Precision and machine tools

Earth parallel: 1770–1850. Goal: machines that make machines. Without a true flat, a true screw and a true cylinder there is no steam engine.

Years 30–3646 entries0 procedures written

ID	Achievement	Thread	Built on	About year
12.01	Flat surface platesthree iron plates scraped against each other until all are truly flat	Making	10.12 10.27 11.27	30
12.02	Straightedges and squarestrue references taken from the plates	Making	12.01	30
12.03	Iron-bed lathe with slide restthe tool is held by the machine, not the hand	Making	09.16 10.13 10.27 12.02	30
12.04	Master lead screwone accurate screw, made slowly and corrected, from which all others are copied	Making	07.19 12.03	30
12.05	Screw-cutting lathe with change gearscuts any thread	Making	10.13 12.03 12.04	31
12.06	Taps, dies and standard threads	Making	10.27 12.05	31
12.07	Bolts, nuts and machine screwsthings can be taken apart and put back	Making	10.18 12.06	31
12.08	Iron screw vise and clamps	Making	10.12 12.07	31
12.09	Measuring toolscalipers, screw micrometer, sliding gauge, plug and ring gauges	Making	07.01 10.25 12.05	31
12.10	Drill press and twist drills	Making	09.12 10.13 10.27 12.07	31
12.11	Cylinder boring milla rigid bar bores a true round cylinder; the key to steam	Making	09.06 10.13 10.27 12.02	31
12.12	Planing machinetrue flat surfaces on iron	Making	10.13 12.02 12.07	32
12.13	Shapersmall flats, slots and keyways	Making	12.12	32
12.14	Milling machineturning cutters shape metal	Making	10.27 12.05 12.12	32
12.15	Dividing head and cut gearsaccurate, quiet gear teeth	Making	10.25 12.09 12.14	32
12.16	Calculating tables and slide rulegears, boilers, beams and windings designed by arithmetic	Knowledge	08.35 12.15	32
12.17	Bonded grinding wheels and tool grinder	Making	04.09 09.12 11.13 11.42	32
12.18	Precision grinding machinefinishes hardened steel to exact size	Making	12.05 12.17	32
12.19	White-metal bearings with oil cupssoft lining that runs cool at speed	Making	05.08 11.38 11.47 12.03	32
12.20	The machine shoplathes, drills and planers driven from one line shaft	Making	07.39 09.12 12.05 12.08 12.10 12.12	33
12.21	Gauges, jigs and working drawingsparts made to fit without filing	Knowledge	08.34 11.46 12.09 12.10	33
12.22	Hand printing press and cast typethe Record and the school books copied by the hundred	Knowledge	07.20 08.34 08.37 10.25 11.47	33
12.23	Council of chosen speakers and the courteach settlement sends speakers; the law is printed, and judges are drawn by lot	Society	07.07 11.52 12.22	34
12.24	Plate punch, shears and hot riveting	Making	06.18 10.13 10.19	33
12.25	Plate-bending rollscurve flat plate into boiler shells	Making	10.13 10.17	33
12.26	Valves, cocks and threaded pipe fittings	Making	10.22 10.25 12.03 12.06	33
12.27	Hydraulic presshuge force from a small pump	Making	08.02 09.19 12.11	34
12.28	Pressure gaugea curved brass tube that straightens under pressure and moves a pointer	Making	10.25 11.03 12.15	34
12.29	Pendulum clocktime to the second	Knowledge	07.08 10.25 12.15	34
12.30	Circular saw and wood-planing machine ⚠	Making	09.12 10.27 12.03	34
12.31	Seed drill and horse hoeseed sown in rows at an even depth, and weeded by a horse	Food	08.03 10.13	34
12.32	Horse-drawn reaper and threshing machinea few people harvest what once took the whole village	Food	08.11 09.12 10.13 12.07	34
12.33	Fine balanceweighs a single grain; doses and chemical tests become exact	Making	07.02 10.25 11.03 12.09	34
12.34	Colour-corrected lensestwo kinds of glass cemented together give a sharp image with no coloured fringes	Making	11.05 11.27	35
12.35	Compound microscopeshows living things a thousand times too small to see	Health	10.25 11.31 12.05 12.06 12.34	35
12.36	Hypodermic syringe and hollow needlemedicine put straight under the skin	Health	09.17 10.27 11.04 12.03	35
12.37	Fever thermometer and pulse timingfever and heartbeat as numbers	Health	11.15 12.29	35
12.38	Blood-pressure gaugea rubber cuff and a column of mercury	Health	11.15 11.69	35
12.39	Salt water into a vein ⚠replaces lost blood and fluid in the injured and in mothers after a hard birth	Health	11.68 11.69 12.36	35
12.40	Cold ether spray ⚠skin and gums chilled numb for small operations	Health	11.04 11.64 11.69	35
12.41	Eye drops for the newbornone drop of weak silver solution in each eye prevents blindness from birth	Health	05.26 11.19 11.68	35
12.42	Treadle dental drill and fillings ⚠a decayed tooth cleaned out and filled, not pulled	Health	05.26 11.14 11.59 12.15	36
12.43	Hand-cranked centrifugespins a liquid so that its parts separate	Making	11.04 12.15	36
12.44	Sewing machinea locked stitch from two threads, with the eye at the point of the needle	Cloth	10.27 12.07 12.15	36
12.45	Cloth millcarding, spinning and weaving under one roof on one line shaft	Cloth	09.26 09.27 09.29 10.13	36
12.46	Telescopethe stars and planets, ships far out at sea, and distant survey marks brought close	Knowledge	10.25 12.34	36