[f. TILT sb.2 or v.1] A heavy hammer used in forging, fixed on a pivot and acted upon by a cam-wheel or an eccentric, which alternately tilts it up and allows it to drop.
1773. Gentl. Mag., Oct., 513/2. Any plating forge to work with a tilt-hammer.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 345. The tilt-hammer used … weighs about 100 pounds, and makes 130 strokes per minute.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Tilt-hammer, a hammer for shingling or forging iron, arranged as a lever of the first or third order, and ‘tilted’ or ‘tripped’ by means of a cam or cog-gearing, and allowed to fall upon the billet, bloom, or bar.
1894. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 422. Before James Nasmyth’s great invention of the steam hammer, trip or tilt and helve hammers had been the forging tools.
