Brown and Sharpe first universal milling machine, 1865

In 1861, the American-based Providence Tool Company was awarded a contract to make large quantities of muskets, a job requiring many drilling operations. Until this time, the grooves on twist drills had been made by a laborious and expensive process of filing by hand. The superintendent, Frederick W Howe, approached Joseph R Brown of Brown & Sharpe Co. for a solution, and Brown realised the need to carry out this process by machine. Building on his experience as a maker of machine tools, Brown developed the universal milling machine’, capable not only of cutting spirals in twist drills, but also of more generalised work in machine shops. It incorporated many advances, including power and rigidity, improved feed and the introduction of the column and knee’ principle for vertical adjustment of the cutter relative to the work.