Road Trip - 4
The museum had a very nice reception for exhibitors: Vermont chesses, wine and local craft beers. In addition, we got the tour of the "attic"
The first stop was the library where they have nearly every issue of "American Machinist" which began publishing shortly after the American Civil War.
Then, perhaps one of the most fascinating collections of rare machinery and tools I've ever seen. They have about 100 machines on display and rotate others in and out. The total collection numbers over 4,000 pieces including very early examples of devices with interchangeable parts: typewriters, sewing machines and machinery. Lots of machinery. When it was built not just for function, but also for beauty.
The watt-hour meter from Thomas Edison's lab.
A Norden bombsight from WW2
An indexing engraver to produce machinist's scales.
I didn't get a shot of the logarithmic indexing engraver used by Keuffel and Esser to manufacture slide rules. They also have a horizontal rotary indexing engraver used in the manufacture of surveyor's transits.
Of particular interest is the collection of miniature tools by John Aschauer. This steam plant was started when he was an apprentice at age 14 and completed 4 years later. Everything runs.
And one for Brian
They have a 155 pound bench micrometer made by Brown and Sharpe in 1878 to measure their gauge blocks. It's accurate to 1/100,000"
Much of this and more is on the website. Worth a look.
http://www.americanprecision.org/
