Industrial Biography | Page 6

WHITWORTH OF MANCHESTER.
The first Fox of Derby originally a butler His genius for mechanics Begins business as a machinist Invents a Planing Machine Matthew Murray's Planing Machine Murray's early career Employed as a blacksmith by Marshall of Leeds His improvements of flax-machinery Improvements in steam-engines Makes the first working locomotive for Mr. Blenkinsop Invents the Heckling Machine His improvements in tools Richard Roberts of Manchester First a quarryman, next a pattern-maker Drawn for the militia, and flies His travels His first employment at Manchester Goes to London, and works at Maudslay's Roberts's numerous inventions Invents a planing machine The self-acting mule Iron billiard-tables Improvements in the locomotive Invents the Jacquard punching machine Makes turret-clocks and electro-magnets Improvement in screw-steamships Mr. Whitworth's improvement of the planing machine His method of securing true surfaces His great mechanical skill
CHAPTER XV
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JAMES NASMYTH.
Traditional origin of the Naesmyths Alexander Nasmyth the painter, and his family Early years of James Nasmyth The story of his life told by himself Becomes a pupil of Henry Maudslay How he lived and worked in London Begins business at Manchester Story of the invention of the Steam Hammer The important uses of the Hammer in modem engineering Invents the steam pile-driving machine Designs a new form of steam-engine Other inventions How he "Scotched" a strike Uses of strikes Retirement from business Skill as a draughtsman Curious speculations on antiquarian subjects Mr. Nasmyth's wonderful discoveries in Astronomy described by Sir John Herschel
CHAPTER XVI
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WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN.
Summary of progress in machine-tools William Fairbairn's early years His education Life in the Highlands Begins work at Kelso Bridge An apprentice at Percy Main Colliery, North Shields Diligent self-culture Voyage to London Adventures Prevented obtaining work by the Millwrights' Union Travels into the country, finds work, and returns to London His first order, to make a sausage-chopping machine Wanderschaft Makes nail-machinery for a Dublin employer Proceeds to Manchester, where he settles and marries Begins business His first job Partnership with Mr. Lillie Employed by Messrs. Adam Murray and Co. Employed by Messrs. MacConnel and Kennedy Progress of the Cotton Trade Memoir of John Kennedy Mr. Fairbairn introduces great improvements in the gearing, &c. of mill machinery Increasing business Improvements in water-wheels Experiments as to the law of traction of boats Begins building iron ships Experiments on the strength of wrought iron Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges Reports on iron On boiler explosions Iron construction Extended use of iron Its importance in civilization Opinion of Mr. Cobden Importance of modern machine-tools Conclusion

INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER I
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IRON AND CIVILIZATION.
"Iron is not only the soul of every other manufacture, but the main spring perhaps of civilized society."--FRANCIS HORNER.
"Were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage Americans; so that he who first made known the use of that contemptible mineral may be truly styled the father of Arts and the author of Plenty."--JOHN LOCKE.
When Captain Cook and the early navigators first sailed into the South Seas on their voyages of discovery, one of the things that struck them with most surprise was the avidity which the natives displayed for iron. "Nothing would go down with our visitors," says Cook, "but metal; and iron was their beloved article." A nail would buy a good-sized pig; and on one occasion the navigator bought some four hundred pounds weight of fish for a few wretched knives improvised out of an old hoop.
"For iron tools," says Captain Carteret, "we might have purchased everything upon the Freewill Islands that we could have brought away. A few pieces of old iron hoop presented to one of the natives threw him into an ecstasy little short of distraction." At Otaheite the people were found generally well-behaved and honest; but they were not proof against the fascinations of iron. Captain Cook says that one of them, after resisting all other temptations, "was at length ensnared by the charms of basket of nails." Another lurked about for several days, watching the opportunity to steal a coal-rake.
The navigators found they could pay their way from island to island merely with scraps of iron, which were as useful for the purpose as gold coins would have been in Europe. The drain, however, being continuous, Captain Cook became alarmed at finding his currency almost exhausted; and he relates his joy on recovering an old anchor which the French Captain Bougainville had lost at Bolabola, on which he felt as an English banker would do after a severe run upon him for gold, when suddenly placed in possession of a fresh store of bullion.
The avidity for iron displayed by these poor islanders will not be wondered at when we consider that whoever among them was so fortunate as to obtain possession of an old nail, immediately became a man