Machinery

“ A second great step in advance was the employment of machinery, which, when once fashioned by hand, saved an enormous amount of time and trouble—the pump, the blowing bellows, the spinning-wheel, the loom. But all had to be operated by human effort, sometimes replaced by animal power. ”

“ "The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines..... The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at the head of the industrial arts."—C. BABBAGE, Exposition of 1851. ”

“ Man’s ambition to make over the face of the earth to his own liking dates far back of the present age of machinery. However, the work of the ancient engineer was accomplished only at the expense of decades and generations of hard manual labor. To-day, with powerful and gigantic machinery to do our bidding, we do not hesitate to change the course of rivers, to level off the hills, to carve highways through the mountains and pierce them with tunnels, to bore into their depths for treasure and drive deep holes into the bowels of the earth in quest of liquid fuel. ”

“ The whole spirit of the young republic pushed towards the invention of labor-saving machinery,—towards replacing the hoe with the steel plow, the needle with the sewing-machine, the puddling-furnace with the Bessemer converter, the sickle with the Reaper. ”

“ And I anticipate that this delivery will come from machinery itself; the engine that has mangled so many men will come gently and generously to the aid of suffering human flesh. Cruel and hard to begin with, machinery will become kind, favourable and friendly. ”

“ The story of machinery, from primitive man’s first attempts to augment his physical powers with mechanical aids down to the present era of gigantic, steel-muscled machinery and marvelously intricate mechanisms, is the story of human progress. ”

“ In the fitting shop, which, to the unaccustomed eye, presents a most bewildering appearance, with its endless ramification of pulleys, shafting, revolving wheels, and machinery of every description, all kinds of operations connected with the making of the various parts of an engine may be seen in progress. Here are turning lathes, planing, shaping, slotting, boring, and drilling machines. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no description of machinery which would not afford an illustration of the importance belonging to truth of surface, and at the same time, of the present necessity for material improvement; nor is there any subject connected with machines, the bearings of which, on public interests, whether manufacturing or scientific, are more varied or more extensive. ”

“ The division of labour suggests the contrivance of tools and machinery to execute its processes.—When each process, by which any article is produced, is the sole occupation of one individual, his whole attention being devoted to a very limited and simple operation, improvements in the form of his tools, or in the mode of using them, are much more likely to occur to his mind, than if it were distracted by a greater variety of circumstances. Such an improvement in the tool is generally the first step towards a machine. ”

“ In connection with machinery it may not be amiss to mention the almost invariable practice, throughout the American continent, for all machinery under the control either of the State or public bodies being kept spotlessly clean and as attractive as possible, and, in the case of all stationary engines, allowing the public to see them in operation, from a gallery or other suitable place, so that humble mechanical genius may feast its eyes, and think out problems or improvements, which may advance their authors to wealth, and place further names upon the roll of the world's inventors. ”

“ The ease with which distinct parts of machinery can be united, the firmness with which they are held together, and the facility with which they may be separated, are conditions of the utmost importance, which by no other contrivance could be combined in an equal degree. ”

“ After an hour of uninterested observation he leaves the hall with a confused notion of shafts, wheels, cogs, bands, etc., but with no greater insight into the principles of machinery. Why has one man learned so much and the other nothing? Because the machinist's previous experience served as an interpreter and explained these new contrivances, while the other had no sufficient previous knowledge and so acquired nothing new. ”

“ It is needless to say that no one in these days would suggest even a possibility of a general division of the work along the line between the abilities of the brain and hand and in these days of construction and operation of intricate mechanisms like electric and telephone instruments and machinery, aeroplane, automobiles, railroad machinery, machine shop machinery, army and navy machinery, from the smallest instrument and small arms to the big machines like the battleship. ”

“ Although the development of modern machinery is largely concerned with motor and transmitting mechanisms, it is to the working machine we must look in order to get a clear idea of the differences between machines and tools. A tool may be quite simple in form and action as a knife, a needle, a saw, a roller, a hammer, or it may embody more complex thought in its construction, more variety in its movement, and call for the play of higher human [46] skill. Such tools or implements are the hand-loom, the lathe, the potter's-wheel. To these tools man stands in a double relation. ”

“ We are able to machine the earth in much the same way as a piece of metal is machined in the machine shop. In fact, the drill, [252] the circular saw, the slotter, and even the milling machine have their counterpart in the excavating machinery of to-day. Of course we cannot expect to find the counterpart of such machines as the lathe, boring mill, and planer, in which the work revolves against the tool, because this planet of ours is rather too big a piece of stock to be placed between lathe centers or to be bolted to a planer bed. ”

“ Work executed by the most skilful mechanic could be no more than approximately correct. Not until such machines as the sliding rest and planing engine were introduced could any approach to perfection be made. Improvements of this nature reacted at once on the primary construction of machinery, making it more powerful, more accurate, more durable, and also led to the introduction of greater elegance in its planning or conception, as any one may see who will compare the clumsy half wooden, half metal machinery of the last century with the light and tasteful constructions of this. ”

“ This remarkably successful machine has now been before the public for some years, during which time it has received the most distinguished honours that could be awarded—the First Prizes of all the National Societies, and the highest commendations of the Judges of all the principal Societies in Great Britain. In testing the comparative value of machinery the first consideration is, the power required to work the same: in other words, the power required to overcome the friction of the different parts of the machinery. ”

“ The man who aspires to construct any great mechanical engineering work, like the Brooklyn Bridge, for example, must know the exact mechanical power of every piece of machinery he employs, as also the exact mechanical value of every piece of iron that enters into the structure; and these things he cannot know unless he is familiar with the entire series of iron manipulations, from those of the foundery to those of the machine-tool shop. ”

“ Machinery of any kind which is driven by energy made available by the prime mover. To this group belong all machine tools, textile machinery, pumping machinery, cranes-in fact every kind of machine which requires any considerable quantity of energy to drive it. ”

“ HENRY FIELD. LESSON XXII REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES The rapid settlement and improvement of many parts of our country have been greatly aided by the invention of various kinds of machinery. The work of many hands can now be done by one machine, and thus a great saving of human labor is effected. ”

“ The inventions of the century consist in labour-saving [Pg 364] machinery for these purposes, new tanning and dressing processes, and innumerable machines for making special articles of leather.
As before stated, the epoch of modern machinery commenced with the practical application of water power to other than grinding mills, and of steam in place of water, contemporaneously with the invention of spinning and weaving machinery in the last half of the eighteenth century. These got fairly to work at the beginning of the century, and the uses of machinery spread to the treatment of leather. ”

“ Let any one attempt to describe the much more simple and familiar process by which a shoemaker makes a pair of shoes, and he will find how inadequate mere words are to describe any mechanical operation. [13] Suffice it to say, that the machinery was of the most beautiful manufacture and finish, and even at this day will bear comparison with the most perfect machines which can be turned out with all the improved appliances of modern tools. The framing was of cast-iron, while the parts exposed to violent and rapid action were all of the best hardened steel. ”

“ The tendency toward great operations which has been such a conspicuous feature of industrial progress during the past ten years, has shown itself strikingly in the use of units of larger capacity in nearly every form of machinery, and nowhere has this tendency been more marked than in the motive power by which the machinery is driven. ”

“ So when a man with a system of pulleys raises to the top of a tower a block of granite that four men might lift from the ground he sacrifices in speed what he gains in the new way of applying the force he has for the purpose.
You visit a large manufacturing establishment or the mechanical department of a great national or international industrial exposition and see a whole acre of machinery of all kinds, shafts, wheels, saws, lathes, and spindles in rapid motion, and, astonished at the complications, inquire for the power that carries the whole. ”

“ The largest factories, however, employ but a few hands, the machinery being so perfect as to perform, with very little interposition from human hands, the whole work, from the first purification to the final arrangement. I saw a mass of ore as dug out from the ground put into one end of a long series of machines, which came out, without the slightest manual assistance, at the close of a course of operations so directed as to bring it back to our feet, in the form of a thin sheet of lustrous metal. ”

“ Heavy machinery, such as stamping-mills, steam-engines, &c., cannot readily be moved, and must always be taken to pieces for that purpose; but when the machinery of a factory consists of a multitude of separate engines, each complete in itself, and all put in motion by one source of power, such as that of steam, then the removal is much less inconvenient. ”

“ The results which have been obtained in the United States, by the application of machinery wherever it has been practicable to manufactures, are rendered still more remarkable by the fact, that combinations to resist its introduction there are unheard of. The workmen hail with satisfaction all mechanical improvements, the importance and value of which, as releasing them from the drudgery of unskilled labour, they are enabled by education to understand and appreciate. ”

“ Beautiful as are the combinations and contrivances in the block machinery, and highly deserving as the inventor may be of credit for originating such labour-saving machines for the production of ships’ blocks, there is a far higher claim to the admiration and gratitude of all constructors of machinery, and of all workers in metal. ”

“ As we pass we look into the engineers’ shop and wonder at the variety of the machinery there, capable of operating on the hardest steel, and of planing, cutting, punching, or drilling it with the greatest apparent ease; and we learn that most of the machinery is made and repaired on the premises. ”

“ The object of the present volume is to point out the effects and the advantages which arise from the use of tools and machines;—to endeavour to classify their modes of action;—and to trace both the causes and the consequences of applying machinery to supersede the skill and power of the human arm. ”

“ Among the several boasts of the present age one is, that of making machinery, as a working power in delicate operations, so true, as if it had been quickened with a life and will and power all its own: mechanism applied to weaving is, at least for the speed of plain work, most marvellous ”

“ Thus there is the genesis of the paper-machine involved, and that of the multitudinous appliances and devices that preceded it, and are at present implied by it. Have we now got to the end of the matter? No; we have just glanced at one group of the antecedents. All this development of mechanical appliances—this growth of the iron-manufacture, this extensive use of machinery made from iron, this production of so many machines for making machines—has had for one of its causes the abundance of the raw materials, coal and iron ”

“ In this shop all such portions of the engines, presses, large and small, printing and inking machines, and of the machinery by the agency of which the above machines themselves are created, as are composed of wrought metal, are forged, welded, made new from the commencement, or repaired in case of damage. ”