Tools & manufacturing · 1803

Portsmouth Block Mills

Forty-five machines make pulley blocks in the first mass production line.

Marc Brunel, Samuel Bentham and Maudslay equipped the mills from 1803, producing 130,000 pulley blocks a year for the Royal Navy. Ten unskilled men replaced about 110 skilled craftsmen.

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Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Screw-cutting lathe 1800
Watt steam engine 1776

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Patents awarded in England, 1700-1851 Latest: 455 patents per year (1851) Source: Our World in Data

GDP per capita in England/UK since 1000 Latest: 38.4k int.-$ (2011) (2022) Source: Our World in Data