Industrial Biography
S >>
Samuel Smiles >> Industrial Biography
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY
Iron Workers and Tool Makers
by Samuel Smiles
(this etext was produced from a reprint of the 1863 first edition)
PREFACE.
The Author offers the following book as a continuation, in a more
generally accessible form, of the Series of Memoirs of Industrial Men
introduced in his Lives of the Engineers. While preparing that work
he frequently came across the tracks of celebrated inventors,
mechanics, and iron-workers--the founders, in a great measure, of the
modern industry of Britain--whose labours seemed to him well worthy
of being traced out and placed on record, and the more so as their
lives presented many points of curious and original interest. Having
been encouraged to prosecute the subject by offers of assistance from
some of the most eminent living mechanical engineers, he is now
enabled to present the following further series of memoirs to the
public.
Without exaggerating the importance of this class of biography, it
may at least be averred that it has not yet received its due share of
attention. While commemorating the labours and honouring the names of
those who have striven to elevate man above the material and
mechanical, the labours of the important industrial class to whom
society owes so much of its comfort and well-being are also entitled
to consideration. Without derogating from the biographic claims of
those who minister to intellect and taste, those who minister to
utility need not be overlooked. When a Frenchman was praising to Sir
John Sinclair the artist who invented ruffles, the Baronet shrewdly
remarked that some merit was also due to the man who added the shirt.
A distinguished living mechanic thus expresses himself to the Author
on this point: - "Kings, warriors, and statesmen have heretofore
monopolized not only the pages of history, but almost those of
biography. Surely some niche ought to be found for the Mechanic,
without whose skill and labour society, as it is, could not exist. I
do not begrudge destructive heroes their fame, but the constructive
ones ought not to be forgotten; and there IS a heroism of skill and
toil belonging to the latter class, worthy of as grateful
record,--less perilous and romantic, it may be, than that of the
other, but not less full of the results of human energy, bravery, and
character. The lot of labour is indeed often a dull one; and it is
doing a public service to endeavour to lighten it up by records of
the struggles and triumphs of our more illustrious workers, and the
results of their labours in the cause of human advancement."
As respects the preparation of the following memoirs, the Author's
principal task has consisted in selecting and arranging the materials
so liberally placed at his disposal by gentlemen for the most part
personally acquainted with the subjects of them, and but for whose
assistance the book could not have been written. The materials for
the biography of Henry Maudslay, for instance, have been partly
supplied by the late Mr. Joshua Field, F.R.S. (his partner), but
principally by Mr. James Nasmyth, C.E., his distinguished pupil. In
like manner Mr. John Penn, C.E., has supplied the chief materials for
the memoir of Joseph Clement, assisted by Mr. Wilkinson, Clement's
nephew. The Author has also had the valuable assistance of Mr.
William Fairbairn, F.R.S., Mr. J. O. March, tool manufacturer (Mayor
of Leeds), Mr. Richard Roberts, C.E., Mr. Henry Maudslay, C.E., and
Mr. J. Kitson, Jun., iron manufacturer, Leeds, in the preparation of
the other memoirs of mechanical engineers included in this volume.
The materials for the memoirs of the early iron-workers have in like
manner been obtained for the most part from original sources; those
of the Darbys and Reynoldses from Mr. Dickinson of Coalbrookdale, Mr.
William Reynolds of Coed-du, and Mr. William G. Norris of the former
place, as well as from Mr. Anstice of Madeley Wood, who has kindly
supplied the original records of the firm. The substance of the
biography of Benjamin Huntsman, the inventor of cast-steel, has been
furnished by his lineal representatives; and the facts embodied in
the memoirs of Henry Cort and David Mushet have been supplied by the
sons of those inventors. To Mr. Anderson Kirkwood of Glasgow the
Author is indebted for the memoir of James Beaumont Neilson, inventor
of the hot blast; and to Mr. Ralph Moore, Inspector of Mines in
Scotland, for various information relative to the progress of the
Scotch iron manufacture.
The memoirs of Dud Dudley and Andrew Yarranton are almost the only
ones of the series in preparing which material assistance has been
derived from books; but these have been largely illustrated by facts
contained in original documents preserved in the State Paper Office,
the careful examination of which has been conducted by Mr. W. Walker
Wilkins.
It will thus be observed that most of the information embodied in
this volume, more especially that relating to the inventors of tools
and machines, has heretofore existed only in the memories of the
eminent mechanical engineers from whom it has been collected. The
estimable Joshua Field has died since the date at which he
communicated his recollections; and in a few more years many of the
facts which have been caught and are here placed on record would,
probably, in the ordinary course of things, have passed into
oblivion. As it is, the Author feels that there are many gaps yet to
be filled up; but the field of Industrial Biography is a wide one,and
is open to all who will labour in it.
London, October, 1863.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
IRON AND CIVILIZATION.
The South Sea Islanders and iron
Uses of iron for tools
The Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages
Recent discoveries in the beds of the Swiss lakes
Iron the last metal to come into general use, and why
The first iron smelters
Early history of iron in Britain
The Romans
Social importance of the Smith in early times
Enchanted swords
Early scarcity of iron in Scotland
Andrea de Ferrara
Scarcity of iron in England at the time of the Armada
Importance of iron for national defence
CHAPTER II.
BEGINNINGS OF THE IRON-MANUFACTURER IN BRITAIN.
Iron made in the Forest of Dean in Anglo-Saxon times
Monkish iron-workers
Early iron-smelting in Yorkshire
Much iron imported from abroad
Iron manufactures of Sussex
Manufacture of cannon
Wealthy ironmasters of Sussex
Founder of the Gale family
Extensive exports of English ordnance
Destruction of timber in iron-smelting
The manufacture placed under restrictions
The Sussex furnaces blown out
CHAPTER III.
IRON SMELTING BY PIT-COAL--DUD DUDLEY.
Greatly reduced production of English iron
Proposal to use pit-coal instead of charcoal of wood in smelting
Sturtevant's patent
Rovenson's
Dud Dudley; his family his history
Uses pit-coal to smelt iron with success
Takes out his patent
The quality of the iron proved by tests
Dudley's works swept away by a flood
Rebuilds his works, and they are destroyed by a mob
Renewal of his patent
Outbreak of the Civil War
Dudley joins the Royalists, and rises to be General of artillery
His perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes
His estate confiscated
Recommences iron-smelting
Various attempts to smelt with pit-coal
Dudley's petitions to the King
His death
CHAPTER IV.
ANDREW YARRANTON.
A forgotten patriot
The Yarranton family
Andrew Yarranton's early life
A soldier under the Parliament
Begins iron works
Is seized and imprisoned
His plans for improving internal navigation
Improvements in agriculture
Manufacture of tin plate
His journey into Saxony to learn it
Travels in Holland
His views of trade and industry
His various projects
His 'England's Improvement by Sea and Land'
His proposed Land Bank
His proposed Registry of Real Estate
His controversies
His iron-mining
Value of his labours
CHAPTER V.
COALBROOKDALE IRON WORKS--THE DARBYS AND REYNOLDSES.
Failure in the attempts to smelt iron with pit-coal
Dr. Blewstone's experiment
Decay of the ironmanufacture
Abraham Darby
His manufacture of cast-iron pots at Bristol
Removes to Coalbrookdale
His method of smelting iron
Increased use of coke
Use of pit-coal by Richard Ford
Richard Reynolds joins the Coalbrookdale firm
Invention of the Craneges in iron-refining
Letter of Richard Reynolds on the subject
Invention of cast-iron rails by Reynolds
Abraham Darby the Second constructs the first iron bridge
Extension of the Coalbrookdale Works
William Reynolds: his invention of inclined planes for working canals
Retirement of Richard Reynolds from the firm
His later years, character, and death
CHAPTER VI.
INVENTION OF CAST STEEL - BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN.
Conversion of iron into steel
Early Sheffield manufactures
Invention of blistered steel
Important uses of cast-steel
Le Play's writings on the subject
Early career of Benjamin Huntsman at Doncaster
His experiments in steel-making
Removes to the neighbourhood of Sheffield
His laborious investigations, failures, and eventual success
Process of making cast-steel
The Sheffield manufacturers refuse to use it
Their opposition foiled
How they wrested Huntsman's secret from him
Important results of the invention to the industry of Sheffield
Henry Bessemer and his process
Heath's invention
Practical skill of the Sheffield artisans
CHAPTER VII.
THE INVENTIONS OF HENRY CORT.
Parentage of Henry Cort
Becomes a navy agent
State of the iron trade
Cort's experiments in iron-making
Takes a foundry at Fontley
Partnership with Jellicoe
Various improvers in iron-making: Roebuck, Cranege, Onions
Cort's improved processes described
His patents
His inventions adopted by Crawshay, Homfray, and other ironmasters
Cort's iron approved by the Admiralty
Public defalcations of Adam Jellicoe, Cort's partner
Cort's property and patents confiscated
Public proceedings thereon
Ruin of Henry Cort
Account of Richard Crawshay, the great ironmaster
His early life
Ironmonger in London
Starts an iron-furnace at Merthyr Tydvil
Projects and makes a canal
Growth of Merthyr Tydvil and its industry
Henry Cort the founder of the iron aristocracy, himself unrewarded
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SCOTCH IRON MANUFACTURE--Dr. ROEBUCK--DAVID MUSHET.
Dr. Roebuck, a forgotten public benefactor
His birth and education
Begins business as a physician at Birmingham
Investigations in metallurgy
Removes to Scotland, and begins the manufacture of chemicals, &c.
Starts the Carron Iron Works, near Falkirk
His invention of refining iron in a pit-coal fire
Embarks in coal-mining at Boroughstoness
Residence at Kinneil House
Pumping-engines wanted for his colliery
Is introduced to James Watt
Progress of Watt in inventing the steam-engine
Interviews with Dr. Roebuck
Roebuck becomes a partner in the steam-engine patent
Is involved in difficulties, and eventually ruined
Advance of the Scotch iron trade
Discovery of the Black Band by David Mushet
Early career of Mushet
His laborious experiments
His inventions and discoveries in iron and steel, and death
CHAPTER IX.
INVENTION OF THE HOT BLAST--JAMES BEAUMONT NEILSON.
Difficulty of smelting the Black Band by ordinary process until the
invention of the hot blast
Early career of James Beaumont Neilson
Education and apprenticeship
Works as an engine-fireman
As colliery engine-wright
Appointed foreman of the Glasgow Gas-works; afterwards manager and engineer
His self-education
His Workmen's Institute
His experiments in iron-smelting
Trials with heated air in the blast-furnace
Incredulity of ironmasters
Success of his experiments, and patenting of his process
His patent right disputed, and established
Extensive application of the hot blast
Increase of the Scotch iron trade
Extraordinary increase in the value of estates yielding Black Band
Scotch iron aristocracy
CHAPTER X.
MECHANICAL INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS.
Tools and civilization
The beginnings of tools
Dexterity of hand chiefly relied on
Opposition to manufacturing machines
Gradual process of invention
The human race the true inventor
Obscure origin of many inventions
Inventions born before their time
"Nothing new under the sun"
The power of steam known to the ancients
Passage from Roger Bacon
Old inventions revived
Printing
Atmospheric locomotion
The balloon
The reaping machine
Tunnels
Gunpowder
Ancient firearms
The steam gun
The Congreve rocket
Coal-gas
Hydropathy
Anaesthetic agents
The Daguerreotype anticipated
The electric telegraph not new
Forgotten inventors
Disputed inventions
Simultaneous inventions
Inventions made step by step
James Watt's difficulties with his workmen
Improvements in modern machine-tools
Their perfection
The engines of "The Warrior"
CHAPTER XI.
JOSEPH BRAMAH.
The inventive faculty
Joseph Bramah's early life
His amateur work
Apprenticed to a carpenter
Starts as cabinet-maker in London
Takes out a patent for his water-closet
Makes pumps and ironwork
Invention of his lock
Invents tools required in lock-making
Invents his hydrostatic machine
His hydraulic press
The leathern collar invented by Henry Maudslay
Bramah's other inventions
His fire-engine
His beer-pump
Improvements in the steam-engine
His improvements in machine-tools
His number-printing machine
His pen-cutter
His hydraulic machinery
Practises as civil engineer
Altercation with William Huntington, "S.S."
Bramah's character and death
CHAPTER XII.
HENRY MAUDSLAY.
The Maudslays
Henry Maudslay
Employed as powder-boy in Woolwich Arsenal
Advanced to the blacksmiths' shop
His early dexterity in smith-work
His "trivet" making
Employed by Bramah
Proves himself a first-class workman
Advanced to be foreman of the works
His inventions of tools required for lock-making
His invention of the leathern collar in the hydraulic press
Leaves Bramah's service and begins business for himself
His first smithy in Wells Street
His first job
Invention of the slide-lathe
Resume of the history of the turning-lathe
Imperfection of tools about the middle of last century
The hand-lathe
Great advantages of the slide rest
First extensively used in constructing Brunel's Block Machinery
Memoir of Brunel
Manufacture of ships' blocks
Sir S. Bentham's specifications
Introduction of Brunel to Maudslay
The block-machinery made, and its success
Increased operations of the firm
Improvements in the steam-engine
Invention of the punching-machine
Further improvements in the slide-lathe
Screw-cutting machine
Maudslay a dexterous and thoughtful workman
His character described by his pupil, James Nasmyth
Anecdotes and traits
Maudslay's works a first-class school for workmen
His mode of estimating character
His death
CHAPTER XIII.
JOSEPH CLEMENT.
Skill in contrivance a matter of education
Birth and parentage of Joseph Clement
Apprenticed to the trade of a slater
His skill in amateur work
Makes a turning-lathe
Gives up slating, and becomes a mechanic
Employed at Kirby Stephen in making power-looms
Removes to Carlisle
Glasgow
Peter Nicholson teaches him drawing
Removes to Aberdeen
Works as a mechanic and attends College
London
Employed by Alexander Galloway
Employed by Bramah
Advanced to be foreman
Draughtsman at Maudslay and Field's
Begins business on his own account
His skill as a mechanical draughtsman
Invents his drawing instrument
His drawing-table
His improvements in the self-acting lathe
His double-driving centre-chuck and two-armed driver
His fluted taps and dies
Invention of his Planing Machine
Employed to make Babbage's Calculating Machine
Resume of the history of apparatus for making calculations
Babbage's engine proceeded with
Its great cost
Interruption of the work
Clement's steam-whistles
Makes an organ
Character and death
CHAPTER XIV.
FOX OF DERBY--MURRAY OF LEEDS--ROBERTS AND WHITWORTH OF MANCHESTER.
The first Fox of Derby originally a butler
His genius for mechanics
Begins business as a machinist
Invents a Planing Machine
Matthew Murray's Planing Machine
Murray's early career
Employed as a blacksmith by Marshall of Leeds
His improvements of flax-machinery
Improvements in steam-engines
Makes the first working locomotive for Mr. Blenkinsop
Invents the Heckling Machine
His improvements in tools
Richard Roberts of Manchester
First a quarryman, next a pattern-maker
Drawn for the militia, and flies
His travels
His first employment at Manchester
Goes to London, and works at Maudslay's
Roberts's numerous inventions
Invents a planing machine
The self-acting mule
Iron billiard-tables
Improvements in the locomotive
Invents the Jacquard punching machine
Makes turret-clocks and electro-magnets
Improvement in screw-steamships
Mr. Whitworth's improvement of the planing machine
His method of securing true surfaces
His great mechanical skill
CHAPTER XV.
JAMES NASMYTH.
Traditional origin of the Naesmyths
Alexander Nasmyth the painter, and his family
Early years of James Nasmyth
The story of his life told by himself
Becomes a pupil of Henry Maudslay
How he lived and worked in London
Begins business at Manchester
Story of the invention of the Steam Hammer
The important uses of the Hammer in modem engineering
Invents the steam pile-driving machine
Designs a new form of steam-engine
Other inventions How he "Scotched" a strike
Uses of strikes
Retirement from business
Skill as a draughtsman
Curious speculations on antiquarian subjects
Mr. Nasmyth's wonderful discoveries in Astronomy
described by Sir John Herschel
CHAPTER XVI.
WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN.
Summary of progress in machine-tools
William Fairbairn's early years
His education
Life in the Highlands
Begins work at Kelso Bridge
An apprentice at Percy Main Colliery, North Shields
Diligent self-culture
Voyage to London
Adventures
Prevented obtaining work by the Millwrights' Union
Travels into the country, finds work, and returns to London
His first order, to make a sausage-chopping machine
Wanderschaft
Makes nail-machinery for a Dublin employer
Proceeds to Manchester, where he settles and marries
Begins business
His first job
Partnership with Mr. Lillie
Employed by Messrs. Adam Murray and Co.
Employed by Messrs. MacConnel and Kennedy
Progress of the Cotton Trade
Memoir of John Kennedy
Mr. Fairbairn introduces great improvements in the gearing, &c.
of mill machinery
Increasing business Improvements in water-wheels
Experiments as to the law of traction of boats
Begins building iron ships
Experiments on the strength of wrought iron
Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges
Reports on iron
On boiler explosions
Iron construction
Extended use of iron
Its importance in civilization
Opinion of Mr. Cobden
Importance of modern machine-tools
Conclusion
INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER I.
IRON AND CIVILIZATION.
"Iron is not only the soul of every other manufacture, but the main
spring perhaps of civilized society."--FRANCIS HORNER.
"Were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be
unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage
Americans; so that he who first made known the use of that
contemptible mineral may be truly styled the father of Arts and the
author of Plenty."--JOHN LOCKE.
When Captain Cook and the early navigators first sailed into the
South Seas on their voyages of discovery, one of the things that
struck them with most surprise was the avidity which the natives
displayed for iron. "Nothing would go down with our visitors," says
Cook, "but metal; and iron was their beloved article." A nail would
buy a good-sized pig; and on one occasion the navigator bought some
four hundred pounds weight of fish for a few wretched knives
improvised out of an old hoop.
"For iron tools," says Captain Carteret, "we might have purchased
everything upon the Freewill Islands that we could have brought away.
A few pieces of old iron hoop presented to one of the natives threw
him into an ecstasy little short of distraction." At Otaheite the
people were found generally well-behaved and honest; but they were
not proof against the fascinations of iron. Captain Cook says that
one of them, after resisting all other temptations, "was at length
ensnared by the charms of basket of nails." Another lurked about for
several days, watching the opportunity to steal a coal-rake.
The navigators found they could pay their way from island to island
merely with scraps of iron, which were as useful for the purpose as
gold coins would have been in Europe. The drain, however, being
continuous, Captain Cook became alarmed at finding his currency
almost exhausted; and he relates his joy on recovering an old anchor
which the French Captain Bougainville had lost at Bolabola, on which
he felt as an English banker would do after a severe run upon him for
gold, when suddenly placed in possession of a fresh store of bullion.
The avidity for iron displayed by these poor islanders will not be
wondered at when we consider that whoever among them was so fortunate
as to obtain possession of an old nail, immediately became a man of
greater power than his fellows, and assumed the rank of a capitalist.
"An Otaheitan chief," says Cook, "who had got two nails in his
possession, received no small emolument by letting out the use of
them to his neighbours for the purpose of boring holes when their own
methods failed, or were thought too tedious."
The native methods referred to by Cook were of a very clumsy sort;
the principal tools of the Otaheitans being of wood, stone, and
flint. Their adzes and axes were of stone. The gouge most commonly
used by them was made out of the bone of the human forearm. Their
substitute for a knife was a shell, or a bit of flint or jasper.
A shark's tooth, fixed to a piece of wood, served for an auger;
a piece of coral for a file; and the skin of a sting-ray for a
polisher. Their saw was made of jagged fishes' teeth fixed on the
convex edge of a piece of hard wood. Their weapons were of a
similarly rude description; their clubs and axes were headed with
stone, and their lances and arrows were tipped with flint. Fire was
another agency employed by them, usually in boat-building. Thus, the
New Zealanders, whose tools were also of stone, wood, or bone, made
their boats of the trunks of trees hollowed out by fire.
The stone implements were fashioned, Captain Cook says, by rubbing
one stone upon another until brought to the required shape; but,
after all, they were found very inefficient for their purpose. They
soon became blunted and useless; and the laborious process of making
new tools had to be begun again. The delight of the islanders at
being put in possession of a material which was capable of taking a
comparatively sharp edge and keeping it, may therefore readily be
imagined; and hence the remarkable incidents to which we have
referred in the experience of the early voyagers. In the minds of the
natives, iron became the representative of power, efficiency, and
wealth; and they were ready almost to fall down and worship their new
tools, esteeming the axe as a deity, offering sacrifices to the saw,
and holding the knife in especial veneration.
In the infancy of all nations the same difficulties must have been
experienced for want of tools, before the arts of smelting and
working in metals had become known; and it is not improbable that the
Phoenician navigators who first frequented our coasts found the same
avidity for bronze and iron existing among the poor woad-stained
Britons who flocked down to the shore to see their ships and exchange
food and skins with them, that Captain Cook discovered more than two
thousand years later among the natives of Otaheite and New Zealand.
For, the tools and weapons found in ancient burying-places in all
parts of Britain clearly show that these islands also have passed
through the epoch of stone and flint.
There was recently exhibited at the Crystal Palace a collection of
ancient European weapons and implements placed alongside a similar
collection of articles brought from the South Seas; and they were in
most respects so much alike that it was difficult to believe that
they did not belong to the same race and period, instead of being the
implements of races sundered by half the globe, and living at periods
more than two thousand years apart. Nearly every weapon in the one
collection had its counterpart in the other,--the mauls or celts of
stone, the spearheads of flint or jasper, the arrowheads of flint or
bone, and the saws of jagged stone, showing how human ingenuity,
under like circumstances, had resorted to like expedients. It would
also appear that the ancient tribes in these islands, like the New
Zealanders, used fire to hollow out their larger boats; several
specimens of this kind of vessel having recently been dug up in the
valleys of the Witham and the Clyde, some of the latter from under
the very streets of modern Glasgow.*
[footnote...
"Mr.John Buchanan, a zealous antiquary, writing in 1855, informs us
that in the course of the eight years preceding that date, no less
than seventeen canoes had been dug out of this estuarine silt [of the
valley of the Clyde], and that he had personally inspected a large
number of them before they were exhumed. Five of them lay buried in
silt under the streets of Glasgow, one in a vertical position with
the prow uppermost, as if it had sunk in a storm.... Almost every one
of these ancient boats was formed out of a single oak-stem, hollowed
out by blunt tools, probably stone axes, aided by the action of fire;
a few were cut beautifully smooth, evidently with metallic tools.
Hence a gradation could be traced from a pattern of extreme rudeness
to one showing great mechanical ingenuity.... In one of the canoes a
beautifully polished celt or axe of greenstone was found; in the
bottom of another a plug of cork, which, as Mr. Geikie remarks,
'could only have come from the latitudes of Spain, Southern France,
or Italy.'"-- Sir C. LYELL, Antiquity of Man, 48-9.
...]
Their smaller boats, or coracles, were made of osiers interwoven,
covered with hides, and rigged with leathern sails and thong tackle.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28