This invention has been patented by Mr. Elery B. La Follette, of Flemington, West Va.
The object of this invention, which has been patented by Mr. Geo. W. Jaques, of Burton, O., is to provide a plasterer's hawk in which the board on which the mortar is received, and which is subjected to expansion and contraction due to alternate moistening and drying, may be rendered light and rigid and, at the same time, be free to expand and contract without warping or cracking. In the center of the board is secured a bolt, upon which is received a handle having a nut in its outer end fitting the end of the bolt. A circular concave plate is placed on the bolt, between the handle and board, with its concave side toward the board. Between the plate and board is held an elastic rubber washer, which is compressed by screwing the handle down.
The plate has a plane edge, which is secured to the board by screws, and in the edge are four notches for receiving the ends of wire frames that extend a short distance under the plate, by which they are clamped to the board. Each frame consists of a wire, bent to the shape shown in the upper view in the engraving. Through the end loops are passed screws, projecting from the board, and the center of each frame is secured to the board by a clip, the clips and bolt being arranged in a line parallel with the grain of the wood. The frames support the edges of the board, and the loops permit of the lateral movement of their screws and the portions of the board by which they are carried. This hawk weighs, even when thoroughly soaked, only one pound and a half, the old style weighing from three to five pounds.
[Illustration: JAQUES' PLASTERER'S HAWK.]
By means of this device wood may be measured by the cord or fractional parts of a cord, as occasion may require. The sill frame consists of two longitudinally ranging timbers connected by cross bars. Near one end of the timbers are fixed uprights, braced to each other and to the timbers. To the inner faces of the sills are screwed a series of headed pins, the first one being exactly one foot from the inner face of the end posts, and the others being spaced one foot apart. Two posts, braced together by rods, are adapted to stand on the sills, and to the inside face of each post is attached, by coach screws, a metal plate provided with a hook at its lower end, adapted to engage with the shank of one of the headed screw pins of the sills. Attached to each post is a brace with two arms, and formed at its lower end with a notch to engage the pins on the sills. The metal plates and braces are slotted for the passage of the screws, so that the movable frame may be quickly and easily set perfectly plumb, whichever opposite pair of the sill pins may be engaged by the hooked plates. The posts are exactly four feet high, and one is marked by cross lines one foot apart. It is apparent that, to measure a cord, the frame is moved to the eighth set of pins and the wood is piled to the tops of the posts. To measure half a cord, the hooks are engaged with the fourth pins. By adjusting the hooks to the first pair of pins, and filling the wood in between the end posts up to the first cross line on the post, a single foot of wood can be measured, or up to the second line for two feet, and so on. Thus a cord or any fractional part can be readily measured. To disengage the frame, it is only necessary to tilt it forward toward the fixed posts, when it may be shifted to any point along the sill frame.