of
engines and machines which could not be dealt with in the lathe, in
the drilling, or in the screwing machine, had to be prepared by the
use of the chisel and the file.
At the present day, the turning and fitting shops are furnished not
only with the slide lathe, self acting in both directions, and
screw-cutting, the drilling-machine, and the screwing machine, but
with planing machines competent to plane horizontally, vertically, or
at an angle; shaping machines, rapidly reciprocating, and dealing with
almost any form of work; nut shaping machines, slot drilling
machines, and slotting machines, while the drills have become multiple
and radial; and the accuracy of the work is insured by testing on
large surface plates, and by the employment of Whitworth internal and
external standard gauges.
The boiler maker's tools now comprise the steam, compressed air,
hydraulic or other mechanical riveter, rolls for the bending of plates
while cold into the needed cylindrical or conical forms, multiple
drills for the drilling of rivet holes, planing machines to plane the
edges of the plates, ingenious apparatus for flanging them, thereby
dispensing with one row of rivets out of two, and roller expanders for
expanding the tubes in locomotive and in marine boilers; while the
punching press, where still used, is improved so as to make the holes
for seams of rivets in a perfect line, and with absolute accuracy of
pitch.
With respect to the smith's shop, all large pieces of work are now
manipulated under heavy Nasmyth or other steam hammers; while smaller
pieces of work are commonly prepared either in forging machines or
under rapidly moving hammers, and when needed in sufficient numbers
are made in dies. And applicable to all the three industries of the
fitting shop, the boiler shop, and the smith's shop, and also to that
other industry carried on in the foundry, are the traveling and swing
cranes, commonly worked by shafting, or by quick moving ropes for the
travelers, and by hydraulic power or by steam engines for the swing
cranes. It may safely be said, that without the aid of these
implements, it would be impossible to handle the weights that are met
with in machinery of the present day.
I now come to one class of machine which, humble and small as it is,
has probably had a greater effect upon industry and upon domestic life
than almost any other. I mean
THE SEWING MACHINE.
In 1831, there was no means of making a
|