Henry Maudslay
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Henry Maudslay ( pronunciation and spelling) (22 August 1771 – 14 February 1831) was an English
machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All m ...
innovator, tool and die maker, and
inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
. He is considered a founding father of
machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All m ...
technology. His inventions were an important foundation for the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. Maudslay's invention of a metal
lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to c ...
to cut metal, circa 1800, enabled the manufacture of standard
screw thread A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a ...
sizes. Standard screw thread sizes allowed
interchangeable parts Interchangeable parts are parts ( components) that are identical for practical purposes. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any assembly of the same type. One such part can freely r ...
and the development of
mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
.


Early life

Maudslay was the fifth of seven children of Henry Maudslay, a
wheelwright A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkw ...
in the
Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
, and Margaret (''nee'' Whitaker), the young widow of Joseph Laundy. His father was wounded in action and so in 1756 became an 'artificer' at the
Royal Arsenal The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the Britis ...
,
Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained throu ...
(then in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
), where he remained until 1776 and died in 1780. The family lived in an alley that no longer exists, off
Beresford Square Beresford Square is a pedestrianised town and market square in Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London, England. It was formed in the early 19th century and was named after the Anglo-Irish general William Beresford, Master-General ...
, between
Powis Street Powis Street is a partly pedestrianised shopping street in Woolwich in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, south east London, England. It was laid out in the late 18th century and was named after the Powis brothers, who developed most of the land i ...
and Beresford Street.


Career

Maudslay began work at the age of 12 as a "
powder A powder is a dry, bulk solid composed of many very fine particles that may flow freely when shaken or tilted. Powders are a special sub-class of granular materials, although the terms ''powder'' and ''granular'' are sometimes used to distin ...
monkey", one of the boys employed in filling cartridges at the Arsenal. After two years, he was transferred to a carpenter's shop followed by a blacksmith's forge, where at the age of fifteen he began training as a blacksmith. He seems to have specialised in the lighter, more complex kind of forge work.Rolt, L.T.C., "Great Engineers", 1962, G. Bell and Sons Ltd, ISBN During his time at the Arsenal, Maudslay also worked at the Royal Foundry, where
Jan Verbruggen Jan Verbruggen (1712 – 27 October 1781) was a Dutch master gun-founder in the Netherlands and later at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, London. He was also an artist. Early life and career He was born in 1712 in Enkhuizen in the Netherlands, so ...
had installed an innovative
horizontal boring machine A horizontal boring machine or horizontal boring mill is a machine tool which bores holes in a horizontal direction. There are three main types — table, planer and floor. The table type is the most common and, as it is the most versatil ...
in 1772.


Joseph Bramah

Maudslay acquired such a good reputation that
Joseph Bramah Joseph Bramah (13 April 1748 – 9 December 1814), born Stainborough Lane Farm, Stainborough, in Barnsley, Yorkshire, was an English inventor and locksmith. He is best known for having improved the flush toilet and inventing the hydraulic pr ...
called for his services on the recommendation of one of his employees. Bramah was surprised that he was only eighteen, but Maudslay demonstrated his ability and started work at Bramah's workshop in
Denmark Street Denmark Street is a street on the edge of London's West End running from Charing Cross Road to St Giles High Street. It is near St Giles in the Fields Church and Tottenham Court Road station. The street was developed in the late 17th centu ...
, St Giles.Keith Reginald Gilbert


Bramah lock

Bramah designed and patented an improved type of lock based on the tumbler principle, but had difficulty manufacturing at an economic price. Maudslay built the lock that was displayed in Bramah's shop window with a notice offering a reward of 200
guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...
to anyone who could pick it. It resisted all efforts for 47 years. Maudslay designed and made a set of special tools and machines that allowed the lock to be made at an economic price.


Hydraulic press

Bramah had designed a
hydraulic press A hydraulic press is a machine press using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. It uses the hydraulic equivalent of a mechanical lever, and was also known as a Bramah press after the inventor, Joseph Bramah, of England. He inven ...
, but was having problems sealing both the piston and the piston rod where it fitted into the cylinder. The usual method was hemp packing but the pressures were too high for this to work. Maudslay came up with the idea of a leather cup washer, which gave a perfect seal but offered no resistance to movement when the pressure was released. The new hydraulic press worked perfectly thereafter. But Maudslay, who had made a major contribution to its success, received little credit for it.


Screw cutting lathe

Maudslay developed the first industrially practical
screw-cutting lathe A screw-cutting lathe is a machine (specifically, a lathe) capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotatin ...
in 1800, allowing standardisation of
screw thread A screw thread, often shortened to thread, is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. A screw thread is a ridge wrapped around a cylinder or cone in the form of a helix, with the former being called a ...
sizes for the first time.Quentin R. Skrabec, Jr. (2005). "The Metallurgic Age: The Victorian Flowering of Invention and Industrial Science". p. 169. McFarland This allowed the concept of
interchangeable parts Interchangeable parts are parts ( components) that are identical for practical purposes. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any assembly of the same type. One such part can freely r ...
(an idea that was already taking hold) to be practically applied to nuts and bolts. When Maudslay began working for Bramah, the typical lathe was worked by a treadle and the workman held the cutting tool against the work. This did not allow for precision, especially in cutting iron, so screw threads were usually made by chipping and filing (that is, with skilled freehand use of
chisel A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
s and files). Nuts were rare; metal screws, when made at all, were usually for use in wood. Metal bolts passing through wood framing to a metal fastening on the other side were usually fastened in non-threaded ways (such as clinching or upsetting against a washer). Maudslay designed a tool holder into which the cutting tool would be clamped, and which would slide on accurately planed surfaces to allow the cutting tool to move in either direction. The slide rest was positioned by a leadscrew to which power was transmitted through a pair of changeable gears so that it traveled in proportion to the turning of the work. This allowed screw threads to be precisely cut. Changing the gears gave various pitches. The ability of the slide-rest lathe to produce precision parts revolutionised the production of machine components. He standardized the screw threads used in his workshop and produced sets of
taps and dies Taps and dies are tools used to create screw threads, which is called threading. Many are cutting tools; others are forming tools. A tap is used to cut or form the female portion of the mating pair (e.g. a nut). A die is used to cut or form the ...
that would make nuts and bolts consistently to those standards, so that any bolt of the appropriate size would fit any nut of the same size. This was a major advance in workshop technology. Maudslay did not invent the slide-rest (as others such as
James Nasmyth James Hall Nasmyth (sometimes spelled Naesmyth, Nasmith, or Nesmyth) (19 August 1808 – 7 May 1890) was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, ...
have claimed), and may not have been the first to combine a
lead screw A leadscrew (or lead screw), also known as a power screw or translation screw,Bhandari, p. 202. is a screw used as a linkage in a machine, to translate turning motion into linear motion. Because of the large area of sliding contact between t ...
, slide-rest, and set of change gears all on one lathe (
Jesse Ramsden Jesse Ramsden FRS FRSE (6 October 1735 – 5 November 1800) was a British mathematician, astronomical and scientific instrument maker. His reputation was built on the engraving and design of dividing engines which allowed high accuracy measure ...
may have done that in 1775; evidence is scant), but he did introduce the three-part combination of lead screw, slide rest, and change gears, sparking a great advance in machine tools and in the engineering use of screw threads. Maudslay's original
screw-cutting lathe A screw-cutting lathe is a machine (specifically, a lathe) capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotatin ...
is at the
Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...
in London.


Promotion and ambition

Maudslay had shown himself to be so talented that after one year the nineteen-year-old was made manager of Bramah's workshop.


Henry Maudslay and Company

In 1797, after having worked for Bramah for eight years, Maudslay was refused a wage increase to 30s a week so he decided to set up his own business. In 1798 he obtained a small shop and smithy in Wells Street, off Oxford Street. In 1800 he moved to larger premises in Margaret Street, Cavendish Square. By 1810, Maudslay was employing 80 workers and running out of room at his workshop, hence moved to larger premises in Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth. Maudslay also recruited a promising young Admiralty draughtsman, Joshua Field, who proved to be so talented that Maudslay took him into partnership. The company later became
Maudslay, Sons and Field Maudslay, Sons and Field was an engineering company based in Lambeth, London. History The company was founded by Henry Maudslay as Henry Maudslay and Company in 1798 and was later reorganised into Maudslay, Sons and Field in 1833 after his sons ...
when Maudslay's sons became partners.


Block making machines

Following earlier work by
Samuel Bentham Sir Samuel Bentham (11 January 1757 – 31 May 1831) was a noted English mechanical engineer and naval architect credited with numerous innovations, particularly related to naval architecture, including weapons. He was the only surviving siblin ...
, his first major commission was to build a series of 42 woodworking machines to produce wooden rigging blocks (each ship required thousands) for the Navy under Sir
Marc Isambard Brunel Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-British engineer who is most famous for the work he did in Britain. He constructed the Thames Tunnel and was the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Born in Franc ...
. The machines were installed in the purpose-built
Portsmouth Block Mills The Portsmouth Block Mills form part of the Portsmouth Dockyard at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the British Royal Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of mass-production using ...
, which still survive, including some of the original machinery. The machines were capable of making 130,000 ships' blocks a year, needing only ten unskilled men to operate them compared with the 110 skilled workers needed before their installation. This was the first well-known example of specialized machinery used for machining in an assembly-line type factory. An entire chapter devoted to the Portsmouth machinery, of 18 pages and 7 plates.


Micrometer

Maudslay invented the first bench
micrometer Micrometer can mean: * Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw * American spelling of micrometre The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...
capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch (0.0001 in ≈ 3 µm). He called it the "Lord Chancellor", as it was used to settle any questions regarding accuracy of workmanship.


Marine engines

Maudslay's Lambeth works began to specialize in the production of
marine steam engine A marine steam engine is a steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. This article deals mainly with marine steam engines of the reciprocating type, which were in use from the inception of the steamboat in the early 19th century to their ...
s. The type of engine he used for ships was a side-lever design, in which a beam was mounted alongside the cylinder. This reduced height in the cramped engine rooms of steamers. His first marine engine was built in 1815, of 17 h.p., and fitted to a Thames steamer named the ''Richmond''. In 1823 a Maudslay engine powered the ''Lightning'', the first steam-powered vessel to be commissioned by the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
. In 1829 a side-lever engine of 400 h.p. completed for was the largest marine engine existing at that time. The marine engine business was developed by Henry's third son, Joseph Maudslay (1801 - 1861). He had trained in shipbuilding at Northfleet and, with Joshua Field, became a partner in his father's firm, trading as
Maudslay, Sons and Field Maudslay, Sons and Field was an engineering company based in Lambeth, London. History The company was founded by Henry Maudslay as Henry Maudslay and Company in 1798 and was later reorganised into Maudslay, Sons and Field in 1833 after his sons ...
of North Lambeth. In 1838, after Henry's death, the Lambeth works supplied a 750 h.p. engine for
Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...
's SS ''Great Western'', the first purpose-built transatlantic steamship. They patented a double cylinder direct acting engine in 1839. They introduced some of the earliest screw propulsion units for ships, including one for the first Admiralty screw steamship, , in 1841. By 1850 the firm had supplied more than 200 vessels with steam engines, though the firm's dominance was being challenged by John Penn's
trunk engine Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in re ...
design. They exhibited their engines at the 1862 International Exhibition.


Thames Tunnel

In 1825,
Marc Isambard Brunel Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-British engineer who is most famous for the work he did in Britain. He constructed the Thames Tunnel and was the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Born in Franc ...
began work on the
Thames Tunnel The Thames Tunnel is a tunnel beneath the River Thames in London, connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping. It measures 35 feet (11 m) wide by 20 feet (6 m) high and is 1,300 feet (396 m) long, running at a depth of 7 ...
, intended to link
Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of Dogs ...
with
Wapping Wapping () is a district in East London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Wapping's position, on the north bank of the River Thames, has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through its riverside public houses and steps, ...
. After many difficulties this first tunnel under the Thames was completed in 1842. The tunnel would not have been possible without the innovative tunneling shield designed by Marc Brunel and built by Maudslay Sons & Field at their Lambeth works. Maudslay also supplied the steam-driven pumps that were important for keeping the tunnel workings dry.Bagust, Harold, "The Greater Genius?", 2006, Ian Allan Publishing,


Personal life

In 1791 he married Bramah's housemaid, Sarah Tindel, and they had four sons together: Thomas Henry, the eldest, and Joseph, the youngest, subsequently joined their father in business. William, the second, became a civil engineer and was one of the founders of the
Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...
.


Later life

Near the end of his life Maudslay developed an interest in astronomy and began to construct a telescope. He intended to buy a house in Norwood and build a private observatory there, but died before he was able to accomplish his plan. In January 1831 he caught a chill while crossing the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
after visiting a friend in France. He was ill for four weeks and died on 14 February 1831. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalen Woolwich; he designed the memorial located in its Lady Chapel.


Legacy

Maudslay laid an important foundation for the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
with his machine tool technology. His most influential invention was the
screw-cutting lathe A screw-cutting lathe is a machine (specifically, a lathe) capable of cutting very accurate screw threads via single-point screw-cutting, which is the process of guiding the linear motion of the tool bit in a precisely known ratio to the rotatin ...
. The machine, which created uniformity in screws and allowed for the application of
interchangeable parts Interchangeable parts are parts ( components) that are identical for practical purposes. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any assembly of the same type. One such part can freely r ...
(a prerequisite for
mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
), was a revolutionary development necessary for the Industrial Revolution. Many outstanding engineers trained in his workshop, including Richard Roberts, David Napier,
Joseph Clement Joseph Clement (13 June 1779 – 28 February 1844) was a British engineer and industrialist, chiefly remembered as the maker of Charles Babbage's first difference engine, between 1824 and 1833. Biography Early life Joseph Clement was born on ...
, Sir
Joseph Whitworth Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet (21 December 1803 – 22 January 1887) was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for scr ...
,
James Nasmyth James Hall Nasmyth (sometimes spelled Naesmyth, Nasmith, or Nesmyth) (19 August 1808 – 7 May 1890) was a Scottish engineer, philosopher, artist and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer. He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, ...
(inventor of the
steam hammer A steam hammer, also called a drop hammer, is an industrial power hammer driven by steam that is used for tasks such as shaping forgings and driving piles. Typically the hammer is attached to a piston that slides within a fixed cylinder, but i ...
), Joshua Field. Maudslay played his part in the development of mechanical engineering when it was in its infancy, but he was especially pioneering in the development of machine tools to be used in engineering workshops across the world. Maudslay's company was one of the most important British engineering manufactories of the nineteenth century, finally closing in 1904. Many of the tools made by Maudslay are in the collection of the
Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...
.


Pronunciation and spelling

In Maudslay's surname, as in other British names with terminal unstressed syllable ''-ay'' such as ''Lindsay'' or ''Barclay'', the terminal syllable is pronounced as / i/ or a reduction thereof; it therefore sounds the same as "Maudsley" . Many books have spelled his surname with an "e" as "Maudsley";A search of
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
for the query "Henry+Maudsley"+lathe (quotes inclusive) returns several hundred results that clearly are meant to refer to the same identity.
but this seems to be an error propagated via citation of earlier books containing the same error.


See also

*
Maudslay Motor Company The Maudslay Motor Company was a British vehicle maker based in Coventry. It was founded in 1902 and continued until 1948 when it was taken over by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and along with Crossley Motors the new group was rename ...
, founded by Walter H. Maudslay, great grandson of Henry Maudslay.


References


Bibliography

* John Cantrell and Gillian Cookson, eds., ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', 2002, Tempus Publishing, Ltd, pb., () This is a collection of essays by various specialists, and comprises biographies of Maudslay, Roberts, Napier, Clement, Whitworth, Nasmyth and Muir, as well as an account of the London Engineering Scene at the time of Maudslay, and an account of the firm from the death of Maudslay in 1831 until its demise in 1904. * Coad, Jonathan, ''The Portsmouth Block Mills: Bentham, Brunel and the start of the Royal Navy's Industrial Revolution'', 2005, . * *


External links


Picture of Maudslay's original lathe
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maudslay, Henry 1771 births 1831 deaths English inventors British steam engine engineers English engineers English mechanical engineers Machine tool builders People of the Industrial Revolution People from Woolwich