Model tilt hammer, scale 1:6
- Made:
- 1926 in Manchester
- maker:
- Cussons, George
Model tilt hammer, scale 1:6
This working model has been reconstructed from illustrations contained in 'De Re Metallica', which was written by Agricola, a German mining engineer, and published in Basle in 1556. It represents a natural stage in the development of the power hammer from the heavy sledge hammer. Power hammers were in use from the twelfth century in Europe, but were known in China almost two thousand years earlier.
The hammer is lifted by means of wooden cams driven into a built-up drum which is secured to the shaft of a water wheel and bound with iron hoops. The length of the haft has been estimated at 4 ft and it is pivoted on an iron pin supported in a heavy timber framework. On the same scale the weight of the hammerhead would be about 65 lb.
In one of Agricola's drawings there is a suggestion of a spring beam to give added force to the blow, but in the absence of corroborative evidence that such a device was in use at so early a date, it has not been included in the model.
