There are so many different lathe types and their uses vary widely. It’s important to choose the type that works best for your needs. And some lathe machine examples include:

Thermal crackingand catalyticcracking

While many think one type of lathe works for every material, there are actually different lathes for different products. But, they all mainly operate in the same way, holding and rotating.

Thermal crackingin concrete

You never know how many of the things you use in your life have been created or have some connection to a lathe. And that is a pretty cool concept to think about.

Back in the day, around 1300 BC, the Egyptians created a lathe. And, believe it or not, it is a tool we still use to this day.

This tool is so versatile and can be used for machinery, hobbies, or work. In other words, it can create products like motors, bowls, or equipment parts.

Thermal crackingexample

F. Gerali (2019). Thermal Cracking, Engineering and Technology History Wiki. [Online] Available: https://ethw.org/Thermal_Cracking

Thermal crackingcar

But, once they realize how useful lathes are, they can then begin to see how important they really are in today’s industry.

At the same time, the Burton-Humphreys patent was accused of infringement by Shukhov of his 1891 patent. The quarrel was resolved in favor of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, but in Russia the Shukhov process was used without acknowledging the rights to the Indiana company. Various improvements to thermal cracking were introduced into the 1920s, until it was surpassed by the most effective (to yield higher octane gasoline) catalytic cracking process in 1937.

Thermal crackingtemperature

This was a major advancement in petroleum refining technology. Since the beginning of modern refining in the 1860s, few major advancements in traditional processes were made in more efficient refining of heavier fractions of petroleum. However, the Shukhov process did not find immediate worldwide adoption. The demand for a very light and flammable gasoline-like product was not prevalent, and furthermore, the production on a commercial scale would have required the construction of large, dangerous, and expensive thermal cracking facilities.

A lathe is a tool that takes unwanted materials off of a product. It rotates the product and cuts away until the desired form is created. And it is usually used to shape metal or wood.

Thermal crackingconditions

Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov (1853-1939), together with Sergei Gavrilov, were the Russian physicists and engineers who in 1891 successfully developed a continuous thermal cracking process in Tsarist Russia, after having worked in applied oil field technologies (e.g. pipelining[1] and boilers) for The Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers Limited (Branobel) since 1878. The Shukhov Cracking Process was first patented in Russia (no. 12926) on November 27, 1891. The base principle of the process involves the thermal breaking of the heavier hydrocarbon chains under high pressure to obtain lighter and shorter chain fractions.

The chemical engineers William Merriam Burton (1865-1954) and Robert E. Humphreys (1868-1942),[2] began working in this area in 1908. After having persuaded the newly established Indiana’s firm, established from the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company, to invest in the technology, they implemented a well-functioning thermal cracking process similar to the Shukhov Cracking Process. Crude oil was poured into the still and the temperature elevated to the range of 700 to 750 F (371 - 399 C). The flow of petroleum vapors was regulated through a valve system to allow the required pressure, 90 psa equal to 6.2 bar, to be maintained through all the steps of the process. After the fractions had become light and evaporated, these were gathered through the condenser. At the end of the process, the still was opened and the carbon deposits collected. The main yield of this process was gasoline, light gas oil (a diesel-kind fuel oil), residual fuel oil, and petroleum coke.

Thermal crackingprocess

Copp, Newton, and Andrew Zanella. Discovery, innovation, and risk: case studies in science and technology. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1993.

Types ofthermal cracking

(The) Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education Belgorod State Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov http://en.bstu.ru/about/acquaintance/shukhov_vladimir_grigorievichv

Cobb, Cathy, and Harold Goldwhite. Creations of fire: chemistry's lively history from alchemy to the atomic age. Cambridge, Mass: Perseus Pub., 2001.

Today the original Burton-Humphreys process is no longer in use, with an exception for some diesel-kind fuels. However, many of the current refining processes owe much to the thermal cracking idea pioneered by Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov in the 19th century, and the 20th century successful development and results obtained by the two American chemists, from the relevant technological investments made by their company.

However, not many people know exactly what a lathe is or what it is used for. And they are completely unaware of how our everyday products are machined from them.

On January 1913, the Burton-Humphreys thermal cracking process was patented (Patent No. 1,049,667)[3]. The same year, the Whiting refinery, erected in 1893 to produce kerosene for lamps, had already 12 Burton-Humphreys adapted stills in service, which just ten years later reached the number of 900 units in full service. In addition to using thermal cracking to make gasoline for sale, Standard Oil of Indiana also earned great profits in royalties, some $15 million between 1913 and 1930, by giving the patent in license to other refining companies. Soon, the method was used throughout the petroleum industry all over the world.

This technology and its productive potential came back into the scope of chemical engineering during the early 1900s boom of the young automotive industry. This generated a need for car fuels far beyond what contemporary refining technology could actually produce. This turn towards a high octane gasoline refining market took place at the Standard Oil Company of Indiana facilities of Whiting, Indiana, U.S.A, in 1912.

While you might not have known all that a lathe machine is capable of, it’s important to recognize how important they are in today’s world.

Larson, Henrietta M., and Kenneth Wiggins Porter. History of Humble Oil & Refining Company; a study in industrial growth. New York: Harper, 1959.

The original version of this article was created by Francesco Gerali, 2019 Elizabeth & Emerson Pugh Scholar in Residence at the IEEE History Center