Joseph Clement (13 June 1779 – 28 February 1844) was a British engineer and industrialist, chiefly remembered as the maker of Charles Babbage's first difference engine, between 1824 and 1833.
Biography
Early life
Joseph Clement was born on 13 June 1779 at Great Asby in Westmorland, the son of a hand-loom weaver. Although he was taught to read and write at the local school, he learned mechanics and natural history from his father, Thomas, who had built himself a lathe. He worked, first as a weaver, then as a slater, and learned metalwork from the local blacksmith. With these skills, he built himself his own lathe, on which he turned woodwind musical instruments, which he then learned to play.
By 1805 he was making looms at a factory in Kirkby Stephen, then moved first to Carlisle, then to Glasgow where he learned draughtsmanship from Peter Nicholson. By 1812 he was with Leys, Masson & Co. in Aberdeen, where he attended lectures in natural philosophy at Marischal College.
Career
In 1813, he moved to London, first working for Alexander Galloway in Holborn. He soon left in search of wages more suiting his skills, moving to Joseph Bramah at Pimlico. Bramah doubled the wages Galloway had paid and entered into a formal agreement with Clement for a term of five years, dated 1 April 1814, making him chief draughtsman and superintendent of Bramah's Pimlico works.
Following Bramah's death, Clement took up a position as chief draughtsman at Maudslay, Sons and Field, in Lambeth, where he played a role in the design of the firm's early marine steam engines. and urged the adoption of a standard system of screw threads where every machine screw of a particular diameter should have a set number of threads of a predetermined pitch and determined the number of threads for each diameter of bolt. Joseph Whitworth, at that time one of Clement's journeymen afterwards played a major role in such standardisation, the Whitworth thread becoming a standard for machine screws.
Regarding Clement's building of planers, Roe (1916) says,
:Clement made his first planer in 1820 […]. Some years later he built his "great planer," a remarkable machine from both a mechanical and a financial standpoint. A very full description of it was given by Mr. Varley in the "Transactions of the Society of Arts" in London in 1832, illustrated by a set of copper plates made from Clement's own drawings. Clement's reputation of being the most expert draftsman of his day is well borne out by these drawings. […] It was fitted with centers and was used for planing circular, spiral and conical work as well as flat work. It took in work 6 feet square and was hand-driven. […] For more than ten years it was the only one of its size and it ran for many years night and day on jobbing work, its earnings forming Clement's principal income.
Involvement with Charles Babbage
The recognised excellence of Clement's machine tools and his skill in precision engineering led to him being employed by Charles Babbage in 1823 to work on his project to design and build his mechanical calculating device, the difference engine.