Eaton and Related Pantographs

(Engle, Glover, Cronite)

(Including Frederic W. Goudy's Matrix-Engraving Pantographs)

This Notebook covers several historical threads, each of which should probably have its own treatment. But as I know little about them and have so far been unable to untangle them, I'll cover them all here. The earliest machine associated with these threads of technological history dates to the 1880s, while the latest is still being manufactured. This line of machines is also directly associated with the best known name in type in the 20th century, Frederic Goudy. This has turned into a very long page, but it is easy to search and it's useful to have everything in one place.

So here are machines associated in some way with William S. Eaton. These include:

• The Stephen D. Engle single-point cutting tool machine of 1881
• The Stephen D. Engle drag machine of 1883
• The Eaton-Engle drag machine (made by Eaton & Glover)
• The New Century (patented by Eaton and W. T. Goodnow, made by Eaton & Glover)
• Various machines by Engravers and Printers Machinery Co. (first of New York City, but later of Sag Harbor, NY), including their drag-engraving Model C and their rotary engraving Model D. Variations of the Model D were used by Frederic W. Goudy to engrave the matrices in his Village Letter Foundery.
• The Cronite pantographs derived from the Eaton E&PM Co. machines, as modified by Edmund A. Gillis (and others, I presume) at Cronite.
• Various other machines patented by the inventive Mr. Eaton

This present Notebook is simply a dump of everything I could discover about these machines. It isn't going to win any awards for style or clarity. But this subject has been so unreasonably obscure, and its relevance to Goudy so important, that it seemed best to present everything.

I'll proceed more or less chronologically.

Things go back at least as far as Stephen Decatur Engle (1837-12-18 to 1921-01-21) of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. He was a farmer and watchmaker, and his many inventions included a pantograph. [His dates and full middle name I found in an online genealogical search; I have not yet verified them.]

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(The image above links to a 1024 pixel wide JPEG version rendered and cropped from the original scan. It's sufficient for most viewing. Here is a full-available-resolution PNG version (rendered and cropped from the original, 9 Megabytes): popular-science-monthly-v039-n5-1891-09-archive-org-woods-hole-popularsciencemo39newy-p629-img0647-render-JP2toPNG-crop-1784x2556.png Here is the original JP2 (JPEG 2000) page scan, without any further processing at all (1 Megabyte): popular-science-monthly-v039-n5-1891-09-archive-org-woods-hole-popularsciencemo39newy-p629-img0647.jp2 Note that at the time of writing (2013), were over a decade into the 21st century and most web browsers still can't handle JPEG 2000. You only want to trouble yourself with the JP2 version if you know how to handle it.)

The Stephen D. Engle machine is a vertically arranged pantograph with a non-rotary engraving tool. It is in many ways quite similar to the Eaton-Engle machine as later manufactured. It was modified by William S. Eaton and William T. Goodnow (whose mother-in-law was an Engle) in US patent 585,261 (1897), assigned to the Eaton-Glover company (manufacturers of the Eaton-Engle).

Stephen Engle seems to have been quite an interesting character. Here is a sketch of his life from a local county history.

As noted elsewhere in this Notebook William T. Goodnow co-patented the improvements on the Engle pantograph when it was manufactured as the Eaton-Engle.

The 1920 US Census lists a William T. Goodnow, born about 1863, as then being in Bradford, PA.

The 1885 Lehigh University yearbook lists William T. Goodnow as a senior.

But The Lehigh Burr, Vol. 16, No. 6 (January 19, 1897), p. 65, lists W.T.Goodnow as a member of the class of '83. This entry is also useful because it gives his position as the "general manager of the Cayuta Wheel and Foundry Company" (which was located in Sayre, PA, and which, according to several contemporary trade sources, had an output of 70,000 railway wheels per year).

The journal The Foundry, Volume 23, No. 3, WHole No. 135 (November, 1903), p. 122, lists William T. Goodnow as a director of the newly consolidated National Car Wheel Co., of Rochester, NY. His involvement was certainly through the Cayuta Wheel & Foundry Co. of Sayre, PA (one of the four firms consolidated into the National Car Wheel Co.) Here is the summary of the consolidation of this company, as listed in The Manual of Statistics: Stock Exchange Hand-Book Vol. 28 (1906):

In 1910, William T. Goodnow co-invented a lifting jack with Christian E. Loetzer (also of Sayre, PA). US patent 971,286.

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The Alphabetical List of Charters of Corporations Enrolled in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth [of Pennsylvania] During the Two Years Beginning June 1, 1917, and Ending May 31, 1919 lists William T. Goodnow as a director of both the Athens Borough Water Company and the Athens Township Water Company, both of Sayre, PA (incorporated May 16, 1918). (n.b., Google has digitized the University of California copy of this, which binds this volume together with volumes from 1913-1915 and 1915-1917; it lists it under the year 1915.)

An interesting biographical sketch of one Henry Dryfoos,Jr. appears in Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of the Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Vol. II. (NY: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1905). This sketch notes, among other things, that his father, Henry Dryfoos Sr. (born in "Germany"; emigrated in 1857 or 1858) married "Mrs. D. Sloan, nee Sarah J. Engle, daughter of John Engle, a prominant resident of Lehigh Valley. Their Children are: Rose E., wife of W. T. Goodnow, of Sayre, Pennsylvania, ... and Henry Dryfoos, Jr." It also notes that Dryfoos, Jr. "is also largely interested in the Sayre Stamping Company, one of the leading industries of Sayre, Pennsylvania, and which he is serving in the capacity of vice-president; and is a director of the Eaton & Glover Company, manufacturers of engraving machines of New York City." (p. 348)

So it would appear that there were close family ties between Goodnow, Dryfoos, and the Engles (all from Pennsylvania), and business ties between all of them and Eaton and Glover (in NY).

I have not yet properly documented the date of birth of William Sylvester Eaton. Various online art auction sites (he painted landscapes in his later years) list it as 1861 or 1862; this seems approximately correct.

The Sag-Harbor Express for Thursday Morning, September 26, 1895, carried the following note:

"Eaton - William S. Eaton, superintendent of the Engraving Department in the Watchcase Factory, is soon to leave that institution, and go to LaFayette Collee at Easton, Penn., to perfect himself in Chemistry and metallurgy, after which he will return to Sag-Harbor."

(This newspaper has been digitized by Tom Tryniski and is available on his "Old Fulton NY Post Card" website at: http://fultonhistory.com/ )

The watchcase factory in Sag Harbor was that of Joseph Fahys & Co., one of the more important US watchcase manufacturers. Eaton would have been about 34 at the time he went off to college in Pennsylvania. While LaFayette College is in Easton (not Sayre) Pennsylvania, this move put him in the same general area as the Engles and Goodnow. Eaton's and Goodnow's patent 585,261, improving on Engle's machine and creating, basically, the Eaton-Engle machine, was filed only one year later, in 1896.

In his article on "Fahys of Sag Harbor, New York" (Part 1) NAWCC Bulletin No. 332 (June 2001): 316-324, John H. Wilterding Jr. identifies "Wm. S. Eaton: Head engraver at Fahys Watch Case Company and inventor of engraving tools and watch-making machinery. With capital of $7,000 he started his own dial works for watches and clocks. In 1913 he invented the Rotary Photogravure process that will be remembered by many readers as used for the Sunday newspapers and magazines." Wilterding cites as his source Aleson Cornish, et. al., Survey of Sag Harbor: A Report and Survey of the Historic Resources of the Village of Sag Harbor Volume 1. [No location, publisher, or date cited] I have not been able to verify Eaton's role in the development of rotary photogravure. He did patent a rotary intaglio printing press in 1915 (filed 1912), US 1,147,152, but that was assigned to the American Bank Note Company, who published few Sunday newspapers.

Eaton seemed (as far as the patent record shows) to have been interested primarily in aspects of multiple engraving during the late 1880s and early 1890s - either in building up single images from multiple originals or in engraving multiple copies simultaneously. His target markets seem to have been the watch and watch-case industries. In most of these inventions, insofar as pantographs might have been involved, they were indicated in the patents in only their most theoretical form.

(See also the note later about description by Francis Kisner of the composite patterns and shading devices used with the New Century.)

I'm going to break chronology and include Eaton's other "art of engraving" patents here. By 1896, though, he had begun working directly on the design of pantograph engraving machines.

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In a notice in The Jewelers' Circular Vol. 39, No. 22 (Wednesday, December 27, 1899), p. 29:

"Eaton & Glover, makers of the Eaton-Engle engraving machine, 87 Nassau St. [NY], have incorporated their business under the style of the Eaton & Glover Co., with a capital of $75,000. W. S. Eaton is the president of the concern. W. T. Goodnow the vice-president, and Frank B. Glover the secretary and treasurer. In giving the reason for the incorporation the firm state that during the past three years their business has grown to such an extent that it had become too large and unweildy to be conducted by a partnership."

The timing of this announcement and the dates announced in it are interesting because they suggest that the Eaton & Glover partnership, presumably making the Eaton-Engle engraving pantograph, dates from about 1896. The patent for the machine which resembles the Eaton-Engle, however, was not even filed until March 1, 1900.

The Sag-Harbor Express for Thursday Morning, May 12, 1898, carries a "Personal Mention": "Eaton - Wiliam S. Eaton, of this place, who spends most of his time in New York, he being the senior member of the firm of Eaton & Glover, No. 111 Nassau St., is now home on a short visit." (This newspaper has been digitized by Tom Tryniski and is available on his "Old Fulton NY Post Card" website at: http://fultonhistory.com/ )

The 1901 edition of The Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory of New York City, Volume 49, lists: "Eaton & Glover Co. (N.Y.) (William S. Eaton, Pres.; Frank B. Glover, Sec. Capital, $75,000. Directors: William S. Eaton, Frank B. Glover, William T. Goodnow, Henry Dryfoos Jr.) 87 Nassau & r 17 John."

A frustratingly brief Google Snippet of the public domain journal Current Advertising, Vol. 10 (1901) says:

"'Engraving that Pays' is the title of an excellent booklet-catalogue issued by the Eaton & Glover Company, 87 Nassau Street, New York. The book is an advertisement for the 'New Century' Engraving Machine, an applicance by which the makers claim it is possible to do jewelry engraving more quickly and profitably than by slow, tedious and expensive hand methods."

Catalog No. 61 ("Trade Catalogues from the 19th and 20th Centuries") of High Ridge Books, Inc. (an antiquarian bookseller) lists a copy of this item for sale. This catalog entry dates it firmly to 1901 and notes that it is a 32 page octavo booklet with one color plate showing two models of machine.

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(The image above links to a 1024 pixel wide JPEG version of this cut. Here is the full-resolution (1200dpi RGB) scan (22 Megabytes, 3000x4000 pixels): eaton-glover-new-century-engraving-machine-brochure-1200rgb-03-crop-pantograph-3000x4000.png)

• No. 5959, as PDF: ashburton-guardian-volume-21-issue-5959-1903-05-09-p0004-AG19030509-1-4-png.pdf
• No. 5959, as PNG: ashburton-guardian-volume-21-issue-5959-1903-05-09-p0004-AG19030509-1-4.png
• No. 5973, as PDF: ashburton-guardian-volume-21-issue-5973-1903-05-28-p0002-AG19030528-1-2-png.pdf
• No. 5973, as PNG: ashburton-guardian-volume-21-issue-5973-1903-05-28-p0002-AG19030528-1-2.png

The "New Century" would seem to have been used in conjunction with some of Eaton's earlier methods of producing composite patterns and using shading devices. In a posting to the Engravers' Cafe website on 2009-11-28, Francis Kisner, in commenting on some modern monograms, said:

"... the New Century Engraving Machine around 1900. The designs were printed on a kind of oilskin paper so they could be layered on top of each other and the overall design traced to produce the outline. The machine had a clear plastic circle with parallel grooves cut into one side. By laying the plastic over the design, it was possible to produce shading."

http://www.engraverscafe.com/archive/index.php/t-6249.html?s=209639e7bdb21560fa5e57999f1e88d0

A Google snippet from the public domain Journal of the Proceedings of the Tioga County [NY] Board of Supervisors (1905) lists, under "Names of Incorporated Companies Liable to Taxation" "The Eaton & Glover Company ... 300.00 [Assessme't] ... 1.35 [tax]" and on page 98 very similar information with the same assessment but a tax of 1.80. Tioga County is on the border with Pennsylvania.

An advertisement cut from a now-destroyed copy of an unidentified 1907 magazine (I did not buy it; this is a deplorable practice) says the following about the Eaton & Glover "New Century" (if the inch-sign and center-dot show up strangely, make sure your page encoding is set to UTF-8):

"An improvement in our

"NEW CENTURY Engraving Machine

"By redesigning several parts of our machine we have secured a rigidity which greatly facilitates the engraving of the harder metals, such as BRASS, NICKEL WATCH CASES; PLATED WARE, Etc.

"This feature, however, reduced somewhat the range of the machine as regards size of letter that can be engraved from the same pattern letter.

"For example, our present machine as constructed, will engrave one-half the size of pattern letter to zero. With the machine equipped with the new style parts, the engraving can be made from 1″ to 3·32″ if pattern is 2″, as is the case with our No. 1 script capitals, and 11·32″ to 1·32″ for small letters from No. 1 script. The patterns for small script are about 22·32″.

"When you use a NEW CENTURY Engraving Machine, you do your engraving without trouble.

"Your hand don't [sic] "get out," you don't make slips, and you can do about four times as much engraving in a given time than you could by hand.

"A letter we have just received from a customer says:

"I am well pleased with the machine, and am sure it will do all you claim for it. I am a good hand engraver, having been at the bench nearly twenty years, but I find the NEW CENTJRY so much help that I would not care to part with it.

"The Eaton & Glover Co., Sayre. Pa."

In the 1908 edition of The Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory of New York City (NY: Trow, 1908), there is a listing for: "Interboro Engraving Co. (N.Y.) (William S. Eaton, Pres.; Frank B. Glover, Sec.; E. Percy Eaton, Treas. Capital, $3,000. Directors: William S. & E. Percy Eaton, Frank B. Glover, Charles A. Reinholdt) 108 Fulton R. 1306."

The 1912 edition of Walden's stationer and printer Vol. 35, part 2 carries this note: "The Interboro Engraving Company, 108 Fulton Street, reports in addition to many new customers, a considerable increase in sales for 1912. With their unusual equipment and facilities enabling them to furnish their customers with practically a twenty-four-hour service in the engraving of steel dies and copper plates, they have nothing but enthusiasm for the outlook for the new year." (p. 12)

108 Fulton is the same address occupied by "Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co. in 1911, and E. P. Eaton was a director of both companies, so it is reasonable to conclude a close relationship between the two businesses.

Interestingly, no Engle or Goodnow appears in association with either company. It would seem that the Eaton & Glover company went to Pennsylvania (where Engles and Goodnows lived), but that the Eatons and Glover (the individuals) remained in New York. After having lent his name to the Eaton & Glover company, Eaton's subsequent business ventures had uncompromisingly generic names.

A notice in the journal Mill Supplies Vol. 1, No. 3 (March, 1911) says:

"The Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co., New York, has been organized by J. F. Fowler, E. P. Eaton and W. Schwartz with a capital of $100,000 to manufacture engraving and printing machinery." (p. 129)

The machine shown in the three advertisements from Volume 48 The Inland Printer (1911), below, is the same machine described in patent 1,039,713, above, and in Salade (1917) and Hackleman (1922), below. It is a vertical-format drag machine employed to prepare plates for etching. The company name is "Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co., Inc." and the address is "108 Fulton Street, New York City, NY."

The three images above from Vol. 48 of The Inland Printer were digitized by Google from the University of Michigan copy and are available via The Hathi Trust (Hathi ID: mdp.39015086783720). The icons here link to local copies of these pages at full available resolution.

The following announcement appeared in The Printing Trade News, Vol. 42, No. 26 (June 25, 1912): 46:

'ADVERTISING ITS NEW MODEL "C."

'The Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co., 108 Fulton street, New York, recently sent out advertising matter describing its Model C engraving machine. The concern submitted a little sheet of a variety of styles of engraved lettering, all produced on the machine, some with a little additional hand work, some with none at all. The impression was form a plate not carefully doctored by a great deal of hand touching-up but produced simply in the ordinary run of work and in the average amount of time by a ten-dollar-a-week boy, the only hand finishing being where the character of the letter makes its completion by hand more rapidly than if completed entirely by the machine. The results were excellent."

Here's the cut of the engraving machine, from p. 31 of Salade:

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Here is the same cut, as it appears in Charles W. Hackleman's Commercial Engraving and Printing. Second Edition. (Indianapolis, IA: Commercial Engraving Publishing Company, 1924): p. 529 (figure 1230). The original was quite finely printed (it was a book on commercial engraving, after all); if you click through on the image below you'll get the full-resolution 1200 dpi RGB scan (20 Megabytes). The machine is not identified by name in the text.

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The American type maker Frederic W. Goudy (the third most prolific, but certainly the best known, letterform designer for type of the 20th century) was uncommon in that he not only drew type designs but in many cases actually performed all of the steps of type-making himself. A few other letterform designers of his era learned the older techniques of punchcutting, but only Goudy had the gumption to learn industrial methods of matrix making and typefounding. He is therefore of great importance not merely in the history of design but also in the practical continuation of metal type-making today.

Given Goudy's high profile and his unusual involvement in matrix engraving, the identities of the engraving machines that he used would seem to be of great interest. Yet to the best of my knowledge their identities have never been determined (or at least never published). Their identities have also been obscured at times by statements that they were Benton engraving machines. (As will be seen, they were not. Such a statement lacks historical clarity, in any case, because at this time Benton machines were not available outside of ATF. Not every vertical-format pantograph engraver is a Benton, and a Benton machine, while a marvel of engineering, is not a prerequisite for making type.) Goudy himself was coy about the identities of his machines, never mentioning a manufacturer by name. He said only that he employed a machine which had been made for other kinds of work but which had been adapted by the manufacturer, at his request, to meet his matrix engraving needs.

Goudy employed at least three matrix engraving machines at different times. Two of these were used before 1939, when a fire destroyed his workshop. The third was a replacement machine acquired after the fire. From a study of the existing published photographs of these machines, it would appear that they were all substantially the same model.

More particularly, they all look very much like the Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Company Model D. (The only major difference between them and the Model D which is discernable in the published photographs is that Goudy's machines lack the "ladder-like" stabilizing structure behind the column.) Significantly, they all have the "three ball" arrangement unique to the machines covered by Eaton's patents 1,039,713 and 1,039,714. Since this "three ball" arrangement was patented and was unique to the Eaton machines, Goudy's machines must perforce have been made by his company. If Goudy's machines weren't exactly the Model D, then they were its close cousins.

Unfortunately, while there are several published photographs which show Goudy's matrix engraving machines relatively clearly, none of these are in the public domain.

Perhaps the best published photograph is the one which appears on p. 109 of Goudy's book Typologia (Berkeley, CA: The University of California Press, 1940) (Reprinted in paperback in 1977. This book is also online on Google Books by arrangement with the US Press. Find it using the Google Books Advanced Search at http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search/ ) This shows Goudy at one of his pre-1939 machines.

A pre-1939 matrix engraver is also shown in the background of a photograph of Goudy's working pattern pantograph (a Deckel) on pp. 90-91 of Bruckner, D.J.R. Frederic Goudy (NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1990). This photograph is from the Melbert B. Cary Graphic Arts Collection at Rochester Institute of Technology.

His post-1939 matrix engraver is shown on p. 117 of Andrew R. Boone's article "Type By Goudy" in Popular Science Vol. 140, No. 4 (April 1942): 114-119. (This is online both by arrangement with the publisher via Google Books and at the Modern Mechanix blog at http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

The post-1939 machine is also shown in Bruckner (pp. 28-29).

I know of only three published photographs which are out of copyright and which show his matrix engraver.

(There may be others in Advertising and Selling, Vol. 11 (1928) or Printing, Vol. 69 (1945), but I have not yet located copies of these journals to verify the existence or status of these possible images.)

The photograph below is from a two-page photo spread entitled "Type: Frederic W. Goudy Here Demonstrates the Design of One of Advertising's Oldest Devices, a Type Face" in the advertising trade journal Advertising and Selling. Vol. 32, No. 6 (May, 1939): 38-39. It shows Goudy just before the 1939 fire which destroyed his studio, working at his Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co. matrix engraving machine. (Portions of his Deckel pantograph, used for engraving working patterns, are shown in the background and slightly confuse the image.)

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The image above is a link to a 2048 pixel wide version which is actually presented in the General Literature on Making Printing Matrices and Types Notebook. See that Notebook for the entire photographic layout both as a PDF and as high-resolution scans.

The photograph below was published by Goudy himself in his irregular journal Ars Typographica, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Autumn, 1934). It shows him at a matrix engraving pantograph in his studio in the old mill at the home he called "Deepdene" in Marlboro, NY. Regrettably, the style of the photograph is one where Goudy is in focus but his machine is not. Still, having seen a pantograph engraving machine such as the Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co. Model D, it is clear that this is a very similar machine.

[click image to view larger]

(The image above links to a 2048 pixel wide version of this photograph, which quite frankly shows you everything you're ever going to see in it. But since it is a photograph of some historic importance, here is the full resoution 1200dpi RGB PNG version of this scan of it (88 Megabytes): ars-typographica-vol-1-no-4-1934-1200rgb-goudy-at-matrix-pantograph.png )

(This number of Ars Typographica is online at The Internet Archive, in a crude but useful scan that I did from my copy, at ../../ Typefoundry and Press -> Making Printing Matrices and Types -> Literature -> General -> Lewis, and also in The Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/GoudyArsTypographicaVol1No4 )

The photograph below shows Goudy at work on his Deckel pantograph engraving a working pattern. But if you enlarge it (click on it, or download it and view it using a proper image viewer), you can just see a view of the back of one of his matrix engraving machines on the right. It is from Bernard Lewis' book Behind the Type: The Life Story of Frederic W. Goudy (Pittsburgh, PA: Department of Printing, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1941).

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(Lewis' book is online at ../../ Typefoundry and Press -> Making Printing Matrices and Types -> Literature -> General -> Lewis, and also in The Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/LewisBehindTheType1941 )

The Sag Harbor Express for Thursday Morning, April 1, 1920 carried the following news item:

"William S. Eaton, president of The Engravers and Printers' Machinery Company of this place, who has recently erected a large factory on Jermain avenue, has resigned his position, and his son, E. Percy Eaton has been elected president in his place. The elder Mr. Eaton has been a prominent figure in this place for many years, coming here, if we mistake not, as forman of the engraving room of the Fahys Watchcase Factory. Possessing an inventive mind he had once article after another patented, but none, with think, met with that success as did the engraving machine, for the manufacture of which he erected the factory above alluded to, his first structure for the work proving too small for the increasing business. And now, after some fourty [sic] years of industry, he surrenders the business to his son, who is abundantly able to successfully carry it on, that the paternal head may bass some of his future years in less arduous work."

Eaton wasted no time in undertaking this less arduous work, for on the same page appears a note that "Commodore William S. Eaton of the Sag-Harbor Yacht Club, [recently?] returned from Florida, has sold his fourty [sic, and Lloyds says it was 50] foot power yacht Zar, now on its way from Florida. The Commodore has purchased a new sixty foot power yacht, from which he will fly his flag."

(This newspaper has been digitized by Tom Tryniski and is available on his "Old Fulton NY Post Card" website at: http://fultonhistory.com/ )

However, The Sag Harbor Express for Thursday Morning, May 13, 1920 (the same number which gave the expected commissioning date of his 65 foot yacht Helen M., see below, also notes that "To manufacture watch cases and watch case parts, C. W. Butts has incorporated his newly organized company. Directors for the first year are Mr. Butts, W. S. Eaton and W. E. Ferguson. The concern is making watch case parts at the old factory building of the Engravers & Printers' Machine [sic] Co., on Palmer Terrace."

(This newspaper has been digitized by Tom Tryniski and is available on his "Old Fulton NY Post Card" website at: http://fultonhistory.com/ )

While the various Eaton engraving machines are now nearly forgotten it is clear that William S. Eaton's business undertakings were very successful. The Brooklyn Blue Book and Long Island Society Register for 1920, for example, lists William S. Eaton as the Commodore of the Sag Harbor Yacht Club (and his son E. P. Eaton as the Secretary).

Lloyd's Register of American Yachts for 1917 gives this same information for the Yacht Club, and notes further that he was owner of the Yacht "Zar" (formerly the Cilla, Sim Too, and Vincent III), a 50 foot wooden motor yacht built by Britt Bros. in West Lynn, MA in 1910.

As noted earlier, a 50 foot yacht was insufficient for a man of his standing in society. The journal Boats, Volume 17, carries two notices (both on p. 40). First: "50-ft. bridge deck cruiser Zar, sold for W. S. Eaton, Sag Harbor Y. C., to Jesse B. Riggs for use on Chesapeake Bay." Second: "65-ft. motor cruiser Helen M., sold for Joseph Mercadante, N. Y. Athletic Club, to Commodore W. S. Eaton, Sag Harbor Y. C. for Long Island Sound Service."

The Sag Harbor Express for Thursday Morning, May 13, 1920 notes that "Commodore W. S. Eaton's new power yacht, the Helen M., is expected to be in commission early in June, with Capt. David Bennett, as master."

(This newspaper has been digitized by Tom Tryniski and is available on his "Old Fulton NY Post Card" website at: http://fultonhistory.com/ )

In his later years William S. Eaton also took up the painting of landscapes. Several of these may be found relatively easily by searching historic listings of various art auction houses online.

In 1943, Steel [journal] vol. 112, Modern Industry, vol. 5 The Tool Engineer, Vol. 12 list Eaton Engravers Machinery Corp., Sag harbor.

In 1967, Macrae's Blue Book, Vol. 1 lists Eaton Engravers Machinery Corp., Sag Harbor.

The history of Eaton's engraving machines continues with the Cronite Company, which remains in business today. Detailed historical information on the Cronite pantographs is difficult to find, however. I am summarizing here from various published sources, and trying very hard to get the details right. I would be happy to correct any mistakes which might be present.

Their official corporate history is online on their website at: http://cronite.com/company.htm According to this history, they date back to the founding of a jewelry engraving firm in New York City by Ernest J. Meuench in 1886. This business continued with Frank N. Steffens, from 1904. From the late 1920s, under the trade name "Cronite," they branched out into the chrome facing of steel dies.

Their corporate history notes that in 1934 "they purchased the steel polishing equipment from Engravers & Printers Machinery Co. in Sag Harbory, NY."

It isn't clear at what point they acquired the line of pantograph engravers from E&PM Co. (as I presume they did), but they note that in 1974 they purchased "the Library of Engravers Styles" of "Eaton Sag Harbor, L.I., New York." This probably marks the end of Eaton's firm as such.

At the time of writing (2013), they list their Zero Engraving Machine, a descendent of the Eaton / E&PM Co. Model C, as available for sale. This is a remarkable continuity of technical history over more than 110 years.

The Cronite pantographs as manufactured vary in detail, but they all descend from the machine Eaton patented in 1902. The only Cronite machines I have seen illustrated are drag engraving machines; I do not know if Cronite manufactured any rotary engraving versions. From the Engraved Stationery Handbook, it can be inferred that Cronite manufactured three models. In historical order, I think that these were:

• The Model C Engraving Machine
• The Universal Engraving Machine
• The Zero Engraving Machine

I presume that the Model C, which Steffens refers to as an older machine, is essentially the Engravers' and Printers' Machinery Co. Model C. Stffens illustrates in several locations (e.g., pp. 84 and 89 of the 1969 edition) pantograph engravers which have the same ball mechanism for the upper table as the E&PM Co. Model C (but he does not specifically call out the machine's name).

We know both from Steffens book and the current Cronite website tha the Zero Engraving Machine is the most recent development of this pantograph. We may presume that the Model C was essentially the same as the E&PM Co. Model C. This implies that the "Universal Engraving Machine" must have come between the two.

Steffens (on p. 82 of the 1969 edition) describes the Zero Engraving Machine as "new" and as capable of reductions down to an "infinitely small" size (hence the name, "Zero"). The machine uses '"V" track carriages" (in Steffens' terms, p. 83) rather than flat plates, to constrain its large ball bearings. He further notes that with the Zero these are aluminum with cast-in stainless steel segments, rather than the cast iron of earlier machines. An illustration of this machine may be seen on the Cronite website: http://cronite.com/index.php/pantograph

In Engraved Stationery Handbook (1969 edition), Steffens refers to several improvements by Cronite in these machines. These include:

• The "Featherweight Dual Rod" upper tracing arm (invented by Edmund A. Gillis) for the Model C and Universal machines.
• The "Non-Friction Ball Bearing Hand Piece" (patented, probably by Gillis - but I do not know the patent number)
• Steel Condensing-Extending Rings (vs. bronze)
• Aluminum w/stainles steel insert "V" Track Carriages (vs. cast iron)

I do not yet have any photographs of Cronite pantographs, of any model, that I have permission to show here. A search online for Cronite pantographs, however, will turn up several machines in various "home machinist" and engraving forums and websites.