Henry Maudslay

• 1. The Boy From Woolwich

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  Henry Maudslay was born on the 22nd of August 1771 in an alley off Beresford Square at Woolwich. His father worked as a wheelwright for the Royal Engineers before becoming an artificer at the Royal Arsenal. The family lived between Powis Street and Beresford Street until his father died in 1780. Henry started work at age twelve as a powder monkey filling cartridges at the Arsenal. Two years later he moved to a carpenter shop then to a blacksmith forge. At fifteen he began training as a blacksmith specializing in complex forge work. He also worked at the Royal Foundry where Jan Verbruggen installed a horizontal boring machine in 1772.

• 2. Bramah's Secret Shop

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  Joseph Bramah called upon the eighteen-year-old Maudslay after receiving a recommendation from one of his employees. Bramah was surprised by the youth but Maudslay demonstrated his ability immediately. He started work at Bramah's workshop in Denmark Street, St Giles. Bramah had designed a lock based on the tumbler principle that resisted all efforts for forty-seven years. Maudslay built the lock displayed in the shop window with a notice offering a reward of two hundred guineas. He designed special tools allowing the lock to be made at an economic price. Bramah also struggled with sealing a hydraulic press piston rod using hemp packing. Maudslay created a leather cup washer giving a perfect seal without resistance when pressure released. The new press worked perfectly yet Maudslay received little credit for this major contribution.

• 3. The Precision Lathe

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  Maudslay developed the first industrially practical screw-cutting lathe around 1800 while working for Joseph Bramah. Before this invention typical lathes were worked by treadles where men held cutting tools against the work. This method did not allow precision especially when cutting iron so threads were chipped and filed freehand. Nuts remained rare and metal bolts usually fastened non-threaded ways like clinching or upsetting. Maudslay designed a tool holder clamping the cutting tool to slide on accurately planed surfaces. A leadscrew positioned the slide rest transmitting power through changeable gears traveling proportionally to turning work. Changing gears gave various pitches allowing precise thread cutting. He standardized screw threads used in his workshop producing sets of taps and dies making nuts and bolts consistently. Any bolt of appropriate size would fit any nut of the same size revolutionizing machine component production. His original lathe now sits at the Science Museum in London.

• 4. The Portsmouth Block Mills

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  Samuel Bentham had done earlier work leading to Maudslay's first major commission building forty-two woodworking machines. These produced wooden rigging blocks each ship requiring thousands for the Navy under Sir Marc Isambard Brunel. The machines installed in purpose-built Portsmouth Block Mills still survive including some original machinery. They could make one hundred thirty thousand ships' blocks needing only ten unskilled men compared with one hundred ten skilled workers before installation. This was the first well-known example of specialized machinery used for machining in an assembly-line type factory. An entire chapter devoted to the Portsmouth machinery spans eighteen pages and seven plates. Maudslay also invented the first bench micrometer capable of measuring to one ten-thousandth of an inch. He called it the Lord Chancellor as it settled questions regarding accuracy of workmanship.

• 5. Engines For The Sea

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  Maudslay's Lambeth works began specializing in marine steam engines using a side-lever design mounting a beam alongside the cylinder. This reduced height in cramped engine rooms of steamers. His first marine engine built in 1815 held seventeen horsepower fitted to a Thames steamer named the Richmond. In 1823 a Maudslay engine powered the Lightning becoming the first steam-powered vessel commissioned by the Royal Navy. A side-lever engine of four hundred horsepower completed in 1829 was the largest marine engine existing at that time. Henry's third son Joseph Maudslay developed the business after his father died. By 1850 the firm had supplied more than two hundred vessels with steam engines though John Penn challenged their dominance. They exhibited engines at the 1862 International Exhibition supplying a seven hundred fifty horsepower engine for Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Western.

• 6. The Workshop That Taught Engineers

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  Many outstanding engineers trained in Maudslay's workshop including Richard Roberts, David Napier, and Joseph Clement. Sir Joseph Whitworth and James Nasmyth inventor of the steam hammer also learned there. Joshua Field proved so talented he became a partner taking over when Maudslay's sons joined later. The company became Maudslay Sons and Field trading as such from North Lambeth. William the second son became a civil engineer founding the Institution of Civil Engineers. The firm closed finally in 1904 making it one of the most important British engineering manufactories of the nineteenth century. Many tools made by Maudslay remain in the Science Museum London collection. He laid an important foundation for the Industrial Revolution creating uniformity in screws allowing interchangeable parts application. His death on the 14th of February 1831 came four weeks after catching a chill crossing the English Channel visiting a friend in France.