Industrial Biography

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

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.*
[footnote...
History of the Royal Society, ii. 374.
...]

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.

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 modem 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,*
[footnote...
Engineer, Oct. 10th, 1862.
...]
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,*
[footnote...
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.
...]
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.*
[footnote...
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.
...]
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.*
[footnote...
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.
...]
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 modem
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 modem 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.

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