Machinery Collection

T class Submarine
Inside a British submarine: complex details of the craft in which our underwater crews live and fight. A sectional view of a boat of the T class, showing how machinery, torpedoes

Horses pulling the plough
Two heavy horses, pull a farmers plough through a newly cut cornfield. Painting by Malcolm Greensmith

Allis-Chalmers Company plant, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, manufacturers of agricultural machinery such as tractors. Date: circa 1909

Advert for Ransomes lawn mowers
An advertisement for Ransomes lawn mowers, showing three different products available. Date: 1883

Cider pressing
Tower to crush the apples and old cider press in Normandy in northern France. Date: circa 1870s

Lizzie the munition war-worker in Sheffield, WW1
Unofficially connected with Mr. Lloyd Georges department! The elephant munition-worker at Sheffield. Lizzie, a circus elephant was a familiar but incongruous sight on the cobbled streets of Sheffield

Heath Robinson Kitchen 3 of 4
Heath Robinson Does Away with Servants - Patent Applied for by " The Sketch" in the Kitchen. A busy Kitchen, which is a typically Heath Robinson design, with a system of pulleys

Pea Apparatus by William Heath Robinson
An interesting and elegant apparatus designed to overcome once for all the difficulties of conveying green peas to the mouth

A Decided Catch by William Heath Robinson
The Whitebait cycle, an ingenious contraption necessitated by the exorbitant charges for hire of boats at the seaside this season

Bound to Draw by William Heath Robinson
Another well-thought-out experiment in dentistry from Heath Robinson, the Gadget King and mastermind behind endless convoluted contraptions and silly ideas. Date: 1927

Heath Robinson Drawing Room 2 of 4
Heath Robinson Does Away with Servants - Patent Applied for by " The Sketch" in the Drawing-Room. A family in the Drawing Room, which is a typically Heath Robinson design

A team of working horses at work in the fields ploughing. Painting by Malcolm Greensmith Date: circa 1980

The Engine Room at the Clement-Talbot Motor Works, London
The Engine Room at the Clement-Talbot Motor Works, Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington, London, alongside the Great Western Railway line and between Wormwood Scrubs

Overtime at a Christmas cracker factory by William Heath Rob
Colour illustration by William Heath Robinson depicting one of his usual contraptions designed to solve the increase in demand for Christmas crackers during the forthcoming festive season

Mixing treated asbestos fibre, Heath Robinson machine
Efficient plant for the successful mixing of treated asbestos fibre with cement. A drawing done by William Heath Robinson for Turners Asbestos Cement Co

Patent double action grinder for asbestos by Heath Robinson
A patent double-action grinder for mashing asbestos fibre - a drawing done for Turners Asbestos Cement Co by William Heath Robinson, renowned for his machines and convoluted contraptions. Date: c.1925

Bryant and May Match Factory
Girls feeding a machine at the Bryant & May match factory, in Bow, East London, at the time a tax on matches was being discussed in the budget. Date: 1916

Heavy shire horse pulls an old hay rake
A farmer and his heavy horse take a break from working to gather hay on a field. They stop to talk to another farmer and a young lady in white dress

Harvesting barley with a combine harvester, Suffolk
Harvesting barley with a combine harvester on a farm in Suffolk, England

Fowlers Steam Engine
Fowlers patent engine and windlass for steam-ploughing

The Subzeppmarinellin by Heath Robinson, WW1 cartoon
The subzeppmarinellin for making sure of your enemy. All bases covered with this combined submarine and zeppelin from the imagination of William Heath Robinson during the First World War. Date: c.1916

Royal Wedding 1923 - Heath Robinson humour
A Great Grand Stand. A comfortable suggestion for viewing future Royal Weddings by William Heath Robinson. An onlooker manages to balance a cosy armchair on top of a lamp post complete with rice

Ending in Smoke by Heath Robinson
An ingenious smoke screen spreader for preventing embarrassing situations when the bathroom lock is out of order. Hilarious invention by the inimitable Heath Robinson allowing complete discretion for

Mill Workers - Spinning - Rochdale, Lancashire. Date: 1911

Caterpillar track steam engine by R. Hornsby & Sons
The first and original Caterpillar or walking engine made by R. Hornsby & Sons of Grantham. R. Hornsby & Sons grew into a major manufacturer of agricultural machinery, at their Spittle Gate Works

Trumpers Barbers - Mayfair, London
Barbershop in Central London - Mayfair. G F Trumper & Sons. An elaborate belt-driven machinery above the mirror drives a head massaging brush. Established 1875

A simple device for removing a wart
Contrary to the title of this picture, a complicated and convoluted machine to help a sufferer remove a wart from his head

Lancashire Weaver / 1890S
A weaver in a Lancashire cotton mill

Poster, Ransomes Lawnmowers, sold by Broughton & Wilks, Banbury. circa 1900s

Two young men sorting through a pile of scrap metal
Two young men, one in a top hat, the other in a bowler hat, sorting through a rather unpromising pile of scrap metal in a junk yard

Victorian inventions in The Engineer
A page of patented engineering and industrial inventions from The Engineer magazine, 1856. Date: 1856

Steam hammer, details of piston and cylinder
Steam hammer, front elevation and details of piston and cylinder

Heath Robinson Bedroom 4 of 4
Heath Robinson Does Away with Servants - Patent Applied for by " The Sketch" in the Bedroom. A bedroom, which is a typically Heath Robinson design, with a system of pulleys

Crop-Spraying Potatoes
A farmer uses horse-drawn machinery to spray main-crop potatoes with Bordeaux Mixture as a preventative against late blight, on an Essex farm near Rickling

Threshing Machine
Combined Thrashing and Stacking Machine, by Wilkinson, Wright of Boston, Lincolnshire

BP employee opening the flow valves
A British Petroleum employee opens the flow valves of an oil plant in the Middle East (likely to have been in Iraq or Iran)

Cotton Weaving / Lancs
Cotton weaving, Lancashire

Communist Factory Worker
A young man, the ideal of the heroic communist worker, working at a complicated piece of machinery in a cellulose paper factory in Balakhna, Russia

Advert, Glenfield & Kennedy Ltd, Kilmarnock, Scotland
Advert for Glenfield & Kennedy Ltd, Kilmarnock, Scotland. 1905

Potato harvest, Rafta Farm, St Levan, Cornwall
Mother and daughter (Pamela and Sandra Semmens) working on the potato harvest at Rafta Farm, St Levan, near Lands End, Cornwall. Date: 1970s

Fantastic Wooden Screw Olive Press - Kabyle People, Algeria
Absolutely Fantastic Wooden Olive Screw Press - Kabyle People, Algeria. The traditional Kabylian economy of the area is based on arboriculture (orchards and olive trees)

A Fountain Pen Repair Shop - Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
A Fountain Pen Repair Shop - The Pen Shop - at 112 Monument Circle, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Date: 1940

Great Crane at Woolwich Arsenal, south east London
The Great Crane at the Arsenal, Woolwich, south east London, used to lift sections of large guns

New Banting Bed for Reducing the Figure
The New Banting Bed for Reducing the Figure. Cartoon by William Heath Robinson

Whitneys Cotton Gin
WHITNEYs GIN Eli Whitneys gin of 1793 enabled separation of cotton fibre from its seeds to be done mechanically : this is a modified version in use

Tompkins upright rotary knitting machine 1875
Tompkins American family company, showing upright rotary knitting machine. Date: 1875

Foden Tractor UX 9728
Foden Tractor, regn. UX 9728, number: 13784. Built in 1932 by Edwin Foden, Sons and Co of Elworth Works, Sandbach, powered by a 6 Nhp compound steam engine. Date: 1970s

Sentinel DG4 Timber Tractor ARE195
Sentinel DG4 Timber Tractor regn. ARE195, built in 1935 by the Sentinel Waggon Works in Shrewsbury, at a Bristol Steam Fair. Date: 6 May 1972

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