Existing comment:
The Noise of Invention
"We... are standing in the lower machine shop amid a bewildering roar of whirling wheels and swiftly speeding leather bands. Grimy workmen are hammering and chipping grotesque looking castings of iron and steel.... while all around others are directing the movements of enormous machines."
-- Horace Townsend, "Edison, His Work and His Work Shop," Cosmopolitan, April 1889, page 605
Powering Things:
The sound of whirring leather belts and the ring of metal on metal once filled this shop. A steam engine in the adjacent Building 6 Power House spun the two belt-driven lineshafts, mounted overhead on ceiling brackets near the outer walls. Other leather belts ran from the line shafts to the machine tools on the floor, where the machinists could engage or disengage them to start and stop the machines. The steam engine was replaced by two large electric motors in 1910.
Making Things:
Across the center aisle is a large flatbed metal planer, purchased in 1887. Its 12-foot bed could hold large pieces of steel, which workers could then shave down, or plane, to precise thickness.
Moving Things:
Down the center aisle running the length of the shop are two rails mounted on posts with a traveling crane crossing between them. The crane has a chain hoist, which could lift up to six tons (that's 12,000 pounds!). Workers used the crane and hoist to lift heavy machines or parts and then move them to where they were needed.
Drilling Things:
To the right of the planer is a radial drill press, which was installed in 1888. It was used by machinists to bore holes in metal that were the exact size, location, and angle specified. Floorboards would be removed to accommodate very large pieces. Other tools in the shop include presses, milling machines, metal shapers, lathes, and grinders. |