Note 42 — Chapter III
Reading edition
The examples given above might be multiplied indefinitely. Maudslay was brought up as a “powder-boy” at Woolwich. The inventors of the planing machine, Clements and Fox, were brought up, the one as a slater, the other as a domestic servant. Neilson, the inventor of the hot-blast, was a millwright. Roberts, the inventor of the self-acting mule and the slotting-machine, was a quarryman. The illustrious Bramah began life as a common farm-boy.