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Breast Plate Hand Drill manufactured by Millers Falls Company

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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This tool, made by the Millers Falls Company of Greenfield and Millers Falls, Massachusetts, is known as a "breast plate hand drill." It is similar to the Bit Brace tool, except that the rotation was created by a crank and gear. The pressure to make the drill cut was created by the driller's body weight leaning on the handle, which was placed against the shoulder. More than 195,000 breast plate hand drills were sent to the war effort from January 1944 to October 1944. Before World War II (WWII), the Millers Falls Tool Company made 2,500 different tools. During the war, the company continued manufacturing all its usual product lines (for example, electric tools, hand tools, hack saw blades, levels, planes, micrometers, etc.).

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