Inside the Soho Foundry, steam-engine construction was carefully 'systematised'. These two drilling machines may have been from the Foundry's original drilling shop.
Image: Science Museum/SSPL
A world first
Building the Soho Foundry began in 1795 and was completed in 1796. John Southern remarked that the lavish opening ceremony, attended by 200 guests, was accompanied by 'a little, or rather not a little, thieving'.
The Foundry was the world's first specially built engineering shop. Equipped and organised to build complete engines, it soon prospered. The workforce of up to 1000 men was capable of building around 20 complete engines per year.
How did the foundry achieve such success?
