stated that when
he first became acquainted with mechanical engineering, about sixty
years ago, there were no self-acting tools; everything was executed by
hand. There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines; and
the whole stock of an engineering or machine establishment might be
summed up in a few ill-constructed lathes, and a few drills and boring
machines of rude construction.[10] Our mechanics were equally backward
in contrivances for working in wood. Thus, when Sir Samuel Bentham
made a tour through the manufacturing districts of England in 1791, he
was surprised to find how little had been done to substitute the
invariable accuracy of machinery for the uncertain dexterity of the
human hand. Steam-power was as yet only employed in driving
spinning-machines, rolling metals, pumping water, and such like
purposes. In the working of wood no machinery had been introduced
beyond the common turning-lathe and some saws, and a few boring tools
used in making blocks for the navy. Even saws worked by inanimate
force for slitting timber, though in extensive use in foreign
countries, were nowhere to be found in Great Britain.[11] As
everything depended on the dexterity of hand and correctness of eye of
the workmen, the work turned out was of very unequal merit, besides
being exceedingly costly. Even in the construction of comparatively
simple machines, the expense was so great as to present a formidable
obstacle to their introduction and extensive use; and but for the
invention of machine-making tools, the use of the steam-engine in the
various forms in which it is now applied for the production of power
could never have become general.

In turning a piece of work on the old-fashioned lathe, the workman
applied and guided his tool by means of muscular strength. The work
was made to revolve, and the turner, holding the cutting tool firmly
upon the long, straight, guiding edge of the rest, along which he
carried it, and pressing its point firmly against the article to be
turned, was thus enabled to reduce its surface to the required size and
shape. Some dexterous turners were able, with practice and
carefulness, to execute very clever pieces of work by this simple
means. But when the article to be turned was of considerable size, and
especially when it was of metal, the expenditure of muscular strength
was so great that the workman soon became exhausted. The slightest
variation in the pressure of the t