While Bramah and Maudslay were working in London on their metal-cutting tools for making locks, Bentham, in Russia, was thinking out substantially the same problem in woodworking machinery. He returned to England in 1791 and that year took out his first patent. Certain suggestions which he made to the Admiralty about the introduction of machinery into the dockyards led to his making an extended inspection of the dockyards throughout the kingdom, and he reported that immense savings were possible. The office of inspector general was created for him and authority given him to put his recommendations into effect. For the next eighteen years he served the British navy. When he took hold it was honeycombed with inefficiency and worse. His business-like methods, his skill as an engineer and naval designer, and his fearless integrity were elements in the preparedness of the British navy in the Napoleonic wars. He was an intrepid enemy of red tape and graft and soon made cordial enemies; but he was a good fighter, with no weak spots in his armor, and it took many years to bring him down. In 1805 he was sent to St. Petersburg, and kept there on various pretexts for two years. It was remarked by some about the Admiralty office, that so high was their opinion of his talents they would be glad to give him £6000 ($30,000) a year if by that means they would never see him again. He returned in 1807 to find his office abolished and its functions transferred to a board, of which he was made a member at an increased salary. Here his power was diluted somewhat, but even this solution was too strong and he was retired on a pension in 1812. For the next fifteen years he lived in retirement in France. The years abroad softened the rancor of his enemies and from his return to England in 1827 until his death, Bentham was in frequent and friendly consultation with the navy officials. Bentham may well be considered as one of the first and greatest of “efficiency experts.”[26] [26] See the biography of Bentham, by William Lucas Sargant: “Essays of a Birmingham Manufacturer,” Vol. I, No. V. London, 1869. Also, “Memoirs of the late Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham,” by Mary S. Bentham, in “Papers and Practical Illustrations of Public Works.” London, 1856. The patent of 1791 referred to is not important, but it was followed by another in 1793 in which was set forth the whole scheme of woodworking machinery which had been maturing in Bentham’s mind. This has been characterized as one of the most remarkable patents ever issued by the British Patent Office. More than fifty years after, one of the Crown judges said of it in summing up a case before him involving woodworking machinery, that “the specification of his (i.e., Bentham’s) patent of 1793 is a perfect treatise on the subject; indeed, the only one worth quoting that has to this day been written on the subject.”