" Indeed his able management was almost
indispensable to the continued success of the Soho foundry. Mr.
Nasmyth, when visiting the works about thirty years after Murdock
had taken their complete management in hand, recalled to mind the
valuable services of that truly admirable yet modest mechanic.
He observed the admirable system, which he had invented, of
transmitting power from one central engine to other small vacuum
engines attached to the several machines which they were employed
to work. "This vacuum method," he says, "of transmitting power
dates from the time of Papin; but it remained a dead contrivance
for about a century until it received the masterly touch of
Murdock."
"The sight which I obtained" (Mr. Nasmyth proceeds) "of the vast
series of workshops of that celebrated establishment, fitted with
evidences of the presence and results of such master minds in
design and execution, and the special machine tools which I
believe were chiefly to be ascribed to the admirable inventive
power and common-sense genius of William Murdock, made me feel
that I was indeed on classic ground in regard to everything
connected with the construction of steam-engine machinery. The
interest was in no small degree enhanced by coming every now and
then upon some machine that had every historical claim to be
regarded as the prototype of many of our modern machine tools.
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