American Precision Museum
|
Robbins and Lawrence Armory and Machine Shop
|
|
The American Precision Museum
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | S. Main St., Windsor, Vermont |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 43°28′29″N 72°23′23″W / 43.47472°N 72.38972°WCoordinates: 43°28′29″N 72°23′23″W / 43.47472°N 72.38972°W |
| Area | 1.75 acres (0.71 ha) |
| Built | 1846 |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000796 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 13, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | November 13, 1966 |
The American Precision Museum is located in the renovated 1846 Robbins & Lawrence factory on South Main Street in Windsor, Vermont. The building is said to be the first U.S. factory at which precision interchangeable parts were made, giving birth to the precision machine tool industry. In recognition of this history, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
A "machine tool" is a machine which makes parts to other machines, such as screws or , generally without a skilled craftsman doing the precision work. Instead, a machine operator controls the machine as it does the precision work. Lathes, milling machines, and drill presses are precision machine tools. The museum has the largest collection of historically significant machine tools in the United States.
The museum is open daily from 10am until 5pm from Memorial Day Weekend through October. Admission is free on Sundays.
Richard S. Lawrence, a brilliant mechanic, moved to Windsor in 1838 at age 21 and started making guns in the Windsor Prison. He joined N. Kendall, who had a gun-making shop, and together started a new company. Four years later businessman Samuel E. Robbins came to Windsor and, with Lawrence and Kendall, procured a government contract to produce 10,000 guns. Over the next eight years, the factory was built and machines to make precision parts were made. Those early machines made parts precise enough to be interchangeable, the first achievement of that long-term goal. Later, Lawrence bought out Kendall.
There are two reasons that Robbins & Lawrence can be considered as founders of the precision tool industry. In 1851, Robbins and Lawrence traveled to London to demonstrate their rifles at the Great Exhibition, held in London’s Crystal Palace. The rifles were made in Windsor using interchangeable parts. They won a medal and so impressed the British Army that they placed an order for 25,000 rifles for the Crimean War and also ordered 141 of the Robbins & Lawrence metal-working machines making the firm the first large-scale exporter of machine tools. Thus began the “American System” for producing interchangeable parts which accelerated the development of the precision tool-making industry that followed rapidly.
...
Wikipedia