Source: Manufacturer and Builder, June 1887
Mr. John Fernie, C.E., member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, etc., of England, delivered a most entertaining and instructive address upon "The Mechanical Genius and Works of the late Sir Joseph Whitworth."
Full of years, of honors, of wealth, which he gained by the most unremitting toil and industry, there passed a way to the majority, on the 22nd of January last, one of the greatest of modern engineers.
I first made Mr. Whitworth’s acquaintance at Birmingham. Birmingham is one of the great manufacturing cities of England, standing on the edge of the 10-yard coal-bed, of what is called the Black Country. The abundance of cheap fuel and the energy of its people early developed it into a workshop of the most various industries, in iron, brass, silver and copper, principally known on this side for its guns, great manufactories of glass, of lacquered ware and electro-plate, of railway carriages and steam engines. Birmingham stands in the center of England, geographically; politically, it has a great voice in the affairs of the nation. It is a great liberal center, represented in Parliament by John Bright and Joseph Chamberlain; but to the engineer it has greater attractions, for here lived Matthew Boulton, who rescued James Watt from the clutches of Roebuck, and whose wealth and influence established the success of the steam engine; and here comes in a link which unites Pennsylvania to these old times. The Lunar Society founded by Watt and three other members; Dr. Darwin, whose name will never be forgotten, the genial progenitor of the greatest philosopher of our day; Matthew Boulton and Dr. Priestly, who discovered oxygen, who studied electricity in the light of Franklin’s discoveries, and who, when driven out of Birmingham by a rough mob, came over to the great State we live in and found a home and friends.
With these advantages and this precedent, it only seemed to follow in the natural order of things that some sixty years afterwards George Stephenson and a few kindred spirits should come to Birmingham to found an Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Our first presidents were the Stephensons, father and son. Our next president, William Fairbairn, was one of the most distinguished engineers of his day. He may very properly be called the Father of Experimental Mechanics. He was not much of a speaker, but he was an authority on almost every mechanical subject; on the strength and form of girders, steam boilers and tubes; on iron ships, on riveted joints, on the strength of cast and wrought iron; he was famous for his mill work; he gave us the first riveting machine, and his most famous design, the bridge over the Menai Straits, had been recently completed when he became our president.
Joseph Whitworth, who succeeded him, was one of a group of mechanical men who had done great work in their day - James Nasmyth, who invented and perfected the steam hammer; James Kennedy, who made the first inside cylinder engine with its crank shaft; Robert Napier, who made the first Cunard steamships; and John Penn, a great marine engine builder. All these men, except Mr. Nasmyth, became our presidents, and Mr. Whitworth, though physically the weakest in health, survived them all, except Mr. Nasmyth, who still lives in Kent at a good old age.
