161 
uncie, who was a cotton spinner in Derbyshire, to learn the 
business. Here he made such rapid progress that in less 
than two years he was appointed assistant manager, and 
was associated with his uncle in the superintendence of the 
mill; but, like Watt and Babbage, he found the machinery 
very imperfect, and that it was almost impossible to get 
true workmanship. From the first he appears to have been 
distinguished by a strong desire for thoroughness, accuracy, 
and perfection in his work, and this was characteristic of 
him in all that he undertook throughout life. His strong 
desire to improve the machinery and methods of manufac- 
ture led him, contrary to the wishes of his relatives, to leave 
the cotton mill and become a mechanic. At the age of 18 
years he came to Manchester, and became a workman in 
the shop of Messrs. Crighton and Co. For twelve years he 
worked at the bench under a succession of employers 
including Messrs. Crighton, Marsden, and Walker, in Man- 
chester, and was afterwards attracted to London by the names 
of the great mechanicians. There he worked first at Maudslay 
and Field’s, then at Holtzapfell’s, and finally at Clements’, 
where he was engaged on the calculating machine or 
difference engine of the late Professor Charles Babbage. At 
all these workshops young Whitworth soon obtained the 
reputation of being one of the best workmen, and had ample 
opportunity of becoming acquainted with such self-acting 
tools and machinery as existed in those days and the 
direction in which they required improvement. While 
in London at Messrs. Maudslay ’s he made his first great 
discovery, that of the method of obtaining a truly plane 
surface. Previous to this discover}^ the most accurate 
planes had been obtained by first planing and then grinding 
the surfaces. But they were very inaccurate, and Whitworth 
worked long at the problem and ultimately completely 
solved it. Here is his own account of the solution : “ My 
first step was to abandon grinding for scraping. Taking 
