2-969-783 - /Heritage Images

Manufacture of Bayonets, 1856. Ryder's Patent Forge. 'The present war having caused an unusual demand for weapons...The Honourable Board of Ordnance therefore gladly availed themselves of the mechanical skill of Manchester and the surrounding towns to make up for the deficiency in the supply of bayonets...Mr. Francis Preston...is extensively employed in making the above articles...the pieces of steel for the blades are cut from a square bar, and then submitted to the action of the forging machine...This machine was invented by Mr. Ryder, of Bolton. It is very ingenious in its construction, and has long been used for forging parts of machinery employed in spinning cotton; but the application of it to forging parts of bayonets is due to Mr. Preston: it consists of a series of hammers worked at a great speed by eccentrics on the topshaft'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.