This patent was issued just a few months after Woodworth's infamous patent {X5,315}. The specification pages are missing, but according to John Richards' 1872 book, “A Treatise on the Construction and Operation of Wood-Working Machines”, this planer patent is the first mentioning feed rolls. (In England in 1811, Charles Hammond patented the feed roll, but little or no use was made of the idea at the time.) The feed roll was an important innovation because it did away with the need for a moving carriage and a frame to support it, making planing machines cheaper and much more compact. Furthermore, without the inertia of that carriage to deal with, roll-feed planers would ultimately be able to work much more quickly than carriage-fed planers. Emmons' patent specifically references Woodworth's patent, and he outlines the differences, especially with regard to his solid cutter-head compared to Woodworth's version consisting of steel plates with steel cutters attached. The rights to this patent were sold to Woodworth, and to Woodworth's assignee, James Strong, on 1829-11-29. Emmons' patent played a role in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Wilson v. Simpson, 50 U.S. 109 (1850), and it is from papers relating to that lawsuit that we got the information on the patent being purchased by Woodworth and Strong.

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• USPTO pdf
• "Vintage Machinery" entry for Uri Emmons