Portsmouth Block Mills
Encyclopedia
The Portsmouth Block Mills form part of the Portsmouth Dockyard at Portsmouth
, Hampshire
, England
, and were built during the Napoleonic Wars
to supply the British Royal Navy
with pulley
block
s. They started the age of mass-production using all-metal machine tool
s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British Industrial Revolution
. They are also the site of the first stationary steam engine
s used by the Admiralty
.
Since 2003 English Heritage
has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines.
had evolved with Britain
's development by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty
and Navy Board
began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth
such that by the start of the war with Revolutionary France they possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.
The dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of Edmund Dummer
in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basin
s and wet and dry dock
s. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770 and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated chain pumps
.
In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham
was appointed by the Admiralty, the only Inspector General of Naval Works with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants — Mechanist (engineer
), Draughtsmen
, Architect
, Chemist
, Clerks, and others. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper
plates for sheathing ship's hull
s and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards.
By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, James Sadler
, in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft (121.9 m) away and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built table engine installed in a single-storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another, more powerful, table engine made by Fenton, Murray and Wood
of Leeds
and, in turn, in 1830 by a Maudslay beam engine.
In 1800 a Boulton and Watt
beam engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by James Watt and Co
.
Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults — the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by Samuel Bunce, the architect of Bentham's staff.
While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys.
This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in shipbuilding, especially joinery, which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pin
s. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails — long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together.
The Royal Navy used large numbers of block
s, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 Marc Isambard Brunel
proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patent
ed. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.
There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.
The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.
A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.
The process of making the shells
The process of making the sheaves
The process of making the pins
The process of making the metal coaks
Assembly process
to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, Simon Goodrich
, (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself.
These machines were almost entirely hand made, the only machine tools used being lathes to machine circular parts, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability
, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.
, until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, (1811), Rees's Cyclopaedia
, (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica
(1817) and the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana
. Later encyclopaedias such as Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia and the Penny Cyclopaedia
derived their accounts from these earlier publications.
These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Royal Navy
saw mills at Woolwich Dockyard
and Chatham Dockyard
, as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at Leith
in Scotland.
, London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the Dockyard Apprentice Museum at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C.
also has machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.
The Block Mills have not been in use for many years, although a lot of the original pulley systems remain in situ, albeit in a poor state of repair. The building is also in a poor state of repair and is a high priority for both English Heritage
and the Ministry of Defence. As of 2006 a project is underway to ensure the building and contents are preserved, if not restored.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and were built during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
to supply the British Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
with pulley
Pulley
A pulley, also called a sheave or a drum, is a mechanism composed of a wheel on an axle or shaft that may have a groove between two flanges around its circumference. A rope, cable, belt, or chain usually runs over the wheel and inside the groove, if present...
block
Block (sailing)
In sailing, a block is a single or multiple pulley. One or a number of sheaves are enclosed in an assembly between cheeks or chocks. In use a block is fixed to the end of a line, to a spar or to a surface...
s. They started the age of mass-production using all-metal machine tool
Machine tool
A machine tool is a machine, typically powered other than by human muscle , used to make manufactured parts in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation...
s and are regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the British Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. They are also the site of the first stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars , agricultural engines used for ploughing or...
s used by the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
.
Since 2003 English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
has been undertaking a detailed survey of the buildings and the records relating to the machines.
Development of Portsmouth Dockyard
The Royal NavyRoyal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
had evolved with Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's development by the middle of the eighteenth century into what has been described as the greatest industrial power in the western world. The Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
and Navy Board
Navy Board
The Navy Board is today the body responsible for the day-to-day running of the British Royal Navy. Its composition is identical to that of the Admiralty Board of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom, except that it does not include any of Her Majesty's Ministers.From 1546 to 1831, the Navy...
began a programme of modernisation of dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
such that by the start of the war with Revolutionary France they possessed the most up-to-date fleet facilities in Europe.
The dock system at Portsmouth has its origins in the work of Edmund Dummer
Edmund Dummer (naval engineer)
Edmund Dummer was an English naval engineer and shipbuilder who, as Surveyor of the Navy, founded the Royal Navy dockyard at , Plymouth and extended that at Portsmouth. His survey of the Royal Navy Dockyards is a valuable and well-known historic document...
in the 1690s. He constructed a series of basin
Dock (maritime)
A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
s and wet and dry dock
Dry dock
A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform...
s. Alterations were made to these in the course of the eighteenth century. One of the basins had become redundant by 1770 and it was proposed to use this as a sump into which all the water from the other facilities could drain. The water was pumped out by a series of horse-operated chain pumps
Chain pumps
The chain pump is type of a water pump in which several circular discs are positioned on an endless chain. One part of the chain dips in to the water, and the chain runs through a tube, slightly bigger than the diameter of the discs. As the chain is drawn up the tube, water becomes trapped between...
.
In 1795, Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham
Samuel Bentham
Sir Samuel Bentham was a noted English mechanical engineer and naval architect credited with numerous innovations, particularly related to naval architecture, including weapons...
was appointed by the Admiralty, the only Inspector General of Naval Works with the task of continuing this modernisation, and in particular the introduction of steam power and mechanising the production processes in the dockyard. His office employed several specialists as his assistants — Mechanist (engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
), Draughtsmen
Draughtsman
A draughtsman or draftsman , is a person skilled in drawing, either:*drawing for artistic purposes, or*technical drawing for practical purposes such as architecture or engineering...
, Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, Chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
, Clerks, and others. The Inspector General's office was responsible for the introduction at Portsmouth of plant for the rolling of copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
plates for sheathing ship's hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
s and for forging-mills for the production of metal parts used in the construction of vessels. They also introduced similar modernisation at the other Naval dockyards.
By 1797 work had started on building additional dry docks and on deepening the basins, and Bentham realised that the existing drainage system would not cope with the increased demand. He installed a steam engine designed by a member of his staff, James Sadler
James Sadler
James Sadler may refer to:* James Sadler , first English balloonist* Sir James Hayes Sadler, British civil servant*James C. Sadler, American meteorologist* James Robert Sadler, birth name of the actor Jerry Desmonde...
, in 1798 which, as well as working the chain pumps, drove woodworking machinery and a pump to take water from a well round the dockyard for fire-fighting purposes. This well was some 400 ft (121.9 m) away and the pumps operated by a horizontal reciprocating wooden spear housed in a tunnel running from the engine house to the top of the well. The Sadler engine was a house-built table engine installed in a single-storey engine house with integral boiler; it replaced one of the horse-drives to the chain pumps. This engine was replaced in 1807 in the same house by another, more powerful, table engine made by Fenton, Murray and Wood
Matthew Murray
Matthew Murray was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca in 1812...
of Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and, in turn, in 1830 by a Maudslay beam engine.
In 1800 a Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
beam engine was ordered as back-up and was housed in a three-storey engine house in line with the Sadler engine house. This engine was replaced in 1837 by another engine made by James Watt and Co
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
.
Space was very tight and expansion of manufacturing facilities was not possible, so by 1802 the drainage basin was filled with two tiers of brick vaults — the lower layer to act as the reservoir, the upper layer as storage, and the roof of the latter being level with the surrounding land, so creating more space. This allowed the construction of two parallel ranges of three-storey wood mills, the southern to incorporate both engine houses and their chimney stacks, the chain pumps and some wood working machinery. The northern range was directly over the vaults and was to house more woodworking machinery. The buildings were designed by Samuel Bunce, the architect of Bentham's staff.
While the vaults were under construction Bentham was ordering woodworking machinery of his own design, mostly up-and-down saws and circular saws. These were fitted-up in both ranges, the power to drive them being transmitted from the engines to the north range by underdrives through the upper layer of vaults, and then by vertical shafts to the upper floors of the buildings. The final drives to the machines was by flat belts running on pulleys.
This machinery was planned to cut timber for the numerous smaller parts used in shipbuilding, especially joinery, which had previously been cut by hand, such as components for tables and benches, as well as small turned goods like belaying pin
Belaying pin
A belaying pin is a device used on traditional sailing vessels to secure lines of rigging. Their function on modern vessels has been replaced by cleats, but they are still used, particularly on square rigged ships....
s. There is evidence that he had developed a rotary wood-planing machine but details of this are obscure. There is also evidence that the complex housed a pipe boring machine, whereby straight elm trees were bored out for pump dales. These could be up to 40 ft long and were fitted through the decks of a vessel to pump seawater to the deck. There was a machine for making treenails — long wooden dowels used for fixing wooden parts of a ship together.
Blocks
Block (sailing)
In sailing, a block is a single or multiple pulley. One or a number of sheaves are enclosed in an assembly between cheeks or chocks. In use a block is fixed to the end of a line, to a spar or to a surface...
s, which were all hand-made by contractors. Their quality was not consistent, the supply problematic and they were expensive. A typical ship of the line needed about 1000 blocks of different sizes, and in the course of the year the Navy required over 100,000. Bentham had devised some machines for making blocks, but did not develop them and details of how they worked are now obscure. In 1802 Marc Isambard Brunel
Marc Isambard Brunel
Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, FRS FRSE was a French-born engineer who settled in England. He preferred the name Isambard, but is generally known to history as Marc to avoid confusion with his more famous son Isambard Kingdom Brunel...
proposed to the Admiralty a system of making blocks using machinery he had patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed. Bentham appreciated the superiority of Brunel's system and in August 1802 he was authorised by the Admiralty to proceed.
There were three series of block-making machines, each designed to make a range of block sizes. They were laid out to allow a production line, so each stage of the work progressed to the next in a natural flow. The yard between the two wood mill buildings was walled-off and roofed to form a new workshop to house the block-making machines.
The first set, for medium blocks, was installed in January 1803, the second set for smaller blocks in May 1803, and the third set for large blocks in March 1805. There were numerous changes of layout and some modification of the plant until in September 1807 the plant was felt able to fulfil all the needs of the Navy: In 1808 130,000 blocks were produced.
The block-making processes using the machines
The machines were of 22 types and totaling 45. They were driven by two 22.4 kW (30 hp) steam engines. The machines included circular saws, pin turning machines and mortising machines. With these machines 10 men could produce as many blocks as 110 skilled craftsmen.A pulley-block has four parts: the shell, the sheave, the pin for locating the latter in the shell and a metal bush, or coak, inserted into the sheave to save wear between it and the pin. Blocks can vary in size and in the number of sheaves.
The process of making the shells
- Cut slices from the trunk of a tree, and from these slices by means of the circular sawCircular sawThe circular saw is a machine using a toothed metal cutting disc or blade. The term is also loosely used for the blade itself. The blade is a tool for cutting wood or other materials and may be hand-held or table-mounted. It can also be used to make narrow slots...
s cut rectangular blocks from which the shells were manufactured. - Bore a hole in the block for the pin, and at right angles to this a hole or holes to receive the morticing chisels,(depending on the number of mortices). The clamp used to hold the block at the same time indented locating points by which the blocks were secured in the later machines, thus ensuring consistent location and measurement in the subsequent processes.
- Mortice the blocks by a self-acting machine. The morticing chisel reciprocated vertically, and at the same time the vice gripping the block was gradually moved each cut. Once the length of the mortice had been cut the machine automatically stopped to allow the block to be replaced with a new one.
- Cut the corners off the block by a circular saw with angled guides.
- Shape the 4 faces of the blocks to a shallow curve. This was done by a machine where a number of blocks were clamped in the periphery of a revolving wheel. The cutter was swept in a curve across the faces of the blocks as they rotated. The radius of the curve was controlled by a former. After each cut the blocks were turned 90 degrees to bring up a new face.
- Each block was then placed in a machine which scored a shallow groove, by means of a revolving cutter, to give a location for the securing ropes.
The process of making the sheaves
- Cut a slice across a trunk of Lignum VitaeLignum vitaeLignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as pockenholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. This wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness and density...
. The machine for this allowed the log to be rotated at the same time as the circular saw operated, ensuring that an equal thickness was maintained. The position of the log for each new cut was controlled by a leadscrew ensuring great accuracy. - Make a circular disc from this slice by means of a rounding saw, which simultaneously bored out the middle and shaped the outer edge.
- Mill out from each face a profile to take the outer face of the coak
- The coak was inserted into the sheave, and a retaining ring rivetRivetA rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
ted to keep it in place. - Broach out the hole in the coak to the size of the requisite pin.
- The finished sheave was faced-off on both sides in a special lathe, and the rope groove was machined on the edge.
The process of making the pins
- The pin blanks were forged slightly oversize with a square left on one end.
- They were turned to size on the circular part in a special latheLatheA lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
. - They were given a burnished finish between hardened dies
- One source says they were then tinned to preserve them from rust.
The process of making the metal coaks
- These were cast in bell-metal and the mould left grease-retaining grooves in the inner bore. One end of the coak had a flange and a loose ring was supplied for the other end, together these parts gave a seating for the rivets which fixed the coak to the sheave.
Assembly process
- The shells were smoothed by hand with a spoke shave and then the sheave and pin assembled. They were stored in the Block Mills and issued as demanded.
Significant features
These machines utilised several features for the first time which have since become commonplace in machine design.- The boring operation indented gauging points in the wooden blocks which the clamps of the later machines used to locate the blocks precisely. This meant that positioning of the block in later processes ensured accurate location in relation to the tool working on it.
- Several of the machines had cone clutches.
- Brunel used detachable tool bits held in tool holders very similar to those use now on general purpose lathes.
- Expanding collet chucks were used to locate the sheaves by gripping the internal bore, during certain operations.
- Two-jaw gripping chucks were used on some machines. These were precursors of the three-jaw chucks used on lathes today.
- The morticing machines could be set to stop automatically once the operation was finished.
- InterchangeabilityInterchangeabilityInterchangeability can refer to:*Interchangeability : A condition in which exist two or more items with characteristics making them equivalent in performance and durability, making them fully exchangeable....
of the sheaves and pins was possible, since they were not married to a particular shell. - The work-flow is perhaps best described as batch productionBatch productionBatch production is a technique used in manufacturing, in which the object in question is created stage by stage over a series of workstations. Batch production is common in bakeries and in the manufacture of sports shoes, pharmaceutical ingredients , inks, paints and adhesives. In the manufacture...
, because of the range of block sizes demanded. But it was basically a production-line system, nevertheless. This method of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America. - The entire system was designed to be worked by labourers and not apprentice-trained craftsmen. Each man was trained to operate two or more machines and could be moved round the plant as required.
The Manufacture of the Block-making machines
Brunel's patent specification shows wooden framed machines, which, while they show many of the principles of the machines actually installed bear little resemblance to the final designs. Once the contract with the Admiralty had been placed he engaged Henry MaudslayHenry Maudslay
Henry Maudslay was a British machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology.-Early life:...
to make them, and it is clear the final designs had considerable input from Bentham, Maudslay, Simon Goodrich
Simon Goodrich
Simon Goodrich was an engineer to the British Navy Board.He was said to have been born 28 October 1773 in Suffolk. His education and training is unknown. In 1796 he was appointed draughtsman in the office of Sir Samuel Bentham, Inspector General of Naval Works, and in 1799 was promoted to the post...
, (mechanician to the Navy board) as well as Brunel himself.
These machines were almost entirely hand made, the only machine tools used being lathes to machine circular parts, and drilling machines for boring small holes. At that time there were no milling, planing or shaping machines, and all flat surfaces were made by hand chipping, filing and scraping. There is evidence that the grinding of flats was also done to get near-precision finishes. Each nut was made to fit its matching bolt and were numbered to ensure they were replaced correctly. This was before the days of interchangeability
Interchangeability
Interchangeability can refer to:*Interchangeability : A condition in which exist two or more items with characteristics making them equivalent in performance and durability, making them fully exchangeable....
, of course. The materials used were cast and wrought iron, brass and gun metal. The use of metal throughout their construction greatly improved their rigidity and accuracy which became the standard for later machine tool manufacture.
Publicity
These machines and the block mills attracted an enormous amount of interest from the time of their erection, ranging from Admiral Lord Nelson on the morning of the day he embarked from Portsmouth for the Battle of Trafalgar on 1805, to the Princess Victoria at the age of 12, as part of her education. Even during the time of the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, until 1815 there was a stream of foreign dignitaries and military men wishing to learn. The machines were fully described and illustrated in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, (1811), Rees's Cyclopaedia
Rees's Cyclopaedia
Rees's Cyclopædia, or The New Cyclopaedia, or, Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences was an important 19th Century encyclopaedia which was regarded by some as subversive when it first appeared. It was edited by Revd...
, (1812), the supplement to the 4th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
(1817) and the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana
The Encyclopædia Metropolitana was an encyclopedic work published in London, from 1817 to 1845, by part publication. In all it came to quarto, 30 vols., having been issued in 59 parts .-Origins:...
. Later encyclopaedias such as Tomlinson's Encyclopaedia and the Penny Cyclopaedia
Penny Cyclopaedia
The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge was a multi-volume encyclopedia edited by George Long and published by Charles Knight alongside the Penny Magazine. The volumes were published from 1833 to 1843.-External links:...
derived their accounts from these earlier publications.
These accounts concentrated almost entirely on the blockmaking machinery, and ignored the saw-milling side of the mills, and in consequence modern commentators have not discussed this aspect of the Block Mills. The sawmills were important since Brunel was enabled to develop his ideas which he employed later in his private veneer mill at Battersea, and the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
saw mills at Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard founded by King Henry VIII in 1512 to build his flagship Henri Grâce à Dieu , the largest ship of its day....
and Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
, as well as mills he designed for private concerns, such as Borthwick's at Leith
Leith
-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....
in Scotland.
Later history
The Block Mills have remained in constant Navy occupation ever since and in consequence are not open to the public. Manufacture of blocks using these machines naturally declined over the years, production finally stopping in the 1960s, but some of the original machines, part of the transmission drives and the engine-house shells still survive in the buildings. The National Museum of Science and IndustryNational Museum of Science and Industry
The National Museum of Science and Industry is a collection of British museums, comprising:* The Science Museum, incorporating the Science Museum Library and the Wellcome collections of the history of medicine at South Kensington in London....
, London, has a selection of machines, donated by the Admiralty between 1933 and 1951, and others are on display in the Dockyard Apprentice Museum at Portsmouth. Several websites claim that the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
also has machines from Portsmouth: this is a myth, according to the Institution.
The Block Mills have not been in use for many years, although a lot of the original pulley systems remain in situ, albeit in a poor state of repair. The building is also in a poor state of repair and is a high priority for both English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
and the Ministry of Defence. As of 2006 a project is underway to ensure the building and contents are preserved, if not restored.
External links
Printed references
- The English Heritage reports and other documentation may be consulted as they become available in the National Monuments Record at Swindon, Wiltshire. http://accessibility.english-heritage.org.uk/Default.asp?WCI=Node&WCE=146
- Gilbert, K. R. The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery, London, 1965
- Cooper, C. C. 'The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill', in Industrial Archaeology Review VI, 1982, 28-44
- Cooper, C. C. 'The Portsmouth System of Manufacture', Technology and Culture, 25, 1984, 182-225
- Coad, Jonathan, The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850, Aldershot, 1989
- Coad, Jonathan, The Portsmouth Block Mills : Bentham, Brunel and the start of the Royal Navy's Industrial Revolution, 2005,ISBN 1-873592-87-6
- Wilkin, Susan, The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790-1815, The Open University PhD Thesis, 1999. (Copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library)
- Cantrell, J. and Cookson, G. eds. Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age, Stroud, 2002