Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/175

 ''Mech. Eng''. 1875, p. 268). In 1883 the gun-foundry board of the United States, after paying a visit to Whitworth's large works at Openshaw, near Manchester, gave it as their opinion that the system there carried on surpassed all other methods of forging, and that the ‘experience enjoyed by the board during its visit amounted to a revelation’ (Report, October 1884, Washington, 1885, 8vo, p. 14).

At the Paris exhibition of 1867 Whitworth was awarded one of the five ‘grands prix’ allotted to Great Britain. In September 1868, after witnessing the performance of one of the Whitworth field-guns at Châlons, Napoleon III sent him the Legion of Honour, and about the same time he received the Albert medal of the Society of Arts for his instruments of measurement and uniform standards. On 18 March 1868 he wrote to Disraeli, offering to found thirty scholarships of the annual value of 100l. each, to be competed for upon a basis of proficiency in the theory and practice of mechanics. Next year his generous action and his merits as an inventor were publicly recognised by his being created a baronet (1 Nov. 1869).

His first wife died in October 1870, and on 12 April 1871 he married Mary Louisa (b. 31 Aug. 1829), daughter of Daniel Broadhurst, and widow of Alfred Orrell of Cheadle. Shortly before his second marriage (though still retaining the Firs, Fallowfield, as his Manchester residence) he purchased a seat and estate at Stancliffe, near Matlock. There upon an unpromising site, amid a number of quarries, he constructed a wonderful park, and he acquired much local celebrity for his gardens, his trotting horses, and his herd of shorthorns. His iron billiard-table, too (remarkable for its true surface), his lawns, cattle pens, and stables were all ‘models.’ His interest in artillery was still unrelaxed, however, and he was continually making new experiments. He was the first to penetrate armour-plating upwards of four inches in thickness, and the first to demonstrate the possibility of exploding armour-shells without using any kind of fuse. In 1873 he gave to the world his own version of the points at issue with the ordnance department in ‘Miscellaneous Papers on Practical Subjects: Guns and Steel’ (London, 8vo). The unfortunate treatment to which he was subjected was due in part, no doubt, to his plain and inflexible determination. ‘He would not modify a model which he knew to be right out of deference to committees, who, he considered, were incomparably his inferiors in technical knowledge, and who, being officials, were liable to take offence at the plain speaking of one who regarded official and infallible as far from synonymous.’ In 1874 he converted his extensive works at Manchester into a limited liability company. Whitworth, his foremen, and others in the concern, twenty-three in number, held 92 per cent. of the shares, and had practical control; no goodwill was charged, and the plant was taken at a low valuation. At the same time the clerks, draughtsmen, and workmen were encouraged and assisted to take shares (25l. each). On 1 Jan. 1897 the firm was united with that of Armstrong's of Elswick, with an authorised capital of upwards of 4,000,000l.

As he advanced in age Whitworth formed the habit of wintering in the Riviera; but he was not fond of going abroad, and in 1885 he made for himself at Stancliffe a large winter-garden, hoping that he might thus be able to spend the winters at home. He passed one winter successfully in Derbyshire, but in October 1886 he went out to Monte Carlo, and there he died on 22 Jan. 1887. Lady Whitworth died on 26 May 1896, and, there being no issue by either wife, the baronetcy became extinct. The second Lady Whitworth was buried beside her husband in a vault in Darley churchyard.

For many years before his death Whitworth made no secret of his intention to devote the bulk of his fortune to public and especially educational purposes, but died without maturing any scheme. By his will and codicils, after giving a large life interest both in real and personal estate to his widow, and making both charitable and personal legacies, he devised and bequeathed his residuary estate to his wife and his friends, Mr. Richard Copley Christie and Mr. Robert Dukinfield Darbishire, in equal shares for their own use, ‘they being each of them aware of the general nature of the objects for which I should myself have applied such property.’ After paying 100,000l. to the Science and Art Department in fulfilment of Whitworth's intention expressed in 1868 of permanently endowing thirty scholarships, the legatees, during the twelve years that elapsed after the testator's death, devoted various sums, amounting in all to 594,416l., to educational and charitable purposes. Of this amount 198,648l. was given by them to the Whitworth Park and Institute, Manchester; 118,815l. to the Owens College (besides an estate of the value of 29,404l. given to the college for hospital purposes); 60,110l. to the Manchester Technical School; 30,407l. to the Baths, Library, and other public pur-