Joseph Whitworth

“ The results which have been obtained in the United States, by the application of machinery wherever it has been practicable to manufactures, are rendered still more remarkable by the fact, that combinations to resist its introduction there are unheard of. The workmen hail with satisfaction all mechanical improvements, the importance and value of which, as releasing them from the drudgery of unskilled labour, they are enabled by education to understand and appreciate. ”

“ Should a carriage be found to twist and get out of form, that would be a proof of its being too light. But to prevent a carriage breaking down by increasing the size of its parts, and thereby adding weight, instead of improving quality, is mechanically wrong. Indeed, it is quite distressing to see the enormous weight of our carriages, particularly those drawn by animal power. It should be an axiom in mechanics that whatever has motion should be as light as circumstances will admit ”

“ When the sizes of the fitting parts of machines are determined by sight from the lines on a scale or a two-foot rule, such nicety of measurement is out of the question; and as long as they are made on that system, the progress of improvement will be retarded. My experience has satisfied me that no system of measurement depending on the power of sight is suitable for obtaining the size of the working parts of machines. Where exact size or good fitting is required, the sense of touch is far more to be depended upon. ”

“ New Manufacturing Towns.—The energetic character of the American people is nowhere more strikingly displayed than in the young manufacturing settlements that are so rapidly springing up in the Northern States.
A retired valley and its stream of water become in a few months the seat of manufactures; and the dam and water-wheel are the means of giving employment to busy thousands, where before nothing more than a solitary farmhouse was to be found. Such, in a few words, is the history of Waterbury and all the Naugatuck settlements of Holyoke, Chicopee, Lowell, and Lawrence. ”

“ Formerly, when the wealth of a nation was produced, as it were, by hand labour, a different state of things existed to that of the present day. As I have shown, our means of production are now increased in some cases more than a hundred and in others more than a thousand fold; and this will go on, just in proportion as the masses of our people are able to consume larger quantities of everything that they require. When the farm labourer pays less for his sugar and tea, more meat will be consumed (which again goes to improve the land) ”

“ At that time it was the custom to prepare what were intended to be used as original surfaces (presumed to be true) by grinding them; and I was anxious to direct the attention of those engaged in mechanical pursuits to the inherent defects of the grinding process, and to prove the necessity of adopting the system of correction, by which alone error is eliminated, and surfaces practically true can be produced. At the same time I urged the necessity of supporting all original surfaces or “true surface plates” on three points, that being the only means by which truth of surface can be maintained. ”

“ The proprietors of land may rest assured that, in the future development of mechanical improvements, none will be more benefited than themselves. I do not hesitate to say that all harvest operations on land, properly laid down, will very shortly be performed in one-fourth the time required with the hand labour now expended, by the farther application of machines worked by horse-power. This is my conviction, based upon the experience I have had in the successful working of the machine I constructed for sweeping the streets, and at the same time filling the cart, by horse-power. ”

“ The principles which ought to regulate the relations between the employer and the employed seem to be thoroughly understood and appreciated in the United States, and while the law of limited liability affords the most ample facilities for the investment of capital in business, the intelligent and educated artizan is left equally free to earn all that he can, by making the best use of his hands, without let or hindrance by his fellows. ”

“ No taxation of any kind has been suffered to interfere with the free development of this powerful agent for promoting the intelligence of the people, and the consequence is, that where the humblest labourer can indulge in the luxury of his daily paper, everybody reads, and thought and intelligence penetrate through the lowest grades of society. The benefits which thus result from a liberal system of education and a cheap press to the working classes of the United States can hardly be over-estimated in a national point of view ”

“ With truth of surface, that never-failing element of success, as the basis of operation, we are enabled to measure with exactitude; and there is no difficulty in making parts of machines to fit one another with any degree of nicety: but, when we wish to express correctly by the common fractional system very minute measurements, our ideas are cramped and hampered by an inconvenient and often confused system of notation. What exact motion can any man have of such a size as “a bare sixteenth” or “a full thirty-second;” ”

“ It is this condition of the labour market, and this eager resort to machinery wherever it can be applied, to which, under the guidance of superior education and intelligence, the remarkable prosperity of the United States is mainly due. That prosperity is frequently attributed to the possession of a soil of great natural fertility, and it is doubtless true that in certain districts the alluvial deposits are rich, and the land fruitful to an extraordinary degree ”

“ The great difficulty experienced in the use of the rifle for long distances arises from the utter incapability of any marksman to judge correctly the distances of objects far away; it can only be met by making the projectile move in a trajectory or path as low and level as possible, this is done by using the reduced diameter which offers to the resistance of the air a proportionally less area, so that a high velocity is attained, shortening thereby the time of flight, and the projectile is very much less deflected by the action of the wind. ”

“ It is mainly for want of accuracy that screw bolts so frequently fail. Unless the threads of the screw and nut exactly correspond in every part, and coalesce throughout their whole length and depth, their mutual action is completely deranged, power and strength are both sacrificed, and friction is proportionally increased. The immense consumption of bolts and nuts in fitting up and working machinery may give some idea of the extent to which greater accuracy might be productive of economy. ”

“ Inventors are not now persecuted, as formerly, by those who fancy that their inventions and discoveries are prejudicial to the general interests, and calculated to deprive labour of its fair reward. Some of us are old enough to remember the hostility manifested to the working of the power-loom, the self-acting mule, the machinery for shearing woollen cloth, the thrashing machine, and many others. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no description of machinery which would not afford an illustration of the importance belonging to truth of surface, and at the same time, of the present necessity for material improvement; nor is there any subject connected with machines, the bearings of which, on public interests, whether manufacturing or scientific, are more varied or more extensive. ”

“ The ease with which distinct parts of machinery can be united, the firmness with which they are held together, and the facility with which they may be separated, are conditions of the utmost importance, which by no other contrivance could be combined in an equal degree. ”

“ It is not for a moment denied that the natural resources of the United States are immense, that the products of the soil seem capable of being multiplied and varied to almost any extent, and that the supplies of minerals appear to be nearly unlimited.
The material welfare of the country, however, is largely dependent upon the means adopted for turning its resources to the best account, at the same time that the calls made upon human labour are reduced as far as practicable. ”

“ We cannot, for example, determine the exact amount of power necessary to draw the parts of a machine into due contact, or the precise degree of strength which may suffice for resisting the strains to which they may be afterwards exposed. Hence, we cannot lay down any rule for choosing the diameter of the screw bolt required for a given purpose. Practical men can judge of the proper size with considerable nicety, but they have no means of ascertaining it with absolute precision. ”

“ In the construction of rifle cannon many things have to be considered in relation, and often in antagonism to each other, as the weight and length of the piece,—the diameter and weight of the projectile, the charge, the amount of rifling turn, and it sometimes happens that an advantage in one respect can only be gained by submitting to disadvantage in another. ”

“ Next in importance to a true plane is the power of measurement. I have brought with me, for your inspection at the close of the meeting, a small machine, by which a difference in length of the one-millionth part of an inch is at once detected. ”

“ One of the most striking instances I know of the vast superiority of machinery over simple instruments used by the hand is in the manufacture of lace, where one man with a machine does the work of 8,000 lacemakers on the cushion. In spinning fine numbers of yarn, a workman on a self-acting mule will do the work of 3,000 hand-spinners with the distaff and spindle ”

“ The express purpose of that machine is to produce true surfaces, and it is itself constructed of slides, according to the truth of which will be that of the work performed. When it is considered that the lathe and the planing engine are used in the making of all other machines, and are continually re-producing surfaces similar to their own, it will manifestly appear of the first importance, that they should themselves be perfect models. ”

“ Now, the introduction of the reaping and mowing machine, and other improved agricultural machinery, is not opposed. Indeed, it must be obvious to reflecting minds that the increased luxuries and comforts which all, more or less, enjoy are derived from the numerous recent mechanical appliances and the production of our manufactories. That of our cotton has increased during the last few years in a wonderful degree. ”

“ Again, a good workman acquires by experience an intuitive knowledge of the allowances in size which are requisite in various cases; and if a suitable decimal system of notation be adopted, there will be no difficulty, with the power of measurement we now possess, in registering minute differences; and so the knowledge gained by the experienced workman may be imparted to others in precise terms, which to the young beginner will be of invaluable service. ”

“ Comparatively few persons, perhaps, are aware of the increase of production during our lifetime. Thirty years ago, the cost of labour for making a surface of cast iron true, by chipping and filing by the hand, was 12s. per square foot; the same work is now done by the planing machine at a cost for labour of less than 1d. per square foot, and this, as you know, is one of the most important operations in mechanics. ”

“ Wherever it can be introduced as a substitute for manual labour, it is universally and willingly resorted to; of this the facts stated in my report contain many conclusive proofs, but I may here specially refer, as examples, to plough making, where eight men are able to finish thirty per day; to door making, where twenty men make 100 panelled doors per day; to last making, the process of which is completed in 11⁄2 minutes; to sewing by machinery, where one woman does the work of twenty; to net making, where one woman does the work of 100. ”

“ Great facilities are afforded in many of the States for the formation of manufacturing companies. The liabilities of partners not actively engaged in the management are limited to the proportion of the capital subscribed by each, and its amount is published in the official statements of the Company. In the case of the introduction of a new invention, or a new manufacture, the principle of limited liability produces most beneficial results. ”

“ In machinery supplied to establishments using rape oil there must be greater allowance and looseness in the fits than would be requisite if better oil, as sperm oil, were used, I need scarcely say how much more advisable it is to have the more accurate fit and use the best oil, than to have a loose fit and use the inferior oil, which causing more friction consumes greater power. ”

“ I mean the increase of size of the parts of a machine or carriage, in order to get strength, thereby adding weight until they are considered to be strong enough. In our vehicles of draught and carriages this is strikingly the case, Now this ought not to be. Lightness is the thing to aim at, and safety should be sought in the elasticity, form, and good quality of the material. ”

“ When the surface is finished, if it be rubbed on the plate without colour, the bearing points will become bright, and the observer will be able to judge of the degree of accuracy to which it has been brought. If it be as nearly true as it can be made by the hand, bright points will be seen diffused throughout its whole extent, interspersed with others less luminous, indicating thereby the degree of force with which they respectively bear. ”