Metal planer
Cepilladora de metales
- Date
- 1817-1820 · confidence medium
- Place
- Manchester, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Richard Roberts (also Matthew Murray, James Fox, Joseph Clement)
- People
- 👤 Richard Roberts1789–1864
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A machine that produced flat metal surfaces and straight guideways using a fixed tool over a reciprocating table. Without flat reference surfaces there could be no precision machinery.
Several British mechanics (Murray in Leeds, Fox in Derby, Clement in London, Roberts in Manchester) built planing machines almost simultaneously between 1814 and 1820.
What it led to
- Accurate machine-tool beds and guideways
- Manchester's workshops as the capital of the machine tool
- The manufacture of Roberts's self-acting mule and locomotives
Built on
Made possible
- Standard gauges and Whitworth thread1834-1841
- Self-acting mule
- Whitworth standard gauge
- Standardised locomotives