American Precision Museum – Windsor, Vermont
This Museum preserves the heritage of the mechanical arts, tells the story of the mechanical forebears and explores the work they did and how it impacts our everyday life. It is housed in the original Robbins & Lawrence Armory building. It now houses the largest collection of historically significant machine tools in the nation.
The tools and the methods which make mass production possible were pioneered at the Robbins & Lawrence Armory which makes this the perfect location for the Museum. What they developed became known as the American System. It made the growth of the powerful machine tool industry possible. Even today the concept is implemented in modern industry in plastics and microprocessors.
The Museum was funded in 1966. Included in the exhibits of the Museum are single and multiple spindle lathes, sharpers, planers, milling machines, single and multi spindle drills and grinding machines. The highlight of the machine tool collection is the machines developed by Robbins and Lawrence to mass produce firearms with interchangeable parts. There are over two hundred years, machines powered by foot, water and electricity.
The Museum also has an extensive gun collection beginning with custom guns made by Nicanor Kendall, David Hall Hilliard, and Asa Story. Then you move into the factory-made guns, including the Enfield Minie rifle and the 1841 Mississippi Rifle, the Model 1861 Special Musket, the Jennings rifle, the Palmer carbine, the Ball repeating carbine and the Windsor Sharps rifle.
The Museum’s collection includes measuring devices such as comparators, calipers and gauges that were used to measure parts of machines and their products. Screws, gun locks, and mechanisms are just a few of the parts that were scrutinized for precise measurements. Precision manufacturing touches us all. Without it, we would not have the mass communication, rapid transportation, modern standards of sanitation and medical care, abundant food and clothing, or the leisure for universal education.
The Miniatures of John Aschauer, Master Craftsman will have you entranced with his work which includes two working machine shops, a steam power plant, which he began at age 14 during his apprenticeship in German. There is also a selection of other models for which he made every tiny screw, bolt and nut, machined every gear and every hydraulic pip fitting. The scaled models are 1/16 size. All of these were made completely from his memory of all the machines he had worked on during his long career in the machine tool industry.
This is a place that will absolutely fascinate those that are interested in how things work and the evolution of the world of machinery.
Open daily 10 am to 5 pm. May – October. (re-opens Memorial Day weekend)
Location: 196 Main Street
Windsor, Vermont
email: info@americanprecision.org
Phone: 802-674-5781