Maudslay, Henry

English toolmaker; he is considered the father of the English tool-making industry.

Henry Maudslay began as an apprentice in the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, at the age of twelve. After working as a powder monkey – the name for the children employed in filling cartridges – he trained as a blacksmith. Even before he completed his seven-year apprenticeship, Maudslay was taken on in the workshop of the famous toolmaker Joseph Bramah, at Bramah’s reqeust. He was soon promoted to manager of the shop and after some years founded his own workshop in London.

Maudslay designed the first fully metallic screw-cutting lathe with a slide rest. The lathe was used to produce metal screws on a machine with a reproducible precision that could not be fully achieved by hand-held cutting tools.

Maudslay had two sons: Thomas Henry Maudslay and Joseph Maudslay.

Cite as: Maudslay, Henry. In: Travel Reports of a Pioneer: Digital Edition of the Travel Journals of Johann Conrad Fischer 1794–1851. Published by Franziska Eggimann. Edited by Franziska Eggimann, Nicolau Lutz, Valerija Rukavina und Christopher Zoller-Blundell. Schlatt 2023, Version 1.2, https://johannconradfischer.com/en/names/gfa-actors-7454, viewed on 9 May 2025.