SKETCH OF JAMES N A SMYTH. 119 



ical, architectural, and picturesque, lie determined to walk lei- 

 surely back to London. He was impressed with the pretty sur- 

 roundings of Manchester, especially as seen from the Patricroft 

 Bridge ; visited the cotton mills, and continued his walk to Lon- 

 don, occupied with the thought of settling down in the busy 

 neighborhood he had just left. 



Mr. Maudsley died in February, 1831, and Mr. Nasrayth con- 

 tinued to work with his partner, Mr. Field, till the latter part of 

 that year, when, in the twenty-third year of his age, he decided 

 to go into business for himself. Mr. Field was pleased with his 

 intention, and gave him facilities for starting. He went to Edin- 

 burgh and set up a small temporary shop, where he made himself 

 a set of engineering tools. He subsequently chose Manchester as 

 his permanent place of business. He found a shop in an eligible 

 situation, with convenient appurtenances, but in a building occu- 

 pied by other tenants. The time of his starting in Manchester 

 was an auspicious one for his business. Workmen of all kinds 

 were short of the demand, and, taking advantage of the scarcity, 

 were disposed to be careless, irregular, and insubordinate, and 

 machine tools, which would not get drunk or go on strike and 

 were unfailingly regular and accurate, were in great request. 

 Mr. Nasmyth got his full share of the work of supplying these 

 tools : planing machines, slide laths, drilling, boring, and slotting 

 machines, and others ; and orders pouring in upon him, his flat 

 became loaded with work. He having constructed an engine that 

 was almost too large for the shop, one end of the beam, while it 

 was being taken apart for shipment, crushed through the floor, 

 disturbing the tenant below, and it had become evident that he 

 needed a larger shop. He found a site within the very landscape 

 that had attracted his attention years before, as he was resting at 

 the Patricroft Bridge. He built there the celebrated Bridgewater 

 Foundry, and took in Mr. Holbrook Gaskell as a partner. Ob- 

 serving the inconvenience and danger attending the operation of 

 the foundry ladle then in use, he invented the screw safety ladle, 

 with which, he says, some twelve or sixteen tons of molten iron 

 could be decanted " with as much neatness and exactness as the 

 pouring out of a glass of wine from a decanter." 



The maxim of the Bridgewater Foundry, " Free trade in abili- 

 ty," was put in force early in its operation. By this maxim was 

 meant promotion of the workmen according to the skill and 

 activity they displayed, without regard to the kind of apprentice- 

 ship they had served. This conflicted with the rule of the trades 

 unions, which required a seven years' apprenticeship, and the in- 

 evitable strike and picketing occurred. Workmen were brought 

 from Scotland, the trades unions were conquered, and the foundry 

 continued to practice and exemplify its maxim unmolested. The 



