LatheIn 1819, a U.S. patent for a profile lathe was issued to Thomas Blanchard of Middlebury, Connecticut. It was capable of manufacturing irregular forms, such as gun stocks. His machine used a friction-wheel to follow the surface of a sample pattern and a cutting wheel on the same shaft which would thus carve the workpiece to the same contour. It could produce the work of 13 operators, and thus provided the finished materials at much less cost. After inventing a tack-making machine at his brother's factory, Blanchard was recruited by the U.S. Armory at Springfield, Mass. to build machines to efficiently produce gun parts. Congress twice extended this patent, first to 1834, then to 1848, giving a total of 42 years in force.* |
