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Sir Joseph Whitworth, Baronet ( December 21, 1803 - January 22, 1887) was an English engineer and entrepreneur.

Whitworth was born in Stockport and at a young age developed an interest in machinery. He worked as a mechanic in Manchester and then in London for Henry Maudslay, Holtzapffel and Joseph Clement. At Clement's workshop he helped with the manufacture of Charles Babbage's calculating machine. He returned to Openshaw , near Manchester, in 1833Events January 3 Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. June 6 U. President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train. September 29 The infant Isabella II becomes Queen of Spain, under the regency of her mot to start his own business manufacturing latheThis article is about a lathe as a tool. See also lathe (graphics) and lathe (division) for other meanings. In woodworking and metalworking, a lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material so that when abrasive or cutting tools are applied to ths and other machine tools, which were renowned for their high standard of workmanship.

He invented a method of producing accurate flat surfaceThe intuitive idea of flatness is important in several fields. Flatness in mathematics The flatness of a surface is the degree to which it approximates a mathematical plane. The term is generalized for higher-dimensional manifolds to describe the degree ts using three trial surfaces, in 1830Events February 3 The previously autonomous state of Greece gains full independence from the Ottoman Empire as the final result of the Greek War of Independence. Negotiations for the borders between the two states continue until 1832, under the supervisio. This used engineer's blue and three trial surfaces. This led to an explosion of development of precision instrument s using his flat surfaces as a basis for further construction of precise shapes.

His next innovation, in 18401840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). Events January 3 One of the predecessor papers to the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, The Port Phillip Herald is founded by George Cavanaugh. January 10 Uniform penny postage, was a measuring technique called "end measurements" that used a precision flat plane and measuring screw, both of his own invention. The system, with an accuracy of one millionth of an inchAn inch is an Imperial unit of length. Sweden also briefly had a "decimal inch" based on the metric system: see below for more. According to some sources, the inch was originally defined informally as the distance between the tip of the thumb and the firs, was demonstrated at the Great ExhibitionThe Great Exhibition in Hyde Park London, from 1st May to 15th October 1851, was the first of the large exhibitions of culture and industry that were to be repeated in many later events. This first of World's Fairs was organised by Prince Albert and Henry of 1851.

In 1841 Whitworth devised the first standardised system for screw threads. Its adoption by the railway companies, who until then had all used different screw threads, led to its widespread acceptance. It later became a British Standard, "British Standard Whitworth", abbreviated to BSW and governed by BS 84:1956.

Whitworth was commissioned by the War Department of the British government to design a replacement for the Enfield rifle, whose shortcomings had been revealed during the recent Crimean War. The Whitworth rifle had a smaller bore of 0.45 inch (11 mm) which was hexagonal, a longer bullet and tighter rifling than the Enfield, and its performance during tests in 1859 was superior to the Enfield in every way. The test was reported in The Times on April 23 as a great success. However, the new bore design was found to be prone to fouling, so it was rejected by the British government, only to be adopted by the French Army. Some of the rifles found their way to the Confederate states in the American Civil War, where they were called " Whitworth Sharpshooter s".

Whitworth also designed a large Rifled Breech Loading gun with a 2.75 inch (70 mm) bore, a 12 pound 11 ounce (5.75 kg) projectile and a range of about six miles (10 km). The spirally-grooved projectile was patented in 1855. This was also rejected by the British army, but was also used in the American Civil War.

While trying to increase the bursting strength of his gun barrels, Whitworth patented a process called "fluid-compressed steel" for casting steel under pressure, and built a new steel works near Manchester. Some of his castings were shown at the Great Exhibition in Paris ca. 1883.

Whitworth received many awards for the excellence of his designs, and was financially very successful. In 1850, then a Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers , he built a house called The Firs , in Fallowfield, south of Manchester. In 1854 he bought Stancliffe Hall in Darley Dale, Derbyshire. In 1872 he moved there with his second wife.

A strong believer in the value of technical education, Whitworth backed the new Mechanics Institute in Manchester, (which was to become UMIST]) and helped found the Manchester School of Design. In UMIST]) and helped found the Manchester School of Design. In 1868 he founded a scholarship for the advancement of mechanical engineering.

Whitworth died at Monte Carlo, where he had travelled in the hope of improving his health. He was buried at the church of Darley (or Darley Dale) St Helen in Derbyshire. A detailed obituary was published in the American magazine The Manufacturer and Builder (Volume 19, Issue 6, June 1887). He directed his trustees to spend his fortune on philanthropic projects, which they still do to this day.