LEADERS OF MODERN 
 I NDUSTRY 
 
 G.BARNETT SMITH. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 ion 9.9.348 Class 
 
LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
LEADERS OF MODERN 
 INDUSTRY. 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 BY 
 
 G. BARNETT SMITH. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 WOMEN OF RENOWN," "HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT, 
 "FERDINAND DE LESSEES." ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 W. H. ALLEN & CO., LIMITED, 
 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. 
 
 1894. 
 
 T 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
GENERAL 
 
 WYMAN AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 PRINTERS, 
 LONDON AND REDHILL. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 IT is almost a truism to say that the industries oi Great 
 Britain are the backbone of the country. Yet we are so 
 accustomed to their operations and developments, that 
 we are sometimes in danger of losing sight of the fact. 
 Napoleon taunted us with being a nation of shop- 
 keepers ; but it is surely better to add to the prosperity 
 and happiness of a nation, and to fill the seas with the 
 peaceful argosies of commerce, than it is to devastate 
 continents by the ravages of war. We are proud, then, 
 that the England of Shakespeare, of Bacon, and of 
 Milton, is also the England of representative men in 
 science, trade, and commerce. 
 
 The career of various pioneers of industry whose names 
 have become household words I have endeavoured to 
 trace in the following pages. The materials for these 
 biographies have been gathered from numerous sources, 
 which I have endeavoured faithfully to indicate. The 
 reader will, I believe, find a great amount of interesting 
 
 99348 
 
vi PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 information condensed into a small compass, and I may 
 add that, wherever possible, I have sought to avoid the 
 use of purely technical terms. The lives of these great 
 industrial leaders should act as a stimulus, especially to 
 the new generation, and should make them resolve that 
 England's scientific and commercial supremacy shall 
 
 never be wrested from her. 
 
 G. B. S. 
 Bournemouth^ April, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE STEPHENSONS i 
 
 CHARLES KNIGHT 73 
 
 SIR GEORGE BURNS ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 133 
 
 SIR JOSIAH MASON 189 
 
 THE WEDGWOODS 231 
 
 THOMAS BRASSEY 301 
 
 THE FAIRBAIRNS 335 
 
 SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS 379 
 
 THE KENNIES ... 421 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 
 
 THE courage and perseverance of Englishmen under difficulties 
 have become proverbial, and these admirable qualities were 
 never shown to greater advantage than in the lives of George 
 and Robert Stephenson. The father was vigorous in mind and 
 body, strong and self-reliant in character, always keeping his 
 end steadily in view, and yet with a strain of tenderness running 
 through his nature which rendered him humane and sympathetic 
 towards struggling merit wherever he found it. Similar in gifts 
 and disposition was the son ; and the names of both are indis- 
 solubly connected with that mighty engine of modern progress, 
 the locomotive. Their hardships, disappointments, and final 
 triumphs form one of the most interesting chapters in the fairy 
 tales of science. 
 
 George Stephenson's father, Robert Stephenson, was the son 
 of a Scotchman who came into England in the capacity of a 
 gentleman's servant. Robert was a collier, and married Mabel 
 Carr, the daughter of a dyer, whose family had long been 
 settled at Ovingham. The young couple lived at a village near 
 Wylam, eight miles from Newcastle, and here six children were 
 born to them, of whom George was the second. The poverty 
 of the Stephensons will be understood, seeing that the father had 
 to maintain his family on twelve shillings a week. The future 
 engineer's first employment was herding cows at twopence a 
 day, from which he was advanced to hoeing turnips at fourpence, 
 and then to driving a gin-horse at eightpence. As a boy he 
 rod all his wits about him, being full of fun and tricks, and he 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 was generally foremost in all the sports and pastimes of youth. 
 A strong love of birds and animals was a characteristic he 
 inherited from his father. Young birds, and even blackbirds, 
 he would feed and tame until they would fly in and about the 
 cottage, and roost upon the head of his bed at night. George's 
 ambition was to be an engineman, and great was his delight 
 when at fourteen years of age he was appointed assistant fire- 
 man at a shilling a day. At fifteen he was at Throckley Bridge, 
 with a salary of twelve shillings a week, which sum seemed 
 almost dazzling in its proportions. ' I am now a made man 
 for life ! ' he exclaimed triumphantly to his companions. 
 
 It was at this period that Stephenson began to develop the 
 industry and dogged perseverance for which he vras famous. 
 At seventeen he had not yet learned to read, and as it was 
 only in books that he could find a description of the wonderful 
 engines of Boulton and Watt of which he had heard, he bent 
 himself to the acquisition of knowledge. For this purpose he 
 devoted out of his humble gains the sum of fourpence weekly 
 for lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic, which were 
 conned over at night and mastered by the light of his engine 
 fire. He also used the practical means at hand for acquiring 
 experience and information ; and as fireman he applied himself 
 to a diligent study of the steam-engine, taking his machine to 
 pieces during his leisure hours. He was at this time working 
 at the Water-row Pit. Pastime was not forgotten in study, 
 however, and the big and bony youth delighted in feats of 
 strength. At throwing the hammer he had no compeer, and 
 he was equally strong and agile in lifting heavy weights off the 
 ground from between his feet. Dr. Smiles, in his Life of George 
 Stephenson^ gives one very interesting glimpse of him touching 
 his favourite animals. ' Like his father, he used to tempt the 
 robin- redbreasts to hop and fly about him at the engine fire, by 
 the bait of bread-crumbs saved from his dinner. But his chief 
 favourite was his dog so sagacious that he almost daily carried 
 George's dinner to him at the pit. The tin containing the meal 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 5 
 
 was suspended from the dog's neck, and, thus laden, he proceeded 
 faithfully from Jolly's Close to Water-row Pit, quite through the 
 village of Newburn. He turned neither to left nor right, nor 
 heeded the barking of curs at his heels. But his course was not 
 unattended with perils. One day the big strange dog of a pass- 
 ing butcher, espying the engineman's messenger with the tin can 
 about his neck, ran after and fell upon him. There was a terrible 
 tussle and worrying, which lasted for a brief while, and, shortly 
 after, the dog's master, anxious for his dinner, saw his faithful 
 servant approaching, bleeding but triumphant. The tin can 
 was still round his neck, but the dinner had been spilt in the 
 struggle. Though George went without his dinner that day, he 
 was prouder of his dog than ever when the circumstances of the 
 combat were related to him by the villagers who had seen it.' 
 
 While at Black Callerton Colliery in 1801 Stephenson em- 
 ployed his off-time in mending shoes and cleaning watches, by 
 means of which he managed to save his first guinea. On 
 accepting the charge of the engine on Willington Ballast Hill 
 at an increased wage, he also determined to marry. He had 
 given his affections to Fanny Henderson, servant to a small 
 farmer, and a young woman of considerable personal attrac- 
 tions and amiable character. George was twenty-one, and had 
 managed to put by a small hoard ; this, together with Fanny's 
 little savings, enabled him to take a cottage dwelling at Wil- 
 lington Quay, on the north bank of the Tyne, about six miles 
 below Newcastle. The young couple were married at Newburn 
 Church on the 28th November, 1802. After paying a visit to 
 old Robert Stephenson, * the bridal party prepared to set out 
 for their new home at Willington Quay. They went in a style 
 which was quite common before travelling by railway had been 
 invented. Two farm horses, borrowed from a neighbouring 
 farmer, were each provided with a saddle and a pillion, and 
 George having mounted one, his wife seated herself behind 
 him, holding on by her arms round his waist. The bridesman 
 and bridesmaid in like manner mounted the other hor^e ; and 
 
6 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 in this wise the wedding party rode across the country, passing 
 through the old streets of Newcastle, and then by Wallsend to 
 Willington Quay a long ride of about fifteen miles.' 
 
 It is stated that in his little cottage during the winter evenings 
 Stephenson was usually occupied in studying mechanical sub- 
 jects, or in modelling experimental machines. Like many 
 others before him, he indulged the dream of being able to 
 discover perpetual motion. At other times he would employ 
 himself for a few hours in casting ballast out of the colliery 
 ships, thus earning a few additional shillings weekly. Sir 
 William Fairbairn informed Dr. Smiles that ' while Stephenson 
 was employed at the Willington Ballast Hill he himself was 
 working in the neighbourhood as an engine apprentice at the 
 Percy Main Colliery. He was very fond of George, who was a 
 fine hearty fellow, besides being a capital workman. In the 
 summer evenings, young Fairbairn was accustomed to go down 
 to Willington to see his friend, and on such occasions he would 
 frequently take charge of George's engine for a few hours, to 
 enable him to take a two or three hours' turn at heaving ballast 
 out of ships' holds. It is pleasant to think of the future Presi- 
 dent of the British Association thus helping the future railway 
 engineer to earn a few extra shillings by over-work in the 
 evenings, at a time when both occupied the rank of but 
 humble working men in an obscure northern village.' Jn 
 shoe-making and clock-cleaning George also became quite an 
 expert, and his neighbours found him profitable overtime in 
 these capacities. 
 
 At Willington Quay, on the i6th of October, 1803, Stephen- 
 son's only son was born. He was christened by the name of 
 Robert, and from the first his father was wrapped up in him, 
 making him the cherished companion of his evening hours. 
 About the end of 1804, Stephenson became brakesman at 
 West Moor Colliery, Killingworth. He had not been in his 
 new post two years before a severe calamity befell him. His 
 young wife, the bright and affectionate and ministering spirit 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. ^ 
 
 of his home, and the sharer of his joys and sorrows, died of 
 consumption, leaving him desolate and alone, save for the little 
 child Robert. For a twelvemonth George now superintended 
 the working of a Boulton and Watt engine at Montrose, and so 
 profitable was the engagement that when he returned to Killing- 
 worth it was with 28 in his pocket. His father having met 
 with a serious pit accident, by which he was reduced to the 
 severest poverty, George paid his debts and found a little 
 cottage for his parents near his own home, where he supported 
 them for years. Yet at this time the working-classes suffered 
 much from heavy taxation and the serious cost of provisions, 
 while they were in constant dread of being drawn for the 
 militia George Stephenson himself was so drawn, and in 
 order to save his work and avoid service, he had to spend the 
 whole of his savings, and a further sum of 6 which he bor- 
 rowed, in finding a substitute. His biographer says of his 
 position at this time : ' He was almost in despair, and con- 
 templated the idea of leaving the country, and emigrating to 
 the United States. Although a voyage thither was then a 
 much more formidable thing for a working man to accomplish 
 than a voyage to Australia is now, he seriously entertained the 
 project, and had all but made up his mind to go. His sister 
 Ann, with her husband, emigrated about that time, but George 
 could not raise the requisite money, and they departed without 
 him. After all, it went sore against his heart to leave his home 
 and his kindred, the scenes of his youth and the friends of his 
 boyhood ; and he struggled long with the idea, brooding over 
 it in sorrow. Speaking afterwards to a friend of his thoughts 
 at the time, he said : " You know the road from my house at 
 the West Moor to Killingworth. I remember once when I 
 went along that road I wept bitterly, for I knew not where my 
 lot in life would be cast." But his poverty prevented him 
 from prosecuting the idea of emigration, and rooted him to the 
 place where he afterwards worked out his career so manfully 
 and victoriously.' 
 
8 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 In pursuing his avocations Stephenson effected various little 
 economies in colliery working, which benefited both masters 
 and men. He also improved the pumping apparatus to such 
 an extent that his master presented him with a gratuity of 
 ;io, and further appointed him engineman at the High Pit 
 at good wages. The result of George's success as an engine- 
 doctor was that he was soon called upon to prescribe remedies 
 for all the old wheezy and ineffective pumping machines in the 
 neighbourhood. In 1812 he was appointed engine wright to 
 the Killingworth collieries at a salary of ,100 a year. Stephen- 
 son spent many of his evenings with John Wigham, at the 
 Glebe Farm at Benton. Wigham taught his friend the Rule 
 of Three and the higher branches of arithmetic. He was an 
 excellent talker, no mean thinker, and an extensive reader ; and 
 as George was a good intellectual absorbent he gained much 
 from Wigham, which he ever afterwards gratefully acknow- 
 ledged. 
 
 Meanwhile George Stephenson's son Robert was now grow- 
 ing up. He was active and intelligent, and deeply interested in 
 his father's mechanical experiments. George Stephenson deter- 
 mined that his son should have those educational advantages 
 he had himself been deprived of. In a speech, delivered long 
 afterwards at Newcastle, the great engineer said : 'In the 
 earlier period of my career, when Robert was a little boy, I saw 
 how deficient I was in education ; and I made up my mind 
 that he should not labour under the same defect, but that I 
 would put him to a good school and give him a liberal train- 
 ing. I was, however, a poor man ; and how do you think I 
 managed ? I betook myself to mending my neighbours' clocks 
 and watches at nights, after my daily labour was done, and thus 
 I procured the means of educating my son.' There was great 
 shrewdness in his method of saving. Having, by extra labour, 
 managed to save a sum of ;ioo, which he accumulated in 
 guineas, he sold each of these coins to Jews, who went about 
 buying them up (gold coins being then dearer than silver) at 
 
THE STEPHENSONS, 9 
 
 twenty-six shillings apiece ; and he lent out the proceeds at 
 interest. As his son was to be a director of labour as well as 
 an engineer, he must not be beaten back by defective know- 
 ledge ; and it was in this spirit that, among other things, he 
 was put to learn French. 
 
 Robert Stephenson went to school first to a man named 
 Rutter, parish clerk of Long Benton, and in the summer of 
 1815 he was transferred to Mr. Brace's school in Percy Street, 
 Newcastle. Dressed in a suit of homely grey stuff, cut out by 
 his father, Robert rode into Newcastle daily on a donkey. He 
 spoke the broadest dialect of the pitmen, and was full of all 
 kinds of pranks and fun. In his Life of Robert Stephenson, 
 Mr. Cordy Jeaffreson observes : 'Up to the time when he left 
 Bruce's school Robert did not exhibit any marked enthusiasm 
 for the pursuits in which his father was most warmly interested. 
 Possibly George Stephenson was too urgent that he should pro- 
 secute the study of mechanics, and by continually goading him 
 to work harder and harder " at his books " gave him a transient 
 distaste for subjects to which he was naturally inclined. As a 
 member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New- 
 castle, Robert brought home standard popular works and ency- 
 clopaedic volumes treating of natural science and of inven- 
 tions. These books his father read, and compelled him to read, 
 but the labour went very much against the boy's grain. 
 
 * The earliest " drawing " by Robert Stephenson's hand of 
 which there is any record was that of a sun-dial, copied from 
 Ferguson's Astronomy, and presented by the lad to Mr. Losh, 
 in the year 1816, in token of his gratitude to him as his father's 
 benefactor. This drawing set the father and son on another 
 work the construction of a real sun-dial, which, on its com- 
 pletion, was fixed over George's cottage door, where it still re- 
 mains, bearing the date "August nth, MDCCCXVI." 
 
 'A good story is told of " the hempy boy," who dearly loved 
 mischief. From the meadow before the West Moor cabin he 
 sent up his enormous kite, reined in by copper wire instead of 
 
io LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 string, the copper wire being insulated by a piece of silk cord. 
 Anthony Wigham's cow, peacefully grazing in the meadow, was 
 first favoured with a smart dose of electricity, one end of the 
 copper wire being brought down to the tip of the animal's tail. 
 Standing at his cottage window, George Stephenson watched 
 the discomfiture of his neighbour's cow in high glee. But when 
 the operator, ignorant whose eyes were upon him, relinquished 
 the torture of the " coo," and proceeded to give his father's pony 
 a fillip with the subtle fluid, George rushed out from his cottage 
 with upraised whip, exclaiming, " Ah ! thou mischeevous scoon- 
 drel, aal paa thee ! " It is needless to say that Robert Stephenson 
 did not wait to be paid.' 
 
 In the year 1854 Dr. Smiles accompanied Robert Stephenson 
 on a visit to his old home and haunts at Killingworth. Here is 
 one of the reminiscences of his youth recalled by the engineer 
 during that visit : ' While Robert was still at school his father 
 proposed to him during the holidays that he should construct a 
 sun-dial, to be placed over their cottage door at West Moor. 
 " I expostulated with him at first," said Robert, " that I had not 
 learnt sufficient astronomy and mathematics to enable me to 
 make the necessary calculations. But he would have no denial. 
 'The thing is to be done,' said he; 'so just set about it at 
 once.' Well, we got a Ferguson's Astronomy ', and studied the 
 subject together. Many a sore head I had while making the 
 necessary calculations to adapt the dial to the latitude of Kil- 
 lingworth. But at length it was fairly drawn out on paper, and 
 then my father got a stone, and we hewed, and carved, and 
 polished it until we made a very respectable dial of it ; and 
 there it is, you see," pointing to it over the cottage door, "still 
 quietly numbering the hours when the sun shines. I assure 
 you not a little was thought of that piece of work by the pitmen 
 when it was put up, and began to tell its tale of time." The 
 date carved upon the dial is "August nth, MDCCCXVI." Both 
 father and son were in after-life very proud of their joint pro- 
 duction. Many years after George took a party of savans, when 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. n 
 
 attending a meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, 
 over to Killingworth to see the pits, and he did not fail to direct 
 their attention to the sun-dial; and Robert, on the last visit 
 which he made to the place, a short time before his death, took 
 a friend into the cottage, and pointed out to him the very desk, 
 still there, at which he had sat when making his calculations of 
 the latitude of Killingworth.' 
 
 The subject of the locomotive engine began to engage George 
 Stephenson's attention at Killingworth as early as 1813. Before 
 recounting his success, it will be convenient here briefly to 
 refer to the early history of the use of tractive power on roads. 
 In the construction of tramways stone or wood was first used, 
 but towards the close of the eighteenth century iron was sub- 
 stituted on lines laid down in collieries and quarries. Attempts 
 were made in various countries to utilise steam-power for loco- 
 motion on ordinary roadways, but the credit of producing the 
 first practical working engine is awarded to Nicholas Joseph 
 Cugnot, a native of Void, in Lorraine. In 1769 he constructed 
 in the French National Arsenal, at the cost of the Comte de 
 Saxe, a carriage which ran on three wheels, and had two single- 
 acting cylinders turning the front wheel. Oliver Evans, a citizen 
 of the United States, constructed in 1804 a steam dredging- 
 machine which propelled itself on wheels to the river adjacent, 
 a distance of a mile and a half. James Watt's improvements 
 in the steam-engine led to better forms of locomotives, and 
 successful models were produced respectively by William 
 Murdoch, \Villiam Symington of Dumbarton, and Richard 
 Trevithiek. Trevithick made experiments with the first railway 
 locomotive on the Merthyr Tydvil tramroad in 1804 ; but he 
 was discouraged by the breakage of the plate rails of cast-iron, 
 and the locomotive was not given an adequate trial. The inven- 
 tion was subsequently exhibited in London. Trevithick's ex- 
 periments had much to do with the development of the high- 
 pressure engine. Mr. Blackett, of Wylam, near Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne, was the first colliery owner in the North who displayed 
 
12 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 an active interest in the locomotive. He made experiments 
 on Trevithick's lines, but was compelled to abandon them in 
 the first instance. Then Mr. Blenkinsop, manager of the 
 Middleton collieries, near Leeds, took up Trevithick's idea. 
 Although the engine which he constructed was clumsy and 
 slow, it was fairly successful, and was long regarded as one of 
 the wonders of the neighbourhood. It travelled at a speed of 
 ten miles an hour, did the work of sixteen horses in twelve 
 hours, and its cost was ^400. William Hedley encouraged 
 and assisted by Mr. Blackett constructed and patented in 
 1813 the Puffing Billy, which is now to be seen in the 
 Museum of the Patent Orifice, and to this steam-carriage ' must 
 be ascribed the honour of being the progenitor of the enor- 
 mous stud of iron-horses now existing in all parts of the world. 
 In previous experimental lines, rack rails and toothed wheels 
 had been provided under the mistaken notion that the adhesion 
 of a smooth wheel to a smooth rail would not be sufficient. 
 After various trials and alterations, Puffing Billy was set to 
 work at the Wylam Colliery in 1813, and this venerable loco- 
 motive was kept in constant use until 1872, when it was 
 purchased by the Government. It lacked advantages after- 
 wards discovered by Stephenson, but.it was successful up to 
 the point anticipated. 
 
 Meanwhile, George Stephenson was studying the question of 
 the locomotive for himself. At the same time he economised 
 labour in the haulage of coal by facilitating the means of 
 transit by inclined planes and other methods. With regard to 
 the Blackett and Blenkinsop engines, he made himself 
 thoroughly acquainted with their principles and working. He 
 then addressed himself to the task of making his first locomo- 
 tive, or ' travelling engine ' as he called it. Lord Ravensworth r 
 the principal partner in the Killingworth Colliery, found the 
 money for the experiment, and was counted, by many, a. 
 fool for his pains. Stephenson had to contend with imper- 
 fect tools and workmen poorly skilled in mechanics. He 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 13 
 
 constructed an engine, however, somewhat after Blenkinsop's 
 method, in the workshops at the West Moor, his leading 
 mechanic being John Thirlwall, the colliery blacksmith. The 
 engine was placed on the Killingworth tramway on the 25th 
 of July, 1814, and its powers were tested the same day. The 
 wheels were smooth, and, on an ascending gradient of i in 450, 
 the engine succeeded in drawing after it eight loaded carriages 
 of thirty tons weight at about four miles an hour. The Blutcher, 
 as it was named, was kept regularly at work for some time, but it 
 was a somewhat cumbrous and clumsy machine, and lacked 
 springs ; and when it had been tried for a considerable period, 
 it was ascertained that steam-power and horse-power were as 
 nearly as possible equal in point of cost. 
 
 Robert Stephenson, in giving an account of his father's later 
 and successful efforts to produce an economical working loco- 
 motive, says : 
 
 'In 1815 my father had succeeded in manufacturing an 
 engine which included the following important improvements 
 on all previous attempts in the same direction : simple and 
 direct communication between the cylinder and the wheels 
 rolling upon the rails, joint adhesion of all the wheels, attained 
 by the use of horizontal connecting-rods, and, finally, a beau- 
 tiful method of exciting the combustion of fuel by employing 
 the waste steam which had formerly been allowed uselessly to 
 escape. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that his engine, 
 as a mechanical contrivance, contained the germ of all that has 
 since been effected. It may be regarded, in fact, as a type of 
 the present locomotive engine. 
 
 ' In describing my father's application of the waste steam 
 for the purpose of increasing the power of the engine without 
 adding to its weight, and while claiming for this engine the 
 merit of being a type of all those which have been successfully 
 devised since the commencement of the Liverpool and Man- 
 chester Railway, it is necessary to observe that the next great 
 improvement in the same direction, the " multitubular boiler," 
 
14 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 which took place some years later, could never have been usc-d 
 without the help of that expedient the steam-blast, by which 
 power only the burning of coke was rendered possible. 
 
 1 1 cannot pass over this last-named invention of my father's 
 without remarking how slightly, as an original idea, it has been 
 appreciated, and yet how small would be the comparative 
 value of the locomotive engine of the present day without the 
 application of that important invention ! 
 
 ' Engines constructed by my father in the year 1818 upon the 
 principles just described are in use on the Killingworth Colliery 
 Railway to this very day (1856), conveying, at the speed of per- 
 haps five or six miles an hour, heavy coal trains, probably as 
 economically as any of the more perfect engines now in use.' 
 
 It was George Stephenson's grand improvement of the 
 1 steam-blast ' which enabled him to carry his locomotive 
 experiments to a triumphant issue. On this point Dr. Smiles 
 observes : * The invention of the Steam-Blast by George 
 Stephenson, in 1815, was fraught with most important conse- 
 quences to railway locomotion, and it is not saying too much 
 to aver that the success of the locomotive has been in a great 
 measure the result of its adoption. Without the steam-blast,, 
 by means of which the intensity of combustion is maintained 
 at its highest point, producing a correspondingly rapid evolution 
 of steam, high rates of speed could not have been kept up r 
 the advantages of the multitubular boiler (afterwards invented) 
 could never have been fully tested, and locomotives might still 
 have been dragging themselves unwieldily along at little more 
 than five or six miles an hour.' The invention of the steam - 
 blast has been the subject of much controversy, and it has been 
 claimed for Trevithick in 1804, Hedley in 1814, Sir Golds- 
 worthy Gurney in 1 8 2 o, and Timothy Hack worth in 1 8 2 9. But as 
 Dr. Smiles has shown, the statements in the first edition of Mr. 
 Nicholas Wood's Practical Treatise on Railways (1825) made 
 it 'perfectly clear that George Stephenson invented and applied 
 he sttam-blast for the express purpose of quickening combus- 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 15 
 
 tion in the furnace by increasing the draught in the chimney. 
 Though urged by Wood to abandon the blast, Stephenson con- 
 tinued to hold by it as one of the vital powers of the loco- 
 motive engine.' Its usefulness was further developed by the 
 sagacity of Timothy Hackworth, of Darlington. 
 
 The next great invention by George Stephenson that of the 
 * Geordie ' safety-lamp brought his name prominently before 
 the public, and led to a long discussion between the partisans 
 of Stephenson and those of Sir Humphry Davy. Moved by 
 the terrible calamities which ensued from the explosions of fire- 
 damp, Stephenson devised his colliery safety-lamp. Dr. W. R. 
 Clanny, of Sunderland, had already contrived the first lamp 
 which would safely burn in an explosive mixture of gas and 
 air, but it was unfit for ordinary use. It is stated that both 
 Clanny and Stephenson applied wire-gauze cylinders to their 
 lamps after Davy had made a communication to the Royal 
 Society about his own lamp, though before he produced his 
 own lamp to the public. Stephenson's lamp had a glass 
 cylinder inside the wire-gauze, the former having a cap of per- 
 forated copper. Small orifices below the glass admitted the 
 necessary air, and when the air became highly explosive the 
 light went out, so that the lamp did not get overheated. To 
 enable it to burn well, the lamp required to be either held or 
 suspended. Dr. Smiles gives this interesting account of the 
 rival Davy and Stephenson lamps : 
 
 * An angry controversy took place as to the respective merits 
 of George Stephenson and Sir Humphry Davy in respect of 
 the invention of the safety-lamp. A committee was formed on 
 both sides, and the facts were stated in various ways. It is 
 perfectly clear, however, that Stephenson had ascertained the 
 fact that flame will not pass through tubes of a certain diameter 
 the principle on which the safety-lamp is constructed 
 before Sir Humphry Davy had formed any definite idea on 
 the subject or invented the model lamp afterwards exhibited by 
 him before the Royal Society. Stephenson had actually con- 
 
1 6 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 structed a lamp on such a principle, and proved its safety, 
 before Sir Humphry had communicated his views on the 
 subject to any person, and by the time that the first public in- 
 timation had been given of his discovery, Stephenson's second 
 lamp had been constructed and tested in like manner in the 
 Killingworth Pit. The first was tried on the 2ist of October, 
 1815, the second was tried on the 4th of November; but it 
 was not until the Qth of November that Sir Humphry Davy 
 presented his first lamp to the public. And by the 3oth of the 
 same month Stephenson had constructed and tested his third 
 safety-lamp. 
 
 'Stephenson's theory of the "burnt air" and the "draught" 
 was no doubt wrong ; but his lamp was right, and that was 
 the great fact which mainly concerned him. Torricelli did 
 not know the rationale of his tube, nor Otto Giirike that of 
 his air-pump ; yet no one thinks of denying them the merit of 
 their inventions on that account. The discoveries of Volta 
 and Galvani were in like manner independent of theory ; the 
 greatest discoveries consisting in bringing to light certain 
 great facts, on which theories are afterwards framed. Our 
 inventor had been pursuing the Baconian method, though he 
 did not think of that ; his sole object being to invent a safe 
 lamp, which he knew could only be done through the process 
 of repeated experiment. Hence his numerous experiments on 
 the fire-damp at the blowers in the mine, as well as on car- 
 buretted hydrogen gas in his cottage by means of original 
 apparatus. By experiment he distinctly ascertained that the 
 explosion of the fire-damp could not pass through small 
 tubes ; and he also did what had not before been done by 
 any inventor he constructed a lamp on this principle, and 
 repeatedly proved its safety at the risk of his life. At the 
 same time, there is no doubt that it was to Sir Humphry 
 Davy that the merit belonged of elucidating the true law on 
 which the safety-lamp is constructed.' 
 
 Stephenson received a public testimonial of ,1,000 for 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 17 
 
 his discovery, and Davy received ,2,000 from those who 
 regarded him as the inventor of the safety-lamp. The un- 
 doubted fact is that both inventors arrived at the same result 
 independently of each other. As Robert Stephenson well put 
 it, 'If George Stephenson had never lived, Sir Humphry 
 Davy could, and most probably would, have invented the 
 safety-lamp; but again, if Sir Humphry Davy had never 
 lived, George Stephenson certainly would have invented the 
 safety-lamp, as I believe he did independently of all that Sir 
 Humphry Davy had done in the matter.' As might naturally 
 be expected, the Clanny, Davy, and Stephenson lamps have 
 all been practically superseded by later improved safety-lamps. 
 The Final Report of the Commissioners on Accidents in Mines, 
 published in 1886, showed that there were four lamps in 
 which the quality of safety, in a pre-eminent degree, was 
 combined with simplicity of construction and with illumi- 
 nating power at least fully equal to that of any of the lamps 
 hitherto in general use. These were Gray's lamp, Marsant's 
 lamp, the lamp of the latest pattern proposed by Evan 
 Thomas, and the bonneted Mueseler lamp. Of these four 
 lamps, the one which lias become the favourite, and which has 
 passed into most general use, is the lamp constructed by M. 
 Marsant, of the Besseges Collieries, Gard, France. Made 
 with three gauzes, it will not cause an explosion in so strong 
 a current as fifty feet per second, or even when the inner gauze 
 is at a bright red heat, unless the glass cracks. With two 
 gauzes its light is three and a half times greater than that of a 
 Davy lamp. 
 
 George Stephenson proceeded with his improvements, both 
 in mining and locomotion, and he was one of the first to 
 introduce steam machinery underground for the purpose of 
 winning and raising the coal. The Killingworth mines, indeed, 
 came to be regarded as the models of the district. A system 
 of improved transit was also devised for conveying the coals 
 aboveground froai the pit-head to the shipping-place. Even 
 
 c 
 
1 8 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 when persons regarded his travelling engine as little better 
 than a dangerous curiosity, he predicted that the locomotive 
 would yet supersede every other traction-power for drawing 
 heavy loads. To avoid jerks and shocks, and to avert the 
 overturning of the engine, Stephenson devised the half-lap 
 joint, by means of which the rails extended a certain distance 
 over each other at the ends. These ends, instead of resting 
 on the flat chair, were made to rest upon the apex of a curve 
 forming the bottom of the chair. The new system contributed 
 largely both to efficiency and smooth action. A patent was 
 taken out for this improved form of rail and chair, in the joint 
 names of the inventor and Mr. Losh, an ironfounder of 
 Newcastle. This gentleman had a great belief in Stephenson, 
 and guaranteed him a salary of ;ioo per annum, with a share in 
 the profits arising from his inventions, conditional on his attend- 
 ing at the Walker Ironworks one day a week an arrangement 
 which the Killingworth Colliery owners cordially sanctioned. 
 
 Dr. Smiles observes that Stephenson's ( endeavours having 
 been attended with such marked success in the adaptation of 
 locomotive power to railways, his attention was called by many 
 of his friends, about the year 1818, to the application of steam 
 to travelling on common roads. It was from this point, 
 indeed, that the locomotive had started, Trevithick's first 
 engine having been constructed with this special object. 
 Stephenson's friends having observed how far behind he had 
 left the original projector of the locomotive in its application 
 to railroads, perhaps naturally inferred that he would be 
 equally successful in applying it to the purpose for which 
 Trevithick and Vivian had intended the first engine. But 
 the accuracy with which he estimated the resistance to which 
 loads were exposed on railways, arising from friction and 
 gravity, led him at a very early stage to reject the idea of ever 
 applying steam-power economically to common road travelling. 
 In October, 1818, he made a series of careful experiments in 
 conjunction with Mr. Nicholas Wood, on the resistance to 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 19 
 
 which carriages were exposed on railways, testing the results 
 by means of a dynamometer of his own contrivance. The 
 series of practical observations made by means of this instru- 
 ment were interesting, as the first systematic attempt to deter- 
 mine the precise amount of resistance to carnages moving 
 along railways. It was then for the first time ascertained by 
 experiment that the friction was a constant quantity of all 
 velocities. Although this theory had long before been de- 
 veloped by Vince and Coulomb, and was well known to 
 scientific men as an established truth, yet at the time when 
 Stephenson made his experiments the deductions of philo- 
 sophers on the subject were neither believed in nor acted 
 upon by practical engineers.' 
 
 Robert Stephenson records that the following were the 
 principal arguments which influenced his father ' to work out 
 the use of the locomotive in a directly opposite course to that 
 pursued by a number of ingenious inventors, who, between 
 1820 and 1836, were engaged in attempting to apply steam- 
 power to turnpike roads. Having ascertained that resistance 
 might be taken as represented by 10 Ib. to a ton weight on a 
 level railway, it became obvious to him that so small a rise as 
 i in 100 would diminish the useful effort of a locomotive by 
 upwards of fifty per cent. This fact called my father's atten- 
 tion to the question of gradients in future locomotive lines. 
 He then became convinced of the vital importance, in an 
 economical point of view, of reducing the country through 
 which a railway was intended to pass to as near a level as 
 possible. This originated in his mind the distinctive character 
 of railway works as contradistinguished from all other roads, 
 for in railroads he early contended that large sums would be 
 wisely expended in perforating barriers of hills with long 
 tunnels, and in raising low ground with the excess cut down 
 from the adjacent high ground. In proportion as these views 
 fixed themselves upon his mind, and were corroborated by 
 his daily experience, he became more and more convinced 
 
 c 2 
 
20 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of the hopelessness of applying steam locomotion to common 
 roads, for every argument in favour of a level railway was an 
 argument against the rough and hilly course of common road. 
 He never ceased to urge upon the patrons of road steam- 
 carriages that if, by any amount of ingenuity, an engine could 
 be made which could by possibility traverse a turnpike road 
 at a speed at least equal to that obtainable by horse-power, 
 and at a less cost, such an engine, if applied to the more 
 perfect surface of a railway, would have its efficiency enor- 
 mously enhanced. For instance, he calculated that if an 
 engine had been constructed, and had been found to travel 
 uniformly between London and Birmingham at an average 
 speed of ten miles an hour, conveying, say, twenty or thirty 
 passengers at a cost of one shilling per mile, it was clear that 
 the same engine, if applied to a railway, instead of conveying 
 twenty or thirty people would have conveyed 200 or 300 
 people, and instead of a speed of ten or twelve miles an hour 
 a speed of at least thirty to forty miles an hour would have 
 been obtained.' 
 
 But while there was to be seen at Killingworth in daily use 
 a system of road locomotion which was destined to revolu- 
 tionise England, Stephenson was for a long time unable to 
 bring it to the notice of the English public. Indeed, there 
 seemed so small a prospect of introducing the locomotive into 
 general use, that Stephenson recurred to an old idea he had 
 indulged of emigrating to the United States. He thought the 
 great lakes of North America presented a splendid field for 
 introducing steam-power into navigation. Happily this was 
 averted by the authorities of the Hetton Coal Company step- 
 ping in and engaging George Stephenson to lay down the 
 Hetton Railway the longest locomotive line that had hitherto 
 been constructed in the district. The line was successfully 
 laid, and on the i8th of Nove'mber, 1822, it was opened in the 
 presence of thousands of spectators. Five locomotives were 
 seen at work, with a speed of about four miles an hour, and 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 21 
 
 each engine drew after it a train of seventeen waggons weighing 
 about sixty-four tons. 
 
 While this was going forward in 1819 Robert Stephenson 
 left school, and was put apprentice to the head viewer at Killing- 
 worth, to learn the business of the colliery. This he did for 
 three years, and then he was sent for a brief course of instruc- 
 tion to the Edinburgh University. He attended the Chemical 
 Lectures of Dr. Hope, the Natural Philosophy Lectures of 
 Sir John Leslie, and the Natural History Class of Professor 
 Jameson ; while he devoted several evenings a week to the 
 study of practical chemistry under Dr. John Murray. He 
 made careful notes of the lectures, which he afterwards read 
 over to his father. During his stay at the University, Robert 
 Stephenson was one of a band of pupils whom Professor 
 Jameson took on a geological and botanical excursion along 
 the Great Glen of the Highlands, in the line of the Caledonian 
 Canal, as far as Inverness. This tour made an impression 
 upon him which was never effaced. The young student gained 
 a prize for mathematics at the University. He was glad to 
 return home, however. Two years before he had found a true 
 mother in his father's second wife, Elizabeth Hindmarsh, the 
 daughter of a respectable farmer at Black Callerton. 
 
 The first public Railway Act says'Stephenson's biographer 
 was that passed in 1801, authorising the construction of a 
 line from Wandsworth to Croydon, under the name of * The 
 Surrey Iron Railway.' Its object was to furnish a more ready 
 means for the transport of coal and merchandise from the 
 Thames to South London, and at the same time to enable the 
 lime-burners and proprietors of stone-quarries to send their 
 lime and stone to London. The line was afterwards extended, 
 but it never paid, and was dismantled by the projectors of the 
 London and Brighton line, who bought it in 1837. The 
 Wandsworth, Croydon, and Merstham Railway ' was a beacon 
 to warn capitalists against embarking in railways ; and many 
 years passed before another was ventured upon.' However, 
 
22 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 further projects were put forward, both with regard to land- 
 ways and water-ways ; but nothing was done in the matter of 
 public railways until the construction of the Stockton and 
 Darlington line, which was the parent public locomotive rail- 
 way in the United Kingdom. After several abortive movements 
 in favour of a canal instead of a railway, a survey was at length 
 made in 1818 for a railway, the Peases of Darlington being the 
 most prominent supporters of the scheme. So many other 
 members of the Society of Friends ultimately joined them that 
 the railway became known as ' the Quakers' Line.' 
 
 An Act was obtained for the construction of the line in 1821. 
 The Directors of the Stockton and Darlington Company ap- 
 pointed George Stephenson their engineer, and adopted his 
 recommendation that a railway be formed instead of a tram- 
 road. The first rail was laid near Stockton, on May 23rd, 
 1822 ; but even at this time Stephenson's predictions as to the 
 eventual success of locomotive engines were regarded as mere 
 speculations. Having paid a visit to Killingvvorth, however, 
 and seen the engine in action there, Edward Pease and his 
 friend Thomas Richardson the leading promoters of the 
 Stockton and Darlington line became strong supporters of 
 the locomotive engine. On Stephenson's urgent recommenda- 
 tion, an amended Act of Parliament was obtained, containing 
 a provision for working the railway by means of locomotive 
 engines, as well as a clause the first of the kind in any rail- 
 way Act empowering the employment of the engines for the 
 carriage of passengers as well as of merchandise. Stephenson 
 occupied himself closely in making the working survey of the 
 line, starting very early in the morning, and getting his meals 
 how, when, and wheresoever he could. Here is an entertain- 
 ing anecdote of him at this time : 
 
 'After the day's work was over, George would drop in at 
 Mr. Pease's, to talk over the progress of the survey and discuss 
 various matters connected with the railway. Mr. Pease's 
 daughters were usually present, and, on one occasion, finding 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 23 
 
 the young ladies learning the art of embroidery, he volunteered 
 to instruct them. " I know all about it," said he ; " and you 
 will wonder how I learnt it. I will tell you. When I was a 
 brakesman at Killingworth, I learnt the art of embroidery 
 while working the pitmen's buttonholes by the engine fire at 
 nights." He was never ashamed, but, on the contrary, rather 
 proud of reminding his friends of these humble pursuits of his 
 early life. Mr. Pease's family were greatly pleased with his 
 conversation, which was always amusing and instructive : full 
 of all sorts of experience, gathered in the oddest and most out- 
 of-the-way places. Even at that early period, before he mixed 
 in the society of educated persons, there was a dash of specu- 
 lativeness in his remarks, which gave a high degree of originality 
 to his conversation, and he would sometimes, in a casual re- 
 mark, throw a flash of light upon a subject, which called up a 
 train of pregnant suggestions.' 
 
 With the assistance of Messrs. Pease and Richardson, George 
 Stephenson established a manufactory at Newcastle for the 
 building of locomotive engines. This was in 1823, and the 
 firm was instituted in consequence of a rupture between 
 Stephenson and his old co-patentees and employers, Losh, 
 Wilson, & Bell. The name of the firm which acquired 
 great celebrity as manufacturers of locomotive engines was 
 Robert Stephenson & Co. George Stephenson thus put his 
 brother Robert in the forefront, and made his own son Robert 
 the chief engineer, as well as an actual member of the firm, 
 while he himself kept in the background. One of his main 
 objects was to obtain good and skilled workmen, capable of 
 carrying out various improvements in detail which he contem- 
 plated. Stephenson recommended malleable rails for the new 
 line, although he was interested in the patent for cast-iron rails. 
 But he had demonstrated the vast superiority of malleable 
 rails. They were very expensive, however, and the directors 
 would only allow half the rails to be malleable, the other half 
 being cast-iron. The line was constructed with a gauge of 
 
24 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 about four feet eight and a half inches ; but the press and the 
 public were against the 'new-fangled roads.' The Whitehaven 
 Gazette ridiculed the idea of steam-carriages ever travelling ' at 
 a rate almost equal to the speed of the fleetest horse ! ' The 
 Tyne Mercury, of Nov. 16, 1824, asked, 'What person would 
 ever think of paying anything to be conveyed from Hexham to 
 Newcastle in something like a coal-waggon, upon a dreary 
 waggon-way, and to be dragged for the greater part of the 
 distance by a roaring steam-engine?' But the courageous 
 railway directors ordered three of Stephenson's locomotive 
 engines, at a cost of several thousand pounds, in view of the 
 opening of the line. The first engine, the Locomotion, was 
 duly delivered, weighing about eight tons. In a conversation 
 with his son and a helper named John Dixon, George 
 Stephenson, in drinking success to the line, predicted that 
 the time would come when railways would supersede all other 
 methods of conveyance, and when it would be cheaper for a 
 working-man to travel on a railway than to walk on foot. As 
 the opening of the first railway in England is a memorable 
 historical event, I will quote Dr. Smiles's description of the 
 ceremony : 
 
 'Tuesday, the 2yth of September, 1825, was a great day for 
 Darlington. The railway, after having been under construction 
 for more than three years, was at length about to be opened. 
 The project had been the talk of the neighbourhood for so 
 long that there were few people within a range of twenty miles 
 who did not feel more or less interested about it. Was it to 
 be a failure or a success ? Opinions were pretty equally divided 
 as to the railway, but as regarded the locomotive the general 
 belief was that it would " never answer." However, there the 
 locomotive was " No. i " delivered on to the line, and ready 
 to draw the first train of waggons on the opening day. 
 
 ' A great concourse of people assembled on the occasion. 
 Some came from Newcastle and Durham, many from the 
 Aucklands, while Darlington held a general holiday 3 and 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 25 
 
 turned out all its population. To give eclat to the opening, 
 the Directors of the Company issued a programme of the 
 proceedings, intimating the times at which the procession of 
 waggons would pass certain points along the line. The pro- 
 prietors assembled as early as six in the morning at the 
 Brusselton fixed engine, where the working of the inclined 
 planes was successfully rehearsed. A train of waggons laden 
 with coals and merchandise was drawn up the western incline 
 by the fixed engine, a length of 1,960 yards, in seven and a half 
 minutes, and then lowered down the incline on the eastern side 
 of the hill, 880 yards, in five minutes. 
 
 ' At the foot of the incline the procession ol vehicles was 
 formed, consisting of the locomotive engine, No. i, driven by 
 George Stephenson himself, after it six waggons loaded with 
 coals and flour, then a covered coach, containing directors and 
 proprietors, next twenty-one coal waggons, fitted up for pas- 
 sengers (with which they were crammed), and, lastly, six more 
 waggons loaded with coals. 
 
 ' Strange to say, a man on a horse, carrying a flag with the 
 motto of the Company inscribed on it, Periculum privatum 
 utilitas publica, headed the procession ! A lithographic view of 
 the great event, published shortly after, duly exhibits the horse- 
 man and his flag. It was not thought so dangerous a place 
 after all. The locomotive was only supposed to be able to go 
 at the rate of from four to six miles an hour ; and an ordinary 
 horse could easily keep ahead of that. 
 
 ' Off started the procession, with the horseman at its head. A 
 great concourse of people stood along the line. Many of them 
 tried to accompany it by running, and some gentlemen on 
 horseback galloped across the fields to keep up with the train. 
 The railway descending with a gentle incline towards Darling- 
 ton, the rate of speed was consequently variable. At a favour- 
 able part of the road, Stephenson determined to try the speed 
 of the engine, and he called upon the horseman with the flag 
 to get out of the way ! Most probably deeming it unnecessary 
 
26 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 to carry his Periculum privatum farther, the horseman turned 
 aside, and Stephenson " put on the steam." The speed was at 
 once raised to twelve miles an hour, and at a favourable part of 
 the road to fifteen. The runners on foot, the gentlemen on 
 horseback, and the horseman with the flag were consequently 
 soon left far behind. When the train reached Darlington it 
 was found that four hundred and fifty passengers occupied the 
 waggons, and that the load of men, coals, and merchandise 
 amounted to about ninety tons. 
 
 'At Darlington the procession was re-arranged. The six 
 loaded coal-waggons were left behind, and other waggons were 
 taken on, with a hundred and fifty more passengers, together 
 with a band of music. The train then started for Stockton a 
 distance of only twelve miles which was reached in about three 
 hours. The day was kept throughout the district as a holiday, 
 and horses, gigs, carts, and other vehicles, filled with people, 
 stood along the railway, as well as crowds of persons on foot, 
 waiting to see the train pass. The population of Stockton 
 turned out to receive the procession, and after a walk through 
 the streets, the inevitable dinner in the Town Hall wound up 
 the day's proceedings.' 
 
 But the Directors and their engineer were still filled with 
 anxiety as to the success of the line. It had been opened, but 
 would the traffic grow, and prove profitable ? Yes ; ultimately 
 the results amazed even the projectors. It appears that in 
 1827, the first year in which the coal and merchandise traffic 
 was fully worked, the revenue from coal was 14,455 \ from 
 lime, merchandise, and sundries, ,3,285 ; and from passengers, 
 563. But in 1860, when the original line of 25 miles had 
 become extended to 125 miles, and the original capital of 
 150,000 had grown to 3,800,000, the quantity of coal 
 carried was 3,045,596 tons, producing a revenue of 280,375; 
 while 1,484,409 tons of ironstone and merchandise were also 
 carried, producing 63,478 ; and 687,728 passengers were 
 conveyed, producing 45,398. During the last thirty years 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 27 
 
 these figures have been further considerably enlarged, so that 
 it is impossible to estimate the services to English industry 
 rendered directly and indirectly by the first railway constructed 
 by George Stephenson. 
 
 The first railway passenger carriage designed by Stephenson 
 was 'a somewhat uncouth machine, more resembling a show- 
 man's caravan than a passenger-coach of any extant form.' It 
 had a row of seats on each side with a long deal table in the 
 centre, and the door was at the hinder end, as in an omnibus. 
 The engineer dubbed it the Experiment^ and it formed pnrt of 
 the opening procession. Contrasted with the luxurious Pull- 
 man cars of to-day it would appear a very primitive conveyance 
 indeed. The speed of the first railway engine, the Locomo- 
 tion^ was considered marvellous, although in a race with the 
 ordinary stage-coach between Stockton and Darlington it only 
 came in first by about one hundred yards. The engine was, 
 after many years, placed as a curiosity upon a pedestal in front 
 of the railway station at Darlington. Dr. Smiles points out 
 that one of the most remarkable results of the Stockton and 
 Darlington Railway was the creation of the now flourishing and 
 populous town of Middlesbrough. 
 
 In 1821 another great project was mooted this was the 
 scheme for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The 
 causes which lent strength to this were the rapid growth of the 
 trade of South Lancashire and the unpopular management of 
 the Bridgewater Canal. Owing to a variety of reasons, it some- 
 times occupied a longer time to convey cotton from Liverpool 
 to Manchester by canal-boat than it had taken to bring it from 
 New York to Liverpool by sailing ship. Considering the vast 
 commercial interests at stake, these delays became intolerable. 
 Consequently, Mr. Joseph Sandars, a warm advocate of tram- 
 roads, got together a committee of Liverpool gentlemen to con- 
 sider the matter. Mr. William James, of West Bromwich, also 
 an enthusiastic advocate of tramways, made a trial survey of 
 the ground to be covered, meeting with much hostility from the 
 
2 3 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 inhabitants on the route. This was carried to such a. pitch 
 that Mr. James was unable to complete his survey in time to 
 allow of an application to Parliament in the ensuing session. 
 He paid a visit to Killingworth, and saw at a glance that 
 there was a great future in store for Stephenson's locomotive. 
 Robert Stephenson, who had acquired some practical know- 
 ledge of surveying, accompanied Mr. James on his return to- 
 Liverpool, and a second survey was begun. 'Obstacles sprang 
 up thick and fast, however, and among the landowners opposed 
 to the scheme were Lords Derby and Wilton, Mr. Bradshaw 
 (canal agent to the Duke of Bridgewater), and the Strafford 
 family. The agents were driven off the land, and farmers set 
 men at their gates with pitchforks to resist their progress. Only 
 two landowners, Mr. Legh and Mr. Wyrley Birch, supported 
 the project and took shares in the undertaking. Mr. James's 
 funds fell short, and the survey again failed. 
 
 Mr. Sandars now applied to George Stephenson, and the 
 Committee unanimously appointed him engineer of the pro- 
 jected railway. But before formally setting the undertaking on 
 foot, the Committee appealed to the Duke of Bridgewater's 
 representative to increase the means of conveyance by the 
 canal and to reduce the charges. They were not only met 
 by a definite refusal, but the agent ridiculed the proposed 
 railway as a chimera, and said he should oppose it with all his 
 power. A deputation was now appointed to visit Darlington 
 and Killingworth, and its report was so satisfactory that a com- 
 pany of proprietors was formed for the construction of a double 
 line of railway between Liverpool and Manchester. These 
 original promoters included such well-known men as the 
 Lawrences, Gladstones, Potters, Birleys, Ewarts, and Croppers. 
 One member of the Committee, Henry Booth, afterwards be- 
 came secretary and manager of the line. That competition 
 in transport was obviously necessary was shown by the fact 
 that shares in the Old Quay Navigation, of which the original 
 cost was ^"70, had been sold as high as ^1,250 each. The 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 29 
 
 first estimated cost of the new railway line was put down at 
 ^400,000, and this was subscribed immediately, although it 
 afterwards proved to be quite inadequate. A third survey 
 Avas made, under great difficulties, and Stephenson and his 
 assistants were driven off the Earl of Derby's Knowsley 
 property by the keepers, who threatened them with personal 
 violence. The Duke of Bridgewater's agent actually declared 
 that he would order the keepers to shoot or apprehend any 
 persons attempting a survey over his Grace's property ; but a 
 survey was effected one moonlight night by an ingenious ruse. 
 Such was the general animosity manifested towards the project, 
 that the Company's solicitors wrote to Mr. Sandars that the 
 country was up in arms against it ; and, with the exception ot 
 Mr. Trafford, the whole of the great proprietors along the entire 
 line were dissentient. The press was also called into requisi- 
 tion by the canal proprietors to denounce the scheme. 
 
 Nevertheless, the projectors prepared their case for the 
 House of Commons. But, as showing the prevailing scepticism 
 with regard to steam locomotion, Mr. William Brougham one 
 of the counsel for the promoters, on being told by Stephenson 
 that he expected to attain a speed of twenty miles an hour, 
 replied that if he did not moderate his views, and bring his 
 engine within a reasonable speed, he would ' inevitably damn 
 the whole thing, and be himself regarded as a maniac only fit 
 for Bedlam.' Civil engineers generally rejected the notion of a 
 locomotive railway, and Stephenson stood practically alone. A 
 scientific writer in the Quarterly Revieiv, while admitting the 
 necessity for the railway, scouted the idea of travelling at a 
 .greater speed than eight or nine miles an hour ; and, with 
 regard to a projected railway to Woolwich, remarked, * We will 
 back old Father Thames against the Woolwich Railway for any 
 sum.' 
 
 On the 2 ist of March, 1825, the House of Commons went 
 into Committee on the Liverpool and Manchester Bill. There 
 was a great array of legal talent on both sides. The opening 
 
30 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY 
 
 evidence for the necessity of the line was conclusive, and it 
 was shown that locomotive travelling was not dangerous. Then 
 the engineering evidence the most vital part of the case was 
 taken. George Stephenson was examined, and his testimony 
 subjected to the severest scrutiny. Eight or ten barristers set 
 themselves to the task of bewildering him, while one member 
 of the Committee asked if he was a foreigner, because of his 
 Northumbrian burr, and another hinted that he was mad. But 
 he held to his guns, and stated that he was prepared to prove 
 the safety of working high-pressure locomotives on a railroad,, 
 and the superiority of this mode of transporting goods over all 
 others. As to speed, he recommended eight miles an hour 
 with twenty tons, and four miles an hour with forty tons ; but 
 much more might be done even to the rate of twelve miles 
 an hour with safety. One of the most interesting parts of 
 Stephenson's cross-examination is thus given by Dr. Smiles : 
 ' It is not necessary to state that to have passed through his 
 severe ordeal scatheless needed no small amount of courage, 
 intelligence, and ready shrewdness on the part of the witness. 
 Nicholas Wood, who was present on the occasion, has since 
 stated that the point on which Stephenson was hardest pressed 
 was that of speed. " I believe," he says, " that it would have 
 lost the Company their Bill if he had gone beyond eight or 
 nine miles an hour. If he had stated his intention of going 
 twelve or fifteen miles an hour not a single person would have 
 believed it to be practicable." Mr. Alderson had, indeed, so 
 pressed the point of " twelve miles an hour," and the promoters 
 were so alarmed lest it should appear in evidence that they 
 contemplated any such extravagant rate of speed, that imme- 
 diately on Mr. Alderson sitting down Mr. Joy proceeded to re- 
 examine Stephenson, with the view of removing from the 
 minds of the Committee an impression so unfavourable, and,, 
 as they supposed, so damaging to their case. " With regard,'"' 
 asked Mr. Joy, " to all those hypothetical questions of my 
 learned friend, they have been all put on the supposition of 
 
THE STEPHENSONS 31 
 
 going twelve miles an hour ; now that is not the rate at which, 
 I believe, any of the engines of which you have spoken have 
 travelled? " "No," replied Stephenson, "except as an experi- 
 ment for a short distance.'' " But what they have gone has 
 been three, five, or six miles an hour?" "Yes." "So that 
 those hypothetical cases of twelve miles an hour do not fall 
 within your general experience ? " " They do not." 
 
 ' The Committee also seem to have entertained some alarm 
 as to the high rate of speed which had been spoken of, and 
 proceeded to examine the witness further on the subject. 
 They supposed the case of the engine being upset when going 
 at nine miles an hour, and asked what, in such a case, would 
 become of the cargo astern. To which the witness replied 
 that it would not be upset. One of the members of the 
 Committee pressed the witness a little further. He put the 
 following case : " Suppose, now, one of these engines going 
 along a railroad at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour, and 
 that a cow were to stray upon the line and get in the way of 
 the engine, would not that, think you, be a very awkward cir- 
 cumstance?" " Yes," replied the witness, with a twinkle in 
 his eye, " very awkward /w the coo." The honourable mem- 
 ber did not proceed further with his cross examination ; to use 
 a railway phrase, " he was shunted." Another asked if animals 
 would not be very much frightened by the engine passing at 
 night, especially by the glare of the red-hot chimney ? " But 
 how would they know that it wasn't painted?" said the witness.' 
 
 Stephenson was severely cross-examined on the practicability 
 of forming a road on so unstable a foundation as Chat Moss ; 
 and when it was found also that since the depositing of the 
 plans a more favourable line had been discovered, this told 
 against the scheme. Then the scientific evidence called by the 
 opponents of the Bill was felt to be strong, though read now in 
 the light of subsequent events it appears supremely ridiculous. 
 Mr. Alderson, the leading opposition counsel, in summing up, 
 declared Stephenson's plan to be 'the most absurd scheme 
 
32 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 that ever entered into the head of man to conceive ' ; and he 
 protested 'against the despotism of the Exchange at Liverpool 
 striding across the land of this country.' The counsel for th j 
 canal companies stigmatised Stephenson's evidence as 'trash 
 and confusion,' and otherwise heaped abuse upon the far-seeing 
 engineer. The Committee passed the preamble of the Bill by 
 a majority of one only thirty-seven to thirty-six ; but when 
 the first clause, empowering the Company to make the railway, 
 was lost by nineteen to thirteen, and the next clause, empower- 
 ing the Company to take land, was likewise rejected, the pro- 
 moters withdrew the Bill. 
 
 The loss of the scheme pressed upon Stephenson for a time 
 as a personal calamity. But in this case, as in others, the 
 darkest hour came just before the dawn. The Committee of 
 Directors met and determined to renew their application to 
 Parliament in the ensuing session. A new survey was resolved 
 upon, but it was deemed advisable for many reasons, and 
 especially to disarm criticism as much as possible, that George 
 and John Rennie should be appointed engineers instead of 
 Stephenson, and Mr. Charles Vignoles was appointed on their 
 behalf to prepare the plans and sections. The new line 
 adopted was somewhat different from the old. It entirely 
 avoided Lord Sefton's property, and passed through but a few 
 detached fields of Lord Derby's, at a considerable distance 
 from Knowsley. The principal parks and game preserves in 
 the district were likewise avoided, while the crossing of certain 
 streets in Liverpool was averted, and an entrance devised by 
 means of a tunnel and an inclined plane. The Marquis of 
 Strafford, who was chiefly interested in the Bridgewater Canal, 
 was won over to subscribe for a thousand shares in the under- 
 taking. Being now more hopeful, the survey was completed 
 and the promoters again went before Parliament. On the 1 6th 
 of March, 1826, the preamble of the Bill was declared proved 
 by forty-three to eighteen votes. What followed has been thus 
 described : 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 33 
 
 * On the third reading in the House of Commons an ani- 
 mated, and what now appears a very amusing discussion took 
 place. The Hon. Edward Stanley (afterwards Earl of Derby 
 and Prime Minister) moved that the Bill be read that day six 
 months. In the course of his speech he undertook to prove 
 that the railway trains would take ten hours on the journey, and 
 that they could only be worked by horses, and he called upon 
 the House to stop the Bill, "and prevent this mad and ex- 
 travagant speculation from being carried into effect. " Sir Isaac 
 Coffin seconded the motion, and in doing so denounced the 
 project as a most flagrant imposition. He would not consent 
 to see widows' premises and their strawberry-beds invaded; and 
 "what," he would like to know, "was to be done with all those 
 who had advanced money in making and repairing turnpike 
 roads ? What with those who may still wish to travel in their 
 own or hired carriages, after the fashion of their forefathers ? 
 What was to become of coach-makers and harness-makers, 
 coach-masters and coachmen, innkeepers, horse breeders and 
 horse dealers ? Was the House aware of the smoke and the 
 noise, the hiss and the whirl, which locomotive engines, passing 
 at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, would occasion ? 
 Neither the cattle ploughing in the fields nor grazing in the 
 meadows could behold them without dismay. Iron would be 
 raised in price 100 per cent, or more, probably exhausted 
 altogether. It would be the greatest nuisance, the most com- 
 plete disturbance of quiet and comfort in all parts of the 
 kingdom, that the ingenuity of man could invent." 
 
 * Mr. Huskisson and other speakers, though unable to reply 
 to such arguments as these, strongly supported the Bill, and it 
 was carried on the third reading by a majority of eighty-eight 
 to forty-one. The Bill passed the House of Lords almost 
 unanimously, its only opponents being the Earl of Derby and 
 his relative the Earl of Wilton. The cost of obtaining the Act 
 amounted to the enormous sum of ^27,000.' 
 
 The Directors appointed George Stephenson principal resi- 
 
 D 
 
34 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 dent engineer to the line, at a salary of ;i,ooo per annum. 
 He selected three assistant engineers Mr. Joseph Locke, Mr. 
 Allcard, and Mr. John Dixon, and to the last named was 
 assigned the unenviable task of subjugating Chat Moss. This 
 immense and dreary peat bog was about twelve square miles in 
 extent, and Michael Drayton three centuries before had 
 conjectured that it had its origin at the Deluge. Mr. Dixon 
 nearly lost his life on one occasion in the Moss. But 
 Stephenson adhered to his conviction that Chat Moss could 
 be overcome. He was warned that the task was hopeless, yet 
 he persevered, and enjoyed a great triumph. He laid branches 
 of trees and hedge cuttings and in the softest places rude 
 hurdles interwoven with heather on the natural surface of the 
 ground, containing intertwined roots of heather and long grass ; 
 a thin layer of gravel was then spread above all, and on it the 
 sleepers, chairs, and rails were laid in the usual manner. 
 Drains were at the same time cut on both sides of the line, 
 and in the central part of the Moss a conduit was formed 
 beneath the line of railway of old tar-barrels placed end to 
 end. So, notwithstanding difficulties which everyone but him- 
 self regarded as insuperable, Stephenson eventually constructed 
 this portion of the line, and, strange to say, at a smaller 
 expense than any other part of the railway. The whole cost 
 of the Chat Moss portion of the line was ^28,000, whereas 
 an estimate had been given by one well-known engineer of 
 ^2 7 0,000. During the progress of the works the wildest 
 rumours were set afloat, such as that the Moss had been blown 
 up, that hundreds of men and horses had sunk in the bog, 
 that the works were abandoned, that the engineer himself had 
 been swallowed up, and that railways were at an end for ever. 
 
 Before the whole line was completed the battle of the locomo- 
 tive engine was fought. All existing engines being unsatisfactory, 
 the Directors of the Company who were desirous of settling the 
 method of traction for the new line offered a prize of ^500 
 for the best locomotive engine. The conditions laid down 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 35 
 
 were : That the engine must effectually consume its own 
 smoke ; that if of six tons weight it must be able to draw after 
 it daily twenty tons weight at ten miles an hour, with a pressure 
 of steam on the boiler not exceeding fifty pounds to the square 
 inch ; that the boiler must have two safety-valves ; that the 
 engine and boiler must be supported on springs and rest on 
 six wheels, the height of the whole not exceeding fifteen feet 
 to the top of the chimney ; that the engine might be either 
 of six or four and a half tons, and if the latter it might be put 
 on only four wheels ; that a mercurial gauge must be affixed to 
 the engine, showing the steam -pressure above forty-five pounds 
 per square inch ; that the engine must be completed by Oct. 
 ist, 1829, and that its cost must not exceed ,550. The 
 Stephensons complied with these conditions, and constructed 
 the now famous engine, the Rocket. It comprised, among 
 other things, the following advantages : A requisite draught 
 to the surface ; the utilisation of waste steam as a blast to 
 stimulate combustion ; the principle of the multitubular boiler 
 invented by Mr. Henry Booth; a direct communication between 
 the cylinders and the wheels, and the joint adhesion of all the 
 wheels by the use of horizontal connecting rods. 
 
 The competition which excited great interest took place 
 at Rainhill in October, 1829, when the superiority of the 
 Rocket over its rivals was at once made manifest. It drew 
 a coach with thirty passengers along the prescribed course at 
 the rate of thirty miles an hour. The engine which went 
 into regular service on the opening of the railway weighed, 
 with its supply of water, only four and a half tons ; and long 
 after it had been superseded by heavier engines, it ran on one 
 occasion four miles in four and a half minutes. It is a re- 
 markable fact that the numerous changes which have since 
 been effected in the appearance and size of the locomotive 
 have been more matters of detail than of principle. ' The 
 75-ton express passenger-engine, which runs at a speed of a 
 mile per minute for miles together, does not differ materially 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 in construction from George Stephenson's pioneer engines.' 
 During its trial trip the Rocket attained a maximum speed of 
 twenty-nine miles an hour. This made an eminent Liverpool 
 citizen, Mr. P. Ewart, look rather foolish, for he had declared 
 it to be impossible to make a locomotive engine go at ten 
 miles an hour, and had gratuitously added that if this was ever 
 done he would undertake to eat a stewed engine-wheel for his 
 breakfast ! At the close of the Rocket's successful run the 
 locomotive system was safe ; and Mr. Cropper -one of the 
 Directors favourable to the fixed-engine system lifted up his 
 hands and exclaimed, ' Now has George Stephenson at last 
 delivered himself ! ' After being of service for many years, the 
 Rocket was at length deposited in the Museum of Patents at 
 Kensington, where it may now be seen. 
 
 In the construction of the Liverpool and Manchester Rail- 
 way, Stephenson encountered many difficulties besides those at 
 Chat Moss. He had to form the tunnel under Liverpool, 
 2,200 yards in length ; then there was the Olive Mount cutting 
 to be made, about two miles long, through red-sandstone 
 rock ; thirdly, he had to provide for the ascent and descent of 
 the Whiston and Sutton Hills by means of inclined planes of 
 i in 96 ; fourthly, a viaduct had to be built over the Sankey 
 Valley, and fifthly, sixty-three bridges required to be con- 
 structed in a line of only thirty miles in length. The second 
 of these undertakings was almost as formidable as any which 
 have since been encountered. But he was served by men 
 whom he had admirably trained, 'whose handiworks will be 
 the wonder and admiration of succeeding generations. Look- 
 ing at their gigantic traces, the men of some future age may be 
 found to declare of the engineer and of his workmen that 
 " there were giants in those days." ' 
 
 The Company had its pecuniary difficulties, but these were 
 overcome ; and tunnels, cuttings, and bridges having all been 
 successfully completed, and Stephenson's well-nigh overwhelm- 
 ing labours been brought to a triumphant conclusion, the line 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 37 
 
 was ready for opening, and a complete trial trip between 
 Liverpool and Manchester was made on the i/j-th of June, 
 1830. The public opening which was viewed as a national 
 event was fixed for the i5th of September ensuing, and on 
 that date there was an imposing gathering at the Liverpool 
 terminus, among those present being the Duke of Wellington, 
 then Prime Minister ; Sir Robert Peel, Home Secretary ; Mr. 
 Huskisson, Colonial and War Secretary, and many other public 
 personages. The memorable proceedings of that day, as well 
 as the lamentable accident which occurred to Mr. Huskisson, 
 have been thus graphically described by Dr. Smiles : 
 
 ' Eight locomotive engines, constructed at the Stephenson 
 works, had been delivered and placed upon the line, the whole 
 of which had been tried and tested, weeks before, with perfect 
 success. The several trains of carriages accommodated in all 
 about six hundred persons. The Northumbrian engine, driven 
 by George Stephenson himself, headed the line of trains; then 
 followed the Phcenix, driven by Robert Stephenson ; the North 
 Star, by Robert Stephenson, senior (brother of George) ; the 
 Rocket, by Joseph Locke ; the Dart, by Thomas L. Gooch ; 
 the Comet, by William Allcard ; the Arrow, by Frederick 
 Swanwick, and the Meteor, by Anthony Harding. The pro- 
 cession was cheered in its progress by thousands of spectators 
 through the deep ravine of Olive Mount; up the Sutton 
 incline ; over the great Sankey viaduct, beneath which a mul- 
 titude of persons had assembled carriages filling the narrow 
 lanes, and barges crowding the river ; the people below gazing 
 with wonder and admiration at the trains which sped along 
 the line far above their heads at the rate of some twenty four 
 miles an hour. 
 
 ' At Parkside, about seventeen miles from Liverpool, the 
 engines stopped to take in water. Here a deplorable accident 
 occurred to one of the illustrious visitors, which threw a deep 
 shadow over the subsequent proceedings of the day. The 
 Northumbrian engine, with the carnage containing the Duke 
 
38 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of Wellington, was drawn up on one line in order that the 
 whole of the trains on the other line might pass in review 
 before him and his party. Mr. Huskisson had alighted from 
 the carriage, and was standing on the opposite road, along 
 which the Rocket was observed rapidly coming up. At this 
 moment the Duke of Wellington, between whom and Mr. 
 Huskisson some coolness had existed, made a sign of recog- 
 nition, and held out his hand. A hurried but friendly grasp 
 was given, and before it was loosened there was a general cry 
 from the bystanders of " Get in, get in ! " Flurried and con- 
 fused, Mr. Huskisson endeavoured to get round the open door 
 of the carriage, which projected over the opposite rail ; but in 
 so doing he was cut down by the Rocket, and falling with 
 his leg doubled across the rail, the limb was instantly crushed. 
 His first words on being raised were, " I have met my death," 
 which unhappily proved true, for he expired that same even- 
 ing in the Parsonage of Eccles. It was cited at the time as 
 a remarkable fact that the Northumbrian engine, driven by 
 George Stephenson himself, conveyed the wounded body of 
 the unfortunate gentleman a distance of about fifteen miles in 
 twenty-five minutes, or at the rate of thirty-six miles an hour. 
 This incredible speed burst upon the world with the effect of a 
 new and unlooked-for phenomenon. 
 
 ' The accident threw a gloom over the rest of the day's pro- 
 ceedings. The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel ex- 
 pressed a wish that the procession should return to Liverpool. 
 It was, however, represented to them that a vast concourse of 
 people had assembled at Manchester to witness the arrival of 
 the trains ; that report would exaggerate the mischief if they 
 did not complete the journey, and that a false panic on that 
 day might seriously affect future railway travelling and the 
 value of the Company's property. The party consented ac- 
 cordingly to proceed to Manchester, but on the understanding 
 that they should return as soon as possible and refrain from 
 further festivity. 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 39 
 
 ' As the trains approached Manchester, crowds of people 
 were found covering the banks, the slopes of the cuttings, and 
 even the railway itself. The multitude, become impatient and 
 excited by the rumours which reached them, had outflanked 
 the military, and all order was at an end. The people clam- 
 bered about the carriages, holding on by the door-handles, and 
 many were tumbled over ; but, happily, no fatal accident 
 occurred. At the Manchester station the political element 
 began to display itself; placards about " Peterloo," etc., were 
 exhibited, and brickbats were thrown at the carriage containing 
 the Duke. On the trains coming to a stand in the Manchester 
 station the Duke did not descend, but remained seated, 
 shaking hands with the women and children who were pushed 
 forward by the crowd. Shortly after, the trains returned to 
 Liverpool, which they reached, after considerable delay, late 
 at night. 
 
 ' On the following morning the railway was opened for public 
 traffic. The first train, of one hundred and forty passengers, 
 was booked and sent on to Manchester, reaching it in the 
 allotted time of two hours ; and from that time the traffic has 
 regularly proceeded from day to day until now.' 
 
 Mr. Huskisson, who was fated to be the first person who lost 
 his life by accident on the English railways, lingered for some 
 hours in the Vicarage of Eccles suffering great agony. He was 
 remarkably composed, however, and exhibited extraordinary 
 firmness of mind. The doctors present decided that it was impos- 
 sible to venture upon the amputation of the crushed limb. In 
 the course of the evening the patient expired, having shown all 
 through the most unshrinking fortitude and Christian resigna- 
 tion. On the following day an inquest was held, when a ver- 
 dict of ' Accidental death ' was returned. The remains of the 
 distinguished statesman were laid to rest in the new burial- 
 ground at Liverpool on the 24th of September, the funeral 
 ceremony being of a most imposing character. 
 
 The railway proved completely and speedily successful. 
 
40 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Besides its enormous goods traffic, it began almost at once to 
 carry 1,200 passengers daily, and in five years from the open- 
 it carried nearly 500,000 persons annually. 
 
 I must now recur for a time to Robert Stephenson, whom I 
 have long kept waiting. Although only a young man, he had 
 gained great experience, both of a scientific and general cha- 
 racter, in the locomotive manufactory, when the prospect of a 
 new career suddenly opened up before him. A company was set 
 on foot under the title of the Colombian Mining Association, 
 which proposed to recommence working the disused gold and 
 silver mines of Spanish America. One of its chief projectors 
 was Mr. Thomas Richardson, a partner in Robert Stephenson & 
 Co., and the founder of the famous discount house of Richard- 
 son, Overend, & Gurney. It was expected that the firm of 
 Stephenson & Co. would receive large orders from the Associa- 
 tion for engines and iron goods, and George Stephenson was 
 appointed to select miners, artisans, inspectors, and imple- 
 ments. The Directors sounded his son Robert as to whether 
 he would like to go out with the expedition as engineer, and he 
 was delighted with the project. He was to receive an annual 
 salary of ^500, with allowances for travelling expenses. Robert 
 was the more ready to go out to Colombia as he was threatened 
 with serious pulmonary disease, and the climate would, in all 
 likelihood, prove beneficial to him. Before leaving England he 
 went down into Cornwall, and made a careful investigation of 
 the mining industry of that district in all its branches. Then, 
 having formally accepted the post of engineer-in-chief to the 
 Colombian Mining Association, he went to London to pur- 
 chase stores and implements and to engage workmen for the 
 expedition. In June, 1824, he set sail from England, but 
 before doing so he wrote an affectionate letter to his mother, 
 explaining that he had directed Messrs. Herring, Graham, & 
 Powles to pay ,300 per annum that is three-fifths of his 
 salary to his father. On July 23rd he landed off La Guayra, 
 on the Colombian coast. The principal mines of the Colom- 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 41 
 
 bian Association were situated near Mariquita, and he reached 
 this ill-starred city towards the close of January, 1825. He 
 then had twelve miles to go to the mines. By the following 
 October sufficient miners had been collected to begin extensive 
 operations, but a band of Cornish miners who arrived on the 
 scene caused great trouble by their excesses. He was also 
 called upon to quell riots and disturbances which broke out. 
 Then a short acquaintance with the country convinced him 
 that he was at the head of an enterprise projected by visionary 
 speculators, while the factory at home was suffering from his 
 absence. But feeling bound in honour to stay at the mines, he 
 resolved to fulfil the stipulated period of three years unless he 
 could obtain a release from his engagement. Mr. Jeaffreson 
 states that 'from Dec. 30, 1824, to Dec. 31, 1827, the entire 
 expenditure of the Colombian Mining Association had been 
 little short of ^"200,000. A large portion of this sum had 
 been wasted by maladministration in London, but the great 
 operations carried on with the remainder had been directed by 
 Robert Stephenson a mere boy, between twenty-one and 
 twenty-four years of age. And for everything in which he could 
 be individually held accountable the expedition had been suc- 
 cessful. Had he worked the mines, as the Spaniards worked 
 them, with the cheap labour of slaves, they would have yielded 
 as much profit as preceding engineers had extracted from them. 
 As it was, on bidding official farewell to the Directors, he was 
 in a position to tell them that their property, under economical 
 management, and with the agency of proper machinery, could 
 be made to pay them a handsome, though not an enormous, 
 dividend.' 
 
 At Carthagena, on the return journey to England, Stephenson 
 encountered Trevithick the inventor half-starved, but self-re- 
 liant, daring, and burning as ever for knowledge. They voyaged 
 together to New York, and were nearly lost during a storm at sea; 
 but, eventually they found themselves in New York, minus their 
 luggage, and with little money. Here they parted and Stephenson 
 
42 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 visited Canada. Stephenson stated after his return to England 
 that what he had seen of licence and venality in Colombia made 
 him a more pronounced Conservative than ever, and a strong 
 supporter of vigorous monarchical government. But he had 
 gained a great variety of experience in other ways, and when 
 his father welcomed him at Liverpool in November, 1827, the 
 raw Northumbrian youth had been transformed into a travelled 
 polished gentleman. 
 
 Robert Stephenson soon became immersed in the business 
 of his firm, but he had also time for other things, and he 
 became engaged to Miss Fanny Sanderson, the daughter of a 
 gentleman of good repute in the City of London. The young 
 couple were quite in love with each other, and, though neither 
 could lay claim to wealth, they were married in the parish church 
 of Bishopsgate on June lyth, 1829. Those who knew the many 
 admirable qualities of his wife said that Stephenson had made a 
 wise and happy selection. After a brief wedding-trip Stephen- 
 son and his bride settled down in their new home, Greenfield 
 Place, Newcastle, though it was destined to be not for long. 
 
 Robert Stephenson soon began to make a position for him- 
 self. The Canterbury and Whitstable line, constructed under 
 his supervision, was opened in the spring of 1830 ; and the 
 same year saw the Bill for the Warrington Railway safe through 
 both Houses of Parliament. He immediately began to con- 
 struct this line as engineer-in-chief. Other projects were in the 
 air, and there was plenty of work for the locomotive factory of 
 Robert Stephenson & Co. The young engineer was next given 
 the charge of the projected line from Leicester to Swannington. 
 While the railway was in progress he came to the conclusion 
 that there were seams of coal under the Snibston Estate, and, 
 as the estate was for sale, he explained his views to his father, 
 who prevailed upon two friends to join him in purchasing it. 
 Robert's foresight was rewarded; for, after great labour, the 
 coal was found at a depth of two hundred yards, and the ven- 
 ture proved most lucrative. By the opening of the Leicester 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 43 
 
 and Swannington Railway the price of coals in Leicester fell 
 nearly forty per cent., and the town was saved about ^40,000 
 a year. 
 
 Great improvements in the locomotive engine were effected 
 both by George Stephenson and his son after the public open- 
 ing of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Power, speed, 
 economy, and regularity were the objects they always had in 
 view. It is pointed out that in the Planet engine, delivered 
 on the Liverpool line soon after its inauguration, all the im- 
 provements which had up to this time been contrived by the 
 two Stephensons ' were introduced in combination the blast- 
 pipe, the tubular boiler, horizontal cylinders inside the smoke- 
 box, the cranked axle, and the fire-box firmly fixed to the 
 boiler. The first load of goods conveyed from Liverpool to 
 Manchester by the Planet was eighty tons in weight, and 
 the engine performed the journey against a strong head-wind 
 in two hours and a half. On another occasion, the same 
 engine brought up a cargo of voters from Manchester to 
 Liverpool, during a contested election, within a space of sixty 
 minutes. The Samson, delivered in the following year, ex- 
 hibited still further improvements, the most important of which 
 was that of coupling the fore and hind wheels of the engine. 
 By this means, the adhesion of the wheels on the rails was 
 more effectually secured, and thus the full hauling power of the 
 locomotive was made available. The Samson, shortly after it 
 was placed upon the line, dragged after it a train of waggons 
 weighing a hundred and fifty tons, at a speed of about twenty 
 miles an hour ; the consumption of coke being reduced to 
 only about a third of a pound per ton per mile.' 
 
 Owing to the success of the Stockton and Darlington Rail- 
 way, the triumph of the locomotive, and the approaching com- 
 pletion of the Liverpool and Manchester line, in 1830 an old 
 project was revived for a railway between London and Bir- 
 mingham. George and Robert Stephenson were employed as 
 engineers to make the surveys and plans and to carry the line 
 
44 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 through Parliament. It was Robert, however, who made the 
 surveys ; and when the Bill was obtained he was appointed 
 engineer-in-chief to the line. The railway was constructed by 
 Robert Stephenson alone, and to him must be awarded the 
 praise for having overcome obstacles apparently insurmountable. 
 Not only was opposition shown by all classes and by the press, 
 but scientific authorities affirmed that the line could not answer. 
 After a severe struggle, the Bill passed the Commons in 1832, 
 but it was lost in the Lords. Robert Stephenson was so cha- 
 grined at its rejection that Lord Wharncliffe, the Chairman of 
 the Committee, took him aside, and said, with much kindness, 
 ' My young friend, don't take this to heart. The decision is 
 against you ; but you have made such a display of power that 
 your fortune is made for life.'' The recollection of these sym- 
 pathetic words often cheered the engineer in his later years. 
 Powerful supporters soon came forward on behalf of the pro- 
 jected London and Birmingham Railway, and in the Session 
 of 1833 after a third survey of the line by Robert Stephen- 
 son a Bill was obtained authorising the formation of the 
 line. The total cost of carrying the Bill through Parliament 
 amounted to no less than ,72,868, and the compensation paid 
 to landowners which was originally estimated at ^250,000 
 actually reached the enormous sum of ^7 50,000. 
 
 On becoming engineer-in-chief to the London and Bir- 
 mingham Railway, Robert Stephenson left Newcastle, and re- 
 moved, with his wife, to a house on Haverstock Hill, London, 
 which they continued to inhabit for many years. As it has 
 been justly pointed out, Robert Stephenson had now under- 
 taken a stupendous task, for, up to 1833, no railway of similar 
 magnitude had been attempted. Compared with this new line 
 from London to Birmingham, that from Liverpool to Man- 
 chester was a trifling work. The latter was little more than a 
 quarter of the length of the new road, and its most important 
 works could not vie for a moment with the Kilsby tunnel, the 
 Blisworth cutting, and the Wolverton embankment and viaduct. 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 45 
 
 The engineer was by no means a strong man, and the prospect 
 before him must have caused him much solicitude. It was 
 stipulated that the 112 miles of the proposed railway between 
 Camden Town and Birmingham were to be completed within 
 four or five years. There were no great contractors in those 
 days, so that the line was divided into sections, for each of 
 which one contractor, or firm of contractors, was responsible. 
 Stephenson made the most perfect and minute plans of every 
 portion of the line, and he had to keep an exact account of every 
 portion of the work done. Fortunately, he had able assistants, 
 and reserving for his own special supervision a district of nine 
 miles from Maiden Lane, Camden Town, he divided the remain- 
 ing 103 miles into four districts, each district having an assistant 
 engineer to superintend it, and each assistant engineer being 
 supported by a staff of three sub-assistants. 
 
 The chief contracts originally entered into viz., those for 
 the tunnel at Primrose Hill, the Kilsby tunnel, and the Blis- 
 worth cutting were returned to the hands of the Company 
 unfinished, and the works were perfected by the Company 
 without the intervention of contractors. The brickwork of 
 the Primrose Hill tunnel was eventually made so much 
 higher than the first estimate, that the total cost of the tunnel 
 was ,280,000 instead of ,120,000. The Blisworth excava- 
 tions were to have displaced 800,000 cubic yards of earth and 
 stone, but they were not finished till nearly 1,000,000 cubic 
 yards had been removed. Some 700 or 800 men were 
 continually employed, and there was a weekly consumption of 
 2,500 Ib. of gunpowder. Many disasters attended the forma- 
 tion of the Wolverton embankment, and litigation had to be 
 resorted to against the interference of the Grand Junction 
 Canal Company, before the work could be completed. But 
 the most difficult and costly undertaking of all was the Kilsby 
 tunnel, about six miles from Rugby. Stephenson's original 
 plan was to construct the line by way of Northampton through 
 Rugby, but the foolish people of Northampton successfully 
 
 
46 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 opposed this. At a later period, when their folly was made 
 manifest, they petitioned for a line, and obtained it. But as 
 the result of their original action, Stephenson was compelled 
 to bore a way through the Kilsby ridge at the enormous cost of 
 ,320,000. The tunnel constructed was 2, 400 yards in length ; 
 36,000,000 bricks were used in its formation ; and at one 
 time 1,250 labourers were employed upon the tunnel. Dr. 
 Arnold, of Rugby, prophesied that the cutting of the tunnel 
 would give great trouble, and his forecast was justified. The 
 men were frequently in danger through the irruption of water 
 and the discovery of quicksands, and the works were again and 
 again seriously obstructed. However, all difficulties were at 
 length overcome. The Directors of the Company obtained a 
 supplementary Act of Parliament, allowing them to extend 
 their line in London to Euston Square, which became the 
 terminus. On account of the steep ascent from Euston to 
 Camden Town, that portion of the railway was for some years 
 worked by ropes and stationary engines, which involved an 
 outlay of 25,000. The trains were drawn up the incline at 
 the rate of twenty miles an hour by an apparatus consisting of 
 10,000 feet of rope six inches in circumference and two 
 stationary engines. This continued until 1844, when locomo- 
 tives were first employed for the work. 
 
 The first sod of the London and Birmingham Railway was 
 cut at Chalk Farm, on June i, 1834, and the line was opened 
 to the public on September 15, 1838. Throughout those four 
 years, Robert Stephenson's army of workmen numbered on the 
 average 12,000, or rather over 107 men to each mile. Lieu- 
 tenant Lecount, R.N., one of the assistant engineers of the 
 line, and ' the historian of the works,' says with regard to the 
 labours of the 12,000 workmen : 
 
 * The Great Pyramid of Egypt, that stupendous monument 
 which seems likely to exist to the end of all time, will afford a 
 comparison. After making the necessary allowances for the 
 foundations, galleries, etc., and reducing the whole to one uni- 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 47 
 
 form denomination, it will be found that the labour expended 
 on the great pyramid was equivalent to lifting fifteen thousand 
 seven hundred and sixty-three million cubic feet of stone one 
 foot high. This labour was performed, according to Diodorus 
 Siculus, by three hundred thousand, and according to Hero- 
 dotus, by one hundred thousand, men, and it required for its 
 execution twenty years. If we reduce in the same manner the 
 labour expended in constructing the London and Birmingham 
 Railway to one common denomination, the result is twenty-five 
 thousand million cubic feet of material (reduced to the same 
 weight as that used in constructing the pyramid) lifted one foot 
 high, or nine thousand two hundred and sixty-seven million 
 cubic feet more than were lifted one foot high in the construc- 
 tion of the pyramid. Yet this immense undertaking has been 
 performed by about twenty thousand men in less than five 
 years.' 
 
 The successful completion of the London and Birmingham 
 line was celebrated in the way immemorial with Englishmen, 
 namely by a dinner, held after a run along the line, and a 
 second banquet was given to Stephenson at Dunchurch in War- 
 wickshire, when the acting and assistant engineers presented 
 the engineer-in-chief with a silver soup-tureen and stand worth 
 130 guineas, as an expression of their affectionate admiration. 
 Robert Stephenson maintained his connection with the railway 
 up to the time of his death, acting as its consulting engineer 
 with a salary of ,100 per annum, and his expenses when called 
 to attend on the line. ' It was the first of our great Metro- 
 politan railroads,' observes Mr. Jeaffreson, ' and its works are 
 memorable examples of engineering capacity. They became a 
 guide to succeeding engineers ; as also did the plans and draw- 
 ings with which the details of the undertaking were plotted in 
 the Eyre Arms Hotel, St. John's Wood. When Brunei entered 
 upon the construction of the Great Western line he borrowed 
 Robert Stephenson's plans, and used them as the best possible 
 system of draughting. From that time they became recognised 
 
48 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY 
 
 models for railway practice. To have originated such plans 
 and forms, thereby settling an important division of engineer- 
 ing literature, would have made a position for an ordinary man. 
 In the list of Robert Stephenson's achievements such a service 
 appears so insignificant as scarcely to be worthy of note.' 
 
 One undertaking was a source of grave uneasiness to Robert 
 Stephenson, and it nearly brought him to pecuniary ruin. This 
 was the Stanhope and Tyne Railway, a line entered upon by 
 certain Durham speculators without duly considering the 
 nature of the country through which it passed. Stephenson 
 was appointed engineer, and he was to receive ,1,000 for his 
 remuneration. Instead of taking cash, he accepted ten shares 
 in the Company's stock. It was soon discovered that the line 
 could never pay, and as the Company was on the old unlimited 
 liability principle, calls were repeatedly made on the share- 
 holders. The consequence was, that instead of holding 
 1,000 worth of stock in a flourishing company, Stephenson 
 found that his shares were a perfect drug in the market, and 
 that they rendered him personally liable for an enormous sum 
 of money. After causing terrible anxiety and loss to Stephenson, 
 the Company was eventually dissolved, and a new one formed 
 on a more satisfactory basis. We learn that for speculation of 
 all sorts Stephenson had a decided repugnance, believing that 
 a high rate of interest was only another name for bad security. 
 He took a keen delight in horse-racing, but he was never known 
 to bet at Epsom or Ascot. 
 
 Railway projects were as thick as blackberries between 1830 
 and 1840. Mr. Francis Giles undertook the line between 
 London and Southampton ; the younger Brunei the Great 
 Western line from London to Bristol ; and Mr. John Braith- 
 waite that from London to Colchester. As for George 
 Stephenson, he was overwhelmed with projects. In the three 
 years ending with 1837, he was principal engineer on the North 
 Midland, York and North Midland, Manchester and Leeds, 
 Birmingham and Derby, and Sheffield and Rotherham Railways. 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 49 
 
 During the year 1836 alone, 214 miles of railway were put under 
 his direction, involving a capital of ^5, 000,000 ; and he would 
 sometimes dictate reports and letters for twelve continuous 
 hours. As a central spot of action, he made his home at 
 Alton Grange, near Leicester, while occupied in carrying out 
 the vast network of railways which soon stretched over the 
 country. The Grand Junction Railway, projected by George 
 Stephenson, but executed by Joseph Locke, had already con- 
 nected the Liverpool and Manchester line with the London 
 and Birmingham line, thus establishing a communication be- 
 tween Liverpool, Manchester, and London. Robert Stephenson 
 was the acting engineer for the North Midland line, but he was 
 obliged to suspend his work there and cross over to the Conti- 
 nent. He was called upon to superintend the lines from Ostend 
 to Liege and from Antwerp to Mons ; and he was also invited 
 to visit France, Switzerland, and Italy, to advise on lines con- 
 templated in those countries. On returning to England in 
 July, 1839, he resumed all his arduous duties, flying about 
 from town to town, and attending at intervals before Parlia- 
 mentary committees. He likewise acted as arbitrator in dis- 
 putes between contractors and companies, and so highly 
 esteemed were his services in this capacity that a number of 
 gentlemen invited him to a banquet at the Albion Hotel, 
 Aldersgate Street, London, and presented him with a service 
 of plate valued at ^1,250. 
 
 Some entertaining facts are given by the biographers of the 
 Stephensons in connection with the North Midland line. The 
 Littleborough tunnel, for example, was a giant undertaking. 
 More than a thousand men were engaged for nearly four years 
 in its construction. The arch was excavated out of the solid 
 rock, and 23,000,000 of bricks and 8,000 tons of Roman 
 cement were used in the building of the tunnel. Thirteen 
 stationary engines and about 100 horses were employed in 
 drawing the earth and stone out of the shafts. The entire 
 length of the tunnel was 2,869 yards, or nearly a mile and 
 
 E 
 
50 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 three-quarters thus exceeding the Kilsby tunnel by 471 
 yards. Dr. Smiles notes that the Midland Railway was a 
 favourite line of George Stephenson's, and, although it 'was 
 only one of the many great works of the same kind executed 
 at that time, it was almost enough of itself to be the achieve- 
 ment of a life. Compare it, for example, with Napoleon's 
 military road over the Simplon, and it will at once be seen 
 how greatly it excels that work, not only in the constructive 
 skill displayed in it, but also in its cost and magnitude, and 
 the amount of labour employed in its formation. The road of 
 the Simplon is 45 miles in length ; the North Midland Rail- 
 way 72*^ miles. The former has 50 bridges and 5 tunnels, 
 measuring together 1,338 feet in length ; the latter has 200 
 bridges and 7 tunnels, measuring together 11,400 feet, or 
 about 2^ miles. The former cost about ^7 2 0,000 sterling, 
 the latter above ^3,000,000. Napoleon's grand military road 
 was constructed In six years, at the public cost of the two 
 great kingdoms of France and Italy ; while Stephenson's rail- 
 way was formed in about three years, by a company of private 
 merchants and capitalists out of their own funds, and under 
 their own superintendence.' 
 
 It is stated that during the three busiest years of George 
 Stephenson's life he travelled by post-chaise alone upwards of 
 20,000 miles, and yet not less than six months out of the 
 three years were spent in London. Then, his correspondence 
 was such that he had little leisure left for himself. But in the 
 midst of all this absorbing business he preserved a youthful 
 spirit, and he would steal some time for his old recreations. 
 He would take a day's rest now and then for birds'-nesting, 
 gardening, or nutting at Alton Grange, or at his country seat, 
 Tapton House, near Chesterfield. There he kept his favourite 
 old pony, 'Bobby,' who died at upwards of twenty years old. 
 Here is a pathetic little story related by Dr. Smiles : 
 
 * During one of George's brief sojourns at the Grange, he 
 found time to write to his son a touching account of a pair 
 
THE STEPHENSON^ 51 
 
 of robins that had built their nest within one of the empty 
 upper chambers of the house. One day he observed a robin 
 fluttering outside the windows, and beating its wings against 
 the panes, as if eager to gain admission. He went upstairs, 
 and there found, in a retired part of one of the rooms, a robin's 
 nest, with one of the parent birds sitting over three or four 
 young all dead. The excluded bird outside still beat against 
 the panes; and on the window being let down, it flew into 
 . the room, but was so exhausted that it dropped upon the 
 floor. Stephenson took up the bird, carried it downstairs, and 
 had it warmed and fed. The poor robin revived, and for 
 a time was one of his pets. But it shortly died too, as if 
 unable to recover from the privations it had endured during 
 its three days' fluttering and beating at the windows. It 
 appeared that the room had been unoccupied, and the sash 
 having been let down, the robins had taken the opportunity 01 
 building their nest within it ; but the servant having closed 
 the window again, the calamity befell the birds which so 
 strongly excited the engineer's sympathies. An incident such 
 as this, trifling though it may seem, gives a true key ta the 
 heart of a man.' 
 
 King Leopold of Belgium summoned the Stephensons to 
 Brussels in May, 1835, to advise him as to the construction of 
 a complete system of railways for his kingdom. On that 
 occasion the elder engineer was awarded the decoration of the 
 Order of Leopold. Two years later they again visited Belgium, 
 to attend the opening of the railway between Brussels and 
 Ghent; and in 1841 the King conferred on Robert Stephenson 
 the same distinction that he had conferred on his father. 
 Between 1835 and 1837 the younger Stephenson was engaged 
 in many railway projects. It is curious that Robert Stephenson 
 concurred with his father in giving emphatic testimony as to 
 the hazard of setting fire to towns by driving steam-carriages 
 through them. Although, as Mr. Jeafifreson remarks, there is 
 danger of fire from passing locomotives, the fears indulged by 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the Stephensons were excessive. ' At the present date, when 
 the ropes and stationary engines with which the Blackwall 
 line was long worked have been for years discontinued, and 
 when locomotives are shooting to and fro through every quar- 
 ter of London at every variety of distance above the level 
 of the streets, and passing through every description of pro- 
 perty, a person of the humblest intelligence would smile at an 
 assurance that London ran any risk of being destroyed by 
 sparks thrown out from the chimneys of locomotives. That 
 the Stephensons so miscalculated on a point relating to the 
 locomotive, is a matter worthy of reflection ; that their error 
 was on the side of caution^ is a fact that illustrates one of their 
 principal characteristics, and points to the cause of a large 
 part of their success.' 
 
 In 1837, Robert Stephenson made arrangements with Pro- 
 fessor Wheatstone for the use of the electric telegraph from 
 Euston to Camden Town ; and the London and Birmingham 
 line thus gave the first successful exhibition of the working 
 of Wheatstone and Cooke's marvellous invention. 
 
 Some idea of the ramifications of English railway enterprise 
 may be gained from the statement that before the year 1840 
 dawned 321 miles of railway exclusive of the London and 
 Birmingham line had been constructed under George Stephen- 
 son's superintendence, at a cost of upwards of ;i 1,000,000. 
 After a time, railways came to be regarded as great blessings, 
 and even Colonel Sibthorp, who had once described them as 
 1 infernal,' was obliged to recognise their utility. Dr. Arnold 
 regarded the London and Birmingham line as a great step 
 accomplished in the march of civilisation. ' I rejoice to see 
 it,' he exclaimed, ' and to think that feudality is gone for ever : 
 it is so great a blessing to think that any one evil is really 
 extinct.' Yet the Duke of Wellington would not trust him- 
 self behind a locomotive again, after the opening of the 
 Liverpool line, until the year 1843, when he took his first 
 trip by the South-Western Railway in attendance upon the 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 53 
 
 Queen. The Prince Consort had long travelled alone by 
 rail, and in 1842 Her Majesty began to use the same mode of 
 conveyance in her journeys between Windsor and London. 
 
 Robert Stephenson's railway projects in the North were 
 carried on with vigour between 1841 and 1844. Five miles of 
 the disastrous Stanhope and Tyne line now known as the 
 Pontop and Shields Railway were made into a connecting- 
 link between the Durham Junction Railway and the Brandling 
 .Junction Railway, and were used for conveying passengers 
 between Newcastle, Gateshead, South Shields, Sunderland, and 
 other important towns. These five miles became a part of 
 the Great North of England Railway, which was to unite 
 Newcastle with London and the South. George Hudson, 
 afterwards known as the ' Railway King ' whose fall was as 
 sudden and dramatic as his rise was appointed Chairman 
 of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction line, and Robert 
 Stephenson became its engineer. 'To connect London 
 and Newcastle by railway communication had long been a 
 favourite object of Robert Stephenson's ambition, and now 
 he was called upon to construct the last link of the chain.' 
 
 While he was busy upon this task, the engineer was fated 
 to endure the heaviest calamity of his life. On the 4th of 
 October, 1842, Mrs. Stephenson died of malignant cancer, 
 and the sorrowing husband made this entry in his diary : ' My 
 dear Fanny died this morning at five o'clock. God grant that 
 I may close my life as she has done, in the true faith, and in 
 charity with all men. Her last moments were perfect calm- 
 ness.' Robert Stephenson had no child even to cheer him in 
 his loneliness, for it had been the one sorrow in the lives of 
 the otherwise happy couple that they were childless. Work 
 was his only resource, and he turned to this with redoubled 
 energy. The line in which he was deeply interested, the 
 Newcastle and Darlington Junction the link between the 
 North of England and the Metropolis was duly completed 
 and opened with great rejoicings on the i8th of June, 1844. 
 
54 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 A banquet was given in the Town Hall, Newcastle, at which 
 George Hudson and John Bright, among many others, were 
 present, and, in addition to the health of Robert Stephenson, 
 that of George Stephenson was proposed as ' the father of the 
 railway system,' both toasts being most enthusiastically received. 
 
 After his wife's death, Robert Stephenson could no longer 
 bear the house at Haverstock Hill, so he removed to one in 
 Cambridge Square, Hyde Park. As regards his labours, we 
 have now come to the parting of the ways. Mr. Jeaffreson well 
 says with regard to this matter: 'The year 1844 is a con- 
 spicuous landmark in the career of Robert Stephenson. For 
 twenty years he had been at work without intermission, and 
 as the result of his exertions he found himself, while he was 
 still only forty years of age, in the first rank of his profession. 
 Had he, however, died then, he would have left nothing to 
 which history could point as the monument of original and 
 distinctive genius. He had raised the locomotive by a series 
 of beautiful improvements from the ill-proportioned and in- 
 effective machine of 1828 almost to its present perfection of 
 mechanism. He had, in conjunction with his father, so fixed 
 the English railway system in continental countries, that 
 throughout Europe his name was identified with the new 
 means of locomotion. His engineering achievements were 
 beyond all cavil works of great ability but not of distinctive 
 genius. Hitherto he had, in the manner of a master, carried 
 out the principles and developed the conceptions of previous 
 teachers, of whom his father was the most important. The 
 time, however, was now come for him to take a higher posi- 
 tion, and accomplish works altogether without precedent. 
 
 ' The next six years of Robert Stephenson's life years 
 memorable in the annals of social folly, crime, and suffering 
 witnessed the exertions by which his influence and name will 
 reach future generations. They saw the atmospheric contest, 
 the battle of the gauges, the construction of the tubular 
 bridge, and the completion of the High Level Bridge. 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 55 
 
 ' It is impossible to record the labours of the engineer 
 during the interval between the opening of 1844 and the 
 close of 1850 without contrasting them with the intrigues of 
 adventurers who regarded railway enterprise as gamesters re- 
 gard a gambling-table. The triumph of these adventurers was 
 brief. Just as the worker reached the fulness of his fame 
 the chief speculator dropped from his eminence, to be scouted 
 by those who had fawned on him in prosperity, and to be de- 
 spoiled by those whom he had benefited even more than by 
 those whom he had wronged.' 
 
 There was great fluctuation in the number of Parliamentary 
 schemes for new railways between 1825 and 1846. The 
 Stockton and Darlington line having inspired public confidence, 
 in 1826 ten schemes were introduced; but in consequence of 
 the commercial panic of that year there was only one Bill in 
 the Session of 1827. In 1828 there were five schemes,, and the 
 number went on increasing annually until 1836, when there 
 were 29. Then the railway speculation mania suffered a 
 temporary decline, and the number of Bills fell until 1840, 
 when there was not one. Construction began again in 1842 ; 
 and in 1844 Bills were passed authorising 48 new lines, extend- 
 ing over 700 miles, at an estimated cost of ^14,793,994. In 
 1845 there were 120 new lines, measuring 2,883 miles, with an 
 expenditure of ^43,844,907. But in view of the Session of 
 1846, by the 3oth of November in 1845 the latest date on 
 which the Board of Trade would receive plans for new railways 
 there had been lodged 1,263 Bills, with plans and sections 
 for new railways, representing a capital of ^563, 000,000, and 
 requiring the deposit of a total sum of ^59,000,000. The 
 amount required for payment of the deposit exceeded by more 
 than ^20,000,000 the whole amount of gold and coin in the 
 Bank of England, and notes in circulation. As soon as these 
 figures were published there was a great revulsion of public 
 feeling, and of the 1,263 companies promoted only 120 survived 
 the ordeal of Parliament. It was now that the great railway 
 
56 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 panic occurred, with its concomitant evils of bubble companies 
 and corrupt practices. When the frenzy was at its height, 
 Robert Stephenson and George P. Bidder received one 
 morning cheques from various companies amounting to more 
 than ;i,ooo. They at once returned them, intimating that 
 their evidence was not to be bought and sold ; and other 
 honourable engineers behaved in the same way. Before leaving 
 this subject of the railways of Great Britain, it may be stated 
 that in 1875 when the jubilee of the railway system was 
 celebrated there were 16,449 miles of railway in the 
 United Kingdom, representing a capital cost of ^"600,895,000, 
 and producing from traffic a revenue of ^56,898,000, of 
 which ^"24,893,000 was received from passenger fares, and 
 ^32,005,000 from the conveyance of goods and minerals. At 
 the close of the year 1890 there were 20,073 miles of railway 
 open for traffic. The authorised capital for the construction 
 of railways was ^1,004,529,164, being nearly double the whole 
 amount of the 2^ per cent. British Consols. The total 
 receipts of these railways were ^79,948,000, which was only 
 ; 1 0,000,000 less than the actual receipts paid into the 
 National Exchequer from all sources of revenue for that 
 year. 
 
 Robert Stephenson made a series of careful investigations 
 into the system of atmospheric pressure as a propelling force. 
 He showed the defects of the system in certain classes of work- 
 ing, though he admitted that it was capable of being applied to 
 somewhat steeper gradients than the locomotive system, and 
 that on such gradients a greater speed might be maintained 
 than with locomotive engines. But on lines of railway where 
 moderate gradients were attainable at a reasonable expense, he 
 held the locomotive engine to be decidedly superior, both as 
 regarded power and speed, to any results developed or likely 
 to be developed by the atmospheric system. As to the 
 cost of the atmospheric system, taking as an example the 
 London and Birmingham Railway, with its in miles, he 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 57 
 
 demonstrated that the cost of the atmospheric apparatus would 
 amount to ^1,221,000, whereas the capital expended on loco- 
 motives and all their contingent outlay was only ^321,000 
 making a difference of ,900,000 against the atmospheric 
 system. With regard to the cost of working, taking the Lon- 
 don and Birmingham line again as an example, Mr. Stephenson 
 was of opinion that the expense would be greater by the atmos- 
 pheric than the locomotive system in the proportion of 7 4,000 
 -to ,64,000 per annum. From the point of view of certainty 
 of action, the locomotive possessed even greater advantages 
 still. Yet many engineers were in favour of the atmospheric 
 system, and a Committee of the House of Commons reported 
 favourably upon it in 1845. Several railways were worked by 
 it, but in course of time the objections urged by Stephenson 
 began to prevail, and eventually the system was abandoned, 
 chiefly on the grounds of its inflexibility, its inconvenience, its 
 want of adaptability, and its expense. 
 
 Another question of great interest which arose was the 
 dispute between the respective advocates of the narrow gauge 
 and the broad gauge system. On all the lines built by the 
 Stephensons, and indeed by most other leading engineers, the 
 narrow gauge of 4 feet 8)4 inches was adopted; but in 1838 
 Brunei, desirous of obtaining double the attained speed and 
 capacity, determined upon a 7 feet gauge for the Great Western 
 Railway. This led to the famous battle of the gauges. In 
 consequence of the serious difficulties arising from breaks of 
 gauge, the matter was eventually investigated by a Gauge Com- 
 mission appointed for the purpose, and Robert Stephen son's 
 evidence on behalf of the narrow gauge had great effect. In 
 favour of the narrow gauge were thirty of the best engineers 
 and railway authorities in the kingdom, including Bidder, 
 Braithwaite, Hawkshaw, Hudson, Huish, Locke, Stephenson, 
 Whitaker, and Wood. In favour of the broad gauge there 
 were only Brunei and three others, all connected with the 
 Great Western Railway. The Commissioners reported in 
 
58 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 favour of the narrow gauge, and in August, 1846, an Act was 
 passed making it unlawful in future to construct any railway 
 for the conveyance of passengers on any gauge other than 
 4 feet 8^ inches for Great Britain and 5 feet 3 inches for 
 Ireland. The Great Western continued to use the broad 
 gauge, but rinding the difficulties of the system press upon 
 them, in 1869 the Directors began gradually to discontinue 
 the system, and on the 2oth of May, 1892, the broad gauge 
 was abolished altogether. 
 
 Some further passages in George Stephenson's career now 
 demand attention, as well as his enlightened views on the 
 development of England's prosperity. He perceived that the 
 strength of Britain lay in her coal and iron beds, and that the 
 locomotive was destined above all other agencies to bring those 
 treasures forth and convey them to the required destination. 
 He was the first to point out the practicability of establishing a 
 profitable coal trade by railway between the northern counties 
 and the Metropolis. But, even before this was achieved, he 
 desired to see an effective passenger service. With the aid of 
 friends he established collieries and lime-works in various 
 places, thus finding labour for thousands of workmen. He 
 supported Mechanics' Institutes as a great benefit to those who 
 in youth had been deprived of education, and he took the 
 principal part in founding one of these institutes at Newcastle. 
 When the British Association met at Newcastle in 1838, a 
 gratifying tribute was paid to him as one who had achieved an 
 almost world-wide reputation as a public benefactor. 
 
 Stephenson matured his invention of the carriage-brake, and 
 when he was examined before the Select Committee on Rail- 
 ways in 1841, he expressed his conviction that if self-acting 
 brakes were put upon every carriage, scarcely any accident 
 could take place. He regarded this brake, indeed, as the 
 most important arrangement that could be provided for in- 
 creasing the safety of railway travelling. Stej henson was not 
 in favour of too great a velocity of speed, which he thought a 
 
THE STEPffENSONS. 59 
 
 positive danger, and he held that no railway ought to exceed 
 forty miles an hour on the most favourable gradient. He had, 
 indeed, constructed for the Great Western Railway an engine 
 capable of running fifty miles an hour with a load, and eighty 
 miles without one, but he deprecated a hurricane speed of this 
 kind. There was a point, he urged, at which both rails and 
 tyres must break, and every increase of speed increased the 
 strain upon the road and the rolling stock. Fifty miles an hour 
 or more might be run with safety on a* level railway, but only 
 if perfect iron, perfect rails, and perfect locomotives could 
 be ensured. He further strongly opposed the theory that an 
 undulating railway was much better than a level one for pur- 
 poses of working, and his judgment proved correct. 
 
 When the railway mania was at its height, Robert Stephen- 
 son's offices in London were crowded every day with men of 
 all ranks and conditions, eager to strengthen their prospectuses 
 by the weight of his name or that of his father. But their 
 integrity was above reproach, and on no single occasion did a 
 bubble scheme ever receive their imprimatur. Neither father 
 nor son cared for money obtained without honour, or without 
 legitimate service. Before the mania of 1845-6 came to a 
 climax, George Stephenson warned the public against the pre- 
 valent disposition towards railway speculation, but the frenzy 
 unfortunately seized upon all classes of the community. 
 
 In the middle of September, 1845, George Stephenson left 
 England to visit Belgium and Spain, in connection with the 
 W r est Flanders Railway and the Royal North of Spain Railway. 
 The latter was to pass through Irun, St. Sebastian, St. Andero, 
 and Bilbao. Stephenson carefully surveyed the whole of the 
 proposed route, working from break of day until darkness 
 again set in, and frequently resting at night on the floor of 
 some miserable hovel. After being engaged in the district for 
 ten days he proceeded across the province of Old Castile 
 towards Madrid, surveying as he went. Finding that formid- 
 able tunnels and other expensive works would be necessary, 
 
60 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 he recommended that the line should be constructed from 
 Madrid to the Bay of Biscay. But Sir Joshua Walmsley, the 
 contractor, found his negotiations with the Spanish authorities 
 most unsatisfactory. Instead of giving him an answer, they 
 invited Walmsley and his friend Stephenson to a bull-fight, 
 which they politely declined. The railway project was ulti- 
 mately abandoned, owing to the engineer's unfavourable 
 opinion of its possibilities. 
 
 Stephenson's labours, and the privations he endured in 
 Spain, told severely upon his health, and on the return voyage 
 from Havre to Southampton pleurisy developed itself. From 
 this he gradually recovered after several weeks' rest at his 
 country seat, but he was never the same man again. During 
 the few years which yet remained to him, he practically with- 
 drew from the engineering profession, and although he still 
 gave some attention to his collieries and lime-works, his life for 
 the most part was that of a simple country gentleman. He 
 interested himself in fruit-growing and in cultivating exotics, 
 and he built extensive pineries, melon-houses, and vineries. 
 Farming operations, and the rearing of animals and birds, also 
 occupied his leisure. For books he cared little, as he had 
 always led an outdoor life, but he enjoyed conversation. When 
 he found intelligent auditors he delighted in 'fighting his battles 
 o'er again.' The marvels in creation and in science he always 
 revelled in, and he found keen enjoyment in the microscope. 
 He never forgot his humble origin, but took pleasure in the 
 society of his early companions, with whom he would dis- 
 cuss the old times and all their hard struggles. Sir Robert 
 Peel frequently invited him to Drayton Manor, but it was some 
 time before he could bring himself to accept an invitation. 
 Dr. Smiles gives the following amusing anecdote : 
 
 ' Stephenson's strong powers of observation, together with his 
 native humour and shrewdness, imparted to his conversation at 
 all times much vigour and originality. Though mainly an 
 engineer, he was also a profound thinker on many scientific 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 61 
 
 questions : and there was scarcely a subject of speculation, or 
 a department of recondite science, on which he had not em- 
 ployed his faculties in such a way as to have formed large and 
 original views. Mr. Sop with, F.R.S., has informed us that the 
 conversation at Drayton, on one occasion, turned on the theory 
 of the formation of coal, in the course of which Stephenson 
 had an animated discussion with Dr. Buckland. But the 
 result was, that Dr. Buckland, a much greater master of 
 tongue-fence, completely silenced him. Next morning, before 
 breakfast, when he was walking in the grounds deeply ponder- 
 ing, Sir William Follett came up and asked what he was 
 thinking about ? " Why, Sir William, I am thinking over that 
 argument I had with Buckland last night ! I know I am right, 
 and that if I had only the command of words which he has, 
 I'd have beaten him." " Let me know all about it," said Sir 
 William, " and I'll see what I can do for you ! " The two sat 
 down in an arbour, where the astute lawyer made himself 
 thoroughly acquainted with the points of the case; entering 
 into it with the zeal of an advocate about to plead the interests 
 of his client. After he had mastered the subject, Sir William 
 said, " Now I am ready for him." Sir Robert Peel was made 
 acquainted with the plot, and adroitly introduced the subject 
 of the controversy after dinner. The result was, that in the 
 argument which followed, the man of science was overcome by 
 the man of law. " And what do you say, Mr. Stephenson ? " 
 asked Sir Robert, laughing. " Why," said he, " I say this, that 
 of all the powers above and under the earth, there seems to me 
 to be no power so great as the gift of the gab." 
 
 In June, 1847, Stephenson was present at the opening of the 
 Trent Valley Railway, which was originally designed by himself, 
 and the first sod of which had been cut by the Prime Minister. 
 c What a change had come over the spirit of the landed gentry 
 since the time when George Stephenson had first projected a 
 railway through that district ! Then they were up in arms 
 against him, characterising him as the devastator and spoiler of 
 
62 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 their estates ; whereas now he was hailed as one of the greatest 
 benefactors of the age. Sir Robert Peel, the chief political per- 
 sonage in England, welcomed him as a guest and a friend, and 
 spoke of him as the chief among practical philosophers. A 
 dozen Members of Parliament, seven Baronets, with all the 
 landed magnates of the district, assembled to celebrate the 
 opening of the railway.' The clergy were there to bless the en- 
 terprise, which enabled them to carry on their religious opera- 
 tions with greater facility; the army, through one of its 
 Generals, acknowledged the vast importance of railways, as 
 tending to improve the military defences of the country ; and 
 the representatives of municipal bodies gratefully confessed 
 the immense benefits which railways conferred upon the inhabi- 
 tants of our towns and cities. George Stephenson married his 
 third wife, who was considerably younger than himself, in 
 January, 1848. In the spring of the same year, at the house 
 of his friend and former pupil, Mr. Swanwick, Stephenson met 
 Emerson, and so struck was that distinguished American with 
 his conversation and bearing, that he afterwards said 'it was 
 worth crossing the Atlantic were it only to have seen Stephen- 
 son he had such force of character and vigour of intellect.' 
 
 The last public appearance of George Stephenson was at a. 
 meeting of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Birming- 
 ham, July 26th, 1848, when he read a paper 'On the Fallacies 
 of the Rotatory Engine.' Soon after his return to Tapton he 
 was seized with intermittent fever. He was apparently recover- 
 ing from this, when a sudden effusion of blood from the lungs 
 proved fatal, and he expired on the i2th of August, 1848, in 
 his sixty-seventh year. His remains were laid to rest in Trinity 
 Church, Chesterfield, the body being followed to the grave by 
 a large number of his work-people, between whom and him- 
 self a deep sympathetic feeling ever existed. Their physical, 
 mental, and moral welfare had been with him a subject of con- 
 stant solicitude. A statue of Stephenson, commissioned by the 
 Liverpool and Manchester and Grand Junction Companies, 
 

 THE STEPHENSONS. 63 
 
 was placed in St George's Hall, Liverpool, and another full- 
 length statue of him, by Baily, was erected in the vestibule of 
 the London and North-Western station in Euston Square. The 
 movement for this statue was set on foot by the Society of 
 Mechanical Engineers, and the subscribers included 3,150 
 working-men, who were voluntary donors of two shillings each. 
 The best artistic tribute to George Stephenson, however, was 
 the statue erected at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1862, after the 
 design of John Lough. It was fitting, perhaps, that the noblest 
 monument to the great engineer should be raised in the vicinity 
 of his early struggles and triumphs. George Stephenson was a 
 type of the honest, kindly, shrewd, and capable Englishman 
 a man of the people, and one with all the instincts of the true 
 gentleman. 
 
 Again resuming the sketch of the labours of Robert Stephen- 
 son, it is to be noted that, contemporaneously with his triumph 
 over his rival Brunei with regard to the East Coast railway to 
 Scotland, he began his important work of constructing magnifi- 
 cent bridges. The Royal Border Bridge of Berwick was one 
 of his fine structures. The first two Stuart Kings had built a 
 bridge of fifteen arches across the Tweed at Berwick. It occu- 
 pied more than twenty- four years in building, and cost ^15,000, 
 which amount was paid out of the national resources. Now in 
 1844-7 Stephenson built a bridge for the railway company, at a 
 much higher level, with twenty-eight arches, the cost being 
 1 20,000. It was finished in three years and four months 
 from the laying of the foundation-stone. The total length of 
 the work was 2,160 feet, and each arch was 61 feet 6 inches in 
 span, the greatest height above the bed of the river being 126 
 feet. Another and still more important bridge in connection 
 with the East Coast route was the High Level Bridge over the 
 Tyne at Newcastle. This is regarded by many as the master- 
 work of Robert Stephenson, who had, as his co-designer, Mr. 
 T. E. Harrison. The idea for this bridge originated with R. 
 W. Brandling, an early friend of George Stephenson's, in 1841, 
 
64 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 and a prospectus of a High Level Bridge Company was issued 
 in 1843, with the names of Stephenson and George Hudson 
 attached, but nothing was done. Ultimately, the Newcastle 
 and Darlington Railway Company took up the project, and an 
 Act for the construction of the bridge was obtained in 1845. 
 The first pile was driven on the 6th of October, 1846, under 
 the direction of Robert Stephenson. The piles were driven by 
 Nasmyth's gigantic steam-hammer, this being one of the first 
 cases in which it was used. The total quantity of masonry in 
 the bridge when completed was 686,000 cubic feet, and the 
 weight of ironwork was 5,050 tons. The cost of the entire 
 work, including that of the temporary bridge, was ^243,000. 
 The breadth of the Tyne at the point of crossing is 515 feet, 
 but the length of the bridge and viaduct between the Gates- 
 head station and the terminus on the Newcastle side is about 
 4,000 feet. ' It springs from Pipewellgate Bank, on the south, 
 directly across to Castle Garth, where, nearly fronting the 
 bridge, stands the fine old Norman Keep of the New Castle, 
 now nearly 800 years old ; and a little beyond it is the spire of 
 St. Nicholas Church, with its light and graceful Gothic crown ; 
 the whole forming a grand architectural group of unusual 
 historic interest. The bridge is a unique structure in cast iron, 
 a fine example of the bow-string arch. It passes completely 
 over the roofs of the houses which fill both sides of the valley, 
 and the extraordinary height of the upper parapet, which is 
 about 130 feet above the bed of the river, offers a prospect to 
 the passing traveller the like of which perhaps is nowhere else 
 to be seen.' The arches of the bridge each of which is com- 
 plete and independent in itself are six in number, with a span 
 of 125 feet each; and the whole structure is unrivalled for 
 massive'solidity. The High Level Bridge was formally opened 
 by the Queen on the 1 5th of August, 1849 ; and in the follow- 
 ing year her Majesty inaugurated the extensive stone viaduct 
 across the Tweed, thus completing the last link in the continu- 
 ous line of railway between London and Edinburgh, 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 65 
 
 Stephenson's next magnificent undertakings were in connec- 
 tion with the Chester and Holyhead Railway. It was necessary 
 to cross the estuary of the Conway, and the Menai Strait ; and 
 the bridges proposed involved spans of 400 feet and upwards. 
 As cast-iron had been found unsuitable for bridges of very 
 large span, the question was raised of the sole employment of 
 wrought-iron. After much thought, Stephenson resolved upon 
 wrought-iron tubes for crossing the Conway River and the 
 Menai Strait in large spans, through which railway trains were 
 ' to be conducted. Sir William Fairbairn, who carried through 
 the preliminary experiments, discovered that rectangular tubes 
 had the advantage in point of strength, and a model beam was 
 therefore constructed to a scale of one-sixth of the proposed 
 bridge. This bore the test most satisfactorily, and showed that 
 the proposed tube could be made self-supporting over the 
 desired span of sixty feet. Upon this it was determined to 
 proceed with the erection of the colossal structure itself. Mr. 
 D. K. Clark, the civil engineer, in his article on ' Bridges ' in 
 Chambers^ Encyclopedia, gives the following interesting de- 
 scription of the Britannia Tubular Bridge, which is so called 
 because of the Britannia Rock on which the central pier 
 rests : 
 
 ' It consists of two independent continuous wrought-iron 
 tubular beams, 1,510 feet in length, weighing 4,680 tons each, 
 independent of the cast-iron frames inserted at their bearings 
 in the towers. They rest on two abutments and three towers 
 of masonry at a height of 100 feet above high water. The 
 middle, or Britannia tower, 230 feet high, is built on a rock in 
 the middle of the strait. The bridge is thus in four spans, of 
 which there are two spans of 460 feet over the water, and two 
 spans of 230 feet over the land. The weight of one of the 
 longer spans, single tube, is 1,587 tons, and that of one of the 
 shorter spans, 630 tons. The average weight of a single tube 
 is over three tons per lineal foot of advance. The chief mass 
 of the material is placed at the top and the bottom, repre- 
 
 F 
 
66 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 sented by the upper and lower flanges or tables of an ordinary 
 beam, the two sides serving to connect the top and the bottom. 
 Constructed of plate-iron, the top requires more metal than the 
 bottom, in order to resist the buckling stress to which it is sub- 
 ject. But, instead of putting the metal into one thick plate, 
 or into several plates laid one on another, it is constructed 
 to form a set of small tubes or cells, which give additional 
 stiffness and strength to the whole tube. The floor, in like 
 manner, contains cells. Each tube is straight on the lower 
 face, and slightly curved on the upper face, insomuch that the 
 height of the tube externally is 30 feet at the middle in the 
 Britannia Tower, and 26 feet internally, and 22 feet 9 inches 
 and 1 8 feet 9 inches at the extremities in the abutments. The 
 width of each tube externally is 14 feet 8 inches, and 13 feet 
 5 inches clear inside. The side plates are from \ inch to f 
 inch in thickness ; the top plates are from f inch to -f inch, for 
 resisting compression ; and the bottom plates are from -fa 
 inch to -f$ inch thick, for resisting extension. The tubes re- 
 pose solidly on the centre tower, but on the land towers and 
 abutments they repose on roller beds, thus permitting free ex- 
 pansion and contraction-, according to the temperature. The 
 daily variation of length is from ^ inch to 3 inches for the 
 whole length of the tube, the extremes of the movement being 
 attained at about 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. The effect of sunshine in 
 deflecting the Britannia Bridge, as observed by Mr. Edwin 
 Clark, is very curious. A short spell of sunshine on the top 
 of the tube raised it on one occasion nearly an inch in half an 
 hour, with a load of 200 tons at the centre, the top plates of 
 the bridge being expanded by increase of temperature, while 
 the lower plates remained at constant temperature by radiation 
 to the water beneath them. In like manner, the tube was 
 drawn sideways to the extent of an inch by the sun shining on 
 one side, and it returned immediately to its normal position as 
 clouds passed over the sun. The tubes sometimes move as 
 much as 2\ inches vertically or horizontally when the sun 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 67 
 
 shines on them. The tube is, in fact, a most delicate thermo- 
 meter in constant motion, both vertically and laterally. The 
 Britannia Bridge was opened in March, 1850, by the passage 
 through it of three powerful locomotives with tenders. The 
 second experimental train that went through Consisted of 
 twenty-four heavily-laden coal-waggons, aggregating 300 tons 
 weight. The train was drawn through the tubes at leisurely 
 speed. During the passage a breathless silence prevailed, and 
 when the train emerged at the other end the event was 
 announced by great cheering, mingled with the reports of 
 pieces of ordnance.' 
 
 The Britannia Bridge cost Stephenson many a sleepless 
 night. Describing his feelings afterwards to Mr. Gooch, he 
 said : ' It was a most anxious and harassing time with me. 
 Often at night I would lie tossing about, seeking sleep in vain. 
 The tubes filled my head. I went to bed with them and got 
 up with them. In the grey of the morning, when I looked 
 across Gloucester Square, it seemed an immense distance 
 across to the houses on the opposite side. It was nearly the 
 same length as the span of my tubular bridge ! ' When the 
 first tube had been floated, a friend observed to him, ' This 
 great work has made you ten years older.' ' I have not slept 
 soundly,' he replied, * for three weeks.' But when the work 
 was done, he was found sitting calmly, smoking a cigar, on a 
 platform overlooking the suspended tube. It may be added 
 that in fitting the Britannia tubes together, no fewer than 
 2,000,000 bolts were riveted, weighing some 900 tons. Each 
 length of tube constituting the main span is twice as long as 
 the London Monument is high ; and if it could be set on end 
 in St. Paul's Churchyard it would reach nearly 100 feet above 
 the cross. The cost of this remarkable engineering work was 
 .234,450. ' On the occasion of raising the last tube into its 
 place, Mr. Stephenson declared, in reply to the felicitations of 
 a large company who had witnessed the proceedings with in- 
 tense interest, that not all the triumph which attended this 
 
 F 2 
 
68 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 great work, and the solution of the difficult problem of carrying 
 a rigid railway across an arm of the sea at such a height as to 
 allow the largest vessels to pass with all their sails set beneath 
 it, could repay him for the anxieties he had gone through, the 
 friendships he had compromised, and the unworthy motives 
 which had been attributed to him ; and that were another 
 work of the same magnitude offered to him with like con- 
 sequences, he would not for worlds undertake it ! ' 
 
 The Conway tubular bridge consisted of two tubes, each of 
 one span of 400 feet It was opened for traffic in May, 1848. 
 The Victoria Railway Bridge over the St. Lawrence River at 
 Montreal, Canada, was another of Robert Stephenson's stupen- 
 dous works. Like the Britannia Bridge, it is tubular in design. 
 It is 9,144 feet, or nearly a mile and three-quarters in length, 
 in 24 spans of 242 feet, with a central span of 330 feet. The 
 total length of each tube is 6,592 feet, and there are 9,044 
 tons of iron in the tubes. There is a total painted super- 
 ficies equal to 32 acres. The river is 8,660 feet, or about one 
 mile and two-thirds, wide at the crossing, where it descends 
 at the rate of seven miles per hour. The bridge is chiefly 
 remarkable for its ice-breaking piers, which are constructed 
 with large bows at the up-river ends to resist the enormous 
 pressure of the ice in spring. The rails are sixty feet above 
 the level of the river. The Victoria Bridge is longer than the 
 Forth Bridge, and, indeed, it is the longest bridge in the world 
 with the exception of the Tay Bridge, which is 10,780 feet in 
 length as compared with 9,144 feet, the length of the Montreal 
 structure. The Victoria Bridge was begun in 1854, and finished 
 in 1859. It was formally opened for traffic by the Prince of 
 Wales on the 25th of August, 1860. Among other works of 
 various kinds, Stephenson also designed two tubular bridges 
 which were built across the Nile, near Damietta, in Lower 
 Egypt. 
 
 In 1847 Robert Stephenson was returned to Parliament as 
 Conservative member for Whitby, which borough he continued 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 69 
 
 to represent until his death. Like his father, he declined the 
 honour of knighthood. He took a deep interest in the Insti- 
 tution of Civil Engineers, of which he was elected a vice- 
 president in 1848. This office he held until 1855, when he 
 was elected to the presidential chair, which he occupied for 
 the years 1856 and 1857. Elected a Fellow of the Royal 
 Society in 1849, he subsequently sat on the Council of that 
 learned body. In politics he was violently antipathetic to Earl 
 Russell, and to Cobden, Bright, and other representatives of 
 the Manchester School. He voted steadily with his party in 
 all important divisions, but otherwise he was not regular in his 
 attendance at the House of Commons. He only took part in 
 the debates when special scientific questions were brought 
 forward, but he was a member of the Sewage and Sanitary 
 Commissions and of the Commission which sat on West- 
 minster Bridge. He was an ardent Protectionist, and remained 
 so even after the advantages of Free Trade had been con- 
 clusively proved. Among his chief speeches in Parliament 
 were those on the cleansing of the Serpentine and against the 
 Suez Canal. He considered that the latter scheme was im- 
 practicable ; that it would not justify the expenditure necessary 
 to complete it, and that if ever executed it would prove a com- 
 mercial failure. Stephenson proved to be wrong on all points. 
 The Suez Canal was made, and proved a magnificent success, 
 and the great engineer's predictions only show that a man may 
 be fallible, even in things on which he maybe justly considered 
 a distinguished expert. 
 
 Stephenson was very sociable, and at his London residences 
 there were frequent gatherings of men celebrated in science, 
 literature, and art. He was a charming companion, and was 
 famed for his liberality towards his professional brethren. 
 Even rivals like Brunei found in him a chivalrous friend. 
 His fame was at its zenith in 1850 and 1851, and in those 
 years he acted as a member of the Executive Committee and 
 Building Committee for the Exhibition Building of 1851, and 
 
70 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 also as one of the Commissioners for carrying out that great 
 project. One of his favourite recreations was yachting ; and, 
 among other excursions, he made voyages to Egypt and Nor- 
 way. He was unfortunately addicted to the use of narcotics, 
 which prejudicially affected him. 
 
 Invited by the King of Sweden to visit that country, for the 
 purpose of advising as to the railway between Christiania and 
 Lake Miosen, he was decorated with the Grand Cross of the 
 Order of St. Olaf in consideration of his services. He further 
 visited Switzerland, Piedmont, and Denmark, to consider the 
 system of railway communication best adapted to those 
 countries. The Emperor Napoleon conferred upon him the 
 Legion of Honour at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and the 
 University of Oxford gave him the honorary degree of D.C.L. 
 Notwithstanding all his successes, however, both social and 
 public, Robert Stephenson experienced much sorrow in his 
 later years. Mr. Jeaffreson draws this pathetic picture of him 
 as the sands of life gradually ran out : 
 
 1 He had reached the period of life when men who have no 
 children confess to themselves that the glory of their days is 
 only a shadow. To those that enjoyed his inmost confidence, 
 he more than once revealed his sadness, and he was counselled, 
 to rouse himself against despondency. 
 
 ' His health was irreparably broken ; but to the last he was 
 so full of animation when in society that men found it difficult 
 to imagine him other than he appeared. His hair had indeed 
 turned white without long warning, but it was remembered 
 that George Stephenson had a snowy head while he was still 
 in the prime of manhood. There were those also who could 
 tell how the amiable and gentle-tempered man began to mani- 
 fest a passing peevishness and irritability on trivial provocations. 
 Those who knew him thoroughly saw in these and other symp- 
 toms the conclusive proofs of serious mischief affecting health. 
 But few suspected how he struggled against melancholy, and 
 how he looked forward to death. The quiet of his house, 
 
THE STEPHENSONS. 71 
 
 when it was without guests, he could not endure. Often he 
 walked about the lonely rooms, and sat down to yield to 
 sorrow which in the presence of others he courageously sup- 
 pressed. In these last days he used to look regretfully on the 
 scenes of his early professional triumphs, and of his wedded 
 joy in the little house in Greenfield Place, Newcastle. 
 
 '" The Robert Stephenson of Greenfield Place is the Robert 
 Stephenson I am most proud to think of ! " he once said to a 
 lady. He was at all times very fond of the mechanical de- 
 partment of engineering, and to the last no part of his cares 
 afforded him more pleasure than the direction of the Newcastle 
 factory. His admiration of " really good, honest, mechanical 
 labour " was enthusiastic. If he railed paradoxically at new- 
 fangled notions for educating workmen, he did so from a lively 
 sense of the comparative worthlessness of superficial education. 
 For the " skill of artisans " he had a strong poetic sympathy, 
 and as his career drew to a close, his affectionate appreciation 
 of the class from which his father had sprung manifested itself 
 in many pleasant ways.' 
 
 In the autumn of 1859 Stephenson sailed for Norway. He 
 was then in shattered health, but it was hoped the voyage 
 would have a beneficial effect. He was worse, however, when 
 he returned to England in September. He landed at Lowe- 
 stoft, and at once returned to London. After reaching home 
 he seemed to revive for a time, but early in October obstinate 
 congestion of the liver set in, and this was followed by dropsy 
 of the whole system. On the i2th of October he expired, 
 being only in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Regret was ex- 
 pressed by all ranks of the community, and he was accorded a 
 public funeral in Westminster Abbey, where his remains were 
 interred by the side of Telford. 
 
 Like his father, Robert Stephenson was of a kindly and 
 benevolent disposition, and his services were much sought 
 after in the settlement of disputes. The difference between 
 him and Brunei, Dr. Smiles illustrates by an anecdote. Brunei 
 
72 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 complained that his contractors were always quarrelling with 
 him. * You hold them too tightly to the letter of your agree- 
 ment,' said Stephenson ; ' treat them fairly and liberally.' ' But 
 they try to take advantage of me at all points,' remarked Brunei. 
 * Perhaps you suspect them too much,' said Stephenson. ' I 
 suspect all men to be rogues,' said the other, 'till I find them 
 to be honest.' ' For my part,' said Stephenson, ' I take all 
 men to be honest till I find them to be rogues.' ' Ah, then 
 I fear we shall never agree,' concluded Brunei. Robert 
 Stephenson loved and admired his father deeply. He would 
 openly and proudly confess that he owed all to him. * It is 
 my great pride to remember,' he once observed in public, ' that 
 whatever may have been done, and however extensive may 
 have been my own connection with railway development, all I 
 know and all I have done is primarily due to the parent whose 
 memory I cherish and revere.' And he confided to Lough the 
 sculptor that he had never had but two loves one for his 
 father, the other for his wife. 
 
 Unobtrusive, and manly and gentle in demeanour, Robert 
 Stephenson was a favourite with all who came in contact with 
 him, whether men, women, or children. He was princely in 
 his generosity, both public and private. To the nation such 
 men are invaluable, their great and enduring achievements 
 conferring glory and stability upon the country. As the poet 
 is honoured for his song, so must the man of invention be 
 honoured for those marvellous works which advance the 
 material interests and the prosperity of the human race. 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 
 
75 
 
 CHARLES KNIGHT. 
 
 THE printing industry is one of the greatest and most bene- 
 ficent enterprises associated with the history of the human 
 race. Milton's noble plea for the liberty of unlicensed printing 
 the most splendid argument to which the world had as yet 
 listened on behalf of intellectual liberty has been abundantly 
 justified by the developments of the past two centuries and a 
 half. Of all the arts which make for peace, printing has been 
 the most effective and wide-reaching, notwithstanding those 
 momentary periods of aberration when its influence has been 
 cast upon the side of war. If it were not for the gigantic 
 industry of printing, with all the trades affiliated with it, it is 
 not too much to say that England would not be the England 
 of to-day, the majestic mother of free peoples. 
 
 In selecting for this biographical sketch one of the pioneers 
 of popular literature, it is riot with the intention of exalting 
 Charles Knight above others who have rendered perhaps equal 
 service in the extension of printing, such as William and 
 Robert Chambers and John Cassell ; while as regards those 
 great benefactors who have done so much towards the 
 mechanical perfection of the printing press, we cannot fail to 
 remember with gratitude the names of Konig, Cowper, 
 Walter, Clowes, Hoe, Marinoni, and others. I have chosen 
 Charles Knight because there is a good deal in his character 
 that is typically English for example, his energy, perse- 
 verance, straightforwardness, and his courage under difficulties. 
 Then, again, his career has a double interest, because he was 
 
76 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 thrown into contact with most of his eminent contemporaries. 
 Knight may be viewed in a triple capacity, as author, printer, 
 and publisher. His life was a long, useful, and honourable 
 one, and his name and services eminently deserve to be per- 
 petuated. 
 
 Some entertaining facts concerning book-producers and the 
 book-trade antecedent to the time of Knight may be cited 
 before I pass on to the record of his own labours. Book- 
 selling as a trade was of little moment until the invention of 
 printing. Before that most books were lent, not sold, for 
 they were not within the means of any but the wealthy. 
 Caxton's labours soon led to a change, but the first real 
 impetus given to bookselling was the great demand for Bibles 
 caused by the Reformation. Yet on the Continent books 
 had become such an important feature of commerce that in 
 1450 a guild of booksellers, copyists, and allied trades was 
 formed at Antwerp, while four years later the guild ac- 
 quired a footing at Bruges. Gutenberg's partners, Fust and 
 Schoffer, conveyed the productions of the Mainz press to 
 Paris and Frankfort. The earliest printers were generally 
 learned men, and in some cases they were the authors of 
 the works produced. They acted both as printers and book- 
 sellers, but in the fifteenth century the two branches of the 
 industry began to be divided. Mr. Robert Cochrane, who has 
 compiled statistics on the book-trade, notes that the founder of 
 the Stephens family of printers and publishers settled in Paris 
 in 1502; Louis, the first of the Elzevirs, was settled as a 
 bookseller and bookbinder in Leyden in 1580; the Aldine 
 Press printed 908 different works between 1490 and 1597 ; 
 and the Plantin Press of Antwerp, 1514-89, had sometimes 
 twenty presses at work. In England, the early booksellers 
 were known as stationarii, or stationers, from taking their 
 stand or station at a fair. In the sixteenth century the re- 
 striction as to giving the price of a book on the last page 
 was frequently enforced by Government. Between the years 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 77 
 
 1476 and 1600, 350 printers were at work in England and 
 Scotland, and at least 10,000 distinct works were printed 
 during that period. From 1623 to 1664 only two editions of 
 Shakespeare were issued, but there was so much religious and 
 political controversy between 1640 and 1660 that the British 
 Museum is able to boast of more than 2,000 tracts 
 embracing 30,000 separate publications issued during that 
 period. It is computed that the loss to booksellers in the 
 vicinity of St. Paul's, in consequence of the great fire of 1666, 
 was no less than ^200,000 an enormous sum for those days. 
 The book-trade was greatly harassed by legislation, royal 
 patents, and proclamations, by ordinances of the Star 
 Chamber, and by the granting of monopolies. The Stationers' 
 Company of London, constituted by Royal Charter in 1557, 
 exercised an arbitrary censorship of the press. An Act called 
 the Licensing Act, passed in 1673, gave to the Crown control 
 over the issue of books ; but this Act, with its renewals, 
 ultimately expired in 1694. In 1710 the first Copyright Act 
 afforded protection to authors, and absolved both them and 
 the publishers from the authority of the Stationers' Company. 
 Power was given to certain high public functionaries, however, 
 to regulate the prices of books, and to fine those who sought 
 higher prices. These provisions remained in force until 1738, 
 when an Act was passed which made the book-trade free. 
 Among famous booksellers and publishers, who were either 
 authors or intimately associated with authors, may be men- 
 tioned Thomas Guy, founder of Guy's Hospital; John Dunton, 
 whom the Pretender threatened to hang if he ever came to the 
 throne, 'for having writ forty books to prove him a Popish 
 impostor'; Jacob Tonson, Dryden's publisher, and the 
 populariser of Shakespeare and Milton; Lintott, the pub- 
 lisher of Pope's editions of the Iliad and the Odyssey ; Curll 
 the notorious and the pilloried ; Samuel Richardson, novelist 
 and printer ; Cave, the founder of the Gentleman's Magazine ; 
 Millar, the publisher for Fielding, Thomson, and Hume ; 
 
78 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Newbery, who was associated with Goldsmith ; Griffiths of the 
 Monthly Review; Dodsley of the Annual Register: and Joseph 
 Cottle, of Bristol, the friend of Coleridge, Southey, and 
 Wordsworth. The names of at least a hundred enterprising 
 English and Scotch publishers in the nineteenth century 
 worthy successors of the best of those above-mentioned 
 instinctively rise to the mind, but they are so well-known as to 
 need no recapitulation. 
 
 School-books, encyclopaedias, educational and religious 
 publications, maps, atlases, etc., indicate further important 
 developments in the book-trade. Excellent cheap editions of 
 popular works were inaugurated by an Edinburgh publisher 
 named Donaldson about 1760-70, and he was closely followed 
 in London by John Bell, who issued his British Poets in 
 1777. This led to a meeting of the book-trade, and the 
 publication of Johnson's Lives of the Poets. Then came C. 
 Cooke's admirable cheap reprints at the close of last century, 
 which were succeeded by Suttaby's, Sharpe's, Walker's, and 
 Dove's pocket editions. Many cheap periodicals and news- 
 papers appeared between 1800 and 1820, a considerable 
 number of them leading to prosecutions for seditious libel. 
 The Mirror, an illustrated weekly sheet of another type, issued 
 in 1822, achieved a permanent success. Five years later the 
 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge began to pub- 
 lish its popular scientific treatises, while Archibald Constable 
 inaugurated his valuable series of works under the title of 
 Constable's Miscellany. A short time afterwards Messrs. 
 Chambers began their Chambers 's Edinburgh Journal, the 
 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge followed with 
 the Penny Magazine, and the Society for Promoting Chris- 
 tian Knowledge with the Saturday Magazine. Then came in 
 rapid succession various popular ventures by Charles Knight, 
 W. & R. Chambers, and John Cassell. 
 
 At this point I take up the story of Charles Knight. He was 
 the son of a Windsor bookseller, and was born in the year 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 79 
 
 1791. The house in wliich he first saw the light was close to 
 the great entrance to the lower ward of Windsor Castle 
 called, after its builder, Henry the Eighth's Gateway. He has 
 recorded how, as a boy of nine, he went to bed on the night 
 of the 3ist of December, 1800, expecting to find the house 
 shaken to its foundations by the boom of artillery. Not only 
 was the next morning the beginning of a new year, but the 
 beginning of a new century one of the most momentous in 
 the history of the world. There was no boom of artillery, 
 however, for the King had forbidden it, lest the new painted 
 window by Mr. West, at the east end of St. George's Chapel, 
 might be broken by the concussion. But the bells in the 
 belfry of St. George's Chapel and the bells of the parish 
 church rang out a merry peal. On the morrow, the sun shone 
 brilliantly on the new Standard of England raised over the 
 Round Tower. The arms of France had disappeared from the 
 Standard, for the King's title now ran, ' George the Third, by 
 the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith.' Some said the 
 change was ominous of the departing glory of Old England, 
 but Britain still stands where she did. On that memorable ist 
 of January, 1801, the bells of Windsor, as of many other towns 
 and cities, hailed the commencement of the legislative Union 
 between Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 When only two years of age Charles Knight had lost his 
 mother. She was the daughter of a wealthy yeoman named 
 Binfield, of Iver, in Buckinghamshire. The boy was the sole 
 companion of a somewhat moody and eccentric father, though 
 one withal of an enlightened mind, and who consequently 
 fostered in him studious habits. Young Knight was educated 
 at the school of the cultured Dr. Nicholson, of Ealing. 
 Writing of his pupil to Mr. Knight in 1804, Dr. Nicholson 
 said : * With an excellent disposition and good temper, he has 
 very superior abilities, and will shine in a learned profession. I 
 wish particularly to call your attention to his Latin verses and 
 
8o LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 English themes, in which I am confident he goes much beyond 
 your expectations. It would be a pity to bury such talents 
 in an office or a counting-house.' Compositions executed by 
 Charles Knight at thirteen show a singular maturity of thought 
 and expression. From eight years of age Knight was a 
 frequent attendant at that smallest of playhouses, the Theatre 
 Royal of Windsor ; and in his Passages of a Working Life he 
 gives an amusing picture of the visits paid by 'Farmer George' 
 and his Queen to the theatre : 
 
 'That honoured playhouse no longer exists. The High 
 Street exhibits a dissenting chapel on its site, whose frontage 
 may give some notion of the dimensions of that cosy apart- 
 ment, with its two tiers of boxes, its gallery and its slips. It was 
 not an exclusive theatre. Three shillings gave the entrance to 
 the boxes, two shillings to the pit, and one shilling to the 
 gallery. One side of the lower tier of boxes was occupied by 
 the Court. The King and Queen sat in capacious armchairs 
 with satin play-bills spread before them. The orchestra, which 
 would hold half a dozen fiddlers, and the pit, where some 
 dozen persons might be closely packed on each bench, 
 separated the Royal Circle from the general parties in the 
 opposite tier of boxes. With the plebeians in the pit the Royal 
 Family might have shaken hands, and when they left there was 
 always a scramble for their satin bills, which would be after- 
 wards duly framed and glazed as spoils of peace. As the King 
 laughed and cried " Bravo, Quick ! " or " Bravo, Suett ! "for 
 he had rejoiced in their well-known mirth-provoking faces 
 many a time before the pit and gallery clapped and roared in 
 loyal sympathy; the boxes were too genteel for such emotional 
 feelings. As the King, Queen, and Princesses retired at the 
 end of the third act to sip their coffee, the pot of Windsor ale, 
 called Queen's ale, circulated in the gallery. At eleven o'clock 
 the curtain dropped. The riddles struck up "God save the 
 King," their Majesties bowed around as the house clapped, 
 and the gouty manager, Mr. Thornton, leading the way to the 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 81 
 
 entrance (carrying wax-lights and walking backward with the 
 well-practised steps of a Lord Chamberlain), the flambeaux of 
 three or four carriages gleamed through the dimly-lighted 
 streets, and Royalty was quickly at rest.' 
 
 During one of his holidays Knight was taken to call upon 
 Mr. Stratford Canning, afterwards the distinguished diplomatist 
 Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. He was managing editor of The 
 Miniature a successor after a long interval of the Eton 
 Microcosm which the elder Knight was printing and publish- 
 ing. This is an interesting glimpse of Stratford Canning, as 
 well as of some other persons whose names became well known 
 to the world : * How well I remember his tall figure and 
 handsome face, with the down upon his chin. Some forty 
 years afterwards, at an entertainment given upon a trial-trip of 
 a frigate that had been built for the Sultan, I was introduced 
 to Sir Stratford Canning. I had much talk with the great 
 diplomatist about the progress of education and of popular 
 literature, in the efficacy of which he did not appear to have 
 any confident belief. He talked, too, of that literary produc- 
 tion of his boyhood with which he associated my name. Of 
 course he spoke slightingly of it, as men who have made their 
 mark in the world generally do of their juvenilia. There were, 
 however, some literary matters of more importance arising 
 out of the forgotten Eton periodical. "Your father," said Mr. 
 Murray to me once after dinner, "helped to make my 
 fortune. When I kept a little trumpery shop in Fleet Street, 
 Dr. Rennell, the Master of the Temple, told me one day that 
 his son and young Canning owed an account for printing 7 he 
 Miniature to their publisher, who held a good many unsold 
 copies. I took the stock, paid the account, made waste paper 
 of the numbers, brought out a smart edition which had few 
 buyers, got the reputation of being a clever publisher, was 
 introduced to George Canning in consequence of the service I 
 had rendered to his cousin, and in a few years set up the 
 Quarterly Review" ' 
 
 G 
 
82 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Knight was taken away from school in 1805, and put to 
 learn printing and bookselling. He resented this, for he was 
 desirous of being a scholar. However, his father indulged him 
 during his apprenticeship, for we read of his often galloping his 
 pony along the glades of the forest ; or watching his little boat, 
 hour after hour, from the Thames bank at Datchet or at 
 Clewer; or wandering, book in hand, by the riverside. He 
 read old novels and poems, the classics, Scott's new poems, the 
 newspaper, and anything in the shape of literature he could lay 
 hold of. Before he was seventeen he had become quite a book 
 hunter. On one occasion he so pleased an old bibliopole, for 
 whose library he was negotiating, that he was rewarded by 
 the gift of a first-folio Shakespeare a sadly defective copy, it is 
 true, but still a first-folio. When in his eighteenth year, the 
 youthful enthusiast drew up a list of ambitious works he in- 
 tended composing himself, and actually produced various 
 essays, poems, and sketches. He seems to have been of a 
 devotional temperament, and frequently prayed for strength to 
 shake off the allurements of sloth and to despise the seductions 
 of idleness. An * Arrangement of Study for a Month,' which 
 he drew up, left the mornings for original composition, with 
 allowance of an hour for chronology, geography, logic, or 
 rhetoric ; the evenings were to be devoted to reading aloud 
 history, voyages, etc., or works in polite literature, with one 
 hour for Greek, Latin, Italian, or French. The Old Testament 
 in English was to be read on Sunday mornings, and in the 
 evenings the New Testament in Greek ; the rest of the Sunday 
 being spent in reading moral and religious authors, or in study- 
 ing natural religion, etc. Knowledge was to be systematised, 
 and in order to acquire it he rose before six o'clock in the 
 morning. It was his settled conviction that ' he that leaves his 
 studies or occupations to chance, suppresses his memory and 
 darkens his judgment, by giving too much leisure to the imagi- 
 nation.' Knight had a sharp temper but a sensitive heart, and 
 in his diary there are such entries as the following, relating to a 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 83 
 
 fellow-workman : ' This day has been disgraced by some ex- 
 cesses towards Meyrick. Let me keep in mind that a want 
 of understanding demands our pity, not our contempt; and 
 though I may inwardly despise vain ignorance and obstinacy, 
 let me not commit myself by vulgar railing and harsh invec- 
 tive.' 
 
 When only eighteen, Charles Knight began a Reading 
 Society in Windsor, and read an address before it on the use 
 of such institutions. He also invented two new printing-cases, 
 and collected materials for a life of Bartholomew Las Casas, 
 and other works. He was further commissioned by the Countess 
 of Orkney, who occupied Cliefden, to make a catalogue of a 
 large collection of books which had long been neglected. In 
 the year 1812 he founded, with his father, the Windsor and 
 Eton Express, a weekly newspaper, which he edited for four- 
 teen years. In addition to this he became editor of the London 
 Guardian, a literary and political paper. The Windsor and Eton 
 Express of the 3rd of December, 1814, contained a paragraph 
 which Knight had copied from The Times of the 29th of 
 November. It had strongly excited his wonder and curiosity, 
 as to the probable consequences of what The Times described 
 as * the greatest improvement connected with printing since the 
 discovery of the art itself.' Well knowing the great bodily 
 exertion hitherto required of two men, working at the common 
 press, to produce two hundred and fifty impressions of one 
 side of a newspaper in an hour, Knight might well be surprised 
 when he read as follows : ' The reader of this paragraph now 
 holds in his hand one of the many thousand impressions of The 
 Times newspaper which were taken off last night, by a mecha- 
 nical apparatus. A system of machinery almost organic has 
 been devised and arranged, which, while it relieves the human 
 frame of its most laborious efforts in printing, far exceeds all 
 human powers in rapidity and despatch.' The process was 
 then {briefly described, and it was added that * the whole of 
 these complicated acts were performed with such a velocity 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 and simultaneousness of movement, that no less than eleven 
 hundred sheets were impressed in one hour.' The printing 
 machine thus inaugurated was the one invented by Konig. 
 But as the machine was complicated, expensive, and liable 
 to derangement, Mr. Walter did not relax his efforts until 
 he had still further perfected and simplified his printing 
 machines. These new processes were destined to have a 
 marked effect upon Charles Knight's future, for he was always 
 ready to avail himself of any new ideas on the subject of 
 printing. 
 
 Knight was sufficiently successful in his business career as to 
 enable him to marry at a comparatively early age. But while 
 he was very much attached to the domestic fireside, he was 
 deeply interested in public affairs, working also energetically at 
 parish affairs, and infusing a new spirit into them. He further 
 found time to compose poems, some of which gained the warm 
 commendation of Leigh Hunt, and which may even now be 
 praised for their smooth versification and placid yet poetic spirit. 
 As for his continued devotion to study, he remarks : ' I may truly 
 say and I say it for the encouragement of any young man who 
 is sighing over the fetters of his daily labour, and pining for 
 weeks and months of interrupted study that I have found 
 through life that the acquisition of knowledge, and a regular 
 course of literary employment, are far from being incompatible 
 with commercial pursuits. I doubt whether, if I had been all 
 author or all publisher, I should have succeeded better in either 
 capacity.' Knight and other friends of the drama built a new 
 theatre at Windsor, at a large cost, and with consequently small 
 dividends to the shareholders, of whom the elder Knight was 
 the principal. It was opened in August, 1815 ; and Charles 
 Knight wrote a Prologue, which was not conciliatory to the 
 bigoted opponents of the stage, who regarded their proceedings 
 as criminal. The time was still far distant when Shakespeare 
 would be quoted in the pulpit. The new Windsor Theatre 
 was commodious ; but the manager, like many succeeding ones, 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 85 
 
 could not draw audiences without stars. Here is a reminiscence 
 of the famous Edmund Kean : 
 
 'In 1817 I became acquainted with Edmund Kean, on his 
 visit to Windsor at our Christmas season. I was an enthu- 
 siastic admirer of his genius ; and wrote most elaborate criti- 
 cisms on his Othello and Shylock, his Sir Giles Overreach, 
 and Sir Edward Mortimer. I had often then what I con- 
 sidered the great privilege of supping with him after the play. 
 He was always surrounded by two or three followers who 
 administered to his insatiable vanity in the coarsest style ; 
 applauded to the echo his somewhat loose talk ; and stimu- 
 lated his readiness to "make a night of it." My unbounded 
 admiration for the talent of the actor was somewhat interrupted 
 by a humiliating sense of the weakness of the man. Never- 
 theless the attraction was irresistible as long as he strove to 
 make himself agreeable. How exquisitely he sang a pathetic 
 ballad ! The rich melody, the deep tenderness, of his " Fly 
 from the World, O Bessie, to me," were to live in my memory, 
 in companionship with the exquisite music of his voice in his 
 best days, when he uttered upon the stage, in a way which no 
 other actor has approached, the soliloquy ending with "Othello's 
 occupation's gone." ' 
 
 Charles Knight was very active as a promoter of popular 
 education, but a severe check to this and other reforms which 
 he advocated was administered in 1819, as the result of the 
 political tumults of the time. The effect which the serious 
 events of the period had upon his thoughts and aspirations he 
 has thus described: 'There were riots and arrests; and at 
 length came what is called "TKe Manchester Massacre." The 
 country was thoroughly frightened. Parliament was called 
 together to make new laws; and it produced what Lord 
 Campbell describes as " the unconstitutional code called the 
 Six Acts." At the Christmas of 1819 every journalist went 
 about his work under the apprehension that, if he wrote what, 
 by the uncertain verdict of a jury might be construed into a 
 
86 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 seditious libel, he would not only be subjected to very terrible 
 fine and imprisonment, but, if convicted a second time, would 
 be liable to be transported beyond the seas. I looked with 
 dread towards a struggle which would end either in anarchy 
 or military government. Like Sydney Smith, I regarded de- 
 mocracy and despotism as equally dangerous results of a 
 contest between power and mob violence : " In which of 
 these two evils it terminates is of no more consequence than 
 from which tube of a double-barrelled pistol I meet my 
 destruction." The effect of these circumstances upon my 
 political opinions, during several succeeding years, is not 
 altogether satisfactory to look back upon. In my hatred and 
 contempt of the demagogues and profligate writers who were 
 stirring up the ignorant masses to revolt and irreligion, I 
 turned somewhat aside from regarding the injustice that was 
 at the root of a desire for change. I panted for improvement 
 as ardently as ever. .1 was aspiring to become a popular 
 educator. But I felt that one must be content for a while to 
 shut one's eyes to the necessity for some salutary reforms, in 
 the dread that any decided movement towards innovation 
 would be to aid in the work of lopping and topping the sturdy 
 oak of the constitution till its shelter and its beauty were 
 altogether gone. I believe this was a common feeling, not 
 only with public writers who did not address the passions of 
 the multitude, but with statesmen who were not subservient 
 partisans. Thence ensued a reticence in writing and in 
 speaking, which looked like a distrust of the progress of 
 improvement even with many^ of decided liberal opinions. 
 I think this was amongst the worst results of those evil days 
 in which we had fallen in the last months of the reign of the 
 old King. I had to drag this chain of doubtful timidity in 
 my first attempt to address the humbler classes.' 
 
 However. Knight resolved to do something towards stem- 
 ming the tide of evil caused by the numerous injurious cheap 
 publications ; and his first venture as editor and publisher into 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 87 
 
 the region of popular literature is to be traced to a paper 
 which he wrote in the Windsor Express of December n, 
 1819, entitled 'Cheap Publications.' Cobbett's Twopenny 
 Register, Wooler's Black Dwarf, and even worse publications, 
 were having it all their own way ; and Knight set forth, as one 
 of the most fearful signs of the times, the excessive spread of 
 publications whose chief aim was to inspire hatred of the 
 Government and contempt for the religious institutions of 
 the country. It ought to be said here that Cobbett and his 
 friends were not originally to blame, for England was really 
 suffering at this juncture under one of the most oppressive 
 and tyrannical of Governments. However, Knight saw chiefly 
 the excesses to which their reactionary policy had led, and 
 this is the way in which he sought to overcome them by the 
 diffusion of useful literature : 
 
 ' Knowledge must have its worldly as well as its spiritual 
 range ; it looks towards Heaven, but it treads upon the earth. 
 The mass of useful books are not accessible to the poor ; 
 newspapers, with their admixture of good and evil, seldom 
 find their way into the domestic circle of the labourer or 
 artisan ; the tracts which pious persons distribute are exclu- 
 sively religious, and the tone of these is often either fanatical 
 or puerile. The " two-penny trash," as it is called, has seen 
 farther, with the quick perception of avarice or ambition, into 
 the intellectual wants of the working-classes. It was just 
 because there was no healthful food for their newly-created 
 appetite, that sedition and infidelity have been so widely 
 disseminated. The writers employed in this work, and their 
 leader and prototype, Cobbett, in particular, show us pretty 
 accurately the sort of talent which is required to provide this 
 healthful food. "Fas est ab hoste doceri" They state an 
 argument with great clearness- and precision ; they divest 
 knowledge of all its pedantic incumbrances ; they make 
 powerful appeals to the deepest passions of the human heart. 
 Let a man of genius set out upon these principles, in the 
 
88 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 task of building up a more popular literature than we possess ; 
 and let him add, what the seditious and infidel writers have 
 thrown away, the power of directing the affections to what 
 is reverend and beautiful in national manners and institutions 
 tender and subduing in pure and domestic associations 
 sacred and glowing in what belongs to the high and mysterious 
 destiny of the human mind satisfying and consoling in the 
 divine revelations of that destiny, and then, were such a 
 system embodied in one grand benevolent design supple- 
 mentary to the Instruction of the Poor, National Education, 
 we sincerely think it would go on diffusing its blessings over 
 every portion of the land, and calling up a truly English 
 spirit wherever it penetrated. Neglect this provision, and we 
 fear that no penal laws will prevent the craving after know- 
 ledge from being improperly gratified, and then but the 
 evidence of the danger is before us.' 
 
 Translating his ideas into action, Charles Knight began the 
 issue of The Plain Englishman, in February, 1820. He had 
 the assistance of his friend Edward Hawke Locker, Commis- 
 sioner of Greenwich Hospital, who thoroughly sympathised in 
 Knight's objects, and wrote for the new periodical ' Lectures 
 on the Bible and Liturgy.' Other contributors included Dr. 
 John Bird Sumner (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), who 
 wrote a series of articles called ' Conversations with an Unbe- 
 liever'; Mr. John Cole, a well-known surgeon, wrote on 
 ' Cleanliness and Ventilation '; Mr. John Steer, on ' Popular 
 Law'; the Bishop of Calcutta, on 'Naval Victories'; while 
 Knight himself contributed a * Monthly Retrospect of Public 
 Affairs.' Selections were also given from the best writers under 
 such headings as 'The Christian Monitor,' 'The British 
 Patriot,' and ' The Fireside Companion.' It is rather amusing 
 to note this sentence from one .of the health articles written by 
 Mr. Cole the forerunner of Southwood Smith and Chadwick : 
 ' Those who can be brought to venture on so unheard of a thing 
 as to wash the whole of their bodies, will generally be induced 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 89 
 
 to repeat the experiment from the comfort it affords.' The 
 contemporaries had heard that there was ' Death in the Pot,' 
 and they evidently believed also that there was ' Death in the 
 Bath.' ' You have killed my mother,' said a good housewife of 
 the Lake District to Miss Martineau ; ' she had never washed 
 her feet till you persuaded her, and this is the end on't.' 
 Mr. Cole gave very good advice on such subjects as Ventila- 
 tion, Cooking, and the Management of Infants, and Sanitary 
 Dwellings. 
 
 During the summer and autumn of the first year's issue of 
 The Plain Englishman, Knight occupied a cottage on the 
 bank of the Thames. But in the ensuing winter he settled in 
 a house at Windsor which was most interesting in its con- 
 nexion with the dim antiquity of the Castle. Its entrance was 
 in the smaller cloisters to the north of St. George's Chapel, but 
 its principal rooms were over the great cloister on the east of 
 the chapel. ' In his study, which had a richly-carved ceiling, he 
 could frequently hear the swelling tones of the organ. Yet, 
 beautiful and unique as the dwelling was, the want of free air 
 made it unfit for healthful existence. A daughter was born to 
 him there, but there also he unfortunately lost a son, Charles 
 James. His dear friend Matthew Davenport Hill passed 
 some happy hours with him at Christmas. But before Easter, 
 Knight had to record his first grief : 
 
 * I was then, as I am now, as little disposed as Coriolanus 
 was, to show my wounds in the market-place ; but my feelings 
 overflowed into a paper which I printed in The Plain English- 
 man. Two sentences will be sufficient to mark this passage in 
 my life. " Until I had reached my thirtieth year I had known 
 nothing of what I can properly term sorrow. The evils of 
 mortality had not begun to come home to me. The wings of 
 the destroying angel had rested upon the dwellings of my 
 neighbours ; but death had never yet crossed my threshold, 
 and sickness seldom. I had heard the voice of misery like 
 the mutterings of a distant storm, but the thunder had not yet 
 
9 o LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 burst over my head I had not covered my eyes from the 
 passing lightning" .... "I now knew, for the first 
 time, what it is to have death about our hearths. The excite- 
 ment of hope and fear in a moment passes away; and the 
 contest between feeling and reason begins, with its alternation 
 of passion and listlessness. It is some time before the image 
 of death gets possession of the mind. We sleep, perchance, 
 amidst a feverish dream of gloomy and indistinct remem- 
 brances. The object of our grief, it may be, has seemed to us 
 present, in health and animation. We wake in a struggle 
 between, the shadowy and the real world; and we require 
 an effort of the intellect to believe that the earthly part 
 of the being we have loved is no more than a clod of the 
 valley." ' 
 
 While believing in the regenerating power of the press, 
 Knight dreaded the advent of cheap scurrilous newspapers and 
 periodicals. His forebodings proved unfounded, and years 
 afterwards he frankly admitted that he ' could scarcely have 
 imagined that some distant age of cheapness would have been 
 an age when the impure, seditious, violent, intolerant, and 
 libellous writer would have become a rare exception amongst 
 journalists.' On the 3rd of March, 1821, Knight created a 
 new department of newspaper literature, by publishing in The 
 Guardian the first of a series of monthly articles, entitled 
 1 Magazine Day.' Nearly two years later he sold the above 
 newspaper, and took up his position as a publisher in Pall 
 Mall East. 
 
 Knight had some time before been thrown into contact with 
 many choice literary spirits, for in 1820 he had, brought out 
 The Etonian, which had for its editors Walter Blunt and 
 Winthrop Mackworth Praed. The other contributors included 
 William Sidney Walker, a youth of brilliant promise, John 
 Moultrie, and Henry Nelson Coleridge. The publication con- 
 tinued for about two years, and then it was succeeded in 1823 
 by Knighfs Quarterly Magazine. In addition to the writers 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 
 
 9 1 
 
 above-named, the new periodical counted among its contri- 
 butors De Quincey, Macaulay, Derwent Coleridge, and Henry 
 Maiden. Praed's opening article in the magazine was 
 called ' Castle Vernon,' and Knight's only prospectus of his 
 new periodical was this very whimsical extract from the 
 article : 
 
 ' To the Lady Mary Vernon, the Mistress of all Harmony, 
 the Queen of all Wits, the Brightest of all Belles, we, the 
 undersigned, send greeting : "We, the undersigned, are a knot 
 of young men, of various forms and features of more various 
 talents and inclinations ; agreeing in nothing, save in two 
 essential points a warm liking for one another, and a very 
 profound devotion for your Ladyship. 
 
 ' " Some of us have no occupation. 
 
 ' " Some of us have no money. 
 
 * " Some of us are desperately in love. 
 ' " Some of us are desperately in debt. 
 
 ' " Many of us are very clever, and wish to convince the 
 public of the fact. 
 
 * " Several of us have never written a line. 
 
 ' " Several of us have written a great many, and wish to write 
 more. 
 
 ' " For all these reasons we intend to write a book. 
 
 ' " We will not compile a lumbering quarto of Travels, to be 
 bound in Russia, and skimmed in the Quarterly, and bought 
 by the country book-clubs; nor a biting Political Pamphlet, to 
 be praised by everybody on one side, and abused by everybody 
 on the other, and read by nobody at all ; nor a Philosophical 
 Essay, to be marvelled at by the few, and shuddered at by the 
 many, and prosecuted by His Majesty's Attorney-General; 
 nor a little Epic Poem in twenty-four books, to be loved by 
 the milliners, and lauded in the Literary Gazette, and burnt by 
 your Ladyship. 
 
 * " But a book of some sort we are resolved to write. We 
 will go forth to the world once a quarter, in high spirits and 
 
92 LEADERS OP MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 handsome type, and a modest dress of drab, with verse and 
 prose, criticism and witticism, fond love and loud laughter ; 
 everything that is light and warm, and fantastic, and beautiful, 
 shall be the offering we will bear ; while we will leave the 
 Nation to the care of the Parliament, and the Church to the 
 Bishop of Peterborough. And to this end we will give up to 
 colder lips and duller souls their gross and terrestrial food ; we 
 will not interfere with the saddle or the sirloin, the brandy- 
 bottle or the punch-bowl ; our food shall be of the spicy curry 
 and the glistening champagne ; our inspiration shall be the 
 thanks of pleasant voices, and the smiles of sparkling eyes. 
 We grasp at no renown we pray for no immortality ; but we 
 trust that in the voyage it shall be our destiny to run, we shall 
 waken many glowing feelings, and revive many agreeable 
 recollections ; we shall make many jokes and many friends ; we 
 shall enliven ourselves and the public together ; and when we 
 meet around some merry hearth to discuss the past and the 
 future, our projects, and our success, we shall give a zest to our 
 bottle and our debate by drinking a health to all who read us, 
 and three healths to all who praise." ' 
 
 Amid many lighter things in the magazine was an article by 
 Macaulay on West Indian Slavery, in which he sternly com- 
 bated the evil which his father, Zachary Macaulay, and other 
 philanthropists, did so much towards abolishing. To later 
 numbers Macaulay contributed his ' Ivry,' and other fine lyrics, 
 ' Dante,' ' The Athenian Orators/ and other prose articles. 
 There were likewise fine contributions by other writers, but the 
 periodical was a loss and a trouble to its conductor, and its 
 career closed with the sixth number. Another venture of a 
 similar character, The Brazen Head, edited by Knight and 
 Barry St. Leger, was brought out in the Spring of 1826, but it 
 only lasted for four weeks. Nevertheless, those few numbers 
 contained poems by Praed which have acquired a permanent 
 fame. In one of them, 'The Chaunt of the Brazen Head,' 
 occur these well-known lines : 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 93 
 
 ' I think that friars and their hoods, 
 
 Their doctrines and their maggots, 
 Have lighted up too many feuds, 
 
 And far too many faggots ; 
 I think while zealots fast and frown, 
 
 And fight for two or seven, 
 That there are fifty roads to town, 
 
 And rather more to Heaven. 
 
 ' I think that very few have sigh'd 
 
 When Fate at last has found them, 
 Though bitter foes were by their side, 
 
 And barren moss around them ; 
 I think that some have died of drought, 
 
 And some have died of drinking, 
 I think that naught is worth a thought, 
 
 And I'm a fool for thinking ! ' 
 
 Charles Knight's Plain Englishman continued to appear for 
 three years, faithfully supporting the Constitution in Church 
 and State, and supplying pure and wholesome literature. But 
 the patronage of the public at large not being such as would 
 enable its conductors to continue the work without serious loss, 
 the venture was given up. The freedom of the press was an 
 unknown quantity early in the century. John and Leigh Hunt 
 were prosecuted in 1812 for libelling the Prince Regent in the 
 Examiner. They had simply called him ' an Adonis in loveli- 
 ness ' and ' a corpulent gentleman of fifty,' yet for these mild 
 phrases they were fined ^1,000 each, and imprisoned for two 
 years in separate prisons. Again, in May, 1821, John Hunt 
 was prosecuted for a libel on the House of Commons, and 
 sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Charles Knight himself 
 was the subject of vexatious actions on grounds for which he 
 would be applauded now. The actions arose out of articles 
 published in the Windsor Express, and Knight, writing about 
 the affair in 1865, remarks : 
 
 * Imagine, at the present day, the Lord Chief Justice of the 
 Court of Queen's Bench trying an action for libel, with two 
 
94 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 leaders, such as Mr. Denman for the prosecution, and Mr. 
 Scarlett for the defence, the alleged libel being the report in 
 a country newspaper of a flagrant case of cruelty which was a 
 notorious subject of local indignation. The libel consisted in 
 terming that " a brutal assault " upon which the assailants were 
 held to bail. Imagine that the persons whose characters were 
 thus defamed were a pig-keeper and his wife, who let lodgings 
 to poor people ; and having a dispute with a family of which 
 the mother had only been confined a week, threatened to pull 
 the bed from under her, and turn her into the street. Imagine 
 a London jury finding a verdict for the plaintiff with ^50 
 damages. Imagine a second action for the same libel being 
 brought by the wife. Imagine ten several actions against ten 
 London papers, for reporting the trial in the King's Bench 
 with a few words of just comment upon the scandal of such 
 litigation, when there was no "private malice" or "gross 
 negligence." Imagine a hungry attorney, prowling for prey, at 
 the bottom of all these actions, who had no object to attain 
 but the heavy costs which he pocketed. These verdicts cost 
 me ,500 in 1825. Is not the newspaper press in a better 
 condition than it was in, forty years ago ? ' 
 
 At the time of Lord Byron's funeral, Knight was involved in 
 a matter of public interest connected with the deceased poet. 
 Five days before he witnessed the poet's funeral procession, on 
 the 1 2th of July, he was served with a Chancery injunction to 
 restrain him from publishing certain letters of Lord Byron. It 
 appears that Robert Charles Dallas, who was connected by 
 marriage with the family of the poet, prepared a volume with 
 the object of presenting a faithful delineation of Byron's 
 character as he had personally known it. After the poet's 
 death, Dallas remodelled his memoir into Correspondence of 
 Lord Byron^ and this work Charles Knight purchased for a 
 large sum. It was already advertised for publication, when 
 Mr. Hobhouse and a friend called upon Knight and protested 
 against the issue of the work. Although Knight assured the 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 95 
 
 family and the executors that they need feel no apprehension 
 as to the character of the work which was intended to elevate 
 Lord Byron's moral and intellectual character, legal proceed- 
 ings ensued. The Vice-Chancellor granted an injunction upon 
 the affidavits of Mr. Hobhouse and Mr. Hanson, co-executors, 
 that such contemplated publication was 'a breach of private con- 
 fidence and a violation of the rights of property.' There was 
 an appeal, and after two months of anxiety for Knight, Lord 
 Chancellor Eldon gave judgment to the effect that the owner 
 of the letters had no right of publication in them. However, 
 after the death of Dallas, in 1824, Knight published a trust- 
 worthy and authentic volume entitled Recollections of Lord 
 Byron, edited by Dallas's son, the Rev. Alexander Dallas. 
 Besides the annoyance and loss to Knight, it was not a plea- 
 sant thing for him to see Moore reap the full advantage of the 
 suppressed correspondence, by filling many pages in 1829 with 
 the letters of Dallas and Byron which the executors had thought 
 fit to suppress in 1824. 
 
 Brougham was busily engaged in organising the Society for 
 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in the autumn of 1826, 
 when M. D. Hill informed him of Charles Knight's scheme 
 for the issue of popular books. An interview was speedily ar- 
 ranged between the great lawyer and the publisher. That inter- 
 view was indelibly impressed on Knight's memory, and it had 
 also much to do with moulding his future. Knight gives this 
 graphic picture of their first meeting : 
 
 ' There was an image in my mind of the Queen's Attorney- 
 General, as I had often beheld him in the House of Lords, 
 wielding a power in the proceedings on the Bill of Pains and 
 Penalties which no other man seemed to possess equivocating 
 witnesses crouching beneath his withering scorn ; mighty peers 
 shrinking from his bold sarcasm ; the whole assembly visibly agi- 
 tated at times by the splendour of his eloquence. The Henry 
 Brougham I had gazed upon was, in my mind's eye, a man 
 stern and repellent ; not to be approached with any attempt at 
 
96 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 familiarity ; whose opinions must be received with the most re- 
 spectful deference; whose mental superiority would be somewhat 
 overwhelming. The Henry Brougham into whose chambers in 
 Lincoln's Inn I was ushered on a November night was sitting 
 amidst his briefs, evidently delighted to be interrupted for some 
 thoughts more attractive. After saluting my friend with a joke, 
 and grasping my hand with a cordial welcome, he went at once 
 to the subject upon which I came. The rapid conception of 
 the features of my plan ; the few brief questions as to my wishes ; 
 the manifestation of a warm interest in my views without the 
 slightest attempt to be patronising, were most gratifying to me. 
 The image of the great orator of 1820 altogether vanished when 
 I listened to the unpretentious and often playful words of one of 
 the best table-talkers of 1826, it vanished, even as the full-bot- 
 tomed wig of that time seemed to have belonged to some other 
 head than the close-cropped one upon which I looked. The 
 foremost advocate of popular education made no harangues 
 about its advantages. He did not indoctrinate me, as I have 
 been bored by many an educationist before and since, with 
 flourishes upon a subject which he gave Mr. Hill and myself 
 full credit for comprehending. M. Charles Dupin said to 
 Mackintosh, after a night in the House of Commons, " I heard 
 not one word about the blessings of liberty." "No, no," replied 
 Mackintosh ; " we take all that for granted." So did Henry 
 Brougham take for granted that he and I were in accord upon 
 the subject of the Diffusion of Knowledge. He was then within 
 a few days of the completion of his forty-seventh year ; full of 
 health and energy one who had been working without inter- 
 mission in literature, in science, in law, in politics, for a quarter 
 of a century, but one to whom no work seemed to bring 
 fatigue; no tedious mornings of the King's Bench, no sleep- 
 less nights of the House of Commons, able to " stale his 
 infinite variety.'" 
 
 Under the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
 Knowledge, Knight began the issue of the British Almanac in 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 97 
 
 1827, which was soon followed by the Companion to the 
 Almanac, and he continued the work for thirty-seven years, 
 writing many original articles himself. Up to this time alma- 
 nacs had been of a very inferior type, but Knight now supplied 
 useful and trustworthy information. He had gathered together a 
 number of scientific men, who were able to deal with such sub- 
 jects as Astronomy, Meteorology, Tides, Eclipses, etc. Knight 
 was not so successful, however, with his scheme for a National 
 Library. It was at first taken up by the Society, but difficulties 
 arose, and Knight finally -arranged with Murray the publisher 
 to carry out the idea for a series of cheap volumes, which should 
 condense the information only to be found in voluminous and 
 expensive treatises. The Prospectus set forth that ' the divi- 
 sions of Popular Knowledge in which the National Library is 
 arranged will comprehend, in distinct Treatises, the most im- 
 portant branches of instruction and amusement. They will pre- 
 sent the most valuable and interesting articles of an Encyclo- 
 paedia in a form accessible to every description of purchaser.' 
 But various things soon began to militate against the under- 
 taking ; differences of opinion arose about the editorial respon- 
 sibility for the series ; no satisfactory arrangements could be 
 made regarding the projector's old stock and copyrights ; and 
 Murray became frightened at the magnitude of the plan. The 
 scheme was consequently abandoned, to Knight's great loss. 
 In fact, he was absolutely crippled for a time. A private trust 
 administered his affairs, whose only concern was to realise, at 
 any cost, land, houses, newspapers, stock, copyrights, etc. In 
 the end he walked forth from his business homes in London and 
 Windsor a poor man, and one who had to begin the battle of 
 life afresh. 
 
 Finding a home at Brompton, with his wife and four little 
 girls, he soon began to look hopefully on life again, though 
 under changed circumstances. He obtained an engagement 
 as a writer on James Silk Buckingham's new paper, The Sphinx^ 
 but his course of journalism under Buckingham was not agree- 
 
 H 
 
98 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 able, and he soon abandoned it. Buckingham was not only 
 difficult to work with owing to his conceit, but he at length 
 disgusted Knight by proposing an amended scale of remunera- 
 tion for literary criticisms, which began at half-a-crown and 
 rose to a guinea, according to the length of the article. Hap- 
 pily a more worthy course of industry was soon to open out 
 for Charles Knight, though before the time arrived he had a 
 little experience in producing Friendship's Offering, one of the 
 numerous Annuals which were then so much in vogue. For 
 this periodical, Praed wrote his fine poem, ' The Red Fisher- 
 man.' 
 
 Before the work of the day commenced, Charles Knight was 
 fond of taking a walk through Kensington Gardens. He did 
 this frequently during the summer of 1827 when all Nature 
 had put on the garb of loveliness and in the course of one of 
 these walks he witnessed a peaceful and happy scene in which 
 the Princess Victoria, the future Queen of these realms, was 
 the central though youthful attraction. ' In such a season,' he 
 wrote in his Passages of a Working Life, ' when the sun was 
 scarcely high enough to have dried up the dews of Kensing- 
 ton's green alleys, as I passed along the broad central walk, I 
 saw a group on the lawn before the Palace, which, to my mind, 
 was a vision of exquisite loveliness. The Duchess of Kent, 
 and her daughter, whose years then numbered nine, are break- 
 fasting in the open air a single 1 page attending upon them at 
 a respectful distance, the matron looking on with eyes of 
 love, whilst the " fair, soft English face " is bright with smiles. 
 The world of fashion is not yet astir. Clerks and mechanics 
 passing onward to their occupations are few, and they exhibit 
 nothing of that vulgar curiosity which I think is more com- 
 monly found in the class of the merely rich, than in the ranks 
 below them in the world's estimation. What a beautiful 
 characteristic it seemed to me of the training of this royal girl, 
 that she should not have been taught to shrink from the public 
 eye that she should not have been burthened with a prema- 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 99 
 
 ture conception of her probable high destiny that she should 
 enjoy the freedom and simplicity of a child's nature that she 
 should not be restrained when she starts up from the breakfast 
 table and runs to gather a flower in the adjoining parterre 
 that her merry laugh should be as fearless as the notes of the 
 thrush in the groves around her. I passed on and blessed her, 
 and I thank God that I have lived to see the golden fruits of 
 such training.' 
 
 A new departure of great importance to Charles Knight was 
 initiated on the 26th of July, 1827. On that date there was 
 a general meeting of the Committee of the Society for the 
 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, with James Mill in the chair, 
 when Knight was appointed to undertake the superintendence 
 of the Society's publications. At that time the only publica- 
 tions of the Society were the treatises in the Library of Useful 
 Knoivledge, issued fortnightly in sixpenny numbers. Brougham 
 had most successfully opened the series with his ' Discourse on 
 the Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science.' It was 
 intended to follow this up with manuals for self-education 
 clear, accurate, but not to be mastered without diligence and 
 perseverance. Those which were issued made it clear that 
 there was a great body of students whether in colleges or 
 Mechanics' Institutes, in busy towns or quiet villages to 
 whom such guides were welcome. Knight was general editor 
 and manager of the series, as also of the Almanacs of the 
 Society, to which reference has already been made. Through- 
 out England and Scotland a great number of unstamped 
 almanacs were surreptitiously sold by pedlars and hawkers, as 
 well as privately in shops. Knight prepared a report on the 
 subject which led to the total repeal of the Almanac Duty. 
 In March, 1828, Knight became part proprietor of the London 
 Magazine. To the first number of a new series, begun in 
 April, he contributed an article on the ' Education of the 
 People,' distinguished for its liberality and breadth of view. 
 
 In the interest of the Society's publications, Knight visited 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the principal towns of the kingdom Birmingham, Liverpool, 
 Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, York, Nottingham, etc. The 
 progress of humanising and elevating efforts on behalf of 
 factory workers, and the working-classes generally, he thus de- 
 scribes in connection with a visit paid to Manchester : ' When 
 I visited Manchester in 1828, five years were to elapse before 
 children and young persons working in factories would be pro- 
 tected by law from working an unreasonable number of hours, 
 and when Government Inspectors would watch over the pre- 
 servation of their health and enforce the necessity for their 
 education. The first Factory Act did not come into operation 
 till January, 1834. It may well be imagined, therefore, that in 
 the mills I looked upon male and female children, from seven 
 years of age till seventeen (the employment of children under 
 nine years was not then prohibited), who, scarcely coming 
 under the cognisance of the masters, for such children were 
 subject to the control of the spinners, were growing up in 
 bodily weakness, in ignorance, and in vice. There was then little 
 of kindly intercourse between the employers and the employed. 
 The means of mental improvement for adults were very limited. 
 A Mechanics' Institute and a Mechanics' and Apprentices' 
 Library were indeed established in 1826. The " Athenaeum" 
 was built several years later. It was remarked in 1842 that 
 there was no public park or green in which the labouring 
 population could enjoy healthy exercise and recreation. " The 
 Peel Park," the first of those free pleasure-grounds which have 
 removed this disgrace from Manchester, was not opened till 
 1846. So rare was any endeavour to advance the condition 
 of the workers, to promote their innocent enjoyments, to 
 cherish and instruct their children in the spirit of a common 
 humanity, that when two letters to Mr. Horner, printed in a 
 periodical work of 1840, recorded what had been done in a new 
 mill in 1832, erected near Manchester by Messrs. Greg, there 
 was a good deal of incredulity as to the probable results of 
 such a deviation from the usual course of neglect. These 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 101 
 
 gentlemen had built cottages for the operatives ; they had 
 attached a garden to each house; they had Sunday-schools; 
 they had arranged outdoor exercises for the hours of leisure. 
 They had provided hot and cold baths; they had evening 
 parties, to which the young people were invited by their em- 
 ployers. This solitary example soon had its imitators. A fac- 
 tory, whether for cotton, linen, or woollen fabrics, is not now 
 a region especially suited for the cultivation of all the sus- 
 picions and hatreds that in former times made the relations 
 between the capitalist and the labourer the most dangerous 
 aspect of our social state.' 
 
 By Midsummer, 1829, Knight was agiin established in Pall 
 Mall East as a publisher, though still retaining his connection 
 with, and preparing works for, the Society for the Diffusion of 
 Useful Knowledge. The Society included on its committee 
 or among its members, Henry Brougham, Lord John Russell, 
 William and Thomas Tooke, James Mill, Henry Hallam, 
 Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, Henry Bellenden Ker, Matthew 
 Davenport Hill, Dr. Roget, Charles Bell, Dr. Neil Arnott, Dr. 
 Maltby (afterwards Bishop of Durham), William Allen, the 
 philanthropic Quaker, John William Lubbock, Lord Wrottesley, 
 George Long, A. de Morgan, Leonard Horner, Herman Meri- 
 vale, George Cornevvall Lewis, Spring Rice, George Denman, 
 Lords Auckland and Althorp, and Sir Henry Parnell. The 
 reader will recognise among these many steadfast friends of 
 education, as well as men who became eminent in various 
 spheres. After the Reform era, it was no uncommon thing for 
 five Cabinet Ministers to sit down at the Society's monthly 
 dinner. George Lillie Craik was one of the most valuable 
 writers connected with the Society, and his work entitled The 
 Pursuit of Knowledge tinder Difficulties did great service among 
 the working-classes, and attained a large sale. During the 
 spring of 1830, Charles Knight vigorously pushed forward the 
 monthly issue of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge a 
 series of half volumes which began in 1828, and to which 
 
io2 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Knight himself contributed two volumes on 'The Menageries,' 
 and Craik other two on ' Paris and its Historical Scenes.' 
 Brougham, although he had been appointed Lord Chancellor 
 in December, 1830, prepared an edition of Paley's Natural 
 Theology, with Notes and an Introductory Discourse. The 
 Society began the issue of a small series of shilling volumes, 
 entitled The Working Maris Companion. Knight wrote a 
 volume on The Rights of Machinery, for which he received the 
 special thanks of the Useful Knowledge Committee. The 
 book achieved a wonderful amount of good in convincing 
 workmen, infuriated by the introduction and multiplication of 
 machinery, of the groundlessness of their fears. It was a sober 
 and argumentative little treatise, which contained no appeals to 
 the passions, but rested the strength of its assaults against long- 
 cherished prejudices upon a battery of facts. Printers and 
 bookbinders were amongst those who long opposed the im- 
 provements in machinery, and The Times had great difficulties 
 to encounter when its proprietors first made use of machinery. 
 The Useful Knowledge Society began the issue of the 
 Quarterly Journal of Education in January, 1831. Charles 
 Knight, as publisher, bore the risk of the undertaking. Pro- 
 fessor Long was the editor, and the Journal was regularly 
 continued for five years. It numbered among its contributors 
 men of such eminence as Dr. Whately, Dr. Thirlwall, and Dr. 
 Arnold, and it is scarcely necessary to add that the 4,000 pages 
 of which the work consisted embraced a mass of information 
 of original value and general interest. 'There was a great 
 work to be accomplished to take the education of all classes 
 out of the hands of incompetent and prejudiced instructors, 
 and to free the young, upon whose judicious training the 
 welfare of another generation would depend, from that disci- 
 pline which united the extremes of laxity and severity, and that 
 routine which, relying upon forms, so constantly neglected 
 essentials.' In 1831, Knight again directly addressed himself 
 to workmen in a volume which he wrote under the title of The 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 103 
 
 Rights of Industry, which had for its second title, Capital and 
 Labour. This book exhibited the rights of workmen in con-* 
 nection with their duties, by proving that the interests of every 
 member of Society, properly understood, were one and the , 
 same. It was ready for publication when the fatal riots at * 
 Bristol occurred, and the author added a stirring appeal to the/ 
 great masses of the people to discountenance violence and! 
 outrage, which were the sure precursors of national decay and \ 
 ruin. This volume was afterwards amalgamated with the one * 
 on machinery, and published under the title of Knowledge is 
 Power. In 1832, following closely upon the appearance ot 
 Chamber? s Edinburgh Journal, began the issue of the Penny 
 Magazine under the auspices of the Useful Knowledge Society. 
 Knight was appointed editor, and he likewise undertook the 
 risk of publication. These were ventures in the right direction. 
 Working-men soon began to look as eagerly for their mental 
 food in the Penny Magazine as they did for their daily bread. 
 Nothwithstanding the great initial difficulties which had to be 
 surmounted, the Magazine was soon an established success, 
 and by the end of 1832 the sale .had reached no less than 
 200,000 in weekly numbers and monthly parts. This meant 
 in all probability a million readers. Such a result must have 
 been most gratifying to the projectors, for throughout the work 
 there was no sentence that could inflame a vicious appetite, 
 and no paragraph which could minister to prejudices and 
 superstitions hitherto so common. There were no excitements 
 for the lovers of the marvellous no tattle or abuse for the 
 gratification of a diseased taste for personality, and, above all, 
 no party politics. The writers included Long. De Morgan, 
 Craik, Macfarlane, Pringle the traveller, and John Kitto. The 
 last-named came to occupy important relations towards Knight, 
 for whom he executed a vast amount of good editorial work. 
 Fourteen volumes in all were published of the Penny Magazine, 
 before it was discontinued in 1845. 
 
 The Society then projected the Penny Cyclopaedia, its greatest 
 
io 4 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 undertaking. The publication began in January, 1833, in 
 weekly numbers and monthly parts. The work was entirely 
 original, and with its supplement was completed in 1846. The 
 total cost for literature and engraving was ^42,000. The 
 result to the originator was, unfortunately, a loss of ,30,000. 
 Had he not been hampered by the Society this disastrous 
 result might have been averted. The work was under the 
 superintendence of the Society, however, and soon after it 
 began, the Committee determined that it must be enormously 
 enlarged in its scope, and the price of the weekly numbers 
 doubled. The extension of the quantity of the Cyclopedia 
 destroyed its commercial value. Had it been a careful com- 
 pilation, instead of an original work furnished by nearly two 
 hundred contributors, it would have proved a fortune to Knight 
 instead of which it lost him one. The sale of the first year 
 was double that of the fourth year, and that of the fourth 
 double that of the eighth year. It then found its level, and 
 became steady to the end, with a regular sale of 20,000. In 
 the outset the sale had been 75,000 copies. Charles Knight 
 told the story of this great publication in a volume entitled, 
 The Struggles of a Book against Excessive Taxation. His 
 revelations not only showed the difficulties he had to contend 
 with, but demonstrated the amazing impetus which the under- 
 taking must have given directly and indirectly to the printing 
 industry. The following details are full of interest : 
 
 ' The Penny Cyclopedia and its Supplement were completed 
 in 1846. The two works contain 15,764 pages, and the quantity 
 of paper required to produce a single copy is two reams, each 
 weighing thirty-five pounds. At the period of its completion 
 the entire quantity of paper consumed was fifty thousand reams, 
 the total weight of which amounted to one million seven hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand pounds. Of this weight, twenty 
 thousand reams, or seven hundred thousand pounds, paid the 
 Excise duty of threepence per pound, amounting to 8,750 ; 
 and the remaining thirty thousand reams paid the reduced duty 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 105 
 
 of three-halfpence per pound (commencing in 1837) upon one 
 million and fifty thousand pounds, amounting to ,6,562. The 
 total duty paid up to the completion of the Cyclopaedia in 1846, 
 was 15,312. Since that period, two thousand reams of paper 
 have been used in reprinting, to correct the inequalities of the 
 stock, making an addition of seventy thousand pounds, excised 
 at 437. But further, the wrappers for the monthly parts 
 have used fifteen hundred reams of paper, taxed at ,500, and 
 the milled boards employed in binding the volumes have been 
 also taxed about 300. The total payment to the Excise by 
 the Penny Cyclopaedia has been "16,500.' 
 
 Having thus opened his case, Knight went on to elaborate 
 it as follows : 
 
 ' I propose to show 
 
 ' i st. That the excessive burthen upon the great work, to 
 which I have devoted seventeen years of toil and anxiety, has 
 been the primary cause that the enterprise has not yet been 
 remunerative. 
 
 ' 2nd. That the continuance of the paper, at the present rate 
 of three-halfpence per pound, prevents me undertaking the 
 publication of a new and improved edition, upon its first plan 
 of a continuous alphabetical arrangement. 
 
 'i. The positive burthen of "16,500 imposed by the State 
 upon the publication of the book, is far from representing the 
 difficulty and loss which the payment has entailed upon the 
 undertaking. 
 
 ' It is well known that the amount of a duty upon raw 
 material by no means represents the amount of the charge 
 which it entails upon the manufacturer. Mr. MacCulloch and 
 Mr. Porter rightly state that the price for a ream of one par- 
 ticular sort of printing paper was, in 1831, twenty- four shillings 
 in 1843, fifteen shillings and sixpence. From 1833 to 1837 the 
 price of a ream of Penny Cyclopedia paper was thirty-three 
 shillings; from 1838 to 1846 it was twenty-four shillings. The 
 difference in price was nine shillings per ream ; the amount of 
 
io6 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 reduced duty was four shillings and fourpence-halfpenny. The 
 paper-makers and the stationers doubled the tax. Mr. Mill, 
 in his Principles of Political Economy, writes : " Whatever 
 renders a larger capital necessary in any trade or business 
 limits the competition in that business ; and by giving some- 
 thing like a monopoly to a few dealers, enables them to keep 
 up the price beyond what would afford the ordinary rate of 
 profit." 
 
 ' But even at the reduced rate it has been satisfactorily 
 shown by my fellow-labourers, the Messrs. Chambers, that 
 the duty enters one-third into the price. If the duty were 
 removed, I could buy a ream of similar paper for seven- 
 teen shillings. The tax, preventing competition and giving 
 undue advantage to capitalists, had the effect of making me 
 pay for my paper, from 1833 to 1837, sixteen shillings a ream 
 more than the price of untaxed paper would be, or ,16,000 
 upon twenty thousand reams; and from 1838 to 1846, seven 
 shillings per ream more than I should otherwise have paid, 
 which upon thirty thousand reams amounts to ^1 0,500. The 
 tax, therefore, operated as a burthen upon my publication to the 
 extent of ^26,500, during its long and difficult progress to 
 completion. The paper since used for reprints, and the 
 paper for wrappers, has been raised in price ^2,500 by the 
 same process. 
 
 ' The struggles of one book against excessive taxation are, up 
 to this point, to be measured by a burthen of 29,000. 
 
 'But I have not yet done. The tax has been working 
 against the Penny Cyclopcedia for seventeen years, in the 
 chronic form of interest and compound interest. 
 
 * It was not very long before the periodical sale settled into 
 a regular quantity. The work became too extensive for the 
 great bulk of purchasers. For the first few months of the 
 publication the sale was double what it was at the end of the 
 year. The sale of the first year doubled that of the fourth 
 year. The sale of the fourth year doubled that of the eighth 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT, 107 
 
 year, and then found its level and became steady to the end, 
 reduced from fifty- five thousand at the commencement to 
 twenty thousand at the conclusion. Every publisher of a 
 periodical work knows the accumulation of stock that must 
 inevitably take place with a falling demand. There never was 
 a period after the third year of which I had less than five reams 
 of the Penny Cyclopaedia in my warehouse ; upon which duty 
 had been paid for some portion at the high rate, and for some 
 at the low, averaging ^"1,500. In 1841 there were in my 
 warehouse twelve hundred reams upon which the high duty, 
 expiring in 1837, had been paid. I consider the accumulating 
 interest in this investment, in actually paid duty, upon dead 
 stock, to have amounted, in the seventeen years during which 
 I have been labouring to sell that stock, to ,1,500, and, in- 
 cluding the interest upon the extra price charged by the paper 
 manufacturer, to a charge of ^3,000. 
 
 ' And here, then, will the usual conclusion arise, that the 
 publisher has not borne this load of thirty-two thousand pounds 
 imposed by the State upon the Penny Cyclopedia, but the 
 purchasers of the Penny Cyclopedia. My answer is very 
 direct. Had that sum of 32,000 been actually saved to 
 me, I should not have been a pound richer by the publication 
 of the Penny Cyclopedia. But with the saving I should not 
 have been to that amount poorer. The outlay was so great, that 
 it could never pay its expenses under a sale of thirty-six 
 thousand copies with the high duty. In the first five years 
 that average number was printed ; but the accumulation of 
 stock locked up 10,000. Under the low duty it paid its 
 expenses at thirty thousand copies. The actual average sale 
 during the nine years of that duty was twenty thousand. It 
 would have required that there should be no Paper Duty at 
 all to have paid its expenses on a sale of twenty thousand. 
 Had the duty not been reduced by one-half at the end of 1836, 
 I could not, by any possibility, have carried on the work. As 
 it was, I struggled to the end. 
 
icS LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 1 2. The reduced Paper Duty, as I have undertaken to show, 
 prevents me making the best use of the valuable copyright 
 which remains to me, now that the accumulated stock is in 
 great part exhausted. 
 
 * I was advised to propose a subscription for an entirely new 
 edition. The highest personage in the realm accorded me her 
 support, and so did her admirable Consort, who is doing for 
 Science and Industry what is worth far more than any money 
 value. Some of the most eminent in the walks of intellect 
 also came forward to aid me. Of the support of the members 
 of the Legislature which taxed me during fourteen years, I 
 have not much to boast. I have given up the design. Upon 
 a sale that would have merely returned my new outlay, the 
 Paper Duty would have burthened the work to the extent of 
 ,3,000. Its abandonment would have lightened my task to 
 the extent of making the work yield me as high a profit from 
 three thousand subscribers as from four thousand subscribers 
 with the duty continued. With this encouragement I should 
 have gone on. 
 
 ' There is a steady demand for the existing edition of the 
 Penny Cyclopedia, to the extent of two hundred and fifty sets 
 annually. The Paper Duty prevents me meeting this demand 
 with any moderate commercial profit. The technical explana- 
 tion is not difficult to be understood. If I print two hundred 
 and fifty copies only, I use five hundred reams of paper, of 
 which the duty is 4/6 each, and the necessary increase of 
 manufacturer's price 2/6, making a charge, arising out of the 
 duty, of y/- per ream, or 17 5 upon two hundred and fifty 
 copies. But in printing only two hundred and fifty copies I 
 have to pay for the press-work as high as i5/- per ream, where- 
 as if I printed five hundred, I should only pay io/-. As the 
 number of a book first printed increases, the cost of press-work 
 or machine-work diminishes ; and for this reason the tax upon 
 a raw material of a book or paper, increasing the risk of print- 
 ing a large impression, compels a smaller impression at a higher 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 109 
 
 cost. But if there were no Paper Duty I should print five 
 hundred copies, by which I should save ^350 in the price of 
 paper, and .250 in the price of press-work, making a saving 
 of 600. This outlay of ,600 is imposed upon me absolutely 
 by the existence of the Paper Duty ; and that fact will possibly 
 compel me to give up reprinting a book which has done more 
 for the achievement of sound knowledge and general education 
 in these kingdoms than any work ever produced in any country. 
 That ^600 saved would afford me an income which would 
 allow me to invest capital in such a reprint. Printing only 
 two hundred and fifty copies at the present price of paper, a 
 set of this book would cost me ^1,000. My net profit upon 
 that outlay would not be ten per cent. 
 
 ' And with all this danger and difficulty with "this lion in 
 my path " I am not yet beaten. I have my valuable copy- 
 right of the Penny Cyclopedia, remaining to me ; and I have 
 passed many an anxious hour in seeing how I can best turn it 
 to account. I am about to publish a series of separate cyclo- 
 paedias, with large improvements, and I begin with a Cyclopedia 
 of British Geography, and a Cyclopaedia of Arts and Industry. 
 Let me show the exact track which " the lion in my path " 
 drives me to seek ; and then some of those legislators who find 
 that a fashionable novel, sold at a guinea and a half, pays about 
 fourpence Paper Duty, and thence conclude that it is the lightest 
 of taxes, and by all means should be preserved especially as 
 books, as they hold, are not necessaries of life some of those 
 
 who 
 
 " Hate not learning worse than toad or asp," 
 
 may know what it is to maintain a tax upon knowledge, 
 struggling to preserve its high rank and its useful extension 
 amidst the widest competition of cheapness. 
 
 ' Upon these four volumes, estimated to contain about three 
 thousand pages, I shall expend ,1,500 upon new editorial 
 labour. I shall further expend about 1,000 upon new plates 
 and maps. The printer's charge for setting up the types will 
 
no LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 be 800, and the cost of stereotyping will be ^500. Add for 
 advertising, ^200, and I have thus to expend ,4,000 as first 
 outlay, whether I sell five hundred copies or five thousand. 
 At the present cost of paper, three thousand copies (the least 
 number I could print with advantage) will amount to ^1,500; 
 the press-work will cost ,500; total, ^6,000. The three 
 thousand copies, produced upon this scale, will exactly cover 
 my outlay, without a shilling profit. But let us see how the 
 account would stand with the price of paper reduced one- 
 third by the abolition of the duty. My course would then be 
 to print four thousand copies, and not stereotype, which pro- 
 cess is chiefly employed to save the outlay of capital in taxed 
 paper. The first outlay is, therefore, ,3,500 ; the paper for 
 four thousand copies, at the lower untaxed price, would cost 
 me ,1,333; the press-work ,600 (reduced per ream on 
 account of the larger number). I produce, therefore, four 
 thousand copies for ,5,433, instead of three thousand 
 copies for ;6,ooo. I expend less by ,567, and I have one 
 thousand copies left to sell for my profit. I could sell four 
 thousand copies, under these circumstances, more easily than 
 three thousand as I now stand, for I could afford to advertise 
 more freely, and to offer higher inducements to retailers. 
 This is something different from a fourpenny tax upon a 
 fashionable novel.' 
 
 The Gallery of Portraits, which Knight next published 
 under the superintendence of the Society, was also next to 
 the Cyclopaedia in its costliness of production. The task of 
 selecting subjects occupied the Committee from the beginning 
 of 1832 to the Midsummer of 1834, and British and foreign 
 statesmen, warriors, divines, men of science and letters, and 
 artists were all assigned their due place of honour in the 
 work. The first monthly number, published at half-a-crown, 
 and containing three portraits with biographies, appeared in 
 May, 1832. Arthur H. Hallam wrote a number of bio- 
 graphies for the work, and De Quincey contributed a fine 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. in 
 
 memoir of Milton. Charles Knight was an early opponent of 
 the newspaper stamp, as well as of the Paper Duty, and had much 
 to do with securing their repeal. The i3th of August, 1836, was 
 a day of rejoicing for him, and for the press generally, for on 
 that day two Acts of Parliament received the Royal Assent, 
 which materially influenced all the commercial arrangements 
 for rendering knowledge, political or literary, more accessible to 
 the bulk of the people. The first of these reduced the duties 
 on first-class paper from threepence per pound to three- 
 halfpence, so that the former tax of three-halfpence upon 
 second-class paper should apply to paper of all descriptions. 
 The second reduced the stamp on newspapers from fourpence 
 to a penny. In his work on Post Office Reform, Rowland Hill 
 observes : ' When the expediency of entirely abolishing the 
 newspaper stamp and allowing newspapers to pass through the 
 Post Office for a penny each was under consideration, it was 
 proposed by Mr. Charles Knight, the publisher, that the 
 postage on newspapers might be collected by selling stamped 
 wrappers at a penny each. Availing myself of this excellent 
 suggestion, I proposed the following arrangement, -let the 
 stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the public 
 from the Stamp Office or Post Office, as may be most con- 
 venient, and sold at such a price as to include the postage. 
 Letters so stamped might be put into the letter-box as at 
 present.' It would not be far wrong to say that Knight's sug- 
 gestion led to the adoption of the penny postage stamp. 
 
 Early in 1836 Knight issued the first part of the Pictorial 
 Bible. The idea of the work was derived from Germany. 
 John Kitto was editor, and he also furnished notes upon 
 such subjects as had come under his observation during his 
 travels in the East. Fine wood-engravings were given, em- 
 bracing the scriptural designs of great painters, landscape 
 scenes, eastern costumes, the remains of ancient architecture, 
 and botanical and zoological specimens. The work occupied 
 two years and a half in its publication, and notwithstanding 
 
ii2 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the costliness of the engravings it proved profitable. After its 
 completion came Palestine, a new work undertaken by Dr. 
 Kitto. This was succeeded by The Thousand and One Nights, 
 or the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, a new translation from 
 authentic Arabic originals, by Edward Lane, with admirable 
 illustrations by William Harvey. The Pictorial History of 'Eng- 
 land a work of still greater magnitude was begun in 1840. 
 It extended to eight volumes, and occupied seven years in a 
 regular monthly course of publication. Charles MacFarlane 
 undertook the larger department of civil and military his- 
 tory, and G. Lillie Craik wrote the history of religion, litera- 
 ture, and commerce. Assistance was rendered by other 
 writers in various departments. Half the whole work was 
 occupied with the reign of George the Third only, and this 
 disproportion proved fatal to its success. Still, with its con- 
 tinuations down to the present day, the work holds its own, 
 and has never been superseded by any other. London, 
 another serial which was begun in 1841 and completed in 
 1844, included among its contributors Craik, Planche, Fair- 
 holt, Saunders, Dodd, and Weir. The story of the great Metro- 
 polis is told with wonderful interest, past and present scenes in 
 its history being realised with great skill. It is to Charles 
 Knight we owe that graphic title of ' The Silent Highway ' as 
 applied to the Thames. The reign of the watermen is traced 
 from the time of John Norman, first Mayor of London, who 
 was rowed to Westminster instead of riding, to the days when 
 even the watermen had become a portion of the antiquities of 
 London the days of the penny steamboat. Then we get 
 sketches of the Metropolis itself, from Hyde Park in the 
 west to Rag Fair in the extreme east. 
 
 In view of the present enormous development of the news- 
 paper and periodical press, it is interesting to note that on 
 Saturday, May 4th, 1844 exactly half a century ago, the 
 number of weekly periodical works issued in London was 
 about sixty. The monthly issue of periodical literature was 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 113 
 
 unequalled by any similar commercial operation in Europe, 
 there being 227 monthly works sent out on the last day of 
 May, 1844, from Paternoster Row, in addition to 38 works 
 published quarterly. The number of newspapers published in 
 the United Kingdom was 447, and of these, 79 were London 
 newspapers. These figures seemed surprising at the time, but 
 they are small indeed compared with present figures. The 
 total number of periodicals and newspapers in the United 
 Kingdom in 1890 was upwards of 3,000, and the newspapers 
 published in London alone numbered 646. The circulation of 
 these counts by millions. 
 
 Knight's Pictorial Shakespeare was a work in which the pro- 
 jector took a special interest. It was in eight volumes. The 
 publication began in 1839, and went on for two years. Knight 
 himself wrote the biography of the immortal poet, of whom he 
 was an ardent student and worshipper. Indeed, Miss Alice A. 
 Clowes, Knight's granddaughter, in her sketch of the publisher, 
 states that the various editions of Shakespeare which he edited 
 * were amongst the pleasantest labours of his life.' She adds 
 these personal details concerning Charles Knight : ' The en- 
 thusiasm he felt for everything relating to the poet's genius and 
 career never left him, and to his latest day he loved to quote a 
 line here and there from the writings he knew so well. As 
 children, my brothers and sisters and I listened with perhaps 
 more awe than appreciation, to the quotations, which some 
 chance reference in our idle talk would call forth from the lips 
 of our keen-eyed and sharp-eared grandfather. He very seldom 
 joined in ordinary conversation. When all around him were 
 prattling, as people with the best intentions will prattle, he 
 would sit with his head rather bent down, as if lost in 
 thought ; but, if any remark beyond the commonplace were 
 uttered, be it by man, woman, or child, the head would be 
 raised and the eye brighten at once, and words of wisdom 
 would be spoken. It was always a trial to him to put up with 
 assumption and ignorance of any kind, and as children we 
 
 I 
 
ii4 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 were rather afraid of expressing our youthful opinion in his 
 hearing, which was, no doubt, very good for us.' 
 
 Altogether, Knight published eight different editions of 
 Shakespeare. The first of these was followed by a new under- 
 taking called the Store of Knowledge for all Readers. It con- 
 sisted of a series of original treatises by various authors, dealing 
 with such diversified subjects as Taxation, the Post Office, 
 Europe, the House, the Mineral Kingdom, Schools, Commer- 
 cial Intercourse with China, etc. At a banquet given at the 
 Albion Tavern in recognition of Knight's services to literature, 
 with special reference to the Penny Cyclopedia, Lord Brougham 
 took the chair. In proposing the health of the guest, his lord- 
 ship ' dwelt on the various services which, in connection with 
 the Useful Knowledge Society, he had been enabled to render 
 towards the advancement of society in moral as well as in- 
 tellectual knowledge ; pointed out especially the great service he 
 did to the State in writing and publishing his two little works, 
 The Rights of Industry and The Results of Machinery two 
 publications which, at a time of great public excitement, were 
 eminently conducive to allaying the reckless spirit which, in 
 1830, was leading multitudes to destroy property and break up 
 machines. He also pointed out what Mr. Knight had done in 
 editing and illustrating Shakespeare ; in the projection and 
 carrying on of the Penny Magazine, and the completion of 
 the Penny Cyclop&dia? 
 
 In publishing an account of this gathering, the Athenceum 
 added, as equally significant of the change which was coming 
 over the spirit of the age, that the Queen had commanded 
 that copies of Mr. Knight's forthcoming publications, en- 
 titled Knight's Weekly Volume, should be supplied to the 
 libraries established at all the Royal palaces. The volumes 
 began with a biography of William Caxton, the First 
 English Printer, by Charles Knight himself. The projector 
 was desirous of seeing the principle of the Book Club estab- 
 lished in the Provinces, and in this desire he was cordially 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 115 
 
 seconded by Charles Dickens. It is curious that one of the 
 first successful efforts to establish a Cheap Book Club was 
 made by Robert Burns. Knight received signal assistance in 
 connection with his Weekly Volumes from Harriet Martineau. 
 In 1845 he began the issue of Knighfs Penny Magazine, a 
 vehicle of light but good literature, which was followed in 
 1846 by a second series. The work was fairly successful for 
 the brief period it ran, but there seemed no hope of its pro- 
 gressing, so it was given up. In the last-named year, the 
 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge announced the 
 suspension of its operations. In doing this, the Committee 
 first alluded to the heavy loss sustained on the incomplete 
 Biographical Dictionary, and then added : ' The Society's work 
 is done, for its greatest object is achieved fully, fairly, and 
 permanently. The public is supplied with cheap and good 
 literature to an extent which the most sanguine friend of 
 human improvement could not, in 1826, have hoped to have 
 witnessed in twenty years.' But although good literature was 
 now abundant, bad literature was almost equally prevalent, in 
 the shape of blood and thunder romances, which appealed to 
 the passions of the young and the ignorant. Yet there was 
 hope for the future for literature of the higher class, if only the 
 Paper Duty could be removed. Charles Knight remarks on 
 this head : ' My conviction that the cheap press would purify 
 itself was realised in another decade. I had given a name to 
 the wholesome literature for the people, " The Fountain." The 
 noxious I had called "The Sewer." But I contended, as I 
 had ever done, that the Paper Duty was an insurmountable 
 barrier to the diffusion of publications that should combine the 
 qualities of literary excellence and extreme cheapness. I main- 
 tained that to thrust out the noxious publications, the supply 
 of the higher class must be abundant. The quality of the 
 writing must be of the best, for to write well for the people is 
 the rarest of literary qualifications ; lastly, the price must as 
 nearly as possible approach to the cost of the mischievous 
 
n6 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 production. Whatever interferes with the circulation of the 
 higher periodicals by increasing their price whatever tends to 
 render a false economy necessary, by lowering their payment 
 for the best literary labour interferes with one of the most 
 important instruments of National Education, using the term in 
 its highest sense. Such were the injurious consequences of the 
 Paper Duty. That long disputed question has now been 
 settled. The total repeal of this impost took place after my 
 commercial career was in a great degree closed.' 
 
 Charles Knight was a determined opponent of the prize 
 system in literature. Originally started with the object of 
 encouraging talent, the system has wofully deteriorated of 
 recent years. Even thirty years ago Knight wrote : 'The 
 prize system has become one of the notable expedients of 
 publishing quackery. The word prize is altogether a delusion. 
 It tempts scores of uneducated young persons to enter upon a 
 competition for a reward for literary labours which seems to 
 them magnificent. They are wholly ignorant of the nature of 
 the literary market, in which the real prizes are ready to be 
 earned by those who possess the requisite qualifications. 
 Instead of being an encouragement to struggling genius, it 
 holds out a temptation to mediocrity to travel out of its proper 
 road to honour.' 
 
 For some years Knight was engaged in disseminating a 
 number of pictorial works in the neighbourhood of the great 
 manufacturing towns and other populous districts, by the class 
 of book-hawkers known as canvassers. Four of these books, 
 forming seven volumes in folio, were of a quite superior order, 
 and were entitled respectively, Pictorial Museum of Animated 
 Nature, Pictorial Sunday Book, Old England, and the Pictorial 
 Gallery of Arts. The working-man's family which could boast 
 of the possession of these volumes was in a very fortunate 
 position. After Knight disposed of them to a firm of canvass- 
 ing publishers proper they continued to have a large sale. In 
 1847 Knight commenced editing and publishing, in monthly 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 117 
 
 parts, his Half Hours with the Best Authors. Each extract 
 was preceded by a biographical sketch of the author, and the 
 compiler states that the work furnished him with a really 
 delightful occupation for fifty-two weeks. The Half Hours 
 still deservedly maintain their popularity, and Knight would 
 be well entitled to lasting remembrance were it but for this one 
 work alone. Yet it is but one claim out of a hundred that he 
 has upon posterity. In 1849 was completed The Land We 
 Live in, an important preparation for writing the history of 
 England. The scope of this work was very wide, for it 
 embraced the courts and offices of government, legislation and 
 the administration of justice ; the halls of science, art, and 
 letters ; the seats of education ; the emporiums of commerce 
 and manufactures ; the triumphs of steam and of the locomo- 
 tive ; the havens of maritime power ; the material improve- 
 ments of the day viewed in connection with the moral ; the 
 manners and social characteristics of the people ; and many 
 other features. During that year of political turmoil, 1848, 
 Knight set up a weekly journal, The Voice of the People, whose 
 object was to combat the ideas of the Chartists, which were 
 then considered to be dangerous and revolutionary. But the 
 paper was too moderate to make any impression in times of 
 great excitement, and, as it was too honest to be abusive, its 
 career soon came to a close. In 1849, an< ^ again in 1853, 
 London suffered severely from the cholera scourge. At the 
 latter date Knight was publisher to the General Board of 
 Health, of which the Commissioners were Lord Shaftesbury, 
 Edwin Chadwick, and Dr. Southwood Smith. Finding that the 
 directions given by public bodies and individuals for family 
 guidance under a visitation of cholera were too technical and 
 elaborate to be useful to persons of imperfect education, 
 Knight drew up an address, homely and practical, adapted for 
 all ranks. His Plain Advice was printed as a broadside, and 
 was purchased and distributed throughout the country by the 
 Local Boards of Health. The circulation of this sheet was 
 
n8 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 upwards of one hundred thousand, a fact which demonstrates 
 the possibility of communicating with the public at large on 
 sanitary matters, through the combination of local activity with 
 central regulation. 
 
 The movement in 1847 for the purchase of Shakespeare's 
 House at Stratford had a warm supporter in Charles Knight. 
 He took a prominent part in raising the necessary subscriptions, 
 and when a performance was given at Covent Garden Theatre 
 to make up the deficiency which was still found to exist he was 
 requested by the Committee to write a Prologue, to be spoken 
 by Mr. Phelps. When the house had been purchased, Charles 
 Dickens organised a series of amateur performances at the 
 Haymarket, in aid of the fund for the endowment of a per- 
 petual curatorship of Shakespeare's House. Payne Collier, 
 Charles Knight, and Peter Cunningham were directors of the 
 general arrangements, and Dickens himself was stage manager. 
 The Merry Wives of Windsor was performed on the 1 5th ot 
 May, with a cast which included Messrs. Mark Lemon, Charles 
 Romer, Charles Dickens, John Leech, John Forster, Frank 
 Stone, G. H. Lewes, Dudley Costello, Frederick Dickens, 
 Henry Cole, George Cruikshank, Augustus Dickens, Augustus 
 Egg, and F. Eaton ; and Mrs. Cowden Clarke, and Misses 
 Fortescue, Kenworthy, Romer, and Robins. Performances 
 were given in the provinces as well as in London Difficulties 
 arose as to the appointment of a curator at Stratford, so 
 Dickens and his friends bought an annuity with the proceeds 
 of their labours for Sheridan KnowJes, the well-known 
 dramatic author. From this time forward Dickens and Knight 
 had many pleasant relations together, and both were members 
 of the Amateur Company of the Guild of Literature and Art, 
 matured at Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton's seat of Knebworth 
 in November, 1850, when there was an amateur perfor- 
 mance of Every Man in his Humour, under the manage- 
 ment of Dickens. Various town and country performances 
 were afterwards given, and with the proceeds the Guild 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT, 119 
 
 erected a number of houses for literary men on Bulwer 
 Lytton's estate, near Stevenage. 
 
 The first Great Exhibition in 1851 was hailed by Charles 
 Knight as a welcome advance in the free intercourse of peoples, 
 and in 1855 ne acted as a juror at the Paris Universal Exhibi- 
 tion. Among the Reports on this Exhibition laid before 
 Parliament was one written by Knight, on ' Letter Press and 
 Copper-plate Printing.' When Parliament met in 1855 there 
 was a general impression that the penny duty stamp would be 
 entirely abolished, except for the purpose of transmitting a 
 newspaper by post. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir 
 George Cornewall Lewis, requested Charles Knight to inform 
 him what was the greatest circulation of each number of the 
 Penny Magazine at any time. In giving him this information 
 Knight referred him to a little work he had just published on 
 The Old Printer and the Modern Press, in which he had taken 
 a rapid view of the circulation and character of penny periodi- 
 cals at the beginning of 1854. Of four of these a million sheets 
 were then sold weekly. In his letter to the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer the author said : ' The change in the character of 
 Penny Periodicals during the last five or six years, from the 
 lowest ribaldry and positive indecency to a certain propriety 
 and of which frivolity is the chief blemish is an assurance to 
 me that the cheapening of newspapers by the removal of the 
 stamp will not let in that flood of sedition and blasphemy 
 which some appear to dread. The character of the mass of 
 readers is improved. In my little book I have opposed the 
 removal of the stamp, chiefly on the ground that a quantity of 
 local papers would start up that would be devoted to mere 
 parish politics and sectarian squabbles, instead of being 
 national in their objects ; and that would huddle together the 
 worst of criminal trials and police cases, without attempting to 
 suggest any sound principles of politics, or furnish any useful 
 information. To provide a corrective to this, I have devised 
 the plan detailed in the circular which I left with you. I sent 
 
120 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 out an intelligent traveller into the Midland districts last week, 
 confidentially to explain this plan to active printers in towns 
 that had no local paper; and his report shows that the principle 
 will be eagerly adopted.' 
 
 The plan which he had devised was founded upon his old 
 newspaper experience, during which, for several years, three- 
 fourths of the local papers of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire 
 were printed at the Express Office at Windsor and one-fourth 
 at a branch office At Aylesbury. In connection with a highly 
 respectable printing firm he began the publication of the Tvivn 
 and Country Newspaper immediately upon the repeal of the 
 Stamp Duty in 1855. The complex and expensive organisa- 
 tion required for supplying a few impressions for certain dis- 
 tricts prevented the plan from becoming a success at that time, 
 but it has since been largely adopted, and hundreds of pro- 
 vincial newspapers are now partly printed in London, or 
 else receive columns of stereotyped matter from London. In 
 1855 there were 350 populous towns in Great Britain with- 
 out a local paper of any kind. This condition of things was 
 remedied within a few years after the repeal of the Stamp 
 Duty. There were many timorous persons, however, who 
 thought that the influence of the newspaper press was inimical 
 to good and quiet government. Arnold of Rugby was not one 
 of these, for long before this period he wrote to the Archbishop 
 of Dublin : ' I think that a newspaper alone can help to cure 
 the evil which newspapers have done and are doing.' 
 
 Turning to the publication of useful and interesting books, 
 we find that the number of works published under the names 
 of collections, libraries, series, etc., increased enormously from 
 1835 to 1863. The compiler of the English Catalogue, issued 
 in the latter year, adduced these remarkable facts on the sub- 
 ject : ' Nearly all the leading publishers appear to have en- 
 gaged, during this period of twenty-eight years, in a species of 
 publication in which Constable led the way. We have four 
 Library Series by Bentley. one of Standard Novels ; cheap 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 121 
 
 editions of celebrated publications, by Blackwood. We have 
 eleven Libraries and Series issued by Bohn Antiquarian ; 
 British Classics; Cheap Series; Classical Library; Ecclesiastical 
 Library; English Gentleman's Library, Extra Volumes (not 
 ladies' reading) ; Historical Library ; Illustrated Library ; Philo- 
 logical and Philosophical Library ; Scientific Library ; and Stan- 
 dard Library. It cannot be doubted that many of Mr. Bohn's 
 volumes, which may be counted by hundreds, have brought 
 books of authority, whose scarcity or high price precluded 
 their general circulation, within the reach of the great body of 
 readers. William and Robert Chambers, with whose useful 
 labours during more than thirty years the world is well ac- 
 quainted, have their Educational Series, their Library for 
 Young People, and their People's Editions. Chapman & Hall 
 have their Standard Editions of Popular Authors, in which 
 we find the works of W. H. Ainsworth, Mrs. Gaskell, Miss 
 Mulock, Thackeray, and Trollope. Murray's Family Library 
 of eighty separate books is still in demand his Home and 
 Colonial Library, his Railway Reading, and his British Clas- 
 sics, of later date, hold their place amongst the books that have 
 not a mere ephemeral popularity. Knight takes his place as a 
 publisher of The Library of Entertaining Knowledge ; of Clas- 
 sics; of Journey Books; of the Library for the Times; of Weekly 
 and Monthly Volumes. Longmans have Lardner's Cabinet 
 Cyclopaedia of 132 volumes, now issued at a reduced rate, as 
 the collections of many other publishers have been reduced, to 
 meet the pressure of new competition. They have the more 
 modern series of the Traveller's Library, comprising about 
 150 books. The Parlour Library, chiefly of novels, good, bad, 
 and indifferent, comprises about 300 separate books. The 
 Religious Tract Society has an extensive series of volumes, 
 not professedly religious, in which it is very difficult to see what 
 is the difference between their adopted children and the best of 
 their secular competitors. The same may be said of the general 
 publications of the Christian Knowledge Society. Routledge 
 
122 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 has collections and libraries almost bewildering from their ex- 
 tent, American Poets, Books for the Country, British Poets, 
 Cheap Series of 269 works, Railway Library of 327 works, 
 amongst which we find Bulwer's novels, purchased at what was 
 deemed an extravagant price for the right of reprinting, but the 
 value of which concession was better estimated by the publisher 
 than by his critics. Routledge gives us another series of Stan- 
 dard Novels ; and, by way of a "half-pennyworth of bread to 
 this intolerable deal of sack," we have the Useful Library. 
 Smith, Elder, & Company have their Shilling Series of Stan- 
 dard Works of Fiction. I conclude this enumeration with 
 Weale's Rudimentary Series, which comprises 144 works, 
 chiefly on scientific subjects.' 
 
 Since 1863 the book trade of the United Kingdom has ad- 
 vanced by still more rapid strides. Taking the issue of books 
 in series and single books, there were three times as many 
 books published in 1853 as there had been in 1828. The 
 annual production in the period 1877-87 averaged 4,000 
 volumes ; of new editions, 1,400. The number of new books 
 issued in 1887 was 4,410; the new editions, 1,276. In 1892 the 
 issue exceeded 6,000. The number of copies issued of these 
 works by all the publishing houses is reckoned by tens of millions 
 annually. Indeed, some idea of the total gigantic sale may be 
 gathered from the fact that in 1885 one London publisher alone 
 reported that he printed, in round numbers, 6,000,000 books 
 annually, of which 4,000,000 were bound, being at the rate of 
 about 14,000 books per day. Weekly and monthly periodical 
 literature has advanced by equally rapid strides. At the end 
 of 1831 there were issued 177 monthly publications; in 1833 
 there were 236; in 1853, 362 ; and in 1888, 1,500. The number 
 at the present time exceeds 2,000, and the annual sale reaches 
 millions of copies. The sale of newspapers in the United King- 
 dom has increased at a still more astounding rate, and a year's 
 issue from the whole of the newspaper press would amount to 
 thousands of millions. Charles Knight was one. of the worthy 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 123 
 
 pioneers of the vast industries represented by the book, perio- 
 dical, and newspaper trades. 
 
 The two most important works of Knight's later years were the 
 English Cyclopaedia and the Popular History of England. With 
 regard to the former work, Knight says : 'The new Cyclopedia 
 was arranged in four divisions : Geography, Natural History, 
 Biography, Arts and Sciences. The first two of these divisions 
 were proceeding at the same time, and were each completed in 
 two years and a half. What a store of new materials had been 
 gathering together for the use of the geographer and the natural- 
 ist that required to be set forth in the remodelled Cyclopedia ! 
 These two divisions were succeeded by that of Biography. If 
 no other additions had been required than the introduction 
 of names of living persons, the new literary labour would have 
 been of no small amount sufficient, indeed, to form a separate 
 book, not so large but essentially as complete as the Biographic 
 des Contemporains. This Biographical division, in six volumes, 
 was completed in 1858. The division of Arts and Sciences in- 
 cluded a great number of miscellaneous subjects, not capable 
 of being introduced into the more precise arrangement of 
 the three previous departments. It was completed in eight 
 volumes in 1861. In my introduction to the eighth volume I 
 said : " It has been produced last in the series, that nothing 
 of new invention and discovery in Science nothing of pro- 
 gressive improvement in the Arts might be omitted." ' 
 
 The second important work, the Popular History of England, 
 extended to twelve volumes. Its publication began in 1855, 
 and it was completed in 1862. The origin and nature of this 
 undertaking have been explained by Knight in this interesting 
 passage : 
 
 'In 1854 I was instigated by an article in The Times seriously 
 to contemplate the task of writing a general history of England. 
 Lord John Russell had delivered an address at Bristol on the 
 study of history, and the leading journal took up the subject of 
 the noble speaker's complaint " that we have no other history 
 
124 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of England than Hume's" that "when a young man of 
 eighteen asks for a history of England, there is no resource 
 but to give him Hume." I had published The Pictorial His- 
 tory of England some years before in many respects a valu- 
 able history, but one whose limits had gone far beyond what, 
 as its projector, I had originally contemplated. I altogether 
 rejected the idea of making an abridgment of that history. 
 Many materials for a History of the People had been collected 
 by me without any immediate object of publication. The 
 remarks of The Times led me to depart from my original design 
 of writing a Domestic History of England apart from its Public 
 History. Upon a more extended plan I would endeavour to 
 trace through our long-continued annals the essential connec- 
 tion between our political history and our social. To accom- 
 plish this, I would not keep the People in the background, as 
 in many histories, and I would call my work The Popular 
 History of England. For more than a year I was gradually 
 preparing for my task, and was ready to begin the printing at 
 the end of 1855. It was to be published in monthly parts. 
 My publishers desiring that the first part should contain an in- 
 troduction setting forth the objects of a new history of England, 
 I was induced to explain my motives for undertaking it, with a 
 sincerity which perhaps may be deemed imprudent. It may be 
 as imprudent for the historian as for the statesman to make 
 any general profession of principles at the outset of his career. 
 The succession of events in either case might modify his past 
 convictions. But I have no reason to depart in letter or spirit 
 from what I wrote : " The People, if I understand the term 
 rightly, means the Commons of these realms, and not any dis- 
 tinct class or section of the population. Ninety years ago, 
 Goldsmith called the * middle order of mankind ' the * People,' 
 and those below them the * Rabble.' We have outlived all this. 
 A century of thought and action has widened and deepened 
 the foundations of the State. This People, then, want to find, 
 in the history of their country, something more than a series of 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 125 
 
 annals, either of policy or war. In connection with a faithful 
 narrative of public affairs, they want to learn their own history 
 how they have grown out of slavery, out of feudal wrong, 
 out of regal despotism, into constitutional liberty, and the 
 position of the greatest estate of the realm." In the summer 
 of 1858 I had completed four volumes of my history, reaching 
 the period of the Revolution of 1688. In the postscript to the 
 fourth volume I endeavoured to illustrate the principle, so well 
 defined by my friend, Mr. Samuel Lucas, in a lecture on Social 
 Progress, that the history of every nation " has been in the main 
 sequential" that each of its phases has been "the conse- 
 quence of some prior phase, and the natural prelude to that 
 which succeeded it." I pointed out that the early history of 
 the Anglican Church was to be traced in all the subsequent 
 elements of our ecclesiastical condition ; that upon the Roman 
 and Saxon civilisation were founded many of the principles of 
 government which still preserved their vitality ; that the Nor- 
 man despotism was absorbed by the Anglo-Saxon freedom ; 
 and that the recognition of the equal rights of all men before 
 the Law was the only mode by which feudality could maintain 
 itself. " From the despotism of Richard the Second to the abdi- 
 cation of James the Second, every act of national resistance was 
 accomplished by the union of classes, and was founded upon 
 some principle of legal right for which there was legal pre- 
 cedent. Out of the traditional and almost instinctive assertion 
 of the popular privileges have come new developments of par- 
 ticular reforms, each adapted to its own age, but all springing 
 out of that historical experience which we recognise as Con- 
 stitutional." ' 
 
 The preparation of his Popular History occupied Knight 
 unremittingly for a seventh part of his working life. With the 
 exception of three chapters on the Fine Arts, the work was 
 wholly written by himself. In its composition, he endea- 
 voured to set forth the inestimable advantages of liberty; 
 to look with a tolerant judgment even upon those who had 
 
126 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 sought to govern securely by governing absolutely; to trace with 
 calmness the efforts of those who had imperilled the national 
 independence by foreign assault or domestic treason, but never 
 to forget that a just love of country was consistent with his- 
 torical truth ; and to carry forward, as far as within the power 
 of one who had watched joyfully and hopefully the great 
 changes of a generation, that spirit of improvement, which 
 had been more extensively and permanently called forth in the 
 times of which his concluding volume treated than in the 
 whole previous period from the Revolution of 1688. In break- 
 ing a lance in defence of his History ', Knight observed that * to 
 trace the course of long and fierce struggles between the Crown 
 and the Barons ; of grievances producing rebellion ; of con- 
 flicting claims of royal houses ; of political factions engrafted 
 on theological sects; and of factions again fermenting this 
 is not necessarily to minister to a democratic spirit, as those 
 would infer who choose to mistake the true intent and meaning 
 of the word Popular as applied to a History of England.' 
 
 In 1864, Knight completed his autobiographical work en- 
 titled, Passages of a Working Life during Half a Century. It 
 was divided into three epochs, and opened with a Prelude of 
 Early Reminiscences. The last words of this record run as 
 follows : ' To my Wife ; to her who has been the best friend, 
 the adviser, the sympathiser, the consoler, during half a century 
 of my working life, I inscribe this record, with a grateful heart 
 to the Giver of all Good.' In the course of this biographical 
 sketch, I have quoted several passages from Knight's auto- 
 biographical work ; and I now reproduce a final extract from 
 it, which may be taken as the author's apologia, in going down 
 the hill of life : 
 
 ' A political economist, who professes to speak the opinion 
 of " the middle class " of this country, says that " the life of a 
 man who leaves no property, or family provision, of his own 
 acquiring, at his death, is felt to have been a failure." I do 
 not accept the doctrine as a true expression of the genera 
 
str 
 th 
 
 i 
 
 CHARLES KNIGHT. 127 
 
 % 
 
 feeling. There are thousands of the commercial class and the 
 professional class who have not been inordinately anxious to 
 gather together "muckhills" of riches, to be spread abroad 
 when their accumulators are gone. Nevertheless, these have 
 not been like the "wicked and unprofitable servant," who 
 buried the one talent which his Master entrusted to him. 
 Few of them, probably, have neglected to make some modest 
 provision against absolute poverty which the system of Life 
 Assurance affords. But, if they have wisely incurred a liberal 
 expenditure of capital upon the education of their children ; 
 if they have placed their sons in positions where they may 
 " learn and labour truly to get their own living " ; if they have 
 qualified their daughters to discharge sensibly and gracefully, 
 whether as child, wife, or mother, the private and public 
 duties which render the English lady the promoter of all 
 social dignity and enjoyment, they have been amongst the 
 most provident accumulators. They have laid up a profitable 
 fund out of their consumption, by preserving their families, 
 whilst they have lived amongst them, in the highest point of 
 efficacy for future production. This doctrine may not be 
 strictly the science of " the wealth of nations," but I believe 
 that it has something to do with " the happiness of the 
 
 eatest number." 
 
 'In many worldly respects my own life has not been "a 
 failure." It was probably a blessing in disguise, that circum- 
 stances, over which I had little control, long ago taught me 
 that it was not for me to make a fortune, or to indulge in the 
 ostentation of ample means. I have been content with the 
 "plain living" that the philosophic poet sets above a life 
 "only drest for show." If "high thinking" has not been 
 altogether wanting, I owe this to a love of books, and perhaps 
 not less to the companionship of educated and intelligent 
 friends. I believe that I have made very few enemies. With- 
 in my own proper sphere I have had as much social enjoy- 
 ment as is compatible with the belief that " the chief end of 
 
128 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 man " is duty and not pleasure. The fiftieth anniversary of 
 my marriage has just passed. Half a century of congenial 
 wedlock is a blessing accorded to few. It brought with it the 
 further blessing of a family united in love ; of a home where 
 cheerful faces ever welcomed me. During forty years I had 
 known no great sorrow. I had not been bereft of any one of 
 those who were the joy of my manhood and the comfort of 
 my age. A dark cloud has cast its solemn shadow over my 
 Golden Bridal ; but I feel that our griefs, and the consolations 
 which should come with them, are for ourselves, and not for 
 the outer world. Taken as a whole, my life has been a happy 
 one.' 
 
 In 1865 Knight wrote and published a volume entitled 
 Shadoivs of the Old Booksellers ; in 1868 he made a selection 
 from the great letter-writers under the title of Half-Hours with 
 the Best Letter- Writers and Autobiographers ; and the same 
 year he prepared, for the last time, the Companion to the 
 Almanac for 1869, his concluding contribution to it being a 
 paper on ' Mural Records of Pedestrian Tourists.' He had an 
 excellent memory, and worked rapidly, and it was only towards 
 the last that he was compelled to dictate what he wrote, in 
 consequence of failing sight. His last original work was a 
 novel in one volume, written in 1867, and entitled Beggd at 
 Court. It was founded on historical facts, which his retentive 
 memory had enabled him to store up for future use. 
 
 His granddaughter thus writes of Knight and his friends : 
 I can recall him, in later middle life, or earlier old age, as in- 
 cessantly working. Nothing was ever allowed to interfere 
 with his daily routine of writing, except his frequent attacks of 
 illness, which would incapacitate him for only a day or two. 
 Never a strong man, he was debarred from the pleasure of 
 much social intercourse, although greatly enjoying the society 
 of a few chosen friends. Amongst these may be mentioned, at 
 various periods of his life, the names of Leigh Hunt, John 
 Moultrie, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Barry St. Leger, De 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 129 
 
 Quincey, Macaulay, Lord Brougham, the Coleridges, Arch- 
 bishop Sumner, John Wilson Croker, Henry Maiden, Augustus 
 de Morgan, Professor Wilson, Professor Long, Professor Key, 
 Miss Martineau, E. H. Locker, J. R. Planche, George Lillie 
 Craik, Matthew Davenport Hill, Sir Rowland Hill, Thackeray 
 but with him the acquaintance was only slight, Charles 
 Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, George Cruikshank, etc., etc. A 
 strong attachment existed between Charles Knight and 
 Douglas Jerrold. At a dinner-party at which they were both 
 present, the conversation had turned upon epitaphs. Douglas 
 Jerrold, on rising to take leave, said, shaking hands with 
 Charles Knight : " W T e have given epitaphs for each one here ; 
 I will now give one to you Good-(K)night ! " On the day 
 of the great humorist's death, Charles Knight walked up and 
 down in front of the house until the blinds were drawn down.' 
 
 The published letters of Dickens, Jerrold, Moultrie, Croker, 
 De Quincey, De Morgan, Shirley Brooks, and other friends, 
 show the high esteem with which Knight was regarded by his 
 contemporaries. Happy was it for the busy old man that he 
 could work almost to the end. When for a brief closing 
 period he was unable to do this, he would take a keen delight 
 in listening to a simple old English ballad : ' There would 
 come to the aged face, bent down, with the eyes half closed, 
 and the long silvery hair thrown back from the high and wide 
 forehead, a look once more of enjoyment and of interest.' 
 
 There still remain a few personal details to note in con- 
 nection with Knight's life and character. Although he was 
 fond of change especially in regard to his residences he 
 retained to the last a vivid interest in Windsor, as the place of 
 his birth and his early home. When he first left Windsor, he 
 lived in Pall Mall ; from thence he went to the once countrified 
 suburb of Brompton ; subsequently he dwelt for a time at 
 Highgate and St. John's Wood respectively ; next we find him 
 at Hampstead; then between 1860 and 1871 he chiefly re- 
 sided at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, to which charming 
 
 K 
 
130 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 place he went for his daughter's health ; and lastly, in 1871, he 
 removed to Addlestone, in Surrey, where he remained until his 
 death. He rarely went abroad one or two visits to Paris ; 
 one or two visits to Germany, once in company with Professor 
 Long, and on another occasion with his daughter and her 
 future husband, Mr. Clowes ; one to Ireland with Douglas 
 Jerrold ; a short tour, with two of his daughters, through a 
 portion of France ; one or two visits to Scotland ; and various 
 expeditions through England these completed the list of his 
 travels. 
 
 In his closing years he took delight in recounting his expe- 
 riences and friendships in the past ; and in reading, or having 
 read to him, novels by Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott. He 
 was also deeply impressed by the sermons of Robertson of 
 Brighton. Sometimes he would converse with his relatives on 
 the subjects he had long deeply loved, learning and literature, 
 but by-and-by conversation, and the busy memories it evoked, 
 became too much for him, and he would ask to be taken from 
 the room. He gradually and peacefully passed out of life, 
 dying at Addlestone, on the 9th of March, 1873, a few days 
 before completing his eighty-second year. He was buried at 
 Windsor, in his father's grave. Six years later his wife was laid 
 to rest beside him. She belonged to the family of the Eliotts 
 of Stobs, in Roxburghshire, one of whom, Lord Heathfield, 
 was the defender of Gibraltar. One of his lordship's nieces 
 married William Vinicombe, a London architect, and son of a 
 country gentleman in Devonshire ; and it was their daughter 
 Sally who married Charles Knight. She appears to have been 
 a lady of a sweet and noble nature, unselfish to a remarkable 
 degree, and endowed with strong common-sense, a high spirit, 
 and a singular power of endurance and hopefulness. When 
 eighty-seven years of age, her eyes were not dim, neither was 
 her form bowed or withered. She could not have a more 
 beautiful tribute than that * she never gave up a sinking cause 
 or an erring person.' 
 
CHARLES KNIGHT. 131 
 
 I have already referred to many of the works written or 
 edited by Charles Knight, and may now add that the volumes 
 >f which he was the author numbered no fewer than thirty- 
 ;ven. The separate works edited or conducted by Knight 
 icmnted to sixty. One of these, known as the series of 
 Monthly and afterwards of Weekly Volumes ; consisted of one 
 hundred and eighty-six volumes, while many of the other works 
 ranged from three up to twelve volumes. In the columns of 
 Punch, Tom Taylor justly celebrated the veteran worker after 
 his death as one of the truest soldiers of Captain Pen, and 
 one who had borne the flag of 'Peace, goodwill to men,' fore- 
 most and farthest of the sacred band of literary workers. A 
 copy of the bust of Knight, executed by Durham in 1865, was 
 presented by his daughters to the National Portrait Gallery. 
 But one wonders why the nation which he so long served did 
 not honour his memory more, or more generously recognise 
 his great services while he was yet alive. When such honours 
 as that of knighthood are lavishly distributed on the^ vaguest 
 and most insufficient grounds, it does seem strapge that one 
 who battled so courageously against ignorance, and on behalf 
 of a pure and free press, for upwards of half a century, should 
 not have received some worthy mark of the nation's gratitude. 
 However, he will have his reward from posterity. Good and 
 cheap literature has been sown broadcast, and knowledge is 
 free, and for these beneficent reforms we are indebted in 
 no inconsiderable degree to the lifelong labours of Charles 
 Knight. 
 
 K 2 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 
 
135 
 
 SIR GEORGE BURNS. 
 
 'HE shipping industry of Great Britain is one of the great 
 mimercial marvels of the world. Its rise, development, and 
 >resent position would afford material for one of the most 
 interesting chapters in the history of national progress. The 
 influence of our merchant navy is reflex and manifold. Our 
 ships provide employment for hundreds of thousands of work- 
 men long before they are ready to join that majestic fleet 
 which navigates every sea and ocean of the world. The 
 building of the ship is a gigantic industry of itself, and when 
 each vessel is completed and launched upon its career, it 
 yearly adds to the aggregate of that trade between England 
 and the nations which has now assumed such enormous pro- 
 portions. The value of the shipping industry may be gauged 
 from one fact alone : the amount of British commerce which 
 passes through the Mediterranean every year is worth over 
 ^130,000,000, and the annual amount of British commerce 
 which passes within sight of Gibraltar is worth no less than 
 2 50, 000,000. Add to this our trade with America and other 
 parts, and some conception may be formed of the extent and 
 ramifications of this vast industry. 
 
 Sir George Burns was one of the typical merchant princes of 
 Great Britain. Before dealing with his career, however, and 
 his connection with the famous Cunard line of steamships, it 
 will be interesting to glance at the history of the ship before it 
 reached its present stage of perfection. Great indeed have 
 been the changes since the coracles and canoes of the ancients 
 
136 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 first ventured to navigate unknown seas. The stately galleys 
 of the Romans were followed by the Viking war-ships. The 
 Norsemen built vessels between fifty and a hundred feet in 
 length, and King Alfred introduced galleys pulled by forty and 
 sixty oars. From the days of Canute to Henry VII. some 
 progress was made in shipbuilding, but the greatest advances 
 were undoubtedly those made under the first Tudor king and 
 his successor. Henry VIII. encouraged shipbuilding both for 
 war and commerce, and constructed the Great Harry , a really 
 formidable vessel for that time. In 1511 the Great Michael was 
 constructed in Scotland. It was 240 feet in length, and is said 
 to have cost about ^20,000 Scots. The Santa Maria, in 
 which Columbus made his first voyage to the New World, was 
 a vessel of 90 feet keel and 29 feet wide. The ships of the 
 great navigators Gama, Frobisher, Magellan, Drake, Anson, 
 etc. were a great improvement on those which went before, 
 and ships have since been specially constructed for Geographi- 
 cal and Polar Explorations. 
 
 In the sixteenth century the main principles of wood con- 
 struction in shipbuilding were already clearly established, 
 and subsequent developments in size, down at least to the 
 beginning of iron shipbuilding, were mainly characterised by. 
 such modifications in individual parts or in structural arrange- 
 ments as made such developments possible. A writer of 
 authority, Mr. David Pollock, author of Modern Shipbuilding 
 and the Men Engaged in It, thus briefly traces the history of 
 shipbuilding during the past three centuries : ' Scarcely any 
 advance in the size of ships was made during the reign of 
 Elizabeth, notwithstanding that this was pre-eminently the 
 period of daring navigation. Much was done by her successor 
 to develop both the royal navy and the mercantile marine. 
 He appointed commissions of inquiry into naval affairs, granted 
 a new charter to the East India Company, and endeavoured to 
 raise the standard of knowledge and practice amongst ship- 
 builders by granting a charter in 1612 to the Shipwrights' 
 
SIX GEORGE BURNS. 137 
 
 Company, and endowing it with jurisdiction over all ship- 
 builders in the kingdom. The first president of this body was 
 Phineas Pett, master-shipwright of Woolwich Dockyard. To 
 this eminent shipwright, and to his son Peter and Sir Anthony 
 Deane, naval architecture owed much during the seventeenth 
 century. This period of progress, however, was followed by a 
 century of almost utter stagnation in respect of the application 
 of science to shipbuilding. Skill and thoroughness in ship- 
 carpentry as a craft were indeed not wanting ; but there was 
 nothing like adequate application of scientific principles to the 
 evolution and improvement of naval architecture. The best 
 scientific talent during this period, and well on into the nine- 
 teenth century, was to be found in other countries than England 
 France, Spain, Sweden, and Denmark; while the British ships 
 produced particularly ships of war, but also merchant ships 
 were, as regards speed, size, and sea-behaviour, far surpassed by 
 the ships of the countries named. " System " had become so 
 stereotyped that glaring imperfections such as the lack of both 
 longitudinal and transverse strength were permitted and per- 
 petuated. At length came a shipbuilder who had courage to break 
 away from established practice, and introduce improved methods 
 of construction. This was Sir Robert Seppings, who began as an 
 apprentice shipwright in the dockyards, and rose to the position 
 of surveyor of the navy, which he held till 1832. To counter- 
 act the effect of "hogging" i.e., the dropping of the ends of 
 the ship relatively to the middle he associated with the trans- 
 verse " ribs " or frames an inner framework of ties or "riders" 
 arranged diagonally. A more important modification still was 
 the introduction of "fillings" between the frames up to some 
 distance above the bilges. These fillings, occupying as they 
 did the whole space between the ribs, were of great value, both 
 as safeguards in the event of damage to the outside planking 
 and as affording immense assistance to the resistance offered 
 by the lower parts of the ship hogging. A third important 
 change was in the mode of attaching the deck-beams to the 
 
138 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 frames at the sides of the ship. This bold shipwright suggested, 
 and ultimately effected, the reduction of the long "beak-heads" 
 and lofty square sterns which had for centuries characterised 
 British war-ships. With Seppings's improvements the way was 
 made thoroughly clear for increase in the size and power of 
 wood ships, and the results were exemplified in those towering 
 three-deckers, long the pride and glory of the navy, and in the 
 staunch and elegant merchantmen known on every sea. 
 
 ' At the present day, however, wood shipbuilding in Great 
 Britain has so fallen into desuetude as to have become mainly 
 a matter of historic interest. It is a thing entirely of the past 
 in the royal dockyards, and is of the smallest importance in 
 British mercantile shipyards, though at a few minor ports a 
 little wood shipbuilding is still carried on. In Canada and the 
 United States, on the other hand, the great bulk of new ship- 
 ping still consists of wood. Wood is even being employed in 
 the construction of steamships of considerable size, and of 
 sailing ships of dimensions never before attempted in America. 
 
 * While wood has thus largely been supplanted by iron and 
 steel in the construction of ships, no such sweeping change 
 has taken place in the means for their propulsion. Steamships 
 have undoubtedly made a wonderful transformation, but spread 
 of sail and " unbought wind " are still potent factors in the 
 speeding of ships across the ocean. Indeed, within recent 
 years the size of sailing ships and the extent of their rig have 
 enormously increased.' 
 
 To show the proportions which a five-masted sailing 
 vessel may attain, it appears that the Marie Rickmers built 
 by Messrs. Russell & Co., of Port Glasgow, in 1891-2 for 
 Messrs. Rickmers & Co. of Bremen has no less than 56,500 
 square feet of sail area ; 21,300 lineal feet, or upwards of four 
 miles, of steel wire in the form of shrouds, stays, etc. ; and 
 31,000 lineal feet, or nearly six miles, of running cordage. The 
 combined height of the masts is 960 feet, and the combined 
 length of the spars, by which the spread of sail is suspended, 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 139 
 
 no less than 2,000 lineal feet. To assist sailing vessels in a 
 prolonged calm, auxiliary steam-engines have been added the 
 Marie Rickmers, for example, being fitted with triple expansion 
 engines of about 600 indicated horse-power. 
 
 With regard to steam vessels, the Spaniards assert that as far 
 back as 1543 one Blasco de Gary attempted to propel a vessel 
 by steam in the harbour of Barcelona. In 1707 Denis Papin 
 employed a steam-engine to drive a model boat, fitted with 
 paddle-wheels, on the river Fulda ; and in 1736 Jonathan 
 Hulls patented in England a form of paddle-steamer resem- 
 bling in many essential features vessels still in use. It was 
 only during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, how- 
 ever, that real progress began to be made in steam navigation. 
 The Marquis de Jouffroy in France, James Rumsey and John 
 Fitch in America, and Patrick Miller and William Symington 
 in Great Britain, seem to have been simultaneously at work on 
 the steamboat problem. In October, 1788, upon a lake on 
 Mr. Miller's estate in Dumfriesshire, Symington propelled by 
 steam a small craft twenty-five feet long through the waters 
 of the lake, in the presence of Robert Burns, Nasmyth the 
 painter, and others. Many other trials had been made both 
 in England and America without material result, when in 
 1 80 1-2 Symington completed for Lord Dundas a steam vessel 
 intended for towing purposes on the Forth and Clyde . Canal. 
 It was the first practically successful steamboat ever built, and 
 was named the Charlotte Dundas. The engine was of Watt's 
 double-acting type, turning a crank on the shaft of the paddle- 
 wheel, which was situated at the stern. An excellent experi- 
 ment was made with it in March, 1802, but for some cause 
 or other the vessel was eventually broken up and Symington 
 became disheartened. Robert Fulton was next prominent in 
 this matter. With the aid of Chancellor Livingston, he con- 
 structed in the United States a vessel called the Clermont, 133 
 feet long and 18 feet broad. It was fitted with a steam-engine 
 which he had ordered from Boulton & Watt, and it made its 
 
143 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 first trip between New York and Albany, a distance of 142 
 miles, in thirty-two hours. The Clermont was the first steam- 
 boat continuously and profitably employed in useful service, 
 and to Fulton is consequently awarded the distinction of 
 having been ' the first to make steam navigation an everyday 
 commercial success.' 
 
 The English and American Governments were approached 
 in vain on the subject of steam navigation, by Henry Bell of 
 Helensburgh, on the Clyde. At length, on his own initiative, 
 he had constructed at Port Glasgow, the Comet, a vessel 42 
 feet long and 1 1 broad, fitted with an engine of three horse- 
 power. She plied on the Clyde at the rate of five miles per 
 hour, afterwards extended by enlargements to six, when the 
 Elizabeth and other steamers were in successful action. The 
 Clyde took the lead in the building of steamships, and the 
 first steamer to ply on the Thames, the Marjory, was con- 
 structed there. She was launched from the yard of William 
 Penny, of Dumbarton. David Napier, the well-known marine 
 engineer, of Glasgow, was the next to give a considerable im- 
 petus to steamship-building. In 1818 he established regular 
 steam service between Glasgow and Belfast, and in the following 
 year the first line of steamers between Glasgow and Liverpool. 
 The Thames steamers began to ply between London and 
 Margate in 1815-16; and in 1817 James Watt crossed over 
 to the Scheldt in a steamer named the Caledonia, afterwards 
 ascending the Rhine to Coblentz. 
 
 The first steamboat which crossed the Atlantic was the 
 Savannah. On May, 25th, 1819, she sailed from Savannah, 
 and arrived in Liverpool on the 2oth of June thus occupying 
 twenty-five clear days. She relied, however, on her sailing 
 powers almost equally with steam. She was a vessel 100 feet 
 long and about 300 tons burden, and was a nine days' wonder 
 until she was shipwrecked off Long Island. In 1825 the 
 Enterprise vessel 122 feet long and of about 470 tons bur- 
 denmade a passage from London to Calcutta in 113 days, len 
 

 SIX GEORGE BURNS. 141 
 
 of which were accounted for by stoppages. * The successful 
 inauguration of Transatlantic steaming,' says Mr. Pollock, * is 
 due to the Great Western, built for the Great Western Steam- 
 ship Company, by I. K. Brunei, whose bold genius controlled 
 the affairs of the company, and gave to the maritime world 
 several of its most notable steamships. She was 212 feet long, 
 35 feet 4 inches beam, 23 feet 2 inches depth of hold, and 
 registered 1,340 tons. Her engines, on the side-lever principle, 
 were made by Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, & Field, of London, 
 and were of 440 horse-power. 
 
 On Sunday, April 8th, 1838, the Great Western started from 
 Bristol on her voyage across the Atlantic, her completion and 
 despatch being hastened on account of the fact that, four days 
 before, a vessel named the Sinus (taken from the service be- 
 tween London and Cork) had been despatched on the same 
 voyage. The Sirius was smaller and less powerful than the 
 Great Western, and both vessels arrived at New York on the 
 same day, Monday, April 23 the Sirius in the morning, and 
 the Great Western in the afternoon, the passage thus taking 
 eighteen days and fourteen days respectively. Their arrival 
 was hailed with immense acclamation by a vast concourse of 
 spectators ; the event represented a triumph in steam naviga- 
 tion regarding the possibility of which much popular unbelief 
 and some scientific doubt had been expressed and virtually 
 reduced the distance between the Old World and the New by 
 about one-half.' 
 
 Other pioneer steamers followed, but, as in the case of the 
 Great Western, with indifferent success commercially. Then 
 came the great Cunard line, and it is here that I take up the 
 biography of Sir George Burns. 
 
 Burns came of an old and long-lived family in the west of 
 Scotland, whose name was originally Burn. His grandfather, 
 John Burn, remembered seeing the soldiers crowd past his 
 father's house with their wounded after the Battle of Sheriff 
 Muir, in the Jacobite rising of 1715. He was a native of Stir- 
 
142 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 ling, and a man of piety and learning, with some repute in 
 letters. He married in 1741, at St. Ninians, Janet Young, and 
 they had one child, born in 1 744. This child afterwards became 
 Dr. Burns, of the Barony Church, and the father of George 
 Burns. Young John Burns grew up into an earnest and godly 
 man. He entered the ministry of the Kirk of Scotland, and in 
 1773 was appointed to the full charge of the Barony Church, 
 Glasgow, of which he had for some time acted as assistant 
 minister. In 1775 he was successfully working Sunday-schools 
 at Calton, in Glasgow, and it is believed that these were the first 
 Sunday-schools instituted in Scotland. During the same year Dr. 
 Burns married Elizabeth Stevenson, daughter of John Steven- 
 son, of the family now represented by Stevenson Hamilton of 
 Fairholm and Braidwood. They had seven sons and two daugh- 
 ters, the youngest of the family being George, the future ship- 
 owner. 
 
 George Burns was born on Dec. loth, 1795, in a part of 
 Glasgow known as the 'Holy Land,' so called from the num- 
 ber of ministers who congregated in the locality. Mr. Edwin 
 Hodder, in his Memoir of Burns, observes that he grew up 
 to be a bright, happy, thoughtless boy. Burns himself has 
 stated that his first school was a private one, under a tutor 
 named Angus, who enjoyed the highest repute as a teacher of 
 grammar in preparation for a full classical education. He was 
 next sent to the Grammar School of Glasgow, now called the 
 High School, an ancient seat of education. Here he made fair 
 progress, but out of school he was a mischievous lad, full of fun, 
 and always ready for play or sport. His period of tuition came 
 to an end in 1812, when he was seventeen years of age. During 
 George's early home life there were many changes in the Burns 
 family. Four children had died ; John, the eldest afterwards Dr. 
 John Burns, F.R.S., the first Professor of Surgery in Glasgow Uni- 
 versity, had married and left the paternal roof; Elizabeth was 
 also married, and Allan was away either travelling or lecturing 
 on anatomy, and preparing the books which were to bring him 
 
SIX GEORGE BURNS. 143 
 
 fame. The two remaining children, James and George, were at 
 home. All made much of the youngest son, who was bright, 
 energetic, and business-like. There was pleasant hospitality 
 in the Burns domicile, and much discussion of current events 
 by ministerial brethren and others, so that George picked up 
 a good deal of miscellaneous information in an entertaining 
 fashion. Dr. Burns was very cosmopolitan in his clerical friend- 
 ships, and would often take his son to the Episcopalian Church 
 on a Sunday evening, having no evening service of his own. In 
 this way George Burns had the opportunity of listening to 
 such men as Charles Simeon of Cambridge, and Henry Venn, 
 Secretary of the Church Missionary Society. 
 
 The business of life for young Burns began in 1812, when 
 he entered the office of the New Lanark Cotton Spinning Com- 
 pany as a clerk. The superior under whom he served was Mr. 
 John Wright, of whom Burns wrote seventy-two years after he 
 passed under his charge, ' He was truly a father, both in pro- 
 moting my temporal and spiritual well-being.' The young 
 clerk's recreations were in chemistry and science, and he 
 studied during a regular course of lectures under Dr. Thomas 
 Thomson, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Glas- 
 gow. This love for science never left him, and later in life he 
 keenly enjoyed Faraday's lectures at the Royal Institution. 
 George Burns early acquired deep religious convictions, but he 
 was always an enemy of cant. When he was treasurer of the 
 'Penny-a-Week North-West District Society,' in aid of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society, he collected in pennies upwards of 
 ^"400 a year. Whatever he put his hand to he worked at in- 
 dustriously. In 1813 he experienced a great sorrow by the death 
 of his brother Allan, whom he had happily helped to a stronger 
 faith in religion before he passed away. George Burns fell 
 under the magic spell of that celebrated divine Dr. Chalmers in 
 1815 ; and 'soon there sprang up between the great preacher and 
 the young mm of business a close intimacy, and a love strong 
 as death.' Chalmers set on fojt a comprehensive system of 
 
144 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Sabbath evening schools, to counteract in some degree the 
 deplorable ignorance he had discovered among the young 
 people of the wynds and alleys. The teachers were allowed 
 a free hand as regards ways and methods ; and George Burns 
 was one of the first to enrol himself in the earnest band of 
 workers. He next became active in the service of the Glasgow 
 Auxiliary to the Moravian Missions, and became acquainted 
 with James Montgomery, the poet, who first stirred Chalmers's 
 interest in the Moravians. 
 
 In the year 1818 Burns became engaged to Jeanie Cleland, 
 the young and accomplished daughter of Dr. Cleland, in whose 
 house George had long been a welcome guest. They were in 
 thorough sympathy and accord in their tastes, pursuits, disposi- 
 tions, and religious ideas. The letters which passed between 
 them show the high aspirations by which both were animated. 
 After that strange but impressive genius, Edward Irving, be- 
 came assistant to Dr. Chalmers at St. John's Church, Glasgow, 
 Burns saw a good deal of him ; and from his interesting remi- 
 niscences of Irving I extract these passages: 'Irving had a sin- 
 gular facility in finding his way to easy conversation with the 
 working people in Dr. Chalmers's parish. On one occasion he 
 told me it fell to his lot to visit a shoemaker, who turned out to 
 be of a sceptical turn of mind. The shoemaker showed no in- 
 clination to admit any conversation, but continued hammering 
 doggedly at his last. Irving paid no attention to this, but began 
 to speak to him of the work in which he was engaged, and 
 asked him if he had heard of an invention which had lately 
 come out in London for connecting, in an improved manner, 
 the double soles of shoes. The shoemaker put down his last, 
 and fell into eager talk upon the subject. Irving had accom- 
 plished his purpose, but was too wise to push at that time the 
 real object he had in view. However, he returned again and 
 again to the man, who welcomed him gladly, and was at 
 length eager to speak with him upon religious subjects. 
 
 * Irving was physically a powerful man, and in the days when 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 145 
 
 the road to Blackheath was infested with highwaymen, he was 
 walking alone, in the darkening of the evening, to London, 
 when two men who were lurking about seemed inclined to join 
 him. Irving at once. penetrated their purpose of doing him 
 some mischief, and, determining to make his presence felt 
 amongst them, he opened up a conversation by saying, " I see 
 we are all going the same way to London, I suppose ; let us 
 shake hands and walk together." One of the men responded, 
 but he found that his hand was in that of one who held him 
 like the grip of a vice ; and seeing that Irving was evidently 
 not to be trifled with, the two men, after a little while, slunk 
 off quietly behind. 
 
 1 1 have no letters from Irving, but we met frequently at 
 Chalmers's and elsewhere. A favourite theme of conversation 
 with Irving when talking to me, especially during his early 
 days in Glasgow, was of the Spirit of God working among men 
 more by the agency of the heart than of the head. Before he 
 went to London, Irving said to Mr. Chalmers, that when he 
 should enter his church in Regent Street he was determined to 
 open up a career for himself. This he certainly did, but great 
 differences of opinion exist with regard to its value.' 
 
 Irving and George Burns were present together in St. John's 
 Church on the 9th of November, 1823, when Dr. Chalmers 
 preached his farewell sermon before taking the vacant Chair of 
 Moral Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews. The day 
 was a memorable one. 'An enormous concourse of people 
 was packed in the church, but no one seemed to feel incon- 
 venienced, so deeply impressed were they with the grandeur and 
 solemnity of the utterances of the great preacher, as, with soul 
 aflame and in a white heat of spiritual fervour, he spoke from 
 that pathetic text, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right 
 hand forget her cunning." ' The loss of Chalmers from the 
 old scenes in Glasgow was naturally a painful one to George 
 Burns, who had worked under him as under a noble and gifted 
 father as indeed he was to him in the higher life of the Spirit. 
 
 L 
 
146 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Returning to the business career of George Burns, in 1816 
 he left the New Lanark Company and entered the house of 
 Andrew Grant & Co., in order to learn the mysteries of the 
 cotton trade. His stay here was brief, however, as in 1818 he 
 entered into partnership with his brother James, as general 
 merchants. Both brothers were men of sterling commercial 
 integrity, and would rather lose an advantage than take it, if it 
 seemed in the least degree injurious to the interests of others. 
 Their liberality of spirit resulted in prosperity for themselves. 
 Honesty was not only a policy but a principle with them. 
 George did all the travelling for the new firm. This was not a 
 light matter, seeing that for years the mail-coach journey to 
 London alone occupied some sixty hours. But he systematic- 
 ally visited the outlying cities in England and Ireland : indeed, 
 in 1818-20 he visited every outport in Ireland, and was well 
 rewarded for his labour. Finding that the grain consignment 
 branch of the business was very hazardous, he did not cultivate 
 it ; but in Belfast he obtained the support of the whole town, 
 and its consignment of produce fell entirely into the hands of 
 J. & G. Burns. On no account would George Burns work or 
 travel on Sunday: he said he found it good for him to 'rest on 
 the seventh day according to the commandment.' On the 
 loth of June, 1822, Burns was married to Jeanie Cleland. 
 The union in their case was really one of hearts. ' The two 
 were one in everything and henceforth, for over fifty-five 
 years, every joy and sorrow of life, every hope and aspiration, 
 they were to share together.' They at once began to take an 
 active interest in many religious societies. * Mrs. Burns, who 
 . from her childhood had been conspicuous for her philanthropy 
 and benevolence, was a woman of powerful intellect, combined 
 with unusual energy, and threw into everything she undertook 
 a cheerful vigour of manner which exercised a moving in- 
 fluence among her fellow-workers.' 
 
 A radical change in the business course of George Burns's 
 life began in 1824. The whole of the Glasgow and Liverpool 
 
STR GEORGE BURNS. 147 
 
 shipping trade was in the hands of three companies. One of 
 these, the Liverpool firm of Messrs. Matthie & Theakstone, 
 had as agents in Glasgow Messrs. John & Alexander Kidd. 
 The brothers Kidd having died, it became necessary for 
 Matthie & Theakstone to appoint fresh agents in Glasgow ; 
 and after a time they gave the agency to Messrs. Burns on very 
 liberal terms namely, 6^ per cent, commission on all freights, 
 payments to be guaranteed by the agents. This formed a new 
 departure in the life of George Burns : henceforth all his 
 energies were thrown into the shipping business, while his 
 brother James continued to manage the produce business until 
 his death. The produce business was carried on under the 
 style of ' J. & G. Burns/ and the shipping business under 
 that of ' G. & J. Burns ' separate premises being used. Not 
 long after this change, George Burns became a partner in 
 Matthie's Liverpool business ; and he took a further important 
 step by embarking in steam navigation between the Clyde and 
 Belfast, which proved to be the cradle of the coasting steam 
 trade of the British Isles. Improvements effected at various 
 times in the Clyde transformed it at last into a great navigable 
 highway. 
 
 When steam began to make considerable headway, the agency 
 of the Glasgow and Belfast line of trading steamers became a 
 very important connection for any firm. Great efforts were 
 made by others to obtain it, but Burns was confirmed in his 
 agency, and he occupied so strong a position that he was even 
 able to prevent the steamers from sailing on Sundays, when 
 that proposal was pressed forward. In a short time, we are 
 told, the whole machinery of the trade was in working order, 
 and goods and passengers were being conveyed in large and 
 swift vessels between the Clyde and Belfast. Burns's next step 
 was to purchase, with the aid of Matthie, twelve smacks be- 
 longing to the Martins of Liverpool, and to dispose of them 
 with the view of beginning entirely anew with improved steam 
 vessels. This being accomplished, a new co-partnery was 
 
 L 2 
 
148 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 entered into, the style being ' Matthie & Martin ' for Liverpool, 
 and ' G. & J. Burns & J. Martin' for Glasgow. On the i3th 
 of March, 1829, the first vessel of the new Glasgow company, 
 called the Glasgow, steamed down the Clyde; and she was 
 followed in the ensuing month by the Ailsa Craig, and in the 
 succeeding year by the Liverpool. 
 
 A most interesting glimpse of George Burns's character is 
 furnished in this passage from Mr. Hodder's biography : 
 * George arranged the sailing day of the first vessel, the Glasgow, 
 to be Friday despite the sailors' superstition with regard to 
 that day ; although his object was not to fight a superstition, 
 but to establish a principle, namely, the avoidance, as far as 
 possible, of sailing on Sunday. When Hugh Matthie heard of 
 this arrangement, he wrote back at once to say that it would 
 never do, as the whole of the canal traffic from Stafford and 
 elsewhere arrived in Liverpool on Saturday. " It would be far 
 better," he said, " to sail on Saturday ; and, if you think it 
 necessary," he added, sarcastically, " provide chaplains." At 
 that time he was always in the way of saying to Mr. Martin 
 when letters came in the morning, " What will ' King George ' 
 have to say to-day ? " 
 
 ' He was dumbfounded when he heard what " King George " 
 had to say in reply. It was a frankly worded letter, saying that 
 "he thought very well of the suggestion about providing chap- 
 lains, and that he and his brother would pay the entire expense 
 of the experiment." The letter arrived in the usual course. 
 Mr. Matthie was sitting in his private room on one side of the 
 table, and Martin on the other. He read the letter and threw 
 it across to Martin, saying, "The fellow takes me up in earn- 
 est." Mr. Martin replied, " Did I not say you had better not 
 try that game on with Burns ? " 
 
 * At once the novel idea was carried into effect, and a chap- 
 lain was appointed for each of the steamers. Captain Hepburn, 
 in command of the second vessel with a chaplain on board, was 
 jeered by the people on the Broomielaw, as he sailed away, the 
 
Sftf GEORGE BURNS. 149 
 
 would-be wits bantering him on " sailing in a steam chapel," 
 and so forth. But the ridicule soon died away, while the boon 
 and the blessing remained. The institution of chaplains con- 
 tinued until the year 1843, when the Free Church started off 
 from the Established Church of Scotland, which made such a 
 draft upon licentiates for the ministry, that operations had to 
 be suspended ; but a succession of missionaries was employed 
 to visit the seamen on shore in Glasgow, and part of the duties 
 formerly performed by the chaplains was thus carried on. A 
 mission-room was specially built for this object on premises be- 
 longing to Messrs. Burns, near the Broomielaw where Dr. 
 Love's chapel originally stood, and on Sunday evenings the 
 services of the highest class of ministers in Glasgow were en- 
 listed, amongst them being the late Dr. Norman Macleod, of 
 the Barony Church, and Dr. Eadie, of the United Presbyterian 
 body. On week-days the room was used for various social 
 purposes, and from time to time entertaining lectures were 
 given.' 
 
 The Glasgow company was soon doing a splendid trade, 
 with its excellent steamers, captains, and general business 
 arrangements. It had only one powerful opponent, the 
 Manchester company, and this was so left behind in the 
 competition that it capitulated, and was absorbed by the 
 Glasgow company, which soon had the entire Liverpool 
 and Glasgow trade in its own hands, except for a small 
 steamer called the Enterprise. David Maclver was the 
 Liverpool agent for the Enterprise, and he was so disturbed 
 by the energy displayed by the Burns firm that he went to 
 Glasgow, determined to float a regular fleet, in order to break 
 up the monopoly. On arriving at Glasgow, much to his dis- 
 may he found that G. & J. Burns had already added the 
 Enterprise itself to their list of vessels. He was so exasperated 
 that he used all his efforts to establish a new company, and 
 this he did with the aid of a wealthy cotton broker named 
 James Donaldson. The City of Glasgow Steam Packet Com 
 
150 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 pany began its opposition with Thomson and McConnell as its 
 Glasgow agents, and Maclver as its agent in Liverpool. A 
 vessel called the City of Glasgow was bought and employed in 
 the trade; but Maclver * did not confine himself to Liver- 
 pool ; he vowed that he would, if possible, drive the Burnses off 
 the seas ; and he was constantly on the vessels, backwards and 
 forwards, urging on extra coals, extra pressure, extra speed.' 
 New vessels were put on the Liverpool line, and not on that 
 only, but also on the Ayr line, which the'Burnses were working 
 entirely on their own account. But the opposition, though for- 
 midable, did not succeed. George Burns was a man of strong 
 individuality, and the event proved that it was stronger than 
 Maclver's individuality. Moreover, he was also wise and 
 generous, so he made a proposal to his defeated antagonists to 
 this effect 'Let us amalgamate and make one common purse 
 by dividing a certain proportion of the revenue derived from 
 the general trade. You shall have two-fifths, and we will have 
 three-fifths and the control of the concern.' The terms were 
 accepted, and from that time forward the most cordial relations 
 subsisted between Maclver and Burns. When the sum of 
 p^4,ooo was handed over to the City of Glasgow Company at 
 the end of the first year, Maclver said to George Burns, ' It is 
 very good of you to pay it to us. I'm quite certain we should 
 never have paid it to you.' Opposition was further encountered 
 and overcome in the Irish trade, and subsequently Burns 
 opened up the West Highland trade, the Dundee and London 
 trade, and the trade between Liverpool and Malaga and other 
 ports. 
 
 All through the stress of business, Burns found his rest and 
 consolation at home. Here he was not without his anxieties, 
 however, for out of seven children born to him, three only sur- 
 vived the period of infancy. As his father was now advanced 
 in age, George took the principal part in finding for him a suit- 
 able assistant. One was at length secured in the person of a 
 Mr. (afterwards Dr.) J. Black, a private tutor, but a licentiate 
 
GEORGE BURNS. 151 
 
 of the Church of Scotland. He was a very able man, and 
 something of a wit. After living with Dr. Burns as assistant 
 for nearly twelve years, someone said to Mr. Black, 'You'll be 
 wearying for Dr. Burns's death ? ' to which he replied, ' Not at 
 all ; I'm only wearying for his living ? ' After the Disruption, 
 he was asked whether he was going out with the ' Frees.' His 
 reply was, ' Na, na ! I've been far too long in getting in' 
 George Burns's brother, Dr. John Burns, wrote a number of 
 religious works, one of which still retains its place in theo- 
 logical literature, namely, The Principles of Christian Philo- 
 sophy ; containing the Doctrines, Duties, Admonitions, and 
 Consolations of the Christian Religion. To this work George 
 Burns gave his hearty adhesion. In the year 1832 Mrs. Burns 
 presented her husband with twin sons. One of them died soon 
 after its birth, but the other, James Cleland Burns, survived his 
 father. Although George Burns was untrammelled in religious 
 matters, he had a great liking for the Liturgy of the Church of 
 England, and he ultimately attached himself to St. Jude's 
 Episcopal Church in Glasgow. In 1838 the Rev. Robert 
 Montgomery was appointed minister of this church. 'Satan 
 Montgomery ' is chiefly remembered as a poet because of 
 Macaulay's furious onslaught upon him, but there must havj 
 been something in his preaching when so level-headed a man 
 as Sir Archibald Alison described him as ' the greatest preacher 
 of modern times.' Montgomery was a constant visitor at Rose 
 Bank, Burns's beautiful place on the Clyde, and he made Mrs. 
 Burns the almoner of certain funds which he collected for the 
 poor. In 1843 Montgomery's dazzling career at Glasgow came 
 to an end, the rest of his life being spent in London, where he 
 continued to attract crowds of listeners at Percy Chapel. 
 
 Burns lost his venerable father on the 26th of February, 
 1839. He was in his ninety-sixth year, and was the 'Father 
 of the Church of Scotland.' When ninety years of age he re- 
 mained at a debate on the Catholic Relief Bill until after 
 midnight to record his vote. For a period of sixty-nine years 
 
152 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 he had exercised the ministerial function of the Barony parish, 
 the largest in Scotland. * He served a cure for a longer 
 period than had fallen to the lot of any Presbyterian or Epis- 
 copalian clergyman in Glasgow since the Reformation in 1560, 
 and there had been no Roman Catholic bishops or archbishops 
 since the renovation of the See in 1129 who had held office 
 for such a length of time. His popularity, which increased 
 through a long life, was that which arises from a faithful dis- 
 charge of duty ; and when he was laid to rest, full of years and 
 honour, men and women of all ranks in life and of all shades 
 of religious belief gathered round his grave to pay their 
 tribute of affection and respect. Dr. Thomas Brown, the 
 minister of John's Church, preached the funeral sermon from 
 the appropriate words, " Mark the perfect man and behold 
 the upright, for the end of that man is peace." ' 
 
 Another death soon followed that of Burns's father-in- 
 law, Dr. Cleland. He was one of the best-known citizens of 
 Glasgow, whose history and condition he had at his fingers' 
 ends. Dr. Cleland was the first to draw public attention to 
 the value of regular mortuary tables. Twice he prepared a 
 census of Glasgow, and its bills of mortality were prepared by 
 him for fourteen years, while he took an active part in further- 
 ing all the public improvements of the city. When he retired 
 from public life in 1834, a building called ' The Cleland 
 Testimonial ' was erected in his honour. He was a great 
 statistician, and was President of the Glasgow Statistical 
 Society, and Fellow of various other statistical and antiquarian 
 societies at home and abroad. 
 
 The founding of the Cunard Company was the next, and 
 perhaps the greatest, event in George Burns's life. It is 
 astonishing how even the vaticinations of scientific men are 
 sometimes amazingly and ludicrously falsified. Dr. Lardner, 
 in the course of a lecture delivered at Liverpool in 1835, said, 
 ' As to the project which is announced in the newspapers of 
 making the voyage directly from New York to Liverpool, it is, 
 
GEORGE BURNS. 153 
 
 1 have no hesitation in saying, perfectly chimerical, and they 
 may as well talk of making a voyage from New York or 
 Liverpool to the moon ! ; So, when iron ships were first 
 mooted, critics exclaimed, ' What nonsense it is, as if anybody 
 ever knew iron to float ! ' and the chief naval architect of one 
 of the dockyards said to Mr. Scott Russell, * Don't talk to me 
 about iron ships ; its contrary to nature ! ' Yet, as we have 
 seen, the feasibility of steam navigation to the Unites States 
 was fully tested in 1838 by the performance of the Sirius and 
 the Great Western. But even when this had been demon- 
 strated, Dr. Lardner raised objections against the safety, 
 regularity, and profit of an ocean steam traffic ; but all these 
 objections, likewise, were completely overcome. 
 
 As soon as the value of steam vessels had been practically 
 established, the English Government were desirous of utilising 
 the new method for the conveyance of the mails to Canada 
 and the United States. Sir Edward Parry, Comptroller of 
 Steam Machinery and the Packet Service under the Admiralty, 
 gave George Burns an early intimation of the fact. Not long 
 afterwards the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty issued 
 circulars broadcast, soliciting tenders for a mail service be- 
 tween England and America. Burns considered the question, 
 but did not see his way to venture upon so vast an under- 
 taking. The way was destined soon to he made plain to 
 him, however, through Mr. Samuel Cunard, a citizen of Hali- 
 fax, Nova Scotia. Cunard came of a Quaker family, which 
 emigrated from Wales to America early in the seventeenth 
 century, and subsequently settled at Halifax. Samuel Cunard 
 was born in that city in 1788. After some years spent in a 
 merchant's office, he became partner in a Boston shipping 
 firm, in which capacity he displayed great energy in opening 
 up trade with the West Indies and the South Sea whale 
 fishery. Then, in 1815, he undertook the conveyance of mails 
 between Boston, Newfoundland, and Bermuda ; and the work 
 was so satisfactorily executed that he was awarded the thanks 
 
J 54 HEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of the British Government. When steam navigation was 
 shown to be feasible, Cunard conceived the idea for a line of 
 steamers which should do for the ocean what railways did for 
 the land. On obtaining possession of one of the Admiralty 
 circulars in 1839, he perceived that his opportunity had come. 
 But he lacked capital. He broached his scheme to the 
 merchants of Halifax, but they were too timid to join him. 
 Consequently he proceeded to London, where he obtained a 
 letter of introduction to Robert Napier, the famous Clyde ship- 
 builder and engineer, who had constructed several steamers 
 for the East India Company, of which company Cunard was 
 agent in Halifax. 
 
 Journeying north Cunard found Robert Napier, and ex- 
 plained his scheme to him. Napier introduced him to Mr. 
 Donaldson, representative of the City of Glasgow Steam 
 Packet Company, who, like Napier himself, was a friend of 
 George Burns. Donaldson saw Burns, and the latter dis- 
 cussed the scheme with Cunard and David Maclver. At first 
 Maclver was dead against the scheme, but after another inter- 
 view with Cunard, and on the understanding that they were to 
 get friends to join them, if possible, Burns and Maclver began 
 to move in the matter. At length, entirely through the instru- 
 mentality of Burns, the requisite capital of ,270,000 was 
 subscribed, and a tender was made to the Admiralty for the 
 conveyance of Her Majesty's mails once a fortnight between 
 Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston. This tender was accepted 
 over one made by the owners of the Great Western steamship, 
 and a contract was concluded for a period of seven years 
 between the Government and the newly formed company. 
 The contract was taken in the names of, and was signed by, 
 Samuel Cunard, George Burns, and David Maclver, names 
 henceforth indissolubly associated with the Cunard line. 
 
 This contract with the British Government contained an 
 important clause providing that the steamers used by the con- 
 tractors should be of such construction as to be available, on 
 
GEORGE BURNS. 155 
 
 demand, for transporting soldiers or military stores, not only to 
 the colonies in North America, but to any part of the world. 
 The actual receipts of the Cunard firm during the seven years 
 the first contract lasted amounted to ,3,295 per voyage. 
 Although this was a large sum, the conditions were very oner- 
 ous ; indeed, after having had considerable experience, Messrs. 
 Burns said they would take less mpney if certain restrictions 
 were removed. Accordingly a new contract was made for 
 ^70,000 a year, and the ships were to carry no naval officer 
 on board. The firm of Cunard, Burns, & Maclver spared no 
 expense in securing the finest vessels for the the ocean mail 
 traffic. One of the partners, Cunard, established himself in 
 London, Burns conducted affairs in Glasgow, and Maclver 
 superintended the practical working of the steamers at Liver- 
 pool. Mr. W. S. Lindsay, in his History of Merchant Shipping 
 and Ancient Commerce, observes : ' If ever the world's bene- 
 factors are estimated at their real worth, the names of Samuel 
 Cunard, George Burns, and David Maclver will rank among 
 those who, by their gallant enterprise, have made the world 
 richer by giving an unprecedented stimulus to commerce, 
 and who have rendered inestimable service to the people of 
 every country. For it was not merely in establishing the first 
 line of Atlantic mail steamers that they deserved credit, but in 
 the framing of the rules for the management of their fleet which 
 has led to such magnificent results. Appreciating the great 
 responsibility there was upon them, they made their plans 
 yield at every point to secure one grand result safety. They 
 might, without laying themselves open to any complaint, have 
 reduced the cost of their service, by minimising the labour 
 employed, and they might also have engaged a cheaper kind of 
 labour than that which they have always used. But from the 
 first, to their honour be it said, they sacrificed everything to 
 safety. Precious human lives were entrusted to their keeping, 
 and, whatever else had to give way, they were inflexible on this 
 point. Safety first, profit second, was their practical motto ; 
 
156 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 and as good wine needs no bush, the public soon found out 
 the high character of the firm, and from its establishment to 
 the present time this great character has been maintained.' 
 
 The construction of the earliest vessels, and the reception of 
 the pioneer steamer, the Britannia, in America, have thus been 
 described by Mr. Hodder : ' The first four steamships provided 
 by the Cunard Company, or, as it was then formally entitled, 
 " The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet 
 Company," were the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia, and Colum- 
 bia the nomenclature of all the Cunard ships ending in "ia." 
 These four ships were wooden paddle-wheel vessels, built re- 
 spectively on the Clyde, in 1840, by R. Duncan, J. Wood, C. 
 Wood, and R. Steel, and supplied with common side-lever 
 engines by Robert Napier. The Britannia, which was the 
 pioneer vessel of the fleet, measured 207 feet long by 34 feet 
 4 inches broad by 22 feet 6 inches deep, with a tonnage burden 
 of 1.154, and an indicated horse-power of 740. Her cargo 
 capacity was 225 tons, and she was fitted for the accommodation 
 of 115 cabin passengers, but no steerage. The horse-power 
 and passenger and cargo accommodation of the other three 
 ships were identical with those of the Britannia, while their 
 dimensions and tonnage only varied very slightly from hers. 
 Their average speed was 8^ knots per hour, on a coal con- 
 sumption of 38 tons per day. 
 
 'On Friday, the 4th of July, 1840 the " Celebration Day " 
 of American Independence, the Britamiia, punctual to the 
 very minute of the advertised time, left her moorings on the 
 Mersey, amidst the cheering of immense crowds, acknow- 
 ledged by Mr. Samuel Cunard, who himself went out with the 
 first mail American steamer. It was calculated that the Brit- 
 annia would reach Boston in fourteen days and a half, but she 
 entered the harbour four hours before the time, having made 
 the voyage in fourteen days and eight hours, at that time con- 
 sidered a rapid passage. The arrival of the first mail steamer 
 in America created even greater enthusiasm than her depar- 
 
GEORGE BURNS. 157 
 
 ture from the English side. It was testified not only by an 
 unprecedented ovation in bunting and cheering, but the citizens 
 of Boston celebrated the occasion by giving a magnificent 
 public banquet, at which their enthusiasm found vent in 
 speeches of the most complimentary nature. During the 
 first twenty-four hours of his stay at Boston, it was recorded in 
 the local papers with justifiable pride, that Mr. Samuel Cunard 
 received no less than 1,873 invitations to dinner. 
 
 ' One incident in connection with the return voyage of the 
 Britannia gave proof that these expressions of goodwill were 
 not of an evanescent character. The winter of 1840-41 hav- 
 ing set in very early with great severity, the Britannia \\as 
 frozen up in Boston Harbour, and there was no little fear that 
 she would be imprisoned in the ice for many months. There- 
 upon the good Bostonians, at their own expense, and with the 
 willing work of thousands of volunteers, cut a channel of more 
 than seven miles in length to get the steamer into clear water.' 
 
 Thus was established steam postal communication between 
 America and Great Britain, while the foundation was -laid by 
 the Cunard Company for a success which is unparalleled in the 
 annals of shipping. In January, i842^-or eighteen months 
 only after her initial voyage, Charles Dickens made his first 
 passage to America in the Britannia. Characteristically de- 
 scribing the scene in the Mersey before the vessel's departure, 
 he wrote : ' Evefy gallant ship was riding slowly up and down, 
 and every little boat was splashing noisily in the water ; and 
 knots of people stood upon the wharf, gazing with a kind of 
 " dread delight " on the far-famed fast American steamer ; and 
 one party of men were " taking in milk," or, in other words, 
 getting the cow on board, and another were filling the ice- 
 houses to the very throat with fresh provisions with butcher's 
 meat and garden-stuff, pale sucking-pigs, calves' heads in scores, 
 beef, veal, and pork, and poultry out of all proportion ; and 
 others were coiling ropes and busy with oakum yarns, and 
 others were lowering heavy packages into the hold ; and the 
 
158 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 purser's head was barely visible as it loomed in a state of ex- 
 quisite perplexity from the midst of a vast pile of passengers' 
 luggage ; and there seemed to be nothing going on anywhere 
 or uppermost in the mind of anybody, but preparations for 
 this mighty voyage.' 
 
 Among personal friends whom George Burns made in the 
 'forties' were Sir Edward Parry; Canon Melvill, 'the golden- 
 mouthed ' preacher ; Mr. Thomas Crofton Croker of the 
 Admiralty, the well-known Irish antiquary, and Mr. S. C. 
 Hall. While Burns was compelled by business mitters to 
 reside in London during the greater part of 1843, lie was 
 severely tried by family affliction. His nephew Allan, whom 
 he loved almost as a son, passed away ; he also lost a child of 
 his own, and his wife lay seriously ill in the North. It was 
 at this juncture that Lord Sandon, afterwards known as the 
 philanthropic Earl of Harrowby, wrote to him as follows : ' I 
 sincerely sympathise with you in the various afflictions with 
 which you have been visited, during your protracted stay in 
 London. I hope you may have the strength to bear them with 
 as much resignation as you displayed patience and cheerful- 
 ness under the protracted annoyances to which the prosecution 
 of your affair with the public offices has exposed you.' The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer decided against Burns in the 
 matter of the St. Lawrence Service the conveyance of the 
 Canadian mails by coach-contract between Halifax and 
 Picton ; but he made such representations to the Government 
 as to the loss sustained by the Cunard Company in performing 
 its general service, that a new arrangement was concluded by 
 which -the Company secured an addition of ^10,000 a year to 
 its existing contract. 
 
 It is stated that George Burns was a very contemplative man, 
 fond of silent meditation, and he took a keen delight in the 
 writings of a French author who would certainly be unknown 
 to most Englishmen immersed in business Blaise Pascal. 
 Indeed, for the works of Pascal he entertained a love beyond 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 159 
 
 that which he felt for any other human productions. He 
 never took part in the public discussion of social and religious 
 questions, but like his friend Sir Andrew Agnew he felt a keen 
 interest in the observance of the Sabbath, and it was in con- 
 nection with this subject that he made, at Exeter Hall, his first 
 and only speech on a public platform. Sir William Hooker, 
 Director of the Ke\v Gardens, was another friend of Burns's, 
 and the latter facilitated the passage of his botanical speci- 
 mens to the United States. The letters between Burns and 
 his wife were very tender. After thirty years he found himself 
 loving his * old Jeanie ' more deeply than ever, and to see her 
 own affection for others made him have a more affectionate 
 heart himself towards all around him. Both ripened and 
 mellowed in Christian character as the years rolled on. 
 
 When there was great distress in the Highlands of Scotland 
 in 1847, Burns placed some of his Western Highland steamers 
 at the service of the Government. In the summer of the 
 same year the Grand Duke Constantine made the tour of the 
 Highlands, when a beautifully-appointed vessel was placed at 
 his disposal by the great shipowner. Burns was on the Con- 
 tinent at this time. The following passage relating to his re- 
 turn, and the Queen's visit to Scotland, appears in his diary : 
 
 * When at Boulogne, on my homeward journey, I read in 
 the newspapers that the Queen had determined to journey on 
 the same route that the Grand Duke Constantine had taken 
 in his tour in the Highlands. I immediately hastened home- 
 wards, and called on Captain Hamilton at the Admiralty, 
 when he asked me to take charge of the voyaging and pilot- 
 age. I readily assented, hurried back to Scotland, and rigged 
 out the smaller passenger boat from the Crinan Canal in the 
 best way I could, taking out of my own drawing-room, in 
 Glasgow, a large mirror to place in the saloon. When the 
 Queen arrived in the Clyde, in the royal yacht Victoria and 
 Albert, she was accompanied by H.M.S. Scourge, in command 
 of my old friend Captain Cafrm, and went up to Dumbarton 
 
160 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Rock to inspect it and the garrison. While she was there, I 
 went on board the yacht to confer with Lord Adolphus Fitz- 
 Clarence, who was in command. In the evening we pro- 
 ceeded to Rothesay, which was on the occasion illuminated, 
 and lay off there, the Queen being on board. The day follow- 
 ing, the Queen went to visit the Duke of Argyll at Inveraray, 
 where everything was, of course, in high preparation for her. 
 I remained at Ardrishaig waiting her return, to conduct her 
 through the Canal,- the Victoria and Albert and the Sco-urge 
 being sent round to join her at the other end. The canal- 
 boats were at that time tracked by horses through the Canal, 
 and I clothed the boys who ran the horses in scarlet. We 
 went through the Canal in the track-boat already mentioned. 
 There my brother joined me, and subsequently my son, James 
 Cleland, and I did all that was necessary for the occasion. I 
 went through the Highlands with Her Majesty. The Highland 
 Service then received the popular name of " The Royal Route " 
 a name it has ever since retained.' 
 
 Her Majesty thus refers to the same incident, in her Leaves 
 from a Note Book in the Highlands : ' We and our people 
 drove through the little village (Lochgilphead) to the Crinan 
 Canal, where we entered a most magnificently decorated 
 barge, drawn by three horses, ridden by postillions in scarlet. 
 We glided along very smoothly, and the views of the hills 
 the range of Cruachan were very fine indeed.' 
 
 Matters domestic and commercial occupied Burns in 1849. 
 His only surviving daughter, Margaret, was married to Mr. 
 Charles Reddie, an Edinburgh advocate, son of the Town 
 Clerk of Glasgow. In business affairs a new enterprise was 
 opened up. The mail service to Ireland had long been in- 
 efficiently conducted, although it cost the Goverment about 
 ^"6,000 per annum. Messrs. Burns were already sending 
 goods and passengers between the Clyde and Belfast in larger 
 and swifter ships than those employed in the mail service, 
 and with remarkable punctuality. But in 1849 an influential 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. i6i 
 
 company organised opposition vessels on the Ardrossan route, 
 which was a much shorter sea passage than that by Greenock. 
 The company had the support of the Glasgow and South- 
 western Railway, and of Lord Eglinton, owner of the har- 
 bour and lord of the manor of Ardrossan. They exerted all 
 their influence to divert the mails to their Ardrossan route. 
 It was regarded as a settled thing in their favour, when George 
 Burns foreseeing the advantages to be derived from the mails 
 offered to carry them free of all charge between Greenock 
 and Belfast, and also to put on extra and faster vessels, which 
 should sail from each port every evening in the week except 
 Sunday. When Colonel Maberley, Secretary to the Post 
 Office, was told of this offer, he exclaimed, ' Burns, you are a 
 fool ! ' but when he investigated the matter he found that 
 Burns was not such a fool as he seemed. The Postmaster- 
 General (Lord Clanricarde) accepted the offer of Messrs. 
 Burns, and the mails were carried by them free of expense for 
 thirty-three years. At first there was a considerable loss on 
 the contract, but when travellers began to appreciate the excel- 
 lence of the service, the loss was converted into a gain. The 
 competition between the Ardrossan Company and the Messrs. 
 Burns was so keen that for their mutual protection a system 
 of fares, freights, and- sailings was agreed to which continued 
 in force until 1882, when the Ardrossan steamers were pur- 
 chased by Messrs. Burns. The Glasgow and South-Western 
 Railway Company had previously to this made a determined 
 effort to obtain an Act for incorporating their vessels with the 
 railway, and thus to secure the mails ; but Burns successfully op- 
 posed this. He was not afraid of private competition, he said, 
 but in principle he was against the incorporation of railroads 
 and steamboats, which would put an end to all private trading. 
 In 1850 Burns sustained a terrible shock, and one from 
 which he did not recover for years. .The Orion, one of the 
 Liverpool steamers belonging to the firm, struck on a sunken 
 rock off Portpatrick, and went down almost immediately. 
 
 M 
 
162 LEADERS OF MODERN IND USTR K 
 
 Among the passengers lost were Burns's brother, Dr. John 
 Burns, and Miss Morris, a niece of his wife. Great was the 
 grief of George Burns when news of this harrowing disaster 
 reached him at Glasgow. The brothers had ever been specially 
 devoted to each other, though there was a gap of twenty years 
 in their ages. This blow was still fresh when Burns was called 
 upon to mourn the loss of his beloved sister Elizabeth, Mrs. 
 MacBrayne. Very soon after this there was another shipping 
 disaster. One of the Burns steamers, the Plover, was getting 
 up steam in Glasgow Harbour, when the boiler burst and the 
 engineer was killed, great damage being done to the vessel. 
 Only just before the disaster, George Burns's son John was in- 
 the engine-room. Feeling at this time that the burden of busi- 
 ness was somewhat too great for him, Burns curtailed his 
 responsibilities by giving up the * Royal Route,' or Western 
 Highland service. For some years the whole of the West 
 Highland trade had been solely in the hands of Messrs. Burns. 
 After they relinquished it, the whole of the fleet became the 
 property of Messrs. David & Alexander Hutcheson and Mr. 
 David MacBrayne, a nephew of Mr. Burns. In their hands 
 the trade has ever since remained, but although they have made 
 many improvements, and added to the service such magnificent 
 vessels as the lona and the Columba, the Clansman and the 
 Claymore^ in its main features the service remains what it was 
 in Burns's time. 
 
 The family of Dr. John Burns became extinct in 1853, when 
 its last surviving member, Colonel John Burns, of the 2nd 
 Royals, died at the Cape from fatigue and exposure during the 
 Kaffir War. By a strange coincidence, it appears that the place 
 where he was struck' down in Kara-aria was Burns's Hill a 
 mission station founded from Glasgow, and named after Dr. 
 Burns of the Barony. Before the year 1853 closed, another 
 heavy bereavement was sustained by George Burns. His only 
 and much-loved daughter died in her thirtieth year, leaving 
 behind her three infants, a boy and two girls. She seems to 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 163 
 
 have been possessed of a noble and self-sacrificing spirit, and 
 she laid the seeds of her own death by nursing one of her chil- 
 dren who had been stricken with gastric fever. Burns was 
 indeed heavily visited, but while his frequent 'parting with 
 loved ones was a terrible wrench, he was able to exclaim, 
 4 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.' 
 
 It was not to be supposed that such successful undertakings 
 as the Cunard line would be suffered to go on their course 
 without opposition. First among its antagonists came the 
 Great Western Company, which sought to divert the bulk of 
 the Atlantic traffic by building larger steamers than those 
 owned by the Cunard Company. We have seen that the first- 
 named company had achieved successful Transatlantic voyages 
 with the Great Western, but at a later period the Company 
 met with serious reverses. The ill-fated President, launched in 
 1839, made a few voyages to the United States, but in April, 
 1841, on the return voyage from America, she was lost, and 
 was never more heard of. The Great Western Company then 
 built their immense iron steamer, the Great Britain, which far 
 eclipsed anything hitherto attempted. She measured 321 feet 
 long and 5 1 feet broad, and was of 2,984 tons burden. She was 
 hailed as a maritime wonder, and the Queen and the Prince 
 Consort visited her while she lay in the Thames. The Great 
 Britain set out on her first voyage to the United States in 
 December, 1843, but she was stranded in Dundrum Bay, off 
 the Irish coast, and could not be floated till the following 
 spring. Then she was told off on the Australian service, and 
 became the favourite vessel of the line. Ultimately, the Great 
 Western Company abandoned its competition with the Cunard 
 line for the American traffic. ' But the British and American 
 Steam Navigation Company now stepped forward, and obtained 
 .a Parliamentary Committee on the subject of the conveyance 
 of the mails between England and the United States. The 
 result, however, was a report stating that the contract with 
 Messrs. Cunard, Burns, & Maclver was more advantageous 
 
 M 2 
 
r6 4 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 than any other that could be made, and that the service had 
 been most efficiently performed. In 1847 the Americans 
 themselves established a line of steamships, to run from 
 New York to Southampton. They were anxious to retain 
 their maritime commerce in their own hands, but their first 
 ship, the Washington, started from New York for Southampton 
 on the same day that the Britannia, the first Cunard ship, 
 started from Liverpool for New York, and the first race ever 
 run between American and British steamers was won by the 
 Britannia by two full days. 
 
 Meanwhile the Cunard Company added to its line the Cam- 
 bria and Hibernia, each of 500 horse-power and of 1,422 tons, 
 and at a later period the America, Niagara, Europa, and 
 Canada, each of about 1,820 tons and 680 horse-power, with 
 an average speed of 10^ knots per hour. In 1850 the British 
 Government concluded arrangements with the Cunard Com- 
 pany for the conveyance of the mails between Halifax, New 
 York, and Bermuda in small vessels, with constant regularity 
 and despatch; and in the following year another contract 
 was entered into for a monthly conveyance of the mails be- 
 tween Bermuda and St. Thomas, with the view of connecting 
 the West Indies with the United States and the North American 
 Provinces. In 1850 the Cunard Company added two more 
 large steamers to their fleet, the Asia and the Africa, each of 
 2,227 tons burden and 750 horse-power. Then came a greater 
 ship still, the Arabia, a vessel 285 feet long and of 2,400 tons 
 burden. The Arabia was largely used during the Crimean 
 War. In the year 1852 the Cunard Company determined to 
 substitute iron for wood in the construction of their vessels, 
 and from this time forward all the additions to the Cunard fleet 
 consisted of iron steamers. The Andes, the Alps, \hejura, 
 and the Etna came in quick succession, all constructed on the 
 iron principle, and their success was undoubted. After a time 
 it was found advisable to abandon paddles as the propelling 
 power, and rely simply on the screw. 
 
.SV/v J GEORGE BURNS, 165 
 
 The most formidable opposition which the Cunard Company 
 ever encountered was from the Collins line of steamers. This 
 line was founded by Mr. E. K. Collins, of New York, and 
 other American citizens, with the avowed object of driving 
 the Cunard ships off the Atlantic. They made two serious 
 mistakes, however, at the outset. First, they asked from the 
 American Government a monopoly of the business; and, 
 secondly, they complained that the rival line was sustained to 
 a very great extent by the British Government, the fact being 
 that the Cunard Company had no subsidy whatever, but was 
 simply paid freightage for carrying the mail-bags. The Collins 
 Company obtained a subsidy, though not without the unanimous 
 protest of sixty-three distinct American shipping houses of the 
 highest reputation. Four splendid vessels were built the Arctic, 
 Baltic, Atlantic, and Pacific, being the finest ships built of wood 
 then afloat. With a subsidy of about ,178,000 per annum, 
 the Collins line began to run, under the binding condition of 
 a greatly increased rate of speed. The Cunard Company like- 
 wise put forth its best efforts, and the contest was watched with 
 keen interest on both sides of the Atlantic for a period of 
 twelve months. The result was that although the Cunarders 
 lost in point of speed, they steadily gained favour as regards 
 safety and general excellence of accommodation. 
 
 The Americans rejoiced over their temporary success, and 
 it was not begrudged them in England ; but it led to the 
 Cunard Company making arrangements for a fleet of steamers 
 which should distance all competitors in speed and in every 
 other requirement. When the competition fever was at its 
 height, Charles Maclver wrote to Samuel Cunard as follows : 
 ' The Collins Company will be pretty much in the situation of 
 finding that breaking our windows with sovereigns, though very 
 fine fun, is too costly to keep up.' Unfortunately this predic- 
 tion was fulfilled in a manner that no one would have wished. 
 Although for four years the Collins line encountered no serious 
 accident, in 1854 a series of terrible disasters began. The Arctic 
 
1 66 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 went down in the autumn of that year with fearful loss of life, 
 the wife, son, and daughter of Mr. Collins being among those 
 who perished. Before the following year closed the Pacific left 
 Liverpool, and was never heard of again. Capital was subscribed 
 to repair the losses, but before the vessels could be replaced the 
 new Cunarders were at work, defying all competition their 
 average speed eclipsing the Collins and all other lines. By the 
 year 1858 the ruinous course pursued by the Collins Company 
 was fully demonstrated. The losses were shown to be immense ; 
 attempts at revival failed ; and American merchants and ship- 
 owners renewed their protest against monopoly and official 
 subsidies. Ultimately the Collins line totally collapsed, and 
 the American Government declined to subsidise any company 
 which might seek to take its place. 
 
 The Cunard Company built six new iron screw steamships 
 in 1853, and established branch lines between Liverpool and 
 the principal ports in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, Levant, 
 Bosphorus, and Black Sea; and also between Liverpool and 
 Havre. At the same time a Select Committee of the House 
 of Commons, appointed to inquire into the matter of contract 
 packets, reported that the Cunard service had been performed 
 with great regularity, speed, and certainty the average length 
 of passage, Liverpool to New York, being 12 days, i hour, 14 
 minutes. 
 
 George Burns having amassed a large fortune, and having 
 also seen the magnificent Cunard fleet brought to a high state 
 of perfection, retired from business in 1858. To him was 
 largely due the credit for that admirable system of administra- 
 tion which has governed the Cunard line down to the present 
 day. It was his resolve, moreover, that each ship added 
 to the fleet should be better, if possible, than its predecessor ; 
 yet he would never accept new theories or inventions until 
 they had stood the test of practical experience. The singular 
 immunity from accident which the line has enjoyed is attri- 
 butable to that strict observance of the Company's regula- 
 
 
Sffi GEORGE BURNS. 167 
 
 tions which has always been enjoined and enforced. As to the 
 care taken to ensure efficient and well-managed vessels, a writer 
 in The Naval and Military Magazine observed : ' Their soli- 
 citude begins at the keel of each vessel, and continues through- 
 out the whole course of construction. The progress of the work 
 is closely scrutinised by the Company's general and engineer 
 superintendents ; and, in addition, a foreman carpenter and 
 rivet inspector are constantly employed in the building yard 
 for the sole purpose of detecting defective material or work- 
 manship and having it rectified. Before every voyage a 
 thorough examination of ship and crew is made by the general 
 and marine superintendents and other officials. The men are 
 mustered, and exercised in boat drill, fire drill, and pump drill, 
 heed being taken that every man knows his proper position, so 
 as to avoid panic or confusion in the event of a sudden emer- 
 gency. An inspection is then made of the store-rooms, the 
 rockets and other signals are critically examined, and the doors 
 of the water-tight compartments are shut and tested ; and each 
 day while the ship is at sea the men stationed at the water- 
 tight doors are mustered, and every water-tight door in the ship 
 is closed, the chief officer and chief engineer reporting to the 
 captain at i p.m. the condition of the doors in their respective 
 departments. Knowing how much depends upon the acute- 
 ness of vision possessed by the officers and look-out men, the 
 greatest care is taken to guard against weak sight or colour- 
 blindness in every person connected with the sailing depart- 
 ment. An exhaustive code of instructions has been compiled 
 for the use of captains, officers, engineers, and every man on 
 board, plainly stating their individual duties, and laying down 
 distinct rules for their guidance under all circumstances. 
 Lastly, with the view of diminishing the chances of collision, 
 the Company's Atlantic steamers take specified courses, accord- 
 ing to the seasons of the year. Indeed, all the means which 
 human forethought can devise, and long experience teach, are 
 enlisted to secure the safety of lives and property.' 
 
1 68 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 With regard to the shares in the Cunard Company, Mr. 
 Hodder states that the original shareholders were by degrees 
 bought out by the founders, until the whole concern became 
 vested exclusively in the three families of Cunard, Burns, and 
 Maclver, each holding one-third of the property. Sir Samuel 
 Cunard who had been honoured by a baronetcy died in 
 1865, and his shares passed to his son, Sir Edward Cunard. 
 The latter died in 1869, and the Cunard interest devolved upon 
 his brother, Mr. William Cunard, who from that time continued 
 to represent the Company in London. David Maclver died 
 in 1845 ; his share passed to his brother Charles, and in due 
 course to the sons of the latter, but they have since retired 
 from the Cunard Company. When George Burns retired in 
 1858, his holding was divided between his two sons, John and 
 James Cleland Burns. The Company was registered under 
 the Limited Liability Acts in 1878, and transformed into a 
 joint-stock company, with a capital of ^2, 000,000, of which 
 ;i, 206,000 was issued and taken by the families of Cunard, 
 Burns, and Maclver. No shares were offered to the public 
 until 1880, when the growing needs of the Transatlantic 
 trade demanded additional steamships. The required capital 
 was at once subscribed and the directorate reconstituted with 
 Mr. John Burns as chairman of the Board. On many occa- 
 sions subsequent to the Crimean War the Cunard steamers 
 were requisitioned by the Government for the transport of 
 troops and stores. 
 
 Some years ago an article appeared in Good Words giving 
 Mr. John Burns's views on the Cunard line the character of 
 the vessels, the number of passengers carried, the vast quantities 
 of provisions required, etc. These details, and others furnished 
 by Mr. Hodder, are extremely interesting. I consequently re- 
 produce the following remarkable facts : ' The pioneer vessel 
 of the Cunard line, the Britannia, built in 1839, took for her 
 outward journey from Liverpool 600 tons of coals, and burned 
 44 tons a day, while her steam pressure was 9 Ibs. and her 
 
GEORGE BURNS. 169 
 
 speed a little over 8 knots per hour. Contrast that with the 
 Etruria, built in 1885. Her average speed is 18 knots an 
 hour, which is equal to nearly 21 statute miles, or somewhat 
 greater than the average speed of the ordinary train service on 
 any railway in the world. Her engines indicate 14,000 horse- 
 power, and are supplied with steam from 9 double-ended 
 boilers, each with 8 furnaces, or a total of 72 furnaces. The 
 total consumption of coal is 300 tons per day, or 1 2 tons per 
 hour, and if the whole of the fires were raked together and 
 formed into one large fire there would be 42 tons of coal, or a 
 mass 20 feet long, 20 feet broad, and rather more than 4 feet 
 high, burning fiercely. Her crew consists of 287 hands, all 
 told. 
 
 ' The victualling department is under the charge of the chief 
 steward, who is responsible not only for the good order of the 
 servants and the cleanliness of the saloons and cabins and 
 baths, but for providing the passengers with a good and liberal 
 table. 
 
 ' For a single passage to America the Etruria, with 547 
 cabin passengers and a crew of 287 persons on board, carries 
 the following quantities of provisions: 12,550 Ibs. fresh beef, 
 760 Ibs. corned beef, 5,320 Ibs. mutton, 850 Ibs. lamb, 350 Ibs. 
 veal, 350 Ibs. pork, 2,000 Ibs. fresh fish, 600 fowls, 300 chickens, 
 TOO ducks, 50 geese, 80 turkeys, 200 brace grouse, 15 totis 
 potatoes, 30 hampers of vegetables, 220 quarts ice-cream, 1,000 
 quarts of milk, and 11,500 eggs (or at the rate of one egg per 
 minute from the time the ship sails from Liverpool until her 
 arrival in New York). The quantities of wines, spirits, beer, 
 etc., put on board for consumption on the round voyage com- 
 prise 1,100 bottles of champagne, 850 bottles claret, 6,000 
 bottles ale, 2,500 bottles porter, 4,500 bottles mineral waters, 
 650 bottles various spirits. Crockery is broken very extensively, 
 being at the rate of 900 plates, 280 cups, 438 saucers, .1,213 
 tumblers, 200 wine-glasses, 27 decanters, and 63 water-bottles 
 in a single voyage. 
 
170 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 1 As regards the consumption on board the whole fleet for 
 one year the figures seem almost fabulous ; 4,656 sheep, 1,800 
 lambs, 2,474 oxen are consumed an array of flocks and herds 
 surpassing in extent the possessions of many a pastoral patriarch 
 of ancient times besides 24,075 fowls, 4,230 ducks, 2,200 
 turkeys, 2,200 geese, 53 tons of ham, 20 tons bacon, 15 tons 
 cheese, and 831,603 eggs. 
 
 * Other articles are in extensive demand, and in the course 
 of a year there are consumed : one ton and a half of mustard, 
 one ton and three-quarters of pepper, 7,216 bottles pickles, 
 8,000 tins sardines, 30 tons salt cod and ling, 4,192 four-lb. 
 jars of jam, 15 tons marmalade, 22 tons raisins, currants, and 
 figs, 1 8 tons split peas, 15 tons pearl barley, 17 tons rice, 34 
 tons oatmeal, 460 tons flour, 23 tons biscuits, 33 tons salt, 
 48,902 loaves of bread 8 Ibs. each. 
 
 ' The Cunard passengers annually drink and smoke to the 
 following extent : 8,030 bottles and 17,613 half-bottles cham- 
 pagne, 13,941 bottles and 7,310 half-bottles claret, 9,200 
 bottles other wines, 489,344 bottles ale and porter, 174,921 
 bottles mineral waters, 34,400 bottles spirits, 34,360 Ibs. tobacco, 
 63,340 cigars, and 56,875 cigarettes. 
 
 ' The heaviest item in the annual consumption of the Com- 
 pany is of course coal, of which 356,764 tons are burnt nearly 
 equal to 1,000 tons for every day in the year. This quantity 
 of coal, if built as a wall four feet high and one foot thick, 
 would reach from Land's End to John O'Groats' house. 
 
 ' With regard to the aggregate employment of labour by the 
 Cunard Company, it includes 34 captains, 146 officers, 628 
 engineers, boiler-makers, and carpenters, 665 seamen, 916 fire- 
 men, 900 stewards, 62 stewardesses, 42 women to keep the 
 upholstery and linen in order, with 1,100 men of a shore gang, 
 or about 4,506 people to run the ships, which traverse yearly a 
 distance equal to five times that between the earth and the 
 moon ! Since the time when George Burns became connected 
 with shipping, the large fleet over which he presided, and his 
 
,577? GEORGE BURNS. 171 
 
 firm owned, has represented from first to last no less a sum 
 than upwards of seven millions sterling.' 
 
 The course of ocean traffic during the forty years 1850-90 
 may be still further traced at this juncture. In 1850 the 
 Inman line of steamers was inaugurated by the iron steam- 
 ship, the City of Glasgow, which left Liverpool for Philadelphia 
 on December 1 7, and made a satisfactory voyage. Ever since 
 that time .the powerful and splendidly-equipped vessels of the 
 Inman line have continued to plough the Atlantic. At first 
 the route was between Liverpool and Philadelphia, but in 
 1857 New York was constituted the Company's principal port. 
 Mr. Inman always insisted on the finest engineering skill 
 and the most recent improvements. The line sustained one 
 great disaster, when the City of Boston, which left Halifax, 
 Nova Scotia, for Liverpool in 1870, was lost, and never 
 heard of afterwards. Other losses, secondary to this, were 
 also sustained. The North German Lloyd line, which began 
 in 1858, the National line, originated by the National Steam 
 Navigation Company in 1863, and the Anchor line, projected 
 by a Scotch firm in 1865, were also successful. Then there 
 were the Allan, Dominion, and American lines. The Guion 
 line, which began in 1866, has among its vessels the Arizona 
 and the Alaska the greyhound of the Atlantic ; and these 
 ships have made remarkably swift passages across the ocean, 
 accomplishing the distance between Queenstown and New 
 York in less than seven days. The latest great Atlantic line 
 which has been established is that of Ismay, Imrie, & Co., 
 styled the White Star line. The steamers of this line are 
 equal to any which cross the Atlantic. The Britannic and 
 Germanic, built for the White Star fleet by Messrs. Harland & 
 Wolff, of Belfast, in 1874, were a considerable advance on 
 anything then existing. The City of Berlin, of the Inman 
 line followed, and was for a time the largest vessel afloat 
 next to the Great Eastern. In 1888-9 f ur larger and more 
 powerful vessels still were launched. They were twin-screw 
 
172 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 steamers, and inaugurated a new epoch in Atlantic navigation. 
 They were named respectively the City of New York, the City 
 of Paris, the Majestic, and the Teutonic. These were followed 
 by splendid twin-vessels owned by German and French firms, 
 viz., the Normannia, Augusta Victoria, and Furst Bismarck of 
 the Hamburg- America line, and La Touraine of the Com- 
 pagnie Transatlantique. The longest and swiftest of the above 
 vessels is the Teutonic, which is 582 feet long. Its trial speed 
 was 21 knots an hour, and it made the passage across 
 the Atlantic in 5 days, 16 hours, and 30 minutes. But the 
 Cunard Company is still effectively coping with its rivals in 
 every respect, while the line has been singularly free from 
 disasters. 
 
 Some surprising figures are given in connection with the 
 steam fleet which began its course in 1824, when the firm of 
 G. & J. Burns was established, and which includes the steam- 
 ships of the Cunard service since its origin in 1840. It 
 appears that in 1890 the fleet included the following vessels : 
 On the Glasgow and Belfast, Londonderry and Larne route, 
 48 ; Glasgow and Liverpool, 35 ; Glasgow and the Highlands, 
 15 ; Glasgow and the Firth of Clyde, u ; American steamers, 
 59; Mediterranean and Havre line, 19; steam yachts owned 
 by Sir John Burns, 3 ; total number of vessels, 190. The 
 tonnage was no less than 240,526 tons, and the horse-power 
 252,850. On the 4th of July, 1890, the Jubilee of the 
 Cunard Company was celebrated. 
 
 The construction of vessels and the science of engineering 
 were completely revolutionised during the career of George 
 Burns. In perfecting the former he was ever ready to take 
 advantage of the latter. As one of the writers of the series 
 of sketches on Fortunes made in Business remarks : 'In 
 regard to all the combinations which go to the creation of a 
 successful line of steamships, the Cunard line is able to claim 
 the possession of these perhaps in the most complete degree. 
 Over forty years' incessant service, without the loss of a 
 
SfH GEORGE BURNS. 173 
 
 single ship, a single passenger, or a single letter, is a stronger 
 claim to public confidence than can be set up by any other 
 line whatsoever. Added to this there are these further facts : 
 the Cunard fleet has been the largest engaged in the Atlantic 
 trade ; it sent out the first mail steamers that were despatched 
 from this country to the United States ; and whatever im- 
 provements have been made in the science of shipbuilding 
 that could increase the comfort and safety of their passengers, 
 or give additional facilities of any kind, have been taken 
 advantage of. Thus we have realised for us all the conditions 
 that constitute a steamship company of the first rank. The 
 men who have built up this gigantic undertaking have, while 
 making fortunes for themselves, done much on behalf of the 
 world's commercial progress, and their names will remain for 
 all time indelibly inscribed in the records of England's mari- 
 time history.' 
 
 Shipping interests, from their great importance to the com 
 munity, and from their vast ramifications, have naturally 
 claimed a large share of the attention of the legislature. In- 
 teresting details in connection with the progress made in 
 engineering and in shipbuilding were published in the 
 Quarterly Review in 1863 and 1876. In reviewing the 
 changes which have occurred, Mr. H odder says : ' For the 
 last half-century and more there has scarcely been a Session of 
 Parliament without legislation on Merchant Shipping ; number- 
 less committees and commissions have been appointed to con- 
 sider schemes for the improvement of our mercantile marine, 
 and measures innumerable have been passed, having for their 
 object the safety, welfare, and progress of British ships and 1 , 
 seamen. The result has been that lighthouses have been' 
 multiplied and improved; sound-signals have been established;; 
 harbours have been constructed, deepened, and made acces- 
 sible ; charts have been perfected ; the classification of ships 
 has been revised ; tonnage measurement has been reformed ; 
 an excellent system of ship registry has been established ; 
 
174 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 masters, mates, and engineers have been required to pass 
 examinations, and can be cashiered if drunken or incom- 
 petent ; offices are set up where seamen are engaged and dis- 
 charged, where they receive their wages, and where their 
 characters are recorded ; savings banks and money orders are 
 provided for them ; they have summary means of recovering 
 wages ; special provision is made concerning their food, 
 medicine, lodging. Lifeboats and rocket apparatus for saving 
 life from shipwreck are established round the coasts ; every 
 wreck is made the subject of an investigation more or less 
 stringent ; shipwrecked property is protected from plunder ; 
 international rules have been made for preventing collision ; 
 an international code of general signals has been established, 
 as well as' an international system of signals of distress, and 
 the old law of merchant shipping has been once and again 
 codified. Above all, burdens and restrictions of all kinds, 
 general and local, have been removed, so that ship and sailor 
 are now absolutely free from all burdens, except such regula- 
 tions and such taxes as are needed for their own welfare.' 
 
 George Burns gave practical aid in securing many of these 
 measures, but while he fostered legislation he never shirked 
 individual responsibility. He ' laid it down as a business prin- 
 ciple that his highest interest lay in the safety of every enter- 
 prise that the loss of ship, cargo, passengers, or crew, would 
 be his loss ; and therefore, while trusting in Providence for 
 protection, he looked with an anxious eye to everything which 
 could conduce to the safety of his ship to her build, her 
 equipment, her loading, her manning, and her navigation.' 
 His sheet-anchor was his own honest, upright character. He 
 could be thoroughly relied upon in every matter, whether great 
 or small, and he made conscience his king in business, as in 
 his life. 
 
 On retiring from the firm, Burns enjoyed his well-earned 
 leisure at Wemyss Bay, where he had built himself a handsome 
 and commodious residence. Wemyss House occupies a com- 
 
SIX GEORGE BURNS. 175 
 
 manding position, and affords picturesque and expansive views 
 over the Firth of Clyde. At the back of the house, the owner 
 cut terrace after terrace in the solid rock, all of which were 
 beautified by vegetation. The highest terrace, which is 112 
 feet above the level of the lawn surrounding the house, has a 
 fine range of plant and fruit houses, the largest of which is 
 devoted to a superb specimen of the New Zealand fern-palm. 
 The Gardeners' Chronicle, in describing the gardens of 
 Wemyss House and of Castle Wemyss (the residence of John 
 Burns), remarked that 'the working out of so much pictur- 
 esque beauty from bare, barren crags in so limited an area, has 
 been no mean feat of landscape-gardening skill, and the result 
 seems like a realisation of the Babylonian Gardens of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar.' Castle Wemyss, a handsomer structure by far 
 than Wemyss House, is built upon a rock at the extreme edge 
 of the promontory, where the river Clyde widens into the Firth 
 of Clyde. The views from this point are magnificent. 
 
 For thirty years George Burns lived in retirement after 
 quitting the active business of life, and through all that period 
 he devoted himself to charitable and philanthropic enterprises. 
 His benevolence was judicious and widely diffused, not con- 
 centrated on one or two important objects. Besides gifts to 
 individuals, he liked to assist poor and struggling churches and 
 to build new ones ; he furthered the spread of Protestantism 
 on the Continent ; he liberally supported Sunday-schools, as 
 well as the humanitarian projects of his friend Lord Shaftesbury 
 for the unfortunate and the destitute in London; and, assisted 
 by his wife, he distributed good and useful literature in his 
 own district. Sailors had his special sympathy, and he not 
 only did what he could for the men of his own fleet, but seized 
 every opportunity of advancing the moral and spiritual con- 
 diton of seamen generally, warmly collaborating in the efforts 
 of Admirals Parry and Hope, the Rev. C. B. Gribble, and 
 others. In the Irish Island Society founded in 1818 by Mrs. 
 Pendleton, of Dublin, for promoting the scriptural education 
 
176 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 and religious instruction of Irish Roman Catholics in their own 
 language he took a keen interest. Education in Scotland, 
 and the welfare of the crowded population of Glasgow, en- 
 listed his sympathies ; but the parochial school system received 
 its death-blow owing to the immigration of the Irish. 
 
 The Pilgrim Mission, founded by Father Spittler near Basle, 
 received Burns's warm support. Young men of the artisan 
 class were gathered together, ' with the object of training them 
 as Christian missionaries, and then sending them forth to gain 
 their livelihood by the work of their hands and at the same 
 time to preach the Gospel.' As a result of the Mission efforts, 
 numbers of young men were sent out as evangelists to Pales- 
 tine, Egypt, Nubia, Central Africa, etc., as well as to Austria, 
 Germany ; and Switzerland. Houses were erected in the 
 vicinity of the old church of St. Chrischona, and a printing- 
 press, a bookbinding establishment, and other useful adjuncts 
 were set on foot. There was affiliated to the institution a 
 Home of Rescue for men of all ages and conditions who had 
 gone astray, but who were willing by strict discipline, constant 
 manual labour, and total abstinence to return to a better life. 
 All the teachers and students of the institution worked with- 
 out salary, being content with food and raiment. Burns was 
 President of the Glasgow Branch of the Church Missionary 
 Society, and always received and entertained the deputations 
 from the parent Society, besides assisting its operations with 
 liberal donations. He further took a deep interest in the Jews, 
 and supported all the societies established for their material 
 and spiritual welfare. Miss Whately's Cairo schools found 
 in him a friend, ' but there was nothing in the East which 
 absorbed him more than the education of the children of 
 Mohammedans, Druses, Maronites, and Greeks in the hill 
 country of Lebanon.' Mrs. Burns -also took up the cause of 
 these schools with enthusiasm, and through her influence a 
 society was formed in the Lebanon with the object of doing 
 good work amongst the hill population. In 1870, at the re- 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS, 177 
 
 quest of Mr. Burns, Principal Lumsden of the Free Church, 
 and Dr. Alexander Duff, the Indian missionary and reformer, 
 went out to the Lebanon to examine the schools, and found 
 them in a satisfactory state of efficiency. The schools were in 
 consequence taken up by the Foreign Mission Body of the 
 Free Church of Scotland, by whom they are still carried on. 
 
 Among other institutions which had Burns's hearty support 
 were the Royal Infirmary of Glasgow, of which Dr. John 
 Burns was the first house-surgeon ; the Magdalen Society ; the 
 Glasgow Branch of the London City Mission ; the Cottage 
 Home for Infirm Children ; and the House of Shelter for 
 Women. The establishment of the Cumberland training-ship 
 which was largely due to his son John interested him 
 deeply. This vessel did a wonderful work in reforming the 
 street Arabs of Glasgow, and in fitting them for a useful and 
 honourable life. Burns was fond of reading religious and 
 secular, but chiefly the former. When in his ninety-third year 
 he plunged into Lansdell's Central Asia, having just finished 
 Professor Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World, 
 concerning which he wrote : ' The consequence of his Bio- 
 genesis chapter is so decisive in favour of evangelical teaching 
 on the subject of conversion, that it is impossible it could be 
 palatable to the carnal mind.' But, he by no means accepted 
 all the conclusions of the author of this popular treatise. 
 Burns was, however, catholic-spirited in religious matters, and 
 for sixty years never turned away from taking the Communion 
 in any Church whatever. 
 
 This extract from his biography reveals something of the 
 personal character of George Burns : 
 
 'Mr. Burns was always a lover of dogs. One that was a 
 great favourite was lost, and his master mourned for him. 
 Every search was made, but without effect, and one evening, 
 when he was at last obliged to give it up as hopeless, he talked 
 much about his old and faithful friend. It was a trouble to 
 him, for he loved the dog, and in the simplicity of his faith 
 
 N 
 
178 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 he believed that every shadow of a trouble might be brought 
 before the Heavenly Father in prayer. And so in the family 
 worship that night he prayed "to Him who preserveth man 
 and beast, and without whose knowledge not a sparrow falls to 
 the ground," and reverently asked that "wherever his old 
 friend and companion went, it might please God to find for 
 him a home where he would be kindly treated." 
 
 '"He prayeth well who loveth well 
 
 Both man and bird and beast ; 
 He prayeth best who loveth best 
 
 All things both great and small ; 
 For the dear Lord who loveth us, 
 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 * Like all really good men, Mr. Burns was a lover of humour 
 and bright innocent merriment in any and every form. He 
 saw no piety in dulness, there was always fun of some sort or 
 other going on where he was; everybody who had a really good 
 story to tell would take it to him, certain that he would not 
 only see and enjoy the point of it at once, but would " cap" it 
 with another. Everything that made life glad and bright and 
 beautiful, song of bird, scent of flower, love of friends, pur- 
 suit of ideals, merry jest, and " happy thought," quip, crank, 
 subtilty, oddity, even nonsense itself, were enjoyed in their 
 proper time and place.' 
 
 ' The Gaiter Club ' was a society formed in Glasgow by a 
 band of men who made walking tours in Scotland, and held 
 annual dinners to celebrate their peregrinations. John Burns 
 was president of the club, J. Cleland Burns, secretary, and 
 Dr. Macleod, chaplain. The members included George Burns 
 who was long the only honorary member, Sir Daniel Mac- 
 nee the artist, and President of the Royal Scottish Academy, 
 Laurence Oliphant, Anthony Trollope, Sir William Thomson, 
 Professor Ramsay, Lord Kinnaird, John MacGregor ('Rob 
 Roy'), Admiral Sir James Hope, and others. Norman MacLeod 
 was the life and soul of the party on many occasions, for he 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 179 
 
 was always brimming over with humour. In March, 1863, 
 Lord Palmerston was on a visit to Glasgow as Lord Rector of 
 the University, and he was elected an honorary member of 
 the club. There was a rule * That at " Gaiters " there shall be 
 no upright speaking,' but it was resolved to waive the rule on 
 this special occasion. John Burns, as President, proposed Lord 
 Palmerston, and Norman Macleod in seconding said * he was 
 sure that the highest lady in the land would wish all honour to 
 be paid to Lord Palmerston, but he did not know what the 
 Sovereign would say to a subject receiving both the Garter and 
 the Gaiter.' Instead of availing himself of the privilege of 
 speaking on his feet, Lord Palmerston buried half his body 
 under the table and made this genial and humorous re- 
 sponse : ' Gentlemen, I am very proud and flattered to be 
 associated with such a distinguished body. I am informed, 
 though gaiters have an intimate connection with legs, that no 
 gaiterman is allowed to speak upon his legs. He may speak 
 about his legs, but not upon his legs. Now, as we in these 
 days never show our legs, inasmuch as trousers would conceal 
 even the gaiter if we wore it, you will excuse me if I am very 
 short in my thanks. I can only assure you that whether I 
 wear long gaiters or short gaiters, my memory of your kind- 
 ness will be long, and not short.' 
 
 'Apropos of the visit of Lord Palmerston to Scotland,' 
 observes Mr. Hodder, ' it may be mentioned that Mr. John 
 Burns gave him a sail down the Clyde in the Royal Mail 
 Steamship Wolf, and on going past one of the shipbuilding 
 yards he pointed out to the Premier a blockade-runner then 
 being constructed. Palmerston looked at the vessel with great 
 interest, but, putting his sleeves across his eyes, he said slyly, 
 " I don't see her." What most affected the Premier upon this 
 voyage was the Wolf carrying the flag of the Lord Warden of 
 the Cinque Ports at.the main, the flag having been woven on 
 purpose from a sketch obtained from the Admiralty to do him 
 honour, as he then held that office. When the Wolf arrived 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 at the tail of the Bank (off Greenock) H.M.S. Lion and the 
 other war-ships saluted the flag with nineteen guns, to which it 
 was entitled ; yards were manned, and all honour paid to the 
 chief of the State. Thfe flag now hangs in the hall at Castle 
 Wemyss, as a memento of a great man and a great occasion.' 
 
 Among the intimate friends of George Burns was Captain 
 Trotter, a gentleman who was once very prominent in the 
 religious world. He was an ex-Life Guardsman, and married 
 a daughter of the first Baron Ravensworth. As a young man 
 he was fond of skating, dancing, and the amusements of 
 fashionable society. In 1839, ne went over to Paris to rescue 
 his sister, Lady Bethune, from a religious circle which she 
 had joined with Methodistic fervour ; but instead of doing 
 this, he remained, to be completely changed himself by the 
 ministrations of Mr. Lovatt, chaplain of the English Church 
 in the Rue Marbceuf. When he did ultimately return to 
 England, preparations were in progress for a grand ball to be 
 given in his house at Dyrham Park, Barnet, but instead of the 
 ball a meeting was held for the advancement of home mission- 
 ary work. From this time forward Captain Trotter took a 
 profound interest in religious institutions, and he also effected 
 much good personally, having a most persuasive manner. He 
 organised the Army Prayer Union and the Paris City Mission. 
 Among other eminent men whom he personally influenced 
 was the great lawyer, Lord Lyndhurst, who was three times 
 Lord Chancellor. This brilliant and powerful thinker drew up 
 a Confession of Faith, which he submitted to Captain Trotter ; 
 and there is a touching anecdote of his old age, in which the 
 great judge and statesman is represented as studying the 
 Church Prayer Book with his little granddaughter of seven or 
 eight years of age. Other friends of Burns's were the Rev. 
 John East of Bath, the Rev. W. H. Havergal of St. Nicholas, 
 Worcester, the Rev. Charles Gribble, a manly and unconven- 
 tional clergyman, and the Earl of Roden, a staunch Protestant 
 of the old Orange School. 
 
SIR GEORGE JiURNS. 181 
 
 i 
 
 The English Episcopalians in Scotland desiring to have a 
 bishop of their own, legal opinion was taken on the point, 
 which was in their favour. Accordingly Bishop Beckles, 
 formerly Bishop of Sierra Leone, accepted the appointment, 
 which he held for a definite period. Since that lapsed, however, 
 the Episcopalians have dispensed with a bishop of their own, 
 and confirmations have been taken by such men as Dr. J. C. 
 Ryle, Bishop of Liverpool. Burns had followed this move- 
 ment with interest, and it may also be stated that he engaged 
 from time to time many eminent men in the English Church 
 to officiate at Wemyss Bay. Each minister who supplied had 
 a nicely furnished parsonage, and he was sure of a warm wel- 
 come at Wemyss House and Wemyss Castle. The first who 
 officiated was the Rev. Thomas Tate, grandson of the hymno- 
 logist. Dr. John Bardsley, the present Bishop of Sodor and 
 and Man, and Dean Close, of Carlisle, were highly appreciated. 
 Then there were Hugh MacNeile, Dean of Ripon, the Rev. 
 Fielding Ould> an Irishman of great eloquence, Dr. Gobat, 
 Bishop of Jerusalem, Canon Thorold, afterwards Bishop of 
 Rochester, Archdeacon Taylor, Rev. W. Champneys, after- 
 wards Dean of Lichfield, Dr. Lefroy, Dean of Norwich, the 
 Rev. Dr. Flavell Cooke, aod Archdeacon Whately. 
 
 The friend with whom Burns was perhaps in closest sym- 
 pathy was the philanthropic Lord Shaftesbury. It was in the 
 year 1850, at Roseneath, the Duke of Argyll's place on the 
 Clyde, that he first met him. We are told that their hearts 
 opened to each other at once. ' Each found that in speaking 
 to the other, it was as though he thought aloud. Both were 
 sound Evangelicals, backbone Protestants, haters of Popery, 
 lovers of the Jews, and students of Scripture ; both in their 
 respective spheres were engaged in numberless works of philan- 
 thropy ; both were mild Conservatives ; both were, above and 
 beyond everything else, possessed of that vital Christianity 
 which puts the love of God in Christ Jesus in the forefront of 
 all things.' In 1871 Lord Shaftesbury paid his first long visit 
 
1 82 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 to Wemyss Bay. He was always highly appreciated in Scot- 
 land, and it was on this occasion that his first public honour 
 was conferred upon him the freedom of the town of Nairn. 
 That of Glasgow immediately followed. Lord Shaftesbury and 
 his family, Lord Lawrence, Sir Harry Parkes, the Hon. Arthur 
 Kinnaird, and other friends were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. 
 Burns. 
 
 The distinguished company afterwards left Wemyss Bay in 
 the Camel for Inveraray, and returned the same way with the 
 Marquis and Marchioness of Lome, the Duke of Argyll, and 
 Earl Percy on board. George Burns thus related an incident 
 which occurred on the way to Inveraray : * On this voyage 
 Lord Shaftesbury and Lawrence were like schoolboys. After 
 luncheon, on the Loch going up to Inveraray, Lord Shaftes- 
 bury suddenly rose, and, in an eloquent speech, proposed his 
 own health ; but taking the character and life of Lord Law- 
 rence as his own, he said, " Some people call me the ' Saviour 
 of India,' others the ' Conqueror of the Punjaub/ but |py what- 
 ever name I go, I am a very great man," and so on, telling 
 many interesting stories of Lawrence. As soon as he sat 
 down, Lord Lawrence rose and said that he, too, wished to 
 propose his own health. He began by saying that he was 
 the greatest philanthropist of the day, and had been picking 
 up little boys and girls out of the gutters all his life ; and so 
 on he went through the life of Shaftesbury, making a most 
 humorous speech which, coming from the grave Lord Law- 
 rence, astonished everyone present.' 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury and George Burns came to have a strong 
 affection for each other, and for fourteen years in succession 
 the earnest-minded nobleman and his family visited Wemyss 
 Bay for several months in each year, Lord Shaftesbury never 
 failing to find much-needed rest and repose. He called his 
 friend Burns Abraham, and his wife Sarah. Many touching 
 letters passed between them during Lord Shaftesbury's sorrow- 
 ful time of domestic trial in 1873. When so many gaps had 
 
SfR GEORGE BURNS. 183 
 
 been made in his own home, his lordship visited that second 
 home at Wemyss Bay, where all that affection could suggest was 
 done to assuage his sorrow. In John Burns's yacht The Ferret 
 he made many pleasant cruises in search of health. On one 
 occasion Lord Shaftesbury said, ' I can never thank God enough 
 for the dear Burns family ; I believe that, humanly speaking, 
 my visits to them have added ten years to my life.' And again 
 he wrote, ' I long for Wemyss Bay as a schoolboy longs for his 
 holidays.' In August-September, 1884, he paid his last visit to 
 his ' old Scotch home,' and in his diary was this brief but tender 
 entry : ' Sept. i8th. Sat a long time with Abraham at Hebron.' 
 The two friends never met again in this world, for Lord Shaftes 
 bury died in the following year. 
 
 In the year 1865 Burns's old partner, Sir Samuel Cunard, 
 died. He was a very devout man, and expired happily and 
 peacefully. During his last illness, he frequently referred to 
 the old times of forty years before, and spoke of the Burns 
 family in the strongest terms of affection. Another link with 
 the past was broken in 1871, when James Burns, the brother 
 and partner in business of George Burns, died at the age of 
 eighty-two. This great merchant had used his enormous 
 wealth nobly and wisely in the furtherance of benevolent and 
 religious objects. On the loth June, 1872, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Burns celebrated their golden wedding. They were in Paris 
 at the time, but received congratulations from relatives and 
 friends. The year did not close, however, without another 
 severe trial in the loss of Mrs. James Cleland Burns, who died, 
 leaving a husband and five daughters to mourn her untimely 
 end Five years more passed, and then, in June, 1877, came 
 George Burns's heaviest sorrow. His wite, who had been his 
 loving and understanding companion for fifty-five years, passed 
 away in the fulness of years. Her end was solemnly beautiful 
 in its tender and suitable farewells to each individual survivor. 
 When her spirit had fled, and the blinds of the house were 
 drawn down, her stricken husband said, ' Nay, draw them up 
 
1 84 LEADERS OF MODERN IND USTR Y. 
 
 again ; she is not dead, she has entered into fuller, even eternal 
 life.' The deceased was carried by her own people through the 
 garden where she had her last walk, and laid in peace in a 
 chamber behind the little church she loved so well prepared, 
 like Abraham's cave in Machpelah, by the kindness of friends, 
 who worked night and day. Sympathetic letters came tq Mr. 
 Burns from all quarters, and from all classes. In memory of 
 his wife, Mr. Burns raised a handsome church at Wemyss Bay, 
 in place of the previous temporary structure. 
 
 The few closing years of Burns's life witnessed the passing 
 over to the majority of many old friends Dean Close, Colonel 
 Gardner, Sir Duncan MacGregor, and Admiral Sir James 
 Crawford Caffin among the number. All this time Burns's 
 own strength and freshness were remarkable. A surprising 
 instance of his vigour is given in connection with the General 
 Election of 1886, when he was in his ninety-first year. He 
 journeyed from Wemyss Bay to Glasgow and back the same 
 day a distance of over sixty miles in order to record his vote 
 in favour of the Unionist candidate for his district. He was 
 recognised at the polling-booth by the Liberal candidate, Dr. 
 (now Sir Charles) Cameron, who shook hands with him, saying 
 magnanimously, ' Long may you live, Mr. Burns, to come and 
 vote against me.' Further, he was not only present at the lay- 
 ing of the memorial stone of the new Barony Church, Glasgow, 
 in June, 1887, but delighted the spectators by delivering a racy 
 and entertaining speech. 
 
 The members of his family cheered the final days of Burns's 
 life, while the patriarch himself also added to the store of 
 happiness by his bright and genial reminiscences. He was a 
 capital talker and story-teller, and very fond of a witty anec- 
 dote. Burns never took a prominent part in politics, and, 
 indeed, he did not carefully study political questions, being 
 much more deeply concerned in those which were religious. 
 But among his reminiscences is this passage, in which he notes 
 some of the great public movements contemporaneous with his 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 185 
 
 own earlier years, and gives his views on the Constitution : 
 ' In my early days I did not take much interest in political 
 affairs, but in later years I have been ranked amongst the Con- 
 servatives, although I have never occupied any very prominent 
 position amongst them. I may describe myself as being satisfied 
 that the constitution of our country is well balanced, and gives 
 an example of great liberty combined with efficient, moderate 
 control. For instance, I value highly the House of Peers, as a 
 balancing weight against what I fear is, at the present time, a 
 too democratic tendency in the House of Commons. I am not 
 willing to surrender the term " Liberal " entirely to the oppo- 
 site party, because I have had liberal tendencies all my life. I 
 think, however, that our too rapid progress should be controlled 
 by checks, and that the Upper Chamber furnishes wise and 
 salutary restraints. My confidence was shaken in Peel, but it 
 recovered as I observed his action with regard to the Corn 
 Laws. I lamented the way in which the Reform Bill was car- 
 ried, by threats such as those used by Lord Grey, who proposed 
 to create an extra number of peers. I also regretted, in 1829, 
 that what was called Catholic Emancipation was unavoidably 
 yielded. 
 
 On the 23rd of May, 1889, the Marquis of Salisbury wrote to 
 George Burns as follows : ' I have the pleasure of informing you 
 that Her Majesty has been pleased to direct that a Baronetcy 
 of the United Kingdom should be conferred on you on the 
 occasion of her birthday, in recognition of the great benefits 
 which your enterprise and administrative power have preserved 
 to the commerce of the country.' His biographer says ' he was 
 greatly overcome, and no wonder. Suddenly, when lying in 
 bed, almost alone, and ninety-four years of age the oldest 
 recipient of such an honour in the world's history, he realises 
 .that Her Gracious Majesty, the head of our social system, has 
 recognised his life-work and has conferred upon him a high 
 honour. The old man bowed his snowy head in his hands, and 
 thanked the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, blessing Him 
 
1 86 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 for putting it into the hearts of others to give him this honour, 
 praying that he might use it aright, and when it should descend 
 to his beloved son that he might sustain it unsullied, and 
 through all the future of his life walk humbly with God.' 
 Telegrams and letters of congratulation soon came pouring in, 
 and the press warmly complimented the new baronet on his 
 well-earned honour. 
 
 The sunset of Burns's life was calm and peaceful. As late 
 as the spring of 1890 he loved to sit in the gardens and watch 
 the annual renewal of the great miracle of vegetation, or on 
 the upper lawns to see the shipping entering or leaving the 
 Clyde. He had everything that, as Shakespeare says, ' should 
 accompany old age, as honour, love, obedience, troops of 
 friends.' His biographer feelingly refers to 'his perfect acquies- 
 cence in God's will, as he lay calmly in the shadow of the wings 
 of the Almighty, and the intensity of his compassionate sym- 
 pathy with suffering. Wounded and bruised affections, blighted 
 capacities, broken and defeated hopes, desolation, solitariness, 
 silence, sorrow, anguish, and sin all things that caused or con- 
 summated the " death of life " touched him keenly. At the 
 same time he had the most intense interest in the young, and 
 all the avenues of his heart were open to them. Everything 
 bright and beautiful, joyous and glad, seemed in him to have 
 the charm of dewy freshness. All the world was a mirror 
 revealing the image of God ; all its gladsome sounds song of 
 birds, plash of ocean, words of friends echoes of His voice. 
 His spiritual sympathy with God caused him to see men and 
 hings in the intense ight of the Divine love, and his whole 
 being was filled with charity, patience, forbearance, and good. 
 
 Although in great pain, Burns was well enough to be 
 wheeled in his chair along the Bay on the 28th of May, but as 
 he returned he quietly said, * I shall never see the Bay again.' 
 A few days more of suffering in his own room, and silent com- 
 munion with his Maker, and the end came for the fine old 
 patriarch on the 2nd of June, 1890. Three days later his 
 
SIR GEORGE BURNS. 187 
 
 mortal remains were laid to rest beside those of his wife in the 
 rock-hewn cave. 
 
 Many loving and honourable tributes were paid to his 
 memory, and in his case these can be said to have been 
 deserved, for he was a model son, husband, father, citizen, 
 and Christian. His services to the nation which he so deeply 
 loved were great and enduring, and his example will doubt- 
 less serve to inspire his descendants and his fellow-country- 
 men to worthy and beneficent deeds through many genera- 
 tions. 
 
SIR JOSIAH MASON. 
 
SIR JOSIAH MASON. 
 
 'THE pen is mightier than the sword,' Lord Lytton makes 
 one of his characters exclaim in Richelieu ; and as we lavish 
 honours on the heroes of the battlefield, we should surely 
 not be backward in paying tribute to the heroes of industry. 
 The pen has certainly been a greater instrument of civilisa- 
 tion than the sword, and its maker as well as its wielder is 
 deserving of recognition. And when, with the industrious 
 manufacturer is combined the eminent philanthropist, as in 
 Josiah Mason's case, no apology is needed for sketching his 
 career, as an example and an incentive to others. Mason, 
 Gillott, and Mitchell practically revolutionised one of the 
 staple trades of the Midlands, and gave it an immense im- 
 petus whose effects are still being felt. 
 
 Before relating the story of Mason's life and labours, it will 
 be of interest briefly to trace the history of the pen before his 
 time. The desire to express thoughts and ideas by means 
 of written characters is almost coeval with the race. The 
 Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations wrote 
 upon papyrus or parchment with a reed pen ; and when they 
 used tablets of wood or stone covered with wax, they wrote 
 with a pointed stylus of bronze, bone, or other material. It 
 is stated that reed pens are still the only kind used by the 
 natives of Persia and some neighbouring countries, the metal 
 pen being unsuited to their style of writing. Reed pens are 
 cut almost in the same way as quills. Quills were used for 
 caligraphic purposes as early as the seventh century ; and reed 
 
1 92 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 pens were also still employed in Europe at that time, having 
 been then in use for upwards of a thousand years. To a 
 limited extent, metal pens must have been in use among the 
 Romans, for in the Naples Museum there is a bronze pen, 
 nibbed like a modern steel pen, which was found at Pompeii. 
 Silver pens were also occasionally made in the Middle Ages ; 
 but more as curiosities, it is thought, than as articles in general 
 use, and the same may be said of all metallic pens of more 
 recent date, until we come to the nineteenth century. For 
 twelve centuries before the present, quills were universally 
 employed in Western Europe, and it was not until about the 
 year 1840 that steel pens began to be substituted for them in 
 British schools. Even in the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century there have been authors and statesmen who have 
 remained faithful to the quill, and have never used any other 
 instrument for writing. 
 
 There are traces of the metallic pen, however, in France, 
 Italy, and England, as far back as the fourteenth century, but 
 it was never made of steel. In the records of the prosecution 
 of Robert d'Artois, in 1329, a bronze pen plays a conspicuous 
 part in the forgeries for which the accused was tried. In 
 one of the earliest printed books at Padua, it is stated that the 
 work was ' fashioned and by diligence finished for the service 
 of God, not with ink of quill nor with brazen reed, but with a 
 certain invention of printing or reproducing by John Fust, 
 citizen of Mayence, and Peter SchcerTer, of Gernsheim, Dec. 
 1 7th, 1465 A.D.' 
 
 Careful researches into the history of metallic pen-making 
 have been made by Mr. Samuel Timmins, a well-known War- 
 wickshire antiquary. In a contribution to the Birmingham 
 Weekly Post some years ago he wrote : * While steel pens, as 
 an advancing article of manufacture, do not date further back 
 than about 1825, there is no doubt that they were made in 
 Birmingham for special private use as early as 1790. There is 
 no reason why a piece of metal or steel should not have been 
 
SIX JOS/AH- MASON. 193 
 
 made in the form of a quill pen long before ; but no example 
 of a very early date seems to be known. 
 
 * The example I am going to mention is beyond all doubt of 
 the date assigned, so long ago as 1717. The pen forms part 
 of a very remarkable little volume in the magnificent library 
 of Mr. William Bragge, C.E., of Sheffield. It is attached 
 (like a pencil, through loops in an ordinary memorandum 
 book) to an old Dutch volume, dated 1717. The silver pencil 
 unscrews in two places one to produce a lump of solid plum- 
 bago, mounted like a crayon, and the other showing a metallic 
 pen, either silver or plated steel, polished, and with the pecu- 
 liarity of having the slit all up to nearly the top of the pen ; 
 evidently a very early example of pen-making before steel was 
 found flexible enough to write well. The exact date of this 
 early pen is given beyond doubt by the title page of the 
 book, of which the subjoined is a translation from the Dutch 
 original "Newly-invented Merchant's Office Almanack and 
 Memorandum Book, for the year of our Lord MDCCXVII. 
 (New Style.) Containing the List of Horse, Cattle, and 
 Leather Markets for the Year, and the Daily Changes of the 
 Moon. By John Albertz van Dam, Amsterdam. By the 
 Heirs of Albert Magnus, at the House of Cornelius Danckerts, 
 New Dyke, at the Sign of the Atlas. With Privilege." Mr. 
 Nyhoff, the librarian at the Hague, stated to Mr. Bragge that 
 this rare almanack was supplied officially to the members of 
 the States General. As no other volume with a pencil of 
 plumbago and steel pen seems to be known, and as the pen, 
 pencil, and volume are beyond all doubt coeval, the manu- 
 facture of at least one steel pen must be carried back as far as 
 the year 1717.' 
 
 That French steel pens were early in use is shown by a letter 
 in Roger North's Autobiography. Writing to his sister under 
 date March 8, 1700-1, North says: 'You will hardly tell by 
 what you see that I write with a steel pen. It is a device come 
 out of France, of which the original was very good, and wrote 
 
 o 
 
194 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 very well ; but this is but a copy, ill made. When they get 
 the knack of making them exactly, I do not doubt but the 
 Government of the Goose Quill is near an end, for none that 
 can have these will use others.' French metallic pens are also 
 amusingly alluded to in a volume entitled A Journey tj Paris 
 in the Year 1695, by Dr. Martin Lister. After touching upon 
 the various kinds of pens, the author adds : ' A Quill soon 
 spoils ; Steel is undoubtedly the best, and if you choose China 
 Ink, the most lasting of all Inks, it never rusts the Pen, but 
 rather preserves it, like a kind of Varnish, which dries upon 
 it, though you take no care in wiping it.' In Sainte-Beuve's 
 History of Port Royal there is likewise a reference to metallic 
 pens. ' One owes to Port Royal,' remarks the author, ' the 
 use of pens of metal, which have saved the pupils much time, 
 and have spared them many small miseries.' In 1691 La 
 Fontaine prayed the Reverend Mother for a few copper pens, 
 if she still made them. Pope, in one of his minor poems, 
 refers to steel and golden pens made by one Bertrand. Johann 
 J. Janssen, writer to the Mayoralty of Aix-la-Chapelle, claimed 
 in 1748 to be the inventor of the steel pen. 'Just at the 
 meeting of the Congress,' says Janssen, in his Historical 
 Chronicle of Aix-la-Chapelle, * I may without boasting claim 
 the honour of having invented new pens. It is perhaps not 
 an accident that God should have inspired me at the present 
 time with the idea of making steel pens, for all the envoys here 
 assembled have bought the first that have been made, there- 
 with, as may be hoped, to sign a treaty of peace, which, with 
 God's blessing, shall be as permanent as the hard steel with 
 which it is written. Of these pens, as I have invented them, 
 no man hath before seen or heard. If kept clean and free 
 from rust and ink, they will continue fit for use for many years. 
 Indeed a man may write twenty sheets of paper with one, and 
 the last line would be written as well as the first. They are now 
 sent into every corner of the world as a rare thing to Spain, 
 France, and England. Others will no doubt make imitations 
 
JO SI AH MASON. 195 
 
 of my pens, but I am the man who first invented and made 
 them. I have sold a great number of them at home and 
 abroad, at one shilling each, and I dispose of them as quickly 
 as I can make them.' 
 
 From information gleaned by technical writers on the sub- 
 ject, we learn that the earliest English metallic pens of which 
 there is definite knowledge were some made in 1780 by Mr. 
 Harrison, split-ring maker, Birmingham, for the eminent Uni- 
 tarian divine Dr. Priestley. They were made of sheet steel, 
 formed into a tube and filed into shape, the joining of the 
 metal making the slit. Brass pens were likewise made in 
 England before the end of last century, and one of these was 
 sold in the Strawberry Hill collection of art objects and curio- 
 sities in 1842. Various plans were tried early in the nine- 
 teenth century to produce pens more durable than ordinary 
 quills. There were quills pointed with metal, and pens con- 
 structed of horn and tortoiseshell with small pieces of diamond 
 and other hard genls embedded in them by pressure. Some- 
 times gold was attached to the points, but of course such pens 
 were costly, and out of reach of the general public. Barrel 
 pens of steel were made by Mr. Wise in London in 1803, but 
 these also were too high in price.* The first English patent 
 for the manufacture of steel pens was granted to Bryan 
 Donkin in 1808 ; and the first patent in America was granted 
 in 1810 to Peregrine Williamson of Baltimore for the manu- 
 facture of metallic pens. Sheldon of Sedgley made steel 
 pens of the barrel type in 1815, and sold them at eighteen 
 shillings per dozen. Five years later the number of manufac- 
 turers had increased. To James Perry must be awarded the 
 credit of bringing steel pens into general use. In 1819 he 
 began pen-making at Manchester, using for the purpose the 
 best Sheffield steel, made from Swedish charcoal coal. Perry 
 was the first to overcome the rigidity previously complained of 
 in steel pens, by introducing apertures below the shoulder and 
 point of the pen thus transferring the elasticity of the in> 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 plement to a position below instead of above the shoulder. 
 About 1824 Perry removed to Red Lion Square, London, 
 where he continued the manufacture of pens under his patents, 
 which included the invention above cited. The Perryian 
 pens were pressed into the market with great energy, and they 
 were soon known and used throughout the country, before the 
 leading Birmingham pen-makers, Mitchell, Gillott, and Mason 
 effected a new departure in the trade by the use of machinery 
 in the production of pens. 
 
 At this point I shall take up the biographical sketch of 
 my subject. As Mr. J. T. Bunce has shown in his excellent 
 Memoir of Mason, he was in all respects a self-made man, 
 having no advantages of birth, connections, education, or 
 means. ' So far as regarded the probability of wealth or of 
 personal eminence, no life could have begun in a manner less 
 promising. He started, indeed, not so much upon the lowest 
 round of the ladder, as at the very foot of it, with little chance, 
 as it seemed, of getting so high as the first round. He was 
 not even a mechanic by any formal training, for he was taught 
 no trade, served no apprenticeship, was inducted into no " art " 
 or " mystery " of handicraft. How this happened is not very 
 clear; but his own recollection was distinct that it was so, 
 and that he stood a good chance of going through life as 
 a labourer in the ordinary sense, or of earning a precarious 
 livelihood by turning his hand to those odd jobs which fall to 
 the lot of one who, according to the common saying, is jack of 
 all trades and master of none. From this shiftless kind of. 
 life Josiah Mason was preserved by his natural resolution, 
 ingenuity, and industry, and by an innate conviction that, 
 somehow or other, he must do something in the world, both 
 for himself and for others.' 
 
 The ancestry of Josiah Mason has not been taken further 
 back than three generations. His paternal grandfather was a 
 working bombazine weaver at Kidderminster, with a turn for 
 mechanics and music, and also for dealing with machinery 
 
JO SI AH MASON. 197 
 
 of a simple character. He was named Josiah, and he had an 
 only son, also named Josiah, who married Elizabeth Griffiths, 
 the daughter of a respectable workman at Dudley. Josiah the 
 second moved to Kidderminster, where he attained a position 
 of trust in a carpet manufactory. He had four children, three 
 sons and a daughter. The second son was Josiah Mason the 
 third, and the one destined to make the family known to 
 future generations. He was born on the 23rd of February, 
 1795, in a little house in Mill Street, Kidderminster. The 
 street is now called Josiah Mason Street, to commemorate 
 a benefaction by Sir Josiah to the dispensary of the town. 
 Mason survived his sister and both his brothers. So far from 
 being ashamed of his humble origin at Kidderminster, he had 
 it duly set forth in the trust deeds of Mason College and he 
 directed that both in regard to this institution and his orphan- 
 age, preference should be given to children belonging to 
 Kidderminster, his earliest home, and to those of Birmingham,, 
 which was his home in later years. 
 
 Young Mason went to a dame's school, held in a cottage- 
 next door to his father's house. The tuition was of course cheap 
 and inefficient. Nor was it of any Jong duration, for at eight 
 years of age he began the business of life by selling cakes in 
 the streets. His cakes and rolls were so much appreciated 
 that purchasers sometimes gave the industrious lad an extra 
 penny. Owing to his perseverance he was soon able to enter 
 upon a more ambitious field. Purchasing a donkey, which he 
 named Admiral Rodney, he became a dealer in fruit and vege- 
 tables, which he sold from door to door. His mother gave 
 him practical help, while his father sagely recommended him' 
 never to let anybody, know how much money he had got in his 
 pockets. Desiring at length a more settled occupation, Josiah 
 took to shoemaking at home, where he could help to nurse his 
 elder brother, who was a confirmed invalid. He began by 
 simply mending shoes, but passed from a cobbler into a shoe- 
 maker proper. Quality was what he aimed at, and he was 
 
198 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 rather too conscientious to make it pay. He would buy the 
 best leather and put into it the best work, so that in later years 
 he would say with a twinkle, ' I found I couldn't make it pay, 
 and must become bankrupt, so I gave it up.' Distressed by his 
 defective education he taught himself writing, and obtained 
 casual employment by writing letters for those who were unable 
 to conduct their own correspondence. In a short time he was 
 able to buy a few books, and where he could not buy he 
 borrowed. His reading was of the severer kind history, 
 science, theology, and it is said to be doubtful whether he 
 ever read any work of fiction in his life. First at the Unitarian 
 Sunday-school, and later at that of the Wesleyans, he was able 
 to supplement his hardly-acquired knowledge by valuable 
 lessons. 
 
 About the year 1812 Mrs. Mason opened a little shop for 
 the sale of groceries. Josiah was her right-hand man, and when 
 to the shop was ultimately added a bakehouse, used for the 
 cooking of Sunday dinners, he superintended it. But he still 
 .hankered after a settled trade, and assumed in turns the role of 
 a carpenter, a blacksmith, and a house-painter, making progress 
 in all, but being satisfied with none. Then, in 1814, when he 
 was nineteen years old, he found employment in Mr. Broom's 
 carpet-works, at Tinker's Hill. For two years he laboured 
 here, thoroughly mastering the business, and doing his work so 
 well that his employer showed it to others as a pattern and 
 a stimulus. But carpet-weaving was monotonous and led to 
 nothing, while the utmost remuneration he could secure at it 
 was a pound per week. Consequently he wanted more scope, 
 and craved for a wider field. The ' hardware village ' of Bir- 
 mingham had already come into note, and thither Josiah 
 Mason turned his steps. There was plenty of employment, 
 and new industries were constantly being introduced, or old 
 ones developed. In his twenty-second year he paid a visit to 
 Birmingham to see what it was like. This proved the turning 
 point in his career, and he never went back to live in Kidder- 
 
SIR JO SI AH MASON. 199 
 
 minster. He found in Birmingham all that he wanted. It was 
 a free town, full of enterprising citizens, and offering abundant 
 opportunities for young men of business ability and persever- 
 ance. Work was not concentrated in the hands of a few 
 wealthy men, but there were numbers of small masters who 
 shared in the various trades rapidly springing up. When young 
 Mason entered Birmingham he found it ' a town fast rising in 
 population, wealth, and influence'; there was 'an industry 
 varied beyond computation, and embracing every kind of metal 
 work, from the great engines made at Soho to the steel trinkets 
 forged and filed and polished in some garret in a bye-street ' ; 
 and there were ' an army of workers, energetic, ingenious, and 
 inventive in the highest degree, capable of independent exer- 
 tion, and at the same time susceptible of adapting themselves 
 to the complex organisation of large factories. It was pre- 
 cisely the place to suit Mason, who was possessed of courage, 
 industry, and activity, and who was qualified to develop an 
 organising faculty which, later in life, exerted an important in- 
 fluence upon his own fortunes and upon the trade of the town.' 
 Mason always spoke of it as a providential circumstance that 
 his steps were directed towards Birmingham. Settling down 
 there in 1816, he married on the i8th of August in the follow- 
 ing year his cousin Annie Griffiths. Their union, which was 
 one of unclouded happiness and perfect confidence, lasted 
 for more than fifty-two years. When Mrs. Mason died, on 
 the 24th of February, 1870, the surviving husband, though 
 grief-stricken, could look back on a far longer span of blissful 
 married life than most men. 
 
 Mason's first occupation in Birmingham was in looking after 
 a gilt toy business, in which his uncle Griffiths was the chief, 
 and subsequently sole proprietor. The gilt toy trade included 
 the production of common jewellery, gilt rings, buckles, chains, 
 fancy buttons, clasps, and personal ornaments of all kinds. 
 Through the fault of his original partner Griffiths had nearly 
 I jst all the money he had invested in the business ; but Mason 
 
2 co LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 worked with such a will for a period of nearly seven years, 
 that he recovered his uncle's money, paid off all the debts of 
 the concern, increased its value as a business, and largely 
 increased the profits. When all this had been done, his uncle 
 behaved with base ingratitude. He had led Mason to believe 
 he would be taken in as a partner, and now, when he had 
 turned a worthless business into a prosperous one, it was sold 
 over his head, and the fruits of his skill and industry were 
 denied to him. When Mason learnt the facts, he exclaimed, 
 1 1 will never re-enter the place ; I have done with it at once 
 and for ever.' With the Griffiths family he would have no 
 further business transactions whatever, and all through life he 
 felt keenly the injustice of the treatment to which he had been 
 subjected. 
 
 For a short time he was thrown upon his own resources, but 
 in 1822 he was introduced by a mutual friend named Heeley 
 a member of the Wesleyan body to Mr. Harrison, a split- 
 ring maker, in Lancaster Street. Harrison was soon satisfied 
 of Mason's capacity and his willingness to work, and he 
 engaged him at the first interview. As Harrison was leaving 
 the house in Lancaster Street for a cottage which he had built 
 for himself, Mason went to live at the former. The house had 
 workshops behind it, and a pleasant garden beyond. This 
 site, with about an acre of ground besides, was afterwards 
 occupied by Mason's steel-pen manufactory, in one portion of 
 vvhich the old split-ring business continued to be carried on. 
 For a period of twelve months Mason drew no settled salary 
 from the business, merely taking what he wanted for himself 
 and wife to live upon. Then he spoke to Harrison, who said 
 he was willing to sell the business, and retire altogether if his 
 assistant could find anyone to help him with the money. 
 Mason tried, but failed, and then his master behaved most 
 generously to him, practically making him a present of the 
 business. 'Give me,' he said, '^500 for the stock and the 
 business, and pay me that amount out of the profits as you 
 
SIR JOSIAH MASOX. 201 
 
 make them.' Mr. Bunce thus remarks upon the circumstance, 
 and upon the relations between the two men : 
 
 ' The value of the bargain may be inferred from the facts 
 that the first ;ioo was paid in August, 1823, and the last 
 ;ioo in May, 1824. To the close of his life Sir Josiah 
 Mason kept, as a precious relic of his old friend and master, 
 the little octavo memorandum-book thumbed and blurred, 
 and " dog-eared " by the use of years, but always treasured 
 by its owner, and shown by him with honest pride to his 
 friends in which these payments were entered, together with 
 other records of ordinary trading transactions : purchases of 
 metal, sales of goods, payments of wages, deposits with the 
 bank, investments of savings. On the last leaf of the book 
 were Mr. Harrison's entries of receipts for .500, the pur- 
 chase-money : the only accounts which ever existed between 
 the two. 
 
 ' Nothing could have been simpler than this transac- 
 tion ; nothing more honourable to both parties to it. The 
 old manufacturer, who had made what he desired a modest 
 competence and who wished to be free in his declining years 
 to enjoy it, recognised in the probity, industry, and intelligence 
 of the younger man the qualities requisite to the successful 
 conduct of a business in which, while retiring from it, he still 
 felt a natural interest, and which he desired to see conducted 
 on the same principles as those which had governed his own 
 conduct of it. The confidence thus displayed by Mr. Harrison 
 was justified by his associate so entirely that a close and 
 tender friendship, lasting throughout the remainder of Mr. 
 Harrison's life, sprang up between the two.' 
 
 Though he had given up the business, Harrison continued 
 to be a frequent visitor to the factory in Lancaster Street, and 
 the feeling of affectionate veneration . in which Mason held 
 him was so strong, even in old age, that he never tired of 
 speaking of his many estimable qualities his kindliness, 
 honesty, and capacity, and he traced to him his own success 
 
202 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 in business life. Before Harrison's time, split-rings were 
 laboriously made in small numbers by riling and bending, but 
 he adapted the stamping press to their manufacture, and was 
 the inventor of the flat ring now commonly used for bunches 
 of keys. Harrison was a great friend of Dr. Priestley, who 
 could never understand how split-rings were made, so on one 
 occ ision the manufacturer took him to Lancaster Street and 
 showed him the operation of the stamp, which made the ring 
 at a single blow. Upon this the Doctor threw up his hands, 
 and exclaimed, ' With all my philosophy, I could not have 
 dreamt of such a thing.' It was owing to Dr. Priestley's com- 
 plaining that he could not obtain Satisfactory pens wherewith 
 to write that Harrison made him the first steel pens produced 
 in Birmingham. 
 
 Master of a business which promised to secure him a com- 
 petency, Mason now looked forward to the future with confi- 
 dence and hope. He had a deeply religious nature, and never 
 failed to attribute his various openings in life to the interven- 
 tion of a Higher Power. He was, unfortunately, not blessed 
 with children, and his business probably occupied more of his 
 thought in consequence, for he was not a man to put up with 
 a life of inactivity. In three years he had prospered so greatly 
 that he bought the buildings in Lancaster Street, and also 
 took in new premises. The split-ring trade expanded rapidly 
 owing to his improvements. Hoop rings had up to this time 
 been finished by hand, the bevelling being done slowly, and at 
 considerable cost. Mason felt that they could be done much 
 more quickly and cheaply, and accordingly devised a bevelling 
 machine, by which he gained ^1,000 in a single year. The 
 actual machine which he constructed in 1825 still continued in 
 use after his death. 
 
 Mason next took up the work by which he amassed his 
 enormous wealth, and by which he will be known to posterity, 
 viz., the improvement and manufacture of steel pens. Follow- 
 ing upon Donkin's English pen patent already referred to, 
 
SIR JOSIAH MASON. 203 
 
 came one in 1809 by Frederick Bartholomew Folsch and 
 William Howard for a pen ' made of glass, enamel, of any sort 
 of stone or metal ' ; and in May of the same year Folsch took 
 out another patent in his own name only, for a pen * which 
 may be made of any sort of metal,' and with a socket in the 
 holder to contain ink. The next patent was one granted nine 
 years later to Charles Watt, to protect an invention for coating 
 quill pens with gold. Nine or ten years more elapsed, and 
 then George Poulton obtained a patent for a reservoir tube to 
 hold ink, the pen to be made of steel. Then, in April, 1830, 
 Perry took out a patent for making pens by a new method, 
 from hard, thin, elastic metal, and a ' length of slitted or cleft 
 space' scarcely exceeding that of quill pens. In 1832 Perry 
 made other improvements, securing greater flexibility. But 
 the greatest improvement in pen manufacture was the adoption 
 of the screw hand-press for the cutting out of pens, thus 
 enabling the manufacturer to supply them cheaply and in 
 quantities. At first the method of slitting pens by machinery 
 was kept a profound secret. To John Mitchell, a Sheffield 
 cutler, who removed to Birmingham in 1822, belongs the 
 credit of first making pens by machinery. His step-son, 
 Gillott, also began to use machinery for pen-making in 1829, at 
 which time likewise Mason began to use the press for the same 
 purpose, though both of them worked unknown to each other. 
 But it was afterwards demonstrated, and fully admitted by 
 Mason, that Mitchell had the prior claim to the invention of 
 making steel pens by machinery. Mason made barrel pens in 
 1828, and 'slip' pens for Perry in 1829. Gillott took out a 
 patent in 1831 for his method of making pens by machinery. 
 
 In the hands of the three leading pen -makers mentioned 
 above, the steel-pen industry became in the course of twenty 
 years one of the most important in Birmingham. Though a 
 simple-looking instrument, the pen has to go through some six- 
 teen different processes before it is finished ready for use. A 
 technical authority thus describes the method of manufacture : 
 
204 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 * The steel of which the pens are made comes from Sheffield, 
 and is in sheets 6 feet long and i foot 5 inches wide. It is 
 first cut into strips of convenient width ; next it is annealed and 
 rolled to the requisite thickness, when it is found to have trebled 
 its original length and to have acquired a bright surface from 
 the action of the rollers. The " blanks," or first shape of the 
 pen, are now cut out by means of a press ; next comes the 
 operation of marking or stamping the name on the pen, then 
 piercing; but before they can be formed into the shape of a pen 
 they require to be softened by annealing. They are freed from 
 dust and grease, placed in round pots, which are again enclosed 
 in larger ones, are covered with charcoal-dust, put into a muffle 
 or iron box, heated to a dull red, and then allowed to cool. 
 The pens are next raised or formed into the required shape 
 by a blow from a screw-press fitted with a punch and a die. 
 Then they are hardened. This is done by arranging them in 
 thin layers in covered iron pans of a round shape, which are 
 heated to a bright redness in a muffle. The contents of the 
 pans are next emptied into a bucket, immersed in a tank of oil, 
 and transferred to a perforated cylinder, which, being quickly 
 rotated, drains off the oil. The pens are still greasy and as 
 brittle as glass, and in order to cleanse them they are again 
 placed in perforated buckets and plunged into a tank of boiling 
 soda-water. They are next tempered, or softened, by enclosure 
 in an iron cylinder which is kept revolving over a charcoal fire 
 until the requisite degree of softness is attained. The pens 
 have been blackened by this operation ; they are next scoured 
 by being dipped into a tub of diluted sulphuric acid, and then 
 put into iron barrels containing water and material made from 
 broken and finely-ground annealing pots. The barrels are kept 
 revolving for five, or sometimes eight hours ; then the pens are 
 subjected to a second process of scouring in barrels filled with 
 dry material of the same kind ; and then to a third process, 
 in which dry sawdust is the scouring or cleaning agent. The 
 pens have now acquired a bright, silver tone, and the points 
 
SIR JOSIAH MASON. 205 
 
 have been rounded. They have then to be ground between 
 the pierced portion and the point; this is done on a small 
 revolving solid wheel or " bob " made of wood, covered with 
 leather, and coated with emery-powder. Next comes the 
 operation of slitting, which is cleverly accomplished by a cut- 
 ting-press ; but, the edges of the slit being sharp, the pens are 
 again polished in revolving barrels. They are now coloured 
 and varnished; the colouring is done in a copper or iron 
 cylinder over a coke fire ; if to be lacquered they are placed 
 in a solution of shellac. Afterwards the spirit is drained off, the 
 pens are placed in wire cylinders, and kept revolving until the 
 lacquer is dry. Next the pens are spread on iron trays an I 
 put into an oven, the heat of which spreads the lacquer evenly 
 over the surface. Girls now look over the pens, throw aside 
 the faulty ones, and the good ones are packed into boxes ready 
 for sale.' 
 
 In 1849 there were twelve pen factories in Birmingham, 
 employing about 2,000 men, women, and girls, the weekly out- 
 put of pens being stated at 65,000 gross. In 1866 the follow- 
 ing returns of the trade were made by the manufacturers : 
 Number of makers, 12 ; men employed, 360 ; women and girls, 
 2,050 ; horse-power, 330 ; number of pens produced weekly, 
 98,000 gross ; quantity of steel used weekly, 9^ to 10 tons ; 
 prices of 'slip' pens, from i^d. to is. per gross, and of barrel 
 pens, yd. to 123. per gross. About 2,000 additional hands, 
 chiefly women, were employed in making pen-holders, papir- 
 boxes, and other accessories of the trade. The conditions 
 of work and rates of pay were thus described in a volume 
 on the industries of Birmingham : ' The condition of the 
 work-people employed in metallic pen-making is very satis- 
 factory, in consequence of the large and lofty rooms in which 
 the work is usually done, and the generous care which the prin- 
 cipal manufacturers display for the welfare and improvement 
 of the persons they employ. The wages of girls vary from 55. to 
 I2S. per week, some of the younger earning only 23. 6d. to 
 
206 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 33. 6d., while some few of the older and more skilful work- 
 women earn as much as 155. or 205. per week. The men earn 
 from i8s. to 205.; the boys 43. 6d. to 8s., or if skilful, 8s. to i6s.; 
 and the skilled adult males (chiefly tool-makers) from 305. to 
 8os., and some even 905. to iocs, per week. The hours of labour 
 are usually from 52 to 57 hours per week, all beyond those 
 hours being reckoned as "over-time," and the Saturday half- 
 holiday is nearly universal in the pen factories.' 
 
 The Handbook of Birmingham, edited by Mr. Timmins, and 
 published in 1886, gives the following account by Mr. Maurice 
 Pollack of the trade as it existed at that date : * There has been 
 little improvement since 1865. Muffles heated by gas, on the 
 plan of Dr. Siemens, have been introduced for tempering and 
 colouring, and ordinary gas is also used in connection with 
 these processes ; but these improvements are only used by one 
 or two firms, and more as a matter of convenience than as a 
 means of making pens of a better quality or lower price. 
 Many patents have been taken out since 1865, for new 
 styles of pens ;-the most successful have been those'which deal 
 with the points ; these have been turned up or turned down, 
 thickened or planished, all for the purpose of producing smooth 
 points to glide freely over the paper even with a rough 
 surface. 
 
 ' The fashion in paper and ink materially influences the style 
 of pens. The J pens (so-called because that letter was em- 
 bossed upon one of the first and best-known broad points) 
 have been extensively used, and have influenced handwriting, 
 especially that of ladies. 
 
 ' Caligraphy as an art has fallen off in this country, and 
 this has influenced pen manufacture. The most delicately 
 made pens are manufactured for foreign use. There are, 
 perhaps, not so many pen works now as there were in 
 1865, but the productive power has vastly increased. The 
 present weekly average of pens manufactured is about 160,000 
 gross, requiring from 16 to 18 tons of steel, of which only 
 
SIR JOSIAH MASON. 207 
 
 eight tons appear in the article, the rest being loss or waste. 
 Pen steel is still produced in Sheffield, the best being made 
 from Swedish iron. The number of girls and women em- 
 ployed is from 3,200 to 3,600, whilst the number of men em- 
 ployed as tool-makers, rollers, engineers, stokers, etc., hardly 
 exceeds 500. The increase in make since 1865, of quite 60 
 per cent., is mainly due to the export trade. No new pen 
 manufactories have been established since 1865, except in the 
 United States, where there are now four pen works, but of 
 these only one is of importance. In France there are now 
 only three pen manufactories, and the production is less than 
 it was three years ago. In Germany there is only one, and its 
 make, though improved in quality, is very inconsiderable in 
 comparison with the large consumption of steel pens in 
 Germany. An attempt has been made to establish works in 
 Russia, where the duty on steel pens is high, but after existing 
 one or two years the manufactory was burnt down, and no 
 attempt has been made to rebuild it. The Customs duty on 
 steel pens, with the exception of Russia or the United States, 
 where it is sixpence per gross, is very moderate, and prevents 
 the importation of low or middle-class pens. The price ob- 
 tained for steel pens depends more upon the reputation of the 
 maker or of the mark than upon their intrinsic value hence 
 the difficulty of giving an average value of each gross of pens 
 produced.' 
 
 Josiah Mason stated that from the time of his introduction 
 to James Perry, in 1829, he^became a steel-pen maker. An 
 improvement which he had made in a Perry pen, and of 
 which a sample was sent to the maker in London, brought 
 Perry down to Birmingham in great haste. He at once began 
 to employ Mason, and Perry & Co. were his only customers 
 for many years. From their first interview until the year 
 1873 Mason was the sole and only maker of the Persian and 
 the steel B pens sold under Perry's name. At first the trade 
 was small, but in 1831 pens to the value of ^1,421 were 
 
208 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 made by Mason for Perry. Then, as the greater demand 
 resulted in reduced prices and a larger production, increased 
 machinery and an increasing number of work-people became 
 necessary, until at length Mason became the largest pen- 
 maker in the world, and employed by far the largest number 
 of hands in the trade. For a long time one part of the pro- 
 cess of pen-making was kept a profound secret. This was the 
 method of slitting pens by means of the press, instead of by 
 the old and uncertain methods of cracking. Mason himself, 
 with his own hands, made the dies and punches required for 
 the slitting, and the presses in which these were fixed were 
 worked by two or three women in a separate room, to which 
 none but the actual workers and their master were admitted. 
 Gillott was so struck by the quality of Mason's pens that he 
 proposed they should go into partnership, saying, l Let us join, 
 and not another man shall make a pen besides us.' Mason 
 preferred to stand by himself, however, though he and Gillott 
 had many business transactions together. Mason's own name 
 appeared on great numbers of pens which he made for 
 Somerville & Co. and Perry & Co. For a time he received 
 valuable assistance in the production of pens from Isaac Smith, 
 who revealed much mechanical ingenuity, and afterwards from 
 W. F. Batho, who remained with Mason until he resumed the 
 personal management of his pen-works after the opening of 
 the Erdington Orphanage. The increase of trade induced 
 Mason to extend his works, and he constantly added to them 
 until he laid the foundation for producing 40,000 gross of pens 
 weekly, although this quantity was not reached when he sold 
 his works in 1875 to the trustees of Perry & Co., Limited. 
 At that time the output exceeded 32,000 weekly, and the 
 works embraced, in addition to the industry of pen-making, 
 the manufacture of pen-holder sticks, pen-holder tips, paper- 
 binders, and numerous minor articles. At the close of 1873 
 a series of steel pens of the most perfect finish, each pen 
 being stamped ' Sir Josiah Mason,' began to be produced and 
 
JOSIAH MASON. 209 
 
 these pens are sold at the present day. When Mason gave up 
 business, nearly 1,000 work-people, four-fifths of whom were 
 women, were employed in his works. About sixty tons of 
 pens were constantly in movement through the works. As 
 nearly a million and a half of pens may go to a single ton, 
 some idea may be formed of the magnitude of an establish- 
 ment capable of dealing with sixty times this number. 
 
 Mason's connection with the electro-plating trade was also 
 of considerable importance, and now demands attention. The 
 ancients knew how to gild metals, and to plate silver upon 
 copper. In England, likewise, gilding was used in the Middle 
 Ages, and in 1403 an Act was passed to prevent persons from 
 selling gilt articles as the genuine metal. A Sheffield mechanic 
 named Bolsover invented in 1742 the method of plating which 
 was commonly in use before the application of electro-plating. 
 Bolsover discovered the art of laying silver upon copper, and 
 his discovery was improved upon by Joseph Hancock, one of 
 the Sheffield cutlers, who used it to imitate the finest and most 
 richly embossed plate. Birmingham soon took up the manu- 
 facture of plated goods, James Watt's partner, Matthew 
 Boulton, establishing his well-known factory at Soho. Sir 
 Edward Thomason followed in 1796, and from this time the 
 trade rapidly increased. Volta's great discovery of chemical 
 electricity in 1799 was developed by various English and 
 European chemists between that date and 1805; and in 1807 
 Sir Humphry Davy made a decided advance in the science 
 of electro-metallurgy. In 1831 Faraday achieved still further 
 triumphs, and three years later he made the important dis- 
 covery that 'when a voltaic current was passed through 
 different salts in solution or in a state of fusion, the amount of 
 salt decomposed by the current was in direct proportion to 
 the quantity of electricity ; and that the quantities of sub- 
 stances dissolved and set free in electrolysis were in definite 
 proportions by weight, and that those proportions were 
 identical with the ordinary chemical equivalents of the sub- 
 
 p 
 
210 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 stances, and thus established the important law of definite 
 electro-chemical action.' 
 
 Experiments by Professor Daniell, Mr. De la Rue, and Dr. 
 Golding Bird followed ; and then, in 1839, came an avalanche 
 of discoveries by M. Jacobi of St. Petersburg and Mr. Jordan 
 and Mr. Spencer in England, each of whom claimed to have 
 invented the method of electro-deposition. In 1842 a similar 
 claim was made on behalf of Mr. J. S. Woolrich of Birmingham 
 the inventor of the electro-magnetic method, who 'suc- 
 ceeded in gilding an article by voltaic precipitation from the 
 ammoniacal solution of gold, before the published experiments 
 of Mr. Jordan and Mr. Spencer appeared.' The credit for the 
 earliest commercial use of the electrotype process is due to 
 Mr. George Richards Elkington and his cousin, Mr. Henry 
 Elkington, who were engaged in 1838 in coating military and 
 other ornaments with gold and silver by simply immersing 
 them in solutions of those metals, particularly a boiling one of 
 carbonate of potash containing dissolved gold. In conjunction 
 with Mr. O. W. Barratt, they patented a process in 1838 for 
 coating articles of copper and brass with zinc, by means of an 
 electric current, generated by a piece of zinc attached to the 
 articles by a wire, and immersed with them in a boiling and 
 neutral solution of chloride of zinc. Dr. George Gore states 
 in his Art of Electro- Metallurgy that this was the first patent 
 in which a separate metal was employed for electro-plating 
 purposes. But the grand discovery of electro-metallurgy was 
 eventually made in 1840 by Mr. John Wright, a surgeon of 
 Birmingham. By an ingenious experiment, Mr. Wright ob- 
 tained what had never been acquired before, namely, a thick 
 deposit of firm and white silver by electrolytic action. He 
 submitted his results to Messrs. Elkington, who embodied the 
 discovery in a patent. Mr. Wright received a royalty of one 
 shilling for every ounce of silver deposited, but after his death 
 an annuity was paid to his widow instead of the royalty. 
 
 Two years after the discovery of Mr. Wright's process, Mr. 
 
SIR JO SI AH MASON. 211 
 
 Woolrich patented an invention which as Mr. Bunce remarks 
 in an interesting passage ' was destined to effect a great ad- 
 vance in the mode of producing the electrical current required 
 for the depositing process. Amongst the most brilliant dis- 
 coveries of Faraday was that of magneto-electricity. He found 
 that, when the pole of a magnet is made to approach towards 
 and recede from the core of a coil of insulated copper wire, 
 alternating shocks are induced in the coil. These alternating 
 shocks may be made to act in the same direction ; they can 
 then do the same kind of work that is accomplished by a 
 galvanic battery. The idea of applying the currents so de- 
 veloped to the purposes of electro-metallurgy was formed by 
 Mr. Woolrich, who, in 1842, patented a machine a dynamo, 
 in fact for producing them in such a way as to be applicable 
 to electro-deposition. The patent was originally worked by 
 Mr. Thomas Prime, of Northwood Street, Birmingham, where 
 Faraday saw the machine in operation. Dr. Percy mentions 
 this interesting fact in his volume on the Metallurgy of Iron and 
 Steel. In 1845, he says, " I conducted Mr. and Mrs. Faraday 
 over Mr. Prime's works, where, for the first time, that great 
 philosopher saw his discovery of the magneto-electric current 
 applied to the electro-deposition of silver. I shall never forget 
 the sparkling delight which he manifested on seeing this result 
 of his purely scientific labours rendered subservient to a beau- 
 tiful art and to the advantage of others." The superior con- 
 stancy of the current obtained by the magneto-electric machine 
 over that furnished by the battery soon became manifest ; and, 
 though Woolrich's form of the dynamo has long since passed 
 out of the practical into the historical stage, the method 
 embodied in his invention is now in almost universal use as a 
 source of electricity for coating metals. The first dynamo 
 made by him for use by Mr. Prime has been presented by the 
 son of the first user, the present head of the firm, to the Cor- 
 poration of Birmingham, and is now preserved in their Museum 
 at Aston Hall.' 
 
 p 2 
 
2i2 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 A further improvement of great importance was due to 
 another Birmingham discoverer, Mr. M. Milward, of Elkingtons' 
 establishment. In 1847 Milward and a person named Lyons 
 took out a patent for producing bright deposited silver by 
 ' adding compounds of sulphur or carbon,' bisulphide of carbon 
 being preferred, to the cyanide of silver solution. This process 
 has been constantly and extensively employed ever since. Dr. 
 Gore states that since the year 1847 the chief improvements 
 which have been made in electro- metallurgy 'have been the 
 gradual extension of the process for multiplying printing sur- 
 faces, in stereotyping, etc., and in the production of works of 
 art, etc., of increased size, in copper, until deposits several tons 
 in weight have been attained ; the extensive use of nickel as a 
 coating upon harness furniture ; the protection of articles of 
 cast-iron from rusting by a coating of copper ; the substitution 
 of magneto-electric machines and thermo-electric piles for 
 voltaic batteries ; the purification of crude copper in the pro- 
 cess of copper-smelting, and the economical production of 
 coppered iron rollers for calico printing by means of magneto- 
 electric deposition.' 
 
 An interesting and condensed description of the process of 
 electro-plating is given by a scientific writer in the latest edition 
 of Chambers' s Encyclopedia. He observes that the 'art of 
 coating the baser metals with silver by the galvanic current is 
 theoretically of great simplicity, but requires in the success- 
 ful application of it very considerable experience and skill. 
 Articles that are electro-plated are generally made of brass, 
 bronze, copper, or nickel-silver. The best electro-plated goods 
 are of nickel-silver. When Britannia-metal, iron, zinc, or lead 
 are electro-plated, they must be first electro-coppered, as silver 
 does not adhere to the bare surface of these metals. Great 
 care is taken in cleaning the articles previous to electro-plating, 
 for any surface impurity would spoil the success of the opera- 
 tion. They are first boiled in caustic potash to remove any 
 adhering grease ; they are then immersed in dilute nitric acid 
 
SIR JO SI AH MASON. 213 
 
 to dissolve any rust or oxide that may be formed on the sur- 
 face ; and they are lastly scoured with fine sand. Before being 
 put into the silvering bath, they are washed with nitrate of 
 mercury, which leaves a thin film of mercury on them, and 
 this acts as a cement between the article and the silver. The 
 bath where the electro-plating takes place is a large trough of 
 earthenware or other non-conducting substance. It contains 
 a weak solution of cyanide of silver in cyanide of potassium 
 (water, 100 parts; cyanide of potassium, 10 parts; cyanide of 
 silver, i part). A plate of silver forms the -f- electrode, and 
 the articles to be plated, hung by pieces of wire to a metal rod 
 lying across the trough, constitute the electrode. When the 
 plate is connected with the copper or + pole of a one or more 
 celled galvanic battery, according to the strength required, or 
 subjected to the magneto-electric current, and the rod is joined 
 with the zinc or pole, chemical decomposition immediately 
 ensues in the bath, the silver of the cyanide begins to deposit 
 itself on the suspended objects, and the cyanogen, liberated at 
 the plate, dissolves it, re-forming the cyanide of silver. Ac- 
 cording, then, as the solution is weakened by the loss of the 
 metal going to form the electro-coating, it is strengthened bj? 
 the cyanide of silver formed at the plate. The thickness of the- 
 plate depends on the time of its immersion. The electric: 
 current thus acts as the carrier of the metal of the plate to the 
 objects immersed. In this way silver becomes perfectly plastic 
 in our hands. We can by this means, without mechanical 
 exertion or the craft of the workman, convert a piece of silver 
 of any shape, however irregular, into a uniform plate, which 
 covers, but in no way defaces, objects of the most complicated 
 and delicate forms. When the plated objects are taken from 
 the bath, they appear dull and white; the dulness is first 
 removed by a small circular brush of brass wire driven by a 
 lathe, and the final polish is given by burnishing. The process 
 of electro-gilding is almost identical with that of electro-plating. 
 Success in eith.r is attained by proper attention to the strength 
 
214 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of the battery, the strength of the solution, the temperature, 
 and the size of the + electrode.' 
 
 The process of 'finishing' plated articles is a careful and 
 elaborate one. Mr. Ryland, in a paper contributed to a work 
 on Midland Hardwares, describes the methods of burnish- 
 ing, and then contrasts the old with the new process of silver- 
 plating as follows: 'Under the old process all ornamental 
 work was produced by the die-sinker, and, as a consequence, 
 every portion of the die had to be so arranged that the work 
 would 'leave' it. The foliage, if attempted, was clumsy, the 
 stems and leaves, being massed together, were heavy and shape- 
 less, and the human form was never attempted. Now, by the 
 aid of modelling, casting, and electro-depositing, the most 
 delicate forms are capable of being applied by the manufacturer, 
 and the human figure stands out pre-eminently as a great ad- 
 dition to the plater's art. The graceful forms of animals, birds, 
 and insects are seized upon by the modeller, and made sub- 
 servient to his productions. The old method of proceeding 
 was by first plating the copper, and then, by means of various 
 manipulations, producing an article which was finished, all but 
 burnishing, when it left the hands of the workman. Electro- 
 plating has reversed all this, and that which was formerly the 
 first is now the last operation, for it is necessary that the article 
 should be finished and nicely polished before it receives its coat 
 of silver. Owing to the new mode of plating, there is no 
 occasion to protect the edges of the work by the silver thread 
 soldered on, all the edges being filled and polished. 
 
 ' Soft solder is almost banished, silver solder has taken its 
 place in putting on the mountings, and these mountings are all 
 filled with brass instead of lead or tin. This mode of work 
 renders the article more durable, and, if well plated, it will last 
 in domestic use for twenty years; and then, if the silver be worn 
 off, the goods can be re-plated, which was impossible under the 
 old process. A well-made and well-plated article, manufactured 
 by the electro process, is a far better production than those 
 
SIR JO SI AH MASON. 215 
 
 ^ 
 
 made by the old method of plating. On the other hand, a 
 poor electro article is far inferior to the worst class of work 
 manufactured under the old system.' 
 
 The Birmingham and Sheffield platers resisted the intro- 
 duction of the new process, but Messrs. Elkington persevered, 
 and ultimately overcame all obstacles. The metal used in 
 electro-plating is that which is variously known as German 
 silver, nickel-silver, albata, etc., and it was chosen on account 
 of its near approach in colour to silver. The best quality, and 
 that most difficult to work, is an alloy of 40 parts of copper 
 20 parts of spelter, and 20 parts of nickel. It is very hard 
 and white, and is that used by all manufacturers. It is much 
 more expensive than the ductile copper which was previously 
 used, and the difficulty of working it led at first to a serious 
 loss in some departments. But, by the division of labour and 
 the employment of machinery, many difficulties were over- 
 come, and a good workman can now do better tha^ under 
 the old process. The report of the jury on exhibits at the 
 Great Exhibition of 1851 stated that Elkington & Mason 
 were the first who introduced into England the application 
 of the electro process to gilding and silvering. 
 
 In the development of the electro-plating industry Josiah 
 Mason bore a conspicuous part. On the invitation of Mr. 
 G. R. Elkington he entered into partnership with the firm in 
 1842, the Elkingtons feeling that they needed the support and 
 assistance of a man of undoubted business capacity and posi- 
 tion in their new enterprise one who could bring in both 
 brains and capital. The supporters of the old processes pre- 
 dicted Mason's ruin, but his own faith in the recent scientific 
 discoveries was strong, and he felt that the new process of 
 plating must inevitably supplant the old, slow, and costly 
 system of hand-plating. Yet, at one time, there was actual 
 danger lest the patent should run out without yielding valuable 
 results to its possesscrs. The firm therefore resolved to de- 
 monstrate the value of the process by the manufacture of 
 
216 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 plated wares, and it was now that Mason's practical business 
 abilities, and his capacity for organisation, proved of the high- 
 est service. Mr. Elkington had been hampered by apparently 
 insuperable difficulties, and it* was largely owing to Mason's 
 efforts that these were overcome, and one of the staple indus- 
 tries of Birmingham was saved to the city. 
 
 Mason's biographer observes that his energies were 'directed 
 to the work of making the new trade pay. Being embarked 
 in it, he undertook it with characteristic energy, and with a 
 power of concentrated labour which few men could have 
 equalled. It was necessary to provide suitable buildings for 
 a manufactory ; and the great establishment now existing in 
 Newhall Street, Birmingham, was resolved upon. 
 
 'Th : s was Mr. Mason's own design. He laid out the plans 
 of the workshops and the showroom, which were built largely 
 after his own arrangement. These works were intended for 
 the production of articles of taste, and of those domestic 
 articles to which ornament could be applied. But, with his 
 partner, Mason saw clearly that for a considerable time the 
 business must largely depend upon productions of a humbler 
 description, in common use, capable of being supplied in any 
 quantity equal to the demand, and of being sold at a com- 
 paratively cheap rate. This led to the extension of a manu- 
 factory in Brearley Street, Birmingham, previously used for 
 the production of electro-plated spoons and forks. Here, 
 with ample space and abundant means, every appliance of 
 mechanical skill was provided for the preliminary processes, 
 and the electro-deposition was carried out upon a scale which 
 proved to the hand-platers that in the new method, backed 
 by capital and energy, and directed by a spirit of courage and 
 enterprise, they had not so much encountered a rival, as they 
 had found a master, and ultimately a destroyer. 
 
 1 The new firm did not, however, stop here. Their views 
 extended with the growth of their business, and with the 
 progress of their goods in public favour. While Birmingham 
 

 SIR JO SI AH MASON. 217 
 
 formed the headquarters of the trade, and while visitors were 
 attracted to Newhall Street from all parts of England, the 
 Continent, and America, it was thought desirable to go boldly 
 into the great markets, and consequently extensive showrooms 
 and warehouses were opened in London and elsewhere. After 
 these years of labour and outlay, Elkington & Mason reaped 
 a rich reward for their skill and enterprise. The Great Exhi- 
 bition of 1851 gave them the means of demonstrating their 
 triumph ; and from that date to the present day holding 
 their ground by successive advances they have stood at the 
 head of the electro-plating trade throughout the world : fore- 
 most in quality and design, in enterprise, in the magnitude of 
 their operations, and in the reputation they have achieved.' 
 
 While Mason devoted himself to the practical part of the 
 concern, he also took a deep interest in the artistic develop- 
 ments of the trade, and he saw with delight that many of the 
 articles produced became, if not * a thing of beauty and a joy 
 for ever,' at least objects really beautiful to look upon, as well 
 as distinguished for their durability. Mason's first partnership 
 was with George Richards Elkington and Henry Elkington. 
 This lasted from 1842 to 1852, when Henry Elkington retired, 
 and the partnership between the others was renewed. It was 
 finally dissolved in 1857, and Mason did not join the newly- 
 constituted and still existing firm of Elkington & Co. Many 
 anecdotes are related of Mason's readiness to consider sug- 
 gestions, and his honourable business methods generally. 
 One of these relates to Herr Krupp, the founder of the 
 famous steel works at Essen. Krupp had invented machinery 
 for rolling the metal ' blanks ' from which spoons and forks 
 are made the object being to lengthen the blanks by rolling, 
 in the manner in which a piece of steel is thinned down, and 
 at the same time to impart greater density to the metal. He 
 offered the invention to Elkingtons, but Mason thought the 
 price too large, and offered ^10,000. At the same time he 
 advised the inventor to sell his patent elsewhere for a greater 
 
218 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 sum if he could, promising to abide by his offer of ^"10,000 if 
 he could not. Krupp could not obtain a larger amount, and 
 came back and accepted Mason's offer. The German in- 
 ventor was so impressed by Mason that he subsequently more 
 than once invited him to become his partner, but Mason 
 declined because he was fully absorbed by his occupations 
 in Birmingham. 
 
 The manufacture of indiarubber rings was another trade 
 which Mason indirectly assisted in developing ; but a greater 
 undertaking than this was the copper industry which Elking- 
 ton & Mason established at Pembrey, near Llanelly, in South 
 Wales. Alexander Parkes, an able chemist employed by the 
 firm, took out a patent for smelting copper ores, and purifying 
 the copper by means of phosphorus. Elkingtons acquired the 
 patent, and then prospected for a suitable place where they 
 could set up works for smelting the Cornish ore. Elkington 
 & Mason first went to Swansea, but they found it too smoky, 
 and at length they pitched upon a spot on the Burry River, 
 not far from Llanelly. Here extensive works were laid out, 
 and operations begun, Parkes, the inventor, taking the scien- 
 tific, and Mason the general management. In the course of a 
 short time the village of Pembrey sprang up, and the proprietors 
 of the copper-works displayed a genuine interest in the physical, 
 moral, and intellectual welfare of the workmen. Cottages were 
 built, with a small garden allotment to each ; collieries were 
 opened to supply coal; schools were erected for 350 children; 
 and provision was made for religious instruction. The industry 
 and the little colony generally still remain in a flourishing con- 
 dition. Mason had great difficulty in persuading the children 
 to attend the schools, although the educational facilities were 
 excellent in every way. Having tried various plans, he at 
 length took down with him from Birmingham, on his visits 
 to Pembrey, supplies of useful articles such as hats, bonnets, 
 shoes, and articles of clothing, which he distributed as rewards 
 to the children who attended the schools. It was not long 
 

 
 SIX JO SI AH MASON. 219 
 
 before the hitherto empty schools were half-full, and ulti- 
 mately they became wholly so. Small fees and a judicious 
 system of rewards were afterwards introduced, and the schools 
 prospered. 
 
 In addition to the profits derived from his various under- 
 takings, Mason made large additions to his wealth by the 
 successful purchase and sale of land and building sites, and 
 by investments in commercial and miscellaneous companies. 
 Wealth is like a snowball, and it is astonishing how it in- 
 creases when it is rolled along, after once the nucleus has been 
 obtained. It was so in Mason's case. But he was not only a 
 money-getter ; he was a money-spender on a great scale, and 
 in a noble way. Some misjudged his character because he 
 was strict and business-like in his dealings, taking exactly what 
 was due to him, as he gave to others with equal exactitude 
 what was due to them. But all through the accumulation of 
 his gains he had a settled purpose, which was to do something 
 for the helpless and the friendless, those who were left stranded 
 in the race of life. And he was resolved to do this in his life- 
 time so that he could to a certain extent act as his own steward 
 and almoner, and thus secure the right use of his benefactions. 
 
 His first benevolent enterprise was a small institution begun 
 at Erdington the suburb of Birmingham which he always 
 favoured in 1858. It combined an almshouse for aged women 
 and an orphanage for girls. How he came to do this was because 
 he had seen the evil effects of his own indiscriminate charity. 
 He had been imposed on again and again, and he determined 
 to do good in such a manner that imposture should be 
 rendered impossible. Not satisfied with his first experiment, 
 however, he desired to have an orphanage on a much larger 
 scale, with something of a public character, and under public 
 management. He therefore sought out Dr. Miller, who was 
 then Rector of St. Martin's, the chief parish in Birmingham. 
 They were unknown ito each other, and as Masjn unfolded 
 his plan, Dr. Miller gave him little encouragement, as he 
 
220 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 feared the requisite number of people could not be found to 
 support a great scheme. But at length the Doctor said : 
 ' Well, what about a donation to start it with 20 or ^50 
 is not much in this case.' Mason's reply fairly electrified the 
 Divine : ' Plenty of such sums would tell up, Doctor ; I would 
 give ;ioo,ooo to start it ! ' Dr. Miller felt as though he could 
 embrace his visitor. A meeting of clergymen, ministers, and 
 others was convened at St. Martin's Rectory to discuss the 
 scheme. The offer of ^100,000 amazed those present. 
 After about a dozen meetings, however, an insuperable diffi- 
 culty arose. Mason belonged to no religious order or deno- 
 mination, but he wanted the children to be taught the Holy 
 Scriptures as Timothy was taught. Many of the clerical 
 sympathisers held out vigorously for the Catechism, and so the 
 project fell through. The donor felt that he could not found 
 the institution solely upon a Church basis. 
 
 Thrown upon his own resources, Mason determined to carry 
 out his plan for an orphanage alone. He selected a suitable 
 site at Erdington, obtained plans and designs, and began the 
 work of construction in 1865. The position was conspicuous, 
 and as the building first, and then its lofty towers, gradually 
 loomed up on the horizon, people questioned each other as 
 to its object. The donor went quietly on, constructing the 
 strong, durable, and magnificent building, and at the same 
 time preparing the trust-deed of his foundation. The trust- 
 deed was a very important matter, for in order to satisfy the re- 
 quirements of the Mortmain Act it had to be enrolled twelve 
 months during the life of the founder, or otherwise it could not 
 take effect. Other arrangements had also to be made in view 
 of the possibility of the founder's death in the interim. All 
 difficulties were overcome, however, and on the 3ist of July, 
 1869, Mason was able to enjoy the deep and unalloyed 
 pleasure of personally opening his splendid institution, by 
 presiding over the first meeting of the trustees. The buildings 
 forming the Almshouses and Orphanage at Erdirgton were 
 

 SIR JO SI AH MASON. 221 
 
 valued at ,60,000, while the princely endowment was esti- 
 mated at no less than ^200,000. This great charity on the 
 part of a simple Birmingham manufacturer entitled him to rank 
 with such philanthropists as George Peabody, and it has been 
 noted as a coincidence that these two men were born in the 
 same month of the same year. Mason's noble work was 
 wholly his own, both in conception and execution, down to the 
 smallest detail. Without asking or receiving help of any kind, 
 he gave to trustees, ' and through them to the public, a set of 
 almhouses for twenty-six women, an orphanage for three hun- 
 dred children, finished in building and arrangement, with 
 plans of management laid down carefully throughout and per- 
 fected, both charities in full working order and actually at 
 work ; and to crown all, with an endowment in land, so well- 
 chosen as to promise rapid growth in value with each succes- 
 sive year, and so ample as to shut out for ever the need of an 
 appeal for other help.' 
 
 With regard to the inmates of the Orphanage, it was pro- 
 vided that the number of boys should never exceed one-half 
 the number of girls for the time being inmates therein. There 
 was only one qualification for admission namely, that every 
 child should be of or under the age of nine years, and the 
 legitimate child of poor parents, both of whom were dead. 
 There was no restriction as to locality, condition, country, or 
 religious persuasion. Boys might remain in the Orphanage 
 until they were fourteen, and girls until they were eighteen 
 years of age. A good sound education was provided for and 
 everything was perfectly free, lodging, clothing, maintenance, 
 and training. The girls were to be brought up to all house- 
 hold and domestic duties. The religious instruction imparted 
 was to be completely unsectarian. Seven trustees were ap- 
 pointed by the founder to act with him during his lifetime, 
 and after his death seven others were added, appointed by the 
 Town Council of Birmingham. The trustees were to be lay- 
 men and Protestants, and were to hold their appointments for 
 
222 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 life, except for certain disabling conditions specified. The 
 education given in the Orphanage is so thorough that not long 
 after its foundation, at the Government examinations the boys 
 passed cent, per cent., and the girls and infants more than 97 
 per cent, in the general standards. The Almshouses for Aged 
 Women are admirably conducted, and connected with this 
 portion of the charity is a home for servants who have been 
 sent out from the Orphanage, and who may be temporarily 
 disabled, or may need a place of residence while seeking new 
 situations. 
 
 The third, and in some respects the greatest, of Sir Josiah 
 Mason's benefactions was the famous Science College, erected 
 and founded for the purpose of systematic higher education. 
 There were many admirable educational institutions in Bir- 
 mingham, but there was no place for the higher instruction 
 of students who found the existing means inadequate, and 
 were consequently obliged to rely upon private tuition, or to 
 resort to the universities or provincial colleges. He therefore 
 resolved to offer to the community the free gift of a great 
 teaching institution, carefully arranged, thoroughly equipped 
 for its work, and well endowed, to bear the name of the Mason 
 Science College. On the i2th of December, 1870, the foun- 
 dation-deed was formally executed. When the twelve months 
 required by the Statute of Mortmain had expired, Dr. J. G. 
 Blake and Mr. G. J. Johnson were legally constituted the first 
 trustees of the College, and as such held in trust the various 
 properties conveyed to them by the founder for the purposes 
 of the College. The College was erected in Edmund Street, 
 Birmingham. It formed one side of a square, the others being 
 occupied by the Town Hall, the Council House, the Corpora- 
 tion Art Gallery, and the Free Libraries worthy institutions 
 for a free city. There were six trustees of the building, four 
 being appointed in addition to Messrs. Blake and Johnson, 
 already named. 
 
 The plans having been approved and the works begun, the 
 
SfJt JO SI AH MASON. 223 
 
 donor laid the foundation-stone on the 25th of February, 1875, 
 that being the eightieth anniversary of his birthday. In conse- 
 quence of the extremely inclement weather, the outdoor pro- 
 ceedings were brief, and an adjournment was made to the 
 Queen's Hotel. Here were assembled representatives of the 
 Corporation, the Magistracy, and of the institutions connected 
 with education, literature, science, and art. Mr. John Bright 
 specially attended to show his interest in the event, and his 
 sympathy with the aims of the founder; but the Mayor of 
 Birmingham, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, was absent through 
 severe domestic affliction. The Deputy-Mayor read an address 
 of congratulation and thanks to Sir Josiah Mason for his mag- 
 nificent gift, and the hope was expressed that he might live to 
 witness the completion of a work which would be imperishal ly 
 associated with his name. Mason's reply, which was read for 
 him on account of his advanced age, was a document of pro- 
 found autobiographic interest. No apology is therefore needed 
 for reproducing the text of it, which ran as follows : 
 
 ' I have to thank you most sincerely for your presence here 
 to-day, to witness the laying of the foundation-stone of my 
 Scientific College, and I have to thank you also for the kind 
 address which has just been read, and for its full and generous 
 recognition of my labours. It is, indeed, a matter of deep 
 satisfaction to me that at my advanced age I am still in posses- 
 sion of sufficient health and strength to allow me to take this 
 personal share in commencing the work I have so much at 
 heart ; it fills my mind with gratitude to the Giver of all Good, 
 and if it should please Him to allow me to see the completion 
 of the building which we have just begun, I shall be content to 
 depart, with the confident belief that others, rightly appreciating 
 my design, will carry out the scheme of the College in the spirit 
 in which I have been permitted to begin it. This work, gentle- 
 men, has been long in my mind, for I have always felt the im- 
 portance of providing enlarged means of scientific instruction, 
 on the scale required by the necessities of this town and 
 
224 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 district, and upon terms which render it easily available by 
 persons of all classes, even the very humblest. The experience 
 of my own life has long since satisfied me on this point. 
 
 ' When I was a young man it is so long ago that while still 
 living in this generation I can recall the memories of a time 
 long past there were no means of scientific teaching open to 
 the artisan classes of our manufacturing towns ; and those who, 
 like myself, would gladly have benefited by them were com- 
 pelled to plod their weary way, under disadvantages and diffi- 
 culties of which our young men of the present day can form no 
 adequate idea. Schools at that time were few and poor ; there 
 were no institutions of popular teaching, no evening classes to 
 which youths might go after their day's work was ended. 
 Whatever I learned I had to teach myself in the intervals of 
 laborious and precarious occupations, first at Kidderminster, 
 my birthplace, and later in Birmingham, the home of my adop- 
 tion, and the place where sixty years of my life have been 
 spent. At Kidderminster, as a youth, I worked at a variety 
 of trades baking, shopkeeping, carpet- weaving, and others. 
 When I came to Birmingham, in my twentieth year, I was first 
 connected with one of the then staple trades of the town, the 
 gilt toy making, and it was not until after ten years of hard 
 work and heavy disappointment, that I found the position that 
 Providence had destined for me. 
 
 ' At thirty years of age, with twenty pounds of savings as my 
 whole fortune, I was brought into association with one of the 
 most honourable, industrious, and ingenious of men, Mr. 
 Samuel Harrison, the inventor of split-rings, whom I served 
 for a time, and to whose business, on his retirement, I suc- 
 ceeded. Mr. Harrison was no common man ; he was a friend 
 of Dr. Priestley, whom he assisted in many of his philosophical 
 experiments, and for whom, I may mention, as a matter of 
 interesting local history, he made the first steel pens that 
 ever were made in Birmingham. To me he was a dear 
 and good friend, whose memory I have never ceased to 
 
SIR JO SI AH MASON. 225 
 
 cherish with continual affection. To the business I received 
 from him I afterwards added the trade of steel pen making, 
 which I have now followed for more than forty-seven years, first 
 as the maker of the well-known Perryian pens, and later in my 
 own name, until I have developed the works into the largest 
 pen factory in the world though I ought to say that the build- 
 ing in which they are now conducted no longer belongs to me, 
 but has been conveyed to the Trustees of the College, as part of 
 their endowment, so that I am now the tenant of my own foun- 
 dation. This business and that of the split-ring making were 
 my sole occupations until 1840, when accident brought me in 
 close relations with my late valued friend and partner, Mr. G. 
 R. Elkington, who was then applying the great discovery of 
 electro-deposition, and through my association with him in this 
 undertaking I may claim a share in the creation of a form of 
 scientific industry which has so largely enriched the town of 
 Birmingham, and increased its fame throughout the world. To 
 this we afterwards added the establishment of copper-works in 
 South Wales. Since the death of my friend Mr. Elkington, I 
 have restricted myself to my original work as a penmaker and 
 a split-ring maker, with an occasional deviation into other em- 
 ployments in which science has been brought to the aid of 
 industry. 
 
 ' I mention these facts to show you how the means with 
 which God has blessed me have been acquired, and to show 
 also how natural it is that I should devote some portion of 
 those means to assist in promoting scientific teaching, to 
 advance the varied forms of scientific industry, with which, 
 throughout my Birmingham life, I have been so closely con- 
 nected. But before I could take in hand the foundation of 
 this College I had another work to do. I had always had a 
 great desire to do some deed of love for the poor and helpless, 
 and therefore my first care was to make provision for the aged 
 and the orphans. This I was enabled to do by founding the 
 Orphanage and Almshouses at Erdington ; and this being 
 
 Q 
 
226 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 done, I was at liberty to turn my attention to the project 
 of the College. There were many difficulties to be overcome. 
 Willingness to give money will do much, but it will not do 
 everything. The site, for example, was a great hindrance; 
 many places were thought of and put aside ; others were sought 
 for, and could not be obtained. These delays, however, did 
 not really do any harm to the scheme ; indeed, they afforded 
 time for the proper consideration of the plan of the College, 
 and the preparation of a deed of foundation of a nature to 
 give full effect to my wishes. For this I must acknowledge 
 my great obligations to my friend and adviser, Mr. G. J. 
 Johnson, and to other gentlemen, some of whom are included 
 in the number of my trustees. At last, all difficulties being 
 overcome, and the plans for the College being settled, we are 
 assembled to witness the commencement of the building 
 which I have undertaken to erect as the future home of the 
 foundation, and before long I hope to see the first body of 
 students collected within its walls. 
 
 * The scheme of the College, as most of you know, is a large 
 one, and I have sought to make it as liberal as possible in the 
 character and extent of the teaching, the system of manage- 
 ment, and the mode and the terms of admission. Whatever 
 is necessary for the improvement of scientific industry, and for 
 the cultivation of art, especially as applied to manufactures, 
 the trustees will be able to teach ; they may also, by a provi- 
 sion subsequent to the original deed, afford facilities for 
 medical instruction; and, as has been mentioned in the 
 address read by the Deputy-Mayor, they are authorised, and 
 indeed enjoined, to revise the scheme of instruction from time 
 to time, so as to adapt it to the requirements of the district in 
 future years, as well as at the present time. It is not my 
 desire to set up an institution in rivalry of any other now 
 existing, but to provide the means of carrying further and 
 completing the teaching now given in other scientific institu- 
 tions, and in the evening classes now so numerous in the town 
 
SIX JO SI AH MASON. 227 
 
 and its neighbourhood, and especially in connection with 
 the Midland Institute, which has already conferred so much 
 benefit upon large numbers of students, and which I am glad 
 to see represented here to-day. 
 
 ' My wish is, in short, to give all classes in Birmingham, in 
 Kidderminster, and in the district generally, the means of 
 carrying on, in the capital of the Midland district, their 
 scientific studies as completely and thoroughly as they can be 
 prosecuted in the great science schools of this country and the 
 Continent ; for I am persuaded that in this way alone by 
 the acquirement of sound, extensive, and practical scientific 
 knowledge can England hope to maintain her position as 
 the manufacturing centre of the world. I have great, and I 
 believe well-founded, hope for the future of this foundation. I 
 look forward to its class rooms and lecture halls being filled 
 with a succession of earnest and intelligent students, willing 
 not only to learn all that can be taught, but in their turn to 
 communicate their knowledge to others, and to apply it to 
 useful purposes for the benefit of the community. It is in this 
 expectation that I have done my part, thankful to God that He 
 has given me the means and the will to do it ; hoping that 
 from this place many original and beneficial discoveries may 
 proceed ; trusting that I, who have never been blessed with 
 children of my own, may yet, in these students, leave behind 
 me an intelligent, earnest, industrious, and truth-loving and 
 truth-seeking progeny for generations to come.' 
 
 On the ist of October, 1880, the College was opened. The 
 proceedings of the day began with a meeting in the Town 
 Hall, presided over by Mr. Richard Chamberlain, Mayor of 
 Birmingham, and attended by representatives of the Corpora- 
 tions of Birmingham and Kidderminster, and of the leading 
 scientific and literary institutions of Birmingham, and the 
 Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the Victoria 
 University, and by the Trustees and Professors of the College. 
 An enthusiastic greeting was accorded to the venerable 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Founder, who was fortunately able to be present. A choir, 
 selected from the Birmingham Choral Festival Society, sang 
 Mendelssohn's hymn ' Let our theme of praise ascending.' 
 Then Professor Huxley delivered the opening address, remark- 
 ing at the close of it that there were many present who could 
 look back to the time when the anticipations of the building 
 or dedication of a College such as that they had now seen 
 launched would have been looked upon as a piece of 
 chimerical absurdity, and when there was not, in the whole of 
 the three kingdoms, accessible to the inhabitants, high or low, 
 such teaching as would now be available to every inhabitant of 
 Birmingham, rich or poor, in * Mason's Scientific College.' 
 Speeches were afterwards delivered at a luncheon by Mr. G. J. 
 Johnson (the President), Professors Huxley, Max Miiller, 
 Greenwood, and Roscoe, Mr. R. W. Dale, and Dr. Tilden, 
 Professor of Chemistry in the new College. At a conver- 
 sazione held at the College in the evening, the ceremony of 
 transferring the building to the Trustees took place. The 
 Founder, standing on a dais in the Physics Laboratory, and 
 holding in his hnnd the key of the College, said, ' This key of 
 the College is now mine, and I can say that the College is 
 mine ; but in a moment I shall be able to say so no longer, for 
 I now present it, and with it the College, to my old friend Mr. 
 Johnson, on behalf of my trustees, to be held by them in trust 
 for the benefit of generations to come.' 
 
 The total value of this great gift buildings and endowment 
 was about ,200,000. The buildings of the College are 
 four stories in height and extend in their greatest depth to 
 about 300 feet. The style is Gothic of the thirteenth century. 
 The accommodation includes five lecture rooms, commodious 
 laboratories, three museums, a handsome library containing 
 20,000 volumes, class rooms and offices, a common room for 
 students, and separate retiring and reading rooms for women 
 students. Originally, the deed of foundation provided for 
 scientific instruction only, with the addition of the English, 
 
SIX JO SI AH MASON. 229 
 
 French, and German languages ; but by later deeds the 
 Founder authorised the Trustees to provide instruction in all 
 branches of science including medicine and surgery in art, 
 languages, and literature, and all subjects required for degrees 
 in arts or science. One restriction only was imposed on the 
 Trustees : they were to permit no lectures, teaching, or examina- 
 tions on theological questions or political subjects of a party 
 nature. The number of trustees was fixed at eleven, six of 
 whom were nominated by the Founder, while the remaining five 
 were elected by the Town Council of Birmingham after his 
 death. The institution made rapid progress. During its first 
 year there were 85 students, but in 1888-9 there were no fewer 
 than 415 students in the day classes, and 309 other students in 
 the evening classes, making a total of 724. The usefulness of 
 the College had thus exceeded the most sanguine expectations. 
 
 The Town Council of Birmingham desired to erect a statue 
 of Mason, to be placed in the Corporation Art Gallery, but as 
 none of the designs pleased the philanthropist the project fell 
 through, much to his satisfaction, as he had most reluctantly 
 consented to the proffered honour. However, as the result of a 
 private subscription, Mason's portrait, painted by Mr. H. T. 
 Munns, was formally presented to the Town Council in 1872, 
 and placed in the Art Gallery. In the same year, the Queen 
 conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, and, in conse- 
 quence of Mason's advanced age and the state of his health, 
 her Majesty specially directed that the usual ceremony and 
 presentation at Court should be dispensed with. 
 
 As far back as 1841 Sir Josiah Mason had suffered from a 
 gastric affection, complicated by heart disease, for which he 
 tried many remedies, French and English, and finally found 
 considerable relief under the water cure at Malvern. Twice 
 he made a continental tour, on the first occasion in quest of 
 health. During his long career in Birmingham, Mason had 
 various residences, his final home being Norwood House, 
 Erdington, a fine mansion which he built on the main road 
 
230 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY, 
 
 from Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield. Here he took delight 
 in grape-growing. It is noteworthy, as showing the self-abne- 
 gation of the man, that the very house he lived in belonged to 
 the Orphanage, and he paid rent for it as an ordinary tenant ; 
 his manufactory also, while he remained in business, was the 
 property of the Mason College Trustees, and he paid the fair 
 ordinary rent for it. He thus literally gave up everything for 
 others. In the noble picture gallery at Norwood House there 
 was a Viennese self-acting organ, an expensive instrument. 
 In accordance with his last wishes, this organ was removed to 
 Mason College, and placed in the Examination Hall. His last 
 public appearance was at the opening of the College ; but, 
 although seriously failing in health, he received the Trustees 
 and Professors of the College at dinner on his eighty-sixth 
 birthday, February 23rd, 1881. He took cold in the month of 
 April following, and a slight accident which occurred to him 
 caused him to take to his bed, from which he never rose again. 
 He passed away quietly and painlessly on the i6th of June. 
 1881, and on the 25th he was laid to rest in a mortuary chapel 
 erected by him in the Orphanage grounds to receive the 
 remains of his wife, who had pre-deceased him by eleven years. 
 A statue by Mr. F. J. Williamson was publicly erected in his 
 honour, being placed in the square of the Mason Science 
 College. 
 
 In indicating Josiah Mason's personal characteristics his 
 biographer lays stress upon his resolution and tenacity of 
 purpose, his kindly humour, his tenderness towards children, 
 his business aptitude, his benevolence, his practical intuition, 
 his faith in himself, his power of detachment and faculty of 
 continuity, his skill in organisation, his simplicity and yet con- 
 scious mastery, his dislike to notoriety, his homely and regular 
 habits of life, and his firm, belief in an over-ruling God. 
 There is no doubt that such men as Mason have had much to 
 do with making England what she is, and in maintaining her 
 position in the world. 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 
 
233 
 
 THE WEDGWOODS. 
 
 THE potter's art is the most ancient in the world, for even in 
 the most primitive and rudimentary ages serviceable pottery was 
 a necessity to the human race. But between the rude vessels of 
 the savage which consisted of almost shapeless masses of clay 
 hardened by the sun and the beautiful products of Wedgwood, 
 with designs by Flaxman, there was as much difference as be- 
 tween the veriest daub which ever shocked the artistic sense on 
 the walls of the Royal Academy and the * Transfiguration ' of 
 Raphael. 
 
 Excellence of manufacture, however, especially as regards 
 porcelain, goes back for thousands of years. We owe to the 
 Chinese the manufacture of porcelain, and, alike as regards 
 antiquity and skill in the use of the raw materials, they easily 
 stand first. During the terra-cotta vase period of the Greeks 
 the Chinese were manufacturing porcelain. They claim to have 
 been making pottery nearly 2,700 years before Christ, and it 
 has been established beyond question that porcelain was made 
 in China under the Han dynasty between 206 and 87 B.C. 
 Ever since that time the industry has been pursued with more 
 or less success. Early in the eighteenth century there was one 
 town alone which boasted of 3,000 porcelain furnaces, but th j 
 place was ruined by the Tai-ping insurrection. Animals of all 
 kinds, mythical and actual, s^rve as decorations for Chinese 
 ware. The old blue ware which the Delft manufacturers sub- 
 sequently copied is the most sought after, and it seems that the 
 workers possess the secret of causing the cracks in the glaze to be 
 lanze or minute at will. The porcelain industry was known in 
 
234 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Japan a few years before Christ, and in the eighth century a 
 corporation of porcelain manufacturers was established. The 
 Japanese, however, are more celebrated for their pottery, and 
 their Satsuma ware which is of a pale yellow colour, and richly 
 painted and lavishly gilt is highly esteemed. Japanese potters 
 are very clever in imitating woods of various kinds, basket-work, 
 etc. Banko ware which consists of small teapots and other 
 unglazed earthen vessels is another product much appreciated. 
 Kaga ware is known for its rich gilding and ornamentation. 
 Soft porcelain and pottery have been made in Persia since the 
 twelfth century, the art having been imported from China; but 
 there is also an original ware peculiar to the country, together 
 with enamelled tiles, which exhibit brilliant metallic lustres on 
 a fine white enamelled glaze. 
 
 Coming westward, we find that the Egyptians come first with 
 a credible pottery record. It is stated that vases of baked earthen- 
 ware were in use at the earliest period of Egyptian civilisation, 
 and glazed tiles are preserved which belong to the epoch of 
 Rameses III., not long after the exodus of the Israelites from 
 Egypt. ' That the Egyptians attained considerable skill as 
 potters,' remarks a writer on this subject, Mr. James Paton, 'is 
 attested by the lustrous red ware they made for holding per- 
 fumes, wine, honey, and other delicacies ; but their most remark- 
 able pottery was their so-called porcelain made of a fine sand or 
 frit covered with a thick siliceous glaze, blue, green, white, pur- 
 ple, or yellow in colour. The blue colour. which is that prin- 
 cipally employed was produced by an oxide of copper which 
 yielded tints of unrivalled beauty and delicacy. This famous 
 porcelain was made as early as the eighteenth dynasty (about 
 1600 B.C.), and continued to be produced till the period of the 
 Greek and Roman rule. It was fashioned into vases, sepul- 
 chral figures of deities, scarabasi, beasts, etc. ; and it must have 
 attained a great reputation, for remains of it are found in most 
 of the ancient countries which had commerce with Egypt/ 
 The Assyrians and Babylonians likewise produced pottery at 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 235 
 
 a very early period ; and they used, terra-cotta for historical and 
 legal purposes, making cylinders, tablets, etc., of it, on which 
 were impressed cuneiform writings dealing with such events as 
 the Creation, the Flood, etc. There are scarcely any remains 
 of ancient Hebrew pottery, but a considerable quantity of 
 Phoenician pottery has been excavated in Cyprus. 
 
 The Greeks, however, were the greatest makers of pottery in 
 the ancient world. They, claimed the invention of the potter's 
 wheel, and almost every city attained distinction in the art. 
 ' The Greek vases which remain to this day, principally re- 
 covered from tombs in Greece, and in the lands to which its 
 commerce extended, show that within a few centuries the art 
 rose from the rude condition like that shown in prehistoric 
 pottery till it reached a perfection and variety of form, and a 
 grace and dignity of decoration, not since attained by the efforts 
 of any people.' Many exquisite figures and groups have also 
 been discovered in Greece and the East of Europe during the 
 past quarter of a century. The black Etruscan ware which was 
 in vogue from 500 to 300 B.C. gave rise to the Araline and so- 
 called Samian ware of Rome. This Samian ware was of a 
 bright red colour throughout, but it was covered by a lustrous 
 siliceous glaze. Brilliant enamelled pottery was made in the 
 island of Rhodes early in the fourteenth century, and the Moors 
 likewise began to produce thus early their famous Hispano- 
 Moresque enamelled faience. The Majolica ware of the Italians 
 is another well-known species. Enamelled faience was made 
 in France in the sixteenth century, and in 1555 the celebrated 
 Bernard Palissy discovered independently an enamelled glaze, 
 which he applied to rustic dishes, embellished with exquisitely 
 moulded figures, in high relief, of fishes, reptiles, fruits, etc. Of 
 the famous Henri Deux decorative ware only 65 pieces are 
 known to be in existence, and whenever any of these pieces are 
 for sale they fetch fabulous prices. The celebrated enamelled 
 faience of Holland, known as Delft ware, dates from the seven- 
 teenth century only Several German cities became known for 
 
236 LEADERS OP MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 their stoneware vessels. With regard to the New World, the 
 ancient Mexicans and Peruvians made a good deal of decorated 
 black and yellow pottery from a very early period. Porcelain 
 began to be made in Europe about the year 1580, by Francis 
 de Medici II., Grand Duke of Tuscany. Paris and Rouen 
 took up the art nearly a century later. In 1760 the establish- 
 ment at Sevres became national property, and has remained so 
 ever since.. The fame of Sevres rests on its beautifully glazed 
 and coloured soft porcelain, but hard porcelain has also been 
 made there since 1764. The Germans were the first among 
 European makers to discover the secret of making hard, or 
 kaolinic, porcelain, and the original credit is due to the alchemist 
 Bottger, who in 1 709 was in the service of Frederic Augustus II. 
 of Saxony. 
 
 The porcelain made in Great Britain is chiefly of the soft 
 description. Works were established at Chelsea, Bow, and 
 Derby about the middle of last century, and the industry was 
 founded at Worcester in 1751. William Cookworthy began to 
 make hard porcelain at Plymouth in 1768, but after three years 
 the works were transferred to Richard Champion, who con- 
 tinued the manufacture at Bristol until 1781. Cookworthy dis- 
 covered at Carclaze, in Cornwall, the finest china-clay to he 
 found in Great Britain, and his discovery was fraught with im- 
 portant consequences for the home manufacture of porcelain 
 and fine pottery. The commoner potter's clay, or pipe-clay, is 
 largely obtained from Poole, in Dorsetshire. The purest 
 potter's clay, known as china-clay, or kaolin, is formed by the 
 decomposition of granitic rocks, and consists of the hydrated 
 silicate of alumina, with small proportions or traces of one or 
 more of lime, potash, soda, and magnesia. Pottery has three 
 divisions : namely, earthenware, of which there are four kinds, 
 plain, lustred, glazed, and enamelled ; stoneware ; and porce- 
 lain. Staffordshire porcelain was made at Longton Hall in 
 1752, but it was not until towards the close of the eighteenth 
 century that the celebrated artistic ware of Minton & Co. and 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 237 
 
 of Josiah Specie the predecessor of Copeland & Co. was 
 produced. Pennington manufactured porcelain at Liverpool 
 from 1760 to 1780, and valuable porcelain was made not long 
 after this at Leeds, Yarmouth, Worcester, Derby, Lowestoft, 
 Burslem, Coalport, Nantganv, Swansea, and other places. 
 Parian or statuary porcelain was introduced by Copeland and 
 Minton about 1848. But of all those who have developed the 
 art of fine pottery in England, no maker is entitled to more 
 lasting remembrance than Josiah Wedgwood, the principal sub- 
 ject of this biographical sketch. Before his time the brothers 
 Elers had made fine red ware in imitation of that of Japan, at 
 Bradwell ; and their secrets were penetrated by one Samuel 
 Astbury, who feigned idiocy in a most remarkable manner. 
 Astbury was in fact a man of genius, who improved upon the 
 productions of the Messrs. Elers, and Miss Meteyard, the bio- 
 grapher of Wedgwood, states that it was Astbury who was the 
 real precursor of Josiah Wedgwood. 
 
 Wedgwood, who has been described as the creator of British 
 pottery as an art, was born at Burslem, Staffordshire, on the 
 1 2th of July, 1730. Before sketching his career, it may be 
 well to say something of his ancestry. It appears that ' the 
 surname of Wedgwood half fills the parish registers of Burslem 
 through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.' Among 
 other common names which have been associated with potters 
 are those of Cartwright, Bagnall, Tilewright, and Mayer. The 
 Mayers claim a descent of great antiquity. Among the early 
 Wedgwoods originally Weggevvodes was one John, who 
 resided at Dunwood, near Leek, towards the close of the 
 fifteenth century. His grandson became lord of the manor of 
 Horton, near Leek, by purchase, and he was made high col- 
 lector of the subsidy of 1563. The high collector's grandson, 
 John Wedgwood, married a gentlewoman of property named 
 Margaret Ford, and died in 1658, at the age of 87. A kins- 
 man of John, Gilbert Wedgwood, married an heiress, Margaret 
 Burslem, in 1612. It was through this Gilbert that the 
 
238 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Wedgwoods who were potters came. One of these, Thomas 
 Wedgwood, the grandfather of Josiah, was regarded as a man 
 of substance in Burslem. His son Thomas was a -well-known 
 manufacturer of moulded white ware, to which he afterwards 
 added his father's business in mottled and black ware. Wedg- 
 wood married Mary Stringer, a Quakeress, by whom he had a 
 family of thirteen children. Their last child, Josiah, was born, 
 as we have seen, in 1730. 
 
 Up to the time of the publication of authoritative memoirs 
 
 of the Wedgwood family, erroneous notions prevailed as to 
 
 Josiah's upbringing and the alleged poverty of his family. Miss 
 
 Meteyard thus deals with these points : * It is said that 
 
 Wedgwood's mother was a small and delicately organised 
 
 woman, of unusual quickness, sensibility, and kindness of 
 
 heart. Though her husband occupied his seat in the parish 
 
 church, and her children were baptized at its font, she seems 
 
 to have strictly enforced, though without austerity, the gravity 
 
 and moral discipline of the sect amongst which she had been 
 
 bred. Her children were taught to value sobriety and industry, 
 
 to observe merit in others, and to see that all their hopes of 
 
 advancement in this life depended upon the daily exercise of 
 
 self-restraint, integrity, and the due cultivation of those natural 
 
 gifts with which Nature has endowed the individual. The 
 
 manhood of Josiah Wedgwood betrays an early influence of 
 
 this superior kind, as well as others of a tender character. It 
 
 has been hitherto assumed that he was born in a mean hovel, 
 
 surrounded by the rudest associations, and whilst yet a child 
 
 consigned to the coarsest drudgery. The facts, as we thus find, 
 
 wtre essentially different. His father, as we have seen, was a 
 
 man in easy, if not in affluent circumstances. His relatives, 
 
 Aaron Wedgwood and Dr. Thomas Wedgwood, junior, were 
 
 persons of position in their native place. The latter was a man 
 
 of the nicest skill in his art, and for those days extremely well 
 
 educated. His handwriting is that of a gentleman. John and 
 
 Thomas Wedgwood, the sons of Aaron, who commenced 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 239 
 
 business in 1740, and in eighteen to twenty years from that 
 date had acquired a fortune and built the handsomest house 
 in Burslem, were, when Josiah Wedgwood was a child, active 
 and intelligent young men, busy in improving their staple, 
 and as keenly alive to the commercial needs, as to the intense 
 spirit of industry then taking growth throughout the country. 
 A few years later, when they had erected their conspicuous 
 dwelling, and earned comparative leisure, their hospitable 
 hearth became a gathering-place for men of keen and active 
 intelligence. Here Brindley, Thomas Gilbert, the Duke of 
 Bridgewater's agent, John and Hugh Henshall, father and son, 
 met to discuss the various plans then afloat, for constructing 
 and improving roads and flint walls, and the first surveys for 
 canal navigation. Other of Josiah Wedgwood's relations held 
 an equally influential position in their native place ; and as to 
 a simplicity of habits and manners, such prevailed everywhere. 
 It is also certain, that the worthy and substantial class from 
 which Wedgwood sprang were, generally speaking, as well edu- 
 cated as the greater portion of the gentry.' 
 
 There is no reason to doubt that not only was the home in 
 which Wedgwood was reared one of plenty, but one in which 
 family affection was strongly manifested. Josiah was sent to 
 the Dame school in Burslem, but the serious aspects of life 
 were brought home to him very early, for at nine years of age 
 he lost his father. For a long time he was sent to a school at 
 Newcastle-under-Lytne, kept by a man of superior education 
 named Blunt. Here he met many of his future friends, with 
 whom he was generally popular. The journey from Burslem 
 to Newcastle and back about seven miles was made on 
 foot by Wedgwood and his fellow-pupils, alike in winter as 
 in summer. Josiah was distinguished for his sagacity, his 
 warm and generous temper, and his uncommon vivacity and 
 humour. We learn also that he was a favourite at home ; with 
 his little sisters especially 'Like other children, they kept 
 birds, rabbits, and similar pets ; and it is handed down, that 
 
2 4 o LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 some shelves in one of his father's working sheds were turned 
 into a sort of museum, being decorated with fossil shells and 
 other curiosities, which the men who attended the coal-laden 
 pack-horses from Sneyd and Norton Green brought from the 
 mines there. It is a remarkable fact in connection with this 
 tradition, that many of Wedgwood's best forms were derived 
 from natural objects ; particularly from shells. In middle life 
 he studied fossils scientifically ; he bought a collection of shells, 
 and attended sales where specimens of more than common 
 beauty were likely to be seen. He encouraged this objective 
 taste in his own children. It is told that on one occasion 
 when a boy about twelve, some labourers whilst digging in 
 a field near Newcastle came, as often happened, upon vari- 
 ous fragments of pseudo-Samian ware, of which a fragment 
 reached his hands. He was so delighted with its colour, 
 glaze, and impressed ornaments, that he carried it home, 
 and carefully preserved it on his mother's dresser shelves. 
 At an earlier date, he took pleasure in contrasting the colours 
 of her patchwork ; thus proving how soon came into use 
 the powers of hsi artistic eye for colour, and his classic taste 
 for form.' 
 
 By his father's will, Josiah Wedgwood was to receive 20 
 on attaining twenty years of age. But this event was as yet a 
 long way ahead. When eleven years old he was put to the 
 family business of a potter, as a thrower. He thus began, as 
 he afterwards said, 'at the lowest round of the ladder.' His' 
 skill in throwing or forming the vessel upon the potter's wheel 
 soon singled him out as one of the best workmen in the neigh- 
 bourhood. This skill he always retained, so that after the 
 lapse of forty years he could still give a practical example to 
 his throwers, and by merely poising a newly-thrown vessel in 
 his left hand he could tell at a glance its beauties or defects. 
 If il failed even minutely in its geometrical proportions, he 
 would break it up with the stick which he always carried, re-' 
 marking as he did so, ' This won't do for Josiah Wedgwood.' 
 
THE U'EDd WOODS. 241 
 
 When \Vedgwood was in his twelfth year there was a virulent 
 outbreak of small-pox in Burslem, and Josiah suffered grievously 
 from the disease. He had it in the malignant form, and, 
 although he recovered, among the after-effects was a permanent 
 injury to the knee. At the age of fourteen, Josiah was bound 
 apprentice to his eldest brother Thomas his father's successor 
 for a period of five years, * to learn his art, mistery, occupa- 
 tion, or imployment of Throwing and Handling/ The inden- 
 ture was signed by himself, his mother, and brother Thomas, 
 as the three parties to the deed, and attested by Samuel Astbury 
 and Abner Wedgwood, the two paternal uncles of the young 
 apprentice. The deed contained a stringent clause against 
 contracting the prevalent vices of the day card-playing, drink- 
 ing, uncleanness, etc. This interesting historical document is 
 now to be seen in the museum of the Hanley Mechanics' In- 
 stitution, together with other relics relating to Wedgwood. 
 
 At the Churchyard Works, Burslem, young Wedgwood was 
 soon taking an active part. He devoted himself to the impor- 
 tant branch of the industry pursued by the throwers, which 
 consisted in producing tea and coffee cups, basins, ordinary 
 jugs, globular teapots, circular tureens, and other articles. But 
 the pain and stiffness in his right knee returned, and as he 
 could procure no relief, he was obliged to abandon the 
 thrower's bench altogether at the age of sixteen, and to sit 
 whilst at work with his leg extended before him upon a stool. 
 For twenty-two years he bore his infirmity patiently, suffering 
 much pain, and being frequently laid aside from work ; and at 
 last he had the limb amputated, in order to be able to pursue 
 his avocations. His biographer remarks that ' this necessity to 
 leave the thrower's bench, and turn his attention to other 
 branches of his trade, led to the most important consequences. 
 Had he remained stationary there during the larger portion of 
 his apprenticeship, he would not have obtained that grasp of 
 details, and that practical knowledge, which gave him subse- 
 quently such a mastery in his art, With the skill already 
 
 R 
 
242 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 acquired in throwing, joined to a perfection of vision which 
 ensured to him at a glance the accuracy or inaccuracy of 
 geometrical proportions, he was master of enough in this 
 direction, of which the limits may be said to be stationary ; 
 and he was left free not only to pursue discoveries in the 
 channels where they were likely to be made, but to turn his 
 attention towards the improvement of minor points of detail. 
 This may be said to have been the turning point in his great 
 career ; the true beginning, environed as it seemed at the 
 moment with the sad shadows of physical disability and dis- 
 appointed hopes. The remainder of his apprenticeship, from 
 his sixteenth to his nineteenth year, embraced that critical 
 passage from youth to early manhood, when the mental and 
 moral characteristics so strongly indicate themselves. And in 
 this case they were of the highest kind : no tavern-hunting, no 
 brawling, no vice of other kinds, but a steady attention to the 
 duties before him, and a determinate self-culture.' 
 
 During his apprenticeship, Wedgwood lost his mother, to 
 whom he was deeply attached, and who had done much to 
 stimulate the nobler elements of his character. She was laid 
 to rest near her husband, in the graveyard adjoining the works. 
 When Josiah's apprenticeship expired, he made overtures to 
 his brother to be taken into partnership, suggesting various 
 methods for increasing their trade. But Thomas \Vedgwood 
 was afraid to open up new fields of effort, and declined the 
 offer, so that Josiah was thrown upon his own resources. In 
 1752, however, he entered into partnership with John Harrison, 
 at Stoke. Harrison knew nothing of pottery, but he supplied 
 the capital necessary to work .a business which belonged to a 
 potter named Thomas Alders. Alders was no great master of 
 his art, so it was agreed to take young Wedgwood as partner. 
 The wares made at Cliff Bank Pottery, Stoke, were for the 
 most part mottled, cloudy, and tortoiseshell, glazed with lead 
 ore or salt, and shining black ware of good quality. Tea- 
 services, jugs, and other articles were also manufactured in 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 243 
 
 * blue scratched ware.' This ware had an ordinary white body, 
 and was scratched with a sharp nail by women. Wedgwood 
 not only extended the business, but produced articles of a 
 superior class, which found a ready sale in Birmingham, 
 Manchester, and elsewhere. But Harrison and Alders mani- 
 fested such greed and cupidity that Wedgwood brought the 
 partnership to a speedy end. 
 
 He soon found a more worthy partner in Thomas Wheildon, 
 who like himself had both skill and taste in the potter's art. 
 He was upright in character, and a conscientious seeker after 
 perfection in his work. He was likewise very cautious in his 
 experiments, for Shaw, in his History of the Staffordshire 
 Potteries, states that ' to prevent his productions being imitated 
 in quality or shape, he always buried the broken articles.' 
 Wheildon's works were at Little Fenton. Although Wedgwood 
 was not twenty-three years of age when he entered into this 
 parnership, his fame was already considerable. One of his 
 agreements with Wheildon was to the effect that he should 
 practice for their joint benefit such secret processes as genius 
 and experimental industry had made his ; but this without any 
 necessity of revealing to others what they were. The first 
 grand result of his laborious experiments was a new kind of 
 green ware, exquisitely moulded, in perfect imitation of such 
 natural objects as leaves and fruits. But the glazing was its 
 greatest distinction. The secret of the green glaze which was 
 prevalent during the latest period of Roman pottery in England, 
 and also during the Middle Ages, had been lost. 'The green 
 ware which up to this date had been manufactured by the 
 Wedgwoods, Wheildon, and others, seems to have been simply 
 coloured in the body with oxide of copper, and then washed 
 over with a thin mixture of lead, flint, and water. But Wedg- 
 wood's great improvement was in the glaze itself. Unlike the 
 ordinary flint glaze, it was composed of- several substances 
 which, after being fritted together, received a due proportion 
 of calcined copper. The formula of this glaze, which has been 
 
244 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 preserved to us in an old receipt-book once belonging to Guy 
 Green of Liverpool, shows clearly the vast amount of young 
 Wedgwood's ability ; and that he was keenly alive to the in- 
 creasing efforts which were then being made in the various 
 porcelain works both here and on the Continent to bring all 
 the finer class of glazes as near as possible to the perfection of 
 those in use by the Oriental potters.' 
 
 Wedgwood's green consisted of these parts vitrified flint 
 glass, 6 ; red lead, 2 ; and white enamel, 4 ; with calcined 
 copper, y 1 ^. This constituted a blue-green, and required a 
 good deal of yellow ground with it to make it a grass-green. 
 The new firm made in improved form pickle-dishes, plates for 
 confections and preserves, dessert services, and even teacups 
 and saucers all in the beautiful green ware. Tea, coffee, and 
 chocolate pots were introduced in great variety and elegance of 
 shape, and tea-ware and candlesticks were improved in glaze 
 and form. One choice speciality in small wares was an elegant 
 little oval snuff-box. Wedgwood now visited Birmingham 
 occasionally to transact business with the wholesale houses. 
 
 While vigorously and enthusiastically pursuing his labours, 
 Wedgwood had the misfortune to injure his affected leg. In- 
 flammation set in, and to reduce it purgatives and bleeding 
 were resorted to, which greatly reduced the patient himself, 
 and compelled him to keep his room for months. His mind, 
 however, was soon as active as ever, and this is how he utilised 
 his enforced leisure : ' He had always been fond of reading, 
 and had indulged in it so far as his hitherto busy life had 
 permitted. But this taste now grew by what it fed on, till it 
 became a passion. He saw clearly that this was a golden 
 time, though a brief one, in which he might supplement the 
 narrow limits of his early education by new acquisitions. He 
 saw clearly the great philosophic fact and one of which he 
 made such valuable use in after years, in relation to his great 
 art that the sources of truth and knowledge are limitless. 
 With his usual sagacity and humility of spirit, he began this 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 245 
 
 self-culture on " the lowest round of the ladder." He improved 
 his constructive knowledge of his native tongue, as also of 
 arithmetic. He read such histories of his country as were 
 then extant ; made himself well acquainted with its social and 
 industrial features, and its commercial and political relations to 
 other countries. Much as all this was, there was a point still 
 beyond, towards which his high capacity tended. He had a 
 passion for chemical analysis and philosophical speculation, so 
 far as such speculation was founded in Nature. He bought 
 and borrowed books, some of which, on chemistry, he copied 
 with his own hand, and he thus enlarged his insight into these 
 two great branches of knowledge ; and so ardent became his 
 desire to still further widen the limits of what he knew, as to 
 lead him to say often, as health returned, that the height of his 
 ambition was to obtain a moderate competence which should 
 enable him to devote the rest of his days to pursuits connected 
 with literature and science.' 
 
 The partnership of Wedgwood with Wheildon expired in 
 1759, and it was not renewed. The former now left Stoke 
 and returned to Burslem, where he entered into business for 
 himself. He had gained great experience, and considerably 
 extended his artistic ideas. He engaged his second cousin, 
 Thomas Wedgwood, as a journeyman for a period of five 
 years, and this step was the beginning of a lifelong and 
 honourable business connection between the two relatives. 
 Wedgwood first occupied the old pot-works at the Churchyard, 
 but subsequently moved to the Ivy House and its adjacent 
 works. It is rather amusing, but the rival biographers of 
 Wedgwood, Miss Meteyard and Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, re- 
 produce very different pictures of this Ivy House, and the 
 signatures they likewise reproduce from the apprenticeship 
 indenture of Josiah Wedgwood are considerably different in 
 character. This only shows that anachronisms may creep into 
 very excellent works. The Ivy House and pot-works, which 
 were situate in the very centre of the village of Burslem, be- 
 
246 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 longed to Thomas and John Wedgwood of the ' Big House,' 
 to whom Josiah became tenant, covenanting by written agree- 
 ment to pay for the whole premises the yearly rent of 10. 
 Mr. Jewitt notes that this rent might be good when Burslem 
 was but a village, and when its pot-works were scattered about 
 the almost waste lands ; but at the present day, for similar 
 premises, it would have to be multiplied at least ten-fold before 
 a tenant could have possession. The Ivy House, with its kilns 
 and workshops, would have formed in the eyes of posterity one 
 of the most interesting memorials of Josiah Wedgwood but 
 the whole place was swept away in 1834 to make room for new 
 public buildings. 
 
 Wedgwood's capital being limited, he could not contemplate 
 any immediate expansion of trade ; indeed, for a time he made 
 most of his own models, prepared his mixtures, superintended 
 the firing processes, and was his own clerk and warehouseman. 
 But his name was known, and his work was growing in repute. 
 On one occasion he managed successfully to replace, for an 
 aristocratic family near Burslem, an eighteen-inch dish which 
 belonged to a dinner-service of Oriental Delft, and which had 
 been broken. The copy was absolutely perfect, and commis- 
 sions for various kinds pf ware followed. Wedgwood gradually 
 added to his productions the manufacture of white stoneware, 
 of which tiles for fireplaces formed a portion. On these, natural 
 objects were worked in relief. After about a year he began 
 sensibly to increase his business, and, as his health also was 
 now re-established, things were brighter with him. He had 
 yet, however, to advance the results of his art by moderate 
 stages, for 'he saw distinctly that the time had not yet arrived 
 for the development of his manufacture on a large scale.' He 
 added cottages and working sheds to his works, and increased 
 the number of his workmen, assigning to each a certain branch 
 of labour. Miss Meteyard remarks that it was 'still the ordinary 
 custom for the journeymen potters to pass from one kind of 
 labour to another, just as impulse or convenience prompted. 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. $47 
 
 and this without reference to either the necessities of the 
 moment or their master's interest. Wedgwood had long 
 observed the evils of this system the idle, slovenly, and 
 irregular habits it begat in the workmen, and the loss of time 
 and waste of efficiency in regard to productive results. Whilst 
 his brother's apprentice, and still very young, he had, as we 
 have seen, tried to modify somewhat this old system of things ; 
 and now that he was thoroughly his own master he resolved 
 that, so far as he was concerned, it should no longer exist. 
 At first he met with much sullen opposition, often amounting 
 to an insubordination that necessitated immediate dismissal ; 
 but by firmness, patience, and great kindness he succeeded, in 
 a comparatively short time, in bringing his manufactory into 
 efficient order. His men found that it was much better to 
 obey than to oppose ; and that the regulations that they had 
 at first clamoured against facilitated their labour to a surprising 
 degree.' 
 
 There was something truly noble about Wedgwood's devo- 
 tion to his art, and his conscientious efforts to bring it to 
 perfection. We are told that every essential of body, glaze, 
 form, and ornament was alike the object of his care. His 
 patience was severely tried, and his repeated failures were most 
 disheartening. Yet he pulled down one kiln after another in 
 order to correct some defect, or effect some necessary improve- 
 ment. His pecuniary loss was great, and the ware itself was 
 often destroyed before he could obtain the necessary degree of 
 excellence ; at times he would be baffled by his chemical com- 
 binations, while, notwithstanding the greatest pains, experiments 
 in body and glaze would prove abortive ; but through all, his 
 energy and indomitable spirit sustained him, until at length 
 success crowned the work. He had to improve or invent 
 almost every tool, instrument, or apparatus, and he personally 
 instructed his men at the bench, himself making the designs 
 for the articles which they produced. 
 
 While all this was going forward, he also took an interest 
 
248 LEADERS Of MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 in the people of Burslem generally. When a new school was 
 proposed for the poorer children of the town, Josiah Wedgwood 
 subscribed ^10, and his brother, Thomas Wedgwood, of the 
 Overhouse, contributed a similar amount. Such a sum was 
 considerable to one still struggling on the threshold of his 
 career. Eventually, instead of an additional school to the Free 
 School already in existence being erected, a Town Hall was 
 built, which formed the centre for what soon became a flourish- 
 ing market. Wedgwood was very anxious for the mental and 
 moral improvement of the working-classes of the district. When 
 John and Charles Wesley first visited Burslem they were struck 
 by the vice and brutality which prevailed, but after these good 
 men had paid several visits there was a marked change for the 
 better in the spirit and habits of the population. The main 
 roads in the district round Burslem were a disgrace to civilisa- 
 tion, and as the result of the efforts of Wedgwood and others, 
 in the Session of 1763 an Act was obtained to improve a portion 
 of the chief road to Liverpool and the Salt-Wyches of Cheshire. 
 Carts and waggons were soon engaged in carrying pottery-ware 
 to the north, and in bringing back shop-goods, flints, and clay 
 to Burslem and the Potteries. But land and water carriage 
 were so expensive as to be almost prohibitive, in addition to 
 which there were such evils to contend with as slowness of 
 transit, and risk from floods, breakage, and the notorious dis- 
 honesty of many of those employed in the conveyance of goods. 
 To James Brindley, who was a constant visitor at the Wedg- 
 woods, the great facilities subsequently afforded by canal navi- 
 gation for traffic throughout the Midlands were largely due. 
 
 At the end of 1761 Wedgwood had brought his cream- ware 
 to a high degree of perfection. His chief pieces, such as compo- 
 tiers, tureens, sauce-boats, and salt-cellars, were chiefly modelled 
 from natural objects such as shells, leaves, and the husk's and 
 seed-valves of plants. In shops and noted collections, and 
 wherever he had opportunity, he sought out such specimens of 
 Oriental and Dresden ware as might furnish him with new ideas. 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 249 
 
 But so far he only employed the softest and most subdued 
 colours in enamelling. A cup and saucer preserved in the 
 Museum of Practical Geology show the simple means by 
 which he produced his best effects. ' They are painted with 
 autumnal leaves, and edged with red lines; and he is ever thus 
 recurring to Nature, and making her simplicity subservient to 
 the highest effects. Such a new art, as it were, graceful, simple, 
 and beautiful, because its forms were geometrically perfect, 
 found for its specimens, though as yet comparatively few in 
 number, ready purchasers. They seem to have been sent to 
 London, and there consigned to the hands of the export mer- 
 chant.' An important discovery, made by Mr. John Sadler, a 
 master printer of Liverpool, proved of great utility in the deco- 
 ration of Wedgwood's cream-ware. This discovery was the 
 application to glazed earthenware of impressions taken upon 
 paper from engraved copperplates; the ware, after printing, 
 being passed through the muffle, or enamelling oven, to fix the 
 colours. With the exception of the Staffordshire Potteries, 
 Liverpool was the only considerable centre at this period for 
 the manufacture of earthenware. The fame of Wedgwood's 
 improvements had spread thither, and one of the most eminent 
 potters, Mr. Chaffers, saw that the pottery trade of Liverpool 
 was doomed unless it could advance in a like direction. After 
 many futile efforts, and a journey into Cornwall, Chaffers at 
 length discovered a material which enabled him to produce a 
 beautiful ware, that in many instances rivalled Oriental china 
 in its shell-like thinness, its compact solidity of body, its smooth- 
 ness of glaze, and the deep richness of its brilliant colours. 
 
 Wedgwood made frequent business journeys to Liverpool, and 
 on one of these occasions he sustained injury to his disordered 
 knee while on the road. On reaching his hotel in Dale Street, 
 Liverpool, he took to his bed, and Mr. Matthew Turner, an 
 eminent surgeon living close by, was sent for. Turner not 
 only brought his patient physical relief, but manifested a strong 
 interest in him personally. Dr. Turner was a man of unusual 
 
250 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 attainments, and possessing amongst other things a knowledge 
 of chemistry, he supplied Wedgwood with several receipts for 
 varnishes and other appliances of great service in his manu- 
 facture. On one occasion the doctor was accompanied by a 
 friend, one Thomas Bentley, a Liverpool merchant, and a man 
 of exceptional ability. As the result of an almost accidental 
 visit, Bentley became Wedgwood's greatest friend for life, as 
 well as his partner. From the moment of their meeting in the 
 Liverpool inn, 'these men were more than brothers. Friendship 
 is hardly the word, for the zeal, kindliness, truth, unselfishness, 
 inflexible justice, with which one served the other. It was a 
 memorable meeting, a memorable friendship, both for them- 
 selves, their country, and the arts they loved.' Bentley was a 
 native of Derbyshire, and was born in the same year as Wedg- 
 wood. He was well educated, and became a man of culture. 
 In 1757 he assisted in founding the Warrington Academy, 
 among whose earliest tutors were three famous men Dr. Taylor 
 of Norwich, Dr. Aikin (father of Mrs. Barbauld), and Dr. Priest- 
 ley of Birmingham. At Bentley's house Wedgwood met these 
 and other well-known men. Dr. Priestley was already acquainted 
 with the Rev. William VVillet of Warrington, who had married 
 Wedgwood's youngest sister Catherine. Mr. Willet is said to 
 have been among the first to inspire Priestley with a love for 
 philosophical investigations. Bentley and Priestley likewise 
 highly esteemed each other, but their opinions on religious 
 topics widely differed. Bentley's theology was not to be con- 
 fined within the narrow limits of Priestley's dogmatic views ; 
 though their discussions, which were often continued till far 
 into the night, 'were carried on with the utmost unanimity, and 
 never disturbed the tenor of their friendship. There can be no 
 doubt that this largeness of view, this ingenuous spirit of in- 
 quiry, this perception of an underlying current of truth in most 
 things, this absence of one-sidedness and dogmatic rule, lay 
 at the very root of the friendship thus newly formed between 
 Wedgwood and Bentley, and led, by a natural inductive process, 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 251 
 
 to all the more masterly of the artistic achievements which 
 resulted therefrom. Bold and uncompromising in their opinions, 
 these matchless friends, for such they were, could yet see the 
 threads of truth in the beliefs of other men, and thus lived in 
 perfect charity amongst them. And thus it was also in their 
 secular art : they sought far and wide for those conceptions of 
 ideal grace which they ultimately embodied in their works, and 
 the result was in all higher instances, a perfection such as those 
 only can rival, who, like them, are bound by neither period, 
 style, nor conventional rules, but are willing to catch up the 
 expressions of ideal truth and grace from a range as wide as 
 Nature.' 
 
 Wedgwood began his correspondence with Bentley in May, 
 1762, on his return to Burslem, and from this date their friend- 
 ship ripens. As time passes on, ' not a joy or a sorrow, a 
 hope or a fear, a difficulty or a success, but the one imparts it 
 to the other, with a manly frankness worthy of such men.' A 
 few glimpses of Wedgwood's political sentiments are obtained 
 at this time. After reading and admiring Thomson's poem on 
 Liberty, he exclaimed ' Happy would it be for this Island 
 were his three virtues, the foundation of British liberty Inde- 
 pendent Life, Integrity in Office, and a passion for the Common 
 Weal more strictly adhered to among us. 3 He asks Bentley's 
 advice as to purchasing Rousseau's &mile, which was just then 
 making a great stir, having been banned by the Pope. Next 
 we find him writing from London a graphic account of the 
 debate on the unpopular Cider Tax Bill, which led to Lord 
 Bute's downfall. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1764, Josiah Wedgwood, being 
 then in his thirty-fourth year, married his distant cousin, Sarah 
 Wedgwood, the daughter, and eventually sole heiress, of Mr. 
 Richard W T edgwood, of Smallwood, in Cheshire. The wedding 
 took place at the fine old parish church of Astbury. The 
 bride is said to have eventually brought Wedgwood a for- 
 tune of ,20,000 a very large amount in those days : but the 
 
252 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 bridegroom was himself already a man of position, and enjoyed 
 the distinction of being Potter to her Majesty the Queen. His 
 biographers again differ as to the house to which he brought 
 his young wife. Mr. Jewitt says it was to Ivy House, and 
 Miss Meteyard affirms that it was the Bell House, known also 
 as the Brick House. The latter appears to have been correct. 
 The Brick House and the adjacent works stood on what now 
 forms part of the site of the Wedgwood Institute which is 
 but fitting, as it was the scene of many of the most momentous 
 events in Wedgwood's career. Miss Meteyard observes on 
 this point : 
 
 'Here it was, as he confides to Bentley, months after 
 marriage, he and his wife were still "married lovers." Here 
 in the leisure hours of evening he reads to her the last new 
 Review, containing maybe some paper written by his friend 
 Bentley : here he teaches her the curious cipher or shorthand 
 in which he preserves the precious and self-discovered secret 
 of his art, consults her invariably sound judgment, as he finds 
 it to be, in matters of form, ornament, and combined results, 
 and here dismisses to the lumber-room the spinning wheel 
 which has accompanied her from Spen Green, for he is soon 
 aware that more intellectual vocations befit her. Here her 
 first three children are born ; the eldest a daughter, whose 
 noble destiny is to become the mother of an eminently gifted 
 man. Here he celebrates the festival attendant on the cutting 
 of the first sod of the Trent and Mersey Canal. Here he 
 buries his second-born son Richard : and suffers the amputa- 
 tion of his long-diseased limb with a fortitude and courage in- 
 herent in the highest natures. Here he welcomes the great 
 Erasmus Darwin, and confers with him on many topics of 
 philosophic interest. Here he receives his dear friend Bentley 
 with generous hospitality ; and here unfolds to him, whilst the 
 smoke of the homely pipe curls upwards, all his plans and pro- 
 jects ; and here he receives the quaintest and worthiest though 
 most prosaic of clerks, Peter Swift. In short, Josiah Wedgwood 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 253 
 
 unravels, like all of us, much of the mingled web of Fate ; its 
 hopes and joys, its pains and sorrows ! There are courtlier 
 scenes to paint visits from those of genius, rank, wealth, and 
 beauty days dedicated to science and to art, evenings to social 
 communion and the sweetest music, when Tassie's sulphur 
 casts from antique gems, Sir William Hamilton's loans of draw- 
 ings and pottery, Hackwood's designs, Mrs. Landre's models, 
 Flaxman's or Webber's latest works from Rome, are scattered 
 on the tables, and his daughters play or sing the last sonata of 
 Haydn, or the last song by Dr. Arne ; but even such yield in 
 vivid interest to the history of these more homely days of love, 
 aspiration, and friendship. The Wedgwood Institute could 
 have no more fitting site than the ground hallowed by associa- 
 tions so eminently characteristic of the great artist and generous 
 Englishman it is raised to commemorate and honour.' 
 
 When Wedgwood threw his energies into his business again, 
 he turned his attention to the engine-lathe, which he consider- 
 ably improved. There was a good deal of discussion as to the 
 developments in the use of the lathe. It seems certain that 
 one Baddeley made great improvements in it, and that a turner 
 named Greatbach suggested certain concentric movements 
 which added greatly to its value ; but Wedgwood further im- 
 proved this useful implement, and to him also is undoubtedly 
 due the discovery of the method of fluting slightly hardened 
 bodies. Plumier's work on UArt de Tourner had afforded 
 him many valuable suggestions, but its illustrations had to be 
 so altered and adapted to another and a wholly different art, 
 as ultimately to bear upon them the impress of original inven- 
 tions. Improved lathes were brought from Paris to London, 
 and it is said that Wedgwood paid the possessor the sum 
 of five guineas, in order to be present whilst one of them 
 was put through its various working capabilities. One thing is 
 certain he left no stone unturned to advance his mechani- 
 cal knowledge in this respect. The first application of his 
 engine-lathe was to ' red china ' tea and coffee pots, of which 
 
254 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 large numbers were consigned to his brother in London for 
 export. 
 
 All during this time the great scheme of inland navigation 
 was closely occupying Wedgwood's thoughts. The idea even- 
 tually attained fruition in the great work of James Brindley, 
 the Grand Trunk Canal. The struggle was long and fierce, 
 however, before an Act of Parliament could be obtained 
 authorising the scheme. When this important step had been 
 gained, the honour of cutting the first sod was accorded to 
 Wedgwood, its most prominent, most energetic, and most 
 liberal promoter. The ceremony was performed with all due 
 formalities on the 2.6th of July, 1766, the first sod being cut on 
 the declivity of Brownhills, the event being celebrated at 
 Burslem with great rejoicings in the evening. A private 
 manuscript furnishes many interesting details respecting Wedg- 
 wood's connection with the Grand Trunk Canal. It is related 
 that when he once fairly took up the matter, ' business, family, 
 everything, gave place to this important subject, for many 
 months in the year 1765. Drawing around him the few- that 
 then thought with him on the subject, or were inclined to take 
 an active part, they concerted on the means of gaining friends, 
 and overcoming opposition. At this time the principle itself 
 of the utility of canal navigation was disputed, and if any 
 advantages were admitted, they did not appear to a very 
 powerful class of the people as of sufficient importance to 
 counterbalance the injuries they apprehended to themselves. 
 Here was a great deal of intellectual ground to be cleared, and 
 the contest was not for this or that modification, but whether 
 the thing itself should exist at all. In this struggle Mr. Wedg- 
 wood was certainly the foremost and most active person, and 
 for three months, during the progress of the Bill in Parliament, 
 was nearly as much lost to his private connections as though 
 he had been in China. The canal in question was called the 
 Grand Trunk because it was foreseen that many lesser ones 
 would break out of it, as has since happened. It is upwards 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 
 
 of ninety miles in length, joining the Trent about a mile below 
 Cavendish Bridge, in Derbyshire, and terminating in the Duke 
 of Bridgewater's Canal, at Preston Brook, in Cheshire. The 
 internal passage through the hill at Harecastle is an object of 
 great curiosity, being a mile and three-quarters in length, and 
 crossing many veins of coal, which are got at a small expense, 
 being thus laid dry, and the canal is greatly benefited by the 
 supply of water, Mr.~Brindley began this work on both sides 
 at the same time, and his workmen met in the middle. The 
 contrivances of this great man, by which he executed stupendous 
 works in a short time that seem to have required ages, have 
 been properly noticed in the account of his life in the Bio- 
 graphia Britannica, the materials for which were furnished by 
 Mr. Wedgwood, who lived in habits of intimacy and friendship 
 with him, and ever revered his memory. Mr. Wedgwood was 
 the first treasurer of the canal, and an active member of the 
 committee for making and carrying it on for more than twenty 
 years. 
 
 'The Grand Trunk Canal was finished by Mr. Henshall, 
 brother-in-law to Brindley, in May, 1777, and it was immedi- 
 ately productive of the greatest benefit to the neighbour- 
 hood. Trade increased, freight of goods was lowered to about 
 the rate of thirteen shillings per ton, where fifty shillings had 
 before been paid, the despatch and receipt of goods was more 
 rapid and more certain, and the whole district assumed a 
 vitality which has gone on regularly increasing to the present 
 day. 
 
 * If for no other reason, the part he took in the carrying out 
 to a successful issue the scheme of canal communication, to 
 which undoubtedly the Staffordshire potteries owe their pros- 
 perous increase, would fully entitle Josiah Wedgwood to the 
 thanks of his country, and to be ranked amongst the foremost 
 benefactors of mankind.' 
 
 It appears that one of Wedgwood's earliest friends and 
 patrons was Sir William Meredith, Bart., M.P. for Liverpool. 
 
256 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 The master potter was often at Sir William's seat at Hen- 
 bury, near Macclesfield, and this influential patron was inde- 
 fatigable in securing the loan of gems, prints, and rare speci- 
 mens of antique and other pottery for his friend, and sometimes 
 he sent him as a gift prints representing vases and antique 
 sculpture. When Wedgwood was unable to go over to Hen- 
 bury he would send as his representative his brother Thomas, 
 who discussed with Sir William commercial and artistic topics, 
 and met under his friendly roof such patrons as Sir Henry 
 Chairs and Lord Foley. It was for Sir W T illiam Meredith that 
 Wedgwood completed the finest dinner-service that had as yet 
 been sent out from the Potteries. He also executed commis- 
 sions for the famous politician, Sir George Savile, and others. 
 
 In 1765 Wedgwood began a series of experiments for a 
 white body and glaze, which promised very well. His wife 
 who not long before had presented him with his first child, a 
 daughter named Susannah was his chief helpmate in this and 
 other matters. She had learnt to write her husband's secret 
 characters for his ware. He had resolved not to make this 
 new ware at Burslem, and was already looking out for an agree- 
 able and convenient situation elsewhere. In one of his letters 
 to Sir William Meredith, Wedgwood showed that he was un- 
 able to rise beyond the prevalent Protectionist ideas of the 
 time. There was a project for establishing new pot-works in 
 South Carolina, and he was alarmed lest this should lead to 
 the spread of the manufacture elsewhere, with consequent loss 
 to the English potteries. He could little dream that within a 
 hundred years from the date of his complaint to Sir William, 
 the English export trade in earthenware with America would 
 be multiplied a thousandfold, and that it still counts among 
 our best foreign markets, and one to which the manufacturing 
 firm he founded still contributes. 
 
 The Royal patronage was early extended to Wedgwood, but 
 it is interesting to know that it was the potter who was applied 
 to, and not he who applied for the Royal favour. Queen 
 
WEDGWOODS. 2 $? 
 
 Charlotte required a beautiful tea-service in cream-ware, some 
 specimens of which she had seen in the houses of the nobility, 
 and as Wedgwood was the only person competent to execute 
 the work satisfactorily, he received and accepted an invitation 
 to undertake it. The complete set of tea things was duly 
 made, with a gold ground and raised flowers in green. He 
 followed this up by making a number of beautiful vases for 
 Her Majesty, and on the occasion of the first Royal accouche- 
 ment succeeding this patronage, he presented the Queen with 
 a finely-executed caudle-service. Ware for the young Princess 
 followed, and the interest which George III. and his Queen 
 took in Wedgwood's productions made them still more widely 
 and favourably known in influential circles. The Duke of 
 Marlborough, Lord Gower, Lord Spencer, and others visited 
 the pottery works, and suggested that Wedgwood should have 
 a London warehouse an idea which had already occurred to 
 the potter himself. The Duke of Bridgewater gave an order 
 for the completest table-service of cream colour that Wedgwood 
 could make, and he followed this up with many acts of kind- 
 ness as well as patronage. ' From all we gather from the 
 Wedgwood correspondence,' says Miss Meteyard, * Francis 
 Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater, seems to have been a kind 
 man and a true friend a little wayward and eccentric in some 
 things, but with an instinctive perception of truth and genius 
 in others that led necessarily to his keen enjoyment of the 
 society of two such men as Brindley and the great potter. 
 What an illustrious trio it was, as they thus supped and smoked 
 their pipes together in the old timbered hall at Worsley, or the 
 more palatial building at Trentham their chief talk about 
 Inland Navigation, with now and then a little diversion on the 
 subject of cream-colour ware or Roman antiquities, which only 
 made the subject of the grand scheme still more weighty when 
 it was renewed.' 
 
 When the Queen's patronage became fully known, commis- 
 sions for cream-coloured services poured in upon Wedgwood, 
 
 s 
 
258 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 among his new patrons being Lady Broughton, the Duke of 
 Grafton, Sir Charles Coote, General Honeywood, etc. In 
 November, 1765, Mr. and Mrs. Wedgwood visited London. 
 Amongst those who hospitably entertained them was Griffiths, 
 editor of the Monthly Review ', ' who feasted his friends and 
 starved his authors.' Wedgwood transacted business at Court 
 with Miss Chetwynd on behalf of the Queen, and we find him 
 visiting the houses of many of the nobility, and at the Duke of 
 Bedford's taking patterns from an elegant set of French china 
 valued at ,1,500. Pie also spent an agreeable time at Blen- 
 heim House. In the midst of this he did not forget his friends, 
 and he did whatever he could to give publicity to the works of 
 Dr. Priestley, at a time when the writings of that distinguished 
 man were very unpopular in certain quarters. He further took 
 the deepest interest in his many relatives, and followed care- 
 fully and affectionately the course of a young nephew named 
 Byerley, who had at first caused him some concern. Wedg- 
 wood's family affections were very strong. 
 
 Among Wedgwood's intimate friends was Erasmus Darwin, 
 the celebrated physician, botanist, and philosopher. Darwin's 
 house in Lichfield was the intellectual centre of the Midland 
 districts ; and it was in many senses a hospital as well, for its 
 owner was ever ready to minister to the comfort and the needs 
 of the suffering. Wedgwood probably became acquainted with 
 him about 1756, and in ten years from this time these two re- 
 markable men were on intimate terms of friendship. ' There 
 can be no doubt,' remarks Wedgwood's biographer, ' that 
 almost from its commencement the friendship of Mr. Wedg- 
 wood and Dr. Darwin partook of a strongly intellectual char- 
 acter. It was not mere meeting and feasting, but a mental 
 attrition of great value to their respective characters ; for 
 though different they were yet alike. Both were men of great 
 native genius, both had a taste for philosophical speculation 
 and mechanical invention, and both were generous men. The 
 Doctor had stronger passions, some acerbity of temper, and a 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 259 
 
 satirical vein that often wounded the truest of his friends ; but 
 Mr. Wedgwood appears to have received these little rubs and 
 tokens of asperity as a giant would a blow from a child's hand. 
 He laughed and thought no more about them ; though others 
 were not so philosophic. On more than one occasion Dr. 
 Darwin had the felicity of saving Mrs. Wedgwood's life, a 
 service which no one could so truly estimate as he who had 
 found in her the most judicious and tender of wives. On the 
 other hand, Mr. Wedgwood had no profounder admirer of his 
 beautiful art than Erasmus Darwin. This is not only testified 
 by direct eulogium, but by indirect evidence. In the pages of 
 the Botanic Garden are many descriptions which are clearly 
 drawn not so much from classical sources as from Mr. Wedg- 
 wood's interpretation in cameo of the antique gems as in the 
 passages descriptive of Cupid snatching the lightning from 
 Jupiter, Venus rising from the sea supported by Tritons, the 
 Nereid on the Sea-horse, and the marriage of Cupid and 
 Psyche. Of course the gems themselves were, if in the cabinets 
 of our nobility, accessible to a man of Dr. Darwin's fame and 
 position ; but his life was one of incessant professional occu- 
 pation, and it is thus more likely that his descriptions were 
 drawn from his friend's exquisite interpretation of the origi- 
 nals. Darwin, like Wedgwood, owed as much to industry as 
 to genius. He had sprung from a lettered and intellectual 
 race, as his father, "Robert Darwyn, Esq., of Elston, near 
 Newark," was one amongst the early members of the cele- 
 brated Spalding Club ; and he supplemented these advantages 
 of genius and birth by a laborious culture which ended only 
 with his life.' 
 
 Darwin and. Wedgwood were destined to be, the one the 
 paternal and the other the maternal grandfather of one of 
 the greatest men of the nineteenth century, the illustrious 
 Charles Dar-win. 
 
 In one of Erasmus Darwin's entertaining letters to"Wedg- 
 wood, he mentioned a French Count named De Lauraguais, 
 
 S 2 
 
260 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 who had been to Birmingham and offered the secret of making 
 the finest old china by a process as cheap as that for making 
 the most ordinary pottery. The Count declared that the secret 
 had cost him ;i 6,000, but he was willing to sell it for ^"2,000. 
 Darwin distrusted the Count's alleged passion for science, but 
 thought there might be something in the secret. The Count 
 had already taken out an English patent for his discovery, and 
 it was afterwards demonstrated that one of the chief ingredients 
 in this new porcelain was similar to that which Wedgwood was 
 in search of for the purpose of fabricating a fine white terra- 
 cotta body. 
 
 Wedgwood sought out the company of artists who could help 
 him in his work, and among other distinguished men with 
 whom he became acquainted was Roubiliac the sculptor. 
 Roubiliac died before he could be of personal service to him, 
 however, but his widow presented the potter with a book of 
 her husband's sketches. This has been unfortunately lost, 
 as were sketches by Flaxman, Webber, and Hackwood, but 
 Roubiliac's designs proved serviceable to Wedgwood, and 
 some of his articles of cream-ware, as well as later black Egyp- 
 tian and crystalline ware, were designed or ornamented wholly 
 or in part from the sculptor's sketches. 
 
 When on his visits to London, Wedgwood was several times 
 sent for to Buckingham Palace. The King would want tiles 
 or something new in milk-pans for the dairy at Frogmore, or 
 the Queen wished to see the latest patterns in cream- ware. 
 Wedgwood was handsomely dressed on these occasions : his 
 sword bought at the Sign of the Flaming Sword in Great 
 Newport Street was of the best make, his waistcoat was 
 resplendent with lace, and the barber profited by both his 
 chin and wig. He looked remarkably well, although time and 
 thought had not yet illumined his strongly marked face with all 
 that mingled expression of benevolence, refinement, goodness, 
 and meditation, which sit enshrined on Sir Joshua's noble por- 
 trait of this great Englishman. Here is an extract from Miss 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 261 
 
 Meteyard's Memoir touching this period : ' A most charming 
 anecdote has come down to our day in relation to one of 
 these visits at Court Mr. Wedgwood was summoned to the 
 Palace, and, on arriving at the appointed hour on a sunny 
 spring or summer's morning, was ushered into the royal presence. 
 The Queen stood with her ladies beneath an unshaded window, 
 and here it was that Mr. Wedgwood advancing, made his 
 obeisance, and, displaying the ware he had brought, answered 
 the royal questions. But as her Majesty thus stood examining 
 some exquisite specimen of the art, which years of ceaseless 
 toil and unrepined obscurity had brought to this perfection, the 
 sun's power increased, and its rays, falling on her face, caused 
 her obvious annoyance. The possible etiquette was to have 
 mentioned the matter to one of the unobservant ladies in at- 
 tendance, who in turn would have summoned a page or a royal 
 footman. But Mr. Wedgwood thought only of removing the 
 intruding glare, and that speedily. He simply walked straight 
 to the window, and pulled down the blind. The Queen, aware 
 in an instant of the relief and its cause, looked up from the 
 object she was regarding, and, inclining her head, smiled her 
 thanks. " Ladies." she said, addressing her attendants, " Mr. 
 Wedgwood s, you see, already an accomplished courtier." It 
 was courtesy, however, learnt in the school of nature the 
 offspring of a manly and generous respect for woman and he 
 would have shown as much to a peasant as to the Queen, who 
 was his foremost patron.' 
 
 In the spring of 1766 Wedgwood's eldest son John was 
 born, and it was about the same time that the great potter took 
 his cousin, Thomas Wedgwood, into partnership. Thomas 
 had not the original gifts of Josiah, but he was a skilful potter, 
 and had gained valuable experience in the porcelain works of 
 Worcester. Until the partnership was dissolved by death in 
 1788, Thomas Wedgwood was at the head of the useful works 
 both at Burslem and afterwards at Etruria, * and within this 
 period the ware of this department reached its highest per- 
 
262 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 fection.' Wedgwood, who regarded his cousin Thomas with 
 the affection of a brother, built him a house at Etruria, ' and 
 seconded in every possible way the well-being of this able, yet 
 gentle and unambitious man.' The business at Burslem had 
 increased so much that Josiah Wedgwood was desirous of 
 purchasing an estate in the immediate neighbourhood, and 
 after a good deal of difficulty he secured the Ridge House 
 estate which was one of considerable extent, and admirably 
 adapted to his purposes for the sum of ,3,000. The estate 
 lay on the banks of the intended canal, and within two miles 
 both of Burslem and Newcastle. Having obtained it he then 
 began to plan out the future Etruria. On the recommendation 
 of his friend Bentley, he engaged at this time as clerk, one 
 Peter Swift, who was quite a character, and his wife and child- 
 ren settled down at Burslem, and Swift began what proved to 
 be lifelong services to his master, who enjoyed to the last his 
 undiminished affection and veneration. Mr. Bentley was now 
 doing a large export trade, in which pottery had become the 
 leading item, and Wedgwood, with his usual liberality, volun- 
 tarily gave him the most advantageous terms. 
 
 Meantime, Wedgwood was pursuing his unwearied researches 
 and experiments, both to better the character of the materials 
 in which he worked and the artistic nature of his productions. 
 He purchased a copy of Count de Caylus's great work on 
 Antiquities, and derived considerable assistance therefrom, 
 although partial reproductions from this source were more 
 abundant than direct ones. Antique gems, lamps, and border- 
 ings were pressed into service as models. Seeing great pros- 
 pects ahead, he urged Bentley to join him as partner an idea 
 which he had long indulged, and although the former at first 
 declined from honourable motives, and pleaded ignorance of 
 the industry, Wedgwood at length conquered his scruples. A 
 great sorrow which befel Wedgwood by the sad and mysterious 
 drowning of his brother John in the Thames, off Westminster 
 Bridge, was made the subject of a final appeal to Bentley which 
 
THE WEDGWOODS, 263 
 
 the latter could not resist, and from this time forth they were 
 one in sympathy and action in all their noble undertakings. 
 The firm of Wedgwood & Bentley witnessed a still larger ex- 
 pansion of business than before, and continued to acquire a 
 wider fame. 
 
 Hearing that there was a fine porcelain clay to be obtained 
 in South Carolina, Wedgwood went to great labour and expense 
 in verifying the fact, and was not only successful in obtaining 
 clay from that State, but also from Florida. He further com- 
 pleted his own crowning discovery as a philosophic chemist, 
 viz., that of the use of the terra ponderosa, the spath fusible of the 
 French chemists, or the carbonate of baryta, and ultimately its 
 sulphate, in the body of the pottery. The result soon achieved 
 was an artistic perfection hitherto supposed impossible. Wedg- 
 wood had no guide in his researches, and ' the great merit there- 
 fore undoubtedly belongs to him of introducing, through the 
 discovery of chemical affinities existing in nature, but pre- 
 viously unknown, a new porcelaneous substance of exqui- 
 site adaptability and beauty. Of the successive stages of his 
 analyses and experiments we necessarily know nothing, as 
 the results were written in cipher, and confided to none but 
 his wife, to Darwin, or to Bentley.' But from a portion of 
 Plumier's treatise Wedgwood seems to have derived valuable 
 assistance in relation to the turning of columner forms in their 
 three variations of plain, fluted, and twisted. He then devoted 
 his attention once more to perfecting his engine-lathes, picking 
 up ideas at the famous works of Boulton & Watt, at Soho, 
 Birmingham. Indeed, had it not been that that ingenious man, 
 Matthew Boulton, was occupied closely with the steam-engine 
 Wedgwood might have found him a formidable rival in his 
 mechanical possesses, though he lacked the strong artistic sense 
 of Wedgwood. Advised by Bentley, and assisted by his own 
 workmen, Wedgwood by the spring of 1768 'had brought 
 his improvements of the engine-lathe, considering them as 
 referable to the potter's art, to a considerable degree of perfec- 
 
264 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 tion. Combining these under one effective generalisation, he 
 employed a skilful hand to prepare some new lathes for the 
 furnishing of the ornamental works then fast progressing at 
 Etruria.' Dr. Darwin also constructed for him at this time 
 the model of a windmill, which was intended to grind colours. 
 Wedgwood approved its principle, but as the buildings at 
 Etruria were absorbing his attention, nothing further was done 
 in the matter of the windmill until 1779, when Watt and Edg- 
 worth assisted in perfecting it, and it was set up in the new 
 works. In course of time, however, the giant steam superseded 
 other forces in the domain of the industrial arts. In August, 
 1768, Wedgwood succeeded in another object he had long had 
 in view, when he opened a London warehouse for his goods, 
 for which purpose he secured commodious premises in a house 
 at the corner of St. Martin's Lane and Newport Street. 
 
 During the spring of 1768 Wedgwood began to suffer ex- 
 cruciating pain in his leg. All that medical skill could do in 
 alleviating it was tried but without avail, and the sufferer re- 
 solved to have the limb amputated. As we learn from Miss 
 Meteyard, his fortitude under this operation was remarkable : 
 ' As there was no relieving the pain without imperilling the 
 patient's life, another surgeon was called in, with probably Dr. 
 Darwin in consultation, and amputation of the limb was agreed 
 to ; indeed suggested by Wedgwood himself, who had long 
 looked forward to this necessity with philosophic cheerfulness. 
 His leg was like a dead branch on a vigorous tree, an incum- 
 brance and a hindrance in every way ; and even apart from 
 this illness, which hastened the crisis, he had mentally resolved 
 to have it removed prior to opening the works at Etruria. A 
 master-potter is incessantly ascending and descending ladders 
 and stairs to his various shops and rooms ; and if Wedgwood 
 had felt pain, difficulty, and fatigue in doing this in old-fashioned 
 buildings of no altitude, such as those of the " Brick House 
 Works," how much more was he likely to suffer in traversing 
 the ascents and descents of a vast manufactory. He knew 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 265 
 
 full well that a true master's eye is everywhere, and must be 
 everywhere if justice is to be done to his commands ; and even 
 into this question of physical suffering and danger, his calcula- 
 tions had entered, so that he might give force to the genius 
 which prompted him, and the duties which lay before him. 
 It is an extraordinary instance of moral courage and decision 
 of character, in connection with a power to gather in and 
 make subservient every effect necessary to a given end. The 
 amputation took place on May 28th, 1768, two surgeons and 
 Bentley, as is evident, being with him at the time. He would not 
 be assisted, or have the operation hidden from his view ; but 
 seated in his chair, bore the unavoidable pain without a shrink 
 or a groan. This power of endurance is the more remarkable, 
 as there existed at that date none of our modern chemical agents 
 for producing a temporary state of coma, and, consequently, 
 an oblivion of physical suffering ; and, what was more, opera- 
 tive surgery was still carried on with much of the barbarism 
 of the Middle Ages.' 
 
 In announcing the event to the London house, Wedgwood's 
 clerk, Peter Swift, was laconic enough to please even the Duke 
 of Wellington. The information was thus conveyed, in the 
 middle of an invoice-note : ' Mr. Wedgwood has this day had 
 his leg taken of (sic), and is as well as can be expected after 
 such an execution.' Writing again a few days later to the 
 London agent, the prosaic, but faithful, Peter said : ' I have 
 now the pleasure to acquaint you that Mr. Wedgwood con- 
 tinues in a good way, his Leg was opened on Thursday for the 
 first time, and both the Surgeons said it could not possibly be 
 better, and he has every good Symptom, so that we have the 
 greatest hopes of a perfect cure. Poor Master Dicky, after 
 being violently sized (sic) with a Complaint in his Bowels for 
 some time past, expired on Thursday morning, and was Inter'd 
 Last Evening. Indeed, I think Mrs. Wedgwood has had 
 severe tryals of late, but the great hopes of Mr. Wedgwood's 
 perfect recovery seems to keep her Spirits up in a toUerable 
 
266 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 degree.' Mrs. Wedgwood's devotion was greater than even 
 Peter was aware of. Although she had just lost her infant 
 son Richard, and was weary with her vigils and full of grief 
 that he was taken from her, she crushed down the burden of 
 her sorrow. ' She dressed her husband's wound, administered 
 his medicines, wrote his letters, warded off from him every 
 possible business care, was his right hand in everything, and 
 through her serene cheerfulness greatly hastened his recovery.' 
 Bentley also proved himself an * incomparable friend ' during 
 this time of trial. So great was the esteem in which Wedg- 
 wood was held, that in London the Dukes of Bedford and 
 Marlborough, Lord Bessborough, the Russian Ambassador, Sir 
 George Savile, the Hon. Mrs. Chetwynd, and many others sent 
 for daily news of his condition, while the Duke of Bridgewater 
 despatched a daily messenger from Trentham on the same 
 errand. 
 
 Before the close of the year 1768 Wedgwood lost his aged 
 mother. She had spent her closing years at the Bank House, 
 Newcastle, with her daughter Katherine Willet. Mrs. Willet 
 was Wedgwood's favourite sister. She had been his companion 
 in childhood, and her union with the Rev. William Willet had 
 been very beneficial from the intellectual point of view. Brother 
 and sister, therefore, found much to interest them beyond the 
 ordinary level of human thought. After the London warehouse 
 in Newport Street had been opened, she generally travelled 
 with the Wedgwoods to the Metropolis, and was deeply 
 interested in the numerous attractions which London offered. 
 When Wedgwood's children were ill, they would be sent to 
 Aunt Willet at Newcastle to be nursed. Wedgwood had a 
 deep attachment to his children dearly as he loved his work, 
 it could not shut them out. ' It is interesting to catch glimpses 
 of the tender father shining through the graver aspect of the 
 concise, determined, and austere man of business. The heavy 
 duties of the day over, the occasionally long vigils of the night 
 in chemical experiments, modelling, or letter-writing not be,- 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 267 
 
 gun, he rides away to see these little babes. How dearly he 
 loves them ! How, throughout his life, he loves his children ! 
 How in years to come we shall see him taking pride in the 
 handsome presence and polished manners of his son Josiah, 
 and in the great intellectual gifts of his son Tom ; indeed, in 
 all his children, for he had no favourites ; and yet for the little 
 maid " Sukey," his firstborn, there is a something not expressed 
 in words, and yet apparent to us, that she was gathered up in 
 the innermost folds of his deep affections. As after-life showed, 
 there was something very much akin in their respective natures, 
 though gentleness and consideration for others were perhaps 
 intensified in their feminine expression.' 
 
 Nor did Wedgwood neglect any who were connected with 
 him by the ties of blood. He provided a post in his works for 
 Joseph Wedgwood, a young man descended from one of the 
 elder branches of the family ; and again and again we find him 
 providing for his nephew, young Byerley, who seemed to be an 
 unconscionable time in sowing his wild oats. However, his 
 kindness was rewarded in this case, for, after some final bitter 
 experiences in America, Byerley returned, to become a dutiful 
 son to his mother, who had a business in Newcastle, and to re- 
 pay his uncle by long and faithful service. 
 
 From the year 1768 onward Wedgwood's cream-ware was in 
 great request. It was universally admired, and was exported 
 to almost every part of the globe. The designs upon the ware 
 were mostly engraved by Sadler of Liverpool and his partner 
 Guy Green. They were generally of a pastoral character, and 
 were copied from a variety of sources. But, excellent as were 
 the engravings, Wedgwood's originality of taste led him to incur 
 great expense in commissioning entirely new designs. Amongst 
 those who early worked for W T edgwood was Stothard, afterwards 
 the R.A. Beautiful antique forms were also pressed into re- 
 quisition, principally derived from the work of the Count de 
 Caylus. In addition to the popular cream-ware, a vast demand 
 sprang up for ornamental vases. The names given to these 
 
268 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 vases the ' Bedford,' the * Oxford,' the ' Pope's,' etc. signified 
 that they were modelled after specimens in the cabinets of those 
 whose names were thus specified. Lord Cathcart, who was 
 now an admirer and a patron of Wedgwood, was a friend of 
 Mr., afterwards Sir William Hamilton, our representative at 
 Naples. Sir William had purchased the famous Porcinari 
 collection of ancient vases, and at great expense he had pre- 
 pared a description of the treasures, with reproductions, in four 
 folio volumes. It was a splendid undertaking, and as proofs 
 of the plates were struck off, Sir William distributed a few 
 amongst his friends. Lord Cathcart was among the recipients, 
 and he entrusted some of his proofs to Wedgwood. The potter 
 was inspired with new ideas, and made a resolve that he would 
 rival the masterpieces of Etruscan and Grecian ceramic art. 
 He also began at the same time his elaborate experiments for 
 bronzing his vases. Boulton, too, proposed to decorate works 
 in earthenware with metal ornaments. Although he thus 
 stepped out of his own province into that of Wedgwood, the 
 latter indulged only feelings of generous rivalry, and there was 
 no diminution of friendship between the chiefs of Soho and 
 Etruria. Yet ' it might have been different, had not Watt 
 appeared and turned anew Boulton's peculiar talent for metal- 
 lurgic art into its legitimate channel.' 
 
 In November, 1769, Wedgwood took out his first and only 
 patent. It was one for ' the purpose of ornamenting Earthern 
 and Porcelaine Ware with an Encaustic Gold Bronze, together 
 with a peculiar Species of Encaustic Painting in various 
 Colours, in imitation of the Antient Etruscan and Roman 
 Earthenware.' Competitors soon arose in the manufacture of 
 bronze and Etruscan vases, the cleverest of whom was a 
 potter named Palmer, of Hanley. ' His imitations of the Etruscan 
 vases never reached the excellence of those of Mr. Wedgwood, 
 but they were passable in the market, and led, as we shall 
 subsequently see, to the overthrow of the patent, not through 
 the verdict of a Court of Law though there is reason to think 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 269 
 
 that had the matter been brought to trial, the adjudication 
 would have been in favour of Palmer but by the generous re- 
 linquishment of the patentee. As soon as he saw the whole 
 bearing of the question, and that Palmer's imitations, even 
 though inferior to his own, and suspiciously indicative of pro- 
 cesses surreptitiously obtained, evinced the ability and industry 
 of an experienced potter, he resolved to throw up the patent, 
 very wisely considering that he could hold his own ; and, still 
 more rightly judging that he, least of all men, who had such 
 true opinions respecting art and its tendencies relative to civili- 
 sation, should not attempt to curtail its advance by an impos- 
 sible monopoly, and stultify, as it were, the growing influences 
 of recovered antiquity. To his lasting honour, he ceased to 
 contend as soon as his strong understanding pointed out to 
 him that contention was unworthy.' 
 
 The first pair of bronze antique vases finished by Wedgwood 
 were presented to Miss Tarleton, daughter of one of the Mem- 
 bers for Liverpool. In the public interests, Wedgwood was 
 anxious to obtain Mr. Tarleton's interest with the Liverpool 
 Corporation in behalf of that public scheme, the Runcorn 
 aqueduct. The vases sent to Miss Tarleton were of the 
 largest size, finished with satyrs' heads. Such vases sold at 
 1 8s. a pair, but they would now fetch ^8 or ^TO. In June, 
 1768, the Etruscan Works at Etruria were opened, and Bentley's 
 residence there was completed. Wedgwood engaged in London 
 a perfect master of pottery in the antique style named John 
 Voyez. He was sent down into Staffordshire, and a residence 
 found for him. He was inclined to be a sot, however, but he 
 did excellent work under the master's eye. At length he got 
 into prison for some crime or other, and on coming out he soon 
 proved to be a vindictive wretch, who betrayed his master. 
 While receiving the pay of Wedgwood he worked for his rival 
 Palmer, and even set up for himself, using the knowledge he 
 had gained in the factories of Etruria. 
 
 Wedgwood was liberal-minded in his business course, and 
 
270 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY 
 
 he entrusted some of his best work to female hands. Mrs. 
 Landre modelled subjects for him, but he also employed, in 
 1769, a greater artist still John Bacon the sculptor. His 
 chief enameller was David Rhodes, who was Wedgwood's right 
 hand in this department until the death of Rhodes in 1777, 
 The ornamental vases produced at Burslem and Etruria are 
 divided by Wedgwood's biographers into seven leading sec- 
 tions. These were : the cream-colour and its variations, as 
 those with blue necks, and ornaments variously gilt ; the black 
 basaltes ; the terra-cotta pebble and marbled bodies ; the bronze 
 antique ; the encaustic Etruscan and Grecian ; and the jasper. 
 But there were variations again in the separate sections them- 
 selves. The last class produced was the jasper, which was 
 first manufactured in 1775. This form was exquisitely and 
 delicately finished. 
 
 The first day of labour at the new Etruria Works was a 
 memorable one in the annals of the Potteries. It was on the 
 1 3th June, 1769, that the works were inaugurated, Wedgwood 
 himself throwing the first productions. There were present 
 his wife and two children, Mr. Bentley, Mr. Wedgwood of 
 Spen Green, Mr. and Mrs. Willet from Newcastle, and other 
 relatives and friends, together with a large body of workmen. 
 The company being assembled in the throwing-room, W T edg- 
 wood threw off his hat and coat, put on a workman's apron, 
 and began the labours of the day. Says Mr. Jewitt : ' Here 
 sat the great Josiah Wedgwood great in fame, great in repu- 
 tation, great in worldly goods, but greater far in mind and intel- 
 lect, and in nobleness of character at the potter's bench, his 
 bare arms encircling the ball of pliant clay, while his busy 
 fingers and practised eye formed it into classic shape; and 
 there stood his partner, Thomas Bentley, at the potter's wheel, 
 which he turned with a care suited to the auspicious occasion 
 and to the requirements of his great chief. Standing by, no 
 doubt, and watching with pleasurable anxiety the progress of 
 the work, were Mrs. Wedgwood and many friends ; while on 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 271 
 
 the board in front of the " father of potters " would be ranged 
 the urns as he produced them. The vases thus formed, of 
 Etruscan shape, went through all the subsequent processes of 
 baking, etc., and were ultimately painted in the purest Etrus- 
 can style, with figures, and each piece bore this appropriate 
 inscription : "June xin. MDCCLXIX. one of the first day's pro- 
 ductions at Etruria, in Staffordshire, by Wedgwood and Bentley. 
 Artes Etruriae renascuntur." Three of these vases, the historical 
 interest attaching to which it is impossible to overrate, are in 
 the possession of Mr. Francis Wedgwood, of Barlaston.' 
 
 The body of the vases was hard, of a slightly bluish tinge, 
 with the surface, like the original Etruscan, black. On this the 
 figures and inscriptions were painted in red. The vases were 
 about ten inches in height, and each one bore a group differ- 
 ing from the others of Hercules and his companions in the 
 Garden of the Hesperides. On the opposite side was the 
 inscription given above, and around the lid and upper portion 
 were characteristic and elegant borders. A few months after 
 the ceremony just described, Bentley removed to London, and 
 established himself at Chelsea. Near to his house in Little 
 Cheyne Row the firm established workshops, where some of 
 the orders which now poured in for every variety of ornamental 
 ware were completed. Before the ensuing winter set in, Wedg- 
 wood and his family moved to Etruria. They occupied for 
 a time Bentley's house, but left it in 1770 for Etruria Hall, 
 Wedgwood's new and elegant residence. Just before the re- 
 moval to Burslem a third surviving child, Josiah, was born to 
 the Wedgwoods. 
 
 The demand for ornamental ware increased so enormously 
 that, in a letter to Bentley, Wedgwood assured his partner he 
 could sell ^"50 or ^100 worth a day if he had them. There 
 was a like demand for cream-ware services, even Quaker fami- 
 lies becoming customers for them. Lord Bessborough rendered 
 Wedgwood essential service, not only by permitting him to 
 have casts taken from a fine cabinet of gems, which were after- 
 
272 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 wards sold to the Duke of Maryborough, but by introducing 
 the vases amongst the Irish nobility, who became enthusiastic 
 patrons. Another artistic and personal friendship sprang up 
 with Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, and a large proportion of 
 Wedgwood's list of intaglios was derived from Sir Watkin's 
 gems. Nor were these solitary instances of friendly patronage. 
 On some occasions there was no getting to the door of the 
 warehouse in London for the line of coaches, and no getting 
 into the rooms for the crowd of ladies and gentlemen who were 
 vase-hunting. The firm were threatened with piratical goods, 
 which somewhat discomposed Bentley, but Wedgwood thus 
 philosophically reassured him : ' We are far enough before our 
 rivals, and whenever we apprehend they are treading too near 
 our heels, we can at least manage them better than Lord Bute 
 can manage the merchants, to compare great things with small.' 
 We now see the firm of Wedgwood & Bentley employed over 
 a vast variety of productions, including bas-reliefs, encaustic 
 bronzes, statuettes of Mars, Venus, etc., small groups and single 
 figures, vases in black basaltes, crystalline terra-cotta wares, 
 Etruscan painted vases, lamps and other light-bearing orna- 
 ments, an incredible variety of flower-pots, bough-pots, and 
 root-pots, articles studied from antique gems, Roman figures, 
 Egyptian lions, sphinxes, Tritons, tripods, and other orna- 
 ments. 
 
 A dangerous disease of the eyes attacked Wedgwood to- 
 wards the close of 1769. The affection seems to have been 
 epidemic, and several persons died from it. Doctors were 
 consulted : the active potter, who was always miserable when 
 laid aside, was forbidden to use his eyes at all by artificial 
 light. Referring to this and to his lameness, he plaintively 
 wrote : * I am learning to acquiesce, whatever may be the 
 issue, as I would wish to do, in every unavoidable evil. I am 
 often practising to see with my fingers, and I think I should 
 make a tolerable proficient in that science for one who begins 
 so late in life ; but shall make a wretched walker in the dark 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 273 
 
 with a single leg.' He became somewhat hypochondriacal, 
 taking gloomy views of the future, and dreading the worst. But 
 in the course of a few weeks, his eyesight began to improve 
 under proper treatment, and life generally took on a brighter hue. 
 He began to seek for superior enamel painters at Worcester, 
 Liverpool, Derby, Birmingham Bow, and Lambeth, and many 
 were engaged. Wedgwood's partner Bentley settled down 
 handsomely at Chelsea, bought a carriage and pair, and kept 
 up a useful but not extravagant hospitality. Soon after this 
 settlement, Bentley, who was a widower, married Mary Stam- 
 ford, daughter of the well-known smith and engineer of that 
 name, of Derby. She was about twenty-five years of age, and 
 was comely, cheerful, and vivacious. She took an interest in 
 her husband's work, and was skilful in cutting out vases and 
 other forms on paper. On the i5th of December, 1770, dating 
 from Chelsea, Bentley thus wrote to his Liverpool partner 
 Boardman : ' Last Monday Mr. Wedgwood and I had a long 
 audience of their Majesties at the Queen's palace, to present 
 some bas-reliefs Her Majesty had ordered ; and to show some 
 new improvements, with which they were well pleased. They 
 expressed in the most obliging and condescending manner their 
 attention to our manufacture, and entered very freely into con- 
 versation on the further improvement of it, and on many other 
 subjects. The King is well acquainted with business, and with 
 the characters of the principal manufacturers, merchants, and 
 artists ; and seems to have the success of all our manufactures 
 much at heart, and to understand the importance of them. The 
 Queen has more sensibility, true politeness, engaging affability, 
 and sweetness of temper, than any great lady I ever had the 
 honour of speaking to.' Miss Meteyard adds : 'As time wore 
 on, Mr. Bentley's popularity grew. His handsome person and 
 polished manners were irresistible to otherwise haughty duch- 
 esses and ladies ; and whilst he poised a vase, or showed bas- 
 relief or cameo, and related the antique stories its designs sought 
 to express, the ladies listened, smiled, bowed, and, what was 
 
 T 
 
274 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 more to the purpose, bought. An aristocrat by nature, he was 
 the most courtly of chapmen. " Be so good," writes Mr. Wedg- 
 wood soon after Mr. Bentley's settlement in Newport Street, 
 " to let us know what is going forward in the Great World. How 
 many Lords and Dukes visit your rooms, praise your beauties, 
 thin your shelves, ancl fill your purses ? and if you will take the 
 trouble to acquaint us with the daily ravages in your stores, we 
 will endeavour to replenish them." By degrees the popularity 
 attracted to itself something worthier than the fashion of the 
 hour; and by the close of 1772 Mr. Bentley reckoned among 
 his friends, "Athenian Stuart," Dr. Solander, Mr. Banks (after- 
 wards Sir Joseph), and others whose names live in the scientific 
 and literary history of their time.' 
 
 The works at Etruria were likewise constantly visited by the 
 great, many of whom were taken over by Wedgwood's able and 
 accomplished friend Earl Gower, who frequently received the 
 potter in turn at Trentham Hall. When the workrooms were 
 completed at Chelsea, Wedgwood drafted off from Etruria 
 thither some of his best assistants, including a clever painter, 
 Mrs. Wilcox, Hutchins, a printer, and Cooper, an excellent 
 flower painter. Then, as the great demand for enamelled table- 
 services and vases still increased, other hands were obtained 
 amongst the London fan, coach, and fresco painters. In 1770 
 Wedgwood learnt that cheap Etruscan painted vases were in the 
 market, which, as far as possible, were copied from Sir William 
 Hamilton's great work. The bodies were made in Staffordshire 
 and the painting effected in London. The pirates were Palmer 
 of Hanley, his wife, and Palmer's partner Neale, their London 
 shop being in Shoe Lane. An injunction was served upon 
 them, and a trial seemed inevitable, though Wedgwood saw 
 clearly that a jury might be impressed by Palmer's plea that his 
 vases were copied from the prints in Sir William Hamilton's 
 work, and not from those made by the patentee. Palmer was 
 a very unscrupulous fellow, and the manufacturers almost to a 
 man were in favour of Wedgwood's right in his patent, whic^ 
 
WEDGWOODS. 275 
 
 had been infringed ; but rather than have all the harassing and 
 expensive proceedings of a public trial, Wedgwood agreed to 
 refer the matter to arbitration. The result was that both parties 
 agreed to share in the patent, and to divide its cost between 
 them, as well as the law charges. But originality and superi- 
 ority always tell in the long run, and when Palmer was left at 
 liberty to make Etruscan vases at will, their manifest inferiority 
 both of form and design soon brought them to their true level 
 in the market. Yet, when Palmer found that he could do little 
 with the vases, he had the audacity next to pirate Wedgwood's 
 seals and intaglios, making what harvest he could, and he reaped 
 for a time considerable profit. 
 
 In April, 1771, Wedgwood's fourth and last son was born. 
 He was named Thomas, after his paternal grandfather, uncle, 
 and cousins ; and he was the fifth Thomas \Vedgwood in a 
 direct line. From his earlier years he was a delicate child, 
 and had within him the seeds of organic disease, which ulti- 
 mately made life a weary burden to him. ' But when we first 
 catch a glimpse of him,' remarks Miss Meteyard, ' he was a 
 merry little fellow, full of drollery and fun, and the life of the 
 household.' There were no indications then, that, before he 
 was twenty, he would be poring into the deepest secrets of 
 nature, particularly those relative to space, light, and heat ; 
 be the hardest of students, or, conjointly with his father's 
 chemist, Alexander Chisholm, be rendering the laboratory at 
 Etruria a place on which, for scientific reasons, the savans of 
 our own day would cast back their gaze, to penetrate, if pos- 
 sible, into some of the early mysteries of the photographic 
 art effected there. But, from the first, Dr. Darwin thought 
 highly of the boy's mental powers ; and happily Josiah Wedg- 
 wood had passed away before bodily disease had rendered 
 all but useless his son's extraordinary mental powers, or un- 
 nerved the assiduous hand which had served him as devotedly 
 in matters relative to art, as in chemical experiments.' 
 
 Wedgwood received from the Empress Catherine of Russia 
 
 T 2 
 
276 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 a commission of extraordinary magnitude. He was directed 
 to make a very large service of Queen's ware for her 
 Majesty's use, and to 'paint in black enamel upon each 
 piece a different view of the palaces, seats of the no- 
 bility, and other remarkable places in this kingdom. Upon 
 every piece there was also to be painted the image of a 
 green toad or frog. He was very unwilling to disfigure 
 the service with this reptile, but was told it was not to 
 be dispensed with, because the ware was intended for the 
 use of a palace that bore its name. The idea of such a 
 service was well worthy the mind of a sovereign, but the 
 undertaking seemed a great one for the powers of an indi- 
 vidual manufacturer. The number of views necessary, to 
 avoid a repetition of the same subjects, was about twelve 
 hundred, and a great proportion of them were original 
 sketches. He spent three years in making the collection 
 and painting the views upon the pieces of this service, with 
 all the correctness of design and drawing that is necessary 
 to a good picture. The Empress, we have been told, was 
 entirely satisfied with the execution of this work ; and no 
 doubt it conveyed to her mind a pretty just sentiment of 
 our national splendour, ingenuity, and character.' 
 
 When this magnificent Russian service was completed in 
 1774, there was a great desire for it to be exhibited in London. 
 Wedgwood demurred for a time, but at length consented, 
 and when it was at length on view it caused quite a sensation. 
 Mrs. Delaney, writing to Mrs. Port, says : ' I am just returned 
 from viewing the Wedgwood ware that is to be sent to the 
 Empress of Russia. It consists, I believe, of as many pieces 
 as there are days in the year, if not hours. They are dis- 
 played at a house in Greek Street, Soho, called Portland 
 House. There are three rooms below, and two above, filled 
 with it, laid out on tables ; everything that can be wanted 
 to serve a dinner. The ground, the common ware, pale 
 brimstone, the drawings in purple, the borders a wreath of 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 277 
 
 leaves, the middle of each piece a particular view of all the 
 remarkable places in the King's dominions, neatly executed. 
 I suppose it will come to a princely price : it is well for the 
 manufacturer, which I am glad of, as his ingenuity and in- 
 dustry deserve encouragement.' 
 
 The price which the Empress paid for the service is stated 
 to have been ,3,000, but even that afforded the makers 'no 
 adequate remuneration for the incessant anxiety and immense 
 labour involved in its production. But it served as a splendid 
 advertisement to the whole continent of Europe, and spread 
 Wedgwood & Bentley's fame to the most distant foreign 
 Courts. Catherine was fond of using these services at her 
 State dinners ; and as she outwardly at least attached herself 
 to the English policy, favoured Englishmen, and dealt in a 
 liberal spirit with all that concerned the commerce of our 
 country, there can be no doubt that in the abstract this 
 generous spirit, which looked more to great worth than great 
 gain, was richly and amply rewarded.' The Empress showed 
 the service with great pride to Lord Malmesbury, when he 
 visited the Grenouilliere Palace in 1779. It was used in the 
 splendid entertainments which Catherine gave from time to 
 time in the palace of Tzarsko-selo, and she preferred it to 
 royal gifts of Berlin and Dresden porcelain. It has been 
 remarked that the great service was in every sense a national 
 work, and its fame was not only national but European. 
 
 In 1771 Wedgwood opened showrooms at Dublin and 
 Bath. The Irish business was at first very promising, being 
 stimulated by such patrons as the Duke of Leinster, Lords 
 Charlemont and Bessborough, etc. ; but social troubles, com- 
 bined with the pecuniary embarrassments of the resident 
 gentry, prevented a large trade from being developed. The 
 business at Bath also suffered from ' bad seasons and the 
 caprices of the fashionable world.' By the year 1774 the 
 whole of the new works at Etruria had been finished ; and 
 they formed a noble pile of buildings, with the canal skirting 
 
278 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the whole, and the green upland on which Etruria Hall stood 
 rising beyond. In arrangement, the Etruria manufactories 
 formed then, as now, two distinct groups, the ' useful ' and 
 the ' ornamental,' with separate ovens, yards, workshops, and 
 rooms of every character. ' The showroom, when finished, 
 was an important place. Here were displayed, from time to 
 time, to the chief aristocracy of all countries, as they passed 
 through or paid visits into Staffordshire, the finest master- 
 pieces of the potter's art. The enamellers at the works in 
 Chelsea, as afterwards in Greek Street, vied with each other 
 in the several processes of their art, and the results were 
 often returned to Etruria to decorate this room. With these 
 in contrast were the labours of the gem setters of London, 
 Birmingham, and Uttoxeter; enshrining as rings, buckles, 
 brooches, earrings, or seals, cameo work after the finest 
 models ; and here were to be seen the noblest vases and the 
 most exquisite bas-reliefs. Princes and potent dukes, lords 
 and ladies, might well, linger in this room, arid tell Wedgwood, 
 as they did, that neither Dresden nor Sevres had anything 
 to show which bore comparison with his ornamental ware, 
 either in beauty of form or chastity of design. But the room 
 in which was laid the foundations of these masterpieces has 
 a still greater degree of interest for all real lovers of Wedg- 
 wood's art. In the modelling-room the moulds were made 
 or the modelling done from designs in clay or wax, supplied 
 by Bacon, Flaxman, Tassie, Webber, Hoskins, Coward, Mrs. 
 Landre, Theodore Parker, and various other English and 
 Italian artists. Here Hackwood, the exquisite modeller of 
 small things, passed the chief Hours of his long service ; and 
 we catch glimpses of \Vebber, Tebo, Boot, and Massey. If 
 Flaxman ever worked at Etruria for a brief season, this was 
 the place of his labours; and Wedgwood himself passed 
 whole days here amidst his modellers. From hence came 
 the Sleeping Boy, the statuettes in the fine white biscuit body, 
 the life-like busts of the heroes of the old and modern world, 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 279 
 
 the bas-reliefs which reflected the glories of antique art, and 
 the vase, which, as a masterly reproduction of a great original, 
 spread Wedgwood's fame far wider than any other of his mul- 
 titudinous labours.' 
 
 The death of the great Brindley in September, 1772, affected 
 Wedgwood deeply, and he poured out his feelings in a letter 
 to Bentley. After referring to his deceased friend's personal 
 character, and virtues, he went on to observe that ' what the 
 public has lost can only be conceived by those who best 
 knew his character and talents talents to which this age 
 and country are indebted for works that will be the most 
 lasting monuments to his fame, and show to future ages how 
 much good may be done by one single genius, when happily 
 employed upon works beneficial to mankind. Mr. Brindley 
 had an excellent constitution, but his mind too ardently 
 intent upon the execution of the works it had planned 
 wore down, at the age of fifty-five, a body which originally 
 promised to have lasted a century, and might give him the 
 pleasing expectation of living to see those great works com- 
 pleted for which millions yet unborn will revere and bless his 
 memory.' 
 
 The loss of Wedgwood's brother, Thomas Wedgwood of 
 the Overhouse, in February, 1773, brought much trouble and 
 anxiety upon Josiah. Though on friendly terms always, the 
 brothers had not been deeply attached \ but Josiah loyally did 
 all that was possible for the survivors. Thomas Wedgwood had 
 been married twice, and by both wives had children ; and he, 
 unfortunately, left his affairs in a very unsettled state. The 
 widow was a harsh and selfish woman, and her cruelty had 
 done much to drive her step-son into evil courses. She ulti- 
 mately lost her reason, but the son was reclaimed to an 
 honourable life by the good influence of Josiah Wedgwood, 
 who established him in his father's works, and assisted him 
 with loans of money. 
 
 In April, 1774^ the firm of Wedgwood & Bentley opened 
 
280 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 new showrooms in Greek Street, Soho, and thither Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bentley removed their household from Chelsea. Bentley 
 and his enamellers were soon indefatigably at work, and on a 
 grand scale. The number of hands was largely augmented, 
 for the demand for household enamelled ware especially was 
 increasing. Bentley supplemented his partner's labours with 
 untiring zeal, searching around him everywhere for artists, 
 books, and prints. He went to Boydell, Major, Cadell, and 
 Hooper; employed Pye the engraver; while Mr. Pennant of 
 Lichfield, as well as some others, sent him presents of prints. 
 The Russian service was being pushed forward at this time, 
 and Bentley had the honour of receiving a visit from the 
 Queen and her Royal brother, who were most anxious to 
 view it. 
 
 A change came over the fashionable taste for Queen's or 
 cream ware, the fickle public asking for something whiter. 
 Wedgwood was disinclined to yield to this caprice, but he im- 
 proved his ordinary biscuit body, and began experiments for 
 one still finer. The virtues of the terra ponderosa, or car- 
 bonate of baryta, had already been proved, and a further dis- 
 covery was now made, viz., that the sulphate of baryta, or cawk, 
 was a valuable ingredient in 'the new body. In fact, it began 
 largely to take the place of the terra ponderosa. It was to be 
 found on Middleton Moor, but the utmost circumspection had 
 to be used in obtaining it, the cawk having to be disguised by 
 pounding. In 1775 Flaxman began to model for Wedgwood, 
 and the famous sculptor's first bill of charges, amounting to 
 12 1 8s. gd., included basso-relievos of Melpomene, Sappho, 
 Apollo, Hercules, etc., as well as a pair of vases, one with a 
 Satyr and the other with a Triton handle. But Wedgwood was 
 catholic in his tastes, and besides mythological subjects, pro- 
 duced a head of Shakespeare, medals of the Popes, and the 
 heads of the English kings. His beautiful wares in jasper 
 also began to be produced at this time. The first edition 
 of Wedgwood & Bentley 's Catalogue was published in 1773. 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 281 
 
 It was a little insignificant-looking pamphlet of sixty pages. 
 Various editions followed, the sixth, issued in 1787, being 
 a remarkably full and handsome work. It was translated 
 into French, German, Dutch, and Italian. These catalogues 
 formed a kind of history of the art pursued by Wedgwood. 
 During the time of his connection with the firm, Flaxman 
 produced a long and varied list of noble antique designs and 
 models. Before Flaxman's time, Wedgwood had employed, 
 among others already specified, an able artist named 
 Tassie, who subsequently acquired a great vogue for his 
 imitated gems and medallion portraits ; but there was no rival 
 who could come up to W 7 edgwood's best work in any class 
 of manufacture. By and by an enormous trade came to be 
 done by Boulton, Wedgwood, and other manufacturers in such 
 articles as cabinets and other pieces of furniture decorated with 
 cameos, knife and fork cases, cane and bamboo wares, gold 
 bronzes, inkstands, crucibles, retorts, evaporating baths, etc., 
 etc. 
 
 Wedgwood was strongly opposed to the American War, 
 which he regarded as fratricidal. He sympathised with .the 
 colonists ; and from his trading relations with America he was 
 likewise able to see the sacrifice which the mother-country was 
 making in this senseless struggle. Just before the strife began 
 Great Britain exported to North America nearly the whole of 
 the surplus products of her industry; and between 1704 and 
 1774 the American trade had grown from ^"500,000 a year to 
 ;6, 500,000. Wedgwood's view that it was 'a wicked and 
 preposterous war with our brethren and best friends ' was en- 
 dorsed by many before the Americans achieved their indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 The war in America drove Wedgwood's nephew, Thomas 
 Byerley, to England again, He was warmly welcomed, and 
 soon showed that his character was more stable than formerly. 
 Wedgwood took him into his employment as traveller, and with 
 the wares of Etruria he penetrated into every nook and corner 
 
282 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of Great Britain. About this time John Wedgwood, son of 
 Richard Wedgwood of Spen Green, was stricken down and 
 died ; and a few years later Richard Wedgwood himself 
 Josiah's last brother also passed away. Of other domestic 
 incidents, we may mention that three daughters, being his last 
 children, were born to Josiah as follows: Catherine in 1774, 
 Sarah in 17 76, and Mary Ann in 1778. Wedgwood grieved sorely 
 over the death of his learned brother-in-law, the Rev. William 
 Willet, the Unitarian minister at Newcastle, in 1778. But in 
 November, 1780, he was called upon to bear a. still severer loss, 
 and one that for a time seemed to overwhelm him. Bentley, 
 his friend and partner and between whom and himself there 
 had existed an affection resembling that of David and Jonathan 
 died at his residence at Turnham Green.' He had long been 
 ailing, but the end came suddenly at last. Wedgwood raised a 
 tablet to his memory in Chiswick Church. The inscription was 
 furnished by their mutual friend, ' Athenian ' Stuart, and the 
 monument, with medallion of Bentley, was the work of Schee- 
 maekers, the artist who executed the monument to Shakespeare 
 in Westminster Abbey. Stuart's inscription runs thus : 'Thomas 
 Bentley, born at Scrapton in Derbyshire, Jan. ist, 1730. He 
 married Hannah Gates, of Sheffield, in the year 1754: Mary 
 Stamford, of Derby, in the year 1772, who survived to mourn 
 her loss. He died Nov. 26th, 1780. Blessed with an ele- 
 vated and comprehensive understanding; informed in variety 
 of science ; he possessed a warm and brilliant imagination, a 
 pure and elegant taste ; his extensive abilities, guided by the 
 most expansive philanthropy, were employed in forming and 
 executing plans for the public good. He thought with the free- 
 dom of a philosopher: he acted with the integrity of a virtuous 
 citizen.' Judging from the testimony of his contemporaries, 
 this estimate of Bentley appears to have been in no wise exag- 
 gerated. 
 
 After the death of Bentley, Wedgwood engaged the services 
 of Alexander Chisholm, an able man, as secretary and chemical 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 283 
 
 assistant ; and some time afterwards Henry Webber, a modeller 
 of uncommon ability, recommended by Sir William Chambers 
 and Sir Joshua Reynolds, became the head of the ornamental 
 department at Etruria. These and other changes gave Wedg- 
 wood more freedom, and saved him from a good deal of 
 drudgery. In Chisholm the great potter found a kindred 
 spirit, as well as a faithful friend and servant. Wedgwood in- 
 vented a thermometer for measuring heat; and in May, 1782, 
 his paper on ' The Pyrometer, or Heat-measuring Instrument ' 
 was read before the Royal Society. Some other experiments 
 followed, in which he anticipated portions of the glacial theory ; 
 and in consideration of his valuable researches Wedgwood was 
 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1783. 
 
 The condition of the rural districts of England in 1783 was 
 lamentable. The American struggle had crippled us, trade was 
 paralysed, and a bad harvest aggravated the situation. Riots 
 took place in the Potteries amongst other places, and it was 
 only owing to the energy and presence of mind displayed by 
 Wedgwood that the works at Etruria were not sacked by the 
 mob. When tranquillity had been restored, Wedgwood wrote 
 and published a pamphlet entitled ' An Address to the Young 
 Inhabitants of the Pottery,' in which he showed the folly of 
 looking to such outbreaks for a redress of social wrongs. The 
 writer admitted that provisions, were dear, and recommended 
 the opening of the ports to foreign food supplies, thus sup- 
 porting the principle of free trade. He also showed that there 
 had been still worse times in the past, and pointed out that 
 riots were the most foolish and expensive way of redressing 
 grievances. The operation and the effects of economical laws 
 could not be destroyed by violently breaking them. Wedgwood 
 then made this stirring appeal, as he drew a picture of the 
 past : * Let me now beg of you who are approaching to man- 
 hood, and who by your future behaviour must stamp the 
 character of the potters of the rising generation ; let me en- 
 treat you, as you value your own reputation and happiness, 
 
284 LEADERS OF MODERN IND USTR Y. 
 
 and the welfare of your country, never to harbour a thought 
 of following the fatal example which has been set you by men 
 who have so greatly mistaken their own and your real interests ; 
 but when you labour under any real grievances make your case 
 known in a peaceable manner to some magistrate near you, or 
 to your employers, who are best acquainted with your situation, 
 and I have not a doubt of your meeting in this way with 
 speedy and effectual redress, which it would be impossible 
 for you to procure for yourselves by the measures you have 
 lately seen pursued, or any illegal ones whatever. Before I 
 take my leave I would request you to ask your parents for 
 a description of the country we inhabit when they first knew 
 it ; and they will tell you, that the inhabitants bore all the signs 
 of poverty to a much greater degree than they do now. Their 
 houses were miserable huts ; the lands poorly cultivated, and 
 yielded little of value for the food of man or beast ; and these 
 disadvantages, with roads almost impassable, might be said to 
 have cut off our part of the country from the rest of the world, 
 besides not rendering it very comfortable to ourselves. Com- 
 pare this picture, which I know to be a true one, with the 
 present state of the same country. The workmen earning 
 nearly double their former wages their houses mostly new 
 and comfortable, and the lands, roads, and every other cir- 
 cumstance bearing evident marks of the most pleasing and 
 rapid improvements. From whence and from what cause has 
 this happy change taken place ? You will be beforehand with 
 me in acknowledging a truth too evident to be denied by any- 
 one. Industry has been the parent of this happy change a 
 well-directed and long continued series of industrious exertions, 
 both in masters and servants, has so changed for the better 
 the face of our country its buildings, lands, roads, and not- 
 withstanding the present unfavourable appearances, I must 
 say the manner and deportment of its inhabitants too as to 
 attract the notice and admiration of countries which had 
 scarcely heard of us before ; and how far these improvements 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 285 
 
 may still be carried by the same laudable means which have 
 brought us thus far, has been one of the most pleasing con- 
 templations of my life. How mortifying then is it to have this 
 fair prospect endangered by one rash act ! . . But I place 
 my hopes, with some degree of confidence, in the rising genera- 
 tion, being persuaded that they will, by their better conduct, 
 make atonement for this unhappy, this unwise slip of their 
 fathers. 5 
 
 Wedgwood further issued ' An Address to the Workmen 
 in the Pottery on the Subject of Entering into the Service of 
 Foreign Manufacturers.' In consequence of the great increase 
 of the English trade in earthenware, certain German and 
 French masters sent over spies to this country with a view 
 to discover all the processes of manufacture, as also to bribe 
 workmen to emigrate. Trenchantly dealing with the false 
 representations, Wedgwood pointed out the fallacy of the 
 bribes held out to his workmen, and the miseries and mis- 
 fortunes of those who had already been tempted to leave their 
 native country, and who were only too anxious to return. 
 Acts of Parliament had been passed in this reign to prevent 
 the emigration of workmen, and subsequently still more strin- 
 gent efforts were made to stop the enticement of artisans from 
 their employment in England for the purpose of mastering the 
 methods of their respective trades. Such an interference with 
 freedom on the part of workmen, however, was not justifiable, 
 seeing that masters were at liberty to carry their trades out of 
 the kingdom if they wished. Wedgwood's foreign trade rose 
 greatly, notwithstanding the labour troubles, and after the 
 signing of the Commercial Treaty with France in 1786, it 
 increased still more enormously. He found his markets as 
 far apart as North America, the West Indies, Amsterdam, 
 Cadiz, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leipsic, Genoa, Naples, Berlin, 
 Turin, Lisbon, Bayreuth, etc. 
 
 Flaxman executed for Wedgwood beautiful cameo medallions 
 of Mrs. Siddons, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. Johnson, and 
 
286 LEADERS OP MODERN INDVSTR Y. 
 
 many other works, including his celebrated set of chessmen. 
 All these were very popular, at home and abroad. Jasper 
 ornamental ware began to be extensively made in 1786, and 
 Wedgwood also invented a jasper dip, or wash, as a substitute 
 for colouring in the mass, or for a body wholly jasper. Further, 
 the jasper ornamental wares, such as tea things, were polished 
 within in the manner in which agate and other stones were 
 polished. Among the fine jasper vases executed at the period 
 of their perfection were the bridal vase and those with bas- 
 reliefs of Apollo and the Muses and the Dancing Houris. 
 There were also ornamental vases in great variety. Wedgwood 
 also showed his originality in personal ornaments. 
 
 The prohibition of ware to France and the duty on exports led 
 Wedgwood to agitate earnestly for free trade, and it was owing 
 to his untiring energy that a General Chamber of Manufac- 
 turers was established. He gave evidence before a Committee 
 of Privy Council on the hindrances to English trade, and had 
 several interviews with Pitt. He was also thrown into relations 
 with the leaders of the Opposition, and Fox sent him designs 
 from Lady Diana Beauclerk. Pitt, urged by Wedgwood and 
 others, proposed wise and liberal measures with a view of 
 giving Ireland commercial freedom, but the jealousy and oppo- 
 sition of traders and others in the House of Commons com- 
 pelled him to abandon them. The Commercial Treaty with 
 France, however, concluded in 1786, abolished most of the 
 protective duties between France and England. It is pleasant 
 to find that Wedgwood was not only engaged in the struggle 
 for commercial freedom, but that from July, 1787, till the 
 close of his' life he was more or less active in the cause of the 
 Abolition of Slavery. He was one of the Society's committee, 
 and contributed largely to its funds. In 1790 this indefatig- 
 able man contributed his last paper to the Transactions of the 
 Royal Society, on a new mineral substance which had been 
 sent from New South Wales. He also formed from some clay 
 despatched from the same colony a medallion showing the 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 287 
 
 figure of Hope addressing Peace, Labour, and Plenty, which 
 he sent out to the colonists for the purpose of encouraging 
 the arts. Suffering at this time greatly from ill-health, he was 
 ably assisted in the works at Etruria by his sons Josiah and 
 Thomas. 
 
 Wedgwood was the liberal patron and friend of arts other 
 than his own. His portrait and that of his wife were painted 
 by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and he gave commissions to Wright 
 of Derby for his well-known paintings, 'The Maid of 
 Corinth,' a ' Moonlight Scene with the Lady in Comus,' 
 ' Penelope unravelling the Web,' and the fine portrait of Sir 
 Richard Arkwright, which now hangs in the Manchester Royal 
 Exchange. 
 
 The reproduction of the celebrated Barberini Vase is one of 
 the greatest triumphs associated with the name of Wedgwood. 
 'The Barberini Vase was discovered between the years 1623 
 and 1644, during the pontificate of Urban VIII. (Barberini), 
 beneath a mound of earth called Monte del Grano, about 
 three miles from Rome, on the road to the ancient Tuscu- 
 lum. It was enclosed in a sarcophagus of excellent work- 
 manship, and this in a sepulchral chamber. An inscription on 
 the sarcophagus, which was otherwise covered with fine bas- 
 reliefs, showed it to have been dedicated to the memory of the 
 Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother, Julia Mammaea, 
 both of whom were killed in the year 235 during a revolt m 
 Germany. The vase, in height ten inches, was deposited in 
 the library of the Barberini family, and the sarcophagus in the 
 museum of the capital. The material of which the former was 
 composed was by Montfaugon and others conjectured to be a 
 precious stone, but Mr. Wedgwood's examination proved it to 
 be formed of glass, the ground being a dark blue, so nearly 
 approaching black as to appear of that colour except when 
 held in a strong light. The white bas-reliefs are of glass or 
 paste ; the material having been fused on in a mass, and then 
 cut out by the skill and patience of the gem engraver into the 
 
288 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 designs required. The subjects of these bas-reliefs, as also the 
 age and place of production of the vase, are points so wholly 
 unknown as to be still open to conjecture and criticism. 
 With respect to the first, every critic has differed. The 
 Italians and French first entered upon the discussion, and the 
 introduction of the vase into England was a signal for the 
 critics here. Mr. Charles Greville, who published some very 
 fine engravings by Bartolozzi of the vase, considered the bas- 
 reliefs typified the death and resurrection of Adonis. Darwin, 
 who consulted Warburton's Divine Legation and many other 
 works, thought the bas-reliefs bore reference to the Eleusinian 
 mysteries, and this, with some trifling difference, was the view 
 adopted by Wedgwood in his pamphlet on the vase. Another 
 critic, Dr. King, in entire ignorance of the arts of antiquity and 
 their best periods, conjectured that these designs bore refer- 
 ence to the birth and acts of the Emperor Alexander Severus, 
 whilst a far more learned and enlightened critic of our own day 
 considers that one of the groups represents Peleus approaching 
 Thetis. These critical differences might be repeated to a 
 wearisome extent. It is, on the whole, perhaps safest to con- 
 clude that the subjects of the bas-reliefs are simply a heathen 
 and poetised allegory on the trials of human life and its close. 
 Such vases, as in the case of the Greek encaustic vases 
 prepared for the Olympian games, may have been designed 
 with a view to a general purpose, rather than a particular one. 
 Of the vase itself, if it does belong to the best period of 
 Grecian art, that prior to the age of Alexander, it may have 
 former a portion of those innumerable spoils which we learn 
 from Livy, Plutarch, and other writers were poured into Rome, 
 as proofs of subjugation and conquest. But it is questionable 
 if the Greeks excelled as much in the art of the verrier as in 
 that of the potter; whilst the Alexandrians, at a date when 
 Rome was in its glory, supplied the most matchless specimens 
 in glass and paste the world had yet seen. Wedgwood dis- 
 covered that the Portland Vase had been broken previously 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 289 
 
 and repaired, as also that the bas-relief head which forms the 
 bottom had belonged originally to some other vase or fragment 
 of antiquity, and that it had been ground down and then 
 inserted by processes far inferior to those used by the original 
 artist. A mould of the vase was made by Peckler the gem 
 engraver, whilst it was in the possession of the Barberini 
 family, and from this, on its first arrival in England, a certain 
 number of copies were taken in plaster of Paris by Tassie, who 
 afterwards destroyed the mould.' 
 
 The Barberini, or, as it is sometimes called, the Portland 
 Vase, was brought to England by Sir William Hamilton, and 
 sold to the Duchess of Portland. Her Grace acquired it by 
 the most secret negotiations, and at the sale of her museum it 
 was purchased by her son. The Duke lent the vase to Wedg- 
 wood for the purposes of reproduction, and although the 
 potter encountered unusual difficulties in his task, he ulti- 
 mately triumphed. Webber was the moulder, under Wedg- 
 wood's direction. One of the finest copies of the vase was 
 made in 1791, and conveyed to London. After being shown 
 to the Queen, it was placed for some days in the rooms of the 
 Society of Antiquaries, and whilst there its entire similitude 
 to the original was certified by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It was 
 afterwards removed to Greek Street, where it was viewed by 
 hundreds of aristocratic connoisseurs, and then it was taken 
 abroad, and exhibited before several crowned heads and many 
 collectors. Subscribers were few, however, and owing to the 
 difficulties attending the various processes and their great cost, 
 it appears that not more than about fifty copies were made in 
 Wedgwood's lifetime. Copies of the vase by Wedgwood are in 
 the British Museum and the museums of Dresden and Rome, 
 and there are twelve known copies in the possession of private 
 persons in England. 
 
 In 1788 Wedgwood lost his partner and cousin, Thomas 
 Wedgwood ; and in less than two years afterwards he himself 
 retired from the more active part in the business. Between 
 
 u 
 
290 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 January, 1790, and June, 1793, the firm consisted of Josiah 
 Wedgwood, Sons, and Byerley. The eldest and youngest 
 sons, John and Thomas, then retired, and the firm next con- 
 sisted of Josiah Wedgwood, senior, Josiah Wedgwood, junior, 
 and Thomas Byerley. The firm of Wedgwood & Sons has 
 passed through other changes since that time, but it still con- 
 tinues to carry on the works ; and it may be mentioned as an 
 interesting fact that in 1854 an Etruria jubilee photograph was 
 taken of nine workmen, whose average time of serving the firm 
 was fifty-four and a half years. The manufacture of majolica 
 was added to the other productions of Etruria in 1860, and 
 a large and artistic business in this department is still car- 
 ried on. 
 
 After his practical retirement from business, Josiah Wedg- 
 wood spent portions of the spring, summer, and autumn at 
 Weymouth, Buxton, Blackpool, or the Lakes, where he would 
 be joined occasionally by Dr. Darwin. When at home his 
 favourite hobby was his garden. He lived on terms of great 
 cordiality with his neighbours, and opened a bowling-green for 
 their use. The hospitality of Etruria Hall was proverbial, and 
 dinner would be daily laid for unexpected as for expected 
 guests. English and foreign visitors loved to examine the 
 choice works of art vases, bas-reliefs, cameos, medallions, etc, 
 to listen to the newest music, or to read the newest books. 
 Scarcely a day passed but the service of the table was changed, 
 an endless variety of exquisite ware being constantly produced. 
 On books, prints, and models Wedgwood spent immense 
 sums, the love for collecting books especially growing upon 
 him towards the last. He was a most generous supporter of 
 noble and philanthropic causes: English societies of all kinds 
 received from him liberal contributions. His benevolence 
 was likewise cosmopolitan, and he contributed to the relief of 
 the emigrant French clergy and laity, while in 1792 he and his 
 sons subscribed ^"250 towards the succour of the people of 
 Poland. He was a kind friend to his workmen, and to the 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 291 
 
 poor of the Potteries. He supported Parliamentary Reform, 
 as the true remedy for many social and political evils. So 
 highly esteemed was he in his personal character, that Dr. 
 Darwin declared he never knew an instance of a -man raising 
 himself to such opulence and distinction who excited so little 
 envy. Yet the more he gave the more he seemed to have, for 
 he was able to bequeath to his widow, his sons, and his rela- 
 tives half a million of money. His courage was indomitable, 
 his energy untiring, while all were impressed by his simple 
 modesty and his frank and unaffected demeanour. To a 
 clear intellect he united high moral qualities, which gave an 
 unmistakable elevation to his character. 
 
 Wedgwood was seized with alarming symptoms of illness in 
 December, 1794. Besides suffering from great debility, and 
 from pain and fever, a mortification set in in the mouth. Dr. 
 Darwin and two other physicians and a surgeon sedulously 
 attended him, but he passed away on Saturday, January 3rd r 
 1795, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. He was buried in the- 
 porchway of the old parish church of Stoke-upon-Trent, and 
 twenty years later his devoted wife was laid to rest beside 
 him. Flaxman executed a monument to Wedgwood, which was- 
 placed in the chancel of the church. The monument bears 
 this happy inscription: 'Sacred to the memory of Josiah 
 Wedgwood, F.R.S. and F.S.A., of Etruria, in this County,/ 
 bom in August, 1730; died January 3, 1795, who converted 
 a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art and 
 an important branch of national commerce. By these services to- 
 his country he acquired an ample fortune, which he blamelessly 
 and reasonably enjoyed, and generously dispensed for the 
 reward of merit and the relief- of misfortune. His mind was 
 inventive and original, yet perfectly sober and well-regulated ; 
 his character was decisive and commanding, without rashness 
 or arrogance ; his probity was inflexible, his kindness un- 
 wearied; his manners simple and dignified, and. the cheerful- 
 ness of his temper was the natural reward of the activity of his 
 
 . u 2 
 
292 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 pure and useful life. He was most loved by those who knew 
 him best, and he has left indelible impressions of affection 
 and veneration on the minds of his family, who have erected 
 this monument to his memory.' 
 
 The Wedgwood Memorial Institute was projected at Burslem 
 in 1863, in honour of the man who had done so much for the 
 prosperity of the district. It was raised by public subscription, 
 and dedicated to the uses of a Free Library, a School of Art, 
 and a Museum. The foundation-stone was laid by Mr. Glad- 
 stone, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord 
 Palmerston's Government, on the 26th of October, 1863. After 
 the ceremony, Mr. Gladstone delivered an Address on Wedg- 
 wood, in which he ably, and with much insight, discussed the 
 artistic value of the great potter's manufactures, and showed the 
 noble position which the potter's art occupies among British 
 industries. After some preliminary observations, Mr. Gladstone 
 said : ' We may consider the products of industry with re- 
 ference to their utility ; or to their cheapness ; or with regard 
 to their influence upon the conditions of those who produce 
 them ; or, lastly, with reference to their beauty ; to the degree 
 in which they associate the presentation of forms and colours, 
 agreeable to the cultivated eye, with the attainment of the 
 highest aptitude for those purposes of common life for which 
 they are properly designed. First, as to their utility and con- 
 venience, considered alone, we may leave that to the consumer, 
 who will not buy what does not suit him. As to their cheap- 
 ness, when once security has been taken that an entire society 
 shall not be forced to pay an artificial price to some of its 
 members for their productions, we may safely commit the ques- 
 tion to the action of competition among manufacturers, and of 
 what we term the laws of supply and demand. As to the con- 
 dition of the work-people, experience has shown, especially in 
 the case of the Factory Acts, that we should do wrong in laying 
 down any abstract maxim as an invariable rule. Generally it 
 may be said, that the presumption is in every case against legis- 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 293 
 
 lative interference : but that upon special grounds, and most of 
 all where children are employed, it may sometimes not only be 
 warranted but required. This, however, though I may again 
 advert to it, is not for to-day our special subject. We come, 
 then, to the last of the heads which I have named ; the associa- 
 tion of beauty with utility, each of them taken according to its 
 largest sense, in the business of industrial production. And it 
 is in this department, I conceive, that we are to look for the 
 peculiar pre-eminence, I will not scruple to say the peculiar 
 greatness, of Wedgwood. Now do not let us suppose that, 
 when we speak of this association of beauty with convenience, 
 we speak either of a matter which is light and fanciful, or of 
 one which may, like some of those I have named, be left to 
 take care of itself. Beauty is not an accident of things, it per- 
 tains to their essence, it pervades the wide range of creation ; 
 and wherever it is impaired or banished, we have in this fact 
 the proof of the moral disorder which disturbs the world. Re- 
 ject, therefore, the false philosophy of those who will ask what 
 does it matter, provided a thing be useful, whether it be beauti- 
 ful or not : and say in reply that we will take one lesson from 
 Almighty God, Who in His works hath shown us, and in His 
 Word also has told us, that "He hath made everything," not one 
 thing, or another thing, but everything, "beautiful in His time."" 
 Among all the devices of creation, there is not one more wonder- 
 ful, whether it be the movement of the heavenly bodies, or the 
 succession of the seasons and the years, or the adaptation of 
 the world and its phenomena to the conditions of human life, 
 or the structure of the eye, or hand, or any other part of the 
 frame of man, not one of all these is more wonderful, than the 
 profuseness with which the Mighty Maker has been pleased to 
 shed over the works of His hands an endless and boundless 
 beauty.' 
 
 Detailing next the personal claims of Wedgwood, the speaker 
 said : ' His most signal and characteristic merit lay, as I have 
 said, in the firmness and fulness with which he perceived the 
 
294 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 true law of what is termed Industrial Art, or in other words, of 
 the application of the higher Art to Industry ; the law which 
 teaches us to aim first at giving to every object the greatest 
 possible degree of fitness and convenience for its purpose, and 
 next at making it the vehicle of the highest degree of Beauty 
 which, compatibly with that fitness and convenience, it will 
 bear; which does not, I need hardly say, substitute the second- 
 ary for the primary end, but which recognises, as part of the 
 business of production, the study to harmonise the two. To 
 have a strong grasp of this principle, and to work it out to 
 its results in the details of a vast and varied manufacture, is 
 praise high enough for any man, at any time, and in any place. 
 But it was higher and more peculiar, as I think, in the case of 
 Wedgwood, than in almost any other case it could be. For 
 that truth of Art, which he saw so clearly, and which lies at the 
 root of excellence, was one of which England, his country, has 
 not usually had a perception at all corresponding in strength 
 and fulness with her other rare endowments. She has long 
 taken a lead among the nations of Europe for the cheapness of 
 her manufactures : not so for their beauty. And if the day 
 shall ever come, when she shall be as eminent in true taste, as 
 she is now in economy of production, my belief is that that 
 result will probably be due to no other single man in so great a 
 degree as to Wedgwood.' 
 
 On the practical branch of artistic workmanship, Mr. Glad- 
 stone remarked: 'I submit that considering all which England 
 has done in the sphere of pure Beauty on the one side, and in 
 the sphere of cheap and useful manufacture on the other, it not 
 only is needless, but would be irrational, to suppose that she lies 
 under any radical or incurable incapacity for excelling also in 
 that intermediate sphere, where the two join hands and where 
 Wedgwood gained the distinctions which have made him, 
 in the language of Mr. Smiles, the "illustrious" Wedgwood. I 
 do not think that Wedgwood should be regarded as a strange 
 phenomenon no more native to us and ours than a meteoric 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 295 
 
 stone from heaven ; as a happy accident, without example, and 
 without return. Rare indeed is the appearance of such men 
 in the history of industry : single perhaps it may have been 
 among ourselves, for whatever the merits of others, such in 
 particular as Mr. Minton, yet I for one should scruple to place 
 any of them in the same class with Wedgwood ; no one is like 
 him, no one, it may almost be said, is even second to him ; 
 
 "Nee viget quicquam simile aut secundum ; " 
 
 but the line on which he moved is a line, on which every one, 
 engaged in manufacture of whatever branch, may move after 
 him, and like him. 
 
 ' And, as it is the wisdom of man universally to watch against 
 his besetting errors, and to strengthen himself in his weakest 
 points, so it is the study and following of Wedgwood, and 
 of Wedgwood's principles, which may confidently be recom- 
 mended to our producers as the specific cure for the specific 
 weakness of the ordinary products of English industry. Of 
 imagination, fancy, taste, of the highest cultivation in all its 
 forms, this great nation has abundance. Of industry, skill, 
 perseverance, mechanical contrivance, it has a yet larger stock, 
 which overtops our narrow fence, and floods the world. The 
 one great want is, to bring these two groups of qualities har- 
 moniously together; and this was the peculiar excellence of 
 Wedgwood ; his excellence, peculiar in such a degree, as to 
 give his name a place above every other, so far as I know, in 
 the history of British industry; and remarkable, and entitled to 
 fame, even in the history of the industry of the world.' 
 
 The energetic character of Wedgwood, and his determina- 
 tion to achieve success in his undertakings, are thus described : 
 ' Here is a man who, in the well chosen words of his epitaph, 
 /'converted a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an 
 elegant art and an important branch of national commerce." 
 Here is a man, who, beginning as it were from zero, and un- 
 aided by the national or the royal gifts which were found 
 necessary to uphold the glories of Sevres, of Chelsea, and of 
 
296 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Dresden, produced works truer, perhaps, to the inexorable laws 
 of art, than the fine fabrics that proceeded from those establish- 
 ments, and scarcely less attractive to the public taste of not 
 England only, but the world. 
 
 ' Here, again, is a man, who found his business cooped up 
 within a narrow valley by the want of even tolerable communi- 
 cations, and who, while he devoted his mind to the lifting up 
 of that business from meanness, ugliness, and weakness, to the 
 highest excellence of material and form, had surplus energy 
 enough to take a leading part in great engineering works like 
 the Grand Trunk Canal from the Mersey to the Trent. These 
 works made the raw material of his industry abundant and 
 cheap, supplied a vent for the manufactured article, and opened 
 for it materially a way to what we may term its conquest of the 
 outer world. 
 
 'Lastly, here is a man who found his country dependent 
 upon others for its supplies of all the finer earthenware, but 
 who, by his single strength, reversed the inclination of the 
 scales, and scattered thickly the productions of his factory over 
 all the breadth of the continent of Europe.' 
 
 With respect to the personal tribute due to Wedgwood for 
 the artistic beauty and practical usefulness of his productions, 
 Mr. Gladstone said : ' It is plain that, in an enterprise so ex- 
 tended and diversified, there not only may, but must, have 
 been, besides the head, various assistants, perhaps also various 
 workmen, of merit sufficient to claim the honour of separate 
 commemoration. As to the part which belongs to Flaxman, 
 there is little difficulty : notwithstanding the distorting influence 
 of fire, the works of that incomparable designer still in great 
 part speak for themselves. To imitate Homer, yEschylus, or 
 Dante, is scarcely a more arduous task than to imitate ^the 
 artist by whom they were illustrated. Yet I, for one, cannot 
 accept the doctrine of those who would have us ascribe to- 
 Flaxman the whole merit of the character of Wedgwood's pro- 
 ductions, considered as works of art. And this for various 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 297 
 
 reasons. First, from what we already learn of his earliest 
 efforts, of the labours of his own hands, which evidently 
 indicate an elevated aim, and a force bearing upwards mere 
 handicraft into the region of true plastic Art : as, again, from 
 that remarkable incident, recorded in the history of the Borough 
 of Stoke, when he himself threw the first specimens of the 
 black Etruscan vases, while Bentley turned the lathe. Secondly, 
 because the very same spirit which presided in, the production 
 of the Portland, or Barberini, Vase, or of the finest of the purely 
 ornamental plaques, presided also, as the eye still assures us, 
 in the production not only of dejeuners, and other articles of 
 luxury, intended for the rich, but even of the cheap and com- 
 mon wares of the firm. The forms of development were varied, 
 but the whole circle of the manufacture was pervaded by a 
 principle one and the same. Thirdly, because it is plain that 
 Wedgwood was not only an active, cheerful, clear-headed, 
 liberal-minded, enterprising man of business, not only, that is 
 to say, a great manufacturer, but also a great man. He had in 
 him that turn and fashion of true genius, which we may not un- 
 frequently recognise in our Engineers, but which the immediate 
 heads of industry, whether in agriculture, manufactures, or 
 commerce, and whether in this or other countries, have more 
 rarely exhibited. It would be quite unnecessary to dwell on 
 the excellences of such of the works of Wedgwood as belong 
 to the region of Fine Art strictly so-called, and are not, in the 
 common sense, commodities for use. To these all the world 
 does justice. Suffice it to say, in general terms, that they may 
 be considered partly as imitations, partly as reproductions, of 
 Greek art. As imitations, they carry us back to the purest 
 source. As reproductions, they are not limited to the province 
 of their originals, but are conceived in the genuine, free, and 
 soaring spirit of that with which they claim relationship. But 
 it is not in happy imitation, it is not in the successful presenta- 
 tion of works of Fine Art, that, as I conceive, the speciality of 
 Wedgwood really lies. It is in the resuscitation of a principle, 
 
298 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of the principle of Greek art : it is the perception and grasp of 
 the unity and comprehensiveness of that principle. That prin- 
 ciple, I submit, lies, after all, in a severe and perfect propriety ; 
 in the uncompromising adaptation of every material object to 
 its proper end. If that proper end be the presentation of 
 Beauty only, then the production of Beauty is alone regarded ; 
 and none but the highest models of it are accepted. If the 
 proper end be the production of a commodity for use and 
 perishable, then a plural aim is before the designer and pro- 
 ducer. The object must first and foremost be adapted to its 
 use as closely as possible ; it must be of material as durable as 
 possible ; and while it must be of the most moderate cost com- 
 patible with the essential aims, it must receive all the beauty 
 which can be made conducive to, or concordant with;" the use. 
 And because this business of harmonising use and beauty, so 
 easy in the works of nature, is arduous to the frailty of man, it 
 is a business which must be made the object of special and 
 persevering care. To these principles the works of Wedgwood 
 habitually conformed. He did not in his pursuit of Beauty 
 overlook exchangeable value or practical usefulness. The first 
 he could not overlook, for he had to live by his trade ; and it 
 was by the profit derived from the extended sale of his humbler 
 productions that he was enabled to bear the risks and charges 
 of his higher works. Commerce did for him what the King of 
 France did for Sevres, and the Duke of Cumberland for Chel- 
 sea ; it found him in funds. And I would venture to say, that 
 the lower works of Wedgwood are every whit as much distin- 
 guished by the fineness and accuracy of their adaptation to their 
 uses, as his higher ones by their successful exhibition of the 
 finest art.' 
 
 The Memorial Institute was duly completed, and opened in 
 1870. Erected in the place which gave Wedgwood birth, and 
 on the site of his first factory, it has already served to stimulate 
 the intellectual life of the district, and to encourage many a 
 youth stepping forward to fight the battle of life, as \Vedgwood 
 
THE WEDGWOODS. 299 
 
 fought it manfully and hopefully a century before. The build- 
 ing, in addition to the features already mentioned, has an ex- 
 cellent Laboratory, and a Free Public Lending Library. There 
 was a peculiar fitness in this institution being reared within 
 little more than a stone's throw of the birthplace of the great 
 potter. Stoke and Hanley likewise commemorated their in- 
 debtedness to Wedgwood by raising a bronze statue to him near 
 to the church where he is buried. Other memorials also, of 
 a minor character, perpetuate his fame. , . t 
 
 Wedgwood was a true leader of industry. Unlike the 
 warrior, who makes a solitude and calls it peace, he raised a 
 hive of workers in a place which before his time was almost 
 desolate. Towns and villages may almost be said to owe their 
 origin to him, and he was practically the creator of a noble and 
 humanising art in England. 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 
 
303 
 
 THOMAS BRASSEY. 
 
 AMONG the pioneers who have helped to transform the world 
 by the peaceful triumphs of industry, an honourable place must 
 be assigned to Thomas Brassey. He began his active career 
 at the period when George Stephenson achieved his first great 
 railway success, and from that time until his death he was inde- 
 fatigable in his labours as a contractor at home and abroad. 
 He was one of those men who are bound to elevate any trade 
 or profession they choose, by reason of the serious earnestness 
 with which they pursue it, and the fine integrity of character 
 which shines through all their business relations. His skill 
 and power of organisation were remarkable even in this enter- 
 prising age ; and there is no doubt that in foreign lands he did 
 much to maintain the prestige of England as a nation not only 
 able in conceiving, but in successfully carrying through, the 
 most gigantic undertakings. 
 
 Brassey was born at Buerton, in the parish of Aldford, 
 Cheshire, on Nov. yth, 1805. His family was an ancient one, 
 and it is stated that his ancestors came over with William the 
 .Conqueror. Artemus Ward humorously remarked that his did 
 the same : ' I know they did,' he said, ' because I never knew a 
 man whose didn't.' Many a man has claimed Norman ances- 
 tors on quite as shadowy grounds as Artemus's : but, if Norman 
 ancestors be worth anything, Brassey really seems to have been 
 entitled to claim them. For nearly six centuries his predeces- 
 sors resided at Bulkeley, near Malpas, in Cheshire, where they 
 possessed a small landed property of about four hundred acres. 
 
304 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 It still remains in the family, and Brassey was much attached 
 to it. When the old mansion became uninhabitable, he built a 
 large and handsome one upon the site. The Brasseys did not 
 lose their ancient inheritance, like so many other families, 
 during the Wars of the Roses ; but after two more centuries of 
 vicissitude they moved to Buerton, certain documents showing 
 that they were already there in 1663. The father of Thomas 
 Brassey, in addition to farming his own land, rented a large 
 farm from the Marquis of Westminster at ^850 per annum. 
 
 Sir Arthur Helps, who gives these details in his memorial 
 sketch of Brassey, says : ' I am particular in noting these facts 
 about the history of Mr. Brassey's family, because it resembles 
 that of many of those families from which our most distinguished 
 men have sprung an origin which I conceive is very favour- 
 able for a man who is destined to do great things in this world. 
 There is a certain amount of culture and of knowledge in such 
 a family ; while at the same time it has run no risk of being 
 enervated by luxury, or of having, if I may venture to use the 
 expression, thought itself out. We cannot be blind to the fact 
 that there are amongst us but few descendants of our most 
 eminent men. It certainly seems as though a family, after long 
 ages, like some slowly developing plant, produces its best 
 flower, and then dies off. And when we see distinguished 
 families still producing remarkable men, I believe that if 
 we could investigate the records of those families, we should 
 find that there had been a frequent accession of new blood 
 of minds unwearied by mental labour, of bodies not exhausted, 
 or rendered unfruitful by luxury.' 
 
 From twelve to sixteen years of age, Brassey was at school 
 at Chester, and then he was articled to a land surveyor and 
 estate agent named Lawton. One of his first pieces of work 
 was to assist Mr. Parsons of Oswestry in making the surveys 
 for Telford's well-known and magnificent highway, the Holy- 
 head Road. Brassey soon became such a general favourite, 
 that his master, Lawton, proposed to take him into partnership. 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 305 
 
 The offer was accepted, and at the age of twenty-one, Brassey 
 went to reside at Birkenhead as Lawton's partner. The whole 
 of the Birkenhead estate was the property of Mr. Francis 
 Richard Price, of Bryn-y-pys, Overton, Flintshire, for whom 
 Lawton acted as agent. When Lawton died, Brassey became 
 sole agent and representative of Mr. Price, and he did much 
 towards developing the now flourishing town of Birkenhead, 
 which in 1818 consisted of only four houses. 
 
 After being at Birkenhead for eight years, Brassey was intro- 
 duced to George Stephenson an introduction which changed 
 the whole current of his life. There was a certain stone-quarry 
 at Stourton under Brassey's charge, and Stephenson wanted 
 stone for repairing the Sankey Viaduct on the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Railway. He therefore examined the quarry, 
 being accompanied by Brassey, and he was so struck with the 
 latter that he endeavoured to draw him into the enterprise of 
 railway-making. Acting on the great man's advice, Brassey 
 sent in his first tender, which was for the Dutton Viaduct, near 
 Warrington, on the London and North-Western system. He 
 failed to obtain it, however, his estimate being ^5,000 higher 
 than the successful tender. His next tender, in 1834, was for 
 the Penkridge Viaduct, between Stafford and Wolverhampton 
 including also ten miles of railway on the same line and 
 this was accepted. A contractor at this time had to do all his 
 own work, for sub-contracts were almost unknown, and he had 
 to show great skill in selecting and directing large bodies of 
 workmen. Stephenson's successor on the Grand Junction 
 Railway, John Locke, was afterwards engaged for the London 
 and Southampton Railway. He invited Brassey to go with 
 him, and the latter contracted for and executed the important 
 works between Basingstoke and Winchester, as well as works 
 on other parts of the line. 
 
 When Brassey was thirty-one years of age he settled in Lon- 
 don, and entered into an extended scale of business. All who 
 had to do with him soon discovered that he could be thoroughly 
 
 x 
 
306 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 relied on to complete his contracts in the time and manner 
 specified. Throughout his career, ' his faithfulness, his desire 
 to do his work efficiently, whether at a gain or a loss, together 
 with his resolution to avoid all petty subjects of dispute, natur- 
 ally made him a most welcome fellow-worker to any person 
 placed in such an arduous position a position requiring so 
 much watchfulness and supervision as that of engineer-in-chief 
 to a railway. It was an immense comfort to have a man to 
 deal with whom it was not necessary to be looking after in 
 respect of any of the details of the work entrusted to him.' 
 
 In December, 1831, Brassey was married to Maria, second 
 daughter of Mr. Joseph Harrison of Birkenhead. Mr. Harrison 
 who, by the way, was the first resident in the new town of 
 Birkenhead was a forwarding agent in Liverpool for the great 
 Manchester houses. It is stated that Brassey's first connection 
 with railways was partly due to the advice he received from his 
 wife, who saw that he was capable of greater things than come 
 within the necessarily restricted sphere of an agent or a land 
 surveyor. Mrs. Brassey was also a believer in railways when 
 many scientific men regarded them as impracticable. So, 
 although she foresaw much domestic discomfort from the 
 frequent change of residence necessary to a railway contractor, 
 she would not allow her own feelings to weigh in the matter, 
 but encouraged her husband in his new calling. During the 
 first thirteen years of his career as a contractor, Brassey changed 
 his residence no fewer than eleven times. Three of these tem- 
 porary homes he was compelled to make in France. Then, 
 again, wherever the family was temporarily located, little could 
 be seen of Brassey himself, whose engagements usually caused 
 him to be absent from nine or half-past nine in the morning 
 until ten o'clock in the evening. The education of the children 
 at this period rested entirely with Mrs. Brassey, and to this and 
 their welfare generally she devoted herself with true motherly 
 affection. 
 
 The construction of railways is a work peculiarly adapted to 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 307 
 
 being executed by contract, and the practice consequently 
 speedily increased when once it had been instituted. ' It may 
 be noted,' says Sir Arthur Helps, ' that in carrying out work in 
 foreign countries, great benefit has accrued both to those coun- 
 tries themselves, and to the country in which these projects 
 originated, from the works being confided to contractors who 
 carried hither and thither bands of skilful workmen ; and who, 
 indirectly, brought much profit to the mother-country, while 
 gradually they instructed the natives of other countries in 
 skilled labour, and made them more useful citizens than they 
 were before. There are some parts of Europe where the con- 
 dition of the whole labouring population has been permanently 
 raised by the introduction of British skill and British labour 
 in the execution of a particular work. And this would hardly 
 have been the case, or at any rate would not so soon have 
 been the case, but for the presence of the British contractor 
 and his accompanying army of British workmen bringing new 
 tools, new modes of working, new methods of payment ; 
 and, in short, introducing an element of vigour and prosperity 
 which could not have been so well introduced in any other 
 way.' 
 
 When Brassey became thoroughly known as a contractor, 
 and commissions multiplied with him, he let out portions of 
 his work to sub-contractors. But these contracted for the 
 manual labour alone ; he furnished the materials and all the 
 plant, and also provided the horses. Finding, however, in 
 France that to provide horses did not pay, he afterwards stipu- 
 lated that the sub-contractors should find their own horses. 
 Brassey fixed the prices the sub-contractors were to receive, 
 but he always raised them where the contracts proved unpro- 
 fitable. He would make careful visits of inspection, and one 
 who worked for him stated that such visits would often cost him 
 a thousand pounds. So keen was his memory that as he went 
 along the line he remembered even the navvies, and saluted 
 them by their names. In making sub-contracts he recognised 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 each man's speciality, and acted upon it. The sub-contracts 
 varied from ,5,000 to 25,000, and the number of men em- 
 ployed upon them from one to three hundred. Sub-lettings by 
 sub-contractors he did not approve of, but he always favoured 
 the co-operative system, and approved of the 'butty-gang' 
 system a system whereby certain work was done by ten or 
 thirteen men, who shared equally in the proceeds, something 
 extra being allowed to the head man. 
 
 In the year 1841 Brassey began his foreign work. France, 
 which first claimed his services, was not in as good a position 
 for the introduction of railways as Great Britain, where the 
 public roads and canals had been brought to a state of com- 
 parative perfection. However, the French desired to have 
 railways at an early stage, and the Government were willing 
 to give guarantees in view of their failure as a purely com- 
 mercial speculation. The Paris and Rouen Railway was pro- 
 jected, as a line which would bring London and Paris nearer 
 'together, and the French Board suggested an amalgamation 
 of interests with the London and Southampton Railway. This 
 was agreed to, and a joint company formed called the Paris 
 and Rouen Railway Company. Locke was appointed engi- 
 neer to the new line ; but the pretensions of French con- 
 tractors were so greatly in excess of his expectations, that at 
 his suggestion the Board invited English contractors to go 
 over and compete with the French. It was found that Brassey 
 and Mackenzie, however, were the only serious English com- 
 petitors, and these two contractors agreed to join their forces, 
 and tender conjointly. With only a very trifling exception, 
 they succeeded in securing the execution of the whole of the 
 works. Thus began Brassey's series of undertakings in foreign 
 countries. He fixed his abode in France, and gave up the 
 whole of his time to the new line. The works were begun in 
 1841, and the line was opened to the public in May, 1843. 
 The undertaking was a very important and onerous one. 
 'Added to its extent, and the consequent and natural difn*- 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 309 
 
 culties of organisation and management, it possessed the new 
 feature of being in a foreign country, where railway works 
 were as yet unknown, and where, consequently, it was not 
 easy to secure assistants in the shape of practical agents, 
 foremen, and gangers, or even the necessary labourers, miners, 
 and navvies accustomed to that style of work, and to the 
 means of execution adopted by the contractor. All this con- 
 siderably enhanced the difficulties, more especially as the 
 whole time for completion was very limited, and necessitated, 
 therefore, great energy, decision, and discernment in organising 
 rapidly a very large staff of employes of every description, and 
 the bringing over from England numbers of workmen of all 
 classes amounting at times to several thousands.' But 
 Brassey was like Napoleon in one thing he did not believe 
 in the * impossible.' He had tact and shrewdness, skill in 
 organisation, and a wonderful hold over those whom he em- 
 ployed so much so, indeed, that master and man were alike 
 loth to part after they had once established relations together. 
 The oversight of everything he took, looking after the quarters 
 of the men, and providing for them medical assistance and 
 hospital accommodation when necessary. No fewer than 
 eleven languages were spoken on the works of this one rail- 
 way. The undertaking was successfully carried through, and 
 within the specified time. Higher wages for the natives 
 followed the introduction of railway work into France and 
 Belgium. When Brassey constructed the railway from Charle- 
 roi to Givet, as the works were light he sent out only a 
 few Englishmen to commence and superintend the con- 
 struction of the line. One of the sub-contractors, describing 
 the effect of the work upon the natives, said, ' When we went 
 there, a native labourer was paid one shilling and threepence 
 per day ; but when we began to pay them two francs and two 
 francs and a half per day, they thought we were angels from 
 Heaven.' As the native workmen were remarkably provident 
 and abstemious, they managed to save a considerable amount 
 
3io LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 even out of those very moderate wages, as they would be 
 counted in England.' 
 
 The Rouen and Havre Railway which was a continuation 
 of the Paris and Rouen line, and completed the communica- 
 tion between Paris and London, via Southampton was begun 
 by Messrs. Brassey and Mackenzie in 1843. Mr - Francis 
 Murton stated with regard to this new line : ' The works of 
 the Havre railway were extraordinary in magnitude. The 
 line, leaving the valley of the Seine at Rouen, had to cross 
 several important valleys to attain the plateau or summit level, 
 and then to descend to the level of the port of Havre. This 
 necessitated a large bridge over the Seine, many tunnels, eight 
 or ten in number, several large viaducts of 100 feet in height, 
 and huge cuttings and embankments ; moreover, the whole 
 of the work had to be completed in two years. Mr. Brassey 
 took up his residence at Rouen, and laboured at this heavy 
 and important work with unbounded energy. I should say 
 that, never up to that date, had such heavy works been carried 
 out in so short a time. Although many of his people had had 
 two years' experience in France, still, owing to the severe 
 character of the work, there-was much difficulty in obtaining 
 the necessary labour, more especially as regards the mining, 
 brickwork, and masonry. The contractors were again obliged 
 to bring over from England hosts of bricklayers, from London 
 or from any place where they could be found; and it may 
 here be mentioned that, of all classes of railway labour, as a 
 rule, the brickmakers and the bricklayers are the worst and 
 most unscrupulous, and great indeed was the trouble and 
 expense they caused. The necessity also of working night as 
 well as day, rendered the supervision very difficult, particularly 
 in the tunnels, and much anxiety was thereby occasioned to 
 the engineers as well as to the contractors. During the progress 
 of the works, a great accident occurred in the second section 
 of the line, in the fall of the Barentin Viaduct a huge brick 
 construction of 100 feet in height and about one-third of a 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 311 
 
 mile in length, having cost some ,50,000 ; and which had, 
 but a very short time previously, elicited the praise and 
 admiration of the Minister of Public Works, and the othei 
 high French officers who visited it. This great downfall 
 occurred a very short time before the proposed opening of 
 the line. It is scarcely necessary here to seek to establish 
 the causes of this failure ; very rapid execution in very bad 
 weather, and being built, in accordance with the contract, 
 with mortar made of lime of the country (but with which, 
 the other smaller works had been successfully built), were 
 no doubt the principal causes. Mr. Brassey was very greatly 
 upset by this untoward event; but he and his partner, Mr. 
 Mackenzie, met the difficulty most manfully. "The first 
 thing to do," as they said, "is to build it up again," and this 
 they started most strenuously to do ; not waiting, as many 
 would have done, whether justly or unjustly, to settle, by 
 litigation or otherwise, upon whom the responsibility and the 
 expense should fall. Not a day was lost by them in the 
 extraordinary efforts they had to make to secure millions of 
 new bricks, and to provide hydraulic lime, which had to be 
 brought from a distance. Suffice it to % say that, by their 
 indomitable energy and determination promptly to repair the 
 evil, and, by the skill of their agents, they succeeded in rebuild- 
 ing this huge structure in less than six months. I should 
 mention that, as one inducement to the contractors to open 
 the Havre line a few months before the contract time, a 
 premium of about , 10,000 was offered them. This, of 
 course, they stood to lose by this accident. The company, 
 however, in consideration of their marvellous and successful 
 efforts to redeem the loss of time, allowed them the benefit 
 of this sum, but the whole of the remainder of the expense 
 they themselves bore. This is one of the many cases where, 
 in spite of all loss, of all difficulty, that determination never 
 to shrink, upon any pretext, from a contract, fully evinced 
 itself; and therefore, it is a case worthy of note.' 
 
312 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 In one portion of his work, Brassey's biographer draws 
 interesting comparisons between the railway labourers of dif- 
 ferent countries, and their methods of work. An expert "on. 
 manual labour has stated that the amount of work done by 
 an English ' navvy ' a word corrupted from navigator 
 exceeds in severity that accomplished by any other class 
 of workman. The power of English navvies in lifting earth 
 during excavations is not nearly equalled by that of the 
 navvies of any other country in the world. Strikes were 
 almost unknown amongst Brassey's workmen. The English 
 navvy abroad was rather troublesome at first, but he soon 
 got into steady and regular grooves. The French navvy, 
 owing partly to the inferiority of his tools, was worth only 
 two francs a day, while the English labourer could earn four 
 francs and a half. But in time, the Frenchman improved, 
 and his value rose largely in consequence. The result .was - 
 that ultimately the great bulk of the railway work executed 
 in France was done by natives. Plate-laying was for a long 
 time an English speciality, but French workmen came -at 
 last to do it extremely well. In mining, the English labourer 
 always maintained his superiority, being hardier and capable 
 of more endurance. The English engineer was also superior 
 to the French, and laboured as though he intended his work 
 to be eternal. Piedmontese workmen were found to be quiet, 
 orderly, and capable, and in cutting rock they could do the 
 work cheaper than English miners. People born in the 
 mountains were stronger than those born in the plains. The 
 Neapolitans, who flocked in shoals to places where railway- 
 works were going forward, could only do light work; and as 
 they generally worked in such districts as the Maremma, they 
 could only labour for some six months in the year. Their 
 wages were from one franc to two francs per day. The 
 Germans were not first-class labourers, but the Belgians were 
 very good, though behind the English in many things. They 
 were not so ingenious in their methods. 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 313 
 
 Sir John Hawkshaw, who had experience of unskilled labour 
 in almost all parts of the world, said on this question : ' I 
 have arrived at the conclusion that its cost is much the same 
 in all. I have had personal experience in South America, in 
 Russia, and in Holland, as well as in my own country ; and as 
 consulting engineer to some of the Indian and other foreign 
 railways, I am pretty well acquainted with the value of Hindoo 
 and other labour; and though an English labourer will do 
 a larger amount of work than a Creole or a Hindoo, yet 
 you have to pay them proportionately higher wages. Dutch 
 labourers are, I think, as good as English, or nearly so ; and 
 Russian workmen are docile and easily taught, and readily 
 adopt every method shown to them to be better than their 
 own.' 
 
 The work of a ^contractor is not to be measured only by the 
 undertakings brought to a successful completion. Preliminary 
 Surveys and laborious calculations are made with respect to 
 schemes which frequently prove abortive ; indeed, it is said 
 that Brassey himself unsuccessfully tendered for works to the 
 extent of ^15 0,000,000. This points to a vast amount of in- 
 vestigation which was not only unremunerative but exhausting 
 tq the contractor. Brassey seems to have had a genius for 
 seizing upon the essential points of any scheme submitted to 
 him, and he was extremely rapid in his mental arithmetic. 
 And it is a remarkable fact that his conclusions were scarcely 
 ever found to be wrong. 
 
 Brassey became so widely known that in 1845 he had on his 
 hands no fewer than thirteen large railway contracts, represent- 
 ing a length of about 800 miles, scattered over various parts of 
 England and Wales, Scotland, and France. This did not leave 
 him time to superintend everything in detail, nor was there 
 any necessity for this, as it was one of his leading characteris- 
 tics to be able to engage intuitively men competent to carry 
 out all the minutiae of his plans, and he had many such men 
 in his employment who served him ably. In course of time 
 
3H LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 he became as it were 'the great consulting physician in railway 
 matters, only making his appearance on critical occasions.' 
 But whenever anything went wrong, he was on the spot imme- 
 diately. His visits were likewise taken advantage of ' as oppor- 
 tunities for the redress of grievances, and for the settlement of 
 all questions of difficulty.' 
 
 The great contractor loved his work better than anything. 
 It was his ambition, we are told, to furnish large and continu- 
 ous employment to his fellow-countrymen, and to the natives 
 of other countries. He determined that this work should 
 occupy all his lifetime, and he could never bear the thought of 
 retiring from business. For the rewards which attended him 
 and which many men would have hailed with pride and delight 
 he cared little. When the Emperor of Austria conferred 
 upon him the Cross of the Iron Crown, he remarked that he 
 did not know what good crosses were to him as an English- 
 man ; but as the Emperor had graciously offered it, he accepted 
 the distinction, knowing also that his wife would appreciate the 
 honour, as she took a deep interest in his works and his grow- 
 ing fame. He received two other crosses those of the Legion 
 of Honour of France and the Chevaliership of Italy, but so 
 little did he regard them that when they were enquired for on 
 one occasion they could not ba found. The Emperor of the 
 French invited Brassey to dine at the Tuileries, after conferring 
 upon him the Order of the Legion of Honour ; and at this 
 dinner he sat near the Empress, 'with whose grace and manner 
 he was much charmed, and he was especially pleased with her 
 kindness in talking English to him during the greater part of 
 the time.' 
 
 Some idea of Brassey's surprising energy and activity may be 
 gathered from this statement of his brother-in-law, Mr. Henry 
 Harrison : ' I have known him come direct from France to 
 Rugby. Having left Havre the night before, he would have 
 been engaged in the office in London the whole day; he would 
 then come down to Rugby by the mail train at twelve o'clock, 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 315 
 
 and it was his common practice to be on the works by six 
 o'clock the next morning. He would frequently walk from 
 Rugby to Nuneaton, a distance of sixteen miles. Having 
 arrived at Nuneaton in the afternoon, he would proceed the 
 same night by road to Tamworth, and the next morning he 
 would be out on the road, so soon, that he had the reputation, 
 among his staff, of being the first man on the works. He used 
 to proceed over the works from Tamworth to Stafford, walking 
 the greater part of the distance ; and he would frequently 
 proceed that same evening to Lancaster, in order to inspect 
 the works then in progress under the contract which he had 
 for the execution of the railway from Lancaster to Carlisle. 
 The journey which I have described from Havre, via London 
 to Rugby, thence over the Trent to Stafford, and by railway 
 to Lancaster, to inspect the Lancaster and Carlisle line, was a 
 route which he very commonly followed.' 
 
 The Great Northern Railway was one of the most formidable 
 undertakings contracted for by Thomas Brassey. There was 
 one special difficulty in connection with it, viz., how to get the 
 line over the fens adjacent to Whittlesea Mere. In connection 
 with this he called into his counsels Mr. Samuel Ballard, the 
 skilful engineer of the Middle Level Drain, part of the Great 
 Bedford Level in the Fens. The depth of the bog to be 
 crossed was twenty-two feet, and its extent about three miles. 
 Mr. Ballard laid layer upon layer of stakes over the surface 
 upon which the soil was gradually piled up, giving the water 
 time to run out. The effect was thus to displace the water, 
 but to leave the solid parts behind, and eventually a solid basis 
 was made. The construction of the bridges in the Fens was 
 another great difficulty, but Mr. Ballard successfully overcame 
 it. Mr. Ballard was struck by Brassey's faculty for economis- 
 ing his time, and bringing his experience and judgment to bear 
 where they were useful. He had a keen eye for discovering 
 any defective point, and a comprehensive way of estimating its 
 various bearings. Easy or trifling things he left to others to 
 
316 LEADERS OS MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 deal with, and only fixed his mind on those things which were 
 of primary importance. He would indicate where difficulties 
 might be expected, and predicate the condition of the works 
 six months in advance. The number of men employed on the 
 Great Northern line was from 5,000 to 6,000, yet he directed 
 all their labour without a hitch. When the undertaking was 
 finished, those interested in the line subscribed a sum of about 
 ^2,000, and presentation portraits were painted of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Brassey. A large silver-gilt shield, a fine piece of work 
 designed by Mr. H. P. Burt, was likewise presented to the con- 
 tractor. The shield, which measures a yard in diameter, has 
 in the centre the Brassey arms, surrounded by portraits, 
 enamelled in gold, of twelve of the engineers under whose 
 direction Brassey executed important works. There are also 
 twelve views of the principal undertakings he had carried 
 through up to that period 1851, and outside them a blue 
 ribbon in enamel, bearing the names of thirty-six of Brassey's 
 agents. This trophy of labour is probably unique of its kind. 
 Brassey's financial method seems to have been a very simple 
 one. The agent for each contract was made responsible for 
 the amount of money he received, and he was to furnish 
 information to the contractor in London, whenever required, 
 as to his expenditure. This system with many masters would 
 have been liable to abuse ; but Mr. Tapp, Brassey's financial 
 secretary, says that as the agents were put upon their honour, 
 and trusted implicitly, they felt a pride in being thus confided 
 in, and really carried on their business as though it were their 
 own. In making the Bilbao railway in Spain monetary diffi- 
 culties were frequently experienced. The banks were not 
 accustomed to cash cheques for large amounts, so that the 
 cash had to be obtained piecemeal. But Brassey taught the 
 Basques the use of paper money. He and his partners had 
 10,000 men in their employment, but Brassey's credit was so 
 high in the district that on one occasion, at Chambery, where 
 no one had been authorised to draw cheques, Brassey's agent 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY, 317 
 
 was allowed to draw as much as 28,000 on his own cheque. 
 Brassey and his partners sustained a great loss over the Bilbao 
 railway, for owing to the quantity of hard rock which had to 
 be cut, to the very wet climate, and the frequent recurrence of 
 fete days, the men were not able to work more than 200 days 
 out of the 313 working days in the year. 
 
 Sometimes Brassey was ignorant as to the extent of his own 
 pecuniary resources, and it took a long time to get together an 
 accurate statement of his assets. With respect to the way in 
 which he remunerated his agents, his secretary remarks that 
 ' it was a system of paying sometimes by salaries and some- 
 times by a percentage on profits. The salaries which Mr. 
 Brassey gave were decidedly not large ; but he assigned to his 
 principal agents a percentage upon the profits of the under- 
 taking. In some instances these agents received cheques 
 varying from .3,000 to 16,000. Indeed, several of these 
 gentlemen who served under him succeeded in realising for- 
 tunes.' Brassey bore his business losses with singular equa- 
 nimity. One who knew him well said he never appeared so 
 happy as when he had lost 20,000. At the Westminster 
 Palace Hotel one night, when during a severe panic it was 
 thought he had lost a million of money, he merely said, 
 ' Never mind, we must be content with a little less ; that's all.' 
 His cheerful way of regarding misfortune was of the greatest 
 advantage to him, keeping him up when many would have 
 collapsed under their troubles. 
 
 Monetary difficulties of a formidable nature, however, fell 
 upon Brassey in the year 1866. And as usual in such cases, 
 they ' came not as single spies but in battalions.' To begin 
 with, there were liabilities in connection with the Victoria 
 Docks to the extent of 600,000 ; then there were contracts 
 for certain railways in Denmark for which Brassey and Messrs. 
 Peto & Betts were jointly responsible. The latter firm failed 
 and the total Danish liabilities were about 800,000. Next 
 in connection with the construction of the Lemberg and 
 
3i8 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Czernowitz line, Brassey had received bonds from the Com- 
 pany to the amount of ;i, 200,000. He was unable to nego- 
 tiate them, and an effort to place them in a foreign market 
 only yielded ,13,000. They then became perfectly unsale- 
 able ; yet at this time the contractor was paying from ^"40,000 
 to ^"50,000 a month for wages alone on this line. For the 
 Evesham and Redditch Railway Brassey was entirely paid in 
 shares, and for the Warsaw and Terespol line he was also 
 largely paid in bonds upon which he could not realise, while 
 the Queensland railway involved further heavy liabilities. He 
 had several English contracts running upon which he could 
 get nothing, and there was a heavy loss going on at the Barrow 
 Docks and at Runcorn Bridge, which amounted to ^44,000. 
 These were difficulties enough to appal any man, but he 
 pushed forward with the contract for the Lemberg line, and 
 finished the works three or four months before the stipulated 
 time. This not only gained him prestige with the Austrians, 
 but it released large funds hitherto unavailable, as the Anglo- 
 Austrian Bank now found it could do a profitable business 
 by selling the bonds, of which Brassey held upwards of a 
 million. 
 
 As the Austro-Prussian War was in progress while the Lem- 
 berg line was being constructed, there was great difficulty in 
 conveying the money from Vienna to Lemberg a distance of 
 500 miles in order to pay the men. This daring feat was 
 undertaken by Mr. Victor Ofenheim, afterwards the Chevalier 
 d'Ofenheim, Director-General of the Company, and one of 
 Brassey's advisers on Austrian questions. Sir A. Helps thus 
 relates how the task was achieved : ' The intervening country 
 was occupied by the Austrian and Prussian armies, who were 
 on each side of the line, that is on that part between Cracow 
 and Lemberg ; for Mr. Ofenheim had succeeded without much 
 difficulty in getting the money carried on the Northern Carl- 
 Ludwig Railway as far as Cracow. However, he was full of 
 energy, and was determined to get on somehow or other. They 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 
 
 said that there was no engine ; that they had all been taken 
 off; but he went and found an old engine in a shed. Next he 
 wanted an engine-driver, and he found one, but the man said 
 he would not go, for he had a wife and children ; but Mr. 
 Ofenheim said, " If you will come, I will give you so many 
 hundred florins, and if you get killed I will provide for your 
 wife and family." They jumped on to the old engine and got 
 up the steam. They then started and went at the rate of forty 
 or fifty miles an hour, passing between the sentinels of the 
 opposing armies : and Mr. Ofenheim states that they were so 
 surprised that they had not time to shoot him. His only fear 
 was that there might be a rail up somewhere. But he got to 
 Lemberg, and that was the saving point of the line they dis- 
 tributed the " pay " otherwise the men would have gone away 
 to their homes, and the line would have been left unfinished 
 through the winter, and they would have had to wait until the 
 next spring before they could have returned again ; but that 
 difficulty being overcome, they got the line duly opened. Mr. 
 Ofenheim's conduct on this occasion is a notable instance of 
 the influence Mr. Brassey exercised over those who worked 
 with him, as well as those who worked for him ; for Mr. 
 Ofenheim had become a devoted friend, as well as a skilful 
 and daring representative of Mr. Brassey. The Emperor of 
 Austria, with that appreciation shown by monarchs for devoted 
 service a thing they naturally very much approve of, was 
 much struck by what he had heard of this daring feat in getting 
 to Lemberg, and sent for Mr. Ofenheim, and asked this perti- 
 nent question : " Who is this Mr. Brassey, this English con- 
 tractor, for whom men are to be found who work with such 
 zeal, and risk their lives ? " The answer must have been satis- 
 factory, for the Emperor said Mr. Brassey must be a very 
 powerful man, and sent him the Cross of the Iron Crown.' 
 
 Notwithstanding the financial difficulties under which Brassey 
 at times laboured, and which were almost inseparable from the 
 gigantic nature of his undertakings, he yet amassed great 
 
320 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 wealth. But his profits on transactions were anything but 
 large. His percentage of profit, taken as a whole, was only 
 about three per cent. His expenditure of other people's money 
 was ^78,000,000, and upon that outlay he retained ^2,500,000. 
 The rest of his enormous fortune came through accumulations. 
 His capital was in constant use it was never suffered to lie 
 idle. A typical instance of his liberality is given. One of his 
 agents entrusted with an important mission died soon after 
 reaching his destination, while his wife whom he had left in 
 good health in England died suddenly almost at the same 
 time. Six orphans were left entirely without provision. Brassey, 
 who had already advanced several thousand pounds on the 
 agent's life policy, immediately relinquished the policy in 
 favour of the children, and headed a subscription list in addi- 
 tion with a handsome sum. He does not seem to have cared 
 for money as money, but only as he could keep using it bene- 
 ficially, or turning it over and over in business. Although his 
 name did not appear much in connection with public charities, 
 it is estimated that his benefactions during his lifetime amounted 
 to ^200,000. Two causes are cited which led to his accumu- 
 tion of wealth : first, the very moderate nature of his personal 
 expenses ; secondly, the immense extent of his business, which 
 he built up by quick, straightforward dealing. He always went 
 straight to the point, and exhibited great determination and 
 perseverance. In fact, one of his admirers declared that 'if 
 he'd been a parson, he'd have been a bishop ; if a prize-fighter, 
 he would have had the belt.' 
 
 The contracts which Brassey carried out between the years 
 1834 and 1870 either singly or in conjunction with partners 
 numbered no fewer than 174. Of these, the most extensive 
 lines were the following : Paris and Rouen Railway, 82 miles ; 
 Orleans and Bordeaux line, 294 miles; Lancaster and Carlisle 
 Railway, 70 miles; Caledonian Railway (first contract), 125 
 miles ; Great Northern Railway, 75 miles ; Mantes and Caen 
 Railway, 113 miles ; Le Mans and Mezidon Railway, 84 miles ; 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 321 
 
 Grand Trunk Railway, 539 miles; Royal Danish Railway, 75 
 miles ; East Suffolk Railway, 63 miles ; Caen and Cherbourg 
 Railway, 94 miles; Leicester and Hitchin Railway, 62 miles; 
 Bilbao and Miranda Railway, 66 miles ; Eastern Bengal Rail- 
 way, 112 miles; Victor Emmanuel Railway, 73 miles; the 
 Maremma, Leghorn, &c., Railway, 138 miles; the Jutland 
 Railway, 270 miles; Mauritius Railway, 64 miles; Meridionale 
 Railway, 160 miles; Queensland Railway, 78 miles; North 
 Schleswig Railway, 70 miles ; Central Argentine Railway, 247 
 miles ; Lemberg and Czernowitz Railway, 165 miles ; Delhi 
 Railway, 304 miles; Warsaw and Terespol Railway, 128 miles; 
 Chord Line (India), 147 miles, Kronprinz-Rudolfsbahn, 272 
 miles ; and the Suczawa and Jassy Railway, 135 miles. The 
 engineers with whom he was at various times associated in- 
 cluded Robert Stephenson, Locke, Gooch, Bidder, Neuman, 
 Cubitt, Hawkshaw, Robertson, Rendel, Brunei, Neale, G. R, 
 Stephenson, Berkley, Tite, Liddell. Vignoles, Whitton, Wylie, 
 Fowler, McClean, Bazalgette, Sinclair, Fitzgibbon, Woods, Har- 
 rison, and Galbraith, in addition to many foreign engineers. 
 During Brassey's career there were periods when he and his 
 partners were giving employment to 80,000 persons, upon 
 works involving an expenditure of ^"17,000,000. This was a 
 prodigious effect for one man to have upon British industry 
 and labour. 
 
 Some interesting facts are adduced concerning the Turin 
 and Novara Railway, the length of which was 60 miles. 
 Brassey was thrown a good deal into contact with the cele- 
 brated Count Cavour in constructing this line, which was 
 begun in 1853. At first the Piedmontese public would have 
 nothing to do with the shares, but Cavour was determined tc 
 have the line, and he persuaded Brassey to share the deficiency 
 with the Government. Then when the subscriptions were 
 covered, the public applied for far more shares than had been 
 originally offered to them. Again Cavour applied to Brassey, 
 saying, ' The public are now crying out that they cannot get a 
 
 Y 
 
322 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 share, and the shares are at a good premium. Will you give 
 up some shares, as I am anxious to whet their appetite for 
 other enterprises by letting them taste a profit on their first 
 speculation?' Brassey consented to give up 2,000 of his 
 shares, although they then stood at more than 2 premium. 
 Brassey mentioned the remarkable fact in connection with 
 this railway, that it was * completed for about the same money 
 as was spent in obtaining the Bill for the railway from Lon- 
 don to York.' It appears, too, that the total charge of the 
 Sardinian Government against Brassey for the concession was 
 only ^100 ! Soon after the railway was in operation, Cavour 
 observed to Brassey, ' I am told that the line per se is yield- 
 ing 14 per cent., and yet there was a time when I could not 
 induce my Piedmontese to take a share ! ' 
 
 Quite a network of railways in Piedmont followed the open- 
 ing of the line from Turin to Novara. Brassey was concerned 
 in several of them, and frequently received the thanks of 
 Cavour for the way in which he responded to the wishes of 
 the Piedmontese Government. On one occasion, during a 
 grand dinner at Coire, Cavour said : * Mr. Brassey is one of 
 the most remarkable men I know ; clear-headed, cautious, yet 
 very enterprising and fulfilling his engagements faithfully. 
 We never had a difficulty with him. He would make a 
 splendid Minister of Public Works ; and, if report be true, he 
 understands the Finance Department equally well.' In addi- 
 tion to Count Cavour, the* Prime Minister, the Marquis 
 D'Azeglio, and the Minister of Public Works, M. Paleocapa, 
 were anxious to promote railway enterprise in Italy. In 1850 
 a contract was entered into between the Piedmontese Govern- 
 ment and Messrs. Brassey, Jackson, and Henfrey, for the con- 
 struction of the Turin and Susa Railway. The object of this 
 line was to facilitate communication between Italy and France, 
 Susa being situate at the foot of the Mont Cenis Pass. As 
 Mr. Henfrey remarked, ' By the construction of this line 
 railway communication would be complete from the Alps to 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 323 
 
 the Mediterranean, and the first link in the chain of inter- 
 national communication with France and the West of Europe 
 would be forged.' The Victor Emmanuel Railway followed, 
 its course being on the northern side of the Pass of Mont 
 Cenis, along the Valley of the Arc to Chambery, and thence to 
 the French frontier at Culoz. Into this line] came the cutting 
 of the Mont Cenis Tunnel a gigantic work extending to 
 seven and a half miles. The undertaking would have been 
 impossible but for the adoption of a machine for boring rock, 
 invented by Mr. Thomas Bartlett, Brassey's agent for this line. 
 The railway was begun in 1853 and finished in 1858. 
 
 Reviewing the work accomplished by English contractors in 
 Italy, Mr. Henfrey says : ' It will be seen^that the railways 
 completed by Mr. Brassey and his partners formed a con- 
 tinuous line from the then French frontier Tat Culoz, on the 
 Rhone, to the old Austrian frontier at Buffalora, on the 
 Ticino, with the exception only of the pass over the Mont 
 Cenis ; and the years during which these contracts were 
 executed comprised that bright period in the history of Italy 
 during which the Kingdom of Sardinia, emerging from com- 
 parative obscurity, took its place by the side of the great 
 Powers of Europe.' There is no doubt that British labour 
 and British capital had some share, though an indirect one, in 
 advancing towards a triumphant issue the great movement for 
 the unification of Italy. 
 
 Brassey next turned his attention to the American Conti- 
 nent, and, in conjunction with M essrs. Peto & Betts, he took 
 the contract for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Robert 
 Stephenson was consulting engineer to the company, and 
 Alexander Ross the company's engineer for the whole under- 
 taking. This memorable line was begun in 1852 and com- 
 pleted in 1859. It was an important link in the system of 
 American railways, and was not only of immense service to- 
 the vast districts of territory surrounding Lakes Erie, Huron, 
 Michigan, and Superior, but also in opening up other large 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 districts of valuable land, and in connecting the Erie and 
 Great Western of Canada Railroads, and other lines of lesser 
 importance. Brassey visited Canada, and was received at the 
 works by his agent, James Hodges, who assisted in the con- 
 struction of the Grand Trunk Railway until the Prince of 
 Wales had laid the last stone and put in the last rivet. Great 
 attention 'was paid to Brassey, special cars being attached at 
 the end of the trains for him, so that he might have a better 
 opportunity of viewing the country, and the managers of the 
 various lines invariably accompanied him. The scarcity of 
 labour at first hampered the execution of the Grand Trunk 
 line, notwithstanding the fact that a man who received five 
 shillings per day in England would receive seven shillings and 
 sixpence in Canada. But against this must be set the fact 
 that outdoor work is impossible in Canada for four months in 
 the year, which is more than double the time that English 
 workmen are debarred from labour. To get over the labour 
 difficulty, Brassey suggested that the agents should bring up a 
 large body of French Canadians from Lower Canada. This 
 suggestion was carried out, but although the French Canadians 
 were useful for light work, they had not the physical strength 
 for the heavier kinds of labour. It appears that Brassey's 
 main object in going to Canada was a financial one. The 
 Canadian Government had lent the Grand Trunk Company 
 .3,000,000, on condition that this sum should have priority of 
 interest over all other claims upon the shares. Brassey greatly 
 relieved the company by persuading the Canadian Govern- 
 ment to remit the priority of its claims. 
 
 Obstacles of a very unusual character had to be encountered 
 in the construction of the Victoria Bridge over the River St. 
 Lawrence. Some reference has been made to this bridge in 
 the article on the Stephensons. It was carried out from the 
 designs of Robert Stephenson and Alexander Ross. From a 
 paper written by James Hodges we may quote the following 
 passage, showing the difficulties experienced in constructing 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 325 
 
 the bridge : ' The site of the bridge is at the lower end of a 
 small lake, called La Prairie Basin, which is situated about 
 one mile above the entrance to the canal, at the west end of 
 Montreal Harbour. At this point the Saint Lawrence is 8,660 
 feet from shore to shore, or nearly a mile and three-quarters 
 wide. The most serious difficulty in the construction of the 
 Victoria Bridge arose from the accumulation of the ice in the 
 winter months. Ice begins to form in the Saint Lawrence in 
 December. Then ice first appears in quiet places, where the 
 current is least felt. As winter advances " anchor," or ground, 
 ice comes down the stream in vast quantities. This anchor 
 ice appears in rapid currents, and attaches itself to the rocks 
 in the bed of the river in the form of a spongy substance. 
 Immense quantities accumulate in an inconceivably short 
 time, increasing until the mass is several feet thick. A very 
 slight thaw, even that produced by a bright sunshine at noon, 
 disengages this mass, when, rising to the surface, it passes 
 down the river with the current. This species of ice appears 
 to grow only in the vicinity of rapids, or where the water has 
 become aerated by the rapidity of the current. Anchor ice 
 sometimes accumulates at the foot of the rapids in such quan- 
 tities as to form a bar across the river some miles in extent, 
 keeping the water several feet above the ordinary level. The 
 accumulation of ice continues for several weeks, until the river 
 is quite full. This causes a general rising of the water, until 
 large masses float, and, moving farther down the river, unite 
 with accumulations previously grounded, and thus form another 
 barrier, " packing " in places to a height of twenty or thirty 
 feet. As the winter advances, the lake becomes frozen over. 
 The ice then ceases to come down, and the water in the river 
 gradually subsides till it finds its ordinary winter level, which 
 is some twelve feet above its height in summer. The "ice 
 bridge," or solid field of ice across the river, becomes formed 
 for the winter early in January. By the middle of March the 
 sun becomes very powerful at mid-day, and the warm heavy 
 
326 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 rains rot the ice. The ice, when it becomes thus weakened, is 
 easily broken up by the winds, particularly at those parts of the 
 lakes where, from the great depth of water, they are not com- 
 pletely frozen over. This ice, coming down over the rapids, 
 chokes up the channels again, and causes a rise of the river, as 
 in early winter. In order to avoid the dangers consequent on 
 these operations of nature, the stone piers of the Victoria 
 Bridge were placed at wide intervals apart, each pier being 
 of the most substantial character, and having a large 
 wedge-shaped cut-water of stone-work, slanting towards the 
 current, and presenting an angle to the advancing ice 
 sufficient to separate and fracture it, as it rises against the 
 piers. The piers of the bridge were, in fact, designed to 
 answer the double purpose of carrying the tubes and of 
 resisting the pressure of the ice. In each of these respects 
 they have fully answered the important objects sought to be 
 attained.' 
 
 The agents had difficulties with the Indian chiefs, who owned 
 tha best stone-quarries of the district; then numerous strikes 
 arose among the workmen, while the cholera at one time com- 
 mitted dreadful ravages in their ranks; and finally great 
 financial stringency was felt by the Company in 1855, in con- 
 sequence of the rise in the value of money caused by the 
 Crimean War. Nevertheless, the works were pushed forward 
 with energy. Great assistance was derived in the conveyance 
 and shifting of stone by a steam-traveller designed by one of 
 the sub-contractors, Mr. Chaffey. This machine had a span 
 of sixty feet ; it unloaded the waggons, and stacked with the 
 greatest ease large blocks of stone, some of which weighed ten 
 tons ; upwards of 70,000 tons of stone were twice moved by 
 this machine, and yet only one man was required upon the 
 traveller, while one other could stack the stone. The following 
 statistics are supplied as to the materials used in constructing 
 the Victoria Bridge, and the number of men, etc., employed : 
 Total length of the tubes, 6,512 feet; weight of iron in the 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 327 
 
 tubes, 9,044 tons ; number of rivets in the tubes, 1,540,000; 
 number of spans, 25, one being of 330 feet, and the others 
 from 242 to 247 feet ; quantity of masonry in piers and 
 abutments, 2,713,095 cubic feet; quantity of timber in tem- 
 porary works, 2,280,000 cubic feet; number of men engaged, 
 3,040; horses, 144; locomotive engines, 4; and, finally, 
 steamboats, 6, and barges, 75, representing together 12,000 
 tons and 450 horse-power. This magnificent structure re- 
 mains a lasting monument to British skill, industry, and per- 
 severance. 
 
 Of works carried through by Brassey and his partners be- 
 tween the years 1852 and 1865 may be enumerated the Crimean 
 Railway, the Victoria Docks, the Northern Mid-Level Sewer, 
 the East London Railway, and various Danish railways, etc. 
 The construction of the Crimean Railway was a great feat 
 because of the difficulties of organisation and of transport. 
 Field-Marshal Burgoyne stated that it was impossible to over- 
 rate the services rendered by the railway, or its effect in short- 
 ening the time of the siege and alleviating the fatigues and 
 sufferings of the troops. The Victoria Docks, which were 
 carried out for the firm of Brassey, Peto, & Betts, under the 
 direction of G. P. Bidder, have a water area of over 100 acres, 
 divided by eighty-feet gates into a tidal basin of about 20 
 acres, and a wet dock of about 80 acres. They have vaults 
 for wines, and warehouses for general merchandise, to the ex- 
 tent of about 20 acres of "floor. The Thames Graving Docks, 
 constructed by the same firm, possess a water area of 15 acres, 
 and hydraulic machinery and lifts for docking and under-dock- 
 ing vessels of all capacities. The Northern Mid-Level Sewer, 
 which Brassey made for the Metropolitan Board of Works, was 
 a great undertaking, though only twelve miles in length. It 
 took nearly three years to construct, and it runs from Kensal 
 Green passing under the Bayswater Road, Oxford Street, and 
 Clerkenwell to the River Lea. The contractors had to tunnel 
 under houses and streets, and to cross the Metropolitan Railway 
 
328 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 with a very large tube; and the whole undertaking is regarded 
 as one of the most difficult ever carried through in this country. 
 The East London Railway running from New Cross through 
 the Thames Tunnel to Wapping was another of Brassey's 
 difficult enterprises successfully accomplished. The Danish 
 railways, constructed by Brassey, Peto, & Betts, were about 
 500 miles in extent. They took ten years to complete, as the 
 Government would not allow the contractors to do more than 
 a certain amount of work annually. The work was largely 
 executed by Danish sub-contractors and labourers, who were a 
 steady and superior class of men. Construction was somewhat 
 hindered by the war over Schleswig-Holstein, the sub-contrac- 
 tors being obliged to assist in making military earthworks. 
 
 The Australian works of Brassey were executed between 
 1859 and 1863. Here, again, the railways constructed had 
 a wider influence than any mere value they possessed as a 
 convenience for the resident population. They had much to 
 do with stimulating emigration, and opening up the colonies 
 to settlers from the mother-country. Wilcox and Rhodes, 
 Brassey's agents, went out to Australia in 1859, their mission 
 being to construct three important lines in New South Wales 
 the Great Southern, the Great Northern, and the Great 
 Western Railways. Although there were no serious engineer- 
 ing difficulties to surmount, the cost of labour was so much 
 higher that a similar length of line to that of the Great 
 Southern Railway could have been laid in England at a re- 
 duction of .3,000 or 4,000 per mile. Everything for the 
 Australian railways except the timber came from England, 
 The wages were very high : labourers earned from 75. to 8s. 
 per day, masons and bricklayers 125., and carpenters from los, 
 to i2S. The cost of living in Queensland was only 8s. or 93. 
 a week individually ; but a good deal of beer-drinking went 
 forward, and that was very expensive. About 2,000 labourers 
 were exported from England and Scotland, their selection and 
 outfit costing the contractors 5 per man, while the Govern- 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 329 
 
 ment paid the passage out, some 12 in addition. Altogether, 
 the taking out of the 2,000 men involved an expenditure of 
 ^34,000. Mr. Wilcox, who might thus be regarded as a great 
 emigration agent, stated in his evidence on this subject, that 
 it would be a safe venture to send out say 20,000 people a 
 year to the Australian colonies : they could all be readily 
 absorbed. 
 
 The Argentine Railway was constructed by Brassey, Wythes, 
 and Wheelwright in 1864. A special interest attaches to this 
 enterprise, for, as Sir Arthur Helps observes, 'it is the first 
 time in the history of railway constructions that railway pro- 
 moters have been great colonizers,' The Argentine Govern- 
 ment gave the railway company one league of land on each 
 side of the railway throughout its entire extent, commencing at 
 a distance of four leagues from the stations of Rosario and 
 Cordova, and one league from each of the towns, San Geronimo 
 and Villa Nueva, subject to the condition of such lands being 
 peopled. The contractors accepted from the company one-half 
 of the above-mentioned lands in part payment of their contract 
 price. The line proved a very easy one to construct, and the 
 railway has been most favourable to emigration. In the 
 Argentine Republic, ' the colonizer may occupy land remote 
 from cities, and therefore cheap, and yet find himself in im- 
 mediate contact with one of the principal means and appli- 
 ances of modern civilization.' If the Argentine were only in a 
 settled condition politically, this fine field for emigrants might 
 be more widely utilised and opened up. 
 
 The contract made by Brassey for the Moldavian railways 
 illustrates the difficulties which sometimes attend preliminary 
 negotiations. In this case they were of the most protracted 
 character, plan after plan falling through, and at the end of ten 
 years (1858-68) Brassey had only been able to complete 360 
 out of the 500 miles originally projected. A contract for the 
 remaining 140 miles between Roman and Galatz was concluded 
 with Dr. Strousberg in 1868. 
 
330 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 The Indian railways, constructed between 1858 and 1865, 
 formed another interesting and important feature in the labours 
 of Brassey and his partners. To India and its development 
 railway communication was a necessity. In 1858, Brassey, 
 Wythes, and Sir Joseph Paxton agreed to construct the 
 Eastern Bengal Railway, a line 112 miles in length, com- 
 mencing at Calcutta, and terminating at a village named 
 Kooshtea on the River Ganges. Brunei was the consulting 
 engineer in England, and Purdon the chief engineer in 
 India. This railway proved an unfortunate speculation being 
 a second similar experience for Brassey. In consequence of the 
 numerous pubLc works set on foot after the suppression of the 
 Indian Mutiny, the utmost difficulty was experienced in getting 
 sufficient labourers for the line, but the railway was persevered 
 with and opened for traffic at the end of the rainy season of 
 1862. The line was expensive, the cost, including rolling 
 stock, being about ,14,000 per mile. In conjunction with 
 Wythes and Henfrey, he next constructed the Delhi Railway, 
 Bidder being the consulting engineer to the Company in Eng- 
 land, and Joseph Harrison the chief engineer resident in India. 
 The railway extended from Delhi to Umritsir in the Punjab, 
 a distance of 304 miles. It included some very long viaducts 
 over the Rivers Jumna, Sutlej, and Beeas, in addition to 
 many minor structures, but the works were executed at 
 an inclusive cost of ^14,630 per mile. 'All the ironwork 
 and machinery were imported from England, and had to be 
 carried upwards of 1,000 miles from the ports where they were 
 landed. Including rolling stock, these materials weighed 
 nearly 100,000 tons.' Labour was always obtainable for this 
 line, and it was completed within the specified time, the 
 eastern half of the line being opened in 1868 by the Viceroy, 
 Sir John Lawrence. 
 
 In May, 1867, Brassey went to Paris with his family. He 
 had a good many business interviews in the French capital, 
 and on the day he was to have left he was taken ill. He 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 331 
 
 would only postpone his departure for a day, however, and 
 then he travelled all night to Cologne. He made trial trips 
 on the engines of the Fell Railway, and Mrs. Thomas Brassey 
 could not help remarking 'the large-hearted way in which he 
 entered into its merits, the anxiety he expressed for its success, 
 and the interest he took in its completion as a great enterprise 
 and an extension of civilization.' His generous wishes here 
 were directly opposed to his pecuniary interests, for with the 
 completion of the tunnel under the mountain the greater 
 would be his loss on the line over the mountain. He re- 
 turned to England in June, but set out again early in October 
 to attend the proposed opening of the Mont Cenis Railway. 
 He revisited the Fell Railway, the weather being extremely 
 severe and his health bad. Following upon these things came 
 another trial for the opening of the railway proved a disastrous 
 failure. The French Government had insisted upon having 
 French engines and carriages, and they ignominiously broke 
 down. Brassey was now taken alarmingly ill with bronchitis. 
 He was conveyed with great difficulty to Turin, and his 
 family were telegraphed for. Though suffering from fever, 
 he insisted upon proceeding to Venice, and he was in a criti- 
 cal state when his family arrived there. He rallied, never- 
 theless, in a remarkable manner, and in November he was 
 able to travel by easy stages to England, safely reaching St. 
 Leonard's. 
 
 It was the beginning of the end, however, and in September, 
 1868, he had a second stroke of paralysis. Though remon- 
 strated with, he would pursue his labours ; and, by a strange 
 coincidence, his latest or one of his very latest undertakings, 
 the Wolverhampton and Walsall Railway was close to the Penk- 
 ridge Viaduct, the scene of his first railway contract. But death 
 drew on apace. For some time before the end Brassey knew 
 his disease was fatal, but he bore the news with fortitude and 
 resignation, for he had ever been a deeply religious man. The 
 List days of his life were spent at Hastings, where he expired on 
 
332 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 December 8th, 1870. His death was mourned far beyond the 
 limits of his own immediate circle. 
 
 Lord Brassey, the great contractor's eldest son, supplied Sir 
 . Arthur Helps with some interesting reminiscences of his father. 
 The eminent virtues of the latter did not blind the son to his 
 defects, which, in some degree, resulted from those very virtues. 
 Brassey's whole existence was not centred in his own labours ; 
 the triumphs of science and engineering elicited his warmest 
 enthusiasm, and in many instances his liberal pecuniary aid to 
 bring them to fruition. He also took an intense delight in 
 nature, and especially in mountain scenery. But whether in 
 country or town, little escaped his keen observation. He had a 
 special appreciation of sculpture, of paintings, and indeed of 
 art in every form. His love of yachting was proverbial, as well 
 as his love of hospitality. His politics tended towards Conserva- 
 tism, but he appreciated whatever was good and great among all 
 classes of men. His hobby was correspondence, and although 
 he made no pretence to literary skill, he was singularly clear in 
 his statements and facts. He was of a very patient disposi- 
 tion, and indulged the most generous sentiments so much 
 so that he sometimes failed in reproof where reproof would 
 have been justified. Chivalrous in heart and mind, he had 
 that further characteristic of the true gentleman, a never- 
 failing consideration for the feelings and susceptibilities of 
 others. 
 
 In supplementing these recollections, Brassey's biographer 
 refers to his fitness for the work which devolved upon him j his 
 common-sense ; his trustfulness ; his excellent treatment of, and 
 confidence in, his subordinates ; his generosity and unworldli- 
 ness ; his tenderness and mental refinement ; his freedom from 
 vanity ; and his appreciation of the merits of others. I rejoice 
 in all this, because such men are an honour to human nature ; 
 and if I have one objection to Thomas Brassey it is that he left 
 too much money behind him. The accumulation of such a sum 
 as ;y, 000,000 which he is reputed to have died possessed of 
 
THOMAS BRASSEY. 333 
 
 cannot be defended in such an age of suffering and priva- 
 tion as ours is for hundreds of thousands of the human race. 
 No doubt all this vast wealth was obtained in a blameless man- 
 ner; but its concentration in one individual cannot be defended 
 on general humanitarian or Christian grounds. Apart from this, 
 however, one cannot but admire the character of Brassey, and 
 feel a national pride in his achievements. 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 
 
337 
 
 THE FAIRBAIRNS. 
 
 THE Fairbairns are a remarkable family, whose chief repre- 
 sentatives did much to advance the material prosperity of Eng- 
 land during the first half of the nineteenth century. Their 
 principal centres of operation were Manchester and Leeds ; 
 and to William and Peter Fairbairn especially, the science of 
 engineering owes much of its recent extraordinary develop- 
 ment and usefulness. Their scientific inventions and improve- 
 ments rank among the most important of those associated with 
 shipping, firearms, agricultural machinery, etc. L ; ke many 
 other good things together with some others not so good 
 the family came from Scotland. Looking at the records of 
 genius and talent as a whole, we must cheerfully recognise that 
 the Scotch people take a high intellectual level. Directly or 
 indirectly they have, since the Union of 1707, done much to- 
 wards moulding the destinies of this great Empire at home and 
 abroad. 
 
 I propose, first, to trace briefly the career of William Fair- 
 bairn, the eminent civil engineer. He was born at Kelso, in 
 Roxburghshire, February i9th, 1789, his father, Andrew Fair- 
 bairn, being descended from one of those small lairds who 
 farmed their own land. His grandmother, whose maiden name 
 was Anderson, claimed descent from the ancient Border family 
 of Douglas. Andrew Fairbairn had a somewhat chequered 
 career. While residing near a seaport in England he was pressed 
 for the war, and served under Lord Howe at Gibraltar. At the 
 close of the war the fleet was ordered to Spithead, and he was 
 
 z 
 
338 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 here in August, 1782, when the Royal George went down, and 
 assisted in saving the survivors. On receiving his discharge he 
 returned to Scotland, and married a Miss Henderson, daughter 
 of a tradesman in Jedburgh, who was also descended from an 
 old Border family of the name of Oliver, though the Hender- 
 sons were now stock-farmers at the northern foot of the Che- 
 viots. A large family quickly gathered round the Fairbairns, 
 and Andrew had some difficulty in maintaining them all, not- 
 withstanding his sober and industrious habits. Sir William 
 Fairbairn states in his Recollections which have been edited 
 and expanded into a biography by Mr. Pole that he had little 
 education. At the parish school he read selections from the 
 best poets and prose writers, and if to these be added a course 
 of arithmetic as far as Practice and the Rule of Three, they 
 constitute the whole stock of book knowledge up to his tenth 
 year. But he gained a great deal of outdoor experience, and 
 was a proficient in athletic sports. His father was intimate with 
 the Scotts of Sandy Knowe, and though in* a humbler position 
 was highly respected by them. He was well acquainted with 
 Sir Walter Scott in his youth, and used often to carry him, when 
 unable to walk from the dislocation of the hip-bone, which made 
 him a cripple for life. 
 
 While William Fairbairn's father was a hard worker, his 
 mother appears to have been the same. Indeed she was 
 often remonstrated with over her heavy labours at the spinning- 
 wheel, which were supplementary to her arduous domestic 
 duties. 'For nearly twenty years,' says her son, 'from 1785 
 to 1804, I believe the whole, or nearly the whole, of the 
 woollen clothes, shirting, sheets, and blankets were spun and 
 manufactured by my mother. In addition to these industrial 
 resources, which always formed a prominent feature in my 
 mother's character, there were her knowledge and skill in 
 the useful arts. She was thoroughly acquainted with dyeing 
 and bleaching ; when my father resided in the Highlands of 
 Scotland, she made his coats, waistcoats, and breeches, as well 
 
THE FA1RBAIRXS. 339 
 
 as all the jackets and trousers for her sons. She was also an 
 adept at dressmaking, and used not only to make for herself 
 and daughters, but frequently cut out for the neighbours, and 
 she encouraged the same system of economy in other families 
 as she practised in her own.' Ladies of London dying from 
 ennui, please copy in the spirit at least, as you cannot in the 
 letter. In the autumn of 1799 Andrew Fairbairn and his 
 brother Peter leased from Lord Seaforth a farm called Moy 
 Farm, on the banks of the River Conan, about five miles from 
 Dingwall, Ross-shire. Andrew was to supply the skill and 
 industry required for the management, and was to have cne- 
 half of the stock and one half of the proceeds. The Kelso 
 home was broken up, and in October Andrew Fairbairn set 
 forth for his northern home with a delicate wife and a family 
 of five children, the youngest only six weeks old. The journey 
 was upwards of two hundred miles through a wild country, and 
 at a most inclement season of the year. It was made in a 
 farm-cart which had some canvas stretched over it. Mrs. 
 Fairbairn was so ill as to require to be lifted in and out of 
 the cart every night and morning. 
 
 Young Fairbairn's next two years were spent at Moy Farm. 
 He was only eleven years of age when he first exhibited his 
 strong bias towards mechanics. He has thus related what 
 took place at this period: 'After the first year's residence 
 at Moy, my younger brother Peter, then a child of fifteen 
 months old, required a great deal of nursing, and as that 
 duty devolved upon my eldest sister and myself, I managed, 
 in order to relieve myself of the trouble of carrying him en 
 my back, to make a little waggon with four wheels, and by 
 attaching a piece of old rope, used to drag him in all direc- 
 tions, sometimes to a considerable distance from the farm. 
 The construction of the waggon was, however, a formidable 
 undertaking, as I had no tools but a knife, a gimlet, and an 
 old saw. With these implements, a piece of thin board, and 
 a few small nails, I managed to make a respectable waggon, 
 
 z 2 
 
340 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 which, though frequently out of repair, was nevertheless much 
 better than could be expected. The greatest difficulty was the 
 wheels, which I surmounted by cutting sections from the stem of 
 a small alder tree, and with a red-hot iron burnt the holes in 
 the centre to receive the axle. The success which attended 
 this construction led to others of greater importance, which I 
 continued to practice, and which my father encouraged during 
 the whole time we were in the Highlands. In the formation 
 of boats and ships I became an expert artificer, and was at 
 once a " Jack-of-all-trades," having to build, rig, and sail my 
 own vessels. From shipbuilding I proceeded to construct 
 wind- and water-mills, and attained such proficiency that I 
 had sometimes five or six mills in operation at once. They 
 were all made with the knife. The water-spout was composed 
 of the bark of a tree, and the mill-stones were represented by 
 round discs of the same material. It is not for me to offer an 
 opinion as to the influence these exercises had upon my future 
 fortunes ; I may leave others to form their own judgment.' 
 
 Changes soon came, and for a time Andrew Fairbairn acted 
 as steward to Mackenzie of Allan Grange, and subsequently as 
 farm-steward to Sir William Ingleby of Ingleby Manor, Knares- 
 borough. Meantime, William acquired some further rudiments 
 of an English education at a school at Mullochy ; and then he 
 was taken for a time by Jiis Uncle William of Galashiels, who 
 improved his arithmetic and gave him a short course of book- 
 keeping and land-surveying. But in 1803, being then a tall lad 
 of fourteen, he was taken away from school and recalled to 
 Kelso, in order to do something to help his family, who were 
 reduced to great straits before the father's return from York- 
 shire. William obtained employment at the New Bridge, 
 which was then being built by Rennie, but when his father 
 was appointed early in 1804 manager of a farm near the Percy 
 Main Colliery, North Shields, he joined him there. It is at 
 this place that his real history begins. He was bound appren- 
 tice for seven years to a millwright named Robinson, and was 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 341 
 
 to receive wages beginning with five shillings per week and 
 increasing to twelve shillings. By extra work the young 
 apprentice sometimes doubled his wages and rendered great 
 assistance to his parents, who still had a severe struggle in 
 rearing and educating their children. During the winter 
 evenings, when he did not work overtime, he entered upon a 
 systematic course of study, which included arithmetic, mensu- 
 ration, history, mathematics, Euclid, and some lighter reading. 
 There was an excellent library at Shields to which he had 
 access. Astronomy and music he likewise devoted some 
 attention to. 
 
 In course of time he was promoted from the workshop to- 
 take charge of the pumps and steam-engine of Percy Main 
 Colliery, and this gave him an independent position. In this 
 post he remained until he came of age, and his apprenticeship 
 indenture was cancelled. Then he began the serious business 
 of life. He obtained employment as a millwright at Newcastle, 
 and near that city he met with his future wife. She was 
 Dorothy Mar, the youngest daughter of a Morpeth burgess, 
 who had long occupied a farm on the Wansbeck called Mar's- 
 Banks. He indulged many day-dreams of fortune and domestic 
 happiness, and it was with some pangs that he took leave of 
 Dorothy in December, 1811, in order to proceed to London. 
 He embarked on board a collier-ship, which passed through 
 a terrible time before it reached the Nore. Fairbairn's early 
 experiences of the Metropolis were anything but cheerful, for 
 during the very first night he slept on shore, a whole family 
 were murdered in the next house to his own. London was 
 frost-bound and provisions were dear, but the brave young 
 fellow at once set forth in quest of work. He and a friend 
 appeared before the Millwrights' Society, but owing to some 
 informality in their qualifications they were rejected by that 
 body, and refused permission to work for Rennie, as Fairbairn 
 had hoped to do. Cold, hunger, and despair ensued for about 
 a month. Among other undertakings, the two friends walked 
 
342 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 from London to Hertford without food, and reached the latter 
 place with a combined purse amounting to thirteenpence. 
 After they joined the Independent Society of Millwrights 
 things became brighter, and Fairbairn found employment 
 successively at Shadwell, Wandsworth, and Greenwich. His 
 income varied from two to three pounds a week. He came 
 greatly to enjoy London ; visited the theatres ; heard Major 
 Cartwright and Gale Jones declaim at the Westminster Forum, 
 and spent pleasant Sundays with some relatives in St. Martin's 
 Lane. 
 
 In conjunction with a clergyman named Hall, who was 
 also somewhat of a mechanician, Fairbairn constructed a 
 steam plough, but it found favour neither with the Society of 
 Arts nor the Board of Agriculture. Fairbairn, too, at length 
 saw its inutility, and abandoned the machine, which, however, 
 had exhausted all his savings. His next venture, which was 
 entirely on his own account, was more successful. He agreed 
 with a pork-butcher in Tottenham Court Road to make him 
 for ^33 a machine for chopping meat for sausages. The 
 machine was constructed, and it worked admirably. He now 
 made a tour in the South and. West of England, reaching Bath 
 in April, 1813. Having worked for a short time at Bathgate, 
 he again set out on foot, and visited Bradford in Wilts, Trow- 
 bridge, Bristol, Newport, Llandaff, and Cardiff. Then he took 
 passage to Dublin, and in the Irish capital found employment 
 in making nail machinery at the Phoenix Foundry. Returning 
 to England in a few months, he engaged himself at Man- 
 chester to Mr. Adam Parkinson, with whom he remained 
 for two years. He saved a little money in view of his marriage, 
 and eventually he and Miss Mar were united at Bedlington, 
 near Newcastle, on June i6th, 1816. They remained a few 
 .days in the North, and then journeyed to Macclesfield, sub- 
 sequently removing to Manchester, where they took a little 
 cottage. In March, 1817, a daughter was born to them, but 
 for a time Mrs. Fairbairn was dangerously ill. By desperate 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 343 
 
 struggles, however, the young couple kept out of debt. He 
 was employed for a time as draughtsman by a Mr. Hewes, but 
 in November, 1817, he retired from his service and began 
 business on his own account. He found a partner in an old 
 shopmate, Mr. James Lillie, and they remained together for 
 fifteen years. Their first contract was for an iron conservatory, 
 over which there was some difficulty on a complaint of infringe- 
 ment of patent, and the early years of the partnership were 
 years of struggle. 
 
 The partners hired a small shed at a rent of twelve shillings 
 per week, and having set up a lathe they engaged an Irishman 
 to turn it, feeling that they were now ready to receive orders. 
 We learn from an authoritative source that ' success was slow 
 in coining, and Lillie began to have gloomy forebodings. As 
 a last resource it was resolved to try what could be done by 
 personal solicitation amongst spinners and manufacturers, and 
 Mr. Fairbairn went round and interviewed many of them. 
 This led to the young millwrights being engaged by Messrs. 
 Murray, the cotton-spinners, " to renew with horizontal cross- 
 shafts " the whole of the work by which their mule-spinning 
 machinery was turned. Fairbairn and Lillie were almost 
 frightened at the magnitude of this order ; nevertheless they 
 set steadily to work to execute it ; and so well were their 
 employers satisfied that Mr. Murray recommended the engi- 
 neers to the firm of MacConnell & Kennedy, who then had 
 the largest cotton-spinning concern in the country. Messrs. 
 MacConnell & Kennedy were about this time erecting 
 a large new mill, and they intrusted Messrs. Fairbairn & 
 Lillie with the important task of supplying the necessary 
 engineering work, gearing, etc. Improvements of a valuable 
 character were introduced by Mr. Fairbairn, whereby the con- 
 struction of the driving shafts and their connections was greatly 
 simplified and lightened, giving increased speed and additional 
 security. The firm of Fairbairn & Lillie had now a prosperous 
 career before them ; their reputation was made ; orders came 
 
344 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 in faster than they could be executed ; and larger premises and 
 more extensive machinery had to be resorted to. Ten years 
 after their start in business, Fairbairn & Lillie were amongst 
 the foremost firms of mechanical engineers in the country. 
 The improvements they effected had a wonderful influence on 
 the development of our textile manufactures. Iron- work of 
 every description came within the scope of Mr. Fairbairn's 
 operations ; his fame as a scientific mechanic extended far and 
 near.' 
 
 In 1824 Fairbairn accepted a contract to construct two great 
 water-wheels for Buchanan's Catrine Cotton Works, in Ayrshire, 
 These powerful wheels were fifty feet each in diameter, with 
 1 20, or collectively 240, horse-power. The work was success- 
 fully executed, and the water-wheels started in June, 1827, 
 ' They have never lost a day since that time,' wrote Fairbairn 
 in 1851, 'and they remain, even at the present day, probably 
 the most perfect hydraulic machines of the kind in Europe/ 
 The* engineer's next important task was in Switzerland or 
 rather it was carried on simultaneously with the Ayrshire one, 
 He remodelled a water-mill and erected two water-wheels for 
 Mr. G. Escher of Zurich. Numerous orders now followed in 
 quick succession for new water-wheels in the Vosges, Alsace, 
 and other parts of France. Such was the increase of business, 
 that in 1830 the stock-book of Fairbairn & Lillie showed a 
 balance of nearly ,40,000 in their favour, and left them suffi- 
 cient capital to build a foundry, and increase the works in 
 other departments to the extent of giving employment to 
 upwards of 300 hands. In April, 1830, Fairbairn was formally 
 enrolled as a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 
 
 Fairbairn's investigation into the properties of iron boats, 
 and the possibility of applying steam-power for traction on 
 canals, led to important practical results, as well as to the pro- 
 duction of his first treatise on engineering matters, entitled 
 Remarks on Canal Navigation. The Forth and Clyde Company 
 commissioned him to construct a light passage boat, worked 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 345 
 
 by steam-power, to ply between Glasgow and Edinburgh. He 
 accordingly built the Lord Dundas, which was 68 feet long 
 and 4 feet 6 inches deep, drawing sixteen inches of water. She 
 was built of iron plates, about one-sixteenth of an inch thick, 
 and she was fitted with cabins fore and aft. The engine was 
 on the locomotive pattern, having two cylinders, one on each 
 side, and was equal to about ten horse-power. Several trials 
 were made of the vessel, and then for upwards of two years 
 she carried passengers from Port Dundas, Glasgow, to Port 
 Eglinton, Edinburgh. At a low velocity of about five miles an 
 hour she steamed beautifully, but it soon became apparent 
 that nothing could be effected in the shape of high velocities 
 on canals to compete with the new locomotives then in process 
 of development on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. 
 
 Writing to Baron Charles Dupin more than twenty years 
 afterwards with regard to his early experiments in iron vessels, 
 he thus spoke of the Lord Dundas : ' Although it did not 
 realise the objects for which it was originally constructed,' 
 namely, the attainment of high velocities, it nevertheless paved 
 the way to a new system of marine construction which has 
 since become general amongst the nations of Europe and 
 America. In the construction of the Lord Dundas., which was 
 entrusted to my care, several important ideas presented them- 
 selves. First, the superior strength of iron as compared with 
 wood ; the distribution of the material in these constructions ; 
 and the superiority and lightness which a judicious application 
 of this material afforded. All these circumstances were present 
 to my mind in the construction of the Lord Dundas, and by 
 the introduction of ~f and angle ~| iron as frames and ribs I 
 found that the requisite rigidity and strength was attained at a 
 comparatively small expenditure of material. In the construc- 
 tion of iron ships I may mention that our knowledge at the 
 commencement was very imperfect ; and I had to watch with 
 the utmost care and attention the position and disposition of 
 the material in order to effect economy in its use, and that 
 
346 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 with as near an approach as possible to the maximum of 
 strength. In this respect I laboured under great difficulties ; 
 and having no data on which we could rely for guidance in 
 these constructions, I felt the want of information, and at a 
 very early period (1834) determined to institute a series of ex- 
 periments on the strength of malleable-iron of different forms 
 and conditions, in order to effect an improved system of con- 
 struction, both as regards the strength and a judicious applica- 
 tion of the material. These experiments were laid before the 
 Royal Society, and published in the transactions of that body,' 
 A speculation by Fairbairn and his partner in taking up the 
 Egerton dye-works led to disaster, and other incidents which 
 followed led Fairbairn to believe that they would be better 
 apart, so the partnership was dissolved in 1832. As soon as 
 Fairbairn began business on his sole account he turned his 
 attention to the new branch of engineering manufacture iron 
 shipbuilding. He constructed an iron steamer called the 
 Manchester, with high-pressure engines of forty horse-power. 
 She was tried with great success on the Mersey, and for years 
 she plied between Port Dundas and the towns along the Firth 
 of Forth up to Dundee. The vessel had great strength, 
 buoyancy, and lightness. Encouraged by his efforts, Fairbairn 
 turned his eyes towards London, and bought a plot of land 
 at Millwall, Poplar. Here, with one of his pupils, Andrew 
 Murray whom he gave a small share in the concern, he 
 entered into business in 1835. In the course of a single year 
 orders were received for twelve iron vessels for navigating the 
 Ganges, for the East India Company, and four others for 
 different parts of Europe. Of course opposition soon sprang 
 up, and Fairbairn had many anxieties, while he was compelled 
 frequently to travel backwards and forwards from his works in 
 Manchester to those in London. He employed altogether now 
 more than 2,000 hands. Fairbairn alternated shipbuilding with 
 miscellaneous work, for we find him engaged on a drainage 
 scheme for the Soham Mere, in Cambridgeshire, reporting with 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 347 
 
 J. F. Bateman (who afterwards married his daughter) on the 
 water-power of the River Barm, in county Down, Ireland, and 
 on other matters. He next, in conjunction with Mr. Eaton 
 Hodgkinson, made experiments on hot and cold blast cast-iron 
 for the British Association, and the results were embodied in a 
 paper read before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 
 Society in 1837. He then invented and introduced the rivet- 
 ing machine, which has been of the greatest utility in engineer- 
 ing manufacture, greatly improving the quality and reducing 
 the price of labour. In perfecting this invention he received 
 valuable aid from his assistant-engineer, Robert Smith, to 
 whom he gave a share in the patent. 
 
 From 1839 to 1843 Fairbairn was chiefly engaged in the 
 Turkish dominions, executing various important works for the 
 Sultan. On the completion of his enterprises, Sultan Abdul 
 Medjid conferred upon him an imperial decoration set in dia- 
 monds, together with a firman constituting him chief fabricator 
 of the machineries required to be cast and fitted up in England 
 for the use of the imperial Turkish factories. Fairbairn made 
 experimental researches into the properties of the iron-ores of 
 Samakoff in Turkey and of the haematite ores of Cumberland, 
 with a view of determining the best means for reducing them 
 into the cast and malleable states. He also examined into the 
 relative strength and other properties of cast-iron from the 
 Turkish and other haematite ores. A paper on these enquiries 
 was laid before the Institution of Civil Engineers in April, 1844, 
 and Fairbairn was awarded the Telford silver medal for his 
 communication. Further experiments on cast-iron he made 
 shortly afterwards, and he took out a patent for improvements 
 in joining metal plates. He likewise made suggestions to the 
 factory authorities for the diminution and prevention of acci- 
 dents, and recommended the use of iron in the construction of 
 large buildings. In November, 1847, he gave important evi- 
 dence before the Iron Structure Commission, and in a subse 
 quent communication made useful suggestions for experiments, 
 
348 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 and furnished full particulars of the investigation he had made 
 for the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges. He next in- 
 vented the ventilating bucket for water-wheels, constructing a 
 small passage opening upwards out of the bucket, by which, 
 when the water entered, the air could rise and get away, and 
 thus leave the vessel free for the reception of the water. 
 
 Among Fairbairn's pupils taken in 1840 was George Birk- 
 beck, son of the celebrated founder of Mechanics' Institutes, 
 and he was a frequent visitor in Fairbairn's house. In Septem- 
 ber, 1841, the inventor's daughter, Anne, was married to Mr. 
 Bateman. A pathetic story is narrated of Fairbairn's relations 
 with the eccentric artist, B. R. Hay don. In December, 1844, 
 Haydon wrote to his friend as follows : ' You once gave me 
 hopes of an order. Shall I make a proposition ? Frank goes 
 up for examination and his degree in a week or ten days at fur- 
 thest. His fees are ^"15, and his college bill ^41 145. nd. == 
 ^56 143. i id. I have brought him through all his terms but 
 this last, and if this last be not paid up, he is ruined, and will 
 not have his degree. I will paint you a small picture for that 
 amount, or for any portion you will advance me at once. You 
 were kind to Frank, and may feel an interest in getting him 
 through. I never broke my word about a picture in my life. 
 Close at once and you shall have an ornament for your house/ 
 Fairbairn gave an order for a picture of the value of ^30. Poor 
 Haydon painted it, and about the middle of June, 1845, called 
 at the house of one of Fairbairn's relatives in London, and left 
 an unfinished sketch in the hall, giving a hasty -message. On 
 the 22nd of the same month the unhappy artist shot himself in 
 his studio. The picture, ' Christ before Pilate,' still remains in 
 the possession of the Fairbairn family. 
 
 In January, 1846, Fairbairn's father died at the venerable age 
 of eighty-six. Fairbairn felt the visitation keenly, for there was 
 a deep strain of tenderness in his nature ; and in writing to 
 his wife he said, ' Although a father myself, I experience the 
 weakness of a child at the bereavement I have sustained.' 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 
 
 549 
 
 Fairbairn rendered valuable aid to Robert Stephenson in the 
 great series of experimental investigations necessary to deter- 
 mine the details and proportions of the Britannia and Conway 
 colossal Tubular Bridges. After the completion of the bridges, 
 he published a work describing their construction, and giving a 
 complete history of their progress, from the conception of the 
 original idea to the conclusion of the elaborate experiments 
 which determined the exact form and mode of construction 
 ultimately adopted. Stephenson's idea was a circular tube, 
 supported by chains ; but the bridges, as finally completed, 
 were rectangular structures, without chains, invented and de- 
 signed by Fairbairn. A patent was taken out for the discovery 
 under the title of ' Improvements in the construction of iron 
 beams for the erection of bridges and other structures.' The 
 improvements consisted in the novel application and use of 
 plates of metal, united by means of rivets and angle-iron, for 
 such or similar purposes, and forming by such combination 
 a hollow iron beam or girder. Full details concerning the 
 Britannia and Conway bridges are given in the article on the 
 Stephensons, but I may append here a passage from Fairbairn 
 respecting the patent : ' The patent for wrought-iron girder 
 bridges was a joint affair between Mr. R. Stephenson and my- 
 self. It was in my name as the inventor, but he paid half the 
 expense, and was entitled to one-half the profits, but it ulti- 
 mately became a dead letter, and was abandoned by Mr. 
 Stephenson. Under the circumstances the question was, Shall 
 I continue to build the bridges? I chose to do so, and I believe 
 I did right, as the principle was quite new, and no one under- 
 stood the construction so well. I therefore gave designs, and 
 received orders for more than one hundred bridges in the 
 course of a very few years. Up to the present time, 1870, I 
 have built and designed, with the assistance of the Fairbairn 
 Engineering Company, nearly one thousand bridges, some of 
 them of large spans varying from 40 to 300 feet.' 
 
 Between 1849 and 1852 Fairbairn was much occupied with 
 
350 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 a scheme for a great bridge over the Rhine at Cologne. He 
 gave a great deal of consideration to the work, and went over 
 to Berlin, where he saw much of the famous Baron von Hum- 
 boldt and of the Chevalier Bunsen. Fairbairn combated the 
 idea of a chain bridge, and submitted a design based on his 
 own principle. This was generally adopted in the construction 
 of the bridge, though the tubular form of girder was rejected for 
 the open lattice one. On August 23rd, 1852, Fairbairn thus 
 wrote to Humboldt : ' From the condescending manner in 
 which I was received by his Majesty, and the unwearied atten- 
 tion you personally bestowed on the objects of my journey, I 
 was taught to believe that at no very distant period I should 
 again have the pleasure of meeting you, and that the projected 
 bridge across the Rhine at Cologne, in which you took so deep 
 an interest, would sooner or later have been carried into effect. 
 I believe this is now likely to be accomplished, not upon the 
 principle I recommended, but some other construction, which 
 doubtless the authorities believe superior to those I had the 
 honour to lay before them. One important consideration was, 
 however, obtained by our united exertions, and that was to con- 
 demn an imperfect and abortive construction, and to direct the 
 public mind to the importance of having a structure that was 
 not only capable of supporting the railway, but all the other 
 objects contemplated in the requirements of the public traffic. 
 These objects have now been attained ; at least, I am so in- 
 formed, and that the drawbridges, as well as the hoisting and 
 lowering of the carriages from one level to another, are to be 
 dispensed with. This, you will recollect, is what we contended 
 for, and I consider it fortunate for the country that his Majesty 
 suspended the perpetration of a project that would never have 
 realised the expectations of the Government or the wants of the 
 public.' 
 
 The Rhine Bridge, as finally constructed, was begun by 
 'two Prussian engineers, Wallbaum and Lohse, in 1855, and 
 finished some years later. Crossing the river in a line with the 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 351 
 
 axis of the Cathedral, it has four spans, each 313 feet wide in 
 the clear. There are two pairs of girders, side by side, one 
 pair carrying a double line of railway, and the other the road 
 traffic. The girders are formed of open lattice- work, instead of 
 plates, as Fairbairn had proposed, but in all other material 
 respects there was little departure from the English engineer's 
 designs. 
 
 Fairbairn's scientific standing was now assured, and in June, 
 1850, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was 
 next admitted into that august body which composed the 
 National Institute of France. A vacancy occurred in the middle 
 of the year 1851 among the Corresponding Members of the 
 Academy of Sciences by the death of Sir Marc Isambard 
 Brunei. At the instigation of his friends Generals Poncelet 
 and Morin, Baron Dupin, and M. Arago who were influen- 
 tial members of the Institute Fairbairn offered himself as a 
 candidate, and was elected in May, 1852. A third distinction 
 awaited him in 1853, when he was elected, without ballot, into 
 the Athenaeum Club, under the rule which permits the Com- 
 mittee to elect every year a certain number of men eminent in 
 science, literature, or art, or who have been distinguished by 
 their public services. Among those elected under this rule in 
 the same year as Fairbairn were Thomas Carlyle, Baron Maro- 
 chetti, and Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A. During the ensuing 
 fourteen years these further honours were conferred upon Fair- 
 bairn : In November, 1855, he was elected Member of the" 
 Academic Nationale Agricole, Manufacturiere et Commerciale, 
 Paris; in December, 1856, a Corresponding Associate of the 
 Royal Academy of Sciences, Turin; in November, 1860, an 
 Honorary Member of the Prussian ' Verein fur Befbrderung des 
 Gewerbfleisses,' Berlin ; in July, 1861, an Honorary Member of 
 the Royal United Service Institution, London ; in November, 
 1 86 1, a Corresponding Member of the Literary and Philoso- 
 phical Society of Liverpool; in the same month, an Hono- 
 rary Associate of the Institution of Naval Architects, London ; 
 
352 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 in February, 1862, an Honorary Member of the Yorkshire 
 Philosophical Society; in June, 1862, an Honorary Associate 
 of the Society of Arts, Geneva ; and in October, 1867, an 
 Honorary Member of the Society of Engineers, London. 
 
 During a great portion of his life, Fairbairn was engaged in 
 the manufacture of steam-boilers, greatly improving them as 
 regards design and construction. In 1844, says Mr. Pole, he 
 introduced a particularly valuable change in boiler design. 
 ' He was always an advocate of high-pressure steam, on account 
 of its economical advantage ; but its use was limited by a fear 
 of danger in the vessel wherein it was generated. The kind 
 of boiler which had been found by experience to be best 
 adapted for this purpose was that known as the Cornish or 
 Trevithick's boiler. This was of cylindrical form, having a 
 tube running through it in which the fire was placed. This 
 had the disadvantage that the tube must necessarily be of large 
 size, so as to admit sufficient fire, and it was on that account 
 exposed to a severe external crushing strain, which its form 
 was not well calculated to bear. It had also the evil that the 
 water over the top of the tube was only of small depth, and 
 if by accident the water level happened to get low, the top 
 of the tube, being exposed to the most intense action of the 
 fire, was liable to become over- heated, which would lead to 
 danger of explosion. The steam space was also contracted 
 by the necessary height of the water-line. Mr. Fairbairn's im- 
 provement consisted in using two internal fire-tubes, of smaller 
 size, instead of one large one. These tubes were subject to a 
 much diminished external strain, while at the same time they 
 allowed of an increase of the fire-grate and heating surface ; 
 and, what was of more importance, a much greater depth of 
 water could be maintained over them, and the level could, if 
 necessary, be lowered so as to enlarge the steam room.' 
 
 This simple but useful design was patented by Fairbairn 
 and an engineer who had aided him named John Hethering- 
 ton. The boiler was soon widely adopted and became the 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 353 
 
 one in general use in the northern manufacturing districts. 
 Steam-boilers were sometimes so defectively constructed that 
 fatal accidents ensued, and Fairbairn was called in as a 
 scientific expert to explain the cause or causes of the disasters. 
 He attended inquiries of this nature at Bolton, Halifax, Black- 
 burn, Manchester, and other places. He was also invited by 
 Sir Edward Baines, President of the Yorkshire Union of Me- 
 chanics' Institutes, to lecture on the subject, and he accordingly 
 delivered two lectures at Leeds 'On the Construction of Boilers' 
 and ' On Boiler Explosions,' and these were repeated in several 
 other manufacturing towns. The lectures were afterwards re- 
 published in Useful Information for Engineers, and in various 
 foreign scientific periodicals. Then to the Hull meeting of 
 the British Association in 1853 he communicated a paper en- 
 titled ' Experimental Researches to determine the Strength of 
 Locomotive Boilers and the Causes which lead to Explosion.' 
 But, not content with theorising, he proceeded to initiate 
 practical reforms by founding the 'Association for the Preven- 
 tion of Steam-boiler Explosions' an association which has 
 been of incalculable benefit in saving life and property. Under 
 Fairbairn's guidance it became one of the most valuable me- 
 chanical institutions of the country. 
 
 The following passage from the memoir of Fairbairn shows 
 the absolute necessity which had arisen for such an organisa- 
 tion : 'The Mining Journal of September 9, 1854, recorded 
 the verdict of the coroner's jury on a fearful boiler explosion 
 at Rochdale, which verdict concluded with the following para- 
 graph : " The jury cannot separate without pressing on the 
 consideration of the owners and users of steam-boilers through- 
 out the kingdom the necessity there is that measures should 
 be taken by them to ensure a thorough and frequent inspection 
 of boilers, so as to prevent, so far as human foresight can, the 
 recurrence of explosions." In giving his evidence on this tragic 
 case (where ten persons were blown to atoms and an immense 
 deal of property was destroyed), Mr. Fairbairn suggested it was 
 
 A A 
 
354 LEA DERS OF MODERN IND USTR Y. 
 
 possible, and indeed quite practicable, to establish associations 
 in the several districts, the members of which should appoint 
 inspectors to take cognizance of the boilers within their re- 
 spective precincts, and to report to the association weekly in 
 what state they found them, and the causes which prevented 
 them from being in working order, if the inspectors should 
 consider such to be the case. He did not conceive that it 
 would be any tax on the proprietors of boilers to pay a trifling 
 sum yearly to meet the expense of such an association, for it 
 struck him forcibly that, in addition to preventing those very 
 serious accidents, it would be productive of benefit to the pro- 
 prietors themselves, and save a great deal of money.' 
 The Journal added : 
 
 1 Since the above observations were written, we perceive that 
 Mr. Fairbairn's earnest recommendation has been adopted, 
 and that an association has been formed in the district for 
 the inspection of steam-boilers and the prevention of boiler 
 explosions. We cannot avoid anticipating from it the best 
 results.' 
 
 Influential meetings were held in the Manchester Town 
 Hall, and the association was successfully established, with 
 Henry Houldsworth as the first president. The full title of 
 the Society was * The Manchester Steam-users' Association, for 
 the Prevention of Steam-boiler Explosions, and for the Attain- 
 ment of Economy in the Application of Steam.' The objects 
 and constitution of the Association were thus defined : ' This 
 Association undertakes the periodical inspection of steam- 
 boilers, and gives a pecuniary guarantee of the integrity and 
 efficiency of its inspections to the amount of ^300 on each 
 boiler enrolled, so that in the event of the explosion of an ap- 
 proved boiler, whether that explosion arise from collapse of 
 the furnace tubes, or from rupture of the shell, or failure of any 
 part of the boiler whatever, all damage done thereby, other 
 than by fire, whether to the boiler itself, or to the surrounding 
 property, will be made good to the extent of ^300, The 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 355 
 
 Association also assists its members by taking indicator diagrams 
 when requested, as well as by affording competent engineering 
 advice with regard to the working of boilers and engines, the 
 prevention of smoke, the economy of fuel,, and any other points 
 calculated to prove of value to the members of the Association 
 as steam-users. Its system of inspection is voluntary and 
 permissive on the part of its members. Its reports are sugges- 
 tive and recommendatory on the part of its officers. Its benefits 
 are mutually shared by all enrolled. There are no shareholders 
 to whom dividends are paid out of the members' subscriptions, 
 but the funds are devoted solely to promoting the direct objects 
 of the Association. The executive committee are appointed by 
 the general voice of the members of the Association. They re- 
 ceive no remuneration for their services. They employ a con- 
 siderable amount of steam-power themselves, and are thus 
 interested in everything that affects its use. The object of 
 the guarantee is not so much to ensure the members against 
 pecuniary loss in case of explosion, as to give a pledge of the 
 bona fide intention of the Association to prevent the occurrence 
 of explosions by efficient supervision and careful periodical 
 boiler inspection.' 
 
 In less than twenty years the Association boasted of a mem- 
 bership of 768, with an annual income of ,5,236, and of 
 recent years it has prospered with like rapidity, though not to 
 the extent it should have done, considering the terrible risks 
 run with steam-boilers. As soon as he had founded the Boiler 
 Association, Fairbairn proceeded to take up the theoretical 
 side of the subject ; and he prevailed upon the Royal Society 
 and the British Association jointly to authorise an enquiry into 
 the principles of boiler construction. There were two branches 
 for investigation, viz., the methods of boiler construction and 
 the steam question. With regard to the first, he associated 
 with him a practical mathematician, Thomas Tate, a young 
 engineer named Unwin being engaged as secretary. The first 
 result was a paper read before the Royal Society in 1858, 'On 
 
 AA 3 
 
356 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the Resistance of Tubes to Collapse.' Fairbairn demonstrated 
 by a series of experiments that the strength of the tubes in boilers 
 diminished in an important degree as their length increased. 
 To remedy this, he found that it would be possible effective]}' 
 to shorten the tubes without shortening the boilers, and he 
 further suggested improvements in the riveting. Fairbairn's 
 experiments on this subject which were very expensive led, 
 in his own words, * to the establishment of the law of collapse 
 from pressure on the external surfaces ; and the improvements 
 deduced from this law led to the security of steam-boilers, by 
 doubling or trebling their powers of resistance, and thus were 
 the means of saving many valuable lives from violent death by 
 explosion.' The Royal Society made a grant towards the ex- 
 penses of the experiments, which were conducted at the engine- 
 shed of the London and North-Western Railway Company at 
 Longsight, Manchester. In 1859 a second paper this time by 
 Fairbairn and Tate was laid before the Roval Society. A 
 sequel to the former one, it was entitled 'On the Resistance 
 of Glass Globes and Cylinders to Collapse from Internal 
 Pressure, and on the Tensile and Compressive Strength of 
 various Kinds of Glass.' Like the previous paper, it was pub- 
 lished in the Philosophical Transactions. The experiments 
 with glass testified that the law of their strength corresponded 
 with that deduced for iron tubes. Another paper by Fairbairn 
 and Tate, read before the Royal Society in 1860, was entitled 
 ' Experimental Researches to determine the Density of Steam 
 at Different Temperatures ; and to determine the Law of Ex- 
 pansion of Superheated Steam.' The paper was recognised as 
 of such importance and merit that it was selected by the Society 
 as the Bakerian Lecture for the year, while it was also duly 
 published in the Philosophical Transactions. The researches 
 indicated in the paper proved of great practical service. 
 
 When the question arose whether legislative measures should 
 be introduced to ensure the safety of boilers, or to prevent or 
 diminish the danger of explosion, Fairbairn entered into the 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 357 
 
 controversy. In France, also, the matter excited much interest, 
 and an eminent mechanical engineer, M. Charles Combes, 
 wrote to Fairbairn for his views on the subject. In answer to the 
 question, ' Is it desirable to fix by law, under penalty of fines, 
 the thickness of plates, etc. ? ' Fairbairn replied, ' It is not de- 
 sirable, as there is a great difference in the quality of plates. 
 These points are left to the makers, and the Association make 
 no recommendations.' To the question, * Do you consider 
 the previous testing necessary?' he answered, 'We consider a 
 hydraulic test necessary up to one-and-a-half times, or in some 
 cases to double the pressure at which the boiler is worked.' 
 To the question, ' Is it desirable to prescribe, under penalty of 
 fines, the combustion of smoke ? ' he replied, ' Yes, under local 
 acts applied to towns, as the emission of smoke from furnaces 
 may be prevented.' Finally in answer to the query, 'Are there 
 any rules in England respecting the condition of the boiler- 
 house, etc. ? he said, ' There is no condition by law, but it is 
 desirable in every case to have boilers in a separate building, 
 distinct from the factory where a number of persons are em- 
 ployed.' 
 
 In 1868 the British Association appointed a Committee, con- 
 sisting of Messrs. Fairbairn, Whitworth, Penn, Hick, Bramwell, 
 Webster, Fletcher, and others, to consider 'how far coroners' 
 inquisitions are satisfactory tribunals for the investigation of 
 boiler explosions, and how these tribunals may be improved.' 
 The Committee reported in the following year to the effect 
 that the inquests were unsatisfactory, and they recommended 
 that coroners should get the assistance of skilled engineers. 
 Meantime Parliament made two attempts to place all steam- 
 boilers under Government inspection. The Committee, as well 
 as the British Association, were opposed to this, and in place of 
 such legislation, Fairbairn obtained in 1870 the appointment of 
 a Select Committee to investigate the question. This Com- 
 mittee sat during two Sessions, and in their report recommended 
 that the responsibility of explosion should remain upon the 
 
358 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 steam-users, and that the efficiency of coroners' inquiries should 
 be somewhat improved. 
 
 Fairbairn took out a patent for boiler improvements in 1870, 
 by which he contrived that boilers should have a resistance 
 equal to 750 Ib. pressure per square inch. There were also 
 arrangements by which the examination, cleaning, and repair 
 of boilers might be much facilitated. He took out a further 
 patent in 1873, in conjunction with Thomas Beeley, for im- 
 provements in the 1870 form of boiler, which rendered it more 
 especially suitable for steam vessels; and in February, 1874, he 
 forwarded to the Admiralty a design for the adaptation of the 
 new boiler to one of Her Majesty's frigates, the Daring, At 
 the instance of Mr. William Hopkins of Cambridge, Fairbairn 
 was engaged for some years in an inquiry as to certain physical 
 properties of the materials of the earth's crust. Mr. Hopkins 
 had contributed papers to the Royal Society on the Phenomena 
 of Precession and Nutation, the Thickness and Constitution of 
 the Earth's Crust, and the Geological Theories of Elevation and 
 Earthquakes ; and he was anxious for Fairbairn as a practical 
 engineer and a man of science to make experiments for the 
 purpose of determining whether great pressure has any sensible 
 effect on the temperature of fusion of any proposed substance 
 (a metallic substance for instance), -or, what would probably be 
 found to be the same thing, on the temperature at which any 
 substance, in a previous state of fusion, would become solid. 
 Mr. Hopkins obtained from the Government an allowance of 
 ^250 'for investigations on the effect of pressure on the tem- 
 perature of fusion of certain substances,' the inquiry to be con- 
 ducted under the superintendence of a Committee, of which 
 Mr. Joule was to be a member. Elaborate experiments were 
 made and gratifying results obtained, Mr. Hopkins warmly 
 acknowledging his obligations to Fairbairn and Joule, and the 
 former's assistant, William Ward. The results were stated in a 
 lecture given by Mr. Hopkins at the Royal Institution. Among 
 other things resulting from the data obtained, was the inference 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 359 
 
 that the actual thickness of the solid crust of the earth must 
 probably be at least 200 miles, and might be considerably 
 greater. 
 
 After Fairbairn had dissolved partnership with Lillie, he de- 
 voted himself specially to iron-shipbuilding and the construction 
 of steam-engines. The Canal Street Works at Ancoats, Man- 
 chester, were greatly enlarged and improved, and here a brisk 
 business was soon done in steam-engines. Boiler-making was 
 also another important branch of the manufactures carried on. 
 Then, in course of time, Fairbairn became a famous locomotive 
 maker, and more than 600 locomotives were built at his work- 
 shops. He was likewise the first designer of the tank-engine, in 
 which the fuel and water are carried on the engine itself, dispens- 
 ing with the separate tender. His son Thomas joined him as 
 a partner in 1841, and five years later another son, William 
 Andrew, entered the firm, which was now carried on under the 
 name of William Fairbairn & Sons. The business rapidly ex- 
 tended, and became very prosperous. Among extensive works 
 undertaken by the firm were, the iron arrangements for the 
 large landing-stage at St. George's Pier, Liverpool, and the 
 construction of a huge wrought- iron caisson for closing the 
 entrance to one of the docks at Keyham Dockyard, near Ply- 
 mouth. In 1850 Fairbairn took out a patent for an improved 
 crane for hoisting and lifting purposes, by which heavy articles 
 could be raised to a greater height, while the machine at the 
 same time offered greater strength and security. Six of these 
 large cranes were made for Keyham Dockyard, each crane 
 being calculated to lift 1 2 tons to a height of 30 feet from the 
 ground, and to sweep a circle 65 feet in diameter. Later, a 
 still larger one was constructed, which lifted 66 tons 60 feet 
 high, with a circle of 106 feet diameter. 
 
 When the Small Arms Factory at Enfield was established by 
 the Government in 1852, Fairbairn's aid was invoked. In con- 
 junction with the officials of the Ordnance Department, he laid 
 out the works, arranged the general design of the mechanical 
 
360 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 provisions, and constructed most of the machinery and iron- 
 work, with the exception of the wood- working machines. Then 
 in 1853 Fairbairn finished the largest work he had undertaken 
 in mill construction, namely, Sir Titus Salt's great woollen works 
 at Saltaire, near Bradford, Yorkshire. Mr. Pole remarks of these 
 works, and of Fairbairn's improvements in such works gener- 
 ally : ' This kind of work was peculiarly his own ; it was by it 
 that he first acquired his fame ; his practice in it was exceed- 
 ingly large, and he kept up his interest in it during the whole 
 of his manufacturing career. In addition to the improvements 
 originally introduced by him in the arrangement of the driving 
 machinery, he had continued to add other beneficial changes 
 from time to time ; and among others he was the first to take 
 the driving power from the rim of the fly-wheel of the steam- 
 engine, by providing it with teeth working into an adjoining 
 pinion of smaller size, which he considered had much advan- 
 tage in the directness of the action and the convenience of the 
 mechanical arrangements. But it was not only the machinery 
 of mills that he improved ; at a later period he devoted con- 
 siderable attention to the design and construction of the build- 
 ings in which the machinery was placed, more particularly as to 
 their strength and the preservation of them from fire. Many 
 accidents from malconstruction had come under his notice, and 
 he had turned every opportunity of this kind to account in the 
 improvement of his designs. Iron was hugely used in these 
 structures, and he made it his business to perfect the experi- 
 mental knowledge of the strength of the material in its different 
 forms, and of the best modes of applying it to the purposes in 
 question. The Saltaire mill was remarkable not only for its 
 great extent, but for the perfection of its design. It was en- 
 tirely planned by him, except the architectural features. A de- 
 scription of it, with plates, is given in Mr. Fairbairn's book on 
 the application of cast and wrought iron to building purposes, 
 published in 1854. The mills and dependencies extend over 
 6]j acres of ground. The main range of buildings, or the mill 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 361 
 
 proper, is 550 feet in length, 50 feet in width, and about 72 
 feet (six storeys) in height. The loom-shed, one storey high, 
 is nearly 300 feet long by 200 feet wide; and another, the comb- 
 ing shed, is a little smaller. The engines are 1,250 horse-power, 
 and the length of shafting is very nearly 2 miles, weighing up- 
 wards of 60 tons, and making from 60 to 250 revolutions per 
 minute. The mills contain within themselves every means of 
 preparing from the raw material the supply of 1,200 power 
 looms, the yield of which is 30,000 yards of alpaca per day, or 
 upwards of 5,000 miles per annum.' 
 
 The Manchester works of Fairbairn & Sons were so pros- 
 perous from 1848 to 1860 that they not only made good a loss 
 of ^100,000 sustained at Millwall, but enabled the partners to 
 amass considerable fortunes besides. During the Siege of 
 Sebastopol, Fairbairn constructed a floating flour-mill and 
 bakery for the troops, adapting for this purpose two iron 
 screw-steamers placed at his disposal by the Government. 
 Fairbairn practically retired from the firm before 1860, and, as 
 his son William also retired in 1859, Thomas became the sole 
 proprietor, and the works were now carried on under the style 
 of Fairbairn & Company. Nevertheless, it was under the 
 father's direction that the firm rebuilt in 1860 two large 
 viaducts on the Manchester and Sheffield Railway, in which 
 iron girders took the place of old timber arches. 
 
 The future course of the firm is thus detailed by Fairbiirn's 
 biographer: 'About 1864 the business was transferred to a 
 Limited Liability Company, who thenceforth traded under the 
 title of "The Fairbairn Engineering Company." Mr. Fair- 
 bairn and his family retained, however, a considerable pecuniary 
 interest in the concern, and Mr. Fairbairn himself still kept an 
 office on the works, and gave much personal attention to them. 
 The firm undertook several large contracts, among which was 
 the construction of some forts for the Government to be 
 erected at Spithead ; the roof of the Royal Albert Hall ; many 
 -arge bridges and roofs for railways, etc., etc. But about the 
 
362 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 time of Sir William's death the tide of a long-continued pros- 
 perity seemed to have turned, and in the face of a serious 
 depression in the iron trade, which was obviously coming on, 
 it was considered expedient not to risk further losses, but to 
 wind up the concern. The shops were accordingly dismantled, 
 and the plant was sold.' 
 
 The record of the shipbuilding yard at Millwall, which was 
 in existence about twelve years, was one of disaster. The 
 business never proved a paying one, and it absorbed a great 
 amount of capital ; yet much good work was executed there. 
 Mr. Pole thinks that if Liverpool had been chosen instead of 
 London for Fairbairn's shipbuilding works they might have 
 proved a success. The original outlay on the Millwall works 
 was heavy, and it was provided entirely by borrowed money, 
 which had to be increased from time to time, thus hanging 
 like a dead weight on the concern. The firm built for the 
 Admiralty the frigate Megcera, 2,000 tons, with engines of 600 
 horse-power, and they also constructed large engines for 
 several other frigates. For the East India Company they like- 
 wise constructed, as we have seen, twelve iron vessels, and 
 for the Peninsular and Oriental Company the Pottinger, 1,700 
 tons. Vessels were constructed for the mercantile marine 
 service ; eight steamers were built for the Baltic and four for 
 the Black Sea, etc. ; and iron steam yachts were built for the 
 Emperor of Russia and the King of Denmark. Fairbairn took 
 out two patents for improvements in marine steam machinery. 
 The first was for * Certain Improvements in the Construction 
 and Arrangement of Steam-engines,' and the second was for 
 an improvement in the mode of driving the screw-propeller by 
 the application of a large wheel with internal teeth. Though 
 oppressed with fits of melancholy as regards the Millwall 
 works, Fairbairn struggled bravely on, determined not to be 
 driven into the Bankruptcy Court. He avoided this alterna- 
 tive, but he felt compelled at last to wind up this branch of 
 the business, and the works were disposed of for ^12,000, 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 363 
 
 although they had cost upwards of ,50,000. It seems that 
 the total loss sustained by the Millvvall works was upwards of 
 ^100,000. 
 
 Fairbairn was engaged from 1861 to 1865 in aiding the 
 Government on an official investigation respecting the applica- 
 tion of iron to defensive purposes in warfare. For a long 
 time the Government authorities were opposed to iron vessels, 
 but they were at last borne down by the force of scientific 
 opinion, which Fairbairn assisted materially in moulding. He 
 made a series of important experiments on the mechanical 
 properties of iron and steel plates, their strength, ductility, 
 resistance to punching force, etc. Some of the results ob- 
 tained he communicated to the British Association, the Royal 
 Institution, and the Institution of Naval Architects. The 
 official Iron Armour Committee aided in the work, and even- 
 tually iron triumphed over wood in the construction of ships 
 of defence. 
 
 In the year 1850 Fairbairn visited the North of Europe. 
 He was received at St. Petersburg by the Czar, and at Stock- 
 holm was greeted with a warm welcome by the populace, 
 while King Oscar awarded him a special medal of distinc- 
 tion. At the Great Exhibition of 1851, in London, Fairbairn 
 acted as a juror in the machinery department. In 1853 he 
 was appointed President of the Mechanical Section of the 
 British Association, which met that year at Hull, and he 
 delivered the opening address ' On the Progress of Mechanical 
 Science.' In 1853-54 he formed one of a committee of the 
 British Association appointed to consider the best means for 
 cooling air in tropical climates. In 1854 he was elected Pre- 
 sident of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and was re- 
 elected to the office in the ensuing year. During the former 
 year (1854) he visited Paris. He was introduced to the 
 Academy of Sciences, and honoured with an interview by the 
 Emperor Napoleon, who presented him on leaving with a 
 handsome gold snuff-box set with diamonds. Chosen one of 
 
364 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the English jurors at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, he was 
 nominated by the French Imperial Commission as Chairman 
 of one of the mechanical sections. After the close of the 
 Exhibition, he addressed to the President of the Board of 
 Trade, Lord Stanley of Alderley, an elaborate report * On the 
 Machinery of the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1855.' For his 
 services in France, the Emperor Napoleon awarded him the 
 Legion of Honour in 1855. When in 1857 a public statue 
 was raised in Manchester to the great engineer James Watt, 
 Fairbairn delivered the inaugural address as President of the 
 Literary and Philosophical Society and Chairman of the Watt 
 Memorial Committee. He also contributed a note on Watt 
 to the memoir of him by Arago. We further find Fairbairn 
 generously interesting himself at this time on behalf of the 
 family of Henry Cort, an inventor who had contributed largely 
 to the improvement of the iron manufacture. 
 
 At the close of 1857 Fairbairn left England in order to 
 make a tour through Italy. He went by way of Paris, Mar- 
 seilles, Nice, and Genoa, and then visited the most important 
 cities of Italy, including Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna, 
 Milan, and Turin. Shortly after his return he read a paper 
 before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society ' On 
 the Comparative Temperature of the Climates of England 
 and some parts of Italy.' The writer demonstrated that, 
 although Italy had the credit of possessing a warm and agree- 
 able climate in the winter season, this only applied to the 
 districts which lay south of the Apennines. In the northern 
 cities he found the cold much greater than in England, and 
 almost Russian in its severity. From 1859 to 1865 Fairbairn 
 took a keen interest in the laying of the Atlantic Cable. He 
 was a member of the Permanent Consulting Scientific Com- 
 mittee, to whom mechanical questions as to the construction 
 and laying of the cable were referred from time to time. He 
 declined to join the Company, however, on account of his ad- 
 vancing years. He drew up several papers and reports on the 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 365 
 
 practicability of the scheme, and the best methods for carrying 
 it into effect. Fairbairn was for a number of years President 
 of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, which 
 owed much of its success and efficiency to his efforts. In 
 1860 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society for 
 his various experimental enquiries into the properties of the 
 materials employed in mechanical construction which enqui- 
 ries were duly set forth in the Philosophical Transactions and 
 in the publications of other scientific societies. 
 
 In 1 86 1 Fairbairn acted as President of the British Associa- 
 tion, whose meetings that year were held in Manchester. The 
 retiring President, Lord Wrottesley, on this occasion passed 
 the following eulogium on Fairbairn : 'We may derive impor- 
 tant instruction from the career of Mr. Fairbairn, whether we 
 view him as the successful engineer or as the distinguished 
 man of science. In the former capacity he is one who has by 
 perseverance, combined with talent, risen from small begin- 
 nings to the summit of his profession, and he forms one of 
 that noble class of men the Stephensons, the Brunels, the 
 Whitworths, the Armstrongs who have conferred such im- 
 portant services on their country, and some of whom, unfortu- 
 nately for that country, have perished, alas ! too soon, 
 exhausted by their arduous toils. Mr. Fairbairn, therefore, is 
 one of the many examples of what can be done in England 
 by such men who resolve, undaunted by the difficulties and 
 obstructions that beset their path, to struggle gallantly onward 
 till success crown their efforts. Again, if we look at Mr. 
 Fairbairn's claims to scientific distinction, they read to us an 
 important lesson, for they show what can be done by zeal and 
 energy, and the exercise of a strong and resolute will, fully 
 determined to carry out objects in which the public is deeply- 
 interested. It is extraordinary that any man should have 
 been able, during the few leisure hours that can be snatched 
 from an important and engrossing business, to accomplish for 
 science what Mr. Fairbairn has done ; and not only has he 
 
366 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 been a most successful contributor to mechanical science, but 
 his liberality has been unbounded in placing all his great 
 mechanical resources at the disposal of his fellow -labourers in 
 the same field. Such a man is one whom all should delight 
 to honour, and to such a man I resign with great satisfaction 
 the chair which I now vacate.' 
 
 Fairbairn delivered a comprehensive and searching inaugural 
 address on the recent triumphs of science, especially in the 
 branch of mechanics as applied to engineering and to machin- 
 ery, and was afterwards warmly complimented upon it by Lord 
 Brougham, Prof. Sedgwick and John Rennie. An offer of knight- 
 hood arose out of the British Association Meeting, but Fairbairn 
 respectfully declined the honour. He accepted, however, the 
 honorary degree of LL.D. conferred upon him by the Univer- 
 sity of Edinburgh, and he afterwards received the same degree 
 from Cambridge University. His biographer describ s the 
 latter degree as that of D.C.L., but that of course is a mistake. 
 In connection with the great International Exhibition of 1862, 
 Fairbairn was appointed President of the Jury for machines 
 and tools employed in the manufacture of wood and iron- 
 Owing to his long experience in engineering matters, he was 
 frequently consulted by the Admiralty during the last twelve 
 or fifteen years of his life on questions connected with iron 
 shipbuilding and naval construction. In the year 1869, when 
 he was in his eightieth year, the dignity of a baronetcy was con- 
 ferred on Fairbairn. He did not seem to care for the honour 
 on his own account, but he was pleased for his family's sake, 
 and gratified by this recognition of the services he had ren- 
 dered to science. 
 
 Between the years 1850 and 1873, Fairbairn was a volumin- 
 ous writer on his special subjects. References have already 
 been made to some of his papers, but others may now be 
 mentioned. To the Institution of Civil Engineers he con- 
 tributed a paper in 1850 on 'Tubular Girder Bridges,' and to 
 the Royal Society in the same year a paper entitled * An Ex- 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 367 
 
 perimental Enquiry into the Strength of Wrought-iron Plates 
 and their Riveted Joints, as applied to Shipbuilding and Vessels 
 exposed to Severe Strains.' At the meeting of the British 
 Association in 1853, he read a contribution 'On the Mechani- 
 cal Properties of Metals as derived from repeated Meltings, 
 exhibiting the Maximum Point of Strength, and the Causes of 
 Deterioration.' In the succeeding year he published a volume 
 On the Application of Cast a'nd Wrought Iron to Building 
 Purposes, which was dedicated to Sir David Brewster, and 
 passed through three editions. For the eighth edition of the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica he rewrote in 1856 the article on 
 * Iron.' A work which he brought out the same year was 
 entitled ' Useful Information for Engineers, being a Series of 
 Lectures delivered to the Working Engineers of Yorkshire and 
 Lancashire. Together with a series of appendices containing the 
 results of experimental enquiries into the strength of materials, 
 the causes of boiler explosions, etc.' A short memoir presented 
 to the British Association in 1859 was entitled 'Experiments 
 to determine the Efficiency of Continuous and Self-acting 
 Brakes for Railway Trains ' ; but this was afterwards greatly 
 elaborated, and submitted to the Institution of Civil Engineers. 
 'The Strength of Iron Ships' was the title of an important 
 paper read before the Institution of Naval Architects in 1860, 
 and the same year saw the appearance of a second series of 
 Useful Information for Engineers. To the Oxford meeting of 
 the British Association in 1860, Fairbairn contributed a ' Report 
 of Experiments to determine the Effect of Vibratory Actions and 
 long- continued Changes of Load on Wrought-iron Girders.' At 
 the Manchester meeting in the ensuing year he confirmed and 
 supplemented these experiments. The whole results were 
 afterwards embodied in a paper read before the Royal Society. 
 His next undertaking was an important work in two volumes, 
 being a Treatise on Mills and Millwork, the first part of which 
 appeared in 1861 and the second in 1863. In 1865 was pub- 
 lished Fajrbairn's Treatise on Iron Shipbuilding, dedicated 
 
368 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 to the Duke of Somerset, First Lord of the Admiralty ; and 
 in 1866 a third series of Useful Information for Engineers 
 appeared. For Thomas Baines's valuable work, Lancashire 
 and Cheshire, Fairbairn wrote a whole section forming a 
 quarto volume of 260 pages on 'The Rise and Progress of 
 Manufactures and Commerce, and of Civil nnd Mechanical 
 Engineering, in Lancashire and Cheshire.' This task occupied 
 him from August, 1867, to July, 1869. Fairbairn's last literary 
 production was a paper read before the Royal Society in 1873 
 when the author was eighty-four years of age ' On the Dura- 
 bility and Preservation of Iron Ships, and on Riveted Joints.' 
 The above is a long category of literary labours, and it appears 
 all the more remarkable when we remember that for a consider- 
 able part of the time during which the works were written 
 Fairbairn was engaged in business as a practical captain of 
 industry. 
 
 For a few years before his death Fairbairn's health had been 
 failing, and indeed he was never quite the same after the death 
 of his eldest son John in 1867. In October, 1873, he somewhat 
 imprudently attended the opening of the new buildings of 
 Owens College, Manchester. A severe bronchial attack fol- 
 lowed, which for a time completely prostrated him. He visited 
 Brighton and London in June, 1874, and Sir William Gull 
 recommended absolute rest. In July he wrote a cheery letter 
 on the marriage of his granddaughter, and then went down to 
 the country seat of his son-in-law, Mr. Bateman, Moor Park, 
 near Farnham, Surrey. Here, after a last brief painful attack 
 of illness, he expired on the i8th of August, 1874. His re- 
 mains were conveyed to Manchester, and interred in the burial- 
 ground of Prestwich Parish Church. The funeral was attended 
 by upwards of fifty thousand persons. A statue was raised to 
 him, and other honours paid to his memory, by the citizens of 
 Manchester. 
 
 It is interesting to find that Fairbairn and his wife had 
 been spared to each other for eight years beyond their golden 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 369 
 
 wedding-day. They had nine children, seven sons and two 
 daughters. Fairbairn lived at the Polygon, Ardwick, Man- 
 chester, for thirty-four years, namely, from 1840 to 1874. 
 'The Society at the Polygon during the last fifteen or twenty 
 years of his life was of an unusually intellectual, refined, and 
 attractive character, and brought together guests of singularly 
 varied acquirements and talents. Among them were the 
 Chevalier Bunsen, Sir David Brewster, Mr. Wm. Hopkins, 
 Dr. Prince Lee, Bishop of Manchester, Lord Rosse, Lord 
 Wrottesley, the Rev. Vernon Harcourt, Dr. Robinson of 
 Armagh and his gifted wife, Sir Edward and Lady Sabine, the 
 Earl of Derby, Earl Granville, Lord Brougham, Mr. Leonard 
 Homer, Mrs. Gaskell, Lord Houghton, Lord Shaftesbury, the 
 several eminent Professors of Owens College, and many 
 others, whose names are well known in science, literature, and 
 the public service. It was his custom to invite groups of 
 visitors regularly every autumn ; his invitations were gladly 
 responded to, and these annual pleasant gatherings of choice 
 spirits were thoroughly enjoyed by those who had the good 
 fortune to be present at them.' 
 
 Fairbairn was for more than fifty years an attendant at the 
 Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester, and a white marble 
 tablet, executed by Woolner, placed above his pew, records 
 this fact. One of the ministers of this chapel was the Rev. W. 
 Gaskell, husband of the friend and biographer of Charlotte 
 Bronte, and herself a charming novelist, in whose works Fair- 
 bairn took a deep interest. 
 
 The great scientific merits of Fairbairn were attested by the 
 ablest of his contemporaries. As to his personal character. 
 Mr. Pole supplies some interesting illustrations of its many- 
 sidedness, and yet its intensity. No difficulty daunted him, 
 and he was gifted with great intuitive powers. He was inde- 
 fatigable and earnest in his work, and possessed an indomitable 
 perseverance and a determination to excel. His correspond- 
 ence was prodigious, yet he found time for reading Goldsmith, 
 
 B B 
 
370 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTR Y. 
 
 Washington Irving, and Prescott being his favourite writers, 
 though late in life he warmly appreciated George Eliot, Mrs. 
 Craik (Dinah Mulock), and Mrs. Gaskell. He had no tastes 
 for field sports, but was deeply interested in farming. He was 
 of most regular habits, was fond of companionship, was famed 
 for his high-mindedness and integrity, and he hated all shams. 
 He was liberal in thought, feeling, and action ; he sympathised 
 with suffering and distress, was simple in his tastes and wants, 
 and never made mere money-getting his object. He was a 
 modest, courteous gentleman, a most faithful friend, and an 
 affectionate and indulgent parent. The moral he drew from 
 his own career was that industry and perseverance must in the 
 nature of things lead to success ; and the records of English 
 enterprise teem with examples in support of this. 
 
 I must now briefly follow the fortunes of other members 
 of the Fairbairn family, who were, or are, identified with 
 British industry. Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Sir William's son, 
 and the present holder of the baronetcy, was born in 1823. 
 He was educated privately. We learn that a long residence 
 in Italy afforded him opportunities for the study and appre- 
 ciation of art, and induced him to make efforts for its en- 
 couragement in England, especially in connection with educa- 
 tion. He is a strenuous advocate of art teaching in schools. 
 Sir Thomas is something more than the son of his father ; he 
 has always had a distinct individuality of his own, which won 
 for him a reputation upon his own merits. We have seen that 
 he entered his father's business, and he rendered valuable aid 
 in the solution of many mechanical problems which arose in 
 connection with the important undertakings of the firm. Dur- 
 ing the great contest of 1852 between the leading engineering 
 machinist firms and their workmen when upwards of 100,000 
 hands were out of employment for four months, Sir Thomas 
 was one of the most prominent figures in the struggle. He 
 contributed to The Times a long series of letters under the 
 signature of ' Amicus,' These letters excited the widest 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 371 
 
 interest and comment, the whole newspaper press entering 
 into the controversy. Even by such friends of the working- 
 classes as Lord Shaftesbury, it was felt that the men were on 
 this occasion in the wrong, but they exhausted their savings 
 in the vain hope of compelling their masters to give way. For 
 many years after this ' Amicus ' was a frequent contributor 
 to The Times on questions of social, industrial, and political 
 interest. 
 
 Sir Thomas Fairbairn has stated that he was taken away 
 from an intended University career in 1840, and was engaged 
 at Millwall until the final closing of the works. He acted as 
 Chairman of the Exhibition of the Art Treasures of the United 
 Kingdom at Manchester in 1857, and on Her Majesty's visit 
 in June was offered the honour of knighthood, which he 
 declined. He was one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for 
 the Exhibition of 1851, and took an active part in the organi- 
 sation of the Great Exhibition of 1862 in a similar capacity. 
 In 1870 he was appointed High Sheriff of Hampshire, in 
 which county he has a residence, and he is a magistrate and 
 deputy-lieutenant for that county, as well as for his native 
 county of Lancashire. Of the two other surviving sons of 
 Sir William Fairbairn, one, William Andrew, left the engineer- 
 ing firm and became a private gentleman, while the other was 
 a clergyman, the Rev. Adam Henderson Fairbairn, M.A., 
 Vicar of Waltham St. Lawrence, Berks. 
 
 The Leeds branch of the Fairbairn family is of equal im- 
 portance with the Manchester branch. Its founder was Sir 
 Peter Fairbairn, Sir William's youngest brother. Peter was 
 born in 1799, and like his brother he was compelled early 
 to learn the valuable lesson of self-reliance and indepen- 
 dence. His educational advantages were few in number, and 
 at eleven years of age he was sent to work at the Percy 
 - Main Colliery. Here he remained for three years, and in 
 1814 he was apprenticed to Mr. John Casson, a millwright 
 and engineer at Newcastle, Owing to his intelligence and 
 
372 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 diligence, he soon began to make his mark, and to gain the 
 confidence and esteem of his employers. He was never 
 ashamed of his origin, and the little breakfast-can which he 
 always carried with him on his journeys between the farm- 
 house at Percy Main and the millwright's shop in Newcastle, 
 was preserved by him as a precious relic in the days of his 
 prosperity. Mr. Holdsworth, a maker of cotton machinery 
 at Glasgow, having seen Peter, and accurately read his capa- 
 bilities, engaged him as his foreman. The experience he 
 gained during his residence on the Clyde, and afterwards as 
 traveller for the firm, proved invaluable to him in after years. 
 In 1821 he left his service, and was for a brief period with 
 his brother in Manchester. Then he was for a short time 
 with Rennie, after which he had a year's experience with 
 engineering firms in France. In 1823 he again entered his 
 brother's service, but left it this time to accept a position as 
 partner in the firm of Holdsworth & Co., of Glasgow. 
 
 Peter Fairbairn remained in Glasgow until 1828, and then 
 went to Leeds, where he started business for himself as a 
 machine maker. From this time forward until his death his 
 name was associated with the enterprising Yorkshire town. 
 Fairbairn played no insignificant part in the rapid develop- 
 ment of Leeds during the second quarter of the nineteenth 
 century. He first devoted himself to the improvement of 
 flax-spinning machinery, and having, after almost insuperable 
 difficulties, constructed the model of a new machine, he ex- 
 hibited it to a large employer of labour, Mr. Marshall. The 
 latter was so struck with it, that he ordered him to begin 
 the manufacture of the new machine forthwith, promising to 
 replace his old machines with them as fast as they could be 
 made. ' It will be impossible for me to do that without 
 assistance,' replied the inventor, 'for I have neither work- 
 shop nor money.' ' Never mind that,' said Mr. Marshall ; 
 ' the Wellington Foundry at the New Road end is to let ; go 
 and take it at once I'll see that you're all right.' What 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 373 
 
 followed is thus described by a writer in Fortunes made in 
 Business : 
 
 ' Elated by this encouragement, Peter Fairbairn lost no 
 time in following the advice given by his new patron, and was 
 soon installed, with his models and machines, in the Welling- 
 ton Foundry, which at that time was but an extremely humble 
 and unpretentious establishment. In this quiet way was 
 founded the giant concern which to-day covers some seven or 
 eight acres of ground, and finds employment for from 2,000 
 to 3,000 work-people. From the time of his entering upon 
 the tenancy of the Wellington Foundry, Peter Fairbairn's pro- 
 gress was rapid in the extreme. For a while Barney Calvert 
 (his clerk) had to go to Mr. Marshall's counting-house at the 
 end of every week for the money wherewith to pay the wages 
 of the handful of mechanics employed; but this condition 
 of dependence did not endure long ; the establishment pros- 
 pered so well that the proprietor was soon in a position to 
 run alone. Orders poured in upon Peter P'airbairn fast, and 
 each new improvement that he introduced secured him an 
 accession of customers. He applied himself to the making 
 of woollen as well as of flax machinery, and was successful 
 with both. He is generally credited with being the first to 
 substitute iron for wood in the construction of woollen ma- 
 chinery. It is not too much to say that by his achievements 
 in the way of simplifying the mechanical processes in con- 
 nection with the manufacture of flax, he gave great impetus 
 to the trade, and was largely instrumental in preserving to 
 Leeds its supremacy in this branch of the industrial arts.' 
 
 Though not an inventor of the highest order, Peter Fair- 
 bairn was undoubtedly an inventor of repute, but it was 
 chiefly as an improver of machinery that his name became 
 known all over the world. His improvements in flax- and 
 hemp-preparing machinery in particular were invaluable, and 
 greatly lessened the cost of production. He also effected a 
 very serviceable improvement in the roving machine, and, 
 
374 LEADERS OE MODERN INDUSTRY, 
 
 together with Henry Moulds worth, he adapted what is known 
 as the ' differential motion ' to that machine, thereby grtatly 
 extending its power and simplifying its action. He further 
 introduced the ' rotary gill,' which proved of great utility in 
 the manufacture of tow. Among other services which he 
 rendered to the manufacturing interest were the machines 
 he introduced for preparing and spinning silk waste, and his 
 improvements in the machinery for the making of rope-yarn. 
 This indefatigable worker ' continued for several years to de- 
 vote himself to the making of flax and woollen machinery ; 
 but as time wore ori he began to turn his attention more to 
 the art of constructing engineering tools, and of late years 
 Wellington Foundry has been very largely employed in this 
 branch of machine making. On .the breaking out of the 
 Crimean War his firm were requested by the Government to 
 construct certain special tools to be used in the manufacture 
 of implements of war ; and since that time the Wellington 
 .Foundry has always been more or less engaged in turning 
 out heavy work of this description. In the gun factories of 
 Woolwich and Enfield may be seen in operation a variety 
 of huge machines lor cutting, twisting, boring, and teaiing 
 iron and steel, many of which machines are supplied by this 
 firm. Machines for the manipulation of textiles are often 
 very large ; but machines for making machines are Brobding- 
 nagian in comparison. Cannon-rifling machines, milling ma- 
 chines, boring machines, planing machines, and slotting ma- 
 chines are amongst the formidable mechanical contrivances 
 which the Fairbairns have now occupied themselves in con- 
 structing for many years ; and a walk through their foundry 
 of eight acres is enough to suggest to the uninitiated the age 
 of mammoths, so forcibly do the machines seem to typify the 
 strength, size, and power of things gigantic.' 
 
 Like his brother, Peter Fairbairn was a man of indomitable 
 perseverance, and although he was of a genial temperament in 
 private life, and given to hospitality, he was a man of decided 
 
THE FAIRBAtRNS. 375 
 
 opinions, which he firmly held and expressed. He never had 
 but one serious trade dispute with his men, and in this his 
 determined character brought him off victorious. It was during 
 the strike of 1833, when trade was in a critical condition. 
 Having taken up what he considered to be a just position, and 
 finding his work-people to be intractable, he engaged a number 
 of untrained hands, whom he proceeded to teach their trade. 
 His men retaliated by violent outbreaks, and on one occasion 
 they attacked his house, smashed the dining-room window to 
 atoms, and fired a pistol into the house to the imminent peril 
 of his son and daughter. But Fairbairn held on, and eventu- 
 ally won the day. 
 
 In 1827 Fairbairn married a daughter of Mr. Robert 
 Kennedy of Glasgow, by whom he had one son and two 
 daughters. Elected to the Town Council of Leeds in 1835, 
 Fairbairn continued to serve on that body for seven years. 
 He was again elected in 1854, and made an alderman. He 
 was next appointed to the magistracy, and in 1857 was elected 
 mayor. His term of office was a memorable one, as the Queen 
 and the Prince Consort visited Leeds in 1858 for the purpose 
 of opening the new Town Hall. During the same year the 
 British Association held its meetings in Leeds. Fairbairn pre- 
 sented to the town a marble statue of Her Majesty, executed by 
 Noble at a cost of ,1,000, and it was erected in the Town Hall. 
 Fairbairn placed his mansion, Woodbley House, at the disposal 
 of the Queen and her distinguished party during the Royal 
 visit. His enterprise and munificence during his two years of 
 office led Her Majesty to confer upon him the honour of 
 knighthood. Sir Peter was a liberal supporter of the local 
 charities, and of all movements for the encouragement of art 
 and science ; he likewise took a keen and intelligent interest 
 in music and the drama, and was president of the Yorkshire 
 Choral Union. To mark their appreciation of his public spirit, 
 his fellow-townsmen subscribed for his portrait, which was exe- 
 cuted by Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A., and hung in the Council 
 
376 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Chamber of the Town Hall, and they likewise commissioned a 
 bronze statue of him by Noble. Sir Peter retired from muni- 
 cipal life in 1859, and died on the 4th of January, 1861. His 
 first wife had died in 1843, and he was survived by his second 
 wife, a daughter of Mr. R. W. Brandling, whom he married in 
 1855. By his energy, clear-headedness, and perseverance, Sir 
 Peter Fairbairn succeeded in building up a great fortune, and 
 establishing one of the largest industrial concerns in the North 
 of England. On hearing of his death Sir Charles Phipps 
 wrote to the son expressing the regret with which the Queen and 
 the Prince Consort had heard of the decease of so excellent a 
 man, and Sir Charles added, ' I had, I am happy to say, seen a 
 good deal of your poor father, and it was impossible to be 
 thrown into his society without respecting and valuing the 
 sterling qualities of his truly English character.' 
 
 Andrew Fairbairn, Sir Peter's only son, was born at Ander- 
 ston, Glasgow, on the 5th of March, 1828. He was educated 
 at Leeds, and afterwards at Geneva, and with his tutor at the 
 latter place, Professor Rodolphe Topffer, he made several tours 
 on foot through Switzerland. On one occasion they also went 
 from Geneva to Venice and back. In 1842 he returned to 
 England, and was sent to the High School of Glasgow. In 
 October, 1846, he became a pensioner at Christ's College, 
 Cambridge, but migrated to Peterhouse in January of the follow- 
 ing year. He graduated in 1850, coming out as thirty-seventh 
 wrangler, and in 1853 he took his M.A. degree. On leaving 
 Cambridge he began to study for the Bar at the Inner Temple. 
 He was called in 1852 and attended the West Riding Sessions 
 and the Northern Circuit until 1856. He then relinquished 
 practice, and after a visit to Germany he returned to Leeds 
 and entered his father's business. ' Possessing the family 
 instinct for industrial pursuits, he entered very heartily into 
 the work which his father committed to his charge, and soon 
 proved a valuable aid to the extension of the firm's connec- 
 tions. His educational training and knowledge of the world 
 
THE FAIRBAIRNS. 377 
 
 gave him considerable advantage in his subsequent dealings 
 with spinners and manufacturers abroad, and year by year 
 the productive capacity of the Wellington Foundry had to be 
 enlarged. Sir Peter Fairbairn despatched his son in the first 
 instance to Germany, where the firm had already many busi- 
 ness friends; and Sir Andrew travelled over a great part of 
 Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Prussia, acquiring, as he went 
 on, a close acquaintance with the practical working of the flax 
 mills of Germany. He subsequently made similar journeys to 
 France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, and in the two latter 
 countries obtained an insight into the waste-silk spinning trade. 
 In 1858 Sir Andrew made a business tour to Russia, going 
 from Grimsby to Cronstadt ; and after visiting Moscow, Narva, 
 and other centres of trade, returned to England by way of 
 Warsaw and Vienna.' 
 
 Having acquired a knowledge of the various branches of 
 mechanical engineering, Andrew Fairbairn was taken into part- 
 nership, and on the death of his father in the following year 
 he succeeded to the entire business. In 1863, however, he 
 took into partnership his cousin, Mr. T. S. Kennedy, and Mr. 
 J. W. Naylor, who had been in the works since his fifteenth 
 year, and who had risen through all the grades of the business. 
 The firm thus constituted has since carried on the work of 
 mechanical invention begun by Sir Peter Fairbairn, while the 
 number of persons employed has increased three or fourfold. 
 Andrew Fairbairn was even more deeply interested in the 
 municipal affairs of Leeds than his father, and in 1866 he was 
 elected mayor. Re-elected in 1867, he acted in May, 1868, 
 as a Commissioner of the Leeds Exhibition of Fine Arts. The 
 Prince of Wales inaugurated the exhibition, being a guest of 
 the Mayor, and in the ensuing August Andrew Fairbairn re- 
 ceived from the Queen a patent of knighthood. Sir Andrew 
 resigned his mayoralty in September, 1868, in order to stand 
 as Liberal candidate for Leeds, but he was unsuccessful at the 
 polling-booths. He was again unsuccessful when he contested 
 
378 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Knaresborough in 1874. In 1880, however, he was elected 
 for the Eastern Division of the West Riding, and when the 
 Division was split up into six sub-divisions in 1885 he was 
 chosen as the first representative of the Otley Division. He 
 .only represented this constituency, however, until the following 
 year, and since 1886 he has not sat in Parliament. 
 
 From 1870 to 1878 Sir Andrew Fairbairn was chairman of 
 the Leeds School Board. He retired in the latter year on the 
 ground of the excessive expenditure of the board. In 1877 he 
 was appointed a member of the Royal Commission for the 
 Paris Exhibition ; ' and in watching after the special interests 
 of Leeds, and securing as far as possible the efficient represen- 
 tation of its machinery and manufactures, he displayed great 
 zeal and energy.' Appointed to the Engineering and Agricul- 
 tural Committee presided over by the Duke of Sutherland, he 
 resided in Paris from March to the end of June, 1878. In 
 1885 Fairbairn was appointed Vice- President of the Railway 
 Congress at Brussels, and was made a Knight Commander of 
 the Order of Leopold by the King of the Belgians. Sir 
 Andrew Fairbairn married in 1862 Clara Frederica, daughter 
 of Sir John Lambton Loraine, Bart. 
 
 From this record of the principal members of the Fairbairn 
 family, it will have been apparent how great must have been 
 the impression they left upon the industries of the country. 
 For some eighty years or so the brothers and their descendants 
 have assisted in developing the resources of England, and in 
 materially aiding its prosperity. Nor can the good they 
 achieved be measured by their personal labours, for their 
 example has stimulated many to the exercise of inventive skill 
 and the advancement of science. 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS, 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS or, as his name was given before 
 his naturalisation in England, Carl Wilhelm Siemens was the 
 fourth son of Christian Ferdinand Siemens, who was born at 
 Wasserleben, . on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains, in 
 1789. Ferdinand married early Eleonore Deichmann, a lady 
 belonging to a North German family residing near Hanover. 
 The young couple settled down at a small place called Lenthe, 
 a few miles from Hanover, and here Ferdinand Siemens farmed 
 and cultivated certain Government lands which had been 
 assigned to him. William Siemens has left it on record that 
 his father was healthy in body; of an energetic and restless 
 disposition ; passionate, yet tender-hearted ; fond of historical 
 studies and gifted with a receptive mind; independent in judg- 
 ment ; distinguished for a high moral standard, and his hatred 
 of humbug and formalism ; a fair classical scholar, but with no 
 bias towards those scientific branches of enquiry in which his 
 sons became so famous. Madame Siemens is described as 
 having been of somewhat delicate health ; possessed of a high- 
 minded and self-sacrificing nature; gentle and amiable in 
 character; strongly devoted to her children; refined and 
 poetical in her tastes ; and imbued with deep religious prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 Ferdinand and Eleonore Siemens had no fewer than fourteen 
 children eleven sons and three daughters, of whom three sons 
 and one daughter died in infancy. Ernst Werner von Siemens, 
 the eldest son, was the founder of the fortunes of the family, 
 
382 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. ' 
 
 Born at Lenthe in 1816, he was educated at the Liibeck 
 Gymnasium, and entered first, in 1834, the Prussian Artillery 
 Service at Magdeburg, proceeding in the following year to the 
 Military School of Berlin. Here he studied closely chemistry, 
 mechanics, and mathematics. He gained his commission as 
 lieutenant in 1838, and, after some experience in other capaci- 
 ties, in 1844 he was appointed Superintendent of the Artillery 
 workshops at Berlin. He had already developed scientific 
 tastes, and taken out his first patent for galvanic silver and gold 
 plating. He rendered valuable service in developing the tele- 
 graphic system in Prussia, and discovered the important insu- 
 lating property of gutta-percha for underground and submarine 
 cables. Being somewhat hampered by his duties as a military 
 officer, he left the army in 1849, an< ^ shortly afterwards quitted 
 the service of the state altogether. He now devoted himself to 
 the construction of telegraphic and chemical apparatus of all 
 kinds. The eminent firm of Siemens & Halske was estab- 
 lished at Berlin in 1847 ; and branches were subsequently 
 formed at St. Petersburg, London, Vienna, and Tiflis these 
 being managed by Werner's younger brothers. In addition to de- 
 vising various useful forms of galvanometers and other electrical 
 instruments of precision, Werner von Siemens was one of the 
 discoverers of the principle of the self-acting dynamos. He 
 further made valuable determinations of the electrical resistance 
 of different substances, one of his discoveries being known as 
 the Siemens Unit. Scientific and technical papers by Siemens 
 were published in the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy, in 
 Poggendorffs Annalen, in Dingler's Polytechirischt Journal, etc., 
 and these papers were republished in collected form in 1881. 
 The munificent sum of 500,000 marks was given by Siemens 
 in 1886 in order to found an imperial institute of technology 
 and physics. The University of Berlin made Werner von Sie- 
 mens a Doctor in 1860 ; in 1874 he was elected a Member of 
 the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin ; in 1886 he was 
 created a Knight of the Prussian Order of Merit ; and finally, 
 
SIX WILLIAM SIEMENS. 383 
 
 in 1888, the Emperor Frederick III. conferred upon him a 
 .patent of nobility. 
 
 Hans Siemens, the second son, born in 1818, after pursuing 
 various avocations, established a large glass factory at Dresden, 
 where he successfully applied in his undertakings the regenera- 
 tive furnace invented by his brothers Frederick and William. 
 He died nearly thirty years ago. Ferdinand, the third son, 
 eventually settled as an agriculturist on a large estate which he 
 purchased near Konigsberg, in East Prussia. Passing by for 
 the present William, the fourth son, we come to Friedrich, the 
 fifth son. He was born in 1826, and became famous as an 
 inventor, etc. In early life he was a sailor, but in 1848 he 
 joined his brother William in England, studying under him, 
 and remaining in this country for some years. On the death 
 of his brother Hans, he became manager of the glass-works at 
 Dresden, and so great was his success that he was able to 
 found similar factories in Bohemia and Saxony, which ulti- 
 mately gave employment to 2,000 workmen. Friedrich Sie- 
 mens invented a continuously working glass furnace, and also 
 discovered a new method of cooling which produced toughened 
 glass of extraordinary resistance. He further constructed gas- 
 burners with a greatly increased power. of illumination. Upon 
 the death of his brother William, Friedrich succeeded him in 
 the management of that portion of the business associated with 
 furnaces and heat applications. Carl Heinrich Siemens, the 
 sixth son, born in 1829, was more known for his practical than 
 inventive skill, and he had much to do with the success of the 
 commercial undertakings founded by the brothers. In 1855 
 he took charge of a large branch factory established at St. 
 Petersburg, which had the great telegraphic system of Russia 
 within its control. He proceeded to London in 1869, and some 
 years afterwards was engaged in the laying of the Direct United 
 States Cable; but in 1880 he returned to Russia, where he 
 continued to reside. Walter Siemens, the seventh son, born 
 in 1832, was Prussian Consul at Tiflis. From here also he 
 
S/TV 
 
 ^ 
 
 384 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 directed the extensive mining works in the Caucasus belonging 
 to his brothers Werner and William. He likewise assisted in 
 the management of the telegraph manufactory works at Tiflis, 
 and in the establishment of the Indo-European Telegraph. Un- 
 fortunately, to the great grief of his family, he was killed by the 
 kick of a horse in 1868. Otto Siemens, the eighth son, born 
 in 1836, succeeded to his brother Walter's position, but he died 
 prematurely in 1871. Two daughters of Ferdinand and Eleo- 
 nore Siemens lived to the age of maturity. One, Mathilde, the 
 eldest of the family, married in 1838 Herr Himly, Professor of 
 Chemistry at the University of Gottingen, and afterwards at the 
 University of Kiel. She died in 1876. The other daughter, 
 Sophie, married Dr. Carl Crome of Liibeck, who in 1875 was 
 called to be one of the Reihsgerichtstrath, or Supreme Court of 
 Appeal, in Leipsic. 
 
 It will be seen from this brief summary, that the Siemens 
 family has been gifted as well as numerous. I now turn to 
 the main subject of this biographical sketch, Sir William Sie- 
 mens, who was born at Lenthe, on April 4, 1823. Although 
 after his naturalisation in England he retained the names of 
 Charles William, he preferred to be known as William only. 
 It is said that as a child he was fairly strong, though of a deli- 
 cate and sensitive organisation. He was a great pet, and made 
 music in the house ; but when he was supplanted by the oirth 
 of a new baby his song was heard no more. He gave no in- 
 dication in youth of a bias towards those pursuits which ren- 
 dered his name famous. Educated first by a resident tutor at 
 Menzendorf, he was next sent to a commercial academy at 
 Liibeck. In 1838 he went to an industrial school at Magde- 
 burg, where he was under the eye of his brother Werner, and 
 where he studied the principles of natural science. In the early 
 morning hours, before beginning his school duties, he studied 
 mathematics under Werner's tuition. Young William had a 
 severe trial in 1839, when he lost his mother, whom he passion- 
 ately loved, Soon afterwards in January, 1840 came the 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 385 
 
 death of his father, upon which Werner, who was only then 
 twenty-three years of age, assumed with noble courage and 
 devotion the guardianship of the family. 
 
 At Easter, 1841, William Siemens left the Magdeburg 
 School, with an excellent record in algebra, geometry, trigo- 
 nometry, and physical and technical subjects. He had a 
 fluent command of his own language, and some knowledge 
 of French. The opportunities for real scientific training at 
 Magdeburg, however, had been very limited. Siemens now 
 went for a year's study at Gottingen University, where he 
 attended lectures on physical geography and technology, the 
 higher mathematics, and theoretical and practical chemistry 
 and physics. He seems to have worked very earnestly during 
 this short university experience. In the year 1843, being then 
 only twenty years of age, young Siemens visited England, and 
 succeeded in introducing a process for electro-gilding invented 
 by his brother Werner and himself. It was in Birmingham 
 that he did this, and thirty-eight years afterwards he described 
 the circumstances in his inaugural address as President of the 
 Midland Institute. That address was delivered in the Town 
 Hall, Birmingham, on October 28th, 1881, and I quote from 
 it the following autobiographical passages, as being both in- 
 teresting and instructive : * That form of energy known as 
 the electric current was nothing more than the philosopher's 
 delight forty years ago ; its first application may be traced to 
 this good town of Birmingham, where Mr. George Richards 
 Elkington, utilising the discoveries of Davy, Faraday, and 
 Jacobi, had established a practical process of electro-plating in 
 1842. It affords me great satisfaction to be able to state that 
 I had something to do with that first practical application of 
 electricity; for in March of the following year, 1843, I pre- 
 sented myself before Mr. Elkington with an improvement on 
 his processes which he adopted, and in so doing gave me my 
 first start in practical life. Considering the moral lesson in- 
 volved, it may interest you, perhaps, if I diverge for a few 
 
 cc 
 
386 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 minutes from my subject in order to relate a personal incident 
 connected with this my first appearance amongst you. 
 
 ' When the electrotype process first became known it excited 
 a very general interest; and although I was only a young 
 student of Gottingen, under twenty years of age, who had 
 just entered upon his practical career with a mechanical 
 engineer, I joined my brother, Werner Siemens, then a young 
 lieutenant of artillery in the Prussian service, in his endeavour 
 to accomplish electro-gilding, the first impulse in this direction 
 having been given by Professor C. Himly, then of Gottingen. 
 
 'After attaining some promising results, a spirit of enter- 
 prise came over me so strong that I tore myself away from the 
 narrow circumstances surrounding me, and landed at the East 
 End of London with only a few pounds in my pocket and 
 without friends, but an ardent confidence of ultimate success 
 within my breast. 
 
 'I expected to find some office in which inventions were 
 examined into, and rewarded if found meritorious, but no one 
 could direct me to such a place. In walking along Finsbury 
 Pavement I saw written up in large letters "So-and-So," (I 
 forget the name), " Undertaker," and the thought struck me 
 that this must be the place I was in quest of; at any rate I 
 thought that a person advertising himself as an " Undertaker" 
 would not refuse to look into my invention, with the view of 
 obtaining for me the sought-for recognition or reward. On 
 entering the place I soon convinced myself, however, that I 
 came decidedly too soon for the kind of enterprise there con- 
 templated, ami finding myself confronted by the proprietor of 
 of the establishment, I covered my retreat by what he must 
 have thought a very lame excuse. 
 
 ' By dint of perseverance I found my way to the Patent 
 Office of Messrs. Poole & Carpmael, who received me kindly, 
 and provided me with a letter of introduction to Mr. Elkington. 
 Armed with this letter, I proceeded to Birmingham to plead 
 my cause with your countryman. 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 387 
 
 * In looking back to that time, I wonder at the patience 
 with which Mr. Elkington listened to what I had to say, being 
 very young, and scarcely able to find English words to convey 
 my meaning. After showing me what he was doing already in 
 the way of electro-plating, Mr. Elkington sent me back to 
 London in order to read some patents of his own, asking me 
 to return if, after perusal, I still thought I could teach him 
 anything. To my great disappointment I found that the 
 chemical solutions I had been using were actually mentioned 
 in one of his patents, although in a manner that would hardly 
 have sufficed to enable a third person to obtain practical re- 
 sults. 
 
 ' On my return to Birmingham I frankly stated what I had 
 found, and with this frankness evidently gained the favour of 
 another townsman of yours, Mr. Josiah Mason, who had just 
 joined Mr. Elkington in business, and whose name as Sir 
 Josiah Mason will ever be remembered for his munificent en- 
 dowment for .education. It was agreed that I should not be 
 judged by the novelty of my invention, but by the results 
 which I promised, namely, of being able to deposit with a 
 smooth surface thirty pennyweights of silver upon a dish cover, 
 the crystalline structure of the deposit having theretofore been 
 a source of difficulty. 
 
 1 In this I succeeded, and I was able to return to my native 
 country and my mechanical engineering a comparative Croesus. 
 By dint of a certain determination to win, I was able to 
 advance step by step up to this place of honour, situate within a 
 gunshot of the scene of my very earliest success in life, but 
 separated from it by the time of a generation. But notwith- 
 standing the lapse' of time, my heart still beats quick each time 
 I come back to the scene of this, the determining incident of 
 my life.' 
 
 A patent was taken out by the Elkingtons on the 25th of" 
 May, 1843, in the name of Moses Poole, embodying the dis- 
 covery. The title was for ' Improvements in the deposition of 
 
 c c 2 
 
3 88 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 certain metals, and in apparatus connected therewith.' The 
 invention consisted in the employment of certain new solu- 
 tions of gold, silver, and copper, for the purposes of electri- 
 cal deposition, and in the application of a thermo-electrical 
 battery for depositing the same. This battery was also in- 
 cluded in the patent, and it was described as being used ' for 
 the purpose of generating electrical currents applicable to the 
 deposition of metals.' Mr. Pole, Siemens's biographer, states 
 that Messrs. Elkington paid the young inventor the sum of 
 ;i,6oo for his rights, less ;no, the cost of the patent. Not 
 bad that for the first work upon which he was engaged. When 
 the triumphant inventor returned to Germany he was looked 
 upon by his family as quite a Croesus. 
 
 The brothers Werner and William now took a third person 
 into their confidence, a clever mechanic named Leonhard, who 
 assisted them in perfecting their inventions. In 1844 William 
 Siemens paid a second visit to England, and patented his 
 differential governor. In describing this new invention, Mr. 
 Pole remarks that ' steam-engines for turning machinery have 
 always been liable to irregularities in their velocity of motion, 
 arising partly from variations in the steam-pressure, and partly 
 from variable resistances in the work done.' Various con- 
 trivances were tried at different times to equalise the motion, 
 Watt's governor up to this period having been the most suc- 
 cessful. Siemens's invention, however, was a great advance. 
 Its novel feature, ' the added uniform motor, acted as a time- 
 keeper, with which the motion of the engine could be com- 
 pared, and this gave to the invention the name of the Chrono- 
 metric Governor.' In bringing it forward Siemens associated 
 with himself a civil engineer of repute named Joseph Woods. 
 An attempt to dispose of the patent for a large sum failed, and 
 it became necessary for the inventors to supply the manu- 
 facturers with machines for the purpose of trying them. Mr. 
 Woods read a paper on the Governor before the Institution of 
 Civil Engineers, and Robert Stephenson, John Penn, and 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 389 
 
 others spoke warmly of its merits. A model of the machine 
 was exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1851, and it 
 was awarded a prize medal. 
 
 Another invention introduced by Siemens in 1844 was that 
 of anastatic printing. Its originator was a Mr. Baldamus of 
 Erfurt, but the brothers Siemens took it up and perfected it, 
 and William produced the first roller quick printing press that 
 had been used in the trade. A patent was taken out for the 
 new process, entitled, ' Improvements in producing and multi- 
 plying copies of designs and impressions of printed or written 
 surfaces.' The patent embraced two objects : first, a mode of 
 obtaining on metallic surfaces reversed facsimiles of typo- 
 graphy, engravings, designs, writings, etc. ; and secondly, 
 mechanical presses for printing impressions from such reversed 
 facsimiles. Great efforts were made to push the invention, and 
 Faraday lectured upon it at the Royal Institution ; but the ex- 
 periments proved so costly and unremunerative that Siemens 
 abandoned the thing altogether, and it was ultimately super- 
 seded by other processes. 
 
 Meantime, even the inventions of proved value already 
 described caused William Siemens great concern. Large sums 
 of money subscribed by his family and others, as well as 
 amounts of his own, kept going out in a constant stream, 
 while no return came in. This led in time to recriminations 
 and dissensions, so that the future which had once seemed so 
 bright began to wear another hue. But by the aid of some 
 railway work, Siemens was able to return to Germany in 1845, 
 and settle certain urgent private affairs. In 1846 the brothers 
 resolved to abandon the joint working of the patents. William 
 relieved his brother of all responsibility, and took the whole 
 matter upon his own shoulders. His difficulties just at this 
 time were enough to crush almost any man. Yet he went on 
 inventing, and brought out an improvement in the manner of 
 exhausting air by mechanical power. Although it did not 
 yield him any profit, it was used afterwards with success. 
 
390 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Having paid a visit to the manufacturing districts of Lan- 
 cashire in the autumn of 1846, Siemens took a place in Man- 
 chester early in the following year. He entered upon various 
 engineering matters, and had also an engagement at the large 
 print works of Messrs. Hoyle & Sons, but his main investi- 
 gations were into the nature of steam-power He had already 
 studied the theory of heat and the conservation of energy, and 
 had kept up with all the recent discoveries in connection 
 therewith. As the result of experiments now made by Siemens, 
 he was enabled to take out a patent in December, 1847, for 
 * Improvements in engines to be worked by steam and other 
 fluids.' Negotiations were set on foot with an eminent manu- 
 facturing firm, Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co. of Smethwick, 
 near Birmingham. Trial was made of a new engine constructed 
 by Siemens, and in the end the inventor entered the manu- 
 factory of Fox, Henderson & Co., receiving not only his 
 interest in the patents, but a fixed salary of ^,400 per annum. 
 He was now relieved from pecuniary anxiety, and forthwith 
 took up his residence in one of the suburbs of Birmingham. 
 His brother Frederick afterwards joined him as assistant under 
 the same firm. The chief engineering manager of the firm, 
 Mr. Edward Cowper, remained the firm friend of William 
 Siemens all through life, 'and gave him essential support in his 
 later heat-inventions.' 
 
 This regenerative steam-engine, as Siemens's machine was 
 called, was ingenious and remarkable, but the difficulties 
 attending the invention prevented its commercial introduction. 
 In 1850, however, the Society of Arts awarded Siemens a gold 
 medal for his regenerative condenser. In a paper read before 
 the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1851, the inventor 
 gave a short historic sketch of the steam-engine condenser 
 generally, explaining his new arrangement, and its mode of 
 application to different forms of engine. At the close of \ 85 2 
 Siemens's relations with Fox, Henderson & Co. were ter- 
 minated, the losses and difficulties sustained by the firm 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 391 
 
 having led to friction with the inventor. William Siemens now 
 took up the electrical work which afterwards developed so 
 rapidly. He began by making known in England the 
 telegraphic inventions of Siemens & Halske, whose works in 
 Germany had already become of an extensive character. In 
 1849 he read a paper at the Society of Arts descriptive of his 
 brother's telegraphic achievements, and in the following year 
 an English agency was successfully established. An agree- 
 ment was signed between the two brothers. In March, 1850, 
 William Siemens introduced his brother's gutta-percha wire- 
 covering to the British Electric Telegraphic Company, and 
 soon afterwards he carried out an arrangement for working the 
 manufacture in Great Britain. He next induced Fox, Hender- 
 son & Co., to take up the work, and under his direction large 
 contracts were executed by that firm and Siemens & Halske 
 for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, etc. 
 
 In March, 1852, Siemens went to London, establishing him- 
 self as a civil engineer in John Street, Adelphi. He undertook 
 this year an important series of experiments on the total heat 
 of steam, and its expansion when in an isolated state. But 
 improvements in his regenerative steam-engine soon began to 
 occupy him once more, and to carry out these he returned to 
 Birmingham, the old firm with which he had been connected 
 still taking an interest in the work. Shortly afterwards he 
 wrote an elaborate treatise with the object of explaining the 
 scientific principles on which his invention was based, as well 
 as expounding the doctrines and practice affecting heat as a 
 source of mechanical power. This composition, entitled ' On 
 the Conversion of Heat into Mechanical Effect,' was read at the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers on May 17, 1853. The paper 
 was divided into three sections, which dealt respectively with 
 the Relations between Heat and Mechanical Effect, the Per- 
 formances of Actual Engines, including Heated-Air Engines, 
 and the Necessary Characteristics of a Perfect Engine. This 
 paper gained for Siemens the Telford premium and silver 
 
392 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 medal awarded by the Institution. It was subsequently 
 translated into Italian. The inventor undertook to produce 
 one of his improved engines, and this was finished in March, 
 1854. It was of fifteen horse-power, and had a satisfactory 
 trial in January, 1855. Several engines were afterwards con- 
 structed for England, France, and Germany, which varied in 
 size from five to forty horse-power. Two were shown and 
 worked at the Paris Exhibition of 1855, where the invention 
 was awarded a first class medal. The inventor claimed by 
 this machine to provide a motive force at one-third or one- 
 fourth part of the cost and encumbrance of the existing 
 steam-engine. A company was formed in Genoa for the 
 purpose of manufacturing the engine, and it had branches in 
 Paris, Vienna, Liege, and other continental cities. Accidents 
 and ill-fortune, however, attended the construction of the 
 machines, and the enterprise was abandoned in 1859. 
 
 Siemens continued to make further experiments in heat, but 
 the practical difficulties in connection with his machines ended 
 in discouragement. This was also the case with his invention 
 for regenerative evaporation. Mr. Pole observes with regard 
 to these experiments : ' The regenerative principle was un- 
 doubtedly sound, and he had devoted ten or twelve of the 
 best years of his life to its application, during which time he 
 had the support of many eminent engineers, the practical aid 
 of two of the best manufacturing firms in the country, and the 
 funds of a powerful commercial association. Neither theo- 
 retical knowledge, nor practical experience, nor ingenuity, nor 
 skill, nor money, nor perseverance, nor influence, was wanting. 
 But in spite of their promised advantages, the regenerative 
 steam-engine would not supplant the simple machine of Watt, 
 nor would the regenerative evaporator supersede the old- 
 fashioned sugar and salt pans. 
 
 'It is hard now to explain these failures. Probably they 
 arose from the aims being too high, and from the introduction of 
 more complication than the nature of the machines would bear. 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 
 
 393 
 
 * In the steam-engine, for example, instead of the simple plan 
 of evaporating and re-condensing water, in which the most 
 ordinary machine could hardly go astray, there was substituted 
 the alternate heating to a very high temperature, and re-cooling, 
 with the aid of the regenerator, of a permanent elastic fluid, 
 which introduced not only a more elaborate construction, but 
 new difficulties in the management, in consequence of the 
 more intense heat applied in the working parts of the machine. 
 
 ' And with the regenerative evaporator the more complex 
 arrangements required larger outlay of capital, with greater 
 trouble in working, and sometimes endangered the quality of 
 the manufactured article. 
 
 'These difficulties were courageously attacked by Mr, 
 Siemens's inventive ingenuity, and there is no doubt that in 
 many cases satisfactory results were attained by the new 
 machines ; but on the whole the long and repeated trials 
 showed that the complications and difficulties introduced were 
 not commercially compensated for by the advantages gained in 
 the saving of fuel.' 
 
 But all these preliminary labours were not to prove abortive. 
 A happy thought occurred to Frederick Siemens that the 
 regenerative principle to which his brother had given so much 
 attention 'might be made available in a much more simple 
 manner by applying it directly to the ordinary furnaces in which 
 the fuel was consumed. It was well known that in the working 
 of powerful furnaces, the smoke and gases resulting from the 
 combustion passed away into the atmosphere at a very high 
 heat, while the air supplying the fire was drawn in at the 
 ordinary atmospheric temperature. All therefore that the 
 inventor here proposed to do, was to apply the regenerative 
 principle by means of a " respirator," so arranged as to intercept 
 and absorb the superfluous heat from the escaping gases, and 
 to give it out again in heating the air used to feed the fire. In 
 this way not only would waste be prevented, but the intensity 
 of action of the furnace might be much increased.' Working 
 
394 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 upon these lines, William perfected the idea by experiments, 
 and a patent was taken out in December, 1856, in the name of 
 Frederick Siemens, for an ' Improved arrangement of furnaces ; 
 which improvements are applicable in all cases where great 
 heat is required.' The principal object of the invention was 
 thus described : ' Constructing furnaces in such manner that 
 the heat of the products of combustion is absorbed by passing 
 the same through chambers containing refractory materials so 
 arranged as to present extensive heat-absorbing surfaces ; and 
 is communicated to currents of air or other gases by passing 
 the latter currents alternately over the same heated surfaces/ 
 The invention excited deep interest when it was described by 
 William Siemens in a paper read before the Institution of 
 Mechanical Engineers on the 24th of June, 1^57. 
 
 Experiments were soon set on foot, and furnaces were erected 
 on the new principle at Sheffield and Wednesbury in the 
 former case the application being to the melting and re-heating 
 of steel ; and in the latter case to the re-heating of iron. At 
 length Siemens had his triumph, for the furnaces succeeded, 
 and the saving of fuel was much greater even than had been 
 expected. There were still formidable difficulties to overcome 
 in finding materials sufficiently refractory to withstand the 
 more intense heat produced, but these were ultimately sur- 
 mounted. Mr. E. A. Cowper next made an important and 
 successful application of the furnace to the heating of the air 
 for hot-blast iron-smelting furnaces. This was patented, and 
 later Siemens gave Cowper his assistance in regard to further 
 improvements, and several patents were taken out in their 
 joint names. The invention was soon extensively used in all 
 iron-making countries, its advantages including great saving of 
 fuel, no leakage, no wear and tear of pipes, and an increased 
 make of iron. In the course of twenty or thirty years, the 
 savings in the iron trade by the process amounted to ^500,000 
 per annum. 
 
 Among William Siemens's other early inventions were, 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 395 
 
 improvements in calico printing, the introduction of a double- 
 cylinder air-pump, and a new refrigerating machine. But none 
 of these achieved such a remarkable success as his new meter 
 for measuring water, brought out in 1851. This instrument, 
 vhich was called a ' Fluid Meter,' was patented in 1852. Its 
 characteristics were thus described : ' Various arrangements 
 of screws or helices, which are caused to revolve by the passage 
 of water or other fluid through them, and of fixed guides and 
 channels in connection with such screws or helices to regulate 
 and direct the current of the fluid, together with various con- 
 trivances for registering the number of revolutions of the screws/ 
 Although the instrument was simple, the preliminary experi- 
 ments were arduous. In 1853 a second patent was taken out 
 by Siemens in conjunction with Mr. Joseph Adamson, a Leeds 
 engineer, who had suggested improvements in various points. 
 The new patent proved to be so simple and efficient in 
 character that a hundred meters were soon ordered, and the 
 demand continued to increase. The machine was adopted 
 extensively in England, Europe, and the United States. Its 
 principle was explained at the Institution of Mechanical 
 Engineers in July, 1856, when Siemens claimed to have been 
 the first to bring into use a meter which would work with a 
 high water-pressure. When the patent had only been in 
 operation for a year, it was already beginning to secure Siemens 
 a handsome income. For many years, the royalties in Great 
 Britain alone amounted to upwards of ^1,000 a year. The 
 Siemens water-meter proved to be one of the most useful 
 hydraulic machines ever invented. By the close of 1885 
 nearly 130,000 meters had been sold by the inventor's English 
 firm of agents alone. 
 
 The great question of telegraphic submarine cables next en- 
 gaged Siemens's attention, and it was not long before the busi- 
 ness assumed enormous proportions. As early as 1847 an 
 English telegraph engineer named Brett obtained a provisional 
 concession from the French Government for a cable between 
 
396 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 England and France, but on account of the supposed imprac- 
 ticability of the project the concession was allowed to lapse. 
 In August, 1850, as the result of experiments by Mr. C. V. 
 Walker, an electrical engineer, a submarine cable was actually 
 laid across the Strait from Dover to Cape Grisnez. It con- 
 sisted of a copper wire only, covered with gutta-percha, but 
 with no other protection. Nevertheless, a few messages were 
 successfully transmitted, but as the wire refused to act on the 
 following day, when the French official engineers arrived to 
 test it, the concession was cancelled. It appears that a French 
 fisherman had cut a piece out of the cable, and exhibited it in 
 triumph at Boulogne as a rare specimen of seaweed with its 
 centre rilled with gold ! A third concession was obtained in 
 1851, a Submarine Telegraph Company was formed, and owing 
 to the efforts of Mr. Thomas Crampton, a shareholder of the 
 Company, a cable was successfully laid across the Channel in 
 September of the above year. ' It was twenty-four miles long, 
 consisting of four copper wires, insulated by gutta-percha, 
 covered with tarred yarn, and protected by an outer covering 
 of galvanised iron wires. It has remained perfect to the present 
 time, and still forms one of the communications between the 
 two countries.' Other cables now followed in quick succession. 
 Messrs. Newall & Co., of Gateshead, large wire rope makers, 
 seeing the great demand springing up, laid out works for the 
 construction of submarine cables on an extensive scale. They 
 engaged Siemens & Halske as their electrical and consulting 
 engineers, and William Siemens carried out the tests. During 
 1858-1859 the following cables were laid down under the aus- 
 pices of Messrs. Siemens : from Bona, in Algeria, to Cagliari, 
 in Sardinia, for the French Government; from Cagliari to Malta 
 and Corfu, for the Mediterranean Extension Company ; from 
 the Dardanelles to Scio and Candia, for the Levant Company ; 
 from Syra to Scio, for the Greek Government ; from Singapore 
 to Batavia, for the Dutch Government ; from Weymouth to the 
 Channel Islands ; from Suez to Suakim and Aden, and from 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 397 
 
 Aden to Kurrachee, for the Red Sea and India Telegraph 
 Company. Siemens likewise devoted himself to electrical work 
 on his own account, and between 1854 and 1859 took out four 
 patents for his own and Werner Siemens's improvements of 
 various kinds in telegraphic detail. William Siemens further 
 set up a London workshop for the manufacture of telegraph 
 materials. It was capable of employing about 100 workmen, 
 and was situate in Millbank Row, Westminster a central posi- 
 tion, which was also favourable for carrying on experiments 
 in other fields. 
 
 Speaking of Siemens's domestic life, Mr. Pole says that in 
 1852 he entered the family of Mr. William Hawes, a well- 
 known professor of music, and father of the celebrated con- 
 tralto Maria B. Hawes. Their house was in Adelphi Terrace, 
 and during his residence here he was tenderly nursed by the 
 Hawes family through a severe attack of typhus fever. In 
 1855, he rented a house in Kensington Crescent, taking his 
 brothers Frederick and Otto to reside with him. He was now 
 able to receive friends, and was well acquainted with many of 
 the eminent foreigners who sought refuge in this country after 
 the political convulsions of 1848. Among them were Semper, 
 the renowned architect, Richard Wagner, Bucher (with whom 
 he was intimate, although not agreeing with his political views), 
 Kinkel, whose son he at a later period took into his employ- 
 ment, and the brothers Luigi and Alphonso Scalia, with whom 
 he formed a true friendship that never flagged, even after the 
 brothers left for Italy to join the ranks of Garibaldi. He visited 
 at the houses of many friends, where he occasionally met men 
 eminent in literature, art, or science, and in this way he became 
 personally intimate with many of the leading men among his 
 professional brethren. Siemens was thrown much into contact 
 with Mr. Lewis Gordon, Professor of Engineering in the Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow, who had married a Hanoverian lady, and 
 a family connection of Siemens: An attachment sprang up 
 between Siemens and Miss Anne Gordon, the youngest sister 
 
398 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 of the Professor. It was at this time that Siemens formaHy 
 naturalised himself in England, 'and on the iQth March, 1859, 
 as he used amusingly to say, he took oath and allegiance to 
 two ladies in one day the Queen, and his chosen partner in 
 life.' Miss Gordon was an excellent singer, having studied 
 under Manuel Garcia. Her marriage with Siemens took place 
 on the 23rd of July, 1859, and the honeymoon was spent in 
 Germany. The union was a thoroughly happy one. 
 
 In December, 1860, Siemens was elected a full member of 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was then put up for 
 the Royal Society, his nomination paper being signed by Hawk- 
 shaw, Bateman, Airy, Faraday, Percy, Thomson, Wheatstone, 
 Rennie, Joule, and others. On the 5th of June, 1862, he was 
 elected a Fellow. Siemens was at this time carrying forward 
 his experiments with the regenerative furnace, the object being 
 to provide such materials, and to arrange such a construction 
 of furnace, as should in practical use withstand the great heat 
 produced. Many of the early failures to achieve this resulted 
 in the destruction of the furnace itself, or of its accessories. 
 ' In the course of these trials,' remarks Mr. Pole, ' a modification 
 suggested itself to the two brothers, of such a character as to 
 amount to a most important new invention. It was found that 
 the use of solid fuel, in the body of the furnace, offered obstacles 
 to the favourable working of the system, and the idea arose of 
 substituting gaseous fuel, the solid fuel being converted into 
 combustible gases in a separate construction called a "gas 
 producer." 
 
 'This was patented 22nd January, 1861, in the names of the 
 two brothers jointly. The patent said: "It is an essential 
 part of our invention that the solid fuel should be decomposed 
 in a separate apparatus, so that the introduction of solid fuel 
 into the furnace may be altogether avoided ; and independently 
 of the advantage that results from heating the gaseous fuel prior 
 to its entering into combustion, there is a great advantage de- 
 rived from the absence of any solid carbon or ashes in the 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 399 
 
 working chamber of the furnace, by which we are enabled to 
 carry on operations in the furnace which it has only been 
 possible hitherto to conduct in covered vessels or pots." The 
 specification described various modifications of furnaces hav- 
 ing " gas generators " of this kind. 
 
 ' The new invention was described by William Siemens in a 
 second paper read to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 
 on 3oth January, 1862. After alluding to this original form 
 of the furnace, he said : 
 
 ' " In attempting, however, to apply the principle to puddling 
 and other larger furnaces, serious practical difficulties arose, 
 which for a considerable time frustrated all efforts, until by 
 adopting the plan of volatilising the solid fuel in the first in- 
 stance, and employing it entirely in a gaseous form for heating 
 purposes, practical results were at length attained surpassing 
 even the most sanguine expectations previously formed. 
 
 '" The fuel employed, which may be of a very inferior descrip- 
 tion, is separately converted into a crude gas, which being con- 
 ducted to the furnace has its naturally low heating power 
 greatly increased by being heated to nearly the high tempera- 
 ture of the furnace itself, undergoing at the same time certain 
 chemical changes whereby the heat developed in its subsequent 
 combustion is increased. The heating effect is still further 
 augmented by the air necessary for combustion being also 
 heated separately to the same high temperature." ' 
 
 A patent was secured, and gas furnaces were constructed, 
 some of which saved fifty per cent, of fuel. Messrs. Chance, 
 the large glass manufacturers near Birmingham, speedily had 
 thirteen of the furnaces in use, together with a special one for 
 optical lighthouse lenses, a manufacture requiring special care 
 and perfection. Siemens explained the furnace to Faraday, 
 who lectured upon it at the Royal Institution, his address on 
 that occasion being the last he ever delivered. Siemens fre- 
 quently spoke afterwards of the great delight with which he had 
 spent two days in the company of Faraday. The regenerative gas 
 
400 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 furnace soon became a pecuniary success from its enormous 
 saving of fuel. The furnace was awarded a Grand Prize at the 
 Paris Exhibition of 1867. 
 
 Siemens now sought to apply his regenerative furnace to the 
 process of puddling that is, the formation of malleable iron 
 from the pig, or cast, iron produced by smelting the ore. He 
 constructed a puddling furnace, which he described in a paper 
 read before the British Association. The communication was 
 deemed so important that the Council ordered it to be pub- 
 lished in extenso, an honour rarely accorded. Siemens stated 
 in this paper that, after a careful scientific analysis, he had 
 come to the conclusion that the process of puddling, as then 
 practised, was extremely wasteful in iron and fuel, immensely 
 laborious, and that it yielded a metal only imperfectly separated 
 from its impurities. The inventor could not do much with the 
 furnace as regards iron, but with regard to steel he made a very 
 remarkable and successful application of the regenerative fur- 
 nace. As his biographer notes, this proved to be one of the 
 most important labours of his life. In 1722 Reaumur, the 
 eminent French philosopher, had devised a method for making 
 steel by fusing malleable iron with cast steel. Some time later 
 a practical steel-maker named Heath, of Sheffield, made experi- 
 ments on the same lines. At length the Bessemer process, in- 
 troduced between 1856 and 1860, enabled steel to be produced 
 on a large scale and at a cheap rate. But the process required 
 a peculiar and cumbersome apparatus. Siemens Brothers 
 contemplated the application of the gas furnace to steel- 
 making by the terms of their patent of January, 1861. De- 
 scribing the furnace, the patent said it might be employed with 
 advantage for smelting iron, for making steel, or for roasting 
 copper and other ores. It appears that the general opinion of 
 practical men was opposed to the idea, but William Siemens 
 resolutely set himself to prove its feasibility. Messrs. Martin, 
 steel and iron manufacturers, of Sireuil, in the Department of 
 the Charente, succeeded under Siernens's direction not only 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 401 
 
 in melting steel already made, but in effecting the production 
 of the metal itself by his process. Siemens himself took pre- 
 mises in Birmingham, and succeeded in perfecting his experi- 
 ments for making steel. In 1868 the Landore Works, near 
 Swansea, were opened for the manufacture of steel by the 
 Siemens process. By the year 1881 the annual production of 
 steel in England under Sir William's process was upwards of 
 340,000 tons. 
 
 Among minor matters, Siemens was requested by the 
 Government in 1867 to give his advice with regard to check- 
 ing the recoil in gun-carriages. He recommended hydraulic 
 compression ; but, although his suggestion was adopted, no 
 acknowledgment was made of his services in the matter. In 
 1866 he extended the scope and usefulness of his chrono- 
 metric governor, which he asserted was capable of securing a 
 really uniform rotation in mechanism. He demonstrated that 
 it would apply to clocks and other things, and took out a 
 patent for his improved governor. It was eventually used for 
 a purpose he had not contemplated. ' It had been remarked 
 that in regulating the speed of an engine, -the machine acted 
 to some extent as an absorber of surplus power, and this 
 suggested the idea of applying it as a substitute for the tread- 
 mill or crank, in forced prison labour. It was thus used in 
 the gaols of Liverpool, Manchester, Leicester, Stafford, and 
 elsewhere, giving every satisfaction.' In 1861 the firm of 
 Siemens & Halske acted as electricians for the Government 
 in the laying down of the Malta and Alexandria Cable. The 
 cable was divided into three sections, viz., Malta and Tripoli, 
 Tripoli and Benghazi, and Benghazi and Alexandria, and the 
 total length was about 1,350 miles. Werner and William 
 Siemens wrote a joint paper about this time for the British 
 Association, embodying their studies of the ' Principles and 
 Practice involved in dealing with the Electric Conditions of 
 Submarine Electric Telegraphs.' They recommended india- 
 rubber as an insulator, and devised an ingenious machine for 
 
 DD 
 
402 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 applying it to cables. William Siemens contributed to the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers an elaborate paper ' On the 
 Electrical Tests employed during the Construction of the 
 Malta and Alexandria Telegraph, and on Insulating and Pro- 
 tecting Submarine Cables.' At the International Exhibition 
 of 1862 Siemens & Halske exhibited a great variety of elec- 
 trical apparatus of various kinds, appearing both as British and 
 as foreign exhibitors. The collection attracted wide notice, and 
 was awarded three separate medals. William Siemens wrote 
 an article in the Practical Mechanic's Journal, giving a full 
 description of the collection, as well as a history of the electric 
 telegraph. In 1860 he gave evidence before a Committee 
 appointed by the Board of Trade on the best form for the 
 composition and outer covering of submarine telegraph 
 cables. 
 
 In 1863 William Siemens, with the aid of the Berlin firm, 
 established large works at Charlton, near Woolwich, for the 
 manufacture of all kinds of telegraph instruments, apparatus, 
 and materials, including submarine cables, which could thus 
 be shipped from the River Thames for direct transport. At 
 the close of the following year Mr. Halske retired from the 
 London firm, and it was reconstituted at the beginning of 
 1865 under the name of Siemens Brothers. The partners 
 were Werner Siemens, William Siemens, and Carl Siemens. 
 The Berlin firm retained its old name of Siemens & Halske, 
 The works at Charlton grew so rapidly as to necessitate the 
 employment of some 3,000 men. The Algerian Cable was the 
 first work undertaken by the new firm. It was la : d between 
 Oran, on the Algerian coast, and Carthagena, in Spain, and 
 was about 140 miles long. Werner and William Siemens 
 personally superintended the laying of the cable. After it 
 had been successfully completed, under great difficulties, the 
 cable unfortunately broke ten miles from Carthagena, upon 
 the edge of a precipice which descends almost perpendicularly 
 from comparatively shallow water to 2,800 metres. The 
 
SIX WILLIAM SIEMENS. 403 
 
 contract involved the Siemens firm in legal proceedings and 
 financial loss, and the disaster affected William Siemens 
 keenly. No considerable portion of the cable was ever re- 
 covered, and the French Government laid down an alternative 
 line. 
 
 However, in 1868-69. the Berlin and London firms 'executed 
 jointly a work of great national importance and of high re- 
 sponsibility, namely, the establishment of a line of land tele- 
 graphs forming a direct communication between England and 
 India, and afterwards known by the name of the Indo- 
 European Telegraph.' Messrs. Siemens obtained concessions- 
 from the Prussian, Russian, and Persian Governments, and. 
 the Indo-European Telegraph Company was formed in alliance - 
 with the Electric and International Telegraph Company- 
 Half the capital was subscribed before the issue of the pros- 
 p^ctus, and the rest immediately afterwards. The construction 
 of the line was begun in June, 1868, and completed by the roth 
 December, 1869. The total length of the various sections was 
 no less than 2,750 miles. The line went through Russian 
 and Persian territory, from the Prussian frontier to Teheran, 
 so connecting the existing Prussian system and through it 
 the British Islands with the lines of the Indian Government. 
 * The complete line from England to India, as worked by the 
 Company, passes from London to Lowestoft, thence by sub- 
 marine cable to Norderney, then by Emden and Berlin to 
 Thorn, on the eastern frontier of Prussia, and thence by- 
 Messrs. Siem.ns's new line to Teheran, and so by the Indian 
 Government lines to all parts of India. In order to give the: 
 Company complete control over the communication, the 
 Prussian Government agreed that there should be laid down, 
 for their exclusive use, two addition.il wires, with separate 
 posts, and under separate management, through their district, 
 from Norderney to Thorn. By this arrangement, therefore, 
 the whole communication from England to India is kept in 
 British hands.' Serious obstacles were encountered in laying 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the cable, especially that portion of it crossing the Caucasus 
 and the Black Sea. The following interesting passage is from 
 Mr. Pole's description : 
 
 ' The construction of the line involved great difficulties, 
 partly by physical obstacles, but chiefly by the fact of the line 
 passing through an uncommercial and unsettled country, 
 peopled in some parts by only semi-civilized races. 
 
 ' In the first place, it was not an easy matter to get the 
 necessary apparatus delivered upon the ground. The materials 
 for the Persian portion of the line, consisting of 11,000 iron 
 posts, 33,400 insulators, and 900 miles of wire of large section, 
 were shipped to St. Petersburg, whence they were transported 
 on the Neva and the Volga to Astrakhan, and again shipped 
 across the Caspian for Lenkoran, Astara, and Recht, the 
 northern parts of Persia. At these ports it was found difficult 
 to get beasts of burden to distribute the materials in the 
 interior of the country within the prescribed time. 
 
 ' Then, when the materials were on the ground, their fixing 
 met with new obstacles of a strange and unusual nature. The 
 Circassians, who were often roaming about armed, and who 
 had but little respect for law and order, used to find amuse- 
 ment in firing at the insulators, upsetting the posts, and 
 damaging the wires ; and until they could be brought to good 
 behaviour, the workmen and inspectors were obliged often to 
 work and go about under a guard of Russian soldiers. 
 
 ' Then some curious difficulties were found from the effects 
 of great cold in winter, combined with some peculiar condi- 
 tions of moisture in the air. Occasionally the wires would 
 become surrounded with envelopes of frozen dew, increasing 
 to some inches in diameter, which would weigh down the 
 wires, or would break up into separate beads, hanging like 
 huge necklaces between the poles. These conditions rendered 
 necessary either extra strong wires, or short bearings, where 
 they were found likely to occur. 
 
 'Then there were other evils. At some periods large 
 
SIX WILLIAM SIEMENS. 405 
 
 numbers of the men were invalided by fever or other diseases, 
 and one of the best German members of the staff died. There 
 also occurred frequent quarrels with the natives, sometimes 
 carried to bloodshed. In one instance a good native servant 
 was beheaded by swift native law, on a groundless charge of 
 shooting a villager. 
 
 ' But the good temper and spirit of the officers carried them 
 through their difficulties, which, indeed, they often viewed on 
 the amusing side.' 
 
 Besides taking out several patents at this time for improve- 
 ments in the details of electrical apparatus, Siemens devised a 
 new form of the Electrical Resistance Measurer one of 
 singular practical utility for cheapness and simplicity of con- 
 struction, ease of manipulation, portability, and capability of 
 employment with exactness by unskilled and inexperienced 
 operators. 
 
 Siemens's principal recreation was in travelling, and on his. 
 excursions abroad with the exception of a business journey 
 to the Black Sea he was accompanied by his wife. In the 
 autumn of 1860 they visited Germany, and were present at 
 a great meeting at Coburg on behalf of German unity. At 
 Dresden they examined the fine glass-works of Hans Siemens. 
 In August, 1862, they again made a tour in Germany, which 
 was extended to Austria and Styria. Many interesting cities 
 were visited, the travellers returning by Salzburg and the 
 Salzkammergut, Dresden, and Berlin. During this same year 
 Siemens found it necessary to reside permanently in London, 
 so he took a house called Aubrey Lodge, on Campden Hill, 
 the highest point of Western London. Here he resided until 
 1870, and he would frequently entertain, with his wife, distin- 
 guished representatives of science, art, and literature. During 
 this period Siemens delivered many lectures and addresses to the 
 members of scientific and other institutions, and on one occa- 
 sion he gave great delight to the boys of the City of London 
 School by a series of interesting experiments. In the spring of 
 
406 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 1866 Mr. and Mrs. Siemens travelled through Italy, and sub- 
 sequently visited Berlin, the occasion being made memorable 
 by the meeting in the Prussian capital of the five brothers 
 Werner, William, Frederick, Carl, arid Walter Siemens. Later 
 in the year William Siemens was seized with serious illness, 
 but a long stay at Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight, restored 
 him to comparative health. In March, 1867, he was called 
 upon to attend the funeral of his brother Hans at Dresden. 
 Fifteen months later he sustained another severe loss by the 
 death of his brother Walter, who met with a violent end in the 
 manner already indicated. In September, 1868, Siemens took 
 a holiday in Switzerland, but the rough climbing over glaciers, 
 etc., caused him much fatigue and subsequent suffering. 
 
 By the year 1870 Siemens had achieved both a reputation 
 and a competence, and as the accumulation of money had 
 never been his chief object, he was now glad to have the 
 opportunity of enjoying the delights of intellectual life, and of 
 mingling in literary and scientific gatherings and labours. At 
 the same time, the next ten years of his life, while not so 
 arduous as the preceding ten years, were as active as any 
 period in his life, and marked by the perfecting of many mis- 
 cellaneous inventions. In 1873 tne Landore Steel Works were 
 making about 1,000 tons of steel weekly, the fourth largest 
 output in the world. The Chief Constructor of the Royal 
 Navy having expressed his belief that vessels could be made 
 of steel instead of the heavy plated iron, Siemens conducted a 
 series of experiments with this object, producing a light steel 
 of superior quality. The result was that he obtained a contract 
 from the Admiralty for the production of the plates, angles, 
 and beams to be used in the construction of two armed 
 despatch vessels, the Iris and the Mercury ', to be built at 
 Pembroke Dockyard. The work was satisfactorily executed, 
 :and the steel stood the most stringent tests. Although the 
 Landore Works acquired great fame, however, for the character 
 of their manufactures, they were anything but prosperous from 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 407 
 
 the commercial point of view. Difficulties of management, a 
 ruinous fall in prices, and other causes, led to serious losses, 
 Siemens himself being the principal sufferer. Yet the produc- 
 tion of high-class steel went on. Siemens estimated that the 
 quantity of steel which had been made by his processes in 
 various places to the end of 1882 amounted to 4,000,000 tons. 
 Six years later the production in Great Britain alone was 
 nearly 1,000,000 tons per annum. Siemens made many ex- 
 periments for the direct production of iron and steel from the 
 ores, and, while he did not live to accomplish this, he never 
 ceased to express his belief that it would ultimately be done. 
 When the Shah of Persia visited England in 1873, n ^ s apart- 
 ments were placed in direct communication, through the Indo- 
 European Telegraph, with his own palace. His Majesty sent 
 for Dr. Siemens, and highly complimented him on the great 
 achievements of his Company, and he likewise conferred upon 
 the inventor the Imperial Order of the Lion and the Sun. 
 
 The most important telegraphic work executed by Siemens 
 Brothers was the laying of the Direct United States Cable 
 in 1874, for which work the steamship Faraday was specially 
 constructed after designs by William Siemens. The steamer 
 was 5,000 tons register, and 360 feet long, and in her interior 
 were three enormous tanks, capable of stowing under water 
 1,700 miles of cable. She was propelled by twin-screws so 
 arranged as to give great facility in manoeuvring. The line 
 of the Direct United States Cable was to be 3,060 nautical 
 miles in length, to extend from Ballinskellig Bay in Ireland 
 to Torbay in Nova Scotia, from whence it was continued, 
 also by submarine cable, to Rye Beach in New Hampshire, 
 there joining the American land lines. The eventful voyages 
 of the Faraday in the laying of this cable are thus detailed by 
 Mr. Pole: 
 
 1 She sailed, to commence the laying of the Direct Atlantic 
 Cable, on the i6th May, 1874. The expedition was in charge 
 of Mr. Carl Siemens, and the manager of the firm, Mr. 
 
4 o8 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Loeffler, was also on board. She carried on this occasion 
 the cable for the American sections and shore ends. She 
 arrived off the American coast early in June, and was there 
 joined by the Ambassador, a ship also sent out by Messrs. 
 Siemens to assist in the laying. The work was much delayed 
 by foggy weather ; and on the 2nd July there appeared in The 
 Times the following startling announcement, communicated 
 by Reuter's telegrams : 
 
 ' "The steamer Faraday has struck on an iceberg off Hali- 
 fax, and is a total wreck." 
 
 ' The consternation caused by such an announcement may 
 well be imagined, but not a moment was lost ; Messrs. Sie- 
 mens sent telegraphic messages in all directions to gather 
 information. After some hours of suspense impossible to 
 describe, everything pointed to the explanation that the 
 rumour was a mere Stock Exchange panic. Messrs. Siemens 
 obtained the assurance that the report was without foundation, 
 and they authoritatively announced this in The Times of the 
 next day. But not till news came, as it did soon afterwards, 
 from Carl Siemens, did the family feel relieved of the load 
 of anxiety. '1 he Faraday arrived safely at Woolwich on the 
 6th of August, having completed all the work she had then 
 to do. 
 
 'On the 26th of August, 1874, she again left Charlton, 
 with the main cable on board, to be laid under the superin- 
 tendence of Mr. Carl Siemens. She arrived at Ballinskellig 
 Bay on ist September, and having attached the cable to 
 the shore end, she commenced paying out on the 6th Sep- 
 tember, accompanied by two tenders, the Ambassador and 
 the Dada. 
 
 'She had laid about 500 or 600 miles when Dr. Werner 
 Siemens, who was testing the cable from the shore at Ballins- 
 kellig Bay, found that a very slight fault had passed over- 
 board. Hitherto it had not been customary to stop opera- 
 tions for faults of so trifling a character, as being too unim- 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 409 
 
 portant to interfere with the proper working of cables. But 
 the brothers were determined that this cable should be as 
 perfect as human skill could make it, and they therefore 
 agreed to haul back and cut out the fault. In doing this 
 the cable broke, but it was picked up again within forty-eight 
 hours in 2,680 fathoms of water, successfully spliced, and the 
 laying proceeded with. This picking up of the cable out of 
 a depth of nearly three miles is noteworthy, as being the 
 first time that such a feat was successfully accomplished. 
 
 ' Owing to severe weather, to the loss of grapnels which 
 had been broken in consequence of the rocky bottom upon 
 which the operations were being carried on, and to the 
 supply of coal running short, the Faraday and her two ten- 
 ders were eventually obliged to put into Queenstown to effect 
 some repairs, and to obtain coals and supplies. William 
 Siemens visited them there on the icth October, and the 
 Faraday left again on the 23rd. 
 
 'The principle of eliminating even the smallest faults was 
 rigidly adhered to, although the completion of the cable was 
 much delayed thereby ; but since it has been handed over to 
 the proprietors, it has proved to be one of the most satis- 
 factory cables ever laid, and its rate of transmission is far 
 superior to that of cables in which minute faults have been 
 allowed to remain.' 
 
 Another large undertaking carried out by Siemens Brothers 
 in 1874, was the laying of the Brazilian Cable. The line 
 lay between Rio de Janeiro and the coast of Uruguay, near 
 the Brazilian frontier, in all 1,130 nautical miles of sea cable 
 and 50 statute miles of land line. The work was success- 
 fully carried through, but not until two terrible disasters had 
 occurred. The steamship Gomos^ which went out with stores 
 and materials, laid in due course one of the sections of the 
 cable, but on the night of the 25th May, 1874, she struck on a 
 sand-bar at Rio Grande do Sul, and became a total wreck, losing 
 about 240 nautical miles of cable. In the following November 
 
4 io LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 another steamer, the La Plata, was sent out with stores and 
 184 nautical miles of cable. Three days after her departure, 
 however, she foundered during a violent gale in the Bay of 
 Biscay, and fifty-eight lives were lost. This painful disaster 
 seemed inexplicable, for the La Plata was a fine iron screw- 
 steamer of 968 tons register. The captain was experienced 
 and the vessel was well found in every respect. All kinds 
 of rumours were bruited abroad, and as the loss occurred at 
 the time when the agitation against unseaworthy ships was at 
 its height, reports were even circulated to the prejudice of 
 the owners and charterers. Altogether there was considerable 
 public excitement. The affair was a serious one for Siemens 
 Brothers, as they lost the whole of their cable staff, including 
 the chief of the expedition, Mr. Ricketts, and six skilled 
 assistants accompanying him. 
 
 The Board of Trade ordered an enquiry, which was held 
 at Greenwich by Mr. Balguy, police magistrate, assisted by 
 Captain Gates and Captain Pryce, as nautical assessors, and by 
 Mr. Traill, chief surveyor of the Board of Trade, as engineer- 
 ing assessor. The investigation lasted eleven days, and it 
 was proved that Dr. Siemens had even voluntarily increased 
 the means of safety and comfort for the crew and passengers. 
 The Report was duly issued, and Mr. Balguy found (i) 
 That the La Plata, when she left Gravesend, was a strong 
 ship, and in a seaworthy condition. (2) She was not over- 
 laden, and her cargo was properly stowed. (3) She was in 
 proper trim. The assessors made a separate report. While 
 substantially agreeing with the magistrate, they differed on 
 some minor points, and in particular pointed out that 'the 
 trim of the vessel (for which the captain was responsible) was 
 not quite safe under such contingencies as a heavy head-sea 
 or a violent gale. All the judges completely exonerated the 
 Messrs. Siemens from blame. Sir William Siemens's biographer 
 says of this disaster, and of its effects upon Siemens himself : 
 
 ' The immediate cause of the disaster was judged to be the 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 411 
 
 entrance of water into the engine-room ; it was at first thought 
 that a leak arose from some damage to the hull when the 
 boat-davits were carried away, but this was disproved. No 
 sufficient cause for the leakage could be shown, and there 
 was reason to believe that it arose from some derangement 
 of the water-passages connected with the engine, which it was 
 quite within the power of the engineers to control. The 
 magistrate, therefore, expressed his opinion " that the disaster 
 originated in the stoke-hole " ; the assessors, going into more 
 detail, agreed that there was "gross negligence in the engine- 
 room department," and they also attributed mismanagement 
 to the captain. The evidence, however, was conflicting, and 
 many of the facts were obscure. 
 
 'The Queen manifested the deepest sympathy for the 
 sufferers, and directed special enquiries to be made after 
 the widow of Captain Dudden, who, it was reported, behaved 
 with the greatest courage. 
 
 * Besides providing for the widows and families of the 
 principal members of their own staff who had been lost, 
 Messrs. Siemens gave ^"500 to the public fund raised in 
 aid of the widows and orphans of the men lost in the ship. 
 Similar sums were given by Mr. Henley and by Messrs. 
 Grant Brothers (from whom the contract for the cable was 
 obtained), and the total of the fund was raised to about 
 ,4,650, which was distributed by a committee formed prin- 
 cipally of officials of Messrs. Siemens and Mr. Henley. 
 
 ' Dr. Siemens felt this calamity very deeply : it aged him 
 perceptibly, and its effects on him were visible for years after- 
 wards. Indeed, it is doubtful whether he ever regained the 
 bright buoyant spirits he had before the catastrophe.' 
 
 A third ship, the Ambassador, was sent out, which success- 
 fully completed the laying of the Brazilian Cable. Dr. Siemens 
 not. only showed the deepest sympathy with those who suffered 
 from the La Plata disaster, but he was also the recipient of 
 sympathy himself. 
 
4 1 2 LEADERS OF MODERN IND USTR Y. 
 
 The late Emperor of the Brazils visited England in 1871. 
 He was a very able man, and took a keen interest in scientific 
 matters. Siemens went over the works at Charlton with his 
 Majesty, to whom he explained the various manufacturing pro- 
 cesses. Two years afterwards, the Emperor conferred upon 
 him the Imperial Order of the Rose, subsequently advancing 
 him to the rank of a dignitary of the same Order. 
 
 Siemens Brothers laid the French Atlantic Cable in 1879 for 
 the Cornpagnie Fran$aise du Telegraphe de Paris a New York. 
 The line was from Brest, via St. Pierre Miguelon, to Cape Cod 
 in Massachusetts, the length being about 2,250 nautical miles. 
 Although the order was only given in March, 1879, the cable 
 was finished by the 1 7th of June, and successfully laid by the 
 Faraday by the 26th of October following. It was in perfect 
 working order, and such an example of rapidity of production 
 is probably unmatched. 
 
 Electric lighting is another branch of science with which the 
 name of Siemens is indelibly associated. Faraday produced the 
 electric spark when lecturing at the Royal Institution in 1831 
 on the ' Evolution of Electricity from Magnetism ' ; and he 
 then predicted that others would follow in his steps who 
 would make this power available for very important purposes. 
 Wheatstone and other discoverers soon justified his words. 
 Werner and William Siemens began to labour in the same 
 field about 1854, and two years afterwards the former made an 
 important advance towards aggregating magneto-electric cur- 
 rents. He constructed an armature resembling in section the 
 letter H, into the hollows of which the insulated wires were 
 wound longitudinally. The armature was so mounted as to 
 secure a rapid rotation and a succession of currents, and the 
 invention was adopted and largely used by Siemens & Halske 
 in their magneto-electric machines especially in one called a 
 Zeiger, an alphabetical indicating instrument. The Siemens 
 armature was used in constructing the electric lights off Dunge- 
 ness, the South Point, the South Foreland, etc.. 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 413 
 
 But a greater discovery was to follow. By the close of 1866 
 the Siemens Brothers had discovered, and clearly established, 
 the principle of electro-magnetic augmentation and maintenance 
 of a current without the aid of steel or other permanent magnets. 
 Experiments were carried out at Berlin by the two brothers, in 
 the presence of Professors Dove, Magnus, Du Bois Reymond, 
 and other leading physicists. The value of the discovery was 
 demonstrated, both practically and scientifically, and it was 
 decided to lay the matter before the Academy of Berlin and 
 the Royal Society of London. The new electro-dynamic in- 
 ductor revealed extraordinary powers, even in the smallest of 
 the machines, and it solved the problem of exploders for mines 
 and quarries, as well as of exploding cartridges. William 
 Siemens explained the discovery before the Royal Society on 
 the 1 4th of February, 1867, in his important paper entitled 
 1 On the Conversion of Dynamical into Electrical Force with- 
 out the Aid of Permanent Magnetism.' He described the 
 apparatus, and demonstrated beyond doubt that permanent 
 magnetism was not requisite in order to convert mechanical 
 into electrical force. The most powerful electrical or calorific 
 effects could be produced without the aid of steel magnets, 
 which were open to the objection of losing their permanent 
 magnetism in use. Strangely enough, the discovery was made 
 simultaneously, and without concert, by Professor Wheatstone 
 and Mr. Alfred Varley, and the latter had already applied for 
 a patent, depositing, in a sealed document, a provisional speci- 
 fication. Three scientists, therefore, made, independently of 
 each other, this great discovery in connection with the prin- 
 ciple of electricity. Siemens's patent was dated January 3ist, 
 1867. ' The nature of the invention was thus described in the 
 first claim : 
 
 ' " Developing powerful electric currents in electro-magnetic 
 apparatus by causing the poles of a rotating electro-magnet or 
 keeper to be forcibly approached successively to the similar 
 poles, and forcibly severed from the dissimilar poles of sta- 
 
414 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY, 
 
 tionary electro-magnets or coils, the currents being directed by 
 means of a commutator or of current changers, so as to pro- 
 duce the above effect, and thereby cause an accumulation of 
 magnetism and of the currents produced by the apparatus." 
 
 'The application to marine lights is mentioned as follows : 
 
 ' "Lighthouses have in some cases been illuminated by means 
 of electric lamps. ... As the powerful batteries, such as 
 would be requisite for these electric lamps, are exceedingly 
 perishable and expensive to maintain, magneto- electrical 
 machines have been employed for producing the requisite 
 electrical currents; but even these machines are apt to lose 
 their efficiency, owing to a gradual decrease of the permanent 
 magnetism of the steel bars employed. The pres nt invention 
 consists, first, in obtaining powerful electric currents without 
 the aid either of large batteries or of permanent magnets by 
 the following method." 
 
 ' The method is then described, and the patent also goes on 
 to state how lights may be transmitted through wires to lights, 
 beacons, and buoys out at sea.' 
 
 Mr. Pole points out that the immediate result of this dis- 
 covery was the production of one of the most wonderful of 
 modern instruments, the dynamo-electric machine, or, as it is 
 now more briefly called, the dynamo. ' If mechanical agency 
 be applied to it in the form of muscular force, or water or 
 steam power, the machine will convert this into its proper 
 equivalent (minus certain necessary losses) of energy in the 
 shape of an electric current ; or, by a reverse operation, if an 
 electric current be introduced into it, it may be changed into a 
 corresponding equivalent of mechanical power, which will do 
 work that might be done by muscles, or by water, or by steam ' 
 Very important improvements were afterwards effected in the 
 Siemens machine by Dr. Werner Siemens and Friedrich von 
 Hefner- Alteneck, and a patent was taken out in 1873, entitled 
 ' Improvements in apparatus for producing and regulating elec- 
 tric currents, such apparatus being particularly applicable to 
 
SIR WILLIAM SIEMENS. 415 
 
 electric lighting.' Hefner- Alteneck had the chief share in the 
 invention, and the machine was called sometimes the 'New 
 Siemens,' and at others the ' Hefner- Alteneck.' Many later 
 machines have been introduced for producing large electric 
 currents, including those of Edison, Hopkinson, Gramme, 
 Gordon, Sawyer, the Brush Company, etc. In 1878 Messrs. 
 Siemens constructed the electrical apparatus for the Lizard 
 Light on their principle. In a lecture given at the Royal In- 
 stitution in February, 1879, Professor Tyndall detailed the 
 progress of electric lighting; and Dr. Siemens supplemented 
 this account in March, 1880, by lecturing on the dynamo-elec- 
 tric current generally. The electric transmission of power was 
 Sie.nens's favourite study. It had strongly impressed him in 
 the autumn of 1876, when visiting the Falls of Niagara; and 
 when in the spring of 1877 he gave the opening address as 
 President of the Iron and Steel Institute, he startled his 
 audience by stating that ' a copper rod three inches in diameter 
 would be capable of transmitting 1,000 horse-power a distance 
 of, say, thirty miles, an amount sufficient to supply one-quarter 
 of a million candle-power, which would suffice to illuminate a 
 moderately-sized town.' 
 
 Other inventions by Siemens included the following : An 
 improved pyrometer, or thermometer for very high tempera- 
 tures, acting by electricity ; the bathometer, for measuring 
 ocean depths without the sounding-line, the means employed 
 being variations in the attraction exerted on a delicately sus- 
 pended body ; and the deep sea electrical photometer, by 
 which investigations could be carried on by the penetration of 
 light into deep water. Siemens's proposal for the conveyance 
 of force from waterfalls like Niagara was received with a good 
 deal of incredulity, but h- adhered to his view. There was 
 more belief, because there was complete demonstration, in re- 
 gard to his ingenious experiments for ripening fruit under elec- 
 tricity, and his labours in the direction of applying electricity 
 to illumination, and in constructing a combined gas and coke 
 
4 i 6 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 stove^by which the air required for combustion is heated in 
 passing to the burner, so that the warmth usually wasted below 
 the grate and up the chimney is brought forward, and radiation 
 of heat increased. In 1882 Siemens published a work on the 
 Conservation of Solar Energy, which was an ingenious en- 
 deavour to explain certain phenomena in solar physics on the 
 principle of his own regenerative furnace. 
 
 Besides being elected on the Council of the Royal Society, 
 Siemens was admitted to those select societies, or inner circles, 
 called the Royal Society Club and the Philosophical Club. 
 He also served on the Council of the British Association and 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers. For two years he held the 
 office of President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 
 and he acted as President and Member of Council of the Iron 
 and Steel Institute. In 1875 the Institute presented him with 
 the Bessemer gold medal, ; in recognition of the valuable ser- 
 vices he had rendered to the iron and steel trades by his 
 important inventions and investigations.' He was likewise 
 elected first President of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 
 and Electricians. He made an offer of ^"10,000 to the Iron 
 and Steel Institute for the erection of a Hall of Applied 
 Sciences, but difficulties arose as to the mode of carrying out 
 the scheme, and it consequently fell through. In the Society 
 of Arts which was the first Society he ever joined he took a 
 profound interest, and at the time of his death he was Chair- 
 man of the Council. He was awarded the gold medal of the 
 Society in 1875. At the Chemical Society, the Royal Institu- 
 tion, and the United Service Institution, he made frequent 
 appearances. He was elected into the Athenaeum Club under 
 the special rule admitting distinguished men. In June, 1870, 
 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford, the other 
 recipients of the honour at the same time being Sir Edwin 
 Landseer, Sir Francis Grant, Sir William Armstrong, Mr. 
 Robert Lowe, and Mr. Matthew Arnold. 
 
 Between 1870 and 1879, Dr. an d Mrs. Siemens paid several 
 
WILLIAM SIEMENS. 417 
 
 visits to the Continent. In 1870 Carl Siemens and his- family 
 removed to London, and Dr. Siemens took one of the Palace 
 Houses opposite Kensington Gardens, "to accommodate his 
 own family and his brother's, and they occupied the same 
 dwelling until 1881, domestic happiness doing much to miti- 
 gate the inventor's many business anxieties. In 1874 Siemens 
 also took a country seat, Sherwood House, near Tunbridge 
 Wells, which he found to be a charming and beautiful retreat. 
 In this establishment ' electricity played every part, from cook- 
 ing the dinners to calling the servants, ripening the peaches and 
 brushing the boots.' In June, 1878, Siemens was made an 
 Honorary Member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 
 and in 1879 the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the 
 degree of LL.D. 
 
 During the last few years of his life, Siemens devoted a great 
 deal of attention to such questions as smoke abatement, an im- 
 proved house stove, and London fogs. In 1883, Sir William 
 Thomson was asked, * Can you scientific people not save us 
 from these black and yellow City fogs ?' Sir William's instant 
 answer was, ' Sir William Siemens is going to do it; and I hope, 
 if we live a few years longer, we shall have seen almost the last 
 of them/ Alas ! Siemens passed away within a few days, while 
 the London fogs still remain. Siemens had great faith in gas 
 as a heating agent, and he made numerous experiments to test 
 his ideas. He went so far as to anticipate the time when, by 
 means of some arrangement analogous to his gas producer, gas 
 might be made in the coal districts, and supplied by a gigantic 
 system of distribution to the public generally as fuel. In the 
 year 1880 the firm of Siemens Brothers at Charlton was turned 
 into a limited company, the brothers Werner, William, and 
 Carl still remaining as directors, however, together with a new 
 director, Mr. Loeffler. Among important electric light under- 
 takings carried out by the firm were those at the British 
 Museum, the Royal Albert Dock, and the Savoy Theatre, 
 while they also lighted the Austral steamship and the town of 
 
 EE 
 
418 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY, 
 
 Godalming on the same principle. They further applied 
 tricity to the propulsion of railway trains, and to the system of 
 haulage in mines. Werner Siemens proved the feasibility of 
 an electric railway in 1879, ano ^ two years later a permanent 
 electric tramway was laid down in Berlin. Lines of electric 
 railway have been open for ten years past in Ireland and the 
 United States, and it remains to be seen what developments 
 electric traction is capable of in the future. Siemens predicted 
 the use of electric propulsion in long tunnels and on under- 
 ground lines, where steam locomotion has the great disadvan- 
 tage of fouling the air. Electrical power has been used in a 
 great variety of ways during the last few years, in addition to 
 those above cited. 
 
 Dr. Siemens gave one of a course of six lectures delivered at 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers, in the year 1883, demonstrat- 
 ing the practical applications of electricity. The particular sub- 
 ject he chose was ' The Electrical Transmission and Storage of 
 Power.' He had before this taken out a patent for * Improved 
 means and apparatus for producing light and heat by electricity.' 
 His achievements in electric horticulture and fruit-growing, 
 and in gardening by electric light thus taking the place of 
 the sun, were very remarkable, and were made known in papers 
 read before the Royal Society and the British Association. 
 Dr. Siemens was one of the Board of Visitors in connection 
 with the Indian Engineering College at Cooper's Hill, and he 
 was able to initiate reforms there which were of real practical 
 service to those who were being educated for his own profession 
 of civil engineering. In Sept. 1882, Dr. Siemens delivered an 
 able address, as President of the British Association, on the 
 practical applications of Science. In July, 1883, he represented 
 the British Government together with Lord Sudeley, Sir W. 
 Thomson, and Sir F. Abel at the great Exhibition of Electric 
 Apparatus held in Vienna, and he delivered the introductory 
 lecture of a series given on electrical subjects. The following 
 November he was awarded the Howard Quinquennial Prize by 
 
SIX WILLIAM SIEMENS. 419 
 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers. During this and several 
 preceding years he was elected a member of numerous learned 
 societies in France, Germany, America, and Russia ; and he 
 received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Dublin, 
 and that of Ph.D. from the University of Gottingen. In 
 1882 Siemens founded a Science Prize at King's College, Lon- 
 don, and the same year he gave evidence before the Royal 
 Commission on Technical Education a class of education 
 which he desired to see broadened and extended. He also 
 still continued to give lectures at various places on scientific 
 subjects. 
 
 Among English honours conferred upon Siemens, and which 
 he much prized, were the Freedom and Livery of the Gold- 
 smiths' Company and the Freedom and Livery of the Turners' 
 Company. Then, in April, 1883, he was awarded a still higher 
 distinction, when the Queen personally conferred upon him the 
 honour of knighthood at Osborne, in recognition of the services 
 which he had rendered to the cause of science. Congratulatory 
 addresses and messages poured in upon Sir William and Lady 
 Siemens, and Punch gave a clever fancy portrait of Sir William, 
 with the whimsical inscription, 'The Electric Knight-Light.' 
 
 Early in November, 1883, Siemens was seized with illness. 
 He still moved about, however, but on the'i4th of that month 
 he took a chill which affected his lungs. For five days he lin- 
 gered, and then passed peacefully away on the iQth of Novem- 
 ber, in his sixty-first year. A post-mortem examination revealed 
 that there had been long-standing disease of the heart, which 
 was aggravated by a fall he had about a fortnight before his 
 death. The sad news of his decease brought messages of 
 regret and sympathy for Lady Siemens, from the Empress of 
 Germany, Prince William of Prussia, and the Crown Prince 
 Rudolph of Austria. There was a public funeral service in 
 Westminster Abbey on the 26th of November. The Royal 
 Society and other scientific societies and institutions were 
 represented, and among the pall-bearers were Professor Huxley, 
 
 EE 2 
 
420 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Sir Frederick Bramwell, Sir James Brunlees, Sir William Thom- 
 son, and Professor Tyndall. The body was conveyed after the 
 service to Kensal Green Cemetery for interment. A simple 
 monument was subsequently erected over the grave, with a 
 medallion portrait of Sir William by Mr. Bruce Joy ; and a mag- 
 nificent memorial window was erected by his brother engineers 
 in Westminster Abbey. This window was unveiled in November 
 1885, when Sir F. Bramwell delivered an eloquent eulogium 
 upon Siemens. 
 
 Tributes continued to be paid to Sir William Siemens, at 
 home and abroad, long after his death. Full justice was done 
 to his career as a man of science, an engineer, an inventor, and 
 a man of business. He undoubtedly made his mark upon the 
 age, and gave a great impetus to several branches of scientific 
 industry. He gained considerable wealth, but he used it wisely 
 and creditably. He was liberal by nature, and indulged his 
 scientific and artistic tastes. He had no mean powers of 
 literary expression, and he had great intensity of application in 
 whatever he undertook. He was of active habits, with a re- 
 ceptive and imaginative mind; was of a sanguine temperament, 
 independent in judgment, and animated by an irresistible 
 desire to realise objects in applied science when once conceived. 
 His religion he himself described as Liberal Protestantism. 
 Unqualified praise has been given to all his relations in 
 private life, and a man is known nowhere better than in his 
 own home. 
 
THE KENNIES. 
 
THE KENNIES. 
 
 THE science of engineering owed many of its finest and most 
 enduring developments to the genius of the Rennie family. 
 The works of John Rennie and his two sons not only testify to 
 their fame to-day, but must continue to do so for many genera- 
 tions. Some of the greatest mechanical enterprises and 
 achievements ever witnessed in Great Britain are associated 
 with their names ; and this volume of sketches of industrial 
 leaders may well and fitly close with a record of their labours. 
 John Rennie, the father, was born at the farm of Phantassie, 
 in East Lothian, on the yth of June, 1761. His father, like 
 many other members of the family before him, owned the 
 small farm which he cultivated. Farming was not an enviable 
 occupation in the Lothians in the middle of last century, for 
 roads were bad and communication difficult, and blackmailing 
 and cattle-lifting were prevalent. Phantassie was on the old 
 post-road between London and Edinburgh, but that did not 
 benefit it much. In 1763, when Rennie was two years of age, 
 the first stage-coach between London and Scotland began to" 
 run. It only went once a^month, however, and the journey 
 from Edinburgh to London occupied from twelve to eighteen 
 days. As young Rennie grew up he had aspirations beyond 
 the quiet monotonous life which was a characteristic feature of 
 the Scottish Lowlands. For a time he worked for Andrew 
 Meikle, a farmer and millwright in the Phantassie district. 
 Meikle was of an ingenious turn of mind, and invented a 
 threshing-mill, which was capable of being worked by water. 
 
424 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 wind, or horses. Meikle took out a patent for the machine, 
 and it proved to be a valuable boon to the husbandman, 
 effecting an immense saving of labour as well as of corn. In 
 course of time the threshing-mill was generally adopted in 
 Great Britain, and, indeed, throughout the civilised world. It 
 was Meikle who first stirred in John Rennie his love for 
 mechanics and the science of engineering. 
 
 Old Rennie died in 1766, leaving nine children four sons 
 and five daughters. George, the eldest, managed the farm and 
 acted as head of the family, though he was but seventeen years 
 of age. William, the second son, went to sea, and died in 
 America ; and James, the third son, studied medicine in Edin- 
 burgh, went out to India, and was killed whilst dressing the 
 wounds of his commanding officer at Seringapatam. John, being 
 only five years old at the time of his father's death, was brought 
 up under the care of his excellent mother. He was educated 
 at the parish school of Prestonkirk, and was put to work, as we 
 have seen, at Andrew Meikle's, where he remained for two years. 
 Next he was sent to the Dunbar High School, where he showed 
 such proficiency in mathematics, etc., that a visitor of the 
 school said 'One would have imagined him a second Newton.' 
 Then he returned home and to the workshop of his friend 
 Meikle, whom he assisted in his plans and inventions. At the 
 early age of nineteen he was employed in fitting up new mills 
 at Invergowrie, near Dundee. Subsequently he executed 
 repairs at Aitcheson's flour-mills at Bonnington, near Edin- 
 burgh, employing cast-iron pinions instead of the wooden 
 trundles formerly used. Dr. Smiles, in his Lives of the Engineers, 
 states that he made quite an original mark as a country mill- 
 wright. But he was already aiming at something much higher 
 than this. Determined to acquire a thorough scientific train- 
 ing, he matriculated at Edinburgh University in 1780, and 
 entered the classes of Dr. Robison, Professor of Natural 
 Philosophy, and Dr. Black, Professor of Chemistry. In ad- 
 clition to studying strictly scientific works, Rennie acquired a 
 
THE KENNIES. 425 
 
 knowledge of the French and German languages. Music also 
 beguiled his hours of recreation. Having closed his college 
 training in 1783, Rennie set forth upon a tour through the 
 English manufacturing districts. By easy stages he reached 
 Birmingham, and sought out James Watt, to whom he had a 
 letter of introduction from Dr. Robison. Watt took to him at 
 once, and remained his firm friend through life. Returning 
 after some months to Phantassie, Rennie threw himself into 
 mill and machinery work, and likewise constructed his first 
 bridge. It was built for the Trustees of the County of Mid- 
 lothian, across the Water of Leith, about two miles west of 
 Edinburgh. But though he was full of work, he accepted an 
 invitation from Watt to return to Birmingham, and early in 
 1785 he entered the famous works of Boulton & Watt at 
 Soho. Here his mechanical genius soon manifested itself; 
 and Watt thought so highly of Rennie that he committed to 
 him the sole direction of the construction and fitting up of 
 the machinery of the Albion Mills, London. This important 
 undertaking was successfully completed ; and the ingenious 
 improvements effected in the connecting wheel-work were so 
 striking that Rennie at once rose into general notice, and 
 abundance of mill-work speedily flowed in upon him. Watt 
 was delighted with his young assistant's success ; and the 
 great Smeaton, who visited the Albion Mills, ' pronounced 
 them to be the most complete in their arrangement and execu- 
 tion which had yet been erected in any country.' Rennie's 
 system of wrought- and cast-iron wheels was soon generally 
 adopted in all large machinery. The Albion Mills were 
 unfortunately destroyed by fire in 1791, but upon part of the 
 ground Rennie obtained leave to erect a workshop, in which 
 he continued all through life to carry on the business of a 
 mechanical engineer. 
 
 In 1792 Rennie undertook and completed his first work of 
 civil engineering in England the Kennet and Avon Canal, 
 which extends from Newbury to Bath. The total length of 
 
426 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the canal is fifty-seven miles. Many difficulties were ex- 
 perienced in cutting it, but all were effectually surmounted, 
 and the various bridges, aqueducts, culverts, etc., successfully 
 built. ' Among the finest architectural structures forming 
 part of the canal is the aqueduct over the river Avon, about a 
 mile from Limpley Stoke and six miles from Bath, which is 
 greatly admired for the beauty of its elevation ; and, indeed, 
 wherever there is an aqueduct or a bridge upon the line of this 
 canal, it will be found excellent in workmanship and tasteful 
 in design. As a whole, the navigation was pronounced to be 
 of the best executed in the kingdom, and the works have stood 
 admirably down to the present time. In a commercial and 
 national point of view the undertaking was of great importance, 
 connecting as it did the navigation of the metropolis with that 
 of Bristol and St. George's Channel, as well as opening up an 
 extensive intermediate district ; and it eventually proved highly 
 remunerative to the proprietors.' 
 
 Rennie's next important undertaking, the Rochdale Canal, 
 was even more difficult than the first, cuttings having to be 
 made through hard rocky regions. This canal opened a direct 
 water communication between the manufacturing districts of 
 West Yorkshire and South Lancashire. Locks, reservoirs, strong 
 bridges, and embankments were all necessary, and it is stated 
 that George Stephenson encountered no more formidable 
 difficulties in constructing his railway through the same district 
 than Rennie did in constructing his waterway. But Rennie 
 persevered, the canal was duly opened, and the engineer's 
 sterling workmanship endures to this day. He further con- 
 structed the Lancaster Canal, and superintended the execu- 
 tion of the Grand Western Canal in Somerset, the Polbrook 
 Canal in Cornwall, and the canal between Arundel and Ports- 
 mouth. He made elaborate reports on various other canals, 
 and was extensively consulted as a canal engineer. 
 
 Fen drainage was another work in which Rennie achieved 
 great and beneficial results, Ie first turned his attention to 
 
THE RENNIES. 427 
 
 South Lincolnshire, and reclaimed the whole of that extensive 
 district which extends along the south verge of the Wolds, from 
 near the City of Lincoln eastward to the sea. Included there- 
 in were Wildmore Fen, West Fen, and East Fen, which com- 
 prised about 75,000 acres of land that for the greater part of 
 the year lay under water, thus being rendered comparatively 
 useless either for pasturage or tillage. Rennie was next con- 
 sulted as to the draining of the Cambridgeshire Fens, and he 
 conceived a grand scheme for the drainage of the Great Level, 
 by means of more effectual outfalls and a system of intercepting 
 catch-water drains.- Unfortunately, however, the only part of 
 the scheme executed during his lifetime was the Eau Brink 
 Cut, for the purpose of securing a more effectual outfall of the 
 river into the Wash near King's Lynn. In 1807, Rennie re- 
 claimed 23,000 acres of fertile land in the district of Holder- 
 ness, near Hull ; in 1812 he was engaged in embanking lands 
 exposed to the sea, when he succeeded in effectually protecting 
 the thirty miles of coast extending from Wainfleet to Boston, 
 and thence to the mouths of the rivers Welland and Glen ; and 
 in 1814 he produced a plan, which was carried out, for pro- 
 tecting the Earl of Lonsdale's valuable marsh-land on the south 
 shore of the Solway Firth. ' It has been said of Mr. Rennie,' 
 remarks Dr. Smiles, 'that he was the greatest "slayer of 
 dragons " that ever lived this title being given in the Fens to 
 persons who, by skill and industry, have perfected works of 
 drainage, and thereby removed the causes of sickness and 
 disease, typified in ancient times as dragons or destroyers. In 
 this sense, certainly, Mr. Rennie is entitled, perhaps more than 
 any other man, to this remarkable appellation.' 
 
 Rennie's most widely-accepted claim upon posterity, how- 
 ever, is as one of the greatest bridge-builders of the world. We 
 have already seen that he began his noble series of structures 
 with the bridge over the Water of Leith, near Edinburgh, and 
 it now remains to consider his more important works in this 
 category. The ftrst of these was the bridge across the Tweed 
 
428 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 at Kelso, designed in 1799 and opened in 1803. It consists of 
 five semi -elliptical arches cf 72 feet span, each rising 28 feet, 
 and 4 piers, each 12 feet thick, with a level roadway 23 feet 6 
 inches wide between the parapets, and 29 feet above the ordinary 
 surface of the river. It was one of the first bridges constructed 
 with a level roadway, and was succeeded by the engineer's new 
 bridge over the Esk at Musselburgh. Rennie's earliest English 
 bridge, and the first of his cast-iron bridges, was that thrown over 
 the Witham at Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1803. Like all Rennie's 
 bridges, it is elegant in appearance, and consists of a single 
 arch of iron ribs, forming the segment of a circle, the chord of 
 which is 80 feet. During the next fifteen or twenty years 
 Rennie was called upon to construct a great number of minor 
 bridges, and while erecting one at Newton Stewart, across the 
 Cree, he nearly lost his life during a heavy flood, which swept 
 down the valley with great fury. 
 
 The finest and most celebrated of Rennie's bridges to 
 return to his greater works is the Waterloo Bridge over the 
 Thames. It was commenced in 1811, and finished in less 
 than six years, at a cost of upwards of ,1,050,000. Mr. D. 
 K. Clark, in describing the bridge, says it ' has a level roadway, 
 carried on nine equal semi-elliptical arches, of 1 20 feet span each, 
 and 32 feet rise, leaving a clear height of 30 feet above high-water 
 spring tides. It was built of granite, in a style of solidity and 
 magnificence previously unknown. Inverted arches were built 
 between the elliptical arches in order to counteract the lateral 
 pressure. The elliptical arch was carried to a greater extent of 
 flatness than in bridges previously built. Isolated coffer-dams 
 upon a great scale, in a tidal river, with steam-engines for pump- 
 ing out the water, were employed in the building of this bridge, 
 for the first time, it is believed, in Britain. The length of the 
 bridge between the abutments is 1,380 feet, and the width 
 between the parapets is 42 feet 4. inches. The long inclined 
 approach on the Surrey side is formed by a series of 39 semi- 
 circular arches of j6 feet span, besides an elliptical arch, of 
 
THE RENN1ES. 429 
 
 26 feet span, over the Narrow wall Road, and an embankment 
 of 165 yards long-, on an inclination of i foot rise in 34 feet 
 of length. The total length 6*f the bridge, with approaches, is 
 2,456 feet, or nearly half a mile.' 
 
 Waterloo Bridge was opened on the iSth June, 1817, by the 
 Prince Regent. The Duke of Wellington and many other dis- 
 tinguished personages were present at the imposing ceremony. 
 Originally called the Strand Bridge, its name was changed to 
 that of Waterloo, in honour of the Iron Duke. The Prince 
 Regent offered to confer the honour of knighthood upon 
 Rennie, but the engineer declined it, being content to remain 
 a simple citizen. He wrote afterwards to a friend, 'I had a 
 hard business to escape knighthood at the opening.' As Dr. 
 Smiles justly remarks, ' Waterloo Bridge is indeed a noble 
 work, and probably has not its equal for magnitude, beauty, 
 and solidity. Dupin characterized it as a colossal monument 
 worthy of Sesostris or the Caesars ; and what struck Canova 
 most during his visit to England was, that the trumpery 
 Chinese bridge, in St. James's Park, should be the produc- 
 tion of the Government, whilst Waterloo Bridge was the enter- 
 prise of a private company. Like all Rennie's works, it was 
 built for posterity. That it should not have settled more 
 than a few inches not five in any part after the centres were 
 struck, is an illustration of solidity and strength probably with- 
 out a parallel. We believe that to this day not a crack is 
 visible in the whole work.' 
 
 Southwark Bridge was Rennie's next undertaking. It extends 
 from Queen Street, Cannon Street, to Bridge Street, Southwark, 
 and consists of three cast-iron arches, with two stone piers and 
 abutments. The arches are flat segments of circles, the centre 
 one being not less than 240 feet span, rising 24 feet, and 
 springing 6 feet above high-water of spring tides. The two 
 side arches are of 210 feet span, each rising 18 feet 10 inches, 
 and springing from the same level. The two piers are 24 feet 
 wide each at the springing, and 30 feet at the base. The first 
 
LEADERS OP MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 stone was laid by Admiral Lord Keith early in 1815, and the 
 bridge was opened for traffic in March, 1819. In constructing 
 this bridge, great precautions had to be exercised in securing 
 the foundations of the piers, as the Thames was here at its nar- 
 rowest and deepest point. The coffer-dams were consequently 
 made of unusual strength and depth, and were constructed in 
 the form most capable of resisting external pressure. The 
 stone and iron work were alike splendid ; and Robert Stephen- 
 son, in describing the structure in his article on ' Iron Bridges ' 
 in the Encydopadia Britannica, said that ' as an example of 
 arch-construction, it stands confessedly unrivalled as regards 
 its colossal proportions, its architectural effect, and the general 
 simplicity and massive character of its details.' 
 
 Rennie's achievements in dock and harbour construction are 
 almost equally famous. The London Docks, the East and 
 West India Docks at Blackwall, the Hull Docks, the Prince's 
 Dock at Liverpool, and those of Dublin, Greenock, and Leith 
 were all designed by him, and wholly or partially executed 
 under his own superintendence. When the London Docks 
 were constructed, it was determined to limit the access in the 
 first instance to the Middle River entrance at Bell Dock, 150 
 feet long and 40 feet wide. The entrance lock communicated 
 with the Wapping Basin, which covered a space of 3 acres, 
 and this again led to the great basin called the Western Dock, 
 1,260 feet long and 960 feet wide. The bottom of the dock 
 was laid 20 feet below the level of high water of an 1 8 feet 
 tide ; and the quays next to the river were 5 feet above high 
 water, increasing to 9 feet at the great dock. Other docks 
 were subsequently constructed, communicating with each other 
 and with a larger and deeper entrance lower down the river at 
 Shadwell. Rennie began the work of making the docks early 
 in 1802, and they were completed in January, 1805. Some 
 time after the docks were opened, Rennie suggested that the 
 whole of the lifting cranes should be worked by the power of a 
 -steam-engine instead of by human or by horse labour. Yet 
 
THE RENNIES. 431 
 
 although he estimated the saving at ,1,500 a year, while greater 
 regularity and despatch would also be secured, the innovation 
 was regarded as too bold a one to be attempted. He further 
 suggested the adoption of tramways all round the quays, pro- 
 vided with trucks, but this labour-saving process was likewise 
 in advance of the time. The East India Docks, constructed 
 solely for vessels of the East India Company ranging from 
 1,000 to i, 800 tons burden, were opened in August, 1806. 
 They had an entrance lock into the Thames 210 feet long and 
 47 feet wide. The Export Dock was 760 feet long and 463 
 feet wide, covering a surface of 8*/i acres ; and the Import 
 Dock was 1,410 feet long and 463 feet wide, covering a surface 
 of 18^3 acres. The depth of the basins was 22 feet below 
 high-water mark of ordinary spring tides ; and the total surface 
 of dock room, including quays, sheds, and warehouses, was 
 about 55 acres. The docks were eventually united to the 
 West India Docks, under the joint directorate of the East and 
 West India Dock Company. Among improvements introduced 
 by Rennie in these docks were iron roofings for the sheds and 
 a new description of iron cranes. It is stated that his machin- 
 ery for transporting immense blocks of mahogany by a system 
 of railways and locomotive cranes effected in six months a 
 saving in men's wages more than sufficient to defray their 
 entire original cost. Another excellent work effected by Rennie 
 was the improvement of the Clyde by a system of dredging and 
 by the erection of numerous jetties, etc., which rendered this 
 important waterway a splendid navigable river. He also greatly 
 improved the Grimsby Dock walls, and invented the system of 
 curved walls for resisting the pressure of water. 
 
 The original Holyhead Harbour works were the construc- 
 tion of Rennie. They were begun in 1810 and finished after 
 his death. The works consisted of a pier 1,150 feet long, and 
 terminating at a depth of about 14 feet at low- water of spring 
 tides ; at 80 feet distance from the extremity of the main pier 
 there was a jetty 60 feet long, carried out at right angles to its 
 
432 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 inner face, to check any swell which might come round the 
 pier-head from entering the harbour, and to throw it upon the 
 opposite shore. The roadway was 50 feet wide, and 8 feet 
 above the level of high-water of spring tides, the parapet being 
 7 feet higher. The harbour was laid out with a view to 
 further extensions, and the engineer made some valuable sug- 
 gestions in this respect, but they were not adopted. An en- 
 tirely new harbour was constructed by the Government in 
 1847-73, at an enormous expense. This was subsequently 
 extended, and the quay lengthened to 4,000 feet. Rennie 
 constructed the Howth and Kingstown harbours, but the latter 
 was still incomplete when he died, and the original design was 
 afterwards departed from. He further constructed the Hull 
 Docks. The principal one, the Humber Dock, begun in 1803 
 and finished in 1809, was 900 feet long by 370 wide, covering 
 a surface of 7^ acres. It was while constructing these works 
 that Rennie invented the dredging-machine, as now used, for 
 the purpose of clearing the basins of mud and silt. A list is 
 given of no fewer than fifty harbours and docks which this in- 
 defatigable engineer constructed wholly or in part, or greatly 
 improved. Rennie himself thus described the broad principles 
 upon which harbours should be constructed : ' Every harbour 
 should be so constructed as to have its mouth as much ex- 
 posed as possible to the direction from whence vessels can 
 most conveniently enter in stormy weather when they are least 
 manageable ; but the heads should be made of such a form as 
 to admit of the least sea entering it, or so as to occasion as little 
 swell within the haven as possible. This cannot by any prac- 
 ticable construction be entirely avoided ; but means should be 
 provided within the harbour so as to reduce the recoil of the 
 waves to a minimum, for it is the undertow or retiring sea, 
 after the breaking of a wave, that renders vessels most un- 
 manageable by making the helm lose its effect. At such a 
 time the mariner is at a loss what to do, or how to manage his 
 vessel ; and for the want of due attention to these particulars 
 
THE RENNIES. 433 
 
 many of the most artificial harbours in the kingdom are exceed- 
 ingly difficult of access, and some of them are most unsafe even 
 when entered.' 
 
 That useful accessory in harbour-building, the diving-bell, 
 was vastly improved by Rennie while he was engaged upon 
 extensive repairs in the Ramsgate Harbour works in 1813. 
 His biographer states that ' he proceeded to design and 
 construct a bell of cast-iron, about 6 feet in height, 4^ 
 feet wide, and 6 feet long, having one end rather thicker 
 and heavier than the other, that it might sink lower, and 
 thus enable the exhausted or breathed air more readily 
 to escape. At the top of the bell eight solid bull's-eyes of 
 cast glass were fixed, well secured and made water-tight 
 by means of leathern and copper collars covered with white 
 lead, and firmly secured by copper screw bolts. To the 
 top of the inside were attached two strong chains for the pur- 
 pose of fastening to them any materials that might be required 
 for the work, and flanges were cast along the sides of the bell, 
 on which two seats were placed, with footboards, for the use of 
 of the men while working. In the centre of the top was a 
 circular hole, to which a brass-screwed lining was firmly fixed, 
 and into this a brass nozzle was screwed, having a leathern water- 
 tight hose fastened to it, 2^ inches in diameter. The hose 
 was in lengths of about eight feet, with brass-screwed nozzles 
 at each end, so that it could be lengthened or shortened at 
 pleasure, according to the depth of water at which the men in 
 the bell were working. For the purpose of duly supplying the 
 machine with air, a double air-pump was provided, which was 
 worked by a sufficient number of men. The air-pump was 
 connected with the hose referred to, and was either placed on 
 the platform above or in a boat which constantly attended the 
 bell while under water. Two stout wrought iron rings were 
 fixed on the top of the machine, to which ropes or chains were 
 attached for the purpose of lowering or raising it. The whole 
 weighed about five tons; and it was attached to a circular 
 
 FF 
 
434 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 frame-work of timber, strengthened by iron, erected over where 
 the intended new circular pier-head was to be built, and so 
 fixed to a pivot near the centre of the work, that it was enabled 
 easily to traverse its outer limits. On the top of the frame- 
 work was a truck, made to move backwards or forwards by 
 means of a rack on the frame, and a corresponding wheel pro- 
 vided with teeth, worked by a handle and pinion. On the 
 truck were placed two powerful double-purchase crabs .or wind- 
 lasses, one for working the diving-bell suspended from it, and 
 the other for lowering stone blocks or other materials required 
 for carrying on the operations at the bottom of the sea. By 
 these ingenious expedients the building apparatus was so con- 
 trived as to move all around the new work, backwards and for- 
 wards, upwards and downwards, so that every part of the wall 
 could be approached and handled by the workmen, no matter 
 at what depth, whilst the engineer stationed on the pier-head 
 above could at any time ascertain, without descending, whether 
 the builders were proceeding in the right direction, as well as 
 the precise place at which they were at work.' 
 
 The Ramsgate Harbour improvements were so expeditiously 
 and successfully completed, that the trustees caused a memorial 
 stone to be fixed in the centre of the new pier-head, bearing a 
 bronze plate on which were recorded the details of Rennie's 
 ingenious labours, as well as their own obligations to the en- 
 gineer j and they also presented him with a handsome piece 
 of plate. 
 
 The Bell Rock, or Inchcape, Lighthouse, was a fine work 
 executed by Rennie and Robert Stevenson, the Scotch en- 
 gineer. It was begun in 1807 and finished in 1810, at a cost 
 of ;6i,ooo. The site is a reef of Old Red Sandstone rocks in 
 the German Ocean, twelve miles south-east of Arbroath, and 
 nearly opposite the mouth of the Tay. The reef is 2,000 feet 
 long ; at high- water of spring tides it is covered to a depth of 
 1 6 feet; at low- water it is partly uncovered to a height of 4 feet ; 
 and for a hundred yards around, the sea is only three fathoms 
 
TH RENtflES. 435 
 
 deep. This dangerous reef was formerly a fruitful cause of ship- 
 wreck, and according to tradition, the Abbot of Aberbrothock, 
 or Arbroath, placed a bell on it, ' fixed upon a tree or timber, 
 which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice 
 to the saylers of their danger.' Southey has enshrined the 
 legend in one of his best ballads. Many plans were suggested 
 for a lighthouse on the Bell Rock before Rennie examined the 
 spot and made a report to the Commissioners of Northern 
 Lights, recommending a substantial stone lighthouse, similar 
 to that on the Eddystone, as being the only kind of structure 
 calculated to meet the necessities of the case. The report was 
 adopted, and the works authorised, and carried out as stated. 
 The lighthouse was 127 feet high, and the plan of construction 
 generally followed was that of Smeaton with the Eddystone 
 Lighthouse, one of the few deviations consisting in the substi- 
 tution of dove-tailed pieces of stone for chain-bars in the joints 
 both of the walls and the floors. Rennie designed the struc- 
 ture and was chief engineer, and the works were practically exe- 
 cuted by Robert Stevenson, the resident engineer. Dangers 
 and difficulties attended the accomplishment of the task, but 
 in 1 8 10 the Bell Rock Lighthouse shed its friendly light across 
 the tempestuous ocean for the benefit of the imperilled mariner. 
 Rennie was employed by the Government on many public 
 works. He advised the Navy upon the improvement of their 
 flour-mills at Rotherhithe, which were worked by the rise and 
 fall of the tide ; and when there was great alarm in England in 
 1803, owing to the possible descent of Napoleon upon our 
 shores, he devised means for the sudden flooding of the valley 
 of the Lea round London, in order to check the approach of a 
 hostile army from that quarter. He further laid out and con- 
 structed the Hythe Military Canal on the coast of Kent, which 
 was defended by earthworks, and protected by a breastwork on 
 the land side. He next fixed moorings in the tideways of the 
 royal harbours, improved the machinery of the Waltham 
 Powder Mills, cleared the Thames in front of Woolwich 
 
 FF 2 
 
436 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Dockyard of its immense accumulation of mud, erected a 
 quarantine establishment in the Medway, provided wet docks 
 for the Royal Navy, and introduced improved machinery at 
 the various dockyards. The Royal Dockyards Portsmouth, 
 Plymouth, Deptford, Chatham, etc. were not only far apart, 
 but some of them were ill-adapted to their purposes. Having 
 been commissioned by the Admiralty to find a site on the 
 Thames for a great naval arsenal and harbour, Rennie recom- 
 mended Northfleet as possessing every advantage that could 
 possibly be wished for in a naval station. He was not allowed 
 to carry out his design, however, but was instructed instead to 
 construct extensive dockworks at Sheerness, that spot being 
 chosen by the authorities as commanding the entrance both to 
 the Thames and the Medway. We learn that ' the plan finally 
 decided upon was that of a river-front, extending from the 
 Garrison Point to near the Old Town Pier of Sheerness, of 
 the length of 3,150 feet, including the entrances, and enclos- 
 ing within it three basins : one to the north, 480 feet long and 
 from 90 to 200 feet wide, containing a surface of about two 
 acres, 4 feet below low-water of spring tides, with two frigate 
 docks and a building-slip and boat-slips ; a central tidal basin 220 
 feet square, of the depth of 2 feet below low-water, with store- 
 houses around it for the reception and delivery of victualling 
 and other stores ; and on the west end of the dockyard a basin 
 520 feet long and 300 feet wide, covering a surface of nearly 
 four acres, provided with dry docks for ships of the line on the 
 south side, with their sills and the bottom of the basin laid 9 
 feet below low-water of spring tides, westward of which were 
 the mast-ponds, mast-locks, and workshops. In the rear, on 
 the south of these works, were placed saw-pits, timber-berths, 
 and the officers' houses. The total surface of the dockyard 
 was 64^ acres. The foundation-stone of the docks was laid 
 by the late Lord Viscount Melville in 1815, and the works were 
 then commenced and continued without interruption until the 
 year 1826, when the whole were completed. 
 
THE RENNIES. 437. 
 
 'Their execution was attended with many difficulties, and 
 necessarily required a great deal of Mr. Rennie's care and 
 attention. The foundations were a soft running sand, extend- 
 ing to an almost fathomless depth. The strong currents 
 flowing past the place rendered it necessary to adopt an 
 entirely new system of operations, which were carried out to 
 an extent never before attempted in so exposed a situation. 
 The form of sea-wall was devised which should most effectually 
 resist the strong pressure of the current and the heavy swell 
 beating upon its outer side, without yielding to the lateral 
 pressure or thrust of the water of the basins and the earth by 
 which it was backed. At the same time, the weight necessary 
 to ensure stability must not be such as to sink vertically. Mr. 
 Rennie adopted the means to secure these objects which he 
 had employed with such success at Grimsby Docks in 1797, 
 namely, to take the like quantity of materials as would have 
 been necessary for an ordinary wall, and dispose of them in 
 such a form, that the same weight should be distributed over 
 a greater surface, thus diminishing the vertical pressure. In 
 the foundations of the walls he also adopted the method em- 
 ployed by him in similar works, of driving the piles and cutting 
 off their heads at an angle inclining inwards, or towards the land 
 side, laying the courses of stone at the same angle ; by which 
 a greater resistance was offered to the pressure of the earth, and 
 the building was prevented from being pushed outwards, as 
 was more or less the case in most of the walls built on the old 
 construction. The entrance gates to the basin were also 
 planned and executed with great skill, Mr. Rennie carrying 
 into effect the same simple but correct principles laid down by 
 him in his report on the Northfleet Docks, making the direction 
 of the entrance suitable to the current in the Medway, from 
 which the ships entered the port.' 
 
 Other branches of dockwork executed by Rennie included 
 a new river wall, with ship-basin and two building-slips, at 
 Woolwich ; the new dockyard, building-slips, and dry dock, at 
 
438 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Pembroke ; the new entrance to Deptford Basin ; and various 
 improvements at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth. 
 
 But one of his most gigantic undertakings was the famous 
 Plymouth Breakwater. It is the best known of all engineer- 
 ing works of the kind. In their article on * Breakwaters ' in 
 Chambers^ Encyclopedia, Messrs. D. and T. Stevenson de- 
 scribe the Plymouth Breakwater as follows : * The sound or 
 harbour, being open to the south, was so much exposed to 
 storms that, early in the present century, it was determined to 
 construct a breakwater across its mouth, with openings between 
 it and the shore, on either side, for the ingress and egress of 
 shipping. The works were commenced in 1811, from designs 
 by Rennie, and were estimated to cost ^900,000. The 
 operations consisted in transporting along a tram-road large 
 blocks of limestone got from a neighbouring quarry, shipping 
 them in vessels fitted with trap-doors, and by means of these 
 depositing them in the shape of a huge mound in the required 
 situation. The design was to carry the rubble mound to a 
 height of ten feet above low- water, to give the seaward face a 
 slope of 3 to i, and the inner face i ^ to i, and the width on 
 top 30 feet. As soon as the 'stones began to appear above 
 water, a perceptible benefit resulted in the relative calmness of 
 the sound during the prevalence of storms : but the structure 
 was frequently very roughly handled by the waves, which 
 altered and flattened its shape. A severe storm in November, 
 1824, overthrew a length of 796 yards of the finished work ; 
 after this the breakwater was raised 10 feet higher, the seaward 
 slope made 5 to i, and the top width 45 feet, the top and 
 slopes paved with masonry, and the top protected with ex- 
 pensively dressed granite blocks, joggled together and bedded 
 with cement. It was not until 1841 that the works were 
 finally completed by the deposit of more than 3,000,000 tons 
 of stone, and an expenditure of nearly ^1, 500,000. The 
 breakwater is nearly a. mile long, the central portion is 1,000 
 yards; and two wings, of 350 yards each, extend from the. 
 
THE RENNIES. 439 
 
 ends of this at a slight angle. The open channels at each end, 
 between the breakwater and the shore, are each about half a 
 mile wide, and their depth is respectively 40 and 22 feet at low- 
 water. The breakwater is 400 feet wide at the base, and 45 at 
 the top the two sides being made very sloping for the security 
 of the stones. The slopes and top are faced with masonry. 
 The water-space protected by this breakwater comprises 1,120 
 acres, and it is generally admitted that the money has been 
 well spent on the work. The breakwater requires constant 
 repair.' 
 
 Dr. Smiles states that the actual amount of rubble deposited 
 for the Plymouth Breakwater to the end of 1848 when the 
 work may be said to have been completed was 3,670,444 
 tons, besides 22,149 cubic yards of masonry, or an amount of 
 material at least equal to that contained in the Great Pyramid. 
 The breakwater ' may in all respects be regarded as a magni- 
 ficent work, worthy of a great maritime nation.' 
 
 Other labours of Rennie remain yet to be mentioned. He 
 cut the Crinan Canal, and reported on the water-supply of 
 Manchester, Edinburgh, Leeds, Bristol, Doncaster, and many 
 other large towns at home and abroad. He erected the 
 anchor-forge at Woolwich Dockyard, advised the Bank of 
 England on its machinery for the manufacture of bank-notes, 
 and supplied the Dutch with designs of dredging-machines for 
 clearing the mud out of the rivers and canals. He constructed 
 the machinery for making ropes according to Captain Hud- 
 dart's patent. He urged the introduction of steam-power into 
 the Royal Navy, and constructed a small steamboat called the 
 Comet, which was the precursor of other royal ships of vaster 
 dimensions. The last of his great engineering works, New 
 London Bridge, he did not live to complete. His design con- 
 sisted of five semi-elliptical arches, the centre one 150 feet 
 span, the two side arches 140 feet each, and the two land 
 arches 130 feet each, making a total lineal waterway of 690 
 feet ; the height of the soffit, or underside, of the central arch 
 
440 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 being 29 feet 6 inches above the level of Trinity high-water 
 mark. The design was generally approved, and a Bill carried 
 through Parliament, but as we shall presently see his son 
 John carried through the work. 
 
 Rennie rarely took any rest from his labours, which extended 
 over a period of forty or fifty years; but in September, 1816, 
 he visited France with his friend, James Watt, jun. At Cher- 
 bourg, he examined the famous breakwater then in course. of 
 constructipn, and he also took notes of the building-yards 
 and docks of other towns and cities. In 1820 his health 
 began to fail, but he persisted in going about for some twelve 
 months after that. He was in the midst of designs for new 
 enterprises, when he expired somewhat suddenly on the 4th 
 of October, 1821. His remains were interred in St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, near to those of Sir Christopher Wren. At the age 
 of twenty-nine Rennie had married an Inverness lady named 
 Miss Mackintosh, with whom he had ever lived happily until 
 her death, which occurred a few years before his own decease. 
 They had nine children, six of whom survived their parents. 
 One who knew Rennie well thus wrote of him in the Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, shortly after his death : 
 
 * Every part of the United Kingdom possesses monuments 
 of his glory, and they are as stupendous as they are useful. 
 They will present to our children's children objects of admira- 
 tion for their grandeur and of gratitude to the author for their 
 utility. Compare the works of Rennie with the most boasted 
 exploits of the French engineers, and remark how they tower 
 above them. Look at the breakwater at Plymouth, in com- 
 parison with the caissons at Cherbourg any one of his canals 
 with that of Ourke, and his Waterloo Bridge with that of 
 Ruilly. Their superiority is acknowledged by every liberal 
 Frenchman. He cultivated his art with the most enthusiastic 
 ardour, and instead of being merely a theorist, he prepared 
 himself for practical efficiency by visiting and minutely inspect- 
 ing every work of magnitude in every country that bore 
 
THE RENNIES. 441 
 
 similitude with those which he might be called on to con- 
 struct ; and his library abounded in a richer collection of 
 scientific writings than that of almost any individual. The 
 loss of such a man is irreparable. Cut off in the full vigour of 
 his mind, his death seems to suspend for a time the march of 
 national improvement, until the just fame of his merit shall 
 animate our rising artists to imitate his great example, and to 
 prepare themselves by study and observation to overcome, as 
 he did, the most formidable impediments to the progress of 
 human enterprise, of industry, and of increased facility in all 
 the arts of life. The integrity of Mr. Rennie in the fulfil- 
 ment of his labours was equal to his genius in the contrivance 
 of his plans and machinery. He would suffer none of the 
 modern subterfuges for real strength to be resorted to by the 
 contractors employed to execute what he had undertaken. 
 Everything he did was for futurity, as well as present advan- 
 tage. An engineer is not like an architect. He has no com- 
 mission on the amount of his expenditure, if he had, Mr. 
 Rennie would have been one of the most opulent men in 
 England, for many millions have been expended under his 
 eye. But his glory was in the justice of his proceedings, and 
 his enjoyment in the success of his labours. It was only as a 
 millwright that he engaged himself to execute the work he 
 planned, and in this department society is indebted to him for 
 economising the power of water, so as to give an increase of 
 energy, by its specific gravity, to the natural fall of streams, 
 and to make his mills equal to four-fold the produce of those 
 which, before his time, depended solely on the impetus of the 
 current. His mills of the greatest size work as smoothly as 
 clockwork, and by the alternate contact of wood and iron, are 
 less liable to the hazard of fire by friction. His mills, indeed, 
 are models of perfection. 
 
 * If the death of such a man is a national loss, what must it 
 be to his private friends and to his amiable family ? Endeared 
 to all who knew him by the gentleness of his temper, the 
 
442 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 cheerfulness with which he communicated the riches of his 
 mind, and forwarded the views of those who made useful dis- 
 coveries or improvements in machinery or implements, pro- 
 cured him universal respect. He gave to inventors all the 
 benefits of his experience, removed difficulties which had 
 occurred to the author, or suggested alterations which adapted 
 the instrument to its use. No jealousy nor self-interest ever 
 prevented the exercise of this free and unbounded communica- 
 tion ; for the love of science was superior in his mind to all 
 mercenary feeling.' 
 
 Rennie was a man of punctual and systematic habits, with a 
 great love of order. All the reports he drew up were model 
 documents. He declined to speculate in enterprises in which 
 he was concerned, even when he knew such speculations 
 would prove profitable. In person he was commanding of 
 stature, and possessed of Herculean strength. He was emi- 
 nently truthful, honest, and upright ; was profound in mind, 
 sagacious and serene in character ; and his modesty was as 
 conspicuous as his genius. 
 
 George Rennie, the eldest son of John Rennie, was born in 
 1791, and educated at Edinburgh University. When twenty 
 years of age he began the study of practical engineering under 
 his father in London. Appointed superintendent of the 
 machinery of the Mint in 1818, he at the same time assisted 
 in the planning and execution of several of his father's later 
 works. Upon his father's death he entered into partnership 
 with his younger brother John as engineers and machinery 
 constructors ; and during the existence of the firm it carried 
 on an immense business, including the execution of most of 
 the works which had been designed by his father, and the 
 completion of those which he had left unfinished. The under- 
 takings of the two brothers embraced the construction of 
 bridges, harbours, docks, shipyard and dredging machinery, 
 steam-factories both in Great Britain and on the Continent, 
 and marine engines for warships. They built ships both, of 
 
THE RENNIES. 443 
 
 wood and iron, drained large tracts of land in the midland 
 counties of England, and superintended the construction of 
 several continental railways. George Rennie died in 1866. 
 
 Sir John Rennie, John Rennie's youngest son, claims fuller 
 attention as being the most widely-known member of his 
 family. In the interesting Autobiography which he left behind 
 him, he states that he was born in Stamford Street, Blackfriars, 
 London, on the 3oth August, 1794. He was sent to Dr. 
 Greenlaw's school at Isleworth, where the most remarkable 
 pupil at this time was the poet Shelley, of whom he gives a 
 striking picture. Rennie afterwards went to the school of the 
 celebrated Dr. Charles Burney, at Greenwich. Here he be- 
 came a tolerable proficient in the classics. When the days 
 of tuition were over, the elder Rennie would not send his son 
 to Oxford or Cambridge, as he intended to bring him up to the 
 profession of a civil engineer, and he held that a young man 
 could not bend himself to the practical part of the work after 
 he had been to the University. At the close of his preliminary 
 training, Rennie was invested with some amount of inde- 
 pendent responsibility, and helped his father in the construc- 
 tion of the Vauxhall, South wark, and Waterloo bridges. In 
 1813 he was despatched to Aberdeen and Peterhead to secure 
 stone for the works. In 1814 he gained great experience in 
 following the surveys made by Francis Giles in various parts of 
 the country. Rennie made a tour in France and Belgium in 
 August, 1815, and visited the scene of the sanguinary Battle- 
 of Waterloo. After his return he was closely engaged in the 
 works connected with the Waterloo and Southwark bridges, 
 the latter of which was almost entirely under his direction. 
 But he managed in the evenings to study mathematics, and to 
 attend Sir Humphry Davy's lectures at the Royal Institution. 
 
 Having received a tolerably good education, theoretical and 
 practical, as a civil engineer, young Rennie was sent forth on his 
 travels before beginning business fully on his own account. His 
 father considered that he should study wh^t had been done \\\ 
 
444 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 ancient and modern times, both in architecture and engineer- 
 ing. Accordingly, in June, 1819, he left England in com- 
 pany with his cousin, General Sir J. Aitchison, and Lord 
 Hotham for a tour through Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Asia 
 Minor, Turkey, and Egypt. He gives graphic descriptions of 
 Milan, Venice, Bologna, Rome, and other cities, always keep- 
 ing his eye on those works harbours, canals, roads, and 
 bridges which especially appealed to him as a civil engineer. 
 At Rome he made the acquaintance of Canova and Thorwald- 
 sen, and saw Lawrence, Chantrey, and Turner, whom he had 
 known in England. He attended the splendid receptions 
 given by the beautiful Princess Borghese, the Duchess of 
 Devonshire, and others. Naples, Corfu, Zante, Patras, Corinth, 
 Athens, Argos, Mycenae, were all visited in turn ; and at 
 Athens the travellers saw and conversed with Byron's beauti- 
 ful Maid of Athens. Then came Smyrna, Ephesus, Miletus, 
 Broussa, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Cairo. In the last- 
 named city Rennie had an audience of the celebrated Pasha 
 Mehemet-Ali. He was seized with fever at Cairo, and had a 
 renewal of it in Italy on his return voyage. Florence, Leghorn, 
 and Genoa he subsequently visited, and he was struck by the 
 magnificent site which the Gulf of Spezzia afforded for a naval 
 arsenal. This idea has since been partially realised. 
 
 Rennie reached England in September, 1821, and in less 
 than a fortnight after his landing he was called upon to mourn 
 the loss of his father. The sad event prostrated him for a 
 time, but as soon as he recovered from the shock he was 
 stimulated to earnest labour by the brilliant example of his 
 father. His first ambition was to succeed him in his numer- 
 ous great works then being carried on by the Admiralty, such 
 as the Plymouth Breakwater, and the new Chatham and 
 Woolwich Dockyards. Although he was only twenty-seven 
 years of age, he was at once appointed by the Lords of the 
 Admiralty to succeed his father as their engineer. Next, he 
 was appointed drainage engineer to the Eau Brink Com- 
 
TffE RENN1ES. 445 
 
 missioners, who had been chosen to carry into effect the 
 Eau Brink Cut, for the improvement of the drainage of the 
 great level of the fens, called the Bedford Level, amounting 
 to about 300,000 acres of valuable land. This scheme con- 
 sisted of a cut for altering the channel of the Ouse, by means of 
 which nearly two miles of the navigation of that river would 
 be saved, and an additional foil for the drainage of five feet 
 perpendicular would be gained. This great work had been 
 planned nearly a century before, but had always been opposed 
 by the inhabitants of the fens as being inadequate. At length 
 it was resolved to proceed with the scheme, but so many diffi- 
 culties arose that the whole of the funds subscribed, amount- 
 ing to about ^80,000, were expended in litigation and in the 
 cost of obtaining the Act of Parliament. A second Act of 
 Parliament was subsequently obtained, and the Commissioners 
 elected to carry out the undertaking were Lord William Ben- 
 tinck, Sir Andrew Hammond, Bart., Sir Charles Browne, 
 M.D., and Mr. Thomas Hoseason. Messrs. Jolliffe & Banks 
 received the contract for the works, and, as already stated, 
 John Rennie was appointed drainage engineer. 
 
 'The effect of this work,' says Rennie, ' greatly exceeded 
 the most sanguine expectations of its supporters. Immediately 
 after it was opened, the low-water mark at the upper end of 
 the cut fell five feet, and the drainage waters were carried off 
 with a degree of rapidity which astonished the whole country. 
 The autumn and winter of 1821-22 was characterised by an 
 unusual quantity of rainfall, and if it had not been for the 
 opening of the Eau Brink Cut the whole, or the greater part, 
 of the level of the fens would have been under water, and 
 therefore the fenmen were very well pleased with the result. 
 At this time I was appointed to succeed my father as chief 
 drainage engineer, and the late Mr. Telford had been pre- 
 viously appointed chief engineer for navigation. Immediately 
 after my appointment, which was in the month of December, 
 1821, I went to Lynn to examine the works, and was much 
 
446 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 astonished to find the great effects which had been produced 
 by the Eau Brink Cut. Instead of the circuitous old shallow 
 course, full of shoals and obstructions of every kind, there 
 was a fine, straight, deep channel, two miles shorter than 
 the old one, of the proper width, bordered by strong banks 
 of the full height ; the floods passed off without difficulty, 
 and the navigation was so much improved that the lighters 
 and barges going up the river from Lynn saved several tides. 
 It is true, that upon examining the country between Denver 
 Sluice and Cambridge, there was a great deal of water out 
 in several places, but this was attributed to the interior drains 
 and rivers not being properly defended and embanked, so 
 that they could carry off the water to the main outfall below. 
 I also examined the new steam pumping apparatus, which 
 had lately been erected for draining Soham and other fens. 
 This, although proposed by my father in 1786, was the first 
 of the kind that had been erected. It consisted of a scoop 
 wheel, with a perpendicular lift, worked by a condensing 
 engine. It answered its object completely, and has since 
 been imitated by numerous others with equal success in 
 different parts of the fen and lowland districts.' 
 
 Rennie's next appointment was as engineer-in-chief to 
 Ramsgate Harbour, again succeeding his father. This har- 
 bour was established by special Act of Parliament for the 
 purpose of affording shelter to vessels of 300 tons lying in 
 the Downs during south-west gales. In short, the harbour 
 was made for' clearing the Downs of small vessels, so that 
 large ones might ride in safety, and this purpose was suc- 
 cessfully answered. Hitherto, the heavy seas, and the proxi- 
 mity of the Goodwin Sands, had proved very dangerous for 
 craft of all kinds. Further business flowed in rapidly upon 
 Rennie, and he succeeded his father at Sunderland, Donag- 
 hadee, Port Patrick, and Kingstown Harbours, the West 
 India Docks, and other places. But the most difficult and 
 anxious work in progress at this time was the new dockyard 
 
THE RENN1ES. 447 
 
 at Sheerness, which Rennie now completed from his father's 
 designs, the work also having been partially executed by the 
 latter. Rennie went down to Plymouth in March, 1825. 
 Difficulties had arisen in connection with the breakwater, 
 and there was a difference of opinion between Rennie and 
 Joseph Whidbey, the superintendent of the breakwater, as to 
 how they should be met. The Admiralty accepted Rennie's 
 plans in preference to Wrridbey's, and on the latter resigning 
 his position, Rennie was appointed chief engineer. He was 
 not long in erecting outer works which effectually broke the 
 force of the waves before they reached the main body of the 
 breakwater. Soon afterwards Rennie was ordered to erect 
 a new Victualling Establishment for the Navy at Cremill 
 Point, near Devonport, and he was further directed to 
 report to the Admiralty on the feasibility of applying the 
 Cornish system of high-pressure engines to the Admiralty 
 steam-vessels. 
 
 Then came the greatest of the legacies left him by his 
 father, viz., the building of new London Bridge. This was 
 a most arduous undertaking. 'New London Bridge,' ob- 
 serves Mr. Clark, ' was built 180 feet higher up the river than 
 the old bridge. It consists of five semi-elliptical arches, the 
 least of which is wider than any other elliptical arch ever 
 before erected. The centre arch has 152^ feet span, with 
 37/4 feet rise; the next two arches are of 140 feet, and the 
 two abutment arches are of 130 feet span. The roadway is 
 52 feet wide. The clear waterway at all times of the tide 
 is 692 feet, or 60 feet more than the old bridge afforded at 
 high- water. The whole length of the bridge is 1,005 f eet< 
 At the City side the bridge is carried over Thames Street 
 on a dry arch. At the Borough or south side the approach 
 is formed on an inclined plane, supported on a series of 
 brick arches, with a large dry arch facing Tooley Street. 
 This bridge deserves further remark for the difficulty of the 
 situation in which it was built, above the old bridge, in a 
 
44$ LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 depth of from 25 feet to 30 feet at low-water, on a soft alluvial 
 bottom, covered with large loose stones, scoured away by the 
 force of the current from the foundations of the old bridge. 
 The whole of these stones had to be removed by dredging 
 before the coffer-dams for the piers and abutments could be 
 commenced ; otherwise it would have been extremely difficult, 
 if not impracticable, to have made them watertight. The 
 difficulty was further increased by the old bridge being left 
 standing, to accommodate the traffic, whilst the new bridge was 
 building, and the restricted waterway of the old bridge occa- 
 sioned such an increased velocity of the current as materially 
 to retard the operations at the new bridge. At times the 
 tide threatened to carry away all before it ; and it was found 
 expedient that two of the small arches of the old bridge on 
 each side should be thrown into one, to compensate for the 
 additional obstruction which the water occasioned to the 
 navigation. The piers and abutments stand upon platforms 
 of timber, the floors of the coffer-dams resting upon piles 
 about 20 feet long. The masonry is from 8 feet to 10 feet 
 below the bed of the river. The great magnitude and ex- 
 treme flatness of the arches, of which the key-stones are 4 
 feet 9 inches long, demanded unusual care in the selection 
 of the materials, which were of the finest blue and white 
 granite from Scotland and Devonshire, as well as great ac- 
 curacy of workmanship. The new bridge was opened for 
 traffic in August, 1831, the period occupied in its erection, 
 from the time of driving the first pile for the dam of the 
 south pier, being seven years, five months, and thirteen 
 days. 
 
 'The centering employed for the new London Bridge is 
 worthy of notice. It consisted of trussed timber girders, 
 supported at the piers. The striking plates and wedges, by 
 which the centre was lowered after the completion of the 
 arch, were strong beams suitably notched, one of which, the 
 wedge, was kept in its place by cross wedges. When the 
 
THE RENNIES. 449 
 
 centre was to be lowered, the cross wedges were knocked 
 out, and the main wedge driven back.' 
 
 William IV. opened the new London Bridge with great state. 
 His Majesty walked over the whole of the bridge, accompa- 
 nied by the Ministers of State, the Lord Mayor and Corpora- 
 tion, and the Bridge Committee. The Tower guns volleyed 
 at intervals, and as the day was remarkably fine, the Thames 
 was crowded with boats filled with gaily-dressed people. The 
 original London Bridge, which in its first form dated back to 
 1176, was removed in 1834, under Rennie's supervision, at 
 a cost of ;io,ooo. After the opening of the new bridge, 
 Rennie received the honour of knighthood for his services. 
 
 In order to make worthy approaches to new London Bridge, 
 Rennie, and his brother-in-law, Cockerell, who was an excellent 
 authority, submitted designs to a Committee of Taste appointed 
 by Parliament for the beautifying of London. Their designs 
 were rejected, however, and the Committee authorised the late 
 Sir Robert Smirke, then one of the Crown architects, to de- 
 sign the present buildings on both sides of the bridge, as far 
 as King William Street on the north, and the old Town Hall of 
 Southwark on the south. It is generally admitted, as Rennie 
 has remarked, that ' a more unworthy set of buildings was 
 never designed.' A rare opportunity was lost of constructing 
 handsome and appropriate buildings to adorn one of the 
 greatest thoroughfares in the world. 
 
 Drainage works next occupied Rennie's attention. The Eau 
 Brink Cut was enlarged under his direction, for the damage 
 done by its overflow, in consequence of the channel being too 
 narrow, had involved the Commissioners in large amounts as 
 compensation to the Lynn Harbour Trustees and others. He 
 then, in conjunction with Telford, improved the River Nene, 
 so as to render it a good outfall for the drainage of the exten- 
 sive low fenlands bordering it, which, on account of their bad 
 drainage, were frequently subject to floods, and comparatively 
 valueless. It was necessary to stop up the old channel and 
 
 GG 
 
450 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 to divert the river through the new outfall. Rennie gives this 
 interesting and amusing account of how the work was accom- 
 plished : 
 
 'When everything was ready, we went down and met the 
 contractors, Messrs. Jolliffe and Banks, and immediately gave 
 them orders to commence filling up the old channel ; they had 
 about thirteen hundred men, and horses, carts, and materials, 
 and appliances of all kinds, and set to work in right good 
 earnest. The Corporation of Wisbech, who had always op- 
 posed the measure, although they were compelled by the Act 
 to contribute ^30,000 towards it, which was perhaps the cause, 
 offered every obstruction in their power, and said that the new 
 outfall was not excavated deep enough according to the Act, 
 and came down in their barge with their law officers, giving us 
 official written notices to stop all proceedings. At this critical 
 moment the contractors were rather taken aback ; Mr. Telford 
 and I, however, nothing daunted, ordered the men to proceed 
 stopping the channel, and to take no notice of the Corpora- 
 tion. We further told them that if they did not go away their 
 barge and all in it would be swamped, and that the responsi- 
 bility would rest entirely with them. Seeing that we were in 
 earnest, they turned tail, and, leaving their protest, returned 
 to Wisbech. The third day afterwards the old channel was 
 completely closed, and the Nene diverted to its new outfall. It 
 should be observed here that Mr. Telford and myself, calcu- 
 lating upon the loose nature of the soil, which was silt, and 
 which we felt confident would scour when fairly acted upon 
 by the current, only made the contract for the excavation to 
 the level of low-water of spring tides ; and therefore it would 
 have wasted money to have excavated that which we knew the 
 current would do for nothing. The current at first appeared 
 to have very little effect ; and the Duke of Bedford's manager, 
 the late excellent and talented Tycho Wing, a school-fellow of 
 mine at Dr. Burney's, became much alarmed, and was sadly 
 afraid that the outfall would be a failure. Telford and I knew 
 
THE RENNIES. 451 
 
 better, and assured him that our only doubt was whether the 
 current would not be too strong, and render it necessary to 
 protect the sides with stone. This we considered to be no 
 disadvantage on the contrary, a great benefit ; for, making 
 the cut small in the first instance, we should always be able to 
 regulate the scour whenever it might have a tendency to en- 
 large the cut beyond the size necessary to discharge the drainage 
 water effectually, at the same time preserving a sufficient depth 
 for navigation ; but, if it had been too large in the first instance, 
 it could not have been properly adjusted afterwards. Mr. Wing 
 was comforted by our assurances ; still, he had his doubts, and 
 two months elapsed before any sensible scour appeared to take 
 place. The fact was, the fall in the bottom was so little, that 
 the current had to remove the obstacles to its progress, which 
 it could only do by degrees, when it had accumulated sufficient 
 fall or head ; having done this, its progress was most rapid, and 
 increased daily, so that within six months after it had been 
 opened it had scoured out the bottom to nine feet below 
 low-water of spring tides ; the sides also had been regularly 
 scoured away, and the area of the cut was increased to three 
 times its original size. Spring tides, which had scarcely ex- 
 ceeded a few feet at Wisbech, and not much more at Cross 
 Keys, rose remarkably at both places, so that vessels of con- 
 siderable tonnage could reach Wisbech even at neaps, whereas 
 before they could only get up there at spring tides. The trade 
 of the port increased so rapidly that they were soon enabled to 
 pay off the ,30,000 which they had been previously obliged 
 to borrow to contribute to the cost of the outfall.' 
 
 Another undertaking in connection with the Nene is thus- 
 described by Rennie : ' It had long been a favourite idea with 
 the late Lord William Bentinck and his friend Mr. Thomas 
 Hoseason, of Banklands, to make a bridge across the Nene 
 estuary, at Cross Keys, in order to shorten the distance between 
 the south of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The bridge over the 
 lower end of the Eau Brink had been completed, and another 
 
 GG 2 
 
452 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 had been made at the Fossdyke Wash by my father, for the 
 Welland ; so that it was only necessary to make another across 
 the Nene estuary, at Cross Keys, to complete this desirable line 
 of communication. A company was accordingly formed for 
 this purpose, of which Lord William Bentinck was the head. 
 An Act was obtained at the same time as the Nene Outfall 
 Act, and I was appointed the engineer. The Nene Outfall 
 Commissioners obtained a clause in the Bridge Act compelling 
 the Company to build the bridge over the Nene Outfall Cut 
 at the same time ; this I told them was very unwise, for as the 
 bridge was to be built of wood, with a drawbridge opening in 
 the centre to allow vessels to pass, it would be impossible to 
 drive the great piles forming the piers of the bridge sufficiently 
 deep to be below the scour in the outfall ; the better plan 
 would be to wait until the outfall had been scoured to its full 
 -depth, and then build the bridge. My opinion was overruled ; 
 the bridge was built ; and it was impossible, as I expected, to 
 drive the piles to the requisite depth. Where the full effect of 
 the scour had taken place, it was found necessary to secure the 
 piles of the bridge by throwing a great mass of stone round them. 
 This materially obstructed the current through the bridge, until 
 at length there was a fall through it of from two to three feet, 
 which greatly injured the drainage, so that the Nene Outfall 
 Commissioners ultimately got an Act to make a new bridge for 
 the Company at the Commissioners' expense. All this might 
 have been avoided if the bridge had been built as I originally 
 recommended. The spot where this bridge and line of em- 
 bankment is made is the same place where King John's army 
 was lost, and where my father was nearly drowned some years 
 before my time, crossing in his carriage, being overtaken by the 
 tide. Six thousand acres of this Wash have been reclaimed from 
 the sea by myself; and, where once the tides used to ebb and 
 flow, fields are now under culture producing the finest crops.' 
 
 Rennie next drew up a plan for draining Whittlesea Mere, 
 and all the low fenny country around it, to the extent of 55,000 
 
THE RENNIES, 453 
 
 acres. He showed that by improving the Nene from Peter- 
 borough to the outfall, by making a main drain to Whittlesea 
 Mere to connect it with the Nene, and by making a catch- 
 water drain round the base of the surrounding hills, so as to dis- 
 charge the highland water into the Nene at Peterborough and 
 the Ouse at Hermitage Sluice, the whole country would be 
 thoroughly well drained, and the navigation greatly improved, 
 while there would be an ample supply of fresh water at moderate 
 cost. Although this plan was approved by Robert Stephenson 
 also, it was not adopted. The Middle Level Corporation, in 
 whose district lay the greater part of the lowlands to be drained, 
 would not listen to it, but insisted on draining these lands by 
 the Ouse, ten miles farther distant. This measure was carried 
 out at double the cost of Rennie's plan, and a minor plan was 
 substituted for the improvement of the Nene, which cost a 
 great deal more than any benefits derived from it. But the 
 sands below Lynn, at the mouth of the Ouse, accumulated to 
 such an extent that the navigation up to that town was seriously 
 obstructed. Rennie was consequently requested by a Com- 
 mittee to enquire into and report upon the whole subject. 
 Rennie thus states what followed : ' I accordingly employed 
 nearly twelve months in surveying and levelling the Great 
 Wash and the mouths of the Ouse, Nene,VVelland, and Witham, 
 which are the principal rivers discharging their waters into 
 the Great Wash, and which drain all the adjacent fenlands, 
 amounting to nearly a million of acres, besides the highlands. 
 I found that by improving all the mouths of these rivers, an 
 additional fall of seven feet might be gained for the Ouse, two 
 feet for the Nene, and a similar amount for the Welland and 
 the Witham, and recommended that all these rivers should be 
 united and made to discharge their waters into one great main 
 channel in the centre of the Great Wash, and that the main 
 and minor channels should be properly embanked. By this 
 means, not only would all these rivers be much improved, and 
 the drainage and navigation rendered as perfect as they could 
 
454 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 be made, but, in addition to this, from 150,000 to 200,000 
 acres of land would be gained from the Wash, or, in other 
 words, a new county, of most valuable land, would be added 
 to the kingdom. This project was so vast and important that 
 it took the world by surprise, It was impossible to deny the 
 soundness of the principles or data upon which it was founded, 
 or the vast importance of it in a national point of view, if 
 means could be found to carry it into effect ; but here was one 
 of the great difficulties, and another still greater presented 
 itself, viz., that of uniting together the vast number of con- 
 flicting interests concerned, so that they might combine to- 
 gether as one whole body for the completion of the under- 
 taking.' 
 
 When the plan was promulgated, all kinds of objections 
 were raised against it and attacks made upon it. The affair 
 remained in abeyance for several years, and then it was decided 
 thai it would be better to divide the scheme into two parts, one 
 comprising the Ouse and Nene, the other the Welland and 
 Witham. It was next resolved to form a company for the 
 Norfolk half, including the Ouse and Nene, and to reclaim 
 35.000 acres of land from the Great Wash. Plans were pre- 
 pared, and in 1846 a Bill authorising the works was carried 
 through Parliament, entitled the Norfolk Estuary Act. But the 
 Company were saddled with so many pecuniary responsibilities 
 that they could not undertake to execute the scheme alone. 
 Consequently the Middle Level Commissioners and the Lynn 
 Corporation, who represented the drainage and navigation 
 interests, agreed to contribute the sum of ^"60,000 each 
 towards the completion of the new channel for the Ouse, on 
 condition that Robert Sfephenson and John Rennie should be 
 joint engineers. This was agreed to ; a Bill was obtained, and 
 the works were begun in 1850. They were satisfactorily exe- 
 cuted, and the effect on the port of Lynn was so marked that 
 the Corporation were soon enabled to pay off their contribution 
 of ^60,000 towards the Norfolk Estuary works. The Estuary 
 
THE RENNIES. 455 
 
 Company next turned their attention to reclaiming from the 
 Wash the 35,000 acres which had been allotted to them by the 
 Crown. By slow stages a portion of this large tract of sub- 
 merged land was recovered, but by no means so much as 
 might have been the case had Rennie's recommendations been 
 followed. 
 
 Rennie was next employed by the Corporation of Boston to 
 improve the outfall of the river between the Grand Sluice at the 
 upper end of the town and Hobhole, near the mouth of the 
 river, a distance of nearly four miles. The Witham and Black 
 Sluice Commissioners would not join in the work, however, 
 but as the outfall of the Witham became worse and worse, the 
 Boston Corporation determined to do what they could single- 
 handed. Rennie recommended two reforms which would 
 shorten the navigation quite half a mile, and admit and dis- 
 charge the tidal and fresh waters more readily, thus deepening 
 the water-line and bed of the river all the way up to the Gran d 
 Sluice above Boston. The Corporation acted upon Rennie's 
 advice, and the engineer remarks : * The effect of this work 
 exceeded my most sanguine expectations ; in a short time it 
 improved the channel upwards to Boston to such an extent 
 that spring tides rose at Boston Bridge 14 feet, and neaps 
 10 feet, and the bed of the river was deepened from 3 to 
 4 feet below low-water springs, so that vessels drawing 15 
 feet and 16 feet could come up to the town at springs, and 
 vessels drawing 12 to 13 feet could come up at neaps; 
 moreover, all the silt was scoured away from the front of the 
 Maudfoster Sluice, so that it discharged the highland water from 
 the fens, which it had not done for years before, and improved 
 also the discharge of the waters from the Grand and Black 
 Sluices. I mus,t confess that I was not a little elated at this 
 successful result, as it most completely established the correct- 
 ness of my father's opinion as well as my own, and demon- 
 strated the fallacy of my friend Telford's judgment. The cost 
 of the above works was ^"33,000, which was very small com- 
 
456 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 pared with the advantage obtained. The Corporation of Boston 
 were so much pleased with the success that they determined to 
 carry into effect the remainder of the improvement in the old 
 channel to Boston, which was afterwards done by confining the 
 channel by degrees to a proper width by means of fascines and 
 loose stone and clay properly combined together up to the level 
 of half tide, so that the flow and ebb always acted to the great- 
 est advantage in one and the same channel without materially 
 diminishing the quantity of tidal water. 
 
 'The effect of these additional works was to still further 
 deepen the bed of the river and increase the flow of the tide by 
 lowering the low-water mark, which improved the navigation 
 and drainage still further, so that the trade of Boston revived 
 and increased in prosperity, and all this was effected by the 
 resources of Boston alone ; and it is only to be regretted that 
 the drainage interests, who derived so much benefit, were not 
 compelled to contribute their just proportion.' 
 
 Rennie further executed minor works for the improvement of 
 the Witham near Lincoln. Also, at the request of the Com- 
 missioners of the Ancholme Level consisting of about 50,000 
 acres of low fenlands, bordering upon the Ancholme in North 
 Lincolnshire he drew up a series of recommendations for im- 
 proving the drainage of the lands, as well as the navigation of 
 the river. All these works were successfully executed, and 
 they answered so completely that the Ancholme district is as 
 well drained as any level in the kingdom, while the navigation 
 is complete of the kind. 
 
 Railways naturally attracted Rennie's attention as soon as 
 they began to be mooted. He was offered the post of engineer 
 to the Manchester and Liverpool Railway, and with him were 
 joined his brother George and Mr. Charles Vignoles. They 
 made the requisite surveys, choosing the route over Chat Moss. 
 When the Bill for the works was carried through Parliament 
 after great difficulty, Rennie and his co-engineers prepared 
 working drawings and estimates, and naturally expected to be 
 
THE RENNIES. 457 
 
 appointed executive engineers. Rennie and his brother were 
 passed over, however, and Stephenson was appointed chief 
 engineer, with Vignoles as resident engineer. The Kennies 
 had designed that the width of gauge should be 5 feet 6 inches 
 from centre to centre of the rail, but Stephenson adopted the 
 old colliery waggon gauge of 4 feet 8^ inches. It was only 
 after enormous litigation and expense that the 4 feet 8*4 inch 
 gauge was acknowledged to be as much too narrow as Brunei's 
 gauge of 7 feet on the Great Western Railway was too wide. 
 In 1826 Rennie projected a railway from London to Birming- 
 ham, and his brother and Messrs. Jessop and Chapman pro- 
 posed another from Birmingham to Liverpool, thus connecting 
 three important places, but the scheme was in advance of the 
 time. John Rennie likewise devised plans for two lines from 
 London to Brighton, as well as a coast-line from Brighton 
 westwards, but the period for these also was not yet ripe. 
 Robert Stephenson's line from London to Birmingham was 
 ultimately preferred to Rennie's. 
 
 In the year 1822 Rennie was elected a member of the 
 Travellers' Club, and in the following year was elected a Fellow 
 of the Royal Society. He was one of the original members of 
 the Athenaeum Club, and one of the original Fellows of the 
 Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society. Some 
 time after the opening of new London Bridge, Rennie went 
 on a short Continental tour. He was in bad health, and still 
 suffering from the effects of a fall into the coffer-dam while en- 
 gaged in constructing London Bridge. From London he went 
 to St. Petersburg, and visited the Government establishment at 
 Kolpnau for the cotton, gun, and general iron manufactures. 
 He was much interested in finding the latest mechanical im- 
 provements adopted here. He also examined the great naval 
 arsenal at Cronstadt, and made suggestions for improvements, 
 some of which were adopted. With his brother, he afterwards 
 built four iron steamboats, with their engines, for the Caspian 
 Sea, which were the first ever afloat there. They further made 
 
458 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 the iron gates for the docks of Sebastopol, together with 
 several vessels of war, worked by the screw, for the Baltic and 
 Black Seas. Rennie visited Novgorod, Moscow, and Warsaw, 
 and then returned to England by way of Germany. At this 
 time he lived in a house in Whitehall Place, with his two 
 younger brothers, Matthew and James. Although he was a 
 bachelor, he saw a good deal of society, and was on more or 
 less intimate terms with all the leading authors, painters, 
 sculptors, and men of science of the day. 
 
 By the year 1833 Rennie had completed the London, Hyde 
 Park, Staines, and Cramond bridges ; the great naval works 
 at Sheerness, Woolwich, and Chatham ; the Victualling De- 
 partment, or Royal William Yard, and a large portion of the 
 breakwaters at Plymouth, Sunderland, Port Patrick, Donag- 
 hadee, and Port Rush ; a considerable portion of Kingstown 
 Harbour, the Eau Brink Cut, the Nene Outfall, the Witham 
 Outfall, the Ancholme Drainage, and several other minor works. 
 Rest was consequently necessary again, so he went on a tour 
 through Spain. His party had an encounter with brigands near 
 Cordova, but they reached that city without harm, and then 
 proceeded to Seville. From thence they went to Madrid, and 
 found the capital in a state of the greatest excitement, owing 
 to the vigorous rising of the Carlists under Zumalacarregui. 
 Toledo and 'Barcelona were next visited, and Rennie returned 
 home by way of Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Paris. On another 
 occasion Rennie visited Austria and South Germany, and at 
 Vienna made the acquaintance of the famous Prince Metternich 
 and the Archduke Charles, Commander-in-Chief of the Aus- 
 trian armies, who was the first general who defeated the great 
 Napoleon at Aspern. 
 
 Rennie examined three alternative routes for a ship canal 
 from London to Portsmouth, and he regarded the canal as per- 
 fectly practicable, though it was doubtful whether it would ever 
 have made a sufficient return upon the capital. The under- 
 taking was not carried through, and railways have since 
 
THE RENNIES. 459 
 
 rendered it unnecessary. The machinery manufactory founded 
 by the elder Rennie was carried on by John and George Rennie, 
 who constructed the rolling mills for the Calcutta and Bombay 
 mints ; machines for Deptford, Portsmouth, and Cremill Point ; 
 locomotive engines for railways, steam-engines and machinery 
 for English and foreign vessels, etc., etc. In 1832 Rennie made 
 complete hydrographical surveys of all the harbours in the Isle 
 of Man, and suggested plans for the best way of improving 
 them, some of which were carried into effect. He further im- 
 proved the port of Hartlepool, and the mouth of the Coquet, 
 near Warkworth, and constructed the piers of Sunderland Har- 
 bour. During 1837-38 he was again occupied with the Brigh- 
 ton railway scheme, which he carried through, as well as the 
 Blackwall Railway. All through the time of the railway mania 
 his labours were most arduous, as his advice and aid were 
 sought in connection with a multitude of schemes. His alter- 
 native plan for the Great Northern line, which was acknow- 
 ledged to be superior to that adopted, was unfortunately 
 thrown out of Parliament. Another important line lost was the 
 Bristol and Chepstow, which would have materially shortened 
 the distance between Bristol, Birmingham, and Liverpool, 
 and have enabled the South Wales Railway also to shorten 
 materially their distance to London. A scheme for a Central 
 Kent Railway line likewise fell through, though the South- 
 Eastern Company admitted it to be better than theirs for Kent 
 and ths sea-coast, and the landed proprietors who opposed it 
 subsequently repented of their action. The South-Eastern 
 were compelled to expend nearly ,700,000 to cut off the angle 
 between London and Tunbridge, all of which might have been 
 saved by the adoption of Rennie's plan, while under the same 
 plan there would have been no necessity for that expensive line, 
 the London, Chatham, and Dover. 
 
 On three occasions Rennie visited Sweden with the object 
 of constructing railways. He made elaborate surveys, but the 
 Swedish Government were apathetic, and they would give no 
 
460 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 guarantee, although they had made a concession to Count 
 Adolphe Rosen, who offered half of it to Rennie for his services. 
 'Accordingly,' says Rennie, 'the Swedish railways remained in 
 abeyance until the year 1852 ; by this time the Swedish Govern- 
 ment had considered the subject maturely, and felt that, as every 
 other European nation had adopted them, Sweden, if she de- 
 sired to keep pace with other countries, must either make the 
 railways herself, for which at the time the Government had not 
 the money, or she must encourage others to make them by 
 guaranteeing a sufficient interest for the capital expended. Ac- 
 cordingly I went there again, and was as usual very kindly re- 
 ceived by the King and his Ministers, and I saw that they were 
 becoming more anxious than ever that the railways should be 
 made. I had been there in October, 1848, and had the honour 
 of being invited to dine at the palace in Stockholm, as I had 
 previously the honour of dining with their Majesties at the 
 summer palace of Hoga, near Stockholm. Upon arriving at the 
 palace, I was most courteously received by King Oscar, who 
 did me the honour of presenting me to his handsome, graceful, 
 and intelligent Queen. When her Majesty heard that the rail- 
 ways were to be commenced, she said that she heard so much 
 talk about them and nothing had been done, that she feared 
 they never would be made, "therefore talk no more about 
 them, but set to work and make them." The dinner-party 
 consisted of about thirty. I had the honour of sitting next 
 the Lord Chancellor, a very agreeable, intelligent person, who 
 sat next to the Royal Family. We had an excellent dinner, 
 without the least restraint, and the common topic of conver- 
 sation seemed to be, who would be elected President of the 
 French Republic, Cavaignac or Louis Napoleon, and every- 
 body seemed in favour of Cavaignac as the proper person; they 
 all spoke disparagingly of Louis Napoleon. It seems curious 
 to think how little the world knew of that extraordinary man, 
 and how completely he disappointed all previous expectations. 
 'When at Stockholm I was presented to his present Majesty, 
 
THE RENNIES. 461 
 
 King Charles XV., then Prince Karl, a very handsome, intelli- 
 gent young man. Since his accession to the throne he has 
 done me the honour of conferring upon me the order of Knight 
 Commander of the Order of Wasa, for what his Majesty was 
 pleased to term the great services which I had rendered Swe- 
 den. This was the more agreeable, as it was sent to me through 
 my personal friend Count Platen, then the Swedish representa- 
 tive at the Court of London.' 
 
 In 1852 the concession for the Swedish railways was renewed, 
 with a Government guarantee of four per cent, on the amount 
 of capital required, viz., 420,000, with power to raise ,167,000. 
 Rennie went over to Sweden again : the works were begun, and 
 everything was going on well, when the Chairman of the Com- 
 pany, the notorious John Sadleir, M.P., committed suicide, and 
 his fearful mismajiagement of the Swedish railway and other 
 undertakings was fully exposed. Rennie resigned his post ot 
 engineer, and it was well he did so, for things were carried on 
 in a discreditable manner, and as a man of honour he would 
 have nothing whatever to do with the whole concern. In the 
 hands of an honest body of directors the Swedish lines would 
 have paid well. 
 
 In 1852 Rennie acted as engineer to a Belgian and English 
 company formed for the reclamation of tracts of land on the 
 Scheldt. He had here to complain of the enormous waste of 
 money and labour, some 1,300 men being engaged at from 35. 
 to 45. per day, who were not doing half the work they were en- 
 gaged for. The scheme also of endeavouring to reclaim 3,000 
 acres of land at once he saw to be impossible, and after great 
 difficulty he persuaded the contractors to reclaim by smaller 
 portions, which was successfully done. Rennie was strongly of 
 opinion that the whole of the sea-board of Holland required 
 to be re-modelled. If all the superfluous channels were filled 
 up, and the islands which they surround were united to the 
 mainland, a great quantity of valuable land would be gained to 
 the State. 
 
462 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 Rennie went to Portugal in 1855, at the request of the 
 Government, to make arrangements for a general system of 
 railways and other works. He was cordially received by Dom 
 Fernando, husband of the late Dona Maria, Queen of Portugal, 
 and brother to the late Prince Consort. Rennie inspected the 
 great aqueduct of Lisbon, which he regarded as a grand and 
 magnificent work, the finest of the kind in Europe. He was 
 also much interested in the Castle and Cathedral of Belem, 
 the latter of which buildings was erected in honour of Prince 
 Henry, the Portuguese navigator. At the request of the Gov- 
 ernment he prepared plans for docks or landing jetties for the 
 port of Lisbon. He thought the harbour the finest and most 
 spacious in Europe, always excepting that of Vigo. Next he 
 went to Oporto, where he carefully examined the port, and 
 found that, owing to a variety of causes, the harbour of Oporto 
 was hermetically sealed for three-fourths of the year. Vessels 
 had been known to go to the Brazils and back, while others 
 were waiting in the offing for a favourable opportunity to cross 
 the bar. Then the mails for Oporto, the second city in the 
 Kingdom, had frequently to be delivered at Vigo, sixty miles 
 further north, and to be thence transported by land. To remedy 
 the defects, Rennie drew up a plan for erecting two piers at a 
 cost of ^400,000 one on the ridge of rocks on the south side, 
 and another on the north in such a direction that the entrance 
 between them, which was to be 500 feet wide, should be least 
 exposed to the prevailing storms. These works would have 
 been a great improvement, and well worth the money, but as 
 the bar would still be unapproachable on certain occasions, 
 the engineer cast about for a site for a new harbour, and found 
 an excellent one at Mattozenhas. As fine granite was cheap 
 and plentiful, he considered that for a sum of ^500,000 an 
 admirable harbour might be made here with a double en- 
 trance. He therefore strongly recommended it in preference to 
 expending ^400,000 on the old entrance. The King and the 
 Government approved the plans, and the Finance Minister 
 
THE RENNIES. 463 
 
 Fontes gave orders for the works to be begun immediately. 
 Shortly afterwards, however, there was a change of Ministry, 
 and the whole arrangements fell to the ground. Rennie after- 
 wards examined the harbours of Viana and Figuera, and re- 
 ported upon them. When Dom Pedro had attained his 
 'majority, and ascended the throne, he invited Rennie to visit 
 Lisbon again, feeling convinced that until her railways, har- 
 bours, and docks were placed on a proper footing, Portugal 
 could never take her proper place among the nations. Rennie 
 accordingly went over with his harbour plans and reports, and 
 made further surveys through Portugal with a view to the con- 
 struction of railways. Several important lines were begun, in- 
 cluding one for a better and more direct communication with 
 Spain ; but disputes arose between Messrs. Peto, Betts & Co., 
 the contractors, and the Portuguese Government, which ter- 
 minated in the abandonment of what would have been for 
 Portugal a great national work. Rennie subsequently visited 
 Tunis in company with one of Messrs. Peto & Betts's agents, to 
 examine into the feasibility of constructing a railway from the 
 Goletta to the city. The requisite survey was made, but owing 
 to the imprudent action of the contractors' agent, the French 
 Consul became alive to the whole situation, and in an audience 
 with the Bey threatened him with the vengeance of France if 
 the concession were granted. The Bey was obliged to submit, 
 and the project was abandoned. 
 
 I may pause here to note Rennie's chief contributions to 
 the literature of engineering. He wrote a pamphlet on the 
 Drainage of Lombardy which attracted the practical attention 
 of the Italian Premier, Signor Sella. One of his papers contri- 
 buted to the Institution of Civil Engineers upon the 'Harbour 
 of Ostia ' was full of instructive practical facts relating to the 
 effect of the action of tides and of rivers in the formation of 
 deltas, shoals, and bars at the entrances of harbours. His 
 presidential address to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1846 
 was practically a condensed history of the rise and progress of 
 
464 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 engineering science in modern times. In 1847 ne published 
 a monograph on Plymouth Breakwater. But his most im- 
 portant contribution to professional literature was his work 
 on The Theory ', Formation, and Construction of British and 
 Foreign Harbours. It was dedicated to the Queen, and was 
 published in two volumes in 1854. In addition to being a 
 survey of larger engineering works, this treatise included de- 
 scriptions of the docks constructed by Rennie at Whitehaven 
 for Lord Lonsdale, and the extension of the Cardiff Docks 
 which he carried out for the Trustees of the Marquis of Bute. 
 Rennie was admitted to be the highest authority on all matters 
 connected with hydraulic engineering, harbours, canals, drain- 
 age, irrigation, the storage of water, and the management of 
 rivers. It may be added that he greatly contributed to the 
 introduction of Sir Francis Pettitt Smith's invention, the screw- 
 propeller, into the Royal Navy. 
 
 Rennie was called upon. to make an official report on the 
 condition of the city of Odessa, which seems to have been the 
 worst city in the world as regards paving and sewers. There 
 was, in fact, neither one nor the other, and people living only 
 one mile from the food supplies and the butchers' shops were 
 practically starved at certain seasons of the year. The en- 
 gineer's recommendations had a salutary effect. Then he was 
 asked to examine the water-supply of Vienna, which he found 
 to be most defective. He made investigations in the vicinity, 
 and having found a source whence a good water-supply could 
 be obtained, he drew up a report to the municipality of Vienna. 
 That sage body thanked him for it, and then spent many years 
 in fruitless discussions as to whether they should carry out his 
 recommendations. In 1861 Rennie constructed for the Portu- 
 guese Government the harbour of Ponta Delgada, the chief 
 town in St. Michael'?, the principal island of the Azores. He 
 next carried out additional improvements in Ramsgate Har- 
 bour, in regard to which he occupied the post of principal 
 permanent engineer. After the harbour was transferred to the 
 
THE RENN2ES. 465 
 
 Board of Trade, he still continued in his old post, and at the 
 same salary, viz., ^315 per annum and travelling expenses. He 
 then turned his attention to constructing the Dagenham Dock, 
 on the left bank of the Thames, utilising the Dagenham Lake, 
 a fine sheet of water, for the purpose. He made considerable 
 progress with the works, and something was done towards 
 converting the lake into a great dock establishment, but 
 although several Acts of Parliament were obtained, the works 
 could not be completed under Rennie's plans, and they fell 
 into abeyance. 
 
 Sir John Rennie took a high view of his profession. Here 
 is what he wrote on this subject towards the close of his 
 Autobiography: 'The real object of the civil engineer is to 
 promote the civilization of the world, by the proper application 
 of the great mechanical means at his command, and to take a 
 high independent position as a scientific man, thoroughly 
 versed in his profession both theoretically and practically, and 
 wholly independent of contractors, and all sinister influences. 
 Unless he can do this, he never will be held in that esteem 
 and respect, or take that high position without which no pro- 
 fessional man can properly discharge the duties that he owes 
 to himself and to the public. 
 
 'Against what I have said it may perhaps be urged that I 
 assign too high a place to the profession to which my father 
 and myself have had the honour to belong ; but 1 think that 
 when the subject has been calmly and fairly considered it 
 will be generally admitted that I have not done so without 
 reason. Without wishing for a moment to depreciate the 
 merits of any other body of men, I think it will be conceded 
 that the objects proposed by the engineer, and the acquire- 
 ments, knowledge, and experience that he must possess before 
 he can practise successfully, are at least equal to those of any 
 other profession, particularly after the practical examples ex- 
 hibited to the world of the great benefits that engineeiing has 
 already conferred upon mankind. Therefore are we entitled 
 
 H H 
 
466 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 to be ranked amongst the most learned professions, and to 
 receive all the honours they have most justly earned ; and I 
 trust the time is not far distant when this justice will be 
 accorded to them.' 
 
 With regard to the proper training for a civil engineer, 
 Rennie observes : ' Let him first get a sound elementary 
 education in the several departments of arithmetic, algebra, 
 geometry, natural philosophy, geography, geology, astronomy, 
 chemistry, land and hydrographical surveying, as well as 
 grammar, English composition, history, French, German, and 
 Latin, according to the improved system of modern education ; 
 every youth of ordinary talents h is a tolerably fair knowledge 
 of these at seventeen or eighteen. What then should be the 
 training for an engineer ? First let him go through the best 
 course of modern education at his command, including the 
 elements of geometry, mathematics, and the physical sciences, 
 not excluding Latin and Greek, in spite of the prejudice 
 against them now frequently expressed. Then let him be 
 apprenticed for t\vo or three years to some good steam-engine 
 and machinery manufacturer, where he should learn to make 
 drawings and calculations, handle tools, make models, steam- 
 engine machinery, and put machinery together. By this 
 means, if he applies his mind to it properly, he may become 
 a practical as well as theoretical mechanician, which is the 
 soundest basis for good engineering ; indeed, without this it 
 is impossible for an engineer to be thoroughly successful, but 
 being well grounded in this most important knowledge, all the 
 others will become comparatively easy. Having gone through 
 this apprenticeship, let him bind himself for three or four 
 years to some well-known civil engineer, of large practice in 
 railways, docks, harbours, waterworks, canals, drainage, rivers, 
 etc. In this office the pupil will learn everything connected 
 with these departments, and as they are founded more or less 
 upon practical mechanics, he will soon find that from his 
 previous mechanical education he has already acquired con- 
 
THE RENNIES. 467 
 
 s r derablo knowledge of them, and it will only bj necessary to 
 apply those principles, modified according to the particular 
 circumstances required ; in fact, the principles are the same, 
 although applied upon a larger scale.' 
 
 The practical instructions which Rennie gives to civil 
 engineers in concluding his Autobiography are invaluable, 
 even in the light of the advances which the science of engineer- 
 ing has made since they were written. They range over such 
 topics as the construction of harbours and canals, drainage, 
 the water-supply of towns, the storage of inflammable goods, 
 docks and warehouses, embankments, breakwaters, bridges, 
 etc. 
 
 It is cheering to find a veteran writing as follows, after an 
 experience of human life extending over a period of upwards 
 of seventy years : ' The motto of life should be, " Forward ! " 
 We must expect to be checked, thwarted, and baffled in our 
 endeavours to obtain success ; but these obstacles, instead of 
 totally arresting our progress, should serve only to increase our 
 energy. Like a river, impeded in its course, in silence waits 
 till its accumulated strength sweeps the obstruction from its 
 path, and it flows on majestically as before so should we 
 make every difficulty we encounter add to our strength, instead 
 of increasing our weakness. Nevertheless, since " ''tis not in 
 mortals to command success," we may sometimes struggle in 
 vain ; and fortune ever against us, we may be overcome at the 
 last; but even then we hive this satisfaction we have fought 
 a good fight ; we have done the best we could ; we have done 
 our duty to the best of our ability, and this is all that can be 
 required of us. To do my duty has been my endeavour 
 through life ; and probably if I had adhered to it more strictly 
 I might have done a great deal better. Nevertheless, little as 
 I have done, I should not have accomplished half so much 
 had I not kept that one object in view, as far as my physical 
 and mental powers would permit ; and this is no small consola- 
 tion. The old motto, " Nil dtsptrandum? should be constantly 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 LEADERS OF MODERN INDUSTRY. 
 
 on our lips, and should act like the spur on a jaded steed. 
 Affairs are never so bad but they might have been worse, and 
 they may generally be mended by energy and perseverance, 
 and a determination to make the best of everything. We may 
 not be able to accomplish all we desire to achieve ; neverthe- 
 less, by refusing to yield to misfortune we shall escape the 
 reproach of cowardice and faintheartedness. When we suffer 
 a defeat, let us calmly consider the cause of it, and nine times 
 out of ten we shall find it is through our own fault ; these 
 lessons of experience should be carefully laid to heart, and 
 serve for our future guidance. 
 
 ' I have never deemed wealth desirable for mere personal 
 gratification, but only in so far as it would have enabled me to 
 help others, to promote the advancement of science and the 
 well-being of my fellow-creatures ; this would have conferred 
 the greatest happiness upon me, but it has been denied by the 
 Almighty Disposer of events, and most probably with justice, 
 that it might be done better by other hands. 1 therefore 
 humbly bow to the Almighty's decision and if I have done 
 the best I could in His sight, I am amply rewarded. I, how- 
 ever, most deeply regret that I have not done more. I return 
 my most fervent thanks to the Almightly that He, out of His 
 great mercy, has allowed me to do the little I have done ; and 
 I most devoutly hope that He through His Son Jesus Christ 
 will pardon my shortcomings ; and I say with all reverence, 
 Bless the Lord for all His mercies.' 
 
 Sir J ohn Rennie contemplated writing a history of engineer- 
 ing enlarged from his address to the Institution of Civil 
 Engineers as well as a Life of his revered father, but he did 
 not live to accomplish either of these works. After the year 
 1866, he undertook scarcely any professional labours, though 
 he lived for eight years beyond this time. He had just 
 completed his eightieth year, when he passed away, on the 
 3rd of September, 1874, Rennie's was a full, useful, and valu- 
 able life, and it worthily carried forward the traditions he 
 
THE RENNIES. 469 
 
 inherited from his father. In both these men there was a 
 lofty spirit of enterprise and an indomitable will, and we 
 can give equal honour to both for those magnificent works 
 which have added so much to the material prosperity and glory 
 of England. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 AMERICAN WAR, Wedgwood on 
 the, 281. 
 
 Anecdotes of George Stephenson, 
 4, 5, 7, 8, 22, 31, 50, 60; Robert 
 Stephenson, 9, 10, 44, 67, 71 ; 
 Charles Knight, 81, 82, 83, 94, 
 98, 113, 129; Sir George Burns, 
 143, 146, 148, 150, 159, 161, 179, 
 184, 186; Edward Irving, 144; 
 Sir Josiah Mason, 197, 200, 217, 
 219 ; Dr. Priestley, 202 ; Michael 
 Faraday, 21 1 ; Josiah Wedgwood, 
 240, 261, 265, 267, 270, 272; 
 Thomas Brassey, 314, 319, 320, 
 321, 322; William Fair bairn, 339, 
 341 ; B. R. Haydon, R.A., 348; 
 Peter Fairbairn, 372; Sir Wil- 
 liam Siemens, 386. 
 
 Ardrossan steamers, The, 161. 
 
 Argentine Railway, The, 329. 
 
 Arnold, Dr. , on railways, 52 ; on 
 newspapers, 120. 
 
 Assyrian and Babylonian pottery, 
 
 234- 
 
 Atmospheric pressure on railways, 
 56. 
 
 BARBERINI VASE, The, 287-289. 
 Bedford Level, The, 445. 
 Bell Rock Lighthouse, The, 434. 
 Bentley, Thomas, the friend and 
 
 partner of Wedgwood, 250, 262, 
 
 265, 270-273, 282. 
 Berwick, Royal Border Bridge of, 
 
 63- 
 
 Blenkinsop's locomotive, 12. 
 
 Books and Library Series, Increase 
 of, 120, 121. 
 
 Booksellers and publishers, Emi 
 
 nent, 77. 
 Book trade, Great increase of the 
 
 122. 
 
 Brassey, Thomas, his birth and 
 ancestry, 303; education and 
 early occupations, 304 ; begins 
 to tender for railways, 305 ; his 
 marriage, 306; character as a 
 contractor, 307 ; foreign under- 
 takings, 308-314; his activity, 
 314 ; takes the Great Northern 
 Railway contract, 315 ; his fin- 
 ancial method, 316; pecuniary 
 difficulties, 317 ; his Austrian 
 contract, 318; summary of his 
 important contracts, 320 ; Italian 
 lines, 321, 322 ; the Grand Trunk 
 Railway, 323, 324 ; other under- 
 takings, 327 ; Australian works, 
 328 ; the Argentine Railway, 
 329 ; Indian railways, 330 ; 
 Brassey 's last labours and death, 
 331 ; his character, 332. 
 
 Bridgewater, The Duke of, 257. 
 
 Brindley, James, the engineer, 247, 
 254, 279. 
 
 Britannia Tubular Bridge, 65, 349. 
 
 British pottery and porcelain, 236. 
 
 Brougham, Lord, and popular edu- 
 cation, 95, 99. 
 
 Brunei, the engineer, 47, 57, 71. 
 
 Burns, James (Sir George's brother), 
 146, 183. 
 
 Burns, Dr. John (Sir George's 
 brother), 142, 162. 
 
 Burns, John (Sir George Burns's 
 grandfather), 141. 
 
472 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Burns, John (Sir George's father), 
 
 142, 151. 
 
 Burns, John (Sir George's son), 162, 
 168, 175, 177, 178, 179. 
 
 Burns, Sir George, the typical mer- 
 chant prince, 135 ; his ancestry, 
 141 ; his birth, 142 ; begins a busi- 
 ness career, 143 ; acquainted with 
 Chalmers and Irving, 144; enters 
 into partnership with his brother, 
 146 ; marries, 146 ; his shipping 
 ventures, 147 ; he co-operates 
 with Maclver, 150; loses his 
 father, 151 ; founds with Samuel 
 Cunard and David Maclver the 
 Cunard Company, 152-154; char- 
 acter of its fleet, 155 ; voyage of 
 the Britannia, 1 56 ; his personal 
 friends, 158 ; conveys the Queen 
 through the Crinan Canal, 159 ; 
 new business enterprise, 161 ; 
 loss of the Orion, 161 ; family 
 bereavements, 162 ; opposition of 
 the Great Western Company, 163 ; 
 and of the Collins line, 165 ; new 
 Cunard steamers, 166 ; he retires 
 from business, 166 ; arrangements 
 of the Cunard Company, 167 ; 
 various ocean steamer lines, 171 ; 
 Burns at Wemyss Bay, 174; his 
 philanthropic enterprises, 175 5 
 his personal character 177 ; mem- 
 ber of the Gaiter Club, 178, 179 ; 
 his friends, 180, 181 ; celebrates 
 his golden wedding, 183 ; his 
 political opinions, 184; is created 
 a baronet, 185 ; his death, 186. 
 
 Byerley, Thomas, Wedgwood's 
 nephew, 258, 267, 281. 
 
 CANTERBURY and Whitstable Rail- 
 way, 42. 
 
 Catherine, The Empress, and the 
 famous Wedgwood service, 275. 
 
 Cavour, Count, and Thomas Brassey, 
 321, 322. 
 
 Chalmers, Dr., and George Burns, 
 
 143, 145- 
 
 Chinese porcelain, 233. 
 Clanny's safety-lamp, Dr.W. R., 15. 
 Collins line of steamers, The, 165 ; 
 its disastrous collapse, 166. 
 
 Colombian Mining Association, The, 
 ^40. 
 
 Conway Tubular Bridge, 68. 
 
 Coroners' inquests and boiler ex- 
 plosions, 357. 
 
 Cugnot, N. J., makes the first prac- 
 tical working engine, 1 1. 
 
 Cunard Company, Founding of the, 
 152-154; its first triumph, 156; 
 its magnificent vessels, 164 ; pro- 
 visioning of its fleet, 169 ; num- 
 ber of its vessels, 172. 
 
 Cunard, Sir Samuel, 153-156, .168, 
 183. 
 
 DARWIN, ERASMUS, 252, 258, 264. 
 Davy, Sir Humphry, and the 
 
 safety-lamp, 15. 
 Dickens, Charles, 118, 157. 
 Drainage works, Rennie's, 449-456. 
 Dynamo-electric machine, 414. 
 
 EGYPTIAN POTTERY, 234. 
 
 Electro-plating, The process of, 209- 
 217. 
 
 English and foreign workmen com- 
 pared, 312. 
 
 English railways, 52, 55. 
 
 Erdington Orphanage, The, 220. 
 
 Etruria works, Opening of Wedg- 
 wood's, 270; description of ; 278. 
 
 Evans, Oliver, constructs a steam 
 dredging-machine, u. 
 
 FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW (William's 
 father), 337, 339, 340, 348. 
 
 Fairbairn, Sir Andrew (Sir Peter's 
 son), his birth and education, 376 ; 
 travels, 377 ; enters into business, 
 377 ; is knighted, 377 ; his public 
 services, 378. 
 
 Fairbairn, Sir Peter (William's 
 brother), 339 ; his birth and early 
 life, 371 ; begins business as a 
 machine maker at Leeds, 372 ; his 
 inventions and improvements, 
 373, 374 ; his public services, 375 ; 
 is knighted, 375 ; his death and 
 character, 376. 
 
 Fairbairn, Sir Thomas(Sir William's 
 son), 359 ; his birth and education 
 370; public services, 371. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 473 
 
 Fairbairn, Sir William, and George 
 Stephenson, 6. 
 
 Fairbairn, William, his birth, 337 ; 
 early life and education, 338, 339 ; 
 apprenticed to a millwright, 340 ; 
 his experiences in London, 341 ; 
 marries Dorothy Mar, 342 ; first 
 inventions, 342 ; becomes part- 
 ner with James Lillie, 343 ; con- 
 structs water-wheels, 344 ; builds 
 the Lord Dundas, 345 ; dissolves 
 partnership, 346 ; opens works at 
 Millwall, 346 ; invents the rivet- 
 ing machine, 347 ; visits Turkey, 
 347 ; assists Robert Stephenson 
 with the Britannia Bridge, 349 ; 
 patents wrought-iron girder brid- 
 ges, 349 ; advises on the Rhine 
 bridge at Cologne, 350 ; honours 
 conferred upon him, 351 ; his im- 
 provements in steam-boilers, 352 ; 
 founds the Association for the Pre- 
 vention of Steam-boiler Explo- 
 sions, 353 ; various scientific re- 
 searches, 356-358 ; iron shipbuild- 
 ing and engine manufacture, 359 ; 
 great work in mill construction, 
 360 ; course of the Fairbairn firm, 
 361 ; the shipbuilding yard at Mill- 
 wall, 362 ; honours to Fairbairn, 
 363-364 ; he visits Italy, 364 ; 
 president of the British Associa- 
 tion, 365 ; created a baronet, 366 ; 
 his voluminous writings, 366-368 ; 
 his death, 368; his character, 
 369. 
 Flaxman models for Wedgwood, 
 
 280, 285. 
 Follett, Sir William, and George 
 
 Stephenson, 61. 
 
 Furnace, The regenerative steam, 
 394, 398-400. 
 
 GAUGES, The battle of the, 57 
 George III. at the Windsor Theatre, 
 
 81. 
 Gladstone, Mr., on Wedgwood, 292- 
 
 296. 
 
 Grand Junction Railway, The, 49. 
 Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, 
 
 3 2 3- 
 Grecian pottery, 235. 
 
 Great Western Company's steamers, 
 
 The, 163. 
 Great Western Railway, The, 57-59. 
 
 HAWKSHAW, SIR JOHN, on un- 
 skilled labour, 313. 
 
 Hedley, William, constructs the 
 Puffing Billy, 12. 
 
 Helton Railway opened, 20. 
 
 Holyhead Harbour, 431. 
 
 Hudson, George, 'the Railway 
 King,' 53. 
 
 Huskisson, Mr., his lamentable 
 death, 38. 
 
 JAPANESE POTTERY, 234. 
 Jerrold, Douglas, and Charles 
 Knight, 129. 
 
 KEAN, EDMUND, at Windsor, 85. 
 
 Knight, Charles, 75; his birth 
 and education, 79 ; studies busi- 
 ness, 82 ; founds the Windsor & 
 Eton Express, etc., 83; early re- 
 miniscences, 84 ; promotes popu- 
 lar education, 85 ; publishes The 
 Plain Englishman, 88 ; Knight's 
 Quarterly Magazine, 90; prose- 
 cuted for libel, 93 ; concerned in 
 the Byron memoirs, 94 ; meeting 
 with Lord Brougham, 95 ; con- 
 nection with the Society for the 
 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 
 96-99; its important works, 101- 
 1 10 ; he opposes the paper duty 
 and newspaper stamp, 1 1 1 ; his 
 Pictorial Bible, in; History of 
 England, 112; Pictorial Shake- 
 speare, 113; miscellaneous works, 
 114-117; his interest in Shakes- 
 speare, 1 18 ; The Penny Magazine, 
 119; English Cyclopedia, 123; 
 Popular History of England, 124, 
 
 125 ; Passages of a Working Life, 
 
 126 ; his literary friends, 128; last 
 years and death, 130 ; his services 
 to the people, 131. 
 
 Knowledge, Charles Knight on, 87. 
 
 LANDORE STEELWORKS, The, 401, 
 406. 
 
474 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Leicester and Swannington Rail- 
 way, The, 42. 
 
 Leopold, King, and the Stephen- 
 sons, 51. 
 
 Liverpool and Manchester Railway 
 projected, 27 ; is strongly opposed, 
 28 ; the Bill rejected, 32 ; new 
 Bill carried, 33 ; construction of 
 the line, 34, 36 ; opening of the 
 railway, 37 ; its success, 39. 
 
 Locomotive experiments and im- 
 provements, 11, 12, 13, 35, 43. 
 
 London and Birmingham Railway 
 begun, 44, ; difficulties in its con- 
 struction, 45 ; its successful com- 
 pletion, 47. 
 
 London and West India Docks, 
 etc., 430. 
 
 London Bridge, New, 445. 
 
 MACIVER, DAVID, 149, 150, 154, 
 168. 
 
 Manchester Steam-users' Associa- 
 tion founded, 354. . 
 
 Mason Science College founded, 222. 
 
 Mason, Sir Josiah, 191; his birth, 
 197; education and early employ- 
 ments, 198; settles in Birming- 
 ham, 199 ; a split -ring maker, 200 ; 
 takes up the pen trade, 202; its 
 progress, 207 ; his connection with 
 the electro-plating trade, 209 ; 
 enters the firm of Elkingtons, 215; 
 establishes a copper industry, 218 ; 
 his accumulating wealth, 219; he 
 founds the Erdington Orphanage, 
 220; erects the Mason Science 
 College, 222 ; speech in laying 
 the foundation stone, 223 ; the 
 college opened, 227 ; honours to 
 Mason, 229 ; his death and cha- 
 racter, 230. 
 
 Midland Railway, The, 49. 
 
 Multitubular boiler, The, 13. 
 
 Murdoch, William, n. 
 
 NEWCASTLE High Level Bridge, 63. 
 
 Newspaper and periodical press, 
 
 Great development of the, 112. 
 
 OCEAN TRAFFIC between 1850-90, 
 171. 
 
 PALMERSTON, Lord,, in Scotland, 
 
 179. 
 
 Paris and Rouen Railway, The, 308. 
 Peel, Sir Robert, and George 
 
 Stephenson, 60, 62. 
 Pen, History of the, 191-195. 
 Pen trade of Birmingham, The, 203- 
 
 205 ; the trade abroad, 207. 
 Penny Cyclopedia, Story of the, 
 
 103-110. 
 
 Penny Magazine, The, 119. 
 Pitt and Wedgwood, 286. 
 Plymouth Breakwater, 438. 
 Popular History of England, 
 
 Knight's, 123. 
 
 Popular publications, Spread of, 78. 
 Post-office reform, in. 
 Pottery, History of ancient and 
 
 modern, 233-236. 
 Praed, Winthrop Mackworth, 90, 
 
 92. 
 
 Priestley, Dr., 202, 250, 258. 
 Printing industry, The, 75 ; its 
 
 earlier developments, 76. 
 Prize system in literature, The, 116. 
 Pyrometer, Wedgwood's invention 
 
 of the, 283. 
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA in her youth, 98. 
 
 RAILWAY ACT, The first public, 21. 
 Railway passenger carriage, The 
 
 first, 27. 
 Railways, Progress of English, 52, 
 
 55- 
 
 Railways ridiculed, 24. 
 
 Ramsgate Harbour, 433. 
 
 Rennie, George, 442. 
 
 Rennie, John, the elder, his birth, 
 423 ; his education, 424 ; his 
 earliest engineering works, 425 ; 
 construction of canals, 426 ; fen 
 drainage, 426 ; his first great 
 bridge, 427 ; Waterloo Bridge, 
 428 ; Southwark Bridge, 429 ; 
 London and East and West India 
 Docks, 430 ; Holyhead Harbour, 
 431 ; Ramsgate Harbour, 433 ; 
 the Bell Rock Lighthouse, 434 ; 
 further works of Rennie, 435 ; 
 Royal Dockyards, 436 ; other 
 dockyards, 437; Plymouth Break- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 475 
 
 water, 438 ; miscellaneous works, 
 439 ; Rennie's death and charac- 
 ter, 440-442. 
 
 Rennie, Sir John, his birth and 
 education, 443 ; his travels, 444 ; 
 succeeds his father as Admiralty 
 engineer, 444 ; drains the Bed- 
 ford Level, 445 ; engineer for 
 Ramsgate Harbour, etc. , 446 ; 
 completes new London Bridge, 
 447 ; is knighted, 449 ; his great 
 drainage works, 449-456 ; railway 
 schemes, 456 ; visits Russia, 457 ; 
 summary of his works, 458 ; he 
 visits Spain and Sweden, 458- 
 460 ; reclaims land from the 
 Scheldt, 461 ; designs Portu- 
 guese harbours and railways, 462, 
 463 ; his literary labours, 463, 
 464 ; later works, 464 ; views of 
 his profession, 465, 466 ; admir- 
 able survey of his own life, 467, 
 468 ; his death, 468. 
 
 Rhine bridge at Cologne, The, 350. 
 
 Rouen and Havre Railway, The, 
 310. 
 
 Royal Dockyards, etc., 436, 437. 
 
 SAFETY-LAMP, Stephenson's, 15; 
 
 Davy's, 15; Clanny's, 15. 
 Saltaire, The great works at, 360. 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 181, 183. 
 Shakespeare's house at Stratford, 
 
 118. 
 Shipping Industry of Great Britain, 
 
 135 ; its rise and progress, 136- 
 
 141 ; later developments, 173. 
 Siemens, Carl Heinrich, 383, 406, 
 
 407, 417. 
 Siemens, Ernst Werner von, 381, 
 
 382, 406, 414, 4i?> 4i8. 
 Siemens, Ferdinand, and his family, 
 
 381. 
 Siemens, Ferdinand, the younger, 
 
 383. 
 Siemens, Friedrich, the inventor, 
 
 383, 390, 393- 
 Siemens, Hans, 383, 406. 
 Siemens, Otto, 384. 
 
 Siemens, Sir William, Birth of, 
 381; his education, 384 ; visits 
 England, 385 ; his remarkable 
 
 experiences, 385-387 ; his first 
 patent, 388 ; the differential 
 governor, 388 ; anastatic printing, 
 
 389 ; engineering improvements, 
 
 390 ; heat experiments, 391-394 ; 
 various inventions, 395 ; sub- 
 marine cables, 396 ; Siemens's 
 home life, 397 ; his marriage, 
 398 ; the regenerative furnace, 
 398-400 ; steel-making, 401 ; the 
 chronometric governor, 401 ; the 
 Malta and Alexandria Cable, 401 ; 
 Siemens's works at Charlton, 
 402 ; the Indo-European Tele- 
 graph, 403 ; travels in Germany, 
 Italy, and Switzerland, 405, 406 ; 
 the Landore Steel Works, 406, 
 407 ; the Direct Atlantic Cable, 
 407, 408 ; the Brazilian Cable, 
 409-411 ; experiments in electric 
 lighting, 412, 413; the dynamo, 
 414 ; Siemens's other inventions, 
 415; honours awarded to him, 
 41 6, 41 7; further electrical achieve- 
 ments, 418; knighthood for Sie- 
 mens, 419 ; his death and char- 
 acter, 419-20. 
 
 Siemens, Walter, 383, 406. 
 
 Society for the Diffusion of Useful 
 Knowledge, 95-111. 
 
 Southwark Bridge, 429. 
 
 Stanhope and Tyne Railway, The, 
 48. 
 
 Steam-blast, Invention of the, 14. 
 
 Steamboat, The first successful, 139. 
 
 Steam-boilers, Improvements in, 
 352, 358. 
 
 Steam-engine, The regenerative, 
 390. 
 
 Steam passage across the Atlantic, 
 The first, 140. 
 
 Stephenson, George, his birth, 3 ; 
 early life, 4 ; marriage, 5 ; friend- 
 ship with \Villiam Fairbairn, 6 ; 
 birth of his only son, 6 ; loss of 
 his wife, 7 ; his struggles, 7 ; ap- 
 pointed enginewright at Killing- 
 worth, 8 ; studies the locomotive, 
 1 1 ; makes his first travelling en- 
 gine, 12; waste steam and the 
 steam-blast, 13 ; invents the 
 'Geordie' safety lamp, 15; the 
 
476 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Davy-Stephenson controversy, 
 15 ; he receives a public testi- 
 monial, 16; introduces steam 
 machinery underground, 17 ; his 
 locomotive experiments, 18 ; lays 
 down the Hetton Railway, 20 ; 
 marries Elizabeth Hindmarsh, 
 21 ; appointed engineer for the 
 Darlington and Stockton line, 
 22 ; establishes a locomotive 
 manufactory at Newcastle, 23 ; 
 at the opening of the Darlington 
 Railway, 24; appointed engineer 
 of the Liverpool and Manchester 
 Railway, 28 ; examined before a 
 Parliamentary Committee, 30 ; 
 the Bill carried, 33 ; beginning of 
 the line, 34; he constructs the 
 Rocket, 35 ; opening of the rail- 
 way, 37 ; triumph of the improved 
 locomotive, 43 ; he is over- 
 whelmed with railway projects, 
 48 ; personal glimpses of him, 
 50 ; railways constructed under 
 his superintendence, 52 ; visits 
 Belgium and Spain, 59 ; illness, 
 60 ; anecdotes concerning him, 
 60; his last public appearance, 
 62 ; death, 62 ; and character, 
 
 63- 
 
 Stephenson, George, and Thomas 
 Brassey, 305. 
 
 Stephenson, Robert (father of 
 George Stephenson), his life at 
 Wylam, 3 ; love for birds and 
 animals, 4. 
 
 Stephenson, Robert, birth of the 
 great engineer, 6 ; his education 
 and early years, 9 ; reminiscences 
 of his youth, 10; at Edinburgh 
 University, 21 ; chief engineer in 
 Robert Slephenson & Co., 23 ; 
 at the opening of the Liverpool 
 and Manchester Railway, 37 ; 
 visits Spanish America, 40 ; his 
 meeting with Trevithick, 41 ; his 
 marriage, 42 ; early railway pro- 
 jects, 42 ; constructs the London 
 and Birmingham Railway, 44 ; 
 recognition of his success, 47 ; 
 his loss with the Stanhope and 
 Tyne line, 48 ; engineer for the 
 
 North Midland Line, 49 ; visits 
 the Continent, 49 ; decorated by 
 the King of the Belgians, 51; 
 his railway projects in the North, 
 53 ; loses his wife, 53 ; beginning 
 of his fame, 54 ; conduct during 
 the railway mania, 56 ; the battle 
 of the gauges, 57 ; begins to con- 
 struct his magnificent bridges, 
 63 ; the Royal Border Bridge of 
 Berwick, 63 ; the High Level 
 Bridge at Newcastle, 63 ; the 
 Britannia Tubular Bridge, 65 ; 
 the Conway Tubular Bridge, 68 ; 
 the Victoria Railway Bridge at 
 Montreal, 68 ; Stephenson in 
 Parliament, 69 ; his social gather- 
 ings, 69; at the zenith of his fame, 
 69; honours and rewards, 70 ; his 
 sad loneliness, 70 ; his death, 71 > 
 and character, 72. 
 
 Stockton and Darlington Railway, 
 Opening of the, 24. 
 
 Story of railway enterprise, 318. 
 
 Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 81. 
 
 Submarine cables, 395, 401, 403, 
 407-411. 
 
 Surrey Iron Railway, The, 21. 
 
 Sweden, King of, and Robert 
 Stephenson, 70. 
 
 Symington, William, II. 
 
 TAYLOR, TOM, on Charles Knight, 
 
 131- 
 
 Trevithick, Richard, n, 41. 
 Trotter, Captain, and George Burns, 
 
 180. 
 
 VESSELS, Improvements in, 137- 
 
 140. 
 Victoria, Queen, in her youth, 98; 
 
 visit to Scotland, 159. 
 Victoria Railway Bridge, Montreal, 
 
 68, 324. 
 
 W ARLINGTON RAILWAY, The, 42. 
 Waterloo Bridge, 428. 
 Wedgwood, John (josiah's brother), 
 
 262. 
 Wedgwood, Josiah, his ancestry, 
 
 237 ; his birth, 238 ; early life, 
 
 238 ; education, 239 ; apprentice- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 477 
 
 ship, 241 ; enters into business, 
 
 242 ; his discoveries in pottery, 
 
 243 ; his partner Wheildon, 243 ; 
 establishes himself at Burslem, 
 245 ; growth of his business, 246 ; 
 his fame spreads, 249 ; he meets 
 with Thomas Bentley, 250 ; mar- 
 ries his cousin, 251 ; improves 
 the engine-lathe, 253 ; promotes 
 the Grand Trunk Canal, 254; 
 makes interesting experiments, 
 256 ; meets with royal and aristo- 
 cratic patrons, 257 ; his friend- 
 ship with Erasmus Darwin, 258 ; 
 is received by the Queen, 260 ; 
 is joined by his cousin, Thomas 
 Wedgwood, 261 ; Bentley be- 
 comes his partner, 262 ; Wedg- 
 wood's leg amputated, 264 ; his 
 designs in cream-ware, 267 ; his 
 only patent, 268 ; opening of the 
 Etruria works, 270 ; Wedgwood's 
 audience with George III. and 
 the Queen, 273 ; his works pirated, 
 274 ; commission from the Em- 
 press Catherine of Russia, 275 ; 
 description of Etruria, 277, 278 ; 
 
 new designs and wares, 280 ; he 
 mourns the loss of Bentley, 282 ; 
 his address to the workmen in 
 the Potteries, 283 ; agitates for 
 free trade, 286 ; reproduces the 
 Barberini Vase, 287 ; retires from 
 business, 289 ; his life at Etruria 
 Hall, 290; last illness and death, 
 291 ; characteristics of Wedgwood 
 and his works, 292-299. 
 
 Wedgwood Memorial Institute 
 founded, 292 ; its opening, 298. 
 
 Wedgwood, Thomas (Josiah's bro- 
 ther), 256, 279. 
 
 Wedgwood, Thomas (Josiahs cou- 
 sin), 261, 289. 
 
 Wedgwood, Thomas (Josiah's son), 
 
 275- 
 Wharncliffe, Lord, and Robert 
 
 Stephenson, 44. 
 Wheatstone, Professor, 52. 
 Wheildon and Wedgwood, 243. 
 Windsor Express, Actions against 
 
 the, 93. 
 Wrottesley, Lord, on Sir William 
 
 Fairbairn, 365. 
 
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