His association with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company as master machinist spanned fifty years in the early development of the American railroad.
He attended the public schools, and then became a machinist, and later a master machinist, of the New York City Fire Department.
In 1856 he became a master machinist and boss of the new main workshop of the Centralbahn in Olten.
He was spending time mostly with Jim, the metallurgist, and Anthony, the master machinist.
None of these were numerically programmable, however, and required a master machinist at some point in the process, because the "programming" was physical rather than numerical.
On it were recorded the movements of a master machinist turning out a shaft for a fractional horsepower motor.
His father was a master machinist and carpenter.
Vickers was always interested in machinery and mechanics and was a self-taught master machinist.
He could spot the arc the way a master machinist could identify metals by observing the spark plume off a grinding wheel.
Inventor master machinist and holder of numerous patents.