The lathe is deceptively simple, all it does is turn components at a steady rate while tools shape and carve the surface. But few inventions have such possibilities and uses, from self-tapping screws to jet engine shafts.

Wood lathes first emerged in Europe around the mid-16th century, it was the development of precision lathes that unleashed their potential. John Harrison famously used precision lathes to make the components for his exquisitely accurate chronometers. Henry Maudslay invented an accurate screw-cutting lathe in 1810 which enabled engineers to turn nuts and bolts with perfect threads. (One of Maudslay's other crucial "products" was the family of engineers he trained, including Joseph Whitworth, of screw standard fame, and Joseph Clement, who became chief engineer to Charles Babbage, grandfather of the computer). Lathes are one of the most potentially dangerous pieces of equipment in the engineering machine-shop. Anything that gets caught up in them gets dragged in relentlessly. Components being turned can also fly off at lethal speed, and even the stuff that lathes produce has its dangers.

Metal-turning produces razor-sharp swarf.