The
steam-hammer that bears his name, which means a ponderous and powerful
machine in which the hammer is lifted by the direct action of steam in a
piston, the lower end of whose rod is the hammer-head, has done more for
the development of the iron industry than any other mechanical
invention. It was not actually used until 1842, or '43. It finally, with
many improvements in detail, grew into a monster, the hammer-head, or
"tup," being a mass of many tons. And they of modern times were not
content merely to let this great mass fall. They let in steam above the
piston, and jammed it down upon the mass of glowing metal, with a shock
that jars the earth. The strange thing about this Titanic machine is
that it can crack an egg, or flatten out a ton or more of glowing iron.
Hundreds of the forgings of later times, such as the wrought iron or
steel frames of locomotives, and the shafts of steamers, and the forged
modern guns, could not be made by forging without this steam hammer.
[Illustration: THE STEAM HAMMER.]
Then slowly came the period of all kinds of "machine tools.
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