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practice was "to employ intelligent, well-conducted young lads, 

 the sons of laborers or mechanics, and advance them by degrees 

 according to their merits. They took charge of the smaller ma- 

 chine tools, by which the minor details of the machines in prog- 

 ress were brought into exact form. ... A spirit of emulation was 

 excited among them. They vied with each other in executing 

 their work with precision. Those who excelled were paid an 

 extra weekly wage. In course of time they took pride not only 

 in the quantity but in the quality of their work, and in the long 

 run became skillful mechanics. . . . The best of them remained 

 in our service, because they knew our work and were pleased with 

 their surroundings ; while we, on our part, were always desirous 

 of retaining the men we had trained, because we knew we could 

 depend upon them." 



The rapid extension of railroad construction, and the orders 

 that consequently came in, led to much attention being given at 

 Bridgewater to the building of locomotives, for which the machine 

 tools used there gave great advantages. The Great Western Rail- 

 way Company ordered twenty large engines, offering to add 100 

 to the contract price of each if they proved satisfactory. The 

 premiums came, and with them a letter from the board of direct- 

 ors of the company offering to stand as references as to the 

 quality of Messrs. Nasmyth and Gaskell's work. The Great 

 Western Railway Company having successfully dispatched its 

 steamship Great Western between Bristol and New York, and 

 having elected to construct another steamer, the Great Britain, 

 procured tools for making the engines from the Bridgewater 

 Foundry. They were perplexed, however, about the forging of 

 the intermediate paddle shaft, which was to be of a size never 

 before attempted. They applied to Mr. Nasmyth, and he devised 

 the steam hammer, the most famous of his inventions an instru- 

 ment with which, as he says in his autobiography, the workman 

 might, "as it were, think in blows. He might deal them out 

 on to the ponderous glowing mass and mold or knead it into 

 the desired form as if it were a lump of clay ; or pat it with gen- 

 tle taps, according to his will, or at the desire of the forgeman." 

 All was going well for setting the hammer in operation, when 

 the plan of the vessel was changed by the introduction of the 

 screw propeller, which rendered the immense shaft unnecessary. 

 No patent was taken out for this invention, but the drawings of 

 it were kept in the shop, open to the inspection of visitors. 

 Among those who looked at them were M. Schneider, and M. 

 Bourdon, his foreman, of the great iron works at Creuzot, France. 

 A few years afterward, when Mr. Nasmyth visited Creuzot, he 

 admired the excellence of a certain piece of machinery, and asked 

 M. Bourdon how the crank had been forged. M. Bourdon 



