#fitter

JOSEPH WHITWORTH

The fitter's fitter, an engineer of practical ideas that were to become standard practice throughout the world.

Where Henry Maudsley conceived the machine-tool to produce parts of sufficient quality and accuracy in the required quantity to meet demand, Whitworth continued.

He identified two elements absolutely crucial to precision workmanship - a true plane and power of measurement. Coining the statement "you can only make what you can measure".

At the same time he endeavored to improve the construction of machine tools,  to this end he is credited with doing away with flimsy architectural designs and originating the box structure design found in lathe beds. Whitworth made machine tools which were of the quality and size required to make the mechanical components comprising the industrial machinery of the period. Hence a large portion of the machinery which embodied the industrial revolution in England had components made on Whitworth machine tools.

When exhibiting his latest development in measurement, Whitworth exclaimed the definition of comparative measurement and laid down the fundamentals of workshop metrology: "We have therefore in this mode of measurement all the accuracy we can desire; and we find in practice in the workshop that it is easier to work to the ten-thousandth of an inch from standards of end measure, than to the one-hundredth of an inch from the lines on a two-foot rule. In all cases of fitting, end measures of  length should be used, instead of lines."

The following is a small outline of Whitworth's extraordinary calibre.

1821 - Around the age of 17, runs away from his uncle's cotton mill in Derbyshire. Finding work with Creighton & Co as a mechanic.

1825 - Begins working at Maudslay & Field in London as a bench fitter.

1827 - Innovates the 'three-plate method' for originating true surface plates through scraping by discovering the correct sequence of comparing and working the plates.

1841 - World's first screw thread standard: Whitworth proposes his thread standard in a paper to the Institute of Civil Engineers, 'Whitworth thread' was generally adopted in England by 1860.

1844 - Proposes adoption of decimal fractions in engineering workshop practice and is attributed with introducing the thou, being 0.001 of an inch.

1850 - At this time, Whitworth was the pre-eminent maker of machine tools due to his tools having sufficient size, strength and precision to meet the demands of industry. Thus introducing a standard of design only exceeded later in the 20th century.

1856 - Exhibits bench micrometer capable of discerning differences of one-millionth of an inch to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in Glasgow, making the exclamation on metrology in the workshop stated above.

1868 - Founds the Whitworth Scholarships.

1870 - Develops fluid compressed steels for armament manufacture.

Hey y'all, I'm Alex 😁

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I appreciate it! 🎉

I'm an engineer working as a fitter for a heavy plant and mining equipment company in the midlands, UK.

That's me in my hi-vis waterproof on top of a ridge between Mam Tor and Lose Hill a few weeks ago (Jan '21). It's in the Peak District, not far away in Derbyshire.

It was a glorious walk in the wintery conditions, such amazing views!

But it was also flippin freezing!

My job allows me access to machines that most people don't get up close and personal with.

The machine in my cover picture is a Caterpillar 771D dumper truck. A truck designed for open cast mining and quarrying - carrying the rock out for processing.

She weighs in at around 35 tons, and will carry the same again in payload.

It's 12 feet high and 27 feet long, powered by a 500 Horsepower diesel engine.

We were there to remove the engine, transmission, torque converter, differential and axle housing, rear suspension, and both rear wheels. *

All in it took 3 of us a week to complete.

I wanted to share some of the cool stuff I see and do with you - combining it with my love of science and the world around us seemed natural.

So here we are!

I'll be posting fascinating and fun things, so stay tuned, you may even learn something!

Science and engineering particularly can be pretty heavy subjects - hard to understand at times. So I'm aiming to explain some of the more complex principles in easier to understand terms, making it more accessible 🤓🔍🔦📖

Please like and reblog anything you like, I'd love more followers so I can spread more delicious knowledge!

Today was a full body blast, starting with 4 x 4 squats. Now my range of movement isn't great with body weight squats, but I am getting there and I am trying. I am seeing an improvement, even with the 107.5kg on my back today .

Hit the back, chest, shoulders and then a blast of the arms to finish this weeks workouts off.

That's 5 weeks I've been doing this routine. Really am enjoying it and I am starting to see some progress now that I am getting better control of the diet and stopped eating as much junk. Diet really s key. You can't out train the bad habits.