This collection represents over 200 years of manufacturing history, from early wooden lathes and hand tools to self-acting machinery.

Includes:

• one of the most important firearms collections in the world, including one of the first fully-automatic machines, and examples of small trade workshops

• Birmingham workshop collections, such as Bernard Cuzner’s silver workshop containing all of his tools, fittings, and furniture, and other workshops that show complete working practices in the gun, button, jewellery, and file-making trades

• the 1844 Woolrich electrical dynamo, which was the first commercial heavy electrical machine. Heaton’s 1794 button shank making machine is one of the earliest examples of self-acting production, capable of performing a series of consecutive operations without resetting.