Screw-cutting lathe
Torno de roscar con husillo patrón
- Date
- c. 1480-1568 · confidence medium
- Place
- Southern Germany (the Mittelalterliche Hausbuch manuscript) and France (Besson)
- Credited to
- Anonymous (Hausbuch, c. 1480); Leonardo da Vinci (drawings); Jacques Besson (1568)
- People
- 👤 Leonardo da Vinci1452–1519
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A lathe that guides the cutting tool by means of a master leadscrew to cut uniform threads in metal. It made screws reproducible, the basis of precision mechanics.
A cumulative development: the Hausbuch shows a wooden screw-cutting lathe, Leonardo drew one with twin leadscrews, and Besson published his design in 1568.
What it led to
- Interchangeable screws and threads for instruments and clocks
- The machine tools of the Industrial Revolution (Maudslay, 1800)
- Fine adjustment in scientific instruments (the micrometer)
Built on
Made possible
- Screw press coinage and rolling millc. 1550-1553
- Screw micrometer1638-1640
- Maudslay's lathe
- Improved screw-type printing press