e cap to the plane-iron, after the latter is set, and
the cap also rendered capable of being adjusted to compensate for
the wear of the "sole" or face of the plane stock.

The stock of Howes' plane was wood combined with metal plates, caps, and
screws. Thomas Worrall of Lowell was issued patent 17,657 for a plane
based on the same general principle (fig. 60). Worrall claimed in his
specifications of June 23, 1857:

the improved manufacture of [the] carpenter's bench plane or
jointer as made with its handle, its wooden stock to which said
handle is affixed, and a separate metallic cutter holder, and
cutter clamping devices arranged together substantially as
specified.

Finally patentees throughout the 19th century, faced with an increasing
proliferation of tool types, frequently sought to perfect multipurpose
implements of a type best represented later by the ubiquitous Stanley
plane. The evolution of the all-purpose idea, which is incidentally not
peculiar to hand tools alone, can be seen from random statements
selected from U.S. patents for the improvement of bench planes. In 1864
Stephen Williams in the specifications of his patent 43,360 stated:

I denominate my improvement the "universal smoothing plane,"
because it belongs to that variety of planes in which the face is
made changeable, so that it may be conveniently adapted to the
planing of curved as well as straight surfaces. By the use of my
improvement surfaces that are convex, concave, or straight may be
easily worked, the face of the tool being readily changed from one
form to another to suit the surface to which it is to be applied.

The announced object of Theodore Duval's improved grooving plane (pat.
97,177) was "to produce in one tool all that is required to form grooves
of several different widths." None was more appealing than Daniel D.
Whitker's saw-rabbet plane (pat. 52,478) which combined "an adjustable
saw with an adjustable fence or gage, both being attached to a stock
with handle similar to a plane, forming together a tool combining the
properties of the joiner's plow and fillister" (fig. 61). Nor was
Whitker's idea simply a drawing-board exercise. It was produced
commercially and was well advertised, as seen in the circular reproduced
in figure 62.

[Illustration: Figure 60.--1857: IN A VARIETY OF ARRANGEMENTS, the
addition of metal plates, caps, and screws at the mouth