I formed a scheme for an application of Mr. Whitworth’s system of end measurement to the production of an ideally perfect dividing-wheel. In this system Mr. Whitworth employed what he termed “the gravity piece.” This was a small steel plate about ¹⁄₈ of an inch in thickness, the opposite sides of which were parallel and had the most perfectly true and smooth surfaces that could be produced by scraping. The ends of the piece to be tested were perfectly squared, by a method which I will not stop here to describe, and were finished in the same manner. The gravity piece was held fast between two such surfaces. None of the pieces were permitted to be touched by hand while an observation was being made. If now one of these pieces were loosened the millionth of an inch, the gravity piece would slide slowly down. If loosened two millionths of an inch, the gravity piece would descend twice as fast, and so on. I made a design for the application of this system to the correction of the dividing-wheel, so that a difference of pitch of one millionth of an inch could be shown and removed, the gravity piece being made to descend at the same rate of motion to whatever tooth it might be applied. I thought Mr. Whitworth would be interested in this novel and important application of his method, and I showed it to him. This was the encouraging and patronizing reply I received: “You had better inform yourself, sir, about what already exists. You will find a perfect dividing-wheel in my shop. What do you want better than that?” This wheel had divided my governor gear patterns, but spindles wabbling loose in their holes accounted for most of their defects. The above recital is sufficient to show the conditions by which I found myself surrounded and the kind of man I had to deal with. It may be supposed that when my agreement with Mr. Whitworth was concluded, the disappointment I had experienced on the stoppage of Ormerod, Grierson & Co. was quite relieved. But that does not express it. In fact, my revulsion of feeling could hardly be described. I believed that I had met a piece of good fortune that was unparalleled. I had got into the most famous machine-shop in the world, a shop in which in years gone by had been originated almost everything then regarded as most essential in machine construction. No one had ever before introduced anything into that shop. Its business, in its various departments, was confined to the manufacture of Mr. Whitworth’s own creations. I should never have dreamed of such a thing as getting into it. That I was there, and had been received so cordially, bewildered me. I could scarcely believe it. I knew also that Mr. Whitworth’s name was a tower of strength. His influence with the public at large respecting everything mechanical seemed really that of a magician. I felt that the fact that the manufacture of my engine and governor had been taken up by Mr. Whitworth placed them on an eminence at once.