Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/127

Rh, architectural, and picturesque, he determined to walk leisurely back to London. He was impressed with the pretty surroundings of Manchester, especially as seen from the Patricroft Bridge; visited the cotton mills, and continued his walk to London, occupied with the thought of settling down in the busy neighborhood he had just left.

Mr. Maudsley died in February, 1831, and Mr. Nasmyth continued to work with his partner, Mr. Field, till the latter part of that year, when, in the twenty-third year of his age, he decided to go into business for himself. Mr. Field was pleased with his intention, and gave him facilities for starting. He went to Edinburgh and set up a small temporary shop, where he made himself a set of engineering tools. He subsequently chose Manchester as his permanent place of business. He found a shop in an eligible situation, with convenient appurtenances, but in a building occupied by other tenants. The time of his starting in Manchester was an auspicious one for his business. Workmen of all kinds were short of the demand, and, taking advantage of the scarcity, were disposed to be careless, irregular, and insubordinate, and machine tools, which would not get drunk or go on strike and were unfailingly regular and accurate, were in great request. Mr. Nasmyth got his full share of the work of supplying these tools: planing machines, slide laths, drilling, boring, and slotting machines, and others; and orders pouring in upon him, his flat became loaded with work. He having constructed an engine that was almost too large for the shop, one end of the beam, while it was being taken apart for shipment, crushed through the floor, disturbing the tenant below, and it had become evident that he needed a larger shop. He found a site within the very landscape that had attracted his attention years before, as he was resting at the Patricroft Bridge. He built there the celebrated Bridgewater Foundry, and took in Mr. Holbrook Gaskell as a partner. Observing the inconvenience and danger attending the operation of the foundry ladle then in use, he invented the screw safety ladle, with which, he says, some twelve or sixteen tons of molten iron could be decanted "with as much neatness and exactness as the pouring out of a glass of wine from a decanter."

The maxim of the Bridgewater Foundry, "Free trade in ability," was put in force early in its operation. By this maxim was meant promotion of the workmen according to the skill and activity they displayed, without regard to the kind of apprenticeship they had served. This conflicted with the rule of the trades unions, which required a seven years' apprenticeship, and the inevitable strike and picketing occurred. Workmen were brought from Scotland, the trades unions were conquered, and the foundry continued to practice and exemplify its maxim unmolested. The