Daily AncestorMachinist
A machinist shaped metal parts on machine tools such as lathes, drills and milling machines, or built and repaired engines and machinery.
A machinist set up and ran machine tools to cut and finish metal to exact sizes, reading drawings and using precise measuring instruments. In the 1800s the word also covered men who built engines and other machines.
Census instructions preferred machinist to the vague mechanic. In 1870 enumerators were asked to say what kind, such as locomotive builder or engine builder, and later forms paired the title with an industry, as in machinist, steel mill.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Geo. Hartley, 36, Machinist, Steel mill
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Daily Ancestor. "Machinist." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/machinist. Last checked 2026-10-10.