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The 1751 Machine that Made Everything - YouTube
Channel: Machine Thinking
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when you see a graph that goes like this
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you think something very special
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happened right about here and something
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indeed did what makes this chart
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especially interesting is that it has to
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do with our material wealth pretty much
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all of it including everything you own
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and one of the very few things we can
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point to for setting off that huge boom
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is right here in a museum in Paris I
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want to show you a lathe today and that
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might not look or sound like something
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crazy awesome but stick with me here and
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see if you agree this is one of the most
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amazingly important machines ever and it
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applies to you and how you live your
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life there's also a story of a
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mechanical duck with unusual abilities
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but we'll get to that later
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I'm in the Museu the Arts at MIT da
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Museum of Arts and Crafts Paris is
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temple to science and learning in a way
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this is Paris's MIT that goes back to
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1794 if you watch my first video in this
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series which you totally should you know
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how amazing and unique this institution
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is there's thousands of amazing machines
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here and I'll talk about some of them in
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future videos in that first video in
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this series I talked about VUCA song
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he's the guy who built the first fully
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automatic programmable loom essentially
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a weeding robot in the 1750s but all the
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glory went to another guy who made minor
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improvements on it this is another one
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of oku songs fantastic creations an all
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metal lathe he made in 1751 now this is
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not just any lathe but possibly the
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first all-metal lathe with dual V ways
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in a carriage and cross-slide ruin by
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screws with this simple looking machine
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it said that VUCA saw and defined the
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principles of the modern lathe as we
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know it today ok cool why should I care
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I hear you say because lathes are in my
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opinion the foundation of the greatest
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explosion of wealth you've ever seen and
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a big part of the story about why we're
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all not working in a field somewhere
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unless that's your thing which is
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totally cool
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if you're not familiar with lathes they
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spend the workpiece in a cutting tool
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held in a sliding carriage can shape
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them often to make them very accurately
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round to a specific diameter but also
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very smooth you need very round smooth
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parts for machinery but if you didn't
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have a lathe to make rampart to be
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practically impossible to do it by hand
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which is why lathes can give you
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precision parts very cheaply and quickly
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lathes have been around for shaping wood
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for hundreds or even thousands of years
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but because the early lathes were also
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made out of wood they're relatively
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flimsy and not suitable for very
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accurate work especially in metal which
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needs a very strong stiff machine to
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work it and the cutting tool is held by
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hand so there's little consistency there
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were already small all-metal lathes for
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clockmaking for a couple hundred years
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before this but they were for making
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small delicate parts not something you
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build industrial machines with which is
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the key difference here bukas ons lathe
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was ahead of its time by at least fifty
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years and set the pattern for lathes
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even as we see them today maybe not an
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overall appearance but definitely in
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function it's the first fully documented
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all-metal laid with a slide rest and I
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considered to be the first modern lathe
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there may have been others which had
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some or all these elements previously
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but they're lost to history so we can
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only speculate the carriage on this
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machine moves on to prismatic ways the
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inverted V shape put together with the
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cross slide that held the cutting tool
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that can move in and out very precisely
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we have very modern looking lathe
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there's even what looks like an early
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tool but insert when bucha saw was the
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inspector for silk factories in leo
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he realized he needed improved rollers
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for their mills the heavy copper rollers
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were used to crush the silk and give it
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the more a pattern that was popular at
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the time these rollers were made of
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copper and there was no way that wind
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lays the day could turn them accurately
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so invented this machine
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this lathe surely added another decimal
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place in precision at least and every
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time you can add another decimal place
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you can kick off huge changes let me
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show you what I mean back to the graph
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from the beginning this is a chart of
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worldwide per capita income from your
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zero until the 1800s the line is pre
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flat with almost no growth you can
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actually send that flat line back about
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in there five thousand years to the
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point where humans invented farming so
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for about seven thousand years income
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was about four hundred to five hundred
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dollars per person per year in constant
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nineteen ninety dollars worldwide even
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as the population grew there was no
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growth in income because the
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productivity of a person was offset by
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the cost to keep that person alive in
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times when there was economic surplus it
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was quickly consumed with more births no
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matter how much the population grew we
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were pretty much always running in place
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income wise your average person in 1600
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was no better off economically than
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someone thousands of years earlier this
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is what is called the Malthusian trap
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and for seven thousand years it was
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inescapable no matter what we did until
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machine tools like this one changed
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everything
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if you look at where the uptick starts
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you see it's a bit later than the 1750
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one of this lathe that's what his early
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machine tool started to have a cascading
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effect with tools like these and the
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other precise industrial machines they
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made suddenly one person could produce
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what used to take many people to do and
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for the first time we could make enough
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surplus that we could outpace births
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each time a new machine tool adds
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another decimal place of accuracy
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precision gets cheaper which makes new
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products and processes possible and
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far-reaching booms of economic growth
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kick off and VUCA saans laid represents
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one of those moments soon someone
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modified a laid that was used for boring
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cannons to instead make the smooth
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cylinder is needed for steam engines and
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then between the steam engines powering
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factories and steam locomotives moving
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raw material to factories and then goods
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to market the line starts to go nearly
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vertical in the greatest increase in
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wealth we've ever seen
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here's why it happened imagine you of a
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small town with only farms and then
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someone builds a factory in town which
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multiplies that workers efforts with
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machines some people will leave the
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farms to work in the factory others will
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leave the farms to do things like build
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the roads canals or railroads the
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factory needs
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the factory also needs carpenters
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blacksmiths and machinists power from
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coal and machinery from iron means
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miners now have lots of work the factory
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brings in money which is distributed to
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the workers via wages now they could do
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something new and exciting like buying
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things rather than making them for
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themselves which kicks off other
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entirely new industries which have
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nothing directly to do with the farmer
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factory but cater to this new class of
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people with money which creates other
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new people who could spend money which
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repeats this cycle of growth and that's
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why you don't work on a farm unless you
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do which is cool thank you
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this also meant there was a lot of money
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around but not enough workers which
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means workers wage started to go up
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remember the graph what about the few
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people left on the farms you bring
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automation from the factories to the
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farm to multiply the farmers labor this
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is why we have things like tractors and
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combines it's no accident the first
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tractors were giant lumbering steam
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engines that were basically the
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factory's steam locomotives with wheels
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and that's what blows my mind so much
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about this lathe it's a very tangible
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artefact that lit the fuse of probably
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the greatest boom and income and
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prosperity we've ever seen the very silk
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weaving machines this lathe was helping
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to make our some of the very first
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machines in a factory which stopped us
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from running in place and got us out of
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that Malthusian trap and this led to
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real change in people's lives but all
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this new wealth and machines created
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didn't solve all of our problems in fact
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it created new ones nor was the wealth
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evenly distributed this incredible
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period of rapid growth fascinates me as
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for the first time people could see the
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world changing around them old ways were
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falling away and something new was
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happening significant change within a
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person's lifetime these machines just
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didn't bring us new wealth they also
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completely changed how we think the very
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name for this channel machine thinking
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speaks to this exact period when that
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line in the chart just starts to turn
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upward noticeably it comes from a quote
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in Jonathan Hales excellent book the old
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way of seeing it reads in 1828 the Fouts
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legend obsessed artists and writers in
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dozens of works they told the story of
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the modern predicament and gain the
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power of Industry the
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was sacrificing in Seoul it was not the
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new machines themselves they feared they
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were not yet many it was machine
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thinking
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the name isn't about artificial
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intelligence or that I enjoyed thinking
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about how machines are put together well
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I do enjoy that too but rather how we
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make machines and how when those
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machines give us new abilities those
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machines in turn make us
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you introduce new technology whether
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it's computer in your pocket giving you
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instant access to the world's knowledge
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or a cheap car suddenly available to the
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masses which let people travel freely
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for the first time which changed
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everything the way you even think is
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changed by those machines just being
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there and you're a different person for
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it and of course how I think about
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machines themselves is important the
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things required to build that first lay
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that were lying around for centuries in
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various parts of the world but it took a
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new way of thinking about machines to
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put them to use in a special way which
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led to that huge boom in growth like the
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people mentioned in the quote we too can
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see waves of change coming and our
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reaction isn't always good we'll talk
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more about that another time so for me
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looking at this lathe it doesn't just
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represent the vast wealth and social
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changes that was to come but also a huge
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shift in how we think consider what we
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do with lathes today many are
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computer-controlled making parts in a
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highly automated way with all their
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functions carefully programmed I
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remember who made the first highly
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automated programmable machine VUCA saw
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it be almost no 200 years before we'd
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start to stick lathes together with that
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level of automation and would take
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additional efforts innovations of
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countless people the first programmable
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machine tools even used punch tape but
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now
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parts of products we use every day are
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made cheaply and quickly this way Lucas
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ons machine show clearly at an early
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point Industrial Revolution the French
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we're doing very well indeed but their
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version of machine thinking didn't allow
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for the mass adoption of industrial
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tools and processes like it soon did in
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England England is rightfully so most
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closely associate with Industrial
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Revolution and their contributions are
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innumerable and for a time their output
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was second to none but even the English
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version of machine thinking could not
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match that of what was yet to come
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the Americans we use machine tools in a
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way so unique that it bears our name the
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American system of manufacturing but now
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it's used the world over now that the
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idea was ours though again it was a
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Frenchman honor茅 LeBlanc who first had
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the idea but was unable to implement it
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in France but he told the American
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ambassador Thomas Jefferson about it who
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brought it back to the US where things
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went bananas in America where labor was
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relatively scarce putting the knowledge
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and precision into the machines rather
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than a highly skilled workforce made a
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ton of sense and took off like wildfire
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and her changeable parts division of
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labor assembly lines and more quickly
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made America an incredibly productive
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nation but these are all subjects for
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another time if you'll grant me that
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initial huge explosion of wealth is
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largely the result of machines and
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factories and those machines were built
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by machine tools and the foundation of
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machine tools as lathes and VUCA saans
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laid this considering one of the first
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truly industrial aids you can understand
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why it's so cool that we have it right
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here so for me this is why I consider
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Lucas on Slade to be the machine that
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made everything is it literally the
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machine that the entirety of our in
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modern industrial world comes from of
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course not
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there are plenty of other machine makers
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and innovators too especially in England
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but they came a little later and here's
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a case where France had the lead early
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on but because of what it did and that
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it did it so early and now we have it
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right here as proof if I do have to pick
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one machine to represent the machine
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they made everything I picked this one
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and that's why it's so cool it's just
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sitting here quietly in a Paris Museum
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you
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[Music]
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we saw in the first video of Lucas on
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17:50 weaving machine that completely
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changed the textile industry and now his
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lathe which is an important part of
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early machine tool history which kicked
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off that explosive growth but amazingly
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that's not even what he's most famous
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for that would be a mechanical duck that
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could poop
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let me explain before he made the lathe
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or weeding machine he was renowned for
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making automata essentially mechanical
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clockwork robots reputed have amazing
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abilities automata like this musical
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elephant from the 1770s were all the
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rage with royalty and the wealthy and
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the wealthy paid huge sums for them and
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they would go on tours charging
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admission to be seen the more
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complicated novel or magical they were
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the greater the prestige and Bucca songs
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were some of the best and it made him
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very famous one was a life-sized
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Shepherd flute player which used bellows
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to blow air through the lips of the
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automata and could correctly finger the
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notes for 12 different songs another was
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a kind of drum player but the final and
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considered his masterpiece was the duck
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the duck reportedly would look around
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flap its wings made of four hundred
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parts each appear to eat and drink but
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that's not all after eating he would
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appear to digest the food and defecate
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onto a silver plate and that made the
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duck very famous indeed after seeing it
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the famous philosopher and writer
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Voltaire was moved to write perhaps
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wryly without VUCA songs duck you would
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have nothing to remind you of the glory
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of France it turns out to have been a
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ruse though years later when closely
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examined it was discovered this was a
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mechanical sleight of hand and the waste
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was coming from a separate compartment
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and not really being digested these
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photographs were reportedly found the
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archives the museum and may show the
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Ducks mechanism but there's debate if
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this is really a puka songs duck bukas
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aunt eventually tired of his machines
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and sold them and sadly they've all now
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been lost thankfully we still have many
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other things he made his weaving machine
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or lathe would have been enough to earn
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him a place in history but he did so
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much more he truly has earned this
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at you of him here or that the street in
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front of museum is named in his honor
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though he died before this institution
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was founded his collection of machinery
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would become one of the main initial
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seeds at this entire Museum thanks for
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watching
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I'll see you next time
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