Millers Falls No.1, 3 & 5 eggbeater drills
Type Study
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Millers Falls No.5 eggbeater drill; 
Type 4 - Found at the PATINA tool show, March, 2005, this model has a wide-rimmed main gear that can easily be grasped with thumb & forefinger for sensitive drilling.  The frame is typical of the earliest No.1 types, but the tapered crank is let into the rim of the main gear for security.  The main handle has been lengthened for the longer, spiral-fluted twist drills.  The chuck is the no-springs, 2-jaw type, faintly marked with its patent date of August 14, 1877, and the Millers Falls Company name.  Note the season cracking of the brass ferrule.  This model suffered a pair of mechanical inefficiencies that were corrected in later models.  First, the second pinion is located on the main spindle so that the gear and spindle rotate oppositely to each other, increasing frictional drag in greater proportion than just the doubling of the rate of sliding.  Second, the spindle thrust is taken by the flat end of the spindle bearing directly on the malleable iron frame.  All the hollow rosewood handles in this series used fine threads to fasten the cap.