(1801-1861), engineer

Joseph Maudslay, born on the 17th September 1801, was the son of Henry Maudslay (1771–1831), mechanical engineer.

Apprenticed as a shipbuilder to William Pitcher of Northfleet, he subsequently joined his father's engineering business at Lambeth and took a prominent position in it. An improved oscillating steam engine, which he patented in 1827, dispensed with a beam or slide-guides by allowing the cylinder to rock on trunnions with each stroke. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1833; and with Joshua Field he took out a patent in 1839 for a double-cylinder marine engine, which was widely adopted.

He took a great interest in marine propulsion, and in 1841–2 the firm made the engine for Rattler, the first screw-propelled steamship built for the Admiralty, which was used for trials of various forms of screw propellers. He also invented the direct-acting annular cylinder screw engine, which formed the subject of a paper read by him to the Institution of Naval Architects in 1860. He died on 25 September 1861 at 21 Hyde Park Square, London. He was survived by his wife, Anna Maria Stamp Maudslay, and they had at least one son.