Biography of Joseph Clement in Smiles' Industrial Biography

Extract from Industrial Biography by Smiles
CHAPTER XIII.
JOSEPH CLEMENT.
"It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of these
inventions.  The Greeks would have elevated their authors among the
gods; nor will the enlightened judgment of modern times deny them the
place among their fellow-men which is so undeniably their due."--
Edinburgh Review.
 
That Skill in mechanical contrivance is a matter of education and
training as well as of inborn faculty, is clear from the fact of so
many of our distinguished mechanics undergoing the same kind of
practical discipline, and perhaps still more so from the circumstance
of so many of them passing through the same workshops.  Thus Maudslay
and Clement were trained in the workshops of Bramah; and Roberts,
Whitworth, Nasmyth, and others, were trained in those of Maudslay.
Joseph Clement was born at Great Ashby in Westmoreland, in the year
1779.  His father was a hand-loom weaver, and a man of remarkable
culture considering his humble station in life.  He was an ardent
student of natural history, and possessed a much more complete
knowledge of several sub-branches of that science than was to have
been looked for in a common working-man.  One of the departments which
he specially studied was Entomology.  In his leisure hours he was
accustomed to traverse the country searching the hedge-bottoms for
beetles and other insects, of which he formed a remarkably complete
collection; and the capture of a rare specimen was quite an event in
his life.  In order more deliberately to study the habits of the bee
tribe, he had a number of hives constructed for the purpose of
enabling him to watch their proceedings without leaving his work; and
the pursuit was a source of the greatest pleasure to him.  He was a
lover of all dumb creatures; his cottage was haunted by birds which
flew in and out at his door, and some of them became so tame as to
hop up to him and feed out of his hand.  "Old Clement" was also a bit
of a mechanic, and such of his leisure moments as he did not devote
to insect-hunting, were employed in working a lathe of his own
construction, which he used to turn his bobbing on, and also in
various kinds of amateur mechanics.
His boy Joseph, like other poor men's sons, was early set to work.  He
received very little education, and learnt only the merest rudiments
of reading and writing at the village school.  The rest of his
education he gave to himself as he grew older.  His father needed his
help at the loom, where he worked with him for some years; but, as
handloom weaving was gradually being driven out by improved
mechanism, the father prudently resolved to put his son to a better
trade.  They have a saying in Cumberland that when the bairns reach a
certain age, they are thrown on to the house-rigg, and that those who
stick on are made thatchers of, while those who fall off are sent to
St.  Bees to be made parsons of.  Joseph must have been one of those
that stuck on--at all events his father decided to make him a
thatcher, afterwards a slater, and he worked at that trade for five
years, between eighteen and twenty-three.
The son, like the father, had a strong liking for mechanics, and as
the slating trade did not keep him in regular employment, especially
in winter time, he had plenty of opportunity for following the bent
of his inclinations.  He made a friend of the village blacksmith,
whose smithy he was accustomed to frequent, and there he learned to
work at the forge, to handle the hammer and file, and in a short time
to shoe horses with considerable expertness.  A cousin of his named
Farer, a clock and watchmaker by trade, having returned to the
village from London, brought with him some books on mechanics, which
he lent to Joseph to read; and they kindled in him an ardent desire
to be a mechanic instead of a slater.  He nevertheless continued to
maintain himself by the latter trade for some time longer, until his
skill had grown; and, by way of cultivating it, he determined, with
the aid of his friend the village blacksmith, to make a
turning-lathe.  The two set to work, and the result was the production
of an article in every way superior to that made by Clement's father,
which was accordingly displaced to make room for the new machine.  It
was found to work very satisfactorily, and by its means Joseph
proceeded to turn fifes, flutes, clarinets, and hautboys; for to his
other accomplishments he joined that of music, and could play upon
the instruments that he made.  One of his most ambitious efforts was
the making of a pair of Northumberland bagpipes, which he finished to
his satisfaction, and performed upon to the great delight of the
villagers.  To assist his father in his entomological studies, he even
contrived, with the aid of the descriptions given in the books
borrowed from his cousin the watchmaker, to make for him a
microscope, from which he proceeded to make a reflecting telescope,
which proved a very good instrument.  At this early period (1804) he
also seems to have directed his attention to screw-making--a branch
of mechanics in which he afterwards became famous; and he proceeded
to make a pair of very satisfactory die-stocks, though it is said
that he had not before seen or even heard of such a contrivance for
making screws.
So clever a workman was not likely to remain long a village slater.
Although the ingenious pieces of work which he turned out by his
lathe did not bring him in much money, he liked the occupation so
much better than slating that he was gradually giving up that trade.
His father urged him to stick to slating as "a safe thing;" but his
own mind was in favour of following his instinct to be a mechanic;
and at length he determined to leave his village and seek work in a
new line.  He succeeded in finding employment in a small factory at
Kirby Stephen, a town some thirteen miles from Great Ashby, where he
worked at making power-looms.  From an old statement of account
against his employer which we have seen, in his own handwriting,
dated the 6th September, 1805, it appears that his earnings at such
work as "fitting the first set of iron loames," "fitting up
shittles," and "making moddles," were 3s. 6d. a day; and he must,
during the same time, have lived with his employer, who charged him
as a set-off "14 weaks bord at 8s. per weak."  He afterwards seems to
have worked at piece-work in partnership with one Andrew Gamble
supplying the materials as well as the workmanship for the looms and
shuttles.  His employer, Mr. George Dickinson, also seems to have
bought his reflecting telescope from him for the sum of 12l.
From Kirby Stephen Clement removed to Carlisle, where he was employed
by Forster and Sons during the next two years at the same description
of work; and he conducted himself, according; to their certificate on
his leaving their employment to proceed to Glasgow in 1807, "with
great sobriety and industry, entirely to their satisfaction."  While
working at Glasgow as a turner, he took lessons in drawing from Peter
Nicholson, the well-known writer on carpentry--a highly ingenious
man.  Nicholson happened to call at the shop at which Clement worked
in order to make a drawing of a power-loom; and Clement's expressions
of admiration at his expertness were so enthusiastic, that Nicholson,
pleased with the youth's praise, asked if he could be of service to
him in any way.  Emboldened by the offer, Clement requested, as the
greatest favour he could confer upon him, to have the loan of the
drawing he had just made, in order that he might copy it.  The request
was at once complied with; and Clement, though very poor at the time,
and scarcely able to buy candle for the long winter evenings, sat up
late every night until he had finished it.  Though the first drawing
he had ever made, he handed it back to Nicholson instead of the
original, and at first the draughtsman did not recognise that the
drawing was not his own.  When Clement told him that it was only the
copy, Nicholson's brief but emphatic praise was ---  "Young man,
YOU'LL DO!"  Proud to have such a pupil, Nicholson generously offered
to give him gratuitous lessons in drawing, which were thankfully
accepted; and Clement, working at nights with great ardour, soon made
rapid progress, and became an expert draughtsman.
Trade being very slack in Glasgow at the time, Clement, after about a
year's stay in the place, accepted a situation with Messrs. Leys,
Masson, and Co., of Aberdeen, with whom he began at a guinea and a
half a week, from which he gradually rose to two guineas, and
ultimately to three guineas.  His principal work consisted in
designing and making power-looms for his employers, and fitting them
up in different parts of the country.  He continued to devote himself
to the study of practical mechanics, and made many improvements in
the tools with which he worked.  While at Glasgow he had made an
improved pair of die-stocks for screws; and, at Aberdeen, he made a
turning-lathe with a sliding mandrill and guide-screws, for cutting
screws, furnished also with the means for correcting guide-screws.  In
the same machine he introduced a small slide rest, into which he
fixed the tool for cutting the screws,--having never before seen a
slide rest, though it is very probable he may have heard of what
Maudslay had already done in the same direction.  Clement continued
during this period of his life an industrious self-cultivator,
occupying most of his spare hours in mechanical and landscape
drawing, and in various studies.  Among the papers left behind him we
find a ticket to a course of instruction on Natural Philosophy given
by Professor Copland in the Marischal College at Aberdeen, which
Clement attended in the session of 1812-13; and we do not doubt that
our mechanic was among the most diligent of his pupils.  Towards the
end of 1813, after saving about 100L. out of his wages, Clement
resolved to proceed to London for the purpose of improving himself in
his trade and pushing his way in the world.  The coach by which he
travelled set him down in Snow Hill, Holborn; and his first thought
was of finding work.  He had no friend in town to consult on the
matter, so he made inquiry of the coach-guard whether he knew of any
person in the mechanical line in that neighbourhood.  The guard said,
"Yes; there was Alexander Galloway's show shop, just round the
corner, and he employed a large number of hands."  Running round the
corner, Clement looked in at Galloway's window, through which he saw
some lathes and other articles used in machine shops.  Next morning he
called upon the owner of the shop to ask employment.  "What can you
do?" asked Galloway.  "I can work at the forge," said Clement.
"Anything else?"  "I can turn."  "What else?"  "I can draw."  "What!"
said Galloway, "can you draw? Then I will engage you."  A man who
could draw or work to a drawing in those days was regarded as a
superior sort of mechanic.  Though Galloway was one of the leading
tradesmen of his time, and had excellent opportunities for
advancement, he missed them all.  As Clement afterwards said of him,
"He was only a mouthing common-council man, the height of whose
ambition was to be an alderman;" and, like most corporation
celebrities, he held a low rank in his own business.  He very rarely
went into his workshops to superintend or direct his workmen, leaving
this to his foremen--a sufficient indication of the causes of his
failure as a mechanic.*
 [footnote...
On one occasion Galloway had a cast-iron roof made for his workshop,
so flat and so independent of ties that the wonder was that it should
have stood an hour.  One day Peter Keir, an engineer much employed by
the government--a clever man, though some what eccentric--was taken
into the shop by Galloway to admire the new roof.  Keir, on glancing
up at it, immediately exclaimed, "Come outside, and let us speak
about it there!"  All that he could say to Galloway respecting the
unsoundness of its construction was of no avail.  The fact was that,
however Keir might argue about its not being able to stand, there it
was actually standing, and that was enough for Galloway.  Keir went
home, his mind filled with Galloway's most unprincipled roof.  "If
that stands," said he to himself, "all that I have been learning and
doing for thirty years has been wrong."  That night he could not sleep
for thinking about it.  In the morning he strolled up Primrose Hill,
and returned home still muttering to himself about "that roof."
"What, said his wife to him, "are you thinking of Galloway's roof?"
"Yes, said he.  "Then you have seen the papers?"  "No -- what about
them?"  "Galloway's roof has fallen in this morning, and killed eight
or ten of the men!"  Keir immediately went to bed, and slept soundly
till next morning.
 ...]
On entering Galloway's shop, Clement was first employed in working at
the lathe; but finding the tools so bad that it was impossible to
execute satisfactory work with them, he at once went to the forge,
and began making a new set of tools for himself.  The other men, to
whom such a proceeding was entirely new, came round him to observe
his operations, and they were much struck with his manual dexterity.
The tools made, he proceeded to use them, displaying what seemed to
the other workmen an unusual degree of energy and intelligence; and
some of the old hands did not hesitate already to pronounce Clement
to be the best mechanic in the shop.  When Saturday night came round,
the other men were curious to know what wages Galloway would allow
the new hand; and when he had been paid, they asked him.  "A guinea,"
was the reply.  "A guinea!  Why, you are worth two if you are worth a
shilling," said an old man who came out of the rank--an excellent
mechanic, who, though comparatively worthless through his devotion to
drink, knew Clement's money value to his employer better than any man
there; and he added, "Wait for a week or two, and if you are not
better paid than this, I can tell you of a master who will give you a
fairer wage."  Several Saturdays came round, but no advance was made
on the guinea a week; and then the old workman recommended Clement to
offer himself to Bramah at Pimlico, who was always on the look out
for first-rate mechanics.
Clement acted on the advice, and took with him some of his drawings,
at sight of which Bramah immediately engaged him for a month; and at
the end of that time he had given so much satisfaction, that it was
agreed he should continue for three months longer at two guineas a
week.  Clement was placed in charge of the tools of the shop, and he
showed himself so apt at introducing improvements in them, as well as
in organizing the work with a view to despatch and economy, that at
the end of the term Bramah made him a handsome present, adding, "if I
had secured your services five years since, I would now have been a
richer man by many thousands of pounds."  A formal agreement for a
term of five years was then entered into between Bramah and Clement,
dated the 1st of April, 1814, by which the latter undertook to fill
the office of chief-draughtsman and superintendent of the Pimlico
Works, in consideration of a salary of three guineas a week, with an
advance of four shillings a week in each succeeding year of the
engagement.  This arrangement proved of mutual advantage to both.
Clement devoted himself with increased zeal to the improvement of the
mechanical arrangements of the concern, exhibiting his ingenuity in
many ways, and taking; a genuine pride in upholding the character of
his master for turning out first-class work.
On the death of Bramah, his sons returned from college and entered
into possession of the business.  They found Clement the ruling mind
there and grew jealous of him to such an extent that his situation
became uncomfortable; and by mutual consent he was allowed to leave
before the expiry of his term of agreement.  He had no difficulty in
finding employment; and was at once taken on as chief draughtsman at
Maudslay and Field's where he was of much assistance in proportioning
the early marine engines, for the manufacture of which that firm were
becoming celebrated.  After a short time, he became desirous of
beginning business on his own account as a mechanical engineer.  He
was encouraged to do this by the Duke of Northumberland, who, being a
great lover of mechanics and himself a capital turner, used often to
visit Maudslay's, and thus became acquainted with Clement, whose
expertness as a draughtsman and mechanic he greatly admired.  Being a
man of frugal and sober habits, always keeping his expenditure very
considerably within his income, Clement had been enabled to
accumulate about 500L., which he thought would be enough for his
purpose; and he accordingly proceeded, in 1817, to take a small
workshop in Prospect Place, Newington Butts, where he began business
as a mechanical draughtsman and manufacturer of small machinery
requiring first-class workmanship.
From the time when he took his first gratuitous lessons in drawing
from Peter Nicholson, at Glasgow, in 1807, he had been steadily
improving in this art, the knowledge of which is indispensable to
whoever aspires to eminence as a mechanical engineer,--until by
general consent Clement was confessed to stand unrivalled as a
draughtsman.  Some of the very best drawings contained in the
Transactions of the Society of Arts, from the year 1817
downwards,--especially those requiring the delineation of any
unusually elaborate piece of machinery,--proceeded from the hand of
Clement.  In some of these, he reached a degree of truth in mechanical
perspective which has never been surpassed.*
 [footnote...
See more particularly The Transactions of the Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, vol. xxxiii. (l8l7), at pp. 74,l57,l60,175,208
(an admirable drawing; of Mr. James Allen's Theodolite); vol. xxxvi.
(1818), pp. 28,176 (a series of remarkable illustrations of Mr.
Clement's own invention of an Instrument for Drawing Ellipses); vol.
xliii. (1825), containing an illustration of the Drawing Table
invented by him for large drawings; vol. xlvi. (1828), containing a
series of elaborate illustrations of his Prize Turning Lathe; and
xlviii. 1829, containing illustrations of his Self-adjusting Double
Driver Centre Chuck.
 ...]
To facilitate his labours, he invented an extremely ingenious
instrument, by means of which ellipses of all proportions, as well as
circles and right lines, might be geometrically drawn on paper or on
copper.  He took his idea of this instrument from the trammel used by
carpenters for drawing imperfect ellipses; and when he had succeeded
in avoiding the crossing of the points, he proceeded to invent the
straight-line motion.  For this invention the Society of Arts awarded
him their gold medal in 1818.  Some years later, he submitted to the
same Society his invention of a stand for drawings of large size.  He
had experienced considerable difficulty in making such drawings, and
with his accustomed readiness to overcome obstacles, he forthwith set
to work and brought out his new drawing-table.
As with many other original-minded mechanics, invention became a
habit with him, and by study and labour he rarely failed in attaining
the object which he had bent his mind upon accomplishing.  Indeed,
nothing pleased him better than to have what he called "a tough job;"
as it stimulated his inventive faculty, in the exercise of which he
took the highest pleasure.  Hence mechanical schemers of all kinds
were accustomed to resort to Clement for help when they had found an
idea which they desired to embody in a machine.  If there was any
value in their idea, none could be more ready than he to recognise
its merit, and to work it into shape; but if worthless, he spoke out
his mind at once, dissuading the projector from wasting upon it
further labour or expense.
One of the important branches of practical mechanics to which Clement
continued through life to devote himself, was the improvement of
self-acting tools, more especially of the slide-lathe.  He introduced
various improvements in its construction and arrangement, until in
his hands it became as nearly perfect as it was possible to be.  In
1818, he furnished the lathe with a slide rest twenty-two inches
long, for the purpose of cutting screws, provided with the means of
self-correction; and some years later, in 1827, the Society of Arts
awarded him their gold Isis medal for his improved turning-lathe,
which embodied many ingenious contrivances calculated to increase its
precision and accuracy in large surface-turning.
The beautiful arrangements embodied in Mr. Clement's improved lathe
can with difficulty be described in words; but its ingenuity may be
inferred from a brief statement of the defects which it was invented
to remedy, and which it successfully overcame.  When the mandrill of a
lathe, having a metal plate fixed to it, turns round with a uniform
motion, and the slide rest which carries the cutter is moving from
the circumference of the work to the centre, it will be obvious that
the quantity of metal passing over the edge of the cutter at each
revolution, and therefore at equal intervals of time, is continually
diminishing, in exact proportion to the spiral line described by the
cutter on the face of the work.  But in turning metal plates it is
found very in expedient to increase the speed of the work beyond a
certain quantity; for when this happens, and the tool passes the work
at too great a velocity, it heats, softens, and is ground away, the
edge of the cutter becomes dull, and the surface of the plate is
indented and burnished, instead of being turned.  Hence loss of time
on the part of the workman, and diminished work on the part of the
tool, results which, considering the wages of the one and the capital
expended on the construction of the other, are of no small
importance; for the prime objects of all improvement of tools are,
economy of time and economy of capital--to minimize labour and cost,
and maximize result.
The defect to which we have referred was almost the only remaining
imperfection in the lathe, and Mr. Clement overcame it by making the
machine self-regulating; so that, whatever might be the situation of
the cutter, equal quantities of metal should pass over it in equal
times,--the speed at the centre not exceeding that suited to the work
at the circumference,--while the workman was enabled to convert the
varying rate of the mandrill into a uniform one whenever he chose.
Thus the expedients of wheels, riggers, and drums, of different
diameters, by which it had been endeavoured to alter the speed of the
lathe-mandrill, according to the hardness of the metal and the
diameter of the thing to be turned, were effectually disposed of.
These, though answering very well where cylinders of equal diameter
had to be bored, and a uniform motion was all that was required, were
found very inefficient where a Plane surface had to be turned; and it
was in such cases that Mr. Clement's lathe was found so valuable.  By
its means surfaces of unrivalled correctness were produced, and the
slide-lathe, so improved, became recognised and adopted as the most
accurate and extensively applicable of all machine-tools.
The year after Mr. Clement brought out his improved turning-lathe, he
added to it his self-adjusting double driving centre-chuck, for which
the Society of Arts awarded him their silver medal in 1828.  In
introducing this invention to the notice of the Society, Mr. Clement
said, "Although I have been in the habit of turning and making
turning-lathes and other machinery for upwards of thirty-five years,
and have examined the best turning-lathes in the principal
manufactories throughout Great Britain, I find it universally
regretted by all practical men that they cannot turn anything
perfectly true between the centres of the lathe."  It was found by
experience, that there was a degree of eccentricity, and consequently
of imperfection, in the figure of any long cylinder turned while
suspended between the centres of the lathe, and made to revolve by
the action of a single driver.  Under such circumstances the pressure
of the tool tended to force the work out of the right line and to
distribute the strain between the driver and the adjacent centre, so
that one end of the cylinder became eccentric with respect to the
other.  By Mr. Clement's invention of the two-armed driver, which was
self-adjusting, the strain was taken from the centre and divided
between the two arms, which being equidistant from the centre,
effectually corrected all eccentricity in the work.  This invention
was found of great importance in ensuring the true turning of large
machinery, which before had been found a matter of considerable
difficulty.
In the same year (1828) Mr. Clement began the making of fluted taps
and dies, and he established a mechanical practice with reference to
the pitch of the screw, which proved of the greatest importance in
the economics of manufacture.  Before his time, each mechanical
engineer adopted a thread of his own; so that when a piece of work
came under repair, the screw-hob had usually to be drilled out, and a
new thread was introduced according to the usage which prevailed in
the shop in which the work was executed.  Mr. Clement saw a great
waste of labour in this practice, and he promulgated the idea that
every screw of a particular length ought to be furnished with its
appointed number of threads of a settled pitch.  Taking the inch as
the basis of his calculations, he determined the number of threads in
each case; and the practice thus initiated by him, recommended as it
was by convenience and economy, was very shortly adopted throughout
the trade.  It may be mentioned that one of Clement's ablest
journeymen, Mr. Whitworth, has, since his time, been mainly
instrumental in establishing the settled practice; and Whitworth's
thread (initiated by Clement) has become recognised throughout the
mechanical world.  To carry out his idea, Clement invented his
screw-engine lathe, with gearing, mandrill, and sliding-table
wheel-work, by means of which he first cut the inside screw-tools
from the left-handed hobs--the reverse mode having before been
adopted,--while in shaping machines he was the first to use the
revolving cutter attached to the slide rest.  Then, in 1828, he fluted
the taps for the first time with a revolving cutter,--other makers
having up to that time only notched them.  Among his other inventions
in screws may be mentioned his headless tap, which, according to Mr.
Nasmyth, is so valuable an invention, that, "if he had done nothing
else, it ought to immortalize him among mechanics.  It passed right
through the hole to be tapped, and was thus enabled to do the duty of
three ordinary screws."  By these improvements much greater precision
was secured in the manufacture of tools and machinery, accompanied by
a greatly reduced cost of production; the results of which are felt
to this day.
Another of Mr. Clement's ingenious inventions was his Planing
Machine, by means of which metal plates of large dimensions were
planed with perfect truth and finished with beautiful accuracy.  There
is perhaps scarcely a machine about which there has been more
controversy than this; and we do not pretend to be able to determine
the respective merits of the many able mechanics who have had a hand
in its invention.  It is exceedingly probable that others besides
Clement worked out the problem in their own way, by independent
methods; and this is confirmed by the circumstance that though the
results achieved by the respective inventors were the same, the
methods employed by them were in many respects different.  As regards
Clement, we find that previous to the year 1820 he had a machine in
regular use for planing the triangular bars of lathes and the sides
of weaving-looms.  This instrument was found so useful and so
economical in its working, that Clement proceeded to elaborate a
planing machine of a more complete kind, which he finished and set to
work in the year 1825.  He prepared no model of it, but made it direct
from the working drawings; and it was so nicely constructed, that
when put together it went without a hitch, and has continued steadily
working for more than thirty years down to the present day.
Clement took out no patent for his invention, relying for protection
mainly on his own and his workmen's skill in using it.  We therefore
find no specification of his machine at the Patent Office, as in the
case of most other capital inventions; but a very complete account of
it is to be found in the Transactions of the Society of Arts for
1832, as described by Mr. Varley.  The practical value of the Planing
Machine induced the Society to apply to Mr. Clement for liberty to
publish a full description of it; and Mr. Varley's paper was the
result.*
 [footnote...
Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, vol. xlix.
p.157.
 ...]
It may be briefly stated that this engineer's plane differs greatly
from the carpenter's plane, the cutter of which is only allowed to
project so far as to admit of a thin shaving to be sliced off,--the
plane working flat in proportion to the width of the tool, and its
length and straightness preventing the cutter from descending into
any hollows in the wood.  The engineer's plane more resembles the
turning-lathe, of which indeed it is but a modification, working up
on the same principle, on flat surfaces.  The tools or cutters in
Clement's machine were similar to those used in the lathe, varying in
like manner, but performing their work in right lines,--the tool
being stationary and the work moving under it, the tool only
travelling when making lateral cuts.  To save time two cutters were
mounted, one to cut the work while going, the other while returning,
both being so arranged and held as to be presented to the work in the
firmest manner, and with the least possible friction.  The bed of the
machine, on which the work was laid, passed under the cutters on
perfectly true rollers or wheels, lodged and held in their bearings
as accurately as the best mandrill could be, and having set-screws
acting against their ends totally preventing all end-motion.  The
machine was bedded on a massive and solid foundation of masonry in
heavy blocks, the support at all points being so complete as
effectually to destroy all tendency to vibration, with the object of
securing full, round, and quiet cuts.  The rollers on which the
planing-machine travelled were so true, that Clement himself used to
say of them, "If you were to put but a paper shaving under one of the
rollers, it would at once stop all the rest."  Nor was this any
exaggeration--the entire mechanism, notwithstanding its great size,
being as true and accurate as that of a watch.
By an ingenious adaptation of the apparatus, which will also be found
described in the Society of Arts paper, the planing machine might be
fitted with a lathe-bed, either to hold two centres, or a head with a
suitable mandrill.  When so fitted, the machine was enabled to do the
work of a turning-lathe, though in a different way, cutting cylinders
or cones in their longitudinal direction perfectly straight, as well
as solids or prisms of any angle, either by the longitudinal or
lateral motion of the cutter; whilst by making the work revolve, it
might be turned as in any other lathe.  This ingenious machine, as
contrived by Mr. Clement, therefore represented a complete union of
the turning-lathe with the planing machine and dividing engine, by
which turning of the most complicated kind might readily be executed.
For ten years after it was set in motion, Clement's was the only
machine of the sort available for planing large work; and being
consequently very much in request, it was often kept going night and
day,--the earnings by the planing machine alone during that time
forming the principal income of its inventor.  As it took in a piece
of work six feet square, and as his charge for planing was
three-halfpence the square inch, or eighteen shillings the square
foot, he could thus earn by his machine alone some ten pounds for
every day's work of twelve hours.  We may add that since planing
machines in various forms have become common in mechanical workshops,
the cost of planing does not amount to more than three-halfpence the
square foot.
The excellence of Mr. Clement's tools, and his well-known skill in
designing and executing work requiring unusual accuracy and finish,
led to his being employed by Mr. Babbage to make his celebrated
Calculating or Difference Engine.  The contrivance of a machine that
should work out complicated sums in arithmetic with perfect
precision, was, as may readily be imagined, one of the most difficult
feats of the mechanical intellect.  To do this was in an especial
sense to stamp matter with the impress of mind, and render it
subservient to the highest thinking faculty.  Attempts had been made
at an early period to perform arithmetical calculations by mechanical
aids more rapidly and precisely than it was possible to do by the
operations of the individual mind.  The preparation of arithmetical
tables of high numbers involved a vast deal of labour, and even with
the greatest care errors were unavoidable and numerous.  Thus in a
multipltcation-table prepared by a man so eminent as Dr. Hutton for
the Board of Longitude, no fewer than forty errors were discovered in
a single page taken at random.  In the tables of the Nautical Almanac,
where the greatest possible precision was desirable and necessary,
more than five hundred errors were detected by one person; and the
Tables of the Board of Longitude were found equally incorrect.  But
such errors were impossible to be avoided so long as the ordinary
modes of calculating, transcribing, and printing continued in use.
The earliest and simplest form of calculating apparatus was that
employed by the schoolboys of ancient Greece, called the Abacus;
consisting of a smooth board with a narrow rim, on which they were
taught to compute by means of progressive rows of pebbles, bits of
bone or ivory, or pieces of silver coin, used as counters.  The same
board, strewn over with sand, was used for teaching the rudiments of
writing and the principles of geometry.  The Romans subsequently
adopted the Abacus, dividing it by means of perpendicular lines or
bars, and from the designation of calculus which they gave to each
pebble or counter employed on the board, we have derived our English
word to calculate.  The same instrument continued to be employed
during the middle ages, and the table used by the English Court of
Exchequer was but a modified form of the Greek Abacus, the chequered
lines across it giving the designation to the Court, which still
survives.  Tallies, from the French word tailler to cut, were another
of the mechanical methods employed to record computations, though in
a very rude way.  Step by step improvements were made; the most
important being that invented by Napier of Merchiston, the inventor
of logarithms, commonly called Napier's bones, consisting of a number
of rods divided into ten equal squares and numbered, so that the
whole when placed together formed the common multiplication table.  By
these means various operations in multiplication and division were
performed.  Sir Samuel Morland, Gunter, and Lamb introduced other
contrivances, applicable to trigonometry; Gunter's scale being still
in common use.  The calculating machines of Gersten and Pascal were of
a different kind, working out arithmetical calculations by means of
trains of wheels and other arrangements; and that contrived by Lord
Stanhope for the purpose of verifying his calculations with respect
to the National Debt was of like character.  But none of these will
bear for a moment to be compared with the machine designed by Mr.
Babbage for performing arithmetical calculations and mathematical
analyses, as well as for recording the calculations when made,
thereby getting rid entirely of individual error in the operations of
calculation, transcription, and printing.
The French government, in their desire to promote the extension of
the decimal system, had ordered the construction of logarithmical
tables of vast extent; but the great labour and expense involved in
the undertaking prevented the design from being carried out.  It was
reserved for Mr. Babbage to develope the idea by means of a machine
which he called the Difference Engine.  This machine is of so
complicated a character that it would be impossible for us to give
any intelligible description of it in words .  Although Dr. Lardner
was unrivalled in the art of describing mechanism, he occupied
twenty-five pages of the 'Edinburgh Review' (vol.59) in endeavouring
to describe its action, and there were several features in it which
he gave up as hopeless.  Some parts of the apparatus and modes of
action are indeed extraordinary and perhaps none more so than that
for ensuring accuracy in the calculated results,--the machine
actually correcting itself, and rubbing itself back into accuracy,
when the disposition to err occurs, by the friction of the adjacent
machinery!  When an error is made, the wheels become locked and refuse
to proceed; thus the machine must go rightly or not at all,--an
arrangement as nearly resembling volition as anything that brass and
steel are likely to accomplish.
This intricate subject was taken up by Mr. Babbage in 1821, when he
undertook to superintend for the British government the construction
of a machine for calculating and printing mathematical and
astronomical tables.  The model first constructed to illustrate the
nature of his invention produced figures at the rate of 44 a minute.
In 1823 the Royal Society was requested to report upon the invention,
and after full inquiry the committee recommended it as one highly
deserving of public encouragement.  A sum of 1500L. was then placed at
Mr. Babbage's disposal by the Lords of the Treasury for the purpose
of enabling him to perfect his invention.  It was at this time that he
engaged Mr. Clement as draughtsman and mechanic to embody his ideas
in a working machine.  Numerous tools were expressly contrived by the
latter for executing the several parts, and workmen were specially
educated for the purpose of using them.  Some idea of the elaborate
character of the drawings may be formed from the fact that those
required for the calculating machinery alone--not to mention the
printing machinery, which was almost equally elaborate--covered not
less than four hundred square feet of surface!  The cost of executing
the calculating machine was of course very great, and the progress of
the work was necessarily slow.  The consequence was that the
government first became impatient, and then began to grumble at the
expense.  At the end of seven years the engineer's bills alone were
found to amount to nearly 7200L., and Mr. Babbage's costs out of
pocket to 7000L. more.  In order to make more satisfactory progress,
it was determined to remove the works to the neighbourhood of Mr.
Babbage's own residence; but as Clement's claims for conducting the
operations in the new premises were thought exorbitant, and as he
himself considered that the work did not yield him the average profit
of ordinary employment in his own trade, he eventually withdrew from
the enterprise, taking with him the tools which he had constructed
for executing the machine.  The government also shortly after withdrew
from it, and from that time the scheme was suspended, the Calculating
Engine remaining a beautiful but unfinished fragment of a great work.
Though originally intended to go as far as twenty figures, it was
only completed to the extent of being capable of calculating to the
depth of five figures, and two orders of differences; and only a
small part of the proposed printing machinery was ever made.  The
engine was placed in the museum of King's College in 1843, enclosed
in a glass case, until the year 1862, when it was removed for a time
to the Great Exhibition, where it formed perhaps the most remarkable
and beautifully executed piece of mechanism the combined result of
intellectual and mechanical contrivance--in the entire collection.*
 [footnote...
A complete account of the calculating machine, as well as of an
analytical engine afterwards contrived by Mr. Babbage, of still
greater power than the other, will be found in the Bibliotheque
Universelle de Geneve, of which a translation into English, with
copious original notes, by the late Lady Lovelace, daughter of Lord
Byron, was published in the 3rd vol. of Taylor's Scientific Memoirs
(London, 1843).  A history of the machine, and of the circumstances
connected with its construction, will also be found in Weld's History
of the Royal Society, vol. ii. 369-391.  It remains to be added, that
the perusal by Messrs. Scheutz of Stockholm of Dr. Lardner's account
of Mr. Babbage's engine in the Edinburgh Review, led those clever
mechanics to enter upon the scheme of constructing and completing it,
and the result is, that their machine not only calculates the tables,
but prints the results.  It took them nearly twenty years to perfect
it, but when completed the machine seemed to be almost capable of
thinking.  The original was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855.
A copy of it has since been secured by the English government at a
cost of 1200L., and it is now busily employed at Somerset House in
working out annuity and other tables for the Registrar-General.  The
copy was constructed, with several admirable improvements, by the
Messrs. Donkin, the well-known mechanical engineers, after the
working drawings of the Messrs. Scheutz.
 ...]
Clement was on various other occasions invited to undertake work
requiring extra skill, which other mechanics were unwilling or unable
to execute.  He was thus always full of employment, never being under
the necessity of canvassing for customers.  He was almost constantly
in his workshop, in which he took great pride.  His dwelling was over
the office in the yard, and it was with difficulty he could be
induced to leave the premises.  On one occasion Mr. Brunel of the
Great Western Railway called upon him to ask if he could supply him
with a superior steam-whistle for his locomotives, the whistles which
they were using giving forth very little sound.  Clement examined the
specimen brought by Brunel, and pronounced it to be "mere
tallow-chandler's work."  He undertook to supply a proper article, and
after his usual fashion he proceeded to contrive a machine or tool
for the express purpose of making steam-whistles.  They were made and
supplied, and when mounted on the locomotive the effect was indeed
"screaming."  They were heard miles off, and Brunel, delighted,
ordered a hundred.  But when the bill came in, it was found that the
charge made for them was very high--as much as 40L. the set.  The
company demurred at the price,--Brunel declaring it to be six times
more than the price they had before been paying.  "That may be;"
rejoined Clement, "but mine are more than six times better.  You
ordered a first-rate article, and you must be content to pay for it."
The matter was referred to an arbitrator, who awarded the full sum
claimed.  Mr. Weld mentions a similar case of an order which Clement
received from America to make a large screw of given dimensions "in
the best possible manner," and he accordingly proceeded to make one
with the greatest mathematical accuracy.  But his bill amounted to
some hundreds of pounds, which completely staggered the American, who
did not calculate on having to pay more than 20L. at the utmost for
the screw.  The matter was, however, referred to arbitrators, who gave
their decision, as in the former case, in favour of the mechanic.*
 [footnote...
History of the Royal Society, ii. 374.
 ...]
One of the last works which Clement executed as a matter of pleasure,
was the building of an organ for his own use.  It will be remembered
that when working as a slater at Great Ashby, he had made flutes and
clarinets, and now in his old age he determined to try his skill at
making an organ--in his opinion the king of musical instruments.  The
building of it became his hobby, and his greatest delight was in
superintending its progress.  It cost him about two thousand pounds in
labour alone, but he lived to finish it, and we have been informed
that it was pronounced a very excellent instrument.
Clement was a heavy-browed man, without any polish of manner or
speech; for to the last he continued to use his strong Westmoreland
dialect.  He was not educated in a literary sense; for he read but
little, and could write with difficulty.  He was eminently a mechanic,
and had achieved his exquisite skill by observation, experience, and
reflection.  His head was a complete repertory of inventions, on which
he was constantly drawing for the improvement of mechanical practice.
Though he had never more than thirty workmen in his factory, they
were all of the first class; and the example which Clement set before
them of extreme carefulness and accuracy in execution rendered his
shop one of the best schools of its time for the training of
thoroughly accomplished mechanics.  Mr. Clement died in 1844, in his
sixty-fifth year; after which his works were carried on by Mr.
Wilkinson, one of his nephews; and his planing machine still
continues in useful work.

Reference

Samuel Smiles (1864). Industrial biography: iron-workers and tool-makers. Ticknor and Fields. pp. 289–