University
Southern flB
Library
M E M O I R S
OF THE
M O S T EMINENT
AMERICAN MECHANICS:
ALSO,
LIVES OP DISTINGUISHED EUROPEAN MECHANICS;
TOGETHER WITH A COLLECTION OF
ANECDOTES, DESCRIPTIONS, &c. &c.
RELATING TO THE MECHANIC ARTS.
ILLUSTRATED BY F1FTV ENGRAVINGS
BY HENRY HOWE.
"The due cultivation of practical manual arts in a nation, has a greater tendency to
polish and humanize mankind, than mere speculative science, however refined and sublime
tl may be."
NEW YORK :
DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU ST.
1858.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S4G, ly
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court tor the Southern District ol New York
PREFACE.
It is singular thai BO tittle interest should heretofore have been
taken in the histoiy of those to whom we are indebted for the
arts and inventions constituting the glory of our time. The pen
has ever been more ready to record the brilliant than the useful
To this is to be attributed the neglect heretofore manifested in
relation to these subjects. Indeed, so little regard has been
evinced, that a late foreign writer, who happened incidentally to
be " thrown upon" some incidents in the life of an eminent
mechanician, considered it due to the fastidiousness of public
taste, to claim indulgence for diverging into so obscure and
tasteless a path of biographical research. But, thanks to the
more general diffusion of knowledge and the light of Christianity,
this false taste is rapidly dissipating, and mankind are beginning
to appreciate the labors of those to whom we are indebted for
our present unparalleled state of intellectual and social advance-
ment.
The memoirs of the benefactors of our race, in past ages, are
often histories of wrong; and those who have labored in the
department of mechanical invention, may truly be termed the
martyrs of civilization! The causes producing this state of
4 PREFACE.
things are fading away before the intelligence of the times, and
wise and just laws are in operation to protect the defenceless.
As has been aptly observed, " the strife of trade has superseded
the strife of war," the clash and din of arms has given place to
the busy hum of industry, the ringing of the anvil, the melody
of the waterfall, and the puff of the steam engine. The days
of tournaments are past, the mechanic fairs are our " tilting
grounds," where the conflict is not for physical superiority, but
for inventions best promoting the comfort and elegance of life.
Although much has been done, more remains to be accomplished.
This new world is to be a theatre of mighty structures for the
development of resources, advancing, beyond present conception,
the welfare and happiness of our race
Biographies of public individuals have their peculiar advan-
tages ; but examples drawn from the common walks prove of
more practical utility. Such are here presented ; and it is judged
that their perusal will be found at least as useful as tracing the
progress of a military hero through scenes of blood, or witness-
ing the more peaceful triumphs of some champion in the field of
political strife.
With these views we have prosecuted this undertaking, in the
hope of producing a series of memoirs, which, while of general
interest, would be useful to the mechanic : and the aim being to
give as much variety as possible within our assigned limits, we
have reluctantly excluded several characters, who, but for their
similarity of pursuit, would have adorned our pages.
The materials are drawn from a variety of sources ; but we are
principally indebted to the various mechanical journals of the day,
including the publications of the Society for the Diffusion of UsefuJ
PREFACE. 5
Knowledge. Most of the memoirs, however, in the American
department were written expressly for the work, while severaj
of the others in this as well as in the other portion have under-
gone more or less modification.
To those who have kindly furnished us with notices of their
respective friends, we feel duly grateful. To the public we pre-
sent the result of our labors, with the desire that it may excite
emulation, and illustrate and encourage the talent and persever-
ance required for a successful cultivation of the mechanic arts.
H.H.
CONTENTS.
AMERICAN MECHANICS.
FA6B
JOHN FITCH .....
13
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ....
;>7
08
SAMUEL SLATER
85
101
- DAVID BUSHNELL
13ii
AMOS WHITTEMORK ....
147
ROBERT FULTON
1515
JACOB PERKINS .....
. 1S8
I9"i
HENRY ECKFORD ...
CONTENT&
EUROPEAN MECHANICS.
PAGK
JOHN SMEATON 219
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER 228
JAMES FERGUSON . 237
SAMUEL CROMPTON . 249
WILLIAM EDWARDS . 253
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT . ... . 258
M. GUINAND . * 270
JAMES WATT ... .... 279
JAMES BRINDLEY 298
JESSE RAMSDEN . . , 313
EARL OF STANHOPE 318
HOHLFIELD ........ 323
MATTHEW BOTH/TON 327
THOMAS TELFORD 330
EDMUND CARTWRIGHT ...... 336
JOHN WHITEHURST 342
JAMES HARGREAVES 347
JOSEPH BRAMAH .... 350
ANECDOTES, DESCRIPTIONS,
ETC., ETC.,
RELATING TO THE MECHANIC ARTS.
FAflB
Progress of Invention illustrated 353
Illustration of the Ignorance of Foreigners respecting
American Inventions 355
Singular Origin of the Invention of Frame-work Knitting 358
Ancient and Modern Labor . . . ... 360
The Slide of Alpnach .' .... 361
American Road-making 364
Archimedes 367
The Inventor of the Iron Plough 370
Cotton Manufacture of India .... 372
Description of the Bridge at the Niagara Falls . 376
Thomas Godfrey 378
Musical Kaleidescope ""9
Bernard Palissy ...... Sw9
Dyeing Cloth of two Colors 380
Remarkable Wooden Bridge . . . . . 380
Celebrated and curious Clocks . . . . . 381
Manufacture of Porcelain and Earthenware . . . 38, 6
Inventors and Poets 391
Public Works of the United States .... 392
Manufactory of the Gobelins ..... 394
March of Umbrellas 395
The French Machine-maker ..... 396
Manufacturing Establishments 400
The Mechanical Fiddler . 402
10 CONTENTS.
FAS.
Corn Mills in ancient times . . . 404
The Obelisk of Luxor 409
American Steamers ..... . 416
Simple Origin of important Discoveries . . . 426
Invention of the Safety Lamp ..... 427
The Thames Tunnel 428
Watchmaking in Switzerfand . . . . . 441
Perpetual Motion ...... 445
The Balsa 448
AUTOMATA 449
Mechanical Automata of the Ancients . . . 450
Automata of Daedalus ...... 450
Wooden Pigeon of Archytas . . . . 450
Automatic Clock of Charlemagne .... 450
- Automata of Muller and Turrianus . . . 451
Camus's Carriage 451
Degennes 1 Mechanical Peacock .... 452
Vaucanson's Duck 452
Drawing and writing Automata .... 453
Maillardefs Conjurer 453
Benefits derived from the passion for Automata . 454
Duncan^ Tambouring Machine ..... 455
Watt 1 s Statue-turning Machinery ..... -457
Babbage's Calculating Machine 457
Automaton Chess Player ...... 460
Chinese Bamboo Irrigation Wheel .... 469
Discovery of Gunpowder, and Inventions arising there-
from ... ... 470
A few Remarks on the Relation which subsists between
a Machine and its Model . . . . . 471
Shoes and Buckles . 475
The Croton Aqueduct ...... 476
Cugnot's Steam Carriage 479
Eloquent Description . . . . . . . 480
Watchmaker's Epitaph ...... 483
ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE.
Fitch's Steamboat 31
The first American Locomotive ; or, the " Oructor Am-
phibolis " of Evans ...... 77
View of Pawtucket 93
Birth-place of Whitney 103
Cotton Gin, (Plan) 108
Ditto, (Section) 109
View of Whitney's Armory 124
Tomb of Whitney 135
Destruction of a British Tender by a Torpedo . . 141
Stationary Torpedo 166
Fulton's first American Steamboat . . . . 179
Blanchard r s Engine for turning irregular forms . . 203
Eddystone Bond . 225
Eddystone Lighthouse in a Storm ..... 227
Hall-in-the-wood, neac Bolton 251
Arkwright's first Cotton Factory at Cromford . . .266
Aqueduct over the Irwell 307
Menai Suspension Bridge ...... 333
The Hydrostatic Press 351
Progress of Invention illustrated .... 353, 354
Wooden Pavement . 367
Spinning-wheel of India ...... 372
Hindoos weaving 373
12
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Longitudina. Section of Thames Tunnel, showing its course
under the river 434
Longitudinal Section of Thames Tunnel, with an end view
of the Shield 434
Cross Section of Thames Tunnel, showing the arrange-
ment of the masonry 439
The Balsa 448
Chinese Irrigation Wheel 469
Croton Aqueduct ........ 478
PORTRAITS.
Benjamin Franklin
PAGE
36
Worcester . .
PAGE
231
Oliver Evans . .
Samuel Slater . . .
Eli Whitney . . .
Amos Whittemore
Robert Fulton . .
Jstcob Perkins
. 69
. 84
. 100
. 146
. 157
189
James Ferguson . .
Samuel Crompton
Richard Arkwright .
James Watt . . .
James Brindley .
Stanhope
. 236
. 248
. 259
. 278
. 299
319
Thomas Blanchard .
John Smeaton . . .
. 196
218
Matthew Boulton . .
John Whitehurst . .
. 326
. 343
AMERICAN MECHANICS.
JOHN FITCH,
AN EARLY STEAMBOAT INVENTOR
"The invention all admired, and each how he
To be the inventor missed : so easy it seemed.
Once found, which yet untound, most would have thought
Impossible." MILTON.
Who invented the first steamboat "? Early experimenters in steam Blasco
de Garay. Jonathan Hulls. Fitch's manuscript. Birth. Character of his
parents. Loses his mother. Juvenile heroism. Mother-in-law. Schoolboy
days. Becomes a great arithmetician. Father's austerity. Hears of a won-
derful book. Great thirst for knowledge. Self-denial and industry. Makes
a purchase. Becomes a great geographer. Father purchases him scale and
dividers. Great joy thereat. Studies surveying. Surveys with the governor,
and paid in glory. Leaves school for the farm. Brother's tyranny. Desires
to study astronomy. Relaxes from studious habits. Embarks as a cabin-boy
in a coaster. Cruel treatment. Leaves, ?nd enters another. Makes a short
voyage. Returns.' Accidental meeting with a clockmaker. Wishes to enter
his service. Sellish opposition of his parents. Kindness of his brother-in-
law. Enters the clockmaker's service. His neglect. Leaves in ignorance
of his profession. Enters the service of a clockmaker and watch repairer.
Gross injustice. Leaves. New employment, and success. A change, and
misfortune. Marries. Unhappy life. Abandons his wife. Wanders.. Visits
the Jerseys. Sickly appearance a prevention to obtaining empbyment as a
day-laborer. Turns button-maker. Revolutionary war. Repairs arms for
the continental army. Employed in Kentucky as a surveyor. Taken prisoner
by the Indians, and carried into captivity. Release. Returns to the east.
Fast idea of a steamboat Curious reflections. Dr. Thornton's account of
his experiments. Note. Biographical Sketch of Rumsey. Description of
Fitch's boat. Goes out tc*France. Return. Misfortunes. Generosity of a
relation. Visits Kentucky. Better prospects. Death.
" WHO invented the first steamboat ?" is a question which has
excited great controversy, an achievement of which nations as
well as individuals have been covetous.
Several of the early experimenters in steam appear to have con-
ceived of the idea. The first account we have on the subject is
given in a work recently published in Spain, containing original
papevp relating to the voyage of Columbus, said to have been pre.
2
14 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
served in the royal archives at Samancas, and among the public
papers of Catalonia and those of the secretary at war for the year
1543. This narrative states that " Blasco de Garay, a sea cap-
tain, exhibited to the emperor and king Charles V., in the year
1543, an engine by which ships and vessels of the largest size
could be propelled, even in a calm, without the aid of oars or sails.
Notwithstanding the opposition which this project encountered,
the emperor resolved that an experiment should be made, as in
fact it was, with success, in the harbor of Barcelona, on the 17th
of June, 1543. Garay never publicly exposed the construction of
his engine, but it was observed at the time of his experiment, that
it consisted of a large caldron or vessel of boiling water, and a
moveable wheel attached to each side of the ship. The experi-
ment was made on a ship of 209 tons, arrived from Calibre, to
discharge a cargo of wheat at Barcelona ; it was called the Tri-
nity, and the captain's name was Peter de Scarza. By order of
Charles V. and the prince Philip the Second, his son, there were
present at the time, Henry de Toledo, the governor, Peter Car-
dona, the treasurer, Ravage, the vice-chancellor, Francis Gralla,
and many other persons of rank, both Castilians and Catalonians ;
and among others, several sea captains witnessed the operation,
some in the vessel, and others on the shore. The emperor and
prince, and others with them, applauded the engine, and especially
the expertness with which the ship could be tacked. The trea-
surer Ravago, an enemy to the project, said it would move two
leagues in three hours. It was very complicated and expensive,
and exposed to the constant danger of bursting the boiler. The
other commissioners affirmed, that the vessel could be tacked
twice as quick as a galley served by the common method, and
that at its" slowest rate it would move a league in an hour. The
exhibition being finished, Garay took from the ship his engine,
and having deposited the wood work in the arsenal of Barcelona,
kept the rest to himself. Notwithstanding the difficulties and
opposition thrown in the way by Ravag*, the invention was ap-
proved ; and if the expedition in which Charles V. was then
engaged had not failed, it would undoubtedly have been favored
by him. As it was, he raised Garay to a higher station, gave
him a sum of money (200,000 maravedies) as a present, ordered
all the expenses of the experiment to be paid out of the general
treasury, and conferred upon him other rewards."
The editor of the Franklin Journal, from which this extract has
been made, observes, " when the Public Records ' shall appear
in an authentic form, their evidence must be admitted ; until then
he should not be inclined to commence the history of the inven.
JOHN FITCH. 16
tion of the steamboat so far back as 1543. For circumstantial aa
the account is, it seems to have been written since the days of
Fulton."
He is not alone in this opinion, as it is universally regarded
as a mere fiction, the offspring of an individual jealous of his
country's reputation.
The most prominent and authentic account of the early projects
of applying steam as a motive power to the propelling of vessels,
is given in a treatise printed in London in 1737, entitled " De-
scription and draught of a new-invented machine, for carrying
vessels out of, or into any harbor, port, or river, against wind and
tide or in a calm : for which his majesty George II. has granted
letters patent for the sole benefit of the author, for the space of
fourteen years ; by Jonathan Hulls." The draught or drawing
prefixed is a plate of a stout boat with chimney smoking, a pair
of wheels rigged out over each side of the stern, moved by means
of ropes passing round their outer rims ; and to the axis of these
wheels are fixed six paddles to propel the boat. From the stern
of the boat a tow-line passes to the foremast of a two-decker,
which the boat thus tows through the water. There is no evi-
dence that Hulls ever applied his conceptions to practice.
Since that time, down to the period of the great and successful
experiments of Fulton, several attempts were made here and in
Europe, with varied success. Among the most, if not the most
conspicuous, were those made by the subject of this article.
A few years previous to his death, Fitch prepared a memoir of
himself, including a history of his experiments in steam. These
papers were bequeathed to the Franklin Library of Philadelphia,
with directions that they should be unsealed and perused thirl y
years from the time of his decease. At the appointed period they
were opened, and found to contain a very full account of his life,
particularly of that portion which related to his experiments in
steam, including the progress of his operations from the time the
thought first occurred to him, until the completion of the boat so
far as to make numerous experiments on the Delaware, the sub-
sequent alterations made, and the final abandonment of the schen e
by the original stockholders.
These manuscripts show but one tissue of discouragements and
perplexities, and prove him to have been a strong-minded but un
lettered man, with a perseverance almost unexa.mpled, and a de-
termination to let no difficulty in the execution of his plan prevent
him from endeavoring to bring it to perfection, so long as the
shareholders furnished the means of defraying the expenses.
IndeeH, disappointment and oppression appear to have borne him
16 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
company from his very youth ; and, as he himself rema ks, it i
the history of one of the most " singular," as well as one of the
most "unfortunate men in the world!"
From this narrative we shall make liberal quotations, especially
from thai portion relating to his younger days. It is the incidents
of youth that give a tone and direction to character. We can
all of us refer to some of the most apparently trivial events of
earlier years that have completely changed the whole current of
our thoughts and pursuits. In the memoir before us there can
be 1 raced, with a minuteness uncommon even in biography, those
circumstances which moulded his strong mind into its peculiar
model ; and we can there perceive the origin of that misanthropical
cast of thought, that eccentricity of character and that looseness
of sentiment hi regard to concerns of a serious nature, which so
sirongly marked the author of its pages.
This memoir is addressed to the " worthy Nathaniel Irwin. ot
Neshamoney," in Pennsylvania, a clergyman and a gentleman of
whose talents and kindness of disposition Fitch had formed the
highest estimate, and who, it appears, once requested him to pre-
pare something of the kind. The principal reason which Fitch
gives for complying with this request was, that his life had been
filled with such a variety of changes, affording such useful lessons
to mankind, that he considered it a neglect of duty were he to
suppress it.
" The 21st of January, 1743, old style," says he, " was the
fatal time of bringing me into existence. The house I was born
in was upon the line between Hartford and Windsor (Connecticut.)
It was said I was born in Windsor ;* but from the singularity of
my make, shape, disposition, and fortune in the world, I am in-
clined to believe that it was the design of Heaven that I should be
born on the very line, and not in any township whatever ; yet am
happy also that it did not happen between two states, that I can
say I was born somewhere."
Fitch's father was a farmer in good circumstances. His be-
setting sin seems to have consisted in a want of generosity in
pecuniary affairs, so much so that his son observes, " I presume
he never spent five shillings at a tavern during the whole course
of his life." This, in our day, would be considered as a very
singular and inapt illustration of that trait of disposition ; but when
we remember the. customs of society at that period, and the total
deprivation of every thing like " amusement," inseparable from
the isolated condition of agriculturists, we shall comprehend some.
* Now East Windsor.
JOHN FITCH 17
thing like tne spirit of the allusion. Still, his parent appears to
have been a good provider ; for he goes on to state, " we always
had plenty of victuals and drink in the house. In the whole course
of my acquaintance with him, I never knew him out of cider but
about two weeks, and never out of pickled pork. Our victuals
were coarse, but wholesome, such as pork and beans, codfish and
potatoes, hasty pudding and milk," and, what was particularly
valued, " always a stout hasty pudding after dinner." His pa.
rents had five children, two sons and two daughters, besides the*
" unfortunate John."
" From the time of my birth," says he, " until I was five years
of age, nothing material happened to me that I can recollect, any
more than crawling along the floor and picking ants out of the
cracks, and now and then catching a fly, which made as lively
impression on my mind, as great, perhaps, as the Trojan war on
the minds of heroes."
" When I was four years old I went to school : I know from
the circumstance that my mistress used to ask me how my mother
was, and she died when I was five years old. I recollect that I
learned to spell the first summer before my mother's death, whilst
I went to Mrs. Rockwell. I remember frequently spelling there
without the book the words commandment, Jerusalem, &c. But
soon the fatal day arrived when my mother's guardianship should
be taken from me, and early in the fall I was deprived of her.
Although I did not consider my loss, natural affection carried my
griefs to a very great excess for a child of my age." He here,
and frequently elsewhere, speaks of his mother with regard, and
no doubt her loss proved injurious to him. She was a kind and
affectionate woman, without those disagreeable traits which marked
the character of his other parent.
" When about six years of age," he remarks, " a most extra-
ordinary circumstance happened to me, worthy of the notice of a
Roman soldier." Returning from school about dusk one day, he
found no one in the house except a little sister, his second brother
being in the barn yard holding a "wicked cow" for his eldest
sister to milk. This little sister being anxious to show h'.m a
present which she had received during the day, it being too dark
to see without, lighted a candle to find it. Unfortunately, in her
search she set fire to two large bundles of flax standing in a dis-
tant corner of the room, which young Fitch no sooner observed,
than, with a presence of mind truly wonderful in a child so young,
he ran and seized one of the blazing bundles, which was more than
he was enabled to lift without resting it upon his knees, carried r.
to the Tiearth, and threw it down. In so doing he blistered his
2*
18 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
hands and set his hair in a blaze, but, smothering the file on hi*
head with his naked hands, he sprang and grasped the other
bundle and brought it to the same place, blistering his hands and
setting his head on fire the second time, and putting it out in like
manner. Having done this, he jumped upon the bundles until the
fire was extinguished. " In the mean time," he says, " whilst I
was thus occupied, my little sister Chloe being frightened, ran to
the barn yard, and probably told my brother some improper story.
..When I had the fire put out, notwithstanding my painful hands
and smarting face, which was then covered with blisters, I went
to relate the tale to my elder brother ; but no sooner did I arrive
in the yard than he fell foul of me, boxing my ears and beating
me beyond reason for the greatest fault, and would not give me
leave to say a word in my behalf. As my father had that evening
gone a courting, I had nowhere to apply to for redress, therefore
was obliged not only to submit to the greatest indignities, but to
the greatest injustice. On his return I made complaints, but with-
out satisfaction or redress. This being what I may call the first
act of my life, seemed to forebode the future rewards that I was
to receive for my labors through it, which has generally corre-
sponded with that."
When he was about seven years old, his father married " ne
Abigail Church," whom he describes as being an orderly, easy.
tempered old maid of forty, possessing sense sufficient to manage
the affairs of the house.
" My father," he continues, " kept me constantly at school until
I was eight or nine years of age, as my schooling cost him nothing.
When the weather was too bad to go to school, he had goodness
enough to encourage my learning my book at home, and would
frequently teach me. Before I was ten years old I could say the
New England Primer all by heart, from Adam's fall to the end of
the catechism. But the most surprising thing of my learning ap-
pears to me to be this : My father had an old arithmetic book in
the house, by one Hodder, with the old-fashioned division in it.
I was able at nine years of age to make figures pretty well, as
well as to write a legible hand. Whenever I had a minute's lei-
sure I would have that book in my hand, and learned myself out
of it the true principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division ; and the year that I was nine years of age, could
tell how many minutes old I should be when I should have seen
ten years, but was not able to multiply the figure nine : this I did
in the presence of four or five neighbors one rainy day, to their
admiration. When about eight years of age, my father took me
from school, and set me to work in the most serious and diligent
JOHN FITCH. 1J>
manner, although I was exceedingly small of my age, and scarcely
able to swingle more than two pounds of flax, or thresh more than
two bushels of grain, with the steadiness of a man of thirty years
for that trifling, pitiful labcr. I was prevented from going to school
more than one month in the winter, when he saw that I was nearly
crazy after learning, and then I was always obliged to leave before
it was out to come home to help him fodder."
" My father was one of the most strenuous of the sect of Pres-
byterians, and a bigot, which he carried to such excess that I dare
not go into the gardpn to pick currants or into the orchard to get
apples on the sabbath. I really believe that he thought it the
extent of his duty toward me to learn me to read the Bible, that I
might find the way to heaven ; when he had done that he felt per-
fectly easy, and if I could earn him twopence per day it ought not
to be lost. It may be irreverent for me thus to speak as I have
done of a parent, but I mean to communicate the truth to you, and
in as particular a manner as I can." Without apologizing for the
unnatural language of Fitch in thus speaking of a parent, we can
perceive in that austerity and scrupulous observance of the mere
outward forms of religion which he evinced, without being suffi-
ciently guided by its true spirit to act generously and fairly by
those .around him, the origin of that infidelity of sentiment which
formed so striking a feature in the character of his son.
" But notwithstanding," continues Fitch, " he suppressed me
from going to school, he did not hinder me from studying such
books as he had ; and at noontimes and evenings, instead of play-
ing, as is common with boys of that age, I was as studious as the
most zealous student under the eyes of a tutor, and, in particular,
in Hodder's Arithmetic, which went as far as Alligation Alternate.
When I was eleven years old, I heard of a book that would give
me a knowledge of the whole tvorld, which was Salmon's Geog-
raphy. I repeatedly requested my father to get it for me, but to
no purpose. I then proposed to him to give me some headlands
at the end of a field to plant potatoes, which he granted, and I dug
it up by hand on a holyday." This holyday was the annual meet-
ing of the militia of the state. Every reader who can recollect in
the times of his boyhood how delightfully the old distich,
" First Monday in May
Is training day,"
used to sound in his ears, when he looked forward in anticipation
to the glories of that jubilee, can form some idea of the thirst for
knowledge which young Fitch here evinced in denying himself a
oarticipation in its pleasm es. Having thus prepared the land, he
20 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
planted it with potatoes, cultivating them at noontimes and at
evenings, after the labors of the day were over. He says, " I
raised several bushels, and in the fall sold them, and got ten shil-
lings in money, and went to a merchant in the neighborhood who
dealt in New York, who promised me to get the book, and fulfilled
his promise. But the book cost twelve shillings, and I was two
shillings in debt, which gave me a great deal of uneasiness. By
some means, I do not recollect how, I soon discharged it, but was
obliged to return the seed to my father in the fall.
" What makes me pretty sure it happened when I was eleven
years of age, is this : it was about one year after I planted the
potatoes before I got the book, and I learned surveying that winter
I was thirteen years of age, and when I learned that, I presume I
was the best geographer of the world, that Connecticut could pro-
duce, according to Salmon, at that time. No question could be
asked me of any nation, but I would tell their number, religion,
their latitude and longitude, and turn at once to any town marked
on the maps, which could not be acquired in less than in about
one year, considering the small opportunities I had of studying,
which was only in the intervals of hai'd labor and times for rest.
" My father never allowed me to go to school more than one
month in a year, except that winter I was thirteen years of age,
when he permitted me to go about five or six weeks. After I had
got through with common arithmetic, my master told me in public
school that he could learn me no farther in arithmetic, but, if I
chose, he would learn me surveying. I so earnestly insisted on
my father to indulge me in this, that he could not resist my en-
treaties, and went to Hartford and got a scale and a pair of
dividers, and on his return I never felt, a greater sense of grati-
tude to mortal man than I did to him at that time, and in two
weeks learned what we called surveying in New England. I knew
no better, but thought myself perfect master, but learned nothing
of logarithms, or of calculation by latitude and departure, only
geometrically. As I had learned common arithmetic out of school
by myself, I had but little to do while there, only to go through
what I had really learned, except division, which took me about
half a day to learn the different mode before I could be ready
at it."
" My father had meadow lands adjoining the governor of the
colony. He frequently came under the shade with us in mowing
time ; and seeing me a little, forward boy, one day requested my
father to let me go to carry the chain with him, to measure off
some small parcels. His request was easily granted, as is com-
mon for poor men to exert themselves to oblige the great. This
.OHN FITCH. 21
happened when I was about ten or eleven years of age. In this
undertaking the governor was exceedingly familiar with me, and
would consult me on the most minute part of the business as'much
as if I had been an able counsellor, and as if he knew nothing of
the business himself. I was equally proud of his company, and
as officious as I could be to render him every service."
" We could not finish the surveying that evening, but left, I
believe, seven or eight acres when we quit. He left the chain,
and gave me directions how to lay it off for sundry people ; I being
proud of the office, readily accepted it, and executed it faithfully.
Some time after, the governor called at my father's house for the
chain ; I fetched it to him with the greatest expedition, and ex.
pectation of some pennies, when he took it, put it in his saddle-
bags, and rode off without saying a word ! My mortification at
this time was nearly equal to the usage I met with in extinguish,
ing the fire in my father's house ; yet I am persuaded the governor
was an honest man, but concluded within himself that the honor
would fully compensate me."
On leaving school. Fitch's whole time was devoted to the labors
of the farm. His duties were so very severe, that he expresses
an opinion that it " stunted him," and prevented his growth for
several years. Independent of the severity of his father in thus
keeping him so hard at work, he was subject to the tyranny of an
elder brother, who sought every opportunity to oppress him and
crush his spirits, cruelly compelling him to such an exertion in
his labors that he was often " ready to faint," and speaking
in such a manner as to put him in continual apprehension of a
beating. " For this treatment," says he, " I do not thank my
unfeeling father and tyrant brother ; and although I have not seen
him for twenty years, would not go to the nearest neighbor's to
see him, unless he was in distress. Could I be set into a Virginia
field amongst their slaves, with the severest driver at my back, I
would sooner engage in it than go through the same again."
In speaking of an almost miraculous escape from injury in
falling from a tree which happened about this period, he observes,
" it seems heaven designed me for some more cruel fate."
While on the farm, young Fitch was extremely desirous to
study astronomy, and in vain solicited his father to procure the
necessary works ; but, in some degree from the severity of his
duties, partly from the want of books, and having already attained
a greater amount of learning than any of his neighbors, he con.
tinucs, " I imperceptibly left my studies, and fell into the common
practices of boys in our neighborhood, and devoted myself to play,
when I could steal a minute, as much as I had before to my books.
22 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
This helped to sweeten life ; and from the time I was thirteeE
and fourteen years of age until I went apprentice, I enjoyed my.
self as well as most of the Virginia slaves, who have liberty to go
to a dance once a week."
" During that time there was nothing material happened to me.
I seemed to be beloved bth by old and young, as I could speak
rationally to the old, and was always foremost among my play-
fellows."
When about seventeen years of age, Fitch was anxious to learn
some trade or go to sea, by which he " could make a living when
fie came to himself." He expressed these views to his father, at
the same time representing that he was too small and weak to
obtain a support by agricultural employments. s His parent re
luctantly consented. In the following September the steeple tc
the village church was raised. This was indeed a gala day, and
the people from Hartford and the whole country round flocked to
witness this then uncommon spectacle. Although, as he tells us,
he had ** a singular curiosity in witnessing mechanical operations,"
yet was determined to forego the pleasure, and borrowed a horse
for the purpose of visiting Rocky Hill, a parish in Wethcrsfield,
where there were a great number of coasters. The object of this
visit was to engage a berth for a short voyage, to settle his opinion
as to the propriety of learning a trade or becoming a seaman.
A place was first engaged on board of a sloop bound to New
York, " under one Captain Abbott." This situation was found
very disagreeable. The master treated him with brutality ; and
although there were plenty of empty berths, he was compelled by
the mate Starr, to lie upon deck on a chest, much too short, and
this, too, without any covering. Such usage was considered " ex-
tremely hard, after having been used to a comfortable bed at
home."
An occasion offering a day or two subsequent, he left and went
on board of a Providence sloop. Here things were found very
comfortable, and although not in accordance to stipulation, Fitch
evinced such zeal and industry that his master paid him wages,
and he made a " saving voyage." " I returned home," says he,
" neither enamoured with the sea nor resolved against it, and in
as much of a quandary how to dispose of myself as ever."
Accident, however, soon threw him in the way of a neighboring
Jiockmaker, who proposed to him to enter into his service. On
expressing to his parents his desire to learn the business, they
strenuously opposed his wishes, and this, too, without any regard
to their son's welfare, but merely from a selfish unwiJingness to
Jispense with his services on the farm, which had then becoro*
JOHN FITCH. 23
quite valuable. Their opposition came near frustrating the plan.
On mentioning his troubles to his sister and her husband, Mr.
Timothy King, although poor, they offered to advance the neces-
sary funds. Fitch says, ** these two persons were the greatest
ornament that ever adorned my father's family. My sister was
the most mannerly, generous-spirited woman that I ever saw, not
only to me, but to others, and probably might take it in some
manner from her husband, as good wives endeavor to recommend
themselves to their husbands by adopting their sentiments." Other
obstacles were thrown in his way, but he successfully overcame
them.
He describes the clockmaker as an eccentric man, and possess,
ing some genius. According to agreement, Fitch was to work
seven months in the year in the out-door concerns of his employer,
the remainder of the time to devote to the pursuit of the art and
mysteries of wooden clock-making. But his master by no means
acted in conformity to contract, keeping his apprentice almost
continually in attendance upon his domestic concerns ; and even
during the small portion of the time he was employed in the shop,
so neglected to instruct him, that at the expiration of two years
and a half, Fitch left almost entirely ignorant of his profession.
After this he went to work with a brother of his former em-
ployer, who was engaged in a similar business, and who unitec
with the manufacture of clocks the repairing of watches. This
latter art it was especially stipulated should be taught his new ap.
prentice ; he not only omitted to do it, but took particular pains
to prevent his learning, working himself in a distant part of the
room, locking up his tools when absent, and forbidding Fitch evei
to touch them. Fitch was a.ways kept busy on some unimportant
part, so that during the eight months he was in this person's ser-
vice, he never even saw a watch taken to pieces or put together,
and, in fact, had no opportunity of obtaining any insight of the
subject whatever. Nor did oppression end here ; " although,"
he observes, " I possessed a small appetite, I never was given,
sufficient to satisfy it, except on one occasion, when I managed
lo make a good, hearty meal on potatoes. Being an inferior, I
was helped last at the table ; the females would then discourse
upon gluttony, and my master, hastily devouring his own food,
would immediately return thanks for that which himself and others
eat, as well as for that which his apprentice did not." Fitch
was kept very hard and steady at work from before sunrise in
winter until ten o'clock at night, and as many hours during the
summer, with, however, one single exception, this was on the
>xasion of the sickness and death of his master's child, when
2
24 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
he was obliged to walk six miles for a pnysician. Shortly after
his return the child died. " During the night," says he, " I
watched with the corpse, with the privilege of as much water
from the well as I desired, by way of refreshment."
On leaving his last employer, he dared not set up the business
on his own account, or work as a journeyman, for fear of exhibit,
ing his ignorance, but employed himself, as he tells us, " in doing
small brass work." This was pursued by him with so much in-
dustry, that at the end of two years he found himself worth fifty
pounds, which for him, considering the scarcity of money at the
time, was viewed as " quite a treasure," and enabled him to pay
off his debts, and have something "handsome left." Fitch after,
wards entered into the potash business, but was unsuccessful in
its prosecution, arising partially from the unfaithfulness of one of
rtis partners. While thus engaged, he married Miss Lucy Ro-
berts, on 29th December, 1767 ; but owing to her unhappy temper
and disposition, was compelled, in the course of a year or two, to
abandon her, being thoroughly convinced that it was for the happi-
ness of both that they should separate. This event occasioned
him great affliction, from being obliged to leave a child whom he
" loved as dear as himself." A misfortune subsequently happen-
ing to her, he observes, " could I have foreseen it, I should never
have abandoned her, but have endeavored to worry through life in
her company as well as I might."
On forsaking the place of his nativity, Fitch went to Pittsfield,
Mass., but not having constant employment there, visited Albany,
yet with no better success. A short time after, we find him in
New Jersey, in a destitute condition, endeavoring to find employ-
ment on some farm as a common laborer, but his sickly appear-
ance baffled all his efforts, no one would employ him. Finally,
he entered into the business of making buttons, which he pursued
with tolerable success, first at New Brunswick, and afterwards at
Trenton.
At the commencement of the revolution, Fitch espoused the
popular cause, and during a portion of the time rendered himself
very useful in repairing arms for the continental army. Subse-
quently he removed to Kentucky, where he received the appoint-
ment and practised as a surveyor. While at the West, and in
navigating a river in a small boat, Fitch and his companions wero
taken prisoners and carried into captivity by the Indians, but after
considerable hardship and suffering, were released. At a subse-
quent period he became once more an inhabitant of one of the
Atlantic states.
" In the month of April, 1785," says Fitch, in the manuscript
\
1^
>A ^
^ s V *
fc f r i^
r I * ^
lk*:%
JOHN FITCH. 21
alluded to, " I was so unfortunate as to have an idea that a ca r.
riage might be carried by the force of steam along the roads.
I pursued that idea about one week, and gave it over as imprac-
ticable, or, in other words, turned my thoughts to vessels. From
that time I have pursued the idea to this day with unremitted assi-
duity, yet do frankly confess that it has been the most imprudent
scheme that ever I engaged in. The perplexities and embarrass-
ments through which it has caused me to wade, far exceed any
thing that the common course of life ever presented to my view ,
and to reflect on the disproportion of a man of my abilities to
such a task, I am to charge myself with having been deranged ;
;md had I not the most convincing proofs to the contrary, should
most certainly suppose myself to have been non compos mentis at
the time."
In another place he remarks, " If I had the abilities of Cicero,
it would have been nothing less than madness in me to have un-
dertaken it, in my state of penury. Had I been a nobleman of
3000, it would barely have justified my conduct."
Again, he says, " What I am now to inform you of I know will
not be to my credit, but, so long as it is the truth, I will insert it,
viz., that I did not know that there was a steam engine on earth
when I proposed to gain a force by steam ; and I leave my first
drafts and descriptions behind, that you may judge whether I am
sincere or not. A short time after drawing my first draft for a
b,oat, I was amazingly chagrined to find, at Parson Irwin's, in
Bucks county, a drawing of a steam engine ; but it had the effect
to establish me in my other principles, as my doubts lay at that
time in the engine only."
The following account of Fitch's experiments is written by one
of his early patrons, the late Dr. Thornton, of the patent office at
Washington, and is entitled " A short account of the origin of
steamboats :"
" Finding that Mr. Robert Fulton,* whose genius and talents I
highly respect, has been considered by some the inventor of the
steamboat, I think it a duty to the memory of the late JOHN FITCH'
to set forth, with as much brevity as possible, the fallacy of this
opinion ; and to show, moreover, that if Mr. Fulton has any claim
whatever to originality in his steamboat, it must be exceedingly
limited.
" In the year 1788, the late John Fitch applied for, and ob.
tained a patent for the application of steam to navigation, in the
* It may not be invidious here to mention, that one great advantage which
Mr. Fulton possessed over many, if not all preceding experimenters, was tho
use of one of Watt's improved steam engines.
28 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
states of New Yoik, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, &c. ,
and soon after, the late Mr. James Rumsey,* conceiving he had
made some discoveries in perfecting the same, applied to the state
of Pennsylvania for a patent ; but a company formed by John
* Biographical Sketch of James Rumsey. " This individual was a native of Mary-
land, and, when a young man, removed to Shepherdstown, Virginia, where he
occupied himself exclusively in mechanical subjects. As early as July or August,
1783, he directed his attention to the subject of navigation by steam ; and, under
the most disadvantageous circumstances, succeeded, in the autumn of 1784, in
making a private, but very imperfect experiment, in order to test some of the
principles of his invention. This so well convinced him of its ultimate success,
that at the October session of the Virginia legislature for that year, he applied
for and obtained an act, guarantying to him the exclusive use of his invention
in navigating the waters of that state. About the same time also he communi-
cated his invention to General Washington. In January, 1785, he obtained a
patent from the general assembly of Maryland for navigating their waters.
Through the whole of thie year, Rumsey was deeply engaged in building a boat,
and procuring, improving, adapting, and testing the several parts of his rnachir*
ery ; but, from obvious causes, was not ready for a public trial until the year fo_
lowing, (1786,) which, all things considered," was eminently successful. In this
trial he succeeded in propelling his boat by steam alone against the current of the
Potomac, near Shepherdstown, at the rate of four or five miles an hour !
" Rumsey's boat was about fifty feet in length, and, as observed in the text, was
propelled by a pump worked by a steam engine, which forced a quantity of water
up through the keel ; the valve was then shut by the return of the stroke, which
at the same time forced the water through a channel or pipe, a few inches square
(lying above or parallel to the kelson,) out at the stern under the rudder, which
had a less depth than usual, to permit the exit of the water. The impetus of
this water, forced through the square channel against the exterior water, acted
as an impelling power upon the vessel. The reaction of the effluent water pro-
pelled her at the rate above mentioned, when loaded with three tons in addition
to the weight of her engine of about a thiid of a ton. The boiler was quite a
curiosity, holding no more than five gallons of water, and needing only a pint at
a time. The whole machinery did not occupy a space greater than that required
for four barrels of flour. The fuel consumed was not more than from four to six
bushels of coals in twelve hours. Rumsey's other project was to apply the
power of a steam engine to long poles, which were to reach the bottom of the
river, and by that means to push a boat against a rapid current.
" After the experiment above alluded to, Rumsey being under the strong con-
viction that skilful workmen and perfect machinery were alone wanting to the
most perfect success, and sensible that such could not be procured in America,
resolved to go to England. With siender means of his own, and aided, or rather
mocked, by some timid and unsteady patronage, he there resumed with untiring
energy his great undertaking. He proceeded to procure patents of the British
government for steam navigation : these patents bear date in the beginning of
the year 1788. Several of his inventions, in one modified form or another, are
now in general use ; as, for instance, the cylindrical boiler, so superior to the
old tub or still boilers, in the presentation of fire surface, and capacity for hold-
ing' highly rarefied steam, is described, both single and combined, in his specifi-
cations, and is identical in principle with the tub boiler which he used in his
Potomac experiment.
" Difficulties and embarrassments of a pecuniary nature, and such as invari-
ably obstruct the progress of a new invention, attended him in England. He
was often compelled to abandon temporarily his main object, and turn his atten-
tion to something else, in order to raise means to resume it. He undertook with
the same power, but by its more judicious application, to produce higher results
in several waterworks, in all which he succeeded, reali?ing thereb ' some reputa-
tion as well as funds to apply to his favorite project.
JOHN FITCH. 9
Fitch, under his state patents, of which the author of this was one
of the principal shareholders, conceiving that the patent of Fitch
was not for any peculiar mode of applying the steam to navigation,
but that it extended to all known modes of propelling boats and
vessels, contested before the assembly of Pennsylvania, and also
before the assembly of Delaware, the mode proposed by Mr. Rum-
sey, and contended that the mode he proposed, viz., by drawing
up the water into a tube, and forcing the same water out of the
stern of the vessel or boat, which was derived from Dr. Franklin's
works, (the doctor being one of the company,) was a mode the
company had a right to, for the plan was originally published in
Latin, about fifty years before, in the works of Bernouilli the
younger. Two of Fitch's company and I appeared without
counsel, and pleaded our own cause in the assembly of Pennsyl-
vania, and after a week's patient hearing against the most learned
counsel of Pennsylvania, we obtained a decision in our favor, and
afterwards also in Delaware. We believed and contended that
our claim of propelling boats by steam included all the modes of
propelling vessels and boats then known, and that the patent was
for the application of steam as an agent to the propelling powers :
and the decisions of the legislatures were in favor of this construe-
tion, as Mr. Ramsey's company (of which the late Messrs. Bing-
ham, Myers, Fisher, and many other worthy gentlemen, were
members,) were excluded from the right of using steamboats on
any principle."
" At another time, in order to avoid a London prison, and the delay, if not the
defeat of all his high hopes, he was compelled to transfer, at what he considered
a ruinous sacrifice, a large interest in his inventions, a contract which entan-
gled and embarrassed him through life. Still, however, he struggled on, undis-
mayed, and had constructed a boat of about one hundred tons burden, and pushed
forward his machinery so near to the point of completion, as to be able to indi-
cate a day not very distant for a public exhibition, when his sudden death occurred
from apoplexy, while discussing the principle of one of his inventions before a
philosophical society of London. With his life the whole project ceased, there
was no one present 10 administer, no one present able to carry it out. Few
would have been willing to incur the ridicule of attempting to complete it. AH
that he left, his very boat and machinery, barely sufficed to satisfy anxious
and greedy creditors."
A sharp controversy at one time existed between Rumsey and Fitch, and their
mutual friends, relating to the originality of their respective inventions. With-
out deciding upon the merits of cither, both certainly claim the highest admira-
tion for their perseverance, as well as sympathy for their misfortunes.
For the above facts, see Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam Engine, and the
speech of Mr. Rumsey of Kentucky before the house of representatives, on the
occasion of ottering the following resolution, afterwards unanimously passed
Feb. 9, 1839:" Resolved by the senate and ffouse of representatives, &c. &c..
That the President be and he is hereby requested to present to James Rumsey,
jun., the son and only surviving child of James Rumsey, deceased, a suitable
gold medal, commemorative of his father's services and high agency in giving to
the world the benefits of the steamboat."
S AMERICAN MECHANICS.
" We worked incessantly at the boat* to bring it to perfection,
uid under the disadvantages of never having seen a steam engine
en the principles contemplated, of not having a single engineer
in our company or pay, we made engineers of common black-
smiths ; and after expending many thousand dollars, the boat did
not exceed three miles an hour. Finding great unwillingness in
many to proceed, I proposed to the company to give up to any
one, the one-half of my shares, who would, at his own expense,
make a boat go at the rate of eight miles an hour, in dead water,
in eighteen months, or forfeit all the expenditures on failing; or I
would engage with any others to accept these terms. Each re-
linquished one half of his shares, by making the forty shares eighty,
and holding only as many of the new shares as he held of the old
ones, and then subscribed as far as he thought proper to enter on
the terms : by which many relinquished one half. I was among
the number, and in less than twelve months we were ready for
the experiment.
" The day was appointed, and the experiment made in the fol-
lowing manner: A mile was measured in Front (Water) street,
Philadelphia, and the bounds projected at right angles, as exactly
as could be to the wharf, where a flag was placed at each end,
and also a stop watch. The boat was ordered under way at dead
water, or when the tide was found to be without movement ; aa
the boat passed one flag, it struck, and at the same instant the
watches were set ofF; as the boat reached the other flag it wai
also struck, and the watches instantly stopped. Every precaution
was taken before witnesses : the time was shown to all ; the ex-
periment declared to be fairly made, and the boat was found to go
at the rate of eight miles an Jwur, or one mile in seven minutes
* Description of Fitch's Steamboat .The following account of Mr. Fitch's boat
;iven by the unfortunate inventor in the Columbian (Philadelphia) Magazine,
I. i. for December, 17SC, of which the engraving annexed will give some idea.
The cylinder is to be horizontal, and the steam to work with equal force at
each end". The mode by which we obtain a vacuum is, it is believed, entirely
new, as is also the method of letting the water into it and throwing it off against
'he atmosphere without any friction. It is expected that the cylinder, which is
f twelve inches diameter, will move a clear force of eleven or twelve cwt. after
the frictions are deducted ; this force is to be directed asainst a wheel eighteen
inches in diameter. The piston is to move about three feet, and each vibration
of it srives the axis about forty evolutions. Each evolution of the axis moves
twelve oars or paddles five and a half feet ; they work perpendicularly, and are
represented bv the strokes of a paddle of a canoe. As six of the paddles are
raised from tfie water, six more are entered, and the two sets of paddles make
their strokes of about -^ch evolution. Tho crank of the axis acts
ujon the paddles, about one third of their length from their lower ends, on
which part of the oar the whole force of the axis is applied. The engine is
placed in the bottom of the boat, about one third from the stem, and both the
action and reaction turn the wheel the same way."
JOHN FITCH. 33
and a half; on which the shares were signed over with grea:
satisfaction by the rest of the company. It afterwards went eighty
miles in a day !
" The governor and council of Pennsylvania were so highly
gratified with our labors, that without their indentions being pre-
viously known to us, Governor Mifflin, attended by the council in
procession, presented to the company, and placed in the boat, a
superb silk flag, prepared expressly, and containing the arms of
Pennsylvania ; and this flag we possessed till Mr. Fitch was sent
to France by the company, at the request of Aaron Vail, Esq.,
our consul at L'Orient, who, being one of the company, was soli-
citous to have steamboats built m France. John Fitch took 'the
flag, unknown to the company, and presented it to the national
convention. Mr. Vail, finding all the workmen put in requisition,
and that none could be obtained to build the boats, paid the ex-
penses of Mr. Fitch, who returned to the United States ; and Mr.
Vail afterwards subjected to the examination of Mr. Fulton, when
in France, the papers and designs of the steamboat appertaining
to the company."
" As Dr. Thornton has stated in his account, as quoted above,
the company refused to advance more funds. This they did, after
interfering with his views, and attempting expensive plans of im-
provement, which failed of success ; and being probably influenced
by that unceasing ridicule cast upon the project, they one by one
gradually withdrew from the concern. The conviction of Fitch,
however, respecting the power of steam, continued firm ; and in
June, 1792, when the boat was laid up, he addressed a letter on
the subject to Mr. Rittenhouse, one of the shareholders, in which
he says, ' it would be much easier to carry a first-rate man-of-war
by steam than a boat, as we would not be cramped for room, nor
would the weight of machinery be felt. This, sir, will be the mode
of crossing the Atlantic in time, whether I bring it to perfection or
not, for packets and armed vessels. I mean to make use of the
wind when we have it, and in a calm to pursue the voyage at the
rate of seven or eight miles an hour.' He further suggests the
use of steam to conquer the cruisers of Barbary, by which several
American vessels had then been lately captured. He says, * a
six-foot cylinder could discharge a column of water from the round
top forty or fifty yards, and throw a man off his feet, and wet their
arms and ammunition.' He complains of his poverty; and to
raise funds, he urges Mr. Rittenhouse to purchase his lands in
Kentucky, that he might have the honor of enabling him to com-
plete the great undertaking.'
" Fitch's enthusiasm on the subject never diminished one mo.
34 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
ment, and steam was the constant theme of his discourse whenever
he could prevail upon any one to listen to him. Upon one occa
sion he called upon a smith who had worked at his boat, and after
dwelling some time upon his favorite topic, concluded with these
prophetic words : Well, gentlemen, although I shall not live to
see the time, you will, when steamboats will be preferred to all
other means of conveyance, and especially for passengers ; and
they will be particularly useful in the navigation of the river Mis-
sissippi.' He then retired, when a person present observed, in a
tone of deep sympathy, ' Poor fellow! what a pity he is crazy f
The predictions of the benefits which this country would derive
from steam navigation are frequently referred to in his manuscript
left to the library company."
On the return from his unsuccessful sojourn in Europe, Fitch
landed at Boston in a very needy and destitute condition. A re-
lation, Colonel George King, of Sharon, Connecticut, hearing of his
friendless situation, sent for and generously offered him a home
under his own roof. Here he remained two or three years, and
some time in 1796 went out to Kentucky, to obtain possession of
some lands which he had purchased while surveying there. For
this purpose, writs of ejectment were issued against those illegally
occupying them ; and just as a better day was dawning upon the
career of this most singularly unfortunate man, he was seized
with a fever of the country, and died.
" In conformity to his wishes, he was buried on the shores of the
Ohio, that he might repose ' where the song of the boatmen would
enliven the stillness of his resting place, and the music of the steam
engine sooth his spirit!' What an idea ! yet how natural to the
mind of an ardent projector, who had been so long devoted to one
darling object, which it was not his destiny to accomplish ! and
now touching is the sentiment found in his journal : ' The day
will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches
from my invention, but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch
can do any thing worthy of attention /'"
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-
BENJAMIN PRANKLIN.
Birth. Intended for the church. Attends a common school. Assists his fatner
in the tallow chandlery. Dislikes the business. Tries the cutler's trade.
Becomes an apprentice in his brother's printing-office. Evinces great fond-
ness for books. Is allowed access to a gentleman's library. Turns poet, and
hawks his productions through the streets. Rising vanity checked. His
friend Collins, and their discussions. Meets> with an odd volume of the Spec-
tator. Improvement in composition. Economy, and new system of diet.
Masters arithmetic, and studies navigation. Secretly contributes to his bro-
ther's newspaper A discovery. Is viewed as a person of some consequence.
Quarrels with his brother. First error in life. Privately leaves for New
York. Destitute condition. Proceeds to Philadelphia. Graphic description.
Enters into the printing-office of Keimer. Makes a distinguished acquaint
ance. Dines with Governor Keith. Informs his parents of his situation.
Goes out to England under the supposed patronage of the governor. Disap-
pointment and imposition. Thrown upon his own resources, and works in
London as a journeyman printer. Writes a pamphlet. Attracts the attention
of literary men. Frugality and temperance. Sets an example. A friend re
turning to Philadelphia, is engaged as his clerk. Voyage. Forms a plan foi
future conduct. Arrival at Philadelphia. Death of his friend. Once more
thrown upon the world. Enters again into Keimer's service. Franklin and
Meredith set up a printing-office. Industry. Rising credit. Thinks of estab-
lishing a new paper. Treachery. Its defeat. Purchases Keimer's paper.
Growing popularity. Buys out his partner. Opens a stationer's shop. Mar
ries. Establishes the first American circulating library. Publishes " Pooi
Richard's Almanac." Studies languages. Chosen clerk of the general as-
sembly. Appointed deputy postmaster. Becomes interested in public affairs
Suggests various public improvements. Made an alderman. Elected bur-
gess to the general assembly. Interesting electrical discoveries. Draws down
lightning from the clouds. Increasing honors. Becomes an eminent states-
man. Signs the declaration of independence. Sent ambassador to the court
of France. Chosen president of the supreme executive council. Character.
Death. Anecdotes.
THE name we are now to mention is perhaps the most distin-
guished to be found in the annals of self-education. Of all those,
at least, who, by their own efforts, and without any usurpation of
the rights of others, have raised themselves to a high place in
society, there is no one, a has been remarked, the close of whose
history presents so great a contrast to its commencement as that
of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. It fortunately happens, too, in his case,
that we are in possession of abundant information as to the methods
by which he contrived to surmount the many disadvantages of his
original condition ; to raise himself from the lowest poverty arid
obscurity to affluence and distinction ; and, above all, in the ab-
sence of instructors, and of the ordinary helps to the acquisition
38 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
of knowledge, to enrich himself so plentifully with the treasures
of literature and science, as not only to be enabled to derive from
that source the chief happiness of his life, but to succeed in placing
himself high among the most famous writers and philosophers of
his time. We shall avail ourselves, as liberally as our limits will
permit, of the ample details, respecting the early part of Ms life
especially, that have been given to the public, in order to present
to the reader as full and distinct an account as possible of the suc-
cessive steps of a progress so eminently worthy of being recorded,
both from the interesting nature of the story, and from its value as
an example and lesson, perhaps the most instructive to be any-
where found, for all who have to be either the architects of their
own fortunes, or their own guides in the pursuit of knowledge.
Franklin has himself told us the story of his early life inimitably
well. The narrative is given in the form of a letter to his son ;
and does not appear to have been written originally with any view
to publication. " From the poverty and obscurity," he says, " in
which I was born, and in which I passed my earliest years, I have
raised myself to a state of affluence, and some degree of celebrity
in the world. As constant gopd fortune has accompanied me,
even to an advanced period of life, my posterity will perhaps be
desirous of learning the means which I employed, and which,
thanks to Providence, so well succeeded with me. They may also
deem them fit to be imitated, should any of them find themselves
in similar circumstances." It is not many years since this letter
was, for the first time, given to the world by the grandson of the
illustrious writer, only a small portion of it having previously ap-
peared, and that merely a re-translation into English from a
French version of the original manuscript which had been pub-
lished at Paris.
Franklin was born at Boston, on the 17th of January, 1706 ;
the youngest, with the exception of two daughters, of a family of
seventeen children. His father, who had emigrated from England
about twenty-four years before, followed the occupation of a soap-
boiler and tallow-chandler, a business to which he had not been
bred, and by which he seems with difficulty to have been able to
support his numerous family. At fust it was proposed to make
Benjamin a clergyman ; and he was accordingly, having before
learned to read, put to the grammar-school at eight years of age ;
an uncle, whose namesake he was, and who appears to have
been an ingenious man, encouraging the project by offering to give
him several volumes of aermons to set up with, which he had taken
down, in a short-hand of his own invention, from the different
preachers he had been in the habit of hearing. This person, whu
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39
was now advanced in life, had been only a common silk-dyer, but
had been both a great reader and writer in his day, having filled
two quarto volumes with his own manuscript poetry. What he
was most proud of, however, was his short-hand, which he was
very anxious that his nephew should learn. But young Franklin
had not been quite a year at the grammar-school, when his father
began to reflect that the expense of a college education for him
was what he could not very well afford. He was removed, and
placed for another year under a teacher of writing and arithmetic ;
after which his father took him home, when he was no more than
ten years old, to assist him in his own business. Accordingly he
was employed, he tells us, in cutting wicks for the candles, filling
the moulds for cast candles, attending the shop, going errands, and
other drudgery of the same kind. He showed so much dislike,
however, to this business, that his father, afraid he would break
loose and go to sea, as one of his elder brothers had done, found
it advisable, after a trial of two years, to look about for another
occupation for him ; and taking him round to see a great many
different sorts of tradesmen at their work, it was at last agreed
upon that he should be bound apprentice to a cousin of his own,
who was a cutler. But he had been only for some days on trial
at this business, when, his father thinking the apprentice-fee which
his cousin asked too high, he was again taken home. In this state
of things it was finally resolved to place him with his brother
James, who had been bred a printer, and had just returned from
England and set up on his own account at Boston. To him,
therefore, Benjamin was bound apprentice, when he was yet only
iti his twelfth year, on an agreement that he should remain with
him in that capacity till he reached the age of twenty-one.
One of the principal reasons which induced his father to deter-
mine upon this profession for him, was the fondness he had from
his infancy shown for reading. All the money he could get hold
of used to be eagerly laid out in the purchase of books. His fa-
ther's small collection consisted principally of works in controver-
sial divinity, a subject of little interest to a reader of his age ; but, 1
such as they were, he went through most of them. Fortunately
there was also a copy of Plutarch's Lives, which he says he read
abundantly. This, and a book by Daniel Defoe, called an Essay
on Projects, he seems to think were the two works from which lie
derived the most advantage. His new profession of a printer, by
procuring him the acquaintance of some booksellers' apprentices,
enawed him considerably to extend his acquaintance with books,
by frequently borrowing a volume in the evening, which he sat up
reading the greater oart of the night, in order that he might return
40 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
it hi the morning, lest it should be missed. But these solitary
studies did not prevent him from soon acquiring a great proficiency
in his business, in which he was every day becoming more useful
to his brother. After some time, too, his access to books was
greatly facilitated by the kindness of a liberal-minded merchant-
who was in the habit of frequenting the printing-office, and, bein*
possessed of a tolerable library, invited young Franklin, whose in
dustry and intelligence had attracted his attention, to come to see
it ; after which he allowed hjm to borrow from it such volumes as
he wished to read.
Our young student was now to distinguish himself in a new
character. The perusal of the works of others suggested to him
the idea of trying his own talent at composition ; and his first
attempts in this way were a few pieces of poetry. Verse, it maj
be observed, is generally the earliest sort of composition attempted
either by nations or individuals, and for the same reasons in both
cases namely, first, because poetry has peculiar charms for the
unripe understanding ; and, secondly, because people at first find
it difficult to conceive what composition is at all, independently of
such measured cadences and other regularities as constitute verse.
Franklin's poetical fit, however, did not last long. Having been
induced by his brother to write two ballads, he was sent to sell
them through the streets ; and one of them, at least, being on a
subject which had just made a good deal of noise in the place, sold,
as he tells us, prodigiously. But his father, who, without much
literary knowledge, was a man of a remarkably sound and vigorous
understanding, soon brought down the rising vanity of the young
poet, by pointing out to him the many faults of his performances,
and convincing him what wretched stuff they really were. Having
Ixjen told, too, that verse-makers were generally beggars, with his
characteristic prudence he determined to write no more ballads.
He had an intimate acquaintance of the name of Collins, who
was, like himself, passionately fond of books, and with whom he
was in the habit of arguing upon such subjects as they met with in
the course of their reading. Among other questions which they
discussed in this way, one accidentally arose on the abilities of
women, and the propriety of giving them a learned education
Collins maintained their natural unfitness for any of the severer
studies, while Franklin took the contrary side of the question
" perhaps," he says, " a little for dispute sake." His antagonist
had always the greater plenty of words ; but Franklin thoughtjfcat,
eTOie
on this occasion in particular, his own arguments were
stronger ; and on their parting without settling the point, he sat
down, and put a summary of what he advanced in writing, which
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41
he copied out and sen), .o Collins. This gave a new form to the
discussion, which was now carried on for some time by letters, of
which three or four had been written on both sides, when the cor-
respondence fell into the hands of Franklin's father. His natural
acuteness and good sense enabled him here again to render an
essential service to his son, by pointing out to him how far he fell
short of his antagonist in elegance of expression, in method, and
in perspicuity, though he had the advantage of him in correct
spelling and punctuation, which he evidently owed to his expe-
rience in the printing-office. From that moment Franklin deter-
mined to spare no pains in endeavoring to improve his style ; and
we shall give, in his own words, the method he pursued for that
end.
" About this time," says he, " I met with an odd volume of the
Spectator ; I had never before seen any of them. I bought it,
read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought
the writing excellent ; and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With
that view, I took some of the papers, and making short hints of the
sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a few days ; and then,
without looking at the book, tried to complete the papers again,
by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it
had been expressed 'before, in any suitable words that should occur
to me. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, dis-
covered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I
wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using
them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I
had gone on making verses ; since the continual search for words
of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or
of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a con-
stant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to
fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. There-
fore, I took some of the talcs in the Spectator, and turned them
into verse ; and after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the
prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my
collection of hints into confusion ; and, after .some weeks, endea- '
vorcd to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form
the full sentences and complete the subject. This was to teach
me method in the arrangement of the thoughts. By comparing
my work with the original, I discovered many faults, and corrected
them ; but I sometimes had the pleasure to fancy that in certain
particulars of small consequence I had been fortunate enough to
improve the method or the language ; and this encouraged me 1 3
think that I might, in time, come to be a tolerable English writer,
of which I was extremely ambitious."
42 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
Even at this early age nothing could exceed the perseverance
and self-denial which he displayed, in pursuing his favorite object
of cultivating his mental faculties to the utmost of his power.
When only sixteen, he chanced to meet with a book in recom-
mendation of a vegetable diet, one of the arguments at least in
favor of which made an immediate impression upon him namely
its greater cheapness ; and from this and other considerations, he
determined to adopt that way of living for the future. Having
taken this resolution, he proposed to his brother, if he would give
him weekly only half what his board had hitherto cost, to board
himself, an offer which was immediately accepted. He presently
found that by adhering to his new system of diet he could still save
half what his brother allowed him. " This," says he, " was an
additional fund for buying of books : but I had another advantage
in it. My brother and the rest going from the printing-house to
their meals, I remained there alone, and despatching presently rny
light repast, (which was often no more than a biscuit, or a slice of
bread, a handful of raisins, or a tart from the pastrycook's, and a
glass of water,) had the rest of the time, till their return, for study ;
in which I made the greater progress, from that greater clearness
of head and quicker apprehension which generally attend temper,
ance in eating and drinking." It was about this time that, by means
of Cocker's Arithmetic, he made himself master of that science,
which he had twice attempted in vain to learn while at school ;
ind that he also obtained some acquaintance with the elements of
geometry, by the .perusal of a Treatise on Navigation. He men-
tions, likewise, among the works which he now read, Locke on
the Human Understanding, arid the Port-Royal Art of Thinking,
together with two little sketches on the arts of Logic and Rhetoric,
which he found at the end of an English Grammar, and which
initiated him in the Socratic mode of disputation, or that way of
arguing by which an antagonist, by being questioned, is imper-
ceptibly drawn into admissions which are afterwards dexterously
turned against him. Of this method of reasoning he became, he
tells us, excessively fond, finding it very safe for himself and very
embarrassing for those against whom he used it ; but he after-
wards abandoned it, apparently from a feeling that it gave advan-
tages rather to cunning than to truth, and was better adapted to
gain victories in conversation, than either to convince or to
inform.
A few years before this his brother had begun to publish ;i
newspaper, the second that had appeared in America. This
brought most of the literary people of Boston occasionally to the
printing-office ; and young Franklin often heard them conversing
+
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 43
about the articles that appeared in the newspaper, and the appro-
bation which particular ones received. At last, inflamed with the
ambition of sharing in this sort of fame, he resolved to try how a
communication of his own would succeed. Having written his
paper, therefore, in a disguised hand, he put it at night under the
door of the printing-office, where it was found in the morning, and
submitted to the consideration of the critics, when they met as
usual. ** They read it, * says he ; " commented on it in my hear-
ing ; and I had the exquisite pleasure of finding it met with their
approbation ; and that in their different guesses at the author, none
were named but men of some character among us for learning and
ingenuity." " I suppose," he adds, " that I was rather lucky in
my judges, and that they were not really so very good as I then
believed them to be." Encouraged, however, by the success of
this attempt, he sent several other pieces to the press in the same
way, keeping his secret, till, as he expresses it, all his fund of
sense for such performances was exhausted. He then discovered
himself, and immediately found that he began to be looked upon
as a person of some consequence by his brother's literary ac-
quaintances.
This newspaper soon after afforded him, very unexpectedly, an
opportunity of extricating himself from his indenture to his brother,
who had all along treated him with great harshness, and to whom
his rising literary reputation only made him more an object of envy
and dislike. An article which they had admitted having offended the
local government, his brother, as proprietor of the paper, was no
only sentenced to a month's imprisonment, but prohibited from any
longer continuing to print the offensive journal. In these circum-
stances, it was determined that it should appear for the future in
the name of Benjamin, who had managed it during his brother's
confinement ; and in order to prevent it being alleged that the
former proprietor was only screening himself behind one of his
apprentices, the indenture by which the latter was bound was
given up to him ; he at the same time, in order to secure to his
brother the benefit of his services, signing new indentures for the
remainder of his time, which were to be kept private. " A vory
flimsy scheme it was," says Franklin ; M however, it was imine
diately executed ; and the paper was printed accordingly under my
name for several months. At length a fresh difference arising
between my brother and me, 1 took upon me to assert my freedom,
presuming that he would not venture to produce the new indenture.
It was not fair in me to take this advantage ; and this I therefore
reckon one of the first errata of my life ; but the unfairness of it
weigiasi littLe with me, when under the impressions of resentment
44 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
for the blows liis passion too often urged him to bestow jpon me,
though he was otherwise not an ill-natured man : perhaps I was
too saucy and provoking."
Finding, however, that his brother, in consequence of this ex-
ploit, had taken care to give him such a character to all those of
his own profession in Boston, that nobody would employ him there,
he now resolved to make his way to New York, the nearest place
where there was a printer ; and accordingly, after selling his booKS
to raise a little money, he embarked on board a vessel for that
city, without communicating his intention to his friends, who he
knew would oppose it. In three days he found himself at the end
of his voyage, near three hundred miles from his home, at the age
of seventeen, without the least recommendation, as he tells us, or
knowledge of any person in the place, and with very little money
in his pocket. Worst of all, upon applying to the only printer
likely to give him any employment, he found that this person had
nothing for him to do, and that the only way in which he could
serve him was by recommending him to proceed to Philadelphia.
a hundred miles farther, where he had a son, who, he believed,
might employ him. We are unable, however, to follow our run-
away through all the incidents of this journey, some of which were
disastrous enough ; but we cannot refrain from relating the follow-
ing anecdote : Being troubled, wherever he stopped, by the inqui-
sitivene'fcs and curiosity of the people, he was induced to try an
expedient for silencing similar inquiries. Accordingly, at the next
place, as soon as supper was laid, he called his landlord, when the
following dialogue took place between them. " Pray, are you
married?" "Yes." "What family have you got?" "Two
sons and three daughters." " How many servants ?" " Two,
and an hostler." " Have you any objection to my seeing them ?*
" None, I guess." " Then be so good as to desire them all to
step here." This was done ; and the whole being assembled.
Franklin thus addressed them : " Good people, my name is Benja
min Franklin I am by trade a printer I came from Boston, and
am going to Philadelphia to seek employment I am in rather
humble circumstances, and quite indifferent to news of any kind
unconnected with printing. This is all I know of myself, and all
I can possibly inform you ; and now, I hope you will allow me to
take my supper in quiet."
The following is Franklin's most graphic description of his first
appearance in Philadelphia. After concluding the account of his
voyage, " I have been the more particular," says he, " in this de-
scription of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that
city, that you may, in your mind, compare such unlikely beginnings
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 45
with the figure I have since made there. I was in my working
dress, my best clothes coming round by sea. I was dirty, from
my being so long in the boat ; my pockets were stuffed out with
shirts and stockings ; and I knew no one, nor where to look for
lodging. Fatigued with walking, rowing, and the want of sleep,
I was very hungry; and my whole stock of cash consisted in a
single dollar, and about a shilling in copper coin, which I gave to
the boatmen for my passage. At first they refused it, on account
of my having rowed ; but I insisted on their taking it. Man is
sometimes more generous when he has little money than when he
has plenty ; perhaps to prevent his being thought to have but little.
I walked towards the top of the street, gazing about till near
Market-street, where I met a boy with bread. I had often made
a meal of dry bread, and inquiring where he had bought it, I went
immediately to the baker's he directed me to. I asked for bis-
cuits, meaning such as we had at Boston ; that sort, it seems, was
not made in Philadelphia. I then asked for a threepenny loaf,
and was told they had none. Not knowing the different prices,
nor the names of the different sorts of bread, I told him to give
me three-penny worth of any sort. He gave me, accordingly,
three great puffy rolls. I was surprised at the quantity, but took
it ; and having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under
each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market-street,
as far as Fourth-street, passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future
wife's father, when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought
[ made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance.
Then I turned and went down Chesnut-street and part of Walnut,
street, eating my roll all the way, and coming round, found myself
again at Market-street wharf, near the boat I came in, to which I
went for a draught of the river water ; and being filled with one
of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that
came down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go
farther. Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by
this time had many clean dressed people in it, who were all walk-
ing the same way. I joined them, and thereby was led into the'
great meeting-house of the Quakers, near the market. I sat down
among them ; and after looking round a while, and hearing noth-
ing said, being very drowsy, through labor and want of rest the
preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continued so till the meeting
broke up, when some one was kind enough to rouse me. This,
therefore, was the first house I was in, or slept in, in Phila
delphia."
Refreshed by his brief sojourn in this cheap place of repose,
he then set out in quest of a lodging for the night. Next morning
46 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
he found the person to whom he had been directed, who was not,
however, able to give him any employment ; but upon applying to
another printer in the place, of the name of Keimer, he was a little
more fortunate, being set by him, in the first instance, to put an
old press to rights, and afterwards taken into regular work. He
had been some months at Philadelphia, his relations in Boston
knowing nothing of what had become of him, when a brother-in-
luw, who was the master of a trading sloop, happening to hear of
him in one of his voyages, wrote to him in very earnest terms to
entreat him to return home. The letter which he sent in reply
to this application reaching his brother-in-law when he chanced to
be in company with Sir William Keith, the governor of the pro-
vince, it was shown to that gentleman, who expressed considerable
surprise on being told the age of the writer ; and immediately
said that he appeared to be a young man of promising parts, and
that if he would set up on his own account in Philadelphia, where
the printers were wretched ones, he had no doubt he would suc-
ceed ; for his part he would procure him the public business, and
do him every service in his power. Some time after this, Frank-
lin, who knew nothing of what had taken place, was one day at
work along with his master near the window, when " we saw,"
says he, " the governor and another gentleman, (who proved to
be Colonel French, of Newcastle, in the province of Delaware,)
finely dressed, come directly across the street to our house, and
heard them at the door. Keimer ran down immediately, thinking
it a visit to him : but the governor inquired for me, came up, and
with a condescension and politeness I had been quite unused to,
made me many compliments, desired to be acquainted with me,
blamed me kindly for not having made myself known to him when
I first came to the place, and would have me away with him to
the tavern, where he was going with Colonel French, to taste, as
ha said, some excellent Madeira. I was not a little surprised, and
Keimer stared with astonishment."
The reader already perceives that Sir William must have been
rather an odd sort of person ; and this becomes still more apparent
in the sequel of the story. Having got his young protege to the
tavern, he proposed to him, over their wine, that he should, aa
soon as possible, set up in Philadelphia as a master printer, only
continuing to work with Keimer till an opportunity should offer of
a passage to Boston, when he would return home, to arrange the
matter with his father, who, the governor had no doubt, would,
upon a letter from him, at once advance his son the necessary
funds for commencing business. Accordingly, Franklin set out
for Boston by the first vessel that sailed ; and, ipon his arrival,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 47
was very kindly received by all his family, except his brother, and
surprised his father not a little by presenting him with the governor's
letter. For some time his father said little or nothing on the sub-
ject, merely remarking, that Sir William must be a person of small
discretion, to think of setting a youth up in business who wanted
three years to arrive at man's estate. But at last he decidedly re-
fused to have any thing to do with the arrangement ; and Franklin
returned to his patron to tell him of his bad success, going this
time, however, with the consent and blessing of his parents, who
finding how industrious he had been while in Philadelphia, were
willing that he should continue there. When Franklin presented
himself to Sir William with his father's answer to the letter he had
been honored with from that functionary, the governor observed that
he was too prudent: "but since he will not set you up," added he,
*' I will do it myself." It was finally agreed that Franklin should
proceed in person to England, topurchase types and other necessary
articles, for which the governor was to give him letters of credit to
the extent of one hundred pounds.
After repeated applications to the governor for the promised
letters ofcredit, Franklin was at last sent on board the vessel for Eng-
land, which was just on the point of sailing, with an assurance that
Colonel French should be sent to him with the letters immediately.
That gentleman soon after made his appearance, bearing a packet
of despatches from the governor : in this packet Franklin was in-
formed his letters were. Accordingly, when they got into the Britsh
channel, the captain having allowed him to search for them among
the others, he found several addressed to his care, which he con-
cluded of course to be those he had been promised. Upon pre-
senting one of them, however, to a stationer to whom it was directed,
the man having opened it, merely said, ** Oh, this is from Riddlesdon
{an attorney in Philadelphia, whom Franklin knew to be a thorough
knave ;) I have lately found him to be a complete rascal ;" and
giving back the letter, turned on his heel, and proceeded to serve
his customers. Upon this, Franklin's confidence in his patron
began to be a little shaken ; and, after reviewing the whole affair
in his own mind, he resolved to lay it before a very intelligent
mercantile gentleman, who had come over from America with
them, and with whom he had contracted an intimacy on the passage.
This friend very soon put an end to his doubts. ** He let me,"
says Franklin, "into Keith's character; told me there was not
the least probability that he had written any letters for me ; that
no one who knew him had the smallest dependence on him ; and
he laughed at the idea of the governor's giving me a letter of credit
having, as he said, no credit to give."
48 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
Thus thrown once more on his own means, our young adven-
turer found there was no resource for him but to endeavor to procure
some employment at his trade in London. Accordingly, having
applied to a Mr. Palmer, a printer of eminence in Bartholomew-
close, his services were accepted, and he remained there for nearly
a year. During this time, although he was led into a good deal of
idleness by the example of a friend, somewhat older than himself,
he by no means forgot his old habits of reading and study. Having
been employed in printing a second edition of Wollaston's Religion
of Nature, his perusal of the work induced him to compose and
publish a small pamphlet in refutation of some of the author's
positions, which, he tells us, he did not afterwards look back upon
as altogether a wise proceeding. He employed the greater part
of his leisure more profitably in reading a great many works, which
(circulating libraries, he remarks, not being then in use) he bor-
rowed, on certain terms that were agreed upon between them, from
a bookseller whose shop was next door to his lodgings in Little
Britain, and who had an immense collection of second-hand books.
His pamphlet, however, was the means of making him known to a
few of the literary characters then in London, among the rest to
the noted Dr. Mandeville, author of the Fable of the Bees ; and to
Dr. Pemberton, Sir Isaac Newton's friend, who promised to give
him an opportunity, some time or other, of seeing that great man :
but this, he says, never happened. He also became acquainted
about the same time with the famous collector and naturalist, Sir
Hans Sloane, the Founder of the British Museum, who had heard
of some curiosities which Franklin had brought over from America;
among these was a purse made of asbestos, which he purchased from
him.
While with Mr. Palmer, and afterwards with Mr. Watts, near
Lincoln's Inn Fields, he gave very striking evidence of those habits
of temperance, self-command, industry, and frugality, which distin-
guished him through after life, and were undoubtedly the source
of much of the success that attended his persevering efforts to raise
himself from the humble condition in which he passed his earlier
years. While Mr. Watts's other workmen spent a great part of
every week's wages on beer, he drank only water, and found him-
self a good deal stronger, as well as much more clear headed, on
his light beverage, than they on their strong potations. " From
my example," says he, " a great many of them left off their mud-
dling breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, finding they could with
me be supplied from a neighboring house with a large porringer of
hot water-gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbled with bread, and
md a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer, viz, three
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 49
half-pence. This was a more comfortable, as well as a cheaper
breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. Those who continued
sotting with their beer all day, were often, by not paying, out ol
credit at the alehouse, and used to make interest with me to get
beer, their light, as they phrased it, being out. I watched the
pay-table on Saturday night, and collected what I stood engaged
for them, having to pay sometimes near thirty shillings a week on
their accounts. This, and my being esteemed a pretty good
riggite, that is, a jocular verbal satirist, supported my consequence
in the society. My constant attendance (I never making a St.
Monday) recommended me to the master; and my uncommon
quickness at composing occasioned my being put upon works of
despatch, which are generally better paid ; so I went on now very
agreeably."
He spent about eighteen months altogether in London, during
most pa'rt of which time he worked hard, he says, at his business,
and spent but little upon himself except in seeing plays, and in
books. At last his friend Mr. Denham, the gentleman with whom,
as we mentioned before, he had got acquainted on his voyage to
England, informed him he was going to return to Philadelphia to
open a store, or mercantile establishment, there, and offered him
the situation of his clerk at a salary of fifty pounds. The money
was less than he was now making as a compositor ; but he longed
to see his native countiy again, and accepted the proposal. Ac-
cordingly they set sail together ; and, after a long voyage, arrived
in Philadelphia on the llth of October, 1726. Franklin was at
this time only in his twenty-first year ; and he mentions having
formed, and committed to writing, while at sea, a plan for regulating
the future conduct of his life. This unfortunately has been lost ;
but he tells us himself, that although conceived and determined
upon when he was so young, it had yet " been pretty faithfully
adhered to quite through to old age."
Mr. Denham had only begun business for a few months when
he died ; and Franklin was once more left upon the world. He
now engaged again with his old master, Keimer, the printer, who
had got a better house, and plenty of new types, though he was
still as ignorant of his business as he was at the time of Franklin's
former connection with him. While in this situation Franklin got
acquainted with several persons, like himself, fond of literary pur-
suits ; and as the men never worked on Saturday, that being
Keimer's self-appointed Sabbath, he had the whole day for reading.*
* Keimer had peculiar notions upon religious observances, and amongst other
things, fancied it a Christian duty to observe the Sabbath on the last day of th
60 AMERICAN MECHANICS
He alsci showed his ingenuity, and the fertility of his resources, on
various occasions. They wanted some new types, which, there
being no letter-foundry in America, were only to be procured from
England ; but Franklin, having seen types cast in London, though he
had paid no particular attention to the process, contrived a mould,
made use of the letters they had as punches, struck the matrices
in lead, and thus supplied, as he tells us, in a pretty tolerable way,
all deficiencies. "I also," he adds, "engraved several things, on
occasion ; made the ink ; I was warehouseman ; and, in short,
quite & factotum"
He did not, however, remain long with Keimer, who had engaged
him only that he might have his other workmen taught through
his means; and, accordingly, when this object was in some sort
attained, contrived to pick a quarrel with him, which produced an
immediate separation. He then entered into an agreement with
one of his fellow-workmen, of the name of Meredith, whose friends
were possessed of money, to begin business in Philadelphia in compa-
ny with him, the understanding being that Franklin's skill should be
placed against the capital to be supplied by Meredith. While ho and
his friend, however, were secretly preparing to put their plan in exe-
cution, he was induced to return fora few months to Keimer, on his
earnest invitation, to enable him to perform a contract for the
printing of some paper money for the State of New Jersey, which
required a variety of cuts and types that nobody else in the place
could supply; and the two having gone together to Burlington to
superintend this business, Franklin was fortunate enough, during
the three months he remained in that city, to acquire, by .His
agreeable manners and intelligent conversation, the friendship of
several of the principal inhabitants, with whom his employment
brought him into connection. Among these he mentions particu.
larly Isaac Decow, the surveyor-general. " He was," says Frank-
lin, "a shrewd, sagacious, old man, who told me that he began for
himself, when young, by wheeling clay for the brickmakers, learned
to write after he was of age, carried the chain for surveyors, who
taught him surveying, and he had now by his industry acquired a
goc d estate ; and, said he, I foresee that you will soon work this
ma. i (Keimer) out of his business, and make a fortune in it at
Philadelphia. He had then not the least intimation of my intention
to set up There or any where."
Soon after he returned to Philadelphia, the types that had been
sent for from London arrived ; and, settling with Keimer, he and
his partner took a house, and commenced business. " We had
scarce opened our letters," says he, " and put our press in order,
before George House, an accuaintance of mine, brought a coun
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 51
trymau to us, whom he had met in the street, inquiring for a
printer. All our cash was now expended in the variety of parti-
culars we had been obliged to procure, and this countryman's five
shillings, being our first-fruits, and coming so seasonably, gave me
more pleasure than any crown I have since earned ; and, from the
gratitude I felt towards House, has made me often more ready
than perhaps I otherwise should have been, to assist young begin-
ners." He had, in the autumn of the preceding year, suggested
to a number of his acquaintances a scheme for forming themselves
into a club for mutual improvement ; and they had accordingly
been in the habit of meeting every Friday evening, under the name
of the Junto. All the members of this association exerted them-
selves in procuring business for him ; and one of them, named
Breinthal, obtained from the Quakers the printing of forty sheets
of a history of that sect of religionists, then preparing at the ex-
pense of the body. " Upon these," says Franklin, " we worked
exceeding hard, for the price was low. It was a folio. I com-
posed a sheet a day, and Meredith worked it off at press. It was
often eleven at night, and sometimes later, before I had finished
my distribution for the next day's work : for the little jobs sent in
by our other friends, now and then, put us back. But so deter-
mined was I to continue doing a sheet a day of the folio, that one
night, when, having imposed my forms, I thought my day's work
over, one of them by accident was broken, and iwo pages (the
half of the day's work) reduced to pi, I immediately distributed
and composed it over again before I went to bed ; and this indus-
try, visible to our neighbors, began to give us character and credit."
The consequence was that business, and even offers of credit,
came to them from all hands.
They soon found themselves in a condition to think of establish-
ing a newspaper ; but Franklin having inadvertently mentioned
this scheme to a person who came to him wanting employment,
that individual carried the secret to their old master, Keiiner, with
whom he, as well as themselves, had formerly worked ; and he
immediately determined to anticipate them by issuing proposals
for a paper of his own. The manner in which Franklin met and
defeated this treachery is exceedingly characteristic. There was
another paper published in the place, which had been in existence
for some years ; but it was altogether a wretched affair, and owed
what success it had merely to the absence of all competition. For
this print, however, Franklin, not being able to commence his own
paper immediately, in conjunction with a friend, set about writing
a series of amusing communications under the title of the Busy
Body, which the publisher printed, of course, very gladly. " By
62 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
this means," says he, " the attention of the public was fixed on
that paper ; and Keimer's proposals, which we burlesqued and
ridiculed, were disregarded. He began his paper, however ; and
before carrying it on three-quarters of a year, with at most only
ninety subscribers, he offered it me for a trifle ; and I, having
been ready some time to go on with it, took it in hand directly,
and it proved in a few years extremely profitable to me." The
paper, indeed, had no sooner got into Franklin's hands than its
success equalled his most sanguine expectations. Some observa-
tions which he wrote and printed in it on a colonial subject, then
much talked of, excited so much attention among the leading
people of the place, that it obtained the proprietors many friends
in the house of assembly, and they were, on the first opportunity,
appointed printers to the house. Fortunately, too, certain events
occurred about this time which ended in the dissolution of Frank-
lin's connection with Meredith, who was an idle, drunken fellow,
and had all along been a mere encumbrance upon the concern.
His father failing to advance the capital which had been agreed
upon, when payment was demanded at the usual time by their
paper merchant and other creditors, he proposed to Franklin to
relinquish the partnership, and leave the whole in his hands, if the
latter would take upon hint the debts of the company, return to hi'
father what he had advanced on their commencing business, pay
his little persorfal debts, and give him thirty pounds and a new
saddle. By the kindness of two friends, who, unknown to each
other, came forward unasked to tender their assistance, Frank lip
was enabled to accept of this proposal ; and thus, about the year
1729, when he was yet only in the twenty-fourth year of his age,
he found himself, after all his disappointments and vicissitudes,
with nothing, indeed, to depend upon but his own skill and indus-
try for gaining a livelihood, and for extricating himself from debt,
but yet in one sense fairly established in life, and with at least a
prospect of well-doing before him.
Having followed his course thus far with so minute an observ-
ance of the several steps by which he arrived at the point to which
we have now brought him, we shall not attempt to pursue the re-
mainder of his career with the same particularity. His subse-
quent efforts in the pursuit of fortune and independence were, as
is well known, eminently successful ; and we find in his whole
history, even to its close, a display of the same spirit of intelli-
gence and love of knowledge, and the same active, self-denying,
and intrepid virtues, which so greatly distinguished its commence-
ment. The publication of a pamphlet, soon after Meredith had
left him, in recommendation of a paper currency, a subject then
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 53
much debated in the province, obtained him such popularity, thai
he was employed by the government in printing the r.otes after
they had resolved upon issuing them. Other profitable business
of the same kind succeeded. He then opened a stationer's shop,
began gradually to pay off his debts, and soon after married. By
this time his old rival, Keimer, had gone to ruin ; and he was
(wilh the exception of an old man, who was rich, and did not care
about business,) the only printer in the place. We now find him
taking a leading part as a citizen. He established a circulating
library, the first ever known in America, which, although it com-
menced with only fifty subscribers, became in course of time a
large and valuable collection, the proprietors of which were event-
ually incorporated by royal charter. While yet in its infancy,
however, it afforded its founder facilities of improvement of which
he did not fail to avail himself, setting apart, as he tells us, an
hour or two ever lay for study, which was the only amusement
he allowed hims:- .;'. In 173'2 he first published his celebrated
Almanac, under the name of Richard Saunders^ but which was
commonly known by the name of Poor Richard's Almanac. He
continued this publication annually for twenty-five years. The
proverbs and pithy sentences scattered up and down in the differ,
ent numbers of it, were afterwards thrown together into a con.
nected discourse under the title of the Way to Wealth, a produc-
tion which has become so extensively popular, that every one of
our readers is probably familiar with it.
We shall quote, in his own words, the account he gives us of
the manner in which he pursued one branch of his studies :
" I had begun," says he, " in 1733, to study languages. I soon
made myself so much a master of the French, as to be able to
read the books in that language with ease. I then undertook the
Italian. An acquaintance, who was also learning it, used often to
tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this took up too much
of the time I had to spare for study, I at length refused to play
any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every game
should have a right to impose a task, either of parts of the gram-
rnar to be got by heart, or in translations, &c., which tasks the
vanquished was to perform upon honor before our next meeting.
As we played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that
Janguage. I afterwards, with a little pains-taking, acquired as
much of the Spanish as to read their books also. I have already
mentioned that I had had only one year's instruction in a Latin
school, and that when very young, after which I neglected that
anguage entirely. But when I had attained an acquaintance
with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surprised to find, on
54 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
ooking over a Latin Testament, that I understood more of that*
anguage than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply
myself again to the study of it - r and I met with the more success,
as those preceding languages had greatly smoothed my way."
In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the general assembly, and being
soon after appointed deputy postmaster for the state, he turned his
thoughts to public affairs, beginning, however, as he says, with
small matters. He first occupied himself in improving the city
watch ; then suggested and promoted the establishment of a fire-
insurance company; and afterwards exerted himself in organizing
a philosophical society, an academy for the education of youth,
and a militia for the defence of the province. In short, every
part of the civU government, as he tells us, and almost at the
same time, imposed some duty upon him. * The governor," he-
says, " put me into the commission of the peace ; the corporation
of the city chose me one of the common council, and soon after
alderman ; and the citizens at large elected me a buigessto repre-
sent them in assembly. This" latter station was the more agreable
to me, as I grew at length tired with sitting there \o hear the de-
bates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which were
often so uninteresting that 1 was induced to amuse myself with
maning magic squares or circles, or any thing to avoid weariness ;
and I conceived my becoming a member would enlarge my power
of doing good. I would not, however, insinuate that my ambition
was not flattered by all these promotions, it certainly was : for,
considering my low beginning, they were great things to me ; and
they were still more pleasing as being so many spontaneous testi-
monies of the public good opinion, and by me entirely unsolicited."
It is time, however, that we should introduce this extraordinary
man to our readers in a new character. A much more important
part in civil affairs than any he had yet acted was in reserve for
him. He lived to attract to himself on the theatre of politics, the
eyes, not of his own countrymen only, but of the whole civilized
world ; and to be a principal agent in the production of events as
mighty in themselves, and as pregnant with mighty consequences,
as any belonging to modern history. But our immediate object is
to exhibit a portrait of the diligent student, and of the acute and
patient philosopher. We have now to speak of Franklin's famous
electrical discoveries. Of these discoveries we cannot, of course,
here attempt to give any thing more than a very general account.
But we shall endeavor to make our statement as intelligible as
possible, even to those to whom the subject is new.
The term electricity is derived from e/ec/rou, the Greek name
for amber, which was known, even in ancient times, to be capable
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN f>5
of acquiring, by being rubbed, the curious property of attracting
very light bodies, such as small bits of paper, when brought near
to them. This virtue was thought to be peculiar to the substance
in question, and one or two others, down to the close of the six
teenth century, when William Gilbert, a physician of London, an-
nounced for the first time, in his Latin treatise on the magnet, that
it belonged equally to the diamond and many other precious stones ;
to glass, sulphur, sealing wax, rosin, and a variety of other sub-
stances. It is from this period that we are to date the birth of the
science of Electricity, which, however, continued in its infancy for
above a century, and could hardly, indeed, be said to consist of any
tiling more than a collection of unsystematized and ill-understood
facts, until it attracted the attention of Franklin.
Among the facts, however, that had been discovered in this in-
terval, the following were the most important. In the first place, the
list of the substances capable of being excited by friction to a mani-
festation of electric virtue, was considerably extended. It was
also found that the bodies which had been attracted by the excited
substance were immediately after as forcibly repelled by it, and
could not be again attracted until they had touched a third body.
Other phenomena, too, besides those of attraction and repulsion,
were found to take place when the body excited was one of suffi-
cient magnitude. If any other body, not capable of being excited,
such as the human hand or a rod of metal, was presented to it, a
slight sound would be produced, which, if the experiment was per-
formed in a dark room, would be accompanied with a momentary
light. Lastly, it was discovered that the electric virtue might be
imparted to bodies not capable of being themselves excited, by
making such a body, when insulated, that is to say, separated from
all other bodies of the same class by the intervention of one capable
of excitation, act either as the rubber of the excited body, or as
the drawer of a succession of sparks from it, in the manner that
has just been described. It was said, in either of these cases, to
be electrified ; and it was found that if it was touched, or even
closely approached, when in this state, by any other body, in like
manner incapable of being excited by friction, a pretty loud report
would take place, accompanied, if either body were susceptible of
feeling, with a slight secsation of pain at the point of contact, and
which would instantly restore the electrified body to its usual and
natural condition.
In consequence of its thus appearing that all those bodies, and
only those, which could not be themselves excited, might in this
manner have electricity, as it were, transferred to them, they were
designated conductors, as well as non-electrics : while 1 1 electrics,
3*
56 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
on the other hand, were also called non-conductors. It is proper, how.
ever, that the reader should be aware, that of the various substances
in nature, none, strictly speaking, belong exclusively to either of
these classes; the truth being merely, that different bodies admit
the passage of the electric influence with extremely different de-
grees of facility, and that those which transmit it readily are called
conductors, the metals, and fluids, and living animals particularly
belonging to this class ; while such as resist its passage, or permit
it only with extreme reluctance, among which are amber, sulphur,
wax, glass, and silk, are described by the opposite denomination.
The beginning of the year 1746 is memorable in the annals of
electricity for the accidental discovery of the possibility of accumu-
lating large quantities of the electric fluid, by means of what was
called the Leyden jar, or phial. M. Cuneus, of that city, happened
one day, while repeating some experiments which had been origin-
ally suggested by M. Von Kleist, Dean of the Cathedral in Camin,
to hold in one hand a glass vessel, nearly full of water, into which
,ie had been sending a charge from an electrical machine, by means
of a wire dipped into it, and communicating with the prime con-
ductor, or insulated non-electric, exposed in the manner we have
already mentioned to the action of the excited cylinder. He was
greatly surprised, upon applying his other hand to disengage the
wire from the conductor, when he thought that the water had acquired
as much electricity as the machine could give it, by receiving a
sudden shock in his arms and breast, much more severe than any
thing of the kind he had previously encountered in the course of
his experiments. The same thing, it was found, took place when
the glass was covered, both within and without, with any other
conductors than the water and the human hand, which had been
used in this instance ; as, for example, when it was coated on both
sides with tinfoil, in such a manner, however, that the two coatings
were completely separated from each other, by a space around the
lip of the vessel being left uncovered. Whenever a communi-
cation was formed by the interposition of a conducting medium be-
tween the inside and outside coating, an instant and loud explosion
took place, accompanied with a flash of light, and the sensation of a
sharp blow, if the conductor employed was any part of the human
body.
The first announcement of the wonders of the Leyden phiai
excited the curiosity of all Europe. The accounts given of the
electric shock by those who first experiencd it are perfectly ludicrous,
and well illustrate how strangely the Imagination is acted upon by
surprise and terror, when novel 01 mexpected results suddenly
come upon it
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 57
From the original accounts, as Dr. Priestley observes, couUl we ivA.
have repeated the experiment, wo should have formed a very differ
ent idea of the electric shock to what it really is, even when given
in greater strength than it could have been by those early experi-
menters. It was this experiment, however, that first made electri-
city a subject of general curiosity. Every body was eager, not-
withstanding the alarming reports that were spread of it, to feel the
new sensation ; and in the same year in which the experiment was
first made at Ley den, numbers of persons, in almost every country
in Europe, obtained a livelihood by going about and showing it.
The particulars, then, that we have enumerated may be said to
have constituted the whole of tfie science of Electricity, in the shape
in which it first presented itself to the notice of Dr. Franklin. In
the way in which we have stated them, they are little more, the
reader will observe, than a mass of seemingly unconnected facts,
having, at first sight, no semblance whatever of being the results
of a common principle, or of being reducible to any general and
comprehensive system. It is true that a theory, that of M. Dufay,
had been formed before this time to account for many of them, and
also for others that we have not mentioned ; but it does not appear
that Franklin ever heard of it until lie had formed his own, which
is, at all events, entirely different ; so that it is unnecessary for us
to take it at all into account. We shall form a fair estimate of the
amount and merits of Franklin's discoveries, by considering the
facts we have mentioned, as really constituting the science in the
state in which he found it.
It was in the year 1746, as he tells us himself in the narrative of
his life, that, being at Boston, he met with a Dr. Spence, who had
lately arrived from Scotland, and who showed him some electrical
experiments. They were imperfectly performed, as the doctor
was not very expert ; " but being," says Franklin, " on a subject
quite new to me, they equally surprised and pleased me. Soon
after my return to Philadelphia, our Library Company received
from Mr. Peter Collinson, F. R. S., of London, a present of a glass
tube, with some account of the use of it in making such experi-
ments. I eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had
seen at Boston ; and, by much practice, acquired great readiness rn
performing those also which we had an account of from England 1 ,
adding a number of new ones. I say much practice, for my house
was continually full for some time, with persons who came to see
these new wonders. To divide a little this encumbrance among my
friends, I caused a number of similar tubes to be blown in our glass
house, with which they furnished themselves, so that we had at
several performers." The newly discovered and extraor
58 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
dinary phenomena exhibited by the Leyden phial of course very
early engaged his attention in pursuing these interesting experi-
ments ; and his inquisitive mind immediately stt itself to work to
find out the reason of such strange etlects, which still astonished
and perplexed the ablest philosophers oi' Europe. Out of his spec-
ulations arose the ingenious and beautiful theory of the action
of the electric influence which is known by his name : and which
has ever since been received by the greater number of philosophers
as the best, because the simplest and most complete, demonstration
of the phenomena that has yet been given to the world.
Dr. Franklin's earliest inquiries were directed to ascertain the
source of the electricity which friction had the effect of at least
rendering manifest in the glass cylinder, or other electric. The
question w%s, whether this virtue was created by the friction in the
electric, i only thereby communicated to it from other bodies.
In order to determine this point, he resorted to the very simple
experiment of endeavoi-ing to electrify himself; that is to say,
having insulated himself, and excited the cylinder by rubbing it
with his hand, he then drew off its electricity from it in the usual
manner into his osvn body. But he found that he was not thereby
electrified at all, as he would have been by doing the same thing,
had the friction been applied by another person. No spark could
be obtained from him, after the operation, by the presentment of a
conductor ; nor did he exhibit on such bodies as were brought
near him any of the other usual evidences of being charged with
electricity.
If the electricity had been created in the electric by the friction,
it was impossible to conceive why the person who drew it off
should not have been electrified in this case, just as he would have
been had another person acted as the rubber. The result evidently
indicated that the friction had effected a change upon the person
who had performed that operation, as well as upon the cylinder,
since it had rendered him incapable of being electrified by a pro-
cess by which, in other circumstances, he would have been so. It
was plain, in short, that the electricity had passed, in the first in-
stance, out of his body into the cylinder ; which, therefore, in com-
municating it to him in the second instance, only gave him back
what it had received, and, instead of electrifying him, merely re-
stored him to his usual state to that in which he had been before
the experiment was begun.
This accordingly was the conclusion to which Franklin came ;
but, to confirm it, he next insulated two individuals, one of whom
he made to rub the cylinder, while the other drew the electricity
from it. In this case, it was not the latter merely that was
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 59
affected ; both were electrified. The one had given out as much
electricity to the cylinder in rubbing it, as the other had drawn
from it. To prove this still farther, he made them touch one
another, when both were instantly restored to their usual state,
the redundant electricity thrown off by the one exactly making up
the deficiency of the other. The spark produced by their contact
was also, as was to have been expected, greater than that which
took place when either of them was touched by any third person
who had not been electrified.
Proceeding upon the inferences which these results seemed so
evidently to indicate, Franklin constructed the general outlines of
his theory. Every body in nature he considered to have its natural
quantity of electricity, which may, however, be either diminished,
by part of it being given out to another body, as that of the rubber,
in the operation of the electrical machine, is given out to the
cylinder ; or increased, as when the body is made to receive the
electricity from the cylinder. In the one case he regarded the
body as negatively, in the other as positively, electrified. In the
one case it had less, in the other more, than its natural quantity
of electricity : in either, therefore, supposing it to be composed of
electricity and common matter, the usual equilibrium or balance
between its two constituent ingredients was, for the time, upset or
destroyed.
But how should this produce the different effects which are ob-
served to result from the action of electrified bodies ? How is the
mere circumstance of the overthrow of the customary equilibrium
between the electricity and the matter of a body to be made to
account for its attraction and repulsion of other bodies, and for the
extraordinary phenomena presented by the Leyden phial ? The
Franklinian theory answers these questions with great ease and
completeness.
The fundamental law of the electric fluid, according to this
theory, is, that its particles attract matter, and repel one another.
To this we must add a similar law with regard to the particles of
matter, namely, that they repel each other, as well as attract elec-
tricity. This latter consideration was somewhat unaccountably
overlooked by Franklin ; but was afterwards introduced by Mr.
jEpinus, of Petersburg, and the late celebrated Mr. Cavendish, in
their more elaborate expositions of his theory of the electrical
action. Let us now apply these two simple principles to the ex-
planation of the facts we have already mentioned.
In the first place, when two bodies are in their ordinary or
natural state, the quantity of matter is an exact balance for>the
quantity of electricity in each, and there is accordingly no tendency
60 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
of the fluid to escape ; no spark will take place between two such
bodies when they are brought into contact. Nor will they either
attract or repel each other, because the attractive and repulsive
forces operating between them are exactly balanced, the two at-
tractions of the electricity in the first for the matter in the second,
and of the electricity in the second for the matter in the first, being
opposed by the two repulsions of the electricity in the first for the
electricity in the second, and of the matter in the first for the mat-
ter in the second. They, therefore, produce no effect upon each
other whatever.
But let us next suppose that one of the bodies is an electric
which has been excited in the usual way by friction, a stick of
wax, or a glass cylinder, for example, which has been rubbed with
the hand, or a piece of dry silk. In this case, the body in question
has received an addition to its natural quantity of electricity, which
addition, accordingly, it will most readily part with whenever it is
brought into contact with a conductor. But this is not all. Let
us see how it will act^ according to the law that has been stated,
upon the other body, which we shall suppose to be in its natural
state, when they are brought near each other. First, from the
repulsive tendency of the electric particles, the extra electricity in
the excited body will drive away a portion of the electricity of the
other from its nearest end, which will thus become negatively elec-
trified, or will consist of more matter than is necessary to balance
its electricity. In this state of things, what are the attractive and
repulsive forces operating between the two bodies, the one, be it
remembered, having an excess of electricity, and the other an
excess of matter 1 There are, in fact, five attractive forces opposed
by only four repulsive ; the former being those of the matter in the
first body for the electricity in the second, of the balanced elect ri-
city in the first for the balanced matter in the second, of the same
for the extra matter in the second, together with the two of the
extra electricity in the first for the same two quantities of matter ;
and the latter being those of the matter in the first for the balanced
matter in the second, of the same for the extra matter in the
second, together with those of the electricity in the second both
for the balanced and the extra electricity in the first. The two
bodies, therefore, ought to meet, as we find they actually do. But
no sooner do they meet than the extra electricity of the first, at-
tracted by the matter of the second, flows over partly to it ; arid
both bodies become positively electrified ; that is to say, each
contains a quantity of electricity beyond that which its matter is
capable of balancing. It will be found, upon examination, that
we have now four powers ( f attraction opposed by five of repul
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 61
eion ; the former being those of the matter in each body for the
two electricities in the other, the latter those exerted by each of
the electricities in the one against both the electricities of the
other, together with that of the matter in the one for the matter
in the other. The bodies now accordingly should repel each
other, just as we find to be the fact. Of course the same reason,
ing applies to the case of a neutral body, and any other containing
a superabundance of electricity, whether it be an electric or no,
and in whatever way its electricity may have been communicated
to it. We may add that there is no case of attraction or repulsion
between two bodies, in which the results indicated by the theory
do not coincide with those of observation as exactly as in this.
We now come to the phenomena of the Leyden phial. The
two bodies upon which we are here to fix our attention are the in-
terior and exterior coatings, which, before the process of charging
has commenced, are of course in their natural state, each having
exactly that quantity of electricity which its matter is able to
balance, and neither therefore exerting any effect whatever upon
the other. But no sooner has the interior coating received an
additional portion of electricity from the prime conductor, with
which the reader will remember it is in communication, than,
being now positively electrified, it repels a corresponding portion
of its electricity from the exterior coating, which therefore be
comes negatively electrified. As the operation goes on, both these
effects increase, till at last the superabundance of electricity in the
one surface, and its deficiency in the other, reach the limit to
which it is wished to carry them. All this while, it will be re-
marked, the former is prevented from giving out its superfluity to
the latter by the interposition of the glass, which is a non-con-
ductor, and the uncovered space which had been left on both sides
around the lip of the vessel. If the charge were made too high,
however, even these obstacles would be overcome, and the un-
balanced electricity of the interior coating, finding no easier vent,
would at last rush through the glass to the unsaturated matter on
its opposite surface, probably shattering it to pieces in its progress.
But, to effect a discharge in the usual manner, a communication
must be established by means of a good conductor between the
.wo surfaces, before this extreme limit be reached. If either a
rod of metal, for example, or the human body, be employed for
this purpose, the fluid from the interior coating will instantly rush
along the road made for it, occasioning a pretty loud report, and,
in the latter case, a severe shock, by the rapidity of its passage.
Both coatings will, in consequence, be immediately restored to
their natural state.
82 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
That this is the ti ue explanation of the matter Franklin further
demonstrated by a \ariety of ingenious experiments. In the first
place, he found that, if the outer coating was cut off, by being in-
sulated from every conducting body, the inner coating could not
be charged ; the electricity in the outer coating had here no means
of escape, and it was consequently impossible to produce in that
coating the requisite negative electricity. On the other hand, if a
good conductor was brought within the striking distance from the
outside coating, while the process of charging was going on, the
expelled fluid might be seen passing away towards it in sparks, in
proportion as more was sent from the prime conductor into the
inside of the vessel. He observed also that, when a phial was
charged, a cork ball, suspended on silk, would be attracted by the
one coating when it had been repelled by the other an additional
indication and proof of their opposite states of electricity, as might
be easily shown by an analysis of the attractive and repulsive forces
operating between the two bodies in each case.
But Franklin did not rest contented with ascertaining the prin-
ciple of the Leyden phial. He made also a very happy applica-
tion of this principle, which afforded a still more wonderful mani-
festation than had yet been obtained of the powers of accumulated
electricity. Considering the w r aste that took place, in the common
experiment, of the fluid expelled, during the process of charging,
from the exterior coating, he conceived the idea of employing it to
charge the inner surface of a second jar, which he effected, of
course, by the simple expedient of drawing it off by means of a
metal rod communicating with that surface. The electricity ex-
pelled from the outside of this second jar was conveyed, in like
manner, into the inside of a third ; and, in this way, a great num-
ber of jars were charged with the same facility as a single one.
Then, having connected all the inside coatings with one conductor,
and all the outside coatings with another, he had merely to bring
these two general conductors into contact or communication, in
order to discharge the whole accumulation at once. This con
trivancc he called an electrical battery.
The general sketch we have just given will put the reader in
possession, at least, of the great outlines of the Franklinian theory
of electricity, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful generalizations
to be found in the whole compass of science. By the aid of what
we may call a single principle, since the law with regard to the
electric fluid and common matter is exactly the same, it explains
satisfactorily not only all the facts connected with this interesting
subject which were known when it was first proposed, but all those
that have been since discovered, diffusing order and light through.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 63
out what seemed before little better than a chaos of unintelligible
contradictions. We must now, however, turn to a very brilliant
discovery of this illustrious philosopher, the reality of which does
not depend upon the truth or falsehood of any theory.
Franklin was by no means the first person to whom the idea
had suggested itself of a similarity between electricity and light-
ning. Not to mention many other names which might be quoted,
the Abbe Nollet had, before him, not only intimated his suspicion
vhat thunder might be in the hands of Nature what electricity is
in ours, but stated a variety of reasons on which he rested his
conjecture. It is to Franklin alone, however, that the glory be-
longs of both pointing out the true method of verifying this con-
jecture, and of actually establishing the perfect identity of the two
powers in question. " It has, indeed, been of late the fashion,"
says the editor of the first account of his electrical experiments,
Dublished at London in 1751, " to ascribe every grand or unusual
operation of nature, such as lightning and earthquakes, to electri-
city ; not, as one would imagine from the matter of reasoning on
these occasions, that the authors of these schemes have discovered
any connection betwixt the cause and effect, or saw in what man-
ner they were related ; but, as it would seem, merely because they
were unacquainted with any other agent, of which it could not
positively be said the connection was impossible." Franklin trans-
formed what had been little more than a figure of rhetoric into a
most important scientific fact.
In a paper, dated November 7, 1749, he enumerates all the
known points of resemblance between lightning and electricity.
In the first place, he remarks, it is no wonder that the effects of
the one should be so much greater than those of the other ; for if
two gun-barrels electrified will strike at two inches distance, and
make a loud report, at how great a distance will ten thousand acres
of electrified cloud strike, and give its fire ; and how loud must be
that crack ! He then notices the crooked and waving course, both
of the flash of lightning, and, in some cases, of the electric sparks ;
the tendency of lightning, like electricity, to take the readiest arid
best conductor ; the facts that lightning, as well as electricity, dis-
solves metals, burns some bodies, rends others, strikes people blind,
destroys animal life, reverses the poles of magnets, &c.
He had known for some time the extraordinary power of pointed
bodies, both in drawing and in throwing off the electric fire. The
true explanation of this fact did not occur to him ; but it is a
direct consequence of the fundamental principle of his own theory,
according to which the repulsive tendency of the particles of elec-
tricity towards each other, occasioning the fluid to retire, in every
64 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
case, from the interior to the surface of bodies, drives it with
especial force towards points and other prominences, and thus
favors its escape through such outlets ; while, on the other hand
the more concentrated attraction which the matter of a pointed
body, as compared with that of a blunt one, exerts upon the elec-
tricity to which it is presented, brings it down into its new channel
in a denser stream. In possession, however, of the fact, we find
him concluding the paper we have mentioned as follows : " The
electric fluid is attracted by points. We do not know whether
this property be in lightning ; but since they agree in all the par-
ticulars in which we can already compare them, it is not improb-
able that they agree likewise in this. Let the experiment be
made."
Full of this idea, it was yet some time before he found what he
conceived a favorable opportunity of trying its truth in the way he
meditated. A spire was about to be erected in Philadelphia, which
he thought would afford him facilities for the experiment ; but his
Attention having been one day drawn by a kite which a boy was
flying, it suddenly occurred to him, that here was a method of
reaching the clouds preferable to any other. Accordingly, he
immediately took a large silk handkerchief, and stretching it over
two cross sticks, formed in this manner his simple apparatus for
drawing down the lightning from its cloud. Soon after, seeing
a thunder-storm approaching, he took a walk into a field in the
neighborhood of the city in which there was a shed, communi-
cating his intentions, however, to no one but his son, whom he
took with him, to assist him in raising the kite : this was in June,
1752.
The kite being raised, he fastened a key to the lower extremity
of the^iempcn string, and then insulating it by attaching it to a
post by means of silk, he placed himself under the shed, and wait-
ed the result. For some time no signs of electricity appeared. A
cloud, apparently charged with lightning, had even passed over
them without producing any effect. At length, however, just as
Franklin was beginning to despair, he observed some loose threads
of the hempen string rise and stand erect, exactly as if they hac
been repelled from each other by being charged with electricity
He immediately presented his knuckle to the key, and, to his in
expressible delight, drew from it the well-known electrical spark-
It is said that his emotion was so great at this completion of a
discovery which was to make his name immortal, that he heaved
a deep sigh, and felt that he could that moment have willingly died.
As the rain increased, the cord became a better conductor, and
the key gave out its electricity copiously. Had the hemp been
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 65
thoroughly wet, the bold experimenter might, as he was contented
to do, have paid for his discovery with his life.
He afterwards brought down the lightning into his house, by
means of an insulated iron rod, and performed with it, at his
leisure, all the experiments that could be performed with elec-
tricity. But he did not stop here. His active and practical mind
was not satisfied even with the splendid discovery, until he had
turned it to a useful end. There was always a strong tendency
in Franklin's philosophy to these practical applications. The
lightning-rod was probably the result of some of the amusing ex-
pcriments with which Franklin was, at the commencement of his
electrical investigations, accustomed to employ his own leisure,
and afford pleasure to his friends. In one of his letters to Mr. Col-
linson, dated so early as 1748, we find him expressing himself in
the following strain, in reference to his electrical experiments :
" Chagrined a little that we have hitherto been able to produce
nothing in this way of use to mankind, and the hot weather coming
on, when electrical experiments are not so agreeable, it is proposed
to put an end to them for this season somewhat humorously, in a
party of pleasure on the banks of the Schuylkill. Spirits at the same
time are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the
river, without any other conductor than the water an experiment
which we have some time since performed to the amazement of
many. A turkey is to be killed for dinner by the electrical shock,
and roasted by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled by the
electrical bottle ; when the healths of all the famous electricians in
England, Holland, France, and Germany, are to be drunk in elec-
trified bumpers, under the discharge of guns from the electrical
battery "
Franklin's electrical discoveries did not, on their first announce-
ment, attract much attention in England ; and, indeed, he had the
mortification of learning that his paper on the similarity of light-
ning to electricity, when read by a friend to the Royal Society, had
been only laughed at by that learned body. In France, however,
thu account that had been published in London of his experiments,
fortunately fell into the hands of the celebrated naturalist, Buffon,
who was so much struck with it, that he had it translated into
French, and printed at Paris. This made it immediately known
to all Europe ; and versions of it in various other modern languages
soon appeared, as well as one in Latin. The theory propounded
in it was at first violently opposed in France by the Abbe Nollet,
wno had one of his own to support, and, as Franklin tells us t
could not at first believe that such a work came from America ; but
said it must have been fabricated by his enemies at Paris. The Abb
60 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
was eventually, however, deserted by all his partisans, and lived to
see himself the last of his sect. In England, too, the Frankiinian
experiments gradually began to be more spoken of; and, at last,
even the Royal Society was induced to resume the consideration
of the papers that had formerly been read to them. One of their
members verified the grand experiment of bringing down lightning
from the clouds ; and upon his reading to them an account of his sue-
cess, " they soon," says Franklin, " made me more than amends for
the slight with which they had before treated me. Without my having
made any application for that honor, they chose me a member;
and voted that I should be excused the customary payments, which
would have amounted to twenty-five guineas ; and ever since have
given me their transactions gratis. They also presented me with
the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley, for the year 1753, the de-
livery of which was accompanied with a very handsome speech of
the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly honored."
Some years afterwards, when he was in Great Britain with his
son, the University of St. Andrew's conferred upon him the degree
of Doctor of Laws ; and its example was followed by the Univer
sities of Edinburgh and Oxford. He was also elected a member
of many of the learned societies throughout Europe.
No philosopher of the age now stood on a prouder eminence
than this extraordinary man, who had originally been one of the
most obscure of the people, and had raised himself to all this
distinction almost without the aid of any education but such as he
had given himself. Who will say, after reading his story, that any
thing more is necessary for the attainment of knowledge than the
determination to attain it ? that there is any other obstacle to even
the highest degree of intellectual advancement which may not be
overcome, except a man's own listlessncss or indolence? The
secret of this man's success in the cultivation of his mental powers
was, that he was ever awake and active in that business ; that he
suffered no opportunity of forwarding it to escape him unimproved ;
that, however poor, he found at least a few pence, were it even by
diminishing his scanty meals, to pay for the loan of the books he
could not buy ; that, however hard-wrought, he found a few hours
in the week, were it by sitting up half the night after toiling all the
day, to read and study them. Others may not have his original
powers of mind ; but his industry, his perseverance, his self-com-
mand, are for the imitation of all : and though few may look for-
ward to the rare fortune of achieving discoveries like his, all may
derive both instruction and encouragement from his example.
They who may never overtake the light, may at least follow its path,
and guide their footsteps by its illumination.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 67
Were we to pursue the remainder of Franklin's history, we
should find the fame of the patriot vying with that of the philoso
pher, in casting a splendor over it ; and the originally poor and
unknown tradesman standing before kings, associating as an equal
with the most eminent statesmen of his time, and arranging along
with them the wars and treaties of mighty nations. When the
struggle for independence commenced, Franklin took a very active
part. He was soon sent ambassador to the court of France, where
principally through his exertions an alliance was brought about
between the two countries, which produced an immediate war be-
tween the latter and England. In 1783, he signed the treaty of
peace, which recognised our independence. Two years after he
arrived in Philadelphia, where he was chosen president of the
Supreme Executive Council of the city. He closed his eventful
and honorable life on the 17th of April, 1790, in the eighty-fifth
year of his age.
Franklin was in conversation sprightly, in manners bland. Des-
titute of pride, he considered all honest men on an equality. Dur-
ing the time he was in Great Britain, in the dignified station of
ambassador, he went into his old printing office, and entering the
press-room, proceeded to a particular press where two men were
at work : " Come, my friends," says he, " we will drink together ;
it is now forty years since I worked like you at this press, as a jour-
neyman printer." A gallon of porter was sent for, and he then
drank "success to printing." At a later period, the merchants in
Philadelphia being desirous to establish an assembly for dancing,
they drew up some rules, among which was one " that no mechanic
or mechanic's wife or daughter should be admitted on any terms."
This rule being submitted to Franklin, he remarked that " it ex-
cluded God Almighty, for he was the greatest mechanic in the uni-
verse" An enemy to every thing aristocratic, even his eloquence
partook of an unpretending character ; but he developed his ideas
with clearness and precision. He had always at hand an immense
stock of common sense, and possessed the very useful quality of
being " eminently great in little things."
OLIVER EVANS.
Birth. Apprenticed to a wagon maker. Fondness for study. Penuriousness of
his master. Pursues his evening studies by the light of burning shavings.
Turns his attention to the propelling of carriages without animal power. An
experiment. Renews his studies with increased ardor. Is laughed at for de-
claring that he can make steam carriages. Opinions confirmed by experiment.
Is defrauded of an invention for making card teeth. Marries. Enters into
the milling business with his brothers. His inventions revolutionize the man-
ufacture of flour. Account of those improvements. Difficulties attending
their introduction. Opposition of the Brandywine millers. Petitions the Le-
gislature of Pennsylvania for the right of using his mill improvements and
steam carriages. The former granted and the latter ridiculed.^-The Legislature
of Maryland grant them both. Commences a steam carriage at his own ex-
pense. Latrobe's report. Lays aside the carriage and builds a steam engine for
mills, which reduces him to poverty. Final success. Constructs a machine
for cleaning docks. First American locomotive. Public incredulity. His the
first high pressure engine. Submits a proposition to the Lancaster turnpike
company. Predictions. Mill improvements gradually come into use. Viola-
tors. Unsuccessful lawsuit. Petitions congress for a renewal of his patents.
Memorial of his opponents. Counter memorial. Triumph. His published
works. Death.
IT is but seldom that the pen of the biographer has occasion 10
trace the memoir of an individual possessing equal perseverance,
or greater originality of mechanical conception, than the subject of
this memoir, who has been aptly styled " the Watt of America "
Oliver Evans was born in Newport, Delaware, sometime in the
year 1755 or 1756. Little is preserved respecting his early his-
tory. His parents were agriculturists of respectable standing, who
gave their son the advantages common to people in their station.
At the age of fourteen Evans was apprenticed to a wheelwright
or wagon maker. An anecdote is preserved which displays
in his character, even at this period, that ardent desire for know,
ledge, and that determination ever evinced not to let any obstacle
interfere with the object of his pursuits. His master, an illiterate
man, observing his apprentice employing his leisure evenings in
study, through motives of parsimony, forbade him using candles ;
but young Evans was not to be discouraged, for, collecting at the
close of each day the shavings made from his work, he would take
them to the chimney corner, and, by their uncertain light, pursue
his evening studies.
While yet an apprentice his attention was turned to the subject
OLIVER EVANS.
OLIVER EVANS. 71
of propelling land carriages without animal power; but all the
methods with which he was acquainted appearing too futile to de-
serve an experiment, he concluded such motion to be impossible for
the want of a suitable original power. But one of his brothers
informed him on a Christmas evening that he had that day been
in company with a neighboring blacksmith's boy, who, for amuse,
ment, had stopped up the touch-hole of a gun barrel, then pouring
in a gill of water, rammed down a tight wad ; after which on put-
ting the breech in the fire, it discharged itself with a report like
gunpowder. The active mind of Evans, ever awake to the phe-
nomena around him, instantly saw that here was the long desired
power, if he could only apply it, and from this period endeavored
to discover the means. He labored for some time without success ;
at length a book fell into his hands describing the old atmospheric
steam engine ; and he was greatly astonished to observe they had so
far erred as to use the steam only in forming a vacuum to apply the
mere pressure of the atmosphere, instead of using the elastic force
of the steam for the original motion, the power of which he sup.
posed irresistible. He thereupon renewed his studies with in-
creased ardor, and soon declared that he could make steam car-
riages, and endeavored to co*nmunicate his ideas to others, but was
only listened to with ridicule. Persevering, his experiments confirm,
ed his opinions ; but want of means for a time compelled him to
abandon its prosecution
When twenty-three or twenty-four years of age he was engaged
in making card teeth by hand, at that period the only method
known. Finding this a tedious operation, he invented a machine
that would manufacture three thousand a minute, but was defrauded
of a great share of the benefits derived from it. Shortly after he
projected a plan for pricking the leather in cards, and at the same
time cutting, bending, and setting the teeth ; but owing to the un-
fortunate result of the previous invention, never carried it into
execution.
At the age of twenty-five Mr. Evans married a daughter of Mr.
John Tomlinson, a respectable farmer of Delaware. About thia
period he entered into business with his brothers, who were mil-
lers, and wished to avail thf mselves of his talents and ingenuity.
Here was an appropriate fieid for the display of a genius like his,
and ere long was commenced those series of improvements in the
construction of machinery and appurtenances of mills which effected
a complete revolution in the manufacture of flour. These improve,
ments consist of the invention and various application of the fol-
.owing machines, viz : The elevator, the conveyor, the hopper-
boy, the drill, and the descender, which five machines are var'" usly
4
73 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
applied in different mills according to their construction, so as to
perform every necessary movement of the grain and meal from
one part of the mill to the other, or from one machine to another,
through all the various operations, from the time the grain is emp-
tied from the wagoner's bag, or from the measure on board the
ship, until it is completely manufactured into flour, separated, and
ready for packing ; all of which is performed by the force of the water,
without the aid of manual labor, except to set the different machines in
motion. The advantages derived from tht se improvements are great
in almost every respect, not only causing a saving of full one half
in the labor of attendance, but manufacturing the flour better, and
making about twenty-eight pounds of superfine flour more to each
barrel than was made by the old method.*
These improvements were completed in theory as early as 1783,
but were not carried into operation until a year or two later ; and
then before they perfectly succeeded, many alterations were to be
made, and great difficulties to surmount. Although the result ex-
ceeded expectation, yet the opposition which was experienced ren-
dered their introduction into general use extremely laborious. To
promote this object, Mr. Evans furnished his brother with the ne-
cessary funds, and despatched him through the country to establish
them. He travelled through the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, and Virginia, offering the inventions gratis to the first in
each county who would adopt them. After considerable expense
he returned wholly unsuccessful, and without any favorable pros,
pects for the future. The Brandy wine millers in particular op-
posed their adoption with all their influence, until they were in use
in several mills around them. At length they held a consultation,
and deputed one of their number to Mr. Evans to make proposals
as to the terms on which they would try the experiment, which
were nearly in the words following, viz : " Oliver, we have had a
meeting, and agreed that if thou would furnish all the materials, and
thy own boarding, and come thyself to set up the machinery, in one
of our mills, thee may come and try, and if it answers a valuable
purpose, we will pay thy bill, but if it does not answer, thee must
take it all out again, and leave the mill just as thee finds it, at thy
own expense." The principles having already been tested, and
there millers knowing Mr. Evans' reduced circumstances at the
* When Mr. Evans' milling improvements came into popular use, it was esti-
mated that at Ellicott's mills, near Baltimore, where three hundred and twenty-
five barrels of flour were daily manufactured, that in expense of attendance alone,
there was an annual saving of four thousand right hundred and seventy-Jive dollars,
and that the saving made by the increased amount manufactured, was at least
fifty cents a barrel," amounting to a gain in this department of thirty-tivo tho*
and five hundred dollars !
OLIVER EVANS. 73
time, he could but regard their propositions as a disposition to re-
tard and embarrass rather than to encourage or forward the im-
provement.
The following anecdotes which were related by Mr. Evans,
exhibit a strength of prejudice, on the part of these men, almost
inconceivable. When he had his inventions in full operation,
so that he could alone attend his mill with less fatigue than he
could before, even with the assistance of two men and a boy,
he invited the Brandywine millers to come and witness its opera-
tion. It so happened that some of them called on a day when he had
alone, both to attend the mill and make hay in an adjoining clover lot.
On seeing their approach, lie turned from them, thinking it best to
let them enter the mill, and finding it attending to itself would be
convincing and positive proof of the great utility of the improve-
ments. Entering, they ibund all the operations of cleaning, grind-
ing, and bolting going on without the intervention of a human hand,
with perfect regularity and despatch. In about half an hour, they
came to Mr. Evans, and requested him to explain the whole of the
operations, which he did willingly, but took care to inform them
that it was an " uncommon busy" day with him, for he had both to
attend the mill and make hay. After they left, Mr. Evans returned
to the lot, leaving the mill to attend itself, and rejoicing at the lucky
circumstance, not doubting but they were now fully convinced. But
to his astonishment, he soon learned that on their return, they had
reported to their neighboring millers, that the whole contrivance
was a set of " rattle traps," not worthy the attention of men of com-
mon sense ; which fixed more firmly the opposition of the rest to
the adoption of the improvement. Some time later, he exhibited
a model of his improved mill in the streets of Wilmington, Dela-
ware, which was to be sent to England. Some of the crowd called
to a Brandywine miller, as he happened to be passing, who was so
struck with its simplicity and perfection, together with the obser-
vations of those present, that he contracted with the inventor to
construct one for him. It. was soon put into operation in presence
of the neighboring millers ; and though the elevators and conveyors,
without the aid of human hands, brought the meal from the two
pair of stones, and the tail-flour from the bolts to the hopper-boy,
which spread it over the floor, stirring, fanning, and gathering it,
and attending the bolting hoppers at the same time, yet one of
them, in contradiction to the evidence of his own senses, exclaimed,
" It will not do ! it cannot do ! it is impossible it should do !"
The opposition of these millers cost him thousands of dollars in
fruitless attempts to establish his inventions. Wherever his agents
went, the inquiry was, "Have the Brandywine millers adopted
74 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
them ?" The answer was of course, " No !" which was generally
followed by this pertinent reply : " If those who are so much more
extensively engaged in the manufacture of flour do not think them
worthy their attention, they cannot certainly demand ours." This
treatment on the part of these men recoiled upon themselves, and
their obstinacy was such in adopting the improvements, that the
mills on the Brandy wine for a time lost their pre-eminence.
In the year 1786, Mr. Evans petitioned the legislature of Penn-
sylvania for the exclusive right to use his improvements in flour
mills, and steam carriages, in that state, and in the year follow-
ing presented a similar petition to the legislature of Maryland. In
the former instance he was only successful so far as to obtain the
privilege of the mill improvements : his representations concerning
steam carnages were considered as savoring too much of insanity
to deserve notice. He was more fortunate in Maryland, for, al-
though the steam project was laughed at, yet one of his friends, a
member, very judiciously observed that the grant could injure no
one, for he did not think that any man in the world had thought of
such a thing before, he therefore wished the encouragement might
be afforded, as there was a prospect that it would produce some-
thing useful. This kind of argument had its effect, and Evans
received all that he asked for, and from that period considered
himself bound in honor to the state of Maryland to produce a steam
carriage, as soon as his means would allow him.
For several years succeeding the granting of his petition by the
legislature of Maryland, Mr. Evans endeavored to obtain some
person of pecuniary resources to join with him in his plans ; and
for this purpose explained his views by drafts, and otherwise, to
some of the first mechanics in the country : although they appeared
in several instances to understand them, yet declined any assistance
from a fear of the expense and difficulty of their execution.*
In the year 1800 or 1801, Mr. Evans, never having found any
one willing to contribute to the expense, or even to encourage him
in his efforts, determined to construct a steam carriage at his own
expense. Previous to commencing he explained his views to Ro-
bert Patterson, professor of mathematics in the University of Penn-
sylvania, and to an eminent English engineer. They both de-
* I certify that Oliver Evans did, about the year 1789, communicate a project
to me of propelling land carriages by the power of steam, and did solicit me to
join with him in the profits of the same. LEVI HOLLINGSWORTH.
Baltimore, Nov. 16, 1812.
1 do certify that about 1781, (thirty-one years ago,) Oliver Evans, in conversa-
tion with me, declared that by the power of steam he could drive any thing;
wagons, mills, or vessels by the same T ower. ENOCH ANDERSON.
November 15, 1812.
OLIVER iiiVANS. 75
clared the principles new to them, and advised the plan, as highly
worthy of a fair experiment. These were the only persons who
nad any confidence, or afforded encouraging advice. He alsa
communicated his plans to Mr. B. F. Latrobe, a highly scientific
gentleman, who publicly pronounced them as chimerical, and at-
tempted to demonstrate the absurdity of Mr. Evans' principles in
his report to the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania, on steam
engines : in which he also endeavored to show the impossibility of
making steamboats useful. In this report, Mr. Evans is one of
the persons alluded to, as being seized with the " steam mania"
but the liberality of the society caused them to reject that portion
of the paper, conceiving that they had no right to set up their opin-
ions as an obstacle in the way of any exertions to make a discovery,
although they did not reject that gentleman's demonstrations respect
ing steamboats.
In consequence of the determination previously alluded to, Mi.
Evans commenced and had made considerable progress in the
construction of a steam carriage, when the idea occurred to him,
that as his steam engine was altogether different in form, as well
as in principle, from any other in use, a patent could be obtained
for it, and then applied to mills, more profitably than to carriages.
The steam carriage was accordingly laid aside for a season of more
leisure, and the construction of a small engine was commenced,
with a cylinder six inches in diameter, and piston of eighteen inches
stroke, for a mill to grind plaster of Paris. The expense of its
construction far exceeded Mr. Evans' calculations, and before the
engine was finished he found it cost him all he was worth. He
had then to begin the world anew, at the age of forty-eight, with a
targe family to support, and that too with a knowledge, that if the
trial failed his credit would be entirely ruined, and his prospects
for the remainder of life dark and gloomy. But fortune favored
him, and his success was complete.
In a brief account given by himself of his experiments in steam,
he says, " I could break and grind three hundred bushels of plaster
of Paris, or twelve tons, in twenty-four hours ; and to show its
operations more fully to the public, I applied it to saw stone, on
the side of Market-street, where the driving of twelve saws in
heavy frames, sawing at the rate of one hundred feet of marble in
twelve hours, made a great show and excited much attention. I
thought this was sufficient to convince the thousands of spectators
of the utility of my discovery, but I frequently heard them inquire
if the power could be applied to saw timber, as well as stone, to
grind grain, propel boats, &c., and though I answered in the affirm.
ative, they still doubted. I therefore determined to apply my
76 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
engine to al. new uses ; to introduce it and them to the public.
This experiment completely tested the correctness of my principles.
The power of my engine rises in a geometrical proportion, while
the consumption of fuel has only an arithmetical ratio ; in such
proportion that every time I added one fourth more to the consump-
tion of the fuel, its powers were doubled ; and that twice the quan-
'tity of fuel required to drive one saw, would drive sixteen saws at
least ; for when I drove two saws the consumption was eight bushels
of coal in twelve hours, but when twelve saws were driven, the
consumption was not more than ten bushels ; so that the more we
resist the steam, the greater is the effect of the engine. On these
principles veiy light but powerful engines can be made suitable for
propelling boats and land carriages, without the great encumbrance
of their*weight as mentioned in Latrobe's demonstration."
In the year 1804, Mr. Evans, by order of the board of health of
Philadelphia, constructed at his works, situated a mile and a half
from the water, a machine for cleaning docks.* It consisted of a
large flat or scow, with a steam engine of the power of five horses
on board, to work machinery, in raising the mud into scows.
This was considered a fine opportunity to show the public that his
engine could propel both land and water conveyances. When the
machine was finished, he fixed, in a rough and temporary manner,
wheels with wooden axletrees, and of course, under the influence of
great friction. Although the whole weight was equal to two hundred
barrels of flour, yet his small engine propelled it up Market-street,
and round the circle to the water works, where it was launched
into the Schuylkill. A paddle wheel was then applied to its stern,
and it thus sailed down that river to the Delaware, a distance of
sixteen miles, leaving all vessels that were under sail at least half
way, (the wind being ahead,) in the presence of thousands "of spec-
tators, which he supposed would have convinced them of the prac-
ticability of steamboats and steam carriages. But no allowance
was made by the public for the disproportion of the engine to its
load, nor for the rough manner in which the machinery was fixed,
or the great friction and ill form of the boat, but it was supposed
that this was the utmost it could perform. Some individuals under-
took to ridicule this experiment of driving so great a weight on
land, because the motion was too slow to be useful. The inventor
silenced them by answering that he would make a carriage
propelled by steam, for a wager of three thousand dollars, to run
upon a level road, against the swiftest horse that could be produced.
This machine Evans named the Oructor Amphibolis, which is
* This was the first applicatic :. to the important but now common operation
of dredging. American edition oj .Vood's Treatise on Rail Roads.
OLIVER EVANS. 79
believed to have been the first application, in America, of steam
power to the propelling of land carriages.
On the 25th of September, 1804, Evans submitted to the consi-
deration of the Lancaster turnpike company, a statement of the
costs and profits of a steam carriage to carry one hundred barrels
of flour, fifty miles in twenty -four hours ; tending to show, that one
such steam carriage would make more nett profits than ten wagons,
drawn by five horses each, on a good turnpike road, and offering
to build one at a very low price. His address closed as follows :
" It is too much for an individual to put in operation every improve-
ment which he may invent. I have no doubt but that my engines
will propel boats against the current of the Mississippi, and wagons
on turnpike roads, with great profit. I now call upon those whose
interest it is, to carry this invention into effect. All which is re-
spectfully submitted to your consideration." Little or no attention
was paid to the offer.
Had Evans received the patronage and pecuniary assistance
that fell to the lot of Fulton, there is no doubt but he might have
shown steamboats in operation fifteen or twenty years previous
to the successful experiments of that ingenious individual. This
probability is strengthened by the fact, that his engine, the first*
ever invented on the high-pressure principle, is the only one that
can be applied on railways, and is now in universal use on the
Mississippif and other rapid rivers, where great power is required.
* " It is scarcely necessary to mention to the American reader, that the claim
respecting the high pressure steam and locomotive engines to which the English
assert,' is entirely without foundation. The application of steam in this manner
and to these purposes had, indeed, been contemplated, but never reduced to
practice until the experiments alluded to. In early life, Mr. Evans sent Mr.
Joseph Sampson to England with the drawings and specifications of his steam
engines, &c. They were exhibited to numerous engineers, and his plans were
copied by Messrs. Vivian and Trevithick, without any acknowledgment : the
latter persons acquired fame and fortune, while the ingenious, bui eccentric
Evans, died poor, neglected, and broken-hearted. Fitch, Fulton, and Evans,
exhibit a singular coincidence in their history. Posterity will, at least, render '
them the tardy recompense of justice. America may, therefore, claim the invention
of locomotive engines with even more justice than that of steamboats, inventions
which are destined to revolutionize the commerce and defence of nations."
Amer. Edit, of Wood's Treatise on Railroads.
t " Mr. Evans wrote in 1802 to gentlemen in Kentucky, informing them he
had got his engine in motion, which he had long before invented, for propelling
boats and carriages. These letters were shown to Captain James M'Keaver,
who associated with Mr. Louis Valcourt, to build a steamboat to ply between
New Orleans and Natchez. Valcourt came to Philadelphia to employ Mr. Evans
to make a steam engine, while the captain should build a boat eighty feet keel,
and eighteen feet beam. Two of Mr. Evans' company of workmen went with
the engine to meet the boat at New Orleans, to set it up, which they completed,
and the boat was ready for experiment ; but by this time the water had subsided,
and left the boat half a mile from the water : their money being expended, their
credit exhausted, and the river not expected to rise in less than six months ! In
4*
80 AMERICAN MECHANIC&
While Evans' conceptions respecting the power of steam reflect
the highest credit upon his sagacity and talent, his predictions of
its application may well be termed prophetic. In some of his
writings, published in the early part of the present century, he re-
marks : " The time will come when people will travel in stages,
moved by steam engines, from one city to another, almost as last
as birds fly, fifteen or twenty miles an hour. Passing through the
air with such velocity, changing the scene in such rapid succession,
will be the most rapid exhilarating exercise. A carriage (steam)
will set out from Washington in the morning, the passengers will
breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup in New York
the same day. To accomplish this, two sets of railways will be
laid, so nearly level as not in any way to deviate more than two
degrees from a horizontal line, made of wood or iron, or smooth
paths of broken stone or gravel, with a rail to guide the carriages
*o that they may pass each other in different directions, and travel
by night as well as by day. Engines will drive boats ten or twelve
miles per hour, and there will be many hundred steamboats run-
ning on the Mississippi, as predicted years ago."
After a lapse of years, as the improvements in the manufacture
of flour gradually came into popular use, the inducements to in-
fringe upon Evans' rights increased, until he was obliged to appeal
for redress to the United States circuit court of Pennsylvania, but,
through some informality in the patent, an unfavorable decision
was given. Thus was he deprived of all means of recovering
what was so justly due. Agreeably to the request of counsel, he
then petitioned congress for a new patent. In stating his case, he
observed, " that he had been at a great expense in publishing and
disseminating these inventions, travelling either by himself or agents
this predicament, Mr. William Donaldson offered them money to take the engine
out of the boat, and set it to drive a saw-mill, that could go" only by the waters
of the river overflowing its banks, and was then standing. Their necessities
compelled them to accept the offer. When they got the saw-mill gains, they
wrote that to their astonishment the engine was sawing three thousand feet of
boards per day of twelve hours, which hail been selling at the enormous price
of fifty to sixty dollars per one thousand feet ; that they were now convinced
there could be no doubt that the steamboat would have succeeded beyond their
expectations ; that they would soon retrieve their losses, and would order an-
other engine for the boat. But, alas ! their fair prospects were soon blasted ;
for there, too, were some of the wise opposers of improvements. This mill was
likely to deprive some who sawed lumber by hand of profitable jobs, and it was
set on fire ; the two first attempts the fire was discovered in time to be extin-
guished ; but in the third, those infernal incendiaries had like to have succeeded
not only in destroying the mill, but with it those who had slept in it, to guard it.
Thus were two noble and enterprising men ruined, in the most laudable attempts
to establish steamboats on the Mississippi. They had expended fifteen thousand
dollars, and would have succeeoed three or four'years before Fulton and Living-
ston, out for the reasons above stated." Patent Right Oppression Exposed.
OLIVER EVANS. g]
for thirteen years, throughout the country, from state to state, and
from mill to mill, to instruct workmen in their manufacture, and
millers their use : and in this way had expended the small fees
which were received from those who had generously and freely
paid for their license." These arguments were so clearly founded
on justice, that government could not but listen to his claims, and
the petition was granted, January 21, 1808.
Ere long, a memorial was presented to congress by John Wor-
thington, Elisha Tyson, and other interested millers, against Oliver
Evans, stating " that the public had been grossly deceived in re-
gard to Evans being the original inventor of his patented mill
machines ; for, so far from having invented ALL, he was not the
original inventor of any of them : and that they could not believe
that those in authority intended to let loose upon the community
this exorbitant monopolist with so grievous and despotic a power
They therefore petitioned to have the subject once more taker
into consideration." Evans immediately presented a counter me
morial, in which he completely proved the falsity of their state
ments, and the interested motives of his opponents. Independent
of this, some of the most prominent* individuals in the community,
on this and other occasions, came forward unsolicited with their
testimony in his behalf. In the result, Evans was sustained.
* The following, among other statements, was furnished by the well-knowr
editor of Miles' Register, on the occasion of some of Mr. Evans' lawsuits :
" The subscriber, unsolicited by, and unknown to Oliver Evans, feels it du
to truth and justice to state his recollections of the mill machinery. He well
remembers, when at the Brandywine mills, they used to hoist the flour from the
lower story to the loft, in large buckets or tubs, filled by shovels from the chests
into which the flour fell from the millstones: he has also frequently seen a man
employed at these mills in heaping the flour over the hopper to let it pass into
the boiting cloth below. Born in the neighborhood of these mills, and passing
his infancy and youth at Wilmington, within half a mile of them; and going
there to swim and to skate, as well as for other juvenile amusements, the place
presenting delightful advantages for their enjoyment, he has passed through
those mills, or some of them, many hundred times before and since the improve
ments were introduced. His young mind was much pleased to observe the little
buckets (the elevator,) supplying. the place of the large one, above alluded to;
and he was much amused to see the labors of the hopper-boy, that spread, cooled,
and collected the meal, without manual labor, to the spot where it was wanted ;
nor was he less agreeably surprised at the operation of the conveyor, that, while
. cooled the flour, passed it on to the place where the elevator caught it. He
:lsc recollects to have heard it stated that the introduction of this machinery
would ^row more than twenty persons out of employ at Brandywine ; and
always understood that these imwvations on the old mode of manufacturing flour
were made by Oliver Evans.
" While writing the above, an old schoobnate is at my elbow, who has pre-
cisely the same recollections. Neither of us pretend to know that Oliver Evans
really invented those things ; but are certain that common fame gave him the
credit of them at the time they were introduced at (he Brandywine mills.
" H. NILES,
" Baltimore, Feb. 10, 1813. ' " Editor of the .
:'
82 AMERICAN MECHANICS
A few years subsequent to his marriage, Mr. Evans removed to
Philadelphia, where he finally established an iron foundry and
steam factory. Here he prepared his two works for the press, viz.
the Young Millwright's and the Young Steam Engineer's Guides,
productions every way worthy of their author. In 1810, his two
sons-in-law, Messrs. James Rush and David Muhlenburg, joined
and continued in business with him until the time of his decease,
which took olace from an inflammation of the lungs, April 21st,
1819.
SAMUEL SLATER.
SAMUEL SLATER,
THE FATHER OF THE AMERICAN COTTON MANTTFACTTTRES.
Birth. Is apprenticed to the partner of Arkwright in the business of cotton
spinning. Fondness for experiments in machinery. Improves the " heart
motion." Industry. Appointed overseer. Anecdote. Forms the idea of
coining to America. Is obliged to leave secretly. Adventures in London.
Sails for the United States. Obtains a temporary employment. Dispiriting
results of the attempts to establish the cotton manufacture previous to his
arrival. Applies to Moses Brown. Visits Pawtucket. Enters into the cotton
business with Messrs. Almy and Brown. Low state of manufactures. Dis-
appointment. Agrees to erect the Arkwright patents. Affecting anecdote.
Forms a tender attachment. Builds the " Old Mill" at Pawtucket. Preju
dice. Prosperity. Extension of the cotton manufacture. Establishes the
first American Sunday school. Character. Conclusion of his domestic his
tory. Death. Tribute to his memory.
WE, of the present day, in witnessing the extent and variety
of our manufactures, can scarcely realize the low state in which
they were, some forty or fifty years since : nor, without investi-
gation, can we form any conception of the difficulties incident to
their establishment. In none were they so formidable as in the
cotton manufacture : and it is judged that he, who forsook the
endearments of home for a land of strangers, to seek its estab-
lishment among us, certainly claims a place amid the other char-
acters that comprise this volume.
The subject of this memoir* was born at Belper, in Derbyshire,
England, June 9, 1768. His father was one of those independent
yeomanry who farm their own lands, forming a distinct class from
the tenantry. Young Slater received the advantages of an ordi-
nary English education ; and while at school, manifested a general
fondness for study, but more particularly for that of arithmetic, one
by far the most important in disciplining the mind for the business
of life a talent almost universal with those who become distin-
guished for mechanical ingenuity.
The cotton spinning business, at this time in its infancy, was
carried on in the neighborhood by Jedediah Strutt, the partner of
* See White's ' Memoir of Slater ; connected with a History of the Rise and
Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in England and America: with Remarks
on the Moral Influence of Manufactories in the United States ;" a wcrk con
laining a great deal of valu,".bl * and interesting information.
86 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
the celebrated Arkwright. Mr. Slater having frequent intercourse
with Mr. Strutt, made an agreement with him to take his son into his
employment. In August of the same year, young Slater lost his
father ; and thus, at the early age of fourteen, was left his own
master. A short time subsequent to this event, his employer
asked him if he intended to continue in the business. Previous
to giving a decisive answer, he inquired his opinion of its perma-
nency. The reply was, that it would not probably continue as
good as then, but, under proper management, would doubtless
always be a fair business. So little did even its founders foresee
the vast extension to which it was designed, and the astonishing
change in politics, commerce, and the relations of states to each
other, which have been the consequence. Indeed, all the cotton
manufacture of England was then confined to a small district in
Derbyshire, and its whole amount not greater than that done at
the present day in a single village in New England.
Young Slater early manifested the bent of his mind, frequently
spending his Sundays alone in making experiments in machinery ;
and for six months was without seeing any of his friends, though
living only a mile from home. This was not from a want of filial
or fraternal affection, but solely through devotion to his employ,
ment. As showing the propensity and experfness of his mind at
this period, the following circumstance is related : His master in
vain endeavored to improve the " heart motion " so as to raise or
enlarge the yarn in the middle, in order to contain more on the
bobbin. Slater seeing through the difficulty, went to work, and
the next Sunday (his only spare time) succeeded in that, which his
employer, with all his ingenuity, was unable to effect. This gen.
eral application on Slater's part was not without its benefits ; his
employers gained so much confidence in his business habits and
industry, that during the last four or five years of his stay with
them he was engaged as an overseer. This general oversight,
with his close habits of observation, eventually proved of incalcu-
lable service.
Slater was fortunate in having for his employer a man of so
much stability and integrity, who took a great deal of pains to
properly mould his "character and habits. He was, like all other
business men, a strict economist in that which related to his pro-
fession, and would often enforce his maxims on his young protege.
As an illustration, the following anecdote is related : When
Suiter was yet a boy, he passed by some loose cotton on the floor ;
Mr. Strutt called him back, with a request to pick it up, for it was
by attending to such small things that great fortunes were accumu.
lated ; at the same time observing to his wife, by way of impress.
SAMUEL SLATER. 87
ing it more strongly on the mind of his favorite apprentice, that he
** was afraid that Samuel would never be rich."
Slater faithfully served his indenture with Mr. Strutt. This
accomplishment of his full time was characteristic with him, and
was praiseworthy and beneficial, as it laid the fovindation of his
adaptation to business, and finally to its perfect knowledge.
He early turned his attention to the United States, as affor.ling
a vast field for enterprise in his department. This originated
partially from an apprehension that the business would be ruined
by competition in his native country, and, with this idea, he would
seek every means to gain information. The motives which
finally induced him to leave, were the various rumors which
reached Derbyshire of the anxiety of the different state govern,
ments here to encourage manufactures. Slater was more strongly
confirmed in this determination on observing a newspaper account
of a liberal bounty granted by the legislature of Pennsylvania to a
person who had imperfectly succeeded in constructing a carding
machine, to make rolls for jennies ; and the knowledge, too, that a
society had been authorized by the same legislature for the promo-
tion of manufactures.
Having made due preparation, he secretly, and without divulging
his plans to even a single individual, bid farewell to the home of
his childhood. What were his feelings in gazing, for the last time,
on the countenances of his mother, brothers, and sisters, only those
who have been in similar circumstances can imagine ; his young
heart was full, but a youthful ambition fired his soul, and enabled
him to overcome his emotions. While waiting in London until
the vessel was ready, he wrote to his friends, informing them of
his plans, but, for obvious reasons, did not put the letter into the
office until ready to embark.
The ship being ready, Mr. Slater embarked, Sept. 1st, 1789,
being at that time only a few months over twenty-one years of
age. He was aware of the danger incurred in leaving England
as a machinist, and therefore took no drawings of any sort, trust-
ing solely to the powers of his memory to enable him to construct
the most complicated of machinery. Indeed, he had no writing
with him excepting his indenture, which was his sole introduction
to the western world. After a tedious passage of sixty-six days,
he arrived in New York. Here he obtained a temporary employ
ment, until something permanent should arise.
Previous to Slater's arrival in America, every attempt to spin
cotton warp or twist, or any other yarn, by water power, had
totally failed, and every effort to import the patent machinery of
England had proved abortive. Much interest had been excited in
68 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
Phik Jdprna, New York, Beverly, Massachusetts, and Providence
but it was found impossible to compete with the superior machin.
ery of Derbyshire.' Distrust and despondency had affected the
* At a meeting held in Boston a few years since, on the subject of opening a
railroad to Albany, the infant difficulties of our manufactures weie thus adverted
tc by Mr. Hallet :
" We talk now of the future, in regard to railways, with doubt, as of an exne-
riment yet to be tested, and many look upon the calculations of the sanguine as
mere speculating dreams. Here is a new avenue about to be opened to the de-
velopment of resources, and yet men hesitate to go forward. Let us test what
we can reasonably anticipate in this, by what we know has happened, in the
development of resources once deemed quite as visionary, through another me-
dium of industry and enterprise domestic manufactures. There is not an adult
among us who cannot remember the time when it was a source of mortification
to be dressed in homespun. Now, pur own fabrics are among the best and
richest stuffs of every day consumption, and the products of our looms are pre-
ferred even in foreign countries. Forty years ago, who would have dared to
conjure up the visions of such manufacturing cities as Lowell, and Fall River,
your Ware, Waltham, and the hundreds of flourishing villages which now con-
stitute the most prosperous communities in this commonwealth ? How small
and feeble was the beginning of all this! In 1787, the first cotton mill in this
state was got up in Beverly, by John Cabot and others, and in three years it was
nearly given up, in consequence of the difficulties which the first beginning of
the development of the vast resources of domestic industry, in our state, had to
encounter. I hold in my hand," said Mr. Hallet, " a document of uncommon
interest, on this subject, found in the files of the Massachusetts senate ; which
will show the early struggles of domestic manufactures, and the doubts enter-
tained of their success, more forcibly than any fact that can be stated. It is the
petition of the proprietors of the little Beverly cotton mill, in 1790, for aid from
the legislature to save them from being compelled to abandon the enterprise
altogether. This petition was referred to the committee of both houses for the
encouragement of arts, agriculture, and manufactures, (of which Nathaniel
Gorham was chairman ;) and with all the lights which that intelligent commit-
tee then had on this subject, destined to become one of the greatest means of
developing resources ever opened to national prosperity, they cautiously reported
that 'from the best information we can obtain, we are of opinion that the said
manufactory is of great public utility. But owing to the great expenses incurred
in providing machines, and other incidents usually attending a new business, the
said manufactory is upon the decline, and unless some public assistance can be
afforded, is in danger of failing. Your committee therefore report, as their
opinion, that the petitioners have a grant of one thousand pounds, to be raised
in a lottery :' on condition that they give bonds that the money be actually ap-
propriated in such a way as will most effectually promote the ' manufacturing'
of cotton piece goods in this commonwealth Where now is the little
Beverly cotton mill ? And what has been the mighty development of resources
in domestic industry in forty-five years, since the date of that petition, when the
wisest men among us had got no farther than to a belief that the said manufac-
tory was of great public utility ! Is there any vision of the great public utility of
railways," sakl Mr. Hallet, " which can go beyond what now is, and what will
be in forty years, that can exceed in contrast what we know once was and now
is, in the development of resources by the investment of capital and industry in
domestic manufactures ? The petitioners for the little Beverly cotton mill were
doubtless deemed to be absurdly extravagant, when they hinted that the manu
facture of cottons would one day not only afford a supply for domestic consump-
tion, but a staple for exportation. But what do we now see? Our domestic
fabrics find a market in every clime, and vessels, lying at your wharves, are
eceiving these goods to export to Calcutta.
" The world is beginning to understand the true uses of wealth, to develop
SAMUEL SLATER. 99
strongest minds, disappointment and repeated loss of property had
entirely disheartened these pioneers in the production of home-
spun cloth. To the subject of this memoir belongs the honor of
having solely, by his own personal knowledge and skill, constructed
and put in motion the whole series of Arkwright's patents, and in
such perfect operation, as to produce as good yarn and cotton
cloth of various descriptions as the English.
In the course of Slater's inquiries for the most eligible place
as the scene of his first essay in America, he was informed that
attempts had lately been made in Providence and its vicinity,
under the auspices of Moses Brown, who was in want of a manager
in spinning. He immediately addressed a letter to Mr. Brown,
and received in reply a veiy urgent request to render his service?.
In this letter he offered Slater, if he could work the machinery
they had on hand, all the profits of the business, and held out the
promise of the credit, as well as the advantages of perfecting the
first water mill in America.
Arrangements were entered into between Almy, Brown, and
Slater, to commence cotton spinning at Pawtucket.
the resources of the country ; and it is in great enterprises, which benefit the
public more than those immediately concerned in them, that we have a practical
demonstration of the doctrine of the greatest good of the greatest number.
Much is said, and more feared, about the divisions of the rich and the poor.
But in truth, in our happy institutions, we need have no poor, forming a distinct
class among the citizens. Where is your populace, your rabble? is an inquiry
which has often puzzled the foreigner who has passed through our streets when
thronged by a multitude. We have no populace no rabble, but free and inde-
pendent citizens. What has made them so ? The development of our resources.
What has stopped the tide of emigration that once threatened to depopulate New
England 1 The development of our resources. Go on developing these resources,
and there need be no fear of setting the poor against the rich, for there will
be no poor to set against them. All will be rich, for they will have enough ;
and no man is in reality any richer for possessing what he cannot use. When
men of capital are found hoarding it, holding it back from enterprises, and cau
tious of doing any thing to develop the resources of a community, there is then
just cause to fear the operation of unequal and injurious distinctions. Take ,
from industry and enterprise the means of acquiring wealth, cut off commerce,
manufactures, canals, and railways, and you will lay the surest foundation pos-
sible for t.he despotism of one class over another. But open all these great
resources to all extend your facilities of intercourse throughout the country,
and you cannot repress the energies of men ; you cannot keep them poor long
enough to mark them as a class. Your gradations in society will be stepped
over, forward and backward, so often, that no distinct line can be kept ap. This
is the vnst moral power, which is exerted on society by the investment of capital
for public benefit, without unjust privileges ; in great projects. Here are the
true uses of wealth, in a government like ours, and this great specific lies at the
bottom of the philosophy of our political economy. Develop the resources of
the country place the means of wealth within the reach of industry, and you
produce the happy medium in society. All will then move forward evenly, as
on the level of a railroad, with occasional inclined planes and elevations, but
oone that can stop the powerful locomotives which impel forward every New
Englander enterprise and moral energy"
90 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
A few days subsequent to his arrival in Providence, Mr. Brown
took him to view the machinery in a mill which he had erected
at Pawtucket. On examination, Mr. Slater felt dispirited ; and
shaking his head, observed, " these will not do they are good
for nothing in their present condition, nor can they be made to
answer." After various disappointments, it was proposed that he
should erect the series of machines called the Arkwright patents.
This he promised to perform, provided he was furnished with a
man to work on wood, who should be under bonds not to steal the
patterns, or disclose the nature of the works. " Under my pro-
posals," says he, " if I do not make as good yarn as they do in
England, I will have nothing for my services, but will throw the
whole of what I have attempted over the bridge."
On the 21st of December, 1790, Mr. Slater started three cards,
drawing, roving, and seventy-two spindles, which were operated
by an old fulling-mill water-wheel in a clothier's shop at the western
end of Pawtucket bridge. In this place they continued the spin-
ning until the subsequent erection of the " old mill,*' so called.
The difficulties under which these first measures towards the
establishment of the business were pursued, can hardly be con-
ceived at the present day, even by a practical machinist or manu-
facturer. The basin of the Narragansett bay, and the small, but
invaluable streams that fall into it on every side, did not, at that
early day, form, as they now do, a continuous hive of mechanical
industry, enterprise, and skill, where every sort of material, and
even the most minute subdivision of handicraft ingenuity, can be
procured at will. There were no magazines or workmen. With
the exception of scythes, anchors, horse-shoes, ploughs, nails,
cannon, shot, and a few other articles of iron, there was no
staple manufacture for exportation. The mechanism then applied
in their manufacture was almost as simple as the first impulse of
water or steam. Even the side motion of the card machine had
not been adopted ; the first hint for its use having been obtained
several years after. Although Mr. Slater had full confidence in
his own remembrance of every part, and ability to perfect the
work, he found it next to an impossibility to get those who could
make any thing like his models. But there are few difficulties
that can discourage an ingenious, enterprising, and determined
mind. The various materials required for the first machines were
collected at much expense from different parts of the country, and
young Slater's own skill and perseverance supplied the place of
other mechanics.
It was now, when he flattered himself with an entire success,
that an unforeseen difficulty arose. After the frames were ready
SAMUEL SLATER. 91
tor operation, he prepared the cotton and started the cards, but it
rolled up on the top cards instead of passing through the small
cylinder. This was the cause of the greatest perplexity, and days
were passed in the utmost anxiety as to the final result. On
advising with his assistant and pointing out the defect, he per-
ceived that the teeth of the cards were not crooked enough ; as
they had no good card leather, the punctures were made by hand,
and consequently were too large, so that the teeth fell back from
their proper place. Luckily it occurred to them to beat the teeth
with a piece of grindstone ; this gave them the proper crook, and,
to their joy and relief, the machinery worked perfectly.
On Slater's arrival in Pawtucket, he was introduced into the
worthy family of Mr. Oziel Wilkinson as a boarder. These
people were Quakers, and became greatly interested in the young
stranger ; they have since described his conduct during the diffi-
culty just alluded to. When leaning his head over the fire-place,
they heard him utter deep sighs, and frequently observed the tears
roll from his eyes. He said but little of his fears and apprehen-
sions ; but Mrs. Wilkinson, perceiving his distress, with a motherly
kindness inquired, " Art thou sick, Samuel ?" He then explained
to them the nature of his trial, and showed the point on which he
was most tender. " If," said he, " I am frustrated in my carding
machine, they will think me an impostor." He was apprehensive
that no suitable cards could be obtained, short of England ; and
from thence none were allowed to be exported.
While in this family, a tender attachment arose between him-
self and one of its female members, Miss Hannah Wilkinson.
He was happy in fixing his affections so soon on one who loved
him, and one so worthy ; this was the loadstone that served to
bind him to the place, when every thing else appeared dreary and
discouraging. Her parents being Friends, could not consistently
give consent to her marriage out of the society, and talked of
sending her away some distance to school, which occasioned Mr.
Slater to say, " You may send her where you please, but I will
follow her to the ends of the earth." Though absorbed in per-
plexing business, his hours of relaxation were cheering ; he spent
them in telling Hannah and her sister the story of his early life,
the tales of his home, of his family connections, and of his
father land.
This introduction was one of the favorable circumstances that
finally secured his success. Here was found a father and mother,
who were kind to him as to their own son. He was not distrust-
ful of his ability to support a family did not wait to grow rich
before marriage, but was willing to take his bride for better and
92 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
for worse ; and she received the young stranger as the man of
her choice, the object of her first love. This connection with
Oziel 'Wilkinson was of great service to him, as a stranger, inex-
perienced in the world beyond his peculiar sphere. Besides, it is
well known, that sixty years since, the contrast of character of
New England men and manners, and other peculiarities, were
very great between the two countries. No one knows the heart
of a stranger but he who has been from home in a strange land,
without an old acquaintance, without a tried friend to whom he
could unbosom his anxieties without confidence in those around
him, and others without confidence towards him. Mr. Slater's
own experience taught him ever to treat the numerous strangers
who flocked to him for advice, assistance, or employment, with
marked attention, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Early in 1793, Alrny, Brown, and Slater built a small factory
in Pawtucket, which is now called the " Old Mill," where they
slowly added to their machinery as the sales of yarn increased.
The disposal of the yarn in market was at first found as difficult
as the first construction of the machinery for its manufacture.
Such are the prejudices of mankind, and their unwillingness to
break over long-established habits and opinions, that, superior as
was this yarn in material and durability to that imported, people
would hardly be convinced, even by actual experiment, that it was
possible to make good cotton yarn at home. That made by these
pioneers in American manufacture would sometimes be on hand
in large quantities, or could be got rid of only as " truck," whilst
the English made yarn was eagerly sought for at a much higher
price in money. In a note found among .Mr. Slater's papers, we
are informed that when the first saventy-two spindles and prepara-
tion had been at work only twenty months, " they had several
thousand pounds of yarn on hand, notwithstanding every exertion
was used to weave it up and sell it." The same difficulty was
experienced in the sale of yarn at intervals, until the introduction
of the power loom. Slow as was the advancement of spinning
until twenty years after its first establishment, it never attained
the advantage of a quick remunerating staple business until the
loom was placed beside the spinning frame, and propelled by the
same power. The power loom, twenty or thirty years ago, did
for the spinning frame what has since been done for the loom by
the printery, it furnished an immediate and ready consumption,
and a market ready for its products.*
* As an evidence of the vast improvements in the manufacture and cultura
of cotton, it is stated, that at the time of Slater's arrival in this country, good
cotton cloth was fifty cents a yard, and nr.ver lets than forty.
SAMUEL SLATER. frf,
It was only in 1799 that the sales of yarn became sufficiently
promising to induce another company to set up the second cotton
mill establishment in Rhode Island, and Messrs. Almy, Brown,
and Slater were encouraged to make very considerable additions
to the machinery in the ** Old Mill." Their subsequent business,
up to the year 1806, turned their attention to a more extended
investment in spinning, and from thenceforth it was continually on
the increase,
Mr. Slater was a philanthropist in its most important sense,
and ever manifested an interest in the welfare of those under his
charge. No sooner did he find his business collected young
people and children who were destitute of the means of instruc-
tion, than he commenced establishing a Sunday school in his own
house, sometimes instructing his scholars himself, but generally
hiring a person to perform that duty. This was the first Sunday
school in the United States ; and what appears to us not a little
singular, was regarded by some as an unhallowed innovation ;
one young man, the son of a clergyman, was at first deterred from
becoming a teacher, because his father considered it a profanation
of the Sabbath !
The impulse given to industry and production by the cotton
manufacture has not been confined to one branch alone, but has
been felt in every kind of employment useful to the community. We
need not in this place enlarge upon the close affinity and mutual de-
pendence of these various employments ; they are obvious to every
mind which has acquired the habit of tracing results to their causes
in the endless relations of society. As a general fact, it is un-
doubtedly true, that the advancement of our country in the manu-
factures^ wool and iron, has been greatly accelerated by the cotton
manufacture; and that those branches of industiy have always
been deeply affected by the temporary reverses which this branch
has experienced.
Mr. Slater was for many years, until the time of his death, con-
cerned in woollen and iron, as well as cotton manufactories, and his
observation and sagacity never suffered him to question the iden-
tity of their interests. There was another point in which bis
views and sentiments, though decried by some as too liberal an i
disinterested in any matter of business, were truly wise and saga-
cious, and fully concurred in by his partners. He always main-
tained that legislative protection would be as beneficial to himself
as to others ; to those already established in business and possess-
ing an ample capital, as those just commencing, with little or no
means. This opinion, notwithstanding all the huckstering calculations
and short sighted views of would-be monooolists, was certainly the
96 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
best for himself. Monopoly in this country, by ally men, or set of
men, subject to our laws, is unattainable, either by legislation or
combination. It is, or ought to be, excluded from all the calcula-
tions of a sober and practical business mind. There was, there-
fore, nothing in their preoccupation of the cotton business that gave
thorn an advantage over other domestic manufacturer^, except their
skill and capital. Of these advantages legislation could or would
not deprive them ; and with them on their side, they could extend
their investments as fast, certainly with as much profit, as those
who were without, or with capital only. In petitions and othei
means adopted by the manufacturing districts of our country, to
obtain this protection, Mr. Slater was ever a prominent and efficient
person.
Such are the outlines of the business life of a man, whose skill
and knowledge of detail was unrivalled, in a business which, up to
the time of his appearance, was unknown in this country, whose
commercial views were of the most liberal and enlightened char-
acter, whose energy, perseverance, and untiring diligence, aided
in his early efforts by the money and countenance of those who
justly appreciated his merits, and confidently anticipated his emi-
nence, have triumphed over obstacles which would have discouraged
others ; have given a new direction to the industry of his adopted
country, and opened a new and boundless field to its enterprise.
It has rarely fallen to the lot of any single individual to be made
an instrument, under Providence, of so much and such widely dif-
fused benefit to his fellow men, as this man has conferred upon
them, without any pretension to high-wrought philanthropy in the
ordinary, unostentatious pursuit of that profession to which he had
been educated.
Yet, unpretending as he was, and noiseless in that sublimated
charity which is now so fashionable and predominant, his sympathy
for the distressed, and his kindness and good-will for all, were ever
warm, active, practical sentiments ; based upon steadfast principles,
and aiming at the greatest attainable measure of good. In the
relief of immediate and pressing \vant, he was prompt and liberal ; in
the measures which he adopted for its prevention in future, he
fvinced paternal feeling and judicious forecast. Employment and
li!eral pay to the able bodied promoted regularity and cheerfulness
in the house, and drove the wolf from its door. " Direct charity, 51
he has been heard to say, " places its recipient under a sense of
obligation which trenches upon that independent spirit that all
should maintain. It breaks his pride, and he soon learns to beg
and eat the bread of idleness without a blush. But employ and
pay him, and he receives and envoys ~nhh an honest pride, that
SAMUEL SLATER. 97
which he knows he has earned, and could have received for the
same amount of labor from any other employer." It would be
well for all communities if such views on the subject of pauperism,
were generally adopted and carried into practice.
It is hardly'necessary to state of one who has done so much busi-
ness, and with so great success, that his business habits and
morals were of the highest character. The punctual performance
of every engagement, in its true spirit and meaning, was, with
him, a point of honor, from which no consideration of temporary or
prospective advantage would induce him to depart, from which
no sacrifice of money or feeling was sufficient to deter him.
There was a method and arrangement in his transactions, by which
every thing was duly and at the proper time attended to. Nothing
was hurried from its proper place, nothing postponed beyond its
proper time. It was thus that transactions, the most varied, intri-
cate, and extensive, deeply affecting the interests of three adjoining
states, and extending their influence to thousands of individuals,
proceeded from their first inception to their final consummation,
with an order, a regularity and certainty, truly admirable and in-
structive. The master's mind was equally present and apparent in
every thing, from the imposing mass of the total to the most minute
particular of its component parts.
Mr. Slater's private and domestic character was without a blem-
ish. He was twice married, and had four children, all sons, by
his first wife, and at his death left a pious and amiable widow,
formerly Mrs. Parkinson, of Philadelphia, with an ample dowry,
to receive from his family that protection and affection which her
motherly attention to them has so well deserved. He was a sin-
cere arid practical Christian, and died, April 21st. 1835, in the
cheering hopes and consolations which Christianity alone imparts.
We conclude this memoir with the following tribute to his mem-
ory, which is in substance the remarks of Mr. Tristam Burgess, in
his address before the Rhode Island Agricultural Society : " Forty
years ago there was not a spindle wrought by water on this side
the Atlantic. Since then, how immense the capital by which spin-
ning and weaving machinery are moved ! How many, how great,
how various, the improvements ! The farmers of Flanders erected
a statue in honor of him who introduced into their country the
culture of the potato. What shall the people of New England
do for him who first brought us the knowledge of manufacturing
cloth, by machinery moved by water ? In England, he would in
life be ornamented with a peerage, in death, lamented by a monu-
ment in Westminster Abbey. The name of Slater will be remem-
bered as one of our greatest public benefactors.
BLI WHITNEY
ELI WHITNEY,
THE INVENTOR OF THE COTTON GIN.
Birth. Anecdotes of his youth. Manufactures nails. Teaches school. By his
own exertions prepares for college. Anecdotes of his college life. Graduates.
Goes to Georgia as a teacher. Disappointment. Becomes an inmate in the
family of Gen. Greene. Ingenuity. Low state of the cotton culture. An in
troduction. Old method of separating the cotton from the seed. Invents the
cotton gin. Forms a co-partnership with Mr. Phineas Miller to manufacture
gins. Note, Description. The first machine stolen. Commencement of en-
croachments. Disastrous fire. A trial. Its unfortunate issue. Gloomy pros-
pects. South Carolina purchases the patent right for that state. Enters into
a similar engagement with North Carolina and Tennessee. South Carolina
and Tennessee annul their contracts. Increasing encroachments. South
Carolina Legislature, of 1804, rescind the act of annulment. Death of Mr.
Miller. Celebrated decision of Judge Johnson. Lawsuits. Commences
manufacturing arms for government. Difficulties to be surmounted. De-
scription of the system. Rejection of the memorial to congress for a renewal
of the patent right on the cotton gin. Marriage. Death. A comparison.
Character.
To the efforts of Whitney, our country is indebted for the value
of her great staple. While the invention of the cotton gin has
been the chief source of the prosperity of the southern planter, the
northern manufacturer comes in for a large share of the benefit
derived from the most important offspring of American ingenuity.
Eli Whitney* was born in Westborough, Worcester county,
Massachusetts, December 8th, 1765. His parents belonged to
that respectable class in society, who, by the labors of husbandly,
manage, bv uniform industry, to provide well for a rising family,
a class from whom have arisen most of those who, in New Eng-
land, have attained to high eminence and usefulness.
The following incident, though trivial in itself, will serve to show
at how early a period certain qualities, of strong feeling tempered
by that discretion for which Mr. Whitney afterwards became dis-
tinguished, began to display themselves. When he was six or
seven years old, he had overheard the kitchen maid, in a fit of
passion, calling his mother, who was in a delicate state of health, hard
names, at which he expressed great displeasure to his sister. " She
* Condensed from the able memoir by Professor Olmstsd, published ID tha
twenty-first volume of Silliman's Journal.
102 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
thought," said he, "that I was not big enough to know any thing;
but I can tell her, I am too big to hear her talk so about my mother.
] think she ought to have a flagging, and if I knew how to bring it
about, she should have one." His sister advised him to tell their
father. " No," hi replied, " that will not do ; it will hurt his feelings
and mother's too; and besides, its likely the girl will say she never
said so, and that would make a quarrel. It is best to say notliing
about it."
Indications of his mechanical genius were likewise developed at
a very eariy age. Of his early passion for such employments, his
sister gives the following account. " Our father had a workshop,
and sometimes made wheels, of different kinds, and chairs. He
had a variety of tools, ana a lathe for turning chair posts. This
gave my brother an opportunity of learning the use of tools when
very young. He lost no tune, but as soon as be could handle
tools he was always making something in the shop, and seemed
not to like working on the form. On a time, after the death of
our mother, when our father had been absent from home two or
three days, on his return, he inquired of the housekeeper, what the
boys bad been doing. She told him what B. and J. had been
about. 'But what has Eli been doing?' said he. She replied,
he had been making a fiddle. 'Ah! (added he despondingly) /
fear Eli will have to take his portion in fiddles.' He was at this
time about twelve years old. His sister adds, that this fiddle was
finished throughout, like a common violin, and made tolerable
good music. It was examined by many persons, and all pronounced
it to be a remarkable piece of work for such a boy to perform.
From this time he was employed to repair violins, and had many
nice jobs, which were always executed to the entire satisfaction, and
often to the astonishment of his customers. His father's watch be-
ing the greatest piece of mechanism that had yet presented itself to
his observation, he was extremely desirous of examining its iirf- lor
construction, but was not permitted to do so. One Sunday jrn-
ing, observing that his father was going to meeting, and would
leave at home the wonderful little machine, he immediately feigned
illness as an apology for not going to church. As soon as the
family were out of sight, he flew to the room where the watch
hung, and taking it down, he was so delighted with its motions,
that he took it to pieces before he thought of the consequences of
his rash deed ; for his father was a stern parent, and punishment
would have teen the reward of his idle curiosity, had the mischief
been detected. He, however, put the work all so neatly together,
that his father never discovered his audacity until he himself told
him, many years afterwards."
BIRTH-PLACE OP WHITNEY, W3STBOROTJGH, MAS8
ELI WHITNEY 105
Whitney lost his mother at an early age, and when he was thir-
teen years old, his father married a second time. His step-mo-
ther, among her articles of furniture, had a handsome set of table
knives, that she valued very highly ; which our young mechanic-
observing, said to her, " I could make as good ones if I had
tools, and I could make the necessary tools if I had a few
common tools to make them with." His step-mother thought
he was deriding her, and was much displeased ; but it so hap-
pened, not long afterwards, that one of the knives got broken, and
he made ope exactly like it in every respect, except the stamp on
the blade. This he would likewise have executed, had not the
tools required been too expensive for his slender resources.
When Whitney was fifteen or sixteen years of age, he suggested
to his father an enterprise, which \vas an earnest of the similar
undertakings in which he engaged n a far greater scale in later
life. This being the time of the revolutionary war, nails were in
great demand, and bore a high price. At that period, nails were
made chiefly by hand, with little aid from machinery. Young
Whitney proposed to his father to procure him a few tools, and to
permit him to set up the manufacture. His father consented, and
he went steadily to work, and suffered nothing to divert him from
his task until his day's work was completed. By extraordinary
diligence, he gained time to make tools for his own use, and to put
in knife blades, and to perform many other curious little jobs,
which exceeded the skill of the country artisans. At this labori-
ous occupation the enterprising boy wrought alone, with great suc-
cess, and with much profit to his father, for two winters, pursuing
the ordinary labors of the farm during the summers. At this time
he devised a plan for enlarging his business and increasing his
profits. He whispered his scheme to his sister, with strong in-
junctions of secrecy ; and requesting leave of his father to go to a
neighboring town, without specifying his object, he set out on horse-
back in quest of a fellow laborer. Not finding one so easily as he
had anticipated, he proceeded from town to town, with a persever-
ance which was always a strong trait of his character, until at the
distance of forty miles from home, he found such a workman as he
desired. He also made his journey subservient to his improvement
in mechanical skill, for he called at every workshop on his way,
and gleaned all the information he could respecting the mechanic
arts.
At the close of the war, the business of making nails was no
longer profitable ; but a fashion prevailing among the ladies of
fastening on their bonnets with long pins, he contrived to make
those with such skill and dexterity, tha: he nearly monopolized the
106 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
business, although he devoted to it only such seasons of leisure an
he could redeem from the occupations of the farm, to which he
now principally betook himself. He added to this article the
manufacture of walking canes, which he made with peculiar neat-
We are informed that he manifested an aptness for mathemati-
cal calculations, and that when quite young was considered riot
only remarkable for his ingenuity, but for general information.
From the age of nineteen, young Whitney conceived the idea
of obtaining a liberal education ; and partly by the avails of his
mechanical industry, and partly by teaching a village school, was
enabled so far to surmount the difficulties thrown in his way, as to
prepare himself for the freshman class in Yale college, which he
entered in 1789. While a schoolmaster, the mechanic would
often usurp the place of the. teacher ; and the mind, too aspiring
for such a sphere, was wandering off in pursuit of "perpetual mo-
tion." At college his mechanical propensity frequently showed
itself. He successfully undertook on one occasion the repairing
of some of the philosophical apparatus. On another, a carpenter
being at work at the house where Whitney boarded, he solicited
the permission to use his tools. The carpenter being unwilling to
trust him, only granted the request on the gentleman of the house
promising to be responsible for the damages ; but no sooner had
Whitney commenced operations, than the man, astonished, exclaim-
ed, " There was one good mechanic spoiled when you went to
college." Soon after taking his degree in the autumn of 1792, Mr.
Whitney engaged with a Mr. B., of Georgia, to reside in his-family
as a private teacher. On his arrival he was informed that Mr. B.
had employed another person, leaving him without resources or
friends, save in the family of Gen. Greene, of Mulberry Grove, neai
Savannah, with whom he had formed an accidental acquaintance.
These benevolent people, however, deeply interested themselves in
his case, and hospitably offered him the privilege of making his
home at their house, where he commenced the study of law.
While residing there, Mrs. Greene was employed in embroidery
which is worked on a kind of frame, called a tambour. She com-
plained of its bad construction, and observed it tore the delicate
threads of her work. Mr. Whitney, eager for an opportunity to
oblige his hostess, set himself to w r ork and speedily produced a
tambour' frame on a plan entirely new, with which he presented
her. Mrs. Greene and her family were much delighted with it,
and considered it a wonderful piece of ingenuity.
Not long after the family were visited by a party of gentlemen,
consisting principally of officers who had served under the genera^
ELI WHITNEY. 107
in the revolutionary army. The conversation turning upon the
state of agriculture, it was regretted that there was no means of
cleaning the seed from the green seed cotton, which might other-
wise be profitably raised on lands unsuitable for rice. But, until
ingenuity could devise some machine which would grealy facilitate
the process of cleaning, it was vain to think of raising cotton for
market. Separating one pound of the clean staple from the seed
was a day's work for a woman ; but the time usually devoted to the
picking of the cotton was the evening, after the labor of the field
was over. Then the slaves, men, women, and children, were col-
lected in circles with one, whose duty it was to rouse the dozing
and quicken the indolent. While the company were engaged in
this conversation, " Gentlemen," said Mrs. Greene, " apply to my
young friend, Mr. Whitney, he can make any tiling," at the same
time showing them the tambour frame and several other articles
which he had made. She introduced the gentlemen to Whitney
himself, extolling his genius, and commending him to their notice
and friendship. He modestly disclaimed all pretensions to me-
chanical genius, and on their naming the object, replied that he
had never seen cotton seed in his life. Mrs. G. said to one of the
gentlemen, ** I have accomplished my aim, Mr. Whitney is a very
deserving young man, and to bring him into notice was my object.
The interest which our friends now feel for him, will, I hope, lead to
his getting some employment to enable him to prosecute the study
of the law."
But no one foresaw the change that this interview was to make
in the plan of his life. He immediately began upon the task of in-
venting and constructing that machine, on which his future fame
depended. Mr. Miller, to whom he communicated his design,
warmly encouraged him in it, and gave him a room in his house,
wherein to carry on his operations. Here he set himself to work,
with the disadvantage of being obliged to manufacture his tools and
draw his own wire, an article then not to be found in Savannah.
Mr. Phineas Miller and Mrs. Greene were the only persons who
knew any thing of his occupation. The many hours he spent in his
mysterious pursuits, afforded matter of great curiosity, and often of
raillery, to the younger members of the family. Near the close of
the winter, the machine was so nearly completed as to leave no
doubt of his success.
The individual who contributed most to incite him to persevere
in the undertaking, was Mr. Miller, who was a native of Connecti-
cut, and a graduate of Yale college. Like Mr. Whitney, soon
after he had completed his education, he came to Georgia as a
private teacher, in the family of Gen. Greene, and after the decease
1U8
AMERICAN MECHANICS.
of the general, he became the husband of Mrs. Greene. He had
qualified himself for the profession of law, and was a gentleman of
cultivated mind and superior talents ; but he was of an ardent tem-
perament, and therefore well fitted to enter with zeal into the views
.which the genius of his friend had laid open to him. He had also
considerable funds at command, and proposed to Mr. Whitney to
become the joint adventurer, and to be at the whole expense of ma.
turing the invention* until it should be patented. If the machine
PLAN OF THE SAW AND BRUSH CYLINDERS
* Description of Whitney's Cotton Gin. The principal parts are two cylinders
of different diameters, (see F H, section and plan.) mounted in a strong wooden
frame, A, which are turned by means either of a handle or a pulley and belt, act-
ing upon the axis of a flywheel, attached to the end of the shaft, opposite to that
seen in the section. Its endless band turns a large pulley on the end D of the saw
cylinder F, and a smaller pulley on the end E of the brush cylinder H, (see plan,) so
as to make the latter revolve with the greater rapidity. Upon the wooden cylin
der F, ten inches in diameter, are mounted, three quarters of an inch apart, fifty,
sixty, or even eighty, circular saws, edged as at I, (see section,) of one foot
diameter, which fit very exactly into grooves cut one inch deep into the cylin-
der. Each saw consists of two segments of a circle, and is preferably made
of hammered (not rolled) sheet iron; the teeth must be kept very sharp.
Opposite to the interstices of the saws are flat bars of iron, which form a
parallel grid of such a curvature, that the shoulder of the slanting saw tooth
passes first, and then the point. By this means, when a tooth gets bent
by the seeds, it resets itself by rubbing against the grid bars, instead of be-
ing torn off, as would happen did the apex of the saw tooth enter first. Care
must be taken that the saws revolve in the middle of their respective grid inter-
vals, for if they rubbed against the bars they would tear the cotton filaments to
pieces. The hollow cylinder H, is mounted with the brushes c c c, the tips of
whose bristles ought to touch the saw teeth, as at d, d, (see plan,) and thus
sweep off the adhering cotton wool. The cylinder H revolves in an opposite
direction to the cylinder F, as is indicated by the arrows in the section.
The see cotton, as picked from v pods, is thwvn into the hopper L, (ae
COTTON GIN.
ELI WHITNEY. HI
should succeed in its intended operation, the parties agreed, under
legal formalities, " that the profits and advantages arising there,
from, as well as all privileges and emoluments to be derived from
patenting, making, vending, and working the same, should be mu-
tually and equally shared between them." This instrument bears
date May 27, 1793, and immediately afterwards they commenced
business under the firm of Miller and Whitney.
An invention so important to the agricultural interests (and, as
it has proved, to every department of human industry,) could not
long remain a secret. The knowledge of it soon spread through
the state, and so great was the excitement on the subject, that mul-
titudes of persons came from all quarters of the state to see the
machine ; but it was not deemed safe to gratify their curiosity until
the patent right should be secured. But so determined were some
of the populace to possess this treasure, that neither law nor justice
could restrain them ; they broke open the building by night, and
carried off the machine. In this way the public became possessed
of the invention ; and before Mr. Whitney could complete his mo-
del and secure his patent, a number of machines were in successful
operation, constructed with sorne slight deviation from the original,
with the hope of evading the penalty for violating the patent right.
As soon as the copartnership of Miller and Whitney was formed,
Mr. Whitney repaired to Connecticut, where, as far as possible, he
was to perfect the machine, obtain a patent, and manufacture and
ship for Georgia, such a number of machines as would supply the
demand.
section ;) the disc saws, I, in turning round, encounter the cotton filaments rest-
ing against the grid, catch them with their sharp teeth, and drag them inwards
and upwards, while the striped sfeeds, too large to pass between the bars, fall
through the bottom N of the hopper, upon the inclined board M. The size of the
aperture N, is regulated at pleasure by an adjusting screw to suit the size of the
particular species of seeds. The saw teeth, filled, with cotton wool, after return-
ing through the grid, meet the brushes c c c of the cylinder H, and deliver it up
to them ; the cotton is thereafter whisked down upon the sloping table O, and '
thence falls into the receptacle P. A cover Q (see section) encloses both the
cylinders and the hopper ; this cover is turned up around the hinges as shown in
the section, in order to introduce the charge of seed cotton into the machine, and
is then let down before setting the wheels in gear with the driving power. The
axis e e,ff, of the cylinders (see plan) should be well fitted into their plurnmer
box bearings, so as to prevent any lateral swagging, which would greatly injure
their operation. The raised position of the cover is obvious in the section, the
hinge being placed at B. By means of the cotton gin, one man with the aid
of a water wheel possessing a two horse power, can cleanse thousand poundt of
seed cotton in a day, eighty saws being mounted upon his machine. The clean-
ed wool forms generally one fourth of the weight of the seed cotton, and some-
times so much as twenty-seven per cent. The ginners are usually a distinct
body from the planters, and they receive for their work one-eighth, or one-tenth ol
the nett weight of the cleaned cotton, under an obligation to supply all the seed
required by the planter.
113 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
Within three days after the conclusion of the copartnership, Mr.
Whitney having set out for the north, Mr. Miller commenced his
long correspondence relative to the cotton gin. The first letter
announces that encroachments upon their rights had already com-
menced. " It will be necessary," says Mr. Miller, " to have a consi-
derable number of gins made, to be in readiness to send out as soon as
the patent is obtained, in order to satisfy the absolute demands, and
make people's heads easy on the subject ; for I am informed of two
other claimants for ike honor of the invention of cotton gins, in addi-
tion to those we knew 'before.'"'
At the close of this year (1793) Mr. Whitney was to return to
Georgia with his cotton gins, wheje his partner had made arrange-
ments for commencing business immediately after his arrival. The
importunity of Mr. Miller's letters, written during the preceding
period, urging him to come on, evinces how eager the Georgia
planters were to enter the new field of enterprise which the genius
of Whitney had laid open to them. Nor did they at first in general
contemplate availing themselves of the invention unlawfully. But
the minds of the more honorable class of planters were afterwards
deluded by various artifices, set on foot by designing men, with the
view of robbing Mr. Whitney of his just rights.
One of the greatest difficulties experienced by men of enterprise,
at this period, was the extreme scarcity of money, which embar-
rassed them to such a degree as to render it almost impossible to
construct machines fast enough.
In April he returned to Georgia ; during his absence he was
strongly importuned to return by his partner, on account of the
infatuated eagerness of the Georgia planters to obtain the advan-
tages of his machine. Large crops of cotton were planted, the
profits of which were to depend, of course, entirely on the suc-
cess and employment of the gin.
The roller gin was at first the most formidable competitor with
Whitney's machine. It extricated the seed by means of rollers,
crushing them between revolving cylinders, instead of disengaging
them by means of teeth. The fragments of seeds which remained
in the cotton rendered its execution much inferior in this respect
to Whitney's gin, and it was also much slower in its operation.
Great efforts were made, however, to create an impression in
favor of its superiority in other respects.
But a still more formidable rival appeared early in the year 1795,
under the name of the saw gin. It was Whitney's gin, except
that the teeth were cut in circular rims of iron, instead of being
made of wires, as was the case in the earlier forms of the patent
gin. Th.3 idea of such teeth had early occurred to Mr. Whitney,
ELI WHITNEY 113
ns he afterwards established by legal proof. But they would have
been of no use except in connection with the other parts of his
machine ; and, therefore, this was a palpable attempt to invade
the patent right, and it was principally in reference to this that
the lawsuits were afterwards held.
In March, 1795, in the midst of perplexities and discourage,
ments, Mr. Whitney went to New York on business, where he
was detained three weeks by fever. As soon as he was able, he
went by packet to New Haven, where, on landing, he was in-
formed, that on the preceding day, his shop, with all his machines
and papers, had been consumed by Jire ! Thus was he suddenly
reduced to bankruptcy, being in debt four thousand dollars, with-
out any means of payment. His mind, however, was not one to
sink under such trials as even this ; he was, on the contrary, in-
cited to more vigorous effort. Similar was the spirit manifested
by Mr. Miller. The following extract of a letter of his to Mr.
Whitney may be a useful lesson to young men who feel themselves
overwhelmed with misfortunes :
'4 I think that we ought to meet such events with equanimity.
We have been pursuing a valuable object by honorable means ;
and I trust that all our measures have been such as reason and
virtue must justify. It has pleased Providence to postpone the
attainment of this object. In the midst of the reflections which
your story has suggested, and with feelings keenly awake to the
heavy, the extensive injury we have sustained, I feel a secret joy
and satisfaction, that you possess a mind in this respect similar to
my own that you are not disheartened that you do not relin-
quish the pursuit and that you will persevere, and endeavor, at
all events, to attain the main object. This is exactly consonant
to my own determinations. I will devote all my time, all my
thoughts, all my exertions, and all the money I can earn or bor-
row, to encompass and complete the business we have undertaken ;
and if fortune should, by any future disaster, deny us the boon we
ask, we will at least deserve it. It shall never be *aid that we
have lost an object which a little perseverance could have attained.
I think, indeed, it will be very extraordinary, if two young men in
the prime of life, with some share of ingenuity, with a little know,
ledge of the world, a great deal of industry, and a considerable
command of property, should not be able to sustain such a stroke
of misfortune as this, heavy as it is."
After this disaster the company began to feel much straitened
for want of funds. Mr. Miller expresses a confidence that they
should be able to raise money in some way or other, though he
knows not how. He recommends to Mr. Whitney to proceed
114 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
forthwith to erect a new shop, and to recommence nis business,
and requests him to tell the people of New Haven, who might be
disposed to render them any service, that they required nothing
but a little time to get their machinery in motion before they could
make payment, and that the loan of money at twelve per cent, per
annum would be as great a favor as they could ask. But, he
adds, " in doing this, use great care to avoid giving an idea that
we are in a desperate situation, to induce us to borrow money.
To people who are deficient in understanding, this precaution will
be extremely necessary : men of sense can easily distinguish be-
tween the prospect of large gains, and the approaches to bank,
ruptcy." " Such is the disposition of man," he observes on an-
other occasion, " that while we keep afloat, there will not be want-
ing those who will appear willing to assist us ; but let us once be
given over, and they will immediately desert us."
While misfortune was thus multiplying upon them, intelligence
was received from England that the manufacturers had con-
demned the cotton cleaned by their machines, on the ground
that the staple was greatly injured. This news threatened the
death-blow to their hopes. At this time (1796) they had thirty
gins at eight different places in Georgia, some carried by horses
and oxen, and some by water. Some of these were even then
standing still. The company had $10,000 dollars in real estate,
' suited only to the purposes of ginning cotton. The following ex-
tract of a letter, written by Mr. Whitney at this period, will serve
to show the state of his mind and affairs at this period :
" The extreme embarrassments," says he, " which have been for
a long time accumulating upon me, are now become so great, that
it will be impossible for me to struggle against them many days
longer. It has required my utmost exertions to exist, without
making the least progress in our business. I have labored hard
against the strong current of disappointment, which has been
threatening to carry us down the cataract, but I have labored
with a shattered oar, and struggled in vain, unless some speedy
relief is obtained Life is but short at best, and six or seven
years out of the midst of it is, to him who makes it, an immense
sacrifice. My most unremitted attention has been devoted to our
business ; I have sacrificed to it other objects from which, before
this time, I might certainly have gained twenty or thirty thousand
dollars. My whole prospects have been embarked in it, with the
expectation that I should, before this time, have realized something
from it."
The cotton from Whitney's gins was, however, sought by mer-
chants in preference to other kinds, and respectable manufacturers
ELI WHITNEY. 115
testified in its favor ; and had it not been for the extensh e and
shameful violations of their patent right, they might yet have suc-
ceeded, but these encroachments had become so extensive as al.
most to annihilate its value. The issue of the first trial they were
able to obtain, is announced in the following letter from Mr. Miller,
dated May 11, 1797:
" The event of the first patent suit, after all our exertions made
in such a variety of ways, has gone against us. The preposterous
custom of trying civil causes of this intricacy and magnitude by a
common jury, together with the imperfection of the patent law,
frustrated all our views, and disappointed expectations which had
become very sanguine. The tide of popular opinion was running
in our favor, the judge was well disposed towards us, and many
decided friends were with us, who adhered firmly to our cause and
interests. The judge gave a charge to the jury pointedly in our
favor ; after which the defendant himself told an acquaintance of
his, that he would give two thousand dollars to be free from the
verdict ; and yet the jury gave it against us, after a consultation
of about an hour. And having made the verdict general, no ap-
peal would lie.
" On Monday morning, when the verdict was rendered, we ap-
plied for a new trial ; but the judge refused it to us, on the ground
that the jury might have made up their opinion on the defect of
the law, which makes an aggression consist of making, devising,
and using, or selling ; whereas we could only charge the defendant
with using.
" Thus, after four years of assiduous labor, fatigue, and diffi.
culty, are we again set afloat by a new and most unexpected ob-
stacle. Our hopes of success are now removed to a period still
more distant than before, while our expenses are realized beyond
all controversy."
Great efforts were made to obtain trial in a second suit, at the
session of the court in Savannah, in May, 1798. A great number
of witnesses were collected from various parts of the country, to
the distance of a hundred miles from Savannah, when, behold, no
judge appeared, and, of course, no court was held. In coi^se-
quence of the failure of the first suit, and so great a procrastina-
tion of the second, the encroachments on the patent right had been
prodigiously multiplied, so as almost entirely to destroy the busi-
ness of the patentees.
In April, 1799, Mr. Miller writes as follows : " The prospect
of making any thing by ginning in this state is at an end. Sur-
reptitious gins are erected in every part of the country ; and the
jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among them-
116 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
selves, that they will never give a cause in our favor, let the merits
of the case be as they may."
The company would now have gladly relinquished the plan of
working their own machines, and confined their operations to the
sale of patent rights ; but few would buy a patent right which they
could use with impunity without purchasing, and those few, hardly
in a single instance, paid cash, but gave their notes, which they
afterwards to a great extent avoided paying, either by obtaining a
verdict from the juries declaring them void, or by contriving to
postpone the collection until they were barred by the statute of
limitations, a period of only four years. When thus barred, the
agent of Miller and Whitney, who was despatched on a collecting
tour through the state of Georgia, informed them, that such ob-
stacles were thrown in his way from one or the other of the fore-
going causes, he was unable to collect money enough from all
these claims to bear his expenses, but was compelled to draw for
nearly the whole amount of these upon his employers.
It was suggested that an application to the legislature of South
Carolina to purchase the patent right for that state would be suc-
cessful. Mr. Whitney accordingly repaired to Columbia, and the
business was brought before the legislature soon after the opening
of the session in December, 1801. An extract from a letter of
Mr. Whitney to his friend Stebbins, at this time, will show tho
nature of the contract thus made :
" I have been at this place a little more than two weeks, attend,
ing the legislature. They closed their session at ten o'clock last
evening. A few hours previous to their adjournment, they voted
to purchase, for the state of South Carolina, my patent right to the
machine for cleaning cotton, at fifty thousand dollars, of which
sum twenty thousand is to be paid in hand, and the remainder in
three annual payments of ten thousand dollars each." He adds,
" We get but a song for it in comparison with the worth of the
thing ; but it is securing something. It will enable Miller and
Whitney to pay all their debts, and divide something between them."
In December, 1802, Mr. Whitney negotiated a sale of his patent
right with the state of North Carolina. The legislature laid a tax
of two shillings and sixpence upon every saw* employed in ginning
cotton, to be continued for five years ; and after deducting the ex-
penses of collection, the avails were faithfully passed over to the
patentee. This compensation was regarded by Mr. Whitney as
more liberal than that received from any other source. About
the same time, Mr. Goodrich, an agent of the comoany, entered
* Some of the gins had forty saw?
EL WHITNEY. 117
into a similar negotiation with the state of Tennessee. This state
had by this time begun to realize the importance and usefulness
of the invention. The citizens testified strongly their desire of
coming into possession of its benefits. The legislature, therefore,
passed a law, laying a tax of thirty-seven and a half cents per
annum on every saw, for the space of four years.
Thus far prospects were growing favorable to the patentees,
when the legislature of South Carolina unexpectedly annulled the
contract she had made, suspended further payment of the balance
then due, and sued for the refunding of what had already been paid.
When Mr. Whitney first heard of the transactions of the South
Carolina legislature annulling their contract, he was at Raleigh,
where he had just concluded his negotiation with the legislature
of North Carolina. In a letter written to Mr. Miller at this time
he remarks : " I am, for my own part, more vexed than alarmed
by their extraordinary proceedings. I think it behooves us to be
very cautious and circumspect in our measures, and even in our
remarks with regard to it. Be cautious what you say or publish
till we meet our enemies in a court of justice, when, if they have
any sensibility left, we will make them very much ashamed of
their childish conduct."
But that Mr. Whitney felt very keenly in regard to the severities
afterwards practised towards him, is evident from the tenor of the
remonstrance which he presented to the legislature. " The sub-
scriber (says he) respectfully solicits permission to represent to
the legislature of South Carolina, that he conceives himself to have
been treated with unreasonable severity in the measures recently
taken against him by and under their immediate direction. He
holds that, to be seized and dragged to prison without being al-
lowed to be heard in answer to the charge alleged against him,
and indeed without the exhibition of any specific charge, is a direct
violation of the common right of every citizen of a free govern-
ment ; that the power, in this case, is all on one side ; that what-
ever rnay be the issue of the process now instituted against him,
he must, in any case, be subjected to great expense and extreme
hardships ; and that he considers the tribunal before which he is
nolden to appear, to be wholly incompetent to decide, definitively,
existing disputes between the state and Miller and Whitney.
" The subscriber avers that he has manifested no other than a
disposition to fulfil all the stipulations, entered into with the state
of South Carolina, with punctuality and good faith ; and he begs
leave to observe farther, that to have industriously, laboriously,
and exclusively, devoted many years of the prime of his life to
the invention and the improvement of a machine, from which the
118 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
citizens of South Carolina have already realized immense profits,
which is worth to them millions, and from which their posterity,
to tne latest generations, must continue to derive the most im-
portant benefits, and in return to be treated as a felon, a swindler,
and a villain, has stung him to the very soul. And when he con-
eiders that this cruel persecution is inflicted by the very persons
who are enjoying these great benefits, and expressly for the pur-
pose of preventing his ever deriving the least advantage from his
o*vn labors, the acuteness of his feelings is altogether inexpressible."
Doubts, it seems, had arisen in the public mind as to the validity
o7 the patent, and the patentees were supposed to have failed in the
fulfilment of a part of the contract. Great exertions had been
made in Georgia, where, it will be remembered, hostilities were
first declared against him, to show that his title to the invention
was unsound, and that somebody in Switzerland had conceived of
it before him, and that the improved form of the machine, with
saws instead of wire teeth, did not come within the patent, having
been introduced by one Hodgin Holmes.
The popular voice, stimulated by the most sordid motives, was
now raised against him throughout all the cotton growing states.
The state of Tennessee followed the example of South Carolina,
in annulling the contract made with him ; and the attempt was
made in North Carolina, but a committee of the legislature, to
whom it was referred, reported in his favor, declaring " that the
contract ought to be fulfilled with punctuality and good faith,"
which resolution" was adopted by both houses. There were also
high-minded men in South Carolina who were indignant at the
dishonorable measures adopted by their legislature of 1803 ; and
their sentiments had impressed the community so favorably with
regard to Mr. Whitney, that at the session of 1804, the legislature
not only rescinded what the previous one had done, but signified
their respect for Mr. Whitney by marked commendations. Nor
ought it to be forgotten that there were in Georgia, too, those who
viewed with scorn and indignation the base attempts of dema-
gogues to defraud him. The proceedings against Mr. Whitney
were predicated upon impositions practised upon the public.
At this time, a new and unexpected responsibility devolved on
Mr. Whitney, in consequence of the death of his partner, Mr.
Miller, who died on the 7th of December, 1803. Mr. Miller had,
in the early stages of the enterprise, indulged very high hopes of
a sudden fortune ; but perpetual disappointments appear to have
attended him throughout the remainder of his life. The history
of them, as detailed in his voluminous correspondence, affurds an
instructive exemplification of the anxiety, toil, and uncertainty
ELI WHITNEY. 119
that frequently accompany too eager a pursuit of wealth, and the
pain and disappointments that follow in the train of expectations
too highly elated. If Mr. Miller anticipated a great bargain from
an approaching auction of cotton, some sly adventurer was sure
to step in before him, and bid it out of his hands. If he looked
to his extensive rice crops, cultivated on the estate of General
Greene, as the means of raising money to extricate himself from
the numerous embarrassments into which he had fallen, a severe
drought came on and shrivelled the crop, or floods of rain sud-
denly destroyed it. The markets unexpectedly changed at the
very moment of selling, and always to his disadvantage. Heavy
rains likewise destroyed the cotton crops on which he had counted
for thousands ; and more than all, wicked and dishonest men con-
trived to cheat him of his just rights, and thus his airy hopes were
often frustrated, until at length he was beguiled into inextricable
difficulties ; and in the midst of all, and on the dawn of a brighter
day, death stepped in and dissolved the pageant that had so long
been dancing before his eyes.
Mr. Whitney was now left alone, to contend singly against those
difficulties which had for a series of years almost broken down the
spirits of both the partners. The light, moreover, which seemed
to be rising upon them from the favorable occurrences of the pre-
ceding year, proved but the twilight of prosperity, and a darker
night seemed about to supervene.
But the favorable issue of the affairs of Mr. Whitney, in South
Carolina, during the subsequent year, and the generous receipts
that he obtained from the avails of his contracts with North Caro-
lina, relieved him from the embarrassments under which he had
so long groaned, and made him in some degree independent.
Still, no small portion of the funds thus collected in North and
South Carolina was expended in carrying on the fruitless, endless
lawsuits in Georgia.
In the United States court, held in Georgia in December, 1807
Mr. Whitney obtained a most important decision, in a suit brought
against a trespasser of the name of Fort. It was on this trial that
Judge Johnson gave his celebrated decision. It was in the follow
ing words :
" Whitney, survivor of ~|
Miller $ Whitney, In equity .
Arthur Fort. \
" The complainants, in this case, are proprietors of the machine
called the saw gin : the use of which is to detach the short staple
cotton from its seed.
6
120 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
" The defendant, in violation of tb,eir patent right, has con*
structed, and continues to use this machine; and the object ot
tliis suit is to obtain a perpetual injunction to prevent a continuance
of this infraction of complainant's right.
" Defendant admits most of the facts in the bill set forth, bul
contends that the complainants are not entitled to the benefits of
the act of congress on this subject, because
1st. The invention is not original.
2d. Is not useful.
3d. That the machine which he uses is materially different from
their invention, in the application of an improvement, the invention
of another person.
" The court will proceed to make a few remarks upon the
several points as they have been presented to their view : whether
the defendant was now at liberty to set up this defence whilst the
patent right of complainants remains unrepealed, has not been
made a question, and they will therefore not consider it.
" To support the originality of the invention, the complainants
have produced a variety of depositions of witnesses, examined un-
der commission, whose examination expressly proves the origin,
progress, and completion of the machine by Whitney, one of the
copartners. Persons who were made privy to his first discovery,
testify to the several experiments which he made in their presenct-
before he ventured to expose his invention to the scrutiny of the
public eye. But it is not necessary to resort to such testimony
to maintain this point. The jealousy of the artist to maintain that
reputation which his ingenuity has justly acquired, has urged him
to unnecessary pains on this subject. There are circumstances
in the knowledge of all mankind which prove the originality of
this invention more satisfactorily to the mind than the direct tosii-
mony of a host of witnesses. The cotton plant furnished clothing
to mankind before the age of Herodotus. The green seed is a
species much more productive than the Hack, and by nature
adapted to a much greater variety of climate ; but by reason of
the strong adherence of the fibre to the seed, without the aid of
some more powerful machine for separating it than any formerly
known among us, the cultivation of it would never have been made
an object. The machine of which Mr. Whitney claims the inven-
tion so facilitates the preparation of this species for use, that the
cultivation of it has suddenly become an object of infinitely greater
national importance than that of the other species ever can be. Is
it, then, to be imagined, that if this machine had been before dis-
covered, the use of it would ever have been lost, or could have
been confined to any tract or country left unexplored by cummer*
ELI WHITNEY. 121
cial enterprise ? But it is unnecessary to remark further upon this
subject. A number of years have elapsed since Mr. Whitney took
out his patent, and no one has produced or pretended to prove the
existence of a machine of similar construction or use.
" 2d. With regard to the utility of this discovery, the court
would deem it a waste of time to dwell long upon this topic. Is
there a man who hears us who has not experienced its utility ?
the whole interior of the southern states was languishing, and its
inhabitants emigrating for want of some object to engage their
attention and employ their industry, when the invention of this
machine at once opened views to them which set the whole coun-
try in active motion. From childhood to age it has presented to
us a lucrative employment. Individuals who were depressed with
poverty and sunk in idleness, have suddenly risen to wealth and
respectability. Our debts have been paid off; our capitals have
increased, and our lands trebled themselves in value. We cannot
express the weight of the obligation which the country owes to this
invention. The extent of it cannot now be seen. Some faint pre-
sentiment may be formed from the reflection that cotton is rapidly
supplanting wool, flax, silk, and even furs in manufactures, and
may one day profitably supply the use of specie in our East India
trade. Our sister states, also, participate in the benefits of this
invention ; for, besides affording the raw material for their manu-
facturers, the bulkiness and quantity of the article afford a valuable
employment for their shipping.
" 3d. The third and last ground taken by defendant appears to
be that on which he mostly relies. In the specification, the teeth
made use of are of strong wire inserted into the cylinder. A Mr.
Holmes has cut teeth in plates of iron, and passed them over the
cylinder. 'This is certainly a meritorious improvement in the
mechanical process of constructing this machine. But at last
what does it amount to, except a more convenient mode of making
the same thing ; every characteristic of Mr. Whitney's machine
is preserved. The cylinder, the iron tooth, the rotary motion of
the tooth, the breast work and brush, and all the merit that this
discovery can assume, is that of a more expeditious mode of at-
taching the tooth to the cylinder. After being attached, in opera-
tion and effect they are entirely the same. Mr. Whitney may not
be at liberty to use Mr. Holmes's iron plate ; but certainly Mr.
Holmcs's improvement does not destroy Mr. Whitney's patent
right. Let the decree for a penpetual injunction be entered."
This favorable decision, however, did not put a final stop to
aggression. At the next session of the United States court, two
other actions were brought, and verdicts for damages gained of
122 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
two thousand dollars in one case, and one thousand and five hun
dred dollars in the other.
The influence of these decisions, however, availed Mr. Whitney
very little, for now the term of his patent right was nearly expired.
More than sixty suits had been instituted in Georgia before a single
decision on the merits of his claim was obtained, and at the period
of this decision thirty years of his patent had expired. In prose-
cution of this troublesome business, Mr. Whitney had made six
different journeys to Georgia, several of which were accomplished
by land at a time when, compared with the present, the difficulties
of such journeys were exceedingly great, and exposed him to ex-
cessive fatigues and privations, which at times seriously affected
his health, and even jeopardized his life. A gentleman of much
experience, who was well acquainted with Mr. Whitney's affairs in
the south, and sometimes acted as his legal adviser, observes, that
" in all his experience in the thorny profession of the law, he has
never seen a case of such perseverance, under such persecution ;
nor," he adds, " do I believe that I ever knew any other man who
would have met them with equal coolness and firmness, or who
would finally have obtained even the partial success which he had.
He always called on me in New York, on his way south, when
going to attend his endless trials, and to meet the mischievous
contrivances of men who seemed inexhaustible in their resources
of evil. Even now, after thirty years, my head aches to recollect
his narratives of new trials, fresh disappointments, and accumu-
lated wrongs."
In 1798, Mr. Whitney became deeply impressed with the uncer-
tainty of all his hopes founded upon the cotton gin, notwithstanding
their high promise, and he began to think seriously of devoting
himself to some business in which saperior ingenuity, seconded by
uncommon industry, qualifications which he must have been con-
scious of possessing in no ordinary degree, would conduct him by
a slow but sure route to a competent fortune ; and we have always
considered it indicative of a solid judgment, and a well-balanced
mind, that he did not, as is frequently the case with men of in-
ventive genius, become so poisoned with the hopes of vast and
sudden wealth, as to be disqualified for making a reasonable pro-
vision for life by the sober earnings of frugal industiy.
The enterprise which he selected in accordance with these views
was the manufacture of arms for the United States. He addressed
a letter to the Hon. Oliver Wolcott, secretary of the ' reasury, by
whose influence he obtained a contract for the manufacture of ten
thousand stand of arms, four thousand of which were to be deliv-
ered on or before the last of September of the ensuing year, (tho
ELI WHITNEY. 125
contract being concluded on the 14th of January, 1798,) and the
remaining six thousand within one year from that time.
The site which Mr. Whitney had purchased for his works was
at the foot of the celebrated precipice called East Rock, near
the city of New Haven. This spot (which is now called Whit,
neyville) is justly admired for the romantic beauty of its scenery.
A waterfall of moderate extent afforded here the necessary power
for propelling the machinery. In this pleasant retreat Mr. Whit-
ney commenced his operations with the greatest zeal.; and his
great mind, and daring, persevering spirit, were abundantly mani-
fested in this undertaking. His machinery was yet to be built, his
materials to be collected, and even his workmen to be taught, and
that in a business with which lie was imperfectly acquainted. A
severe winter retarded his operations, and the multiplied difficul-
ties of his undertaking rendered him wholly incompetent to the
fulfilment of the contract, and delivering the arms within the limited
time. Only five hundred, instead of four thousand, were delivered
the first year, and eight, instead of two years, were found neces-
sary for completing tlie whole. Notwithstanding this, the govern-
ment seems to have been altogether liberal in its dealings with him.
During the eight years Mr. Whitney was occupied in performing
this engagement, lie applied himself to business with the most
exemplary diligence, rising every morning as soon as it was day,
and at night setting every thing in order appertaining to all parts
of the establishment before he retired to rest. In a letter ad-
dressed to the secretary of the treasury at this period, he says
*' I find that my personal attention and oversight are more con-
stantly and essentially necessary to every branch of the work than
I apprehended. Mankind, generally, are not to be depended on,
and the best workmen I can find are incapable of directing.
Indeed there is no branch of the work that can proceed well,
scarcely for a single hour, unless I am present." His genius, in-
deed, impressed itself on every part of the manufactory, extending
even to the most common tools, all of which received some pecu-
liar modification which improved them in accuracy, or efficacy, or
beauty. His machinery for making the several parts of a musket
was made to operate with the greatest possible degree of uniform-
ity and precision. The object at which he aimed, and which he
fully accomplished, was to make the same parts of different guns,
as the locks, for example, as much like each other as the succes-
sive impressions of a copper-plate engraving. It has generally
been conceded that Mr. Whitney greatly improved the art of
manufacturing arms, and laid his country under permanent obliga-
tions, by augmenting her facilities for national defence. So rapid
126 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
has been the improvement iu the arts and manufactures in tfos
country, that it is difficult to conieive of the lew state in which
they were thirty years ago. To this advancement the genius and
industry of Mr. Whitney most essentially contributed ; for while
he was clearing off the numerous impediments which were thrown
in his way, he was at the same time performing the office of a
pioneer to the succeeding generation.
In 1812 he entered into a contract to manufacture for the United
States fifteen thousand stand of arms, and in the mean time he made
a similar contract with the State of New York.
Several other persons made contracts with the government at
about the same time, and attempted the manufacture of muskets,
following, substantially, so far as they understood it, the method
pursued in England. The result of their efforts was a complete
failure to manufacture muskets of the quality required, at the price
agreed to be paid by the government : and in some instances they
expended in the execution of their contracts, a considerable for-
tune in addition to the whole amount received for their work.
The low state to which the arts had been depressed in this coun-
try by the policy of England, under the colonial system, and from
which they had then scarcely begun to recover, together with the
high price of labor, and other causes, conspired to render it im-
practicable at that time even for those most competent to the un-
dertaking, to manufacture muskets here in the English method,
And doubtless Mr. Whitney would have shared the fate of his
enterprising but unsuccessful competitors, had he adopted the
course which they pursued ; but his genius struck out for him a
course entirely new.
In maturing his system he had many obstacles to combat, and
a much longer time was occupied, than he had anticipated ; but
with his characteristic firmness he pursued his object, in the face
of the obloquy and ridicule of his competitors, the evil predictions
of his enemies, and the still more discouraging and disheartening
misgivings, doubts, and apprehensions of his friends. His efforts
were at length crowned with success, and he had the satisfaction
to find, that the business which had proved so ruinous to others,
was likely to prove not altogether unprofitable to himself.
Our limits do not permit us to give a minute and detailed ac-
count of this system ; and we shall only glance at two or three of
its more prominent features, for the purpose of illustrating its gen.
eral character.
The several parts of the musket wr-e, under this system, carried
along through the various processes of manufacture, in lots of some
hundreds or thousands of each. In their various stages of pro.
ELI WHITNEY. 127
gress, they were made to undergo successive operations by ma.
chinery, which not only vastly abridged the labor, but at the same
time so fixed and determined their form and dimensions, as to
make comparatively little skill necessary in the manual operations.
Such was the construction aad arrangement of this machinery,
that it could be worked by persons of little or no experience ; and
yet it performed the work with so much precision, that when, in
the later stages of the process, the several parts of the musket
came to be put together, they were as readily adapted to each
other, as if each had been made for its respective fellow. A lot
of these parts passed through the hands of several different work-
men successively, (and in some cases several times returned, at
intervals more or less remote, to the hands of the same workman,)
each performing upon them every time some single and simple
operation, by machinery or by hand, until they were completed.
Tims Mr. Whitney reduced a complex business, embracing many
ramifications, almost to a mere succession of simple processes, and
was thereby enabled to make a division of the labor among his
workmen, on a principle which was not only more extensive, but
also altogether more philosophical, than that pursued in the English
method. In England, the labor of making a musket was divided
by making the different workmen the manufacturers of different
limbs, while in Mr. Whitney's system the work was divided with
reference to its nature, and several workmen performed different
operations on the same limb.
It will be readily seen that under such an arrangement any per-
son of ordinary capacity would soon acquire sufficient dexterity to
perform a branch of the work. Indeed, so easy did Mr. Whitney
find it to instruct new and inexperienced workmen, that he uni-
formly preferred to do so, rather than to attempt to combat the
prejudices of those, who had learned the business under a different
system.
When Mr. Whitney's mode of conducting the business was
brought into successful operation, and the utility of his machinery
was fully demonstrated, the clouds of prejudice which lowered over
his first efforts, were soon dissipated, and he had the satisfaction
of seeing not only his system, but most of his machinery, intro-
duced into every other considerable establishment for the manu-
facture of arms, both public and private, in the United States.
The labors of Mr. Whitney in the manufacture of arms, auve
been often and fully admitted by the officers of the government, to
have been of the greatest value to the public interest. In the year
1822, Mr. Calhoun, then secretary of war, admitted, in a conver-
sation with Mr. Whitney that the government were saving twenty -
6*
128 AMERICAN MECHANICS
five thousand dollars per annum at the two public armories aloue,
by his improvements. This admission, though it is believed to be
far below the truth, is sufficient to show, that the subject of this
memoir deserved well of his country in this department of her
service.
It should be remarked, that the utility of Mr. Whitney's labors
during the period of his life which we have now been contemplat-
ing, was not limited to the particular business in which he was
engaged. Many of the inventions which he made to facilitate the
manufacture of muskets, were applicable to most other manufac-
tures of iron and steel. To many of these they were soon extend-
ed, and became the nucleus around which other inventions clus-
tered ; and at the present time some of them may be recognised in
almost every considerable workshop of that description in the
United States.
In the year 1812, Mr. W. made application to congress for the
renewal of his patent for the cotton gin. In his memorial, he pre-
sented a history of the struggles he had been forced to encounter
in defence of his right, observing that he had been unable to obtain
any decision on the merits of his claim until he had been eleven
years in the law, and thirteen years of his patent term had expired.
He sets forth, that his invention had been a source of opulence to
thousands of the citizens of the United States ; that, as a labor-
saving machine, it would enable one man to perform the work of a
thousand men ; and that it furnishes to the whole family of man-
kind, at a very cheap rate, the most essential article of their cloth-
ing. Hence, he humbly conceived himself entitled to a further
remuneration from his country, and thought he ought to be admit-
ted to a more liberal participation with his fellow citizens in the
benefits of his invention. Although so great advantages had been
already experienced, and the prospect of future benefits Avas so
promising, still, many of those whose interest had been most pro.
moted, and the value of \f*hose property had been most enhanced
by this invention, had obstinately persisted in refusing to make any
compensation to the inventor. The very men whose wealth had
been acquired by the use of this machine, and who had grown rich
beyond all former example, had combined their exertions to pre-
vent the patentee from deriving any emolument from his invention.
From that state in which he had first made, and where he had first
introduced his machine, and which had derived the most signal
benefits from it, he had received nothing ; and from no state had
he received the amount of half a cent per pound on the cotton
cleaned with his machines in one year. Estimating the value of
the labor of one man at twenty cents per day, the whole amount
ELI WHITNEY. 129
which had been received by him for his invention, was not equal
to the value of the labor saved in one hour, by his machines then
in use in the United States. " This invention (he proceeds) now
gives to the southern section of the Union, over and above the
profits which would be derived from the cultivation of any other
crop, an annual emolument of at least tfiree millions of dollars."*
The foregoing statement does not rest on conjecture, it is no vis-
ionary speculation, all these advantages have been realized ; the
planters of the southern states have counted the cash, felt the weight
of it in their pockets, and heard the exhilarating sound of its collis-
ion. Nor do the advantages stop here : this immense source of
wealth is but just beginning to be opened. Cotton is a more
cleanly and healthful article of cultivation than tobacco and indigo,
which it has superseded, and docs not so much impoverish the. soil.
This invention has already trebled the value of the land through a
great extent of territory; and the degree to which the cultivation
of cotton may be still augmented, is altogether incalculable. This
species of cotton has been known in all countries where cotton has
been raised, from time immemorial, but was never known as an
article of commerce, until since this method of cleaning it was dis-
covered. In short, (to quote the language of Judge Johnson,) if we
should assert that the benefits of this invention exceed one hundred
millions of dollars, we can prove the assertion by correct calcula-
tion. " It is objected that if the patentee succeeds in procuring
the renewal of his patent, he will be too rich. There is no proba-
bility that the patentee, if the term of his patent were extended for
twenty years, would ever obtain for his invention one half as much
as many an individual will gain by the use of it. Up to the present
time, the whole amount of what he has acquired from this source,
(after deducting his expenses,) does not exceed one half the sum
which a single individual has gained by the use of the machine in
one year. It is true that considerable sums have been obtained
from some of the states where the machine is used ; but no small
portion of these sums has been expended in prosecuting his claim
in a state where nothing has been obtained, and where his machine
has been used to the greatest advantage.
" Your memorialist has not been able to discover 'any reason
why he, as well as others, is not entitled to share the benefits of
his own labors. He who speculates upon the markets, and takes
advantage of the necessities of others, and by these means accumu.
lates property, is called < a man of enterprise' a man of busi-
ness' he is complimented for his talents, and is protected by the
* This was in 1812 : the amount of profit is at this time incomparably greater
130 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
laws. He however only gets into his possession, thai which was
before in the possession of another ; he adds nothing to the public
stock ; and can he who has given thousands to others, be thought
unreasonable, if he asks one in r< turn 1
" It is to be remembered, that the pursuit of wealth by means of
new inventions, is a very precarious and uncertain one ; a lottery
where there are many thousand blanks to one prize. Of all the
various attempts at improvements, there are probably not more
ihan one in five hundred for which a patent is taken out; and of
a' I the patents taken out, not one in twenty has yielded a nett profit
to the patentee equal to the amount of the patent fees. In cases
where a useful and valuable invention is brought into operation, the
reward ought to be in proportion to the hazard of the pursuit. The
patent law has now been in operation more than fourteen years.
Many suits for damages have been instituted against those who
have infringed the right of patentees ; and it is a fact, that very
rarely has the patentee ever recovered. If you would hold out in-
ducements for men of real talents to engage in these pursuits, your
rewards must be sure and substantial. Men of this description
can calculate, and will know how to appreciate, the recompense
which they are to receive for their labors. If the encouragement
held out be specious and delusive, the discerning will discover the
fallacy, and will despise it : the weak and visionary only will be
decoyed by it, and your patent office will be filled with rubbish.
The number of those who succeed in bringing into operation really
useful and important improvements, always has been, and always
must be, very small. It is not probable that this number can ever
be as great as one in a hundred thousand. It is therefore impossi-
ble that they can ever exert upon the community an undue influ-
ence. There is, on the contrary, much probability and danger that
their rights will be trampled on by the many."
Notwithstanding these cogent arguments, the application was
rejected by Congress. Some liberal minded and enlightened men
from the cotton districts, favored the petition : but a majority of
the members from that section of the Union, were warmly opposed
to granting it.
In a correspondence with the late Mr. Robert Fulton, on the
same subject, Mr. Whitney observes as follows : " The difficulties
with which I have had to contend have originated, principally, in
the want of a disposition in mankind to do justice. My invention
was new and distinct from every other : it stood alone. It was
not interwoven with any thing before known ; and it can se dom
happen that an invention or improvement is so strongly marked,
and can be so clearly and specifically identif.ed ; and I havo
PLI WHITNEY. 131
always believed, that I should have had no difficulty in causing my
rights to be respected, if it hat! been less valuable, and been used
only by a small portion of the community. But the use of this
machine being immensely profitable to almost every planter in the
cotton districts, all were interested in trespassing upon the patent
right, and each kept the other in countenance. Demagogues made
themselves popular my misrepresentation, and unfounded clamors,
both against the right, and against the law made for its protection.
Hence there arose associations and combinations to oppose both.
At one time, but few men in Georgia dared to come into court,
and testify to the most simple facts within their knowledge, relative
to the use of the machine. In one instance, I had great difficulty
in proving that the machine had been used in Georgia, although, at
the same moment, there were three separate setts of this machinery
in motion, within fifty yards of the building in which the court sat,
and all so near that the rattling of the wheels was distinctly heard
on the steps of the court house."*
While, however, unsuccessfully endeavoring to secure to himself
some of the avails of the immense benefits he had thus bestowed
on his fellow citizens, his manufactory was gradually leading him
to more affluent -and liberal circumstances. In January, 1817, he
married Miss Henrietta F. Edwards, the youngest daughter of the
Hon. Pierpont Edwards, of the District Court for the State of Con-
necticut. Fortune seemed now to smile upon him, as he saw his
domestic circle increase by the addition of a son and three daugh-
ters, and a prosperous and sunny close appeared to be about to
terminate his stormy and vexatious day of life.
But death who comes to all, prostrated him upon a bed of pain ,
and after a protracted period of suffering, he breathed his last, on
the 8th of January, 1825, after having labored for a long while
under a formidable and tedious disease.
The strongest demonstrations of respect and regard, were mani-
fested by the citizens of New Haven, in committing his remains to
* In one of his trials, Mr. Whitney adopted the following plan, in order to show
how nugatory were the methods of evasion practised by his adversaries. Thev
were endeavoring to have his claim to the invention set aside, on the ground,
^hat the teeth in his machine were made of wire, inserted into the cylinder of
wood, while in t.ho machine of Holmes, the teeth were cut in plates, or iron svir-
rounding the cylinder, forming a circular saw. Mr. Whitney, by an ingenious
device, (consisting chiefly of sinking the plate below the surface of the cylinder,
and suffering the teeth to project,) contrived to give to the saw teeth the appear-
ance of wires, while he prepared another cylinder in which the wire teeth were
made to look like saw teeth. The two cylinders were produced in court, and the
witnesses were called on to testify which was the invention of Whitney, and
which that of Holmes. They accordingly swore the saw teeth upon Whitney,
and the wire teeth upon Holmes; upon which the judge declared that it was un
necessary to proceed any farther, the principle of both being manifestly the same
132 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
the earth, ana the Rev. President Day pronounced over his grave
the following eulogy.
" How frequent and how striking are the monitions to us, that
this world is not the place of our rest !
" It is not often the case, that a man has laid his plans for the
business and the enjoyment of life, with a deeper sagacity, than the
friend whose remains we have now committed to the dust. He
had received, as the gift of heaven, a mind of a superior order.
Early habits of thinking gave to it a character of independence
and originality. He was accustomed to form his decisions, not
after the model of common opinion, but by his own nicely balanced
judgment. His mind was enriched with the treasures which are
.furnished by a liberal education. He had a rare fertility of inven-
tion in the arts ; an exactness of execution almost unequalled. By
a single exercise of his powers, he changed the state of cultivation,
and multiplied the wealth, of a large portion of our country. He
set an example of system and precision in mechanical operations,
which others had not even thought of attempting.
" The higher qualities of his mind, instead of unfitting him fo/
ordinary duties, were finely tempered with taste and judgment in the
business of life. His manners were formed by an extensive inter-
course with the best society. He had an energy of character which
carried him through difficulties loo formidable for ordinary minds.
" With these advantages, he entered on the career of life. His
efforts were crowned with success. An ample competency was
the reward of his industry and skill. He had gained the respect
of all classes of the community. His opinions were regarded with
peculiar deference, by the man of science, as well as the practical
artist. His large and liberal views, his knowledge of the world,
the wide range of his observations, his public spirit, and his acts
of beneficence, had given him a commanding influence in society.
The gentleness and refinement of his manners, and the delicacy of
his feelings in the social and domestic relations, had endeared him
to a numerous circle of relatives and friends.
" And what were his reflections in review of the whole, in con
nection with the distressing scenes of the last period of life ? All
is as the flower of the grass : the wind passeth over it, and it i&
gone.' All on earth is transient ; all in eternity is substantial and
enduring. His language was, ' I am a sinner. But God is mer-
ciful. The only ground of acceptance before him, is through the
great Mediator.' From this mercy, through this Mediator, is de-
rived our solace under this heavy bereavement. On this, rest tho
hopes of the mourners, that they shall meet the deceased with jov.
at the resurrection of the just."
ELI WHITNEY. 133
The following account is given of Mr. Whitney's character,
n. character not often met with in the common walks of life.
His ma.mers were conciliatory, and his whole appearance such
as to inspire universal respect. Among his particular friends, no
man was more esteemed. Some of the earliest of his intimate as-
sociates were also among the latest. With one or two of the
bosom friends of his youth, he kept up a correspondence by letter
for thirty years, with marks of continually increasing regard. His
sense of honor was high, and his feelings of resentment and indig-
nation occasionally strong. He could, however, be cool when his
opponents were heated ; and, though sometimes surprised by pas-
sion, yet the unparalleled trials of patience which he had sustained
did not render him petulant, nor did his strong sense of the injuries
he had suffered in relation to the cotton gin, impair the natural
serenity of his temper. But the most remarkable trait in the char-
acter of Mr. Whitney aside from his inventive powers, was his
perseverance ; and this is the more remarkable because it is so com-
mon to find men of great powers of mechanical invention deficient
in this quality. This it was which led him through scenes of trial
and almost unparalleled misfortune, with that calm, yet determined
spirit which he so clearly manifested, and which finally led him to
a period of prosperity from which he was snatched only by the
hand of death.
In person Mr. Whitney was considerably above the ordinary
size, of a dignified carriage, and of an open, manly, and agreeable
countenance. Indeed, he seems to have won the respect of all with
whom he conversed, and to have made himself friends wherever he
went, by his modest, unassuming, yet agreeable manners, and by
his superior skill and ingenuity.
In presenting to the public the foregoing sketch of the life of
this extraordinary man, the aim has been to render the narrative
useful to the enterprising mechanic and the man of business, to
whom Whitney may be confidently proposed as a model. To
such, it is believed, the details given respecting his various strug-
gles and embarrassments, may afford a useful lesson, a fresh incen-
tive to perseverance, and stronger impressions of the value cf a
character improved by intellectual cultivation, and adorned with
all the moral virtues.
Fabrics of cotton are now so familiar to us, and so universally
diffused, that we are apt to look upon them rather as original gifts
of nature than as recent products of human ingenuity. The fol-
lowing statements however will show how exceedingly limited tho
cotton trade was previous to the invention of the cotton gin.
In 1784, an American vessel arrived at Liverpool, having on
134 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
board for part of her cargo, eight lags of cotton, which were seized
by the officers of the customhouse, under the conviction that they
could not be the growth of America. The following fact ascer-
tained from old newspapers shows the limited extent of the cotton
trade for the two subsequent years, viz : that the whole amount
arrived at Liverpool from America was short of 120 bags. Now
this article is equal in general to some millions more than one half
the whole value of our exports. The annual average growth is
about one million of bales, amounting to several hundred millions
of pounds, of which about one fifth is used in our own manufac-
tories.
We present, in conclusion, the following remarks of a distin-
guished scholar, upon this great man, occasioned by a visit to the
cemetery of New Haven, which sufficiently show in what estima-
tion he is held by those capable of appreciating his merits.
After alluding to the monument of Gen. Humphreys, who intro-
duced the firm wooled sheep into the United States, the stranger
remarks : " But Whitney's monument perpetuates the name of a
still greater public benefactor. His simple name would have been
epitaph enough, with the addition perhaps of ' the inventor of the
cotton gin.' How few of the inscriptions in Westminster Abbey
could be compared with that ! Who is there that, like him, has
given his countiy a machine the product of his own skill which
has furnished a large part of its population, ' from childhood to age
with a lucrative employment ; by which their debts have been paid
off; their capitals increased ; their lands trebled in value ?'* Il
may be said indeed that this belongs to the physical and material
nature of man, and ought not to be compared with what has been
done by the intellectual benefactors of mankind ; the Miltons, the
Shakspeares, and the Newtons. But is it quite certain that any
thing short of the highest intellectual vigor the brightest genius
is sufficient to invent one of these extraordinary machines ? Place
a common mind before an oration of Cicero and a steam engine,
and it will despair of rivalling the latter as much as the former ;
and we can by no means be persuaded, that the peculiar aptitude
for combining and applying the simple powers of mechanics, so as
to produce these marvellous operations, does not imply a vivacity
of the imagination, not inferior to that of the poet and the orator."
A lid in concluding he asks, " Has not he who has trebled the value
of land, created capital, rescued the population from the necessity
of emigrating, and covered a waste with plenty hr.s not he done
* The words of Mr. Justice Johnson of South Carolina, ir /he opinion in tb
case of Whitney versus Carter
ELI WHITNEY. 135
a service to the country of the highest moral and intellectual char-
acter ? Prosperity is the parent of civilization, and all its refine-
ments ; and every family of prosperous citizens added to the com-
munity, is an addition of so many thinking, inventing, moral, and
immortal natures."
His tomb is after the model of that of Scipio at Rome. It is
simple and beautiful, and promises to endure for years. It bears
the following inscription.
ELI WHITNEY,
The inventor of the Cotton Gin.
Of useful science and arts, the efficient patron and improver.
In the social relations of life, a model of excellence.
While private affection weeps at his tomb, his country honors his memory.
Born Dec. 8, 1765. Died Jan. 8, 1825.
DAVID BUSHNELL,
THE ORIGINATOR OF SUBMARINE WARFARE.
Early attempts at submarine navigation. Drebell's boat. The invention of an
Englishman, for entering sunken ships; Worcester. Birth of Bushnell.
Lf.rlv Character. Receives a collegiate education. Account of his first ex-
periments. Description of his submarine boat, and magazine. Endeavors to
blow up the British ship of war Eagle in the harbor of New York. Blows up
the tender of his Majesty's ship Cerberus, off New London. Contrives a new
expedient to destroy the British shipping in the Delaware. " Battle of the
Kegs." Dejected at the issue of his experiments, leaves for France. Returns
and settles in Georgia, His Death.
SINCE the invention of the diving bell in the sixteenth century,
we have accounts of several projects for submarine navigation,
among which the following are most prominent. " A scheme is said
to have been tried in the reign of James the First, by Cornelius
Dretell, a famous English projector, who, we are told by Mr. Boyle,
made a submarine vessel which would carry twelve rowers, be-
sides the passengers ; and that he also discovered a liquid which
had the singular property of restoring the air when it became im-
pure by breathing. This last circumstance, with the number of
persons enclosed in the machine and the imperfect state of mechan-
ics at the period alluded to, renders the whole story extremely im-
probable, though it shows clearly that the idea had been entertained
and perhaps some attempt made. Another contrivance is men-
tioned by Mr. Martin, in his Philosophia Britannica, as the inven-
tion of an Englishman, consisting of strong thick leather, which
contained half a hogshead of air, so prepared that none could
escape, and constructed in such a manner that it exactly fitted the
arms and legs, and had a glass placed in the fore part of it. When
he put on this apparatus he could not only walk on the ground at
the bottom of the sea, but also enter the cabin of a sunken ship and
convey goods out of it at pleasure. The inventor is said to have
carried on his business for more than forty years, and to have grown
rich by it."
It is evident from the perusal of the following pages, that tho
plans of Bushnell were almost entirely original ; and he appears *o
DAVID BUSHNELL. 137
have greatly advanced, if not actually to have originated, submarine
navigation. In its application as a means of warfare, we must giv-j
him the entire credit of originality ; although Worcester in his
Century or Hundred of Inventions, vaguely alludes to something
of the kind, there is no evidence of its application, and as far as
regards benefits to subsequent experiments, it is entirely useless.
The efforts of Bushnell in the revolutionary, and of Fulton during
the late war, at the time attracted considerable attention, and greatly
excited the fears* of the enemy. Although, for obvious reasons,
the anticipated success did not attend these experiments, we must
remember that " invention is progressive ;" and while we hear
them derided as visionary, we should reflect that such has ever
been the fate, in their incipient stages, of the most useful inventions,
f he day may not be far distant, when another Bushnell will arise
to advance submarine warfare to such perfection as to.render it an
important auxiliary in coast defence.
David Bushnell was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, some time
about the year 1742. His parents were agriculturists of rather
moderate circumstances, and resided in a very secluded part of the
town. Here in attendance upon the duties of the paternal farm
young Bushnell passed the earlier portion of his life, and is only
remembered as being a very modest, retiring young man, shunning
all society, and bound down to his books.
On the death of his father, which happened when he was about
twenty-seven years of age, Bushnell sold his inheritance and re-
moved to the central portion of the town for the purpose of prepar-
ing for college, the attainment of a liberal education having long
been with him an object of his most ardent wishes. As is custom-
ary in the New England villages, the pastor of the society, the
Rev. John Devotion, assisted him in his studies.
One of his fellow townsmen Mr. Elias Tully, becoming ac-
quainted with him and admiring his character, very generously
offered him a home under his own roof, where he remained until
his entrance into Yale college in 1771.
We are ignorant of the origin of Mr. BushnelPs conceptions re-
specting submarine warfare, but he appears to have turned his at-
tention to the subject in the earlier portions of his collegiate career,
so that on graduating in 1775, his plans were advanced to ma-
turity.
* It is well known that during the experiments of Fulton, the British ship-
ping were very cautious in approaching our shores. A gentleman, who was
taken prisoner by a vessel of war in Long Island Sound, describes the anxiety of
the officers as being so great, that they made a regular practice at certain time*
of day, of dragging ropes under the ship's bottom. This course, it is believed,
was universally practised by the enemy while anchoring off our coast
138 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
powder, to prove to some influential men that powder would burn
under water. In the second trial there were two pounds of gun-
powder enclosed in a wooden bottle, and fixed under a hogshead,
with a two inch oak plank between the hogshead and the powder.
The hogshead was loaded with stones as deep as it could swim ;
a wooden pipe primed with powder descended through the lower
head of the hogshead, and thence through the plank into the powder
contained in the bottle. A match put to the priming exploded the
powder with a tremendous effect, casting a great body of water
with the stones and ruins many feet into the air.
" He subsequently made many experiments of a similar nature,
some of them with large quantities of powder, all of which produced
very violent explosions, much more than sufficient for any purposes
he had hi view.
" When finished, the external appearance of his torpedo bore
some resemblance to two upper tortoise shells of equal size, placed
in contact, leaving, at that part which represents the head of the
animal, a flue or opening sufficiently capacious to contain the ope-
rator, and air to support him thirty minutes. At the bottom, op-
posite to the entrance, was placed a quantity of lead for ballast.
The operator sat upright and held an oar for rowing forward or
backward, and was furnished with a rudder for steering. An ap-
erture at the bottom with its valve admitted water for the purpose
of descending, and two brass forcing pumps served to eject the
water within when necessary for ascending. The vessel was made
completely water-tight, furnished with glass windows for the admis
sion of light, with ventilators and air pipes, and was so ballasted
with lead fixed at the bottom as to render it solid, and obviate all
danger of oversetting. Behind the submarine vessel was a place
above the rudder for carrying- a large powder magazine ; this was
made of two pieces of oak timber, large enough, when hollowed out,
to contain one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, with the appa-
ratus used for firing it, and was secured in its place by a screw
turned by the operator. It was lighter than water, that it might
rise against the object to which it was intended to be fastened.
" Within the magazine was an apparatus constructed to run any
proposed period under twelve hours ; when it had run out its turn,
it unpinioned a strong lock, resembling a gun-lock, which gave fire
to the powder. This apparatus was so pinioned, that it could not
possibly move, until, by casting off the magazine from the vessel,
it was set in motion. The skilful operator could swim so low on
the surface of the water, as to approach very near a ship in the
night, without fear of being discovered ; and might, if he chose,
DAVID BUSHJNELL. 139
approach the stem or stern above water, with very littVe danger.
He could sink very quickly, keep at any necessary depth, and row
a great distance in any direction he desired without coming to the
surface When he rose to the top ho could soon obtain a fresh
supply of air, and, if necessary, descend again and pursue his
course.
" Mr. Bushnell found that it required many trials and considera-
ble instruction to make a man of common ingenuity a skilful ope-
rator. The first person whom he employed was his brother, who
was exceedingly ingenious, and made himself master of it, but was
taken sick before he had an opportunity to make a trial of his skill.
Having procured for a substitute a sergeant of one of the Connec-
ticut regiments, and given him such instructions as time would
allow, he was directed to try an experiment on the Eagle, a sixty-
four gun ship, lying in the harbor of New York, and commanded
by Lord Howe. Gen. Putnam placed himself on the wharf to
witness the result.
" The sergeant went under the ship and attempted to fix the
wooden screw into her bottom, but struck, as he supposed, a bar of
iron, which passed from the rudder hinge, and was spiked under the
ship's quarter. Had he moved a few inches, which might have
been done without rowing, there is no doubt he might have
found wood where he could have fixed the screw ; or if the ship
had been sheathed with copper, it might easily have been pierced.
But for want of skill and experience in managing the vessel, in an,
attempt to move to another place, he passed out from under the
ship. After seeking her in vain for some time, he rowed some
distance and rose to the surface of th6 water, but found daylight
so far advanced that he dared not to renew the attempt, for fear of
being discovered by the sentinels on duty. He said he could easily
have fastened the magazine under the stern of the ship, above
water, as he rowed up and touched it before he descended. Had
it been done, the explosion of the one hundred and fifty pounds of
powder, contained in the magazine, must have been fatal to the
ship.
"In returning from the ship to New York, the operator passed
near Governor's Island, and thought he was discovered by the Bri-
tish stationed there. In haste to avoid the danger, he cast off his
magazine, imagining it retarded him in the swell, which was very
considerable. The internal apparatus was set to run just one hour ;
at the expiration of the allotted time it blew up with tremendous
violence, throwing a vast column of water to an amazing height in
the air, much to the astonishment of the enemy.
** Some other attempts were made on the Hudson, in one of
140 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
Which the operator in going towards the ship lost sight of her,
and went a great distance beyond. The tide ran so strong as to
baffle all further effort.
" In the year 1777, Mr. Bushnell made an attempt from a whale-
boat against the Cerberus frigate, lying at anchor off New London,
in drawing a machine against her side by means of a line. The
machine was loaded with powder to be exploded by a gun-lock,
which was to be unpinioned by an apparatus to be turned by being
brought along side of the frigate. This machine fell in with a
schooner at anchor astern of the frigate, and becoming fixed, it ex
ploded and demolished the vessel.
" Commodore Simmons being on board of the Cerberus, addressed
an official letter to Sir Peter Parker, describing this singular dis-
aster. Being at anchor to the westward of the town with a schooner
which he had taken, about eleven o'clock in the evening he disco-
vered a line- to wing astern from the bows. He believed that some
person had veered away by it, and immediately began to haul in.
A sailor belonging to the schooner taking it for a fishing line, laid
hold of it and drew in about fifteen fathoms. It was buoyed up by
small pieces tied to it at regular distances. At the end of the rope
a machine was fastened too heavy for one man to pull up, for it
exceeded one hundred pounds in weight. The other people of the
schooner coming to his assistance, they drew it upon deck. While
the men, to gratify their curiosity, were examining the machine, it
exploded, blew the vessel into pieces, and set her on fire. Three
men were killed, and a fourth blown into the water, much injured.
On subsequent examination the other part of the line was discovered
buoyed up in the same manner ; this the commodore ordered to be
instantly cut away, for fear (as he termed it) of ' hauling up another
of the infernals !'
" These machines were constructed with wheels furnished with
irons sharpened at the end, and projecting about an inch, in order
to strike the sides of the vessel when hauling them up, thereby set-
ting the wheels in motion, which in the space of five minutes causes
the explosion. Had the whole apparatus been brought to act upon
a ship at the same time, it must have occasioned prodigious de-
struction.
" Mr. Bushnell contrived another ingenious expedient to effect
his favorite object. He fixed a large number of kegs, charged
>vith powder, to explode on coming in contact with any thing while
lloating along with the tide.
" In December, 1777, he set his squadron of kegs ailoat in the
Delaware above the British shipping. The kegs were sef
DESTRUCTION OF A BRITISH TENDER BY A TORPEDO.
DAVID BUSHNELL.
143
fn the night, to fall with the ebb on the shipping ; but the proper
distance could not be well ascertained, and they were set adrift
too remotely from the vessels, so that they were obstructed and
dispersed by the ice. They approached, however, in the day-
time, and one of them blew up a boat, others exploded, and occa-
sioned the greatest consternation and alarm among the British
Beamen. The British soldiers actually manned the wharves and
thipping at Philadelphia, and discharged their small arms and
cannon at every thing they could see floating in the river during
the ebb tide. This incident has received the name of ' ike Battle
of the Kegs,' and has furnished the subject of an excellent and
humorous song by the Hon. Francis Hopkinson, which, as it is an
amusing relic of the times, we here insert."
THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS : A SONG.
GALLANTS attend, and hear a friend
Trill forth harmonious ditty ;
Strange things I'll tell, which late befell
In Philadelphia city.
: Twas early day, as poets say,
Just when the sun was rising,
A soldier stood on log of wood,
And saw a sight surprising.
As in amaze he stood to gaze,
The truth can't be denied,
He spied a score of kegs, or more,
Come floating down the tide.
A sailor too, m jerkin blue,
The strange appearance viewing.
First " d -d his eyes," in great surprise,
Then said, " some mischief's brewing:
" These kegs now hold the rebels bold,
Pack'd up like pickled herring ;
And they're comedown t'attackthe town
In this new way of ferrying."
The soldier flew, the sailor too,
And almost scared to death.
Wore out their shoes to spread the news,
And ran till out of breath.
Now up and down, throughout the town
Most frantic scenes were acted ;
And some ran here and some ran there
Like men almost distracted.
Some fire! cned, which some denied
But said, the earth had quaked:
And girls and boys, with hideous noise,
Ran through the streets, half naked.
HOWE, in a fright, starts upright,
Awoke by such a clatter ;
Rubbing both eyes, he loudly cries,
" For God's sake, what's the matter T
At his bedside he then espied
Sir ERSKINE at command;
Upon one foot he had one boot,
And t'other in his hand.
"Arise! arise!" Sir ERSKINE cries;
" The rebels more's the pity--
Without a boat are all afloat,
And rang'd before the city ;
" The motley crew, in vessels new,
With SATAN for their guide,
, or wooden keg
Como
Therefore prepare for bloody war ;
These kegs must all be routed,
Or surely we despised shall be,
And British courage doubted."
The royal band now ready stand,
All rang'd in dread array,
With stomachs stout, to see it out,
And make a bloody day
Pack'd up in bags, or w
Driving down the tide ;
gs,
144
AMERICAN MECHANICS.
The cannons roar from shore to shore,
The small arms made a rattle ;
Since war began, I'm sure no man
Ere saw so strange a battle :
The rebel vales, the rebel dales,
With rebel trees surrounded ;
The distant woods, the hills and floods,
With- rebel echoes sounded.
The fish below swam to and fro,
Attack'd from every quarter ;
" Why sure," thought they, " the devil's
to pay
'Mongst folks above the water."
The kegs, 'tis said, though strongly made
Of rebel staves and hoops,
Could not oppose their pow'rfui foe,
The conq'ring British troops.
From morn to night, these men ot
might
Display'd amazing courage :
And when the sun was fairly down,
Retir'd to sup their porridge.
A hundred men, with each a pen,
Or more, upon my word,
It is most true, would be too few
Their valor to record :
Such feats did they perform that day
Upon those wicked kegs,
That years to come, if they get home.
They'll make their boast and brags.
The unfortunate issue of Mr. Bushnell's efforts rendered him
very dejected. He had been disappointed in his expected support
from government, having spent nearly all, if not the whole of his
own property in the course of his experiments. Soon after the
close of the war, he left his native country for France. The
object of this voyage is not known ; and it was always supposed,
until within a very short time, that he had perished amid some one
of the sanguinary scenes of the French revolution. But it appears
hat, after remaining in Europe a number of years, he returned
and settled in Georgia, under the assumed name of Bush, where
he lived in a retired manner, gaining his livelihood by the practice
of medicine. The tidings of his death, in 1826, accompanied by
a handsome bequest, the product of .his professional industiy, was
the first information his relations had received of him for a period
of nearly forty years,
AMOS WHITTEMORE.
AMOS WHITTEMORE,
THE INVENTOR OF THE CARD MACHINE.
Birth. Early traits of character. Is apprenticed to a gunsmith. Industry.
Constructs a wooden clock without a model. Invents a machine for measur-
ing the progress of vessels. Becomes a partner in manufacturing cotton and
wool cards. Description and imperfection of the old method of making cards.
Sets about the construction of the card machine. Wonderful perseverance.
Meets with an unexpected obstacle. Overcomes the difficulty in a dream. Com-
pletes the invention. Its beauty and precision. Secures the patent. Visits
England, to secure a patent there. Taken prisoner by a French man-of-war.
Release. Dyer's card establishment at Manchester. Return. Forms a co-
partnership to manufacture card machines. Slow progress and exhausted
means. Visits Washington, and exhibits the invention. It excites universal
admiration. Congress renews the patent. Establish a branch in New York.
The New York Manufacturing Company purchase their whole interest.
Its succeeding history. Phoenix Bank. Singular chain of circumstances.
Whittemore purchases a country seat, and retires from active life. Projects
an orrery on a new plan. Feeble health. Death. Character. Value of the
card machine. Conclusion.
THE incidents in the following memoir are principally such as
could be gathered from the memory of one who intimately knew
the subject of it while living, and always entertained for him and
his memory a high regard. The writer therefore feels some diffi-
dence in recording as strict fact, every part of the relation made
to him, inasmuch as the lapse of years may have effaced in some
degree the recollection of many of the events. It is believed, how-
ever, that its leading features are essentially correct, and as noth-
ing stated can affect others, he feels relieved from responsibility.
Amos Whittemore, who, by his extraordinary invention for
making cotton and wool cards, merits a prominent place among the
first mechanics of the age, was the second of five brothers, and
was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 19th, 1759. His
father was an agriculturist of but moderate means, whose industry
enabled him to rear a large family, and give to his children the
mere rudiments of an English education. Of the five brothers, it
is unnecessary to allude to either than the two next in age, William
and Samuel, who, as will appear in the sequel, became interested
in business with that brother whose ingenuity laid the foundation
of their fortunes.
The youthful days of Whittemore were passed in the usual
manner of lads in the countiy, chiefly in assisting his parent in
148 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
the cultivation of the farm. At an early age he manifested a re-
markable talent for mechanical pursuits, together with a mind dis-
posed to the contemplation of philosophical and abstruse science.
Aware that he must depend almost entirely upon his own re-
sources, not only for his maintenance, but for his future advance-
ment, it was obvious that he must soon choose a profession which
would promote these ends. Free to make his own choice, he se-
lected the trade of a gunsmith, as one which, while it presented a
field for the cultivation of mechanical taste, offered the prospects
of a fruitful harvest.
On becoming an apprentice, he not only zealously applied him
self to the interests of his master, but devoted his leisure to volun-
tary employment. At this period he invented many ingenious and
useful implements ; and such was his proficiency, that long ere the
expiration of his term of service, his employer confessed himself
unable to give further instruction, and advjsed him to commence
business for himself.
Among the many instances of his skill, may be noticed that of
an excellent clock made without a model, which remained many
years in the family, proving a useful, as well as gratifying me-
mento of his early ingenuity. This was among the fiist of the
kind, although now there is scarcely a cottage in our wide spread
country that does not boast of at least one of these indispensable
*s well as ornamental pieces of furniture. He also invented a
machine constructed with dial hands and figures, to be placed in
the water at a vessel's stern, for the purpose of accurately mea-
suring its progress. At the suggestion of a medical friend, a
Dr. Putnam of Charlestown, he invented a self-acting loom, for
weaving duck, which, from the best information we possess, is
believed to be the same in principle as the celebrated power loom
now so universally used. Owing to the unsettled state of business
at this period, and the want of encouragement in the useful arts,
these productions, notwithstanding their value, were suffered to lie
neglected and forgotten.
For years succeeding the expiration of his apprenticeship,
Whittemore was variously, though to himself, in a pecuniary point,
unprofitably employed. At length he became interested with his
brother William, and five others, in the manufacture of cotton and
wool cards, conducting their business in Boston under the firm of
Giles, Richards, and Co., and supplying nearly all the cards then
used in the country. Amos devoted himself to the mechanical
department, as being the most agreeable and useful.
Hitherto, the manufacture of cotton and wool cards, which had
already become an article of great demand, was attended with
AMOS WHITTEMORE. 14
much expense, owing to the imperfection of the machinery, and
the amount of manual labor required. But two machines, and
those of simple construction, were as yet known ; one for cutting
and bending the wire into staples, and another for piercing the
sheets of leather with holes, into which the staples were placed,
one by one, with the hand. This last operation gave employment
to hundreds of the younger members of families in New England :
and it was not unamusing to witness groups of children, of both
sexes, engaged in this easy labor, their tiny fingers rapidly placing
staple after staple into its appropriate place, as eager to perform
their allotted task a-s they were to count the few pence earned at
the dear expense of a temporary deprivation of their youthful
sports. This, the only method then known, combined both the
disadvantage of great expense and the impossibility of making the
cards sufficiently perfect to properly prepare the raw material.
Whittemore, ever bent upon improvements in machinery, r.t
once saw the importance, and, of course, the immense value of a
tnachine so constructed as to be enabled, by its own independent
action, to hold the sheet of leather, pierce the holes s draw the >vire
from the reel, and shape and stick it into its proper place : thus,
by the combination of a series of successive independent opera-
tions, complete the card. After that mature reflection which
always characterized him, he imparted to his brother William
the conception of that idea which he so ardently desired to exe-
cute. Encouraged by the advice and assistance of this brother,
he engaged in the apparently insurmountable task, well convinced
of the rich reward awaiting him if he could but embody in a
machine the picture of his imagination. With ardor and unre-
mitting zeal he prosecuted his labors, devoting his whole montal
and physical energies to the undertaking. Such was his diligenv ^,
nnd so incessantly did it occupy his time, that he not only impaired
his health, but frequently neglected the demands of nature, to the
extent that food and sleep seemed to him of but secondary conse-
quence. Slowly, but steadily he progressed ; and while his bodily
strength daily diminished, the fire of his mind seemed to burn with
increased enthusiasm. Like the discoverer of our western world,
he had staked, as it were, his reputation upon this effort, and,
though storms of discouragement buffeted him at every point, and
a boundless sea of toil appeared between him and his uncertain
haven, yet he undauntingly persevered almost against hope.
Baffled as was his skill to the utmost, he at length so far com-
pleted his machine as to cause it to draw the wire from the reel,
cut and shape it, pierce the holes in the leather, and even place the
staples firmly in the sheet ; but it was yet necessary to bend the
150 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
wire after it was placed : without this, all was in vain ; time and
health had been valuelessly sacrificed, and that ambition that ever
animates to action the inventive mind, seemed in him about to re-
ceive a fatal check. Notwithstanding the encouragement of his
friends who, believing that he could finally sijeceed, were, if pos-
sible, more zealous than himself he gradually became irresolute,
and frequently declared his inability to make any farther progress.
The labor of nearly three months lay before him, an unfinished,
yet wonderfully ingenious structure ; but, like the famed ivory balls
of the Chinese, while it was admirable for the skill displayed in
its workmanship, was valueless. Fortunately, he was not long
doomed to look upon his work as a mere monument of labor lost.
While the ingenuity of his mind had in vain been taxed to the ut-
most, it was, as it would seem, to miraculous interposition that he
owed his ultimate success. Extraordinary as it may appear, and
doubted as it may be by some, it is, nevertheless, a fact, that during
a n'ght succeeding a day of despondency and gloom, and at an
hour when his faculties were wrapped in slumber, in a vision was
disclosed to him the complete accomplishment of his hopes.
Scarcely had the following day dawned, when, with a heart swell-
ing with emotions of eagerness and joy, he once more revisited
the chamber where he had so earnestly toiled, and, ere he broke
his fast on that morning, he was enabled to announce to his brother
and friends his entire success.
Thus, within the short space of three months, he had, by un-
tiring industry, commenced and completed an invention which at
once revolutionized the manufacture of cards, and which, for in-
genuity of construction, precision of movement, rapidity of per-
formance, and perfection of execution, may challenge comparison
with any mechanical effort of the human mind. It must be studi
ously examined to be justly appreciated ; and, with a distinguished
man* of our day, one alike eminent for his scientific attainments
QS for his accomplishments as a statesman, we may say, that
those who examine its complicated performance can compare it
with nothing more nearly than the machinery of the human system.
This anecdote, so intimately connected with the inventio.., was
one which Whittemore frequently related, and it was gratifying to
observe with what ardor he told the story of his toil : upon no part
ol which would he dwell with more enthusiastic delight than this,
singular dream.
The brothers, fully aware, if successful, of the value of such a
machine, had, in a measure, kept secret the fac'. jf \Vhiueir.cre'a
* Flward Everett.
AMOS WHITTEMORE. 151
being engaged in its construction. When, therefore, completed,
steps were immediately takem to secure to the fortunate inventor,
and his associates, the pecuniary advantages to be derived ; and
on the 2d of June, 1797, a patent right was granted for a term of
fourteen years. The importance of securing a patent right in
England, as well as in the United States, was not lost sight of.
At this time, during the administration of the elder Adams, but
few years had elapsed since the establishment of our national inde-
pendence, and the relations of our country with England were unset
tied, while with France we were engaged in naval hostilities. To
undertake a voyage across the Atlantic, under such circumstances
and at this early period, was considered of almost as much im-
oortance as, in our time, to circumnavigate the globe. To many
of the habits of Whittemore, the project of visiting England, and
there to wade through the difficulties of securing a patent, would
have been thought too great an enterprise : at most, that the ad-
vantages to accrue would not be commensurate with the risk and
expenditure. Not so thought the brothers ; and the requisite ar-
rangements being made, it became the duty as well as pleasure
of Whittemore to visit that country. At this period, but two ships
traded regularly between Boston and London, the Galen and the
Minerva ; in the latter of which he embarked in the spring of
1799, accompanied by an English gentleman named Sharpe, who
evinced great interest in the machine, and is believed to have been
largely benefited by it in England.
Being unacquainted with the circumstances connected with this
visit, it is out of our power to give a detail of its events ; it is
sufficient, however, to know, that the invention soon became fully
appreciated, and though numerous offers were made, either to pur-
chase the right or become interested in its profits, nothing of con-
sequence was done to remunerate the inventor. Anxious to re-
turn, he left his business in the hands of those in whom he reposed
confidence, and in the spring of 1800 sailed for Boston, where he
arrived in safety after a passage of fifty-nine days, and a year's
absence from home. Either on his outward or homeward voyage,
the vessel which he was in was captured by the French, but the
passengers were released without serious inconvenience.
Justly entitled as he was to a rich reward in that country, which
has- since been so largely benefited by this invention, he was de-
spoiled of his rights, and realized little else than expense and labor.
No sooner was the machine generally understood in England,
than it was perceived how fatal its successful operation would be-
come to the working classes engaged in the manufacture of cards.
The greatest caution and secrecy were therefore observed, lest the
152 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
threats of the people, to mob those engaged in making the ma-
chinery, would be carried into execution. The only sate method
was, to have parts of the machine made in different places, and
put together when finished.
The most extensive, if not the only establishment now in opera-
tion in England for manufacturing machine cards, is that of Mr.
Dyer, in Manchester, who has conducted the business with great
success ; through whose agency the machinery has been carried
into France and the other parts of the continent, and is even
supposed by many to be his invention, though he himself acknow-
ledges its proper source.
The copartnership of Giles, Richards, and Co. having expired
some time, Whittemore, with his brother, had been engaged in
the manufacture of cards upon the old plan. On his return from
England, they formed a connection with their friend, Mr. Robert
Williams, of Boston, who possessed the requisite means for car-
rying on the business with the improved machinery, though on a
limited scale.
Until the year 1809, little had been done beside constructing
expensive machines, and making the necessary preparations for
the manufacture of cards. The patent was at this time within
two years of its expiration, and their treasury nearly exhausted.
Serious apprehensions were therefore entertained that, when about
to realize a remuneration for their time and expense, others, by
successful competition, would step in and wrest from them the
fruits of all their toils.
During the session of the congress of 1808 and 1809, Whitte-
more, with his brother William, visited Washington, carrying with
them a complete machine, of full size, as a model for exhibition,
which was shown to the members and other men of distinction.
It not only elicited universal admiration, but of such advantage
was it considered to the country, especially to the cotton and
wool-growing interest, that many members, among them Matthew
Lyon of Vermont, a gentleman distinguished for his abilities,
were disposed to grant a perpetual patent to the inventor and
his heirs. The result, however, was, that on the 3d of March,
1809, an act received the unanimous vote of congress, granting a
renewal of the patent for fourteen years from the expiration of the
first term.
The city of New York had long since given evidence of it
peculiar advantages for trade and commerce ; and as early as the
year 1803, a branch of the business was established in that city,
under the management of a younger brother, Mr. Samuel Whitte-
more, who became a partner with the brothers. As may be
AMOS WHITTEMORE. 153
readily supposed, the importance of the machine attracted no
little attention among the enterp risiqg- "of this metropolis ; and
soon after the renewal of the patent, Efforts were made to establish
a company, with a capital of sufficient magnitude to carry on an
extensive business, and thus obtain the certain profit that a mono-
poly such as this seemed to ensure.
Men of fortune and energy gave it their support ; and during
the session of the New York legislature of 1812, an act was passed,
incorporating the " New York Manufacturing Company," with a
capital of about $800,000, of which $300,000 was directed to be
employed in manufacturing cotton and wool cards, and building
the necessary machinery and factories, while the balance was to
be employed in banking.
Among the first acts of this company, was to purchase of the
Messrs. Whittemore their patent right and entire stock of machine-
ry ; which was effected on the 20th of July, 1812, for the sum of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The company having purchased
a site on New York island, commenced the erection of extensive
works ; and the usual custom in public buildings of laying the corner
stone, was here observed with much ceremony. And now for the
first time, it may be said, that the business had commenced on fa-
vorable auspices, so far as capital and an intelligent direction was
a guarantee of success.
Our country, being at this time engaged in an active, and to our
commerce, a destructive warfare with England, a country that had
always supplied us with cotton and woollen, as well as other goods,
a check, if not a total suspension, was thus placed upon farther im-
portations, and the manufacture of these fabrics was thrown upon
ourselves. Cotton and woollen factories were erected as if by the
magic of Aladdin's lamp, and they, with the demand from all parts
of the country for hand cards, gave such an impetus to the business
that the company were most actively and profitably engaged.
But the peace of 1815, an event, so much and so devoutly wished
for by our suffering country, proved injurious to the association.
Sudden and immense importations of foreign goods followed this
event, and such was the insufficient protection then afforded to do-
mestic industry, and so great was the demand for the raw material
abroad, that our infant manufactories were compelled to stop, and
scarcely a pound of cotton or wool remained at home. The com-
pany thus found themselves with a large stock of machinery and
cards, and no market. In the year 1818, after waiting in vain for
a reaction, and the business being doubtless shackled by the un-
wieldy management of a corporation, the company proposed and
effected a sale of its entire manufacturing property to Messrs,
154 AMERICAN MECHANICS
Samuel and Timothy Whittemore, the former a brother, the latter
a son of the inventor. Mr. Timothy Whittemore almost immedi
ately thereafter relinquished his interest to his uncle, who became
the sole proprietor, and conducted the business with varied success
until within a few years. The New York manufacturing compai y,
afler this sale, with an increased capital, changed its title to that of
the " Phoenix Bank," and continues to this day a popular banking
institution,
At the expiration of the patent in 1825, Mr. Samuel "Whittemore
sold several of his machines in anticipation of a rapid decKue in
the business, since the monopoly could no longer be retained ; and
from that tune .the manufacture of cards by machinery has become
so general, as to make it a business of comparatively small amount
to any, but to a few old established firms. By a singular, though
interesting chain of circumstances, the identical machines which
the inventor himself assisted in building, after being out of his family
for more than twenty-five years, have now become the property of
his sons, and are used by them in West Cambridge, a small town near
that which gave him birth. Their cards are well known for their
uniform excellence, the stamp being to the consumer a sufficient
guarantee of their quality.
Although more than forty years have elapsed since the invention,
such was the perfection with which it came from the mind of the
inventor, that no essential improvements have ever been suggested.
Attempts were frequently made to defraud him of his well-earned
fame, by claiming it as the production of others, but they have
proved as abortive as the attempts to infringe upon the patent.
After the sale of his interest, Whittemore retired from active
life, and having purchased a pleasant estate in the town of West
Cambridge, found that quiet and freedom from the many cares
of business life, so agreeable to his nature. Since the invention, he
never seriously exerted his mechanical ingenuity, feeling, doubtless,
content with the laurels already acquired. Having, however, in
early life entertained a deep interest in the science of astronomy,
in later years he conceived the plan of a complete orrery, repre-
senting the whole planetary system, each planet to describe its own
orbit, and the combination acting like nature's own. Enfeebled by
an impaired health, and the infirmities of age, he never matured
this project, and at length he died, in the year 1828, at the age of
sixty-nine, at his residence in West Cambridge, leaving a widow
to lament the loss of a kind husband, his children an indulgent
father, and his associates an amiable and devoted friend. To his
family he was an example of one who lived a pure and blame-
less life ; and though he left but an inconsiderable fortune, the;y
AMOS WH1TTEMORE. 155
inherited a far brighter treasure in an unsullied reputation. Whit-
temore was of a bland and conciliating disposition, even in temper,
and in manners strikingly meditative, conversing but little, and
often seen in profound mental study.
The value that the card machine has been, and still is, not to
this country alone, but to the whole manufacturing world, it is be-
lieved even few now justly appreciate. With Whitney's cotton gin, it
forms an important and necessary link in the chain of machinery
which by their operation furnish to the world one of the most use-
ful, as well as beautiful fabrics. How far it may have contributed,
not only to perfect in quality, but to reduce it in cost, cannot be
difficult to estimate. We may add, however, in conclusion, that not
a cotton or wollen factory is reared, that does not rely upon
the card machine to complete its own machinery, and the use
of the hand card, in the southern states, has become as general as
the culture of cotton itself.
ROBERT FULTON.
Birth and parentage. Early ingenuity. Becomes a painter. Visits England.
Becomes an inmate in the family of Benjamin West. Inland navigation. Ex-
cavating machine. Visits France. Turns his attention to submarine warfare.
Experiments. British Government. Bonaparte. Constructs a plunging-
boat, with which he remains under water an hour. Blows up a vessel in the
harbor of Brest with a submarine bomb. Revisits England. Blows up a Dan-
ish brig. Returns to the United States. Anecdote. Stationary torpedo.
Congress appropriate funds to carry on his experiments. Report of the com-
missioners. Letter to the secretary of the navy. Experiments on the sloop
of war Argus. Gun-harpoon and cable-cutter. Steam navigation. Chancellor
Livingston. Fulton's steam experiments in France. Experiments with a
steamboat on the Seine. Commences building a steamboat in New York.
Orders an engine from England. Description and success of the first experi-
ment on the Hudson. Redheffer's perpetual motion. Builds a floating steam
battery for government. Launch. Voyage of "Fulton the First." Lawsuits.
Death. Conclusion.
THIS indefatigable man was born in Little Britain, Lancaster
county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1765, of a respectable, though
not opulent family. His father was a native of Kilkenny, in Ire-
land, and his mother was of a respectable Irish family, residing in
Pennsylvania. He had two sisters older than himself, besides a
younger brother and sister. His patrimony was very small. In
his infancy he received the rudiments of a common English educa-
tion, and his peculiar genius manifested itself at a very early age.
All his hours of recreation were passed in the shops of mechanics,
or in the use of his pencil. By the time he had attained the age of
seventeen, he became so much of an artist, as to derive emolument
from portrait and landscape painting in Philadelphia, where he re-
mained till he was about twenty-one.
When he became of age, he went to Washington county, and
there purchased a little farm, on which he settled his mother, his
father having died in 1768. After seeing his parent comfortably
established in the home which he had provided for her, he set out
with the intention of returning to Philadelphia. On his way, he
visited the warm springs of Pennsylvania, where he met with some
gentlemen, who were so much pleased with the genius they discov-
ered in his paintings, that they advised him to go to England,
where ttuy assured him he would meet with the patronage oi his
ROBERT FULTON
ROBERT FULTON. !&$
countryman Mr. West, who had, even then, attained great celeb-
rity. Mr. Fulton went to England, and his reception by Mr. West
was such as he had been led to anticipate. That distinguished
American was so well pleased with his promising and enterprising
genius, and his amiable qualities, that he took him into his house,
where he continued an inmate for several years. After leaving
the family of Mr. West, he appears to have made the art of paint-
ing his chief employment for some time. He spent two years in
Devonshire, near Exeter, where he made many respectable ac-
quaintances ; among others, he became known to the duke of
Bridgewater, so famous for his canals, and Lord Stanhope, a
nobleman celebrated for his love of science, and particularly for
his attachment to the mechanic arts. With Lord Stanhope, Mr.
Fulton held a correspondence for a long time, and they communi-
cated to each other ideas on subjects towards which their minds
were mutually directed.
In 1793, we find Mr. Fulton actively engaged in a project to
improve inland navigation ; for, even at that early day, he had
conceived the idea of propelling vessels by steam, and he speaks
in his manuscripts with great confidence of its practicability. In
May, 1774, he obtained from the British government a patent for
a double inclined plane, to be used for transportation. An account
of this may be seen in vol. xvii. of the Repertory of Arts.
What were Mr. Fulton's pursuits for some years after this period
it does not appear. In his preface to a description of his Nautilus,
or plunging-boat, he says, that he had resided eighteen months in
the great manufacturing town of Birmingham, where he must have
acquired some of that practical knowledge in mechanics which he
made so useful to his country, and indeed to all the world. In
1804, when Mr. Fulton left Paris, he sent a large collection of his
manuscripts to this country ; but unfortunately, -the vessel in which
they were sent was wrecked. The case containing the papers
was recovered, but only a few fragments of the manuscripts were
preserved. These, however, mark the genius of Fulton, and in-
crease our regret that any productions of his strong and original
mind which he thought worth preserving should be lost. It is
owing to this misfortune that we have so few traces of Mr. Fulton's
occupations at this period. But a mind like his could never be
idle, and it is evident that, at this time, it was still directed to-
wards his favorite pursuits.
In 1794, he submitted to the British Society for the Promotion
of Arts and Commerce, an improvement of his invention in mills
for sawing marble, for which he received the thanks of the society
and an honorary medal. He invented also, as is presumed, about
160 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
this time, a machine for spinning flax, and another for making
ropes, for both of which he obtained patents from the British gov-
ernment. A mechanical contrivance for scooping out earth in
certain situations, to form the channels for canals or aqueducts,
which, as it is understood, has been much used in England, is also
his imention. Indeed, the subject of canals appears chiefly to
have engaged his attention at this time. He now, and probably
for some time previous, professed himself a civil engineer, and
under this title he published his work on canals, and in 1795,
some essays on the same subject in the London Morning Star.
In 1796, he published in London, his Treatise on the Improve-
ment of Canal Navigation, in which he recommends small canals
and boats of little burden ; and also inclined planes instead of
locks, together with the various contrivances necessary to effect
the passage of boats from one level to another. His plans were
strongly recommended by the British Board of Agriculture, of
which Sir John Sinclair was president.
Mr. Fulton, throughout his course as a mechanist and civil en-
gineer, derived great advantages from his talent for drawing and
painting. He was an elegant and accurate draughtsman, which
is proved by the plates annexed to the work we have mentioned.
This gave him great facility in procuring the execution of his
designs, and a great advantage over most who have engaged in
similar pursuits. He seems, however, to have neglected his pencil
as a painter for many years, till a short time before his death,
when he resumed it to paint some portraits of his own family, and
his success in executing these gave him much pleasure.
Mr. Fulton, ever thoughtful of the interests of his own country,
sent copies of his works to distinguished persons in America, ac-
companied with letters, setting forth the advantages to be derived
from internal communication by canals.
Having obtained a patent for canal improvements from the
British government, he went to France, with the intention of in-
troducing them there ; but not meeting with much encouragement,
he soon directed his mind to other important subjects ; though the
canal system still occupied a portion of his thoughts. About this
time, his thoughts were turned towards the subject of political
economy, and he wrote a work, addressed to " the Friends of
Mankind," in which he labors to show, that education and internal
improvements would have a good effect on the happiness of a na-
tion. He not only wished to see a free and speedy cormnunica.
tion between the different parts of a large country, but a universal
free trade between all nations. He saw that it would take ages to
establish the freedom of the seas by the common consent of na
ROBERT PULTON. 161
tions ; he therefore turned his whole attention to find out some
means of destroying ships of war, those engines of oppression,
and to put it out of the power of any nation to maintain such a
system ; and thus to compel every government to adopt the simple
principles of education, industry, and a free circulation of its pro-
duce. Out of such enlarged and philanthropic views and reflec-
tions grew Mr. Fulton's inventions for submarine navigation and
explosions, and with such patriotic motives did he prosecute them.
Of these inventions we now proceed to give some account.
In the year 1797, he became acquainted with Mr. Joel Barlow,
our celebrated countryman, then residing in Paris, in whose family
he lived seven years, during which he learned the French, and
something of the German and Italian languages. He also studied
the high mathematics, physics, chemistry, and perspective.
In December, 1797, he made an experiment in company with
Mr. Barlow, on the Seine, with a machine which he had con-
structed, and by which he designed to impart to carcasses of gun-
powder a progressive motion under water, and there to explode
them ; but he was disappointed in its performance. He continued,
however, to make experiments with a view to the accomplishment
of his object, until he had perfected the plan for his submarine
boat.
A want of funds to enable him to carry his design into execu-
tion, induced him to apply to the French Directory. They at first
gave him reason to expect their aid, but after a long attendance at
the public offices, he received a note, informing him that they had
totally rejected his plan. Mr. Fulton was not to be discouraged,
but pursued his inventions ; and having executed a handsome model
of his machine, and a change in the directors having taken place,
he presented his plan, and a commission was appointed to examine
his pretensions ; but after three months attendance, he was again
disappointed by finding his plan entirely rejected. Not yet, how-
ever, discouraged, he offered his project to the British government,
through the ambassador from Holland ; but without success, al-
though a commission was appointed to examine his models. But
the French government at length changed ; and Bonaparte having
placed himself at the head of it, Mr. Fulton presented an address
to him, on which a commission was immediately appointed and
assistance afforded, which enabled him to put some of his plans in
practice. In the spring of 1801, Mr. Fulton repaired to Brest, to
make experiments with the plunging-boat which he had constructed
the preceding winter. This, as he says, had many imperfections
natural to a first machine, and had been injured by rust, as parts
which should have been of copper or brass were made of iron.
162 AMERICA^ MECHANICS.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, he engaged in a course of
experiments, which required no less courage than energy and per.
severance. From a report of his proceedings to tho committee
appointed by the French executive, we learn, that on the third cf
July, 1801, he embarked with three companions on board his
plunging-boat in the harbor of Brest, and descended to the depth
of five, ten, fifteen, and so on to twenty-five feet ; but he did not
attempt to go lower, because he found that his imperfect machine
would not bear the pressure of the water at a greater depth. He
remained below the surface an hour in utter darkness, which was
very unpleasant, and candles were found to consume too much of
the vital air ; so he caused a small window of thick glass to be
made near the bow of his boat, which afforded him light enough
to count the minutes on his watch. Having satisfied himself that
he could have sufficient light under water ; that he could do a long
time without fresh air, and descend to any depth or rise to the
surface with facility ; his next object was to try the movements of
his vessel, as well on the surface as under it. He found that she
would tack and steer, and sail on a wind or before it, as well as
any common sailing boat. He then struck her masts and sails ;
to do which, and prepare for plunging, required about two minutes.
Having plunged to a certain depth, he placed two men at the
engine, which was intended to give her progressive motion, and
one at the helm, while he, with a barometer before him, kept her
balanced between the upper and lower waters. He found that
with one hand he could keep her at any depth he pleased ; and
that in seven minutes he had gone about the third of a mile. He
could turn her round while under water, and return to the place
he started from. These experiments were repeated for several
days, till he became familiar with the operation of the machinery
and the motion of the boat. He found that she was as obedient
to her helm under water as any boat could be on the surface ; and
that the magnetic needle traversed as well in one situation as in
the other.
On the 7th of August, Mr. Fulton descended with a store of air
compressed into a copper globe, whereby he was enabled to remain
under water four hours and twenty minutes. The success of these
experiments determined him to try the effects of these inventions
on the English ships, which were daily near the harbor of Brest.
Satisfied with his boat, he next made some experiments with the
torpedoes, or submarine bombs. A small vessel was anchored in
the roads, and with a bomb containing about twenty pounds of
powder, he approached within about two hundred yards, struck
the vessel and blew her into atoms. A column of water and frag*
ROBERT FULTON 183
menls was blown near one hundred feet into the air. This experi.
ment was made in the presence of the prefect of the department
and a multitude of spectators.
Through the summer of 1801, and till the project was relin-
quished on account of the season, Mr. Fulton appears to have been
watching the English ships which were on the coast ; but though
some of them daily approached off the harbor, yet none of them
came so near, or anchored in such a situation, as to be exposed to
the effects of his attempts. In one instance, he came very near a
British seventy-four ; but she, just in time, made such a change of
position as to save herself. The rulers of France were discouraged
by this want of success, or rather of opportunity, and, so far from
being willing to make farther advances for new experiments or
efforts, they showed no disposition to fulfil the engagements they
had already made with Mr. Fulton. The escape of the enemy's
vessels seems to have lowered his invention so much in their es-
timation, that they refused to give him any farther encouragement.
The English had some information respecting the attempts
which their enemies were making, but did not know to what ex-
tent they had been carried. Much anxiety was expressed, which
induced the British minister to communicate with Mr. Fulton, the
object of which was to deprive France of his services, and secure
them to England. In this he was successful, and Mr. Fulton was
induced to proceed to London, where he arrived in May, 1804.
He soon had an interview with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville. When
Mr. Pitt first saw a drawing of a torpedo, with a sketch of the
mode of applying it, and understood what would be the effect of
the explosion, he said that if it were introduced into practice, it
could not fail of annihilating all military marines ; and when Mr.
Fulton exhibited his torpedo and described its effects to the Earl
St. Vincent, he exclaimed, in the strong language of his profession,
against this mode of warfare, whichj he said, with great reason,
they who commanded the seas did not want, and which, if suc-
cessful, would wrest the trident from those who claimed to bear it
as the sceptre of supremacy over the ocean. From the subse-
quent conduct of the British ministry, it may well be supposed that
they never truly intended to give Mr. Fulton a fair opportunity of
hying the effects of his engines. The object may have been to
prevent them from being placed in the hands of an enemy ; and if
this was accomplished, it was the interest of England, as long as
she was ambitious of the proud title of mistress of the seas, to
make the world believe that Mr. Fulton's projects were chimerical.
Nothing would be more likely to produce this effect than abortive
attempts to apply them. Several experiments were made, and
164 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
some of them were failures ; but on the 15th of October, 1805, he
blew up a strong built Danish brig of 200 tons burden, which had
been provided for the experiment, and which was anchored in
Walmar roads, near the residence of Mr. Pitt. The torpedo used
on this occasion contained 170 pounds of powder ; and in fifteen
minutes from the time of starting the machinery and throwing the
torpedo into the water, the explosion took place. It lifted the brig
almost entire, and broke hpr completely in two. The ends sunk
immediately, and in one minute nothing was to be seen of her bul
floating fragments. In fact, her annihilation was complete.
Notwithstanding the complete success of this experiment, the
British ministry seem to have been but little disposed to have any
thing farther to do with Mr. Fulton or his projects. Indeed, the
evidence it afforded of their efficacy may have been a reason for
this conduct. After some further experiments, of which we have
no particular account, he at length embarked for his native coun-
try, and arrived at New York on the 13th of December, 1806.
Upon his arrival in this country, he immediately engaged in the
projects, both of submarine war and steam navigation. For the
last he had made some preparations before he left England ; but
we intend to postpone this important subject, to be presented in
one view, after tracing the progress of his other pursuits.
So far from being discouraged by his attempts at applying his
torpedoes in Europe, his confidence was unabated, because he saw,
as he said, that his failures were to be attributed to trivial errors,
which actual experience only could discover, and which could be
easily corrected. He very soon induced our government to afford
him the means of trying further experiments, and invited the magis-
tracy of New York and a number of citizens to Governor's Island,
where were the torpedoes and machinery with which his experi-
ments were to be made ; and while he was explaining his blank
torpedoes, which were large copper cylinders, his numerous audi-
tors crowded around him. At length he turned to a copper case
of the same description, which was placed under the gateway of
the fort, and to which was attached a clockwork lock This, by
drawing out a peg, he set in motion, and then said to his audience :
" Gentlemen, this is a charged torpedo, with which, precisely in
its present state, I mean to blow up a vessel. It contains 170
pounds of powder ; and if I were to suffer the clockwork to run
fifteen minutes, I have no doubt out that it would blow this fortifi-
catior to atoms." The circle round Mr. Fulton was very soon
much enlarged, and before five of the fifteen minutes were out,
there were but two or three persons remaining under the gateway
The apprehensions of the company amused him, anc he took oc
ROBERT FULTON. 165
casion to remark, how true it was that fear frequently arose from
ignorance.
On the 20th of July, 1807, he blew up wkh a torpedo, in the
harbor of New York, a large hulk brig, which had been prepared
for the purpose. This experiment only served to prove to the in-
habitants of New York, by ocular demonstration, that the explo-
sion of a torpedo under a vessel's bottom would annihilate her.
A The annexed cut represents one of Mr.
s^~\ Fulton's stationary torpedoes, which were
?*lT_ m to be carcasses of powder, having levers
^JHjj^^W attached to the triggers of the locks ; num-
J0L bers of them were to be anchored in the
W& channel through which vessels, to make an
fl[8HJ^HPa attack, must pass. The hostile vessel, in
\ passing over a torpedo, would press the
\ / lever and cause an explosion. A is the
\y lever, and B a portion of the rope to which
\ the anchor is attached.
In a letter to the city government of New York, Mr. Fulton
says : " You have now seen the effect of the explosion of powder
under the bottom of a vessel, and this, I believe, is the best and
most simple mode of using it with the greatest effect in marine
wars ; for a right application of one torpedo will annihilate a ship,
nor leave a man to relate the dreadful catastrophe. Thus, should
a ship of the Me, containing five hundred men, contend with ten
good row boats, each with a torpedo and ten men, she would risk
total annihilation, while the boats, under cover of the night and
with quick movements, would risk only a few men out of the hun-
dred. When two ships of equal force engage, it may be doubtful
which will gain the victory ; frequently one hundred men are killed,
as many wounded, and the ships much injured. But even the
vanquished vessels will admit of being repaired, and thus the
mmber of ships of war will not be diminished ; but will continue
o increase and tyrannize over the rights of neutrals and peaceable
stations. "
In March, 1810, five thousand lollars were granted by congress
for further experiments in submarine explosions, which gave Mr.
Fulton another opportunity to exercise his skill. A commission
was xo appointed to be present and report the results. The
Sioop ji war Argus was prepared for defence against the torpedoes,
under the orders of Commodore Rogers, after Mr. Fulton had ex-
plained his mode of attack. The defence was so complete, that
he found it impracticable to do any thing with his torpedoes as
166 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
they were then prepared. Some experiments were tried, however,
with his gun-harpoon and cable-cutter ; and after several attempts,
a fourteen-inch cable was cut off, several feet below the surface of
the water. The commissioners appointed to make the report did
not exactly agree in sentiments concerning these experiments.
The following letter from Mr. Fulton to the secretary of the navy
accompanied their report :
" Kalorama, (District of Columbia,) February I, 1811.
" SIR, I have the honor to return to you the report of the
committee on the torpedo experiments, with that of Commodore
Rogers ; and the letters of Robert R. Livingston, Morgan Lewis,
and Cadwallader D. Golden, on the same subject. The opinions
expressed in these papers are, I think, as favorable to this infant
art as, under all circumstances, could be expected. It is proved
and admitted
" 1st. That the water-proof locks will ignite gunpowder under
water.
" 2d. It is proved that seventy pounds of powder, exploded un-
der the bottom of a vessel of two hundred tons, will blow her up ;
hence it is admitted by all the above parties, that if a sufficient
quantity of powder (and which, I believe, need uot be more than
two hundred pounds,) be ignited under the bottom of a first-rate
man-of-war, it would instantly destroy her.
" 3d. It is proved and admitted by all parties concerned in the
experiments, that a gun can be fired under water, and a cable of
any size may be cut by that means at any required depth. With
these immensely important principles proved and admitted, the
question naturally occurs, whether there be within the genius or
inventive faculties of man, the means of placing a torpedo under a
ship, in defiance of her powers of resistance. He who says there
is not, and that consequently torpedoes never can be rendered use-
ful, must of course believe that he has penetrated to the limits of
man's inventive powers, and that he has contemplated all the com-
binations and arrangements which present or future ingenuity can
devise to place a torpedo under a ship. There is no man of sound
sense, who has the least acquaintance with the difficulties under
which all the arts have labored in their infancy, who on calm re-
flection will be so weak or vain as to presume that he possesses a
strength of intellect to foresee all that can be done, not only in infant
arts, but in arts now familiar and long established.
" But as it is impossible now to conceive the various modes which
may be invented for placing torpedoes under a ship, and as the
success is of incalculable importance to our country, there is every
ROBERT FULTON. 1<J7
reason to prosecute the experiments with ardor ; and we are en-
couraged to this by a contemplation of the progress of the whole
"military art, and particularly the attack and defence of fortified
places. The celebrated Vauban, after years of experience, aided
by a powerful genius, to fortify cities, confessed that it was impos-
sible to make any work so strong by art alone that it could not be
taken by the art and exertions of a besieging army, in which the
besiegers commence by parallels and zigzags, to approach the
rampart of the besieged, and run their mine or subterranean pass-
age under the works to blow them up. During the whole time of
their approaches, which is frequently for weeks or months, the be-
siegers are under as heavy a fire from the besieged, as has or per-
haps can be invented; when the explosion makes a breach in the
rampart it is defended by all the guns loaded with grape and canister
shot, which can be brought to bear upon it : the trench is enfiladed
with cannon and small arms. In fact the whole power of the be-
sieged is directed to defend the breach, perhaps not twenty feet
wide ; yet in defiance of so concentrated a fire, a fire infinitely
more destructive than any ship could keep up from her bow, there
are hundreds of instances of such breaches having been forced and
the works taken. Is it impossible to contemplate the ingenious com-
binations, the perseverance, the risk and acts of valor of a besieg-
ing army, and then believe that there are not ways and means,
enterprise and courage, when organized and exercised, to mine
through water, which is the work of a few minutes, and blow up a
ship, when the risk is not one thousandth part so great as that of
storming a breach 1 I think, sir, this comparative view of the
danger in storming a breach, and attacking a ship, proves, that
added to three principles before mentioned and admitted, the cour-
age to undertake the attack of a ship with torpedoes must be ad-
mitted also.
" I will now consider the progress of the experiments at New
York, and the prospect of future improvement which they present:
" First, as to the harpoon, it is admitted that at the distunce of
* fifteen feet the harpoon stuck firm. 1 * Were it improved it
should not be fired at a greater distance from the ship than thirty
or forty feet, because the sudden jerk on the line might break it off
at the torpedo : men in a boat at thirty feet distance from a ship,
are in as great danger as when in with her bow and under her
guns ; thus as the harpoon can be fixed at fifteen feet, I will not at
present insist on a greater distance, though I am certain that pruc-
tice will enable me to fix the harpoons at the distance of forty or
* It entered five inches into oak plank.
8
168 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
more r'eet if required ; but I do insist that organized men, who have
courage to storm a breach or to attack a vessel by boarding, have
courage to approach within fifteen feet of a ship to fire a harpoon,
or even if necessary to drive a spike into her bow ; when the ship
discharges her bow guns, her bow must be covered with smoke,
after which all shot against the boats will be random, particularly
if the attack be made in the night ; but to protect the men, the
torpedo boats may be decked with thick oak plank, and rendered
proof against canister and musket-shot. The risk of the men
would then be inconsiderable, for while a boat was near in with
the bow of the ship, her cannon could not be brought to bear so as
to fire round-shot. It is, therefore, a fair conclusion, that, courage
added to art, a ship cannot guard herself against a torpedo attack
by means of her guns and small-arms only. She must, therefbre ;
have nets, booms, grapnels, &c. &c.
" I will now do justice to the talents of Commodore Rodgers, by
stating that the nets, booms, kentledge and grapnels which he ar-
range d round the Argus, made at first sight a formidable appear-
ance against one torpedo boat and eight bad oarsmen. I was taken
unawares ; I had explained to the officers of the navy my means
of attack ; they did not inform me of their measures of defence ,>
the nets were put down to the ground, otherwise I should have
sent the torpedoes under them. In this situation, the means with
which I was provided, being imperfect, insignificant, and inade-
quate to the effect to be produced, I might be compared to what
Bartholomew Schwartz, the inventor of gunpowder, would have
appeared, had he lived at the time of Julius Ccesar, and presented
himself before the gates of Rome with a four-pounder, thereby en-
deavoring to convince the Roman legions that by the means of
such machines well organized, he could batter down the walls and
teke the city : a few catapultas casting arrows and stones upon
his men, would have caused them to retreat ; a shower of rain
might destroy his ill-guarded powder, and the Roman centurions
who could not conceive the various modes in which gunpowder has
since been used to destroy the then art of war, (as my opponents
canj ;>t now see the combinations by which torpedoes may super-
sode the necessity of ships of war,) would very naturally conclude
that it was a useless invention ; while the manufacturers of cata-
pultas, bows, arrows, and shields, would be the most vehemen 1
against further experiments.
" This, sir, may be conceived a digression ; but being on an in-
teresting subject, I nave stated this supposed first experiment w'th
a four-pounder as a case in point. Some of the first cannon were
made of leather ; but if such cannon failed, does it therefore fol
ROBERT FULTON. 169
low thai gunpowder was useless ? Or does it follow, because 1 was
not prepared to put torpedoes through a net the first time it waa
presented to me, that the defect was in the torpedoes ? You, sir,
will instantly perceive it was not ; but arose from the want of time
and experience. I had not one man instructed in the use of the
machines, nor had I time to reflect on this particular mode for
defending a vessel. I have now, however, had time ; and I feel
confident that I have discovered a means which will render nets
to the ground, booms, kentledge, grapnels, oars with sword-blades
through the port-holes, and all such kinds of operations, totally
useless. It is as follows :
" Should an enemy of any force enter one of our ports and put
her 'nets to the ground, let government press from the wharves
four or more merchantmen, loaded or in ballast, each of them
from three to four hundred tons burden ; in the magazine there
should be thirty or forty torpedoes, each containing two hundred
pounds of powder, and each adjusted to the end of a spar or boom,
from forty to sixty feet long, tapering from the butt to the point,
where the torpedo, of a conic form, and having on each side a
long blade or scythe, should be firmly fixed ; let the butt end of
the spar be tied so as to act like a swivel under the fore-chains,
one on the larboard, the other on the starboard side, and the other
end of the spars with the torpedo be hoisted up to the spritsail-
yard, and held there until near the scene of action. The expense
of thus preparing a ship will be 800 or 1,000 dollars, and each
will be as dangerous to an enemy as a fire-ship. The expense
of a fire-ship is from 8 to 10,000 dollars, which sum could cer-
tainly be expended to greater advantage by arranging torpedo,
ships as here proposed, and for the following reasons : First,
8,000 dollars would pay for arranging eight torpedo-ships, which
could be done in a few hours ; each with two torpedoes projecting
from the bow, which eight ships moving at one time towards the
enemy, would divide her fire on eight points, and render it less
dangerous to each than in the case of one fire-ship, which would
draw on her the whole fire of the vessel attacked.
" Second, the expense of a fire-ship is so great, that an attack
is seldom made with more than one ; which must be grappled with
the enemy, then set on fire and abandoned by her men, who must
take to their boat, and expose themselves to the boats and guns of
the vessel attacked. Should the fire-ship be grappled to the enemy ,
still she may not burn so as to communicate the fire : or if to the
leeward, she may be cut adrift ; at all events, if in port, the men
:ould escape to the shore : therefore, their danger not being great,
. ley would work with more confidence and ardor to extinguish
170 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
the flames and save their ship ; yet the danger with which fire-ships
impress an enemy makes them respect the ports where they are
prepared for action.
" In the year 1776, Commodore Tolbert grappled a fire-ship to
a British two-decker in the river Hudson : he set his ship on fire,
and returned to shore under a heavy discharge of musketry and
cannon, without losing a man. He failed to burn the enemy, but
he drove the vessel attacked, and one of equal force, from seven
miles above New York down to Staten Island.
" As it does not require so much bravery to make an attack
with a torpedo-ship as to grapple a fire-ship to an enemy, the use
of fire-ships proves that courage is to be found to attack with those
which may be armed with torpedoes. Suppose, then, two torpedo-
ships fastened to each other by a chain 80 or 100 feet long, form-
ing a bridle opposite to the fore-chains, in the manner I arrange
my floating torpedoes ; then to be sailed or floated- down on the
tide, the torpedoes let down twenty -two feet under water, one ship
steered for the larboard and one for the starboard side of the ene-
my ; in this manner the chain would cross her cable, before which
she must either slip or cut cable and run, or the momentum of the
torpedo-ships would sheer round, stern outwards, and press the
torpedoes through the nets under her bottom, where instant explo-
sion would be instant death : such an operation gives no time for
an enemy to deliberate or exert themselves to push off, or cut tor
pedo vessels adrift, or to calculate on getting to shore in boats,
The tremendous consequence of explosion under a ship deprives
common men, such as sailors, of all firmness, and the irresistible
danger would also influence the major part of officers : hence this
mode of attack is infinitely more to be dreaded than that of fire-
ships ; and for these reasons an enemy will not dare to enter our
ports to put it to the test. Should any one doubt the practicability
of this mode of passing torpedoes through nets and under a \essel,
the importance of the object merits the experiment.
" Of the anchored torpedoes, I have had the pleasure to show
you the improvements I have made on these since the meeting of
the committee at New York, to give them stability under water,
or to take them up or put them down when necessary : there is a
very simple mode to convince any unbeliever of the advantage
which this kind of engine will present, and the respect for our har-
bors which it will create in the mind of an enemy : let me put one
under water, and they who do not believe in its effect may put their
confidence to the proof by sailing over it.
" A compound engine of this kind will cost from eight hundred
to one thousand dollars : three hundred and twenty of them could
ROBERT FULTON. 171
be made for the first cost of one ship of 54 guns ; of which three
hundred and twenty, say one hundred at New York ; one hundred,
if required, at Boston ; one hundred at Charleston ; twenty in the
Delaware, to be placed in the waters between the forts or batteries
and thus four ports could be guarded so as to render it impossible
for the enemy's ships to enter either of them, unless they had
strength first to take possession of the land and forts, and then
time to deliberately search for the torpedoes ; yet one ship of 54
guns cannot guard one port against one 74 gun-ship, although her
first cost in anchored torpedoet would guard at least three ports
against ten ships of 74 guns. In this estimate it may also be
stated, that a 54 gun-ship in commission costs the nation one
hundred thousand dollars a-year ; this, at five per cent., is interest
to raise a loan of two millions to build the forts or batteries in
barbel, between which the torpedoes should be placed. While I
thus compare the expense of torpedoes with that of a ship of 54
guns, I do not mean to object to such ships to protect our coast ;
but when considered for harbor defence, or aiding forts or batteries
to defend harbors, the money can be better expended in torpedoes.
" In the report of the committee it is also admitted that I cut a
fourteen-inch cable at the depth of six feet under water, (it was, in
fact, twelve feet under the water.) In this experiment, it is true,
I was five or six minutes within pistol-shot of the vessel : the rea-
son is, it was only the fourth time a cable-cutting machine was
ever tried ; with so little experience, I did not attempt to cut at a
greater distance : the object at the time being to prove that a
cable could be hooked and cut without injuring the machine. New
invented instruments must be unskilfully used for a time ; but with
the practice of only one month and one good boat's -crew, I will
undertake to cut the cable of a ship at any given depth under
water, without approaching nearer to her than eight hundred yards.
I will also undertake to place myself at the distance of eight hun-
dred yards from a ship having an unguarded cable, and at that
distance I will put an improved cable-cutting machine in the water :
I will there abandon it, and it shall go to the cable, cut it off and
set the ship adrift, without any further aid on my part than placing
it in the water. Such is the unforeseen and incalculable results
of mechanical combinations.* It may be said, if one cable be cut
and anchor lost, the enemy could put out a second, third, fourth,
or fifth anchor and cable ; but as a provident government would
not undertake to defend a port with one cannon, so there should
be in the magazine fifteen or twenty machines for cutting cables,
* Thi discovery has been produced by my other experiment*.
172 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
and there should be a marine militia practised in the use of thero
In such case an enemy could not afford to exchange an anchor
and cable, worth five thousand dollars, against three ounces of
gunpowder, and at the same time run the risk of being driven on
shore in a calm or by a lee-tide ; hence, in our calculations on
harbor defence, this instrument alone will always be an embar
rassing consideration for an enemy.
" It must be admitted that the whole of the experiments at New
York were badly executed ; but they could not be otherwise. I
had not a man practised, nor am Inexperienced in the use of my
own machines. I consequently was necessitated to explain my
theory by such imperfect means as I had in my power ; yet, under
all these disadvantages, I have, to my satisfaction, gained much
useful experience, and evidently convinced some of the committee
of the great importance of persevering, and particularly with a
view to harbor defence. By the experiments I have discovered
much of the strength and resources of my opponents ; and I am
satisfied I can defeat every obstruction which has hitherto been
presented : this I hope to prove after some practice. But having
witnessed the activity and resources of mind which Commodore
Rodgers and Captain Chauncey possess, I look forward to contend
with new and difficult combinations which they may produce for
defence : in this manner it is probable we shall discover the prin-
cipal means of defence against torpedoes, and modes of attack
with them, until, like the attack and defence of fortified places, the
measures to be pursued on each side, in all cases, will become fa-
miliar, and a fair calculation may be made on the mode of attack-
ing a ship.
" But, sir, to do this, it is indispensable that I should have
twenty or thirty men under my command, to be practised to the
use of my engines in my own way. Well as gunnery is under-
stood, no one can hope that young recruits should fire a cannon
with skill and effect until they have some months practice. It is
therefore, demanding of me to perform a miracle, to apply torpe
does to advantage, break through nets, harpoon ships, and cun
cables, with an outfit of one thousand dollars, and not one man
practised to assist me. Compare my situation with that of my
opponents ; men of talents and sound nautical knowledge, working
on their own element, the commodore commanding more than fuur
hundred men in a ship of fifty-four guns, which ship, with all her
various apparatus as fitted for efficient service, is an engine pro-
duced by the combined talents of some thousands of ingenious
men, who have directed their attention to the improvement of ves-
sels of war since the invention of gunpowder : thus the commodore,
ROBERT FULTON. 173
added to his own talents, has the advantage of the experience and
talents of all nautical men who have lived before him ; yet he
would not be so imprudent as to face an enemy of equal force, if
his men were raw recruits unpractised to the guns or working of
the fchip ; and it is to familiarize his men to their duty in each de-
partment that he is in a state of constant practice. A succession
of experiments on his men, which costs the nation one hundred
thousand dollars a year, which experiments, when followed from
one to ten or twenty years, at the expense of from one hundred
thousand to two millions of dollars, is to enable him to do no more
than fight one ship of equal force, in which contest the chances
would be equal that he would not take or destroy the enemy : with
all this expensive experiment for years of peace to be prepared in
case of war, it is not expected that he should contend with a ship
of seventy-four guns. But if experiments, which are inconsider-
able in their expense compared to that of a fifty-four gun-ship,
should prove that attacks with torpedoes can be rendered practi-
cable and efficient, (and every reflection teaches me that they can,)
it will be immaterial whether the enemy's vessel be a forty or an
eighty gun-ship ; two hundred pounds of powder exploded under
the bottom of either will produce certain destruction.
" Thus, sir, considering this subject in these various points of
view, its infancy, its prospect of success, and, if successful, its
immense importance to these states, and to mankind, the small
establishment, and inconsiderable sum required to practise and
prove its utility, compared with the expense of other nautical
establishments which promise only common and imperfect results,
I conceive it highly merits a patient and candid succession of ex-
periments ; for which purpose I feel the necessity of taking time,
that I may have the ensuing summer to practise a few men on
nets, and such other obstructions as may be presented ; which I
hope, sir, will meet with your approbation and that of every friend
to science.
" I unite with the committee in opinion that government should
not rely on this, or any new invention for defence, until its utility
be fully proved. It never has been my wish that such confidence
should be placed in torpedoes, until fair experiment had proved
their value beyond a doubt.
" I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect,
" Your most obedient,
" ROBEET FULTON."
It is to be feared, that the hints which Fulton has felt for the
improvement of his submarine warfare, which he thought so much
174 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
of, will be neglected ; partly for want of support, and that rare com.
bination of courage, industry, and perseverance which he possessed.
We must now, however, revert to an early period of his life, to
trace from the beginning the progress of that great improvement
in the arts, for which we, and all the world, are so much indebted
to him : we mean the practical establishment of navigation by
steam. At what time his attention was first directed to this sub-
ject, we do not know ; but it is ascertained that, in the year 1793,
he had matured a plan, in which, even at that early day, he had
great confidence.
It is impossible to say how far Mr. Fulton had turned his atten-
tion to this subject, and what experiments, or what degree of pro-
gress he had made in his plans for steamboat navigation, previously
to the year 1801, when he and Chancellor Livingston met at Paris.
Among his papers are a variety of drawings, diagrams, and calcu-
lations, which evidently relate to the subject, but they are imper-
fect ; most of them are mutilated by the accident before mentioned,
and without dates, so that they cannot with certainty be assigned
to any particular period. They render it very evident, however,
that paddle-wheels, as they are now used in the boats which he
built, were among his first conceptions of the means by which
steam-vessels might be propelled.
Our limits will not permit us to examine minutely, the preten-
sions of those who claim to have preceded Mr. Fulton in the appli-
cation of steam to navigation. That it was not successfully ac-
complished by any one prior to the execution of his plan, seems to
be proved by the acknowledged fact, that though in several instan-
ces boats had been made to move by the force of steam, yet not
one, either in Europe or America, had ever answered any other
purpose than to prove an unsuccessful experiment.
Mr. Fulton, when he conceived a mechanical invention, not only
perceived the effect it would produce, but he could ascertain, by
calculation, the power his combination would afford, how far it
would be adequate to his purpose, and what would be the requisite
strength of every part of the machine : and though his numerical
calculations did not always prove exact, and required to be correct,
ed by experiments, yet they assured him of general results. Yet
he never attempted to put in practice any improvements in me-
chanics, without having made his calculations, drawn his plans,
and executed his models. A view of the progress of his improve,
ments, as they are to be traced from the calculations, drawings,
and notes on experiments which he has left, would afford the moct
useful lessons ; and a work which would give them to the world
in a proper manner, would be invaluable.
ROBERT FULTON. 175
It would be great injustice not to notice with due respect and
commendation the enterprises of the late Chancellor Livingston,
who had so intimate a connection with Fulton in the progress
and establishment of steam navigation. While Mr. Livingston
devoted much of his own time and talents to the advancement of
science, and the promotion of the public good, he was fond of
fostering the discoveries of others. The resources of his ample
fortune were afforded with great liberality, whenever he could
appty them to the support and encouragement of genius. He
entertained very clear conceptions of what would be the great
advantages of steamboats, on the large and extensive rivers of
the United States. He had applied himself with uncommon
perseverance, and at great expense, to constructing vessels and ma-
chinery for that kind of navigation. As early as 1798, he be-
lieved that he had accomplished his object, and represented to the
/egislature of New York, that he was possessed of a mode of
applying the steam engine to propel a boat on new and advan.
tageous principles ; but that he was deterred from carrying it into
effect, by the uncertainty and hazard of a very expensive expeii-
ment, unless he could be assured of an exclusive advantage from
it, should it be found successful.
The legislature, in March, 1798, passed an act, vesting Mr.
Livingston with the exclusive right and privilege of navigating all
kinds of boats, which might be propelled by the force of fire or
steam, on all the waters within the territory or jurisdiction of the
state of New York, for the term of twenty years from the pass,
ing of the act ; upon condition that he should, within a twelve,
month, build such a boat, the mean of whose progress should not
be less than four miles an hour.
Mr. Livingston, immediately after the passing of this act, built
a boat of about thirty tons burden, which was propelled by steam;
but as she was incompetent to fulfil the condition of the law, she
was abandoned.
Soon after he entered in'.o a contract with Fulton, by which it
was, among other things, agreed, that a patent should be taken
out in the United States in Mr. Fulton's name, which Mr. Liv-
ingston well knew could not be done without Mr. Fulton's taking
an oath that the improvement was solely his.
We have seen that Mr. Fulton's mind, previous to his return
to this country, had long been directed to the project of propelling
boats by steam.
Upon Chancellor Livingston's arrival in France, Fulton was
induced to revive his thoughts of this invention, by his represen-
8*
176 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
tations of the advantages which would be derived from naviga
tion by steam in this country, by his account of the approaches
to success which he had made in his experiments, and by the
pecuniary support which the chancellor's wealth enabled him to
offer. Mr. Fulton began a course of calculations upon the re-
sistance cf water, the necessary force to move a body through it,
upon the most advantageous form of the body to be moved, and
upon the different means of propelling vessels which had been
previously attempted ; and after a variety of calculations, he re-
jected the plan proposed of using paddles or oars, likewise that
of duck's feet, which open as they are pushed out, and shut as
they are drawn in, and also, that of forcing water out at the stern
of the vessel ; retaining two methods only, as worthy of experi-
ment, namely, endless chains with resisting boards upon them,
and the paddle-wheel. The latter was found to be the most
promising, and finally adopted, after a number of trials with his
models, on a little rivulet which runs through the village of
Plombieres, to which place he had retired to pursue his experi-
ments without interruption. This was in the spring of 1802.
It was now determined to build an experimental boat, which
was completed in the spring of 1803 ; but when Mr. Fulton was
on the point of making an experiment with her, an accident
happened to the boat, the wood-work not having been framed
strong inough to bear the weight of the machinery, and the agita-
tion of the river. The accident did the machinery very little
injury ; but they were obliged to build the boat almost entirely
anew. She was completed in July ; her length was sixty-six
feet, and she was eight feet wide. Early in August, Mr. Fulton
addreased a letter to the French National Institute, inviting them
to witness a trial of his boat, which was made in their presence,
and in the presence of a great multitude of the Parisians. The
experiment was entirely satisfactory to Mr. Fulton r though the
boat did not move altogether with as much speed as he expected.
But he imputed her moving so slowly to the extremely defective
fabrication of the machinery, and to imperfections which were to
be expected in the first experiment with so complicated a machine,
but which he saw might be easily remedied.
Such entire confidence did he acquire from this experiment,
that immediately afterv/ards he wrote to Messrs. Watt and Bolton,
of Birmingham, England, ordering certain parts of a steam
engine to be made for him, and sent to America. He did not
disclose to them for what purpose the engine was intended ; but
his directions were such as would produce the parts of an engine,
ROBERT FULTON. 177
that might be put together within a compass suited for a boat.
Mr. Livingston had written to his friends in this country, and
through their interference, an act was passed by the legislature
of the state of New York, on the 5th of April, 1803, by which
the rights and exclusive privileges of navigating all the waters
of that state, by vessels propelled by fire or steam, granted to
Mr. Livingston by the act of 1798, which we have before men-
tioned, were extended to Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton, for the
term of twenty years from the date of the new act. By this law,
the time of producing proof of the practicability of propelling
by steam a boat of twenty tons capacity, at the rate of four
miles an hour, with and against the ordinary current of the Hud-
son, was extended two years, and by a subsequent law, the time
was enlarged to 1807.
Very soon after Mr. Fulton's arrival in New York, he commen-
ced building his first American boat. While she was constructing,
he found that her expenses would greatly exceed his calculations.
He endeavored to lessen the pressure on his own finances, by offer-
ing one third of the right, for a proportionate contribution to the
expense. It was generally known that he made this offer, but no
one was then willing to afford this aid to his enterprise, although
so many, since its success, have been eagerly grasping at its profits.
In the spring of 1807, Fulton's first American boat was launch-
ed from the ship-yard of Charles Brown, on the East river. The
engine from England was put on board of her, and in August she
was completed, and was moved by her machinery from her birth-
place to the Jersey shore. Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fulton had
invited many of their friends to witness the first trial, among whom
were those learned men, Dr. Mitchill and Dr. M'Neven, to whom
we are indebted for some account of what passed on this occasion.
Nothing could exceed the surprise and admiration of all who wit-
nessed the experiment. The minds of the most incredulous were
changecKn a few minutes. Before the boat had made the progress
of a quarter of a mile, the greatest unbeliever must have been
converted. The man who, while he looked on the expensive ma-
chine, thanked his stars that he had more wisdom than to waste
his money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of his
features as the boat moved from the wharf and gained her speed,
and his complacent expression gradually stiffened into one of won-
der. The jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling
enough to suppress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes,
were silenced for a moment by a vulgar astonishment, which depriv-
ed them of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius extorted
178 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
from the incredulous multitude which crowded the shores, shouts
and acclamations of congratulation and applause.
The boat had not been long under way, when Fulton ordered
her engine to be stopped. Though her performance so far exceed,
ed the expectations of every other person, and no one but himself
thought she could be improved, he immediately perceived that there
was an error in the construction of her water-wheels. He had
their diameters lessened, so that the buckets took less hold of the
water, and when they were again put in motion, it was manifest
that the alteration had increased the speed of the boat. It may
well be said, that the man of genius and knowledge has a sense
beyond those which are common to others, or that he sees with
different eyes. How many would have gazed on these ill-propor
tioned wheels, without perceiving that they were imperfect !
This boat, which was called the Clermont, soon after made a
trip to Albany. Mr. Fulton gives the following account of this
voyage in a letter to his friend, Mr. Barlow. " My steamboat voy-
age to Albany and back, has turned out rather more favorable than
1 had calculated. The distance from New York to Albany is one
hundred and fifty mile:: ; I ran it up in thirty-two hours, and down
in thirty. I had a light breeze against me the whole way, both
going and coming, and the voyage has been performed wholly by
the power of the steam engine. I overtook many sloops and
schooners beating to windward, and parted with them as if they
had been at anchor. The power of propelling boats by steam is
now fully proved. The morning I left New York, there were not
perhaps thirty persons in the city, who believed mat the boat would
ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility ; and while
we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spec-
tators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. This is the way
in which ignorant men compliment what they call philosophers
and projectors. Having employed much time, money, and zeal, in
accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will you, great pleasure
to see it fully answer my expectations. It will give a cheap and
quick conveyance to the merchandise on the Mississippi, Missouri,
and other great rivers, which are now laying open their treasures
to the enterprise of our countrymen ; and although the prospect of
personal emolument has been some inducement to me, yet I feel
infinitely more pleasure in reflecting on the immense advantage
that my country will derive from the invention," &c.
Soon after this successful voyage, the Hudson boat was adver-
tised and established as a regular passage-boat between New York
and Albany. She, however, in the course of the season, met with
several accidents, from the hostility of those engaged in the ordi
ROBERT FULTON. 181
nary navigation of the river, and from defects in her machinery ,
the greatest of which was, having her water-wheel shafts of cast
iron, which was insufficient to sustain the great power applied to
them. The wheels also were hung without any support for the
outward end of the shaft, which is now supplied by what are called
the wheel-guards.
At the session of 1808, a law was passed to prolong the time
of the exclusive right to thirty years ; it also declared combinations
to destroy the boat, or wilful attempts to injure her, public offences,
punishable by fine and imprisonment.
Notwithstanding her misfortunes, the boat continued to run as
a packet, always loaded with passengers, for the remainder of the
summer. In the course of the ensuing winter she was enlarged,
and in the spring of 1808, she again commenced running as a
packet-boat, and continued it through the season. Several other
boats were soon built for the Hudson river, and also for steamboat
companies formed in different parts of the United States.
On the llth of February, 1809, Mr. Fulton took out a patent
for his inventions in navigation by steam, and on the 9th of Feb.
ruary, 1811, he obtained a second patent for some improvements
in his boats and mo.chinery.
It having been found that the laws, granting to Livingston and
Fulton exclusive privileges, were insufficient to secure their enjoy-
ment, the legislature of New York, in 1811, passed a supplement-
ary act, giving certain summary remedies against those who should
contravene the protecting laws. The act, however, excepts two
boats which were then navigating the Hudson, and one which ran
on Lake Champlain in opposition to Livingston and Fulton : with-
out these exceptions, the law, as to these boats, would have been
ex post facto. In respect to these, therefore, the parties were left
to the same remedies as before passing the last act. The opposi-
tion boats on the Hudson, were at first to have been propelled by
a pendulum, which some thought would give a greater power than
steam ; but on launching their vessel, they found the machinery
was not so easily moved as when she was on the stocks. Having
found by experiment that a pendulum would not supply the place
of steam, and knowing no other way of applying steam than that
they saw practised in the Fulton boats, they adopted all their ma-
chinery, with some small alterations, with no other view than to
give a pretence for claiming to be the inventors of improvements
on steamboats.
Messrs. Livingston and Fulton attempted to vindicate their rights,
and to stop these boats, by an application to the Circuit Court of
the United States for an injunction ; but the Judge decided that he
182 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
had not jurisdiction of the case. They then made application to
the Court of Chan<?.p.ry of the state, but the Chancellor, after hear-
mg an argument vc*r several days, refused to grant an injunction.
An appeal to the Court of Errors, composed of the Senate of the
state, and the five judges of the Supreme Court, unanimously re.
versed the decision of the Chancellor, and ordered a perpetual
injunction ; so that the boats could no more be moved with steam,
than they could by a pendulum. The merits of the members of
this Pendulum Company were contrasted with those of Fulton, by
Mr. Emmet, the counsel for the appellants. He described them
as " men who never wasted health and life in midnight vigils, and
painful study, who never dreamt of science in the broken slumbers
of an exhausted mind, and who bestowed on the construction of a
steamboat just as much mathematical calculation and philosphica]
research, as in the purchase of a sack of wheat, or a barrel of
ashes."
About the year 1812, two steam ferry-boats were built under
the directions of Mr. Fulton for crossing the Hudson river, and
one of the same description for the East river. These boats were
what are called twin-boats ; each of them being two complete hulls
united by a deck or bridge. They were sharp at both ends, and
moved equally well with either end foremost ; so that they crossed
and re-crossed without losing any time by turning about.- He con-
trived, with great ingenuity, floating docks for the reception of these
boats, and a means by which they are brought to them without a
shock.
From the time the first boat was put in motion till the death
of Mr. Fulton, the art of navigating by steam was fast advancing
to that perfection of which he believed it capable : for some time
the boat performed each successive trip with increased speed, and
every year improvements were made. The last boat built by him
was invariably the best, the most convenient, and the swiftest.
The following anecdote shows the quickness of apprehension,
as well as the practical knowledge of Mr. Fulton. It will be re-
membered by some of our readers, how long, and how successfully,
Redheffer had deluded the Pennsylvanians by his perpetual motion.
One of these machines was put into operation in New York in
1813. Mr. Fulton was a perfect unbeliever in Redheffer's dis-
covery, and although hundreds were daily paying their dollar tc
see the wonder, he could not be prevailed upon to follow the crowd.
After a few days, however, he was induced by some of his friends
to visit the machine. It was in an isolated house in the suburbs
of the city. In a very short time after Mr. Fulton had entered
the room in which it was exhibited, he exclaimed, " Why, this is a
ROBERT FULTON. 183
ciank motion." His car enabled him to distinguish that the ma.
chine was moved by a crank, which always gives an unequal power,
and therefore an unequal velocity in the course of each revolution ;
and a nice and practical ear may perceive that the sound is not
uniform. If the machine had been kept in motion by what was
its ostensible moving power, it must have had an equable rotary
motion, and the sound would have been always the same.
After some little conversation with the show-man, Mr. Fulton
did not hesitate to declare that the machine was an imposition,
and to tell the gentleman that he was an impostor. Notwithstand-
ing the anger and bluster which these charges excited, he assured
the company that the thing was a cheat, and that if they would
support him in the attempt, he would detect it at the risk of pay-
ing any penalty if he failed. Having obtained the assent of all
who were present, he began by knocking away some very thin
pieces of lath, which appeared to be no part of the machinery, but
to go from the frame of the machine to the wall of the room,
merely to keep the corner posts of the machine steady. It was
found that a catgut string was led through one of these laths and
the frame of the machine, to the head of the upright shaft of a
principal wheel ; that the catgut was conducted through the wall,
and along the floors of the second stoiy to a back cock-loft, at a
distance of a number of yards from the room which contained the
machine, and there was found the moving power. This was a
poor old wretch with an immense beard, and all the appearance
of having suffered a long imprisonment ; who, when they broke
in upon him, was unconscious of what had happened below, and
who, while he was seated on a stool, gnawing a crust, was with
one hand turning a crank. The proprietor of the perpetual mo-
tion soon disappeared. The mob demolished his machine, the
destruction of which immediately put a stop to that which had
been, for so long a time, and to so much profit, exhibited in Phila-
delphia. The merits of this exposure will appear more striking,
when we consider that many men of ingenuity, learning, and sci-
ence, had seen the machine : some had written on the subject ;
not a few of these were his zealous advocates, and others, though
they were afraid to admit that he had made a discovery which
violated what were believed to be the established laws of nature,
appeared also afraid to deny what the incessant motion of his
wheels and weights seemed to prove.
Mr. Fulton had enlarged views ")f the advantages of internal
improvements, both as regards commerce, and the stability of the
union, by a free intercourse between the states. As early as 1807,
he pointed out the practicability of opening a communication
i84 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
between the great lakes and the Hudson, and in 1811, he was
appointed a commissioner to explore the route of an inland navi-
gation, from Hudson river to Lake Erie. His calculations of the
advantages of the project are very interesting, and may be found
appended to Golden 's Life of Fulton.
At the commencement of the year 1814, a number of the
citizens of New York, alarmed at the exposed situation of their
harbor, had assembled with a view to consider whether some
measures might not be taken to aid the government in its protec-
tion. This assembly had, in fact, been invited by some knowledge
of Mr. Fulton's plans for submarine attack, and of his contempla-
ting other means of defence. They deputed a number of gentle-
men to act for them, and these were called the coast and harbor
committee. Mr. Fulton exhibited to this committee the model and
plans for a vessel of war, to be propelled by steam, capable of
carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for red-hot shot, and which,
he represented, would move at the rate of four miles an hour.
The confidence of the committee in this design was confirmed by
the opinions of many of our most distinguished naval command-
ers, which he had obtained in writing, and exhibited to the com-
mittee. They pointed out many advantages which a steam-vessel
of war would possess over those with sails only.
The national legislature passed a law in March, 1814, author-
izing the president of the United States to cause to be built, equip-
ped, and employed, one or more floating batteries for the defence
of the waters of the United States. A sub-committee of five gen-
tlemen was appointed to superintend the building of the proposed
vessel, and Mr. Fulton, whose soul indeed animated the whole
enterprise, was appointed the engineer. In June, 1814, the kee>
of this novel and mighty engine was laid, and in October, she was
launched from the yard of Adam and Noah Brown, her able and
active architects. The scene exhibited on this occasion was mag-
nificent. It happened on one of our bright autumnal days. Mul-
titudes of spectators crowded the surrounding shores, and were
seen upon the hills which limited the beautiful prospect. The
river and bay were filled with vessels of war, dressed in all their
variety of colors, in compliment to the occasion. By May, 1815,
her engine was put on board, and she was so far completed as to
afford an opportunity of trying her machinery. But, unhappily,
before this period, the mind that had conceived and combined it was
gone. On the fourth of July, in the same year, the steam-frigate
made a passage to the ocean and back, a distance of fifty-three
miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, by the mere force of
steam. In September, she made another passage to the sea, and
ROBERT FULTON. 185
having at this time the weight of her whole armament on board,
she went at the rate of five and a half miles an hour, upon an
average, with and against the tide. The superintending commit-
tee gave, in their report, a full description of the Fulton the First,
the honored name this vessel bore.
We now come to mention the last work in which the active and
ingenious mind of Mr. Fulton was engaged. This was a project
for the modification of his submarine boat. He presented a model
of this vessel to the government, by which it was approved ; and
under the authority of the executive, he commenced building one ;
but before the hull was entirely finished, his country had to lament
his death, and the mechanics he had employed were incapable of
proceeding without him.
During the whole time that Mr. Fulton had thus been devoting
his talents to the service of his country, he had been harassed by
lawsuits, and controversies with those who were violating his pat-
ent rights, or intruding upon his exclusive grants. The state of
New Jersey had passed a law which operated against Mr. Fulton,
without being of much advantage to those interested in its passage ;
inasmuch as the laws of New York prevented any but Fulton's
boats to approach the city of New York. Its only operation was
to stop a boat owned in New York, which had been several years
running to New Brunswick, under a license from Messrs. Living,
ston and Fulton. A bold attempt was therefore made to induce the
legislature of the state of New York, to repeal the laws which
they had passed for the protection of their exclusive grant to Liv-
ingston and Fuiton. The committee reported a law which they
said might be passed consistently with good faith, honor, and jus-
tice ! This report being made to the house, it was prevailed upon
to be less precipitate than the committee had been. It gave time,
which the committee would not do, for Mr. Fulton to be sent for
from New York. The senate and assembly in joint session exam-
ined witnesses, and heard him and the petitioner, by counsel. The
result was, that the legislature refused to repeal the prior law, or
to pass any act on the subject. The legislature of the state of
New Jersey, also, repealed their law, which left Mr. Fulton in the
full enjoyment of his rights. But alas ! this enjoyment was of very
short duration ; for on returning from Trenton, after this last trial,
he was exposed on the Hudson, which was very full of ice, for
several hours. He had not a constitution to encounter such expo-
sure, and upon his return, found himself much indisposed from the
effects of it. He had at that time great anxiety about the steam-
frigate, and, after confining himself for a few days, he went to give
his superintendence to the artificers employed about her. Forged
186 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
ting his debilitated state of health in the interest he took in what
was doing on the frigate, he remained too long exposed, in a bad
day, to the weather on her decks. He soon felt the effects of this
imprudence. His indisposition returned upon him with such
violence as to confine him to his bed. His disorder increased,
and on the 24th day of February, 1815, terminated his valuable
life.
It was not known that Mr. Fulton^ illness was dangerous, till
a very short time before his death, which was unexpected by his
friends, and still more so by the community. As soon as it was
known, all means were taken to testify, publicly, the universal re-
gret at his loss, and respect for his memory. The newspapers
that announced the event, had those marks of mourning, which
are usual in our country when they notice the death of public char-
acters. The corporation of the city of New York, the different
literary institutions and other societies, assembled and passed res-
olutions expressing their estimation of his worth, and regret at his
loss. They also determined to attend his funeral, and that the mem-
bers should wear badges of mourning for a certain time. As soon
as the legislature, which was' then in session at Albany, heard of
the death of Mr. Fulton, they expressed their participation in the
general sentiment, by resolving that the members of both houses
should wear mourning for some weeks.
This is the only instance, we believe, of such public testimonial?
of regret, esteem, and respect being offered on the death of a pri-
vate citizen, who never held any office, and was only distinguished
by his virtues, his genius, and the employment of his talents.
In the year 1806, Mr. Fulton married Miss Harriet Livingston,
a daughter of Walter Livingston, Esq., a relative of his enterpris-
ing associate, Chancellor Livingston. He left four children ; one
son, Robert Barlow Fulton, and three daughters.
In conclusion, it may be proper to make a few remarks in rela-
tion to the labors of Mr. Fulton. He was not the original inventor
of steamboats, because many had made them before him ; neither
was he the perfector, because the thing is rot yet perfect. What
was he then 1 Why, he was the first to gain the prize ; he it wag
who satisfied the law ; and since his boat went from New York to
Albany, there has always been a regular succession of steamboats ;
so that he was the first to bring them into public use, and by his
genius and perseverance, he so improved them as to lay a solid
foundation for those who came after him to build upon. Professor
Renwick has given a concise history of the invention of the steam-
boat, in his Treatise on Steam Engines ; and has taken the right
view of the subject, in our opinion, in relation to Mr. Fulton. AJ
ROBERT FULTON. 187
though there may be those in our own country, us well as in Eng-
land and France, who are unwilling to give Mr. Fulton his full share
of praise, on account of themselves or their relations having been
interested in this invention, yet there are others in all these coun-
tries who are willing to do him justice. The following is an extract
from a memoir published in Paris some years ago ; it is from the
pen of Mr. Frederick Royou. " I willingly applaud the patriotic
sentiment by which M. de Jouffroy desired that the honor of so
great an invention should be attributed to a Frenchman. Unhap-
pily, however, it is here a question, much less of an invention, than
of the application of a power already known. Besides, Fulton
has never claimed the merit of being the inventor in this sense.
The application which he made, may be considered as ordinary
and common in its nature, because it was pointed out by so many
scientific men ; but the means of application were necessary, and
Fulton has procured them." We extract the following from the
English Penny Magazine, which, it is said, has a million of read-
ers. " Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat in North America,
which, in a few years, has produced such an astonishing change in
that vast country, by connecting together its most distant states,
sustained the mortification of not being comprehended by his coun-
trymen. He was, therefore, treated as an idle projector, whose
schemes would be useless to the world and ruinous to himself."
And again, we find in the same work the following : " We cannot
enter into a controversy whether Fulton, or Mr. William Syming-
ton, was the inventor of the steamboat. What has been said of
Arkwright may apply to Fulton : The several inventions which
his patent embraced, whether they were his or not, would, proba-
bly, but for him, have perished with their authors ; none of whom,
except himself, had the determination and courage to face the mul-
tiplied fatigues and dangers that lay in the way of achieving a. prac-
tical exemplification of what they had conceived in their minds.' "
Fulton may be compared with Watt. Both were persevering,
sj.d had great inventive powers ; and both were fortunate alike in
obtaining the confidence and support of patrons, who were gener-
ous, and who possessed ample fortunes. In this relation stood
Mr Bolton, and Chancellor Livingston.
JACOB PERKINS.
Birth. Is apprenticed to a goldsmith. Death of his employer. Invents a snpe
rior method of plating shoe-buckles. Prosecutes the manufacture of gold
beads and shoe-buckles. Early reputation. Makes dies for the Massachu
setts mint. Invents the nail-machine. Through the mismanagement of
others, is reduced to poverty. Harsh treatment by his creditors. Inventions
for the prevention of counterfeiting. Opinion of public prosecutors concerning
them. Removes to Philadelphia. Goes out to England. Proves the com
pressibility of fluids. Pleometer. Bathometer. Improvements in hardening
and softening steel. Its application to the printing of calicoes and transferring
of engravings. Indenting cylinders. Watt's steam artillery. Jonathan Hom-
blower's steam rocket. M. Gerard's plan for the defence of Paris. Perkins'
experiments with his steam-gun. Conclusion.
THIS individual,* who has acquired, probably, more transatlantic
fame than any American mechanician now living, is a lineal de-
scendant of the Puritans, and was born in Newburyport, Mass.,
July, .1 766. Early showing a fondness for mechanics, his parents
placed him, when thirteen years of age, as an apprentice to a
goldsmith.
Three years after, he lost his master : this, however, did not
prevent him from continuing in the business. Gold beads and
shoe.buckles were then in fashion; and having invented a new
and superior method of plating the latter, he prosecuted the manu-
facture of these articles with considerable profit.
Perkins early acquired a reputation for ingenuity; for, before
the adoption of the federal constitution, Massachusetts had a mint
for copper coin, and, when he was only about twenty-one, the
agent of this establishment hearing of his skill, sent for him to
make dies. His success, happily, proved that the confidence was
not misplaced. Not long after was invented his famous nail-
machine, which cut and headed nails at one operation. This in-
vention was considered very useful, and promised great profits :
unfortunately, he was associated with those who had no property,
and, by their mismanagement, he not only lost the fruits of several
years 1 hard labor, but all he was worth ; and, in addition to these
troubles, he was treated by his creditors with unwarrantable
harshness.
* American Magazine, Lardner's Cyclopaedia, &c. &c.
JACOB PERKINI.
JACOB PERKINS. 191
His next invention appears to have been the preparation of a
device for preventing the counterfeiting of bank bills, which had,
at that time, become a very serious and extensive evil, one, too,
which the guardians of the public weal almost despaired of remedy -
ing. He first made a stamp on the bills, which was of some bene.
fit, for it was seldom imitated. In 1809, the check plate was pre-
pared, which proved the best security then known ; and a law was
passed in Massachusetts, requiring all the banks to use it. Some
years after it was repealed, or was disregarded by the banks, much
to the regret of many. Public prosecutors have declared that they
never knew a good counterfeit of it.
Perkins resided several years at Philadelphia, when at that time
(some thirty years ago) this city was much in advance in the arts
of any other place in our country. Some ten or twelve years
after, he removed to England. This was, probably, from the hope
of finding more able patrons, or a greater opportunity for im-
provement in his favorite pursuits. It was said at his departure,
that he expected to be employed by the English government in
preparing plates to prevent the counterfeiting of bills of the Bank
of England.
It had ever been maintained by philosophers generally, that
water was incapable of compression. Perkins was among the
first to doubt the truth of this opinion, and, by his ingenious ex-
oeriment, has proved beyond a question the falsity of popular
opinion. On this principle is his invention of the bathometer,
to measure the depth of water : and his pleometer, to mark with
precision the rate at which a vessel moves through the water, was
invented about the same time. At the announcement of his in-
vention to heat water under an enormous pressure, the public were
led, from statements neither sanctioned nor promulgated by the
inventor, to indulge in the most extravagant speculations on the
power and economy to be derived from this discovery." The dis-
appointment of these absurd expectations was magnified into a
reproach against the experimenter, although, in fact, Perkins per-
formed all he promised : and his scheme was only incomplete,
from a practical difficulty in getting a suitable material for his
generator, sufficiently powerful to withstand the enormous heat
and pressure, an obstacle neither insuperable nor unforeseen.
Among his early inventions, were the improvements in harden-
ing and softening steel at pleasure. This has been highly useful
in its results, and has become very well known in connection with
roller-press printing from hardened steel plates, now universally
used in the printing of calicoes.
A material peculiarity in Mr. Perkins 1 invention, and one which
9
192 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
does not seem to have been approached by any preceding artist,
was the contrivance of what are called indenting cylinders. These
are rollers two or three inches in diameter, and made of steel,
decarbonized so as to be very soft. In this state they are made
to roll backward and forward, under a powerful pressure, over the
surface of one of the hardened plates, until all the figures, letters,
or indentations are communicated with exquisite precision in sharp
relief upon the cylinder, which being carefully hardened and tem-
pered, becomes, by this means, fitted to communicate an impres
sion to other plates, by an operation similar to that by which it
was originally figured. It will be obvious that one advantage
gained by this method must be the entire saving of the labor and
expense of recutting, in every case, on different plates, ornaments,
borders, emblematical designs, &c. ; as these can now be im-
pressed, with little trouble, on any number of plates, or in any
part thereof, by the application of the cylinder.
At first sight, the performance of such an operation as the one
now alluded to may appear difficult, if not impracticable. Many
persons, on its first announcement, were disposed to doubt or deny
its possibility altogether. With a proper and powerful apparatus,
however, this method of transferring engravings from plates to
cylinders, and vice versa, is every day performed with facility and
success in works exhibiting even very elaborate engraving. By
this means the most delicate designs, which would occupy an en-
graver many months to effect by hand, can be completed in a few
days. Of course the cylinders are produced at a much less price,
and they may be executed in a very superior manner.
Mr. Perkins has attracted a great deal of attention by his experi-
ments in steam artillery, and in this has far distanced all his pre-
decessors in this mode of warfare. Watt, it appears, once pro-
jected something of the kind, but this man of peace did not proceed
to much extent with the warlike project. Jonathan Hornblower
also constructed what he called a steam rocket ; and the French
general Chasseloup proposed, some years later, (1805.) a similar
plan for the defence of besieged places. M. Gerard, a French
officer of engineers, is stated to have carried this idea into practice
in 1814, for the purpose of defending Paris at the app'roach of the
allies. In this apparatus the boiler was moved on a carriage, and
supplied steam for propelling balls from six gun-barrels, the
breeches of which were opened at pleasure ; on turning a handle,
the six guns received each a ball and the steam at the same time,
by a mechanism like what is seen in magazine air-guns. The
longest shots were made by turning the handle slowly, and one
hundred and eighty balls were thrown in a minute. A wagon at.
JACOB PERKINS. 193
tended the machine, to supply fuel and bullets. The capitulation
of Paris prevented this novel artillery from being brought into ac-
tion ; and shortly afterwards the apparatus was taken to pieces.
The experiments of Perkins were on a far more daring and
extensive scale. The sounds produced by his steam-guns are
said to resemble a rapid running fire of musketry, accompanied
hy a rustling sound or roar that quite deafened the unaccustomed
*ar. In his experiments before the duke of Wellington and a
numerous party of engineer officers, the balls at first were dis-
charged at short intervals, in imitation of artillery firing against
an iron target, at the distance of thirty-five yards, and such was
the intensity of the propelling force, that they were completely
shattered to atoms. In the next trial the balls were fired at a
framing of wood, and they actually passed through eleven planks,
each one inch thick, of the hardest deal, placed at a distance from
each other. Balls, also, which were fired against an iron plate,
one quarter of an inch in thickness, passed through it ; yet the
pressure of steam required to produce this was estimated not
much to exceed sixty-five atmospheres, or nine hundred pounds
on each square inch.
To demonstrate the rapidity with which musket balls might be
thrown, he screwed on to a gun-barrel a tube filled with balls,
which falling down by their own gravity into the barrel, were
projected one by one with such extraordinary velocity, as to de-
monstrate that, by means of a succession of tubes filled with balls,
fixed in a wheel, a model of which was exhibited, nearly one thou-
sand balls per minute might be discharged. The next experiments
were of a more interesting kind. To the gun-barrel was attached
a moveable joint, a lateral direction was then given to it, and the
balls perforated a lineal series of holes in a plank nearly twelve
feet long. Thus, had the musket or gun been opposed to a regi-
ment in extended line, it might have been made to shoot down
each soldier in succession.
A similar plank was then placed perpendicularly, and in like
manner there was a string of shot holes throughout its whole
length : and it was thus demonstrated that steam-guns could be
made to shoot round a corner !
Mr. Perkins thus calculated this new mode of warfare : Sup-
pose two hundred and fifty balls are discharged in a minute by a
single-barrelled gun, or fifteen thousand per hour ; this, for sixteen
hours, would require about fifteen thousand pounds of powder,
which, at seventy shillings per hundred weight, would cost five
hundred and twenty pounds, (about two thou&and three hundred
dollars.) But the same number of balls can be thrown in sue*
194 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
cession, and in the same time, for the price of five bushels of coai
per hour, or about ten or twelve dollars for fifteen hours.
Aftei the experiments Perkins made at Greenwich before Prince
Polignac, and some French engineers whom the Duke d'Angou-
leme had sent to make a report to him concerning them, he
received instructions to form a piece of ordnance to throw sixty
balls, of four pounds each, in a minute. This he guarantied should
be done with the correctness of a rifle musket, and to a propor-
tionate distance. A musket was also attached to the same gene-
rator for throwing a stream of lead from the bastion of a fort, and
which he engaged to make so far portable as to be capable of
being moved from one bastion to another.
Both the French and English engineers before whom these ex-
periments were made condemned the steam-gun as being of no real
utility. The practical difficulties of working steam under such an
enormous pressure were evident ; it being impossible to make it
as powerful as gunpowder. Besides, all engines of war should be
as simple as possible, for in the heat of action it is rarely that
men are found to act with the self-possession necessary in the
management of even the simplest machinery, no matter how well
drilled they may previously have been in its management.
It is not intended in derogation of the talents and ingenuity of
Mr. Perkins, when we say his inventions have not all been as
useful in practice as his friends might have wished. The merit,
however, awarded to him is sufficient to establish his reputation
as one of the most ingenious and philosophical citizens of the
union ; and his exertions throughout have been of that laudable
and meritorious kind, that, even in feilure, ought to bring honor
THOMAS BLANCHARD
THOMA^ BLANCHARD.
Butn. Early fondness for mechanics. Anecdote. At thirteen years of age in-
vents a machine for paring apples. Assists his brother in the manufacturing
of tacks. Description of the process. Invents a counting nvtchine. Learns
the use of blacksmiths' and carpenters' tools. Perseverance in perfecting the
tack machine. Final success. Sells the patent right. Makes great improve-
ments in the manufacture of muskets. Anecdote. Invents the engine for
turning irregular forms. Description. Anecdote. Is employed in the national
armories in ;rectmg the engines, and making other important improvements.
Congress grants the petition for a renewal of the patent right for the en-
gine. Interests himself in the subject of railroads. Invents and makes ex-
periments with a steam-carriage. Petitions the legislature of Massachusetts.
The report of the committee. Applies to the legislature of New York.
Interview with Gov. Clinton. Abandons the project. invents a steamboat on
a new principle to ascend Enfield Falls. Makes an excursion up the Connec-
ticut. Builds a second and superior boat. Constructs a steamboat on the
Alleghany. Its first voyage. The Indian chief Cornplanter, and the steam-
boat. Encroachments. Complimentary remarks of Judge Story on the ter-
mination of i. lawsuit. Conclusion.
MOST of the following materials were obtained by solicitation
from the subject of the memoir. We present them to the public
with pleasure, as containing some of the leading incidents in the
life of an unassuming, yet talented individual, who, by industry
and perseverance in his peculiar department, claims an honorable
station among the true benefactors of man.
Thomas Blanchard was born in Sutton, Worcester county,
Mass., on the 24th of June, 1788. Like most New Englanders,
his ancestors were among the early settlers of our country.
His father, Mr. Samuel Blanchard, stood high as an agriculturist,
a situation solely due to the qualities of industry and economy for
which he was noted. Thomas was the fifth of six sons ; his fond-
ness for mechanical subjects may be dated back almost to the
dawn of life ; his first recollections are of cutting up shingles with
a knife into all kinds of toys, such as windmills, water-wheels,
&c., and when old enough to attend school, he would be seized with
an irresistible propensity to steal away from study, and employ
the time with his then favorite tools, the knife and gimlet. His
advantages for viewing mechanical operations were few, his resi-
dence being in a portion of the town where there was not a
workshop of any kind, except a country smith's, and even that
t some distance. The first time he recollects visiting this place
198 AMERICAN MECHANICS
was with his father, probably at the age of nine or ten. Being
obliged to wait during the operation of shoeing their horse, his
attention was fully occupied in watching the movements of the
smith. What struck him with the greatest wonder and astonish,
ment, was the process of heating and welding two nailrods, and
he thought he would give all he possessed to perform such a
miraculous operation.
On their road home young Blanchard^ mind was full of what
he had seen. His thoughts were now raised far above the knife
and gimlet, and he was determined, if possible, to imitate the
wonder he had just witnessed. Standing near the house was an
old weaving shop, containing in the lower part a place for farming
tools, and in the attic a parcel of scraps of old iron, from which
our young experimenter obtained a full supply. The next, and
most troublesome step, was the procuring of fuel ; to effect this
he determined upon watching the kitchen fire, and, when his
mother's back was turned, to wet the burning coals, take them
away, and secrete them in a snug corner of the cellar ; but finding
this a slow, as well as tedious operation, he had recourse, on
baking days, to his mother's oven. In a few weeks all was ready,
and his parents setting out on a visit to some relations in a neigh-
boring town, gave the long wished-for opportunity. Previous to
their departure he was enjoined to perform a certain task : this
he commenced, and for a while made rapid progress, but being
unable to withstand the temptation, soon abandoned it for the new
and more agreeable scheme. Taking the bellows from the
kitchen, and collecting the materials from a pile of brick and
stone in the yard, he managed to build a very good forge in the
weaving shop. An anvil was still wanting, and for a moment he
was at loss how to proceed, but happening to think of on9 of his
father's wedges, he obtained it, and driving it into a block, left the
square end sufficiently high for the intended purpose ; and finally,
bringing out his coals from the cellar corner, he was ready to
blow up the fire early the next morning. On commencing, he
succeeded very well in beating the iron into the required shape ;
his ambition now was to join two pieces into one, but being igno-
rant of the " welding heat, 11 in vain exerted his utmost skill ; it
then occurred to him, if he could only make another visit to the
smith, he would be enabled to surmount the difficulty. While
devising further plans his parents returned, and his father enter-
ing and viewing his son's work, at first feigned to look displeased,
but could not refrain from relaxing his countenance at the ludi
crous imitation, and after inquiring where the coals came frorr
ended by ordering the youthful Vulcan to take down his forge
THOMAS BLANCHARD. 199
and return the materials to their appropriate places ; thus ended
his first important mechanical experiment.
At the age of thirteen having heard of a machine for paring
apples, he was determined to make one, and employed all his
leisure in the invention. Although he had received but a mere
hint of its operation, it was soon ready for trial, but at first proved
unsuccessful : no difficulty was experienced in fixing the apple so
as to revolve on turning a crank, yet on applying the knife to the
fruit it would run in towards its centre, instead of cutting a thin
paring. Not in the least discouraged, he set his " young wits"
to work to remedy the deficiency, and the first step was to watch
the operation of paring by hand. He observed that the thick-
ness of the shaving was gauged by the thumb of the hand hold-
ing the cutter. This led him to see the necessity of fixing a gauge
to the knife. Here he learned an important fact, one that may
be termed his first lesson in the way of invention, viz. to imitate
nature, as in the use of the hand, where machinery is substituted
for hand operations. The success of this invention was soon
known throughout the neighborhood, and young Blanchard thence-
forth became a favorite at all the "paring bees," where he would
accomplish more with his machine than half a dozen girls by hand.
The success attending this undertaking gave him new ideas
and a greater thirst for invention. Soon after he went to reside
with an elder brother, who had a number of persons, mostly boys,
to assist him in the business of manufacturing tacks. The opera-
tion was to cut them into points from a thin plate of iron, after
which they were taken up, one at a time, with the thumb and
finger, and held in a tool griping them by the movement of a lever.
The lever was put in motion by one foot, while a blow was simul-
taneously given with a hammer held in the right hand, making a
flat head of the large end of the point which projected above the
head of the tool. This was the only method then known, and so
very slow and irksome', that young Blanchard would often grow
tired and disgusted. As a daily task, he was given a certain
quantity to manufacture, which number was ascertained by weigh-
ing and counting : finding this too much trouble, he was induced
to construct a counting machine. This was a very ingenious con-
trivance, consisting of a ratchet wheel moving one tooth every
time the jaws of the heading tool moved in the process of mak-
ing one tack, to which a bell was also attached in such a manner
as to give a signal by ringing when the required number was
completed.
His brother, on witnessing its pperation, forbid him wasting time
on such idle projects. He was not, however, of a dispositiop <o
9*
200 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
be frustrated in ideas, if he could not execute plans ; and even at
this early day began to conceive of the design of a machine for
cutting and heading tacks. Although his brother would endeavor
to discourage him, by saying that it was too small and intricate a
process to be performed by machinery, yet he was determined
that whenever he became sufficiently skilled, and possessed the
means, to prosecute the undertaking.
His father not having any fondness for mechanics, and excelling
in his own calling, was resolved to bring up his son Thomas in
the same pursuit ; but at last, satisfied of its utter impossibility,
allowed him to follow that path for which his genius had peculiarly
fitted him ; not, however, without expressing a truly paternal de-
sire that he should aim at the acquisition of a thorough, practical
knowledge of whatever was attempted. The first, and by far
most important step, was learning the use of blacksmiths 1 tools ;
after which Blanchard became skilled in the different modes of
working on wood, turning, &c., which in his subsequent career
has given him a decided advantage over others possessing only a
theoretical knowledge.
So ardent was he in the pursuit of new projects in the arts, that
his early education was greatly neglected, yet the practical know,
ledge acquired in youth, in some measure supplied the want of
literary acquirements ; affording, perhaps, in the opinion of some,
an additional illustration of the saying of a late philosopher, " that
a self-taught man is more likely to produce useful and original
ideas, than one who gathers his knowledge from books, 1: an
axiom so far true, as self-reliance is better than dependence, while a
certain medium offers superior advantages.
At the age of eighteen, Blanchard commenced the invention of
the tack machine, but was compelled to lay it aside for a time for
the want of means. Refunding himself from his other occu-
pations, he recommenced the project, until exhausted resources
once more obliged him to abandon it. This course he pursued
alternately, for a period of six years, expending all he could raise
upon his darling project, carrying the models about from place to
place, wherever he could find employment, and throwing the old
ones aside as fast as improvements were suggested. Of daunt-
less perseverance, the advice and earnest entreaties of friends in
dissuasion from this apparently hopeless undertaking, but added
fuel to the flame. Success at last crowned his efforts, and so
complete was the operation, that by placing the iron into the tube
or hopper, and applying the moving power, five hundred tacks
could be made per minute, with more finished heads and points
than were ever made by hand. Such was its perfection, that a
THOMAS BLANCIIARD. 201
half-ounce weight would balance a thousand. Securing the patent,
he sold the right for five thousand dollars to a company who went
extensively into the business ; a slender compensation consider-
ing its importance, but small as it was, it relieved him of em-
barrassments, and placed him some thousands ahead.
Mr. BJanchard being a practical operator in all branches of
machinery, and possessing also economical habits, together with
an unwearied perseverance, was enabled to execute his plans at a
comparatively small expense. The success of his tack machine
inspired him with new confidence, and a greater desire for im-
provement in the arts.
About this time, attempts were making in the various armories
under the patronage of government, to turn musket barrels with
an external finish, instead of pursuing the then common and very
imperfect mode of reducing them to a uniform thickness by grind-
ing. In accordance with the advice of a friend, possessing great
confidence in his skill, Blanchard was induced to invent a machine
for turning the cylindrical part of the barrel. There was then
remaining about three inches at the breech, requiring to be cut in
a different figure, with two fiat and oval sides, and, finally, finished
by chipping, filing, and grinding. He undertook, with perfect suc-
cess, the construction of a lathe to turn the whole of the barrel, from
end to end, by the combination of one single, self-directing operation.
To effect this, it was placed in the lathe, and the process commenced
at the muzzle, in the ordinary way, turning the cylindrical portion
first; but as the cutting instrument approached the breech, the
motion was very ingeniously changed into a vibrating one, so as
to cut the flats and ovals perfectly parallel with the calibre of the
barrel. This was effected by a cam-wheel placed in the arbor of
the lathe, and operated by a lever. A knowledge of this impor-
tant improvement coming to the superintendent of the United
States' armory at Springfield, a contract was made with Blanchard
to erect one at that establishment.* While the workmen were
gathered around to witness its operation, au incident occurred
which finally led to the truly wonderful invention for turning
irregular forms. One of the men, addressing himself to a com-
panion, says, " Well, John, he has spoiled your job !" " I care
not for that," was the reply, " as long as I can get a better."
One of the musket-stockers, with a confident shake of the head,
then boastingly exclaimed, " that he (Blanchard) could not spoil
his, for he could not turn a gun-stock !" This remark struck
* This armory is by far the most extensive in the Union, furnishing employ-
ment for three hundred men, who annually manufacture fourteen thousand
muskets.
203 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
Blanchard very forcibly, and in answer he observed, " I am not
so sure of that, but will think of it a while. 1 ' The idea of turning
by machinery such a long irregular form as the stock of a musket,
seemed absurd, but he could not banish the subject from his mind.
After remaining a few days longer at Springfield, he left for hia
residence in Worcester county. While passing in a one-horse
vehicle, in a state of deep meditation, through the old town of
Brimfield, the whole principle of turning irregular forms from a
pattern at once burst upon his mind : the idea was so pleasing and
forcible, that, like Archimedes of old, he exclaimed aloud, " I liavc
got it! I have got it!" Two countrymen, overhearing this, sud-
denly started up from the way-side, with countenances expressive
of wonder ; when one of them, addressing his companion, said,
" I guess that man's crazy."
In a short time, Blanchard built a model of this machine, and
so exact were its operations that it would perfectly turn a minia-
ture stock.
This machine is represented in the engraving in its most simple
form, for turning shoe-lasts; and is so constructed that, from one as
a pattern, an exact facsimile can be formed from a rough block of
wood. Both the pattern and block are fixed on the same axis, and
are made to revolve around their common centre, in a swinging
lathe, by a pulley and bolt on one end of the axis, as shown in the
engraving. On a sliding carriage is attached three posts, through
which are fixed pivots, to which are suspended the axles of a cutting
and & friction wheel. The cutting wheel, which is about one foot
in diameter, turns on a horizontal axle, and to its periphery is fixed
a number of crooked cutters to act like a gouge when the wheel is
put in motion. This cutting wheel is placed opposite the rough block.
The friction wheel, which is of the same diameter as the culling
wheel, is placed opposite the pattern, so as to press against it when
in motion. These two wheels are in a line with each jther, and
are attached to the same carriage. On the axle of the cutting
wheel is fixed a pulley, around which passes a band which puts
the cutting wheel in motion by a large drum revolving under it.
A crank, or first mover, communicates mo t .on to the drum, which
in its turn transfers a rapid motion to the cutting wheel ; while a
band which passes from a small pulley on the drum shaft, puts in
operation a feeding screw-pulley, which moves the sliding car-
riage horizontally from left to right. Another pulley on the drum-
shaft gives a slow rotary motion both to the pattern and the rough
block, in a direction opposite to that of the cutting wheel. The
friction wheel is turned by the pattern resting against it.
During the revolution, the pattern, being irregular in its surface.
BLANCHARD'S LATHE.
I
THOMAS BLANCHARD. 203
causes the axis to approach and recede from the wheel. Thus it
will be seen, as it presents its whole surface to the friction wheel,
so in like manner the block presents its surface to the cutting wheel,
which being in rapid motion cuts away all that part of the block
which is farther from the common centre than the surface of the
pattern, and thus forms, from a rough block, an exact resemblance
of the model.
To form a facsimile in reverse, as a left foot shoe-last, from
a right foot shoe-last, it is only necessary that the pattern should
revolve in an opposite direction from the block. A whole sett of
lasts, both right and left, can be formed by one pattern, either
larger or smaller than the model. This is done by changing the
motion and speed of different parts of the machine. To form an
object longer than the -pattern, the cutting wheel must travel in its
right-angle movement faster than the friction wheel, or vice versa.
To form it larger in diameter than the pattern, the axis of the
cutting wheel must be kept at a greater distance from the axis of
the block than the axis of the pattern is from the axis of the fric-
tion wheel. Thus it is plain that an article can be formed by this
operation larger or smaller than the model, and still be of the
same proportions.
This machine can be applied to turning many different articles
ivith great facility and perfection, such as shoe-lasts, gun-stocks,
spokes of wheels, hat-blocks, tackle-blocks, wig-blocks, and any
other objects, no matter how irregular their forms, provided their
surfaces can be brought in contact with the periphery of the fric-
tion wheel.
While at Washington, securing the patent, Blanchard exhibited
the machine at the war office, where most of the heads of the
different departments had assembled. Among the rest was Com-
modore R , then one of the navy commissioners, who, after
witnessing its operation and listening to the remarks made, as to
the various articles that it could form, jocosely says to the inventor,
"Can you turn a seventy-four?' 1 ' 1 " Yes !" was the reply, " if you
will furnish a block.' 1 ' 1
The secretary of war was so well satisfied with it, that an
agreement was entered into with the inventor to build one imme-
diately for the national armory at Harper's Ferry. He subse-
quently put one in operation at the Springfield establishment.
This opened the way to his other important improvements in the
stocking of arms, since universally adopted, consisting in the cut
ting in the cavity for the lock, barrel, butt-plates, and other parts
of the mounting, comprising, together with the turning the stock
and barrel, no less than thirteen different machines. Mr. Elan-
206 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
chard was thus occupied in the employment of government for a
period of five years, during which time he had given but little
attention to the bringing of the turning machine into use for those
other purposes for which it was as well adapted. An opportunity
was therefore given to violators, of which they duly took advan-
tage ; and more than fifty machines were put in operation, during
the first term of the patent, in various parts of the Union, for
turning shoe-lasts, handles, spokes, and many other articles, from
which he derived no benefit ; and all that was received was the
government price of nine cents on each musket made at their two
armories, at Harper's Ferry and Springfield. On the expiration
of the first term of the patent in 1833, he petitioned congress for
a renewal, which was granted on the grounds that this was an
original machine, standing among the first American inventions,
while the inventor had not been compensated according to its utility.
In 1825, the public attention was attracted to the subject of rail-
roads and locomotive power. Blanchard having completed his
engagements at the armories, built a carriage at Springfield, to
travel by steam on common roads. This, it is believed, was the
first locomotive put in operation in this country, unless, indeed, the
rude contrivance of Evans may be dignified with such an appella-
tion. It was perfectly manareable, could turn corners, and go
backwards and forwards with all the facility of a well-tra ; ned horse,
and on ascending a hill the power could be increased. Blanchard
was so well satisfied with it, that he secured a patent. He also
built models of railroad turn-outs, and other improvement'* now in
general use. Independent of this, he went so far as to exert him-
self to raise a company to build railroads, and with this view sub-
mitted his plans and improvements to a committee of the Massa-
chusetts legislature, who reported as follows :
" Boston, January 23, 1P26.
" The undersigned, having seen the model of a railway and
steam-carriage invented by Mr. Thomas Blanchard, of Springfield,
in this commonwealth, are of opinion, from their own examina-
tions, and from those of scientific men in this vicinity, that they
are valuable improvements, and peculiarly adapted for use in this
country: and, as such, are recommended to all the friends of in
ternal improvements.
JOHN MILLS,
JAMES SAVAGE,
ROBERT RANTOTJL,
LEVI FARWELL,
WILLIAM B. CALHOUN,
Joint Committee
on
Road? and Canals."
THOMAS BLANCHARD. 207
Notwithstanding this satisfactory report, capitalists viewed it as
a visionary project. Blanchard then applied to the legislature of
New York, and, explaining his plans to Governor Clinton, pro-
posed to try the experiment of building a railroad from Albany to
Schenectady ; but he was of opinion that it was too soon after the
completion of the Erie canal. Finding himself before the times,
he abandoned the subject.
In 1826, it was determined by some gentlemen residing at
Hartford to improve the navigation at the rapids called Enfield
Falls, on the Connecticut, between that city and Springfield.
These falls are in a rocky, crooked channel of about two miles
in length, and are composed of a number of short, shoal rapids,
amounting in the whole to about thirty feet descent. The method
at that time employed was to navigate them in flat-boats, and even
then it was impossible to ascend them without a favorable wind
and the assistance of polesmen. Accordingly, a company was
formed and the funds raised to build a steamboat for this purpose.
Previous to commencing, an agent was sent to examine the differ-
ent kinds of boats in use on the western waters. On his return,
one was built in New York, on the most approved plan, with the
wheel under the stern, but, on trial, it proved unsuccessful. The
project was then given up as useless, and a canal dug around the
falls, at an expense of two hundred thousand dollars, sufficiently
large to admit of the passage of a small steamer. In anticipation
of its completion, a company in Springfield employed Mr. Blan-
chard as an agent to build a steamboat. While it was construct-
ing, a freshet damaged the canal so as to cause over a year's delay
in its completion. This event caused Blanchard to make the at-
tempt to navigate the falls with their boat, but ,t proved as fruitless
as the experiment of the canal company. This led him to study
the subject more fully, to make experiments as to the best form
for a boat and wheels, to examine the rapids, ascertain the speed
of the water, and calculate the power required to ascend them.
While thus engaged, he made an important discovery, in which
consisted the true secret of his success. This was in placing the
wheel at that point astern where the greatest eddy is formed by
the filling in of the water after the passage of the boat ; an ar-
rangement by which the paddles give a much more powerful effect
than when placed on the sides or immediately astern, as on the
western rivers : and for the simple reason that the vacuum created
by the passage of the boat causes the current to set in after it with
such velocity as to offer a very powerful resistance to the paddles
as they strike against the water.
Finding no one willing to assist him, he was determined to
208 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
build, at his own expense, a boat on the foregoing plan. While
constructing, it was regarded by the public as a -visionary scheme
and a waste of money. It was made of the best materials, of light
draught, and wrought instead of cast iron used in the formation of
the engine. By little practice, she ascended the falls with perfect
ease, and made her daily trips between Springfield and Hartford
as a passage-boat. This was the commencement of a new era in
the prosperity of Springfield, for Hartford was no longer the head
of steam navigation.
In the autumn of 1828, Blanchard made an excursion with a
party in his boat up the Connecticut above Springfield, passing
through its fertile and romantic valley for a distance of one hun-
dred and fifty miles. Many of the inhabitants had never seen a
steamboat, and consequently flocked to the river by thousands to
witness the wonderful power of steam. Having heard of the burst-
ing of boilers, many were at first afraid to approach ; but curiosity
conquering their fears, they became anxious to see and take a
short trip. Its arrival was welcomed by the ringing of bells and
the firing of cannon. At one village, so great was the enthusiasm
that a line was formed on the river bank, composed of all sexes
who, as she passed, made the welkin ring with their acclamations
The success of this boat, which was named the Vermont, m.
duced Blanchard to build another and far superior one, (the Mas-
sachusetts,) of a larger size, and drawing eighteen inches of water.
The wheel and weighty portions of the machinery were supported
by two arches of peculiar construction running lengthwise of the
vessel, combining great strength with little weight. She was thus
enabled to carry two steam engines, one on each side, driving the
paddle wheel, with a crank on each end of the wheel shaft, set at
right angles with each other. By this arrangement there was not
any dead point, or slacking of the wheel, while making a revolu-
tion, a very important point in ascending rapids. The facility
of this mode of conveyance caused the travel and transportation to
more than double between the two places.
Finding that small rapid rivers could be navigated by this mode
of conveyance, Mr. Blanchard soon had many applications from
different parts of the union, and in 1830 was employed to build a
boat on the Alleghany, to ply between Pittsburg and Olean Point,
a distance of three hundred miles ; the fall amounting in the whole
to six hundred feet, and the river in many places very rapid. This
boat was named the Alleghany, and set out on her first trip in the
month of May, with thirty passengers and twenty-five tons of
freight, passing through many pleasant villages where a steamboat
had never been. On reaching the village of the celebrated Indian
THOMAS BLANCHARD. 2Q9
chief Cornplanter, an invitation was given him to take an excur-
sion up the river ; he at first hesitated, but on being assured that
there was no danger, went on board with his family. He wit-
nessed the various parts of the machinery, the engine, paddle
wheels, &c., with astonishment, exclaiming, in broken English,
" Great ! great ! great power /" The Alleghany drawing only
eighteen inches of water, was enabled to ascend many of the small
streams that empty into the Ohio, and so established the practica-
bility of navigating small and rapid rivers, that this kind of boat
has since gone into universal use.
Like all other inventors, Blanchard has experienced his share
of wrong from the selfishness of his fellow men. He has secured
no less than twenty-four patents for as many different inventions.
But a small portion have been of sufficient benefit to pay for the
expense of getting them up. Many of them have been used with-
out consent, or even so far as giving him the credit of their inven-
tion. While making his first model for turning irregular forms,
a neighbor attempted to defraud him of it, by obtaining othors to
privately watch his movements, who would copy as fast as he pro-
gressed. On Blanchard's going to Washington to secure the right,
to his great astonishment he found a caveat had been lodged for
the same invention only the day previous. Luckily he had taken
the precaution, at the time his model was first put into operation,
to call two witnesses to view it, and note the date ; so he was en-
abled on trial to sustain his right. Scarcely, however, was this
difficulty surmounted before another attempt was made to deprive
him of it. A company was about forming in Boston, to put it into
operation for turning ships' tackle-blocks, for which right the in-
ventor was to receive several thousand dollars. Two individuals,
discovering, on examination, (as they thought,) that the claim was
too broad, informed Blanchard of it, at the same time threatening
that, unless he would give them one half of what he was about to
receive, they would make it public : he rejected these proposals
with scorn and indignation. Thereupon an article appeared in
the prints, cautioning the public, and stating that the inventor had
claimed more than he had invented. This so alarmed those in-
terested, that a stop was put to the formation of the company ; he
thereupon surrendered up the patent, and took out another.
After he obtained a renewal of his patent by act of congress
in 1834, he was determined to prosecute, in order to realize
something from his labors. On bringing a suit before Judge
Story, of Boston, he was nonsuited through two defects in the
patent: one of which was in the date of the patent set forth
in the act, and the other in terming the invention a machine,
210 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
instead of an engine. On application to congress, although stren.
uously opposed by the defendants in the former case, the mis.
take was rectified. Subsequently another suit was commenced
against the same violators. The defence set up was, first, that
the plaintiff did not describe his machine so clearly in the specifica-
tion as to enable a skilful artist to build it ; secondly, that the ma-
chine was not the invention of the plaintiff; and thirdly, that the
claim was for the function, and not for the machine itself. But
not any proof being brought to establish this defence, the court
overruled all objections, and gave judgment for the plaintiff. His
honor Judge Story, on making his remarks, paid the following
high compliment to Mr. Blanchard, viz. : " That after much
trouble, care, and anxiety, he will be enabled to enjoy the fruits,
unmolested, of his inventive genius, of which he had a high opin-
ion ; and it afforded him much pleasure in thus being able publicly
to express it."
Mr. Blanchard, at the present time, is residing in New York
city, where he is engaged in an invention promising to be of supe-
rior utility. We trust that success will attend all his future efforts :
and may he continue to merit the increased gratitude of his fellow
citizens by the productions of his inventive talent*
HENRY ECKFORD.
Bi.1h. Is placed with an eminent naval constructor at Quebec. Commences
ship-building in New York. Establishes the reputation of the naval archi-
tecture of that city. Improvements. Indebtedness of our country to his exei-
tions during the late war. Verplanck's tribute to his memory. Builds the
steam-ship " Robert Fulton." Is appointed naval constructor at Brooklyn.
Builds the Ohio. Resigns. Is engaged in constructing vessels of war for the
various European and some of the South American governments. Plan for a
new organization of the navy. Unfortunate connection with a stock company.
Honorable acquittal. Is appointed chief naval constructor of the Turkish
empire. Death. Character.
WE are indebted to the kindness of a friend for the following
memoir of one, whose talents and industry evinced in improving
the popular arm of our national defence, should render our coun-
try proud of ranking him among her adopted children.
Henry Eckford was born at Irvine, (Scotland,) March 12, 1775.
At the age of sixteen he was sent out to Canada, and placed under
the care of his maternal uncle, Mr. John Black, an eminent naval
constructor at Quebec. Here he remained for three or four years,
and in 1796, at the age of twenty-one, commenced his labors in
New York. His untiring industry and attention to business soon
procured for him numerous friends ; and the superior style in
whicli his ships were built excited general attention. At that time
the vessels constructed at Philadelphia stood highest in the public
esteem ; but it is scarcely too much to say, that those built by
Mr. Eckford soon occupied the first rank, and gradually New York
built ships bore away the palm from all competitors. Equally con-
versant with the theoretical as well as with the practical part of
his profession, he never frhtered away his own time or the money
of his employers in daring experiments, which so often extort ap.
plause from the uninformed multitude. He preferred feeling his
way cautiously, step by step. Upon the return of one of his ves-
sels from a voyage, by a series of questions he obtained from her
commander an accurate estimate of her properties under all the
casualties of navigation. This, connected with her form, enabled
him to execute his judgment upon the next vessel to be built. In
this way he proceeded, successively improving the shape of each,
until those constructed by him, or after his models, firmly estab-
212 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
lished the character of New York built ships over those of any
other port in the union.
It would be impossible, within the limits prescribed by the na
ture of this work, to point out the various improvements in the
shape and rig of all classes of vessels suggested by the fertile
mind of Mr. Eckford ; and perhaps their technical details would be
unintelligible to ordinary readers. It is sufficient to observe, that
after his models our vessels gradually dispensed with their large
and low stern frames, the details of their rigging underwent ex-
tensive changes, and in the important particulars of stability,
speed, and capacity, they soon far surpassed their rivals.
Mr. Eckford had married and become identified with the inter-
ests of his adopted country when the war broke out between
America and England. He entered into contracts with the gov-
ernment to construct vessels on the lakes, and the world witnessed
with astonishment a fleet of brigs, sloops of war, frigates, and ships
of the line, constructed within an incredibly short space of time.
At the present day, we can scarcely appreciate the difficulties and
discouragements under which operations on so extended a scale
were obliged to be conducted. The country was comparatively
wild and uninhabited, the winters long and severe, provisions and
men, with the iron-work, tools, rigging, and sails, were to be
transported from the sea-coast, the timber was still waving in the
forests, and, to crown the whole, the funds provided by the govern,
ment were in such bad repute, that, to obtain current funds there-
from, Mr. Eckford was obliged to give his personal guarantee.
Under all these embarrassments, he commenced his operations
with his accustomed activity and judgment, organized his plans,
and offered every inducement to the interests, the pride, and the
patriotism of those in his employ to labor to the extent of their
ability. Encouraged by his presence and example, they entered
upon their labors with enthusiasm, and neither night nor day saw
a respite to their '.oils. The consequences were quickly apparent.
A respectable fleet was soon afloat, and our frontier preserved
from the invasion of a foe as active and persevering as ourselves.
In allusion to these efforts, one of our intelligent citizens, Mr. Ver.
planck, in a discourse delivered before the Mechanics' Institute,
has happily observed, " I cannot forbear from paying a passing
tribute to the memory of a townsman and a friend. It is but a
few days since that the wealth, talent, and public station of this
city were assembled to pay honor to the brave and excellent Com-
modore Chauncey. Few men could better deserve such honors,
either by public service or private worth ; but all of us who recol-
lect the events of the struggle for naval superiority on the lakes
HENRY ECKFORD.
213
during the late war with Great Britain, could not help calling to
mind that the courage, the seamanship, and ability of Chauncey
would have been exerted in vain, had they not been seconded by
the skill, the enterprise, the science, the powers of combination,
and the inexhaustible resources of the ship -builder, Henry Eck-
ford."
At the conclusion of the war, his accounts, involving an amount
of several millions of dollars, were promptly and- honorably settled
with the government.
Shortly after this, he constructed a steam-ship, the " Robert
Fulton, 11 of a thousand tons, to navigate between New York and
New Orleans. Unlike the light and fairy-like models of the pre-
sent day, which seem only fit for smooth water and summer seas,
she was a stout and burdensome vessel, fitted to contend with the
storms of the Atlantic, and her performance, even with the dis-
advantage of an engine of inadequate power, far exceeded every
expectation. The sudden death of her owner, in connection with
other circumstances, caused her to be sold ; and it is no slight
commendation of her model, that when she was afterwards rigged
into a sailing vessel, she became the fastest and most efficient
sloop-of-war (mounting twenty-four guns) in the Brazilian navy.
It is to be regretted that the model then proposed by Mr. Eckford
for sea steamers has not been followed. The vain attempt to ob-
tain speed, without a corresponding change in the shape of the
model, that would enable them to contend successfully with heavy
seas, has been attended with disgraceful failures, involving an im-
mense loss of lives.
A strong feeling of professional pride induced Mr. Eckford to
accept an invitation from the Secretary of the navy to become
naval constructor at Brooklyn. He was desirous of building a
line-of-battle ship for the ocean that should serve as a model for
future vessels of that class, and in the Ohio, we believe, it is gene-
rally conceded such a model has been obtained. Her ports, it is
true, have been altered to suit the whim of some ignorant officer,
who has thus weakened her frame in order to imitate an English
model, and her spars have been curtailed of their due proportions,
to gratify a commissioner^ fancy ; but, under all these disadvan-
tages, she is to remain a model for future constructors. Unfor-
tunately, our marine was then encumbered, as it is now, with a
board of commissioners composed of old navy officers, who fancied
that because they commanded ships they could build them, an
idea as preposterous as it would have been to have intrusted the
naval constructors with their command. Under this sage adminis-
tration of the affairs of the navy, six slips of the line, costing four
214 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
millions of dollars, were constructed ; the constructors received
their orders from the sages at Washington, and each vessel, as
was to have been expected, became worse than the preceding
Two of them are permitted to rot in the mud, a third has been
cut down to a frigate possessing no very creditable properties, and
the others, if not humanely suffered to rot, will probably follow
their example.
The same signal disgrace has fallen upon our sloops of war.
Under a mistaken idea of strength and stability, their frames are
solid, and in many instances their leeway and headway are nearly
balanced. Some of them, we are officially informed, possess
every desirable property, except that they are rather difficult to
steer ! Those in the least acquainted with the subject need hardly
be informed that this exception, trifling as it seems, is conclusive
against the model.
At the head of this board was Commodore John Rodgers, and
his instructions and his orders were to be the basis of Mr. Eck-
ford's operations. These orders, copied, for the most part, out
of some exploded work on naval architecture, were wisely disre-
garded, although their receipt was duly acknowledged ; and he has
been heard to observe, that when the vessel was completed, he
would have challenged the whole board to have examined and
pointed out in what particulars their orders had not been implicitly
obeyed. Under the orders of the commissioners, he had prepared
a model which, after due examination, was graciously approved of.
When Mr. Eckford proceeded to lay down the vessel, he thought
fit to introduce many important changes, and the only genuine
draught of the Ohio is now owned by Mr. Isaac Webb, one of the
most intelligent of his pupils. The consequence, however, of these
collisions between presuming ignorance and modest worth were
soon obvious. Mr. Eckford resigned his commission on the day
the Ohio was launched ; and shortly after received an intimation,
that he would never see her put in commission as long as the mem-
bers of that board held their seats. This promise, as our readers
are aware, was kept for eighteen years.
Shortly after this he engaged extensively in his profession ; and
so great and extended became his reputation, that he was called
upon to construct vessels of war for various European powers, and
for some of the republics of South America. Among others, he
built and despatched to Columbia and Brazil four 64 gun-ships, of
2000 tons each, in the incredibly short space of eighteen months
In these cases his accounts were promptly adjusted, and he re
ceived from all parties highly honorable testimonials of his uiteg
rity, ounctuality, and good faith. He subsequently received pro
HENRY ECKFORD. 215
posals to build two frigates for Greece; but as he the night he
perceived, on the part of the agents, a disposition to take an unfair
advantage of the necessities of that nation, he honorably and hu-
wianely declined their tempting propositions. All are aware of
the disastrous and (to this country) disgraceful manner in which
that business terminated.
Upon the accession of General Jackson to the presidency, he
received fro*n him an invitation to furnish him with a plan for a
new organization of the navy. This was promptly furnished, 'and
was pronounced by all who read it to be exactly what wag required
for an efficient and economical administration of the navy. It was
not acted upon, although its adoption wouM have materially ad-
vanced the interests of tlie country. Among other novd proposi-
tions, it was recommended to remodel entirely the dockyards.
These were to be under the superintendence of superannuated
commodores, who, in taking command, would relinquish their rank
and naake way for more active officers. The constructor at each
yard was to be held responsible for the quantity and quality of
work don^, and only amenable to the chief constructor at Wash-
ington. This latter office, he took occasion, however, to say, he
could not, under any circumstances, be persuaded to accept, fte
wished, in short, from what he had .himself observed of the extra-
vagance, waste, and delay at our dockyards, to place them on a
civil footing, as more consonant to the feelings of the mechanics
and the spirit of our institutions.
About this period he determined to prepare and publish a work
<ri naval architecture, for which he had ample materials, and
numerous draughts of vessels of almost every class. He had also
set aside twenty thousand dollars to estaHish a professorship of
naval architecture in* Columbia college, and had already entered
into correspondence with an eminent constructor, Mr. Doughty,
whom he had intended as the first professor, when a disastrous
affair occurred, involving his reputation and his ample fortune.
An insurance company, in which he was largely interested, ibe-
came, in the panic of the day, insolvent, and its creditors ventured,
in the madness of the moment, to throw doubts on the hitherto
ariimpeached character of Mr. Kckford. In this diey were aided
by a knot of political partisans, to whom his siient, but gradually
increasing popularity, (which had, long ere this, placed him in
the state legislature,) was gall and wormwood. Notwithstanding
he satisfactorily proved that he had lost, by stock, and other ad-
vances to save the sinking credit of the company, nearly half a
million of dollars, yet his enemies affected to discredit his testi-
mony, upon .the ground that such unparalleled sacrifices were too
10
216 AMERICAN MECHANICS.
disinterested to be credible. The termination of the investigation
resulted in his complete and honorable acquittal, but the venomed
shaft rankled in his kind and gentle breast to the hour of his
death. It is no consolation to his numerous friends and relatives
to know, that all who pined in this base conspiracy against this
pure-minded and well-principled man have since paid the forfeit
of their infuriated zeal, by the silent, but withering contempt of
their fellow-citizens.
In 1831, he built a sloop-of-war for the Sultan Mahmoud, and
was induced to visit Turkey. His fame as a skilful architect had
preceded him, and he was shortly afterwards offered the situation
of chief naval constructor for the empire. A field worthy of his
enterprise seemed open to him. With his characteristic energy
he commenced the organization of the navy yard, and laid down
the keel of a ship of the line. He had rapidly entered in her con-
struction, and had so far advanced in the favor of the sultan that
preparations were in train to create him a Bey of the empire, when
his labors were suddenly brought to a close by his lamented death,
from inflammation of the bowels, which occurred November 12,
1832, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.
In private life, Eckford was remarkably simple in his manners
and habits. Abstemious and temperate, he always possessed un-
clouded faculties ; and his quiet attention and kindness to all under
his control enabled him to secure their ready co-operation in any
of his plans which required from them willing and prompt exer-
tions. The scrupulous observance of his contracts to the mi-
nutest particular was with him a point of honor ; and his dealings
with his fellow-men bore rather the character of princely munffi-
cence than the generosity of a private individual. Throughout
life, and amid transactions involving millions, he maintained the
same unassuming habits, considering himself but the mere trustee
for the benefit of others ; and died as he had lived, honored and
beloved by all who knew him.
*
FOREIGN MECHANICS.
JOHN SMEATON.
JOHN SMEATON was born the 28th of May, 1724, at Austhorpe,
near Leeds. The strength of his understanding and the origin,
ality of his genius appeureu at an early age. His playthings,
it is said by one long well acquainted with him, were not the
playthings of children, but the tools men work with, and he ap-
peared to derive more pleasure from seeing the men in the neigh-
borhood work, and asking them questions, than from any thing else.
When not quite six years old, he was seen one day, much to the
alarm of his friends, on the top of his fathers barn, fixing up some-
thing like a windmill. Not long after he attended some men fix-
ing a pump at a neighboring village, and observing them cut
off a piece of bored pipe, he was so lucky as to procure it, and
actually made with it a working pump that raised water. In his
fourteenth and fifteenth years, he made for himself an engine to
turn rose- work, and presented his friends with boxes turned in
ivory or wood. At the age of eighteen he had acquired by the
strength of his genius and indefatigable industry, an extensive set
of tools, and the art of working in most of the mechanical trades,
without the assistance of nny master, and this with an expertness
seldom surpassed.
His father was an attorney, and intended to bring up his son to
his own profession ; but the latter finding, to use his own words,
" that the law did not suit the bent of his genius," obtained his
parent's consent that he should seek a more congenial employment.
Accordingly he came to London, where he established himself as
a mathematical instrument maker, and soon became known to the
scientific circles by several ingenious inventions ; among which
were a new kind of magnetic compass, and a machine for measur-
ing a ship's way at sea.
In 1753, he was elected a member of the Royal Society, and
contributed several papers to their philosophical tiansactions. In
the succeeding year he visited Holland, travelling mostly on foot
220 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
and in passage-boats, to make himself master, with greater ease,
of the mechanical contrivances of those countries. A few years
after his return he was applied to, to rebuild the Eddystone light-
house, a structure which has rendered his name so celebrated. To
^nore fully illustrate the difficulties he had to surmount, we give in
connection a brief history of the lighthouse.
Eddystone lighthouse is erected on one of the rocks of that name,
which lie in the English Channel about fourteen miles S.S. W. from
Plymouth. The nearest land to the Eddystone rocks is the point
to the west of Plymouth called the Ram Head, from which they
are about ten miles almost directly south. As these rocks (called
the Eddystone, in all probability, from the whirl or eddy which is
occasioned by the waters striking against them) were not very
much elevated above the sea at any time, and at high water were
quite covered by it, they formed a most dangerous obstacle to nav-
igation, and several vessels were every season lost upon them.
Many a gallant ship which had voyaged in safety across the whole
breadth of the Atlantic, was shattered to pieces on this hidden
source of destruction as it was nearing port, and went down with
its crew in sight of their native shores. It was therefore very de-
sirable that the spot should, if possible, be pointed out by a warning
light. But the same circumstances which made the Eddystone
rocks so formidable to the mariner, rendered the attempt to erect
a lighthouse upon them a peculiarly difficult enterprise. The task,
however, was at last undertaken by a Mr. Henry Winstanley, of
Littlebury in Essex, a gentleman of some property, and not a reg-
ularly-bred engineer or architect, but only a person with a natural
turn for mechanical invention, and fond of amusing himself with
ingenius experiments, and withal was somewhat of an excentric
character. In his house at Littlebury, a visiter would enter a room
where he saw an old slipper on the floor ; he would kick away the
slipper, and a figure with the appearance of a being from the other
world would start up before him. He would sit down in a chair,
and immediately a pair of arms would clasp him around the waist.
He would go into an arbor in the garden, by the side of a canal,
and straightway he would find himself afloat in the middle of that
piece of water, without the power of getting ashore, until a pef-
son in the secret had moved certain machinery. Mr. Winstanley
also contrived some ingenious water-works.
The fabric erected by this amateur engineer, upon the Eddy-
stone, was of timber, sixty feet high, and was four years in build-
ing ; during which time the workmen suffered much from bad
weather, and were once or twice taken off in a state of starvation,
after having been for weeks debarred all intercourse with the land.
JOHN SMEATON. 221
Finding that the waves often rose so high as to bury the lantern,
Mr. Winstanley, in the fourth year, enlarged the base and added
forty feet to the height ; and yet in violent weather the sea would
seem to fly a hundred feet above the vane ; and it was generally
said that a six-oared boat might have been directed on the top of
a wave through the open gallery of the lighthouse. In Novenru
ber, 1703, some repairs being required, Mr. Winstanley went
down to Plymouth to superintend the performanr^ of them. The
general opinion was, that the building would not je of long dura-
tion ; but the builder held different sentiments. As he was about
to embark with his workmen, the danger was intimated to him in
i friendly manner, and it was remarked that one day or other the
lighthouse would certainly overset. To this he replied, that he
was so well assured of its stability, "that he should only wish to be
there in the greatest storm that ever blew." In this wish he was
but too soon gratified ; for on the 26th of the month just men-
tioned, while he was still superintending the repairs, there occurred
one of the severest storms within the memory of the oldest inhabit-
ants ; being the same which Defoe thought proper to chronicle in
a volume under the title of " THE STORM." When the people
looked abroad the next morning, not a trace of the Eddystone
lighthouse was to be seen. The whole fabric, with its ingenious
architect, and many other persons, had perished.
As if to show the necessity of instantly rebuilding it, the Win-
chelsea, a homeward-bound Virginiaman, almost immediately
after, struck upon the rock, and was lost, with most of the crew.
It was not, however, till 1706, that a new work was commenced.
The second Eddystone lighthouse Vas built as the private under-
taking of a Captain Lovett. The immediate architect was Mr.
John Rudvard, a linen draper, who, like Winstanley, seems to
have had a taste for mechanical pursuits. The building was in
the lower part constructed of alternate courses of granite and oak
timber ; in the upper part, of timber alone : the whole being cased
in timber very carefully jointed. The light-room was sixty-one
<eet above the rock, and the whole height to the ball at the top
was ninety-two. The general form was circular, and there were
no projections of any kind, in both of which respects it improved
upon the former building, which was heavy cornered, with many
superfluous ornaments. During the progress of the work, a
French privateer took the men upon the lighthouse, together with
their tools, and carried them to France, where the captain, it is
said, expected a reward for his exploit. While the captives lay
in prison, the transaction reached the ears of Louis XIV. who
immediately ordered them to be released, and the captors to be
222 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
put into their place ; declaring that though he was at war with
England, he was not at war with mankind. He accordingly
directed tlie men to be returned to their work with presents, as a
compensation for the inconvenience which they had suffered
The lighthouse was completed in 1709.
From the simplicity of the figure of this building, an.1 the judg-
ment shown in its construction, it was considered likely, notwith.
standing the nature of the materials, to have withstood the effects
of the winds and waves for an unlimited period. It was doomed,
however, to fall before an accident which had not bee calculated
upon. At two o'clock on the morning of the 2d of December,
1755, one of the three men who had the charge of it, having gone
up to snuff the candles in the lantern, found the place full of smoke,,
from the midst of which, as soon as he opened the door, a flame
burst forth. A spark from some of tlx) twenty-four candles,
which were kept' constantly burning, had probably ignited the
wood-work, or the flakes of soot hanging from the roof. The
man instantly alarmed his companions ; but being in bed and
asleep, it was some time before they arrived to his assistance.
In the mean time he did his utmost to effect the extinction of the
fire by heaving water up to it (it was burning four yards above
him) from a tubful which always stood in the place. The other
two, when they came, brought up more waiter from below ; but as
they had to go down and return a height of seventy feet for this
purpose, their endeavors were of little avail. At last a quantity
of the lead on the roof having melted, came down in a torrent
upon the bead and shoulders of the man who remained above.
He was an old man of ninety-four, of the name of Henry Hall,
but still full of strength and activity. This accident, together
with the rapid increase of the fire, notwithstanding their most
desperate exertions, extinguished their last hopes ; and making
scarcely any further efforts to arrest the progress of the destroy,
ing element, they descended before it from room to room, till they
came to the lowest floor. Driven from this also, they then sought
refuge in a hole or cave on the eastern side of the rocK, it being
fortunately by this time low water. Meanwhile the conflagration
had been observed by some fishermen, who immediately returned
to the shore and gave information of it. Boats, of course,
were immediately sent out. They arrived at the lighthouse
about ten o'clock, and with the utmost difficulty a landing was
effected, and the three men, who were by this time almost in
a state of stupefaction, were dragged through the water into
one of the boats. One of them, as soon as he was brought on
shore, as if struck with some panic, took flight, and ^vas never
JOHN SMEATON. 22S
more heard of. As for old Hall, he was immediately placed under
medical care ; but although he took his food tolerably well, and
seemed for some time likely to recover, he always persisted in
saying that the doctors would never bring him round, unless they
could remove from his stomach the lad which he maintained had
run down his throat when it fell upon him from the roof of the
lantern. Nobody could believe that this notion was any thing
more than an imagination of the old man ; but on the twelfth day
after the fire, having been suddenly, seized with cold sweats and
spasms, he expired ; aod when his body was opened there was
actually found in his stomach, to the coat of which it had partly
adhered, a flat oval piece of lead of the weight of seven ounces
five drams. An account of this extraordinary case is to be found
in the 49th volume of the Philosophical Transactions.
The proprietors, who by this time had become numerous, felt
that it was not their interest to lose a moment in setting about
the rebuilding of the lighthouse. One of them, a Mr. Weston, in
whom the others placed much confidence, made application to
Lord Macclesfield, the president of the Royal Society, to recom-
mend to them the person whom he considered most fit to be en-
gaged. His lordship immediately named and most strongly
recommended Mr. Smeaton. Once more, therefore, the Eddy-
stone lighthouse was destined to have a self-educated architect for
its builder. When it was first proposed that the work should be
put into his hands, he was in Northumberland ; but he arrived in
London on the 23d of February, 1756. On the 22d of March he
set out for Plymouth, but, on account of the badness of the roads,
did not reach the end of his journey till the 27th. He remained
at Plymouth till the 21st of May, in the course of which time he
^epeatedly visited the rock, and having, with the consent of his
employers, determined that the new lighthouse should be of stone,
hired workyards and workmen, contracted for the various mate-
rials he wanted, and made all the necessary arrangements for
beginning and carrying on the work. Every thing being in readi-
ness, and the season sufficiently advanced, on the fifth of August
the men were landed on the rock, and immediately began cutting
it for the foundation of the building. This part of the work was
all that was accomplished that season, in the course of which,
however, both the exertions and the perils of the architect and his
associates were very great. On one occasion the sloop in which
Mr. Smeaton was, with eighteen seamen and laborers, was at
but lost in returning from the work.
During this time the belief and expressed dpinion of all sorts of
persons was that a stone lighthouse would certainly not stand the
224 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
winds and seas to which it would be exposed on the Eddystona
However, on the 12th of June, 1757, the first stone was laid.
From this period the work proceeded with great rapidity. On
the 26th of August, 1759, all the stonework was completed. On
the 9th of October following the building was finished in every
part ; and on the 16th of the same month the saving light was
again streaming from its summit over the waves. Thus the whole
undertaking was accomplished within a space of little more than
three years, " without the loss of life or limb," says Mr. Smeaton,
" to any one concerned in it, or accident by which the work could
be said to be materially retarded. During all this time there had
been oaly four hundred and twenty-one days, comprising two
thousand six hundred and seventy-four hours, which it had been
possible for the men to spend upon the rock ; and the whole time
which they had been at work there was only one hundred and
eleven days ten hours, or scarcely sixteen weeks. Nothing can
show more strikingly than this statement the extraordinary diffi-
culties under which the work had to be carried on.
Smeaton spent much time in considering the best method of
grafting his work securely on the solid rock, and giving it the
form best suited to secure stability ; and one of the most interest-
ing parts of his interesting account is, that in which he narrates
how he was led to choose the shape which he adopted, by con-
sidering the means employed by nature to produce stability in her
works. The building is modelled on the trunk of an oak, which
spreads out in a sweeping curve near the roots, so as to give
breadth and strength to its base, diminishes as it rises, and again
swells out as it approaches to the bushy head, to give room for
the strong insertion of the principal boughs. The latter is repre-
sented by a curved cornice, the effect of which is to throw ofFthe
heavy seas, which being suddenly checked, fly up, it is said, from
fifty to one hundred feet above the very top of the building, and
thus are prevented from striking the lantern, even when they
seem entirely to enclose it.
To prepare a fit base for the reception of the column, the
shelving rock was cut into six steps, which were filled up with
masonry, firmly dovetailed and pinned with oaken trenails to the
living stone, so that the upper course presented a level circular
surface. The building is faced with Cornish granite, called in
the country, moorstone ; a material selected on account of its
durability and hardness, which bids defiance to the depredations
of marine animals, which have been known to do serious injury,
by perforating Portland stone when placed under water. The
interior is built of Portland stone, which is more easily obtained
JOHN SMEATON. 225
in large blocks, and is less expensive in the working. It is an
instructive lesson not only to the young engineer, but to all per-
sons, to see the diligence which Smeatoi used to ascertain what
kind of st;ne was best fitted to his purposes, and from what ma
terials thj firmest and most lasting cement could be obtained.
He well knew that in novel and great undertakings no precaution
can be deemed superfluous which may contribute to success ; and
that it is wrong to trust implicitly to common methods, even when
experience has shown them to be sufficient in common cases.
For the height of twelve feet from the rock the building is solid.
Every course of masonry is composed of stones firmly jointed and
dovetailed into each other, and secured to the course below by
joggles, or solid plugs of stone, which being let into both, effectu-
ally resist the lateral pressure of the waves, which tend to push
off the upper from the under course.
[Horizontal Section of the lower and solid part of the Eddystone Lighthouse; showing th
mode in which the courses of stone are dovetailed together.]
The interior, which is accessible by a moveable ladder, consists
of four rooms, one above the other, surmounted by a glass lantern,
in which the lights are placed. The height from the lowest point
of the foundation to the floor of the lantern is seventy feet ; the
height of the lantern is ' twenty-one feet more. The building has
braved, uninjured, the storms of eighty winters, and .is likely long
to remain a monument almost as efegant, and far more useful
than the most splendid column ever raised to commemorate impe-
rial* victories. v lt erection forms an era in the history of light-
houses, a subject of great importance to a maritime nation. It
came perfect from the mind of the artist, and has left nothing to
be added or improved. After such an example, no rock can be
10*
226 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
considered impracticable : and ja the more recent erection of a
lighthouse on the dangerous Bell-rock, lying off the coast of For-
farshire, Scotland, which is built exactly on the same model, we
see the best proof of the value of an impulse, such as was given
to this subject by Smeaton.
Among many other tempests which this structure has endured
unshaken, was one of extraordinary fury, which occurred in the
beginning of the year 1762. One individual, who was fond of
predicting its fate, declared on that occasion, " that if it stood then,
it would stand until the day of judgment!" On the morning after
the storm had spent its chief fury, many anxious observers pointed
their glasses to the "spot, where they scarcely expected ever to dis-
cern it, and a feeling almost of wonder, mixed itself with the joy,
thankfulness, and pride of the architect's friends, as they with dif-
ficulty descried its form through the still dark and troubled air. It
was uninjured even to a pane of glass in the lantern. In a letter
from Plymouth, written upon this occasion, the writer says : " It
is now my most steady belief, as well as everybody's here, that its
inhabitants are rather more secure in a storm, under the united
force of wind and water, than we are in our houses from the former
only. 11
According to the account published by Mr. Smeaton, the light-
house was attended by three men, who each received a salary of
twenty-five pounds a year, with an occasional absence in the sum-
mer. At an earlier period there had been only two who had
watched alternately four hours ; but one being taken ill and dying,
the necessity of a third hand became apparent. On the death of
his companion, the survivor found himself in an awkward predica-
ment. Being apprehensive if he tumbled the body into the sea,
which was the only method he had of disposing of it, he might be
charged with murder, he was induced for some time to let the dead
body lie, in hopes that the boat might come and relieve him from
his embarrassment. A month elapsed before the boat could land,
and by that time he was in a state of distress beyond all descrip-
tion, in consequence of the decay of the corpse, which for some
lime had been in such a state that he could not remove it, how.
ever anxious to do so. A less painful result of the employment of
only two men is related. On pome pique arising between them
they forebore to speak to each other, and incredible as it may ap-
pear, spent a month together in this wild solitude, without exchang-
ing a word. Another anecdote of the lighthouse may be related.
A man who had been a shoemaker being employed to go out as
one of the keepers, was on his way to the rock, when the master
of the yacht said to him, " How happens it, friend Jacob, that you
EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE IN A STORM.
JOHN SMEATON. . 22g
should choose to become a light-keeper, at scarce ten shillings a
week, when, as I am told, you can earn half-a-crown and three
shillings a day in making leather hose ?" " Why," answered the
craftsman, " I go to be a light-keeper, because I don't like confine-
mentr This answer producing a little merriment, he explained
himself that he did not like to be confined to work.
Smeaton's wonderful success in this undertaking established his
reputation, and his after labors are connected with almost every
great work of his time. It would be in vain, however, to enumer-
ate all the projects in which he was consulted, or the schemes
which he executed.
The variety and extent of his employments may be best estima-
ted from his Reports, which fill three quarto volumes, and consti-
tute a most interesting and valuable series of treatises on every
branch of engineering : as draining, bridge-building, making and
improving canals and navigable rivers, planning docks and harbors,
the improvement of mill-work, and the application of mechanical
improvements to different manufactures. They contain descrip-
tions of his inventions, together with a treatise on mill-work, and
some papers which show that he was fond of astronomy and prac-
tically skilled in it.
His health began to decline about 1785, and he -endeavored to
withdraw from business, and devote his attention to publishing an
account of his inventions and works ; for, as he often said, " he
thought he could not render so much service to his country as by
doing that." He succeeded in bringing out his elaborate account
of the Eddystone lighthouse, published in 1791. But he found it im-
possible to withdraw entirely from business ; and it appears that over-
exertion and anxiety did actually bring on an attack of paralysis
to which his family was constitutionally liable. He was taken ill
at his residence at'Austhorpe, in September, 1792, and died Octo-
ber 28th, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He had long looked
to tins disease as the probable termination of his life, and felt some
anxiety concerning the likelihood of outliving his faculties, and in
his own words of " lingering over the dregs after the spirit had
evaporated." This calamity was spared him : in the interval be-
tween his first attack and death his mind was unclouded, and he
continued to take his usual interest in the occupations of the do-
mestic circle. Sometimes only, he would complain with a smile
of hi? slowness of apprehension, and say, " It cannot be otherwise :
the shadow must lengthen as the sun goes down."
His character was marked by undeviating uprightness, industry,
and moderation in the pursuit of riches. His gains might have
been far larger, but he" relinquished more than one appointment
230 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
which brought in a considerable income, to devote his attention to
other objects which he had more at heart ; and he declined mag-
nificent offers from Catherine II. of Russia, who would have bought
his services at any price. His industry was unwearied, and the
distribution of his hours and employments strictly laid down by
rule. In his family and by his friends he was singularly beloved,
though his demeanor sometimes appeared harsh to strangers. A
brief, but very interesting and affectionate account of him, written
by his daughter, is prefixed to his Reports, from which many of
the anecdotes here related have been derived.
The rule of his practice, and one which he adhered to with the
most undeviating firmness, was never to trust to deductions drawn
from a theoiy in cases where he could have any opportunity of a
trial. As he got older, he used to say, " Care not about any the-
oiy at all. A man of experience does not require it. In my
intercourse with mankind, I have always found those who would
thrust theory into practical matters, at bottom to be men of no judg-
ment and pure quacks. In my own practice, almost every succes-
sive case would have required an independent theory of its own;
theory and quackery go hand in hand."
Smeaton appeared to Playfair as a man of excellent understand-
ing, improved more by very extensive experience and observation,
than by learning or education. He had much the appearance of
an honest and worthy man ; his manners not much polished ; his
conversation most instructive in any thing relating to mechanics,
or the business of an engineer ; but in conversation the embar
rassment of his language was very great.
EDWARD SOMERSET,
MARQUIS OF WORCESTER,
INVENTOR OF THE STEAM ENGINE.
EDWARD SOMERSET, Marquis of Worcester, was born at Ragland
Castle, near Monmouth, about the year 1597. Very little is pre-
served respecting the history of this ingenious nobleman, and our
notice must be therefore necessarily brief. During the civil war
between Charles the First and the parliament, Worcester, being
then a young man, espoused the cause of his king, and after the
WO R (JESTER,
WORCESTER. 233
surprise and capture of Monmouth by the parliamentary army, at
the head of a small party of volunteers, he scaled a redoubt, passed
the ditch, put the guard to death, dashed sword in hand into the
place, retook it, and made the garrison prisoners. This brave and
daring achievement established his reputation for courage and
enterprise.
A short time after he was sent into Ireland, to negotiate for
bringing overti large body of Irish to the royal cause, but ntjt
succeeding, his conduct was artfully misrepresented by those en-
vious of his fame. Popular feeling thus setting against him,
Worcester considered it prudent to seek safety from its virulence
by coming over to France. To fill up the cup of his misfortunes,
Ragland Castle, the home of his childhood, was besieged ; and
after being defended by his father with the courage of an old
Roman, it surrendered at last upon honorable conditions ; these
however were perfidiously broken, and the venerable old man
survived the catastrophe but a few months. The ruin of the
family now seemed complete, the seat of its splendor was destroyed,
its majestic woods were consigned to the axe, its domain alienated,
and its chief an exile.
During the ascendancy of parliament Worcester resided abroad.
When again in an unfortunate hour accepting a commission from
the heir to the throne, (afterwards Charles II.,) he proceeded to
London for the purpose of procuring private intelligence and sup-
plies of money, of which his master stood in the greatest need.
He was, however, speedily discovered and committed a close pri-
soner to the Tower, where he remained in captivity several years.
While in confinement, his time was beguiled by those mechanical
amusements which ever formed his greatest source of happiness.
Here, according to tradition, his attention was first drawn to the
amazing force of steam, by observing the rising of the lid of a
vessel employed in cooking in his chamber, and from this circum-
stance he projected that wonderful machine which has thrown
around his name so bright a radiance.
The return of the king from France, and his ascendancy to the
throne ; gave Worcester once more a home, but now in his old
age he was doomed to feel all the miseries of hope deferred. The
ear of the king was closed by the intrigues of enemies, or by in-
gratitude ; and the man who had spent the fortune of a prince in
the cause, was left, in its final triumph, nearly in a state of poverty,
oppressed with debt and without resources. On his enlargement
from prison, neither fhe ruin of his own fortune nor the increasing
infirmities of age had any effect in damping the ardor of his en-
thusiasm, when other minds would have sunk under the neglect
2J4 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
and distress of his situation, his appeared to grow more elastic as
trouble increased.
! the year 1655, Worcester wrote his famous Century (hundred)
of Inventions. This work contained but little more than a mere
definition of what the inventions were destined to perform. His
object in committing them to writing appears to have been for the
purpose of reference, when he should be in a situation to carry
them out ; hence the descriptions, although well enough for his own
purpose, are in general too indefinite for comprehension. The
novelty of the greater number of the hundred propositions or de-
scriptions of which this volume consists, and the wonderful nature
of others, cast an air of improbability over the whole : the author
was charged with describing many things which he wished were
invented, rather than machines which he had actually constructed.
But these charges are scarcely worth noticing, as they are brought
by literary men, who from their pursuits are incapable of judging
of the feasibility of mechanical projects. Yet this collection of
descriptions bears internal marks of being in many cases what it
professes, drawn up from actual trials of machines in existence. On
an attentive examination of the general scope of his inventions, the
greater number will appear to have been suggested by the wants
of his accidental situation, and a small portion by those of his
station. To a statesman employed in highly confidential negotia-
tions, the secrecy of his correspondence would be of the greatest
importance, to a traveller the security of his locks, a soldier is
mainly interested in his arms, at times in scaling a fortification, or
transmitting intelligence in the dark, and the projector of a water
company could not fail of laying his ingenuity under contribution
in devising a mode of raising water above its own level. These
classes comprises the greater part of his inventions, and if he did
not carry them all into execution, it does not seem to have been so
much his fault, as that of the age in which he lived ; but the doubt
is greatly lessened by considering his perseverance and his means.
For thirty-five years he employed an ingenious mechanic under
his own eye, whose time was doubtless spent on the inventions
described in the Century. In the machine for raising water by
steam, it would be almost impossible to describe effects so clearly
as he has done, without actually looking at a machine in operation.
His description (although very obscure) is contained in the sixty-
eighth proposition, in connection with the ninty-ninth and one hun-
dredth of the "Century," and evidently proves that to him belongs
the honor of inventing the first steam engine.
' A few years before his death he succeeded in procuring an act
of parliament to be passed enabling himself and heirs, for ninety
JAMES FERGUSOM.
JAMES FERGUSON. 237
years thereafter, to receive the sole benefit, profit, and advantage
resulting from the use of this machine. But this was of little avail,
for like men of a similar genius in more humble life, he was op.
pressed by poverty and want of encouragement ; and the desire of
being useful to his country in the way which his experience pointed
out as of all others the most effective, gained strength as his offers
of service were rejected. Although at every period of life he
seems to have been deeply impressed with the feeling that progress
was never made in any thing by supine wishes and dilatory efforts,
unremitting perseverance were in his case to be of no use in stem-
ming the tide of adverse fortune. His wishes were written in
sand; and in the prosecution of philanthropic projects, he was
fated not only to experience the neglect of the public, but the in-
gratitude of friends, without being convinced of the hopelessness
of the attempt at introducing improvements beyond the compre-
hension and spirit of the age. As long as hope survived, and that
ceased not until he " was summoned by the angel of death," he
continued to prefer with vigor his claims to public attention and
patronage.
Worcester died in poverty, on the 4th of April, 1667. After
his death, his wife, in endeavoring to introduce the " water com-
manding (steam) engine" into general use, not only lay under the
imputation of " ins'anity" for thus persisting in carrying it forward,
but was expostulated with by a Romish priest as being " instigated
by the devil!' 1 ' 1
From a manuscript volume containing the travels of Cosmo de
Medicis, grand duke of Tuscany, first printed in 1818, it appears
that about thirty years after the death of Worcester, he actually
saw his steam engine in use pumping up water in London.
JAMES FERGUSON.
AMONG self-educated men, there are few who claim more of our
admiration than the celebrated JAMES FERGUSON. If ever any
one was literally his own instructor in the very elements of know-
ledge, it was he. Acquisitions that have scarcely in any other
case, and probably never by one so young, been made without
the assistance either of books or a living teacher, were the dis-
coveries of his solitaryand almost illiterate boyhood. There are
few more interesting narratives in any language than the account
238 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
which Ferguson himself has given of his early history. He was
born in the year 1710, a few miles from the village of Keith, in
Banffshire ; his parents, as he tells us, being in the humblest con-
dition of life, (for his father was merely a day-laborer,) but reli-
gious and honest. It was his father's practice to teach his chil-
dren himself to read and write, as they successively reached what
he deemed the proper age ; but James was too impatient to wait
till his regular turn came. While his father was teaching one
of his elder brothers, James was secretly occupied in listening to
what was going on ; and, as soon as he was left alone, used
to get hold of the book, and work hard in endeavoring to rr. aster
the lesson which he had thus heard gone over. Being ashamed,
as he says, to let his father know what he was about, he was wont
to apply to an old woman who lived in a neighboring cottage to
solve his difficulties. In this way he actually learned to read
tolerably well before his father had any suspicion that he knew his
letters. His father at last, very much to his surprise, detected
him one day reading by himself, and thus found out his secret.
When he was about seven or eight years of age, a simple inci-
dent occurred wliich seems to have given his mind its first bias to
what became afterwards its favorite kind of pursuit viz. me-
chanics. The roof of the cottage having partly fallen in, his
father, in order to raise it again, applied to it a beam, resting on
a prop in the manner of a lever, and was thus enabled, with com-
parative ease, to produce what seemed to his son quite a stupen-
dous effect. The circumstance set our young philosopher think-
ing ; and after a while it struck him that his father, in using the
beam, had applied his strength to its extremity, and this, he imme-
diately concluded, was probably an important circumstance in the
matter. He proceeded to verify his notion by experiment ; and
having made several levers, which he called bars, soon not only
found that he was right in his conjecture as to the importance of
applying the moving force at the point most distant from the ful-
crum, but discovered the rule or law of the machine, namely, that
the effect of any form or weight made to bear upon it is always
exactly proportioned to the distance of the point on which it rests
from the fulcrum. " I then, 11 says he, " thought that it was a
great pity that, by means of this bar, a weight could be raised but
a very little way. On this I soon imagined that, by pulling round a
wheel, the weight might be raised to any height, by tying a rope to
the weight, and winding the rope round the axle of the wheel, and
that the power gained must be just as great as the wheel was
broader than the axle was thick ; and found it to be exactly so,
by hanging one weight to a rope put round the wheel, and ano
JAMES FERGUSON. 239
ther to the rope that coiled round the axle." The child had thus,
it will be observed, actually discovered two of the most important
elementary truths in mechanics the lever, and the wheel and
axle; he afterwards hit upon others; and, all the while, he had
not only possessed neither book nor teacher to assist him, but was
without any other tools than a simple turning lathe of his father's,
and a little knife wherewith to fashion his blocks and wheels, and
.he other contrivances he needed for his experiments. After
having made his discoveries, however, he next, he tells us, pro-
ceeded to write an account of them ; thinking this little work,
which contained sketches of the different machines drawn with a
pen, to be the first treatise ever composed of the sort. When,
some time after, a gentleman showed him the whole in a printed
book, although he found that he had been anticipated in his inven-
tions, he was much pleased, as he was well entitled to be, on
thus perceiving that his unaided genius had already carried him
so far into what was acknowledged to be the region of true
philosophy.
He spent some of his early years as a keeper of sheep, in the
employment of a small farmer in the neighborhood of his native
place. He was sent to this occupation, he tells us, as being of
weak body ; and while his flock was feeding around him, he used
to busy himself in making models of mills, spinning-wheels, &c.,
during the day, and in studying the stars at night, like his prede-
cessors of Chaldea. When a little older, he went into the service
of another farmer, a respectable man called James Glashan, whose
name well deserves to be remembered. After the labors of the
day, young Ferguson used to go at night to the fields, with a
blanket about him and a lighted candle, and there, laying himself
down on his back, pursued for long hours his observations on the
heavenly bodies. " I used to stretch," says he, " a thread, with
small beads on it, at arms 1 length, between my eye and the stars;
sliding the beads upon it, till they hid such and such stars from
my eye, in order to take their apparent distances from one ano-
ther ; and then laying the thread down on a paper, I marked the
stars thereon by the beads." " My master," he adds, "at first
laughed at me ; hut when I explained my meaning to him, he en-
couraged me to go on ; and, that I might make fair copies in the
daytime of what I had done in the night, he often worked for rne
himself. I shall always have a respect for the memory of that
man." Having been employed by his master to carry a message
to Mr. Gilchrist, the minister of Keith, he took with him the draw-
ings he had been making, and showed them to that gentleman
Mr, Gilchrist upon this put a map in<x> his hands, and having sup
11
240 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
plied him with compasses, ruler, pens, ink, and paper, desired him
to take it home with him, and bring back a copy of it. " For this
pleasant employment," says he, " my master gave me more time
than I could reasonably expect ; and often took the threshing-flail
out of my hands, and worked himself, while I sat by him in the
barn, busy with my compasses, ruler, and pen." This is a beau-
tiful, we may well say, and even a touching picture the good
rnan so generously appreciating the worth of knowledge and
genius, that, although the master, he voluntarily exchanges situa-
tions with his servant, and insists upon doing the work that must
be done, himself, in order that the latter may give his more pre-
cious talents to the more appropriate vocation. We know not
that there is on record an act of homage to science and learning
more honorable to the author.
Having finished his map, Ferguson carried it to Mr. Gilchrist's,
and there he met Mr. Grant of Achoynamey, who offered to take
him into the house, and make his butler give him lessons. " Hold
Squire Grant," says he, " that I should rejoice to be at his house,
as soon as the time was expired for which I was engaged with my
present master. He very politely offered to put one in my place,
but this I declined." When the period in question arrived, ac-
cordingly, he went to Mr. Grant's, being now in his twentieth
year. Here he found both a good friend and a very extraordinary
man, in Cantley the butler, who had first fixed his attention by a
sun-dial which he happened to be engaged in painting on the
village school-house, as Ferguson was passing along the road on
his second visit to Mr. Gilchrist. Dialling, however, was only
one of the many accomplishments of this learned butler, who, Fer-
guson assures us, was profoundly conversant both with arithmetic
and mathematics, played on every known musical instrument ex-
cept the harp, understood Latin, French, and Greek, and could
let blood and prescribe for diseases. These multifarious attain-
ments he owed, we are told, entirely to himself and to nature ;
on which account Ferguson designates him " God Almighty's
scholar."
From this person Ferguson received instructions in Decimal
Fractions and Algebra, having already made himself master of
Vulgar Arithmetic by the assistance of books. Just as he was
nbout, however, to begin Geometry, Cantley left his place for
another in the establishment of the Earl of Fife, and his pupil
thereupon determined to return home to his father.
Cantley, on parting with him, had made him a present of a copy
of Gordon's Geographical Grammar. The book contains a de-
scription of an artificial globe, which is not, however, illustrated
JAME55 FERGUSON. 241
by any figure. Nevertheless, " from this description, 11 says Fer-
guson, " I made a globe in three weeks at my father's, having
turned the ball thereof out of a piece of wood ; which ball I covered
with paper, and delineated a map of the world upon it ; made the
meridian ring and horizon of wood, covered them with paper, and
graduated them ; and was happy to find that by my globe (which
was the first I ever saw) I could solve the problems. 11
For some time after this, he was very unfortunate. Finding
that it would not do to remain idle at home, he engaged in the ser-
vice of a miller in the neighborhood, who, feeling probably that he
could trust to the honesty and capacity of his servant, soon began
to spend all his own time in the alehouse, and to leave poor Fer-
guson at home, not only with every thing to do, but with very fre-
quently nothing to eat. A little oatmeal, mixed with cold water,
was often, he tells us, all he was allowed. Yet in this situation he
remained a year, and then returned to his father's, very much the
weaker for his fasting. His next master was a Dr. Young, who
having induced him to enter his service by a promise to instruct
him in medicine, not only broke his engagement as to this point,
but used him in other respects so tyrannically, that, although enga-
ged for half a year, he found he could not remain beyond the first
quarter, at the expiration of which, accordingly, he came away with-
out receiving any wages, having " wrought the last fortnight," says
he, " as much as possible with one hand and arm, when I could not
lift the other from my side. 11 This was in consequence of a se-
vere hurt he had received, which the doctor was too busy to look
to, and by which he was confined to his bed for two months after
his return home.
Reduced as he was, however, by exhaustion and actual pain, he
could not be idle. " In order, 11 says he, " to amuse myself in this
low state, I made a wooden clock, the frame of which was also of
wood, and it kept time pretty well. The bell on which the ham-
mer struck the hours was the neck of a broken bottle. 1 ' A short
time after this, when he had recovered his health, he gave a still
more extraordinary proof of his ingenuity, and the fertility of his
resources for mechanical invention, by actually constructing a time-
piece or watch, moved by a spring. But we must alldw him to
give the history of this matter in his own words.
" Having then, 11 he says, " no idea how any time-piece could go
but by weight and line, I wondered how a watch could go in all
positions ; and was sorry that I had never thought of asking Mr.
Cantley, who could very easily have informed me. But happening
one day to see a gentleman ride by my father's house, (which was
close by a public road,) I asked him what o^lock it then was ? He
242 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
looked at his watch and told me. As he did that with so much
good-nature, I begged of him to show me the inside of his watch ;
and though he was an entire stranger, he immediately opened the
watch, and put it into my hands. I saw the spring box, with part
of the chain round it ; and asked him what it was that made the
box turn round ? He told me that it was turned round by a steel
spring witliin it. Having then never seen any other spring than that
of my father's gun-lock, I asked how a spring within a box could
turn the box so often round as to wind aH the chain upon it? He
answered, that the spring was long and thin ; that one end of it
was fastened to the axis of the box, and the other end to the inside
of the box ; that the axis was fixed, and the box was loose upon it
I told him that I did not yet thoroughly understand the matter.
' Well, my lad, 1 says he, ' take a long, thin piece of whalebone ;
hold one end of it fast between your finger and thumb, and wind
it round your finger ; it will then endeavor to unwind itself; and
if you fix the other end of it to the inside of a small hoop, and
leave it to itself, it will turn the hoop round and round, and wind
up a thread tied to the outside of the hoop. I thanked the gentle-
man, and told him that I understood the thing very well. I then
tried to make a watch with wooden wheels, and made the spring
of whalebone ; but found that I could not make the wheel go when
the balance was put on, because the teeth of the wheels were ra-
ther too weak to bear the force of a spring sufficient to move the
balance ; although the wheels would run fast enough when the bal
ance was taken off. I enclosed the whole in a wooden case, very
little bigger than a breakfast teacup ; but a clumsy neighbor one
day looking at my watch, happened to let it fall, and turning hasti-
ly about to pick it up, set his foot upon it, and crushed it all to
pieces ; which so provoked my father, that he was almost ready
to beat the man, and discouraged me so much that I never attempt-
ed to make such another machine again, especially as I was tho-
roughly convinced that I could never make one that would be of
any real use."
What a vivid picture is this of an ingenious mind thirsting for
knowledge ! and who is there, too, that does not envy the pleasure
that must have been felt by the courteous and intelligent stranger
by whom the young mechanician was carried over his first great
difficulty, if he ever chanced to learn how greatly his unknown
questioner had profited from their brief interview ! That stranger
might probably have read the above narrative, as given to the world
by Ferguson, after the talents which this little incident probablv
contributed to develop, had raised him from his obscurity to a distin-
guished place among the philosophers of his age ; and if he did
JAMES FERGUSON. 243
know this, he must have felt that encouragement in well-doing which
a benevolent man may always gather, either from the positive
effects of acts of kindness upon others, or their influence upon his
own heart. Civility, chanty, generosity, may sometimes meet an
ill return, but one person must be benefited by their exercise ; the
kind heart has its own abundant reward, whatever be the gratitude
of others. The case of Ferguson shows that the seed does not
always fall on stony ground. It may appear somewhat absurd
to dwell upon the benefit of a slight civility which cost, at most,
but a few minutes of attention ; but it is really important that those
who are easy in the world who have all the advantages of wealth
and knowledge at their command should feel of how much value
is the slightest encouragement and assistance to those who are toil,
ing up the steep of emulation. Too often " the scoff of pride" is
superadded to the " bar of poverty ;" and thus it is that many a one
of the best talents and the most generous feelings
" Has sunk into the grave unpitied and unknown,"
because the wealthy and powerful have never understood the value
of a helping hand to him who is struggling with fortune.
Ferguson's attention having been thus turned to the mechanism
of time-pieces, he now began to do a little business in the neigh-
borhood as a cleaner of clocks, by which he made some money.
He was invited also to take up his residence in the house of Sir
James Dunbar, of Burn, to whom he seems, to have made himself
useful by various little services for which his ingenuity fitted him.
Among other things he converted two round stones upon'the gate-
way, into a pair of stationary globes, by painting a map of the
earth upon one, and a map of the heavens upon the other. " The
poles of the painted globes," he informs us, " stood towards the
poles of the heavens ; on each the twenty -four hours were placed
around the equinoctial, so as to show the \ ime of the day when the
sun shone out, by the boundary where the half of the globe at any
time enlightened by the sun was parted from the other half in the
shade ; the enlightened parts of the terrestrial globe answering to
the like enlightened parts of the earth at all times. So that, when-
ever the sun shone on the globe, one might see to what places the
sun was then rising, to what places it was setting, and all the places
where it was then day or night throughout the earth." Having
been introduced to Sir James's sister, Lady Dipple, he was induced
at her suggestion to attempt the drawing of patterns for ladies 1
dresses, in which he soon became quite an adept. " On this," says
ne, " I was sent for by other ladies in the country, and began to
think myself growing very rich by the money I got by such draw*
^44 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
ings ; out of which I had the pleasure of occasionally supplying
the wants of my poor father." He still continued, however, his
astronomical studies, making observations on the stars, as usual,
with his beaded threads, and delineating on paper the apparent
paths of the planets as thus ascertained. So excited would he be-
come while thus engaged, that he often conceived, he says, that he
saw the ecliptic lying Tike a broad highway across the firmament,
and the planets making their way in " paths like the narrow ruts
made by cart wheels, sometimes on one side of a plane road, and
sometimes on the other, crossing the road at small angles, but never
going far from either side of it."
He now began also to copy pictures and prints with pen and
ink ; and having gone to reside with Mr. Baird, of Auchmeddan,
Lady Dipple's son-in-law, where he enjoyed access to a tolerably
well-stocked library, he made his first attempt at taking likenesses
from the life, in a portrait which he drew of that gentleman ;
" and I found, 11 says he, " it was much easier to draw from the
life than from any picture whatever, as nature was more striking
than any imitation of it." His success in this new profession
struck his country patrons as so remarkable, that they determined
upon carrying him to Edinburgh, in order that he might be regu-
larly instructed in those parts of the art of which he was still
ignorant, lady Dipple liberally agreeing to allow him to live in her
house for two years. But when he came to that city he could find
no painter who would consent to take him as an apprentice without
a premium a circumstance which his sanguine friends had not
counted upon. In this extremity, not knowing what to do, he was
advised, by the Reverend Dr. Keith, to trust to his own genius,
and to commence the practice of his intended profession without
waiting for any other in ^truction than what he had already received
from nature. It was certainly a bold counsel ; but Ferguson,
having in truth no other resource, followed it, and succeeded be-
yond his most sanguine expectations, in a very short time making
so much money as to enable him not only to defray his own ex-
penses, but to gratify his kind heart by contributing largely to the
support of his now aged parents. He followed this business for
twenty-six years.
Yet he does not appear to have ever given his heart to painting,
and notwithstanding his success, he even made various attempts ta
escape from it as a profession altogether. When he had been
only about two years in Edinburgh, he was seized with so violent
a passion for the study, or at least the practice, of medicine, that
he actually returned to his father's, carrying with him a quantity
of pills, plasters, and other preparations, with the intention of setting
JAMES FERGUSON. 245
p as the JEsculapius of the village. But it would not do. Of
those who took his medicines very few paid him for them, and
still fewer, he acknowledges, were benefited by them. So he ap-
plied again to his pencil ; but, instead of returning immediately to
Edinburgh, fixed his residence for a few months at Inverness.
Here he employed his leisure in pursuing his "bid and favorite
study of astronomy j and having discovered by himself the cause
of eclipses, drew up a scheme for showing the motions and places
of the sun and moon in the ecliptic, on each day of the year, per-
petually. This he transmitted to the celebrated Maclaurin, who
found it to be very nearly correct, and was so much pleased with
it, that lie had it engraved. It sold very well, and Ferguson was
induced once more to return to Edinburgh. He had now a zealous
patron in Maclaurin, and one extremely disposed to assist him in
his philosophical studies. One day Ferguson having asked the
Professor to show him his Orrery, the latter immediately complied
with his request, in so far as to exhibit to him the outward move-
ments of the machine, but would not venture to open it in order
to get at the wheelwork, which he had never himself inspected,
being afraid tliat he should not be able to put it to rights again if
he should chance to displace any part of it. Ferguson, however,
had seen enough to set his ingenious and contriving mind to work;
and in a short time lie succeeded in finishing an Orrery of his own,
and had the honour of reading a lecture on it to Maclaurin's pupils.
He some time after made another of ivory, (his first had been of
wood ;) and in the course of his life he constructed, he tells us, six
more, all unlike each other.
His mind was now becoming every day more attached to phi-
losophical pursuits i and quite tired, as he says, of drawing pic-
tures, in which he never strove to excel, he resolved to go to
London, in the hope of finding employment as a teacher of me-
chanics and astronomy. Having written out a proof of a new
astronomical truth which had occured to him, namely, that the
rnoon must move always in a path concave to the sun, he showed
liis proposition and its demonstratiop to Mr. Folks, the President
of the Royal Society, who thereupon took him the same evening
t^ the meeting of that learned body. This had the effect of bring^
ing him immediately into notice. He soon after published his first
work, " A Dissertation on the Phenomena of the Harvest Moon,"
with the description of a new Orrery, haying only four wheels.
Of this work he says, with his characteristic modesty, " Having
never had a grammatical education, nor time to study the rules of
just composition, I acknowledge that I was afraid to put it to the
press ; and for the same cause, I ought to have the same fears
246 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
still." It was, however, well received by the public; and its in-
genious author afterwards followed it up by various other produc-
tions, most of which became very popular. In 1748 he began to
give public lectures on his favorite subjects, which were numerously
and fashionably attended, his late Majesty George III., who was
then a boy, being occasionally among his auditors. He had till
now continued to work at his old profession of a portrait painler:
but about this time he at last bade it a final farewell, having secured
another, and, in his estimation, a much more agreeable means of
providing a subsistence for himself and his family. Soon after the
accession of George III., a pension of fifty pounds per annum was
bestowed upon him from the privy purse. In 1763 he was elected
a Fellow of the Royal Society ; the usual fees being remitted, as
had been done in the cases of Newton and Thomas Simpson. He
died in 1776, having for many years enjoyed a distinguished repu-
tation bath at home and abroad ; for several of his works had been
translated into foreign languages, and were admired throughout
Europe for the simplicity and ingenuity of their elucidations. Of
his dialogues on Astronomy, Madame de Genlis says, " This book
is written with so much clearness, that a child of ten years old
may understand it perfectly from one end to the other."
The faculties of distinct apprehension and luminous exposition
belonged, indeed, to Ferguson in a pre-eminent degree. He
doubtless owed his superiority here in a great measure to the
peculiar manner in which he had been obliged to acquire his
knowledge. Nothing that he had learned had been st him as a
task. He had applied himself to whatever subject of study engaged
his attention, simply from the desire and with the view of under-
standing it. All that he knew, therefore, he knew thoroughly, anc*
not by rote merely, as many things are learned by those who have
no higher object than to master the task of the day. On the othe*
hand, as has often happened in the case of self-educated men, the
want of a regular director of his studies had left him ignorant of
many departments of knowledge in which, had he been introduced
to them, he was probably admirably adapted to distinguish himself,
and from which he might have drawn, at all events, the most val-
uable assistance in the prosecution of his favorite investigations
Thus, familiar as he was with the phenomena of astronomy and
the practical parts of mechanics, and admirable as was his inge-
nuity in mechanical invention, he knew nothing, or next to nothing,
either of abstract mathematics or of the higher parts of algebra.
He remained, in this way, tc the end of his life, rather a clever
empiric, to use the term in its original and more honorable signi.
fication as meaning a practical and experimenting philosophy
SAMUEL CROMPTON.
SAMUEL CROMPTON. 249
than a man of science. This was more peculiarly the sort of peril
to which self-educated men were exposed in Ferguson's day, when
books of any kind were comparatively scarce, and good elementary
works scarcely existed on any subject. Much has since been done,
and is now doing, to supply that great desideratum ; and even
already, in many departments, the man who can merely read is
provided with the means of instructing himself both at little ex-
pense, and with a facility and completeness such as a century, or
even half a century ago, were altogether out of the question. Not
a little, however, still remains to be accomplished before the good
work can be considered as finished ; nor, indeed, is it the nature of
it ever to be finished, seeing that, even if we should have perfectly
arranged and systematized all our present knowledge, time must
be constantly adding to our possessions here, and opening new
worlds for philosophy to explore and conquer.
SAMUEL CROMPTON.
SAMUEL CROMPTON was born on the 3d of December, 1753, at
Firwood, in Lancashire, where his father held a farm of small
extent ; and according to the custom of those days, employed a
portion of his time in carding, spinning, and weaving. Hall-in-the-
wood, a picturesque cottage near Bolton, became the residence of
the family during the son's infancy, and the memorable scenes of
his juvenile inventions. His father died when he was very young
The care of his education devolved on his mother, a pious woman,
who lived in a retired manner, and imparted her own sincere and
contemplative turn of mind to her son. In all his dealings through
life, Samuel was strictly honest, patient, and humane.
When about sixteen years of age, he learned to spin upon a
jenny of Hargrave's make, and occasionally wove what he had
spun. Being dissatisfied with the quality of his yarn, he began to
consider how it might be improved, and was thus naturally led to
the construction of his novel spinning-machine. He commenced
this task when twenty-one years of age, and devoted five years to
its execution. He possessed only such simple tools as his little
earnings at the jenny and the loom enabled him to procure, and
proceeded but slowly with the construction of his mule, but still in
a progressive manner highly creditable to his dexterity and per.
severance.
250 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
lie often said, what annoyed him most was that he was not
allowed to employ his little invention by himself in his garret ; for,
as he got a better price for his yarn than his neighbors, he was
naturally supposed to have mounted some superior mechanism, and
hence became an ob : actof the prying curiosity of the country peo-
ple for miles around ; many of whom climbed up at the windows
to see him at his work. He erected a screen in order to obstruct
their view ; but he continued to be so incommoded by crowds of
visiters, that he resolved at last to get rid of the vexatious mystery
by disclosing the whole contrivance before a number of gentle-
men, who chose to subscribe a guinea apiece for the inspection
In this way he collected about 50, and hence was enabled to
construct another and similar machine upon a better and larger
plan. The first contained no more than from thirty to forty
spindles.
The art of spinning with Crompton's machine, soon became
widely known among work people of all descriptions, from the
higher wages which, it procured above other artisans, such as
shoe-makers, joiners, hatters, &c ; many of whom were thereby
induced to change their employment and become mule spinners.
Hence it happened among this motley gang, that if any thing went
amiss with their machine, each of them endeavored to supply the
deficiency with some expedient borrowed from his former trade ;
the smith introduced a piece of iron, the shoemaker had recourse
to leather, the hatter to felt, &c. &c. whereby valuable sugges-
tions were obtained.
When the mule first became known it was called th<5 HalLm-the-
wood-wheel, from the place where it was invented, and shortly after,
the Muslin-wheel, from its making yarn sufficiently fine for the
manufacture of muslin ; but it ultimately received the name of
mule, from combining the principles of the jenny invented by Har-
graves and the water frame of Arkwright :
"The force of genius could no farther go.
To make a third he joined the other two."
Being of a retiring and unambitious disposition, and having made
no effort to secure by a patent the exclusive enjoyment ofj his in-
vention, it became public property, and was turned to advantage
by more pushing manufacturers.
About the year 1802, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Lee of Manchester
set on foot a subscription for him, whereby they obtained a suffi-
cient capital for the increase of his small manufactory. As a
weaver also he displayed great ingenuity, and erected several
looms, for the fancy work of that town. Being fond of music, he
built himself an organ, with which he entertained his leisure hours
HALL-IN-THE-WOOD, NEAR BOLTON,
The Birth-Pluce of Cvompton.
WILLIAM EDWARDS. 25 3
in his cottage. Though his means were slender, he was such a
master of domestic economy, as to be always in easy circum-
stances. In 18 12, he made a survey of all the cotton districts in
England, Scotland, and Ireland, and obtained an estimate of the
number of spindles at work upon his mule principle then amount-
ing to between four and five millions, and in 1829 to about seven.
On his return, he laid the result of his inquiries before his generous
friends, Messrs. Kennedy and Lee, with a suggestion, that parlia-
ment might possibly grant him some recompense for the national
advantages derived from his invention. A memorial was accord-
ingly drawn up, in furtherance of which, some of the most promi-
nent manufacturers in the kingdom, to whom his merits were made
Known, took a lively interest. He went himself to London with
the memorial, and had the satisfaction to see a bill through parlia-
ment, for a grant to him of five thousand pounds.
Mr. Crompton was now anxious to place his sons in business,
and fixed upon that of bleaching ; but the unfavorable state of the
times, the inexperience and mismanagement of his sons, a bad
situation, and a misunderstanding with his landlord, which occa-
sioned a tedious lawsuit, conspired in a short time to put an end to
this establishment. His sons then dispersed, and he and his
daughter were reduced to poverty. His friends had recourse to a
second subscription, to purchase a life annuity for him, which pro-
duced 63, per annum. The amount raised for this purpose was
collected in small sums, from one to ten pounds, some of which
were contributed by the Swiss and French spinners, who acknow-
ledged his merits, and pitied his misfortunes. At the same time
his portrait was engraved for his benefit, and a few impressions
were disposed of; he enjoyed this small annuity only two years.
He died January 26, 1827, leaving his daughter, his affectionate
housekeeper, in poverty.
Mr. Crompton was fortunate in one respect, namely, in having
met with a friend like Mr. Kennedy, who had the heart to befriend
merit and the talent to commemorate it.
WILLIAM EDWARDS.
WILLIAM EDWARDS was born in 1719, in the parish of Eglwy-
silan, in Glamorganshire. He lost his father, who was a farmer,
when he was only two years old ; but his mother continued to
254 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
hold the farm, and was in this manner enabled to bring up her
family, consisting of two other sons and a daughter, beside Wil-
liam, who was the youngest. Her other sons, indeed, were soon
old enough to take the chief part of her charge off her hands.
William, in the mean time, was taught, as he grew up, to read
and write Welsh ; and this was all the education he seems to have
received. When about the age of fifteen, he first began to em-
ploy himself in repairing the stone fences on the farm ; and in
this humble species of masonry he soon acquired" uncommon ex-
pertness. The excellent work he made, and the despatch with
which he got through it, at last attracted the notice of the neigh-
boring farmers; and they advised his brothers to keep him at
this business, and to let him employ his skill, when wanted, on
other farms as well as their own. After this he was for some
time constantly engaged ; and he regularly added his earnings to
the common stock of the family.
Hitherto the only sort of building he had practised, or indeed
had seen practised, was merely with stones. without mortar. But
at length it happened that some masons came to the parish to
erect a shed for shoeing horses near a smith's shop. By William
the operation of these architects were contemplated with the live-
liest interest, and he used to stand by them for hours while they
were at work, taking note of every movement they made. A cir
cumstance that at once struck him was, that they used a differen
description of hammer from what he had been accustomed to em-
ploy ; and, perceiving its superiority, he immediately got one of
the same kind made for himself. With this he found he could
build his walls both a good deal faster and more neatly than he
had been wont to do. But it was not long after he had, for the
first time in his life, had an opportunity of seeing how houses were
erected, that he undertook to build one himself. It was a work-
shop for a neighbor ; and he performed his task in such a man-
ner as obtained him great applause. Very soon after this he was
employed to erect a mill, by which he still farther increased his
reputation as an able and ingenious workman. Mr. Malkin, to
whose work on the Scenery, &c., of South Wales, we are indebted
for these particulars of Edwards's early life, as Veil as for .he
materials of the sequel of our sketch, says, that it was while build-
ing this mill that the self-taught architect became acquainted with
the principle of the arch.
After this achievement, Edwards was accounted the best work-
man in that part of the country ; and being highly esteemed for
his integrity and fidelity to his engagements, as well as for his
skill, he had as much employment in his line of a common builder,
WILLIAM EDWARDS.
255
as he could undertake. In his twenty-seventh year, however, he
was induced to engage in an enterprise of a much more difficult
and important character than any thing he had hitherto attempted.
Through his native parish, in which he still continued to reside,
flowed the river called the TafF, which, following a southward
course, flows at last into the estuary of the Severn. It was pro-
posed to throw a bridge over this river at a particular spot in the
parish of Eglvvysilan, where it crossed the line of an intended road ;
but to this design difficulties of a somewhat formidable nature pre-
sented themselves, owing both to the great breadth of the water,
and the frequent swellings to which it was subject. Mountains
covered with wood rose to a considerable height from both its
banks ; which first attracted and detained every approaching
cloud, arid then sent down its collected discharge in torrents into
the river. Edwards, however, undertook the task of constructing
the proposed bridge, though it was the first work of the kind in
which he ever had engaged. Accordingly, in the year 1746, he
set to work ; and in due time completed a very light and elegant
bridge of three arches, which, notwithstanding that it was the
work of both an entirely self-taught and an equally untravelled
artist, was acknowledged to be superior to any thing of the kind
in Wales. So far his success had been as perfect as could have
been desired. But his undertaking was far from being yet finished.
He had, both through himself and his friends, given security that
he work should stand for seven years ; and for the first two years
md a half of this term all went on well. There then occurred a
lood of extraordinary magnitude ; not only the torrents came
lown from the mountains in their accustomed channels, but they
>rought along with them trees of the largest size, which they had
'orn up by the roots ; and these, detained as they floated along by
'he middle piers of the new bridge, formed a dam there, the waters
accumulated behind which at length burst from their confinement
and swept away the whole structure. This was no light misfor-
tune in every way to poor Edwards ; but he did not suffer himself
40 be disheartened by it, and immediately proceeded, as his con-
iract bound him to do, to the erection of another bridge, in the
loom of the one that had been destroyed. He now determined,
however, to adopt a very magnificent idea to span the whole
width of tLie river, namely, by a single arch of the unexampled
magnitude of one hundred and forty feet from pier to pier. He
finished the erection of this stupendous arch in 1751, and had only
to add the parapets, when he was doomed once more to behold
his bridge sink into the water over which he had raised it, the
extraordinary weight of the masonry having forced up the key
250 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
stones, and, of course, at once deprived the arch of what sustained
its equipoise. Heavy as was this second disappointment to the
hopes of the young architect, it did not shake his courage any
more than the former had done. The reconstruction of his bridge
for the third time was immediately begun with unabated spirit and
confidence. Still determined to adhere to his last plan of a single
arch, he nad now thought of an ingenious contrivance for diminish,
ing the enormous weight which had formerly forced the keystone
out of its place. In each of the large masses of masonry called
the haunches of the bridge, being the parts immediately above the
two extremities of the arch, he opened three cylindrical holes,
which not only relieved the central part of the structure from all
over-pressure, but greatly improved its general appearance in
point of lightness and elegance. The bridge, with this improve-
ment, was finished in 1755, having occupied the architect about
nine years in all ; and it has stood ever since.
This bridge over the TafF commonly called the New Bridge,
and by the Welsh Pont y Pridd, was, at the time of its erection,
the largest stone arch known to exist in the world. Before its
erection, the Rialto at Venice, the span of which was only ninety,
eight feet, was entitled, as Mr. Malkin remarks, to this distinction
among bridges ; unless, indeed, we are to include the famous
aqueduct-bridge at Alcantara, near Lisbon, consisting in all of
thirty-five arches, the eighth of which is rather more than a hun-
dr'ed and eight feet in width, and two hundred and twenty-seven in
height. The bridge at Alcantara was finished in 1732. Since
the erection of the bridge over the TafF, several other stone arches
of extraordinary dimensions have been built both in Great Britain
and in France ; such, for instance, as the five composing the
splendid Pont de Neuilly over the Seine, near Paris, the span of
each of which is a hundred and twenty-eight feet the central arch
of the bridge over the same river at Mantes, which is of the same
dimensions the Island Bridge, as it is called, over the Liffey, near
Dublin, which is a single arch of a hundred and six feet in width
the bridge over the Tees, at Winston, in Yorkshire, which is also
a single arch of a hundred and eight feet nine inches wide, and
which was built in 1762 by John Johnson, a common mason, at a
cost of only five hundred pounds and the nine elliptical arches,
each of a hundred and twenty feet span, forming the magnificent
Waterloo bridge, over the Thames at London. But no one of
these great works rivals in respect of dimensions the arch con-
structed by Edwards. The bridge over the TafF, we may add,
rises to the height of thirty-five feet above the water, and is the
segment of a circle of a hundred and seventy feet in diameter
WILLIAM EDWARDS. 257
Buttressed as it is at each extremity by lofty mountains, while the
water flows in full tide beneath it, its aspect, as it is seen rising
into the air, may well be conceived to be particularly striking and
grand.
This bridge, which is looked upon as a wonder to this day,
spread the fame of Edwards over all the country. He afterwards
built many other bridges in South Wales, several of which con-
sisted also of single arches of considerable width, although in no
case approaching to that of the arch over the Taff. One which
he erected over the Tawy, near Swansea, had a span of eighty
feet another at Llandovery, in Carmarthenshire, was eighty-four
feet wide and a third, Wychbree bridge, over the Tawy, was of
the width of ninety-five feet. All the bridges which Edwards built
after his first attempt have their arches formed of segments of
much larger circles than he ventured to try in that case ; and the
roads over them are consequently much flatter, a convenience
which amply compensates for their inferiority in point of imposing
appearance. He found his way to this improvement entirely by
his own experience and sagacity ; as indeed he may be said to
have done to all the knowledge he possessed in his art. Even his
principles of common masomy, he used himself to declare, he had
learned chiefly from his studies among the ruins of an old Gothic
castle in his native parish. In bridge building, the three objects
which he always strove to attain in the highest possible degree
were, first, durability ; secondly, freedom for the passage of the
water under the bridge ; and lastly, ease of traffic over it.
In commencing architect, Edwards did not abandon the business
of his forefathers. He was likewise a farmer to the end of his
life. Nay, such was his unwearied activity, that, not satisfied with
his week-day labors in these two capacities, he also officiated on
Sundays as pastor to an Independent congregation, having been
regularly ordained to that office when he was about thirty years
of age, and holding it till his death. He accepted the usual
salary from his congregation, considering it right that they should
support their minister ; but, instead of putting the money into his
own pocket, he returned it all, and often much more, in charity to
the poor. He always preached in Welsh, although early in life he
had also made himself acquainted with the English language, hav-
ing embraced the opportunity of acquiring it under the tuition of
a blind old schoolmaster in whose house he once lodged for a short
time while doing some work at the county town of Cardiff". He is
said to have shown all his characteristic assiduity of application in
this effort, and to have made a correspondingly rapid progress.
This ingenious and worthy man died in 1789, in the seventieth
18*
258 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
year of his age, leaving a family of six children, of whom big
eldest son David became also an eminent architect and bridge,
builder, although he had had no other instruction in his profession
than what his lather had given him.
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT.
WE now propose to give, in the memoir of the celebrated Rich-
ard Arkwright, some account of an individual, whose rise from a
very humble origin to affluence and distinction was the result of
his persevering attention to the improvement of the machinery
employed in one of the most important branches of manufactures,
and whose name is intimately connected with the recent history of
the commercial greatness of his native country. This illustrious
individual, persecuted and calumniated as nearly all the signal ben-
efactors of corrupt humanity have ever been, was raised up by
providence from an obscure rank in life to vindicate the natural
equality of man.
Arkwright was born on the 23d of December, 1732, at Pres-
ton, in Lancashire. His parents were very poor, and he was the
youngest of a family of thirteen children ; so that we may suppose
the school education he received, if he ever was at school at all,
was extremely limited. Indeed, but little learning would probably
be deemed necessary for the profession to which he was bred,
that of a barber. This business he continued to follow till he was
nearly thirty years of age ; and this first period of his history is
of course obscure enough. About the year 1760, however, or soon
after, he gave up shaving, and commenced business as an itinerant
dealer in hair, collecting the commodity by travelling up and down
the country, and then, after he had dressed it, selling it again to
the wig-makers, with whom he very soon acquired the character
of keeping a better article than any of his rivals in the same trade.
He had obtained possession, too, we are told, of a secret method
of dyeing the hair, by which he doubtless contrived to augment
his profits ; and perhaps, in his accidental acquaintance with this
little piece of chemistry, we may find the germ of that sensibility
he soon began to manifest to the value of new and unpublished in-
ventions in the arts, and of his passion for patent rights and the
pleasures of monopoly.
It would appear that his first effort in mechanics, as has hap-
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT,
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. * 261
pened in the case of many other ingenious men, was an attempt to
discover the perpetual motion. It was in inquiring after a person
to make him some wheels for a project of this kind, that in the latter
part of the year 1767, he got acquainted with a clockmaker of the
name of Kay, then residing at Warrington, with whom it is certain
that he remained for a considerable time after closely connected.
From this moment we may date his entrance upon a new career.
The manufacture of cotton cloths was introduced into Great
Britain only towards the end of the seventeenth century ; although
stuffs, improperly called Manchester cottons, had been fabricated
nearly three centuries before, which, however, were made entirely
of wool. It is generally thought that the first attempt at the man-
ufacture of cotton goods in Europe did not take place till the end
of the fifteenth century, when the art was introduced into Italy.
Before this, the only cottons known had been imported from the
East Indies.
The English cottons, for many years after the introduction of
the manufacture, had only the weft of cotton ; the warp, or longi-
tudinal threads of the cloth, being of linen. It was conceived to
be impracticable to spin the cotton with a sufficiently hard twist
to make it serviceable for this latter purpose. Although occasion-
ally exported, too, in small quantities, the manufactured goods were
chiefly consumed at home. It was not till about the year 1760 that
any considerable demand for them arose abroad.
But about this time the exportation of cottons, both to the con-
tinent and to America, began to be carried on on a larger scale,
and the manufacture of course received a corresponding impulse.
The thread had hitherto been spun entirely, as it still continues to
be in India, by the tedious process of the distaff and spindle, the
spinner drawing out only a single thread at a time. But as the de-
mand for the manufactured article continued to increase, a greater
and greater scarcity of weft was experienced, till, at last, although
there were 50,000 spindles constantly at work in Lancashire alone,
each occupying an individual spinner, they were found quite insuffi-
cient to supply the quantity of thread required. The weavers gen-
erally, in those days, had the weft they used spun for them by the
females of their family ; and now " those weavers," says Mr. Guest,
in his History of the Cotton Manufacture, " whose families could not
furnish the necessary supply of weft, had their spinning done by
their neighbors, and were obliged to pay more for the spinning than
the price allowed by their masters ; and even with this disadvantage,
very few could procure weft enough to keep themselves constantly
employed. It was no uncommon thing fojr a weaver to walk three
or ifour miles in a morning, and call on five or six spinners, befort
262 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
he could collect weft to serve him for the remainder of the day ;
and when he wished to weave a piece in a shorter time than usual,
a new ribband or gown was necessary to quicken the exertions of
the spinner. 1 '
It was natural in this state of things, that attempts should be
made to contrive some method of spinning more effective than that
which had hitherto been in use ; and, in fact, several ingenious in-
dividuals seem to have turned their attention to the subject. Long
before this time, indeed, spinning by machinery had been thought of
by/nore than one speculator. Mr. Wyatt, of Litchfield, is stated
to have actua-'ly invented an apparatus for that purpose so early as
the year 1733, and to have had factories built and filled with his
machines, both at Birmingham and Northampton. These undertak-
ings, however, not being successful, the machines were allowed to
perish, and no model or description of them was preserved. There
was also Mr. Laurence Earnshaw, of Mottram, in Cheshire, of
whom " it is recorded that, in the year 1753, he invented a ma-
chine to spin and reel cotton at one operation, which he showed to
his neighbors, and then destroyed it, through the generous appre-
hension that he might deprive the poor of bread," a mistake, but
a benevolent one.
From the year 1767, it appears that Arkwright gave himself up
completely to the subject of inventions for spinning cotton. In the
following year, he began constructing his first machine at Preston,
in the dwelling-house attached to the free grammar-school there.
At this time, Arkwright 's poverty was such, that being " a burgess
of Preston," he could not appear to vote during a contested election
till the party with whom he voted gave him a decent suit of clothes.
Shortly after, apprehensive of meeting with hostility from one Har-
grave, a carpenter at Blackburn, who had just invented the spin-
ning-jenny,* Arkwright left Lancashire, and went to Nottingham.
Here, after some disappointment of resources, he arranged with
Messrs. Need and Jedediah Strutt, of Derby, the latter the inge-
nious improver and patentee of the stocking-frame ; f and, with
such aid, Arkwright resumed his experimental labors. He con-
sulted Mr. Strutt upon the matter ; and it is a remarkable fact,
strongly corroborative of Arkwright's claim to be the original in-
ventor, (which was subsequently disputed,) that although Mr. Strut*
saw and acknowledged the great merit of the invention, he pointed
out various deficiencies, which the inventor, from the want of me-
* The jenny gave the means ol spinning twenty or thirty threads at once, with
10 more labor than had previously been required to spin a single thread.
t Mr. Strutt was the first individual who succeeded in adapting the stocking
frame to the manufacture of ribbed stockings.
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. 263
ehantcal skill, had been unable to supply. These defects were
easily remedied by Mr. Strutt ; and in the year 1769, Arkwright
obtained his first patent for spinning with rollers, Messrs. Need
and Strutt becoming his partners in the manufacturing concerns
which it was proposed to carry on under it.
The improvement for which this patent was obtained, or the
spinning -frame, spins a vast number of threads of any degree of
fineness and hardness, leaving man merely to feed the machine
with cotton, and to join the threads when they happen to break.
The principle on which this machine is -constructed, and its mode
of operation, will be easily understood. It consists of two pairs
of rollers turned by machinery. The lower roller of each pair is
furrowed or fluted longitudinally, and the upper one is covered
with leather, by which means the two have a sufficient hold upon
the cotton passed between thorn. The cotton, when passed through
the first pair of rollers, has the form of a thick but veiy soft cord,
which is slightly pressed ^ but no sooner has the cotton carding,
or roving, as it is technically called, begun to pass through the first
pair of rollers, than it is received by the second pair, which are
made to revolve with (as the case may be) twice, thrice, or ten
times the velocity of the first pair, so that the cotton is necessarily
drawn out twice, thrice, or ten times t smaller than when delivered
from the first rollers.
It is obvious that the principle of die spinning-frame is radically
different from the previous methods of spinning, cither : by the com-
snon hand-wheel er distaff, or by the jenny, which is only a modi-
fication of the coalmen wheel. Spinning by rollers was entirely
an original idea, according to Arkwright, suggested to him by
seeing a red-hot iron bar elongated by being made to pass between
two rollers ; and though there is no mechanical analogy between
that operation and the process of spinning, it is not difficult to
imagine that, by reflecting upon it, and placing the subject in dif-
ferent points of view, it might lead him to his invention.
The first mill erected for spinning cotton by this method was at
Nottingham, and was worked by horse-power; but, in 1771, an-
other mill was built at Cromford, in the parish of Wirksworth, in
Derbyshire, to which motion was given by water ; from this cir-
cumstance the machine was called the water-frame, and the thread
received the name of water-twist.
Previous to this time, no establishment of a similar nature had
existed, none, at least, to which the same system of management
was applicable ; and it strongly marks the judgment and mental
powers of Arkwright, that although the details of manufacturing
or commercial business were altogether new to him, he at once
12
264 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
introduced a system of arrangement into his works, which haa
since neen universally adopted by others, and which, in all its
main features, has remained unaltered to the present time.
Arkwright having made several additional improvements in the
processes of carding, roving, and spinning, he next took out a
fresh patent for the whole in the year 1775 ; and thus completed
a series of machinery so various and complicated, yet so admirably
combined and well adapted to produce the intended effect, in its
most perfect form, as to excite the astonishment and admiration
of every one capable of appreciating the ingenuity displayed and
the difficulties overcome.
Arkwright did not, however, enjoy the rights of his ingenuity
without opposition, alike from the manufacturers and the spinners
and weavers. Repeated attacks were made by them on the fac-
tories built for Arkwright 's machines ; his patents were invaded
by the manufacturers ; while it became the fashion to depreciate
his tale-nts, and even to deny him altogether the merit of being au
original inventor. Circumstantial accounts of this system of in.
justice towards Arkwright will be found in the History of the
Cotton Manufacture. The details are too numerous for quotation
here ; but they will be readily found in the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, in which is this conclusion : " We have access to know,
that none of Mr. Arkwright's most intimate friends, and who were
best acquainted with his character, ever had the slightest doubt
with respect to the originality of his invention. Some of them,
indeed, could speak to the circumstances from their own personal
knowledge ; and their testimony was uniform and consistent.
Such also seems to be the opinion now generally entertained
among the principal manufacturers of Manchester." In the Penny
Cyclopaedia it is remarked, that " if the evidence be fully weighed
upon which it has been attempted to convict Arkwright of the
'serious charge, (of pirating other men's ideas,) we think it will be
found to rest upon very slight grounds ; while the proofs which he
exhibited of possessing talents of the very highest order in the
management of the vast concerns in which he was afterwards
engaged, are unquestionable."
It was not until after the lapse of five years from their erection
that by the works at Cromford any profit was realized ; but from
that time wealth flowed in abundantly to the proprietors. The
establishments were greatly extended, several new ones were
formed, and, in many cases, Arkwright took a share with other
persons in the erection and working of cotton-mills. The tide to
fortune had set in, and continued to flow, notwitlisranding Ark-
wright's patent had been cancelled by law. " For several years,
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. 267
the market prices of cotton twist were fixed by ArKwrignt, all
other spinners conforming to his scale. The same quality of this
article which now sells for 3s. per pound, sold in 1790 for ten
times that price, and was as high as II. ISs. per pound ; and al-
though a great part of this difference is, no doubt, owing to a pro-
gressive economy attained in the processes of manufacture, it is
not difficult to imagine that the larger price must have been ex
ceedingly profitable to the spinner."
Meanwhile, Anew right had almost built the town of Cromford
in a deep valley on the south bank of the Derwent. The struc-
tures are chiefly of excellent gritstone procured in the neighbor,
hood ; and here Arkwright lived in patriarchal prosperity amidst
the scenes of industry where he raised up his own fortune. The
mills are to this day supplied from a never-failing spring of warm
water, which also proves to be of great advantage to the canal in
severe seasons, as it rarely freezes, in consequence of a portion
of the water from this spring flowing into it. The mill engraved
on the adjoining page is a spacious building near the upper end
of the Dale : its operations have been elegantly described by Dr.
Darwin, in his Botanic Garden, " a work which discovers the
art, hitherto unknown, of clothing in poetical language, and deco-
rating with beautiful imagery, the unpoetical operations of me
chanical processes, and the dry detail of manufactures :"
" Where Derwent guides his dusky floods,
Through vaulted mountains, and a night of woods,
The nymph Gossypia treads the velvet sod,
And warms with rosy smiles the watery god ;
His ponderous oars to slender spindles turns,
And pours o'er massy wheels his foaming urns
With playful charms her hoary lover wins,
And wheels his trident, while the Monarch spin*.
First, with nice eye emerging Naiads cull
From leathery pods the vegetable wool ;
With wiry teeth revolving cards release
The tangled knots, and smooth the ravell'd fleece ;
Next moves the iron hand with fingers fine,
Combs the wide car 1, and forms th' eternal line ;
Slow with soft lips i"ie whirling can acquires
The tender skeins, and wraps in rising spires ;
With quicken'd pace successive rollers move,
Ana these retain, and those extend, the rove ;
Then fly the spokes, the rapid axles glow ;
While slowly circumvolves the lab'ring wheel below."
Nor was Cromford benefited only by the ingenuity of its founder
in a commercial sense ; for, having obtained the grant of a market
for the town, he commenced building a chapel of freestone, which
has since been completed by his son. He liberally contributed to
educational and other charities. In 1786, he vas appointed high
768 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
sheriff of Derbyshire, and, on the occasion of presenting an addres*
of congratulation to the king on his escaping the attempt at assas-
sination by Margaret Nicholson, Mr. Arkwright received the honor
of knighthood. Though a man of great personal strength, during
the whole of his active career he was laboring under a very severe
asthma. Yet, to the latest period of his life, Sir Richard continued
to give unremitted attention to business, and superintended the
daily operations of his large establishments, adding from time to
time such improvements to the machinery as were suggested by
experience and observation. ' He sank, at length, under a compli-
cation of disorders, accelerated, if not produced, by his sedentary
habits, and died in his house at Cromford, on August 3, 1792, in
the sixtieth year of his age, leaving behind him a fortune estimated
at little short of half a million.
The death of Sir Richard Arkwright was a sorrowful event to
all classes of this district. His funeral was conducted with fitting
splendor. Mr. Malcolm, the antiquarian, was entering Matlock
from Chesterfield, at the time when the procession was passing to
Matlock church, where the body was first interred ; he says " as
the ground I was on was much higher than the Tor, or any of the
hills at Matlock, I was at once surprised and delighted with the
grand and awful scene that expanded below me ; all the rich pro-
fusion of wild nature thrown together in an assemblage of objects
the most sublime. To heighten the view, the Tor, and rocks near
it, were covered with crowds of people The road was nearly
impassable, from the crowds of people who had assembled to wil
ness the procession. The ceremony was conducted with much
pomp, and, as nearly as I can remember, was thus : a coach and
four with the clergy ; another with the pall-bearers ; the hearse,
covered with escutcheons, and surrounded by mutes, followed ;
'then the horse of the deceased, led by a servant ; the relations,
and about fifteen or twenty carriages, closed the procession, which
was nearly half a mile in length. The evening was gloomy, and
the solemn stillness that reigned was only interrupted by the
rumbling of the carriages, and the gentle murmurs of the river ;
and, as they passed, the echo of the Tor gently returned the sound.
The scene was so rich and uncommon that I continued to gaze
till a turn in the road closed the whole. How greatly would the
effect have been heightened by a choir chanting a dirge /"
The body was subsequently removed to Cromford chapel, where-
in is the family vault of the Arkwrights, with a beautiful monument
by Chant rey.
The character of Sir Richard Arkwright is one upon which we
could linger witn untiring interest ; so finr a specimen was he of
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. 269
genius, industry, and perseverance : he was, indeed, one of the
honorables of the land. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it is
truly remarked : " No man ever better deserved his good fortune,
or has a stronger claim on the respect and gratitude of posterity.
His inventions have opened a new and boundless field of employ-
ment ; and while th^y have conferred infinitely more real benefit
on his native country than she could have derived from the abso-
lute dominion of Mexico and Peru, they have been universally
productive of wealth and enjoyments."
The most marked traits of Arkwright were hi? wonderful
ardor, energy, and perseverance. He commonly labored in his
multifarious concerns from five o'clock in the morning till nine al
night; and that, too, when considerably more than fifty years of
age. Feeling that his defects of education placed him under great
difficulty and inconvenience in conducting his correspondence, and
in the general management of his business, he encroached upon
his sleep, in order to gain an hour each day to learn English
grammar, and another hour to improve his writing and orthog.
raphy. He was impatient of whatever interfered with his favorite
pursuits ; and the fact is too strikingly characteristic not to be
mentioned, that he separated from his wife not many years after
their marriage, because she, convinced that he would starve his
family by scheming when he should be shaving, broke some of his
experimental models of machinery. He was a severe economist
of time ; and, that he might not waste a moment, generally trav.
clled with four horses at full speed. His concerns in Derbyshire.
Lancashire, and Scotland were so extensive and numerous, as tc
show at once his astonishing power of transacting business. In-
deed, his schemes were vast and daring, as his talents were great
ind his industry indefatigable.
Thus it was from a poor barber he raised himself to what he
eventually became not merely to rank and great affluence, but to
be the founder of a newl>ranch of national industry, destined, in
a wonderfully short space of time, to assume the very first place
among the manufactures of his country. So great has been its
increase, that it has been calculated that, while the number of per-
sons in his native country, previous to his inventions, who were
employed in the cotton manufacture, did not probably amount to
thirty thousand, the number now engaged in its different depart-
1 raents can hardly be less than a million. Yet, in some branches
of the business, it has been stated, the spinning in particular,
such is the economy of labor introduced by the use of machinery,
that one man and four children will spin as much yarn as was
spun by six hundred women and girls, seventy years ago !
M. GUINAND
ABOUT eighty years have elapsed, since this interesting man
was employed in assisting, his father, as a joiner, in a remote
village arnon^ the mountains of Neufchatel, in Switzerland. H.3
parent must have been in very indifferent circumstances, as his
son was thus engaged when only ten years of age. His early
education *vas much neglected ; indeed, he never acquired more
than an imperfect knowledge of the first rudiments of learning,
always reading with difficulty, and writing very imperfectly. He
must, even at this early period, have been a lad of considerable
talent, and of a disposition that urged him to the exertion requi-
site for raising his condition in society. We find him, when be-
tween thirteen and fourteen years old, having quitted the employ-
ment of a joiner for that of a cabinetmaker, chiefly engaged in
making eases for clocks.
At this period he became acquainted with a buckle maker,
who lived in the neighborhood, and of whom he karned the art
of casting, and working in various metals, which enabled him
about the age of twenty, after once witnessing the process, to at-
tempt the construction of a watch case \ having succeeded, he
adopted the occupation of a watch-case maker, which was then
very lucrative.
Having constructed clock cases for M. Jaquet Droz, the well
known constructor of several automaton figures, which fifty years
ago made the tour of Europe, he had an opportunity of seeing,
at the house of that celebrated mechanist, a very fine English
reflecting telescope, which appeared to him extremely curious
and interesting. These instruments were very rare at that time
in Switzerland, especially among the mountains. M. Guinand
was then in his twentieth or twenty-thiM year, and it cannot be
doubted that this circu instance, in itself unimportant, first turned
his mind towards that subject, to which, encouraged by success,
he afterwards more particularly devoted himself.
Be that as it may, having expressed a wish to be allowed to
t:ike to pieces this telescope, that he might examine it in detail,
M. Jaquet Droz, who had notioed his dexterity, kindly gave him
permission, and with equal good-nature relieved him from his ap-
prehension of being unable to put it together again, by taking that
tusk upon himself, if it should prove too difficult for him. Thus
encouraged, be took the instrument to pieces, accurately measured
the curves of the reflectors and glasses, and afterwards readily
M, GUINAND, 271
put it together ; then availing himself of the few notions of metal-
Zurgy which he had acquired from his friend the buckle maker,
as well as the experience he had acquired in casting ornaments
for clock cases, he attempted the construction of a similar tele-
scope, and the experiment succeeded so well, that on a compara-
tive trial of his own instrument with that which had been its
model in presence of a great number of persons, it was impossible
to determine wbicr of them the preference was due.
M. Jaquet Droz, surprised at his success, asked our young
friend what treatise on optics he had followed as his guide, and
was astonished when he informed him that he was unacquainted
with any. He then placed one in his hands ; and it was not until
this period that M. Guinand studied, or rather deciphered the
principles of that science.
About the same time occurred another fortunate circumstance,
in itself as trivial as the former. Having been always weak
sighted, lie found, when he began to make watch cases, that the
spectacles which had hitherto answered his purpose, were no
ionger of service, and being directed to a person whose glasses
were said to have given great satisfaction, he obtained a pair,
which really suited him no better than the others, but by looking
on while they were making, he learned the art of forming and
polishing the lenses. He, therefore, undertook to make specta-
cles, not only for himself, but for various other persons, who pro-
nounced them excellent. This new acquirement he found very
useful in his favorite pursuit ; and he amused himself in manu-
facturing great numbers of telescopes of an inferior quality, for
which he made the tubes himself, generally of pasteboard. He
also studied the small number of works he was able to procure,
which treated on subjects connected with optics.
Meanwhile the ingenious and important discovery of achromatic
glasses was beginning to spread ; and having reached that country,
it could not fail of being very interesting to M. Guinand, who
listened with avidity to all he heard on this subject. M. Jaquet
Droz, having procured one of these new glasses, permitted M.
Guinand, as in the instance of the reflecting telescope, to take it
to pieces, and to separate the lenses. It will be readily conceived
that the puipose of the latter was to attempt the construction of
a similar instrument, but in this he was impeded by the difficulty
of procuring glasses of different refractive power. It was not
until some years after, that an acquaintance of his, M. Recordon,
.aving proceeded to England, where he obtained a patent for his
self-winding watches, which were then in great request, brought
him from that country some flint glass ; and though the specimoa
12*
272 FOREIGN MECHANICS
was much striated, he found means to manufacture from it some
tolerably good achromatic glasses.
Having obtained supplies of this material on various occasions,
and having seen other glasses besides those of M. Jaquet Droz, he
easily ascertained that flint glass which is not extremely defective,
is rarely to be me; with. Thus convinced of the impossibility of
procuring it of that quality which he ardently wished to obtain for
the construction of his telescopes, and having by his various la-
bors become sufficiently skilled in the art of fusion, he melted in
his blast furnace the fragments of this flint glass; no satisfactory
result was obtained, but he discovered from some particles of lead
which reappeared during the process, that this metal was a con-
stituent in the composition of flint glass. At the time of his first
experiment he had attained his thirty fifth or sixth year. The
ardent desire to obtain some of this glass then induced him to col-
lect from the different works he was able to procure, such notions
of chemistry as might be useful to him in his attempts at vitrifica-
tion ; and during six or seven years he employed a part of his
evenings in different experiments, melting at each time in his blast
furnace three or four pounds of glass ; he took care, in every ex-
periment, to note down the substance and proportions of his com-
binations, the time of their fusion, and as nearly as possible the
degree of heat to which he had subjected them ; then, by an atten-
tive examination of the results of his experiments, he endeavored
to discover the causes which had rendered his products defective,
in order that he might remedy them in a subsequent trial. While
occupied in these researches he derived a strong incentive to per-
severance, from the prizes which he understood to have been offer-
ed for this desideratum by different academies, and especially by
the Royal Society of London, a copy of whose proposals was pro-
cured for him. At a later period he also learned in a more posi-
tive manner, from statements given in a work which fell into his
hands, of the almost total impossibility which existed of procuring
flint glass exempt from striae ; all this impressed him with the im-
portance of the discovery at which he was aiming, and stimulated
him in the pursuit. These experiments, however, were made, as
he observed, on too small a scale, and proved fruitless.
At the age of forty and upwards, having relinquished the trade
ol watch-case maker for that of maker of bells for repeaters, at
that time very lucrative, (since he could make as many as twenty-
four in a day, for which he was paid five francs each,) he resolved
to prosecute his experiments on a more extended scale. Having
purchased a retired place on the banks of the Doubs, near the B re-
nets, where the establishment is at present situated, he constructed
M. GUINAND. 273
with his own hands a furnace capable of melting at one time two
hundred weight of glass, and settled there with his family on a very
economical plan, in order to dedicate all his earnings and leisure
to new and expensive experiments ; yet he was compelled to em-
ploy an interval between each one of his experiments in earning at
his regular employment sufficient means for subsistence, and for
providing the apparatus and materials needful for renewing them.
In this pursuit he was still exposed to numerous accidents and
difficulties, which would have deterred most persons from continu-
ing the research. His furnace, which he had constructed with his
own hands, out of such materials as he could procure, and which
was capable of melting at once two hundred pounds of glass,
proved defective. He was then obliged to procure materials for the
purpose from abroad, and having once more completed its erection,
and consumed much fuel in heating it, had the mortification to find
that it still required alteration. Then his crucibles, which he was
equally obliged to form with materials ill-qualified for the object,
cracked during the process, and the contents were lost among the
ashes. All this time the pursuit had laid hold so completely of
his mind, that he was deprived of his natural rest Vhile consider-
ing upon the causes of his various failures, and endeavoring to
reason out the means for their prevention.
Having at length succeeded in obtaining a block of glass weigh-
ing about two hundred pounds, and having sawn it into two verti-
cal sections, he polished one of the faces, in order, as far as possi-
ble, to examine the circumstances produced by the fusion.
To account for the numerous and various defects exhibited by
this specimen, Guinand formed a theory which he made the ground-
work of his future operations. A more intimate knowledge of
these defects, and a conviction thus attained of the great difficulties
opposed to their removal, instead of damping his ardor in the pur-
suit, ^erved to infuse new energy into his mind. Nor was he
mistaken in his estimate of the obstacles to be surmounted ; " so
that, 11 as he himself declared, " the sacrifices and exertions which
he had previously made, were trifling when compared with those
which he afterwards underwent for the purpose of removing these
various defects, and of rendering his glass homogeneous. 11
The steps through which he pursued this arduous undertaking,
and the methods by which its success was accomplished, it is not
possible to detail. All that is publicly known upon the subject is,'
that he succeeded in discovering a mode of proceeding which gave
the almost certainty of producing in the fusion of a pot containing
from two to four hundred pounds of glass, one half at least of its
substance entirely of the same nature, and therefore fitted for the
274 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
construction of perfect optical instruments. With this result, sat-
isfactory as it would have been to most men, Guinand expressed
himself by no means contented, and continued his researches,
without, however, ever arriving much nearer to perfection in the
art. He was now enabled to make use of, for discs, glass perfectly
homogeneous, with a diameter of twelve inches : a great achieve-
ment, when compared with what had been at any time accomplish-
ed by others.
A year or two before his death, he tried an experiment on a
larger scale than any he had previously attempted. After much
trouble and exertion, he succeeded in obtaining a disc of eighteen
inches in diameter, of perfectly homogeneous glass. The disc
had been put into the oven for the last time, to be gradually cooled :
and the operation being now considered as completed, his friends
and neighbors were admitted, and partook of some refreshment ;
while offering their congratulations on his unprecedented success
after so long a seclusion, the fire by some accident or neglect caught
the roof of the building. On this alarming occasion all present
exerted themselves, and after some trouble the flames were extin-
guished ; but not before some water had found its way into the oven
and destroyed its precious contents. The discouragement caused
by this misfortune, and some other circumstances, ever after pre-
vented him from any experiment on a similar scale.
For some time after he had thus far succeeded in his object, he
was accustomed to divide his blocks of glass by that which appear-
ed to be the only fitting method, sawing them into sections perpen-
dicular to their axis, polishing their sections, and then selecting
such parts as were adapted to his purpose, returning the remaining
portion to the crucible for farther operations. By this means he
had frequently the mortification of perceiving, that the glass was
divided so as to present a less extended surface of the perfect ma-
terial, than the state of the block would, if previously known, have
rendered possible ; and he was frequently able to procure discs of
only small diameter, when, could he have been fully aware of the
particular circumstances of the glass throughout its substance, he
might, by cutting in another direction, have obtained a more satis-
factory result.
Phis disadvantage was remedied in a way apparently as unto-
ward as it was singular and unexpected. While his men were
carrying one day a block of glass on a handbarrow to a water saw-
mill, which he had constructed at the fall of the river Doubs, a
short distance from his dwelling, the mass accidentally slipped, and
rolling to the bottonr of a rocky declivity, was broken into sevei al
pieces. Endeavoring to make the best of this seeming misfortune
M. GUINAND. % 275
such fragments of glass were selected for operation as appeared
to be fitted by their homogeniety for the purpose ; and these were
softened in circular moulds, in such a manner that they furnished
discs of a very satisfactory quality. Further examination enabled
him to perceive that the fracture had in a great measure followed
the variations of density in the glass ; and, pursuing the idea thus
obtained, the artist thenceforth adhered to a method so singularly
in the first instance forced upon him.
After this, he contrived a mode of cleaving the glass while cool-
ing, so that the fracture accompanied the direction of the more
faulty parts ; by which course he frequently obtained masses of
glass which were absolutely homogeneous, weighing from forty to
fifty pounds. These masses, cleft again by means of wedges into
pieces of convenient shape, were remelted into moulds which gave
them the form of discs ; an operation which differs essentially
from that used by other glass makers. f
Several years of his life were thus employed in making bells for
repeating watches and constructing achromatic telescopes with
glass of his own preparing. The retired spot wherein he resided,
offered only very limited opportunities for acquiring a reputation
in the world ; yet, by degrees, the superior value of his labors
became appreciated, and he was visited by such men of science
as travelled in the neighborhood of his dwelling. By one of these
a knowledge of his merits was conveyed to M. Frauenhofer, the
chief of a celebrated manufactory for optical instruments, estab-
lished at Benedictbeurn, in Bavaria. This gentleman having, in
consequence, obtained some discs of glass made by Guinand,
found their quality so satisfactory, that he repaired in person to
Brenets, where Guinand resided, and engaged him to settle in
Bavaria. This was in 1805, when Guinand was upwards of sixty
years of age. He continued at this place during nine years, oc-
cupied solely in the manufacture of glass, to the great increase of
his employer's reputation.
Being desirous, at the end of this time, to return to his native
land, a pension was granted to him by the establishment, on con-
dition that he should no longer employ himself in making glass,
nor disclose his process to any person whatever ; a condition
which did not long agree with the still active energies of his mind.
Believing, by new experiments, he could raise his discovery to a
yet higher degree of improvement, he obtained the consent of
Frauenhofer, to cancel their subsisting agreement ; and, relin-
quishing his pension, once again devoted himself with ardor to his
favorite pursuit.
He lived seven years after this time, and produced several
276 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
. telescopes of great magnitude, and remarkable for their excellence,
it being perhaps not the least extraordinary among the circum-
stances attending them, that, to use the words of the memoir from
whence the foregoing account is drawn, " they have been con-
structed by an old man upwards of seventy, who himself manu-
factures the flint and crown glass which he uses in their construc-
tion, after having made, with his own hands, the vitrifying furnace
and his crucibles ; who, without any mathematical knowledge,
devises a graphic method of ascertaining the proportions of the
curves that must be given to the lenses, afterwards works and
polishes them by means peculiar himself, and lastly, constructs
all the parts of the different mountings either with joints or with
stands, melts and turns the plates, solders the tube, prepares the
wood, and compounds the varnish. 1 '
M. Guinand died in 1823, in his eightieth year. The preced-
ing pages show how greatly his loss is to be deplored. After
half a century of research, he was the only man in Europe who
had succeeded in obtaining large specimens of that flint glass
which is so indispensable for the construction of achromatic lenses,
and at the same time so difficult to obtain free from striae in any
considerable magnitude. Arrangements had been made by the
French government for purchasing his secret at the time of his
death. In the latter part of his life he was assailed by infirmities
incident to his multifarious labors and advanced age. It is to be
lamented, that after sacrificing so much to his art, so much more
than could have been expected from a man in his circumstances,
he should derive from them so little advantage ; and lastly, it is
painful to think that this man, in attaching so little importance to
the honor of his discovery, should not have made it more exten-
sively known, and connected it more closely with his name ; since
it is a discovery which, by the perfection it imparts to telescopes,
opens the way to very important acquisitions in the vast field which
the heavens still offer to optical instruments in a state of perfection
The secret, however, did not die with him, but is possessed by his
son, who continues to labor in the employment so singularly
commenced, and so e lergetically and successfu'ly followed by the
father.
JAMBS WATT.
JAMES WATT.
" Nature, in her productions slow, aspires
By just degrees to reach perfection's height
So mimic art works leisurely, till time
Improve the price, or wise experience give
The proper finishing."
ALL the inventions and improvements of recent times, if mea
sured by their effects upon the condition of society, sink into insig-
nificance, when compared with the extraordinary results which
have followed the employment of steam as a mechanical agent.
To one individual, the illustrious JAMES WATT, the merit and honor
of having first rendered it extensively available for that purpose are
pre-eminently due. The force of steam, now so important an agent
in mechanics, was nearly altogether overlooked until within the
two last centuries. The only application of it which appears to
have been made by the ancients, was in the construction of the
instrument wiiich they called the JEolipile, that is, the Ball of
,<Eolus. The jEolipile consisted of a hollow globe of metal, with
a long neck, terminating in a very small orifice, which, being filled
with water and placed on a fire, exhibited the steam, as it was
generated by the heat, rushing with apparently great force through
the narrow opening. A common teakettle, in fact, is a sort of
-iEolipile. The only use which the ancients proposed to moke of
this contrivance was, to apply the current of steam, as it issued
from the spout, by way of a moving force to propel, for instance,
the vans of a mill, or, by acting immediately upon the air, to gene-
rate a movement opposite to its own direction. But it was impos-
sible that they should have effected any useful purpose by such
methods of employing steam. Steam depends so entirely for its
existence in the state of vapor upon the presence of a large quan-
tity of heat, that it is reduced to a mist or a fluid almost imme-
diately on coming into contact either with the atmosphere, or any
thing else which is colder than itself; and in this condition its
expansive force is gone. The only way of employing steam with
much effect, therefore, is to make it act in a close vessel. The
first known writer who alludes to the prodigious energy which it
exerts when thus confined, is the French engineer Solomon de
Caus, who flourished in the beginning of the seventeenth century.
This ingenious person, who came to England in 1612, in the train
of the Elector Palatine, afterwards the son-in-law of James I.,
where he resided for some years, published a folio volume at p aris,
280 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
in 1623, on moving forces ; in which he states, that if water be
sufficiently heated in a close ball of copper, the air or steam arising
from it will at last burst the ball, with a noise like the going off of
a petard. In another place, he actually describes a method of
raising water, as he expresses it, by the aid of fire, which consists
in the insertion, in the containing vessel, of a perpendicular tube,
reaching nearly to its bottom, through which, he says, all the water
will rise, when sufficiently heated. The agent here is the steam
produced from part of the water by the heat, which, acting by its
expansive force upon the rest of the water, forces it to make its
escape in a jet through the tube. The supply of the water is kept
up through a cock in the side of the vessel. Forty years after the
publication of the work of De Caus appeared the Marquis of Wor-
cester's famous " Century of Inventions." Of the hundred new
discoveries here enumerated, the sixty-eighth is entitled " An ad-
mirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire." As fax
as may be judged from the vague description which the marqui?
gives us of his apparatus, it appears to have been constructed upon
the same principle with that formerly proposed by De Caus ; but
his account of the effect produced is considerably more precise
than what we find in the work of his predecessor. " I have seen
the water run," says he, " like a constant fountain-stream forty
feet high ; one vessel of water rarified by fire, driveth up forty of
cold water." This language would imply that the marquis had
actually reduced his idea to practice ; and if, as he seems to inti-
mate, he made use of a cannon for his boiler, the experiment was
probably upon a considerable scale. It is with some justice, there-
fore, that notwithstanding the earlier announcements in the work
of the French engineer, he is generally regarded as the first person
who really constructed a steam engine.
About twenty years after this, namely, in the year 1683, Sir
Samuel Morland appears to have presented a work to the French
king, containing, among other projects,, a method of employing
steam as a mechanic power, which he expressly says he had him-
self invented the preceding year. The manuscript of this work is
now in the British Museum ; but it is remarkable that when the
work, which is in French, was afterwards published by its author
at Paris, in 1685, the passage about the steam engine was omitted.
Sir Samuel Morland 's invention, as we find it described in his
manuscript treatise, appears to have been merely a repetition of
those of his predecessors, De Caus and the Marquis of Worcester ;
but his statement is curious as being the first in which tie immense
difference between the space occupied by water hi its natural state
and that which it occupies in the state of steam is numerically de
JAMES WATT 281
signaled. The latter, he says, is about two thousand times as
great as the former ; which is not far from a correct account of
the expansive force that steam exerts under the ordinaiy pressure
of the atmosphere. One measure of water, it is found in such
circumstances, will produce about seventeen hundred measures
of steam.
The next person whose name occurs in the history of the steam
engine, is Denis Papin, a native of France, but who spent the part
of his life during which he made his principal pneumatic experi-
ments in England. Up to this time, the reader will observe, the
steam had been applied directly to the surface of the water, to
raise which, in the form of a jet, by such pressure, appears to have
been almost the only object contemplated by the employment of
the newly discovered power. It was Papin who first introduced a
piston into the tube or cylinder which rose from the boiler. This
contrivance, which forms an essential part of the common sucking,
pump, is merely, as the reader probably knows, a block fitted to
any tube or longitudinal cavity, so as to move freely up and down
in it, yet without permitting the passage of any other substance
between itself and the sides of the tube. To this block a rod is
generally fixed ; and it may also have a hole driven through it, to
be guarded by a valve, opening upwards or downwards, according
to the object in view. Long before the time of Papin it had been
proposed to raise weights, or heavy bodies of any kind, by sus-
pending them to one extremity of a handle or cross-beam attached
at its other end to the rod of a piston moving in this manner in a
hollow cylinder, and the descent of which, in order to produce the
elevation of the weights, was to be effected by the pressure of the
superincumbent atmosphere after the counterbalancing air had been
by some means or other withdrawn from below it. Otto Guericke
used to exhaust the lower part of the cylinder, in such an appa-
ratus, by means of an air-pump. It appeared to Papin that some
other method might be found of effecting this end more expedi-
tiously and with less labor. First he tried to produce the requisite
vacuum by the explosion of a small quantity of gunpowder in the
bottom of the cylinder, the momentary flame occasioned by which
he thought would expel the air through a valve opening upwards
in the piston, while the immediate fall of the valve, on the action
of the flame being spent, would prevent its re-intrusion. But he
never was able to effect a very complete vacuum by this method.
He then, about the year 1690, bethought him of making use of
steam for that purpose. This vapour, Do Caus had long ago re-
marked, was recondensed and restored to the state of water by
cold ; but up to this time the attention < f no person seems to have
282 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
been awakened to the important advantage that might be taken of
this one of its properties. Papin for the first time availed himself
of it in his lifting machine, to produce the vacuum he wanted.
Introducing a small quantity of water into the bottom of his cylin-
der, he heated it by a fire underneath, till it boiled and gave forth
steam, which, by its powerful expansion, raised the piston from its
original position in contact with the water, to a considerable height
above it, even in opposition to the pressure of the atmosphere on
its other side. This done, he then removed the fire, on which the
steam again became condensed into water, and, occupying now
about the seventeen hundredth part of its former dimensions, left
a vacant space through which the piston was carried down by its
own gravitation and the pressure of the atmosphere.
The machine thus proposed by Papin was abundantly defective
in the subordinate parts of its mechanism, and, unimproved, could
not have operated with much effect. But, imperfect as it was, it
exemplified two new principles of the highest importance, neither
of which appears to have been thought of, in the application of the
power of steam, before his time. The first is the communication
of the moving force of that agent to bodies upon which it cannot
conveniently act directly, by means of the piston and its rod.
The second is the deriving of the moving force desired, not from
the expansion of steam, but from its other equally valuable property
of condensibility by mere exposure to cold. Papin, however, it is
curious enough, afterwards abandoned his piston and method of
condensation, and reverted to the old plan of making the steam act
directly by its expansive force upon the water to be raised. It is
doubtful, however, whether he ever actually erected any working
engine upon either of these constructions. Indeed, the improve-
ment of the steam engine could scarcely be said to have been the
principal object of those ex eriments of his which, nevertheless,
contributed so greatly to that result. It was, in fact, as we have
seen, with the view of perfecting a machine contrived originally
without any reference to the application of steam, that he was first
induced to have recourse to the powers of that agent. The moving
force with which he set out was the pressure of the atmosphere ;
and he employed steam merely as a means of enabling that other
power to act. Even by such a seemingly subordinate application,
however, of the new element, he happily discovered and bequeathed
to his successors the secret of some of its most valuable capa-
bilities.
We may here conveniently notice another ingenious contrivance,
of es-^ntial service in the steam engine, for which we are also in-
debted to Papin we mean the safety-valve. This is merely a lid
JAMES WATT. 283
or stopper, closing an aperture in the boiler, and so loaded as to
resist the expansive force of the steam up to a certain point, while,
at the same time, it must give way and allow free vent to the
pent-up element, long before it can have acquired sufficient strength
to burst the boiler. The safety-valve, however, was not introduced
into the steam engine either by Papin, or for some years after his
time. It was employed by him only in the apparatus still known
by the name of his digester, a contrivance for producing a very
powerful heat in cookery and chemical preparations, by means of
highly concentrated steam.
We now come to the engine invented by Captain Savery in
1698. This gentleman, we are told, having one day drank a flask
of Florence wine at a tavern, afterwards threw the empty flask
upon the fire, when he was struck by perceiving that the small
quantity of liquid still left in it very soon filled it with steam, under
the influence of the heat. Taking it up again while thus full of
vapor, he now plunged it, with the mouth downwards, into a basin
of cold water which happened to be on the table ; by which means
the steam being instantly concentrated, a vacuum was produced
within the flask, into which the water immediately rushed up from
the basin. According to another version of the story, it was the
accidental circumstance of his immersing 'a heated tobacco-pipe
into water, and perceiving the water immediately rush up through
the tube, on the concentration by the cold of the warm and thin
air, that first suggested to Savery the important use that might be
made of steam, or any other gas expanded by heat, as a means
of creating a vacuum. He did not, however, employ steam for
this purpose in the same manner that Papin had done. Instead
of a piston moving under the pressure of the atmosphere through
the vacuum produced by the concentration of the steam, he availed
himself of such a vacuum merely to permit the rise of the water
into it from the well or mine below, exactly as in the common
sucking-pump. Having thus raised the water to the level of the
boiler, he afterwards allowed it to flow into another vessel, from
whence he sent it to a greater height by the same method which
had been many years before employed by the Marquis of Worces-
ter, namely, by making the expansive force of the steam act upon
it directly, and so force it up in opposition to its own gravity and
the resistance of the atmosphere.
Savery showed much ingenuity and practical skill in contriving
means of facilitating and improving the working of the apparatus
which he had devised upon these principles ; and many of his en-
gines were erected for supplying gentlemen's houses with water
and other purposes, in different parts of the country. The ma-
2S4 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
chine also received many improvements after the death of t\
original inventor. It was considerably simplified, in particufc.
by Dr. Desaguliers, about the year 1718 ; and this gentleman ai,
contrived a method of concentrating the steam by the injection ov
a small current of cold water into the receiver, instead of the old
method employed by Savery, of dashing the water over the outside
of the vessel, wiiich cooled it to an unnecessary degree, and occa
sioned, therefore, a wasteful expenditure of fuel. It was Desagu.
liers who first introduced the safety-valve into the steam engine
although Papin had previously suggested such an application of tht
contrivance. Engines upon Savery's principle have continued U
be constructed, down to our own times ; and as they can be made
at a comparatively small expense, they are found to answer very
well in situations where water has to be raised only a short way.
This engine is, in fact, merely a combination of the common
sucking-pump, (except that the requisite vacuum is produced by
the condensation of steam and without the aid of a piston,) with
the contrivance proposed by De Caus and the Marquis of Wor-
cester for the application of the expansive force of steam ; and
wherever the machine can be economically employed, the former
part of it is that which operates with by far the most effect.
Not long after Savery had invented his engine, Thomas New.
comcn, an ironmonger, and John Galley, a glazier, both of Dart-
mouth, in Devonshire, began also to direct their attention to the
employment of steam as a mechanic power. Their first engine
was constructed about the year 1711. This contrivance, which is
commonly known by the name of Newcomers engine, proceeded
mainly upon the principle formerly adopted by Papin, but subse-
quently abandoned both by him and those who immediately fol-
lowed him in the cultivation of this department of mechanics, of
making the moving power of the machinery the weight of the
atmosphere acting upon a piston, so as to carry it down through a
vacuum created by the condensation of the steam. Newcomen's
apparatus is, on this account, often distinguished by the name of
the Atmospheric engine. Its inventors, however, instead of adopt-
ing Papin's clumsy method of cooling his steam by the removal of
the fire, employed, in the first instance, the expedient of pouring
cold water on the containing vessel, as Savery had done before
them, though without being aware, it is said, of his prior claim to
the improvement. They afterwards exchanged this fcr the still
better method, already described as introduced by Desaguliers into
Savery 's engine, of injecting a stream of water into the cylinder,
which is said to have been suggested to them by the accident of
some water having found admission to the steam through a holo
JAMES WATT. 285
which happened to have worn itself in the piston. This engine
of Newcomen, which, in the course of a very few years after its
invention, was brought to as high a state of perfection as the prin-
ciple seems to admit of, afforded the first important exemplifica-
tion of the value of steam in mechanics. Savery's, the only other
practical contrivance which had been proposed, had been found
quite inadequate to the raising of water from any considerable
depth, its principal power? as we have already remarked, lying,
in fact, in the part of it which acted as a sucking-pump, and by
which, as such, water could only be raised till its column was of
equal weight with a column of the atmosphere of the same base.
It was nearly useless, therefore, as an apparatus for pumping up
water from mines ; the grand object for which a moving force of
extraordinary power was at this time in demand. But here New-
comen 's engine proved of essential service. Many mines that had
long remained unwrought, were, immediately after its invention,
again rendered accessible, and gradually excavated to great depths ;
while others were opened, and their treasures sought after with
equal success, which but for its assistance could never have been
attempted. It was applied also to various other important pur-
poses.
Newcomen's engine, however, notwithstanding its usefulness,
especially in cases where no other known power could be applied,
was still in some respects a very defective contrivance, and by no
means adapted to secure the complete command of the energies
of steam. The great waste of fuel, in particular, which was still
occasioned by the degree to which the cylinder was cooled after
every stroke of the piston, from the cold water injected into it,
rendered it scarcely any saving of expense to employ this engine
m circumstances where animal power was available. Its whole
force too, the reader will observe, as a moving power, was limited
to what could be obtained by atmospheric pressure alone, which,
even could the vacuum under the piston have been rendered quite
perfect, and all obstructions from friction annihilated, could only
have amounted to about fifteen pounds for every square-inch of
the surface of the piston. The expansive force of steam .was
not, in fact, at all employed in this contrivance as a moving
power ; could the vacuum necessary to permit the descent of the
piston have been as expeditiously and conveniently produced by
any other agency, that of steam might have been dispensed with
altogether. An air-pump, for instance, attached to the lower part
of the cylinder, as originally proposed by Otto Guericke, might
have rendered all the service which steam was here called upon
to perform ; and in that case, this element, with the fuel by which
296 FOREIGN MECHANICS
it was generated, might have been dispensed with, and the machine
would not have been a steam engine at all. This view of the
matter may, in some degree, account for the complete neglect of
steam as a moving power which so long prevailed after Newco-
men's engine was brought into use, notwithstanding the proofs of
its capabilities in that character which had been afforded by the
attempts of the earlier speculators. It was now regarded simply
as affording the easiest means of obtaining a ready vacuum, in
consequence of its property of rapid condensation on the applica-
tion of cold : its other property of extraordinary expansion, which
had first attracted to it the attention of mechanicians, and pre-
sented in reality a much more obvious application of it as a me-
chanical agent, had been entirely neglected. The only improve-
ments of the engine which were attempted or thought of were
such as referred to what may be called its subordinate mechanism,
that is to say, the contrivances for facilitating the alternate sup-
plies of the steam and the water on which its action depended ;
and after Mr. Beighton had, about the year 1718, made the ma-
chine itself shut and open the cocks by which these supplies were
regulated, instead of having that service performed as at first by
an attendant, there remained little more to be done even in this
department. The steam might be applied with more ease and
readiness, but not with any augmentation of effect ; the power of
the engine could be increased only by a more plentiful application
of atmospheric pressure. It was with propriety, therefore, that
Newcomers invention was called, not a steam, but an atmospheric,
engine.
For half a century, accordingly, after the improvements intro-
duced by Beighton, who may be considered as the perfecter of
this engine, no farther progress worth mentioning was made in
the application of steam as an agent in mechanics. The engine
itself was more and more extensively employed, notwithstanding
its defects ; but no better method was proposed of calling into
exercise the stupendous powers of the element, which, by means
of only one of its remarkable properties, was here shown to be
capable of rendering such valuable service. Our knowledge of
what might be done by steam was in this state when the subject
at last happily attracted the attention of Mr. Watt.
JAMES WATT was born at Greenock, on the 19th of January,
1736. His father was a merchant, and also one of the magis-
trates of that town. He received the rudiments of his education
in his native place ; but his health being even then extremely
delicate, as it continued to be to the end of his life, his attend.
ance at school was not always very regular. He amply made up,
JAMES WATT 287
nowever, for what he lost in this way by the diligence with which
he pursued his studies at home, where without any assistance he
succeeded at a very early age in making considerable proficiency
in various branches of knowledge. Even at this time his favorite
study is said to have been mechanical science, to a love of which
he was probably in some degree led by the example of his grand-
father and his uncle, both of whom had been teachers of the
mathematics, and had left a considerable reputation for learning
and ability in that department. Young Watt, however, was not
indebted to any instructions of theirs for his own acquirements
in science, the former having died two years before, and the latter
the year after, he was born. At the age of eighteen he was sent
to London to be apprenticed to a maker of mathematical instru-
ments ; but in little more than a year the state of his health forced
him to return to Scotland ; and he never received any farther in-
struction in his profession. A year or two after this, however, a
visit which he paid to some relations in Glasgow suggested to him
the plan of attempting to establish himself in that city in the line
for which he had been educated. In 1757, accordingly, he re-
moved thither, and was immediately appointed ^mathematical in-
strument maker to the College. In this situation he remained for
some years, during which, notwithstanding almost constant ill-
health, he continued both to prosecute his profession, and to labor
in the general cultivation of his mind, with extraordinary ardor
and perseverance. Here also he enjoyed the friendship and inti-
macy of several distinguished persons who were then members
of the University, especially of the celebrated Dr. Clack, the dis-
coverer of the principle of latent heat, and Mr. (afterwards Dr.)
John Robison, so well known by his treatises on mechanical
science, who was then a student and about the same age with
himself. Honorable, however, as his present appointment was,
and important as were many of the advantages to which it in-
troduced him, he probably did not find it a very lucrative one ;
and therefore, in 1763, when about to marry, lie removed from
his apartments in the University to a house in the city, and entered
upon the profession of a general engineer.
For this his genius and scientific attainments admirably qualified
him. Accordingly, he soon acquired a high reputation, and was
extensively employed in making surveys and estimates for canals,
harbors, bridges, and other public works. His advice and assist-
ance indeed were sought for in almost all the important improve-
ments of this description which were now undertaken or proposed
in his native country. But another pursuit, in which he had been
for some time privately engaged, was destined ere long to with-
13
288 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
draw him from this line of exertion, and to occupy his whole
mind with an object still more worthy of its extraordinary powers.
While yet residing in the College his attention had been directed
to the employment of steam as a mechanical agent by some spe-
culations of his friend Mr. Robison, with regard to the practica-
bility of applying it to the movement of wheel-carriages ; and he
had also himself made some experiments with Papin's digester,
with the view of ascertaining its expansive force. He had not
prosecuted the inquiry, however, so tar as to have arrived at any
determinate result, when, in the winter of 1763-4, a small model
of Newcomeivs engine was sent to him by the Professor of Natural
Philosophy to be repaired, and fitted for exhibition in the class.
The examination of this model set Watt upon thinking anew, and
with more interest than ever, on the powers of steam.
The first thing that attracted his attention about the machine
before him, the cylinder of which was only of two inches diameter,
while the piston descended through six inches, was the insuffi-
ciency of the boiler, although proportionably a good deal larger
than in the working engines, to supply the requisite quantity of
steam for the creation of the vacuum. In order to remedy this
defect he was obliged, in repairing the model, to diminish the
column of water to be raised ; in other words, to give the piston
less to do, in compensation for its having to descend, not through
a perfect vacuum, but in opposition to a considerable residue of
undisplaced air. He also soon discovered the reason why in this
instance the steam sent up from the boiler was not sufficient to
fill the cylinder. In the first place, this containing vessel, being
made, not of cast-iron, as in the larger engines, but of brass,
abstracted more of the heat from the steam, and so weakened its
expansion ; and secondly, it exposed a much larger surface to the
steam, hi proportion to its capacity, than the cylinders of the
larger engines did, and this operated still more strongly to produce
the same effect. Led by the former of these considerations, he
made some experiments in the first instance with the view of dis-
covering some other material whereof to form the cylinder of the
engine which should be less objectionable than either brass K>r
cast-iron ; and he proposed to substitute wood, soaked in oil, and
baked dry. But his speculations soon took a much wider scope ;
and, struck with the radical imperfections of the atmospheric
engine, he began to turn in his mind the possibility of employing
steam in mechanics, in some new manner which should enable it
to operate with much more powerful effect. This idea having got
possession of him, he engaged in an extensive course of experi-
ments, for the purpose of ascertaining as many facts as possible
JAMES WATT. 289
with regard to the properties of steam ; and the pains he took in
this investigation were rewarded with several valuable discoveries
The rapidity with which water evaporates, he found, for instance,
depended simply upon the quantity of heat which was made to
enter it; and this again on the extent of the surface exposed to
the fire. He also ascertained the quantity of coals necessary for
the evaporation of any given quantity of water, the heat at which
water boils under various pressures, and many other particulars
of a similar kind which had never before been accurately de-
termined.
Thus prepared by a complete knowledge of the properties of
the agent with which he had to work, he next proceeded to take
into consideration, with a view to their amendment, what he
deemed the two grand defects of Newcomers engine. The first
of these was the necessity arising from the method employed to
concentrate the steam, of cooling the cylinder, before every stroke
of the piston, by the water injected into it. On this account, a
much more powerful application of heat than would otherwise
have been requisite was demanded for the purpose of again heat-
ing that vessel when it was to be refilled with steam. In fact,
Watt ascertained that there was thus occasioned, in the feeding
of the machine, a waste of not less than three fourths of the
whole fuel employed. If the cylinder, instead of being thus
cooled for every stroke of the piston, could be kept permanently
hot, a fourth part of the heat which had been hitherto applied
would be found to be sufficient to produce steam enough to fill it.
How, then, was this desideratum to be attained ? De Caus had
proposed to effect the condensation of the steam by actually re-
moving the furnace from under the boiler before every stroke of
the piston ; but this, in a working engine, evidently would have
been found quite impracticable. Savery, the first who really con-
structed a working engine, and whose arrangements, as we have
already remarked, all showed a very superior ingenuity, employed
the method of throwing cold water over the outside of the vessel
containing his steam a perfectly manageable process, but at the
same time a very wasteful one ; inasmuch as every time it was
repeated, it cooled not only the steam, but the vessel also, which,
therefore, had again to be heated, by a large expenditure of fuel,
before the steam could be reproduced. Nevvcomen's method of
injecting the water into the cylinder was a considerable improve,
ment on this ; but it was still objectionable on the same ground,
though not to the same degree ; it still cooled not only the steam,
on which it was desired to produce that effect, but also the cylin-
der itself, which, as the vessel in which more steam was to be
290 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
immediately manufactured, it was so important to keep hot. It
was also a very serious objection to this last mentioned plan, that
the injected water itself, from the heat of the place into which it
was thrown, was very apt to be partly converted into steam ; and
the more cold water was used, the more considerable did this
creation of new steam become. In fact, in the best of Newco-
men's engines, the perfection of the vacuum was so greatly im-
paired from this cause, that the resistance experienced by the
piston in its descent was found to amount to about a fourth part
of the whole atmospheric pressure by which it was carried down,
or, in other words, the working power of the machine was thereby
diminished one fourth.
After reflecting for some time upon all this, it at last occurred
to Watt to consider whether it might not be possible, instead of
continuing to condense the steum in the cylinder, to contrive a
method of drawing it off, to undergo that operation in some other
vessel. This fortunate idea having presented itself to his thoughts,
it was not very long before his ingenuity also suggested to him
the means of realizing it. In the course of one or two days, ac-
cording to his own account, he had all the necessary apparatus
arranged in his mind. The plan which he devised, indeed, was
an extremely simple one, and on that account the more beautiful.
He proposed to establish a communication by an open pipe be-
tween the cylinder and another vessel, the consequence of which
evidently would be, that when the steam was admitted into the
former, it would flow into the latter so as to fill it also. If then
the portion in this latter vessel only should be subjected to a con-
densing process, by being brought into contact with cold water,
or any other convenient means, what would follow ? Why, a
vacuum would be produced here into that, as a vent, more steam
would immediately rush from the cylinder that likewise would
be condensed and so the process would go on till all the steam
had left the cylinder, and a perfect vacuum had been effected in
that vessel, without so much as a drop of cold water having
touched or entered it. The separate vessel alone, or the Con-
denser, as Watt called it, would be cooled by the water used to
condense the steam and that, instead of being an evil, manifestly
tended to promote and quicken the condensation. When Watt
reduced these views to the test of experiment, he found the result
to answer his most sanguine expectations. The cylinder, al-
though emptied of its steam for every stroke of the piston as
before, was now constant y kept at the same temperature with the
steam (or 212 Fahrenheit;) and the consequence was, that one
fourth of the fuel formerly required sufficed to feed the engine.
JAMES WATT. 29J
But besides this most importan. saving in the expense of main,
taming the engine, its power was greatly increased by the more
perfect vacuum produced bv the new construction, in which the
condensing water, being no .onger admitted within the cylinder,
could not, as before, create new steam there while displacing the
old. The first method which Watt adopted of cooling the steam
in the condenser, was to keep that vessel surrounded by cold
water considering it as an objection to the admission of the water
into its interior, that it might be difficult in that case to convey it
away as fast as it would accumulate. But he found that the con-
densation was not effected in this manner with so much rapidity
as was desirable. It was necessary for him, too, at any rate to
employ a pump attached to the condenser, in order to draw off
both the small quantity of water deposited by the cooled steam,
and the air unavoidably introduced by the same element either
of which, if allowed to accumulate, would have impaired the per-
feet vacuum necessary to attract the steam from the cylinder.
He therefore determined eventually to admit also the additional
quantity of water required for the business of condensation, and
merely to employ a larger and more powerful pump to carry off
the whole.
Such, then, was the remedy by which the genius of this great
inventor effectually cured the first and most serious defect of the
old apparatus. In carrying his ideas into execution, he encoun-
tered, as was to be expected, many difficulties, arising principally
from the impossibility of realizing theoretical perfection of struc-
ture with such materials as human art is obliged to work with ;
but his ingenuity and perseverance overcame every obstacle.
One of the things which cost him the greatest trouble was, how to
fit the piston so exactly to the cylinder as without affecting the
freedom of its motion, to prevent the passage of the air between
the two. In the old engine this end had been attained by cover-
ing the piston with a small quantity of water, the dripping down
of which into the space below, where it merely mixed with the
stream introduced to effect the condensation, was of little or no
consequence. But in the new construction, the superiority of
which consisted in keeping this receptacle for the steam always
both hot and dry, such an effusion of moisture, although only in
very small quantities, would have occasioned material inconve-
nience. The air alone, besides, which in the old engine followed
the piston in its descent, acted with considerable effect in cooling
the lower part of the cylinder. His attempts to overcome this
difficulty, while they succeeded in that object, conducted Watt
also to another improvement, which effected the complete removal
292 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
of what we have caPed the second radical imperfection of New
comen's engine, namely, its non-employment, for a moving power,
of the expansive force of the steam. The effectual way, it oc-
curred to him, of preventing any air from escaping into the part
of the cylinder below the piston, would be to dispense with the use
of that element above the piston, and to substitute there likewise
the same contrivance as below, of alternate steam and vacuum.
This was of course to be accomplished by merely opening com-
rnunications from the upper part of the cylinder to the boiler on
the one hand, and the condenser on the other, and forming it at
the same time into an air-tight chamber, by means of a cover,
with only a hole in it to admit the rod or shank of the piston,
which might besides, without impeding its freedom of action, be
padded with hemp, the more completely to exclude the air. It
was so contrived, accordingly, by a proper arrangement of the
cocks and the machinery connected with them, that, while there
was a vacuum in one end of the cylinder, there should be an ad-
mission of steam into the other ; and the steam so admitted now
served, not only, by its susceptibility of sudden condensation, to
create the vacuum, but also, by its expansive force, to impel the
piston. Steam, in fact, was now restored to be, what it had been
in the early attempts to use it as a mechanical agent, the moving
power of the engine ; but its efficiency in this capacity was for the
first time both taken full advantage of, by means of contrivances
properly arranged for that end, and combined with, and aided by,
its other equally valuable property which had alone been called
into action in the more recent machines.
These were the great improvements which Watt introduced in
what may be called the principle of the steam engine, or, in other
words, in the manner of using and applying the steam. They
constitute, therefore, the grounds of his claim to be regarded as the
true author of the conquest that has at last been obtained by man
over this powerful element. But original and comprehensive as
were the views out of which these fundamental inventions arose,
the exquisite and inexhaustible ingenuity which the engine, as
finally perfected by him, displays in every part of its subordinate
mechanism, is calculated to strike us perhaps with scarcely less
admiration. It forms undoubtedly the best exemplification that
has ever been afforded of the number and diversity of services
which a piece of machinery may be made to render to itself by
means solely-of the various application of its first moving power,
when that has once been called into action. Of these contrivances,
however, we can only notice one or two, by way of specimen
( erhaps the most singular is that called the governor. This con
JAMES WATT. 283
sists of an upright spindle, which is kept constantly turning, by
being connected with a certain. part of the machinery, and from
which two balls are suspended in opposite directions by rods,
attached by joints, somewhat in the manner of the legs of a pair
tongs. As long as the motion of the engine is uniform, that of
(he spindle is so likewise, and the balls continue steadily revolving
at the same distance from each other. But as soon as any altera-
tion in the action of the piston takes place, the balls, if it has be-
come more rapid, fly farther apart under the influence of the in-
creased centrifugal force which actuates them or approach
nearer to each other in the opposite circumstances. This alone
would have served to indicate the state of matters to the eye ; but
Watt was not to be satisfied. He connected the rods with a valve
in the tube by which the steam is admitted to the. cylinder from
the boiler, in such a way that, as they retreat from each other,
they gradually narrow the opening which is so guarded, or en-
large it as they tend to collapse ; thus diminishing the supply of
steam when the engine is going too fast, and, when it is not going
fast enough, enabling it to regain its proper speed by allowing it
an increase of aliment. Again, the constant supply of a suffi-
ciency of water to the boiler is secured by an equally simple pro-
vision, namely, by a jloat resting on the surface of the water,
which, as soon as it is carried down by the consumption of the
water to a certain point, opens a valve and admits more. And so
on through all the different parts of the apparatus, the various
wonders of which cannot be better summed up than in the forcible
and graphic language of a recent writer: " In the present per-
fect state of the engine, it appears a thing almost endowed with
intelligence. It regulates with perfect accuracy and uniformity
the number of its strokes in a given time, counting or recording
them moreover, to tell how much work it has done, as a clock
records the beats of its pendulum ; it regulates the quantity of
steam admitted to work ; the briskness of the Jire ; the supply of
water to the boiler; the supply of coals to the fire; it opens and
shuts its valves with absolute precision as to time and manner ; it
oils its joints ; it takes out any air which may accidentally enter
into parts which should be vacuous ; and when any thing goes
wrong which it cannot of itself rectify, it warns its attendants by
ringing a bell ; yet with ail these talents and qualities, and even
when exerting the power of six hundred horses, it is obedient to
the hand of a child ; its aliment is coal, wood, charcoal, or other
Combustible, it consumes none while idle, it never tires, and
wants no sleep ; it is not subject to malady when originally vvell
made, and only refuses to work when worn out with age ; it is
294 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
equally active in all climates, and will do work of any kind ; it is
a water-pumper, a miner, a sailor, a cotton-spinner, a weaver, a
blacksmith, a miller, &c. &c. ; and a small engine, in the charac
ter of a steam pony, may be seen dragging after it, on a railroad,
a hundred tons of merchandise, or a regiment of soldiers, with
greater speed than that of our fleetest coaches. It is the king of
machines, and a permanent realization of the Genii of eastern
fable, whose supernatural powers were occasionally at the com-
mand of man. 11
In addition to those difficulties which his unrivalled mechanical
ingenuity enabled him to surmount, Watt, notwithstanding the
merit of his inventions, had to contend for some time with others
of a different nature, in his attempts to reduce them to practice.
He had no pecuniary resources of his own, and was at first without
any friend willing to run the risk of the outlay necessary for an
experiment on a sufficiently large scale. At last he applied to Dr.
Roebuck, an ingenious and spirited speculator, who had just esta-
blished the Carron iron-works, not far from Glasgow, and held
also at this time a lease of the extensive coal-works at Kinneal, the
property of the Duke of Hamilton. Dr. Roebuck agreed to ad-
vance the requisite funds on having two thirds of the profits made
over to him ; and upon this Mr. Watt took out his first patent in
the beginning of the year 1769. An engine with a cylinder of
eighteen inches diameter was soon after erected at Kinneal ; and
although, as a first experiment, it was necessarily in some respects
of defective construction, its working" completely demonstrated the
great value of Watt's improvements. But Dr. Roebuck, whose
undertakings were very numerous and various, in no long time
after forming this connection, found himself involved in such peciv-
niary difficulties, as to put it out of his power to make any farther
advances in prosecution of its object. On this, Watt employed
himself for some years almost entirely to the ordinary work of his
profession as a civil engineer ; but at last, about the year 1774,
when all hopes of any farther assistance from Dr. Roebuck were
at an end, he resolved to close with a proposal which had been
made to him through his friend Dr. Small, of Birmingham, that he
should remove to that town, and enter into partnership with the
eminent hardware manufacturer, Mr. Boulton, whose extensive
establishment at Soho had already become famous over Europe,
and procured for England an unrivalled reputation for the arts
there carried on. Accordingly, an arrangement having been made
with Dr. Roebuck, by which his share of the patent was transferred
to Mr. Boulton, the firm of Boulton and Watt commenced the
business of making steam engines in the year 1775.
JAMES WATT. 295
Mr. Watt now obtained from parliament an extension of his
patent for twenty-five years from this date, in consideration of the
acknowledged national importance of his inventions. The first
thing which he and his partner did, was to erect an engine at Soho,
which they invited all persons interested in such machines to in-
spect. .They then proposed to erect similar engines wherever
required, on the very liberal principle of receiving as payment for
each, only one third of the saving in fuel which it should effect, as
compared with one of the old construction. As this saving, how-
ever, had been found to amount in the whole to fully three fourths
of all the fuel that had been wont to be employed, the revenue thus
accruing to the patentees became very great after their engines
were extensively adopted. This they very soon were, especially
in Cornwall, where the numerous mines afforded a vast field for
the employment of the new power, partly in continuing or com-
mencing works which only an economized expenditure could make
profitable, and often also in labors which the old engine was alto-
gether inadequate to attempt.
But the draining of mines was only one of many applications of
the steam power now at his command which Watt contemplated,
and in course of time accomplished. During the whole twenty-
five years, indeed, over which his renewed patent extended, the
perfecting of his invention was his chief occupation ; and, notwitlv
standing a delicate state of health, and the depressing affliction of
severe headaches to which he was extremely subject, he continued
throughout this period to persevere with unwearied diligence in
adding new improvements to the mechanism of the engine, and
devising the means of applying it to new purposes of usefulness.
He devoted, in particular, the exertions of many years to the con-
triving of the best methods of making the action of the piston com-
municate a rotary motion in various circumstances ; and between
the years 1781 and 1785 he took out four different patents for in-
ventions having this object in view. In the midst of these scientific
labors, too, his attention was much distracted by attempts which
were made in several quarters to pirate his improvements, and the
consequent necessity of defending his rights in a series of actions,
which, notwithstanding successive verdicts in his favor, did not
terminate till the year 1799, when the validity of his claims was
finaJy confirmed by the unanimous decision of the Judges of the
Court of King's Bench.
Watt's inexhaustible ingenuity displayed itself in various other
contrivances besides those which make part of his steam engine.
An apparatus for copying letters and other writings, now in exten.
sive use ; a method of heating houses by steam ; a new composi-
13*
296 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
tion, for the purposes of sculpture, having the transparency and
nearly the hardness of marble ; a machine for multiplying copies
of busts and other performances in carving or statuary, are
enumerated among his minor inventions. But it is his steam-
engine that forms the great monument of his genius, and that has
conferred upon his name its imperisliable renown. This invention
has already gone far to revolutionize the whole domain of human
industry ; and almost every year is" adding to its, power and its
conquests. In our manufactures, our arts, our commerce, cur
social accommodations, it is constantly achieving what, little more
than half a century ago, would have been accounted miracles and
impossibilities. " The trunk of an elephant, it has been finely and
truly said, that can pick up a pin, or rend an oak, is as nothing to
it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal like
wax before it, draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as
gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in the air. It can
embroider muslin and forge anchors ; cut steal into ribbands, and
impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves."
Locomotives, under the impetus communicated by this, the most
potent, and at the same time the most perfectly controllable of all
our mechanical agencies, have already been drawn forward at the
flying speed of thirty and forty miles an hour. If so much has
been done already, it would be rash to conclude that even this is
to be our ultimate limit of attainment. In navigation, the resist-
ance of the water, which increases rapidly as the force opposed
to it increases, very soon sets bounds to the rate at which even
the power of steam can impel a vessel forward. But, on land,
the thin medium of the air presents no such insurmountable ob-
stacle to a force making its way through it ; and a rapidity of
movement may perhaps be eventually attained here, which is to
us even as yet inconceivable. But even when the rate of land
travelling already shown to be quite practicable shall have become
universal, in what a new state of societv shall we find ourselves !
When we shall be able to travel a hundred miles in any direction
in six or eight hours, into what comparative neighborhood will
the remotest extremes even of a large country be brought, and
how little shall we think of what we now call distance ! A nation
will then be indeed a community ; and all the benefits of the
highest civilization, instead of being confined to one central spot,
will be diffused equally over the land, like the light of heaven
This improvement, in short, when fully consummated, will confer
upon man nearly as much new power and new enjoyment as if he
were actually endowed with wings.
It is gratifying to reflect that even while be was yet alive, WatJ
JAMES WATT. 297
received from the voice of the most illustrious of his contempo-
raries the honors due to his genius. In 1785 he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society ; the degree of Doctor of Laws was
conferred upon him by the University of Glasgow in 1806 ; and
in 1808 he was elected a member of the French Institute. He
died on the 25th of August, 1819, in the 84th year of his age.
We cannot bettei conclude our sketch of the life of this great
inventor than by the following extract from the character that has
been drawn of him by the eloquent writer, (Mr. Jeffrey,) whom
we have already quoted. " Independently of his great attain,
ments in mechanics, Mr. Watt was an extraordinary, and in many
respects a wonderful man. Perhaps no individual in his age pos-
sessed so much and such varied and exact information, had read
so much, or remembered what he had read so accurately and well.
He had infinite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory,
and a certain rectifying and methodizing power of understanding,
which extracted something precious out of all that was presented
to it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and
yet less astonishing than the command he had at all times over
them. It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in
conversation, had been that which he had been last occupied in
studying and exhausting ; such was the copiousness, the precision,
and the admirable clearness of the information which he pourea
out upon it without effort or hesitation. Nor was this prompti-
tude and compass of knowledge confined in any degree to the
studies connected with his ordinary pursuits. That he should
have been minutely and extensively skilled in chemistry and the
arts, and in most of the branches of physical science, might per-
haps have been conjectured ; but it could not have been inferred
from his usual occupations, and probably is not generally known,
that he was curiously learned in many branches of antiquity, me-
taphysics, medicine, and etymology, and perfectly at home in all
the details of architecture, music, and law. He was well ac-
quainted, too, with most of the modern languages, and familiar
with their most recent literature. Nor was it at all extraordinary
to hear the great mechanician and engineer detailing and ex-
pounding, for hours together, the metaphysical theories of the
Ga/man logicians, or criticising the measures or the matter of the
German poetry.
" His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great
measure, by a still higher and rarer faculty by his power of
digesting and arranging in its proper place all the information he
received, and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were instinc-
tively, whatever was worthfess or immaterial. Every conception
299 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to take its piace
among its other rich furniture, and to be condensed into the small-
est and most convenient form. He never appeared, therefore, to
be at all encumbered or perplexed with the verbiage of the dull
books he perused, or the idle talk to which he listened ; but to
have at once extracted, by a kind of intellectual alchemy, all that
was worthy of attention, and to have reduced it for his own use
to its true value and to its simplest form. And thus it often hap-
pened, that a great deal more was learned from his brief and
vigorous account of the theories and arguments of tedious writers,
than an ordinary student could ever have derived from the most
faithful study of the originals, and that errors and absurdities be-
came manifest from the mere clearness and plainness of his state-
ment of them, which might have deluded and perplexed most of
his hearers without that invaluable assistance."
JAMES BRINDLEY.
JAMES BRINDLEY, the celebrated engineer, was entirely sell
taught in even the rudiments of mechanical science, although,
unfortunately, we are not in possession of any very minute details
of the manner in which his powerful genius first found its way to
the knowledge of those laws of nature of which it afterwards
made so many admirable applications. He was born at Tunsted,
in the parish of Wormhill, Derbyshire, in the year 1716 ; and
all we know of the first seventeen years of his life is, that his
father, having reduced himself to extreme poverty by his dissi-
pated habits, he was allowed to grow up almost totally uneducated,
and, from the time he was able to do any thing, was employed'in
the ordinary descriptions of country labor. To the end of his
Jife this great genius was barely able to read on any very press-
ing occasion ; for, generally speaking, he would no more have
thought of looking into a book for any information he wanted,
than of seeking for it in the heart of a millstone : and his know-
ledge of the art of writing hardly extended farther than the ac-
complishment of signing his name. It is probable, that as he grew
towards manhood, he began to feel himself created for higher
things than driving a cart or Following a plough ; and we may
even venture to conjecture, that the particular bias of his genius
towards mechanical invention had already disclosed itself, when,
JAMES BRINDLEY
JAMES BRINDLEY. 301
at the age of seventeen, he bound himself apprentice to a person
of the name of Bennet, a millwright, residing at Macclesfield,
which was but a few miles from his native place. At all events,
it is certain that he almost immediately displayed a wonderful
natural aptitude for the profession he had chosen. " In the early
part of his apprenticeship," says the writer of his life in the
' Biographia Britannica,' who was supplied with the materials of
his article by Mr. Henshall, Brindley's brother-in-law, " he was
frequently left by himself for whole weeks together, to execute
works concerning which his master had given him no previous in-
structions. These works, therefore, he finished in his own way ;
and Mr. Bennet was often astonished at the improvements his
apprentice from time to time introduced into the millwright busi-
ness, and earnestly questioned him from whom he had gained his
knowledge. He had not been long at the trade, before the mill-
' ers, wherever he had been employed, always chose him again in
preference to the master, or any other workman ; and before the
expiration of his servitude, at which time Mr. Bennet, who was
advanced in years, grew unable to work, Mr. Brindley, by his
ingenuity and application, kept up the business with credit, and
even supported the old man and his family in a comfortable
manner."
His master, indeed, from all that we hear of him, does not ap-
pear to have been very capable of teaching him much of any
thing ; and Brindley seems to have been left to pick up his know-
ledge of the business in the best way he could, by his own obser-
vation and sagacity. Bennet having been employed on one
occasion, we are told, to build the machinery of a paper-mill,
which he had never seen in his life, took a journey to a distant
part of the country expressly for the purpose of inspecting one
which might serve him for a model. However, he had made his
observations, it would seem, to very little purpose ; for, having
returned home and fallen to work, he could make nothing of the
business at all, and was only bewildering himself, when a stranger,
who understood something of such matters, happening one day to
see what he was about, felt no scruple in remarking in the neigh-
borhood that the man was only throwing away his employer's
money. The reports which in consequence got abroad soon
reached the ears of Brindley, who had been employed on the
machinery under the directions of his master. Having probably
of himself begun ere this to suspect that all was not right, his
suspicions were only confirmed by what he heard ; but, aware
how unlikely it was that his master would be able to explain
matters, or even to assist him in getting out of his difficulties, he
302 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
did not apply to him. On the contrary, he said nothing to any
one ; but, waiting till the work of the week was over, set out
by himself one Saturday evening to see the mill which his master
had already visited. He accomplished his object, and was back
to his work by Monday morning, having travelled the whole
journey of fifty miles on foot. Perfectly master now of the con-
struction of the mill, he found no difficulty in going on with his
undertaking ; and completed the machine, indeed, not only so as
perfectly to satisfy the proprietor, but with several improvements
on his model, of his own contrivance.
After remaining some years with Bennet, he set up in business
for himself. With the reputation he had already acquired, his
entire devotion to his profession, and the wonderful talent for me-
chanical invention, of which almost every piece of machinery he
constructed gave evidence, he could not fail to succeed. But for
some time, of course, he was known only in the neighborhood of
the place where he lived. His connections, however, gradually
became more and more extensive ; and at length he began to
undertake engineering in all its branches. He distinguished him-
self greatly in 1752, by the erection of a water-engine for drain-
Ing a coal-mine at Clifton in Lancashire. The great difficulty in
this case was to obtain a supply of water for working the engine ;
this he brought through a tunnel of six hundred yards in length,
cut in the solid rock. It would appear, however, that his genius
was not yet quite appreciated as it deserved to be, even by those
who employed him. He was in some sort an intruder into his
present profession, for which he had not been regularly educated ;
and it was natural enough that, before his great powers had had
an opportunity of showing themselves, and commanding the uni-
versal admiration of those best qualified to judge of them, he
should have been conceived by many to be rather a merely clever
workman in a few particular departments, than one who could be
safely intrusted with the entire management and superintendence
of a complicated design. In 1755 it was determined to erect a
new silk-mill at Congleton, in Cheshire ; and another person hav-
ing been appointed o preside over the execution of the work, and
to arrange the moi 3 '.ntricate combinations, Brindlcy was engaged
to fabricate the larger wheels and other coarser parts of the ap-
paratus. It soon became manifest, however, in this instance, that
the superintendent was unfit for his office ; and the proprietors
were obliged to apply to Brindley to remedy several blunders into
which he had fallen, and give his advice as to how the work should
be proceeded in. Still they did not deem it proper to dismiss their
incapable projector ; but, the pressing difficulty overcome, would
JAMES BRINDLEY. 303
have had him by whose ingenuity they had been enabled to get
over it, to return to his subordinate place, and work under the
directions of the same superior. This Brindley positively refused
to do. He told them he was ready, if they would merely let him
know what they wished the machine to perform, to apply his best
endeavors to make it answer that purpose, and that he had no
doubt he should succeed ; but he would not submit to be super-
intended by a person whom he had discovered to be quite ignorant
of the business he professed. This at once brought about a proper
arrangement of matters. Brindley's services could not be dis-
pensed with ; those of the pretender, who had been set over him,
might be so, without much disadvantage. The entire manage-
ment of the work, therefore, was forthwith confined to the former,
who completed it, with his usual ability, in a superior manner.
He not only made important improvements, indeed, in many parts
of the machine itself, but even in the mode of preparing the
separate pieces of which it was to be composed. His ever-active
genius was constantly displaying itself by the invention of the
most beautiful and economical simplifications. One of these was
a method which he contrived for cutting all his tooth and pinion
wheels by machinery, instead of having them done by the hand,
as they always till then had been. This invention enabled him to
finish as much of that sort of work in one day as had formerly
been accomplished in fourteen.
But the character of this man's mind was comprehensiveness
and grandeur of conception ; and he had not yet found any ade-
quate field for the display of his vast ideas and almost inexhausti-
ble powers of execution. Happily, however, this was at last
afforded him, by the commencement of a series of undertakings
in his native country, which deservedly rank among the achieve-
ments of modern enterprise and mechanical skill ; and which were
destined, within no long period, to change the whole aspect of the
internal commerce of the island.
Artificial water-roads, or canals, were well known to the an-
cients. Without transcribing all the learning that has been col-
lected upon the subject, and may be found in any of the common
treatises, we may merely state that the Egyptians had early effect-
ed a junction, by this means, between the Red Sea and the Medi-
terranean ; that both the Greeks and the Romans attempted to cut
a canal across the Isthmus of Corinth ; and that the latter people
actually cut one in Britain from the neighborhood of Peterborough
to that of Lincoln, some traces of which are still discernible.
Canal navigation is also of considerable antiquity in China. T u e
greatest work of this description in the v orld is the Imperial Ct.-ial
304 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
of that country, which is two hundred feet broad, and, commen-
cing at Pekin, extends southward, to the distance of about nine
hundred miles. It is supposed to have been constructed about
eight centuries ago ; but there are a great many smaller works of
the same kind in the country, many of which are undoubtedly much
older. The Chinese are unacquainted, as were also the ancients,
with the contrivance called a lock, by means of which difTerei t
levels are connected in modern canals, and which, as probably
all our readers know, is merely a small intermediate space, in
which the water can be kept at the same elevation as either part
of the channel, into which the boat is admitted by the opening of
one floodgate, and from which it is let out by the opening of an
other, after the former has been shut ; the purpose being thus
attained, of floating it onwards, without any greater waste of water
than the quantity required to alter the level of the enclosed space.
When locks are not employed, the canal must be either of uniform
level throughout, or it must consist of a succession of completely
separated portions of water-way, from one to the other of which
the boat is carried on an inclined plane, or by some other mechan-
ical contrivance.
Canals have also been long in use in several of the countries of
modern Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and in France.
In the former, indeed, they constitute the principal means of com-
munication between one place and another, whether for commer-
cial or other purposes. In France, the canals of Burgundy, of
Briare, of Orleans, and of Languedoc, all contribute important
facilities to the commerce of the country. The last mentioned,
which unites the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, is sixty feet broad
and one hundred and fifty miles in length. It was finished in 1681 ;
having employed twelve thousand men for fifteen years, and cost
twelve hundred thousand pounds sterling.
It is remarkable that, with these examples before her, England
was so late in availing herself of the advantages of canal naviga-
tion. The subject, however, had not been altogether unthought of.
As early as the reign of Charles the Second, a scheme was in agi-
tation for cutting a canal (which has since been made) between
the Forth and the Clyde, in the northern part of the kingdom ; but
the idea was abandoned, from the difficulty of procuring the requi-
site funds. A very general impression, too, seems to have been
felt, in the earlier part of the last century, as to the desirableness
of effecting a canal navigation between the central English coun-
ties and either the metropolis or the eastern coast.
The first modern canal actually executed in England, was not
begun till the year 1755. It was the result of a sudden thought
JAMES BRINDLEY. 305
on the part of its undertakers, nothing of the kind having been
contemplated by them when they commenced the operations which
led to it. They had obtained an act of parlia-ment for rendering
navigable the Sankey brook, in Lancashire, which flows into the
river Mersey, from the neighborhood of the now flourishing town
of St. Helen's, through a district abounding in valuable beds of
coal. Upon surveying the ground, however, with more care, it
was considered better to leave the natural course of the stream
altogether, and to carry the intended navigation along a new line ;
in other words, to cut a canal. The work was accordingly com-
menced ; and the powers of the projectors having been enlarged
by a second act of parliament, the canal was eventually extended
to the length of about twelve miles. It has turned out both a
highly successful speculation for the proprietors, and a valuble pub-
lic accommodation.
It is probable that the Sankey Canal, although it did not give
birth to the first idea of the great work we are now about to de-
scribe, had at least the honor of prompting the first decided step
towards its execution. Francis, duke of Bridgewater, who, while
yet much under age, had succeeded, in the year 1748, by the death
of his elder brothers, to the family estates, and the title, which had
been first borne by his father, had a property at Worsley, about
seven miles west from Manchester, extremely rich in coal-mines,
which, however, had hitherto been unproductive, owing to the want
of any sufficiently economical means of transport. The object of
supplying this defect had for some time strongly engaged the atten-
tion of the young duke, as it had, indeed, done that of his father ;
who, in the year 1732, had obtained an act of parliament enabling
him to cut a canal to Manchester, but had been deterred from com-
mencing the work, both by the immense pecuniary outlay which
it would have demanded, and the formidable natural difficulties
against which, at that time, there was probably no engineer in the
country able to contend. When the idea, however, was now re-
vived, the extraordinary mechanical genius oi Brindlcy had already
acquired for him an extensive reputation, and he was applied to by
the duke, to survey the ground through which the proposed canal
would have to be carried, and to make his report upon the practi-
cability of the scheme. New as he was to this species of engi-
neering, Brindley, confident in his own powers, at once undertook
to make the desired examination, and, having finished it, expressed
his conviction that the ground presented no difficulties which might
not be surmounted. On receiving this assurance, the duke at once
determined upon commencing the undertaking ; and an act of par.
liament having been obtained in 1758, the pow<
powers of whicn were
306 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
considerably extended by succeeding acts, the formation of tn
canal was begun that year.
From the first, the duke resolved that, without regard to ex-
pense, every part of the work should be executed in the most per-
fect manner. One of the chief difficulties to be surmounted was
that of procuring a sufficient supply of water ; and, therefore, that
there might be as little of it as possible wasted, it was determined
that the canal should be of uniform level throughout, and of course
without locks. It had consequently to be carried in various parts
of its course both under hills and over wide and deep valleys. The
point, indeed, from which it took its commencement was the heart
of the coal mountain at Worsley. Here a large basin was form-
ed, in the first place, from which a tunnel of three quarters of a
mile in length had to be cut through the hill. We may just men.
tion, in passing, that the subterraneous course of the water beyond
this basin has since been extended in various directions for about
thirty miles. After emerging from under ground, the line in the
canal was carried forward, as we have stated, by the intrepid
engineer, on the same undeviating level ; every obstacle that
presented itself being triumphed over by his admirable ingenuity,
which the difficulties seemed only to render more fertile in happy
inventions. Nor did his comprehensive mind ever neglect even
the most subordinate departments of the enterprise. The opera-
tions of the workmen were every where facilitated by new machines
of his contrivance ; and whatever could contribute to the economy
with which the work was carried on, was attended to only less
anxiously than what was deemed essential to its completeness.
Thus, for example, the materials excavated from one place were
employed to form the necessary embankments at another, to which
they were conveyed in boats, having bottoms which opened, arid
at once deposited the load in the place where it was wanted. No
part of his task, indeed, seemed to meet this great engineer unpre-
pared. He made no blunders, and never had either to undo any thing,
or to wish it undone.; on the contrary, when any new difficulty oc-
curred, it appeared almost as if he had been all along providing for
it as if his other operations had been directed from the first by his
anticipation of the one now about to be undertaken.
In order to bring the canal to Manchester it was necessary tc
carry it across the Irwell. That river is, and was then, navigable
for a considerable way above the place at which the canal comes
up to it ; and this circumstance interposed an additional difficulty,
as, of course, in establishing the one navigation, it was indispensa-
ble that the other should not be destroyed or interfered with. But
notliing could dismay the daring genius of Brindley. Thinking it,
AQUEDUCT OVER THE IRWELL.
JAMES BRINDLEY. 80S
however, due to his noble employer to give him the most satisfying
evidence in his power of the practicability of his design, he requested
that another engineer might be called in to give his opinion before
its execution should be determined on. This person Brindley car.
ried to the spot where he proposed to rear his aqueduct, and en-
deavored to explain to him how he meant to carry on the work.
But the man only shook his head, and remarked, that "he had often
heard of castles in the air, but never before was shown where any
of them were to be erected.'" The duke, nevertheless, retained his
confidence in his own engineer, and it was resolved that the work
should proceed. The erection of the aqueduct, accordingly, was
begun in September, 1760, and on the 17th of July following the
first boat passed over it, the whole structure forming a bridge of
above two hundred yards in length, supported upon three arches,
of which the centre one rose nearly forty feet above the surface of
the river ; on which might be frequently beheld a vessel passing
along, while another, with all its masts and sails standing, was
holding its undisturbed way directly under its keel.
In 1762 an act of parliament was, after much opposition, ob-
tained by the duke, for carrying a branch of his canal to commu-
nicate with Liverpool, and so uniting that town, by this method of
communication, to Manchester. This portion of the canal, which
is more than twenty-nine miles in length, is, like the former, with-
out locks, and is carried by an aqueduct over the Mersey, the arch
of which, however, is less lofty than that of the one over the Irwell,
as the river is not navigable at the place where it crosses. It
passes also over several valleys of considerable width and depth.
Before this, the usual price of the carriage of goods between
Liverpool and Manchester had been twelve shillings per ton by
by water, and forty shillings by land ; they were now conveyed by
the canal, at a charge of six shillings per ton, and with all the
regularity of land carriage.
In contemplating this great work, we ought not to overlook the
admirable manner in which the enterprising nobleman, at whose
expense it was undertaken, performed his part in carrying it on.
It was his determination, as we have already stated, from the first,
to spare no expense on its completion. Accordingly, he devoted
to it during the time of its progrf ^ nearly the whole of his reve-
nues, denying himself, all the v .ale, even the ordinaiy accommo-
dations of his rank, and livin<~ on an income of four hundred a year.
He had even great commercial difficulties to contend with in the
prosecution of his schemes, being at one time unable to raise 500?.
on his bond on the Royal Exchange ; and it was a chief business
of his agent, Mr. Gilbert, to ride up and down the country to raise
810 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
money on his graced promissory notes. It is true that he was
afterwards amply repaid for this outlay and temporary sacrifice ;
but the compensation that eventually accrued to him he never might
have lived to enjoy ; and at all events he acted as none but extra-
ordinary men do, in thus voluntarily relinquishing the present foi
the future, and preferring to any dissipation of his wealth on pass-
ing and merely personal objects, the creation of this magnificent
monument of lasting public usefulness. Nor was it only in the
liberality of his expenditure that the duke approved himself a patron
worthy of Brindley. He supported his engineer throughout the un-
dertaking with unflinching spirit, in the face of no little outcry and
ridicule, to which the imagined extravagance or impracticability
of many of his plans exposed him and that even from those who
were generally accounted the most scientific judges of such matters.
The success with which these plans were carried into execution, is
probably, in no slight degree, to be attributed to the perfect confi-
dence with which their author was thus enabled to proceed.
While the Bridgewater canal was yet in progress, Mr. Brindley
was engaged by Lord Gower, and the other principal landed pro-
prietors of Staffordshire, to survey a line for another canal, which
it was proposed should pass through that county, and, by uniting
the Trent and the Mersey, open for it a communication, by water,
with both the east and west coast. Having reported favorably of
the practicability of this design, and an act of parliament having
been obtained in 1765 for carrying it into effect, he was appointed
to conduct the work. The scheme was one which had been often
thought of; out the supposed impossibility of carrying the canal
across the tract of elevated country which stretches along the cen-
tral region of England had hitherto prevented any attempt to exe-
cute it. This was, however, precisely such an obstacle as Brindley
delighted to cope with ; and he at once overcame it, by carrying a
, tunnel through Harecastle Hill, of two thousand eight hundred and
eighty yards in length, at a depth, in some places, of more than
two hundred feet below the surface of the earth. This was only
one of five tunnels excavated in different parts of the canal, which
extends to the length of ninety-three miles, having seventy-six locks,
and passing in its course over many aqueducts. Brindley, how-
ever, did not live to execute the whole of this great work, which
was finished by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henshall, in 1777, about
eleven years after its commencement.
During the time that these operations, so new in England,
were in progress, the curious crowded to witness them from all
quarters, and the grandeur of many of Brindley 's plans seems to
have made a deep impression upon even his unsciertific vis ters
JAMES BRINDLEY. 3H
A. letter which appeared in the newspapers, while he was engaged
with the Trent and Mersey Canal, gives us a lively picture of the
astonishment with which the multitude viewed what he was about.
The writer, it will be observed, alludes particularly to the Hare-
castle tunnel, the chief difficulty in excavating which arose from
the nature of the soil it had to be cut through. " Gentlemen come
to view our eighth wonder of the world, the subterranean naviga-
tion which is cutting by the great Mr. Brindlcy, who handles rocks
as easily as you would plum-pies, and makes the four elements
subservient to his will. He is as plain a looking man as one of
the boors of the Peak, or one of his own carters; but when he
speaks all ears listen, and every mind is filled with wonder at the
things he pronounces to be practicable. He has c'tf. a mile through
bogs which he binds up, embanking them with stones, which he
gets out of other parts of the navigation, besides about a quarter
of a mile into the hill Yelden, on th* side of which he has a pump,
which is worked by water, and a stove, the fire of which sucks
through a pipe the damps that would annoy the men who are cut-
ting towards the centre of the hill. The clay he cuts out serves
for brick to arch the subterraneous part, which we heartily wish
to see finished to Wilden Ferry, when we shall be able to send
coals and pots to London, and to different parts of the globe. 11
It would occupy too much of our space to detail, however rapidly,
the history of the other undertakings of this description to which
the remainder of Mr. Brindley^ life was devoted. The success
with which the Duke of Bridgewater 1 s enterprising plans for the
improvement of his property were rewarded, speedily prompted
numerous other speculations of a similar description ; and many
canals were formed in different parts of the kingdom, in the exe-
cution or planning of almost all of which Brindley's services were
employed. He himself had become quite an enthusiast in his new
profession, as a little anecdote that has been often told of him
may serve to show. Having been called on one occasion to give
his evidence touching some professional point before a committee
of the house of commons, he expressed himself, in the course of
his examination, with so much contempt of rivers as means of in-
ternal navigation, that an honorable member was tempted to ask
him for what purpose he conceived rivers to have been created ?
when Brindley, after hesitating a moment, replied, " To feed
canals.' 1 ' 1 His success a a builder of aqueducts would appear to
nave inspired him with almost as fervid a zeal in favor of bridges
as of canals, if it be true, as has been asserted, that one of his
favorite schemes contemplated the joining of Great Britain to Ire-
land by a bridge of boats extending from Port Patrick to Donug
14
312 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
hadee. This report, however, is alleged to be without foundation
by the late Earl of Bridgewater, in a curious work which he pub-
lished some years ago at Paris, relative to his predecessor's cele-
brated canal.
Brindley's multiplied labors, and intense application, rapidly
wasted his strength, and shortened his life. He died at Turnhurst.
in Staffordshire, on the 27th of September, 1772, in the fifty-sixth
year of his age, having suffered for some years under a hectic
fever, which he had never been able to get rid of. In his case,
as in that of other active spirits, the soul seems to have
" O'er-inform'd its tenement of clay ;"
although the actual bodily fatigue to which his many engagements
subjected him, must doubtless have contributed to wear him out
No man ever lived more for his pursuit, or Jess for himself,
than Brindley. He had no sources of enjoyment, or even of
thought, except in his profession. It is related, that having once,
when in London, been prevailed upon to go to the theatre, the
unusual excitement so confused and agitated him, as actually to
unfit him for business for several days, on which account he never
could be induced to repeat his visit. His total want of education,
and ignorance of literature, left his genius without any other field
in which to exercise itself and spend its strength than that which
the pursuit of his profession afforded it : its power, even here,
would not probably have been impaired, if it could have better
sought relaxation in variety ; on the contrary, its spring would
most likely have been all the stronger for being occasionally un-
bent. We have already mentioned that he was all but entirely
ignorant of reading and writing. He knew something of figures,
but did not avail himself much of their assistance in performing
the calculations which were frequently necessary in the prosecu-
tion of his mechanical designs. On these occasions his habit was
to work the question by a method of his own, chiefly in his head,
only setting down the results at particular stages of the operation ;
yet his conclusions were generally correct. His vigor of concep.
tion, in regard to machinery, was so great, that however compli-
cated might be the machine he had to execute, he never, except
sometimes to satisfy his employers, made any drawing or model
of it ; but having once fixed its different parts in his mind, would
construct it without any difficulty, merely from the idea of which
he had thus, possessed himself. When much perplexed with any
problem he had to solve, his practice was to take to bed, in order
to study it ; and he would sometimes remain, we are told, for two
or three days thus fixed to his pillcw in meditation.
JESSE RAMSDEN. 313
Had it not been for the example set by his adventurous genius,
the progress of artificial navigation in Great Britain would proba-
bly have been titnid and slow, compared to what it has been. For
a long time, in all likelihood, the only canals would have been a
few small ones, cut in the more level parts of the country, the
benefit of each of which would have been extremely insignificant,
and confined to a very narrow neighborhood. He did, in the very
infancy of the art, what has not yet been outdone ; struggling, in-
deed, with such difficulties, and triumphing over them, as could
be scarcely exceeded by any his successors might have to en-
counter. By the boldness and success with which, in particular,
he carried the grand Trunk Navigation across the elevated ground
of the midland counties, he demonstrated that there was hardly
any part of the island where a canal might not be formed ; and,
accordingly, this very central ridge, which used to be deemed so
insurmountable an obstacle to the junction of the opposite coasts,
is now intersected by more than twenty canals besides the one
which he first drove through the barrier. It is in the conception
and accomplishment of such grand and fortunate deviations from
ordinary practice that we discern the power, and confess the value,
of original genius.
The case of Brindley affords us a wonderful example of what
the force of natural talent will sometimes do in attaining an ac-
quaintance with particular departments of science, in the face of
almost every conceivable disadvantage where not only all edu-
cation is wanting, but even all access to books.
JESSE RAMSDEN.
JESSE RAMSDEN was born in 1735, at Salterhebble, near Hali-
fax, where his father kept an inn. The education he received in
his boyhood embraced both a litt'e Latin and the elements of
geometry and algebra. But when he was of the usual age for
being put to a business, his father took him from school, and bound
him apprentice to a clothier in Halifax ; and in this line he con-
tinued till he reached his twentieth year, when he came up to
London, and obtained employment as a clerk in a wholesale ware-
house. He held this situation for about two years and a half; but
in the mean time he had industriously availed himself of what
leisure he could command to renew and extend his acquaintance
314 FOREIGN MECHANICS
with science ; and so enamoured did he gradually become of thfcr ?
pursuits, that he at last resolved to make an effort to establisn
himself in some line more closely connected with his favorite
studies than that which he had heretofore followed. With this
view, notwithstanding that he was now so far beyond the age at
which the learning of a business is usually begun, he bound him.
self apprentice for four years to Mr. Burton, of Denmark-court,
a mathematical instrument maker. On the expiration of this
term, he and a fellow-workman of the name of Cole entered into
business together, Ramsden serving the other as journeyman at a
salary of twelve shillings per week. This connection, however,
did not last long ; and on its termination Ramsden opened a shop
of his own. His chief employment for some time consisted in
repairing optical and- other mathematical instruments which had
got out of order ; and in this the industry and ability he displayed
soon brought him into notice, and procured him a rapidly increas-
ing business. But he did not rest satisfied with merely performing
in a superior manner such work as he undertook of this descrip-
tion ; the different instruments which passed through his hands
forcibly attracted his attention to the imperfections by which each
happened to be characterized, and called his powers of contrivance
into exercise in devising how they might be improved. In order
to accomplish himself the more completely for this task, he labored
assiduously till he acquired, entirely by his own application, the
art of grinding glass, and of handling the file, the lathe, and the
other instruments used by opticians. Thus furnished with the
practical skill and dexterity requisite to enable him to apply his
ingenuity and mathematical knowledge, he proceeded to enter
upon a regular and comprehensive examination of all the different
optical instruments in use, with a view to the remedying of their
several defects.
This resolution, and the perseverance with which it was followed
up, eventually made Ramsden one of the greatest optical mechani-
cians that the world has ever produced. The list of the in-
struments which are indebted to him for the most ingenious and
valuable improvements, embraces nearly all those of greatest im.
portance and most common use in astronomy and the connected
sciences. Hadley^ quadrant, the sextant, the theodolite, the baro-
meter, the transit instrument, and many others too numerous to
specify, all came out of his hands, it might almost be said, with
new powers, and certainly, at all events, with much more in every
case than they before possessed, both of manageable ness and of
accuracy. In this last respect, especially, the instruments con
"tructed by him far surpassed any that had before been produced ;
JESSE RAMSDEN. 315
and they were indebted for much of their superiority to a new
dividing or graduating engine which he had contrived, the prin-
ciple of which was extremely ingenious. It consisted essentially
of a marker moved forward by the turning of a very fine-threaded
screw. It is easy to make a screw with a hundred turns of the
thread in an inch ; and by attaching to it a handle or index of
sufficient length, so that the extremity may be over a properly
divided circle of considerable magnitude, the movement of such a
screw may be regulated with perfect precision to the thousandth
part of one of its entire revolutions. Now, as by such a revolu-
tion it would only advance the marker the hundredth part of an
inch, it is evident that, by being turned only the thousandth part
of an entire revolution every time the marker is allowed to descend
and make an impression upon the plate of metal or other surface
to be divided, a hundred thousand equidistant lines may actually
be drawn upon every inch of that surface. For this most useful
contrivance the Board of Longitude awarded him a premium of
615 ; and in return he engaged to graduate whatever sextants
were put into his hands for that purpose, at the rate of three shil-
lings a-piece. His engine, indeed, enabled him to perform the
operation in about twenty minutes, whereas it had been wont to
occupy many hours. But the additional accuracy which was given
to the instrument to which it was applied by the new method, was
of still greater importance than its comparative expedition and
cheapness. Hadley 1 s quadrant, for instance, used to be so coarsely
divided, and in other respects so defectively made, before it re-
ceived Ramsden's improvements, that, in endeavoring to ascertain
the longitude by it, the observation might in some cases lead to an
error of fifty leagues ; but Ramsden constructed it in so superior
a manner, that even his commonest instruments did not admit of
an error being fallen into of more than the tenth part of that
amount, and with those of a more expensive description accuracy
was ensured in all cases to within a single league.
Soon after he commenced business, Ramsden married Miss
Dollond, daughter of the inventor of the achromatic telescope, part
of the patent for which came in this way into his possession. In
1786 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, having been
proposed by his friends without his knowledge, after his diffidence
in his claims to such a distinction had made him long withhold hia
consent to their taking that step. In 1794 he was chosen a mem-
ber of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg ; and in
1795 the Royal Society awarded him the gold medal annually be-
stowed by them for eminence in science.
The Reverend Lewis Dutens, the author of the "Researches on
316 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
the Origin of Discoveries," who was intimately acquainted \*ith
Ramsden, lias given us an account of his friend, which contains
some interesting particulars of his character and habits. After
noticing his great activity, the uncommon force of his reasoning
powers, and the accurate and retentive memory with which he
was endowed, the writer proceeds to remark, that perhaps, after
all, the most distinguishing quality of his mind was a certain ele-
gance, and taste for precision and high finish, which appeared not
more in the instruments he manufactured than in every thing he
did. " This feeling for perfection," Mr. Dutens goes on to say,
" led him, in the most minute and insignificant parts of his instru-
ments, to a polish and grace, which sometimes tempted those to
smile who did not perceive that the same principle which enabled
him to carry the essential parts of his instruments to a degree of
perfection unknown, and considered as impossible before his time,
induced him to be dissatisfied if a blemish of any sort, even the
most trifling, appeared to his exquisite eye. To these uncom-
monly strong natural endowments he added all that the most con-
stant and intense study could bestow. Temperate to abstemious-
ness in his diet, satisfied with an extremely small portion of sleep,
unacquainted with dissipation or amusement, and giving but very
little time even to the society of his friends, the whole of those
hours which he could spare from the duties of his profession were
devoted either to meditation on farther improvements of philo-
sophical instruments, or to the perusal of books of science, parti-
cularly those mathematical works of the most sublime writers
which had any connection with the subjects of his own pursuits.
Mr. Ramsden's only relaxation from these constant and severe
studies was the occasional perusal of the best authors both in
prose and verse ; and when it is recollected that at an advanced
age he made himself so completely master of the French language
as to read with peculiar pleasure the works of Boileau and Moliere,
he will not be accused of trifling even in his lighter hours. Short
and temperate as were his repasts, a book or a pen were the con-
stant companions of his meals, and not seldom brought on a for-
getfulness of hunger ; and when illness broke his sleep, a lamp
and a book were ever in readiness to beguile the sense of pain,
and make bodily sickness minister to the progress of his mind.
Of the extent of his mathematical knowledge he was always from
innate modesty averse to speak, although I have heard him say
that he never was at a loss when his profession required the ap-
plication of geometry. His knowledge in the science of optics is
well known to have been perfect ; and when we add that the works
of Bouguer and the great Leonard Euler were his favorite study
JESSE RAMSDEN. 317
we shall not lightly rate his proficiency in mathematics. Of his
skill in mechanics it is unnecessary to speak. Nor let it be sup.
posed that his science in his profession was limited to the higher
branch of invention and direction of the labors of others. It is
a well-known fact, that such was his own manual dexterity, that
there was not any one tool, in any of the numerous branches of
his profession, which he could not use with a degree of perfection
at least equal to that of the very best workman in that particular
branch ; and it is no exaggeration to assert that he could with his
own hands have begun and finished every single part of his most
complicated instruments. It may not be foreign to this part of
his character to observe, that his drawings were singularly neat
and accurate, and his handwriting so beautiful, that when he chose
to exert his skill few writing-masters could equal it. 11
In order to ensure that perfect accuracy which it was his object
to give to every instrument he sold, Ramsden had all the parts of
the work done under his own inspection ; and for this purpose he
kept men of every necessary branch of trade in his establishment.
He availed himself also to the utmost of the advantages to be de-
rived from the division of labor allotting to eveiy workman his
particular department, from which he was never called away to
another. He employed about sixty men in all ; but such was his
reputation over all Europe, and so numerous were the orders he
received, that even with this large establishment he found it im-
possible to execute them with the requisite expedition. About
this, indeed, he did not give himself much trouble ; what alone he
cared for was, that every instrument which bore his name should
be worthy of his reputation, no matter what time or pains it should
cost to make it so. No man was ever more nobly indifferent to
the mere pecuniary gains of his art. If he had been anxious to
enrich himself, he might have easily accumulated a large fortune ;
but for that object he would have had to enlarge his already exten-
sive establishment so much farther, that his personal superintend-
ence of every part of it would have been impossible. So far was
he from being influenced by any views of this kind, that it is ' as-
serted he never executed any one of the many great works for
which he received commissions from public bodies, both in his
own and other countries, without being a loser by it as a trades-
man. Wnen ne occasionally sent for a workman to give him
necessary directions concerning what he wished to have done, he
first showed the recent finished plan, then explained the different
parts of it, and generally concluded by saying, with the greatest
good-humour, "Now see, man, let us try to jind fault with it;" and
thus, by putting two heads together to scrutinize his own perform-
319 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
ancc, some alteration was probably made for the better. But,
whatever expense an instrument had cost in forming, if it did not
fully answer the intended design, he would immediately say, after
a little examination of the work, " Bobs, man ! this won't do ; we
must have at it again ;" and when it did not answer his expecta-
tions, he never hesitated to take it to pieces, or to destroy it, what-
ever had been the cost bestowed upon its construction. Admirable
as all his instruments were, too, for their accuracy, their high
finish, their durability, and all the other qualities that make up the
excellence of such productions, he generally put a less price upon
them in some cases a much less p-ice than was charged for
interior works of the same kind by other artists.
It was his custom to retire in the evening to what he considered
the most comfortable corner in the house, viz., the kitchen fire-
side, in order to draw some plan for the forming of some new in-
strument, or perfecting one already made. There he sat, with his
drawing implements on the table before him, a cat sitting on the
one side, and a certain portion of bread, butter, and a small mug
of porter, placed on the other side, while four or five apprentices
commonly made up the circle. He amused himself with either
whistling the favorite air, or sometimes singing the old ballad, of
" If she is not so true to me,
What care I to whom she be :
What care 1, what care 1 to whom she be !"
and appeared in this domestic group contented and happy.
Mr. Ramsden died on the 5th of November, 1800, at Brighton,
to which place he had gone a short time before with the view of
recovering his health, which, never vigorous, had latterly been
greatly impaired by his unremitting exertions. He died possessed
of only a small fortune ; and, in the spirit in which he had lived,
he left the greater part of it to be divided among his workmen, in
proportion to their merits and their length of service.
EARL OF STANHOPE.
THIS eccentric and ingenious nobleman was born at Chevening,
Kent, in August, 1753. In his 9th year he was sent to Eton, and
at this early age began to give strong proofs of his mechanical and
mathematical taste. In his ninteenth year he was removed tc
Geneva, and placed under the tuition of Le Sage ; and a few
;
STANHOPE.
14*
STANHOPE. 32]
months afterwards, he gained a prize, offered by a national aca-
demy for the best paper written in French, on the construction of
the pendulum.
The earl was the author of a great number of inventions and
improvements in the arts and philosophy. Among those which
attracted the most attention were his electrical experiments ; his
scheme for securing buildings from fire ; a machine for solving
problems in arithmetic ; a mode of roofing houses ; a kiln for
burning lime, a steamboat, and a double inclined plane for re-
medying the inconvenience attending canal locks. This was sug-
gested to the earl while he was forming a canal in Devonshire,
the line of which he surveyed himself; and during this employment,
he for days carried the theodolite on his own shoulders. Experi-
ments on stereotype printing, an esteemed printing press which
bears his name, a plan for preventing forgeries in coin and bank
notes, &c. &c. In putting his ideas into practice he was assisted
by Mr. Varley, one of the most expert practical mechanics of
the day.
But numerous and important as his labors were to the arts, they
were, even in a public view, exceeded in importance by the impulse
which his patronage gave to mechanical artists. He appeared to
be delighted in bringing them and their productions before the
public, and in this way he spent a large portion of his ample for-
tune, and almost the whole of his thoughts and time.
Whatever view different men might take of the soundness or
tendency of his political principles, all were convinced that they
sprang from the honest conviction of his own mind, uninfluenced
by the most remotely interested motive, for he uniformly declined
all offices fhd public honors. If his projects, both political and
mechanical, were occasionally considered impracticable, they were
neither sordid nor selfish.
His speeches in the house ot lords, and in public, on whatever
topic, were ingenuous, perspicuous, and somewhat forcible. But it
was often as difficult to answer as to concur with them ; for he
seldom adapted his opinions to the state of public affairs, but rea-
soned from some abstract standard of moral or political right, that
was seldom in accordance with principles of party or state expe-
diency. He was sometimes eloquent, and at others, very eccentric
in his illustrations. There was often a certain quaintness of man-
ner about them that made them quite irresistible, even to produ-
cing laughter, from the guarded and studied gravity of the incumbent
on the woolsack.
His activity and perseverance were amazing, for notwithstanding
the multiplicity of his projects and experiments, he was assuredly
322 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
profoundly learned in every thing that regarded the constitution
and ecclesiastical polity of his country, and when on these subjects,
it is said he even taught " the Judges law, and the Bishops reli-
gion!^' When questions arose which required a practical know-
Jeclge of the exact sciences, or their application to the arts, if he
were not the only man, he was, at least, the ablest in the house to
expound, discuss, and decide them : and on such occasions he ever
acted with great judgment.
Earl Stanhope married Hester Pitt, a daughter of the great
Earl of Chatham, whose political principles he venerated with a
feeling little removed from idolatry ; and in the early part of his
public career, acted cordially with his brother-in-law Mr. Pitt.
But the circumstances which induced that consummate statesman
to alter his opinions, had not the same effect on the earl, and their
political connection was dissolved. On this separation taking place,
a domestic difficulty sprung up between Stanhope, and his wife and
wife's connections. This dissension arose from the fact, that Stan-
hope desired that his children should devote themselves to acquire
some useful calling as he had done, by which, when the day of pub-
lic calamity came, which he imagined he foresaw the rapid ap-
proach of, they might secure independence by their own personal
ingenuity and labor. But his family preferring the patronage of
their uncle, the minister, to the protection of the paternal roof.
Stanhope declared as they chose to be saddled on the public
purse, they must " take the consequences." They were not there-
fore mentioned in his will, although they were entitled to certain
sums by a marriage settlement.
" Charles Stanhope," said the Earl of Chatham, " as a carpenter,
a blacksmith, or millwright, could in any country, or any times,
preserve his independence and bring up his family in honest and
industrious courses, without soliciting the bounty of friends or the
charity of strangers. 1 '
Stanhope was odd in his dress and person, and his plain, unaf-
fected, amiable manners, were considered to be singular for a man
of his high rank and connections : but they conciliated affection in
many cases approaching to devotion, and his general integrity
commanded universal respect. He was a considerate and kind
landlord, an ardent friend, and his purse and influence were ever
open to befriend the helpless and the poor ; but he always disliked
any superfluous expressions of gratitude.
Among other anecdotes of his lordship's eccentricities, the fol-
lowing is related. He was very particular in the shape and tex-
ture of his wigs, which were peculiar, and was a long time in getting
a barber to make them to his liking, but at last succeeded. Il
HOHLFELD. 323
Happened, however, that at a period when his stock of these " ele-
gant imitations of nature" was " unusually low," the poor barber
was taken so exceedingly ill that his life was despaired of. His
lordship immediately on hearing of the illness of his favorite
artist, sent a physician to attend him, and the first desire of the
barber on his recovery was, very naturally, to assure the noble
lord of his gratitude for this unexpected act of benevolence.
After a few words of condolence, his lordship asked him if his
funds were not exhausted by his long inability to attend to his
business, and whether an order in the way of trade would not be,
serviceable to him. Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he
ordered a score of wigs. Upon bringing them home, the wig maker
began to pour forth the grateful feelings of his heart for this new
kindness, in addition to having saved his life, when his lordship
interrupted him by putting down the money, and jokingly re-
marked, " Oh ! you may now die and be for aught I care,
for I have got wigs enough to last all my life!"
Lord Stanhope died in December, 1815, deeply lamented by all,
but more especially by the humbler class of citizens, whose esteem
and friendship he had won by his interest and exertions in their
welfare.
HOHLFELD.
HOHLFELD, the celebrated German mechanic, was born of poor
parents at Hennerndorf, in the mountains of Saxony, in the year
1711. He learned the trade of lace-making at Dresden, and early
disovered a turn for mechanics by constructing various kinds of
clocks. From Dresden he removed to Berlin to follow his occu-
pation. As he was an excellent workman, and had invented several
machines for shortening his labor, he found sufficient time to in-
dulge his inclination for mechanics ; and he made there, at the
same time he pursued his usual business, air-guns and clocks. In
the year 1748, he became acquainted with the celebrated Sulzer,
at whose desire he undertook the construction of a machine for
noting down any piece of music when played upon a harpsichord
A machine of this kind had been before invented by Mr. Von Un-
ger, but Hohlfeld, from a very imperfect description, completed one
without any assistance. Of this machine, now in the possessior
of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, Sulzer gave a figure, frorr
which it was afterwards. constructed in England. This ingenious
324 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
piece of mechanism was universally approved, though several
things may be wanting to render it complete ; but no one was so
generous as to indemnify the artist for his expenses, or to reward
him for his labor.
About the year 1756, the Prussian minister, Count de Powde-
wils, took him into his service, chiefly for the purpose of construct-
ing water-works in his magnificent gardens at Gusow. There he
invented his well-known threshing machine, and another for chop-
ping straw more expeditiously. He also displayed his talent for
^invention by constructing an apparatus which, when fastened to a
carriage, indicated the number of revolutions made by the wheels.
Such machines had been made before, but his far exceeded every
thing of the like kind. Having lost this machine by a fire, he in-
vented another still simpler, which was so contrived as to be buck-
led between the spokes of the wheel. This piece of mechanism
was in the possession of Sulzer, who used it on his tour, and found
that it answered the intended purpose.
In the year 1765, when the Duke of Courland, then hereditary
prince, resided at Berlin, he paid a visit to Hohlfeld and endeavor-
ed to prevail on him to go to Courland, by offering him a pension
of eight hundred rix-dollars ; but this ingenious man was so con-
tented with his condition, and so attached to his friends, that he
would not, merely for self-interest, quit Berlin. His refusal, how.
ever, obtained for him a pension of one hundred and fifty dollars
from the king. Besides the before mentioned machines, he con-
structed occasionally several useful models. Among these was a
loom for weaving figured stuffs, so contrived that the weaver had
no need of any thing to shoot through the woof; a pedometer for
putting in the pocket ; a convenient and simple bed for a sick
person, by which the patient could at any time, with the least ef-
fort, raise or lower the breast, and, when necessary, convert the
bed into a stool ; and a carriage, so formed, that if the horses took
fright and ran away, the person in it could, by a single push, loosen
the pole and set them at liberty.
Every machine that this singular man saw, he altered and im-
proved in the simplest manner. All his own instruments he made
himself, and repaired them when damaged. But as he was fonder
of inventing than of following the plans of others, he made them
in such a way that no one but himself could use them. Several
of his improvements were, however, imitated by common work-
men, though in a very clumsy manner. It is worthy of remark,
that he never bestowed study upon any thing ; but when he had
once conceived an idea, he immediately executed it. He compre-
hended in a moment whatever was proposed, and at the same tima
MATTHEW BOULTO*
MATTHEW BOULTON. 327
saw how it was to be accomplished He could, therefore, tell if
an instant whether a thing was practicable ; if he thought it was
not, no persuasion or offer of money could induce him to attempt
it. He never pursued chimeras, like those mechanics who have
not had the benefit of education or instruction ; and though th ; s
may be ascribed to the intercourse he had with great mathemati-
cians and philosophers, there is every reason to believe that he
weald have equally guarded himself against them, even had he not
enjoyed that advantage.
The same quickness, of apprehension which he manifested in
mechanics, he showed also in other things. His observation? on
most subjects were judicious, and peculiar to himself. With
regard to his moral character, he was every thing that could
be desired. Although he still retained something of the man-
ners of his former condition, his mild and pleasing deportment
rendered his company and conversation agreeable. He possessed
a good heart, and his life was sober and regular. Though he was
every day welcome to the best tables, he stayed for the most part
at home through choice ; went to market for his own provisions,
which he cooked himself, and was as contented over his humble
meal as Curius was over his turnips. A little before his death he
had the pleasure of seeing a curious harpsichord he had made, and
which was purchased by his Prussian majesty, placed in an elegant
apartment of the new palace at Pottsdam. As he had for some
time neglected this instrument, the too great attention which he
bestowed on putting it in order, contributed not a little to bring
on that disease which at last proved fatal to him. His clock hav-
ing become deranged during his illness, he could not be prevented,
notwithstanding the admonition and advice of his friend and phy-
sician, Dr. Stahls, from repairing it. Close application occasioned
some obstructions which were not observed till too late ; and an
inflammation taking place, he died, in 1771, at the house of Count
de Powdewils, in the sixtieth year of his age.
MATTHEW BOULTON.
THIS individual, well known as the partner of the celebrated
Watt, was born at Birmingham on the 14th of September, 1728 ;
and after having received a tolerable education, studied drawing
and mathematics. He commenced business ^ a manufacturer of
328 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
hardware ; and having discovered a new method of inlaying steel,
he sent a considerable quantity of buckles, watch-chains, &c., to
the continent, where they were purchased by the English travellers
as the offspring of French ingenuity. Finding his premises at
Birmingham not sufficiently capacious for his purposes, he, in
1762, purchased an extensive tract of heath, about two miles from
the town, and at great expense laid the foundation of those vast
and unrivalled works known as the Soho establishment. To this
spot his liberality soon attracted numbers of ingenious men from
all parts, and by their aid the most splendid apartments in Europe
received their ornaments.
About 1767, finding the force of the water-mill inadequate to
his purposes, he constructed a steam engine upon the original plan
of Savery ; and two years afterwards entered into partnership
with Watt, in conjunction with whom he turned that machine into
several new and important uses. They soon acquired a mechan
ical fame all over Europe by the extent and utility of their under-
takings ; the most important of which was their improvement in
coinage, which they effected about 1788. The coins struck at the
Soho manufactory were remarkable for their beauty and execution,
and caused the inventors to be employed by the Sierra Leone
Company in the coinage of their silver, and by the East India
Company in that of their copper.
Mr. Boulton also sent two complete mints to St Petersburg ;
and having presented the late emperor Paul the First with some
of the most curious articles of his manufacture, that sovereign
returned him a polite letter of thanks and approbation, together
with a princely present of medals and minerals from Siberia, and
specimens of all the modern money of Russia. Another invention
which emanated from the Soho establishment was a method of
copying oil paintings with such fidelity as to deceive the most
practised connoisseurs. The last discovery for which Mr. Boulton
obtained a patent, was an important method for raising water and
other fluids by impulse ; the specification of which is published in
the ninth volume of the Repertory of the Arts. It had been de-
monstrated by Daniel Bernouilli, that water flowing through a pipe
and arriving at a part in which the pipe is suddenly contracted,
would have its velocity at first very greatly increased; but no
practical application of the principle appears to have been at-
tempted until 1792, by an apparatus set up by Mr. WhiteLurst at
Oulton, in Cheshire. To this Mr. Boulton added a number of in-
genious modifications.
As an illustration o e the nicety and skill displayed in some of
the articles made ~y Mr. Boulton, the following anecdote is re-
. MATTHEW BOULTON. 329
lated : He visited France on a certain occasion, for the purpose
of attending a celebrated mechanical fair that was about taking
place ; at which he begged to be allowed to exhibit a needle of
liis own making, at the same time submitting it to the examiners
of works intended for this public display, who one and all pro-
nounced it to be, though well-shaped and finely polished, but a
' common needle," and not worthy of appearing amongst the splen-
did and ingenious improvements and inventions that usually graced
the fair. " Gentlemen," observed Mr. Boulton, " my needle is
well worthy of appearance amongst your promised novelties ; only
allow it to be exhibited with them now, and I will afterwards show
you the reason why."
An unwilling assent to this request was finally obtained ; but
when the fair closed, and the prizes were to be awarded, the arbi-
trators triumphantly asked, " where was Mr. Boulton 's needle ?
and what were those striking merits which everybody had failed
to discover ?" Thereupon Mr. Boulton again presented it to them
for inspection, with a magnifying glass, begging them to state
whether they observed roughness or wrinkle upon its surface.
The umpires returning it, said, " Far from it for that its sole
merit seemed to lie in its exquisite polish." " Behold, then," said
this ingenious man, " its undiscoverable merit ; and whilst I prove
to you that I made no vain boast of its claim to your attention,
you will learn, perhaps, not to judge so readily again by mere ex-
terior." He then unscrewed the needle, when another appeared
of as exquisite a workmanship ; and, to the astonished eyes of
the Frenchmen, about half a dozen beautiful needles were thus
turned out, neatly and curiously packed within each other ! a
miracle of art that seems to rival all we ever read of,- a truly
" multum in parvo!" Mr. Boulton triumphed in his turn, and
carried off the prize which his delicate workmanship so richly
deserved.
Mr. Boulton appeared at St. James 1 on a levee day : " Well,
Mr. Boulton," said the king, " I am glad to see you ; what new
project have you got now ?" " I am," said Mr. Boulton, " manu-
facturing a new article that kings are very fond of." " Aye ! aye !
Mr. Boulton, what's that ?" " It is power, and please your ma-
jesty." " Power ! Mr, Boulton, we like power, that's true ; but
what do you mean ?" " Why, sir, I mean the power of steam to
move machines." His majesty appeared pleased, and laughing,
said, " Veiy good ; go on, go on."
After a life devoted to the advancement of the useful arts and
the commercial interests of his country, the subject of our memoir
died on the 17th of August, 18 D9, in the eighty-first year of his
330 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
age, and was buried at Handsworth, near Soho ; his funeral being
followed by six hundred workmen, each of whom received a silver
medal, struck to commemorate the event.
Mr. Boulton presents us with an example of the vast influence
and effects that may be produced upon society by the well-directed
powers of a great mind abundantly stored with resources, but dis-
daining the selfish and narrow views that might have contracted
its usefulness, had he neglected to call to his aid the genius of a
Watt, and others equally eminent in their spheres. His private
character was very amiable ; and in his manners and conversation
he is said to have been extremely fascinating.
THOMAS TELFORD.
IT is to the energies of genius in humble life that science is
chiefly indebted for its must valuable discoveries, and extension
of its empire. The names of Brindley, Watt, and Arkwright
will never be forgotten ; and with them, and others equally dis-
tinguished, will henceforth rank Telford, a civil engineer, and
constructor of public works, unsurpassed in any country.
Thomas Telford was born in the year 1757, in the parish of
Westerkirks, in the pastoral vale of Eskdale, a district in the
county of Dumfries, in Scotland. His parents, although they oc-
cupied an humble station in the walks of life, were respected and
beloved by all who knew them. The outset of the life of their
son Thomas corresponded to their situation in society, and was
strikingly humble and obscure in comparison with its close. He
began the world as a working stone-mason in his native parish,
and for a long time was only remarkable for the neatness with
which he cut the letters upon those frail sepulchral memorials,
which " teach the rustic moralist to die."
His occupation, fortunately, afforded a greater number of leisure
nours than what are usually allowed by such laborious employ-
ments, and these young Telford turned to the utmost advantage in
his power. Having previously acquired the elements of learning,
he spent all his spare time in poring over such volumes as fell in
his way, with no better light than was afforded by the cottage fire.
Under these circumstances, his mind toojt a direction not uncom-
mon among rustic youths : he became a noted rhymster in the
homely style of Ramsay and Ferguson, and while still a very
THOMAS TELFORD. 331
young man, contributed verses to Ruddiman's Weekly Magazine,
under the unpretending signature of " Eskdale Tarn." In one
of these compositions which was addressed to Burns, he sketched
his own character, and his own ultimate fate :
Nor pass the tentie curious lad,
Who o'er the ingle hangs his head,
And begs of neighbors books to read ;
For hence arise,
Thy country's sons, who far are spread,
Baith bold and wise.
Though Mr. Telford afterwards abandoned the thriftless trade
of versifying, he is said to have retained through life a strong
" frater feeling" for the corps, which he showed in a particular
manner on the death of Burns, in exertions for the benefit of the
family.
Having completed his apprenticeship as a stone mason, in his
native place, he repaired to Edinburgh, where he found employ,
ment, and continued with unremitting application to study the
principles of architecture agreeable to the rules of science. Here
he remained three or four years, when having made a considera-
ble proficiency, he left the Scottish capital, and went to London,
under the patronage of Sir William Pulteney, and the family of
Pasley, who were townsmen of Telford.
He now found himself in a scene which presented scope for
his industry and talent. Fortunately, he did not long remain un-
noticed, or unemployed. His progress was not rapid, but steady,
and always advancing ; and every opportunity for displaying his
taste, science, and genius, extended his fame, and paved the way
to new enterprises and acquisitions. The first public employment
in which he was engaged, was that of superintending some works
belonging to government, in Portsmouth Dock Yard. The duties
of this undertaking were discharged with so much fidelity and
care, as to give complete satisfaction to the commissioners, and to
ensure the future exercise of his talents and services. Hence,
in 1787, he was appointed surveyor of public works in the rich
and extensive county of Salop, which situation he retained until
his decease.
A detail of the steps by which Mr. Telford subsequently placed
h'mself at the head of his profession of engineering, would, most
likely, only tire our readers. It is allowed on all hands, that his
elevation was owing solely to his consummate ability and perse-
vering industry, unless we are to allow a share in the process to
the very strict integrity \*hicb marked his career. His works
332 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
are so numerous all over Great Britain, that there is hardly a
county in England, Wales, or Scotland, in which they may not
be pointed out.
Nor was the British empire a.one benefited by Mr. Telford's
genius. In the year 1808, he was employed by the Swedish
government to survey the ground, and lay out an inland naviga-
tion through the central parts of that kingdom. The design of
this undertaking was to connect the great fresh water lakes, and
to form a direct communication by water, between the North Sea
and the Baltic.
Mr. Telford's fame as an engineer has been principally spread
in Great Britain by his great work, the Dublin road from London
to Holy head, including the Menai and Con way bridges. The
Menai bridge, one of the greatest wonders of art in the world,
is unquestionably the most imperishable monument of his capacity
for extensive undertakings. This bridge is constructed over the
small strait of the sea, which intervenes between the mainland
of North Wales, and the island of Anglesea, and carries onward
the road to Holyhead. Before its erection, the communication
was carried on by means of ferry boats, and was therefore subject
to delays and dangers. The bridge is at a point near the town
of Bangor, from near which its appearance is strikingly grand.
It is built partly of stone and partly of iron, on the suspension
principle, and consists of seven stone arches, exceeding in magni-
tude every work of the kind in the world. They connect the
land with the two main piers, which rise 53 feet above the level
of the road, over the top of which the chains are suspended, each
chain being 1714 feet from the fastenings in the rock. The first
three-masted vessel passed under the bridge in 1826. Her top-
masts were nearly as high as a frigate ; but they cleared 12^ feet
below the centre of the roadway. The suspending power of the
chains was calculated at 2016 tons ; the total weight of each
chain, 121 tons.
This stupendous undertaking occasioned Mr. Telford more in-
tense thought than any other of his works. He told a friend that
his state of anxiety for a short time previous to the opening of the
bridge was so extreme, that he had but little sound sleep, and that
a much longer continuance of that condition of mind must have
undermined his health. Not that he had any reason to doubt the
strength and stability of every part of the structure, for he had
employed all the precautions that he could imagine useful, as sug-
gested by his own experience and consideration, or by the zeal
and talents of his very able and faithful assistants ; yet the bare
possibility, that some weak point might have escaped his and their
THOMAS TELFORD. 335
vigilance in a work so new, kept the whole structure constantly in
review before his mind's eye, to examine if he could discover a
point that did not contribute its share to the perfection of the
whole. In this, as in all his great works, he employed, as sub-
engineers, men capable of appreciating and acting on his ideas ;
but he was no rigid stickler for his own plans, for he most readily
acquiesced in the reasonable suggestions of his assistants, and
thus identified them with the success of the work. In ascertain-
ing the strength of the materials for the Menai bridge, he em-
ployed men of the highest rank for scientific character and attain-
ments.
The genius of Telford, as has been stated, was not confined to
his profession. Dr. Currie says, in his life of Burns, that a great
number of manuscript poems were found among the papers of
Burns, addressed to him by admirers of his genius, from different
parts of Britain, as well as Ireland and America. Among these
was a poetical epistle of superior merit, by Telford, and addressed
to Burns, and in the versification generally employed by that poet
himself. Its object is to recommend him to other subjects of a
serious nature, similar to that of the Cottar's Saturday Night, and
the reader will find that the advice is happily enforced by example
We extract a portion of it :
Pursue, O Bums, thy happy style,
' Those manner-painting strains,' t
They bear me northward mony a mile,
Those manner-painting strains,' that while
ard mony
Recall the days
When tender joys, with pleasing smile,
Blest my young ways.
I see my fond companions rise ;
I join the happy village joys ;
I see our green hills touch the skies,
And through the wood
I hear the river's rushing noise
Its roaring flood.
No distant Swiss with warmer glow
E'er heard his native music flow,
Nor could his wishes stronger grow
Than still have mine,
When up this rural mount 1 go
With songs of thine.
O happy bard ! thy generous flame
Was given to raise thy country's fame ,
For this thy charming numbers came
Thy matchless laj:
Then sing, and save her virtuous name
To latest daya."
15
SJrtJ FOREIGN MECHANICS.
Mr. Telford was not more remarkable for his great professional
abilities, than for his sterling worth in private life. His easiness
f f access, and the playfulness of his disposition, even to the close
of life, endeared him to a numerous circle of friends, including
all the most distinguished men of his time. He was the patron
of merit in others, wherever it was to be found ; and he was the
means of raising many deserving individuals from obscurity to
situations where their talents were seen, and soon appreciated.
Up to the last period of his life, he was fond of young men, and
of their company, provided they delighted in learning. His
punctuality was universal.
In the course of his very active life, he found time to acquire a
knowledge of the Latin, French, and German languages. He
understood Algebra well, but thought it led too much to abstrac-
tion, and too little to practice. Mathematical investigation he
also held rather cheaply, and always, when practicable, resorted
to experiment to determine the relative value of any plans on
which it was his business to decide. He delighted to employ the
rast in nature, yet did not despise minutia, a point too seldom
attended to by projectors.
For some years before his death, he gradually retired from
professional employment, and he latterly amused his leisure hours
by writing a detailed account of the principal undertakings which
he had planned, and lived to see executed. The immediate cause
of Mr. Telford's death was a repetition of severe bilious attacks,
to which he had for some years been subject, and which, at length,
proved fatal. His life, prolonged by temperance and cheerfulness,
at length drew to a close, and he expired at his house, in Abing-
don street, Westminster, September 2d, 1834.
EDMUND CARTWRIGHT,
THE INVENTOR OF THE POWER-LOOM.
EDMUND CARTWRIGHT was born in the year 1743, and was the
fourth son of William Cartwright, Esq. of Marnham, in Notting-
hamshire. Being intended for the church, Edmund at ths usual
age was entered of University College, Oxford ; from whence he
was subsequently elected a Fellow of Magdalen College. He early
distinguished himself by his literary attainments, an evidence of
EDMUND CARTWRIGHT. 337
which he gave to the world while yet a young man by the publica-
tion of a small volume of poems, which was very favorably re-
ceived. About the year 1774, also, he became a contributor to
the Monthly Review ; for which he continued to write during the
following ten years.
For the first forty years of his life he had never given any at-
tention to the subject of mechanics ; although, as was recollected
long afterwards, his genius for invention in that department had
once displayed itself, while at his father's house during one of his
college vacations, in some improvements which he made on an
agricultural machine which happened to attract his notice. But
this exercise of his ingenuity, being out of the line of his pursuits
at that time, led to no other attempts of the kind, nor to any far
ther application of his thoughts to such matters.
The circumstances which many years after this led him to the
invention of his weaving machine, or power-loom, as it is commonly
called, cannot be better described than they have been by himself
in the following statement, first printed in the Supplement to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica. " Happening," he says, "to be at Mat-
lock in the summer of 1784, I fell in company with some gentle-
men of Manchester, when the conversation turned on Arkwright's
spinning machinery. One of the company observed that as soon
as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected,
and so much cotton spun, that hands would never be found to
weave it. To this observation I replied, that Arkwright must then
set his wits to work to invent a weaving-mill. This brought on a
conversation upon the subject, in which the Manchester gentlemen
unanimously agreed that the thing was impracticable ; and in de-
fence of their opinion they adduced arguments which I was cer-
tainly incompetent to answer, or even to comprehend, being totally
ignorant of the subject, having never at the time seen a person
weave. I controverted, however, the impracticability of the thing
by remarking that there had been lately exhibited in London an
automaton figure which played at chess. Now you will not assert,
gentlemen, said I, that it is more difficult to construct a machine
that shall weave, than one that shall make all the variety of moves
that are required in that complicated game. Some time afterwards
a particular circumstance recalling this conversation to my mind,
it struck me that, as in plain weaving, according to the conception
I then had of the business, there could be only three movements,
which were to follow each other in succession, there could be little
difficulty in producing and repeating them. Full of these ideas, I
immediately employed a carpenter and smith to carry them into
effect As soon as the machine was finished, I got a weaver to put
338 FOREIGN MECHANICS
in the warp, which was of such materials as sail-cloth is usually
made of. To my great delight, a piece of cloth, such as it was,
was tln> produce. As I had never before turned my thoughts to
mechanism, either in theory or practice, nor had seen a loom at
work, nor knew any thing of its construction, you will readily sup-
pose that my first loom must have been a most rude piece of ma-
chinery. The warp was laid perpendicularly, the reed fell with a
force of at least half a hundred weight, and the springs which threw
the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve rocket.
In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the
machine, at a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving in
my simplicity that I had accomplished all that was required, I then
secured what I thought a most valuable property by a patent, 4th
of April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how
other people wove ; and you will guess my astonishment when I
compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing
myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom in its general
principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not till the
year 1787, that I completed my invention, when I took out my
last weaving patent, August the 1st of that year."
Dr. Cartwright's children still remember often seeing their father
about this time walking to and fro apparently in deep meditation,
and occasionally throwing his arms from side to side ; on which
they used to be told that he was thinking of weaving and throwing
the shuttle. From the moment indeed when his attention was first
turned to the invention of the power-loom, mechanical contrivance
became the grand occupying subject of his thoughts. With that
sanguineness of disposition which seems to be almost a necessary
part of the character of an inventor, he looked upon difficulties,
when he met with them in any of his attempts, as only affording
his genius an occasion for a more distinguished triumph ; nor did
he allow even repeated failures for a moment to dishearten him.
Some time after he had brought his first loom to perfection, a
manufacturer, who had called upon him to see it at work, after
expressing his admiration of the ingenuity displayed in it, remarked
that, wonderful as was Mr. Cartwright's mechanical skill, there
was one thing that would effectually baffle him, the weaving,
namely, of patterns in checks, or, in other words, the combining,
in the same web, of a pattern, or fancy figure, with the crossing
colors which constitute the check. Mr. Cartwright made no reply
to this observation at the time; but some weeks after, on receiving
a second visit from the same person, he had the pleasure of show-
ing him a piece of muslin, of the description mentioned, beautifully
executed by machinery. The man is said to have been
EDMUND CARTWRIGHT. 339
astonished, that he roundly declared his conviction that some
agency more than human must have been called in to assist on
the occasion.
The weaving factory which was erected at Doncaster, by some
of Cartwrighfs friends, with his license, was unsuccessful ; and
another establishment containing five hundred looms, built at Man-
Chester, was destroyed in 1790 by an exasperated mob. The in-
vention had surmounted all opposition at the time of his death, and
is stated then to h^ve increased in use so rapidly as to perform the
labor of two hundred thousand men !
Cartwright's next invention was to comb wool by machinery, which
excited if possible a still greater ferment among the working classes
than even the power-looms. The whole body of wool combers
petitioned parliament to suppress the obnoxious machines^ but
without effect. These machines began to be used by some manu-
facturers, who at the same time attempted to evade Cartwright's
claim as their inventor. After a trial which occupied twenty-six
hours, he established his right, and gained a verdict of one thou-
sand pounds against the pirates.
For several other inventions in agriculture and manufactures he
took out patents, and for others premiums were bestowed upon
him by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and the Board
of Agriculture. Even the steam engine engaged his attention ;
and an account of some improvements which he proposed in its
mechanism may be found in Reese's Cyclopedia. Indeed, so long
as forty years ago, while residing at Eltham in Lincolnshire, he
used frequently to tell his son that, if he lived to be a man, he
would see both ships and land-carriages impelled by steam. It is
also certain that at that early period he had constructed a model
of a steam engine attached to a barge, which he explained about
the year 1793, in the presence of his family, to Robert Fulton,
then a student of painting under West. Even so late as the year
1822, Dr. Cartwright, notwithstanding his very advanced age, and
although his attention was much occupied by other philosophical
speculations, was actively engaged in endeavoring to contrive a
plan of propelling land-carriages by steam.
His death, however, at Hastings, in October, 1823, prevented
the completion of this, as well as of many other designs in the
prosecution of which he had been employed. His enthusiasm for
mechanical invention continued unabated to the last ; and indeed
his general energy both of mind and body was very little impaired
up to within a sho'rt period of his death. In a letter to his brother,
Major Cartwright, dated 24th April, 1819, he says, " I this day
entered into my 77th year in as good health and spirits, thank
340 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
God, AS I have done on any one birthday for the last half century
I am moving about my farm from eight o'clock in the morning till
four in the afternoon, without suffering the least fatigue. I sent
in my claim to the Board of Agriculture for their premium for a
cure of the mildew on wheat, but have not yet heard that it was
admitted. I don't know whether I ever mentioned to you a ma-
chine for dibbling or planting wheat, which I have brought to great
perfection. I have also a very material improvement on the
stocks respecting ploughs and wheel-carriages; but of this I shall
say nothing till I have brought it to the proof, which I hope to do
very shortly; when you shall be immediately informed of the re-
sult, whether favorable or not. 1 ' The following verses, also, which
he sent to a friend not long before his death, will show at once
the undiminished ardor and activity of his mind, and the generous
and philanthropic motives by which his enthusiasm was sustained
and directed :
" Since even Newton owns that all he wrought
Was due to industry and patient thought,
What shall restrain the impulse which I feel
To forward, as I may, the public weal ?
By his example fired, to break away,
In search of truth, through darkness into day?
He tried, on venturous wing, the loftiest flight,
An eagle soaring to the fount of light !
I cling to earth, to earth-born arts confined,
A worm of science of the humblest kind.
Our powers, though wide apart as earth and heaven,
For different purposes alike were given :
Though mine the arena of inglorious fame,
Where pride and folly would the strife disdain,
With mind unwearied still will 1 engage
In spite of failing vigor and of age,
Nor quit the combat till I quit the stage:
Or, if in idleness my life shall close,
Let well-earned victory justify repose !"
J"ho disposition of this excellent man, indeed, naturally carried
lui tmoughout his life to promote, by every means in his power,
the benefit of his fellow creatures ; and the following incident is
perhaps worthy of being recorded, as illustrating how this tendency
used to display itself in other parts of his conduct, as well as in
his zeal tor mechanical improvements. While he held the living
of Goadly Maxvvood, in Leicestershire, he applied himself so as-
siduously to the study of medicine that he acquired extensive
knowledge and eminent skill in that science, and was in the habit
of prescribing to his poorer parishioners with great success.
Actuated by such feelings as those we have described, Dr,
Cartwright was as free as any man who ever lived from jealousy
01 illiberally towards other inventors. In fact, it may be safely
EDMUND CARTVVRIGHT. 841
asserted, lhat had he not carried his frankness anc want of suspi-
cion, as well as his indifference to pecuniary gains, beyond ths
limits of worldly prudence, his ingenious contrivances would in
all probability have been productive of much greater benefit to
himself than they ever actually were. So careless was he in re-
gard to retaining in his own possession the valuable ideas with
which his mind was continually teeming, that he has been frc-
quently known to have given the most important assistance by his
suggestions to other persons engaged like himself in mechanical
pursuits, and afterwards to have forgotten the circumstance tvs
entirely as if it had never happened. Nay, so completely did
what he was engaged about at the moment occupy his mind, th.it
be sometimes forgot his own inventions, and other productions /
of an older date, even when his attention was particularly calU d
to them. One day, one of his daughters having chanced to repeal
in his presence some lines from a poem entitled the " Prince of
Peace," which appeared in his volume already mentioned, he ex-
claimed, to her surprise and amusement, " Those are beautifii
lines, child ; where did you meet with them?" On another occa-
sion, being shown the model of a machine, he examined it wi.h
great attention, and at last observed, that the inventor must have
been a man of great ingenuity, and that he himself should feel
very proud if he had been the author of the contrivance ; nor could
he be immediately convinced of what was proved to be the case,
namely, that it was a machine of his own.
Dr. Cartwright was defrauded of the pecuniary profits which
he might reasonably have expected from his great invention of the
power-loom, by various accidents, and especially by the burning
of a manufactory, containing five hundred of his machines, almost
immediately after it was built. It may also be added, that after
he had demonstrated the practicability of weaving by machinery
other inventors applied themselves to the devising of contrivances
for that purpose slightly different from his a comparatively easy
task, even where the new invention was not merely a disguised
infringement of his patent, while in those cases in which it was in
reality nothing more than such an infringement, it was yet so pio-
tected, that it could hardly be reached and put down as such. On
these and other accounts, and in no small degree owing to Dr.
Cartwright's carelessness about his own interests, the power-loom
only began, in point of fact, to be extensively introduced about the
year 1801, the very year in which his patent expired. So gene-
rally, however, was it felt among those best entitled to express ar
opinion on the subject, that to him really belonged the merit of the
invention, that in the year 1808, several merchants and manufac-
1
842 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
turers of Manchester and its neighborhood, to none of whom he
was personally known, held a meeting to consider the propriety
of presenting to the Lords of the Treasury a memorial of his emi.
nent services, and of the losses he had sustained through the pira-
cies and other unfortunate circumstances to which we have alluded.
In consequence of this and other applications in his favor, the sum
of ten thousand pounds was soon after granted him by parliament.
An amount, although munificent as a present, yet barely adequate
even to repay the sums the doctor had expended in his experi-
ments ; and his family, after all, reaped no pecuniary benefit
from his ingenious and persevering labors. This national recog-
nition of his claims may be taken as a sufficient answer to some
attempts that have been occasionally made to rob Dr. Cartwright
of the credit of having been the author of one of the most valuable
presents ever made to the manufacturing industry of his country.
As a man of education and literary habits, the inventor of the
power-loom, notwithstanding his deviation from his original track
of thought and study when he began to give his attention to me-
chanics, may yet be said to have come even to that new line of
pursuit with certain acquired advantages. He brought with him
at least a mind awakened to some knowledge of its own powers
by the general cultivation it had received, and not undisciplined
by its accustomed exercises to habits of speculation and inquiry
JOHN WHITEHURST.
THIS individual, whose philosophical and mechanical researches
have met with such universal attention, was born in Congleton, in
Cheshire, April 10, 1713 : he was the son of a clock and watch
maker of the same name in that town.
Of the early part of his life little is known. He who dies at a
very advanced age leaves few behind him to communicate anec-
dotes of his youth. On his leaving school, where the education
he received was certainly very defective, he was bred up by his
father to his own trade ; in which, as in other mechanical and sci-
entific pursuits, he soon gave intimations of future eminence.
At about the age of twenty-one, his eagerness after new ideas
carried him to Dublin, having heard of an ingenious piece of me-
chanism in that city, consi ;ting of a clock with certain curious ap.
pendages, which he was extremely desirous of seeing, and no les
,HN WHITEHURST.
JOHN WHITEHURST. 345
M than of conversing with the maker. On his arrival, however,
he could neither procure a sight of the former, nor draw the least
hint from the latter concerning it. Thus disappointed, he thought
of an expedient to accomplish his design. He accordingly took
up his residence in the house of the mechanic, paying the more
liberally for his board, as he had hopes of thence more readily
obtaining the indulgence so eagerly wished for. As happened, he
was accommodated with a room directly over that in which the
favorite piece was kept carefully locked. The so long wished for
opportunity soon occurred ; for the artist being one day employed
in examining the machine, was suddenly called down stairs. White-
hurst, ever on the alert, softly slipped into the room, inspected the
machine, and having comprehended its principles, escaped undis-
covered to his own apartment. His curiosity thus gratified, he
shortly bid the machinist farewell, and returned to his father in
England.
About two years after his adventm-e in Ireland, he left the place
of his nativity, and entered into business for himself at Derby.
His reputation as a clock and watch maker soon became very ex-
tended, and his character as a citizen such that he was enrolled as
burgess.
He was also consulted in almost all the undertakings in the coun-
try round, where the aid of superior skill in mechanics, pneumat-
ics, and hydraulics was required. His dwelling became the resort
of the ingenious and scientific from every quarter, and frequently
to such a degree as to impede him in the regular prosecution of his
pursuits.
In 1775, when the act for the regulation of gold coin was pass-
ed, he was unexpectedly appointed to the office of stamper. In
1778, he published his " Inquiry into the Original State and Form-
ation of the Earth ;" being a work of many years 1 labor, and one
by which he obtained considerable reputation. He was chosen
a member of the Royal Society, May 13, 1779. He was also a
member of some other philosophical societies, which admitted him
to their respective bodies without his previous knowledge. But so
remote was he from every thing that might savor of ostentation,
that this circumstance was only known to veiy few of his confiden-
tial friends. Previous to his admission, he had inserted several
different papers in their philosophical transactions.
In the summer of 1783, ne made a second visit to Ireland, with
a view to examine the Giants Causeway, and other northern parts
of that island, which he found to be almost entirely composed of
volcanic matter ; an account and representations of which were
inserted in the second edition of his " Inquiry." During this ex-
346 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
cursion he erected an engine for raising water from a well to the
summit of a hill in a bleaching ground at Tullidoi, in the county
of Tyrone. This engine was worked by a current of water,
and for its utility and ingenuity was unequalled, perhaps, in any
country.
In 1787 he published his " Attempt towards obtaining Invariable
Measures of Length, Capacity, and Weight, from the Mensura-
tion of Time."
Though for some years previous to his death Mr. Whitehurst
felt himself declining, yet his ever active mind remitted not of its
accustomed exertion. Even in his last illness, before being con-
fined entirely to his chamber, he was proceeding at intervals to
complete a Treatise on Chimneys, Ventilation, and Garden Stoves,
including some other plans for promoting the health and comfort
of society. He was sensible of his approaching dissolution ; and
on Monday, February 18, 1788, in the seventy-fifth year of his
age, terminated his laborious and useful life. He died in the very
house where had recently lived and died another celebrated self-
taught genius, James Ferguson.
However respectable Mr. Whitehurst may have been in mechan-
ics, he was of far higher account with his acquaintances and friend*
on the score of his moral qualities. To say nothing of the upright-
ness and punctuality of his dealings in all transactions relative to
business : few men have been known to possess more benevolent
affections than he, or, being possessed of such, to direct them more
judiciously to their proper ends. He was a philanthropist in the
truest sense of the word. Though well known to many of the
great, to whose good graces flattery is generally the readiest path,
it is to be recorded to his honor, that he never once stooped to
that degrading mode of obtaining favor, which he regarded as the
lowest vice of the lowest mind. He had, indeed, a settled abhor,
rence, not of flattery only, but of every other deviation from truth.
at whose shrine he may be said to have been a constant worship-
per. The truth of things he was daily, more or less, in the habh
of investigating, and truth of action he exemplified in the whole
tenor of a long and singularly useful life.
JAMES HARGREAVES,
THE INVENTOR OF THE SPINNING JENNY.
THIS individual was a weaver at Stand Hill, near Blackburn
.hough illiterate and humble, he must be regarded as one of the
great inventors and improvers of the cotton manufacture. Hia
principal invention, and one which showed high mechanical genius,
was the spinning jenny ; a machine, as tradition affirms, which
owed its title to a fair damsel by the name of Jane. The date of
this invention was some years before Arkwright obtained the patent
for his water frame ; and differs so completely from that machine,
that there can be no suspicion of its being other than a perfectly
original invention.
It may be necessary to explain to some readers, that the cotton
was formerly, and is still, reduced from the state of the fieccy roll
called a carding, into the state of spun thread, by repeated, though
similar operations ; the first draws out the carding, and gives it a
very sl^ht twist, so as to make it into a loose thread, about the
thickness of a candle-wick, in which state it is called a roving or
slubbm ; the subsequent processes draw out the roving much finer,
and at length reduce it into yarn.
'I he lenny, like Arkwright 1 s machine, was intended to spin the
roving: into yarn ; but, unlike Arkwright's, was incapable of bein
applied to the preparation of the roving itself.
Hargreaves is said to have received the original idea of hi.'
machine from seeing a one-thread wheel overturned upon the floor
when both the wheel and spindle continued to revolve. The spindle
was thus thrown from a horizontal into an upright position ; and
the thought seems to have struck him, that if a number of spindles
were placed Upright, and side by side, several threads might be
spun at once. He contrived a frame, in one part of which he
placed eight rovings in a row, and in another part a row of eight
spindles. The rovings, when extended to the spindles, passed be-
tween two horizontal bars of wood forming a clasp, which opened
and shut somewhat like a parallel ruler ; when pressed together,
this clasp held the threads fast. A certain portion of roving being
extended from the spindles to the wooden clasp, the clasp was
closed, and was then drawn along the horizontal frame to a con-
siderable distance from the spindles, by which the threads were
lengthened out, and reduced x .} *^e proper tenuity; this was done
348 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
with the spinner's left hand, and his right hand, at the same time,
turned a wheel, which caused the spindles to revolve rapidly, and
thus the roving was spun into yarn. By returning the clasp to its
first situation, and letting down a presser wire, the yarn was wound
upon the spindle.
With this admirable machine, though at first rudely constructed,*
Hargreaves and his family spun weft for his own weaving. Aware
of the value of the invention, but not extending his ambition to a
patent, he kept it as secret as possible for a time, and used it
merely in his own business. A machine of such powers could
not, however, be long concealed ; but when it became the subject
of rumor, instead of gaining for its author admiration and grati-
tude, the spinners raised an outcry that it would throw multitudes
out of employment, and a mob broke into Hargreave's house, and
destroyed his jenny. So great was the persecution he suffered,
and the danger in which he was placed, that this victim of popular
ignorance was compelled to flee, as the inventor of the fly-shuttle
had before him. Thus the neighborhood where the machine was
invented lost the benefit of it, yet without preventing its general
adoption ; the common and appropriate punishment of the igno-
rance and selfishness which oppose mechanical improvements.
Hargreaves retired to Nottingham in 1768, where he entered
into partnership with Mr. Thomas James, a joiner, who raised
sufficient money to enable them to erect a small mill. He took
out a patent for the jenny in 1770, the year after Arkwright had
taken out his. The patent was " for a method of making a wheel
or an engine of an entire new construction, and never before made
use of, in order for spinning, drawing, and twisting of cotton, and
to be managed by one person only ; and that the wheel or engine
will spin, draw, and twist sixteen or more threads at one time, by
a turn or motion of one hand and a draw of the other. 11
The following is the inventor's description of the process :
" One person, with his or her right hand, turns the wheel, and
with the left hand takes hold of the clasps, and therewith draws out
the cotton from the slubbin box ; and being twisted by the turn of
the wheel in the drawing out, then a piece of wood is lifted by the
toe, which lets down a presser wire, so as to press the threads so
drawn out and twisted, in order to wind or put the same regularly
upon bobbins which are placed on the spindles. 11 The number of
spindles in the jenny was at first eight ; when the patent was ob-
lained it was sixteen ; it soon came to be twenty or thirty ; and
no less than one hundred and twenty have since been used.
Before quitting Lancashire, Hargreaves had made a few jennies
for sale ; and the importance of the invention being universa l
JAMES HARGREAVES. 349
appreciated, the interests of the manufacturers and weavers brought
it into general use, in spite of all opposition. A desperate effort,
though, was made in 1779 probably in a period of temporary
distress to put down the machine. A mob rose and scoured the
country for several miles around Blackburn, demolishing the jen-
nies, and with them all the carding engines, water frames, and
every machine turned by water or horses. It is said the rioters
spared the jennies which had only twenty spindles, as these were
by this time admitted to be useful, but those with a greater num.
ber, being considered mischievous, were destroyed, or cut down to
the prescribed dimensions.
It may seem strange that not merely the working classes, but
even the middle and higher ranks of people, entertained a great
drea.d of machinery. Not perceiving the tendency of any inven-
tion which improved and cheapened the manufacture, to cause an
extended demand for its products, and thereby to give employment
to more hands than it superseded, those classes were alarmed lest
the poor rates should be burdened with workmen thrown idle.
They therefore connived at, and even actually joined in the opposi-
tion to the machinery, and did all in their power to screen the
rioters from punishment.
This devastating outrage left effects more permanent than have
usually resulted from such commotions. Spinners and other capi-
talists were driven from the neighborhood of Blackburn to Man-
chester and other places, and in consequence it was many years
before cotton spinning was resumed at Blackburn.
Hargreaves went to Nottingham in 1768, and worked for a
while in the employment of Mr. Shipley, for whom he secretly
made some jennies in his dwelling. He was induced, by the
offers of Mr. Thomas James, to enter into partnership with him ;
and the latter raised sufficient money, on mortgage and loan, to
build a small mill in Hockley, where they spun yarn for the
hosiers with the jenny. The patent was obtained in 1770.
Finding that several of the Lancashire manufacturers were
using the jenny, Hargreaves gave notice of actions against them ;
the manufacturers met, and sent a delegate to Nottingham, who
offered Hargreaves three thousand pounds for permission to use
the machine ; but he at first demanded seven thousand, and at last
stood out for four thousand. The negotiation being broken off,
the actions proceeded ; but before they came to trial, Hargreaves'
attorney was informed that his client, before leaving Lancashire,
had sold some jennies to obtain clothing for his children, of whom
he had six or seven. In consequence, the attorney gave up the
actions, in despair of obtaining a verdict.
360 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
The spinning business was carried on by the partners with mo.
derate success, till the death of Mr. Hargreaves, which took place
at his own house, near the mill, in April, 1778. In his will he
directed a guinea to be given to the vicar for preaching his funeral
sermon. His widow received four hundred pounds from Mr.
James, for her husband's share in the business.
It is a consolation to the admirers of genius to know, that this
benefactor to his country was enabled to live in comfort, though
not in affluence, on the fruits of his invention.
JOSEPH BRAMAH,
THE INVENTOR OF THE HYDROSTATIC PRESS.
JOSEPH BRAMAH, one of the greatest mechanics England has
ever produced, was the oldest son of a small farmer, and was born
on the 13th of April, 1749, at Stainsborough, in Yorkshire. He
exhibited at a very early age an unusual talent for mechanical
contrivances, and succeeded, when quite a boy, in making two
violoncellos, which were found to be very tolerable instruments.
His hours of relaxation from the business of the farm were gene-
rally spent in a neighboring blacksmith-shop, between whose
tenant and himself was shared the merit of several ingenious
pieces of mechanism.
An accidental lameness in his ankles unfitting him for agricul-
tural labor, he was apprenticed in his sixteenth year to a carpenter
and joiner. At the expiration of his " time," he went to London
in search of employment, where, by his industry and exertions, he
soon became a master. His now extended means enabled him to
indulge his mechanical taste, and he quickly became known as a
man possessing a fine invention as well as great executive skill.
In 1784, he produced the admirable lock which bears his name,
and which was considered the most perfect mechanism of its kind
that had ever been produced, and even to this day is scarcely
rivalled for safety, durability, elegance, and simplicity. The pe-
culiar character of this lock depends on the arrangement of a
number of levers, or sliders, to preserve, when at rest, a uniform
situation, and to be only pressed down by the key to a certain
depth, which nothing but the key can ascertain, the levers not
having any stop to retain thorn in their required situation, except
JOSEPH BRAMAH.
351
that which forms part of the key. He added afterwards some
modifications, for allowing the key to be varied at pleasure. The
report that one of these locks had been readily opened before a
committee of the House of Cora."nons, by means of a common
quill, was a gross misrepresentation of the fact ; the quill having,
in reality, been previously cut into the required shape from the
true key. An experiment which was only made to show the per-
fcction of the workmanship, and the very small force requisite to
overcome the resistance when properly applied. It has been
stated that one of these locks, after having been in use many
years, and opened and locked not less than four hundred thousand
times, was apparently as perfect as when first constructed. The
invention for which he will probably be best known to posterity,
is his hydrostatic press, which is described in the succeeding para-
graph :
The principle of this machine is this : if a given pressure, as
that given by a plug forced inwards upon a square inch of the
surface of a fluid confined in a vessel, is suddenly communicated
to every square inch of the vessel's surface, however large, and
to every inch of the surface of any body immersed in it, thus
if we attempt to force a cork into a vessel full of water, the
pressure will not merely be felt by the portion of the water
directly in the range of the cork, but by all parts of the mass
alike ; and the liability of the bottle to break, supposing it to be
of uniform strength throughout, will be as great in one place as
another. And a bottle will break at the point wherever it is the
weakest, however that point may be situated relatively to the place
where the cork is applied ; and the effect will be the same whether
the stopper be inserted at the top, bottom, or side of the vessel.
It is this power which operates with such astonishing effect in the
Hydrostatic Press. The annexed engraving represents a press
made of the strongest timbers, the foundation of which is com-
monly laid in solid masonry. A B is a small cylinder, in which
moves the piston of a forcing pump, and C D is a large cylinder.
352 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
in which also moves a piston, having the upper end of its rod
pressing against a moveable plank E, between which and the
large beam above is placed the substance to be subjected to
pressure, as, for example, a pile of new-bound books. By the ac-
tion of the pump handle, water is raised into the small cylinder,
and on depressing the piston, it is forced through a valve at B into
the large cylinder, and raises the piston D, which expends its
whole force on the bodies confined at E. Now, since whatever
force is applied to any one portion of the fluid extends alike to
every part, therefore the force which is exerted by the pump upon
the smaller column, is transmitted unimpaired to every inch of
the larger column, and tends to raise the moveable plank, E, with
a force as much greater, in the aggregate, than that impressed
upon the surface of the smaller, as this surface is smaller than
that of the larger column ; or (which is the same thing) as the
number of square inches in the end of the piston B is less than
that of the piston D. The power of such a machine is enormously
great ; for supposing the hand to be applied at the end of the
handle with a force of only ten pounds, and that this handle or
lever is so constructed as to multiply that force but five times, the
force with which the smaller piston will descend will be equal to
fifty pounds ; and let us suppose that the head of the larger piston
contains the smaller fifty times, then the force exerted to raise the
press board will equal two thousand five hundred pounds. A man
can indeed easily exert ten times the force supposed, and can
then -fore exert a force upon the substance under pressure equal
to twenty-five thousand pounds !
Here, too. the mere application of the puny force of a child 1 s
arm is sufficient to tear up trees by the roots, and crush bars of
iron as though they were pieces of wax. If as an invention for
developing power it is equal in importance to the steam engine,
but unlike it, its use is not limited by any circumstances of a local
nature, for it does not depend on a consumption of any extraneous
substance whatever; two small pipes, each fitted with a piston
and a little water, which for years needs no replenishing, gives to
an ordinary man in all situations the strength of a giant.
This machine, one of the most admirable in the whole compass
of the arts, has been called, by some envious blockheads, " Pas-
caPs Machine;" and, in their descriptions, they almost say Pascal
invented it ; but that ingenious philosopher has about as much
claim to this great honor, as the old woman who first discovered
her beard and her wrinkles in her polished pewter platter, had to
be considered as the invent rcss of the Newtonian telescope !
Before Bramah's time, Bonifaces were obliged to trudge to the
JOSEPH BRAMAH. 353
cellar for every drop of the beverage they measured out to their
customers, or have their barrels placed in waiting on the same
level with their parlor. In most states of the weather this was- a
hazardous position, and in some atmospheres very injurious; but
Bramah, by his elegant "Beer Machine," enabled them to pump
up into the measure, in the bar, the fermented juice contained in
the various casks in the cellar.
Machinery for smoothing surfaces was another of his elaborate
and beautiful specimens of mechanism. It was erected at the
Woolwich Arsenal with perfect success : the axis of the principal
shaft was supported on a piston in a vessel of oil, which diminished
tlie friction considerably, and could be accurately measured by
means of a small forcing pump. He introduced also a mode of
turning spherical surfaces either convex or concave, by a tool
moveable on an axis perpendicular to that of the lathe ; and fixing
a curved tool in the same position, he cut out concentric sheets.
He also described machinery for making paper in large sheets ,
for printing by means of a roller, composed of a number of circu-
lar plates, turning on the same axis, each bearing twenty-six let-
ters capable of being shifted at pleasure, so as to express any
single line by a proper combination of the plates. This was put
in practice to number bank notes, and enable the clerks to do six
where before they could only number one.
In 1812, he produced his project for main pipes, which in some
parts was more ingenious than practicable. In describing them,
he mentions having employed an hydrostatic pressure equal to that
of a column of water twenty thousand feet high, (about four tons
for every inch.) He also asserts that he can form five hundred
tubes, each five feet long, capable of sliding within each other,
and of being extended in a few seconds, by the pressure of air
forced into them, to a length of two thousand five hundred feet ;
with this power he proposed to raise wrecks, and regulate the
descent of weights. His improvements in wheel carriages con-
sisted in fixing each wheel to a separate moveable axis, having its
bearings at two distinct points of its length, but loosely enclosed
between those points in a cylinder filled with oil ; in another, op-
posite wheels were to be fixed on the same axis, though with the
power of turning very stiffly round it to lessen the lateral motion
on rough roads ; and he suggests pneumatic springs, formed by
pistons sliding in cylinders, as a substitute for springs of metal :
latterly he improved the machines for sawing stones and timber,
and suggested some alterations in the construction of bridges and
canal locks. His last illness was occasioned by a severe cold,
354 FOREIGN MECHANICS.
taken during some experiments in tearing up of trees in a forest
He died on the 9th of December, 1814.
Bramah was a sincere and unostentatious follower of the pre-
cepts of Christianity : his conversation was animated, and to much
facility of expression he added the most perfect independence of
opinion : he was a cheerful, benevolent, and affectionate man
neat and methodical in his habits and knew well how to temper
liberality with economy. Greatly to his honor, he often kept his
workmen employed, solely for their sake, when the stagnation of
trade prevented him disposing of the products of their labor. As
a manufacturer, he was distinguished for his promptitude and in-
tegrity, and celebrated for the exquisite finish which he gave to
his productions
ANECDOTES, DESCRIPTIONS,
ETC., ETC ,
RELATING TO THE MECHANIC ARTS.
Progress of Invention illustrated.
THE progressive stages through which even some of our sim-
plest tools have to pass, ere they arrive at their final state of per-
fection, is sometimes astonishing. The simple process of drawing
a cork will furnish the necessary illustrations.
The inventor of bottles is unknown ; but these
were in use centuries before corks were thought
of, and these, again, were employed for generations
before a convenient method was hit upon for their
extraction. The exhilarating contents could then
only be tasted by what was technically called " be-
heading the bottle." More expert practitioners
had many opportunities of showing their skill in
removing the impediment by a dexterous twist
of the fingers ; or, if that were impracticable,
teeth were called in as their natural auxiliaries :
here, however, in many cases, it was doubtful
whether the cork would follow the teeth, or the
teeth remain in the cork; and if an obstinate
remnant would remain, a nail was a ready means
of dislodging the stubborn plug, particle by par-
tir'e. When at any time, through an impatience
of the nibbling labor, or a despair of accom-
plishing a clean extraction at all, it was resolved
to send the obstacle the wrong way; this was
then, indeed, an invaluable instrument. A pair
25
356 ANECDOTES,
of skewers, or forks, inserted " witchwise,"
would sometimes accomplish those difficult cases
which had baffled the exertions of all the natur
als. Twisting the .lower extremity of the " bare
bodkin" into a spiral form, and adding a handle
to it, was the thought of a master genius ; and in
this shape mankind for ages were contented to
avail themselves of its services; and even at
the present hour, some barbarous, uncouth coun-
tries and districts may be named where it is still
the extractor in most general use. In our coun-
try, it must be in the recollection of many, that
this was in numerous cases a very inefficient
machine ; and no one hostess ever before con-
ferred such a favor upon all bottle suckers as
that lady who first conceived the idea of placing
a button at the end of the screw-worm. Hence-
forth the decanting process was a mere matter
of routine. When, in her green old age, death
laid his hand on the inventress, a piratical screw-
maker also took to himself the credit and profit
of the button. Yet the fair originator shall be
ne'er forgotten, even although her master-piece,
some years later, was eclipsed, and may
yet be superseded by the King^s screw,
which can receive no addition to its beauty
or convenience.
Another illustration can be found in the
shoemaker's awl, which is a much simpler
instrument, even than the cork-screw. The
first awls were plain, conical punches, that
made a round hole in the leather. It v as
soon discovered that this form was erro-
neous, for the hole thus made was never
more thru half filled with the two waxed threads crossing each
other. Geometry leaches us that these two threads, being like
two small cii-cles enclosed by a third, occupied but one half of the
space of the hole.
The conical awl was then flattened, and had an oval form as to
its section given to it ; and some time afterwards the awl was so
filed as to give it four faces, the section being something in the
shape of a lozenge ; but still the awl was straight. Although this
straigl.tness is useful in many cases, yet it was improper in the
business of shoemaking. Suppose it were wished to sew together.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 357
i t uite close to the edge, two pieces of leather, one placed upon the
other, and that a straight awl is used ; the hole that it will make
will constantly push out the leather towards the edge and give it a
convex form, and when the sewing is done the edge will exhibit a
row of festoons, which it will be necessary to rub down by means
of a knife, in order to give a regular edge to the pieces, but which,
by this means, will lose much of its strength. Now, if, on the
contrary, a crooked awl is used, and pushed in properly, it may
be brought. very near the edge, by making it describe the arc of a
circle, whose convexity is opposite to the edge. Bv this simple
means the festooned appearance of the edge produced by the
straight awl will not be formed, and of course the strength of the
leather will be preserved undiminished, and the sewing itself will
be strong. Unfortunately, the name of the person who conceived
Ibe idea of bending tlie awl is lost.
Illustration of the Ignorance of Foreigners respecting American
Inventions,
The ignorance of foreigners in relation to our country and its
improvements in the mechanic arts, is well illustrated in the fol-
.owing conversation related by Allen, in his Travels, as having
passed between himself and a Flemish gentleman, in a stage
coach in Holland. In speaking of steam, he says :
" Our artisan was also eloquent in his eulogium upon steam
navigation, having for the first time in his life made the passage
from Rotterdam to Antwerp in the steam-packet. In a few years,
he observed, steamboats would be in use in all parts of the country,
and even in the United States of America we might not be long
without them. His surprise was great, when informed that steam-
boats were in general use on most of the large rivers of the Union,
where they were first successfully put into operation, some twenty
years ago.
" The subject of mechanical inventions having been thus intro-
duced, I described to him several of the curiously constructed
machines invented by Americans. He continued to listen to an
account of the nail machine, which cuts and hea'ls nails from a
flat bar of iron as fast as a man can count them. The machine for
making weavers 1 reeds or slaies seemed to strike attention as a won-
derful invention, whereby the mechanism is made to draw in the
flattened wire from a reel, to insert it between the side pieces, to cut
it off at the proper length, and finally, to bind each dent firmly in
Us place with tarred twine, accomplishing the whole operation
16
858 ANECDOTES,
without the assistance of an attendant, in a more perfect manner
than can be performed by the most skilful hand. He had never
before heard of these machines : although possessed of a good share
of intelligence, yet the complicated operations of the mechanism
for accomplishing processes which he supposed could only be
brought about by manual dexterity, appeared to him almost in-
credible. But when I described to him Blanchard^s Lathe, in
which gun-stocks and shoe-lasts, with all their irregularity of out-
line, are turned exactly to a pattern, his confidence in my veracity
seemed evidently wavering, and on giving him a description of
Whtltemores celebrated card machine, which draws off the wire
from the reel, cuts it into pieces of the proper length for teeth,
bends it into the form of a staple, punctures the holes in the
leather with a needle, inserts the staples into these punctured
holes in the leather, and finally, crooks the teeth into the required
form, completing of itself all those operations with regularity with-
out the assistance of a human hand to direct it, the credulity of my
travelling companion would extend no farther. He' manifested
doubts of all that I had been describing to him, accompanied by
feelings of irritation at what he appeared to consider an attempt to
impose upon him marvellous travellers 1 stories.
" Giving vent to an emphatic humph ! he petulantly threw him.
self back into the corner of the diligence, and would hold no far.
ther conversation during the remainder of our ride, on the subject
of mechanical improvements made in Flemish manufactures. 11
Singular Origin of the Invention of Frame-work Knitting.
The stocking frame, to any one who attentively considers its
complex operations, and the elegant sleight with which it forms its
successive rows of loops or stitches, will appear to be the most ex-
traordinary single feat, the most remarkable stride, ever made in
mechanical invention.
In the StocKing Weavers 1 Hall, in Red Cross street London,
there is a portrait of a man, painted in the act of pointing to an iron
stocking frame, and addressing a woman, who .? knitting with
needles by hand. The picture bears the following quaint inscrip-
tion : " In the year 1589, the ingenious William Lee, A. M., of
St. John's College, Cambridge, devised this profitable art fur stock-
ings, (but being despised went to France,) yet of iron to himself,
but to us, and to others, of gold ; in memory of whom this is here
painted. 11
This machine was constructed somewhere about the year 1600.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 359
It was only about thirty years prior to its construction, that the art
of knitting stockings, by wires worked by the fingers, had been
introduced into England from Spain.
This Mr. Lee, it is said, paid his addresses to a young woman
in his neighborhood, to whom, from some cause, his attentions were
not agreeable ; or, as with more probability it has been conjectured,
she affected to treat him with negligence to ascertain her power
over his affections. Whenever he paid his visits she always took
care to be busily employed in knitting, and would pay no attention
to his addresses ; this conduct she pursue d for so long a period,
that the lover became disgusted, and he vowed to devote his leisure,
instead of dancing attendance on a capricious woman, who treated
his attention with cold neglect, in devising an invention that would
effectually supersede her favorite employment of knitting. So se-
dulous was Mr. Lee in his new occupation, that he neglected every
thing to accomplish this new object of his attentions ; even his
sacerdotal duties were neglected. In vain did his sweetheart en-
deavor to reclaim him ; she found too late that she had carried her
humor to far. All interests, all avocations, all affections were
absorbed in his new pursuit, from which he imagined he should
realize an immense fortune. His curacy was abandoned as be-
neath the notice of a person who had formed in his imagination
such gigantic prospects.
The old stocking makers were fond of dilating in their cups
and in their conversation on the difficulties he encountered. He
watched his mistress with the greatest attention while knitting, and
he observed that she made the web loop by loop, but the round
shape which she gave to the stocking from the four needles, greatly
embarrassed him in his notions of destroying her trade. Pondering
in his mind the difficulties of his task, on one of his visits he found
her knitting the heel of a stocking, and using only two needles ; one
was employed in holding the loops, while another was engaged in
forming a new series. The thought struck him instantly that he
could make a flat web, and then by joining the selvages with the
needle, make it round. At the end of three years 1 excessive study
and toil, Mr. Lee was enabled to make a course upon a frame ; but
her n^ v difficulties presented themselves ; he wrought with great
facility tiio top, the narrowings, and the small of the leg, but the
formation of the heel and foot embarrassed the ingenious mechanic,
who had surmounted such seeming insuperable difficulties. After
having to unreave a great number of abortive attempts, persever-
ance at length crowned his efforts, the clergyman attained the
height of his wishes, and became the first frame -work knitter.
He brought the machine to such perfection that even to 'the pre
25*
360 ANECDOTES,
sent time it has received no essential improvements. Having
taught its use to his brother and the rest of his relations, he estab-
lished his frame at Culverton, near Nottingham, as a formidable
competitor of female handiwork, teaching his mistress, by the in-
significance to which he reduced the implements of her pride, that
the love of a man of genius was not to be slighted with impunity.
After practising this business for five years, he became aware
of its importance in a national point of view, and brought his inven-
tion to London, to seek protection and encouragement from the
court, by whom his fab. ics were much admired. The period of
his visit was not propitious. Elizabeth, the patroness of whatever
ministered to her vanity as a woman, and her state as a princess,
was in the last stage of her decline. Her successor was too deeply
engrossed with political intrigues for securing the stability of his
throne, to be able to afford any leisure to cherish an infant manu-
facture. Nay, though Lee and his brother made a pair pf stock-
ings in the presence of the king, it is said he viewed their frame
rather as a dangerous innovation, likely to deprive the poor of labor
and bread, rather than as a means of multiplying the resources of
national industry and giving employment to many thousand people.
The encouragement which the narrow-minded James refused
was offered by the French king Henry IV., and his sagacious min-
ister Sully. They invited Lee to come to France with his admi-
rable machines. Thither he accordingly repaired, and settled at
Rouen, and gave an impulse to manufactures, which is even felt
to the present day in that department. After Henry had fallen a
victim to domestic treachery, Lee, envied by the natives whose
genius he had eclipsed, was proscribed as a protestant, and obliged
to seek concealment from the bloody bigots in Paris, where he
ended his days in secret grief and disappointment. Some of his
workmen made their escape into England, where, under his in-
genious apprentice Aston, they mounted the stocking frame, and
thus restored to its native country an invention which had well
nigh been lost to it.
Ancient and Modern Labor.
The great Pyramid of Egypt cost the labor of one hundred thousand
men for twenty years, exclusive of those who prepared and collected
the materials. The steam engines of England, alone, worked by
thirty-six thousand men, would raise the same quantity of materials
to the same heig*ht in eighteen hours, which reckoning ten houra
to the day, and three hundred working days to the year, would
enable the moderns to erect over 3,000 pyramids in the same time
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 861
The Slide of Alpnacli.
Amongst the forests which flank many of the lofty mountains
of Switzerland, some of the finest timber is found in positions al-
most inaccessible. The expense of roads, even if it were possible
to make them in such situations, would prevent the inhabitants
from deriving any advantages from these almost inexhaustible sup-
plies. Placed by nature at a considerable elevation above the spot
on which they are required, they are precisely in fit circumstances
for the application of machinery ; and the inhabitants constantly
avail themselves of it, to enable the force of gravity to relieve them
from some portion of their labor. The inclined planes which they
have established in various forests, by which the timber has been
sent down to the water-courses, must have excited the admiration
of every traveller ; and these slides, in addition to the merit of
simplicity, have that of economy, as their construction requires
scarcely any thing beyond the material which grows upon the spot
Of all these specimens of carpentry, the Slide of Alpnach was by
far the most considerable, both from its great length, and from the
almost inaccessible position from which it descended. The foK
lowing is the description of that work given in Gilbert's An-
nalen, 1819, and translated in the second volume of Brewster's
Journal :
For many centuries, the rugged flanks and the deep gorges of
Mount Pilatus were covered with impenetrable forests. Lofty pre-
cipices encircled them on all sides. Even the daring hunters were
scarcely able to reach them ; and the inhabitants of the valley had
never conceived the idea of disturbing them with the axe. These
immense forests were therefore permitted to grow and to perish,
without being of the least utility to man, till a foreigner, conduct-
ed into their wild recesses in the pursuit of the chamois, was struck
with wonder at the sight, and directed the attention of several Swiss
gentlemen to the extent and superiority of the timber. The most
intelligent and skilful individuals, however, considered it quite im-
practicable to avail themselves of such inaccessible stores. It was
not till November, 1816, that M. Rupp, and three Swiss gentlemen,
entertaining more sanguine hopes, drew up a plan of a slide, found-
ed on trigonometrical measurements. Having purchased a certain
extent of the forests from the commune of Alpnach for six thou-
sand crowns, they began the construction of the slide, and comple-
ted it in the spring of 1818.
The Slide of Alpnach is formed entirely of about 25,000 large
pine trees, deprived of their bark, and united together in a very
ingenious manner, without the aid of iron. It occupied about one
'262 ANECDOTES,
hu.idred and sixty workmen during eighteen months, and cost nearly
one hundred thousand francs, or JE4250. It is about three leagues,
or forty-four thousand English feet long, and terminates in the
Lake of Lucerne. It has the form of a trough, about six feet
broad, and from three to six feet deep. Its bottom is formed of
three trees, the middle one of which has a groove cut out in the
direction of its length, for receiving small rills of water, which are
conducted into it from various places, for the purpose of diminish,
ing the friction. The whole of the slide is sustained by about two
thousand supports ; and in many places it is attached, in a very
ingenious manner, to the rugged precipices of granite.
The direction of the slide is sometimes straight, and sometimes
^ig-zag, with an inclination of from 10 to 18. It is often car-
. led along the sides of hills, and the flanks of precipitous rocks,
and sometimes passes over their summits. Occasionally it goes
under ground, and at other times it is conducted over the deep gor-
ges by scaffoldings one hundred and twenty feet in height.
The boldness which characterizes this work, the sagacity dis-
played in all its arrangements, and the skill of the engineer, have
excited the wonder of all who have seen it. Before any step could
be taken in its erection, it was necessary to cut several thousand
trees, to obtain a passage through the impenetrable thickets ; and,
as the workmen advanced, men were posted at certain distances,
in order to point out the road for their return, and to discover, in
the gorges, the places where the piles of wood had been estab-
lished. M. Rupp was himself obliged, more than once, to be sus-
pended by cords, in order to descend precipices many hundred feet
high ; and, in the first months of the undertaking, he was attacked
with a violent fever, which deprived him of the power of superin-
tending his workmen. Nothing, however, could diminish his in-
vincible perseverance. He was carried every day to the mountain
in a barrow, to direct the labors of the workmen, which was abso-
lutely necessary, as he had scarcely two good carpenters among
them all ; the rest having been hired by accident, without any of
the knowledge which such an undertaking required. M. Rupp had
also to contend against the prejudices of the peasantiy. He was
supposed to have communion with the devil. He was charged with
heresy, and every obstacle was thrown in the way of an enterprise
wtiich they regarded as absurd and impracticable.
All these difficulties, however, were surmounted, and he had at
.ast the satisfaction of observing the trees descend from the moun-
tain with the rapidity of lightning. The larger pines, which were
Uxiut a hundred feet long, and ten inches thick ut their smaller ex-
Iremity, ran through the space of three leagiies, or nearly nine mile*
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 363
m two minutes and a half, and during their descent, they appeared
to be only a few feet in length. The arrangements for this part
of the operation were extremely simple. From the lower end of
the slide to the upper end, where the trees were introduced, work,
men were posted at regular distances, and as soon as every thing
was ready, the workman at the lower end of the slide cried out to
the one above him, ' Lachez," 1 (let go.) The cry was repeated from
one to another, and reached the top of the slide in three minutes.
The workman at the top of the slide then cried out to the one be-
low him, * // vient," 1 (it comes,) and the tree was instantly launched
down the slide, preceded by the cry which was repeated from post
to post. As soon as the tree had reached the bottom, and plunged
into the lake, the cry of Lachez was repeated as before, and a new
tree was launched in a similar manner. By these means a tree
descended every five or six minutes, provided no accident happened
to the slide, which sometimes took place, but which was instantly
repaired when it did.
In order to show the enormous force which the trees acquired
from the great velocity of their descent, M. Rupp made arrange-
ments for causing some of the trees to spring from the slide. They
penetrated by their thickest extremities no less than from eighteen
to twenty-four feet into the earth ; and one of the trees having by
accident struck against the other, it instantly cleft it through its
whole length, as if it had been struck by lightning.
After the trees had descended the slide, they were collected into
rafts upon the lake, and conducted to Lucerne. From thence they
descended the Reuss, then the Aar to near Brugg, afterwards to
Waldshut by the Rhine, then to Basle, and even to the sea when it
was necessary.
In order that none of the small wood might be lost, M. Rupp
established in the forest large manufactories of charcoal. He
erected magazines for preserving it when manufactured, and had
made arrangements for the construction of barrels, for the purpose
of carrying it to the market. In winter, when the slide was cov-
ered with snow, the barrels were made to descend on a kind of
sledge. The wood which was not fit for being carbonized, was
heaped up and burnt, and the ashes packed up and carried away,
during the winter.
A few days before the author of the preceding account visited
the slide, an inspector of the navy had come for the purpose of ex.
amining the quality of the timber. He declared that he had never
seen any timber that was so strong, so fine, and of such a size ,
and he concluded an advantageous bargain for one thousand trees.
Such is a brief account of a work undei taken and executed by
364 ANECDOTES,
a single individual, and which has excited a very high degree oi
interest in every part of Europe: We regret to add, that this mag
nificent structure no longer exists, and that scarcely a trace of u is to
be seen upon the flanks of Mount Pilatus. Political circumstance*
having taken away the principal source of the demand for timber,
and no other market having been found, the operation of cutting
and transporting the trees necessarily ceased.
Professor Playfair, who visitec this singular slide, states, that
six minutes was the usual time occupied in the descent of a tree,
but that in wet weather it reached the lake in three minutes.
American Road-making.
" Road-making* is a branch of engineering which has been
very little cultivated in America ; and it was not until the intro-
duction of railways- that the Americans entertained the idea of
transporting heavy goods by any other means than those afforded
by canals and slack water navigation. Their objection to paved
or Macadamized roads such as are used in Europe, is founded on
the prejudicial effects exerted upon works of that description by
the severe and protracted winters by which the country is visited,
and also the difficulty and expense of obtaining materials suitable
for their construction, and for keeping them in a state of proper
repair. Stone fitted for the purposes of road-making is by no
means plentiful in America ; and as the number of workmen is
small in proportion to the quantity of work which is generally
going forward in the country, manual labor is very expensive.
Under these circumstances, it is evident that roads would have
been a very costly means of communication, and as they are no;
suitable for the transport of heavy goods, the Americans, in com
mencing their internal improvements, directed their whole atten
tion to the construction of canals, as being much better adapted to
supply their wants.
" The roads throughout the United States and Canada are, from
these causes, not very numerous, and most of those by which 1
travelled were in so neglected and wretched a condition as hardly
to deserve the name of highways, being quite unfit for any vehicle
but an American stage, and any pilot but an American driver. In
many parts of the country, the operation of cutting a track through
the forests of a sufficient width to allow vehicles to pass each other,
is all that has been done towards the formation of a road. The
* Stevenson's Engineering in North America
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC, 30 5
..oots of the felled trees are often not removed ; and in marshes,
where the ground is wet and soft, the trees themselves are cut iu
lengths of about ten or twelve feet, and laid close to each other
across the road, to prevent vehicles from sinking, forming what is
called in America a ' Corduroy road," 1 over which the coach ad-
vances by a series of leaps and starts, particularly trying to those
accustomed to the comforts of European travelling.
" On the road leading from Pittsburg on the Ohio to the town
of Erie on the lake of that name, I saw all the varieties of forest
road-making in great perfection. Sometimes our way lay fc'
miles through extensive marshes, which we crossed by corduroy
roads ; at others the coach stuck fast in mud, from which it could
be extricated only by the combined efforts of the coachman and
passengers ; and at one place we travelled for upwards of a quar-
ter of a mile through a forest flooded with water, which stood to
the height of several feet on many of the trees, and occasionally
covered the naves of the coach-wheels. The distance of the route
from Pittsburg to Erie is 128 miles, which was accomplished in'
forty-six hours, being at the very slow rate of about two miles and
three quarters an hour, although the conveyance by which I trav-
elled carried the mail, and stopped only for breakfast, dinner, and
tea, but there was considerable delay caused by the coach being
,tnce upset and several times ' mired.'
" The best roads in the United States are those of New Eng-
land, where, in the year 1796, the first American turnpike act was
granted. These roads are made of gravel ; a material which, by
the way. is much used for road-making in Ireland. The surface
of the New England roads is very smooth ; but as no attention
has been paid to forming or draining them, it is only for a few
rrenths during summer that they possess any superiority, or are,
in fact, at all tolerable. In Virginia and all the states lying to the
south, as well as throughout the whole country to the westward of
the Allcchany mountains, the roads, I believe, are, generally speak-
ing, of the same description as the one already mentioned between
Pittsburg and Erie, affording very little comfort or facility to those
who have the misfortune to be obliged to travel upon them.
" But on the construction of one or two lines of road, the Ameri-
cans have bestowed a little more attention. The most remarkable
of them is that called the ' National Road, 1 stretching across the
country from Baltimore to the state of Illinois, a distance of no less
than seven hundred miles, an arduous and extensive work, which
was constructed at the expense of the government of the United
States. The narrow tract of land from which it was necessary
to remove the timber and brushwood for the passage of the road,
1G
366 ANECDOTES,
measures eighty feet in breadth ; but the breadth of the roid itsetf
is only thirty feet. The line of the ' National Road ' commences
at Baltimore, passes through part of the state of Maryland, and
entering that of Pennsylvania, crosses the range of the Alleghany
mountains, after which it passes through the states of Virginia,
Ohio, and Indiana, to Illinois. It is in contemplation to produce
\his line of road to the Mississippi at St. Louis, where, the river
oeing crossed by a ferry-boat stationed at that place, the road is
ultimately to be extended into the state of Missouri, which lies to
the west of the Mississippi.
" The ' Macadamized road, 1 as it is called, leading from Albany
to Troy, is another line which has been formed at some cost, and
with some degree of care. This road, as its name implies, is
constructed with stone broken, according to Macadam's principle.
It is six miles in length, and has been formed of a sufficient
breadth to allow three carriages to stand abreast on it at once. It
belongs to an incorporated company, who are said to have ex-
pended about 20,000 in constructing and upholding it.
" Some interesting experiments have lately been set on foot at
New York, for the purpose of obtaining a permanent and durable
city road, for streets over which there is a great thoroughfare.
The place chosen for the trial was the Broadway, in which the
traffic is constant and extensive.
" The specimen of road-making first put to the test was a spe-
cies of causewaying or pitching ; but the materials employed are
round water- worn stones, of small size ; and their only recom-
mendation for such a work appears to be their great abundance in
the neighborhood of the town. The most of the streets in New
York, and indeed in all the American towns, are paved with stones
of this description ; but, owing to their small size and round form,
they easily yield to the pressure of carriages passing over them,
and produce the large ruts and holes for which American thorough-
fares are famed. To form a smooth and durable pavement, the
pitching-stones should have a considerable depth, and their oppo-
site sides ought to be as nearly parallel as possible, or, in other
words, the stones should have very little taper. The footpaths in
most of the towns are paved with bricks set on edge, and bedded
in sand, similar to the ' clinkers, 1 or small hard-burned bricks so
generally used for road-making in Holland.
" The second specimen was formed with broken stones, but the
materials, owing chiefly, no doubt, to the high rate of wages, are
not broken sufficiently small" to entitle it to the name of a ' Mac-
adamized road. 1 It is, however, a wonderful improvement on the
ordinary pitched pavement of the coury ry, and the only objections
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 36?
to its general introduction are the prejudicial effects produced on
i* by the very intense frost with which the country is visited, and
the expense of keeping it in repair.
" The third specimen is rather of
an original description. It consists
of a species of tesselated pavement,
formed of hexagonal billets of pine
wood measuring six inches on each
side, and twelve inches in depth
arranged as shown in the annexed
cut, in which the larger diagram is a view of part of the surface
of the pavement, and the smaller, one of the billets of wood of
which it is composed, shown on a larger scale. From the manner
in which the timber is arranged, the pressure falls on it parallel to
the direction in which its fibres lie, so that the tendency to wear is
very small. The blocks are coated with pitch or tar, and are set
in sand, forming a smooth surface for carriages, which pass easily
and noiselessly over it.* There can be no doubt of the suitableness
of wood for forming a roadway ; and such an improvement is cer-
tainly much wanted in all American towns, and in none of them
more than in New York. Some, however, have expressed a fear
that great difficulty would be experienced in keeping pavements
constructed in this manner in a clean state, and that during damp
weather a vapor might arise from the timber, which, if it were
brought into general use, would prove hurtful to the salubrity of
large f>wns.
" In the no.thern parts of Germany and also in Russia, wooden
pavements are a good deal used. My friend Dr. D. B. Reid in-
forms me, that at St. Petersburg a wooden causeway has been tried
with considerable success. The billets of wood are hexagonal, and
are arranged in the manner represented in the diagram of the
American pavement. At first they were simply imbedded in the
ground, but a great improvement has been introduced by placing
them on a flooring of planks laid horizontally, so as to prevent
them from sinking unequally. This has not, so far as I know
been done in America. 11
Archimedes.
This celebrated philosopher of antiquity was a native of Syra
tuse in Sicily, and is supposed to have been born about two hun-
ired and eighty years before the commencement of the Christian
368 ANECDOTES,
In proof of Archimedes 1 knowledge of the doctrines of specific
gravities, a singular fact is related in Vitruvius. Hiero, king of
S\ racuse, suspecting that in niukii.g a golden crown which he had
ordered, the workmen hud stolen part of the gold, and substituted
in its stead an equal weight of silver, he applied to Archimedes,
entreating him to exercise his ingenuity in detecting the fuuid.
Contemplating the subject one day as he was in the bath, it occur-
rea to him that he displaced a quantity of water equal to the bulk
of his own body. Quitting the bath with that eager and impetu-
ous delight which a new discovery naturally excites in an inquisitive
mind, he r.tn naked into the street, crving, Eureka! Eureka! [1
have found it out ! I have found it out !] Procuring a mass ot
gold, and another of silver, each of equal weight with the crown,
he observed the quantity of fluid which each displaced, succes-
sively, upon being inserted in the same vessel full of water ; he
then oi-served how much water was displaced by the crown ; and,
upon comparing this quantity with each of the former, soon learn-
ed the proportions of silver and gold in the' crown
In mechanics and optics the inventive powers of Archimedes
were astonishing. He said, with apparent, but only apparent, ex-
travagance, " Give me a place to stand upon, and I will move the
tartk;" for he perfectly understood tho doctrine of the lever, and
well knew, that, theoretically, the greatest weight may be moved
by the smallest power. To show Hiero the wonderful effect of
ruecnanic powers, he is said, by the help of ropes and pulleys, to
have drawn towards him, with perfect ease, a galley which lay on
shoie, manned and loaded. But the grand proofs of his skill were
given during the siege of Syracuse by Marcellus. Whether the
vesselu of the besiegers approached near the walls of the city, or
kept at a considerable distance, Archimedes found means to annoy
them. When they ventured closely under the rampart raised on
the side towards the sea, he, by means of long and vast beams,
probably hung in the form of a lever, struck with prodigious force
upon the galleys, and sunk them : or by means of grappling hooks
at the remote extremity of other levers, he caught up the vessels
into the air, and dashed them to pieces against the walls or the
projecting rocks. When the enemy kept at a greater distance,
Archimedes made use of machines, by which he threw from be-
hind the walls stones in vast masses, or great numbers, which shat-
tered and demolished the ships or the machines employed in the
siege. This mathematical Briareus, as Marcellus jestingly called
him, employed his hundred arms with astonishing effect. His me-
chanical genius was the informing soul of the besieged city ; and
his powerful weapons struck the astonished Romans with terror
INSCRIPTIONS, ETC. 359
One, in particular, consisting of a mirror, by which he concentra.
ted the rays of the sun upon the besieging vessels and set them or.
fire, must have produced an extraordinary impression upon those
who suffered from it, seeing that it was of so wonderful a charac-
ter as to be thought a fiction by subsequent ages, until its reality
was proved by the repetiton of the experiment. Buffon contrived
ind made a burning-glass, composed of about four hundred glass
olanes, each six inches square, so placed as to form a concave
mirror, capable of melting silver at the distance of fifty feet, and
lead and tin at the distance of one hundred and twenty feet, and of
setting fire to wood at the distance of two hundred feet ; and the
story of Archimedes 1 instrument for burning ships at a great dis-
tance was no longer ridiculed.
Eminent as Archimedes was for his skill and invention in me-
chanics, his chief excellence, perhaps, lay in the rare talent which
ne possessed of investigating abstract truths, and in inventing con-
clusive demonstrations in the higher branches of pure geometry.
[f we are to credit the representation of Plutarch, he looked upon
mechanic inventions as far inferior in value to those intellectual
speculations which terminate in simple truth, and carry with them
irresistible conviction. Of his success in these lucubrations, the
world is still in possession of admirable proofs in the geometrical
treatises which he left behind him. Of the unremitting ardor with
which he devoted himself to mathematical studies, and the deep
attention with which he pursued them, his memoirs afford striking
and interesting examples. It is related of him, that he was often
so totally absorbed in mathematical speculations, as to neglect his
meals and the care of his person. At the bath he would frequent-
ly draw geometrical figures in the ashes, or, when according to
the custom he was anointed, upon his own body. He was so much
delighted with the discovery of the ratio between the sphere and
the containing cylinder, that, passing over all his mechanic inven-
tions, as a memorial of this discovery, he requested his friends to
place upon his tomb a cylinder, containing a sphere, with an in-
scription expressing the proportion which the containing solid bears
to the contained.
No sincere admirer of scientific merit will read without painful
regret, that when Syracuse, after all the defence which philosophy
had afforded it, was taken by storm, and given up to the sword,
notwithstanding the liberal exception which Marcellus had made
in favor of Archimedes, by giving orders that his house and his per-
son should be held sacred, at a moment when this great man was
so intent upon some mathematical speculation as not to perceive
that the city was taken, and even when, according to Cicero, ha
870 ANECDOTES,
was actually drawing a geometrical figure upon the sand, an igno
rant barbarian, in the person of a Roman soldier, without allowing
him the satisfaction of completing the solution of his problem, ran
him through the body. This event, so disgraceful to the Roman
character and to human nature, happened two hundred and twelve
years before Christ. It was a poor compensation for the insult
offered by this action to science in the person of one of her most
favored sons, that Marcellus, in the midst of his triumphal laurels,
lamented the fate of Arclvmedes, and, taking upon himself the
charge of his funeral, protected and honored his relations. The
disgrace was in some measure cancelled, when Cicero, a hundred
and forty years afterwards, paid homage to his forgotten tomb.
" During my qusestorship," says this illustrious Roman, " I dili-
gently sought to discover the sepulchre of Archimedes /hich the
Syracusans had totally neglected, and suffered to be grown over
with thorns and briers. Recollecting some verses, said to be in-
scribed upon the tomb, which mentioned that on the top was placed
a sphere with a cylinder, I looked round me upon every object at
the Agragentine Gate, the common receptacle of the dead. At
last I observed a little column which just rose above the thorns,
upon which was placed the figure of a sphere and cylinder. This,
said I to the Syracusan nobles who were with me, this must, I think,
be what I am seeking. Sevei-al persons were immediately employed
to clear away the weeds and lay open the spot. As soon as a pas-
sage was opened, we drew near, and found on the opposite base the
inscription, with nearly half the latter part of the verses worn
away. Thus would this most famous, and formerly most learned
city of Greece, have remained a stranger to the tomb of one of its
most ingenious citizens, had it not been discovered by a man of
Arpinum."
The Inventor of the Iron Plough.
Since the beginning of the present century, the wooden plough
has very generally been supplanted in Scotland, and in a consider-
able degree in England, America, and other parts of the world, by
a similar implement formed of iron. This change, indeed, is irre-
sistible, as not only is the latter implement more durable, but, being
lighter, more convenient, and less liable to get out of order, it pro-
duces a great saving in time and labor.
We have been informed that the author of this great and sudden
improvement upon a machine which may be said to have continu-
ed unchanged for thousands of years, was William Allan, of Stone-
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 37!
house, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, a man of considerable activity of
mind, and inventive genius, but in all other respects a simple and
unambitious peasant. He was the son of a country farrier and
smith, and brought up as a farmer. Falling, at his father's death,
into the possession of his tools, he was led, by a natural bent towards
the mechanical arts, to attempt various improvements upon the
rustic implements which he used. In the winter of 1803-4, he
first conceived the daring idea of altering the material of the plough
to iron, and with his own hands constructed one of that metal,
which he thenceforward used on his own farm. " William Allan's
Iron Plough," instantly acquired local fame, and people came from
all parts of the district to see it. Its celebrity continued to extend,
until enlightened persons at a distance heard of it, and were also
attracted in considerable numbers to witness its operations. Mr.
Campbell of Shawfield was the first patron of agricultural improve-
ment who ventured to have one made. He thought it would be a
suitable implement for his Highland farms, and requested Allan to
make one for him, with the view of having others if the first should
give satisfaction. But Allan, though a constant dabbler in iron
work, could not allow himself -to think so well of his abilities in
that line, as to undertake the construction of a plough for so great
a man as Mr. Campbell ; and he recommended that Mr. Gray, a
respectable blacksmith at the neighboring village of Uddingston,
should be employed to execute the job.
Gray accordingly made an iron plough for Mr. Campbell, under
the directions of the inventor ; and the article being found satis-
factory, he was immediately employed to make others. Ere long,
orders came so fast upon him for iron ploughs, that, not having suf-
ficient capital for his increased business, he was obliged to take in
a moneyed partner. For some time the manufacture of iron ploughs
was limited to this little village ; but at length other artificers
throughout the kingdom ventured to make them too, and, in time,
they were found universally diffused. As might be expected, sev-
eral improvements were made upon the first comparatively rude
attempt of William Allan ; but the principle in all cases remained
unaltered. In the mean time, while so many were profiting by
the manufacture of the art'cle, and while the whole nation was a
gainer by its economy anc. durability, the simple inventor remain-
ed in his obscurity, contented with the reflection that he had done
his co\ utry some service.
372 ANECDOTES,
Cotton manufacture of India.
The cotton manufacture of India is not carried on in a few
large towns, or in one or two districts ; it is universal. The
growth of cotton is nearly as general as that of food ; everywhere
the women spend their time in spinning, and almost every village
contains its weavers, who supply the inhabitants with the scanty
clothing they require. Being a domestic manufacture, and carried
on with the rudest and cheapest apparatus, it requires neither
capital or mills, nor an assemblage of various trades. The cotton
is separated from the seeds by a small rude hand-mill or gin, which
is turned by a woman. This mill consists of two rollers of teak-
wood fluted lengthwise, with five or six grooves, and revolving
nearly in contact. The upper roller is turned by a handle, and
the lower is carried along with it by means of a perpetual screw
at the axis. The cotton is put in at one side, and drawn through
by the revolving rollers ; the seeds being too large to pass through
the opening, are torn off and fall down on the opposite side from
the cotton. The next operation is that of bowing the cotton, to
clear it from knots and dirt. A large bow, made elastic by a
complication of strings, is used ; this being put in contact with a
heap of cotton, the workman strjkes the string with a heavy wooden
mallet, and its vibrations open the knots of the cotton, shake from
it the dirt, and raise it to a downy fleece. The hand-mill and bow
have been used immemorially throughout all the countries of Asia.
The cotton being thus prepared, without any carding, it is spun by
the women ; the coarse yarn is spun" on a heavy one-thread wheel
of the rudest carpentry, made of teak-wood.
llfDIAX SPIXMNG-\VI
The finer yarn is spun with a metallic spindle, sometimes with
and sometimes without a distafF; a bit of clay is attached as a
HINDOOS WEAVING.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 375
weight to one end of the spindle, which is turned round with the
left hand while the cotton is supplied with the right ; the thread
is wound up on a small piece of wood. The spinster keeps her
fingers dry by the use of a chalky powder. In this simple way
the Indian women, whose sense of touch is most acute and deli-
cate, produce yarns which are finer and far more tenacious than
any of the machine spun yarns of Europe.
The yarn having been reeled and warped in the simplest pos-
sible manner, is given to the weaver, whose loom is as rude an
apparatus as can be imagined ; consisting merely of two bamboo
rollers for the warp and web, and a pair of gear. The shuttle
performs the double office of shuttle and batten, and for this pur-
pose is made like a large netting needle, and of a length somewhat
exceeding the breadth of the piece. This apparatus the weaver
carries to a tree, under which he digs a hole large enough to con-
tain his legs and the lower part of his gear. He then stretches
his warp by fastening the bamboo rollers at a due distance from
each other on the turf by wooden pins ; the balances of the gear
he fastens to some convenient branch of the. tree over his head ;
two loops underneath the gear, into which he inserts his great toes,
serve instead of treadles, and his long shuttle, which also performs
the office of batten, draws the weft through the warp, and after-
wards strikes it up close to the web. There is not so much as an
expedient for rolling up the warp ; it is stretched out at the full
length of the web, which makes the house of the weaver insuffi-
cient to contain him. He is therefore obliged to work continually
in the open air, and every return of inclement weather interrupts
him.
It cannot but seem astonishing, that in a department of industry
where the raw material is so grossly neglected, the machinery so
rude, and the division of labor so little, that the results should be
fabrics of the most exquisite delicacy and beauty, unrivalled by
the products of other nations, even those best skilled in the me-
chanic arts. This anomaly is explained by the remarkably fine
sense of touch possessed by that effeminate people, their patience
and gentleness, and by the hereditary continuance of a particular
species of manufacture in families through many generations,
which leads to the training of children from their very infancy in
the processes of the art. The rigid, clumsy fingers of an European
would scarcely be able to make a piece of canvass with the instru-
ments which are all that an Indian employs in making a piece of
cambric (muslin.) It is farther remarkable, that every distinct
kind of cloth is the production of a particular district, in which thu
fabric has been transmitted, perhaps for centuries, from father to
376 ANECDOTES,
son. The unequalled manual skill of the Indian weaver may be
thus explained : It is a sedentary occupation, and thus in har-
mony with his predominant inclination ; it requires patience, of
which he has an inexhaustible fund ; it requires little bodily exer-
tion, of which he is always exceedingly sparing ; and the finer
the production, the more slender the force he is called upon to
apply. But this is not all : the weak and delicate frame of the
Hindoo is accompanied with an acuteness of external sense, par-
ticularly of touch, which is altogether unrivalled, and the flexibility
of his fingers is equally remarkable. The hand of the Hindoo,
therefore, constitutes an organ adapted to the finest operations of
the loom, in a degree which is almost, or altogether, peculiar to
himself.
It is, then, to a physical organization in the natives, admirably
suited to the processes of spinning and weaving ; to the possession
of the raw material in the greatest abundance ; to the possession,
also, of the most brilliant dyes for staining and printing the cloth ;
to a climate that renders the colors lively and durable ; and to the
hereditary practice by particular castes, classes, and families, both
of the manual and chemical processes required in the manufac-
ture ; it is to these causes, with very little aid from science, and
in an almost barbarous state of the mechanical arts, that India
owes her long supremacy in the manufacture of cotton.
One fact strikingly manifests the national character of this
people. It is said that all the Indian weavers, who weave for
common sale, make the woof of one end of the cloth coarser than
that of the other, and attempt to sell to the unwary by the fine end,
although almost every one who deals with them is perfectly aware
of the circumstance ; and it is, therefore, a rare chance if a single
opportunity occurs to the weaver to gain by this means during the
whole course of his life !
Description of the Bridge at the Niagara Falls.
The bridge across the rapids of the river Niagara is placed
only two or three hundred yards from the edge of the great falls.
It extends from the American bank of the river to Goat Island,
which separates what is called the " American " from the " British
fall. 11 The superstructure of the bridge is formed of timber. It
is 396 feet in length, and is supported on six piers, formed partly
of stone and partly of wood. When I visited the falls of Niagara
in the month of May, the ice carried down from Lake Erie by the
rapids of the river was rushing past the piers of this bridge witiv
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 377
a degree of violence that was quite terrific, and seemed every
moment to threaten their destruction.
The following very interesting account of this work is given by
Captain Hall :
" The erection of such a bridge at such a place is a wonderful
effort of boldness and skill, and does the projector and artist, Judge
Porter, the highest honor as an engineer. This is the second
bridge of the kind ; but the first being built in the still water at
the top of the rapids, the enormous sheets of ice, drifted from
Lake Erie, soon demolished the work, and carried it over the
falls. Judge Porter, however, having observed that the ice in
passing along the rapids was speedily broken into small pieces,
fixed his second bridge much lower down, at a situation never
reached by the larger masses of ice.
" The essential difficulty was to establish a foundation for his
piers on the bed of a river covered with huge blocks of stone, and
over which a torrent was dashing at the rate of six or seven miles
an hour. He first placed two long beams, extending from the
shore horizontally forty or fifty feet over the rapids, at the height
of six or eight feet, and counterbalanced by a load at the inner
ends. These were about two yards asunder; but light planks
being laid across, men were enabled to walk along them in safety.
Their extremities were next supported by upright bare passed
through holes in the ends, and resting on the ground. A strong
open frame-work of timber, not unlike a wild beast's cage, but
open at top and bottom, was then placed in the water immediately
under the ends of the beams. This being loaded with stones, was
gradually sunk till some one part of it no matter which touched
the rocks lying on the bottom. As soon as it was ascertained that
this had taken place, the sinking operation was arrested, and a
series of strong planks, three inches in thickness, were placed,
one after the other, in' the river, in an upright position, and touch-
ing the inner sides of the frame-work. These planks, or upright
posts, were now thrust downwards till they obtained a firm lodg-
ment among the stones at the bottom of the river ; and, being then
securely bolted to the upper part of the frame- work, might be con-
sidered parts of it. As each plank reached to the ground, it acted
as a leg, and gave the whole considerable stability, while the water
flowed freely through openings about a foot wide, left between the
p.anks.
" This great frame or box, being then filled with large stones
tumbled in from above, served the purpose of a nucleus to a larger
pier built round it, of much stronger timbers firmly bolted together,
and so arranged as to form an outer case, distant from the first pier
378 ANECDOTES,
about three feet on all its four sides. The intermediate space be-
tween the two frames was then filled up by large masses of rock.
This constituted the first pier.
" A second pier was easily built in the same way, by projecting
beams from the first one, as had been previously done from the
shore ; and so on, step by step, till the bridge reached Goat Island.
Such is the solidity of these structures, that none of them has ever
moved since it was first erected, several years before we saw it."
Thomas Godfrey,
The inventor of the Quadrant, was born in the year 1704, near
Germantown, Pennsylvania. Losing his father when very young,
and his mother marrying again, he was put out to learn the busi-
ness of a painter and glazier at Stanton, a village in the neigh-
borhood of Philadelphia.
Very little has been preserved respecting his history. From
all accounts he must have been a person of considerable ingenuity.
His affection for mathematics occurred at an early period from a
chance opportunity of reading a book on that science. Finding
the subject perplexed with Latin terms, he applied himself with
such diligence as to overcome the difficulty arising from this
source.
It is related that when Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated mathe-
matical work made its appearance, the best scholars were obliged
to study it with care, and those of a lower rank durst not venture
upon it at all. The American glazier, without encouragement
from any quarter, and wholly self-taught, ventured upon and mas-
tered this great work at an early age, and finally, with the embar-
rassments of an humble trade and extreme poverty, produced one
of the most useful of instruments.
There has been heretofore considerable controversy existing,
as 1.0 whom belonged the honor of this invention. The conclusion
now is, that Hadley and Godfrey invented their instruments nearly
simultaneously and independently. While the Englishman, with
every advantage ofoursuit, "stumbled upon 11 the invention, and is
honored in its name, to our countryman belongs the true glory.
for his was the result of unassisted genius, acting under adverse
circumstances.
Peace to his ashes : although no storied urn or monumental bust
marks the spot of his repose, yet his memory will. live as long as
his country preserves a just sense of the merits of her sons, or
the wings of commerce spread the sea.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 379
Musical Kaleidescope.
Some years ago an attempt was made it was *aid, success-
fully to produce tunes on a principle not unlike that by which
the kaleidescope was made to produce carpet and shawl patterns.
The materials employed for the purpose consisted of prepared
cards, on each of which a bar of an air was arranged according
to a certain rhythm and key. Four packs of these cards, marked
A, B, C, and D, were mingled together, and the cards were drawn
and arranged before a performer at random. Thus an original
air was obtained. The plan was said to succeed particularly well
in waltzes.
Bernard Patissy.
The celebrated BERNARD PALISSY, to whom France was in-
debted, in the sixteenth century, for the introduction of the manu-
facture of enamelled pottery, had his attention first attracted to
the art, his improvements in which form to this time the glory of
his name among his countrymen, by having one day seen by
chance a beautiful enamelled cup, which had been brought from
Italy. He was then struggling to support his family by his at-
tempts in the art of painting, in which he was self-taught; and it
immediately occurred to him that, if he could discover the secret
of making these cups, his toils and difficulties would be at an end.
From that moment his whole thoughts were directed to this ob-
ject ; and in one of his works he has himself given us such an
account of the unconquerable zeal with which he prosecuted his
experiments, as it is impossible to read without the deepest
interest.
For some time he had little or nothing to expend upon the pur-
suit which he had so much at heart ; but at last he happened to
receive a considerable sum of money for a work which he had
finished, and this enabled him to commence his researches. He
spent the whole of his money, however, without meeting with any
success, and he was now poorer than ever. Yet it was in vain
that his wife and his friends besought him to relinquish what the}'
deemed his chimerical and ruinous project. He borrowed more
money, with which he repeated his experiments ; and, when he
.lad no more fuel wherewith to feed his furnaces, he cut down his
cnairs and tables for that purpose. Still his success was incon-
siderable. He was now actually obliged to give a person, who
had assisted him, part of his clothes by way of remuneration,
380 ANECDOTES,
having nothing else left ; and, with his wife and children starving
before his eyes, and by their appearance silently reproaching him
as the cause of their sufferings, he was at heart miserable enough.
But he neither despaired nor suffered his friends to know what he
felt ; preserving, in the midst of all his misery, a gay demeanor,
and losing no opportunity of renewing his pursuit of the object
which he all the while felt confident he should one day accomplish.
And at last, after sixteen years of persevering exertion, his efforts
were crowned with complete success, and his fortune was made.
Palissy was, in all respects, one of the most extraordinary men
of his time ; in his moral character displaying a high-mindedness
and commanding energy altogether in harmony with the reach
and originality of conception by which his understanding was dis-
tinguished.
Although a Protestant, he had escaped, through the royal favor,
from the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; but, having been soon
after shut up in the Bastile, he was visited in his prison by the
king, who told him, that if he did not comply with the established
religion, he should be forced, however unwillingly, to leave him
in the hands of his enemies. " Forced !" replied Palissy. " This
is not to speak like a king ; but they who force you cannot force
me ; I can die ! Your whole people have not the power to com-
pel a simple potter to bend Ms knee!' 1 ' 1 He never regained his
liberty, but ended his life in the Bastile, in the ninetieth year of
his age.
Dyeing Cloth of two Colors.
The following method of dyeing the opposite sides of cloth
different colors, is practised by the manufacturers : A paste is
prepared of the finest flour, which is spread on one side : the
cloth is then doubled, and the edges closely sewn together : on its
immersion in the heated dye the enclosed air expands, and none
of the coloring matter affects the inside of the cloth. When this
process is completed, the cloth is unsewn, a paste spread on the
side already dyed, and the same method is pursued with regard
to the other color.
Remarkable Wooden Bridge.
Near Rochester, in the state of New- York, there are the re-
mains of a bridge over the Genessee river, called Clyde Bridge,
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 3^
which, when entire, was altogether unrivalled by ai.y thing of a
similar kind, either in America or Europe. It consisted of a
single arch of three hundred and fifty-two feet span, and one hun-
dred and ninety-six feet high, from the surface of the river. It
was seven hundred and eighteen feet long, and thirty wide; and,
though the whole structure contained more than one hundred and
thirty thousand feet of timber, it was completed by twenty work-
pien in the space of nine months. Dr. Howison, who visited it
bout the year 1830, gives the following description of its then
ruined state : " The road I took led me to the edge of the cliffs
that confine the Genessee river: this stream roared ninety feet
beneath me, and a half arch stretched far above my head, as it
were ' suspended in mid air,' while on the opposite cliffs heaps of
planks, shattered beams, and many massy supporters, lay in hor-
rible confusion, being the remains of that part of the structure
which had fallen. Nothing can exceed the exquisite, the elegant
proportions, and the aerial magnificence of that part of the bridge
which remains entire. Its complicated architecture, the colossal
span of its arch, its appalling height above the surface of the wa-
ter, and the noble scenery around, fill the mind with astonishment.
A little way up the river, the lesser Genessee rushes over broken
rocks, while the woods which bound the prospect on all sides, and
darkly overshadow the hoary cliffs, communicates a wildness to
the scene, that makes the imaginative spectator almost believe
that the bridge above him has been raised by the spells of a ma.
gician, rather than by the hands of man."
Celebrated and Curious Clocks.
About the year 1369, an artist named James Dondi, constructed
a clock for the city of Padua, by order of Herbert, Prince of Ca-
rara, which was long considered the wonder of that age. This is
the first clock on record having its dial-plate divided into twenty-
four hours, (day and night ;) but it has been disputed, (as is com-
mon in all first inventions,) whether or not Dondi, who was
afterwards called Horologius, was the original inventor ; this clock,
besides indicating the hours, represented the motions of the sun,
moon, and planets, and also pointed out the different festivals of
the year.
The celebrated clock in the cathedral church of Strasburg, has
beeu long celebrated for the great variety and complication of its
movements ; it was begun some time in the year 1352, and erect-
ed into the spire of the cathedral in the year 1370. The follow.
17
382 ANECDOTES,
ing is a short description of this singular piece of mechanism . On
the dial-plate was exhibited a celestial globe, with the motions of
the sun, moon, earth, and planets, and the various phases of the
moon ; also a sort of perpetual almanac, on which the oay of the
month was pointed out by a statue. It had a golden cock which
on the arrival of every successive hour flapped its wings, stretched
forth its neck, and crowed twice ! The hour was struck on the
bell by a figure representing an angel, who opened a door and sa-
luted a figure of the Virgin Mary. Near him stood another angel,
who held an hour-glass, which he turned as soon as it had finished
striking. The first quarter of the hour was struck by a child with
an apple, the second quarter by a youth with an arrow, the third
quarter by a man with the tip of his staff, and the fourth and last
quarter by an old man with his crutch.
This celebrated clock has, however, been much altered from the
original, if not entirely renewed, by Conrad Dasypodius, professor
of mathematics in the University of Strasburg. It was finished
in the space of three years, having been begun in May, 1571, and
finished June 24th, 1574. After it was replaced in the spire of
the cathedral, it exhibited the following particulars : The base-
ment of the clock showed three dial-plates, one of which was lound,
and made up of several concentric circles ; the two interior ones
perform their revolutions in a year, and thus serve as a calendar ;
the two lateral dial-plates are squares, and serve to indicate the
eclipses of the sun and moo,. Above the middle dial-plate, the
days of the week are represented by different divinities, supposed
to preside over the planets from which their common appellations
are derived. The divinity of the current day appears in a car
rolling over the clouds, and at midnight retires to give place to the
succeeding one. Before the basement a globe is displayed, borne
on the wings of a pelican, round which the sun and moon are made
to revolve, and consequently represents the motion of those bodies.
The ornamental turret above said basement exhibits a large dial
in the form of an astrolabe, which shows the annual motion of the
sun and moon through the ecliptic, as also the hours of the day,
etc. The phases of the moon are also marked on a dial-plate
above. Over this dial-plate are represented the four ages of mas
by symbolical figures, one of which passes every quarter of an
hour, and marks this division of time by striking on small bells,
(as in the old clock.) Two angels are also seen in motion,
striking a bell with a sceptre, while the other turns an hour-gt
at the expiration of every hour. This celebrated clock has late
undergone repair.
According to Dr. Derham, the oldest English made tJock extai
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 353
19 the one placed in the principal turret of the Palace Royal, Hamp.
ton Court, near London ; it was constructed in the year 1540, by
a maker of the initials of N. O.
Some time about the year 1560, the celebrated Danish astrono-
mer, Tycho Brahe, was in possession of four clocks, which indi-
cated the hours, minutes, and seconds ; the largest of which had
only three wheels, one of which was about three feet in diametei,
and had twelve hundred teeth in it ; a proof that clock-work was
then in a very imperfect state. Tycho, however, observed that
there were some irregularities in the going of his clocks, which
depended upon the changes of the atmosphere ; but he does not
ippear to have known how such an effect was produced, so as to
apply some remedy to cure the evil.
Mocstlin had a clock in the year 1577, so constructed as to make
just two thousand five hundred and twenty-eight beats in an hour,
one hundred and forty-six of which were counted during the sun's
passage over a meridian, or azimuth line, and thereby determined
his diameter to be 34' 13" ; so the science of astronomy began
thus early to be promoted by clock-work ; and as clocks first pro-
moted the study of astronomy, it will be observed that astronomy
in its turn gave rise to some of the most essential improvements
in clock-work, and that the arts and sciences were more and more
cultivated as improvements in clock-work kept pace with them, and
employed the talents of the most ingenious men of every succeed,
ing age.
Mr. Ferguson, in his Select Mechanical Exercises, describes
two very curious clocks of his invention and construction ; name-
ly, a clock for showing the mean apparent diurnal motions of the
sun and moon, the age and phases of the moon, with the mean
time of her meridian passage, and the times of high and low water;
all of these particulars being exhibited by having only two wheels
and one pinion added to the common clock movement ; in this clock
the figure of the sun serves as an hour index, by going round the
dial in twenty-four hours, and a figure of the moon goes round in
twenty-four hours and fifty and a half minutes, being nearly tho
period of her revolution in the heavens from any meridian to the
same meridian again. It has been remarked, that this clock must
have been modelled by Mr. Ferguson from the fashion of the cele-
brated clock at Hampton Court. The other clock by Mr. Fergu-
son is an astronomical one, showing the mean apparent daily mo
tions of the sun, moon, and stars, with the mean times of their rising,
southing, and setting ; the places of the sun and moon in the eclip.
tic, and the age and phases of the moon for every day in the year
"On Monday, April 27th, 1762," says Wesley, in his journal,
384 ANECDOTES,
" being at Lurgan, in Ireland, I embraced the opportunity which I
had long desired of talking with Mr. Miller, the contriver of that
statue which was in Lurgan when I was there before. It was the
figure of an old man standing in a case, with a curtain drawn be-
fore him, over against a clock which stood on the opposite side of
the room. Every time the clock struck, he opened the door with
one hand, drew back the curtain with the other, turned his head
as if looking round on the company, and then said with a clear,
loud, articulate voice, "past one,' 1 ' 1 or " two," or " three,' 1 ' 1 and so
on. But so many came to see this, (the like of which all allowed
was not to be seen in Europe,) ,that Mr. Miller was in danger of
being ruined ; not having time to attend to his own business. So,
as none offered to pay him for his pains, he took the whole machine
to pieces.
In the gardens of the Palais Royal and the Luxembourg, at Paris,
is a cannon dock ; a contrivance invented by one Rosseau. A
burning-glass is fixed over the vent of a cannon, so that the sun's
rays, at the moment of its passing the meridian, are concentrated
on the priming, and the piece is fired. The glass is regulated for
this purpose every month.
It is now time to mention a clock of almost miraculous proper-
ties, constructed by a Genevan mechanic of the name of Droz,
towards the end of the last century. The clock in question was
so constructed as to be capable of performing the following sur-
prising movements, (if the account can be credited :) There was
exhibited on it a negro, a shepherd, and a dog. When the clock
struck, the shepherd played six tunes on his flute, and the dog ap-
proached and fawned upon him. This clock was exhibited to the
king of Spain, who was greatly delighted with it. " The gentle,
ness of my dog," said Droz, " is his least merit. If your majesty
touch one of the apples which you see in the shepherd's basket,
you will admire the fidelity of this animal.'" The king took an
apple, and the dog flew at his hand, and barked so loud, that the
king's dog, which was in the same room during the exhibition, began
to bark also ; at this, the courtiers, not doubting that it was an affair
of witchcraft, hastily left the room, crossing themselves as they
\vcnt out. The minister of marine, who was the only one who
ventured to stay behind, having desired him to ask the- negro what
o'clock it was, the minister staid, but he obtained no reply. Droz
then observed, that the negro had not yet learned Spanish, upon
which the minister repeated the question in French, and the black
immediately answered him. At this new prodigy the firmness of
the minister also forsook him, and he retreated precipitately, de-
claring that it must be the work of a supernatural being.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. ggg
The last clock which I shall mention at present is one which I
contrived and executed some five or six years ago. It shows the
hour of the day, the mean time of the rising, southing, and setting
of the sun and moon, the mooi^s age and phases throughout the
year, (by having an horizon which expands and contracts by means
of the complicated wheel-work,) the day of the month, the mean
time of the sun's entering into the zodiacal signs, sidereal and solar
year, and consequently, the precession of the equinoxes, which in
the clock has a slew backward motion through the ecliptic in 25,920
years ; the flux and reflux of the tides are also exhibited in the arc
of the dial-plate ; the movement contains somewhere about fifty-
six wheels, sixteen pinions, nine levers for various uses, and about
one hundred and thirty moveable pieces ; it goes for eight days,
has what is called a dead beat scapement, and goes while wind-
ing up.
Horology is a branch of knowledge most intimately connected
with astronomy, navigation, and chronology, and its usefulness is
found linked more or less with all of the most important branches
of science. Without a proper understanding of horology, the mar-
iner could not with safety plough the ocean ; he could not calculate
with accuracy his distance from land ; and in fine, without horolo-
gy, history would appear without dates, and even the more com-
mon affairs of domestic life would run into confusion. The clock
of early times was of very rude construction ; and it would seem
from what remains of their history, that a loss or gain of five, ten,
twenty, or more minutes per day, was not much regarded ; and if
it kept within these wide bounds, the horologe was looked upon as
" a miracle of art." But now, in modern times, when the art of
horology has risen to such perfection that in astronomical clocks,
with compensation pendulums of right principles, a gain or loss of
five minutes in a year would by no means answer the present ad-
vanced state of the sublime science of astronomy, neither would
it in this state much further the art of navigation, in the prediction
of a ship's way on the ocean. From the duplicate of an official
statement now lying before me, it is stated that the Lords Com-
missioners of the Admiralty, having advertised a premium of 300
for the best chronometer which should be kept at Greenwich Ob-
servatory for trial for one year, thirty-six were forwarded by the
principal chronometer makers in London, and were kept during
the year 1823. It was announced that if any chronometer varied
six seconds, it could not obtain the prize at the end of the year.
The chronometer marked 816 gained the prize, having kept time
for many months within "one second and one eleven hundredth
part of a second '" This is certainly the best chronometer on
388 ANECDOTES,
record. Such perfection was never before attained, and it justly
excited the astonishment of all astronomers, and of the Board ot
Admiralty.
Manufacture of Earthenware and Porcelain.
Etruria ! next beneath thy magic hands
Glides the quick wheel, the plastic clay
Nerved with fine touch, thy fingers, as it turns,
Mark the nice hounds of vases, ewers, and urns ;
Round each fair form, in lines immortal trace
Uncopied beauty and ideal grace." DARWIN.
The business of creating from a mass of clay " vases, ewers,
and urns, 11 which, in the homely language of the potter, is termed
throwing, has always excited admiration. One moment, an un-
fashioned lump of earth is cast on the block ; the next, it is se*en
starting into forms of elegance and beauty. A simple wheel, and
hands untutored in other arts, effect this wondrous change. The
means appear to be scarcely adequate to the end ; and thence the
poet, with seeming truth, asserts that " magic hands" perform this
work of art.
The remotest ages of antiquity lay claim to the invention of
earthenware ; probably it was carried to a higher point of im-
provement than any other of the early manufactures of the world.
It could originate only in those regions which produced its essential
materials, and thus we find no vestiges of its having existed in
countries where clay is unknown. In America, while some re-
gions possess curious specimens of ancient pottery, others, in
which the raw material has not been found, present no such an-
tique remains. The natives of these latter countries have availed
themselves of such substitutes as nature has provided. The gourd,
called calabash, which they ingeniously carve and cut into various
forms, affords them as abundant a supply of vessels for holding
liquids as their simple modes of life require.
The plastic power of clay was early discovered. It appears to
have been employed in the most ancient times, as it still is in
Egypt, to receive the impression of a seal, the affixing of which
on property was probably considered, even at that period, as a
legal protection. Job, in one of his poetic similes, says, (chap,
xxxvjii, 14.) " It is turned as clay to the seal."
Many centuries before the art was practised in Europe, the
Chinese had brought it very nearly to the degree of perfection
which their porcelain now exhibits. In this one branch of art
they have undisputed possession of materials of tho most perfect
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 387
combination of colors, of unrivalled brilliance, but of " ideal grace 1 '
not one particle.
From Asia this art entered Europe through Greece, the land
of "creative genius." The Corinthian potters especially displayed,
in their designs and execution, exquisite taste and skill. Their
works were more prized than diamond or ruby, and were amongst
the most valuable decorations in the dwellings of princes. Greece,
supplying with porcelain Egypt, the mother country of so many
other arts, at length taught it to establish its own pottery, and,
spreading the useful art far and wide, to become itself the benefac-
tor of other regions.
A Phcenician colony, it is supposed, founded the ancient
Etruria, whence modern Europe has drawn models of skill and
beauty.
Though conquerors ought seldom to be regarded as benefactors,
the Romans in many instances were such to the nations they sub-
dued. Wherever they obtained a permanent empire, they planted
their arts and manufactures. Though some maintain that Phoe-
nicia supplied Britain with earthen vessels in exchange for its
metals, there are so many vestiges of Roman manufactures as to
corroborate the belief of her being indebted to that people for the
art of the potter. In the neighborhood of Leeds the remembrance
of a Roman pottery is still recorded in* the name of the village
which rose upon its site Potter Newton.
Although introduced into Britain at so early a period, the pot-
ter's art long remained in its rudest state. The coarse red ware
only was made, but was not of sufficient beauty or utility to be
received as a -substitute for utensils and vessels of wood and metal,
as earthenware, in its improved state, has since been. In every
dwelling, even the humblest, earthenware and china are now es-
sential, and not only in England, but in all the civilized regions
of the world. This change was principally effected by the indus-
try and comprehensive mind of one individual Josiah Wedgwood,
the founder of modern Etruria. The Staffordshire potteries,
which in his day consisted of a few thinly peopled villages, now
present a continued chain of manufactories, extending for miles,
in which tens of thousands of people are constantly employed
and supported.
For centuries previous to the time of which we are speaking,
the manufacture of earthenware had, in this country, remained
unimproved ; and in Europe, generally, it had been almost as
stationary. From the east, the wealthy and luxurious of the
western hemisphere were supplied with porcelain, valued on ac-
count of its rareness rather than for its beauty ; while the humbiei
386 ANECDOTES,
ranks of society sought no other than metal or wooden domestic
uten&ils, unless they added to these some of the rude works oi'
their native potters.
At length, in France, Germany, and Italy, princes and nobles,
as if ashamed of the neglect the art had* experienced in the most
civilized portion of the world, founded in their respective countries
porcelain manufactories. These subsequently became of con-
siderable eminence. The Sevres, Dresden, and Berlin porcelain
grew in time to be the admiration of Europe, and was mingled
with the works of China, which became less prized. But the
benefit conferred by these royal and noble establishments was
limited. Wealth was expended on them ; talents were devoted
to them ; but their works never circulated throughout all ranks,
nor effected any general change in domestic life . they have been
limited to the use only of the noble and the rich.
These manufactories cannot claim the merit of such general
utility as those of England, conducted by a different class of men
and upon different principles. Here, unaided by the hand of
power, without wealth, and sometimes almost without education,
men, the founders of British manufactories, have often started
from the level of humble life into prominent and commanding situ-
ations. Dispensing means of subsistence an'd opening prospects
of improved condition to thousands, they have acquired an influ-
ence in their day which nobles might covet. Among this class of
benefactors to their race, the late Josiah Wedgwood stood pre-
eminent. His early education, as was usual in his sphere, was
very limited. Education in his day was supposed to be incom-
patible with the habits of a man of business. The disadvantages
of this narrow system were early perceived by the intelligent
Wedgwood, and his first step to the eminence he afterwards at-
tained was the education of himself. Though apprenticed to a
potter, he found leisure for acquisitions in literary knowledge,
which subsequently enabled him to sustain a part in the literary
and philosophical society of his time.
He had no wild or irrational ambition which induced him to
attempt attainments beyond his reach : this would have ended in
disappointment and downfall. His dignified view was fixed to the
improvement of himself and his condition by the most laudable
me^ms ; and the result, after years of steady application, accom-
panied with great toil and anxiety, was an ample and distinguished
success.
About thirty years before he commenced the foundation of his
future eminence, an accident had given rise to improvement in the
earthenwares of Staffordshire. A potter from Burslenr, (the centra
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 3 gg
of the potteries, and the birthplace of Mr. Wedgwood,) in travel,
ling to London on horseback, was detained on the road by the
inflamed eyes of his horse. Seeing the hostler, the horse-doctor
of those times, bum a piece of flint and afterwards reduce it to a
fine white powder, applying it as a specific for the diseased eyes,
a notion arose in the mind of the traveller as to the possibility of
combining this beautiful white powder with the clay used in his
craft, so as to effect a change in the color and body of his ware
The experiment succeeded, and this was the origin of the English
white-ware. It will not be foreign to our subject to remark here,
how every trifling circumstance that occurs is turned to account,
when the mind is seriously at work on any subject. We know
that the falling of an apple, the passing of the sun's rays through
a vessel of water, the swinging of a suspended lamp, casualties
apparently trifling, were fraught with important discoveries, be-
cause observed by men deeply engaged in scientific investigations.
We are not presuming to place a simple potter on a footing
with Newton or Galileo men of mighty powers ; but we claim
for him a point of resemblance, because like them he pursued his
observations with investigation and experiment, so well directed
as to ensure improvement and success. This man, whose name
was Ashbury, also brought to his manufactory the superior clays
of Devonshire and Cornwall; and as the potter's wheel had been
somewhat improved by a person named Alsager, we may consider
that, though still vast and unoccupied, the field of improvement
was discovered a short time before Mr. Wedgwood entered it.
We must here do honor to the French philosopher and naturalist,
Reaumur, who at a rather earlier period had been almost the first
in forming the connection between science and the arts of life, from
that time indissoluble, and ever since producing improvement to
which no termination can be foreseen. Science hitherto had been
regarded as an abstract pursuit leading to little practical good,
if not unfitting those engaged in it fdr the pursuits of life. The
chemical examination which Reaumur made on oriental china,
anticipated what in time the common experiments of the manu-
facturer might have effected, though not with equal certainty or
rapidity. Upon those experiments the Royal French manufactory
of Sevres was founded. This instance of the aid which science
yielded to a manufacture similar to his own, was not likely to be
unheeded by Mr. Wedgwood, and, accordingly, we find him effect-
ing, in England, that union bftween science and his art, which
Reaumur had done in France As soon as his means permitted
him to deviate without pecuniary inconvenience from the beaten
path, he appears to have employed men of science to aid him ic
17*
390 ANECDOTES,
his extended views. One amiable man, Mr. Chisholm, a superior
chemist of the time, devoted his whole- life to this business. Under
the direction of the intelligence and indefatigable spirit of Mr.
Wedgwood, he proceeded day by day, from experiment to experi-
ment, until most of the principal objects in view were attained.
Varieties of clay were sought for, and the comparative value
of their properties for the manufacture in question was ascertained,
together with the true proportion of calcined flint with which each
variety would unite, and the degree of heat to which each could
be submitted. The glaze also, it has been said, gave rise to a
most anxious and assiduous investigation on the part of these in-
defatigable laborers, which ended without their attaining the object
they so earnestly desired. The rude brown ware before men-
tioned had been always glazed with fused salt, by a process un-
certain in its results, and one which, producing noxious fumes,
rendered an earthenware manufactory a nuisance to its neighbor,
hood. The improvement in this department of the manufacture
led to the substitution of white lead for salt ; but although the air
on glazing days was no longer odious to breathe, the substitute
acted as a powerful poison on those employed in this branch of
the business. Every precaution which his humanity could sug-
gest Mr. Wedgwood adopted, to prevent the injurious influence
of the lead on his work-people : but the poison was too subtle ; it
was imbibed through the pores as well as inhaled ; and paralysis
often terminated the lives of those employed in glazing, or ren-
dered a protracted existence an evil to them. Mr. Wedgwood's
humane endeavors to discover another substitute for the lead were
never realized, although his hopes often represented to him the
possibility of its being effected. The evil still exists.
The forms and colors were no less objects of his attention than
the body of his manufacture. Oxides of metals, particularly those
of iron, gave him an endless variety of colors, and for his forms
and ornaments he took models from the best standards of grace
and beauty which the ancient world afforded him. He also em-
ployed both English and foreign artists of merit in modelling and
designing. The early talent of Flaxman, and the skilful pencil
of Webber, were engaged in his service ; of which there are evi-
dences in. the perfect imitation of the Barbarini vase he has left
behind him, and in the classic designs which decorate the beautiful
imitation of jasper which he invented. Thus his manufactory
comprehended every thing his art could attain ; and taste, conve-
nience, and comfort pould draw thence ample gratification. Ex-
cellence was his aim whether in the common articles of use, or
in the choicer productions of his taste ; and so ambitious wns he
DESCRIPTIONS. ETC ,^ ql
to maintain the reputation of his manufacture, that he sacrin'ccd
every article which came from the oven m an imperfect state.
Such was the eminence Wedgwood reached as a manufacturer,
that he carried every thing before him. His ware displaced
foreign china in his own Country, and spread itself over every part
of Europe not only ornamenting the palace, but filling the cot-
tage with means of comfort and cleanliness. No ware could be
sold that had not his name stamped on each article. Wedgwood
became a generic term the question being also asked on the
continent, " Have you any Wedgwood '/" He secured this pre-
eminence by the excellence of his productions, and not by exclu-
sive advantages. He always steadily refused to obtain patents
for his inventions, saying, " The world is wide enough for us all "
Inventors and Poets.
On reflection it will be found that mechanical invention, differs
nothing from that which gives value to those pursuits considered
to be more mental and refined. Homer and his Iliad, Virgil and his
^Eneid, Milton and his Paradise Lost, were minds and productions
of the same exquisite fibre and tention, with Savary and Watt, with
their engines, Huygens with his watch, Arkwright with his spin-
ning frame, Meikle with his threshing machine, Bramah with his
hydraulic press. In fact, observation frequently shows, that the
power of constructing poetry and machines are united in the same
individual. Hooke made verses as well as machines, and could
as well have written a sonnet to his " mistress 1 eyebrow" as have
presented his thirty-seven projects for flying. Samuel Moreland
indited love songs, and sang them to his sweetheart. When total
blindness had fallen on the jovial old man, he buried the effusions
of his youth, considering them to be " gay deceits," and betook
himself in his ninetieth year to the composition of psalms. Ark-
wright was famed among his customers for a light hand and an
exquisite edge, and for verses which cut as keen as his razors
Watt in his youth was a rhymester, and few men in his generation
read more fairy tales and poetry, even in the meridian of his life, in
the busiest period of his employment, the greater portion of his
time was devoted to indulgence in this mental luxury. Few who
knew the excellent Rennie, near the close of his life, would have
dreamed of finding under the exterior of this inflexible man of bu-
siness, an enthusiastic admirer of poetry and music. The venera-
ble Telfoid, when building rough stone waLs as a journeyman
392 ANECDOTES,
mason, was an esteemed contributor to the poetical corner of the
Scots Magazine. The inventor of the celebrated congreve rocket
had previously " let off 11 many poetical squibs. Curtwright early
distinguished himself for his poetical composition ; but the fine
taste and exalted feeling which pervade them, must yield to the
exquisite invention and extensive usefulness of his power-loom.
Poets, as well as mechanics, differ in the manner in which they
exhibit their conceptions. One excels in loftiness of thought,
another in delicacy of perception a third pleases by his harmoni-
ous numbers, and a fourth, is esteemed for the useful tendency of
his writings. Some mechanics delight in clock-work, others in
steam engines the machines of others are polished even to a bolt
head and a ponderous mass whose jerking motion is the numnce
of a district, constructed by one whose ear is more refined than
his rival manufacturers, moves with all the softness of a watch $ and
another applies the principles of a toy to a machine for abridging
labor. There are rhymesters who will spin a fine thought through
an infinity of words ; there are also artist wire-drawers, who, by
great skill, will draw an ounce or two of gold into a thread which
will encircle the world. Your sounding, flashy, sparkling authors
of a thousand brilliaftt nothings, are a sort of kaleidescope artists,
whose most original, regular, and harmonious combinations, are
produced by a thread of rag, a pin's head, a leaf, a bead, or a bit
of crystal.
Public Works of the United Stales.
" At the first view, one is struck with the temporary and appa-
rently unfinished state of many of the American works, and is
veiy apt, before inquiring into the subject, to impute to want of
ability what turns out, on investigation, to be a judicious and in-
genious arrangement to suit the circumstances of a new country,
of which the climate is severe, a country where stone is scarce
and w^od is plentiful, and where manual labor is very expensive.
It is vain to look to the American works for the finish that charac-
terizes those of France, or the stability for which those of Britain
are famed. Undressed slopes of cuttings and embankments
roughly built rubble arches, stone parapet-walls coped with timber
and canal-locks wholly constructed of that material, everywhere
offend the eye accustomed to view European workmanship. Bui
it must not be supposed that this arises from want of knowledge
of the principles of engineering, or of skill to do them justice i&
the execution. The use of wood, for example, wliich may be con.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. ggg
sidered by many s>,s wholly inapplicable to the construction of
canal-locks, where ii must not only encounter the tear and wear
occasioned by the lockage of vessels, but must be subject to the
destructive consequences of alternate immersion in water and
exposure to the atmosphere, is yet the result of deliberate ijudg.
ment. The Americans have, in many cases, been induced to use
the material of the country, ill adapted though it be in some re-
spects to the purposes to which it is applied, in order to meet the
wants of a rising community, by speedily and perhaps superficially
completing a work of importance, which would otherwise be de-
layed, from a want of the means to execute it in a more substan
tial manner ; and although the works are wanting in finish, and
even in solidity, they do not fail for many years to serve the pur-
poses for which they were constructed, as efficiently as works of a
more lasting description.
" When the wooden locks on any of the canals begin to show
symptoms of decay, stone structures are generally substituted,
and materials suitable for tbeir erection are with ease and expedi-
tion conveyed from the part of the country where they are most
abundant, by means of the canal itself to which they are to be
applied ; and thus the less substantial work actually becomes the
means of facilitating its own improvement, by affording a more
easy, cheap, and speedy transport of those durable and expensive
materials, without the use of which, perfection is unattainable.
" One of the most important advantages of constructing the
locks of canals, in new countries such as America, of wood, un-
questionably is, that in proportion as improvement advances and
greater dimensions or other changes are required, they can be in-
troduced at little cost, and without the mortification of destroying
expensive and substantial works of masonry. Some of the locks
on the great Erie canal arc formed of stone, but had they all been
made of wood, it would, in all probability, have been converted
into a ship-canal long ago.
" But the locks are not the only narts of the American canals
in which wood is used. Aquedueia over ravines or rivers are
generally formed of large wooden troughs resting 6n stone pillars,
and even more temporary expedients have been chosen, the inge-
nuity of which can hardly fail to please those who view them as
the means of carrying on improvements, which, but for such con-
trivances, might be stopped by the want of funds necessary to
complete them.
" Mr. M'Taggart, the resident engineer for the Rideau canal in
Canada, gave a good example of the extraordinary expedients often
resorted to, by suggting a very novel scheme for carrying that
394 ANECDOTES,
work across a thickly wooded ravine situate in a part of the coun-
try where materials for forming an embankment, or stone for
building the piers of an aqueduct, could not be obtained but at a
great expense. The plan consisted of cutting across the large
trees in the line of the works, at the level of the bottom of the
canal, so as to render them fit for supporting a platform on their
trunks, and on this platform the trough containing the water of the
canal was intended to rest. I am not aware whether this plan was
carried into effect, but it is not more extraordinary than many of
the schemes to which the Americans have resorted in constructing
their public works ; and the great traffic sustained by many of
them, notwithstanding the temporary and hurried manner in which
they are finished, is truly wonderful. 11
Manufactory of the Gobelins.
Among the curiosities of Paris, is a manufacture of tapestry,
which is sustained as a sort of plaything by the nation. It is
called the manufactory of the Gobelins, from the name of the dyers
who commenced the works in ancient times, and established here
their dye-house for coloring their worsted yarns, with which the
pieces of tapestry were wrought. The most beautiful paintings are
placed as patterns by the tapestry weavers, who rival the Chinese
in fidelity and exactnes of imitation. An artist of spirit who may
have the genius to design and finish a piece of painting upon can-
vass, could hardly be brought to spend one and often two years, in
copying the same picture by inserting small bits of colored worsted,
particle by particle, by means of the slow and tedious labors of the
loom. Tapestry weaving must remain an imitative art instead of
one that can confer honor on an artist for any originality, or bold
touches of genius in the art of designing. Even at the moderate
wages paid the workmen here, the cost of a single sheet of tapestry
frequently exceeds $1400, an^ several years are required to com-
plete it. So bright, vivid, aii'j well blended are the colors of the
worsted thread, that few persons at the distance of three or four
yards would suppose them to be the product of the loom. The
frame that contains the extended threads of the warp, is placed in
a perpendicular position, and the workman is seated behind the
frame; carefully arranged by his side, are hundreds of little bobbins
of worsted, of every imaginable color, the shade of which are so
well blended and approximated to each other, that one can hardly
tell where one terminates or another begins. These bobbins he
skilfully selects and holds near the picture which he is copying.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 395
to compare the tints. Thread by thread he proceeds, and after
satisfying himself in the selection of the color, he inserts a piece of
worsted yarn, perhaps in some spots not longer than one eighth of an
inch, using the bobbin itself instead of a shuttle, to pass the worsted
filling in and out between the threads of the warp. After effecting
this operation, he breaks off the yarn and crowds it in between the
thread and the warp, by the teeth of a comb ; he then seeks again
for another tint to correspond with the picture before him. The
warp or chain is composed of- white woollen threads, and the weft,
of all shades of colors that are prepared on the easel of the painter.
The threads of the warp are not opened by means of treadles, or
harness to allow the filling to be shot between them, as in common
weaving ; nor is a slaie or reed employed to press down or close
the threads of the weft, after it is drawn in among the threads of
the warp ; but the artist uses for this purpose only a sort of comb,
the teeth of which, after every operation of inserting a little piece
of yarn, are employed to press it down and close it together in the
work. The figure of an extended arm, or of a head, is wrought by
the artist before he completes the filling, composing the back-ground
around it. The form of a beautiful female may thus appear to be
starting up in glowing colors, amid the threads spread like a cob-
web over a square frame. A hand when thus woven in advance of
the texture around it, seems as if formed of flesh and blood, and thrust
amid the cords of a harp to sweep the sounding strings. This
costly tapestry resembles the fine worsted work, executed in single
stitch, by the fair hands of the ladies in their hours of domestic re-
taxation. It is so delicately composed that the outlines of the figure
show no angular uneven edges ; the surface of the tapestry being
nearly as smooth and close as that of the oil painting from which
it is copied. This establishment is supported at the national
charge, the sheets of tapestry are used as ornaments of the royal
palaces, and sometimes as royal gifts.
March of Umbrellas.
The following anecdote from a Scotch paper is well worth pre-
serving. " When umbrellas marched first into this quarter, (Blair-
gorie,) they were sported only by the minister and the laird, and
were looked upon by the common class of people as perfect phe-
nomena. One day Daniel M n went to Colonel McPhcrson, at
Blairgoric House : when about to return, it came on a shower, and
the colonel politely offered him the loan of an umbrella, which was
politely and proudly accepted ; and Daniel, with his head two or
396 ANECDOTES,
three inches higher than usual, marched off. Not long after he
had left, however, to the colonel's surprise, he sees Daniel posting
towards him with all possible haste, still o'ertopped by his cotton
canopy, (silk umbrellas were out of the question in those days,)
which he held out saluting him with, " Hae, hae, Kurnel ! this ''II
never do ; there 's no a door in a? my house that 'II tak" 1 it in my
verra barn-door winna tak" 1 it m."
The French Machine Maker.
It is not long ago that I went to visit an interesting old man,
who lives by the side of the Rhone, at a short distance from Lyons.
Have you ever heard of the Jacquard machine, one of the most
ingenious of modern discoveries, by which the most complicated
patterns can be woven with the same ease as the plainest ; a ma-
chine which enables an ordinary weaver to produce all those many-
colored oriental shawls, fashionable silks, and variegated ribbands,
which formerly required a dexterity possessed only by a very few,
and a continuous labor that made them costly and inaccessible to
any but the rich? Now-a-days silk-stuffs, exquisitely tasteful and
beautiful, can be purchased for a small sum of money, and are
worn by hundreds of thousands of the classes whose garments
were formerly made of coarse wool or hemp. The old man I
speak of was Jacquard, and he was one of the great causes of this
diffusion of enjoyment. As I happened to be near the place of
his abode, I determined to visit him, and did so, accompanied by
several friends.
It was a sunshiny day, I remember, and we had a delightful
walk along the margin of the rapid Rhone, a river renowned in
history, and whose banks are still crowded with the ruins of past
time, calling to mind the days when every feudal chief was obliged
to shut himself up in high and embattled towers, built often upon
dangerous crags, in order to be secure from the attacks of some
neighboring lord. The petty sovereigns and the petty feuds have
passed away together. Every thing now bears the face of security,
of industry, of peace. Talking of the delightful contrast, and
hoping that nations would one day harmonize, as the once con-
tending peasantry of the Rhone now harmonize, we reached old
Jacquard 's abode.
He welcomed us with heartiness. " But come forth into my
vineyard," he said ; " let us get among the grapes and the sun-
shine :" so he led the way with a tottering step. " Hither, hither, 11
he called out: "come with me to to the arbor. 1 ' Wo followed
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 397
him there. " Let me sit in the centre, and let me tell you how
glad I am to see you, my friends !" We sat down around him ;
the clematis was blended with the vine, and together they made
the roof and the walls of the quiet retreat, where every day the
venerable old man was used to sit, and to recall the events of his
much checkered life. Some of those events you shall hear as he
himself related them, and you will see what perseverance virtuous
perseverance is, and what virtuous perseverance can do.
I told Jacquard that I was an Englishman, and as he had been
one of the benefactors of my country, I was come to thank him
" How proud I am," said he, " to be visited by an Englishman !
If I have ever done any good, I owe the very first suggestion to
England. It was an English newspaper that led me to occupy my
thoughts with mechanical improvements. But for that, perhaps, I
should still have been a poor strawhat maker in an obscure street
at Lyons, instead of the happy man you see me, honored by my
native town, recompensed by the government (pointing to the red
ribband which he wore at his button-hole,) and pensioned by the
state. 1 ' " But how," I inquired, " did you owe to England your
first success ?" " It was," he answered, " during the peace of
Amiens, and we were accustomed to meet, in order to" talk politics,
at a friend's house on the quay. It was there a translated extract
from an English newspaper met my eye, stating that a premium
was offered by a society in London to any one who would apply ma-
chinery to the manufacture of nets. I meditated long upon the matter,
and, after many attempts, I made a machine by which nets could
be produced. It was the first of my mechanical experiments, and
I will tell you, if you have the patience and the desire to hear me,
how that trifling affair was the beginning of my good fortune r.nd
my fame." Nothing, we assured him, could gratify us more than
to continue his history. " Well, then," said he, " I contrived a
machine and made a net by it, and thought no more of the matter.
I carried the net about in my pocket, and one day, meeting with a
friend who had heard the paragraph of the English paper r ead, I
threw it to him, saying, " There is the difficulty got over, and the
net made !" And the matter passed out of my mind. I had per-
severed until I had succeeded, and there was an end of it. Some
time afterwards, I was much surprised at getting an order from the
Prefect to appear at the prefectal palace. I went, and the Prefect
said he had only lately heard of my proficiency in the mechanical
arts. It was a great mystery to me ; I really did not comprehend
his meaning, and I stammered out a sort of an apology for not un-
derstanding him. My net and the machine that made it had gone
quite out of my head. The Preff^t expressed surprise that I should
398 ANECDOTES,
deny my own abilities, but at last he produced the very net that I
had made, and which to me had seemed a very trifling affair, as
it was in reality. ' I have orders from the Emperor to send the
machine to Paris, 1 said the Prefect. ' From the Emperor ! That's
strange indeed ; but you must give me time to make it.' So I set
about it, and in a few weeks I completed it, and trudged away with
my machine, and a half-manufactured net in it, to the Prefect, He
was' very impatient to see it work, so I bade him count the number
of loops, and then strike the bar with his foot ; he did so, and
another loop was added to the number. Great was the delight
that he expressed, and he told me that no doubt I should hear from
him again. I heard from him again, in truth, very soon, and in a
way that perplexed me not a little ; for his first greeting was,
'You must go to Paris, M. Jacquard, by his majesty's orders. 1
' To Paris, sir ! how can that be ? What have I done ? How can
I leave my affairs here V ' Not only must you go to Paris, but
you must go to-day you must go immediately I 1 These were not
times in which there was any resisting the orders of authority ; so
I said, ' If it must be so, it must ; I will go home and pack up my
baggage, and I shall be ready to obey your commands. 1 ' No !
M. Jacquard f said the Prefect, 'you cannot go home ; a carriage
is waiting to take you to Paris. 1 ' Not go home ! Not say adieu to
my wife ! Not make up my luggage for a journey of 150 leagues I 1
*I have orders, 1 said the Prefect, 'to despatch you instantly; you
may send to your wife ; you may tell her to give to my messenger
any thing you desire to take I will provide you with money ; but
there must be no delay. 1 There was no arguing about the matter,
so I sent to my wife, got a small bundle of clothes, jumped into the
carnage, and away ! away ! we were off, full gallop towards Paris !
When we reached the first station, I opened the door, and I found
myself stopped by a gendarme, who said to me, ' Sir, if you please,
you are not to go out of my sight. 1 I found I was a prisoner, and
escorted by military force to the capital ; things were so managed
at that time.; there was, however, no use in complaining; so I
made the best of my fate, and submitted in good humor.
" I reached Paris for the first time in my life, and strange was
my introduction there. I was escorted to the Conservatory ; and
whom should I see there but Napoleon and Carnot ! Carnot said
to me suddenly, ' Are you the man that can do what Almighty God
cannot do Itie a knot in a stretched string ?' I was overwhelmed
with the presence of the Emperor and the abruptness of his minis-
ter, and knew not what to answer. But Napoleon spoke ver^
condescendingly to me about my discovery ; told me he would pro-
tect rne, and urged me to go on with my mechanical pursuits. Ma.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 399
terials were brought me, and I was directed to make a net-produc-
ing machine in the Conservatory, which I did At that time a
superb shawl was being woven for the Empress Josephine, and for
its production they were employing a very costly and complicated
loom ; a loom upon which more than twenty thousand francs had
been expended. It appeared to me that the same effect might be
produced by a less perplexing machinery, and I recollected having
seen a model by Vaucauson, in which I thought a principle was
developed which I could apply to the desired purpose. Long
thought and perseverance enabled me to produce the mechanism
that bears my name. When I had succeeded, the Emperor con-
ferred this decoration upon me, and granted me a pension of a
thousand crowns. But on returning to Lyons, far different was
my destiny. When I endeavored to introduce my machine, the
workmen broke out into open revolt. I was every where de-
nounced as the enemy of the people, as the man who had been
scheming the destruction of their trade, and the starvation of them-
selves and their families. Three plots were laid to assassinate me,
and twice I had great difficulty in escaping with my life. So strong
was the tide of prejudice and indignation, that my machine was
ordered to be openly destroyed by the public authorities. It was
broken to pieces in the great square of the city. The iron was
sold for old iron, the wood for fire-wood. Think what a shipwreck
of all my hopes !
" I did not quite lose courage. The successful competition of
foreigners, and the consequent decline of trade in France, led some
intelligent manufacturers, a few years after, to think of the man
whose discovery might perhaps bring some relief to that depression
under which they labored. They found strength of mind to make
another experiment. It succeeded. Silks of greater beauty were
'introduced, at a lower cost. There was a dawn of prosperity, and
it has continued to shine. Of that machine which had been de-
voted to ignominy and destruction, I have now seen thousands in-
troduced, and there is now scarcely any man so blind or so ignorant
as not to acknowledge that its introduction has been a great bless-
ing. It has given labor to tens of thousands, and I have had a
complete recompense for all I have gone through."
We talked of these and other matters till the shades of coming
twilight bade us depart. The happy old man is still in my me.
mory ; a striking instance of virtuous perseverance, crowned with
fit reward.
400 ANECDOTES.
Manufacturing Establishments.
We have seen that the application of the Division of Labor tends
to produce cheaper articles ; that it thus increases the demand ;
and gradually, by the effect of competition, or by the hope of
increased gain, that it causes large capitals to be embarked in
extensive factories. Let us now examine the influence of this
accumulation of capital directed to one object. In the first place,
it enables the most important principle on which the advantages
of the division of labor depends, to be carried almost to its extreme
limits : not merely is the precise amount of skill purchased which
is necessary for the execution of each process, but throughout every
stage from that in which the raw material is procured, to that
by which the finished produce is conveyed into the hands of the
consumer the same economy of skill prevails. The quantity of
work produced by a given number of people is greatly augmented
by such an extended arrangement ; and the result is necessarily a
great reduction in the cost of the article which is brought to market.
Amongst the causes which tend to the cheap production of any
article, and which are connected with the employment of additional
capital, may be mentioned the care which is taken to prevent the
absolute waste of any part of the raw material. An attention to
this circumstance sometimes causes the union of two trades in one
factory, which otherwise might have been separated.
An enumeration of the arts to which the horns of cattle are ap-
plicable, will furnish a striking example of this kind of economy.
The tanner who has purchased the raw hides, separates the horns,
and sells them to the makers of combs and lanterns. The horn
consists of two parts, an outward horny case, and an inward conical
substance, somewhat intermediate between indurated hair and bone.
The first process consists in separating these two parts, by means
of a blow against a block of wood. The horny exterior is then cut
into three portions with a frame-saw.
1. The lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after undei-
gomg several processes, by which it is flattened, is made into
combs. 2. The middle of the horn, after being flattened by heat,
and having its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin
layers, and forms a substitute for glass, in lanterns of the commonest
kind. 3. The tip of the horn is used by the makers of knife-han-
dles, and of the tops of whips, and for other similar purposes. 4.
The interior, or core of the horn, is boiled down in water. A
large quantity of fat rises to the surface ; this is put aside, and sold
to the makers of yellow soap. 5. The liquid itself is used as a
kind of glue, and is purchased by cloth-dressers fcrr stiffening. 6.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 401
The insoluble substance, which remains behind, is then sent lo the
mill, and, being ground down, is sold to the farmers for manure.
7. Besides these various purposes to which the different parta of
the horn are applied, the clippings which arise in comb-making are
sold to the farmer for manure. In the first year after they are
spread over the soil they have comparatively little effect, but during
the next four or five their efficiency is considerable. The shavings
which form the refuse of the lantern -maker, are of a much thinner
texture : some of them are cut into various figures, and painted,
and used as toys'; for being hygrometric, they curl up when placed
on the palm of a warm hand. But the greater part of these shav-
ings also are sold for manure, and from their extremely thin and
divided form, tlte full effect is produced upon the first crop.
In many of the large establishments of our manufacturing dis
tricts, substances are employed which are the produce of remote
countries, and which are, in several instances, almost peculiar to
a few situations. The discovery of any new locality, where such
articles exist in abundance, is a matter of great importance to any
establishment which consumes them in large quantities ; and it has
been found, in some instances, that the expense of sending persons
to great distances, purposely to discover and to collect such pro-
duce, has been amply repaid. Thus it has happened, that the
snowy mountains of Sweden and Norway, as well as the warmer
hills of Corsica, have been almost stripped of one of their vegetable
productions, by agents sent expressly from one of our largest es-
tablishments for "the dyeing of calicoes. Owing to the same com-
mand of capital, and to the scale upon which the operations of large
factories are carried on, their returns admit of the expense of send-
ing out agents to examine into the wants and tastes of distant
countries, as well as of trying experiments, which, although pro-
fitable to them, would be ruinous to smaller establishments possess-
ing more limited resources.
When capital has been invested in machinery, and in buildings
for its accommodation, and when the inhabitants of the neighbor-
hood have acquired a knowledge of the modes of working at the
machines, reasons of considerable weight are required to cause
their removal. Such changes of position do, however, occur ; and
they have been -alluded to by the committee on the fluctuation of
manufacturers 1 employment, as one of the causes interfering most
materially with a uniform rate of wages ; it is therefore of par-
ticular importance to the workmen to be acquainted with the real
causes which have driven manufactures from their ancient seats.
" The migration or change of place of any manufacture has
sometimes arisen from improvements of machinery not applicable
402 ANECDOTES,
to the spot where such manufacture was carried on, as appears to
have been the case with the woollen manufacture, which has in
great measure migrated from Essex, Suffolk, and other southern
counties, to the northern districts, where coal for the use of the
steam engine is much cheaper. But this change has, in some
instances, been caused or accelerated by the conduct of the work-
men, in refusing a reasonable reduction of wages, or opposing the
introduction of some kind of improved machinery or process ; so
that, during the dispute, another spot has in great measure sup-
plied their place in the market. Any violence used by the work-
men against the property of their employers, and any unreasonable
combination on their part, is almost sure thus to be injurious to
themselves."
These removals become of serious consequence when the facto-
ries have been long established, because a population commensurate
with their wants invariably grows up around them. The combi-
nations in Nottinghamshire, of persons under the name of Luddites,
drove a great number of lace-frames from that district, and caused
establishments to be formed in Devonshire. We ought also to
observe, that the effect of driving any establishment into a new
district, where similar works have not previously existed, is not
merely to place it out of the reach of such combinations, but, after
a few years, the example of its success will most probably induce
our capitalists in the new district to engage in the same manufac-
ture : and thus, although one establishment only should be driven
away, the workmen, through whose combination its removal is
effected, will not merely -suffer by the loss of that portion of demand
for their labor which the factoiy caused ; but the value of that labor
will itself be reduced by the competition of a new field of production.
It is of great importance that the more intelligent amongst the
class of workmen should examine into the correctness of these
views ; because, without having their attention directed to them,
the whole class may, in some instances, be led by designing per-
sons to pursue a course, which, although plausible in appearance,
is in reality at variance with their own best interests. Bablage's
Economy of Man.
The Mechanical Fiddler.
One of the most extraordinary and the best attested instances of
enthusiasm, existing in conjunction with perseverance, is related
of the founder of the F family. This man, who was a fiddler
living near Stourbridge, was often witness of the immense labor
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 403
and loss of time caused by dividing the rods of iron necessary in
the process of making nails. The discovery of the process called
splitting, in works called splitting-mills, was first made in Sweden;
and the consequences of this advance in art were most disastrous
to the manufacturers of iron about Stourbridge. F the fiddler
was shortly missed from his accustomed. rounds, and was not again
seen for many years. He had mentally resolved to ascertain by
wliat means the process of splitting bars of iron was accomplish,
ed ; and without communicating his intention to a single human
being, he proceeded to Hull, and, without funds, worked his pas-
sage to the Swedish iron port. Arrived in Sweden, he begged
and Jiddled his way to the iron foundries, where he, after a time,
became a universal favorite with the workmen ; and from the ap-
parent entire absence of intelligence, or any thing like ultimate
object, he was received into the works, to every part of which he
had access. He took the advantage thus offered, and, having
stored his memory with observations, and all the combinations, he
disappeared from amongst his kind friends as he had appeared, no
one knew whence or whither.
On his return to England, he communicated his voyage and its
result to Mr. Knight and another person in the neighborhood, with
whom he was associated, and by whom the necessary buildings
were erected, and machinery provided. When at length every
thing was prepared, it was found that the machinery would not act ;
at all events it did not answer the sole end of its erection it would
not split the bar of iron. F disappeared again ; it was con-
cluded that shame and mortification at his failure had driven him
away forever. Not so ; again, though somewhat more speedily,
he found his way to the Swedish iron-works, where he was receiv-
ed most joyfully, and, to make sure of their fiddler, he was lodged
in the splitting-mill itself. Here was the very aim and end of his
life attained, beyond his utmost hope. He examined the works,
and very soon discovered the cause of his failure. He now made
drawings, or rude tracings ; and having abided an ample time to
verify his observations, and to impress them clearly and vividly on
his mind, he made his way to the port, and once more returned to
England. This time he was completely successful, and by tlw
results of his experience enriched himself and greatly benefited
his countrymen, who doubtless came to the conclusion that he at
least fiddled to some nurnose.
404 ANECDOTES.
Corn Mills in Ancient Times.
Till about fifty years before the commencement of the Christian
era, the ancients had no large mills forced round by water, but
ground their corn in small mills of one stone rolling rapidly round
upon another, and impelled by the hands of women-servants or
slaves. The stones used for that purpose were circular, portable,
nicely wrought, and adapted for turning ; the upper one being the
smaller of the two, with an iron or wooden handle fixed into its
edge ; the lower being larger, and probably harder at least if we
may infer from an expression in the book of Job, " hard as a piece
of the nether millstone." An excellent quarry in the neighbor.
hood of Babylon (we are informed by Xenophon) supplied all the
countries of the East with such millstones.
That women, or maid-servants, generally performed this piece
of domestic labor, we are assured by the very first mention made
of grinding with mills, that in Exodus, (xi. 5,) " All the first-born
in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that
sitteth upon the throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant
that is behind the mill ;" in which passage, from the contrasted
states of dignity and meanness, it is plain, that, in Egypt at least,
the drudgery of grinding was deemed the lowest possible. Two
women were generally employed ; they sat fronting each other,
with the millstone between them, which was kept whirling by
alternate impulsions of the hand. Slaves taken in war were fre-
quently doomed to undergo this tedious penaace ; Samson " did
grind in the prison-house of the Philistines 5" the Hebrews, in their
Babylonish captivity, were subjected to its degradation ; " they
took our young men to grind," says Jeremiah in his Lamentations ;
and Isaiah, in his prophetic declaration to Babylon of her impend-
ing state of captivity, bids her, as a proper badge of her servile
subjection, " take millstones and grind meal." The piece of a
millstone whereby Abimelech was slain, when he was attacking
the tower of Thebez, was cast upon his head by a " certain wo-
man," whom it befitted to wield as a weapon, the humble utensil
of her daily occupation.
Portable millstones of this description must have been brought
oy the children of Israel from Egypt, and carried with them all
the way through the wilderness, as we read in Numbers, (xi. 8,)
that " the people ground the manna in mills." As by the laws of
Athens no creditor was allowed to distrain the plough and other
simple and necessary utensils of rustic labor, so by the laws of
Moses, (Deut. xxiv. 6,) it was permitted to no man "to take the
nether or the upper millstone to pledge" in other words, to take
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 405
them by distrain* in lieu of any debt. The morning, before or at
sunrise, was the time allotted in the domestic arrangement for
grinding for the family as much flour as was needful for the con-
sumption of the day.
An interesting particular connected with the practice of noctur-
nal grinding, may be quoted from the military history of Julian.
His forces, when besieging some strong place on the Tigris, had
wrought a deep mine under the walls and buildings to the very
centre of the city, when his soldiers, on digging the earth upwards
to the surface, found themselves alter midnight in the middle of the
house of a poor woman, who was busily employed in grinding corn
for flour-bread, and who, douUless, was not a little astonished at
the emersion into her solitary chamber of such extraordinary vi.
sitants.
The operation of grinding by the females was always accompa-
nied, as it still is in the East, with melodious and shrill-trilled dit-
ties, sung in chorus, which sounded strong enough to be heard out
of doors throughout all the lanes and streets ; the pleasant jolity
of which, associated as it was with the just apparent brightness of
dawn, and announcing the approaching activity of village or city
population just awaking to their daily labor, gave to this simple
domestic operation a peculiar character of happiness, peaceful in-
dustry, and tranquillity. The Hebrew writers, accordingly, always
connect the sound of the morning mill with prosperity and repose,
coupling it, in its degree of vivacity, with " the voice of harpers
and musicians ;" its cessation they associate with the presence ot
melancholy, trouble, and adversity. Thus, when the wise man
wishes to describe the dreary melancholy of old age, he expresses
it by the "sound of the grinding 11 being " low." " I will take
away the sound of the millstone," says Jeremiah, to express utter
desolation. We are informed by travellers that such lively chants
are still sung by females in Persia and Africa when engaged in
grinding. The heart of Mungo Park, in the Afric desert, was
softened and reminded of his home by the chant of the women
grinding. The Grecian women, also, had a ditty of this kind,
called the Song of the Mill. It began, " Grind, mill, grind ; even
Pittacus king of Mitylene doth grind. 11 For it seems that Pitta-
cus, king, or tyrant, as he was called, of Mitylene, and reckoned
also one of the seven wise men of Greece, had been accustomed,
in moments of unoccupied languor, to resort for amusement to the
grinding-mill, that being, as he called it, his best gymnasium, or
pleasantest exercise in smallest space. As sometimes for health,
so sometimes also for obtaining an honest livelihood, was grinding
resorted to by persons above the common order. The t b a story
4.8
406 ANECDOTES,
told of the two philosophers Menedemus and Asclepiades, who,
when young men", and students of wisdom under one of the Athe-
nian masters, were enabled to maintain a respectable personal ap-
pearance by grinding every night at the mill for two drachmae, or
about Is. 4d. a night ; on hearing which signal proof of industry,
the Areopagites, in admiration of their love of wisdom and frugal-
ity, presented them with an honorary donation of two hundred
drachmae, to support them during their tune of study.
The Romans seem to have invented a larger class of mills, dri-
ven by mules, asses, or oxen, (called molse jumentariie,) and to
have introduced them during the course of their conquests in the
East. The stones employed in these mills were of a larger size,
and much more operose in their revolution, and effective in their
labor. Allusion is made to one cf these larger millstones in the
passage of the Gospel, (Luke xvii. 2,) where it is said, " it were
better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, 1 ' the larger
millstone impelled by asses being there understood in the original ;
it is to be regretted that the emphasis given to the sentiment by
the distinctive word implying the larger stone, is lost in our trans-
lation.
The first corn-mill driven by water was invented and set up by
Mithridates, king of Cappadocia, the most talented, studious, and
ingenious prince of any age or country. It was set up in the neigh-
borhood of his capital or palace, about seventy years before the
commencement of the Christian era. It was probably from this
favorable circumstance of the invention of the water-mill, and the
facility thereby afforded to the Cappadocian people for making
cheap, good, and ubundant flour, that the Cappadocian bakers ob-
tained high celebrity, and were much in demand for two or three
centuries posterior to the invention of mills, throughout all the Ro-
man world. Coincident with the era of the inventor, as mention-
ed by Strabo, is the date of the Greek epigram on water-mills by
Antipater, a poet of Syria or Asia Minor, who is supposed to have
Jived sixty or eighty years before Christ. This epigram may be
thus translated :
Ye maids, who toil'd so faithful at the mill,
Now cease from work, and from these toils be still ;
Sleep now till dawn, and let the birds with glee
Sing to the ruddy morn on bush and tree ;
For what yonr hands performed so long, so true,
Ceres has 'chars'd the water-nymphs to do;
They come, the limpid sisters, to her call,
And on the wheel with dashing fury fall ;
Impel the axle with a whirling sound
And make the massy millstone reel around,
And bring the floury heaps luxuria: t to the grouno.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 497
The greater convenience and expedition in working of these
water-mills soon made them be spread over the world. In about
twenty or thirty years after their invention, one was set up on the
Tiber. They must have been not uncommon in Italy in the age
of Vitruvius, for he gives a description of them. Yet it is rather
surprising that Pliny, whose eye nothing of art or nature escapes,
has taken no notice of them. In the age of Theodosius, (about
330 A. D.,) the public corn-mills of the city of Rome seem to have
been wrought principally or altogether by slaves. According to an
historian, these corn-mills were all placed in the subterranean
apartments or cellars of an immense pile of buildings used by the
Roman bakers as a public bakehouse. He tells a strange story
of this Roman pistrinum. It was built, it seems, on an immense
scale, with grinding dungeons below, and shops or taverns along
its front and sides, where were sold the loaves, and wherein were
at the same time exhibited other tavern temptations to seduce the
simple ones and the strangers. Into these trap-taverns people went
without suspicion ; but no sooner were some of them wheedled in,
than, by means of some mechanical pitfalls made in the floor, they
were precipitated into the grinding-vault, and found themselves
irrecoverably caught and imprisoned. There they were compelled
to work as drudges of the mill, their friends all the while believing
them dead. At last the insidious bakehouse was exposed and
destroyed by a soldier of Theodosius. He, too, was plunged into
the subterranean mill-house, but fortunately having his sword at his
side, he drew it, and by the terror of his menaces, and his layings-
about, he forced the people to let him go. The insidious work-
house was exposed, and, by the order of the emperor, demolished
to its foundations. At a later period, Rome was supplied with
meal from mills placed upon boats on the Tiber, the rush of the
water driving the wheels.
Mills on a large scale have been for ages established in all Eu-
ropean and .other countries in which the arts have been improved.
In some of the remote parts of the British islands, however, the
practice, of bruising corn in a mortar, or of grinding it in a small
hand-mill, is not yet entirely disused. In the Highlands of Scot-
land, these rudely fashioned hand-mills are called querns ; and the
primeval practice of singing while working at them is still knpt up.
Pennant, in his Tour through Scotland in 1769, gives drawings of
the Highland querns. Mr. Robert Jamieson, in a work entitled
" Popular Ballads and Songs," of which he was editor, relates the
following interesting anecdote, illustrative of the condition of life in
which the quern is still, or was lately, in use :
" On a very hot day in the beginning of autumn, the author
408 ANECDOTES,
when a stripling, was travelling afoot over the mountains of Loch
aber, from Fort Augustus to Inverness ; and when he came to the
house where he was to have breakfasted, there was no person at
home, nor was there any place where refreshment was to be had
nearer than Duris, which is eighteen miles from Fort Augustus.
With this disagreeable prospect, he proceeded about three miles
farther, and turned aside to the first cottage he saw, where he found
a hale-looking, lively, tidy, little, middle-aged woman, spinning
wool, with a pot on the fire, and some greens ready to be put into
it. She understood no English, and his Gaelic was then by no
means good, though he spoke it well enough to be intelligible. She
informed him that she had nothing in the house that could be eaten,
except cheese, a little sour cream, and some whiskey. On being
asked, rather sharply, how she could dress the greens without meal,
she good-humoredly told him that there was plenty of meal in the
croft, pointing to some unreaped barley that stood dead-ripe and
dry before the door ; and if he could wait half an hour, he should
have brose and butter, bread and cheese, bread and milk, or any
thing else that he chose. To this he most readily assented, as
well on account of the singularity of the proposal, as of the necessity
of the time ; and the good dame set with all possible expedition
about her arduous undertaking. She first of all brought him some
cream in a bottle, telling him, < He that will not work, neither shall
he eat; 1 if he wished for butter, he must 'shake that bottle with
all his might, and sing to it like a mavis all the time ; for unless
he sang to it, no butter would come. She then went to the croft,
cut down some barley, burnt the straw to dry the grain, rubbed
the grain between her hands, and threw it up before the wind to
separate it from the husks ; ground it upon a quern, sifted it, made
a bannock of the meal, set it up to bake before the fire ; lastly,
went to milk her cow, that was reposing during the heat of the
day, and eating some outside cabbage leaves ' ayont the hallan. 1 She
sang like a lark the whole time, varying the strain according to
the employment to which it was adapted. In the mean while, a hen
cackled under the eaves of the cottage ; two new-laid eggs were
immediately plunged into the boiling pot, and in less than half an
hour, the poor, starving, faint, and way-worn minstrel, with won-
dcr and delight sat down to a repast, that, under such circumstan-
ces, would have been a feast for a prince."
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 409
The Obelisk of Luxor.
We fancy there are few of our readers but have read descrip-
tions and seen drawings or prints of the two remarkable obelisks
called Cleopatra's Needles, near Alexandria, on the coast of
Egypt. Of these only one is erect ; the other has been for many
years prostrate and half buried in sand.
Among the treasures of antiquity found in the interior of Egypt,
and particularly in the Thebaid, were, till very lately, two granite
columns of precisely the same character as Cleopatra's Needles.
Of these, one remains on the desolate spot ; the other, with great
labor and expense, has been transported to the flourishing capital
of France.
When the French army, in their attempt on Egypt, penetrated
as far as Thebes, they were, almost to a man, overpowered by
the majesty of the ancient monuments they saw before them ; and
Bonaparte is then said to have conceived the idea of removing at
least one of the obelisks to Paris. But reverses and defeat follow-
ed. The French were forced to abandon Egypt ; and the English
remaining masters of the seas, effectually prevented any such im-
portation into France.
The project of Bonaparte had the sort of classical precedent he
so much admired. Roman conquerors and Roman emperors had
successively enriched the capital of the world with the monuments
of subdued nations, and with the spoils of art from Sicily, Greece,
and Egypt. Among these, the Emperor Augustus ordered two
Egyptian obelisks, also of the same character as Cleopatra's
Needles, to be brought to Rome. To this end an immense vessel
of a peculiar construction was built ; and when, after a tedious
and difficult voyage, it reached the Tiber with its freight, one of
the columns was placed in the Grand Circus, and the other in the
Campus Martius, at Rome. Caligula adorned Rome with a third
Egyptian obelisk, obtained in the same manner.
The Emperor Constantine, still more ambitious of these costly
foreign ornaments, resolved to decorate his new-founded capital
of Constantinople with the largest of all the obelisks that stood
on the ruins of Thebes. He succeeded in having it conveyed as
far as Alexandria ; but, dying at the time, its destination was
changed, and an enormous raft, managed by 300 rowers, trans-
ported the granite obelisk from Alexandria to Rome. The diffi-
culties encountered by the large, flat, awkward vessel do not
appear to have occurred during the passage across the Mediter-
ranean, which was, no doubt, effected during the fine, settled
summer season, when that sea is often, for weeks together, almost
410 ANECDOTES,
as calm as a small fresh-water lake ; but they presented them.
selves at the passage of the mouth of the Tiber, and in the hal.
lows of that river. When all these obstacles were overcome, ii
required the labor of thousands of men to set up the obelisk upon
its base at Rome.
The Emperor Theodosius, at last, succeeding in bringing an
obelisk from Egypt to Constantinople, erected it in the Hippo,
drome. Though this was of an inferior size, (being rather under
than over fifty feet,) it is recorded that it required thirty-two days 1
labor, and the most complicated contrivances of mechanics to set
it upright.
The Constantinopolitan obelisk still stands where it was first
erected by the emperor ; but those of Rome have been removed
by the Popes. In all, there are twelve ancient obelisks erect in
the modern city of Rome.
Thirty years after Bonaparte's first conception of the idea, the
French government, then under Charles X., having obtained the
consent of the pasha of Egypt, determined that one of the obelisks
of Luxor should be brought to Paris. " The difficulties of doing
this, 11 says M. Delaborde, " were great. In the first place it was
necessary to build a vessel which should be large enough to con
tain the monument, deep enough to stand the sea, and, at the
same time, draw so little water as to be able to ascend and de-
scend such rivers as the Nile and the Seine."
In the month of February, 1831, when the crown of France
had passed into the hands of Louis Philippe, a vessel, built as
nearly as could be on the necessary principles, was finished and
equipped at Toulon. This vessel, which for the sake of lightness
was chiefly made of fir and other white wood, was named the
" Louxor." The crew consisted of 120 seamen, under the com-
mand of Lieutenant Verninac of the French royaf navy ; and
there went, besides, sixteen mechanics of different professions,
and a master to direct the works, under the superintendence of
M. Lebas, formerly a pupil of the Polytechnic School, and now a
naval engineer.
M. J. P. Angelina accompanied the expedition in quality of
surgeon-major ; and to a volume which this gentleman has re-
cently published at Paris we are indebted for an account of its
proceedings.
On the 15th of April, 1831, (which we should have thought two
months too early in the season,) the " Louxor 1 ' sailed from Toulon.
Some rather violent winds and heavy seas proved that a vessel so
built was not very seaworthy, and appear to have somewhat
frightened the " Chirurgien-Major ;" but they arrived without any
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 4H
serious accident in the port of Alexandria on the 3d of May.
After staying forty-two days at Alexandria, the expedition sailed
again on the 15th of June for the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, which
they entered on the following day, though not without danger
from the sand-bank which the river has deposited there. At
Rosetta they remained some days ; and on the 20th of June, M.
Lebas, the engineer, two officers, and a few of the sailors and
workmen, leaving the " Louxor" to make her way up the river
slowly, embarked in common Nile-boats for Thebes, carrying with
them the tools and materials necessary for the removal of the
obelisk. On the 7th of July, when the waters of the Nile had
risen considerably, the " Louxor" sailed from Rosetta ; on the
13th she reached Boulak, the port of Grand Cairo, where she
remained until the 19th ; and she did not arrive at Thebes until
the 14th of August, which was two months after her departure
from Alexandria.
The Turks and Arabs were astonished at seeing so large a
vessel on the Nile, and frequently predicted she would not accom-
plish the whole voyage. The difficulties encountered in so doing
were, indeed, very serious ; in spite of the peculiar build and
material, the vessel grounded and struck fast in the sand several
times ; at other times a contrary wind, joined to the current, which
was of course contrary all the way up, obliged them to lie at
anchor for days ; and the greatest part of the ascent of the river
was effected by towing, which exhausting work seems to have
been performed, partly by the French sailors, and partly by such
Arabs and Fellahs as they could hire for the occasion. An ex-
cessive heat rendered this fatigue still more insupportable. Fahren-
heit's thermometer marked from 98 Q to 102 s in the shade, and
ascended to 144, and even to 160 in the sun. Several of the
sailors were seized with dysentery, and the quantity of sand blown
about by the wind, and the glaring reflection of the burning sun,
afflicted others with painful ophthalmia. The sand must have
been particularly distressing : oije day the wind raised it and
rolled it onward in such volume as, at intervals, to obscure the
light of the sun. After they had felicitated themselves on the fact
that the plague was not in the country, they were struck with
alarm on the 29th of August, by learning that the cholera morbus
had broken out most violently at Cairo. On the llth of Septem-
ber the same mysterious disease declared itself on the plain of
Thebes, with the natives of which the French were obliged to
have frequent communications. In a very short time fifteen of
the sailors, according to our author, the surgeon, caught the con.
tagion, but every one recovered under his care and skill. At the
412 ANECDOTES,
same time, however, (panic no doubt increasing the dispo*it/on to
disease,) no fewer than forty-eight men were laid up with dvsen-
tery, which proved fatal to two of them.
In the midst of these calamities and dangers, the French sailors
persevered in preparing the operations relative to the object of
the expedition. One of the first cares of M. Lebas, the engineer,
on his arriving on the plain of Thebes, was to erect, near to the
obelisks and not far from the village of Luxor, proper wooden
barracks, sheds and tents to lodge the officers, sailors, and work-
men, on shore. He also built an oven to bake them bread, and
magazines in which to secure their provisions, and the sails, cables,
&c., of the vessel. The now desolate site on which the city of
the Hundred Gates, the vast, the populous, and the wealthy Thebes,
once stood, offered them no resources, nor a single comfort of
civilized life. But French soldiers and sailors are happily, and,
we may say, honorably distinguished, by the facility with which
they adapt themselves to circumstances, and turn their hands to
whatever can add to their comfort and well-being. The sailors on
this expedition, during their hours of repose from more severe
labors, carefully prepared and dug up pieces of ground for kitchen-
gardei^s. They cultivated bread-melons and water-melons, let-
tuces, and other vegetables. They even planted some trees,
which thrived very well ; and, in short, they made their place of
temporary residence a little paradise as compared with the
wretched huts and neglected fields of the oppressed natives.
It was the smaller of the two obelisks the French had to re-
move. But this smaller column of hard, heavy granite was about
ninety or a hundred feet in height, and was calculated to weigh
upwards of two hundred and forty tons. It stood, moreover, at
the distance cf about one thousand two hundred feet from the
Nile, and the intervening space presented many difficulties.
M. Lebas, the engineer, commenced by making an inclined
plane, extending from the base of the obelisk to the edge of the
river. This work occupied nearly all the French sailors and
about seven hundred Arabs during three months, for they were
obliged to cut through two hills of ancient remains and rubbish,
to demolish half of the poor villages which lay in their way, and
to beat, equalize, and render firm the uneven, loose and crumbling
soil. This done, the engineer proceeded to make the ship ready
for the reception of the obelisk. The vessel had been left aground
by the periodical fall of the waters of the Nile, and matters had
been so managed that she lay imbedded in the sand, with her fig-
ure-head pointing directly towards the temple and the granite col-
umn. The engineer taking care not to touch the keel, sawed off
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 413
a transverse and complete section of the front of the ship ; in
short, he cut away her bows, which were raised, and kept suspend,
ed above the place they properly occupied by means of pulleys and
some strong spars, which crossed each other above the vessel.
The ship, thus opened, presented in front a large mouth to re-
ceive its cargo, which was to reach the very lip of that mouth or
opening, by sliding down the inclined plane. When this section
of the ship was effected, they took care that she should lie equally
on her keel ; and where the sand or mud was weak, or had fallen
away from the vessel, they supplied proper supports and props to
prevent the great weight of the column from breaking her back.
The preparations for bringing the obelisk safely down to the ground
lasted from the llth of July to the 31st of October, when it was
laid horizontally on its side.
The rose-colored granite of Syene, (the material of these re
markable works of ancient art,) though exceedingly hard, is rather
brittle. By coming in contact with other substances, and by being
impelled along the inclined plane, the beautiful hieroglyphics sculp,
tured on its surface might have been defaced, and the obelisk
might have suffered other injuries. To prevent these, M. Lebas
encased it, from its summit to its base, in strong thick wooden
sheathings, which were well secured to the column by means of
hoops. The western face of this covering, which was that upon
which the obelisk was to slide down the inclined plane, was ren-
dered smooth, and was well rubbed with grease to make it run
the easier.
The mechanical contrivance to lower the column, which was by
far the most critical part of these operations, is described as hav-
ing been very simple. A cable of immense strength was attached
to a strong anchor deeply sunk in the earth, and well secured at
some distance from the monument. This cable was carried for-
ward and made fast to the top of the obelisk, and then descending
in an acute angle in the rear of the obelisk, the cable was retained
in an opposite direction to the anchor by means of an enormous
beam of wood, and by a series of pulleys and capstans. The
column had been perfectly cleared from the sand and earth round
its base, and walls of a certain height erected to keep it in the
proper line of descent. Other works at its base prevented the
column from sliding backwards' in its descent, and a strong bed
made of oak, and immediately connected with the inclined plane,
was ready to receive it, and pass it to the plane when it reached
a certain low angle of declination.
To move so lofty and narrow an object from its centre of gravity
was no difficult task, but then came the moment of intense
IS*
414 ANECDOTES,
anxiety ! The whole of the enormous weight bore upon the
cable, the cordage, and machinery, which quivered and cracked
in all their parts. Their tenacity, however, was equal to the
strain, and so ingeniously were the mechanical powers applied,
that eight men in the rear of the descending column were suffi-
cient to accelerate or retard its descent. For two minutes the
obelisk was suspended at an angle of 30, but, finally, it sank
majestically and in perfect safety to the bed of the inclined
plane.
On the following day the much less difficult task of getting the
obelisk on board the ship was performed. It only occupied an
hour and a half to drag the column down the inclined plane, and
(through the open mouth in front) into the hold of the vessel.
The section of the suspended bows was then lowered to the proper
place, and readjusted and secured as firmly as ever by the car-
penters and other workmen. So nicely was this important part
of the ship sliced off, and then put to again, that the mutilation
was scarcely perceptible.
The obelisk, as we have seen, was embarked on the 1st of
November, 1831, but it was not until the 18th of August, 1832 ;
that the annual rise of the Nile afforded sufficient water to float
their long-stranded ship. At last, however, to their infinite joy,
they were ordered to prepare every thing for the voyage home-
wards. As soon as this was done, sixty Arabs were engaged to
assist in getting them down the river, (a distance of one hundred
and eighty leagues,) and the Louxor set sail.
After thirty-six days of painful navigation, but without meeting
with any serious accident, they reached Rosetta ; and there they were
ouiiged to stop, because the sand-bank off that mouth of the Nile
had accumulated to such a degree, that, with its present cargo,,
the vessel could not clear it. Fortunately, however, on the 30th
of December, a violent hurricane dissipated part of this sand,
bank ; and, on the 1st of January, 1833, at ten o'clock in the
morning, the Louxor shot safely out of the Nile, and at nine o'clock
on the following morning came to a secure anchorage in the old
harbor of Alexandria.
Here they awaited the return of the fine season for navigating
the Mediterranean ; and the Sphynx (a French man-of-war) taking
the Louxor in tow, they sailed from Alexandria on the 1st of April.
On the 2d, a storm commenced, which kept the Louxor in immi-
nent danger for two whole days. On the 6th, this storm abated ;
? >ut the wind continued contrary, and soon announced a fresh
'nipest. They had just time to run for shelter into the bay of
dfarmara when the storm became more furious than ever.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 415
On the 13th of April they again weighed anchor, and shaped
their course for Malta ; but a violent contrary wind drove them
back as far as the Greek island of Milo, where they were detained
two days. Sailing, however, on the 17th, they reached Navarino
on the 18th, and the port of Corfu, where, they say, they were
kindly received by Lord Nugent and the British, on the 23d of
April. Between Corfu and Cape Spartivento, heavy seas and
high winds caused the Louxor to labor and strain exceedingly.
As soon, however, as they reached the coast of Italy, the sea be-
came calm, and a light breeze carried them forward, at the rate
of four knots an hour, to Toulon, where they anchored during the
evening of the llth of May.
They had now reached the port whence they had departed, but
their voyage was not yet finished. There is no carriage by water,
or by any other commodious means, for so heavy and cumbrous'
a mass as an Egyptian obelisk, from Toulon to Paris, (a distance
of above four hundred and fifty miles.) To meet this difficulty
they must descend the rest of the Mediterranean, pass nearly the
whole of the southern coast of France, and all the south of Spain
sail through the Straits of Gibraltar, and traverse part of the
Atlantic, as far as the mouth of the Seine, which river affords a
communication between the French capital and the ocean.
Accordingly, on the 22d of June, they sailed from Toulon, the
Louxor being again taken in tow by the Sphynx man-of-war ; and,
after experiencing some stormy weather, finally readied Cherbourg
on the 5th of August, 1833. The whole distance performed in
this voyage was upwards of fourteen hundred leagues.
As the royal family of France was expected at Cherbourg by
the 31st of August, the authorities detained .the Louxor there
On the 2d of September, King Louis Philippe paid a visit to the
vessel, and warmly expressed his satisfaction to the officers and
crew. He was the first to inform M. Verninac, the commander,
that he was promoted to the rank of captain of a sloop-of-war.
On the following day, the king distributed decorations of the legion
of honor to the officers, and entertained them at dinner.
The Louxor, again towed by the Sphynx, left Cherbourg on the
12th of September, and safely reached Havre de Grace, at the
mouth of the Seine. Here her old companion, the Sphynx, which
drew too much water to be able to ascend the river, left her, and
she was taken in tow by the Heva steamboat. To conclude with
the words of our author : " At six o'clock (on the 13th) our vessel
left the sea for ever, and entered the Seine. By noon we had
cleared all the banks and impediments of the lower part of the
ri er ; and, on the 14th of September, at noon, we arrived at
410 ANECDOTES,
Rouen, where the Louxnr was made fast before the quay d'Har
court. Here we must remain until the autumnal rains raise the
waters of the Seine, and permit us to transport to Paris this
pyramid, the object of our expedition." This event has since
happened, and the column safely erected on its pedestal.
American Steamers.
The following extract from a late London work, " Stevenson's
Engineering in North America," may not be uninteresting to most
of our readers :
" The steam navigation of the United States is one of the most
interesting subjects connected with the history of North America ,
and it is strange that hitherto we should have received so little
information regarding it, especially as there is no class of works,
in that comparatively new and still rising countiy, which bear
stronger marks of long-continued exertion, successfully directed
to the perfection of its objecf, than are presented by many of the
steamboats which now navigate its rivers, bays, and lakes.
" It would be improper to compare the present state of steam
navigation in America with that of this country, for the nature of
things has established a very important distinction between them.
By far the greater number of the American steamboats ply on the
smooth surfaces of rivers, sheltered bays, or arms of the sea, ex-
posed neither to waves nor to wind ; whereas most of the steam-
boats in this country go out to sea, where they encounter as bad
weather and as heavy waves as ordinary sailing vessels. The
consequence is, that in America a much more slender built, and a
more delicate mould, give the requisite strength to their vessels,
and thus a much greater speed, which essentially depends upon
these two qualities, is gererally obtained. In America, the posi-
tion of the machinery and of the cabins, whieh are raised above
the deck of the vessels, admits of powerful engines, with an enor-
mous length of stroke being employed to propel them ; but this
arrangement would be wholly inapplicable to the vessels navigating
our coasts, at least to the extent to which it has been carried in
America.
" But perhaps the strongest proof that the American vessels are
very differently circumstanced from those of Europe, and there-
fore admit of a construction more favorable for the attainment of
great speed, is the fact that they are not generally, as in Europe,
navigated by persons possessed of a knowledge of seamanship.
In this country stearn navigation produces hardy seamen; and
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 417
British steamers being exposed to the open sea in all weathers,
are furnished with masts and sails, and must be worked by persons
who, in the event of any accident happening to the machinery, are
capable of sailing the vessel, and who must therefore be experi-
enced seamen. The case is very different in America, where,
with the exception of the vessels navigating the lakes, and one or
two of those which ply on the eastern coast, there is not a steamer
in the country which has either masts or sails, or is commanded
by a professional seaman. These facts forcibly show the different
state of steam navigation in America, a state very favorable for
the attainment of great speed, and a high degree of perfection in
the locomotive art.
" The early introduction of steam navigation into the country,
and the rapid increase which has since taken place in the number
of steamboats, have afforded an extensive field for the prosecution
of valuable inquiries on this interesting subject ; and the builders
of steamboats, by availing themselves of the opportunities held out
to them, have been enabled to make constant accessions to their
practical knowledge, which have gradually produced important
improvements in the construction and action of their vessels. But
on minutely examining the most approved American steamers, I
found it impossible to trace any general principles which seem to
have served as guides for their construction. Every American
steamboat builder holds opinions of his own, which are generally
founded, not on theoretical principles, but on deductions drawn
from a close examination of the practical effects of the different
arrangements and proportions adopted in the construction of dif-
ferent steamboats, and these opinions never fail to influence, in a
greater or less degree, the built of his vessel, and the proportions
which her several parts are made to bear to each other.
" The voyage between Albany and New York is now generally
performed in ten hours, exclusive of the time lost in making stop,
pages, being at the astonishing rate of fifteen miles per hour.
They have effected this great increase of speed by constantly
making experiments on the form and proportions of their engines
and vessels, in short, by a persevering system of trial and error,
which is still going forward ; and the natural consequence is, that,
even at this day, no two steamboats are alike, and few of them
have attained the age of six months without undergoing some ma-
terial alterations.
" These observations apply more particularly to the steamers
navigating the eastern waters of the United States, where the great
number of steamboat builders, and the rapid increase of trade,
have produced a competition wb'ch has led to the construction of
419 ANECDOTES,
a class of vessels unequalled i* point of speed by those of any othel
quarter of the globe. The original construction of most of these
vessels has, as already stated, been materially changed. The
breadth of beam and the length of keel have in some vessels been
increased, and in others they have been diminished. This mode
of procedure may seem rather paradoxical : but in America it is
no uncommon thing to filter steamboats by cutting them through
the middle, and either increasing or diminishing their dimensions
as the occasion may require. It is only a short time since many
of the steamboats were furnished with false bows, by which the
length of the deck and the rake of the cutwaters were greatly in-
creased. On some vessels these bows still remain ; from others
they have been removed, subsequent experiments having led to
the conclusion, that a perpendicular bow without any rake is best
adapted for a fast-sailing boat. When I visited the United States
in 1837, the ' Swallow ' held the reputation of being one of the two
swiftest steamers which have ever navigated the American waters,
and this vessel had received an addition of twenty-four feet to her
original length, besides having been otherwise considerably changed
Before these alterations were made on her, she was considered, as
regards speed, to be an inferior vessel.
" The inferences to be drawn from these facts are, that the great
experiment for the improvement of steam navigation, in which the
Americans may be said to have been engaged for the last thirty
years, is not completed, and the speed at which they have sue-
ceeded in propelling their steam-vessels may yet be increased ;
and also that, in the construction of their vessels, they have been
governed by experience and practice alone, without attempting to
introduce theoretical principles, in the application of which, to the
practice of propelling vessels, by the action of paddle-wheels on the
water, numerous difficulties have hitherto been experienced.
" There are local circumstances, connected with the nature of
the trade in which the steamboats are engaged, and the waters
which they are intended to navigate, that have given rise to the
employment of three distinct classes of vessels in American steam
navigation, all of which I had an opportunity of sailing in and par-
ticularly examining.
" These steamboats may be ranged under the following classifi-
cation : First, those navigating the Eastern waters. This class
includes all the vessels plying on the river Hudson, Long Island
Sound, Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and all those which run
to and from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charles.
ton, Norfolk, and the other ports on the eastern coast of the coun-
try, or what the Americans call the sea-board. Second, thoee
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 4jg
navigating the Western waters, including all the steamers em-
ployed on the river Mississippi and its numerous tributaries, in-
eluding the Missouri and Ohio. Third, the steamers engaged in
the Lake navigation. These classes of vessels vary very much
in their construction, which has been modified to suit the respective
services for which they are intended.
" The general characteristics by which the Eastern water boats
are distinguished, are, a small draught of water, great speed, and
the use of condensing engines of large dimensions, having a great
length of stroke. On the Western waters, on the other hand, the
vessels have a greater draught of water and less speed, and are
propelled by high-pressure engines of small size, worked by steam
of great .elasticity. The steamers on the Lakes, again, have a
very strong built and a large draught of water, possessing in a
greater degree the character of sea-boats than any of those be-
longing to the other two classes. They also differ in having masts
and sails, with which the others are not provided.
" The steamboats employed on the Hudson river are the first,
belonging to the class of vessels navigating the Eastern waters, of
which I shall make particular mention.
" The shoals in the upper part of the river, produced by the
Overslaugh, have rendered it necessary that the steamboats em-
ployed in its navigation should have a small draught of water.
The great trade of the river, and the crowds of passengers which
are constantly travelling between New York and Albany and the
intermediate towns, have also led to the adoption of separate lines
of boats, one for towing barges loaded with goods, and another
devoted exclusively to the conveyance of passengers. The attain-
ment of great speed naturally became an important desideratum in
the construction of the vessels employed in carrying passengers ;
and the success which has attended the efforts of the steamboat
builders to produce vessels, combining swiftness with efficiency
and perfection of workmanship, is truly wonderful, and in the
highest degree creditable.
" The hulls of almost all the American steamboats, especially
those which ply on the rivers, carrying no freight excepting the
luggage belonging to passengers, are constructed in a very light
and superficial manner. They are built perfectly flat in the bot.
torn, and perpendicular in the sides ; a cross section in the middle
of the vessel, having the form of a parallelogram, with its lower
corners rounded off. This construction of hull is well adapted to
a navigation where the depth of water is small, and the attainment
of great speed is an object of importance, as it ensures a smaller
draught of water, and consequently affords less resistance to the
420 ANECDOTES,
motion of the vessel than any other mould which has an equal area
of cross section below the water line ; but vessels built in this way,
without a deep keel, having no hold of the water, are not weL
adapted for making sea voyages, as they cannot resist the effect
of the wind, which causes them to make lee-way. It is only the
great breadth of the paddle-wheels and power of the engines which
enables the American boats to move steadily through the water.
The breadth of the paddle-wheels is, in fact, so much additional
breadth added to the beam of the vessel ; for the reaction of the
float-boards striking the water tends, in some measure, to counter-
act any tendency that the vessel may have to roll, which would
otherwise be veiy apt to take place in the American steamers,
where the machinery and boilers are placed above the level of the
deck. There is no rolling motion felt in these fast boats. The
rectilineal motion, however, is by no means regular. Every stroke
of the engine produces a momentary acceleration in the sp^ed,
giving rise to a see-saw motion, resembling that of a row-boat, in
which the impulse produced by every stroke of the oars is dis-
tinctly felt.
" In the AmericM steamers the keel generally projects from
two to six inches from the bottom of the hull, and is level from
stem to stern. Its principal service, when the projection is so
small, consists in strengthening the hull. The deck-lines of the
hull, in general, begin to fall in at a distance of a few feet from
the middle of the vessel. They approach each other with a gentle
curve, towards the stern and bow, where they meet, and are con-
nected by the stern-post and cutwater of the vessel. The cutwater
is generally perpendicular ; and the sides of the vessel, diverging
from it, present a very acute angle to meet the resistance offered
by the water.
" The speed of the American steamboats has excited consider-
able wonder in this country ; and some people have been inclined
to doubt the accuracy of the statements that have frequently been
made regarding the extraordinary feats performed by them. Fast
sailing is a property which is not possessed by all American steam-
boats ; but that a few of those navigating the river Hudson and
Long Island Sound perform their voyages safely and regularly,
at a speed which far surpasses that of any European steamer
hitherto built, every impartial person, who has had an opportunity
of seeing the performances of the vessels in both countries, must
be ready to admit.
" Some difficulties at present exist, which preclude the attain-
ment of more than an approximation in ascertaining the maximum
rate at which the steamboats on the Hudson are capable of being
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 42 j
propehed in still water. One of these is caused by the currents
of the flowing and ebbing tide, which are felt as far as Albany,
and whose velocity has never been accurately ascertained ; and
the other by the doubt that exists as to the Actual distance of the
route between New York and Albany, which has been variously
stated at from 145 to 160 miles.
" A very general opinion exists in America, in which many
persons possessing the best means of information concur, that
the fast steamboats in that country can be propelled at the rate
of eighteen miles an hour in still water, a feat which it is said has
of late been often performed. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of
this statement, however, from personal experience or observation ;
but this I can state positively, that the average length of time oc-
cupied by the steamers in making the voyage from New York to
Albany is ten hours, exclusive of time lost in making stoppages,
which, taking the distance at 150 miles, gives fifteen miles an hour
as their average rate of motion.
" The ' Rochester 1 and the ' Swallow 1 were said to be the two
swiftest boats running on the Hudson in 1837. I made a trip
from Albany to New York in the ' Rochester, 1 on the 14th of
June ; on which occasion, with a view to test the vessel's speed,
I carefully noted the hour of departure from Albany, the times of
touching at the several towns and landing places on the river, with
the reputed distances between them, the number of minutes lost at
each place, and the hour of arrival at New York. Thirteen stop-
pages, which I found to average three minutes each, were made to
land and take on board passengers. The ' Rochester 1 performed
the voyage in ten hours and forty minutes. From this, thirty-nine
minutes must be deducted for the time lost in making the thirteen
stoppages, which leaves ten hours and one minute as the time
during which the vessel was actually occupied in running from
Albany to New York. Assuming the distance between those
places to be 150 miles, the average speed of the vessel throughout
the trip was 14.97 miles per hour; but even if we assume the
distance to be only 145 miles, (the shortest distance I have ever
heard stated,) which there is every reason to believe is too small,
the average rate is still 14.47 miles per hour, the difference of five
miles in the length of the route, producing a diminution in the
vessePs average rate of sailing of but half a mile per hour. The
current was in the ' Rochester's ' favor during the first part of the
voyage, but the Overslaugh shoals, and the contracted and narrow
state of the navigable channel of the river for about thirty miles
below Albany, checked her progress very much ; and, conse-
ouently, for the first twenty-seven miles her speed was only 12.36
422 ANECDOTES,
miles per hour. This was her average rate of sailing during the
part of her course when her speed was slowest. After the first
hirty miles the river expanded, affording a better navigable chan-
nel, when her speed gradually increased, and before the flowing
tide checked her progress the vessel attained the maximum velocity
indicated by my observations, which, between two of the stopping
places, was 16.55 miles per hour. When going at this speed, it
is possible that she was influenced by some slight degree of cur
rent in her favor, although it was quite imperceptible to the eye,
as the flow of the tide appeared to produce a stagnation in the
water of the river. At West Point we encountered the flood tide,
as was very distinctly proved by the swinging of the vessels which
lay at anchor in the river. After this we had an adverse current
all the way to New York, a distance of about fifty miles, and the
vessel's speed during this part of the voyage averaged 14.22 miles
an hour. About one half of the voyage was thus performed with
a favorable current, and the other half was performed under unfa-
vorable circumstances, owing partly to the shallowness of the water
and the narrowness of the channel in the upper part of the river,
and partly to an adverse tide in the lower part of it. When the
Rochester is pitched against another vessel and going at her full
speed, her piston makes twenty-seven double strokes per minute
On the voyage above alluded to, however, the piston, on an aver-
age, made about twenty-five double strokes per minute, so that the
speed of 14.97 miles per hour, which she attained on that occasion,
cannot be taken as her greatest ordinary rate of sailing. During
the time, however, at which her speed was 16.55 miles per hour,
her piston was making twenty-seven double strokes per minute,
and at that time the vessel could not be far from having attained
the maximum speed at which her engines are capable of propelling
her through the water.
" The rate of sixteen and a half miles an hour is very great, but
perhaps not more than is due to the form of the vessels, and the
power of the engines by which they are propelled. The Roches-
ter draws only four feet of water, but the power of her engine is
greater than that of any steamer in this countiy. The construc-
tion of the American marine engines is so different from that
adopted in Europe, that it is doubtful if the same rule for calcu-
lating the power is applicable in both cases.
" The disturbance created by the passage of the fast American
steamers through the water is exceedingly small. The water, at
the distance of twelve inches in front of their bows, presents a
perfectly smooth and untroubled surface. A thin sheet of spray,
composed of small globules of water, from a sixteenth to an
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 423
eighteenth of an inch in diameter, rises nearly perpendicularly in
front of the cutwater to the height of three, and, in some cases
which I have observed, as much as four feet, and falls again into
the water on each side of the vessel. There is little or no com.
motion at the stern ; and the diverging waves which invariably
follow the steamers in this country, and break on the banks of our
rivers with considerable violence, are not produced by the fast
boats in America. The waves in their wake are very slight, and,
as far as I could judge, seem to be nearly parallel ; and the marks
of the vessel's course cannot be traced to any great distance.
These facts are quite in accordance with the result of some of
Mr. Russell's experiments, by which he was led to conclude that
' the commotion produced in a fluid by a vessel moving through-
it, is much greater at velocities less than the velocity of the wave, 1
(which is proportioned to the depth of the water,) ' than at veloci-
ties which are greater than it. 1
" The vast number of vessels on the Western waters, the pecu-
liarity of their construction and the singular nature of the naviga-
tion in which they are employed, make them objects of consider-
able interest to the traveller. We must not expect to find, how-
ever, in that class of vessels, the same display of good workman-
ship, and the attainment of the high velocities, which characterize
the vessels on the Eastern waters. These qualifications may be
very easily dispensed with, and the want of them* is by no means
the worst feature in the western navigation ; but, what is of far
more importance, too many of the vessels are decidedly unsafe ;
and, in addition to this, their management is intrusted to men
whose recklessness of human life and property is equalled only by
their ignorance and want of civilization.
" Economy would indeed seem to be the only object which the
constructors of these boats have in view, and therefore, with the
exception of the finery which the cabins generally display, little
care is expended in their construction, and much of the workman-
ship connected with them is of a most superficial and insufficient
kind. When the crews of these frail fabrics, therefore, engage in
brisk competition with other vessels, and urge the machinery to
the utmost extent of its power, it is not to be wondered at that
their exertions are often suddenly terminated by the vessel taking
fire, and going to the bottom, or by an explosion of the steam-
boilers. Such accidents are frequently attended with an appalling
loss of life, and are of so common occurrence, that they generally
excite little or no attention.
" The vessels on the Western waters vary from 100 to 700 tons
burden, and are generally of a heavy built, to enable them to carry
424 ANECDOTES,
goods. They have a most singular appearance, and are no less
remarkable as regards their machinery. They are built flat in the
bottom, and generally draw from six to eight feet of water. The
hull is covered with a deck at the level pf about five feet above the
water, and below this / deck is the hold,'.a which the heavy part of
the cargo is carried. The whole of the machinery rests on the
first deck ; the engines being placed near the middle of the vessel,
and the boilers under the two smoke chimneys. The fire-doors
open towards the bow, and the bright glare of light thrown out by
the wood fires, along with the puffing of the steam from the escape-
ment pipe, produce a most singular effect at night, and serve the
useful purpose of announcing the approach of the vessel when it is
still at a great distance. The chief object in placing the boilers
in the manner described, is to produce a strong draught in the
fire-place. The other end of the lower deck, which is covered
in, and occupied by the crew of the vessel and the deck passen-
gers, generally presents a scene of filth and wretchedness that
baffles all description. A staircase leads from the front of the
paddle-boxes on each side of the vessel, to an upper gallery about
three feet in breadth. This surrounds the whole after-part of the
vessel, and is the promenade of the inhabitants of the second deck.
Several doors lead from the gallery into the great cabin, which ex-
tends from the funnels to within about thirty or forty feet of the
stern of the vessel ; the aftermost space is separated from the
great cabin by a partition, and is occupied by the ladies. The
large cabin contains the gentlemen^ sleeping berths, and is also
used as the dining-room. This part of the western steamers is
often fitted up in a gorgeous style ; the berths are large, and the
numerous windows by which the cabin is surrounded give abun-
dance of light, and, what is of great consequence in that scorching
climate, admit a plentiful supply of fresh air.
" From the gallery surrounding the chief cabin, two flights of
steps lead to the hurricane deck, which, in many of the steamers,
is at least thirty feet above the level of the water. The wheel-
house, in which the steersman is placed, is erected on the forepart
of this deck, and the motion is communicated to the helm by means
of ropes or iron rods, in the manner already described in speaking
of the Eastern steamers.
" The first cabin of a Mississippi steamboat is strangely con-
trasted with the scenes of wretchedness in the lower deck, and its
splendor serves in some measure to distract the attention of its
unthinking inmates from the dangers which lie below them. But
no one who is at all acquainted with the steam engine can examine
the machinsry of one of those vessels, and the manner in which i (
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 425
is managed, without shuddering at the idea of the great rijk to
which all on board are at every moment exposed.
" Explosions are of very frequent occurrence ; and, with a view
to cure this evil, several attempts have, at different periods, been
made to introduce low-pressure engines on the Western waters,
but the cheapness of high-pressure engines, and the great simpli-
city of their parts, which require comparatively little fine finishing
and good fitting, certainly afford reasons for preferring them to
low-pressure engines, in a part of the country where good work-
men are scarce, and where the value of labor and materials is
very great. It must also be recollected, that a condensing or low-
pressure engine takes up a great deal more space than one con-
structed on the high-pressure principle. I do not apprehend, how-
ever, that the number of accidents would be diminished by the
simple adoption of low-pressure boilers, without the strict enforce-
ment of judicious regulations ; and if those regulations were prop-
erly applied to high-pressure boilers, they would not fail to render
them, perhaps, quite as safe as those boilers which are generally
made for engines working on the low-pressure principle. One
very obvious improvement on the present hazardous state of the
Mississippi navigation, would be the enactment of a law that the
pressure of the steam should in no case exceed, perhaps, fifty
pounds on the square inch.
" The steamers make many stoppages to take in goods and
passengers, and also supplies of wood for fuel. The liberty which
they take with their vessels on these occasions is somewhat
amusing, and not a little hazardous. I had a good example of this
on board of a large vessel called the Ontario. She was sheered
close inshore among stones and stumps of trees, where she lay for
some hours taking in goods. The additional weight increased her
draught of water, and caused her to heel a good deal ; and when
her engines were put in motion, she actually crawled into the deep
water on her paddle-wheels. The steam had been got up to an
enormous pressure to enable her to get off, and the volumes of
steam discharged from the escapement pipe at every half stroke
of the piston made a sharp sound almost like the discharge of fire-
arms, while every timber in the vessel seemed to tremble, and the
whole structure actually groaned under the shocks.
" During these stoppages, it is necessary to keep up a proper
supply of water to prevent explosion ; and the manner in which
this is effected on the Mississippi is very simple. The paddle-
wheel axle is so constructed, that the portions of it projecting over
the hull of the vessel to which the wheels are fixed can be thrown
out of gear at pleasure by means of a clutch on each side of the
426 ANECDOTES,
vessel, which slides on the intermediate part of the axle, and is
acted on by a lever. When the vessel is stopped, the paddle,
wheels are simply thrown out of gear, and the engine continues
to work. The necessary supply of water is thus pumped into the
boiler during the whole time that the vessel may be at rest ; and
when she is required to get under weigh, the wheels are again
thrown into gear, and revolve with the paddle-wheel shaft. The
fly-wheel is useful in regulating the motion of the engine, which
otherwise might be apt to suffer damage from the increase and
diminution in the resistance offered to the motion of the pistons,
by suddenly throwing the paddle-wheels into and out of gear. The
water for the supply of the engine is first pumped into a heater,
in which its temperature is raised, and is then injected into the
boiler.
" I saw several vessels on the Ohio which were propelled by
one large paddle-wheel placed at the stern of the vessel, but it is
doubtful whether this arrangement is advantageous, as the action
of the paddle-wheel, when placed in that situation, must be im-
peded by the float-boards impinging on water which has been dis-
turbed by the passage of the vessel through it.
" The third class of vessels to which I have alluded, are those
which navigate the lakes and the river St. Lawrence. They differ
very materially from those I have already described, being more
like the steamers of this country, both in their construction and
appearance. Steamboats were firs,t used on the St. Lawrence in
1812, and it is probable that they were also introduced on the
lakes about the same time. The lake steamers are strongly built
vessels, furnished with masts and sails, and propelled by powerful
engines,, some of which act on the high-pressure and some on the
low-pressure principle. 1 '
Simple Origin of Important Discoveries.
It is certain, says Pliny, that the most valuable discoveries have
found their orign in the most trivial accidents. As some merchants
were carrying nitre, they stopped near a river which issues from
Mount Carmel, and not happening to find stones for resting their
kettles, they substituted in their place some pieces of nitre, which
the fire gradually dissolving,' mixed with the sand, and occasioned
a transparent matter to flow, which, in fact, was nothing else but
glass.
It is said that the use of telescopes was first discovered by one
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 4i j 7
Hansen, a spectacle-maker, at Middlcburgh, in Holland, whoso
children playing in the shop, casually placed a convex and con-
cave glass in such a manner, that, by looking through them at the
weathercock, they observed it appeared much larger and nearer
than usual, and, by their expressions of surprise, excited the at-
tention of their father, who soon obtained great credit for this use-
ful discovery.
Heylin, in his cosmography, tells us that the art of steering was
discovered by a man of the name of Typhis, who took his hints
for making both the rudder and helm from seeing a kite, in flying,
guide her whole body by her tail.
Invention of the Safety Lamp.
This lamp, by means of which hundreds of lives have been pre-
served, was invented in the autumn of 1815. Sir Humphiy Davy,
the inventor, was led to the consideration of this subject, by an
application from Dr. Gray, now Bishop of Bristol, the chairman
of a society established in 1813, at Bishop- Wearmouth, to consider
and promote the means of preventing accidents by fire in coal-pits.
Being then in Scotland, he visited the mines on his return south-
ward, and was supplied with specimens of fire-damp, which, on
reaching London, he proceeded to examine and analyze. He soon
discovered that the carburetted hydrogen gas, called fire-damp by
the miners, would not explode when mixed with less than six, or
more than fourteen, times its volume of air ; and further, that the
explosive mixture could not be fired in tubes of small diameters
and proportionate lengths. Gradually diminishing these, he arrived
at the conclusion that a tissue of wire in which the meshes do not
exceed a certain small diameter, which may be considered as the
ultimate limit of a series of such tubes, is impervious to the inflamed
air ; and that a lamp covered with such tissue may be used with
perfect safety, even in an explosive mixture which takes fire and
burns within the cage, securely cut off from the power of doing
harm. Thus, when the atmosphere is so impure that the flame of
a lamp itself cannot be maintained, the Davy still supplies light to
the miner, and turns his worst enemy into an obedient servant.
This invention, the certain source of large profit, he presented with
characteristic liberality to the public. The words are preserved in
which, when pressed to secure to himself the benefit of a patent,
he declined to do so, in conformity with the high-minded resolution
which he formedj upon acquiring independent wealth, of never
428 ANECDOTES,
making his scientific eminence subservient to gain. " I have
enough for all my views and purposes ; more wealth might bo
troublesome, and distract my attention from those pursuits in which
I delight. More wealth could not increase my fame or happiness.
It might undoubtedly enable me to put four horses to my carriage ;
but what would it avail me to have it said that Sir Humphry drives
his carriage and four V
Like most individuals of worth, Davy was a man of true modesty
and in his dress and manners very simple. Volta, to whom he was
introduced at Pavia, had attired himself in full dress to receive him,
but is said to have started back with astonishment, on seeing the
English philosopher make his appearance in a dress of which an
English artisan would have been ashamed. The following anec-
dote is told of him : whilst staying for the night at a small inn in
North Wales, with his friend Mr. Purkis, a third traveller entered
into conversation with both, and, as happened, talked very Learnedly
about oxygen and hydrogen, and other matters relative to chemical
science. When Davy, who had listened with great composure, had
retired to rest, Mr. Purkis asked the stranger, what he thought of
his friend who had just left him. " He appears," coolly replied the
other, " rather a clever young man, with some general scientific
knowledge : pray what is his name ?" " Humphry Davy, of the
Royal Institution," coolly replied the other. " Good heavens !"
exclaimed the stranger, " was that really Davy? how have I ex-
posed my ignorance and presumption !"
The Thames Tunnel
As far back as the year 1802, a project was set on foot by
some enterprising gentlemen, with a view of opening an archway
under the Thames, between Rotherhithe and Limehouse, not far
from the line of the present tunnel. The engineer selected for
this enterprise was particularly qualified for such an undertaking,
being an experienced Cornish miner. Having made some borings
at the Horse-ferry and on the opposite side of the river, he re-
ported that " he was firmly persuaded the undertaking would not
cost so much as had been conceived." A subscription was, in
consequence, raised ; and a company was formed, under the
denomination of the " Thames Archway Company." Surveys,
plans, and estimates were made, and an act of parliament being
obtained, the work was begun. The engineer commenced opera-
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 439
tions by sinking a shaft of eleven feet diameter, at three hundred
<*nu thirty feet from the line of the wharf on the Rotherhithe side
But the obstacles which he encountered from the nature of the
ground increased, to such a degree, as he proceeded, that at ihe
depth of forty-two feet he was obliged to desist. A subsequent
report of borings, however, having proved very favorable, an en.
surprising proprietor engaged to complete the shaft (reduced t
eight feet diameter) to seventy-six feef, at which depth it was dis-
covered that it would be dangerous to go deeper. At this stage
of the proceedings, viz., in August, 180T, a second engineer was
engaged by the company, a gentleman whose name had been
coupled with very great enterprises in the mining department
Before opening the drift-way, both engineers agreed to reduce its
breadth to two feet six inches at the top, and three feet at the bot.
torn. At the depth of seventy-six feet they found the ground to
consist of a.Jirm dry sand; and there they opened the drift, which
*hjsy carried forward in a gentle ascent. In November, 1807,
when three hundred and ninety-four feet of the drift had been
completed, the services of the first engineer were dispensed with,
after four years and a half of hard labor. The directors then
agreed to give the second engineer 1,000, by way of premium,
if he succeeded in reaching the opposite shore. The drift was
further extended to eight hundred and fourteen feet, through
equally firm dry ground, with the precaution, which had been em.
ployed from the beginning, of a substantial planking all the way.
One hundred and thirty-eight feet more were cut through a bed
of calcareous rock eight feet thick. But on the 21st of December,
the head of the drift had hardly entered two feet into the stratum,
which iay immediately over the rock, when the roof broke down
in a loose state, leaving above head a cavity large enough for a
maa to stand in it. It is to be observed that there was no less
than thirty feet of intervening ground between the drift and the
river at the time this accident happened. The engineer succeeded
in filling and securing the cavity ; but, such was the nature of the
whole ground above the rock, that, under the influence of an extra-
ordinary high tide, (on the 26th of January, 1808,) the ground
again made its way fast in a loose state into the drift, and the
river soon broke through twenty-five feet of ground. This same
tide caused the destruction of the Deptford and Lewisham bridges.
The engineer having succeeded in filling and closing this hole,
the miners re-entered the drift, which was reduced to three feet
in height, for the purpose of clearing the dangerous place. The
miners had therefore, to work on their knees : however, notwith
19
430 ANECDOTES,
standing every effort to attain the opposite shore, they were driven
away by the frequent bursts of sand and water. The engineer
having afterwards sounded the ground from above, reported that
he had no doubt the two fractures communicated underneath;
and therefore admitted that it was quite impracticable to go fur-
ther except by means of a coffer-dam or caissons. On the 30th
of March, 1809, the directors offered a reward for the most ap-
proved plan of completing the archway. Fifty-four plans having
been obtained by this announcement, they were referred to the
opinion of scientific men. These gentlemen reported that they
were unanimously of opinion, that an archway, of any useful size,
was impracticable under the Thames by an underground excava-
tion on any of the plans that had come before them ; observing,
at the same time, that they did not pretend to assign limits to the
ingenuity of other men. A further trial was made by a third en-
gineer, who operated from above the river, but it proved equally
fruitless. Thus ended, in 1809, all the exertions and the efforts
made during nearly seven years, for the purpose of accomplishing
an archway under the bed of the Thames ; at the end of which
period not so much as a drain had been completed, nor had the
miners succeeded in working in any of those strata wherein the
excavation for the archway must eventually have been effected.
Several years afterwards, Mr. Brunei was prevailed upon by
one of the most active promoters of the archway enterprise (Mr.
J. Wyatt) to turn his attention to the subject ; and, being furnished
with the documents connected with the first attempt, he devised
his plan with the impression that both the excavation and the
structure might be made on a full scale at once.
Before proceeding to an exposition of the plan adopted by Mr
Brunei, and of the means by which he has carried it into execu-
tion, we have to state that the structure of the Thames Tunnel,
as represented in the annexed view, is thirty-eight feet in width,
and twenty-two feet six inches in height, externally ; and that a
length of six hundred feet, in the style of a double arcade, has
been made, though one arch only is open to public inspection.
The excavation, therefore, made under the Thames for this struc
ture presents a sectional surface of eight hundred and fifty feet,
which is equal to sixty times the area of the drift. At high water,
the head of the river is about seventy-five feet above the foot of the
excavation, and consequently three times the height of that room.
These circumstances, independently of the nature of the ground,
are sufficient to place the work of the Thames Tunnel among the
boldest enterprises in the art of engineering.
Notwithstanding that the first attempt had contributed to dis-
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 431
jourage all idea of success, there were still sufficient evidences to
indicate that by beginning in the stratum of dry firm sand, and
keeping close under the stratum of clay forming the bottom of
the river, there was space enough to effect the object, although
the nature of the intervening ground had been ascertained to be
very loose in many places. All the information obtained from
the miner's report concurred with the opinions of geologists in
pointing out that the most eligible line for the Tunnel was to keep
as near to the bottom of the river as the security of the work
would permit. The first idea of the plan which appeared to the
engineer best calculated for making an excavation fit for the ob-
ject under so overwhelming a head of water, was suggested by
the sight of a piece of a keel of a ship which had been eroded
by the operation of the worm called the terido. From this he
conceived it practicable, as his specification describes it, to make
a circular opening of sufficient capacity at once. However, of
the two modes which he described, he gave the preference to that
of proceeding by forming, simultaneously, several contiguous ex-
cavations by means of an apparatus which has been denominated
the shield. This shield, upon the whole, partakes of the character
of a powerful coffer-dam, applied in a horizontal instead of the ver-
tical direction. It consists of twelve parallel frames lying close to
each other, like so many volumes in a bookcase. Each frame,
being nearly twenty-two feet in height, is divided into three stories:
the whole presents therefore thirty-six openings or cells. It is
from these cells that the miners, operating by small quantities at
a time, like so many teridos, are able to dig the ground in front,
while others at the back bring up the brick structure. For loco-
motive action each frame is provided with two substantial legs
resting on equally substantial shoes, (not unlike snow-shoes ;)
these legs are provided with joints, that fit the frames for a pacing
movement. The shield has been pushed forward six hundred
feet of its assigned career ; and has left behind a substantial struc-
ture in the form of a double arcade.
With regard to the external form of the structure, and the mode
adopted for its execution, it must be obvious to persons acquainted
with such matters, that the most substantial form, and the best
calculated at the same time to prevent, as far as practicable, any
derangement in alluvial strata of various degrees of density, is the
square form, as corresponding with that mode of building which
is technically called underlining and underlaying. Thus, in fact,
the bed of the river, with its contents, has been underlayed to
receive the superstructure.
An indispensable requisite in a wors of this nature was, that it
433 ANECDOTES,
should be made proof against the greatest disasters that were to
be apprehended, notwithstanding every precaution that could be
taken. Mr. Brunei's plan was considered by his grace the Duke
of Wellington, by Dr. JWallaston, and by those engineers and
scientific men who had the opportunity of examining the designs,
and of hearing the description given by the engineer, as being
well calculated to accomplish the contemplated object, although
some apprehensions were raised at the time as to what might re-
sult from so formidable an occurrence as an irruption of the river,
considering the extent of the devastation it might cause in the
ground and among the works. The engineer afforded such ex-
planations as allayed, in some degree, those apprehensions which,
it must be admitted, he has since completely dispelled by unde-
niable facts.
It was under these auspices that the plan was brought before
the public in 1823, and that in the month of February, 1824, sub-
scriptions were obtained to a large amount to carry it into effect,
notwithstanding the novelty of the scheme, and its risks.
The company having been incorporated in 1824 by an act of
parliament, the work was begun in March, 1825. A shaft fifty
feet diameter was constructed, destined to form ultimately the
descent for the footways. This structure was in the first instance
laid upon piles, and raised to the height of forty-two feet, includ.
ing a cast-iron rim, intended to act as a cutter. A steam engine
of thirty-horse power was mounted on the top of this structure.
In this state, the piles being removed, this tower was brought to
rest upon the edge of the cast-iron rim. It is easy to compre-
hend, that, by clearing the ground inside, the whole must have
descended. In this manner a structure, weighing about twelve
hundred tons, was lowered to the depth of forty feet, through a
stratum twenty-six feet deep, consisting of gravel and sand full of
water, wherein the drift-makers had met with almost insurmount-
able obstacles. It is to be remarked, that for this, and for the
whole operation of the Tunnel, the engineer did not employ a
(arger steam engine than had been required in the operations of
the drift-way. As the body of the Tunnel was to be opened at
the depth of forty feet, the shaft was continued to sixty-four feet,
by underlaying, leaving the space in the side open for the hori-
zontal work. A well, or cistern, twenty-five feet diameter, was
further made at the bottom of this shaft, for draining the ground ;
but in sinking it a quicksand suddenly burst upon the work. This
event confirmed the report of the drift-makers, and of the geologists,
as to the existence of a dangerous bed of sand at about eighty to
eighty-five feet from the level of high wa'er. The shield destined
LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF THE THAMES TUNNEL,
Showing its course under the River.
VERTICAL SECTION OP THE THAMES TUNNEL,
Exhibiting the method of conducting the Work.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC.
435
to precede the body of the Tunnel, was put up at the depth of forty
feet. The shield consists of twelve parallel frames twenty-two
feet high. These being divided into three stories, present toge-
ther thirty-six cells, destined for the working of the men. The
whole constitute at the same time a powerful fence against the
ground. The sides and the top are lined with sliding pieces, cor-
responding with the sheet-piling of a coffer-dam ; and at the bot-
torn it rests upon broad shoes. For its progressive movement
each frame is provided with legs, which have their action in the
lower cells. By this means each frame can be moved separately;
but the whole is brought forward by alternate moves, regulated
by the progress of the work. Each operator provides for the
security of his own cell, by covering the front with small boards,
technically called polings ; and, as the miners work in front, the
bricklayers work at the back in forming the structure, as shown
in the adjoining engraving.
The shield was entered under a substantial bed of clay, and its
progress began, by about the 1st of January, 1826. It had not
advanced above nine feet, when this substantial protection was
found to break off at once, leaving the work open to a considerable
influx of water and of fluid sand ; and it resulted that for thirty-
two days the progress was extremely slow : however, by the 14th
of March, the shield was brought into substantial ground again.
From that day to the 14th of September following, two hundred
and sixty feet of tunnel had been completed ; when, in conse-
quence of a run of ground in a fluid state, a cavity was discovered
to be formed above the head of the shield. A remarkable
occurrence happened on that day. The engineer having oc-
casion to meet the directors, stated to them that at the head of
the tide, which was then rising, the bottom of the river would,
he conceived, break down, observing at the same time that every
thing was prepared to meet the case. The accident did actually
occur. However, though this was the first occurrence of the kind
under the river, the miners were in no way alarmed on hearing
the river deposits falling over the head of the shield, accompanied
with a burst of water. The cavity soon filled itself, and with ad-
ditional precaution the work was continued. An occurrence
somewhat similar to the preceding one took place on the 18th of
October following, with equal success in its consequences. On
the 2d of January (1627) three hundred and fifty feet of tunnel
had been made ; when, in the act of removing one of the poling,
boards which cover the front of the excavation, some loose ground,
of the consistency of tempered clay, impelled by the weight of an
extraordinary high tide, made its way with an almost irresistible
436 ANECDOTES,
force ; but, with the auxiliary means which had been provided foi
emergencies of this nature, an irruption of the river was completely
averted.
The influence of the tide opoo the ground to a depth of not less
than thirty feet, was a circumstance which contributed more than
any other to multiply the difficulties, and to give them an awful
character. In its natural state the ground is compact, even when
it consists of sand or of grave) ; but in consequence of an excavation
on so large a scale, opening new vents for the passage or emission
of water, it has resulted that some of the strata have been decom-
posed and softened, some portions have become even liquid, and
others have been kneaded into various degrees of consistency.
These circumstances, which are exemplified in the three preced-
ing occurrences, rendered the operations excessively complicated
and laborious. Other portions of the strata, consisting of round
smooth pebbles, though imbedded in some adhesive substances,
were occasionally found as loc*e as chesnuts in a cask. It re-
sulted, from the concurrence of so many causes, that the ground,
at the foundations in particular, instead of retaining its original
state, as reported by the drift-makers, viz., a dry firm ground,
was found to be so loose, even at the depth of several feet, that it
became expedient to condense the ground before the foundations
could be laid down. This was effected by means of substantial
planking, compressed with a power exceeding the greatest weight
which each plank was computed to carry. The original idea of
forming the structure by rings of nine inches, united by the ce-
ment only, has proved the most efficient way to prevent the con-
sequences that were to be apprehended from any derangement or
disruptions that might result from partial settlements.
From the 14th of January to the 14th of April following, al-
though the ground was in general so loose that the river deposits
were sometimes found in the way of the excavation, and although
the influx of water was generally excessively abundant, the pro-
gress of the work exceeded upon the whole that of any period
during the course of the operation : it has been as much as four-
teen feet in a week, and even three feet per day. However, in
consequence of the frequent run of fluid ground, the engineer ap.
plied for and procured a diving-bell for the purpose of examining
the bottom of the river. The first inspection took place on the
22d of April. A shovel and a hammer, left at the bottom of the
river, were not found again upon the next visit, as expected. Some
depressions were discovered in several places and were secured.
On the 12th of May, however, in the act of removing the polings
in front of several cells, the ground made its way at the top of
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC 487
ten frames in succession. One of the top cells, in particular, was
filled several times, but by an expeditious move, and the intre-
pidity of one of the miners, the ground was secured and the work
was brought forward. In advancing one' of the middle frames,
the shovel and the hammer which had been missing, were found
in the way of it, having descended at least eighteen feet ; nto the
ground.
Notwithstanding the loose state of the ground, the shield had
gradually gained under a more substantial covering, when several
vessels, coming in at a late tide, moored just over the head of the
Tunnel, where no vessels had moored since the docks had been
open to the trade. It resulted from this obstruction to the stream,
that those substances which protected the softer ground from the
action of the tides, were washed away. The river soon made its
way into the Tunnel, forming at first a transparent curtain be-
tween the shield and the brick structure. Every exertion made
to oppose it proved fruitless ; the river soon after broke in and
filled the Tunnel. This irruption took place on the 18th of
May, 1827.
On examining the hole with the diving-bell, the structure was
ascertained to be perfectly sound, and the shield, to all appearance,
undisturbed. The repairs were immediately proceeded with, by
means bf clay in bags, armed with small hazel rods : about three
thousand tons of this filling, with some other soil, were required
to close the hole, or rather the chasm, which was found to exceed
thirty-eight feet in depth.
At this period of the proceedings, many hundred projects were
sent to the directors or to the engineer, but none were found ap-
plicable to the case.
On the 21st of June the Tunnel was sufficiently clear of water
to be entered ; and by the middle of August the soil which had
been driven into the arches was completely removed. The struc-
ture was found quite sound ; but, owing to the settlement of the
new ground, augmented too by the weight of the water, the frames
were found separated at the head, the chain that united them
having given way. Nothing can convey so just an idea of the
impetuosity of the irruption, as the state in which the invert of the
arch was found. There the brickwork was reduced by nearly
one half of its thickness, as if it had been battered with cannon-
balls of small calibre ; at the thickest part of the foundation a
hole was open, as if made by the fall of a fourteen-inch shell.
Some heavy pieces of casting belonging to the shield had disap-
peared ; but they were found afterwards driven into the ground as if
forced by a powerful ram. In consequence of the continued depres-
19*
438 ANECDOTES,
sion of the new-made ground, moving too in an oblique direction,
several further ruptures took place in the frames, with reports as
loud as cannon-shots. The men were not, however, dismayed,
even at the sensible movement of the ground : although the frames
were separated by more than two feet at the head, the arches ex-
perienced no derangement whatever. The work was resumed
and extended fifty feet beyond the first irruption ; and, notwith-
standing the disadvantages under which this additional portion
was effected with a shield so very much weakened, and so much
out of order, no part of the structure has been more substantially
constituted than these fifty feet, which brought the whole to the
middle of the low water.
In the early part of January, 1828, in consequence, in a greai
measure, of the interruption which had taken place during the pre-
ceding week's holidays, the ground had become looser than be-
fore. On the 12th, in particular, the greatest precautions became
necessary against a manifest danger. The men were ordered out
in time, except four, whom Mr. Brunei, jun., selected to remain
with him. Every exertion was made to oppose the mass of earth,
but the ground, swelling and rolling in, as we are told of the pro-
gress of lava, became irresistible in its progress. One of the men,
having executed his part, made his escape. Suddenly, as Mr.
Brunei was directing the others how to save themselves, the
ground burst in like a volcanic irruption, with a tremendous crash ;
all the lights were blown out at once. Through this total dark-
ness Mr. Brunei reached the shaft, but the water was at the top
before him. The men collected at the top had seen the waves
close upon the scene before Mr. Brunei emerged from it. The
three men were not so fortunate ; three others were likewise lost;
but these must have been the victims of their own imprudence and
curiosity, as they had not been detained in the work.
This second irruption, though still more sudden and more
formidable than the first, was overcome by the same means. No
less than four thousand tons of soil, chiefly clay in bags, were re-
quired to fill the chasm and effect a substantial covering. On
re-entering the Tunnel, the structure was found perfectly sound ;
and the shield was a powerful barrier against which the bags were
collected and retained by these rods with which they were armed.
In this state of things, the pecuniary resources of the company
being too low to proceed with the work, the directors found them-
selves reduced to the necessity of discontinuing it. The ends of
the arches were accordingly closed until means could be obtained
to resume the undertaking. Many more plans were received by
the directors at this juncture, but all were equally unavailable. It
CROSS SECTION OF THE THAMES TUNNEL,
Exhibiting the Arrangement of the Matonrr.
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 441
has, however, since been resumed under favorable auspices, and
at the present time the Tunnel is about completed.
The average cost of the Thames Tunnel does not exceed
6 3s. 9d. per cubic yard of the ground removed, including the
structure, which contains nine hundred and sixty rods of brick-
work. The average cost of the drift- way is 16 10s. per cubic
yard, with no more than seven rods of brickwork.
Watchmaking in Swtizerland.
The following details are given in an abridged form from a
" Report on the Commerce and Manufactures of Switzerland," by
Dr. Bowring, recently laid before Parliament. A large portion
of the facts were furnished to Dr. Bowring by M. Houriet, an in-
telligent manufacturer, who, in his communication, dated January,
1836, asks for indulgence on the plea that he is neither " a learned
man nor a writer," and yet, says Dr. Bowring, " a more interest-
ing and instructive document has seldom, I believe, been furnished."
One of the largest and most interesting branches of Swiss in-
dustry is the watchmaking trade. It is carried on to an immense
and still increasing extent in the mountainous districts of Neuchatel,
in the French portion of the Canton of Berne, and in the town and
neighborhood of Geneva. It has been a source of wealth and
comfort to many thousands of the inhabitants, who, in the seldom-
visited villages of the Jura, have gathered around them a large por-
tion of the enjoyments of life. Switzerland has long furnished the
markets of France ; and though the names of certain French
watchmakers have obtained a European celebrity, yet Dr. Bowring
was informed by M. Arago that an examination into this trade had
elicited the fact that not ten watches were made in Paris in the
course of a year, the immense consumption of France being fur-
nished from Switzerland, and the Swiss works being only examined
and rectified by the French manufacturers. The contraband trade
into France was immense, and no custom-house regulations could
stop the introduction of articles so costly and so little bulky. They
are now admitted into France at six per cent, for gold, and ten per
cent, for silver watches, and a considerable quantity pays this
moderate duty.
The Jura mountains have been the cradle of much celebrity in
the mechanical arts, particularly in those more exquisite produc-
tions of which a minute complication is the peculiar character.
During the winter, which lasts from six to seven months, the inha-
bitants are, as it were, imprisoned in their dwellings, and occupied
442 ANECDOTES,
in those works which require the utmost development of skiful
ingenuity. Nearly one hundred and twenty thousand watches are
produced annually in the elevated regions of Neuchatel. In Swit-
zerland the most remarkable of the French watchmakers, and
among them one who has lately obtained the gold medal at Paris
for his beautiful watch-movements, had their birth and education :
and a sort of honorable distinction attaches to the watchmaking
trade. The horologers consider themselves as belonging to a
nobler profession than ordinary mechanics, and do not willingly
allow their children to marry into what they consider the inferioi
classes.
The art or trade of clockmaking was introduced into the moun-
tains of Neuchatel in a manner worthy of notice. As early as the
seventeenth century some workmen had constructed clocks witn
weights, but no idea had been conceived of making clocks with
springs. About the end of that century, an inhabitant of the moun-
tains, returning from a long voyage, brought with him a watch,
which was an object previously unknown in the country. It was
put into the hands of a skilful workman to be repaired, who suc-
ceeded in doirig so, and then tried to make a similar article. He
succeeded in effecting this also, notwithstanding the difficulties
which lay in his way, he having to construct the tools with which
he wrought, as well as all the different movements of the watch.
His success naturally created a great sensation ; other workmen
were stimulated to try what they could do, and a new branch of
industry sprung up in the mountains of Neuchatel. During the
first forty or fifty years a few workmen only were employed in
watchmaking ; and owing to the numberless difficulties they had
to surmount, to the slowness of execution caused by the absence
of convenient tools, the want of proper materials, &c., the produc-
tions and profits were inconsiderable. They began at length to
procure the articles of which they stood in need from Geneva, and
afterwards from England ; but the high prices which these articles
cost induced many of the workmen to attempt to provide them for
themselves. They not only thus succeeded in rivalling foreign
tools, but they eventually made many superior ones till then unknown.
From that period they have constantly invented other instruments
in order to facilitate and perfect the art of watchmaking ; and at the
present moment the manufacture of watchmaking tools and appur.
tenances is become a branch of industry of so much importance,
as to enable the inhabitants to supply them to those countries from
whence they formerly imported them.
It is not more than eighty or ninety years since a few merchants
began to collect together small parcels of watches, in order to sell
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 443
ihern in foreign markets. The success which attended these spe-
culations induced and encouraged the population to devote them-
selves still more to the production of articles of ready sale ; so
much so, that nearly the entire inhabitants have embraced the
watchmaking trade. The population has increased threefold, in-
dependently of the great number of workmen who are established
in almost all the towns of Europe, in the United States of America,
and even in the East Indies and China. From this period a great
change has taken place in the country of Neuchatel, where, not-
withstanding the barrenness of the soil and the severity of the cli-
mate, beautiful and well-built villages are everywhere to be seen,
connected by easy communications, together with a very considera-
ble and industrious population, in the enjoyment, if not of great
fortunes, at least of a happy and easy independence.
" If our watches," says M. Houriet, " have attained a certain
reputation of superiority, it is in a great nneasure to be attributed
to the independence of our workmen, and to the advantage which
they have derived from a careful and studied execution of the
several articles intrusted to their respective and particular talents.
Indeed, on the one hand, each artisan working at home, and for
whomsoever pays him the best price, and on the other, the mer-
chant having an interest to encourage by paying the best prices to
those who furnish him with the best materials and work, a kind of
emulation is naturally excited among the workmen to obtain a pre
ference and an advantage. Perhaps, also, the spirit which is gene
rally diffused among the inhabitants of mountainous countries,
added to the habits and customs of our workmen, who are at the
same time landed proprietors, has not a little contributed to this
development of talent amongst our population. Living simply,
and in the bosom of their families, occupied entirely (with the ex-
ception of a few slight agricultural cares) in the labors of their art,
and not being exposed to those temptations which exist in and cor-
rupt large societies, it is very natural that they should be more
assiduous and morg desirous of attaining perfection in their art ;
and the more so still, as they derive a greater benefit from it, their
reputation and their interest are equally engaged.
" The present condition of this branch of industry is extremely
prosperous, and it is with great difficulty that we can succeed in
executing all the orders which we receive.
" As to the probable fate of this trade, it is even permitted to
hope, and with much probability, that it is yet susceptible of exten-
sion. A watch is no longer, as it was formerly, an object of luxury,
destined exclusively for the rich ; it has become an article of the
first necessity for every class ':i society : and as, together with the
444 ANECDOTES,
increased perfection of this article, its value lias at the same time
considerably diminished, it is evident that a common watch, which
will exactly indicate the hour of the day, is actually (by its low
price) wham the reach of aLiust every individual, who will likewise
teel anxious to possess one. For this reason, and in proportion
as commercial and maritime relations are extended and emanci-
pated from the trammels in which the great central marts of com-
merce have involved them, so will distant nations become civilized ;
and it may be fairly anticipated that the art of watchmaking will
form a part of the great current of improvement.
" The number of watches manufactured annually in this canton
(Neuchatel) may be calculated to be from 100,000 to 120,000, of
which about 35,000 are in gold, and the rest in silver. Now, sup-
posing the first, on an average, to be worth 150 francs, and the
others 20 francs, it would represent a capital of nearly 7,000,000
francs, without taking into consideration the sale of clocks and
instruments for watchmaking, the amount of which is very largo.
" Not only the whole of the European markets, but also those
of the most distant countries, are now opened to our productions.
The United States of America consume the largest proportion of
our watches. There is, however, a great difference with respect
to the degree of facility which is afforded to us by the several na-
tions with whom we deal. In Austria, and in all the countries
under her dominion, as well as in Sweden, our clocks and watches
are prohibited, and only penetrate by fraud. In England, the duty
is twenty-five per cent, for home consumption ; and for the colonies,
though there is in London a bonding depot, it offers too many dis-
advantages and impediments to permit us to make use of it : for
an article of such careful and delicate construction ought not to be
mixed pell-mell with grosser commodities, as it runs too great a
risk of being seriously damaged. In Spain, and in most of the
Italian States, the duty is equivalent to a prohibition. In France,
the duty has recently been reduced sufficiently low to render smug,
gling unnecessary. In Russia and in the United States, the duty,
though high, can still be borne. In Prussia, the duty has always
been moderate, and of late years it has been reduced by one-half
in favor of our productions. Finally, the States of the German
and the Swiss Confederation are the only countries which have
been entirely open to this species of commerce ; and it has always
>*een easy to forward to Turkey and to the Levant by the free
ports of the Mediterranean. We are making arrangements with
Russia for an overland trade to China."
With the exception of gold and silver for the manufacture of the
watch-cases, the other materials for tie construction of the works
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 445
or mechanism of the Neuchatel watches are of little value, con-
sisting merely of a little brass and steel. The steel is imported
jfrom England, and is reckoned the best that can be procured ; the
brass, which was formerly brought from Holland, is now furnished
by France, the French brass being now considered much superior.
With respect to gold and silver, the inhabitants of Neuchatel have
no other resource but to melt current money, which induces M.
Houriet to suggest that an advantageous commerce might be opened
up with such countries as possess the precious metals.
The spirit of adventure is very strong among the industrious
inhabitants of the Jura Mountains. A great many of them have
travelled into very remote countries, whence some have returned
with considerable fortunes. A few years ago a watchmaker of
Neuchatel found his way to China, where he amassed a handsome
property by importing watches ; and he returned nome since, ac-
companied by a young Chinese, whom he caused to be instructed
in the trade, and who had sailed for Canton only a few weeks before
Dr. Bowring's visit.
Perpetual Motion.
AN able writer in the ' Penny Magazine' has clearly shown the
futility of seeking to square the circle, a pursuit in which, he says,
persons are sjill engaged. How many may waste their time on
such an object I have no means of knowing ; not any considera-
ble number, I should think, as nobody can expect any profit to
arise even from success. At all events, such enthusiasts must be
few indeed compared with those who are spending their days and
nights, and exhausting their means, in the equally vain hope of
discovering the perpetual motion. Professional men, employed in
preparing patents, could tell of project after project submitted to
them by the impatient inventor who is afraid of waiting to perfect
his machine, lest his invaluable secret should get abroad, and he
should be deprived of the riches which he has all but in his
grasp.
Two classes of persons are inveigled into this hopeless quest .
the first is the projector, generally a man who can handle tools,
and who is gifted with some small power of invention, a faculty,
as Mr. Babbage justly observes, by no means rare, and of little
use unless coupled with some knowledge of what others have done
before him. Of the inventions already made, of the experiments
which have been tried and have failed, our. projector is usually
profoundly ignorant. What are called the laws of machanics,
namely, general truths which were established by the observations
446 ANECDOTES,
of scientific men in times past, and which are now admitted by
all who take the trouble to investigate them, he has either never
heard of, or chooses to set at nought without inquiry. The other
class is that which finds capital. The projector, having perhaps
exhausted his own funds, takes his scheme to some person who
has a little money to spare, and dazzles him with the prospects
of sudden and splendid wealth : little by little he is drawn into
expenses which neither of them perhaps had anticipated. Failure
after failure ensues, but still all is to be right at last. The fear
of ridicule, the necessity for retrieving, the one his capital, the
other his credit, these motives carry them on till the ruin of
both puts a termination to their folly.
Unhappily, however, the stage is quickly occupied by other
adventurers, profiting nothing by the fate of their precursors ; and
yet one would think that a very slight consideration of the subject
would be sufficient to show the absurdity of the undertaking.
What is the object aimed at ? Is it to make a machine which,
being once set in motion, shall go on without stopping until it is
worn out ? Every person engaged in the pursuit of the perpetual
motion would perhaps accept this as a true statement of the object
in view. Yet nothing is more easy than to make such a machine.
There are from ten to twenty of them at work at this moment
on the Rhine, opposite Mayence. These are water-mills in boats,
which are moored in a certain part of the rivefc; and, as the
Rhine is never dry, these mills, which are simple in their con-
struction, would go on for years, go on, indeed, until they were
worn out. But if this instance were mentioned, the projector
would perceive that the statement of his object was imperfect. It
must run thus : a machine which, being set in motion, shall go
on till worn out without any power being employed to keep it in
motion.
Probably few persons who embark in such a project sit down
beforehand to consider thoroughly what it is they are about to
undertake, otherwise it could hardly require much knowledge of
mechanics to see the impossibility of constructing such a machine.
Take as many shafts, wheels, pulleys, and springs as you please :
if you throw them in a heap in the corner of your room, you do
not expect them to move ; it is only when put together that the
wildest enthusiast expects them to be endowed with the power of
self-movement ; nor then unless the machine is set going. I never
heard of a projector who expected his engine to set off the moment
the last nail was driven, or instantly on the last stroke of the file.
And why not ? A machine that would continue to go of itself
would begin of itself. No machine can be made which has not
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 447
some friction, which, however slight, would in a short time exhaust
any power that could have been employed merely for the purpose of
setting it in motion. But a machine, to be of any use, must not
only keep moving itself, but furnish power ; or, in other words,
it must not only keep in motion, but it must have power to expend
in some labor, as grinding corn, rolling metals, urging forward a
vessel or a carriage ; so that, by an arrangement of parts which
of themselves have no moving power, the projector expects to
make a machine, self-moving, and with the power of performing
some useful task !
" Father, J have invented a perpetual motion !" said a little
fellow of eight years old. " It is thus : I would make a great
wheel, and fix it up like a water-wheel ; at the top I would hang
a great weight, and at the bottom I would hang a number of little
weights ; then the great weight would turn the wheel half round
and sink to the bottom, because it is so heavy, and when the little
weights reached the top, they would sink down because they are
so many, and thus the wheel would turn round for ever. 11 The
child's fallacy is a type of all the blunders which are made on this
subject. Follow a projector in his description, and if it be not
perfectly unintelligible, which it often is, it always proves that he
expects to find certain of his movements alternately strong and
weak, not according to the laws of nature, but according to the
wants of his mechanism.
If man could produce a machine which would generate the
power by which it is worked, he would become a creator. All
he has hitherto done, all, I may safely predict, he ever will do,
is to mould existing power so as to make it perform his bidding.
He can make the waterfall in the brook spin his cotton, or print
his book by means of machinery, but a mill to pump water enough
to keep itself at work he cannot make. Absurd as it may seem,
the experiment has been tried ; but, in truth, no scheme is too
absurd for adoption by the seekers after perpetual motion. A
machine, then, is a mere conductor of power into a useful channel.
The wind grinds the corn, the sails, the shafts, and the stones
are only the means by which the power of the wind can be turned
to that particular purpose ; so it is the heat thrown out by the
burning coal which performs all the multifarious operations of the
steam engine, the machinery being only the connecting links be-
tvveen the cause and the effect.
Perhaps these remarks may induce any projector who has not
yet begun, to pause on his enterprise ; and may cause those who
are about to advance their capital in such vain speculations, to ex
amine the probabilities of a return for their outlay.
ANECDOTES.
The Balsa.
This ingenious contrivance, like the catamarans and massulah
boats of Madras, is used for landing with safety through a heavy
surf. The " Balsa," which is especially employed on the coasts of
South America, both east and west, exhibits a remarkable instance
of the ingenuity of the human mind in overcoming those obstacles
which nature has raised to the prosecution of its pursuits. It is form-
ed of two seal skins sewed up so as' to form large bags from seven to
nine feet in length ; these, being covered with a bituminous sub-
stance so as to be perfectly air-tight, are inflated by flexible tubes
and secured by ligatures ; the pipe is of sufficient length to reach
the mouth of the conductor of this frail bark, who is thus enabled
occasionally to replenish the bladders with air, should any have
escaped. The two are securely fastened together at one end,
which forms the prow of the vessel ; the other ends are spread
about four feet apart by a small plank, and the raft completed
with small sticks covered over with matting. The manager of
the balsa sits well forward, with his passengers or goods close
behind him, and armed with a double-bladed paddle approaches
the back of the surf, waiting for the highest wave, and contrives
to keep his balsa on the top of it with her bow towards the shore
till she is thrown upon the beach to the very extent that the surf
reaches, and the man immediately jumps off to secure his balsa
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 449
from returning with the sea, when the passengers land without
wetting the soles of their shoes. The balsa will easily carry three
passengers besides the person who guides it, and is employed in
landing the cargoes from merchant vessels where the violence of
the surf, particularly on the shores of the Pacific, prevents the
possibility of European boats passing through it without great
danger. Along the coast of Peru, which is almost entirely devoid
of harbors, it is the only vessel used for these purposes, and by
such frail means large bags of dollars and doubloons, and bars
of silver and gold, are shipped off, without the least apprehension
of their safe conveyance. Balsa, which is a Spanish word, means,
in a nautical sense, float or raft ; the above description applies
only to that kind used at sea, but there is another balsa, more
simple and more frail, used in crossing rivers, an account of which
is thus given by Mr. Temple in his humorous and entertaining
Travels in Peru : " Take a dried bullock's hide, pinch up each
of the four corners, put a stitch with a thorn to keep those corners
together, and your boat is made. For use, place it upon the water
bottom downwards, then put one foot immediately in the centre,
and let the other follow with the most delicate caution ; you are
now to shrink downwards, contracting your body precisely in the
manner in which, probably, in your childhood, you have pressed
a friar into a snuff-box. When crouched down in the bottom,
sundry articles are handed in and ingeniously deposited round
you, until the balsa sinks to about an inch or an inch and a half;
it is then considered sufficiently laden. A naked peone (guide)
now plunges into the stream, and, taking hold of one corner of
the balsa, a peone on the shore imparts a gentle impulse to your
tottering bark, while the person in the water, keeping hold of the
corner with one hand, strikes out with the other, and swims away
with you to the opposite bank." The work from which the above
extract is made, is written in so facetious and lively a strain, at
the same time giving such faithful and characteristic sketches of
the customs of the country, that his readers cannot fail to receive
amusement as wel' as instruction.
Automata.
An automaton is a piece of mechanism, made to resemble a liv-
ing creature in outward appearance, and contrived so as to perform
certain actions, resembling those of the being it represents. Both
in ancient and modern times, the skill of ingenious men has beer.
450 ANECDOTES,
directed to contrivances of this nature, some of which have dis
played wonderful powers of invention, though in general little or
no utility, unless so far as they were sources of public amusement,
and examples of what may be accomplished by reflection and long
perseverance. Brewster, in his Natural Magic, has given a very
full account of the most remarkable automata, from which this
article is principally taken.
Mechanical automata of the ancients. The ancients had attained
some degree of perfection in the construction of automata. The
tripods which Homer mentions as having been constructed by
Vulcan for the banqueting-hall of the gods, advanced of their own
accord to the table, and again returned to their place. Self-moving
tripods are mentioned by Aristotle, and Philostratus informs us, in
his Life of Apollonius, that this philosopher saw and admired simi-
lar pieces of mechanism among the sages of India.
Automata of Dadalus. Dsedalus enjoys also the reputation of
having constructed machines that imitated the motions of the ku-
man body. Some of his statues are said to have moved about
spontaneously, and Plato, Aristotle, and others have related that it
was necessary to tie them, in order to prevent them from running
away. Aristotle speaks of a wooden Venus, which moved about
in consequence of quicksilver being poured into its interior ; bui
Callistratus, the tutor of Demosthenes, states, with some probability,
that the statues of Daedalus received their motion from the me-
chanical powers. Beckmann is of opinion that the statues of
Daedalus differed only from those of the early Greeks and Egyp-
tians in having their eyes open and their feet and hands free, and
that the reclining posture of some, and the attitude of others, " as
if ready to walk," gave rise to the exaggeration that they possessed
the power of locomotion. This opinion, however, cannot be main-
tained with any show of reason ; for if we apply such a principle
in one case, we must apply it in all, and the mind would be left in
a state of utter skepticism respecting the inventions of ancient
times-
Wooden pigeon of Archytas. We are informed by Aulus Ge]-
lius, on the authority of Favorinus, that Archytas of Tarentum,
who flourished about four hundred years before Christ, constructed
a wooden pigeon which was capable of flying. Favorinus relates,
that when it had once alighted, it could not again resume its flight;
xnd Aulus Gellius adds, that it was suspended by balancing, and
.nimated by a concealed aura or spirit.
Automatic clock of Charlemagne. Among the earliest pieces
of modern mechanism was the curious water-clock presented to
Charlemagne by 'he Kat ph Harun al Raschid. In the dial-plate
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 451
there were twelve small windows, corresponding with the divisions
of the hours. The hours were indicated by the opening of the
windows, which let out little metallic balls, which struck the houi
by falling upon a brazen bell. The doors continued open till
twelve o'clock, when twelve little knights, mounted on horseback,
came out at the* same instant, and after parading around the dial,
shut all the windows, and returned to their apartments.
Automata of Muller and Turrianus.^-The next automata of
which any distinct account has been preserved, are those of the
celebrated John Muller, or Regiomontanus, which have been men-
tioned by Kircher, Baptista Porta, Gassendi, Lana, and Bishop
Wilkins. This philosopher is said to have constructed an artificial
eagle, which flew to meet the Emperor Maximilian when he ar-
rived at Nuremberg on the 7th June, 1470. After soaring aloft
in the air, the eagle is stated to have met the emperor at some
distance from the city, and to have returned and perched upon the
town gate, where it waited his approach. When the emperor
reached the gate, the eagle stretched out its wings, and saluted
him by an inclination of its body. Muller is likewise reported to
have constructed an iron fly, which was put in motion by wheel-
work, and which flew about and leaped upon the table. At an
entertainment given by this philosopher to some of his familiar
friends, the fly flew from his hand, and after performing a con-
siderable round, it returned again to the hand of its master.
The Emperor Charles V., after his abdication of the throne,
amused himself in his later years with automata of various kinds.
The artist whom he employed was Janellus Turrianus of Cre-
mona. It was his custom after dinner to introduce upon the table
figures of armed men and horses. Some of these beat drums,
others played upon flutes, while a third set attacked each other
with spears. Sometimes he let fly wooden sparrows, which flew
back again to their" nest. He also exhibited corn-mills so ex-
tremely small tliat they could be concealed in a glove, yet so
powerful that they could grind in a day as much corn as would
supply eight men with food for a day.
Camus's carnage. The next piece of mechanism of sufficient
interest to merit our attention is that which was made by M. Ca-
mus for the amusement of Louis XIV. when a child. It consisted
of a small coach, which was drawn by two horses, and which
contained the figure of a lady within, \yith a footman and page
behind. When this machine was placed at the extremity of a
Ubie of the proper size, the coachman smacked his whip, and the
horses instantly set off, moving their legs in a natural manner, and
drawing the coach after them When 'he coach readied the op.
453 ANECDOTES,
posilc edge of the table, it turned sharply at a right angle, and
proceeded along the adjacent edge. As soon as it arrived oppo.
site the olace where the king sat, it stopped ; the page descended
and opened the coach door ; the lady alighted, and with a courtesy
presented a petition, which she held in her hand, to the king.
After waiting some time she again courtesied ana re-entered the
carriage. The page closed his door, and having resumed his
place behind, the coachman whipped his horses and drove on.
The footman, who had previously alighted, ran after the carriage,
and jumped up behind into his former place.
Degennes' meclianical peacock. Not content with imitating the
movements of animals, the mechanical genius of the 17th and 18th
centuries ventured to perform by wheels and pinions the functions
of vitality. We are informed by M. Lobat, that General De-
gennes, a French officer who defended the colony of St. Christo-
pher's against the English forces, constructed a peacock which
could walk about as if alive, pick up grains of corn from the
ground, digest them as if they had been submitted to the action
of the stomach, and afterward discharge them in an altered form.
Degennes is said to have invented various machines of great use
in navigation and gunnery, and to have constructed clocks without
weights or springs.
Vaucanson's duck. The automaton of Degennes probably sug-
gested to M. Vaucanson the idea of constructing his celebrated
duck, which excited so much interest throughout Europe, and
which was perhaps the most wonderful piece of mechanism that
was ever made. Vaucanson's duck exactly resembled the living
animal in size and appearance. It executed accurately all its
movements and gestures, it ate and drank with avidity, performed
all the quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to
the living animal, and, like it, it muddled the water which it drank
with its bill. It produced also the sound of quacking in the most
natural manner. In the anatomical structure of the duck the
artist exhibited the highest skill. Every bone in the real duck
had its representative in the automaton, and its wings were ana-
tomically exact. Every cavity, apophysis, and curvature was
imitated, and each bone executed its proper movements. When
corn was thrown down before it, the duck stretched out its neck
to pick it up, it swallowed it, digested it, and discharged it in a
digested condition. The process of digestion was effected by
chemical solution, and not by trituration, and the food digested in
the stomach was conveyed away by tubes to the place of its die-
charge.
The automata of Vaucanson were imitated by one Du Moulin^
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 453
ft silversmith, who travelled with them through Germany in 1752,
and who died at Moscow in 1765. Beckmann informs is that he
saw several of them after the machinery hud been deranged; but
that the artificial duck, which he regarded as the most ingenious,
was still able to eat, drink, and move. Its ribs, which were made
of wire, were covered with duck's feathers, and the motion was
communicated through the feet of the duck by means of a cylinder
find h'ne chains like that of a watch.
Drawing and writing automata. Various pieces of mechanism
of wonderful ingenuity have been constructed for the purposes of
drawing and writing. One of these, invented by M Le !>,<>/. tlw:
son oY tiie celebrated Dioz ofChaux le Fonds : has bee n deserity >i
by Mr. Collinson. Tlie figure was the size of life. It held in its
hand a metallic style, and when a spring was touched so as to re-
lease a detent, the figure immediately began to draw upon a card
of Dutch vellum previously laid under its hand. After the draw,
ing was executed on the first card, the figure rested. Other five
cards were then put in in succession, and upon these it delineated
in the same manner different subjects. On the first card it drew
" elegant portraits and likenesses of the king and queen facing
each other;" and Mr. Collinson remarks, that it was curious to
observe with what precision the figure lifted up its pencil in its
transition from one point of the drawing to another without making
the slightest mistake.
MaillardeCs conjurer. M. Maillardet has executed an auto-
maton which both writes and draws. The figure of a boy kneel-
ing on one knee holds a pencil in his hand. When the figure
begins to work, an attendant dips the pencil in ink, and adjusts
the drawing-paper upon a brass tablet. Upon touching a spring
the figure proceeds to write, and when the line is finished its
hand returns to dot and stroke the letters when necessary. In this
manner it executes four beautiful pieces of writing in French and
English, and three landscapes, all of which occupy about one hour.
One of the most popular pieces of mechanism which we have
seen is the magician constructed by M. Maillardet for the purpose
of answering certain given questions. A figure, dressed like a
magician, appears seated at the bottom of a wall, holding a wand
in one hand and a book in the other. A number of questions ready
prepared are inscribed on oval medallions, and the spectator takes
any of these which he chooses, and to which he wishes an answer,
and having placed it in a drawer ready to receive it, the drawer
shuts with a spring till the answer i.s returned. The magician then
rises from his seat, bows his head, describes circles with his wand,
and consulting the book as if in deep thought, he lifts it towards
20
454 ANECDOTES,
his face. Having thus appeared to ponder over the proposed ques.
tion. he raises his wand, and striking with it the wall above his
-doors fly open, and display an appropriate answer
Tae doors again close, the magician resumes his
rigiuu.1 position, and the drawer opens to return the medallion.
There are twenty of these medallions, all containing different ques.
tions, to which the magician returns the most suitable and striking
answers. The medallions are thin plates of brass of an elliptical
form, exactly resembling each other. Some of the medallions have
a question inscribed on each side, both of which the magician an-
swers in succession. If the drawer is shut without a medallion
being put into it, the magician rises, consults his book, shakes his
head, and resumes his seat. The folding-doors remain shut, and
the drawer is returned empty. If two medallions are put into the
drawer together, an answer is returned only to the lower one.
When the machinery is wound up, the movements continue about
an hour, during which time a*bout fifty questions may be answered.
The inventor stated that the means by which the different medal-
lions acted upon the machinery, so as to produce the proper an-
swers to the questions which they contained, were extremely simple.
The same ingenious artist has constructed various other auto:
mata, representing insects and other animals. One of these was
a spider entirely made of steel, which exhibited all the movements
of the animal. It ran on the surface of a table during three minutes,
and to prevent it from running off, its course always tended towards
the centre of the table. He constructed likewise a caterpillar, a
lizard, a mouse, and a serpent. The serpent crawls about in e\ery
direction, opens its mouth, hisses, and darts out its tongue.
Benefits derived from the passion for automata. Ingenious and
ii'ul as all these pieces of mechanism are, and surprising as
! ? cts appear even to scientific spectators, the principal object
- was to astonish and amuse the public. We
roneous judgment, however, if we supposed that
this was, the only result of the ingenuity which they displayed. The
passion for automatic exhibitions which characterized the 18th
century, gave rise to the most ingenious mechanical devices, and
introduced among the higher orders of artists habits of nice and
accurate execution in the formation of the most delicate pieces of
'ju'chinory. The same combination of the mechanical powers
which made the spider crawl, or which waved the tiny rod of the
magician, contributed in future years ^o purposes of higher import.
Those wheels and pinions, which almost eluded our senses by their
minuteness, reappeared in the stupendous mechanism of our spin.
uing-nrachines and our steam-engines. The elements of the turn
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 455
bling puppet were revived in the chronometer, which now conducts
navies through the ocean ; and the shapeless wheel which directed
the hand of the drawing automaton, has served in the present age
to guide the movements of the tambouring engine. Those mechani
cal wonders which in one century enriched only the conjurer who
used them, contributed in another to augment the wealth of the
nation ; and those automatic toys which once amused the vulgar
are now employed in extending the power and promoting the civi.
lization of our species. In whatever way, indeed, the power of
genius may invent or combine, and to whatever low or even ludi
crous purposes that invention or combination may be originally
applied, society receives a gift which it can never lose ; and though
the value of the seed may not be at once recognised, and though
it may lie long unproductive in the ungcnial till of human know-
ledge, it will some time or other evolve its germ, and yield to man-
kind its natural and abundant harvest.
Duncan's tambouring machine. The tambouring of muslins, 01
the art of producing upon them ornamental flowers and figures, has
been long known and practised in Britain, as well as in other coun-
tries ; but it was not long before the year 1790 that it became an
object of general manufacture in the west of Scotland, where it was
chiefly carried on. At first it was under the direction of foreigners;
but their aid was not long necessary, and it speedily extended to
such a degree as to occupy either wholly or partially more than
20,000 females. Many of these laborers lived in the neighborhood
of Glasgow, which was the chief seat of the manufacture, but others
were scattered through every part of Scotland, and supplied by
agents with work and money. In Glasgow, a tambourer of ordi-
nary skill could not in general earn more than five or six shillings
a week by constant application ; but to -a laboring artisan, who had
several daughters, even these low wages formed a source of great
wealth. At the age of five years, a child capable of handling a
needle was devoted to tambouring, even though it could not earn
more than a shilling or two in a week : and the consequence of
this was, that lemale children were taken from school, and rendered
totally unfit for any social or domestic duty. The tambouring
population was therefore of the worst kind, and it must have been
regarded as a blessing rather than as a calamity, when the work
which they perfo-med was intrusted to regular machinery.
Mr. John Duncan of Glasgow, the inventor of the tambouring
machinery, was one of those "unfortunate individuals who benefit
their species without benefiting themselves, and who died in the
meridian of life the victim of poverty and of national ingratitude.
He conceived the idea of bringing into action a great number of
456 ANECDOTES,
needles at the same time, in order to shorten the process by manual
labor, but he at first was perplexed about the diversification of the
pattern. This difficulty, however, he soon surmounted by employ-
ing two forces at right angles to each other, which gave him a new
force in the direction of the diagonal of the parallelogram, whose
sides were formed hy the original forces. His first machine was
very imperfect ; but after two years' study he formed a company,
at whose expense six improved machines were put in action, and
who secured the invention by a patent. At this time the idea of
rendering the machine automatic had scarcely occurred to him ;
but he afterward succeeded in accomplishing this great object, and
the tambouring machines were placed under the surveillance of a
steam-engine. Another patent was taken for these improvements.
The reader who desires to have a minute account of these improve-
ments, and of the various parts of the machinery, will be amply
gratified by perusing the inventor's own account of the machinery
in the article CHAIN WORK in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia. At
present it will be sufficient to state, that the muslin to be tamboured
was suspended vertically in a frame which was capable of being
moved both in a vertical and a horizontal direction. Sixty or more
needles lying horizontally occupied a frame in front of the muslin
web. Each of these working needles, as they are called, was
attended by a feeding-needle, which, by a circular motion round
the working-needle, lodged upon the stem of the latter the loop of
the thread. The sixty needles then penetrated the web, and in
order that they might return again without injuring the fabric, the
barb or eye of the needle, which resembled the barb of a fishing-
hook, was shut by a slider. The muslin web then took a new
position by means of the machinery that gave it its horizontal and
vertical motion, so that the sixty needles penetrated it at their next
movement at another point of the figure or flower. This operation
went on till sixty flowers were completed. The web was then
slightly wound up, that the needles might be opposite that part of
it on which they were to work another row of flowers.
The flowers were generally at an inch distance, and the rows
were placed so that the flowers formed what are called diamonds.
There were seventy-two rows of flowers in a yard, so that in every
square yard there were nearly four thousand flowers, and in every
piece of ten yards long forty thousand. The number of loops or
stitches in a flower varied with the pattern, but on an average
there were about thirty. Hence the number of stitches in a yard
were one hundred and twenty thousand, and the number in a
piece is one million two hundred thousand. The average work
done in a week by one machine was fifteen yards, or sixty thousand
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC 45-
floors, or one million eight hundred thousand stitches ; and by
comparing this with the work done by one person with the hand,
it appears that the machine enabled one person to do the work of
twenty-four persons.
Watt's statue turning machinery. One ofthe most curious and
important applications of machinery to the arts which has been
suggested in modern times was made by the late Mr. Watt, in
the construction of a machine for copying or reducing statues and
sculpture of all kinds. The art of multiplying busts and statues,
by casts in plaster of Paris, has been the means of diffusing a
knowledge of this branch of the fine arts ; but from the fragile
nature of the material, the copies thus produced were unfit for
exposure to the weather, and therefore ill calculated for ornament-
ing public buildings, or for perpetuating the memory of public
achievements. A machine, therefore, which is capable of multi-
plying the labors of the sculptor in the durable materials of mar-
ble or of brass was a desideratum of the highest va.ue, and one
which could have been expected only from a genius of the first
order. During many years Mr. Watt carried on his labors in
secret, and he concealed even his intention of constructing such
a machine. After he had made considerable progress in its exe-
cution, and had thought of securing his invention by a patent, he
learned that an ingenious individual in his own neighborhood had
been long occupied in the same pursuit ; and Mr. Watt informed
me that he had every reason to believe that this gentleman was
entirely ignorant of his labors. A proposal was then made that
the two inventors should combine their talents, and secure the
privilege by a joint patent ; but Mr. Watt had experienced so fre-
quently the fatal operation of our patent laws, that he saw many
difficulties in the way of such an arrangement, and he was un-
willing, at his advanced age, to embark in a project so extensive,
and which seemed to require for its successful prosecution all the
ardor and ambition of a youthful mind. The scheme was there-
fore abandoned ; and such is the unfortunate operation of our
patent laws, that the circumstance of two individuals having made
the same invention has prevented both from bringing it to perfec-
tion, and conferring a great practical benefit upon their species.
The machine which Mr. Watt had constructed had actually exe-
cuted some excellent pieces of work. I have seen in his house
at Heathfield copies of basso-relievos, and complete statues of a
small size ; and some of his friends have in their possession other
specimens of its performance.
Babbage's calculating machine. -Of all the machines which
have been constructed in irodero times, the calculating machine
453 ANECDOTES,
is doubtless the most extraordinary. Pieces of mechanism fof
performing particular arithmetical operations have been long ago
constructed, but these bear no comparison either in ingenuity or
in magnitude to the grand design conceived and nearly executed
by Mr. Babbage. <reat as the power of mechanism is known to
be, yet we venture to say that many of the most intelligent of our
readers will scarcely admit it to be possible that astronomical
and navigation tables can be accurately computed by machine-
ry ; that the machine can itself correct the errors which it
may commit ; and that the results of its calculations when abso-
lutely free from error, can be printed off, without the aid of human
hands, or the operation of human intelligence. All inn, how-
ever, Mr. Babbage 's machine can do ; and as I have had the ad-
vantage of seeing it actually calculate, and of studying its con-
struction with Mr. Babbage himself, I am able to make the above
statement on personal observation. The calculating machine now
constructing under . the superintendence of the inventor has been
executed at the expense of the British government, and is of course
their property. It consists essentially of two parts a calculating
part and a printing part, both of which are necessary to the fulfil-
ment of Mr. Babbage 's views, for the whole advantage would be
lost if the computations made by the machine were copied by
human hands and transferred to types by the common process.
The greater part of the calculating machinery is already con-
structed, and exhibits workmanship of such extraordinary skill and
beauty that nothing approaching to it has been witnessed. In
order to execute it, particularly those parts of the apparatus
which are dissimilar to any used in ordinary mechanical construc-
tions, tools and machinery of great expense and complexity have
been invented and constructed ; and in many instances contrivan-
ces of singular ingenuity have been resorted to, which cannot
fail to prove extensively useful in various branches of the me-
chanical arts.
The drawings of this machinery, which form a large part of
the work, and on which all the contrivance has been bestowed,
and all the alterations made, cover upwards of four hundred square
feet of surface, and are executed with extraordinary care and
precision.
In so complex a piece of mechanism, in which interrupted
motions are propagated simultaneously along a great variety of
trains of mechanism, it might have been supposed that obstruc-
tions would arise, or even incompatibilities occur, from the im.
practicability of foreseeing all the possible combinations of the
parts ; but this doubt has been entirely removed, by the constan*
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 45,3
e*ployment of a system of mechanical notation invented by Mr.
Baobage, which places distinctly in view at every instant thu pro.
gress of motion through all the parts of this or any other ma-
chine ; and by writing down in tables the times required for all the
movements, this method renders it easy to avoid all risk of two
opposite actions arriving at the same instant at any part of the
engine.
In the printing part of the machine less progress has been
made in the actual execution than in the calculating part. The
cause of this is the greater difficulty of its contrivance, not for
transferring the computations from the calculating part to the
copper or other plate destined to receive it, but for giving to the
plate itself that number and variety of movements which the forms
adopted in printed tables may call for in practice.
The practical object of the calculating engine is to compute and
print a great variety and extent of astronomical and navigation
tables, which could not be done without enormous intellectual and
manual labor, and which, even if executed by such labor, could
not be calculated with the requisite accuracy. Mathematicians,
astronomers, and navigators do not require to be informed of the
real value of such tables ; but it may be proper to state, for the
information of others, that seventeen large folio volumes of lo-
garithmic tables alone were calculated at an enormous expense
by the French government ; and that the British government re-
garded these tables to be of such national value, that they pro-
posed to the French Board of Longitude to print an abridgment
of them at the joint expense of the two nations, and offered to
advance 5000 for that purpose. Besides logarithmic tables, Mr.
Babbage's machine will calculate tables of the powers and products
of numbers, and all astronomical tables for determining the posi-
tions of the sun, moon, -and planets ; and the same mechanical
principles have enabled him to integrate innumerable equations of
finite differences, that is, when the equation of differences is given,
he can, by setting an engine, produce at the end of a given time
any distant term which may be required, or any succession of
terms commencing at a distant point.
Besides the cheapness and celerity with which this machine
will perform its work, the absolute accuracy of the printed results
deserves especial notice. By peculiar contrivances, any small
error produced by accidental dust or by any slight inaccuracy in
one of the wheels, is corrected as soon u.s ii is transmitted to the
next, and this is done in such a manner as effectual } to prevent
any accumulation of small errors from producing an erroneous
figure in the result.
ANECDOTES,
Description of the Automaton Chess-player.
The Chess Automaton was the sole invention of WolfJgang ck
Kempelen, a Hungarian gentleman, Aulic counsellor to the royaj
chamber of the domains of the emperor in Hungary, and celebra-
ted for great genius in every department of mechanics. From a
boy, he had trod in the path of science, and was incontestably of
first-rate capabilities as a mechanician and engineer Inventiop
was his hobby, and he rode it furiously, even to the partial impov-
erislunent of his means. M. de Kempelen, being at Vienna in the
year 1796, was invited by the empress Maria Theresa to be pres-
ent at the representation of certain magnetic games, or experiments
about to be shown in public at the imperial court by M. Pelletier,
a Frenchman. During the exhibition, De Kempelen, being hon-
ored by a long conversation with his sovereign, was induced casu-
ally to mention that he thought he could construct a machine, the
powers of which should be tar more surprising, and the deception
more complete, than all the wonders of magnetism just displayed
by Pelletier. At this declaration, the curiosity of the empress waa
naturally excited ; and, with true female eagerness for novelty, she
drew from De Kempelen a promise to gratify her wishes, by pre-
paring an early and practical proof of his bold assertion. The
artist returned to his modest dwelling at Presburg, and girded up
his loins to the task. He kept his word with his imperial mistress;
and in the following year presented himself once more at the court
of Vienna, accompanied by the Automaton Chess-pkyer. Need
we say that its success was triumnnantiv complete ?
The Chess-player was a figure as kir^e as lite, clothed in a Turk-
ish dress, sitting behind a large square chest or box, three feet and a
half long, two feet dt:ep, and two an 1 ! a half high. The machine
ran on castors, and was either seen on the floor when the doors
of the apartment were thrown open, or \vas wheeled into the room
previous to the commencement of the exhibition. The Turkish
Chess-player sat on a chair fixed to the sauare chest ; his right
arm rested on the table, and in the left he h^ld a pipe, which was
icmoved during the game, as it was with U;at he made the moves.
A chess-board eighteen inches square, and touring the usual num.
ber of pieces, was placed before the figure, l^e exhibiter then
announced to the spectators his intention ot showing the mechan-
ism : and after having unlocked the doors and shown every part
of the machine, to prove that it was impossible lor any one to be
concealed within, the Automaton was ready foi niay An ODDO
nent having been found among the company, the tvq.u^ J ook tiw
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 461
first movs. At every move made by the Automaton, the wheels
of the machine were heard in action ; the figure moved its head
and sgemed to look over every part of the chess-board. When
it gave its check to its opponent, it shook its head thrice, and only
twice when it checked the queen. It likewise shook its head when
a false move was made, replaced the adversary's piece on the
square from which it was taken, and took the next move itself.
In general, though not always, it won the game.
During the progress of the game the exhibiter often stood neai
the machine, and wound it up like a clock after it had made ten
or twelve moves. At other times he went to a corner of the room,
as if it were to consult a small square box,, which stood open for
this purpose.
The chess-playing machine, as thus described, was exhibited
after its completion in Presburg, Vienna, and Paris, to thousands,
and in 1783 and 1784 it was exhibited in London and different
parts of England, without the secret of its movements having been
discovered. Its ingenious inventor, who was a gentleman and a
man of education, never pretended that the Automaton itself really
played the game. On the contrary, he distinctly stated " that the
machine was a bagatelle, which was not without merit in point of
mechanism, but that the effects of it appeared so marvellous only
from the boldness of the conception, and the fortunate choice of
the methods adopted for promoting the illusion."
Upon considering the operations of this Automaton, it must have
been obvious that the game of chess was performed either by a
person enclosed in the chest or by the exhibiter himself. The first
of these hypotheses was ingeniously excluded by the display of the
interior of the machine ; for as every part contained more or less
machinery, the spectator invariably concluded that the smallest
dwarf could not be accommodated within, and this idea was
strengthened by the circumstance that no person of this descrip-
tion could be discovered in the suite of the exhibiter. Hence the
conclusion was drawn that the exhibiter actuated the machine either
by mechanical means conveyed through its feet, or by a magnet
concealed in the body of the exhibiter. That mechanical com-
munication was not formed between the exhibiter and the figure
was obvious from the fact that no such communication was visible,
and that it was not necessary to place the machine on any partic-
ular part of the floor. Hence the opinion became very prevalent
that the agent was a magnet ; but even this supposition was exclu-
ded, for the exhibiter allowed a strong and well-armed loadstone
to be placed upon the machine during the progress of the game :
bad the moving power been a magnet, the whole action of the ma-
20*
1(32 ANECDOTES,
chine would have been deranged by the approximation of a load
stone concealed in the pockets of any of the spectators.
The Chess-player continued the wonder of all Europe for a
period of over sixty years, without the secret of its movement
being divulged, though many were the attempts to unravel the
mystery. It was exhibited in all the courts of Europe, and even
kings condescended to try a game. Among other monarchs whose
curiosity was excited was Eugene Beauharnois, then king of Ba-
varia, who bought the machine in order to ascertain the secret.
Dismissing his courtiers from the room, the king then locked the
door, and every precaution was taken to ensure his acquiring a sole
knowledge of the hidden enigma. The prince was left alone with
the demonstrator : the latter then unhesitatingly and in silence
flung open simultaneously all the doors of the chest ; and prince
Eugene saw what he saw !
Napoleon, himself a chess-player, honored the Automaton by
playing a game in person against it. The contest was marked by
an interesting circumstance. Half a dozen moves had barely
been made, when Bonaparte, purposely, to test the powers of the
machine, committed a false move ; the Automaton bowed, repla-
ced the offending piece, and motioned to Napoleon that he should
move correctly. Highly amused, after a few minutes the French
chief again played an illegfl move. This time the Automaton
without hesitation snatched off the piece which had moved falsely,
confiscated it, and made his own move. Bonaparte laughed, and
for the third time, as if to put the patience of his antagonist to a
severe trial, played a false move. The Automaton raised his arm,
swept the whole of the pieces from the board, and declined contin-
uing the game !
While the machine was exhibiting in England, in 1785, a Mr.
Philip Thicknesse printed a pamphlet in which he denounced the
Automaton as a piece of imposture in no measured terms. He as-
sumed that a child was confined in the chest, from ten to fourteen
years of age, who played the game ; but added, absurdly enough,
that Master Johnny saw the state of the board reflected from a
looking-glass in the ceiling. He had previously discovered a case
of curious imposture worth quoting.
" Forty years since," writes Thicknesse, " I found three hun-
dred people assembled to see, at a shilling each, a coach go with-
out horses. Mr. Quin, the Duke of Athol, and many persons
present, were angry with me for saying that it was trod round by
a man within the hinder wheel ; but a small paper of snuff put into
the wheel, soon convinced all around that it could not only move,
but sneeze, too, like a Christian /" We wonder how De Kempelen
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 463
would have met a proposition to throw an ounce or two of snuff
upon speculation among his springs and levers ?
Notwithstanding all the attempts, the secret of the Automaton
Chess-player was never solved, until one of the persons implicated
in the fraud turned king's evidence. Several persons almost hil
the mark ; but none fairly planted his arrow in the gold. The man
who really played the Chess- Automaton was concealed in the chest
Such, in half a dozen words, is the sum and substance of the whole
truth of the contrivance ; but the manner in which his conceal,
ment was managed is as curious as it is ingenious.
He sat on a low species of stool, moving on castors, or wheels,
and had every facility afforded him of changing and shifting his
position, like an eel. While one part of the machine was shown
to the public, he took refuge in another ; now lying down, now
kneeling ; placing his body in all sorts of positions, studied be-
forehand, and all assumed in regular rotation, like the A B c of a
catechism. The interior pieces of clock-work the wheels and
make-weight apparatus, were all equally rnoveable ; and additional
assistance was thus yielded to the fraud. Even the trunk of the
Automaton was used as a hiding-place, in its turn, for part of the
player's body. A very short amount of practice, by way of re-
hearsal, was found sufficient to meet the purposes of the occasion ;
and one regular order being observed by the two confederates as
to the opening the machine, a mistake rarely or never occurred.
Should any thing go radically wrong, the prisoner had the means
of telegraphing his jailer, and the performance could be sus-
pended.
" But," says the reader, " what becomes of the vast apparatus
of wheels, springs, levers, and caskets ? Why did Maelzel require
to wind up his man of wood and brass ?" The answer is short
These things were the dust thrown in the eyes of the public. The
mind of the gaping spectator dwelt on the sound of the springs
and wheels, and was thus diverted from the main question. Every
adjunct that intellect could devise was skilfully superadded, to en-
hance the marvel. The machine was railed off, for a now tolera-
bly clear reason ; and a lighted candle having been first introduced
into the body of the Automaton, to show the interior, at a moment
nothing could be seen, was purposely left burning close at hand, in
order to prevent any inopportune rays of light flashing from the
interior, where a second candle was necessarily in process of
ignition.
The director of the Automaton was quietly seated, then, in the
interior. All public inspection over, and the doors being safely
closed, he had only to make himself as comfortable as ha could
404 ANECDOTES,
under the existing circumstances. A wax candle supplied him with
light, which the candle burning outside prevented being observed ;
and due measures were taken that lie should not die tor want of
oxygen. Whether he was furnished with meat, and wine, these
deponents say not.
To direct the arm of the Automaton, the concealed confederate
had but to set in motion a simple sort of spring, which caused its
fingers to grasp the man he chose to play, and guide it to the per-
formance of its task. To make the figure articulate check, nod
its head, or perform other fooleries, similar strings, or wires, re-
quired but a pull. It must be observed, that care was taken that
the performance should never last so long as to fatigue the player
to exhaustion. We have before remarked, that the Automaton's
chess-board and men were placed in public view before him. The
concealed player possessed in the interior a second, and smaller
board, with the men pegged into it, as if for travelling. On this
he repeated the move played by the antagonist of the Automaton,
and on this he likewise concocted his scheme of action, and made
his answer before playing it on the Automatons own board.
A very interesting and ingenious part of the secret consists in
the manner in which the move played by the stranger was com.
municated to the concealed artist ; and on this, in point of reality,
turned the whole thing. A third chess-board, blank, with the
squares numbered according to the usual mode of chess notation,
was fixed, as it were, in the ceiling of the interior ; thus forming
the reverse of the table on which the Automaton really appeared
to play. Now the men with which the Automaton conducted his
game, were all duly magnetized at the foot ; and the move being
made above, the magnets on the pieces moved set in motion cer-
tain knobs, or metallic indices, adapted to each square of the board
on the reverse ; and thus was the requisite knowledge of the move
played communicated to Jack-in-the-box. To illustrate this more
clearly would require the aid of engravings ; but we have given
the explanation at least sufficiently distinct for our purpose. The
real Simon Pure, shut up in his cell, saw by the light of his taper
the metallic knobs or indices above, vibrating, so as to mark the
move just played. He repeated this move on his own little board,
calculated his answering " coup," and guided the Automaton's fin-
gers, in order to its being duly performed. The happy association
of magnetism with the figure, thus hit upon by De Kempelen, was
probably suggested to him by the magnetic experiments of Pelle-
tier, at the court of the empress.
Tedious as a " twice told tale/'' is the dwelling too long on the
eadmg of a riddle. When known, its solution seems simple
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 465
enough ; but the difficulty lies in its original construction. The
Automaton Chess-player affords strong evidence of the fallibility
of human judgment and human testimony. Thousands of individ-
uals have seen its performance, who would have had no scruple
about taking their oaths that they had viewed the whole of the en-
gine at once. In this respect, the ingenuity displayed by its origi-
nal constructor is above praise. Man loves so to be duped !
The history of the Chess-playing Automaton, subsequently to
1820, may be shortly summed up. Having travelled over the
greater part of Europe, it was transported to the United States of
America, where for a time it proved that the natives of the New
World were made of the same stuff as their elder brethren. Jon-
athan dropped his dollars freely ; and the calculating spirit of the
land of stripes and stars, slumbered beneath the spell of Maelzel's
magic. A German accompanied it, as holding the important post
of invisible demonstrator, ordinary and extraordinary.
Carrying out the same principle of conduct, the Automaton sub-
sequently took to playing whist, as well as chess. For some years,
latterly, the figure has lain in a state of inglorious repose in a
warehouse at New Orleans ; and there we leave him, fearing the
word resurgam may not be applied to its escutcheon. A similar
bubble once blown becomes forever exploded in its pristine form.
Many must be the adventures of the Automaton, lost, unhappi-
ly, to the knowledge of man. A being that kept so much good
company, during so long a space of time, must, indeed, have gone
through an infinity of interesting events. In this age of autobiog-
raphy, when so many wooden men and women have the assurance
to thrust their personal memoirs on the world, a book on the life
and adventures of the Automaton Chess-player would surely be
received with proportionate interest. We ourselves recollect once
hearing some amusing anecdotes of the thing from Mouret him-
self, the individual who for many years was concealed within the
machine. Our limits permit our quoting but a couple of these
logwood reminiscences, which we quote by way of wind-up.
In a journey once through a remote part of Germany, the Au-
tomaton set up his tent in a small town, where a professor of
legerdemain being already in possession of the field, a clash between
the interests of the two parties was unavoidable. The Automaton,
as the monster of the late arrival, naturally put the conjurer on
the shelf; and the poor Hocus-pocus, in the energies developed by
famine, conversant as he was with the art he professed, discovered
his rival's secret the first time he witnessed the show. Backed by
an accomplice, the conjurer raised a sudden cry of " Fire ! fire .'"
The spectators began to rush forth in alarm ; and the Automaton,
466 ANECDOTES.
violently impelled by the struggles of its inward man, suddenly
rolled head over heels on the floor. Maelzel flew to the rescue
and dropped the curtain, before terror had quite driven the impris-
oned imp to bur.it its chain, and rush to daylight.
On another occasion, Messrs. Maelzel and Mouret were exhibit-
ing the Automaton at Amsterdam, when it happened that the
former was indebted in a considerable sum of money, relatively
speaking, to his agent for his services. In fact, Maelzel, acting
on the philosophical aphorism of " base is the slave who pays, 1 '
had not given poor Mouret a shilling for a twelvemonth ; and the
latter found that, although a spirit of darkness, he could not live
upon air. Mouret was lodged and boarded, but wanted also to eat.
It so chanced, under these circumstances, that one day the king of
Holland sent a messenger to engage the chief part of the exhibi-
tion-hall, that morning, for himself and court ; and kindly seconded
his royal command by the sum of three thousand florins, sent by
the same courier. Maelzel proclaims the good tidings ; a splen-
did breakfast is prepared ; Mouret is pressed to eat and drink ; and
the parties are naturally delighted at the pleasing prospect of check-
mating royalty. Maelzel hastens to arrange every preparation for
receiving the Dutch monarch with " all the honors/' The exhibition
was to commence at half-past twelve; but, although noon had
struck on every clock in the city, Mouret was not at his post.
Maelzel inquires the reason, and is told that Mouret has got a
fever, and gone to bed. The German flew to the Frenchman's
chamber, and found half the story at least to be correct ; for there,
sure enough, lay Mouret, snugly tucked up in the blankets.
' What is the meaning of this ? 11
' I have a fever."
' But you were very well just now ?"
' Yes ; but this disorder O del! has come on suddenly. 11
' But the king is coming."
' Let him go back again !"
1 But what shall I say to him ?"
' Tell him mon Dieu! the Automaton has a sore throat."
' Can you jest at such a moment ? Consider the money I have
received, and that we shall have the saloon full."
' Well, Mynheer Maelzel, you can return the money."
' Pray, pray, get up !"
' I cannot."
' What can I do to restore you ?"
' Pay me the fiftaen hundred francs you owe me .'"
' This evening ?"
*Nj; pay me now this moment, or I leave not my bed!"
CHINESE IRRIGATION WHEEL,
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 4gg
The case was urgent, and the means of restoration to health
however desperate, must be adopted. With a heavy sigh, Mael-
zel told down the cash ; and never had the Automaton played with
so much inward unction as he did that morning. The king declin-
ed compromising royalty by entering the lists himself; but placed
his minister-of-war in the opposition chair, and graciously conde-
scended to offer his royal advice in each critical situation of the
pieces. The coalition was beaten, and the surrounding courtiers,
of course, attributed defeat solely to the bad play of the minister
of-vvar !
Chinese Bamboo Irrigation-wheel.
The Chinese irrigation-wheel, which is turned by the current of
the stream, varies from twenty to thirty feet or more in height,
according to the elevation of the bank ; and when once erected, u
constant supply of water is poured by it into a trough, on the sum-
mit of the river's side, and conducted in channels to all parts of the
sugar plantations. One is at a loss which most to admire, the
cleverness and efficiency, or the cheapness and simplicity of the
contrivance.
The props of the wheel are of timber, and the axis is a cylinder
of the same material ; but every other portion of the machine ex-
hibits some modification or other of the bamboo, even to the fasten-
ings and bindings, for not a single nail or piece of metal enters into
its composition. The wheel consists of two rims of unequal diame-
ter, of which the one next the bank is rather the least. " This
double wheel," observes Staunton, " is connected with the axis by
sixteen or eighteen spokes of bamboo, obliquely inserted near each
extremity of the axis, and crossing each other at about two-thirds
of their length. They are there strengthened by a concentric
circle, and fastened afterwards to the rims ; the spokes inserted in
the interior extremity of the axis (or that next to the bank,) reach-
ing the outer rim, and those proceeding from the exterior extremity
of the same axis reaching the inner and smaller rim. Between
the rims and the crossings of the spokes is woven a kind of close
basket-work, serving as ladle-boards," which are acted upon by
the current of the stream, and turn the wheel round.
The whole diameter of the wheel being something greater than
the height of the bank, about sixteen or twenty hollow bamboos,
closed at one end, are fastened to the circumference, to act as
buckets. These, however, are not loosely suspended, but firmly
attached with their open mouths towards the inner or smaller rim
470 ANECDOTES.
of Use wheel, at such an inclination, that when dipping below the
water their mouths are slightly raised from the horizontal position ;
as they rise through the air their position approaches the upright
sufficiently near to keep a considerable portion of the contents
within them ; but, when they have reached the summit of the revo-
lution, the mouths become enough depressed to pour the water into
a large trough placed on a level with the bank to receive it. The
impulse of the stream on the ladle-boards at the circumference of
the wheel, with a radius of about fifteen feet, is sufficient to over-
come the resistance arising from the difference of weight between
the ascending and descending, or loaded and unloaded, sides of
the wheel. This impulse is increased, if necessary, at the parti-
cular spot where each wheel is erected, by damming the stream,
and even raising the level of the water where it turns the wheel.
When the supply of water is not required over the adjoining fields,
the trough is merely turned aside or removed, and the wheel con.
tinues its stately motion, the water from the tubes pouring back
again down its sides. These wheels extend, on the river Kan-keang,
from the neighborhood of the pass to a considerable distance down
its stream towards the lake, and they were so numerous that we
never saw less than thirty in a day. It is calculated that one of
them will raise upwards of three hundred tons of water in the four-
and-twenty hours. Viewed merely in regard to their object, the
Persian wheel, and the machines used for raising water in the
Tyrol, bear some resemblance to the one just described, but, as
observed by Staunton, " they are vastly more expensive, less sim-
ple in construction, as well as less ingenious in contrivance."
Discovery of Gunpowder, and Inventions arising therefrom.
It is not known with accuracy at what time gunpowder was dis-
covered. The Chinese were acquainted with it at a very early
period. It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century,
one hundred and fifty years after the invention of cannon, that iron
balls were used. Muskets were not used until the year 1521. The
Spaniards first armed their foot soldiers in this manner. They
used matchlocks : firelocks were not used until the beginning of
the seventeenth century, that is, one hundred and eighty years
after muskets were invented. Even then, the great Marshal Saxe
had so little confidence in the efficacy of a flint, that he ordered a
matchlock to be added to the lock with a flint, lest the flint should
miss fire : such is the force of habit on the human mind. Bayonets
derive their name from the town of Bayonne, in France, where
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 471
ihey were introduced about 1673. They came in use among the
English grenadiers in the reign of James the Second. Many such
are yet to be seen in the small armory at the Tower of London
The use of them, fastened to the muzzle of the firelock, was also
a French improvement, first adopted about 1690. It was accom-
panied in 1693, at the battle of Marseille, in Piedmont, by a dread,
ful slaughter, and its use universally adopted by the rest of Europe
in the war of the succession.
A. few Remarks on the Relation which subsists between a Machine
and its Model
The following remarks by Edward Sang, a teacher of mathe-
matics in Edinburgh, are very interesting, as demonstrating the
relation between a machine and its model, a subject which is,
perhaps, not generally well understood :
" At first sight, a well-constructed model presents a perfect re-
presentation of the disposition and proportion of the parts of a
machine, and of their mode of action.
" Misled by the alluring appearance, one is apt, without entering
minutely into the inquiry, also to suppose that the performance 1
a model is, in all cases, commensurate with that of the machine
which it is formed to represent. Ignorant of the inaccuracy of
such an idea, too many of our ablest mechanicians and best work -
men waste their time and, abilities on contrivances which, tlioii^n
they perform well on the small scale, must, from their very natu.i;,
fail when enlarged. Were such people acquainted with the nu*|f>
of computing the effects, or had they a knowledge of natural phi-
losophy, sufficient to enable them to understand the basis on which
such calculations are founded, we should see fewer crude and :m
practicable schemes prematurely thrust upon the attentiou ol lU
public. This knowledge, however, they are too apt to regard HS
unimportant, or as difficult of attainment. They are start !o<' >
the absurd distinction which has been drawn between theory *.<- .
practice, as if theory were other than a digest of the result* ,>
experience; or, if they overcome this prejudice, and resolve v
dive into the arcana of philosophy, they are bewildered amonj,
names and signs, having begun ttte subject at the wrong eini
That the attainment of such knowledge is attended with difficulty
is certain, but it is with such difficulty only as can be overcome
by properly directed application. It would be, indeed, preparing
disappointment to buoy them up with the idea, that knowledge,
even of the most trivial importance, can be acq: ,ired without labor.
472 ANECDOTES,
Yet it may not be altogether unuseful, for the sake both of those
who are already, and of those who are not, acquainted with these
principles, to point out the more prominent causes, on account of
which the performance of no model can, on any occasion, be con-
sidered as representative of that of the machine. Such a notice
will have the effect of directing the attention, at least, to this im-
portant subject. In the present state of the arts, the expense of
constructing a full-sized instrument is, in almost every instance,
beyond what its projector would feel inclined, or even be able, to
incur. The formation of a model is thus universally resorted to,
as a prelude to the attempt on the large scale. An inquiry, then,
into the relation which a model bears to the perfect instrument,
can hardly fail to carry along with it the advantage of forming a
tolerable guide, in estimating the real benefit which a contrivance
is likely to confer upon societj.
" In the following paper I propose to examine the effect of a
change of scale on the strength and on the friction of machines,
and, at the same time, to point out that adherence to the strictest
principles which is apparent in all the works of nature, and of
which I mean to avail myself in fortifying my argument.
" Previous, however, to entering on the subject-proper, it must
be remarked that, when we enlarge the scale according to which
any instrument is constructed, its surface and its bulk are enlarged
in much higher ratios. If, for example, the linear dimensions of
an instrument be all doubled, its surface will be increased four and
its solidity eight-fold. Were the linear dimensions increased ten
times, the superficies would be enlarged one hundred, and the so-
lidity one thousand times. On these facts, the most important
which geometry presents, my after-remarks are mostly to be
founded.
" All machines consist of moveable parts, sliding or turning on
others, which are bound together by bands, or supported by props.
To the frame-work I shall first direct my attention.
" In the case of a simple prop, destined to sustain the mere
weight of some part of the machine, the strength is estimated at
so many hundred weights per square inch of cross section. Sup.
pose that, in the model, the strength of the prop is sufficient for
double the load put on it, and let us examine the effect of an en-
largement, ten-fold, of the scale according to which the instrument
is constructed. By such an enlargement, the strength of the prop
would be augmented one hundred times ; it would be able to bear
two hundred loads such as that of the model, but then the weight
to be put on it would be one thousand times that of the small ma-
chine, so that the prop in the large machine would be able to bear
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 473
only the fifth part of the load to be put on it. The machine, then,
would fall to pieces by its own weight.
" Here we have one example of the erroneous manner in which
a model represents the performance of a large instrument The
supports of small objects ought clearly to be smaller in proportion
than the supports of large ones. Architects, to be sure, are accus-
tomed to enlarge and to reduce in proportion ; but nature, whose
structures possess infinitely more symmetry, beauty, and variety,
than those of which art can boast, is content to change her pro-
portions at each change of size. Let us conceive an animal having
the proportions of an elephant and only the size of a mouse ; not
only would the limbs of such an animal be too strong for it, they
would also be so unwieldy that it would have no chance among
the more nimble and better proportioned creatures of that size.
Reverse the process, and enlarge the mouse to the size of an ele-
phant, and its limbs, totally unable to sustain the weight of its
immense body, would scarcely have strength to disturb its position
even when recumbent.
" The very same remarks apply to that case in which the weight,
instead of compressing, distends the support. The chains of
Trinity Pier are computed to be able to bear nine times the load
put on them. But if a similar structure were formed of ten times
the linear dimensions, the strength of the new chain would be one
hundred times the strength of that at Trinity, while the load put
upon it would be one thousand times greater ; so that the new
structure would possess only nine-tenths of the strength necessary
to support itself. Of how little importance, then, in bridge build-
ing, whether a model constructed on a scale of perhaps one to a
hundred support its own weight ! Yet, on such grounds, a proposi-
tion for throwing a bridge of two arches across the Forth, at
Queensferry,- was founded. Putting out of view the road-way and
passengers altogether, the weight of the chajn alone would have
torn it to pieces. The larger species of spiders spin threads much
thicker, in comparison with the thickness of their own bodies, than
those spun by the smaller ones. And, as if sensible that the whole
energies of their systems would be expended in the frequent repro-
duction of such massy webs, they choose the most secluded spots ;
while the smaller species, dreading no inconvenience from a fre-
quent renewal of theirs, stretch them from branch to branch, and
often from tree to tree. I have often been astonished at the pro-
digious lengths of these filaments, and have mused on the immense
improvement which must take place in science, and in strength of
materials too, ere we could, individually, undertake works of such
comparative magnitude.
474 ANECDOTES,
" When a beam gives support laterally, its strength is proper
tioned to its breadth, and to the square of its depth conjointly. If,
then, such a beam were enlarged ten times in each of its linear
dimensions, its ability to sustain a weight placed at its extremity
would, on account of the increased distance from the point- of in-
sertion, be only one hundred times augmented, but the load to be
put upon it would be one thousand times greater ; and thus, al-
though iho parts of the model be quite strong enough, we can.
not thence conclude that those of the enlarged machine will
be so.
" It may thus be stated as a general principle, that, in similar
machines, the strengths of the parts vary as the square, while the
weights laid on them vary as the cube of the corresponding linear
dimension.
" This fact cannot be too firmly fixed in the minds of machine
makers ; it ought to be taken into consideration . even on the
smallest change of scale, as it will always conduce either to the
sufficiency or to the economy of a structure. To enlarge or di-
minish the parts of a machine all in the same proportion, is to
commit a deliberate blunder. Let us compare the wing of an in-
sect with that of a bird : enlarge a midge till its whole weight be
equal to that of the sea-eagle, and, great as that enlargement must
be, its wing will scarcely have attained the thickness of writing
paper ; the falcon would feel rather awkward with wings of such
tenuity. The wings of a bird, even when idle, form a conspicuous
part of the whole animal ; but there are insects which unfold, from
beneath two scarcely perceived covers, wings many times more
.extensive than the whole surface of their bodies.
" The larger animals are never supported laterally ; their limbs
are always in a position nearly vertical : as we descend in the
scale of size the lateral support becomes more frequent, till we
find whole tribes of insects resting on limbs laid almost horizon-
tally. The slightest consideration will convince any one that
lateral or horizontal limbs would be quite inadequate to support
the weight of the larger animals. Conceive a spider to increase
till his body weighed as much as that of a man, and then fancy
one of us exhibiting feats of dexterity with such locomotive instru-
ments as the spider would then possess !
" The objects which I have hitherto compared have been re-
mote, that the comparisons might be the more striking ; but the
same principles may be exhibited by the contrast of species the
most nearly allied, or of individuals even of the same species
The larger species of spiders, for instance, rarely have their legs
so much extended as the smaller ones ; or, to take an example
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 475
irom the larger animals, the form of the Shetland pony is very
different from that of the London dray-horse.
" How interesting it is to compare the different animals, and to
trace the gradual change of form which accompanies each in
crease of size ! In the smaller animals, the strength is, as it were,
redundant, and there is room for the display of the most elaborate
ornament. How complex or how beautiful are the myriads of
insects which float in the air, or which cluster on the foliage !
Gradually the larger of these become more simple in their struc-
ture, their ornaments less profuse. The structure of the birds is
simpler and more uniform, that of the quadrupeds still more so.
As we approach the larger quadrupeds, ornament, and then ele-
gance, disappear. This is the law in the works of nature, and this
ought to be the law among the works of art.
" Among one class of animals, indeed, it may be said that this
law is reversed. We have by no means a general classification
of the fishes ; but, among those with which we are acquainted, we
do not perceive such a prodigious change of form Here, how-
ever, the animal has not to support its own weight ; and whatever
increase may take place in the size of the animal, a like increase
takes place in the buoyancy of the fluid in which it swims. Many
of the smaller aquatic animals exhibit the utmost simplicity of
structui-e ; but we know too little of the nature of their functions
to draw any useful conclusions from this fact. 11
Shoes and Buckles.
The business of a shoemaker is of great antiquity. The instru-
ment for cleaning hides, the shoemaker's bristle added to the yarn,
and his knife, were in use as early as the twelfth century. He
was accustomed to hawk his goods, and it is conjectured that there
was a separate trade for annexing the soles. The Romans in
classical times wore cork soles in their shoos, to secure tin: feet
from water, especially in winter ; and as high heels were not then
introduced, the Roman ladies who wished to appear taller than they
had been formed by nature, put plenty of cork under them. The
Btreets of Rome in the time of Domitian were blocked up by cob-
bler's stalls, which he therefore caused to be removed. In the
middle ages shoes were cleaned by washing with a sponge ; and
oil, soap, and grease were the substitutes tor blacking. Buckles
were worn on shoes in the fourteenth century. In an Irish abbey
a human skeleton was found with marks of buckles on the shoes.
In England they became fashionable many years before the reign
476 ANECDOTES,
of Queen Marv ; the laboring people wore them of copper ; other
persons had tnem of silver, or copper gilt ; not long after, shoe
roses came in. Buckles revived before the revolution of 1689,
"emained fashionable till after the French revolution in 1789, and
finally became extinct before the close of the eighteenth century.
The Crolon Aqueduct.
Some of our readers may have had their curiosity excited with
respect to the great aqueduct now in construction for the supply
of New York with water. The following description of the manner
in which the work is performed, with the illustrative cut connected
with it, will prove acceptable. We have been indebted for them
to Mr. Miner, editor of the Railroad Journal, from whom we have
before received several similar favors.
The_ground on which New York stands consists chiefly of loose
sand, intermixed in many places with coarse gravel and boulders,
or roundish stones of different sizes, apparently brought by a flood
of water from some primitive region. Hornblend rock predomi-
nates. Granite and gneiss rocks are found in original masses in
some parts. Long Island consists of sand and loose stones, with,
out a trace of any fixed rock, except at Hurlgate, and perhaps at
one or two other places.
Primitive rocks and soils generally furnish good water ; and the
springs of this city, though few and public, are abundant, and
many of them were originally good. The increase of population,
however, has caused the deterioration of the water : for where
the rain once fell on fields of grass or groves of wood, it now
meets with crowded streets or narrow lots occupied by crowded
habitations, and contracts impurities which it carries with it far
down into the sands where the springs flow. Some of the wells
in the middle and upper parts of the city, which yielded excellent
water within the memory of living inhabitants, have become so
much affected in later years, that many of the people purchase
drinking water at a penny a pailful, of men who bring it in carts
from springs yet untainted by the encroaching city. As the water
of the wells is unfit for washing as well as for drinking, every
family requires a cistern ; and thus it has been thought desirable,
for many years, that an abundant supply of good water should be
obtained for the city.
The Water Works in Chambers street, under the direction of
the Manhattan Company, hjive furnished, for some years, water of
an inferior quality to the inhabitants of many streets in the lower
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC.
477
parts of the city, at certain prices ; and water for the use of fire-
engines has since been provided, in a large reservoir on the heighl
of ground, from which it is distributed in hydrants to different dis
tricts. It was proposed, some years ago, to obtain a supply from
several ponds in the town of Rye : but, after an examination, the
Croton river was preferred, although the distance was great, the
route obstructed by serious impediments, and the work tediou ,
and very expensive. The friends of the enterprise, however
rightly judged, that nothing could be so expensive to the health
and convenience of the inhabitants, and therefore in fact so great
a pecuniary loss to the city treasury, as the longer neglect of the
great work. It was therefore commenced and about five thou-
sand men have sometimes been employee on it At one time.
Family Visitor.
Section of the Croton Aqueduct
Description of the mode of constructing the Croton Aqueduct,
from the American Railroad Journal The materials used are
good building-stone, of the proper degree of hardness and dura-
bility, free from all metals, particularly iron. Gneiss is preferred
to any other, both because it is more plentiful and more easily
worked. Some limestone is also used, but not until it has tb
478 ANECDOTES,
express permit of the Resident Engineer. Brick is the next ma-
terial ; it is required to be from the centre of the kiln, such as is
thoroughly burnt, free from lime or any other impurity, and to
possess a clear ringing sound when struck. The worst accepted
are such as cost from five to seven dollars a thousand. Next is
the cement, from which the concrete and masonry generally are
formed. The commissioners 1 specifications are very explicit re-
lative to the manufacture of this article, requiring that the name
of the manufacturer should be known ; that the cement shall not
have been made more than six months before being used ; that it
shall be transported from the factory in water-tight casks ; and,
in addition to all this, that each parcel or cargo received shall be
thoroughly tested, either by officers appointed for the purpose, or
by the Resident Engineer himself. These are the principal ma-
terials, stone, brick, and cement. The stone is required to be
always clean, and in hot weather, kept wet, and when laid in the
wall requiring mortar, it must " swim" in the cement that is,
when the stone is lifted up from its bed, no point or surface of the
stone must touch the stone below it, each stone must be surrounded
by cement. When the weather is hot, the top of the wall must
be kept moist, and in cold weather all the masonry must be
covered so effectually, as to protect it perfectly. The brick must
be laid true and even, allowing three-eighths of an inch joint, or
thereabouts. In hot weather, they are to be soaked in water, and
to be kept wet while being laid. The cement is mixed in differ-
ent proportions, according to the work required. For stone work,
the proportions are one part of cement to three of sand, (the sand
to be medium size, sharp grained and clean river sand is ac-
cepted.) For brick work, the proportions are one of ceirent to
two of sand ; for concrete, one part of cement, three of sand, and
three of clean building-stone, broken about as fine as that used
for Macadamizing. Concrete is used for forming artificipl founda-
tions, is mixed with as little water as possible, and when laid in
any part of the work, is left undisturbed forty-eight hours at the
expiration of this time it has become so hard, tha* a blow with a
pickaxe will not break it : it becomes quite a rock.
The aqueduct, maintaining a uniform descent, requires that in
places the earth should be cut away, and in crossing valley?, thai
they should be filled up. In the former case, the sides of the cu'
are left standing at a slope of one half to one ; that is, if the per-
pendicular height of the side of the cut be six feet, it will fall from
directly above its base three feet. It is one-half horizontal to one
vertical. The base of the cut is always thirteen feet wide. Pegs,
showing the bottom of the side walls, and of the reversed arch in
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 479
Brick, are given by the engineers, who, at the same time, deter
mine the centres, if necessary, from these data. The builder lays
a small layer of concrete, at least three inches, whose top shall be
as high as the top of the peg just set. On the concrete he pro-
ceeds to build the side walls of the aqueduct. You may see the
dimensions by the plan better than I could tell you. The side
walls being done, they are filled in behind them, up to the top,
with earth, to prevent strain or damage, also to act as a support,
and covter up the work as fast as possible. Then the concrete is
laid for the bottom of the reversec arch in brick, by means of
moulds placed every ten feet apart. When thoroughly set, the
brick work is commenced. Selecting the best brick (and it has
all been most thoroughly inspected,) the reversed arch is laid, and
then the "brick-facing" that is, facing the inside of the wall with
brick, when carried up to the top of the wall. The upper arch,
consisting of two ring courses (with occasional headers,) is thrown ;
the arch is covered with a thick coating of plaster, and the angle
made by the top of the wall and arch filled with the same kind of
masonry as the side walls ; and then the aqueduct is done.
You will perceive it to be a long brick vault stretching from
New York to Croton, ascending at the rate of thirteen inches in
a mile. The earth removed in the excavation is then " back filled"
over the aqueduct until it is four feet deep over the crown of the
r>rch, level on top, and ten or eight feet wide, and the sides slope
one and a half to one, (as you see in the figure.) When the
ground is too steep, a " protection wall" is introduced, (see draw-
ing;) this is laid dry, i. e., without mortar, and mide to slope one
half to one, as in the drawing, or one to one, at an angle of forty-
five degrees. So much for the aqueduct " in open cutting in
earth." When a valley is crossed, a heavy wall fifteen feet wide
on top, with sides sloping one-twelfth to one, must be built. They
are large stones firmly imbedded in small broken ones. On the
top of this wall, a foot of concrete is placed ; the aqueduct, as usual,
is built on that. As water passes through valleys, a stone passage
way, called "a culvert," is made of suitable dimensions.
Cugnot's Steam Carriage.
The improvements of the mechanism of the steam engine,
stimulated many projects for adapting its agency to other pur.
poses besides that of raising water ; and the scheme of John
Theophilus Cugnot, a native of Void, in Lorraine, is meritorious
for its novelty and its successful practical .development. In hia
jrouth, Cugnot served in Germany as an engineer. Passing after.
460 ANECDOTES,
wards into the service of Prince Charles of Lorraine, b* resided
at Brussels, and gave lessons in the military art, with the theory
and practice of which he was profoundly acquainted. The in.
vention of a light gun procured him the notice of the Compte de
Saxe, to whom, about 1763, he exhibited a modfl of a carriage
moved by a steam engine, instead of horses. He afterwards
lived at Paris, and through the recommendation of the Compte, ob-
tained, in 1769, the patronage of the Due de Choiseul, then
minister at war. He was now enabled, at the public expense, to
construct a large carriage moved by a steam engine, similar to
that of the model he had shown years previously. At the first
trials in 1770 of this novel vehicle, before a numerous assemblage
of officers and professional persons, its movements were so violent
as to overturn a portion of a wall that was opposed to its progress.
This, unfortunately, produced an opinion, that in consequence of
the uncertainty of obtaining proper mechanical control, its motion
would be of small use in practice. The project was therefore aban-
doned, and the experimental machine was deposited in the museum
>( the Arsenal, to become a point of reference to the epigrammatist,
and a memorial of the blasted hopes of the accomplished author.
Cugnot's genius expanded half a century too soon, eithei for its
value being known, or its efforts cherished.
At a later period of life, his means of subsistence having fallen
into decay, the various services he had rendered to the public
were thought to entitle him to a reward from the state. The re-
volution sweeping away even this pitiful pension of twenty-one
pounds a year, Cugnot must have perished with hunger, but for
the compassionate benevolence of a lady of Brussels. With the
Kindness of her sex, she not only provided for the wants, bu*
watched with tenderness over the personal comforts of the now
feeble and helpless old man, until the well known Mercier sue-
ceeded in drawing the attention of Napoleon to the miserable fate
of his aged and ancient friend.
Cugnot died at Paris in 1805, in his 80th year, in a state to hin
of comparative affluence, from the enjoyment of a va'uable an.
nuity from Napoleon.
Eloquent Description
But about seventy years since, every thread used in the manu-
facture of cotton, wool, worsted, and flax, throughout the world,
was spun singly by the fingers of the spinner, with the aid of that
classical instrument, the domestic spinning wheel. In 1767, an
eight -handed spinster sprung from the genius of Hargreaves;
DESCRIPTIONS, ETC. 481
and the jenny, with still increasing powers, made its tray into com-
mon use in spite of all opposition. Two years afterwards the
more wonderful invention of Wyatt, which claims a much earlier
origin, but which had disappeared, like a river that sinks into a
subterraneous channel, now rose again under the fortunate star of
Arkwright, claiming yet higher admiration, as founded on princi-
pies of more extensive application. Five years later the happ^
thought of combining the principles of these two inventions, to
produce a third, much more efficient than either, struck the mind
of Crompton, who, by a perfectly original contrivance, effected
the union. From twenty spindles this machine was brought, by
more finished mechanism, to admit of a hundred spindles, and
thus to exercise a Briarean power. Kelly relinquished the toilsome
method of turning the machine by hand, and yoked to it the
strength of a rapid river. Watt, with the subtler and more potent
agency of steam, moved an iron arm that never slackens or tires,
which whirls round two thousand spindles in a single machine.
Finally, to consummate the wonder, Roberts dismisses the spin-
ner, and leaves the machine to its own infallible guidance. So
that at the present time several thousand spindles may be seen in
a single room, revolving with inconceivable rapidity, with no hand
to urge their pi-ogress, or to guide their operations drawing out,
twisting, and winding up as many thousand threads with unfailing
precision, indefatigable patience and strength, a scene as magi-
cal to the eye that is not familiar to it, as the effects have been
marvellous in augmenting wealth and population.
If the thought should cross any mind, that, after all, the
genius of man has been expended in the insignificant object of
enabling men better to pick out, arrange, and twist together
the fibres of a vegetable. wool, that it is for the performance of
this minute operation that so many energies have been exhausted,
so much capital employed, such stupendous structures reared,
and so vast a population trained up we reply : An object is not
insignificant because the operation by which it is effected is
minute : the first want of men in this life, after food, is clothing,
and as this art enables them to supply it far more easily and
cheaply than the old methods of manufacturing, and to bring
cloths of great elegance and durability within the use of the hum.
ble classes, it is an art whose utility is only inferior to that of
agriculture. It is almost impossible to Over-estimate the impor-
tance of these inventions. The Greeks >vould have elevated their
authors among the gods ; nor will the enlightened judgment of
modern times deny them the place among their fellow men, which
is so undeniably their due.
83 ANECDOTES, DESCRIPTIONS, E1C.
A Watchmaker's Ejiitaph.
The following professional epitaph is copied from a tombstone
in Lidford Churchyard, Devon, England.
Here lies in horizontal position
The "outside case 1 ' of
George Routleigh, Watch Maker,
Whose abilities in that line were an honor
To his Profession.
Integrity was the " Main-spring,"
And Prudence the " Regulator' 1 of all the
Actions of his Life.
Humane, generous, and liberal,
His "Hand 11 never stopped
Till he had relieved distress.
So sincerely "regulated" were all his move-
ments,
That he never " went wrong,"
Except when "set agoing"
By People
Who did not know
"His Key."
Even then he was easily
"Set right" again
He had the Art of disposing his " Time"
So well,
That his " hours" glided away
In one continual round
Of Pleasure and Delight,
Till an unlucky Moment put a period to
His Existence.
He departed this Life.
November 14th, 1802,
Aged 57 :
"Wound up"
In hopes of being "taken in Hand"
By his Maker,
And of being
Thoroughly "cleaned," "repaired," and "act
agoing"
In the World to come
jptrbg * latJkson's f ublkations.
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12mo., illustrated, Cloth,
The Life and Sayings of
Mr*. Psirtington, by B. P.
Shillaber, forty-three illustrations,
100
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Darley, 12mo Cloth, 1 00
The Pnddleford Papers;
or, Humors of the West,
I 12mo. illustrated, Cloth, I 00
I
The Bunsby Papers; or,
| Irish Echoes, by John Broug-
ham, 12mo. Illustrated, Cloth, 1 00
Lord Chesterfield's Letters
to his Son. With a portrait on
steel 12mo 1 25
Rhymes with Reason and
without, by B. P. Shillaber
Essays of Ella, by Charles
Lamb,12mo 1 00
A'ldison's Spectator, com-
plete in2volumes, 2 50
Foster's Essay on Decision
of Character, and Gems
Of Thought, 12mo. ...Cloth, 100
Doddridge's Rise and Pro-
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1 06
75
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1 ft)
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A S,oitg Look Aliead; or,
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To Love and to be Loved,
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two volumes in one, 12mo. . . Cloth, 1 25
Mary and Hugo. A Christmas
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Illustrations by Darley, 12mo. Cloth 75
Bo r til a and Lily; or, The
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Glen, by Mrs. E. Oakes Smiti,
4th edition, 12mo. illustrated, Cloth, 1 00
The Newsboy, by Mrs. E. Oakes
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trated, Cloth, 1 00
Isora's Child, by Harriet A. 01-
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The Torchlight; or,
Through the Wood, by
II. A. Olcott, 12mo Cloth, 1 25
Alone, by Marion Harland, 24th
edition, 12mo Cloth, 1 25
The Hidden Path, by Marion
Harland, Author of " Alone," 23d
edition, 12mo Cloth, 125
Victoria; or, The World .
Overcome, by Caroline Chese-
bro'12mo Cloth, 125
Susan, The Fisherman's
Daughter; or, Getting
Along. A book of Illustrations,
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The I ast of the Foresters;
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Frontier, by John Esten Cooke,
author of "The Virginia Comedi-
ans," 12mo 1 25
TheGreen Mountain Girls.
A Tale of Vermont, by Blythe
V7hite, Jr., illustrated, 12mo. Cloth, 1 25
TViiiiiK and Hoping. The
Story of Little Hunchback, by
Jenoy Marsh, 12mo 100
The If fart of Habel Ware.
A Romance, 12mo Neat cloth, 1 25
My Confession. The Story of
a Woman's Life, 12mo 75
Silverwood. A Book of Memo-
ries, by a Lady of Virginia, . .Cloth, 1 60
Daisy's Necklace ; and
\Vhat Came of It, by T. B.
Aldrich, author of "Babie Bell and
other Poems," 12mo T6
Married, not Mated; or,
How they lived at Wood-
side and Throckmorton
Hall, by Alice Cary, 12mo. Cloth, 1 00
The Lost Hunter. A Tale of
Early Tunes, 12mo Cloth, 1 25
Knight of the Golden Mc-
lice. A Historical Romance, by
the author of " The Lost Hunter,"
12mo 1 25
The American Gentle-
man's Guide to Polite-
ness and Fashion, by Harry
Lunettes, iJSmo . Cloth, 1 25
The Baiubow Around the
Tomb. A Book for Mourners,
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Young Lady's Guide to
Perfect Gentility. A New
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well, 12mo Cloth, gilt back, 75
Young Lady's Own Stock.
An Offering of Love and Sympathy,
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12me Cloth, gilt back, 1 06
Stephen's Egypt and the
Holy Land. With Maps and
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One of the most brilliant and fasci-
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excavated in the solid rock, and
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centuries by any European tra-
veller, is most deeply interesting.
The Merchant's and Bank
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1 8 57, by J. Smith Homans, editor
of " The Banker's Magazine," Svo. 1 00
Cotton is King. The Culture of
Cotton and its relation to Agricul-
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and also to the Free Colored People
of the United States, and those who
hold that Slavery is in itself sinful,
by David Christy. Second and re-
vised and enlarged edition, with
Tabtes, 12mo TP
The Bifle,Axe, and Saddle-
Bags, and other lectures, by Rev.
W. H. Milburn, the eloquent blind
Preacher. With an Introduction by
Rev. John McClintock, D.D. With
a portrait on steel, 12mo Cloth, 1 00
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Star Papers ; or, Experi-
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Turkey morocco, antique, portrait, 8 50
Lectures to Young Men
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An Encyclopedia, of In-
struction on Man and
!U aimers, by A. B. Johnson,
author of "Physiology of the
Senses," 12mo 1 25
Physiology of the Senses;
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Hear, See, Taste, Feel
and Smell, by A. B. Johnson,
12mo .' 75
Webster's Family Encyclo-
paedia of Useful Know-
ledge; or, Book of 7,223
Receipts and Facts. A
whole library of subjects useful to
every individual, illustrated with
nearly one thousand engravings,
1,283 pages, 8vo. illuminated backs
or sides in gilt, 8 00
This is a valuable and truly useful
work, comprising everything
needful to be known in domestic
economy essential to the comfort,
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ment of a family. In fact, there
is nothing in the entire range of
the domestic economy of a family
that cannot be found in this book.
It contains nearly 1250 pages, with
a copious index, and is profusely
illustrated. It is a work which
every husband should buy for
his wife, and every father for his
daughter.
Wau Bun ? or, The " Early
Day "in the > orthwest,
by Mrs. John H. Kinzie, of Chicago,
illustrated, Svo 2 25
Country Margins and Bum-
mer Rambles, by S. H. Ham-
mond, and L. W. Mansfield, 12mo.
Neat cloth, 1 00
Evrbank's Hydraulics and
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Cloth, gilt back, 2 60
Spirit Rappings Unveiled.
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The Enchanted Beauty;
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12mo Cloth, 1 M
Camp Fires of the Red
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illustrated 12mo Cloth, 1 65
My Courtship and ius Con-
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A true account of the Author's Ad-
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and Italy, with Miss J. C. Gamble,
of Portland Place, London, 12mo.
Cloth, t 25
The House I L.iv|- In; or,
The Human Koay, by AVm.
A, Alcott, M.D., 1 vol. ISmo 63
The American Gift Book.
A Perpetual Souvenir, with six
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Cloth, 1 00
The Sultan and His Peo-
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The American Revolution
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The Husband in Utah, ed-
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The Philosophy of Skep.
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Bnchan's Domestic Med-
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Walker on Female Beaitty,
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Fox's Book of Martyrs, il-
lustrated, 12mo 1 86
Captain Molly. The Story of
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The Prisoner of tb Bar-
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of " The Last of tne hui ,>*, ' Ao,,
12me. ... 1 96
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