Sir Joseph Whitworth

Sir Joseph Whitworth (1803-87) was arguably Britain's best ever mechanical engineer, world famous for the standard screw thread named after him, machine tool designs so innovative he pioneered a new era, and his revolutionary hexagonally rifled guns. He also gave the western world its first one-inch standard, taught engineers precise measurement, decimalized engineering measurement, invented mechanical street sweepers, developed the hydraulic forging press, propagated the idea of mass production, founded the Whitworth scholarships for engineering science, set up a university engineering laboratory and helped to promote the Atlantic telegraph. Many of his machines and tools were exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Most of these achievements represent international firsts, yet Whitworth's prolific and fascinating career has received surprisingly little attention. In the first full-length biography to fully analyse his engineering and gun design, Norman Atkinson traces the development of Whitworth's career in the context of his personal life and the politics of his time.