Industrial Biography

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"I had the good luck," he says, "to have for a school companion the
son of an iron founder. Every spare hour that I could command was
devoted to visits to his father's iron foundry, where I delighted to
watch the various processes of moulding, iron-melting, casting,
forging, pattern-making, and other smith and metal work; and although
I was only about twelve years old at the time, I used to lend a hand,
in which hearty zeal did a good deal to make up for want of strength.
I look back to the Saturday afternoons spent in the workshops of that
small foundry, as an important part of my education. I did not trust
to reading about such and such things; I saw and handled them; and
all the ideas in connection with them became permanent in my mind. I
also obtained there--what was of much value to me in after life--
a considerable acquaintance with the nature and characters of
workmen. By the time I was fifteen, I could work and turn out really
respectable jobs in wood, brass, iron, and steel: indeed, in the
working of the latter inestimable material, I had at a very early age
(eleven or twelve) acquired considerable proficiency. As that was the
pre-lucifer match period, the possession of a steel and tinder box
was quite a patent of nobility among boys. So I used to forge old
files into 'steels' in my father's little workshop, and harden them
and produce such first-rate, neat little articles in that line, that
I became quite famous amongst my school companions; and many a task
have I had excused me by bribing the monitor, whose grim sense of
duty never could withstand the glimpse of a steel.

"My first essay at making a steam engine was when I was fifteen. I
then made a real working; steam-engine, 1 3/4 diameter cylinder, and
8 in. stroke, which not only could act, but really did some useful
work; for I made it grind the oil colours which my father required
for his painting. Steam engine models, now so common, were
exceedingly scarce in those days, and very difficult to be had; and
as the demand for them arose, I found it both delightful and
profitable to make them; as well as sectional models of steam
engines, which I introduced for the purpose of exhibiting the
movements of all the parts, both exterior and interior. With the
results of the sale of such models I was enabled to pay the price of
tickets of admission to the lectures on natural philosophy and
chemistry delivered in the University of Edinburgh. About the same
time (1826) I was so happy as to be employed by Professor Leslie in
making models and portions of apparatus required by him for his
lectures and philosophical investigations, and I had also the
inestimable good fortune to secure his friendship. His admirably
clear manner of communicating a knowledge of the fundamental
principles of mechanical science rendered my intercourse with him of
the utmost importance to myself. A hearty, cheerful, earnest desire
to toil in his service, caused him to take pleasure in instructing me
by occasional explanations of what might otherwise have remained
obscure.

"About the years 1827 and 1828, the subject of steam-carriages for
common roads occupied much of the attention of the public. Many tried
to solve the problem. I made a working model of an engine which
performed so well that some friends determined to give me the means
of making one on a larger scale. This I did; and I shall never forget
the pleasure and the downright hard work I had in producing, in the
autumn of 1828, at an outlay of 60L., a complete steam-carriage, that
ran many a mile with eight persons on it. After keeping it in action
two months, to the satisfaction of all who were interested in it, my
friends allowed me to dispose of it, and I sold it a great bargain,
after which the engine was used in driving a small factory. I may
mention that in that engine I employed the waste steam to cause an
increased draught by its discharge up the chimney. This important use
of the waste steam had been introduced by George Stephenson some
years before, though entirely unknown to me.

"The earnest desire which I cherished of getting forward in the real
business of life induced me to turn my attention to obtaining
employment in some of the great engineering establishments of the
day, at the head of which, in my fancy as well as in reality, stood
that of Henry Maudslay, of London. It was the summit of my ambition
to get work in that establishment; but as my father had not the means
of paying a premium, I determined to try what I could do towards
attaining my object by submitting to Mr. Maudslay actual specimens of
my capability as a young workman and draughtsman. To this end I set
to work and made a small steam-engine, every part of which was the
result of my own handiwork, including the casting and the forging of
the several parts. This I turned out in such a style as I should even
now be proud of. My sample drawings were, I may say, highly
respectable. Armed with such means of obtaining the good opinion of
the great Henry Maudslay, on the l9th of May, 1829, I sailed for
London in a Leith smack, and after an eight days' voyage saw the
metropolis for the first time. I made bold to call on Mr. Maudslay,
and told him my simple tale. He desired me to bring my models for him
to look at. I did so, and when he came to me I could see by the
expression of his cheerful, well-remembered countenance, that I had
attained my object. He then and there appointed me to be his own
private workman, to assist him in his little paradise of a workshop,
furnished with the models of improved machinery and engineering tools
of which he has been the great originator. He left me to arrange as
to wages with his chief cashier, Mr. Robert Young, and on the first
Saturday evening I accordingly went to the counting-house to enquire
of him about my pay. He asked me what would satisfy me. Knowing the
value of the situation I had obtained, and having a very modest
notion of my worthiness to occupy it, I said, that if he would not
consider l0s. a week too much, I thought I could do very well with
that. I suppose he concluded that I had some means of my own to live
on besides the l0s. a week which I asked. He little knew that I had
determined not to cost my father another farthing when I left-home to
begin the world on my own account. My proposal was at once acceded
to. And well do I remember the pride and delight I felt when I
carried to my three shillings a week lodging that night my first
wages. Ample they were in my idea; for I knew how little I could live
on, and was persuaded that by strict economy I could easily contrive
to make the money support me. To help me in this object, I contrived
a small cooking apparatus, which I forthwith got made by a tinsmith
in Lambeth, at a cost of 6s., and by its aid I managed to keep the
eating and drinking part of my private account within 3s. 6d. per
week, or 4s. at the outside. I had three meat dinners a week, and
generally four rice and milk dinners, all of which were cooked by my
little apparatus, which I set in action after breakfast. The oil cost
not quite a halfpenny per day. The meat dinners consisted of a stew
of from a half to three quarters of a lb. of leg of beef, the meat
costing 3 1/2d. per lb., which, with sliced potatoes and a little
onion, and as much water as just covered all, with a sprinkle of salt
and black pepper, by the time I returned to dinner at half-past six
furnished a repast in every respect as good as my appetite. For
breakfast I had coffee and a due proportion of quartern loaf. After
the first year of my employment under Mr. Maudslay, my wages were
raised to 15s. a week, and I then, but not till then, indulged in the
luxury of butter to my bread. I am the more particular in all this,
to show you that I was a thrifty housekeeper, although only a lodger
in a 3s. room. I have the old apparatus by me yet, and I shall have
another dinner out of it ere I am a year older, out of regard to days
that were full of the real romance of life.

"On the death of Henry Maudslay in 1831, I passed over to the service
of his worthy partner, Mr. Joshua Field, and acted as his
draughtsman, much to my advantage, until the end of that year, when I
returned to Edinburgh, to construct a small stock of engineering
tools for the purpose of enabling me to start in business on my own
account. This occupied me until the spring of l833, and during the
interval I was accustomed to take in jobs to execute in my little
workshop in Edinburgh, so as to obtain the means of completing my
stock of tools.*
[footnote...
Most of the tools with which he began business in Manchester were
made by his own hands in his father's little workshop at Edinburgh,
He was on one occasion " hard up" for brass with which to make a
wheel for his planing machine. There was a row of old-fashioned brass
candlesticks standing in bright array on the kitchen mantelpiece
which he greatly coveted for the purpose. His father was reluctant to
give them up; "for," said he, "I have had many a crack with Burns
when these candlesticks were on the table. But his mother at length
yielded; when the candlesticks were at once recast, and made into the
wheel of the planing machine, which is still at work in Manchester.
...]
In June, 1834, I went to Manchester, and took a flat of an old mill
in Dale Street, where I began business. In two years my stock had so
increased as to overload the floor of the old building to such an
extent that the land lord, Mr. Wrenn, became alarmed, especially as
the tenant below me--a glass-cutter--had a visit from the end of
a 20-horse engine beam one morning among his cut tumblers. To set
their anxiety at rest, I went out that evening to Patricroft and took
a look at a rather choice bit of land bounded on one side by the
canal, and on the other by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. By
the end of the week I had secured a lease of the site for 999 years;
by the end of the month my wood sheds were erected; the ring of the
hammer on the smith's anvil was soon heard all over the place; and
the Bridgewater Foundry was fairly under way. There I toiled right
heartily until December 31st, 1856, when I retired to enjoy in active
leisure the reward of a laborious life, during which, with the
blessing of God, I enjoyed much true happiness through the hearty
love which I always had for my profession; and I trust I may be
allowed to say, without undue vanity, that I have left behind me some
useful results of my labours in those inventions with which my name
is identified, which have had no small share in the accomplishment of
some of the greatest mechanical works of our age." If Mr. Nasmyth had
accomplished nothing more than the invention of his steam-hammer, it
would have been enough to found a reputation. Professor Tomlinson
describes it as "one of the most perfect of artificial machines and
noblest triumphs of mind over matter that modern English engineers
have yet developed."*
[footnote...
Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, ii. 739.
...]
The hand-hammer has always been an important tool, and, in the form
of the stone celt, it was perhaps the first invented. When the hammer
of iron superseded that of stone, it was found practicable in the
hands of a "cunning" workman to execute by its means metal work of
great beauty and even delicacy. But since the invention of cast-iron,
and the manufacture of wrought-iron in large masses, the art of
hammer-working has almost become lost; and great artists, such as
Matsys of Antwerp and Rukers of Nuremberg were,*
[footnote...
Matsys' beautiful wrought-iron well cover, still standing in front of
the cathedral at Antwerp, and Rukers's steel or iron chair exhibited
at South Kensington in 1862, are examples of the beautiful hammer
work turned out by the artisans of the middle ages. The railings of
the tombs of Henry VII. and Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey, the
hinges and iron work of Lincoln Cathedral, of St. George's Chapel at
Windsor, and of some of the Oxford colleges, afford equally striking
illustrations of the skill of our English blacksmiths several
centuries ago.
...]
no longer think it worth their while to expend time and skill in
working on so humble a material as wrought-iron. It is evident from
the marks of care and elaborate design which many of these early
works exhibit, that the workman's heart was in his work, and that his
object was not merely to get it out of hand, but to execute it in
first-rate artistic style.

When the use of iron extended and larger ironwork came to be forged,
for cannon, tools, and machinery, the ordinary hand-hammer was found
insufficient, and the helve or forge-hammer was invented. This was
usually driven by a water-wheel, or by oxen or horses. The
tilt-hammer was another form in which it was used, the smaller kinds
being worked by the foot. Among Watt's various inventions, was a
tilt-hammer of considerable power, which he at first worked by means
of a water-wheel, and afterwards by a steam engine regulated by a
fly-wheel. His first hammer of this kind was 120 lbs. in weight; it
was raised eight inches before making each blow. Watt afterwards made
a tilt-hammer for Mr. Wilkinson of Bradley Forge, of 7 1/2 cwt., and
it made 300 blows a minute . Other improvements were made in the
hammer from time to time, but no material alteration was made in the
power by which it was worked until Mr. Nasmyth took it in hand, and
applying to it the force of steam, at once provided the worker in
iron with the most formidable of machine-tools. This important
invention originated as follows:

In the early part of 1837, the directors of the Great Western
Steam-Ship Company sent Mr. Francis Humphries, their engineer, to
consult Mr. Nasmyth as to some engineering tools of unusual size and
power, which were required for the construction of the engines of the
"Great Britain" steamship. They had determined to construct those
engines on the vertical trunk-engine principle, in accordance with
Mr. Humphries' designs; and very complete works were erected by them
at their Bristol dockyard for the execution of the requisite
machinery, the most important of the tools being supplied by Nasmyth
and Gaskell. The engines were in hand, when a difficulty arose with
respect to the enormous paddle-shaft of the vessel, which was of such
a size of forging as had never before been executed. Mr. Humphries
applied to the largest engineering firms throughout the country for
tenders of the price at which they would execute this part of the
work, but to his surprise and dismay he found that not one of the
firms he applied to would undertake so large a forging. In this
dilemma he wrote to Mr. Nasmyth on the 24th November,1838, informing
him of this unlooked-for difficulty. "I find," said he, "there is not
a forge-hammer in England or Scotland powerful enough to forge the
paddle-shaft of the engines for the 'Great Britain!' What am I to do?
Do you think I might dare to use cast-iron?"

This letter immediately set Mr. Nasmyth a-thinking. How was it that
existing hammers were incapable of forging a wrought-iron shaft of
thirty inches diameter? Simply because of their want of compass, or
range and fall, as well as power of blow. A few moments' rapid
thought satisfied him that it was by rigidly adhering to the old
traditional form of hand-hammer--of which the tilt, though driven
by steam, was but a modification--that the difficulty had arisen.
When even the largest hammer was tilted up to its full height, its
range was so small, that when a piece of work of considerable size
was placed on the anvil, the hammer became "gagged," and, on such an
occasion, where the forging required the most powerful blow, it
received next to no blow at all,--the clear space for fall being
almost entirely occupied by the work on the anvil.

The obvious remedy was to invent some method, by which a block of
iron should be lifted to a sufficient height above the object on
which it was desired to strike a blow, and let the block fall down
upon the work,--guiding it in its descent by such simple means as
should give the required precision in the percussive action of the
falling mass. Following out this idea, Mr. Nasmyth at once sketched
on paper his steam-hammer, having it clearly before him in his mind's
eye a few minutes after receiving Mr. Humphries' letter narrating his
unlooked-for difficulty. The hammer, as thus sketched, consisted of,
first an anvil on which to rest the work; second, a block of iron
constituting the hammer or blow-giving part; third, an inverted
steam-cylinder to whose piston-rod the block was attached. All that
was then required to produce by such means a most effective hammer,
was simply to admit steam in the cylinder so as to act on the under
side of the piston, and so raise the block attached to the
piston-rod, and by a simple contrivance to let the steam escape and
so permit the block rapidly to descend by its own gravity upon the
work then on the anvil. Such, in a few words, is the rationale of the
steam-hammer.

By the same day's post, Mr. Nasmyth wrote to Mr. Humphries, inclosing
a sketch of the invention by which he proposed to forge the "Great
Britain" paddle-shaft. Mr. Humphries showed it to Mr. Brunel, the
engineer-inchief of the company, to Mr. Guppy, the managing director,
and to others interested in the undertaking, by all of whom it was
heartily approved. Mr. Nasmyth gave permission to communicate his
plans to such forge proprietors as might feel disposed to erect such
a hammer to execute the proposed work,--the only condition which he
made being, that in the event of his hammer being adopted, he was to
be allowed to supply it according to his own design.

The paddle-shaft of the "Great Britain" was, however, never forged.
About that time, the substitution of the Screw for the Paddle-wheel
as a means of propulsion of steam-vessels was attracting much
attention; and the performances of the "Archimedes" were so
successful as to induce Mr. Brunel to recommend his Directors to
adopt the new power. They yielded to his entreaty. The great engines
which Mr. Humphries had designed were accordingly set aside; and he
was required to produce fresh designs of engines suited for screw
propulsion. The result was fatal to Mr. Humphries. The labour, the
anxiety, and perhaps the disappointment, proved too much for him, and
a brain-fever carried him off; so that neither his great paddle-shaft
nor Mr. Nasmyth's steam-hammer to forge it was any longer needed.

The hammer was left to bide its time. No forge-master would take it
up. The inventor wrote to all the great firms, urging its superiority
to every other tool for working malleable iron into all kinds of
forge work. Thus he wrote and sent illustrative sketches of his
hammer to Accramans and Morgan of Bristol, to the late Benjamin Hick
and Rushton and Eckersley of Bolton, to Howard and Ravenhill of
Rotherhithe, and other firms; but unhappily bad times for the iron
trade had set in; and although all to whom he communicated his design
were much struck with its simplicity and obvious advantages, the
answer usually given was--"We have not orders enough to keep in
work the forge-hammers we already have, and we do not desire at
present to add any new ones, however improved." At that time no
patent had been taken out for the invention. Mr. Nasmyth had not yet
saved money enough to enable him to do so on his own account; and his
partner declined to spend money upon a tool that no engineer would
give the firm an order for. No secret was made of the invention, and,
excepting to its owner, it did not seem to be worth one farthing.

Such was the unpromising state of affairs, when M. Schneider, of the
Creusot Iron Works in France, called at the Patricroft works together
with his practical mechanic M. Bourdon, for the purpose of ordering
some tools of the firm. Mr. Nasmyth was absent on a journey at the
time, but his partner, Mr. Gaskell, as an act of courtesy to the
strangers, took the opportunity of showing them all that was new and
interesting in regard to mechanism about the works. And among other
things, Mr. Gaskell brought out his partner's sketch or "Scheme
book," which lay in a drawer in the office, and showed them the
design of the Steam Hammer, which no English firm would adopt. They
were much struck with its simplicity and practical utility; and M.
Bourdon took careful note of its arrangements. Mr. Nasmyth on his
return was informed of the visit of MM. Schneider and Bourdon, but
the circumstance of their having inspected the design of his
steam-hammer seems to have been regarded by his partner as too
trivial a matter to be repeated to him; and he knew nothing of the
circumstance until his visit to France in April, 1840. When passing
through the works at Creusot with M. Bourdon, Mr. Nasmyth saw a crank
shaft of unusual size, not only forged in the piece, but punched. He
immediately asked, "How did you forge that shaft?" M. Bourdon's
answer was, "Why, with your hammer, to be sure!" Great indeed was
Nasmyth's surprise; for he had never yet seen the hammer, except in
his own drawing! A little explanation soon cleared all up. M. Bourdon
said he had been so much struck with the ingenuity and simplicity of
the arrangement, that he had no sooner returned than he set to work,
and had a hammer made in general accordance with the design Mr.
Gaskell had shown him; and that its performances had answered his
every expectation. He then took Mr. Nasmyth to see the steam-hammer;
and great was his delight at seeing the child of his brain in full
and active work. It was not, according to Mr. Nasmyth's ideas, quite
perfect, and he readily suggested several improvements, conformable
with the original design, which M. Bourdon forthwith adopted.

On reaching England, Mr. Nasmyth at once wrote to his partner telling
him what he had seen, and urging that the taking out of a patent for
the protection of the invention ought no longer to be deferred. But
trade was still very much depressed, and as the Patricroft firm
needed all their capital to carry on their business, Mr. Gaskell
objected to lock any of it up in engineering novelties. Seeing
himself on the brink of losing his property in the invention, Mr.
Nasmyth applied to his brother-in-law, William Bennett, Esq., who
advanced him the requisite money for the purpose--about 280L.,--
and the patent was secured in June 1840. The first hammer, of 30
cwt., was made for the Patricroft works, with the consent of the
partners; and in the course of a few weeks it was in full work. The
precision and beauty of its action--the perfect ease with which it
was managed, and the untiring force of its percussive blows--were
the admiration of all who saw it; and from that moment the
steam-hammer became a recognised power in modern mechanics. The
variety or gradation of its blows was such, that it was found
practicable to manipulate a hammer of ten tons as easily as if it had
only been of ten ounces weight. It was under such complete control
that while descending with its greatest momentum, it could be
arrested at any point with even greater ease than any instrument used
by hand. While capable of forging an Armstrong hundred-pounder, or
the sheet-anchor for a ship of the line, it could hammer a nail, or
crack a nut without bruising the kernel. When it came into general
use, the facilities which it afforded for executing all kinds of
forging had the effect of greatly increasing the quantity of work
done, at the same time that expense was saved. The cost of making
anchors was reduced by at least 50 per cent., while the quality of
the forging was improved. Before its invention the manufacture of a
shaft of l5 or 20cwt. required the concentrated exertions of a large
establishment, and its successful execution was regarded as a great
triumph of skill.; whereas forgings of 20 and 30 tons weight are now
things of almost every-day occurrence. Its advantages were so
obvious, that its adoption soon became general, and in the course of
a few years Nasmyth steam-hammers were to be found in every
well-appointed workshop both at home and abroad. Many modifications
have been made in the tool, by Condie, Morrison, Naylor, Rigby, and
others; but Nasmyth's was the father of them all, and still holds its
ground.*
[footnote...
Mr. Nasmyth has lately introduced, with the assistance of Mr. Wilson
of the Low Moor Iron Works, a new, exceedingly ingenious, and very
simple contrivance for working the hammer. By this application any
length of stroke, any amount of blow, and any amount of variation can
be given by the operation of a single lever; and by this improvement
the machine has attained a rapidity of action and change of motion
suitable to the powers of the engine, and the form or consistency of
the articles under the hammer.--Mr. FAIRBAIRN'S Report on the Paris
Universal Exhibition of 1855, p. 100.
...]

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