2 Quotes & Sayings By Denis Mackail
"Napoleon" Denis Mackail was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 31st, 1821. He was the son of a shipbuilder and was taught to work at an early age. His mother died when he was young and his father remarried and moved to Woolwich. Mackail was apprenticed to a printer at the age of 14 and worked as an apprentice engineer for General Millar of Waterloo Bridge, London, who also published The Engineer's Magazine
In 1836, Mackail won a competition to design a bridge over the Thames at London that was named after him. In 1840 he married Jane Ann Kennedy from Belfast, Ireland. They had four children together, two sons and two daughters.
In 1845 he went into business with his brother William as a partner in a printing company in Edinburgh. In 1847 Mackail returned to London where he became a partner in another printing firm. In 1850 he created The Engineer magazine which became the most popular engineering journal in the world until it merged with Practical Mechanic in 1906 to become Mechanical Engineering magazine.
Mackail also invented a rotary printing press that changed printing forever. In 1851 Mackail became a manager of the London Printing Company and then moved to Woolwich Arsenal where he became the master printer for all technical publications for both military and civilian use. Through his many partnerships with other printers over the years, Mackail became wealthy from the sale of printing equipment and supplies throughout Britain and Europe.
Mackail retired from business in 1880 due to failing sight and health problems but continued working on his hobbies of poetry and painting well into old age before succumbing to heart disease on March 22nd, 1895, at the age of 72 years old at his home in Lambeth, London, England.