https://de.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Apwoolrich 2026-02-23T07:40:34Z Benutzerbeiträge MediaWiki 1.46.0-wmf.16 https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656065 2006-03-08T20:26:49Z

<p>Apwoolrich: add Times obit details</p> <hr /> <div>'''Hugh Chisholm''', ([[1866]] – [[1924]]), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. He was born in London on [[22 February]] [[1866]], a son of [[Henry Williams Chisholm]], Warden of the Standards at the [[Board of Trade]]. Hugh Chisholm was educated at [[Felstead School]] and [[Christ Church, Oxford]], read for the Bar and was called to the [[Middle Temple]] in [[1892]].<br /> <br /> He worked for ''[[The St James's Gazette]]'' as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to ''[[The Standard]]'' as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to ''[[The Times]]'', to act as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''[[The Times]]'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''[[The Britannica Year-Book]]'', he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the [[World War I|War]], resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> <br /> * Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> * ''The Times'', 30 September, 1924, p 14, Issue 43770, Col d. Obituary of Chisholm.<br /> * [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, née Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. <br /> * Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> * ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> * ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;<br /> <br /> ==See also==<br /> <br /> * [[The Times]]<br /> * [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> ==External links==<br /> <br /> * The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656061 2005-11-12T09:36:28Z

<p>Apwoolrich: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Hugh Chisholm''', ([[1866]] – [[1924]]), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. He was born in London on [[22 February]] [[1866]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in [[1892]].<br /> <br /> He worked for ''[[The St James's Gazette]]'' as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to ''[[The Standard]]'' as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to ''[[The Times]]'', to act as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''[[The Britannica Year-Book]]'', he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> <br /> * Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> * [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, née Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. <br /> * Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> * ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> * ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;<br /> <br /> ==See also==<br /> <br /> * [[The Times]]<br /> * [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> ==External links==<br /> <br /> * The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656060 2005-11-12T09:35:22Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* References */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Hugh Chisholm''', ([[1866]] – [[1924]]), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. He was born in London on [[22 February]] [[1866]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in [[1892]].<br /> <br /> He worked for ''[[The St James's Gazette]]'' as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to ''[[The Standard]]'' as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to ''[[The Times]]'', to act as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''[[The Britannica Year-Book]]'', he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924.<br /> <br /> ==References==<br /> <br /> * Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> * [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, née Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]. <br /> * Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> * ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> * ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;<br /> <br /> ==See also==<br /> <br /> * [[The Times]]<br /> * [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> ==External links==<br /> <br /> * The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171608 2005-09-17T19:27:16Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Printed references */ Add reference</p> <hr /> <div>The '''Portsmouth Block Mills''' form part of the [[Portsmouth Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] to supply the British [[Royal Navy]] with [[pulley]] blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since [[2003]] [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the [[2005]] Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Board began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and [[Plymouth]], and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet and [[dry dock]]s. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist ([[engineer]]), Draughtsmen, [[Architect]], [[Chemist]], Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of [[copper]] plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Matthew Murray|Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * Two-jaw gripping chucks were used on some machines.These were the precursoir of the three-jaw chucks used on lathes today. <br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> *The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> * The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> * Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> * Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> * Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> * Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> * Coad, Jonathan, ''The Portsmouth Block Mills : Bentham, Brunel and the start of the Royal Navy's Industrial Revolution'', 2005,ISBN 1873592876<br /> * Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> * Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002<br /> <br /> [[Category:Royal Navy]]</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656054 2005-08-13T20:24:03Z

<p>Apwoolrich: tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the ''[[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]''. He was born in London on 22 February 1866, a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''[[The St James's Gazette]]'' as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to ''[[The Standard]]'' as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to ''[[The Times]]'', to act as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''[[The Britannica Year-Book]]'', he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656053 2005-08-13T20:21:25Z

<p>Apwoolrich: Tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the ''[[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]''. He was born in London on 22 February 1866, a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''[[The St James's Gazette]]'' as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to ''[[The Standard]]'' as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to ''[[The Times]]'', to as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''[[The Britannica Year-Book]]'', he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656052 2005-08-13T20:18:30Z

<p>Apwoolrich: </p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the ''[[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica.]]'' He was born in London on 22 February 1866, a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''[[The St James's Gazette]]'' as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to ''[[The Standard]]'' as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to ''[[The Times]]'', to as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''[[The Britannica Year-Book]]'', he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656051 2005-08-13T20:13:40Z

<p>Apwoolrich: Add ref to EB 12ed</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924), journalist and editor of the 11th and 12th editions of the [[''Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica.'']] He was born in London on 22 February 1866, a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for [[''The St James's Gazette'']] as assistant editor from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved in 1899 to [[''The Standard'']] as chief leader-writer and moved in 1900 to [[''The Times'']], to as co-editor with Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace and President Hadley of Yale on the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica. He became in 1903 editor for the 11th edition.(1910-1911) <br /> <br /> Chisolm had been suggested as replacement as Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of [[''The Britannica Year-Book'']], he was appointed day editor. In August 1913 he was appointed a director of the company. He was financial editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the three volumes forming the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1921-2.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> Article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;, in ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', 12th edition,(1921) vol 30, p 669.<br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth,worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656050 2005-08-13T18:19:58Z

<p>Apwoolrich: typo</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'' from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]] (19-2-3). He later became editor for the 11th edition.(1920-1911) <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company. He was Financial Editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarked on the editorship of the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1922.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656049 2005-08-13T17:57:05Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* References: */ Typo</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'' from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]] (19-2-3). He later became editor for the 11th edition.(1920-1911) <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company. He was Financial Editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarged on the editorship of the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1922.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th and 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656048 2005-08-13T17:56:21Z

<p>Apwoolrich: Add external link</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'' from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]] (19-2-3). He later became editor for the 11th edition.(1920-1911) <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company. He was Financial Editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarged on the editorship of the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1922.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == External link ==<br /> <br /> The Chisholm family [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh1.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[Janet E. Courtney]]: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th amnd 12th editions of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656047 2005-08-13T15:35:54Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* References: */ Tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'' from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]] (19-2-3). He later became editor for the 11th edition.(1920-1911) <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company. He was Financial Editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarged on the editorship of the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1922.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'', article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656046 2005-08-13T15:34:29Z

<p>Apwoolrich: Tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'' from 1892 and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the seven volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]] (19-2-3). He later became editor for the 11th edition.(1920-1911) <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company. He was Financial Editor throughout the War, resigning in 1920 when he embarged on the editorship of the 12th edition of ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', which was published in 1922.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472<br /> <br /> Dictionary of National Biogrtaphy, article &quot;Hugh Chisholm&quot;</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656045 2005-08-13T15:00:33Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Online reference */ delete as url does not work any more</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'', and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. He later became editor for the 11th edition. <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656044 2005-08-13T14:58:51Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Online reference */ tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'', and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. He later became editor for the 11th edition. <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == Online reference ==<br /> <br /> <br /> The Chisholm family, [http//www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChisBell/chbh4.txt/]<br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656043 2005-08-13T14:57:07Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Online reference */ tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'', and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. He later became editor for the 11th edition. <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == Online reference ==<br /> <br /> <br /> The Chisolm family, [http//www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChrisBell/chbh4.txt/]<br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656042 2005-08-13T14:52:12Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* References: */ Tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'', and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. He later became editor for the 11th edition. <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == Online reference ==<br /> <br /> <br /> The Chisolm family, [http//www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChrisBell/chbh4.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney, ne&amp;eacute; Hogarth, worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11th edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912, (1939) pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, (1947) pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hugh_Chisholm&diff=190656041 2005-08-13T14:48:11Z

<p>Apwoolrich: Oops, forgot to log on / tweak</p> <hr /> <div>Hugh Chisholm, (1866-1924),journalist and editor of the 11th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]], a son of Henry Williams Chisholm, Warden of the Standards at the Board of Trade. Hugh Chisholm was educated at Felstead School and Christ Church, Oxford, read for the Bar and was called to the Middle Temple in 1892.<br /> <br /> He worked for ''The St James's Gazette'', and was appointed editor in 1897. He moved to ''The Standard'' as chief leader-writer and later moved to ''The Times'', to assist in the preparation of the volumes forming the 10th edition of the [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. He later became editor for the 11th edition. <br /> <br /> He had been suggested as replacement at Editor of ''The Times'' as an alternative to Dawson, and in 1913, following his return from America overseeing the printing of ''Britannica'', he was appointed Day Editor. In August 1914 he was appointed a director of the company.<br /> <br /> Chisholm died in 1924<br /> <br /> <br /> == Links ==<br /> <br /> <br /> [[The Times]]<br /> <br /> [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]<br /> <br /> <br /> == Online reference ==<br /> <br /> <br /> The Chisolm family, [http//www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~recb/chisoc/Medlam/ChrisBell/chbh4.txt]<br /> <br /> <br /> == References: ==<br /> <br /> <br /> Janet E. Courtney: ''An Oxford Portrait Gallery'', (London) 1931, pp 167-157. Janet Courtney Ne&amp;eacute;e Hogarth worked for ''The Times'' Book Club and was later responsible for the arrangement of the Index volume to the 11 the edition of [[Encyclop&amp;aelig;dia Britannica]]. <br /> <br /> Anon, ''History of the Times'', Vol 3, 1884 - 1912. pp 121, 519, 755, 829<br /> <br /> ''Ibid'', Vol 4, 1912 - 1920, pp 143, 137, 138, 208, 472</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171607 2005-07-21T20:51:34Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* History */ Tweak link</p> <hr /> <div>The '''Portsmouth Block Mills''' form part of the [[Portsmouth Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] to supply the British [[Royal Navy]] with [[pulley]] blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since [[2003]] [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the [[2005]] Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Board began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and [[Plymouth]], and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet and [[dry dock]]s. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist ([[engineer]]), Draughtsmen, [[Architect]], [[Chemist]], Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of [[copper]] plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Matthew Murray|Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * Two-jaw gripping chucks were used on some machines.These were the precursoir of the three-jaw chucks used on lathes today. <br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> *The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> * The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> * Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> * Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> * Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> * Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> * Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> * Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002<br /> <br /> [[Category:Royal Navy]]</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171596 2004-08-26T17:53:37Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Significant features */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * Two-jaw gripping chucks were used on some machines.These were the precursoir of the three-jaw chucks used on lathes today. <br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> *The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171595 2004-08-03T06:50:34Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Significant features */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> *The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171594 2004-08-03T06:49:41Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Significant features */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171593 2004-08-03T06:47:50Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Printed references */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171592 2004-08-02T18:12:43Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* On line links */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]] account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk]<br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171591 2004-08-02T18:10:56Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Significant features */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangeability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171590 2004-08-02T18:09:59Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Significant features */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * [[Interchangability]] of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171589 2004-08-02T18:02:06Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* The Manufacture of the Block-making machines */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of [[interchangeability]], of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171588 2004-08-01T18:09:23Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Later history */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171587 2004-07-31T06:05:29Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* The Manufacture of the Block-making machines */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171586 2004-07-30T20:00:33Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Publicity */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemble to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopaedia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171585 2004-07-30T19:57:43Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* The Manufacture of the Block-making machines */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemble to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay]] to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopeadia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171584 2004-07-30T19:57:05Z

<p>Apwoolrich: /* Significant features */</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.<br /> * The morticing machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.<br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemble to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay to make them]], and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopeadia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portsmouth_Block_Mills&diff=187171583 2004-07-30T19:24:06Z

<p>Apwoolrich: New article</p> <hr /> <div>'''Portsmouth Block Mills''' <br /> <br /> The Block Mills form part of the Royal Naval [[Dockyard]] at [[Portsmouth]], [[Hampshire]], [[England]], and were built during the Napoleonic Wars to supply the Navy with pulley blocks. They started the age of [[mass-production]] using all-metal [[machine tool]]s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British [[Industrial Revolution]]. They are also the site of the first [[stationary steam engine]]s used by the [[Admiralty]].<br /> <br /> Since 2003 [[English Heritage]] has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines, in preparation for the 2005 Bicentenary celebrations of both their going on-stream and of the [[Battle of Trafalgar]]. <br /> <br /> ==History==<br /> <br /> The Royal Navy had evolved by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty and Navy Boards began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, and by the start of the war with Revolutionary France possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.<br /> <br /> The Dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of [[Edmund Dummer]] in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basins, and wet- and dry- docks. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770, and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated [[chain pumps]].<br /> <br /> In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]] was appointed by the Admiralty, the first and only [[Inspector General of Naval Works]] with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants - Mechanist (engineer), Draughtsmen, Architect, Chemist, Clerks, etc. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper plates for sheathing ships, and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards. <br /> <br /> By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, [[James Sadler]], in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft away, and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built [[table-engine]] and installed in a single storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another more powerful table engine made by [[Fenton, Murray and Wood]] of [[Leeds]], and in turn in 1830 by [[Maudslay]] beam engine.<br /> <br /> In 1800 a [[Boulton and Watt]] beam-engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by [[James Watt and Co]]. <br /> <br /> Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults - the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by [[Samuel Bunce]], the architect of Bentham's staff.<br /> <br /> While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys. <br /> <br /> This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in ship-building, especially joinery,which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pins. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine, but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails - long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together. <br /> <br /> The Navy used large numbers of pulley blocks, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 pulley blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patented. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.<br /> <br /> There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.<br /> <br /> The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.<br /> <br /> ==The block-making processes using the machines==<br /> <br /> A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the shells'''<br /> * Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular saws cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. <br /> * Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.<br /> * Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one. <br /> * Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.<br /> * Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.<br /> * Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the sheaves'''<br /> * Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum Vitae. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy.<br /> * Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge. <br /> * Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak<br /> * The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetted to keep it in place.<br /> * Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.<br /> * The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the pins'''<br /> * The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.<br /> * They were turned to size on the circular part in a special lathe.<br /> * They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies<br /> * One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.<br /> <br /> '''The process of making the metal coaks'''<br /> * These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.<br /> <br /> '''Assembly process'''<br /> * The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. There were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.<br /> <br /> ==Significant features==<br /> <br /> These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.<br /> * The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precicely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.<br /> * Several of the machines had cone clutches.<br /> * Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.<br /> * The machines could be set so the operation was stopped automatically once the operation finished.<br /> * Interchangability of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell.<br /> * The work-flow is perhaps best described as [[batch production]], because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a [[production-line]] system, nevertheless. This methods of working did not catch in in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America.<br /> <br /> The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required. <br /> <br /> ==The Manufacture of the Block-making machines==<br /> <br /> Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemble to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged [[Henry Maudslay to make them]], and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, [[Simon Goodrich]], (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself. <br /> <br /> These machines were entirely hand made, the only machine tools being used being lathes to machine circular part, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.<br /> <br /> ==Publicity==<br /> <br /> These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the [[Napoleonic Wars]], until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the [[Edinburgh Encyclopaedia]], (1811), [[Rees's Cyclopaedia]], (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of [[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] (1817) and the [[Encyclopeadia Metropolitana]]. Later encyclopaedias such as [[Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia]] and the [[Penny Cyclopaedia]] derived their accounts from these earlier publications.<br /> <br /> These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Navy saw mills at [[Woolwich]] and [[Chatham]], as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at [[Leith]] in Scotland.<br /> <br /> ==Later history== <br /> <br /> The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The [[National Museum of Science and Industry]], London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the [[Dockyard Apprentice Museum]] at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that [[Smithsonian Institution]] in [[Washington]], USA, also have machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.<br /> <br /> <br /> ==On line links==<br /> <br /> For an on-line inter-active presentation showing how blocks were made at Portsmouth see the website of the National Museum of Science and Industry. London - Making of the Modern World<br /> [http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&amp;tv=true]<br /> <br /> Engravings from the Rees's Cyclopaedia account of the block mills can be seen online and copies purchased from the National Museum of Science and Industry as well [http://www.ingenious.org.uk] <br /> <br /> ==Printed references==<br /> <br /> The English Hertiage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. [http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&amp;WCE=146]<br /> <br /> Gilbert, K. R. ''The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery'', London, 1965<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in ''Industrial Archaeology Review'' VI, 1982, 28-44<br /> <br /> Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', ''Technology and Culture'', 25, 1984, 182-225<br /> <br /> Coad, Jonathan, ''The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850'', Aldershot, 1989<br /> <br /> Wilkin, Susan, ''The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815'', The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)<br /> <br /> Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. ''Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age'', Stroud, 2002</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Society_for_the_Diffusion_of_Useful_Knowledge&diff=71280156 2004-07-23T18:04:04Z

<p>Apwoolrich: New article</p> <hr /> <div>'''Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge''' <br /> <br /> The Society was founded in 1828 in London, mainly at the instigation of [[Lord Brougham]] with the objects of publishing information to people who were unable to obtain formal teaching, or who preferred self-education. The aspiring working class and the middle class were the target. It was sometimes mentioned in contempory sources as SDUK<br /> <br /> It set out to achieve this by acting as an intermediary between authors and publishers by launching several series of publications. It was run by a committee of eminent persons, and had a close association with the newly formed London University, as well as the numerous provincial [[Mechanics Institutes]]. Its printers included Baldwin &amp; Cradock who was succeeded by [[Charles Knight]]. The Society commissioned work and dealt with the printers, finally distributed the publications.<br /> <br /> While conceived with high ideals the project gradualy failed, as subscribers fell away and sale of publications declined. Many of the titles had little interest to readers, but the ''Penny Magazine'' at its peak had a circulation of around 200,000 copies a week. The Society eventually wound up in 1848. <br /> <br /> *''Library of Useful Knowledge''<br /> *''British Almanac''<br /> *''Library of Entertaining Knowledge''<br /> *''Farmers Series''<br /> *''Maps''<br /> *''Working Man's Companion''<br /> *''Quarterly Journal of Education''<br /> *''Penny Magazine''<br /> *''[[Penny Cyclopaedia]]''<br /> *''Gallery of Portraits''<br /> *''Biographical Dictionary''<br /> <br /> '''References'''<br /> <br /> Janet Percival, 'The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 1826-1848: A handlist of the Society's correspondence and papers', The Library of University College London, Occasional Papers, No 5 1978, ISSN 0309 3352<br /> <br /> University College has virtually a complete set of publications and numerous letters from authors and readers and other records.</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Nicholson_(Chemiker)&diff=45824705 2004-07-23T07:34:17Z

<p>Apwoolrich: Typo</p> <hr /> <div>'''William Nicholson''', ([[1753]]-[[1815]]), English writer on natural philosophy. <br /> <br /> He was born in London in [[1753]], and after leaving school made two voyages as midshipman in the East India service. He subsequently entered an attorney's office, but, having become acquainted, in [[1775]], with [[Josiah Wedgwood]], he lived for some years at Amsterdam as agent for the sale of pottery. On his return to England he was induced by Thomas Holcroft to devote himself to the composition of light literature for periodicals, assisting that writer also with some of his plays and novels. Meanwhile he employed himself on the preparation of ''An Introduction to Natural Philosophy'', which was published in [[1781]] and was at once successful. A translation of Voltaire's ''Elements of the Newtonian Philosophy'' soon followed, and he now entirely devoted himself to scientific pursuits and philosophical journalism. In [[1784]] he was appointed secretary to the [[General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain]], and he was also connected with the [[Society for the Encouragement of Naval Architecture]], established in [[1791]]. He bestowed much attention upon the construction of various machines for comb-cutting, file-making, cylinder printing, &amp;c.; he also invented an areometer. in [[1799]] he established a school at Soho Square, London where he taught natural philosophy and chemistry. In about [[1800]] he made the discovery of the decomposition of water by the voltaic current. In [[1797]] the [[Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts]], generally known as [[Nicholson's Journal]], the earliest work of the kind in Great Britain, was begun; it was carried on till 1814. During the later years of his life Nicholson's attention was chiefly directed to waterworks engineering at Portsmouth, at Gosport and in Southwark. He died in London on the 2ist of May 1815.<br /> <br /> Besides considerable contributions to the [[Philosophical Transactions]], Nicholson wrote translations of [[Fourcroy]]'s ''Chemistry'' (1787) and [[Chaptal]]'s ''Chemistry'' (1788), ''First Principles of Chemistry'' (1788) and a ''Chemical Dictionary'' (1795); he also edited the ''[[British Encyclopaedia]]'', or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (6 vols., 8vo, London, 1809).<br /> <br /> He wrote an autobiography which was extant in manuscript at the end of the nineteenth century, but now appears to be lost.<br /> <br /> Largely based on the Public Domain [[1911 Encyclopaedia]], and Mike Chrimes, article 'Nicholson, William', in ''[[Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers]]'' Vol 1 1500-1830, 2002, ISBN 0-7277-2939-X</div>

Apwoolrich https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Nicholson_(Chemiker)&diff=45824704 2004-07-23T07:33:40Z

<p>Apwoolrich: New article</p> <hr /> <div>'''William Nicholson''', ([[1753]]-[[1815]]), English writer on natural philosophy, <br /> <br /> He was born in London in [[1753]], and after leaving school made two voyages as midshipman in the East India service. He subsequently entered an attorney's office, but, having become acquainted, in [[1775]], with [[Josiah Wedgwood]], he lived for some years at Amsterdam as agent for the sale of pottery. On his return to England he was induced by Thomas Holcroft to devote himself to the composition of light literature for periodicals, assisting that writer also with some of his plays and novels. Meanwhile he employed himself on the preparation of ''An Introduction to Natural Philosophy'', which was published in [[1781]] and was at once successful. A translation of Voltaire's ''Elements of the Newtonian Philosophy'' soon followed, and he now entirely devoted himself to scientific pursuits and philosophical journalism. In [[1784]] he was appointed secretary to the [[General Chamber of Manufacturers of Great Britain]], and he was also connected with the [[Society for the Encouragement of Naval Architecture]], established in [[1791]]. He bestowed much attention upon the construction of various machines for comb-cutting, file-making, cylinder printing, &amp;c.; he also invented an areometer. in [[1799]] he established a school at Soho Square, London where he taught natural philosophy and chemistry. In about [[1800]] he made the discovery of the decomposition of water by the voltaic current. In [[1797]] the [[Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts]], generally known as [[Nicholson's Journal]], the earliest work of the kind in Great Britain, was begun; it was carried on till 1814. During the later years of his life Nicholson's attention was chiefly directed to waterworks engineering at Portsmouth, at Gosport and in Southwark. He died in London on the 2ist of May 1815.<br /> <br /> Besides considerable contributions to the [[Philosophical Transactions]], Nicholson wrote translations of [[Fourcroy]]'s ''Chemistry'' (1787) and [[Chaptal]]'s ''Chemistry'' (1788), ''First Principles of Chemistry'' (1788) and a ''Chemical Dictionary'' (1795); he also edited the ''[[British Encyclopaedia]]'', or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (6 vols., 8vo, London, 1809).<br /> <br /> He wrote an autobiography which was extant in manuscript at the end of the nineteenth century, but now appears to be lost.<br /> <br /> Largely based on the Public Domain [[1911 Encyclopaedia]], and Mike Chrimes, article 'Nicholson, William', in ''[[Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers]]'' Vol 1 1500-1830, 2002, ISBN 0-7277-2939-X</div>

Apwoolrich