From inspecting the engines constructed by different makers, Nasmyth became impressed with the superiority of those turned out by the Carmichaels of Dundee. “I afterwards found,” he writes, “that the Carmichaels were among the first of the Scottish engine makers who gave due attention to the employment of improved mechanical tools, with the object of producing accurate work with greater ease, rapidity, and economy, than could possibly be effected by the hand labor of even the most skillful workmen. I was told that the cause of the excellence of the Carmichaels’ work was not only in the ability of the heads of the firm, but in their employment of the best engineers’ tools. Some of their leading men had worked at Maudslay’s machine shop in London, the fame of which had already reached Dundee, and Maudslay’s system of employing machine tools had been imported into the northern steam factory.”[88] These reports built up an ambition, which developed into a passion, to go to London and work in Maudslay’s shop under “this greatest of mechanics.” [88] _Ibid._, p. 123. Consequently, in the spring of 1829, he went with his father to London and made application to Maudslay to work with him as an apprentice. Maudslay told them in the friendliest way, but unmistakeably, that he had had no satisfaction from gentleman apprentices and that he had definitely settled that he would never employ one again. He showed them about his shop, however, and began to melt when he saw the boy’s keen interest and intelligent appreciation of everything about him. Nasmyth had brought with him some of his drawings and one of his engine models. At the end of the visit he mustered courage to ask Maudslay if he would look at them. The next day Maudslay and his partner looked them over. “I waited anxiously. Twenty long minutes passed. At last he entered the room, and from a lively expression in his countenance I observed in a moment that the great object of my long cherished ambition had been attained! He expressed, in good round terms, his satisfaction at my practical ability as a workman engineer and mechanical draughtsman. Then, opening the door which led from his library into his beautiful private workshop, he said, ‘This is where I wish you to work, beside me, as my assistant workman. From what I have seen, there is no need of an apprenticeship in your case.’[89] [89] _Ibid._, p. 129. “Mr. Maudslay seemed at once to take me into his confidence. He treated me in the most kindly manner--not as a workman or an apprentice, but as a friend. I was an anxious listener to everything that he said; and it gave him pleasure to observe that I understood and valued his conversation. The greatest treat of all was in store for me. He showed me his exquisite collection of taps and dies and screw-tackle, which he had made with the utmost care for his own service. They rested in a succession of drawers near to the bench where he worked....