Continuing with the Tool Kit theme – I thought it would be interesting to look at toolkits through the centuries.
Starting with Joseph Moxon – not that he was the first man to put together a tool kit.
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Joseph Moxon was an English printer of mathematical books and maps, during the reign of Charles II. He produced and sold terrestrial and celestial globes and the first English language dictionary devoted to mathematics. In November 1678, he became the first tradesman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and compiled a series of articles that was to become ‘The Mechanik Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works’. Moxon was not a joiner, but simply recorded observations and interpretations he made. |
 André Jacob Roubo |
André Jacob Roubo’s Father and Grand Father were woodworkers. He was a pupil of the architect Blondel and he received the title of Master in 1770. In 1769 he started the first part The Art of the carpenter He wrote a comprehensive treatise on carpentry that covered virtually all associated trades. His work was published between 1769 and 1782 in the description of arts and crafts of the Academy of Sciences. His writing took fourteen years of his life. In 1777, he published the first part of a Treaty of building theaters and theatrical machinery. He was interested in the social status of artisans, and made him a fan of “the Enlightenment”. He died in 1791, leaving a widow and four children. His widow was pensioned in 1791 for services rendered to the nation by her husband. Roubo’s biography was published in 1836 by the future architect Louis-Auguste Boileau, then a carpenter, in the series “Portraits and History of useful men” |