Wood lathe
Torno para madera y piedra
- Date
- c. 1300 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Egypt (New Kingdom) and Mycenae
- Credited to
- Egyptian and Mycenaean carpenters (inferred)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A device that spins a piece of wood or alabaster between two points while a fixed tool shapes it, producing perfect forms of revolution. Turned furniture legs and vessels from the Late Bronze Age betray its use even though no lathe survives.
The earliest clear depiction is Egyptian, from the 4th century BCE, but New Kingdom furniture legs and Minoan stone vessels suggest a rudimentary lathe already in the 2nd millennium.
What it led to
- Luxury furniture with interchangeable pieces and exact symmetry
- Serial production of bowls, spindles and handles
- The basis of the bow lathe, the pole lathe and the machine tool