The American Precision Museum is housed in an old firearms factory that was powered by a belt-driven system. They have a wonderful collection of machinery and models that show how many of these machines would have been used. They also have live demonstrations at times.
This is a video of my photos from this visit. Many of the machines were manufactured in the USA and were used in the local industries.
This is well worth the visit if you are in this area. It is close to the historic downtown of Windsor, VT. This is their website: http://www.americanprecision.org/