- Joseph Whitworth
Infobox Engineer
image_size =
caption = Sir Joseph Whitworth
name = Sir Joseph Whitworth
nationality = British
birth_date =December 21 1803
birth_place =Stockport
death_date =January 22 1887
death_place =Monte Carlo
education =
spouse = Francis Anker (m. 1825)
Mary Louisa Orrell (m. 1871)
parents =
children =
discipline =
institutions =Royal Society Institution of Mechanical Engineers
practice_name =
significant_projects =
significant_design =
significant_advance = Whitworth standardisedscrew thread s
significant_awards = Sir Joseph Whitworth, Baronet (December 21 ,1803 –January 22 ,1887 ) was an Englishengineer andentrepreneur .Biography
Early life
Whitworth was born in
Stockport , the son of Charles Whitworth, a teacher (some sources say that he was aCongregational minister), and at a young age developed an interest inmachinery .Career
After leaving school Whitworth became an
indentured apprentice to an uncle who was a cotton spinner inDerbyshire . This was for a four year term after which he worked for another four years as a mechanic in a factory inManchester . He then moved toLondon where he found employment working forHenry Maudslay , the inventor of the screw-cuttinglathe , alongside such people hasJames Nasmyth (inventor of the steam hammer) and Richard Roberts.Whitworth developed great skill as a mechanic while working for Maudslay, developing various precision machine tools and also introducing a box casting scheme for the
iron frames of machine tools that simultaneously increased their rigidity and reduced their weight.Whitworth also worked for Holtzapffel & Co (makers of ornamental lathes) and
Joseph Clement . While at Clement's workshop he helped with the manufacture ofCharles Babbage 's calculating machine, theDifference engine . He returned toOpenshaw ,Manchester , in 1833 to start his own business manufacturing lathes and other machine tools, which became renowned for their high standard of workmanship. In 1850, architect Edward Walters was commissioned to build The Firs for Whitworth. This was a grand mansion atFallowfield Manchester, which still stands today, functioning asChancellors Hotel & Conference Centre .Inventions
Whitworth popularized a method of producing accurate flat surfaces during the 1830s, using
engineer's blue and scraping techniques on three trial surfaces. Up until his introduction of the scraping technique, the same three plate method was employed using polishing techniques, giving less accurate results. This led to an explosion of development of precision instruments using these flat surface generation techniques as a basis for further construction of precise shapes.His next innovation, in 1840, was a measuring technique called "end measurements" that used a precision flat plane and measuring screw, both of his own invention. The system, with a precision of one millionth of an
inch , was demonstrated at theGreat Exhibition of 1851.In 1841 Whitworth devised a standard for
screw thread s with a fixed thread angle of 55° and having a standard pitch for a given diameter. This soon became the first nationally standardized system; its adoption by therailway companies, who until then had all used different screw threads, leading to its widespread acceptance. It later became aBritish Standard , "British Standard Whitworth ", abbreviated to BSW and governed by BS 84:1956.Whitworth rifle
Whitworth was commissioned by the War Department of the British government to design a replacement for the calibre .577-inch
Pattern 1853 Enfield , whose shortcomings had been revealed during the recentCrimean War . The Whitworth rifle had a smaller bore of 0.451 inch (11 mm) which was hexagonal, fired an elongated hexagonal bullet and had a faster rate of twist rifling [one turn in twenty inches] than the Enfield, and its performance during tests in 1859 was superior to the Enfield's in every way. The test was reported in "The Times " onApril 23 as a great success. However, the new bore design was found to be prone to fouling and it was four times as expensive to manufacture than the Enfield, so it was rejected by the British government, only to be adopted by theFrench Army . An unspecified number of Whitworth rifles found their way to the Confederate states in theAmerican Civil War , where they were called "Whitworth Sharpshooter s".The Enfield rifle was converted to Snider-Enfield Rifle by
Jacob Snider , a Dutch-American wine merchant from Philadelphia. By converting existing Enfield rifles this way, the cost of a "new" breech-loading Snider-Enfield rifle was only 12 shillings.Queen Victoria opened the first meeting of the British Rifle Association at Wimbledon, in 1860 by firing a Whitworth rifle from a fixed mechanical rest. The rifle scored a bull's eye at a range of 400 yards (366 m).
Breech-loading artillery
Whitworth also designed a large Rifled Breech Loading gun with a 2.75 inch (70 mm) bore, a 12 pound 11 ounce (5.75 kg) projectile and a range of about six miles (10 km). The spirally-grooved projectile was patented in 1855. This was also rejected by the British army, who preferred the guns from Armstrong, but was also used in the American Civil War.
While trying to increase the bursting strength of his gun barrels, Whitworth patented a process called "fluid-compressed steel" for casting
steel under pressure, and built a new steel works near Manchester. Some of his castings were shown at the Great Exhibition in Paris ca. 1883.Awards
Whitworth received many awards for the excellence of his designs, and was financially very successful. In 1850, then a Fellow of the
Royal Society and President of theInstitution of Mechanical Engineers , he built a house calledThe Firs inFallowfield , south of Manchester. In 1854 he boughtStancliffe Hall inDarley Dale ,Derbyshire . In 1872 he moved there with his second wife.A strong believer in the value of technical education, Whitworth backed the new Mechanics' Institute in Manchester, which was to become
UMIST , and helped found the Manchester School of Design. In 1868, he founded a scholarship for the advancement of mechanical engineering. In recognition of his achievements and contributions to education in Manchester, the Whitworth Building of theUniversity of Manchester 's Main Campus is named in his honour, as well as the University Halls of residence "Whitworth Park" and one of the main streets in Manchester's city centre, "Whitworth Street".Death
Whitworth died in
Monte Carlo , where he had travelled in the hope of improving his health. He was buried at the church of Darley (orDarley Dale ) St Helen in Derbyshire. A detailed obituary was published in the American magazine "The Manufacturer and Builder " (Volume 19, Issue 6, June 1887). He directed his trustees to spend his fortune on philanthropic projects, which they still do to this day.Books
*"Guns and Steel" (1873) published in London by Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer.
References
*
*Persondata
NAME= Whitworth, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Englishengineer ,entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH=December 21 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH=Stockport
DATE OF DEATH=January 22 1887
PLACE OF DEATH=Monte Carlo
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.