This Day in History: Thomas Blanchard, Gunstock Duplicating Lathe Inventor, Dies
By Logan Metesh
Massachusetts –-(Ammoland.com)- On April 16, 1864, Thomas Blanchard died at the age of 75. He spent his entire life inventing all sorts of things, but some of his best-known creations were for the arms industry.
Blanchard’s life as an inventor focused not on creating new things altogether, but on making existing things faster and easier. His first invention, at age 18, was a machine that produced tacks at a rate of 500 per minute, far superior to anything a human could ever hope to hammer out. He sold the rights for the modern-day equivalent of almost $100,000 – not bad for a first invention!
Blanchard soon found himself working with firearms. His first foray into the field was with government contractor Asa Waters, who was engaged in making flintlock muskets to supplement the numbers made at Springfield Armory. While there, he invented a machine that would uniformly cut the exterior surfaces of musket barrels. In short order, the machine was …Read the Rest
Source:: AmmoLand
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