In view of the recent remarkable revival of the machine tool industry in Great Britain, expressed in increasing world demand for British-made machine tools, the story of the trials and triumphs of the British pioneer in this field, told in the following article reproduced from the “British Engineers’ Export Journal,” is of particular interest at the present time.

A Splendid Record

For more than a hundred years, between 1770 and 1875, Great Britain was the chief source and centre of machine tool development in the world. The origin of nearly every advance or improvement in the equipment of engineering machine shops made in other countries, can be traced to the British inventor, either as an idea embodied partially in one form of tool or another, or an experiment abandoned because the need for developing it was not apparent at the time it was made.

At East Town Workshops.
First Diamond Crossing turned out of new Points and Crossing Shop at East Town.

That fact is too often ignored by those who institute comparisons between the progress shown in machine tool manufacture by the engineers of the United States or Germany, and those of Great Britain, during the past forty years. Originated and trained for the service of the engineering industry of the country, British machine tool manufacturers have always had a practical duty to perform which could not be put aside for the sake of engaging in doubtful experiments or attempts at cheap production. Others, less responsible, have made thousands of experiments which have issued in a few successes so spectacular in effect as to obscure both their numberless failures and the solid work done by British makers in the minds of many people.

Although the iron and steel parts of the machinery coming into use during the early years of the 18th century were shaped by the crude tools available, it was not till after the steam engine had begun to revolutionise manufacture that machine tool production becomes a recognised branch of industry. In his “Lives of the Engineers,” Samuel Smiles described the severe trials James Watt endured because of the lack of tools with which to shape the cylinders and pistons of his engines, and the almost total dearth of skilled workmen. In 1765, when erecting his first complete steam engine, the situation of the great inventor could be described thus: “The improvement of the cylinder and piston continued Watt's chief difficulty, and taxed his ingenuity to the utmost. At so low an ebb was the art of making cylinders that the one he used was not bored, but hammered, the collective mechanical skill of Glasgow being then unequal to the boring of a cylinder of the simplest kind; nor, indeed, did the necessary appliances for the purpose exist anywhere else.” Eleven years later, when the famous partnership of Boulton and Watt was entering upon its fruitful labours in Soho Foundry, Birmingham, the position was little better. “In organising the works at Soho,” says Dr. Smiles, “Boulton and Watt found it necessary to carry the division of labour to the page 42 farthest practicable point. There were no slide lathes, planing machines or boring tools, such as now render mechanical accuracy of construction almost a matter of certainty. Everything depended upon the individual mechanic's accuracy of hand and eye; and yet mechanics were generally then much less skilled than they are now. The way in which Boulton and Watt contrived partially to get over the difficulty was to confine their workmen to special classes of work, and to make them as expert as possible. By continued practice in handling the same tools and fabricating the same articles, they thus acquired great individual proficiency.”

Made At Addington Workshops.
(Photo, W. P. Hern.)
Side-chain links to the number of 4,525 made recently on the bull dozer machine at Addington Workshops.

Dr. Smiles, however, seems to have been imperfectly acquainted with the mechanical equipment of Soho Foundry. It is now known that James Watt improved the crude foot-lathe then in use for his own purposes, and invented a wall-planer and several other machine tools, but the sense of justice of the proud, sensitive Scottish genius had been so often hurt by pirating rivals stealing his inventions, that he entrusted the working of the most of his improved machine tools only to workmen sworn to secrecy. Consequently, the greatest mechanical genius of the age contributed very little directly to the progressive development of machine tools in Great Britain, and it is necessary to look elsewhere for record of the stages through which the present-day equipment of the machine shops was evolved.

British Lathe Improvers and Inventors.

The first mechanical appliance designed for the cutting of hard substances, the lathe, still remains the central pivot upon which the organisation of the engineering shop is based. When it was invented no record tells; like the spindle, the loom and the boat, the lathe is a social product and improvement of the appliance has been a purely private affair for many centuries. Used from time immemorial in China, India and Persia, it was brought to Egypt and improved there, but neither in Egypt nor in Europe were the improvements noted. It is impossible, therefore, to date the early stages of the evolution of the machine tool. A curious instance occurred in quite recent times. For a long period historians assumed that the use of the lathe as a metal-cutting tool in Great Britain, originated with the steam engine, but a highly elaborate machine of the lathe type, known to have been built for the second Earl of Macclesfield in 1740, was unearthed and presented to the British Museum some years page 43 ago. Too complex for industrial uses and incapable of withstanding the wear and tear of the workshop, the lathe is worthy of special note, because it contains many of the devices which impart efficiency to the tools of the present day. “The lathe,” says a writer, “has a double iron bar bed, with heavy brass clamps for fixing to the bench. It is driven from a pulley on an overhead shaft which is carried in a block sliding in a frame fixed to the bench. A hand-driven flywheel with a leaden rim is fixed to the shaft and drives a two-speed pulley on the mandrel through a round belt, the tension of which is adjusted by moving the block up or down by means of a long square-threaded screw. The headstock is pivoted between the bars of the bed in the blocks at either end, clamped by bolts to the bed, and extending upwards to carry a device for holding the head-stock in a central position when it is not desired to use the lathe for turning rosettes. A small lever on each block has a slot cut in it which may be made to engage a pin projecting from the headstock. The mandrel rotates in white metal bearings and is able to slide longitudinally, although normally held in its back position by a spring. For screw cutting, three guide-screws of different pitch are cut on the back portion of the mandrel and each screw has beneath it a short lever with a portion of

For The Department'S New Workshops.
Drilling machines manufactured by William Asquith Ltd., Halifax, England, and recently installed in the Department's new Workshops. These machines are the latest of their kind.

threaded surface that engages the screw and traverses the mandrel when the lever is held up by a wedge. This is the earliest method adopted for screw-cutting on the lathe. The mandrel is screwed at both ends to take chucks… . The slide-rest is of the early French form, and is adjustable for height by a vertical screw and may be firmly clamped at the desired level by a single bolt which passes through the body of the rest and through slots in the movable portion. Screw traverse in one direction is provided, and also a slide at right angles on which the tool is carried. A screw passing through the movable part of the slide abuts against the fixed part so that the depth of cut can be regulated.” Anyone observing carefully the details given can see that, although elaborated for dilettanti uses, the lathe contained many features that, had they become known more generally, would have saved much of the time and effort spent in evolving the workshop lathe.

(To be continued.)

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