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Blacksmith Ernest Fletcher operates the automatic striker
RADCLIFFE'S only blacksmith turned to machinery to help tackle staff shortages.
Ernest O. Fletcher, of the New Road Shoeing Forge, demonstrated his automatic striker for the Radcliffe Times
He showed how it could do anything a striker could do - and without wages, without complaints, and without getting tired. Mr Fletcher said: "It can work harder and better than any man could possibly do."
He had bought the small and simple-looking machine a year earlier for the price of £400.
The machine worked off a flywheel, which forced a heavy hammer head to strike the anvil with robust springs taking the shock of the blow. The force of the blow could be controlled with a foot bar.
Although Mr Fletcher said that business was "booming", being a blacksmith's striker was one of the hardest in the industry.
Young men found that they could get the same money in other trades and some people did not like working with horses.
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So blacksmiths found that the automatic striker was one way of working without assistance.
However the machine was not expected to replace the blacksmith himself.
The same amount of skill, the same knowledge of materials, and the same judgement and experience were needed to control the machine.
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