Part 11 (2/2)
I have this handy apparatus by inal efficiency I recently set it in action after its rest of fifty years, and found that it yielded results quite equal to rateful remembrance of its past services
But I was resolved thatI therefore directed
I found that a -house would cost move than I could afford to spend In order to keep within ht the raw materials and cooked them inof a very si to a tinsmith near at hand, and in two days I had it in full operation The apparatus cost ten shi+llings, including the laree to enable me to carry out my resolution, and as it may serve as a lesson to others who have an earnest desire to live econo and a description ofor meat pan rested on the upper rim of the external cylindrical case, and was easily removable in order to be placed handy for service The requisite heat was supplied by an oil lah I found that one as enough I put the meat in the pot, with the other co It si, when I came home with a healthy appetite to enjoy my dinner I well remember the first day that I set the apparatus to work I ran toon When I lifted the cover it was siusto came forth that I was almost tempted to fall to and discuss the contents But the time had not yet coenerally cooked in it was leg of beef, with sliced potato, bits of onion chopped down, and a h of water to cover ”the elements” When stewed slowly the meat became very tender; and the whole yielded a capital dish, such as a very Soyer ht envy It was partaken of with a zest that, no doubt, was a very important element in its savouriness The whole cost of this capital dinner was about 4 1/2d I sometimes varied the meat with rice boiled with a few raisins and a pennyworth of milk
My breakfast and tea, with bread, cost s cost 3s 6d a week A little multiplication will satisfy any one hoas that I contrived to live econos a week In the following year s a week, and then I began to take butter to my bread
To return to my employment under Mr Maudslay One of the first jobs that I undertook was in assisting him to make a beautiful sines The engines were then in course of construction in the factory They were considered a bold advance on the reat power, but in carrying out eneral structure Mr Maudslay had en that he desired to have an exact model of them placed in his library, so as to keep a visible record of his ideas constantly before hiarded as the cul theshould be inal There were about three hundred minute bolts and nuts to be reduced to the proportional size
I esteereat compliment to be entrusted with their execution
They were all to be onal form Many of them had collars To produce them by the use of the file in the ordinary mode would not only have been difficult and tedious, but in soe] Collar-nut cutting ested to Mr Maudslay a contrivance of id exactness in size as well as forranted his per of a hard steel circular cutter to act as a circular file When brought into operation in the production of these minute six-sided collared nuts, held fir plate and attached to the slide-rest, each side was brought in succession under the action of the circular file or cutter with the ard to the division of the six sides The result was absolutely perfect as respects the exactness of the six equal sides of the hexagonal nut, as well as their precise position in regard to the collar that was of one solid piece with it There was no great a this special tool, or in adapting it to the slide-rest of the lathe, to whose spindle end the file or cutter / was fixed
But the result was so satisfactory, both as regards the accuracy and rapidity of execution in co, that Mr Maudslay was greatly pleased with the arrange this clever little tool An enlarged edition of this collar-nut cutting machine was soon after introduced into the factory
[Iement of the machine
It was one of the specialities that I adopted in my oorkshop when I coerly adopted by ineers, e abundantly supplied with this special e to me to be so intimately associated with this Great Mechanic He was so invariably kind, pleasant, and congenial He communicated an infinite number of what he hureat use tohours usually ter But as many of the depart busy tih theress On these occasions I often oing his round of inspection, and when there was any special work in hand he would call me up to him to and explain point in connection with it that orthy of particular notice I found this valuable privilege most instructive, as I obtained froht into the methods, means, and processes by which the skilful workman advanced the various classes of work I was also permitted to take notes and make rapid sketches of any object that specially interested me
The entire establish of the most instructive kind
Mr Maudslay took pleasure in showingall manner of materials eht bethem into the desired forms with the least expenditure of time and labour
This in fact is the true philosophy of construction When clear ideas have been acquired upon the subject, after careful observation and practice, the comparative ease and certainty hich complete mastery over the most obdurate materials is obtained, opens up the most direct road to the attainment of commercial as well as of professional success
To be permitted to stand by and observe the systematic way in which Mr Maudslay would first mark or line out his work, and the masterly manner in which he would deal with his materials, and cause them to assume the desired forms, was a treat beyond all expression
Every stroke of the hammer, chisel, or file, told as an effective step towards the intended result It was a never-to-be-forgotten practical lesson in workmanshi+p, in the most exalted sense of the term
In conforht way and a wrong way of doing everything,” he took the shortest and most direct cuts to acco o froo round by Inverness” Another of his droll sayings was that he ”considered no irand result of thoughtful practice is e call experience: it is the power or faculty of seeing clearly before you begin, what to avoid and what to select--or rather what to do and what not to do
High-class worke, was in his hands quite a science Every piece of as made subject to the soundest philosophical principles, as applied to the use and treatave such a char with tools and materials He loved this sort of work for its own sake, far more than for its pecuniary results At the saard for the substantial evidence of his supreeanisation of his factory
The innate love of truth and accuracy which distinguished Mr Maudslay, led hiineering workmen which enabled them to produce those details of mechanical structures in which perfect flat or true plane surfaces were required This was an essential condition for the effective and durable performance of their functions So-lathe and slide-rest But in most cases the object was attained by the dexterous use of the file, so that ”flat filing” then was, as it still is, one of the highest qualities of the skilled worko beyond Henry Maudslay himself in his dexterous use of the file By a few masterly strokes he could produce plane surfaces so true that when their accuracy was tested by a standard plane surface of absolute truth, they were never found defective; neither convex, nor concave, nor ”cross-winding,”--that is, twisted
The i such Standard Planes caused him to have many of them placed on the benches beside his workht at once conveniently test their work Three of each wereof each on each the projecting surfaces were effaced When the surfaces approached very near to the true plane, the still projecting minute points were carefully reduced by hard steel scrapers, until at last the standard plane surface was secured When placed over each other they would float upon the thin stratued by time and pressure When they adhered closely to each other, they could only be separated by sliding each off each This art of producing absolutely plane surfaces is, I believe, a very old e”
But, as ereatly contributed to the improvement of the work turned out It was used for the surfaces of slide valves, or wherever absolute true plane surfaces were essential to the attainment of the best results, not only in thethe taste of his men towards first-class workmanshi+p
Maudslay's love of accuracy also led hiiven by the employ the absolute or relative dihted to construct with his own hands
Soinstruive the required verdict as to accuracy In order, therefore, to get rid of all difficulties in this respect, he designed and constructed a very compact and handy instrument which he always had on his bench beside his vice He could thus, in a most accurate and rapid manner, obtain the th, width, or diameter, of any hich he had in hand In consequence of the absolute truth of the verdicts of the instrument, he considered it as a Court of Final Appeal, and hue] Maudslay's ”Lord Chancellor”
This trustworthy ”Companion of the Bench” consisted of a very substantial and inflexible bed or base of hard brass At one end of it was a perfectly hardened steel surface plate, having an absolutely true flat or plane face, against which one end or side of the object to be measured was placed; whilst a similar absolutely true plane surface of hardened steel was advanced by means of a suitable fine thread screw, until the object to be measured was just delicately in contact with it
The object was, as it were, between the jaws of a vice, but without any squeeze--being just free, which could be easily ascertained by feeling These two absolutely plane surfaces, bethich the object lay, had their distances apart easily read off froraved on the bed of the instrument, in inches and tenth parts of an inch, while the disk-head or handle of the screas divided on its edge rim into hundredth or thousandth parts, as these bore an exact metrical relation to the pitch of the screw thatvice (as I may term it) nearer or farther apart
Not only absolute measure could be obtained by this means, but also the aree of exactness that went quite beyond all the require mechanism; such, for instance, as the thousandth part of an inch!