Invention of machines

This was accomplished by the invention of machines that were used to cut and shape the necessary closely fitted parts and, particularly, by the development of gaskets and packing. Since that time, components such as valves, pumps, actuating cylinders and motors have been developed and refined to make hydraulics one of the leading methods of transmitting power. 

But these applications mainly relate to machines of various types, and machines themselves only date from the same periods. In other words, from the first times when man s way of life permitted the design and construction of machines, it was only a relatively few generations before we find firm evidence that he was using lubricants in those machines. Should we therefore assume that his use of lubricants followed his invention of machines, or did his first machines make use of the knowledge he already had of lubricants and lubrication ... 

---