The study shows the discontinuous development of woodworking machines and power-engines, examining its influence on the types of companies, the production process as well as on the aesthetic appearance (manifestation) of the products of cabinet making. Although the analysis focuses on woodworking in Germany during the 19th century, it takes into account the international development, especially regarding the presentation of woodworking machines. All chapters are followed by illustrations. Part one demonstrates that the development of woodworking machines does not take place gradually but rather irregularly and discontinuously, a development in which the planing machines have a key position. Together with the parallel development of power-engines, this resulted in the usage of many different machine-ensembles for woodworking throughout the 19th century, each of them having a special mode of operation and production. For the development of the machine-body one ca distinguish three stages of refinement: the time before 1855 (beginning of the development of the machine-body), the time from 1855/60 to 1865/70 (first phase of refinement of the machine-body) and the period from 1865/70 to about 1895 (phase of second refinement). In accordance with the historical machine-bodies and their different characteristics, a) quite different types of companies come into being during the 19th century. and b) „machinisation" step by step gains ground in the already existing sections and branches of the cabinet-making trade. Through this, the so called Dampfsägemühlen (steam operated sawing mills), Furnierfabriken (veneer plants), Möbelfabriken (furniture factories), Schweif- und Fräsanstalten (curving and moulding companies), Baufabriken (construction factories), Holzbearbeitungsfabriken (woodworking factories), Produktivgenossenschaften (production co-operatives), Dampftischlereien (steam joiners' workshops), Möbelfabriken mit Dampfbetrieb (steam operated furniture factories), Luxusmöbelfabriken (luxury furniture factories), Werkgenossenschaften (factory co-operatives) etc. emerge successively and sometimes simultaneously - all of them being significant in 19th century Germany. The second part shows how working with machinery contrasts with the existing handicraft form of production: the components of the product are disjoined in a new manner; the former building technique of shaping and adding is replaced by the fabrication of pieces and their subsequent assembly and fitting. The product itself, previously appearing finished and completed as a whole rather than as an assembled and obviously made thing, is affected by this transformation as well. Achieving the same product-appearance goes hand in hand with new, machinery-specific obstacles, which were solved by using different aesthetic styles like the various forms of Historicism, Art Nouveau etc. The fact that the "aestheticisation" and search for new styles which are able to hide this appearance of assembly does not stop with the development of mechanical processing but continues, points out an importance commonality of both manufacture and machine production, which should be noted. The transition to machine processing, which also affected the entire perception of the product, however, is not reflecting this in a change of diction. On the contrary, terms like the treatment and the change in shape of material, which are being used more frequently during the process of "machinisation", ignore and disregard this basic fact. Like the manifold aesthetic codes and ciphers, they contribute to the fading of what remains to be inscribed into the modern notion of work. In addition to a summary, part three features a discussion of older and more recent interpretations of the process of the "introduction of woodworking by machinery" as well as a conceptual reflection of the basic contexts and preconditions of the study: the notion of machines for processing material; the problem of categorising handicraft production, manufacture and factory; the double meaning of the "division of labour"; the theorem of the transformation of the product and finally Vico´s axiom of the Verum Factum.