Dossier
Connecticut River Valley
Coverage of Connecticut River Valley in the Nexus archive.
- Blanchard’s Lathe and the Long Arc of American Manufacturing
The War Department sought to increase domestic production of standardized muskets after supplying the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. From this industrial project arose Thomas Blanchard's copying lathe, which resulted from a collaboration between public and private interests. This invention enabled complex, irregular three-dimensional wood forms to be manufactured at scale, revolutionizing an formerly artisanal task.