TIL the first commercial CNC machine from 1952 cost over $1 million in today's money

I was watching some random history of tech video on YouTube last night and they dropped that number. I mean, I knew old machines were expensive, but that's just insane. It was a Cincinnati Milacron Hydrotel, basically a giant 3-axis mill run by punched tape. Makes me appreciate the little Haas in my shop a whole lot more, even when it's acting up. Has anyone else come across a fact about the trade's history that just blew your mind?

3 comments

3 Comments

brian_taylor151mo ago

That Cincinnati Hydrotel was actually from 1955, not 1952. The 1952 machine was a different one, a Kearney and Trecker Milwaukee-Matic. It's a common mix-up. Both were crazy expensive for the time, but it shows how fast that tech was moving back then. You go from a one-off prototype to a few different companies making them in just a couple years.

phoenix_singh251mo agoTop Commenter

My buddy found an original paper blueprint for a steam hammer from the 1880s in his grandpa's attic. The thing needed a team of guys just to run the boiler before you could even strike a piece of metal. Really puts how far we've come into perspective, all from a dusty roll of paper.

the_viola1mo ago

That point about the steam hammer blueprint is wild. I read that some early machine shops had more people running the plant's steam engine than actually making parts. It makes our modern power bills seem like a small trade off.