Museum of Science and Industry

From kettles to cars, mass-produced goods are common in our daily lives.  Engineers from Manchester helped to lay the basis for the mass production of metal parts needed for industry. Two hundred years ago the city's booming cotton trade made Manchester a magnet for the engineers who were inventing the modern world. 

Before 1800, all metal working was done with hand tools.  The London engineer Henry Maudslay was a pioneer of machine tools.   His workshop was the training ground of the first Manchester machine tool makers, including Richard Roberts, Joseph Whitworth and James Nasmyth. 

Machine tools made metal parts to standard sizes.  For the first time, parts such as nuts and bolts could be swapped from one machine to another.  By about 1850, Whitworth claimed he could machine metal to a millionth of an inch.   Today, University of Manchester engineers can be 1,000 times more precise.  Some are at work on nanotechnology, making tiny machines.