THE increasing demand for technical instruction by engineering students and apprentices has led me to prepare this book in the hope that it may prove useful as an aid to the working of machine tools, and to workshop practice generally.
The number of machine tools is constantly being increased, and the method of doing work is very different to that which was in operation several years ago.
In every branch of work the introduction of new ways of doing things has caused a division in the class of operatives. Many machines are working automatically on repetition work with a result quite as surprising as it is satisfactory. This has, therefore, caused a specially skilled class of tool-makers to be employed in the preparation of cutting tools, on the one hand, while the machines themselves can be operated by men. of only slight experience.
The chapters on Measurement, Turret Lathes, Grinding, and Milling have been prepared and illustrated in detail, these being considered most important.
The subjects have been taken up in the order found by experience in teaching to be most suitable for the beginner to grasp. Several old students have kindly assisted me in the revision of this work.
My thanks are due to many engineers and firms referred to, and to Mr. Claude W. Hill, A.M.I.C.E., M.I.E.E., M.I.M.E., for a contribution on the "Method of Working."
I have also had willing assistance in the preparation of this book from Messrs. The Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Co., Providence, R.I., U.S.A.; Messrs. The Jones and Lamson Machine Co., Springfield, Vermont, U.S.A.; and Messrs. The Unbreakable Pulley Co., Manchester, for some particulars on the transmission of power.