James Nasmyth patents the steam hammer in…

June 1842 CE

James Nasmyth patents the steam hammer in the United Kingdom in June, 1842.

In 1837 the Great Western Steam Company was experiencing many problems forging the paddle shaft of the SS Great Britain; when even the largest hammer was tilted to its full height, its range was so small that if a really large piece of work were placed on the anvil, the hammer had no room to fall, and in 1838 the company's engineer wrote to Nasmyth: "I find there is not a forge-hammer in England or Scotland powerful enough to forge the paddle-shaft of the engine for the Great Britain! What am I to do?" (Francis Humphries, 1838).

Nasmyth thought the matter over and seeing the obvious defects of the tilt-hammer (it delivered every blow with the same force) sketched out his idea for the first steam hammer. He kept his ideas for new devices, mostly in drawings, in a "Scheme Book" which he freely showed to his foreign customers.

Nasmyth made a sketch of his steam hammer design dated November 24, 1839, but the immediate need disappeared when the practicality of screw propellers was demonstrated and the Great Britain was converted to that design.

The French engineer François Bourdon came up with the similar idea of what he called a "Pilon" in 1839 and made detailed drawings of his design, which he also showed to all engineers who visited the works at Le Creusot owned by the brothers Adolphe and Eugène Schneider.

However, the Schneiders hesitated to build Bourdon's radical new machine.

Bourdon and Eugène Schneider visited the Nasmyth works in England in the middle of 1840, where they were shown Nasmyth's sketch.

This confirmed the feasibility of the concept to Schneider.

In 1840 Bourdon built the first steam hammer in the world at the Schneider & Cie works at Le Creusot.

It weighed twenty-five hundred kilograms (fifty-five hundred pounds) and lifted to two meters (six feet seven inches).

The Schneiders patented the design in 1841.

In April 1842 Nasmyth visited France with a view to supplying the French arsenals and dockyards with tools and while he was there took the opportunity to visit the Le Creusot works.

On going round the works, he found the steam-hammer at work.

By his account, Bourdon took him to the forge department so he might, as he said, "see his own child".

Nasmyth said "there it was, in truth–a thumping child of my brain!"

Nasmyth patents his design in June 1842 using money borrowed from his sister Anne's husband William Bennett.

He will build his first steam hammer later this year in his Patricroft foundry.

In 1843 a dispute will break out between the two engineers over priority of invention of the steam hammer.

By using the hammer, production costs can be reduced by over fifty percent, while at the same time improving the quality of the forgings produced.

The first hammers are of the free-fall type but they will later be modified, given power-assisted fall.

Up until the invention of Nasmyth's steam-hammer, large forging, such as ships' anchors, had to be made by the "bit-by-bit" process, that is, small pieces were forged separately and finally welded together.

A key feature of his machine is that the operator controls the force of each blow.

He enjoys showing off its capability by demonstrating how it can first break an egg placed in a wine glass, without breaking the glass, which is followed by a full-force blow that shakes the building.

Its advantages will soon become so obvious that before long Nasmyth hammers will be found in all the large workshops all over the country.