"tup," being a mass of many tons. And they of modern times were not
content merely to let this great mass fall. They let in steam above the
piston, and jammed it down upon the mass of glowing metal, with a shock
that jars the earth. The strange thing about this Titanic machine is
that it can crack an egg, or flatten out a ton or more of glowing iron.
Hundreds of the forgings of later times, such as the wrought iron or
steel frames of locomotives, and the shafts of steamers, and the forged
modern guns, could not be made by forging without this steam hammer.

[Illustration: THE STEAM HAMMER.]

Then slowly came the period of all kinds of "machine tools." During the
period briefly described above they could not make sheet metal. The
rolling mill must have come, not only before the modern steam-boiler,
but even before the modern plow could be made. Can the reader imagine a
time in the United States when sheet metal could not be rolled, and even
tin plates were not known? If so, he can instantly transport himself to
the times of the wooden "trencher," and the "pewter" mug and pitcher, to
the days when iron rails for tramways were unknown, and when even the
"strap-iron," always necessary, was rudely and slowly hammered out on an
anvil. [Footnote: About 1720, nails were the most needed of all the
articles of a new country. Farmers made them for themselves, at home.
The secret of how to roll out a sheet and split it into nail-rods was
stolen from the one shop that knew how, at Milton, Mass., to give to
another at Mlddleboro. The thief had the Biblical name of Hashay H.
Thomas. He stole the secret while the hands of the Milton mill were gone
to dinner, and served his country and broke up a small monopoly in so
doing.]

Shears came with the "rolls;" vast engines of gigantic biting capacity,