English and American Tool Builders by Joseph Wickham Roe is a comprehensive historical account that delves into the lives and contributions of notable tool makers from England and America. The book offers insight into the development of tools and machinery, highlighting the innovations and advancements that shaped various industries. Overview: The book explores the significant impact of tool builders on technological progress and industrialization in both England and America. It covers the achievements of prominent individuals who played a key role in advancing tool-making techniques and machinery. Key Elements: Historical Context: Roe provides a detailed historical background, tracing the evolution of tool-making from early developments to more modern advancements. Biographical Sketches: The book features biographical sketches of influential tool builders, offering readers a glimpse into their lives, work, and contributions to the field. Technical Insights: Roe includes technical details and descriptions of various tools and machinery, providing a deep understanding of the tools’ functions and innovations. Industrial Impact: The book discusses the broader impact of these tool builders on industrial practices and the manufacturing process, illustrating how their work influenced various sectors. Illustrations and Diagrams: Enhanced by illustrations and diagrams, English and American Tool Builders offers visual context to the text, helping readers better understand the tools and techniques described. English and American Tool Builders is a valuable resource for historians, engineers, and anyone interested in the history of technology and industrial development. Joseph Wickham Roe’s detailed research and engaging narrative offer a thorough examination of the crucial role tool builders played in shaping modern industry.

David A. Houndshell's widely acclaimed history explores the American "genius for mass production" and races its origins in the nineteenth-century "American system" of manufacture. Previous writers on the American system have argued that the technical problems of mass production had been solved by armsmakers before the Civil War. Drawing upon the extensive business and manufacturing records if leading American firms, Hounshell demonstrates that the diffusion of arms production technology was neither as fast now as smooth as had been assumed. Exploring the manufacture of sewing machines and furniture, bicycles and reapers, he shows that both the expression "mass production" and the technology that lay behind it were developments of the twentieth century, attributable in large part to the Ford Motor Company. Hounshell examines the importance of individuals in the diffusion and development of production technology and the central place of marketing strategy in the success of selected American manufacturers. Whereaas Ford was the seedbed of the assembly line revolution, it was General motors that initiated a new era with its introduction of the annual model change. With the new marketing strategy, the technology of "the changeover" became of paramount importance. Hounshell chronicles how painfully Ford learned this lesson and recounts how the successful mass production of automobiles led to the establishment of an "ethos of mass production," to an era in which propoments of "Fordism" argued that mass production would solve all of America's social problems.

This provocative book debunks the myth that American gun culture was intentionally created by gun makers and demonstrates that gun ownership and use have been a core part of American society since our colonial origins. Revisionist historians argue that American gun culture and manufacturing are relatively recent developments. They further claim that widespread gun violence was largely absent from early American history because guns of all types, and especially handguns, were rare before 1848. According to these revisionists, American gun culture was the creation of the first mass production gun manufacturers, who used clever marketing to sell guns to people who neither wanted nor needed them. However, as proven in this first scholarly history of "gun culture" in early America, gun ownership and use have in fact been central to American society from its very beginnings. Lock, Stock, and Barrel: The Origins of American Gun Culture shows that gunsmithing and gun manufacturing were important parts of the economies of the colonies and the early republic and explains how the American gun industry helped to create our modern world of precision mass production and high wages for workers.

Excerpt from English and American Tool Builders The writer has tried to trace the origin and rise of tool building in America and to give something of its spread in recent years. The industrial life of the United States is so vast that a comprehensive history of even a single industry, such as tool building, would run far beyond the limits of one volume. This book, therefore, is confined to the main lines of influence in tool building and to the personalities and cities which have been most closely identified with it. The later history of American tool building has never been written. For this the writer has had to rely largely upon personal information from those who are familiar with it, and who have had a part in it. Part of the material contained in this book has appeared from time to time in the American Machinist, and the writer would acknowledge his indebtedness most of all to Mr. L. P. Alford, the editor of that jour nal. His help and counsel have given these pages much of such value as they possess. So many have helped with information, corrections and suggestions that acknowledgments can be made only to a few. The writer would particularly thank Mr. L. D. Burlingame, Mr. Ned Lawrence, Mr. James Hartness, Mr. Coleman Sellers and Mr. Clarence Bement. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.