Abstract
A BKONZE plaque has recently been placed on 47 York Place, Edinburgh, to mark the birthplace of James Nasmyth, the celebrated inventor, engineer and astronomer, who was born there on August 19, 1808. The tenth of the eleven children of the distinguished painter, Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840), he inherited from his father his artistic skill and mechanical ingenuity. He was brought up in surroundings which stimulated his natural talents, and at the age of twenty-one he became the assistant of the famous Henry Maudslay, of Lambeth, being thereby brought into contact with many able engineers. When twenty-six, he started in business for himself in Manchester, and two years later founded the Bridgewater Foundry, Patricroft, for the manufacture of locomotives, machine tools, etc., which soon gamed a European reputation. By the time he reached the age of forty-eight, Nasmyth was able to retire with an ample fortune, and settling at Penshurst, Kent, he erected an observatory and became well known for his observations and theories of the sun and the moon. Among his many mechanical inventions the most important was the steam hammer ; but it can be said that he made improvements in all machines which occupied his attention. His “Autobiography", edited by Samuel Smiles and published in 1883, is among the best of such works written by engineers. Nasmyth died in London on May 7, 1890. The new memorial at Edinburgh has been erected’ through the efforts of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Watt Club.
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Memorial to James Nasmyth. Nature 164, 735 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164735b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164735b0