The W.F & John Barnes Co of Rockford IL is commonly referred to simply as “Barnes”. It is generally regarded as the largest and most successful of all foot powered makers – professional and amateur with their amateur line truly a “cut above other hobby grade machine makers.
John Barnes was from central NY and shortly after civil war, bought a grain thrashing machine and decided to head west stopping to use the machine to make money to move on until he decided to stop in Rockford IL He had experience as a model maker and found a job with Emerson Talcott & Company. (At that time, it was necessary to submit a working model to the US Patent Office along with the description of the item to obtain a patent.)
Model making at that time was very tedious and time consuming as parts had to be cut out using a hand fret saw. Being an ambitious person, he set out to make a foot powered scroll saw to make the job easier. Out of this came the first version of the #7 scroll saw initially called the “Large Saw”. From that base, he and his brother William Frank Barns (W. F.) and others began building the firm into a company that manufactured thousands and thousands of foot and hand powered machines that were shipped all over the world.
More information will be added at a later date 1/13//2025