> I suspect finger joints used in situations like the corners of Stanley 
> 55
> boxes, are a product of the machine age.

I'm with you, Mick.  There were a number of machine joints by the late 
1800's
that were attempts to get something of the strength of the dovetail but 
could
be made by machines and cheap labor.  My favorite is the scollop and 
pin, often
found on drawers after around  1880.  There were machines to make tenons 
in
quite literally seconds in the first quarter of the 19th Century.  At 
some point,
the single end tenoner as the machine was called, was able to cope as 
well as
cut the tenon at the same time.

Mike in Sacto