This screw machine produced the screws used in pocket watches that were popular in the late 1800’s early 1900s. This machine replaced several manual operations. A series of circular cams and followers convert rotary motion into linear motion.

Manufactured by FP Lovejoy, Springfield, VT, Pat’d Nov 22, 1904.   Do you know what this object is?     Some of the guesses we’ve heard at the front desk […]

We have three milling machines and a drawing that go together in interesting ways. Frederic W. Howe was a supervisor here at Robbins & Lawrence.  He had a very inventive […]

A pattern is the master copy of a design. Wooden patterns like these could have been used hundreds of times before losing their shape. Flat back patterns, like these wrenches, […]

MECHANICAL PRESS, Parker Bros., Meriden Conn, c. 1870 This is one of our most commented-on machines.  It looks so good!  Our documents don’t tell how it came to have such […]

BALLISTIC CHRONOGRAPH
James Pitkin & Co, London, C 1915, Le Boulenge type.

This clever device measures the speed of bullets.

Twelve of our favorite machines profiled here.

 In Robert V. Jacobs’ biography, Lewis R. Heim, Mechanical Genius of Modern Industry,  Jacobs describes Heim as “a mechanical genius and industrial entrepreneur whose many inventions helped usher in the […]

18 inches in diameter, and it stores 500 KB.

Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company, Stamford, CT 1893 Blickensderfer typewriters have an unusual claim to fame: they’re extremely portable. Advertisements for the Blick in the late 1800s featured a series of characters:   […]