Amazing! Stunning! Such a clear and entertaining way of explaining an essential (but potentially boring) project. On my channel, I use the wood lathe a lot, but I'm frustrated with the way people only see it as a way to make decorative items. I use it for some more precise tasks and I'm about to start building my own. This video is a great inspiration. I expect your subscriber count will shoot up very soon. Keep up the good work!
I don't think that's true. Just having a fuel source doesn't lead to the technology to use it. The Romans were aware of oil, but couldn't figure out what to do with it. You're confusing necessary and sufficient conditions. Fuel is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one.
I've turned plenty of small steel parts on my small wood lathe. I use the sharpened end of an old file as a cutting tool, files to shape, and a hacksaw as a cut off tool
There's a set of small books by this guy named "Gingery" that show you how to build you own machine shop from the ground up. The first starts of with making a charcoal foundry to melt metal and do sand casting. Next are books about things to make with it, one of which is the lathe. It's fun reading even if you don't do any of it.
Lindsay Technical Books was a catalog that had those and other books for any type of project imaginable including books on Tesla, chemical compounds, alcohol for people or cars, etc. I miss that catalog. It looks like Your Old Time Bookstore has some of their publications but that catalog was a treasure.
Reminds me of the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments that taughts kids how to make their own little science lab and even included a section on how to make their own glass products.
Now, think about that when he mentioned the small parts made for clocks and watches. When you check the dates in which clockmakers were already designing those miniscule parts with such precision, you have to admire the amazing mechanical engineering skills that people had back then to make such a small and complicated thing as a watch. All those tiny gears, screws, dials, pins, *BY HAND*
@@Zerpersande More automation means more time to do other things relevant to the job; farmers are plenty worth the title, though there is plenty of sitting
I've worked as a machinist more than fifty years, and never ran across this lathe, I had focused on the British taking and expanding exponentially, this is truly the machine that set off the industrial revolution, the lathe earned it's nickname, "mother of all machine tools" because the precision screws are the key to much of the advancement, even to this day. I believe I could work that lathe, it's about fifty years older than my first. Thanks for the very clear, well informed demonstration of this "machine thinking", I'm retired now, but can hardly go a day without turning something, and if I can, it's either Sunday, or a day on the mill. Thanks so much, I've seen lots of old lathes in museums, and working but this is my first look at this, and was what allowed Naismith to do his work, and gave impetus to Joseph Whitworth, who established surface plates, fine measuring, and provided for the "exchangeable parts concept" to become a reality. It is a beauty!!
Our family's claim to fame is that my grandfather, Jacob, a poor Croatian American immigrant learned the trade and machined the carburetor for the Spirit of St. Louis. Machine tool history is important and you capture it well.
I am sorry you might not understand this but I have to say it Where hasn't a croat been Why am I saying it, thank you for asking. Well you see a lot of croatains left the country in search of greener lawns and well as I see we croats went everywhere and built something also everywhere
He oui il y a énormément d'inventions qui viennent de la FRANCE 🇫🇷🇫🇷 et les plus importantes, les conserves, la mine de crayon, l'eau de javel, la photographie, la boîte de vitesses de voiture, le cinéma, la machine à coudre etc, etc.....! 🇫🇷. He oui les amis, bonjour de France.
I ran a lathe when I was 18-19 which was built in the 1920s. As a youngster I thought it was fascinating that something had lasted so long, and was still so precise.
Brandon Berry I had to take several semesters of machining for a vocational classes in high school in small town Kansas. There were several machines, some newer, but there were older World War Two machines that the school received as donations after the war ended. They were more accurate and intuitive than the newer ones.
i own a german lathe of 20 30's it was the time that lathes where used for engine parts and gun parts.. with that, a high need of high precision was back than already needed. than again my lathe weights about 800kg+ while same size new lathe would weight only 150-250kg so as long as it does not fall.. (iron is extreme hard but it can crack when falling ) than you have a decent machine. also keep in mind consumer products can not be compared to industrial stuff. today industrial machines are made so it survive all. bearings are 10 sizes bigger than needed. platework is 5mm instead of 0.5mm shafts are 30mm instead of 8mm. i work in a factory and only the boxes folding machine the bearings for the arm that graps the boxes. max load is 1kg with the arm. shaft of 20mm, mounted on 2 plates of 8mm, 4 bearings both sides of the plates..even after running 100 years that machine still dont need a swap of parts. and than we look at machines from 50 years and older.. you can add that times 5 of overpowering. casted iron, solid block of 20cm xD that is why my lathe is so heavy xD i love old machines.. milling machine, lathe, cold saw, all casted iron machines.. you just know even under heavy load the frame would not even bend 1 micron. love it ;)
What I find interesting about the invention of the first woodworking lathe is that it wasn't thought of until centuries after the pottery wheel. You'd think in all that time someone would have thought about putting a pottery wheel on its side.
My dad was a machinist model maker and I have his Atlas 8" lathe he used to tinker with at home. I am nothing but a metal butcher but it is fulfilling to make parts when needed. He learned when he was about 14 making parts for WWII effort in a neighborhood shop. Everyone contributed to the war effort at the time.
Same. The presentation is so convincing though it can be argued that the machine's success is supported by other successful machines. One can be biased to the lathe if one appreciates its beauty. Speaking of algorithm, digital technology is the mother of tech or progress of our time.
@@BibleStorm Lol.... Complaining about "alt-right nazis" then proceeds to condone violence against them........ just like the nazis did to people who they didn't agree with. Double standards much?
Absotutely! THIS is the type of content that consumes most of my online time sucking... sure beats just another moron takin a hit to the sack or other useless schlock. Thanks, very well done all around 👍👍
my grampa was a tool & die maker he was born in 1886 and lived till 1986 I often thought of what he saw. We went from horse and buggy to cars planes and rockets & computer and beyond !!!
I'm a master craftsman toolmaker and have watched the trade go from manuals to cam automatic to punch cards to NC tape readers and just lights to full touchscreen panels and 16 axis dual spindle Mori-Seiki NTs and Dunkle-Mahu's automated systems. Still playing with them.
Just wanting to sharea a story : I remember few years back, just starting undergraduate study in Manufacturing engineering. One of the subject was Machine Handling and it was the first time I laid my eyes on a lathe machine. University was not the best time Ive experience, I had difficulties finding stuff that brings joy to me. Except for that subject as I get to have a go on a Lathe machine and I was very excited to go that class. I always have an interest in crafts and workshop but I did not have the right knowledge and exposure of what it is. I never new this machine existed and I didnt know I can own one privately. During that class, I too watched some other tutorials on how use and maintain a lathe machine. One of my next big project is to have my iwn personal workshop, and a lathe machine is a must have.
I always wondered about this. I fantasize that I'm back in time and it's my job to remember how to manufacture essentials like steel, electric motors, lightbulbs, transistors, etc. I imagine the process and I always come back to the problem of precision. Then I realize in order to have what we have today you first need the tools that preceded them. Suddenly the problem becomes one of learning the history of manufacturing.
Funny you imagine being back in time and having the oportunity to bring inventions to an earlier time. I do the same. hahaha (but probably not as thoroughly as you do)
We have the benefit of modernization to even romanticize about bygone days. The things we romanticize were mundane at the time they existed in mainstream.
The lathe is the only machine in a machine shop that can duplicate itself and all the other machines which have to start with the lathe. One of the best videos I've seen to date.
The lathe was used to create the metal planer which in turn created a much precise lathe, INCLUDING THE WAYS. The more precise creates metal creates an even more precise metal planer. Which in turn creates a much more precise metal lathe and so forth and so on. This also includes jigs, fixtures, tools, dies, extenders that handles much larger metal pieces but the size increase is gradual until you ended up larger and more precise machine tools. Between 1800 and 1900 the industrial revolution has achived, in the laboratory, precision measured in several millionths of an inch and a sufficient amount of that accuracy has been transfered from the laboratory to the machine tool industry between 1800 to 1900. In WW II the micro-inch was achived, and now in high-tech machining facilities accuracies of tolerances are now measured in nanometers for the mechanical parts of the "STEPPER" which is the key manufacturing equipment in making the silicon IC chips used in your and my computers. Study industrial history and you will know, but these books are old books and out-of-print books carefully stored and preserved in library archives and were prudently microfilmed many times by a multi-copier microfilm writer. That technology has been in existence in the early 1950s and your library, if it is properly funded and administered and managed, should have several such equipment and a microfilm scanner-reader for you to read direct from microfilm or transferred rapidly to your portable computer or whatever you have.
It could be used to make the bearings and bore ganged metal rods for the straight-line drawing mechanisms described in A. B. Kempe's historic 1871 book 'How to draw a straight line'. The pdf can be found on Project Gutenberg, and is an amazing insight into how to construct a straight line from first principles. These mechanisms could then be used with a metal cutting toolbit to shape even straighter lathe bed ways.
I remember when I was just getting into machining about 15 years ago, I needed to turn a part for a single one-off project. I felt guilty about buying a lathe for it. It felt like like an impulse buy. However, I find now that I use it about twice as much as I use my mill. I'd buy it again even if the only thing I ever did with it is trueing up poorly cut ends.
6/27/2019 USA Grandpa Bill: You, the speaker here, have a remarkable voice. Along with your natural ability of voice, you have perfect enunciation, intonation, pace, and right-now-with-us-sharing that brings to life these collections of photos in a most engaging way. Your writing, or script, is excellent. I'm 71 years old and have listened to thousands of voices. Yours is at the top of the list of those I prefer to hear. Thank you for being here.
@@wind-solar Jesus dude!! You don't know this guy...all he's saying is he likes your voice while watching the vid. Now pull your head out of your ass and your foot out of his and just accept a compliment from an older gentleman who took the goddam time to give you one.
My favorite thing is you still mark farming as a viable necesity to modern day life. Farming, fortunately, is timeless. We will always have farms and farmers.
Not really, we will eventually do away with farms, as wasteful of resources. Even today, we have begun to produce meat via stem cells, for sale, and we have factories in some American Cities that produce vegetables vertically and hydroponically. We are on the cusp of an agrarian revolution, every bit as big as the early neolithic revolution. Or the effect that the lathe pictured in this video, had on industrialization. It doesn't stop there though, and plans are afoot for nano scale production of everything we might need or want. Food, clothing, medicines, vehicles, and much more. By the end of the century, at the very latest, we will be living in a world / Solar System / Galaxy, that is beyond anything Star Trek Second Generation dreamed of... but we won't be ordinary humans anymore, and we won't be the Borg. Yet the boundaries between human and machine will be blurred. Our Machine will become more Human and we will become more Machines, whatever that may mean in 82 years. If we were suddenly transported to that time from where we sit now, we would be as bewildered by the changes, as anyone from the 1740's brought into our world.
Cro-magnon Gramps Moving farm production from horizontal in dirt to vertical in buildings will probably have less impact than either the agricultural or green revolutions. It’s a evolution, not a revolution.
on the farm, downtime equals lost money. You usually either had the machining tools or you were friends with someone that did. I was blessed to grow up in a farming family that included welders, machinists and blacksmiths.
Lathes are so 18th century. Pick up a cnc and a 3d printer and get with the times grandpa. Lol JK! Seriously, thank you for all the food you share with the world. The world would be a very scary place without people like you. Everyone likes to thank a soldier for their service, but you are the real hero. Thank you for your service to humanity!
I have often wondered where the origins of the metal lathe were from. Thank you for doing the work to produce this. I was captivated, as a young kid, by watching my grandfather make an eyeglass screw. He was mad because K-mart wanted a dollar for it! It's turned into a life long hobby. As I write this, I'm in the process of building an electric longline hauler. The one machine I could not be without is an old Lodge and Shipley metal lathe. It was produced to be driven by line shafting. The newest patent on the machine is 1928! After nearly 100 years, it can still produce .001" accuracy! These machines were birthed from this one. Just so amazing! Thanks again for posting. Bravo!!!!!
Back when I started in the machine trades, there were old lay-shafts and pullys left above which were driven by steam. The steam plant was still existent though not functioning. Many of the existing machines had been converted to electricity in the teens and early 20's and the original motors still ran (though not efficiently). I remember going from tape driven machines (Bridgeport mills) to the 5 axis CNCs of today. Amazing.
This video, (The Machine that Made Everything) and also The Origins of Precision are two of the best works I have ever had their pleasure of viewing on YT. Thank You!
First tool I bought myself when I first moved into my house on my own was a smaller sized but absolutely priceless Atlas Metal lathe which I still use till this day. Your exactly correct about the one tool that's changed the world and brought about the industrial revolution, I would have to say a Metal Lathe and then invert the Lathe and now you have a drill press and a Milling Machine! Now we can make perfectly round and perfectly flat parts! Cool video Man! I agree with you 100% because up until this point, all they had were iron/steel forges and everything was a one off design and replication or duplication was nearly if not impossible. The only thing that was something they could reproduce via the metal forge needed hand made dies for pressing/hammering molten metal into shapes, things like nails for wood working and horseshoes. I know being a engineer and my hobbies revolve around all sorts of mechanical and electrical things, it's only practical to have the right tools for the job.
A hammer should have been your priority! You can fix ANYTHING with a hammer. And if you can't fix it, you can use the hammer to vent your frustrations on the offending device. Win - Win!
I made a trip to Paris July 31 2019 just to go see this machine. It was mezmerizing. I stood there after finally finding it after an hour or so trekking through this what turned out to be one the most diverse and fascinating museum ever. I took a 100 pics of it. The interesting thing is the data plate on the case. No mention of being this wonderful invention that it is. The craftsmanship is mind blowing. How did he make the leadscrew so accurate and the cross slide. After 30 min or so the wife's like we have to move on. I said I have 10K wrapped up in this trip I'm getting my money's worth. So 5 sec later we moved on. If you can, definitely go see it. The rest of the museum is awesome. 3 floors of about 2500 yrs or more of machines, tools, everything up to space travel. Well worth the I think it 10 Euros. Keep in mind there was no A/C throughout most of it. So it was really hot on the 3rd and 2nd floor. The "tour" starts on the 3rd. So you have to take the elevator up and start there. There is a really nice cafe on 1 as you exit. We had lunch there and it was good. Sat outside because even at 90+ it was still cooler out there.
I think the original lathe was all made by hand. You can achieve incredible accuracy that way just don't count the hours involved. Using the basic lever principle you can magnify errors. If you have a machine slide driven by a lead screw it usually is able to be moved by a thou at a time on a standard lathe but if you change the dial calibration to a bigger size dial greater accuracy is achieved. Back in 1985 I used a lathe dated 1918 to do some screw cutting 8 tpi thread. I was amazed how well it worked. How many mistakes were made to get to the first lathe is unknown but it would be handy to know. Its called development.
The word "lathe" is from a lath, a strip of wood used as a spring, that pulled the leather strip back as seen in the illustration of a man hollowing a round block of wood into a bowl. Without a lath, the woodworker had his apprentice pulling the strap back. A lath allowed the boy to do other work.
Al Grayson ~ Wow... I’m alone in my car, just pulled over at a gas station to read some of the comments; when I came across your comment I actually wowed out loud! What a great addition to this honoring of the lathe!!! I’m so grateful for youtube at moments like these!!
I didn't know that. Thanks, Al. There is a vague resonance with the invention of valve gear for steam engines. The steam engine evolved from rudimentary steam-powered pumps used for dewatering mines in (I think) Cornwall, which in turn evolved from manually driven sailing-ship pumps, used to evacuate the holds and bilges of seawater which continually leaked in through the seams between planks. The Cornish pumps used pistons exposed to the water from below, and to steam above. The steam was cooled to condense it, creating a vacuum and lifting the piston and the water below it. The pump had valves operated by boys. One smart boy got bored, and after improvising a lashup mechanism with string and bits of wood to activate the valve at the correct moment in the cycle, skived off, for which he was duly punished. (IIRC) Thos Newcomen got wind of this enhancement, and incorporated a self-acting arrangement on his "Atmospheric Engine", which was the precursor to the steam engine. And the rest is history.
@@Gottenhimfella i'm Cornish and haven't heard that one before, sounds probable though. Trevithick was inspired as a boy by the Watt engines used in Cornish mines as well, which led him to build the first high pressure engines.
for a channel i've never heard of, this is some high quality excellent content. It looks like you're getting recommended so i hope you get a hearty surge of subscribers from this deserved surge
I'm pleased you gave due credit to the steam engine, which (in my view) was the great driver of industrial advance. Of course the lathe was a pre-requisite for the manufacture of steam engines. But then the power to drive lathes was generally derived from steam. So I think the two operated in parallel.
@@glenholmgren1218 Why would that be remotely as significant as the invention of the electric motor itself? Which had a host of developers, probably starting with the Hungarian Anyos Jedlik in 1828, sixty years before Tesla had anything to do with it. The industrial uses of electric motors were fully realised long before AC motors came along.
Le 1er véhicule à vapeur qui a réellement fonctionné était le fardier de cugnot en 1769 (toujours un Français), visible au conservatoire des arts et métiers de Paris! 🇫🇷
Just found this excellent bit of history...thank you for solving a (more than) 64 y/o mystery. For the majority of my adult life I've been, at varying times, a Ships Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Machinist or general fabricator. Raised and still living on a farm, still doing my own machine work and still loving both occupations, there was a phrase my father (born and raised in the Appalachian coal fields) used to employ whenever someone had a petty complaint, that never made any sense, whatsoever...until now. (For any history buffs, this will also give you a better idea of how isolated Appalachia was, even up to the mid 20th century) The phrase, if you'll pardon the crudeness, "...You'd complain if somebody shit on your plate..." now has context....along with the expression "...mind blown...'' that my father, of all people, would use such an antiquated and obscure reference...amazing... I've always known there were some rather antiquated aspects to Appalachian culture, but this brings into focus just HOW antiquated some were. Thanks for the education and illumination!
This museum is a hidden treasure in Paris and really worth a visit. It also has the 'original' Foucault pendulum. I can't recommend it highly enough for a visit.
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions." -- Oliver Wendell Homes Sr. Subbed at 0:24.
Im glad there is a video about this. I've been a machine designer my entire life. The lathe was the first machine tool certainly helped the industrial revolution. Here is the kicker. In the 1 century A.D. a guy named Hero of Alexandria invented a very simple steam engine. Everyone thought it was a spinning toy. Had someone back then realized you could have slapped Hero's invention on a lathe the industrial revolution would have started 2000 years earlier than it did.
flewggle All the other economic, technological and social preconditions did not exist. Ancient societies couldn't just reorganize for mass commodity manufacture production.
I don't think that can be take as a "given", flewggle, and not just for the valid reasons given by others. Pipe organs were manually pumped for a thousand years or more, being cranked by hand or foot like lathes, and that didn't hold back their development appreciably. Hero's invention was so inefficient and feeble it would not have matched the power output (or modest appetite for fuel) of a young child. And it's easier (and some would say, more fun) to create small children than steam engines, even feeble ones. ;-)
i always wondered who invented the first presision machines, because how in earth can someone make precision machines when they didn't had precision tools? I gues that clock makers were the first people who invented precision tools and machines, because designing and making an apparatus that runs almost perfectly on time must have bin almost a world wonder when the first mechanical clocks were made, and i'm even stunned by clock makers today when you look at al those fine tiny pieces that go in to it. Those people are the einsteins of mechanics imo.
@@3DPeter These watch makers and clock makers we're really stealth geniuses. Even Socrates stated he had students "Not of his time". The Incas had calendars able to read two thousand years in advance. European didn't have a monopoly on genius. I can imagine back then when religion was the end all and be all of formal teachings certain thoughts and ideas were frowned upon. "The earth isn't the center of the universe" thinking got a lot of people in the dungeon or killed. Be it proof through mathematics, mechanical or other means. My point is a LOT of inventions have been destroyed out of fear and ignorance. Now the only difference is corporations have taken the place of the religious sects of yesterday and are going around stomping out competition through lawsuits or threats. As the saying goes Times may change but things always stay the same.
The printing press. Yeah, okay, maybe not right away...or quickly at all. But being able to widely distribute knowledge is incredibly important to all of the people who came later who could easily access books on mathematics, physics, and so on.
Yes but if you can't turn metal that's not going to help. The point is to mass produce so many industry parts that needed to be precise and round. The lathe is the big winner
Wow, the way you explained it is fascinating. I look forward to watching the other videos on your channel. Congratulations on the QUALITY of your work.
You remind me of a famous TH-camr named “Mustard” both of you guys have very interesting random topics that people don’t really think about very much. And I thank you for that! Never stop learning and growing your intelligence!
You're worrying about income while ignoring the fact that prior to 1800 the vast majority of people never bought food, you grew it. You didn't NEED income to survive prior to industrialisation as you could make / do everything you needed. There's a reason the income graph is such a sharp incline. The ability to outsource work led to a catastrophic expansion of requiring to outsource work to compete to make money to buy stuff you couldn't make because you bloody outsourced the work and forgot how to do it or lacked the basic equipment / know how.
@@cappyjack3070Yes, but the point still stands that income is a bad measurement of well being of a poulation. The industrialization caused mass poverty, hunger, premature death etc.. All the wealth stayed in the factory owners hand.
Maybe you didn't get the point? He wasn't pointing it out in a bad way... he wasn't saying that living that lifestyle was bad in any way. He was saying it opened a door for society that made everyone so comfortable despite the problems that they couldn't go back. It revolutionized industry. And that's an incredible accomplishment.
We are in an interesting time. We live in a world where industry we implement to make tasks quicker and easier is at odds with our own natural processes. We are replacing our capacity to adapt and survive with automation and ease quicker than we can even adapt to our own intervention. People will argue in the comments that industry is flat out good because jobs and money and think you're missing the point when you say "hey we don't actually need any of this. Per capita wealth went up, but we are losing a lot of skills to survive in the world when industrial systems that are keeping us alive fail. And those systems are failing now. When those systems really fail, all that per capita wealth won't mean a single thing if you don't know how to grow your own food, make your own clothes, build our own homes etc." People don't want to admit that they need to actually start learning skills to survive without industry because they think it's too big to fail and that more money = good. Now it's awesome that the lathe revolutionized the ability to create the things we need. Technology is not bad, nor is the ability to use tools. But when our tools start to use us we must take a step back and draw a line in the sand. We must have the discernment and discipline to know where to stop and what to invest our time and resources in. We can progress without relying on industrialization but it will take a conscious effort from people to go towards that and re educated themselves on how to survive without these things and teach each other and grow large interdependent and intersectional communities.
in my opinion, the lathe is so much more significant and beautiful than the mona due to it's usefulness and significance to the technological development of our own history.
@@thestonedraider8684 there's arguably nothing more significant toward our development technologically than the lathe, if the video is anything to go off of. Ultimately while the mona lisa did nothing to produce anything in the material sense, it did introduce a new manner of thinking that was profound and inspiring, due to it's rare and unique 3d perspective that was otherwise completely unthought of in a time period where our culture was limited to 2d paintings and drawings, with little to no perspective. It's only valued today because there are enough people alive to care about it as a spectacle of achievement within european culture. However if they were to die off, or people stopped giving a damn, it'd eventually become worthless, like many other ancient paintings have, ultimately becoming lost to time, only to either be destroyed, or rediscovered once more later on.
The US public education style of learning needs to end. What the hell is the point of months of "studying" the industrial revolution if I learned more in this video and videos like this in merely minutes.
This is why homeschooling and online schooling is becoming more common nowadays. EDIT: It's NOT? @First Last, are you high? There's a huge influx of students taking courses online. Pretty sure EDX, Corsera, Lynda, etc didn't exist a few decades ago.
@@UnrealZii It's not. And a good thing too, since many homeschooling curricula have many omissions of correct information while including falsehoods to promote specific ideaologies (i.e young-earth creationism, islamic supremacy, etc.)
@@felttip4431 The false premise is that the US public education system doesn't have many omissions of correct information while including falsehood to promote specific ideologies.
@@felttip4431 Then explain why the desire to instill a religious mindset into home-schooled students is often a fourth stated reason for why people choose homeschooling. Furthermore, the percentage of people who do say this is a first and foremost important reason is only %17. homeschoolbase.com/homeschooling-statistics/ (Uses; U.S. Department of Education). Now explain why home-schooled individuals typically score 15 to 30 percentile points ABOVE public-schooled students on SAA(Tests). "(The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) A 2015 study found Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Black public school students (Ray, 2015)." (NHERI.org). www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/ Finally, now prove your claims. I don't see a single source there boiyo.
Never heard of the Malthusian trap, but it’s what I’ve been thinking my entire life. Not surprised to know I wasn’t the first to think of it, but surprised it was 300+ years ago. Thank your for sharing.
Great video with very interesting history. This is even more relevant to me in that I just acquired my own lathe this past year, long with a few other machines. I chose machines made and used during world war 2 due to their inherent quality, precision, and historical significance. Thank you for this story!
thanks for the entertaining insite! when friends ask me what the major phase-changes in technogy were, i usually responded with three; 1) the knot/weaving 2) printing press 3) the selenoid, or electromagnet you've convinced me to stick the metal lathe in there i guess at 2.5
@@davidm.4670 if you include medical technologies, anaesthetics and antibiotics would be up there, sanitation tech, too. If you include food tech, i'd want to include grain horticulture, brewing/yeast, plant hybrids. There's a lot (and interesting) finds once you start noticing these turning points. They often also lead to opening new eras in human economics, much like the internet/smartphones have, that is greater than one would first think. My guess is our upcoming one is going to come from protein folding AI allowing true understanding of our bodies..
I felt that. Its because we aren't pressured to learn this for a grade, rather we learn this because we want to which also makes learning and retaining the info from this easier and more valuable
@@solar_sailor9995 I think the reasons go far deeper than that. In publicly-funded educational institutions, one tends to be taught solely via rote memorization. While this works well for early learning where you're just simply trying to learn the alphabet and that 2+2=4 (something that grown adults still seem to have trouble with 🙄) this same approach tends to lead to complete disinterest once you reach the higher grade levels and are now onto more complex topics like "Why was America founded the way that it was?" or "What makes this machine more important than other machines?" etc. etc... These are more complex subjects where the focus needs to be on learning HOW to think and not so much on WHAT to think. Once you reach this point, simple rote memorization of dates, places and events doesn't even BEGIN to explain what makes all of these concepts important and ultimately leads to a feeling of intense boredom because the very POINT of history and other subjects like it becomes lost. In special regards to history in and of itself, the very point of the subject lies within its name...hiSTORY, in other words, it's literally the STORIES of the past which are meant to inform us, teach us and make us think about what these events have to teach us about our lives today. To use the Gettysburg Address as an example, if all you do is learn when the speech was given and who delivered it...well, all that does is help you pass a test and says nothing about what that speech actually MEANS and the impact it had on the eventually ending of slavery in the U.S. and the eventual end of the Civil War. However...if you can read it, hearing the voice of President Abraham Lincoln in your mind as you do so, whilst looking at a picture that was painted depicting Gettysburg, PA right after the battle...well, then that's something else entirely. By doing so, you're now able to put YOURSELF there on that day and feel as inspired as every American who was present on the day President Lincoln gave that speech. Now, that moment in history takes on a whole new life and one becomes just amazed at how much truly does survive the test of time. This is the difference between being educated in a typical classroom versus being educated in your spare time on sites like TH-cam. A good educational TH-camr will not just simply give you dates, names and places to memorize...hell, sometimes they don't even give you that information at all, considering those facts superfluous to the real point of what that TH-camr is trying to get across. Instead, one is presented with an engaging story where one is also shown bits and pieces from that story so that the events you are being told about are able to themselves come alive and actually touch you in a way that simple rote facts cannot. This is REAL education, the way that it should be, where the viewer is not only empowered to think but also EXPECTED and ENCOURAGED to, so that the subject is able to become as exciting as it truly IS. I was never all that certain back when I was growing up as to what sort of subject would ever excite me, although I will admit that my High School history courses were made much more exciting than any other course of instruction thanks to several out-of-the-box thinking teachers who made it their mission to make their subjects as fun and engaging as possible, even within the strictures of teaching to the test imposed by "No Child Left Behind" which was starting to take shape within my Junior and Senior years. That said...I will say that the documentaries I saw in my young adulthood coupled with the educational content that I've found now on TH-cam has made me a history FAN... And I personally hope that it does the same for many others. ☺😁👍
I am stood in front of this wonderful artefact as I type this very comment! THANK YOU @machinethinking for the introduction: I purchased my first lathe just earlier this year and as I begin my journey into machining have taken a special pilgrimage to La Musee just to see Vaucanson’s piece: it’s incredibly exciting to see in real life!
and he and the rest of the steam-engine pioneers like Watt and others came up with some brilliant mechanisms for problems like e.g. converting rotary motion to an exact straight line, so pistons didn't generate undue friction; The Watts linkage is of course still used on car suspensions today.
genuinely incredible presentation and overall outlook, your ability to communicate pathos through what can easily be a complicated and boring subject is just spectacular
*If you need a lathe and a milling machine made out of metal to make a lathe and milling machine out of metal how did they do that for the first time* ? Go back through modern history and we always have tools made by tools. How did they bridge the gap and make tools that had to be made by tools? You can black smith gears and cams to an accuracy needed to make tools.
they might have used gravity and 90° angles to reach some sufficient first form of precision. for example if you remove the thread of a screw by a certain percentage it will still work as long as enough of it remains intact. for threaded screws you can actually remove quite alot of the thread and it will still work. You can also slowly move your way up in precision.
Dave B makes a good point. There is also an "accuracy improvement" tendency inherent to a lot of simple mechanisms. A grader is a case in point. By hanging the blade midway along a long wheelbase, the roadway is improved (in vertical deviations from a flat plane) with every pass. Compare this with a short wheelbase tractor with a blade mounted in front of or behind it, which will make dips deeper and peaks higher. Similarly, a geometrically perfect bearing can be simulated by three support pads at ~120 degrees (as in a lathe steady). If a rod which is approximately round is turned between dead centres it can be made almost perfectly round. If the result is supported in such a steady, features turned and bored on it will have almost perfect circularity, despite no such perfection in the circularity of parts of the lathe itself. Similarly with the "three surface plate" method of achieving flatness, which can then be used to make the lathe ways and mating carriage surfaces almost perfectly flat using nothing but hand tools. Right angles are also simply achieved by similar means.
Thanks patrick. I thing there is a parallel with evolution by natural selection: it is eminently possible for some offspring to be more "suited to purpose" than the parents, and more complex, contrary to what creationists would have us believe, with their claims that "information theory does not permit this". They seem not to realise that most scientific theories, and even laws, are descriptive rather than prescriptive, and when they conflict with observed reality, it is the theory which must be revisited, rather than reality. (Which perhaps does not even need to be invoked in this particular connection: I think they are simply misunderstanding, or misapplying, info theory)
The importance of precision is understated. Precision means interchangeability. Before precision each had to be made to fit each individual item. In the American Civil War rifles had parts that would only fit that rifle. The need for precision to make interchangeable parts was born and so modern industrial methods, quality control to ensure interchangeability. And that created consumerism.
My old machinist friends said that the horizontal milling machine was the one tool that could reproduce itself. It too is an amazing and versatile though unsung tool.
5:19 This is called a force multiplier. And it's exactly 1 of 2 guiding principles on which IT and the silicon revolution operate. The other guiding principle? "When you do things right, no one is sure you've done anything at all"
I have a truck driver friend who, in a desperate attempt to elevate the respect his chosen profession receives, is always saying, "Without truck drivers, you'd be naked, cold & hungry". And I always like to point out to him, without a machinist running a lathe, he'd be a stagecoach driver. He hates it because he knows it's true...
Your concept may have applied during the early days of the industrial revolution but in today's modern era your lathe would become nothing more and nothing less than a heap of rust if trucks didn't deliver your steel 😉
From the thumbnail image, I thought this was going to be about a metal bolt or screw. The screw is a simple machine we use to make a lot of things, after all. But… I suppose the lathe (the industrial, metal, lathe, made by the guy with the name I have trouble with) is fitting for that role in history. Cool video; I learned stuff.
The fundamental engineering tools go back to antiquity he was drawing a correlation between a new invention & rise in universal income naturally distributed fairly & justly or not... archimedes used screws to draw water & leonardo took the 5 fundamental engineering tools/elements to stratapheric heights all things considered... also keep in mid that a screw although included in the 5 fundamental engineering elements/tools is actually a WEDGE wrapped around a cylinder... so less than entirely fundamental... besides I do not think that particular threaded rod is from 1751... it looks like something installed to reproduce the original
Those crankshafts there were pretty cute. :D The company I work for produces these things for ship engines. They have a length of about 17.5m and weigh close to 50t. It's always amazing to see those things, especially when they're finished. The engines they're built into have a power of about 11878bhp.
Boss: You're late. Why Me: My car is a Vaucanson duck. Boss: What do you mean? Me: It just took a sh*t. Boss: But it's mechanical. Me: That never stopped Vaucansons duck niether.
@@SodiumInteresting A Vaucanson duck is the milestone of technology where as engineering meets automation. Even though it didn't really serve a purpose, it was the brainchild that revolutionized manufacturing. It was created much in the sense of how we look at AI 20 years ago. Its a mechaical duck, but because its mechanically engineered to simulate a real duck, it shits...seriously. Everything that we operate in machinery or mechanical devices, is litteraly built on the principles of a mechanical duck that shits just like a duck. If it was to be used as a device, an automated greaser would probably be closest. As where the grease is applied like a duck shits. Every 30 seconds or so. But because of its shape, size and demensions, its pretty much obsolete for use.(not to mention that we live in a politically correct world now and the prude type might take offense to it.) Which is why I would used it. Impracticality and all. Another totally impractical machanical device that only serves one purpose, to fiddle with. Its called a "bullshit grinder" by lack of its technical name. It does have one. I just don't remember what it was. But imagine a block of wood. 3"X3" X .75" with. .5" deep and wide dovetails routed. On one side, top to bottom, side to side. 1.5" wedges fitted into those dovetails move freely. A crank 8" long is connected in the middle of the crank to the center of either one of the wedges. Either end of the crank is connected to the center of the other wedge and a knob is attached to other end of crank. All points of connection pivot. That's it. A crank on a block of wood that pushes a wedge up and down while the other wedge goes up and down. And its only purpose is to demonstrate mechanics in motion.
Wow! What an excellent channel for technology buffs. MT's explanations are clear, detailed and relevant. I just binge-watched all the videos on his website and I want more. The narrowboat ride across the aqueduct was amazing and scary even though I'm on the other side of the pond. Keep the new material coming!
Thank you for the informative, no nonsense documentary. It seems 99% of TH-cam posters feel a need to add distracting split screen videography (blurring the outer panels whilst leaving the center panel in focus) combined with irritating, and annoying, crappy-ass "music". So this was a breath of fresh air. Well spoken, highly informative, and truly interesting work.
This is the perfect video for my grandma because when I told her that I want to buy a lathe she said something like "oh please, such a stupid thing, and you won't even use it".
If you've not played with machine tools, then you're in for a treat. I found it a life-changing experience. Before I started machining as a hobby, I'd go to a hardware store to look for "a thing". Afterwards, I'd browse and see things I could make things *from*. I hope you enjoy it.
make something your grandma can use with the lathe that way she cant doubt you again. shes senile if she thinks such a machine is useless. they built the world were in.
I've got my lathe as a hs grad present from my parents and at the time they thought I was crazy to have a need for 1954 9" southbend. But today for eg I've made a new shaft for the dishwasher pump that cost me $15 instead of 180 for a whole new motor and waiting a couple weeks 😁 It sure has a limited amount of uses but when you need it there is no other tool capable of the job
The reason that the internal combustion engine became the power plant for cars and aircraft was that it could be made from a lathe. The key invention of the Wright Brothers which made powered flight possible was an aluminum block internal combustion engine. The holes for the combustion chambers were bored out using a lathe. The cylinder heads were cut precisely to fit with a lathe. The invention of aluminum smelting using electricity in the 1880s made aluminum very cheap. These were the key factors that allowed for the building of a light enough engine that could power a heavier than air aircraft. None of these key features were patentable, btw, as all the technology of internal combustion engines had been developed years earlier. The Wright brothers were just the first to use the now cheap and affordable aluminum blocks to build a lightweight aluminum block internal combustion engine that could power an airplane. Their only patenable idea was their use of wing warping as control surfaces for the airplane, which they used to such devastating effect to protect their invention that aircraft development in the U.S. lagged far behind the European countries, thus causing the US to have no effective aircraft for WWI.
Curtis developed the use of ailerons instead of wing warping, which the Wrights tried to contest as a patent infringement, but IIRC, Curtis showed that it was a different way to control roll and it allowed modern airplanes to proceed since wing warping was not possible with the more rigid built, metal wings that came later.
"He invented a programmable loom, but all the credit went to someone who later made modern improvements." *proceeds to credit none of the inventors of earlier lathes, even the all-metal ones used for clocks, because Vaucanson made modern improvements* Also, Andrey Nartov deserves a mention for inventing that slide rest which you claim makes it the first modern lathe
But this one was at the right time for them to be used and adopted into production. It’s the takeoff point for the biggest revolution. Oh and the main reason is likely that this lathe is still around. Any of Andrey Nartov’s lathes are lost to time?
The industrial revolution for USA started here in my home state of Rhode Island . The original mill and machine shop are still here. Slater mill . This is also home to Brown & Sharpe , they made precision measuring instruments. The mills were hard work but, they drew young people to get away from farm life . Which was hard work and not always profitable.
Every since I was a young boy, I always thought the most valuable thing ever made by man was the fastener. Ex: Nails, Screws, Nuts, Bolts. They hold our houses together, they hold our machines together. Even the lathes in this video are held together by fasteners. The only other thing more valuable that man has ever made in history??? Fire. *Drops phone, walks to bed. Great video BTW.
I would argue that these were not as game changing as a machine such as the lathe. They were dicovered very early in the history of mankind (e.g nails were used in ancient egypt). And there are other ways to hold together houses like ropes, wattle and daub, stone (with or without mortar), mortise and tenon, etc... Also (according to wikipedia), metal screws only became a common fastener when machine tools allowed their mass production.
@@JarthenGreenmeadow I see I have entered the tool zone. bookmarkthis his voice and music is perfect. So is his models,, ya know why? He made the model, and the vid. When someone makes something they get to do what they want, and over half a million people approve, so if you don't like it plug your eyes and ears.
I will use these videos with my classes, just not in school. Kids watch video at home and answer focus questions from video's content. Class time is project and activity time.
@@JarthenGreenmeadow It is understandable for foreiners like me. If spoken by a woman I would not understand a world. So when auto captions works, it is OK.
Machines that make machines . The FabLab concept ,I built my own cncs engravers ,mills and 3d printer. Vaucanson would love to live now ,with the electronic and the internet. Our time ,is more than ever time for inventions. Never was easier. Let's see what comes out.
Thanks for the video. The one thing more fascinating to me is/are the men and women that invented these machines. What brilliance. I wonder if they ever imagined what impact they would have on the future.
what's really mind blowing too, is that for 7000 years, or tens of thousands of years, there were 'nothing new', just the same life generation by generation, the same standard of living, but suddenly the last 100-150 years things completely changed. These few years, just a incredible small fracture of the time there have been humans on earth. what will it be in 200 years
That's a highly interesting question and I've already done much research on that for a future video. Essentially, it was an iterative process. There is no way to make a very good leadscrew from scratch, but there are ways to iteratively get closer and closer. Stay tuned!
@@machinethinking Oh I would love the answer to this question. I thought about it lots! I've always assumed that once you made a crude first one you could make a slightly better second one using the first one, but I don't think that's actually true. Anyways, thank you for the great videos, you've got me hooked!
It takes some steps to get their. My first step would be to use the lathe to turn the major diameter. Then make a file to the thread form, and make a pitch gage as close as possible. Use this to hand file a helix along the shaft. It will be sloppy to start. The almost helix can be followed by a slip fit bushing with a finger attached to an end. If you can follow the helix it would be possible to cut a crude internal thread. I would think that the machine in the box was the best of those that finally worked. Men in those days developed hand skills instead of writing g & m code programs. It seems as though I had read of a process with a rotating nut that was used to help develop an accurate consistent screw. Yes it would have been quite a challenge to produce the first screw and nut.
google 'Henry Maudslay' (screw-cutting lathe 1800). Be aware that the lathe shown in the pictures is a more recent replica, made using modern materials and parts. His original machine would not have had the machine-screws shown.
Very interesting discussion on the lathe, however when you measure progress by income in USD, you are skewing the inflection point because you are ignoring the effect of fractional reserve banking on income.
I think it is more complex than this. Mechanical prowess and learning were already spooling up in the Middle Ages. The first mechanical clock, the first musical synthesizer (pipe organs), full body armour, the first guns, cathedrals made possible by a new type of arch, printing presses - making the spread of knowledge possible. Things were gradually falling in place post the collapse of the Roman empire under the stability of the church in Europe which sponsored scientists and maintained learning in isolated centres in the dark ages. It then accelerated post reformation; people were finally allowed to read the bible and people got used to the idea of testing tradition; with first church tradition being tested against the bible and then observations tested against nature - Newton in particular - pushing empiricism married to mathematics, as he felt creation must be rational - because the biblical God was rational. So basically, the birth of the scientific method was key. I think the scaled-up watch makers lathe was certainly part of it, but not the whole picture.
The church might have provided stability and sponsored scientists, but it was also keen on silencing them under threat of torture or execution when one of their discoveries was directly in contradiction with scripture or was incongruous with the church authorities' interpretations of it.
Well there is a fascinating dualism. Newton rejected the Roman & Anglican churches, but at the same time was inspired by the bible to study nature. He was a fervent Christian, but mistrusted human authority. The sudden availability of the bible exposed natural philosophers to a novel idea; consider God a rational being who had created a rational universe that you could therefore be described mathematically. This contrasted with a Greek/Roman religious view of a chaotic nature, not worth studying.
Look at the frame of Vaucanson's duck machine, it's very similar to the lathe. It makes a lot of sense that Vaucanson started with the automata and then shifted to industrial applications. When a cabinetmaker or boat builder learns how to make a few jigs, it's not long before they start making jigs that can't be found in any books. I've got several. They're not important in anyway, but they're useful to me. It's just that once you mechanically figure out how to do one thing, you can apply not the techniques but the mode of thinking to many other areas. 9:00 getting close to another way of looking at this. I consider myself to be in the top .000001 percent of the wealthiest people who've ever lived. I live in a ratty rental house, and am not a millionaire, but I'm wealthier than Napoleon. What kind of computer did he have? I read 100 books a year, have traveled where Marco Polo traveled. There's a famous traveling monk in Japan, I've been more places than he ever traveled to in Japan, in his whole life. I was there for two months. I traveled some of his routes, then I got on a train and was quickly someplace else. My car (Prius) turns itself on and off to save gas. The cars I had through the 1990s it was often difficult getting them to start the first time in the morning, and after a few years keeping them running took a lot of work. Because of how businesses are organized a few people at the top keep almost all the profit, this is not at all fair; in the U.S. middle class income is stagnating, there are still millions of poor people. However a critical aspect of wealth in the vastly improved intrinsic usefulness of our thing. No one had a TV in 1990 as good as the ones to be had for $150. (So the key step to being wealthy is 1. don't have any debt 2. learn as much as you can about as many things as you can. ) A good book you'd be interested in is David Deutsch The Beginning of Infinity. His basic point, based on Georg Cantor's mathematics of infinities, is that not only will we continue inventing new things, we will continue accelerating the pace at which we invent new things; and we will never run out of things to invent. Because of how the mathematics of infinities work, we will always be at the beginning. Stone axe: 150,000 years, Bronze Age 1500? Iron Age? 500? Steel? 100 ? Moore's law..... We hit limits, like airline travel and the speed of sound. We can go faster, but so far it's not been economically viable. We will blow right through that limit someday, it might be with tunnels. Virtual Reality might get so good, it will be better than traveling. If you look at interchangeable parts. Pretty obvious idea, right? But someone had to take a look at a shed full of guys filing away all the parts of a musket to make them all fit together in each musket.... and instead of thinking, "Pierre is slacking off again..." the guy thinks, 'Henri is good at filing the metal parts, Bertrand is better at shaping the wooden stocks....' and where did the two key ideas come from? The important first step was to think, What's the better way to do this? and only then: If we made the parts all the same size.... (I would guess that both ideas probably started with threaded bolts/screws and nuts.Making wood screws: a lot of variation is tolerable, but making a thread to fit a nut, that's a lot harder. figuring out how to do this more than once demands standardization and then the critical idea is right there: If I make tools and machines to do this, the parts will fit .... not only will they work better, but I can then make a lot more of them more quickly. Which leads to looking for other areas where this general idea of standardization is not only better, but faster, and more useful. After how many years of doing this does it take to arrive at the idea that everything can be endlessly improved? Had Hero's steam engine found some use, some Roman James Watt might have made a better one. I think that in many many human organizations coming up with the better way of doing something meets resistance, leading to trouble. One critical step I think it's been said is the American axe. The Europeans used the same unbalanced wood axe for 1000 years. They arrive in North America where trees are unlimited, they are going to have to chop a lot more wood. Also these people are all misfits, they didn't fit in in Britain, so their bigoted conformity was limited to religion and racism, they quickly came up with a better axe, and then a better one. I think the American 'Idea' is every tool can be improved, and there never will be a perfect anything. (Think of all the 'perfect ideas' Marx, Freud, fascism... they all came out of central Europe, even Martin Luther. Any American who thinks this way is ultimately scorned. The current fetish of algorithms by Silicon Valley billionaires is an example. Steve Jobs will be remembered, Facebook will fade into a punchline. )
With just over 108 Billion people who ever lived, you beeing one of the 0.000001% richest would mean you are one of the 1080 richest people ever. To put that into perspective, there were according to the World Ultra Wealth Report 2013 published by UBS 2,160 people with a net worth exeeding $ 1 billion.
I would also argue that the proliferation of postmodern debt bondage means that while many *could* be experiencing a very modern sort of wealth, we are currently enslaved by outdated thinking. One of the problems with USA politics is that governments, universities and non-profit bodies are not seen as honest, trustworthy or productive.
I really enjoy your videos. Just getting started on them. Looking forward to watching the rest. I am a toolmaker/machinist myself. I love doing this type of work. I also love the history and knowing how things work. Thank you so much for your videos.
What a fantastic video. I was always upset that Vaucanson never got the same "household name" status for his amazing achievement. Recorded history is certainly a strange, often unfair and fickle thing.
1. Never knew this machine was called a lathe 2. Never knew this was such in important machine! 3. Thanks for the informative video, I learnt a lot about the history of lathes and its uses
I got have a graphing calculator that goes on infinitely. When we input the equation 0.01x1.03^x which represents your hypothetical situation. When x=5000 (5000 years from when the penny was deposited) you would have 1.53 x 10^62 dollars. That number is so large I can guarantee that no human can comprehend it and unless you have seen a googol written down (even though a googol is significantly larger) have never even seen a number so large. It’s incredible and your joke has an incredible number in it. P.s Why have I spent so much time obsessing over this?
Yeah but try taking off more than 0.001" in a single pass on anything other than modelling wax with such systems. Those are really just fun toys, not production machines. The lathe shown in the video was the real deal for cutting copper.
@@tetrabromobisphenol You can totally build at home a machine that does that, it will only have to be more expensive. Use better motors and have better drivers, but you can still DIY.
Very poignant and insightful thinking I'm amazed that I've been given the opportunity to be alive in this generation it sounds as if you haven't taken all of this around us for granted you're in depth and thoughtful reflection of time has touched something deep within me thank you so very much
What makes a good narrative? That the narrator binds together a plethora of diverse experiences and impressions into one appearantly coherent and at the same time unexpected string of pausibilites. Here is one example! You have demonstrated so much talent and commitment here that I subscribe to the chanel after watching just this video.
Amazing! Stunning! Such a clear and entertaining way of explaining an essential (but potentially boring) project. On my channel, I use the wood lathe a lot, but I'm frustrated with the way people only see it as a way to make decorative items. I use it for some more precise tasks and I'm about to start building my own. This video is a great inspiration. I expect your subscriber count will shoot up very soon. Keep up the good work!
Rex Krueger
B
Yes great video. I’m also enjoying ur lathe build as well Rex
Thanks so much!
I don't think that's true. Just having a fuel source doesn't lead to the technology to use it. The Romans were aware of oil, but couldn't figure out what to do with it. You're confusing necessary and sufficient conditions. Fuel is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one.
I've turned plenty of small steel parts on my small wood lathe. I use the sharpened end of an old file as a cutting tool, files to shape, and a hacksaw as a cut off tool
I guess you could say the invention of the lathe was a real turning point
that's enough of that, young man.
Adam 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ba dum tsh.
Ah snap!
...we should bar anymore lathe puns!
There's a set of small books by this guy named "Gingery" that show you how to build you own machine shop from the ground up. The first starts of with making a charcoal foundry to melt metal and do sand casting. Next are books about things to make with it, one of which is the lathe.
It's fun reading even if you don't do any of it.
Lindsay Technical Books was a catalog that had those and other books for any type of project imaginable including books on Tesla, chemical compounds, alcohol for people or cars, etc. I miss that catalog. It looks like Your Old Time Bookstore has some of their publications but that catalog was a treasure.
Just in case someone stumbles upon your post and wants to know more about Gingery and these books
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_J._Gingery
Reminds me of the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments that taughts kids how to make their own little science lab and even included a section on how to make their own glass products.
Sand casting. Where do the techniques originally came from ? Because இரும்பூ -> Iron...
Gingery* not gingerly, I had a hard time finding metalwork instead of redheads 😅
Now, think about that when he mentioned the small parts made for clocks and watches. When you check the dates in which clockmakers were already designing those miniscule parts with such precision, you have to admire the amazing mechanical engineering skills that people had back then to make such a small and complicated thing as a watch. All those tiny gears, screws, dials, pins, *BY HAND*
When I worked @ Dapa that's Exactly what I did !!!
You'd need $10 million of land to live as a hunter gatherer.
@@markingraham4892Uh... No. That's not a true statement.
I am a farmer, and I really enjoyed this video while sitting in my tractor as it drives itself planting 18.5 acres an hour.
hehe
Isn't that where Farnsworth thunk up television?
Sounds like we need a new word for ‘farmer’???
@@Zerpersande They do what farmers do, lol, no need.
@@Zerpersande More automation means more time to do other things relevant to the job; farmers are plenty worth the title, though there is plenty of sitting
I've worked as a machinist more than fifty years, and never ran across this lathe, I had focused on the British taking and expanding exponentially, this is truly the machine that set off the industrial revolution, the lathe earned it's nickname, "mother of all machine tools" because the precision screws are the key to much of the advancement, even to this day. I believe I could work that lathe, it's about fifty years older than my first. Thanks for the very clear, well informed demonstration of this "machine thinking", I'm retired now, but can hardly go a day without turning something, and if I can, it's either Sunday, or a day on the mill. Thanks so much, I've seen lots of old lathes in museums, and working but this is my first look at this, and was what allowed Naismith to do his work, and gave impetus to Joseph Whitworth, who established surface plates, fine measuring, and provided for the "exchangeable parts concept" to become a reality. It is a beauty!!
Il faut venir au conservatoire des arts et métiers de Paris il y a aussi le 1er tour pour fabriquer des vis !
I don't remember who said it, but its one of my favorite sayings: "the lathe is the only machine that can make itself"
It's the lady of machinery.
Von Neumann? Nah...
Lathe makes round parts. Milling machine is more versatile. Millturn is awesome
Adam Savage in his video talking about his Lathe
3d printer
As a machinist toolmaker I can say that the modern lathe is extremely important. Think about this, all modern societies must have a machine shop.
You are absolutely correct. Without a modern lathe we would not have the complexity of parts needed for our equipment we use presently.
Our family's claim to fame is that my grandfather, Jacob, a poor Croatian American immigrant learned the trade and machined the carburetor for the Spirit of St. Louis. Machine tool history is important and you capture it well.
That's awesome! I hope he got to meet Charles Lindbergh as well, what a pioneer!
I am sorry you might not understand this but I have to say it
Where hasn't a croat been
Why am I saying it, thank you for asking.
Well you see a lot of croatains left the country in search of greener lawns and well as I see we croats went everywhere and built something also everywhere
He oui il y a énormément d'inventions qui viennent de la FRANCE 🇫🇷🇫🇷 et les plus importantes, les conserves, la mine de crayon, l'eau de javel, la photographie, la boîte de vitesses de voiture, le cinéma, la machine à coudre etc, etc.....! 🇫🇷. He oui les amis, bonjour de France.
I ran a lathe when I was 18-19 which was built in the 1920s. As a youngster I thought it was fascinating that something had lasted so long, and was still so precise.
Brandon Berry I had to take several semesters of machining for a vocational classes in high school in small town Kansas. There were several machines, some newer, but there were older World War Two machines that the school received as donations after the war ended. They were more accurate and intuitive than the newer ones.
I used to work in a machine shop that was full of WW2 era machines that still had the Lend/Lease tags riveted to them.
i own a german lathe of 20 30's it was the time that lathes where used for engine parts and gun parts.. with that, a high need of high precision was back than already needed.
than again my lathe weights about 800kg+ while same size new lathe would weight only 150-250kg so as long as it does not fall.. (iron is extreme hard but it can crack when falling ) than you have a decent machine.
also keep in mind consumer products can not be compared to industrial stuff. today industrial machines are made so it survive all. bearings are 10 sizes bigger than needed. platework is 5mm instead of 0.5mm shafts are 30mm instead of 8mm. i work in a factory and only the boxes folding machine the bearings for the arm that graps the boxes. max load is 1kg with the arm. shaft of 20mm, mounted on 2 plates of 8mm, 4 bearings both sides of the plates..even after running 100 years that machine still dont need a swap of parts.
and than we look at machines from 50 years and older.. you can add that times 5 of overpowering. casted iron, solid block of 20cm xD that is why my lathe is so heavy xD
i love old machines.. milling machine, lathe, cold saw, all casted iron machines.. you just know even under heavy load the frame would not even bend 1 micron. love it ;)
@@blackdaan
If it ain't broke by now it probably never will.
I feel the same way about old guns.
What I find interesting about the invention of the first woodworking lathe is that it wasn't thought of until centuries after the pottery wheel. You'd think in all that time someone would have thought about putting a pottery wheel on its side.
The most brilliant inventions are always just under our noses!
If it had been a snake,..... it would have bit you,... kind of thing.
@@Duplicitousthoughtformentity to be fair though, I bet the clay would keep falling off
What else should we be inventing that we haven't seen yet?
How can we accelerate this process ?
But then the clay would fall off.
My dad was a machinist model maker and I have his Atlas 8" lathe he used to tinker with at home. I am nothing but a metal butcher but it is fulfilling to make parts when needed. He learned when he was about 14 making parts for WWII effort in a neighborhood shop. Everyone contributed to the war effort at the time.
During my engineering first thing I was taught was that "lathe is mother of all machines "..
Lathes are where the DC concept of mother boxes come from
Lucky you. I had calculus at 8AM, followed by physics and then chemistry.
The worm hole of youtube subscriptions had led me to this and I love it.
Sometimes, the algorithm gets it right
fuck off nazi
Same. The presentation is so convincing though it can be argued that the machine's success is supported by other successful machines. One can be biased to the lathe if one appreciates its beauty.
Speaking of algorithm, digital technology is the mother of tech or progress of our time.
@@BibleStorm
Lol.... Complaining about "alt-right nazis" then proceeds to condone violence against them........ just like the nazis did to people who they didn't agree with.
Double standards much?
@@mr.techaky7655 When we speak of the allied forces who killed nazis in WWII do we call them nazis?
@rigegs Do you think hitler's propaganda machine was factual?
When you think how TH-cam is so often misused, it is gratifying that there are channels like this one to restore the balance. Thanks. Sincerely.
Indeed!!
Try lemmino and mustard, you'll love them
Absotutely! THIS is the type of content that consumes most of my online time sucking... sure beats just another moron takin a hit to the sack or other useless schlock. Thanks, very well done all around 👍👍
There’s a lot of channels like this. But, they are hard to find if your algorithm isn’t leaning towards these channels.
Now after watching youtube shorts.
my grampa was a tool & die maker he was born in 1886 and lived till 1986 I often thought of what he saw. We went from horse and buggy to cars planes and rockets & computer and beyond !!!
phdfxwg Fischercat It's amazing what some elderly have seen. It would be ineresting to have seen the world through their eyes.
I'm a master craftsman toolmaker and have watched the trade go from manuals to cam automatic to punch cards to NC tape readers and just lights to full touchscreen panels and 16 axis dual spindle Mori-Seiki NTs and Dunkle-Mahu's automated systems.
Still playing with them.
My dad saw horses in the street... in Detroit.
Love this
My grandmother born in 1937 died in 2017
I often wonder the same thing
Just wanting to sharea a story : I remember few years back, just starting undergraduate study in Manufacturing engineering. One of the subject was Machine Handling and it was the first time I laid my eyes on a lathe machine. University was not the best time Ive experience, I had difficulties finding stuff that brings joy to me. Except for that subject as I get to have a go on a Lathe machine and I was very excited to go that class. I always have an interest in crafts and workshop but I did not have the right knowledge and exposure of what it is. I never new this machine existed and I didnt know I can own one privately. During that class, I too watched some other tutorials on how use and maintain a lathe machine. One of my next big project is to have my iwn personal workshop, and a lathe machine is a must have.
I always wondered about this. I fantasize that I'm back in time and it's my job to remember how to manufacture essentials like steel, electric motors, lightbulbs, transistors, etc. I imagine the process and I always come back to the problem of precision. Then I realize in order to have what we have today you first need the tools that preceded them. Suddenly the problem becomes one of learning the history of manufacturing.
Funny you imagine being back in time and having the oportunity to bring inventions to an earlier time. I do the same. hahaha (but probably not as thoroughly as you do)
I have always wondered that too! such a simple thing as getting a ruler to be true, is not easy.
You might like the book "The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch" by Lewis Dartnell
We have the benefit of modernization to even romanticize about bygone days. The things we romanticize were mundane at the time they existed in mainstream.
The lathe is the only machine in a machine shop that can duplicate itself and all the other machines which have to start with the lathe. One of the best videos I've seen to date.
The lathe was used to create the metal planer which in turn created a much precise lathe, INCLUDING THE WAYS. The more precise creates metal creates an even more precise metal planer. Which in turn creates a much more precise metal lathe and so forth and so on. This also includes jigs, fixtures, tools, dies, extenders that handles much larger metal pieces but the size increase is gradual until you ended up larger and more precise machine tools. Between 1800 and 1900 the industrial revolution has achived, in the laboratory, precision measured in several millionths of an inch and a sufficient amount of that accuracy has been transfered from the laboratory to the machine tool industry between 1800 to 1900. In WW II the micro-inch was achived, and now in high-tech machining facilities accuracies of tolerances are now measured in nanometers for the mechanical parts of the "STEPPER" which is the key manufacturing equipment in making the silicon IC chips used in your and my computers. Study industrial history and you will know, but these books are old books and out-of-print books carefully stored and preserved in library archives and were prudently microfilmed many times by a multi-copier microfilm writer. That technology has been in existence in the early 1950s and your library, if it is properly funded and administered and managed, should have several such equipment and a microfilm scanner-reader for you to read direct from microfilm or transferred rapidly to your portable computer or whatever you have.
Yes Scott
It could be used to make the bearings and bore ganged metal rods for the straight-line drawing mechanisms described in A. B. Kempe's historic 1871 book 'How to draw a straight line'. The pdf can be found on Project Gutenberg, and is an amazing insight into how to construct a straight line from first principles. These mechanisms could then be used with a metal cutting toolbit to shape even straighter lathe bed ways.
Perhaps a 3D Printer can print itself.
When my lathe was waiting for a new motor, I used my mill as a lathe. Obviously a bit cumbersome, but it got the job done.
Watching this from my farm, where I’m shopping around for a new lathe.
I'll take your old one
There are shops on your farm?
@@whitedragon9731 the internet is great you can shop, study, socialize, from virtually anywhere
@@hirumi9 I don't think you understood his question
@@whitedragon9731
A lot of farmers have machine shops to upkeep their tools. It’s not that abnormal.
I remember when I was just getting into machining about 15 years ago, I needed to turn a part for a single one-off project. I felt guilty about buying a lathe for it. It felt like like an impulse buy. However, I find now that I use it about twice as much as I use my mill. I'd buy it again even if the only thing I ever did with it is trueing up poorly cut ends.
6/27/2019 USA Grandpa Bill: You, the speaker here, have a remarkable voice. Along with your natural ability of voice, you have perfect enunciation, intonation, pace, and right-now-with-us-sharing that brings to life these collections of photos in a most engaging way. Your writing, or script, is excellent. I'm 71 years old and have listened to thousands of voices. Yours is at the top of the list of those I prefer to hear. Thank you for being here.
Its only 6/25/2019 in Detroit. What the hell time warp place do you live in?
@@wind-solar 71 year old mistake.
@@wind-solar Jesus dude!! You don't know this guy...all he's saying is he likes your voice while watching the vid. Now pull your head out of your ass and your foot out of his and just accept a compliment from an older gentleman who took the goddam time to give you one.
My favorite thing is you still mark farming as a viable necesity to modern day life. Farming, fortunately, is timeless. We will always have farms and farmers.
We will always have farms, but perhaps not farmers. Overseers of AI that control mass farms, maybe.
Not really, we will eventually do away with farms, as wasteful of resources. Even today, we have begun to produce meat via stem cells, for sale, and we have factories in some American Cities that produce vegetables vertically and hydroponically. We are on the cusp of an agrarian revolution, every bit as big as the early neolithic revolution. Or the effect that the lathe pictured in this video, had on industrialization.
It doesn't stop there though, and plans are afoot for nano scale production of everything we might need or want. Food, clothing, medicines, vehicles, and much more. By the end of the century, at the very latest, we will be living in a world / Solar System / Galaxy, that is beyond anything Star Trek Second Generation dreamed of... but we won't be ordinary humans anymore, and we won't be the Borg. Yet the boundaries between human and machine will be blurred. Our Machine will become more Human and we will become more Machines, whatever that may mean in 82 years. If we were suddenly transported to that time from where we sit now, we would be as bewildered by the changes, as anyone from the 1740's brought into our world.
Cro-magnon Gramps Moving farm production from horizontal in dirt to vertical in buildings will probably have less impact than either the agricultural or green revolutions. It’s a evolution, not a revolution.
We may not always have them but will always need them. Look at South Africa right now. People often times bite the hand that feeds them. Sad really
10000 Subscribers without Videos Challenge there won’t be cows or any other animal farming in a decade or two.
Farmer here. Thanks for the adendums! Also, I have a lathe, lol.
Thanks for sticking around ;-)
Thanks for feeding the world
Is this one of those
"Best of Both Worlds"
scenarios?
on the farm, downtime equals lost money. You usually either had the machining tools or you were friends with someone that did. I was blessed to grow up in a farming family that included welders, machinists and blacksmiths.
Lathes are so 18th century. Pick up a cnc and a 3d printer and get with the times grandpa. Lol JK!
Seriously, thank you for all the food you share with the world.
The world would be a very scary place without people like you.
Everyone likes to thank a soldier for their service, but you are the real hero.
Thank you for your service to humanity!
I have often wondered where the origins of the metal lathe were from. Thank you for doing the work to produce this. I was captivated, as a young kid, by watching my grandfather make an eyeglass screw. He was mad because K-mart wanted a dollar for it! It's turned into a life long hobby. As I write this, I'm in the process of building an electric longline hauler. The one machine I could not be without is an old Lodge and Shipley metal lathe. It was produced to be driven by line shafting. The newest patent on the machine is 1928! After nearly 100 years, it can still produce .001" accuracy! These machines were birthed from this one. Just so amazing! Thanks again for posting. Bravo!!!!!
I was taught that the lathe was the first tool that could replicate it self in machine shop class when I was training to be a machinist
@Favel Konefka. Yes??? How does that apply to what they said?
Hammer to make hammer bubba
@@se6586 rock
Hammer is a tool, not a machine
@Favel Konefka. A lathe can make all the screws, gears and shafts for it's self. The rest of the lathe can be made with hand tools and casting.
Back when I started in the machine trades, there were old lay-shafts and pullys left above which were driven by steam. The steam plant was still existent though not functioning. Many of the existing machines had been converted to electricity in the teens and early 20's and the original motors still ran (though not efficiently). I remember going from tape driven machines (Bridgeport mills) to the 5 axis CNCs of today. Amazing.
This video, (The Machine that Made Everything) and also The Origins of Precision are two of the best works I have ever had their pleasure of viewing on YT. Thank You!
First tool I bought myself when I first moved into my house on my own was a smaller sized but absolutely priceless Atlas Metal lathe which I still use till this day. Your exactly correct about the one tool that's changed the world and brought about the industrial revolution, I would have to say a Metal Lathe and then invert the Lathe and now you have a drill press and a Milling Machine! Now we can make perfectly round and perfectly flat parts! Cool video Man! I agree with you 100% because up until this point, all they had were iron/steel forges and everything was a one off design and replication or duplication was nearly if not impossible. The only thing that was something they could reproduce via the metal forge needed hand made dies for pressing/hammering molten metal into shapes, things like nails for wood working and horseshoes. I know being a engineer and my hobbies revolve around all sorts of mechanical and electrical things, it's only practical to have the right tools for the job.
A hammer should have been your priority! You can fix ANYTHING with a hammer. And if you can't fix it, you can use the hammer to vent your frustrations on the offending device. Win - Win!
"Making round things square and square things round!"
I made a trip to Paris July 31 2019 just to go see this machine. It was mezmerizing. I stood there after finally finding it after an hour or so trekking through this what turned out to be one the most diverse and fascinating museum ever. I took a 100 pics of it. The interesting thing is the data plate on the case. No mention of being this wonderful invention that it is. The craftsmanship is mind blowing. How did he make the leadscrew so accurate and the cross slide. After 30 min or so the wife's like we have to move on. I said I have 10K wrapped up in this trip I'm getting my money's worth. So 5 sec later we moved on. If you can, definitely go see it. The rest of the museum is awesome. 3 floors of about 2500 yrs or more of machines, tools, everything up to space travel. Well worth the I think it 10 Euros. Keep in mind there was no A/C throughout most of it. So it was really hot on the 3rd and 2nd floor. The "tour" starts on the 3rd. So you have to take the elevator up and start there. There is a really nice cafe on 1 as you exit. We had lunch there and it was good. Sat outside because even at 90+ it was still cooler out there.
Thanks for the info, brother. Wish I could go, but sadly I'll take your word for it. Thanks
I think the original lathe was all made by hand. You can achieve incredible accuracy that way just don't count the hours involved. Using the basic lever principle you can magnify errors. If you have a machine slide driven by a lead screw it usually is able to be moved by a thou at a time on a standard lathe but if you change the dial calibration to a bigger size dial greater accuracy is achieved. Back in 1985 I used a lathe dated 1918 to do some screw cutting 8 tpi thread. I was amazed how well it worked. How many mistakes were made to get to the first lathe is unknown but it would be handy to know. Its called development.
John Smith : "blue~printing" is a term I heard from a machinist.....when tasked with achieving high tolerances of fabricated precision parts
John Smith :". change the dial calibration" ....innovation became very useful to the Router and the Radial-Router tools dialing to 1000ths....imo
The word "lathe" is from a lath, a strip of wood used as a spring, that pulled the leather strip back as seen in the illustration of a man hollowing a round block of wood into a bowl.
Without a lath, the woodworker had his apprentice pulling the strap back. A lath allowed the boy to do other work.
Al Grayson ~ Wow... I’m alone in my car, just pulled over at a gas station to read some of the comments; when I came across your comment I actually wowed out loud! What a great addition to this honoring of the lathe!!! I’m so grateful for youtube at moments like these!!
I didn't know that. Thanks, Al. There is a vague resonance with the invention of valve gear for steam engines. The steam engine evolved from rudimentary steam-powered pumps used for dewatering mines in (I think) Cornwall, which in turn evolved from manually driven sailing-ship pumps, used to evacuate the holds and bilges of seawater which continually leaked in through the seams between planks.
The Cornish pumps used pistons exposed to the water from below, and to steam above. The steam was cooled to condense it, creating a vacuum and lifting the piston and the water below it. The pump had valves operated by boys. One smart boy got bored, and after improvising a lashup mechanism with string and bits of wood to activate the valve at the correct moment in the cycle, skived off, for which he was duly punished.
(IIRC) Thos Newcomen got wind of this enhancement, and incorporated a self-acting arrangement on his "Atmospheric Engine", which was the precursor to the steam engine. And the rest is history.
@@Gottenhimfella i'm Cornish and haven't heard that one before, sounds probable though. Trevithick was inspired as a boy by the Watt engines used in Cornish mines as well, which led him to build the first high pressure engines.
As "lath" also refers to the small strips of wood you find supporting plaster. Later on came metal lath which served the same purpose.
for a channel i've never heard of, this is some high quality excellent content. It looks like you're getting recommended so i hope you get a hearty surge of subscribers from this deserved surge
I'm pleased you gave due credit to the steam engine, which (in my view) was the great driver of industrial advance. Of course the lathe was a pre-requisite for the manufacture of steam engines. But then the power to drive lathes was generally derived from steam. So I think the two operated in parallel.
Don’t forget the 3-phase (polyphase) AC induction motor, invented by Tesla.
@@glenholmgren1218 Why would that be remotely as significant as the invention of the electric motor itself? Which had a host of developers, probably starting with the Hungarian Anyos Jedlik in 1828, sixty years before Tesla had anything to do with it. The industrial uses of electric motors were fully realised long before AC motors came along.
@@cr10001
Industrial revolution did fine from 1870 to invention of AC induction motor.
Eiffel Tower went up.
Le 1er véhicule à vapeur qui a réellement fonctionné était le fardier de cugnot en 1769 (toujours un Français), visible au conservatoire des arts et métiers de Paris! 🇫🇷
@@micheldilly8531 basé
Just found this excellent bit of history...thank you for solving a (more than) 64 y/o mystery. For the majority of my adult life I've been, at varying times, a Ships Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Machinist or general fabricator. Raised and still living on a farm, still doing my own machine work and still loving both occupations, there was a phrase my father (born and raised in the Appalachian coal fields) used to employ whenever someone had a petty complaint, that never made any sense, whatsoever...until now. (For any history buffs, this will also give you a better idea of how isolated Appalachia was, even up to the mid 20th century) The phrase, if you'll pardon the crudeness, "...You'd complain if somebody shit on your plate..." now has context....along with the expression "...mind blown...'' that my father, of all people, would use such an antiquated and obscure reference...amazing...
I've always known there were some rather antiquated aspects to Appalachian culture, but this brings into focus just HOW antiquated some were. Thanks for the education and illumination!
This museum is a hidden treasure in Paris and really worth a visit. It also has the 'original' Foucault pendulum. I can't recommend it highly enough for a visit.
What’s the name of the museum?
Musée des Arts et Métiers
60 Rue Réaumur, 75003 Paris
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions."
-- Oliver Wendell Homes Sr.
Subbed at 0:24.
In that moment, were you euphoric?
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Welcome to the machine takeover.
Where have you been? Its alright. We know you been playing with Vaucansons duck again. Huh?
HOW CAN YOU HAVE ANY PUDDING IF YOU DONT EAT YER MEAT!!!!
timon raccoon wrong album
@Susan Farley yes, but still, wrong album.
Im glad there is a video about this. I've been a machine designer my entire life. The lathe was the first machine tool certainly helped the industrial revolution. Here is the kicker. In the 1 century A.D. a guy named Hero of Alexandria invented a very simple steam engine. Everyone thought it was a spinning toy. Had someone back then realized you could have slapped Hero's invention on a lathe the industrial revolution would have started 2000 years earlier than it did.
flewggle
All the other economic, technological and social preconditions did not exist. Ancient societies couldn't just reorganize for mass commodity manufacture production.
Many inventions and concepts were conceived much sooner than we were able to actually use them. Transistor being another well recognized example.
I don't think that can be take as a "given", flewggle, and not just for the valid reasons given by others.
Pipe organs were manually pumped for a thousand years or more, being cranked by hand or foot like lathes, and that didn't hold back their development appreciably. Hero's invention was so inefficient and feeble it would not have matched the power output (or modest appetite for fuel) of a young child.
And it's easier (and some would say, more fun) to create small children than steam engines, even feeble ones. ;-)
i always wondered who invented the first presision machines, because how in earth can someone make precision machines when they didn't had precision tools?
I gues that clock makers were the first people who invented precision tools and machines, because designing and making an apparatus
that runs almost perfectly on time must have bin almost a world wonder when the first mechanical clocks were made, and i'm even stunned
by clock makers today when you look at al those fine tiny pieces that go in to it. Those people are the einsteins of mechanics imo.
@@3DPeter
These watch makers and clock makers we're really stealth geniuses. Even Socrates stated he had students "Not of his time".
The Incas had calendars able to read two thousand years in advance. European didn't have a monopoly on genius.
I can imagine back then when religion was the end all and be all of formal teachings certain thoughts and ideas were frowned upon.
"The earth isn't the center of the universe" thinking got a lot of people in the dungeon or killed. Be it proof through mathematics, mechanical or other means.
My point is a LOT of inventions have been destroyed out of fear and ignorance.
Now the only difference is corporations have taken the place of the religious sects of yesterday and are going around stomping out competition through lawsuits or threats.
As the saying goes
Times may change but things always stay the same.
Your enthusiasm about this is contagious. Thank you for making this video & sharing.
The printing press. Yeah, okay, maybe not right away...or quickly at all. But being able to widely distribute knowledge is incredibly important to all of the people who came later who could easily access books on mathematics, physics, and so on.
Yes but if you can't turn metal that's not going to help.
The point is to mass produce so many industry parts that needed to be precise and round.
The lathe is the big winner
mjkkiiiiiiiiiiijjjjjjujjy
Watching this video in a combine
New Holland?
this is awesome
Somebody needs to talk ClickSpring into making a replica 1751 lathe after he finishes his brass solar calendar
'solar calendar'? You're not referring to the Antikythera mechanism I hope. That lathe would be a dawdle in comparison.
I watched this just after the latest clickspring video and was thinking the same thing too. A lathe like that would fit nicely into his shop.
The way he even made his own hand files to make the antikythera, just seems like this lathe would be right up his alley.
The guy over at Primitive Technology will be there in a couple years...
You deserve to win the internet today for that comment tehbonehead.
Wow, the way you explained it is fascinating. I look forward to watching the other videos on your channel. Congratulations on the QUALITY of your work.
You work with two of my favorite subjects, machinery and history. You have earned my like and subscription in this way. Keep up the good work.
You remind me of a famous TH-camr named “Mustard” both of you guys have very interesting random topics that people don’t really think about very much. And I thank you for that! Never stop learning and growing your intelligence!
*If this was 1835, I would have carved you one big thumbs up.* *_But its 2019, so I cast & machined you 12 dozen thumbs up! Enjoy!_*
Or just use a 3d printer and make 12 million thumbs up in the same time as a dozen from your old style machine.
*Additive Manufacturing!* _R i g h t o n O b i W a n ._
@@obi_wan_kenobi561 3d printers are much, much slower than traditional molds and CNC
@@barmiro Slower, less accurate, and weaker...
@@o11o01 Yep, they're more of a curiosity than anything actually useful at the moment.
You're worrying about income while ignoring the fact that prior to 1800 the vast majority of people never bought food, you grew it. You didn't NEED income to survive prior to industrialisation as you could make / do everything you needed. There's a reason the income graph is such a sharp incline. The ability to outsource work led to a catastrophic expansion of requiring to outsource work to compete to make money to buy stuff you couldn't make because you bloody outsourced the work and forgot how to do it or lacked the basic equipment / know how.
Unless the weather didn't cooperate or there was a blight.
People were exchanging farm surplus for other goods for as long as there was surplus.
They won't get it but their grandchildren will.
@@cappyjack3070Yes, but the point still stands that income is a bad measurement of well being of a poulation. The industrialization caused mass poverty, hunger, premature death etc.. All the wealth stayed in the factory owners hand.
Maybe you didn't get the point? He wasn't pointing it out in a bad way... he wasn't saying that living that lifestyle was bad in any way. He was saying it opened a door for society that made everyone so comfortable despite the problems that they couldn't go back. It revolutionized industry. And that's an incredible accomplishment.
We are in an interesting time. We live in a world where industry we implement to make tasks quicker and easier is at odds with our own natural processes. We are replacing our capacity to adapt and survive with automation and ease quicker than we can even adapt to our own intervention. People will argue in the comments that industry is flat out good because jobs and money and think you're missing the point when you say "hey we don't actually need any of this. Per capita wealth went up, but we are losing a lot of skills to survive in the world when industrial systems that are keeping us alive fail. And those systems are failing now. When those systems really fail, all that per capita wealth won't mean a single thing if you don't know how to grow your own food, make your own clothes, build our own homes etc." People don't want to admit that they need to actually start learning skills to survive without industry because they think it's too big to fail and that more money = good.
Now it's awesome that the lathe revolutionized the ability to create the things we need. Technology is not bad, nor is the ability to use tools. But when our tools start to use us we must take a step back and draw a line in the sand. We must have the discernment and discipline to know where to stop and what to invest our time and resources in. We can progress without relying on industrialization but it will take a conscious effort from people to go towards that and re educated themselves on how to survive without these things and teach each other and grow large interdependent and intersectional communities.
I like your description of Machine Thinking. I would summarize it as, “The crafter shapes the tool, and then the tool shapes the crafter.” 🤓👍
This machine is more beautiful than the Mona Lisa.
So, like most things then.
in my opinion, the lathe is so much more significant and beautiful than the mona due to it's usefulness and significance to the technological development of our own history.
So... like most things then...
@@thestonedraider8684 there's arguably nothing more significant toward our development technologically than the lathe, if the video is anything to go off of. Ultimately while the mona lisa did nothing to produce anything in the material sense, it did introduce a new manner of thinking that was profound and inspiring, due to it's rare and unique 3d perspective that was otherwise completely unthought of in a time period where our culture was limited to 2d paintings and drawings, with little to no perspective.
It's only valued today because there are enough people alive to care about it as a spectacle of achievement within european culture. However if they were to die off, or people stopped giving a damn, it'd eventually become worthless, like many other ancient paintings have, ultimately becoming lost to time, only to either be destroyed, or rediscovered once more later on.
lol you fucking moron I agreed with you.
The US public education style of learning needs to end. What the hell is the point of months of "studying" the industrial revolution if I learned more in this video and videos like this in merely minutes.
This is why homeschooling and online schooling is becoming more common nowadays.
EDIT: It's NOT? @First Last, are you high? There's a huge influx of students taking courses online. Pretty sure EDX, Corsera, Lynda, etc didn't exist a few decades ago.
@@UnrealZii It's not. And a good thing too, since many homeschooling curricula have many omissions of correct information while including falsehoods to promote specific ideaologies (i.e young-earth creationism, islamic supremacy, etc.)
Oh, and "public" schools don't omit and promote?
C'mon!
@@felttip4431 The false premise is that the US public education system doesn't have many omissions of correct information while including falsehood to promote specific ideologies.
@@felttip4431
Then explain why the desire to instill a religious mindset into home-schooled students is often a fourth stated reason for why people choose homeschooling. Furthermore, the percentage of people who do say this is a first and foremost important reason is only %17. homeschoolbase.com/homeschooling-statistics/ (Uses; U.S. Department of Education).
Now explain why home-schooled individuals typically score 15 to 30 percentile points ABOVE public-schooled students on SAA(Tests). "(The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) A 2015 study found Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Black public school students (Ray, 2015)." (NHERI.org). www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/
Finally, now prove your claims. I don't see a single source there boiyo.
Never heard of the Malthusian trap, but it’s what I’ve been thinking my entire life. Not surprised to know I wasn’t the first to think of it, but surprised it was 300+ years ago. Thank your for sharing.
Great video with very interesting history. This is even more relevant to me in that I just acquired my own lathe this past year, long with a few other machines. I chose machines made and used during world war 2 due to their inherent quality, precision, and historical significance. Thank you for this story!
thanks for the entertaining insite!
when friends ask me what the major phase-changes in technogy were, i usually responded with three;
1) the knot/weaving
2) printing press
3) the selenoid, or electromagnet
you've convinced me to stick the metal lathe in there i guess at 2.5
The horse collar was very important!
@@davidm.4670 if you include medical technologies, anaesthetics and antibiotics would be up there, sanitation tech, too. If you include food tech, i'd want to include grain horticulture, brewing/yeast, plant hybrids. There's a lot (and interesting) finds once you start noticing these turning points.
They often also lead to opening new eras in human economics, much like the internet/smartphones have, that is greater than one would first think. My guess is our upcoming one is going to come from protein folding AI allowing true understanding of our bodies..
Steam engine would like a word.
@@spencervance8484 You mean the traditional starter of the industrial age? Of course!
Im missing on 4. The transistor, the intgrated circuit, microchips, cpus...
School: Look at this history!
Me: Nah, I don't wanna
TH-cam: Look at this history!
Me: *I'm interested.*
I felt that.
Its because we aren't pressured to learn this for a grade, rather we learn this because we want to which also makes learning and retaining the info from this easier and more valuable
CA School: "Now, let's take a look at the racist history of the lathe."
This is why public funding of education is obsolete, and truly unconstitutional.
@@solar_sailor9995 I think the reasons go far deeper than that. In publicly-funded educational institutions, one tends to be taught solely via rote memorization. While this works well for early learning where you're just simply trying to learn the alphabet and that 2+2=4 (something that grown adults still seem to have trouble with 🙄) this same approach tends to lead to complete disinterest once you reach the higher grade levels and are now onto more complex topics like "Why was America founded the way that it was?" or "What makes this machine more important than other machines?" etc. etc...
These are more complex subjects where the focus needs to be on learning HOW to think and not so much on WHAT to think. Once you reach this point, simple rote memorization of dates, places and events doesn't even BEGIN to explain what makes all of these concepts important and ultimately leads to a feeling of intense boredom because the very POINT of history and other subjects like it becomes lost. In special regards to history in and of itself, the very point of the subject lies within its name...hiSTORY, in other words, it's literally the STORIES of the past which are meant to inform us, teach us and make us think about what these events have to teach us about our lives today. To use the Gettysburg Address as an example, if all you do is learn when the speech was given and who delivered it...well, all that does is help you pass a test and says nothing about what that speech actually MEANS and the impact it had on the eventually ending of slavery in the U.S. and the eventual end of the Civil War. However...if you can read it, hearing the voice of President Abraham Lincoln in your mind as you do so, whilst looking at a picture that was painted depicting Gettysburg, PA right after the battle...well, then that's something else entirely. By doing so, you're now able to put YOURSELF there on that day and feel as inspired as every American who was present on the day President Lincoln gave that speech. Now, that moment in history takes on a whole new life and one becomes just amazed at how much truly does survive the test of time.
This is the difference between being educated in a typical classroom versus being educated in your spare time on sites like TH-cam. A good educational TH-camr will not just simply give you dates, names and places to memorize...hell, sometimes they don't even give you that information at all, considering those facts superfluous to the real point of what that TH-camr is trying to get across. Instead, one is presented with an engaging story where one is also shown bits and pieces from that story so that the events you are being told about are able to themselves come alive and actually touch you in a way that simple rote facts cannot.
This is REAL education, the way that it should be, where the viewer is not only empowered to think but also EXPECTED and ENCOURAGED to, so that the subject is able to become as exciting as it truly IS.
I was never all that certain back when I was growing up as to what sort of subject would ever excite me, although I will admit that my High School history courses were made much more exciting than any other course of instruction thanks to several out-of-the-box thinking teachers who made it their mission to make their subjects as fun and engaging as possible, even within the strictures of teaching to the test imposed by "No Child Left Behind" which was starting to take shape within my Junior and Senior years. That said...I will say that the documentaries I saw in my young adulthood coupled with the educational content that I've found now on TH-cam has made me a history FAN...
And I personally hope that it does the same for many others. ☺😁👍
I have learned way more from TH-cam than all of my schooling 🤷🏻♂️
I am stood in front of this wonderful artefact as I type this very comment!
THANK YOU @machinethinking for the introduction: I purchased my first lathe just earlier this year and as I begin my journey into machining have taken a special pilgrimage to La Musee just to see Vaucanson’s piece: it’s incredibly exciting to see in real life!
It is the lathe that gives us the expression "to turn something into something."
Absolutely fascinating. I feel more well rounded for having watched this
I see what you did there
HEY-O!
No pun intended ? Lol
Rise Of Kingdom in nustshell be like
Ba da boom
Henry Maudslay was instrumental in the invention of the first industrial screw-cutting lathe that enabled repeatability.
and he and the rest of the steam-engine pioneers like Watt and others came up with some brilliant mechanisms for problems like e.g. converting rotary motion to an exact straight line, so pistons didn't generate undue friction; The Watts linkage is of course still used on car suspensions today.
genuinely incredible presentation and overall outlook, your ability to communicate pathos through what can easily be a complicated and boring subject is just spectacular
Metal lathes are infinitely underrated.
Yes, one can make a stainless steel pot on a lathe ! I like lathes more than any other tool!
*If you need a lathe and a milling machine made out of metal to make a lathe and milling machine out of metal how did they do that for the first time* ? Go back through modern history and we always have tools made by tools. How did they bridge the gap and make tools that had to be made by tools? You can black smith gears and cams to an accuracy needed to make tools.
they might have used gravity and 90° angles to reach some sufficient first form of precision. for example if you remove the thread of a screw by a certain percentage it will still work as long as enough of it remains intact. for threaded screws you can actually remove quite alot of the thread and it will still work. You can also slowly move your way up in precision.
Dave B makes a good point. There is also an "accuracy improvement" tendency inherent to a lot of simple mechanisms.
A grader is a case in point. By hanging the blade midway along a long wheelbase, the roadway is improved (in vertical deviations from a flat plane) with every pass. Compare this with a short wheelbase tractor with a blade mounted in front of or behind it, which will make dips deeper and peaks higher.
Similarly, a geometrically perfect bearing can be simulated by three support pads at ~120 degrees (as in a lathe steady). If a rod which is approximately round is turned between dead centres it can be made almost perfectly round. If the result is supported in such a steady, features turned and bored on it will have almost perfect circularity, despite no such perfection in the circularity of parts of the lathe itself.
Similarly with the "three surface plate" method of achieving flatness, which can then be used to make the lathe ways and mating carriage surfaces almost perfectly flat using nothing but hand tools. Right angles are also simply achieved by similar means.
Rock on rock. First tool on tool action. Hawt.
Thanks GOTTENHIMFELLA Nice explanation.
Thanks patrick.
I thing there is a parallel with evolution by natural selection: it is eminently possible for some offspring to be more "suited to purpose" than the parents, and more complex, contrary to what creationists would have us believe, with their claims that "information theory does not permit this".
They seem not to realise that most scientific theories, and even laws, are descriptive rather than prescriptive, and when they conflict with observed reality, it is the theory which must be revisited, rather than reality.
(Which perhaps does not even need to be invoked in this particular connection: I think they are simply misunderstanding, or misapplying, info theory)
I was a lathe operator till CNC took over. I’m gonna buy one and a milling machine and a few others and start my own custom machine shop someday
Do it, do it soon, no need to wait!
The importance of precision is understated.
Precision means interchangeability.
Before precision each had to be made to fit each individual item.
In the American Civil War rifles had parts that would only fit that rifle.
The need for precision to make interchangeable parts was born and so modern industrial methods, quality control to ensure interchangeability.
And that created consumerism.
It would appear to me that war has always been the primary driver of innovation.
My old machinist friends said that the horizontal milling machine was the one tool that could reproduce itself. It too is an amazing and versatile though unsung tool.
Indeed. Horizontal mills make great lathes, especially for short workpieces of large diameter.
Lathes are not so great at milling...
he forgot the hammer,it can reproduce itself as well
Logan 1664 what is your point?
5:19 This is called a force multiplier. And it's exactly 1 of 2 guiding principles on which IT and the silicon revolution operate. The other guiding principle? "When you do things right, no one is sure you've done anything at all"
I have a lathe and end mill in my home shop. It always amazes me the what I can do with those two machines when I put my mind to it.
I have a truck driver friend who, in a desperate attempt to elevate the respect his chosen profession receives, is always saying, "Without truck drivers, you'd be naked, cold & hungry".
And I always like to point out to him, without a machinist running a lathe, he'd be a stagecoach driver.
He hates it because he knows it's true...
Your concept may have applied during the early days of the industrial revolution but in today's modern era your lathe would become nothing more and nothing less than a heap of rust if trucks didn't deliver your steel 😉
@@domesticatedwolverine4152 obviously everything is interdependent
Just watched this again for the third time (over the last couple years), it's really good. Thank you again!
Your videos are some of the best You Tube content that I have seen. You are making the world a better place with your work.
From the thumbnail image, I thought this was going to be about a metal bolt or screw. The screw is a simple machine we use to make a lot of things, after all.
But… I suppose the lathe (the industrial, metal, lathe, made by the guy with the name I have trouble with) is fitting for that role in history. Cool video; I learned stuff.
The fundamental engineering tools go back to antiquity he was drawing a correlation between a new invention & rise in universal income naturally distributed fairly & justly or not... archimedes used screws to draw water & leonardo took the 5 fundamental engineering tools/elements to stratapheric heights all things considered... also keep in mid that a screw although included in the 5 fundamental engineering elements/tools is actually a WEDGE wrapped around a cylinder... so less than entirely fundamental... besides I do not think that particular threaded rod is from 1751... it looks like something installed to reproduce the original
Those crankshafts there were pretty cute. :D The company I work for produces these things for ship engines. They have a length of about 17.5m and weigh close to 50t. It's always amazing to see those things, especially when they're finished. The engines they're built into have a power of about 11878bhp.
Put it in a Miata.
Boss: You're late. Why
Me: My car is a Vaucanson duck.
Boss: What do you mean?
Me: It just took a sh*t.
Boss: But it's mechanical.
Me: That never stopped Vaucansons duck niether.
Kittelizer Laurelott Clever skit. I chuckled... thanks!
Literally one of the best comments I have ever seen 👏
whats this from? also I don't gef it :/
@@SodiumInteresting if you watch the video and pay attention it will explain it
@@SodiumInteresting
A Vaucanson duck is the milestone of technology where as engineering meets automation. Even though it didn't really serve a purpose, it was the brainchild that revolutionized manufacturing. It was created much in the sense of how we look at AI 20 years ago.
Its a mechaical duck, but because its mechanically engineered to simulate a real duck, it shits...seriously.
Everything that we operate in machinery or mechanical devices, is litteraly built on the principles of a mechanical duck that shits just like a duck. If it was to be used as a device, an automated greaser would probably be closest. As where the grease is applied like a duck shits. Every 30 seconds or so. But because of its shape, size and demensions, its pretty much obsolete for use.(not to mention that we live in a politically correct world now and the prude type might take offense to it.) Which is why I would used it. Impracticality and all.
Another totally impractical machanical device that only serves one purpose, to fiddle with. Its called a "bullshit grinder" by lack of its technical name. It does have one. I just don't remember what it was.
But imagine a block of wood. 3"X3" X .75" with. .5" deep and wide dovetails routed. On one side, top to bottom, side to side. 1.5" wedges fitted into those dovetails move freely. A crank 8" long is connected in the middle of the crank to the center of either one of the wedges. Either end of the crank is connected to the center of the other wedge and a knob is attached to other end of crank. All points of connection pivot. That's it. A crank on a block of wood that pushes a wedge up and down while the other wedge goes up and down. And its only purpose is to demonstrate mechanics in motion.
Wow! What an excellent channel for technology buffs. MT's explanations are clear, detailed and relevant. I just binge-watched all the videos on his website and I want more. The narrowboat ride across the aqueduct was amazing and scary even though I'm on the other side of the pond. Keep the new material coming!
Thank you for the informative, no nonsense documentary. It seems 99% of TH-cam posters feel a need to add distracting split screen videography (blurring the outer panels whilst leaving the center panel in focus) combined with irritating, and annoying, crappy-ass "music". So this was a breath of fresh air. Well spoken, highly informative, and truly interesting work.
This is the perfect video for my grandma because when I told her that I want to buy a lathe she said something like "oh please, such a stupid thing, and you won't even use it".
If you've not played with machine tools, then you're in for a treat. I found it a life-changing experience. Before I started machining as a hobby, I'd go to a hardware store to look for "a thing". Afterwards, I'd browse and see things I could make things *from*. I hope you enjoy it.
Sadly, older people seem to have a knack for deeming something new as useless. I hope I never do. Prove her wrong.
I won't say that she is old enough to consider a lathe as a new thing. She just sees it as a useless and expensive thing.
make something your grandma can use with the lathe that way she cant doubt you again. shes senile if she thinks such a machine is useless. they built the world were in.
I've got my lathe as a hs grad present from my parents and at the time they thought I was crazy to have a need for 1954 9" southbend. But today for eg I've made a new shaft for the dishwasher pump that cost me $15 instead of 180 for a whole new motor and waiting a couple weeks 😁 It sure has a limited amount of uses but when you need it there is no other tool capable of the job
The reason that the internal combustion engine became the power plant for cars and aircraft was that it could be made from a lathe. The key invention of the Wright Brothers which made powered flight possible was an aluminum block internal combustion engine. The holes for the combustion chambers were bored out using a lathe. The cylinder heads were cut precisely to fit with a lathe. The invention of aluminum smelting using electricity in the 1880s made aluminum very cheap. These were the key factors that allowed for the building of a light enough engine that could power a heavier than air aircraft. None of these key features were patentable, btw, as all the technology of internal combustion engines had been developed years earlier. The Wright brothers were just the first to use the now cheap and affordable aluminum blocks to build a lightweight aluminum block internal combustion engine that could power an airplane. Their only patenable idea was their use of wing warping as control surfaces for the airplane, which they used to such devastating effect to protect their invention that aircraft development in the U.S. lagged far behind the European countries, thus causing the US to have no effective aircraft for WWI.
Curtis developed the use of ailerons instead of wing warping, which the Wrights tried to contest as a patent infringement, but IIRC, Curtis showed that it was a different way to control roll and it allowed modern airplanes to proceed since wing warping was not possible with the more rigid built, metal wings that came later.
"He invented a programmable loom, but all the credit went to someone who later made modern improvements."
*proceeds to credit none of the inventors of earlier lathes, even the all-metal ones used for clocks, because Vaucanson made modern improvements*
Also, Andrey Nartov deserves a mention for inventing that slide rest which you claim makes it the first modern lathe
But this one was at the right time for them to be used and adopted into production. It’s the takeoff point for the biggest revolution. Oh and the main reason is likely that this lathe is still around. Any of Andrey Nartov’s lathes are lost to time?
You didn't understood the video then Vaucanson made THE Lathe the one that could make the industrial revolution happen.
You have a good point, the lathe is very important, it also allowed farms to produce substantially more food, thank you farmers!
The industrial revolution for USA started here in my home state of Rhode Island . The original mill and machine shop are still here. Slater mill . This is also home to Brown & Sharpe , they made precision measuring instruments. The mills were hard work but, they drew young people to get away from farm life . Which was hard work and not always profitable.
Outstanding.
Subscribed tonight.
Keep up the good work.
DOUG out
Every since I was a young boy, I always thought the most valuable thing ever made by man was the fastener. Ex: Nails, Screws, Nuts, Bolts. They hold our houses together, they hold our machines together. Even the lathes in this video are held together by fasteners. The only other thing more valuable that man has ever made in history??? Fire.
*Drops phone, walks to bed.
Great video BTW.
I would argue that these were not as game changing as a machine such as the lathe. They were dicovered very early in the history of mankind (e.g nails were used in ancient egypt). And there are other ways to hold together houses like ropes, wattle and daub, stone (with or without mortar), mortise and tenon, etc...
Also (according to wikipedia), metal screws only became a common fastener when machine tools allowed their mass production.
Nice presentation.
Turned out smoothly.
It's Miller Time!
They should just play your videos in school
Yah,in all non church women's classes.
Why so he can have that annoying PBS narration voice?
@@JarthenGreenmeadow I see I have entered the tool zone. bookmarkthis his voice and music is perfect. So is his models,, ya know why? He made the model, and the vid. When someone makes something they get to do what they want, and over half a million people approve, so if you don't like it plug your eyes and ears.
I will use these videos with my classes, just not in school. Kids watch video at home and answer focus questions from video's content. Class time is project and activity time.
@@JarthenGreenmeadow It is understandable for foreiners like me. If spoken by a woman I would not understand a world. So when auto captions works, it is OK.
Because of this video, I went to this museum when I last visited Paris.
Machines that make machines . The FabLab concept ,I built my own cncs engravers ,mills and 3d printer.
Vaucanson would love to live now ,with the electronic and the internet.
Our time ,is more than ever time for inventions. Never was easier.
Let's see what comes out.
very dmt like ,, machines that make other machines
Thanks for the video. The one thing more fascinating to me is/are the men and women that invented these machines. What brilliance. I wonder if they ever imagined what impact they would have on the future.
what's really mind blowing too, is that for 7000 years, or tens of thousands of years, there were 'nothing new', just the same life generation by generation, the same standard of living, but suddenly the last 100-150 years things completely changed. These few years, just a incredible small fracture of the time there have been humans on earth. what will it be in 200 years
How was the lead screw made if this was the first industrial lathe?
That's a highly interesting question and I've already done much research on that for a future video. Essentially, it was an iterative process. There is no way to make a very good leadscrew from scratch, but there are ways to iteratively get closer and closer. Stay tuned!
@@machinethinking Oh I would love the answer to this question. I thought about it lots! I've always assumed that once you made a crude first one you could make a slightly better second one using the first one, but I don't think that's actually true. Anyways, thank you for the great videos, you've got me hooked!
It takes some steps to get their. My first step would be to use the lathe to turn the major diameter. Then make a file to the thread form, and make a pitch gage as close as possible. Use this to hand file a helix along the shaft. It will be sloppy to start. The almost helix can be followed by a slip fit bushing with a finger attached to an end. If you can follow the helix it would be possible to cut a crude internal thread.
I would think that the machine in the box was the best of those that finally worked. Men in those days developed hand skills instead of writing g & m code programs. It seems as though I had read of a process with a rotating nut that was used to help develop an accurate consistent screw.
Yes it would have been quite a challenge to produce the first screw and nut.
Google “ making first screw and nut” It throws out a lot of reading that I am going to start on, as time and dry eyes allow.
google 'Henry Maudslay' (screw-cutting lathe 1800). Be aware that the lathe shown in the pictures is a more recent replica, made using modern materials and parts. His original machine would not have had the machine-screws shown.
Very interesting discussion on the lathe, however when you measure progress by income in USD, you are skewing the inflection point because you are ignoring the effect of fractional reserve banking on income.
Great video! As a machinist, I appreciate this. Also, I think farming will come back but smaller and automated.
I think it is more complex than this. Mechanical prowess and learning were already spooling up in the Middle Ages. The first mechanical clock, the first musical synthesizer (pipe organs), full body armour, the first guns, cathedrals made possible by a new type of arch, printing presses - making the spread of knowledge possible. Things were gradually falling in place post the collapse of the Roman empire under the stability of the church in Europe which sponsored scientists and maintained learning in isolated centres in the dark ages. It then accelerated post reformation; people were finally allowed to read the bible and people got used to the idea of testing tradition; with first church tradition being tested against the bible and then observations tested against nature - Newton in particular - pushing empiricism married to mathematics, as he felt creation must be rational - because the biblical God was rational. So basically, the birth of the scientific method was key. I think the scaled-up watch makers lathe was certainly part of it, but not the whole picture.
The church might have provided stability and sponsored scientists, but it was also keen on silencing them under threat of torture or execution when one of their discoveries was directly in contradiction with scripture or was incongruous with the church authorities' interpretations of it.
Well there is a fascinating dualism. Newton rejected the Roman & Anglican churches, but at the same time was inspired by the bible to study nature. He was a fervent Christian, but mistrusted human authority. The sudden availability of the bible exposed natural philosophers to a novel idea; consider God a rational being who had created a rational universe that you could therefore be described mathematically. This contrasted with a Greek/Roman religious view of a chaotic nature, not worth studying.
Look at the frame of Vaucanson's duck machine, it's very similar to the lathe. It makes a lot of sense that Vaucanson started with the automata and then shifted to industrial applications. When a cabinetmaker or boat builder learns how to make a few jigs, it's not long before they start making jigs that can't be found in any books. I've got several. They're not important in anyway, but they're useful to me. It's just that once you mechanically figure out how to do one thing, you can apply not the techniques but the mode of thinking to many other areas.
9:00 getting close to another way of looking at this. I consider myself to be in the top .000001 percent of the wealthiest people who've ever lived. I live in a ratty rental house, and am not a millionaire, but I'm wealthier than Napoleon. What kind of computer did he have? I read 100 books a year, have traveled where Marco Polo traveled. There's a famous traveling monk in Japan, I've been more places than he ever traveled to in Japan, in his whole life. I was there for two months. I traveled some of his routes, then I got on a train and was quickly someplace else. My car (Prius) turns itself on and off to save gas. The cars I had through the 1990s it was often difficult getting them to start the first time in the morning, and after a few years keeping them running took a lot of work. Because of how businesses are organized a few people at the top keep almost all the profit, this is not at all fair; in the U.S. middle class income is stagnating, there are still millions of poor people. However a critical aspect of wealth in the vastly improved intrinsic usefulness of our thing. No one had a TV in 1990 as good as the ones to be had for $150. (So the key step to being wealthy is 1. don't have any debt 2. learn as much as you can about as many things as you can. )
A good book you'd be interested in is David Deutsch The Beginning of Infinity. His basic point, based on Georg Cantor's mathematics of infinities, is that not only will we continue inventing new things, we will continue accelerating the pace at which we invent new things; and we will never run out of things to invent. Because of how the mathematics of infinities work, we will always be at the beginning. Stone axe: 150,000 years, Bronze Age 1500? Iron Age? 500? Steel? 100 ? Moore's law..... We hit limits, like airline travel and the speed of sound. We can go faster, but so far it's not been economically viable. We will blow right through that limit someday, it might be with tunnels. Virtual Reality might get so good, it will be better than traveling.
If you look at interchangeable parts. Pretty obvious idea, right? But someone had to take a look at a shed full of guys filing away all the parts of a musket to make them all fit together in each musket.... and instead of thinking, "Pierre is slacking off again..." the guy thinks, 'Henri is good at filing the metal parts, Bertrand is better at shaping the wooden stocks....'
and where did the two key ideas come from? The important first step was to think, What's the better way to do this? and only then: If we made the parts all the same size.... (I would guess that both ideas probably started with threaded bolts/screws and nuts.Making wood screws: a lot of variation is tolerable, but making a thread to fit a nut, that's a lot harder. figuring out how to do this more than once demands standardization and then the critical idea is right there: If I make tools and machines to do this, the parts will fit .... not only will they work better, but I can then make a lot more of them more quickly. Which leads to looking for other areas where this general idea of standardization is not only better, but faster, and more useful.
After how many years of doing this does it take to arrive at the idea that everything can be endlessly improved? Had Hero's steam engine found some use, some Roman James Watt might have made a better one. I think that in many many human organizations coming up with the better way of doing something meets resistance, leading to trouble.
One critical step I think it's been said is the American axe. The Europeans used the same unbalanced wood axe for 1000 years. They arrive in North America where trees are unlimited, they are going to have to chop a lot more wood. Also these people are all misfits, they didn't fit in in Britain, so their bigoted conformity was limited to religion and racism, they quickly came up with a better axe, and then a better one. I think the American 'Idea' is every tool can be improved, and there never will be a perfect anything. (Think of all the 'perfect ideas' Marx, Freud, fascism... they all came out of central Europe, even Martin Luther. Any American who thinks this way is ultimately scorned. The current fetish of algorithms by Silicon Valley billionaires is an example. Steve Jobs will be remembered, Facebook will fade into a punchline. )
Standing ovation.
With just over 108 Billion people who ever lived, you beeing one of the 0.000001% richest would mean you are one of the 1080 richest people ever. To put that into perspective, there were according to the World Ultra Wealth Report 2013 published by UBS 2,160 people with a net worth exeeding $ 1 billion.
wealth isn't measured just by finance. A wealth of knowledge is priceless.
I would also argue that the proliferation of postmodern debt bondage means that while many *could* be experiencing a very modern sort of wealth, we are currently enslaved by outdated thinking.
One of the problems with USA politics is that governments, universities and non-profit bodies are not seen as honest, trustworthy or productive.
Good thing then that there have thus far only been 935 Nobel prize winners, meaning WillN2Go1 isn't claiming to bee as knowledgable as them.
I really enjoy your videos. Just getting started on them. Looking forward to watching the rest. I am a toolmaker/machinist myself. I love doing this type of work. I also love the history and knowing how things work. Thank you so much for your videos.
This was a great video and thank you for making it. it made my Saturday a little more informative =)
I saw that lathe and i thought it was like 1901, not 1751!
Same
Ditto... me too Toodog
Remember weapon history and trains.
It's impossible without a lathe
What a fantastic video. I was always upset that Vaucanson never got the same "household name" status for his amazing achievement. Recorded history is certainly a strange, often unfair and fickle thing.
1. Never knew this machine was called a lathe
2. Never knew this was such in important machine!
3. Thanks for the informative video, I learnt a lot about the history of lathes and its uses
If a person 5000 years ago -
Put a single penny in the bank -
With 3% compound annual interest -
Now that person would -
Still be dead
The highest the calculator I found goes to is 999 years. 1 penny at 3% compounding interest over 999 years =
$66,740,196,419.12
No one would pay 3% interest on a penny.
and inflation would easily outpace any interest gained XD
I got have a graphing calculator that goes on infinitely. When we input the equation 0.01x1.03^x which represents your hypothetical situation. When x=5000 (5000 years from when the penny was deposited) you would have 1.53 x 10^62 dollars. That number is so large I can guarantee that no human can comprehend it and unless you have seen a googol written down (even though a googol is significantly larger) have never even seen a number so large. It’s incredible and your joke has an incredible number in it.
P.s Why have I spent so much time obsessing over this?
HAAAAA
Today you can build fully automated CNC routers and Lathes at home with stepper motors and raspberry pi's.
Yeah but try taking off more than 0.001" in a single pass on anything other than modelling wax with such systems. Those are really just fun toys, not production machines. The lathe shown in the video was the real deal for cutting copper.
@@tetrabromobisphenol You can totally build at home a machine that does that, it will only have to be more expensive. Use better motors and have better drivers, but you can still DIY.
Exactly. It's not hard to build a very good cnc. it's just really expensive.
@@thomasesr you dont know anything about machinning. You neglect to mention any structural components for this DIY CNC mill or router.
@@hrbestalkinme3690 does it matter? The point I'm making is about the automation process being accessible. Go watch this old tony making his own.
Very poignant and insightful thinking I'm amazed that I've been given the opportunity to be alive in this generation it sounds as if you haven't taken all of this around us for granted you're in depth and thoughtful reflection of time has touched something deep within me thank you so very much
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