Editing Henry Maudslay (section)

====Block making machines====
[[File:Gilbert Blockmaking 1965 Figure 4 Page011.jpg|thumb|Rigging block from HMS ''Victory''<ref name="Gilbert, 1965" >{{cite book 
  |title=The Portsmouth Blockmaking Machinery: A Pioneering Enterprise in Mass Production
  |last=Gilbert  |first=K.R.
  |publisher=[[HMSO]], for the [[Science Museum (London)|Science Museum]]
  |year=1965
  |ref=Gilbert, 1965
  |url=https://archive.org/details/portsmputh-blockmaking-machinery
  |quote=...the first instance of the use of machine tools for mass production.
}}</ref>]]
Following earlier work by [[Samuel Bentham]], his first major commission was to build a series of 42 woodworking machines to produce wooden rigging blocks (each ship required thousands) for the Navy under Sir [[Marc Isambard Brunel]]. The machines were installed in the purpose-built [[Portsmouth Block Mills]], which still survive, including some of the original machinery. The machines were capable of making 130,000 ships' blocks a year, needing only ten unskilled men to operate them compared with the 110 skilled workers needed before their installation.<ref>Deane 1965, page 131</ref> This was the first well-known example of specialized machinery used for machining in an assembly-line type factory.<ref name=rolt/><ref name="Gilbert, 1965"/><ref name="Rees, 1819" >{{cite book
  |last=Rees  |first=A.
  |title=The Cyclopaedia of Arts, Science, and Literature
  |chapter=Machinery
  |volume=XXI
  |year=1819
  |location=London
}} An entire chapter devoted to the Portsmouth machinery, of 18 pages and 7 plates.</ref>