This may have been the work of the whitesmith. Read was born in Kensington, London to Alfred, a whitesmith, and Clara Read. Edward was a whitesmith, a person who makes articles out of metal, especially tin. The first cylinder was made by this whitesmith using hammered iron and solder. William Pool was an inventor and whitesmith who worked in Lincoln. James Watt employed a whitesmith in the 1760s when working on his experimental steam engine.