โ Scribed by Joseph W. Roe
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
While the Declaration of Independence was being signed in Philadelphia another revolution was already well under way in England, one so far-reaching in its effects that it has altered the economic life of the whole world . The Industrial Revolution was ushering in the Machine Age . But the Machine Age did not and could not come until men developed machines to make machinery with ; i .e., machine tools . The facilities for working metals in 1776 were little better than those of the Middle Ages, the hammer, chisel and file to supplement casting and hand forging . All the structural parts of the newly invented engines and textile machinery were made of wood . Only the fastenings and smaller parts were of metal fitted by hand .
In the closing years of the 18th century Henry Maudslay, in London, laid the foundations of modern metal working tools by developing the slide rest, lead screw and change gears characteristics of all machine tools . Within a single generation, say by 1840, England had developed the engine lathe, planer, shaper and boring mill and had established a * Presented at a meeting held Thursday, December 2, 1937 . (Note-The Franklin Institute is not responsible for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to the JOURNAL .
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