of the piston is communicated by
connecting-rods to the rotatory movement of the crank-shaft. Mr.
Nasmyth says of it, that "on account of its great simplicity and
GET-AT-ABILITY of parts, its compactness and self-contained steadiness,
this engine has been the parent of a vast progeny, all more or less
marked by the distinguishing features of the original design, which is
still in as high favour as ever." Mr. Maudslay also directed his
attention in like manner to the improvement of the marine engine, which
he made so simple and effective as to become in a great measure the
type of its class; and it has held its ground almost unchanged for
nearly thirty years. The 'Regent,' which was the first steamboat that
plied between London and Margate, was fitted with engines by Maudslay
in 1816; and it proved the forerunner of a vast number of marine
engines, the manufacture of which soon became one of the most important
branches of mechanical engineering.

Another of Mr. Maudslay's inventions was his machine for punching
boiler-plates, by which the production of ironwork of many kinds was
greatly facilitated. This improvement originated in the contract which
he held for some years for supplying the Royal Navy with iron plates
for ships' tanks. The operations of shearing and punching had before
been very imperfectly done by hand, with great expenditure of labour.
To improve the style of the work and lessen the labour, Maudslay
invented the machine now in general use, by which the holes punched in
the iron plate are exactly equidistant, and the subsequent operation of
riveting is greatly facilitated. One of the results of the improved
method was the great saving which was at once effected in the cost of
preparing the plates to receive the rivets, the price of which was
reduced from seven shillings per tank to ninepence. He continued to
devote himself to the last to the improvement of the lathe,--in his
opinion the master-machine, the life and soul of engine-turning, of
which the planing, screw-cutting, and other machines in common use, are
but modifications. In one of the early lathes which he contrived and
made, the mandrill was nine inches in diameter; it was driven by
wheel-gearing like a crane motion, and adapted to different speeds.
Some of his friends, on first looking at it, said he was going "too
fast;" but he lived to see work projected on so large a scale as to
prove that his conceptions were just, and that he had