Arming the Union, a new Civil War exhibit
at the American Precision Museum in
Windsor, Vermont,
shows how precision machines enabled
skilled workers
to produce innovative weapons for the
Union Army with features including
interchangeable parts and rifled barrels.
These innovations help the North win the Civil War.
The American Precision Museum's exhibit
also includes an innovative feature of
its own, a 3D animation of an 1853
automatic rifling machine.
While the Robbins & Lawrence rifling
machine is fascinating in its own right,
the actual cutting the rifling grooves
can't be seen
because it happens inside the gun barrel.
Additionally, the machine cannot be operated for
museum visitors
due to the fragile and irreplaceable
nature of it's parts
By virtually bringing the machine to
life,
the 3d animation shows the complex
movements of the machine
and through the magic of animation the
viewer can see the cutting action
inside the barrel.
Ann Lawless, Executive Director of the
American Precision Museum,
is excited about including an animation as part of the Arming The Union exhibit.
According to Ann, animation is the best
possible way to get inside
a nineteenth century machine.
Demonstratives' Engineers and Animators brought its subtle mechanisms to life
making all the activities of the machine
completely clear.
The rifling machine created a special
challenge for DI.
The machine could only be operated by
hand
in a very limited way, and had no
surviving engineering drawings or schematics.
By carefully recording measurements of
the components
and taking detailed photographs of all
aspects of the machine,
along with video of the machine in limited
operation,
the skilled engineers at DI were able to
create a working digital model
of a machine that was in action over 150
years ago.
The American Precision museum's exhibit
opened on Memorial Day.
To learn more about the American
Precision Museum
and the Arming The Union exhibit which
houses the Robbins & Lawrence
rifling machine, go to americanprecision.org.
To see how DI develops innovative ways to visualize technology,
visit us on the web at demonstratives.com
