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How the micrometer was born

2023-01-12

 As early as the 18th century, micrometers stepped onto the stage of manufacturing in the development of machine tool industry. To this day, the micrometer remains one of the most versatile precision measuring tools in the workshop. Now let's see how the micrometer was born.
 
Humans first used the thread principle to measure the length of objects in the 17th century. In 1638, W. Gascogine, an astronomer in Yorkshire, England, used the thread principle to measure the distance of stars. Later, in 1693, he invented a measuring ruler called the "caliper micrometer".
This is a measuring system with a threaded shaft attached to a rotating handwheel at one end and movable jaws at the other. Measurement readings can be obtained by counting the rotations of a handwheel with a reading dial. The week of the reading dial is divided into 10 equal parts, and the distance is measured by moving the measuring claw, which realizes the first attempt of human beings to measure the length with the screw thread.
 
Precision measuring instruments were not commercially available until the latter part of the 19th century. Sir Joseph Whitworth, who invented the famous "Whitworth thread", became the leading figure in promoting the commercialization of micrometers. Brown & Sharpe of the American B&S Company visited the Paris International Exposition held in 1867, where they saw the Palmer micrometer for the first time and brought it back to the United States. Brown & Sharpe carefully studied the micrometer they had brought back from Paris and added two mechanisms to it: a mechanism for better control of the spindle and a spindle lock. They produced the pocket micrometer in 1868 and brought it to market the following year.
 
Since then, the necessity of micrometers in machinery manufacturing workshops has been accurately predicted, and micrometers suitable for various measurements have been widely used with the development of machine tools.