Creating Lumber?

Back when I was restoring my Touring, I came across something I had never seen in any online photos of other people restoring Model Ts.

It was a peculiar way of wood being joined together to make larger pieces. Some of the Touring's door pieces were made this way as well as other body wood parts.

Doing further research, it appears that a glue jointing machine was used to make specific sized lumber that was then planed and cut to the appropriate dimensions.

I am showcasing the Linderman Automatic Dovetailing Glue Jointer.

Above, are some of the joints the machine will make. The basic requirements for this machine is that each piece of wood must be 1 1/2 inches wide or wider and can be as short as 8 inches long. The wood must be at least 3/8ths inches thick up to 2 1/2 inches. The machine came in different sizes, with the size of the machine determining the MAX length of the finished wood. The company catalog says they can produce 100 different styles of cuts. The machine automatically feeds, cuts, glues, and joins the wood, with no glue appearing on the outside surface of the finished piece. It is ready to be planed as soon as it comes out.

The catalog also says if the wood isn't the correct width when done, it's fed through again until it is.

Bert Arthur Linderman actually applied for a patent for a carrier mechanism for his joining machine in 1909, but it wasn't assigned. He applied on May 10th, and was granted on July 27th. He founded the Linderman Machine Co in Muskegon, Michigan.

He would apply for a patent for a dovetailing machine in 1913.

It was later on in about 1952, that Alvin L. Smith received a patent for the joining machine. He was employed by the Linderman Machine Co., which had an office in Newburgh, NY.

Linderman died in 1938.

Below are two pictures of my original Centerdoor body sills. These would be the pieces that bolted to the frame and supported all of the internal wood structure of the car.

As you can see, these are definitely made from joining two or more pieces of wood to make a larger piece. There are people on the internet that will swear that a dovetailing glue jointing machine was NEVER used to make wooden pieces for Model Ts. Say that again: NEVER.

The above two photos plus the fact that I disassembled an original Centerdoor body and an original Touring with the wood still in it and the wood was made this way, is absolute proof that a machine that could do this was used. When that use started is, unfortunately, not known.

I've found reference to another company in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada that made one called the Yates Continuous Feed Glue Jointer.

Learning more every day.

More to come.....