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10 unusual facts about Joseph Whitworth


120-pounder Whitworth naval gun

The 120-pounder Whitworth naval gun was designed by Joseph Whitworth during the 1860s.

70-pounder Whitworth naval gun

The 70-pounder Whitworth naval gun was designed by Joseph Whitworth during the 1860s.

English cannon

The carronade disappeared from the Royal Navy from the 1850s after the development of steel, jacketed cannon by William George Armstrong and Joseph Whitworth.

Henry Dyer

He was the first Scot to win the Whitworth scholarship awarded in 1868, which was for the further instruction of young men gifted in the practice and theory of mechanics.

Norman Atkinson

Post politics Atkinson authored a book on Sir Joseph Whitworth (The World’s Best Mechanician, 1996) and a play (Old Merrypebbles).

Robert A. Hardaway

Later in the year, serving near Fredericksburg, Virginia, Hardaway’s gunners, using a Whitworth gun (designed by Joseph Whitworth, drove federal gunboats away from Port Royal, Virginia on December 4, 1862.

Sackville Street Building

Construction of the building for the Manchester School of Technology began in 1895 on a site formerly occupied by Sir Joseph Whitworth's engineering works; it was opened in 1902 by the then Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour.

Siege artillery in the American Civil War

In defending the works that were the objects of Federal siege operations, the Confederates used a hodge-podge of weapons seized from Federal arsenals and fortifications, naval guns, Confederate-made versions of pre-war designs, and imported rifled guns, such as the Whitworth and Armstrong rifles.

The Federal forces at Charleston used two British 5-inch Whitworth muzzleloading rifles that had been captured aboard a blockade runner.

William Henry Warren

Warren won the Whitworth scholarship and the Society of Arts technological scholarship.


Henry Maudslay

Many outstanding engineers trained in his workshop, including Richard Roberts, David Napier, Joseph Clement, Sir Joseph Whitworth, James Nasmyth (inventor of the steam hammer), Joshua Field and William Muir.

Institution of Civil Engineers

Mechanical engineer and tool-maker Henry Maudslay was an early member and Joseph Whitworth presented one of the earliest papers – it was not until 1847 that the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was established (with George Stephenson as its first President).