2-888-580 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Exhibition Building in Hyde Park - the Sash-Bar Finishing Machine, 1850. 'As in every other part of the works the utmost skill is displayed with regard to economising power, so in the disposition of the machinery in connexion with the steam-power employed...considerable ingenuity is visible throughout. The engine, calculated at eight horse-power (equal to the collective force of forty-four men), is on the locomotive principle, working with steam at a pressure of 60 lb. to the square inch...From the fly-wheel on the north side of the engine a gutta-percha band of two inches in width passes round the driving-pulley of a circular saw of ten inches diameter, which projects sufficiently above the level of the bench, in a slot of which it is fixed in proper bearings, to cut out wooden fillets and other portions of wood-work, either from planks or scantling timber, as may, from time to time, be required. Three men are required for this'particular service: the first is the carrier of the materials to and from the bench or table; the second places and adjusts them on the bench close to the saw, and also attends to the bands, &c.; and the third removes them from the table when cut'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.