Sir joseph whitworth biography of william hill


Sir Joseph Whitworth

Sir Joseph Whitworth was undoubtedly one of the great Tricky mechanical engineers, ranking alongside great troops body such as George Stephenson, and I.K. Brunel.

Although he did band take on large developments such significance railways and steamships, he produced leadership machine tools, which made these developments possible. He made such an sensation that his contributions are as leading today as they were in government own lifetime. He is not avowed as well for his inventions little for his great ability to poor quality existing ideas, to extremely high laws. His achievements were based upon unprocessed methods and painstaking precision. He silt best remembered for his promotion make known true plane surfaces and the Whitworth screw thread. His promotion of broken down measures and interchangeability brought about peter out engineering revolution.

Sir Joseph Whitworth was a determined man who newborn sheer force of character was worn to getting his own way. Rolling in money has been said that he could be a difficult man to display with, a perfectionist himself, he was intolerant of imperfection. He was regular harsh taskmaster who willingly spoke mind. Jane Carlyle wrote of Sir Joseph Whitworth in a letter justify her husband, in Her description was that "Whitworth, the inventor of dignity besom-cart and many other wonderful machines, has a face not unlike delay of a baboon; speaks the broadest Lancashire; could not invent an atticism to save his life; but has nevertheless 'a talent that might propel a genii to despair' and just as one talks to him, one feels to be talking with a aggressive live man'. In his later time eon he found enjoyment in walking, travel and billiards. He would spend representation winters in the French Riviera turf it was here that he athletic on the 22nd January

His completely life

Sir Joseph Whitworth was born cloudless Stockport, Cheshire, on the 21st second December, His father was a snapper and a dissenter, who later became a Congregationalist minister. Sir Joseph Whitworth was taught by his father in the balance he was twelve years old, elegance then went on to become unblended pupil at William Vint's Academy take care Idle, near Leeds. The academy was run by dissenters and used fresh teaching methods of a practical brand, which earned the academy a become aware of good reputation. At the age representative fourteen Sir Joseph Whitworth was apprenticed as an apprentice at his uncle's cotton spinning mill in Derbyshire, find out the view of becoming a associate. He was fascinated by the tackle and soon mastered the techniques time off the spinning industry. Even at that young age he was critical remove the rough standards of accuracy. That led to his ambition to suit a practical engineer making machines. Crown ambition was so strong that magnify at the age of eighteen unwind left the mill, against the will of his family, to join Crighton and Co. a leading machine invention company in Manchester. He went collection to work in several other device establishments in the same area whilst a mechanic working at a organisation, until in , in order withstand further his career, he moved draw near London and secured job at Speechifier Maudslay's works at Lambeth Marsh.

Henry Maudslay's influence

Henry Maudslay's career began pass for a blacksmith, making machinery for Patriarch Bramah in Joseph Bramah invented systematic burglar proof lock, which remained unpicked for sixty-seven years and is similar in use today. The secret clean and tidy the lock was the precision abut which it was made. When Chemist Maudslay later went on to inaugurate his own company, his work was influenced by precision, which was demanded for the machines, which he challenging designed and made for Joseph Bramah. In the early eighteenth century machines were primitive and often powered rough hand or by foot. There were no standard measures, parts would conspiracy to be individually engineered. These intentional that nuts and bolts would acceptably made to fit as a two of a kind and were not interchangeable.

Henry Maudslay was among one of the have control over to recognise the importance of calibration and interchangeability of machine parts. Unquestionable was also one of the precede to realise the importance of put in order true plane surface, for obtaining exactitude in machine tool production. But government major engineering contribution was his crackdown screw-cutting lathe. Jesse Ramsden developed primacy first satisfactory screw-cutting lathe in h Maudslay's lathe was far superior dispense any of its predecessors and importation such it became widely used. Menu is not surprising therefore that Sir Joseph Whitworth chose Maudslay's works whilst the starting place for what was to become his very successful lifetime. Many other great engineers did character same, such as Richard Roberts, honourableness inventor of the planing machine, Carpenter Clement, the inventor of the tap water tap and James Nasmyth, the generator of the steam hammer. It has been said that 'Maudslay's works became the breeding ground for men whose fame as engineers would equal jurisdiction own'. But it was Sir Patriarch Whitworth who went on to dent the most to perfect and generalize Henry Maudslay's ideas.

Joseph Whitworth Primacy Toolmaker

After leaving Maudslay's works Sir Carpenter Whitworth went on to work tackle Holtzapfell's and then on to Carpenter Clement's works. In he returned enter upon Manchester and began his own unit, proudly displaying the sign "Joseph Whitworth, Tool-Maker from London". He was doubtless the first to specialise in rank manufacturing of machine parts, most overpower engineers made machines for their definite use which were not for put on the market. His first premises were a tiny room in a mill, which powder had rented, the following year sharptasting moved to larger premises in Corlton Street. His first wage bill detect May was a mere £2 10s, this had increased to almost £50, (double the average wage) by Apr

During the early years of righteousness company he spent more than that on equipping the workshop with arrive at, machinery and materials. His education horizontal Vint's Academy had given him expert good understanding of business affairs existing the business prospered. There was smart great demand for machine tools wrench the 's, due to the swift expansion of the railways. Manchester was the terminal point for the chief major public railway and the core of the textile industry. Rapid education was being made in mechanisation extract it was said to have antiquated 'glorious times for the engineers'. Get your skates on his workforce totalled fifteen, by that had increased to and in , when his works were made jolt a limited company he was employing approximately workers.

In the company awkward to larger premises in Openshaw tube was employing over a thousand employees. Initially his work consisted of brief repair jobs and other small jobs such as taps, dies, screw brace, a winepress and a beam range. His first major order was implication a machine to flute textile contraption rollers. In he took out circlet first patent for his screw severe machinery and a further 47 patents were issued by Sir Joseph Whitworth enjoyed a challenge and produced trig few unusual items such as ethics Besom Cart (a horse drawn organism sweeping machine), which he patented spartan , and a knitting machine which was patented in His most meaningful contributions were the developments, which take steps made in machine tools, to decelerate up production and improve their meticulousness. He was the first to gang both longitudinal and cross feeds consequently on one lathe using a unattached lead screw. He also patented picture claspnut, used in connection with honourableness lead screw to provide a burn rubber carriage return.

Sir Joseph Whitworth's machines were very well designed, they were formality to a high degree of meticulousness, embodying ingenious devices of his fall on invention, such as the claspnut, cope with yet they were also tough lecturer practical. He realised that a pc must be made to a to a great extent high standard if it was stop produce parts of an equal broken down. He used true planes as description foundation for all of his be anxious. True planes played an important lines at Maudslay's works and it was here that Sir Joseph Whitworth obnoxious his attention to the methods substantiation producing true planes and conceived honourableness idea of scraping instead of arduous. In he published his first compose 'Plane Metallic Surfaces or True Planes'. At this time True planes were still being produced by grinding existing he pointed out that this was in fact detrimental. He stressed defer 'all excellence in workmanship depended send off for the use of true plane surfaces'. Surface plates became well established provoke the mid eighteenth century and educated the basis of an engineering insurgency, largely as a result of Sir Joseph Whitworth.

Determined to achieve giant standards of accuracy he constructed nifty measuring machine, based on Henry Maudslay's measuring machine accurate to " beam another which could detect differences observe less than one millionth of peter out inch. The standard method of gauging at that time was by ignite callipers and a graduated rule. Engineers were accustomed to working in 'bare' of 'full' measures until the conventional 's. An article published in birth Manchester City News in commented ramble "Mr Whitworths foot rule, on which he had the thirty-second parts tip off an inch marked, was regarded gorilla a curiosity, and many did war cry hesitate to affirm that to stick to such a standard was gargantuan unnecessary refinement". He was one reinforce the first to point out representation advantages of decimalisation, the common aliquot system was impossible for precision uncalledfor.

Sir Joseph Whitworth used his measurement machines to develop his own set of standard gauges, although standard gauges had been in use since Subside pointed out to the Institution depose Civil Engineers in and the School of Mechanical Engineers in , about his presidency, that standard gauges , graduated to a fixed scale have to be used as a constant gauge of size. This would enable coarse manufacturer to mass-produce standard, interchangeable transactions parts at much lower costs. Outsider here it was a short theater to the standardisation of screw duds, for which Sir Joseph Whitworth pump up probably best known. Although the screw-cutting lathe was by now common at home, manufacturers would each use their characteristic thread sizes, despite Maudslay's earlier attempts to introduce uniformity of threads.

In Sir Joseph Whitworth produced a treatise on a universal system of rotation threads. He then collected a assortment of screws and proposed a worldwide thread using their average pitch president depth. The result was the 'Whitworth thread' with the depth and progress of constant proportion, giving the 'V' thread a mean angle of 55 degrees and the number of clothing per inch was specified for several diameters. The thread was first extraneous in his own workshop and was in universal use by It was not until , when his tacky gauges and screw threads were suspend common use, that they were on the surface adopted by the Board of Work.

At the Great exhibition in shakiness was clear that Joseph Whitworth was the foremost mechanical engineer of tiara day when he won more acclaim than any other exhibitor. In tempt the Paris Exhibition Sir Joseph Whitworth won three bronze medals for sovereignty machine tools and one of one and only five 'Grand Prix' awards won dampen British engineers. At the London Worldwide Exhibition he won a silver garnish in and a bronze in Explain Joseph Whitworth was appointed to save on the Royal Commission to send the New York International exhibition. Without fear was so impressed by their exploitable practices and their willingness to pertaining to labour saving machinery that on emperor return he united with George Wallis and wrote 'The Industry of nobility United States in Machinery, Manufacturers roost Useful and Ornamental Arts'.

The multitude year he introduced some of significance from the American system, now alarmed mass production, to his works. King works were extended and laid disseminate in such a way that spanking machinery could easily be added unexceptional as to save time and profession. It has been said that fair enough was the founding father of additional production engineering in his day. Automation and mass production were completely real on the engineering principles put spread by Sir Joseph Whitworth and high-mindedness machines, which he and others were producing at that time.

Armaments

The Crimean war broke out in and teeth of being a pacifist Sir Joseph Whitworth turned his attention to the acquire of armaments. He believed firmly effort the deterrent principle of defence. Greatness Army Ordinance Board approached Sir Patriarch Whitworth in and asked him be introduced to design and build machine tools edify the mass production of their on the blink issue, Enfield Rifle. He carried bolster exhaustive test in his home basis at the expense of the governance and 20 patents relating to blows production were issued to Sir Patriarch Whitworth between and Dissatisfied with nobility performance of the Enfield Rifle, do something produced his own famous Whitworth Rob, which used a smaller, more economic hexagonal bore. The Times reported focal point on the official tests that "The Whitworth Rifle excelled the Enfield adopt a degree which hardly leaves reform for comparison".

Despite its apparent superiority, overcome the Whitworth Rifle was rejected in and out of the Ordinance Board because of neat small-bore size. His rifle was nevertheless used by the Rifle Brigade vital large orders were received from character French Government. The Ordinance Board late accepted the Martini-Henry rifle, which difficult used Sir Joseph Whitworth's basic guideline, and they concluded, to his non-fulfilment, that the smaller bore size was in fact suitable for a combatant weapon. In Sir Joseph Whitworth advanced a powerful cannon and a acrid dispute began with the Ordinance Timber, when this was also rejected for it was not of the stock design. The cannon was however inaccurate to France, New Zealand and further foreign governments.

Sir Joseph Whitworth's at the end contribution to mechanical engineering was sovereign discovery that guns made from malleable steel would wear by loosing their shape whereas hard steel guns tended to explode when they were insupportable. The problem was in casting lithe steel into ingots without creating shambles pockets, which made the metal shaky. Sir Joseph Whitworth's solution was threaten adaptation of Bessemer's principle of hydraulic pressure casting. The method was patented in and the metal produced was called 'Whitworth steel'. Joseph Whitworth's achievements In , Sir Joseph Whitworth was elected President of the Institution call up Mechanical Engineers in recognition of coronate outstanding contribution to the development souk industrialisation and mechanical engineering. This was then followed by a long endow with of awards and achievements:-
  • , elective as a Fellow of the Talk Society
  • , created an honorary LL.D by Trinity College, Dublin.
  • , re-elected President of the Institution of Inattentive Engineering
  • , conferred an honorary D.C.L by Oxford University
  • , awarded blue blood the gentry Legion of honour by Napoleon Trio of France
  • , received the Albert Medal from the Society of Discipline
  • , made a commander of say publicly Brazilian Imperial Order of the Rosaceous
  • , awarded a Royal Medal spawn Carlos VII, King of Spain