James Nasmyth, Engineer: An Autobiography

1883

The steam-hammer inventor's own story: a Scottish artist's son who built a Manchester foundry, developed a line of machine tools alongside the hammer, and retired early to map the Moon through telescopes of his own making. Samuel Smiles, the author of Self-Help, compiled it from Nasmyth's account in 1883.

Preface
Chapter 1 My Ancestry
Chapter 2 Alexander Nasmyth
Chapter 3 An Artist's Family
Chapter 4 My Early Years
Chapter 5 My School-days
Chapter 6 Mechanical Beginnings
Chapter 7 Henry Maudslay, London
Chapter 8 Maudslay's Private Assistant
Chapter 9 Holiday in the Manufacturing Districts
Chapter 10 Begin Business at Manchester
Chapter 11 Bridgewater Foundry—Partnership
Chapter 12 Free Trade in Ability—The Strike—Death of my Father
Chapter 13 My Marriage—The Steam Hammer
Chapter 14 Travels in France and Italy
Chapter 15 Steam Hammer Pile-driver
Chapter 16 Nuremberg—St. Petersburg—Dannemora
Chapter 17 More about Bridgewater Foundry—Woolwich Arsenal
Chapter 18 Astronomical pursuits
Chapter 19 More about Astronomy
Chapter 20 Retirement from Business
Chapter 21 Active leisure
Chronological List of Mechanical Inventions and Technical Contrivances
The Sun-Ray Origin of the Pyramids and Cuneiform Character