This is one of the machines from the suite of American gunmaking tools that were brought to the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield from 1856, to modernise and accelerate production.

The machine is a 'copy lathe', where a master shape governs the path of a cutter moving over each new workpiece, and was designed to reduce the handwork needed to generate a complex three-dimensional form. The machine reflects the copying lathe devised early in the nineteenth century at the Spingfield armoury by Thomas Blanchard and also has parallels with the sculpture copying machines that James Watt developed from 1804 after his retirement from steam engine work. The line of development from tools such as this also extends forward in time to the computer numerically controlled (CNC) machining centres of today.

The stock to be shaped and a pattern were mounted side by side, fixed to spindles that are connected by gearing so as to rotate together.

Inv. 1966-58