A few days passed, and Brunel called with the first drawing, done by

himself; for he was a capital draughtsman, and used to speak of drawing

as the "alphabet of the engineer." The drawing only showed a little

bit of the intended machine, and Brunel did not yet think it advisable

to communicate to Maudslay the precise object he had in view; for

inventors are usually very chary of explaining their schemes to others,

for fear of being anticipated. Again Brunel appeared at Maudslay's

shop with a further drawing, still not explaining his design; but at

the third visit, immediately on looking at the fresh drawings he had

brought, Maudslay exclaimed, "Ah! now I see what you are thinking of;

you want machinery for making blocks." At this Brunel became more

communicative, and explained his designs to the mechanic, who fully

entered into his views, and went on from that time forward striving to

his utmost to work out the inventor's conceptions and embody them in a

practical machine.

While still occupied on the models, which were begun in 1800, Maudslay

removed his shop from Wells-street, where he was assisted by a single

journeyman, to Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, where he had greater

room for carrying on his trade, and was also enabled to increase the

number of his hands. The working models were ready for inspection by

Sir Samuel Bentham and the Lords of the Admiralty in 1801, and having

been fully approved by them, Brunel was authorized to proceed with the

execution of the requisite machinery for the manufacture of the ship's

blocks required for the Royal Navy. The whole of this machinery was

executed by Henry Maudslay; it occupied him very fully for nearly six

years, so that the manufacture of blocks by the new process was not

begun until September, 1808.

We despair of being able to give any adequate description in words of

the intricate arrangements and mode of action of the block-making

machinery. Let any one attempt to describe the much more simple and

familiar process by which a shoemaker makes a pair of shoes, and he

will find how inadequate mere words are to describe any mechanical

operation.[13] Suffice it to say, that the machinery was of the most

beautiful manufacture and finish, and even at this day will bear

comparison with the most perfect machines which can be turned out with

all the improved appliances of modern tools. The framing was of

cast-iron, while the parts exposed to violent and rapid action were all

of the best hardened steel. In turning out the various parts, Maudslay

found his slide rest of indispensable value. Indeed, without this

contrivance, it is doubtful whether machinery of so delicate and

intricate a character could possibly have been executed. There was not

one, but many machines in the series, each devoted to a special

operation in the formation of a block. Thus there were various

sawing-machines,--the Straight Cross-Cutting Saw, the Circular

Cross-Cutting Saw, the Reciprocating Ripping-saw, and the Circular

Ripping-Saw. Then there were the Boring Machines, and the Mortising

Machine, of beautiful construction, for cutting the sheave-holes,

furnished with numerous chisels, each making from 110 to 150 strokes a

minute, and cutting at every stroke a chip as thick as pasteboard with

the utmost precision. In addition to these were the Corner-Saw for

cutting off the corners of the block, the Shaping Machine for

accurately forming the outside surfaces, the Scoring Engine for cutting

the groove round the longest diameter of the block for the reception of

the rope, and various other machines for drilling, riveting, and

finishing the blocks, besides those for making the sheaves.

The total number of machines employed in the various operations of

making a ship's block by the new method was forty-four; and after being

regularly employed in Portsmouth Dockyard for upwards of fifty years,

they are still as perfect in their action as on the day they were

erected. They constitute one of the most ingenious and complete

collections of tools ever invented for making articles in wood, being

capable of performing most of the practical operations of carpentry

with the utmost accuracy and finish. The machines are worked by a

steam-engine of 32-horse power, which is also used for various other

dockyard purposes. Under the new system of block-making it was found

that the articles were better made, supplied with much greater

rapidity, and executed at a greatly reduced cost. Only ten men, with

the new machinery, could perform the work which before had required a

hundred and ten men to execute, and not fewer than 160,000 blocks of

various kinds and sizes could be turned out in a year, worth not less

than 541,000L.[14]

The satisfactory execution of the block-machinery brought Maudslay a

large accession of fame and business; and the premises in Margaret

Street proving much too limited for his requirements, he again resolved

to shift his quarters. He found a piece of ground suitable for his

purpose in Westminster Road, Lambeth. Little more than a century since

it formed part of a Marsh, the name of which is still retained in the

adjoining street; its principal productions being bulrushes and

willows, which were haunted in certain seasons by snipe and waterfowl.

An enterprising riding-master had erected some premises on a part of

the marsh, which he used for a riding-school; but the speculation not

answering, they were sold, and Henry Maudslay became the proprietor.

Hither he removed his machinery from Margaret Street in 1810, adding

fresh plant from time to time as it was required; and with the aid of

his late excellent partner he built up the far-famed establishment of

Maudslay, Field, and Co. There he went on improving his old tools and

inventing new ones, as the necessity for them arose, until the original

slide-lathes used for making the block-machinery became thrown into the

shade by the comparatively gigantic machine-tools of the modern school.

Yet the original lathes are still to be found in the collection of the

firm in Westminster Road, and continue to do their daily quota of work

with the same precision as they did when turned out of the hands of

their inventor and maker some sixty years ago.

It is unnecessary that we should describe in any great detail the

further career of Henry Maudslay. The rest of his life was full of

useful and profitable work to others as well as to himself. His

business embraced the making of flour and saw mills, mint machinery,

and steam-engines of all kinds. Before he left Margaret Street, in

1807, he took out a patent for improvements in the steam-engine, by

which he much simplified its parts, and secured greater directness of

action. His new engine was called the Pyramidal, because of its form,

and was the first move towards what are now called Direct-acting

Engines, in which the lateral movement of the piston is communicated by

connecting-rods to the rotatory movement of the crank-shaft. Mr.

Nasmyth says of it, that "on account of its great simplicity and

GET-AT-ABILITY of parts, its compactness and self-contained steadiness,

this engine has been the parent of a vast progeny, all more or less

marked by the distinguishing features of the original design, which is

still in as high favour as ever." Mr. Maudslay also directed his

attention in like manner to the improvement of the marine engine, which

he made so simple and effective as to become in a great measure the

type of its class; and it has held its ground almost unchanged for

nearly thirty years. The 'Regent,' which was the first steamboat that

plied between London and Margate, was fitted with engines by Maudslay

in 1816; and it proved the forerunner of a vast number of marine

engines, the manufacture of which soon became one of the most important

branches of mechanical engineering.

Another of Mr. Maudslay's inventions was his machine for punching

boiler-plates, by which the production of ironwork of many kinds was

greatly facilitated. This improvement originated in the contract which

he held for some years for supplying the Royal Navy with iron plates

for ships' tanks. The operations of shearing and punching had before

been very imperfectly done by hand, with great expenditure of labour.

To improve the style of the work and lessen the labour, Maudslay

invented the machine now in general use, by which the holes punched in

the iron plate are exactly equidistant, and the subsequent operation of

riveting is greatly facilitated. One of the results of the improved

method was the great saving which was at once effected in the cost of

preparing the plates to receive the rivets, the price of which was

reduced from seven shillings per tank to ninepence. He continued to

devote himself to the last to the improvement of the lathe,--in his

opinion the master-machine, the life and soul of engine-turning, of

which the planing, screw-cutting, and other machines in common use, are

but modifications. In one of the early lathes which he contrived and

made, the mandrill was nine inches in diameter; it was driven by

wheel-gearing like a crane motion, and adapted to different speeds.

Some of his friends, on first looking at it, said he was going "too

fast;" but he lived to see work projected on so large a scale as to

prove that his conceptions were just, and that he had merely

anticipated by a few years the mechanical progress of his time. His

large removable bar-lathe was a highly important tool of the same kind.

It was used to turn surfaces many feet in diameter. While it could be

used for boring wheels, or the side-rods of marine engines, it could

turn a roller or cylinder twice or three times the diameter of its own

centres from the ground-level, and indeed could drive round work of any

diameter that would clear the roof of the shop. This was therefore an

almost universal tool, capable of very extensive uses. Indeed much of

the work now executed by means of special tools, such as the planing or

slotting machine, was then done in the lathe, which was used as a

cutter-shaping machine, fitted with various appliances according to the

work.

Maudslay's love of accuracy also led him from an early period to study

the subject of improved screw-cutting. The importance of this

department of mechanism can scarcely be overrated, the solidity and

permanency of most mechanical structures mainly depending on the

employment of the screw, at the same time that the parts can be readily

separated for renewal or repair. Any one can form an idea of the

importance of the screw as an element in mechanical construction by

examining say a steam-engine, and counting the number of screws

employed in holding it together. Previous to the time at which the

subject occupied the attention of our mechanic, the tools used for

making screws were of the most rude and inexact kind. The screws were

for the most part cut by hand: the small by filing, the larger by

chipping and filing. In consequence of the great difficulty of making

them, as few were used as possible; and cotters, cotterils, or

forelocks, were employed instead. Screws, however, were to a certain

extent indispensable; and each manufacturing establishment made them

after their own fashion. There was an utter want of uniformity. No

system was observed as to "pitch," i.e. the number of threads to the

inch, nor was any rule followed as to the form of those threads. Every

bolt and nut was sort of specialty in itself, and neither owed nor

admitted of any community with its neighbours. To such an extent was

this irregularity carried, that all bolts and their corresponding nuts

had to be marked as belonging to each other; and any mixing of them

together led to endless trouble, hopeless confusion, and enormous

expense. Indeed none but those who lived in the comparatively early

days of machine-manufacture can form an adequate idea of the annoyance

occasioned by the want of system in this branch of detail, or duly

appreciate the services rendered by Maudslay to mechanical engineering

by the practical measures which he was among the first to introduce for

its remedy. In his system of screw-cutting machinery, his taps and

dies, and screw-tackle generally, he laid the foundations of all that

has since been done in this essential branch of machine-construction,

in which he was so ably followed up by several of the eminent mechanics

brought up in his school, and more especially by Joseph Clement and

Joseph Whitworth. One of his earliest self-acting screw lathes, moved

by a guide-screw and wheels after the plan followed by the latter

engineer, cut screws of large diameter and of any required pitch. As

an illustration of its completeness and accuracy, we may mention that

by its means a screw five feet in length, and two inches in diameter,

was cut with fifty threads to the inch; the nut to fit on to it being

twelve inches long, and containing six hundred threads. This screw was

principally used for dividing scales for astronomical purposes; and by

its means divisions were produced so minute that they could not be

detected without the aid of a magnifier. The screw, which was sent for

exhibition to the Society of Arts, is still carefully preserved amongst

the specimens of Maudslay's handicraft at the Lambeth Works, and is a

piece of delicate work which every skilled mechanic will thoroughly

appreciate. Yet the tool by which this fine piece of turning was

produced was not an exceptional tool, but was daily employed in the

ordinary work of the manufactory.

Like every good workman who takes pride in his craft, he kept his tools

in first-rate order, clean, and tidily arranged, so that he could lay

his hand upon the thing he wanted at once, without loss of time. They

are still preserved in the state in which he left them, and strikingly

illustrate his love of order, "nattiness," and dexterity. Mr. Nasmyth

says of him that you could see the man's character in whatever work he

turned out; and as the connoisseur in art will exclaim at sight of a

picture, "That is Turner," or "That is Stansfield," detecting the hand

of the master in it, so the experienced mechanician, at sight of one of

his machines or engines, will be equally ready to exclaim, "That is

Maudslay;" for the characteristic style of the master-mind is as clear

to the experienced eye in the case of the finished machine as the

touches of the artist's pencil are in the case of the finished picture.

Every mechanical contrivance that became the subject of his study came

forth from his hand and mind rearranged, simplified, and made new, with

the impress of his individuality stamped upon it. He at once stripped

the subject of all unnecessary complications; for he possessed a

wonderful faculty of KNOWING WHAT TO DO WITHOUT--the result of his

clearness of insight into mechanical adaptations, and the accurate and

well-defined notions he had formed of the precise object to be

accomplished. "Every member or separate machine in the system of

block-machinery," says Mr. Nasmyth, "is full of Maudslay's presence;

and in that machinery, as constructed by him, is to be found the parent

of every engineering tool by the aid of which we are now achieving such

great things in mechanical construction. To the tools of which

Maudslay furnished the prototypes are we mainly indebted for the

perfection of our textile machinery, our locomotives, our marine

engines, and the various implements of art, of agriculture, and of war.

If any one who can enter into the details of this subject will be at

the pains to analyse, if I may so term it, the machinery of our modern

engineering workshops, he will find in all of them the strongly-marked

features of Maudslay's parent machine, the slide rest and slide

system--whether it be a planing machine, a slotting machine, a

slide-lathe, or any other of the wonderful tools which are now enabling

us to accomplish so much in mechanism."

One of the things in which Mr. Maudslay took just pride was in the

excellence of his work. In designing and executing it, his main object

was to do it in the best possible style and finish, altogether

irrespective of the probable pecuniary results. This he regarded in

the light of a duty he could not and would not evade, independent of

its being a good investment for securing a future reputation; and the

character which he thus obtained, although at times purchased at great

cost, eventually justified the soundness of his views. As the eminent

Mr. Penn, the head of the great engineering firm, is accustomed to say,

"I cannot afford to turn out second-rate work," so Mr. Maudslay found

both character and profit in striving after the highest excellence in

his productions. He was particular even in the minutest details. Thus

one of the points on which he insisted--apparently a trivial matter,

but in reality of considerable importance in mechanical

construction--was the avoidance of sharp interior angles in ironwork,

whether wrought or cast; for he found that in such interior angles

cracks were apt to originate; and when the article was a tool, the

sharp angle was less pleasant to the hand as well as to the eye. In

the application of his favourite round or hollow corner system--as, for

instance, in the case of the points of junction of the arms of a wheel

with its centre and rim--he used to illustrate its superiority by

holding up his hand and pointing out the nice rounded hollow at the

junction of the fingers, or by referring to the junction of the

branches to the stem of a tree. Hence he made a point of having all

the angles of his machine framework nicely rounded off on their

exterior, and carefully hollowed in their interior angles. In forging

such articles he would so shape his metal before bending that the

result should be the right hollow or rounded corner when bent; the

anticipated external angle falling into its proper place when the bar

so shaped was brought to its ultimate form. In all such matters of

detail he was greatly assisted by his early dexterity as a blacksmith;

and he used to say that to be a good smith you must be able to SEE in

the bar of iron the object proposed to be got out of it by the hammer

or the tool, just as the sculptor is supposed to see in the block of

stone the statue which he proposes to bring forth from it by his mind

and his chisel.

Mr. Maudslay did not allow himself to forget his skill in the use of

the hammer, and to the last he took pleasure in handling it, sometimes

in the way of business, and often through sheer love of his art. Mr

Nasmyth says, "It was one of my duties, while acting as assistant in

his beautiful little workshop, to keep up a stock of handy bars of lead

which he had placed on a shelf under his work-bench, which was of thick

slate for the more ready making of his usual illustrative sketches of

machinery in chalk. His love of iron-forging led him to take delight

in forging the models of work to be ultimately done in iron; and cold

lead being of about the same malleability as red-hot iron, furnished a

convenient material for illustrating the method to be adopted with the

large work. I well remember the smile of satisfaction that lit up his

honest face when he met with a good excuse for 'having a go at' one of

the bars of lead with hammer and anvil as if it were a bar of iron; and

how, with a few dexterous strokes, punchings of holes, and rounded

notches, he would give the rough bar or block its desired form. He

always aimed at working it out of the solid as much as possible, so as

to avoid the risk of any concealed defect, to which ironwork built up

of welded parts is so liable; and when he had thus cleverly finished

his model, he used forthwith to send for the foreman of smiths, and

show him how he was to instruct his men as to the proper forging of the

desired object." One of Mr. Maudslay's old workmen, when informing us

of the skilful manner in which he handled the file, said, "It was a

pleasure to see him handle a tool of any kind, but he was QUITE

SPLENDID with an eighteen-inch file!" The vice at which he worked was

constructed by himself, and it was perfect of its kind. It could be

turned round to any position on the bench; the jaws would turn from the

horizontal to the perpendicular or any other position--upside-down if

necessary--and they would open twelve inches parallel.

Mr. Nasmyth furnishes the following further recollections of Mr.

Maudslay, which will serve in some measure to illustrate his personal

character. "Henry Maudslay," he says, "lived in the days of

snuff-taking, which unhappily, as I think, has given way to the

cigar-smoking system. He enjoyed his occasional pinch very much. It

generally preceded the giving out of a new notion or suggestion for an

improvement or alteration of some job in hand. As with most of those

who enjoy their pinch, about three times as much was taken between the

fingers as was utilized by the nose, and the consequence was that a

large unconsumed surplus collected in the folds of the master's

waistcoat as he sat working at his bench. Sometimes a file, or a tool,

or some small piece of work would drop, and then it was my duty to go

down on my knees and fetch it up. On such occasions, while waiting for

the article, he would take the opportunity of pulling down his

waistcoat front, which had become disarranged by his energetic working

at the bench; and many a time have I come up with the dropped article,

half-blinded by the snuff jerked into my eyes from off his waistcoat

front.

"All the while he was at work he would be narrating some incident in

his past life, or describing the progress of some new and important

undertaking, in illustrating which he would use the bit of chalk ready

to his hand upon the slate bench before him, which was thus in almost

constant use. One of the pleasures he indulged in while he sat at work

was Music, of which he was very fond,--more particularly of melodies

and airs which took a lasting hold on his mind. Hence he was never

without an assortment of musical boxes, some of which were of a large

size. One of these he would set agoing on his library table, which was

next to his workshop, and with the door kept open, he was thus enabled

to enjoy the music while he sat working at his bench. Intimate friends

would frequently call upon him and sit by the hour, but though talking

all the while he never dropped his work, but continued employed on it

with as much zeal as if he were only beginning life. His old friend

Sir Samuel Bentham was a frequent caller in this way, as well as Sir

Isambard Brunel while occupied with his Thames Tunnel works[15] and Mr.

Chantrey, who was accustomed to consult him about the casting of his

bronze statuary. Mr. Barton of the Royal Mint, and Mr. Donkin the

engineer, with whom Mr. Barton was associated in ascertaining and

devising a correct system of dividing the Standard Yard, and many

others, had like audience of Mr. Maudslay in his little workshop, for

friendly converse, for advice, or on affairs of business.

"It was a special and constant practice with him on a workman's

holiday, or on a Sunday morning, to take a walk through his workshops

when all was quiet, and then and there examine the various jobs in

hand. On such occasions he carried with him a piece of chalk, with

which, in a neat and very legible hand, he would record his remarks in

the most pithy and sometimes caustic terms. Any evidence of want of

correctness in setting things square, or in 'flat filing,' which he

held in high esteem, or untidiness in not sweeping down the bench and

laying the tools in order, was sure to have a record in chalk made on

the spot. If it was a mild case, the reproof was recorded in gentle

terms, simply to show that the master's eye was on the workman; but

where the case deserved hearty approbation or required equally hearty

reproof, the words employed were few, but went straight to the mark.

These chalk jottings on the bench were held in the highest respect by

the workmen themselves, whether they conveyed praise or blame, as they

were sure to be deserved; and when the men next assembled, it soon

became known all over the shop who had received the honour or otherwise

of one of the master's bench memoranda in chalk."

The vigilant, the critical, and yet withal the generous eye of the

master being over all his workmen, it will readily be understood how

Maudslay's works came to be regarded as a first-class school for

mechanical engineers. Every one felt that the quality of his

workmanship was fully understood; and, if he had the right stuff in

him, and was determined to advance, that his progress in skill would be

thoroughly appreciated. It is scarcely necessary to point out how this

feeling, pervading the establishment, must have operated, not only in

maintaining the quality of the work, but in improving the character of

the workmen. The results were felt in the increased practical ability

of a large number of artisans, some of whom subsequently rose to the

highest distinction. Indeed it may be said that what Oxford and

Cambridge are in letters, workshops such as Maudslay's and Penn's are

in mechanics. Nor can Oxford and Cambridge men be prouder of the

connection with their respective colleges than mechanics such as

Whitworth, Nasmyth, Roberts, Muir, and Lewis, are of their connection

with the school of Maudslay. For all these distinguished engineers at

one time or another formed part of his working staff, and were trained

to the exercise of their special abilities under his own eye. The

result has been a development of mechanical ability the like of which

perhaps is not to be found in any age or country.

Although Mr. Maudslay was an unceasing inventor, he troubled himself

very little about patenting his inventions. He considered that the

superiority of his tools and the excellence of his work were his surest

protection. Yet he had sometimes the annoyance of being threatened

with actions by persons who had patented the inventions which he

himself had made.[16] He was much beset by inventors, sometimes sadly

out at elbows, but always with a boundless fortune looming before them.

To such as applied to him for advice in a frank and candid spirit, he

did not hesitate to speak freely, and communicate the results of his

great experience in the most liberal manner; and to poor and deserving

men of this class he was often found as ready to help them with his

purse as with his still more valuable advice. He had a singular way of

estimating the abilities of those who thus called upon him about their

projects. The highest order of man was marked in his own mind at 100

degrees; and by this ideal standard he measured others, setting them

down at 90 degrees, 80 degrees, and so on. A very first-rate man he

would set down at 95 degrees, but men of this rank were exceedingly

rare. After an interview with one of the applicants to him for advice,

he would say to his pupil Nasmyth, "Jem, I think that man may be set

down at 45 degrees, but he might be WORKED UP TO 60 degrees"--a common

enough way of speaking of the working of a steam-engine, but a somewhat

novel though by no means an inexpressive method of estimating the

powers of an individual.

But while he had much toleration for modest and meritorious inventors,

he had a great dislike for secret-mongers,--schemers of the close,

cunning sort,--and usually made short work of them. He had an almost

equal aversion for what he called the "fiddle-faddle inventors," with

their omnibus patents, into which they packed every possible thing that

their noddles could imagine. "Only once or twice in a century," said

he, "does a great inventor appear, and yet here we have a set of

fellows each taking out as many patents as would fill a cart,--some of

them embodying not a single original idea, but including in their

specifications all manner of modifications of well-known processes, as

well as anticipating the arrangements which may become practicable in

the progress of mechanical improvement." Many of these "patents" he

regarded as mere pit-falls to catch the unwary; and he spoke of such

"inventors" as the pests of the profession.

The personal appearance of Henry Maudslay was in correspondence with

his character. He was of a commanding presence, for he stood full six

feet two inches in height, a massive and portly man. His face was

round, full, and lit up with good humour. A fine, large, and square

forehead, of the grand constructive order, dominated over all, and his

bright keen eye gave energy and life to his countenance. He was

thoroughly "jolly" and good-natured, yet full of force and character.

It was a positive delight to hear his cheerful, ringing laugh. He was

cordial in manner, and his frankness set everybody at their ease who

had occasion to meet him, even for the first time. No one could be

more faithful and consistent in his friendships, nor more firm in the

hour of adversity. In fine, Henry Maudslay was, as described by his

friend Mr. Nasmyth, the very beau ideal of an honest, upright,

straight-forward, hard-working, intelligent Englishman.

A severe cold which he caught on his way home from one of his visits to

France, was the cause of his death, which occurred on the 14th of

February, 1831. The void which his decease caused was long and deeply

felt, not only by his family and his large circle of friends, but by

his workmen, who admired him for his industrial skill, and loved him

because of his invariably manly, generous, and upright conduct towards

them. He directed that he should be buried in Woolwich

parish-churchyard, where a cast-iron tomb, made to his own design, was

erected over his remains. He had ever a warm heart for Woolwich, where

he had been born and brought up. He often returned to it, sometimes to

carry his mother a share of his week's wages while she lived, and

afterwards to refresh himself with a sight of the neighbourhood with

which he had been so familiar when a boy. He liked its green common,

with the soldiers about it; Shooter's Hill, with its out-look over Kent

and down the valley of the Thames; the river busy with shipping, and

the royal craft loading and unloading their armaments at the dockyard

wharves. He liked the clangour of the Arsenal smithy where he had

first learned his art, and all the busy industry of the place. It was

natural, therefore, that, being proud of his early connection with

Woolwich, he should wish to lie there; and Woolwich, on its part, let

us add, has equal reason to be proud of Henry Maudslay.

[1] The words Bramah uses in describing this part of his patent of 1795

are these--"The piston must be made perfectly watertight by leather or

other materials, as used in pump-making." He elsewhere speaks of the

piston-rod "working through the stuffing-box." But in practice, as we

have above shown, these methods were found to be altogether inefficient.

[2] In this lathe the slide rest and frame were moveable along the

traversing-bar, according to the length of the work, and could be

placed in any position and secured by a handle and screw underneath.

The Rest, however, afterwards underwent many important modifications;

but the principle of the whole machine was there.

[3] PLUMIER, L'Art de Tourner, Paris, 1754, p. 155.

[4] Machines approuvees par l' Academie, 1719.

[5] Machines approuvees par l' Academie, 1733.

[6] L'Art de Tourner en perfection, 49.

[7] It consisted of two parallel bars of wood or iron connected

together at both extremities by bolts or keys of sufficient width to

admit of the article required to be planed. A moveable frame was

placed between the two bars, motion being given to it by a long

cylindrical thread acting on any tool put into the sliding frame, and,

consequently, causing the screw, by means of a handle at each end of

it, to push or draw the point or cutting-edge of the tool either

way.--Mr. George Rennie's Preface to Buchanan's Practical Essays on

Mill Work, 3rd Ed. xli.

[8] Turning was a favourite amusement amongst the French nobles of last

century, many of whom acquired great dexterity in the art, which they

turned to account when compelled to emigrate at the Revolution. Louis

XVI. himself was a very good locksmith, and could have earned a fair

living at the trade. Our own George III. was a good turner, and was

learned in wheels and treadles, chucks and chisels. Henry Mayhew says,

on the authority of an old working turner, that, with average industry,

the King might have made from 40s. to 50s. a-week as a hard wood and

ivory turner. Lord John Hay, though one-armed, was an adept at the

latter, and Lord Gray was another capital turner. Indeed the late Mr.

Holtzapffel's elaborately illustrated treatise was written quite as

much for amateurs as for working mechanics. Among other noble

handicraftsmen we may mention the late Lord Douglas, who cultivated

bookbinding. Lord Traquair's fancy was cutlery, and one could not come

to him in a more welcome fashion than with a pair of old razors to set

up.

[9] Professor WILLIS, Lectures on the Results of the Great Exhibition

of 1851, 1st series, p. 306.

[10] Address delivered before the British Association at Manchester in

1861; and Useful Information for Engineers, 1st series, p. 22.

[11] Life of Sir Samuel Bentham, 97-8.

[12] Remarks on the Introduction of the Slide Principle in Tools and

Machines employed in the Production of Machinery, in Buchanan's

Practical Essays on Mill Work and other Machinery. 3rd ed. p. 397.

[13] So far as words and drawings can serve to describe the

block-making machinery, it will be found very ably described by Mr.

Farey in his article under this head in Rees's Cyclopaedia, and by Dr.

Brewster in the Edinburgh Cyclopaedia. A very good account will also

be found in Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of the Useful Arts, Art. "Block."

[14] The remuneration paid to Mr. Brunel for his share in the invention

was only one year's savings, which, however, were estimated by Sir

Samuel Bentham at 17,663L.; besides which a grant of 5000L. was

afterwards made to Brunel when labouring under pecuniary difficulties.

But the ANNUAL saving to the nation by the adoption of the block-making

machinery was probably more than the entire sum paid to the engineer.

Brunel afterwards invented other wood-working machinery, but none to

compare in merit and excellence with the above, For further particulars

of his career, see BEAMISH'S Memoirs of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, C.E.

London. 1862.

[15] Among the last works executed by the firm during Mr. Maudslay's

lifetime was the famous Shield employed by his friend Brunel in

carrying forward the excavation of the Thames Tunnel. He also supplied

the pumping-engines for the same great work, the completion of which he

did not live to see.

[16] His principal patent's were--two, taken out in 1805 and 1808,

while in Margaret Street, for printing calicoes (Nos. 2872 and 3117);

one taken out in 1806, in conjunction with Mr. Donkin, for lifting

heavy weights (2948); one taken out in 1807, while still in Margaret

Street, for improvements in the steam-engine, reducing its parts and

rendering it more compact and portable (3050); another, taken out in

conjunction with Robert Dickinson in 1812, for sweetening water and

other liquids (3538); and, lastly, a patent taken out in conjunction

with Joshua Field in 1824 for preventing concentration of brine in

boilers (5021).

CHAPTER XIII.

JOSEPH CLEMENT.

"It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of these

inventions. The Greeks would have elevated their authors among the

gods; nor will the enlightened judgment of modern times deny them the

place among their fellow-men which is so undeniably their

due."--Edinburgh Review.

That Skill in mechanical contrivance is a matter of education and

training as well as of inborn faculty, is clear from the fact of so

many of our distinguished mechanics undergoing the same kind of

practical discipline, and perhaps still more so from the circumstance

of so many of them passing through the same workshops. Thus Maudslay

and Clement were trained in the workshops of Bramah; and Roberts,

Whitworth, Nasmyth, and others, were trained in those of Maudslay.

Joseph Clement was born at Great Ashby in Westmoreland, in the year

1779. His father was a hand-loom weaver, and a man of remarkable

culture considering his humble station in life. He was an ardent

student of natural history, and possessed a much more complete

knowledge of several sub-branches of that science than was to have been

looked for in a common working-man. One of the departments which he

specially studied was Entomology. In his leisure hours he was

accustomed to traverse the country searching the hedge-bottoms for

beetles and other insects, of which he formed a remarkably complete

collection; and the capture of a rare specimen was quite an event in

his life. In order more deliberately to study the habits of the bee

tribe, he had a number of hives constructed for the purpose of enabling

him to watch their proceedings without leaving his work; and the

pursuit was a source of the greatest pleasure to him. He was a lover

of all dumb creatures; his cottage was haunted by birds which flew in

and out at his door, and some of them became so tame as to hop up to

him and feed out of his hand. "Old Clement" was also a bit of a

mechanic, and such of his leisure moments as he did not devote to

insect-hunting, were employed in working a lathe of his own

construction, which he used to turn his bobbing on, and also in various

kinds of amateur mechanics.

His boy Joseph, like other poor men's sons, was early set to work. He

received very little education, and learnt only the merest rudiments of

reading and writing at the village school. The rest of his education

he gave to himself as he grew older. His father needed his help at the

loom, where he worked with him for some years; but, as handloom weaving

was gradually being driven out by improved mechanism, the father

prudently resolved to put his son to a better trade. They have a

saying in Cumberland that when the bairns reach a certain age, they are

thrown on to the house-rigg, and that those who stick on are made

thatchers of, while those who fall off are sent to St. Bees to be made

parsons of. Joseph must have been one of those that stuck on--at all

events his father decided to make him a thatcher, afterwards a slater,

and he worked at that trade for five years, between eighteen and

twenty-three.

The son, like the father, had a strong liking for mechanics, and as the

slating trade did not keep him in regular employment, especially in

winter time, he had plenty of opportunity for following the bent of his

inclinations. He made a friend of the village blacksmith, whose smithy

he was accustomed to frequent, and there he learned to work at the

forge, to handle the hammer and file, and in a short time to shoe

horses with considerable expertness. A cousin of his named Farer, a

clock and watchmaker by trade, having returned to the village from

London, brought with him some books on mechanics, which he lent to

Joseph to read; and they kindled in him an ardent desire to be a

mechanic instead of a slater. He nevertheless continued to maintain

himself by the latter trade for some time longer, until his skill had

grown; and, by way of cultivating it, he determined, with the aid of

his friend the village blacksmith, to make a turning-lathe. The two

set to work, and the result was the production of an article in every

way superior to that made by Clement's father, which was accordingly

displaced to make room for the new machine. It was found to work very

satisfactorily, and by its means Joseph proceeded to turn fifes,

flutes, clarinets, and hautboys; for to his other accomplishments he

joined that of music, and could play upon the instruments that he made.

One of his most ambitious efforts was the making of a pair of

Northumberland bagpipes, which he finished to his satisfaction, and

performed upon to the great delight of the villagers. To assist his

father in his entomological studies, he even contrived, with the aid of

the descriptions given in the books borrowed from his cousin the

watchmaker, to make for him a microscope, from which he proceeded to

make a reflecting telescope, which proved a very good instrument. At

this early period (1804) he also seems to have directed his attention

to screw-making--a branch of mechanics in which he afterwards became

famous; and he proceeded to make a pair of very satisfactory

die-stocks, though it is said that he had not before seen or even heard

of such a contrivance for making screws.

So clever a workman was not likely to remain long a village slater.

Although the ingenious pieces of work which he turned out by his lathe

did not bring him in much money, he liked the occupation so much better

than slating that he was gradually giving up that trade. His father

urged him to stick to slating as "a safe thing;" but his own mind was

in favour of following his instinct to be a mechanic; and at length he

determined to leave his village and seek work in a new line. He

succeeded in finding employment in a small factory at Kirby Stephen, a

town some thirteen miles from Great Ashby, where he worked at making

power-looms. From an old statement of account against his employer

which we have seen, in his own handwriting, dated the 6th September,

1805, it appears that his earnings at such work as "fitting the first

set of iron loames," "fitting up shittles," and "making moddles," were

3s. 6d. a day; and he must, during the same time, have lived with his

employer, who charged him as a set-off "14 weaks bord at 8s. per weak."

He afterwards seems to have worked at piece-work in partnership with

one Andrew Gamble supplying the materials as well as the workmanship

for the looms and shuttles. His employer, Mr. George Dickinson, also

seems to have bought his reflecting telescope from him for the sum of

12L.

From Kirby Stephen Clement removed to Carlisle, where he was employed

by Forster and Sons during the next two years at the same description

of work; and he conducted himself, according; to their certificate on

his leaving their employment to proceed to Glasgow in 1807, "with great

sobriety and industry, entirely to their satisfaction." While working

at Glasgow as a turner, he took lessons in drawing from Peter

Nicholson, the well-known writer on carpentry--a highly ingenious man.

Nicholson happened to call at the shop at which Clement worked in order

to make a drawing of a power-loom; and Clement's expressions of

admiration at his expertness were so enthusiastic, that Nicholson,

pleased with the youth's praise, asked if he could be of service to him

in any way. Emboldened by the offer, Clement requested, as the

greatest favour he could confer upon him, to have the loan of the

drawing he had just made, in order that he might copy it. The request

was at once complied with; and Clement, though very poor at the time,

and scarcely able to buy candle for the long winter evenings, sat up

late every night until he had finished it. Though the first drawing he

had ever made, he handed it back to Nicholson instead of the original,

and at first the draughtsman did not recognise that the drawing was not

his own. When Clement told him that it was only the copy, Nicholson's

brief but emphatic praise was--"Young man, YOU'LL DO!" Proud to have

such a pupil, Nicholson generously offered to give him gratuitous

lessons in drawing, which were thankfully accepted; and Clement,

working at nights with great ardour, soon made rapid progress, and

became an expert draughtsman.

Trade being very slack in Glasgow at the time, Clement, after about a

year's stay in the place, accepted a situation with Messrs. Leys,

Masson, and Co., of Aberdeen, with whom he began at a guinea and a half

a week, from which he gradually rose to two guineas, and ultimately to

three guineas. His principal work consisted in designing and making

power-looms for his employers, and fitting them up in different parts

of the country. He continued to devote himself to the study of

practical mechanics, and made many improvements in the tools with which

he worked. While at Glasgow he had made an improved pair of die-stocks

for screws; and, at Aberdeen, he made a turning-lathe with a sliding

mandrill and guide-screws, for cutting screws, furnished also with the

means for correcting guide-screws. In the same machine he introduced a

small slide rest, into which he fixed the tool for cutting the

screws,--having never before seen a slide rest, though it is very

probable he may have heard of what Maudslay had already done in the

same direction. Clement continued during this period of his life an

industrious self-cultivator, occupying most of his spare hours in

mechanical and landscape drawing, and in various studies. Among the

papers left behind him we find a ticket to a course of instruction on

Natural Philosophy given by Professor Copland in the Marischal College

at Aberdeen, which Clement attended in the session of 1812-13; and we

do not doubt that our mechanic was among the most diligent of his

pupils. Towards the end of 1813, after saving about 100L. out of his

wages, Clement resolved to proceed to London for the purpose of

improving himself in his trade and pushing his way in the world. The

coach by which he travelled set him down in Snow Hill, Holborn; and his

first thought was of finding work. He had no friend in town to consult

on the matter, so he made inquiry of the coach-guard whether he knew of

any person in the mechanical line in that neighbourhood. The guard

said, "Yes; there was Alexander Galloway's show shop, just round the

corner, and he employed a large number of hands." Running round the

corner, Clement looked in at Galloway's window, through which he saw

some lathes and other articles used in machine shops. Next morning he

called upon the owner of the shop to ask employment. "What can you

do?" asked Galloway. "I can work at the forge," said Clement.

"Anything else?" "I can turn." "What else?" "I can draw." "What!"

said Galloway, "can you draw? Then I will engage you." A man who could

draw or work to a drawing in those days was regarded as a superior sort

of mechanic. Though Galloway was one of the leading tradesmen of his

time, and had excellent opportunities for advancement, he missed them

all. As Clement afterwards said of him, "He was only a mouthing

common-council man, the height of whose ambition was to be an

alderman;" and, like most corporation celebrities, he held a low rank

in his own business. He very rarely went into his workshops to

superintend or direct his workmen, leaving this to his foremen--a

sufficient indication of the causes of his failure as a mechanic.[1]

On entering Galloway's shop, Clement was first employed in working at

the lathe; but finding the tools so bad that it was impossible to

execute satisfactory work with them, he at once went to the forge, and

began making a new set of tools for himself. The other men, to whom

such a proceeding was entirely new, came round him to observe his

operations, and they were much struck with his manual dexterity. The

tools made, he proceeded to use them, displaying what seemed to the

other workmen an unusual degree of energy and intelligence; and some of

the old hands did not hesitate already to pronounce Clement to be the

best mechanic in the shop. When Saturday night came round, the other

men were curious to know what wages Galloway would allow the new hand;

and when he had been paid, they asked him. "A guinea," was the reply.

"A guinea! Why, you are worth two if you are worth a shilling," said

an old man who came out of the rank--an excellent mechanic, who, though

comparatively worthless through his devotion to drink, knew Clement's

money value to his employer better than any man there; and he added,

"Wait for a week or two, and if you are not better paid than this, I

can tell you of a master who will give you a fairer wage." Several

Saturdays came round, but no advance was made on the guinea a week; and

then the old workman recommended Clement to offer himself to Bramah at

Pimlico, who was always on the look out for first-rate mechanics.

Clement acted on the advice, and took with him some of his drawings, at

sight of which Bramah immediately engaged him for a month; and at the

end of that time he had given so much satisfaction, that it was agreed

he should continue for three months longer at two guineas a week.

Clement was placed in charge of the tools of the shop, and he showed

himself so apt at introducing improvements in them, as well as in

organizing the work with a view to despatch and economy, that at the

end of the term Bramah made him a handsome present, adding, "if I had

secured your services five years since, I would now have been a richer

man by many thousands of pounds." A formal agreement for a term of

five years was then entered into between Bramah and Clement, dated the

1st of April, 1814, by which the latter undertook to fill the office of

chief-draughtsman and superintendent of the Pimlico Works, in

consideration of a salary of three guineas a week, with an advance of

four shillings a week in each succeeding year of the engagement. This

arrangement proved of mutual advantage to both. Clement devoted

himself with increased zeal to the improvement of the mechanical

arrangements of the concern, exhibiting his ingenuity in many ways, and

taking; a genuine pride in upholding the character of his master for

turning out first-class work.

On the death of Bramah, his sons returned from college and entered into

possession of the business. They found Clement the ruling mind there

and grew jealous of him to such an extent that his situation became

uncomfortable; and by mutual consent he was allowed to leave before the

expiry of his term of agreement. He had no difficulty in finding

employment; and was at once taken on as chief draughtsman at Maudslay

and Field's where he was of much assistance in proportioning the early

marine engines, for the manufacture of which that firm were becoming

celebrated. After a short time, he became desirous of beginning

business on his own account as a mechanical engineer. He was

encouraged to do this by the Duke of Northumberland, who, being a great

lover of mechanics and himself a capital turner, used often to visit

Maudslay's, and thus became acquainted with Clement, whose expertness

as a draughtsman and mechanic he greatly admired. Being a man of

frugal and sober habits, always keeping his expenditure very

considerably within his income, Clement had been enabled to accumulate

about 500L., which he thought would be enough for his purpose; and he

accordingly proceeded, in 1817, to take a small workshop in Prospect

Place, Newington Butts, where he began business as a mechanical

draughtsman and manufacturer of small machinery requiring first-class

workmanship.

From the time when he took his first gratuitous lessons in drawing from

Peter Nicholson, at Glasgow, in 1807, he had been steadily improving in

this art, the knowledge of which is indispensable to whoever aspires to

eminence as a mechanical engineer,--until by general consent Clement

was confessed to stand unrivalled as a draughtsman. Some of the very

best drawings contained in the Transactions of the Society of Arts,

from the year 1817 downwards,--especially those requiring the

delineation of any unusually elaborate piece of machinery,--proceeded

from the hand of Clement. In some of these, he reached a degree of

truth in mechanical perspective which has never been surpassed.[2] To

facilitate his labours, he invented an extremely ingenious instrument,

by means of which ellipses of all proportions, as well as circles and

right lines, might be geometrically drawn on paper or on copper. He

took his idea of this instrument from the trammel used by carpenters

for drawing imperfect ellipses; and when he had succeeded in avoiding

the crossing of the points, he proceeded to invent the straight-line

motion. For this invention the Society of Arts awarded him their gold

medal in 1818. Some years later, he submitted to the same Society his

invention of a stand for drawings of large size. He had experienced

considerable difficulty in making such drawings, and with his

accustomed readiness to overcome obstacles, he forthwith set to work

and brought out his new drawing-table.

As with many other original-minded mechanics, invention became a habit

with him, and by study and labour he rarely failed in attaining the

object which he had bent his mind upon accomplishing. Indeed, nothing

pleased him better than to have what he called "a tough job;" as it

stimulated his inventive faculty, in the exercise of which he took the

highest pleasure. Hence mechanical schemers of all kinds were

accustomed to resort to Clement for help when they had found an idea

which they desired to embody in a machine. If there was any value in

their idea, none could be more ready than he to recognise its merit,

and to work it into shape; but if worthless, he spoke out his mind at

once, dissuading the projector from wasting upon it further labour or

expense.

One of the important branches of practical mechanics to which Clement

continued through life to devote himself, was the improvement of

self-acting tools, more especially of the slide-lathe. He introduced

various improvements in its construction and arrangement, until in his

hands it became as nearly perfect as it was possible to be. In 1818,

he furnished the lathe with a slide rest twenty-two inches long, for

the purpose of cutting screws, provided with the means of

self-correction; and some years later, in 1827, the Society of Arts

awarded him their gold Isis medal for his improved turning-lathe, which

embodied many ingenious contrivances calculated to increase its

precision and accuracy in large surface-turning.

The beautiful arrangements embodied in Mr. Clement's improved lathe can

with difficulty be described in words; but its ingenuity may be

inferred from a brief statement of the defects which it was invented to

remedy, and which it successfully overcame. When the mandrill of a

lathe, having a metal plate fixed to it, turns round with a uniform

motion, and the slide rest which carries the cutter is moving from the

circumference of the work to the centre, it will be obvious that the

quantity of metal passing over the edge of the cutter at each

revolution, and therefore at equal intervals of time, is continually

diminishing, in exact proportion to the spiral line described by the

cutter on the face of the work. But in turning metal plates it is

found very in expedient to increase the speed of the work beyond a

certain quantity; for when this happens, and the tool passes the work

at too great a velocity, it heats, softens, and is ground away, the

edge of the cutter becomes dull, and the surface of the plate is

indented and burnished, instead of being turned. Hence loss of time on

the part of the workman, and diminished work on the part of the tool,

results which, considering the wages of the one and the capital

expended on the construction of the other, are of no small importance;

for the prime objects of all improvement of tools are, economy of time

and economy of capital--to minimize labour and cost, and maximize

result.

The defect to which we have referred was almost the only remaining

imperfection in the lathe, and Mr. Clement overcame it by making the

machine self-regulating; so that, whatever might be the situation of

the cutter, equal quantities of metal should pass over it in equal

times,--the speed at the centre not exceeding that suited to the work

at the circumference,--while the workman was enabled to convert the

varying rate of the mandrill into a uniform one whenever he chose.

Thus the expedients of wheels, riggers, and drums, of different

diameters, by which it had been endeavoured to alter the speed of the

lathe-mandrill, according to the hardness of the metal and the diameter

of the thing to be turned, were effectually disposed of. These, though

answering very well where cylinders of equal diameter had to be bored,

and a uniform motion was all that was required, were found very

inefficient where a Plane surface had to be turned; and it was in such

cases that Mr. Clement's lathe was found so valuable. By its means

surfaces of unrivalled correctness were produced, and the slide-lathe,

so improved, became recognised and adopted as the most accurate and

extensively applicable of all machine-tools.

The year after Mr. Clement brought out his improved turning-lathe, he

added to it his self-adjusting double driving centre-chuck, for which

the Society of Arts awarded him their silver medal in 1828. In

introducing this invention to the notice of the Society, Mr. Clement

said, "Although I have been in the habit of turning and making

turning-lathes and other machinery for upwards of thirty-five years,

and have examined the best turning-lathes in the principal

manufactories throughout Great Britain, I find it universally regretted

by all practical men that they cannot turn anything perfectly true

between the centres of the lathe." It was found by experience, that

there was a degree of eccentricity, and consequently of imperfection,

in the figure of any long cylinder turned while suspended between the

centres of the lathe, and made to revolve by the action of a single

driver. Under such circumstances the pressure of the tool tended to

force the work out of the right line and to distribute the strain

between the driver and the adjacent centre, so that one end of the

cylinder became eccentric with respect to the other. By Mr. Clement's

invention of the two-armed driver, which was self-adjusting, the strain

was taken from the centre and divided between the two arms, which being

equidistant from the centre, effectually corrected all eccentricity in

the work. This invention was found of great importance in ensuring the

true turning of large machinery, which before had been found a matter

of considerable difficulty.

In the same year (1828) Mr. Clement began the making of fluted taps and

dies, and he established a mechanical practice with reference to the

pitch of the screw, which proved of the greatest importance in the

economics of manufacture. Before his time, each mechanical engineer

adopted a thread of his own; so that when a piece of work came under

repair, the screw-hob had usually to be drilled out, and a new thread

was introduced according to the usage which prevailed in the shop in

which the work was executed. Mr. Clement saw a great waste of labour

in this practice, and he promulgated the idea that every screw of a

particular length ought to be furnished with its appointed number of

threads of a settled pitch. Taking the inch as the basis of his

calculations, he determined the number of threads in each case; and the

practice thus initiated by him, recommended as it was by convenience

and economy, was very shortly adopted throughout the trade. It may be

mentioned that one of Clement's ablest journeymen, Mr. Whitworth, has,

since his time, been mainly instrumental in establishing the settled

practice; and Whitworth's thread (initiated by Clement) has become

recognised throughout the mechanical world. To carry out his idea,

Clement invented his screw-engine lathe, with gearing, mandrill, and

sliding-table wheel-work, by means of which he first cut the inside

screw-tools from the left-handed hobs--the reverse mode having before

been adopted,--while in shaping machines he was the first to use the

revolving cutter attached to the slide rest. Then, in 1828, he fluted

the taps for the first time with a revolving cutter,--other makers

having up to that time only notched them. Among his other inventions

in screws may be mentioned his headless tap, which, according to Mr.

Nasmyth, is so valuable an invention, that, "if he had done nothing

else, it ought to immortalize him among mechanics. It passed right

through the hole to be tapped, and was thus enabled to do the duty of

three ordinary screws." By these improvements much greater precision

was secured in the manufacture of tools and machinery, accompanied by a

greatly reduced cost of production; the results of which are felt to

this day.

Another of Mr. Clement's ingenious inventions was his Planing Machine,

by means of which metal plates of large dimensions were planed with

perfect truth and finished with beautiful accuracy. There is perhaps

scarcely a machine about which there has been more controversy than

this; and we do not pretend to be able to determine the respective

merits of the many able mechanics who have had a hand in its invention.

It is exceedingly probable that others besides Clement worked out the

problem in their own way, by independent methods; and this is confirmed

by the circumstance that though the results achieved by the respective

inventors were the same, the methods employed by them were in many

respects different. As regards Clement, we find that previous to the

year 1820 he had a machine in regular use for planing the triangular

bars of lathes and the sides of weaving-looms. This instrument was

found so useful and so economical in its working, that Clement

proceeded to elaborate a planing machine of a more complete kind, which

he finished and set to work in the year 1825. He prepared no model of

it, but made it direct from the working drawings; and it was so nicely

constructed, that when put together it went without a hitch, and has

continued steadily working for more than thirty years down to the

present day.

Clement took out no patent for his invention, relying for protection

mainly on his own and his workmen's skill in using it. We therefore

find no specification of his machine at the Patent Office, as in the

case of most other capital inventions; but a very complete account of

it is to be found in the Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1832,

as described by Mr. Varley. The practical value of the Planing Machine

induced the Society to apply to Mr. Clement for liberty to publish a

full description of it; and Mr. Varley's paper was the result.[3] It

may be briefly stated that this engineer's plane differs greatly from

the carpenter's plane, the cutter of which is only allowed to project

so far as to admit of a thin shaving to be sliced off,--the plane

working flat in proportion to the width of the tool, and its length and

straightness preventing the cutter from descending into any hollows in

the wood. The engineer's plane more resembles the turning-lathe, of

which indeed it is but a modification, working up on the same

principle, on flat surfaces. The tools or cutters in Clement's machine

were similar to those used in the lathe, varying in like manner, but

performing their work in right lines,--the tool being stationary and

the work moving under it, the tool only travelling when making lateral

cuts. To save time two cutters were mounted, one to cut the work while

going, the other while returning, both being so arranged and held as to

be presented to the work in the firmest manner, and with the least

possible friction. The bed of the machine, on which the work was laid,

passed under the cutters on perfectly true rollers or wheels, lodged

and held in their bearings as accurately as the best mandrill could be,

and having set-screws acting against their ends totally preventing all

end-motion. The machine was bedded on a massive and solid foundation

of masonry in heavy blocks, the support at all points being so complete

as effectually to destroy all tendency to vibration, with the object of

securing full, round, and quiet cuts. The rollers on which the

planing-machine travelled were so true, that Clement himself used to

say of them, "If you were to put but a paper shaving under one of the

rollers, it would at once stop all the rest." Nor was this any

exaggeration--the entire mechanism, notwithstanding its great size,

being as true and accurate as that of a watch.

By an ingenious adaptation of the apparatus, which will also be found

described in the Society of Arts paper, the planing machine might be

fitted with a lathe-bed, either to hold two centres, or a head with a

suitable mandrill. When so fitted, the machine was enabled to do the

work of a turning-lathe, though in a different way, cutting cylinders

or cones in their longitudinal direction perfectly straight, as well as

solids or prisms of any angle, either by the longitudinal or lateral

motion of the cutter; whilst by making the work revolve, it might be

turned as in any other lathe. This ingenious machine, as contrived by

Mr. Clement, therefore represented a complete union of the

turning-lathe with the planing machine and dividing engine, by which

turning of the most complicated kind might readily be executed. For

ten years after it was set in motion, Clement's was the only machine of

the sort available for planing large work; and being consequently very

much in request, it was often kept going night and day,--the earnings

by the planing machine alone during that time forming the principal

income of its inventor. As it took in a piece of work six feet square,

and as his charge for planing was three-halfpence the square inch, or

eighteen shillings the square foot, he could thus earn by his machine

alone some ten pounds for every day's work of twelve hours. We may add

that since planing machines in various forms have become common in

mechanical workshops, the cost of planing does not amount to more than

three-halfpence the square foot.

The excellence of Mr. Clement's tools, and his well-known skill in

designing and executing work requiring unusual accuracy and finish, led

to his being employed by Mr. Babbage to make his celebrated Calculating

or Difference Engine. The contrivance of a machine that should work

out complicated sums in arithmetic with perfect precision, was, as may

readily be imagined, one of the most difficult feats of the mechanical

intellect. To do this was in an especial sense to stamp matter with

the impress of mind, and render it subservient to the highest thinking

faculty. Attempts had been made at an early period to perform

arithmetical calculations by mechanical aids more rapidly and precisely

than it was possible to do by the operations of the individual mind.

The preparation of arithmetical tables of high numbers involved a vast

deal of labour, and even with the greatest care errors were unavoidable

and numerous. Thus in a multipltcation-table prepared by a man so

eminent as Dr. Hutton for the Board of Longitude, no fewer than forty

errors were discovered in a single page taken at random. In the tables

of the Nautical Almanac, where the greatest possible precision was

desirable and necessary, more than five hundred errors were detected by

one person; and the Tables of the Board of Longitude were found equally

incorrect. But such errors were impossible to be avoided so long as

the ordinary modes of calculating, transcribing, and printing continued

in use.

The earliest and simplest form of calculating apparatus was that

employed by the schoolboys of ancient Greece, called the Abacus;

consisting of a smooth board with a narrow rim, on which they were

taught to compute by means of progressive rows of pebbles, bits of bone

or ivory, or pieces of silver coin, used as counters. The same board,

strewn over with sand, was used for teaching the rudiments of writing

and the principles of geometry. The Romans subsequently adopted the

Abacus, dividing it by means of perpendicular lines or bars, and from

the designation of calculus which they gave to each pebble or counter

employed on the board, we have derived our English word to calculate.

The same instrument continued to be employed during the middle ages,

and the table used by the English Court of Exchequer was but a modified

form of the Greek Abacus, the chequered lines across it giving the

designation to the Court, which still survives. Tallies, from the

French word tailler to cut, were another of the mechanical methods

employed to record computations, though in a very rude way. Step by

step improvements were made; the most important being that invented by

Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms, commonly called

Napier's bones, consisting of a number of rods divided into ten equal

squares and numbered, so that the whole when placed together formed the

common multiplication table. By these means various operations in

multiplication and division were performed. Sir Samuel Morland,

Gunter, and Lamb introduced other contrivances, applicable to

trigonometry; Gunter's scale being still in common use. The

calculating machines of Gersten and Pascal were of a different kind,

working out arithmetical calculations by means of trains of wheels and

other arrangements; and that contrived by Lord Stanhope for the purpose

of verifying his calculations with respect to the National Debt was of

like character. But none of these will bear for a moment to be

compared with the machine designed by Mr. Babbage for performing

arithmetical calculations and mathematical analyses, as well as for

recording the calculations when made, thereby getting rid entirely of

individual error in the operations of calculation, transcription, and

printing.

The French government, in their desire to promote the extension of the

decimal system, had ordered the construction of logarithmical tables of

vast extent; but the great labour and expense involved in the

undertaking prevented the design from being carried out. It was

reserved for Mr. Babbage to develope the idea by means of a machine

which he called the Difference Engine. This machine is of so

complicated a character that it would be impossible for us to give any

intelligible description of it in words. Although Dr. Lardner was

unrivalled in the art of describing mechanism, he occupied twenty-five

pages of the 'Edinburgh Review' (vol.59) in endeavouring to describe

its action, and there were several features in it which he gave up as

hopeless. Some parts of the apparatus and modes of action are indeed

extraordinary and perhaps none more so than that for ensuring accuracy

in the calculated results,--the machine actually correcting itself, and

rubbing itself back into accuracy, when the disposition to err occurs,

by the friction of the adjacent machinery! When an error is made, the

wheels become locked and refuse to proceed; thus the machine must go

rightly or not at all,--an arrangement as nearly resembling volition as

anything that brass and steel are likely to accomplish.

This intricate subject was taken up by Mr. Babbage in 1821, when he

undertook to superintend for the British government the construction of

a machine for calculating and printing mathematical and astronomical

tables. The model first constructed to illustrate the nature of his

invention produced figures at the rate of 44 a minute. In 1823 the

Royal Society was requested to report upon the invention, and after

full inquiry the committee recommended it as one highly deserving of

public encouragement. A sum of 1500L. was then placed at Mr. Babbage's

disposal by the Lords of the Treasury for the purpose of enabling him

to perfect his invention. It was at this time that he engaged Mr.

Clement as draughtsman and mechanic to embody his ideas in a working

machine. Numerous tools were expressly contrived by the latter for

executing the several parts, and workmen were specially educated for

the purpose of using them. Some idea of the elaborate character of the

drawings may be formed from the fact that those required for the

calculating machinery alone--not to mention the printing machinery,

which was almost equally elaborate--covered not less than four hundred

square feet of surface! The cost of executing the calculating machine

was of course very great, and the progress of the work was necessarily

slow. The consequence was that the government first became impatient,

and then began to grumble at the expense. At the end of seven years

the engineer's bills alone were found to amount to nearly 7200L., and

Mr. Babbage's costs out of pocket to 7000L. more. In order to make

more satisfactory progress, it was determined to remove the works to

the neighbourhood of Mr. Babbage's own residence; but as Clement's

claims for conducting the operations in the new premises were thought

exorbitant, and as he himself considered that the work did not yield

him the average profit of ordinary employment in his own trade, he

eventually withdrew from the enterprise, taking with him the tools

which he had constructed for executing the machine. The government

also shortly after withdrew from it, and from that time the scheme was

suspended, the Calculating Engine remaining a beautiful but unfinished

fragment of a great work. Though originally intended to go as far as

twenty figures, it was only completed to the extent of being capable of

calculating to the depth of five figures, and two orders of

differences; and only a small part of the proposed printing machinery

was ever made. The engine was placed in the museum of King's College

in 1843, enclosed in a glass case, until the year 1862, when it was

removed for a time to the Great Exhibition, where it formed perhaps the

most remarkable and beautifully executed piece of mechanism the

combined result of intellectual and mechanical contrivance--in the

entire collection.[4]

Clement was on various other occasions invited to undertake work

requiring extra skill, which other mechanics were unwilling or unable

to execute. He was thus always full of employment, never being under

the necessity of canvassing for customers. He was almost constantly in

his workshop, in which he took great pride. His dwelling was over the

office in the yard, and it was with difficulty he could be induced to

leave the premises. On one occasion Mr. Brunel of the Great Western

Railway called upon him to ask if he could supply him with a superior

steam-whistle for his locomotives, the whistles which they were using

giving forth very little sound. Clement examined the specimen brought

by Brunel, and pronounced it to be "mere tallow-chandler's work." He

undertook to supply a proper article, and after his usual fashion he

proceeded to contrive a machine or tool for the express purpose of

making steam-whistles. They were made and supplied, and when mounted

on the locomotive the effect was indeed "screaming." They were heard

miles off, and Brunel, delighted, ordered a hundred. But when the bill

came in, it was found that the charge made for them was very high--as

much as 40L. the set. The company demurred at the price,--Brunel

declaring it to be six times more than the price they had before been

paying. "That may be;" rejoined Clement, "but mine are more than six

times better. You ordered a first-rate article, and you must be

content to pay for it." The matter was referred to an arbitrator, who

awarded the full sum claimed. Mr. Weld mentions a similar case of an

order which Clement received from America to make a large screw of

given dimensions "in the best possible manner," and he accordingly

proceeded to make one with the greatest mathematical accuracy. But his

bill amounted to some hundreds of pounds, which completely staggered

the American, who did not calculate on having to pay more than 20L. at

the utmost for the screw. The matter was, however, referred to

arbitrators, who gave their decision, as in the former case, in favour

of the mechanic.[5]

One of the last works which Clement executed as a matter of pleasure,

was the building of an organ for his own use. It will be remembered

that when working as a slater at Great Ashby, he had made flutes and

clarinets, and now in his old age he determined to try his skill at

making an organ--in his opinion the king of musical instruments. The

building of it became his hobby, and his greatest delight was in

superintending its progress. It cost him about two thousand pounds in

labour alone, but he lived to finish it, and we have been informed that

it was pronounced a very excellent instrument.

Clement was a heavy-browed man, without any polish of manner or speech;

for to the last he continued to use his strong Westmoreland dialect.

He was not educated in a literary sense; for he read but little, and

could write with difficulty. He was eminently a mechanic, and had

achieved his exquisite skill by observation, experience, and

reflection. His head was a complete repertory of inventions, on which

he was constantly drawing for the improvement of mechanical practice.

Though he had never more than thirty workmen in his factory, they were

all of the first class; and the example which Clement set before them

of extreme carefulness and accuracy in execution rendered his shop one

of the best schools of its time for the training of thoroughly

accomplished mechanics. Mr. Clement died in 1844, in his sixty-fifth

year; after which his works were carried on by Mr. Wilkinson, one of

his nephews; and his planing machine still continues in useful work.

[1] On one occasion Galloway had a cast-iron roof made for his

workshop, so flat and so independent of ties that the wonder was that

it should have stood an hour. One day Peter Keir, an engineer much

employed by the government--a clever man, though some what

eccentric--was taken into the shop by Galloway to admire the new roof.

Keir, on glancing up at it, immediately exclaimed, "Come outside, and

let us speak about it there!" All that he could say to Galloway

respecting the unsoundness of its construction was of no avail. The

fact was that, however Keir might argue about its not being able to

stand, there it was actually standing, and that was enough for

Galloway. Keir went home, his mind filled with Galloway's most

unprincipled roof. "If that stands," said he to himself, "all that I

have been learning and doing for thirty years has been wrong." That

night he could not sleep for thinking about it. In the morning he

strolled up Primrose Hill, and returned home still muttering to himself

about "that roof." "What," said his wife to him, "are you thinking of

Galloway's roof?" "Yes," said he. "Then you have seen the papers?"

"No--what about them?" "Galloway's roof has fallen in this morning,

and killed eight or ten of the men!" Keir immediately went to bed, and

slept soundly till next morning.

[2] See more particularly The Transactions of the Society for the

Encouragement of Arts, vol. xxxiii. (1817), at pp. 74, 157, 160, 175,

208 (an admirable drawing; of Mr. James Allen's Theodolite); vol.

xxxvi. (1818), pp. 28, 176 (a series of remarkable illustrations of Mr.

Clement's own invention of an Instrument for Drawing Ellipses); vol.

xliii. (1825), containing an illustration of the Drawing Table invented

by him for large drawings; vol. xlvi. (1828), containing a series of

elaborate illustrations of his Prize Turning Lathe; and xlviii. 1829,

containing illustrations of his Self-adjusting Double Driver Centre

Chuck.

[3] Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, vol.

xlix. p.157.

[4] A complete account of the calculating machine, as well as of an

analytical engine afterwards contrived by Mr. Babbage, of still greater

power than the other, will be found in the Bibliotheque Universelle de

Geneve, of which a translation into English, with copious original

notes, by the late Lady Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, was published

in the 3rd vol. of Taylor's Scientific Memoirs (London, 1843). A

history of the machine, and of the circumstances connected with its

construction, will also be found in Weld's History of the Royal

Society, vol. ii. 369-391. It remains to be added, that the perusal by

Messrs. Scheutz of Stockholm of Dr. Lardner's account of Mr. Babbage's

engine in the Edinburgh Review, led those clever mechanics to enter

upon the scheme of constructing and completing it, and the result is,

that their machine not only calculates the tables, but prints the

results. It took them nearly twenty years to perfect it, but when

completed the machine seemed to be almost capable of thinking. The

original was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. A copy of it

has since been secured by the English government at a cost of 1200L.,

and it is now busily employed at Somerset House in working out annuity

and other tables for the Registrar-General. The copy was constructed,

with several admirable improvements, by the Messrs. Donkin, the

well-known mechanical engineers, after the working drawings of the

Messrs. Scheutz.

[5] History of the Royal Society, ii. 374.

CHAPTER XIV.

FOX OF DERBY--MURRAY OF LEEDS--ROBERTS AND WHITWORTH OF MANCHESTER.

"Founders and senators of states and cities, lawgivers, extirpers of

tyrants, fathers of the people, and other eminent persons in civil

government, were honoured but with titles of Worthies or demi-gods;

whereas, such as were inventors and authors of new arts, endowments,

and commodities towards man's life, were ever consecrated amongst the

gods themselves."--BACON, Advancement of Learning.

While such were the advances made in the arts of tool-making and

engine-construction through the labours of Bramah, Maudslay, and

Clement, there were other mechanics of almost equal eminence who

flourished about the same time and subsequently in several of the

northern manufacturing towns. Among these may be mentioned James Fox

of Derby; Matthew Murray and Peter Fairbairn of Leeds; Richard Roberts,

Joseph Whitworth, James Nasmyth, and William Fairbairn of Manchester;

to all of whom the manufacturing industry of Great Britain stands in

the highest degree indebted.

James Fox, the founder of the Derby firm of mechanical engineers, was

originally a butler in the service of the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of

Foxhall Lodge, Staffordshire. Though a situation of this kind might

not seem by any means favourable for the display of mechanical ability,

yet the butler's instinct for handicraft was so strong that it could

not be repressed; and his master not only encouraged him in the

handling of tools in his leisure hours, but had so genuine an

admiration of his skill as well as his excellent qualities of

character, that he eventually furnished him with the means of beginning

business on his own account.

The growth and extension of the cotton, silk, and lace trades, in the

neighbourhood of Derby, furnished Fox with sufficient opportunities for

the exercise of his mechanical skill; and he soon found ample scope for

its employment. His lace machinery became celebrated, and he supplied

it largely to the neighbouring town of Nottingham; he also obtained

considerable employment from the great firms of Arkwright and

Strutt--the founders of the modern cotton manufacture. Mr. Fox also

became celebrated for his lathes, which were of excellent quality,

still maintaining their high reputation; and besides making largely for

the supply of the home demand, he exported much machinery abroad, to

France, Russia, and the Mauritius.

The present Messrs. Fox of Derby, who continue to carry on the business

of the firm, claim for their grandfather, its founder, that he made the

first planing machine in 1814,[1] and they add that the original

article continued in use until quite recently. We have been furnished

by Samuel Hall, formerly a workman at the Messrs. Fox's, with the

following description of the machine:--"It was essentially the same in

principle as the planing machine now in general use, although differing

in detail. It had a self-acting ratchet motion for moving the slides

of a compound slide rest, and a self-acting reversing tackle,

consisting of three bevel wheels, one a stud, one loose on the driving

shaft, and another on a socket, with a pinion on the opposite end of

the driving shaft running on the socket. The other end was the place

for the driving pulley. A clutch box was placed between the two

opposite wheels, which was made to slide on a feather, so that by means

of another shaft containing levers and a tumbling ball, the box on

reversing was carried from one bevel wheel to the opposite one." The

same James Fox is also said at a very early period to have invented a

screw-cutting machine, an engine for accurately dividing and cutting

the teeth of wheels, and a self-acting lathe. But the evidence as to

the dates at which these several inventions are said to have been made

is so conflicting that it is impossible to decide with whom the merit

of making them really rests. The same idea is found floating at the

same time in many minds, the like necessity pressing upon all, and the

process of invention takes place in like manner: hence the

contemporaneousness of so many inventions, and the disputes that arise

respecting them, as described in a previous chapter.

There are still other claimants for the merit of having invented the

planing machine; among whom may be mentioned more particularly Matthew

Murray of Leeds, and Richard Roberts of Manchester. We are informed by

Mr. March, the present mayor of Leeds, head of the celebrated

tool-manufacturing firm of that town, that when he first went to work

at Matthew Murray's, in 1814, a planing machine of his invention was

used to plane the circular part or back of the D valve, which he had by

that time introduced in the steam-engine. Mr. March says, "I recollect

it very distinctly, and even the sort of framing on which it stood.

The machine was not patented, and like many inventions in those days,

it was kept as much a secret as possible, being locked up in a small

room by itself, to which the ordinary workmen could not obtain access.

The year in which I remember it being in use was, so far as I am aware,

long before any planing-machine of a similar kind had been invented."

Matthew Murray was born at Stockton-on-Tees in the year 1763. His

parents were of the working class, and Matthew, like the other members

of the family, was brought up with the ordinary career of labour before

him. When of due age his father apprenticed him to the trade of a

blacksmith, in which he very soon acquired considerable expertness. He

married before his term had expired; after which, trade being slack at

Stockton, he found it necessary to look for work elsewhere. Leaving

his wife behind him, he set out for Leeds with his bundle on his back,

and after a long journey on foot, he reached that town with not enough

money left in his pocket to pay for a bed at the Bay Horse inn, where

he put up. But telling the landlord that he expected work at

Marshall's, and seeming to be a respectable young man, the landlord

trusted him; and he was so fortunate as to obtain the job which he

sought at Mr. Marshall's, who was then beginning the manufacture of

flax, for which the firm has since become so famous.

Mr. Marshall was at that time engaged in improving the method of

manufacture,[2] and the young blacksmith was so fortunate or rather so

dexterous as to be able to suggest several improvements in the

machinery which secured the approval of his employer, who made him a

present of 20L., and very shortly promoted him to be the first mechanic

in the workshop. On this stroke of good fortune Murray took a house at

the neighbouring village of Beeston, sent to Stockton for his wife, who

speedily joined him, and he now felt himself fairly started in the

world. He remained with Mr. Marshall for about twelve years, during

which he introduced numerous improvements in the machinery for spinning

flax, and obtained the reputation of being a first-rate mechanic. This

induced Mr. James Fenton and Mr. David Wood to offer to join him in the

establishment of an engineering and machine-making factory at Leeds;

which he agreed to, and operations were commenced at Holbeck in the

year 1795.

As Mr. Murray had obtained considerable practical knowledge of the

steam-engine while working at Mr. Marshall's, he took principal charge

of the engine-building department, while his partner Wood directed the

machine-making. In the branch of engine-building Mr. Murray very

shortly established a high reputation, treading close upon the heels of

Boulton and Watt--so close, indeed, that that firm became very jealous

of him, and purchased a large piece of ground close to his works with

the object of preventing their extension.[3] His additions to the

steam-engine were of great practical value, one of which, the

self-acting apparatus attached to the boiler for the purpose of

regulating the intensity of fire under it, and consequently the

production of steam, is still in general use. This was invented by him

as early as 1799. He also subsequently invented the D slide valve, or

at least greatly improved it, while he added to the power of the

air-pump, and gave a new arrangement to the other parts, with a view to

the simplification of the powers of the engine. To make the D valve

work efficiently, it was found necessary to form two perfectly plane

surfaces, to produce which he invented his planing machine. He was

also the first to adopt the practice of placing the piston in a

horizontal position in the common condensing engine. Among his other

modifications in the steam-engine, was his improvement of the

locomotive as invented by Trevithick; and it ought to be remembered to

his honour that he made the first locomotive that regularly worked upon

any railway.

This was the engine erected by him for Blenkinsop, to work the

Middleton colliery railway near Leeds, on which it began to run in

1812, and continued in regular use for many years. In this engine he

introduced the double cylinder--Trevithick's engine being provided with

only one cylinder, the defects of which were supplemented by the

addition of a fly-wheel to carry the crank over the dead points.

But Matthew Murray's most important inventions, considered in their

effects on manufacturing industry, were those connected with the

machinery for heckling and spinning flax, which he very greatly

improved. His heckling machine obtained for him the prize of the gold

medal of the Society of Arts; and this as well as his machine for wet

flax-spinning by means of sponge weights proved of the greatest

practical value. At the time when these inventions were made the flax

trade was on the point of expiring, the spinners being unable to

produce yarn to a profit; and their almost immediate effect was to

reduce the cost of production, to improve immensely the quality of the

manufacture, and to establish the British linen trade on a solid

foundation. The production of flax-machinery became an important

branch of manufacture at Leeds, large quantities being made for use at

home as well as for exportation, giving employment to an increasing

number of highly skilled mechanics.[4] Mr. Murray's faculty for

organising work, perfected by experience, enabled him also to introduce

many valuable improvements in the mechanics of manufacturing. His

pre-eminent skill in mill-gearing became generally acknowledged, and

the effects of his labours are felt to this day in the extensive and

still thriving branches of industry which his ingenuity and ability

mainly contributed to establish. All the machine tools used in his

establishment were designed by himself, and he was most careful in the

personal superintendence of all the details of their construction. Mr.

Murray died at Leeds in 1826, in his sixty-third year.

We have not yet exhausted the list of claimants to the invention of the

Planing Machine, for we find still another in the person of Richard

Roberts of Manchester, one of the most prolific of modern inventors.

Mr. Roberts has indeed achieved so many undisputed inventions, that he

can readily afford to divide the honour in this case with others. He

has contrived things so various as the self-acting mule and the best

electro-magnet, wet gas-meters and dry planing machines, iron

billard-tables and turret-clocks, the centrifugal railway and the drill

slotting-machine, an apparatus for making cigars and machinery for the

propulsion and equipment of steamships; so that he may almost be

regarded as the Admirable Crichton of modern mechanics.

Richard Roberts was born in 1789, at Carreghova in the parish of

Llanymynech. His father was by trade a shoemaker, to which he

occasionally added the occupation of toll-keeper. The house in which

Richard was born stood upon the border line which then divided the

counties of Salop and Montgomery; the front door opening in the one

county, and the back door in the other. Richard, when a boy, received

next to no education, and as soon as he was of fitting age was put to

common labouring work. For some time he worked in a quarry near his

father's dwelling; but being of an ingenious turn, he occupied his

leisure in making various articles of mechanism, partly for amusement

and partly for profit. One of his first achievements, while working as

a quarryman, was a spinning-wheel, of which he was very proud, for it

was considered "a good job." Thus he gradually acquired dexterity in

handling tools, and he shortly came to entertain the ambition of

becoming a mechanic.

There were several ironworks in the neighbour hood, and thither he went

in search of employment. He succeeded in finding work as a

pattern-maker at Bradley, near Bilston; under John Wilkinson, the

famous ironmaster--a man of great enterprise as well as mechanical

skill; for he was the first man, as already stated, that Watt could

find capable of boring a cylinder with any approach to truth, for the

purposes of his steam-engines. After acquiring some practical

knowledge of the art of working in wood as well as iron, Roberts

proceeded to Birmingham, where he passed through different shops,

gaining further experience in mechanical practice. He tried his hand

at many kinds of work, and acquired considerable dexterity in each. He

was regarded as a sort of jack-of-all-trades; for he was a good turner,

a tolerable wheel-wright, and could repair mill-work at a pinch.

He next moved northward to the Horsley ironworks, Tipton, where he was

working as a pattern-maker when he had the misfortune to be drawn in

his own county for the militia. He immediately left his work and made

his way homeward to Llanymynech, determined not to be a soldier or even

a militiaman. But home was not the place for him to rest in, and after

bidding a hasty adieu to his father, he crossed the country northward

on foot and reached Liverpool, in the hope of finding work there.

Failing in that, he set out for Manchester and reached it at dusk, very

weary and very miry in consequence of the road being in such a wretched

state of mud and ruts. He relates that, not knowing a person in the

town, he went up to an apple-stall ostensibly to buy a pennyworth of

apples, but really to ask the stall-keeper if he knew of any person in

want of a hand. Was there any turner in the neighbourhood? Yes, round

the corner. Thither he went at once, found the wood-turner in, and was

promised a job on the following morning. He remained with the turner

for only a short time, after which he found a job in Salford at lathe

and tool-making. But hearing that the militia warrant-officers were

still searching for him, he became uneasy and determined to take refuge

in London.

He trudged all the way on foot to that great hiding-place, and first

tried Holtzapffel's, the famous tool-maker's, but failing in his

application he next went to Maudslay's and succeeded in getting

employment. He worked there for some time, acquiring much valuable

practical knowledge in the use of tools, cultivating his skill by

contact with first-class workmen, and benefiting by the spirit of

active contrivance which pervaded the Maudslay shops. His manual

dexterity greatly increased, and his inventive ingenuity fully

stimulated, he determined on making his way back to Manchester, which,

even more than London itself, at that time presented abundant openings

for men of mechanical skill. Hence we find so many of the best

mechanics trained at Maudslay's and Clement's--Nasmyth, Lewis, Muir,

Roberts, Whitworth, and others--shortly rising into distinction there

as leading mechanicians and tool-makers.

The mere enumeration of the various results of Mr. Roberts's inventive

skill during the period of his settlement at Manchester as a mechanical

engineer, would occupy more space than we can well spare. But we may

briefly mention a few of the more important. In 1816, while carrying

on business on his own account in Deansgate, he invented his improved

sector for correctly sizing wheels in blank previously to their being

cut, which is still extensively used. In the same year he invented his

improved screw-lathe; and in the following year, at the request of the

boroughreeve and constables of Manchester, he contrived an oscillating

and rotating wet gas meter of a new kind, which enabled them to sell

gas by measure. This was the first meter in which a water lute was

applied to prevent the escape of gas by the index shaft, the want of

which, as well as its great complexity, had prevented the only other

gas meter then in existence from working satisfactorily. The water

lute was immediately adopted by the patentee of that meter. The

planing machine, though claimed, as we have seen, by many inventors,

was constructed by Mr. Roberts after an original plan of his own in

1817, and became the tool most generally employed in mechanical

workshops--acting by means of a chain and rack--though it has since

been superseded to some extent by the planing machine of Whitworth,

which works both ways upon an endless screw. Improvements followed in

the slide-lathe (giving a large range of speed with increased diameters

for the same size of headstocks, &c.), in the wheel-cutting engine, in

the scale-beam (by which, with a load of 2 oz. on each end, the

fifteen-hundredth part of a grain could be indicated), in the

broaching-machine, the slotting-machine, and other engines.

But the inventions by which his fame became most extensively known

arose out of circumstances connected with the cotton manufactures of

Manchester and the neighbourhood. The great improvements which he

introduced in the machine for making weavers' reeds, led to the

formation of the firm of Sharp, Roberts, and Co., of which Mr. Roberts

was the acting mechanical partner for many years. Not less important

were his improvements in power-looms for weaving fustians, which were

extensively adopted. But by far the most famous of his inventions was

unquestionably his Self-acting Mule, one of the most elaborate and

beautiful pieces of machinery ever contrived. Before its invention,

the working of the entire machinery of the cotton-mill, as well as the

employment of the piecers, cleaners, and other classes of operatives,

depended upon the spinners, who, though receiving the highest rates of

pay, were by much the most given to strikes; and they were frequently

accustomed to turn out in times when trade was brisk, thereby bringing

the whole operations of the manufactories to a standstill, and throwing

all the other operatives out of employment. A long-continued strike of

this sort took place in 1824, when the idea occurred to the masters

that it might be possible to make the spinning-mules run out and in at

the proper speed by means of self-acting machinery, and thus render

them in some measure independent of the more refractory class of their

workmen. It seemed, however, to be so very difficult a problem, that

they were by no means sanguine of success in its solution. Some time

passed before they could find any mechanic willing so much as to

consider the subject. Mr. Ashton of Staley-bridge made every effort

with this object, but the answer he got was uniformly the same. The

thing was declared to be impracticable and impossible. Mr. Ashton,

accompanied by two other leading spinners, called on Sharp, Roberts,

and Co., to seek an interview with Mr. Roberts. They introduced the

subject to him, but he would scarcely listen to their explanations,

cutting them short with the remark that he knew nothing whatever about

cotton-spinning. They insisted, nevertheless, on explaining to him

what they required, but they went away without being able to obtain

from him any promise of assistance in bringing out the required machine.

The strike continued, and the manufacturers again called upon Mr.

Roberts, but with no better result. A third time they called and

appealed to Mr. Sharp, the capitalist of the firm, who promised to use

his best endeavours to induce his mechanical partner to take the matter

in hand. But Mr. Roberts, notwithstanding his reticence, had been

occupied in carefully pondering the subject since Mr. Ashton's first

interview with him. The very difficulty of the problem to be solved

had tempted him boldly to grapple with it, though he would not hold out

the slightest expectation to the cotton-spinners of his being able to

help them in their emergency until he saw his way perfectly clear.

That time had now come; and when Mr. Sharp introduced the subject, he

said he had turned the matter over and thought he could construct the

required self-acting machinery. It was arranged that he should proceed

with it at once, and after a close study of four months he brought out

the machine now so extensively known as the self-acting mule. The

invention was patented in 1825, and was perfected by subsequent

additions, which were also patented.

Like so many other inventions, the idea of the self-acting mule was not

new. Thus Mr. William Strutt of Derby, the father of Lord Belper,

invented a machine of this sort at an early period; Mr. William Belly,

of the New Lanark Mills, invented a second; and various other

projectors tried their skill in the same direction; but none of these

inventions came into practical use. In such cases it has become

generally admitted that the real inventor is not the person who

suggests the idea of the invention, but he who first works it out into

a practicable process, and so makes it of practical and commercial

value. This was accomplished by Mr. Roberts, who, working out the idea

after his own independent methods, succeeded in making the first

self-acting mule that would really act as such; and he is therefore

fairly entitled to be regarded as its inventor.

By means of this beautiful contrivance, spindle-carriages; bearing

hundreds of spindles, run themselves out and in by means of automatic

machinery, at the proper speed, without a hand touching them; the only

labour required being that of a few boys and girls to watch them and

mend the broken threads when the carriage recedes from the roller beam,

and to stop it when the cop is completely formed, as is indicated by

the bell of the counter attached to the working gear. Mr. Baines

describes the self-acting mule while at work as "drawing out, twisting,

and winding up many thousand threads, with unfailing precision and

indefatigable patience and strength--a scene as magical to the eye

which is not familiarized with it, as the effects have been marvellous

in augmenting the wealth and population of the country." [5]

Mr. Roberts's great success with the self-acting mule led to his being

often appealed to for help in the mechanics of manufacturing. In 1826,

the year after his patent was taken out, he was sent for to Mulhouse,

in Alsace, to design and arrange the machine establishment of Andre

Koechlin and Co.; and in that and the two subsequent years he fairly

set the works a-going, instructing the workmen in the manufacture of

spinning-machinery, and thus contributing largely to the success of the

French cotton manufacture. In 1832 he patented his invention of the

Radial Arm for "winding on" in the self-acting mule, now in general

use; and in future years he took out sundry patents for roving,

slubbing, spinning, and doubling cotton and other fibrous materials;

and for weaving, beetling, and mangling fabrics of various sorts.

A considerable branch of business carried on by the firm of Sharp,

Roberts, and Co. was the manufacture of iron billiard-tables, which

were constructed with almost perfect truth by means of Mr. Roberts's

planing-machine, and became a large article of export. But a much more

important and remunerative department was the manufacture of

locomotives, which was begun by the firm shortly after the opening of

the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had marked this as one of the

chief branches of future mechanical engineering. Mr. Roberts adroitly

seized the opportunity presented by this new field of invention and

enterprise, and devoted himself for a time to the careful study of the

locomotive and its powers. As early as the year 1829 we find him

presenting to the Manchester Mechanics' Institute a machine exhibiting

the nature of friction upon railroads, in solution of the problem then

under discussion in the scientific journals. In the following year he

patented an arrangement for communicating power to both driving-wheels

of the locomotive, at all times in the exact proportions required when

turning to the right or left,--an arrangement which has since been

adopted in many road locomotives and agricultural engines. In the same

patent will be found embodied his invention of the steam-brake, which

was also a favourite idea of George Stephenson, since elaborated by Mr.

MacConnell of the London and North-Western Railway. In 1834, Sharp,

Roberts, and Co. began the manufacture of locomotives on a large scale;

and the compactness of their engines, the excellence of their

workmanship, and the numerous original improvements introduced in them,

speedily secured for the engines of the Atlas firm a high reputation

and a very large demand. Among Mr. Roberts's improvements may be

mentioned his method of manufacturing the crank axle, of welding the

rim and tyres of the wheels, and his arrangement and form of the

wrought-iron framing and axle-guards. His system of templets and

gauges, by means of which every part of an engine or tender

corresponded with that of every other engine or tender of the same

class, was as great an improvement as Maudslay's system of uniformity

of parts in other descriptions of machinery.

In connection with the subject of railways, we may allude in passing to

Mr. Roberts's invention of the Jacquard punching machine--a self-acting

tool of great power, used for punching any required number of holes, of

any pitch and to any pattern, with mathematical accuracy, in bridge or

boiler plates. The origin of this invention was somewhat similar to

that of the self-acting mule. The contractors for the Conway Tubular

Bridge while under construction, in 1848, were greatly hampered by

combinations amongst the workmen, and they despaired of being able to

finish the girders within the time specified in the contract. The

punching of the iron plates by hand was a tedious and expensive as well

as an inaccurate process; and the work was proceeding so slowly that

the contractors found it absolutely necessary to adopt some new method

of punching if they were to finish the work in time. In their

emergency they appealed to Mr. Roberts, and endeavoured to persuade him

to take the matter up. He at length consented to do so, and evolved

the machine in question during his evening's leisure--for the most part

while quietly sipping his tea. The machine was produced, the

contractors were enabled to proceed with the punching of the plates

independent of the refractory men, and the work was executed with a

despatch, accuracy, and excellence that would not otherwise have been

possible. Only a few years since Mr. Roberts added a useful companion

to the Jacquard punching machine, in his combined self-acting machine

for shearing iron and punching both webs of angle or T iron

simultaneously to any required pitch; though this machine, like others

which have proceeded from his fertile brain, is ahead even of this

fast-manufacturing age, and has not yet come into general use, but is

certain to do so before many years have elapsed.

These inventions were surely enough for one man to have accomplished;

but we have not yet done. The mere enumeration of his other inventions

would occupy several pages. We shall merely allude to a few of them.

One was his Turret Clock, for which he obtained the medal at the Great

Exhibition of 1851. Another was his Prize Electro-Magnet of 1845.

When this subject was first mentioned to him, he said he did not know

anything of the theory or practice of electro-magnetism, but he would

try and find out. The result of his trying was that he won the prize

for the most powerful electro-magnet: one is placed in the museum at

Peel Park, Manchester, and another with the Scottish Society of Arts,

Edinburgh. In 1846 he perfected an American invention for making

cigars by machinery; enabling a boy, working one of his cigar-engines,

to make as many as 5000 in a day. In 1852 he patented improvements in

the construction, propelling, and equipment of steamships, which have,

we believe, been adopted to a certain extent by the Admiralty; and a

few years later, in 1855, we find him presenting the Secretary of War

with plans of elongated rifle projectiles to be used in smooth-bore

ordnance with a view to utilize the old-pattern gun. His head, like

many inventors of the time, being full of the mechanics of war, he went

so far as to wait upon Louis Napoleon, and laid before him a plan by

which Sebastopol was to be blown down. In short, upon whatever subject

he turned his mind, he left the impress of his inventive faculty. If

it was imperfect, he improved it; if incapable of improvement, and

impracticable, he invented something entirely new, superseding it

altogether. But with all his inventive genius, in the exercise of

which Mr. Roberts has so largely added to the productive power of the

country, we regret to say that he is not gifted with the commercial

faculty. He has helped others in their difficulties, but forgotten

himself. Many have profited by his inventions, without even

acknowledging the obligations which they owed to him. They have used

his brains and copied his tools, and the "sucked orange" is all but

forgotten. There may have been a want of worldly wisdom on his part,

but it is lamentable to think that one of the most prolific and useful

inventors of his time should in his old age be left to fight with

poverty.

Mr. Whitworth is another of the first-class tool-makers of Manchester

who has turned to excellent account his training in the workshops of

Maudslay and Clement. He has carried fully out the system of

uniformity in Screw Threads which they initiated; and he has still

further improved the mechanism of the planing machine, enabling it to

work both backwards and forwards by means of a screw and roller motion.

His "Jim Crow Machine," so called from its peculiar motion in reversing

itself and working both ways, is an extremely beautiful tool, adapted

alike for horizontal, vertical, or angular motions. The minute

accuracy of Mr. Whitworth's machines is not the least of their merits;

and nothing will satisfy him short of perfect truth. At the meeting of

the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Glasgow in 1856 he read a

paper on the essential importance of possessing a true plane as a

standard of reference in mechanical constructions, and he described

elaborately the true method of securing it,--namely, by scraping,

instead of by the ordinary process of grinding. At the same meeting he

exhibited a machine of his invention by which he stated that a

difference of the millionth part of an inch in length could at once be

detected. He also there urged his favourite idea of uniformity, and

proper gradations of size of parts, in all the various branches of the

mechanical arts, as a chief means towards economy of production--a

principle, as he showed, capable of very extensive application. To

show the progress of tools and machinery in his own time, Mr. Whitworth

cited the fact that thirty years since the cost of labour for making a

surface of cast-iron true--one of the most important operations in

mechanics--by chipping and filing by the hand, was 12s. a square foot;

whereas it is now done by the planing machine at a cost for labour of

less than a penny. Then in machinery, pieces of 74 reed

printing-cotton cloth of 29 yards each could not be produced at less

cost than 30s. 6d. per piece; whereas the same description is now sold

for 3s. 9d. Mr. Whitworth has been among the most effective workers in

this field of improvement, his tools taking the first place in point of

speed, accuracy, and finish of work, in which respects they challenge

competition with the world. Mr. Whitworth has of late years been

applying himself with his accustomed ardour to the development of the

powers of rifled guns and projectiles,--a branch of mechanical science

in which he confessedly holds a foremost place, and in perfecting which

he is still occupied.

[1] Engineer, Oct. 10th, 1862.

[2] We are informed in Mr. Longstaffe's Annals and Characteristics of

Darlington, that the spinning of flax by machinery was first begun by

one John Kendrew, an ingenious self-taught mechanic of that town, who

invented a machine for the purpose, for which he took out a patent in

1787. Mr. Marshall went over from Leeds to see his machine, and agreed

to give him so much per spindle for the right to use it. But ceasing

to pay the patent right, Kendrew commenced an action against him for a

sum of nine hundred pounds alleged to be due under the agreement. The

claim was disputed, and Kendrew lost his action; and it is added in

Longstaffe's Annals, that even had he succeeded, it would have been of

no use; for Mr. Marshall declared that he had not then the money

wherewith to pay him. It is possible that Matthew Murray may have

obtained some experience of flax-machinery in working for Kendrew,

which afterwards proved of use to him in Mr. Marshall's establishment.

[3] The purchase of this large piece of ground, known as Camp Field,

had the effect of "plugging up" Matthew Murray for a time; and it

remained disused, except for the deposit of dead dogs and other

rubbish, for more than half a century. It has only been enclosed

during the present year, and now forms part of the works of Messrs.

Smith, Beacock, and Tannet, the eminent tool-makers.

[4] Among more recent improvers of flax-machinery, the late Sir Peter

Fairbairn is entitled to high merit: the work turned out by him being

of first-rate excellence, embodying numerous inventions and

improvements of great value and importance.

[5] EDWARD BAINES, Esq., M.P., History of the Cotton Manufacture, 212.

CHAPTER XV.

JAMES NASMYTH.

"By Hammer and Hand

All Arts doth stand."

Hammermen's Motto.

The founder Of the Scotch family of Naesmyth is said to have derived

his name from the following circumstance. In the course of the feuds

which raged for some time between the Scotch kings and their powerful

subjects the Earls of Douglas, a rencontre took place one day on the

outskirts of a Border village, when the king's adherents were worsted.

One of them took refuge in the village smithy, where, hastily

disguising himself, and donning a spare leathern apron, he pretended to

be engaged in assisting the smith with his work, when a party of the

Douglas followers rushed in. They glanced at the pretended workman at

the anvil, and observed him deliver a blow upon it so unskilfully that

the hammer-shaft broke in his hand. On this one of the Douglas men

rushed at him, calling out, "Ye're nae smyth!" The assailed man seized

his sword, which lay conveniently at hand, and defended himself so

vigorously that he shortly killed his assailant, while the smith

brained another with his hammer; and, a party of the king's men having

come to their help, the rest were speedily overpowered. The royal

forces then rallied, and their temporary defeat was converted into a

victory. The king bestowed a grant of land on his follower "Nae

Smyth," who assumed for his arms a sword between two hammers with

broken shafts, and the motto "Non arte sed Marte," as if to disclaim

the art of the Smith, in which he had failed, and to emphasize the

superiority of the warrior. Such is said to be the traditional origin

of the family of Naesmyth of Posso in Peeblesshire, who continue to

bear the same name and arms.

It is remarkable that the inventor of the steam-hammer should have so

effectually contradicted the name he bears and reversed the motto of

his family; for so far from being "Nae Smyth," he may not

inappropriately be designated the very Vulcan of the nineteenth

century. His hammer is a tool of immense power and pliancy, but for

which we must have stopped short in many of those gigantic engineering

works which are among the marvels of the age we live in. It possesses

so much precision and delicacy that it will chip the end of an egg

resting in a glass on the anvil without breaking it, while it delivers

a blow of ten tons with such a force as to be felt shaking the parish.

It is therefore with a high degree of appropriateness that Mr. Nasmyth

has discarded the feckless hammer with the broken shaft, and assumed

for his emblem his own magnificent steam-hammer, at the same time

reversing the family motto, which he has converted into "Non Marte sed

Arte."