The last volume in the Davistown Museum Hand Tools in History series, the Registry of Maine Toolmakers documents toolmakers working in Maine from 1607-1900. It lists information about edge tool- and plane-makers who supplied tools for Maine's ship carpenters and timber harvesters, including blacksmiths who specialized in toolmaking, as well as toolmakers for other trades, such as cooper, carriage-maker, cobbler, and farrier. Essays explore the historical milieu of these toolmakers, discussing the toolkits of colonial settlers; 18th century New England's prosperous ironworking, planemaking,...

In this volume of the Hand Tools in History series, author H. G. Skip Brack explores the stories told by the forge welded edge tools discovered in New England tool chests and workshops during his 40 years of searching out useful woodworking tools for the Liberty Tool Company in Maine. Also the founder and curator of the Davistown Museum, Brack wrote The Art of the Edge Tool to complement the museum collection, tell the story of early American toolmakers and answer the questions of when, how and where New England shipsmiths "ironed" wooden sailing ships and forged edge tools for the...

The Classic Period of American Toolmaking 1827-1930 considers the wide variety of toolmaking industries that arose after the colonial period and its robust tradition of edge toolmaking. It discusses the origins of the florescence of American toolmaking not only in English and continental traditions, but also in the poorly documented and often unacknowledged work of New England shipsmiths, blacksmiths, and toolmakers. This volume explicates the success of the innovative American factory system that was based on a rapidly expanding economy, the rich natural resources of North America, and...

The Phenomenology of Tools was written in the 1970s and first published in 1982. This second edition includes added photographs illustrating the poem, a new preface, and several appendices. In 1999, H. G. Brack became the curator of the Davistown Museum. His "Curator's Riff" from the museum's 2005 show catalog is reproduced as an appendix. It provides a less abstract synopsis of the phenomenology of tools, especially as experienced and presented by New England artists, toolmakers, and others in the permanent collection of the Davistown Museum. Using a poem by Philip Booth as a context in...

The Nuclear Information Handbook has been published as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis in Japan. It begins with a synopsis of the accident and continues with a description of relevant dosage reporting units, definitions, concepts, radiation protection guidelines, and other information that make it easy for the layperson to understand and evaluate this or any other nuclear accident. This handbook also includes a country-by-country database of Chernobyl fallout, which helps to provide a context for understanding the Fukushima disaster. It also includes a review of the fuel...