3-017-260 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A visit to Penn's Marine Engine Factory, at Greenwich: turning a crank axle, 1865. Illustration representing '...the operation of turning a crank-axle in a mighty lathe...The various fitting and tool-shops at Greenwich are constructed upon the most approved modern plans. Every part of each shop is fully lighted in every direction, and the machinery and tools combine all the most recent improvements. The premises cover seven acres of ground, and in them are employed about 1300 men and boys. Here all the castings are made, some of immense size, from 20 to 30 tons of metal being run into some of the moulds for the cylinders. Screw-propellers and shafts are cast here in gun metal, some of which, when finished, weigh 24 tons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.