Building Precision Machine Shop, Period II: 1901-1914
A 1904 photograph Byron (figure 116) shows the eastern end the north aisle
of the second floor machine shop.Building Room and Room 11
No direct evidence has been located indicate the function these two rooms,
directly east and adjacent Edison’s room 12. Continuing the numbering
system used the rest the floor, the rooms were numbered from the
western end near the elevator, through the eastern end the floor.
The rooms are alike that both received power from the machine shop via belts
running along the ceiling the second floor.)
Machine tools included 42-inch Bridgeport planer, the east end the shop, a
Brown Sharpe milling machine, several engine lathes, and four five precision
bench lathes. 3-1/2
to 4-foot-high railing, also sheathed vertical beaded planks, ran along the
opposite side the central aisle, forming clear space between the experimental
rooms and the machine shop. The
planer, milling machines, and lathes are all the positions they now occupy. vestige that railing survives counter near
the stairwell. The marks made the shaft
hangers and pulleys the ceiling are clearly visible today.
Deep shadows and general gloom the left side the photograph suggest that
the experimental rooms still lined the south side the floor, blocking any light
137
. this section, the general arrangement of
machines strikingly similar the arrangement that survives today. The
arc light, seen hanging from the ceiling, was removed 1914 (probably the
relief all who had work near it). The belt chase, that brought power from the
steam engine the first floor, was closed off after electric motors were installed
in 1910. Power was carried from the steam engine and shafting the first
floor way belt-chase the rear the shop, next the planer. The experimental rooms were enclosed vertical plank
walls, similar those elsewhere the second floor.
Building Precision Machine Shop, Period 1887-1900
Figure 117, the precision department the eastern half the second floor of
Building before 1893, shows the space divided into experimental rooms the
south side, and machine shop with light and medium metalworking tools the
north (courtyard) side
