On August 19th 1808 James Nasmyth, the noted Scottish engineer, was born in Edinburgh.
The second of the talented Naysmith family, I covered his brother, Patrick a couple of days ago, James was twenty years his junior, he was sent to the Royal High School where he had as a friend, Jimmy Patterson, the son of a local iron founder. Being already interested in mechanics he spent much of his time at the foundry and there he gradually learned to work and turn in wood, brass, iron, and steel.
He left school at age twelve to make model engines and other mechanical devices. At nineteen he built a full-size steam carriage which performed with acclaim. When he was twenty-one, Nasmyth accompanied his father on a trip to London, where he met machinist and engineer Henry Maudslay. During the next two years, Nasmyth studied and worked under Maudslay, learning from him as well as making valuable contributions, such as designing hexagonal-headed nuts and a flexible shaft of coiled spring steel for drilling holes in awkward places.
In 1834, Nasmyth opened his own shop in Manchester, later moving to a foundry at Patricraft, near Eccles, Greater Manchester, where he became known for his craftsmanship and steam-powered tools. It was also here, in 1839, that he invented the steam hammer, a device that allowed large materials to be forged with great accuracy. The concept of the steam hammer was simple, even though the idea was totally new. A hammering block was hoisted by steam power to a vertical position above a piece of metal. Once the hammer reached an appropriate height, steam in the piston was released and the block fell. The pistons could be regulated not only in strength of blow, but also in frequency of strokes.
At the time, Nasmyth decided to postpone patenting, building, and marketing the new steam hammer. Two-and-a-half years later, however, while visiting a fellow machinist in France, Nasmyth was shown a steam hammer that had been built from his own rough sketches. Nasmyth quickly returned to England, patented his work, and manufactured hammers for an eager market. Soon he was making hammers with four-and five-ton blocks, and by 1843 he had improved on them by injecting steam above the piston to add force to the downward blow. The steam hammer allowed larger forgings with heavier metals, tightened bonds, and made metals stronger and more dense. Not surprisingly, Nasmyth soon revived a previous interest and became involved in manufacturing steam locomotives for various railway companies.
In fourteen years, he built 109 high-pressure steam engines, pumps, and hydraulic presses. His steam hammer was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 alongside his prize-winning maps of the moon. Nasmyth retired in 1856. He built a number of telescopes and charted sunspots as well as the surface of the moon. Nasmyth also devised a vertical cylinder-boring machine and milling machines.
He co-wrote The Moon : Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite with James Carpenter (1840–1899). This book contains an interesting series of “lunar” photographs: because photography was not yet advanced enough to take actual pictures of the Moon, Nasmythmade drawings and built plaster models based on his visual observations of the Moon and then photographed the models. He died a financially successful inventor, unlike many of his peers, on May 7th, 1890.
