science · 31 March 1796 · 228 years ago
In 1796, Joseph Bramah obtained a British patent for his hydraulic (or hydrostatic) press under the title of “certain new methods of producing and applying a more considerable degree of power to all kinds of mechanical apparatus and other machinery requiring motion and force, than by any means at present practiced for the purpose.” It applied Pascal's hydrostatic principle that a pressure exerted on any portion of the surface of a confined fluid is propagated throughout the fluid. Such great forces could be accomplished that iron girders, anchors and such products could be tested to sustain great weights and strains. His machines could also press goods for packing, or be used to extract vegetable oils.
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