Joseph might have remained a ploughman for life, but for an accident
which happened to his right ankle at the age of 16, which unfitted him
for farm-work.  While confined at home disabled he spent his time in
carving and making things in wood; and then it occurred to him that,
though he could not now be a ploughman, he might be a mechanic.  When
sufficiently recovered, he was accordingly put apprentice to one
Allott, the village carpenter, under whom he soon became an expert
workman.  He could make ploughs, window-frames, or fiddles, with equal
dexterity.  He also made violoncellos, and was so fortunate as to sell
one of his making for three guineas, which is still reckoned a good
instrument.  He doubtless felt within him the promptings of ambition,
such as every good workman feels, and at all events entertained the
desire of rising in his trade.  When his time was out, he accordingly
resolved to seek work in London, whither he made the journey on foot.
He soon found work at a cabinet-maker's, and remained with him for some
time, after which he set up business in a very small way on his own
account.  An accident which happened to him in the course of his daily
work, again proved his helper, by affording him a degree of leisure
which he at once proceeded to turn to some useful account.  Part of his
business consisted in putting up water-closets, after a method invented
or improved by a Mr. Allen; but the article was still very imperfect;
and Bramah had long resolved that if he could only secure some leisure
for the purpose, he would contrive something that should supersede it
altogether.  A severe fall which occurred to him in the course of his
business, and laid him up, though very much against his will, now
afforded him the leisure which he desired, and he proceeded to make his
proposed invention.  He took out a patent for it in 1778, describing
himself in the specification as "of Cross Court, Carnaby Market [Golden
Square], Middlesex, Cabinet Maker."  He afterwards removed to a shop in
Denmark Street, St.  Giles's, and while there he made a further
improvement in his invention by the addition of a water cock, which he
patented in 1783.  The merits of the machine were generally recognised,
and before long it came into extensive use, continuing to be employed,
with but few alterations, until the present day.  His circumstances
improving with the increased use of his invention, Bramah proceeded to
undertake the manufacture of the pumps, pipes, &c., required for its
construction; and, remembering his friend the Yorkshire blacksmith, who
had made his first tools for him out of the old files and razor-blades,
he sent for him to London to take charge of his blacksmith's
department, in which he proved a most useful assistant.  As usual, the
patent was attacked by pirates so soon as it became productive, and
Bramah was under the necessity, on more than one occasion, of defending
his property in the invention, in which he was completely successful.

We next find Bramah turning his attention to the invention of a lock
that should surpass all others then known.  The locks then in use were
of a very imperfect character, easily picked by dexterous thieves,
against whom they afforded little protection.  Yet locks are a very
ancient invention, though, as in many other cases, the art of making
them seems in a great measure to have become lost, and accordingly had
to be found out anew.  Thus the tumbler lock--which consists in the use
of moveable impediments acted on by the proper key only, as
contradistinguished from the ordinary ward locks, where the impediments
are fixed--appears to have been well known to the ancient Egyptians,
the representation of such a lock being found sculptured among the
bas-reliefs which decorate the great temple at Karnak.  This kind of
lock was revived, or at least greatly improved, by a Mr. Barron in
1774, and it was shortly after this time that Bramah directed his
attention to the subject.  After much study and many experiments, he
contrived a lock more simple, more serviceable, as well as more secure,
than Barron's, as is proved by the fact that it has stood the test of
nearly eighty years' experience,[1] and still holds its ground.  For a
long time, indeed, Bramah's lock was regarded as absolutely inviolable,
and it remained unpicked for sixty-seven years until Hobbs the American
mastered it in 1851.  A notice had long been exhibited in Bramah's
shop-window in Piccadilly, offering 200L. to any one who should succeed
in picking the patent lock.  Many tried, and all failed, until Hobbs
succeeded, after sixteen days' manipulation of it with various
elaborate instruments.  But the difficulty with which the lock was
picked showed that, for all ordinary purposes, it might be pronounced
impregnable.

The new locks were machines of the most delicate kind, the action of
which depended in a great measure upon the precision with which the
springs, sliders, levers, barrels, and other parts were finished.  The
merits of the invention being generally admitted, there was a
considerable demand for the locks, and the necessity thus arose for
inventing a series of original machine-tools to enable them to be
manufactured in sufficient quantities to meet the demand.  It is
probable, indeed, that, but for the contrivance of such tools, the lock
could never have come in to general use, as the skill of hand-workmen,
no matter how experienced, could not have been relied upon for turning
out the article with that degree of accuracy and finish in all the
parts which was indispensable for its proper action.  In conducting the
manufacture throughout, Bramah was greatly assisted by Henry Maudslay,
his foreman, to whom he was in no small degree indebted for the
contrivance of those tool-machines which enabled him to carry on the
business of lock-making with advantage and profit.

Bramah's indefatigable spirit of invention was only stimulated to fresh
efforts by the success of his lock; and in the course of a few years we
find him entering upon a more important and original line of action
than he had yet ventured on.  His patent of 1785 shows the direction of
his studies.  Watt had invented his steam-engine, which was coming into
general use; and the creation of motive-power in various other forms
became a favourite subject of inquiry with inventors.  Bramah's first
invention with this object was his Hydrostatic Machine, founded on the
doctrine of the equilibrium of pressure in fluids, as exhibited in the
well known 'hydrostatic paradox.' In his patent of 1785, in which he no
longer describes himself as Cabinet maker, but 'Engine maker' of
Piccadilly, he indicated many inventions, though none of them came into
practical use,--such as a Hydrostatical Machine and Boiler, and the
application of the power produced by them to the drawing of carriages,
and the propelling of ships by a paddle-wheel fixed in the stern of the
vessel, of which drawings are annexed to the specification; but it was
not until 1795 that he patented his Hydrostatic or Hydraulic Press.

Though the principle on which the Hydraulic Press is founded had long
been known, and formed the subject of much curious speculation, it
remained unproductive of results until a comparatively recent period,
when the idea occurred of applying it to mechanical purposes.  A
machine of the kind was indeed proposed by Pascal, the eminent
philosopher, in 1664, but more than a century elapsed before the
difficulties in the way of its construction were satisfactorily
overcome.  Bramah's machine consists of a large and massive cylinder,
in which there works an accurately-fitted solid piston or plunger.  A
forcing-pump of very small bore communicates with the bottom of the
cylinder, and by the action of the pump-handle or lever, exceeding
small quantities of water are forced in succession beneath the piston
in the large cylinder, thus gradually raising it up, and compressing
bodies whose bulk or volume it is intended to reduce.  Hence it is most
commonly used as a packing-press, being superior to every other
contrivance of the kind that has yet been invented; and though
exercising a prodigious force, it is so easily managed that a boy can
work it.  The machine has been employed on many extraordinary occasions
in preference to other methods of applying power.  Thus Robert
Stephenson used it to hoist the gigantic tubes of the Britannia Bridge
into their bed,[2] and Brunel to launch the Great Eastern steamship
from her cradles.  It has also been used to cut bars of iron, to draw
the piles driven in forming coffer dams, and to wrench up trees by the
roots, all of which feats it accomplishes with comparative ease.

The principal difficulty experienced in constructing the hydraulic
press before the time of Bramah arose from the tremendous pressure
exercised by the pump, which forced the water through between the solid
piston and the side of the cylinder in which it worked in such
quantities as to render the press useless for practical purposes.
Bramah himself was at first completely baffled by this difficulty.  It
will be observed that the problem was to secure a joint sufficiently
free to let the piston slide up through it, and at the same time so
water-tight as to withstand the internal force of the pump.  These two
conditions seemed so conflicting that Bramah was almost at his wit's
end, and for a time despaired of being able to bring the machine to a
state of practical efficiency.  None but those who have occupied
themselves in the laborious and often profitless task of helping the
world to new and useful machines can have any idea of the tantalizing
anxiety which arises from the apparently petty stumbling-blocks which
for awhile impede the realization of a great idea in mechanical
invention.  Such was the case with the water-tight arrangement in the
hydraulic press.  In his early experiments, Bramah tried the expedient
of the ordinary stuffing-box for the purpose of securing the required
water tightness' That is, a coil of hemp on leather washers was placed
in a recess, so as to fit tightly round the moving ram or piston, and
it was further held in its place by means of a compressing collar
forced hard down by strong screws.  The defect of this arrangement was,
that, even supposing the packing could be made sufficiently tight to
resist the passage of the water urged by the tremendous pressure from
beneath, such was the grip which the compressed material took of the
ram of the press, that it could not be got to return down after the
water pressure had been removed.

In this dilemma, Bramah's ever-ready workman, Henry Maudslay, came to
his rescue.  The happy idea occurred to him of employing the pressure
of the water itself to give the requisite water-tightness to the
collar.  It was a flash of common-sense genius--beautiful through its
very simplicity.  The result was Maudslay's self-tightening collar, the
action of which a few words of description will render easily
intelligible.  A collar of sound leather, the convex side upwards and
the concave downwards, was fitted into the recess turned out in the
neck of the press-cylinder, at the place formerly used as a
stuffing-box.  Immediately on the high pressure water being turned on,
it forced its way into the leathern concavity and 'flapped out' the
bent edges of the collar; and, in so doing, caused the leather to apply
itself to the surface of the rising ram with a degree of closeness and
tightness so as to seal up the joint the closer exactly in proportion
to the pressure of the water in its tendency to escape.  On the other
hand, the moment the  pressure was let off and the ram desired to
return, the collar collapsed and the ram slid gently down, perfectly
free and yet perfectly water-tight.  Thus, the former tendency of the
water to escape by the side of the piston was by this most simple and
elegant self-adjusting contrivance made instrumental to the perfectly
efficient action of the machine; and from the moment of its invention
the hydraulic press took its place as one of the grandest agents for
exercising power in a concentrated and tranquil form.

Bramah continued his useful labours as an inventor for many years.  His
study of the principles of hydraulics, in the course of his invention
of the press, enabled him to introduce many valuable improvements in
pumping-machinery.  By varying the form of the piston and cylinder he
was enabled to obtain a rotary motion,[3] which he advantageously
applied to many purposes.  Thus he adopted it in the well known
fire-engine, the use of which has almost become universal.  Another
popular machine of his is the beer-pump, patented in 1797, by which the
publican is enabled to raise from the casks in the cellar beneath, the
various liquors sold by him over the counter.  He also took out several
patents for the improvement of the steam-engine, in which, however,
Watt left little room for other inventors; and hence Bramah seems to
have entertained a grudge against Watt, which broke out fiercely in the
evidence given by him in the case of Boulton and Watt versus Hornblower
and Maberly, tried in December 1796.  On that occasion his temper seems
to have got the better of his judgment, and he was cut short by the
judge in the attempt which he then made to submit the contents of the
pamphlet subsequently published by him in the form of a letter to the
judge before whom the case was tried.[4]  In that pamphlet he argued
that Watt's specification had no definite meaning; that it was
inconsistent and absurd, and could not possibly be understood; that the
proposal to work steam-engines on the principle of condensation was
entirely fallacious; that Watt's method of packing the piston was
"monstrous stupidity;" that the engines of Newcomen (since entirely
superseded) were infinitely superior, in all respects, to those of
Watt;--conclusions which, we need scarcely say, have been refuted by
the experience of nearly a century.

On the expiry of Boulton and Watt's patent, Bramah introduced several
valuable improvements in the details of the condensing engine, which
had by that time become an established power,--the most important of
which was his "four-way cock," which he so arranged as to revolve
continuously instead of alternately, thus insuring greater precision
with considerably less wear of parts.  In the same patent by which he
secured this invention in 1801, he also proposed sundry improvements in
the boilers, as well as modifications in various parts of the engine,
with the object of effecting greater simplicity and directness of
action.

In his patent of 1802, we find Bramah making another great stride in
mechanical invention, in his tools "for producing straight, smooth, and
parallel surfaces on wood and other materials requiring truth, in a
manner much more expeditious and perfect than can be performed by the
use of axes, saws, planes, and other cutting instruments used by hand
in the ordinary way."  The specification describes the object of the
invention to be the saving of manual labour, the reduction in the cost
of production, and the superior character of the work executed.  The
tools were fixed on frames driven by machinery, some moving in a rotary
direction round an upright shaft, some with the shaft horizontal like
an ordinary wood-turning lathe, while in others the tools were fixed on
frames sliding in stationary grooves.  A wood-planing machine[5] was
constructed on the principle of this invention at Woolwich Arsenal,
where it still continues in efficient use.  The axis of the principal
shaft was supported on a piston in a vessel of oil, which considerably
diminished the friction, and it was so contrived as to be accurately
regulated by means of a small forcing-pump.  Although the machinery
described in the patent was first applied to working on wood, it was
equally applicable to working on metals; and in his own shops at
Pimlico Bramah employed a machine with revolving cutters to plane
metallic surfaces for his patent locks and other articles.  He also
introduced a method of turning spherical surfaces, either convex or
concave, by a tool moveable on an axis perpendicular to that of the
lathe; and of cutting out concentric shells by fixing in a similar
manner a curved tool of nearly the same form as that employed by common
turners for making bowls.  "In fact," says Mr. Mallet, "Bramah not only
anticipated, but carried out upon a tolerably large scale in his own
works--for the construction of the patent hydraulic press, the
water-closet, and his locks--a surprisingly large proportion of our
modern tools." [6]  His remarkable predilection in favour of the use of
hydraulic arrangements is displayed in his specification of the
surface-planing machinery, which includes a method of running pivots
entirely on a fluid, and raising and depressing them at pleasure by
means of a small forcing-pump and stop-cock,--though we are not aware
that any practical use has ever been made of this part of the invention.

Bramah's inventive genius displayed itself alike in small things as in
great--in a tap wherewith to draw a glass of beer, and in a hydraulic
machine capable of tearing up a tree by the roots.  His powers of
contrivance seemed inexhaustible, and were exercised on the most
various subjects.  When any difficulty occurred which mechanical
ingenuity was calculated to remove, recourse was usually had to Bramah,
and he was rarely found at a loss for a contrivance to overcome it.
Thus, when applied to by the Bank of England in 1806, to construct a
machine for more accurately and expeditiously printing the numbers and
date lines on Bank notes, he at once proceeded to invent the requisite
model, which he completed in the course of a month.  He subsequently
brought it to great perfection the figures in numerical succession
being changed by the action of the machine itself,--and it still
continues in regular use.  Its employment in the Bank of England alone
saved the labour of a hundred clerks; but its chief value consisted in
its greater accuracy, the perfect legibility of the figures printed by
it, and the greatly improved check which it afforded.

We next find him occupying himself with inventions connected with the
manufacture of pens and paper.  His little pen-making machine for
readily making quill pens long continued in use, until driven out by
the invention of the steel pen; but his patent for making paper by
machinery, though ingenious, like everything he did, does not seem to
have been adopted, the inventions of Fourdrinier and Donkin in this
direction having shortly superseded all others.  Among his other minor
inventions may be mentioned his improved method of constructing and
sledging carriage-wheels, and his improved method of laying
water-pipes.  In his specification of the last-mentioned invention, he
included the application of water-power to the driving of machinery of
every description, and for hoisting and lowering goods in docks and
warehouses,--since carried out in practice, though in a different
manner, by Sir William Armstrong.[7]  In this, as in many other
matters, Bramah shot ahead of the mechanical necessities of his time;
and hence many of his patents (of which he held at one time more than
twenty) proved altogether profitless.  His last patent, taken out in
1814, was for the application of Roman cement to timber for the purpose
of preventing dry rot.

Besides his various mechanical pursuits, Bramah also followed to a
certain extent the profession of a civil engineer, though his more
urgent engagements rendered it necessary for him to refuse many
advantageous offers of employment in this line.  He was, however, led
to carry out the new water-works at Norwich, between the years 1790 and
1793, in consequence of his having been called upon to give evidence in
a dispute between the corporation of that city and the lessees, in the
course of which he propounded plans which, it was alleged, could not be
carried out.  To prove that they could be carried out, and that his
evidence was correct, he undertook the new works, and executed them
with complete success; besides demonstrating in a spirited publication
elicited by the controversy, the insufficiency and incongruity of the
plans which had been submitted by the rival engineer.

For some time prior to his death Bramah had been employed in the
erection of several large machines in his works at Pimlico for sawing
stone and timber, to which he applied his hydraulic power with great
success.  New methods of building bridges and canal-locks, with a
variety of other matters, were in an embryo state in his mind, but he
did not live to complete them.  He was occupied in superintending the
action of his hydrostatic press at Holt Forest, in Hants--where upwards
of 300 trees of the largest dimensions were in a very short time torn
up by the roots,--when he caught a severe cold, which settled upon his
lungs, and his life was suddenly brought to a close on the 9th of
December, 1814, in his 66th year.

His friend, Dr. Cullen Brown,[8] has said of him, that Bramah was a man
of excellent moral character, temperate in his habits, of a pious turn
of mind,[9] and so cheerful in temperament, that he was the life of
every company into which he entered.  To much facility of expression he
added the most perfect independence of opinion; he was a benevolent and
affectionate man; neat and methodical in his habits, and knew well how
to temper liberality with economy.  Greatly to his honour, he often
kept his workmen employed, solely for their sake, when stagnation of
trade prevented him disposing of the products of their labour.  As a
manufacturer he was distinguished for his promptitude and probity, and
he was celebrated for the exquisite finish which he gave to all his
productions.  In this excellence of workmanship, which he was the first
to introduce, he continued while he lived to be unrivalled.

Bramah was deservedly honoured and admired as the first mechanical
genius of his time, and as the founder of the art of tool-making in its
highest branches.  From his shops at Pimlico came Henry Maudslay,
Joseph Clement, and many more first-class mechanics, who carried the
mechanical arts to still higher perfection, and gave an impulse to
mechanical engineering, the effects of which are still felt in every
branch of industry.

The parish to which Bramah belonged was naturally proud of the
distinction he had achieved in the world, and commemorated his life and
career by a marble tablet erected by subscription to his memory, in the
parish church of Silkstone.  In the churchyard are found the tombstones
of Joseph's father, brother, and other members of the family; and we
are informed that their descendants still occupy the farm at
Stainborough on which the great mechanician was born.



[1] The lock invented by Bramah was patented in 1784.  Mr. Bramah
himself fully set forth the specific merits of the invention in his
Dissertation on the Construction of Locks.  In a second patent, taken
out by him in 1798, he amended his first with the object of preventing
the counterfeiting of keys, and suspending the office of the lock until
the key was again in the possession of the owner.  This he effected by
enabling the owner so to alter the sliders as to render the lock
inaccessible to such key if applied by any other person but himself, or
until the sliders had been rearranged so as to admit of its proper
action.  We may mention in passing that the security of Bramah's locks
depends on the doctrine of combinations, or multiplication of numbers
into each other, which is known to increase in the most rapid
proportion.  Thus, a lock of five slides admits of 3,000 variations,
while one of eight will have no less than 1,935,360 changes; in other
words, that number of attempts at making a key, or at picking it, may
be made before it can be opened.

[2] The weight raised by a single press at the Britannia Bridge was
1144 tons.

[3] Dr. Thomas Young, in his article on Bramah in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, describes the "rotative principle" as consisting in making
the part which acts immediately on the water in the form of a slider,
"sweeping round a cylindrical cavity, and kept in its place by means of
an eccentric groove; a contrivance which was probably Bramah's own
invention, but which had been before described, in a form nearly
similar, by Ramelli, Canalleri, Amontons, Prince Rupert, and Dr. Hooke.

[4] A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir James Eyre, Lord Chief Justice of
the Common Pleas, on the subject of the cause Boulton and Watt v.
Hornblower and Maberly, for Infringement on Mr. Watt's Patent for an
Improvement of the Steam Engine.  By Joseph Bramah, Engineer.  London,
1797.

[5] Sir Samuel Bentham and Marc Isambard Brunel subsequently
distinguished themselves by the invention of wood-working machinery,
full accounts of which will be found in the Memoirs of the former by
Lady Bentham, and in the Life of the latter by Mr. Beamish.

[6] "Record of the International Exhibition, 1862."  Practical
Mechanic's Journal, 293.

[7] In this, as in other methods of employing power, the moderns had
been anticipated by the ancients; and though hydraulic machinery is a
comparatively recent invention in England, it had long been in use
abroad.  Thus we find in Dr. Bright's Travels in Lower Hungary a full
description of the powerful hydraulic machinery invented by M. Holl,
Chief Engineer of the Imperial Mines, which had been in use since the
year 1749, in pumping water from a depth of 1800 feet, from the silver
and gold mines of Schemnitz and Kremnitz.  A head of water was
collected by forming a reservoir along the mountain side, from which it
was conducted through water-tight cast-iron pipes erected
perpendicularly in the mine-shaft.  About forty-five fathoms down, the
water descending through the pipe was forced by the weight of the
column above it into the bottom of a perpendicular cylinder, in which
it raised a water-tight piston.  When forced up to a given point a
self-acting stop-cock shut off the pressure of the descending column,
while a self-acting valve enabled the water contained in the cylinder
to be discharged, on which the piston again descended, and the process
was repeated like the successive strokes of a steam-engine.  Pump-rods
were attached to this hydraulic apparatus, which were carried to the
bottom of the shaft, and each worked a pump at different levels,
raising the water stage by stage to the level of the main adit.  The
pumps of these three several stages each raised 1790 cubic feet of
water from a depth of 600 feet in the hour.  The regular working of the
machinery was aided by the employment of a balance-beam connected by a
chain with the head of the large piston and pump-rods; and the whole of
these powerful machines by means of three of which as much as 789,840
gallons of water were pumped out of the mines every 24 hours--were set
in operation and regulated merely by the turning of a stopcock.  It
will be observed that the arrangement thus briefly described was
equally applicable to the working of machinery of all kinds, cranes,
&c., as well as pumps; and it will be noted that, notwithstanding the
ingenuity of Bramah, Armstrong, and other eminent English mechanics,
the Austrian engineer Holl was thus decidedly beforehand with them in
the practical application of the principles of hydrostatics.

[8] Dr. Brown published a brief memoir of his friend in the New Monthly
Magazine for April, 1815, which has been the foundation of all the
notices of Bramah's life that have heretofore appeared.

[9] Notwithstanding his well-known religious character, Bramah seems to
have fallen under the grievous displeasure of William Huntington, S.S.
(Sinner Saved), described by Macaulay in his youth as "a worthless ugly
lad of the name of Hunter," and in his manhood as "that remarkable
impostor" (Essays, 1 vol. ed. 529).  It seems that Huntington sought
the professional services of Bramah when re-edifying his chapel in
1793; and at the conclusion of the work, the engineer generously sent
the preacher a cheque for 8L. towards defraying the necessary expenses.
Whether the sum was less than Huntington expected, or from whatever
cause, the S.S.  contemptuously flung back the gift, as proceeding from
an Arian whose religion was "unsavoury," at the same time hurling at
the giver a number of texts conveying epithets of an offensive
character.  Bramah replied to the farrago of nonsense, which he
characterised as "unmannerly, absurd, and illiterate that it must have
been composed when the writer was intoxicated, mad, or under the
influence of Lucifer," and he threatened that unless Huntington
apologised for his gratuitous insults, he (Bramah) would assuredly
expose him.  The mechanician nevertheless proceeded gravely to explain
and defend his "profession of faith," which was altogether unnecessary.
On this Huntington returned to the charge, and directed against the
mechanic a fresh volley of Scripture texts and phraseology, not without
humour, if profanity be allowable in controversy, as where he says,
"Poor man!  he makes a good patent lock, but cuts a sad figure with the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven!"  "What Mr. Bramah is," says S.S., "In
respect to his character or conduct in life, as a man, a tradesman, a
neighbour, a gentleman, a husband, friend, master, or subject, I know
not.  In all these characters he may shine as a comet for aught I know;
but he appears to me to be as far from any resemblance to a poor
penitent or broken-hearted sinner as Jannes, Jambres, or Alexander the
coppersmith!"  Bramah rejoined by threatening to publish his
assailant's letters, but Huntington anticipated him in A Feeble Dispute
with a Wise and Learned Man, 8vo.  London, 1793, in which, whether
justly or not, Huntington makes Bramah appear to murder the king's
English in the most barbarous manner.




CHAPTER XII.

HENRY MAUDSLAY.

"The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection
of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of
tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines.....
The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at
the head of the industrial arts."--C. BABBAGE, Exposition of 1851.


Henry Maudslay was born at Woolwich towards the end of last century, in
a house standing in the court at the back of the Salutation Inn, the
entrance to which is nearly opposite the Arsenal gates.  His father was
a native of Lancashire, descended from an old family of the same name,
the head of which resided at Mawdsley Hall near Ormskirk at the
beginning of the seventeenth century.  The family were afterwards
scattered, and several of its members became workmen.  William
Maudslay, the father of Henry, belonged to the neighbourhood of Bolton,
where he was brought up to the trade of a joiner.  His principal
employment, while working at his trade in Lancashire, consisted in
making the wood framing of cotton machinery, in the construction of
which cast-iron had not yet been introduced.  Having got into some
trouble in his neighbourhood, through some alleged LIAISON, William
enlisted in the Royal Artillery, and the corps to which he belonged was
shortly after sent out to the West Indies.  He was several times
engaged in battle, and in his last action he was hit by a musket-bullet
in the throat.  The soldier's stock which he wore had a piece cut out
of it by the ball, the direction of which was diverted, and though
severely wounded, his life was saved.  He brought home the stock and
preserved it as a relic, afterwards leaving it to his son.  Long after,
the son would point to the stock, hung up against his wall, and say
"But for that bit of leather there would have been no Henry Maudslay."
The wounded artilleryman was invalided and sent home to Woolwich, the
headquarters of his corps, where he was shortly after discharged.
Being a handy workman, he sought and obtained employment at the
Arsenal.  He was afterwards appointed a storekeeper in the Dockyard.
It was during the former stage of William Maudslay's employment at
Woolwich, that the subject of this memoir was born in the house in the
court above mentioned, on the 22nd of August, 1771.

The boy was early set to work.  When twelve years old he was employed
as a "powder-monkey," in making and filling cartridges.  After two
years, he was passed on to the carpenter's shop where his father
worked, and there he became acquainted with tools and the art of
working in wood and iron.  From the first, the latter seems to have had
by far the greatest charms for him.  The blacksmiths' shop was close to
the carpenters', and Harry seized every opportunity that offered of
plying the hammer, the file, and the chisel, in preference to the saw
and the plane.  Many a cuff did the foreman of carpenters give him for
absenting himself from his proper shop and stealing off to the smithy.
His propensity was indeed so strong that, at the end of a year, it was
thought better, as he was a handy, clever boy, to yield to his earnest
desire to be placed in the smithy, and he was removed thither
accordingly in his fifteenth year.

His heart being now in his work, he made rapid progress, and soon
became an expert smith and metal worker.  He displayed his skill
especially in forging light ironwork; and a favourite job of his was
the making of "Trivets" out of the solid, which only the "dab hands" of
the shop could do, but which he threw off with great rapidity in first
rate style.  These "Trivets" were made out of Spanish iron bolts--rare
stuff, which, though exceedingly tough, forged like wax under the
hammer.  Even at the close of his life, when he had acquired eminent
distinction as an inventor, and was a large employer of skilled labour,
he looked back with pride to the forging of his early days in Woolwich
Arsenal.  He used to describe with much gusto, how the old experienced
hands, with whom he was a great favourite, would crowd about him when
forging his "Trivets," some of which may to this day be in use among
Woolwich housewives for supporting the toast-plate before the bright
fire against tea time.  This was, however, entirely contraband work,
done "on the sly," and strictly prohibited by the superintending
officer, who used kindly to signal his approach by blowing his nose in
a peculiar manner, so that all forbidden jobs might be put out of the
way by the time he entered the shop.

We have referred to Maudslay's early dexterity in trivet-making--a
circumstance trifling enough in itself--for the purpose of illustrating
the progress which he had made in a branch of his art of the greatest
importance in tool and machine making.  Nothing pleased him more in his
after life than to be set to work upon an unusual piece of forging, and
to overcome, as none could do so cleverly as he, the difficulties which
it presented.  The pride of art was as strong in him as it must have
been in the mediaeval smiths, who turned out those beautiful pieces of
workmanship still regarded as the pride of our cathedrals and old
mansions.  In Maudslay's case, his dexterity as a smith was eventually
directed to machinery, rather than ornamental work; though, had the
latter been his line of labour, we do not doubt that he would have
reached the highest distinction.

The manual skill which our young blacksmith had acquired was such as to
give him considerable reputation in his craft, and he was spoken of
even in the London shops as one of the most dexterous hands in the
trade.  It was this circumstance that shortly after led to his removal
from the smithy in Woolwich Arsenal to a sphere more suitable for the
development of his mechanical ability.

We have already stated in the preceding memoir, that Joseph Bramah took
out the first patent for his lock in 1784, and a second for its
improvement several years later; but notwithstanding the acknowledged
superiority of the new lock over all others, Bramah experienced the
greatest difficulty in getting it manufactured with sufficient
precision, and at such a price as to render it an article of extensive
commerce.  This arose from the generally inferior character of the
workmanship of that day, as well as the clumsiness and uncertainty of
the tools then in use.  Bramah found that even the best manual
dexterity was not to be trusted, and yet it seemed to be his only
resource; for machine-tools of a superior kind had not yet been
invented.  In this dilemma he determined to consult an ingenious old
German artisan, then working with William Moodie, a general blacksmith
in Whitechapel.  This German was reckoned one of the most ingenious
workmen in London at the time.  Bramah had several long interviews with
him, with the object of endeavouring to solve the difficult problem of
how to secure precise workmanship in lock-making.  But they could not
solve it; they saw that without better tools the difficulty was
insuperable; and then Bramah began to fear that his lock would remain a
mere mechanical curiosity, and be prevented from coming into general
use.

He was indeed sorely puzzled what next to do, when one of the hammermen
in Moodie's shop ventured to suggest that there was a young man in the
Woolwich Arsenal smithy, named Maudslay, who was so ingenious in such
matters that "nothing bet him," and he recommended that Mr. Bramah
should have a talk with him upon the subject of his difficulty.
Maudslay was at once sent for to Bramah's workshop, and appeared before
the lock-maker, a tall, strong, comely young fellow, then only eighteen
years old.  Bramah was almost ashamed to lay his case before such a
mere youth; but necessity constrained him to try all methods of
accomplishing his object, and Maudslay's suggestions in reply to his
statement of the case were so modest, so sensible, and as the result
proved, so practical, that the master was constrained to admit that the
lad before him had an old head though set on young shoulders.  Bramah
decided to adopt the youth's suggestions, made him a present on the
spot, and offered to give him a job if he was willing to come and work
in a town shop.  Maudslay gladly accepted the offer, and in due time
appeared before Bramah to enter upon his duties.

As Maudslay had served no regular apprenticeship, and was of a very
youthful appearance, the foreman of the shop had considerable doubts as
to his ability to take rank alongside his experienced hands.  But
Maudslay soon set his master's and the foreman's mind at rest.
Pointing to a worn-out vice-bench, he said to Bramah, "Perhaps if I can
make that as good as new by six o'clock to-night, it will satisfy your
foreman that I am entitled to rank as a tradesman and take my place
among your men, even though I have not served a seven years'
apprenticeship."  There was so much self-reliant ability in the
proposal, which was moreover so reasonable, that it was at once acceded
to.  Off went Maudslay's coat, up went his shirt sleeves, and to work
he set with a will upon the old bench.  The vice-jaws were re-steeled
"in no time," filed up, re-cut, all the parts cleaned and made trim,
and set into form again.  By six o'clock, the old vice was screwed up
to its place, its jaws were hardened and "let down" to proper temper,
and the old bench was made to look so smart and neat that it threw all
the neighbouring benches into the shade!  Bramah and his foreman came
round to see it, while the men of the shop looked admiringly on.  It
was examined and pronounced "a first-rate job." This diploma piece of
work secured Maudslay's footing, and next Monday morning he came on as
one of the regular hands.

He soon took rank in the shop as a first-class workman.  Loving his
art, he aimed at excellence in it, and succeeded.  For it must be
understood that the handicraftsman whose heart is in his calling, feels
as much honest pride in turning out a piece of thoroughly good
workmanship, as the sculptor or the painter does in executing a statue
or a picture.  In course of time, the most difficult and delicate jobs
came to be entrusted to Maudslay; and nothing gave him greater pleasure
than to be set to work upon an entirely new piece of machinery.  And
thus he rose, naturally and steadily, from hand to head work.  For his
manual dexterity was the least of his gifts.  He possessed an intuitive
power of mechanical analysis and synthesis.  He had a quick eye to
perceive the arrangements requisite to effect given purposes; and
whenever a difficulty arose, his inventive mind set to work to overcome
it.

His fellow-workmen were not slow to recognise his many admirable
qualities, of hand, mind, and heart; and he became not only the
favourite, but the hero of the shop.  Perhaps he owed something to his
fine personal appearance.  Hence on gala-days, when the men turned out
in procession, "Harry" was usually selected to march at their head and
carry the flag.  His conduct as a son, also, was as admirable as his
qualities as a workman.  His father dying shortly after Maudslay
entered Bramah's concern, he was accustomed to walk down to Woolwich
every Saturday night, and hand over to his mother, for whom he had the
tenderest regard, a considerable share of his week's wages, and this he
continued to do as long as she lived.

Notwithstanding his youth, he was raised from one post to another,
until he was appointed, by unanimous consent, the head foreman of the
works; and was recognised by all who had occasion to do business there
as "Bramah's right-hand man."  He not only won the heart of his master,
but--what proved of far greater importance to him--he also won the
heart of his master's pretty housemaid, Sarah Tindel by name, whom he
married, and she went hand-in-hand with him through life, an admirable
"help meet," in every way worthy of the noble character of the great
mechanic.  Maudslay was found especially useful by his master in
devising the tools for making his patent locks; and many were the
beautiful contrivances which he invented for the purpose of ensuring
their more accurate and speedy manufacture, with a minimum degree of
labour, and without the need of any large amount of manual dexterity on
the part of the workman.  The lock was so delicate a machine, that the
identity of the several parts of which it was composed was found to be
an absolute necessity.  Mere handicraft, however skilled, could not
secure the requisite precision of workmanship; nor could the parts be
turned out in sufficient quantity to meet any large demand.  It was
therefore requisite to devise machine-tools which should not blunder,
nor turn out imperfect work;--machines, in short, which should be in a
great measure independent of the want of dexterity of individual
workmen, but which should unerringly labour in their prescribed track,
and do the work set them, even in the minutest details, after the
methods designed by their inventor.  In this department Maudslay was
eminently successful, and to his laborious ingenuity, as first
displayed in Bramah's workshops, and afterwards in his own
establishment, we unquestionably owe much of the power and accuracy of
our present self-acting machines.

Bramah himself was not backward in admitting that to Henry Maudslay's
practical skill in contriving the machines for manufacturing his locks
on a large scale, the success of his invention was in a great degree
attributable.  In further proof of his manual dexterity, it may be
mentioned that he constructed with his own hands the identical padlock
which so severely tested the powers of Mr. Hobbs in 1851.  And when it
is considered that the lock had been made for more than half a century,
and did not embody any of the modern improvements, it will perhaps be
regarded not only as creditable to the principles on which it was
constructed, but to the workmanship of its maker, that it should so
long have withstood the various mechanical dexterity to which it was
exposed.

Besides the invention of improved machine-tools for the manufacture of
locks, Maudslay was of further service to Bramah in applying the
expedient to his famous Hydraulic Press, without which it would
probably have remained an impracticable though a highly ingenious
machine.  As in other instances of great inventions, the practical
success of the whole is often found to depend upon the action of some
apparently trifling detail.  This was especially the case with the
hydraulic press; to which Maudslay added the essential feature of the
self-tightening collar, above described in the memoir of Bramah.  Mr.
James Nasmyth is our authority for ascribing this invention to
Maudslay, who was certainly quite competent to have made it; and it is
a matter of fact that Bramah's specification of the press says nothing
of the hollow collar,[1] on which its efficient action mainly depends.
Mr. Nasmyth says--"Maudslay himself told me, or led me to believe, that
it was he who invented the self-tightening collar for the hydraulic
press, without which it would never have been a serviceable machine.
As the self-tightening collar is to the hydraulic press, so is the
steamblast to the locomotive.  It is the one thing needful that has
made it effective in practice.  If Maudslay was the inventor of the
collar, that one contrivance ought to immortalize him.  He used to tell
me of it with great gusto, and I have no reason to doubt the
correctness of his statement."  Whoever really struck out the idea of
the collar, displayed the instinct of the true inventor, who invariably
seeks to accomplish his object by the adoption of the simplest possible
means.

During the time that Maudslay held the important office of manager of
Bramah's works, his highest wages were not more than thirty shillings
a-week.  He himself thought that he was worth more to his master--as
indeed he was,--and he felt somewhat mortified that he should have to
make an application for an advance; but the increasing expenses of his
family compelled him in a measure to do so.  His application was
refused in such a manner as greatly to hurt his sensitive feelings; and
the result was that he threw up his situation, and determined to begin
working on his own account.

His first start in business was in the year 1797, in a small workshop
and smithy situated in Wells Street, Oxford Street.  It was in an awful
state of dirt and dilapidation when he became its tenant.  He entered
the place on a Friday, but by the Saturday evening, with the help of
his excellent wife, he had the shop thoroughly cleaned, whitewashed,
and put in readiness for beginning work on the next Monday morning.  He
had then the pleasure of hearing the roar of his own forge-fire, and
the cheering ring of the hammer on his own anvil; and great was the
pride he felt in standing for the first time within his own smithy and
executing orders for customers on his own account.  His first customer
was an artist, who gave him an order to execute the iron work of a
large easel, embodying some new arrangements; and the work was
punctually done to his employer's satisfaction.  Other orders followed,
and he soon became fully employed.  His fame as a first-rate workman
was almost as great as that of his former master; and many who had been
accustomed to do business with him at Pimlico followed him to Wells
Street.  Long years after, the thought of these early days of
self-dependence and hard work used to set him in a glow, and he would
dilate to his intimate friends up on his early struggles and his first
successes, which were much more highly prized by him than those of his
maturer years.

With a true love of his craft, Maudslay continued to apply himself, as
he had done whilst working as Bramah's foreman, to the best methods of
ensuring accuracy and finish of work, so as in a measure to be
independent of the carelessness or want of dexterity of the workman.
With this object he aimed at the contrivance of improved machine-tools,
which should be as much self-acting and self-regulating as possible;
and it was while pursuing this study that he wrought out the important
mechanical invention with which his name is usually identified--that of
the Slide Rest.  It continued to be his special delight, when engaged
in the execution of any piece of work in which he took a personal
interest, to introduce a system of identity of parts, and to adapt for
the purpose some one or other of the mechanical contrivances with which
his fertile brain was always teeming.  Thus it was from his desire to
leave nothing to the chance of mere individual dexterity of hand that
he introduced the slide rest in the lathe, and rendered it one of the
most important of machine-tools.  The first device of this kind was
contrived by him for Bramah, in whose shops it continued in practical
use long after he had begun business for himself.  "I have seen the
slide rest," says Mr. James Nasmyth, "the first that Henry Maudslay
made, in use at Messrs. Bramah's workshops, and in it were all those
arrangements which are to be found in the most modern slide rest of our
own day,[2] all of which are the legitimate offspring of Maudslay's
original rest.  If this tool be yet extant, it ought to be preserved
with the greatest care, for it was the beginning of those mechanical
triumphs which give to the days in which we live so much of their
distinguishing character."

A very few words of explanation will serve to illustrate the importance
of Maudslay's invention.  Every person is familiar with the uses of the
common turning-lathe.  It is a favourite machine with amateur
mechanics, and its employment is indispensable for the execution of all
kinds of rounded work in wood and metal.  Perhaps there is no
contrivance by which the skill of the handicraftsman has been more
effectually aided than by this machine.  Its origin is lost in the
shades of antiquity.  Its most ancient form was probably the potter's
wheel, from which it advanced, by successive improvements, to its
present highly improved form.  It was found that, by whatever means a
substance capable of being cut could be made to revolve with a circular
motion round a fixed right line as a centre, a cutting tool applied to
its surface would remove the inequalities so that any part of such
surface should be equidistant from that centre.  Such is the
fundamental idea of the ordinary turning-lathe.  The ingenuity and
experience of mechanics working such an instrument enabled them to add
many improvements to it; until the skilful artisan at length produced
not merely circular turning of the most beautiful and accurate
description, but exquisite figure-work, and complicated geometrical
designs, depending upon the cycloidal and eccentric movements which
were from time to time added to the machine.