Screw-cutting lathe with slide rest
Torno de roscar de precisión con carro portaherramientas
- Date
- 1797-1800 · confidence high
- Place
- London, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Henry Maudslay
- People
- 👤 Henry Maudslay1771–1831
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
An all-metal lathe with a master leadscrew and a guided slide rest that cut identical, repeatable screw threads. It established the principle that machines should build machines.
David Wilkinson patented a similar lathe in Rhode Island in 1798; Ramsden and Vaucanson have earlier precedents, but Maudslay's was the one that spread industrially.
What it led to
- Standardised screws and nuts
- Maudslay's school of mechanics: Whitworth, Nasmyth, Roberts, Clement
- The machine-tool industry of Manchester and Leeds
- Precision as an industrial value
Built on
- Jacques de Vaucanson's lathe (1751)
- Jesse Ramsden's screw-cutting lathe (1770s)