Machine Tools Project

STICK embarked on a Machine Tools Project to build upon the success of the joint STICK/NMS ‘Old Tools, New Uses’ Effective Collections project in 2011, which reviewed domestic technology and hand tool collections in Scottish museums and produced educational resources plus a master catalogue.

The completed project has produced a catalogue of known machine tools in collections in Scotland, from a wide variety of industries and scales. The catalogue is available to download here, with a document listing the records included here.

We aimed to re-focus Scottish engineering and machine tools collections as an accessible resource for understanding basic engineering principles and processes. Historic machine tools are an ideal resource for engineering students to study as unlike modern CNC machines most of their working parts are visible and their functions more immediately understandable.

We aimed to better understand our collections in the context of industrial, social and technical history and to share that information with our peers via a master catalogue. This meets one of the key aims behind the founding of STICK, to help curators better understand their industrial collections.

STICK Machine Tools Catalogue

The Machine Tools Catalogue is complete and can be downloaded in full here, with a document listing the records included here.

ReCreate Public Event (Paisley Museum & Art Galleries)

In June 2015 we represented the Machine Tools Project with a ‘Show and Tell’ table at the ReCreate Public Event at Paisley Museum & Art Galleries.

At our our ‘Show and Tell’ table we presented some advertising model tools manufactured by Hugh Smith & Co. Glasgow held by the Scottish Maritime Museum. This was a perfect warm-up for getting us in the mood for our own first project event in July.

Make Things Work! The Machine Tools Project Event (Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge)

The first public Machine Tools Project Event took place on Friday, July 24th at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge.The programme offered a wide range of activities related to machine tools including a practical demonstration of a model lathe and a tour of the machine tool exhibition at Summerlee Museum.

XVIth TICCIH Congress 2015 (Lille, France)

As an ambassador for STICK and Scottish Machine Tool Heritage, Daniela presented the project and the specific heritage practice related to it at the XVIth TICCIH Congress “Industrial Heritage in the Twenty-First Century, New Challenges” in Lille, France. One of the main realisations of this amazing week of inspiring talks, exchanging ideas and creating networks was that Scottish machine tool heritage can find its voice beyond the Scottish borders. These are exciting times for the Scottish industrial heritage sector to build up international networks and create multidisciplinary research projects! You can find the abstract of Daniela’s presentation here.