. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. .'. Figure 2.—Cross-slide for the thread-cutting lathe of Das mittelalterliche Hausbuch, shown in figure 1. It is remarkable not only for its early date, but also for its high state of de- velopment with a crossfeed screw which had not become universally accepted 300 years later. The cutter, shown out of its socket, is obviously sharpened for use on wood. This proved to be an instrument of the traverse-spindle variety for threading metal. Fortunately, all essen- tial details were present including a cutter (a in figure 4); this instrument wa
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. .'. Figure 2.—Cross-slide for the thread-cutting lathe of Das mittelalterliche Hausbuch, shown in figure 1. It is remarkable not only for its early date, but also for its high state of de- velopment with a crossfeed screw which had not become universally accepted 300 years later. The cutter, shown out of its socket, is obviously sharpened for use on wood. This proved to be an instrument of the traverse-spindle variety for threading metal. Fortunately, all essen- tial details were present including a cutter (a in figure 4); this instrument was identified by the signature "Manuel Wetschgi, ; The Wetschgis were a well-known family of gunsmiths and mechanics in Augsburg through several generations. Two bore the given name Emanuel: the earlier was born in 1678 and died in 1 728. He was quite celebrated in his field of rifle making and became chief of artillery to the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel shortly before his death in his 51st year. Little is known of the later Emanuel Wetschgi except that he was at Augsburg in 1740. Tentative attribution of the instrument has been made to the earlier Emanuel, chiefly on the basis of his recognized position as an outstanding craftsman. In several respects this little machine differs from its predecessor of the Hausbuch, as might be expected when allowance is made for the generations of crafts- men who undoubtedly worked with such tools over the roughly 200 years of time separating them. Another factor to consider when comparing these two machines is that one was used on metal, the other probably only on wood. Therefore, it is not surpris- ing to find on the later machine an outboard or "tailstock" support for the work. The spindle of this support has to travel in unison with the work-driving spindle so that it is not an unexpected discovery to find that it is spring-loaded. Figure 5 shows how this spring may be adjusted to accommodate various lengths of
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Keywords: ., bookauthorun, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience
