In 1794 President George Washington authorized the manufacture of flintlock muskets and other military weaponry at the Springfield Armory located on a hill overlooking the Connecticut River in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. For a 174 years, until it was closed in 1968, the "Arsenal of Freedom" made weapons for the fighting forces of the United States. Many a serviceman went into battle carrying a Springfield musket or rifle.Much of the success of the Armory was due to its machinery and the much of the success of the machinery can be attributed to American Inventor, Thomas Blanchard. Born in Sutton Massachusetts, Blanchard lived most of his life in Springfield. His first patented invention of a machine to make tacks. Blanchard was then hired by the Army to design machines to make guns. He spent much of his career working for the Armory. In 1818 he developed a copying lathe (profile lathe) that traced a model to turn gunstocks, producing the desired contour automatically. The invention of the duplicating lathe by Blanchard at the Springfield Armory was one of the most significant developments in American industrial history. It permitted exact duplication of irregular wooden shapes, such as gun stocks, wagon spokes and felloes, shoe lasts, any wooden object with and irregular pattern. This was an important step in creating mass production techniques.With this invention Blanchard started pioneering 2 manufacturing concepts that would not only change the Armory but the mechanical revolution itself: 1- interchangeable parts and 2- assembly lines. This invention, soon known as the Blanchard Lathe, was being used in other industries for turning of all kinds of irregular forms.The machine in the photo is one of the original models of the lathe (circa 1818).
