an important early lathe in the uk was the horizontal boring machine that was installed in 1772 in the royal arsenal in woolwich. it was horse-powered and allowed for the production of much more accurate and stronger cannon used with success in the american revolutionary war in the late 18th century. one of the key characteristics of this machine was that the workpiece was turning as opposed to the tool, making it technically a lathe. 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. 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.