History
The original forms of workholding on lathes were between-centers holding and ad-hoc fastenings to the headstock spindle. The spike-style centers used on wood lathes even today are an ancient method. Ad-hoc fastening methods in centuries past included anything from pinning with clenching or wedging; nailing; lashing with cords of leather or fiber; dogging down (again involving pinning/wedging/clenching); or other types. Faceplates have probably been around at least since the era of medieval clock makers.
Tooling that we today would call chucks seems likely to have evolved from faceplate work, as workers who were using faceplates for repetitive work began to envision types of clamps or dogs for the faceplate that could be opened and closed in more convenient ways than repeated total disassembly and reassembly.
Some names that are known to figure in the history of chuck development include Simon Fairman and Austin F. Cushman (who may have been uncle/nephew or father-in-law/son-in-law) and Arthur Irving Jacobs. Apparently, Fairman invented the first piece of tooling that we today would call a lathe chuck, and Cushman invented the first self-centering lathe chuck. Cushman's name lived on via an eponymous company. Judging from a historical sketch given by the Jacobs Chuck Manufacturing Company (a well-known brand in the drill chuck field), Arthur I. (A.I.) Jacobs was apparently the person who further developed Cushman's self-centering scroll-gear idea into the type of drill chuck that we know today (for which his company would later be famous). A.I. Jacobs's patent of 1902 (U.S. Patent 709,014) appears to be the principal patent. The term "drill chuck" clearly did not originate with him, but it seems that his new type of drill chuck long ago displaced all earlier types, which apparently lacked the angled jaw movement and outer sleeve that we now consider the norm.
Read more about this topic: Chuck (engineering)
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