Quixoticgeek

Possibly one of the most important machines you've never heard of. This is Vaucanson's metal cutting lathe in the Musée des arts et métiers in Paris.

This is credited as the first precision metal cutting lathe. From this device every modern metal cutting lathe can trace its history back. From the prismatic ways, to get carriage, lead screw, and cross slide. Even the interchangeable cutter on the end of the cross slide.

From this lathe, modern precision mechanisation began.

Jan 19 at 2:03pmWeb
Show threadJeffrey P BurdickJan 19

@quixoticgeek One of my favorite museums. They have a Jacquard loom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_des_Arts_et_M%C3%A9tiers

I learned about The from this video and was fortunate to visit in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA

Musée des Arts et Métiers - Wikipedia

Show threadQuixoticgeekJan 19
@burdickjp it's wonderful. It's becoming one of my favourite museums I've ever visited. They have a Jacquard loom, but more importantly. They have Vaucanson's loom which Jacquard's is a development upon.
Show threadJeffrey P BurdickJan 19
@quixoticgeek I watched that video I linked and then didn't look into anything else about the museum. It was a pleasant surprise to not know what I was going to see until I got there.
Show threadArthur GronJan 19
@quixoticgeek @burdickjp I do like a good technology museum.
Show threadQuixoticgeekJan 20
@arthurgron @burdickjp I took that same photo today...
Show threadF4GRX SébastienJan 19
@burdickjp @quixoticgeek best museum.
Show threadF4GRX SébastienJan 19
@burdickjp @quixoticgeek one day I'll take a full day off and I will visit it *alone* so I can spend as many time as I want to look at each machine.
Show threadarclightJan 19

@quixoticgeek Maybe it's the photo angle but I'm not seeing where the workpiece is held - no indication of a headstock or spindle.

I still think it's hilarious that the main tools for making a precise and flat lathe bed are a very flat rock, a slightly less flat straightedge, some ink, and a scraper.

Show threadQuixoticgeekJan 19
@arclight you can see to the left at the far end a point. That is one end of the world holding. There's a second to the left of where I'm photographing from. The work is turned between centres.
Show threadrrmuttJan 19
@quixoticgeek I guess he needed good tools to craft the Digesting Duck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digesting_Duck
Digesting Duck - Wikipedia

Show threadF4GRX SébastienJan 19

@quixoticgeek you know this video and this channel, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA

The 1751 Machine that Made Everything

YouTube
Show threadQuixoticgeekJan 19
@f4grx that video is why I went to the museum today.
Show threaddelProfundoJan 19
@quixoticgeek I love this device. Still planning on seeing it for reals one day.
Show thread60sRefugeeMar 22
@quixoticgeek Or to put it another way: this is why modern stuff doesn't look like it was made by the Flintstones, or a six year-old's craft project.