NASMYTH, JAMES Scottish engineer, in ventor of the steam-hammer, was born in Edinburgh on Aug. 19, 1808, and was the youngest son of Alexander Nasmyth, the "father of Scottish landscape art." He started business in Man chester on his own account in 1834, and in a few years he was at the head of the prosperous Bridgewater foundry at Patricroft, from which he was able to retire in 1856 with a fortune. The invention of the steam-hammer, with which his name is asso ciated, was actually made in 1839, a drawing of the device ap pearing in his note-book, or "scheme-book," as he called it, with the date Nov. 24 of that year. It was designed to meet the diffi culty experienced by the builders of the "Great Britain" steamship in finding a firm that would undertake to forge the large paddle wheel shaft required for that vessel, but no machine of the kind was constructed till 1842. In that year Nasmyth discovered one in Schneiders' Creuzot works, and he found that the design was his own and had been copied from his "scheme-book." Apparently, however, he was anticipated in the idea by James Watt. Nasmyth did much for the improvement of machine-tools, and his inven tive genius devised many new appliances—a planing-machine ("Nasmyth steam-arm"), a nut-shaping machine, steam pile-driver, hydraulic machinery for various purposes, etc. On his retirement he lived at Penshurst in Kent, and amused himself with the study of astronomy, and especially of the moon, on which he published a work, The Moon considered as a Planet, a World and a Satellite, in conjunction with James Carpenter in 1874. He died in London on May 7, 189o.
His Autobiography (edit. Samuel Smiles) was published in 1883.
[NAsiRub-DIN] (1829-1896), shah of Persia, was born on April 4, 1829. His mother, a capable princess of the Kajar family, persuaded Shah Mohammed, his father, to appoint him heir apparent, in preference to his elder brothers; and he was accordingly made governor of Azerbaijan. His suc
cession to the throne, Oct. 13, 1848, was vigorously disputed, especially by the followers of the reformer El Bab, upon whom he wreaked terrible vengeance. In 1855 he reestablished friendly relations with France, and coming under the influence of Russia., signed a treaty of amity on Dec. 17 with that power, but re mained neutral during the Crimean War. In 1856 he seized Herat, but a British army under Outram landed in the Persian gulf, defeated his forces and compelled him to evacuate the territory. The treaty of peace was signed at Paris, on March 4, 1857, and to the end of his reign he treated Great Britain and Russia with equal friendship. In 1866 the shah authorized the passage of the telegraph to India through his dominions and reminted his cur rency in the European fashion. In 1873, and again in 1889, he visited England in the course of his three sumptuous journeys to Europe, 1873, 1878, 1889.
The only results of his contact with Western civilization appear to have been the proclamation of religious toleration, the institu tion of a postal service, accession to the postal union and the establishment of a bank. He gave the monopoly of tobacco to a private company, but was soon compelled to withdraw it in deference to the resistance of his subjects. Abstemious in habits, and devoted to music and poetry, he was a cultured, able and well-meaning ruler, and his reign, already unusually long for an Eastern potentate, might have lasted still longer had it not been for the unpopular sale of the tobacco monopoly, which was prob ably a factor in his assassination at Teheran on May 1, 1896, by a member of the Babi faction. He was succeeded by his son Muzaffar-ed-din.