Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

===Machine tools===
[[File:Maudslay screw-cutting lathes of circa 1797 and 1800.png|thumb|[[Henry Maudslay|Maudslay]]'s early [[screw-cutting lathe]]s, developed in the late 1790s]]
[[File:Middletown milling machine 1818--001.png|thumb|The Middletown [[milling (machining)|milling machine]], developed around 1818 by Robert Johnson and Simeon North]]
Pre-industrial machinery was built by various craftsmen{{mdash}}[[millwright]]s built [[watermill]]s and [[windmill]]s; carpenters made wooden framing; and smiths and turners made metal parts. Wooden components had the disadvantage of changing dimensions with temperature and humidity, and the joints tended to work loose. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, machines with metal parts and frames became common. Other uses of metal parts were in firearms and threaded [[fastener]]s, such as machine screws, bolts, and nuts. There was need for precision in making parts, to allow better working machinery, [[Interchangeable parts|interchangeability of parts]], and standardization of threaded fasteners.

The demand for metal parts led to the development of several [[machine tool]]s. They have their origins in the tools developed in the 18th century by clock and scientific instrument makers, to enable them to batch-produce small mechanisms. Before machine tools, metal was worked manually using the basic hand tools: hammers, files, scrapers, saws, and chisels. Consequently, use of metal machine parts was kept to a minimum. Hand methods of production were laborious and costly, and precision was difficult to achieve.<ref name="Hounshell-1984" /><ref name="Roe1916" />

The first large precision machine tool was the cylinder [[Boring (manufacturing)|boring machine]] invented by John Wilkinson in 1774. It was designed to bore the large cylinders on steam engines. Wilkinson's machine was the first to use the principle of line-boring, where the tool is supported on both ends.<ref name="Roe1916" /> The [[Planer (metalworking)|planing machine]], the [[milling (machining)|milling machine]] and the [[Shaper|shaping machine]] were developed. Though the milling machine was invented at this time, it was not developed as a serious workshop tool until later.<ref name="Hounshell-1984" /><ref name="Roe1916" /> [[James Fox (engineer)|James Fox]] and [[Matthew Murray]] were manufacturers of machine tools who found success in exports and developed the planer around the same time as [[Richard Roberts (engineer)|Richard Roberts]].

[[Henry Maudslay]], who trained a school of machine tool makers, was a mechanic who had been employed at the [[Royal Arsenal]], [[Woolwich]]. He worked as an apprentice under [[Jan Verbruggen]], who, in 1774, installed a [[horizontal boring machine]] which was the first industrial size lathe in the UK. Maudslay was hired by [[Joseph Bramah]] for the production of high-security metal locks that required precision craftsmanship. Bramah patented a lathe with similarities to the slide rest lathe,<ref name="Roe1916" /><ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|392–395}} Maudslay perfected this lathe, which cut machine screws of different thread pitches. Before its invention, screws could not be cut with precision.<ref name="Roe1916" /><ref name="McNeil1990" />{{rp|392–395}} The slide rest lathe was called one of history's most important inventions. Although it was not Maudslay's idea, he was the first to build a functional lathe using innovations of the lead screw, slide rest, and change gears.<ref name="Roe1916" />{{rp|31, 36}} Maudslay set up a shop, and built the machinery for making ships' pulley blocks for the [[Royal Navy]] in the [[Portsmouth Block Mills]]. These machines were all-metal and the first for mass production and making components with interchangeability. The lessons Maudslay learned about the need for stability and precision he adapted to the development of machine tools, and he trained men to build on his work, such as [[Richard Roberts (engineer)|Richard Roberts]], [[Joseph Clement]] and [[Joseph Whitworth]].<ref name="Roe1916" />

The techniques to make mass-produced metal parts of sufficient precision to be interchangeable is attributed to the [[United States Department of War|U.S. Department of War]] which perfected [[interchangeable parts]] for firearms.<ref name="Hounshell-1984">{{Hounshell1984}}</ref> In the half-century following the invention of the fundamental machine tools, the machine industry became the largest industrial sector of the U.S. economy.<ref name="faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu">Economics 323–2: Economic History of the United States Since 1865 http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jmokyr/Graphs-and-Tables.PDF {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419183804/https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jmokyr/Graphs-and-Tables.PDF |date=19 April 2021 }}</ref>