Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers

by Samuel Smiles

The introduction of the slide rest furnished a complete remedy for this source of imperfection. The principle of the invention consists in constructing and fitting the rest so that, instead of being screwed down to one place, and the tool in the hands of the workman travelling over it, the rest shall itself hold the cutting tool firmly fixed in it, and slide along the surface of the bench in a direction exactly parallel with the axis of the work. Before its invention various methods had been tried with the object of enabling the work to be turned true independent of the dexterity of the workman. Thus, a square steel cutter used to be firmly fixed in a bed, along which it was wedged from point to point of the work, and tolerable accuracy was in this way secured. But the slide rest was much more easily managed, and the result was much more satisfactory. All that the workman had to do, after the tool was firmly fitted into the rest, was merely to turn a screw-handle, and thus advance the cutter along the face of the work as required, with an expenditure of strength so slight as scarcely to be appreciable. And even this labour has now been got rid of; for, by an arrangement of the gearing, the slide itself has been made self-acting, and advances with the revolution of the work in the lathe, which thus supplies the place of the workman's hand. The accuracy of the turning done by this beautiful yet simple arrangement is as mechanically perfect as work can be. The pair of steel fingers which hold the cutting tool firmly in their grasp never tire, and it moves along the metal to be cut with an accuracy and precision which the human hand, however skilled, could never equal.

The effects of the introduction of the slide rest were very shortly felt in all departments of mechanism. Though it had to encounter some of the ridicule with which new methods of working are usually received, and for a time was spoken of in derision as "Maudslay's Go-cart,"—its practical advantages were so decided that it gradually made its way, and became an established tool in all the best mechanical workshops. It was found alike capable of executing the most delicate and the most ponderous pieces of machinery; and as slide-lathes could be manufactured to any extent, machinery, steam-engines, and all kinds of metal work could now be turned out in a quantity and at a price that, but for its use, could never have been practicable. In course of time various modifications of the machine were introduced—such as the planing machine, the wheel-cutting machine, and other beautiful tools on the slide-rest principle,—the result of which has been that extraordinary development of mechanical production and power which is so characteristic a feature of the age we live in.

"It is not, indeed, saying at all too much to state," says Mr. Nasmyth,[12] 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.