I recently acquired a set of auger bits on TradeMe
Most of the tangs are marked with
LEWIS' PAT.
JUNE 1. 1869And 2 of the shanks are marked with
CONN. VALLEY MFG CO.I initially thought that the year on the tangs was 1889, but searching for a Lewis patent on that date yielded nothing. A bit of research on the “Old tools” mailing list gave me answers i was looking for. User Sandy said here:
While on the subject of single twist bits, I have another group
of them that are very similar to the Ford pattern. But these
are marked with the patent date of June 1, 1869 of patent number
90,759 awarded to Henry C. Lewis, also of New Haven, Conn. The
patent is for "auger bit with one lip, one spur."
Three of these bits differ only from the Ford pattern by having
the single spur located at 6 o'clock rather than 2 o'clock. A
fourth bit with the same feature is marked only "Atlas Tool Co."
The patent records assembled by Jim Price show another patent
for an "auger bit with one lip, one spur" that was awarded on
the same day, June 1, 1869 (#90,755) to the brace maker, William
A. Ives, also of New Haven. I don't have an example of this
bit, but it seems remarkable that New Haven was host to three
patents for very similar bits over a span of 22 years.
Best regards,
Sandy
With a bit more research, I identified the manufacturer behind “CONN. VALLEY MFG CO.”. A US company called “Connecticut Valley Manufacturing Company”, aka. CONVALCO. The most interesting links are:
- https://cslib.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p128501coll0/id/1822/
- https://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioConnecticut.html
- https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/SILNMAHTL_11053
They operated from 1874 up until the 2000’s. According to Woodworking Network, they were bought by Morris Wood Tool in 2011.
On this 1905 image (from Treasures of the Connecticut library, link above)
one can read on the sign:
THE CONN. VALLEY MFG CO.I found as well one of their modern catalogue on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/ConnValleyMfgCoCatalogNo27/page/n11/mode/2up
The mention of Jim Price is Sandy‘s email refers to a book titled A Sourcebook of United States Patents for Bitstock Tools and the Machines That Made Them
ISBN-13 : 978-0963447708
Paperback : 173 pages
ISBN-10 : 096344770X
Publisher : James E. Price; First Edition (January 1, 1992) That’s one more book added to my long wish list!
A lot of people on the internet defines the Lewis auger bit as a cross between L’Hommedieu (hollow webbing) and Irwin (solid core). It seems to not be a very accurate definition, the Lewis Patent auger bits presented here don’t have a solid core, maybe they evolved over time… The above book might have the ultimate answer(s).
Ch'Gans random bits and bobs 
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