Published Resources Details Journal Article

Author
Evans, F. T.
Title
The Maudslay Touch: Henry Maudslay, Product of the past and maker of the future
In
Transactions of The Newcomen Society
Imprint
vol. 66, 1994-1995, pp. 153-174
Description

Accession No.1937

Abstract

"Henry Maudslay is a tantalising figure. He was unquestionably one of the 19th century's greatest engineers, yet we have virtually nothing that he wrote. James Nasmyth's Autobiography and Holtzapffel give us an idea of how he worked; there are useful nuggets about his machines in various encyclopaedias; but for the most part we just catch glimpses of his great shadow. Jane Austen raises our hopes when she sends Fanny Price on a visit to Portsmouth Dockyards to see the improvements - but then all that she and her friends did was 'sat down upon some timbers in the yard, or found a seat on board a vessel in the stocks' and talked the afternoon away. No one can remain cross for long with the immortal Jane, but surely she- with two brothers that would become admirals - might have let Fanny go a few yards further and see Maudslay's Block-making Machinery. More surprisingly, the Mechanics' Magazine, which appeared weekly during the last eleven years of Maudslay's life, barely mentions him; searching through 34 years of its numbers has revealed only one short letter about the man. But his machines have a style of their own and they speak for him instead. Just as we describe his great contemporary's style as 'the Nelson touch, we find the same individuality in Maudslay's work."