Thursday again, eh? Let’s go into the past this week by checking out the world’s most badass hammer. Steam hammers were upside-down hanging pistons developed during the 19th century to forge large pieces of metal. Invented in 1836, the colossal god of these was introduced in a small French town in 1877.
Weighing in at an insane 750 tons and measuring over 50 feet tall, the Creusot Steam Hammer could deliver crushing blows with a force of 100 tons, doubling the current world record. It remained the most powerful hammering force in the world until the Americans bought the machine’s patent; they upped the ante to 125 tons, a figure never to be reproduced. But the hammer was built for precision as well as power, and could be fine-tuned to carry out very exacting tasks:
In demonstrations exhibiting the sensitivity with which the hammerhead could be manipulated, a writer visiting Schneider & Co. in 1878 observed that, “this formidable mass is capable of corking a bottle without breakage, or again of cracking a nut without damaging the kernal.” Similar feats with eggs being cracked in wine glasses, pocket watches getting their faces tapped, and nails being gently pounded into wood became expressions of industrial finesse everywhere steam hammers stood.
The Creusot Hammer had a long, productive life until advancements in the field of hydraulics were made, rendering it obsolete. It delivered its last blow in 1930 and was taken apart and moved to Creusot’s town square where it will spend the rest of eternity doomed to be a tourist attraction.
If you want to see a steam hammer in action, check out this Library of Congress video from 1904. Feel free to add your own Benny Hill theme.
Information and Pictures courtesy of: American Society of Civil Engineers, Wikipedia and Science Discovery Museum
As always, if YOU have an idea for a Historical Thursday, let me know at: thereifixedit@gmail.com
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that is crazy awesome, just an incredible feat of engineering for its time
it still is an awesome feat of engineering if we have never reached that amount of power since
Most die shops have several 300 ton presses now. Mine has eight 100 ton presses afew 45-90 ton and three 300 ton. All in about an acre of space.
There is a bit of a difference between a press and a hammer. A press comes down at a slow rate and is controlled with a foot pedal and a hammer comes down very quickly, and yet it was able to stop that immense weight quickly and accurately enough to crack a nut?!?!? On the flip side, I am a Combat Engineer in the Army and we were tasked to drive some “I” beams 16′ in the ground with the use of a pneumatic hammer, and even at only 50 tons, that has been one of the most powerful things I have used in my career…. When that hammer drops and hit the beam you could literally feel it in the ground if you were anywhere inside of a 500′ radius… Very impressive!
It now looks like the Eiffel Tower, but its still full of awesomesauce!
There’s a show called Engineering Marvels I believe.
This, while cool, is unquestionably not a kludge.
Agreed, historical Thursdays never really are kludges, only a few(like the zip tie spoons) are kludged the way they are supposed to be. This is just a big machine, not a jury rigged device that can blow at any moment.
I like the Historical Thursday posts myself. No, not a kluge, but a machine, and many machines are used in producing kudges, or are themselves kludged.
This, however, is pure steam-powered awesomeness.
Hmm. I think that using something like this to crack an egg, or hammer a nail counts as kludge.
I second Bob’s statement. Was it an inprovised hammer built onto the side of a building or something? Cause then it’d be a kludge worth seeing.
Still worthy of note, though. Imagine what you could kludge together with a hammer that big. Because of course a hammer is always the right tool…
Unless it’s a wrench!
A wrench is just a hammer that hits on both sides.
Especially when struck by a hammer itself.
Hammer, Wrench, Large Screwdriver, Duct Tape, Pocket Knife…
Is that the holy order of precedence in regards to kludges?
Corrections and additions welcome…
Like, I know sure binder clips, wire ties, vice-grip pliers, etc belong on the list, but I’m unsure of the proper order in the Holy Kludge Order of Precedence. lol
It is currently placed in the middle of a square/roundabout. You see it when entering Le Creusot (France) from the south (typically by taxi from the nearby TGV station). Those who don’t know what it is usually think it’s a kludged Eiffel Tower made by local heavy industries.
Man, I wonder how many poor souls lost a body part working around that thing. Not to mention the lack of protective head gear from all that slag it spews.
Wow. It’s gorgeous, beautiful.
Watching the video I wonder if they even know what the word “safety” meant.
Very impressive. That hammer ran for 53 years. It was so big the neighbors never tried to borrow it.
If I had a hammer..
Maxwell’s Beastly Hammer anyone?
Now THAT’S a hammer for swatting flies!!!
ok some other cool facts, other than the couple of hundered ton hit it could produce… the motion was controlled by one man with a surprisingly small lever, with some practace the operator could bring the hammer own and hold an egg with it, let little more than a second later bring the hammer down with enough force to flatten almost anything
I’m pretty sure modern forge presses can generate a lot more than 125 tons of force.
“The Creusot Hammer had a long, productive life until advancements in the field of hydraulics were made, rendering it obsolete.”
Reading is AWESOME!
Yeah, I red that. I was taking issue with this bit from the post: “It remained the most powerful hammering force in the world until the Americans bought the machine’s patent; they upped the ante to 125 tons, a figure never to be reproduced.”
It seems to be saying that 125 tons was the greatest hammering force ever achieved.
One assumes they meant that it was never reproduced with a steam hammer. Whilst reading is great, comprehension is awesomer.
I’ll be back…I suddenly had the irresistible urge to go to Home Depot.
Naah, Harbor Freight Tools, esp. when the 20-ton and 50-ton Shop Presses are on sale…
thats a hammer ment for one person and on person only.
chuck norris
and he doesn’t need steam to use it….
cause its his sextoy
AWESOME!
The fact it looks like the Eiffel tower is not a coincidence : this is simply the most efficient way –French Engineers knew at this time how to build high heavy duty towers, mostly for industrial purposes
Yup, way to kool for kludge. But I liked the write up. Thanks for teaching me stuffs.
[b]BANG![/b]
Look Ma! No hand!
The new Thor movie is taking a decidedly streampunk bent.
From the description: “Steam hammers were upside-down hanging pistons…”
Could somebody please explain the concept “hanging piston” in this context? Are we talking about the various arrangements used by Watt and Newcomen?
STOP!
Hammer Time?
Congratulations!
You two have won the Internets for this week.
That video –those men were crazy! the whole thing is how to do the blacksmith shop, gone extremely large and more dangerous, and I guess they were pounding out one of the huge steel beams. I thought they were poured, not forged!
You would never use a poured beam it would have no strength. A forged beam is much stronger than a poured beam.
This is a truly awesome machine, but how is it a kludge?
finally, we’ve found the BANHAMMER!
It remains the largest hammer in the world to this day.
Hanging piston- basically the steam is injected below the piston neat the date mark to lift it and keep it “hanging” the pressure is then released causing the hammer to drop. Some models could introduce steam above the hammer to add force to the strike.
It’s basically an early drop forge.
A hammer this big and we still can’t get the nail all the way in the wall!
I’ve seen steam hammers in use recently. They’re not dead yet. The ones I’m most familiar with were steam driven, steam drove the piston down and could deliver a terrific force. I read recently of an upgrade to a fifty thousand pound hammer at the place I used to work at, new blocks in the base absorb the vibrations so it’s not tearing itself apart like it once did.
Indeed, it IS awesome. Machines like this made mass production a reality, and put the word “Revolution” into the term “Industrial Revolution.” Being from the steam age makes it even MORE awesome.
want
Well, unlike today’s hydraulic versions, this thing was capable of 125 tons of force. And is still unmatched. So, why did they stop using it? I will never know. It didn’t even need fuel, it just needed water and oil. Seriously.
Didn’t need fuel? Where’d the steam come from?
dude, they had to boil the water somehow. steam engines are less efficient than gas or diesel, FYI
in the 19th century, steam came from coal
during my studies i had opportunity to test a little drop hammer (working area about 15×15 cm) . what a tool !!
this one …
wtf?
what did that thing do?
press form tanks out of steel sheets in a single step?
Coming from that town, I can tell you that the legend tells that this hammer (marteau-pilon) could press uge amounts of coal as well as… a nut. I let you dream on that
I am the maintenance supervisor in a steel forging facility, and we still run hammers like this. Although no longer steam powered, we have three of these running every day.. It is true, the operators can display phenomenal control, or unleash pure destruction..
This is a link to video of our hammer in production taken in 2007..
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y226/stevieb91/?action=view¤t=100_6103.mp4
True awesomeness, and the video is incredible too. Proves that in the old days safety was in the hands of the operators alone – make one mistake, one mis-step and you could literally “single-handedly” bring the production to a screeching halt.
It’s like a giant syringe…
I like how in the library of congress video, one of the guys catches fire and doesn’t notice. look at the guy on the right at the 2:37 mark
That thing sure is an Eiffel.