Machine tool history question

======================= Among other references you need a Lindsay Books reprint "English and American Tool Builders: The men who created machine tools" by Joseph Wickham Roe. ISBN 0-917914-73-2.

(may no longer be available from Lindsay but see) ?srchTxtIsbn=0917914732

Wish I was back in the classroom. There should be a required machine tools history class for engineeris and technologists.

also see

Unka' George (George McDuffee) .............................. Only in Britain could it be thought a defect to be "too clever by half." The probability is that too many people are too stupid by three-quarters.

John Major (b. 1943), British Conservative politician, prime minister. Quoted in: Observer (London, 7 July 1991).

Actually lathes are very old. They can be traced back all the way back to the advent of the wheel. Their use with metal occurred when metal became available for use. Your reference of the vertical mill reminds me of the steam chest boring lathe commonly in use at the turn of previous century. Some are still available and incredible useful and affordable for the hobbiest. I almost bought one 2 years ago, but didn't get there in time. Very unfortunate. Steve

I don't remember this info off the top of my head, but I know where you should look. The best source for this info is the American Precision Museum in Windsor, VT, on the web at

have a huge collection of machine tools going back nearly 200 years, and many of the volunteers are familiar with the old processes. Also the folks at Slater's Mill in Rhode Island have an entire working lineshaft machine shop. In fact, it was at that site that the first screwcutting (ie, having a leadscrew) lathe in America was invented in 1798. Henry Maudsley patented his version in England in 1797. Over the summer I was in the New England area and tried to see as many industrial revolution and machine tool sites as I could fit into the schedule. In addition to the Precision Museum and Slater's mill, I also visited the reconstructed mills and museums of Lowell, Massachussets, and the

1600's ir> I've been reading some old toolmaking books from the early 1900's and

I don't remember this info off the top of my head, but I know where you should look. The best source for this info is the American Precision Museum in Windsor, VT, on the web at

have a huge collection of machine tools going back nearly 200 years, and many of the volunteers are familiar with the old processes. Also the folks at Slater's Mill in Rhode Island have an entire working lineshaft machine shop. In fact, it was at that site that the first screwcutting (ie, having a leadscrew) lathe in America was invented in 1798. Henry Maudsley patented his version in England in 1797. Over the summer I was in the New England area and tried to see as many industrial revolution and machine tool sites as I could fit into the schedule. In addition to the Precision Museum and Slater's mill, I also visited the reconstructed mills and museums of Lowell, Massachussets, and the

1600's ir> I've been reading some old toolmaking books from the early 1900's and

But the carriage on the lathe was not invented until about 1800. Before that tools were held crudely by hand on a tool rest, like a wood lathe. About that time the "automatic generation of gages" was invented, yielding a fundamental precision flat surface, on which, with scraping, machine tool precision is originated. Before that, it was all eyeball and skill, and consequently less than precise.

Early steam engine pistons were packed with wadding, because tolerances were so bad.

MIT Press published a series of books on the History of Machine Tools. I assume you could contact MIT Press to get a list of the books in the series. Try interlibrary loan at your local library to borrow them, though they were not terribly expensive- I bought a couple.

This thread reminded me about an article in the paper last week.

"Over the past fifty years, the Antikythera Device has gone from being the most anomalous and controversial artifact to one of the most renowned pieces of evidence of the scientific genius of our ancestors ? a millennium ahead of its time." See:

Pretty amazing what the Greeks came up with over 2000 years ago. They must have had some interesting tools back then to make something like this.

All:

I had an opportunity to visit the museum in Windsor a year and a half ago. One interesting machine they had was the first Bridgeport mill (i.e serial number of 1.) It was in pretty good condition, too.

Just a little plug for the museum,

-Wayne

snipped-for-privacy@lycos.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@enews4.newsguy.com:

Here are a couple of links that are invaluable.

Feh. The other one is dead. I have a copy of the pdf though. It's titled "From Archimedes to Automation" the history of the screw machine by Donald Wood.

If interested I could e-mail it.

Without the screw there would be no Industrial Revolution. It only took from Archimedes to Spencer to figure out how to mass produce them. About

250 BC to 1873.

That sounds like it should be webbed; can you do that instead?

On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:03:47 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.hfx.andara.com quickly quoth:

I agree! I wish more people would automatically think of the Dropbox instead of suggesting email to an individual poster.

Please Dropbox it, Dan! (If I may verbify a noun in front of Ed.)

- Press HERE to arm. (Release to detonate.) -----------

This is an excellent read on the industrial revolution. This is in e-book form and it is free:

Industrial Biography, Iron Workers and Tool Makers by Samuel Smiles

FWIW, the button work tended to be very precise; the equivalent of common milling work was done on a faceplate, but they used a prick-punch to mark the spot and a wiggler to center it.

The really precise button work was toolmaking, particularly jig-making, with the highest end of that work being the making of master watch plates. That was the business that stimulated Richard Moore to create the Moore Jig Borer, and a few years later, the Jig Grinder.

Another interesting history of American manufacturing and machine tools was published as the 100th Anniversary Issue of _American Machinist_. It was published in 1977. I've seen it in a couple of engineering libraries but it is not common. Also FWIW, I wrote a few parts of it.

-- Ed Huntress

English, Metal Lathe - Henry Maudslay invented the first in 1797.

The first machine tool, was Wilkinson's boring machine, used to bore the cylinder of James Watts steam engine.

Steve R.

Was that the one that had an article about the history of tooling? I can't remember who borrowed my copy and never returned it.

John

That would be great.

Thank you,

Wes S

Larry Jaques wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I did think of it, just wasn't sure if it was appropriate.

Done. I'll post a link when it shows up.