Model of copying lathe, scale 1:5

Model of a copying lathe, scale 1:5, by Regnard Freres, Paris

Producing copies of items in wood was a recurring theme in specialised nineteenth century machine tool design. Early machines by James Watt and Benjamin Cheverton working in a range of materials such as alabaster, plaster of paris and boxwood gave way to later machines intended for use mass-producing items from gunstocks in rifle manufacture (by the Ames Company of Massachusetts) to pieces of furniture (the machine by Jordan, for instance, inv. 1858-6).