A machine shop (also known as a "back shop") is a facility where machines are used to create or fabricate devices or parts from stock raw materials. These machines cut and shape metal into the desired forms. When machine shops were invented it led to an increased production of tools that could mass produce other tools, parts and products. Machine shops were an integral part of the industrial revolution, perhaps the main and driving force behind it. site here https://astromesin.com/


Machine shops started in the late 1700s and early 1800s. At that time, John Stevens and his family pioneered technologies that would lead to many great achievements including steamboats, locomotives, naval construction, firearms and much more.

Eli Whitney was another pioneer of machining and was an early proponent of standardization and interchangeable parts. Eli Whitney was one of the first manufacturers to successfully standardize parts. He made parts that were interchangeable; the theory being that you could create parts that would fit in many different things or be used for many different applications.

In Whitney's case, it was for firearms. The story holds that he went to Washington D.C. with ten pieces of different types of firearms. Each parts' pieces were put in different piles. In a demonstration to the Secretary of War, he picked a piece for each pile and constructed a musket right there in front of him. Needless to say, the Secretary of War was amazed.