HKB
hammer was at work. I was afterwards informed that the blows of my great steam hammer at Woolwich Arsenal were sensibly felt at Greenwich Observatory, about two miles distant. ...]
Hand-gear was the original system introduced in working the hammer. A method of self-acting was afterwards added. In 1843, I admitted steam above the piston, to aid gravitation. This was an important improvement. The self-acting arrangement was eventually done away with, and hand-gear again became all but universal. Sir John Anderson, in his admirable Report on the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, says: The most remarkable features of the Nasmyth hammers were the almost entire abandonment of the old self-acting motion of the early hammers and the substitution of new devices, and in the use of hand-gear only in all attempts to show off the working. There is no real saving, as a general rule, by the self-acting arrangement, because one attendant is required in either case, and on the other hand there is frequently a positive loss in the effect of the blow. By hand-working, with steam on top of piston, the full force can be more readily maintained until the blow is fully delivered; it is thus more of a dead blow than was formerly the case with the other system."
There was no want of orders when the valuable qualities of the steam hammer came to be seen and experienced. The first Order came from Rushton and Eckersley of Bolton, who, by the way, had seen the first copy of my original design a few years before. The steam hammer I made for them was more powerful than my own. The hammer block was of five tons weight, and had a clear fall of five feet. It gave every satisfaction, and the fame of its performances went abroad amongst the ironworkers. The Lowmoor Ironworks Company followed suit with an order for one of the same size and power; and another came from Hawkes and Co., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
One of the most important uses of the steam hammer was in forging anchors. Under the old system, anchors upon the soundness of which the safety of ships so often depends--were forged upon the "bit by bit" system. The various pieces of an anchor were welded together, but at the parts where the different pieces of iron were welded together, flaws often occurred; the parts would break off--blades from the stock, or flukes from the blades--and leave the vessel, which relied upon the security of its anchor, at the risk of the winds and the waves. By means of the steam hammer these risks were averted. The slag was driven out during the hammering process. The anchor was sound throughout because it was welded as a whole.
Those who are technically acquainted with smith work as it used to be practised, by what I term the "bit by bit" system--that is, of building up from many separate parts of iron, afterwards welded together into the required form--can appreciate the vast practical value of the Die method brought into general use by the controllable but immense power of the steam hammer. At a very early period of my employment of the steam hammer, I introduced the system of stamping masses of welding hot iron as if it had been clay, and forcing it into suitable moulds or dies placed upon the anvil. This practice had been in use on a small scale in the Birmingham gun trade, The ironwork of firearms was thus stamped into exact form. But, until we possessed the wide range and perfectly controllable powers of the steam hammer, the stamping system was confined to comparatively small portions of forge work. The new power enabled the die and stamp system to be applied to the largest class of forge work; and another era in the working of ponderous masses of smith and forge work commenced, and has rapidly extended until the present time. Without entering into further details, the steam hammer has advanced the mechanical arts, especially with relation to machinery of the larger class, to an extent that is of incalculable importance.