William Muir
From Graces Guide
- See also William Muir and Co
- William Muir (1806–1888), mechanical engineer, was born on 17 January 1806 at Catrine, Ayrshire, Scotland, the second of the four children (three sons and a daughter) of Andrew Muir, a farmer and businessman. His father was a cousin of William Murdoch, who invented gas lighting.
- 1831 He worked for Henry Maudslay. At Maudslay, Sons and Field's he was promoted to foreman and made responsible for constructing a steam carriage, for which he received a handsome gratuity.
- March 1836 he left to join Holtzapffel and Co, toolmakers of Charing Cross and Long Acre, as assistant and representative for a few months, before becoming a foreman at Bramah and Robinson in Pimlico.
- 1840 Muir was asked to join Joseph Whitworth; he moved to Manchester where Whitworth had established his business. Muir designed a road sweeping machine for Whitworths.
- Muir collected a collection of the various screw pitches then in existence and identified a mean pitch for common threads which was adopted as the "Whitworth pitch". Later Muir, in business for himself, developed a mean pitch for fine threads.
- 1842 Left Whitworths in June.
- 1852 Muir was asked to supply the Woolwich Arsenal with machinery for making interchangeable rifle sights; and with business increasing, he built the Britannia Works in Sherborne Street, Strangeways, and took on partners.
- 1852 Built the Edmundson Railway Ticket Machine
- 1853 he was granted patents on lathes and machines for grinding edge tools and for cutting out garment pieces.
- 1888 Died on the 15th June
See Also
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Sources of Information
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- The Imperial Journal 1852 Vol I. p278-9
- Brief Memoir of the late William Muir by Robert Smiles