Iron Men: How One London Factory Powered the Industrial Revolution and Shaped the Modern World

by David Waller, Norman Foster (Foreword by)

Overview

In the early nineteenth century, Henry Maudslay, an engineer from a humble background, opened a factory in Westminster Bridge Road, a stone’s throw from the Thames. His workshop became in its day the equivalent of Google and Apple combined, attracting the country’s best in engineering talent. Their story of innovation and ambition tells how precision engineering made the industrial revolution possible, helping Great Britain become the workshop of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783089611
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	04/22/2019
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Waller is an author, business consultant and former Financial Times journalist specialising in business and the nineteenth century.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Queen and the Machines; 1. Building Blocks and Boring Machines – The Portsmouth Block Factory; 2. Maudslays – The Most Complete Factory in the Kingdom; 3. The Maudslay Men; 4. A Wonderful Undertaking – The Thames Tunnel; 5. Richard Roberts and the Iron Man of Manchester; 6. Charles Babbage, Joseph Clement, and the Mechanization of Thought; 7. The True Birth of the Railways; 8. James Hall Nasmyth – The Steam-Hammer and Entrepreneurial Triumph in Manchester; 9. The Maudslay Men and the Transport Revolution; 10.The Turn of the Screws – Sir Joseph Whitworth and the Quest for Mechanical Perfection; 11. The Great Lock Controversy of 1851; 12. Capital vs Labour: The Great Lock-Out of 1852; 13. Instruments of Destruction; 14. Endings and Legacies

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

'[David Waller] concentrates on London’s role in the industrial revolution and machine tool inventor Henry Maudslay, one of its linchpins. … He shows how Maudslay’s factory in Lambeth, established in 1810, inspired and informed a generation of engineers and enabled the industrial revolution by standardising parts and creating reliable machines to make them.' —The Financial Times

One of the best books on engineering history to be published in many a moon'. —Nick Smith, Engineering & Technology Magazine

Our image of the industrial revolution is dominated by the North and the Midlands. … But as … David Waller argues, the really pioneering work was done in London. Waller describes the work of Henry Maudslay, who opened a factory in Lambeth in 1810.' —The Telegraph

‘With wit, assurance and dexterity, Iron Men captures the ingenuity, determination and defiance of a small group of Britons whose inventions made their country the epicentre of technology. The early nineteenth-century inventors, who created the automatic spinning mule, devised the micrometer, standardized the manufacturing of screws and bolts and concocted the steam engine, had an influence as widespread as that enjoyed today by companies in Silicon Valley and China. David Waller has composed an absorbing tale of man's ability to create a lot from a little.’ —Sir Michael Moritz, Chairman, Sequoia Capital

'David Waller has done us a great favour in highlighting Maudslay’s boundless creativity and energy and reveals him as the mentor and inspiration to a generation of talented engineers who changed the world.'—Lord Norman Foster

Editorial Reviews

Made Here Now — Review

Birkbeck Events Blog

London Historians

E&T Magazine

Management Today

Iron Men - Author’s book webpage

The Telegraph

The Financial Times

From the Publisher