In an age where, if it doesn’t have a digital display it’s not modern, we tend to forget how the levels of precision we measure to came about in the first place. This is a brief look at one of the people we are indebted to for their discoveries and inventions from many years ago. I’ll look at others in future columns but for now, one man, known the world over for one of his many contributions to the field of mechanical engineering made equally—or more—important discoveries that became the bedrock of dimensional metrology and machine tool design. His name was Joseph Whitworth and he created the Whitworth screw thread system that is still used around the world, but that was later in his career.
Whitworth (1803 -1887) was born in Stockport, England. His father made loom frames for the textile industry and when his mother died in 1814 his father decided to become a minister and put eleven year old Joseph and his two siblings into foster care. Three years later he was indentured as an apprentice for a cotton spinning mill owned by his uncle, and in 1821 his interest in machinery resulted in him starting work as a mechanic in Manchester, England.