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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38191-8.txt b/38191-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca84500 --- /dev/null +++ b/38191-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3737 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Boyhood of Great Inventors, by A. Fraser Robertson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boyhood of Great Inventors + +Author: A. Fraser Robertson + +Release Date: December 3, 2011 [EBook #38191] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Whitehead, eagkw and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS + + + + + [Illustration: THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. + _Frontispiece._] + + + + + _The Boyhood of + Great Inventors_ + + BY + + A. FRASER ROBERTSON + + AUTHOR OF "EARLY YEARS OF SOME NOBLE LIVES" + + NEW EDITION + + _LONDON_ + JOHN F. SHAW AND CO. + 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + + _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME._ + + + THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS A. FRASER ROBERTSON. + TWILIGHT STORIES CATHARINE SHAW. + FOR LOVE AND DUTY FRANK SAVILLE. + THE BOYS OF ALL SAINTS MABEL MACKINTOSH. + DARING DEEDS FRANK SAVILLE. + MIDSHIPMITE CURLY DR. GORDON STABLES. + THE DOG CRUSOE R. M. BALLANTYNE. + THE SWORD OF THE CAREWS DUNCAN MCLAREN. + THE NUGGET FINDERS H. ALGER. + ROBIN HOOD & HIS BRAVE FORESTERS S. PERCY. + MARTIN RATTLER R. M. BALLANTYNE. + THE KING'S MESSENGER L. MARSTON. + FOUR, AND WHAT THEY DID H. CAMPBELL. + FOR WANT OF A WORD M. MACKINTOSH. + FOR ELSIE'S SAKE J. CHAPPELL. + CURLEY'S CRYSTAL EMMA MARSHALL. + IN SHADOWLAND E. EVERETT-GREEN. + ROB AND MAG L. MARSTON. + THAT BOY TOM ISMAY THORN. + TIM'S TREASURE ALICE LANG. + LITTLE BOOTS J. HARRISON. + CLEMENT AND GEORDIE EMMA MARSHALL. + GOLD THAT GLITTERS E. S. HOLT. + PETER'S PROMISES EMMA MARSHALL. + MOLLIE WYNTER M. MACKINTOSH. + THE SLAVE GIRL OF POMPEII E. S. HOLT. + MISS PRIMROSE AGNES GIBERNE. + MAB'S BURDENS E. BODDY. + BESIDE ALL WATERS M. L. ASTREE. + WATCHING FOR THE KING L. MARSTON. + NAN, THE CIRCUS GIRL FRANCES STRATTON + HOW THE TIDE TURNED S. WATSON. + A BROTHER'S RANSOM ALICE LANG. + LITTLE EYEBRIGHT AGNES GIBERNE. + A LITTLE CURIOSITY EMMA MARSHALL. + MADCAP MARIGOLD MABEL MACKINTOSH. + THE GOLDEN PAVEMENT E. CHAPMAN. + A WAIF OF THE WAVES S. WATSON. + CHRISTOPHER'S NEW HOME EMMA MARSHALL. + HIRA'S QUEST L. MARSTON. + FROGGY'S LITTLE BROTHER BRENDA. + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., + 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + JOHN SMEATON 9 + JOHN FLAXMAN 30 + SIR HUMPHREY DAVY 48 + SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT 67 + JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 83 + GEORGE STEPHENSON 102 + THOMAS ALVA EDISON 118 + JAMES WATT 141 + + + + +THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS + + + + +JOHN SMEATON. + + +People who have been on a long sea voyage, and have ended by sailing up +the English Channel, tell us how their hearts beat high, after weary +weeks and months at sea, when the cry went up while as yet land was +a mere shadowy outline, "The Eddystone in sight!" For the gleaming +lighthouse standing immovable in the midst of boiling waves and great +mountains of blinding white spray spells "home" to the voyager. + +To us the "stone" round which the waters ceaselessly churn and "eddy" +speaks of John Smeaton, the man who built it. The great engineer has +been in his grave now for more than a century, but his most lasting +monument stood for longer than that time firm as a rock. + +John Smeaton was born in 1724, near Leeds. Not the Leeds of to-day--a +bustling, smoky centre of manufacture--but a quaint little town hemmed +in by green country fields and lanes. It was in one of these that +Austhorpe Lodge stood, the house of Smeaton's father, a lawyer in Leeds. + +We shall yet come across many boyhoods tinged with shadow and struggle, +and are not sorry to find this one happy, fondly tended, and bright with +sunshine. There was no pinch in the lot of the Smeatons, no grinding +poverty that we sometimes find to spur a boy to manhood before his time. +Little John was cradled, as it were, in love. As a child his parents +taught him at home. He was not eager to mix with other boys in outdoor +romp or play, and very early, while yet hardly more than a baby, he +showed a strong love for pulling his toys to pieces to see what they +were made of! Never was he happier than when he could get hold of a +cutting-tool with which to shape toy pumps and houses and windmills. +Another amusement of his babyhood was to divide squares and circles! + +As a boy he was rather quiet and thoughtful, though his tongue +straightway loosed the moment anything in the shape of a workman came +to his father's house. He was then always to be found on the spot, and +with eager eyes fixed on their every movement, he would unconsciously +"pose" them with eager questions--such questions as from the boyish +lips made them shake their heads and stare at him dumb and stupid. + +And all the time the boyish brain was deeply plotting, and it was ever +that he might "go and do likewise." One day, after watching a millwright +at work, his anxious parents were alarmed by the sight of their boy +perched on the top of the barn fastening a windmill to the roof! At +another time, when a pump was being made in the village, by good luck a +piece of bored lead came in little John's way. He promptly set to work +and made a toy one after the pattern of the big one, and even managed to +make it raise water. + +But his greatest childish feat took place on his discovering a +fire-engine being erected at a colliery in the village to pump the water +out of the mine. He was constantly on the spot, eagerly watching it as +it slowly progressed, and quickly his boyish brain grasped the whole. + +He went home and began with trembling fingers one day to copy it. His +father had given him an outhouse with bench and tools to carry out his +hobby, and soon the engine worked. He looked round to see what he could +use it upon, and espied the fish-pond. So he began to pump out the water +till he had pumped the whole place dry. When his father came home it was +to find an empty pond, and all his fish lying dead at the bottom! + +And now John had to leave his beloved workshop for school in Leeds. +And there it seemed as if the boy showed up quite a different side of +himself. The bright, eager alertness that marked him at home or with the +workmen about Austhorpe was gone. He was quiet with the boys--out of his +element. He did not care for their rough play. He was like a fish out of +water. Silent, shy, even stupid--the boys nicknamed him "Fooley +Smeaton." + +But though he might be dull at school, the boy's real education was +surely going on at home among his pumps and model engines, his lathes +and chisels. + +The boyish hands had begun to do that which all through life threw over +him a very spell of fascination--_to construct_--to build up. The baby +fingers were learning how to use tools in a way that was to give him +one day, long years after, a skill that would place him on the very +top of the ladder. And all the time the young mind was pondering great +mechanical principles that were by-and-by to make the name of John +Smeaton famed throughout the world. So it was not to games and boyish +play that he gave his spare moments, but to his workshop. When he was +fifteen he could use his turning-lathe to turn wood and ivory. When he +was eighteen he could handle tools as deftly and cleverly as any workman +who all his life had known no other trade. + +When he was sixteen he left school and took his place in his father's +office, and tried to bring his mind to look forward to law as his +life-work. He worked conscientiously day after day, coming home at +evening to spend half the night in working--making--constructing things. +He had all the instincts of a born mechanic. It was almost as if he +could not help it. + +When his father sent him to London to study law, the boy tried again +to stifle his longings, and to set himself to carry out his father's +wishes. But strive and struggle as he would, it was impossible to crush +the desire of his heart. And so one day he sat down and wrote to his +father that he could go on with law no longer. Nothing except to be a +mechanic would satisfy him. His father, deeply disappointed though he +was, quietly made up his mind to what could not be helped, and wrote to +John that he must make his own choice. + +The boy was delighted. He had chosen what was then the work of a common +labourer, with a labourer's wages. The term Civil Engineer was unknown. +With a heart beating high with hope he went off and engaged himself +to a philosophical instrument-maker--a man who made instruments for +navigation and astronomy. With him he worked steadily--eager to improve +the instruments--eager to improve himself--so eager, indeed, that he +divided out his time so as to make the most of it: so much for reading, +so much for experiments, so much for business, and so much for rest and +relaxation. + +And so on the threshold of manhood--having got, as it were, "a free +hand"--he made great strides onward. He may not have done much business +at the time, but he read papers before the Royal Society, and he kept +open a keen, mechanical eye for everything--from minute, delicate +instruments to the building of canals and bridges and waterworks. He +thought no trouble too great to take if so it made him thorough. He set +himself to study French and Italian, so as to read the works in these +languages on mechanical subjects, and he even set off to Holland--that +land of dykes and harbours and docks--that he might examine them for +himself. + +And while he looked about him, always at the same time busy with the +work that lay nearest to his hand, the great work of his life was +drawing close to his door. + +Many years before Smeaton lived, England was in the custom of lighting +up her rocky headlands with lights or beacons. First came "the candle in +the cottage window" to light the sailor husband home, then stacks of +blazing wood, piles of coal, oil, torches, pitch-pots. Guided by these +flaring lights in the darkness, men and vessels plying round our coast +were saved from shipwreck and death. Sometimes these beacons, flaming +high from their pinnacles, warned the people inland that war was +expected, the country was in danger of being invaded, or that pirates +were about to swoop down upon them. At other times _false_ lights were +shown by men known as "wreckers," and homeward-bound vessels, rich in +goods and human souls, were dashed upon the rocks. So our coasts were +lighted up in those old days, but it happened at times that the pitch +would become drenched and drowned, the wood and coal fires would spurt +up for a space and then drop down and fade. Things were uncertain. It +did not matter, perhaps, greatly, as long as England's commerce by sea +was small, but when our trade with foreign lands began to grow, there +grew, too, the question how best to light our rocky coasts and docks and +headlands. So an order of monks--the Brethren of Trinity House--was +made, and these prayed for the safety of the sailors, and later looked +to the lighting of the coast. + +Eddystone rock we can easily find on the map, a low, black reef lying +S.S.W. of Plymouth, a place of lurking danger as well for ships cruising +up and down the Channel as for those coming into Plymouth harbour. +In the days of Smeaton, and for some time earlier, the way in which +lighthouses were built was for a private man to go to the owner and say, +"I will build a lighthouse on that rock if you will let me." If his +offer were accepted and he carried out the work he had then the right to +levy dues on the ships that passed, or, in other words, to make them +pay toll. In this way he sometimes collected quite a large income. + +Towards the end of the seventeenth century a man called Winstanley +undertook to build a lighthouse on Eddystone. He drew out plans and +started on the work, and it was no light work. The base of the rock was +narrow and sloping. It was hard to make the foundations fast, for winds +and waves had a way of rising suddenly, and the whole of the work would +be drowned for the time, and perhaps many of the materials swept away. +But by dint of waiting patiently for fine weather and smooth water +the building was at last finished. It was made of wood, rather in an +ornamental style, and had many projections. It took four years in the +building, for although in other parts of the Channel the waters might be +smooth enough, yet round the Eddystone they were almost sure to seethe +and foam. For several seasons the building stood. + +"I wish," exclaimed the builder one day, elated that his work had turned +out so well, "that I might be here in the fiercest storm, just to see it +stand." + +After it had stood some three years from its finish Winstanley went out +one day to see to some repairs. He remained on the rock overnight, and +during the night his wish, though hardly as he would have had it, was +fulfilled. A gale and storm terrific in their fury burst overhead and +broke along the English coast. With the first streak of dawn an anxious +people looked from shore to see how it fared with the lighthouse. Not a +trace of it remained. Not a speck was to be seen on the waters. It and +its maker had been utterly swept away! + +Next came a man called Rudyerd, who volunteered to build a lighthouse +that would stand. He pondered the last, and he came to the conclusion +that it had failed in form. He determined to alter that. So he made +a long, high column in the shape of a cone, with no ornaments, no +projections jutting out to catch the wind, and at the end of four years +the thing was finished--a wooden building coated over with oakum and +pitch. + +For a time all went seemingly well. It held four rooms, one above the +other. The lantern was lit by candles. Years went on, and still it +stood defying the winds and storms for half a century. There were two +light-keepers, who snuffed the candles overnight, sitting up for four +hours at a time. One of these men fell ill and died. A storm was raging +at the time. No help could come to his companion, and so through a long +month he kept the body, afraid to throw it into the sea, in case he +should be thought a murderer. + +At last help came from shore, but the loneliness and horror had told so +terribly upon the remaining man that ever afterwards three men were +employed to keep the light burning, in case of one falling ill or dying. + +But in spite of its long standing there was a hidden flaw in the +lighthouse. It was inflammable--capable of catching fire. One day--no +one could quite tell how it happened, it might be the flame had dried +and scorched the timber. At any rate, a man going in to snuff the +candles found that fire had broken out. It wanted but a few minutes till +the place was in flames. The men rushed below, while a perfect rain of +beams and burning lead fell in showers about their heads. Seeing the +blaze from the shore a boat put off with all speed. When it reached the +rock it found the men, not on the rock, but crouching beneath a ledge, +dripping and half dead, and with just enough life in them to enable them +to catch the rope thrown to them, for it was too rough for the boat to +reach the rock. And so they were towed on board. + +And now the third attempt at the lighthouse was to be made by John +Smeaton. + +"Thou art the man to do it," were the words of the letter asking him to +undertake the work. And so Smeaton was launched on that which was to +make his name famous. + +The first step he took was to get and study the plans of the former men. +To succeed he had first to find out where the others had failed. + +The first building had failed in weight. The second had not been +fire-proof. And so he decided to make his lighthouse of stone. People +when they heard of it called out that it was a wild project. It could +not be done. "Nothing but wood could possibly stand on the Eddystone." +But Smeaton was in no way moved or cast down. What he made he wanted to +stand, and not to last for a few years merely; and so of stone he +determined it should be. + +He began to draw out the design. He kept to the shape of Rudyerd's--the +long cone-like column. He made the diameter of the foundation broader. +He planned the locking and bonding and dovetailing of the stones--each +to each, and all to the centre. When this was all carefully thought and +made out he started from London for Plymouth. He was _six days_ on the +journey owing to the "badness of the roads." + +On the 2nd of April he set sail for the rock, but winds and waves beat +so vehemently that he found it impossible to land. All he could do was +to view the low, treacherous black thing on which he was to build his +house of stone. Back he went three days later, and for the first time +he stood on Eddystone, but only for a couple of hours. There was almost +nothing to be seen, only one or two iron branches left from the wrecks +of the former wooden buildings. On the third attempt he made he could +not even see the rock. Spray and foam hid it entirely from view. In +the same way his fourth and fifth visits failed, but his sixth was +successful, and he landed at low water, and in the stillness of the +evening made his first measurements. + +"I went on with my business till nine in the evening," he wrote, "having +worked an hour by candlelight." + +Again and again he tried to get a landing. Sometimes he managed it, at +others it was impossible. After having spent fifteen hours in all on the +rock he went back to London, and with his own expert hands made a model. +The work took him two months in all, and that proficiency that he had +learned as a boy in his little workshop at Austhorpe stood him in good +stead now. After this he set out for Plymouth again. No detail of his +work was too small for him to attend to himself. He visited the quarries +where the stones were to be hewn. He carefully chose the kind of cement +that was to bind them together; the workmen, the work-yards, the ships +that were to carry the stones to the rock. Each and all passed under his +eye. + +It was a great day when, in August, 1756, he and his men started for +Eddystone, and the master fixed the centre and laid down the lines. Now +the work might be said to be fairly begun. But was ever work so often +broken in upon? Winds and waves are not to be counted on--least of all +about the stormy Eddystone, for often though the water is calm and +smooth in other places, it smothers in foam the low black reef. + +There were times when the workmen could work as long as six hours at a +stretch, going on eagerly by torchlight if necessary. Again it would +happen they could not work more than two hours out of the twenty-four. +Time was precious, and time was grievously taken up in going to and +from Plymouth, and so Smeaton arranged that a "buss"--a fishing-vessel +with two masts and a cabin at either end--should ride at anchor near the +scene of work, with provisions and other necessaries. + +But here, again, it was hard to plan ahead. One day a mighty storm +arose. The men could not work. Their yawl broke from its moorings. They +could neither send to shore, nor could they get help. But they must eat. +Days passed, and gradually their store of provisions grew less and less. +By the time relief reached them they were at their last crust. + +During the long months of winter when work was out of the question the +time was spent in dressing the stones in the yard on shore. Smeaton +himself saw them laid out in lines and numbered, after which they were +put in order on board ready to be lifted off when the rock was reached, +and easily put in their places. Dangers and difficulties often crowded +thick on the work, enough to daunt a man less dauntless than Smeaton. +One night on the homeward way a big storm arose. + +The night was dark, and Smeaton was roused from sleep by the sound of +much stamping and hurrying to and fro overhead. He rushed on deck in +his nightshirt. The helmsman was holding frantically by a rope. + +"For God's sake," he shouted when he saw Smeaton and others, "heave hard +at that rope, if you mean to save your lives." + +So Smeaton as well as the others laid hold. In the pitchy darkness there +fell on their horror-struck ears the sound of waves breaking on the +_rocks_. The jibsail was blown to pieces. They hastily lowered the +mainsail. The waves dashed over them. But gradually the ship obeyed the +straining helm and rounded off. In anxious fear they lay out to sea. +When morning broke land was nowhere to be seen, and they found +themselves driving towards the Bay of Biscay. For four long days they +were tossed and driven to and fro before they made Plymouth harbour. + +One day Smeaton had an accident, which, however, might have been worse +in its effects. He was taking a turn up and down the narrow strip of +rock that was all that afforded a promenade when his foot slipped and he +fell among the rocks. When he got up he thought himself unhurt till a +stinging pain informed him that he had dislocated his thumb. He was +hours from shore--far from a surgeon. Delay meant disablement. So he +took hold of it with his other hand, pulled hard, and it snapped into +place. + +But in spite of danger and difficulty and hindrance the great work +went on, though slowly still surely. By the end of the second year the +building had risen thirty-five feet high--out of reach of the heavy dash +and thud of the waves. Gradually one above another rose the rooms for +the light-keepers--their walls twenty-six inches thick to stand against +the fearful onslaught of the wind as it blew up the Channel from the +Atlantic. For in a gale the place shook and the doors slammed and the +windows rattled with such terrific force that the new and unaccustomed +keepers earnestly wished themselves at Land's End or anywhere else, so +that it meant land. + +To say that as it neared the finish it was much in the great builder's +thoughts is to draw but a faint picture of how day and night it lay upon +his heart. How when on land the early morning found him out betimes on +the Hoe, at Plymouth, telescope in hand, gazing out to sea. If a storm +raged and the spray flew high for a moment it seemed to his sinking +heart that it was Winstanley's lighthouse over again and that there was +no Eddystone! + +Again his heart leaped in gratitude a moment afterwards when the upright +column--strong, firm, immovable--pointing black and clear against the +sky, came to view, and a deep "Thank God!" would burst from his lips. + +And now the months flew by and the great work neared its end. Smeaton +himself chose the last details--the iron railings--the glass for the +lantern. In the upper storeroom directly beneath the ceiling he had the +motto carved--"Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that +build it." And the mason's last work was a "Laus Deo" in stone. + +Towards the end Smeaton could not leave it. With his own hands he +fitted the windows in their sashes--fixed the gilt ball on the top--no +easy matter--but he had ever filled the post of danger himself. He +asked no one to put himself where he was not willing too to go. Expert +as any skilled mechanic, he himself gave his great work its finishing +touches. Twenty-four candles in a chandelier formed the light. The +lightning-conductor was fixed--the rooms finished. The magnificent +column towered to seventy feet, the lantern and gilt ball twenty-eight +inches higher, and on October 16th, 1759, the work was done. + +Three years later a mighty storm broke along the coast, wrecking docks +and ships and harbours, but the Eddystone stood firm. + +And now Smeaton's name was made. Other feats followed. Other triumphs +awaited him--the building of docks and harbours and bridges--but the +thing that men will ever link with his name is the Eddystone. After the +stress and struggle of public life, he went back again to the old home +of his boyhood. He gathered again about him his workshop, his study, his +observatory. And so he worked to the end. He could not help it. He could +not live without his tools. + +Great man though he was, his wants were very few and simple. Offers of +riches and magnificence had no power to tempt him, and when he refused a +post abroad which meant wealth and position, the Russian Princess who +offered it exclaimed, in wondering admiration-- + +"I shall go back to Russia and tell them there is one man who has _not_ +his price." + +He was happiest in the quiet of his own home. As a boy he had been +rather retiring and thoughtful. As a man he was found the same. Simple, +modest, while he would converse easily on other subjects, it was hardly +possible to get him to talk of self. In this, as well as in his +life-work, "he was indeed a very great man." + +He had had a long life of work--hard, incessant toil--from six to sixty, +though it had been work that he had loved. It may be he had overtaxed +his strength, for as age crept on he grew less robust. In his +sixty-eighth year he had a slight stroke. He feared a gradually clouding +brain. "The shadow must lengthen as the sun goes down," he said to +himself. But this distress was spared those dear to him, and with not +much suffering, on the 28th October, 1792, he passed away. They buried +him in the old church of Whitkirk, and raised a tablet to his memory, +naming in it that great work of his that will "convey to distant ages, +as it does to every nation of the globe, the name of its constructor." + +The world looks still upon John Smeaton as a wonderful engineer--a great +mechanic--a man who climbed to the top of his profession, and the sound +of whose fame spread over Europe; but he will ever be best remembered by +the light of the Eddystone, that memorial monument that stood firm for +more than a century, sometimes hid in blinding spray, anon gleaming out +clear and steady, a rescuer from shipwreck and death. + +Till 1877 storms continued to beat upon it without avail. Then, owing to +the undermining of a portion of the reef, it was thought well to build a +new house on another part of the rock. The old base still stands on the +old place, and the upper rooms have been put on the Hoe at Plymouth. + +These are, after all, the best monuments we could have of the builder. +Welded into the stones, it seems to us we can trace, not alone genius +and great mechanical power, but a patience in difficulty, a courage in +danger, and in face of long, wearing months of anxiety. It is these, +perhaps, more than all else, for which we honour the name of Smeaton. + + + + +JOHN FLAXMAN + + +Had we passed along one of the poorer streets of the city of London some +150 years ago, we might have chanced on a humble shop displaying in the +window plaster-casts and figures in clay, and had we lifted the latch +and entered, in the cramped space behind the counter we should have +found the child who was one day to become England's greatest sculptor, +John Flaxman. + +A ricketty, weakly baby in a high stuffed child's chair, so that his +little pale face might be on a level with the counter; the sweet dreamy +eyes looked out on the world, all unthinking that a day was coming when +the fame of his name would reach wherever men knew and loved his art. + +Born in the city of York in 1755, a few months before the Flaxmans +settled in London, there were times when his father and mother hardly +believed they would be able to "rear" the delicate child. Attacks of +illness and weakness were common to him. Indeed, one day he was seized +with a fit of gasping so severe that the breath seemed to leave his +body, and they even laid him out for dead, but he revived, and his +breath came again, and by-and-by he even grew. Few amusements, no +childish games were open to the little cripple. The green fields, the +blue of the country skies were to him things unknown. The dingy four +walls of the narrow cramped shop had to serve him instead. But day by +day he grew quick to note the familiar beauty of his father's casts. He +came to see the shape of these white things with the eye of the poet and +the artist. There came into his mind the strong desire to copy, inborn +in most children, and the baby fingers set to work to mould, and +fashion, and make some likeness--if even a dim one--to those of his +father's models. In these old days gentlemen were accustomed to wear +bunches of seals dangling from their watch-chains, and the child used to +keep a stock of wax, and when he thought a customer seemed kind, he +would summon courage to ask him to let him take the impression on the +soft wax. + +In little John's early years, when he was as yet a baby of five, a great +ceremony took place in London, the coronation of King George III. +Rumour went that to celebrate the great event there was to be a +coronation medal struck, and that hundreds of these were to be thrown to +the crowd. The cripple child in the dingy side street of the great city +set his little heart on possessing one of these treasures, and begged +his father to get him one. But Flaxman was not successful. On the way +home, with his mind full of his disappointment, his eye happened to +light on a plated button on the pavement, stamped with a horse and +jockey. He picked it up. Would he disappoint his little son, or deceive +him? He decided on deceiving him, and gave the eager and expectant child +the button. The boy received the trophy in wonderment. He was glad to +get it, but he remarked that it seemed a strange medal for a coronation! + +Customers who came to Flaxman's house could hardly help noticing the +child who sat behind the counter, the big head on the lame body, the +high shoulders, the beautiful pure eyes, the sensitive, proud face. They +spoke to him, and they found him no common child. + +One day, by good luck, when little John was hardly more than seven, a +customer, a Mr. Matthew, a clergyman, came to Flaxman's shop. Writing +of that visit, when it had become a memory and the child a great man, +Mr. Matthew says-- + +"I went to the shop of old Flaxman to have a figure repaired, and whilst +I was standing there I heard a child cough behind the counter. I looked +over, and there I saw a little boy seated on a small chair, with a large +chair before him, on which lay a book he was reading. His fine eyes and +beautiful forehead interested me, and I said, 'What book is that?' He +raised himself on his crutches, bowed, and said, 'Sir, it is a Latin +book, and I am trying to learn it.' + +"'Aye, indeed!' I answered. 'You are a fine boy, but this is not the +proper book. I will bring you a right one to-morrow.' + +"I did as I promised, and the acquaintance thus casually begun ripened +into one of the best friendships of my life." + +It is a picture! The child of seven trying patiently to make out his +Latin book--his weakly frame on one chair, the unwieldy volume spread +out before him on another. The beautiful eyes and brow, the winning +smile, and the long, brown hair curling to the shoulders. + +But the wheel of his fortune seemed as if it had got a turn. Mr. +Matthew was as good as his word, and brought him the promised book, and +more followed. Translations of old Greek fables and stories from Homer +that stirred the imagination of the boy. Then followed the fascinating +adventures of Don Quixote. These fired his brain. How great and how +heroic it seemed to him to rescue maidens in distress, to set the +wrongs of the world right. So strong a hold did the thought take of the +imagination of the child that one day, hobbling on his little crutches, +he started off for Hyde Park in the hope that he might perchance find +some forlorn maiden in need of his protection! But no old-world lady of +the kind did he happen on among the thousands of teeming London--either +in the Park or Kensington Gardens--and he had to come home cast down and +disappointed. + +Meantime he strove and worked and laboured in his own childish way--with +perhaps no great present results--receiving now and then even a check +from which the sensitive mind recoiled, as when one day he showed an +artist a drawing of a human eye, to be met with the quizzical question, +"Is that an oyster?" Perhaps more secretly after that, but still as +perseveringly as ever, he worked. + +Long years after, a friend gazing on these early works was struck with +proofs of his diligence as a child, and asked him how he had managed to +do them. + +"Sir," Flaxman answered, "we are never too young to learn what is +useful, or too old to grow wise and good." + +When he was about ten years old a better gift than any fortune could +bestow was granted to him. The feebleness of childhood seemed to leave +him. The sickly frame seemed suddenly to knit itself together. The +weakly limbs gradually strengthened, and the boy was able to throw away +his crutches. + +No need now to sit solitary in the cramped little shop behind the +counter, dreaming lonely day-dreams and fashioning his models all by +himself. With new strength a new life was opening up to him--or rather +the old life grew day by day transformed and beautified. + +It was Mrs. Matthew, the wife of his friend the clergyman, who first +drew the boy from his life of loneliness. She was touched and interested +in him, and she asked him to her house. He went and he went again. +He met there men who fired his smouldering longing one day to be a +sculptor--to do some great thing in the world of art. Mrs. Matthew +had many friends among such. At other times he spent evenings not +less delightful when she herself read aloud from Virgil and Homer +soul-stirring tales of ancient heroes--and the boy sat by drinking in +the poetry while he tried with eager, untaught fingers to draw some of +the passages that took his fancy. Again she would lay aside her book and +talk to him of the wonders of sculpture, while there sprang up in his +heart a great longing amounting almost to a passion. + +No wonder these were golden hours, full of pleasure to young John, and +looked back upon many a time in after years as among the happiest times +of his life. + +A gentleman, seeing some of these boyish attempts, gave the boy an order +for a set of drawings, and by and by more orders followed. + +When he was eleven years old he left the privacy and quiet of the little +side eddy of the stream of life in which he had been living and struck +out, as it were, into the mid-stream. That year he won a prize from the +Society of Arts for models of figures in clay. Two years later he was +again successful. What we know as the Royal Academy then first came into +being, and when it was in its second year, and when Flaxman was only +fifteen years old, he exhibited models there. Step by step, small steps +at first, he was entering on the beginning of that which for long had +been the desire of his heart. In the same year he entered as an Academy +student, and won the silver medal. People already were beginning to +acknowledge his outstanding ability. Rewards, prizes came upon him one +by one. The boy's outlook was beginning to be very bright, and his heart +was beginning to beat high with hope, when just as he had reached the +age of sixteen he got an unexpected check. + +He made up his mind to try for the gold medal--the highest reward of +merit--and among all the students he was generally allowed to have the +best chance. Hardly a fellow-student but felt sure that he would get +it. "Flaxman! Flaxman!" they cried almost unanimously, for they were +strongly impressed with the skill and ability of the grave, reserved +boy. Speaking of this time in later years Flaxman said-- + +"I had made up my mind that I was to win.... It was given by Reynolds to +Engleheart. I burst into tears. This sharp lesson humbled my conceit, +and I determined to redouble my exertions...." + +May he perhaps have over-estimated his own skill? Years after he said of +himself-- + +"I was the most conceited artist of the day." And yet where another +might have been downcast he refused to be discouraged. He was upheld +by a strong and silent sense of power within him. He went home to his +father, and he said, "Give me time, and I will yet produce works which +the Academy will be proud to acknowledge." + +Engleheart, the winner of the medal, was never heard of in later life, +while the loser made for himself a name that afterwards "waxed wide." + +Now he worked harder than ever. He studied, he exhibited, he moulded, he +designed the figure for a statue of Alexander the Great, which brought +him some fame. But his father could not keep him, and he was driven +to look about and bethink himself how he could keep himself. At this +time--the most needy, perhaps, of his life--a door seemed to open to +him. He fell in with the great Staffordshire potter, Josiah Wedgwood, +and Wedgwood, with that keen eye of his ever on the outlook to discover +talent, instantly recognised it in the boy. + +A great time was beginning for pottery. For ages hideous things had +adorned people's houses and tables till Wedgwood arose, and there +entered his great mind the idea of making common things beautiful, of +giving people something to look at, even at their meals, that would +raise their tastes and be a sort of education. After Wedgwood discovered +young Flaxman he gave him some orders. The boy threw his whole soul into +the work. Not that it was such work as always showed the artist at his +best. The sculptor had first to make the model in wax. Then a mould was +taken of this, and into this the potter's stuff, soft as dough, was +carefully pressed. The thing was not finished yet. It remained for it +still to be fired and polished, and so it is not wonderful if some of +the delicacy and finish of the first design may have been occasionally +lost. + +But with Flaxman's work Wedgwood was satisfied, and while he worked hard +for him he paid him handsomely. It was not the sort of thing to bring +him name and fame, but there was always the need to live to be faced, +and he bravely took what offered and was thankful. And by living simply +and saving where he could, he managed to keep himself by what he made. +He faced this time of drudgery quietly and patiently, bringing to bear +upon its hardships something of that serene spirit that belonged to him +all through life. + +He gave to Wedgwood, as far as in him lay, of his best. Models of the +four seasons, models of the ancient gods and goddesses--those deities +whose stories were familiar to him from his childhood, Juno, Jupiter, +Minerva, Apollo--models of vases. And besides these, chimney-pieces, +plaques, candlesticks, inkstands, anything and everything, for Wedgwood +held that a common teapot or a jug might be still a thing of beauty. For +the models of the ancient gods he would get perhaps 10_s._ each, and for +a pair of vases as much as £3 3_s._ + +Some of these were so exquisitely done that Wedgwood said more than +once, "It really hurts me to think of parting with these gems." + +Long years afterwards, when he had reached the top of the tree, Flaxman +used to find endless pleasure in talking of these humble labours. + +And all this time he was leading a very quiet life. That strong thirst +for knowledge that had always been his, spurred him on to learn all +he could. So during the day he worked at casts and models, and in +the evenings he sketched or turned to his beloved poets. Either he +preferred the old Greek poets' company to that of living friends, or +it might be that the slight deformity that was his through life--the +high shoulders, the sidling gait--left him shy and sensitive, and in +a measure inclined to creep into his shell. + +Looking over the huge portfolio of Flaxman's drawings that one can +still see to-day, it is easy to discover where he went for most of his +subjects. The poets came in for their share, and also history and +portraits, but his great delight was to produce scenes from the Bible +and the _Pilgrim's Progress_, "The Marys at the Sepulchre," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Angels round the Cradle of Christ." + +But although he was getting to be known among men of talent he was still +poor and struggling. It is proof enough of this for us to read how at +this time he made his busts half life-size and of clay, whereas had he +been rich they would surely have been full-size and of marble. About +this time he began to talk of what had been with him till now a secret +longing. It was to see Rome. The desire had been long growing in his +heart. To Rome sculptors and painters flock, for it is the great city of +sculpture and painting, and to a sculptor it is as if his education were +unfinished, so long as his eyes have not feasted on those beautiful +examples of art. + +"If I remain here," he said sadly, "I shall be accused of ignorance +concerning those noble works of art which are to the sculptor what +learning is to a man of genius." + +About this time he took what seemed a foolish step, looking alone to the +progress of his art. He married. Sir Joshua, the President of the Royal +Academy, who had _not_ given him the gold medal, met him in the street +one day and stopped him. "Ha! Flaxman," he said, "I have heard that you +have married. I tell you you are ruined for an artist. You cannot now go +to Rome to study the great sculptors of antiquity." + +Young Flaxman went home downcast. Not to go to Rome! Not to realise his +boyhood's golden dreams and his life's ambition! + +He told his wife what had happened. She met him with the brave reply, +"You will e'en go to Rome and I will accompany you. We must work and +economise." + +And now for the next five weary years this brave young couple put +their shoulders to the wheel. She kept house and he worked--harder +than ever--for Wedgwood chiefly--toiling for long hours, but upheld +all the time by the thought of the goal to which he was straining. +That journey to Rome!--the very thought of it made all hardship easy. +He turned out much beautiful work for Wedgwood at this time. Groups of +children--romping, skipping, playing "blind man's buff." + +Nothing that meant making money came amiss to him. He even collected +what was known as "watch rates" for the parish of St. Anne's, and might +have been seen going about with an ink-bottle in his buttonhole. + +Often the desires of our heart tarry long in coming to us. This was +among the times of hardest work and trial in all Flaxman's life, and he +came out of it well. At the end of the five years the needed money was +collected! + +And now, while the great event of his life was drawing near, his boyhood +had left him, and he was entering on the work of the man. Already he had +gained some fame in London. The newspapers took notice of his going. + +"We understand that Flaxman the sculptor is about to leave his modest +mansion in Wardour Street for Rome." + +And now a very feast of delight awaited him. With his arrival in Rome, +what wonders opened to his view, what grandeur and sublimity in the +examples of ancient art! What skill and magnificence and luxuriance he +saw in the churches, what wealth of creation on their walls and windows +and cupolas, what sculpture, what painting! It was as if an enchanted +world had suddenly spread itself out before his eyes. + +Gradually it came to be known that Flaxman had arrived, and there +gathered about him men of taste and culture--rich men many of them--men +of position. But the great sculptor's ways were just the simple ones of +old. He was not easily affected by the great of the world. He was +always his manly simple self to rich and poor alike. He adopted no more +luxurious ways of living with his days of prosperity. He prized money +little, just as a something in exchange for which he could get food and +clothing, or with which he might help the poor and suffering. The fine +character of the boy seemed to have expanded into fuller beauty in the +man. + +After his stay in Rome he returned to London, his spirit, one could +imagine, bathed in a very inspiration from all he had seen and heard. He +came back to his native land with a name made, and quietly set about +getting a house, a studio, assistants, workmen, models. + +He executed a statue of Lord Mansfield, for which he was paid £2,500. +Prices were indeed altered from the old days, in which he counted +himself well paid with ten shillings for the model of a goddess! + +"This little man cuts us all out," said one generous sculptor to +another, willing to acknowledge Flaxman's great superiority. Honours now +flowed in upon him. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy. He +was given the Professorship of the Chair of Sculpture. At his first +lecture he was enthusiastically cheered. He had climbed to the highest +height of his art. It almost seemed as if no honour remained to be +bestowed. He was surrounded by fame and applause, but he was in no wise +uplifted. So the years went on in the delight of the work he loved. + +But, unexpectedly and all unknown to his friends, his life was drawing +to a close. In the winter of 1826 he caught a cold, seeming for a time +to be slightly, though not seriously, ailing. In the beginning of +December he grew much worse, but he would not go to bed. + +"When I lie I cannot breathe," he said. So, sitting up to the end, and +with scarce a struggle, he passed away on the 7th of December. + +They buried him quietly in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. +There was no great publicity, no large concourse of people. Just a few +friends, a few artists--the greatest--were there, men who in tremulous, +hushed voices said to each other they "had lost something greater and +dearer than they should see again." + +Turning from the ending of his life, we cannot but feel that we are +turning from the record of a man who has lived it well. + +An enthusiastic admirer has said, "He was a remarkable mixture of +simplicity and genius--were you to try any other ingredients you would +scarcely form so glorious a creature." And we hardly think he was far +wrong. + +We can see very clearly the fine simplicity of his nature in his +treatment of his workmen. They were to him rather friends than servants. +They in their turn repaid him with a warm and devoted affection, calling +him "the best master God ever made." + +To the end, as well in time of difficulty and of toil as in time of +triumph, the man retained very much those qualities that had drawn out +people's love for him in boyhood, the kindly word from the customer in +the shop behind the counter. The world offered him of its best, as it +has a way of doing to those who do well for themselves, but it had +no power to draw him from his work and the simplicity of his simple +home-life. It was only and always to that which is highest and best that +he gave of his genius. That noble mind of his could stoop to nothing +less. In churches all over England are to be found beautiful creations +of his. In him were at once goodness and genius linked together. + +"If ever purity visited this earth," someone has said, "it remained with +Flaxman." + + + + +SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. + + +Amid the wild beautiful scenery of Cornwall, where the waters of the +Atlantic wash our English shores, was born in the winter of 1778 the +greatest chemist England has ever seen. We read in our childish +geography books that for being the birthplace of Humphrey Davy the town +of Penzance has for long been famous, for the coming into the world of +that man whose name is perhaps best known for the invention of the +Miners' Safety Lamp, that has lit the darkness of our coal mines and +saved hundreds of human lives. + +Humphrey was the son of a wood-carver, a man not high up in the world, +but we find him free enough from the straits of poverty that have often +been the cradle of genius, though, indeed, a cradle out of which genius +has had a way of growing to sturdy stalwart manhood. The child from the +outset entered on life with eagerness and enthusiasm, seeming to take +a firm, earnest grip, as it were, even from babyhood. It was this same +vigour of mind that spurred him on all through--in boyhood and manhood +alike--that made him face difficulty with such a brave, dauntless +spirit, and overcome obstacles with never a thought of letting them +overcome him. + +He was quick, energetic, and alert, even as a child. When hardly more +than five years old his mother often noticed him with baby fingers +rapidly turning the pages of some book as if he were counting their +number or glancing at the pictures. To her no small astonishment on +questioning him, she found the lisping baby lips could repeat the story. +It was the same through life. Long years after, when he was a great +chemist, making wonderful experiments in his laboratory, he had no +patience with slowness. He would keep several experiments going at +the same time, attending first to one, then to another. If the exact +instrument he wanted were not at hand, he would recklessly break or +alter another to suit his purpose. His impetuous spirit could never +brook delay. With him quickness meant power, and while quick he was also +sure. + +As a child he specially loved the _Pilgrim's Progress_. The charm of its +word-pictures, its characters fired his quick imagination. And history +too, especially the history of his own country. These two, it may be, +inspired him very early to a love of romance and story, and among the +boys at school in Penzance he was not slow to gain the reputation of +story-teller. Some were tales of fun, others tales of thrilling wonder +and terror, but all flowed easily from the boy's lips and held his +listeners enthralled. + +When he was no more than eight years old he would take his stand on a +cart in the middle of the market-place, his boyish figure drawn to its +full height, and there harangue the boys who gathered in little groups +to hear the young orator. At school there was nothing in any way +remarkable about young Humphrey, except, perhaps, that somewhere hid +away within him was the gift of rhyme or the gift of poetry. English +and Latin verse alike came easy to him, and by-and-by his schoolfellows +found out his facility, and they pressed him into their service to +compose valentines and love-letters. But except for this he seemed in +these early years to be nothing more than a happy, healthy English boy, +full of fun and spirits. He would fish off Penzance Pier for grey +mullet, catching more than his companions. He would bait his hooks and +wait till a shoal of these difficult fish were swimming about the bait, +then by a clever jerk of his tackle entangle and capture them. His love +of fishing remained with him all through life--almost to the end. So +strong was it that even as a man he never could conceal his annoyance +if unsuccessful, or if he discovered a friend to have caught a larger +number than he. So keen and ardent was he that he would dress himself in +green that the wily fish might know no difference between him and the +green trees and grassy banks! + +In his boyhood we find it difficult to trace any germs of that talent +for experimenting and inventing that distinguished him in later life. +He scooped turnips hollow, and lighted up the insides with candles--but +what boy has not experimented in the same way? He made squibs, or +"thunder-powder," that exploded on a stone with a loud report that +delighted his companions. But there is no trace of an unusual bent of +mind here--just an example of an ardent, eager English boy, full of life +and spirits. + +In 1793 he went to school in Truro, not far from Penzance. He was quick, +but that was all--a clever boy, not a prodigy. His master, writing long +years after, when the boy's name had become a household word in England, +said:-- + +"I did not at that time discover any extraordinary abilities." + +It must have been a school of the old sort that Mr. Davy had lighted +upon for his son, for the story goes that young Humphrey, at times in +scrapes like other boys, while punishment hung over him, had these +doggrel lines fired off by his master at his head-- + + "Now, Master Dávy, + Now, sir, I háve 'e, + No one shall save 'e; + Good Master Dávy." + +And with the end of the rhyme down came the flat ruler on the open palm +of the culprit! School, while it may not have done him a great deal of +good, at least did not do him much harm. His own frank, buoyant mind +prevented his being twisted into a cut-and-dried shape, or pressed into +any special mould. Long years after he gave thanks that in those young +days he was left very much to his own bent. + +"What I am I have made myself," he said. "I say this without vanity, and +in pure simplicity of heart." + +So passed the long, sunshiny days of school-time, and when he was +sixteen he left school finally. After that, for one short, blissful year +he shot and fished and lived chiefly in the open, surrounded by the +beauties of Cornish scenery, for which in after years his heart always +kept a tender memory, when the bustle and din of a city, and the whirl +of city life, had well-nigh drowned for him Nature's softer tones. He +grew then to know familiarly bird and beast, and rock and flower. In +after years, when his life was more fully filled than most men's, a +chance word or reference would seem to waft him a whiff of the sea off +the Cornish shore, and a great longing would seize him for the loved +scenes of his childhood. Then, in the midst of his work, he would take a +hurried run home. During this year of holiday, which he enjoyed with the +whole-heartedness of a careless, happy boy, he collected a number of +birds, and stuffed them with his own hands--and with not a little skill. + +Almost to the end of life he kept his love of shooting. As in fishing +he tried to efface himself and deceive the wily fish, so in shooting +he was strangely beset by fear of an accident, and he would study to +make himself as conspicuous as possible in a scarlet hat! Almost at +the end, when his strength was failing, it is pathetic enough to find +him ask to be driven to the field, that he might still fire a shot. + +But already over his young life there brooded its first great shadow. +In 1794 his father died. It may have been this which helped to change +young Humphrey from the happy, careless boy to something more serious, +more thoughtful, that fixed his mind on the responsibilities life was +so full of, that helped to turn it from mere sport and pleasure to the +improvement of his mind--to the gaining of knowledge. At any rate, about +this time the boy laid hold of life, and, as a rower in a boat-race +might do, steadied down to his responsibilities. + +His mother apprenticed him to a surgeon and apothecary in Penzance, and +straightway with that ardour and enthusiasm that carried him through so +much of his great work in later life, he fell in love with chemistry. He +tried boyish experiments. He used the rudest instruments--anything that +he could lay hands on. Pots, pans, vessels in the surgery--nothing was +safe or sacred from his touch. He filled the house with strange and +hideous odours--he burnt holes in his sister's dresses. When he turned +the garret into a laboratory his good old guardian would exclaim-- + +"This boy Humphrey is incorrigible! Was there ever so idle a dog? He +will blow us all into the air." + +Half an hour later he would proudly and fondly call the boy +"Philosopher," or "Sir Humphrey," as if already his prophetic eye +pierced the future and beheld his greatness. + +So he spent much of the day, and in the long summer evenings he would +ramble along the seashore as far as Marazion armed with a hammer with +which to chip off "specimens" from the rocks, for already geology had +thrown over him its peculiar spell. He would end these happy days with +tea at a favourite aunt's. And it was not merely boyish enjoyment these +solitary rambles brought. They and the still small voice of Nature +were telling on him. Gradually they were making and moulding the boy, +approaching now as he was, very near to the threshold of manhood. + +Even then, however, he was trying to improve himself. With the roar of +the waves and the howl of the winds in his ears in these lonely walks, +he would declaim to the elements, in the hope of softening a defect in +his voice. This probably arose from his having what is called "no ear." +He had no notion of either time or tune. It used to trouble him much +that he never could keep step in the Volunteer Infantry corps to which +he belonged, and someone tried to teach him "God Save the King," but +without success. + +The surgical part of his profession was always disagreeable and +distasteful to the boy, although from no want of courage on his part. +The story goes that one day about this time he was bitten in the leg by +a dog supposed to be mad. No sooner did he realise what had happened to +him than he there and then took a knife and cut the piece right out of +his leg, and then went to the surgery and had the wound cauterised. + +His mind was such that it instinctively rose to emergencies and grappled +with anything--a big thing or a little thing. Both were to him alike. +Knowledge was what he wanted. He wanted to know as much as possible, and +he liked to get to the bottom of a difficulty for himself. Into each +new thing that came his way he threw himself with all the ardour and +impetuosity of his nature. Nor was he merely practical and nothing more. +He had that sympathy and delicacy of mind that revelled in communing +with nature. This expressed itself in sonnets and poems--some of which +he wrote when he was only twelve. A great poetic genius once said of +him-- + +"If Davy had not been the first chemist he would have been the first +poet of his age." + +But poetry was not the field in which he was to shine. His genius was +for experiments. He went on eagerly experimenting on anything--heat, +light, air. Anything connected with chemistry drew him as with a magnet. +The first time some real experimenting apparatus found its way to his +hands he could not conceal his delight. Specially did an air-pump charm +him. It was to him as a new and fascinating toy to a child. He kept +working the piston up and down, and would hardly let it go! + +And now it seemed as if it were almost time for him to try his wings +in the larger air of the great world. More than one man had come to +Penzance who perhaps gave the boy a foretaste of the delights he was to +know by-and-by as a man in the atmosphere of culture and talent in +which his lot was to be cast. Among these were Josiah Wedgwood, the +Staffordshire Potter, and young Watt, the son of the inventor of the +Condensing Steam Engine. + +There was about young Humphrey's outward appearance about this time +nothing specially attractive. He had round shoulders, not a comely face, +and a manner that was in no way remarkable or engaging, but surely the +light of genius must have shone from his eyes! + +However, such as he was outwardly, he now prepared to launch away into +the great world. A professor of chemistry in Bristol had heard of his +experiments in light and heat, and proposed to him that he should become +assistant in the Pneumatic Institution there. There was not much money +to be earned by it. + +"He must be maintained, but the fund will not furnish a salary from +which a man can lay up anything." So they told him. But was it not his +most direct road to fortune? + +Perhaps Humphrey thought so. At any rate, the Penzance surgeon was +prevailed upon to cut short the term of the boy's apprenticeship, "on +account of the singularly promising talents Mr. Davy had displayed." + +So Humphrey went out from his native town, and from his home, as many a +young man had gone before him, with a heart beating high with hope, and, +as his young, ardent spirit believed, the world spread out before him. + +And certainly a brilliant future was opening to the boy. He turned his +steps to Bristol, throwing himself in his own characteristic way into +his new work. + +He made experiments on air and gases, some of these daring and dangerous +enough, and entailing not a little personal risk. But while these things +lay nearest to his heart, he had eye and ear both open for all that was +going forward in his new life. He was so many-sided himself, it was as +if he could not come in contact with anyone without catching some spark +of interest from him--the philosopher, the poet, the physician, the +sportsman. He had something in common with all. + +He entered into his work as if body and mind knew no fatigue. If an idea +came into his head he could not rest until he had worked it out. If he +broke down in health, he simply started afresh when he had recovered. + +In his spare time he wrote books and pamphlets on chemistry, so that in +writing and experimenting his name came to be known to the scientific +men of the day. And now it seemed as if one step in fame followed +another. Success was crowned by success. + +He was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry to the Royal +Institution in 1801. He had now entered on manhood, and was launched +on the great world of London, having all the ability to carry himself +through. He may have been handicapped with slight flaws of manner. If he +appeared over-confident, it probably was that in reality he was shy and +timid, and attempted to cover these little awkwardnesses. His friends +grieved in secret over the noticeable change, fearing lest with +simplicity of manner he might throw over simplicity of character. But +no man is, after all, perfect, and in spite of this, Davy was rapidly +mounting the ladder of success. + +The young chemist soon discovered that his lectures drew crowds, +even created a great and extraordinary sensation. In imagination we +can picture the lecture-room, the crowded audience--all sorts and +conditions, from lovers of science, ladies of fashion, men of rank, to +the threadbare-coated student--eagerly watching the experiments, and all +drinking in his words as the young lecturer, fired with his subject, +animated with all the charm of which he was so complete a master the dry +bones of geology with life and breath, or again brought the study of +chemistry, hitherto unget-at-able and out of reach, down to their +level. The audience hung on his lips spellbound. + +The young popular lecturer was caressed and made much of. + +"Davy, covered with glory," writes a friend at this time, "dines with me +to-day." + +Soon they made him Professor of Chemistry to the Institution. Promotion +followed promotion, but each year was a spur to greater exertion. Time +would fail to enumerate the steps in his triumphs. A continuous sun +seemed to shine upon him. And his strength seemed equal to all demands. +Money had never been of much account to him. Now, indeed, he might have +had it in abundance had he chosen, by helping forward manufactures with +his scientific knowledge, but that was not his aim. His ambition was +scientific glory. + +"To be useful to science and mankind was the pursuit in which he +gloried." + +The years that followed were years full of hard work. In 1812 he was +knighted. It seemed as if almost everything he touched were like a gold +mine which yielded some new treasure to him. + +"Science," he said once to a young man anxious to pursue it, "is a harsh +mistress, and repays one poorly." But for him she surely rather had +"full measure pressed down and running over." + +And now, when he was about thirty-seven, his thoughts were first turned +to the great triumph of his life, the invention that was to make his +name famous. + +There was in England, especially in the north and midland counties, a +great and crying evil--the danger in which our miners and their families +lived, as these brave men daily and hourly carried their lives in their +hands. Constantly the newspapers were filled with terrible accounts of +accidents in our coal-pits--mines exploding, men and boys and horses +being blown to pieces or buried alive--and always from the same +cause--the want of a safety lamp. A great quantity of gas got cooped up, +in spite of contrivances for leading pure air into the murky passages of +the mines, and these gases, directly they came in contact with a naked +flame, exploded. There had been old days in which men worked by a feeble +light borrowed from the phosphorescence of decaying fish-skins or "steel +mills," which gave out fitful gleams or sparks when a piece of flint +was struck against them; but these days had passed, and accidents +multiplied. And though men were startled and shocked when they read of +them, still the wholesale slaughter went on. The gas exploded, bursting +up everything near, killing the miners, erupting great masses of coal +and dust and mangled men and horses. And not only this, but it blew down +the trap-doors, leaving men to die of "after-damp," the more horrible +death of suffocation, because lingering and slow. + +To remedy this crying evil Davy bent the whole force of his brilliant +intellect, and after much thought invented the Safety Lamp. He +surrounded the flame of his lamp with wire gauze. The gas entered and +exploded within it, but the explosion did not pass outward. + +It was the most glorious triumph of his genius. In 1816 it was adopted. +With his "Davy" in his hand there was now no fear for the miner. + +"The highest ambition of my life," he wrote, "has been to deserve the +name of a friend to humanity." + +He took out no patent. He wanted no money for it. It was reward enough +for him to see it work. + +"If you had patented it," said a friend to him one day, "you might have +been drawing your five or ten thousand a year." + +"No, my good friend," was his reply, "I never thought of such a thing. +My sole object was to serve the cause of humanity. It might undoubtedly +enable me to put four horses in my carriage, but what would it avail me +to have it said that Sir Humphrey drives his carriage-and-four?" + +"I value it," he said again, "more than anything I ever did." + +And now the world's honours waited upon him. In 1818 Government made him +Baronet. In 1820 he was made President of the Royal Society. + +But already in the zenith of his triumph, there were small signs that +showed too surely that he was failing. In 1826 he retired from the +Presidentship, and later in the year he was attacked by apoplexy, +followed by paralysis. + +"Here I am," he wrote pathetically from Rome, "a ruin among ruins." + +And so he began to look death in the face. + +"I do not wish to live so far as I am personally concerned," he said, +"but I have views which I could develop--if it please God to save my +life--which would be useful to science and mankind." + +Never again, however, was he to return to England. In Rome he had a +second seizure. He had a great longing to reach Geneva, and a few hours +after he arrived, although he appeared at first to rally, he took ill, +and there passed away quietly and peacefully, not merely, as someone has +it, "one of the greatest, but one of the most benevolent and amiable of +men." + +They buried him in the little burying-ground at Geneva, the long +procession wending its way to his last resting-place on foot. His widow +erected a tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey. + +He was the greatest chemist of the age; but after all, his best memorial +will abide in the memory of his fellow-men as the inventor of the Safety +Lamp. + +To himself his invention brought no small happiness. + +"I was never more affected," he said on one occasion, "than by a written +address I received from the working colliers, when I was in the north, +thanking me, on behalf of themselves and their families, for the +preservation of their lives." + +His, indeed, is a career of striking brilliancy. He is like some +mountain climber who climbs ever upwards. And we, looking up, seem to +see him leap from one dazzling peak to another. Honours and attainments +were his such as come to few men in this world, but we cannot but feel +that what gave him the greatest joy in life was that he had been enabled +to rescue hundreds of lives, to bring light out of darkness, and cheer +and safety where before there had been uncertainty and death. It is for +this that the name of Humphrey Davy will be blessed by men and women in +the ages still to come. + + + + +SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. + + +Perhaps no man has risen out of lower depths of poverty and ignorance +and obscurity to the very top of fame's ladder than Richard Arkwright. +More than 150 years ago, towards the end of December, 1732, there was +born in a house in a humble side street of Preston, a child who was to +leave his stamp, not only on his native town, but on the whole of +England, and indeed on the civilisation of the world. + +The son of poor parents, and, like Josiah Wedgwood, the youngest of +thirteen, it may be that that Christmas held even less brightness than +usual for the struggling Arkwrights because of the coming of an extra +mouth to feed. At any rate, if ever child were confronted by the chill +and dreary outlook on a cold world, that child was the baby Richard. + +Preston was not, 150 years ago, the Preston of to-day. Then it was +a town with a few thousand inhabitants, "beyond the trading part of +the county," while to-day it is in the very centre of the cotton +manufacture, hiving with crowds of human beings--a great town because +here, in a squalid, insignificant by-street, one bleak December day, +there first saw the light the man who was to "give to England the power +of cotton." + +As there was scant enough money for food and clothing in the Arkwright +house, so it followed that for schooling there was none at all. Young +Richard would have stood a poor chance had it not been that his uncle +Richard took pity on the boy growing up in a state of neglect and +ignorance, and taught him to read. In later days he added something to +this small beginning by attending classes in the winter evenings. And so +the early years of his life passed, and in time the boy went out into +the world, poorly and scantily enough armed for its difficult battle. +Long years after he bemoaned his ignorance and want of education when he +felt all the drawbacks, the trammelling, the holding-down of it, when he +realised how it handicapped him in the race of life. And when he was an +old man over fifty, after pressing into the day as many as sixteen +working hours, he would steal an hour from sleep to learn English +grammar and another hour to practise writing and spelling. + +But, poorly equipped as young Richard was in most ways, he went out into +life provided with a great brain, and had he known it, that brain was to +open to him a door through which--could he have looked then--he might +have seen stretching away into the years a long vista of triumphs and +successes. The boy began on a very low round of the ladder--a strange +enough beginning for the future maker of the cotton world: he entered +on his career as apprentice to a barber. But, boy as he was, he threw +himself with energy and ardour--these two qualities that made him a +great man later on--into the new business. He took a firm hold of it. He +worked steadily at it for years, having most likely nothing in his mind +higher than the setting up for himself--the becoming some day a master +barber! It was this goal at that time that seemed to him getting on in +life. + +So his boyhood sped away, and when his apprenticeship had come to an end +he took the great and important step of setting up for himself. He left +Preston and went to Bolton. Poor indeed must have been his stock of +money at this point in his fortunes. It was no imposing shop he took, +with windows and painted sign, but the smallest and poorest place to be +had. He rented an underground cellar, but his eager spirit was to be +damped neither by poverty nor a dreary outlook. He bent all his powers +on getting customers, and as the first step to this he stuck out a +placard above his cellar door with the scrawled invitation-- + + "_Come to the subterraneous barber, he shaves for a penny._" + +In the little world of hair-dressing the rude appeal made a small +sensation. Here, as in other businesses, there was competition. +Arkwright shaved for a penny. At this rate the subterraneous barber +would draw away the customers of others! While the underground cellar +would be crowded, their shops would be empty. And so they were forced to +let down their prices, and others besides Arkwright shaved for a penny. + +Young Richard, rising one morning, grasped the fact that he was now not +alone in his prices. Others were running him dangerously close. He was +merely one of many now, but with the enterprise that outdid others +by-and-by in the great world of mechanical invention he resolved to +strike out a bold new line. The old placard was taken down and another +printed and set up in its stead. + + "_A clean shave for a halfpenny!_" + +But Arkwright was not content to stand still in shaving people's chins +or in anything else. These were the days of wearing wigs, and it struck +him that something was to be made out of wigs, or perukes, as they were +called, and so he gave up his business of shaving in a measure and began +to travel about the country buying and selling human hair. He regularly +attended country fairs and bought the locks and tresses of the young +girls who came there to be hired out to service. In time he grew to +make successful bargains with these, and to add to this he discovered a +chemical dye, with which he dyed the hair and sold it to wig-makers, and +by-and-by "Arkwright's Hair" came to be known as the best in the market. + +It most likely was--at any rate, it may have been in those +journeys--going in and out among the houses and cottages in the country +that he came to be familiar with the sound of the "weaver's shuttle" +and the turning of the "one-thread machine." Long years after he was +to find that familiarity stand him in good stead. But, successful and +hard-working as he was, life was still a struggle, and with all his +efforts he earned but a bare living. It was hard to wrest a fortune from +wig-making and chin-shaving, so gradually there grew up in his busy +brain a project. It formed very slowly, but it did grow. It was the +genius within him struggling with disadvantages and drawbacks that would +have "posed" most men. His mind, leaning strongly to the mechanical, +groped vaguely at first after something, and then gradually it settled +down to the "spinning machine," and from that time onwards all his +energies were bent on that. + +In his journeys among the cottagers it had been easy enough to see that +the yarn could not be made quickly enough for the weaver, that though in +thousands of cottages the "one-thread machine" turned from morning till +night and again from night till morning, it could not keep pace with the +shuttle. What was wanted was a dozen, fifty, a hundred threads to be +made by a single pair of hands. Did he perhaps see dimly even then that +he was to be the man who should throw out the old-fashioned hand-wheel? + +One day he noticed a red-hot bar of iron become elongated as it passed +between two iron rollers. In that instant he first saw dimly the +tiny seedling that was to grow one day to the mighty tree of the +spinning-frame. The idea lodged in his brain and took firm hold of him. + +In outward appearance at this time Arkwright was in no way specially +attractive or remarkable, but genius is not always outwardly beautiful, +and "there were notions in that rough head of his" that were one day to +alter England. + +But Arkwright was no practical mechanic, and so he called in help +from outside--from one Kay, a clockmaker in Warrington, and under his +directions Kay made rollers and wheels, and shortly Arkwright had his +models ready to hand. Meantime, while his heart beat high with hope and +exultation, his pet models being always in his mind though for bread and +butter he still made wigs and shaved chins, he received a sudden and +unexpected check. His wife--for he was already married--chafing in +secret over what she considered his fantastic imaginings and idle +dreamings, made up her mind to destroy that which distracted his mind +from the business of shaving and money-making. As the surest means to +her end she burned his models one day when he was out of the way. Poor +Arkwright returned and discovered the mischief. In an instant his whole +stubborn nature was up in arms. Indeed, so wrathful was he that he +would from that day have nothing more to do with his wife, and the two +separated. + +And now the great question was--how best to push the new model Kay had +made. Poverty handicapped him sadly. It was impossible to push anything +without money. He cast about in his mind where the money was to come +from, and settled on an old friend in Preston, "a liquor merchant and +painter" (probably a house-painter). To Preston he took his way. The +friend consented to help him, and together with high hopes and great +rejoicing he and Kay set up their model. But their secrecy had roused +suspicion. Behind this friend's house there happened to be a closed-in +garden with a number of gooseberry bushes. Close by in a neighbouring +cottage lived two old ladies. At nights they declared they heard a +strange humming noise among the bushes, as if the devil himself were +making music, tuning up his bagpipes for Arkwright and Kay to dance a +reel! The story got abroad. The people of Preston, excited and curious, +were eager to break into the house and discover if Arkwright and Kay +were indeed in league with the Evil One. + +But after the model had been set up and was about to be shown in the +Free Grammar School in Preston, there came a sudden memory of dark +stories still fresh in men's minds of how other inventors had been +treated in Preston--how they had been mobbed and furiously ill-used, +while their inventions had been smashed to atoms by a people +panic-stricken because of their dread of machinery, which they believed +would throw them out of work and take the bread out of their and their +children's mouths. Arkwright remembered all this, and he and Kay finally +made up their minds to pack up their models and set off for Nottingham. + +While Arkwright had been at Preston engrossed with thoughts of his model +a political election took place, and he was called upon to vote. But +so poor and so wretchedly clad was the man who was by-and-by to be a +knight--the man who was to leave behind him half a million--that before +he could present himself at the poll, several people had to club +together to exchange the tattered garments for something that would at +least be presentable! + +Arrived at Nottingham, Arkwright tried to get someone to help him with +money. This brave man had firm faith in his invention and firm faith in +himself. It was simply impossible to discourage him. But the time of +waiting was long and weary before he fell in with a Mr. Strutt, the +inventor of the stocking-frame. An inventor himself, perhaps he was the +man who could best understand and appreciate Arkwright's invention. The +two entered into partnership, and it may have seemed to Arkwright that +his time of trial and waiting had at last come to an end. + +And now truly enough he had his foot firmly planted on the ladder of +success. Behind him was a hard and toilsome boyhood. Before him were +still long waiting, difficulties to face, men's opposition to overcome, +dislike, distrust, envy, and jealousy to live down and conquer. But the +first step had been taken, and never once along the difficult way do we +find him flinch. + +In 1769, the same year in which James Watt patented his Condensing +Steam Engine, Arkwright at the age of thirty-seven took out the patent +for his Spinning-Frame. His next step was to erect a cotton mill at +Chorley, and following that, one at Cromford, in Derbyshire. No sooner +were they finished than men flocked from Lancashire, and indeed from +all parts of England, to see them at work. They were the gazing-stock +of the country. + +But Arkwright's brain was not the only one that had pondered on cardings +and rollers and wheels and spindles, and soon there sprang up men who +said this invention was not all his. He had taken other men's thoughts +and adapted them, and joined them together, and called the whole his +own. And now there followed hard years of opposition, fightings, +struggles, before which a weaker man than Arkwright would have gone +down. But nothing discouraged or defeated him. Not even five years of +weary waiting, an expenditure of £12,000, and yet no profit from his +invention! His brave spirit was still undaunted. Men did not try to hide +their envy and jealousy. They fell upon his mill at Chorley in mobs of +hundreds. A strong force of police, and even of the military, was called +out to quell the rioters. Two of them were shot dead, one was drowned, +and several were wounded; while the rest smashed every machine they +could lay hands on, everything that was worked by horse-power or by +water-power, sparing only and alone what human hands could undertake. +And it was not the workmen only who, with blind or short-sighted eyes, +looked on machinery as a curse, believing that it would rob them of +their living, but the better, more enlightened classes as well, who +regarded Arkwright as an enemy to mankind. They were doubtless at the +same time looking to their pockets. If working men were thrown out of +work, it meant that _they_ would have larger poor rates to pay, and so +they too fell upon Arkwright, not seeing that here was the man ready and +anxious, if they would but listen to him, to give thousands of people +work where now instead only hundreds had it. + +Meantime he faced his opponents, showing always a brave front, and +trying to defend himself at every point. He endured the spoiling of his +property, and then, not content with browbeating him, they seized upon +his patent rights and disputed them. And the upshot was that Arkwright's +patent was set aside by Parliament. But even then the great inventor was +not overwhelmed. Passing by the hotel where some of his enemies were +standing after his defeat, he overheard one say to another-- + +"Well, we have done for the old shaver at last." Arkwright turned round, +ready, cool, immovable. + +"Never mind," he said, "I have a razor left in Scotland that will shave +you all yet." + +He had first tried horse-power for his mills. Now he was trying +water-power, and he foresaw that Lanark, in Scotland, so well situated +on the Clyde for his purpose, would furnish him with all that was +wanted. + +Meantime, cotton was gradually growing to a great industry in England. +People who had looked suspiciously and enviously on Arkwright at first +now reluctantly admitted that his goods were the best to be had, and +by-and-by it was he who fixed the prices in the market. It was as if by +his own efforts he had created a little world. The originality of each +part of his invention, may not entirely have been his. This part or +that--a roller, a carding, a crank, a spindle--one of these may have +belonged to some other man, but to Arkwright belongs the joining of all +together. It was his master mind that collected under one roof the whole +series of machines, from the engine that received the cotton-wool, much +as it came from the pod, to that which wound it in bobbins--a hard +and firm cotton-yarn. It was he who made each thing dovetail into the +other, who worked out the one perfect, harmonious whole. His, too, +was the strong mind that trained men and boys--never before used to +machinery--to its irksomeness, its regularity, its exactitude, taking +them from idle, desultory lives, it might be, and accustoming them to +system and discipline. In the old days the slow sale of the yarn and the +stupidity of workmen had sometimes almost daunted him, but these days +were past. + +And how the man worked!--with a quick, all-grasping mind. It was the boy +over again in his underground cellar, unwilling to be worsted in his +"penny a shave," striking out the bold line of a halfpenny one. Riches +from his machines--and even more from his mills--flowed in upon him. He +was a man of no small account now. England had come to identify the name +of Arkwright with an open door to a great source of wealth for the land. +King George III. knighted him, and a year later he was made High Sheriff +of Derbyshire. But still he went on working, managing, superintending +his mills and his machinery--leading a life of sacrifice. As he had done +when a boy, so still as a man, he made the very most of his time, even +grudging that spent on a journey, and generally travelling with four +horses in order to overtake it quickly. He who had lived as a boy in an +underground cellar, now occupied a magnificent mansion, and was a man of +note in the county and in England. But we remember, and not without +sadness, how for long in the midst of his hard work he was a victim +to bodily suffering--subject to severe asthma--and how bravely and +uncomplainingly he bore up and struggled on in spite of all! Now, +already early--while he was but in his sixtieth year--he began to fail. +Asthma was complicated with other disorders. There were, too, the strain +and stress of a life of hard work, and these reached a climax while the +great man was still in the zenith of his mental powers, and he passed +away on the 3rd August, 1792. + +Arkwright's name was now of world-wide fame. Hundreds and thousands of +people, many of whom had come to see his first cotton-mill, crowded the +rocks and roads about Cromford, and mingled with the long procession +that bore the body of the great inventor to his last resting-place. + +They erected a monument in the church of Cromford to his memory. But the +name of Arkwright needs no carved memorial of stone. His memorial is of +a more lasting kind, for it is he whom England has to thank to-day for +an industry that has enriched the land. Not "proud Preston" alone--a +small town at his birth, a mighty place of manufacture now--has +Arkwright made to grow and flourish. + +He was a man of "Napoleon nerve." Where other men saw but a short way +ahead, he grasped the end from the beginning; where other minds saw +merely a part, his eye was able to take in the whole. He may have +gathered up some threads from other men's brains, but it was he who wove +them into one great whole. He had a business faculty--he had shown it as +a boy--that rose almost to the height of genius. And he believed in +himself. He had great notions, great ambitions. Nothing was too big a +project for him to attempt. And success was his--great success, as the +world counts it. Immense riches, too, were his, for when he died he left +behind him half a million. But to us that seems not of so much account +as that that great mind of his was the first to grasp what was to put +within their reach a source of riches and profit to thousands of +working-people in England, and this in face of bitter opposition from +the people themselves. He braved their jealousy, he held his own against +their prejudices and attacks, and working often in bodily weakness and +pain, but with persevering determination, he brought this boon to his +country. With untiring courage and long, patient labour, he built up the +splendid scheme that has turned out for us to be the Factory System of +our country to-day. + + + + +JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. + + +When Josiah Wedgwood was born, some 170 years ago, I daresay the people +of the little village of Burslem would have been greatly astonished had +they been told that the humble potter's child was by-and-by to change +the place, with its few straggling houses, into a flourishing town with +thousands of inhabitants. And not this alone, but that he would make for +himself such fame that his name should be a household word throughout +Great Britain, and indeed throughout the world. + +When Josiah came into the world there was already a small army of +brothers and sisters awaiting him in the humble little house close by +the churchyard of Burslem, for he was the youngest of thirteen. + +Although then large towns and places near the sea were marching on with +the progress of civilisation, little country places buried inland were +shunted into a siding, as it were, and so were left far behind the great +world. In this way the midland counties of England were a long time +emerging from the darkness of the Middle Ages. Staffordshire, the county +of pottery, lagged a long way behind in improvements. Its villages were +straggling and dirty. Its houses little better than thatched hovels or +mud huts. Heaps of waste and dirt and rubbish blocked their doorways. +Broken ware was scattered everywhere. Hollows in the ground, where clay +had been scooped out to make ware, gaped close to the doorways, and +collected great pools of evil-smelling stagnant water. + +Burslem was in something of this sorry state when Josiah Wedgwood opened +his eyes on the world. The people of the village for the most part had +been potters for upwards of 200 years. That is, they made pots and +butter-dishes and porringers--for spoons and plates were still of +wood--out of the clay of which their soil was made; not fine and +polished and gleaming white, as we know them to-day, but rough-hewn +things, for the trade of pottery was yet in its infancy. + +A potter's work could be divided among one family. The father and sons +made and fired the dishes. The mother and daughters strapped them on +the backs of horses and donkeys, driving them along roads so wretched +that the poor beasts often stuck in the mud or fell down in the ruts, +while the women, with pipes in their mouths and rough words on their +lips, urged them on with whip and lash. + +It was this sort of life that lay before Josiah. But he had been born +with a boy's best blessing--a good mother--a woman who had a heart large +enough for thirteen children, and who tried what she could to hand down +to them by example a birthright better than riches--to make them +patient, industrious, dependent on self. + +When the child was little more than a baby, and able only to toddle with +uncertain step, he was sent to a dame's school, quite as much to be out +of the way as to learn his A B C. For the rest he played about the door +of the cottage, his greatest treat to bestride the pack-horse's back, +hoisted up by some good-natured packman. When he was seven years old he +was sent to school to a place called Newcastle-under-Lyme, some three +and a half miles across the fields. In long days of sunshine the +walk was full of pleasure to the boy, as he came to know Nature's +beauties--her birds and flowers and sweet fragrances--as we best can +know things, by close and loving intimacy. Long years afterwards, when +he had reached the highest heights of his trade, it was the unforgotten +faces of the wild flowers lurking in the fields between Newcastle and +Burslem that rose before his mind's eye as he decorated his china +services with coloured leaves and flowers. + +When Josiah was nine years old his father died, and the mother was left +to struggle with her thirteen as best she could. Nor do we find that she +failed. She was a woman with a large, loving heart, that rarely quailed +before stress or struggle. The old potter had not been able out of his +hard-won earnings to leave to his children much--£20 when they reached +the age of twenty-one. + +"And so," as Josiah used to say long afterwards, "I began on the very +lowest round of the ladder." + +And now the child's scanty schooling had come to an end. He could write +and he could read, and he knew something of the mysteries of arithmetic, +but for the rest--that great storehouse of knowledge the world +contained--he had to unlock the door of _that_ for himself, and he did +it patiently, often in weariness and pain and suffering, as the years +went on. + +To his eldest son Thomas the father had left the pottery, and now it +fell to him to act as father to the family. Josiah, as a matter of +course, went into the business, beginning, I suppose, at the humble post +of turning what was called "the potter's wheel." + +This was a wheel with a strap round it attached to a disc that revolved +horizontally and beside which sat a man called "a thrower," shaping with +his fingers and hands the moist clay that was to form a bowl or plate or +whatever vessel was to be made, copying a pattern in front of him. + +The boy worked steadily, but hardly had he reached the stage of +"thrower," hardly had people noted and admired the wonderful deftness +with which the boyish hands moulded and shaped the clay, when a cloud +descended and settled on his life--a cloud that, though he struggled +bravely against its depression all through life, never entirely lifted. + +The terrible epidemic of small-pox visited Burslem, and the Wedgwood +family, living as they did on the edge of the churchyard, were among the +first to take it, the youngest so badly that his life was despaired of. +However, after long struggle, they pulled him through; but the disease +left behind it a knee which gave him hours and days of excruciating +pain, and seemed almost as if it would blight his whole life and ruin +his career. Every remedy was tried, in vain. At first when he rose in +bed, weak and unstrung, he fell back again. When later he began to stand +it was with weariness and pain. But the dark cloud had, though all +unseen at first, a silver lining. Out of what looked a great calamity +there sprang good. The boy when he crawled back to work was no longer +fit for the "thrower's" bench. The position he had now to take--with his +leg stretched out in front of him--cramped and impeded him. No longer +active and able-bodied, he was thrown, as it were, in upon himself, and +so took to thinking--not in a gloomy, despondent way, but thinking how +best he could improve himself, how best he could succeed in that calling +that from the very outset held a charm for him and all through life lay +very near to his heart. + +At the age of fourteen Josiah was formally bound apprentice to his +brother. Here is the form. The quaint words sound ceremonious--almost +solemn. The writing provided that he was-- + +"To learn the Art, Mystery, Occupation or Imployment of throwing and +handling which he, the said Thomas Wedgwood, now useth, and with him as +an apprentice to dwell, continue and serve." + +An apprentice in those days at the pottery works was allowed "his meat, +drink, washing and lodging, with suitable apparel of all kinds, both +linen and woollen and all other necessaries, both in sickness and in +health." + +In return the master "was to teach or cause to be taught the art of +throwing and handling." + +How poor these potters were, and how poorly they paid their apprentices, +may be gathered from this: + +For the first three years he got 1_s._ a week, for the second three +years he got 1_s._ 6_d._ a week, and for the seventh and last 4_s._ a +week. Besides this he got, once a year, a pair of shoes. At the end of +his apprenticeship, if he chose, he got 5_s._ a week for five years. It +was a dreary enough outlook for an eager, ambitious boy anxious to make +his way in the world. + +But boy though he was, the difficulty of getting on--pain, +weakness--none of these obstacles were allowed to overcome Josiah. +Then even at that early age he showed the germs of that perseverance +that stood out so strongly by-and-by in the character of the man. + +Strange as it may seem to us, what sounds the very common business of +making rough earthenware milk-bowls and butter-pots and plates was often +half shrouded in mystery, and went near to being something of a secret. + +Pottery was yet in its beginnings--not yet an art--and it could only +grow and come to perfection by someone giving to it deep thought and +long, patient, painstaking experiments. For instance, one man might pore +over the matter and discover something new or come to some conclusion. +He might find one substance, a clay or a soil, that when mixed with a +second substance produced a third thing--something new. He might begin +to work this out in his pottery, and immediately all the workmen in the +place knew the secret of how he did it. The knowledge spread, and while +he believed it was still all his own, other men had seized on his +discovery; other potteries were turning out his ware and selling it. + +So keen were men to find out the discoveries of other men, and so +closely have these secrets been kept, that sometimes a master would +prefer to employ idiots, when he could get them, to turn his wheel. If +one workman appeared more skilled than the others he was shut up while +at work. The door was locked, the windows were blinded, and when he came +out he was carefully searched. Men have been known to pretend to be +idiots just that they might get inside a noted pottery; even to put up +with kicks and blows for their stupidity; to make intentional mistakes +to encourage the falsehood; to hold on to this perhaps as long as two +whole years; while night after night they crept home and there wrote +down carefully every item of what they had seen, and so made the secrets +their own. + +In Josiah's boyhood there was much of this sort of thing carried on. A +strict secrecy--a protection of themselves--as merchant vessels on the +high seas in olden days guarded themselves from the pirates who, ready +to pounce upon them, roamed the waters. + +But as a man--a great, large-hearted, open-minded man--and one of the +greatest inventors of his time, Wedgwood never followed this line of +action. Rather was he nobly willing that others should be the better +for his brains. And so during his long life he took out only one patent, +as we call that which makes an invention all a man's own and prevents +others touching it. + +At the time we write of there was just beginning to dawn on Josiah's +boyish mind what was by-and-by to raise him to the very top of his +calling. + +He took to pondering and considering and making experiments with the +clay that lay about the doors. How to make the black mottled ware more +delicate--the ruddy-coloured of a fairer hue--how to mould rough edges +more smoothly--how to introduce fresh colours and glazes. + +The whole thing threw over the boy a great glamour of fascination. They +show in Burslem yet a teapot--an ornamented thing made of the ochreous +clay of the district--as "Josiah Wedgwood's first teapot." + +But the elder brother, brought up to the cut-and-dried routine of the +potteries life, had little patience with what he looked on as the +younger's shiftless dreamings. He had brothers and sisters to keep, and +money to make, and if Josiah were not more practical he wanted him no +longer. + +And so the honest but short-sighted brother, his eyes blinded by the +present need of ready money, failed to realise that there was something +greater, and that the young brother would one day leave him and his +plodding ways far behind. + +But while his brother looked upon the boy as an unpractical dreamer, +there were others in Burslem who saw the beauty of the patient, +uncomplaining, steadfast life, and more than one father in the place +called on his sons to take a pattern from Josiah Wedgwood. + +But in the midst of his patient inquiries, and while he was yet little +more than a boy, a swift blow descended upon the Wedgwoods. The mother +who had for so long been father and mother in one to them was taken from +them. They laid her in the quiet little church of Burslem, and the +brothers and sisters went on living together. + +It was not till he had reached the age of twenty-two that Josiah cut the +knot that bound him to home and went out into the great world to seek +his fortune, as eager youths will do to the end of time. He took with +him his little all--his father's legacy of £20, a pair of capable +hands, and a wonderful brain. + +His boyhood was over. Manhood lay before him--rough places at first in +the world, puzzles, difficulties, trials, but in the end name, fame, +riches. If we could follow him past boyhood and just peep at the +future, I should like to tell you how he let some of these fancies +his brother had despised have free play; how he invented a new green +earthenware, forming plates in the shape of ornamental leaves; how he +coloured snuff-boxes and toilet vessels to imitate precious stones, and +how the London jewellers eagerly bought these up. How he made flowered +cups and saucers, familiar enough to us to-day, but strange and +beautiful to people then. Under him things took a step forward. People +even at their meals saw things of beauty. These became an education to +them--an art. Besides this they found other improvements. Lids fitted, +spouts poured, handles could be held! These were small beginnings, but +from these Josiah made great strides. + +And one of the secrets of these strides was that he bent his _whole +mind_ upon his work. At night, after a day of hard work, he would +sit down and write out every smallest detail of his experiments and +discoveries. No pains were too great for him to take. Neither would he +trust to memory, so often in pain and weariness, but with a perseverance +that was never daunted, he would make his evening notes. + +To him no trouble seemed too great, no detail too small. The boyhood +rarely fails to show the stuff the man is made of, and it was no +ordinary stuff the great potter was made of. So we are not surprised +that step by step he moved upwards and onwards. Hands and brain were +never idle. Often prostrate with pain and weakness, he would still +read and think and plan. Indeed, so much did he get into the habit of +planning that many a night it robbed him of his sleep, for he never lay +down at nights without making in his head a programme for the coming +day. + +Another secret of his success was his courage. Was it long familiarity +with pain--for his knee broke out again and again, and gave him weary +hours of suffering--that taught him to endure and resolutely refuse +to be overcome? Was it this made him say with Napoleon, "Nothing is +impossible"? + +He met all difficulties alike with patience and with a steadfast purpose +to overcome them. He had two special ones. His workmen--often lazy, +indolent, drunken--were a trouble to him, as were also the furnaces, +where the heat had to be of a certain degree to fire his ware, and where +sometimes the work and labour of months would be destroyed in a few +hours. By patience he won the hearts of the first, and they came to +trust him, and by patience, too, he gradually righted the second. He +pulled down and he built up till the kilns were right. + +"It must be done," he used to say of any difficult enterprise, "let what +may stand in the way." + +He had great ambition for his beloved calling. He wanted to make it an +art. England had been long famed for cheapness but not for beauty, and +so he set himself to study the designs of the ancients and of the +Greeks, copying them on china and porcelain. + +And yet it seemed that even as he took step after step there were ever +on each round of the ladder new difficulties. There was a long-standing +one--the wretched state of the roads in Staffordshire, and the +difficulty of getting the ware carried to other places for sale, and +of getting necessaries for the work brought into the county. + +The backs of horses and donkeys, these were the only mode of +conveyance--miserable underfed creatures that tottered and stumbled +along and not seldom stuck in the muddy lanes or fell in the ruts and +rugged roads, and often broke their legs and their wares, and had to be +shot where they lay--a happy release for the poor animals. Josiah saw +all this, and realised that something must be done to remedy the evil. +So in the midst of his watchful care and constant thought for his +beloved potteries he made time to push the grand scheme of a canal that +began gradually to see daylight. It was not pack-horses that would +labour slowly to Birmingham and Sheffield, but a broad waterway to carry +goods to Liverpool and other seaports. This was what his native county +wanted. And so he subscribed largely to this, and helped to push a Bill +through Parliament. + +"I scarcely know," he wrote, "whether I am a landed gentleman, an +engineer, or a potter, for indeed I am all three and many other +characters by turns." + +In time Burslem, to which he had come back after absence, could hold him +no longer, so he bought a place near and called it Etruria, because for +long he had admired the beautiful work of the Etruscans away north of +the Tiber in Italy. + +By his wonderful enterprise he made this bare place blooming and +fruitful, and from a lonely wilderness converted it into a place with +thousands of flourishing houses and workmen. And he himself was the +mainspring of it all--the moving spirit. + +Now the inventions of his brain were selling all over the country, and +indeed all over the world. His delicate china had attracted the notice +of the Queen--Charlotte, the wife of George III. It was the full +development of that "cream" ware whose first beginnings had dawned on +his brain as a boy. She ordered a set of it, and henceforth it was known +the "Queen's Ware," and she sent to Josiah Wedgwood and said he might +call himself "Potter to the Queen." + +And now his name was made, and soon a fortune followed. He discovered +a "jasper dip," and he invented a special kind of ware of which he +made vases, and for a time it seemed as if the country went mad for +Wedgwood's vases. "A violent vase mania," he called it himself. The +mania spread to Ireland and the Continent. Before this he had opened +showrooms in London, and the Wedgwood vases were wont to draw crowds as +great as the pictures in the Royal Academy. Nor did he confine himself +to vases. He made portraits in china of great men, and fashioned +beautiful chimney-pieces. His heart went out in burning indignation +against the curse of slavery, and he produced a model of a negro +chained in a supplicating attitude, with this motto round the figure: +"Am I not a Man and a Brother?" + +Now he had made his fortune, but the man remained the same, much as he +had been as a boy--hard-working, conscientious, painstaking. As a grand +foundation to all his work he had made the surface of the earth a mighty +study, and when he died he left 7,000 specimens of soils and clays +labelled and classified. + +Even when rich and famous he still took minute note of details. He +would visit each department of his works himself. He would have nothing +"scamped." Well did the workmen know the "thud" of his wooden leg on the +floor that announced his coming, and with his stick he would break any +article he did not think perfect. + +"That won't do for Josiah Wedgwood!" he would say. + +As life advanced, while it brought him joys, it brought him also clouds +and sorrows. His knee grew so tormenting that he was forced to have it +taken off. After this he used a wooden leg, or rather many wooden legs, +for he was very particular about having it often renewed. Partial +blindness attacked him, general ill-health, but his pluck, his +perseverance never failed. + +As he withdrew a little from active life he took to gardening, but his +family noted his failing powers--not of mind, but of body. Asthma was +added to his other sufferings. + +"I am becoming an old man," he wrote. "Age and infirmity overtake me, +and more than whisper in my ear that it is time to diminish rather than +increase the objects of my attention." + +The end came very suddenly, and while he was yet not old. A pain in his +jaw was the beginning. Fever and insensibility followed, and in his +sixty-fifth year Josiah Wedgwood closed his eyes on a world that he left +the better for his passage through it. + +He had scaled the ladder to its highest height. He was born in a humble +potter's cottage. He died in a mansion, surrounded by a population he +had gathered together and made to flourish. He left half a million, but +he had used his riches well. He had given of them to suffering and +distress. He made a poor depressed trade into one of the flourishing +industries of Great Britain, and for himself a world-wide name. He was +a great pioneer, and he accepted with patience the difficulties, the +thanklessness, the buffetings that confront the man who in anything +attempts the first beginning. + +But while we admire his splendid qualities, it is the singular beauty +of his nature--a nature doubtless softened and sweetened by trial--his +uncomplaining bravery, his thought for others, his simple, steadfast +determination to carry through his life-work, in spite of the burden of +weariness and sickness and bodily pain, that most of all speak to our +hearts. + + + + +GEORGE STEPHENSON. + + +If a town, or even a village, is of any importance nowadays it is sure +to have within it or alongside it a railway station, a place that brings +it into touch with the great outside world. Some seventy-five years ago +there were no railways or railway-stations in Great Britain, or anywhere +else, and people were content to post or coach along roads behind +horses. But now times are changed, and it is not wonderful that the name +of George Stephenson, the man who has opened up the country and spread +lines upon it like a mighty network, is a name to-day that people look +up to as one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known. + +Most of us are fond of seeing the small beginnings of great endings, so +it is natural enough that for us the tiny village of Wylam should be of +deepest interest, for here George Stephenson first saw the light. + +[Illustration: "Stephenson fighting the fire in Killingworth Colliery."] + +We cannot visit Wylam without feeling at once that we are in the heart +of the colliery country. Newcastle's lofty chimneys tower some eight +miles off, and chimneys closer at hand belch forth great volumes of +smoke and smut, and flaming furnaces shoot out lurid lights by night far +across the country. + +In a common little wayside house, just a labourer's cottage, standing on +the roadside, some 120 years ago a baby opened his eyes on a world that +was to be rough enough at first for his young feet, though at last they +were to land on the very topmost round of the ladder. + +The second child of the fireman of the old pumping-engine of the +colliery of Wylam, little George was born to grinding poverty. Time as +it passed brought other children besides George to the Stephensons, and +soon it came to be a question how the fireman and his wife and six +children were to live on 12_s._ a week! + +It was indeed a problem to solve and a struggle to face. When food had +been got for the little mouths, what was left for clothes and schooling? +Very little for the first, nothing for the second. No schooling +certainly for little George, and so he spent his childhood between +running errands for his mother and standing by his father's engine fire, +where the boys and girls of the village loved to gather to listen to +old Robert's wondrous tales, or to see the birds fed, for the old man +loved birds of all kinds, and would save the crumbs from his own scant +dinner to feed the robins. Here it was that baby George learned that +early love of birds that lasted as long as life. As a boy he would catch +and tame the blackbirds, and these would fly about the cottage all day, +and at night come and roost at his bed-head. Years after, when he was an +old man, he used to tell how, walking with his father one day, he parted +some thick branches overhead and lifted the child in his arms that he +might peep at a nest full of young blackbirds. It was a sight he never +forgot. + +But, baby though he was, his days were not all spent in play. At home +there were seven younger brothers and sisters to be nursed and watched +and kept out of the way of the heavy waggons that were dragged by horses +along the tram-road in front of the house, and much of this fell to +George's share. + +As the years passed the Stephenson family, obliged like other colliers +"to follow the work," moved to a place called Dewley Burn, and now as +George had reached the age of eight he was ready to earn some money! + +To show how smart and quick the child was for his years there has come +down to us a pretty story. + +He and his sister Nell had gone to Newcastle one day, and among their +little commissions they were bent on buying Nell a new bonnet. They +found the very thing she wanted in a shop, but the price was beyond +their purse. It was 1_s._ 3_d._ over the mark, and the pair, sadly +downcast, had to leave the shop. Standing crestfallen outside the boy +suddenly exclaimed, "I have it! Wait here till I come back." Off he +darted, and Nell waited while the minutes wore to hours, and still he +did not come. Just as she began to think he must either have been killed +or run over he dashed up breathless and thrust the coveted 1_s._ 3_d._ +into her hand. + +"But where did you get it?" she asked, astonished. + +"By holding gentlemen's horses," was the reply. + +The child's first situation at this time was with a woman who kept a +farm and needed a boy to herd her cows and keep them out of the way of +passing waggons. For this the little herd-boy was paid 2_d._ a day. How +happy he was in long leisure hours to bird's-nest or whittle whistles +out of reeds, or in company with another boy--by-and-by, like himself, +to be one of the world's great engineers--to model toy engines out of +clay, using hollowed corks for corves and hemlock stalks for steam +pipes! + +Soon George advanced a step in life. His work was still +farm-work--hoeing turnips for 4_d._ a day, leading the plough horses +when his little legs could hardly stride the furrows, and working in +the dawning hours of day when other children slept. + +But his heart was really at the engine fire or in the coal shaft. It +was "bred in the bone," and he gladly returned to the black, grimy +life, and along with his brother became a coal-picker, separating +stones and dross from the coal, and so earning 6_d._ a day. + +By-and-by he was advanced to driving "the gin-horse," a horse that +travels round and round at the pit's mouth drawing up and letting down +by means of a rope wound round a drum, baskets of coal or buckets of +water, and for this he was paid 8_d._ a day. + +Long miles he had to walk every day to and from his work, "a +grit-growing lad, with bare legs and feet," and I think we may be sure +there was not a bird's nest on that familiar road that the little +bird-lover did not know by heart. + +His next rise was to a shilling a day. This was a great step up, and +for this he had what was called a night shift, lading and unlading the +coals as they came to the mouth of the pit, and reversing the rope to +go down again. Monotonous enough work it was, but he held on to it for +two years. And now another step up was at hand. It was a proud day for +the boy--that Saturday afternoon when he was told that his wage had +been raised to 12_s._ a week! + +"I am a made man now," he exclaimed in great delight. + +And now he was seventeen years old. He had really stepped beyond his +father both in wage and position. But there was one thing which he +had yet to master. It may seem strange to us, but George could neither +read nor write. It began to dawn upon him then that things about +which he wanted to know--pumps and engines and the great world of +mechanics--could only be learned from between the boards of books that +were closed to him. But with George to realise an evil was to try at +once to mend it. Inside the boy's rough working jacket there beat a +manly heart, with a great longing to make the most of his opportunities, +to let no chance slip of doing his best. + +So he actually went to school at nights--three times a week, spending +3_d._ out of his wages to be taught to read and write. He laboured on +and made progress, and in time he wrote and read, and by-and-by he took +another step and added to these arithmetic. With marvellous quickness he +"caught on" to figures. In the long weary night shifts sitting by the +blaze of the fire he would "work" the sums his master had "set" him or +write his copies, just as years after, so eager was he to seize every +opportunity that offered, he would many a time (in odd moments) chalk +his sums on the sides of the coal waggons! + +So little by little, by untiring labour and unwearied industry, by +"neglecting nothing," he rose. The miners who were his daily companions +were, many of them, a rough lot. Their life was a hard one and their +pleasures few, and on Saturday afternoons--pay-day--their amusements +were cock-fighting, dog-fighting, and drinking in the ale-house, while +the future great engineer might be found engaged in pulling to pieces +his engine, cleaning it, getting to know it as we know the character, +the habits, the face of our dearest friend, all the time laying in such +a store of practical knowledge as was to serve him in good stead in +time to come. + +Not that George did not delight in exercise. Indeed, few of his +companions could equal him in athletics. There was nothing he enjoyed +like challenging them to feats of strength in throwing the hammer or in +lifting heavy weights. And even in comparative old age he loved to +engage in a wrestle with a friend. + +About this time George had a favourite dog which he taught to fetch and +carry his dinner in a pitcher tied round his neck. At the appointed hour +the creature used to go straight to his master, turning neither to the +right nor to the left. But one day he was beset with danger in the shape +of a bigger dog with murder in its eye. George's dog closed with it, and +a deadly tussle began, but it beat the bully and came off victorious +but bleeding. When he reached his master the pitcher was there, but the +dinner was spilt; but George was prouder far, when an onlooker described +the fight, of his dog's courage than he would have been of the most +sumptuous feast. + +But in spite of his larger wage money was scarce, and George beat about +in his own mind how he was to earn a few extra shillings. With keen eye +ever on the outlook for what lay nearest, he lighted on the _shoes_ of +his fellow-workmen! He took to mending these, and he mended them so well +that the pitmen soon got into the way of making George their cobbler. +And from this he went on to making shoe-lasts for the village shoemaker. +In this way it came to pass that in a fortnight's time he would +sometimes make as much as £2. When he had by long and careful labour +saved his first guinea great was his delight. "I am now a rich man!" he +said. + +Yet another source of earning money was at hand. One day the chimney of +his house went on fire, and being drenched with water, the soot and +water together succeeded in damaging an eight-day clock that stood in +his kitchen. Money was still scarce, and the watchmaker did not work +without pay, so George set to work and took the clock to pieces, cleaned +it, and put it together again. Rumours of this new "handiness" spread, +and colliers from far and near sent their watches and clocks to him to +doctor. It was almost as if nothing came amiss to these wonderful hands +or, indeed, to that wonderful brain. + +A wheezy engine pump, a clock out of gear, a pair of worn-out shoes--he +had a remedy for all. Painstaking, conscientious, thorough--the work of +the boy shadowed forth the success of the man. + +If I had space I could tell you how, after he ceased to be a boy, he +became a splendid man. That divine capacity--the creative faculty for +making something out of nothing--that had been struggling long within +him came to the surface, and he burst on the world as an Inventor. + +The boon he gave to men--the thing with which his name will ever be +linked in history--is the Locomotive Steam Engine. + +What battles he fought for it when the country rose in arms and said +they would rather hold by the old post-horses and coaches that had been +good enough for their fathers! They were hard to convince. They declared +if railways and trains came the country would be ruined. The engines +would vomit forth smoke. No bird could live in the poisoned air. Game +all over the country would be spoiled. The sparks that came from the +engine would set fire to the houses near which they passed. Hens would +stop laying! Cattle would cease to graze! The man who said he would send +engines flying through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour was +a fool and a maniac! + +Then Stephenson showed the same patience--for the world was long of +being convinced--as he had done on those long night-shifts, sitting +lonely by the engine fire and working out his sums, or as years later, +when prospects were very dark and money scarce, he wept bitter tears, +"for he knew not where his lot in life would be cast." + +But though only a self-taught mechanic, Stephenson stuck to his guns in +the face of the most skilled engineers in the land. For two long months +the thing hung in the balance. It came before the great House of +Commons. George himself was put into the witness-box. Single-handed, +undaunted, he faced a world that was all against him. And then he had to +bear the great trial of his life. The Bill was thrown out of Parliament. +But still he did not despair. He looked into the future, and he saw +himself conqueror. The Bill was again brought forward and eventually +passed. I could tell you then of his long course of triumphs. How his +engine, "The Rocket," won a £500 prize. How really the first seed of +the Railway System of the world was sown then. How then he got leave to +make a railway between Stockton and Darlington, and in time one between +Manchester and Liverpool. How when, in 1830, the line was finished, +people flocked in hundreds and thousands to see "a steam coach running +upon a railway at three times the speed of a mail-coach." + +The people were carried away with excitement! The great steam-horse that +we look at half a dozen times a day with indifference was thought to be +the world's greatest wonder. And George Stephenson was the hero of the +hour. As the train neared Manchester, the people in their excitement +broke all bounds, and even the military could not keep order, as they +swarmed on the carriage like bees, and hung on to the handles, many of +them being tumbled off, while shoutings and cheers went up from a +thousand throats. + +And now that he was successful, now that people praised where they +had blamed, and pandered where they had scoffed, the man remained the +same--modest, single-minded, just what he had been as the boy earning +his shilling a day by driving the old "gin" horse at the pit's mouth. + +And now from the humble labourer's cottage he had climbed to the +highest heights of fame. He was the first mechanical genius in the eyes +of the world. The greatest in the land rejoiced to honour him. From the +depths of poverty he had risen to wealth. Honours flowed in upon him. +But the "boy is father to the man," and it was peculiarly true of George +Stephenson. + +"I never want," he had said long years before, when he was earning +£100 a year, and was able to keep a horse, "I never want to be +higher." + +He was much the same as in those old days. There was no dazzling him +with worldly display or worldly honours. He cared little for social +distinctions. His instincts all along had been "to dwell among his own +people." It gave him the keenest pleasure to have a day at Newcastle +among the scenes of his boyhood, looking up the simple friends of his +youth. And his tastes, too, remained in many ways just the old simple +ones. When he was an old man, and nearing the end of his pilgrimage, +when he was surrounded by every luxury of table and otherwise, he would +call for a "crowdie," and with the basin of boiling water between his +knees, would stir in the oatmeal with his own hands, watching it with +great satisfaction, and then sup the whole with sweet milk, pronouncing +it "capital." + +His last days were very peaceful. He removed from the swirling current +of business life into a side eddy, when he was about sixty, to a place +called Tapton, where he lived a quiet life, meditating among his beasts +and birds and flowers, reading in each something of the beauty of the +mind of a Greater Inventor than he. He took no part in business life, +leaving it to his son, though now and then he would hear from afar +echoes from the old world as the old war-horse scents the smoke of +battle. + +There was no long illness to mar the end of his splendid energetic life. +Those who had known him in the full tide and flush of health had not the +pain of noting either physical or mental decay. He was at a meeting in +connection with engineering in July. Some weeks later he took a severe +fever, and after ten day's illness, without much suffering, the end +came. On the 12th August, in his sixty-seventh year, George Stephenson, +the great engineer, passed away. + +The whole civilised world bewailed his going. He had lived long enough +for it to realise and appreciate the mark he had made on the age. But +most of all did the colliers mourn him--the men to whom he had been as +a kindly father, a leader, a hero. They laid him in the quiet little +churchyard at Chesterfield, and they raised monuments to him all over +the country, as a grateful people will do,--erected statues and memorial +schools, and painted portraits. But a man like George Stephenson needs +no memorial of stone. He has left an undying work to speak for him, +and a character that has moved men to admiration everywhere for its +simplicity, combined with its greatness, its manliness, that made +it possible for him, the poor collier's son, to meet on equal +ground--himself also being a man--men of the highest rank in the land. + +We cannot, any of us, imitate his genius or his power of invention, or +his splendid physical strength, but it is within the scope of all of us, +however young or insignificant, to copy his conscientious, unwearied +hard work. + +"Ah, ye lads," he used to say to young men when he was himself an old +one, in his broad, honest Doric, "there's none o' ye know what _wark_ +is!" + +He has left us a splendid example of patience, content, courage, +attention to detail. But most precious of all, of a heart that beat +as kindly in old age as in youth, that made him dearly loved by his +workmen, and that never turned away from hearing and helping those in +trouble. + +Riches and success and prosperity, crowding upon him in later years, had +no power to spoil the simple beauty of his character, for the Wylam +collier's son, besides being the world's honoured inventor, was also +"one of Nature's gentlemen." + + + + +THOMAS ALVA EDISON. + + +To see as a boy the greatest inventor of the age, we shall have to cross +the Atlantic and take a journey to the United States of America. England +has done wonders in the way of discovery and invention, but it is to New +England, as we call it, because she is a daughter of the old Mother +Country, that we must go for a brightness and a sharpness of wit that +sometimes make us think of the flash of polished steel. + +We all know the name of Edison. It is not a name of history, for he is +living to-day, a man still in his prime, still sending out from that +wonderful brain of his things that astonish men, and have won for him +the name of the "wonder-worker of the modern world." + +I have before me as I write the picture of a square, brick house, with +outside shutters hooked back, a white paling half encircling it, and a +couple of bare, leafless trees before it. The house is plain and poor, +and has a strangely unfamiliar look to our English eyes, but it is of +the deepest interest to us as the birthplace of Thomas Edison. + +[Illustration: EDISON IN HIS LABORATORY.] + +The boy first saw the light in 1847, and though he came into the world +with but a poor provision waiting him, he found himself welcomed with +a very wealth of love and tenderness. Mrs. Edison had Scotch blood in +her veins, and she was a mother in a thousand. It is a common thing +in history to find that a son draws his greatness, many of his best +qualities, from his mother, and this son took many of his from Mrs. +Edison. She was his constant companion, his loving nurse, his gentle +teacher during those early years of life that leave so deep an impress +on the "afterwards." + +The child was seven years old when the Edison family moved to a place +called Port Huron, and there he began to spend every spare moment in +reading. So earnest was he that he set himself to read through the +Detroit Free Library, and had devoured a close row of volumes before +his attempt was discovered. + +Strange and solemn sound some of the titles of the books he read when +he was twelve years old--a time when most boys are lightly dipping into +newspapers and magazines and books of adventure. Burton's _Anatomy of +Melancholy_, Hume's _History of England_, Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire_. + +In 1862, when he was barely fifteen years old, he came out more fully +from the shelter of home and mixed with the busy world, making a place +in it for himself by his own young wits. He was a newspaper boy, and +sold his papers like other boys, not stopping still in one place, but +going on the train to different stations along the line, and selling as +he went. + +About this time there was a great fever and ferment in America. The +North were fighting with the South, and people panted for news of each +battle as it took place. Papers with reports were devoured as soon as +printed. + +"Now," thought Edison, "is my chance," and there began to work in the +brain of the boy a big scheme. As the first step to carrying it out, he +betook himself to the station telegraph clerk. + +"If," he said, "you will let me wire the war news on a few stations +ahead, and have it written up on the blackboard, I will promise you some +papers, and now and then a magazine." + +He repeated his request to the different clerks along the line. His +eager face and twinkling eyes and earnest words won all hearts, and his +request was granted. He next went to the editor of a well-known paper. + +"Give me a thousand copies," he begged, "and I will pay out of the +proceeds of my venture." Here, again, he succeeded. And now it remained +but to get the engine-driver to promise him a few minutes at the +different stations, and he started on his venture. + +At the first stopping-place he had been wont to sell some half-dozen +papers. That day, as he looked out, the platform was strangely crowded, +and it suddenly dawned on him, from the eager faces of the people and +their excited gestures, that it was _papers_ they wanted! He dashed on +to the platform, and in a few minutes had sold forty at five cents each, +or about a penny of our money. It was much the same at the next station. +The people had read the headings on the station blackboard, and they +crowded on to the platform, an excited, hustling mob, for papers! It +dawned on the boy, here was a chance to raise his prices, so he doubled +them, and sold 150 where he had used to sell a dozen! It was the same +all along the line. At the last station--Port Huron--his home, the +people were most excited of all. The town was a mile from the station. +Edison started off with his papers, but was met half-way by an eager, +hurrying crowd. They all wanted news. He stopped, drawing up in front of +a church where a prayer-meeting was being held. Presently the people +poured out and surrounded the boy, willingly paying him five times the +usual price of his paper. He began "to take in," as he expressed it, in +his own terse, telling words, "a young fortune." + +After this the busy boyish brain began to look eagerly ahead, to face +life seriously. He did not start off on a fresh tack. He took hold of +what was nearest to his hand, and he bent his mind on improving that. He +had found people were in a hurry for news. The quicker they got it the +better they were pleased. Nothing could surely be quicker than that they +should get it damp from the press! So it flashed into his brain--why not +print a paper on the train? + +The question was no sooner asked than answered. + +He looked about till he lighted on an old car, and he rigged it up as +a printing-office with old types and stereos he begged from a newspaper +office. In this novel press-room he threw off sheet after sheet of +what he called _The Grand Trunk Herald_, the first and last paper ever +printed on a train. The boy of fifteen was editor, compositor, and +newsvendor in one. The paper "caught on," and the circulation went up +to 400. + +But, alas! misfortune was soon to overwhelm the young adventurer. One +unlucky day the printing-office--the old car, which grew daily more +decrepit and unequal to the jolting of the journey--by a more violent +lurch than usual threw over a bottle of phosphorus. The cork flew out, +and in a few seconds the car was in flames. They were easily enough got +under, but Edison's venture had received its deathblow. The furious +car-conductor would henceforth have none of him. He boxed his ears, and +pitched him on to the platform along with his precious belongings--the +whole paraphernalia of his craft. + +It is a sorry picture that presents itself to our mind's eye. The boy +standing half stunned, the rubbish and _débris_ of his belongings +strewn at his feet, and the cherished old jolting car, the scene of his +labours, gradually fading into distance! It seemed as if his bright +dreams were all extinguished, his golden hopes doomed to come to +nothing. As he stood there he faced it all--a mere boy low down in the +world, badly fed, poorly clothed, almost penniless, but we do not hear +that he either flinched or complained, or that a boyish sob rose in his +throat. He was made of the stuff of the Stoic. It is our hearts that are +sore and anguished, not chiefly for the hopes and dreams disappointed, +but because of a terrible calamity that befell him then, when he was +perhaps hardly conscious of it; but that grew darker and weightier as +the years rolled on. + +When the irritated conductor had boxed the boy's ears, so brutal had +been his onslaught that the delicate nerves were injured for life, +and now with the flight of years has come deafness to wrap the great +inventor in a partial mantle of silence. It is perhaps we who feel +most the infinite pathos of the thing, while the man himself bears his +affliction with the same noble patience with which he accepted +disappointment long years ago as a boy. + +At that time he straightway turned his eyes bravely homewards. He picked +up his precious belongings, and carried them to a cellar in his father's +house. + +It was about this time that his mind began to bend towards that which +has ever held for him a keen interest through life--the Telegraph. A +waking ambition in him desired strongly to perfect himself in it. He +was poor and friendless, and yet firmly, doggedly resolved to get on +somehow. So out of his scant earnings--still as newsboy--he bought a +book on Telegraphy, and this he pored over night and day. + +And now at this early age I think the great inventor must have touched +that mine that was afterwards to yield him so wondrously of its wealth. + +The boyish mind was putting out feelers, gropingly at first, in the +direction of creation, that divine faculty that is granted to so few of +us. We can recognise the seed in its first tiny sproutings. He and a boy +friend resolved to make a telegraph. They made a line of wire between +their houses, insulated with bottles, and crossed under a busy +thoroughfare by means of an old cable found in the bed of the Detroit +River. The first magnets were wound with wire and swathed in ancient +rags, and a piece of spring brass formed the key. Edison pressed two +large and formidable-looking cats into his service, tied a wire to their +legs, and applied friction to their backs. But the experiment ended in +failure. The cats, frightened and furious, resented the liberty, and +parted company with, the wire, dashing off in different directions. + +But failure never discouraged Edison, nor stayed the working of his +brain. He was a true philosopher, and he was, like an elastic ball, +possessed of enormous rebound. + +Handed down to us there is a story of the boy which, while it may not +throw much light on his brain, throws some on his heart and on his ready +courage. He was still a newspaper boy on the trains, and while at most +stations a few minutes was the limit of waiting, at a certain station +where shunting took place the minutes ran to half an hour. The boy was +wont to spend this half-hour with the stationmaster's child, of whom he +was fond, or to loiter about his garden. On this particular day the +engine-driver had unlinked the cars in a siding, and one was being +sent with a good deal of impetus to join another portion. It came on +steadily, no one on it to control it, and right in its path was the +unconscious baby smiling in the morning sunshine. Not a moment was to +be lost. Edison threw down his papers and his hat on the platform and +dashed to the rescue. And not a second too soon. As he threw himself and +the child free of the line the car passed and struck his heel. The two +fell with such violence on the gravel beyond that the stone particles +were driven into their flesh, but they were safe! + +The grateful father was at a loss how he could show his gratitude to the +rescuer of his child. He had little money and no reward to give. At last +a plan occurred to him. + +"I will teach you telegraphing," he said to the boy, "and prepare you +for the position of night operator at not less than twenty-five dollars +a month." + +Edison was delighted. The bargain was struck. The wage seemed, no doubt, +a small fortune to the boy--rather more than five of our English pounds. + +And now he had got his "toe on the tape," his foot on the ladder, if +it were only on the lowest round. In three months he could teach his +master, and the promised situation was got for him. From that he passed +to other situations, and gradually he began to make his mark. + +He had a mind wonderfully quick to see a difficult situation and to deal +with it. + +There is a story told of how one winter a severe frost had coated the +great river between Port Huron and Sarnia, how the cable was broken, +and people could neither get news nor send it to the opposite bank of +the river. The spot was crowded with people, baffled and vexed. Edison +came along with a brain rarely at fault and faced the thing. Suddenly, +to the onlookers' astonishment, he mounted a locomotive and sent a +piercing whistle across the water, imitating by the toots of the engine +the dots and dashes of the telegraph system. + +In this way he shouted-- + +"Holloa, Sarnia! Sarnia, do you get what I say?" + +At first there was silence on the part of the telegraph man across the +water. The people on the bank were breathless with excitement. At last +the reply came clear--thrilling. The man on the other side had +understood, and the two cities could "talk" again to each other. + +After this, people began to hear of Edison's fame. But the mania for +experiments had seized him. The cut-and-dried monotonous routine of work +seemed flat and stale to him by comparison. It was as if an enchanted +region of fairyland had been opened to the boy. To be allowed to revel +in it he denied himself food and necessary sleep. When he was seventeen +years old he invented a telegraph instrument that would transfer +writing from one line to another without the help of the operator. + +There were no want of openings now for him to choose from, but sometimes +doors after they had been opened were rudely shut again through envy +and evil feeling. In the great world of invention and discovery there +are perhaps more "ups and downs" than in any other. Some of Edison's +fellow-workers were kind and generous--others were jealous and +detracting. One manager did him an ill turn. He was unequal to +completing a discovery he had begun. On the thing being shown him, +Edison immediately "saw a light" and brought it to completion, but +jealousy crept into the man's small mind and he dismissed the boy on +a false charge. + +So at seventeen he was thrown again on the world. Money was still +scarce. Books and instruments and calls from home swallowed up the most +of it. The boy was chafing under ill-treatment and a sense of injustice. +The want of sleep, perhaps of proper food, was telling on him, but he +looked forward with a clear, undaunted eye. He wanted to reach a certain +town where he believed work awaited him. It meant a walk of a hundred +miles. He was weak, disheartened, ill-prepared for it, but he did it. +He arrived footsore and weary, with torn shoes and tattered clothes, +and his worldly possessions tied in a handkerchief on his back. + +In this shabby plight he presented himself at the telegraph office. He +was eyed coldly enough at first, but by-and-by when tests were given he +stood the tests. There was that in the eager eyes and underneath the +shabby clothes that could not but make itself felt as a power. He began +work. At first his fellow-clerks laughed at him. In time they were won +over, and later he stood out as a workman of the first order. + +He began to collect about him materials for printing--machinery without +which he never felt quite happy. He did a clever thing one day in the +office that brought him into notice. He took a press report at one +sitting--a sitting that lasted from 3.30 p.m. till 4.30 a.m.! After that +he carefully divided it into paragraphs so that each printer would have +exactly three lines to print, and so that a column could be set up in +two or three minutes! + +It may be that about this time money was rather more plentiful, for +Edison began to go to second-hand bookshops and so to gratify his +deep-seated thirst for knowledge. + +His kindness of heart was well known, and there were many about only +too ready to take advantage of it. There were telegraphists who roamed +the country in time of war--"tramp operators" they were called, who took +short engagements and generally ended their time with a "spree." These +found out Edison--a man who did not drink himself and a man who might be +persuaded to lend them money--and these were his worst enemies. + +One day he had bought at an auction fifty volumes of the _North American +Review_. Half a dozen men were sponging off him in his rooms when he +brought home the books and ranged them unsuspiciously round his walls. +Directly he had gone out his guests helped themselves to his purchase, +landed them at the nearest pawnbroker's, and drank the money they +brought. + +But his love for experiments sometimes brought him into scrapes and +disaster, as when he moved a bottle of sulphuric acid one day, strictly +against rules, and the bottle spilt, the contents eating through the +floor to the manager's room below and there eating up _his_ floor and +carpet, the unlucky accident bringing Edison his dismissal. + +And now, at the age of twenty-one, after many different situations +and different experiences, Edison turned his steps to Boston. His +openhandedness had left him short of money. As was often the case with +him, he was sailing very close to the wind. His dress was poor and +shabby, and four days' and nights' travelling had not improved his +appearance. When he presented himself at the office where he was to +be taken on, the other clerks ridiculed him as "a jay from the woolly +west." + +They made up their minds to play a practical joke on him. They took the +New York telegraph man into their confidence. It was arranged he should +send a despatch which Edison was to receive. By this time Edison had +so perfected himself in receiving messages that he could write from +forty-six to fifty-four words a minute--quicker than any operator in +the United States. + +Not knowing his man, the sender began slowly--then quickened his +pace. So did Edison. Quicker still he worked. Edison was in no way +discomfited. Soon the New York man had reached his highest speed, to +which Edison responded with ease, cool, collected, and stopping now and +then to sharpen a pencil between. + +By this time he had discovered that the others were trying to get "a +rise" out of him, but he went on steadily with his work. Then he +stopped and spoke quietly through to the New York man. + +"Say, young man," he said, in his dry humorous way, "change off and send +with your other foot." + +But the New York man had reached the end of his tether and had to get +someone else to finish, and so Edison won his laurels, and "the jay from +the woolly west" was regarded ever after with enormous respect. + +After that his place was in the front rank. Now he had reached the +threshold of manhood, and a long, dazzling vista of achievement and +success stretched before him had he known it. About this time a great, +strong conviction of his responsibilities and of the opportunities life +held out to him swept over him. + +"Adams," he said to a friend, "I've got so much to do, and life is so +short, that I'm going to hustle." + +And if we try to look at what he has crowded into a life not long, we +must allow he has indeed "hustled" to some purpose. As we briefly +glance at the bent of his manhood, his doings fairly dazzle us. He read +enormously all sorts of works on telegraphy and electricity, and he +produced from his brain that which makes him the greatest inventor of +the age. If we tried to enumerate his inventions the names alone would +fill pages. We can do little more than name a few. Among the first of +these was how to send four messages at the same time over one telegraph +wire. + +But even after he had embarked on the glorious sea of discovery, +what "ups and downs"--what sea-saws of fortune were in store for him! +Hunger at times, torn clothes, and battered shoes. But from depths and +half-drowning up again he always came to the surface. He rose grandly, +relying on his own indomitable will. About this time good fortune befell +him. For inventing some telegraphic appliances he got 50,000 dollars, or +rather more than £10,000. He could hardly believe his good luck, and +it was with this he immediately rigged up for himself a workshop. + +And now he was rapidly rising, and the field before him was gradually +opening up wider and wider. He started a laboratory at a place called +Newark, and from this time onwards his inventions seemed to flow from +his brain in a well-nigh continuous stream. + +His workmen were devoted to his service. His genial good-humour and +kindliness, the absence of all harshness in his manner, and his love of +fun could not but endear him to them. They caught the infection, too, of +his earnestness. When he had an idea in his brain he worked at it, as it +were, red-hot, almost without rest or cessation, and they were rarely +reluctant to help him. + +"Now, you fellows!" he would say, shutting himself and his workmen up in +a room on the top flat, "I've locked the door, and you'll have to stay +here until this job is completed." + +During sixty hours, perhaps, he would take no sleep and little food, +while his brain would work at highest pressure until the thing was +wrought. Then he would relax, and sleep for as long as thirty-six hours +at a stretch. + +And now his fame had spread far and wide. The people at Menlo Park, to +which he removed--some twenty-four miles from New York--began to look +upon him as a wizard--a man possessing magical powers. It seemed to them +there was nothing he could not do. Exaggerated tales of his wonderful +powers spread over the country. + +"If people track me here," he said (he had been besieged at Newark), "I +shall simply have to take to the woods." + +Child after child was the offspring of the inventor's brain. At one +time, within the space of a few years, as many as forty-five were born. + +There was the Microphone, which is much like the Telephone, except that +in the Microphone the sound is magnified. There was the Megaphone, which +brings far-away sounds near, so that cattle crunching grass six miles +off could be heard distinctly at Menlo Park! There was the Kinetoscope +we all know, which by swiftly passing pictures--as many as forty-six +a second--seems to give us a single person in motion, somewhat on the +lines of that toy of our childhood, "The Wheel of Life." And there was +the grand king of inventions--the Phonograph--that overtops all the +rest. + +We know it, all of us, by this time. We have listened to it, with the +tubes at our ears, while the voice of someone speaking at a distance is +distinctly borne to us, or the strains of a song sung by some great +singer. + +In 1888 Edison sent his first phonogram by steamer to England. His +friend here had only to take out the wax cylinder, put it into his +machine, and set it in motion, and lo! it seemed to him as if Edison +himself were in the room talking to him! + +Great men all over the world recorded their astonishment and their +praises of the wonderful invention. The Queen sent him a message of +congratulation. People flocked to every exhibition to see it--to the +French one from countries all over Europe. They saw it and straightway +went into raptures. Edison himself, looking into the future, seemed to +see volumes it might yet be brought to do. It might be used to write +letters merely from dictation. It might be used to make clocks speak--to +tell when it was time to come to meals. It might be used for toys. A +tiny phonograph might be placed inside a doll, and it would straightway +"talk"; or in a toy animal, and it would grunt and growl! + +What a strange thing that in this world of passing-away and change we +should be able to preserve from destruction such treasures sheltered in +a wax cylinder--some great man's words of wisdom, or the silver tones of +a sweet musician! + +The more Edison's brain accomplished the more did it seem able to do. As +a man he showed himself untiring as when a boy. He went on discovering. +He invented a way of telegraphing from a moving train. He invented an +Electric Railroad, that drew delighted thousands at the Chicago +Exhibition. + +In 1879 his attention turned to lighting, and he bent all his energies +on inventing an Incandescent lamp for electric light. He spent days +working at a sort of white heat. He began on the 16th October, but +mishaps and accidents seemed to threaten his invention. + +"Let us," he cried to his partner in a ferment of excitement--"let us +make a lamp before we sleep, or die in the attempt." On the morning of +the 21st it was done! + +It astonished the world. It opened up possibilities for miners and +divers, and for men everywhere. + +On the occasion of its exhibition people flocked from all parts of the +United States. Special trains were run. The same furore over the marvel +reigned at the Paris Exposition, and at every other exhibition. And +through it all--a fame, a popularity enough to turn the head of most +mortals--the man remained the same--modest, simple, unpretentious. + +From Menlo Park he went to Orange. His laboratory there was fitted up +with everything conceivable that an inventor red-hot and eager might +want at a moment's notice. And yet often the workrooms presented the +strangest appearance of disorder. Workmen sometimes stretched on +benches or floor after a heavy strain, the great master himself thrown +down--a stick under his head, a coat wound round it for a pillow, and +so snatching a short interval of sleep! He will not be interrupted by +visitors. In this great world of his own he seems at times to live a +sort of separate existence. + +We are amazed, dazzled, astonished by the tremendous results one man in +his lifetime has achieved. He has not been content to take some thing +and modify and improve it and set it to a new purpose as men whom we +call inventors have done in all ages. But he seems to have called upon +the very forces of nature to do his bidding. It is almost as if he had +harnessed the winds, the air, sound, electricity, for his purposes. + +A man after a single discovery not seldom rests on his laurels for life. +This man is still in his prime, and we cannot tell yet what product of +his brain will still astonish us, and we cannot touch here on a tithe of +what he has done. He lives sometimes in his northern home, in New +Jersey, sometimes at Orange. + +As a man he shows the same genial, kindly sympathy which, as a boy, +never failed to win the hearts of his fellow-clerks, the same modesty +that disarmed their jealousy. These things chain his workmen to him +to-day with links of love. Now that men praise and laud him all over the +world he shows the same good-natured indifference to name and fame he +has shown all through. And he has lost nothing of the tireless energy +that used to support him through hard work and long night-sittings as a +boy--this man who, as someone has it, "has kept the path to the patent +office red-hot with his footsteps--this wonder-worker of the modern +world." + + + + +JAMES WATT. + + +There is perhaps no inventor's name with which the British boy is more +familiar than with that of James Watt. In every college of mechanics or +engineers we are met in bust or print by the kindly, shrewd, benevolent +face of the great inventor of the Condensing Steam Engine. + +It is difficult for us to picture what the world must have been before +James Watt came into it--before, as it were, steam took its place and +while yet men and horses and wind and water struggled feebly to do what +steam now does with such apparent ease. + +On the west coast of Scotland stands what is to-day the busy, thriving, +seaport town of Greenock--the birthplace of James Watt. But in 1736, +more than 150 years ago, it was little more than a picturesque +fishing-village, looking out on a peaceful, smiling bay, where a few +modest fishing-craft were to be seen, and beyond to the hills of +Argyllshire, before smoke and funnels blotted the fairness of the +landscape. + +In an unpretentious little house in a Greenock by-street James Watt +first saw the light. His father was by trade a carpenter, an undertaker, +a general "merchant," for there was little competition in those simple +days, and men often "professed" more than one trade. In the course of a +few years little James was left the sole surviving child of five, and +perhaps on that account was specially precious to his parents. Neither +as the years went on did he grow into a sturdy, lusty country boy, but +rather struggled up slowly, anxiously overlooked by a mother's care, a +prey to ill-health and headache, even in his baby years. So that most of +his early education fell to his parents, his mother opening up to him +the beginnings of reading, his father those of writing and arithmetic. + +School, to which he went by-and-by, proved a failure. Shy and shrinking, +he cared little for the play of other children. He was slow at +games, perhaps dull in class, and the boys and girls laughed at him. +Ill-health, too, made it hard for him to get on. He liked best to be at +home. For amusement he would draw in chalk on the kitchen floor, and for +playthings he would choose his father's instruments. One day a +neighbour remarked on the child's drawing. + +"He should be at school," she said, "and not trifling away his time." + +"Look first," said the father, pointing to the floor, "before you blame +him. He is solving a problem in geometry." + +The child was then six years old! + +We are familiar with the story handed down to us through the centuries +of how the dreamy-eyed boy was engaged in watching the steam hiss from +the kettle-spout, the while holding a teaspoon below to count and catch +the drops of water. Tradition likes to see in this the tiny seedlings of +that mighty tree--the Condensing Steam Engine, but we fear that common +sense in the shape of his robust-minded aunt was nearer the mark when +she exclaimed-- + +"James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy as you are. For the last hour +you have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and +put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the +steam, watching how it rises from the spout, catching and counting the +drops it falls into." + +For change of air the boy was sometimes sent to Glasgow, the great +commercial capital being then no larger than a country market-town. +Mightily astonished were his relatives, and, according to their own +account, not a little scared, when of an evening his tongue was loosed, +and he would launch into tales, wonderful things that held them +entranced for hours, and sent them wakeful to bed. Was this time +prophetic of those later years when he would hold men and women +fascinated by the charm of his conversation? + +And now young James was sent to the Greenock Grammar School, but he made +no great mark there, except in mathematics, in which he easily headed +the class. But Latin and Greek are not a boy's only education. At home +he was learning other things, from his parents' talk, from the pages +of books. And then there were the long golden hours when he put on a +leather apron like his father, and installed himself in his father's +workshop with a small forge and a small bench all his own, and with his +boyish fingers handled the tools so deftly and so cleverly that the +workmen watching him exclaimed-- + +"Little Jamie has gotten a fortune at his fingers' ends." + +But while he worked his mind was not idle. He read eagerly and +precociously, as a delicate child sometimes does, devouring all such +books as he could lay hands on. Solid enough reading they will seem to +boys to-day. + +_The Cloud of Witnesses_, Henry the Rymer's _Life of Wallace_, Boston, +Bunyan. + +Added to this was his parents' talk, that fell on his young ears and +stamped itself on his young mind, and the picturesque surroundings of +his home, for he loved nature's beauties--the hills, the stars, the +trees. The mountains and the plains about his home were made romantic by +memories and associations of Covenanting times, told him by his father, +and his boyish rambles were made beautiful by wild flowers, and again +there were long delightful days of fishing to add to these. + +But in the midst of all this struggling in the boy's mind was that +strong leaning to mechanical invention longing for an outlet. It peeped +out here and there--for instance, in being unable to see an instrument +without wishing to discover all its uses. And so well did he show +himself able even then to fashion delicate things like compasses and +quadrants--an instrument in shape like the fourth of a circle--that his +father, after much thought, made up his mind that James should learn +the trade of a mathematical instrument maker. + +So in 1754 James came out from the shelter of home and launched himself +on the great world, rather more of an ordeal to the shy, timid boy +than it would have been to one more robust and enterprising. This was +practically the last of Greenock. The peaceful fishing-village was never +again to be his home. Naturally he turned his steps to Glasgow. We can +picture the great event in the quiet household. The boy getting ready, +his modest baggage, his clothes (his mother's tender care), a leather +apron, some carpenter's tools, and a quadrant. + +But he was destined to go yet farther afield. No mathematical +instrument-maker was to be found in Glasgow. A professor to whom James +was introduced advised him to go to London. "To London" is an easy +enough journey to-day--then it was a mighty undertaking. No trains--no +steamers. One could only go by slow coach or on horseback. James chose +the latter. His trunk was sent by sea from Leith, and he along with a +friend set off on his long journey. He left on the 7th day of June, and +travelling by Coldstream and Newcastle, he arrived in the great +metropolis after a ride of twelve days! + +Most likely, although there might have been fear in the boyish heart, it +also beat high with hope. Again and again has London made fair promises +to boys such as he. But disappointment was to meet him on the very +threshold. He found that apprentices who intended to serve a term of +seven years were only accepted. This was very far from James's thoughts. +What he wanted was to learn the trade, start off home again, and set +up in Glasgow for himself as soon as possible. After many failures, +however, he at last found a man willing to take him on for a year on his +promise to pay twenty guineas with the results of his work during that +time. + +And now began a time of stern work and self-denial. He took poor +lodgings. He scrimped himself in everything but the bare necessaries of +life. He spent on himself exactly eight shillings a week. He could not, +he wrote, do with less. He scraped and pinched, remembering how ill his +father could afford his keep. + +When he could get extra work he took it home at nights to his poor rooms +and sat up late over it, often ill and weary. In a month he could make +a quadrant better than any of the other apprentices. And so he struggled +on against loneliness and headache and depression. It was rarely safe to +venture out at night at that time in London, for sailor press-gangs were +abroad. No able-bodied man was spared. In one night they took as many as +1,000 men. Sitting as he did close to the shop door when at work, he was +often exposed to cold, and caught rheumatic pains which did not leave +him for many a day. After a year of this he went home to Greenock, in +his possession some tools and instruments, and in his hands and brain a +mighty store of skill and knowledge. + +Revived by his native air he set out again to seek his fortune--again +to Glasgow. Again to be met with disappointment! He had not learned his +trade in Glasgow, and therefore Glasgow would have none of him. Not so +much as a workshop would it give him. It seemed almost as if there were +no place open for the boy. + +But his friend the professor came to the front again. If Watt could find +no place in the city, then the University should shelter him. And so +they gave him a workshop twenty feet square in the old College grounds, +and a room in which to sell his instruments, and he was at last fairly +launched. + +But business progressed but slowly. He lived, to be sure, in an +atmosphere that must have delighted him. The professors and the students +found him out. They came and came again. He seemed always to have +something original to say. He was a man who read much and thought +much--humble as a child about his own attainments--eager with the +generosity of the great man to give others their due--yes, even more +than their due. They found out that he knew all about engineering, and +not a little about natural history, art, languages--and then the trick +of observation was so strong with him that nothing escaped him. In time +it came to be the general opinion that the young instrument-maker was +one of the ablest men about the University. But gratifying as was the +making of these friends, they did not bring Watt in any money. Somehow +his instruments did not sell well. He was too far from the town. Indeed, +his business was so poor he sometimes thought of giving it up. It may +have been there was a want of practical "push" in him, a quality he +never gained all through his life. Somewhat discouraged he took to +making fiddles and flutes and guitars and even organs,--but he was yet +very far from making that fortune he had come out to seek. + +There are crises, turning-points in the lives of most people. They are +seldom noisy. Sometimes, indeed, they come so quietly as to be hardly +noticed. And now Watt was gradually nearing his. + +About this time his thoughts began to turn to steam. It may be that had +he been busy and successful as an organ-maker, his great invention might +never have seen the light. + +People had, of course, known for long that there was a power in +water exposed to heat. Now in 1759, when Watt was twenty-three, his +attention was drawn to the Steam Engine. He pondered it. After he had +pondered it he set to work. His first model was a failure. But the +idea had silently and firmly lodged in his brain. He went on with his +everyday business, but ever in his leisure back sprang his mind to +that subject that was to be his all-absorbing life-work. He read +eagerly what other men had done. He got a model of another man's +engine and he studied it. He found what he thought defects. He groped +steadily on--now seeing a light--again thrown into darkness--now +following what turned out to be a will-o'-the-wisp--again getting +hold of an idea that seemed to him a gem. + +There came to him gradually dawning thoughts. First, that of Latent +Heat. Again, that a small quantity of water in the shape of steam heats +a large quantity of cold water. Yet, again, that at 212° water is +elastic, and that steam heats six times the weight of cold water to a +temperature of 212°, the temperature of steam. + +And so he went on step by step, till one day the thing burst on him, +full-fledged, as it were--complete, dazzling, a perfect inspiration. + +It was a Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1765. He was taking a stroll +in a quiet part of Glasgow, now a paved and busy thoroughfare called the +Green. A Sunday calm brooded over what was on weekdays a scene of busy +life--of washing and drying clothes. His thoughts, as usual, hovered +about his beloved theme. It inspired him with a very passion as a child +of his own. The key to his engine--long sought--suddenly flashed before +his mind's eye. The thing had been waiting incomplete for want of it. It +came to him then--the idea of a Separate Condenser. + +A great uprising of his mind followed. In his solitary walk the +flashing thought filled the man with rapture. + +Two drawbacks--waste of steam and waste of fuel--had been the ruin of +former inventions. + +"Ye need not fash yourself about that, man," Watt said to a friend, +answering some objection that he had made, "I have now made an engine +that shall not waste a particle of steam." + +And so, though it was but the beginning, though years of weary labour +and disappointment and discouragement waited him before the end was +reached, the Condensing Steam Engine, as we have it now, first sprang +into being that spring afternoon on the Green in Glasgow. + +And now the young inventor set himself with eager enthusiasm to make a +model. There were no skilled workmen to be had, no self-acting tools, as +in our day, and so the first model was only partly successful. But not a +whit discouraged, he went on. + +"My whole thoughts are bent on this machine," he said. "I can think of +nothing else." + +And now there remains but to tell in a few words--for it is the record +of his manhood--the "ups and downs" just beginning, the disappointments, +the failures, the hopes and fears that waited on this offspring of his +brain. He was poor, and money was the first thing that was needed. Who +would risk thousands on such a vague and shadowy thing? + +Meantime the pot had to be kept boiling! He looked into the future, and +he saw great things steam might yet be made to do, but there was bread +and butter needed for the present. So he went bravely in for surveying, +though there was little enough to be made by that. He had still +ill-health to struggle against. "I am still plagued with headaches," he +wrote about this time, "and sometimes heartaches." + +But after a time a gleam of hope shone through the clouds. After +failures and difficulties he at last succeeded in finding someone +willing to risk his money. So in 1769 he patented his engine, and began +to build it. In six months it was finished, and as it neared completion +Watt could hardly sleep. Then, and for long still in the future, he was +to suffer from bad, incapable workmen, and this accounted for his +partial failure. + +"It was," he said, "a clumsy job." Watt grew depressed. + +In 1770 he wrote: "I enter on my thirty-fifth year, and I think I have +hardly yet done thirty-five pence worth of good in the world." + +A friend, seeing him cast down and unhappy, advised him to give up +inventing. As well might he have advised the sun not to shine or living +man to cease from breathing. Meantime the years went on. Watt was often, +as he said, "heart-sick." Long years after, remembering this weary time, +he said, "The public only look at my success." He stinted himself in +everything but bare necessaries, for as yet his engine had paid him +nothing and cost enormously. But light again arose in the darkness when +he got as a partner Boulton, of Birmingham, and from that day onwards +matters mended. Six of the fourteen years' patent were gone, but he +succeeded in getting a renewal of it for twenty-four years by Act of +Parliament, in spite of grumbling discontent of men who wanted to steal +the fruit of his brain, and were thus prevented. + +Now he set to work in earnest. His first engine was made to blow the +bellows of ironworks. His second to pump water out of the mines in +Cornwall. In 1776 this was set up, and worked perfectly. "There it was, +'forking water' as never engine before had been known 'to fork.'" + +"All the world are agape," he said, "to see what it can do." + +And it did well. And now the "voice of the country was in its favour." +So the first step was taken. The others followed in quick succession. +The partners worked together perfectly. Watt understood engines, but +not men. He grew impatient, irritable, peevish if a workman were +inefficient, and would have dismissed him on the spot. Boulton was +wiser, and never failed to oil the wheels. Watt was despondent, easily +cast down; Boulton was his "backbone." + +There came then into Watt's mind the idea of an engine that would +produce _rotary_ motion. This he patented in 1781. All round and about, +ready to pounce on it, were a perfect swarm of pirates. + +"One's thoughts seem to be stolen before one speaks them," he said. And +again, "All mankind seem to be resolved to rob us." + +In 1782 the first rotary machine worked. After long waiting there was a +brilliant result. It was made to drive a corn-mill. In our day it would +be hard to say what Watt's rotary machine is not made to do. It is made +for corn-mills and for cotton-mills, for sugar-mills and iron-mills. It +drives our steamers and rolls our hammer-iron and coins our money and +prints our books. + +And now the great inventor had reached the highest pinnacle of fame. In +1790 he had an interview with the King, who asked about his engines. + +But he had not landed at the topmost round of the ladder without much +painful climbing and many weary steps. His life had been all through +shadowed by ill-health, and an anxious, worrying mind that refused to +be calm. He had a shrinking distaste to business, and a fearful habit +of looking on the dark side of things. Often would he have sunk in +depression and despair had it not been for his cheery partner. It was +only in the late years of his life that he came to know anything like +peace. His mind all along had been too active for his body. + +But though as an old man he retired from public life and from +business, he could not altogether retire from invention. He invented +a letter-copying machine, and one for copying statuary. In his old +age he lived very quietly in his comfortable house near Birmingham, +furnishing what he called his Garret, a room where he might be alone +and still invent, don again, as in boyhood, the leather apron, cook +his own food, and ponder anew the details of those wonderful +inventions he had given to the world. + +Friends admitted there found "the great Mr. Watt" simple, modest, +careless of display--much as he had been as a boy--his voice low and +kindly, with still its broad, homely Scottish accent. The world would +have liked to draw him from his seclusion, to caress him, to make much +of him. It offered him a baronetcy, but his simple tastes lay not at all +in the direction of such honours, and he refused it. + +In 1819, when he was eighty-three, the end came. "I feel," said the +great man with a calm in strange contrast to the fearfulness and +timidity that had accompanied him through life, "I feel that I am now +come to my last illness." He passed away quietly and without suffering. +They buried him in Handsworth Church--near to his partner, Boulton--and +erected an imposing statue in Westminster Abbey, and beneath it Lord +Brougham wrote his famous epitaph. + +To us his life has much of pathos. Men have called him "the greatest +inventor in all ages," "the most extraordinary man that the world has +ever seen," but the long years of struggle and labour and waiting, the +weakness of body and the oft depression of spirit, are to us not a +little sad, specially when we remember how patiently he endured, how +uncomplainingly he suffered, that we might profit, that he might, as +Lord Brougham has it, "increase the power of man." + + + + +Splendid Books for Boys. + +By GORDON STABLES, M.D., R.N. + +Large Crown 8vo, Bevelled Boards, Gilt Edges, with Illustrations. + +_FIVE SHILLINGS each._ + + +IN SHIPS OF STEEL. + +A Story of the Navy of To-Day. + +"A lively tale of the Navy of to-day, by that popular writer."--_The +Guardian._ + +"We say a great deal when we say it is quite up to the Author's usual +level of exciting story telling."--_The British Weekly._ + + +FOR CROSS OR CRESCENT. + +A Romance of the Days of Richard the Lion-hearted. + +"A spirited, graphic story."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +IN THE DASHING DAYS OF OLD; + +Or, The World-wide Adventures of Willie Grant. + +"We can commend this book is the best story for boys which we have read +for many a day."--_English Churchman._ + + +FOR HONOUR NOT HONOURS. + +The Story of Gordon of Khartoum. + +"Dr. Gordon Stables has written again the story of General Gordon, in +'For Honour not Honours,' and no English boy will tire of reading +it."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +ON TO THE RESCUE. + +A Tale of the Indian Mutiny. + +"A capital story of the Indian Mutiny. The boy who gets hold of this +book is certain to thoroughly enjoy it."--_The Record._ + + +SHOULDER TO SHOULDER. + +A Story of the Stirring Times of Old. + +"More than a mere Story of the Stirring Times of Old. The tale goes +close to the heart of the reader, because it has come from the heart of +the writer."--_Aberdeen Free Press._ + + +ENGLAND'S HERO PRINCE. + +A Story of the Black Prince. + +"A dashing, graphic piece of work, well calculated to arouse the spirit +of youth."--_Publishers' Circular._ + + +'TWIXT DAYDAWN AND LIGHT. + +A Tale of the Times of Alfred the Great. + +"Splendidly told and well illustrated."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +OLD ENGLAND ON THE SEA. + +The Story of Admiral Drake. + +"Here we have told with much spirit the story of Admiral Drake. We have +plenty of stories of the sea, _but what could be better than this true +tale_?"--_The Spectator._ + + +HEARTS OF OAK. + +A Story of Nelson and the Navy. + +"Tom Bure, the hero, will charm every boy that gets hold of +it."--_Literary World._ + +"A story of the Navy and of Mighty Nelson, told with excellent +spirit."--_Saturday Review._ + + +EXILES OF FORTUNE. + +The Story of a Far North Land. + +"A capital book; written with this popular writer's accustomed spirit, +and sure to be enjoyed."--_Scotsman._ + + +TWO SAILOR LADS. + +Their Stirring Adventures on Sea and Land. + +"A sea story big with wonders."--_Saturday Review._ + +"A capital story in Dr. Stables' best style."--_Spectator._ + + +FOR ENGLAND, HOME, AND BEAUTY. + +A Tale of Battle and the Breeze. + +"Dr. Stables has almost surpassed himself in this book. Certainly we +have read nothing of his which has pleased us more--perhaps we might say +as much."--_The Spectator._ + + +IN SEARCH OF FORTUNE. + +A Tale of the Old Land and the New. + +"The story is naturally and brightly written."--_Standard._ + +"Just the book boys like."--_Schoolmaster._ + + +FACING FEARFUL ODDS. + +A Tale of Flood and Field. + +"An exceptionally good book for boys."--_Guardian._ + +"One of the author's most fascinating stories."--_Leeds Mercury._ + + +_Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ + +"LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE." + +A Cruise of the Good Ship "Boreas." + + +LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +In the caption of the illustration on page 102 "Stevenson" has been +changed to "Stephenson" (Stephenson fighting the fire). + +On page 117 ' has been changed to " (of Nature's gentlemen."). + +On page 159 -- has been added (of youth."--_Publishers' Circular._). + +Otherwise the original has been preserved. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boyhood of Great Inventors, by +A. 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Fraser Robertson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boyhood of Great Inventors + +Author: A. Fraser Robertson + +Release Date: December 3, 2011 [EBook #38191] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Whitehead, eagkw and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_cover.jpg" width="432" height="651" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="l2" /> + +<h1>THE BOYHOOD OF<br /> +GREAT INVENTORS</h1> + +<hr class="l2" /> + + +<div class="figcenter1"> +<img src="images/i_005.jpg" width="400" height="638" alt="THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. +Frontispiece." title="" /> +<br /><span class="caption">THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.<br /> +<span class="fr">Frontispiece.</span></span> +</div> + +<hr class="l2" /> + +<div class="ttl"> +<h1><span class="rin">The Boyhood of</span><br /> +<span class="lin">Great Inventors</span></h1> +</div> + +<p class="tp"><span class="f7">BY</span><br /> +<span class="f14">A. FRASER ROBERTSON</span><br /> +<span class="f7">AUTHOR OF “EARLY YEARS OF SOME NOBLE LIVES”</span></p> + +<p class="tp"><span class="f9">NEW EDITION</span></p> + +<p class="tp"><i>LONDON</i><br /> +<span class="f14">JOHN F. SHAW AND CO.</span><br /> +48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.</p> + +<hr class="l2" /> + + +<h2><i>UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.</i></h2> +<hr class="l3" /> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Books"> +<tr><td class="col1">THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS</td><td class="col2">A. Fraser Robertson.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">TWILIGHT STORIES</td><td class="col2">Catharine Shaw.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">FOR LOVE AND DUTY</td><td class="col2">Frank Saville.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE BOYS OF ALL SAINTS</td><td class="col2">Mabel Mackintosh.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">DARING DEEDS</td><td class="col2">Frank Saville.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">MIDSHIPMITE CURLY</td><td class="col2">Dr. Gordon Stables.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE DOG CRUSOE</td><td class="col2">R. M. Ballantyne.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE SWORD OF THE CAREWS</td><td class="col2">Duncan McLaren.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE NUGGET FINDERS</td><td class="col2">H. Alger.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">ROBIN HOOD & HIS BRAVE FORESTERS</td><td class="col2">S. Percy.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">MARTIN RATTLER</td><td class="col2">R. M. Ballantyne.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE KING’S MESSENGER</td><td class="col2">L. Marston.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">FOUR, AND WHAT THEY DID</td><td class="col2">H. Campbell.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">FOR WANT OF A WORD</td><td class="col2">M. Mackintosh.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">FOR ELSIE’S SAKE</td><td class="col2">J. Chappell.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">CURLEY’S CRYSTAL</td><td class="col2">Emma Marshall.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">IN SHADOWLAND</td><td class="col2">E. Everett-Green.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">ROB AND MAG</td><td class="col2">L. Marston.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THAT BOY TOM</td><td class="col2">Ismay Thorn.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">TIM’S TREASURE</td><td class="col2">Alice Lang.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">LITTLE BOOTS</td><td class="col2">J. Harrison.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">CLEMENT AND GEORDIE</td><td class="col2">Emma Marshall.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">GOLD THAT GLITTERS</td><td class="col2">E. S. Holt.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">PETER’S PROMISES</td><td class="col2">Emma Marshall.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">MOLLIE WYNTER</td><td class="col2">M. Mackintosh.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE SLAVE GIRL OF POMPEII</td><td class="col2">E. S. Holt.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">MISS PRIMROSE</td><td class="col2">Agnes Giberne.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">MAB’S BURDENS</td><td class="col2">E. Boddy.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">BESIDE ALL WATERS</td><td class="col2">M. L. Astree.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">WATCHING FOR THE KING</td><td class="col2">L. Marston.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">NAN, THE CIRCUS GIRL</td><td class="col2">Frances Stratton</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">HOW THE TIDE TURNED</td><td class="col2">S. Watson.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">A BROTHER’S RANSOM</td><td class="col2">Alice Lang.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">LITTLE EYEBRIGHT</td><td class="col2">Agnes Giberne.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">A LITTLE CURIOSITY</td><td class="col2">Emma Marshall.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">MADCAP MARIGOLD</td><td class="col2">Mabel Mackintosh.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">THE GOLDEN PAVEMENT</td><td class="col2">E. Chapman.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">A WAIF OF THE WAVES</td><td class="col2">S. Watson.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">CHRISTOPHER’S NEW HOME</td><td class="col2">Emma Marshall.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">HIRA’S QUEST</td><td class="col2">L. Marston.</td></tr> +<tr><td class="col1">FROGGY’S LITTLE BROTHER</td><td class="col2">Brenda.</td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr class="l4" /> + +<p class="center">LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO.,<br /> +48, Paternoster Row, E.C.</p> + +<hr class="l2" /> + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<hr class="l5" /> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td class="col3"></td><td class="col4"><span class="f7">PAGE</span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">John Smeaton</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">John Flaxman</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">Sir Humphrey Davy</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">Sir Richard Arkwright</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">Josiah Wedgwood</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">George Stephenson</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">Thomas Alva Edison</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="col3">James Watt</td><td class="col4"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h1><span class="f16">THE BOYHOOD OF<br /> +GREAT INVENTORS</span></h1> + +<hr class="l6" /> + + +<h2>JOHN SMEATON.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">People</span> who have been on a long sea voyage, +and have ended by sailing up the English +Channel, tell us how their hearts beat high, after +weary weeks and months at sea, when the cry +went up while as yet land was a mere shadowy +outline, “The Eddystone in sight!” For the +gleaming lighthouse standing immovable in the +midst of boiling waves and great mountains of +blinding white spray spells “home” to the +voyager.</p> + +<p>To us the “stone” round which the waters +ceaselessly churn and “eddy” speaks of John +Smeaton, the man who built it. The great +engineer has been in his grave now for more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +a century, but his most lasting monument stood +for longer than that time firm as a rock.</p> + +<p>John Smeaton was born in 1724, near Leeds. +Not the Leeds of to-day—a bustling, smoky +centre of manufacture—but a quaint little town +hemmed in by green country fields and lanes. +It was in one of these that Austhorpe Lodge +stood, the house of Smeaton’s father, a lawyer +in Leeds.</p> + +<p>We shall yet come across many boyhoods +tinged with shadow and struggle, and are not +sorry to find this one happy, fondly tended, and +bright with sunshine. There was no pinch in +the lot of the Smeatons, no grinding poverty +that we sometimes find to spur a boy to manhood +before his time. Little John was cradled, +as it were, in love. As a child his parents taught +him at home. He was not eager to mix with +other boys in outdoor romp or play, and very +early, while yet hardly more than a baby, he +showed a strong love for pulling his toys to +pieces to see what they were made of! Never +was he happier than when he could get hold of +a cutting-tool with which to shape toy pumps +and houses and windmills. Another amusement +of his babyhood was to divide squares and +circles!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a boy he was rather quiet and thoughtful, +though his tongue straightway loosed the moment +anything in the shape of a workman came to his +father’s house. He was then always to be found +on the spot, and with eager eyes fixed on their +every movement, he would unconsciously “pose” +them with eager questions—such questions as +from the boyish lips made them shake their +heads and stare at him dumb and stupid.</p> + +<p>And all the time the boyish brain was deeply +plotting, and it was ever that he might “go and +do likewise.” One day, after watching a millwright +at work, his anxious parents were alarmed +by the sight of their boy perched on the top of +the barn fastening a windmill to the roof! At +another time, when a pump was being made in +the village, by good luck a piece of bored lead +came in little John’s way. He promptly set to +work and made a toy one after the pattern of +the big one, and even managed to make it raise +water.</p> + +<p>But his greatest childish feat took place on +his discovering a fire-engine being erected at +a colliery in the village to pump the water out +of the mine. He was constantly on the spot, +eagerly watching it as it slowly progressed, and +quickly his boyish brain grasped the whole.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> + +<p>He went home and began with trembling +fingers one day to copy it. His father had given +him an outhouse with bench and tools to carry +out his hobby, and soon the engine worked. He +looked round to see what he could use it upon, +and espied the fish-pond. So he began to pump +out the water till he had pumped the whole +place dry. When his father came home it was to +find an empty pond, and all his fish lying dead +at the bottom!</p> + +<p>And now John had to leave his beloved workshop +for school in Leeds. And there it seemed +as if the boy showed up quite a different side +of himself. The bright, eager alertness that +marked him at home or with the workmen about +Austhorpe was gone. He was quiet with the +boys—out of his element. He did not care for +their rough play. He was like a fish out of +water. Silent, shy, even stupid—the boys nicknamed +him “Fooley Smeaton.”</p> + +<p>But though he might be dull at school, the +boy’s real education was surely going on at home +among his pumps and model engines, his lathes +and chisels.</p> + +<p>The boyish hands had begun to do that which +all through life threw over him a very spell of +fascination—<em>to construct</em>—to build up. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +baby fingers were learning how to use tools in +a way that was to give him one day, long years +after, a skill that would place him on the very +top of the ladder. And all the time the young +mind was pondering great mechanical principles +that were by-and-by to make the name of John +Smeaton famed throughout the world. So it +was not to games and boyish play that he gave +his spare moments, but to his workshop. When +he was fifteen he could use his turning-lathe to +turn wood and ivory. When he was eighteen +he could handle tools as deftly and cleverly as +any workman who all his life had known no +other trade.</p> + +<p>When he was sixteen he left school and took +his place in his father’s office, and tried to bring +his mind to look forward to law as his life-work. +He worked conscientiously day after day, coming +home at evening to spend half the night in +working—making—constructing things. He +had all the instincts of a born mechanic. It +was almost as if he could not help it.</p> + +<p>When his father sent him to London to study +law, the boy tried again to stifle his longings, +and to set himself to carry out his father’s +wishes. But strive and struggle as he would, +it was impossible to crush the desire of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +heart. And so one day he sat down and wrote +to his father that he could go on with law no +longer. Nothing except to be a mechanic would +satisfy him. His father, deeply disappointed +though he was, quietly made up his mind to +what could not be helped, and wrote to John +that he must make his own choice.</p> + +<p>The boy was delighted. He had chosen what +was then the work of a common labourer, with +a labourer’s wages. The term Civil Engineer +was unknown. With a heart beating high +with hope he went off and engaged himself +to a philosophical instrument-maker—a man +who made instruments for navigation and astronomy. +With him he worked steadily—eager +to improve the instruments—eager to improve +himself—so eager, indeed, that he divided out +his time so as to make the most of it: so much +for reading, so much for experiments, so much +for business, and so much for rest and relaxation.</p> + +<p>And so on the threshold of manhood—having +got, as it were, “a free hand”—he made great +strides onward. He may not have done much +business at the time, but he read papers before +the Royal Society, and he kept open a keen, +mechanical eye for everything—from minute,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +delicate instruments to the building of canals +and bridges and waterworks. He thought no +trouble too great to take if so it made him +thorough. He set himself to study French and +Italian, so as to read the works in these languages +on mechanical subjects, and he even set off to +Holland—that land of dykes and harbours and +docks—that he might examine them for himself.</p> + +<p>And while he looked about him, always at +the same time busy with the work that lay +nearest to his hand, the great work of his life +was drawing close to his door.</p> + +<p>Many years before Smeaton lived, England +was in the custom of lighting up her rocky +headlands with lights or beacons. First came +“the candle in the cottage window” to light +the sailor husband home, then stacks of blazing +wood, piles of coal, oil, torches, pitch-pots. +Guided by these flaring lights in the darkness, +men and vessels plying round our coast were +saved from shipwreck and death. Sometimes +these beacons, flaming high from their pinnacles, +warned the people inland that war was expected, +the country was in danger of being invaded, +or that pirates were about to swoop down upon +them. At other times <em>false</em> lights were shown +by men known as “wreckers,” and homeward-bound<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +vessels, rich in goods and human souls, +were dashed upon the rocks. So our coasts +were lighted up in those old days, but it +happened at times that the pitch would become +drenched and drowned, the wood and coal fires +would spurt up for a space and then drop down +and fade. Things were uncertain. It did not +matter, perhaps, greatly, as long as England’s +commerce by sea was small, but when our trade +with foreign lands began to grow, there grew, +too, the question how best to light our rocky +coasts and docks and headlands. So an order +of monks—the Brethren of Trinity House—was +made, and these prayed for the safety of +the sailors, and later looked to the lighting +of the coast.</p> + +<p>Eddystone rock we can easily find on the +map, a low, black reef lying S.S.W. of Plymouth, +a place of lurking danger as well for ships cruising +up and down the Channel as for those coming +into Plymouth harbour. In the days of Smeaton, +and for some time earlier, the way in which lighthouses +were built was for a private man to go +to the owner and say, “I will build a lighthouse +on that rock if you will let me.” If his offer +were accepted and he carried out the work he +had then the right to levy dues on the ships<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +that passed, or, in other words, to make them +pay toll. In this way he sometimes collected +quite a large income.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the seventeenth century +a man called Winstanley undertook to build a +lighthouse on Eddystone. He drew out plans +and started on the work, and it was no light +work. The base of the rock was narrow and +sloping. It was hard to make the foundations +fast, for winds and waves had a way of rising +suddenly, and the whole of the work would be +drowned for the time, and perhaps many of the +materials swept away. But by dint of waiting +patiently for fine weather and smooth water the +building was at last finished. It was made of +wood, rather in an ornamental style, and had +many projections. It took four years in the +building, for although in other parts of the +Channel the waters might be smooth enough, +yet round the Eddystone they were almost sure +to seethe and foam. For several seasons the +building stood.</p> + +<p>“I wish,” exclaimed the builder one day, +elated that his work had turned out so well, +“that I might be here in the fiercest storm, just +to see it stand.”</p> + +<p>After it had stood some three years from its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +finish Winstanley went out one day to see to +some repairs. He remained on the rock overnight, +and during the night his wish, though +hardly as he would have had it, was fulfilled. +A gale and storm terrific in their fury burst +overhead and broke along the English coast. +With the first streak of dawn an anxious people +looked from shore to see how it fared with the +lighthouse. Not a trace of it remained. Not a +speck was to be seen on the waters. It and its +maker had been utterly swept away!</p> + +<p>Next came a man called Rudyerd, who volunteered +to build a lighthouse that would stand. +He pondered the last, and he came to the +conclusion that it had failed in form. He determined +to alter that. So he made a long, +high column in the shape of a cone, with no +ornaments, no projections jutting out to catch +the wind, and at the end of four years the thing +was finished—a wooden building coated over +with oakum and pitch.</p> + +<p>For a time all went seemingly well. It held +four rooms, one above the other. The lantern +was lit by candles. Years went on, and still it +stood defying the winds and storms for half a +century. There were two light-keepers, who +snuffed the candles overnight, sitting up for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +four hours at a time. One of these men fell ill +and died. A storm was raging at the time. No +help could come to his companion, and so +through a long month he kept the body, afraid +to throw it into the sea, in case he should be +thought a murderer.</p> + +<p>At last help came from shore, but the loneliness +and horror had told so terribly upon the +remaining man that ever afterwards three men +were employed to keep the light burning, in +case of one falling ill or dying.</p> + +<p>But in spite of its long standing there was a +hidden flaw in the lighthouse. It was inflammable—capable +of catching fire. One day—no one +could quite tell how it happened, it might be +the flame had dried and scorched the timber. At +any rate, a man going in to snuff the candles +found that fire had broken out. It wanted but +a few minutes till the place was in flames. The +men rushed below, while a perfect rain of beams +and burning lead fell in showers about their +heads. Seeing the blaze from the shore a boat +put off with all speed. When it reached the +rock it found the men, not on the rock, but +crouching beneath a ledge, dripping and half +dead, and with just enough life in them to +enable them to catch the rope thrown to them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +for it was too rough for the boat to reach the +rock. And so they were towed on board.</p> + +<p>And now the third attempt at the lighthouse +was to be made by John Smeaton.</p> + +<p>“Thou art the man to do it,” were the words +of the letter asking him to undertake the work. +And so Smeaton was launched on that which +was to make his name famous.</p> + +<p>The first step he took was to get and study +the plans of the former men. To succeed he +had first to find out where the others had failed.</p> + +<p>The first building had failed in weight. The +second had not been fire-proof. And so he +decided to make his lighthouse of stone. People +when they heard of it called out that it was a +wild project. It could not be done. “Nothing +but wood could possibly stand on the Eddystone.” +But Smeaton was in no way moved or +cast down. What he made he wanted to stand, +and not to last for a few years merely; and so +of stone he determined it should be.</p> + +<p>He began to draw out the design. He kept +to the shape of Rudyerd’s—the long cone-like +column. He made the diameter of the foundation +broader. He planned the locking and bonding +and dovetailing of the stones—each to each, +and all to the centre. When this was all carefully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +thought and made out he started from +London for Plymouth. He was <em>six days</em> on the +journey owing to the “badness of the roads.”</p> + +<p>On the 2nd of April he set sail for the rock, +but winds and waves beat so vehemently that +he found it impossible to land. All he could +do was to view the low, treacherous black thing +on which he was to build his house of stone. +Back he went three days later, and for the first +time he stood on Eddystone, but only for a +couple of hours. There was almost nothing to +be seen, only one or two iron branches left from +the wrecks of the former wooden buildings. On +the third attempt he made he could not even +see the rock. Spray and foam hid it entirely +from view. In the same way his fourth and +fifth visits failed, but his sixth was successful, +and he landed at low water, and in the stillness +of the evening made his first measurements.</p> + +<p>“I went on with my business till nine in the +evening,” he wrote, “having worked an hour by +candlelight.”</p> + +<p>Again and again he tried to get a landing. +Sometimes he managed it, at others it was +impossible. After having spent fifteen hours in +all on the rock he went back to London, and +with his own expert hands made a model. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +work took him two months in all, and that +proficiency that he had learned as a boy in his +little workshop at Austhorpe stood him in good +stead now. After this he set out for Plymouth +again. No detail of his work was too small for +him to attend to himself. He visited the +quarries where the stones were to be hewn. He +carefully chose the kind of cement that was to +bind them together; the workmen, the work-yards, +the ships that were to carry the stones +to the rock. Each and all passed under his +eye.</p> + +<p>It was a great day when, in August, 1756, he +and his men started for Eddystone, and the +master fixed the centre and laid down the lines. +Now the work might be said to be fairly begun. +But was ever work so often broken in upon? +Winds and waves are not to be counted on—least +of all about the stormy Eddystone, for +often though the water is calm and smooth in +other places, it smothers in foam the low black +reef.</p> + +<p>There were times when the workmen could +work as long as six hours at a stretch, going on +eagerly by torchlight if necessary. Again it +would happen they could not work more than +two hours out of the twenty-four. Time was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +precious, and time was grievously taken up in +going to and from Plymouth, and so Smeaton +arranged that a “buss”—a fishing-vessel with +two masts and a cabin at either end—should +ride at anchor near the scene of work, with provisions +and other necessaries.</p> + +<p>But here, again, it was hard to plan ahead. +One day a mighty storm arose. The men could +not work. Their yawl broke from its moorings. +They could neither send to shore, nor could they +get help. But they must eat. Days passed, +and gradually their store of provisions grew less +and less. By the time relief reached them they +were at their last crust.</p> + +<p>During the long months of winter when work +was out of the question the time was spent in +dressing the stones in the yard on shore. +Smeaton himself saw them laid out in lines +and numbered, after which they were put in +order on board ready to be lifted off when the +rock was reached, and easily put in their places. +Dangers and difficulties often crowded thick on +the work, enough to daunt a man less dauntless +than Smeaton. One night on the homeward +way a big storm arose.</p> + +<p>The night was dark, and Smeaton was roused +from sleep by the sound of much stamping and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +hurrying to and fro overhead. He rushed on +deck in his nightshirt. The helmsman was +holding frantically by a rope.</p> + +<p>“For God’s sake,” he shouted when he saw +Smeaton and others, “heave hard at that rope, +if you mean to save your lives.”</p> + +<p>So Smeaton as well as the others laid hold. +In the pitchy darkness there fell on their horror-struck +ears the sound of waves breaking on the +<em>rocks</em>. The jibsail was blown to pieces. They +hastily lowered the mainsail. The waves +dashed over them. But gradually the ship +obeyed the straining helm and rounded off. In +anxious fear they lay out to sea. When morning +broke land was nowhere to be seen, and they +found themselves driving towards the Bay of +Biscay. For four long days they were tossed +and driven to and fro before they made Plymouth +harbour.</p> + +<p>One day Smeaton had an accident, which, however, +might have been worse in its effects. He was +taking a turn up and down the narrow strip of +rock that was all that afforded a promenade when +his foot slipped and he fell among the rocks. +When he got up he thought himself unhurt till +a stinging pain informed him that he had dislocated +his thumb. He was hours from shore—far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +from a surgeon. Delay meant disablement. +So he took hold of it with his other hand, +pulled hard, and it snapped into place.</p> + +<p>But in spite of danger and difficulty and +hindrance the great work went on, though slowly +still surely. By the end of the second year the +building had risen thirty-five feet high—out of +reach of the heavy dash and thud of the waves. +Gradually one above another rose the rooms for +the light-keepers—their walls twenty-six inches +thick to stand against the fearful onslaught of +the wind as it blew up the Channel from the +Atlantic. For in a gale the place shook and the +doors slammed and the windows rattled with +such terrific force that the new and unaccustomed +keepers earnestly wished themselves at Land’s +End or anywhere else, so that it meant land.</p> + +<p>To say that as it neared the finish it was much +in the great builder’s thoughts is to draw but a +faint picture of how day and night it lay upon +his heart. How when on land the early morning +found him out betimes on the Hoe, at Plymouth, +telescope in hand, gazing out to sea. If a storm +raged and the spray flew high for a moment it +seemed to his sinking heart that it was Winstanley’s +lighthouse over again and that there +was no Eddystone!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + +<p>Again his heart leaped in gratitude a moment +afterwards when the upright column—strong, +firm, immovable—pointing black and clear +against the sky, came to view, and a deep +“Thank God!” would burst from his lips.</p> + +<p>And now the months flew by and the great +work neared its end. Smeaton himself chose the +last details—the iron railings—the glass for the +lantern. In the upper storeroom directly beneath +the ceiling he had the motto carved—“Except +the Lord build the house they labor +in vain that build it.” And the mason’s last +work was a “Laus Deo” in stone.</p> + +<p>Towards the end Smeaton could not leave it. +With his own hands he fitted the windows in +their sashes—fixed the gilt ball on the top—no +easy matter—but he had ever filled the post of +danger himself. He asked no one to put himself +where he was not willing too to go. Expert as any +skilled mechanic, he himself gave his great work +its finishing touches. Twenty-four candles in a +chandelier formed the light. The lightning-conductor +was fixed—the rooms finished. The +magnificent column towered to seventy feet, the +lantern and gilt ball twenty-eight inches higher, +and on October 16th, 1759, the work was done.</p> + +<p>Three years later a mighty storm broke along<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +the coast, wrecking docks and ships and harbours, +but the Eddystone stood firm.</p> + +<p>And now Smeaton’s name was made. Other +feats followed. Other triumphs awaited him—the +building of docks and harbours and bridges—but +the thing that men will ever link with his +name is the Eddystone. After the stress and +struggle of public life, he went back again to +the old home of his boyhood. He gathered +again about him his workshop, his study, his +observatory. And so he worked to the end. +He could not help it. He could not live without +his tools.</p> + +<p>Great man though he was, his wants were +very few and simple. Offers of riches and +magnificence had no power to tempt him, and +when he refused a post abroad which meant +wealth and position, the Russian Princess who +offered it exclaimed, in wondering admiration—</p> + +<p>“I shall go back to Russia and tell them there +is one man who has <em>not</em> his price.”</p> + +<p>He was happiest in the quiet of his own +home. As a boy he had been rather retiring +and thoughtful. As a man he was found the +same. Simple, modest, while he would converse +easily on other subjects, it was hardly possible +to get him to talk of self. In this, as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +in his life-work, “he was indeed a very great +man.”</p> + +<p>He had had a long life of work—hard, incessant +toil—from six to sixty, though it had been +work that he had loved. It may be he had +overtaxed his strength, for as age crept on he +grew less robust. In his sixty-eighth year he +had a slight stroke. He feared a gradually +clouding brain. “The shadow must lengthen +as the sun goes down,” he said to himself. +But this distress was spared those dear to him, +and with not much suffering, on the 28th +October, 1792, he passed away. They buried +him in the old church of Whitkirk, and raised +a tablet to his memory, naming in it that great +work of his that will “convey to distant ages, +as it does to every nation of the globe, the name +of its constructor.”</p> + +<p>The world looks still upon John Smeaton as +a wonderful engineer—a great mechanic—a man +who climbed to the top of his profession, and +the sound of whose fame spread over Europe; +but he will ever be best remembered by the +light of the Eddystone, that memorial monument +that stood firm for more than a century, sometimes +hid in blinding spray, anon gleaming out +clear and steady, a rescuer from shipwreck and +death.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span></p> + +<p>Till 1877 storms continued to beat upon it +without avail. Then, owing to the undermining +of a portion of the reef, it was thought well +to build a new house on another part of the +rock. The old base still stands on the old +place, and the upper rooms have been put on +the Hoe at Plymouth.</p> + +<p>These are, after all, the best monuments we +could have of the builder. Welded into the +stones, it seems to us we can trace, not alone +genius and great mechanical power, but a patience +in difficulty, a courage in danger, and in face of +long, wearing months of anxiety. It is these, +perhaps, more than all else, for which we honour +the name of Smeaton.</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>JOHN FLAXMAN</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Had</span> we passed along one of the poorer +streets of the city of London some 150 +years ago, we might have chanced on a humble +shop displaying in the window plaster-casts and +figures in clay, and had we lifted the latch and +entered, in the cramped space behind the counter +we should have found the child who was one +day to become England’s greatest sculptor, John +Flaxman.</p> + +<p>A ricketty, weakly baby in a high stuffed +child’s chair, so that his little pale face might +be on a level with the counter; the sweet +dreamy eyes looked out on the world, all unthinking +that a day was coming when the fame +of his name would reach wherever men knew +and loved his art.</p> + +<p>Born in the city of York in 1755, a few +months before the Flaxmans settled in London, +there were times when his father and mother +hardly believed they would be able to “rear” +the delicate child. Attacks of illness and weakness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +were common to him. Indeed, one day he +was seized with a fit of gasping so severe that +the breath seemed to leave his body, and they +even laid him out for dead, but he revived, and +his breath came again, and by-and-by he even +grew. Few amusements, no childish games +were open to the little cripple. The green +fields, the blue of the country skies were to +him things unknown. The dingy four walls of +the narrow cramped shop had to serve him +instead. But day by day he grew quick to +note the familiar beauty of his father’s casts. +He came to see the shape of these white things +with the eye of the poet and the artist. There +came into his mind the strong desire to copy, +inborn in most children, and the baby fingers +set to work to mould, and fashion, and make +some likeness—if even a dim one—to those of +his father’s models. In these old days gentlemen +were accustomed to wear bunches of seals +dangling from their watch-chains, and the child +used to keep a stock of wax, and when he +thought a customer seemed kind, he would +summon courage to ask him to let him take +the impression on the soft wax.</p> + +<p>In little John’s early years, when he was as +yet a baby of five, a great ceremony took place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +in London, the coronation of King George III. +Rumour went that to celebrate the great event +there was to be a coronation medal struck, +and that hundreds of these were to be thrown +to the crowd. The cripple child in the dingy +side street of the great city set his little heart +on possessing one of these treasures, and begged +his father to get him one. But Flaxman was +not successful. On the way home, with his +mind full of his disappointment, his eye happened +to light on a plated button on the pavement, +stamped with a horse and jockey. He +picked it up. Would he disappoint his little +son, or deceive him? He decided on deceiving +him, and gave the eager and expectant child the +button. The boy received the trophy in wonderment. +He was glad to get it, but he remarked +that it seemed a strange medal for a +coronation!</p> + +<p>Customers who came to Flaxman’s house +could hardly help noticing the child who sat +behind the counter, the big head on the lame +body, the high shoulders, the beautiful pure +eyes, the sensitive, proud face. They spoke to +him, and they found him no common child.</p> + +<p>One day, by good luck, when little John was +hardly more than seven, a customer, a Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +Matthew, a clergyman, came to Flaxman’s shop. +Writing of that visit, when it had become a +memory and the child a great man, Mr. Matthew +says—</p> + +<p>“I went to the shop of old Flaxman to have +a figure repaired, and whilst I was standing +there I heard a child cough behind the counter. +I looked over, and there I saw a little boy seated +on a small chair, with a large chair before him, +on which lay a book he was reading. His fine +eyes and beautiful forehead interested me, and I +said, ‘What book is that?’ He raised himself +on his crutches, bowed, and said, ‘Sir, it is a +Latin book, and I am trying to learn it.’</p> + +<p>“‘Aye, indeed!’ I answered. ‘You are a +fine boy, but this is not the proper book. I +will bring you a right one to-morrow.’</p> + +<p>“I did as I promised, and the acquaintance +thus casually begun ripened into one of the best +friendships of my life.”</p> + +<p>It is a picture! The child of seven trying +patiently to make out his Latin book—his weakly +frame on one chair, the unwieldy volume spread +out before him on another. The beautiful eyes +and brow, the winning smile, and the long, +brown hair curling to the shoulders.</p> + +<p>But the wheel of his fortune seemed as if it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +had got a turn. Mr. Matthew was as good as +his word, and brought him the promised book, +and more followed. Translations of old Greek +fables and stories from Homer that stirred the +imagination of the boy. Then followed the +fascinating adventures of Don Quixote. These +fired his brain. How great and how heroic it +seemed to him to rescue maidens in distress, to +set the wrongs of the world right. So strong a +hold did the thought take of the imagination of +the child that one day, hobbling on his little +crutches, he started off for Hyde Park in the +hope that he might perchance find some forlorn +maiden in need of his protection! But no old-world +lady of the kind did he happen on among +the thousands of teeming London—either in the +Park or Kensington Gardens—and he had to +come home cast down and disappointed.</p> + +<p>Meantime he strove and worked and laboured +in his own childish way—with perhaps no great +present results—receiving now and then even a +check from which the sensitive mind recoiled, as +when one day he showed an artist a drawing of +a human eye, to be met with the quizzical +question, “Is that an oyster?” Perhaps more +secretly after that, but still as perseveringly as +ever, he worked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>Long years after, a friend gazing on these +early works was struck with proofs of his +diligence as a child, and asked him how he had +managed to do them.</p> + +<p>“Sir,” Flaxman answered, “we are never too +young to learn what is useful, or too old to grow +wise and good.”</p> + +<p>When he was about ten years old a better +gift than any fortune could bestow was granted +to him. The feebleness of childhood seemed to +leave him. The sickly frame seemed suddenly +to knit itself together. The weakly limbs +gradually strengthened, and the boy was able to +throw away his crutches.</p> + +<p>No need now to sit solitary in the cramped +little shop behind the counter, dreaming lonely +day-dreams and fashioning his models all by +himself. With new strength a new life was +opening up to him—or rather the old life grew +day by day transformed and beautified.</p> + +<p>It was Mrs. Matthew, the wife of his friend +the clergyman, who first drew the boy from his +life of loneliness. She was touched and interested +in him, and she asked him to her +house. He went and he went again. He met +there men who fired his smouldering longing +one day to be a sculptor—to do some great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +thing in the world of art. Mrs. Matthew had +many friends among such. At other times he +spent evenings not less delightful when she +herself read aloud from Virgil and Homer soul-stirring +tales of ancient heroes—and the boy sat +by drinking in the poetry while he tried with +eager, untaught fingers to draw some of the +passages that took his fancy. Again she would +lay aside her book and talk to him of the +wonders of sculpture, while there sprang up in +his heart a great longing amounting almost to a +passion.</p> + +<p>No wonder these were golden hours, full of +pleasure to young John, and looked back upon +many a time in after years as among the +happiest times of his life.</p> + +<p>A gentleman, seeing some of these boyish +attempts, gave the boy an order for a set of +drawings, and by and by more orders followed.</p> + +<p>When he was eleven years old he left the +privacy and quiet of the little side eddy of the +stream of life in which he had been living and +struck out, as it were, into the mid-stream. That +year he won a prize from the Society of Arts for +models of figures in clay. Two years later he +was again successful. What we know as the +Royal Academy then first came into being, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +when it was in its second year, and when +Flaxman was only fifteen years old, he exhibited +models there. Step by step, small steps at first, +he was entering on the beginning of that which +for long had been the desire of his heart. In +the same year he entered as an Academy student, +and won the silver medal. People already were +beginning to acknowledge his outstanding ability. +Rewards, prizes came upon him one by one. +The boy’s outlook was beginning to be very +bright, and his heart was beginning to beat high +with hope, when just as he had reached the age +of sixteen he got an unexpected check.</p> + +<p>He made up his mind to try for the gold +medal—the highest reward of merit—and among +all the students he was generally allowed to +have the best chance. Hardly a fellow-student +but felt sure that he would get it. “Flaxman! +Flaxman!” they cried almost unanimously, for +they were strongly impressed with the skill and +ability of the grave, reserved boy. Speaking of +this time in later years Flaxman said—</p> + +<p>“I had made up my mind that I was to win.... +It was given by Reynolds to Engleheart. +I burst into tears. This sharp lesson humbled +my conceit, and I determined to redouble my +exertions....”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>May he perhaps have over-estimated his own +skill? Years after he said of himself—</p> + +<p>“I was the most conceited artist of the day.” +And yet where another might have been downcast +he refused to be discouraged. He was upheld +by a strong and silent sense of power within +him. He went home to his father, and he said, +“Give me time, and I will yet produce works +which the Academy will be proud to acknowledge.”</p> + +<p>Engleheart, the winner of the medal, was +never heard of in later life, while the loser made +for himself a name that afterwards “waxed +wide.”</p> + +<p>Now he worked harder than ever. He studied, +he exhibited, he moulded, he designed the figure +for a statue of Alexander the Great, which +brought him some fame. But his father could +not keep him, and he was driven to look about +and bethink himself how he could keep himself. +At this time—the most needy, perhaps, of his +life—a door seemed to open to him. He fell in +with the great Staffordshire potter, Josiah +Wedgwood, and Wedgwood, with that keen eye +of his ever on the outlook to discover talent, +instantly recognised it in the boy.</p> + +<p>A great time was beginning for pottery. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +ages hideous things had adorned people’s houses +and tables till Wedgwood arose, and there +entered his great mind the idea of making +common things beautiful, of giving people something +to look at, even at their meals, that would +raise their tastes and be a sort of education. +After Wedgwood discovered young Flaxman he +gave him some orders. The boy threw his whole +soul into the work. Not that it was such work +as always showed the artist at his best. The +sculptor had first to make the model in wax. +Then a mould was taken of this, and into this +the potter’s stuff, soft as dough, was carefully +pressed. The thing was not finished yet. It +remained for it still to be fired and polished, and +so it is not wonderful if some of the delicacy +and finish of the first design may have been +occasionally lost.</p> + +<p>But with Flaxman’s work Wedgwood was +satisfied, and while he worked hard for him he +paid him handsomely. It was not the sort of +thing to bring him name and fame, but there +was always the need to live to be faced, and he +bravely took what offered and was thankful. +And by living simply and saving where he could, +he managed to keep himself by what he made. +He faced this time of drudgery quietly and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +patiently, bringing to bear upon its hardships +something of that serene spirit that belonged +to him all through life.</p> + +<p>He gave to Wedgwood, as far as in him lay, +of his best. Models of the four seasons, models +of the ancient gods and goddesses—those deities +whose stories were familiar to him from his +childhood, Juno, Jupiter, Minerva, Apollo—models +of vases. And besides these, chimney-pieces, +plaques, candlesticks, inkstands, anything +and everything, for Wedgwood held that a +common teapot or a jug might be still a thing +of beauty. For the models of the ancient gods +he would get perhaps 10<i>s.</i> each, and for a pair +of vases as much as £3 3<i>s.</i></p> + +<p>Some of these were so exquisitely done that +Wedgwood said more than once, “It really hurts +me to think of parting with these gems.”</p> + +<p>Long years afterwards, when he had reached +the top of the tree, Flaxman used to find endless +pleasure in talking of these humble labours.</p> + +<p>And all this time he was leading a very quiet +life. That strong thirst for knowledge that had +always been his, spurred him on to learn all he +could. So during the day he worked at casts +and models, and in the evenings he sketched or +turned to his beloved poets. Either he preferred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +the old Greek poets’ company to that of living +friends, or it might be that the slight deformity +that was his through life—the high shoulders, +the sidling gait—left him shy and sensitive, and +in a measure inclined to creep into his shell.</p> + +<p>Looking over the huge portfolio of Flaxman’s +drawings that one can still see to-day, it is easy +to discover where he went for most of his +subjects. The poets came in for their share, and +also history and portraits, but his great delight +was to produce scenes from the Bible and the +<cite>Pilgrim’s Progress</cite>, “The Marys at the Sepulchre,” +“The Flight into Egypt,” “The Angels +round the Cradle of Christ.”</p> + +<p>But although he was getting to be known +among men of talent he was still poor and +struggling. It is proof enough of this for us +to read how at this time he made his busts half +life-size and of clay, whereas had he been rich +they would surely have been full-size and of +marble. About this time he began to talk of +what had been with him till now a secret longing. +It was to see Rome. The desire had been +long growing in his heart. To Rome sculptors +and painters flock, for it is the great city of +sculpture and painting, and to a sculptor it is +as if his education were unfinished, so long as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +his eyes have not feasted on those beautiful +examples of art.</p> + +<p>“If I remain here,” he said sadly, “I shall be +accused of ignorance concerning those noble +works of art which are to the sculptor what +learning is to a man of genius.”</p> + +<p>About this time he took what seemed a foolish +step, looking alone to the progress of his art. +He married. Sir Joshua, the President of the +Royal Academy, who had <em>not</em> given him the gold +medal, met him in the street one day and +stopped him. “Ha! Flaxman,” he said, “I have +heard that you have married. I tell you you are +ruined for an artist. You cannot now go to Rome +to study the great sculptors of antiquity.”</p> + +<p>Young Flaxman went home downcast. Not +to go to Rome! Not to realise his boyhood’s +golden dreams and his life’s ambition!</p> + +<p>He told his wife what had happened. She +met him with the brave reply, “You will e’en +go to Rome and I will accompany you. We +must work and economise.”</p> + +<p>And now for the next five weary years this +brave young couple put their shoulders to the +wheel. She kept house and he worked—harder +than ever—for Wedgwood chiefly—toiling for +long hours, but upheld all the time by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +thought of the goal to which he was straining. +That journey to Rome!—the very thought of it +made all hardship easy. He turned out much +beautiful work for Wedgwood at this time. +Groups of children—romping, skipping, playing +“blind man’s buff.”</p> + +<p>Nothing that meant making money came +amiss to him. He even collected what was +known as “watch rates” for the parish of St. +Anne’s, and might have been seen going about +with an ink-bottle in his buttonhole.</p> + +<p>Often the desires of our heart tarry long in +coming to us. This was among the times of +hardest work and trial in all Flaxman’s life, and +he came out of it well. At the end of the five +years the needed money was collected!</p> + +<p>And now, while the great event of his life was +drawing near, his boyhood had left him, and he +was entering on the work of the man. Already +he had gained some fame in London. The newspapers +took notice of his going.</p> + +<p>“We understand that Flaxman the sculptor +is about to leave his modest mansion in Wardour +Street for Rome.”</p> + +<p>And now a very feast of delight awaited him. +With his arrival in Rome, what wonders opened +to his view, what grandeur and sublimity in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +examples of ancient art! What skill and magnificence +and luxuriance he saw in the churches, +what wealth of creation on their walls and +windows and cupolas, what sculpture, what painting! +It was as if an enchanted world had +suddenly spread itself out before his eyes.</p> + +<p>Gradually it came to be known that Flaxman +had arrived, and there gathered about him men +of taste and culture—rich men many of them—men +of position. But the great sculptor’s ways +were just the simple ones of old. He was not +easily affected by the great of the world. He +was always his manly simple self to rich and +poor alike. He adopted no more luxurious ways +of living with his days of prosperity. He prized +money little, just as a something in exchange +for which he could get food and clothing, or +with which he might help the poor and suffering. +The fine character of the boy seemed to have +expanded into fuller beauty in the man.</p> + +<p>After his stay in Rome he returned to London, +his spirit, one could imagine, bathed in a very +inspiration from all he had seen and heard. He +came back to his native land with a name +made, and quietly set about getting a house, a +studio, assistants, workmen, models.</p> + +<p>He executed a statue of Lord Mansfield, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +which he was paid £2,500. Prices were indeed +altered from the old days, in which he counted +himself well paid with ten shillings for the +model of a goddess!</p> + +<p>“This little man cuts us all out,” said one +generous sculptor to another, willing to acknowledge +Flaxman’s great superiority. Honours +now flowed in upon him. He was made an +Associate of the Royal Academy. He was given +the Professorship of the Chair of Sculpture. At +his first lecture he was enthusiastically cheered. +He had climbed to the highest height of his art. +It almost seemed as if no honour remained to +be bestowed. He was surrounded by fame and +applause, but he was in no wise uplifted. So +the years went on in the delight of the work he +loved.</p> + +<p>But, unexpectedly and all unknown to his +friends, his life was drawing to a close. In the +winter of 1826 he caught a cold, seeming for +a time to be slightly, though not seriously, +ailing. In the beginning of December he grew +much worse, but he would not go to bed.</p> + +<p>“When I lie I cannot breathe,” he said. So, +sitting up to the end, and with scarce a struggle, +he passed away on the 7th of December.</p> + +<p>They buried him quietly in the churchyard of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +St. Giles-in-the-Fields. There was no great +publicity, no large concourse of people. Just a +few friends, a few artists—the greatest—were +there, men who in tremulous, hushed voices said +to each other they “had lost something greater +and dearer than they should see again.”</p> + +<p>Turning from the ending of his life, we cannot +but feel that we are turning from the record +of a man who has lived it well.</p> + +<p>An enthusiastic admirer has said, “He was a +remarkable mixture of simplicity and genius—were +you to try any other ingredients you would +scarcely form so glorious a creature.” And we +hardly think he was far wrong.</p> + +<p>We can see very clearly the fine simplicity of +his nature in his treatment of his workmen. +They were to him rather friends than servants. +They in their turn repaid him with a warm and +devoted affection, calling him “the best master +God ever made.”</p> + +<p>To the end, as well in time of difficulty and +of toil as in time of triumph, the man retained +very much those qualities that had drawn out +people’s love for him in boyhood, the kindly +word from the customer in the shop behind the +counter. The world offered him of its best, as +it has a way of doing to those who do well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +for themselves, but it had no power to draw +him from his work and the simplicity of his +simple home-life. It was only and always to +that which is highest and best that he gave +of his genius. That noble mind of his could +stoop to nothing less. In churches all over +England are to be found beautiful creations of +his. In him were at once goodness and genius +linked together.</p> + +<p>“If ever purity visited this earth,” someone +has said, “it remained with Flaxman.”</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Amid</span> the wild beautiful scenery of Cornwall, +where the waters of the Atlantic wash our +English shores, was born in the winter of 1778 +the greatest chemist England has ever seen. +We read in our childish geography books that +for being the birthplace of Humphrey Davy the +town of Penzance has for long been famous, for +the coming into the world of that man whose +name is perhaps best known for the invention +of the Miners’ Safety Lamp, that has lit the +darkness of our coal mines and saved hundreds +of human lives.</p> + +<p>Humphrey was the son of a wood-carver, a +man not high up in the world, but we find him +free enough from the straits of poverty that +have often been the cradle of genius, though, +indeed, a cradle out of which genius has had +a way of growing to sturdy stalwart manhood. +The child from the outset entered on life with +eagerness and enthusiasm, seeming to take a +firm, earnest grip, as it were, even from babyhood.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +It was this same vigour of mind that +spurred him on all through—in boyhood and +manhood alike—that made him face difficulty +with such a brave, dauntless spirit, and overcome +obstacles with never a thought of letting them +overcome him.</p> + +<p>He was quick, energetic, and alert, even as a +child. When hardly more than five years old +his mother often noticed him with baby fingers +rapidly turning the pages of some book as if +he were counting their number or glancing at +the pictures. To her no small astonishment on +questioning him, she found the lisping baby lips +could repeat the story. It was the same through +life. Long years after, when he was a great +chemist, making wonderful experiments in his +laboratory, he had no patience with slowness. +He would keep several experiments going at +the same time, attending first to one, then to +another. If the exact instrument he wanted +were not at hand, he would recklessly break or +alter another to suit his purpose. His impetuous +spirit could never brook delay. With him quickness +meant power, and while quick he was also +sure.</p> + +<p>As a child he specially loved the <cite>Pilgrim’s +Progress</cite>. The charm of its word-pictures, its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +characters fired his quick imagination. And +history too, especially the history of his own +country. These two, it may be, inspired him +very early to a love of romance and story, and +among the boys at school in Penzance he was +not slow to gain the reputation of story-teller. +Some were tales of fun, others tales of thrilling +wonder and terror, but all flowed easily from +the boy’s lips and held his listeners enthralled.</p> + +<p>When he was no more than eight years old +he would take his stand on a cart in the middle +of the market-place, his boyish figure drawn to +its full height, and there harangue the boys who +gathered in little groups to hear the young +orator. At school there was nothing in any +way remarkable about young Humphrey, except, +perhaps, that somewhere hid away within him +was the gift of rhyme or the gift of poetry. +English and Latin verse alike came easy to him, +and by-and-by his schoolfellows found out his +facility, and they pressed him into their service +to compose valentines and love-letters. But +except for this he seemed in these early years +to be nothing more than a happy, healthy +English boy, full of fun and spirits. He would +fish off Penzance Pier for grey mullet, catching +more than his companions. He would bait his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +hooks and wait till a shoal of these difficult fish +were swimming about the bait, then by a clever +jerk of his tackle entangle and capture them. +His love of fishing remained with him all +through life—almost to the end. So strong +was it that even as a man he never could conceal +his annoyance if unsuccessful, or if he discovered +a friend to have caught a larger number +than he. So keen and ardent was he that he +would dress himself in green that the wily fish +might know no difference between him and the +green trees and grassy banks!</p> + +<p>In his boyhood we find it difficult to trace +any germs of that talent for experimenting and +inventing that distinguished him in later life. +He scooped turnips hollow, and lighted up the +insides with candles—but what boy has not +experimented in the same way? He made +squibs, or “thunder-powder,” that exploded on +a stone with a loud report that delighted his +companions. But there is no trace of an unusual +bent of mind here—just an example of +an ardent, eager English boy, full of life and +spirits.</p> + +<p>In 1793 he went to school in Truro, not far +from Penzance. He was quick, but that was all—a +clever boy, not a prodigy. His master, writing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +long years after, when the boy’s name had become +a household word in England, said:—</p> + +<p>“I did not at that time discover any extraordinary +abilities.”</p> + +<p>It must have been a school of the old sort +that Mr. Davy had lighted upon for his son, +for the story goes that young Humphrey, at +times in scrapes like other boys, while punishment +hung over him, had these doggrel lines +fired off by his master at his head—</p> + +<div class="centered"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0a">“Now, Master Dávy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, sir, I háve ’e,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No one shall save ’e;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Good Master Dávy.”<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>And with the end of the rhyme down came +the flat ruler on the open palm of the culprit! +School, while it may not have done him a great +deal of good, at least did not do him much +harm. His own frank, buoyant mind prevented +his being twisted into a cut-and-dried shape, +or pressed into any special mould. Long years +after he gave thanks that in those young days +he was left very much to his own bent.</p> + +<p>“What I am I have made myself,” he said. +“I say this without vanity, and in pure simplicity +of heart.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<p>So passed the long, sunshiny days of school-time, +and when he was sixteen he left school +finally. After that, for one short, blissful year +he shot and fished and lived chiefly in the open, +surrounded by the beauties of Cornish scenery, +for which in after years his heart always kept a +tender memory, when the bustle and din of +a city, and the whirl of city life, had well-nigh +drowned for him Nature’s softer tones. He +grew then to know familiarly bird and beast, +and rock and flower. In after years, when his +life was more fully filled than most men’s, a +chance word or reference would seem to waft +him a whiff of the sea off the Cornish shore, +and a great longing would seize him for the +loved scenes of his childhood. Then, in the +midst of his work, he would take a hurried +run home. During this year of holiday, which +he enjoyed with the whole-heartedness of a +careless, happy boy, he collected a number of +birds, and stuffed them with his own hands—and +with not a little skill.</p> + +<p>Almost to the end of life he kept his love +of shooting. As in fishing he tried to efface +himself and deceive the wily fish, so in shooting +he was strangely beset by fear of an accident, +and he would study to make himself as conspicuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +as possible in a scarlet hat! Almost +at the end, when his strength was failing, it +is pathetic enough to find him ask to be driven +to the field, that he might still fire a shot.</p> + +<p>But already over his young life there brooded +its first great shadow. In 1794 his father died. +It may have been this which helped to change +young Humphrey from the happy, careless boy to +something more serious, more thoughtful, that +fixed his mind on the responsibilities life was so +full of, that helped to turn it from mere sport +and pleasure to the improvement of his mind—to +the gaining of knowledge. At any rate, about +this time the boy laid hold of life, and, as a +rower in a boat-race might do, steadied down +to his responsibilities.</p> + +<p>His mother apprenticed him to a surgeon and +apothecary in Penzance, and straightway with +that ardour and enthusiasm that carried him +through so much of his great work in later life, +he fell in love with chemistry. He tried boyish +experiments. He used the rudest instruments—anything +that he could lay hands on. Pots, +pans, vessels in the surgery—nothing was safe +or sacred from his touch. He filled the house +with strange and hideous odours—he burnt +holes in his sister’s dresses. When he turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +the garret into a laboratory his good old guardian +would exclaim—</p> + +<p>“This boy Humphrey is incorrigible! Was +there ever so idle a dog? He will blow us all +into the air.”</p> + +<p>Half an hour later he would proudly and +fondly call the boy “Philosopher,” or “Sir +Humphrey,” as if already his prophetic eye +pierced the future and beheld his greatness.</p> + +<p>So he spent much of the day, and in the long +summer evenings he would ramble along the +seashore as far as Marazion armed with a +hammer with which to chip off “specimens” +from the rocks, for already geology had thrown +over him its peculiar spell. He would end +these happy days with tea at a favourite aunt’s. +And it was not merely boyish enjoyment these +solitary rambles brought. They and the still +small voice of Nature were telling on him. +Gradually they were making and moulding the +boy, approaching now as he was, very near to +the threshold of manhood.</p> + +<p>Even then, however, he was trying to improve +himself. With the roar of the waves and the +howl of the winds in his ears in these lonely +walks, he would declaim to the elements, in the +hope of softening a defect in his voice. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +probably arose from his having what is called +“no ear.” He had no notion of either time or +tune. It used to trouble him much that he +never could keep step in the Volunteer Infantry +corps to which he belonged, and someone tried +to teach him “God Save the King,” but without +success.</p> + +<p>The surgical part of his profession was always +disagreeable and distasteful to the boy, although +from no want of courage on his part. The story +goes that one day about this time he was bitten +in the leg by a dog supposed to be mad. No +sooner did he realise what had happened to him +than he there and then took a knife and cut the +piece right out of his leg, and then went to the +surgery and had the wound cauterised.</p> + +<p>His mind was such that it instinctively rose +to emergencies and grappled with anything—a +big thing or a little thing. Both were to him +alike. Knowledge was what he wanted. He +wanted to know as much as possible, and he +liked to get to the bottom of a difficulty for +himself. Into each new thing that came his +way he threw himself with all the ardour and +impetuosity of his nature. Nor was he merely +practical and nothing more. He had that sympathy +and delicacy of mind that revelled in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +communing with nature. This expressed itself +in sonnets and poems—some of which he wrote +when he was only twelve. A great poetic +genius once said of him—</p> + +<p>“If Davy had not been the first chemist he +would have been the first poet of his age.”</p> + +<p>But poetry was not the field in which he was +to shine. His genius was for experiments. He +went on eagerly experimenting on anything—heat, +light, air. Anything connected with +chemistry drew him as with a magnet. The +first time some real experimenting apparatus +found its way to his hands he could not conceal +his delight. Specially did an air-pump charm +him. It was to him as a new and fascinating +toy to a child. He kept working the piston up +and down, and would hardly let it go!</p> + +<p>And now it seemed as if it were almost time +for him to try his wings in the larger air of the +great world. More than one man had come to +Penzance who perhaps gave the boy a foretaste +of the delights he was to know by-and-by as a +man in the atmosphere of culture and talent in +which his lot was to be cast. Among these +were Josiah Wedgwood, the Staffordshire Potter, +and young Watt, the son of the inventor of the +Condensing Steam Engine.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was about young Humphrey’s outward +appearance about this time nothing specially +attractive. He had round shoulders, not a +comely face, and a manner that was in no way +remarkable or engaging, but surely the light of +genius must have shone from his eyes!</p> + +<p>However, such as he was outwardly, he now +prepared to launch away into the great world. +A professor of chemistry in Bristol had heard of +his experiments in light and heat, and proposed +to him that he should become assistant in the +Pneumatic Institution there. There was not +much money to be earned by it.</p> + +<p>“He must be maintained, but the fund will +not furnish a salary from which a man can lay +up anything.” So they told him. But was it +not his most direct road to fortune?</p> + +<p>Perhaps Humphrey thought so. At any rate, +the Penzance surgeon was prevailed upon to cut +short the term of the boy’s apprenticeship, “on +account of the singularly promising talents Mr. +Davy had displayed.”</p> + +<p>So Humphrey went out from his native town, +and from his home, as many a young man had +gone before him, with a heart beating high with +hope, and, as his young, ardent spirit believed, +the world spread out before him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>And certainly a brilliant future was opening +to the boy. He turned his steps to Bristol, +throwing himself in his own characteristic way +into his new work.</p> + +<p>He made experiments on air and gases, some +of these daring and dangerous enough, and entailing +not a little personal risk. But while +these things lay nearest to his heart, he had eye +and ear both open for all that was going forward +in his new life. He was so many-sided himself, +it was as if he could not come in contact with +anyone without catching some spark of interest +from him—the philosopher, the poet, the physician, +the sportsman. He had something in +common with all.</p> + +<p>He entered into his work as if body and mind +knew no fatigue. If an idea came into his head +he could not rest until he had worked it out. +If he broke down in health, he simply started +afresh when he had recovered.</p> + +<p>In his spare time he wrote books and pamphlets +on chemistry, so that in writing and experimenting +his name came to be known to the scientific +men of the day. And now it seemed as if one +step in fame followed another. Success was +crowned by success.</p> + +<p>He was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +to the Royal Institution in 1801. He had +now entered on manhood, and was launched on +the great world of London, having all the +ability to carry himself through. He may have +been handicapped with slight flaws of manner. +If he appeared over-confident, it probably was +that in reality he was shy and timid, and +attempted to cover these little awkwardnesses. +His friends grieved in secret over the noticeable +change, fearing lest with simplicity of manner +he might throw over simplicity of character. +But no man is, after all, perfect, and in spite of +this, Davy was rapidly mounting the ladder of +success.</p> + +<p>The young chemist soon discovered that his +lectures drew crowds, even created a great and +extraordinary sensation. In imagination we can +picture the lecture-room, the crowded audience—all +sorts and conditions, from lovers of science, +ladies of fashion, men of rank, to the threadbare-coated +student—eagerly watching the experiments, +and all drinking in his words as the +young lecturer, fired with his subject, animated +with all the charm of which he was so complete +a master the dry bones of geology with life and +breath, or again brought the study of chemistry, +hitherto unget-at-able and out of reach, down to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +their level. The audience hung on his lips spellbound.</p> + +<p>The young popular lecturer was caressed and +made much of.</p> + +<p>“Davy, covered with glory,” writes a friend +at this time, “dines with me to-day.”</p> + +<p>Soon they made him Professor of Chemistry +to the Institution. Promotion followed promotion, +but each year was a spur to greater +exertion. Time would fail to enumerate the +steps in his triumphs. A continuous sun seemed +to shine upon him. And his strength seemed +equal to all demands. Money had never been +of much account to him. Now, indeed, he +might have had it in abundance had he chosen, +by helping forward manufactures with his +scientific knowledge, but that was not his aim. +His ambition was scientific glory.</p> + +<p>“To be useful to science and mankind was the +pursuit in which he gloried.”</p> + +<p>The years that followed were years full of hard +work. In 1812 he was knighted. It seemed +as if almost everything he touched were like +a gold mine which yielded some new treasure +to him.</p> + +<p>“Science,” he said once to a young man +anxious to pursue it, “is a harsh mistress, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +repays one poorly.” But for him she surely +rather had “full measure pressed down and +running over.”</p> + +<p>And now, when he was about thirty-seven, +his thoughts were first turned to the great +triumph of his life, the invention that was to +make his name famous.</p> + +<p>There was in England, especially in the north +and midland counties, a great and crying evil—the +danger in which our miners and their +families lived, as these brave men daily and +hourly carried their lives in their hands. Constantly +the newspapers were filled with terrible +accounts of accidents in our coal-pits—mines +exploding, men and boys and horses being blown +to pieces or buried alive—and always from the +same cause—the want of a safety lamp. A great +quantity of gas got cooped up, in spite of +contrivances for leading pure air into the murky +passages of the mines, and these gases, directly +they came in contact with a naked flame, exploded. +There had been old days in which men +worked by a feeble light borrowed from the +phosphorescence of decaying fish-skins or “steel +mills,” which gave out fitful gleams or sparks +when a piece of flint was struck against them; +but these days had passed, and accidents multiplied.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +And though men were startled and +shocked when they read of them, still the wholesale +slaughter went on. The gas exploded, +bursting up everything near, killing the miners, +erupting great masses of coal and dust and +mangled men and horses. And not only this, +but it blew down the trap-doors, leaving men +to die of “after-damp,” the more horrible death +of suffocation, because lingering and slow.</p> + +<p>To remedy this crying evil Davy bent the +whole force of his brilliant intellect, and after +much thought invented the Safety Lamp. He +surrounded the flame of his lamp with wire +gauze. The gas entered and exploded within +it, but the explosion did not pass outward.</p> + +<p>It was the most glorious triumph of his genius. +In 1816 it was adopted. With his “Davy” in +his hand there was now no fear for the miner.</p> + +<p>“The highest ambition of my life,” he wrote, +“has been to deserve the name of a friend to +humanity.”</p> + +<p>He took out no patent. He wanted no money +for it. It was reward enough for him to see it +work.</p> + +<p>“If you had patented it,” said a friend to him +one day, “you might have been drawing your +five or ten thousand a year.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>“No, my good friend,” was his reply, “I never +thought of such a thing. My sole object was +to serve the cause of humanity. It might undoubtedly +enable me to put four horses in my +carriage, but what would it avail me to have +it said that Sir Humphrey drives his carriage-and-four?”</p> + +<p>“I value it,” he said again, “more than anything +I ever did.”</p> + +<p>And now the world’s honours waited upon +him. In 1818 Government made him Baronet. +In 1820 he was made President of the Royal +Society.</p> + +<p>But already in the zenith of his triumph, +there were small signs that showed too surely +that he was failing. In 1826 he retired from +the Presidentship, and later in the year he was +attacked by apoplexy, followed by paralysis.</p> + +<p>“Here I am,” he wrote pathetically from +Rome, “a ruin among ruins.”</p> + +<p>And so he began to look death in the face.</p> + +<p>“I do not wish to live so far as I am personally +concerned,” he said, “but I have views +which I could develop—if it please God to save +my life—which would be useful to science and +mankind.”</p> + +<p>Never again, however, was he to return to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +England. In Rome he had a second seizure. +He had a great longing to reach Geneva, and a +few hours after he arrived, although he appeared +at first to rally, he took ill, and there passed +away quietly and peacefully, not merely, as +someone has it, “one of the greatest, but one of +the most benevolent and amiable of men.”</p> + +<p>They buried him in the little burying-ground +at Geneva, the long procession wending its way +to his last resting-place on foot. His widow +erected a tablet to his memory in Westminster +Abbey.</p> + +<p>He was the greatest chemist of the age; but +after all, his best memorial will abide in the +memory of his fellow-men as the inventor of the +Safety Lamp.</p> + +<p>To himself his invention brought no small +happiness.</p> + +<p>“I was never more affected,” he said on one +occasion, “than by a written address I received +from the working colliers, when I was in the +north, thanking me, on behalf of themselves +and their families, for the preservation of their +lives.”</p> + +<p>His, indeed, is a career of striking brilliancy. +He is like some mountain climber who climbs +ever upwards. And we, looking up, seem to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +him leap from one dazzling peak to another. +Honours and attainments were his such as come +to few men in this world, but we cannot but +feel that what gave him the greatest joy in life +was that he had been enabled to rescue hundreds +of lives, to bring light out of darkness, and +cheer and safety where before there had been +uncertainty and death. It is for this that the +name of Humphrey Davy will be blessed by +men and women in the ages still to come.</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">Perhaps</span> no man has risen out of lower +depths of poverty and ignorance and obscurity +to the very top of fame’s ladder than Richard +Arkwright. More than 150 years ago, towards +the end of December, 1732, there was born in +a house in a humble side street of Preston, a +child who was to leave his stamp, not only on +his native town, but on the whole of England, +and indeed on the civilisation of the world.</p> + +<p>The son of poor parents, and, like Josiah +Wedgwood, the youngest of thirteen, it may be +that that Christmas held even less brightness than +usual for the struggling Arkwrights because of +the coming of an extra mouth to feed. At any +rate, if ever child were confronted by the chill +and dreary outlook on a cold world, that child +was the baby Richard.</p> + +<p>Preston was not, 150 years ago, the Preston +of to-day. Then it was a town with a few +thousand inhabitants, “beyond the trading part +of the county,” while to-day it is in the very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +centre of the cotton manufacture, hiving with +crowds of human beings—a great town because +here, in a squalid, insignificant by-street, one +bleak December day, there first saw the light +the man who was to “give to England the +power of cotton.”</p> + +<p>As there was scant enough money for food +and clothing in the Arkwright house, so it +followed that for schooling there was none at all. +Young Richard would have stood a poor chance +had it not been that his uncle Richard took pity +on the boy growing up in a state of neglect and +ignorance, and taught him to read. In later +days he added something to this small beginning +by attending classes in the winter evenings. +And so the early years of his life passed, and in +time the boy went out into the world, poorly +and scantily enough armed for its difficult battle. +Long years after he bemoaned his ignorance and +want of education when he felt all the drawbacks, +the trammelling, the holding-down of it, when +he realised how it handicapped him in the race +of life. And when he was an old man over +fifty, after pressing into the day as many as sixteen +working hours, he would steal an hour from +sleep to learn English grammar and another +hour to practise writing and spelling.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<p>But, poorly equipped as young Richard was +in most ways, he went out into life provided +with a great brain, and had he known it, that +brain was to open to him a door through which—could +he have looked then—he might have +seen stretching away into the years a long vista +of triumphs and successes. The boy began on a +very low round of the ladder—a strange enough +beginning for the future maker of the cotton +world: he entered on his career as apprentice to +a barber. But, boy as he was, he threw himself +with energy and ardour—these two qualities that +made him a great man later on—into the new +business. He took a firm hold of it. He worked +steadily at it for years, having most likely +nothing in his mind higher than the setting up +for himself—the becoming some day a master +barber! It was this goal at that time that +seemed to him getting on in life.</p> + +<p>So his boyhood sped away, and when his +apprenticeship had come to an end he took the +great and important step of setting up for himself. +He left Preston and went to Bolton. Poor +indeed must have been his stock of money at +this point in his fortunes. It was no imposing +shop he took, with windows and painted sign, +but the smallest and poorest place to be had.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +He rented an underground cellar, but his eager +spirit was to be damped neither by poverty nor +a dreary outlook. He bent all his powers on +getting customers, and as the first step to this +he stuck out a placard above his cellar door +with the scrawled invitation—</p> + +<p class="placard">“Come to the subterraneous barber, he shaves +for a penny.”</p> + +<p>In the little world of hair-dressing the rude +appeal made a small sensation. Here, as in +other businesses, there was competition. Arkwright +shaved for a penny. At this rate the +subterraneous barber would draw away the +customers of others! While the underground +cellar would be crowded, their shops would be +empty. And so they were forced to let down +their prices, and others besides Arkwright shaved +for a penny.</p> + +<p>Young Richard, rising one morning, grasped +the fact that he was now not alone in his prices. +Others were running him dangerously close. He +was merely one of many now, but with the +enterprise that outdid others by-and-by in the +great world of mechanical invention he resolved +to strike out a bold new line. The old placard +was taken down and another printed and set up +in its stead.</p> + +<p class="placard">“A clean shave for a halfpenny!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Arkwright was not content to stand still +in shaving people’s chins or in anything else. +These were the days of wearing wigs, and it +struck him that something was to be made out +of wigs, or perukes, as they were called, and so +he gave up his business of shaving in a measure +and began to travel about the country buying +and selling human hair. He regularly attended +country fairs and bought the locks and tresses +of the young girls who came there to be hired +out to service. In time he grew to make successful +bargains with these, and to add to this +he discovered a chemical dye, with which he +dyed the hair and sold it to wig-makers, and +by-and-by “Arkwright’s Hair” came to be known +as the best in the market.</p> + +<p>It most likely was—at any rate, it may have +been in those journeys—going in and out among +the houses and cottages in the country that he +came to be familiar with the sound of the +“weaver’s shuttle” and the turning of the “one-thread +machine.” Long years after he was to +find that familiarity stand him in good stead. +But, successful and hard-working as he was, life +was still a struggle, and with all his efforts he +earned but a bare living. It was hard to wrest +a fortune from wig-making and chin-shaving, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +gradually there grew up in his busy brain a +project. It formed very slowly, but it did grow. +It was the genius within him struggling with +disadvantages and drawbacks that would have +“posed” most men. His mind, leaning strongly +to the mechanical, groped vaguely at first after +something, and then gradually it settled down +to the “spinning machine,” and from that time +onwards all his energies were bent on that.</p> + +<p>In his journeys among the cottagers it had +been easy enough to see that the yarn could not +be made quickly enough for the weaver, that +though in thousands of cottages the “one-thread +machine” turned from morning till night and +again from night till morning, it could not keep +pace with the shuttle. What was wanted was a +dozen, fifty, a hundred threads to be made by a +single pair of hands. Did he perhaps see dimly +even then that he was to be the man who should +throw out the old-fashioned hand-wheel?</p> + +<p>One day he noticed a red-hot bar of iron become +elongated as it passed between two iron +rollers. In that instant he first saw dimly the +tiny seedling that was to grow one day to the +mighty tree of the spinning-frame. The idea +lodged in his brain and took firm hold of him.</p> + +<p>In outward appearance at this time Arkwright<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +was in no way specially attractive or remarkable, +but genius is not always outwardly beautiful, and +“there were notions in that rough head of his” +that were one day to alter England.</p> + +<p>But Arkwright was no practical mechanic, and +so he called in help from outside—from one +Kay, a clockmaker in Warrington, and under his +directions Kay made rollers and wheels, and +shortly Arkwright had his models ready to hand. +Meantime, while his heart beat high with hope +and exultation, his pet models being always in +his mind though for bread and butter he still +made wigs and shaved chins, he received a +sudden and unexpected check. His wife—for he +was already married—chafing in secret over +what she considered his fantastic imaginings and +idle dreamings, made up her mind to destroy +that which distracted his mind from the business +of shaving and money-making. As the surest +means to her end she burned his models one +day when he was out of the way. Poor Arkwright +returned and discovered the mischief. In +an instant his whole stubborn nature was up in +arms. Indeed, so wrathful was he that he would +from that day have nothing more to do with his +wife, and the two separated.</p> + +<p>And now the great question was—how best to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +push the new model Kay had made. Poverty +handicapped him sadly. It was impossible to +push anything without money. He cast about +in his mind where the money was to come from, +and settled on an old friend in Preston, “a +liquor merchant and painter” (probably a house-painter). +To Preston he took his way. The +friend consented to help him, and together with +high hopes and great rejoicing he and Kay set +up their model. But their secrecy had roused +suspicion. Behind this friend’s house there +happened to be a closed-in garden with a number +of gooseberry bushes. Close by in a neighbouring +cottage lived two old ladies. At nights they +declared they heard a strange humming noise +among the bushes, as if the devil himself were +making music, tuning up his bagpipes for Arkwright +and Kay to dance a reel! The story got +abroad. The people of Preston, excited and +curious, were eager to break into the house and +discover if Arkwright and Kay were indeed in +league with the Evil One.</p> + +<p>But after the model had been set up and was +about to be shown in the Free Grammar School +in Preston, there came a sudden memory of +dark stories still fresh in men’s minds of how +other inventors had been treated in Preston—how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +they had been mobbed and furiously ill-used, +while their inventions had been smashed +to atoms by a people panic-stricken because of +their dread of machinery, which they believed +would throw them out of work and take the +bread out of their and their children’s mouths. +Arkwright remembered all this, and he and Kay +finally made up their minds to pack up their +models and set off for Nottingham.</p> + +<p>While Arkwright had been at Preston engrossed +with thoughts of his model a political +election took place, and he was called upon to +vote. But so poor and so wretchedly clad was +the man who was by-and-by to be a knight—the +man who was to leave behind him half a million—that +before he could present himself at the poll, +several people had to club together to exchange +the tattered garments for something that would +at least be presentable!</p> + +<p>Arrived at Nottingham, Arkwright tried to +get someone to help him with money. This +brave man had firm faith in his invention and +firm faith in himself. It was simply impossible +to discourage him. But the time of waiting +was long and weary before he fell in with a +Mr. Strutt, the inventor of the stocking-frame. +An inventor himself, perhaps he was the man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +who could best understand and appreciate +Arkwright’s invention. The two entered into +partnership, and it may have seemed to Arkwright +that his time of trial and waiting had at +last come to an end.</p> + +<p>And now truly enough he had his foot firmly +planted on the ladder of success. Behind him +was a hard and toilsome boyhood. Before him +were still long waiting, difficulties to face, men’s +opposition to overcome, dislike, distrust, envy, +and jealousy to live down and conquer. But +the first step had been taken, and never once +along the difficult way do we find him flinch.</p> + +<p>In 1769, the same year in which James Watt +patented his Condensing Steam Engine, Arkwright +at the age of thirty-seven took out the +patent for his Spinning-Frame. His next step +was to erect a cotton mill at Chorley, and +following that, one at Cromford, in Derbyshire. +No sooner were they finished than men flocked +from Lancashire, and indeed from all parts of +England, to see them at work. They were the +gazing-stock of the country.</p> + +<p>But Arkwright’s brain was not the only one +that had pondered on cardings and rollers and +wheels and spindles, and soon there sprang up +men who said this invention was not all his.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +He had taken other men’s thoughts and adapted +them, and joined them together, and called the +whole his own. And now there followed hard +years of opposition, fightings, struggles, before +which a weaker man than Arkwright would +have gone down. But nothing discouraged or +defeated him. Not even five years of weary +waiting, an expenditure of £12,000, and yet +no profit from his invention! His brave spirit +was still undaunted. Men did not try to +hide their envy and jealousy. They fell upon +his mill at Chorley in mobs of hundreds. A +strong force of police, and even of the military, +was called out to quell the rioters. Two of +them were shot dead, one was drowned, and +several were wounded; while the rest smashed +every machine they could lay hands on, everything +that was worked by horse-power or by +water-power, sparing only and alone what +human hands could undertake. And it was not +the workmen only who, with blind or short-sighted +eyes, looked on machinery as a curse, +believing that it would rob them of their living, +but the better, more enlightened classes as well, +who regarded Arkwright as an enemy to mankind. +They were doubtless at the same time +looking to their pockets. If working men were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +thrown out of work, it meant that <em>they</em> would +have larger poor rates to pay, and so they too +fell upon Arkwright, not seeing that here was +the man ready and anxious, if they would but +listen to him, to give thousands of people work +where now instead only hundreds had it.</p> + +<p>Meantime he faced his opponents, showing +always a brave front, and trying to defend +himself at every point. He endured the spoiling +of his property, and then, not content with +browbeating him, they seized upon his patent +rights and disputed them. And the upshot was +that Arkwright’s patent was set aside by Parliament. +But even then the great inventor was +not overwhelmed. Passing by the hotel where +some of his enemies were standing after his +defeat, he overheard one say to another—</p> + +<p>“Well, we have done for the old shaver at +last.” Arkwright turned round, ready, cool, immovable.</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” he said, “I have a razor left +in Scotland that will shave you all yet.”</p> + +<p>He had first tried horse-power for his mills. +Now he was trying water-power, and he foresaw +that Lanark, in Scotland, so well situated on +the Clyde for his purpose, would furnish him +with all that was wanted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>Meantime, cotton was gradually growing to a +great industry in England. People who had +looked suspiciously and enviously on Arkwright +at first now reluctantly admitted that his goods +were the best to be had, and by-and-by it +was he who fixed the prices in the market. +It was as if by his own efforts he had created +a little world. The originality of each part +of his invention, may not entirely have been +his. This part or that—a roller, a carding, a +crank, a spindle—one of these may have belonged +to some other man, but to Arkwright +belongs the joining of all together. It was his +master mind that collected under one roof the +whole series of machines, from the engine that +received the cotton-wool, much as it came from +the pod, to that which wound it in bobbins—a +hard and firm cotton-yarn. It was he who +made each thing dovetail into the other, who +worked out the one perfect, harmonious whole. +His, too, was the strong mind that trained men +and boys—never before used to machinery—to +its irksomeness, its regularity, its exactitude, +taking them from idle, desultory lives, it might +be, and accustoming them to system and discipline. +In the old days the slow sale of the +yarn and the stupidity of workmen had sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +almost daunted him, but these days were +past.</p> + +<p>And how the man worked!—with a quick, +all-grasping mind. It was the boy over again +in his underground cellar, unwilling to be worsted +in his “penny a shave,” striking out the bold +line of a halfpenny one. Riches from his +machines—and even more from his mills—flowed +in upon him. He was a man of no +small account now. England had come to +identify the name of Arkwright with an open +door to a great source of wealth for the land. +King George III. knighted him, and a year later +he was made High Sheriff of Derbyshire. But +still he went on working, managing, superintending +his mills and his machinery—leading a life +of sacrifice. As he had done when a boy, so +still as a man, he made the very most of his +time, even grudging that spent on a journey, +and generally travelling with four horses in +order to overtake it quickly. He who had +lived as a boy in an underground cellar, now +occupied a magnificent mansion, and was a man +of note in the county and in England. But +we remember, and not without sadness, how +for long in the midst of his hard work he was +a victim to bodily suffering—subject to severe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +asthma—and how bravely and uncomplainingly +he bore up and struggled on in spite of all! +Now, already early—while he was but in his +sixtieth year—he began to fail. Asthma was +complicated with other disorders. There were, +too, the strain and stress of a life of hard work, +and these reached a climax while the great man +was still in the zenith of his mental powers, and +he passed away on the 3rd August, 1792.</p> + +<p>Arkwright’s name was now of world-wide +fame. Hundreds and thousands of people, many +of whom had come to see his first cotton-mill, +crowded the rocks and roads about Cromford, +and mingled with the long procession that bore +the body of the great inventor to his last resting-place.</p> + +<p>They erected a monument in the church of +Cromford to his memory. But the name of +Arkwright needs no carved memorial of stone. +His memorial is of a more lasting kind, for it is +he whom England has to thank to-day for an +industry that has enriched the land. Not +“proud Preston” alone—a small town at his +birth, a mighty place of manufacture now—has +Arkwright made to grow and flourish.</p> + +<p>He was a man of “Napoleon nerve.” Where +other men saw but a short way ahead, he grasped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +the end from the beginning; where other minds +saw merely a part, his eye was able to take in +the whole. He may have gathered up some +threads from other men’s brains, but it was +he who wove them into one great whole. He +had a business faculty—he had shown it as a +boy—that rose almost to the height of genius. +And he believed in himself. He had great +notions, great ambitions. Nothing was too big +a project for him to attempt. And success was +his—great success, as the world counts it. Immense +riches, too, were his, for when he died +he left behind him half a million. But to us +that seems not of so much account as that that +great mind of his was the first to grasp what +was to put within their reach a source of riches +and profit to thousands of working-people in +England, and this in face of bitter opposition +from the people themselves. He braved their +jealousy, he held his own against their prejudices +and attacks, and working often in bodily weakness +and pain, but with persevering determination, +he brought this boon to his country. With +untiring courage and long, patient labour, he +built up the splendid scheme that has turned +out for us to be the Factory System of our +country to-day.</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>JOSIAH WEDGWOOD.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">When</span> Josiah Wedgwood was born, some +170 years ago, I daresay the people of the +little village of Burslem would have been greatly +astonished had they been told that the humble +potter’s child was by-and-by to change the +place, with its few straggling houses, into a +flourishing town with thousands of inhabitants. +And not this alone, but that he would make +for himself such fame that his name should be +a household word throughout Great Britain, and +indeed throughout the world.</p> + +<p>When Josiah came into the world there was +already a small army of brothers and sisters +awaiting him in the humble little house close +by the churchyard of Burslem, for he was the +youngest of thirteen.</p> + +<p>Although then large towns and places near +the sea were marching on with the progress of +civilisation, little country places buried inland +were shunted into a siding, as it were, and so +were left far behind the great world. In this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +way the midland counties of England were a +long time emerging from the darkness of the +Middle Ages. Staffordshire, the county of pottery, +lagged a long way behind in improvements. +Its villages were straggling and dirty. +Its houses little better than thatched hovels or +mud huts. Heaps of waste and dirt and +rubbish blocked their doorways. Broken ware +was scattered everywhere. Hollows in the +ground, where clay had been scooped out to +make ware, gaped close to the doorways, and +collected great pools of evil-smelling stagnant +water.</p> + +<p>Burslem was in something of this sorry state +when Josiah Wedgwood opened his eyes on the +world. The people of the village for the most +part had been potters for upwards of 200 years. +That is, they made pots and butter-dishes and +porringers—for spoons and plates were still +of wood—out of the clay of which their +soil was made; not fine and polished and +gleaming white, as we know them to-day, but +rough-hewn things, for the trade of pottery was +yet in its infancy.</p> + +<p>A potter’s work could be divided among one +family. The father and sons made and fired the +dishes. The mother and daughters strapped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +them on the backs of horses and donkeys, +driving them along roads so wretched that the +poor beasts often stuck in the mud or fell down +in the ruts, while the women, with pipes in +their mouths and rough words on their lips, +urged them on with whip and lash.</p> + +<p>It was this sort of life that lay before Josiah. +But he had been born with a boy’s best blessing—a +good mother—a woman who had a heart +large enough for thirteen children, and who +tried what she could to hand down to them by +example a birthright better than riches—to make +them patient, industrious, dependent on self.</p> + +<p>When the child was little more than a baby, +and able only to toddle with uncertain step, he +was sent to a dame’s school, quite as much to be +out of the way as to learn his A B C. For the +rest he played about the door of the cottage, his +greatest treat to bestride the pack-horse’s back, +hoisted up by some good-natured packman. +When he was seven years old he was sent to +school to a place called Newcastle-under-Lyme, +some three and a half miles across the fields. +In long days of sunshine the walk was full of +pleasure to the boy, as he came to know +Nature’s beauties—her birds and flowers and +sweet fragrances—as we best can know things, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +close and loving intimacy. Long years afterwards, +when he had reached the highest heights +of his trade, it was the unforgotten faces of the +wild flowers lurking in the fields between Newcastle +and Burslem that rose before his mind’s +eye as he decorated his china services with +coloured leaves and flowers.</p> + +<p>When Josiah was nine years old his father +died, and the mother was left to struggle with +her thirteen as best she could. Nor do we find +that she failed. She was a woman with a large, +loving heart, that rarely quailed before stress or +struggle. The old potter had not been able out +of his hard-won earnings to leave to his children +much—£20 when they reached the age of +twenty-one.</p> + +<p>“And so,” as Josiah used to say long afterwards, +“I began on the very lowest round of the +ladder.”</p> + +<p>And now the child’s scanty schooling had +come to an end. He could write and he could +read, and he knew something of the mysteries of +arithmetic, but for the rest—that great storehouse +of knowledge the world contained—he had +to unlock the door of <em>that</em> for himself, and he +did it patiently, often in weariness and pain and +suffering, as the years went on.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>To his eldest son Thomas the father had left +the pottery, and now it fell to him to act as father +to the family. Josiah, as a matter of course, +went into the business, beginning, I suppose, at +the humble post of turning what was called “the +potter’s wheel.”</p> + +<p>This was a wheel with a strap round it attached +to a disc that revolved horizontally and beside +which sat a man called “a thrower,” shaping +with his fingers and hands the moist clay that +was to form a bowl or plate or whatever vessel +was to be made, copying a pattern in front of +him.</p> + +<p>The boy worked steadily, but hardly had he +reached the stage of “thrower,” hardly had +people noted and admired the wonderful deftness +with which the boyish hands moulded and +shaped the clay, when a cloud descended and +settled on his life—a cloud that, though he +struggled bravely against its depression all +through life, never entirely lifted.</p> + +<p>The terrible epidemic of small-pox visited +Burslem, and the Wedgwood family, living as +they did on the edge of the churchyard, were +among the first to take it, the youngest so badly +that his life was despaired of. However, after +long struggle, they pulled him through; but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +disease left behind it a knee which gave him +hours and days of excruciating pain, and seemed +almost as if it would blight his whole life and +ruin his career. Every remedy was tried, in vain. +At first when he rose in bed, weak and unstrung, +he fell back again. When later he began to +stand it was with weariness and pain. But the +dark cloud had, though all unseen at first, a silver +lining. Out of what looked a great calamity +there sprang good. The boy when he crawled +back to work was no longer fit for the “thrower’s” +bench. The position he had now to take—with +his leg stretched out in front of him—cramped +and impeded him. No longer active and able-bodied, +he was thrown, as it were, in upon himself, +and so took to thinking—not in a gloomy, +despondent way, but thinking how best he could +improve himself, how best he could succeed in +that calling that from the very outset held a +charm for him and all through life lay very near +to his heart.</p> + +<p>At the age of fourteen Josiah was formally +bound apprentice to his brother. Here is the +form. The quaint words sound ceremonious—almost +solemn. The writing provided that he +was—</p> + +<p>“To learn the Art, Mystery, Occupation or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +Imployment of throwing and handling which he, +the said Thomas Wedgwood, now useth, and with +him as an apprentice to dwell, continue and +serve.”</p> + +<p>An apprentice in those days at the pottery +works was allowed “his meat, drink, washing and +lodging, with suitable apparel of all kinds, both +linen and woollen and all other necessaries, both +in sickness and in health.”</p> + +<p>In return the master “was to teach or cause +to be taught the art of throwing and handling.”</p> + +<p>How poor these potters were, and how poorly +they paid their apprentices, may be gathered +from this:</p> + +<p>For the first three years he got 1<i>s.</i> a week, +for the second three years he got 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> a week, +and for the seventh and last 4<i>s.</i> a week. +Besides this he got, once a year, a pair of shoes. +At the end of his apprenticeship, if he chose, he +got 5<i>s.</i> a week for five years. It was a dreary +enough outlook for an eager, ambitious boy +anxious to make his way in the world.</p> + +<p>But boy though he was, the difficulty of +getting on—pain, weakness—none of these +obstacles were allowed to overcome Josiah. +Then even at that early age he showed the +germs of that perseverance that stood out so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +strongly by-and-by in the character of the +man.</p> + +<p>Strange as it may seem to us, what sounds the +very common business of making rough earthenware +milk-bowls and butter-pots and plates was +often half shrouded in mystery, and went near +to being something of a secret.</p> + +<p>Pottery was yet in its beginnings—not yet an +art—and it could only grow and come to perfection +by someone giving to it deep thought +and long, patient, painstaking experiments. For +instance, one man might pore over the matter +and discover something new or come to some +conclusion. He might find one substance, a +clay or a soil, that when mixed with a second +substance produced a third thing—something +new. He might begin to work this out in his +pottery, and immediately all the workmen in the +place knew the secret of how he did it. The +knowledge spread, and while he believed it was +still all his own, other men had seized on his +discovery; other potteries were turning out his +ware and selling it.</p> + +<p>So keen were men to find out the discoveries +of other men, and so closely have these secrets +been kept, that sometimes a master would prefer +to employ idiots, when he could get them, to turn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +his wheel. If one workman appeared more skilled +than the others he was shut up while at work. +The door was locked, the windows were blinded, +and when he came out he was carefully searched. +Men have been known to pretend to be idiots +just that they might get inside a noted pottery; +even to put up with kicks and blows for their +stupidity; to make intentional mistakes to encourage +the falsehood; to hold on to this +perhaps as long as two whole years; while +night after night they crept home and there +wrote down carefully every item of what they +had seen, and so made the secrets their own.</p> + +<p>In Josiah’s boyhood there was much of this +sort of thing carried on. A strict secrecy—a +protection of themselves—as merchant vessels +on the high seas in olden days guarded themselves +from the pirates who, ready to pounce +upon them, roamed the waters.</p> + +<p>But as a man—a great, large-hearted, open-minded +man—and one of the greatest inventors +of his time, Wedgwood never followed this line +of action. Rather was he nobly willing that +others should be the better for his brains. And +so during his long life he took out only one +patent, as we call that which makes an invention +all a man’s own and prevents others touching it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the time we write of there was just beginning +to dawn on Josiah’s boyish mind what was +by-and-by to raise him to the very top of his +calling.</p> + +<p>He took to pondering and considering and +making experiments with the clay that lay +about the doors. How to make the black +mottled ware more delicate—the ruddy-coloured +of a fairer hue—how to mould rough edges more +smoothly—how to introduce fresh colours and +glazes.</p> + +<p>The whole thing threw over the boy a great +glamour of fascination. They show in Burslem +yet a teapot—an ornamented thing made of the +ochreous clay of the district—as “Josiah Wedgwood’s +first teapot.”</p> + +<p>But the elder brother, brought up to the cut-and-dried +routine of the potteries life, had little +patience with what he looked on as the younger’s +shiftless dreamings. He had brothers and +sisters to keep, and money to make, and if +Josiah were not more practical he wanted him +no longer.</p> + +<p>And so the honest but short-sighted brother, +his eyes blinded by the present need of ready +money, failed to realise that there was something +greater, and that the young brother would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +one day leave him and his plodding ways far +behind.</p> + +<p>But while his brother looked upon the boy as +an unpractical dreamer, there were others in +Burslem who saw the beauty of the patient, uncomplaining, +steadfast life, and more than one +father in the place called on his sons to take a +pattern from Josiah Wedgwood.</p> + +<p>But in the midst of his patient inquiries, and +while he was yet little more than a boy, a swift +blow descended upon the Wedgwoods. The +mother who had for so long been father and +mother in one to them was taken from them. +They laid her in the quiet little church of +Burslem, and the brothers and sisters went on +living together.</p> + +<p>It was not till he had reached the age of +twenty-two that Josiah cut the knot that bound +him to home and went out into the great world +to seek his fortune, as eager youths will do to +the end of time. He took with him his little all—his +father’s legacy of £20, a pair of capable +hands, and a wonderful brain.</p> + +<p>His boyhood was over. Manhood lay before +him—rough places at first in the world, puzzles, +difficulties, trials, but in the end name, fame, +riches. If we could follow him past boyhood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +and just peep at the future, I should like to tell +you how he let some of these fancies his brother +had despised have free play; how he invented a +new green earthenware, forming plates in the +shape of ornamental leaves; how he coloured +snuff-boxes and toilet vessels to imitate precious +stones, and how the London jewellers eagerly +bought these up. How he made flowered cups +and saucers, familiar enough to us to-day, but +strange and beautiful to people then. Under +him things took a step forward. People even at +their meals saw things of beauty. These became +an education to them—an art. Besides this they +found other improvements. Lids fitted, spouts +poured, handles could be held! These were small +beginnings, but from these Josiah made great +strides.</p> + +<p>And one of the secrets of these strides was +that he bent his <em>whole mind</em> upon his work. At +night, after a day of hard work, he would sit +down and write out every smallest detail of his +experiments and discoveries. No pains were too +great for him to take. Neither would he trust +to memory, so often in pain and weariness, but +with a perseverance that was never daunted, he +would make his evening notes.</p> + +<p>To him no trouble seemed too great, no detail<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +too small. The boyhood rarely fails to show the +stuff the man is made of, and it was no ordinary +stuff the great potter was made of. So we are +not surprised that step by step he moved upwards +and onwards. Hands and brain were +never idle. Often prostrate with pain and weakness, +he would still read and think and plan. +Indeed, so much did he get into the habit of +planning that many a night it robbed him of his +sleep, for he never lay down at nights without +making in his head a programme for the coming +day.</p> + +<p>Another secret of his success was his courage. +Was it long familiarity with pain—for his knee +broke out again and again, and gave him weary +hours of suffering—that taught him to endure +and resolutely refuse to be overcome? Was it +this made him say with Napoleon, “Nothing is +impossible”?</p> + +<p>He met all difficulties alike with patience and +with a steadfast purpose to overcome them. He +had two special ones. His workmen—often lazy, +indolent, drunken—were a trouble to him, as +were also the furnaces, where the heat had to be +of a certain degree to fire his ware, and where +sometimes the work and labour of months would +be destroyed in a few hours. By patience he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +won the hearts of the first, and they came to +trust him, and by patience, too, he gradually +righted the second. He pulled down and he +built up till the kilns were right.</p> + +<p>“It must be done,” he used to say of any +difficult enterprise, “let what may stand in the +way.”</p> + +<p>He had great ambition for his beloved calling. +He wanted to make it an art. England had +been long famed for cheapness but not for +beauty, and so he set himself to study the +designs of the ancients and of the Greeks, +copying them on china and porcelain.</p> + +<p>And yet it seemed that even as he took step +after step there were ever on each round of the +ladder new difficulties. There was a long-standing +one—the wretched state of the roads in +Staffordshire, and the difficulty of getting the +ware carried to other places for sale, and of +getting necessaries for the work brought into +the county.</p> + +<p>The backs of horses and donkeys, these were +the only mode of conveyance—miserable underfed +creatures that tottered and stumbled along and +not seldom stuck in the muddy lanes or fell in +the ruts and rugged roads, and often broke their +legs and their wares, and had to be shot where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +they lay—a happy release for the poor animals. +Josiah saw all this, and realised that something +must be done to remedy the evil. So in the +midst of his watchful care and constant thought +for his beloved potteries he made time to push +the grand scheme of a canal that began gradually +to see daylight. It was not pack-horses that +would labour slowly to Birmingham and Sheffield, +but a broad waterway to carry goods to Liverpool +and other seaports. This was what his native +county wanted. And so he subscribed largely +to this, and helped to push a Bill through +Parliament.</p> + +<p>“I scarcely know,” he wrote, “whether I am +a landed gentleman, an engineer, or a potter, +for indeed I am all three and many other +characters by turns.”</p> + +<p>In time Burslem, to which he had come back +after absence, could hold him no longer, so he +bought a place near and called it Etruria, +because for long he had admired the beautiful +work of the Etruscans away north of the Tiber +in Italy.</p> + +<p>By his wonderful enterprise he made this +bare place blooming and fruitful, and from a +lonely wilderness converted it into a place with +thousands of flourishing houses and workmen.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +And he himself was the mainspring of it all—the +moving spirit.</p> + +<p>Now the inventions of his brain were selling +all over the country, and indeed all over the +world. His delicate china had attracted the +notice of the Queen—Charlotte, the wife of +George III. It was the full development of +that “cream” ware whose first beginnings had +dawned on his brain as a boy. She ordered +a set of it, and henceforth it was known +the “Queen’s Ware,” and she sent to Josiah +Wedgwood and said he might call himself +“Potter to the Queen.”</p> + +<p>And now his name was made, and soon a +fortune followed. He discovered a “jasper dip,” +and he invented a special kind of ware of which +he made vases, and for a time it seemed as if +the country went mad for Wedgwood’s vases. +“A violent vase mania,” he called it himself. +The mania spread to Ireland and the Continent. +Before this he had opened showrooms in London, +and the Wedgwood vases were wont to draw +crowds as great as the pictures in the Royal +Academy. Nor did he confine himself to vases. +He made portraits in china of great men, and +fashioned beautiful chimney-pieces. His heart +went out in burning indignation against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +curse of slavery, and he produced a model of +a negro chained in a supplicating attitude, with +this motto round the figure: “Am I not a Man +and a Brother?”</p> + +<p>Now he had made his fortune, but the man +remained the same, much as he had been as a +boy—hard-working, conscientious, painstaking. +As a grand foundation to all his work he had +made the surface of the earth a mighty study, +and when he died he left 7,000 specimens of +soils and clays labelled and classified.</p> + +<p>Even when rich and famous he still took +minute note of details. He would visit each +department of his works himself. He would +have nothing “scamped.” Well did the workmen +know the “thud” of his wooden leg on the +floor that announced his coming, and with his +stick he would break any article he did not +think perfect.</p> + +<p>“That won’t do for Josiah Wedgwood!” he +would say.</p> + +<p>As life advanced, while it brought him joys, +it brought him also clouds and sorrows. His +knee grew so tormenting that he was forced to +have it taken off. After this he used a wooden +leg, or rather many wooden legs, for he was +very particular about having it often renewed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +Partial blindness attacked him, general ill-health, +but his pluck, his perseverance never +failed.</p> + +<p>As he withdrew a little from active life he +took to gardening, but his family noted his +failing powers—not of mind, but of body. +Asthma was added to his other sufferings.</p> + +<p>“I am becoming an old man,” he wrote. +“Age and infirmity overtake me, and more than +whisper in my ear that it is time to diminish +rather than increase the objects of my attention.”</p> + +<p>The end came very suddenly, and while he +was yet not old. A pain in his jaw was the +beginning. Fever and insensibility followed, +and in his sixty-fifth year Josiah Wedgwood +closed his eyes on a world that he left the +better for his passage through it.</p> + +<p>He had scaled the ladder to its highest height. +He was born in a humble potter’s cottage. He +died in a mansion, surrounded by a population +he had gathered together and made to flourish. +He left half a million, but he had used his +riches well. He had given of them to suffering +and distress. He made a poor depressed trade +into one of the flourishing industries of Great +Britain, and for himself a world-wide name.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +He was a great pioneer, and he accepted with +patience the difficulties, the thanklessness, the +buffetings that confront the man who in anything +attempts the first beginning.</p> + +<p>But while we admire his splendid qualities, +it is the singular beauty of his nature—a nature +doubtless softened and sweetened by trial—his +uncomplaining bravery, his thought for others, +his simple, steadfast determination to carry +through his life-work, in spite of the burden of +weariness and sickness and bodily pain, that +most of all speak to our hearts.</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>GEORGE STEPHENSON.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">If</span> a town, or even a village, is of any importance +nowadays it is sure to have within it +or alongside it a railway station, a place that +brings it into touch with the great outside world. +Some seventy-five years ago there were no +railways or railway-stations in Great Britain, or +anywhere else, and people were content to post +or coach along roads behind horses. But now +times are changed, and it is not wonderful that +the name of George Stephenson, the man who +has opened up the country and spread lines upon +it like a mighty network, is a name to-day that +people look up to as one of the greatest inventors +the world has ever known.</p> + +<p>Most of us are fond of seeing the small beginnings +of great endings, so it is natural enough +that for us the tiny village of Wylam should be +of deepest interest, for here George Stephenson +first saw the light.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_104.jpg" width="389" height="630" alt="“Stephenson fighting the fire in Killingworth Colliery.”" title="" /> +<br /><span class="caption">“Stephenson fighting the fire in Killingworth Colliery.”</span> +</div> + +<p>We cannot visit Wylam without feeling at +once that we are in the heart of the colliery<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +country. Newcastle’s lofty chimneys tower some +eight miles off, and chimneys closer at hand +belch forth great volumes of smoke and smut, +and flaming furnaces shoot out lurid lights by +night far across the country.</p> + +<p>In a common little wayside house, just a +labourer’s cottage, standing on the roadside, some +120 years ago a baby opened his eyes on a +world that was to be rough enough at first for +his young feet, though at last they were to land +on the very topmost round of the ladder.</p> + +<p>The second child of the fireman of the old +pumping-engine of the colliery of Wylam, little +George was born to grinding poverty. Time as +it passed brought other children besides George +to the Stephensons, and soon it came to be a +question how the fireman and his wife and six +children were to live on 12<i>s.</i> a week!</p> + +<p>It was indeed a problem to solve and a +struggle to face. When food had been got for +the little mouths, what was left for clothes and +schooling? Very little for the first, nothing for +the second. No schooling certainly for little +George, and so he spent his childhood between +running errands for his mother and standing by +his father’s engine fire, where the boys and girls +of the village loved to gather to listen to old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +Robert’s wondrous tales, or to see the birds fed, +for the old man loved birds of all kinds, and +would save the crumbs from his own scant dinner +to feed the robins. Here it was that baby +George learned that early love of birds that +lasted as long as life. As a boy he would catch +and tame the blackbirds, and these would fly +about the cottage all day, and at night come +and roost at his bed-head. Years after, when he +was an old man, he used to tell how, walking +with his father one day, he parted some thick +branches overhead and lifted the child in his +arms that he might peep at a nest full of young +blackbirds. It was a sight he never forgot.</p> + +<p>But, baby though he was, his days were not +all spent in play. At home there were seven +younger brothers and sisters to be nursed and +watched and kept out of the way of the heavy +waggons that were dragged by horses along the +tram-road in front of the house, and much of +this fell to George’s share.</p> + +<p>As the years passed the Stephenson family, +obliged like other colliers “to follow the work,” +moved to a place called Dewley Burn, and now +as George had reached the age of eight he was +ready to earn some money!</p> + +<p>To show how smart and quick the child was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +for his years there has come down to us a pretty +story.</p> + +<p>He and his sister Nell had gone to Newcastle +one day, and among their little commissions +they were bent on buying Nell a new bonnet. +They found the very thing she wanted in a +shop, but the price was beyond their purse. It +was 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> over the mark, and the pair, sadly +downcast, had to leave the shop. Standing +crestfallen outside the boy suddenly exclaimed, +“I have it! Wait here till I come back.” Off +he darted, and Nell waited while the minutes +wore to hours, and still he did not come. Just +as she began to think he must either have +been killed or run over he dashed up breathless +and thrust the coveted 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> into her hand.</p> + +<p>“But where did you get it?” she asked, astonished.</p> + +<p>“By holding gentlemen’s horses,” was the +reply.</p> + +<p>The child’s first situation at this time was +with a woman who kept a farm and needed a +boy to herd her cows and keep them out of the +way of passing waggons. For this the little +herd-boy was paid 2<i>d.</i> a day. How happy +he was in long leisure hours to bird’s-nest or +whittle whistles out of reeds, or in company<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +with another boy—by-and-by, like himself, to be +one of the world’s great engineers—to model toy +engines out of clay, using hollowed corks for +corves and hemlock stalks for steam pipes!</p> + +<p>Soon George advanced a step in life. His +work was still farm-work—hoeing turnips for +4<i>d.</i> a day, leading the plough horses when his +little legs could hardly stride the furrows, and +working in the dawning hours of day when +other children slept.</p> + +<p>But his heart was really at the engine fire or +in the coal shaft. It was “bred in the bone,” +and he gladly returned to the black, grimy life, +and along with his brother became a coal-picker, +separating stones and dross from the coal, and +so earning 6<i>d.</i> a day.</p> + +<p>By-and-by he was advanced to driving “the +gin-horse,” a horse that travels round and round +at the pit’s mouth drawing up and letting down +by means of a rope wound round a drum, +baskets of coal or buckets of water, and for this +he was paid 8<i>d.</i> a day.</p> + +<p>Long miles he had to walk every day to and +from his work, “a grit-growing lad, with bare +legs and feet,” and I think we may be sure there +was not a bird’s nest on that familiar road that +the little bird-lover did not know by heart.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>His next rise was to a shilling a day. This +was a great step up, and for this he had what +was called a night shift, lading and unlading +the coals as they came to the mouth of the pit, +and reversing the rope to go down again. +Monotonous enough work it was, but he held on +to it for two years. And now another step up +was at hand. It was a proud day for the boy—that +Saturday afternoon when he was told that +his wage had been raised to 12<i>s.</i> a week!</p> + +<p>“I am a made man now,” he exclaimed in +great delight.</p> + +<p>And now he was seventeen years old. He +had really stepped beyond his father both in +wage and position. But there was one thing +which he had yet to master. It may seem +strange to us, but George could neither read +nor write. It began to dawn upon him then +that things about which he wanted to know—pumps +and engines and the great world of +mechanics—could only be learned from between +the boards of books that were closed to him. +But with George to realise an evil was to try +at once to mend it. Inside the boy’s rough +working jacket there beat a manly heart, with a +great longing to make the most of his opportunities, +to let no chance slip of doing his best.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>So he actually went to school at nights—three +times a week, spending 3<i>d.</i> out of his wages to +be taught to read and write. He laboured on +and made progress, and in time he wrote and +read, and by-and-by he took another step and +added to these arithmetic. With marvellous +quickness he “caught on” to figures. In the +long weary night shifts sitting by the blaze of +the fire he would “work” the sums his master +had “set” him or write his copies, just as years +after, so eager was he to seize every opportunity +that offered, he would many a time (in odd +moments) chalk his sums on the sides of the +coal waggons!</p> + +<p>So little by little, by untiring labour and unwearied +industry, by “neglecting nothing,” he +rose. The miners who were his daily companions +were, many of them, a rough lot. +Their life was a hard one and their pleasures +few, and on Saturday afternoons—pay-day—their +amusements were cock-fighting, dog-fighting, +and drinking in the ale-house, while the +future great engineer might be found engaged in +pulling to pieces his engine, cleaning it, getting +to know it as we know the character, the habits, +the face of our dearest friend, all the time +laying in such a store of practical knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +as was to serve him in good stead in time to +come.</p> + +<p>Not that George did not delight in exercise. +Indeed, few of his companions could equal him +in athletics. There was nothing he enjoyed like +challenging them to feats of strength in throwing +the hammer or in lifting heavy weights. And +even in comparative old age he loved to engage +in a wrestle with a friend.</p> + +<p>About this time George had a favourite dog +which he taught to fetch and carry his dinner in +a pitcher tied round his neck. At the appointed +hour the creature used to go straight to his +master, turning neither to the right nor to the +left. But one day he was beset with danger in +the shape of a bigger dog with murder in its +eye. George’s dog closed with it, and a deadly +tussle began, but it beat the bully and came off +victorious but bleeding. When he reached his +master the pitcher was there, but the dinner was +spilt; but George was prouder far, when an onlooker +described the fight, of his dog’s courage +than he would have been of the most sumptuous +feast.</p> + +<p>But in spite of his larger wage money was +scarce, and George beat about in his own mind +how he was to earn a few extra shillings. With<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +keen eye ever on the outlook for what lay +nearest, he lighted on the <em>shoes</em> of his fellow-workmen! +He took to mending these, and he +mended them so well that the pitmen soon got +into the way of making George their cobbler. +And from this he went on to making shoe-lasts +for the village shoemaker. In this way it came +to pass that in a fortnight’s time he would sometimes +make as much as £2. When he had by +long and careful labour saved his first guinea +great was his delight. “I am now a rich man!” +he said.</p> + +<p>Yet another source of earning money was at +hand. One day the chimney of his house went +on fire, and being drenched with water, the soot +and water together succeeded in damaging an +eight-day clock that stood in his kitchen. Money +was still scarce, and the watchmaker did not +work without pay, so George set to work and +took the clock to pieces, cleaned it, and put it +together again. Rumours of this new “handiness” +spread, and colliers from far and near sent +their watches and clocks to him to doctor. It +was almost as if nothing came amiss to these +wonderful hands or, indeed, to that wonderful +brain.</p> + +<p>A wheezy engine pump, a clock out of gear,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +a pair of worn-out shoes—he had a remedy for +all. Painstaking, conscientious, thorough—the +work of the boy shadowed forth the success of +the man.</p> + +<p>If I had space I could tell you how, after he +ceased to be a boy, he became a splendid man. +That divine capacity—the creative faculty for +making something out of nothing—that had +been struggling long within him came to the +surface, and he burst on the world as an Inventor.</p> + +<p>The boon he gave to men—the thing with +which his name will ever be linked in history—is +the Locomotive Steam Engine.</p> + +<p>What battles he fought for it when the +country rose in arms and said they would +rather hold by the old post-horses and coaches +that had been good enough for their fathers! +They were hard to convince. They declared if +railways and trains came the country would be +ruined. The engines would vomit forth smoke. +No bird could live in the poisoned air. Game +all over the country would be spoiled. The +sparks that came from the engine would set fire +to the houses near which they passed. Hens +would stop laying! Cattle would cease to graze! +The man who said he would send engines flying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +through the air at the rate of twenty miles an +hour was a fool and a maniac!</p> + +<p>Then Stephenson showed the same patience—for +the world was long of being convinced—as +he had done on those long night-shifts, sitting +lonely by the engine fire and working out his +sums, or as years later, when prospects were very +dark and money scarce, he wept bitter tears, +“for he knew not where his lot in life would be +cast.”</p> + +<p>But though only a self-taught mechanic, +Stephenson stuck to his guns in the face of +the most skilled engineers in the land. For +two long months the thing hung in the balance. +It came before the great House of Commons. +George himself was put into the witness-box. +Single-handed, undaunted, he faced a world that +was all against him. And then he had to bear +the great trial of his life. The Bill was thrown +out of Parliament. But still he did not despair. +He looked into the future, and he saw himself +conqueror. The Bill was again brought forward +and eventually passed. I could tell you then of +his long course of triumphs. How his engine, +“The Rocket,” won a £500 prize. How really +the first seed of the Railway System of the world +was sown then. How then he got leave to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +make a railway between Stockton and Darlington, +and in time one between Manchester and +Liverpool. How when, in 1830, the line was +finished, people flocked in hundreds and thousands +to see “a steam coach running upon a +railway at three times the speed of a mail-coach.”</p> + +<p>The people were carried away with excitement! +The great steam-horse that we look at +half a dozen times a day with indifference was +thought to be the world’s greatest wonder. +And George Stephenson was the hero of the +hour. As the train neared Manchester, the +people in their excitement broke all bounds, +and even the military could not keep order, as +they swarmed on the carriage like bees, and +hung on to the handles, many of them being +tumbled off, while shoutings and cheers went up +from a thousand throats.</p> + +<p>And now that he was successful, now that +people praised where they had blamed, and +pandered where they had scoffed, the man remained +the same—modest, single-minded, just +what he had been as the boy earning his shilling +a day by driving the old “gin” horse at the +pit’s mouth.</p> + +<p>And now from the humble labourer’s cottage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +he had climbed to the highest heights of fame. +He was the first mechanical genius in the eyes +of the world. The greatest in the land rejoiced +to honour him. From the depths of poverty he +had risen to wealth. Honours flowed in upon +him. But the “boy is father to the man,” and +it was peculiarly true of George Stephenson.</p> + +<p>“I never want,” he had said long years +before, when he was earning £100 a year, and +was able to keep a horse, “I never want to be +higher.”</p> + +<p>He was much the same as in those old days. +There was no dazzling him with worldly display +or worldly honours. He cared little for +social distinctions. His instincts all along had +been “to dwell among his own people.” It +gave him the keenest pleasure to have a day at +Newcastle among the scenes of his boyhood, +looking up the simple friends of his youth. +And his tastes, too, remained in many ways +just the old simple ones. When he was an old +man, and nearing the end of his pilgrimage, +when he was surrounded by every luxury of +table and otherwise, he would call for a +“crowdie,” and with the basin of boiling water +between his knees, would stir in the oatmeal +with his own hands, watching it with great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +satisfaction, and then sup the whole with sweet +milk, pronouncing it “capital.”</p> + +<p>His last days were very peaceful. He removed +from the swirling current of business life into a +side eddy, when he was about sixty, to a place +called Tapton, where he lived a quiet life, meditating +among his beasts and birds and flowers, +reading in each something of the beauty of the +mind of a Greater Inventor than he. He took +no part in business life, leaving it to his son, +though now and then he would hear from afar +echoes from the old world as the old war-horse +scents the smoke of battle.</p> + +<p>There was no long illness to mar the end of +his splendid energetic life. Those who had +known him in the full tide and flush of health +had not the pain of noting either physical or +mental decay. He was at a meeting in connection +with engineering in July. Some weeks +later he took a severe fever, and after ten day’s +illness, without much suffering, the end came. +On the 12th August, in his sixty-seventh year, +George Stephenson, the great engineer, passed +away.</p> + +<p>The whole civilised world bewailed his going. +He had lived long enough for it to realise and +appreciate the mark he had made on the age.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +But most of all did the colliers mourn him—the +men to whom he had been as a kindly father, a +leader, a hero. They laid him in the quiet little +churchyard at Chesterfield, and they raised +monuments to him all over the country, as a +grateful people will do,—erected statues and +memorial schools, and painted portraits. But +a man like George Stephenson needs no memorial +of stone. He has left an undying work to +speak for him, and a character that has moved +men to admiration everywhere for its simplicity, +combined with its greatness, its manliness, that +made it possible for him, the poor collier’s son, +to meet on equal ground—himself also being a +man—men of the highest rank in the land.</p> + +<p>We cannot, any of us, imitate his genius or +his power of invention, or his splendid physical +strength, but it is within the scope of all of us, +however young or insignificant, to copy his +conscientious, unwearied hard work.</p> + +<p>“Ah, ye lads,” he used to say to young men +when he was himself an old one, in his broad, +honest Doric, “there’s none o’ ye know what +<em>wark</em> is!”</p> + +<p>He has left us a splendid example of patience, +content, courage, attention to detail. But most +precious of all, of a heart that beat as kindly in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +old age as in youth, that made him dearly loved +by his workmen, and that never turned away +from hearing and helping those in trouble.</p> + +<p>Riches and success and prosperity, crowding +upon him in later years, had no power to spoil +the simple beauty of his character, for the Wylam +collier’s son, besides being the world’s honoured +inventor, was also “one of Nature’s gentlemen.”</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>THOMAS ALVA EDISON.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">To</span> see as a boy the greatest inventor of the +age, we shall have to cross the Atlantic and +take a journey to the United States of America. +England has done wonders in the way of discovery +and invention, but it is to New England, +as we call it, because she is a daughter of the +old Mother Country, that we must go for a +brightness and a sharpness of wit that sometimes +make us think of the flash of polished +steel.</p> + +<p>We all know the name of Edison. It is not +a name of history, for he is living to-day, a man +still in his prime, still sending out from that +wonderful brain of his things that astonish men, +and have won for him the name of the “wonder-worker +of the modern world.”</p> + +<p>I have before me as I write the picture of a +square, brick house, with outside shutters hooked +back, a white paling half encircling it, and a couple +of bare, leafless trees before it. The house is +plain and poor, and has a strangely unfamiliar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +look to our English eyes, but it is of the deepest +interest to us as the birthplace of Thomas Edison.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_122.jpg" width="403" height="641" alt="EDISON IN HIS LABORATORY." title="" /> +<br /><span class="caption">EDISON IN HIS LABORATORY.</span> +</div> + +<p>The boy first saw the light in 1847, and +though he came into the world with but a poor +provision waiting him, he found himself welcomed +with a very wealth of love and tenderness. +Mrs. Edison had Scotch blood in her +veins, and she was a mother in a thousand. It +is a common thing in history to find that a +son draws his greatness, many of his best +qualities, from his mother, and this son took +many of his from Mrs. Edison. She was his +constant companion, his loving nurse, his gentle +teacher during those early years of life that +leave so deep an impress on the “afterwards.”</p> + +<p>The child was seven years old when the +Edison family moved to a place called Port +Huron, and there he began to spend every spare +moment in reading. So earnest was he that +he set himself to read through the Detroit Free +Library, and had devoured a close row of volumes +before his attempt was discovered.</p> + +<p>Strange and solemn sound some of the titles +of the books he read when he was twelve years +old—a time when most boys are lightly dipping +into newspapers and magazines and books of +adventure. Burton’s <cite>Anatomy of Melancholy</cite>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +Hume’s <cite>History of England</cite>, Gibbon’s <cite>Decline +and Fall of the Roman Empire</cite>.</p> + +<p>In 1862, when he was barely fifteen years +old, he came out more fully from the shelter +of home and mixed with the busy world, making +a place in it for himself by his own young wits. +He was a newspaper boy, and sold his papers +like other boys, not stopping still in one place, +but going on the train to different stations +along the line, and selling as he went.</p> + +<p>About this time there was a great fever and +ferment in America. The North were fighting +with the South, and people panted for news +of each battle as it took place. Papers with +reports were devoured as soon as printed.</p> + +<p>“Now,” thought Edison, “is my chance,” +and there began to work in the brain of the +boy a big scheme. As the first step to carrying +it out, he betook himself to the station telegraph +clerk.</p> + +<p>“If,” he said, “you will let me wire the war +news on a few stations ahead, and have it written +up on the blackboard, I will promise you some +papers, and now and then a magazine.”</p> + +<p>He repeated his request to the different clerks +along the line. His eager face and twinkling +eyes and earnest words won all hearts, and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +request was granted. He next went to the +editor of a well-known paper.</p> + +<p>“Give me a thousand copies,” he begged, +“and I will pay out of the proceeds of my +venture.” Here, again, he succeeded. And now +it remained but to get the engine-driver to +promise him a few minutes at the different +stations, and he started on his venture.</p> + +<p>At the first stopping-place he had been wont +to sell some half-dozen papers. That day, as +he looked out, the platform was strangely +crowded, and it suddenly dawned on him, from +the eager faces of the people and their excited +gestures, that it was <em>papers</em> they wanted! He +dashed on to the platform, and in a few minutes +had sold forty at five cents each, or about a +penny of our money. It was much the same +at the next station. The people had read the +headings on the station blackboard, and they +crowded on to the platform, an excited, hustling +mob, for papers! It dawned on the boy, +here was a chance to raise his prices, so he +doubled them, and sold 150 where he had used +to sell a dozen! It was the same all along the +line. At the last station—Port Huron—his +home, the people were most excited of all. The +town was a mile from the station. Edison started<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +off with his papers, but was met half-way by +an eager, hurrying crowd. They all wanted +news. He stopped, drawing up in front of a +church where a prayer-meeting was being held. +Presently the people poured out and surrounded +the boy, willingly paying him five times the +usual price of his paper. He began “to take +in,” as he expressed it, in his own terse, telling +words, “a young fortune.”</p> + +<p>After this the busy boyish brain began to +look eagerly ahead, to face life seriously. He +did not start off on a fresh tack. He took hold +of what was nearest to his hand, and he bent +his mind on improving that. He had found +people were in a hurry for news. The quicker +they got it the better they were pleased. +Nothing could surely be quicker than that they +should get it damp from the press! So it +flashed into his brain—why not print a paper +on the train?</p> + +<p>The question was no sooner asked than +answered.</p> + +<p>He looked about till he lighted on an old car, +and he rigged it up as a printing-office with old +types and stereos he begged from a newspaper +office. In this novel press-room he threw off +sheet after sheet of what he called <cite>The Grand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +Trunk Herald</cite>, the first and last paper ever +printed on a train. The boy of fifteen was +editor, compositor, and newsvendor in one. The +paper “caught on,” and the circulation went up +to 400.</p> + +<p>But, alas! misfortune was soon to overwhelm +the young adventurer. One unlucky day the +printing-office—the old car, which grew daily +more decrepit and unequal to the jolting of the +journey—by a more violent lurch than usual +threw over a bottle of phosphorus. The cork +flew out, and in a few seconds the car was in +flames. They were easily enough got under, +but Edison’s venture had received its deathblow. +The furious car-conductor would henceforth +have none of him. He boxed his ears, +and pitched him on to the platform along with +his precious belongings—the whole paraphernalia +of his craft.</p> + +<p>It is a sorry picture that presents itself to our +mind’s eye. The boy standing half stunned, the +rubbish and <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">débris</i> of his belongings strewn at +his feet, and the cherished old jolting car, the +scene of his labours, gradually fading into distance! +It seemed as if his bright dreams were +all extinguished, his golden hopes doomed to +come to nothing. As he stood there he faced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +it all—a mere boy low down in the world, +badly fed, poorly clothed, almost penniless, but +we do not hear that he either flinched or complained, +or that a boyish sob rose in his throat. +He was made of the stuff of the Stoic. It is +our hearts that are sore and anguished, not +chiefly for the hopes and dreams disappointed, +but because of a terrible calamity that befell him +then, when he was perhaps hardly conscious of +it; but that grew darker and weightier as the +years rolled on.</p> + +<p>When the irritated conductor had boxed the +boy’s ears, so brutal had been his onslaught that +the delicate nerves were injured for life, and +now with the flight of years has come deafness +to wrap the great inventor in a partial mantle +of silence. It is perhaps we who feel most the +infinite pathos of the thing, while the man himself +bears his affliction with the same noble +patience with which he accepted disappointment +long years ago as a boy.</p> + +<p>At that time he straightway turned his eyes +bravely homewards. He picked up his precious +belongings, and carried them to a cellar in his +father’s house.</p> + +<p>It was about this time that his mind began +to bend towards that which has ever held for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +him a keen interest through life—the Telegraph. +A waking ambition in him desired strongly to +perfect himself in it. He was poor and friendless, +and yet firmly, doggedly resolved to get +on somehow. So out of his scant earnings—still +as newsboy—he bought a book on Telegraphy, +and this he pored over night and day.</p> + +<p>And now at this early age I think the great +inventor must have touched that mine that was +afterwards to yield him so wondrously of its +wealth.</p> + +<p>The boyish mind was putting out feelers, +gropingly at first, in the direction of creation, +that divine faculty that is granted to so few of us. +We can recognise the seed in its first tiny sproutings. +He and a boy friend resolved to make +a telegraph. They made a line of wire between +their houses, insulated with bottles, and crossed +under a busy thoroughfare by means of an old +cable found in the bed of the Detroit River. +The first magnets were wound with wire and +swathed in ancient rags, and a piece of spring +brass formed the key. Edison pressed two large +and formidable-looking cats into his service, tied +a wire to their legs, and applied friction to their +backs. But the experiment ended in failure. +The cats, frightened and furious, resented the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +liberty, and parted company with, the wire, dashing +off in different directions.</p> + +<p>But failure never discouraged Edison, nor +stayed the working of his brain. He was a true +philosopher, and he was, like an elastic ball, +possessed of enormous rebound.</p> + +<p>Handed down to us there is a story of the +boy which, while it may not throw much light +on his brain, throws some on his heart and on +his ready courage. He was still a newspaper +boy on the trains, and while at most stations +a few minutes was the limit of waiting, at a +certain station where shunting took place the +minutes ran to half an hour. The boy was +wont to spend this half-hour with the stationmaster’s +child, of whom he was fond, or to loiter +about his garden. On this particular day the +engine-driver had unlinked the cars in a siding, +and one was being sent with a good deal of +impetus to join another portion. It came on +steadily, no one on it to control it, and right in +its path was the unconscious baby smiling in +the morning sunshine. Not a moment was to +be lost. Edison threw down his papers and his +hat on the platform and dashed to the rescue. +And not a second too soon. As he threw himself +and the child free of the line the car passed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +and struck his heel. The two fell with such +violence on the gravel beyond that the stone +particles were driven into their flesh, but they +were safe!</p> + +<p>The grateful father was at a loss how he +could show his gratitude to the rescuer of his +child. He had little money and no reward to +give. At last a plan occurred to him.</p> + +<p>“I will teach you telegraphing,” he said to +the boy, “and prepare you for the position of +night operator at not less than twenty-five +dollars a month.”</p> + +<p>Edison was delighted. The bargain was struck. +The wage seemed, no doubt, a small fortune to +the boy—rather more than five of our English +pounds.</p> + +<p>And now he had got his “toe on the tape,” his +foot on the ladder, if it were only on the lowest +round. In three months he could teach his +master, and the promised situation was got for +him. From that he passed to other situations, +and gradually he began to make his mark.</p> + +<p>He had a mind wonderfully quick to see a +difficult situation and to deal with it.</p> + +<p>There is a story told of how one winter a +severe frost had coated the great river between +Port Huron and Sarnia, how the cable was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +broken, and people could neither get news nor +send it to the opposite bank of the river. The +spot was crowded with people, baffled and vexed. +Edison came along with a brain rarely at fault +and faced the thing. Suddenly, to the onlookers’ +astonishment, he mounted a locomotive and sent +a piercing whistle across the water, imitating by +the toots of the engine the dots and dashes of +the telegraph system.</p> + +<p>In this way he shouted—</p> + +<p>“Holloa, Sarnia! Sarnia, do you get what I +say?”</p> + +<p>At first there was silence on the part of the +telegraph man across the water. The people on +the bank were breathless with excitement. At +last the reply came clear—thrilling. The man +on the other side had understood, and the two +cities could “talk” again to each other.</p> + +<p>After this, people began to hear of Edison’s +fame. But the mania for experiments had seized +him. The cut-and-dried monotonous routine of +work seemed flat and stale to him by comparison. +It was as if an enchanted region of fairyland had +been opened to the boy. To be allowed to revel +in it he denied himself food and necessary sleep. +When he was seventeen years old he invented +a telegraph instrument that would transfer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +writing from one line to another without the +help of the operator.</p> + +<p>There were no want of openings now for him +to choose from, but sometimes doors after they +had been opened were rudely shut again through +envy and evil feeling. In the great world of +invention and discovery there are perhaps more +“ups and downs” than in any other. Some of +Edison’s fellow-workers were kind and generous—others +were jealous and detracting. One +manager did him an ill turn. He was unequal +to completing a discovery he had begun. On +the thing being shown him, Edison immediately +“saw a light” and brought it to completion, but +jealousy crept into the man’s small mind and he +dismissed the boy on a false charge.</p> + +<p>So at seventeen he was thrown again on the +world. Money was still scarce. Books and instruments +and calls from home swallowed up the +most of it. The boy was chafing under ill-treatment +and a sense of injustice. The want of +sleep, perhaps of proper food, was telling on him, +but he looked forward with a clear, undaunted +eye. He wanted to reach a certain town where +he believed work awaited him. It meant a +walk of a hundred miles. He was weak, disheartened, +ill-prepared for it, but he did it. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +arrived footsore and weary, with torn shoes and +tattered clothes, and his worldly possessions tied +in a handkerchief on his back.</p> + +<p>In this shabby plight he presented himself at +the telegraph office. He was eyed coldly enough +at first, but by-and-by when tests were given he +stood the tests. There was that in the eager eyes +and underneath the shabby clothes that could not +but make itself felt as a power. He began work. +At first his fellow-clerks laughed at him. In +time they were won over, and later he stood out +as a workman of the first order.</p> + +<p>He began to collect about him materials for +printing—machinery without which he never +felt quite happy. He did a clever thing one day +in the office that brought him into notice. He +took a press report at one sitting—a sitting that +lasted from 3.30 p.m. till 4.30 a.m.! After that he +carefully divided it into paragraphs so that each +printer would have exactly three lines to print, +and so that a column could be set up in two or +three minutes!</p> + +<p>It may be that about this time money was +rather more plentiful, for Edison began to go to +second-hand bookshops and so to gratify his deep-seated +thirst for knowledge.</p> + +<p>His kindness of heart was well known, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +there were many about only too ready to take +advantage of it. There were telegraphists who +roamed the country in time of war—“tramp +operators” they were called, who took short engagements +and generally ended their time with +a “spree.” These found out Edison—a man +who did not drink himself and a man who might +be persuaded to lend them money—and these +were his worst enemies.</p> + +<p>One day he had bought at an auction fifty +volumes of the <cite>North American Review</cite>. Half +a dozen men were sponging off him in his rooms +when he brought home the books and ranged +them unsuspiciously round his walls. Directly +he had gone out his guests helped themselves to +his purchase, landed them at the nearest pawnbroker’s, +and drank the money they brought.</p> + +<p>But his love for experiments sometimes +brought him into scrapes and disaster, as when +he moved a bottle of sulphuric acid one day, +strictly against rules, and the bottle spilt, the +contents eating through the floor to the manager’s +room below and there eating up <em>his</em> floor and +carpet, the unlucky accident bringing Edison his +dismissal.</p> + +<p>And now, at the age of twenty-one, after many +different situations and different experiences,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +Edison turned his steps to Boston. His openhandedness +had left him short of money. As +was often the case with him, he was sailing very +close to the wind. His dress was poor and shabby, +and four days’ and nights’ travelling had not improved +his appearance. When he presented +himself at the office where he was to be taken +on, the other clerks ridiculed him as “a jay from +the woolly west.”</p> + +<p>They made up their minds to play a practical +joke on him. They took the New York telegraph +man into their confidence. It was arranged he +should send a despatch which Edison was to +receive. By this time Edison had so perfected +himself in receiving messages that he could write +from forty-six to fifty-four words a minute—quicker +than any operator in the United States.</p> + +<p>Not knowing his man, the sender began slowly—then +quickened his pace. So did Edison. +Quicker still he worked. Edison was in no way +discomfited. Soon the New York man had +reached his highest speed, to which Edison responded +with ease, cool, collected, and stopping +now and then to sharpen a pencil between.</p> + +<p>By this time he had discovered that the +others were trying to get “a rise” out of him, +but he went on steadily with his work. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +he stopped and spoke quietly through to the +New York man.</p> + +<p>“Say, young man,” he said, in his dry humorous +way, “change off and send with your other foot.”</p> + +<p>But the New York man had reached the end of +his tether and had to get someone else to finish, +and so Edison won his laurels, and “the jay from +the woolly west” was regarded ever after with +enormous respect.</p> + +<p>After that his place was in the front rank. +Now he had reached the threshold of manhood, +and a long, dazzling vista of achievement and +success stretched before him had he known it. +About this time a great, strong conviction of his +responsibilities and of the opportunities life held +out to him swept over him.</p> + +<p>“Adams,” he said to a friend, “I’ve got so +much to do, and life is so short, that I’m going +to hustle.”</p> + +<p>And if we try to look at what he has crowded +into a life not long, we must allow he has indeed +“hustled” to some purpose. As we briefly +glance at the bent of his manhood, his doings +fairly dazzle us. He read enormously all sorts +of works on telegraphy and electricity, and he +produced from his brain that which makes him +the greatest inventor of the age. If we tried to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +enumerate his inventions the names alone would +fill pages. We can do little more than name +a few. Among the first of these was how to +send four messages at the same time over one +telegraph wire.</p> + +<p>But even after he had embarked on the +glorious sea of discovery, what “ups and downs”—what +sea-saws of fortune were in store for +him! Hunger at times, torn clothes, and battered +shoes. But from depths and half-drowning up +again he always came to the surface. He rose +grandly, relying on his own indomitable will. +About this time good fortune befell him. For +inventing some telegraphic appliances he got +50,000 dollars, or rather more than £10,000. +He could hardly believe his good luck, and it was +with this he immediately rigged up for himself +a workshop.</p> + +<p>And now he was rapidly rising, and the field +before him was gradually opening up wider and +wider. He started a laboratory at a place called +Newark, and from this time onwards his inventions +seemed to flow from his brain in a well-nigh +continuous stream.</p> + +<p>His workmen were devoted to his service. +His genial good-humour and kindliness, the +absence of all harshness in his manner, and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +love of fun could not but endear him to them. +They caught the infection, too, of his earnestness. +When he had an idea in his brain he +worked at it, as it were, red-hot, almost without +rest or cessation, and they were rarely reluctant +to help him.</p> + +<p>“Now, you fellows!” he would say, shutting +himself and his workmen up in a room on the +top flat, “I’ve locked the door, and you’ll have +to stay here until this job is completed.”</p> + +<p>During sixty hours, perhaps, he would take +no sleep and little food, while his brain would +work at highest pressure until the thing was +wrought. Then he would relax, and sleep for as +long as thirty-six hours at a stretch.</p> + +<p>And now his fame had spread far and wide. +The people at Menlo Park, to which he removed—some +twenty-four miles from New York—began +to look upon him as a wizard—a man +possessing magical powers. It seemed to them +there was nothing he could not do. Exaggerated +tales of his wonderful powers spread over the +country.</p> + +<p>“If people track me here,” he said (he had +been besieged at Newark), “I shall simply have +to take to the woods.”</p> + +<p>Child after child was the offspring of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +inventor’s brain. At one time, within the space +of a few years, as many as forty-five were born.</p> + +<p>There was the Microphone, which is much like +the Telephone, except that in the Microphone the +sound is magnified. There was the Megaphone, +which brings far-away sounds near, so that cattle +crunching grass six miles off could be heard +distinctly at Menlo Park! There was the Kinetoscope +we all know, which by swiftly passing +pictures—as many as forty-six a second—seems +to give us a single person in motion, somewhat +on the lines of that toy of our childhood, “The +Wheel of Life.” And there was the grand king +of inventions—the Phonograph—that overtops +all the rest.</p> + +<p>We know it, all of us, by this time. We have +listened to it, with the tubes at our ears, while +the voice of someone speaking at a distance is +distinctly borne to us, or the strains of a song +sung by some great singer.</p> + +<p>In 1888 Edison sent his first phonogram by +steamer to England. His friend here had only +to take out the wax cylinder, put it into his +machine, and set it in motion, and lo! it seemed +to him as if Edison himself were in the room +talking to him!</p> + +<p>Great men all over the world recorded their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +astonishment and their praises of the wonderful +invention. The Queen sent him a message of +congratulation. People flocked to every exhibition +to see it—to the French one from countries +all over Europe. They saw it and straightway +went into raptures. Edison himself, looking into +the future, seemed to see volumes it might yet +be brought to do. It might be used to write +letters merely from dictation. It might be used +to make clocks speak—to tell when it was time +to come to meals. It might be used for toys. +A tiny phonograph might be placed inside a +doll, and it would straightway “talk”; or in +a toy animal, and it would grunt and growl!</p> + +<p>What a strange thing that in this world of +passing-away and change we should be able to +preserve from destruction such treasures sheltered +in a wax cylinder—some great man’s words +of wisdom, or the silver tones of a sweet +musician!</p> + +<p>The more Edison’s brain accomplished the +more did it seem able to do. As a man he +showed himself untiring as when a boy. He +went on discovering. He invented a way of +telegraphing from a moving train. He invented +an Electric Railroad, that drew delighted thousands +at the Chicago Exhibition.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1879 his attention turned to lighting, and +he bent all his energies on inventing an Incandescent +lamp for electric light. He spent days +working at a sort of white heat. He began on +the 16th October, but mishaps and accidents +seemed to threaten his invention.</p> + +<p>“Let us,” he cried to his partner in a ferment +of excitement—“let us make a lamp before we +sleep, or die in the attempt.” On the morning +of the 21st it was done!</p> + +<p>It astonished the world. It opened up possibilities +for miners and divers, and for men +everywhere.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of its exhibition people flocked +from all parts of the United States. Special +trains were run. The same furore over the +marvel reigned at the Paris Exposition, and at +every other exhibition. And through it all—a +fame, a popularity enough to turn the head +of most mortals—the man remained the same—modest, +simple, unpretentious.</p> + +<p>From Menlo Park he went to Orange. His +laboratory there was fitted up with everything +conceivable that an inventor red-hot and eager +might want at a moment’s notice. And yet +often the workrooms presented the strangest +appearance of disorder. Workmen sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +stretched on benches or floor after a heavy +strain, the great master himself thrown down—a +stick under his head, a coat wound round it +for a pillow, and so snatching a short interval +of sleep! He will not be interrupted by visitors. +In this great world of his own he seems at times +to live a sort of separate existence.</p> + +<p>We are amazed, dazzled, astonished by the +tremendous results one man in his lifetime has +achieved. He has not been content to take +some thing and modify and improve it and set +it to a new purpose as men whom we call +inventors have done in all ages. But he seems +to have called upon the very forces of nature +to do his bidding. It is almost as if he had +harnessed the winds, the air, sound, electricity, +for his purposes.</p> + +<p>A man after a single discovery not seldom +rests on his laurels for life. This man is still in +his prime, and we cannot tell yet what product +of his brain will still astonish us, and we cannot +touch here on a tithe of what he has done. He +lives sometimes in his northern home, in New +Jersey, sometimes at Orange.</p> + +<p>As a man he shows the same genial, kindly +sympathy which, as a boy, never failed to win +the hearts of his fellow-clerks, the same modesty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +that disarmed their jealousy. These things chain +his workmen to him to-day with links of love. +Now that men praise and laud him all over the +world he shows the same good-natured indifference +to name and fame he has shown all through. +And he has lost nothing of the tireless energy +that used to support him through hard work +and long night-sittings as a boy—this man who, +as someone has it, “has kept the path to the +patent office red-hot with his footsteps—this +wonder-worker of the modern world.”</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>JAMES WATT.</h2> +<hr class="l6" /> + +<p class="cap"><span class="upper">There</span> is perhaps no inventor’s name with +which the British boy is more familiar than +with that of James Watt. In every college of +mechanics or engineers we are met in bust or +print by the kindly, shrewd, benevolent face of +the great inventor of the Condensing Steam +Engine.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for us to picture what the world +must have been before James Watt came into +it—before, as it were, steam took its place and +while yet men and horses and wind and water +struggled feebly to do what steam now does +with such apparent ease.</p> + +<p>On the west coast of Scotland stands what +is to-day the busy, thriving, seaport town of +Greenock—the birthplace of James Watt. But +in 1736, more than 150 years ago, it was little +more than a picturesque fishing-village, looking +out on a peaceful, smiling bay, where a few +modest fishing-craft were to be seen, and +beyond to the hills of Argyllshire, before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +smoke and funnels blotted the fairness of the +landscape.</p> + +<p>In an unpretentious little house in a Greenock +by-street James Watt first saw the light. His +father was by trade a carpenter, an undertaker, +a general “merchant,” for there was little competition +in those simple days, and men often +“professed” more than one trade. In the course +of a few years little James was left the sole +surviving child of five, and perhaps on that +account was specially precious to his parents. +Neither as the years went on did he grow into +a sturdy, lusty country boy, but rather struggled +up slowly, anxiously overlooked by a mother’s +care, a prey to ill-health and headache, even in +his baby years. So that most of his early +education fell to his parents, his mother opening +up to him the beginnings of reading, his father +those of writing and arithmetic.</p> + +<p>School, to which he went by-and-by, proved +a failure. Shy and shrinking, he cared little for +the play of other children. He was slow at +games, perhaps dull in class, and the boys and +girls laughed at him. Ill-health, too, made it +hard for him to get on. He liked best to be at +home. For amusement he would draw in chalk +on the kitchen floor, and for playthings he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +would choose his father’s instruments. One day +a neighbour remarked on the child’s drawing.</p> + +<p>“He should be at school,” she said, “and not +trifling away his time.”</p> + +<p>“Look first,” said the father, pointing to the +floor, “before you blame him. He is solving a +problem in geometry.”</p> + +<p>The child was then six years old!</p> + +<p>We are familiar with the story handed down +to us through the centuries of how the dreamy-eyed +boy was engaged in watching the steam +hiss from the kettle-spout, the while holding a +teaspoon below to count and catch the drops of +water. Tradition likes to see in this the tiny +seedlings of that mighty tree—the Condensing +Steam Engine, but we fear that common sense +in the shape of his robust-minded aunt was +nearer the mark when she exclaimed—</p> + +<p>“James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy +as you are. For the last hour you have not +spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that +kettle and put it on again, holding now a cup +and now a silver spoon over the steam, watching +how it rises from the spout, catching and counting +the drops it falls into.”</p> + +<p>For change of air the boy was sometimes +sent to Glasgow, the great commercial capital<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +being then no larger than a country market-town. +Mightily astonished were his relatives, +and, according to their own account, not a +little scared, when of an evening his tongue +was loosed, and he would launch into tales, +wonderful things that held them entranced for +hours, and sent them wakeful to bed. Was +this time prophetic of those later years when +he would hold men and women fascinated by +the charm of his conversation?</p> + +<p>And now young James was sent to the +Greenock Grammar School, but he made no +great mark there, except in mathematics, in +which he easily headed the class. But Latin +and Greek are not a boy’s only education. At +home he was learning other things, from his +parents’ talk, from the pages of books. And +then there were the long golden hours when he +put on a leather apron like his father, and +installed himself in his father’s workshop with +a small forge and a small bench all his own, and +with his boyish fingers handled the tools so +deftly and so cleverly that the workmen watching +him exclaimed—</p> + +<p>“Little Jamie has gotten a fortune at his +fingers’ ends.”</p> + +<p>But while he worked his mind was not idle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +He read eagerly and precociously, as a delicate +child sometimes does, devouring all such books +as he could lay hands on. Solid enough reading +they will seem to boys to-day.</p> + +<p><cite>The Cloud of Witnesses</cite>, Henry the Rymer’s +<cite>Life of Wallace</cite>, Boston, Bunyan.</p> + +<p>Added to this was his parents’ talk, that fell +on his young ears and stamped itself on his +young mind, and the picturesque surroundings +of his home, for he loved nature’s beauties—the +hills, the stars, the trees. The mountains and +the plains about his home were made romantic +by memories and associations of Covenanting +times, told him by his father, and his boyish +rambles were made beautiful by wild flowers, +and again there were long delightful days of +fishing to add to these.</p> + +<p>But in the midst of all this struggling in the +boy’s mind was that strong leaning to mechanical +invention longing for an outlet. It peeped +out here and there—for instance, in being +unable to see an instrument without wishing +to discover all its uses. And so well did he +show himself able even then to fashion delicate +things like compasses and quadrants—an instrument +in shape like the fourth of a circle—that +his father, after much thought, made up his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +mind that James should learn the trade of a +mathematical instrument maker.</p> + +<p>So in 1754 James came out from the shelter +of home and launched himself on the great +world, rather more of an ordeal to the shy, +timid boy than it would have been to one more +robust and enterprising. This was practically +the last of Greenock. The peaceful fishing-village +was never again to be his home. Naturally +he turned his steps to Glasgow. We can +picture the great event in the quiet household. +The boy getting ready, his modest baggage, +his clothes (his mother’s tender care), a +leather apron, some carpenter’s tools, and a +quadrant.</p> + +<p>But he was destined to go yet farther afield. +No mathematical instrument-maker was to be +found in Glasgow. A professor to whom James +was introduced advised him to go to London. +“To London” is an easy enough journey to-day—then +it was a mighty undertaking. No +trains—no steamers. One could only go by +slow coach or on horseback. James chose the +latter. His trunk was sent by sea from Leith, +and he along with a friend set off on his long +journey. He left on the 7th day of June, and +travelling by Coldstream and Newcastle, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +arrived in the great metropolis after a ride of +twelve days!</p> + +<p>Most likely, although there might have been +fear in the boyish heart, it also beat high with +hope. Again and again has London made fair +promises to boys such as he. But disappointment +was to meet him on the very threshold. +He found that apprentices who intended to +serve a term of seven years were only accepted. +This was very far from James’s thoughts. What +he wanted was to learn the trade, start off +home again, and set up in Glasgow for himself +as soon as possible. After many failures, however, +he at last found a man willing to take +him on for a year on his promise to pay twenty +guineas with the results of his work during +that time.</p> + +<p>And now began a time of stern work and self-denial. +He took poor lodgings. He scrimped +himself in everything but the bare necessaries of +life. He spent on himself exactly eight shillings +a week. He could not, he wrote, do with less. +He scraped and pinched, remembering how ill +his father could afford his keep.</p> + +<p>When he could get extra work he took it +home at nights to his poor rooms and sat up late +over it, often ill and weary. In a month he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +could make a quadrant better than any of the +other apprentices. And so he struggled on +against loneliness and headache and depression. +It was rarely safe to venture out at night at that +time in London, for sailor press-gangs were +abroad. No able-bodied man was spared. In +one night they took as many as 1,000 men. +Sitting as he did close to the shop door when at +work, he was often exposed to cold, and caught +rheumatic pains which did not leave him for +many a day. After a year of this he went +home to Greenock, in his possession some tools +and instruments, and in his hands and brain a +mighty store of skill and knowledge.</p> + +<p>Revived by his native air he set out again to +seek his fortune—again to Glasgow. Again to +be met with disappointment! He had not +learned his trade in Glasgow, and therefore +Glasgow would have none of him. Not so much +as a workshop would it give him. It seemed +almost as if there were no place open for the +boy.</p> + +<p>But his friend the professor came to the +front again. If Watt could find no place in the +city, then the University should shelter him. +And so they gave him a workshop twenty feet +square in the old College grounds, and a room<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +in which to sell his instruments, and he was at +last fairly launched.</p> + +<p>But business progressed but slowly. He +lived, to be sure, in an atmosphere that must +have delighted him. The professors and the +students found him out. They came and came +again. He seemed always to have something +original to say. He was a man who read much +and thought much—humble as a child about his +own attainments—eager with the generosity of +the great man to give others their due—yes, +even more than their due. They found out that +he knew all about engineering, and not a little +about natural history, art, languages—and then +the trick of observation was so strong with him +that nothing escaped him. In time it came to +be the general opinion that the young instrument-maker +was one of the ablest men about the +University. But gratifying as was the making +of these friends, they did not bring Watt in any +money. Somehow his instruments did not sell +well. He was too far from the town. Indeed, +his business was so poor he sometimes thought +of giving it up. It may have been there was a +want of practical “push” in him, a quality he +never gained all through his life. Somewhat +discouraged he took to making fiddles and flutes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +and guitars and even organs,—but he was yet +very far from making that fortune he had come +out to seek.</p> + +<p>There are crises, turning-points in the lives +of most people. They are seldom noisy. Sometimes, +indeed, they come so quietly as to be +hardly noticed. And now Watt was gradually +nearing his.</p> + +<p>About this time his thoughts began to turn to +steam. It may be that had he been busy and +successful as an organ-maker, his great invention +might never have seen the light.</p> + +<p>People had, of course, known for long that +there was a power in water exposed to heat. +Now in 1759, when Watt was twenty-three, his +attention was drawn to the Steam Engine. He +pondered it. After he had pondered it he set to +work. His first model was a failure. But the +idea had silently and firmly lodged in his brain. +He went on with his everyday business, but ever +in his leisure back sprang his mind to that +subject that was to be his all-absorbing life-work. +He read eagerly what other men had +done. He got a model of another man’s engine +and he studied it. He found what he thought +defects. He groped steadily on—now seeing a +light—again thrown into darkness—now following<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +what turned out to be a will-o’-the-wisp—again +getting hold of an idea that seemed to him +a gem.</p> + +<p>There came to him gradually dawning thoughts. +First, that of Latent Heat. Again, that a small +quantity of water in the shape of steam heats a +large quantity of cold water. Yet, again, that +at 212° water is elastic, and that steam heats +six times the weight of cold water to a temperature +of 212°, the temperature of steam.</p> + +<p>And so he went on step by step, till one day +the thing burst on him, full-fledged, as it were—complete, +dazzling, a perfect inspiration.</p> + +<p>It was a Sunday afternoon in the spring of +1765. He was taking a stroll in a quiet part of +Glasgow, now a paved and busy thoroughfare +called the Green. A Sunday calm brooded over +what was on weekdays a scene of busy life—of +washing and drying clothes. His thoughts, +as usual, hovered about his beloved theme. It +inspired him with a very passion as a child of +his own. The key to his engine—long sought—suddenly +flashed before his mind’s eye. The +thing had been waiting incomplete for want of +it. It came to him then—the idea of a Separate +Condenser.</p> + +<p>A great uprising of his mind followed. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +his solitary walk the flashing thought filled the +man with rapture.</p> + +<p>Two drawbacks—waste of steam and waste of +fuel—had been the ruin of former inventions.</p> + +<p>“Ye need not fash yourself about that, man,” +Watt said to a friend, answering some objection +that he had made, “I have now made an engine +that shall not waste a particle of steam.”</p> + +<p>And so, though it was but the beginning, +though years of weary labour and disappointment +and discouragement waited him before +the end was reached, the Condensing Steam +Engine, as we have it now, first sprang into +being that spring afternoon on the Green in +Glasgow.</p> + +<p>And now the young inventor set himself with +eager enthusiasm to make a model. There were +no skilled workmen to be had, no self-acting +tools, as in our day, and so the first model was +only partly successful. But not a whit discouraged, +he went on.</p> + +<p>“My whole thoughts are bent on this machine,” +he said. “I can think of nothing else.”</p> + +<p>And now there remains but to tell in a few +words—for it is the record of his manhood—the +“ups and downs” just beginning, the disappointments, +the failures, the hopes and fears that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +waited on this offspring of his brain. He was +poor, and money was the first thing that was +needed. Who would risk thousands on such a +vague and shadowy thing?</p> + +<p>Meantime the pot had to be kept boiling! +He looked into the future, and he saw great +things steam might yet be made to do, but +there was bread and butter needed for the +present. So he went bravely in for surveying, +though there was little enough to be made +by that. He had still ill-health to struggle +against. “I am still plagued with headaches,” +he wrote about this time, “and sometimes heartaches.”</p> + +<p>But after a time a gleam of hope shone through +the clouds. After failures and difficulties he at +last succeeded in finding someone willing to risk +his money. So in 1769 he patented his engine, +and began to build it. In six months it was +finished, and as it neared completion Watt +could hardly sleep. Then, and for long still +in the future, he was to suffer from bad, incapable +workmen, and this accounted for his +partial failure.</p> + +<p>“It was,” he said, “a clumsy job.” Watt +grew depressed.</p> + +<p>In 1770 he wrote: “I enter on my thirty-fifth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +year, and I think I have hardly yet done +thirty-five pence worth of good in the world.”</p> + +<p>A friend, seeing him cast down and unhappy, +advised him to give up inventing. As well +might he have advised the sun not to shine or +living man to cease from breathing. Meantime +the years went on. Watt was often, as he said, +“heart-sick.” Long years after, remembering +this weary time, he said, “The public only look +at my success.” He stinted himself in everything +but bare necessaries, for as yet his engine +had paid him nothing and cost enormously. But +light again arose in the darkness when he got +as a partner Boulton, of Birmingham, and from +that day onwards matters mended. Six of the +fourteen years’ patent were gone, but he succeeded +in getting a renewal of it for twenty-four +years by Act of Parliament, in spite of grumbling +discontent of men who wanted to steal the fruit +of his brain, and were thus prevented.</p> + +<p>Now he set to work in earnest. His first +engine was made to blow the bellows of ironworks. +His second to pump water out of the +mines in Cornwall. In 1776 this was set up, +and worked perfectly. “There it was, ‘forking +water’ as never engine before had been known +‘to fork.’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<p>“All the world are agape,” he said, “to see +what it can do.”</p> + +<p>And it did well. And now the “voice of +the country was in its favour.” So the first +step was taken. The others followed in quick +succession. The partners worked together perfectly. +Watt understood engines, but not men. +He grew impatient, irritable, peevish if a workman +were inefficient, and would have dismissed +him on the spot. Boulton was wiser, and never +failed to oil the wheels. Watt was despondent, +easily cast down; Boulton was his “backbone.”</p> + +<p>There came then into Watt’s mind the idea +of an engine that would produce <em>rotary</em> motion. +This he patented in 1781. All round and about, +ready to pounce on it, were a perfect swarm of +pirates.</p> + +<p>“One’s thoughts seem to be stolen before one +speaks them,” he said. And again, “All mankind +seem to be resolved to rob us.”</p> + +<p>In 1782 the first rotary machine worked. +After long waiting there was a brilliant result. +It was made to drive a corn-mill. In our day +it would be hard to say what Watt’s rotary +machine is not made to do. It is made for +corn-mills and for cotton-mills, for sugar-mills +and iron-mills. It drives our steamers and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +rolls our hammer-iron and coins our money +and prints our books.</p> + +<p>And now the great inventor had reached the +highest pinnacle of fame. In 1790 he had an +interview with the King, who asked about his +engines.</p> + +<p>But he had not landed at the topmost round +of the ladder without much painful climbing +and many weary steps. His life had been all +through shadowed by ill-health, and an anxious, +worrying mind that refused to be calm. He +had a shrinking distaste to business, and a +fearful habit of looking on the dark side of +things. Often would he have sunk in depression +and despair had it not been for his cheery +partner. It was only in the late years of his +life that he came to know anything like peace. +His mind all along had been too active for his +body.</p> + +<p>But though as an old man he retired from +public life and from business, he could not +altogether retire from invention. He invented +a letter-copying machine, and one for copying +statuary. In his old age he lived very quietly +in his comfortable house near Birmingham, furnishing +what he called his Garret, a room where +he might be alone and still invent, don again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +as in boyhood, the leather apron, cook his own +food, and ponder anew the details of those +wonderful inventions he had given to the world.</p> + +<p>Friends admitted there found “the great Mr. +Watt” simple, modest, careless of display—much +as he had been as a boy—his voice low +and kindly, with still its broad, homely Scottish +accent. The world would have liked to draw +him from his seclusion, to caress him, to make +much of him. It offered him a baronetcy, but +his simple tastes lay not at all in the direction +of such honours, and he refused it.</p> + +<p>In 1819, when he was eighty-three, the end +came. “I feel,” said the great man with a calm +in strange contrast to the fearfulness and timidity +that had accompanied him through life, “I feel +that I am now come to my last illness.” He +passed away quietly and without suffering. +They buried him in Handsworth Church—near +to his partner, Boulton—and erected an imposing +statue in Westminster Abbey, and beneath +it Lord Brougham wrote his famous epitaph.</p> + +<p>To us his life has much of pathos. Men have +called him “the greatest inventor in all ages,” +“the most extraordinary man that the world +has ever seen,” but the long years of struggle +and labour and waiting, the weakness of body<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +and the oft depression of spirit, are to us not a +little sad, specially when we remember how +patiently he endured, how uncomplainingly he +suffered, that we might profit, that he might, +as Lord Brougham has it, “increase the power +of man.”</p> +<hr class="l1" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> + +<div class="ads"> +<h2>Splendid Books for Boys.</h2> +<hr class="l3" /> + +<p class="ad1">By GORDON STABLES, M.D., R.N.</p> + +<p class="ad2">Large Crown 8vo, Bevelled Boards, Gilt Edges, with Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="ad2"><i>FIVE SHILLINGS each.</i></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">IN SHIPS OF STEEL.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Story of the Navy of To-Day.</p> + +<p class="f7">“A lively tale of the Navy of to-day, by that popular writer.”—<cite>The Guardian.</cite></p> + +<p class="f7">“We say a great deal when we say it is quite up to the Author’s usual level of exciting +story telling.”—<cite>The British Weekly.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">FOR CROSS OR CRESCENT.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Romance of the Days of Richard the Lion-hearted.</p> + +<p class="f7">“A spirited, graphic story.”—<cite>Pall Mall Gazette.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">IN THE DASHING DAYS OF OLD;</p> + +<p class="ad2">Or, The World-wide Adventures of Willie Grant.</p> + +<p class="f7">“We can commend this book is the best story for boys which we have read for +many a day.”—<cite>English Churchman.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">FOR HONOUR NOT HONOURS.</p> + +<p class="ad2">The Story of Gordon of Khartoum.</p> + +<p class="f7">“Dr. Gordon Stables has written again the story of General Gordon, in ‘For Honour not +Honours,’ and no English boy will tire of reading it.”—<cite>Pall Mall Gazette.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">ON TO THE RESCUE.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Tale of the Indian Mutiny.</p> + +<p class="f7">“A capital story of the Indian Mutiny. The boy who gets hold of this book is certain to +thoroughly enjoy it.”—<cite>The Record.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">SHOULDER TO SHOULDER.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Story of the Stirring Times of Old.</p> + +<p class="f7">“More than a mere Story of the Stirring Times of Old. The tale goes close to the heart of +the reader, because it has come from the heart of the writer.”—<cite>Aberdeen Free Press.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">ENGLAND’S HERO PRINCE.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Story of the Black Prince.</p> + +<p class="f7">“A dashing, graphic piece of work, well calculated to arouse the spirit of youth.”—<cite>Publishers’ Circular.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">’TWIXT DAYDAWN AND LIGHT.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Tale of the Times of Alfred the Great.</p> + +<p class="f7">“Splendidly told and well illustrated.”—<cite>Pall Mall Gazette.</cite><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">OLD ENGLAND ON THE SEA.</p> + +<p class="ad2">The Story of Admiral Drake.</p> + +<p class="f7">“Here we have told with much spirit the story of Admiral Drake. We have plenty of +stories of the sea, <em>but what could be better than this true tale</em>?”—<cite>The Spectator.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">HEARTS OF OAK.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Story of Nelson and the Navy.</p> + +<p class="f7">“Tom Bure, the hero, will charm every boy that gets hold of it.”—<cite>Literary World.</cite></p> + +<p class="f7">“A story of the Navy and of Mighty Nelson, told with excellent spirit.”—<cite>Saturday Review.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">EXILES OF FORTUNE.</p> + +<p class="ad2">The Story of a Far North Land.</p> + +<p class="f7">“A capital book; written with this popular writer’s accustomed spirit, and sure to be +enjoyed.”—<cite>Scotsman.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">TWO SAILOR LADS.</p> + +<p class="ad2">Their Stirring Adventures on Sea and Land.</p> + +<p class="f7">“A sea story big with wonders.”—<cite>Saturday Review.</cite></p> + +<p class="f7">“A capital story in Dr. Stables’ best style.”—<cite>Spectator.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">FOR ENGLAND, HOME, AND BEAUTY.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Tale of Battle and the Breeze.</p> + +<p class="f7">“Dr. Stables has almost surpassed himself in this book. Certainly we have read nothing +of his which has pleased us more—perhaps we might say as much.”—<cite>The Spectator.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">IN SEARCH OF FORTUNE.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Tale of the Old Land and the New.</p> + +<p class="f7">“The story is naturally and brightly written.”—<cite>Standard.</cite></p> + +<p class="f7">“Just the book boys like.”—<cite>Schoolmaster.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad1">FACING FEARFUL ODDS.</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Tale of Flood and Field.</p> + +<p class="f7">“An exceptionally good book for boys.”—<cite>Guardian.</cite></p> + +<p class="f7">“One of the author’s most fascinating stories.”—<cite>Leeds Mercury.</cite></p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="ad2"><i>Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p class="ad1">“LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE.”</p> + +<p class="ad2">A Cruise of the Good Ship “Boreas.”</p> +<hr class="l7" /> + +<p class="center f9"><span class="smcap">London</span>: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., <span class="smcap">48, Paternoster Row, E.C.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="l1" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/i_spine.jpg" width="111" height="655" alt="Spine" title="Spine" /> +</div> + +<div class="tnote"> +<p class="center">Transcriber’s Notes</p> + +<p>In the caption of the illustration on page 102 “Stevenson” has been +changed to “Stephenson” (Stephenson fighting the fire).</p> + +<p>On page 117 ’ has been changed to ” (of Nature’s gentlemen.”).</p> + +<p>On page 159 — has been added (of youth.”—<cite>Publishers’ Circular.</cite>).</p> + +<p>Otherwise the original has been preserved.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boyhood of Great Inventors, by +A. 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Fraser Robertson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Boyhood of Great Inventors + +Author: A. Fraser Robertson + +Release Date: December 3, 2011 [EBook #38191] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Anna Whitehead, eagkw and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS + + + + + [Illustration: THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. + _Frontispiece._] + + + + + _The Boyhood of + Great Inventors_ + + BY + + A. FRASER ROBERTSON + + AUTHOR OF "EARLY YEARS OF SOME NOBLE LIVES" + + NEW EDITION + + _LONDON_ + JOHN F. SHAW AND CO. + 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + + _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME._ + + + THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS A. FRASER ROBERTSON. + TWILIGHT STORIES CATHARINE SHAW. + FOR LOVE AND DUTY FRANK SAVILLE. + THE BOYS OF ALL SAINTS MABEL MACKINTOSH. + DARING DEEDS FRANK SAVILLE. + MIDSHIPMITE CURLY DR. GORDON STABLES. + THE DOG CRUSOE R. M. BALLANTYNE. + THE SWORD OF THE CAREWS DUNCAN MCLAREN. + THE NUGGET FINDERS H. ALGER. + ROBIN HOOD & HIS BRAVE FORESTERS S. PERCY. + MARTIN RATTLER R. M. BALLANTYNE. + THE KING'S MESSENGER L. MARSTON. + FOUR, AND WHAT THEY DID H. CAMPBELL. + FOR WANT OF A WORD M. MACKINTOSH. + FOR ELSIE'S SAKE J. CHAPPELL. + CURLEY'S CRYSTAL EMMA MARSHALL. + IN SHADOWLAND E. EVERETT-GREEN. + ROB AND MAG L. MARSTON. + THAT BOY TOM ISMAY THORN. + TIM'S TREASURE ALICE LANG. + LITTLE BOOTS J. HARRISON. + CLEMENT AND GEORDIE EMMA MARSHALL. + GOLD THAT GLITTERS E. S. HOLT. + PETER'S PROMISES EMMA MARSHALL. + MOLLIE WYNTER M. MACKINTOSH. + THE SLAVE GIRL OF POMPEII E. S. HOLT. + MISS PRIMROSE AGNES GIBERNE. + MAB'S BURDENS E. BODDY. + BESIDE ALL WATERS M. L. ASTREE. + WATCHING FOR THE KING L. MARSTON. + NAN, THE CIRCUS GIRL FRANCES STRATTON + HOW THE TIDE TURNED S. WATSON. + A BROTHER'S RANSOM ALICE LANG. + LITTLE EYEBRIGHT AGNES GIBERNE. + A LITTLE CURIOSITY EMMA MARSHALL. + MADCAP MARIGOLD MABEL MACKINTOSH. + THE GOLDEN PAVEMENT E. CHAPMAN. + A WAIF OF THE WAVES S. WATSON. + CHRISTOPHER'S NEW HOME EMMA MARSHALL. + HIRA'S QUEST L. MARSTON. + FROGGY'S LITTLE BROTHER BRENDA. + + LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., + 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + JOHN SMEATON 9 + JOHN FLAXMAN 30 + SIR HUMPHREY DAVY 48 + SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT 67 + JOSIAH WEDGWOOD 83 + GEORGE STEPHENSON 102 + THOMAS ALVA EDISON 118 + JAMES WATT 141 + + + + +THE BOYHOOD OF GREAT INVENTORS + + + + +JOHN SMEATON. + + +People who have been on a long sea voyage, and have ended by sailing up +the English Channel, tell us how their hearts beat high, after weary +weeks and months at sea, when the cry went up while as yet land was +a mere shadowy outline, "The Eddystone in sight!" For the gleaming +lighthouse standing immovable in the midst of boiling waves and great +mountains of blinding white spray spells "home" to the voyager. + +To us the "stone" round which the waters ceaselessly churn and "eddy" +speaks of John Smeaton, the man who built it. The great engineer has +been in his grave now for more than a century, but his most lasting +monument stood for longer than that time firm as a rock. + +John Smeaton was born in 1724, near Leeds. Not the Leeds of to-day--a +bustling, smoky centre of manufacture--but a quaint little town hemmed +in by green country fields and lanes. It was in one of these that +Austhorpe Lodge stood, the house of Smeaton's father, a lawyer in Leeds. + +We shall yet come across many boyhoods tinged with shadow and struggle, +and are not sorry to find this one happy, fondly tended, and bright with +sunshine. There was no pinch in the lot of the Smeatons, no grinding +poverty that we sometimes find to spur a boy to manhood before his time. +Little John was cradled, as it were, in love. As a child his parents +taught him at home. He was not eager to mix with other boys in outdoor +romp or play, and very early, while yet hardly more than a baby, he +showed a strong love for pulling his toys to pieces to see what they +were made of! Never was he happier than when he could get hold of a +cutting-tool with which to shape toy pumps and houses and windmills. +Another amusement of his babyhood was to divide squares and circles! + +As a boy he was rather quiet and thoughtful, though his tongue +straightway loosed the moment anything in the shape of a workman came +to his father's house. He was then always to be found on the spot, and +with eager eyes fixed on their every movement, he would unconsciously +"pose" them with eager questions--such questions as from the boyish +lips made them shake their heads and stare at him dumb and stupid. + +And all the time the boyish brain was deeply plotting, and it was ever +that he might "go and do likewise." One day, after watching a millwright +at work, his anxious parents were alarmed by the sight of their boy +perched on the top of the barn fastening a windmill to the roof! At +another time, when a pump was being made in the village, by good luck a +piece of bored lead came in little John's way. He promptly set to work +and made a toy one after the pattern of the big one, and even managed to +make it raise water. + +But his greatest childish feat took place on his discovering a +fire-engine being erected at a colliery in the village to pump the water +out of the mine. He was constantly on the spot, eagerly watching it as +it slowly progressed, and quickly his boyish brain grasped the whole. + +He went home and began with trembling fingers one day to copy it. His +father had given him an outhouse with bench and tools to carry out his +hobby, and soon the engine worked. He looked round to see what he could +use it upon, and espied the fish-pond. So he began to pump out the water +till he had pumped the whole place dry. When his father came home it was +to find an empty pond, and all his fish lying dead at the bottom! + +And now John had to leave his beloved workshop for school in Leeds. +And there it seemed as if the boy showed up quite a different side of +himself. The bright, eager alertness that marked him at home or with the +workmen about Austhorpe was gone. He was quiet with the boys--out of his +element. He did not care for their rough play. He was like a fish out of +water. Silent, shy, even stupid--the boys nicknamed him "Fooley +Smeaton." + +But though he might be dull at school, the boy's real education was +surely going on at home among his pumps and model engines, his lathes +and chisels. + +The boyish hands had begun to do that which all through life threw over +him a very spell of fascination--_to construct_--to build up. The baby +fingers were learning how to use tools in a way that was to give him +one day, long years after, a skill that would place him on the very +top of the ladder. And all the time the young mind was pondering great +mechanical principles that were by-and-by to make the name of John +Smeaton famed throughout the world. So it was not to games and boyish +play that he gave his spare moments, but to his workshop. When he was +fifteen he could use his turning-lathe to turn wood and ivory. When he +was eighteen he could handle tools as deftly and cleverly as any workman +who all his life had known no other trade. + +When he was sixteen he left school and took his place in his father's +office, and tried to bring his mind to look forward to law as his +life-work. He worked conscientiously day after day, coming home at +evening to spend half the night in working--making--constructing things. +He had all the instincts of a born mechanic. It was almost as if he +could not help it. + +When his father sent him to London to study law, the boy tried again +to stifle his longings, and to set himself to carry out his father's +wishes. But strive and struggle as he would, it was impossible to crush +the desire of his heart. And so one day he sat down and wrote to his +father that he could go on with law no longer. Nothing except to be a +mechanic would satisfy him. His father, deeply disappointed though he +was, quietly made up his mind to what could not be helped, and wrote to +John that he must make his own choice. + +The boy was delighted. He had chosen what was then the work of a common +labourer, with a labourer's wages. The term Civil Engineer was unknown. +With a heart beating high with hope he went off and engaged himself +to a philosophical instrument-maker--a man who made instruments for +navigation and astronomy. With him he worked steadily--eager to improve +the instruments--eager to improve himself--so eager, indeed, that he +divided out his time so as to make the most of it: so much for reading, +so much for experiments, so much for business, and so much for rest and +relaxation. + +And so on the threshold of manhood--having got, as it were, "a free +hand"--he made great strides onward. He may not have done much business +at the time, but he read papers before the Royal Society, and he kept +open a keen, mechanical eye for everything--from minute, delicate +instruments to the building of canals and bridges and waterworks. He +thought no trouble too great to take if so it made him thorough. He set +himself to study French and Italian, so as to read the works in these +languages on mechanical subjects, and he even set off to Holland--that +land of dykes and harbours and docks--that he might examine them for +himself. + +And while he looked about him, always at the same time busy with the +work that lay nearest to his hand, the great work of his life was +drawing close to his door. + +Many years before Smeaton lived, England was in the custom of lighting +up her rocky headlands with lights or beacons. First came "the candle in +the cottage window" to light the sailor husband home, then stacks of +blazing wood, piles of coal, oil, torches, pitch-pots. Guided by these +flaring lights in the darkness, men and vessels plying round our coast +were saved from shipwreck and death. Sometimes these beacons, flaming +high from their pinnacles, warned the people inland that war was +expected, the country was in danger of being invaded, or that pirates +were about to swoop down upon them. At other times _false_ lights were +shown by men known as "wreckers," and homeward-bound vessels, rich in +goods and human souls, were dashed upon the rocks. So our coasts were +lighted up in those old days, but it happened at times that the pitch +would become drenched and drowned, the wood and coal fires would spurt +up for a space and then drop down and fade. Things were uncertain. It +did not matter, perhaps, greatly, as long as England's commerce by sea +was small, but when our trade with foreign lands began to grow, there +grew, too, the question how best to light our rocky coasts and docks and +headlands. So an order of monks--the Brethren of Trinity House--was +made, and these prayed for the safety of the sailors, and later looked +to the lighting of the coast. + +Eddystone rock we can easily find on the map, a low, black reef lying +S.S.W. of Plymouth, a place of lurking danger as well for ships cruising +up and down the Channel as for those coming into Plymouth harbour. +In the days of Smeaton, and for some time earlier, the way in which +lighthouses were built was for a private man to go to the owner and say, +"I will build a lighthouse on that rock if you will let me." If his +offer were accepted and he carried out the work he had then the right to +levy dues on the ships that passed, or, in other words, to make them +pay toll. In this way he sometimes collected quite a large income. + +Towards the end of the seventeenth century a man called Winstanley +undertook to build a lighthouse on Eddystone. He drew out plans and +started on the work, and it was no light work. The base of the rock was +narrow and sloping. It was hard to make the foundations fast, for winds +and waves had a way of rising suddenly, and the whole of the work would +be drowned for the time, and perhaps many of the materials swept away. +But by dint of waiting patiently for fine weather and smooth water +the building was at last finished. It was made of wood, rather in an +ornamental style, and had many projections. It took four years in the +building, for although in other parts of the Channel the waters might be +smooth enough, yet round the Eddystone they were almost sure to seethe +and foam. For several seasons the building stood. + +"I wish," exclaimed the builder one day, elated that his work had turned +out so well, "that I might be here in the fiercest storm, just to see it +stand." + +After it had stood some three years from its finish Winstanley went out +one day to see to some repairs. He remained on the rock overnight, and +during the night his wish, though hardly as he would have had it, was +fulfilled. A gale and storm terrific in their fury burst overhead and +broke along the English coast. With the first streak of dawn an anxious +people looked from shore to see how it fared with the lighthouse. Not a +trace of it remained. Not a speck was to be seen on the waters. It and +its maker had been utterly swept away! + +Next came a man called Rudyerd, who volunteered to build a lighthouse +that would stand. He pondered the last, and he came to the conclusion +that it had failed in form. He determined to alter that. So he made +a long, high column in the shape of a cone, with no ornaments, no +projections jutting out to catch the wind, and at the end of four years +the thing was finished--a wooden building coated over with oakum and +pitch. + +For a time all went seemingly well. It held four rooms, one above the +other. The lantern was lit by candles. Years went on, and still it +stood defying the winds and storms for half a century. There were two +light-keepers, who snuffed the candles overnight, sitting up for four +hours at a time. One of these men fell ill and died. A storm was raging +at the time. No help could come to his companion, and so through a long +month he kept the body, afraid to throw it into the sea, in case he +should be thought a murderer. + +At last help came from shore, but the loneliness and horror had told so +terribly upon the remaining man that ever afterwards three men were +employed to keep the light burning, in case of one falling ill or dying. + +But in spite of its long standing there was a hidden flaw in the +lighthouse. It was inflammable--capable of catching fire. One day--no +one could quite tell how it happened, it might be the flame had dried +and scorched the timber. At any rate, a man going in to snuff the +candles found that fire had broken out. It wanted but a few minutes till +the place was in flames. The men rushed below, while a perfect rain of +beams and burning lead fell in showers about their heads. Seeing the +blaze from the shore a boat put off with all speed. When it reached the +rock it found the men, not on the rock, but crouching beneath a ledge, +dripping and half dead, and with just enough life in them to enable them +to catch the rope thrown to them, for it was too rough for the boat to +reach the rock. And so they were towed on board. + +And now the third attempt at the lighthouse was to be made by John +Smeaton. + +"Thou art the man to do it," were the words of the letter asking him to +undertake the work. And so Smeaton was launched on that which was to +make his name famous. + +The first step he took was to get and study the plans of the former men. +To succeed he had first to find out where the others had failed. + +The first building had failed in weight. The second had not been +fire-proof. And so he decided to make his lighthouse of stone. People +when they heard of it called out that it was a wild project. It could +not be done. "Nothing but wood could possibly stand on the Eddystone." +But Smeaton was in no way moved or cast down. What he made he wanted to +stand, and not to last for a few years merely; and so of stone he +determined it should be. + +He began to draw out the design. He kept to the shape of Rudyerd's--the +long cone-like column. He made the diameter of the foundation broader. +He planned the locking and bonding and dovetailing of the stones--each +to each, and all to the centre. When this was all carefully thought and +made out he started from London for Plymouth. He was _six days_ on the +journey owing to the "badness of the roads." + +On the 2nd of April he set sail for the rock, but winds and waves beat +so vehemently that he found it impossible to land. All he could do was +to view the low, treacherous black thing on which he was to build his +house of stone. Back he went three days later, and for the first time +he stood on Eddystone, but only for a couple of hours. There was almost +nothing to be seen, only one or two iron branches left from the wrecks +of the former wooden buildings. On the third attempt he made he could +not even see the rock. Spray and foam hid it entirely from view. In +the same way his fourth and fifth visits failed, but his sixth was +successful, and he landed at low water, and in the stillness of the +evening made his first measurements. + +"I went on with my business till nine in the evening," he wrote, "having +worked an hour by candlelight." + +Again and again he tried to get a landing. Sometimes he managed it, at +others it was impossible. After having spent fifteen hours in all on the +rock he went back to London, and with his own expert hands made a model. +The work took him two months in all, and that proficiency that he had +learned as a boy in his little workshop at Austhorpe stood him in good +stead now. After this he set out for Plymouth again. No detail of his +work was too small for him to attend to himself. He visited the quarries +where the stones were to be hewn. He carefully chose the kind of cement +that was to bind them together; the workmen, the work-yards, the ships +that were to carry the stones to the rock. Each and all passed under his +eye. + +It was a great day when, in August, 1756, he and his men started for +Eddystone, and the master fixed the centre and laid down the lines. Now +the work might be said to be fairly begun. But was ever work so often +broken in upon? Winds and waves are not to be counted on--least of all +about the stormy Eddystone, for often though the water is calm and +smooth in other places, it smothers in foam the low black reef. + +There were times when the workmen could work as long as six hours at a +stretch, going on eagerly by torchlight if necessary. Again it would +happen they could not work more than two hours out of the twenty-four. +Time was precious, and time was grievously taken up in going to and +from Plymouth, and so Smeaton arranged that a "buss"--a fishing-vessel +with two masts and a cabin at either end--should ride at anchor near the +scene of work, with provisions and other necessaries. + +But here, again, it was hard to plan ahead. One day a mighty storm +arose. The men could not work. Their yawl broke from its moorings. They +could neither send to shore, nor could they get help. But they must eat. +Days passed, and gradually their store of provisions grew less and less. +By the time relief reached them they were at their last crust. + +During the long months of winter when work was out of the question the +time was spent in dressing the stones in the yard on shore. Smeaton +himself saw them laid out in lines and numbered, after which they were +put in order on board ready to be lifted off when the rock was reached, +and easily put in their places. Dangers and difficulties often crowded +thick on the work, enough to daunt a man less dauntless than Smeaton. +One night on the homeward way a big storm arose. + +The night was dark, and Smeaton was roused from sleep by the sound of +much stamping and hurrying to and fro overhead. He rushed on deck in +his nightshirt. The helmsman was holding frantically by a rope. + +"For God's sake," he shouted when he saw Smeaton and others, "heave hard +at that rope, if you mean to save your lives." + +So Smeaton as well as the others laid hold. In the pitchy darkness there +fell on their horror-struck ears the sound of waves breaking on the +_rocks_. The jibsail was blown to pieces. They hastily lowered the +mainsail. The waves dashed over them. But gradually the ship obeyed the +straining helm and rounded off. In anxious fear they lay out to sea. +When morning broke land was nowhere to be seen, and they found +themselves driving towards the Bay of Biscay. For four long days they +were tossed and driven to and fro before they made Plymouth harbour. + +One day Smeaton had an accident, which, however, might have been worse +in its effects. He was taking a turn up and down the narrow strip of +rock that was all that afforded a promenade when his foot slipped and he +fell among the rocks. When he got up he thought himself unhurt till a +stinging pain informed him that he had dislocated his thumb. He was +hours from shore--far from a surgeon. Delay meant disablement. So he +took hold of it with his other hand, pulled hard, and it snapped into +place. + +But in spite of danger and difficulty and hindrance the great work +went on, though slowly still surely. By the end of the second year the +building had risen thirty-five feet high--out of reach of the heavy dash +and thud of the waves. Gradually one above another rose the rooms for +the light-keepers--their walls twenty-six inches thick to stand against +the fearful onslaught of the wind as it blew up the Channel from the +Atlantic. For in a gale the place shook and the doors slammed and the +windows rattled with such terrific force that the new and unaccustomed +keepers earnestly wished themselves at Land's End or anywhere else, so +that it meant land. + +To say that as it neared the finish it was much in the great builder's +thoughts is to draw but a faint picture of how day and night it lay upon +his heart. How when on land the early morning found him out betimes on +the Hoe, at Plymouth, telescope in hand, gazing out to sea. If a storm +raged and the spray flew high for a moment it seemed to his sinking +heart that it was Winstanley's lighthouse over again and that there was +no Eddystone! + +Again his heart leaped in gratitude a moment afterwards when the upright +column--strong, firm, immovable--pointing black and clear against the +sky, came to view, and a deep "Thank God!" would burst from his lips. + +And now the months flew by and the great work neared its end. Smeaton +himself chose the last details--the iron railings--the glass for the +lantern. In the upper storeroom directly beneath the ceiling he had the +motto carved--"Except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that +build it." And the mason's last work was a "Laus Deo" in stone. + +Towards the end Smeaton could not leave it. With his own hands he +fitted the windows in their sashes--fixed the gilt ball on the top--no +easy matter--but he had ever filled the post of danger himself. He +asked no one to put himself where he was not willing too to go. Expert +as any skilled mechanic, he himself gave his great work its finishing +touches. Twenty-four candles in a chandelier formed the light. The +lightning-conductor was fixed--the rooms finished. The magnificent +column towered to seventy feet, the lantern and gilt ball twenty-eight +inches higher, and on October 16th, 1759, the work was done. + +Three years later a mighty storm broke along the coast, wrecking docks +and ships and harbours, but the Eddystone stood firm. + +And now Smeaton's name was made. Other feats followed. Other triumphs +awaited him--the building of docks and harbours and bridges--but the +thing that men will ever link with his name is the Eddystone. After the +stress and struggle of public life, he went back again to the old home +of his boyhood. He gathered again about him his workshop, his study, his +observatory. And so he worked to the end. He could not help it. He could +not live without his tools. + +Great man though he was, his wants were very few and simple. Offers of +riches and magnificence had no power to tempt him, and when he refused a +post abroad which meant wealth and position, the Russian Princess who +offered it exclaimed, in wondering admiration-- + +"I shall go back to Russia and tell them there is one man who has _not_ +his price." + +He was happiest in the quiet of his own home. As a boy he had been +rather retiring and thoughtful. As a man he was found the same. Simple, +modest, while he would converse easily on other subjects, it was hardly +possible to get him to talk of self. In this, as well as in his +life-work, "he was indeed a very great man." + +He had had a long life of work--hard, incessant toil--from six to sixty, +though it had been work that he had loved. It may be he had overtaxed +his strength, for as age crept on he grew less robust. In his +sixty-eighth year he had a slight stroke. He feared a gradually clouding +brain. "The shadow must lengthen as the sun goes down," he said to +himself. But this distress was spared those dear to him, and with not +much suffering, on the 28th October, 1792, he passed away. They buried +him in the old church of Whitkirk, and raised a tablet to his memory, +naming in it that great work of his that will "convey to distant ages, +as it does to every nation of the globe, the name of its constructor." + +The world looks still upon John Smeaton as a wonderful engineer--a great +mechanic--a man who climbed to the top of his profession, and the sound +of whose fame spread over Europe; but he will ever be best remembered by +the light of the Eddystone, that memorial monument that stood firm for +more than a century, sometimes hid in blinding spray, anon gleaming out +clear and steady, a rescuer from shipwreck and death. + +Till 1877 storms continued to beat upon it without avail. Then, owing to +the undermining of a portion of the reef, it was thought well to build a +new house on another part of the rock. The old base still stands on the +old place, and the upper rooms have been put on the Hoe at Plymouth. + +These are, after all, the best monuments we could have of the builder. +Welded into the stones, it seems to us we can trace, not alone genius +and great mechanical power, but a patience in difficulty, a courage in +danger, and in face of long, wearing months of anxiety. It is these, +perhaps, more than all else, for which we honour the name of Smeaton. + + + + +JOHN FLAXMAN + + +Had we passed along one of the poorer streets of the city of London some +150 years ago, we might have chanced on a humble shop displaying in the +window plaster-casts and figures in clay, and had we lifted the latch +and entered, in the cramped space behind the counter we should have +found the child who was one day to become England's greatest sculptor, +John Flaxman. + +A ricketty, weakly baby in a high stuffed child's chair, so that his +little pale face might be on a level with the counter; the sweet dreamy +eyes looked out on the world, all unthinking that a day was coming when +the fame of his name would reach wherever men knew and loved his art. + +Born in the city of York in 1755, a few months before the Flaxmans +settled in London, there were times when his father and mother hardly +believed they would be able to "rear" the delicate child. Attacks of +illness and weakness were common to him. Indeed, one day he was seized +with a fit of gasping so severe that the breath seemed to leave his +body, and they even laid him out for dead, but he revived, and his +breath came again, and by-and-by he even grew. Few amusements, no +childish games were open to the little cripple. The green fields, the +blue of the country skies were to him things unknown. The dingy four +walls of the narrow cramped shop had to serve him instead. But day by +day he grew quick to note the familiar beauty of his father's casts. He +came to see the shape of these white things with the eye of the poet and +the artist. There came into his mind the strong desire to copy, inborn +in most children, and the baby fingers set to work to mould, and +fashion, and make some likeness--if even a dim one--to those of his +father's models. In these old days gentlemen were accustomed to wear +bunches of seals dangling from their watch-chains, and the child used to +keep a stock of wax, and when he thought a customer seemed kind, he +would summon courage to ask him to let him take the impression on the +soft wax. + +In little John's early years, when he was as yet a baby of five, a great +ceremony took place in London, the coronation of King George III. +Rumour went that to celebrate the great event there was to be a +coronation medal struck, and that hundreds of these were to be thrown to +the crowd. The cripple child in the dingy side street of the great city +set his little heart on possessing one of these treasures, and begged +his father to get him one. But Flaxman was not successful. On the way +home, with his mind full of his disappointment, his eye happened to +light on a plated button on the pavement, stamped with a horse and +jockey. He picked it up. Would he disappoint his little son, or deceive +him? He decided on deceiving him, and gave the eager and expectant child +the button. The boy received the trophy in wonderment. He was glad to +get it, but he remarked that it seemed a strange medal for a coronation! + +Customers who came to Flaxman's house could hardly help noticing the +child who sat behind the counter, the big head on the lame body, the +high shoulders, the beautiful pure eyes, the sensitive, proud face. They +spoke to him, and they found him no common child. + +One day, by good luck, when little John was hardly more than seven, a +customer, a Mr. Matthew, a clergyman, came to Flaxman's shop. Writing +of that visit, when it had become a memory and the child a great man, +Mr. Matthew says-- + +"I went to the shop of old Flaxman to have a figure repaired, and whilst +I was standing there I heard a child cough behind the counter. I looked +over, and there I saw a little boy seated on a small chair, with a large +chair before him, on which lay a book he was reading. His fine eyes and +beautiful forehead interested me, and I said, 'What book is that?' He +raised himself on his crutches, bowed, and said, 'Sir, it is a Latin +book, and I am trying to learn it.' + +"'Aye, indeed!' I answered. 'You are a fine boy, but this is not the +proper book. I will bring you a right one to-morrow.' + +"I did as I promised, and the acquaintance thus casually begun ripened +into one of the best friendships of my life." + +It is a picture! The child of seven trying patiently to make out his +Latin book--his weakly frame on one chair, the unwieldy volume spread +out before him on another. The beautiful eyes and brow, the winning +smile, and the long, brown hair curling to the shoulders. + +But the wheel of his fortune seemed as if it had got a turn. Mr. +Matthew was as good as his word, and brought him the promised book, and +more followed. Translations of old Greek fables and stories from Homer +that stirred the imagination of the boy. Then followed the fascinating +adventures of Don Quixote. These fired his brain. How great and how +heroic it seemed to him to rescue maidens in distress, to set the +wrongs of the world right. So strong a hold did the thought take of the +imagination of the child that one day, hobbling on his little crutches, +he started off for Hyde Park in the hope that he might perchance find +some forlorn maiden in need of his protection! But no old-world lady of +the kind did he happen on among the thousands of teeming London--either +in the Park or Kensington Gardens--and he had to come home cast down and +disappointed. + +Meantime he strove and worked and laboured in his own childish way--with +perhaps no great present results--receiving now and then even a check +from which the sensitive mind recoiled, as when one day he showed an +artist a drawing of a human eye, to be met with the quizzical question, +"Is that an oyster?" Perhaps more secretly after that, but still as +perseveringly as ever, he worked. + +Long years after, a friend gazing on these early works was struck with +proofs of his diligence as a child, and asked him how he had managed to +do them. + +"Sir," Flaxman answered, "we are never too young to learn what is +useful, or too old to grow wise and good." + +When he was about ten years old a better gift than any fortune could +bestow was granted to him. The feebleness of childhood seemed to leave +him. The sickly frame seemed suddenly to knit itself together. The +weakly limbs gradually strengthened, and the boy was able to throw away +his crutches. + +No need now to sit solitary in the cramped little shop behind the +counter, dreaming lonely day-dreams and fashioning his models all by +himself. With new strength a new life was opening up to him--or rather +the old life grew day by day transformed and beautified. + +It was Mrs. Matthew, the wife of his friend the clergyman, who first +drew the boy from his life of loneliness. She was touched and interested +in him, and she asked him to her house. He went and he went again. +He met there men who fired his smouldering longing one day to be a +sculptor--to do some great thing in the world of art. Mrs. Matthew +had many friends among such. At other times he spent evenings not +less delightful when she herself read aloud from Virgil and Homer +soul-stirring tales of ancient heroes--and the boy sat by drinking in +the poetry while he tried with eager, untaught fingers to draw some of +the passages that took his fancy. Again she would lay aside her book and +talk to him of the wonders of sculpture, while there sprang up in his +heart a great longing amounting almost to a passion. + +No wonder these were golden hours, full of pleasure to young John, and +looked back upon many a time in after years as among the happiest times +of his life. + +A gentleman, seeing some of these boyish attempts, gave the boy an order +for a set of drawings, and by and by more orders followed. + +When he was eleven years old he left the privacy and quiet of the little +side eddy of the stream of life in which he had been living and struck +out, as it were, into the mid-stream. That year he won a prize from the +Society of Arts for models of figures in clay. Two years later he was +again successful. What we know as the Royal Academy then first came into +being, and when it was in its second year, and when Flaxman was only +fifteen years old, he exhibited models there. Step by step, small steps +at first, he was entering on the beginning of that which for long had +been the desire of his heart. In the same year he entered as an Academy +student, and won the silver medal. People already were beginning to +acknowledge his outstanding ability. Rewards, prizes came upon him one +by one. The boy's outlook was beginning to be very bright, and his heart +was beginning to beat high with hope, when just as he had reached the +age of sixteen he got an unexpected check. + +He made up his mind to try for the gold medal--the highest reward of +merit--and among all the students he was generally allowed to have the +best chance. Hardly a fellow-student but felt sure that he would get +it. "Flaxman! Flaxman!" they cried almost unanimously, for they were +strongly impressed with the skill and ability of the grave, reserved +boy. Speaking of this time in later years Flaxman said-- + +"I had made up my mind that I was to win.... It was given by Reynolds to +Engleheart. I burst into tears. This sharp lesson humbled my conceit, +and I determined to redouble my exertions...." + +May he perhaps have over-estimated his own skill? Years after he said of +himself-- + +"I was the most conceited artist of the day." And yet where another +might have been downcast he refused to be discouraged. He was upheld +by a strong and silent sense of power within him. He went home to his +father, and he said, "Give me time, and I will yet produce works which +the Academy will be proud to acknowledge." + +Engleheart, the winner of the medal, was never heard of in later life, +while the loser made for himself a name that afterwards "waxed wide." + +Now he worked harder than ever. He studied, he exhibited, he moulded, he +designed the figure for a statue of Alexander the Great, which brought +him some fame. But his father could not keep him, and he was driven +to look about and bethink himself how he could keep himself. At this +time--the most needy, perhaps, of his life--a door seemed to open to +him. He fell in with the great Staffordshire potter, Josiah Wedgwood, +and Wedgwood, with that keen eye of his ever on the outlook to discover +talent, instantly recognised it in the boy. + +A great time was beginning for pottery. For ages hideous things had +adorned people's houses and tables till Wedgwood arose, and there +entered his great mind the idea of making common things beautiful, of +giving people something to look at, even at their meals, that would +raise their tastes and be a sort of education. After Wedgwood discovered +young Flaxman he gave him some orders. The boy threw his whole soul into +the work. Not that it was such work as always showed the artist at his +best. The sculptor had first to make the model in wax. Then a mould was +taken of this, and into this the potter's stuff, soft as dough, was +carefully pressed. The thing was not finished yet. It remained for it +still to be fired and polished, and so it is not wonderful if some of +the delicacy and finish of the first design may have been occasionally +lost. + +But with Flaxman's work Wedgwood was satisfied, and while he worked hard +for him he paid him handsomely. It was not the sort of thing to bring +him name and fame, but there was always the need to live to be faced, +and he bravely took what offered and was thankful. And by living simply +and saving where he could, he managed to keep himself by what he made. +He faced this time of drudgery quietly and patiently, bringing to bear +upon its hardships something of that serene spirit that belonged to him +all through life. + +He gave to Wedgwood, as far as in him lay, of his best. Models of the +four seasons, models of the ancient gods and goddesses--those deities +whose stories were familiar to him from his childhood, Juno, Jupiter, +Minerva, Apollo--models of vases. And besides these, chimney-pieces, +plaques, candlesticks, inkstands, anything and everything, for Wedgwood +held that a common teapot or a jug might be still a thing of beauty. For +the models of the ancient gods he would get perhaps 10_s._ each, and for +a pair of vases as much as L3 3_s._ + +Some of these were so exquisitely done that Wedgwood said more than +once, "It really hurts me to think of parting with these gems." + +Long years afterwards, when he had reached the top of the tree, Flaxman +used to find endless pleasure in talking of these humble labours. + +And all this time he was leading a very quiet life. That strong thirst +for knowledge that had always been his, spurred him on to learn all +he could. So during the day he worked at casts and models, and in +the evenings he sketched or turned to his beloved poets. Either he +preferred the old Greek poets' company to that of living friends, or +it might be that the slight deformity that was his through life--the +high shoulders, the sidling gait--left him shy and sensitive, and in +a measure inclined to creep into his shell. + +Looking over the huge portfolio of Flaxman's drawings that one can +still see to-day, it is easy to discover where he went for most of his +subjects. The poets came in for their share, and also history and +portraits, but his great delight was to produce scenes from the Bible +and the _Pilgrim's Progress_, "The Marys at the Sepulchre," "The Flight +into Egypt," "The Angels round the Cradle of Christ." + +But although he was getting to be known among men of talent he was still +poor and struggling. It is proof enough of this for us to read how at +this time he made his busts half life-size and of clay, whereas had he +been rich they would surely have been full-size and of marble. About +this time he began to talk of what had been with him till now a secret +longing. It was to see Rome. The desire had been long growing in his +heart. To Rome sculptors and painters flock, for it is the great city of +sculpture and painting, and to a sculptor it is as if his education were +unfinished, so long as his eyes have not feasted on those beautiful +examples of art. + +"If I remain here," he said sadly, "I shall be accused of ignorance +concerning those noble works of art which are to the sculptor what +learning is to a man of genius." + +About this time he took what seemed a foolish step, looking alone to the +progress of his art. He married. Sir Joshua, the President of the Royal +Academy, who had _not_ given him the gold medal, met him in the street +one day and stopped him. "Ha! Flaxman," he said, "I have heard that you +have married. I tell you you are ruined for an artist. You cannot now go +to Rome to study the great sculptors of antiquity." + +Young Flaxman went home downcast. Not to go to Rome! Not to realise his +boyhood's golden dreams and his life's ambition! + +He told his wife what had happened. She met him with the brave reply, +"You will e'en go to Rome and I will accompany you. We must work and +economise." + +And now for the next five weary years this brave young couple put +their shoulders to the wheel. She kept house and he worked--harder +than ever--for Wedgwood chiefly--toiling for long hours, but upheld +all the time by the thought of the goal to which he was straining. +That journey to Rome!--the very thought of it made all hardship easy. +He turned out much beautiful work for Wedgwood at this time. Groups of +children--romping, skipping, playing "blind man's buff." + +Nothing that meant making money came amiss to him. He even collected +what was known as "watch rates" for the parish of St. Anne's, and might +have been seen going about with an ink-bottle in his buttonhole. + +Often the desires of our heart tarry long in coming to us. This was +among the times of hardest work and trial in all Flaxman's life, and he +came out of it well. At the end of the five years the needed money was +collected! + +And now, while the great event of his life was drawing near, his boyhood +had left him, and he was entering on the work of the man. Already he had +gained some fame in London. The newspapers took notice of his going. + +"We understand that Flaxman the sculptor is about to leave his modest +mansion in Wardour Street for Rome." + +And now a very feast of delight awaited him. With his arrival in Rome, +what wonders opened to his view, what grandeur and sublimity in the +examples of ancient art! What skill and magnificence and luxuriance he +saw in the churches, what wealth of creation on their walls and windows +and cupolas, what sculpture, what painting! It was as if an enchanted +world had suddenly spread itself out before his eyes. + +Gradually it came to be known that Flaxman had arrived, and there +gathered about him men of taste and culture--rich men many of them--men +of position. But the great sculptor's ways were just the simple ones of +old. He was not easily affected by the great of the world. He was +always his manly simple self to rich and poor alike. He adopted no more +luxurious ways of living with his days of prosperity. He prized money +little, just as a something in exchange for which he could get food and +clothing, or with which he might help the poor and suffering. The fine +character of the boy seemed to have expanded into fuller beauty in the +man. + +After his stay in Rome he returned to London, his spirit, one could +imagine, bathed in a very inspiration from all he had seen and heard. He +came back to his native land with a name made, and quietly set about +getting a house, a studio, assistants, workmen, models. + +He executed a statue of Lord Mansfield, for which he was paid L2,500. +Prices were indeed altered from the old days, in which he counted +himself well paid with ten shillings for the model of a goddess! + +"This little man cuts us all out," said one generous sculptor to +another, willing to acknowledge Flaxman's great superiority. Honours now +flowed in upon him. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy. He +was given the Professorship of the Chair of Sculpture. At his first +lecture he was enthusiastically cheered. He had climbed to the highest +height of his art. It almost seemed as if no honour remained to be +bestowed. He was surrounded by fame and applause, but he was in no wise +uplifted. So the years went on in the delight of the work he loved. + +But, unexpectedly and all unknown to his friends, his life was drawing +to a close. In the winter of 1826 he caught a cold, seeming for a time +to be slightly, though not seriously, ailing. In the beginning of +December he grew much worse, but he would not go to bed. + +"When I lie I cannot breathe," he said. So, sitting up to the end, and +with scarce a struggle, he passed away on the 7th of December. + +They buried him quietly in the churchyard of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. +There was no great publicity, no large concourse of people. Just a few +friends, a few artists--the greatest--were there, men who in tremulous, +hushed voices said to each other they "had lost something greater and +dearer than they should see again." + +Turning from the ending of his life, we cannot but feel that we are +turning from the record of a man who has lived it well. + +An enthusiastic admirer has said, "He was a remarkable mixture of +simplicity and genius--were you to try any other ingredients you would +scarcely form so glorious a creature." And we hardly think he was far +wrong. + +We can see very clearly the fine simplicity of his nature in his +treatment of his workmen. They were to him rather friends than servants. +They in their turn repaid him with a warm and devoted affection, calling +him "the best master God ever made." + +To the end, as well in time of difficulty and of toil as in time of +triumph, the man retained very much those qualities that had drawn out +people's love for him in boyhood, the kindly word from the customer in +the shop behind the counter. The world offered him of its best, as it +has a way of doing to those who do well for themselves, but it had +no power to draw him from his work and the simplicity of his simple +home-life. It was only and always to that which is highest and best that +he gave of his genius. That noble mind of his could stoop to nothing +less. In churches all over England are to be found beautiful creations +of his. In him were at once goodness and genius linked together. + +"If ever purity visited this earth," someone has said, "it remained with +Flaxman." + + + + +SIR HUMPHREY DAVY. + + +Amid the wild beautiful scenery of Cornwall, where the waters of the +Atlantic wash our English shores, was born in the winter of 1778 the +greatest chemist England has ever seen. We read in our childish +geography books that for being the birthplace of Humphrey Davy the town +of Penzance has for long been famous, for the coming into the world of +that man whose name is perhaps best known for the invention of the +Miners' Safety Lamp, that has lit the darkness of our coal mines and +saved hundreds of human lives. + +Humphrey was the son of a wood-carver, a man not high up in the world, +but we find him free enough from the straits of poverty that have often +been the cradle of genius, though, indeed, a cradle out of which genius +has had a way of growing to sturdy stalwart manhood. The child from the +outset entered on life with eagerness and enthusiasm, seeming to take +a firm, earnest grip, as it were, even from babyhood. It was this same +vigour of mind that spurred him on all through--in boyhood and manhood +alike--that made him face difficulty with such a brave, dauntless +spirit, and overcome obstacles with never a thought of letting them +overcome him. + +He was quick, energetic, and alert, even as a child. When hardly more +than five years old his mother often noticed him with baby fingers +rapidly turning the pages of some book as if he were counting their +number or glancing at the pictures. To her no small astonishment on +questioning him, she found the lisping baby lips could repeat the story. +It was the same through life. Long years after, when he was a great +chemist, making wonderful experiments in his laboratory, he had no +patience with slowness. He would keep several experiments going at +the same time, attending first to one, then to another. If the exact +instrument he wanted were not at hand, he would recklessly break or +alter another to suit his purpose. His impetuous spirit could never +brook delay. With him quickness meant power, and while quick he was also +sure. + +As a child he specially loved the _Pilgrim's Progress_. The charm of its +word-pictures, its characters fired his quick imagination. And history +too, especially the history of his own country. These two, it may be, +inspired him very early to a love of romance and story, and among the +boys at school in Penzance he was not slow to gain the reputation of +story-teller. Some were tales of fun, others tales of thrilling wonder +and terror, but all flowed easily from the boy's lips and held his +listeners enthralled. + +When he was no more than eight years old he would take his stand on a +cart in the middle of the market-place, his boyish figure drawn to its +full height, and there harangue the boys who gathered in little groups +to hear the young orator. At school there was nothing in any way +remarkable about young Humphrey, except, perhaps, that somewhere hid +away within him was the gift of rhyme or the gift of poetry. English +and Latin verse alike came easy to him, and by-and-by his schoolfellows +found out his facility, and they pressed him into their service to +compose valentines and love-letters. But except for this he seemed in +these early years to be nothing more than a happy, healthy English boy, +full of fun and spirits. He would fish off Penzance Pier for grey +mullet, catching more than his companions. He would bait his hooks and +wait till a shoal of these difficult fish were swimming about the bait, +then by a clever jerk of his tackle entangle and capture them. His love +of fishing remained with him all through life--almost to the end. So +strong was it that even as a man he never could conceal his annoyance +if unsuccessful, or if he discovered a friend to have caught a larger +number than he. So keen and ardent was he that he would dress himself in +green that the wily fish might know no difference between him and the +green trees and grassy banks! + +In his boyhood we find it difficult to trace any germs of that talent +for experimenting and inventing that distinguished him in later life. +He scooped turnips hollow, and lighted up the insides with candles--but +what boy has not experimented in the same way? He made squibs, or +"thunder-powder," that exploded on a stone with a loud report that +delighted his companions. But there is no trace of an unusual bent of +mind here--just an example of an ardent, eager English boy, full of life +and spirits. + +In 1793 he went to school in Truro, not far from Penzance. He was quick, +but that was all--a clever boy, not a prodigy. His master, writing long +years after, when the boy's name had become a household word in England, +said:-- + +"I did not at that time discover any extraordinary abilities." + +It must have been a school of the old sort that Mr. Davy had lighted +upon for his son, for the story goes that young Humphrey, at times in +scrapes like other boys, while punishment hung over him, had these +doggrel lines fired off by his master at his head-- + + "Now, Master Davy, + Now, sir, I have 'e, + No one shall save 'e; + Good Master Davy." + +And with the end of the rhyme down came the flat ruler on the open palm +of the culprit! School, while it may not have done him a great deal of +good, at least did not do him much harm. His own frank, buoyant mind +prevented his being twisted into a cut-and-dried shape, or pressed into +any special mould. Long years after he gave thanks that in those young +days he was left very much to his own bent. + +"What I am I have made myself," he said. "I say this without vanity, and +in pure simplicity of heart." + +So passed the long, sunshiny days of school-time, and when he was +sixteen he left school finally. After that, for one short, blissful year +he shot and fished and lived chiefly in the open, surrounded by the +beauties of Cornish scenery, for which in after years his heart always +kept a tender memory, when the bustle and din of a city, and the whirl +of city life, had well-nigh drowned for him Nature's softer tones. He +grew then to know familiarly bird and beast, and rock and flower. In +after years, when his life was more fully filled than most men's, a +chance word or reference would seem to waft him a whiff of the sea off +the Cornish shore, and a great longing would seize him for the loved +scenes of his childhood. Then, in the midst of his work, he would take a +hurried run home. During this year of holiday, which he enjoyed with the +whole-heartedness of a careless, happy boy, he collected a number of +birds, and stuffed them with his own hands--and with not a little skill. + +Almost to the end of life he kept his love of shooting. As in fishing +he tried to efface himself and deceive the wily fish, so in shooting +he was strangely beset by fear of an accident, and he would study to +make himself as conspicuous as possible in a scarlet hat! Almost at +the end, when his strength was failing, it is pathetic enough to find +him ask to be driven to the field, that he might still fire a shot. + +But already over his young life there brooded its first great shadow. +In 1794 his father died. It may have been this which helped to change +young Humphrey from the happy, careless boy to something more serious, +more thoughtful, that fixed his mind on the responsibilities life was +so full of, that helped to turn it from mere sport and pleasure to the +improvement of his mind--to the gaining of knowledge. At any rate, about +this time the boy laid hold of life, and, as a rower in a boat-race +might do, steadied down to his responsibilities. + +His mother apprenticed him to a surgeon and apothecary in Penzance, and +straightway with that ardour and enthusiasm that carried him through so +much of his great work in later life, he fell in love with chemistry. He +tried boyish experiments. He used the rudest instruments--anything that +he could lay hands on. Pots, pans, vessels in the surgery--nothing was +safe or sacred from his touch. He filled the house with strange and +hideous odours--he burnt holes in his sister's dresses. When he turned +the garret into a laboratory his good old guardian would exclaim-- + +"This boy Humphrey is incorrigible! Was there ever so idle a dog? He +will blow us all into the air." + +Half an hour later he would proudly and fondly call the boy +"Philosopher," or "Sir Humphrey," as if already his prophetic eye +pierced the future and beheld his greatness. + +So he spent much of the day, and in the long summer evenings he would +ramble along the seashore as far as Marazion armed with a hammer with +which to chip off "specimens" from the rocks, for already geology had +thrown over him its peculiar spell. He would end these happy days with +tea at a favourite aunt's. And it was not merely boyish enjoyment these +solitary rambles brought. They and the still small voice of Nature +were telling on him. Gradually they were making and moulding the boy, +approaching now as he was, very near to the threshold of manhood. + +Even then, however, he was trying to improve himself. With the roar of +the waves and the howl of the winds in his ears in these lonely walks, +he would declaim to the elements, in the hope of softening a defect in +his voice. This probably arose from his having what is called "no ear." +He had no notion of either time or tune. It used to trouble him much +that he never could keep step in the Volunteer Infantry corps to which +he belonged, and someone tried to teach him "God Save the King," but +without success. + +The surgical part of his profession was always disagreeable and +distasteful to the boy, although from no want of courage on his part. +The story goes that one day about this time he was bitten in the leg by +a dog supposed to be mad. No sooner did he realise what had happened to +him than he there and then took a knife and cut the piece right out of +his leg, and then went to the surgery and had the wound cauterised. + +His mind was such that it instinctively rose to emergencies and grappled +with anything--a big thing or a little thing. Both were to him alike. +Knowledge was what he wanted. He wanted to know as much as possible, and +he liked to get to the bottom of a difficulty for himself. Into each +new thing that came his way he threw himself with all the ardour and +impetuosity of his nature. Nor was he merely practical and nothing more. +He had that sympathy and delicacy of mind that revelled in communing +with nature. This expressed itself in sonnets and poems--some of which +he wrote when he was only twelve. A great poetic genius once said of +him-- + +"If Davy had not been the first chemist he would have been the first +poet of his age." + +But poetry was not the field in which he was to shine. His genius was +for experiments. He went on eagerly experimenting on anything--heat, +light, air. Anything connected with chemistry drew him as with a magnet. +The first time some real experimenting apparatus found its way to his +hands he could not conceal his delight. Specially did an air-pump charm +him. It was to him as a new and fascinating toy to a child. He kept +working the piston up and down, and would hardly let it go! + +And now it seemed as if it were almost time for him to try his wings +in the larger air of the great world. More than one man had come to +Penzance who perhaps gave the boy a foretaste of the delights he was to +know by-and-by as a man in the atmosphere of culture and talent in +which his lot was to be cast. Among these were Josiah Wedgwood, the +Staffordshire Potter, and young Watt, the son of the inventor of the +Condensing Steam Engine. + +There was about young Humphrey's outward appearance about this time +nothing specially attractive. He had round shoulders, not a comely face, +and a manner that was in no way remarkable or engaging, but surely the +light of genius must have shone from his eyes! + +However, such as he was outwardly, he now prepared to launch away into +the great world. A professor of chemistry in Bristol had heard of his +experiments in light and heat, and proposed to him that he should become +assistant in the Pneumatic Institution there. There was not much money +to be earned by it. + +"He must be maintained, but the fund will not furnish a salary from +which a man can lay up anything." So they told him. But was it not his +most direct road to fortune? + +Perhaps Humphrey thought so. At any rate, the Penzance surgeon was +prevailed upon to cut short the term of the boy's apprenticeship, "on +account of the singularly promising talents Mr. Davy had displayed." + +So Humphrey went out from his native town, and from his home, as many a +young man had gone before him, with a heart beating high with hope, and, +as his young, ardent spirit believed, the world spread out before him. + +And certainly a brilliant future was opening to the boy. He turned his +steps to Bristol, throwing himself in his own characteristic way into +his new work. + +He made experiments on air and gases, some of these daring and dangerous +enough, and entailing not a little personal risk. But while these things +lay nearest to his heart, he had eye and ear both open for all that was +going forward in his new life. He was so many-sided himself, it was as +if he could not come in contact with anyone without catching some spark +of interest from him--the philosopher, the poet, the physician, the +sportsman. He had something in common with all. + +He entered into his work as if body and mind knew no fatigue. If an idea +came into his head he could not rest until he had worked it out. If he +broke down in health, he simply started afresh when he had recovered. + +In his spare time he wrote books and pamphlets on chemistry, so that in +writing and experimenting his name came to be known to the scientific +men of the day. And now it seemed as if one step in fame followed +another. Success was crowned by success. + +He was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry to the Royal +Institution in 1801. He had now entered on manhood, and was launched +on the great world of London, having all the ability to carry himself +through. He may have been handicapped with slight flaws of manner. If he +appeared over-confident, it probably was that in reality he was shy and +timid, and attempted to cover these little awkwardnesses. His friends +grieved in secret over the noticeable change, fearing lest with +simplicity of manner he might throw over simplicity of character. But +no man is, after all, perfect, and in spite of this, Davy was rapidly +mounting the ladder of success. + +The young chemist soon discovered that his lectures drew crowds, +even created a great and extraordinary sensation. In imagination we +can picture the lecture-room, the crowded audience--all sorts and +conditions, from lovers of science, ladies of fashion, men of rank, to +the threadbare-coated student--eagerly watching the experiments, and all +drinking in his words as the young lecturer, fired with his subject, +animated with all the charm of which he was so complete a master the dry +bones of geology with life and breath, or again brought the study of +chemistry, hitherto unget-at-able and out of reach, down to their +level. The audience hung on his lips spellbound. + +The young popular lecturer was caressed and made much of. + +"Davy, covered with glory," writes a friend at this time, "dines with me +to-day." + +Soon they made him Professor of Chemistry to the Institution. Promotion +followed promotion, but each year was a spur to greater exertion. Time +would fail to enumerate the steps in his triumphs. A continuous sun +seemed to shine upon him. And his strength seemed equal to all demands. +Money had never been of much account to him. Now, indeed, he might have +had it in abundance had he chosen, by helping forward manufactures with +his scientific knowledge, but that was not his aim. His ambition was +scientific glory. + +"To be useful to science and mankind was the pursuit in which he +gloried." + +The years that followed were years full of hard work. In 1812 he was +knighted. It seemed as if almost everything he touched were like a gold +mine which yielded some new treasure to him. + +"Science," he said once to a young man anxious to pursue it, "is a harsh +mistress, and repays one poorly." But for him she surely rather had +"full measure pressed down and running over." + +And now, when he was about thirty-seven, his thoughts were first turned +to the great triumph of his life, the invention that was to make his +name famous. + +There was in England, especially in the north and midland counties, a +great and crying evil--the danger in which our miners and their families +lived, as these brave men daily and hourly carried their lives in their +hands. Constantly the newspapers were filled with terrible accounts of +accidents in our coal-pits--mines exploding, men and boys and horses +being blown to pieces or buried alive--and always from the same +cause--the want of a safety lamp. A great quantity of gas got cooped up, +in spite of contrivances for leading pure air into the murky passages of +the mines, and these gases, directly they came in contact with a naked +flame, exploded. There had been old days in which men worked by a feeble +light borrowed from the phosphorescence of decaying fish-skins or "steel +mills," which gave out fitful gleams or sparks when a piece of flint +was struck against them; but these days had passed, and accidents +multiplied. And though men were startled and shocked when they read of +them, still the wholesale slaughter went on. The gas exploded, bursting +up everything near, killing the miners, erupting great masses of coal +and dust and mangled men and horses. And not only this, but it blew down +the trap-doors, leaving men to die of "after-damp," the more horrible +death of suffocation, because lingering and slow. + +To remedy this crying evil Davy bent the whole force of his brilliant +intellect, and after much thought invented the Safety Lamp. He +surrounded the flame of his lamp with wire gauze. The gas entered and +exploded within it, but the explosion did not pass outward. + +It was the most glorious triumph of his genius. In 1816 it was adopted. +With his "Davy" in his hand there was now no fear for the miner. + +"The highest ambition of my life," he wrote, "has been to deserve the +name of a friend to humanity." + +He took out no patent. He wanted no money for it. It was reward enough +for him to see it work. + +"If you had patented it," said a friend to him one day, "you might have +been drawing your five or ten thousand a year." + +"No, my good friend," was his reply, "I never thought of such a thing. +My sole object was to serve the cause of humanity. It might undoubtedly +enable me to put four horses in my carriage, but what would it avail me +to have it said that Sir Humphrey drives his carriage-and-four?" + +"I value it," he said again, "more than anything I ever did." + +And now the world's honours waited upon him. In 1818 Government made him +Baronet. In 1820 he was made President of the Royal Society. + +But already in the zenith of his triumph, there were small signs that +showed too surely that he was failing. In 1826 he retired from the +Presidentship, and later in the year he was attacked by apoplexy, +followed by paralysis. + +"Here I am," he wrote pathetically from Rome, "a ruin among ruins." + +And so he began to look death in the face. + +"I do not wish to live so far as I am personally concerned," he said, +"but I have views which I could develop--if it please God to save my +life--which would be useful to science and mankind." + +Never again, however, was he to return to England. In Rome he had a +second seizure. He had a great longing to reach Geneva, and a few hours +after he arrived, although he appeared at first to rally, he took ill, +and there passed away quietly and peacefully, not merely, as someone has +it, "one of the greatest, but one of the most benevolent and amiable of +men." + +They buried him in the little burying-ground at Geneva, the long +procession wending its way to his last resting-place on foot. His widow +erected a tablet to his memory in Westminster Abbey. + +He was the greatest chemist of the age; but after all, his best memorial +will abide in the memory of his fellow-men as the inventor of the Safety +Lamp. + +To himself his invention brought no small happiness. + +"I was never more affected," he said on one occasion, "than by a written +address I received from the working colliers, when I was in the north, +thanking me, on behalf of themselves and their families, for the +preservation of their lives." + +His, indeed, is a career of striking brilliancy. He is like some +mountain climber who climbs ever upwards. And we, looking up, seem to +see him leap from one dazzling peak to another. Honours and attainments +were his such as come to few men in this world, but we cannot but feel +that what gave him the greatest joy in life was that he had been enabled +to rescue hundreds of lives, to bring light out of darkness, and cheer +and safety where before there had been uncertainty and death. It is for +this that the name of Humphrey Davy will be blessed by men and women in +the ages still to come. + + + + +SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. + + +Perhaps no man has risen out of lower depths of poverty and ignorance +and obscurity to the very top of fame's ladder than Richard Arkwright. +More than 150 years ago, towards the end of December, 1732, there was +born in a house in a humble side street of Preston, a child who was to +leave his stamp, not only on his native town, but on the whole of +England, and indeed on the civilisation of the world. + +The son of poor parents, and, like Josiah Wedgwood, the youngest of +thirteen, it may be that that Christmas held even less brightness than +usual for the struggling Arkwrights because of the coming of an extra +mouth to feed. At any rate, if ever child were confronted by the chill +and dreary outlook on a cold world, that child was the baby Richard. + +Preston was not, 150 years ago, the Preston of to-day. Then it was +a town with a few thousand inhabitants, "beyond the trading part of +the county," while to-day it is in the very centre of the cotton +manufacture, hiving with crowds of human beings--a great town because +here, in a squalid, insignificant by-street, one bleak December day, +there first saw the light the man who was to "give to England the power +of cotton." + +As there was scant enough money for food and clothing in the Arkwright +house, so it followed that for schooling there was none at all. Young +Richard would have stood a poor chance had it not been that his uncle +Richard took pity on the boy growing up in a state of neglect and +ignorance, and taught him to read. In later days he added something to +this small beginning by attending classes in the winter evenings. And so +the early years of his life passed, and in time the boy went out into +the world, poorly and scantily enough armed for its difficult battle. +Long years after he bemoaned his ignorance and want of education when he +felt all the drawbacks, the trammelling, the holding-down of it, when he +realised how it handicapped him in the race of life. And when he was an +old man over fifty, after pressing into the day as many as sixteen +working hours, he would steal an hour from sleep to learn English +grammar and another hour to practise writing and spelling. + +But, poorly equipped as young Richard was in most ways, he went out into +life provided with a great brain, and had he known it, that brain was to +open to him a door through which--could he have looked then--he might +have seen stretching away into the years a long vista of triumphs and +successes. The boy began on a very low round of the ladder--a strange +enough beginning for the future maker of the cotton world: he entered +on his career as apprentice to a barber. But, boy as he was, he threw +himself with energy and ardour--these two qualities that made him a +great man later on--into the new business. He took a firm hold of it. He +worked steadily at it for years, having most likely nothing in his mind +higher than the setting up for himself--the becoming some day a master +barber! It was this goal at that time that seemed to him getting on in +life. + +So his boyhood sped away, and when his apprenticeship had come to an end +he took the great and important step of setting up for himself. He left +Preston and went to Bolton. Poor indeed must have been his stock of +money at this point in his fortunes. It was no imposing shop he took, +with windows and painted sign, but the smallest and poorest place to be +had. He rented an underground cellar, but his eager spirit was to be +damped neither by poverty nor a dreary outlook. He bent all his powers +on getting customers, and as the first step to this he stuck out a +placard above his cellar door with the scrawled invitation-- + + "_Come to the subterraneous barber, he shaves for a penny._" + +In the little world of hair-dressing the rude appeal made a small +sensation. Here, as in other businesses, there was competition. +Arkwright shaved for a penny. At this rate the subterraneous barber +would draw away the customers of others! While the underground cellar +would be crowded, their shops would be empty. And so they were forced to +let down their prices, and others besides Arkwright shaved for a penny. + +Young Richard, rising one morning, grasped the fact that he was now not +alone in his prices. Others were running him dangerously close. He was +merely one of many now, but with the enterprise that outdid others +by-and-by in the great world of mechanical invention he resolved to +strike out a bold new line. The old placard was taken down and another +printed and set up in its stead. + + "_A clean shave for a halfpenny!_" + +But Arkwright was not content to stand still in shaving people's chins +or in anything else. These were the days of wearing wigs, and it struck +him that something was to be made out of wigs, or perukes, as they were +called, and so he gave up his business of shaving in a measure and began +to travel about the country buying and selling human hair. He regularly +attended country fairs and bought the locks and tresses of the young +girls who came there to be hired out to service. In time he grew to +make successful bargains with these, and to add to this he discovered a +chemical dye, with which he dyed the hair and sold it to wig-makers, and +by-and-by "Arkwright's Hair" came to be known as the best in the market. + +It most likely was--at any rate, it may have been in those +journeys--going in and out among the houses and cottages in the country +that he came to be familiar with the sound of the "weaver's shuttle" +and the turning of the "one-thread machine." Long years after he was +to find that familiarity stand him in good stead. But, successful and +hard-working as he was, life was still a struggle, and with all his +efforts he earned but a bare living. It was hard to wrest a fortune from +wig-making and chin-shaving, so gradually there grew up in his busy +brain a project. It formed very slowly, but it did grow. It was the +genius within him struggling with disadvantages and drawbacks that would +have "posed" most men. His mind, leaning strongly to the mechanical, +groped vaguely at first after something, and then gradually it settled +down to the "spinning machine," and from that time onwards all his +energies were bent on that. + +In his journeys among the cottagers it had been easy enough to see that +the yarn could not be made quickly enough for the weaver, that though in +thousands of cottages the "one-thread machine" turned from morning till +night and again from night till morning, it could not keep pace with the +shuttle. What was wanted was a dozen, fifty, a hundred threads to be +made by a single pair of hands. Did he perhaps see dimly even then that +he was to be the man who should throw out the old-fashioned hand-wheel? + +One day he noticed a red-hot bar of iron become elongated as it passed +between two iron rollers. In that instant he first saw dimly the +tiny seedling that was to grow one day to the mighty tree of the +spinning-frame. The idea lodged in his brain and took firm hold of him. + +In outward appearance at this time Arkwright was in no way specially +attractive or remarkable, but genius is not always outwardly beautiful, +and "there were notions in that rough head of his" that were one day to +alter England. + +But Arkwright was no practical mechanic, and so he called in help +from outside--from one Kay, a clockmaker in Warrington, and under his +directions Kay made rollers and wheels, and shortly Arkwright had his +models ready to hand. Meantime, while his heart beat high with hope and +exultation, his pet models being always in his mind though for bread and +butter he still made wigs and shaved chins, he received a sudden and +unexpected check. His wife--for he was already married--chafing in +secret over what she considered his fantastic imaginings and idle +dreamings, made up her mind to destroy that which distracted his mind +from the business of shaving and money-making. As the surest means to +her end she burned his models one day when he was out of the way. Poor +Arkwright returned and discovered the mischief. In an instant his whole +stubborn nature was up in arms. Indeed, so wrathful was he that he +would from that day have nothing more to do with his wife, and the two +separated. + +And now the great question was--how best to push the new model Kay had +made. Poverty handicapped him sadly. It was impossible to push anything +without money. He cast about in his mind where the money was to come +from, and settled on an old friend in Preston, "a liquor merchant and +painter" (probably a house-painter). To Preston he took his way. The +friend consented to help him, and together with high hopes and great +rejoicing he and Kay set up their model. But their secrecy had roused +suspicion. Behind this friend's house there happened to be a closed-in +garden with a number of gooseberry bushes. Close by in a neighbouring +cottage lived two old ladies. At nights they declared they heard a +strange humming noise among the bushes, as if the devil himself were +making music, tuning up his bagpipes for Arkwright and Kay to dance a +reel! The story got abroad. The people of Preston, excited and curious, +were eager to break into the house and discover if Arkwright and Kay +were indeed in league with the Evil One. + +But after the model had been set up and was about to be shown in the +Free Grammar School in Preston, there came a sudden memory of dark +stories still fresh in men's minds of how other inventors had been +treated in Preston--how they had been mobbed and furiously ill-used, +while their inventions had been smashed to atoms by a people +panic-stricken because of their dread of machinery, which they believed +would throw them out of work and take the bread out of their and their +children's mouths. Arkwright remembered all this, and he and Kay finally +made up their minds to pack up their models and set off for Nottingham. + +While Arkwright had been at Preston engrossed with thoughts of his model +a political election took place, and he was called upon to vote. But +so poor and so wretchedly clad was the man who was by-and-by to be a +knight--the man who was to leave behind him half a million--that before +he could present himself at the poll, several people had to club +together to exchange the tattered garments for something that would at +least be presentable! + +Arrived at Nottingham, Arkwright tried to get someone to help him with +money. This brave man had firm faith in his invention and firm faith in +himself. It was simply impossible to discourage him. But the time of +waiting was long and weary before he fell in with a Mr. Strutt, the +inventor of the stocking-frame. An inventor himself, perhaps he was the +man who could best understand and appreciate Arkwright's invention. The +two entered into partnership, and it may have seemed to Arkwright that +his time of trial and waiting had at last come to an end. + +And now truly enough he had his foot firmly planted on the ladder of +success. Behind him was a hard and toilsome boyhood. Before him were +still long waiting, difficulties to face, men's opposition to overcome, +dislike, distrust, envy, and jealousy to live down and conquer. But the +first step had been taken, and never once along the difficult way do we +find him flinch. + +In 1769, the same year in which James Watt patented his Condensing +Steam Engine, Arkwright at the age of thirty-seven took out the patent +for his Spinning-Frame. His next step was to erect a cotton mill at +Chorley, and following that, one at Cromford, in Derbyshire. No sooner +were they finished than men flocked from Lancashire, and indeed from +all parts of England, to see them at work. They were the gazing-stock +of the country. + +But Arkwright's brain was not the only one that had pondered on cardings +and rollers and wheels and spindles, and soon there sprang up men who +said this invention was not all his. He had taken other men's thoughts +and adapted them, and joined them together, and called the whole his +own. And now there followed hard years of opposition, fightings, +struggles, before which a weaker man than Arkwright would have gone +down. But nothing discouraged or defeated him. Not even five years of +weary waiting, an expenditure of L12,000, and yet no profit from his +invention! His brave spirit was still undaunted. Men did not try to hide +their envy and jealousy. They fell upon his mill at Chorley in mobs of +hundreds. A strong force of police, and even of the military, was called +out to quell the rioters. Two of them were shot dead, one was drowned, +and several were wounded; while the rest smashed every machine they +could lay hands on, everything that was worked by horse-power or by +water-power, sparing only and alone what human hands could undertake. +And it was not the workmen only who, with blind or short-sighted eyes, +looked on machinery as a curse, believing that it would rob them of +their living, but the better, more enlightened classes as well, who +regarded Arkwright as an enemy to mankind. They were doubtless at the +same time looking to their pockets. If working men were thrown out of +work, it meant that _they_ would have larger poor rates to pay, and so +they too fell upon Arkwright, not seeing that here was the man ready and +anxious, if they would but listen to him, to give thousands of people +work where now instead only hundreds had it. + +Meantime he faced his opponents, showing always a brave front, and +trying to defend himself at every point. He endured the spoiling of his +property, and then, not content with browbeating him, they seized upon +his patent rights and disputed them. And the upshot was that Arkwright's +patent was set aside by Parliament. But even then the great inventor was +not overwhelmed. Passing by the hotel where some of his enemies were +standing after his defeat, he overheard one say to another-- + +"Well, we have done for the old shaver at last." Arkwright turned round, +ready, cool, immovable. + +"Never mind," he said, "I have a razor left in Scotland that will shave +you all yet." + +He had first tried horse-power for his mills. Now he was trying +water-power, and he foresaw that Lanark, in Scotland, so well situated +on the Clyde for his purpose, would furnish him with all that was +wanted. + +Meantime, cotton was gradually growing to a great industry in England. +People who had looked suspiciously and enviously on Arkwright at first +now reluctantly admitted that his goods were the best to be had, and +by-and-by it was he who fixed the prices in the market. It was as if by +his own efforts he had created a little world. The originality of each +part of his invention, may not entirely have been his. This part or +that--a roller, a carding, a crank, a spindle--one of these may have +belonged to some other man, but to Arkwright belongs the joining of all +together. It was his master mind that collected under one roof the whole +series of machines, from the engine that received the cotton-wool, much +as it came from the pod, to that which wound it in bobbins--a hard +and firm cotton-yarn. It was he who made each thing dovetail into the +other, who worked out the one perfect, harmonious whole. His, too, +was the strong mind that trained men and boys--never before used to +machinery--to its irksomeness, its regularity, its exactitude, taking +them from idle, desultory lives, it might be, and accustoming them to +system and discipline. In the old days the slow sale of the yarn and the +stupidity of workmen had sometimes almost daunted him, but these days +were past. + +And how the man worked!--with a quick, all-grasping mind. It was the boy +over again in his underground cellar, unwilling to be worsted in his +"penny a shave," striking out the bold line of a halfpenny one. Riches +from his machines--and even more from his mills--flowed in upon him. He +was a man of no small account now. England had come to identify the name +of Arkwright with an open door to a great source of wealth for the land. +King George III. knighted him, and a year later he was made High Sheriff +of Derbyshire. But still he went on working, managing, superintending +his mills and his machinery--leading a life of sacrifice. As he had done +when a boy, so still as a man, he made the very most of his time, even +grudging that spent on a journey, and generally travelling with four +horses in order to overtake it quickly. He who had lived as a boy in an +underground cellar, now occupied a magnificent mansion, and was a man of +note in the county and in England. But we remember, and not without +sadness, how for long in the midst of his hard work he was a victim +to bodily suffering--subject to severe asthma--and how bravely and +uncomplainingly he bore up and struggled on in spite of all! Now, +already early--while he was but in his sixtieth year--he began to fail. +Asthma was complicated with other disorders. There were, too, the strain +and stress of a life of hard work, and these reached a climax while the +great man was still in the zenith of his mental powers, and he passed +away on the 3rd August, 1792. + +Arkwright's name was now of world-wide fame. Hundreds and thousands of +people, many of whom had come to see his first cotton-mill, crowded the +rocks and roads about Cromford, and mingled with the long procession +that bore the body of the great inventor to his last resting-place. + +They erected a monument in the church of Cromford to his memory. But the +name of Arkwright needs no carved memorial of stone. His memorial is of +a more lasting kind, for it is he whom England has to thank to-day for +an industry that has enriched the land. Not "proud Preston" alone--a +small town at his birth, a mighty place of manufacture now--has +Arkwright made to grow and flourish. + +He was a man of "Napoleon nerve." Where other men saw but a short way +ahead, he grasped the end from the beginning; where other minds saw +merely a part, his eye was able to take in the whole. He may have +gathered up some threads from other men's brains, but it was he who wove +them into one great whole. He had a business faculty--he had shown it as +a boy--that rose almost to the height of genius. And he believed in +himself. He had great notions, great ambitions. Nothing was too big a +project for him to attempt. And success was his--great success, as the +world counts it. Immense riches, too, were his, for when he died he left +behind him half a million. But to us that seems not of so much account +as that that great mind of his was the first to grasp what was to put +within their reach a source of riches and profit to thousands of +working-people in England, and this in face of bitter opposition from +the people themselves. He braved their jealousy, he held his own against +their prejudices and attacks, and working often in bodily weakness and +pain, but with persevering determination, he brought this boon to his +country. With untiring courage and long, patient labour, he built up the +splendid scheme that has turned out for us to be the Factory System of +our country to-day. + + + + +JOSIAH WEDGWOOD. + + +When Josiah Wedgwood was born, some 170 years ago, I daresay the people +of the little village of Burslem would have been greatly astonished had +they been told that the humble potter's child was by-and-by to change +the place, with its few straggling houses, into a flourishing town with +thousands of inhabitants. And not this alone, but that he would make for +himself such fame that his name should be a household word throughout +Great Britain, and indeed throughout the world. + +When Josiah came into the world there was already a small army of +brothers and sisters awaiting him in the humble little house close by +the churchyard of Burslem, for he was the youngest of thirteen. + +Although then large towns and places near the sea were marching on with +the progress of civilisation, little country places buried inland were +shunted into a siding, as it were, and so were left far behind the great +world. In this way the midland counties of England were a long time +emerging from the darkness of the Middle Ages. Staffordshire, the county +of pottery, lagged a long way behind in improvements. Its villages were +straggling and dirty. Its houses little better than thatched hovels or +mud huts. Heaps of waste and dirt and rubbish blocked their doorways. +Broken ware was scattered everywhere. Hollows in the ground, where clay +had been scooped out to make ware, gaped close to the doorways, and +collected great pools of evil-smelling stagnant water. + +Burslem was in something of this sorry state when Josiah Wedgwood opened +his eyes on the world. The people of the village for the most part had +been potters for upwards of 200 years. That is, they made pots and +butter-dishes and porringers--for spoons and plates were still of +wood--out of the clay of which their soil was made; not fine and +polished and gleaming white, as we know them to-day, but rough-hewn +things, for the trade of pottery was yet in its infancy. + +A potter's work could be divided among one family. The father and sons +made and fired the dishes. The mother and daughters strapped them on +the backs of horses and donkeys, driving them along roads so wretched +that the poor beasts often stuck in the mud or fell down in the ruts, +while the women, with pipes in their mouths and rough words on their +lips, urged them on with whip and lash. + +It was this sort of life that lay before Josiah. But he had been born +with a boy's best blessing--a good mother--a woman who had a heart large +enough for thirteen children, and who tried what she could to hand down +to them by example a birthright better than riches--to make them +patient, industrious, dependent on self. + +When the child was little more than a baby, and able only to toddle with +uncertain step, he was sent to a dame's school, quite as much to be out +of the way as to learn his A B C. For the rest he played about the door +of the cottage, his greatest treat to bestride the pack-horse's back, +hoisted up by some good-natured packman. When he was seven years old he +was sent to school to a place called Newcastle-under-Lyme, some three +and a half miles across the fields. In long days of sunshine the +walk was full of pleasure to the boy, as he came to know Nature's +beauties--her birds and flowers and sweet fragrances--as we best can +know things, by close and loving intimacy. Long years afterwards, when +he had reached the highest heights of his trade, it was the unforgotten +faces of the wild flowers lurking in the fields between Newcastle and +Burslem that rose before his mind's eye as he decorated his china +services with coloured leaves and flowers. + +When Josiah was nine years old his father died, and the mother was left +to struggle with her thirteen as best she could. Nor do we find that she +failed. She was a woman with a large, loving heart, that rarely quailed +before stress or struggle. The old potter had not been able out of his +hard-won earnings to leave to his children much--L20 when they reached +the age of twenty-one. + +"And so," as Josiah used to say long afterwards, "I began on the very +lowest round of the ladder." + +And now the child's scanty schooling had come to an end. He could write +and he could read, and he knew something of the mysteries of arithmetic, +but for the rest--that great storehouse of knowledge the world +contained--he had to unlock the door of _that_ for himself, and he did +it patiently, often in weariness and pain and suffering, as the years +went on. + +To his eldest son Thomas the father had left the pottery, and now it +fell to him to act as father to the family. Josiah, as a matter of +course, went into the business, beginning, I suppose, at the humble post +of turning what was called "the potter's wheel." + +This was a wheel with a strap round it attached to a disc that revolved +horizontally and beside which sat a man called "a thrower," shaping with +his fingers and hands the moist clay that was to form a bowl or plate or +whatever vessel was to be made, copying a pattern in front of him. + +The boy worked steadily, but hardly had he reached the stage of +"thrower," hardly had people noted and admired the wonderful deftness +with which the boyish hands moulded and shaped the clay, when a cloud +descended and settled on his life--a cloud that, though he struggled +bravely against its depression all through life, never entirely lifted. + +The terrible epidemic of small-pox visited Burslem, and the Wedgwood +family, living as they did on the edge of the churchyard, were among the +first to take it, the youngest so badly that his life was despaired of. +However, after long struggle, they pulled him through; but the disease +left behind it a knee which gave him hours and days of excruciating +pain, and seemed almost as if it would blight his whole life and ruin +his career. Every remedy was tried, in vain. At first when he rose in +bed, weak and unstrung, he fell back again. When later he began to stand +it was with weariness and pain. But the dark cloud had, though all +unseen at first, a silver lining. Out of what looked a great calamity +there sprang good. The boy when he crawled back to work was no longer +fit for the "thrower's" bench. The position he had now to take--with his +leg stretched out in front of him--cramped and impeded him. No longer +active and able-bodied, he was thrown, as it were, in upon himself, and +so took to thinking--not in a gloomy, despondent way, but thinking how +best he could improve himself, how best he could succeed in that calling +that from the very outset held a charm for him and all through life lay +very near to his heart. + +At the age of fourteen Josiah was formally bound apprentice to his +brother. Here is the form. The quaint words sound ceremonious--almost +solemn. The writing provided that he was-- + +"To learn the Art, Mystery, Occupation or Imployment of throwing and +handling which he, the said Thomas Wedgwood, now useth, and with him as +an apprentice to dwell, continue and serve." + +An apprentice in those days at the pottery works was allowed "his meat, +drink, washing and lodging, with suitable apparel of all kinds, both +linen and woollen and all other necessaries, both in sickness and in +health." + +In return the master "was to teach or cause to be taught the art of +throwing and handling." + +How poor these potters were, and how poorly they paid their apprentices, +may be gathered from this: + +For the first three years he got 1_s._ a week, for the second three +years he got 1_s._ 6_d._ a week, and for the seventh and last 4_s._ a +week. Besides this he got, once a year, a pair of shoes. At the end of +his apprenticeship, if he chose, he got 5_s._ a week for five years. It +was a dreary enough outlook for an eager, ambitious boy anxious to make +his way in the world. + +But boy though he was, the difficulty of getting on--pain, +weakness--none of these obstacles were allowed to overcome Josiah. +Then even at that early age he showed the germs of that perseverance +that stood out so strongly by-and-by in the character of the man. + +Strange as it may seem to us, what sounds the very common business of +making rough earthenware milk-bowls and butter-pots and plates was often +half shrouded in mystery, and went near to being something of a secret. + +Pottery was yet in its beginnings--not yet an art--and it could only +grow and come to perfection by someone giving to it deep thought and +long, patient, painstaking experiments. For instance, one man might pore +over the matter and discover something new or come to some conclusion. +He might find one substance, a clay or a soil, that when mixed with a +second substance produced a third thing--something new. He might begin +to work this out in his pottery, and immediately all the workmen in the +place knew the secret of how he did it. The knowledge spread, and while +he believed it was still all his own, other men had seized on his +discovery; other potteries were turning out his ware and selling it. + +So keen were men to find out the discoveries of other men, and so +closely have these secrets been kept, that sometimes a master would +prefer to employ idiots, when he could get them, to turn his wheel. If +one workman appeared more skilled than the others he was shut up while +at work. The door was locked, the windows were blinded, and when he came +out he was carefully searched. Men have been known to pretend to be +idiots just that they might get inside a noted pottery; even to put up +with kicks and blows for their stupidity; to make intentional mistakes +to encourage the falsehood; to hold on to this perhaps as long as two +whole years; while night after night they crept home and there wrote +down carefully every item of what they had seen, and so made the secrets +their own. + +In Josiah's boyhood there was much of this sort of thing carried on. A +strict secrecy--a protection of themselves--as merchant vessels on the +high seas in olden days guarded themselves from the pirates who, ready +to pounce upon them, roamed the waters. + +But as a man--a great, large-hearted, open-minded man--and one of the +greatest inventors of his time, Wedgwood never followed this line of +action. Rather was he nobly willing that others should be the better +for his brains. And so during his long life he took out only one patent, +as we call that which makes an invention all a man's own and prevents +others touching it. + +At the time we write of there was just beginning to dawn on Josiah's +boyish mind what was by-and-by to raise him to the very top of his +calling. + +He took to pondering and considering and making experiments with the +clay that lay about the doors. How to make the black mottled ware more +delicate--the ruddy-coloured of a fairer hue--how to mould rough edges +more smoothly--how to introduce fresh colours and glazes. + +The whole thing threw over the boy a great glamour of fascination. They +show in Burslem yet a teapot--an ornamented thing made of the ochreous +clay of the district--as "Josiah Wedgwood's first teapot." + +But the elder brother, brought up to the cut-and-dried routine of the +potteries life, had little patience with what he looked on as the +younger's shiftless dreamings. He had brothers and sisters to keep, and +money to make, and if Josiah were not more practical he wanted him no +longer. + +And so the honest but short-sighted brother, his eyes blinded by the +present need of ready money, failed to realise that there was something +greater, and that the young brother would one day leave him and his +plodding ways far behind. + +But while his brother looked upon the boy as an unpractical dreamer, +there were others in Burslem who saw the beauty of the patient, +uncomplaining, steadfast life, and more than one father in the place +called on his sons to take a pattern from Josiah Wedgwood. + +But in the midst of his patient inquiries, and while he was yet little +more than a boy, a swift blow descended upon the Wedgwoods. The mother +who had for so long been father and mother in one to them was taken from +them. They laid her in the quiet little church of Burslem, and the +brothers and sisters went on living together. + +It was not till he had reached the age of twenty-two that Josiah cut the +knot that bound him to home and went out into the great world to seek +his fortune, as eager youths will do to the end of time. He took with +him his little all--his father's legacy of L20, a pair of capable +hands, and a wonderful brain. + +His boyhood was over. Manhood lay before him--rough places at first in +the world, puzzles, difficulties, trials, but in the end name, fame, +riches. If we could follow him past boyhood and just peep at the +future, I should like to tell you how he let some of these fancies +his brother had despised have free play; how he invented a new green +earthenware, forming plates in the shape of ornamental leaves; how he +coloured snuff-boxes and toilet vessels to imitate precious stones, and +how the London jewellers eagerly bought these up. How he made flowered +cups and saucers, familiar enough to us to-day, but strange and +beautiful to people then. Under him things took a step forward. People +even at their meals saw things of beauty. These became an education to +them--an art. Besides this they found other improvements. Lids fitted, +spouts poured, handles could be held! These were small beginnings, but +from these Josiah made great strides. + +And one of the secrets of these strides was that he bent his _whole +mind_ upon his work. At night, after a day of hard work, he would +sit down and write out every smallest detail of his experiments and +discoveries. No pains were too great for him to take. Neither would he +trust to memory, so often in pain and weariness, but with a perseverance +that was never daunted, he would make his evening notes. + +To him no trouble seemed too great, no detail too small. The boyhood +rarely fails to show the stuff the man is made of, and it was no +ordinary stuff the great potter was made of. So we are not surprised +that step by step he moved upwards and onwards. Hands and brain were +never idle. Often prostrate with pain and weakness, he would still +read and think and plan. Indeed, so much did he get into the habit of +planning that many a night it robbed him of his sleep, for he never lay +down at nights without making in his head a programme for the coming +day. + +Another secret of his success was his courage. Was it long familiarity +with pain--for his knee broke out again and again, and gave him weary +hours of suffering--that taught him to endure and resolutely refuse +to be overcome? Was it this made him say with Napoleon, "Nothing is +impossible"? + +He met all difficulties alike with patience and with a steadfast purpose +to overcome them. He had two special ones. His workmen--often lazy, +indolent, drunken--were a trouble to him, as were also the furnaces, +where the heat had to be of a certain degree to fire his ware, and where +sometimes the work and labour of months would be destroyed in a few +hours. By patience he won the hearts of the first, and they came to +trust him, and by patience, too, he gradually righted the second. He +pulled down and he built up till the kilns were right. + +"It must be done," he used to say of any difficult enterprise, "let what +may stand in the way." + +He had great ambition for his beloved calling. He wanted to make it an +art. England had been long famed for cheapness but not for beauty, and +so he set himself to study the designs of the ancients and of the +Greeks, copying them on china and porcelain. + +And yet it seemed that even as he took step after step there were ever +on each round of the ladder new difficulties. There was a long-standing +one--the wretched state of the roads in Staffordshire, and the +difficulty of getting the ware carried to other places for sale, and +of getting necessaries for the work brought into the county. + +The backs of horses and donkeys, these were the only mode of +conveyance--miserable underfed creatures that tottered and stumbled +along and not seldom stuck in the muddy lanes or fell in the ruts and +rugged roads, and often broke their legs and their wares, and had to be +shot where they lay--a happy release for the poor animals. Josiah saw +all this, and realised that something must be done to remedy the evil. +So in the midst of his watchful care and constant thought for his +beloved potteries he made time to push the grand scheme of a canal that +began gradually to see daylight. It was not pack-horses that would +labour slowly to Birmingham and Sheffield, but a broad waterway to carry +goods to Liverpool and other seaports. This was what his native county +wanted. And so he subscribed largely to this, and helped to push a Bill +through Parliament. + +"I scarcely know," he wrote, "whether I am a landed gentleman, an +engineer, or a potter, for indeed I am all three and many other +characters by turns." + +In time Burslem, to which he had come back after absence, could hold him +no longer, so he bought a place near and called it Etruria, because for +long he had admired the beautiful work of the Etruscans away north of +the Tiber in Italy. + +By his wonderful enterprise he made this bare place blooming and +fruitful, and from a lonely wilderness converted it into a place with +thousands of flourishing houses and workmen. And he himself was the +mainspring of it all--the moving spirit. + +Now the inventions of his brain were selling all over the country, and +indeed all over the world. His delicate china had attracted the notice +of the Queen--Charlotte, the wife of George III. It was the full +development of that "cream" ware whose first beginnings had dawned on +his brain as a boy. She ordered a set of it, and henceforth it was known +the "Queen's Ware," and she sent to Josiah Wedgwood and said he might +call himself "Potter to the Queen." + +And now his name was made, and soon a fortune followed. He discovered +a "jasper dip," and he invented a special kind of ware of which he +made vases, and for a time it seemed as if the country went mad for +Wedgwood's vases. "A violent vase mania," he called it himself. The +mania spread to Ireland and the Continent. Before this he had opened +showrooms in London, and the Wedgwood vases were wont to draw crowds as +great as the pictures in the Royal Academy. Nor did he confine himself +to vases. He made portraits in china of great men, and fashioned +beautiful chimney-pieces. His heart went out in burning indignation +against the curse of slavery, and he produced a model of a negro +chained in a supplicating attitude, with this motto round the figure: +"Am I not a Man and a Brother?" + +Now he had made his fortune, but the man remained the same, much as he +had been as a boy--hard-working, conscientious, painstaking. As a grand +foundation to all his work he had made the surface of the earth a mighty +study, and when he died he left 7,000 specimens of soils and clays +labelled and classified. + +Even when rich and famous he still took minute note of details. He +would visit each department of his works himself. He would have nothing +"scamped." Well did the workmen know the "thud" of his wooden leg on the +floor that announced his coming, and with his stick he would break any +article he did not think perfect. + +"That won't do for Josiah Wedgwood!" he would say. + +As life advanced, while it brought him joys, it brought him also clouds +and sorrows. His knee grew so tormenting that he was forced to have it +taken off. After this he used a wooden leg, or rather many wooden legs, +for he was very particular about having it often renewed. Partial +blindness attacked him, general ill-health, but his pluck, his +perseverance never failed. + +As he withdrew a little from active life he took to gardening, but his +family noted his failing powers--not of mind, but of body. Asthma was +added to his other sufferings. + +"I am becoming an old man," he wrote. "Age and infirmity overtake me, +and more than whisper in my ear that it is time to diminish rather than +increase the objects of my attention." + +The end came very suddenly, and while he was yet not old. A pain in his +jaw was the beginning. Fever and insensibility followed, and in his +sixty-fifth year Josiah Wedgwood closed his eyes on a world that he left +the better for his passage through it. + +He had scaled the ladder to its highest height. He was born in a humble +potter's cottage. He died in a mansion, surrounded by a population he +had gathered together and made to flourish. He left half a million, but +he had used his riches well. He had given of them to suffering and +distress. He made a poor depressed trade into one of the flourishing +industries of Great Britain, and for himself a world-wide name. He was +a great pioneer, and he accepted with patience the difficulties, the +thanklessness, the buffetings that confront the man who in anything +attempts the first beginning. + +But while we admire his splendid qualities, it is the singular beauty +of his nature--a nature doubtless softened and sweetened by trial--his +uncomplaining bravery, his thought for others, his simple, steadfast +determination to carry through his life-work, in spite of the burden of +weariness and sickness and bodily pain, that most of all speak to our +hearts. + + + + +GEORGE STEPHENSON. + + +If a town, or even a village, is of any importance nowadays it is sure +to have within it or alongside it a railway station, a place that brings +it into touch with the great outside world. Some seventy-five years ago +there were no railways or railway-stations in Great Britain, or anywhere +else, and people were content to post or coach along roads behind +horses. But now times are changed, and it is not wonderful that the name +of George Stephenson, the man who has opened up the country and spread +lines upon it like a mighty network, is a name to-day that people look +up to as one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known. + +Most of us are fond of seeing the small beginnings of great endings, so +it is natural enough that for us the tiny village of Wylam should be of +deepest interest, for here George Stephenson first saw the light. + +[Illustration: "Stephenson fighting the fire in Killingworth Colliery."] + +We cannot visit Wylam without feeling at once that we are in the heart +of the colliery country. Newcastle's lofty chimneys tower some eight +miles off, and chimneys closer at hand belch forth great volumes of +smoke and smut, and flaming furnaces shoot out lurid lights by night far +across the country. + +In a common little wayside house, just a labourer's cottage, standing on +the roadside, some 120 years ago a baby opened his eyes on a world that +was to be rough enough at first for his young feet, though at last they +were to land on the very topmost round of the ladder. + +The second child of the fireman of the old pumping-engine of the +colliery of Wylam, little George was born to grinding poverty. Time as +it passed brought other children besides George to the Stephensons, and +soon it came to be a question how the fireman and his wife and six +children were to live on 12_s._ a week! + +It was indeed a problem to solve and a struggle to face. When food had +been got for the little mouths, what was left for clothes and schooling? +Very little for the first, nothing for the second. No schooling +certainly for little George, and so he spent his childhood between +running errands for his mother and standing by his father's engine fire, +where the boys and girls of the village loved to gather to listen to +old Robert's wondrous tales, or to see the birds fed, for the old man +loved birds of all kinds, and would save the crumbs from his own scant +dinner to feed the robins. Here it was that baby George learned that +early love of birds that lasted as long as life. As a boy he would catch +and tame the blackbirds, and these would fly about the cottage all day, +and at night come and roost at his bed-head. Years after, when he was an +old man, he used to tell how, walking with his father one day, he parted +some thick branches overhead and lifted the child in his arms that he +might peep at a nest full of young blackbirds. It was a sight he never +forgot. + +But, baby though he was, his days were not all spent in play. At home +there were seven younger brothers and sisters to be nursed and watched +and kept out of the way of the heavy waggons that were dragged by horses +along the tram-road in front of the house, and much of this fell to +George's share. + +As the years passed the Stephenson family, obliged like other colliers +"to follow the work," moved to a place called Dewley Burn, and now as +George had reached the age of eight he was ready to earn some money! + +To show how smart and quick the child was for his years there has come +down to us a pretty story. + +He and his sister Nell had gone to Newcastle one day, and among their +little commissions they were bent on buying Nell a new bonnet. They +found the very thing she wanted in a shop, but the price was beyond +their purse. It was 1_s._ 3_d._ over the mark, and the pair, sadly +downcast, had to leave the shop. Standing crestfallen outside the boy +suddenly exclaimed, "I have it! Wait here till I come back." Off he +darted, and Nell waited while the minutes wore to hours, and still he +did not come. Just as she began to think he must either have been killed +or run over he dashed up breathless and thrust the coveted 1_s._ 3_d._ +into her hand. + +"But where did you get it?" she asked, astonished. + +"By holding gentlemen's horses," was the reply. + +The child's first situation at this time was with a woman who kept a +farm and needed a boy to herd her cows and keep them out of the way of +passing waggons. For this the little herd-boy was paid 2_d._ a day. How +happy he was in long leisure hours to bird's-nest or whittle whistles +out of reeds, or in company with another boy--by-and-by, like himself, +to be one of the world's great engineers--to model toy engines out of +clay, using hollowed corks for corves and hemlock stalks for steam +pipes! + +Soon George advanced a step in life. His work was still +farm-work--hoeing turnips for 4_d._ a day, leading the plough horses +when his little legs could hardly stride the furrows, and working in +the dawning hours of day when other children slept. + +But his heart was really at the engine fire or in the coal shaft. It +was "bred in the bone," and he gladly returned to the black, grimy +life, and along with his brother became a coal-picker, separating +stones and dross from the coal, and so earning 6_d._ a day. + +By-and-by he was advanced to driving "the gin-horse," a horse that +travels round and round at the pit's mouth drawing up and letting down +by means of a rope wound round a drum, baskets of coal or buckets of +water, and for this he was paid 8_d._ a day. + +Long miles he had to walk every day to and from his work, "a +grit-growing lad, with bare legs and feet," and I think we may be sure +there was not a bird's nest on that familiar road that the little +bird-lover did not know by heart. + +His next rise was to a shilling a day. This was a great step up, and +for this he had what was called a night shift, lading and unlading the +coals as they came to the mouth of the pit, and reversing the rope to +go down again. Monotonous enough work it was, but he held on to it for +two years. And now another step up was at hand. It was a proud day for +the boy--that Saturday afternoon when he was told that his wage had +been raised to 12_s._ a week! + +"I am a made man now," he exclaimed in great delight. + +And now he was seventeen years old. He had really stepped beyond his +father both in wage and position. But there was one thing which he +had yet to master. It may seem strange to us, but George could neither +read nor write. It began to dawn upon him then that things about +which he wanted to know--pumps and engines and the great world of +mechanics--could only be learned from between the boards of books that +were closed to him. But with George to realise an evil was to try at +once to mend it. Inside the boy's rough working jacket there beat a +manly heart, with a great longing to make the most of his opportunities, +to let no chance slip of doing his best. + +So he actually went to school at nights--three times a week, spending +3_d._ out of his wages to be taught to read and write. He laboured on +and made progress, and in time he wrote and read, and by-and-by he took +another step and added to these arithmetic. With marvellous quickness he +"caught on" to figures. In the long weary night shifts sitting by the +blaze of the fire he would "work" the sums his master had "set" him or +write his copies, just as years after, so eager was he to seize every +opportunity that offered, he would many a time (in odd moments) chalk +his sums on the sides of the coal waggons! + +So little by little, by untiring labour and unwearied industry, by +"neglecting nothing," he rose. The miners who were his daily companions +were, many of them, a rough lot. Their life was a hard one and their +pleasures few, and on Saturday afternoons--pay-day--their amusements +were cock-fighting, dog-fighting, and drinking in the ale-house, while +the future great engineer might be found engaged in pulling to pieces +his engine, cleaning it, getting to know it as we know the character, +the habits, the face of our dearest friend, all the time laying in such +a store of practical knowledge as was to serve him in good stead in +time to come. + +Not that George did not delight in exercise. Indeed, few of his +companions could equal him in athletics. There was nothing he enjoyed +like challenging them to feats of strength in throwing the hammer or in +lifting heavy weights. And even in comparative old age he loved to +engage in a wrestle with a friend. + +About this time George had a favourite dog which he taught to fetch and +carry his dinner in a pitcher tied round his neck. At the appointed hour +the creature used to go straight to his master, turning neither to the +right nor to the left. But one day he was beset with danger in the shape +of a bigger dog with murder in its eye. George's dog closed with it, and +a deadly tussle began, but it beat the bully and came off victorious +but bleeding. When he reached his master the pitcher was there, but the +dinner was spilt; but George was prouder far, when an onlooker described +the fight, of his dog's courage than he would have been of the most +sumptuous feast. + +But in spite of his larger wage money was scarce, and George beat about +in his own mind how he was to earn a few extra shillings. With keen eye +ever on the outlook for what lay nearest, he lighted on the _shoes_ of +his fellow-workmen! He took to mending these, and he mended them so well +that the pitmen soon got into the way of making George their cobbler. +And from this he went on to making shoe-lasts for the village shoemaker. +In this way it came to pass that in a fortnight's time he would +sometimes make as much as L2. When he had by long and careful labour +saved his first guinea great was his delight. "I am now a rich man!" he +said. + +Yet another source of earning money was at hand. One day the chimney of +his house went on fire, and being drenched with water, the soot and +water together succeeded in damaging an eight-day clock that stood in +his kitchen. Money was still scarce, and the watchmaker did not work +without pay, so George set to work and took the clock to pieces, cleaned +it, and put it together again. Rumours of this new "handiness" spread, +and colliers from far and near sent their watches and clocks to him to +doctor. It was almost as if nothing came amiss to these wonderful hands +or, indeed, to that wonderful brain. + +A wheezy engine pump, a clock out of gear, a pair of worn-out shoes--he +had a remedy for all. Painstaking, conscientious, thorough--the work of +the boy shadowed forth the success of the man. + +If I had space I could tell you how, after he ceased to be a boy, he +became a splendid man. That divine capacity--the creative faculty for +making something out of nothing--that had been struggling long within +him came to the surface, and he burst on the world as an Inventor. + +The boon he gave to men--the thing with which his name will ever be +linked in history--is the Locomotive Steam Engine. + +What battles he fought for it when the country rose in arms and said +they would rather hold by the old post-horses and coaches that had been +good enough for their fathers! They were hard to convince. They declared +if railways and trains came the country would be ruined. The engines +would vomit forth smoke. No bird could live in the poisoned air. Game +all over the country would be spoiled. The sparks that came from the +engine would set fire to the houses near which they passed. Hens would +stop laying! Cattle would cease to graze! The man who said he would send +engines flying through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour was +a fool and a maniac! + +Then Stephenson showed the same patience--for the world was long of +being convinced--as he had done on those long night-shifts, sitting +lonely by the engine fire and working out his sums, or as years later, +when prospects were very dark and money scarce, he wept bitter tears, +"for he knew not where his lot in life would be cast." + +But though only a self-taught mechanic, Stephenson stuck to his guns in +the face of the most skilled engineers in the land. For two long months +the thing hung in the balance. It came before the great House of +Commons. George himself was put into the witness-box. Single-handed, +undaunted, he faced a world that was all against him. And then he had to +bear the great trial of his life. The Bill was thrown out of Parliament. +But still he did not despair. He looked into the future, and he saw +himself conqueror. The Bill was again brought forward and eventually +passed. I could tell you then of his long course of triumphs. How his +engine, "The Rocket," won a L500 prize. How really the first seed of +the Railway System of the world was sown then. How then he got leave to +make a railway between Stockton and Darlington, and in time one between +Manchester and Liverpool. How when, in 1830, the line was finished, +people flocked in hundreds and thousands to see "a steam coach running +upon a railway at three times the speed of a mail-coach." + +The people were carried away with excitement! The great steam-horse that +we look at half a dozen times a day with indifference was thought to be +the world's greatest wonder. And George Stephenson was the hero of the +hour. As the train neared Manchester, the people in their excitement +broke all bounds, and even the military could not keep order, as they +swarmed on the carriage like bees, and hung on to the handles, many of +them being tumbled off, while shoutings and cheers went up from a +thousand throats. + +And now that he was successful, now that people praised where they +had blamed, and pandered where they had scoffed, the man remained the +same--modest, single-minded, just what he had been as the boy earning +his shilling a day by driving the old "gin" horse at the pit's mouth. + +And now from the humble labourer's cottage he had climbed to the +highest heights of fame. He was the first mechanical genius in the eyes +of the world. The greatest in the land rejoiced to honour him. From the +depths of poverty he had risen to wealth. Honours flowed in upon him. +But the "boy is father to the man," and it was peculiarly true of George +Stephenson. + +"I never want," he had said long years before, when he was earning +L100 a year, and was able to keep a horse, "I never want to be +higher." + +He was much the same as in those old days. There was no dazzling him +with worldly display or worldly honours. He cared little for social +distinctions. His instincts all along had been "to dwell among his own +people." It gave him the keenest pleasure to have a day at Newcastle +among the scenes of his boyhood, looking up the simple friends of his +youth. And his tastes, too, remained in many ways just the old simple +ones. When he was an old man, and nearing the end of his pilgrimage, +when he was surrounded by every luxury of table and otherwise, he would +call for a "crowdie," and with the basin of boiling water between his +knees, would stir in the oatmeal with his own hands, watching it with +great satisfaction, and then sup the whole with sweet milk, pronouncing +it "capital." + +His last days were very peaceful. He removed from the swirling current +of business life into a side eddy, when he was about sixty, to a place +called Tapton, where he lived a quiet life, meditating among his beasts +and birds and flowers, reading in each something of the beauty of the +mind of a Greater Inventor than he. He took no part in business life, +leaving it to his son, though now and then he would hear from afar +echoes from the old world as the old war-horse scents the smoke of +battle. + +There was no long illness to mar the end of his splendid energetic life. +Those who had known him in the full tide and flush of health had not the +pain of noting either physical or mental decay. He was at a meeting in +connection with engineering in July. Some weeks later he took a severe +fever, and after ten day's illness, without much suffering, the end +came. On the 12th August, in his sixty-seventh year, George Stephenson, +the great engineer, passed away. + +The whole civilised world bewailed his going. He had lived long enough +for it to realise and appreciate the mark he had made on the age. But +most of all did the colliers mourn him--the men to whom he had been as +a kindly father, a leader, a hero. They laid him in the quiet little +churchyard at Chesterfield, and they raised monuments to him all over +the country, as a grateful people will do,--erected statues and memorial +schools, and painted portraits. But a man like George Stephenson needs +no memorial of stone. He has left an undying work to speak for him, +and a character that has moved men to admiration everywhere for its +simplicity, combined with its greatness, its manliness, that made +it possible for him, the poor collier's son, to meet on equal +ground--himself also being a man--men of the highest rank in the land. + +We cannot, any of us, imitate his genius or his power of invention, or +his splendid physical strength, but it is within the scope of all of us, +however young or insignificant, to copy his conscientious, unwearied +hard work. + +"Ah, ye lads," he used to say to young men when he was himself an old +one, in his broad, honest Doric, "there's none o' ye know what _wark_ +is!" + +He has left us a splendid example of patience, content, courage, +attention to detail. But most precious of all, of a heart that beat +as kindly in old age as in youth, that made him dearly loved by his +workmen, and that never turned away from hearing and helping those in +trouble. + +Riches and success and prosperity, crowding upon him in later years, had +no power to spoil the simple beauty of his character, for the Wylam +collier's son, besides being the world's honoured inventor, was also +"one of Nature's gentlemen." + + + + +THOMAS ALVA EDISON. + + +To see as a boy the greatest inventor of the age, we shall have to cross +the Atlantic and take a journey to the United States of America. England +has done wonders in the way of discovery and invention, but it is to New +England, as we call it, because she is a daughter of the old Mother +Country, that we must go for a brightness and a sharpness of wit that +sometimes make us think of the flash of polished steel. + +We all know the name of Edison. It is not a name of history, for he is +living to-day, a man still in his prime, still sending out from that +wonderful brain of his things that astonish men, and have won for him +the name of the "wonder-worker of the modern world." + +I have before me as I write the picture of a square, brick house, with +outside shutters hooked back, a white paling half encircling it, and a +couple of bare, leafless trees before it. The house is plain and poor, +and has a strangely unfamiliar look to our English eyes, but it is of +the deepest interest to us as the birthplace of Thomas Edison. + +[Illustration: EDISON IN HIS LABORATORY.] + +The boy first saw the light in 1847, and though he came into the world +with but a poor provision waiting him, he found himself welcomed with +a very wealth of love and tenderness. Mrs. Edison had Scotch blood in +her veins, and she was a mother in a thousand. It is a common thing +in history to find that a son draws his greatness, many of his best +qualities, from his mother, and this son took many of his from Mrs. +Edison. She was his constant companion, his loving nurse, his gentle +teacher during those early years of life that leave so deep an impress +on the "afterwards." + +The child was seven years old when the Edison family moved to a place +called Port Huron, and there he began to spend every spare moment in +reading. So earnest was he that he set himself to read through the +Detroit Free Library, and had devoured a close row of volumes before +his attempt was discovered. + +Strange and solemn sound some of the titles of the books he read when +he was twelve years old--a time when most boys are lightly dipping into +newspapers and magazines and books of adventure. Burton's _Anatomy of +Melancholy_, Hume's _History of England_, Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire_. + +In 1862, when he was barely fifteen years old, he came out more fully +from the shelter of home and mixed with the busy world, making a place +in it for himself by his own young wits. He was a newspaper boy, and +sold his papers like other boys, not stopping still in one place, but +going on the train to different stations along the line, and selling as +he went. + +About this time there was a great fever and ferment in America. The +North were fighting with the South, and people panted for news of each +battle as it took place. Papers with reports were devoured as soon as +printed. + +"Now," thought Edison, "is my chance," and there began to work in the +brain of the boy a big scheme. As the first step to carrying it out, he +betook himself to the station telegraph clerk. + +"If," he said, "you will let me wire the war news on a few stations +ahead, and have it written up on the blackboard, I will promise you some +papers, and now and then a magazine." + +He repeated his request to the different clerks along the line. His +eager face and twinkling eyes and earnest words won all hearts, and his +request was granted. He next went to the editor of a well-known paper. + +"Give me a thousand copies," he begged, "and I will pay out of the +proceeds of my venture." Here, again, he succeeded. And now it remained +but to get the engine-driver to promise him a few minutes at the +different stations, and he started on his venture. + +At the first stopping-place he had been wont to sell some half-dozen +papers. That day, as he looked out, the platform was strangely crowded, +and it suddenly dawned on him, from the eager faces of the people and +their excited gestures, that it was _papers_ they wanted! He dashed on +to the platform, and in a few minutes had sold forty at five cents each, +or about a penny of our money. It was much the same at the next station. +The people had read the headings on the station blackboard, and they +crowded on to the platform, an excited, hustling mob, for papers! It +dawned on the boy, here was a chance to raise his prices, so he doubled +them, and sold 150 where he had used to sell a dozen! It was the same +all along the line. At the last station--Port Huron--his home, the +people were most excited of all. The town was a mile from the station. +Edison started off with his papers, but was met half-way by an eager, +hurrying crowd. They all wanted news. He stopped, drawing up in front of +a church where a prayer-meeting was being held. Presently the people +poured out and surrounded the boy, willingly paying him five times the +usual price of his paper. He began "to take in," as he expressed it, in +his own terse, telling words, "a young fortune." + +After this the busy boyish brain began to look eagerly ahead, to face +life seriously. He did not start off on a fresh tack. He took hold of +what was nearest to his hand, and he bent his mind on improving that. He +had found people were in a hurry for news. The quicker they got it the +better they were pleased. Nothing could surely be quicker than that they +should get it damp from the press! So it flashed into his brain--why not +print a paper on the train? + +The question was no sooner asked than answered. + +He looked about till he lighted on an old car, and he rigged it up as +a printing-office with old types and stereos he begged from a newspaper +office. In this novel press-room he threw off sheet after sheet of +what he called _The Grand Trunk Herald_, the first and last paper ever +printed on a train. The boy of fifteen was editor, compositor, and +newsvendor in one. The paper "caught on," and the circulation went up +to 400. + +But, alas! misfortune was soon to overwhelm the young adventurer. One +unlucky day the printing-office--the old car, which grew daily more +decrepit and unequal to the jolting of the journey--by a more violent +lurch than usual threw over a bottle of phosphorus. The cork flew out, +and in a few seconds the car was in flames. They were easily enough got +under, but Edison's venture had received its deathblow. The furious +car-conductor would henceforth have none of him. He boxed his ears, and +pitched him on to the platform along with his precious belongings--the +whole paraphernalia of his craft. + +It is a sorry picture that presents itself to our mind's eye. The boy +standing half stunned, the rubbish and _debris_ of his belongings +strewn at his feet, and the cherished old jolting car, the scene of his +labours, gradually fading into distance! It seemed as if his bright +dreams were all extinguished, his golden hopes doomed to come to +nothing. As he stood there he faced it all--a mere boy low down in the +world, badly fed, poorly clothed, almost penniless, but we do not hear +that he either flinched or complained, or that a boyish sob rose in his +throat. He was made of the stuff of the Stoic. It is our hearts that are +sore and anguished, not chiefly for the hopes and dreams disappointed, +but because of a terrible calamity that befell him then, when he was +perhaps hardly conscious of it; but that grew darker and weightier as +the years rolled on. + +When the irritated conductor had boxed the boy's ears, so brutal had +been his onslaught that the delicate nerves were injured for life, +and now with the flight of years has come deafness to wrap the great +inventor in a partial mantle of silence. It is perhaps we who feel +most the infinite pathos of the thing, while the man himself bears his +affliction with the same noble patience with which he accepted +disappointment long years ago as a boy. + +At that time he straightway turned his eyes bravely homewards. He picked +up his precious belongings, and carried them to a cellar in his father's +house. + +It was about this time that his mind began to bend towards that which +has ever held for him a keen interest through life--the Telegraph. A +waking ambition in him desired strongly to perfect himself in it. He +was poor and friendless, and yet firmly, doggedly resolved to get on +somehow. So out of his scant earnings--still as newsboy--he bought a +book on Telegraphy, and this he pored over night and day. + +And now at this early age I think the great inventor must have touched +that mine that was afterwards to yield him so wondrously of its wealth. + +The boyish mind was putting out feelers, gropingly at first, in the +direction of creation, that divine faculty that is granted to so few of +us. We can recognise the seed in its first tiny sproutings. He and a boy +friend resolved to make a telegraph. They made a line of wire between +their houses, insulated with bottles, and crossed under a busy +thoroughfare by means of an old cable found in the bed of the Detroit +River. The first magnets were wound with wire and swathed in ancient +rags, and a piece of spring brass formed the key. Edison pressed two +large and formidable-looking cats into his service, tied a wire to their +legs, and applied friction to their backs. But the experiment ended in +failure. The cats, frightened and furious, resented the liberty, and +parted company with, the wire, dashing off in different directions. + +But failure never discouraged Edison, nor stayed the working of his +brain. He was a true philosopher, and he was, like an elastic ball, +possessed of enormous rebound. + +Handed down to us there is a story of the boy which, while it may not +throw much light on his brain, throws some on his heart and on his ready +courage. He was still a newspaper boy on the trains, and while at most +stations a few minutes was the limit of waiting, at a certain station +where shunting took place the minutes ran to half an hour. The boy was +wont to spend this half-hour with the stationmaster's child, of whom he +was fond, or to loiter about his garden. On this particular day the +engine-driver had unlinked the cars in a siding, and one was being +sent with a good deal of impetus to join another portion. It came on +steadily, no one on it to control it, and right in its path was the +unconscious baby smiling in the morning sunshine. Not a moment was to +be lost. Edison threw down his papers and his hat on the platform and +dashed to the rescue. And not a second too soon. As he threw himself and +the child free of the line the car passed and struck his heel. The two +fell with such violence on the gravel beyond that the stone particles +were driven into their flesh, but they were safe! + +The grateful father was at a loss how he could show his gratitude to the +rescuer of his child. He had little money and no reward to give. At last +a plan occurred to him. + +"I will teach you telegraphing," he said to the boy, "and prepare you +for the position of night operator at not less than twenty-five dollars +a month." + +Edison was delighted. The bargain was struck. The wage seemed, no doubt, +a small fortune to the boy--rather more than five of our English pounds. + +And now he had got his "toe on the tape," his foot on the ladder, if +it were only on the lowest round. In three months he could teach his +master, and the promised situation was got for him. From that he passed +to other situations, and gradually he began to make his mark. + +He had a mind wonderfully quick to see a difficult situation and to deal +with it. + +There is a story told of how one winter a severe frost had coated the +great river between Port Huron and Sarnia, how the cable was broken, +and people could neither get news nor send it to the opposite bank of +the river. The spot was crowded with people, baffled and vexed. Edison +came along with a brain rarely at fault and faced the thing. Suddenly, +to the onlookers' astonishment, he mounted a locomotive and sent a +piercing whistle across the water, imitating by the toots of the engine +the dots and dashes of the telegraph system. + +In this way he shouted-- + +"Holloa, Sarnia! Sarnia, do you get what I say?" + +At first there was silence on the part of the telegraph man across the +water. The people on the bank were breathless with excitement. At last +the reply came clear--thrilling. The man on the other side had +understood, and the two cities could "talk" again to each other. + +After this, people began to hear of Edison's fame. But the mania for +experiments had seized him. The cut-and-dried monotonous routine of work +seemed flat and stale to him by comparison. It was as if an enchanted +region of fairyland had been opened to the boy. To be allowed to revel +in it he denied himself food and necessary sleep. When he was seventeen +years old he invented a telegraph instrument that would transfer +writing from one line to another without the help of the operator. + +There were no want of openings now for him to choose from, but sometimes +doors after they had been opened were rudely shut again through envy +and evil feeling. In the great world of invention and discovery there +are perhaps more "ups and downs" than in any other. Some of Edison's +fellow-workers were kind and generous--others were jealous and +detracting. One manager did him an ill turn. He was unequal to +completing a discovery he had begun. On the thing being shown him, +Edison immediately "saw a light" and brought it to completion, but +jealousy crept into the man's small mind and he dismissed the boy on +a false charge. + +So at seventeen he was thrown again on the world. Money was still +scarce. Books and instruments and calls from home swallowed up the most +of it. The boy was chafing under ill-treatment and a sense of injustice. +The want of sleep, perhaps of proper food, was telling on him, but he +looked forward with a clear, undaunted eye. He wanted to reach a certain +town where he believed work awaited him. It meant a walk of a hundred +miles. He was weak, disheartened, ill-prepared for it, but he did it. +He arrived footsore and weary, with torn shoes and tattered clothes, +and his worldly possessions tied in a handkerchief on his back. + +In this shabby plight he presented himself at the telegraph office. He +was eyed coldly enough at first, but by-and-by when tests were given he +stood the tests. There was that in the eager eyes and underneath the +shabby clothes that could not but make itself felt as a power. He began +work. At first his fellow-clerks laughed at him. In time they were won +over, and later he stood out as a workman of the first order. + +He began to collect about him materials for printing--machinery without +which he never felt quite happy. He did a clever thing one day in the +office that brought him into notice. He took a press report at one +sitting--a sitting that lasted from 3.30 p.m. till 4.30 a.m.! After that +he carefully divided it into paragraphs so that each printer would have +exactly three lines to print, and so that a column could be set up in +two or three minutes! + +It may be that about this time money was rather more plentiful, for +Edison began to go to second-hand bookshops and so to gratify his +deep-seated thirst for knowledge. + +His kindness of heart was well known, and there were many about only +too ready to take advantage of it. There were telegraphists who roamed +the country in time of war--"tramp operators" they were called, who took +short engagements and generally ended their time with a "spree." These +found out Edison--a man who did not drink himself and a man who might be +persuaded to lend them money--and these were his worst enemies. + +One day he had bought at an auction fifty volumes of the _North American +Review_. Half a dozen men were sponging off him in his rooms when he +brought home the books and ranged them unsuspiciously round his walls. +Directly he had gone out his guests helped themselves to his purchase, +landed them at the nearest pawnbroker's, and drank the money they +brought. + +But his love for experiments sometimes brought him into scrapes and +disaster, as when he moved a bottle of sulphuric acid one day, strictly +against rules, and the bottle spilt, the contents eating through the +floor to the manager's room below and there eating up _his_ floor and +carpet, the unlucky accident bringing Edison his dismissal. + +And now, at the age of twenty-one, after many different situations +and different experiences, Edison turned his steps to Boston. His +openhandedness had left him short of money. As was often the case with +him, he was sailing very close to the wind. His dress was poor and +shabby, and four days' and nights' travelling had not improved his +appearance. When he presented himself at the office where he was to +be taken on, the other clerks ridiculed him as "a jay from the woolly +west." + +They made up their minds to play a practical joke on him. They took the +New York telegraph man into their confidence. It was arranged he should +send a despatch which Edison was to receive. By this time Edison had +so perfected himself in receiving messages that he could write from +forty-six to fifty-four words a minute--quicker than any operator in +the United States. + +Not knowing his man, the sender began slowly--then quickened his +pace. So did Edison. Quicker still he worked. Edison was in no way +discomfited. Soon the New York man had reached his highest speed, to +which Edison responded with ease, cool, collected, and stopping now and +then to sharpen a pencil between. + +By this time he had discovered that the others were trying to get "a +rise" out of him, but he went on steadily with his work. Then he +stopped and spoke quietly through to the New York man. + +"Say, young man," he said, in his dry humorous way, "change off and send +with your other foot." + +But the New York man had reached the end of his tether and had to get +someone else to finish, and so Edison won his laurels, and "the jay from +the woolly west" was regarded ever after with enormous respect. + +After that his place was in the front rank. Now he had reached the +threshold of manhood, and a long, dazzling vista of achievement and +success stretched before him had he known it. About this time a great, +strong conviction of his responsibilities and of the opportunities life +held out to him swept over him. + +"Adams," he said to a friend, "I've got so much to do, and life is so +short, that I'm going to hustle." + +And if we try to look at what he has crowded into a life not long, we +must allow he has indeed "hustled" to some purpose. As we briefly +glance at the bent of his manhood, his doings fairly dazzle us. He read +enormously all sorts of works on telegraphy and electricity, and he +produced from his brain that which makes him the greatest inventor of +the age. If we tried to enumerate his inventions the names alone would +fill pages. We can do little more than name a few. Among the first of +these was how to send four messages at the same time over one telegraph +wire. + +But even after he had embarked on the glorious sea of discovery, +what "ups and downs"--what sea-saws of fortune were in store for him! +Hunger at times, torn clothes, and battered shoes. But from depths and +half-drowning up again he always came to the surface. He rose grandly, +relying on his own indomitable will. About this time good fortune befell +him. For inventing some telegraphic appliances he got 50,000 dollars, or +rather more than L10,000. He could hardly believe his good luck, and +it was with this he immediately rigged up for himself a workshop. + +And now he was rapidly rising, and the field before him was gradually +opening up wider and wider. He started a laboratory at a place called +Newark, and from this time onwards his inventions seemed to flow from +his brain in a well-nigh continuous stream. + +His workmen were devoted to his service. His genial good-humour and +kindliness, the absence of all harshness in his manner, and his love of +fun could not but endear him to them. They caught the infection, too, of +his earnestness. When he had an idea in his brain he worked at it, as it +were, red-hot, almost without rest or cessation, and they were rarely +reluctant to help him. + +"Now, you fellows!" he would say, shutting himself and his workmen up in +a room on the top flat, "I've locked the door, and you'll have to stay +here until this job is completed." + +During sixty hours, perhaps, he would take no sleep and little food, +while his brain would work at highest pressure until the thing was +wrought. Then he would relax, and sleep for as long as thirty-six hours +at a stretch. + +And now his fame had spread far and wide. The people at Menlo Park, to +which he removed--some twenty-four miles from New York--began to look +upon him as a wizard--a man possessing magical powers. It seemed to them +there was nothing he could not do. Exaggerated tales of his wonderful +powers spread over the country. + +"If people track me here," he said (he had been besieged at Newark), "I +shall simply have to take to the woods." + +Child after child was the offspring of the inventor's brain. At one +time, within the space of a few years, as many as forty-five were born. + +There was the Microphone, which is much like the Telephone, except that +in the Microphone the sound is magnified. There was the Megaphone, which +brings far-away sounds near, so that cattle crunching grass six miles +off could be heard distinctly at Menlo Park! There was the Kinetoscope +we all know, which by swiftly passing pictures--as many as forty-six +a second--seems to give us a single person in motion, somewhat on the +lines of that toy of our childhood, "The Wheel of Life." And there was +the grand king of inventions--the Phonograph--that overtops all the +rest. + +We know it, all of us, by this time. We have listened to it, with the +tubes at our ears, while the voice of someone speaking at a distance is +distinctly borne to us, or the strains of a song sung by some great +singer. + +In 1888 Edison sent his first phonogram by steamer to England. His +friend here had only to take out the wax cylinder, put it into his +machine, and set it in motion, and lo! it seemed to him as if Edison +himself were in the room talking to him! + +Great men all over the world recorded their astonishment and their +praises of the wonderful invention. The Queen sent him a message of +congratulation. People flocked to every exhibition to see it--to the +French one from countries all over Europe. They saw it and straightway +went into raptures. Edison himself, looking into the future, seemed to +see volumes it might yet be brought to do. It might be used to write +letters merely from dictation. It might be used to make clocks speak--to +tell when it was time to come to meals. It might be used for toys. A +tiny phonograph might be placed inside a doll, and it would straightway +"talk"; or in a toy animal, and it would grunt and growl! + +What a strange thing that in this world of passing-away and change we +should be able to preserve from destruction such treasures sheltered in +a wax cylinder--some great man's words of wisdom, or the silver tones of +a sweet musician! + +The more Edison's brain accomplished the more did it seem able to do. As +a man he showed himself untiring as when a boy. He went on discovering. +He invented a way of telegraphing from a moving train. He invented an +Electric Railroad, that drew delighted thousands at the Chicago +Exhibition. + +In 1879 his attention turned to lighting, and he bent all his energies +on inventing an Incandescent lamp for electric light. He spent days +working at a sort of white heat. He began on the 16th October, but +mishaps and accidents seemed to threaten his invention. + +"Let us," he cried to his partner in a ferment of excitement--"let us +make a lamp before we sleep, or die in the attempt." On the morning of +the 21st it was done! + +It astonished the world. It opened up possibilities for miners and +divers, and for men everywhere. + +On the occasion of its exhibition people flocked from all parts of the +United States. Special trains were run. The same furore over the marvel +reigned at the Paris Exposition, and at every other exhibition. And +through it all--a fame, a popularity enough to turn the head of most +mortals--the man remained the same--modest, simple, unpretentious. + +From Menlo Park he went to Orange. His laboratory there was fitted up +with everything conceivable that an inventor red-hot and eager might +want at a moment's notice. And yet often the workrooms presented the +strangest appearance of disorder. Workmen sometimes stretched on +benches or floor after a heavy strain, the great master himself thrown +down--a stick under his head, a coat wound round it for a pillow, and +so snatching a short interval of sleep! He will not be interrupted by +visitors. In this great world of his own he seems at times to live a +sort of separate existence. + +We are amazed, dazzled, astonished by the tremendous results one man in +his lifetime has achieved. He has not been content to take some thing +and modify and improve it and set it to a new purpose as men whom we +call inventors have done in all ages. But he seems to have called upon +the very forces of nature to do his bidding. It is almost as if he had +harnessed the winds, the air, sound, electricity, for his purposes. + +A man after a single discovery not seldom rests on his laurels for life. +This man is still in his prime, and we cannot tell yet what product of +his brain will still astonish us, and we cannot touch here on a tithe of +what he has done. He lives sometimes in his northern home, in New +Jersey, sometimes at Orange. + +As a man he shows the same genial, kindly sympathy which, as a boy, +never failed to win the hearts of his fellow-clerks, the same modesty +that disarmed their jealousy. These things chain his workmen to him +to-day with links of love. Now that men praise and laud him all over the +world he shows the same good-natured indifference to name and fame he +has shown all through. And he has lost nothing of the tireless energy +that used to support him through hard work and long night-sittings as a +boy--this man who, as someone has it, "has kept the path to the patent +office red-hot with his footsteps--this wonder-worker of the modern +world." + + + + +JAMES WATT. + + +There is perhaps no inventor's name with which the British boy is more +familiar than with that of James Watt. In every college of mechanics or +engineers we are met in bust or print by the kindly, shrewd, benevolent +face of the great inventor of the Condensing Steam Engine. + +It is difficult for us to picture what the world must have been before +James Watt came into it--before, as it were, steam took its place and +while yet men and horses and wind and water struggled feebly to do what +steam now does with such apparent ease. + +On the west coast of Scotland stands what is to-day the busy, thriving, +seaport town of Greenock--the birthplace of James Watt. But in 1736, +more than 150 years ago, it was little more than a picturesque +fishing-village, looking out on a peaceful, smiling bay, where a few +modest fishing-craft were to be seen, and beyond to the hills of +Argyllshire, before smoke and funnels blotted the fairness of the +landscape. + +In an unpretentious little house in a Greenock by-street James Watt +first saw the light. His father was by trade a carpenter, an undertaker, +a general "merchant," for there was little competition in those simple +days, and men often "professed" more than one trade. In the course of a +few years little James was left the sole surviving child of five, and +perhaps on that account was specially precious to his parents. Neither +as the years went on did he grow into a sturdy, lusty country boy, but +rather struggled up slowly, anxiously overlooked by a mother's care, a +prey to ill-health and headache, even in his baby years. So that most of +his early education fell to his parents, his mother opening up to him +the beginnings of reading, his father those of writing and arithmetic. + +School, to which he went by-and-by, proved a failure. Shy and shrinking, +he cared little for the play of other children. He was slow at +games, perhaps dull in class, and the boys and girls laughed at him. +Ill-health, too, made it hard for him to get on. He liked best to be at +home. For amusement he would draw in chalk on the kitchen floor, and for +playthings he would choose his father's instruments. One day a +neighbour remarked on the child's drawing. + +"He should be at school," she said, "and not trifling away his time." + +"Look first," said the father, pointing to the floor, "before you blame +him. He is solving a problem in geometry." + +The child was then six years old! + +We are familiar with the story handed down to us through the centuries +of how the dreamy-eyed boy was engaged in watching the steam hiss from +the kettle-spout, the while holding a teaspoon below to count and catch +the drops of water. Tradition likes to see in this the tiny seedlings of +that mighty tree--the Condensing Steam Engine, but we fear that common +sense in the shape of his robust-minded aunt was nearer the mark when +she exclaimed-- + +"James Watt, I never saw such an idle boy as you are. For the last hour +you have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and +put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the +steam, watching how it rises from the spout, catching and counting the +drops it falls into." + +For change of air the boy was sometimes sent to Glasgow, the great +commercial capital being then no larger than a country market-town. +Mightily astonished were his relatives, and, according to their own +account, not a little scared, when of an evening his tongue was loosed, +and he would launch into tales, wonderful things that held them +entranced for hours, and sent them wakeful to bed. Was this time +prophetic of those later years when he would hold men and women +fascinated by the charm of his conversation? + +And now young James was sent to the Greenock Grammar School, but he made +no great mark there, except in mathematics, in which he easily headed +the class. But Latin and Greek are not a boy's only education. At home +he was learning other things, from his parents' talk, from the pages +of books. And then there were the long golden hours when he put on a +leather apron like his father, and installed himself in his father's +workshop with a small forge and a small bench all his own, and with his +boyish fingers handled the tools so deftly and so cleverly that the +workmen watching him exclaimed-- + +"Little Jamie has gotten a fortune at his fingers' ends." + +But while he worked his mind was not idle. He read eagerly and +precociously, as a delicate child sometimes does, devouring all such +books as he could lay hands on. Solid enough reading they will seem to +boys to-day. + +_The Cloud of Witnesses_, Henry the Rymer's _Life of Wallace_, Boston, +Bunyan. + +Added to this was his parents' talk, that fell on his young ears and +stamped itself on his young mind, and the picturesque surroundings of +his home, for he loved nature's beauties--the hills, the stars, the +trees. The mountains and the plains about his home were made romantic by +memories and associations of Covenanting times, told him by his father, +and his boyish rambles were made beautiful by wild flowers, and again +there were long delightful days of fishing to add to these. + +But in the midst of all this struggling in the boy's mind was that +strong leaning to mechanical invention longing for an outlet. It peeped +out here and there--for instance, in being unable to see an instrument +without wishing to discover all its uses. And so well did he show +himself able even then to fashion delicate things like compasses and +quadrants--an instrument in shape like the fourth of a circle--that his +father, after much thought, made up his mind that James should learn +the trade of a mathematical instrument maker. + +So in 1754 James came out from the shelter of home and launched himself +on the great world, rather more of an ordeal to the shy, timid boy +than it would have been to one more robust and enterprising. This was +practically the last of Greenock. The peaceful fishing-village was never +again to be his home. Naturally he turned his steps to Glasgow. We can +picture the great event in the quiet household. The boy getting ready, +his modest baggage, his clothes (his mother's tender care), a leather +apron, some carpenter's tools, and a quadrant. + +But he was destined to go yet farther afield. No mathematical +instrument-maker was to be found in Glasgow. A professor to whom James +was introduced advised him to go to London. "To London" is an easy +enough journey to-day--then it was a mighty undertaking. No trains--no +steamers. One could only go by slow coach or on horseback. James chose +the latter. His trunk was sent by sea from Leith, and he along with a +friend set off on his long journey. He left on the 7th day of June, and +travelling by Coldstream and Newcastle, he arrived in the great +metropolis after a ride of twelve days! + +Most likely, although there might have been fear in the boyish heart, it +also beat high with hope. Again and again has London made fair promises +to boys such as he. But disappointment was to meet him on the very +threshold. He found that apprentices who intended to serve a term of +seven years were only accepted. This was very far from James's thoughts. +What he wanted was to learn the trade, start off home again, and set +up in Glasgow for himself as soon as possible. After many failures, +however, he at last found a man willing to take him on for a year on his +promise to pay twenty guineas with the results of his work during that +time. + +And now began a time of stern work and self-denial. He took poor +lodgings. He scrimped himself in everything but the bare necessaries of +life. He spent on himself exactly eight shillings a week. He could not, +he wrote, do with less. He scraped and pinched, remembering how ill his +father could afford his keep. + +When he could get extra work he took it home at nights to his poor rooms +and sat up late over it, often ill and weary. In a month he could make +a quadrant better than any of the other apprentices. And so he struggled +on against loneliness and headache and depression. It was rarely safe to +venture out at night at that time in London, for sailor press-gangs were +abroad. No able-bodied man was spared. In one night they took as many as +1,000 men. Sitting as he did close to the shop door when at work, he was +often exposed to cold, and caught rheumatic pains which did not leave +him for many a day. After a year of this he went home to Greenock, in +his possession some tools and instruments, and in his hands and brain a +mighty store of skill and knowledge. + +Revived by his native air he set out again to seek his fortune--again +to Glasgow. Again to be met with disappointment! He had not learned his +trade in Glasgow, and therefore Glasgow would have none of him. Not so +much as a workshop would it give him. It seemed almost as if there were +no place open for the boy. + +But his friend the professor came to the front again. If Watt could find +no place in the city, then the University should shelter him. And so +they gave him a workshop twenty feet square in the old College grounds, +and a room in which to sell his instruments, and he was at last fairly +launched. + +But business progressed but slowly. He lived, to be sure, in an +atmosphere that must have delighted him. The professors and the students +found him out. They came and came again. He seemed always to have +something original to say. He was a man who read much and thought +much--humble as a child about his own attainments--eager with the +generosity of the great man to give others their due--yes, even more +than their due. They found out that he knew all about engineering, and +not a little about natural history, art, languages--and then the trick +of observation was so strong with him that nothing escaped him. In time +it came to be the general opinion that the young instrument-maker was +one of the ablest men about the University. But gratifying as was the +making of these friends, they did not bring Watt in any money. Somehow +his instruments did not sell well. He was too far from the town. Indeed, +his business was so poor he sometimes thought of giving it up. It may +have been there was a want of practical "push" in him, a quality he +never gained all through his life. Somewhat discouraged he took to +making fiddles and flutes and guitars and even organs,--but he was yet +very far from making that fortune he had come out to seek. + +There are crises, turning-points in the lives of most people. They are +seldom noisy. Sometimes, indeed, they come so quietly as to be hardly +noticed. And now Watt was gradually nearing his. + +About this time his thoughts began to turn to steam. It may be that had +he been busy and successful as an organ-maker, his great invention might +never have seen the light. + +People had, of course, known for long that there was a power in +water exposed to heat. Now in 1759, when Watt was twenty-three, his +attention was drawn to the Steam Engine. He pondered it. After he had +pondered it he set to work. His first model was a failure. But the +idea had silently and firmly lodged in his brain. He went on with his +everyday business, but ever in his leisure back sprang his mind to +that subject that was to be his all-absorbing life-work. He read +eagerly what other men had done. He got a model of another man's +engine and he studied it. He found what he thought defects. He groped +steadily on--now seeing a light--again thrown into darkness--now +following what turned out to be a will-o'-the-wisp--again getting +hold of an idea that seemed to him a gem. + +There came to him gradually dawning thoughts. First, that of Latent +Heat. Again, that a small quantity of water in the shape of steam heats +a large quantity of cold water. Yet, again, that at 212 deg. water is +elastic, and that steam heats six times the weight of cold water to a +temperature of 212 deg., the temperature of steam. + +And so he went on step by step, till one day the thing burst on him, +full-fledged, as it were--complete, dazzling, a perfect inspiration. + +It was a Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1765. He was taking a stroll +in a quiet part of Glasgow, now a paved and busy thoroughfare called the +Green. A Sunday calm brooded over what was on weekdays a scene of busy +life--of washing and drying clothes. His thoughts, as usual, hovered +about his beloved theme. It inspired him with a very passion as a child +of his own. The key to his engine--long sought--suddenly flashed before +his mind's eye. The thing had been waiting incomplete for want of it. It +came to him then--the idea of a Separate Condenser. + +A great uprising of his mind followed. In his solitary walk the +flashing thought filled the man with rapture. + +Two drawbacks--waste of steam and waste of fuel--had been the ruin of +former inventions. + +"Ye need not fash yourself about that, man," Watt said to a friend, +answering some objection that he had made, "I have now made an engine +that shall not waste a particle of steam." + +And so, though it was but the beginning, though years of weary labour +and disappointment and discouragement waited him before the end was +reached, the Condensing Steam Engine, as we have it now, first sprang +into being that spring afternoon on the Green in Glasgow. + +And now the young inventor set himself with eager enthusiasm to make a +model. There were no skilled workmen to be had, no self-acting tools, as +in our day, and so the first model was only partly successful. But not a +whit discouraged, he went on. + +"My whole thoughts are bent on this machine," he said. "I can think of +nothing else." + +And now there remains but to tell in a few words--for it is the record +of his manhood--the "ups and downs" just beginning, the disappointments, +the failures, the hopes and fears that waited on this offspring of his +brain. He was poor, and money was the first thing that was needed. Who +would risk thousands on such a vague and shadowy thing? + +Meantime the pot had to be kept boiling! He looked into the future, and +he saw great things steam might yet be made to do, but there was bread +and butter needed for the present. So he went bravely in for surveying, +though there was little enough to be made by that. He had still +ill-health to struggle against. "I am still plagued with headaches," he +wrote about this time, "and sometimes heartaches." + +But after a time a gleam of hope shone through the clouds. After +failures and difficulties he at last succeeded in finding someone +willing to risk his money. So in 1769 he patented his engine, and began +to build it. In six months it was finished, and as it neared completion +Watt could hardly sleep. Then, and for long still in the future, he was +to suffer from bad, incapable workmen, and this accounted for his +partial failure. + +"It was," he said, "a clumsy job." Watt grew depressed. + +In 1770 he wrote: "I enter on my thirty-fifth year, and I think I have +hardly yet done thirty-five pence worth of good in the world." + +A friend, seeing him cast down and unhappy, advised him to give up +inventing. As well might he have advised the sun not to shine or living +man to cease from breathing. Meantime the years went on. Watt was often, +as he said, "heart-sick." Long years after, remembering this weary time, +he said, "The public only look at my success." He stinted himself in +everything but bare necessaries, for as yet his engine had paid him +nothing and cost enormously. But light again arose in the darkness when +he got as a partner Boulton, of Birmingham, and from that day onwards +matters mended. Six of the fourteen years' patent were gone, but he +succeeded in getting a renewal of it for twenty-four years by Act of +Parliament, in spite of grumbling discontent of men who wanted to steal +the fruit of his brain, and were thus prevented. + +Now he set to work in earnest. His first engine was made to blow the +bellows of ironworks. His second to pump water out of the mines in +Cornwall. In 1776 this was set up, and worked perfectly. "There it was, +'forking water' as never engine before had been known 'to fork.'" + +"All the world are agape," he said, "to see what it can do." + +And it did well. And now the "voice of the country was in its favour." +So the first step was taken. The others followed in quick succession. +The partners worked together perfectly. Watt understood engines, but +not men. He grew impatient, irritable, peevish if a workman were +inefficient, and would have dismissed him on the spot. Boulton was +wiser, and never failed to oil the wheels. Watt was despondent, easily +cast down; Boulton was his "backbone." + +There came then into Watt's mind the idea of an engine that would +produce _rotary_ motion. This he patented in 1781. All round and about, +ready to pounce on it, were a perfect swarm of pirates. + +"One's thoughts seem to be stolen before one speaks them," he said. And +again, "All mankind seem to be resolved to rob us." + +In 1782 the first rotary machine worked. After long waiting there was a +brilliant result. It was made to drive a corn-mill. In our day it would +be hard to say what Watt's rotary machine is not made to do. It is made +for corn-mills and for cotton-mills, for sugar-mills and iron-mills. It +drives our steamers and rolls our hammer-iron and coins our money and +prints our books. + +And now the great inventor had reached the highest pinnacle of fame. In +1790 he had an interview with the King, who asked about his engines. + +But he had not landed at the topmost round of the ladder without much +painful climbing and many weary steps. His life had been all through +shadowed by ill-health, and an anxious, worrying mind that refused to +be calm. He had a shrinking distaste to business, and a fearful habit +of looking on the dark side of things. Often would he have sunk in +depression and despair had it not been for his cheery partner. It was +only in the late years of his life that he came to know anything like +peace. His mind all along had been too active for his body. + +But though as an old man he retired from public life and from +business, he could not altogether retire from invention. He invented +a letter-copying machine, and one for copying statuary. In his old +age he lived very quietly in his comfortable house near Birmingham, +furnishing what he called his Garret, a room where he might be alone +and still invent, don again, as in boyhood, the leather apron, cook +his own food, and ponder anew the details of those wonderful +inventions he had given to the world. + +Friends admitted there found "the great Mr. Watt" simple, modest, +careless of display--much as he had been as a boy--his voice low and +kindly, with still its broad, homely Scottish accent. The world would +have liked to draw him from his seclusion, to caress him, to make much +of him. It offered him a baronetcy, but his simple tastes lay not at all +in the direction of such honours, and he refused it. + +In 1819, when he was eighty-three, the end came. "I feel," said the +great man with a calm in strange contrast to the fearfulness and +timidity that had accompanied him through life, "I feel that I am now +come to my last illness." He passed away quietly and without suffering. +They buried him in Handsworth Church--near to his partner, Boulton--and +erected an imposing statue in Westminster Abbey, and beneath it Lord +Brougham wrote his famous epitaph. + +To us his life has much of pathos. Men have called him "the greatest +inventor in all ages," "the most extraordinary man that the world has +ever seen," but the long years of struggle and labour and waiting, the +weakness of body and the oft depression of spirit, are to us not a +little sad, specially when we remember how patiently he endured, how +uncomplainingly he suffered, that we might profit, that he might, as +Lord Brougham has it, "increase the power of man." + + + + +Splendid Books for Boys. + +By GORDON STABLES, M.D., R.N. + +Large Crown 8vo, Bevelled Boards, Gilt Edges, with Illustrations. + +_FIVE SHILLINGS each._ + + +IN SHIPS OF STEEL. + +A Story of the Navy of To-Day. + +"A lively tale of the Navy of to-day, by that popular writer."--_The +Guardian._ + +"We say a great deal when we say it is quite up to the Author's usual +level of exciting story telling."--_The British Weekly._ + + +FOR CROSS OR CRESCENT. + +A Romance of the Days of Richard the Lion-hearted. + +"A spirited, graphic story."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +IN THE DASHING DAYS OF OLD; + +Or, The World-wide Adventures of Willie Grant. + +"We can commend this book is the best story for boys which we have read +for many a day."--_English Churchman._ + + +FOR HONOUR NOT HONOURS. + +The Story of Gordon of Khartoum. + +"Dr. Gordon Stables has written again the story of General Gordon, in +'For Honour not Honours,' and no English boy will tire of reading +it."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +ON TO THE RESCUE. + +A Tale of the Indian Mutiny. + +"A capital story of the Indian Mutiny. The boy who gets hold of this +book is certain to thoroughly enjoy it."--_The Record._ + + +SHOULDER TO SHOULDER. + +A Story of the Stirring Times of Old. + +"More than a mere Story of the Stirring Times of Old. The tale goes +close to the heart of the reader, because it has come from the heart of +the writer."--_Aberdeen Free Press._ + + +ENGLAND'S HERO PRINCE. + +A Story of the Black Prince. + +"A dashing, graphic piece of work, well calculated to arouse the spirit +of youth."--_Publishers' Circular._ + + +'TWIXT DAYDAWN AND LIGHT. + +A Tale of the Times of Alfred the Great. + +"Splendidly told and well illustrated."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + +OLD ENGLAND ON THE SEA. + +The Story of Admiral Drake. + +"Here we have told with much spirit the story of Admiral Drake. We have +plenty of stories of the sea, _but what could be better than this true +tale_?"--_The Spectator._ + + +HEARTS OF OAK. + +A Story of Nelson and the Navy. + +"Tom Bure, the hero, will charm every boy that gets hold of +it."--_Literary World._ + +"A story of the Navy and of Mighty Nelson, told with excellent +spirit."--_Saturday Review._ + + +EXILES OF FORTUNE. + +The Story of a Far North Land. + +"A capital book; written with this popular writer's accustomed spirit, +and sure to be enjoyed."--_Scotsman._ + + +TWO SAILOR LADS. + +Their Stirring Adventures on Sea and Land. + +"A sea story big with wonders."--_Saturday Review._ + +"A capital story in Dr. Stables' best style."--_Spectator._ + + +FOR ENGLAND, HOME, AND BEAUTY. + +A Tale of Battle and the Breeze. + +"Dr. Stables has almost surpassed himself in this book. Certainly we +have read nothing of his which has pleased us more--perhaps we might say +as much."--_The Spectator._ + + +IN SEARCH OF FORTUNE. + +A Tale of the Old Land and the New. + +"The story is naturally and brightly written."--_Standard._ + +"Just the book boys like."--_Schoolmaster._ + + +FACING FEARFUL ODDS. + +A Tale of Flood and Field. + +"An exceptionally good book for boys."--_Guardian._ + +"One of the author's most fascinating stories."--_Leeds Mercury._ + + +_Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ + +"LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE." + +A Cruise of the Good Ship "Boreas." + + +LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +In the caption of the illustration on page 102 "Stevenson" has been +changed to "Stephenson" (Stephenson fighting the fire). + +On page 117 ' has been changed to " (of Nature's gentlemen."). + +On page 159 -- has been added (of youth."--_Publishers' Circular._). + +Otherwise the original has been preserved. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boyhood of Great Inventors, by +A. 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