much more about ideas and emotions than it is about iron or steel. And what of this object? A machined piece of brass with an old paper tag? Is that what it is? To some, it may be, but to those who understand, it is far, far more. Still attached to its original United States Patent Office tag and preserved in much the same condition as it was when it was submitted to that office to seek protection for the idea that inspired it. This "object", incorporating as it does a screw adjustment mechanism for precision measurement of objects, is nothing less than the original patent model for the first micrometer caliper patented in the United States. This device, created by A. E. Whitmore of Worchester, Massachusetts, and issued United States Patent No. 93026 on July 27, 1869, was apparently never put into serious production. However, it embodies in itself the giant technological leap that would allow the United States to rise in the span of a few generations from a Nation of woodland culture to the industrial giant of the world. To some, it may be just a thing, but to others, to those who know, it is the physical manifestation of one great idea that changed the world forever. (FINE) $5500.00

Another Patent Model is Item B1-3