Thomas Oliver (engineer)
English engineer and inventor
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Thomas Oliver was an engineer who invented the first machine for forging bolts in England. This used a treadle-operated hammer which was called an Oliver hammer or English Oliver, after the inventor. Production of bolts using this machinery started in Darlaston in Staffordshire in 1838.[1][2] Similar machines were still in use in the Black Country in 1979 at Lench's Oliver Shop, making special bolts to order.[3] Using such a hammer could be strenuous work, stamping on the treadle to force the red hot iron into the die over a thousand times a day. Despite the physical strain and injury which resulted, even women laboured in this way during the 19th century.[4]
