Henry Maudslay, English engineer and precision toolmaker, c 1810

Henry Maudslay, English engineer and precision toolmaker, c 1810. Detail of commemorative window at Greenwich Town Hall in London photographed c 1995. After working in London's Woolwich Arsenal as a skilled blacksmith and toolmaker, Maudslay joined the famous locksmith, Joselph Bramah, and quickly became his head foreman. By 1797, Maudslay had started his own business producing machine tools, and developed two extremely significant tools - a highly accurate screw-cutting lathe and the slide rest lathe. Both were used to develop other revolutionary precision tools, in particular the machinery used in the production of ships blocks. This brought him considerable fame and, in 1810, he moved his works to Lambeth, starting the firm of Maudslay, Sons and Field with Joshua Field to make machine tools and marine engines. ©SSPL/Science Museum