Mechanized boring of the cannon barrel
Before Wilkinson a cannon was cast hollow around a core and its inside was then finished by hand. The walls came out uneven; the windage between the shot and the bore ate up accuracy and predictability. In 1774 John Wilkinson at his Bersham works in Shropshire proposed casting the cannon solid and boring out the barrel with a tool fixed rigidly on a stationary rest, while the cannon itself rotated. The precision of the cylinder rose to the point that James Watt, who had been unable to make his steam engine's cylinder airtight, had his cylinders made at Wilkinson's: the Boulton & Watt industrial engines took their cylinders from there.
A cannon, an object of war to begin with, turned out to be a precision lathe for peacetime engineering as well.
Why this date
exact: proposed in 1774 (per Grace's Guide, drawing on 19th-century engineering literature). Patent granted in 1775.
Node sources
- Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, «John Wilkinson» Verified 28 Sep 2026
Wilkinson in 1774 proposed casting them solid and boring a barrel.
- Grace's Guide to British Industrial History, «John Wilkinson», Boulton & Watt Verified 28 Sep 2026
Because his cylinders were so accurately bored, he became the main supplier of these for Boulton and Watt, and also licensed steam engines from them to assist in his ironworks.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.