All the while, forging technology drove the pace of progress. Shown here are several vintage examples of the forging technology through history.

1. An early 20th Century, double-column steam-powered forging hammer built by Gebrüder Böhler & Co. and installed at Richard Hartmann’s Saxon Machine Works, in Chemnitz, Germany.

2. An archival drawing from the 1920s of a double-column steam hammer built for Richard Hartmann’s Saxon Machine Works, in Chemnitz, Germany.

3. A pre-war advertisement shows a bridge-mounted air hammer, built by the predecessor of SMS Eumoco.

4. A 1957 advertisement for a 2,000-kg Bêché single-column air hammer.

5. 5-ton single-column hydraulic hammer commissioned at LD FORGE heavy forging workshop in 2005.