JOHN WILKINSON
John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson was an English industrialist who pioneered the use of cast iron. In the early 1760s, John and his brother William inherited their father's ironworks in Bersham, North Wales and founded the New Bersham Company. Most notable was his work with James Watt and the manufacturing of cylinders for his steam engines. Watt had found that the cylinders he was using were sloppy and almost rendered the piston useless. Wilkinson created cylinders out of a solid piece of iron and using a drill mounted on wheels, which were moved into the face of the piece of iron. The result was a precise cylinder that saved energy and radically improved the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of steam engines. Eventually he adapted his engine to produce rotary motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water.
HENRY MAUDSLAY
The son of a workman at the Woolwich Arsenal, Maudslay invented machines of fundamental importance to the Industrial Revolution. The most significant of these was the metal lathe which enabled the manufacture of standard screw thread sizes. The ability to manufacture these standard screw thread sizes allowed interchangeable parts and the development of mass production. He also invented methods for printing calico cloth and for desalting seawater for ships’ boilers, and he perfected a measuring machine that was accurate to 0.0001 inch. He was the first to realize the critical importance in a machine shop of accurate plane surfaces for guiding the tools; he produced for his workmen standard planes so smooth that they adhered when placed atop each other and could be separated only by sliding. He also designed and built a great number of stationary and marine engines.
ELI WHITNEY
Eli Whitney was born on December 8, 1765, in Westboro, Massachusetts. He grew up on a farm yet had an affinity for machine work and technology. In 1794 Whitney patented the Cotton Gin (Gin being short for engine), a device that could produce more cotton in an hour than what could be produced by multiple workers in a day. His biggest contribution however, was championing the interchangeable parts system. Being as America was potentially going to war with France the government looked to private contractors to supply firearms. Whitney promised to manufacture 10,000 rifles within a two-year period of time, and the government accepted his bid in 1798. Whilst it actually took him 10 years to produce the 10,000-firearms Whitney managed to refine his process to ensure that his milling machines cut and sliced metal by a pattern to produce one singular part of the weapon. When these parts were put together, they became a fully working model. Despite being 8 years past his deadline, Whitney received another order for 15,000 muskets which he actually managed to complete in a 2-year timeframe.
BRYAN DONKIN
Raised in Sandhoe, Northumberland, his father was a surveyor and land agent. Donkin initially began work in the same business and worked from September 1789 to February 1791 as bailiff at Knole House and estate for the Duke of Dorset. While working for the Duke of Dorset, Donkin consulted the engineer John Smeaton, an acquaintance of his father, as to how he could become an engineer. After doing an apprenticeship with John Hall in Dartford, Donkin set up on his own making moulds for paper works (paper making was done by hand at this point in time). In 1804 Donkin built the Fourdrinier Machine, whilst not his own design, he is credited for perfecting the process of the paper-making machine. He also worked with printing machinery, obtaining a patent in 1813 for a Polygonal Printing machine which soon became the industry standard due to its composition ink rollers which were considered better than the existing leather-covered ones. Another achievement of Donkins was setting up the first cannery to use tinned iron canisters. Despite not being the original creator of the canning food process, it was his experimentation and development that enabled their process to be so successful. His canning firm is still alive and well today, however we all now know it as Crosse & Blackwells.
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