Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers

"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 constr...

"In science there is work for all hands, more or less skilled; and he is usually the most fit to occupy the higher posts who has risen from the ranks, and has experimentally acq...

"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 t...

The founder Of the Scotch family of Naesmyth is said to have derived his name from the following circumstance. In the course of the feuds which raged for some time between the S...

"The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped, and contribute to the permanent prosperity a...

"It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of these inventions. The Greeks would have elevated their authors among the gods; nor will the enlightened judgment of m...

"L'invention nest-elle pas la poesie de la science? . . . Toutes les grandes decouvertes portent avec elles la trace ineffacable d'une pensee poetique. Il faut etre poete pour c...

"I have always found it in mine own experience an easier matter to devise manie and profitable inventions, than to dispose of one of them to the good of the author himself."--Si...

"There never have been wanting men to whom England's improvement by sea and land was one of the dearest thoughts of their lives, and to whom England's good was the foremost of t...

"God of his Infinite goodness (if we will but take notice of his goodness unto this Nation) hath made this Country a very Granary for the supplying of Smiths with Iron, Cole, an...

"Founders and senators of states and cities, lawgivers, extirpers of tyrants, fathers of the people, and other eminent persons in civil government, were honoured but with titles...

"Were public benefactors to be allowed to pass away, like hewers of wood and drawers of water, without commemoration, genius and enterprise would be deprived of their most covet...

"He that well observes it, and hath known the welds of Sussex, Surry, and Kent', the grand nursery especially of oake and beech, shal find such an alteration, within lesse than...

"The great Inventor is one who has walked forth upon the industrial world, not from universities, but from hovels; not as clad in silks and decked with honours, but as clad in f...

"Aujourd'hui la revolution que devait amener en Grande-Bretagne la memorable decouverte de Benjamin Huntsman est tout a fait accomplie, et chaque jour les consequetces sen feron...

"Whilst the exploits of the conqueror and the intrigues of the demagogue are faithfully preserved through a succession of ages, the persevering and unobtrusive efforts of genius...

of Richard Reynolds, that "on further trials many difficulties arose. The bottoms of the furnaces were destroyed by the heat, and the quality of the iron varied. Still, by a let...

The Maudslays Henry Maudslay Employed as powder-boy in Woolwich Arsenal Advanced to the blacksmiths' shop His early dexterity in smith-work His "trivet" making Employed by Brama...

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...

Skill in contrivance a matter of education Birth and parentage of Joseph Clement Apprenticed to the trade of a slater His skill in amateur work Makes a turning-lathe Gives up sl...

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 care...

Dr. Roebuck, a forgotten public benefactor His birth and education Begins business as a physician at Birmingham Investigations in metallurgy Removes to Scotland, and begins the...

Tools and civilization The beginnings of tools Dexterity of hand chiefly relied on Opposition to manufacturing machines Gradual process of invention The human race the true inve...

Parentage of Henry Cort Becomes a navy agent State of the iron trade Cort's experiments in iron-making Takes a foundry at Fontley Partnership with Jellicoe Various improvers in...

Failure in the attempts to smelt iron with pit-coal Dr. Blewstone's experiment Decay of the iron manufacture Abraham Darby His manufacture of cast-iron pots at Bristol Removes t...

Greatly reduced production of English iron Proposal to use pit-coal instead of charcoal of wood in smelting Sturtevant's patent Rovenson's Dud Dudley; his family his history Use...

Difficulty of smelting the Black Band by ordinary process until the invention of the hot blast Early career of James Beaumont Neilson Education and apprenticeship Works as an en...

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 Mau...

Conversion of iron into steel Early Sheffield manufactures Invention of blistered steel Important uses of cast-steel Le Play's writings on the subject Early career of Benjamin H...

The inventive faculty Joseph Bramah's early life His amateur work Apprenticed to a carpenter Starts as cabinet-maker in London Takes out a patent for his water-closet Makes pump...

The South Sea Islanders and iron Uses of iron for tools The Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages Recent discoveries in the beds of the Swiss lakes Iron the last metal to come into gener...

A forgotten patriot The Yarranton family Andrew Yarranton's early life A soldier under the Parliament Begins iron works Is seized and imprisoned His plans for improving internal...

Iron made in the Forest of Dean in Anglo-Saxon times Monkish iron-workers Early iron-smelting in Yorkshire Much iron imported from abroad Iron manufactures of Sussex Manufacture...