Henry Maudslay

Henry Maudslay
Portrait by Pierre Louis ('Henri') Grevedon 1827
Born	22 August 1771 Woolwich, London, England
Died	14 February 1831 (1831-02-15) (aged 59) Lambeth, London, England
Nationality	British
Engineering career
Significant advance	Machine tool technology

Henry Maudslay (pronunciation and spelling) (22 August 1771 – 14 February 1831) was a British machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology. His inventions were an important foundation for the Industrial Revolution.

Maudslay's invention about 1800 of a metal lathe to cut metal enabled the manufacture of standard screw thread sizes. Standard screw thread sizes allowed interchangeable parts and the development of mass production.

Henry Maudslay was the fifth of seven children of Henry Maudslay, a wheelwright in the Royal Engineers, and Margaret (nee Laundy) a young widow. His father was wounded in action and so in 1756 became an 'artificer' at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, London, where he remained until 1776 and died in 1780.

Maudslay began work at the age of 12 as a "powder monkey", one of the boys employed in filling cartridges at the Arsenal. After two years, he was transferred to a carpenter’s shop followed by a blacksmith’s forge, where at the age of fifteen he began training as a blacksmith. He seems to have specialised in the lighter, more complex kind of forge work. During his time at the Arsenal, Maudslay also worked at the Royal Foundry, where had installed an innovative horizontal boring machine in 1772.

Maudslay acquired such a good reputation that Joseph Bramah called for his services on the recommendation of one of his employees. Bramah was surprised that he was only eighteen, but Maudslay demonstrated his ability and started work at Bramah’s workshop in Denmark Street, St Giles.