Sir Joseph Whitworth and the Confederate Sniper Rifle
“Why, my man, I am ashamed of you, dodging that way, They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” ~ The last words of Gen. John Sedgewick
Sir Joseph Whitworth, Baronet, FRS, FRSA was born in Stockport, Cheshire in December 1803 the son of a teacher who later became a Congregational minister. Whitworth’s interest in machinery and his aptitude for practical mechanics first became evident when he left school to became an indentured apprentice to his uncle, a Derbyshire cotton spinner, originally with a view to his eventually becoming a partner in the business. While Whitworth was fascinated by the workings of the factory machinery, he soon became critical of its lack of accuracy and precision becoming convinced that he could make a much better job of it himself.
After completing his four-year apprenticeship Whitworth left his uncle’s employ to work as a factory mechanic in Manchester for another four years before moving to the London premises of Henry Maudslay, a machine tool innovator, where he became interested in the concept of the flatness of surface plates.
Maudslay had demonstrated that perfect flatness is central to the philosophy of precision as by being perfectly flat, a surface plate can give precision to other things that are measured against it and thus be declared to be ‘true’ or not; ‘precisely made’ or not. In time the two men began to squabble as to who had originated this concept and how to achieve it. With the benefit of hindsight it seems clear that while Maudslay first had the idea, it was Whitworth who originated the means (the use of engineer’s blue and scraping as opposed to polishing techniques) to achieve it. In other words, Maudslay made the machines while Whitworth produced the tools, gauges and instruments to ensure their precision.
In 1833 Whitworth returned to Openshaw, Manchester to open his own…