Making the Modern World
On Display
One of William Crooke's original radiometers.
Model of original screw-cutting lathe by Henry Maudslay, 1800. Before Maudslay's invention, screws were crudely made by hand. In this machine the combination of Maudslay's slide rest wih a power-driven screw feed was the prototype of the modern screw
Henry Maudslay's original screw-cutting lathe, c.1800. This is the machine that Maudslay used to pioneer the manufacture of highly accurate screw threads. Before Maudslay's invention, screw threads were crudely manufactured by hand. The lathe is buil
Whitworth's self-acting screw feed reversing tool box planing machine, 1842. The planing machine cuts flat surfaces in metal components. This power-driven planing machine drives a cutting tool over the workpiece, removing a small amount of metal in a
The induction motor is the most widely used form of electric motor because it is simple and robust. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), who was born in Croatia but worked in America, made the first practical induction motors. He made this working model motor t
Electric generator, one of two later installed in Souter Point lighthouse, by Frederick Hale Homes, 1867.
Two horsehair toothbrushes with ivoride handles produced by Savory and Moore in London. The Chinese are credited with inventing the use of toothbrushes and toothpastes, although the ancient Egyptians used branches with frayed ends to clean their teet
"Smoothwell" electric iron by Premier Electric Co. of Birmingham, c.1935
Six skeins and one spool of artificial silk made at Wolston, near Coventry, between 1896 and 1900.
Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) was an English inventor and engineer who invented a cheap process for maufacturing steel. He patented a process by which molten pig iron was converted to steel by blowing air through it in a Bessemer converter.This remo