James Hall Nasmyth was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company manufacturers of machine tools. He retired at the age of 48, and moved to Penshurst, Kent where he developed his hobbies of astronomy and photography.
47 York Place, Edinburgh, Plaque commemorating James Nasmyth's birth
James Nasmyth circa 1844 by Hill & Adamson.
James Nasmyth's patent steam hammer as illustrated in Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, 1854
Drawing of a crater on the surface of the Moon by Nasmyth
A steam hammer, also called a drop hammer, is an industrial power hammer driven by steam that is used for tasks such as shaping forgings and driving piles. Typically the hammer is attached to a piston that slides within a fixed cylinder, but in some designs the hammer is attached to a cylinder that slides along a fixed piston.
1894 illustration of various sizes of single- and double-frame steam hammer
A single-frame steam drop hammer in use at the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway shops in Topeka, Kansas, 1943
A single-frame double-acting steam hammer
James Watt (1736–1819) described the concept of a steam hammer
