I think this has been discussed before ??
**LINK**

BobH

Now I've got a Shorter Oxford dictionary from the Charity Shop I find 13 meanings for brake. Press brake is unlikely to do with bracken, a clump of bushes, vomiting, mucus, a cage, trap, or attending to a winding engine. Nor is the old-fashioned way of spelling break relevant, though 'press brake' might be related to the instrument of torture. What fun!

Meanings more closely related:

• Instrument for breaking, crushing or kneading Flax, hemp, clods, dough. Or peeling bark off a willow. Middle English, also Middle German and Old Dutch
• Possibly from the French braquer, meaning to point a cannon, a brake being a lever or handle for working a machine
• English 1430: a nose ring to control an Ox, leading to the 1772 meaning 'a device for retarding motion'. Brake as in 'applying a brake' is modern – 1868.
• A brake is a framework for holding something steady, or even – in 1609 – a turner's lathe.

Your guess is as good as mine but I think a Press Brake is simply a machine operated by a lever. Quite likely there's a dash of 'crushing' and 'holding steady in a framework' within the meaning as well.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 05/12/2017 14:57:17

I can't answer the question, but the break/brake distinction is a red herring, in the 19 century both spellings were used independent of meaning.

And a horse van/ carriage called a break.

I'm thinking that 'brake' basically meant any kind of device that applied mechanical force, much as 'mill' came to mean almost any kind of factory, whether it ground grain or not.

there can be one reason fore press brake.first press and to stop or brake if it did not it would a sheer regards norm or am missing some thing

The origin of brake (not break) comes, I think, from the mechanism of the machine. The energy to do the pressing derives from a huge flywheel on a shaft across the top of the structure. The die doing the work is connected to the shaft via arms or levers attached to an eccentric cam on the shaft. The energy is transmitted through a brake (think huge expanding shoe brake as vintage car) which suddenly when triggered connects shaft to flywheel. Goes one turn and disconnects again. Thus the die is forced down to do its purpose.

Some forging hammers use a similar action and the operators are extremely skilled and can bring the hammer down with great accuracy and delicacy. Some being foot operated some by pulling on a rope.

Best I can do off the cuff but that has always been my understanding of the brake in brake press.

Mike

This was all I could find:

mid-15c., "instrument for crushing or pounding," from Middle Dutch braeke "flax brake," from breken"to break" (see break (v.)). The word was applied to many crushing implements, especially the tool for breaking up the woody part of flax to loosen the fibers. It also was applied to the ring through the nose of a draught ox. It was influenced in sense by Old French brac, a form of bras "an arm," thus the sense "a lever or handle," which was being used in English from late 14c., and "a bridle or curb" (early 15c.).

One or the other sense or a convergence of all of them yielded the main modern meaning "mechanical device for arresting the motion of a wheel," which is attested by 1772.

I use "brake" for stopping things, Prony Brake for measuring engine torque etc, etc. "Break", like smash crockery,.

Ian S C