Henry Maudslay's original screw-cutting lathe, c 1800.

This lathe is said to be the first workshop machine on which English engineer, Henry Maudslay (1771-1831) combined a lead-screw and change wheels for reproducing screw threads. The bed consists of two triangular bars which carry the headstock, tailstock and slide-rest. The lead-screw is situated between the bars and was geared to the lathe spindle by change wheels (now missing). Before Maudslay's invention, screws were crudely made by hand. Maudslay went on to make tools for the production of both ordinary and specialist screws for all types of machines.