1808-1890

Scottish inventor who designed the first powerful steam hammer (patented in 1842). James Nasmyth manufactured more than 100 steam locomotives, a series of small high-pressure steam engines, hydraulic presses, an assortment of steam-driven pumps, and other useful machines. He did all these things before the age of 48, when he retired from active business and devoted himself to astronomy. In 1874, he wrote The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite. Nasmyth died in 1890 in London, England.