Henry Maudslay, who later developed many improvements to the lathe, worked at the Royal Arsenal from 1783, being exposed to this machine in the Verbruggen workshop.[9] A detailed description of Vaucanson's lathe was published decades before Maudslay perfected his version. It is likely that Maudslay was not aware of Vaucanson's work, since his first versions of the slide rest had many errors that were not present in the Vaucanson lathe.