Millers Falls No.1, 3 & 5 eggbeater drills
Type Study
Return to Main Page
Millers Falls No.1 eggbeater drill; 
Type 5 - The first type with the back-support wiper that supports the thrust between the main gear and drive pinion. Also the first No.1 type with a side handle. And the 3-jaw, no-springs chuck patented on September 20, 1896.  Compare this frame to that of Type 6, following.  This method of supporting the heavier loads applied when turning the newly developed twist bits is imperfect - one would also have to adjust the spacing between the main gear and the drive pinion, and there is no means to do this.  Without the missing adjustment, the back-support wiper cannot keep the two gears in mesh on their pitch lines. Compare to the "little rail road car wheel" (LRRCW) roller applied to the No.2 style drills developed at about the same time by Millers Falls.  Neither gear support method was ever patented.  Perhaps the claims of the patented outboard gear wiper (US Patent No. 544,411, granted to H.D. Lanfair on August 13, 1895, and assigned to Goodell-Pratt) precluded any such protection.  The back-support wiper and the Lanfair patented wiper were eventually copied by several manufacturers; the LRRCW was never imitated, even though it was the best gear-support method in both application and theory.