Industrial Biography, Iron Workers and Tool Makers Part 15

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 cla.s.s; 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.

[1] On one occasion Galloway had a cast-iron roof made for his workshop, so flat and so independent of ties that the wonder was that it should have stood an hour. One day Peter Keir, an engineer much employed by the government--a clever man, though some what eccentric--was taken into the shop by Galloway to admire the new roof.

Keir, on glancing up at it, immediately exclaimed, "Come outside, and let us speak about it there!" All that he could say to Galloway respecting the unsoundness of its construction was of no avail. The fact was that, however Keir might argue about its not being able to stand, there it was actually standing, and that was enough for Galloway. Keir went home, his mind filled with Galloway's most unprincipled roof. "If that stands," said he to himself, "all that I have been learning and doing for thirty years has been wrong." That night he could not sleep for thinking about it. In the morning he strolled up Primrose Hill, and returned home still muttering to himself about "that roof." "What," said his wife to him, "are you thinking of Galloway's roof?" "Yes," said he. "Then you have seen the papers?"

"No--what about them?" "Galloway's roof has fallen in this morning, and killed eight or ten of the men!" Keir immediately went to bed, and slept soundly till next morning.

[2] See more particularly The Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, vol. x.x.xiii. (1817), at pp. 74, 157, 160, 175, 208 (an admirable drawing; of Mr. James Allen's Theodolite); vol.

x.x.xvi. (1818), pp. 28, 176 (a series of remarkable ill.u.s.trations of Mr.

Clement's own invention of an Instrument for Drawing Ellipses); vol.

xliii. (1825), containing an ill.u.s.tration of the Drawing Table invented by him for large drawings; vol. xlvi. (1828), containing a series of elaborate ill.u.s.trations of his Prize Turning Lathe; and xlviii. 1829, containing ill.u.s.trations of his Self-adjusting Double Driver Centre Chuck.

[3] Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, vol.

xlix. p.157.

[4] A complete account of the calculating machine, as well as of an a.n.a.lytical 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 circ.u.mstances 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.

[5] History of the Royal Society, ii. 374.

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 t.i.tles of Worthies or demi-G.o.ds; whereas, such as were inventors and authors of new arts, endowments, and commodities towards man's life, were ever consecrated amongst the G.o.ds 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, Staffords.h.i.+re. 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 modern 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,[1] 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 cla.s.s, 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,[2] 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 princ.i.p.al 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.[3] 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 quant.i.ties being made for use at home as well as for exportation, giving employment to an increasing number of highly skilled mechanics.[4] 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 modern 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 steams.h.i.+ps; so that he may almost be regarded as the Admirable Crichton of modern 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 amus.e.m.e.nt 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.

There were several ironworks in the neighbour hood, and thither he went in search of employment. He succeeded in finding work as a pattern-maker at Bradley, near Bilston; under John Wilkinson, the famous ironmaster--a man of great enterprise as well as mechanical skill; for he was the first man, as already stated, that Watt could find capable of boring a cylinder with any approach to truth, for the purposes of his steam-engines. After acquiring some practical knowledge of the art of working in wood as well as iron, Roberts proceeded to Birmingham, where he pa.s.sed through different shops, gaining further experience in mechanical practice. He tried his hand at many kinds of work, and acquired considerable dexterity in each. He was regarded as a sort of jack-of-all-trades; for he was a good turner, a tolerable wheel-wright, and could repair mill-work at a pinch.

He next moved northward to the Horsley ironworks, Tipton, where he was working as a pattern-maker when he had the misfortune to be drawn in his own county for the militia. He immediately left his work and made his way homeward to Llanymynech, determined not to be a soldier or even a militiaman. But home was not the place for him to rest in, and after bidding a hasty adieu to his father, he crossed the country northward on foot and reached Liverpool, in the hope of finding work there.

Failing in that, he set out for Manchester and reached it at dusk, very weary and very miry in consequence of the road being in such a wretched state of mud and ruts. He relates that, not knowing a person in the town, he went up to an apple-stall ostensibly to buy a pennyworth of apples, but really to ask the stall-keeper if he knew of any person in want of a hand. Was there any turner in the neighbourhood? Yes, round the corner. Thither he went at once, found the wood-turner in, and was promised a job on the following morning. He remained with the turner for only a short time, after which he found a job in Salford at lathe and tool-making. But hearing that the militia warrant-officers were still searching for him, he became uneasy and determined to take refuge in London.

He trudged all the way on foot to that great hiding-place, and first tried Holtzapffel's, the famous tool-maker's, but failing in his application he next went to Maudslay's and succeeded in getting employment. He worked there for some time, acquiring much valuable practical knowledge in the use of tools, cultivating his skill by contact with first-cla.s.s workmen, and benefiting by the spirit of active contrivance which pervaded the Maudslay shops. His manual dexterity greatly increased, and his inventive ingenuity fully stimulated, he determined on making his way back to Manchester, which, even more than London itself, at that time presented abundant openings for men of mechanical skill. Hence we find so many of the best mechanics trained at Maudslay's and Clement's--Nasmyth, Lewis, Muir, Roberts, Whitworth, and others--shortly rising into distinction there as leading mechanicians and tool-makers.

The mere enumeration of the various results of Mr. Roberts's inventive skill during the period of his settlement at Manchester as a mechanical engineer, would occupy more s.p.a.ce than we can well spare. But we may briefly mention a few of the more important. In 1816, while carrying on business on his own account in Deansgate, he invented his improved sector for correctly sizing wheels in blank previously to their being cut, which is still extensively used. In the same year he invented his improved screw-lathe; and in the following year, at the request of the boroughreeve and constables of Manchester, he contrived an oscillating and rotating wet gas meter of a new kind, which enabled them to sell gas by measure. This was the first meter in which a water lute was applied to prevent the escape of gas by the index shaft, the want of which, as well as its great complexity, had prevented the only other gas meter then in existence from working satisfactorily. The water lute was immediately adopted by the patentee of that meter. The planing machine, though claimed, as we have seen, by many inventors, was constructed by Mr. Roberts after an original plan of his own in 1817, and became the tool most generally employed in mechanical workshops--acting by means of a chain and rack--though it has since been superseded to some extent by the planing machine of Whitworth, which works both ways upon an endless screw. Improvements followed in the slide-lathe (giving a large range of speed with increased diameters for the same size of headstocks, &c.), in the wheel-cutting engine, in the scale-beam (by which, with a load of 2 oz. on each end, the fifteen-hundredth part of a grain could be indicated), in the broaching-machine, the slotting-machine, and other engines.

But the inventions by which his fame became most extensively known arose out of circ.u.mstances connected with the cotton manufactures of Manchester and the neighbourhood. The great improvements which he introduced in the machine for making weavers' reeds, led to the formation of the firm of Sharp, Roberts, and Co., of which Mr. Roberts was the acting mechanical partner for many years. Not less important were his improvements in power-looms for weaving fustians, which were extensively adopted. But by far the most famous of his inventions was unquestionably his Self-acting Mule, one of the most elaborate and beautiful pieces of machinery ever contrived. Before its invention, the working of the entire machinery of the cotton-mill, as well as the employment of the piecers, cleaners, and other cla.s.ses of operatives, depended upon the spinners, who, though receiving the highest rates of pay, were by much the most given to strikes; and they were frequently accustomed to turn out in times when trade was brisk, thereby bringing the whole operations of the manufactories to a standstill, and throwing all the other operatives out of employment. A long-continued strike of this sort took place in 1824, when the idea occurred to the masters that it might be possible to make the spinning-mules run out and in at the proper speed by means of self-acting machinery, and thus render them in some measure independent of the more refractory cla.s.s of their workmen. It seemed, however, to be so very difficult a problem, that they were by no means sanguine of success in its solution. Some time pa.s.sed before they could find any mechanic willing so much as to consider the subject. Mr. Ashton of Staley-bridge made every effort with this object, but the answer he got was uniformly the same. The thing was declared to be impracticable and impossible. Mr. Ashton, accompanied by two other leading spinners, called on Sharp, Roberts, and Co., to seek an interview with Mr. Roberts. They introduced the subject to him, but he would scarcely listen to their explanations, cutting them short with the remark that he knew nothing whatever about cotton-spinning. They insisted, nevertheless, on explaining to him what they required, but they went away without being able to obtain from him any promise of a.s.sistance in bringing out the required machine.

The strike continued, and the manufacturers again called upon Mr.

Roberts, but with no better result. A third time they called and appealed to Mr. Sharp, the capitalist of the firm, who promised to use his best endeavours to induce his mechanical partner to take the matter in hand. But Mr. Roberts, notwithstanding his reticence, had been occupied in carefully pondering the subject since Mr. Ashton's first interview with him. The very difficulty of the problem to be solved had tempted him boldly to grapple with it, though he would not hold out the slightest expectation to the cotton-spinners of his being able to help them in their emergency until he saw his way perfectly clear.

That time had now come; and when Mr. Sharp introduced the subject, he said he had turned the matter over and thought he could construct the required self-acting machinery. It was arranged that he should proceed with it at once, and after a close study of four months he brought out the machine now so extensively known as the self-acting mule. The invention was patented in 1825, and was perfected by subsequent additions, which were also patented.

Like so many other inventions, the idea of the self-acting mule was not new. Thus Mr. William Strutt of Derby, the father of Lord Belper, invented a machine of this sort at an early period; Mr. William Belly, of the New Lanark Mills, invented a second; and various other projectors tried their skill in the same direction; but none of these inventions came into practical use. In such cases it has become generally admitted that the real inventor is not the person who suggests the idea of the invention, but he who first works it out into a practicable process, and so makes it of practical and commercial value. This was accomplished by Mr. Roberts, who, working out the idea after his own independent methods, succeeded in making the first self-acting mule that would really act as such; and he is therefore fairly ent.i.tled to be regarded as its inventor.

By means of this beautiful contrivance, spindle-carriages; bearing hundreds of spindles, run themselves out and in by means of automatic machinery, at the proper speed, without a hand touching them; the only labour required being that of a few boys and girls to watch them and mend the broken threads when the carriage recedes from the roller beam, and to stop it when the cop is completely formed, as is indicated by the bell of the counter attached to the working gear. Mr. Baines describes the self-acting mule while at work as "drawing out, twisting, and winding up many thousand threads, with unfailing precision and indefatigable patience and strength--a scene as magical to the eye which is not familiarized with it, as the effects have been marvellous in augmenting the wealth and population of the country." [5]

Mr. Roberts's great success with the self-acting mule led to his being often appealed to for help in the mechanics of manufacturing. In 1826, the year after his patent was taken out, he was sent for to Mulhouse, in Alsace, to design and arrange the machine establishment of Andre Koechlin and Co.; and in that and the two subsequent years he fairly set the works a-going, instructing the workmen in the manufacture of spinning-machinery, and thus contributing largely to the success of the French cotton manufacture. In 1832 he patented his invention of the Radial Arm for "winding on" in the self-acting mule, now in general use; and in future years he took out sundry patents for roving, slubbing, spinning, and doubling cotton and other fibrous materials; and for weaving, beetling, and mangling fabrics of various sorts.

A considerable branch of business carried on by the firm of Sharp, Roberts, and Co. was the manufacture of iron billiard-tables, which were constructed with almost perfect truth by means of Mr. Roberts's planing-machine, and became a large article of export. But a much more important and remunerative department was the manufacture of locomotives, which was begun by the firm shortly after the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had marked this as one of the chief branches of future mechanical engineering. Mr. Roberts adroitly seized the opportunity presented by this new field of invention and enterprise, and devoted himself for a time to the careful study of the locomotive and its powers. As early as the year 1829 we find him presenting to the Manchester Mechanics' Inst.i.tute a machine exhibiting the nature of friction upon railroads, in solution of the problem then under discussion in the scientific journals. In the following year he patented an arrangement for communicating power to both driving-wheels of the locomotive, at all times in the exact proportions required when turning to the right or left,--an arrangement which has since been adopted in many road locomotives and agricultural engines. In the same patent will be found embodied his invention of the steam-brake, which was also a favourite idea of George Stephenson, since elaborated by Mr.

MacConnell of the London and North-Western Railway. In 1834, Sharp, Roberts, and Co. began the manufacture of locomotives on a large scale; and the compactness of their engines, the excellence of their workmans.h.i.+p, and the numerous original improvements introduced in them, speedily secured for the engines of the Atlas firm a high reputation and a very large demand. Among Mr. Roberts's improvements may be mentioned his method of manufacturing the crank axle, of welding the rim and tyres of the wheels, and his arrangement and form of the wrought-iron framing and axle-guards. His system of templets and gauges, by means of which every part of an engine or tender corresponded with that of every other engine or tender of the same cla.s.s, was as great an improvement as Maudslay's system of uniformity of parts in other descriptions of machinery.

In connection with the subject of railways, we may allude in pa.s.sing to Mr. Roberts's invention of the Jacquard punching machine--a self-acting tool of great power, used for punching any required number of holes, of any pitch and to any pattern, with mathematical accuracy, in bridge or boiler plates. The origin of this invention was somewhat similar to that of the self-acting mule. The contractors for the Conway Tubular Bridge while under construction, in 1848, were greatly hampered by combinations amongst the workmen, and they despaired of being able to finish the girders within the time specified in the contract. The punching of the iron plates by hand was a tedious and expensive as well as an inaccurate process; and the work was proceeding so slowly that the contractors found it absolutely necessary to adopt some new method of punching if they were to finish the work in time. In their emergency they appealed to Mr. Roberts, and endeavoured to persuade him to take the matter up. He at length consented to do so, and evolved the machine in question during his evening's leisure--for the most part while quietly sipping his tea. The machine was produced, the contractors were enabled to proceed with the punching of the plates independent of the refractory men, and the work was executed with a despatch, accuracy, and excellence that would not otherwise have been possible. Only a few years since Mr. Roberts added a useful companion to the Jacquard punching machine, in his combined self-acting machine for shearing iron and punching both webs of angle or T iron simultaneously to any required pitch; though this machine, like others which have proceeded from his fertile brain, is ahead even of this fast-manufacturing age, and has not yet come into general use, but is certain to do so before many years have elapsed.

These inventions were surely enough for one man to have accomplished; but we have not yet done. The mere enumeration of his other inventions would occupy several pages. We shall merely allude to a few of them.

One was his Turret Clock, for which he obtained the medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Another was his Prize Electro-Magnet of 1845.

When this subject was first mentioned to him, he said he did not know anything of the theory or practice of electro-magnetism, but he would try and find out. The result of his trying was that he won the prize for the most powerful electro-magnet: one is placed in the museum at Peel Park, Manchester, and another with the Scottish Society of Arts, Edinburgh. In 1846 he perfected an American invention for making cigars by machinery; enabling a boy, working one of his cigar-engines, to make as many as 5000 in a day. In 1852 he patented improvements in the construction, propelling, and equipment of steams.h.i.+ps, which have, we believe, been adopted to a certain extent by the Admiralty; and a few years later, in 1855, we find him presenting the Secretary of War with plans of elongated rifle projectiles to be used in smooth-bore ordnance with a view to utilize the old-pattern gun. His head, like many inventors of the time, being full of the mechanics of war, he went so far as to wait upon Louis Napoleon, and laid before him a plan by which Sebastopol was to be blown down. In short, upon whatever subject he turned his mind, he left the impress of his inventive faculty. If it was imperfect, he improved it; if incapable of improvement, and impracticable, he invented something entirely new, superseding it altogether. But with all his inventive genius, in the exercise of which Mr. Roberts has so largely added to the productive power of the country, we regret to say that he is not gifted with the commercial faculty. He has helped others in their difficulties, but forgotten himself. Many have profited by his inventions, without even acknowledging the obligations which they owed to him. They have used his brains and copied his tools, and the "sucked orange" is all but forgotten. There may have been a want of worldly wisdom on his part, but it is lamentable to think that one of the most prolific and useful inventors of his time should in his old age be left to fight with poverty.

Mr. Whitworth is another of the first-cla.s.s tool-makers of Manchester who has turned to excellent account his training in the workshops of Maudslay and Clement. He has carried fully out the system of uniformity in Screw Threads which they initiated; and he has still further improved the mechanism of the planing machine, enabling it to work both backwards and forwards by means of a screw and roller motion.

His "Jim Crow Machine," so called from its peculiar motion in reversing itself and working both ways, is an extremely beautiful tool, adapted alike for horizontal, vertical, or angular motions. The minute accuracy of Mr. Whitworth's machines is not the least of their merits; and nothing will satisfy him short of perfect truth. At the meeting of the Inst.i.tute of Mechanical Engineers at Glasgow in 1856 he read a paper on the essential importance of possessing a true plane as a standard of reference in mechanical constructions, and he described elaborately the true method of securing it,--namely, by sc.r.a.ping, instead of by the ordinary process of grinding. At the same meeting he exhibited a machine of his invention by which he stated that a difference of the millionth part of an inch in length could at once be detected. He also there urged his favourite idea of uniformity, and proper gradations of size of parts, in all the various branches of the mechanical arts, as a chief means towards economy of production--a principle, as he showed, capable of very extensive application. To show the progress of tools and machinery in his own time, Mr. Whitworth cited the fact that thirty years since the cost of labour for making a surface of cast-iron true--one of the most important operations in mechanics--by chipping and filing by the hand, was 12s. a square foot; whereas it is now done by the planing machine at a cost for labour of less than a penny. Then in machinery, pieces of 74 reed printing-cotton cloth of 29 yards each could not be produced at less cost than 30s. 6d. per piece; whereas the same description is now sold for 3s. 9d. Mr. Whitworth has been among the most effective workers in this field of improvement, his tools taking the first place in point of speed, accuracy, and finish of work, in which respects they challenge compet.i.tion with the world. Mr. Whitworth has of late years been applying himself with his accustomed ardour to the development of the powers of rifled guns and projectiles,--a branch of mechanical science in which he confessedly holds a foremost place, and in perfecting which he is still occupied.

[1] Engineer, Oct. 10th, 1862.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.