Stanhope Press, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea

The Stanhope ended the age of the wooden press. Charles, the third Earl Stanhope, designed it around 1800 almost entirely in iron, and a London ironworker, Robert Walker, built the early machines; his name is cast on the curved side of this one. A screw still drives the platen, but a set of compound levers turns it, so one pull of the bar gives far more pressure than a wooden press could. Stanhope never patented the design, and makers across Europe went on to copy it. Look for the heavy rounded frame: the first version had a straight frame that often cracked under the strain. This example stands in the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, Wales.