Trip Hammer

Also called a tilt hammer or helve hammer, a trip hammer is a massive powered hammer, usually raised by a cam and released to fall under gravity, historically driven by a water wheel and set up, often several at once, in a forge also known as a hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works. Trip hammers are recorded in Imperial China from the Western Han dynasty, existed in the contemporary Greco-Roman world, and are better attested in medieval Europe from the twelfth century onward; the Industrial Revolution saw the trip hammer largely replaced by the power hammer, with multiple hammers often driven from one central power source through line shafts, pulleys and belts. Traditional uses included pounding, decorticating and polishing grain, crushing metal ore in mining, and, in finery forges, drawing wrought-iron blooms out into workable bar iron and fabricating articles of wrought iron, latten and steel.