The Harmonie Society - University of Southern Indiana

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Other tools used by the carpenter in the various aspects of construction included chisels, gouges, planes, saws, hammers, rasps, and drawknives. Measuring devices included the trysquare, used to insure right angles for corners and for pieces perpendicular to a base, and the plumb bob, used to test the vertical alignment of the framing. Carpenters also checked their work with gauges, bevels, and rules. The carpenter employed a number of tools in the preparation of mortise and tenon joints, which were used in framing and consisted of a piece of wood with a cavity (mortise) joined to another wood segment with a projection of similar size (tenon). The joint was strengthened by a wooden dowel drilled through the frame. Mortises were cut out using mortise chisels. The twibil, a type of doubleended chisel usually pounded with a mallet, was used for squaring tenons and paring mortises. Carpenters drilled holes for the dowels with augers, and also used the tools to start the mortises. The dowels themselves were shaped using drawknives. While the carpenter dealt mainly with rough woodworking, the cabinetmaker made finely worked items such as moldings, paneling and stair banisters, door and window framing, and furniture. Augers, chisels, saws, drawknives, mallets, carving tools, gouges, mitering tools, rasps, files, and patterns were all used in their production. Turned spindles for chair and table legs, banisters, tool handles, and other items were produced on a lathe; the cabinetmaker used calipers to measure the diameter of a piece as it was turned. Wooden surfaces were smoothed and pared with a variety of bench planes, for rough and fine surface planing; decorative work; and special planes, including the rabbet plane, used to cut offset surfaces, or rabbets, such as the recesses of window muntins into which window panes were set. This plane was also used to prepare edges of floorboards, wallboards, and ceiling with tongue & groove joints. Harmonist cabinetmakers produced a variety of furniture including beds, tables, chairs, chests, bookcases, boxes, clockhousings, stools, and coffins. Some of these items were sold at the Harmonist stores; in 1825 cupboards sold for $9, fancy tables for $8, and yellow chairs for $1. Cooperage Coopers most commonly made barrels or buckets, using the process of wet cooperage for liquid storage, dry cooperage for "dry" products such as butter, syrup, and flour, and white cooperage for dry products such as apples and tobacco. Although the principles involved in each type of coopering were basically the same, the work differed considerably; wet cooperage demanded the greatest skill and effort. Barrels made by the wet cooperage method were constructed by inserting a froe, a cleaving tool, into the end of a rough section of oak timber. The froe was then struck with a club, forcing the wood to split. After the froe was completely buried in the wood, the handle was used as a lever to further separate the pieces. The split boards were then chopped along the grain to list,
or shape, the board to the doubletapered, beveledged shape of a stave. A gauge was used to produce the correct size of the staves. After the required number of listed staves were completed they were taken to the drawbench, or shaving horse, where each piece was held in a vise at the proper height and inclination to shape the outer and inner faces with a drawknife. With a few long strokes of a large straightbladed knife, the convex face of the stave end was shaped. The concave face of the stave was hollowed out using a Ushaped knife with a curve roughly equivalent to the radius needed for the interior of the stave. The staves were then worked on a cooper's jointer, an upsidedown plane, where each mating surface was trued by sliding the slaves down the slope. The cooper worked without guides, using only his judgment and experience to create a tight barrel. The staves were then raised, or assembled, into a barrel. Holding a metal hoop, the cooper filled it in with staves, forcing one against the other until the circle was closed. In order to draw the far end of the cask together, forming the bulging barrel shape, the cooper first softened the staves by soaking them in boiling water, and then built a small fire of shavings within the splaybottomed cylinder. The cooper and an assistant then drove on a series of successively smaller wooden trussing hoops until the barrel took shape. Depending on the anticipated contents of the barrel, the inside of the barrel might be smoothed with a small rounded plane. The ends of the cask were then chimed, or prepared to take the heads, using an adz and a topping plane. The howell and the croze were used to level and cut the grooves for the heads, or ends, which were fitted on by slackening the hoops. The diameter of each head, made up of three or more slats of wood, was measured using a compass, and a heading knife was used to cut the size of the circle. Finally, the hoops were then removed one at a time, the barrel outside smoothed with a buzz scraper, and permanent hoops hammered on. Harmonist barrels were made to hold Society products such as wine, whiskey, cider and beer, as well as dry goods such as flour, for storage and for sale. Empty barrels were also sold at Harmonist stores. The Harmonist coopers also produced other items such as buckets, kegs, casks, and funnels. Pottery The Harmonist potters primarily produced earthenware, a ceramic made of clay and silica, which is fired at a relatively low temperature and remains porous after firing. They commonly used red earthenware clay, which contains iron mineral compounds that fire to a reddish/brownish hue in the kiln. Red earthenware, also known as redware, was the first pottery made in Colonial America; it had been made in England and France for many years. As early as 1625, redware was made at Jamestown Island, Virginia Colony by trained potters. The abundance of easilyaccessible natural deposits of red earthenware clay made redware a popular ceramic in America for two centuries.
Page 1 and 2: THE HARMONIE SOCIETY George Rapp wa
Page 3 and 4: During 1807 and 1808 a religious re
Page 5 and 6: the prophesy in Revelation. The let
Page 7 and 8: effect.... I could scarcely imagine
Page 9 and 10: Harmonists always utilized the most
Page 11 and 12: Due to the success of their manufac
Page 13: Love Feast), was formally observed
Page 17 and 18: The shoes were assembled with flax
Page 19 and 20: Harmony. Mechanical pickers, roving
Page 21 and 22: The Society's doctor until 1832 was
Page 23 and 24: George Rapp found justification for

The Harmonie Society - University of Southern Indiana

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