Shopsmith Forums

I bought one of two copies of PTWFE from Skip Campbell that was owned by Hans Goldschmidt the inventor of the Shopsmith. I made a shadow box from Black Walnut to display it in my shop. The brass plate is a copy of the signed affidavit I received from Skip with the book. Hans had two copies and one was signed by the author R. J. DeCristiforo. The affidavit tells the story.

Very nice display and congrats on getting a great piece of history.

roy_okc wrote:Very nice display and congrats on getting a great piece of history.

I have done a lot of research on this and have the early history of the Shopsmith if anyone is interested. Right down to how Magna Engeneering got its name.

jsburger wrote:

roy_okc wrote:Very nice display and congrats on getting a great piece of history.

I have done a lot of research on this and have the early history of the Shopsmith if anyone is interested. Right down to how Magna Engeneering got its name.

I am listening!

JPG wrote:

jsburger wrote:

roy_okc wrote:Very nice display and congrats on getting a great piece of history.

I have done a lot of research on this and have the early history of the Shopsmith if anyone is interested. Right down to how Magna Engeneering got its name.

I am listening!

As am I.

JPG wrote:

jsburger wrote:

roy_okc wrote:Very nice display and congrats on getting a great piece of history.

I have done a lot of research on this and have the early history of the Shopsmith if anyone is interested. Right down to how Magna Engeneering got its name.

I am listening!

OK, here it is.

Hans Goldschmidt was a German Jew that escaped Nazi Germany before the start of WWII. During the war he worked at the Kaiser Ship Yards in San Francisco as a time study engineer.

After the war he saw the advent of the home workshop and started to develop a home use multiple tool machine that the average home owner could afford and want. The 10E. However he didn't have the money to fund the project.

Enter the Chambers brothers. Bob Chambers had been Hans' boss at the Kaiser ship yards during the war. Hans contacted him and he agreed to fund the project along with his brother Frank. The Chambers brothers were from Salt Lake City Utah. There is a town about 15 miles west of Salt Lake called Magna. I am not sure if they ever lived there but I think it must be in their lineage.

I always wondered if that was where the name Magna Engineering came from. Now enter Doug Reed. You know the traveling demonstrator for SS. I went to every traveling academy when he came to Salt Lake. He sent me a picture of him with Bob Chambers and confirmed that Bob said that Magna Engineering was named for Magna UT.

He also told me that the SS in the picture was Bob''s personal machine and Bob gave it to him because nobody in the family wanted it.

Here is the obituary the Deseret News in Salt lake on the death of Bob Chambers in 2007. Notice the second line in the obituary...

"An advertising slogan for his first company,'My daddy can do anything, he has a Shopsmith!'".

Read on in the obituary he did amazing things. I think he may have been the driving force behind Shopsmith

FWIW, I can find almost nothing about Hans Goldschmidt.

Some years back I was able to dig up a reprint of The Saturday Evening Post March 29,1952. The title was The Easy Way to Get Rich by Frank J. Taylor.

Hans had the name "Mixmister" for our beloved machine... Glad they got rid of that name...... Special thanks to Bob Chambers' wife June for the new name.

And of course the story about Bob Chambers request to see how many men in the Magna organization were using shopsmiths in there leisure. When the report came back it read: "Everybody has a Shopsmith but Doctor Goldschmidt."(doctor of philosophy)

It is a fun read and I'm sure those who are interested enough will find it and read it.

Ed

This was a very interesting read. Thank you guys for your postings. These articles really help to pull it all together.

They also show that the prejudices against a combination machine are as old as the machine. I also conclude that these prejudices were established based on the original machine and do not necessary apply to today's Shopsmith. Many will disagree with me on that but that is okay; this is what opinions are for.