56 letter and figure punches

This item is part of the contents of the workshop that Scottish engineer James Watt developed at his home, Heathfield, at Handsworth, Birmingham. Although Watt is best known for his work on the steam engine, his workshop contains a wide variety of objects from many different projects, from chemistry to sculpture-copying.

The description of the item was written by Edward Collins, the land agent responsible for Heathfield when the workshop was given to the Science Museum in 1924. Collins could not always identify what he was looking at, but always described what he saw clearly. This has allowed his descriptions to form the basis of subsequent research.

The punches comprise -

A part-set of 7 number punches, suitable for use on wood: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6/9, 7, 8. (Viz. no 2, no 0.) Characters from about 0.20 to about 0.27 inches high.

A part-set of 8 number punches, suitable for use on wood: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6/9, 7, 8, 0. (Viz. no 5.) Characters from about 0.15 to 0.20 inches high. Possible the 0, the lowest of these, does not belong to this set.

A part-set of 7 number punches, suitable for use on wood or metal: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6/9, 7. (Viz. no 8, no 0.) Query whether the 6/9 is actually a 0? Characters about 0.05 inches high.

A part-set of 4 number punches, suitable for use on wood or metal: 2, 4, 6/9, 8. (Viz. no 1, 3, 5, 7 or 0.) Characters about 0.1 inches high.

A part-set of 24 letter punches for a lower-case italic alphabet: a, b, c, d, e, f, h, i, k, l, m, p, q, r, long s, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, and there is one further indecipherable punch, put with this set because it looks as though it may belong. (No g, j, or n identified.)

Note that identifying many of these punches is difficult, in view of their corroded and damaged state. The small letters about 1/16 inch high.

Six broken or defaced punches or parts of punches.