Overhead line shafting installed in the Fitting, Machining and Pattern making Department of the Engineering Workshops, Goldsmiths' College, New Cross, London - circa 1894. The other metal fittings hanging from the ceiling are for 'flare' gas lighting - before the advent of the much brighter and more efficient gas "mantles".

It is possible, but by no means certain, that the first use of individual electric motors on lathes was developed by a Philadelphia company, Matthias Baldwin - originally set up to bind books and produce copper printing cylinders. By 1828, the firm had moved into larger quarters, and, being unable to a steam engine of the right specification to drive his machinery, Mr. Baldwin designed and built his own; as a result, before long the firm was building nothing else - and soon branched out into the manufacture of complete railway locomotives, the "Old Ironsides" of 1832 being their first.
It was not until Michael Faraday discovered, in 1831, the laws of electromagnetic induction - upon which all electrical generators and motors are bases - and it was then some years before the knowledge could be used commercially. One of the earliest known examples of a motor being out to practical use was in 1872 when the French firm, Gramme of Paris, had a working DC generator that could, if fed electricity, act as a motor. With successful displays at the 1873 Vienna and 1876 American Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia (and in the same year in London) Gramme demonstrated their expertise by converting a length of line shafting in their factory from steam to electric power. In 1879, the British inventor Sir Charles Parsons developed a highly efficient and practical dynamo-electric machine, this marking a significant leap in electric motor technology and enabling their use in industrial applications. From that point on steady development produced smaller and ever more powerful and reliable motors until, by 1892, they were compact and enough to be in commercial production and occasionally considered suitable for use on individual machines. Interestingly, it is believed - but not confirmed - that four wood lathes were amongst other machines to be first fitted with individual motors, their operation being demonstrated at the Paris Exhibition of 1881.
In 1895, Matthias Baldwin, ever seeking to improve his production methods and efficiency, converted the large lathes in his wheel-turning shop to individual drive, allowing the forest of overhead line shafts and belting in his factory to be removed. However, such conversions were expensive, and it took some time for the whole industry to follow this example - though in the years leading up to World War 1 they did become increasingly popular. By the 1920s, individual machine tools were increasingly being supplied fitted with their own motor and, by the end of that decade, according to published sources, some 90 percent were so fitted (though many makers' catalogues into the mid-1940s still listed machines for drive by line shafting).
Initially, with individual drives, there was much messing about with top-heavy installations where motors were mounted, for example, on top of a lathe's headstock to drive traditional flat-belt cone pulleys. With the increasing use of all-geared headstocks motors could be positioned behind or beneath a machine with just a short, wide flat belt driving to the gearbox input pulley - though in some early installations various types of chain were used. At this point the "modern age" might be considered to have arrived.
The advantages of an electrical supply system in a workshop - and the fitting of individual motors to each machine tools were considerable - and today (when these fittings are universal) it's often forgotten that:

• removing the overhead line shafting eliminated dust, dirt, dripping oil, constant noise, maintenance problems, the danger of belts breaking and striking workers and the blocking of light and access to lifting equipment
  
• there were no transmission losses passing the power from one end of the factory to the other
  
• maintenance and replacement of the expensive and difficult-to-reach overhead drive system were both eliminated
  
• there was no need to run a huge steam engine or giant electric motor just to power a few machines - or even just one
  
• speed ranges could be more precisely and easily specified for the particular job the machine tool was designed to accomplish
  
• motors could be made to produce infinitely variable speeds - ideal for certain operations and essential for some
  
• machine tools become portable, and could be moved around the shop floor into the best position to facilitate a particular production process
  
• switch-controlled automatic and manual safety controls could be fitted to guard the machine, operator and workpieces
  
• small individual motors could be applied to separate parts of a machine to automate or power what had previously been manual operations
  
• really large jobs that could not be fastened to, or on a machine tool, could be secured instead on a floor-mounted support - and the machine tool built around it
  
• the electricity supply to the works enabled electric cranes and lifting devices to be installed, so speeding up the safe handing of heavy jobs, materials and the repositioning of machine tools
  
• work could continue all night and small lights positioned on the machine to illuminate a job
  
• the supply of electricity brought as many radical changes to the engineering trade - and industry in general - as it did, of course, to the lives of the general public..