1871 automatic screw-making machine - video and photo

Automatic screw-making machine, invented by Charles Vander Woerd, a superintendent at the American Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1871. This was reportedly the first automatic lathe to make watch screws. Each machine output 1200-1500 screws per day.

This nickel-plated version was likely a demonstration piece.

https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...ng_machine.jpg

55-second video of it in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYMRhoELG2Y


More: Automatic Screw Making Machine | National Museum of American History

functions with all the precision of a clock works in a watch

A thing of beauty. Must have been a very lucid dream to come up with that.

Amazing piece of history there, and beautiful workmanship.

The thing is a beauty to behold, even when it isn't running. :)