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The American Precision Museum by Robert R. Rhodehamel and Edwin A. Battison (review)

1974; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 15; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tech.1974.a892737

1097-3729

Merritt Roe Smith,

Museums and Cultural Heritage

Museum Review The American Precision Museum (Windsor, Vermont 05089). Chairman, Board of Trustees: Robert R. Rhodehamel. Director: Edwin A. Battison. Open daily 1:00-5:00 p.m. from May 30 through October 15. Admission: Adults, $1.00; children, $.50; spe­ cial group rates also available. “Of all the older shops none had a greater influence than that of Robbins & Lawrence, Windsor, Vt., on the development of modern machine tools and specialized forms of them. To three men [Richard S. Lawrence, Frederick W. Howe, and Henry D. Stone] who worked in the shops in the early fifties are due the design, in whole or in part, of the miller, profiler, vertical lathe turret and many other machines used in interchangeable manufacture.”1 With minor revisions these comments, penned by the noted engineer-historian Joseph Wickham Roe, have stood the test of scholarly inquiry for nearly sixty years. Indeed, Robbins & Lawrence stood foremost among those private establishments who, in conjunction with the national armories at Springfield and Harpers Ferry, pioneered what came to be known in the 1850s as the “American System” of manufacturing. It is fitting tribute, then, that a museum devoted to the development of tools and precision techniques now occupies the most important of the original Robbins & Lawrence buildings. Historical Background Robbins & Lawrence achieved a remarkably prolific career, albeit of short duration. Originally organized by Samuel E. Robbins, Nicanor Kendall, and Richard S. Lawrence, the company entered business on large scale as a government arms contractor in February 1845.2 While 'Joseph W. Roe, “Early American Mechanics—Robbins & Lawrence Shop,” American Machinist, October 22, 1914, p. 729. Other studies treating the history of Robbins & Lawrence are Guy Hubbard, “Development of Machine Tools in New England,’’Ameri­ can Machinist, December 20, 1923, and June 26, 1924; Joseph W. Roe, English and American Tool Builders (New Haven, Conn., 1916), pp. 186-201, 281-94; and Winston O. Smith, The Sharps Rifle (New York, 1943), pp. 24-38. 2Signed on February 18, 1845, the contract provided for the manufacture of 10,000 Model 1841 percussion rifles at $11.90 per stand. See Washington, D.C., National Archives, Record Group 156, Records of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, Letters Sent, Colonel George Talcott to Robbins, Kendall & Lawrence, January 3, 1845; ibid., contract dated January 5, 1845, Contract Book no. 3 (1842-1868), pp. 58-59. 413 414 Merritt Roe Smith still engaged in arms making, the firm also manufactured an exten­ sive line of machine tools and, for a short time in 1849, made railway cars for commercial sale. Although the latter venture proved financially disastrous, Robbins & Lawrence managed to remain sol­ vent and continue the manufacture of firearms and machinery on a contract basis. In addition to an extension of their government con­ tract for percussion rifles in 1848,3 the firm also contracted for 5,000 Jennings rifles in 1850 and a like number of Sharps carbines in 1852. Soon afterward Robbins & Lawrence entered another agreement with the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company that provided for the manufacture of an additional 15,000 breechloaders and the construc­ tion of a new factory at Hartford, Connecticut. Provided with a $40,000 advance by the Sharps interests, Richard Lawrence moved to Hartford in 1853 to supervise the project. When completed two years later the works enjoyed the reputation ofbeing one of the most highly mechanized manufacturing establishments in the United States. The zenith of Robbins & Lawrence’s career came in 1854. Three years earlier the young company had attained international recogni­ tion by winning a medal of excellence for six military rifles exhibited at the Crystal Palace in London. Based on the principle of inter­ changeable parts, these weapons caught the eye of British military authorities who sent a three-man commission to the United States in February 1854 to study the so-called American System of manufac­ turing, with the express intention of introducing similar improve­ ments at the Enfield Armory near London. Upon conducting a thorough examination of outstanding manufacturing establishments in the northeast, the committee placed orders with Robbins & Law­ rence for 138 machines valued at $46,455.60. Tooled to produce components of the new Model 1853 Enfield...