Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth CenturyRoutledge, Robert
History
Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century
Routledge, Robert
Inventions -- History -- 19th century
With the exception of the last, all the machines hitherto described in
the present article are distinguished by this—they are tools which are
used to produce other machines of every kind. Without such implements it
would be impossible to fashion the machines which are made to serve so
many different ends. Another peculiarity of these tools has also been
referred to, namely, that they are especially serviceable, and indeed
essential, for the reproduction of others of the same class. Thus, the
accurate leading-screw of the lathe is the means used to cut other
accurate screws, which shall in their turn become the leading-screws of
other lathes, and a lathe which forms a truly circular figure is a
necessary implement for the construction of another lathe which shall
also produce truly circular figures. In these tools, therefore, we find
the copying principle, to which allusion has been already made, as the
great feature of all machines; but in order to bring this principle
still more clearly before the reader, we have described in the Blanchard
Lathe a machine of a somewhat different class, because it embodied a
very striking illustration of the principle in question. We are far from
having described all the implements of the mechanical engineer, or even
all the more interesting ones; for example, we have given no account of
the powerful lathes in which great masses of iron are turned, or of the
analogous machines, which, with so much accuracy, shape the internal
surfaces of the cylinders of steam engines, of cannons, &c. The history
of the steam engine tells us of the difficulties which Watt had to
contend with in the construction of his cylinders, for no machine at
that time existed capable of boring them with an approach to the
precision which is now obtained.
[Illustration:
FIG. 37.—_Circular Saw._
]
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