The aim of the Author in writing this book has been to present in as comprehensive a manner as may be within the limits of a single volume the history and development of the lathe from early times to the present day; to briefly discuss its effects upon manufacturing interests; to describe its practical use on various classes of work; and to compare in a representative, theoretical, and practical manner the Modern American Lathes as now built in this country.

In carrying out these aims the early history of the lathe is traced from its crude beginning up to the time when the foot-power lathe was the sole reliance of the early mechanic. Then the early history of the development of the screw-cutting or engine lathe is taken up and carried on to the middle of the last century. This is done to put the student and the younger mechanic in possession of the facts in relation to the origin and development of the lathe up to within the memory of many of the older mechanics of the present day.

The matter relating to the early history of the lathe is introduced for what seem to be good and sufficient reasons. If we are always to "commence where our predecessors left off" we shall miss much valuable information that would be very useful to us. A retrospective glance on what has been, a review of previous efforts, a proper consideration of the road by which we came, or by which earlier workers have advanced, is not only interesting but necessary to a full and complete under- standing of the subject, and very useful to us in mapping out the course for our continued advancement in contributing our share in the development of mechanical science.

Following along these lines, the various types of lathes have been carefully classified, engravings and descriptions of the prominent American lathes are given, and their special features of design, construction, and use are pointed out and briefly commented upon.

It is a matter of much pride to every true American mechanic that this country produces so many really good and meritorious manufacturing machines, and in no line is this superiority more clearly shown than in the magnificent array of Modern Lathes. This work brings these machines together in a comprehensive  manner for the first time, and thus aims to add its quota to the present literature on this subject, and so make it valuable as a book of reference, alike to the student, the designer and the mechanic, as well as the manufacturer and the purchaser of Modern American Lathes.

In the great measure of success that has been enjoyed, and the vast volume of wealth that has been produced in this, the most industrial of all countries, the manufacturing industries easily lead all other productive interests in which the people are engaged. While in the earlier years of American independence the chief dependence was upon the results of agriculture, the development of the resources of the country in time has placed manufactures at the head of the list so that in very recent years the value of manufactures has been nearly double the amounts of that produced by agricultural pursuits.

These results, like many others of a less notable character, commenced from small beginnings, and it has been by inborn mechanical talent, remarkable ingenuity, patient development, and tireless energy, that mechanical undertakings large and small have been developed, until the American mechanic leads the world in originality and practical achievement in our vast manufacturing enterprises.

When the early settlers, the Puritans of New England, labored under the restrictive and harassing laws of the mother-country, and under their administration were goaded and exasperated beyond endurance in many ways, not the least of which was being obliged to purchase all their manufactured articles from England at extortionate prices, or from other countries and still paying taxes to England, they rebelled and determining to buy no more foreign goods, set out, at first in very primitive and clumsy ways, to make such articles as were really necessary, and in magnificent self-denial to get along without those which they could not produce, they little realized that they were thus laying the foundations of the greatest manufacturing country in the world.

By their action they thus instituted probably the first industrial "boycott" in the history of the country, and one that has had more important and far-reaching influences than any since its day.

It is true that the coming of the Pilgrims, their departure from the old country, was for religious freedom, but freedom soon meant vastly more to them than this, and with this larger conception of their opportunities, some of which were really forced upon them by adverse circumstances, came the inspiration of industrial as well as religious freedom. And the determined manner in which they set about their self-appointed task has amply demonstrated to their posterity and to the world their grasp of the possibilities and conditions of the situation as well as their breadth and nobility of character.

Thus sprang American manufactures into being, beginning with crude efforts to fashion those common objects of household necessity and daily use, which, clumsy though they were, yet served their practical purposes, to be supplanted later on by those more improved in form, design, and workmanship and better adapted to the uses for which they were made. The primitive successes of these early efforts led to greater endeavors, and the ingenuity displayed where "necessity was the mother of invention" was naturally developed into a still broader usefulness when the time came that necessities having been reasonably provided for, luxuries were thought necessary in the higher plane of living to which the people in due course had advanced.

And so it came about that the rude and crude beginnings in which the early mechanic performed his work in his own house outgrew these homely facilities and he built small shops, frequently in the gardens or back yards of the dwellings. These gradually enlarged; then came the necessity for still greater facilities, and buildings were erected quite independent of the home surroundings and two or more men were associated as manufacturers, and these became in due course of time the machine shops and the factories, which have multiplied many hundreds of times, not only in numbers and in value, but in influence and in importance, until to-day our country stands the leading manufacturing nation of the earth. And this may be said, not only as to the volume and the value of her manufactured productions, but also as to their great range and diversity of kind and degree. One after another the American mechanic has taken up the work formerly monopolized by this country or that, failing perhaps at first, but always progressing, always advancing, until by native ingenuity and tireless energy all obstacles have been surmounted, all difficulties brushed aside, new industries spring into being and other "victories of peace greater than the glories of war" are added to the credit of the American mechanic and his ever ready and ever confident partner, the American manufacturer and capitalist. And to this combination, each confident of and faithful to the abilities of the other, and each in his own sphere of usefulness, is due the immense success of the manufacturing American of to-day.

In the early stages of manufacturing in this country all the tools and appliances were of a very crude and primitive kind and consisted mainly of a limited number of hand tools that had been brought with them from the old country, and occasionally a hand lathe of moderate dimensions, operated by foot-power. Yet with even these few facilities much important work was accomplished in the way of useful machines such as the flax and woolen spinning wheels and their accessories, and the wooden looms in which the yarn thus prepared was woven into the coarse but excellent cloth of these early times.

Then with the few tools and meager facilities possessed by them these old-time mechanics proceeded with practical common sense, ingenuity, and patience to design and construct other tools and machines such as by the necessities of occasion was manifest, and the increasing demands for them required better tools, better machinery, and facilities of a wider scope. The mechanic was then, as now, equal to the emergencies of the situation in which he found himself, and from small beginnings, and many of the parts of his machines made of wood, for lack of forge and foundry facilities, particularly the latter, has developed the machine tools of the present day.

While these events and evidences of mechanical progress were taking place, the active minds of ingenious workmen were busily engaged in solving the practical problems of the growing demands made upon the shops and embryo manufactories engaged in supplying the wants of the people. New methods of manufacture, by which the quality as well as the quantity turned out could be improved, were demanded. This led to the demand for more machinery, which in turn led to the demand for better machines for the use of the mechanic, or for what we have come to know as machine tools. In the meantime the main reliance had been upon the ancient foot lathe, and with it much of their mechanical work had been accomplished. It had been improved in various ways, both in its design and in the materials of which it was constructed, and with the use of water-power for driving the machinery for manufacturing operations the lathe had become of greater usefulness by being driven in the same manner. Yet from the first it maintained its prominence as the first of the machine tools and the one which made all of the others that came after it possible of construction and useful in their several and respective spheres.

In the great scheme of manufacturing and the immense industrial problem of supplying the wants of the people in this respect by modern manufacturing plants equipped with all that is latest and best in machinery, it should be said that at the very basis and foundation of the whole stand the modern machine tools; that it is to the great and important development of these that we owe, primarily, our industrial prosperity as a nation. And to them may be easily traced the gradual upward tendency of the mechanic from the hard physical toil and laborious work of early days to the immeasurably lighter exertions made possible by the highly developed condition of the automatic machines of the present day. It has been, as was said in the outset, a victory of mind over matter, wherein brains have won where the hands made little advance; ideas developed wonderful mechanisms that have revolutionized the earlier methods of manufacturing, raised the standard of mechanical excellence beyond what was thought possible years ago, and at the same time reduced the cost to a fraction of its former amount. But to attain these marvelous results many machines have been required. All conceivable types and styles, and for an almost endless variety of purposes, have been designed, built, and perfected until hardly a possible mechanical operation is performed without the aid of a machine, frequently special in its design and automatic in its action, is brought into use, performing the work with surprising speed and wonderful accuracy.

The construction and perfection of all this magnificent array of highly developed machinery has only been made possible through the use of the machines for the use of the machinist, the machine tools of the present day, which must first have been perfected and adapted to the many needs and requirements which the advanced state of mechanical science demanded. These machine tools were made possible by the earlier examples of the most simple devices in this direction, chiefly, in our own time, the foot lathe, by which many of the earlier tools and machines were for the most part built; and as new uses for it were found new devices, attachments, and accessories were devised and applied, and in this gradual development and improvement in its design, its construction, and the materials of which it is built, the early and crude foot lathe has become the magnificent machine of the  present day, and in which the American mechanic takes a just and pardonable pride.

As to how this development progressed will be discussed in the opening chapters, and it is hoped that it will be found interesting to every American mechanic and particularly to the apprentice who is about to start out with learning the honorable trade of a machinist, and the student who would know from whence our modern machine tools were derived, that he may perhaps, in due time, become one of those who shall aid in their further development and perfection, as well as to the elder mechanic who uses these machines, and the mechanical engineer who is busy with their present development. It is always profitable to take a retrospective glance at the former state and condition of the matter upon which we are engaged, in order that we may not only realize from whence came the models built by the men who came before us, and to draw therefrom an inspiration for our own best efforts, but knowing the mistakes that have been made by others, to seek to avoid repeating them in our own experiences, our experiments and our designs by which we seek to add to the sum total of mechanical knowledge and improvement.


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