3-078-075 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Mr. James Nasmyth, engineer, inventor of the Steam-Hammer, 1890. Portrait from a photograph by Elliott and Fry. 'This eminent mechanical engineer, famed as the inventor of the steam-hammer, died on May 7, in London, aged eighty-two. James Nasmyth, one of an ancient Scottish family in Tweeddale, and son of the well-known artist Alexander Nasmyth, was educated at Edinburgh, where he early evinced a taste for mechanical pursuits. As a boy he made a small working steam-engine to grind his father's colours. In 1829 he came to London, and was appointed by Mr. Maudsley his assistant in his private workshop. On the death of Mr. Maudsley, in 1831, young Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh, made himself a set of engineering tools, and with these and a capital of £63 commenced business in Manchester in 1834. Subsequently he removed to Patricroft, four miles from the city, where an extensive series of workshops soon arose. There the requirement for the Great Western Railway of a hammer capable of forging a wrought-iron shaft 30 in. in diameter led to the invention of the steam- hammer which bears Mr. Nasmyth's name - a machine capable of such delicate adjustment that it will accomplish the most ponderous work, and will also crack a nut'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.