High-quality black-and-white photographs of large old machines and tools

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Originally Posted by Toolmaker51

..... Quite some time before CNC, hydraulic tracers did accurate work.....

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In the early 1970s I started a business making cast motorcycle wheels. I got a bank loan to buy an hydraulic tracer for copying the rim profiles. An incredible device which sure beat the manual machining and form tools that I had used until I saw the light. I had different templates for different width rims. The tracer could follow the templates to half a thou. One of the best business investments that I ever made.
I have no pix of the tracer but here is one of the wheels showing the rim profile.

Attachment 29247

The next step after the hydraulic tracers was the punch card with hydraulic movement I almost bought a horizontal center that also had a high speed for the time period vertical spindle. The problem as I saw it was there were no manual controls and the NC controller with a punch card slot was non functional, the machine was a few years old in the early 90s and repairing or upgrading it would have cost twice as much as I could have bought the machine for

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A cantilever pontoon crane fitted with steel structure and overhead trolley with wire ropes and tackle, pontoon built by Union Iron Works, San Francisco (hull #105), superstructure by Wellman Seaver Morgan Co., Cleveland OH, machinery and hull were assembled together at Honolulu. The machinery was apparently of German origin and came to the US as war reparations
Delivered in 1903
Assigned to 14th Naval District at Naval Shipyard Pearl Harbor, T.H.
Length 100'
Breadth 60'
Lifting Capacity 100 t. Final Disposition, fate unknown

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Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...e_fullsize.jpg

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...ting_crane.jpg

More: Miscellaneous Photo Index

"The machinery was apparently of German origin and came to the US as war reparations Delivered in 1903 "

War reparations from when? If from WWI that's a neat trick getting war reparations 4 years before we entered the war and 5 before the war ended...no wonder Germany lost!

Given that image clearly shows a battle-damaged sunken ship and the info says the crane was deployed to Pearl, I'll wager the delivery date is supposed to be 1923 (or even 1933) instead; and the photo dates from some time post-attack as they were salvaging one of the battleships. (given the triple turret showing, maybe the Nevada?)

Found a Mesta company brochure! 1919. Scanned from the Smithsonian collection. Plant and Product of the Mesta Machine Company.
Download PDF: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...ne_company.pdf

Some screenshots from the PDF:

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net..._brochure1.jpg

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net..._brochure2.jpg

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net..._brochure3.jpg

Download PDF: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...ne_company.pdf

All new kind of rabbit hole; downloading Mesta's 1919 PDF.
Take a shower, have dinner, go bowling, rebuild the truck. . .Go ahead, you have time!
But it's going to be worth it, judging from initial pages. Not just awesome; Majestic!

If the "High-quality black-and-white photographs of large old machines and tools" thread had to close, nothing surpasses this entry; as perfect visualization of that topic.

They might not have had Photoshop but they knew how to retouch photos back then.

I love these pictures of the way it was done many many years ago, but I would just love a little caption about the time period and what it was used for! Like last picture, What the Hell is it with it's 600' shaft and all!

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Originally Posted by skibo

I love these pictures of the way it was done many many years ago, but I would just love a little caption about the time period and what it was used for! Like last picture, What the Hell is it with it's 600' shaft and all!

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At this moment, it's a guess. But the binder is dated 1919, within it mentions a department turning propeller shafts, ocean liner sized. That struck me as a line of machines filling just such orders. As shafts are predetermined length flange to flange, there'd be no reason of 'twisting' the placement of lathes diagonally as we are accustomed in conventional shops. Also, large spindle bore headstocks hadn't caught on yet, running material through spindles was mainly relegated as a turret lathe technique.
I've been studying the brochure. aside from incredible sizes depicted in machinery and footprint of the plant. There are many illustrations of how loads were rigged on rail-cars to meet load restrictions on physical size. I'm convinced MESTA would have cast and machined larger yet; but infrastructure couldn't accommodate shipping and offload at most sites.

Strong crane lifts two men!