apidity, and executed at a greatly reduced cost. Only ten men, with
the new machinery, could perform the work which before had required a
hundred and ten men to execute, and not fewer than 160,000 blocks of
various kinds and sizes could be turned out in a year, worth not less
than 541,000L.[14]

The satisfactory execution of the block-machinery brought Maudslay a
large accession of fame and business; and the premises in Margaret
Street proving much too limited for his requirements, he again resolved
to shift his quarters. He found a piece of ground suitable for his
purpose in Westminster Road, Lambeth. Little more than a century since
it formed part of a Marsh, the name of which is still retained in the
adjoining street; its principal productions being bulrushes and
willows, which were haunted in certain seasons by snipe and waterfowl.
An enterprising riding-master had erected some premises on a part of
the marsh, which he used for a riding-school; but the speculation not
answering, they were sold, and Henry Maudslay became the proprietor.
Hither he removed his machinery from Margaret Street in 1810, adding
fresh plant from time to time as it was required; and with the aid of
his late excellent partner he built up the far-famed establishment of
Maudslay, Field, and Co. There he went on improving his old tools and
inventing new ones, as the necessity for them arose, until the original
slide-lathes used for making the block-machinery became thrown into the
shade by the comparatively gigantic machine-tools of the modern school.
Yet the original lathes are still to be found in the collection of the
firm in Westminster Road, and continue to do their daily quota of work
with the same precision as they did when turned out of the hands of
their inventor and maker some sixty years ago.

It is unnecessary that we should describe in any great detail the
further career of Henry Maudslay. The rest of his life was full of
useful and profitable work to others as well as to himself. His
business embraced the making of flour and saw mills, mint machinery,
and steam-engines of all kinds. Before he left Margaret Street, in
1807, he took out a patent for improvements in the steam-engine, by
which he much simplified its parts, and secured greater directness of
action. His new engine was called the Pyramidal, because of its form,
and was the first move towards what are now called Direct-acting
Engines, in which the lateral movement