Richard Roberts

Born Apr. 22, 1789, in Carreghova, Montgomeryshire. Died Mar. 16, 1864, in Manchester. English inventor.

The son of a shoemaker, Roberts progressed from a worker in a stone quarry to an inventor of machines. He worked at various factories, including that of H. Maudsley. Between 1816 and 1817 he established a machine-building factory using the capital of a partner. Roberts built a planing machine in 1817 and later an original thread-cutting machine and several textile machines. He received patents in 1825 and 1830 for improvements in the design of textile machines. He invented a machine for boring holes in the structural members of bridges and in boiler plate (1848). Roberts also worked in the field of rail transport. In particular, he was the first to propose a system of standard width for track gauges (1845).