The 1751 Machine that Made Everything 

Amazing! Stunning! Such a clear and entertaining way of explaining an essential (but potentially boring) project. On my channel, I use the wood lathe a lot, but I'm frustrated with the way people only see it as a way to make decorative items. I use it for some more precise tasks and I'm about to start building my own. This video is a great inspiration. I expect your subscriber count will shoot up very soon. Keep up the good work!

I guess you could say the invention of the lathe was a real turning point

There's a set of small books by this guy named "Gingery" that show you how to build you own machine shop from the ground up. The first starts of with making a charcoal foundry to melt metal and do sand casting. Next are books about things to make with it, one of which is the lathe. It's fun reading even if you don't do any of it.

I am a farmer, and I really enjoyed this video while sitting in my tractor as it drives itself planting 18.5 acres an hour.

You're worrying about income while ignoring the fact that prior to 1800 the vast majority of people never bought food, you grew it. You didn't NEED income to survive prior to industrialisation as you could make / do everything you needed. There's a reason the income graph is such a sharp incline. The ability to outsource work led to a catastrophic expansion of requiring to outsource work to compete to make money to buy stuff you couldn't make because you bloody outsourced the work and forgot how to do it or lacked the basic equipment / know how.

I don't remember who said it, but its one of my favorite sayings: "the lathe is the only machine that can make itself"

Now, think about that when he mentioned the small parts made for clocks and watches. When you check the dates in which clockmakers were already designing those miniscule parts with such precision, you have to admire the amazing mechanical engineering skills that people had back then to make such a small and complicated thing as a watch. All those tiny gears, screws, dials, pins, *BY HAND*

I ran a lathe when I was 18-19 which was built in the 1920s. As a youngster I thought it was fascinating that something had lasted so long, and was still so precise.

Our family's claim to fame is that my grandfather, Jacob, a poor Croatian American immigrant learned the trade and machined the carburetor for the Spirit of St. Louis. Machine tool history is important and you capture it well.

I've worked as a machinist more than fifty years, and never ran across this lathe, I had focused on the British taking and expanding exponentially, this is truly the machine that set off the industrial revolution, the lathe earned it's nickname, "mother of all machine tools" because the precision screws are the key to much of the advancement, even to this day. I believe I could work that lathe, it's about fifty years older than my first. Thanks for the very clear, well informed demonstration of this "machine thinking", I'm retired now, but can hardly go a day without turning something, and if I can, it's either Sunday, or a day on the mill. Thanks so much, I've seen lots of old lathes in museums, and working but this is my first look at this, and was what allowed Naismith to do his work, and gave impetus to Joseph Whitworth, who established surface plates, fine measuring, and provided for the "exchangeable parts concept" to become a reality. It is a beauty!!

What I find interesting about the invention of the first woodworking lathe is that it wasn't thought of until centuries after the pottery wheel. You'd think in all that time someone would have thought about putting a pottery wheel on its side.

As a machinist toolmaker I can say that the modern lathe is extremely important. Think about this, all modern societies must have a machine shop.

My dad was a machinist model maker and I have his Atlas 8" lathe he used to tinker with at home. I am nothing but a metal butcher but it is fulfilling to make parts when needed. He learned when he was about 14 making parts for WWII effort in a neighborhood shop. Everyone contributed to the war effort at the time.

When you think how RU-vid is so often misused, it is gratifying that there are channels like this one to restore the balance. Thanks. Sincerely.

The worm hole of youtube subscriptions had led me to this and I love it. Sometimes, the algorithm gets it right

Watching this from my farm, where I’m shopping around for a new lathe.

During my engineering first thing I was taught was that "lathe is mother of all machines "..

The lathe is the only machine in a machine shop that can duplicate itself and all the other machines which have to start with the lathe. One of the best videos I've seen to date.

I always wondered about this. I fantasize that I'm back in time and it's my job to remember how to manufacture essentials like steel, electric motors, lightbulbs, transistors, etc. I imagine the process and I always come back to the problem of precision. Then I realize in order to have what we have today you first need the tools that preceded them. Suddenly the problem becomes one of learning the history of manufacturing.

I was taught that the lathe was the first tool that could replicate it self in machine shop class when I was training to be a machinist

Just wanting to sharea a story : I remember few years back, just starting undergraduate study in Manufacturing engineering. One of the subject was Machine Handling and it was the first time I laid my eyes on a lathe machine. University was not the best time Ive experience, I had difficulties finding stuff that brings joy to me. Except for that subject as I get to have a go on a Lathe machine and I was very excited to go that class. I always have an interest in crafts and workshop but I did not have the right knowledge and exposure of what it is. I never new this machine existed and I didnt know I can own one privately. During that class, I too watched some other tutorials on how use and maintain a lathe machine. One of my next big project is to have my iwn personal workshop, and a lathe machine is a must have.

My favorite thing is you still mark farming as a viable necesity to modern day life. Farming, fortunately, is timeless. We will always have farms and farmers.

Farmer here. Thanks for the adendums! Also, I have a lathe, lol.

6/27/2019 USA Grandpa Bill: You, the speaker here, have a remarkable voice. Along with your natural ability of voice, you have perfect enunciation, intonation, pace, and right-now-with-us-sharing that brings to life these collections of photos in a most engaging way. Your writing, or script, is excellent. I'm 71 years old and have listened to thousands of voices. Yours is at the top of the list of those I prefer to hear. Thank you for being here.

I have often wondered where the origins of the metal lathe were from. Thank you for doing the work to produce this. I was captivated, as a young kid, by watching my grandfather make an eyeglass screw. He was mad because K-mart wanted a dollar for it! It's turned into a life long hobby. As I write this, I'm in the process of building an electric longline hauler. The one machine I could not be without is an old Lodge and Shipley metal lathe. It was produced to be driven by line shafting. The newest patent on the machine is 1928! After nearly 100 years, it can still produce .001" accuracy! These machines were birthed from this one. Just so amazing! Thanks again for posting. Bravo!!!!!

for a channel i've never heard of, this is some high quality excellent content. It looks like you're getting recommended so i hope you get a hearty surge of subscribers from this deserved surge

This video, (The Machine that Made Everything) and also The Origins of Precision are two of the best works I have ever had their pleasure of viewing on YT. Thank You!

First tool I bought myself when I first moved into my house on my own was a smaller sized but absolutely priceless Atlas Metal lathe which I still use till this day. Your exactly correct about the one tool that's changed the world and brought about the industrial revolution, I would have to say a Metal Lathe and then invert the Lathe and now you have a drill press and a Milling Machine! Now we can make perfectly round and perfectly flat parts! Cool video Man! I agree with you 100% because up until this point, all they had were iron/steel forges and everything was a one off design and replication or duplication was nearly if not impossible. The only thing that was something they could reproduce via the metal forge needed hand made dies for pressing/hammering molten metal into shapes, things like nails for wood working and horseshoes. I know being a engineer and my hobbies revolve around all sorts of mechanical and electrical things, it's only practical to have the right tools for the job.

I made a trip to Paris July 31 2019 just to go see this machine. It was mezmerizing. I stood there after finally finding it after an hour or so trekking through this what turned out to be one the most diverse and fascinating museum ever. I took a 100 pics of it. The interesting thing is the data plate on the case. No mention of being this wonderful invention that it is. The craftsmanship is mind blowing. How did he make the leadscrew so accurate and the cross slide. After 30 min or so the wife's like we have to move on. I said I have 10K wrapped up in this trip I'm getting my money's worth. So 5 sec later we moved on. If you can, definitely go see it. The rest of the museum is awesome. 3 floors of about 2500 yrs or more of machines, tools, everything up to space travel. Well worth the I think it 10 Euros. Keep in mind there was no A/C throughout most of it. So it was really hot on the 3rd and 2nd floor. The "tour" starts on the 3rd. So you have to take the elevator up and start there. There is a really nice cafe on 1 as you exit. We had lunch there and it was good. Sat outside because even at 90+ it was still cooler out there.

School: Look at this history! Me: Nah, I don't wanna RU-vid: Look at this history! Me: *I'm interested.*

The word "lathe" is from a lath, a strip of wood used as a spring, that pulled the leather strip back as seen in the illustration of a man hollowing a round block of wood into a bowl. Without a lath, the woodworker had his apprentice pulling the strap back. A lath allowed the boy to do other work.

I remember when I was just getting into machining about 15 years ago, I needed to turn a part for a single one-off project. I felt guilty about buying a lathe for it. It felt like like an impulse buy. However, I find now that I use it about twice as much as I use my mill. I'd buy it again even if the only thing I ever did with it is trueing up poorly cut ends.

Im glad there is a video about this. I've been a machine designer my entire life. The lathe was the first machine tool certainly helped the industrial revolution. Here is the kicker. In the 1 century A.D. a guy named Hero of Alexandria invented a very simple steam engine. Everyone thought it was a spinning toy. Had someone back then realized you could have slapped Hero's invention on a lathe the industrial revolution would have started 2000 years earlier than it did.

"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions." -- Oliver Wendell Homes Sr. Subbed at 0:24.

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

The reason that the internal combustion engine became the power plant for cars and aircraft was that it could be made from a lathe. The key invention of the Wright Brothers which made powered flight possible was an aluminum block internal combustion engine. The holes for the combustion chambers were bored out using a lathe. The cylinder heads were cut precisely to fit with a lathe. The invention of aluminum smelting using electricity in the 1880s made aluminum very cheap. These were the key factors that allowed for the building of a light enough engine that could power a heavier than air aircraft. None of these key features were patentable, btw, as all the technology of internal combustion engines had been developed years earlier. The Wright brothers were just the first to use the now cheap and affordable aluminum blocks to build a lightweight aluminum block internal combustion engine that could power an airplane. Their only patenable idea was their use of wing warping as control surfaces for the airplane, which they used to such devastating effect to protect their invention that aircraft development in the U.S. lagged far behind the European countries, thus causing the US to have no effective aircraft for WWI.

Just found this excellent bit of history...thank you for solving a (more than) 64 y/o mystery. For the majority of my adult life I've been, at varying times, a Ships Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Machinist or general fabricator. Raised and still living on a farm, still doing my own machine work and still loving both occupations, there was a phrase my father (born and raised in the Appalachian coal fields) used to employ whenever someone had a petty complaint, that never made any sense, whatsoever...until now. (For any history buffs, this will also give you a better idea of how isolated Appalachia was, even up to the mid 20th century) The phrase, if you'll pardon the crudeness, "...You'd complain if somebody shit on your plate..." now has context....along with the expression "...mind blown...'' that my father, of all people, would use such an antiquated and obscure reference...amazing... I've always known there were some rather antiquated aspects to Appalachian culture, but this brings into focus just HOW antiquated some were. Thanks for the education and illumination!

Back when I started in the machine trades, there were old lay-shafts and pullys left above which were driven by steam. The steam plant was still existent though not functioning. Many of the existing machines had been converted to electricity in the teens and early 20's and the original motors still ran (though not efficiently). I remember going from tape driven machines (Bridgeport mills) to the 5 axis CNCs of today. Amazing.

This museum is a hidden treasure in Paris and really worth a visit. It also has the 'original' Foucault pendulum. I can't recommend it highly enough for a visit.

I'm pleased you gave due credit to the steam engine, which (in my view) was the great driver of industrial advance. Of course the lathe was a pre-requisite for the manufacture of steam engines. But then the power to drive lathes was generally derived from steam. So I think the two operated in parallel.

The US public education style of learning needs to end. What the hell is the point of months of "studying" the industrial revolution if I learned more in this video and videos like this in merely minutes.

You remind me of a famous RU-vidr named “Mustard” both of you guys have very interesting random topics that people don’t really think about very much. And I thank you for that! Never stop learning and growing your intelligence!

I like your description of Machine Thinking. I would summarize it as, “The crafter shapes the tool, and then the tool shapes the crafter.” 🤓👍

I have a truck driver friend who, in a desperate attempt to elevate the respect his chosen profession receives, is always saying, "Without truck drivers, you'd be naked, cold & hungry". And I always like to point out to him, without a machinist running a lathe, he'd be a stagecoach driver. He hates it because he knows it's true...

Somebody needs to talk ClickSpring into making a replica 1751 lathe after he finishes his brass solar calendar

If a person 5000 years ago - Put a single penny in the bank - With 3% compound annual interest - Now that person would - Still be dead

The printing press. Yeah, okay, maybe not right away...or quickly at all. But being able to widely distribute knowledge is incredibly important to all of the people who came later who could easily access books on mathematics, physics, and so on.

“Invention of farming” “Income” *fart noises*

*If this was 1835, I would have carved you one big thumbs up.* *_But its 2019, so I cast & machined you 12 dozen thumbs up! Enjoy!_*

This is the perfect video for my grandma because when I told her that I want to buy a lathe she said something like "oh please, such a stupid thing, and you won't even use it".

Watching this video in a combine

Too bad I can no longer be a 1600 peasant working in the fields :(

This machine is more beautiful than the Mona Lisa.

*If you need a lathe and a milling machine made out of metal to make a lathe and milling machine out of metal how did they do that for the first time* ? Go back through modern history and we always have tools made by tools. How did they bridge the gap and make tools that had to be made by tools? You can black smith gears and cams to an accuracy needed to make tools.

"He invented a programmable loom, but all the credit went to someone who later made modern improvements." *proceeds to credit none of the inventors of earlier lathes, even the all-metal ones used for clocks, because Vaucanson made modern improvements* Also, Andrey Nartov deserves a mention for inventing that slide rest which you claim makes it the first modern lathe

You work with two of my favorite subjects, machinery and history. You have earned my like and subscription in this way. Keep up the good work.

Absolutely fascinating. I feel more well rounded for having watched this

Machines that make machines . The FabLab concept ,I built my own cncs engravers ,mills and 3d printer. Vaucanson would love to live now ,with the electronic and the internet. Our time ,is more than ever time for inventions. Never was easier. Let's see what comes out.

Lathe? You mean analogue CNC?

I was a lathe operator till CNC took over. I’m gonna buy one and a milling machine and a few others and start my own custom machine shop someday

I am a firm believer that the 3D printer and the materials they use is going to do for humankind what the lathe did in the 1900's.

It is the lathe that gives us the expression "to turn something into something."

The first all-metal lathe changed how much wealth and productivity a person could achieve, creating new levels of comfort for most of the world. The emergence of AI is as big as the first all-metal lathe, and it will kick-start a new boom of innovation, comfort, and wealth the world has never seen before. The downside of new technologies is that the more profound their progress, the more dangerous they become for us. Without the lathe, we would never have made weapons of mass destruction. The same will be said of AI!

Boss: You're late. Why Me: My car is a Vaucanson duck. Boss: What do you mean? Me: It just took a sh*t. Boss: But it's mechanical. Me: That never stopped Vaucansons duck niether.

Metal lathes are infinitely underrated.

5:19 This is called a force multiplier. And it's exactly 1 of 2 guiding principles on which IT and the silicon revolution operate. The other guiding principle? "When you do things right, no one is sure you've done anything at all"

The industrial revolution for USA started here in my home state of Rhode Island . The original mill and machine shop are still here. Slater mill . This is also home to Brown & Sharpe , they made precision measuring instruments. The mills were hard work but, they drew young people to get away from farm life . Which was hard work and not always profitable.

thanks for the entertaining insite! when friends ask me what the major phase-changes in technogy were, i usually responded with three; 1) the knot/weaving 2) printing press 3) the selenoid, or electromagnet you've convinced me to stick the metal lathe in there i guess at 2.5

Every since I was a young boy, I always thought the most valuable thing ever made by man was the fastener. Ex: Nails, Screws, Nuts, Bolts. They hold our houses together, they hold our machines together. Even the lathes in this video are held together by fasteners. The only other thing more valuable that man has ever made in history??? Fire. *Drops phone, walks to bed. Great video BTW.

Great video with very interesting history. This is even more relevant to me in that I just acquired my own lathe this past year, long with a few other machines. I chose machines made and used during world war 2 due to their inherent quality, precision, and historical significance. Thank you for this story!

A lot of things came about around the same time- machines, electricity which meant lights, electric motors, elevators, automobiles, airplanes, typewriters, the telegraph naturally led to telephones, radio, TV, computers, one invention led to many others

My old machinist friends said that the horizontal milling machine was the one tool that could reproduce itself. It too is an amazing and versatile though unsung tool.

Henry Maudslay was instrumental in the invention of the first industrial screw-cutting lathe that enabled repeatability.

Wow! What an excellent channel for technology buffs. MT's explanations are clear, detailed and relevant. I just binge-watched all the videos on his website and I want more. The narrowboat ride across the aqueduct was amazing and scary even though I'm on the other side of the pond. Keep the new material coming!

Those crankshafts there were pretty cute. :D The company I work for produces these things for ship engines. They have a length of about 17.5m and weigh close to 50t. It's always amazing to see those things, especially when they're finished. The engines they're built into have a power of about 11878bhp.

Today you can build fully automated CNC routers and Lathes at home with stepper motors and raspberry pi's.

"I invented a robot!" "Yeah... but can it poop?"

From the thumbnail image, I thought this was going to be about a metal bolt or screw. The screw is a simple machine we use to make a lot of things, after all. But… I suppose the lathe (the industrial, metal, lathe, made by the guy with the name I have trouble with) is fitting for that role in history. Cool video; I learned stuff.

Never heard of the Malthusian trap, but it’s what I’ve been thinking my entire life. Not surprised to know I wasn’t the first to think of it, but surprised it was 300+ years ago. Thank your for sharing.

I think it is more complex than this. Mechanical prowess and learning were already spooling up in the Middle Ages. The first mechanical clock, the first musical synthesizer (pipe organs), full body armour, the first guns, cathedrals made possible by a new type of arch, printing presses - making the spread of knowledge possible. Things were gradually falling in place post the collapse of the Roman empire under the stability of the church in Europe which sponsored scientists and maintained learning in isolated centres in the dark ages. It then accelerated post reformation; people were finally allowed to read the bible and people got used to the idea of testing tradition; with first church tradition being tested against the bible and then observations tested against nature - Newton in particular - pushing empiricism married to mathematics, as he felt creation must be rational - because the biblical God was rational. So basically, the birth of the scientific method was key. I think the scaled-up watch makers lathe was certainly part of it, but not the whole picture.

"Used for boring cannons" Have you even *seen* a cannon?! Those things are awesome! Exciting as hell, not at all boring!

You have a good point, the lathe is very important, it also allowed farms to produce substantially more food, thank you farmers!

1. Never knew this machine was called a lathe 2. Never knew this was such in important machine! 3. Thanks for the informative video, I learnt a lot about the history of lathes and its uses

Coffee machines are the most important group of inventions

I saw that lathe and i thought it was like 1901, not 1751!

Nice presentation. Turned out smoothly. It's Miller Time!

Another factor worth considering for the elbow in that hockey stick graph was the overthrow of guild monopolies over handicrafts by machine production lines. Wealth production via machinery also needed an educated workforce which was a huge impulse towards universal literacy as an objective of the state. The growth of literacy also broke the Church's monopoly on knowledge and the aristocracy's monopoly on wealth production. Unfortunately, the new captains of industry became the neo-aristocracy whose caste system created the labor abuses of the Industrial Revolution which begat Karl Marx & Co..

Farmer who couldn't keep his hands of his wife?? He fired all his hands and bought a combine harvester! Lol.

I have a lathe and end mill in my home shop. It always amazes me the what I can do with those two machines when I put my mind to it.

Your videos are some of the best You Tube content that I have seen. You are making the world a better place with your work.

Outstanding. Subscribed tonight. Keep up the good work. DOUG out

The modern world's pinnacle achievement in automata: Chuck-E-Cheese and Friends.

The machine that truly defines the Skyrim: Enchanting & Alchemy Loop.

Thanks for the video. The one thing more fascinating to me is/are the men and women that invented these machines. What brilliance. I wonder if they ever imagined what impact they would have on the future.

The importance of precision is understated. Precision means interchangeability. Before precision each had to be made to fit each individual item. In the American Civil War rifles had parts that would only fit that rifle. The need for precision to make interchangeable parts was born and so modern industrial methods, quality control to ensure interchangeability. And that created consumerism.

What a fantastic video. I was always upset that Vaucanson never got the same "household name" status for his amazing achievement. Recorded history is certainly a strange, often unfair and fickle thing.

Look at the frame of Vaucanson's duck machine, it's very similar to the lathe. It makes a lot of sense that Vaucanson started with the automata and then shifted to industrial applications. When a cabinetmaker or boat builder learns how to make a few jigs, it's not long before they start making jigs that can't be found in any books. I've got several. They're not important in anyway, but they're useful to me. It's just that once you mechanically figure out how to do one thing, you can apply not the techniques but the mode of thinking to many other areas. 9:00 getting close to another way of looking at this. I consider myself to be in the top .000001 percent of the wealthiest people who've ever lived. I live in a ratty rental house, and am not a millionaire, but I'm wealthier than Napoleon. What kind of computer did he have? I read 100 books a year, have traveled where Marco Polo traveled. There's a famous traveling monk in Japan, I've been more places than he ever traveled to in Japan, in his whole life. I was there for two months. I traveled some of his routes, then I got on a train and was quickly someplace else. My car (Prius) turns itself on and off to save gas. The cars I had through the 1990s it was often difficult getting them to start the first time in the morning, and after a few years keeping them running took a lot of work. Because of how businesses are organized a few people at the top keep almost all the profit, this is not at all fair; in the U.S. middle class income is stagnating, there are still millions of poor people. However a critical aspect of wealth in the vastly improved intrinsic usefulness of our thing. No one had a TV in 1990 as good as the ones to be had for $150. (So the key step to being wealthy is 1. don't have any debt 2. learn as much as you can about as many things as you can. ) A good book you'd be interested in is David Deutsch The Beginning of Infinity. His basic point, based on Georg Cantor's mathematics of infinities, is that not only will we continue inventing new things, we will continue accelerating the pace at which we invent new things; and we will never run out of things to invent. Because of how the mathematics of infinities work, we will always be at the beginning. Stone axe: 150,000 years, Bronze Age 1500? Iron Age? 500? Steel? 100 ? Moore's law..... We hit limits, like airline travel and the speed of sound. We can go faster, but so far it's not been economically viable. We will blow right through that limit someday, it might be with tunnels. Virtual Reality might get so good, it will be better than traveling. If you look at interchangeable parts. Pretty obvious idea, right? But someone had to take a look at a shed full of guys filing away all the parts of a musket to make them all fit together in each musket.... and instead of thinking, "Pierre is slacking off again..." the guy thinks, 'Henri is good at filing the metal parts, Bertrand is better at shaping the wooden stocks....' and where did the two key ideas come from? The important first step was to think, What's the better way to do this? and only then: If we made the parts all the same size.... (I would guess that both ideas probably started with threaded bolts/screws and nuts.Making wood screws: a lot of variation is tolerable, but making a thread to fit a nut, that's a lot harder. figuring out how to do this more than once demands standardization and then the critical idea is right there: If I make tools and machines to do this, the parts will fit .... not only will they work better, but I can then make a lot more of them more quickly. Which leads to looking for other areas where this general idea of standardization is not only better, but faster, and more useful. After how many years of doing this does it take to arrive at the idea that everything can be endlessly improved? Had Hero's steam engine found some use, some Roman James Watt might have made a better one. I think that in many many human organizations coming up with the better way of doing something meets resistance, leading to trouble. One critical step I think it's been said is the American axe. The Europeans used the same unbalanced wood axe for 1000 years. They arrive in North America where trees are unlimited, they are going to have to chop a lot more wood. Also these people are all misfits, they didn't fit in in Britain, so their bigoted conformity was limited to religion and racism, they quickly came up with a better axe, and then a better one. I think the American 'Idea' is every tool can be improved, and there never will be a perfect anything. (Think of all the 'perfect ideas' Marx, Freud, fascism... they all came out of central Europe, even Martin Luther. Any American who thinks this way is ultimately scorned. The current fetish of algorithms by Silicon Valley billionaires is an example. Steve Jobs will be remembered, Facebook will fade into a punchline. )

In a Round about way, the lathe has come full circle👍😁

I come home from my shift running manual lathes in a repair shop, and see this. I certainly understand how important this is. I've made parts for electric motors, hydraulic excavators, engine flywheels, and now large pumps, and I also volunteer to make parts for steam locomotives.

They should just play your videos in school