A Brief overview on the History of Development of Machine Tools

At present, wide variety of machine tools are employed in manufacturing. If one tries to find out the chronological development of the machine tools, the practice of ancient man in Paleolithic or Neolithic age to protect himself or to kill animals is to be looked at; the use of stones and the technic of sharpening the same may be considered to be the beginning of cutting tools - essential component of the machining process. Over the ages, metals and alloys are discovered and newer materials developed; use of different kind of energy is facilitated. Availability of electrical energy causes a revolution in the human civilization, and different machine tools with various cutting tools are developed for processing materials with high productivity to manufacture wide range of components. Application of electronics and computers make the machine tools with high precision and easy to control, maintaining high degree of repeatability. In the present paper, a brief overview is made on the history of development of mainly machining machine tools by dividing into four different periods of civilization of human beings, namely stone age, pre-steam engine period, post-steam engine period and age of electricity.