Nasmyth was also one of the first toolmakers to offer a standardised range of machine tools ; before this, manufacturers constructed tools according to individual clients ' specifications, with little regard to standardisation and caused compatibility problems.

* Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company also called the Bridgewater Foundry

Nasmyth was also largely employed by noblemen throughout the country in the improving and beautifying of their estates, in which his fine taste rendered him especially skilful.

His picture of the " Slave Market, Constantinople ", was purchased by Alexander Hill, the publisher, and ‘ Byron in a Fisherman's Hut after swimming the Hellespont ’ ( exhibited 1831 ) by R. Nasmyth, who also bought Allan's portraits of Burns and Sir Walter Scott, which were engraved by John Burnet.

He studied art under Alexander Nasmyth, and after having travelled on the continent he settled in Oxford, and taught for six years as a drawing-master.

Alexander Nasmyth ( 9 September 1758 – 10 April 1840 ) was a Scottish portrait and landscape painter, often called the " father of Scottish landscape painting ".

However, he left his studies to take up painting, of which he was mainly self-taught-partly by copying the works of Velasquez and other masters-though he briefly spent time in the studio of Alexander Nasmyth.

Nasmyth died of pneumonia-like symptoms, which he contracted shortly after painting a scene just outside London.

When Nasmyth was 23 years old, having saved the sum of ₤ 69, he decided to set up in business on his own.

He built his own 20-inch reflecting telescope, in the process inventing the Nasmyth focus, and made detailed observations of the Moon.

Alexander's six daughters all attained a certain local reputation as artists, but it was in his eldest son, Patrick Nasmyth, that the artistic skill of his family was most powerfully developed.

** For an account of the Nasmyth family see James Nasmyth ’ s Autobiography ( 1883 ) online version

Edinburgh Castle with the Nor Loch in foreground, around 1780, by Alexander Nasmyth

Nasmyth thought the matter over and seeing the obvious defects of the tilt-hammer ( it delivered every blow with the same force ) sketched out his idea for the first steam hammer.

In April 1842, Nasmyth visited France with a view to supplying the French arsenals and dockyards with tools and while he was there took the opportunity to visit the Le Creusot works.

The milling machine built by James Nasmyth between 1829 and 1831, with indexing fixture.

Instruments can be mounted at a Cassegrain focus below the primary mirror, in enclosures on either of two Nasmyth focal points on the sides of the telescope mount, to which light can be directed with a tertiary mirror, or, in an arrangement rare on large telescopes, at the prime focus, in lieu of a secondary mirror, to provide a wide field of view suited to deep wide-field surveys.

; Infrared Camera and Spectrograph ( IRCS ): Used in conjunction with the new 188-element adaptive optics unit ( AO188 ), mounted at the infrared Nasmyth focus.

Used with AO188, mounted at the infrared Nasmyth focus.

Roe ( 1916 ) credits James Nasmyth with the invention of the shaper in 1836.

The University of Florida's CanariCam is a mid-infrared imager with spectroscopic, coronagraphic, and polarimetric capabilities, which will be mounted initially at the Nasmyth focus of the telescope.

The TNG is an altazimuthal reflecting telescope with a Ritchey-Chretien optical configuration and a flat tertiary mirror feeding two opposite Nasmyth foci.

Attracted to astronomy by the influence of James Nasmyth, he constructed in 1850 a 13-inch reflecting telescope, mounted first at Canonbury, later at Cranford, Middlesex, and with its aid executed many drawings of the celestial bodies of singular beauty and fidelity.

It is operated and maintained by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía ( Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia-IAA ) and contains two Nasmyth telescopes with apertures of 1. 5 and 0. 9 metres.

As a teenager Nasmyth lost the use of his right hand following an accident, forcing him to learn how to paint with his left.

The legend that Maudslay invented the slide rest originated with James Nasmyth, who wrote ambiguously about it in his Remarks on the Introduction of the Slide Principle, 1841 ; later writers misunderstood, and propagated the error.

Apart from the steam hammer Nasmyth created several other important machine tools, including the shaper, an adaptation of the planer which is still used in tool and die making.

Nasmyth turned it down as he was then about to retire.

James Hall Nasmyth ( sometimes spelled Naesmyth, Nasmith, or Nesmyth ) ( 19 August 1808 – 7 May 1890 ) was a Scottish engineer and inventor famous for his development of the steam hammer.

He was the co-founder of Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company manufacturers of machine tools.

His father Alexander Nasmyth was a landscape and portrait painter in Edinburgh, where James was born.

In May 1829 Nasmyth visited Maudslay in London, and after showing him his work was engaged as an assistant workman at 10 shillings a week.

Unfortunately, Maudslay died two years later, whereupon Nasmyth was taken on by Maudslay's partner as a draughtsman.

In 1837 the Great Western Steam Company was experiencing many problems forging the paddle shaft of the SS Great Britain ; when even the largest hammer was tilted to its full height its range was so small that if a really large piece of work were placed on the anvil, the hammer had no room to fall, and in 1838 the company's engineer wrote to Nasmyth:

This book contains an interesting series of " lunar " photographs: because photography was not yet advanced enough to take actual pictures of the Moon, Nasmyth built plaster models based on his visual observations of the Moon and then photographed the models.

A misunderstanding persisted for many years that James Nasmyth had claimed that Maudslay was the original inventor of the slide rest.

Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh in 1778, and was soon largely patronized as a portrait painter.

Political feeling at that time ran high in Edinburgh, and Nasmyth ’ s pronounced Liberal opinions, which he was too outspoken and sincere to disguise, gave offence to many of his aristocratic patrons, and led to the diminution of his practice as a portraitist.

Another of Alexander's successful pupils was Andrew Wilson, painter, teacher, art dealer and connoisseur, who had his first art training under Nasmyth.

His youngest son, James Nasmyth, was the well-known inventor of the steam hammer ; and his daughter Elizabeth married the actor Daniel Terry, then as a widow Charles Richardson.

As such, they were often funded by local industrialists on the grounds that they would ultimately benefit from having more knowledgeable and skilled employees ( such philanthropy was shown by, among others, Robert Stephenson, James Nasmyth, John Davis Barnett and Joseph Whitworth ).