The artisans of the Middle Ages were very skilful in the use of the
lathe, and turned out much beautiful screen and stall work, still to be
seen in our cathedrals, as well as twisted and swash-work for the
balusters of staircases and other ornamental purposes.  English
mechanics seem early to have distinguished themselves as improvers of
the lathe; and in Moxon's 'Treatise on Turning,' published in 1680, we
find Mr. Thomas Oldfield, at the sign of the Flower-de-Luce, near the
Savoy in the Strand, named as an excellent maker of oval-engines and
swash-engines, showing that such machines were then in some demand.
The French writer Plumier[3] also mentions an ingenious modification of
the lathe by means of which any kind of reticulated form could be given
to the work; and, from it's being employed to ornament the handles of
knives, it was called by him the "Machine a manche de Couteau
d'Angleterre."  But the French artisans were at that time much better
skilled than the English in the use of tools, and it is most probable
that we owe to the Flemish and French Protestant workmen who flocked
into England in such large numbers during the religious persecutions of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the improvement, if not the
introduction, of the art of turning, as well as many other arts
hereafter to be referred to.  It is certain that at the period to which
we refer numerous treatises were published in France on the art of
turning, some of them of a most elaborate character.  Such were the
works of De la Hire,[4] who described how every kind of polygon might
be made by the lathe; De la Condamine,[5] who showed how a lathe could
turn all sorts of irregular figures by means of tracers; and of Grand
Jean, Morin,[6] Plumier, Bergeron, and many other writers.

The work of Plumier is especially elaborate, entering into the
construction of the lathe in its various parts, the making of the tools
and cutters, and the different motions to be given to the machine by
means of wheels, eccentrics, and other expedients, amongst which may be
mentioned one very much resembling the slide rest and planing-machine
combined.[7]  From this work it appears that turning had long been a
favourite pursuit in France with amateurs of all ranks, who spared no
expense in the contrivance and perfection of elaborate machinery for
the production of complex figures.[8]  There was at that time a great
passion for automata in France, which gave rise to many highly
ingenious devices, such as Camus's miniature carriage (made for Louis
XIV. when a child), Degennes' mechanical peacock, Vancanson's duck, and
Maillardet's conjuror.  It had the effect of introducing among the
higher order of artists habits of nice and accurate workmanship in
executing delicate pieces of machinery; and the same combination of
mechanical powers which made the steel spider crawl, the duck quack, or
waved the tiny rod of the magician, contributed in future years to
purposes of higher import,--the wheels and pinions, which in these
automata almost eluded the human senses by their minuteness,
reappearing in modern times in the stupendous mechanism of our
self-acting lathes, spinning-mules, and steam-engines.

"In our own country," says Professor Willis, "the literature of this
subject is so defective that it is very difficult to discover what
progress we were making during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries." [9]  We believe the fact to be, that the progress made in
England down to the end of last century had been very small indeed, and
that the lathe had experienced little or no improvement until Maudslay
took it in hand.  Nothing seems to have been known of the slide rest
until he re-invented it and applied it to the production of machinery
of a far more elaborate character than had ever before been
contemplated as possible.  Professor Willis says that Bramah's, in
other words Maudslay's, slide rest of 1794 is so different from that
described in the French 'Encyclopedie in 1772, that the two could not
have had a common origin.  We are therefore led to the conclusion that
Maudslay's invention was entirely independent of all that had gone
before, and that he contrived it for the special purpose of overcoming
the difficulties which he himself experienced in turning out duplicate
parts in large numbers.  At all events, he was so early and zealous a
promoter of its use, that we think he may, in the eyes of all practical
mechanics, stand as the parent of its introduction to the workshops of
England.

It is unquestionable that at the time when Maudslay began the
improvement of machine-tools, the methods of working in wood and metals
were exceedingly imperfect.  Mr. William Fairbairn has stated that when
he first became acquainted with mechanical engineering, about sixty
years ago, there were no self-acting tools; everything was executed by
hand.  There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines; and
the whole stock of an engineering or machine establishment might be
summed up in a few ill-constructed lathes, and a few drills and boring
machines of rude construction.[10]  Our mechanics were equally backward
in contrivances for working in wood.  Thus, when Sir Samuel Bentham
made a tour through the manufacturing districts of England in 1791, he
was surprised to find how little had been done to substitute the
invariable accuracy of machinery for the uncertain dexterity of the
human hand.  Steam-power was as yet only employed in driving
spinning-machines, rolling metals, pumping water, and such like
purposes.  In the working of wood no machinery had been introduced
beyond the common turning-lathe and some saws, and a few boring tools
used in making blocks for the navy.  Even saws worked by inanimate
force for slitting timber, though in extensive use in foreign
countries, were nowhere to be found in Great Britain.[11]  As
everything depended on the dexterity of hand and correctness of eye of
the workmen, the work turned out was of very unequal merit, besides
being exceedingly costly.  Even in the construction of comparatively
simple machines, the expense was so great as to present a formidable
obstacle to their introduction and extensive use; and but for the
invention of  machine-making tools, the use of the steam-engine in the
various forms in which it is now applied for the production of power
could never have become general.

In turning a piece of work on the old-fashioned lathe, the workman
applied and guided his tool by means of muscular strength.  The work
was made to revolve, and the turner, holding the cutting tool firmly
upon the long, straight, guiding edge of the rest, along which he
carried it, and pressing its point firmly against the article to be
turned, was thus enabled to reduce its surface to the required size and
shape.  Some dexterous turners were able, with practice and
carefulness, to execute very clever pieces of work by this simple
means.  But when the article to be turned was of considerable size, and
especially when it was of metal, the expenditure of muscular strength
was so great that the workman soon became exhausted.  The slightest
variation in the pressure of the tool led to an irregularity of
surface; and with the utmost care on the workman's part, he could not
avoid occasionally cutting a little too deep, in consequence of which
he must necessarily go over the surface again, to reduce the whole to
the level of that accidentally cut too deep; and thus possibly the job
would be altogether spoiled by the diameter of the article under
operation being made too small for its intended purpose.

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.

It happened that a M. de Bacquancourt, one of the French emigres, of
whom there were then so many in London, was accustomed almost daily to
pass Maudslay's little shop in Wells-street, and being himself an
amateur turner, he curiously inspected the articles from time to time
exhibited in the window of the young mechanic.  One day a more than
ordinarily nice piece of screw-cutting made its appearance, on which he
entered the shop to make inquiries as to the method by which it had
been executed.  He had a long conversation with Maudslay, with whom he
was greatly pleased; and he was afterwards accustomed to look in upon
him occasionally to see what new work was going on.  Bacquancourt was
also on intimate terms with Brunel, who communicated to him the
difficulty he had experienced in finding a mechanic of sufficient
dexterity to execute his design of the block-making machinery.  It
immediately occurred to the former that Henry Maudslay was the very man
to execute work of the elaborate character proposed, and he described
to Brunel the new and beautiful tools which Maudslay had contrived for
the purpose of ensuring accuracy and finish.  Brunel at once determined
to call upon Maudslay, and it was arranged that Bacquancourt should
introduce him, which he did, and after the interview which took place
Brunel promised to call again with the drawings of his proposed model.

A few days passed, and Brunel called with the first drawing, done by
himself; for he was a capital draughtsman, and used to speak of drawing
as the "alphabet of the engineer."  The drawing only showed a little
bit of the intended machine, and Brunel did not yet think it advisable
to communicate to Maudslay the precise object he had in view; for
inventors are usually very chary of explaining their schemes to others,
for fear of being anticipated.  Again Brunel appeared at Maudslay's
shop with a further drawing, still not explaining his design; but at
the third visit, immediately on looking at the fresh drawings he had
brought, Maudslay exclaimed, "Ah! now I see what you are thinking of;
you want machinery for making blocks." At this Brunel became more
communicative, and explained his designs to the mechanic, who fully
entered into his views, and went on from that time forward striving to
his utmost to work out the inventor's conceptions and embody them in a
practical machine.

While still occupied on the models, which were begun in 1800, Maudslay
removed his shop from Wells-street, where he was assisted by a single
journeyman, to Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, where he had greater
room for carrying on his trade, and was also enabled to increase the
number of his hands.  The working models were ready for inspection by
Sir Samuel Bentham and the Lords of the Admiralty in 1801, and having
been fully approved by them, Brunel was authorized to proceed with the
execution of the requisite machinery for the manufacture of the ship's
blocks required for the Royal Navy.  The whole of this machinery was
executed by Henry Maudslay; it occupied him very fully for nearly six
years, so that the manufacture of blocks by the new process was not
begun until September, 1808.

We despair of being able to give any adequate description in words of
the intricate arrangements and mode of action of the block-making
machinery.  Let any one attempt to describe the much more simple and
familiar process by which a shoemaker makes a pair of shoes, and he
will find how inadequate mere words are to describe any mechanical
operation.[13]  Suffice it to say, that the machinery was of the most
beautiful manufacture and finish, and even at this day will bear
comparison with the most perfect machines which can be turned out with
all the improved appliances of modern tools.  The framing was of
cast-iron, while the parts exposed to violent and rapid action were all
of the best hardened steel.  In turning out the various parts, Maudslay
found his slide rest of indispensable value.  Indeed, without this
contrivance, it is doubtful whether machinery of so delicate and
intricate a character could possibly have been executed.  There was not
one, but many machines in the series, each devoted to a special
operation in the formation of a block.  Thus there were various
sawing-machines,--the Straight Cross-Cutting Saw, the Circular
Cross-Cutting Saw, the Reciprocating Ripping-saw, and the Circular
Ripping-Saw.  Then there were the Boring Machines, and the Mortising
Machine, of beautiful construction, for cutting the sheave-holes,
furnished with numerous chisels, each making from 110 to 150 strokes a
minute, and cutting at every stroke a chip as thick as pasteboard with
the utmost precision.  In addition to these were the Corner-Saw for
cutting off the corners of the block, the Shaping Machine for
accurately forming the outside surfaces, the Scoring Engine for cutting
the groove round the longest diameter of the block for the reception of
the rope, and various other machines for drilling, riveting, and
finishing the blocks, besides those for making the sheaves.

The total number of machines employed in the various operations of
making a ship's block by the new method was forty-four; and after being
regularly employed in Portsmouth Dockyard for upwards of fifty years,
they are still as perfect in their action as on the day they were
erected.  They constitute one of the most ingenious and complete
collections of tools ever invented for making articles in wood, being
capable of performing most of the practical operations of carpentry
with the utmost accuracy and finish.  The machines are worked by a
steam-engine of 32-horse power, which is also used for various other
dockyard purposes.  Under the new system of block-making it was found
that the articles were better made, supplied with much greater
rapidity, and executed at a greatly reduced cost.  Only ten men, with
the new machinery, could perform the work which before had required a
hundred and ten men to execute, and not fewer than 160,000 blocks of
various kinds and sizes could be turned out in a year, worth not less
than 541,000L.[14]

The satisfactory execution of the block-machinery brought Maudslay a
large accession of fame and business; and the premises in Margaret
Street proving much too limited for his requirements, he again resolved
to shift his quarters.  He found a piece of ground suitable for his
purpose in Westminster Road, Lambeth.  Little more than a century since
it formed part of a Marsh, the name of which is still retained in the
adjoining street; its principal productions being bulrushes and
willows, which were haunted in certain seasons by snipe and waterfowl.
An enterprising riding-master had erected some premises on a part of
the marsh, which he used for a riding-school; but the speculation not
answering, they were sold, and Henry Maudslay became the proprietor.
Hither he removed his machinery from Margaret Street in 1810, adding
fresh plant from time to time as it was required; and with the aid of
his late excellent partner he built up the far-famed establishment of
Maudslay, Field, and Co.  There he went on improving his old tools and
inventing new ones, as the necessity for them arose, until the original
slide-lathes used for making the block-machinery became thrown into the
shade by the comparatively gigantic machine-tools of the modern school.
Yet the original lathes are still to be found in the collection of the
firm in Westminster Road, and continue to do their daily quota of work
with the same precision as they did when turned out of the hands of
their inventor and maker some sixty years ago.

It is unnecessary that we should describe in any great detail the
further career of Henry Maudslay.  The rest of his life was full of
useful and profitable work to others as well as to himself.  His
business embraced the making of flour and saw mills, mint machinery,
and steam-engines of all kinds.  Before he left Margaret Street, in
1807, he took out a patent for improvements in the steam-engine, by
which he much simplified its parts, and secured greater directness of
action.  His new engine was called the Pyramidal, because of its form,
and was the first move towards what are now called Direct-acting
Engines, in which the lateral movement of the piston is communicated by
connecting-rods to the rotatory movement of the crank-shaft.  Mr.
Nasmyth says of it, that "on account of its great simplicity and
GET-AT-ABILITY of parts, its compactness and self-contained steadiness,
this engine has been the parent of a vast progeny, all more or less
marked by the distinguishing features of the original design, which is
still in as high favour as ever."  Mr. Maudslay also directed his
attention in like manner to the improvement of the marine engine, which
he made so simple and effective as to become in a great measure the
type of its class; and it has held its ground almost unchanged for
nearly thirty years.  The 'Regent,' which was the first steamboat that
plied between London and Margate, was fitted with engines by Maudslay
in 1816; and it proved the forerunner of a vast number of marine
engines, the manufacture of which soon became one of the most important
branches of mechanical engineering.

Another of Mr. Maudslay's inventions was his machine for punching
boiler-plates, by which the production of ironwork of many kinds was
greatly facilitated.  This improvement originated in the contract which
he held for some years for supplying the Royal Navy with iron plates
for ships' tanks.  The operations of shearing and punching had before
been very imperfectly done by hand, with great expenditure of labour.
To improve the style of the work and lessen the labour, Maudslay
invented the machine now in general use, by which the holes punched in
the iron plate are exactly equidistant, and the subsequent operation of
riveting is greatly facilitated.  One of the results of the improved
method was the great saving which was at once effected in the cost of
preparing the plates to receive the rivets, the price of which was
reduced from seven shillings per tank to ninepence.  He continued to
devote himself to the last to the improvement of the lathe,--in his
opinion the master-machine, the life and soul of engine-turning, of
which the planing, screw-cutting, and other machines in common use, are
but modifications.  In one of the early lathes which he contrived and
made, the mandrill was nine inches in diameter; it was driven by
wheel-gearing like a crane motion, and adapted to different speeds.
Some of his friends, on first looking at it, said he was going "too
fast;" but he lived to see work projected on so large a scale as to
prove that his conceptions were just, and that he had merely
anticipated by a few years the mechanical progress of his time.  His
large removable bar-lathe was a highly important tool of the same kind.
It was used to turn surfaces many feet in diameter.  While it could be
used for boring wheels, or the side-rods of marine engines, it could
turn a roller or cylinder twice or three times the diameter of its own
centres from the ground-level, and indeed could drive round work of any
diameter that would clear the roof of the shop.  This was therefore an
almost universal tool, capable of very extensive uses.  Indeed much of
the work now executed by means of special tools, such as the planing or
slotting machine, was then done in the lathe, which was used as a
cutter-shaping machine, fitted with various appliances according to the
work.

Maudslay's love of accuracy also led him from an early period to study
the subject of improved screw-cutting.  The importance of this
department of mechanism can scarcely be overrated, the solidity and
permanency of most mechanical structures mainly depending on the
employment of the screw, at the same time that the parts can be readily
separated for renewal or repair.  Any one can form an idea of the
importance of the screw as an element in mechanical construction by
examining say a steam-engine, and counting the number of screws
employed in holding it together.  Previous to the time at which the
subject occupied the attention of our mechanic, the tools used for
making screws were of the most rude and inexact kind.  The screws were
for the most part cut by hand:  the small by filing, the larger by
chipping and filing.  In consequence of the great difficulty of making
them, as few were used as possible; and cotters, cotterils, or
forelocks, were employed instead.  Screws, however, were to a certain
extent indispensable; and each manufacturing establishment made them
after their own fashion.  There was an utter want of uniformity.  No
system was observed as to "pitch," i.e.  the number of threads to the
inch, nor was any rule followed as to the form of those threads.  Every
bolt and nut was sort of specialty in itself, and neither owed nor
admitted of any community with its neighbours.  To such an extent was
this irregularity carried, that all bolts and their corresponding nuts
had to be marked as belonging to each other; and any mixing of them
together led to endless trouble, hopeless confusion, and enormous
expense.  Indeed none but those who lived in the comparatively early
days of machine-manufacture can form an adequate idea of the annoyance
occasioned by the want of system in this branch of detail, or duly
appreciate the services rendered by Maudslay to mechanical engineering
by the practical measures which he was among the first to introduce for
its remedy.  In his system of screw-cutting machinery, his taps and
dies, and screw-tackle generally, he laid the foundations of all that
has since been done in this essential branch of machine-construction,
in which he was so ably followed up by several of the eminent mechanics
brought up in his school, and more especially by Joseph Clement and
Joseph Whitworth.  One of his earliest self-acting screw lathes, moved
by a guide-screw and wheels after the plan followed by the latter
engineer, cut screws of large diameter and of any required pitch.  As
an illustration of its completeness and accuracy, we may mention that
by its means a screw five feet in length, and two inches in diameter,
was cut with fifty threads to the inch; the nut to fit on to it being
twelve inches long, and containing six hundred threads.  This screw was
principally used for dividing scales for astronomical purposes; and by
its means divisions were produced so minute that they could not be
detected without the aid of a magnifier.  The screw, which was sent for
exhibition to the Society of Arts, is still carefully preserved amongst
the specimens of Maudslay's handicraft at the Lambeth Works, and is a
piece of delicate work which every skilled mechanic will thoroughly
appreciate.  Yet the tool by which this fine piece of turning was
produced was not an exceptional tool, but was daily employed in the
ordinary work of the manufactory.

Like every good workman who takes pride in his craft, he kept his tools
in first-rate order, clean, and tidily arranged, so that he could lay
his hand upon the thing he wanted at once, without loss of time.  They
are still preserved in the state in which he left them, and strikingly
illustrate his love of order, "nattiness," and dexterity.  Mr. Nasmyth
says of him that you could see the man's character in whatever work he
turned out; and as the connoisseur in art will exclaim at sight of a
picture, "That is Turner," or "That is Stansfield," detecting the hand
of the master in it, so the experienced mechanician, at sight of one of
his machines or engines, will be equally ready to exclaim, "That is
Maudslay;" for the characteristic style of the master-mind is as clear
to the experienced eye in the case of the finished machine as the
touches of the artist's pencil are in the case of the finished picture.
Every mechanical contrivance that became the subject of his study came
forth from his hand and mind rearranged, simplified, and made new, with
the impress of his individuality stamped upon it.  He at once stripped
the subject of all unnecessary complications; for he possessed a
wonderful faculty of KNOWING WHAT TO DO WITHOUT--the result of his
clearness of insight into mechanical adaptations, and the accurate and
well-defined notions he had formed of the precise object to be
accomplished.  "Every member or separate machine in the system of
block-machinery," says Mr. Nasmyth, "is full of Maudslay's presence;
and in that machinery, as constructed by him, is to be found the parent
of every engineering tool by the aid of which we are now achieving such
great things in mechanical construction.  To the tools of which
Maudslay furnished the prototypes are we mainly indebted for the
perfection of our textile machinery, our locomotives, our marine
engines, and the various implements of art, of agriculture, and of war.
If any one who can enter into the details of this subject will be at
the pains to analyse, if I may so term it, the machinery of our modern
engineering workshops, he will find in all of them the strongly-marked
features of Maudslay's parent machine, the slide rest and slide
system--whether it be a planing machine, a slotting machine, a
slide-lathe, or any other of the wonderful tools which are now enabling
us to accomplish so much in mechanism."

One of the things in which Mr. Maudslay took just pride was in the
excellence of his work.  In designing and executing it, his main object
was to do it in the best possible style and finish, altogether
irrespective of the probable pecuniary results.  This he regarded in
the light of a duty he could not and would not evade, independent of
its being a good investment for securing a future reputation; and the
character which he thus obtained, although at times purchased at great
cost, eventually justified the soundness of his views.  As the eminent
Mr. Penn, the head of the great engineering firm, is accustomed to say,
"I cannot afford to turn out second-rate work," so Mr. Maudslay found
both character and profit in striving after the highest excellence in
his productions.  He was particular even in the minutest details.  Thus
one of the points on which he insisted--apparently a trivial matter,
but in reality of considerable importance in mechanical
construction--was the avoidance of sharp interior angles in ironwork,
whether wrought or cast; for he found that in such interior angles
cracks were apt to originate; and when the article was a tool, the
sharp angle was less pleasant to the hand as well as to the eye.  In
the application of his favourite round or hollow corner system--as, for
instance, in the case of the points of junction of the arms of a wheel
with its centre and rim--he used to illustrate its superiority by
holding up his hand and pointing out the nice rounded hollow at the
junction of the fingers, or by referring to the junction of the
branches to the stem of a tree.  Hence he made a point of having all
the angles of his machine framework nicely rounded off on their
exterior, and carefully hollowed in their interior angles.  In forging
such articles he would so shape his metal before bending that the
result should be the right hollow or rounded corner when bent; the
anticipated external angle falling into its proper place when the bar
so shaped was brought to its ultimate form.  In all such matters of
detail he was greatly assisted by his early dexterity as a blacksmith;
and he used to say that to be a good smith you must be able to SEE in
the bar of iron the object proposed to be got out of it by the hammer
or the tool, just as the sculptor is supposed to see in the block of
stone the statue which he proposes to bring forth from it by his mind
and his chisel.

Mr. Maudslay did not allow himself to forget his skill in the use of
the hammer, and to the last he took pleasure in handling it, sometimes
in the way of business, and often through sheer love of his art.  Mr
Nasmyth says, "It was one of my duties, while acting as assistant in
his beautiful little workshop, to keep up a stock of handy bars of lead
which he had placed on a shelf under his work-bench, which was of thick
slate for the more ready making of his usual illustrative sketches of
machinery in chalk.  His love of iron-forging led him to take delight
in forging the models of work to be ultimately done in iron; and cold
lead being of about the same malleability as red-hot iron, furnished a
convenient material for illustrating the method to be adopted with the
large work.  I well remember the smile of satisfaction that lit up his
honest face when he met with a good excuse for 'having a go at' one of
the bars of lead with hammer and anvil as if it were a bar of iron; and
how, with a few dexterous strokes, punchings of holes, and rounded
notches, he would give the rough bar or block its desired form.  He
always aimed at working it out of the solid as much as possible, so as
to avoid the risk of any concealed defect, to which ironwork built up
of welded parts is so liable; and when he had thus cleverly finished
his model, he used forthwith to send for the foreman of smiths, and
show him how he was to instruct his men as to the proper forging of the
desired object."  One of Mr. Maudslay's old workmen, when informing us
of the skilful manner in which he handled the file, said, "It was a
pleasure to see him handle a tool of any kind, but he was QUITE
SPLENDID with an eighteen-inch file!" The vice at which he worked was
constructed by himself, and it was perfect of its kind.  It could be
turned round to any position on the bench; the jaws would turn from the
horizontal to the perpendicular or any other position--upside-down if
necessary--and they would open twelve inches parallel.

Mr. Nasmyth furnishes the following further recollections of Mr.
Maudslay, which will serve in some measure to illustrate his personal
character.  "Henry Maudslay," he says, "lived in the days of
snuff-taking, which unhappily, as I think, has given way to the
cigar-smoking system.  He enjoyed his occasional pinch very much.  It
generally preceded the giving out of a new notion or suggestion for an
improvement or alteration of some job in hand.  As with most of those
who enjoy their pinch, about three times as much was taken between the
fingers as was utilized by the nose, and the consequence was that a
large unconsumed surplus collected in the folds of the master's
waistcoat as he sat working at his bench.  Sometimes a file, or a tool,
or some small piece of work would drop, and then it was my duty to go
down on my knees and fetch it up.  On such occasions, while waiting for
the article, he would take the opportunity of pulling down his
waistcoat front, which had become disarranged by his energetic working
at the bench; and many a time have I come up with the dropped article,
half-blinded by the snuff jerked into my eyes from off his waistcoat
front.

"All the while he was at work he would be narrating some incident in
his past life, or describing the progress of some new and important
undertaking, in illustrating which he would use the bit of chalk ready
to his hand upon the slate bench before him, which was thus in almost
constant use.  One of the pleasures he indulged in while he sat at work
was Music, of which he was very fond,--more particularly of melodies
and airs which took a lasting hold on his mind.  Hence he was never
without an assortment of musical boxes, some of which were of a large
size.  One of these he would set agoing on his library table, which was
next to his workshop, and with the door kept open, he was thus enabled
to enjoy the music while he sat working at his bench.  Intimate friends
would frequently call upon him and sit by the hour, but though talking
all the while he never dropped his work, but continued employed on it
with as much zeal as if he were only beginning life.  His old friend
Sir Samuel Bentham was a frequent caller in this way, as well as Sir
Isambard Brunel while occupied with his Thames Tunnel works[15] and Mr.
Chantrey, who was accustomed to consult him about the casting of his
bronze statuary.  Mr. Barton of the Royal Mint, and Mr. Donkin the
engineer, with whom Mr. Barton was associated in ascertaining and
devising a correct system of dividing the Standard Yard, and many
others, had like audience of Mr. Maudslay in his little workshop, for
friendly converse, for advice, or on affairs of business.

"It was a special and constant practice with him on a workman's
holiday, or on a Sunday morning, to take a walk through his workshops
when all was quiet, and then and there examine the various jobs in
hand.  On such occasions he carried with him a piece of chalk, with
which, in a neat and very legible hand, he would record his remarks in
the most pithy and sometimes caustic terms.  Any evidence of want of
correctness in setting things square, or in 'flat filing,' which he
held in high esteem, or untidiness in not sweeping down the bench and
laying the tools in order, was sure to have a record in chalk made on
the spot.  If it was a mild case, the reproof was recorded in gentle
terms, simply to show that the master's eye was on the workman; but
where the case deserved hearty approbation or required equally hearty
reproof, the words employed were few, but went straight to the mark.
These chalk jottings on the bench were held in the highest respect by
the workmen themselves, whether they conveyed praise or blame, as they
were sure to be deserved; and when the men next assembled, it soon
became known all over the shop who had received the honour or otherwise
of one of the master's bench memoranda in chalk."

The vigilant, the critical, and yet withal the generous eye of the
master being over all his workmen, it will readily be understood how
Maudslay's works came to be regarded as a first-class school for
mechanical engineers.  Every one felt that the quality of his
workmanship was fully understood; and, if he had the right stuff in
him, and was determined to advance, that his progress in skill would be
thoroughly appreciated.  It is scarcely necessary to point out how this
feeling, pervading the establishment, must have operated, not only in
maintaining the quality of the work, but in improving the character of
the workmen.  The results were felt in the increased practical ability
of a large number of artisans, some of whom subsequently rose to the
highest distinction.  Indeed it may be said that what Oxford and
Cambridge are in letters, workshops such as Maudslay's and Penn's are
in mechanics.  Nor can Oxford and Cambridge men be prouder of the
connection with their respective colleges than mechanics such as
Whitworth, Nasmyth, Roberts, Muir, and Lewis, are of their connection
with the school of Maudslay.  For all these distinguished engineers at
one time or another formed part of his working staff, and were trained
to the exercise of their special abilities under his own eye.  The
result has been a development of mechanical ability the like of which
perhaps is not to be found in any age or country.

Although Mr. Maudslay was an unceasing inventor, he troubled himself
very little about patenting his inventions.  He considered that the
superiority of his tools and the excellence of his work were his surest
protection.  Yet he had sometimes the annoyance of being threatened
with actions by persons who had patented the inventions which he
himself had made.[16]  He was much beset by inventors, sometimes sadly
out at elbows, but always with a boundless fortune looming before them.
To such as applied to him for advice in a frank and candid spirit, he
did not hesitate to speak freely, and communicate the results of his
great experience in the most liberal manner; and to poor and deserving
men of this class he was often found as ready to help them with his
purse as with his still more valuable advice.  He had a singular way of
estimating the abilities of those who thus called upon him about their
projects.  The highest order of man was marked in his own mind at 100
degrees; and by this ideal standard he measured others, setting them
down at 90 degrees, 80 degrees, and so on.  A very first-rate man he
would set down at 95 degrees, but men of this rank were exceedingly
rare.  After an interview with one of the applicants to him for advice,
he would say to his pupil Nasmyth, "Jem, I think that man may be set
down at 45 degrees, but he might be WORKED UP TO 60 degrees"--a common
enough way of speaking of the working of a steam-engine, but a somewhat
novel though by no means an inexpressive method of estimating the
powers of an individual.

But while he had much toleration for modest and meritorious inventors,
he had a great dislike for secret-mongers,--schemers of the close,
cunning sort,--and usually made short work of them.  He had an almost
equal aversion for what he called the "fiddle-faddle inventors," with
their omnibus patents, into which they packed every possible thing that
their noddles could imagine.  "Only once or twice in a century," said
he, "does a great inventor appear, and yet here we have a set of
fellows each taking out as many patents as would fill a cart,--some of
them embodying not a single original idea, but including in their
specifications all manner of modifications of well-known processes, as
well as anticipating the arrangements which may become practicable in
the progress of mechanical improvement." Many of these "patents" he
regarded as mere pit-falls to catch the unwary; and he spoke of such
"inventors" as the pests of the profession.