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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dafydd, post: 26783559, member: 86815&quot;]This is one of the most interesting and educational threads I have read on Cointalk and so refreshing to see really constructive discussions [USER=112673]@Denis Richard[/USER] . Your images are stunning. Great that this is your profession yet you are prepared to educate.</p><p>As an engineer one of my heroes is Sir Joseph Whitworth.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sir Joseph Whitworth is a fascinating hero for any engineer. His refusal to patent many inventions stemmed from a genuine belief that technical progress should be a common good, not a private monopoly. you share his sentiments. He famously invited competitors into his works to see his methods, figuring that if everyone improved, the whole industry won.</p><p><br /></p><p>His work on surface plates and the &quot;true plane&quot; was the big bang for modern engineering. By creating truly flat surfaces, he made the first precise machine tools possible, moving us from hand-fitted parts to global standards and interchangeability. This then moved on to the ability to mass produce coin milling machinery at scale.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is a great American connection too. His breech loading rifled cannons, with their unique hexagonal bores, were used during the Civil War. When I visited Gettysburg, I had to point them out to a guide who didn&#039;t know their origin. It is amazing to see British precision engineering sitting on such a famous US battlefield and forgotten.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is brilliant to see someone like you sharing professional-grade coin photography tips so freely on Cointalk. It mirrors that same Whitworth philosophy: the idea that experts should educate others to raise the standard for everyone.</p><p>Sadly my photography is crap, hindered by equipment that has the better of me and time that has less of me. For my purposes my IPhone balanced on copies of Mattingley Coins of the Roman Empire get me by and my Nikon is left for weekends and usually disappointment!</p><p>Thank you for this.</p><p><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Joseph_Whitworth.jpg/250px-Joseph_Whitworth.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Sir Joseph Whitworth 1846.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1709683[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Most visitors today to Gettysburg National Military Park likely have no idea that located just a short distance behind and to the left of the <i>Eternal Peace Light</i> on Oak Hill is a group of very rare and unusual rifled breech-loading cannon, used here in the battle by the Confederates. These are imported British <i>Whitworths</i>, capable of firing an elongated hexagonal shell called a <i>bolt</i> upwards of three or four miles! Below, the Peace Light monument as seen from the rear with a Whitworth in the foreground.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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