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

"It is not, indeed, saying at all too much to state," says Mr.
Nasmyth,*
[footnote...
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.
...]
a most competent judge in such a matter, "that its influence in
improving and extending the use of machinery has been as great as
that produced by the improvement of the steam-engine in respect to
perfecting manufactures and extending commerce, inasmuch as without
the aid of the vast accession to our power of producing perfect
mechanism which it at once supplied, we could never have worked out
into practical and profitable forms the conceptions of those master
minds who, during the last half century, have so successfully
pioneered the way for mankind. The steam-engine itself, which
supplies us with such unbounded power, owes its present perfection to
this most admirable means of giving to metallic objects the most
precise and perfect geometrical forms. How could we, for instance,
have good steam-engines if we had not the means of boring out a true
cylinder, or turning a true piston-rod, or planing a valve face? It
is this alone which has furnished us with the means of carrying into
practice the accumulated result's of scientific investigation on
mechanical subjects. It would be blamable indeed," continues Mr.
Nasmyth, "after having endeavoured to set forth the vast advantages
which have been conferred on the mechanical world, and therefore on
mankind generally, by the invention and introduction of the Slide
Rest, were I to suppress the name of that admirable individual to
whom we are indebted for this powerful agent towards the attainment
of mechanical perfection. I allude to Henry Maudslay, whose useful
life was enthusiastically devoted to the grand object of improving
our means of producing perfect workmanship and machinery: to him we
are certainly indebted for the slide rest, and, consequently, to say
the least, we are indirectly so for the vast benefits which have
resulted from the introduction of so powerful an agent in perfecting
our machinery and mechanism generally. The indefatigable care which
he took in inculcating and diffusing among his workmen, and
mechanical men generally, sound ideas of practical knowledge and
refined views of construction, have rendered and ever will continue
to render his name identified with all that is noble in the ambition
of a lover of mechanical perfection."

One of the first uses to which Mr. Maudslay applied the improved
slide rest, which he perfected shortly after beginning business in
Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, was in executing the requisite
tools and machinery required by Mr. (afterwards Sir Marc Isambard)
Brunel for manufacturing ships' blocks. The career of Brunel was of a
more romantic character than falls to the ordinary lot of mechanical
engineers. His father was a small farmer and postmaster, at the
village of Hacqueville, in Normandy, where Marc Isambard was born in
1769. He was early intended for a priest, and educated accordingly.
But he was much fonder of the carpenter's shop than of the school;
and coaxing, entreaty, and punishment alike failed in making a
hopeful scholar of him. He drew faces and plans until his father was
almost in despair. Sent to school at Rouen, his chief pleasure was in
watching the ships along the quays; and one day his curiosity was
excited by the sight of some large iron castings just landed. What
were they? How had they been made? Where did they come from? His
eager inquiries were soon answered. They were parts of an engine
intended for the great Paris water-works; the engine was to pump
water by the power of steam; and the castings had been made in
England, and had just been landed from an English ship. "England!"
exclaimed the boy, "ah! when I am a man I will go see the country
where such grand machines are made!" On one occasion, seeing a new
tool in a cutler's window, he coveted it so much that he pawned his
hat to possess it. This was not the right road to the priesthood; and
his father soon saw that it was of no use urging him further: but the
boy's instinct proved truer than the father's judgment.

It was eventually determined that he should qualify himself to enter
the royal navy, and at seventeen he was nominated to serve in a
corvette as "volontaire d'honneur." His ship was paid off in 1792,
and he was at Paris during the trial of the King. With the
incautiousness of youth he openly avowed his royalist opinions in the
cafe which he frequented. On the very day that Louis was condemned
to death, Brunel had an angry altercation with some
ultra-republicans, after which he called to his dog, "Viens,
citoyen!" Scowling looks were turned upon him, and he deemed it
expedient to take the first opportunity of escaping from the house,
which he did by a back-door, and made the best of his way to
Hacqueville. From thence he went to Rouen, and succeeded in finding a
passage on board an American ship, in which he sailed for New York,
having first pledged his affections to an English girl, Sophia
Kingdom, whom he had accidentally met at the house of Mr. Carpentier,
the American consul at Rouen.

Arrived in America, he succeeded in finding employment as assistant
surveyor of a tract of land along the Black River, near Lake Ontario.
In the intervals of his labours he made occasional visits to New
York, and it was there that the first idea of his block-machinery
occurred to him. He carried his idea back with him into the woods,
where it often mingled with his thoughts of Sophia Kingdom, by this
time safe in England after passing through the horrors of a French
prison. "My first thought of the block-machinery," he once said, "was
at a dinner party at Major-General Hamilton's, in New York; my second
under an American tree, when, one day that I was carving letters on
its bark, the turn of one of them reminded me of it, and I thought,
'Ah! my block! so it must be.' And what do you think. were the
letters I was cutting? Of course none other than S. K." Brunel
subsequently obtained some employment as an architect in New York,
and promulgated various plans for improving the navigation of the
principal rivers. Among the designs of his which were carried out,
was that of the Park Theatre at New York, and a cannon foundry, in
which he introduced improvements in casting and boring big guns. But
being badly paid for his work, and a powerful attraction drawing him
constantly towards England, he determined to take final leave of
America, which he did in 1799, and landed at Falmouth in the
following March. There he again met Miss Kingdom, who had remained
faithful to him during his six long years of exile, and the pair were
shortly after united for life.

Brunel was a prolific inventor. During his residence in America, he
had planned many contrivances in his mind, which he now proceeded to
work out. The first was a duplicate writing and drawing machine,
which he patented. The next was a machine for twisting cotton thread
and forming it into balls; but omitting to protect it by a patent, he
derived no benefit from the invention, though it shortly came into
very general use. He then invented a machine for trimmings and
borders for muslins, lawns, and cambrics,--of the nature of a sewing
machine. His famous block-machinery formed the subject of his next
patent.

It may be explained that the making of the blocks employed in the
rigging of ships for raising and lowering the sails, masts, and
yards, was then a highly important branch of manufacture. Some idea
may be formed of the number used in the Royal Navy alone, from the
fact that a 74-gun ship required to be provided with no fewer than
1400 blocks of various sizes. The sheaved blocks used for the running
rigging consisted of the shell, the sheaves, which revolved within
the shell, and the pins which fastened them together. The fabrication
of these articles, though apparently simple, was in reality attended
with much difficulty. Every part had to be fashioned with great
accuracy and precision to ensure the easy working of the block when
put together, as any hitch in the raising or lowering of the sails
might, on certain emergencies, occasion a serious disaster. Indeed,
it became clear that mere hand-work was not to be relied on in the
manufacture of these articles, and efforts were early made to produce
them by means of machinery of the most perfect kind that could be
devised. In 1781, Mr. Taylor, of Southampton, set up a large
establishment on the river Itchen for their manufacture; and on the
expiry of his contract, the Government determined to establish works
of their own in Portsmouth Dockyard, for the purpose at the same time
of securing greater economy, and of being independent of individual
makers in the supply of an article of such importance in the
equipment of ships.

Sir Samuel Bentham, who then filled the office of Inspector-General
of Naval Works, was a highly ingenious person, and had for some years
been applying his mind to the invention of improved machinery for
working in wood. He had succeeded in introducing into the royal
dockyards sawing-machines and planing-machines of a superior kind, as
well as block-making machines. Thus the specification of one of his
patents, taken out in 1793, clearly describes a machine for shaping
the shells of the blocks, in a manner similar to that afterwards
specified by Brunel. Bentham had even proceeded with the erection of
a building in Portsmouth Dockyard for the manufacture of the blocks
after his method, the necessary steam-engine being already provided;
but with a singular degree of candour and generosity, on Brunel's
method being submitted to him, Sir Samuel at once acknowledged its
superiority to his own, and promised to recommend its adoption by the
authorities in his department.

The circumstance of Mrs. Brunel's brother being Under-Secretary to
the Navy Board at the time, probably led Brunel in the first instance
to offer his invention to the Admiralty. A great deal, however,
remained to be done before he could bring his ideas of the
block-machinery into a definite shape; for there is usually a wide
interval between the first conception of an intricate machine and its
practical realization. Though Brunel had a good knowledge of
mechanics, and was able to master the intricacies of any machine, he
laboured under the disadvantage of not being a practical mechanic and
it is probable that but for the help of someone possessed of this
important qualification, his invention, ingenious and important
though it was, would have borne no practical fruits. It was at this
juncture that he was so fortunate as to be introduced to Henry
Maudslay, the inventor of the sliderest.

It happened that a M. de Bacquancourt, one of the French emigres,
of whom there were then so many in London, was accustomed almost
daily to pass Maudslay's little shop in Wells-street, and being
himself an amateur turner, he curiously inspected the articles from
time to time exhibited in the window of the young mechanic. One day a
more than ordinarily nice piece of screw-cutting made its appearance,
on which he entered the shop to make inquiries as to the method by
which it had been executed. He had a long conversation with Maudslay,
with whom he was greatly pleased; and he was afterwards accustomed to
look in upon him occasionally to see what new work was going on.
Bacquancourt was also on intimate terms with Brunel, who communicated
to him the difficulty he had experienced in finding a mechanic of
sufficient dexterity to execute his design of the block-making
machinery. It immediately occurred to the former that Henry Maudslay
was the very man to execute work of the elaborate character proposed,
and he described to Brunel the new and beautiful tools which Maudslay
had contrived for the purpose of ensuring accuracy and finish. Brunel
at once determined to call upon Maudslay, and it was arranged that
Bacquancourt should introduce him, which he did, and after the
interview which took place Brunel promised to call again with the
drawings of his proposed model.

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.*
[footnote...
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."
...]
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.*
[footnote...
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. ...]

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.

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