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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Men of Invention and Industry**
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+Men of Invention and Industry 
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+by Samuel Smiles
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+November, 1996 [Etext #725]
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+
+
+MEN OF INVENTION AND INDUSTRY
+
+by Samuel Smiles
+
+
+
+"Men there have been, ignorant of letters; without art, without
+eloquence; who yet had the wisdom to devise and the courage to
+perform that which they lacked language to explain.  Such men
+have worked the deliverance of nations and their own greatness. 
+Their hearts are their books; events are their tutors; great
+actions are their eloquence."--MACAULAY.
+
+Contents.
+
+Preface
+
+CHAPTER I  Phineas Pett:
+  Beginings of English Shipbuilding
+
+CHAPTER II  Francis Pettit Smith:
+  Practical introducer of the Screw Propeller
+
+CHAPTER III  John Harrison:
+  Inventor of the Marine Chronometer
+
+CHAPTER IV  John Lombe:
+  Introducer of the Silk Industry into England
+
+CHAPTER V  William Murdock:
+  His Life and Inventions
+
+CHAPTER VI  Frederick Koenig:
+  Inventor of the Steam-printing Machine
+
+CHAPTER VII  The Walters of 'The Times':
+  Inventor of the Walter Press
+
+CHAPTER VIII William Clowes:
+  Book-printing by Steam
+
+CHAPTER IX  Charles Bianconi:
+  A lession of Self-Help in Ireland
+
+CHAPTER X  Industry in Ireland:
+  Through Connaught and Ulster to Belfast
+
+CHAPTER XI  Shipbuilding in Belfast:
+  By Sir E. J. Harland, Engineer and Shipbuilder
+
+CHAPTER XII  Astronomers and students in humble life:
+  A new Chapter in the 'Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties'
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+I offer this book as a continuation of the memoirs of men of
+invention and industry published some years ago in the 'Lives of
+Engineers,' 'Industrial Biography,' and 'Self-Help.'
+
+The early chapters relate to the history of a very important
+branch of British industry--that of Shipbuilding.  A later
+chapter, kindly prepared by Sir Edward J. Harland, of Belfast,
+relates to the origin and progress of shipbuilding in Ireland.
+
+Many of the facts set forth in the Life and Inventions of William
+Murdock have already been published in my 'Lives of Boulton and
+Watt;" but these are now placed in a continuous narrative, and
+supplemented by other information, more particularly the
+correspondence between Watt and Murdock, communicated to me by
+the present representative of the family, Mr. Murdock, C.E, of
+Gilwern, near Abergavenny.
+
+I have also endeavoured to give as accurate an account as
+possible of the Invention of the Steam-printing Press, and its
+application to the production of Newspapers and Books,--an
+invention certainly of great importance to the spread of
+knowledge, science, and literature, throughout the world.
+
+The chapter on the "Industry of Ireland" will speak for itself.
+It occurred to me, on passing through Ireland last year, that
+much remained to be said on that subject; and, looking to the
+increasing means of the country, and the well-known industry of
+its people, it seems reasonable to expect, that with peace,
+security, energy, and diligent labour of head and hand, there is
+really a great future before Ireland.
+
+The last chapter, on "Astronomers in Humble Life," consists for
+the most part of a series of Autobiographies.  It may seem, at
+first sight, to have little to do with the leading object of the
+book; but it serves to show what a number of active, earnest, and
+able men are comparatively hidden throughout society, ready to
+turn their hands and heads to the improvement of their own
+characters, if not to the advancement of the general community
+of which they form a part.
+
+In conclusion, I say to the reader, as Quarles said in the
+preface to his 'Emblems,' "I wish thee as much pleasure in the
+reading as I had in the writing."  In fact, the last three
+chapters were in some measure the cause of the book being
+published in its present form.
+
+London, November, 1884.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+PHINEAS PETT: BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH SHIP-BUILDING.
+
+"A speck in the Northern Ocean, with a rocky coast, an ungenial 
+climate, and a soil scarcely fruitful,--this was the material 
+patrimony which descended to the English race--an inheritance 
+that would have been little worth but for the inestimable moral
+gift that accompanied it.  Yes; from Celts, Saxons, Danes,
+Normans--from some or all of them--have come down with English
+nationality a talisman that could command sunshine, and plenty,
+and empire, and fame.  The 'go' which they transmitted to us--the
+national vis--this it is which made the old Angle-land a glorious
+heritage.  Of this we have had a portion above our brethren--good
+measure, running over.  Through this our island-mother has
+stretched out her arms till they enriched the globe of the
+earth....Britain, without her energy and enterprise, what would
+she be in Europe?"--Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1870).
+
+In one of the few records of Sir Isaac Newton's life which he
+left for the benefit of others, the following comprehensive
+thought occurs:
+
+"It is certainly apparent that the inhabitants of this world are
+of a short date, seeing that all arts, as letters, ships,
+printing, the needle, &c., were discovered within the memory of
+history."
+
+If this were true in Newton's time, how much truer is it now. 
+Most of the inventions which are so greatly influencing, as well
+as advancing, the civilization of the world at the present time,
+have been discovered within the last hundred or hundred and fifty
+years.  We do not say that man has become so much wiser during
+that period; for, though he has grown in Knowledge, the most
+fruitful of all things were said by "the heirs of all the ages"
+thousands of years ago.
+
+But as regards Physical Science, the progress made during the
+last hundred years has been very great.  Its most recent triumphs
+have been in connection with the discovery of electric power and
+electric light.  Perhaps the most important invention, however,
+was that of the working steam engine, made by Watt only about a
+hundred years ago.  The most recent application of this form of
+energy has been in the propulsion of ships, which has already
+produced so great an effect upon commerce, navigation, and the
+spread of population over the world.
+
+Equally important has been the influence of the Railway--now the
+principal means of communication in all civilized countries. 
+This invention has started into full life within our own time. 
+The locomotive engine had for some years been employed in the
+haulage of coals; but it was not until the opening of the
+Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, that the importance of
+the invention came to be acknowledged.  The locomotive railway
+has since been everywhere adopted throughout Europe.  In America,
+Canada, and the Colonies, it has opened up the boundless
+resources of the soil, bringing the country nearer to the towns,
+and the towns to the country.  It has enhanced the celerity of
+time, and imparted a new series of conditions to every rank of
+life.
+
+The importance of steam navigation has been still more recently
+ascertained.  When it was first proposed, Sir Joseph Banks,
+President of the Royal Society, said:  "It is a pretty plan, but
+there is just one point overlooked: that the steam-engine
+requires a firm basis on which to work."  Symington, the
+practical mechanic, put this theory to the test by his successful
+experiments, first on Dalswinton Lake, and then on the Forth and
+Clyde Canal.  Fulton and Bell afterwards showed the power of
+steamboats in navigating the rivers of America and Britain.
+
+After various experiments, it was proposed to unite England and
+America by steam.  Dr. Lardner, however, delivered a lecture
+before the Royal Institution in 1838, "proving" that steamers
+could never cross the Atlantic, because they could not carry
+sufficient coal to raise steam enough during the voyage.  But
+this theory was also tested by experience in the same year, when
+the Sirius, of London, left Cork for New York, and made the
+passage in nineteen days.  Four days after the departure of the
+Sirius, the Great Western left Bristol for New York, and made the
+passage in thirteen days five hours.[1]  The problem was solved;
+and great ocean steamers have ever since passed in continuous
+streams between the shores of England and America.
+
+In an age of progress, one invention merely paves the way for
+another.  The first steamers were impelled by means of paddle
+wheels; but these are now almost entirely superseded by the
+screw.  And this, too, is an invention almost of yesterday.  It
+was only in 1840 that the Archimedes was fitted as a screw yacht.
+
+A few years later, in 1845, the Great Britain, propelled by the
+screw, left Liverpool for New York, and made the voyage in
+fourteen days.  The screw is now invariably adopted in all long
+ocean voyages.
+
+It is curious to look back, and observe the small beginnings of
+maritime navigation.  As regards this country, though its
+institutions are old, modern England is still young.  As respects
+its mechanical and scientific achievements, it is the youngest of
+all countries.  Watt's steam engine was the beginning of our
+manufacturing supremacy; and since its adoption, inventions and
+discoveries in Art and Science, within the last hundred years,
+have succeeded each other with extraordinary rapidity.  In 1814
+there was only one steam vessel in Scotland; while England
+possessed none at all.  Now, the British mercantile steam-ships
+number about 5000, with about 4 millions of aggregate tonnage.[2]
+
+In olden times this country possessed the materials for great
+things, as well as the men fitted to develope them into great
+results.  But the nation was slow to awake and take advantage of
+its opportunities.  There was no enterprise, no commerce--no "go"
+in the people.  The roads were frightfully bad; and there was
+little communication between one part of the country and another.
+
+If anything important had to be done, we used to send for
+foreigners to come and teach us how to do it.  We sent for them
+to drain our fens, to build our piers and harbours, and even to
+pump our water at London Bridge.  Though a seafaring population
+lived round our coasts, we did not fish our own seas, but left it
+to the industrious Dutchmen to catch the fish, and supply our
+markets.  It was not until the year 1787 that the Yarmouth people
+began the deep-sea herring fishery; and yet these were the most
+enterprising amongst the English fishermen.
+
+English commerce also had very slender beginnings.  At the
+commencement of the fifteenth century, England was of very little
+account in the affairs of Europe.  Indeed, the history of modern
+England is nearly coincident with the accession of the Tudors to
+the throne.  With the exception of Calais and Dunkirk, her
+dominions on the Continent had been wrested from her by the
+French.  The country at home had been made desolate by the Wars
+of the Roses.  The population was very small, and had been kept
+down by war, pestilence, and famine.[3] The chief staple was
+wool, which was exported to Flanders in foreign ships, there to
+be manufactured into cloth.  Nearly every article of importance
+was brought from abroad; and the little commerce which existed
+was in the hands of foreigners.  The seas were swept by
+privateers, little better than pirates, who plundered without
+scruple every vessel, whether friend or foe, which fell in their
+way.
+
+The British navy has risen from very low beginnings.  The English
+fleet had fallen from its high estate since the reign of Edward
+III., who won a battle from the French and Flemings in 1340, with
+260 ships; but his vessels were all of moderate size, being
+boats, yachts, and caravels, of very small tonnage.  According to
+the contemporary chronicles, Weymouth, Fowey, Sandwich, and
+Bristol, were then of nearly almost as much importance as
+London;[4] which latter city only furnished twenty-five vessels,
+with 662 mariners.
+
+The Royal Fleet began in the reign of Henry VII.  Only six or
+seven vessels then belonged to the King, the largest being the
+Grace de Dieu, of comparatively small tonnage.  The custom then
+was, to hire ships from the Venetians, the Genoese, the Hanse
+towns, and other trading people; and as soon as the service for
+which the vessels so hired was performed, they were dismissed.
+
+When Henry VIII. ascended the throne in 1509, he directed his
+attention to the state of the navy.  Although the insular
+position of England was calculated to stimulate the art of
+shipbuilding more than in most continental countries, our best
+ships long continued to be built by foreigners.  Henry invited
+from abroad, especially from Italy, where the art of shipbuilding
+had made the greatest progress, as many skilful artists and
+workmen as he could procure, either by the hope of gain, or the
+high honours and distinguished countenance which he paid them. 
+"By incorporating," says Charnock, "these useful persons among
+his own subjects, he soon formed a corps sufficient to rival
+those states which had rendered themselves most distinguished by
+their knowledge in this art; so that the fame of Genoa and
+Venice, which had long excited the envy of the greater part of
+Europe, became suddenly transferred to the shores of Britain."[5]
+
+In fitting out his fleet, we find Henry disbursing large sums to
+foreigners for shipbuilding, for "harness" or armour, and for
+munitions of all sorts.  The State Papers[6] particularize the
+amounts paid to Lewez de la Fava for "harness;" to William Gurre,
+"bregandy-maker;" and to Leonard Friscobald for "almayn ryvetts."
+
+Francis de Errona, a Spaniard, supplied the gunpowder.  Among the
+foreign mechanics and artizans employed were Hans Popenruyter,
+gunfounder of Mechlin; Robert Sakfeld, Robert Skorer, Fortuno de
+Catalenago, and John Cavelcant.  On one occasion 2,797L. 19s. 4
+1/2d. was disbursed for guns and grindstones.  This sum must be
+multiplied by about four, to give the proper present value. 
+Popenruyter seems to have been the great gunfounder of the age;
+he supplied the principal guns and gun stores for the English
+navy, and his name occurs in every Ordnance account of the
+series, generally for sums of the largest amounts.
+
+Henry VIII. was the first to establish Royal dockyards, first at
+Woolwich, then at Portsmouth, and thirdly at Deptford, for the
+erection and repair of ships.  Before then, England had been
+principally dependent upon Dutchmen and Venetians, both for ships
+of war and merchantmen.  The sovereign had neither naval arsenals
+nor dockyards, nor any regular establishment of civil or naval
+affairs to provide ships of war.  Sir Edward Howard, Lord High
+Admiral of England, at the accession of Henry VIII., actually
+entered into a "contract" with that monarch to fight his enemies.
+
+This singular document is still preserved in the State Paper
+office.  Even after the establishment of royal dockyards, the
+sovereign--as late as the reign of Elizabeth--entered into formal
+contracts with shipwrights for the repair and maintenance of
+ships, as well as for additions to the fleet.
+
+The King, having made his first effort at establishing a royal
+navy, sent the fleet to sea against the ships of France.  The
+Regent was the ship royal, with Sir Thomas Knivet, Master of the
+Horse, and Sir John Crew of Devonshire, as Captains.  The fleet
+amounted to twenty-five well furnished ships.  The French fleet
+were thirty-nine in number.  They met in Brittany Bay, and had a
+fierce fight.  The Regent grappled with a great carack of Brest;
+the French, on the English boarding their ship, set fire to the
+gunpowder, and both ships were blown up, with all their men.  The
+French fleet fled, and the English kept the seas.  The King,
+hearing of the loss of the Regent, caused a great ship to be
+built, the like of which had never before been seen in England,
+and called it Harry Grace de Dieu.
+
+This ship was constructed by foreign artizans, principally by
+Italians, and was launched in 1515.  She was said to be of a
+thousand tons portage --the largest ship in England.  The vessel
+was four-masted, with two round tops on each mast, except the
+shortest mizen.  She had a high forecastle and poop, from which
+the crew could shoot down upon the deck or waist of another
+vessel.  The object was to have a sort of castle at each end of
+the ship.  This style of shipbuilding was doubtless borrowed from
+the Venetians, then the greatest naval power in Europe.  The
+length of the masts, the height of the ship above the water's
+edge, and the ornaments and decorations, were better adapted for
+the stillness of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, than for
+the boisterous ocean of the northern parts of Europe.[7] The
+story long prevailed that "the Great Harry swept a dozen flocks
+of sheep off the Isle of Man with her bob-stay."  An American
+gentleman (N.B. Anderson, LL.D., Boston) informed the present
+author that this saying is still proverbial amongst the United
+States sailors.
+
+The same features were reproduced in merchant ships.  Most of
+them were suited for defence, to prevent the attacks of pirates,
+which swarmed the seas round the coast at that time. 
+Shipbuilding by the natives in private shipyards was in a
+miserable condition.  Mr. Willet, in his memoir relative to the
+navy, observes: "It is said, and I believe with truth, that at
+this time (the middle of the sixteenth century) there was not a
+private builder between London Bridge and Gravesend, who could
+lay down a ship in the mould left from a Navy Board's draught,
+without applying to a tinker who lived in Knave's Acre."[8]
+
+Another ship of some note built at the instance of Henry VIII. 
+was the Mary Rose, of the portage of 500 tons.  We find her in
+the "pond at Deptford" in 1515.  Seven years later, in the
+thirtieth year of Henry VIII.'s reign, she was sent to sea, with
+five other English ships of war, to protect such commerce as then
+existed from the depredations of the French and Scotch pirates. 
+The Mary Rose was sent many years later (in 1544) with the
+English fleet to the coast of France, but returned with the rest
+of the fleet to Portsmouth without entering into any engagement. 
+While laid at anchor, not far from the place where the Royal
+George afterwards went down, and the ship was under repair, her
+gun-ports being very low when she was laid over, "the shipp
+turned, the water entered, and sodainly she sanke."
+
+What was to be done?  There were no English engineers or workmen
+who could raise the ship.  Accordingly, Henry VIII. sent to
+Venice for assistance, and when the men arrived, Pietro de
+Andreas was dispatched with the Venetian marines and carpenters
+to raise the Mary Rose.  Sixty English mariners were appointed to
+attend upon them.  The Venetians were then the skilled "heads,"
+the English were only the "hands."  Nevertheless they failed with
+all their efforts; and it was not until the year 1836 that Mr.
+Dean, the engineer, succeeded in raising not only the Royal
+George, but the Mary Rose, and cleared the roadstead at
+Portsmouth of the remains of the sunken ships.
+
+When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, the commerce and
+navigation of England were still of very small amount.  The
+population of the kingdom amounted to only about five
+millions--not much more than the population of London is now. 
+The country had little commerce, and what it had was still mostly
+in the hands of foreigners.  The Hanse towns had their large
+entrepot for merchandise in Cannon Street, on the site of the
+present Cannon Street Station.  The wool was still sent abroad to
+Flanders to be fashioned into cloth, and even garden produce was
+principally imported from Holland.  Dutch, Germans, Flemings,
+French, and Venetians continued to be our principal workmen.  Our
+iron was mostly obtained from Spain and Germany.  The best arms
+and armour came from France and Italy.  Linen was imported from
+Flanders and Holland, though the best came from Rheims.  Even the
+coarsest dowlas, or sailcloth, was imported from the Low
+Countries.
+
+The royal ships continued to be of very small burthen, and the
+mercantile ships were still smaller.  The Queen, however, did
+what she could to improve the number and burthen of our ships. 
+"Foreigners," says Camden, "stiled her the restorer of naval
+glory and Queen of the Northern Seas."  In imitation of the
+Queen, opulent subjects built ships of force; and in course of
+time England no longer depended upon Hamburg, Dantzic, Genoa, and
+Venice, for her fleet in time of war.
+
+Spain was then the most potent power in Europe, and the
+Netherlands, which formed part of the dominions of Spain, was the
+centre of commercial prosperity.  Holland possessed above 800
+good ships, of from 200 to 700 tons burthen, and above 600 busses
+for fishing, of from 100 to 200 tons.  Amsterdam and Antwerp were
+in the heyday of their prosperity.  Sometimes 500 great ships
+were to be seen lying together before Amsterdam;[9] whereas
+England at that time had not four merchant ships of 400 tons
+each!  Antwerp, however, was the most important city in the Low
+Countries.  It was no uncommon thing to see as many as 2500 ships
+in the Scheldt, laden with merchandize.  Sometimes 500 ships
+would come and go from Antwerp in one day, bound to or returning
+from the distant parts of the world.  The place was immensely
+rich, and was frequented by Spaniards, Germans, Danes, English,
+Italians, and Portuguese the Spaniards being the most numerous. 
+Camden, in his history of Queen Elizabeth, relates that our
+general trade with the Netherlands in 1564 amounted to twelve
+millions of ducats, five millions of which was for English cloth
+alone.
+
+The religious persecutions of Philip II. of Spain and of Charles
+IX. of France shortly supplied England with the population of
+which she stood in need--active, industrious, intelligent
+artizans.  Philip set up the Inquisition in Flanders, and in a
+few years more than 50,000 persons were deliberately murdered. 
+The Duchess of Parma, writing to Philip II. in 1567, informed him
+that in a few days above 100,000 men had already left the country
+with their money and goods, and that more were following every
+day.  They fled to Germany, to Holland, and above all to England,
+which they hailed as Asylum Christi.  The emigrants settled in
+the decayed cities and towns of Canterbury, Norwich, Sandwich,
+Colchester, Maidstone, Southampton, and many other places, where
+they carried on their manufactures of woollen, linen, and silk,
+and established many new branches of industry.[10]
+
+Five years later, in 1572, the massacre of St. Bartholomew took
+place in France, during which the Roman Catholic Bishop Perefixe
+alleges that 100,000 persons were put to death because of their
+religions opinions.  All this persecution, carried on so near the
+English shores, rapidly increased the number of foreign fugitives
+into England, which was followed by the rapid advancement of the
+industrial arts in this country.
+
+The asylum which Queen Elizabeth gave to the persecuted
+foreigners brought down upon her the hatred of Philip II. and
+Charles IX.  When they found that they could not prevent her
+furnishing them with an asylum, they proceeded to compass her
+death.  She was excommunicated by the Pope, and Vitelli was hired
+to assassinate her.  Philip also proceeded to prepare the Sacred
+Armada for the subjugation of the English nation, and he was
+master of the most powerful army and navy in the world.
+
+Modern England was then in the throes of her birth.  She had not
+yet reached the vigour of her youth, though she was full of life
+and energy.  She was about to become the England of free thought,
+commerce, and manufactures; to plough the ocean with her navies,
+and to plant her colonies over the earth.  Up to the accession of
+Elizabeth, she had done little, but now she was about to do much.
+
+It was a period of sudden emancipation of thought, and of immense
+fertility and originality.  The poets and prose writers of the
+time united the freshness of youth with the vigour of manhood. 
+Among these were Spenser, Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, the
+Fletchers, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson.  Among the statesmen of
+Elizabeth were Burleigh, Leicester, Walsingham, Howard, and Sir
+Nicholas Bacon.  But perhaps greatest of all were the sailors,
+who, as Clarendon said, "were a nation by themselves;" and their
+leaders--Drake, Frobisher, Cavendish, Hawkins, Howard, Raleigh,
+Davis, and many more distinguished seamen.
+
+They were the representative men of their time, the creation in a
+great measure of the national spirit.  They were the offspring of
+long generations of seamen and lovers of the sea.  They could not
+have been great but for the nation which gave them birth, and
+imbued them with their worth and spirit.  The great sailors, for
+instance, could not have originated in a nation of mere landsmen.
+
+They simply took the lead in a country whose coasts were fringed
+with sailors.  Their greatness was but the result of an
+excellence in seamanship which prevailed widely around them.
+
+The age of English maritime adventure only began in the reign of
+Elizabeth.  England had then no colonies--no foreign possessions
+whatever.  The first of her extensive colonial possessions was
+established in this reign.  "Ships, colonies, and commerce "began
+to be the national motto--not that colonies make ships and
+commerce, but that ships and commerce make colonies.  Yet what
+cockle-shells of ships our pioneer navigators first sailed in!
+
+Although John Cabot or Gabota, of Bristol, originally a citizen
+of Venice, had discovered the continent of North America in 1496,
+in the reign of Henry VII., he made no settlement there, but
+returned to Bristol with his four small ships.  Columbus did not
+see the continent of America until two years later, in 1498, his
+first discoveries being the islands of the West Indies.
+
+It was not until the year 1553 that an attempt was made to
+discover a North-west passage to Cathaya or China.  Sir Hugh
+Willonghby was put in command of the expedition, which consisted
+of three ships,--the Bona Esperanza, the Bona Ventura (Captain
+Chancellor), and the Bona Confidentia (Captain Durforth),--most
+probably ships built by Venetians.  Sir Hugh reached 72 degrees
+of north latitude, and was compelled by the buffeting of the
+winds to take refuge with Captain Durforth's vessel at Arcina
+Keca, in Russian Lapland, where the two captains and the crews of
+these ships, seventy in number, were frozen to death.  In the
+following year some Russian fishermen found Sir John Willonghby
+sitting dead in his cabin, with his diary and other papers beside
+him.
+
+Captain Chancellor was more fortunate.  He reached Archangel in
+the White Sea, where no ship had ever been seen before.  He
+pointed out to the English the way to the whale fishery at
+Spitzbergen, and opened up a trade with the northern parts of
+Russia.  Two years later, in 1556, Stephen Burroughs sailed with
+one small ship, which entered the Kara Sea; but he was compelled
+by frost and ice to return to England.  The strait which he
+entered is still called "Burrough's Strait."
+
+It was not, however, until the reign of Elizabeth that great
+maritime adventures began to be made.  Navigators were not so
+venturous as they afterwards became.  Without proper methods of
+navigation, they were apt to be carried away to the south, across
+an ocean without limit.  In 1565 a young captain, Martin
+Frobisher, came into notice.  At the age of twenty-five he
+captured in the South Seas the Flying Spirit, a Spanish ship
+laden with a rich cargo of cochineal.  Four years later, in 1569,
+he made his first attempt to discover the north-west passage to
+the Indies, being assisted by Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick. 
+The ships of Frobisher were three in number, the Gabriel, of from
+15 to 20 tons; the Michael, of from 20 to 25 tons, or half the
+size of a modern fishing-boat; and a pinnace, of from 7 to 10
+tons!  The aggregate of the crews of the three ships was only
+thirty-five, men and boys.  Think of the daring of these early
+navigators in attempting to pass by the North Pole to Cathay
+through snow, and storm, and ice, in such miserable little
+cockboats!  The pinnace was lost; the Michael, under Owen
+Griffith, a Welsh-man, deserted; and Martin Frobisher in the
+Gabriel went alone into the north-western sea!
+
+He entered the great bay, since called Hudson's Bay, by
+Frobisher's Strait.  He returned to England without making the
+discovery of the Passage, which long remained the problem of
+arctic voyagers.  Yet ten years later, in 1577, he made another
+voyage, and though he made his second attempt with one of Queen
+Elizabeth's own ships, and two barks, with 140 persons in all, he
+was as unsuccessful as before.  He brought home some supposed
+gold ore; and on the strength of the stones containing gold, a
+third expedition went out in the following year.  After losing
+one of the ships, consuming the provisions, and suffering greatly
+from ice and storms, the fleet returned home one by one.  The
+supposed gold ore proved to be only glittering sand.
+
+While Frobisher was seeking El-Dorado in the North, Francis Drake
+was finding it in the South.  He was a sailor, every inch of him.
+
+"Pains, with patience in his youth," says Fuller, "knit the
+joints of his soul, and made them more solid and compact."  At an
+early age, when carrying on a coasting trade, his imagination was
+inflamed by the exploits of his protector Hawkins in the New
+World, and he joined him in his last unfortunate adventure on the
+Spanish Main.  He was not, however, discouraged by his first
+misfortune, but having assembled about him a number of seamen who
+believed in him, he made other adventures to the West Indies, and
+learnt the navigation of that part of the ocean.  In 1570, he
+obtained a regular commission from Queen Elizabeth, though he
+sailed his own ships, and made his own ventures.  Every
+Englishman, who had the means, was at liberty to fit out his own
+ships; and with tolerable vouchers, he was able to procure a
+commission from the Court, and proceed to sea at his own risk and
+cost.  Thus, the naval enterprise and pioneering of new countries
+under Elizabeth, was almost altogether a matter of private
+enterprise and adventure.
+
+In 1572, the butchery of the Hugnenots took place at Paris and
+throughout France; while at the same time the murderous power of
+Philip II. reigned supreme in the Netherlands.  The sailors knew
+what they had to expect from the Spanish king in the event of his
+obtaining his threatened revenge upon England; and under their
+chosen chiefs they proceeded to make war upon him.  In the year
+of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, Drake set sail for the
+Spanish Main in the Pasha, of seventy tons, accompanied by the
+Swan, of twenty-five tons; the united crews of the vessels
+amounting to seventy-three men and boys.  With this insignificant
+force, Drake made great havoc amongst the Spanish shipping at
+Nombre de Dios.  He partially crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and
+obtained his first sight of the great Pacific Ocean.  He returned
+to England in August 1573, with his frail barks crammed with
+treasure.
+
+A few years later, in 1577, he made his ever-memorable
+expedition.  Charnock says it was "an attempt in its nature so
+bold and unprecedented, that we should scarcely know whether to
+applaud it as a brave, or condemn it as a rash one, but for its
+success."  The squadron with which he sailed for South America
+consisted of five vessels, the largest of which, the Pelican, was
+only of 100 tons burthen; the next, the Elizabeth, was of 80; the
+third, the Swan, a fly-boat, was of 50; the Marygold bark, of 30;
+and the Christopher, a pinnace, of 15 tons.  The united crews of
+these vessels amounted to only 164, gentlemen and sailors.
+
+The gentlemen went with Drake "to learn the art of navigation."
+After various adventures along the South American coast, the
+little fleet passed through the Straits of Magellan, and entered
+the Pacific Ocean.  Drake took an immense amount of booty from
+the Spanish towns along the coast, and captured the royal
+galleon, the Cacafuego, laden with treasure.  After trying in
+vain to discover a passage home by the North-eastern ocean,
+though what is now known as Behring Straits, he took shelter in
+Port San Francisco, which he took possession of in the name of
+the Queen of England, and called New Albion.  He eventually
+crossed the Pacific for the Moluccas and Java, from which he
+sailed right across the Indian Ocean, and by the Cape of Good
+Hope to England, thus making the circumnavigation of the world. 
+He was absent with his little fleet for about two years and ten
+months.
+
+Not less extraordinary was the voyage of Captain Cavendish, who
+made the circumnavigation of the globe at his own expense.  He
+set out from Plymouth in three small vessels on the 21st July,
+1586.  One vessel was of 120 tons, the second of 60 tons, and the
+third of 40 tons--not much bigger than a Thames yacht.  The
+united crews, of officers, men, and boys, did not exceed 123! 
+Cavendish sailed along the South American continent, and made
+through the Straits of Magellan, reaching the Pacific Ocean.  He
+burnt and plundered the Spanish settlements along the coast,
+captured some Spanish ships, and took by boarding the galleon St.
+Anna, with 122,000 Spanish dollars on board.  He then sailed
+across the Pacific to the Ladrone Islands, and returned home
+through the Straits of Java and the Indian Archipelago by the
+Cape of Good Hope, and reached England after an absence of two
+years and a month.
+
+The sacred and invincible Armada was now ready, Philip II. was
+determined to put down those English adventurers who had swept
+the coasts of Spain and plundered his galleons on the high seas. 
+The English sailors knew that the sword of Philip was forged in
+the gold mines of South America, and that the only way to defend
+their country was to intercept the plunder on its voyage home to
+Spain.  But the sailors and their captains--Drake, Hawkins,
+Frobisher, Howard, Grenville, Raleigh, and the rest--could not
+altogether interrupt the enterprise of the King of Spain.  The
+Armada sailed, and came in sight of the English coast on the 20th
+of July, 1588.
+
+The struggle was of an extraordinary character.  On the one side
+was the most powerful naval armament that had ever put to sea. 
+It consisted of six squadrons of sixty fine large ships, the
+smallest being of 700 tons.  Besides these were four gigantic
+galleasses, each carrying fifty guns, four large armed galleys,
+fifty-six armed merchant ships, and twenty caravels--in all, 149
+vessels.  On board were 8000 sailors, 20,000 soldiers, and a
+large number of galley-slaves.  The ships carried provisions
+enough for six months' consumption; and the supply of ammunition
+was enormous.
+
+On the other side was the small English fleet under Hawkins and
+Drake.  The Royal ships were only thirteen in number.  The rest
+were contributed by private enterprize, there being only
+thirty-eight vessels of all sorts and sizes, including cutters
+and pinnaces, carrying the Queen's flag.  The principal armed
+merchant ships were provided by London, Southampton, Bristol, and
+the other southern ports.  Drake was followed by some privateers;
+Hawkins had four or five ships, and Howard of Effingham two.  The
+fleet was, however, very badly found in provisions and
+ammunition.  There was only a week's provisions on board, and
+scarcely enough ammunition for one day's hard fighting.  But the
+ships, small though they were, were in good condition.  They
+could sail, whether in pursuit or in flight, for the men who
+navigated them were thorough sailors.
+
+The success of the defence was due to tact, courage, and
+seamanship.  At the first contact of the fleets, the Spanish
+towering galleons wished to close, to grapple with their
+contemptuous enemies, and crush them to death.  "Come on!" said
+Medina Sidonia.  Lord Howard came on with the Ark and three other
+ships, and fired with immense rapidity into the great floating
+castles.  The Sam Mateo luffed, and wanted them to board.  "No!
+not yet!"  The English tacked, returned, fired again, riddled the
+Spaniards, and shot away in the eye of the wind.  To the
+astonishment of the Spanish Admiral, the English ships approached
+him or left him just as they chose.  "The enemy pursue me," wrote
+the Spanish Admiral to the Prince of Parma; "they fire upon me
+most days from morning till nightfall, but they will not close
+and grapple, though I have given them every opportunity."  The
+Capitana, a galleon of 1200 tons, dropped behind, struck her flag
+to Drake, and increased the store of the English fleet by some
+tons of gunpowder.  Another Spanish ship surrendered, and another
+store of powder and shot was rescued for the destruction of the
+Armada.  And so it happened throughout, until the Spanish fleet
+was driven to wreck and ruin, and the remaining ships were
+scattered by the tempests of the north.  After all, Philip proved
+to be, what the sailors called him, only "a Colossus stuffed with
+clouts."
+
+The English sailors followed up their advantage.  They went on
+"singeing the Ring of Spain's beard."  Private adventurers fitted
+up a fleet under the command of Drake, and invaded the mainland
+of Spain.  They took the lower part of the town of Corunna;
+sailed to the Tagus, and captured a fleet of ships laden with
+wheat and warlike stores for a new Armada.  They next sacked
+Vigo, and returned to England with 150 pieces of cannon and a
+rich booty.  The Earl of Cumberland sailed to the West Indies on
+a private adventure, and captured more Spanish prizes.  In 1590,
+ten English merchantmen, returning from the Levant, attacked
+twelve Spanish galleons, and after six hours' contest, put them
+to flight with great loss.  In the following year, three merchant
+ships set sail for the East Indies, and in the course of their
+voyage took several Portuguese vessels.
+
+A powerful Spanish fleet still kept the seas, and in 1591 they
+conquered the noble Sir Richard Grenville at the Azores--fifteen
+great Spanish galleons against one Queen's ship, the Revenge.  In
+1593, two of the Queen's ships, accompanied by a number of
+merchant ships, sailed for the West Indies, under Burroughs,
+Frobisher, and Cross, and amongst their other captures they took
+the greatest of all the East India caracks, a vessel of 1600
+tons, 700 men, and 36 brass cannon, laden with a magnificent
+cargo.  She was taken to Dartmouth, and surprised all who saw
+her, being the largest ship that had ever been seen in England. 
+In 1594, Captain James Lancaster set sail with three ships upon a
+voyage of adventure.  He was joined by some Dutch and French
+privateers.  The result was, that they captured thirty-nine of
+the Spanish ships.  Sir Amias Preston, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir
+Francis Drake, also continued their action upon the seas.  Lord
+Admiral Howard and the Earl of Essex made their famous attack
+upon Cadiz for the purpose of destroying the new Armada; they
+demolished all the forts; sank eleven of the King of Spain's best
+ships, forty-four merchant ships, and brought home much booty.
+
+Nor was maritime discovery neglected.  The planting of new
+colonies began, for the English people had already begun to
+swarm.  In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert planted Newfoundland for
+the Queen.  In 1584, Sir Waiter Raleigh planted the first
+settlement in Virginia.  Nor was the North-west passage
+neglected; for in 1580, Captain Pett (a name famous on the
+Thames) set sail from Harwich in the George, accompanied by
+Captain Jackman in the William.  They reached the ice in the
+North Sea, but were compelled to return without effecting their
+purpose! Will it be believed that the George was only of 40 tons,
+and that its crew consisted of nine men and a boy; and that the
+William was of 20 tons, with five men and a boy?  The wonder is
+that these little vessels could resist the terrible icefields,
+and return to England again with their hardy crews.
+
+Then in 1585, another of our adventurous sailors, John Davis, of
+Sandridge on the Dart, set sail with two barks, the Sunshine and
+the Moonshine, of 50 and 35 tons respectively, and discovered in
+the far North-west the Strait which now bears his name.  He was
+driven back by the ice; but, undeterred by his failure, he set
+out on a second, and then on a third voyage of discovery in the
+two following years.  But he never succeeded in discovering the
+North-west passage.  It all reads like a mystery--these repeated,
+determined, and energetic attempts to discover a new way of
+reaching the fabled region of Cathay.
+
+In these early times the Dutch were not unworthy rivals of the
+English.  After they had succeeded in throwing off the Spanish
+yoke and achieved their independence, they became one of the most
+formidable of maritime powers.  In the course of another century
+Holland possessed more colonies, and had a larger share of the
+carrying trade of the world than Britain.  It was natural
+therefore that the Dutch republic should take an interest in the
+North-west passage; and the Dutch sailors, by their enterprise
+and bravery, were among the first to point the way to Arctic
+discovery.  Barents and Behring, above all others, proved the
+courage and determination of their heroic ancestors.
+
+The romance of the East India Company begins with an
+advertisement in the London Gazette of 1599, towards the end of
+the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  As with all other enterprises of
+the nation, it was established by private means.  The Company was
+started with a capital of 72,000L. in 50L. shares.  The
+adventurers bought four vessels of an average burthen of 350
+tons.  These were stocked with provisions, "Norwich stuffs," and
+other merchandise.  The tiny fleet sailed from Billingsgate on
+the 13th February, 1601.  It went by the Cape of Good Hope to the
+East Indies, under the command of Captain James Lancaster.  It
+took no less than sixteen months to reach the Indian Archipelago.
+
+The little fleet reached Acheen in June, 1602.  The king of the
+territory received the visitors with courtesy, and exchanged
+spices with them freely.  The four vessels sailed homeward,
+taking possession of the island of St. Helena on their way back;
+having been absent exactly thirty-one months.  The profits of the
+first voyage proved to be about one hundred per cent.  Such was
+the origin of the great East India Company--now expanded into an
+empire, and containing about two hundred millions of people.
+
+To return to the shipping and the mercantile marine of the time
+of Queen Elizabeth.  The number of Royal ships was only thirteen,
+the rest of the navy consisting of merchant ships, which were
+hired and discharged when their purpose was served.[11] 
+According to Wheeler, at the accession of the Queen, there were
+not more than four ships belonging to the river Thames, excepting
+those of the Royal Navy, which were over 120 tons in burthen;[12]
+and after forty years, the whole of the merchant ships of
+England, over 100 tons, amounted to 135; only a few of these
+being of 500 tons.  In 1588, the number had increased to 150, "of
+about 150 tons one with another, employed in trading voyages to
+all parts and countries." The principal shipping which frequented
+the English ports still continued to be foreign--Italian,
+Flemish, and German.
+
+Liverpool, now possessing the largest shipping tonnage in the
+world, had not yet come into existence.  It was little better
+than a fishing village.  The people of the place presented a
+petition to the Queen, praying her to remit a subsidy which had
+been imposed upon them, and speaking of their native place as
+"Her Majesty's poor decayed town of Liverpool."  In 1565, seven
+years after Queen Elizabeth began to reign, the number of vessels
+belonging to Liverpool was only twelve.  The largest was of forty
+tons burthen, with twelve men; and the smallest was a boat of six
+tons, with three men.[13]
+
+James I., on his accession to the throne of England in 1603,
+called in all the ships of war, as well as the numerous
+privateers which had been employed during the previous reign in
+waging war against the commerce of Spain, and declared himself to
+be at peace with all the world.  James was as peaceful as a
+Quaker.  He was not a fighting King;- and, partly on this
+account, he was not popular.  He encouraged manufactures in wool,
+silk, and tapestry.  He gave every encouragement to the
+mercantile and colonizing adventurers to plant and improve the
+rising settlements of Virginia, New England, and Newfoundland. 
+He also promoted the trade to the East Indies.  Attempts
+continued to be made, by Hudson, Poole, Button, Hall, Baffin, and
+other courageous seamen, to discover the North-West passage, but
+always without effect.
+
+The shores of England being still much infested by Algerine and
+other pirates,[14] King James found it necessary to maintain the
+ships of war in order to protect navigation and commerce.  He
+nearly doubled the ships of the Royal Navy, and increased the
+number from thirteen to twenty-four.  Their size, however,
+continued small, both Royal and merchant ships.  Sir William
+Monson says, that at the accession of James I. there were not
+above four merchant ships in England of 400 tons burthen.[15] 
+The East Indian merchants were the first to increase the size. 
+In 1609, encouraged by their Charter, they built the Trade's
+Increase, of 1100 tons burthen, the largest merchant ship that
+had ever been built in England.  As it was necessary that, the
+crew of the ship should be able to beat off the pirates, she was
+fully armed.  The additional ships of war were also of heavier
+burthen.  In the same year, the Prince, of 1400 tons burthen, was
+launched; she carried sixty-four cannon, and was superior to any
+ship of the kind hitherto seen in England.
+
+And now we arrive at the subject of this memoir.  The Petts were
+the principal ship-builders of the time.  They had long been
+known upon the Thames, and had held posts in the Royal Dockyards
+since the reign of Henry VII.  They were gallant sailors, too;
+one of them, as already mentioned, having made an adventurous
+voyage to the Arctic Ocean in his little bark, the George, of
+only 40 tons burthen.  Phineas Pett was the first of the great
+ship-builders.  His father, Peter Pett, was one of the Queen's
+master shipwrights.  Besides being a ship-builder, he was also a
+poet, being the author of a poetical piece entitled, "Time's
+Journey to seek his daughter Truth,"[16] a very respectable
+performance.  Indeed, poetry is by no means incompatible with
+ship-building--the late Chief Constructor of the Navy being,
+perhaps, as proud of his poetry as of his ships.  Pett's poem was
+dedicated to the Lord High Admiral, Howard, Earl of Nottingham;
+and this may possibly have been the reason of the singular
+interest which he afterwards took in Phineas Pett, the poet
+shipwright's son.
+
+Phineas Pett was the second son of his father.  He was born at
+Deptford, or "Deptford Strond," as the place used to be called,
+on the 1st of November, 1570.  At nine years old, he was sent to
+the free-school at Rochester, and remained there for four years. 
+Not profiting much by his education there, his father removed him
+to a private school at Greenwich, kept by a Mr. Adams.  Here he
+made so much progress, that in three years time he was ready for
+Cambridge.  He was accordingly sent to that University at
+Shrovetide, l586, and was entered at Emmanuel College, under
+charge of Mr. Charles Chadwick, the president.  His father
+allowed him 20L. per annum, besides books, apparel, and other
+necessaries.
+
+Phineas remained at Cambridge for three years.  He was obliged to
+quit the University by the death of his "reverend, ever-loving
+father," whose loss, he says, "proved afterwards my utter undoing
+almost, had not God been more merciful to me."  His mother
+married again, "a most wicked husband," says Pett in his
+autobiography,[17] "one, Mr. Thomas Nunn, a minister," but of
+what denomination he does not state.  His mother's imprudence
+wholly deprived him of his maintenance, and having no hopes of
+preferment from his friends, he necessarily abandoned his
+University career, "presently after Christmas, 1590."
+
+Early in the following year, he was persuaded by his mother to
+apprentice himself to Mr. Richard Chapman, of Deptford Strond,
+one of the Queen's Master shipwrights, whom his late father had
+"bred up from a child to that profession."  He was allowed 2L.
+6s. 8d. per annum, with which he had to provide himself with
+tools and apparel.  Pett spent two years in this man's service to
+very little purpose; Chapman then died, and the apprentice was
+dismissed.  Pett applied to his elder brother Joseph, who would
+not help him, although he had succeeded to his father's post in
+the Royal Dockyard.  He was accordingly "constrained to ship
+himself to sea upon a desperate voyage in a man-of-war."  He
+accepted the humble place of carpenter's mate on board the
+galleon Constance, of London.  Pett's younger brother, Peter,
+then living at Wapping, gave him lodging, meat, and drink, until
+the ship was ready to sail.  But he had no money to buy clothes. 
+Fortunately one William King, a yoeman in Essex, taking pity upon
+the unfortunate young man, lent him 3L. for that purpose; which
+Pett afterwards repaid.
+
+The Constance was of only 200 tons burden.  She set sail for the
+South a few days before Christmas, 1592.  There is no doubt that
+she was bound upon a piratical adventure.  Piracy was not thought
+dishonourable in those days.  Four years had elapsed since the
+Armada had approached the English coast; and now the English and
+Dutch ships were scouring the seas in search of Spanish galleons.
+
+Whoever had the means of furnishing a ship, and could find a
+plucky captain to command her, sent her out as a privateer.  Even
+the Companies of the City of London clubbed their means together
+for the purpose of sending out Sir Waiter Raleigh to capture
+Spanish ships, and afterwards to divide the plunder; as any one
+may see on referring to the documents of the London
+Corporation.[18]
+
+The adventure in which Pett was concerned did not prove very
+fortunate.  He was absent for about twenty months on the coasts
+of Spain and Barbary, and in the Levant, enduring much misery for
+want of victuals and apparel, and "without taking any purchase of
+any value."  The Constance returned to the Irish coast, "extreme
+poorly."  The vessel entered Cork harbour, and then Pett,
+thoroughly disgusted with privateering life, took leave of both
+ship and voyage.  With much difficulty, he made his way across
+the country to Waterford, from whence he took ship for London. 
+He arrived there three days before Christmas, 1594, in a beggarly
+condition, and made his way to his brother Peter's house at
+Wapping, who again kindly entertained him.  The elder brother
+Joseph received him more coldly, though he lent him forty
+shillings to find himself in clothes.  At that time, the fleet
+was ordered to be got ready for the last expedition of Drake and
+Hawkins to the West Indies.  The Defiance was sent into Woolwich
+dock to be sheathed; and as Joseph Pett was in charge of the job,
+he allowed his brother to be employed as a carpenter.
+
+In the following year, Phineas succeeded in attracting the notice
+of Matthew Baker, who was commissioned to rebuild Her Majesty's
+Triumph.  Baker employed Pett as an ordinary workman; but he had
+scarcely begun the job before Baker was ordered to proceed with
+the building of a great new ship at Deptford, called the Repulse.
+
+Phineas wished to follow the progress of the Triumph, but finding
+his brother Joseph unwilling to retain him in his employment, he
+followed Baker to Deptford, and continued to work at the Repulse
+until she was finished, launched, and set sail on her voyage, at
+the end of April, 1596.  This was the leading ship of the
+squadron which set sail for Cadiz, under the command of the Earl
+of Essex and the Lord Admiral Howard, and which did so much
+damage to the forts and shipping of Philip II. of Spain.
+
+During the winter months, while the work was in progress, Pett
+spent the leisure of his evenings in perfecting himself in
+learning, especially in drawing, cyphering, and mathematics, for
+the purpose, as he says, of attaining the knowledge of his
+profession.  His master, Mr. Baker, gave him every encouragement,
+and from his assistance, he adds, "I must acknowledge I received
+my greatest lights."  The Lord Admiral was often present at
+Baker's house.  Pett was importuned to set sail with the ship
+when finished, but he preferred remaining at home.  The principal
+reason, no doubt, that restrained him at this moment from seeking
+the patronage of the great, was the care of his two sisters,[19]
+who, having fled from the house of their barbarous stepfather,
+could find no refuge but in that of their brother Phineas. 
+Joseph refused to receive them, and Peter of Wapping was perhaps
+less able than willing to do so.
+
+In April, 1597, Pett had the advantage of being introduced to
+Howard, Earl of Nottingham, then Lord High Admiral of England. 
+This, he says, was the first beginning of his rising.  Two years
+later, Howard recommended him for employment in purveying plank
+and timber in Norfolk and Suffolk for shipbuilding purposes. 
+Pett accomplished his business satisfactorily, though he had some
+malicious enemies to contend against.  In his leisure, he began
+to prepare models of ships, which he rigged and finished
+complete.  He also proceeded with the study of mathematics.  The
+beginning of the year 1600 found Pett once more out of
+employment; and during his enforced idleness, which continued for
+six months, he seriously contemplated abandoning his profession
+and attempting to gain "an honest and convenient maintenance" by
+joining a friend in purchasing a caravel (a small vessel), and
+navigating it himself.
+
+He was, however, prevented from undertaking this enterprise by a
+message which he received from the Court, then stationed at
+Greenwich.  The Lord High Admiral desired to see him; and after
+many civil compliments, he offered him the post of keeper of the
+plankyard at Chatham.  Pett was only too glad to accept this
+offer, though the salary was small.  He shipped his furniture on
+board a hoy of Rainham, and accompanied it down the Thames to the
+junction with the Medway.  There he escaped a great danger--one
+of the sea perils of the time.  The mouths of navigable rivers
+were still infested with pirates; and as the hoy containing Pett
+approached the Nore about three o'clock in the morning, and while
+still dark, she came upon a Dunkirk picaroon, full of men. 
+Fortunately the pirate was at anchor; she weighed and gave chase,
+and had not the hoy set full sail, and been impelled up the Swale
+by a fresh wind, Pett would have been taken prisoner, with all
+his furniture.[20]
+
+Arrived at Chatham, Pett met his brother Joseph, became
+reconciled to him, and ever after they lived together as loving
+brethren.  At his brother's suggestion, Pett took a lease of the
+Manor House, and settled there with his sisters.  He was now in
+the direct way to preferment.  Early in the following year
+(March, 1601) he succeeded to the place of assistant to the
+principal master shipwright at Chatham, and undertook the repairs
+of Her Majesty's ship The Lion's Whelp, and in the next year he
+new-built the Moon enlarging her both in length and breadth.
+
+At the accession of James I. in 1603, Pett was commanded by the
+Lord High Admiral with all possible speed to build a little
+vessel for the young Prince Henry, eldest son of His Majesty.  It
+was to be a sort of copy of the Ark Royal, which was the flagship
+of the Lord High Admiral when he defeated the Spanish Armada. 
+Pett proceeded to accomplish the order with all dispatch.  The
+little ship was in length by the keel 28 feet, in breadth 12
+feet, and very curiously garnished within and without with
+painting and carving.  After working by torch and candle light,
+night and day, the ship was launched, and set sail for the
+Thames, with the noise of drums, trumpets, and cannon, at the
+beginning of March, 1604.  After passing through a great storm at
+the Nore, the vessel reached the Tower, where the King and the
+young Prince inspected her with delight.  She was christened
+Disdain by the Lord High Admiral, and Pett was appointed captain
+of the ship.
+
+After his return to Chatham, Pett, at his own charge, built a
+small ship at Gillingham, of 300 tons, which he launched in the
+same year, and named the Resistance.  The ship was scarcely out
+of hand, when Pett was ordered to Woolwich, to prepare the Bear
+and other vessels for conveying his patron, the Lord High
+Admiral, as an Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain, for the purpose
+of concluding peace, after a strife of more than forty years. 
+The Resistance was hired by the Government as a transport, and
+Pett was put in command.  He seems to have been married at this
+time, as he mentions in his memoir that he parted with his wife
+and children at Chatham on the 24th of March, 1605, and that he
+sailed from Queenborough on Easter Sunday.
+
+During the voyage to Lisbon the Resistance became separated from
+the Ambassador's squadron, and took refuge in Corunna.  She then
+set sail for Lisbon, which she reached on the 24th of April; and
+afterwards for St. Lucar, on the Guadalquiver, near Seville,
+which she reached on the 11th of May following.  After revisiting
+Corunna, "according to instructions," on the homeward voyage,
+Pett directed his course for England, and reached Rye on the 26th
+of June, "amidst much rain, thunder, and lightning."  In the
+course of the same year, his brother Joseph died, and Phineas
+succeeded to his post as master shipbuilder at Chatham.  He was
+permitted, in conjunction with one Henry Farvey and three others,
+to receive the usual reward of 5s. per ton for building five new
+merchant ships,[21] most probably for East Indian commerce, now
+assuming large dimensions.  He was despatched by the Government
+to Bearwood, in Hampshire, to make a selection of timber from the
+estate of the Earl of Worcester for the use of the navy, and on
+presenting his report 3000 tons were purchased.  What with his
+building of ships, his attendance on the Lord Admiral to Spain,
+and his selection of timber for the Government, his hands seem to
+have been kept very full during the whole of 1605.
+
+In July, 1606, Pett received private instructions from the Lord
+High Admiral to have all the King's ships "put into comely
+readiness" for the reception of the King of Denmark, who was
+expected on a Royal visit.  "Wherein," he says, "I strove
+extraordinarily to express my service for the honour of the
+kingdom; but by reason the time limited was short, and the
+business great, we laboured night and day to effect it, which
+accordingly was done, to the great honour of our sovereign king
+and master, and no less admiration of all strangers that were
+eye-witnesses to the same."  The reception took place on the 10th
+of August, 1606.
+
+Shortly after the departure of His Majesty of Denmark, four of
+the Royal ships--the Ark, Victory, Golden Lion, and
+Swiftsure--were ordered to be dry-docked; the two last mentioned
+at Deptford, under charge of Matthew Baker; and the two former at
+Woolwich, under that of Pett.  For greater convenience, Pett
+removed his family to Woolwich.  After being elected and sworn
+Master of the Company of Shipwrights, he refers in his
+manuscript, for the first time, to his magnificent and original
+design of the Prince Royal.[22]
+
+"After settling at Woolwich," he says, "I began a curious model
+for the prince my master, most part whereof I wrought with my own
+hands."  After finishing the model, he exhibited it to the Lord
+High Admiral, and, after receiving his approval and commands, he
+presented it to the young prince at Richmond.  "His Majesty (who
+was present) was exceedingly delighted with the sight of the
+model, and passed some time in questioning the divers material
+things concerning it, and demanded whether I could build the
+great ship in all parts like the same; for I will, says His
+Majesty, compare them together when she shall be finished.  Then
+the Lord Admiral commanded me to tell His Majesty the story of
+the Three Ravens[23] I had seen at Lisbon, in St. Vincent's
+Church; which I did as well as I could, with my best expressions,
+though somewhat daunted at first at His Majesty's presence,
+having never before spoken before any King."
+
+Before, however, he could accomplish his purpose, Pett was
+overtaken by misfortunes.  His enemies, very likely seeing with
+spite the favour with which he had been received by men in high
+position, stirred up an agitation against him.  There may, and
+there very probably was, a great deal of jobbery going on in the
+dockyards.  It was difficult, under the system which prevailed,
+to have any proper check upon the expenditure for the repair and
+construction of ships.  At all events, a commission was appointed
+for the purpose of inquiring into the abuses and misdemeanors of
+those in office; and Pett's enemies took care that his past
+proceedings should be thoroughly overhauled,--together with those
+of Sir Robert Mansell, then Treasurer to the Navy; Sir John
+Trevor, surveyor; Sir Henry Palmer, controller; Sir Thomas
+Bluther, victualler; and many others.
+
+While the commission was still sitting and holding what Pett
+calls their "malicious proceedings," he was able to lay the keel
+of his new great ship upon the stocks in the dock at Woolwich on
+the 20th of October, 1608.  He had a clear conscience, for his
+hands were clean.  He went on vigorously with his work, though he
+knew that the inquisition against him was at its full height. 
+His enemies reported that he was "no artist, and that he was
+altogether insufficient to perform such a service" as that of
+building his great ship.  Nevertheless, he persevered, believing
+in the goodness of his cause.  Eventually, he was enabled to turn
+the tables upon his accusers, and to completely justify himself
+in all his transactions with the king, the Lord Admiral, and the
+public officers, who were privy to all his transactions.  Indeed,
+the result of the enquiry was not only to cause a great trouble
+and expense to all the persons accused, but, as Pett says in his
+Memoir, "the Government itself of that royal office was so shaken
+and disjoined as brought almost ruin upon the whole Navy, and a
+far greater charge to his Majesty in his yearly expense than ever
+was known before."[24]
+
+In the midst of his troubles and anxieties, Pett was unexpectedly
+cheered with the presence of his "Master" Prince Henry, who
+specially travelled out of his way from Essex to visit him at
+Woolwich, to see with his own eyes what progress he was making
+with the great ship.  After viewing the dry dock, which had been
+constructed by Pett, and was one of the first, if not the very
+first in England,--his Highness partook of a banquet which the
+shipbuilder had hastily prepared for him in his temporary
+lodgings.
+
+One of the circumstances which troubled Pett so much at this
+time, was the strenuous opposition of the other shipbuilders to
+his plans of the great ship.  There never had been such a
+frightful innovation.  The model was all wrong.  The lines were
+detestable.  The man who planned the whole thing was a fool, a
+"cozener" of the king, and the ship, suppose it to be made, was
+"unfit for any other use but a dung-boat!"  This attack upon his
+professional character weighed very heavily upon his mind.
+
+He determined to put his case in a staightforward manner before
+the Lord High Admiral.  He set down in writing in the briefest
+manner everything that he had done, and the plots that had been
+hatched against him; and beseeched his lordship, for the honour
+of the State, and the reputation of his office, to cause the
+entire matter to be thoroughly investigated "by judicious and
+impartial persons."  After a conference with Pett, and an
+interview with his Majesty,  the Lord High Admiral was authorised
+by the latter to invite the Earls of Worcester and Suffolk to
+attend with him at Woolwich, and bring all the accusers of Pett's
+design of the great ship before them for the purpose of
+examination, and to report to him as to the actual state of
+affairs.  Meanwhile Pett's enemies had been equally busy.  They
+obtained a private warrant from the Earl of Northampton[25] to
+survey the work; "which being done," says Pett, "upon return of
+the insufficiency of the same under their hands, and confirmation
+by oath, it was resolved amongst them I should be turned out, and
+for ever disgraced."
+
+But the lords appointed by the King now interfered between Pett
+and his adversaries.  They first inspected the ship, and made a
+diligent survey of the form and manner of the work and the
+goodness of the materials, and then called all the accusers
+before them to hear their allegations.  They were examined
+separately.  First, Baker the master shipbuilder was called.  He
+objected to the size of the ship, to the length, breadth, depth,
+draught of water, height of jack, rake before and aft, breadth of
+the floor, scantling of the timber, and so on.  Then another of
+the objectors was called; and his evidence was so clearly in
+contradiction to that which had already been given, that either
+one or both must be wrong.  The principal objector, Captain
+Waymouth, next gave his evidence; but he was able to say nothing
+to any purpose, except giving their lordships "a long, tedious
+discourse of proportions, measures, lines, and an infinite rabble
+of idle and unprofitable speeches, clean from the matter."
+
+The result was that their lordships reported favourably of the
+design of the ship, and the progress which had already been made.
+
+The Earl of Nottingham interposed his influence; and the King
+himself, accompanied by the young Prince, went down to Woolwich,
+and made a personal examination.[26]  A great many witnesses were
+again examined, twenty-four on one side, and twenty-seven on the
+other.  The King then carefully examined the ship himself:  "the
+planks, the tree-nails, the workmanship, and the cross-grained
+timber."  "The cross-grain," he concluded, "was in the men and
+not in the timber."  After all the measurements had been made and
+found correct, "his Majesty," says Pett, "with a loud voice
+commanded the measurers to declare publicly the very truth; which
+when they had delivered clearly on our side, all the whole
+multitude heaved up their hats, and gave a great and loud shout
+and acclamation.  And then the Prince, his Highness, called with
+a high voice in these words:  'Where be now these perjured
+fellows that dare thus abuse his Majesty with these false
+accusations?  Do they not worthily deserve hanging?"'
+
+Thus Pett triumphed over all his enemies, and was allowed to
+finish the great ship in his own way.  By the middle of September
+1610, the vessel was ready to be "strucken down upon her ways";
+and a dozen of the choice master carpenters of his Majesty's navy
+came from Chatham to assist in launching her.  The ship was
+decorated, gilded, draped, and garlanded; and on the 24th the
+King, the Queen, and the Royal family came from the palace at
+Theobald's to witness the great sight.  Unfortunately, the day
+proved very rough; and it was little better than a neap tide. 
+The ship started very well, but the wind "overblew the tide"; she
+caught in the dock-gates, and settled hard upon the ground, so
+that there was no possibility of launching her that day.
+
+This was a great disappointment.  The King retired to the palace
+at Greenwich, though the Prince lingered behind.  When he left,
+he promised to return by midnight, after which it was proposed to
+make another effort to set the ship afloat.  When the time
+arrived, the Prince again made his appearance, and joined the
+Lord High Admiral, and the principal naval officials.  It was
+bright moonshine.  After midnight the rain began to fall, and the
+wind to blow from the southwest.  But about two o'clock, an hour
+before high water, the word was given to set all taut, and the
+ship went away without any straining of screws and tackles, till
+she came clear afloat into the midst of the Thames.  The Prince
+was aboard, and amidst the blast of trumpets and expressions of
+joy, he performed the ceremony of drinking from the great
+standing cup, and throwing the rest of the wine towards the
+half-deck, and christening the ship by the name of the Prince
+Royal.[27]
+
+The dimensions of the ship may be briefly described.  Her keel
+was 114 feet long, and her cross-beam 44 feet.  She was of 1400
+tons burthen, and carried 64 pieces of great ordnance.  She was
+the largest ship that had yet been constructed in England.
+
+The Prince Royal was, at the time she was built, considered one
+of the most wonderful efforts of human genius.  Mr. Charnock, in
+his 'Treatise on Marine Architecture,' speaks of her as abounding
+in striking peculiarities.  Previous to the construction of this
+ship, vessels were built in the style of the Venetian galley,
+which although well adapted for the quiet Mediterranean, were not
+suited for the stormy northern ocean.  The fighting ships also of
+the time of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth were too full of
+"top-hamper" for modern navigation.  They were oppressed by high
+forecastles and poops.  Pett struck out entirely new ideas in the
+build and lines of his new ship; and the course which he adopted
+had its effect upon all future marine structures.  The ship was
+more handy, more wieldy, and more convenient.  She was
+unquestionably the first effort of English ingenuity in the
+direction of manageableness and simplicity.  "The vessel in
+question," says Charnock, "may be considered the parent of the
+class of shipping which continues in practice even to the present
+moment."
+
+It is scarcely necessary to pursue in detail the further history
+of Phineas Pett.  We may briefly mention the principal points. 
+In 1612, the Prince Royal was appointed to convey the Princess
+Elizabeth and her husband, The Palsgrave, to the Continent.  Pett
+was on board the ship, and found that "it wrought exceedingly
+well, and was so yare of conduct that a foot of helm would steer
+her."  While at Flushing, "such a multitude of people, men,
+women, and children, came from all places in Holland to see the
+ship, that we could scarce have room to go up and down till very
+night."
+
+About the 27th of March, 1616, Pett bargained with Sir Waiter
+Raleigh to build a vessel of 500 tons,[28] and received 500L.
+from him on account.  The King, through the interposition of the
+Lord Admiral, allowed Pett to lay her keel on the galley dock at
+Woolwich.  In the same year he was commissioned by the Lord
+Zouche, now Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to construct a
+pinnace of 40 tons, in respect of which Pett remarks, "towards
+the whole of the hull of the pinnace, and all her rigging, I
+received only 100L. from the Lord Zouche, the rest Sir Henry
+Mainwaring (half-brother to Raleigh) cunningly received on my
+behalf, without my knowledge, which I never got from him but by
+piecemeal, so that by the bargain I was loser 100L. at least."
+
+Pett fared much worse at the hands of Raleigh himself.  His great
+ship, the Destiny, was finished and launched in December, 1616. 
+"I delivered her to him," says Pett, "on float, in good order and
+fashion; by which business I lost 700L., and could never get any
+recompense at all for it; Sir Walter going to sea and leaving me
+unsatisfied."[29] Nor was this the only loss that Pett met with
+this year.  The King, he states, "bestowed upon me for the supply
+of my present relief the making of a knight-baronet," which
+authority Pett passed to a recusant, one Francis Ratcliffe, for
+700L.; but that worthy defrauded him, so that he lost 30L. by the
+bargain.
+
+Next year, Pett was despatched by the Government to the New
+Forest in Hampshire, "where," he says, "one Sir Giles
+Mompesson[30] had made a vast waste in the spoil of his Majesty's
+timber, to redress which I was employed thither, to make choice
+out of the number of trees he had felled of all such timber as
+was useful for shipping, in which business I spent a great deal
+of time, and brought myself into a great deal of trouble."  About
+this period, poor Pett's wife and two of his children lay for
+some time at death's door.  Then more enquiries took place into
+the abuses of the dockyards, in which it was sought to implicate
+Pett.  During the next three years (1618-20) he worked under the
+immediate orders of the Commissioners in the New Dock at Chatham.
+
+In 1620, Pett's friend Sir Robert Mansell was appointed General
+of the Fleet destined to chastise the Algerine pirates, who still
+continued their depredations on the shipping in the Channel, and
+the King thereupon commissioned Pett to build with all dispatch
+two pinnaces, of 120 and 80 tons respectively.  "I was myself,"
+he says, "to serve as Captain in the voyage"--being glad, no
+doubt, to escape from his tormentors.  The two pinnaces were
+built at Ratcliffe, and were launched on the 16th and l8th of
+October, 1620.  On the 30th, Pett sailed with the fleet, and
+after driving the pirates out of the Channel, he returned to port
+after an absence of eleven months.
+
+His enemies had taken advantage of his absence from England to
+get an order for the survey of the Prince Royal, his masterpiece;
+the result of which was, he says, that "they maliciously
+certified the ship to be unserviceable, and not fit to
+continue--that what charges should be bestowed upon her would be
+lost."  Nevertheless, the Prince Royal was docked, and fitted for
+a voyage to Spain.  She was sent thither with Charles Prince of
+Wales and the Duke of Buckingham, the former going in search of a
+Spanish wife.  Pett, the builder of the ship, was commanded to
+accompany the young Prince and the Duke.
+
+The expedition sailed on the 24th of August, 1623, and returned
+on the l4th of October.  Pett was entertained on board the Prince
+Royal, and rendered occasional services to the officers in
+command, though nothing of importance occurred during the voyage.
+
+The Prince of Wales presented him with a valuable gold chain as a
+reward for his attendance.  In 1625, Pett, after rendering many
+important services to the Admiralty, was ordered again to prepare
+the Prince Royal for sea.  She was to bring over the Prince of
+Wales's bride from France.  While the preparations were making
+for the voyage, news reached Chatham of the death of King James. 
+Pett was afterwards commanded to go forward with the work of
+preparing the Prince Royal, as well as the whole fleet, which was
+intended to escort the French Princess, or rather the Queen, to
+England.  The expedition took place in May, and the young Queen
+landed at Dover on the 12th of that month.
+
+Pett continued to be employed in building and repairing ships, as
+well as in preparing new designs, which he submitted to the King
+and the Commissioners of the Navy.  In 1626, he was appointed a
+joint commissioner, with the Lord High Admiral, the Lord
+Treasurer Marlborough, and others, "to enquire into certain
+alleged abuses of the Navy, and to view the state thereof, and
+also the stores thereof," clearly showing that he was regaining
+his old position.  He was also engaged in determining the best
+mode of measuring the tonnage of ships.[31] Four years later he
+was again appointed a commissioner for making "a general survey
+of the whole navy at Chatham."  For this and his other services
+the King promoted Pett to be a principal officer of the Navy,
+with a fee of 200L. per annum.  His patent was sealed on the 16th
+of January, 1631.  In the same year the King visited Woolwich to
+witness the launching of the Vanguard, which Pett had built; and
+his Majesty honoured the shipwright by participating in a banquet
+at his lodgings.
+
+From this period to the year 1637, Pett records nothing of
+particular importance in his autobiography.  He was chiefly
+occupied in aiding his son Peter--who was rapidly increasing his
+fame as a shipwright--in repairing and building first-class ships
+of war.  As Pett had, on an early occasion in his life, prepared
+a miniature ship for Prince Henry, eldest son of James I., he now
+proceeded to prepare a similar model for the Prince of Wales, the
+King's eldest son, afterwards Charles II.  This model was
+presented to the Prince at St. James's, "who entertained it with
+great joy, being purposely made to disport himself withal."  On
+the next visit of his Majesty to Woolwich, he inspected the
+progress made with the Leopard, a sloop-of-war built by Peter
+Pett.  While in the hold of the vessel, the King called Phineas
+to one side, and told him of his resolution to have a great new
+ship built, and that Phineas must be the builder.  This great new
+ship was The Sovereign of the Seas, afterwards built by Phineas
+and Peter Pett.  Some say that the model was prepared by the
+latter; but Phineas says that it was prepared by himself, and
+finished by the 29th of October, 1634.  As a compensation for his
+services, his Majesty renewed his pension of 40L. (which had been
+previously stopped), with orders for all the arrears due upon it
+to be paid.
+
+To provide the necessary timber for the new ship, Phineas and his
+son went down into the North to survey the forests.  They went
+first by water to Whitby; from thence they proceeded on horseback
+to Gisborough and baited; then to Stockton, where they found but
+poor entertainment, though they lodged with the Mayor, whose
+house "was only a mean thatched cottage!"  Middlesborough and the
+great iron district of the North had not yet come into existence.
+
+Newcastle, already of some importance, was the principal scene of
+their labours.  The timber for the new ship was found in Chapley
+Wood and Bracepeth Park.  The gentry did all they could to
+facilitate the object of Pett.  On his journey homewards (July,
+1635), he took Cambridge on his way, where, says he, "I lodged at
+the Falcon, and visited Emmanuel College, where I had been a
+scholar in my youth."
+
+The Sovereign of the Seas was launched on the l2th of October,
+1637, having been about two years in building.  Evelyn in his
+diary says of the ship (l9th July, 1641):- "We rode to Rochester
+and Chatham to see the Soveraigne, a monstrous vessel so called,
+being for burthen, defence, and ornament, the richest that ever
+spread cloth before the wind.  She carried 100 brass cannon, and
+was 1600 tons, a rare sailer, the work of the famous Phineas
+Pett."  Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds says that she was
+afterwards cut down, and was a safe and fast ship.[32]
+
+The Sovereign continued for nearly sixty years to be the finest
+ship in the English service.  Though frequently engaged in the
+most injurious occupations, she continued fit for any services
+which the exigencies of the State might require.  She fought all
+through the wars of the Commonwealth; she was the leading ship of
+Admiral Blake, and was in all the great naval engagements with
+France and Holland.  The Dutch gave her the name of The Golden
+Devil.  In the last fight between the English and French, she
+encountered the Wonder of the World, and so warmly plied the
+French Admiral, that she forced him out of his three-decked
+wooden castle, and chasing the Royal Sun, before her, forced her
+to fly for shelter among the rocks, where she became a prey to
+lesser vessels, and was reduced to ashes.  At last, in the reign
+of William III., the Sovereign became leaky and defective with
+age; she was laid up at Chatham, and being set on fire by
+negligence or accident, she burnt to the water's edge.
+
+To return to the history of Phineas Pett.  As years approached,
+he retired from office, and "his loving son," as he always
+affectionately designates Peter, succeeded him as principal
+shipwright, Charles I. conferring upon him the honour of
+knighthood.  Phineas lived for ten years after the Sovereign of
+the Seas was launched.  In the burial register of the parish of
+Chatham it is recorded, "Phineas Pett, Esqe. and Capt., was
+buried 21st August, l647."[33]
+
+Sir Peter Pett was almost as distinguished as his father.  He was
+the builder of the first frigate, The Constant Warwick.  Sir
+William Symonds says of this vessel:-- "She was an incomparable
+sailer, remarkable for her sharpness and the fineness of her
+lines; and many were built like her."  Pett "introduced convex
+lines on the immersed part of the hull, with the studding and
+sprit sails; and, in short, he appears to have fully deserved his
+character of being the best ship architect of his time."[34] Sir
+Peter Pett's monument in Deptford Old Church fully records his
+services to England's naval power.
+
+The Petts are said to have been connected with shipbuilding in
+the Thames for not less than 200 years.  Fuller, in his 'Worthies
+of England,' says of them--"I am credibly informed that that
+mystery of shipwrights for some descents hath been preserved
+faithfully in families, of whom the Petts about Chatham are of
+singular regard.  Good success have they with their skill, and
+carefully keep so precious a pearl, lest otherwise amongst many
+friends some foes attain unto it."
+
+The late Peter Bolt, member for Greenwich, took pride in being
+descended from the Petts; but so far as we know, the name itself
+has died out.  In 1801, when Charnock's 'History of Marine
+Architecture' was published, Mr. Pett, of Tovil, near Maidstone,
+was the sole representative of the family.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter I.
+
+[1] This was not the first voyage of a steamer between England
+and America.  The Savannah made the passage from New York to
+Liverpool as early as 1819; but steam was only used occasionally
+during the voyage, In 1825, the Enterprise, with engines by
+Maudslay, made the voyage from Falmouth to Calcutta in 113 days;
+and in 1828, the Curacoa made the voyage between Holland and the
+Dutch West Indies.  But in all these cases, steam was used as an
+auxiliary, and not as the one essential means of propulsion, as
+in the case of the Sirius and the Great Western, which were steam
+voyages only.
+
+[2] "In 1862 the steam tonnage of the country was 537,000 tons;
+in 1872, it was 1,537,000 tons; and in 1882, it had reached
+3,835,000 tons."--Mr. Chamberlain's speech, House of Commons,
+19th May, 1884.
+
+[3] The last visit of the plague was in 1665.
+
+[4] Roll of Edward the Third's Fleet.  Cotton's Library, British
+Museum.
+
+[5] Charnock's History Of Marine Architecture, ii. 89.
+
+[6] State Papers.  Henry VIII.  Nos. 3496, 3616, 4633.  The
+principal kinds of ordnance at that time were these:--The
+"Apostles," so called from the head of an Apostle which they
+bore; "Curtows," or "Courtaulx"; "Culverins" and "Serpents";
+"Minions," and "Potguns"; "Nurembergers," and "Bombards" or
+mortars.
+
+[7] The sum of all costs of the Harry Grace de Dieu and three
+small galleys, was 7708L. 5s. 3d.  (S.P.O. No. 5228, Henry VIII.)
+
+[8] Charnock, ii. 47 (note).
+
+[9] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 126.
+
+[10] The Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and Industries,
+in England and Ireland, ch. iv.
+
+[11] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 156.
+
+[12] Ibid. ii. 85.
+
+[13] Picton's Selections from the Municipal Archives and Records
+of Liverpool, p. 90.  About a hundred years later, in 1757, the
+gross customs receipts of Liverpool had increased to 198,946L.;
+whilst those of Bristol were as much as 351,211L.  In 1883, the
+amount of tonnage of Liverpool, inwards and outwards, was
+8,527,531 tons, and the total dock revenue for the year was
+1,273,752L.!
+
+[14] There were not only Algerine but English pirates scouring
+the seas.  Keutzner, the German, who wrote in Elizabeth's reign,
+said, "The English are good sailors and famous pirates (sunt boni
+nautae et insignis pyratae)."  Roberts, in his Social History of
+the Southern Counties (p. 93), observes, "Elizabeth had employed
+many English as privateers against the Spaniard.  After the war,
+many were loth to lead an inactive life.  They had their
+commissions revoked, and were proclaimed pirates.  The public
+looked upon them as gallant fellows; the merchants gave them
+underhand support; and even the authorities in maritime towns
+connived at the sale of their plunder.  In spite of
+proclamations, during the first five years after the accession of
+James I., there were continual complaints.  This lawless way of
+life even became popular.  Many Englishmen furnished themselves
+with good ships and scoured the seas, but little careful whom
+they might plunder."  It was found very difficult to put down
+piracy.  According to Oliver's History of the city of Exeter, not
+less than "fifteen sail of Turks" held the English Channel,
+snapping up merchantmen, in the middle of the seventeenth
+century!  The harbours in the south-west were infested by Moslem
+pirates, who attacked and plundered the ships, and carried their
+crews into captivity.  The loss, even to an inland port like
+Exeter, in ships, money, and men, was enormous.
+
+[15] Naval Tracts, p. 294.
+
+[16] This poem is now very rare.  It is not in the British
+Museum.
+
+[17] There are three copies extant of the autobiography, all of
+which are in the British Museum.  In the main, they differ but
+slightly from each other.  Not one of them has been published in
+extenso.  In December, 1795, and in February, 1796, Dr. Samuel
+Denne communicated to the Society of Antiquaries particulars of
+two of these MSS., and subsequently published copious extracts
+from them in their transactions (Archae. xii. anno 1796), in a
+very irregular and careless manner.  It is probable that Dr.
+Denne never saw the original manuscript, but only a garbled copy
+of it.  The above narrative has been taken from the original, and
+collated with the documents in the State Paper Office.
+
+[18] See, for instance, the Index to the Journals of Records of
+the Corporation of the City of London (No. 2, p. 346, 15901694)
+under the head of "Sir Walter Raleigh."  There is a document
+dated the 15th November, 1593, in the 35th of Elizabeth, which
+runs as follows:-- "Committee appointed on behalf of such of the
+City Companies as have ventured in the late Fleet set forward by
+Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, and others, to join with such
+honourable personages as the Queen hath appointed, to take a
+perfect view of all such goods, prizes, spices, jewels, pearls,
+treasures, &c., lately taken in the Carrack, and to make sale and
+division (Jor. 23, p. 156).  Suit to be made to the Queen and
+Privy Council for the buying of the goods, &c., lately taken at
+sea in the Carrack; a committee appointed to take order
+accordingly; the benefit or loss arising thereon to be divided
+and borne between the Chamber [of the Corporation of the City]
+and the Companies that adventured (157).  The several Companies
+that adventured at sea with Sir Waiter Raleigh to accept so much
+of the goods taken in the Carrack to the value of 12,000L.
+according to the Queen's offer.  A committee appointed to
+acquaint the Lords of the Council with the City's acceptance
+thereof (167).  Committee for sale of the Carrack goods appointed
+(174).  Bonds for sale to be sealed (196)....  Committee to audit
+accounts of a former adventure (224 b.)."
+
+[19] There were three sisters in all, the eldest of whom
+(Abigail) fell a victim to the cruelty of Nunn, who struck her
+across the head with the fire-tongs, from the effects of which
+she died in three days.  Nunn was tried and convicted of
+manslaughter.  He died shortly after.  Mrs. Nunn, Phineas's
+mother, was already dead.
+
+[20] It would seem, from a paper hereafter to be more
+particularly referred to, that the government encouraged the
+owners of ships and others to clear the seas of these pirates,
+agreeing to pay them for their labours.  In 1622, Pett fitted out
+an expedition against these pests of navigation, but experienced
+some difficulty in getting his expenses repaid.
+
+[21] See grant S.P.O., 29th May, 1605.
+
+[22] An engraving of this remarkable ship is given in Charnock's
+History of Marine Architecture, ii. p. 199.
+
+[23] The story of the Three, or rather Two Ravens, is as
+follows:-- The body of St. Vincent was originally deposited at
+the Cape, which still bears his name, on the Portuguese coast;
+and his tomb, says the legend, was zealously guarded by a couple
+of ravens.  When it was determined, in the 12th century, to
+transport the relics of the Saint to the Cathedral of Lisbon, the
+two ravens accompanied the ship which contained them, one at its
+stem and the other at its stern.  The relics were deposited in
+the Chapel of St. Vincent, within the Cathedral, and there the
+two ravens have ever since remained.  The monks continued to
+support two such birds in the cloisters, and till very lately the
+officials gravely informed the visitor to the Cathedral that they
+were the identical ravens which accompanied the Saint's relics to
+their city.  The birds figure in the arms of Lisbon.
+
+[24] The evidence taken by the Commissioners is embodied in a
+voluminous report.  State Paper Office, Dom. James I., vol. xli. 
+1608.
+
+[25] The Earl of Northampton, Privy Seal, was Lord Warden of the
+Cinque Ports; hence his moving in the matter.  Pett says he was
+his "most implacable enemy."  It is probable that the earl was
+jealous of Pett, because he had received his commission to build
+the great ship directly from the sovereign, without the
+intervention of his lordship
+
+[26] This Royal investigation took place at Woolwich on the 8th
+May, 1609.  The State Paper Office contains a report of the same
+date, most probably the one presented to the King, signed by six
+ship-builders and Captain Waymouth, and counter signed by
+Northampton and four others.  The Report is headed "The Prince
+Royal: imperfections found upon view of the new work begun at
+Woolwich."  It would occupy too much space to give the results
+here.
+
+[27] Alas! for the uncertainties of life!  This noble young
+prince--the hope of England and the joy of his parents, from whom
+such great things were anticipated--for he was graceful, frank,
+brave, active, and a lover of the sea,--was seized with a serious
+illness, and died in his eighteenth year, on the 16th November,
+1612.
+
+[28] Pett says she was to be 500 tons, but when he turned her out
+her burthen was rated at 700 tons.
+
+[29] This conduct of Raleigh's was the more inexcusable, as there
+is in the State Paper Office a warrant dated 16th Nov., 1617, for
+the payment to Pett of 700 crowns "for building the new ship, the
+Destiny of London, of 700 tons burthen."  The least he could have
+done was to have handed over to the builder his royal and usual
+reward.  In the above warrant, by the way, the title "our
+well-beloved subject," the ordinary prefix to such grants, has
+either been left blank or erased (it is difficult to say which),
+but was very significant of the slippery footing of Raleigh at
+Court.
+
+[30] Sir Giles Overreach, in the play of "A new way to pay old
+debts," by Philip Massinger.  It was difficult for the poet, or
+any other person, to libel such a personage as Mompesson.
+
+[31] Pett's method is described in a paper contained in the
+S.P.O., dated 21st Oct., 1626.  The Trinity Corporation adopted
+his method.
+
+[32] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William
+Symonds, Kt., p. 94.
+
+[33] Pett's dwelling-house at Rochester is thus described in an
+anonymous history of that town (p. 337, ed. l817):-- "Beyond the
+Victualling Office, on the same side of the High Street, at
+Rochester, is an old mansion, now occupied by a Mr. Morson, an
+attorney, which formerly belonged to the Petts, the celebrated
+ship-builders.  The chimney-piece in the principal room is of
+wood, curiously carved, the upper part being divided into
+compartments by caryatydes.  The central compartment contains the
+family arms, viz., Or, on a fesse, gu., between three pellets, a
+lion passant gardant of the field.  On the back of the grate is a
+cast of Neptune, standing erect in his car, with Triton blowing
+conches, &c., and the date 1650."
+
+[34] Symonds, Memoirs of Life and Services, 94.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+FRANCIS PETTIT SMITH: PRACTICAL INTRODUCER OF THE SCREW
+PROPELLER.
+
+"The spirit of Paley's maxim that 'he alone discovers who
+proves,' is applicable to the history of inventions and
+discoveries; for certainly he alone invents to any good purpose,
+who satisfies the world that the means he may have devised have
+been found competent to the end proposed."--Dr. Samuel Brown.
+
+"Too often the real worker and discoverer remains unknown, and an
+invention, beautiful but useless in one age or country, can be
+applied only in a remote generation, or in a distant land. 
+Mankind hangs together from generation to generation; easy labour
+is but inherited skill; great discoveries and inventions are
+worked up to by the efforts of myriads ere the goal is
+reached."--H. M. Hyndman.
+
+Though a long period elapsed between the times of Phineas Pett
+and "Screw" Smith, comparatively little improvement had been
+effected in the art of shipbuilding.  The Sovereign of the Seas
+had not been excelled by any ship of war built down to the end of
+last century.[1] At a comparatively recent date, ships continued
+to be built of timber and plank, and impelled by sails and oars,
+as they had been for thousands of years before.
+
+But this century has witnessed many marvellous changes.  A new
+material of construction has been introduced into shipbuilding,
+with entirely new methods of propulsion.  Old things have been
+displaced by new; and the magnitude of the results has been
+extraordinary.  The most important changes have been in the use
+of iron and steel instead of wood, and in the employment of the
+steam-engine in impelling ships by the paddle or the screw.
+
+So long as timber was used for the construction of ships, the
+number of vessels built annually, especially in so small an
+island as Britain, must necessarily have continued very limited. 
+Indeed, so little had the cultivation of oak in Great Britain
+been attended to, that all the royal forests could not have
+supplied sufficient timber to build one line-of-battle ship
+annually; while for the mercantile marine, the world had to be
+ransacked for wood, often of a very inferior quality.
+
+Take, for instance, the seventy-eight gun ship, the Hindostan,
+launched a few years ago.  It would have required 4200 loads of
+timber to build a ship of that description, and the growth of the
+timber would have occupied seventy acres of ground during eighty
+years.[2]  It would have needed something like 800,000 acres of
+land on which to grow the timber for the ships annually built in
+this country for commercial purposes.  And timber ships are by no
+means lasting.  The average durability of ships of war employed
+in active service, has been calculated to be about thirteen
+years, even when built of British oak.
+
+Indeed, years ago, the building of shipping in this country was
+much hindered by the want of materials.
+
+The trade was being rapidly transferred to Canada and the United
+States.  Some years since, an American captain said to an
+Englishman, Captain Hall, when in China, "You will soon have to
+come to our country for your ships: your little island cannot
+grow wood enough for a large marine."  "Oh!" said the Englishman,
+"we can build ships of iron!"  "Iron?" replied the American in
+surprise, "why, iron sinks; only wood can float!"  "Well! you
+will find I am right."  The prophecy was correct.  The Englishman
+in question has now a fleet of splendid iron steamers at sea.
+
+The use of iron in shipbuilding had small beginnings, like
+everything else.  The established prejudice--that iron must
+necessarily sink in water--long continued to prevail against its
+employment.  The first iron vessel was built and launched about a
+hundred years since by John Wilkinson, of Bradley Forge, in
+Staffordshire.  In a letter of his, dated the 14th July, 1787,
+the original of which we have seen, he writes:  "Yesterday week
+my iron boat was launched.  It answers all my expectations, and
+has convinced the unbelievers, who were 999 in 1000.  It will be
+only a nine days' wonder, and afterwards a Columbus's egg."  It
+was, however, more than a nine days' wonder; for wood long
+continued to be thought the only material capable of floating.
+
+Although Wilkinson's iron vessels continued to ply upon the
+Severn, more than twenty years elapsed before another shipbuilder
+ventured to follow his example.  But in 1810, Onions and Son, of
+Brosely, built several iron vessels, also for use upon the
+Severn.  Then, in 1815, Mr. Jervons, of Liverpool, built a small
+iron boat for use on the Mersey.  Six years later, in 1821, Mr.
+Aaron Manby designed an iron steam vessel, which was built at the
+Horsley Company's Works, in Staffordshire.  She sailed from
+London to Havre a few years later, under the command of Captain
+(afterwards Sir Charles) Napier, RN.  She was freighted with a
+cargo of linseed and iron castings, and went up the Seine to
+Paris.  It was some time, however, before iron came into general
+use.  Ten years later, in 1832, Maudslay and Field built four
+iron vessels for the East India Company.  In the course of about
+twenty years, the use of iron became general, not only for ships
+of war, but for merchant ships plying to all parts of the world.
+
+When ships began to be built of iron, it was found that they
+could be increased without limit, so long as coal, iron,
+machinery, and strong men full of skill and industry, were
+procurable.  The trade in shipbuilding returned to Britain, where
+iron ships are now made and exported in large numbers; the
+mercantile marine of this country exceeding in amount and tonnage
+that of all the other countries of the world put together.  The
+"wooden walls"[3] of England exist no more, for iron has
+superseded wood.  Instead of constructing vessels from the
+forest, we are now digging new navies out of the bowels of the
+earth, and our "walls," instead of wood, are now of iron and
+steel.
+
+The attempt to propel ships by other means than sails and oars
+went on from century to century, and did not succeed until almost
+within our own time.  It is said that the Roman army under
+Claudius Codex was transported into Sicily in boats propelled by
+wheels moved by oxen.  Galleys, propelled by wheels in paddles,
+were afterwards attempted.  The Harleian MS. contains an Italian
+book of sketches, attributed to the 15th century, in which there
+appears a drawing of a paddle-boat, evidently intended to be
+worked by men.  Paddle-boats, worked by horse-power, were also
+tried.  Blasco Garay made a supreme effort at Barcelona in 1543. 
+His vessel was propelled by a paddle-wheel on each side, worked
+by forty men.  But nothing came of the experiment.
+
+Many other efforts of a similar kind were made,--by Savery among
+others,[4]--until we come down to Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton,
+who, in 1787, invented a double-hulled boat, which he caused to
+be propelled on the Firth of Forth by men working a capstan which
+drove the paddles on each side.  The men soon became exhausted,
+and on Miller mentioning the subject to William Symington, who
+was then exhibiting his road locomotive in Edinburgh, Symington
+at once said, "Why don't you employ steam-power?"
+
+There were many speculations in early times as to the application
+of steam-power for propelling vessels through the water.  David
+Ramsay in 1618, Dr. Grant in 1632, the Marquis of Worcester in
+1661, were among the first in England to publish their views upon
+the subject.  But it is probable that Denis Papin, the banished
+Hugnenot physician, for some time Curator of the Royal Society,
+was the first who made a model steam-boat.  Daring his residence
+in England, he was elected Professor of Mathematics in the
+University of Marburg.  It was while at that city that he
+constructed, in 1707, a small steam-engine, which he fitted in a
+boat--une petite machine d'un, vaisseau a roues--and despatched
+it to England for the purpose of being tried upon the Thames. 
+The little vessel never reached England.  At Munden, the boatmen
+on the River Weser, thinking that, if successful, it would
+destroy their occupation, seized the boat, with its machine, and
+barbarously destroyed it.  Papin did not repeat his experiment,
+and died a few years later.
+
+The next inventor was Jonathan Hulls, of Campden, in
+Gloucestershire.  He patented a steamboat in 1736, and worked the
+paddle-wheel placed at the stern of the vessel by means of a
+Newcomen engine.  He tried his boat on the River Avon, at
+Evesham, but it did not succeed, and the engine was taken on
+shore again.  A local poet commemorated his failure in the
+following lines, which were remembered long after his steamboat
+experiment had been forgotten:--
+
+"Jonathan Hull, 
+With his paper skull, 
+Tried hard to make a machine 
+That should go against wind and tide; 
+But he, like an ass, 
+Couldn't bring it to pass, 
+So at last was ashamed to be seen."
+
+Nothing of importance was done in the direction of a steam-engine
+able to drive paddles, until the invention by James Watt, in
+1769, of his double-acting engine--the first step by which steam
+was rendered capable of being successfully used to impel a
+vessel.  But Watt was indifferent to taking up the subject of
+steam navigation, as well as of steam locomotion.  He refused
+many invitations to make steam-engines for the propulsion of
+ships, preferring to confine himself to his "regular established
+trade and manufacture," that of making condensing steam-engines,
+which had become of great importance towards the close of his
+life.
+
+Two records exist of paddle-wheel steamboats having been early
+tried in France--one by the Comte d'Auxiron and M. Perrier in
+1774, the other by the Comte de Jouffroy in 1783--but the notices
+of their experiments are very vague, and rest on somewhat
+doubtful authority.
+
+The idea, however, had been born, and was not allowed to die. 
+When Mr. Miller of Dalswinton had revived the notion of
+propelling vessels by means of paddle-wheels, worked, as Savery
+had before worked them, by means of a capstan placed in the
+centre of the vessel, and when he complained to Symington of the
+fatigue caused to the men by working the capstan, and Symington
+had suggested the use of steam, Mr. Miller was impressed by the
+idea, and proceeded to order a steam-engine for the purpose of
+trying the experiment.  The boat was built at Edinburgh, and
+removed to Dalswinton Lake.  It was there fitted with Symington's
+steam-engine, and first tried with success on the 14th of
+October, 1788, as has been related at length in Mr. Nasmyth's
+'Autobiography.' The experiment was repeated with even greater
+success in the charlotte Dundas in 1801, which was used to tow
+vessels along the Forth and Clyde Canal, and to bring ships up
+the Firth of Forth to the canal entrance at Grangemouth.
+
+The progress of steam navigation was nevertheless very slow. 
+Symington's experiments were not renewed.  The Charlotte Dundas
+was withdrawn from use, because of the supposed injury to the
+banks of the Canal, caused by the swell from the wheel.  The
+steamboat was laid up in a creek at Bainsford, where it went to
+ruin, and the inventor himself died in poverty.  Among those who
+inspected the vessel while at work were Fulton, the American
+artist, and Henry Bell, the Glasgow engineer.  The former had
+already occupied himself with model steamboats, both at Paris and
+in London; and in 1805 he obtained from Boulton and Watt, of
+Birmingham, the steam-engine required for propelling his paddle
+steamboat on the Hudson.  The Clermont was first started in
+August, 1807, and attained a speed of nearly five miles an hour. 
+Five years later, Henry Bell constructed and tried his first
+steamer on the Clyde.
+
+It was not until 1815 that the first steamboat was seen on the
+Thames.  This was the Richmond packet, which plied between London
+and Richmond.  The vessel was fitted with the first marine engine
+Henry Maudslay ever made.  During the same year, the Margery,
+formerly employed on the Firth of Forth, began plying between
+Gravesend and London; and the Thames, formerly the Argyll, came
+round from the Clyde, encountering rough seas, and making the
+voyage of 758 miles in five days and two hours.  This was thought
+extraordinarily rapid--though the voyage of about 3000 miles,
+from Liverpool to New York, can now be made in only about two
+days' more time.
+
+In nearly all seagoing vessels, the Paddle has now almost
+entirely given place to the Screw.  It was long before this
+invention was perfected and brought into general use.  It was not
+the production of one man, but of several generations of
+mechanical inventors.  A perfected invention does not burst forth
+from the brain like a poetic thought or a fine resolve.  It has
+to be initiated, laboured over, and pursued in the face of
+disappointments, difficulties, and discouragements.
+
+Sometimes the idea is born in one generation, followed out in the
+next, and perhaps perfected in the third.  In an age of progress,
+one invention merely paves the way for another.  What was the
+wonder of yesterday, becomes the common and unnoticed thing of
+to-day.
+
+The first idea of the screw was thrown out by James Watt more
+than a century ago.  Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, had proposed
+to move canal boats by means of the steam-engine; and Dr. Small,
+his friend, was in communication with James Watt, then residing
+at Glasgow, on the subject.  In a letter from Watt to Small,
+dated the 30th September, 1770, the former, after speaking of the
+condenser, and saying that it cannot be dispensed with, proceeds:
+"Have you ever considered a spiral oar for that purpose
+[propulsion of canal boats], or are you for two wheels?"  Watt
+added a pen-and-ink drawing of his spiral oar, greatly resembling
+the form of screw afterwards patented.  Nothing, however, was
+actually done, and the idea slept.
+
+It was revived again in 1785, by Joseph Bramah, a wonderful
+projector and inventor.[5]  He took out a patent, which included
+a rotatory steam-engine, and a mode of propelling vessels by
+means either of a paddle-wheel or a "screw propeller."  This
+propeller was "similar to the fly of a smoke-jack"; but there is
+no account of Bramah having practically tried this method of
+propulsion.
+
+Austria, also, claims the honour of the invention of the screw
+steamer.  At Trieste and Vienna are statues erected to Joseph
+Ressel, on whose behalf his countrymen lay claim to the
+invention; and patents for some sort of a screw date back as far
+as 1794.
+
+Patents were also taken out in England and America--by W.
+Lyttleton in 1794; by E. Shorter in 1799; by J. C. Stevens, of
+New Jersey, in 1804; by Henry James in 1811--but nothing
+practical was accomplished.  Richard Trevethick, the anticipator
+of many things, also took out a patent in 1815, and in it he
+describes the screw propeller with considerable minuteness. 
+Millington, Whytock, Perkins, Marestier, and Brown followed, with
+no better results.
+
+The late Dr. Birkbeck, in a letter addressed to the 'Mechanics'
+Register,' in the year 1824, claimed that John Swan, of 82,
+Mansfield Street, Kingsland Road, London, was the practical
+inventor of the screw propeller.  John Swan was a native of
+Coldingham, Berwickshire.  He had removed to London, and entered
+the employment of Messrs. Gordon, of Deptford.  Swan fitted up a
+boat with his propeller, and tried it on a sheet of water in the
+grounds of Charles Gordon, Esq., of Dulwich Hill.  "The velocity
+and steadiness of the motion," said Dr. Birkbeck in his letter,
+"so far exceeded that of the same model when impelled by
+paddle-wheels driven by the same spring, that I could not doubt
+its superiority; and the stillness of the water was such as to
+give the vessel the appearance of being moved by some magical
+power."
+
+Then comes another claimant--Mr. Robert Wilson, then of Dunbar
+(not far from Coldingham), but afterwards of the Bridgewater
+Foundry, Patricroft.  In his pamphlet, published a few years ago,
+he states that he had long considered the subject, and in 1827 he
+made a small model, fitted with "revolving skulls," which he
+tried on a sheet of water in the presence of the Hon. Capt.
+Anthony Maitland, son of the Earl of Lauderdale.  The experiment
+was successful--so successful, that when the "stern paddles" were
+in 1828 used at Leith in a boat twenty-five feet long, with two
+men to work the machinery, the boat was propelled at an average
+speed of about ten miles an hour; and the Society of Arts
+afterwards, in October, 1882, awarded Mr. Wilson their silver
+medal for the "description, drawing, and models of stern paddles
+for propelling steamboats, invented by him."  The subject was, in
+1833, brought by Sir John Sinclair under the consideration of the
+Board of Admiralty; but the report of the officials (Oliver Lang,
+Abethell, Lloyd, and Kingston) was to the effect that "the plan
+proposed (independent of practical difficulties) is
+objectionable, as it involves a greater loss of power than the
+common mode of applying the wheels to the side."  And here ended
+the experiment, so far as Mr. Wilson's "stern paddles" were
+concerned.
+
+It will be observed, from what has been said, that the idea of a
+screw propeller is a very old one.  Watt, Bramah, Trevethick, and
+many more, had given descriptions of the screw.  Trevethick
+schemed a number of its forms and applications, which have been
+the subject of many subsequent patents.  It has been so with many
+inventions.  It is not the man who gives the first idea of a
+machine who is entitled to the merit of its introduction, or the
+man who repeats the idea, and re-repeats it, but the man who is
+so deeply impressed with the importance of the discovery, that he
+insists upon its adoption, will take no denial, and at the risk
+of fame and fortune, pushes through all opposition, and is
+determined that what he thinks he has discovered shall not perish
+for want of a fair trial.  And that this was the case with the
+practical introducer of the screw propeller will be obvious from
+the following statement.
+
+Francis Pettit Smith was born at Hythe, in the county of Kent, in
+1808.  His father was postmaster of the town, and a person of
+much zeal and integrity.  The boy was sent to school at Ashford,
+and there received a fair amount of education, under the Rev.
+Alexander Power.  Young Smith displayed no special characteristic
+except a passion for constructing models of boats.  When he
+reached manhood, he adopted the business of a grazing farmer on
+Romney Marsh.  He afterwards removed to Hendon, north of London,
+where he had plenty of water on which to try his model boats. 
+The reservoir of the Old Welsh Harp was close at hand--a place
+famous for its water-birds and wild fowl.
+
+Smith made many models of boats, his experiments extending over
+many years.  In 1834, he constructed a boat propelled by a wooden
+screw driven by a spring, the performance of which was thought
+extraordinary.  Where he had got his original idea is not known. 
+It was floating about in many minds, and was no special secret. 
+Smith, however, arrived at the conclusion that his method of
+propelling steam vessels by means of a screw was much superior to
+paddles--at that time exclusively employed.  In the following
+year, 1835, he constructed a superior model, with which he
+performed a number of experiments at Hendon.  In May 1836, he
+took out a patent for propelling vessels by means of a screw
+revolving beneath the water at the stern.  He then openly
+exhibited his invention at the Adelaide Gallery in London.  Sir
+John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, inspected the model, and
+was much impressed by its action.  During the time it was
+publicly exhibited, an offer was made to purchase the invention
+for the Pacha of Egypt; but the offer was declined.
+
+At this stage of his operations, Smith was joined by Mr. Wright,
+banker, and Mr. C. A. Caldwell, who had the penetration to
+perceive that the invention was one of much promise, and were
+desirous of helping its introduction to general use.  They
+furnished Smith with the means of constructing a more complete
+model.  In the autumn of 1836, a small steam vessel of 10 tons
+burthen and six horse-power was built, further to test the
+advantages of the invention.  This boat was fitted with a wooden
+screw of two whole turns.  On the 1st of November the vessel was
+exhibited to the public on the Paddington Canal, as well as on
+the Thames, where she continued to ply until the month of
+September 1837.
+
+During the trips upon the Thames, a happy accident occurred,
+which first suggested the advantage of reducing the length of the
+screw.  The propeller having struck upon some obstacle in the
+water, about one-half of the length of the screw was broken off,
+and it was found that; the vessel immediately shot ahead and
+attained a much greater speed than before.  In consequence of
+this discovery, a new screw of a single turn was fitted to her,
+after which she was found to work much better.
+
+Having satisfied himself as to the eligibility of the propeller
+in smooth water, Mr. Smith then resolved to take his little
+vessel to the open sea, and breast the winds and the waves. 
+Accordingly, one Saturday in the month of September 1837, he
+proceeded in his miniature boat, down the river, from Blackwall
+to Gravesend.  There he took a pilot on board, and went on to
+Ramsgate.  He passed through the Downs, and reached Dover in
+safety.  A trial of the vessel's performance was made there in
+the presence of Mr. Wright, the banker, and Mr. Peake, the civil
+engineer.  From Dover the vessel went on to Folkestone and Hythe,
+encountering severe weather.  Nevertheless, the boat behaved
+admirably, and attained a speed of over seven miles an hour.
+
+Though the weather had become stormy and boisterous, the little
+vessel nevertheless set out on her return voyage to London. 
+Crowds of people assembled to witness her departure, and many
+nautical men watched her progress with solicitude as she steamed
+through the waves under the steep cliffs of the South Foreland. 
+The courage of the undertaking, and the unexpected good
+performance of the little vessel, rendered her an object of great
+interest and excitement as she "screwed" her way along the coast.
+
+The tiny vessel reached her destination in safety.  Surely the
+difficulty of a testing trial, although with a model screw, had
+at length been overcome.  But no!  The paddle still possessed the
+ascendency; and a thousand interests--invested capital, use and
+wont, and conservative instincts--all stood in the way.
+
+Some years before--indeed, about the time that Smith took out his
+patent--Captain Ericsson, the Swede, invented a screw propeller. 
+Smith took out his patent in May, 1836; and Ericsson in the
+following July.  Ericsson was a born inventor.  While a boy in
+Sweden, he made saw mills and pumping engines, with tools
+invented by himself.  He learnt to draw, and his mechanical
+career began.  When only twelve years old, he was appointed a
+cadet in the Swedish corps of mechanical engineers, and in the
+following year he was put in charge of a section of the Gotha
+Ship Canal, then under construction.  Arrived at manhood,
+Ericsson went over to England, the great centre of mechanical
+industry.  He was then twenty-three years old.  He entered into
+partnership with John Braithwaite, and with him constructed the
+Novelty, which took part in the locomotive competition at
+Rainhill on the 6th October, 1829.  The prize was awarded to
+Stephenson's Rocket on the 14th; but it was acknowledged by The
+Times of the day that the Novelty was Stephenson's sharpest
+competitor.
+
+Ericsson had a wonderfully inventive brain, a determined purpose,
+and a great capacity for work.  When a want was felt, he was
+immediately ready with an invention.  The records of the Patent
+Office show his incessant activity.  He invented pumping engines,
+steam engines, fire engines, and caloric engines.  His first
+patent for a "reciprocating propeller" was taken out in October
+1834.  To exhibit its action, he had a small boat constructed of
+only about two feet long.  It was propelled by means of a screw;
+and was shown at work in a circular bath in London.  It performed
+its voyage round the basin at the rate of about three miles an
+hour.  His patent for a "spiral propeller," was taken out in July
+1836.  This was the invention, to exhibit which he had a vessel
+constructed, of about 40 feet long, with two propellers, each of
+5 feet 3 inches diameter.
+
+This boat, the Francis B. Ogden, proved extremely successful. 
+She moved at a speed of about ten miles an hour.  She was able to
+tow vessels of 140 tons burthen at the rate of seven miles an
+hour.  Perceiving the peculiar and admirable fitness of the
+screw-propeller for ships of war, Ericsson invited the Lords of
+the Admiralty to take an excursion in tow of his experimental
+boat.  "My Lords" consented; and the Admiralty barge contained on
+this occasion, Sir Charles Adam, senior Lord, Sir William
+Symonds, surveyor, Sir Edward Parry, of Polar fame, Captain
+Beaufort, hydrographer, and other men of celebrity.  This
+distinguished company embarked at Somerset House, and the little
+steamer, with her precious charge, proceeded down the river to
+Limehouse at the rate of about ten miles an hour.  After visiting
+the steam-engine manufactory of Messrs. Seawood, where their
+Lordships' favourite apparatus, the Morgan paddle-wheel, was in
+course of construction, they re-embarked, and returned in safety
+to Somerset House.
+
+The experiment was perfectly successful, and yet the result was
+disappointment.  A few days later, a letter from Captain Beaufort
+informed Mr. Ericsson that their Lordships had certainly been
+"very much disappointed with the result of the experiment."  The
+reason for the disappointment was altogether inexplicable to the
+inventor.  It afterwards appeared, however, that Sir William
+Symonds, then Surveyor to the Navy, had expressed the opinion
+that "even if the propeller had the power of propelling a vessel,
+it would be found altogether useless in practice, because the
+power being applied at the stern, it would be absolutely
+impossible to make the vessel steer!"  It will be remembered that
+Francis Pettit Smith's screw vessel went to sea in the course of
+the same year; and not only faced the waves, but was made to
+steer in a perfectly successful manner.
+
+Although the Lords of the Admiralty would not further encourage
+the screw propeller of Ericsson, an officer of the United States
+Navy, Capt. R. F. Stockton, was so satisfied of its success, that
+after making a single trip in the experimental steamboat from
+London Bridge to Greenwich, he ordered the inventor to build for
+him forthwith two iron boats for the United States, with steam
+machinery and a propeller on the same plan.  One of these
+vessels--the Robert F. Stockton--seventy feet in length, was
+constructed by Laird and Co., of Birkenhead, in 1838, and left
+England for America in April 1839.  Capt. Stockton so fully
+persuaded Ericsson of his probable success in America, that the
+inventor at once abandoned his professional engagements in
+England, and set out for the United States.  It is unnecessary to
+mention the further important works of this great engineer.
+
+We may, however, briefly mention that in 1844, Ericsson
+constructed for the United States Government the Princeton screw
+steamer--though he was never paid for his time, labour, and
+expenditure.[6]  Undeterred by their ingratitude, Ericsson
+nevertheless constructed for the same government, when in the
+throes of civil war, the famous Monitor, the iron-clad cupola
+vessel, and was similarly rewarded!  He afterwards invented the
+torpedo ship--the Destroyer--the use of which has fortunately not
+yet been required in sea warfare.  Ericsson still
+lives--constantly planning and scheming--in his house in Beach
+Street, New York.  He is now over eighty years old having been
+born in 1803.  He is strong and healthy.  How has he preserved
+his vigorous constitution?  The editor of Scribner gives the
+answer: "The hall windows of his house are open, winter and
+summer, and none but open grate-fires are allowed.  Insomnia
+never troubles him, for he falls asleep as soon as his head
+touches the pillow.  His appetite and digestion are always good,
+and he has not lost a meal in ten years.  What an example to the
+men who imagine it is hard work that is killing them in this
+career of unremitting industry!"
+
+To return to "Screw" Smith, after the successful trial of his
+little vessel at sea in the autumn of 1837.  He had many
+difficulties yet to contend with.  There was, first, the
+difficulty of a new invention, and the fact that the paddle-boat
+had established itself in public estimation.  The engineering and
+shipbuilding world were dead against him.  They regarded the
+project of propelling a vessel by means of a screw as visionary
+and preposterous.  There was also the official unwillingness to
+undertake anything novel, untried, and contrary to routine. 
+There was the usual shaking of the head and the shrugging of the
+shoulders, as if the inventor were either a mere dreamer or a
+projector eager to lay his hands upon the public purse.  The
+surveyor of the navy was opposed to the plan, because of the
+impossibility of making a vessel steer which was impelled from
+the stern.  "Screw" Smith bided his time; he continued undaunted,
+and was determined to succeed.  He laboured steadily onward,
+maintaining his own faith unshaken, and upholding the faith of
+the gentlemen who had become associated with him in the
+prosecution of the invention.
+
+At the beginning of 1838 the Lords of the Admiralty requested Mr.
+Smith to allow his vessel to be tried under their inspection. 
+Two trials were accordingly made, and they gave so much
+satisfaction that the adoption of the propeller for naval
+purposes was considered as a not improbable contingency.  Before
+deciding finally upon its adoption, the Lords of the Admiralty
+were anxious to see an experiment made with a vessel of not less
+than 200 tons.  Mr. Smith had not the means of accomplishing this
+by himself, but with the improved prospects of the invention, 
+capitalists now came to his aid.  One of the most effective and
+energetic of these was Mr. Henry Currie, banker; and, with the
+assistance of others, the "Ship Propeller Company" was formed,
+and proceeded to erect the test ship proposed by the Admiralty.
+
+The result was the Archimedes, a wooden vessel of 237 tons
+burthen.  She was designed by Mr. Pasco, laid down by Mr.
+Wimshurst in the spring of 1838, was launched on the 18th of
+October following, and made her first trip in May 1839.  She was
+fitted with a screw of one turn placed in the dead wood, and
+propelled by a pair of engines of 80-horse power.  The vessel was
+built under the persuasion that her performance would be
+considered satisfactory if a speed was attained of four or five
+knots an hour, where as her actual speed was nine and a half
+knots.  The Lords of the Admiralty were invited to inspect the
+ship.  At the second trial Sir Edward Parry, Sir William Symonds,
+Captain Basil Hall, and other distinguished persons were present.
+
+The results were again satisfactory.  The success of the
+Archimedes astonished the engineering world.  Even the Surveyor
+of the Royal Navy found that the vessel could steer!  The Lords
+of the Admiralty could no longer shut their eyes.  But the
+invention could not at once be adopted.  It must be tested by the
+best judges.  The vessel was sent to Dover to be tried with the
+best packets between Dover and Calais.  Mr. Lloyd, the chief
+engineer of the Navy, conducted the investigation, and reported
+most favourably as to the manner of her performance.  Yet several
+years elapsed before the screw was introduced into the service.
+
+In 1840 the Archimedes was placed at the disposal of Captain
+Chappell, of the Royal Navy, who, accompanied by Mr. Smith,
+visited every principal port in Great Britain.  She was thus seen
+by shipowners, marine engineers, and shipbuilders in every part
+of the kingdom.  They regarded her with wonder and admiration;
+yet the new mode of navigation was not speedily adopted.  The
+paddle-wheel still held its own.  The sentiment, if not the plant
+and capital, of the engineering world, were against the
+introduction of the screw.  After the vessel had returned from
+her circumnavigation of Great Britain, she was sent to Oporto,
+and performed the voyage in sixty-eight and a half hours, then
+held to be the quickest voyage on record.  She was then sent to
+the Texel at the request of the Dutch Government.  She went
+through the North Holland Canal, visited Amsterdam, Antwerp, and
+other ports; and everywhere left the impression that the screw
+was an efficient and reliable power in the propulsion of vessels
+at sea.
+
+Shipbuilders, however, continued to "fight shy" of the screw. 
+The late Isambard Kingdon Brunel is entitled to the credit of
+having first directed the attention of shipbuilders to this
+important invention.  He was himself a man of original views,
+free from bias, and always ready to strike out a fresh path in
+engineering works.  He was building a large new iron steamer at
+Bristol, the Great Britain, for passenger traffic between England
+and America.  He had intended to construct her as a paddle
+steamer; but hearing of the success of the Archimedes, he
+inspected the vessel, and was so satisfied with the performance
+of the screw that he recommended his directors to adopt this
+method for propelling the Great Britain.  His advice was adopted,
+and the vessel was altered so as to adapt her for the reception
+of the screw.  The vessel was found perfectly successful, and on
+her first voyage to London she attained the speed of ten knots an
+hour, though the wind and balance of tides were against her.  A
+few other merchant ships were built and fitted with the screw;
+the Princess Royal at Newcastle in 1840, the Margaret and Senator
+at Hull, and the Great Northern at Londonderry, in 1841.
+
+The Lords of the Admiralty made slow progress in adapting the
+screw for the Royal Navy.  Sir William Symonds, the surveyor and
+principal designer of Her Majesty's ships, was opposed to all new
+projects.  He hated steam power, and was utterly opposed to iron
+ships.  He speaks of them in his journal as "monstrous."[7]  So
+long as he remained in office everything was done in a
+perfunctory way.  A small vessel named the Bee was built at
+Chatham in 1841, and fitted with both paddles and the screw for
+the purposes of experiment.  In the same year the Rattier, the
+first screw vessel built for the navy, was laid down at
+Sheerness.  Although of only 888 tons burthen, she was not
+launched until the spring of 1843.  She was then fitted with the
+same kind of screw as the Archimedes,that is, a double-headed
+screw of half a convolution.  Experiments went on for about three
+years, so as to determine the best proportions of the screw, and
+the proportions then ascertained have since been the principal
+guides of engineering practice.
+
+The Rattler was at length tried in a water tournament with the
+paddle-steamer Alecto, and signally defeated her.  Francis Pettit
+Smith, like Gulliver, may be said to have dragged the whole
+British fleet after him.  Were the paddle our only means of
+propulsion, our whole naval force would be reduced to a nullity. 
+Hostile gunners would wing a paddle-steamer as effectuaily as a
+sportsman wings a bird, and all the plating in the world would
+render such a ship a mere helpless log on the water.
+
+The Admiralty could no longer defer the use of this important
+invention.  Like all good things, it made its way slowly and by
+degrees.  The royal naval authorities, who in 1833 backed the
+side paddles, have since adopted the screw in most of the
+ships-of-war.  In all long sea-going voyages, also, the screw is
+now the favourite mode of propulsion.  Screw ships of prodigious
+size are now built and launched in all the ship-building ports of
+Britain, and are sent out to navigate in every part of the world.
+
+The introduction of iron as the material for shipbuilding has
+immensely advanced the interests of steam navigation, as it
+enables the builders to construct vessels of great size with the
+finest lines, so as to attain the highest rates of speed.
+
+One might have supposed that Francis Pettit Smith would derive
+some substantial benefit from his invention, or at least that the
+Ship Propeller Company would distribute large dividends among
+their proprietors.  Nothing of the kind.  Smith spent his money,
+his labour, and his ingenuity in conferring a great public
+benefit without receiving any adequate reward; and the company,
+instead of distributing dividends, lost about 50,000L. in
+introducing this great invention; after which, in 1856, the
+patent-right expired.  Three hundred and twenty-seven ships and
+vessels of all classes in the Royal Navy had then been fitted
+with the screw propeller, and a much larger number in the
+merchant service; but since that time the number of screw
+propellers constructed is to be counted by thousands.
+
+In his comparatively impoverished condition it was found
+necessary to do something for the inventor.  The Civil Engineers,
+with Robert Stephenson, M.P., in the chair, entertained him at a
+dinner and presented him with a handsome salver and claret jug. 
+And that he might have something to put upon his salver and into
+his claret jug, a number of his friends and admirers subscribed
+over 2000L. as a testimonial.  The Government appointed him
+Curator of the Patent Museum at South Kensington; the Queen
+granted him a pension on the Civil List for 200L. a year; he was
+raised to the honour of knighthood in l87l, and three years later
+he died.
+
+Francis Pettit Smith was not a great inventor.  He had, like many
+others, invented a screw propeller.  But, while those others had
+given up the idea of prosecuting it to its completion, Smith
+stuck to his invention with determined tenacity, and never let it
+go until he had secured for it a complete triumph.  As Mr.
+Stephenson observed at the engineer's meeting:  "Mr. Smith had
+worked from a platform which might have been raised by others, as
+Watt had done, and as other great men had done; but he had made a
+stride in advance which was almost tantamount to a new invention.
+
+It was impossible to overrate the advantages which this and other
+countries had derived from his untiring and devoted patience in
+prosecuting the invention to a successful issue."  Baron Charles
+Dupin compared the farmer Smith with the barber Arkwright: "He
+had the same perseverance and the same indomitable courage. 
+These two moral qualities enabled him to triumph over every
+obstacle."  This was the merit of "Screw" Smith--that he was
+determined to realize what his predecessors had dreamt of
+achieving; and he eventually accomplished his great purpose.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter II.
+
+[1] In the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects
+for 1860, it was pointed out that the general dimensions and form
+of bottom of this ship were very similar to the most famous
+line-of-battle ships built down to the end of last century, some
+of which were then in existence.
+
+[2] According to the calculation of Mr. Chatfield, of Her
+Majesty's dockyard at Plymouth, in a paper read before the
+British Association in 1841 on shipbuilding.
+
+[3] The phrase "wooden walls" is derived from the Greek.  When
+the city of Athens was once in danger of being attacked and
+destroyed, the oracle of Delphi was consulted.  The inhabitants
+were told that there was no safety for them but in their "wooden
+walls,"--that is their shipping.  As they had then a powerful
+fleet, the oracle gave them rational advice, which had the effect
+of saving the Athenian people.
+
+[4] An account of these is given by Bennet Woodcraft in his
+Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation, London,
+1848.
+
+[5] See Industrial Biography, pp. 183-197,
+
+[6] The story is told in Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine,
+for April 1879.  Ericsson's modest bill was only $15,000 for two
+years' labour.  He was put off from year to year, and at length
+the Government refused to pay the amount.  "The American
+Government," says the editor of Scribner, "will not appropriate
+the money to pay it, and that is all.  It is said to be the
+nature of republics to be ungrateful; but must they also be
+dishonest?"
+
+[7] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William
+Symonds, Kt., p. 332.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.[1]
+
+JOHN HARRISON: INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER.
+
+No man knows who invented the mariner's compass, or who first
+hollowed out a canoe from a log.  The power to observe accurately
+the sun, moon, and planets, so as to fix a vessel's actual
+position when far out of sight of land, enabling long voyages to
+be safely made; the marvellous improvements in ship-building,
+which shortened passages by sailing vessels, and vastly reduced
+freights even before steam gave an independent force to the
+carrier--each and all were done by small advances, which together
+contributed to the general movement of mankind....  Each owes all
+to the others.  The forgotten inventors live for ever in the
+usefulness of the work they have done and the progress they have
+striven for."--H. M. Hyndman.
+
+One of the most extraordinary things connected with Applied
+Science is the method by which the Navigator is enabled to find
+the exact spot of sea on which his ship rides.  There may be
+nothing but water and sky within his view; he may be in the midst
+of the ocean, or gradually nearing the land; the curvature of the
+globe baffles the search of his telescope; but if he have a
+correct chronometer, and can make an astronomical observation, he
+may readily ascertain his longitude, and know his approximate
+position--how far he is from home, as well as from his intended
+destination.  He is even enabled, at some special place, to send
+down his grappling-irons into the sea, and pick up an electrical
+cable for examination and repair.
+
+This is the result of a knowledge of Practical Astronomy.  "Place
+an astronomer," says Mr. Newcomb, "on board a ship; blindfold
+him; carry him by any route to any ocean on the globe, whether
+under the tropics or in one of the frigid zones; land him on the
+wildest rock that can be found; remove his bandage, and give him
+a chronometer regulated to Greenwich or Washington time, a
+transit instrument with the proper appliances, and the necessary
+books and tables, and in a single clear night he can tell his
+position within a hundred yards by observations of the stars. 
+This, from a utilitarian point of view, is one of the most
+important operations of Practical Astronomy."[2]
+
+The Marine Chronometer was the outcome of the crying want of the
+sixteenth century for an instrument that should assist the
+navigator to find his longitude on the pathless ocean.  Spain was
+then the principal naval power; she was the most potent monarchy
+in Europe, and held half America under her sway.  Philip III. 
+offered 100,000 crowns for any discovery by means of which the
+longitude might be determined by a better method than by the log,
+which was found very defective.  Holland next became a great
+naval power, and followed the example of Spain in offering 30,000
+florins for a similar discovery.  But though some efforts were
+made, nothing practical was done, principally through the
+defective state of astronomical instruments.  England succeeded
+Spain and Holland as a naval power; and when Charles II.
+established the Greenwich Observatory, it was made a special
+point that Flamsteed, the Astronomer-Royal, should direct his
+best energies to the perfecting of a method for finding the
+longitude by astronomical observations.  But though Flamsteed,
+together with Halley and Newton, made some progress, they were
+prevented from obtaining ultimate success by the want of
+efficient chronometers and the defective nature of astronomical
+instruments.
+
+Nothing was done until the reign of Queen Anne, when a petition
+was presented to the Legislature on the 25th of May, 1714, by
+"several captains of Her Majesty's ships, merchants in London,
+and commanders of merchantmen, in behalf of themselves, and of
+all others concerned in the navigation of Great Britain," setting
+forth the importance of the accurate discovery of the longitude,
+and the inconvenience and danger to which ships were subjected
+from the want of some suitable method of discovering it.  The
+petition was referred to a committee, which took evidence on the
+subject.  It appears that Sir Isaac Newton, with his
+extraordinary sagacity, hit the mark in his report.  "One is," he
+said, "by a watch to keep time exactly; but, by reason of the
+motion of a ship, and the variation of heat and cold, wet and
+dry, and the difference of gravity in different latitudes, such a
+watch hath not yet been made."
+
+An Act was however passed in the Session of 1714, offering a very
+large public reward to inventors: 10,000L. to any one who should
+discover a method of determining the longitude to one degree of a
+great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. if it determined
+the same to two-thirds of that distance, or 40 geographical
+miles; and 20,000L. if it determined the same to one-half of the
+same distance, or 30 geographical miles.  Commissioners were
+appointed by the same Act, who were instructed that "one moiety
+or half part of such reward shall be due and paid when the said
+commissioners, or the major part of them, do agree that any such
+method extends to the security of ships within 80 geographical
+miles of the shore, which are places of the greatest danger; and
+the other moiety or half part when a ship, by the appointment of
+the said commissioners, or the major part of them, shall actually
+sail over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such port in the
+West Indies as those commissioners, or the major part of them,
+shall choose or nominate for the experiment, without losing the
+longitude beyond the limits before mentioned."
+
+The terms of this offer indicate how great must have been the
+risk and inconvenience which it was desired to remedy.  Indeed,
+it is almost inconceivable that a reward so great could be held
+out for a method which would merely afford security within eighty
+geographical miles!
+
+This splendid reward for a method of discovering the longitude
+was offered to the world--to inventors and scientific men of all
+countries --without restriction of race, or nation, or language. 
+As might naturally be expected, the prospect of obtaining it
+stimulated many ingenious men to make suggestions and contrive
+experiments; but for many years the successful construction of a
+marine time-keeper seemed almost hopeless.  At length, to the
+surprise of every one, the prize was won by a village
+carpenter--a person of no school, or university, or college
+whatever.
+
+Even so distinguished an artist and philosopher as Sir
+Christopher Wren was engaged, as late in his life as the year
+1720, in attempting to solve this important problem.  As has been
+observed, in the memoir of him contained in the 'Biographia
+Britannica,'[3] "This noble invention, like some others of the
+most useful ones to human life, seems to be reserved for the
+peculiar glory of an ordinary mechanic, who, by indefatigable
+industry, under the guidance of no ordinary sagacity, hath
+seemingly at last surmounted all difficulties, and brought it to
+a most unexpected degree of perfection."  Where learning and
+science failed, natural genius seems to have triumphed.
+
+The truth is, that the great mechanic, like the great poet, is
+born, not made; and John Harrison, the winner of the famous
+prize, was a born mechanic.  He did not, however, accomplish his
+object without the exercise of the greatest skill, patience, and
+perseverance.  His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes
+apparently hopeless.  Indeed, his life, so far as we can
+ascertain the facts, affords one of the finest examples of
+difficulties encountered and triumphantly overcome, and of
+undaunted perseverance eventually crowned by success, which is to
+be found in the whole range of biography.
+
+No complete narrative of Harrison's career was ever written. 
+Only a short notice of him appears in the 'Biographia
+Britannica,' published in 1766, during his lifetime'--the facts
+of which were obtained from himself.  A few notices of him appear
+in the 'Annual Register,' also published during his lifetime. 
+The final notice appeared in the volume published in 1777, the
+year after his death.  No Life of him has since appeared.  Had he
+been a destructive hero, and fought battles by land or sea, we
+should have had biographies of him without end.  But he pursued a
+more peaceful and industrious course.  His discovery conferred an
+incalculable advantage on navigation, and enabled innumerable
+lives to be saved at sea; it also added to the domains of science
+by its more exact measurement of time.  But his memory has been
+suffered to pass silently away, without any record being left for
+the benefit and advantage of those who have succeeded him.  The
+following memoir includes nearly all that is known of the life
+and labours of John Harrison.
+
+He was born at Foulby, in the parish of Wragby, near Pontefract,
+Yorkshire, in March, 1693.  His father, Henry Harrison, was
+carpenter and joiner to Sir Rowland Winn, owner of the Nostell
+Priory estate.  The present house was built by the baronet on the
+site of the ancient priory.  Henry Harrison was a sort of
+retainer of the family, and long continued in their Service.
+
+Little is known of the boy's education.  It was certainly of a
+very inferior description.  Like George Stephenson, Harrison
+always had a great difficulty in making himself understood,
+either by speech or writing.  Indeed, every board-school boy now
+receives a better education than John Harrison did a hundred and
+eighty years ago.  But education does not altogether come by
+reading and writing.  The boy was possessed of vigorous natural
+abilities.  He was especially attracted by every machine that
+moved upon wheels.  The boy was 'father to the man.' When six
+years old, and lying sick of small-pox, a going watch was placed
+upon his pillow, which afforded him infinite delight.
+
+When seven years old he was taken by his father to Barrow, near
+Barton-on-Humber, where Sir Rowland Winn had another residence
+and estate.  Henry Harrison was still acting as the baronet's
+carpenter and joiner.  In course of time young Harrison joined
+his father in the workshop, and proved of great use to him.  His
+opportunities for acquiring knowledge were still very few, but he
+applied his powers of observation and his workmanship upon the
+things which were nearest him.  He worked in wood, and to wood he
+first turned his attention.
+
+He was still fond of machines going upon wheels.  He had enjoyed
+the sight of the big watch going upon brass wheels when he was a
+boy; but, now that he was a workman in wood, he proposed to make
+an eight-day clock, with wheels of this material.  He made the
+clock in 1713, when he was twenty years old,[4] so that he must
+have made diligent use of his opportunities.  He had of course
+difficulties to encounter, and nothing can be accomplished
+without them; for it is difficulties that train the habits of
+application and perseverance.  But he succeeded in making an
+effective clock, which counted the time with regularity.  This
+clock is still in existence.  It is to be seen at the Museum of
+Patents, South Kensington; and when we visited it a few months
+ago it was going, and still marking the moments as they passed. 
+It is contained in a case about six feet high, with a glass
+front, showing a pendulum and two weights.  Over the clock is the
+following inscription:
+
+"This clock was made at Barrow, Lincolnshire, in the year 1715, 
+by John Harrison, celebrated as the inventor of a nautical
+timepiece,  or chronometer, which gained the reward of 20,000L.,
+offered by the Board of Longitude, A.D. 1767.
+
+"This clock strikes the hour, indicates the day of the month, and
+with one exception (the escapement) the wheels are entirely made
+of wood."
+
+This, however, was only a beginning.  Harrison proceeded to make
+better clocks; and then he found it necessary to introduce metal,
+which was more lasting.  He made pivots of brass, which moved
+more conveniently in sockets of wood with the use of oil.  He
+also caused the teeth of his wheels to run against cylindrical
+rollers of wood, fixed by brass pins, at a proper distance from
+the axis of the pinions; and thus to a considerable extent
+removed the inconveniences of friction.
+
+In the meantime Harrison eagerly improved every incident from
+which he might derive further information.  There was a clergyman
+who came every Sunday to the village to officiate in the
+neighbourhood; and having heard of the sedulous application of
+the young carpenter, he lent him a manuscript copy of Professor
+Saunderson's discourses.  That blind professor had prepared
+several lectures on natural philosophy for the use of his
+students, though they were not intended for publication.  Young
+Harrison now proceeded to copy them out, together with the
+diagrams.  Sometimes, indeed, he spent the greater part of the
+night in writing or drawing.
+
+As part of his business, he undertook to survey land, and to
+repair clocks and watches, besides carrying on his trade of a
+carpenter.  He soon obtained a considerable knowledge of what had
+been done in clocks and watches, and was able to do not only what
+the best professional workers had done, but to strike out
+entirely new lights in the clock and watch-making business.  He
+found out a method of diminishing friction by adding a joint to
+the pallets of the pendulum, whereby they were made to work in
+the nature of rollers of a large radius, without any sliding, as
+usual, upon the teeth of the wheel.  He constructed a clock on
+the recoiling principle, which went perfectly, and never lost a
+minute within fourteen years.  Sir Edmund Denison Beckett says
+that he invented this method in order to save himself the trouble
+of going so frequently to oil the escapement of a turret clock,
+of which he had charge; though there were other influences at
+work besides this.
+
+But his most important invention, at this early period of his
+life, was his compensation pendulum.  Every one knows that metals
+expand with heat and contract by cold.  The pendulum of the clock
+therefore expanded in summer and contracted in winter, thereby
+interfering with the regular going of the clock.  Huygens had by
+his cylindrical checks removed the great irregularity arising
+from the unequal lengths of the oscillations; but the pendulum
+was affected by the tossing of a ship at sea, and was also
+subject to a variation in weight, depending on the parallel of
+latitude.  Graham, the well-known clock-maker, invented the
+mercurial compensation pendulum, consisting of a glass or iron
+jar filled with quicksilver and fixed to the end of the pendulum
+rod.  When the rod was lengthened by heat, the quicksilver and
+the jar which contained it were simultaneously expanded and
+elevated, and the centre of oscillation was thus continued at the
+same distance from the point of suspension.
+
+But the difficulty, to a certain extent, remained unconquered
+until Harrison took the matter in hand.  He observed that all
+rods of metal do not alter their lengths equally by heat, or, on
+the contrary, become shorter by cold, but some more sensibly than
+others.  After innumerable experiments Harrison at length
+composed a frame somewhat resembling a gridiron, in which the
+alternate bars were of steel and of brass, and so arranged that
+those which expanded the most were counteracted by those which
+expanded the least.  By this means the pendulum contained the
+power of equalising its own action, and the centre of oscillation
+continued at the same absolute distance from the point of
+suspension through all the variations of heat and cold during the
+year.[5]
+
+Thus by the year 1726, when he was only thirty-three years old,
+Harrison had furnished himself with two compensation clocks, in
+which all the irregularities to which these machines were
+subject, were either removed or so happily balanced, one metal
+against the other, that the two clocks kept time together in
+different parts of his house, without the variation of more than
+a single second in the month.  One of them, indeed, which he kept
+by him for his own use, and constantly compared with a fixed
+star, did not vary so much as one whole minute during the ten
+years that he continued in the country after finishing the
+machine.[6]
+
+Living, as he did, not far from the sea, Harrison next
+endeavoured to arrange his timekeeper for purposes of navigation.
+
+He tried his clock in a vessel belonging to Barton-on-Humber; but
+his compensating pendulum could there be of comparatively little
+use; for it was liable to be tossed hither or thither by the
+sudden motions of the ship.  He found it necessary, therefore, to
+mount a chronometer, or portable timekeeper, which might be taken
+from place to place, and subjected to the violent and irregular
+motion of a ship at sea, without affecting its rate of going.  It
+was evident to him that the first mover must be changed from a
+weight and pendulum to a spring wound up and a compensating
+balance.
+
+He now applied his genius in this direction.  After pondering
+over the subject, he proceeded to London in 1728, and exhibited
+his drawings to Dr. Halley, then Astronomer-Royal.  The Doctor
+referred him to Mr. George Graham, the distinguished horologer,
+inventor of the dead-beat escapement and the mercurial pendulum. 
+After examining the drawings and holding some converse with
+Harrison, Graham perceived him to be a man of uncommon merit, and
+gave him every encouragement.  He recommended him, however, to
+make his machine before again applying to the Board of Longitude.
+
+Harrison returned home to Barrow to complete his task, and many
+years elapsed before he again appeared in London to present his
+first chronometer.
+
+The remarkable success which Harrison had achieved in his
+compensating pendulum could not but urge him on to further
+experiments.  He was no doubt to a certain extent influenced by
+the reward of 20,000L. which the English Government had offered
+for an instrument that should enable the longitude to be more
+accurately determined by navigators at sea than was then
+possible; and it was with the object of obtaining pecuniary
+assistance to assist him in completing his chronometer that
+Harrison had, in 1728, made his first visit to London to exhibit
+his drawings.
+
+The Act of Parliament offering this superb reward was passed in
+1714, fourteen years before, but no attempt had been made to
+claim it.  It was right that England, then rapidly advancing to
+the first position as a commercial nation, should make every
+effort to render navigation less hazardous.  Before correct
+chronometers were invented, or good lunar tables were
+prepared,[7] the ship, when fairly at sea, out of sight of land,
+and battling with the winds and tides, was in a measure lost.  No
+method existed for accurately ascertaining the longitude.  The
+ship might be out of its course for one or two hundred miles, for
+anything that the navigator knew; and only the wreck of his ship
+on some unknown coast told of the mistake that he had made in his
+reckoning.
+
+It may here be mentioned that it was comparatively easy to
+determine the latitude of a ship at sea every day when the sun
+was visible.  The latitude--that is, the distance of any spot
+from the equator and the pole--might be found by a simple
+observation with the sextant.  The altitude of the sun at noon is
+found, and by a short calculation the position of the ship can be
+ascertained.
+
+The sextant, which is the instrument universally used at sea, was
+gradually evolved from similar instruments used from the earliest
+times.  The object of this instrument has always been to find the
+angular distance between two bodies--that is to say, the angle
+contained by two straight lines, drawn from those bodies to meet
+in the observer's eye.  The simplest instrument of this kind may
+be well represented by a pair of compasses.  If the hinge is held
+to the eye, one leg pointed to the distant horizon, and the other
+leg pointed to the sun, the position of the two legs will show
+the angular distance of the sun from the horizon at the moment of
+observation.
+
+Until the end of the seventeenth century, the instrument used was
+of this simple kind.  It was generally a large quadrant, with one
+or two bars moving on a hinge,--to all intents and purposes a
+huge pair of compasses.  The direction of the sight was fixed by
+the use of a slit and a pointer, much as in the ordinary rifle. 
+This instrument was vastly improved by the use of a telescope,
+which not only allowed fainter objects to be seen, but especially
+enabled the sight to be accurately directed to the object
+observed.
+
+The instruments of the pre-telescopic age reached their glory in
+the hands of Tycho Brahe.  He used magnificent instruments of the
+simple "pair of compasses" kind--circles, quadrants, and
+sextants.  These were for the most part ponderous fixed
+instruments of little or no use for the purposes of navigation. 
+But Tycho Brahe's sextant proved the forerunner of the modern
+instrument.  The general structure is the same; but the vast
+improvement of the modern sextant is due, firstly, to the use of
+the reflecting mirror, and, secondly, to the use of the telescope
+for accurate sighting.  These improvements were due to many
+scientific men--to William Gascoigne, who first used the
+telescope, about 1640; to Robert Hooke, who, in 1660, proposed to
+apply it to the quadrant; to Sir Isaac Newton, who designed a
+reflecting quadrant;[8] and to John Hadley, who introduced it. 
+The modern sextant is merely a modification of Newton's or
+Badley's quadrant, and its present construction seems to be
+perfect.
+
+It therefore became possible accurately to determine the position
+of a ship at sea as regarded its latitude.  But it was quite
+different as regarded the longitude that is, the distance of any
+place from a given meridian, eastward or westward.  In the case
+of longitude there is no fixed spot to which reference can be
+made.  The rotation of the earth makes the existence of such a
+spot impossible.  The question of longitude is purely a question
+of TIME.  The circuit of the globe, east and west, is simply
+represented by twenty-four hours.  Each place has its own time. 
+It is very easy to determine the local time at any spot by
+observations made at that spot.  But, as time is always changing,
+the knowledge of the local time gives no idea of the actual
+position; and still less of a moving object--say, of a ship at
+sea.  But if, in any locality, we know the local time, and also
+the local time of some other locality at that moment--say, of the
+Observatory at Greenwich we can, by comparing the two local
+times, determine the difference of local times, or, what is the
+same thing, the difference of longitude between the two places. 
+It was necessary therefore for the navigator to be in possession
+of a first-rate watch or chronometer, to enable him to determine
+accurately the position of his ship at sea, as respected the
+longitude.
+
+Before the middle of the eighteenth century good watches were
+comparatively unknown.  The navigator mainly relied, for his
+approximate longitude, upon his Dead Reckoning, without any
+observation of the heavenly bodies.  He depended upon the
+accuracy of the course which he had steered by the compass, and
+the mensuration of the ship's velocity by an instrument called
+the Log, as well as by combining and rectifying all the
+allowances for drift, lee-way, and so on, according to the trim
+of the ship; but all of these were liable to much uncertainty,
+especially when the sea was in a boisterous condition.  There was
+another and independent course which might have been
+adopted--that is, by observation of the moon, which is constantly
+moving amongst the stars from west to east.  But until the middle
+of the eighteenth century good lunar tables were as much unknown
+as good watches.
+
+Hence a method of ascertaining the longitude, with the same
+degree of accuracy which is attainable in respect of latitude,
+had for ages been the grand desideratum for men "who go down to
+the sea in ships."  Mr. Macpherson, in his important work
+entitled 'The Annals of Commerce,' observes, "Since the year
+1714, when Parliament offered a reward of 20,000L. for the best
+method of ascertaining the longitude at sea, many schemes have
+been devised, but all to little or no purpose, as going generally
+upon wrong principles, till that heaven-taught artist Mr. John
+Harrison arose;" and by him, as Mr. Macpherson goes on to say,
+the difficulty was conquered, having devoted to it "the assiduous
+studies of a long life."
+
+The preamble of the Act of Parliament in question runs as
+follows: "Whereas it is well known by all that are acquainted
+with the art of navigation that nothing is so much wanted and
+desired at sea as the discovery of the longitude, for the safety
+and quickness of voyages, the preservation of ships and the lives
+of men," and so on.  The Act proceeds to constitute certain
+persons commissioners for the discovery of the longitude, with
+power to receive and experiment upon proposals for that purpose,
+and to grant sums of money not exceeding 2000L. to aid in such
+experiments.  It will be remembered from what has been above
+stated, that a reward of 10,000L. was to be given to the person
+who should contrive a method of determining the longitude within
+one degree of a great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. 
+within 40 geographical miles; and 20,000L. within 30 geographical
+miles.
+
+It will, in these days, be scarcely believed that little more
+than a hundred and fifty years ago a prize of not less than ten
+thousand pounds should have been offered for a method of
+determining the longitude within sixty miles, and that double the
+amount should have been offered for a method of determining it
+within thirty miles!  The amount of these rewards is sufficient
+proof of the fearful necessity for improvement which then existed
+in the methods of navigation.  And yet, from the date of the
+passing of the Act in 1714 until the year 1736, when Harrison
+finished his first timepiece, nothing had been done towards
+ascertaining the longitude more accurately, even within the wide
+limits specified by the Act of Parliament.  Although several
+schemes had been projected, none of them had proved successful,
+and the offered rewards therefore still remained unclaimed.
+
+To return to Harrison.  After reaching his home at Barrow, after
+his visit to London in 1728, he began his experiments for the
+construction of a marine chronometer.  The task was one of no
+small difficulty.  It was necessary to provide against
+irregularities arising from the motion of a ship at sea, and to
+obviate the effect of alternations of temperature in the machine
+itself, as well as the oil with which it was lubricated.  A
+thousand obstacles presented themselves, but they were not enough
+to deter Harrison from grappling with the work he had set himself
+to perform.
+
+Every one knows the beautiful machinery of a timepiece, and the
+perfect tools required to produce such a machine.  Some of these
+tools Harrison procured in London, but the greater number he
+provided for himself; and many entirely new adaptations were
+required for his chronometer.  As wood could no longer be
+exclusively employed, as in his first clock, he had to teach
+himself to work accurately and minutely in brass and other
+metals.  Having been unable to obtain any assistance from the
+Board of Longitude, he was under the necessity, while carrying
+forward his experiments, of maintaining himself by still working
+at his trade of a carpenter and joiner.  This will account for
+the very long period that elapsed before he could bring his
+chronometer to such a state as that it might be tried with any
+approach to certainty in its operations.
+
+Harrison, besides his intentness and earnestness, was a cheerful
+and hopeful man.  He had a fine taste for music, and organised
+and led the choir of the village church, which attained a high
+degree of perfection.  He invented a curious monochord, which was
+not less accurate than his clocks in the mensuration of time. 
+His ear was distressed by the ringing of bells out of tune, and
+he set himself to remedy them.  At the parish church of Hull, for
+instance, the bells were harsh and disagreeable, and by the
+authority of the vicar and churchwardens he was allowed to put
+them into a state of exact tune, so that they proved entirely
+melodious.
+
+But the great work of his life was his marine chronometer.  He
+found it necessary, in the first place, to alter the first mover
+of his clock to a spring wound up, so that the regularity of the
+motion might be derived from the vibrations of balances, instead
+of those of a pendulum as in a standing clock.  Mr. Folkes,
+President of the Royal Society, when presenting the gold medal to
+Harrison in 1749, thus describes the arrangement of his new
+machine.  The details were obtained from Harrison himself, who
+was present.  He had made use of two balances situated in the
+same plane, but vibrating in contrary directions, so that the one
+of these being either way assisted by the tossing of the ship,
+the other might constantly be just so much impeded by it at the
+same time.  As the equality of the times of the vibrations of the
+balance of a pocket-watch is in a great measure owing to the
+spiral spring that lies under it, so the same was here performed
+by the like elasticity of four cylindrical springs or worms,
+applied near the upper and lower extremities of the two balances
+above described.
+
+Then came in the question of compensation.  Harrison's experience
+with the compensation pendulum of his clock now proved of service
+to him.  He had proceeded to introduce a similar expedient in his
+proposed chronometer.  As is well known to those who are
+acquainted with the nature of springs moved by balances, the
+stronger those springs are, the quicker the vibrations of the
+balances are performed, and vice versa; hence it follows that
+those springs, when braced by cold, or when relaxed by heat, must
+of necessity cause the timekeeper to go either faster or slower,
+unless some method could be found to remedy the inconvenience.
+
+The method adopted by Harrison was his compensation balance,
+doubtless the backbone of his invention.  His "thermometer kirb,"
+he himself says, "is composed of two thin plates of brass and
+steel, riveted together in several places, which, by the greater
+expansion of brass than steel by heat and contraction by cold,
+becomes convex on the brass side in hot weather and convex on the
+steel side in cold weather; whence, one end being fixed, the
+other end obtains a motion corresponding with the changes of heat
+and cold, and the two pins at the end, between which the balance
+spring passes, and which it alternately touches as the spring
+bends and unbends itself, will shorten or lengthen the spring, as
+the change of heat or cold would otherwise require to be done by
+hand in the manner used for regulating a common watch."  Although
+the method has since been improved upon by Leroy, Arnold, and
+Earnshaw, it was the beginning of all that has since been done in
+the perfection of marine chronometers.  Indeed, it is amazing to
+think of the number of clever, skilful, and industrious men who
+have been engaged for many hundred years in the production of
+that exquisite fabric--so useful to everybody, whether scientific
+or otherwise, on land or sea the modern watch.
+
+It is unnecessary here to mention in detail the particulars of
+Harrison's invention.  These were published by himself in his
+'Principles of Mr. Harrison's Timekeeper.' It may, however, be
+mentioned that he invented a method by which the chronometer
+might be kept going without losing any portion of time.  This was
+during the process of winding up, which was done once in a day. 
+While the mainspring was being wound up, a secondary one
+preserved the motion of the wheels and kept the machine going.
+
+After seven years' labour, during which Harrison encountered and
+overcame numerous difficulties, he at last completed his first
+marine chronometer.  He placed it in a sort of moveable frame,
+somewhat resembling what the sailors call a 'compass jumble,' but
+much more artificially and curiously made and arranged.  In this
+state the chronometer was tried from time to time in a large
+barge on the river Humber, in rough as well as in smooth weather,
+and it was found to go perfectly, without losing a moment of
+time.
+
+Such was the condition of Harrison's chronometer when he arrived
+with it in London in 1735, in order to apply to the commissioners
+appointed for providing a public reward for the discovery of the
+longitude at sea.  He first showed it to several members of the
+Royal Society, who cordially approved of it.  Five of the most
+prominent members--Dr. Bailey, Dr. Smith, Dr. Bradley, Mr. John
+Machin, and Mr. George Graham--furnished Harrison with a
+certificate, stating that the principles of his machine for
+measuring time promised a very great and sufficient degree of
+exactness.  In consequence of this certificate, the machine, at
+the request of the inventor, and at the recommendation of the
+Lords of the Admiralty, was placed on board a man-of-war.
+
+Sir Charles Wager, then first Lord of the Admiralty, wrote to the
+captain of the Centurion, stating that the instrument had been
+approved by mathematicians as the best that had been made for
+measuring time; and requesting his kind treatment of Mr.
+Harrison, who was to accompany it to Lisbon.  Captain Proctor
+answered the First Lord from Spithead, dated May l7th, 1736,
+promising his attention to Harrison's comfort, but intimating his
+fear that he had attempted impossibilities.  It is always so with
+a new thing.  The first steam-engine, the first gaslight, the
+first locomotive, the first steamboat to America, the first
+electric telegraph, were all impossibilities!
+
+This first chronometer behaved very well on the outward voyage in
+the Centurion.  It was not affected by the roughest weather, or
+by the working of the ship through the rolling waves of the Bay
+of Biscay.  It was brought back, with Harrison, in the Orford
+man-of-war, when its great utility was proved in a remarkable
+manner, although, from the voyage being nearly on a meridian, the
+risk of losing the longitude was comparatively small.  Yet the
+following was the certificate of the captain of the ship, dated
+the 24th June, 1737:  "When we made the land, the said land,
+according to my reckoning (and others), ought to have been the
+Start; but, before we knew what land it was, John Harrison
+declared to me and the rest of the ship's company that, according
+to his observations with his machine, it ought to be the
+Lizard--the which, indeed, it was found to be, his observation
+showing the ship to be more west than my reckoning, above one
+degree and twenty-six miles,"--that is, nearly ninety miles out
+of its course!
+
+Six days later--that is, on the 30th June--the Board of Longitude
+met, when Harrison was present, and produced the chronometer with
+which he had made the voyage to Lisbon and back.  The minute
+states:  "Mr. John Harrison produced a new invented machine, in
+the nature of clockwork, whereby he proposes to keep time at sea
+with more exactness than by any other instrument or method
+hitherto contrived, in order to the discovery of the longitude at
+sea; and proposes to make another machine of smaller dimensions
+within the space of two years, whereby he will endeavour to
+correct some defects which he hath found in that already
+prepared, so as to render the same more perfect; which machine,
+when completed, he is desirous of having tried in one of His
+Majesty's ships that shall be bound to the West Indies; but at
+the same time represented that he should not be able, by reason
+of his necessitous circumstances, to go on and finish his said
+machine without assistance, and requested that he may be
+furnished with the sum of 500L., to put him in a capacity to
+perform the same, and to make a perfect experiment thereof."
+
+The result of the meeting was that 500L. was ordered to be paid
+to Harrison, one moiety as soon as convenient, and the other when
+he has produced a certificate from the captain of one of His
+Majesty's ships that he has put the machine on board into the
+captain's possession.  Mr. George Graham, who was consulted,
+urged that the Commissioners should grant Harrison at least
+1000L., but they only awarded him half the sum, and at first only
+a moiety of the amount voted.  At the recommendation of Lord
+Monson, who was present, Harrison accepted the 250L. as a help
+towards the heavy expenses which he had already incurred, and was
+again about to incur, in perfecting the invention.  He was
+instructed to make his new chronometer of less dimensions, as the
+one exhibited was cumbersome and heavy, and occupied too much
+space on board.
+
+He accordingly proceeded to make his second chronometer.  It
+occupied a space of only about half the size of the first.  He
+introduced several improvements.  He lessened the number of the
+wheels, and thereby diminished friction.  But the general
+arrangement remained the same.  This second machine was finished
+in 1739.  It was more simple in its arrangement, and less
+cumbrous in its dimensions.  It answered even better than the
+first, and though it was not tried at sea its motions were
+sufficiently exact for finding the longitude within the nearest
+limits proposed by Act of Parliament.
+
+Not satisfied with his two machines, Harrison proceeded to make a
+third.  This was of an improved construction, and occupied still
+less space, the whole of the machine and its apparatus standing
+upon an area of only four square feet.  It was in such
+forwardness in January, 1741, that it was exhibited before the
+Royal Society, and twelve of the most prominent members signed a
+certificate of "its great and excellent use, as well for
+determining the longitude at sea as for correcting the charts of
+the coasts."  The testimonial concluded:  "We do recommend Mr.
+Harrison to the favour of the Commissioners appointed by Act of
+Parliament as a person highly deserving of such further
+encouragement and assistance as they shall judge proper and
+sufficient to finish his third machine."  The Commissioners
+granted him a further sum of 500L.  Harrison was already reduced
+to necessitous circumstances by his continuous application to the
+improvement of the timekeepers.  He had also got into debt, and
+required further assistance to enable him to proceed with their
+construction; but the Commissioners would only help him by
+driblets.
+
+Although Harrison had promised that the third machine would be
+ready for trial on August 1, 1743, it was not finished for some
+years later.  In June, 1746, we find him again appearing before
+the Board, asking for further assistance.  While proceeding with
+his work he found it necessary to add a new spring, "having spent
+much time and thought in tempering them."  Another 500L. was
+voted to enable him to pay his debts, to maintain himself and
+family, and to complete his chronometer.
+
+Three years later he exhibited his third machine to the Royal
+Society, and on the 30th of November, 1749, he was awarded the
+Gold Medal for the year.  In presenting it, Mr. Folkes, the
+President, said to Mr. Harrison, "I do here, by the authority and
+in the name of the Royal Society of London for the improving of
+natural knowledge, present you with this small but faithful token
+of their regard and esteem.  I do, in their name congratulate you
+upon the successes you have already had, and I most sincerely
+wish that all your future trials may in every way prove
+answerable to these beginnings, and that the full accomplishment
+of your great undertaking may at last be crowned with all the
+reputation and advantage to yourself that your warmest wishes may
+suggest, and to which so many years so laudably and so diligently
+spent in the improvement of those talents which God Almighty has
+bestowed upon you, will so justly entitle your constant and
+unwearied perseverance."
+
+Mr. Folkes, in his speech, spoke of Mr. Harrison as "one of the
+most modest persons he had ever known.  In speaking," he
+continued, "of his own performances, he has assured me that, from
+the immense number of diligent and accurate experiments he has
+made, and from the severe tests to which he has in many ways put
+his instrument, he expects he shall be able with sufficient
+certainty, through all the greatest variety of seasons and the
+most irregular motions of the sea, to keep time constantly,
+without the variation of so much as three seconds in a week, --a
+degree of exactness that is astonishing and even stupendous,
+considering the immense number of difficulties, and those of very
+different sorts, which the author of these inventions must have
+had to encounter and struggle withal."
+
+Although it is common enough now to make first-rate
+chronometers-- sufficient to determine the longitude with almost
+perfect accuracy in every clime of the world--it was very
+different at that time, when Harrison was occupied with his
+laborious experiments.  Although he considered his third machine
+to be the ne plus ultra of scientific mechanism, he nevertheless
+proceeded to construct a fourth timepiece, in the form of a
+pocket watch about five inches in diameter.  He found the
+principles which he had adopted in his larger machines applied
+equally well in the smaller, and the performances of the last
+surpassed his utmost expectations.  But in the meantime, as his
+third timekeeper was, in his opinion, sufficient to supply the
+requirements of the Board of Longitude as respected the highest
+reward offered, he applied to the Commissioners for leave to try
+that instrument on board a royal ship to some port in the West
+Indies, as directed by the statute of Queen Anne.
+
+Though Harrison's third timekeeper was finished about the year
+1758, it was not until March 12, 1761, that he received orders
+for his son William to proceed to Portsmouth, and go on board the
+Dorsetshire man-of-war, to proceed to Jamaica.  But another
+tedious delay occurred.  The ship was ordered elsewhere, and
+William Harrison, after remaining five months at Portsmouth,
+returned to London.  By this time, John Harrison had finished his
+fourth timepiece--the small one, in the form of a watch.  At
+length William Harrison set sail with this timekeeper from
+Portsmouth for Jamaica, on November 18th, 1761, in the Deptford
+man-of-war.  The Deptford had forty-three ships in convoy, and
+arrived at Jamaica on the l9th of January, 1762, three days
+before the Beaver, another of His Majesty's ships-of-war, which
+had sailed from Portsmouth ten days before the Deptford, but had
+lost her reckoning and been deceived in her longitude, having
+trusted entirely to the log.  Harrison's timepiece had corrected
+the log of the Deptford to the extent of three degrees of
+longitude, whilst several of the ships in the fleet lost as much
+as five degrees!  This shows the haphazard way in which
+navigation was conducted previous to the invention of the marine
+chronometer.
+
+When the Deptford arrived at Port Royal, Jamaica, the timekeeper
+was found to be only five and one tenth seconds in error; and
+during the voyage of four months, on its return to Portsmouth on
+March 26th, 1762, it was found (after allowing for the rate of
+gain or loss) to have erred only one minute fifty-four and a half
+seconds.  In the latitude of Portsmouth this only amounted to
+eighteen geographical miles, whereas the Act had awarded that the
+prize should be given where the longitude was determined within
+the distance of thirty geographical miles.  One would have
+thought that Harrison was now clearly entitled to his reward of
+20,000L.
+
+Not at all!  The delays interposed by Government are long and
+tedious, and sometimes insufferable.  Harrison had accomplished
+more than was needful to obtain the highest reward which the
+Board of Longitude had publicly offered.  But they would not
+certify that he had won the prize.  On the contrary, they started
+numerous objections, and continued for years to subject him to
+vexatious delays and disappointments.  They pleaded that the
+previous determination of the longitude of Jamaica by
+astronomical observation was unsatisfactory; that there was no
+proof of the chronometer having maintained a uniform rate during
+the voyage; and on the 17th of August, 1762, they passed a
+resolution, stating that they "were of opinion that the
+experiments made of the watch had not been sufficient to
+determine the longitude at sea."
+
+It was accordingly necessary for Harrison to petition Parliament
+on the subject.  Three reigns had come and gone since the Act of
+Parliament offering the reward had been passed.  Anne had died;
+George I. and George II. had reigned and died; and now, in the
+reign of George III.--thirty-five years after Harrison had begun
+his labours, and after he had constructed four several marine
+chronometers, each of which was entitled to win the full
+prize,--an Act of Parliament was passed enabling the inventor to
+obtain the sum of 5000L. as part of the reward.  But the
+Commissioners still hesitated.  They differed about the tempering
+of the springs.  They must have another trial of the timekeeper,
+or anything with which to put off a settlement of the claim. 
+Harrison was ready for any further number of trials; and in the
+meantime the Commissioners merely paid him a further sum on
+account.
+
+Two more dreary years passed.  Nothing was done in 1763 except a
+quantity of interminable talk at the Board of Commissioners.  At
+length, on the 28th of March, 1764, Harrison's son again departed
+with the timekeeper on board the ship Tartar for Barbadoes.  He
+returned in about four months, during which time the instrument
+enabled the longitude to be ascertained within ten miles, or
+one-third of the required geographical distance.  Harrison
+memorialised the Commissioners again and again, in order that he
+might obtain the reward publicly offered by the Government.
+
+At length the Commissioners could no longer conceal the truth. 
+In September,1764, they virtually recognised Harrison's claim by
+paying him 1000L. on account; and, on the 9th of February,1765,
+they passed a resolution setting forth that they were
+"unanimously of opinion that the said timekeeper has kept its
+time with sufficient correctness, without losing its longitude in
+the voyage from Portsmouth to Barbadoes beyond the nearest limit
+required by the Act l2th of Queen Anne, but even considerably
+within the same."  Yet they would not give Harrison the necessary
+certificate, though they were of opinion that he was entitled to
+be paid the full reward!
+
+It is pleasant to contrast the generous conduct of the King of
+Sardinia with the procrastinating and illiberal spirit which
+Harrison met with in his own country.  During the same year in
+which the above resolution was passed, the Sardinian minister
+ordered four of Harrison's timekeepers at the price of 1000L. 
+each, at the special instance of the King of Sardinia "as an
+acknowledgement of Mr. Harrison's ingenuity, and as some
+recompense for the time spent by him for the general good of
+mankind."  This grateful attention was all the more praiseworthy,
+as Sardinia could not in any way be regarded as a great maritime
+power.
+
+Harrison was now becoming old and feeble.  He had attained the
+age of seventy-four.  He had spent forty long years in working
+out his invention.  He was losing his eyesight, and could not
+afford to wait much longer.  Still he had to wait.
+
+"Full little knowest thou, who hast not tried, 
+What hell it is in suing long to bide; 
+To lose good days, that might be better spent; 
+To waste long nights in pensive discontent; 
+To spend to-day, to be put back to-morrow, 
+To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow."
+
+But Harrison had not lost his spirit.  On May 30th, 1765, he
+addressed another remonstrance to the Board, containing much
+stronger language than he had yet used.  "I cannot help
+thinking," he said, "that I am extremely ill-used by gentlemen
+from whom I might have expected a different treatment; for, if
+the Act of the l2th of Queen Anne be deficient, why have I so
+long been encouraged under it, in order to bring my invention to
+perfection?  And, after the completion, why was my son sent twice
+to the West Indies?  Had it been said to my son, when he received
+the last instruction, 'There will, in case you succeed, be a new
+Act on your return, in order to lay you under new restrictions,
+which were not thought of in the Act of the l2th of Queen Anne,'
+--I say, had this been the case, I might have expected some such
+treatment as that I now meet with.
+
+"It must be owned that my case is very hard; but I hope I am the
+first, and for my country's sake I hope I shall be the last, to
+suffer by pinning my faith upon an English Act of Parliament. 
+Had I received my just reward--for certainly it may be so called
+after forty years' close application of the talent which it has
+pleased God to give me--then my invention would have taken the
+course which all improvements in this world do; that is, I must
+have instructed workmen in its principles and execution, which I
+should have been glad of an opportunity of doing.  But how widely
+different this is from what is now proposed, viz., for me to
+instruct people that I know nothing of, and such as may know
+nothing of mechanics; and, if I do not make them understand to
+their satisfaction, I may then have nothing!
+
+"Hard fate indeed to me, but still harder to the world, which may
+be deprived of this my invention, which must be the case, except
+by my open and free manner in describing all the principles of it
+to gentlemen and noblemen who almost at all times have had free
+recourse to my instruments.  And if any of these workmen have
+been so ingenious as to have got my invention, how far you may
+please to reward them for their piracy must be left for you to
+determine; and I must set myself down in old age, and thank God I
+can be more easy in that I have the conquest, and though I have
+no reward, than if I had come short of the matter and by some
+delusion had the reward!"
+
+The Right Honourable the Earl of Egmont was in the chair of the
+Board of Longitude on the day when this letter was read--June 13,
+1765.  The Commissioners were somewhat startled by the tone which
+the inventor had taken.  Indeed, they were rather angry.  Mr.
+Harrison, who was in waiting, was called in.  After some rather
+hot speaking, and after a proposal was made to Harrison which he
+said he would decline to accede to "so long as a drop of English
+blood remained in his body," he left the room.  Matters were at
+length arranged.  The Act of Parliament (5 Geo. III. cap. 20)
+awarded him, upon a full discovery of the principles of his
+time-keeper, the payment of such a sum, as with the 2500L. he had
+already received, would make one half of the reward; and the
+remaining half was to be paid when other chronometers had been
+made after his design, and their capabilities fully proved.  He
+was also required to assign his four chronometers--one of which
+was styled a watch--to the use of the public.
+
+Harrison at once proceeded to give full explanations of the
+principles of his chronometer to Dr. Maskelyne, and six other
+gentlemen, who had been appointed to receive them.  He took his
+timekeeper to pieces in their presence, and deposited in their
+hands correct drawings of the same, with the parts, so that other
+skilful makers might construct similar chronometers on the same
+principles.  Indeed, there was no difficulty in making them;
+after his explanations and drawings had been published.  An exact
+copy of his last watch was made by the ingenious Mr. Kendal; and
+was used by Captain Cook in his three years' circumnavigation of
+the world, to his perfect satisfaction.
+
+England had already inaugurated that series of scientific
+expeditions which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to
+raise her naval reputation to so great a height.  In these
+expeditions, the officers, the sailors, and the scientific men,
+were constantly brought face to face with unforeseen difficulties
+and dangers, which brought forth their highest qualities as men. 
+There was, however, some intermixture of narrowness in the minds
+of those who sent them forth.  For instance, while Dr. Priestley
+was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to join Captain
+Cook's second expedition to the Southern Seas, as an astronomer. 
+Priestley gave his assent, and made arrangements to set out.  But
+some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment had
+been cancelled, as the Board of Longitude objected to his
+theology.  Priestley's otherwise gentle nature was roused.  "What
+I am, and what they are, in respect of religion," he wrote to
+Banks, in December, 1771, "might easily have been known before
+the thing was proposed to me at all.  Besides, I thought that
+this had been a business of philosophy, and not of divinity.  If,
+however, this be the case, I shall hold the Board of Longitude in
+extreme contempt."
+
+Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the Resolution, and
+Captain Wallis to the command of the Adventure, in November,
+1771.  They proceeded to equip the ships; and amongst the other
+instruments taken on board Captain Cook's ship, were two
+timekeepers, one made by Mr. Larcum Kendal, on Mr. Harrison's
+principles, and the other by Mr. John Arnold, on his own.  The
+expedition left Deptford in April, 1772; and shortly afterwards
+sailed for the South Seas.  "Mr. Kendal's watch" is the subject
+of frequent notices in Captain Cook's account.  At the Cape of
+Good Hope, it is said to have "answered beyond all expectation."
+Further south, in the neighbourhood of Cape Circumcision, he
+says, "the use of the telescope is found difficult at first, but
+a little practice will make it familiar.  By the assistance of
+the watch we shall be able to discover the greatest error this
+method of observing the longitude at sea is liable to."  It was
+found that Harrison's watch was more correct than Arnold's, and
+when near Cape Palliser in New Zealand, Cook says, "this day at
+noon, when we attended the winding-up of the watches, the fusee
+of Mr. Arnold's would not turn round, so that after several
+unsuccessful trials we were obliged to let it go down."  From
+this time, complete reliance was placed upon Harrison's
+chronometer.  Some time later, Cook says, "I must here take
+notice that our longitude can never be erroneous while we have so
+good a guide as Mr. Kendal's watch."  It may be observed, that at
+the beginning of the voyage, observations were made by the lunar
+tables; but these, being found unreliable, were eventually
+discontinued.
+
+To return to Harrison.  He continued to be worried by official
+opposition.  His claims were still unsatisfied.  His watch at
+home underwent many more trials.  Dr. Maskelyne, the Royal
+Astronomer, was charged with being unfavourable to the success of
+chronometers, being deeply interested in finding the longitude by
+lunar tables; although this method is now almost entirely
+superseded by the chronometer.  Harrison accordingly could not
+get the certificate of what was due to him under the Act of
+Parliament.  Years passed before he could obtain the remaining
+amount of his reward.  It was not until the year 1773, or
+forty-five years after the commencement of his experiments, that
+he succeeded in obtaining it.  The following is an entry in the
+list of supplies granted by Parliament in that year: "June 14. 
+To John Harrison, as a further reward and encouragement over and
+above the sums already received by him, for his invention of a
+timekeeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea, and his
+discovery of the principles upon which the same was constructed,
+8570 pounds 0s. 0d.
+
+John Harrison did not long survive the settlement of his claims;
+for he died on the 24th of March, 1776, at the age of
+eighty-three.  He was buried at the south-west corner of
+Hampstead parish churchyard, where a tombstone was erected to his
+memory, and an inscription placed upon it commemorating his
+services.  His wife survived him only a year; she died at
+seventy-two, and was buried in the same tomb.  His son, William
+Harrison, F.R.S., a deputy-lientenant of the counties of Monmouth
+and Middlesex, died in 1815, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and
+was also interred there.  The tomb having stood for more than a
+century, became somewhat dilapidated; when the Clock-makers'
+Company of the City of London took steps in 1879 to reconstruct
+it, and recut the inscriptions.  An appropriate ceremony took
+place at the final uncovering of the tomb.
+
+But perhaps the most interesting works connected with John
+Harrison and the great labour of his life, are the wooden clock
+at the South Kensington Museum, and the four chronometers made by
+him for the Government, which are still preserved at the Royal
+Observatory, Greenwich.  The three early ones are of great
+weight, and can scarcely be moved without some bodily labour. 
+But the fourth, the marine chronometer or watch, is of small
+dimensions, and is easily handled.  It still possesses the power
+of going accurately; as does "Mr. Kendal's watch," which was made
+exactly after it.  These will always prove the best memorials of
+this distinguished workman.
+
+Before concluding this brief notice of the life and labours of
+John Harrison, it becomes me to thank most cordially Mr.
+Christie, Astronomer-Royal, for his kindness in exhibiting the
+various chronometers deposited at the Greenwich Observatory, and
+for his permission to inspect the minutes of the Board of
+Longitude, where the various interviews between the inventor and
+the commissioners, extending over many years, are faithfully but
+too procrastinatingly recorded.  It may be finally said of John
+Harrison, that by his invention of the chronometer--the
+ever-sleepless and ever-trusty friend of the mariner --he
+conferred an incalculable benefit on science and navigation, and
+established his claim to be regarded as one of the greatest
+benefactors of mankind.
+
+POstscript.--In addition to the information contained in this
+chapter, I have been recently informed by the Rev. Mr. Sankey,
+vicar of Wragby, that the family is quite extinct in the parish,
+except the wife of a plumber, who claims relationship with
+Harrison.  The representative of the Winn family was created Lord
+St. Oswald in 1885.  Harrison is not quite forgotten at Foulby. 
+The house in which he was born was a low thatched cottage, with
+two rooms, one used as a living room, and the other as a sleeping
+room.  The house was pulled down about forty years ago; but the
+entrance door, being of strong, hard wood, is still preserved. 
+The vicar adds that young Harrison would lie out on the grass all
+night in summer time, studying the details of his wooden clock.
+
+
+Footnotes to Chapter III.
+
+[1] Originally published in Longmam's Magazine, but now rewritten
+and enlarged.
+
+[2] Popular Astronomy.  By Simon Newcomb, LL.D., Professor U.S.
+Naval Observatory.
+
+[3] Biographia Britannica, vol. vi. part 2, p. 4375.  This volume
+was published in 1766, before the final reward had been granted
+to Harrison.
+
+[4] This clock is in the possession of Abraham Riley, of Bromley,
+near Leeds.  He informs us that the clock is made of wood
+throughout, excepting the escapement and the dial, which are made
+of brass.  It bears the mark of "John Harrison, 1713."
+
+[5] Harrison's compensation pendulum was afterwards improved by
+Arnold, Earnshaw, and other English makers.  Dent's prismatic
+balance is now considered the best.
+
+[6] See Mr. Folkes's speech to the Royal Soc., 30th Nov., 1749.
+
+[7] No trustworthy lunar tables existed at that time.  It was not
+until the year 1753 that Tobias Mayer, a German, published the
+first lunar tables which could be relied upon.  For this, the
+British Government afterwards awarded to Mayer's widow the sum of
+5000L.
+
+[8] Sir Isaac Newton gave his design to Edmund Halley, then
+Astronomer-Royal.  Halley laid it on one side, and it was found
+among his papers after his death in 1742, twenty-five years after
+the death of Newton.  A similar omission was made by Sir G. B.
+Airy, which led to the discovery of Neptune being attributed to
+Leverrier instead of to Adams.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+JOHN LOMBE: INTRODUCER OF THE SILK INDUSTRY INTO ENGLAND.
+
+"By Commerce are acquired the two things which wise men accompt
+of all others the most necessary to the well-being of a
+Commonwealth: That is to say, a general Industry of Mind and
+Hardiness of Body, which never fail to be accompanyed with Honour
+and Plenty.  So that, questionless, when Commerce does not
+flourish, as well as other Professions, and when Particular
+Persons out of a habit of Laziness neglect at once the noblest
+way of employing their time and the fairest occasion for
+advancing their fortunes, that Kingdom, though otherwise never so
+glorious, wants something of being compleatly happy."--A Treatise
+touching the East India Trade (1695).
+
+Industry puts an entirely new face upon the productions of
+nature.  By labour man has subjugated the world, reduced it to
+his dominion, and clothed the earth with a new garment.  The
+first rude plough that man thrust into the soil, the first rude
+axe of stone with which he felled the pine, the first rude canoe
+scooped by him from its trunk to cross the river and reach the
+greener fields beyond, were each the outcome of a human faculty
+which brought within his reach some physical comfort he had never
+enjoyed before.
+
+Material things became subject to the influence of labour.  From
+the clay of the ground, man manufactured the vessels which were
+to contain his food.  Out of the fleecy covering of sheep, he
+made clothes for himself of many kinds; from the flax plant he
+drew its fibres, and made linen and cambric; from the hemp plant
+he made ropes and fishing nets; from the cotton pod he fabricated
+fustians, dimities, and calicoes.  From the rags of these, or
+from weed and the shavings of wood, he made paper on which books
+and newspapers were printed.  Lead was formed by him into
+printer's type, for the communication of knowledge without end.
+
+But the most extraordinary changes of all were made in a heavy
+stone containing metal, dug out of the ground.  With this, when
+smelted by wood or coal, and manipulated by experienced skill,
+iron was produced.  From this extraordinary metal, the soul of
+every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised
+society--arms, hammers, and axes were made; then knives,
+scissors, and needles; then machinery to hold and control the
+prodigious force of steam; and eventually railroads and
+locomotives, ironclads propelled by the screw, and iron and steel
+bridges miles in length.
+
+The silk manufacture, though originating in the secretion of a
+tiny caterpillar, is perhaps equally extraordinary.  Hundreds of
+thousands of pounds weight of this slender thread, no thicker
+than the filaments spun by a spider, give employment to millions
+of workers throughout the world.  Silk, and the many textures
+wrought from this beautiful material, had long been known in the
+East; but the period cannot be fixed when man first divested the
+chrysalis of its dwelling, and discovered that the little yellow
+ball which adhered to the leaf of the mulberry tree, could be
+evolved into a slender filament, from which tissues of endless
+variety and beauty could be made.  The Chinese were doubtless
+among the first who used the thread spun by the silkworm for the
+purposes of clothing.  The manufacture went westward from China
+to India and Persia, and from thence to Europe.  Alexander the
+Great brought home with him a store of rich silks from Persia
+Aristotle and Pliny give descriptions of the industrious little
+worm and its productions.  Virgil is the first of the Roman
+writers who alludes to the production of silk in China; and the
+terms he employs show how little was then known about the
+article.  It was introduced at Rome about the time of Julius
+Caesar, who displayed a profusion of silks in some of his
+magnificent theatrical spectacles.  Silk was so valuable that it
+was then sold for an equal weight of gold.  Indeed, a law was
+passed that no man should disgrace himself by wearing a silken
+garment.  The Emperor Heliogabalus despised the law, and wore a
+dress composed wholly of silk.  The example thus set was followed
+by wealthy citizens.  A demand for silk from the East soon became
+general.
+
+It was not until about the middle of the sixth century that two
+Persian monks, who had long resided in China, and made themselves
+acquainted with the mode of rearing the silkworm, succeeded in
+carrying the eggs of the insect to Constantinople.  Under their
+direction they were hatched and fed.  A sufficient number of
+butterflies were saved to propagate the race, and mulberry trees
+were planted to afford nourishment to the rising generations of
+caterpillars.  Thus the industry was propagated.  It spread into
+the Italian peninsula; and eventually manufactures of silk
+velvet, damask, and satin became established in Venice, Milan,
+Florence, Lucca, and other places.
+
+Indeed, for several centuries the manufacture of silk in Europe
+was for the most part confined to Italy.  The rearing of
+silkworms was of great importance in Modena, and yielded a
+considerable revenue to the State.  The silk produced there was
+esteemed the best in Lombardy.  Until the beginning of the
+sixteenth century, Bologna was the only city which possessed
+proper "throwing" mills, or the machinery requisite for twisting
+and preparing silken fibres for the weaver.  Thousands of people
+were employed at Florence and Genoa about the same time in the
+silk manufacture.  And at Venice it was held in such high esteem,
+that the business of a silk factory was considered a noble
+employment.[1]
+
+It was long before the use of silk became general in England. 
+"Silk," said an old writer, "does not immediately come hither
+from the Worm that spins and makes it, but passes many a Climate,
+travels many a Desert, employs many a Hand, loads many a Camel,
+and freights many a Ship before it arrives here; and when at last
+it comes, it is in return for other manufactures, or in exchange
+for our money."[2]  It is said that the first pair of silk
+stockings was brought into England from Spain, and presented to
+Henry VIII.  He had before worn hose of cloth.  In the third year
+of Queen Elizabeth's reign, her tiring woman, Mrs. Montagu,
+presented her with a pair of black silk stockings as a New Year's
+gift; whereupon her Majesty asked if she could have any more, in
+which case she would wear no more cloth stockings.  When James
+VI. of Scotland received the ambassadors sent to congratulate him
+upon his accession to the throne of Great Britain, he asked one
+of his lords to lend him his pair of silken hose, that he "might
+not appear a scrub before  strangers."  From these circumstances
+it will be observed how rare the wearing of silk was in England.
+
+Shortly after becoming king, James I. endeavoured to establish
+the silk manufacture in England, as had already been successfully
+done in France.  He gave every encouragement to the breeding of
+silkworms.  He sent circular letters to all the counties of
+England, strongly recommending the inhabitants to plant mulberry
+trees.  The trees were planted in many places, but the leaves did
+not ripen in sufficient time for the sustenance of the silkworms.
+
+The same attempt was made at Inneshannon, near Bandon, in
+Ireland, by the Hugnenot refugees, but proved abortive.  The
+climate proved too cold or damp for the rearing of silkworms with
+advantage.  All that remains is "The Mulberry Field," which still
+retains its name.  Nevertheless the Huguenots successfully
+established the silk manufacture at London and Dublin, obtaining
+the spun silk from abroad.
+
+Down to the beginning of last century, the Italians were the
+principal producers of organzine or thrown silk; and for a long
+time they succeeded in keeping their art a secret.  Although the
+silk manufacture, as we have seen, was introduced into this
+country by the Huguenot artizans, the price of thrown silk was so
+great that it interfered very considerably with its progress. 
+Organzine was principally made within the dominions of Savoy, by
+means of a large and curious engine, the like of which did not
+exist elsewhere.  The Italians, by the most severe laws, long
+preserved the mystery of the invention.  The punishment
+prescribed by one of their laws to be inflicted upon anyone who
+discovered the secret, or attempted to carry it out of the
+Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of all the
+goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be
+afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to
+the gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name
+and crime of the person, there to be continued for a perpetual
+mark of infamy."[3]
+
+Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave
+all this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret.  It may
+be remembered with what courage and determination the founder of
+the Foley family introduced the manufacture of nails into
+England.  He went into the Danemora mine district, near Upsala in
+Sweden, fiddling his way among the miners; and after making two
+voyages, he at last wrested from them the secret of making nails,
+and introduced the new industry into the Staffordshire
+district.[4]  The courage of John Lombe, who introduced the
+thrown-silk industry into England, was equally notable.  He was a
+native of Norwich.  Playfair, in his 'Family Antiquity' (vii.
+312), says his name "may have been taken from the French Lolme,
+or de Lolme," as there were many persons of French and Flemish
+origin settled at Norwich towards the close of the sixteenth
+century; but there is no further information as to his special
+origin.
+
+John Lombe's father, Henry Lombe, was a worsted weaver, and was
+twice married.  By his first wife he had two sons, Thomas and
+Henry; and by his second, he had also two sons, Benjamin and
+John.  At his death in 1695, he left his two brothers his
+"supervisors," or trustees, and directed them to educate his
+children in due time to some useful trade.  Thomas, the eldest
+son, went to London.  He was apprenticed to a trade, and
+succeeded in business, as we find him Sheriff of London and
+Middlesex in 1727, when in his forty-second year.  He was also
+knighted in the same year, most probably on the accession of
+George II. to the throne.
+
+John, the youngest son of the family, and half-brother of Thomas,
+was put an apprentice to a trade.  In 1702, we find him at Derby,
+working as a mechanic with one Mr. Crotchet.  This unfortunate
+gentleman started a small silk-mill at Derby, with the object of
+participating in the profits derived from the manufacture.
+
+"The wear of silks," says Hutton, in his 'History of Derby,' "was
+the taste of the ladies, and the British merchant was obliged to
+apply to the Italian with ready money for the article at an
+exorbitant price."  Crotchet did not succeed in his undertaking. 
+"Three engines were found necessary for the process:  he had but
+one.  An untoward trade is a dreadful sink for money; and an
+imprudent tradesman is still more dreadfuL.  We often see
+instances where a fortune would last a man much longer if he
+lived upon his capital, than if he sent it into trade.  Crotchet
+soon became insolvent."
+
+John Lombe, who had been a mechanic in Crotchet's silk mill, lost
+his situation accordingly.  But he seems to have been possessed
+by an intense desire to ascertain the Italian method of
+silk-throwing.  He could not learn it in England.  There was no
+other method but going to Italy, getting into a silk mill, and
+learning the secret of the Italian art.  He was a good mechanic
+and a clever draughtsman, besides being intelligent and fearless.
+
+But he had not the necessary money wherewith to proceed to Italy.
+
+His half-brother Thomas, however, was doing well in London, and
+was willing to help him with the requisite means.  Accordingly,
+John set out for Italy, not long after the failure of Crotchet.
+
+John Lombe succeeded in getting employment in a silk mill in
+Piedmont, where the art of silk-throwing was kept a secret.  He
+was employed as a mechanic, and had thus an opportunity, in
+course of time, of becoming familiar with the operation of the
+engine.  Hutton says that he bribed the workmen; but this would
+have been a dangerous step, and would probably have led to his
+expulsion, if not to his execution.  Hutton had a great
+detestation of the first silk factory at Derby, where he was
+employed when a boy; and everything that he says about it must be
+taken cum grano salis.  When the subject of renewing the patent
+was before Parliament in 1731, Mr. Perry, who supported the
+petition of Sir Thomas Lombe, said that "the art had been kept so
+secret in Piedmont, that no other nation could ever yet come at
+the invention, and that Sir Thomas and his brother resolved to
+make an attempt for the bringing of this invention into their own
+country.  They knew that there would be great difficulty and
+danger in the undertaking, because the king of Sardinia had made
+it death for any man to discover this invention, or attempt to
+carry it out of his dominions.  The petitioner's brother,
+however, resolved to venture his person for the benefit and
+advantage of his native country, and Sir Thomas was resolved to
+venture his money, and to furnish his brother with whatever sums
+should be necessary for executing so bold and so generous a
+design.  His brother went accordingly over to Italy; and after a
+long stay and a great expense in that country, he found means to
+see this engine so often, and to pry into the nature of it so
+narrowly, that he made himself master of the whole invention and
+of all the different parts and motions belonging to it."
+
+John Lombe was absent from England for several years.  While
+occupied with his investigations and making his drawings, it is
+said that it began to be rumoured that the Englishman was prying
+into the secret of the silk mill, and that he had to fly for his
+life.  However this may be, he got on board an English ship, and
+returned to England in safety.  He brought two Italian workmen
+with him, accustomed to the secrets of the silk trade.  He
+arrived in London in 1716, when, after conferring with his
+brother, a specification was prepared and a patent for the
+organzining of raw silk was taken out in 1718.  The patent was
+granted for fourteen years.
+
+In the meantime, John Lombe arranged with the Corporation of the
+town of Derby for taking a lease of the island or swamp on the
+river Derwent, at a ground rental of 8L. a year.  The island,
+which was well situated for water-power, was 500 feet long and 52
+feet wide.  Arrangements were at once made for erecting a silk
+mill thereon, the first large factory in England.  It was
+constructed entirely at the expense of his brother Thomas.  While
+the building was in progress, John Lombe hired various rooms in
+Derby, and particularly the Town Hall, where he erected temporary
+engines turned by hand, and gave employment to a large number of
+poor people.
+
+At length, after about three years' labour, the great silk mill
+was completed.  It was founded upon huge piles of oak, from 16 to
+20 feet long, driven into the swamp close to each other by an
+engine made for the purpose.  The building was five stories high,
+contained eight large apartments, and had no fewer than 468
+windows.  The Lombes must have had great confidence in their
+speculation, as the building and the great engine for making the
+organzine silk, together with the other fittings, cost them about
+30,000L.
+
+One effect of the working of the mill was greatly to reduce the
+price of the thrown-silk, and to bring it below the cost of the
+Italian production.  The King of Sardinia, having heard of the
+success of the Lombe's undertaking, prohibited the exportation of
+Piedmontese raw silk, which interrupted the course of their
+prosperity, until means were taken to find a renewed supply
+elsewhere.
+
+And now comes the tragic part of the story, for which Mr. Hutton,
+the author of the 'History of Derby,' is responsible.  As he
+worked in the silk mill when a boy, from 1730 to 1737, he
+doubtless heard it from the mill-hands, and there may be some
+truth in it, though mixed with a little romance.  It is this:-
+Hutton says of John Lombe, that he "had not pursued this
+lucrative commerce more than three or four years when the
+Italians, who felt the effects from their want of trade,
+determined his destruction, and hoped that that of his works
+would follow.  An artful woman came over in the character of a
+friend, associated with the parties, and assisted in the
+business.  She attempted to gain both the Italian workmen, and
+succeeded with one.  By these two slow poison was supposed, and
+perhaps justly, to have been administered to John Lombe, who
+lingered two or three years in agony, and departed.  The Italian
+ran away to his own country; and Madam was interrogated, but
+nothing transpired, except what strengthened suspicion."  A
+strange story, if true.
+
+Of the funeral, Hutton says:-- "John Lombe's was the most superb
+ever known in Derby.  A man of peaceable deportment, who had
+brought a beneficial manufactory into the place, employed the
+poor, and at advanced wages, could not fail meeting with respect,
+and his melancholy end with pity.  Exclusive of the gentlemen who
+attended, all the people concerned in the works were invited. 
+The procession marched in pairs, and extended the length of Full
+Street, the market-place, and Iron-gate; so that when the corpse
+entered All Saints, at St. Mary's Gate, the last couple left the
+house of the deceased, at the corner of Silk-mill Lane."
+
+Thus John Lombe died and was buried at the early age of
+twenty-nine; and Thomas, the capitalist, continued the owner of
+the Derby silk mill.  Hutton erroneously states that William
+succeeded, and that he shot himself.  The Lombes had no brother
+of the name of William, and this part of Hutton's story is a
+romance.
+
+The affairs of the Derby silk mill went on prosperously.  Enough
+thrown silk was manufactured to supply the trade, and the weaving
+of silk became a thriving business.  Indeed, English silk began
+to have a European reputation.  In olden times it was said that
+"the stranger buys of the Englishman the case of the fox for a
+groat, and sells him the tail again for a shilling."  But now the
+matter was reversed, and the saying was, "The Englishman buys
+silk of the stranger for twenty marks, and sells him the same
+again for one hundred pounds."
+
+But the patent was about to expire.  It had been granted for only
+fourteen years; and a long time had elapsed before the engine
+could be put in operation, and the organzine manufactured.  It
+was the only engine in the kingdom.  Joshua Gee, writing in 1731,
+says:  "As we have but one Water Engine in the kingdom for
+throwing silk, if that should be destroyed by fire or any other
+accident, it would make the continuance of throwing fine silk
+very precarious; and it is very much to be doubted whether all
+the men now living in the kingdom could make another."  Gee
+accordingly recommended that three or four more should be erected
+at the public expense, "according to the model of that at
+Derby."[5]
+
+The patent expired in 1732.  The year before, Sir Thomas Lombe,
+who had been by this time knighted, applied to Parliament for a
+prolongation of the patent.  The reasons for his appeal were
+principally these: that before he could provide for the full
+supply of other silk proper for his purpose (the Italians having
+prohibited the exportation of raw silk), and before he could
+alter his engine, train up a sufficient number of workpeople, and
+bring the manufacture to perfection, almost all the fourteen
+years of his patent right would have expired.  "Therefore," the
+petition to Parliament concluded, "as he has not hitherto
+received the intended benefit of the aforesaid patent, and in
+consideration of the extraordinary nature of this undertaking,
+the very great expense, hazard, and difficulty he has undergone,
+as well as the advantage he has thereby procured to the nation at
+his own expense, the said Sir Thomas Lombe humbly hopes that
+Parliament will grant him a further term for the sole making and
+using his engines, or such other recompense as in their wisdom
+shall seem meet."[6]
+
+The petition was referred to a Committee.  After consideration,
+they recommended the House of Commons to grant a further term of
+years to Sir Thomas Lombe.  The advisers of the King, however,
+thought it better that the patent should not be renewed, but that
+the trade in silk should be thrown free to all.  Accordingly the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer acquainted the House (14th March,
+1731) that "His Majesty having been informed of the case of Sir
+Thomas Lombe, with respect to his engine for making organzine
+silk, had commanded him to acquaint this House, that His Majesty
+recommended to their consideration the making such provision for
+a recompense to Sir Thomas Lombe as they shall think proper."
+
+The result was, that the sum of 14,000L. was voted and paid to
+Sir Thomas Lombe as "a reward for his eminent services done to
+the nation, in discovering with the greatest hazard and
+difficulty the capital Italian engines, and introducing and
+bringing the same to full perfection in this kingdom, at his own
+great expense."[7]  The trade was accordingly thrown open.  Silk
+mills were erected at Stockport and elsewhere; Hutton says that
+divers additional mills were erected in Derby; and a large and
+thriving trade was established.  In 1850, the number employed in
+the silk manufacture exceeded a million persons.  The old mill
+has recently become disused.  Although supported by strong wooden
+supports, it showed signs of falling; and it was replaced by a
+larger mill, more suitable to modern requirements.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter IV.
+
+[1] "This was equally the case with two other trades;-- those of
+glass-maker and druggist, which brought no contamination upon
+nobility in Venice.  In a country where wealth was concentrated
+in the hands of the powerful, it was no doubt highly judicious
+thus to encourage its employment for objects of public advantage.
+
+A feeling, more or less powerful, has always existed in the minds
+of the high-born, against the employment of their time and wealth
+to purposes of commerce or manufactures.  All trades, save only
+that of war, seem to have been held by them as in some sort
+degrading, and but little comporting with the dignity of
+aristocratic blood." Cabinet Cyclopedia--Silk Manufacture, p. 20.
+
+[2] A Brief State of the Inland or Home Trade. (Pamphlet.) 1730.
+
+[3] A Brief State of the Case relating to the Machine erected at
+Derby for making Italian Organzine Silk, which was discovered and
+brought into England with the utmost difficulty and hazard, and
+at the Sole Expense of Sir Thomas Lombe.  House of Commons Paper,
+28th January, 1731.
+
+[4] Self-Help, p. 205.
+
+[5] The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, p. 94.
+
+[6] The petition sets forth the merits of the machine at Derby
+for making Italian organzine silk--"a manufacture made out of
+fine raw silk, by reducing it to a hard twisted fine and even
+thread.  This silk makes the warp, and is absolutely necessary to
+mix with and cover the Turkey and other coarser silks thrown
+here, which are used for Shute,--so that, without a constant
+supply of this fine Italian organzine silk, very little of the
+said Turkey or other silks could be used, nor could the silk
+weaving trade be carried on in England.  This Italian organzine
+(or thrown) silk has in all times past been bought with our
+money, ready made (or worked) in Italy, for want of the art of
+making it here.  Whereas now, by making it ourselves out of fine
+Italian raw silk, the nation saves near one-third part; and by
+what we make out of fine China raw silk, above one-half of the
+price we pay for it ready worked in Italy.  The machine at Derby
+contains 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual parts (which
+work day and night), all which receive their motion from one
+large water-wheel, are governed by one regulator, and it employs
+about 300 persons to attend and supply it with work." In Bees
+Cyclopaedia (art. 'Silk Manufacture') there is a full description
+of the Piedmont throwing machine introduced to England by John
+Lombe, with a good plate of it.
+
+[7] Sir Thomas Lombe died in 1738.  He had two daughters.  The
+first, Hannah, was married to Sir Robert Clifton, of Clifton, co.
+
+Notts; the second, Mary Turner, was married to James, 7th Earl of
+Lauderdale.  In his will, he "recommends his wife, at the
+conclusion of the Darby concern," to distribute among his
+"principal servants or managers five or six hundred pounds."
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WILLIAM MURDOCK: HIS LIFE AND INVENTIONS.
+
+"Justice exacts, that those by whom we are most benefited  
+Should be most admired."--Dr. Johnson.
+
+"The beginning of civilization is the discovery of some useful
+arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries.  The
+necessity  or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social
+institutions... In reality, the origin as well as the progress
+and improvement of civil society is founded on mechanical and
+chemical inventions."--Sir Humphry Davy.
+
+At the middle of last century, Scotland was a very poor country. 
+It consisted mostly of mountain and moorland; and the little
+arable land it contained was badly cultivated.  Agriculture was
+almost a lost art.  "Except in a few instances," says a writer in
+the 'Farmers' Magazine' of 1803, "Scotland was little better than
+a barren waste."  Cattle could with difficulty be kept alive; and
+the people in some parts of the country were often on the brink
+of starvation.  The people were hopeless, miserable, and without
+spirit, like the Irish in their very worst times.  After the
+wreck of the Darien expedition, there seemed to be neither skill,
+enterprise, nor money left in the country.  What resources it
+contained were altogether undeveloped.  There was little
+communication between one place and another, and such roads as
+existed were for the greater part of the year simply impassable.
+
+There were various opinions as to the causes of this frightful
+state of things.  Some thought it was the Union between England
+and Scotland; and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, "The Patriot," as
+he was called, urged its Repeal.  In one of his publications, he
+endeavoured to show that about one-sixth of the population of
+Scotland was in a state of beggary-- two hundred thousand
+vagabonds begging from door to door, or robbing and plundering
+people as poor as themselves.[1] Fletcher was accordingly as
+great a repealer as Daniel O'Connell in after times.  But he
+could not get the people to combine.  There were others who held
+a different opinion.  They thought that something might be done
+by the people themselves to extricate the country from its
+miserable condition.
+
+It still possessed some important elements of prosperity.  The
+inhabitants of Scotland, though poor, were strong and able to
+work.  The land, though cold and sterile, was capable of
+cultivation.
+
+Accordingly, about the middle of last century, some important
+steps were taken to improve the general condition of things.  A
+few public-spirited landowners led the way, and formed themselves
+into a society for carrying out improvements in agriculture. 
+They granted long leases of farms as a stimulus to the most
+skilled and industrious, and found it to their interest to give
+the farmer a more permanent interest in his improvements than he
+had before enjoyed.  Thus stimulated and encouraged, farming made
+rapid progress, especially in the Lothians; and the example
+spread into other districts.  Banks were established for the
+storage of capital.  Roads were improved, and communications
+increased between one part of the country and another.  Hence
+trade and commerce arose, by reason of the facilities afforded
+for the interchange of traffic.  The people, being fairly
+educated by the parish schools, were able to take advantage of
+these improvements.  Sloth and idleness gradually disappeared,
+before the energy, activity, and industry which were called into
+life by the improved communications.
+
+At the same time, active and powerful minds were occupied in
+extending the domain of knowledge.  Black and Robison, of
+Glasgow, were the precursors of James Watt, whose invention of
+the condensing steam-engine was yet to produce a revolution in
+industrial operations, the like of which had never before been
+known.  Watt had hit upon his great idea while experimenting with
+an old Newcomen model which belonged to the University of
+Glasgow.  He was invited by Mr. Roebuck of Kinneil to make a
+working steam-engine for the purpose of pumping water from the
+coal-pits at Boroughstoness; but his progress was stopped by want
+of capital, as well as by want of experience.  It was not until
+the brave and generous Matthew Boulton of Birmingham took up the
+machine, and backed Watt with his capital and his spirit, that
+Watt's enterprise had the remotest chance of success.  Even after
+about twelve years' effort, the condensing steam-engine was only
+beginning, though half-heartedly, to be taken up and employed by
+colliery proprietors and cotton manufacturers.  In developing its
+powers, and extending its uses, the great merits of William
+Murdock can never be forgotten.  Watt stands first in its
+history, as the inventor; Boulton second, as its promoter and
+supporter; and Murdock third, as its developer and improver.
+
+William Murdock was born on the 21st of August, 1754, at Bellow
+Mill, in the parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire.  His father, John,
+was a miller and millwright, as well as a farmer.  His mother's
+maiden name was Bruce, and she used to boast of being descended
+from Robert Bruce, the deliverer of Scotland.  The Murdocks, or
+Murdochs--for the name was spelt in either way--were numerous in
+the neighbourhood, and they were nearly all related to each
+other.  They are supposed to have originally come into the
+district from Flanders, between which country and Scotland a
+considerable intercourse existed in the middle ages.  Some of the
+Murdocks took a leading part in the construction of the abbeys
+and cathedrals of the North;[2] others were known as mechanics;
+but the greater number were farmers.
+
+One of the best known members of the family was John Murdock, the
+poet Burns' first teacher.  Burns went to his school at Alloway
+Mill, when he was six years old.  There he learnt to read and
+write.  When Murdock afterwards set up a school at Ayr, Burns,
+who was then fifteen, went to board with him.  In a letter to a
+correspondent, Murdock said:  "In 1773, Robert Burns came to
+board and lodge with me, for the purpose of revising his English
+grammar, that he might be better qualified to instruct his
+brothers and sisters at home.  He was now with me day and night,
+in school, at all meals, and in all my walks."  The pupil even
+shared the teacher's bed at night.  Murdock lent the boy books,
+and helped the cultivation of his mind in many ways.  Burns soon
+revised his English grammar, and learnt French, as well as a
+little Latin.  Some time after, Murdock removed to London, and
+had the honour of teaching Talleyrand English during his
+residence as an emigrant in this country.  He continued to have
+the greatest respect for his former pupil, whose poetry
+commemorated the beauties of his native district.
+
+It may be mentioned that Bellow Mill is situated on the Bellow
+Water, near where it joins the river Lugar.  One of Burns' finest
+songs begins:--
+
+   "Behind yon hills where Lugar flows."
+
+That was the scene of William Murdock's boyhood.  When a boy, he
+herded his father's cows along the banks of the Bellow; and as
+there were then no hedges, it was necessary to have some one to
+watch the cattle while grazing.  The spot  is still pointed out
+where the boy, in the intervals of his herding, hewed a square
+compartment out of the rock by the water side, and there burnt
+the splint coal found on the top of the Black Band ironstone. 
+That was one of the undeveloped industries of Scotland; for the
+Scotch iron trade did not arrive at any considerable importance
+until about a century later.[3]  The little cavern in which
+Murdock burnt the splint coal was provided with a fireplace and
+vent, all complete.  It is possible that he may have there
+derived, from his experiments, the first idea of Gas as an
+illuminant.
+
+Murdock is also said to have made a wooden horse, worked by
+mechanical power, which was the wonder of the district.  On this
+mechanical horse he rode to the village of Cumnock, about two
+miles distant.  His father's name is, however, associated with
+his own in the production of this machine.  Old John Murdock had
+a reputation for intelligence and skill of no ordinary kind. 
+When at Carron ironworks, in 1760, he had a pinton cast after a
+pattern which he had prepared.  This is said to have been the
+first piece of iron-toothed gearing ever used in mill work.  When
+I last saw it, the pinton was placed on the lawn in front of
+William Murdock's villa at Handsworth.
+
+The young man helped his father in many ways.  He worked in the
+mill, worked on the farm, and assisted in the preparation of mill
+machinery.  In this way he obtained a considerable amount of
+general technical knowledge.  He even designed and constructed
+bridges.  He was employed to build a bridge over the river Nith,
+near Dumfries, and it stands there to this day, a solid and
+handsome structure.  But he had an ambition to be something more
+than a country mason.  He had heard a great deal about the
+inventions of James Watt; and he determined to try whether he
+could not get "a job" at the famous manufactory at Soho.  He
+accordingly left his native place in the year 1777, in the
+twenty-third year of his age; and migrated southward.  He left
+plenty of Murdocks behind him.  There was a famous staff in the
+family, originally owned by William Murdock's grandfather, which
+bore the following inscription:  "This staff I leave in pedigree
+to the oldest Murdock after me, in the parish of Auchenleck,
+1745."  This staff was lately held by Jean Murdock, daughter of
+the late William Murdock, joiner, cousin of the subject of this
+biography.
+
+When William arrived at Soho in 1777 he called at the works to
+ask for employment.  Watt was then in Cornwall, looking after his
+pumping engines; but he saw Boulton, who was usually accessible
+to callers of every rank.  In answer to Murdock's enquiry whether
+he could have a job, Boulton replied that work was very slack
+with them, and that every place was filled up.  During the brief
+conversation that took place, the blate young Scotchman, like
+most country lads in the presence of strangers, had some
+difficulty in knowing what to do with his hands, and
+unconsciously kept twirling his hat with them.  Boulton's
+attention was attracted to the twirling hat, which seemed to be
+of a peculiar make.  It was not a felt hat, nor a cloth hat, nor
+a glazed hat: but it seemed to be painted, and composed of some
+unusual material.  "That seems to be a curious sort of hat," said
+Boulton, looking at it more closely; "what is it made of?" 
+"Timmer, sir," said Murdock, modestly.  "Timmer?  Do you mean to
+say that it is made of wood?"  "'Deed it is, sir."  "And pray how
+was it made?"  "I made it mysel, sir, in a bit laithey of my own
+contrivin'."  "Indeed!"
+
+Boulton looked at the young man again.  He had risen a hundred
+degrees in his estimation.  William was a good-looking
+fellow--tall, strong, and handsome--with an open intelligent
+countenance.  Besides, he had been able to turn a hat for himself
+with a lathe of his own construction.  This, of itself, was a
+sufficient proof that he was a mechanic of no mean skill. 
+"Well!" said Boulton, at last, "I will enquire at the works, and
+see if there is anything we can set you to.  Call again, my man."
+
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Murdock, giving a final twirl to his hat.
+
+Such was the beginning of William Murdock's connection with the
+firm of Boulton and Watt.  When he called again he was put upon a
+trial job, and then, as he was found satisfactory, he was engaged
+for two years at 15s. a week when at home, 17s. when in the
+country, and 18s. when in London.  Boulton's engagement of
+Murdock was amply justified by the result.  Beginning as an
+ordinary mechanic, he applied himself diligently and
+conscientiously to his work, and gradually became trusted.  More
+responsible duties were confided to him, and he strove to perform
+them to the best of his power.  His industry, skilfulness, and
+steady sobriety, soon marked him for promotion, and he rose from
+grade to grade until he became Boulton and Watt's most trusted
+co-worker and adviser in all their mechanical undertakings of
+importance.
+
+Watt himself had little confidence in Scotchmen as mechanics.  He
+told Sir Waiter Scott that though many of them sought employment
+at his works, he could never get any of them to become first-rate
+workmen.  They might be valuable as clerks and book-keepers, but
+they had an insuperable aversion to toiling long at any point of
+mechanism, so as to earn the highest wages paid to the
+workmen.[4]  The reason no doubt was, that the working-people of
+Scotland were then only in course of education as practical
+mechanics; and now that they have had a century's discipline of
+work and technical training, the result is altogether different,
+as the engine-shops and shipbuilding-yards of the Clyde
+abundantly prove.  Mechanical power and technical ability are the
+result of training, like many other things.
+
+When Boulton engaged Murdock, as we have said, Watt was absent in
+Cornwall, looking after the pumping-engines which had been
+erected at several of the mines throughout that county.  The
+partnership had only been in existence for three years, and Watt
+was still struggling with the difficulties which he had to
+surmount in getting the steam engine into practical use.  His
+health was bad, and he was oppressed with frightful headaches. 
+He was not the man to fight the selfishness of the Cornish
+adventurers.  "A little more of this hurrying and vexation," he
+said, "will knock me up altogether."  Boulton went to his help
+occasionally, and gave him hope and courage.  And at length
+William Murdock, after he had acquired sufficient knowledge of
+the business, was able to undertake the principal management of
+the engines in Cornwall.
+
+We find that in 1779, when he was only twenty-five years old, he
+was placed in this important position.  When he went into
+Cornwall, he gave himself no rest until he had conquered the
+defects of the engines, and put them into thorough working order.
+
+He devoted himself to his duties with a zeal and ability that
+completely won Watt's heart.  When he had an important job in
+hand, he could scarcely sleep.  One night at his lodgings at
+Redruth, the people were disturbed by a strange noise in his
+room.  Several heavy blows were heard upon the floor.  They
+started from their beds, rushed to Murdock's room, and found him
+standing in his shirt, heaving at the bedpost in his sleep,
+shouting "Now she goes, lads! now she goes!"
+
+Murdock became a most popular man with the mine owners.  He also
+became friendly with the Cornish workmen and engineers.  Indeed,
+he fought his way to their affections.  One day, some half-dozen
+of the mining captains came into his engine-room at Chacewater,
+and began to bully him.  This he could not stand.  He stript,
+selected the biggest, and put himself into a fighting attitude. 
+They set to, and in a few minutes Murdock's powerful bones and
+muscles enabled him to achieve the victory.  The other men, who
+had looked on fairly, without interfering, seeing the temper and
+vigour of the man they had bullied, made overtures of
+reconciliation.  William was quite willing to be friendly. 
+Accordingly they shook hands all round, and parted the best of
+friends.  It is also said that Murdock afterwards fought a duel
+with Captain Trevethick, because of a quarrel between Watt and
+the mining engineer, in which Murdock conceived his master to
+have been unfairly and harshly treated.[5]
+
+The uses of Watt's steam-engine began to be recognised as
+available for manufacturing purposes.  It was then found
+necessary to invent some method by which continuous rotary motion
+should be secured, so as to turn round the moving machinery of
+mills.  With this object Watt had invented his original
+wheel-engine.  But no steps were taken to introduce it into
+practical use.  At length he prepared a model, in which he made
+use of a crank connected with the working beam of the engine, so
+as to produce the necessary rotary motion.
+
+There was no originality in this application.  The crank was one
+of the most common of mechanical appliances.  It was in daily use
+in every spinning wheel, and in every turner's and
+knife-grinder's foot-lathe.  Watt did not take out a patent for
+the crank, not believing it to be patentable.  But another person
+did so, thereby anticipating Watt in the application of the crank
+for producing rotary motion.   He had therefore to employ some
+other method, and in the new contrivance he had the valuable help
+of William Murdock.  Watt devised five different methods of
+securing rotary motion without using the crank, but eventually he
+adopted the "Sun-and-planet motion," the invention of Murdock. 
+This had the singular property of going twice round for every
+stroke of the engine, and might be made to go round much oftener
+without additional machinery.  The invention was patented in
+February, 1782, five Years after Murdock had entered the service
+of Boulton and Watt.
+
+Murdock continued for many years busily occupied in
+superintending the Cornish steam-engines.  We find him described
+by his employers as "flying from mine to mine," putting the
+engines to rights.  If anything went wrong, he was immediately
+sent for.  He was active, quick-sighted, shrewd, sober, and
+thoroughly trustworthy.  Down to the year 1780, his wages were
+only a pound a week; but Boulton made him a present of ten
+guineas, to which the owners of the United Mines added another
+ten, in acknowledgment of the admirable manner in which he bad
+erected their new engine, the chairman of the company declaring
+that he was "the most obliging and industrious workman he had
+ever known."  That he secured the admiration of the Cornish
+engineers may be obvious from the fact of Mr. Boaze having
+invited him to join in an engineering partnership; but Murdock
+remained loyal to the Birmingham firm, and in due time he had his
+reward.
+
+He continued to be the "right hand man" of the concern in
+Cornwall.  Boulton wrote to Watt, towards the end of 1782:
+"Murdock hath been indefatigable ever since he began.  He has
+scarcely been in bed or taken necessary food.  After slaving
+night and day on Thursday and Friday, a letter came from Wheal
+Virgin that he must go instantly to set their engine to work, or
+they would let out the fire.  He went and set the engine to work;
+it worked well for the five or six hours he remained.  He left
+it, and returned to the Consolidated Mines about eleven at night,
+and was employed about the engines till four this morning, and
+then went to bed.  I found him at ten this morning in Poldice
+Cistern, seeking for pins and castors that had jumped out, when I
+insisted on his going home to bed."
+
+On one occasion, when an engine superintended by Murdock stopped
+through some accident, the water rose in the mine, and the
+workmen were "drowned out."  Upon this occurring, the miners went
+"roaring at him" for throwing them out of work, and threatened to
+tear him to pieces.  Nothing daunted, he went through the midst
+of the men, repaired the invalided engine, and started it afresh.
+
+When he came out of the engine-house, the miners cheered him
+vociferously and insisted upon carrying him home upon their
+shoulders in triumph!
+
+Steam was now asserting its power everywhere.  It was pumping
+water from the mines in Cornwall and driving the mills of the
+manufacturers in Lancashire.  Speculative mechanics began to
+consider whether it might not be employed as a means of land
+locomotion.  The comprehensive mind of Sir Isaac Newton had long
+before, in his 'Explanation of the Newtonian Philosophy,' thrown
+out the idea of employing steam for this purpose; but no
+practical experiment was made.  Benjamin Franklin, while agent in
+London for the United Provinces of America, had a correspondence
+with Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, and Dr. Darwin, of
+Lichfield, on the same subject.  Boulton sent a model of a
+fire-engine to London for Franklin's inspection; but Franklin was
+too much occupied at the time by grave political questions to
+pursue the subject further.  Erasmus Darwin's speculative mind
+was inflamed by the idea of a "fiery chariot," and he urged his
+friend Boulton to prosecute the contrivance of the necessary
+steam machinery.[6]
+
+Other minds were at work.  Watt, when only twenty-three years
+old, at the instigation of his friend Robison, made a model
+locomotive, provided with two cylinders of tin plate; but the
+project was laid aside, and was never again taken up by the
+inventor.  Yet, in his patent of 1784, Watt included an
+arrangement by means of which steam-power might be employed for
+the purposes of locomotion.  But no further model of the
+contrivance was made.
+
+Meanwhile, Cugnot, of Paris, had already made a road engine
+worked by steam power.  It was first tried at the Arsenal in
+1769; and, being set in motion, it ran against a stone wall in
+its way and threw it down.  The engine was afterwards tried in
+the streets of Paris.  In one of the experiments it fell over
+with a crash, and was thenceforward locked up in the Arsenal to
+prevent its doing further mischief.  This first locomotive is now
+to be seen at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris.
+
+Murdock had doubtless heard of Watt's original speculations, and
+proceeded, while at Redruth, during his leisure hours, to
+construct a model locomotive after a design of his own.  This
+model was of small dimensions, standing little more than a foot
+and a half high, though it was sufficiently large to demonstrate
+the soundness of the principle on which it was constructed.  It
+was supported on three wheels, and carried a small copper boiler,
+heated by a spirit lamp, with a flue passing obliquely through
+it.  The cylinder, of 3/4 inch diameter and 2-inch stroke, was
+fixed in the top of the boiler, the piston-rod being connected
+with the vibratory beam attached to the connecting-rod which
+worked the crank of the driving-wheel.  This little engine worked
+by the expansive force of steam only, which was discharged into
+the atmosphere after it had done its work of alternately raising
+and depressing the piston in the cylinder.
+
+Mr. Murdock's son, while living at Handsworth, informed the
+present writer that this model was invented and constructed in
+1781; but, after perusing the correspondence of Boulton and Watt,
+we infer that it was not ready for trial until 1784.  The first
+experiment was made in Murdock's own house at Redruth, when the
+little engine successfully hauled a model waggon round the
+room,--the single wheel, placed in front of the engine and
+working in a swivel frame, enabling it to run round in a circle.
+
+Another experiment was made out of doors, on which occasion,
+small though the engine was, it fairly outran the speed of its
+inventor.  One night, after returning from his duties at the mine
+at Redruth, Murdock went with his model locomotive to the avenue
+leading to the church, about a mile from the town.  The walk was
+narrow, straight, and level.  Having lit the lamp, the water soon
+boiled, and off started the engine with the inventor after it. 
+Shortly after he heard distant shouts of terror.  It was too dark
+to perceive objects, but he found, on following up the machine,
+that the cries had proceeded from the worthy vicar, who, while
+going along the walk, had met the hissing and fiery little
+monster, which he declared he took to be the Evil One in propria
+persona!
+
+When Watt was informed of Murdock's experiments, he feared that
+they might interfere with his regular duties, and advised their
+discontinuance.  Should Murdock still resolve to continue them,
+Watt urged his partner Boulton, then in Cornwall, that, rather
+than lose Murdock's services, they should advance him 100L.; and,
+if he succeeded within a year in making an engine capable of
+drawing a post-chaise carrying two passengers and the driver, at
+the rate of four miles an hour, that a locomotive engine business
+should be established, with Murdock as a partner.  The
+arrangement, however, never proceeded any  further.  Perhaps a
+different attraction withdrew Murdock from his locomotive
+experiments.   He was then paying attention to a young lady, the
+daughter of Captain Painter; and in l785 he married her, and
+brought her home to his house in Cross Street, Redruth.
+
+In the following year,--September, 1786--Watt says, in a letter
+to Boulton, "I have still the same opinion concerning the steam
+carriage, but, to prevent more fruitless argument about it, I
+have one of some size under hand.  In the meantime, I wish
+William could be brought to do as we do, to mind the business in
+hand, and let such as Symington and Sadler throw away their time
+and money in hunting shadows."  In a subsequent letter Watt
+expressed his gratification at finding "that William applies to
+his business."  From that time forward, Murdock as well as Watt,
+dropped all further speculation on the subject, and left it to
+others to work out the problem of the locomotive engine. 
+Murdock's model remained but a curious toy, which he took
+pleasure in exhibiting to his intimate friends; and, though he
+long continued to speculate about road locomotion, and was
+persuaded of its practicability, he abstained from embodying his
+ideas of the necessary engine in any complete working form.
+
+Murdock nevertheless continued inventing, for the man who is
+given to invent, and who possesses the gift of insight, cannot
+rest.  He lived in the midst of inventors.  Watt and Boulton were
+constantly suggesting new things, and Murdock became possessed by
+the same spirit.  In 1791 he took out his first patent.  It was
+for a method of preserving ships' bottoms from foulness by the
+use of a certain kind of chemical paint.  Mr. Murdock's grandson
+informs us that it was recently re-patented and was the cause of
+a lawsuit, and that Hislop's patent for revivifying gas-lime
+would have been an infringement, if it had not expired.
+
+Murdock is still better known by his invention of gas for
+lighting purposes.  Several independent inquirers into the
+constituents of Newcastle coal had arrived at the conclusion that
+nearly one-third of the substance was driven off in vapour by the
+application of heat, and that the vapour so driven off was
+inflammable.  But no suggestion had been made to apply this
+vapour for lighting purposes until Murdock took the matter in
+hand.  Mr. M. S. Pearse has sent us the following interesting
+reminiscence: "Some time since, when in the West of Cornwall, I
+was anxious to find out whether any one remembered Murdock.  I
+discovered one of the most respectable and intelligent men in
+Camborne, Mr. William Symons, who not only distinctly remembered
+Murdock, but had actually been present on one of the first
+occasions when gas was used.  Murdock, he says, was very fond of
+children, and not unfrequently took them into his workshop to
+show them what he was doing.  Hence it happened that on one
+occasion this gentleman, then a boy of seven or eight, was
+standing outside Murdock's door with some other boys, trying to
+catch sight of some special mystery inside, for Dr. Boaze, the
+chief doctor of the place, and Murdock had been busy all the
+afternoon.  Murdock came out, and asked my informant to run down
+to a shop near by for a thimble.  On returning with the thimble,
+the boy pretended to have lost it, and, whilst searching in every
+pocket, he managed to slip inside the door of the workshop, and
+then produced the thimble.  He found Dr. Boaze and Murdock with a
+kettle filled with coal.  The gas issuing from it had been burnt
+in a large metal case, such as was used for blasting purposes. 
+Now, however, they had applied a much smaller tube, and at the
+end of it fastened the thimble, through the small perforations
+made in which they burned a continuous jet for some time."[7]
+
+After numerous experiments, Murdock had his house in Cross Street
+fitted up in 1792 for being lit by gas.  The coal was subjected
+to heat in an iron retort, and the gas was conveyed in pipes to
+the offices and the different rooms of the house, where it was
+burned at proper apertures or burners.[8]  Portions of the gas
+were also confined in portable vessels of tinned iron, from which
+it was burned when required, thus forming a moveable gas-light. 
+Murdock had a gas lantern in regular use, for the purpose of
+lighting himself home at night across the moors, from the mines
+where he was working, to his home at Redruth.  This lantern was
+formed by filling a bladder with gas and fixing a jet to the
+mouthpiece at the bottom of a glass lantern, with the bladder
+hanging underneath.
+
+Having satisfied himself as to the superior economy of coal gas,
+as compared with oils and tallow, for the purposes of artificial
+illumination, Murdock mentioned the subject to Mr. James Watt,
+jun., during a brief visit to Soho in 1794, and urged the
+propriety of taking out a patent.  Watt was, however, indifferent
+to taking out any further patents, being still engaged in
+contesting with the Cornish mine-owners his father's rights to
+the user of the condensing steam-engine.  Nothing definite was
+done at the time.  Murdock returned to Cornwall and continued his
+experiments.  At the end of the same year he exhibited to Mr.
+Phillips and others, at the Polgooth mine, his apparatus for
+extracting gases from coal and other substances, showed it in
+use, lit the gas which issued from the burner, and showed its
+"strong and beautiful light."  He afterwards exhibited the same
+apparatus to Tregelles and others at the Neath Abbey Company's
+ironworks in Glamorganshire.
+
+Murdock returned to Soho in 1798, to take up his permanent
+residence in the neighbourhood.  When the mine owners heard of
+his intention to leave Cornwall, they combined in offering him a
+handsome salary provided he would remain in the county; but his
+attachment to his friends at Soho would not allow him to comply
+with their request.  He again urged the firm of Boulton and Watt
+to take out a patent for the use of gas for lighting purposes. 
+But being still embroiled in their tedious and costly lawsuit,
+they were naturally averse to risk connection with any other
+patent.  Watt the younger, with whom Murdock communicated on the
+subject, was aware that the current of gas obtained from the
+distillation of coal in Lord Dundonald's tar-ovens had been
+occasionally set fire to, and also that Bishop Watson and others
+had burned gas from coal, after conducting it through tubes, or
+after it had issued from the retort.  Mr. Watt was, however,
+quite satisfied that Murdock was the first person who had
+suggested its economical application for public and private uses.
+
+But he was not clear, after the legal difficulties which had been
+raised as to his father's patent rights, that it would be safe to
+risk a further patent for gas.
+
+Mr. Murdock's suggestion, accordingly, was not acted upon.  But
+he went on inventing in other directions.  He thenceforward
+devoted himself entirely to mechanical pursuits.  Mr. Buckle has
+said of him:-- "The rising sun often found him, after a night
+spent in incessant labour, still at the anvil or turning-lathe;
+for with his own hands he would make such articles as he would
+not intrust to unskilful ones."  In 1799 he took out a patent
+(No. 2340), embodying some very important inventions.  First, it
+included the endless screw working into a toothed-wheel, for
+boring steam-cylinders, which is still in use.  Second, the
+casting of a steam-jacket in one cylinder, instead of being made
+in separate segments bolted together with caulked joints, as was
+previously done.  Third, the new double-D slide-valve, by which
+the construction and working of the steam-engine was simplified,
+and the loss of steam saved, as well as the cylindrical valve for
+the same purpose.  And fourth, improved rotary engines.  One of
+the latter was set to drive the machines in his private workshop,
+and continued in nearly constant work and in perfect use for
+about thirty years.
+
+In 1801, Murdock sent his two sons William and John to the Ayr
+Academy, for the benefit of Scotch education.  In the summer-time
+they spent their vacation at Bellow Mill, which their grandfather
+still continued to occupy.  They fished in the river, and "caught
+a good many trout."  The boys corresponded regularly with their
+father at Birmingham.  In 1804, they seem to have been in a state
+of great excitement about the expected landing of the French in
+Scotland.  The volunteers of Ayr amounted to 300 men, the cavalry
+to 150, and the riflemen to 50.  "The riflemen," says John, "go
+to the seashore every Saturday to shoot at a target.  They stand
+at 70 paces distant, and out of 100 shots they often put in 60
+bullets!"  William says, "Great preparations are still making for
+the  reception of the French.  Several thousand of pikes are
+carried through the town every week; and all the volunteers and
+riflemen have received orders to march at a moment's warning." 
+The alarm, however, passed away.  At the end of 1804, the two
+boys received prizes; William got one in arithmetic and another
+in the Rector's composition class; and John also obtained two,
+one in the mathematical class, and the other in French.
+
+To return to the application of gas for lighting purposes.  In
+1801, a plan was proposed by a M. Le Blond for lighting a part of
+the streets of Paris with gas.  Murdock actively resumed his
+experiments; and on the occasion of the Peace of Amiens in March,
+1802, he made the first public exhibition of his invention.  The
+whole of the works at Soho were brilliantly illuminated with gas.
+
+The sight was received with immense enthusiasm.  There could now
+be no doubt as to the enormous advantages of this method of
+producing artificial light, compared with that from oil or
+tallow.  In the following year the manufacture of gas-making
+apparatus was added to the other branches of Boulton and Watts'
+business, with which Murdock was now associated,--and as much as
+from 4000L. to 5000L. of capital were invested in the new works. 
+The new method of lighting speedily became popular amongst
+manufacturers, from its superior safety, cheapness, and
+illuminating power.  The mills of Phillips and Lee of Manchester
+were fitted up in 1805; and those of Burley and Kennedy, also of
+Manchester, and of Messrs. Gott, of Leeds, in subsequent years.
+
+Though Murdock had made the uses of gas-lighting perfectly clear,
+it was some time before it was proposed to light the streets by
+the new method.  The idea was ridiculed by Sir Humphry Davy, who
+asked one of the projectors if he intended to take the dome of
+St. Paul's for a gasometer!  Sir Waiter Scott made many clever
+jokes about those who proposed to "send light through the streets
+in pipes;" and even Wollaston, a well known man of science,
+declared that they "might as well attempt to light London with a
+slice from the moon."  It has been so with all new projects--
+with the steamboat, the locomotive, and the  electric telegraph. 
+As John Wilkinson said of the first vessel of iron which he
+introduced, "it will be only a nine days' wonder, and afterwards
+a Columbus's egg."
+
+On the 25th of February, 1808, Murdock read a paper before the
+Royal Society "On the Application of Gas from Coal to economical
+purposes."  He gave a history of the origin and progress of his
+experiments, down to the time when he had satisfactorily lit up
+the premises of Phillips and Lee at Manchester.  The paper was
+modest and unassuming, like everything he did.
+
+It concluded:-- "I believe I may, without presuming too much,
+claim both the first idea of applying, and the first application
+of this gas to economical purposes."[9]  The Royal Society
+awarded Murdock their large Rumford Gold Medal for his
+communication.
+
+In the following year a German named Wintzer, or Winsor, appeared
+as the promotor of a scheme for obtaining a royal charter with
+extensive privileges, and applied for powers to form a
+joint-stock company to light part of London and Westminster with
+gas.  Winsor claimed for his method of gas manufacture that it
+was more efficacious and profitable than any then known or
+practised.  The profits, indeed, were to be prodigious.  Winsor
+made an elaborate calculation in his pamphlet entitled 'The New
+Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,' from
+which it appeared that the net annual profits "agreeable to the
+official experiments" would amount to over two hundred and
+twenty-nine millions of pounds!--and that, giving over
+nine-tenths of that sum towards the redemption of the National
+Debt, there would still remain a total profit of 570L. to be paid
+to the subscribers for every 5L. of deposit!  Winsor took out a
+patent for the invention, and the company, of which he was a
+member, proceeded to Parliament for an Act.  Boulton and Watt
+petitioned against the Bill, and James Watt, junior, gave
+evidence on the subject.  Henry Brougham, who was the counsel for
+the petitioners, made great fun of Winsor's absurd
+speculations,[10] and the Bill was thrown out.
+
+In the following year the London and Westminster Chartered Gas
+Light and Coke Company succeeded in obtaining their Act.  They
+were not very successful at first.  Many prejudices existed
+against the employment of the new light.  It was popularly
+supposed that the gas was carried along the pipes on fire, and
+that the pipes must necessarily be intensely hot.  When it was
+proposed to light the House of Commons with gas, the architect
+insisted on the pipes being placed several inches from the walls,
+for fear of fire; and, after the pipes had been fixed, the
+members might be seen applying their gloved hands to them to
+ascertain their temperature, and afterwards expressing the
+greatest surprise on finding that they were as cool as the
+adjoining walls.
+
+The Gas Company was on the point of dissolution when Mr. Samuel
+Clegg came to their aid.  Clegg had been a pupil of Murdock's, at
+Soho.  He knew all the arrangements which Murdock had invented. 
+He had assisted in fitting up the gas machinery at the mills of
+Phillips & Lee, Manchester, as well as at Lodge's Mill, Sowerby
+Bridge, near Halifax.  He was afterwards employed to fix the
+apparatus at the Catholic College of Stoneyhurst, in Lancashire,
+at the manufactory of Mr. Harris at Coventry, and at other
+places.  In 1813 the London and Westminster Gas Company secured
+the services of Mr. Clegg, and from that time forwards their
+career was one of prosperity.  In 1814 Westminster Bridge was
+first lighted with gas, and shortly after the streets of St. 
+Margaret's, Westminster.  Crowds of people followed the
+lamplighter on his rounds to watch the sudden effect of his flame
+applied to the invisible stream of gas which issued from the
+burner.  The lamplighters became so disgusted with the new light
+that they struck work, and Clegg himself had for a time to act as
+lamplighter.
+
+The advantages of the new light, however, soon became generally
+recognised, and gas companies were established in most of the
+large towns.  Glasgow was lit up by gas in 1817, and Liverpool
+and Dublin in the following year.  Had Murdock in the first
+instance taken out a patent for his invention, it could not fail
+to have proved exceedingly remunerative to him; but he derived no
+advantage from the extended use of the new system of lighting
+except the honour of having invented it.[11] He left the benefits
+of his invention to the public, and returned to his labours at
+Soho, which more than ever completely engrossed him.
+
+Murdock now became completely identified with the firm of Boulton
+& Watt.  He assigned to them his patent for the slide-valve, the
+rotary engine, and other inventions "for a good and valuable
+consideration."  Indeed his able management was almost
+indispensable to the continued success of the Soho foundry.  Mr.
+Nasmyth, when visiting the works about thirty years after Murdock
+had taken their complete management in hand, recalled to mind the
+valuable services of that truly admirable yet modest mechanic. 
+He observed the admirable system, which he had invented, of
+transmitting power from one central engine to other small vacuum
+engines attached to the several machines which they were employed
+to work.  "This vacuum method," he says, "of transmitting power
+dates from the time of Papin; but it remained a dead contrivance
+for about a century until it received the masterly touch of
+Murdock."
+
+"The sight which I obtained" (Mr. Nasmyth proceeds) "of the vast
+series of workshops of that celebrated establishment, fitted with
+evidences of the presence and results of such master minds in
+design and execution, and the special machine tools which I
+believe were chiefly to be ascribed to the admirable inventive
+power and common-sense genius of William Murdock, made me feel
+that I was indeed on classic ground in regard to everything
+connected with the construction of steam-engine machinery.  The
+interest was in no small degree enhanced by coming every now and
+then upon some machine that had every historical claim to be
+regarded as the prototype of many of our modern machine tools. 
+All these had William Murdock's genius stamped upon them, by
+reason of their common-sense arrangements, which showed that he
+was one of those original thinkers who had the courage to break
+away from the trammels of traditional methods, and take short
+cuts to accomplish his objects by direct and simple means."
+
+We have another recollection of William Murdock, from one who
+knew him when a boy.  This is the venerable Charles Manby,
+F.R.S., still honorary secretary of the Institute of Civil
+Engineers.  He says (writing to us in September 1883), "I see
+from the public prints that you have been presiding at a meeting
+intended to do honour to the memory of William Murdock--a most
+worthy man and an old friend of mine.  When he found me working
+the first slide valve ever introduced into an engine-building
+establishment at Horsley, he patted me on the head, and said to
+my father, 'Neighbour Manby, this is not the way to bring up a
+good workman --merely turning a handle, without any shoulder
+work.'  He evidently did not anticipate any great results from my
+engineering education.  But we all know what machine tools are
+doing now,--and where should we be without them?"
+
+Watt withdrew from the firm in 1800, on the expiry of his patent
+for the condensing steam-engine; but Boulton continued until the
+year 1809, when he died full of years and honours.  Watt lived on
+until 1819.  The last part of his life was the happiest.  During
+the time that he was in the throes of his invention, he was very
+miserable, weighed down with dyspepsia and sick headaches.  But
+after his patent had expired, he was able to retire with a
+moderate fortune, and began to enjoy life.  Before, he had
+"cursed his inventions," now he could bless them.  He was able to
+survey them, and find out what was right and what was wrong.  He
+used his head and his hands in his private workshop, and found
+many means of employing both pleasantly.  Murdock continued to be
+his fast friend, and they spent many agreeable hours together. 
+They made experiments and devised improvements in machines.  Watt
+wished to make things more simple.   He said to Murdock, "it is a
+great thing to know what to do without.  We must have a book of
+blots--things to be scratched out."  One of the most interesting
+schemes of Watt towards the end of his life was the contrivance
+of a sculpture-making machine; and he proceeded so far with it as
+to to able to present copies of busts to his friends as "the
+productions of a young artist just entering his eighty-third
+year."  The machine, however, remained unfinished at his death,
+and the remarkable fact is that it was Watt's only unfinished
+work.
+
+The principle of the machine was to carry a guide-point at one
+side over the bust or alto-relievo to be copied, and at the other
+side to carry a corresponding cutting-tool or drill over the
+alabaster, ivory, jet, or plaster of Paris to be executed.  The
+machine worked, as it were, with two hands, the one feeling the
+pattern, the other cutting the material into the required form. 
+Many new alterations were necessary for carrying out this
+ingenious apparatus, and Murdock was always at hand to give his
+old friend and master his best assistance.   We have seen many
+original letters from Watt to Murdock, asking for counsel and
+help.  In one of these, written in 1808, Watt says: "I have
+revived an idea which, if it answers, will supersede the frame
+and upright spindle of the reducing machine, but more of this
+when we meet.  Meanwhile it will be proper to adhere to the
+frame, etc., at present, until we see how the other alterations
+answer."  In another he says: "I have done a Cicero without any
+plaits--the different segments meeting exactly.  The fitting the
+drills into the spindle by a taper of 1 in 6 will do.  They are
+perfectly stiff and will not unscrew easily.  Four guide-pullies
+answer, but there must be a pair for the other end, and to work
+with a single hand, for the returning part is always cut upon
+some part or other of the frame."
+
+These letters are written sometimes in the morning, sometimes at
+noon, sometimes at night.  There was a great deal of
+correspondence about "pullies," which did not seem to answer at
+first.  "I have made the tablets," said Watt on one occasion,
+"slide more easily, and can counterbalance any part of their
+weight which may be necessary; but the first thing to try is the
+solidity of the machine, which cannot be done till the pullies
+are mounted."  Then again: "The bust-making must be given up
+until we get a more solid frame.  I have worked two days at one
+and spoiled it, principally from the want of steadiness."  For
+Watt, it must be remembered, was now a very old man.
+
+He then proceeded to send Murdock the drawing of a "parallel
+motion for the machine," to be executed by the workmen at Soho. 
+The truss braces and the crosses were to be executed of steel,
+according to the details he enclosed.  "I have warmed up," he
+concludes, "an old idea, and can make a machine in which the
+pentagraph and the leading screw will all be contained in the
+beam, and the pattern and piece to be cut will remain at rest
+fixed upon a lath of cast iron or stout steel."  Watt is very
+particular in all his details: "I am sorry," he says in one note,
+"to trouble you with so many things; but the alterations on this
+spindle and socket [he annexes a drawing] may wait your
+convenience."  In a further note, Watt says.  "The drawing for
+the parallel lathe is ready; but I have been sadly puzzled about
+the application of the leading screws to the cranes in the other.
+
+I think, however, I have now got the better of the difficulties,
+and made it more certain, as well as more simple, than it was.  I
+have done an excellent head of John Hunter in hard white in
+shorter time than usual.  I want to show it you before I repair
+it."
+
+At last Watt seems to have become satisfied: "The lathe," he
+says, "is very much improved, and you seem to have given the
+finishing blow to the roofed frame, which appears perfectly
+stiff.  I had some hours' intense thinking upon the machine last
+night, and have made up my mind on it at last.  The great
+difficulty was about the application of the band, but I have
+settled it to be much as at present."
+
+Watt's letters to Murdock are most particular in details,
+especially as to screws, nuts, and tubes, with strengths and
+dimensions, always illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings.  And
+yet all this was done merely for mechanical amusement, and not
+for any personal pecuniary advantage.  While Watt was making
+experiments as to the proper substances to be carved and drilled,
+he also desired Murdock to make similar experiments.  "The
+nitre," he said in one note, "seems to do harm; the fluor
+composition seems the best and hardest.  Query, what would some
+calcined pipe-clay do?  If you will calcine some fire-clay by a
+red heat and pound it,--about a pound,--and send it to me, I
+shall try to make you a mould or two in Henning's manner to cast
+this and the sulphur acid iron in.  I have made a screwing tool
+for wood that seems to answer; also one of a one-tenth diameter
+for marble, which does very well."  In another note, Watt says:
+"I find my drill readily makes 2400 turns per minute, even with
+the large drill you sent last; if I bear lightly, a three-quarter
+ferril would run about 3000, and by an engine that might be
+doubled."
+
+The materials to be drilled into medallions also required much
+consideration.  "I am much obliged to you," said Watt, "for the
+balls, etc., which answer as well as can be expected.  They make
+great progress in cutting the crust (Ridgways) or alabaster, and
+also cut marble, but the harder sorts soon blunt them.  At any
+rate, marble does not do for the medallions, as its grain
+prevents its being cut smooth, and its semi-transparence hurts
+the effect.  I think Bristol lime, or shell lime, pressed in your
+manner, would have a good effect.  When you are at leisure, I
+shall thank you for a few pieces, and if some of them are made
+pink or flesh colour, they will look well.  I used the ball quite
+perpendicular, and it cut well, as most of the cutting is
+sideways.  I tried a fine whirling point, but it made little
+progress; another with a chisel edge did almost as well as the
+balls, but did not work so pleasantly.  I find a triangular
+scraping point the best, and I think from some trials it should
+be quite a sharp point.  The wheel runs easier than it did, but
+has still too much friction.  I wished to have had an hour's
+consultation with you, but have been prevented by sundry matters
+among others by that plaguey stove, which is now in your hands."
+
+Watt was most grateful to Murdock for his unvarying assistance. 
+In January, 1813, when Watt was in his seventy-seventh year, he
+wrote to Murdock, asking him to accept a present of a lathe "I
+have not heard from you," he says, "in reply to my letter about
+the lathe; and, presuming you are not otherwise provided, I have
+bought it, and request your acceptance of it.  At present, an
+alteration for the better is making in the oval chuck, and a few
+additional chucks, rest, etc., are making to the lathe.  When
+these are finished, I shall have it at Billinger's until you
+return, or as you otherwise direct.  I am going on with my
+drawings for a complete machine, and shall be glad to see you
+here to judge of them."
+
+The drawings were made, but the machine was never finished. 
+"Invention," said Watt, "goes on very slowly with me now."  Four
+years later, he was still at work; but death put a stop to his
+"diminishing-machine." It is a remarkable testimony to the skill
+and perseverance of a man who had already accomplished so much,
+that it is almost his only unfinished work.  Watt died in 1819,
+in the eighty-third year of his age, to the great grief of
+Murdock, his oldest and most attached friend and correspondent.
+
+Meanwhile, the firm of Boulton and Watt continued.  The sons of
+the two partners carried it on, with Murdock as their Mentor.  He
+was still full of work and inventive power.  In 1802, he applied
+the compressed air of the Blast Engine employed to blow the
+cupolas of the Soho Foundry, for the purpose of driving the lathe
+in the pattern shop.  It worked a small engine, with a l2-inch
+cylinder and 18-inch stroke, connected with the lathe, the speed
+being regulated as required by varying the admission of the
+blast.  This engine continued in use for about thirty-five years.
+
+In 1803 Murdock experimented on the power of high-pressure steam
+in propelling shot, and contrived a steam-engine with which he
+made many trials at Soho, thereby anticipating the apparatus
+contrived by Mr. Perkins many years later.
+
+In 1810 Murdock took out a patent for boring steam-pipes for
+water, and cutting columns out of solid blocks of stone, by means
+of a cylindrical crown saw.  The first machine was used at Soho,
+and afterwards at Mr. Rennie's Works in London, and proved quite
+successful.  Among his other inventions were a lift worked by
+compressed air, which raised and lowered the castings from the
+boring-mill to the level of the foundry and the canal bank.  He
+used the same kind of power to ring the bells in his house at
+Sycamore Hill, and the contrivance was afterwards adopted by Sir
+Walter Scott in his house at Abbotsford.
+
+Murdock was also the inventor of the well-known cast-iron cement,
+so extensively used in engine and machine work.  The manner in
+which he was led to this invention affords a striking
+illustration of his quickness of observation.  Finding that some
+iron-borings and sal-ammoniac had got accidently mixed together
+in his tool-chest, and rusted his saw-blade nearly through, he
+took note of the circumstance, mixed the articles in various
+proportions, and at length arrived at the famous cement, which
+eventually became an article of extensive manufacture at the Soho
+Works.
+
+Murdock's ingenuity was constantly at work, even upon matters
+which lay entirely outside his special vocation.  The late Sir
+William Fairbairn informed us that he contrived a variety of
+curious machines for consolidating peat moss, finely ground and
+pulverised, under immense pressure, and which, when consolidated,
+could be moulded into beautiful medals, armlets, and necklaces. 
+The material took the most brilliant polish and had the
+appearance of the finest jet.
+
+Observing that fish-skins might be used as an economical
+substitute for isinglass, he went up to London on one occasion in
+order to explain to brewers the best method of preparing and
+using them.  He occupied handsome apartments, and, little
+regarding the splendour of the drawing-room, he hung the
+fish-skins up against the walls.  His landlady caught him one day
+when he was about to bang up a wet cod's skin!  He was turned out
+at once, with all his fish.  While in town on this errand, it
+occurred to him that a great deal of power was wasted in treading
+the streets of London!  He conceived the idea of using the
+streets and roadways as a grand tread-mill, under which the waste
+power might be stored up by mechanical methods and turned to
+account.  He had also an idea of storing up the power of the
+tides, and of running water, in the same way.  The late Charles
+Babbage, F.R.S., entertained a similar idea about using springs
+of Ischia or of the geysers of Iceland as a power necessary for
+condensing gases, or perhaps for the storage of electricity.[12] 
+The latter, when perfected, will probably be the greatest
+invention of the next half century.
+
+Another of Murdock's' ingenious schemes, was his proposed method
+of transmitting letters and packages through a tube exhausted by
+an air-pump.  This project led to the Atmospheric Railway, the
+success of which, so far as it went, was due to the practical
+ability of Murdock's pupil, Samuel Clegg.  Although the
+atmospheric railway was eventually abandoned, it is remarkable
+that the original idea was afterwards revived and practised with
+success by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company.
+
+In 1815, while Murdock was engaged in erecting an apparatus of
+his own invention for heating the water for the baths at
+Leamington, a ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above
+his ankle, and severely injured him.  He remained a long while at
+Leamington, and when it was thought safe to remove him, the
+Birmingham Canal Company kindly placed their excursion boat at
+his disposal, and he was conveyed safely homeward.  So soon as he
+was able, he was at work again at the Soho factory.
+
+Although the elder Watt had to a certain extent ignored the uses
+of steam as applied to navigation, being too much occupied with
+developing the powers of the pumping and rotary engine, the young
+partners, with the stout aid of Murdock, took up the question. 
+They supplied Fulton in 1807 with his first engine, by means of
+which the Clermont made her first voyage along the Hudson river. 
+They also supplied Fulton and Livingston with the next two
+engines for the Car of Neptune and the Paragon.  From that time
+forward, Boulton and Watt devoted themselves to the manufacture
+of engines for steamboats.  Up to the year 1814, marine engines
+had been all applied singly in the vessel; but in this year
+Boulton and Watt first applied two condensing engines, connected
+by cranks set at right angles on the shaft, to propel a steamer
+on the Clyde.  Since then, nearly all steamers are fitted with
+two engines.  In making this important improvement, the firm were
+materially aided by the mechanical genius of William Murdock, and
+also of Mr. Brown, then an assistant, but afterwards a member of
+the firm.
+
+In order to carry on a set of experiments with respect to the
+most improved form of marine engine, Boulton and Watt purchased
+the Caledonia, a Scotch boat built on the Clyde by James Wood and
+Co., of Port Glasgow.  The engines and boilers were taken out. 
+The vessel was fitted with two side lever engines, and many
+successive experiments were made with her down to August, 1817,
+at an expense of about 10,000L.  This led to a settled plan of
+construction, by which marine engines were greatly improved. 
+James Watt, junior, accompanied the Caledonia to Holland and up
+the Rhine.  The vessel was eventually sold to the Danish
+Government, and used for carrying the mails between Kiel and
+Copenhagen.  It is, however, unnecessary here to venture upon the
+further history of steam navigation.
+
+In the midst of these repeated inventions and experiments,
+Murdock was becoming an old man.  Yet he never ceased to take an
+interest in the works at Soho.  At length his faculties
+experienced a gradual decay, and he died peacefully at his house
+at Sycamore Hill, on the l5th of November,1839, in his
+eighty-fifth year.  He was buried near the remains of the great
+Boulton and Watt; and a bust by Chantrey served to perpetuate the
+remembrance of his manly and intelligent countenance.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter V.
+
+[1] Fletcher's Political Works, London, 1737, p. 149,
+
+[2] One of the Murdocks built the cathedral at Glasgow, as well
+as others in Scotland.  The famous school of masonry at Antwerp
+sent out a number of excellent architects during the 11th, 12th,
+and 13th centuries.  One of these, on coming into Scotland,
+assumed the name of Murdo.  He was a Frenchman, born in Paris, as
+we learn from the inscription left on Melrose Abbey, and he died
+while building that noble work: it is as follows:--
+
+"John Murdo sumtyme cait was I And born in Peryse certainly, An'
+had in kepyng all mason wark Sanct Andrays, the Hye Kirk
+o'Glasgo, Melrose and Paisley, Jedybro and Galowy.  Pray to God
+and Mary baith, and sweet Saint John, keep this Holy Kirk frae
+scaith."
+
+[3] The discovery of the Black Band Ironstone by David Mushet in
+1801, and the invention of the Hot Blast by James Beaumont
+Neilson in 1828, will be found related in Industrial Biography,
+pp. 141-161.
+
+[4] Note to Lockhart's Life of Scott.
+
+[5] This was stated to the present writer some years ago by
+William Murdock's son; although there is no other record of the
+event.
+
+[6] See Lives of Engineers (Boulton and Watt), iv. pp. 182-4. 
+Small edition, pp. 130-2.
+
+[7] Mr. Pearse's letter is dated 23rd April, 1867, but has not
+before been published.  He adds that "others remembered Murdock,
+one who was an apprentice with him, and lived with him for some
+time--a Mr. Vivian, of the foundry at Luckingmill."
+
+[8] Murdock's house still stands in Cross Street, Redruth; those
+still live who saw the gas-pipes conveying gas from the retort in
+the little yard to near the ceiling of the room, just over the
+table; a hole for the pipe was made in the window frame.  The old
+window is now replaced by a new frame."--Life of Richard
+Trevithick, i. 64.
+
+[9] Philosophical Transactions, 1808, pp. l24-l32.
+
+[10] Winsor's family evidently believed in his great powers; for
+I am informed by Francis Galton, Esq., F.R.S., that there is a
+fantastical monument on the right-hand side of the central avenue
+of the Kensal Green Cemetery, about half way between the lodge
+and the church, which bears the following inscription:--"Tomb of
+Frederick Albert Winsor, son of the late Frederick Albert Winsor,
+originator of public Gas-lighting, buried in the Cemetery of Pere
+la Chaise, Paris.  "At evening time it shall be light.--Zachariah
+xiv. 7.  "I am come a light into the world, that whoever
+believeth in Me shall not abide in darkness.--John xii. 46."
+
+[11] Mr. Parkes, in his well known Chemical Essays (ed. 1841, p.
+157), after referring to the successful lighting up by Murdock of
+the manufactory of Messrs. Phillips and Lee at Manchester in
+1805, "with coal gas issuing from nearly a thousand burners,"
+proceeds, "This grand application of the new principle satisfied
+the public mind, not only of the practicability, but also of the
+economy of the application; and as a mark of the high opinion
+they entertained of his genius and perseverance, and in order to
+put the question of priority of the discovery beyond all doubt,
+the Council of the Royal Society in 1808 awarded to Mr. Murdock
+the Gold Medal founded by the late Count Rumford."
+
+[12] "Thus," says Mr. Charles Babbage, "in a future age, power
+may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders, and of the
+inhabitants of other volcanic districts; and possibly the very
+process by which they will procure this article of exchange for
+the luxuries of happier climates may, in some measure, tame the
+tremendous element which occasionally devastates their
+provinces."--Economy of Manufactures.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FREDERICK KOENIG: INVENTOR OF THE STEAM-PRINTING MACHINE.
+
+"The honest projector is he who, having by fair and plain 
+principles of sense, honesty, and ingenuity, brought any
+contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he pretends
+to, picks nobody's pocket, puts his project in execution, and
+contents himself with the real produce as  the profit of his
+invention."--De Foe.
+
+I published an article in 'Macmillan's Magazine' for December,
+1869, under the above title.  The materials were principally
+obtained from William and Frederick Koenig, sons of the inventor.
+
+Since then an elaborate life has been published at Stuttgart,
+under the title of "Friederich Koenig und die Erfindung Der
+Schnellpresse, Ein Biographisches Denkmal.  Von Theodor Goebel." 
+The author, in sending me a copy of the volume, refers to the
+article published in 'Macmillan,' and says, "I hope you will
+please to accept it as a small acknowledgment of the thanks,
+which every German, and especially the sons of Koenig, in whose
+name I send the book as well as in mine, owe to you for having
+bravely taken up the cause of the much wronged inventor, their
+father-- an action all the more praiseworthy, as you had to write
+against the prejudices and the interests of your own countrymen."
+
+I believe it is now generally admitted that Koenig was entitled
+to the merit of being the first person practically to apply the
+power of steam to indefinitely multiplying the productions of the
+printing-press; and that no one now attempts to deny him this
+honour.  It is true others, who followed him, greatly improved
+upon his first idea; but this was the case with Watt, Symington,
+Crompton, Maudslay, and many more.  The true inventor is not
+merely the man who registers an idea and takes a patent for it,
+or who compiles an invention by borrowing the idea of another,
+improving upon or adding to his arrangements, but the man who
+constructs a machine such as has never before been made, which
+executes satisfactorily all the functions it was intended to
+perform.  And this is what Koenig's invention did, as will be
+observed from the following brief summary of his life and
+labours.
+
+Frederick Koenig was born on the 17th of April, 1774, at
+Eisleben, in Saxony, the birthplace also of a still more famous
+person, Martin Luther.  His father was a respectable peasant
+proprietor, described by Herr Goebel as Anspanner.  But this word
+has now gone out of use.  In feudal times it described the farmer
+who was obliged to keep draught cattle to perform service due to
+the landlord.  The boy received a solid education at the
+Gymnasium, or public school of the town.  At a proper age he was
+bound apprentice for five years to Breitkopf and Hartel, of
+Leipzig, as compositor and printer; but after serving for four
+and a quarter years, he was released from his engagement because
+of his exceptional skill, which was an unusual occurrence.
+
+During the later years of his apprenticeship, Koenig was
+permitted to attend the classes in the University, more
+especially those of Ernst Platner, a physician, philosopher, and
+anthropologist.  After that he proceeded to the printing-office
+of his uncle, Anton F. Rose, at Greifswald, an old seaport town
+on the Baltic, where he remained a few years.  He next went to
+Halle as a journeyman printer,-- German workmen going about from
+place to place, during their wanderschaft, for the purpose of
+learning their business.  After that, he returned to Breitkopf
+and Hartel, at Leipzig, where he had first learnt his trade. 
+During this time, having saved a little money, he enrolled
+himself for a year as a regular student at the University of
+Leipzig.
+
+According to Koenig's own account, he first began to devise ways
+and means for improving the art of printing in the year 1802,
+when he was twenty-eight years old.  Printing large sheets of
+paper by hand was a very slow as well as a very laborious
+process.  One of the things that most occupied the young
+printer's mind was how to get rid of this "horse-work," for such
+it was, in the business of printing.  He was not, however,
+over-burdened with means, though he devised a machine with this
+object.  But to make a little money, he made translations for the
+publishers.  In 1803 Koenig returned to his native town of
+Eisleben, where he entered into an arrangement with Frederick
+Riedel, who furnished the necessary capital for carrying on the
+business of a printer and bookseller.  Koenig alleges that his
+reason for adopting this step was to raise sufficient money to
+enable him to carry out his plans for the improvement of
+printing.
+
+The business, however, did not succeed, as we find him in the
+following year carrying on a printing trade at Mayence.  Having
+sold this business, he removed to Suhl in Thuringia.  Here he was
+occupied with a stereotyping process, suggested by what he had
+read about the art as perfected in England by Earl Stanhope.  He
+also contrived an improved press, provided with a moveable
+carriage, on which the types were placed, with inking rollers,
+and a new mechanical method of taking off the impression by flat
+pressure.
+
+Koenig brought his new machine under the notice of the leading
+printers in Germany, but they would not undertake to use it.  The
+plan seemed to them too complicated and costly.  He tried to
+enlist men of capital in his scheme, but they all turned a deaf
+ear to him.  He went from town to town, but could obtain no
+encouragement whatever.  Besides, industrial enterprise in
+Germany was then in a measure paralysed by the impending war with
+France, and men of capital were naturally averse to risk their
+money on what seemed a merely speculative undertaking.
+
+Finding no sympathisers or helpers at home, Koenig next turned
+his attention abroad.  England was then, as now, the refuge of
+inventors who could not find the means of bringing out their
+schemes elsewhere; and to England he wistfully turned his eyes. 
+In the meantime, however, his inventive ability having become
+known, an offer was made to him by the Russian Government to
+proceed to St. Petersburg and organise the State printing-office
+there.  The invitation was accepted, and Koenig proceeded to St.
+Petersburg in the spring of 1806.  But the official difficulties
+thrown in his way were very great, and so disgusted him, that he
+decided to throw up his appointment, and try his fortune in
+England.  He accordingly took ship for London, and arrived there
+in the following November, poor in means, but rich in his great
+idea, then his only property.
+
+As Koenig himself said, when giving an account of his
+invention:-- "There is on the Continent no sort of encouragement
+for an enterprise of this description.
+
+The system of patents, as it exists in England, being either
+unknown, or not adopted in the Continental States, there is no
+inducement for industrial enterprise; and projectors are commonly
+obliged to offer their discoveries to some Government, and to so
+licit their encouragement.  I need hardly add that scarcely ever
+is an invention brought to maturity under such circumstances. 
+The well-known fact, that almost every invention seeks, as it
+were, refuge in England, and is there brought to perfection,
+though the Government does not afford any other protection to
+inventors beyond what is derived from the wisdom of the laws,
+seems to indicate that the Continent has yet to learn from her
+the best manner of encouraging the mechanical arts.  I had my
+full share in the ordinary disappointments of Continental
+projectors; and after having lost in Germany and Russia upwards
+of two years in fruitless applications, I at last resorted to
+England."[1]
+
+After arriving in London, Koenig maintained himself with
+difficulty by working at his trade, for his comparative ignorance
+of the English language stood in his way.  But to work manually
+at the printer's "case," was not Koenig's object in coming to
+England.  His idea of a printing machine was always uppermost in
+his mind, and he lost no opportunity of bringing the subject
+under the notice of master printers likely to take it up.  He
+worked for a time in the printing office of Richard Taylor, Shoe
+Lane, Fleet Street, and mentioned the matter to him.  Taylor
+would not undertake the invention himself, but he furnished
+Koenig with an introduction to Thomas Bensley, the well-known
+printer of Bolt Court, Fleet Street.  On the 11th of March, 1807,
+Bensley invited Koenig to meet him on the subject of their recent
+conversation about "the discovery;" and on the 31st of the same
+month, the following agreement was entered into between Koenig
+and Bensley:-
+
+"Mr. Koenig, having discovered an entire new Method of Printing
+by Machinery, agrees to communicate the same to Mr. Bensley under
+the following conditions:-- 
+
+that, if Mr. Bensley shall be satisfied the Invention will answer
+all the purposes Mr. Koenig has stated in the Particulars he has
+delivered to Mr. Bensley, signed with his name, he shall enter
+into a legal Engagement to purchase the Secret from Mr. Koenig,
+or enter into such other agreement as may be deemed mutually
+beneficial to both parties; or, should Mr. Bensley wish to
+decline having any concern with the said Invention, then he
+engages not to make any use of the Machinery, or to communicate
+the Secret to any person whatsoever, until it is proved that the
+Invention is made use of by any one without restriction of
+Patent, or other particular agreement on the part of Mr. Koenig,
+under the penalty of Six Thousand Pounds.
+
+"(Signed) T. Bensley,
+"Friederich Konig.
+"Witness--J. Hunneman."
+
+Koenig now proceeded to put his idea in execution.  He prepared
+his plans of the new printing machine.  It seems, however, that
+the progress made by him was very slow.  Indeed, three years
+passed before a working model could be got ready, to show his
+idea in actual practice.  In the meantime, Mr. Walter of The
+Times had been seen by Bensley, and consulted on the subject of
+the invention.  On the 9th of August, 1809, more than two years
+after the date of the above agreement, Bensley writes to Koenig:
+"I made a point of calling upon Mr. Walter yesterday, who, I am
+sorry to say, declines our proposition altogether, having (as he
+says) so many engagements as to prevent him entering into more."
+
+It may be mentioned that Koenig's original plan was confined to
+an improved press, in which the operation of laying the ink on
+the types was to be performed by an apparatus connected with the
+motions of the coffin, in such a manner as that one hand could be
+saved.  As little could be gained in expedition by this plan, the
+idea soon suggested itself of moving the press by machinery, or
+to reduce the several operations to one rotary motion, to which
+the first mover might be applied.  Whilst Koenig was in the
+throes of his invention, he was joined by his friend Andrew F.
+Bauer, a native of Stuttgart, who possessed considerable
+mechanical power, in which the inventor himself was probably
+somewhat deficient.  At all events, these two together proceeded
+to work out the idea, and to construct the first actual working
+printing machine.
+
+A patent was taken out, dated the 29th of March, 1810, which
+describes the details of the invention.  The arrangement was
+somewhat similar to that known as the platen machine; the
+printing being produced by two flat plates, as in the common
+hand-press.  It also embodied an ingenious arrangement for inking
+the type.  Instead of the old-fashioned inking balls, which were
+beaten on the type by hand labour, several cylinders covered with
+felt and leather were used, and formed part of the machine
+itself.  Two of the cylinders revolved in opposite directions, so
+as to spread the ink, which was then transferred by two other
+inking cylinders alternately applied to the "forme" by the action
+of spiral springs.  The movement of all the parts of the machine
+were to be derived from a steam-engine, or other first mover.
+
+"After many obstructions and delays," says Koenig himself, in
+describing the history of his invention, "the first printing
+machine was completed exactly upon the plan which I have
+described in the specification of my first patent.  It was set to
+Work in April, 1811.  The sheet (H) of the new Annual Register
+for 1810, 'Principal Occurrences,' 3000 copies, was printed with
+it; and is, I have no doubt, the first part of a book ever
+printed with a machine.  The actual use of it, however, soon
+suggested new ideas, and led to the rendering it less complicated
+and more powerful"[2]
+
+Of course!  No great invention was ever completed at one effort. 
+It would have been strange if Koenig had been satisfied with his
+first attempt.  It was only a beginning, and he naturally
+proceeded with the improvement of his machine.  It took Watt more
+than twenty years to elaborate his condensing steam-engine; and
+since his day, owing to the perfection of self-acting tools, it
+has been greatly improved.  The power of the Steamboat and the
+Locomotive also, as well as of all other inventions, have been
+developed by the constantly succeeding improvements of a nation
+of mechanical engineers.
+
+Koenig's experiment was only a beginning, and he naturally
+proceeded with the improvement of his machine.  Although the
+platen machine of Koenig's has since been taken up a new, and
+perfected, it was not considered by him sufficiently simple in
+its arrangements as to be adapted for common use; and he had
+scarcely completed it, when he was already revolving in his mind
+a plan of a second machine on a new principle, with the object of
+ensuring greater speed, economy, and simplicity.
+
+By this time, other well-known London printers, Messrs. Taylor
+and Woodfall, had joined Koenig and Bensley in their partnership
+for the manufacture and sale of printing machines.  The idea
+which now occurred to Koenig was, to employ a cylinder instead of
+a flat Platen machine, for taking the impressions off the type,
+and to place the sheet round the cylinder, thereby making it, as
+it were, part of the periphery.  As early as the year 1790, one
+William Nicholson had taken out a patent for a machine for
+printing "on paper, linen, cotton, woollen, and other articles,"
+by means of "blocks, forms, types, plates, and originals," which
+were to be "firmly imposed upon a cylindrical surface in the same
+manner as common letter is imposed upon a flat stone."[3]  From
+the mention of "colouring cylinder," and "paper-hangings,
+floor-cloths, cottons, linens, woollens, leather, skin, and every
+other flexible material," mentioned in the specification, it
+would appear as if Nicholson's invention were adapted for
+calico-printing and paper-hangings, as well as for the printing
+of books.  But it was never used for any of these purposes.  It
+contained merely the register of an idea, and that was all.  It
+was left for Adam Parkinson, of Manchester, to invent and make
+practical use of the cylinder printing machine for calico in the
+year 1805, and this was still further advanced by the invention
+of James Thompson, of Clitheroe, in 1813; while it was left for
+Frederick Koenig to invent and carry into practical operation the
+cylinder printing press for newspapers.
+
+After some promising experiments, the plans for a new machine on
+the cylindrical principle were proceeded with.  Koenig admitted
+throughout the great benefit he derived from the assistance of
+his friend Bauer.  "By the judgment and precision," he said,
+"with which he executed my plans, he greatly contributed to my
+success."  A patent was taken out on October 30th, 1811; and the
+new machine was completed in December, 1812.  The first sheets
+ever printed with an entirely cylindrical press, were sheets G
+and X of Clarkson's 'Life of Penn.' The papers of the Protestant
+Union were also printed with it in February and March, 1813.  Mr.
+Koenig, in his account of the invention, says that "sheet M of
+Acton's 'Hortus Kewensis,' vol. v., will show the progress of
+improvement in the use of the invention.  Altogether, there are
+about 160,000 sheets now in the hands of the public, printed with
+this machine, which, with the aid of two hands, takes off 800
+impressions in the hour"[4]
+
+Koenig took out a further patent on July 23rd, 1813, and a fourth
+(the last) on the 14th of March, 1814.  The contrivance of these
+various arrangements cost the inventor many anxious days and
+nights of study and labour.  But he saw before him only the end
+he wished to compass, and thought but little of himself and his
+toils.  It may be mentioned that the principal feature of the
+invention was the printing cylinder in the centre of the machine,
+by which the impression was taken from the types, instead of by
+flat plates as in the first arrangement.  The forme was fixed in
+a cast-iron plate which was carried to and fro on a table, being
+received at either end by strong spiral springs.  A double
+machine, on the same principle,--the forme alternately passing
+under and giving an impression at one of two cylinders at either
+end of the press,--was also included in the patent of 1811.
+
+How diligently Koenig continued to elaborate the details of his
+invention will be obvious from the two last patents which he took
+out, in 1813 and 1814.  In the first he introduced an important
+improvement in the inking arrangement, and a contrivance for
+holding and carrying on the sheet, keeping it close to the
+printing cylinder by means of endless tapes; while in the second,
+he added the following new expedients: a feeder, consisting of an
+endless web,--an improved arrangement of the endless tapes by
+inner as well as outer friskets,--an improvement of the register
+(that is, one page falling exactly on the back of another), by
+which greater accuracy of impression was also secured; and
+finally, an arrangement by which the sheet was thrown out of the
+machine, printed by the revolving cylinder on both sides.
+
+The partners in Koenig's Patents had established a manufactory in
+Whitecross Street for the production of the new machines.  The
+workmen employed were sworn to secrecy.  They entered into an
+agreement by which they were liable to forfeit 100L. if they
+communicated to others the secret of the machines, either by
+drawings or description, or if they told by whom or for whom they
+were constructed.  This was to avoid the hostility of the
+pressmen, who, having heard of the new invention, were up in arms
+against it, as likely to deprive them of their employment.  And
+yet, as stated by Johnson in his 'Typographia,' the manual labour
+of the men who worked at the hand press, was so severe and
+exhausting, "that the stoutest constitutions fell a sacrifice to
+it in a few years." The number of sheets that could be thrown off
+was also extremely limited.
+
+With the improved press, perfected by Earl Stanhope, about 250
+impressions could be taken, or l25 sheets printed on both sides
+in an hour.  Although a greater number was produced in newspaper
+printing offices by excessive labour, yet it was necessary to
+have duplicate presses, and to set up duplicate forms of type, to
+carry on such extra work; and still the production of copies was
+quite inadequate to satisfy the rapidly increasing demand for
+newspapers.  The time was therefore evidently ripe for the
+adoption of such a machine as that of Koenig.  Attempts had been
+made by many inventors, but every one of them had failed. 
+Printers generally regarded the steam-press as altogether
+chimerical.
+
+Such was the condition of affairs when Koenig finished his
+improved printing machine in the manufactory in Whitecross
+Street.  The partners in the invention were now in great hopes. 
+When the machine had been got ready for work, the proprietors of
+several of the leading London newspapers were invited to witness
+its performances.  Amongst them were Mr. Perry of the Morning
+chronicle, and Mr. Walter of The Times.  Mr. Perry would have
+nothing to do with the machine; he would not even go to see it,
+for he regarded it as a gimcrack.[5]  On the contrary, Mr.
+Walter, though he had five years before declined to enter into
+any arrangement with Bensley, now that he heard the machine was
+finished, and at work, decided to go and inspect it.  It was
+thoroughly characteristic of the business spirit of the man.  He
+had been very anxious to apply increased mechanical power to the
+printing of his newspaper.  He had consulted Isambard Brunel--one
+of the cleverest inventors of the day--on the subject; but
+Brunel, after studying the subject, and labouring over a variety
+of plans, finally gave it up.  He had next tried Thomas Martyn,
+an ingenious young compositor, who had a scheme for a self-acting
+machine for working the printing press.  But, although Mr. Walter
+supplied him with the necessary funds, his scheme never came to
+anything.  Now, therefore, was the chance for Koenig!
+
+After carefully examining the machine at work, Mr. Walter was at
+once satisfied as to the great value of the invention.  He saw it
+turning out the impressions with unusual speed and great
+regularity.  This was the very machine of which he had been in
+search.  But it turned out the impressions printed on one side
+only.  Koenig, however, having briefly explained the more rapid
+action of a double machine on the same principle for the printing
+of newspapers, Mr. Walter, after a few minutes' consideration,
+and before leaving the premises, ordered two double machines for
+the printing of The Times newspaper.  Here, at last, was the
+opportunity for a triumphant issue out of Koenig's difficulties.
+
+The construction of the first newspaper machine was still,
+however, a work of great difficulty and labour.  It must be
+remembered that nothing of the kind had yet been made by any
+other inventor.  The single-cylinder machine, which Mr. Walter
+had seen at work, was intended for bookwork only.  Now Koenig had
+to construct a double-cylinder machine for printing newspapers,
+in which many of the arrangements must necessarily be entirely
+new.  With the assistance of his leading mechanic, Bauer, aided
+by the valuable suggestions of Mr. Walter himself, Koenig at
+length completed his plans, and proceeded with the erection of
+the working machine.  The several parts were prepared at the
+workshop in Whitecross Street, and taken from thence, in as
+secret a way as possible, to the premises in Printing House
+Square, adjoining The Times office, where they were fitted
+together and erected into a working machine.  Nearly two years
+elapsed before the press was ready for work.  Great as was the
+secrecy with which the operations were conducted, the pressmen of
+The Times office obtained some inkling of what was going on, and
+they vowed vengeance to the foreign inventor who threatened their
+craft with destruction.  There was, however, always this
+consolation: every attempt that had heretofore been made to print
+newspapers in any other way than by manual labour had proved an
+utter failure!
+
+At length the day arrived when the first newspaper steam-press
+was ready for use.  The pressmen were in a state of great
+excitement, for they knew by rumour that the machine of which
+they had so long been apprehensive was fast approaching
+completion.  One night they were told to wait in the press-room,
+as important news was expected from abroad.  At six o'clock in
+the morning of the 29th November, 1814, Mr. Walter, who had been
+watching the working of the machine all through the night,
+suddenly appeared among the pressmen, and announced that "The
+Times is already printed by steam!"  Knowing that the pressmen
+had vowed vengeance against the inventor and his invention, and
+that they had threatened "destruction to him and his traps," he
+informed them that if they attempted violence, there was a force
+ready to suppress it; but that if they were peaceable, their
+wages should be continued to every one of them until they could
+obtain similar employment.  This proved satisfactory so far, and
+he proceeded to distribute several copies of the newspaper
+amongst them--the first newspaper printed by steam! That paper
+contained the following memorable announcement:--
+
+"Our Journal of this day presents to the Public the practical
+result of the greatest improvement connected with printing since
+the discovery of the art itself.  The reader of this paragraph
+now holds in his hand one of the many thousand impressions of The
+Times newspaper which were taken off last night by a mechanical
+apparatus.  A system of machinery almost organic has been devised
+and arranged, which, while it relieves the human frame of its
+most laborious' efforts in printing, far exceeds all human powers
+in rapidity and dispatch.  That the magnitude of the invention
+may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the
+public, that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and
+enclosed in what is called the forme, little more remains for man
+to do than to attend upon and to watch this unconscious agent in
+its operations.  The machine is then merely supplied with paper:
+itself places the forme, inks it, adjusts the paper to the forme
+newly inked, stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands of
+the attendant, at the same time withdrawing the forme for a fresh
+coat of ink, which itself again distributes, to meet the ensuing
+sheet now advancing for impression; and the whole of these
+complicated acts is performed with such a velocity and
+simultaneousness of movement, that no less than 1100 sheets are
+impressed in one hour.
+
+"That the completion of an invention of this kind, not the effect
+of chance, but the result of mechanical combinations methodically
+arranged in the mind of the artist, should be attended with many
+obstructions and much delay, may be readily imagined.  Our share
+in this event has, indeed, only been the application of the
+discovery, under an agreement with the patentees, to our own
+particular business; yet few can conceive--even with this limited
+interest--the various disappointments and deep anxiety to which
+we have for a long course of time been subjected.
+
+"Of the person who made this discovery we have but little to add.
+
+Sir Christopher Wren's noblest monument is to be found in the
+building which he erected; so is the best tribute of praise which
+we are capable of offering to the inventor of the printing
+machine, comprised in the preceding description, which we have
+feebly sketched, of the powers and utility of his invention.  It
+must suffice to say further, that he is a Saxon by birth; that
+his name is Koenig; and that the invention has been executed
+under the direction of his friend and countryman, Bauer."
+
+The machine continued to work steadily and satisfactorily,
+notwithstanding the doubters, the unbelievers, and the
+threateners of vengeance.  The leading article of The Times for
+December 3rd, 1814, contains the following statement:--
+
+"The machine of which we announced the discovery and our adoption
+a few days ago, has been whirling on its course ever since, with
+improving order, regularity, and even speed.  The length of the
+debates on Thursday, the day when Parliament was adjourned, will
+have been observed; on such an occasion the operation of
+composing and printing the last page must commence among all the
+journals at the same moment; and starting from that moment, we,
+with our infinitely superior circulation, were enabled to throw
+off our whole impression many hours before the other respectable
+rival prints.  The accuracy and clearness of the impression will
+likewise excite attention.
+
+"We shall make no reflections upon those by whom this wonderful
+discovery has been opposed,--the doubters and unbelievers,--
+however uncharitable they may have been to us; were it not that
+the efforts of genius are always impeded by drivellers of this
+description, and that we owe it to such men as Mr. Koenig and his
+Friend, and all future promulgators of beneficial inventions, to
+warn them that they will have to contend with everything that
+selfishness and conceited ignorance can devise or say; and if we
+cannot clear their way before them, we would at least give them
+notice to prepare a panoply against its dirt and filth.
+
+"There is another class of men from whom we receive dark and
+anonymous threats of vengeance if we persevere in the use of this
+machine.  These are the Pressmen.  They well know, at least
+should well know, that such menace is thrown away upon us.  There
+is nothing that we will not do to assist and serve those whom we
+have discharged.  They themselves can seethe greater rapidity and
+precision with which the paper is printed.  What right have they
+to make us print it slower and worse for their supposed benefit? 
+A little reflection, indeed, would show them that it is neither
+in their power nor in ours to stop a discovery now made, if it is
+beneficial to mankind; or to force it down if it is useless. 
+They had better, therefore, acquiesce in a result which they
+cannot alter; more especially as there will still be employment
+enough for the old race of pressmen, before the new method
+obtains general use, and no new ones need be brought up to the
+business; but we caution them seriously against involving
+themselves and their families in ruin, by becoming amenable to
+the laws of their country.  It has always been matter of great
+satisfaction to us to reflect, that we encountered and crushed
+one conspiracy; and we should be sorry to find our work half
+done.
+
+"It is proper to undeceive the world in one particular; that is,
+as to the number of men discharged.  We in fact employ only eight
+fewer workmen than formerly; whereas more than three times that
+number have been employed for a year and a half in building the
+machine."
+
+On the 8th of December following, Mr. Koenig addressed an
+advertisement "To the Public" in the columns of The Times, giving
+an account of the origin and progress of his invention.  We have
+already cited several passages from the statement.  After
+referring to his two last patents, he says: "The machines now
+printing The Times and Mail are upon the same principle; but they
+have been contrived for the particular purpose of a newspaper of
+extensive circulation, where expedition is the great object.
+
+"The public are undoubtedly aware, that never, perhaps, was a new
+invention put to so severe a trial as the present one, by being
+used on its first public introduction for the printing of
+newspapers, and will, I trust, be indulgent with respect to the
+many defects in the performance, though none of them are inherent
+in the principle of the machine; and we hope, that in less than
+two months, the whole will be corrected by greater adroitness in
+the management of it, so far at least as the hurry of newspaper
+printing will at all admit.
+
+"It will appear from the foregoing narrative, that it was
+incorrectly stated in several newspapers, that I had sold my
+interest to two other foreigners; my partners in this enterprise
+being at present two Englishmen, Mr. Bensley and Mr. Taylor; and
+it is gratifying to my feelings to avail myself of this
+opportunity to thank those gentlemen publicly for the confidence
+which they have reposed in me, for the aid of their practical
+skill, and for the persevering support which they have afforded
+me in long and very expensive experiments; thus risking their
+fortunes in the prosecution of my invention.
+
+"The first introduction of the invention was considered by some
+as a difficult and even hazardous step.  The Proprietor of The
+Times having made that his task, the public are aware that it is
+in good hands."
+
+One would think that Koenig would now feel himself in smooth
+water, and receive a share of the good fortune which he had so
+laboriously prepared for others.  Nothing of the kind!  His
+merits were disputed; his rights were denied; his patents were
+infringed; and he never received any solid advantages for his
+invention, until be left the country and took refuge in Germany. 
+It is true, he remained for a few years longer, in charge of the
+manufactory in Whitecross Street, but they were years to him of
+trouble and sorrow.
+
+In 1816, Koenig designed and superintended the construction of a
+single cylinder registering machine for book-printing.  This was
+supplied to Bensley and Son, and turned out 1000 sheets, printed
+on both sides, in the hour.  Blumenbach's 'Physiology' was the
+first entire book printed by steam, by this new machine.  It was
+afterwards employed, in l8l8, in working off the Literary
+Gazette.  A machine of the same kind was supplied to Mr. Richard
+Taylor for the purpose of printing the 'Philosophical Magazine,'
+and books generally.  This was afterwards altered to a double
+machine, and employed for printing the Weekly Dispatch.
+
+But what about Koenig's patents?  They proved of little use to
+him.  They only proclaimed his methods, and enabled other
+ingenious mechanics to borrow his adaptations.  Now that he had
+succeeded in making machines that would work, the way was clear
+for everybody else to follow his footsteps.  It had taken him
+more than six years to invent and construct a successful steam
+printing press; but any clever mechanic, by merely studying his
+specification, and examining his machine at work, might arrive at
+the same results in less than a week.
+
+The patents did not protect him.  New specifications, embodying
+some modification or alteration in detail, were lodged by other
+inventors and new patents taken out.  New printing machines were
+constructed in defiance of his supposed legal rights; and he
+found himself stripped of the reward that he had been labouring
+for during so many long and toilsome years.  He could not go to
+law, and increase his own vexation and loss.  He might get into
+Chancery easy enough; but when would he get out of it, and in
+what condition?
+
+It must also be added, that Koenig was unfortunate in his partner
+Bensley.  While the inventor was taking steps to push the sale of
+his book-printing machines among the London printers, Bensley,
+who was himself a book-printer, was hindering him in every way in
+his negotiations.  Koenig was of opinion that Bensley wished to
+retain the exclusive advantage which the possession of his
+registering book machine gave him over the other printers, by
+enabling him to print more quickly and correctly than they could,
+and thus give him an advantage over them in his printing
+contracts.
+
+When Koenig, in despair at his position, consulted counsel as to
+the infringement of his patent, he was told that he might
+institute proceedings with the best prospect of success; but to
+this end a perfect agreement by the partners was essential. 
+When, however, Koenig asked Bensley to concur with him in taking
+proceedings in defence of the patent right, the latter positively
+refused to do so.  Indeed, Koenig was under the impression that
+his partner had even entered into an arrangement with the
+infringers of the patent to share with them the proceeds of their
+piracy.
+
+Under these circumstances, it appeared to Koenig that only two
+alternatives remained for him to adopt.  One was to commence an
+expensive, and it might be a protracted, suit in Chancery, in
+defence of his patent rights, with possibly his partner, Bensley,
+against him; and the other, to abandon his invention in England
+without further struggle, and settle abroad.  He chose the latter
+alternative, and left England finally in August, 1817.
+
+Mr. Richard Taylor, the other partner in the patent, was an
+honourable man; but he could not control the proceedings of
+Bensley.  In a memoir published by him in the 'Philosophical
+Magazine,' "On the Invention and First Introduction of Mr.
+Koenig's Printing Machine," in which he honestly attributes to
+him the sole merit of the invention, he says, "Mr. Koenig left
+England, suddenly, in disgust at the treacherous conduct of
+Bensley, always shabby and overreaching, and whom he found to be
+laying a scheme for defrauding his partners in the patents of all
+the advantages to arise from them.  Bensley, however, while he
+destroyed the prospects of his partners, outwitted himself, and
+grasping at all, lost all, becoming bankrupt in fortune as well
+as in character."[6]
+
+Koenig was badly used throughout.  His merits as an inventor were
+denied.  On the 3rd of January, 1818, after he had left England,
+Bensley published a letter in the Literary Gazette, in which he
+speaks of the printing machine as his own, without mentioning a
+word of Koenig.  The 'British Encyclopaedia,' in describing the
+inventors of the printing machine, omitted the name of Koenig
+altogether.  The 'Mechanics Magazine,' for September, 1847,
+attributed the invention to the Proprietors of The Times, though
+Mr. Walter himself had said that his share in the event had been
+"only the application of the discovery;" and the late Mr. Bennet
+Woodcroft, usually a fair man, in his introductory chapter to
+'Patents for Inventions in Printing,' attributes the merit to
+William Nicholson's patent (No. 1748), which, he said, "produced
+an entire revolution in the mechanism of the art."  In other
+publications, the claims of Bacon and Donkin were put forward,
+while those of the real inventor were ignored.  The memoir of
+Koenig by Mr. Richard Taylor, in the 'Philosophical Magazine,'
+was honest and satisfactory; and should have set the question at
+rest.
+
+It may further be mentioned that William Nicholson,--who was a
+patent agent, and a great taker out of patents, both in his own
+name and in the names of others,--was the person employed by
+Koenig as his agent to take the requisite steps for registering
+his invention.  When Koenig consulted him on the subject,
+Nicholson observed that "seventeen years before he had taken out
+a patent for machine printing, but he had abandoned it, thinking
+that it wouldn't do; and had never taken it up again."  Indeed,
+the two machines were on different principles.  Nor did Nicholson
+himself ever make any claim to priority of invention, when the
+success of Koenig's machine was publicly proclaimed by Mr. Walter
+of The Times some seven years later.
+
+When Koenig, now settled abroad, heard of the attempts made in
+England to deny his merits as an inventor, he merely observed to
+his friend Bauer, "It is really too bad that these people, who
+have already robbed me of my invention, should now try to rob me
+of my reputation."  Had he made any reply to the charges against
+him, it might have been comprised in a very few words:  "When I
+arrived in England, no steam printing machine had ever before
+been seen; when I left it, the only printing machines in actual
+work were those which I had constructed."  But Koenig never took
+the trouble to defend the originality of his invention in
+England, now that he had finally abandoned the field to others.
+
+There can be no question as to the great improvements introduced
+in the printing machine by Mr. Applegath and Mr. Cowper; by
+Messrs. Hoe and Sons, of New York; and still later by the present
+Mr. Walter of The Times, which have brought the art of machine
+printing to an extraordinary degree of perfection and speed.  But
+the original merits of an invention are not to be determined by a
+comparison of the first machine of the kind ever made with the
+last, after some sixty years' experience and skill have been
+applied in bringing it to perfection.  Were the first condensing
+engine made at Soho--now to be seen at the Museum in South
+Kensington--in like manner to be compared with the last improved
+pumping-engine made yesterday, even the great James Watt might be
+made out to have been a very poor contriver.  It would be much
+fairer to compare Koenig's steam-printing machine with the
+hand-press newspaper printing machine which it superseded. 
+Though there were steam engines before Watt, and steamboats
+before Fulton, and steam locomotives before Stephenson, there
+were no steam printing presses before Koenig with which to
+compare them, Koenig's was undoubtedly the first, and stood
+unequalled and alone.
+
+The rest of Koenig's life, after he retired to Germany, was spent
+in industry, if not in peace and quietness.  He could not fail to
+be cast down by the utter failure of his English partnership, and
+the loss of the fruits of his ingenious labours.  But instead of
+brooding over his troubles, he determined to break away from
+them, and begin the world anew.  He was only forty-three when he
+left England, and he might yet be able to establish himself
+prosperously in life.  He had his own head and hands to help him.
+
+Though England was virtually closed against him, the whole
+continent of Europe was open to him, and presented a wide field
+for the sale of his printing machines.
+
+While residing in England, Koenig had received many
+communications from influential printers in Germany.  Johann
+Spencer and George Decker wrote to him in 1815, asking for
+particulars about his invention; but finding his machine too
+expensive,[7] the latter commissioned Koenig to send him a
+Stanhope printing press--the first ever introduced into Germany
+--the price of which was 95L.  Koenig did this service for his
+friend, for although he stood by the superior merits of his own
+invention, he was sufficiently liberal to recognise the merits of
+the inventions of others.  Now that he was about to settle in
+Germany, he was able to supply his friends and patrons on the
+spot.
+
+The question arose, where was he to settle?  He made enquiries
+about sites along the Rhine, the Neckar, and the Main.  At last
+he was attracted by a specially interesting spot at Oberzell on
+the Main, near Wurzburg.  It was an old disused convent of the
+Praemonstratensian monks.  The place was conveniently situated
+for business, being nearly in the centre of Germany.  The
+Bavarian Government, desirous of giving encouragement to so
+useful a genius, granted Koenig the use of the secularised
+monastery on easy terms; and there accordingly he began his
+operations in the course of the following year.  Bauer soon
+joined him, with an order from Mr. Walter for an improved Times
+machine; and the two men entered into a partnership which lasted
+for life.
+
+The partners had at first great difficulties to encounter in
+getting their establishment to work.  Oberzell was a rural
+village, containing only common labourers, from whom they had to
+select their workmen.  Every person taken into the concern had to
+be trained and educated to mechanical work by the partners
+themselves.  With indescribable patience they taught these
+labourers the use of the hammer, the file, the turning-lathe, and
+other tools, which the greater number of them had never before
+seen, and of whose uses they were entirely ignorant.  The
+machinery of the workshop was got together with equal difficulty
+piece by piece, some of the parts from a great distance,--the
+mechanical arts being then at a very low ebb in Germany, which
+was still suffering from the effects of the long continental war.
+
+At length the workshop was fitted up, the old barn of the
+monastery being converted into an iron foundry.
+
+Orders for printing machines were gradually obtained.  The first
+came from Brockhaus, of Leipzig.  By the end of the fourth year
+two other single-cylinder machines were completed and sent to
+Berlin, for use in the State printing office.  By the end of the
+eighth year seven double-cylinder steam presses had been
+manufactured for the largest newspaper printers in Germany.  The
+recognised excellence of Koenig and Bauer's book-printing
+machines--their perfect register, and the quality of the work
+they turned out--secured for them an increasing demand, and by
+the year 1829 the firm had manufactured fifty-one machines for
+the leading book printers throughout Germany.  The Oberzell
+manufactory was now in full work, and gave regular employment to
+about 120 men.
+
+A period of considerable depression followed.  As was the case in
+England, the introduction of the printing machine in Germany
+excited considerable hostility among the pressmen.  In some of
+the principal towns they entered into combinations to destroy
+them, and several printing machines were broken by violence and
+irretrievably injured.  But progress could not be stopped; the
+printing machine had been fairly born, and must eventually do its
+work for mankind.  These combinations, however, had an effect for
+a time.  They deterred other printers from giving orders for the
+machines; and Koenig and Bauer were under the necessity of
+suspending their manufacture to a considerable extent.  To keep
+their men employed, the partners proceeded to fit up a paper
+manufactory, Mr. Cotta, of Stuttgart, joining them in the
+adventure; and a mill was fitted up, embodying all the latest
+improvements in paper-making.
+
+Koenig, however, did not live to enjoy the fruits or all his
+study, labour, toil, and anxiety; for, while this enterprise was
+still in progress, and before the machine trade had revived, he
+was taken ill, and confined to bed.  He became sleepless; his
+nerves were unstrung; and no wonder.  Brain disease carried him
+off on the 17th of January, 1833; and this good, ingenious, and
+admirable inventor was removed from all further care and trouble.
+
+He died at the early age of fifty-eight, respected and beloved by
+all who knew him.
+
+His partner Bauer survived to continue the business for twenty
+years longer.  It was during this later period that the Oberzell
+manufactory enjoyed its greatest prosperity.  The prejudices of
+the workmen gradually subsided when they found that machine
+printing, instead of abridging employment, as they feared it
+would do, enormously increased it; and orders accordingly flowed
+in from Berlin, Vienna, and all the leading towns and cities of
+Germany, Austria, Denmark, Russia, and Sweden.  The six hundredth
+machine, turned out in 1847, was capable of printing 6000
+impressions in the hour.  In March, 1865, the thousandth machine
+was completed at Oberzell, on the occasion of the celebration of
+the fifty years' jubilee of the invention of the steam press by
+Koenig.
+
+The sons of Koenig carried on the business; and in the biography
+by Goebel, it is stated that the manufactory of Oberzell has now
+turned out no fewer than 3000 printing machines.  The greater
+number have been supplied to Germany; but 660 were sent to
+Russia, 61 to Asia, 12 to England, and 11 to America.  The rest
+were despatched to Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Holland,
+and other countries.
+
+It remains to be said that Koenig and Bauer, united in life, were
+not divided by death.  Bauer died on February 27, 1860, and the
+remains of the partners now lie side by side in the little
+cemetery at Oberzell, close to the scene of their labours and the
+valuable establishment which they founded.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter VI.
+
+[1] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814
+
+[2] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814.
+
+[3] Date of Patent, 29th April, 1790, No. 1748,
+
+[4] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814.
+
+[5] Mr. Richard Taylor, one of the partners in the patent, says,
+"Mr. Perry declined, alleging that he did not consider a
+newspaper worth so many years' purchase as would equal the cost
+of the machine."
+
+[6] Mr. Richard Taylor, F.S.A., memoir in 'Philosophical
+Magazine' for October 1847, p. 300.
+
+[7] The price of a single cylinder non-registering machine was
+advertised at 900L.; of a double ditto, 1400L.; and of a cylinder
+registering machine, 2000L.; added to which was 250L., 350L., and
+500L. per annum for each of these machines so long as the patent
+lasted, or an agreed sum to be paid down at once.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE WALTERS OF THE TIMES: INVENTION OF THE WALTER PRESS.
+
+"Intellect and industry are never incompatible.  There is  more
+wisdom, and will be more benefit, in combining them than scholars
+like to believe, or than the common world imagine.  Life has time
+enough for both, and its happiness will be increased by the
+union." --SHARON TURNER.
+
+"I have beheld with most respect the man  
+Who knew himself, and knew the ways before him,  
+And from among them chose considerately,  
+With a clear foresight, not a blindfold courage;  
+And, having chosen, with a steadfast mind  
+Pursued his purpose."  
+HENRY TAYLOR--Philip van Artevelde.
+
+The late John Walter, who adopted Koenig's steam printing press
+in printing The Times, was virtually the inventor of the modern
+newspaper.  The first John Walter, his father, learnt the art of
+printing in the office of Dodsley, the proprietor of the 'Annual
+Register.' He afterwards pursued the profession of an
+underwriter, but his fortunes were literally shipwrecked by the
+capture of a fleet of merchantmen by a French squadron. 
+Compelled by this loss to return to his trade, he succeeded in
+obtaining the publication of 'Lloyd's List,' as well as the
+printing of the Board of Customs.  He also established himself as
+a publisher and bookseller at No. 8, Charing Cross.  But his
+principal achievement was in founding The Times newspaper.
+
+The Daily Universal Register was started on the 1st of January,
+1785, and was described in the heading as "printed
+logographically."  The type had still to be composed, letter by
+letter, each placed alongside of its predecessor by human
+fingers.  Mr. Walter's invention consisted in using stereotyped
+words and parts of words instead of separate metal letters, by
+which a certain saving of time and labour was effected.  The name
+of the 'Register' did not suit, there being many other
+publications bearing a similar title.  Accordingly, it was
+re-named The Times, and the first number was issued from Printing
+House Square on the 1st of January, 1788.
+
+The Times was at first a very meagre publication.  It was not
+much bigger than a number of the old 'Penny Magazine,' containing
+a single short leader on some current topic, without any
+pretensions to excellence; some driblets of news spread out in
+large type; half a column of foreign intelligence, with a column
+of facetious paragraphs under the heading of "The Cuckoo;" while
+the rest of each number consisted of advertisements. 
+Notwithstanding the comparative innocence of the contents of the
+early numbers of the paper, certain passages which appeared in it
+on two occasions subjected the publisher to imprisonment in
+Newgate.  The extent of the offence, on one occasion, consisted
+in the publication of a short paragraph intimating that their
+Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York had "so
+demeaned themselves as to incur the just disapprobation of his
+Majesty!"  For such slight offences were printers sent to gaol in
+those days.
+
+Although the first Mr. Walter was a man of considerable business
+ability, his exertions were probably too much divided amongst a
+variety of pursuits to enable him to devote that exclusive
+attention to The Times which was necessary to ensure its success.
+
+He possibly regarded it, as other publishers of newspapers then
+did, mainly as a means of obtaining a profitable business in
+job-printing.  Hence, in the elder Walter's hands, the paper was
+not only unprofitable in itself, but its maintenance became a
+source of gradually increasing expenditure; and the proprietor
+seriously contemplated its discontinuance.
+
+At this juncture, John Walter, junior, who had been taken into
+the business as a partner, entreated his father to entrust him
+with the sole conduct of the paper, and to give it "one more
+trial."  This was at the beginning of 1803.  The new editor and
+conductor was then only twenty-seven years of age.  He had been
+trained to the manual work of a printer "at case," and passed
+through nearly every department in the office, literary and
+mechanical.  But in the first place, he had received a very
+liberal education, first at Merchant Taylors' School, and
+afterwards at Trinity College, Oxford, where he pursued his
+classical studies with much success.  He was thus a man of
+well-cultured mind; he had been thoroughly disciplined to work;
+he was, moreover, a man of tact and energy, full of expedients,
+and possessed by a passion for business.  His father, urged by
+the young man's entreaties, at length consented, although not
+without misgivings, to resign into his hands the entire future
+control of The Times.
+
+Young Walter proceeded forthwith to remodel the establishment,
+and to introduce improvements into every department, as far as
+the scanty capital at his command would admit.  Before he assumed
+the direction, The Times did not seek to guide opinion or to
+exercise political influence.  It was a scanty newspaper--nothing
+more, Any political matters referred to were usually introduced
+in "Letters to the Editor," in the form in which Junius's Letters
+first appeared in the Public Advertiser.  The comments on
+political affairs by the Editor were meagre and brief, and
+confined to a mere statement of supposed facts.
+
+Mr. Walter, very much to the dismay of his father, struck out an
+entirely new course.  He boldly stated his views on public
+affairs, bringing his strong and original judgment to bear upon
+the political and social topics of the day.  He carefully watched
+and closely studied public opinion, and discussed general
+questions in all their bearings.  He thus invented the modern
+Leading Article.  The adoption of an independent line of politics
+necessarily led him to canvass freely, and occasionally to
+condemn, the measures of the Government.  Thus, he had only been
+about a year in office as editor, when the Sidmouth
+Administration was succeeded by that of Mr. Pitt, under whom Lord
+Melville undertook the unfortunate Catamaran expedition.  His
+Lordship's malpractices in the Navy Department had also been
+brought to light by the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry.  On both
+these topics Mr. Walter spoke out freely in terms of reprobation;
+and the result was, that the printing for the Customs and the
+Government advertisements were at once removed from The Times
+office.
+
+Two years later Mr. Pitt died, and an Administration succeeded
+which contained a portion of the political chiefs whom the editor
+had formerly supported on his undertaking the management of the
+paper.  He was invited by one of them to state the injustice
+which had been done to him by the loss of the Customs printing,
+and a memorial to the Treasury was submitted for his signature,
+with a view to its recovery.  But believing that the reparation
+of the injury in this manner was likely to be considered as a
+favour, entitling those who granted it to a certain degree of
+influence over the politics of the journal, Walter refused to
+sign it, or to have any concern in presenting the memorial.  He
+did more; he wrote to those from whom the restoration of the
+employment was expected to come, disavowing all connection with
+the proceeding.  The matter then dropped, and the Customs
+printing was never restored to the office.
+
+This course was so unprecedented, and, as his father thought, was
+so very wrong-headed, that young Walter had for some time
+considerable difficulty in holding his ground and maintaining the
+independent position he had assumed.  But with great tenacity of
+purpose he held on his course undismayed.  He was a man who
+looked far ahead,--not so much taking into account the results at
+the end of each day or of each year, but how the plan he had laid
+down for conducting the paper would work out in the long run. 
+And events proved that the high-minded course he had pursued with
+so much firmness of purpose was the wisest course after all.
+
+Another feature in the management which showed clear-sightedness
+and business acuteness, was the pains which the Editor took to
+ensure greater celerity of information and dispatch in printing. 
+The expense which he incurred in carrying out these objects
+excited the serious displeasure of his father, who regarded them
+as acts of juvenile folly and extravagance.  Another circumstance
+strongly roused the old man's wrath.  It appears that in those
+days the insertion of theatrical puffs formed a considerable
+source of newspaper income; and yet young Walter determined at
+once to abolish them.  It is not a little remarkable that these
+earliest acts of Mr. Walter--which so clearly marked his
+enterprise and high-mindedness--should have been made the subject
+of painful comments in his father's will.
+
+Notwithstanding this serious opposition from within, the power
+and influence of the paper visibly and rapidly grew.  The new
+Editor concentrated in the columns of his paper a range of
+information such as had never before been attempted, or indeed
+thought possible.  His vigilant eye was directed to every detail
+of his business.  He greatly improved the reporting of public
+meetings, the money market, and other intelligence,--aiming at
+greater fulness and accuracy.  In the department of criticism his
+labours were unwearied.  He sought to elevate the character of
+the paper, and rendered it more dignified by insisting that it
+should be impartial.  He thus conferred the greatest public
+service upon literature, the drama, and the fine arts, by
+protecting them against the evil influences of venal panegyric on
+the one hand, and of prejudiced hostility on the other.
+
+But the most remarkable feature of The Times that which
+emphatically commended it to public support and ensured its
+commercial success--was its department of foreign intelligence. 
+At the time that Walter undertook the management of the journal,
+Europe was a vast theatre of war; and in the conduct of
+commercial affairs--not to speak of political movements--it was
+of the most vital importance that early information should be
+obtained of affairs on the Continent.  The Editor resolved to
+become himself the purveyor of foreign intelligence, and at great
+expense he despatched his agents in all directions, even in the
+track of armies; while others were employed, under various
+disguises and by means of sundry pretexts, in many parts of the
+Continent.  These agents collected information, and despatched it
+to London, often at considerable risks, for publication in The
+Times, where it usually appeared long in advance of the
+government despatches.
+
+The late Mr. Pryme, in his 'Autobiographic Recollections,'
+mentions a visit which he paid to Mr. Walter at his seat at
+Bearwood.  "He described to me," says Mr.Pryme, "the cause of the
+large extension in the circulation of The Times.  He was the
+first to establish a foreign correspondent.  This was Henry Crabb
+Robinson, at a salary of 300L. a year....  Mr. Walter also
+established local reporters, instead of copying from the country
+papers.  His father doubted the wisdom of such a large
+expenditure, but the son prophesied a gradual and certain
+success, which has actually been realised."
+
+Mr. Robinson has described in his Diary the manner in which he
+became connected with the foreign correspondence.  "In January,
+1807," he says, "I received, through my friend J.D. Collier, a
+proposal from Mr. Walter that I should take up my residence at
+Altona, and become The Times correspondent.  I was to receive
+from the editor of the 'Hamburger Correspondenten' all the public
+documents at his disposal, and was to have the benefit also of a
+mass of information, of which the restraints of the German Press
+did not permit him to avail himself.  The honorarium I was to
+receive was ample with my habits of life.  I gladly accepted the
+offer, and never repented having done so.  My acquaintance with
+Mr. Walter ripened into friendship, and lasted as long as he
+lived."[1]
+
+Mr. Robinson was forced to leave Germany by the Battle of
+Friedland and the Treaty of Tilsit, which resulted in the naval
+coalition against England.  Returning to London, he became
+foreign editor of The Times until the following year, when he
+proceeded to Spain as foreign correspondent.  Mr. Walter had also
+an agent in the track of the army in the unfortunate Walcheren
+expedition; and The Times announced the capitulation of Flushing
+forty-eight hours before the news had arrived by any other
+channel.  By this prompt method of communicating public
+intelligence, the practice, which had previously existed, of 
+systematically retarding the publication of foreign news by
+officials at the General Post Office, who made gain by selling
+them to the Lombard Street brokers, was effectually extinguished.
+
+This circumstance, as well as the independent course which Mr.
+Walter adopted in the discussion of foreign politics, explains in
+some measure the opposition which he had to encounter in the
+transmission of his despatches.  As early as the year 1805, when
+he had come into collision with the Government and lost the
+Customs printing, The Times despatches were regularly stopped at
+the outports, whilst those for the Ministerial journals were
+allowed to proceed.  This might have crushed a weaker man, but it
+did not crush Walter.  Of course he expostulated.  He was
+informed at the Home Secretary's office that he might be
+permitted to receive his foreign papers as a favour.  But as this
+implied the expectation of a favour from him in return, the
+proposal was rejected; and, determined not to be baffled, he
+employed special couriers, at great cost, for the purpose of
+obtaining the earliest transmission of foreign intelligence.
+
+These important qualities--enterprise, energy, business tact, and
+public spirit--sufficiently account for his remarkable success. 
+To these, however, must be added another of no small importance--
+discernment and knowledge of character.  Though himself the head
+and front of his enterprise, it was necessary that he should
+secure the services and co-operation of men of first-rate
+ability; and in the selection of such men his judgment was almost
+unerring.  By his discernment and munificence, he collected round
+him some of the ablest writers of the age.  These were frequently
+revealed to him in the communications of correspondents--the
+author of the letters signed "Vetus" being thus selected to write
+in the leading columns of the Paper.  But Walter himself was the
+soul of The Times.  It was he who gave the tone to its articles,
+directed its influence, and superintended its entire conduct with
+unremitting vigilance.
+
+Even in conducting the mechanical arrangements of the paper--a
+business of no small difficulty--he had often occasion to
+exercise promptness and boldness of decision in cases of
+emergency.  Printers in those days were a rather refractory class
+of work men, and not unfrequently took advantage of their
+position to impose hard terms on their employers, especially in
+the daily press, where everything must be promptly done within a
+very limited time.  Thus on one occasion, in 1810, the pressmen
+made a sudden demand upon the proprietor for an increase of
+wages, and insisted upon a uniform rate being paid to all hands,
+whether good or bad.  Walter was at first disposed to make
+concessions to the men; but having been privately informed that a
+combination was already entered into by the compositors, as well
+as by the pressmen, to leave his employment suddenly, under
+circumstances that would have stopped the publication of the
+paper, and inflicted on him the most serious injury, he
+determined to run all risks, rather than submit to what now
+appeared to him in the light of an extortion.
+
+The strike took place on a Saturday morning, when suddenly, and
+without notice, all the hands turned out.  Mr. Walter had only a
+few hours' notice of it, but he had already resolved upon his
+course.  He collected apprentices from half a dozen different
+quarters, and a few inferior workmen, who were glad to obtain
+employment on any terms.  He himself stript to his shirt-sleeves,
+and went to work with the rest; and for the next six-and-thirty
+hours he was incessantly employed at case and at press.  On the
+Monday morning, the conspirators, who had assembled to triumph
+over his ruin, to their inexpressible amazement saw The Times
+issue from the publishing office at the usual hour, affording a
+memorable example of what one man's resolute energy may
+accomplish in a moment of difficulty.
+
+The journal continued to appear with regularity, though the
+printers employed at the office lived in a state of daily peril. 
+The conspirators, finding themselves baffled, resolved upon
+trying another game.  They contrived to have two of the men
+employed by Walter as compositors apprehended as deserters from
+the Royal Navy.  The men were taken before the magistrate; but
+the charge was only sustained by the testimony of clumsy,
+perjured witnesses, and fell to the ground.  The turn-outs next
+proceeded to assault the new hands, when Mr. Walter resolved to
+throw around them the protection of the law.  By the advice of
+counsel, he had twenty-one of the conspirators apprehended and
+tried, and nineteen of them were found guilty and condemned to
+various periods of imprisonment.  From that moment combination
+was at an end in Printing House Square.
+
+Mr. Walter's greatest achievement was his successful application
+of steam power to newspaper printing.  Although he had greatly
+improved the mechanical arrangements after he took command of the
+paper, the rate at which the copies could be printed off remained
+almost stationary.  It took a very long time indeed to throw off,
+by the hand-labour of pressmen, the three or four thousand copies
+which then constituted the ordinary circulation of The Times.  On
+the occasion of any event of great public interest being reported
+in the paper, it was found almost impossible to meet the demand
+for copies.  Only about 300 copies could be printed in the hour,
+with one man to ink the types and another to work the press,
+while the labour was very severe.  Thus it took a long time to
+get out the daily impression, and very often the evening papers
+were out before The Times had half supplied the demand.
+
+Mr. Walter could not brook the tedium of this irksome and
+laborious process.  To increase the number of impressions, he
+resorted to various expedients.  The type was set up in
+duplicate, and even in triplicate; several Stanhope presses were
+kept constantly at work; and still the insatiable demands of the
+newsmen on certain occasions could not be met.  Thus the question
+was early forced upon his consideration, whether he could not
+devise machinery for the purpose of expediting the production of
+newspapers.  Instead of 300 impressions an hour, he wanted from
+1500 to 2000.  Although such a speed as this seemed quite as
+chimerical as propelling a ship through the water against wind
+and tide at fifteen miles an hour, or running a locomotive on a
+railway at fifty, yet Mr. Walter was impressed with the
+conviction that a much more rapid printing of newspapers was
+feasible than by the slow hand-labour process; and he endeavoured
+to induce several ingenious mechanical contrivers to take up and
+work out his idea.
+
+The principle of producing impressions by means of a cylinder,
+and of inking the types by means of a roller, was not new.  We
+have seen, in the preceding memoir, that as early as 1790 William
+Nicholson had patented such a method, but his scheme had never
+been brought into practical operation.  Mr. Walter endeavoured to
+enlist Marc Isambard Brunel--one of the cleverest inventors of
+the day--in his proposed method of rapid printing by machinery;
+but after labouring over a variety of plans for a considerable
+time, Brunel finally gave up the printing machine, unable to make
+anything of it.  Mr. Walter next tried Thomas Martyn, an
+ingenious young compositor, who had a scheme for a self-acting
+machine for working the printing press.  He was supplied with the
+necessary funds to enable him to prosecute his idea; but Mr.
+Walter's father was opposed to the scheme, and when the funds
+became exhausted, this scheme also fell to the ground.
+
+As years passed on, and the circulation of the paper increased,
+the necessity for some more expeditious method of printing became
+still more urgent.  Although Mr. Walter had declined to enter
+into an arrangement with Bensley in 1809, before Koenig had
+completed his invention of printing by cylinders, it was
+different five years later, when Koenig's printing machine was
+actually at work.  In the preceding memoir, the circumstances
+connected with the adoption of the invention by Mr. Walter are
+fully related; as well as the announcement made in The Times on
+the 29th of November, 1814--the day on which the first newspaper
+printed by steam was given to the world.
+
+But Koenig's printing machine was but the beginning of a great
+new branch of industry.  After he had left this country in
+disgust, it remained for others to perfect the invention;
+although the ingenious German was entitled to the greatest credit
+for having made the first satisfactory beginning.  Great
+inventions are not brought forth at a heat.  They are begun by
+one man, improved by another, and perfected by a whole host of
+mechanical inventors.  Numerous patents were taken out for the
+mechanical improvement of printing.  Donkin and Bacon contrived a
+machine in 1813, in which the types were placed on a revolving
+prism.  One of them was made for the University of Cambridge, but
+it was found too complicated; the inking was defective; and the
+project was abandoned.
+
+In 1816, Mr. Cowper obtained a patent (No.3974) entitled," A
+Method of Printing Paper for Paper Hangings, and Other Purposes."
+
+The principal feature of this invention consisted in the curving
+or bending of stereotype plates for the purpose of being printed
+in that form.  A number of machines for printing in two colours,
+in exact register, was made for the Bank of England, and four
+millions of One Pound notes were printed before the Bank
+Directors determined to abolish their further issue.  The regular
+mode of producing stereotype plates, from plaster of Paris
+moulds, took so much time, that they could not then be used for
+newspaper printing.
+
+Two years later, in 1818, Mr. Cowper invented and patented (No. 
+4194) his great improvements in printing.  It may be mentioned
+that he was then himself a printer, in partnership with Mr.
+Applegath, his brother-in-law.  His invention consisted in the
+perfect distribution of the ink, by giving end motion to the
+rollers, so as to get a distribution crossways, as well as
+lengthways.  This principle is at the very foundation of good
+printing, and has been adopted in every machine since made.  The
+very first experiment proved that the principle was right.  Mr.
+Cowper was asked by Mr. Walter to alter Koenig's machine at The
+Times office, so as to obtain good distribution.  He adopted two
+of Nicholson's single cylinders and flat formes of type.  Two
+"drums" were placed betwixt the cylinders to ensure accuracy in
+the register,--over and under which the sheet was conveyed in it
+s progress from one cylinder to the other,--the sheet being at
+all times firmly held between two tapes, which bound it to the
+cylinders and drums.  This is commonly called, in the trade, a
+"perfecting machine;" that is, it printed the paper on both sides
+simultaneously, and is still much used for "book-work," whilst
+single cylinder machines are often used for provincial
+newspapers.
+
+After this, Mr. Cowper designed the four cylinder machine for The
+Times,--by means of which from 4000 to 5000 sheets could be
+printed from one forme in the hour.  In 1823, Mr. Applegath
+invented an improvement in the inking apparatus, by placing the
+distributing rollers at an angle across the distributing table,
+instead of forcing them endways by other means.
+
+Mr. Walter continued to devote the same unremitting attention to
+his business as before.  He looked into all the details, was
+familiar with every department, and, on an emergency, was willing
+to lend a hand in any work requiring more than ordinary despatch.
+
+Thus, it is related of him that, in the spring of 1833, shortly
+after his return to Parliament as Member for Berkshire, he was at
+The Times office one day, when an express arrived from Paris,
+bringing the speech of the King of the French on the opening of
+the Chambers.  The express arrived at 10 A.M., after the day's
+impression of the paper had been published, and the editors and
+compositors had left the office.  It was important that the
+speech should be published at once; and Mr. Walter immediately
+set to work upon it.  He first translated the document; then,
+assisted by one compositor, he took his place at the type-case,
+and set it up.  To the amazement of one of the staff, who dropped
+in about noon, he "found Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berks, working in
+his shirt-sleeves!"  The speech was set and printed, and the
+second edition was in the City by one o'clock.  Had he not
+"turned to" as he did, the whole expense of the express service
+would have been lost.  And it is probable that there was not
+another man in the whole establishment who could have performed
+the double work--intellectual and physical--which he that day
+executed with his own head and hands.
+
+Such an incident curiously illustrates his eminent success in
+life.  It was simply the result of persevering diligence, which
+shrank from no effort and neglected no detail; as well as of
+prudence allied to boldness, but certainly not "of chance;" and,
+above all, of highminded integrity and unimpeachable honesty.  It
+is perhaps unnecessary to add more as to the merits of Mr. Walter
+as a man of enterprise in business, or as a public man and a
+Member of Parliament.  The great work of his life was the
+development of his journal, the history of which forms the best
+monument to his merits and his powers.
+
+The progressive improvement of steam printing machinery was not
+affected by Mr. Walter's death, which occurred in 1847.  He had
+given it an impulse which it never lost.  In 1846 Mr. Applegath
+patented certain important improvements in the steam press.  The
+general disposition of his new machine was that of a vertical
+cylinder 200 inches in circumference, holding on it the type and
+distributing surfaces, and surrounded alternately by inking
+rollers and pressing cylinders.  Mr. Applegath estimated in his
+specification that in his new vertical system the machine, with
+eight cylinders, would print about 10,000 sheets per hour.  The
+new printing press came into use in 1848, and completely
+justified the anticipations of its projector.
+
+Applegath's machine, though successfully employed at The Times
+office, did not come into general use.  It was, to a large
+extent, superseded by the invention of Richard M. Hoe, of New
+York.  Hoe's process consisted in placing the types upon a
+horizontal cylinder, against which the sheets were pressed by
+exterior and smaller cylinders.  The types were arranged in
+segments of a circle, each segment forming a frame that could be
+fixed on the cylinder.  These printing machines were made with
+from two to ten subsidiary cylinders.  The first presses sent by
+Messrs. Hoe & Co. to this country were for Lloyd's Weekly
+Newspaper, and were of the six-cylinder size.  These were
+followed by two ten-cylinder machines, ordered by the present Mr.
+Walter, for The Times.  Other English newspaper proprietors--both
+in London and the provinces--were supplied with the machines, as
+many as thirty-five having been imported from America between
+1856 and 1862.  It may be mentioned that the two ten-cylinder
+Hoes made for The Times were driven at the rate of thirty-two
+revolutions per minute, which gives a printing rate of 19,200 per
+hour, or about 16,000 including stoppages.
+
+Much of the ingenuity exercised both in the Applegath and Hoe
+Machines was directed to the "chase," which had to hold securely
+upon its curved face the mass of movable type required to form a
+page.  And now the enterprise of the proprietor of The Times
+again came to the front.  The change effected in the art of
+newspaper-printing, by the process of stereotypes, is scarcely
+inferior to that by which the late Mr. Walter applied steam-power
+to the printing press, and certainly equal to that by which the
+rotary press superseded the reciprocatory action of the flat
+machine.
+
+Stereotyping has a curious history.  Many attempts were made to
+obtain solid printing-surfaces by transfer from similar surfaces,
+composed, in the first place, of movable types.  The first who
+really succeeded was one Ged, an Edinburgh goldsmith, who, after
+a series of difficult experiments, arrived at a knowledge of the
+art of stereotyping.  The first method employed was to pour
+liquid stucco, of the consistency of cream, over the types; and
+this, when solid, gave a perfect mould.  Into this the molten
+metal was poured, and a plate was produced, accurately resembling
+the page of type.  As long ago as 1730, Ged obtained a privilege
+from the University of Cambridge for printing Bibles and
+Prayer-books after this method.  But the workmen were dead
+against it, as they thought it would destroy their trade.  The
+compositors and the pressmen purposely battered the letters in
+the absence of their employers.  In consequence of this
+interference Ged was ruined, and died in poverty.
+
+The art had, however, been born, and could not be kept down.  It
+was revived in France, in Germany, and in America.  Fifty years
+after the discovery of Ged, Tilloch and Foulis, of Glasgow,
+patented a similar invention, without knowing anything of what
+Ged had done; and after great labour and many experiments, they
+produced plates, the impressions from which could  not be
+distinguished from those taken from the types from which they
+were cast.  Some years afterwards, Lord Stanhope, to whom the art
+of printing is much indebted, greatly improved the art of
+stereotyping, though it was still quite inapplicable to newspaper
+printing.  The merit of this latter invention is due to the
+enterprise of the present proprietor of The Times.
+
+Mr. Walter began his experiments, aided by an ingenious Italian
+founder named Dellagana, early in 1856.  It was ascertained that
+when papier-mache matrices were rapidly dried and placed in a
+mould, separate columns might be cast in them with stereotype
+metal, type high, planed flat, and finished with sufficient speed
+to get up the duplicate of a forme of four pages fitted for
+printing.  Steps were taken to adapt these type-high columns to
+the Applegath Presses, then worked with polygonal chases.  When
+the Hoe machines were introduced, instead of dealing with the
+separate columns, the papier-mache matrix was taken from the
+whole page at one operation, by roller-presses constructed for
+the purpose.  The impression taken off in this manner is as
+perfect as if it had been made in the finest wax.  The matrix is
+rapidly dried on heating surfaces, and then accurately adjusted
+in a casting machine curved to the exact circumference of the
+main drum of the printing press, and fitted with a terra-cotta
+top to secure a casting of uniform thickness.  On pouring
+stereotype metal into this mould, a curved plate was obtained,
+which, after undergoing a certain amount of trimming at two
+machines, could be taken to press and set to work within
+twenty-five minutes from the time at which the process began.
+
+Besides the great advantages obtained from uniform sets of the
+plates, which might be printed on different machines at the rate
+of 50,000 impressions an hour, or such additional number as might
+be required, there is this other great advantage, that there is
+no wear and tear of type in the curved chases by obstructive
+friction; and that the fount, instead of wearing out in two
+years, might last for twenty; for the plates, after doing their
+work for one day, are melted down into a new impression for the
+next day's printing.  At the same time, the original type-page,
+safe from injury, can be made to yield any number of copies that
+may be required by the exigencies of the circulation.  It will be
+sufficiently obvious that by the multiplication of stereotype
+plates and printing machines, there is practically no limit to
+the number of copies of a newspaper that may be printed within
+the time which the process now usually occupies.
+
+This new method of newspaper stereotyping was originally employed
+on the cylinders of the Applegath and Hoe Presses.  But it is
+equally applicable to those of the Walter Press, a brief
+description of which we now subjoin.  As the construction of the
+first steam newspaper machine was due to the enterprise of the
+late Mr. Walter, so the construction of this last and most
+improved machine is due in like manner to the enterprise of his
+son.  The new Walter Press is not, like Applegath and Cowper's,
+and Hoe's, the improvement of an existing arrangement, but an
+almost entirely original invention.
+
+In the Reports of the Jurors on the "Plate, Letterpress, and
+other modes of Printing," at the International Exhibition of
+1862, the following passage occurs:-- "It is incumbent on the
+reporters to point out that, excellent and surprising as are the
+results achieved by the Hoe and Applegath Machines, they cannot
+be considered satisfactory while those machines themselves are so
+liable to stoppages in working.  No true mechanic can contrast
+the immense American ten-cylinder presses of The Times with the
+simple calico-printing machine, without feeling that the latter
+furnishes the true type to which the mechanism for newspaper
+printing should as much as possible approximate."
+
+On this principle, so clearly put forward, the Inventors of the
+Walter Press proceeded in the contrivance of the new machine.  It
+is true that William Nicholson, in his patent of 1790, prefigured
+the possibility of printing on "paper, linen, cotton, woollen,
+and other articles," by means of type fixed on the outer surface
+of a revolving cylinder; but no steps were taken to carry  his
+views into effect.  Sir Rowland Hill also, before he became
+connected with Post Office reform, revived the contrivance of
+Nicholson, and referred to it in his patent of 1835 (No.  6762);
+and he also proposed to use continuous rolls of paper, which
+Fourdrinier and Donkin had made practicable by their invention of
+the paper-making machine about the year 1804; but both
+Nicholson's and Hill's patents remained a dead letter.[2]
+
+It may be easy to conceive a printing machine, or even to make a
+model of one; but to construct an actual working printing press,
+that must be sure and unfailing in its operations, is a matter
+surrounded with difficulties.  At every step fresh contrivances
+have to be introduced; they have to be tried again and again;
+perhaps they are eventually thrown aside to give place to new
+arrangements.  Thus the head of the inventor is kept in a state
+of constant turmoil.  Sometimes the whole machine has to be
+remodelled from beginning to end.  One step is gained by degrees,
+then another; and at last, after years of labour, the new
+invention comes before the world in the form of a practical
+working machine.
+
+In 1862 Mr. Walter began in The Times office, with tools and
+machinery of his own, experiments for constructing a perfecting
+press which should print the paper from rolls of paper instead of
+from sheets.  Like his father, Mr. Walter possessed an excellent
+discrimination of character, and selected the best men to aid him
+in his important undertaking.  Numerous difficulties had, of
+course, to be surmounted.  Plans were varied from time to time;
+new methods were tried, altered, and improved, simplification
+being aimed at throughout.  Six long years passed in this pursuit
+of the possible.  At length the clear light dawned.  In 1868 Mr.
+Walter ventured to order the construction of three machines on
+the pattern of the first complete one which had been made.  By
+the end of 1869 these were finished and placed in a room by
+themselves; and a  fourth was afterwards added.  There the
+printing of The Times is now done, in less than half the time it
+previously occupied, and with one-fifth the number of hands.
+
+The most remarkable feature in the Walter Press is its wonderful
+simplicity of construction.  Simplicity of arrangement is always
+the beau ideal of the mechanical engineer.  This printing press
+is not only simple, but accurate, compact, rapid, and economical.
+
+While each of the ten-feeder Hoe Machines occupies a large and
+lofty room, and requires eighteen men to feed and work it, the
+new Walter Machine occupies a space of only about l4 feet by 5,
+or less than any newspaper machine yet introduced; and it
+requires only three lads to take away, with half the attention of
+an overseer, who easily superintends two of the machines while at
+work.  The Hoe Machine turns out 7000 impressions printed on both
+sides in the hour, whereas the Walter Machine turns out 12,000
+impressions completed in the same time.
+
+The new Walter Press does not in the least resemble any existing
+printing machine, unless it be the calendering machine which
+furnished its type.  At the printing end it looks like a
+collection of small cylinders or rollers.  The first thing to be
+observed is the continuous roll of paper four miles long, tightly
+mounted on a reel, which, when the machine is going, flies round
+with immense rapidity.  The web of paper taken up by the first
+roller is led into a series of small hollow cylinders filled with
+water and steam, perforated with thousands of minute holes.  By
+this means the paper is properly damped before the process of
+printing is begun.  The roll of paper, drawn by nipping rollers,
+next flies through to the cylinder on which the stereotype plates
+are fixed, so as to form the four pages of the ordinary sheet of
+The Times; there it is lightly pressed against the type and
+printed; then it passes downwards round another cylinder covered
+with cloth, and reversed; next to the second type-covered roller,
+where it takes the impression exactly on the other side of the
+remaining four pages.  It next reaches one of the most ingenious
+contrivances of the invention--the cutting machinery, by means of
+which the paper is divided by a quick knife into the 5500 sheets
+of which the entire web consists.  The tapes hurry the now
+completely printed newspaper up an inclined plane, from which the
+divided sheets are showered down in a continuous stream by an
+oscillating frame, where they are met by two boys, who adjust the
+sheets as they fall.  The reel of four miles long is printed and
+divided into newspapers complete in about twenty-five minutes.
+
+The machine is almost entirely self-acting, from the pumping-up
+of the ink into the ink-box out of the cistern below stairs, to
+the registering of the numbers as they are printed in the
+manager's room above.  It is always difficult to describe a
+machine in words.  Nothing but a series of sections and diagrams
+could give the reader an idea of the construction of this
+unrivalled instrument.  The time to see it and wonder at it is
+when the press is in full work.  And even then you can see but
+little of its construction, for the cylinders are wheeling round
+with immense velocity.  The rapidity with which the machine works
+may be inferred from the fact that the printing cylinders (round
+which the stereotyped plates are fixed), while making their
+impressions on the paper, travel at the surprising speed of 200
+revolutions a minute, or at the rate of about nine miles an hour!
+
+Contrast this speed with the former slowness.  Go back to the
+beginning of the century.  Before the year 1814 the turn-out of
+newspapers was only about 300 single impressions in an hour--that
+is, impressions printed on only one side of the paper.  Koenig by
+his invention increased the issue to 1100 impressions.  Applegath
+and Cowper by their four-cylinder machine increased the issue to
+4000, and by the eight-cylinder machine to 10,000 an hour.  But
+these were only impressions printed on one side of the paper. 
+The first perfecting press--that is, printing simultaneously the
+paper on both sides--was the Walter, the speed of which has been
+raised to 12,000, though, if necessary, it can produce excellent
+work at the rate of 17,000 complete copies of an eight-page paper
+per hour.  Then, with the new method of stereotyping--by means of
+which the plates can be infinitely multiplied and by the aid of 
+additional machines, the supply of additional impressions is
+absolutely unlimited.
+
+The Walter Press is not a monopoly.  It is manufactured at The
+Times office, and is supplied to all comers.  Among the other
+daily papers printed by its means in this country are the Daily
+News, the Scotsmam, and the Birmingham Daily Post.  The first
+Walter Press was sent to America in 1872, where it was employed
+to print the Missouri Republican at St.  Louis, the leading
+newspaper of the Mississippi Valley.  An engineer and a skilled
+workman from The Times office accompanied the machinery.  On
+arriving at St.  Louis--the materials were unpacked, lowered into
+the machine-room, where they were erected and ready for work in
+the short space of five days.
+
+The Walter Press was an object of great interest at the
+Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876, where it was
+shown printing the New Fork Times one of the most influential
+journals in America.  The press was surrounded with crowds of
+visitors intently watching its perfect and regular action, "like
+a thing of life."  The New York Times said of it: "The Walter
+Press is the most perfect printing press yet known to man;
+invented by the most powerful journal of the Old World, and
+adopted as the very best press to be had for its purposes by the
+most influential journal of the New World....  It is an honour to
+Great Britain to have such an exhibit in her display, and a
+lasting benefit to the printing business, especially to
+newspapers....  The first printing press run by steam was erected
+in the year 1814 in the office of The Times by the father of him
+who is the present proprietor of that world-famous journal.  The
+machine of 1814 was described in The Times of the 29th November
+in that year, and the account given of it closed in these words:
+'The whole of these complicated acts is performed with such a
+velocity and simultaneonsness of movement that no less than 1100
+sheets are impressed in one hour.' Mirabile dictu!  And the
+Walter Press of to-day can run off 17,000 copies an hour printed
+on both sides.  This is not bad work for one man's lifetime."
+
+It is unnecessary to say more about this marvellous machine.  Its
+completion forms the crown of the industry which it represents,
+and of the enterprise of the journal which it prints.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter VII.
+
+[1] Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb
+Robinson, Barrister-at-Law, F.S.A., i. 231.
+
+[2] After the appearance of my article on the Koenig and Walter
+Presses in Macmillan's Magazine for December, 1869, I received
+the following letter from Sir Rowland Hill:- 
+
+"Hampstead"  January 5th, 1870.
+
+"My dear sir, 
+
+"In your very interesting article in Macmillan's Magazine on the
+subject of the printing machine, you have unconsciously done me
+some injustice.  To convince yourself of this, you have only to
+read the enclosed paper.  The case, however, will be strengthened
+when I tell you that as far back as the year 1856, that is, seven
+years after the expiry of my patent, I pointed out to Mr. Mowbray
+Morris, the manager of The Times, the fitness of my machine for
+the printing of that journal, and the fact that serious
+difficulties to its adoption had been removed.  I also, at his
+request, furnished him with a copy of the document with which I
+now trouble you.  Feeling sure that you would like to know the
+truth on any subject of which you may treat, I should be glad to
+explain the matter more fully, and for this purpose will, with
+your permission, call upon you at any time you may do me the
+favour to appoint.  
+"Faithfully yours, 
+
+"Rowland Hill."
+
+On further enquiry I obtained the Patent No. 6762; but found that
+nothing practical had ever come of it.  The pamphlet enclosed by
+Sir Rowland Hill in the above letter is entitled 'The Rotary
+Printing Machine.' It is very clever and ingenious, like
+everything he did.  But it was still left for some one else to
+work out the invention into a practical working printing-press. 
+The subject is fully referred to in the 'Life of Sir Rowland
+Hill' (i. 224,525).  In his final word on the subject, Sir
+Rowland "gladly admits the enormous difficulty of bringing a
+complex machine into practical use," a difficulty, he says, which
+"has been most successfully overcome by the patentees of the
+Walter Press."
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WILLIAM CLOWES: INTRODUCER OF BOOK-PRINTING BY STEAM.
+
+"The Images of men's wits and knowledges remain in Books,
+exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual
+renovation.  Neither are they fitly to be called Images, because
+they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others,
+provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding
+ages; so that, if the invention of the Ship was thought so noble,
+which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and
+consociateth the most remote Regions in participation of their
+Fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which, as
+Ships, pass through the vast Seas of time, and make ages so
+distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and 
+inventions, the one of the other?"--Bacon, On the Proficience and
+Advancement of Learning.
+
+Steam has proved as useful and potent in the printing of books as
+in the printing of newspapers.  Down to the end of last century,
+"the divine art," as printing was called, had made comparatively
+little progress.  That is to say, although books could be
+beautifully printed by hand labour, they could not be turned out
+in any large numbers.
+
+The early printing press was rude.  It consisted of a table,
+along which the forme of type, furnished with a tympan and
+frisket, was pushed by hand.  The platen worked vertically
+between standards, and was brought down for the impression, and
+raised after it, by a common screw, worked by a bar handle.  The
+inking was performed by balls covered with skin pelts; they were
+blacked with ink, and beaten down on the type by the pressman. 
+The inking was consequently irregular.
+
+In 1798, Earl Stanhope perfected the press that bears his name. 
+He did not patent it, but made his invention over to the public. 
+In 1818, Mr. Cowper greatly improved the inking of formes used in
+the Stanhope and other presses, by the use of a hand roller
+covered with a composition of glue and treacle, in combination
+with a distributing table.  The ink was thus applied in a more
+even manner, and with a considerable decrease of labour.  With
+the Stanhope Press, printing was as far advanced as it could
+possibly be by means of hand labour.  About 250 impressions could
+be taken off, on one side, in an hour.
+
+But this, after all, was a very small result.  When books could
+be produced so slowly, there could be no popular literature. 
+Books were still articles for the few, instead of for the many. 
+Steam power, however, completely altered the state of affairs. 
+When Koenig invented his steam press, he showed by the printing
+of Clarkson's 'Life of Penn' --the first sheets ever printed with
+a cylindrical press--that books might be printed neatly, as well
+as cheaply, by the new machine.  Mr. Bensley continued the
+process, after Koenig left England; and in 1824, according to
+Johnson in his 'Typographia,' his son was "driving an extensive
+business."
+
+In the following year, 1825, Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh,
+propounded his plan for revolutionising the art of bookselling. 
+Instead of books being articles of luxury, he proposed to bring
+them into general consumption.  He would sell them, not by
+thousands, but by hundreds of thousands, "ay, by millions;" and
+he would accomplish this by the new methods of multiplication--by
+machine printing and by steam power.  Mr. Constable accordingly
+issued a library of excellent books; and, although he was
+ruined--not by this enterprise, but the other speculations into
+which he entered--he set the example which other enterprising
+minds were ready to follow.  Amongst these was Charles Knight,
+who set the steam presses of William Clowes to work, for the
+purposes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
+
+William Clowes was the founder of the vast printing establishment
+from which these sheets are issued; and his career furnishes
+another striking illustration of the force of industry and
+character.  He was born on the 1st of January, 1779.  His father
+was educated at Oxford, and kept a large school at Chichester;
+but dying when William was but an infant, he left his widow, with
+straitened means, to bring up her family.  At a proper age
+William was bound apprentice to a printer at Chichester; and,
+after serving him for seven years, he came up to London, at the
+beginning of 1802, to seek employment as a journeyman.  He
+succeeded in finding work at a small office on Tower Hill, at a
+small wage.  The first lodgings he took cost him 5s. a week; but
+finding this beyond his means he hired a room in a garret at 2s.
+6d., which was as much as he could afford out of his scanty
+earnings.
+
+The first job he was put to, was the setting-up of a large
+poster-bill--a kind of work which he had been accustomed to
+execute in the country; and he knocked it together so expertly
+that his master, Mr. Teape, on seeing what he could do, said to
+him, "Ah! I find you are just the fellow for me."  The young man,
+however, felt so strange in London, where he was without a friend
+or acquaintance, that at the end of the first month he thought of
+leaving it; and yearned to go back to his native city.  But he
+had not funds enough to enable him to follow his inclinations,
+and he accordingly remained in the great City, to work, to
+persevere, and finally to prosper.  He continued at Teape's for
+about two years, living frugally, and even contriving to save a
+little money.
+
+He then thought of beginning business on his own account.  The
+small scale on which printing was carried on in those days
+enabled him to make a start with comparatively little capital. 
+By means of his own savings and the help of his friends, he was
+enabled to take a little printing-office in Villiers Street,
+Strand, about the end of 1803; and there he began with one
+printing press, and one assistant.  His stock of type was so
+small, that he was under the necessity of working it from day to
+day like a banker's gold.  When his first job came in, he
+continued to work for the greater part of three nights, setting
+the type during the day, and working it off at night, in order
+that the type might be distributed for resetting on the following
+morning.  He succeeded, however, in executing his first job to
+the entire satisfaction of his first customer.
+
+His business gradually increased, and then, with his constantly
+saved means, he was enabled to increase his stock of type, and to
+undertake larger jobs.  Industry always tells, and in the
+long-run leads to prosperity.  He married early, but he married
+well.  He was only twenty-four when he found his best fortune in
+a good, affectionate wife.  Through this lady's cousin, Mr.
+Winchester, the young printer was shortly introduced to important
+official business.  His punctual execution of orders, the
+accuracy of his work, and the despatch with which he turned it
+out soon brought him friends, and his obliging and kindly
+disposition firmly secured them.  Thus, in a few years, the
+humble beginner with one press became a printer on a large scale.
+
+The small concern expanded into a considerable printing-office in
+Northumberland Court, which was furnished with many presses and a
+large stock of type.  The office was, unfortunately, burnt down;
+but a larger office rose in its place.
+
+What Mr. Clowes principally aimed at, in carrying on his
+business, was  accuracy, speed, and quantity.  He did not seek to
+produce editions de luxe in limited numbers, but large
+impressions of works in popular demand--travels, biographies,
+histories, blue-books, and official reports, in any quantity. 
+For this purpose, he found the process of hand-printing too
+tedious, as well as too costly; and hence he early turned his
+attention to book printing by machine presses, driven by steam
+power,--in this matter following the example of Mr. Walter of the
+Times, who had for some years employed the same method for
+newspaper printing.
+
+Applegath & Cowper's machines had greatly advanced the art of
+printing.  They secured perfect inking and register; and the
+sheets were printed off more neatly, regularly, and
+expeditiously; and larger sheets could be printed on both sides,
+than by any other method.  In 1823, accordingly, Mr. Clowes
+erected his first steam presses, and he soon found abundance of
+work for them.  But to produce steam requires boilers and
+engines, the working of which occasions smoke and noise.  Now, as
+the printing-office, with its steam presses, was situated in
+Northumberland Court, close to the palace of the Duke of
+Northumberland, at Charing Cross, Mr. Clowes was required to
+abate the nuisance, and to stop the noise and dirt occasioned by
+the use of his engines.  This he failed to do, and the Duke
+commenced an action against him.
+
+The case was tried in June, 1824, in the Court of Common Pleas. 
+It was ludicrous to hear the extravagant terms in which the
+counsel for the plaintiff and his witnesses described the
+nuisance--the noise made by the engine in the underground cellar,
+some times like thunder, at other times like a thrashing-machine,
+and then again like the rumbling of carts and waggons.  The
+printer had retained the Attorney-general, Mr. Copley, afterwards
+Lord Lyndhurst, who conducted his case with surpassing ability. 
+The cross-examination of a foreign artist, employed by the Duke
+to repaint some portraits of the Cornaro family by Titian, is
+said to have been one of the finest things on record.  The sly
+and pungent humour, and the banter with which the counsel derided
+and laughed down this witness, were inimitable.  The printer won
+his case; but he eventually consented to remove his steam presses
+from the neighbourhood, on the Duke paying him a certain sum to
+be determined by the award of arbitrators.
+
+It happened, about this period, that a sort of murrain fell upon
+the London publishers.  After the failure of Constable at
+Edinburgh, they came down one after another, like a pack of
+cards.  Authors are not the only people who lose labour and money
+by publishers; there are also cases where publishers are ruined
+by authors.  Printers also now lost heavily.  In one week, Mr.
+Clowes sustained losses through the failure of London publishers
+to the extent of about 25,000L.  Happily, the large sum which the
+arbitrators awarded him for the removal of his printing presses
+enabled him to tide over the difficulty; he stood his ground
+unshaken, and his character in the trade stood higher than ever.
+
+In the following year Mr. Clowes removed to Duke Street,
+Blackfriars, to premises until then occupied by Mr. Applegath, as
+a printer; and much more extensive buildings and offices were now
+erected.  There his business transactions assumed a form of
+unprecedented magnitude, and kept pace with the great demand for
+popular information which set in with such force about fifty
+years ago.  In the course of ten years--as we find from the
+'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana'--there were twenty of Applegath &
+Cowper's machines, worked by two five-horse engines.  From these
+presses were issued the numerous admirable volumes and
+publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
+Knowledge; the treatises on 'Physiology,' by Roget, and 'Animal
+Mechanics,' by Charles Bell; the 'Elements of Physics,' by Neill
+Arnott; 'The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties,' by G. L.
+Craik, a most fascinating book; the Library of Useful Knowledge;
+the 'Penny Magazine,' the first  illustrated publication; and the
+'Penny Cyclopaedia,' that admirable  compendium of knowledge and
+science.
+
+These publications were of great value.  Some of them were
+printed in unusual numbers.  The 'Penny Magazine,' of which
+Charles Knight was editor, was perhaps too good, because it was
+too scientific.  Nevertheless, it reached a circulation of
+200,000 copies.  The 'Penny Cyclopaedia' was still better.  It
+was original, and yet cheap.  The articles were written by the
+best men that could be found in their special departments of
+knowledge.  The sale was originally 75,000 weekly; but, as the
+plan enlarged, the price was increased from 1d. to 2d., and then
+to 4d.  At the end of the second year, the circulation had fallen
+to 44,000; and at the end of the third year, to 20,000.
+
+It was unfortunate for Mr. Knight to be so much under the
+influence of his Society.  Had the Cyclopaedia been under his own
+superintendence, it would have founded his fortune.  As it was,
+he lost over 30,000L. by the venture.  The 'Penny Magazine' also
+went down in circulation, until it became a non-paying
+publication, and then it was discontinued.  It is curious to
+contrast the fortunes of William Chambers of Edinburgh with those
+of Charles Knight of London.  'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal' was
+begun in February, 1832, and the 'Penny Magazine' in March, 1832.
+
+Chambers was perhaps shrewder than Knight.  His journal was as
+good, though without illustrations; but he contrived to mix up
+amusement with useful knowledge.  It may be a weakness, but the
+public like to be entertained, even while they are feeding upon
+better food.  Hence Chambers succeeded, while Knight failed.  The
+'Penny Magazine' was discontinued in 1845, whereas 'Chambers's
+Edinburgh Journal' has maintained its popularity to the present
+day.  Chambers, also, like Knight, published an 'Encyclopaedia,'
+which secured a large circulation.  But he was not trammelled by
+a Society, and the 'Encyclopaedia' has become a valuable
+property.
+
+The publication of these various works would not have been
+possible without the aid of the steam printing press.  When Mr.
+Edward Cowper was examined before a Committee of the House of
+Commons, he said, "The ease with which the principles and
+illustrations of Art might be diffused is, I think, so obvious
+that it is hardly necessary to say a word about it.  Here you may
+see it exemplified in the 'Penny Magazine.'  Such works as this
+could not have existed without the printing machine."  He was
+asked, "In fact, the mechanic and the peasant, in the most remote
+parts of the country, have now an opportunity of seeing tolerably
+correct outlines of form which they never could behold before?" 
+To which he answered, "Exactly; and literally at the price they
+used to give for a song."  "Is there not, therefore, a greater
+chance of calling genius into activity?"  "Yes," he said, "not
+merely by books creating an artist here and there, but by the
+general elevation of the taste of the public."
+
+Mr. Clowes was always willing to promote deserving persons in his
+office.  One of these rose from step to step, and eventually
+became one of the most prosperous publishers in London.  He
+entered the service as an errand-boy, and got his meals in the
+kitchen.  Being fond of reading, he petitioned Mrs. Clowes to let
+him sit somewhere, apart from the other servants, where he might
+read his book in quiet.  Mrs. Clowes at length entreated her
+husband to take him into the office, for "Johnnie Parker was such
+a good boy."  He consented, and the boy took his place at a
+clerk's desk.  He was well-behaved, diligent, and attentive.  As
+he advanced in years, his steady and steadfast conduct showed
+that he could be trusted.  Young fellows like this always make
+their way in life; for character invariably tells, not only in
+securing respect, but in commanding confidence.  Parker was
+promoted from one post to another, until he was at length
+appointed overseer over the entire establishment.
+
+A circumstance shortly after occurred which enabled Mr. Clowes to
+advance him, though greatly to his own inconvenience, to another
+important post.  The Syndics of Cambridge were desirous that Mr.
+Clowes should go down there to set their printing-office in
+order; they offered him 400L. a year if he would only appear
+occasionally, and see that the organisation was kept complete. 
+He declined, because the magnitude of his own operations had now
+become so great that they required his unremitting attention. 
+He, however strongly recommended Parker to the office, though he
+could ill spare him.  But he would not stand in the young man's
+way, and he was appointed accordingly.  He did his work most
+effectually at Cambridge, and put the University Press into
+thorough working order.
+
+As the 'Penny Magazine' and other publications of the Society of
+Useful Knowledge were now making their appearance, the clergy
+became desirous of bringing out a religious publication of a
+popular character, and they were in search for a publisher. 
+Parker, who was well known at Cambridge, was mentioned to the
+Bishop of London as the most likely person.  An introduction took
+place, and after an hour's conversation with Parker, the Bishop
+went to his friends and said, "This is the very man we want."  An
+offer was accordingly made to him to undertake the publication of
+the 'Saturday Magazine' and the other publications of the
+Christian Knowledge Society, which he accepted.  It is
+unnecessary to follow his fortunes.  His progress was steady; he
+eventually became the publisher of 'Fraser's Magazine' and of the
+works of John Stuart Mill and other well-known writers.  Mill
+never forgot his appreciation and generosity; for when his
+'System of Logic' had been refused by the leading London
+publishers, Parker prized the book at its rightful value and
+introduced it to the public.
+
+To return to Mr. Clowes.  In the course of a few years, the
+original humble establishment of the Sussex compositor, beginning
+with one press and one assistant, grew up to be one of the
+largest printing-offices in the world.  It had twenty-five steam
+presses, twenty-eight hand-presses, six hydraulic presses, and
+gave direct employment to over five hundred persons, and indirect
+employment to probably more than ten times that number.  Besides
+the works connected with his printing-office, Mr. Clowes found it
+necessary to cast his own types, to enable him to command on
+emergency any quantity; and to this he afterwards added
+stereotyping on an immense scale.  He possessed the power of
+supplying his compositors with a stream of new type at the rate
+of about 50,000 pieces a day.  In this way, the weight of type in
+ordinary use became very great; it amounted to not less than 500
+tons, and the stereotyped plates to about 2500 tons the value of
+the latter being not less than half a million sterling.
+
+Mr. Clowes would not hesitate, in the height of his career, to
+have tons of type locked up for months in some ponderous
+blue-book.  To print a report of a hundred folio pages in the
+course of a day or during a night, or of a thousand pages in a
+week, was no uncommon occurrence.  From his gigantic
+establishment were turned out not fewer than 725,000 printed
+sheets, or equal to 30,000 volumes a week.  Nearly 45,000 pounds
+of paper were printed weekly.  The quantity printed on both sides
+per week, if laid down in a path of 22 1/4 inches broad, would
+extend 263 miles in length.
+
+About the year l840, a Polish inventor brought out a composing
+machine, and submitted it to Mr. Clowes for approval.  But Mr.
+Clowes was getting too old to take up and push any new invention.
+
+He was also averse to doing anything to injure the compositors,
+having once been a member of the craft.  At the same time he said
+to his son George, "If you find this to be a likely machine, let
+me know.  Of course we must go with the age.  If I had not
+started the steam press when I did, where should I have been
+now?"  On the whole, the composing machine, though ingenious, was
+incomplete, and did not come into use at that time, nor indeed
+for a long time after.  Still, the idea had been born, and, like
+other inventions, became eventually developed into a useful
+working machine.  Composing machines are now in use in many
+printing-offices, and the present Clowes' firm possesses several
+of them.  Those in The Times newspaper office are perhaps the
+most perfect of all.
+
+Mr. Clowes was necessarily a man of great ability, industry, and
+energy.  Whatever could be done in printing, that he would do. 
+He would never admit the force of any difficulty that might be
+suggested to his plans.  When he found a person ready to offer
+objections, he would say, "Ah! I see you are a difficulty-maker:
+you will never do for me."
+
+Mr. Clowes died in 1847, at the age of sixty-eight.  There still
+remain a few who can recall to mind the giant figure, the kindly
+countenance, and the gentle bearing of this "Prince of Printers,"
+as he was styled by the members of his craft.  His life was full
+of hard and useful work; and it will probably be admitted that,
+as the greatest multiplier of books in his day, and as one of the
+most effective practical labourers for the diffusion of useful
+knowledge, his name is entitled to be permanently associated, not
+only with the industrial, but also with the intellectual
+development of our time.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CHARLES BIANCONI: A LESSON OF SELF-HELP IN IRELAND.
+
+"I beg you to occupy yourself in collecting biographical notices
+respecting the Italians who have honestly enriched themselves in
+other regions, particularly referring to the obstacles of their
+previous life, and to the efforts and the means which they
+employed for vanquishing them, as well as to the advantages which
+they secured for themselves, for the countries in which they
+settled, and for the country to which they owed their birth."
+--GENERAL MENABREA, Circular to Italian Consuls.
+
+When Count Menabrea was Prime Minister of Italy, he caused a
+despatch to be prepared and issued to Italian Consuls in all
+parts of the world, inviting them to collect and forward to him
+"biographical notices respecting the Italians who have honourably
+advanced themselves in foreign countries."
+
+His object, in issuing the despatch, was to collect information
+as to the lives of his compatriots living abroad, in order to
+bring out a book similar to 'Self-help,' the examples cited in
+which were to be drawn exclusively from the lives of Italian
+citizens.  Such a work, he intimated, "if it were once circulated
+among the masses, could not fail to excite their emulation and
+encourage them to follow the examples therein set forth," while
+"in the course of time it might exercise a powerful influence on
+the increased greatness of our country."
+
+We are informed by Count Menabrea that, although no special work
+has been published from the biographical notices collected in
+answer to his despatch, yet that the Volere e Potere ('Will is
+Power') of Professor Lessona, issued a few years ago,
+sufficiently answers the purpose which he contemplated, and
+furnishes many examples of the patient industry and untiring
+perseverance of Italians in all parts of the world.  Many
+important illustrations of life and character are necessarily
+omitted from Professor Lessona's interesting work.  Among these
+may be mentioned the subject of the following pages,--a
+distinguished Italian who entirely corresponds to Count
+Menabrea's description--one who, in the face of the greatest
+difficulties, raised himself to an eminent public position, at
+the same time that he conferred the greatest benefits upon the
+country in which he settled and carried on his industrial
+operations.  We mean Charles Bianconi, and his establishment of
+the great system of car communication through out Ireland.[1]
+
+Charles Bianconi was born in 1786, at the village of Tregolo,
+situated in the Lombard Highlands of La Brianza, about ten miles
+from Como.  The last elevations of the Alps disappear in the
+district; and the great plain of Lombardy extends towards the
+south.  The region is known for its richness and beauty; the
+inhabitants being celebrated for the cultivation of the mulberry
+and the rearing of the silkworm, the finest silk in Lombardy
+being produced in the neighbourhood.  Indeed, Bianconi's family,
+like most of the villagers, maintained themselves by the silk
+culture.
+
+Charles had three brothers and one sister.  When of a sufficient
+age, he was sent to school.  The Abbe Radicali had turned out
+some good scholars; but with Charles Bianconi his failure was
+complete.  The new pupil proved a tremendous dunce.  He was very
+wild, very bold, and very plucky; but he learned next to nothing.
+
+Learning took as little effect upon him as pouring water upon a
+duck's back.  Accordingly, when he left school at the age of
+sixteen, he was almost as ignorant as when he had entered it; and
+a great deal more wilful.
+
+Young Bianconi had now arrived at the age at which he was
+expected to do something for his own maintenance.  His father
+wished to throw him upon his own resources; and as he would soon
+be subject to the conscription, he thought of sending him to some
+foreign country in order to avoid the forced service.  Young
+fellows, who had any love of labour or promptings of independence
+in them, were then accustomed to leave home and carry on their
+occupations abroad.  It was a common practice for workmen in the
+neighbourhood of Como to emigrate to England and carry on various
+trades; more particularly the manufacture and sale of barometers,
+looking-glasses, images, prints, pictures, and other articles.
+
+Accordingly, Bianconi's father arranged with one Andrea Faroni to
+take the young man to England and instruct him in the trade of
+print-selling.  Bianconi was to be Faroni's apprentice for
+eighteen months; and in the event of his not liking the
+occupation, he was to be placed under the care of Colnaghi, a
+friend of his father's, who was then making considerable progress
+as a print-seller in London; and who afterwards succeeded in
+achieving a considerable fortune and reputation.
+
+Bianconi made his preparations for leaving home.  A little
+festive entertainment was given at a little inn in Como, at which
+the whole family were present.  It was a sad thing for Bianconi's
+mother to take leave of her boy, wild though he was.  On the
+occasion of this parting ceremony, she fainted outright, at which
+the young fellow thought that things were assuming a rather
+serious aspect.  As he finally left the family home at Tregolo,
+the last words his mother said to him were these --words which he
+never forgot: "When you remember me, think of me as waiting at
+this window, watching for your return."
+
+Besides Charles Bianconi, Faroni took three other boys under his
+charge.  One was the son of a small village innkeeper, another
+the son of a tailor, and the third the son of a flax-dealer. 
+This party, under charge of the Padre, ascended the Alps by the
+Val San Giacomo road.  From the summit of the pass they saw the
+plains of Lombardy stretching away in the blue distance.  They
+soon crossed the Swiss frontier, and then Bianconi found himself
+finally separated from home.  He now felt, that without further
+help from friends or relatives, he had his own way to make in the
+world.
+
+The party of travellers duly reached England; but Faroni, without
+stopping in London, took them over to Ireland at once.  They
+reached Dublin in the summer of 1802, and lodged in Temple Bar,
+near Essex Bridge.  It was some little time before Faroni could
+send out the boys to sell pictures.  First he had the leaden
+frames to cast; then they had to be trimmed and coloured; and
+then the pictures--mostly of sacred subjects, or of public
+characters--had to be mounted.  The flowers; which were of wax,
+had also to be prepared and finished, ready for sale to the
+passers-by.
+
+When Bianconi went into the streets of Dublin to sell his mounted
+prints, he could not speak a word of English.  He could only say,
+"Buy, buy!"  Everybody spoke to him an unknown tongue.  When
+asked the price, he could only indicate by his fingers the number
+of pence he wanted for his goods.  At length he learned a little
+English,--at least sufficient "for the road;" and then he was
+sent into the country to sell his merchandize.  He was despatched
+every Monday morning with about forty shillings' worth of stock,
+and ordered to return home on Saturdays, or as much sooner as he
+liked, if he had sold all the pictures.  The only money his
+master allowed him at starting was fourpence.  When Bianconi
+remonstrated at the smallness of the amount, Faroni answered,
+"While you have goods you have money; make haste to sell your
+goods!"
+
+During his apprenticeship, Bianconi learnt much of the country
+through which he travelled.  He was constantly making
+acquaintances with new people, and visiting new places.  At
+Waterford he did a good trade in small prints.  Besides the
+Scripture pieces, he sold portraits of the Royal Family, as well
+as of Bonaparte and his most distinguished generals.  "Bony" was
+the dread of all magistrates, especially in Ireland.  At Passage,
+near Waterford, Bianconi was arrested for having sold a leaden
+framed picture of the famous French Emperor.  He was thrown into
+a cold guard-room, and spent the night there without bed, or
+fire, or food.  Next morning he was discharged by the magistrate,
+but cautioned that he must not sell any more of such pictures.
+
+Many things struck Bianconi in making his first journeys through
+Ireland.  He was astonished at the dram-drinking of the men, and
+the pipe-smoking of the women.  The violent faction-fights which
+took place at the fairs which he frequented, were of a kind which
+he had never before observed among the pacific people of North
+Italy.  These faction-fights were the result, partly of
+dram-drinking, and partly of the fighting mania which then
+prevailed in Ireland.  There were also numbers of crippled and
+deformed beggars in every town,--quarrelling and fighting in the
+streets,--rows and drinkings at wakes,--gambling, duelling, and
+riotous living amongst all classes of the people,--things which
+could not but strike any ordinary observer at the time, but which
+have now, for the most part, happily passed away.
+
+At the end of eighteen months, Bianconi's apprenticeship was out;
+and Faroni then offered to take him back to his father, in
+compliance with the original understanding.  But Bianconi had no
+wish to return to Italy.  Faroni then made over to him the money
+he had retained on his account, and Bianconi set up business for
+himself.  He was now about eighteen years old; he was strong and
+healthy, and able to walk with a heavy load on his back from
+twenty to thirty miles a day.  He bought a large case, filled it
+with coloured prints and other articles, and started from Dublin
+on a tour through the south of Ireland.  He succeeded, like most
+persons who labour diligently.  The curly-haired Italian lad
+became a general favourite.  He took his native politeness with
+him  everywhere; and made many friends among his various
+customers throughout the country.
+
+Bianconi used to say that it was about this time when he was
+carrying his heavy case upon his back, weighing at least a
+hundred pounds--that the idea began to strike him, of some cheap
+method of conveyance being established for the accommodation of
+the poorer classes in Ireland.  As he dismantled himself of his
+case of pictures, and sat wearied and resting on the milestones
+along the road, he puzzled his mind with the thought, "Why should
+poor people walk and toil, and rich people ride and take their
+ease?  Could not some method be devised by which poor people also
+might have the opportunity of travelling comfortably?"
+
+It will thus be seen that Bianconi was already beginning to think
+about the matter.  When asked, not long before his death, how it
+was that he had first thought of starting his extensive Car
+establishment, he answered, "It grew out of my back!"  It was the
+hundred weight of pictures on his dorsal muscles that stimulated
+his thinking faculties.  But the time for starting his great
+experiment had not yet arrived.
+
+Bianconi wandered about from town to town for nearly two years. 
+The  picture-case became heavier than ever.  For a time he
+replaced it with a portfolio of unframed prints.  Then he became
+tired of the wandering life, and in 1806 settled down at
+Carrick-on-Suir as a print-seller and carver and gilder.  He
+supplied himself with gold-leaf from Waterford, to which town he
+used to proceed by Tom Morrissey's boat.  Although the distance
+by road between the towns was only twelve miles, it was about
+twenty-four by water, in consequence of the windings of the river
+Suir.  Besides, the boat could only go when the state of the tide
+permitted.  Time was of little consequence; and it often took
+half a day to make the journey.  In the course of one of his
+voyages, Bianconi got himself so thoroughly soaked by rain and
+mud that he caught a severe cold, which ran into pleurisy, and
+laid him up for about two months.  He was carefully attended to
+by a good, kind physician, Dr. White, who would not take a penny
+for his medicine and nursing.
+
+Business did not prove very prosperous at Carrick-on-suir; the
+town was small, and the trade was not very brisk.  Accordingly,
+Bianconi resolved, after a year's ineffectual trial, to remove to
+Waterford, a more thriving centre of operations.  He was now
+twenty-one years old.  He began again as a carver and gilder; and
+as business flowed in upon him, he worked very hard, sometimes
+from six in the morning until two hours after midnight.  As
+usual, he made many friends.  Among the best of them was Edward
+Rice, the founder of the "Christian Brothers" in Ireland.  Edward
+Rice was a true benefactor to his country.  He devoted himself to
+the work of education, long before the National Schools were
+established; investing the whole of his means in the foundation
+and management of this noble institution.
+
+Mr. Rice's advice and instruction set and kept Bianconi in the
+right road.  He helped the young foreigner to learn English. 
+Bianconi was no longer a dunce, as he had been at school; but a
+keen, active, enterprising fellow, eager to make his way in the
+world.  Mr. Rice encouraged him to be sedulous and industrious,
+urged him to carefulness and sobriety, and strengthened his
+religions impressions.  The help and friendship of this good man,
+operating upon the mind and soul of a young man, whose habits of
+conduct and whose moral and religious character were only in
+course of formation, could not fail to exercise, as Bianconi
+always acknowledged they did, a most powerful influence upon the
+whole of his after life.
+
+Although "three removes" are said to be "as bad as a fire,"
+Bianconi, after remaining about two years at Waterford, made a
+third removal in 1809, to Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary. 
+Clonmel is the centre of a large corn trade, and is in water
+communication, by the Suir, with Carrick and Waterford. 
+Bianconi, therefore, merely extended his connection; and still
+continued his dealings with his customers in the other towns.  He
+made himself more proficient in the mechanical part of his
+business; and aimed at being the first carver and gilder in the
+trade.  Besides, he had always an eye open for new business.  At
+that time, when the war was raging with France, gold was at a
+premium.  The  guinea was worth about twenty-six or twenty-seven
+shillings.  Bianconi  therefore began to buy up the hoarded-up
+guineas of the peasantry.  The loyalists became alarmed at his
+proceedings, and began to circulate the report that Bianconi, the
+foreigner, was buying up bullion to send secretly to Bonaparte! 
+The country people, however, parted with their guineas readily;
+for they had no particular hatred of "Bony," but rather admired
+him.
+
+Bianconi's conduct was of course quite loyal in the matter; he
+merely bought the guineas as a matter of business, and sold them
+at a profit to the bankers.
+
+The country people had a difficulty in pronouncing his name.  His
+shop was at the corner of Johnson Street, and instead of
+Bianconi, he came to be called "Bian of the Corner."  He was
+afterwards known as "Bian."
+
+Bianconi soon became well known after his business was
+established.  He became a proficient in the carving and gilding
+line, and was looked upon as a thriving man.  He began to employ
+assistants in his trade, and had three German gilders at work. 
+While they were working in the shop he would travel about the
+country, taking orders and delivering goods--sometimes walking
+and sometimes driving.
+
+He still retained a little of his old friskiness and spirit of
+mischief.  He was once driving a car from Clonmel to Thurles; he
+had with him a large looking-glass with a gilt frame, on which
+about a fortnight's labour had been bestowed.  In a fit of
+exuberant humour he began to tickle the horse under his tail with
+a straw!  In an instant the animal reared and plunged, and then
+set off at a gallop down hill.  The result was, that the car was
+dashed to bits and the looking-glass broken into a thousand
+atoms!
+
+On another occasion, a man was carrying to Cashel on his back one
+of Bianconi's large looking-glasses.  An old woman by the
+wayside, seeing the odd-looking, unwieldy package, asked what it
+was; on which Bianconi, who was close behind the man carrying the
+glass, answered that it was "the Repeal of the Union!"  The old
+woman's delight was unbounded!  She knelt down on her knees in
+the middle of the road, as if it had been a picture of the
+Madonna, and thanked God for having preserved her in her old age
+to see the Repeal of the Union!
+
+But this little waywardness did not last long.  Bianconi's wild
+oats were soon all sown.  He was careful and frugal.  As he
+afterwards used to say, "When I was earning a shilling a day at
+Clonmel, I lived upon eightpence."  He even took lodgers, to
+relieve him of the charge of his household expenses.  But as his
+means grew, he was soon able to have a conveyance of his own.  He
+first started a yellow gig, in which he drove about from place to
+place, and was everywhere treated with kindness and hospitality. 
+He was now regarded as "respectable," and as a person worthy to
+hold some local office.  He was elected to a Society for visiting
+the Sick Poor, and became a Member of the House of Industry.  He
+might have gone on in the same business, winning his way to the
+Mayoralty of Clonmel, which he afterwards held; but that the old
+idea, which had first sprung up in his mind while resting wearily
+on the milestones along the road, with his heavy case of pictures
+by his side, again laid hold of him, and he determined now to try
+whether his plan could not be carried into effect.
+
+He had often lamented the fatigue that poor people had to undergo
+in travelling with burdens from place to place upon foot, and
+wondered whether some means might not be devised for alleviating
+their sufferings.  Other people would have suggested "the
+Government!"  Why should not the Government give us this, that,
+and the other,--give us roads, harbours, carriages, boats, nets,
+and so on.  This, of course, would have been a mistaken idea; for
+where people are too much helped, they invariably lose the
+beneficent practice of helping themselves.  Charles Bianconi had
+never been helped, except by advice and friendship.  He had
+helped himself throughout; and now he would try to help others.
+
+The facts were patent to everybody.  There was not an Irishman
+who did not know the difficulty of getting from one town to
+another.  There were roads between them, but no conveyances. 
+There was an abundance of horses in the country, for at the close
+of the war an unusual number of horses, bred for the army, were
+thrown upon the market.  Then a tax had been levied upon
+carriages, which sent a large number of jaunting-cars out of
+employment.
+
+The roads of Ireland were on the whole good, being at that time
+quite equal, if not superior, to most of those in England.  The
+facts of the abundant horses, the good roads, the number of
+unemployed outside cars, were generally known; but until Bianconi
+took the enterprise in hand, there was no person of thought, or
+spirit, or capital in the country, who put these three things
+together horses, roads, and cars and dreamt of remedying the
+great public inconvenience.
+
+It was left for our young Italian carver and gilder, a struggling
+man of small capital, to take up the enterprise, and show what
+could be done by prudent action and persevering energy.  Though
+the car system originally "grew out of his back," Bianconi had
+long been turning the subject over in his mind.  His idea was,
+that we should never despise small interests, nor neglect the
+wants of poor people.  He saw the mail-coaches supplying the
+requirements of the rich, and enabling them to travel rapidly
+from place to place.  "Then," said he to himself, "would it not
+be possible for me to make an ordinary two-wheeled car pay, by
+running as regularly for the accommodation of poor districts and
+poor people?"
+
+When Mr. Wallace, chairman of the Select Committee on Postage, in
+1838, asked Mr. Bianconi, "What induced you to commence the car
+establishment?" his answer was, "I did so from what I saw, after
+coming to this country, of the necessity for such cars, inasmuch
+as there was no middle mode of conveyance, nothing to fill up the
+vacuum that existed between those who were obliged to walk and
+those who posted or rode.  My want of knowledge of the language
+gave me plenty of time for deliberation, and in proportion as I
+grew up with the knowledge of the language and the localities,
+this vacuum pressed very heavily upon my  mind, till at last I
+hit upon the idea of running jaunting-cars, and for that purpose
+I commenced running one between Clonmel and Cahir."[2]
+
+What a happy thing it was for Bianconi and Ireland that he could
+not speak with facility,--that he did not know the language or
+the manners of the country!  In his case silence was "golden." 
+Had he been able to talk like the people about him, he might have
+said much and done little, --attempted nothing and consequently
+achieved nothing.  He might have got up a meeting and petitioned
+Parliament to provide the cars, and subvention the car system; or
+he might have gone amongst his personal friends, asked them to
+help him, and failing their help, given up his idea in despair,
+and sat down grumbling at the people and the Government.
+
+But instead of talking, he proceeded to doing, thereby
+illustrating Lessona's maxim of Volere e potere.  After thinking
+the subject fully over, he trusted to self-help.  He found that
+with his own means, carefully saved, he could make a beginning;
+and the beginning once made, included the successful ending.
+
+The beginning, it is true, was very small.  It was only an
+ordinary jaunting-car, drawn by a single horse, capable of
+accommodating six persons.  The first car ran between Clonmel and
+Cahir, a distance of about twelve miles, on the 5th of July,
+1815--a memorable day for Bianconi and Ireland.  Up to that time
+the public accommodation for passengers was confined to a few
+mail and day coaches on the great lines of road, the fares by
+which were very high, and quite beyond the reach of the poorer or
+middle-class people.
+
+People did not know what to make of Bianconi's car when it first
+started.  There were, of course, the usual prophets of disaster,
+who decided that it "would never do."  Many thought that no one
+would pay eighteen-pence for going to Cahir by car when they
+could walk there for nothing?  There were others who thought that
+Bianconi should have stuck to his shop, as there was no
+connection whatever between picture-gilding and car-driving!
+
+The truth is, the enterprise at first threatened to be a failure!
+Scarcely anybody would go by the car.  People preferred trudging
+on foot, and saved their money, which was more valuable to them
+than their time.  The car sometimes ran for weeks without a
+passenger.  Another man would have given up the enterprise in
+despair.  But this was not the way with Bianconi.  He was a man
+of tenacity and perseverance.  What should he do but start an
+opposition car?   Nobody knew of it but himself; not even the
+driver of the opposition car.  However, the rival car was
+started.  The races between the car-drivers, the free lifts
+occasionally given to passengers, the cheapness of the fare, and
+the excitement of the contest, attracted the attention of the
+public.  The people took sides, and before long both cars came in
+full.  Fortunately the "great big yallah horse" of the opposition
+car broke down, and Bianconi had all the trade to himself.
+
+The people became accustomed to travelling.  They might still
+walk to Cahir; but going by car saved their legs, saved their
+brains, and saved their time.  They might go to Cahir market, do
+their business there, and be comfortably back within the day. 
+Bianconi then thought of extending the car to Tipperary and
+Limerick.  In the course of the same year, 1815, he started
+another car between Clonmel, Cashel, and Thurles.  Thus all the
+principal towns of Tipperary were, in the first year of the
+undertaking, connected together by car, besides being also
+connected with Limerick.
+
+It was easy to understand the convenience of the car system to
+business men, farmers, and even peasants.  Before their
+establishment, it took a man a whole day to walk from Thurles to
+Clonmel, the second day to do his business, and the third to walk
+back again; whereas he could, in one day, travel backwards and
+forwards between the two towns, and have five or six intermediate
+hours for the purpose of doing his business.  Thus two clear days
+could be saved.
+
+Still carrying out his scheme, Bianconi, in the following year
+(1816), put on a car from Clonmel to Waterford.  Before that time
+there was no car accommodation between Clonmel and
+Carrick-on-Suir, about half-way to Waterford; but there was an
+accommodation by boat between Carrick and Waterford.  The
+distance between the two latter places was, by road, twelve
+miles, and by the river Suir twenty-four miles.  Tom Morrissey's
+boat plied two days a week; it carried from eight to ten
+passengers at 6 1/2d. of the then currency; it did the voyage in
+from four to five hours, and besides had to wait for the tide to
+float it up and down the river.  When Bianconi's car was put on,
+it did the distance daily and regularly in two hours, at a fare
+of two shillings.
+
+The people soon got accustomed to the convenience of the cars. 
+They also learned from them the uses of punctuality and the value
+of time.  They liked the open-air travelling and the sidelong
+motion.  The new cars were also safe and well-appointed.  They
+were drawn by good horses and driven by good coachmen. 
+Jaunting-car travelling had before been rather unsafe.  The
+country cars were of a ramshackle order, and the drivers were
+often reckless.  "Will I pay the pike, or drive at it, plaise
+your honour?" said a driver to his passenger on approaching a
+turnpike-gate.  Sam Lover used to tell a story of a car-driver,
+who, after driving his passenger up-hill and down-hill, along a
+very bad road, asked him for something extra at the end of his
+journey.
+
+"Faith," said the driver, "its not putting me off with this ye'd
+be, if ye knew but all."  The gentleman gave him another
+shilling.  "And now what do you mean by saying, 'if ye knew but
+all?'"  "That I druv yer honor the last three miles widout a
+linch-pin!"
+
+Bianconi, to make sure of the soundness and safety of his cars,
+set up a workshop to build them for himself.  He could thus
+depend upon their soundness, down even to the linch-pin itself. 
+He kept on his carving and gilding shop until his car business
+had increased so much that it required the whole of his time and
+attention; and then he gave it up.  In fact, when he was able to
+run a car from Clonmel to Waterford- a distance of thirty-two
+miles--at a fare of three-and-sixpence, his eventual triumph was
+secure.
+
+He made Waterford one of the centres of his operations, as he had
+already made Clonmel.  In 1818 he established a car between
+Waterford and Ross, in the following year a car between Waterford
+and Wexford, and another between Waterford and Enniscorthy.  A
+few years later he established other cars between Waterford and
+Kilkenny, and Waterford and Dungarvan.  From these furthest
+points, again, other cars were established in communication with
+them, carrying the line further north, east, and west.  So much
+had the travelling between Clonmel and Waterford increased, that
+in a few years (instead of the eight or ten passengers conveyed
+by Tom Morrissey's boat on the Suir) there was horse and car
+power capable of conveying a hundred passengers daily between the
+two places.
+
+Bianconi did a great stroke of business at the Waterford election
+of 1826.  Indeed it was the turning point of his fortunes.  He
+was at first greatly cramped for capital.  The expense of
+maintaining and increasing his stock of cars, and of foddering
+his horses was very great; and he was always on the look-out for
+more capital.  When the Waterford election took place, the
+Beresford party, then all-powerful, engaged all his cars to drive
+the electors to the poll.  The popular party, however, started a
+candidate, and applied to Bianconi for help.  But he could not
+comply, for his cars were all engaged.  The morning after his
+refusal of the application, Bianconi was pelted with mud.  One or
+two of his cars and horses were heaved over the bridge.
+
+Bianconi then wrote to Beresford's agent, stating that he could
+no longer risk the lives of his drivers and his horses, and
+desiring to be released from his engagement.  The Beresford party
+had no desire to endanger the lives of the car-drivers or their
+horses, and they set Bianconi free.  He then engaged with the
+popular party, and enabled them to win the election.  For this he
+was paid the sum of a thousand pounds.  This access of capital
+was greatly helpful to him under the circumstances.  He was able
+to command the market, both for horses and fodder.  He was also
+placed in a position to extend the area of his car routes.
+
+He now found time, amidst his numerous avocations, to get
+married!  He was forty years of age before this event occurred. 
+He married Eliza Hayes, some twenty years younger than himself,
+the daughter of Patrick Hayes, of Dublin, and of Henrietta
+Burton, an English-woman.  The marriage was celebrated on the
+14th of February, 1827; and the ceremony was performed by the
+late Archbishop Murray.  Mr. Bianconi must now have been in good
+circumstances, as he settled two thousand pounds upon his wife on
+their marriage-day.  His early married life was divided between
+his cars, electioneering, and Repeal agitation--for he was always
+a great ally of O'Connell.  Though he joined in the Repeal
+movement, his sympathies were not with it; for he preferred
+Imperial to Home Rule.  But he could never deny himself the
+pleasure of following O'Connell, "right or wrong."
+
+Let us give a picture of Bianconi now.  The curly-haired Italian
+boy had grown a handsome man.  His black locks curled all over
+his head like those of an ancient Roman bust.  His face was full
+of power, his chin was firm, his nose was finely cut and
+well-formed; his eyes were keen and sparkling, as if throwing out
+a challenge to fortune.  He was active, energetic, healthy, and
+strong, spending his time mostly in the open air.  He had a
+wonderful recollection of faces, and rarely forgot to recognise
+the countenance that he had once seen.  He even knew all his
+horses by name.  He spent little of his time at home, but was
+constantly rushing about the country after business, extending
+his connections, organizing his staff, and arranging the centres
+of his traffic.
+
+To return to the car arrangements.  A line was early opened from
+Clonmel --which was at first the centre of the entire
+connection--to Cork; and that line was extended northward,
+through Mallow and Limerick.  Then, the Limerick car went on to
+Tralee, and from thence to Cahirciveen, on the south-west coast
+of Ireland.  The cars were also extended northward from Thurles
+to Roscrea, Ballinasloe, Athlone, Roscommon, and Sligo, and to
+all the principal towns in the north-west counties of Ireland.
+
+The cars interlaced with each other, and plied, not so much in
+continuous main lines, as across country, so as to bring all
+important towns, but especially the market towns, into regular
+daily communication with each other.  Thus, in the course of
+about thirty years, Bianconi succeeded in establishing a system
+of internal communication in Ireland, which traversed the main
+highways and cross-roads from town to town, and gave the public a
+regular and safe car accommodation at the average rate of a
+penny-farthing per mile.
+
+The traffic in all directions steadily increased.  The first car
+used was capable of accommodating only six persons.  This was
+between Clonmel and Cahir.  But when it went on to Limerick, a
+larger car was required.  The traffic between Clonmel and
+Waterford was also begun with a small-sized car.  But in the
+course of a few years, there were four large-sized cars,
+travelling daily each way, between the two places.  And so it was
+in other directions, between Cork in the south; and Sligo and
+Strabane in the north and north-west; between Wexford in the
+east, and Galway and Skibbereen in the west and south-west.
+
+Bianconi first increased the accommodation of these cars so as to
+carry four persons on each side instead of three, drawn by two
+horses.  But as the two horses could quite as easily carry two
+additional passengers, another piece was added to the car so as
+to carry five passengers.  Then another four-wheeled car was
+built, drawn by three horses, so as to carry six passengers on
+each side.  And lastly, a fourth horse was used, and the car was
+further enlarged, so as to accommodate seven, and eventually
+eight passengers on each side, with one on the box, which made a
+total accommodation for seventeen passengers.  The largest and
+heaviest of the long cars, on four wheels, was called "Finn
+MacCoul's," after Ossian's Giant; the fast cars, of a light
+build, on two wheels, were called "Faugh-a-ballagh," or "clear
+the way"; while the  intermediate cars were named "Massey
+Dawsons," after a popular Tory squire.
+
+When Bianconi's system was complete, he had about a hundred
+vehicles at work; a hundred and forty stations for changing
+horses, where from one to eight grooms were employed; about a
+hundred drivers, thirteen hundred horses, performing an average
+distance of three thousand eight hundred miles daily; passing
+through twenty-three counties, and visiting no fewer than a
+hundred and twenty of the principal towns and cities in the south
+and west and midland counties of Ireland.  Bianconi's horses
+consumed on an average from three to four thousand tons of hay
+yearly, and from thirty to forty thousand barrels of oats, all of
+which were purchased in the respective localities in which they
+were grown.
+
+Bianconi's cars--or "The Bians"--soon became very popular. 
+Everybody was under obligations to them.  They greatly promoted
+the improvement of the country.  People could go to market and
+buy or sell their goods more advantageously.  It was cheaper for
+them to ride than to walk.  They brought the whole people of the
+country so much nearer to each other.  They virtually opened up
+about seven-tenths of Ireland to civilisation and commerce, and
+among their other advantages, they opened markets for the fresh
+fish caught by the fishermen of Galway, Clifden, Westport, and
+other places, enabling them to be sold throughout the country on
+the day after they were caught.  They also opened the magnificent
+scenery of Ireland to tourists, and enabled them to visit Bantry
+Bay, Killarney, South Donegal, and the wilds of Connemara in
+safety, all the year round.
+
+Bianconi's service to the public was so great, and it was done
+with so much tact, that nobody had a word to say against him. 
+Everybody was his friend.  Not even the Whiteboys would injure
+him or the mails he carried.  He could say with pride, that in
+the most disturbed times his cars had never been molested.  Even
+during the Whiteboy insurrection, though hundreds of people were
+on the roads at night, the traffic went on without interference. 
+At the meeting of the British Association in 1857, Bianconi said:
+"My conveyances, many of them carrying very important mails, have
+been travelling during all hours of the day and night, often in
+lonely and unfrequented places; and during the long period of
+forty-two years that my establishment has been in existence, the
+slightest injury has never been done by the people to my
+property, or that entrusted to my care; and this fact gives me
+greater pleasure than any pride I might feel in reflecting upon
+the other rewards of my life's labour."
+
+Of course Bianconi's cars were found of great use for carrying
+the mails.  The post was, at the beginning of his enterprise,
+very badly served in Ireland, chiefly by foot and horse posts. 
+When the first car was run from Clonmel to Cahir, Bianconi
+offered to carry the mail for half the price then paid for
+"sending it alternately by a mule and a bad horse."  The post was
+afterwards found to come regularly instead of irregularly to
+Cahir; and the practice of sending the mails by Bianconi's cars
+increased from year to year.  Dispatch won its way to popularity
+in Ireland as elsewhere, and Bianconi lived to see all the
+cross-posts in Ireland arranged on his system.
+
+The postage authorities frequently used the cars of Bianconi as a
+means of competing with the few existing mail-coaches.  For
+instance, they asked him to compete for carrying the post between
+Limerick and Tralee, then carried by a mail-coach.  Before
+tendering, Bianconi called on the contractor, to induce him to
+give in to the requirements of the Post Office, because he knew
+that the postal authorities only desired to make use of him to
+fight the coach proprietors.  But having been informed that it
+was the intention of the Post Office to discontinue the
+mail-coach whether Bianconi took the contract or not, he at
+length sent in his tender, and obtained the contract.
+
+He succeeded in performing the service, and delivered the mail
+much earlier than it had been done before.  But the former
+contractor, finding that he had made a mistake, got up a movement
+in favour of re-establishing the mail-coach upon that line of
+road; and he eventually induced the postage authorities to take
+the mail contract out of the hands of Bianconi, and give it back
+to himself, as formerly.  Bianconi, however, continued to keep
+his cars upon the road.  He had before stated to the contractor,
+that if he once started his cars, he would not leave it, even
+though the contract were taken from him.  Both coach and car
+therefore ran for years upon the road, each losing thousands of
+pounds.  "But," said Bianconi, when asked about the matter by the
+Committee on Postage in 1838, "I kept my word:  I must either
+lose character by breaking my word, or lose money.  I prefer
+losing money to giving up the line of road."
+
+Bianconi had also other competitors to contend with, especially
+from coach and car proprietors.  No sooner had he shown to others
+the way to fortune, than he had plenty of imitators.  But they
+did not possess his rare genius for organisation, nor perhaps his
+still rarer principles.  They had not his tact, his foresight,
+his knowledge, nor his perseverance.  When Bianconi was asked by
+the Select Committee on Postage, "Do the opposition cars started
+against you induce you to reduce your fares?" his answer was,
+"No; I seldom do.  Our fares are so close to the first cost, that
+if any man runs cheaper than I do, he must starve off, as few can
+serve the public lower and better than I do."[3]
+
+Bianconi was once present at a meeting of car proprietors, called
+for the purpose of uniting to put down a new opposition coach. 
+Bianconi would not concur, but protested against it, saying, "If
+car proprietors had united against me when I started, I should
+have been crushed.  But is not the country big enough for us
+all?"  The coach proprietors, after many angry words, threatened
+to unite in running down Bianconi himself.  "Very well," he said,
+"you may run me off the road--that is possible; but while there
+is this" (pulling a flower out of his coat) "you will not put me
+down."  The threat merely ended in smoke, the courage and
+perseverance of Bianconi having long since become generally
+recognised.
+
+We have spoken of the principles of Mr. Bianconi.  They were most
+honourable.  His establishment might be spoken of as a school of
+morality.  In the first place, he practically taught and enforced
+the virtues of punctuality, truthfulness, sobriety, and honesty. 
+He also taught the public generally the value of time, to which,
+in fact, his own success was in a great measure due.  While
+passing through Clonmel in 1840, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall called
+upon Bianconi and went over his establishment, as well as over
+his house and farm, a short distance from the town.  The
+travellers had a very pressing engagement, and could not stay to
+hear the story of how their entertainer had contrived to "make so
+much out of so little."  "How much time have you?" he asked. 
+"Just  five minutes."  "The car," says Mr. Hall, "had conveyed us
+to the back entrance.  Bianconi instantly rang the bell, and said
+to the servant, 'Tell the driver to bring the car round to the
+front,' adding, 'that will save one minute, and enable me to tell
+you all within the time.' This was, in truth the secret of his
+success, making the most of time."[4]
+
+But the success of Bianconi was also due to the admirable
+principles on which his establishment was conducted.  His drivers
+were noted as being among the most civil and obliging men in
+Ireland, besides being pleasant companions to boot.  They were
+careful, punctual, truthful, and honest; but all this was the
+result of strict discipline on the part of their master.
+
+The drivers were taken from the lowest grades of the
+establishment, and promoted to higher positions according to
+their respective merits as opportunity offered.  "Much surprise,"
+says Bianconi, "has often been expressed at the high order of men
+connected with my car establishment and at its popularity; but
+parties thus expressing themselves forget to look at Irish
+society with sufficient grasp.  For my part, I cannot better
+compare it than to a man merging to convalescence from a serious
+attack of malignant fever, and requiring generous nutrition in
+place of medical treatment"[5]
+
+To attach the men to the system, as well as to confer upon them
+the due reward for their labour, he provided for all the workmen
+who had been injured, worn out, or become superannuated in his
+service.  The drivers could then retire upon a full pension,
+which they enjoyed during the rest of their lives.  They were
+also paid their full wages during sickness, and at their death
+Bianconi educated their children, who grew up to manhood, and
+afterwards filled the situations held by their deceased parents.
+
+Every workman had thus a special interest in his own good
+conduct.  They knew that nothing but misbehaviour could deprive
+them of the benefits they enjoyed; and hence their endeavours to
+maintain their positions by observing the strict discipline
+enjoined by their employer.
+
+Sobriety was, of course, indispensable--a drunken car-driver
+being amongst the most dangerous of servants.  The drivers must
+also be truthful, and the man found telling a lie, however
+venial, was instantly dismissed.  Honesty was also strongly
+enforced, not only for the sake of the public, but for the sake
+of the men themselves.  Hence he never allowed his men to carry
+letters.  If they did so, he fined them in the first instance
+very severely, and in the second instance dismissed them.  "I do
+so," he said, "because if I do not respect other institutions
+(the Post Office), my men will soon learn not to respect my own. 
+Then, for carrying letters during the extent of their trip, the
+men most probably would not get money, but drink, and hence
+become dissipated and unworthy of confidence."
+
+Thus truth, accuracy, punctuality, sobriety, and honesty being
+strictly enforced, formed the fundamental principle of the entire
+management.  At the same time, Bianconi treated his drivers with
+every confidence and respect.  He made them feel that, in doing
+their work well, they conferred a greater benefit on him and on
+the public than he did on them by paying them their wages.
+
+When attending the British Association at Cork, Bianconi said
+that, "in  proportion as he advanced his drivers, he lowered
+their wages."  "Then," said Dr. Taylor, the Secretary, "I
+wouldn't like to serve you."  "Yes, you would," replied Bianconi,
+"because in promoting my drivers I place them on a more lucrative
+line, where their certainty of receiving fees from passengers is
+greater."
+
+Bianconi was as merciful to his horses as to his men.  He had
+much greater difficulty at first in finding good men than good
+horses, because the latter were not exposed to the temptations to
+which the former were subject.  Although the price of horses
+continued to rise, he nevertheless bought the best horses at
+increased prices, and he took care not to work them overmuch.  He
+gave his horses as well as his men their seventh day's rest.  "I
+find by experience," he said, "that I can work a horse eight
+miles a day for six days in the week, easier than I can work six
+miles for seven days; and that is one of my reasons for having no
+cars, unless carrying a mail, plying upon Sundays."
+
+Bianconi had confidence in men generally.  The result was that
+men had confidence in him.  Even the Whiteboys respected him.  At
+the close of a long and useful life he could say with truth, "I
+never yet attempted to do an act of generosity or common justice,
+publicly or privately, that I was not met by manifold
+reciprocity."
+
+By bringing the various classes of society into connection with
+each other, Bianconi believed, and doubtless with truth, that he
+was the means of making them respect each other, and that he
+thereby promoted the civilisation of Ireland.  At the meeting of
+the social Science Congress, held at Dublin in 1861, he said: 
+"The state of the roads was such as to limit the rate of
+travelling to about seven miles an hour, and the passengers were
+often obliged to walk up hills.  Thus all classes were brought
+together, and I have felt much pleasure in believing that the
+intercourse thus created tended to inspire the higher classes
+with respect and regard for the natural good qualities of the
+humbler people, which the latter reciprocated by a becoming
+deference and an anxiety to please and oblige.  Such a moral
+benefit appears to me to be worthy of special notice and
+congratulation."
+
+Even when railways were introduced, Bianconi did not resist them,
+but welcomed them as "the great civilisers of the age."  There
+was, in his opinion, room enough for all methods of conveyance in
+Ireland.  When Captain Thomas Drummond was appointed
+Under-Secretary for Ireland in 1835, and afterwards chairman of
+the Irish Railway Commission, he had often occasion to confer
+with Mr. Bianconi, who gave him every assistance.  Mr. Drummond
+conceived the greatest respect for Bianconi, and often asked him
+how it was that he, a foreigner, should have acquired so
+extensive an influence and so distinguished a position in
+Ireland?
+
+"The question came upon me," said Bianconi, "by surprise, and I
+did not at the time answer it.  But another day he repeated his
+question, and I replied, 'Well, it was because, while the big and
+the little were fighting, I crept up between them, carried out my
+enterprise, and obliged everybody.'"  This, however, did not
+satisfy Mr. Drummond, who asked Bianconi to write down for him an
+autobiography, containing the incidents of his early life down to
+the period of his great Irish enterprise.  Bianconi proceeded to
+do this, writing down his past history in the occasional
+intervals which he could snatch from the immense business which
+he still continued personally to superintend.  But before the
+"Drummond memoir" could be finished Mr. Drummond himself had
+ceased to live, having died in 1840, principally of overwork. 
+What he thought of Bianconi, however, has been preserved in his
+Report of the Irish Railway Commission of 1838, written by Mr.
+Drummond himself, in which he thus speaks of his enterprising
+friend in starting and conducting the great Irish car
+establishment:--
+
+"With a capital little exceeding the expense of outfit he
+commenced.  Fortune, or rather the due reward of industry and
+integrity, favoured his first efforts.  He soon began to increase
+the number of his cars and multiply routes, until his
+establishment spread over the whole of Ireland.  These results
+are the more striking and instructive as having been accomplished
+in a district which has long been represented as the focus of
+unreclaimed violence and barbarism, where neither life nor
+property can be deemed secure.  Whilst many possessing a personal
+interest in everything tending to improve or enrich the country
+have been so misled or inconsiderate as to repel by exaggerated
+statements British capital from their doors, this foreigner chose
+Tipperary as the centre of his operations, wherein to embark all
+the fruits of his industry in a traffic peculiarly exposed to the
+power and even to the caprice of the peasantry.  The event has
+shown that his confidence in their good sense was not
+ill-grounded.
+
+"By a system of steady and just treatment he has obtained a
+complete mastery, exempt from lawless intimidation or control,
+over the various servants and agents employed by him, and his
+establishment is popular with all classes on account of its
+general usefulness and the fair liberal spirit of its management.
+
+The success achieved by this spirited gentleman is the result,
+not of a single speculation, which might have been favoured by
+local circumstances, but of a series of distinct experiments, all
+of which have been successful."
+
+When the railways were actually made and opened, they ran right
+through the centre of Bianconi's long-established systems of
+communication.  They broke up his lines, and sent them to the
+right and left.  But, though they greatly disturbed him, they did
+not destroy him.  In his enterprising hands the railways merely
+changed the direction of the cars.  He had at first to take about
+a thousand horses off the road, with thirty-seven vehicles,
+travelling 2446 miles daily.  But he remodelled his system so as
+to run his cars between the railway-stations and the towns to the
+right and left of the main lines.
+
+He also directed his attention to those parts of Ireland which
+had not before had the benefit of his conveyances.  And in thus
+still continuing to accommodate the public, the number of his
+horses and carriages again increased, until, in 1861, he was
+employing 900 horses, travelling over 4000 miles daily; and in
+1866, when he resigned his business, he was running only 684
+miles daily below the maximum run in 1845, before the railways
+had begun to interfere with his traffic.
+
+His cars were then running to Dungarvan, Waterford, and Wexford
+in the south-west of Ireland; to Bandon, Rosscarbery, Skibbereen,
+and Cahirciveen, in the south; to Tralee, Galway, Clifden,
+Westport, and Belmullet in the west; to Sligo, Enniskillen,
+Strabane, and Letterkenny in the north; while, in the centre of
+Ireland, the towns of Thurles, Kilkenny, Birr, and Ballinasloe
+were also daily served by the cars of Bianconi.
+
+At the meeting of the British Association, held in Dublin in
+1857, Mr. Bianconi mentioned a fact which, he thought,
+illustrated the increasing prosperity of the country and the
+progress of the people.  It was, that although the population had
+so considerably decreased by emigration and other causes, the
+proportion of travellers by his conveyances continued to
+increase, demonstrating not only that the people had more money,
+but that they appreciated the money value of time, and also the
+advantages of the car system established for their accommodation.
+
+Although railways must necessarily have done much to promote the
+prosperity of Ireland, it is very doubtful whether the general
+passenger public were not better served by the cars of Bianconi
+than by the railways which superseded them.  Bianconi's cars were
+on the whole cheaper, and were always run en correspondence, so
+as to meet each other; whereas many of the railway trains in the
+south of Ireland, under the competitive system existing between
+the several companies, are often run so as to miss each other. 
+The present working of the Irish railway traffic provokes
+perpetual irritation amongst the Irish people, and sufficiently
+accounts for the frequent petitions presented to Parliament that
+they should be taken in hand and worked by the State.
+
+Bianconi continued to superintend his great car establishment
+until within the last few years.  He had a constitution of iron,
+which he expended in active daily work.  He liked to have a dozen
+irons in the fire, all red-hot at once.  At the age of seventy he
+was still a man in his prime; and he might be seen at Clonmel
+helping, at busy times, to load the cars, unpacking and
+unstrapping the luggage where it seemed to be inconveniently
+placed; for he was a man who could never stand by and see others
+working without having a hand in it himself.  Even when well on
+to eighty, he still continued to grapple with the immense
+business involved in working a traffic extending over two
+thousand five hundred miles of road.
+
+Nor was Bianconi without honour in his adopted country.  He began
+his great enterprise in 1815, though it was not until 1831 that
+he obtained letters of naturalisation.  His application for these
+privileges was supported by the magistrates of Tipperary and by
+the Grand Jury, and they were at once granted.  In 1844 he was
+elected Mayor of Clonmel, and took his seat as Chairman at the
+Borough Petty Sessions to dispense justice.
+
+The first person brought before him was James Ryan, who had been
+drunk and torn a constable's belt.  "Well, Ryan," said the
+magistrate, "what have you to say?"  "Nothing, your worship; only
+I wasn't drunk."  "Who tore the constable's belt?"  "He was
+bloated after his Christmas dinner, your worship, and the belt
+burst!"  "You are so very pleasant," said the magistrate, "that
+you will have to spend forty-eight hours in gaol."
+
+He was re-elected Mayor in the following year, very much against
+his wish.  He now began to buy land, for "land hunger" was strong
+upon him.  In 1846 he bought the estate of Longfield, in the
+parish of Boherlahan, county of Tipperary.  It consisted of about
+a thousand acres of good land, with a large cheerful house
+overlooking the river Suir.  He went on buying more land, until
+he became possessor of about eight thousand English acres.
+
+One of his favourite sayings was: "Money melts, but land holds
+while grass grows and water runs."  He was an excellent landlord,
+built comfortable houses for his tenantry, and did what he could
+for their improvement.  Without solicitation, the Government
+appointed him a justice of the peace and a Deputy-lientenant for
+the county of Tipperary.  Everything that he did seemed to
+thrive.  He was honest, straightforward, loyal, and law-abiding.
+
+On first taking possession of his estate at Longfield, he was met
+by a procession of the tenantry, who received him with great
+enthusiasm.  In his address to them, he said, amongst other
+things:  "Allow me to impress upon you the great importance of
+respecting the laws.  The laws are made for the good and the
+benefit of society, and for the punishment of the wicked.  No one
+but an enemy would counsel you to outrage the laws.  Above all
+things, avoid secret and unlawful societies.  Much of the
+improvement now going on amongst us is owing to the temperate
+habits of the people, to the mission of my much respected friend,
+Father Mathew, and to the advice of the Liberator.  Follow the
+advice of O'Connell; be temperate, moral, peaceable; and you will
+advance your country, ameliorate your condition, and the blessing
+of God will attend all your efforts."
+
+Bianconi was always a great friend of O'Connell.  From an early
+period he joined him in the Catholic Emancipation movement.  He
+took part with him in founding the National Bank in Ireland.  In
+course of time the two became more intimately related. 
+Bianconi's son married O'Connell's granddaughter; and O'Connell's
+nephew, Morgan John, married Bianconi's daughter.  Bianconi's son
+died in 1864, leaving three daughters, but no male heir to carry
+on the family name.  The old man bore the blow of his son's
+premature death with fortitude, and laid his remains in the
+mortuary chapel, which he built on his estate at Longfield.
+
+In the following year, when he was seventy-eight, he met with a
+severe accident.  He was overturned, and his thigh was severely
+fractured.  He was laid up for six months, quite incapable of
+stirring.  He was afterwards able to get about in a marvellous
+way, though quite crippled.  As his life's work was over, he
+determined to retire finally from business; and he handed over
+the whole of his cars, coaches, horses, and plant, with all the
+lines of road he was then working, to his employes, on the most
+liberal terms.
+
+My youngest son met Mr. Bianconi, by appointment, at the Roman
+Catholic church at Boherlahan, in the summer of 1872.  Although
+the old gentleman had to be lifted into and out of his carriage
+by his two men-servants, he was still as active-minded as ever. 
+Close to the church at Boherlahan is Bianconi's mortuary chapel,
+which he built as a sort of hobby, for the last resting-place of
+himself and his family.  The first person interred in it was his
+eldest daughter, who died in Italy; the second was his only son. 
+A beautiful monument with a bas-relief has been erected in the
+chapel by Benzoni, an Italian sculptor, to the memory of his
+daughter.
+
+"As we were leaving the chapel," my son informs me, "we passed a
+long Irish car containing about sixteen people, the tenants of
+Mr. Bianconi, who are brought at his expense from all parts of
+the estate.  He is very popular with his tenantry, regarding
+their interests as his own; and he often quotes the words of his
+friend Mr. Drummond, that 'property has its duties as well as its
+rights.' He has rebuilt nearly every house on his extensive
+estates in Tipperary.
+
+"On our way home, the carriage stopped to let me down and see the
+strange remains of an ancient fort, close by the roadside.  It
+consists of a high grass-grown mound, surrounded by a moat.  It
+is one of the so-called Danish forts, which are found in all
+parts of Ireland.  If it be true that these forts were erected by
+the Danes, they must at one time have had a strong hold of the
+greater part of Ireland.
+
+"The carriage entered a noble avenue of trees, with views of
+prettily enclosed gardens on either side.  Mr. Bianconi
+exclaimed, 'Welcome to the Carman's Stage!' Longfield House,
+which we approached, is a fine old-fashioned house, situated on
+the river Suir, a few miles south of Cashel, one of the most
+ancient cities in Ireland.  Mr. Bianconi and his family were most
+hospitable; and I found him most lively and communicative.  He
+talked cleverly and with excellent choice of language for about
+three hours, during which I learnt much from him.
+
+"Like most men who have accomplished great things, and overcome
+many difficulties, Mr. Bianconi is fond of referring to the past
+events in his interesting life.  The acuteness of his
+conversation is wonderful.  He hits off a keen thought in a few
+words, sometimes full of wit and humour.  I thought this very
+good:  'Keep before the wheels, young man, or they will run over
+you:  always keep before the wheels!' He read over to me the
+memoir he had prepared at the suggestion of Mr. Drummond,
+relating to the events of his early life; and this opened the way
+for a great many other recollections not set down in the book.
+
+"He vividly remembered the parting from his mother, nearly
+seventy years ago, and spoke of her last words to him: 'When you
+remember me, think of me as waiting at this window, watching for
+your return.' This led him to speak of the great forgetfulness
+and want of respect which children have for their parents
+nowadays.  'We seem,' he said, 'to have fallen upon a
+disrespectful age.'
+
+"'It is strange,' said he, 'how little things influence one's
+mind and character.  When I was a boy at Waterford, I bought an
+old second-hand book from a man on the quay, and the maxim on its
+title-page fixed itself deeply on my memory.  It was, "Truth,
+like water, will find its own level."' And this led him to speak
+of the great influence which the example and instruction of Mr.
+Rice, of the Christian Brothers, had had upon his mind and
+character.  'That religions institution,' said he, 'of which Mr.
+Rice was one of the founders, has now spread itself over the
+country, and, by means of the instruction which the members have
+imparted to the poorer ignorant classes, they have effected quite
+a revolution in the south of Ireland.'
+
+"'I am not much of a reader,' said Mr. Bianconi; 'the best part
+of my reading has consisted in reading way-bills.  But I was once
+complimented by Justice Lefroy upon my books.  He remarked to me
+what a wonderful education I must have had to invent my own
+system of book-keeping.  Yes,' said he, pointing to his ledgers,
+'there they are.'  The books are still preserved, recording the
+progress of the great car enterprise.  They show at first the
+small beginnings, and then the rapid growth--the tens growing to
+hundreds, and the hundreds to thousands--the ledgers and
+day-books containing, as it were, the whole history of the
+undertaking--of each car, of each man, of each horse, and of each
+line of road, recorded most minutely.
+
+"'The secret of my success,' said he, 'has been promptitude, fair
+dealing, and good humour.  And this I will add, what I have often
+said before, that I never did a kind action but it was returned
+to me tenfold.  My cars have never received the slightest injury
+from the people.  Though travelling through the country for about
+sixty years, the people have throughout respected the property
+intrusted to me.  My cars have passed through lonely and
+unfrequented places, and they have never, even in the most
+disturbed times, been attacked.  That, I think, is an
+extraordinary testimony to the high moral character of the Irish
+people.'
+
+"'It is not money, but the genius of money that I esteem,' said
+Bianconi; 'not money itself, but money used as a creative power.'
+
+And he himself has furnished in his own life the best possible
+illustration of his maxim He created a new industry, gave
+employment to an immense number of persons, promoted commerce,
+extended civilisation; and, though a foreigner, proved one of the
+greatest of Ireland's benefactors."
+
+About two years after the date of my son's visit, Charles
+Bianconi passed away, full of years and honours; and his remains
+were laid beside those of his son and daughter, in the mortuary
+chapel at Boherlahan.  He died in 1875, in his ninetieth year. 
+Well might Signor Henrico Mayer say, at the British Association
+at Cork in 1846, that "he felt proud as an Italian to hear a
+compatriot so deservedly eulogised; and although Ireland might
+claim Bianconi as a citizen, yet the Italians should ever with
+pride hail him as a countryman, whose industry and virtue
+reflected honour on the country of his birth."
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter IX.
+
+[1] This article originally appeared in 'Good Words.'  A
+biography of Charles Bianconi, by his daughter, Mrs. Morgan John
+O'Connell, has since been published; but the above article is
+thought worthy of republication, as its contents were for the
+most part taken principally from Mr. Bianconi's own lips.
+
+[2] Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on
+Postage (Second Report), 1838, p. 284.
+
+[3] Evidence before the Select Committee on Postage, 1838.
+
+[4] Hall's 'Ireland,' ii. 76.
+
+[5] Paper read before the British Association at Cork, 1843.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+INDUSTRY IN IRELAND: THROUGH CONNAUGHT AND ULSTER, TO BELFAST.
+
+"The Irish people have a past to boast of, and a future to
+create."--J. F. O'Carrol.
+
+"One of the great questions is how to find an outlet for Irish
+manufactures.  We ought to be an exporting nation, or we never
+will be able to compete successfully with our trade rivals."--E.
+D. Gray.
+
+"Ireland may become a Nation again, if we all sacrifice our
+parricidal passions, prejudices, and resentments on the altar of
+our country.  Then shall your manufactures flourish, and Ireland
+be free."--Daniel O'Connell.
+
+Further communications passed between my young friend, the
+Italian count, and his father; and the result was that he
+accompanied me to Ireland, on the express understanding that he
+was to send home a letter daily by post assuring his friends of
+his safety.  We went together accordingly to Galway, up Lough
+Corrib to Cong and Lough Mask; by the romantic lakes and
+mountains of Connemara to Clifden and Letterfrack, and through
+the lovely pass of Kylemoor to Leenane; along the fiord of
+Killury; then on, by Westport and Ballina to Sligo.  Letters were
+posted daily by my young friend; and every day we went forwards
+in safety.
+
+But how lonely was the country!  We did not meet a single
+American tourist during the whole course of our visit, and the
+Americans are the most travelling people in the world.  Although
+the railway companies have given every facility for visiting
+Connemara and the scenery of the West of Ireland, we only met one
+single English tourist, accompanied by his daughter.  The
+Bianconi long car between Clifden and Westport had been taken off
+for want of support.  The only persons who seemed to have no fear
+of Irish agrarianism were the English anglers, who are ready to
+brave all dangers, imaginary or supposed, provided they can only
+kill a big salmon!  And all the rivers flowing westward into the
+Atlantic are full of fine fish.  While at Galway, we looked down
+into the river Corrib from the Upper Bridge, and beheld it
+literally black with the backs of salmon!  They were waiting for
+a flood to enable them to ascend the ladder into Lough Corrib. 
+While there, 1900 salmon were taken in one day by nets in the
+bay.
+
+Galway is a declining town.  It has docks, but no shipping;
+bonded warehouses, but no commerce.  It has a community of
+fishermen at Claddagh, but the fisheries of the bay are
+neglected.  As one of the poor men of the place exclaimed,
+"Poverty is the curse of Ireland."  On looking at Galway from the
+Claddagh side, it seems as if to have suffered from a
+bombardment.  Where a roof has fallen in, nothing has been done
+to repair it.  It was of no use.  The ruin has been left to go
+on.  The mills, which used to grind home-grown corn, are now
+unemployed.  The corn comes ready ground from America.   Nothing
+is thought of but emigration, and the best people are going,
+leaving the old, the weak, and the inefficient at home.  "The
+labourer," said the late President Garfield, "has but one
+commodity to sell--his day's work, it is his sole reliance.  He
+must sell it to-day, or it is lost for-ever."  And as the poor
+Irishman cannot sell his day's labour, he must needs emigrate to
+some other country, where his only commodity may be in demand.
+
+While at Galway, I read with interest an eloquent speech
+delivered by Mr. Parnell at the banquet held in the Great Hall of
+the Exhibition at Cork.  Mr. Parnell asked, with much reason, why
+manufactures should not be established and encouraged in the
+South of Ireland, as in other parts of the country.  Why should
+not capital be invested, and factories and workshops developed,
+through the length and breadth of the kingdom?  "I confess," he
+said, "I should like to give Ireland a fair opportunity of
+working her home manufactures.  We can each one of us do much to
+revive the ancient name of our nation in those industrial
+pursuits which have done so much to increase and render glorious
+those greater nations by the side of which we live.  I trust that
+before many years are over we shall have the honour and pleasure
+of meeting in even a more splendid palace than this, and of
+seeing in the interval that the quick-witted genius of the Irish
+race has profited by the lessons which this beautiful Exhibition
+must undoubtedly teach, and that much will have been done to make
+our nation happy, prosperous, and free."
+
+Mr. Parnell, in the course of his speech, referred to the
+manufactures which had at one time flourished in Ireland--to the
+flannels of Rathdrum, the linens of Bandon, the cottons of Cork,
+and the gloves of Limerick.  Why should not these things exist
+again?  "We have a people who are by nature quick and facile to
+learn, who have shown in many other countries that they are
+industrious and laborious, and who have not been excelled--
+whether in the pursuits of agriculture under a midday sun in the
+field, or amongst the vast looms in the factory districts--by the
+people of any country on the face of the globe."[1]  Most just
+and eloquent!
+
+The only weak point in Mr. Parnell's speech was where he urged
+his audience "not to use any article of the manufacture of any
+other country except Ireland, where you can get up an Irish
+manufacture."  The true remedy is to make Irish articles of the
+best and cheapest, and they will be bought, not only by the
+Irish, but by the English and people of all nations. 
+Manufactures cannot be "boycotted."  They will find their way
+into all lands, in spite even of the most restrictive tariffs. 
+Take, for instance, the case of Belfast hereafter to be referred
+to.  If the manufacturing population of that town were to rely
+for their maintenance on the demand for their productions at
+home, they would simply starve.  But they make the best and the
+cheapest goods of their kind, and hence the demand for them is
+world-wide.
+
+There is an abundant scope for the employment of capital and
+skilled labour in Ireland.  During the last few years land has
+been falling rapidly out of cultivation.  The area under cereal
+crops has accordingly considerably decreased.[2]  Since 1868, not
+less than 400,000 acres have been disused for this purpose.[3] 
+Wheat can be bought better and cheaper in America, and imported
+into Ireland ground into flour.  The consequence is, that the men
+who worked the soil, as well as the men who ground the corn, are
+thrown out of employment, and there is nothing left for them but
+subsistence upon the poor-rates, emigration to other countries,
+or employment in some new domestic industry.
+
+Ireland is by no means the "poor Ireland" that she is commonly
+supposed to be.  The last returns of the Postmaster-General show
+that she is growing in wealth.  Irish thrift has been steadily at
+work during the last twenty years.  Since the establishment of
+the Post Office Savings Banks, in 1861, the deposits have
+annually increased in value.  At the end of 1882, more than two
+millions sterling had been deposited in these banks, and every
+county participated in the increase.[4]  The largest
+accumulations were in the counties of Dublin, Antrim, Cork, Down,
+Tipperary, and Tyrone, in the order named.  Besides this amount,
+the sum of 2,082,413L. was due to depositors in the ordinary
+Savings Banks on the 20th of November, 1882; or, in all, more
+than four millions sterling, the deposits of small capitalists. 
+At Cork, at the end of last year, it was found that the total
+deposits made in the savings bank had been 76,000L, or an
+increase of 6,675L.  over the preceding twelve months.  But this
+is not all.  The Irish middle classes are accustomed to deposit
+most of their savings in the Joint Stock banks; and from the
+returns presented to the Lord Lieutenant, dated the 31st of
+January, 1883, we find that these had been more than doubled in
+twenty years, the deposits and cash balances having increased
+from 14,389,000L. at the end of 1862, to 32,746,000L. at the end
+of 1882.  During the last year they had increased by the sum of
+2,585,000L.  "So large an increase in bank deposits and cash
+balances," says the Report, "is highly satisfactory."  It may be
+added that the investments in Government and India Stock, on
+which dividends were paid at the Bank of Ireland, at the end of
+1882, amounted to not less than 31,804,000L.
+
+It is proper that Ireland should be bountiful with her increasing
+means.  It has been stated that during the last eighteen years
+her people have contributed not less than six millions sterling
+for the purpose of building places of worship, convents, schools,
+and colleges, in connection with the Roman Catholic Church, not
+to speak of their contributions for other patriotic objects.
+
+It would be equally proper if some of the saved surplus capital
+of Ireland, as suggested by Mr. Parnell, were invested in the
+establishment of Irish manufactures.  This would not only give
+profitable occupation to the unemployed, but enable Ireland to
+become an increasingly exporting nation.  We are informed by an
+Irish banker, that there is abundance of money to be got in
+Ireland for any industry which has a reasonable chance of
+success.  One thing, however, is certain:  there must be perfect
+safety.  An old writer has said that "Government is a badge of
+lost innocence:  the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of
+the bowers of paradise."  The main use of government is
+protection against the weaknesses and selfishness of human
+nature.  If there be no protection for life, liberty, property,
+and the fruits of accumulated industry, government becomes
+comparatively useless, and society is driven back upon its first
+principles.
+
+Capital is the most sensitive of all things.  It flies turbulence
+and strife, and thrives only in security and freedom.  It must
+have complete safety.  If tampered with by restrictive laws, or
+hampered by combinations, it suddenly disappears.  "The age of
+glory of a nation," said Sir Humphry Davy, "is the age of its
+security.  The same dignified feeling which urges men to gain a
+dominion over nature will preserve them from the dominion of
+slavery.  Natural, and moral, and religions knowledge, are of one
+family; and happy is the country and great its strength where
+they dwell together in union."
+
+Dublin was once celebrated for its shipbuilding, its
+timber-trade, its iron manufactures, and its steam-printing;
+Limerick was celebrated for its gloves; Kilkenny for its
+blankets; Bandon for its woollen and linen manufactures.  But
+most of these trades were banished by strikes.[5] Dr. Doyle
+stated before the Irish Committee of 1830, that the almost total
+extinction of the Kilkenny blanket-trade was attributable to the
+combinations of the weavers; and O'Connell admitted that Trades
+Unions had wrought more evil to Ireland than absenteeism and
+Saxon maladministration.  But working men have recently become
+more prudent and thrifty; and it is believed that under the
+improved system of moderate counsel, and arbitration between
+employers and employed, a more hopeful issue is likely to attend
+the future of such enterprises.
+
+Another thing is clear.  A country may be levelled down by
+idleness and ignorance; it can only be levelled up by industry
+and intelligence.  It is easy to pull down; it is very difficult
+to build up.  The hands that cannot erect a hovel may demolish a
+palace.  We have but to look to Switzerland to see what a country
+may become which mixes its industry with its brains.  That little
+land has no coal, no seaboard by which she can introduce it, and
+is shut off from other countries by lofty mountains, as well as
+by hostile tariffs; and yet Switzerland is one of the most
+prosperous nations in Europe, because governed and regulated by
+intelligent industry.  Let Ireland look to Switzerland, and she
+need not despair.
+
+Ireland is a much richer country by nature than is generally
+supposed.  In fact, she has not yet been properly explored. 
+There is copper-ore in Wicklow, Waterford, and Cork.  The Leitrim
+iron-ores are famous for their riches; and there is good
+ironstone in Kilkenny, as well as in Ulster.  The Connaught ores
+are mixed with coal-beds.  Kaolin, porcelain clay, and coarser
+clay, abound; but it is only at Belleek that it has been employed
+in the pottery manufacture.  But the sea about Ireland is still
+less explored than the land.  All round the Atlantic seaboard of
+the Irish coast are shoals of herring and mackerel, which might
+be food for men, but are at present only consumed by the
+multitudes of sea-birds which follow them.
+
+In the daily papers giving an account of the Cork Exhibition,
+appeared the following paragraph:  "An interesting exhibit will
+be a quantity of preserved herrings from Lowestoft, caught off
+the old head of Kinsale, and returned to Cork after undergoing a
+preserving process in England."[6] Fish caught off the coast of
+Ireland by English fishermen, taken to England and cured, and
+then "returned to Cork" for exhibition!  Here is an opening for
+patriotic Irishmen.  Why not catch and preserve the fish at home,
+and get the entire benefit of the fish traffic?  Will it be
+believed that there is probably more money value in the seas
+round Ireland than there is in the land itself?  This is actually
+the case with the sea round the county of Aberdeen.[7]
+
+A vast source of wealth lies at the very doors of the Irish
+people.  But the harvest of an ocean teeming with life is allowed
+to pass into other hands.  The majority of the boats which take
+part in the fishery at Kinsale are from the little island of Man,
+from Cornwall, from France, and from Scotland.  The fishermen
+catch the fish, salt them, and carry them or send them away. 
+While the Irish boats are diminishing in number, those of the
+strangers are increasing.  In an East Lothian paper, published in
+May 1881, I find the following paragraph, under the head of
+Cockenzie:-
+
+"Departure of Boats.--In the early part of this week, a number of
+the boats here have left for the herring-fishery at Kinsale, in
+Ireland.  The success attending their labours last year at that
+place and at Howth has induced more of them than usual to proceed
+thither this year."
+
+It may not be generally known that Cockenzie is a little fishing
+village on the Firth of Forth, in Scotland, where the fishermen
+have provided themselves, at their own expense, with about fifty
+decked fishing-boats, each costing, with nets and gear, about
+500L.  With these boats they carry on their pursuits on the coast
+of Scotland, England, and Ireland.  In 1882, they sent about
+thirty boats to Kinsale[8] and Howth.  The profits of their
+fishing has been such as to enable them, with the assistance of
+Lord Wemyss, to build for themselves a convenient harbour at Port
+Seaton, without any help from the Government.  They find that
+self-help is the best help, and that it is absurd to look to the
+Government and the public purse for what they can best do for
+themselves.
+
+The wealth of the ocean round Ireland has long been known.  As
+long ago as the ninth and tenth centuries, the Danes established
+a fishery off the western coasts, and carried on a lucrative
+trade with the south of Europe.  In Queen Mary's reign, Philip
+II. of Spain paid 1000L. annually in consideration of his
+subjects being allowed to fish on the north-west coast of
+Ireland; and it appears that the money was brought into the Irish
+Exchequer.  In 1650, Sweden was permitted, as a favour, to employ
+a hundred vessels in the Irish fishery; and the Dutch in the
+reign of Charles I. were admitted to the fisheries on the payment
+of 30,000L.  In 1673, Sir W. Temple, in a letter to Lord Essex,
+says that "the fishing of Ireland might prove a mine under water
+as rich as any under ground."[9]
+
+The coasts of Ireland abound in all the kinds of fish in common
+use--cod, ling, haddock, hake, mackerel, herring, whiting,
+conger, turbot, brill, bream, soles, plaice, dories, and salmon. 
+The banks off the coast of Galway are frequented by myriads of
+excellent fish; yet, of the small quantity caught, the bulk is
+taken in the immediate neighbourhood of the shores.  Galway bay
+is said to be the finest fishing ground in the world; but the
+fish cannot be expected to come on shore unsought: they must be
+found, followed, and netted.   The fishing-boats from the west of
+Scotland are very successful; and they often return the fish to
+Ireland, cured, which had been taken out of the Irish bays.  "I
+tested this fact in Galway," says Mr. S. C. Hall.  "I had ordered
+fish for dinner; two salt haddocks were brought to me.  On
+inquiry, I ascertained where they were bought, and learned from
+the seller that he was the agent of a Scotch firm, whose boats
+were at that time loading in the bay."[10] But although Scotland
+imports some 80,000 barrels of cured herrings annually into
+Ireland, that is not enough; for we find that there is a regular
+importation of cured herrings, cod, ling, and hake, from
+Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, towards the food of the Irish
+people.[11]
+
+The fishing village of Claddagh, at Galway, is more decaying than
+ever.  It seems to have suffered from a bombardment, like the
+rest of the town.  The houses of the fishermen, when they fall
+in, are left in ruins.  While the French, and English, and Scotch
+boats leave the coast laden with fish, the Claddagh men remain
+empty-handed.  They will only fish on "lucky days," so that the
+Galway market is often destitute of fish, while the Claddagh
+people are starving.  On one occasion an English company was
+formed for the purpose of fishing and curing fish at Galway, as
+is now done at Yarmouth, Grimsby, Fraserburgh, Wick, and other
+places.  Operations were commenced, but so soon as the English
+fishermen put to sea in their boats, the Claddagh men fell upon
+them, and they were glad to escape with their lives.[12] 
+Unfortunately, the Claddagh men have no organization, no fixed
+rules, no settled determination to work, unless when pressed by
+necessity.  The appearance of the men and of their cabins show
+that they are greatly in want of capital; and fishing cannot be
+successfully performed without a sufficiency of this industrial
+element.
+
+Illustrations of this neglected industry might be given to any
+extent.  Herring fishing, cod fishing, and pilchard fishing, are
+alike untouched.  The Irish have a strong prejudice against the
+pilchard; they believe it to be an unlucky fish, and that it will
+rot the net that takes it.  The Cornishmen do not think so, for
+they find the pilchard fishing to be a source of great wealth. 
+The pilchards strike upon the Irish coast first before they reach
+Cornwall.  When Mr. Brady, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, visited
+St. Ives a few years ago, he saw captured, in one seine alone,
+nearly ten thousand pounds of this fish.
+
+Not long since; according to a northern local paper,[13] a large
+fleet of vessels in full sail was seen from the west coast of
+Donegal, evidently making for the shore.  Many surmises were made
+about the unusual sight.  Some thought it was the Fenians, others
+the Home Rulers, others the Irish-American Dynamiters.  Nothing
+of the kind!  It was only a fleet of Scotch smacks, sixty-four in
+number, fishing for herring between Torry Island and Horn Head. 
+The Irish might say to the Scotch fishermen, in the words of the
+Morayshire legend, "Rejoice, O my brethren, in the gifts of the
+sea, for they enrich you without making any one else the poorer!"
+
+But while the Irish are overlooking their treasure of herring,
+the Scotch are carefully cultivating it.  The Irish fleet of
+fishing-boats fell off from 27,142 in 1823 to 7181 in 1878; and
+in 1882 they were still further reduced to 6089.[14]  Yet Ireland
+has a coast-line of fishing ground of nearly three thousand miles
+in extent.
+
+The bights and bays on the west coast of Ireland--off Erris,
+Mayo, Connemara, and Donegal--swarm with fish.  Near Achill Bay,
+2000 mackerel were lately taken at a single haul; and Clew Bay is
+often alive with fish.  In Scull Bay and Crookhaven, near Cape
+Clear, they are so plentiful that the peasants often knock them
+on the head with oars, but will not take the trouble to net them.
+
+These swarms of fish might be a source of permanent wealth.  A
+gentleman of Cork one day borrowed a common rod and line from a
+Cornish miner in his employment, and caught fifty-seven mackerel
+from the jetty in Scull Bay before breakfast.  Each of these
+mackerel was worth twopence in Cork market, thirty miles off. 
+Yet the people round about, many of whom were short of food, were
+doing nothing to catch them, but expecting Providence to supply
+their wants.  Providence, however, always likes to be helped. 
+Some people forget that the Giver of all good gifts requires us
+to seek for them by industry, prudence, and perseverance.[15]
+
+Some cry for more loans; some cry for more harbours.  It would be
+well to help with suitable harbours, but the system of dependence
+upon Government loans is pernicious.  The Irish ought to feel
+that the very best help must come from themselves.  This is the
+best method for teaching independence.  Look at the little Isle
+of Man.  The fishermen there never ask for loans.  They look to
+their nets and their boats; they sail for Ireland, catch the
+fish, and sell them to the Irish people.  With them, industry
+brings capital, and forms the fertile seed-gronnd of further
+increase of boats and nets.   Surely what is done by the Manxmen,
+the Cornishmen, and the Cockenziemen, might be done by the
+Irishmen.  The difficulty is not to be got over by lamenting
+about it, or by staring at it, but by grappling with it, and
+overcoming it.  It is deeds, not words, that are wanted. 
+Employment for the mass of the people must spring from the people
+themselves.  Provided there is security for life and property,
+and an absence of intimidation, we believe that capital will
+become invested in the fishing industry of Ireland; and that the
+result will be peace, food, and prosperity.
+
+We must remember that it is only of comparatively late years that
+England and Scotland have devoted so much attention to the
+fishery of the seas surrounding our island.  In this fact there
+is consolation and hope for Ireland.  At the beginning of the
+seventeenth century Sir Waiter Raleigh laid before the King his
+observations concerning the trade and commerce of England, in
+which he showed that the Dutch were almost monopolising the
+fishing trade, and consequently adding to their shipping,
+commerce, and wealth.  "Surely," he says, "the stream is
+necessary to be turned to the good of this kingdom, to whose
+sea-coasts alone God has sent us these great blessings and
+immense riches for us to take; and that every nation should carry
+away out of this kingdom yearly great masses of money for fish
+taken in our seas, and sold again by them to us, must needs be a
+great dishonour to our nation, and hindrance to this realm."
+
+The Hollanders then had about 50,000 people employed in fishing
+along the English coast; and their industry and enterprise gave
+employment to about 150,000 more, "by sea and land, to make
+provision, to dress and transport the fish they take, and return
+commodities; whereby they are enabled yearly to build 1000 ships
+and vessels."  The prosperity of Amsterdam was then so great that
+it was said that Amsterdam was "founded on herring-bones." 
+Tobias Gentleman published in 1614 his treatise on 'England's Way
+to win Wealth, and to employ Ships and Marines,'[16] in which he
+urged the English people to vie with the Dutch in fishing the
+seas, and thereby to give abundant employment, as well as
+abundant food, to the poorer people of the country.
+
+"Look," he said, "on these fellows, that we call the plump
+Hollanders; behold their diligence in fishing, and our own
+careless negligence!"  The Dutch not only fished along the coasts
+near Yarmouth, but their fishing vessels went north as far as the
+coasts of Shetland.  What most roused Mr. Gentleman's indignation
+was, that the Dutchmen caught the fish and sold them to the
+Yarmouth herring-mongers "for ready gold, so that it amounteth to
+a great sum of money, which money doth never come again into
+England."  "We are daily scorned," he says, "by these Hollanders,
+for being so negligent of our Profit, and careless of our
+Fishing; and they do daily flout us that be the poor Fishermen of
+England, to our Faces at Sea, calling to us, and saying, 'Ya
+English, ya sall or oud scoue dragien;' which, in English, is
+this, 'You English, we will make you glad to wear our old
+Shoes!'"
+
+Another pamphlet, to a similar effect, 'The Royal Fishing
+revived,'[17] was published fifty years later, in which it was
+set forward that the Dutch "have not only gained to themselves
+almost the sole fishing in his Majesty's Seas; but principally
+upon this Account have very near beat us out of all our other
+most profitable Trades in all Parts of the World." It was even
+proposed to compel "all Sorts of begging Persons and all other
+poor People, all People condemned for less Crimes than Blood," as
+well as "all Persons in Prison for Debt," to take part in this
+fishing trade!  But this was not the true way to force the
+traffic.  The herring fishery at Yarmouth and along the coast
+began to make gradual progress with the growth of wealth and
+enterprise throughout the country; though it was not until
+1787--less than a hundred years ago--that the Yarmouth men began
+the deep-sea herring fishery.
+
+Before then, the fishing was all carried on along shore in little
+cobles, almost within sight of land.  The native fishery also
+extended northward, along the east coast of Scotland and the
+Orkney and Shetland Isles, until now the herring fishery of
+Scotland forms one of the greatest industries in the United
+Kingdom, and gives employment, directly or indirectly, to close
+upon half a million of people, or to one-seventh of the whole
+population of Scotland.
+
+Taking these facts into consideration, therefore, there is no
+reason to despair of seeing, before many years have elapsed, a
+large development of the fishing industry of Ireland.  We may yet
+see Galway the Yarmouth, Achill the Grimsby, and Killybegs the
+Wick of the West.  Modern society in Ireland, as everywhere else,
+can only be transformed through the agency of labour, industry,
+and commerce--inspired by the spirit of work, and maintained by
+the accumulations of capital.  The first end of all labour is
+security,--security to person, possession, and property, so that
+all may enjoy in peace the fruits of their industry.  For no
+liberty, no freedom, can really exist which does not include the
+first liberty of all--the right of public and private safety.
+
+To show what energy and industry can do in Ireland, it is only
+necessary to point to Belfast, one of the most prosperous and
+enterprising towns in the British Islands.  The land is the same,
+the climate is the same, and the laws are the same, as those
+which prevail in other parts of Ireland.  Belfast is the great
+centre of Irish manufactures and commerce, and what she has been
+able to do might be done elsewhere, with the same amount of
+energy and enterprise.  But it is not land, or climate, or
+altered laws that are wanted.  It is men to lead and direct, and
+men to follow with anxious and persevering industry.  It is
+always the Man society wants.
+
+The influence of Belfast extends far out into the country.  As
+you approach it from Sligo, you begin to see that you are nearing
+a place where industry has accumulated capital, and where it has
+been invested in cultivating and beautifying the land.  After you
+pass Enniskillen, the fields become more highly cultivated.  The
+drill-rows are more regular; the hedges are clipped; the weeds no
+longer hide the crops, as they sometimes do in the far west.  The
+country is also adorned with copses, woods, and avenues.  A new
+crop begins to appear in the fields--a crop almost peculiar to
+the neighbourhood of Belfast.  It is a plant with a very slender
+erect green stem, which, when full grown, branches at the top
+into a loose corymb of blue flowers.  This is the flax plant, the
+cultivation and preparation of which gives employment to a great
+number of persons, and is to a large extent the foundation of the
+prosperity of Belfast.
+
+The first appearance of the linen industry of Ireland, as we
+approach Belfast from the west, is observed at Portadown.  Its
+position on the Bann, with its water power, has enabled this
+town, as well as the other places on the river, to secure and
+maintain their due share in the linen manufacture.  Factories
+with their long chimneys begin to appear.  The fields are richly
+cultivated, and a general air of well-being pervades the
+district.  Lurgan is reached, so celebrated for its diapers; and
+the fields there about are used as bleaching-greens.   Then comes
+Lisburn, a populous and thriving town, the inhabitants of which
+are mostly engaged in their staple trade, the manufacture of
+damasks.  This was really the first centre of the linen trade. 
+Though Lord Strafford, during his government of Ireland,
+encouraged the flax industry, by sending to Holland for
+flax-seed, and  inviting Flemish and French artisans to settle in
+Ireland, it was not until the Huguenots, who had been banished
+from France by the persecutions of Louis XIV., settled in Ireland
+in such large numbers, that the manufacture became firmly
+established.  The Crommelins, the Goyers, and the Dupres, were
+the real founders of this great branch of industry.[18]
+
+As the traveller approaches Belfast, groups of houses, factories,
+and works of various kinds, appear closer and closer; long
+chimneys over boilers and steam-engines, and brick buildings
+three or four stories high; large yards full of workmen, carts,
+and lorries; and at length we are landed in the midst of a large
+manufacturing town.  As we enter the streets, everybody seems to
+be alive.   What struck William Hutton when he first saw
+Birmingham, might be said of Belfast:  "I was surprised at the
+place, but more at the people.  They possessed a vivacity I had
+never before beheld.  I had been among dreamers, but now I saw
+men awake.  Their very step along the street showed alacrity. 
+Every man seemed to know what he was about.  The town was large,
+and full of inhabitants, and these inhabitants full of industry. 
+The faces of other men seemed tinctured with an idle gloom; but
+here with a pleasing alertness.  Their appearance was strongly
+marked with the modes of civil life."
+
+Some people do not like manufacturing towns:  they prefer old
+castles and ruins.  They will find plenty of these in other parts
+of Ireland.  But to found industries that give employment to
+large numbers of persons, and enable them to maintain themselves
+and families upon the fruits of their labour--instead of living
+upon poor-rates levied from the labours of others, or who are
+forced, by want of employment, to banish themselves from their
+own country, to emigrate and settle among strangers, where they
+know not what may become of them--is a most honourable and
+important source of influence, and worthy of every encouragement.
+
+Look at the wonderfully rapid rise of Belfast, originating in the
+enterprise of individuals, and developed by the earnest and
+anxious industry of the inhabitants of Ulster!
+
+"God save Ireland!"  By all means.  But Ireland cannot be saved
+without the help of the people who live in it.  God endowed men,
+there as elsewhere, with reason, will, and physical power; and it
+is by patient industry only that they can open up a pathway to
+the enduring prosperity of the country.  There is no Eden in
+nature.  The earth might have continued a rude uncultivated
+wilderness, but for human energy, power, and industry.  These
+enable man to subdue the wilderness, and develop the potency of
+labour.  "Possunt quia credunt posse."  They must conquer who
+will.
+
+Belfast is a comparatively modern town.  It has no ancient
+history.  About the beginning of the sixteenth century it was
+little better than a fishing village.  There was a castle, and a
+ford to it across the Lagan.  A chapel was built at the ford, at
+which hurried prayers were offered up for those who were about to
+cross the currents of Lagan Water.  In 1575, Sir Henry Sydney
+writes to the Lords of the Council:  "I was offered skirmish by
+MacNeill Bryan Ertaugh at my passage over the water at Belfast,
+which I caused to be answered, and passed over without losse of
+man or horse; yet by reason of the extraordinaire Retorne our
+horses swamme and the Footmen in the passage waded very deep." 
+The country round about was forest land.  It was so thickly
+wooded that it was a common saying that one might walk to Lurgan
+"on the tops of the trees."
+
+In 1612, Belfast consisted of about 120 houses, built of mud and
+covered with thatch.  The whole value of the land on which the
+town is built, is said to have been worth only 5L. in fee
+simple.[19] "Ulster," said Sir John Davies, "is a very desert or
+wilderness; the inhabitants thereof having for the most part no
+certain habitation in any towns or villages."  In 1659, Belfast
+contained only 600 inhabitants:  Carrickfergus was more
+important, and had 1312 inhabitants.  But about 1660, the Long
+Bridge over the Lagan was built, and prosperity began to dawn
+upon the little town.  It was situated at the head of a navigable
+lough, and formed an outlet for the manufacturing products of the
+inland country.  Ships of any burden, however, could not come
+near the town.  The cargoes, down even to a recent date, had to
+be discharged into lighters at Garmoyle.  Streams of water made
+their way to the Lough through the mud banks; and a rivulet ran
+through what is now known as the High Street.
+
+The population gradually increased.  In 1788 Belfast had 12,000
+inhabitants.  But it was not until after the Union with Great
+Britain that the town made so great a stride.  At the beginning
+of the present century it had about 20,000 inhabitants.  At every
+successive census, the progress made was extraordinary, until now
+the population of Belfast amounts to over 225,000.  There is
+scarcely an instance of so large a rate of increase in the
+British Islands, save in the exceptional case of Middlesborough,
+which was the result of the opening out of the Stockton and
+Darlington Railway, and the discovery of ironstone in the hills
+of Cleveland in Yorkshire.  Dundee and Barrow are supposed to
+present the next most rapid increases of population.
+
+The increase of shipping has also been equally great.  Ships from
+other ports frequented the Lough for purposes of trade; but in
+course of time the Belfast merchants supplied themselves with
+ships of their own.  In 1791 one William Ritchie, a sturdy North
+Briton, brought with him from Glasgow ten men and a quantity of
+shipbuilding materials.  He gradually increased the number of his
+workmen, and proceeded to build a few sloops.  He reclaimed some
+land from the sea, and made a shipyard and graving dock on what
+was known as Corporation Ground.  In November 1800 the new
+graving dock, near the bridge, was opened for the reception of
+vessels.  It was capable of receiving three vessels of 200 tons
+each!  In 1807 a vessel of 400 tons burthen was launched from Mr.
+Ritchie's shipyard, when a great crowd of people assembled to
+witness the launching of "so large a ship"--far more than now
+assemble to see a 3000-tonner of the White Star Line leave the
+slips and enter the water!
+
+The shipbuilding trade has been one of the most rapidly
+developed, especially of late years.  In 1805 the number of
+vessels frequenting the port was 840; whereas in 1883 the number
+had been increased to 7508, with about a million and a-half of
+tonnage; while the gross value of the exports from Belfast
+exceeded twenty millions sterling annually.  In 1819 the first
+steamboat of 100 tons was used to tug the vessels up the windings
+of the Lough, which it did at the rate of three miles an hour, to
+the astonishment of everybody.  Seven years later, the steamboat
+Rob Roy was put on between Glasgow and Belfast.  But these
+vessels had been built in Scotland.  It was not until 1826 that
+the first steamboat, the chieftain, was built in Belfast, by the
+same William Ritchie.  Then, in 1838, the first iron boat was
+built in the Lagan foundry, by Messrs. Coates and Young, though
+it was but a mere cockle-shell compared with the mighty ocean
+steamers which are now regularly launched from Queen's Island. 
+In the year 1883 the largest shipbuilding firm in the town
+launched thirteen vessels, of over 30,000 tons gross, while two
+other firms launched twelve ships, of about 10,000 tons gross.
+
+I do not propose to enter into details respecting the progress of
+the trades of Belfast.  The most important is the spinning of
+fine linen yarn, which is for the most part concentrated in that
+town, over 25,000,000 of pounds weight being exported annually. 
+Towards the end of the seventeenth century the linen manufacture
+had made but little progress.  In 1680 all Ireland did not export
+more than 6000L. worth annually.  Drogheda was then of greater
+importance than Belfast.  But with the settlement of the
+persecuted Hugnenots in Ulster, and especially through the
+energetic labours of Crommelin, Goyer, and others, the growth of
+flax was sedulously cultivated, and its manufacture into linen of
+all sorts became an important branch of Irish industry.  In the
+course of about fifty years the exports of linen fabrics
+increased to the value of over 600,000L. per annum.
+
+It was still, however, a handicraft manufacture, and done for the
+most part at home.  Flax was spun and yarn was woven by hand. 
+Eventually machinery was employed, and the turn-out became
+proportionately large and valuable.  It would not be possible for
+hand labour to supply the amount of linen now turned out by the
+aid of machinery.  It would require three times the entire
+population of Ireland to spin and weave, by the old
+spinning-wheel and hand-loom methods, the amount of linen cloth
+now annually manufactured by the operatives of Belfast alone. 
+There are now forty large spinning-mills in Belfast and the
+neighbourhood, which furnish employment to a very large number of
+working people.[20]
+
+In the course of my visit to Belfast, I inspected the works of
+the York Street flax-spinning mills, founded in 1830 by the
+Messrs. Mulholland, which now give employment, directly or
+indirectly, to many thousand persons.  I visited also, with my
+young Italian friend, the admirable printing establishment of
+Marcus Ward and Co., the works of the Belfast Rope-work Company,
+and the shipbuilding works of Harland and Wolff.  There we passed
+through the roar of the iron forge, the clang of the Nasmyth
+hammer, and the intermittent glare of the furnaces--all telling
+of the novel appliances of modern shipbuilding, and the power of
+the modern steam-engine.  I prefer to give a brief account of
+this latter undertaking, as it exhibits one of the newest and
+most important industries of Belfast.  It also shows, on the part
+of its proprietors, a brave encounter with difficulties, and sets
+before the friends of Ireland the truest and surest method of not
+only giving employment to its people, but of building up on the
+surest foundations the prosperity of the country.
+
+The first occasion on which I visited Belfast--the reader will
+excuse the introduction of myself--was in 1840; about forty-four
+years ago.  I went thither on the invitation of the late Wm. 
+Sharman Crawford, Esq., M.P., the first prominent advocate of
+tenant-right, to attend a public meeting of the Ulster
+Association, and to spend a few days with him at his residence at
+Crawfordsburn, near Bangor.  Belfast was then a town of
+comparatively little importance, though it had already made a
+fair start in commerce and industry.  As our steamer approached
+the head of the Lough, a large number of labourers were
+observed--with barrows, picks, and spades--scooping out and
+wheeling up the slob and mud of the estuary, for the purpose of
+forming what is now known as Queen's Island, on the eastern side
+of the river Lagan.  The work was conducted by William Dargan,
+the famous Irish contractor; and its object was to make a
+straight artificial outlet--the Victoria Channel--by means of
+which vessels drawing twenty-three feet of water might reach the
+port of Belfast.  Before then, the course of the Lagan was
+tortuous and difficult of navigation; but by the straight cut,
+which was completed in l846, and afterwards extended further
+seawards, ships of large burden were enabled to reach the quays,
+which extend for about a mile below Queen's Bridge, on both sides
+of the river.
+
+It was a saying of honest William Dargan, that "when a thing is
+put anyway right at all, it takes a vast deal of mismanagement to
+make it go wrong."  He had another curious saying about "the calf
+eating the cow's belly," which, he said, was not right, "at all,
+at all."  Belfast illustrated his proverbial remarks.  That the
+cutting of the Victoria Channel was doing the "right thing" for
+Belfast, was clear, from the constantly increasing traffic of the
+port.  In course of time, several extensive docks and tidal
+basins were added; while provision was made, in laying out the
+reclaimed land at the entrance of the estuary, for their future
+extension and enlargement.  The town of Belfast was by these
+means gradually placed in immediate connection by sea with the
+principal western ports of England and Scotland,--steamships of
+large burden now leaving it daily for Liverpool, Glasgow,
+Fleetwood, Barrow, and Ardrossan.  The ships entering the port of
+Belfast in 1883 were 7508, of 1,526,535 tonnage; they had been
+more than doubled in fifteen years.  The town has risen from
+nothing, to exhibit a Customs revenue, in 1883, of 608,781L.,
+infinitely greater than that of Leith, the port of Edinburgh, or
+of Hull, the chief port of Yorkshire.  The population has also
+largely increased.  When I visited Belfast in 1840, the town
+contained 75,000 inhabitants.  They are now over 225,006, or more
+than trebled,--Belfast being the tenth town, in point of
+population, in the United Kingdom.
+
+The spirit and enterprise of the people are illustrated by the
+variety of their occupations.  They do not confine themselves to
+one branch of business; but their energies overflow into nearly
+every department of industry.  Their linen manufacture is of
+world-wide fame; but much less known are their more recent
+enterprises.  The production of aerated waters, for instance, is
+something extraordinary.  In 1882 the manufacturers shipped off
+53,163 packages, and 24,263 cwts. of aerated waters to England,
+Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.   While
+Ireland produces no wrought iron, though it contains plenty of
+iron-stone,--and Belfast has to import all the iron which it
+consumes,--yet one engineering firm alone, that of Combe,
+Barbour, and Combe, employs 1500 highly-paid mechanics, and ships
+off its iron machinery to all parts of the world.  The printing
+establishment of Marcus Ward and Co. employs over 1000 highly
+skilled and ingenious persons, and extends the influence of
+learning and literature into all civilised countries.  We might
+add the various manufactures of roofing felt (of which there are
+five), of ropes, of stoves, of stable fittings, of nails, of
+starch, of machinery; all of which have earned a world-wide
+reputation.
+
+We prefer, however, to give an account of the last new industry
+of Belfast--that of shipping and shipbuilding.  Although, as we
+have said, Belfast imports from Scotland and England all its iron
+and all its coal,[21] it nevertheless, by the skill and strength
+of its men, sends out some of the finest and largest steamships
+which navigate the Atlantic and Pacific.  It all comes from the
+power of individuality, and furnishes a splendid example for
+Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and Limerick, each of which is provided
+by nature with magnificent harbours, with fewer of those
+difficulties of access which Belfast has triumphed over; and each
+of which might be the centre of some great industrial enterprise,
+provided only there were patriotic men willing to embark their
+capital, perfect protection for the property invested, and men
+willing to work rather than to strike.
+
+It was not until the year 1853 that the Queen's Island--raked out
+of the mud of the slob-land--was first used for shipbuilding
+purposes.  Robert Hickson and Co. then commenced operations by
+laying down the Mary Stenhouse, a wooden sailing-ship of 1289
+tons register; and the vessel was launched in the following year.
+
+The operations of the firm were continued until the year 1859,
+when the shipbuilding establishments on Queen's Island were
+acquired by Mr. E. J. Harland (afterwards Harland and Wolff),
+since which time the development of this great branch of industry
+in Belfast has been rapid and complete.
+
+From the history of this firm, it will be found that energy is
+the most profitable of all merchandise; and that the fruit of
+active work is the sweetest of all fruits.  Harland and Wolff are
+the true Watt and Boulton of Belfast.  At the beginning of their
+great enterprise, their works occupied about four acres of land;
+they now occupy over thirty-six acres.  The firm has imported not
+less than two hundred thousand tons of iron; which have been
+converted by skill and labour into 168 ships of 253,000 total
+tonnage.  These ships, if laid close together, would measure
+nearly eight miles in length.
+
+The advantage to the wage-earning class can only be shortly
+stated.  Not less than 34 per cent. is paid in labour on the cost
+of the ships turned out.  The number of persons employed in the
+works is 3920; and the weekly wages paid to them is 4000L., or
+over 200,000L. annually.  Since the commencement of the
+undertaking, about two millions sterling have been paid in wages.
+
+All this goes towards the support of the various industries of
+the place.  That the working classes of Belfast are thrifty and
+frugal may be inferred from the fact that at the end of 1882 they
+held deposits in the Savings Bank to the amount of 230,289L.,
+besides 158,064L. in the Post Office Savings Banks.[22]  Nearly
+all the better class working people of the town live in separate
+dwellings, either rented or their own property.  There are ten
+Building Societies in Belfast, in which industrious people may
+store their earnings, and in course of time either buy or build
+their own houses.
+
+The example of energetic, active men always spreads.  Belfast
+contains two other shipbuilding yards, both the outcome of
+Harland and Wolff's enterprise; those of Messrs. Macilwaine and
+Lewis, employing about four hundred men, and of Messrs. Workman
+and Clarke, employing about a thousand.  The heads of both these
+firms were trained in the parent shipbuilding works of Belfast. 
+There is do feeling of rivalry between the firms, but all work
+together for the good of the town.
+
+In Plutarch's Lives, we are told that Themistocles said on one
+occasion, "'Tis true that I have never learned how to tune a
+harp, or play upon a lute, but I know how to raise a small and
+inconsiderable city to glory and greatness."  So might it be said
+of Harland and Wolff.  They have given Belfast not only a potency
+for good, but a world-wide reputation.  Their energies overflow. 
+Mr. Harland is the active and ever-prudent Chairman of the most
+important of the local boards, the Harbour Trust of Belfast, and
+exerts himself to promote the extension of the harbour facilities
+of the port as if the benefits were to be exclusively his own;
+while Mr. Wolff is the Chairman of one of the latest born
+industries of the place, the Belfast Rope-work Company, which
+already gives employment to over 600 persons.
+
+This last-mentioned industry is only about six years old.  The
+works occupy over seven acres of ground, more than six acres of
+which are under roofing.  Although the whole of the raw material
+is imported from abroad from Russia, the Philippine Islands, New
+Zealand, and Central America--it is exported again in a
+manufactured state to all parts of the world.
+
+Such is the contagion of example, and such the ever-branching
+industries with which men of enterprise and industry can enrich
+and bless their country.  The following brief memoir of the
+career of Mr. Harland has been furnished at my solicitation; and
+I think that it will be found full of interest as well as
+instruction.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter X.
+
+[1] Report in the Cork Examiner, 5th July, 1883.
+
+[2] In 1883, as compared with 1882, there was a decrease of
+58,022 acres in the land devoted to the growth of wheat; there
+was a total decrease of 114,871 acres in the land under
+tillage.--Agricultural Statistics, Ireland, 1883. Parliamentary
+Return, c. 3768.
+
+[3] Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, 1883.
+
+[4] The particulars are these: deposits in Irish Post Office
+Savings Banks, 31st December, 1882, 1,925,440; to the credit of
+depositors and Government stock, 125,000L.; together, 2,050,440L.
+
+The increase of deposits over those made in the preceding year,
+were: in Dublin, 31,321L.; in Antrim, 23,328L.; in Tyrone,
+21,315L.; in Cork, 17,034L.; and in Down, 10,382L.
+
+[5] The only thriving manufacture now in Dublin is that of
+intoxicating drinks--beer, porter, stout, and whisky.  Brewing
+and distilling do not require skilled labour, so that strikes do
+not affect them.
+
+[6] Times, 11th June, 1883.
+
+[7] The valuation of the county of Aberdeen (exclusive of the
+city) was recently 866,816L., whereas the value of the herrings
+(748,726 barrels) caught round the coast (at 25s. the barrel) was
+935,907L., thereby exceeding the estimated annual rental of the
+county by 69,091L.  The Scotch fishermen catch over a million
+barrels of herrings annually, representing a value of about a
+million and a-half sterling.
+
+[8] A recent number of Land and Water supplies the following
+information as to the fishing at Kinsale:-- "The takes of fish
+have been so enormous and unprecedented that buyers can scarcely
+be found, even when, as now, mackerel are selling at one shilling
+per six score.  Piles of magnificent fish lie rotting in the sun.
+
+The sides of Kinsale Harbour are strewn with them, and
+frequently, when they have become a little 'touched,' whole
+boat-loads are thrown overboard into the water.  This great waste
+is to be attributed to scarcity of hands to salt the fish and
+want of packing-boxes.  Some of the boats are said to have made
+as much as 500L. this season.  The local fishing company are
+making active preparations for the approaching herring fishery,
+and it is anticipated that Kinsale may become one of the centres
+of this description of fishing."
+
+[9] Statistical Journal for March 1848.  Paper by Richard Valpy
+on "The Resources of the Irish Sea Fisheries," pp. 55-72.
+
+[10] HALL, Retrospect of a Long Life, ii. 324.
+
+[11] The Commissioners of Irish Fisheries, in one of their
+reports, observe:--"Notwithstanding the diminished population,
+the fish captured round the coast is so inadequate to the wants
+of the population that fully 150,000L. worth of ling, cod, and
+herring are annually imported from Norway, Newfoundland, and
+Scotland, the vessels bearing these cargoes, as they approach the
+shores of Ireland, frequently sailing through large shoals of
+fish of the same description as they are freighted with!"
+
+[12] The following examination of Mr. J. Ennis, chairman of the
+Midland and Great Western Railway, took place before the "Royal
+Commission on Railways," as long ago as the year 1846:- 
+
+Chairman--"Is the fish traffic of any importance to your
+railway?" 
+
+Mr. Ennis--"of course it is, and we give it all the facilities
+that we can....  But the Galway fisheries, where one would expect
+to find plenty of fish, are totally neglected." 
+
+Sir Rowland Hill--"What is the reason of that?" 
+
+Mr. Ennis-- "I will endeavour to explain.  I had occasion a few
+nights ago to speak to a gentleman in the House of Commons with
+regard to an application to the Fishery Board for 2000L. to
+restore the pier at Buffin, in Clew Bay, and I said, 'Will you
+join me in the application?  I am told it is a place that swarms
+with fish, and if we had a pier there the fishermen will have
+some security, and they will go out.' The only answer I received
+was, 'They will not go out; they pay no attention whatever to the
+fisheries; they allow the fish to come and go without making any
+effort to catch them....'" 
+
+Mr. Ayrton-- "Do you think that if English fishermen went to the
+west coast of Ireland they would be able to get on in harmony
+with the native fishermen?" 
+
+Mr. Ennis-- "We know the fact to be, that some years ago, a
+company was established for the purpose of trawling in Galway
+Bay, and what was the consequence?  The Irish fishermen, who
+inhabit a region in the neighbourhood of Galway, called Claddagh,
+turned out against them, and would not allow them to trawl, and
+the Englishmen very properly went away with their lives." 
+
+Sir Rowland Hill-- "Then they will neither fish themselves nor
+allow any one else to fish!" 
+
+Mr. Ennis-- "It seems to be so." --Minutes of Evidence, 175-6.
+
+[13] The Derry Journal.
+
+[14] Report of Inspectors of Irish Fisheries for 1882.
+
+[15] The Report of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries on the Sea
+and Inland Fisheries of Ireland for 1882, gives a large amount of
+information as to the fish which swarm round the Irish coast. 
+Mr. Brady reports on the abundance of herring and other fish all
+round the coast.  Shoals of herrings "remained off nearly the
+entire coast of Ireland from August till December."  "Large
+shoals of pilchards" were observed on the south and south-west
+coasts.  Off Dingle, it is remarked, "the supply of all kinds of
+fish is practically inexhaustible."
+
+"Immense shoals of herrings off Liscannor and Loop Head;"  "the
+mackerel is always on this coast, and can be captured at any time
+of the year, weather permitting."  At Belmullet, "the shoals of
+fish off the coast, particularly herring and mackerel, are
+sometimes enormous."  The fishermen, though poor, are all very
+orderly and well conducted.  They only want energy and industry.
+
+[16] The Harleian Miscellany, iii. 378-91.
+
+[17] The Harleian Miscellany, iii. 392.
+
+[18] See The Huguenots in England and Ireland.  A Board of
+Traders, for the encouragement and promotion of the hemp and flax
+manufacture in Ireland, was appointed by an Act of Parliament at
+the beginning of last century (6th October, 1711), and the year
+after the appointment of the Board the following notice was
+placed on the records of the institution: --"Louis Crommelin and
+the Huguenot colony have been greatly instrumental in improving
+and propagating the flaxen manufacture in the north of this
+Kingdom, and the perfection to which the same is brought in that
+part of the country has been greatly owing to the skill and
+industry of the said Crommelin."  In a history of the linen
+trade, published at Belfast, it is said that "the dignity which
+that enterprising man imparted to labour, and the halo which his
+example cast around physical exertion, had the best effect in
+raising the tone of popular feeling, as well among the patricians
+as among the peasants of the north of Ireland.  This love of
+industry did much to break down the national prejudice in favour
+of idleness, and cast doubts on the social orthodoxy of the idea
+then so popular with the squirearchy, that those alone who were
+able to live without employment had any rightful claim to the
+distinctive title of gentleman....  A patrician by birth and a
+merchant by profession, Crommelin proved, by his own life, his
+example, and his enterprise, that an energetic manufacturer may,
+at the same time, take a high place in the conventional world."
+
+[19] Benn's History of Belfast, p. 78.
+
+[20] From the Irish Manufacturers' Almanack for 1883 I learn that
+nearly one-third of the spindles used in Europe in the linen
+trade, and more than one-fourth of the power-looms, belong to
+Ireland, that "the Irish linen and associated trades at present
+give employment to 176,303 persons; and it is estimated that the
+capital sunk in spinning and weaving factories, and the business
+incidental thereto, is about 100,000,000L., and of that sum
+37,000,000L. is credited to Belfast alone."
+
+[21] The importation of coal in 1883 amounted to over 700,000
+tons.
+
+[22] We are indebted to the obliging kindness of the Right Hon.
+Mr. Fawcett, Postmaster-General for this return.  The total
+number of depositors in the Post Office Savings banks in the
+Parliamentary borough of Belfast is 10,827 and the amount of
+their deposits, including the interest standing to their credit,
+on the 31st December, 1882, was 158,064L. 0s. 1d.
+
+An important item in the savings of Belfast, not included in the
+above returns, consists in the amounts of deposits made with the
+various Limited Companies, as well as with the thriving Building
+Societies in the town and neighbourhood.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+SHIPBUILDING IN BELFAST--ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS.
+
+BY SIR E. J. HARLAND, ENGINEER AND SHIPBUILDER.
+
+"The useful arts are but reproductions or new combinations by the
+art of man, of the same natural benefactors.  He no longer waits
+for favouring gales, but by means of steam he realises the fable
+of AEolus's bag, and carries the two-and-thirty winds in the
+boiler of his boat."--Emerson.
+
+"The most exquisite and the most expensive machinery is brought
+into play where operations on the most common materials are to be
+performed, because these are executed on the widest scale.  This
+is the meaning of the vast and astonishing prevalence of machine
+work in this country: that the machine, with its million fingers,
+works for millions of purchasers, while in remote countries,
+where magnificence and savagery stand side by side, tens of
+thousands work for one.  There Art labours for the rich alone;
+here she works for the poor no less.  There the multitude produce
+only to give splendour and grace to the despot or the warrior,
+whose slaves they are, and whom they enrich; here the man who is
+powerful in the weapons of peace, capital, and machinery, uses
+them to give comfort and enjoyment to the public, whose servant
+he is, and thus becomes rich while he enriches others with his
+goods."--William Whewell, D.D.
+
+I was born at Scarborough in May, 1831, the sixth of a family of
+eight.  My father was a native of Rosedale, half-way between
+Whitby and Pickering:  his nurse was the sister of Captain
+Scoresby, celebrated as an Arctic explorer.  Arrived at manhood,
+he studied medicine, graduated at Edinburgh, and practised in
+Scarborough until nearly his death in 1866.  He was thrice Mayor
+and a Justice of the Peace for the borough.  Dr. Harland was a
+man of much force of character, and displayed great originality
+in the treatment of disease.  Besides exercising skill in his
+profession, he had a great love for mechanical pursuits.  He
+spent his leisure time in inventions of many sorts; and, in
+conjunction with the late Sir George Cayley of Brompton, he kept
+an excellent mechanic constantly at work.
+
+In 1827 he invented and patented a steam-carriage for running on
+common roads.  Before the adoption of railways, the old stage
+coaches were found slow and insufficient for the traffic.  A
+working model of the steam-coach was perfected, embracing a
+multitubular boiler for quickly raising high-pressure steam, with
+a revolving surface condenser for reducing the steam to water
+again, by means of its exposure to the cold draught of the
+atmosphere through the interstices of extremely thin laminations
+of copper plates.  The entire machinery, placed under the bottom
+of the carriage, was borne on springs; the whole being of an
+elegant form.  This model steam-carriage ascended with perfect
+ease the steepest roads.  Its success was so complete that Dr.
+Harland designed a full-sized carriage; but the demands upon his
+professional skill were so great that he was prevented going
+further than constructing the pair of engines, the wheels, and a
+part of the boiler,--all of which remnants I still preserve, as
+valuable links in the progress of steam locomotion.
+
+Other branches of practical science--such as electricity,
+magnetism, and chemical cultivation of the soil--received a share
+of his attention.  He predicted that three or four powerful
+electric lamps would yet light a whole city.  He was also
+convinced of the feasibility of an electric cable to New York,
+and calculated the probable cost.  As an  example to the
+neighbourhood, he successfully cultivated a tract of moorland,
+and overcame difficulties which before then were thought
+insurmountable.
+
+When passing through Newcastle, while still a young man, on one
+of his journeys to the University at Edinburgh, and being
+desirous of witnessing the operations in a coal-mine, a friend
+recommended him to visit Killingworth pit, where he would find
+one George Stephenson, a most intelligent workman, in charge.  My
+father was introduced to Mr. Stephenson accordingly; and after
+rambling over the underground workings, and observing the pumping
+and winding engines in full operation, a friendship was made,
+which afterwards proved of the greatest service to myself, by
+facilitating my being placed as a pupil at the great engineering
+works of Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Co., at Newcastle.
+
+My mother was the daughter of Gawan Pierson, a landed proprietor
+of Goathland, near Rosedale.  She, too, was surprisingly
+mechanical in her tastes; and assisted my father in preparing
+many of his plans, besides attaining considerable proficiency in
+drawing, painting, and modelling in wax.  Toys in those days were
+poor, as well as very expensive to purchase.  But the nursery
+soon became a little workshop under her directions; and the boys
+were usually engaged, one in making a cart, another in carving
+out a horse, and a third in cutting out a boat; while the girls
+were making harness, or sewing sails, or cutting out and making
+perfect dresses for their dolls--whose houses were completely
+furnished with everything, from the kitchen to the attic, all
+made at home.
+
+It was in a house of such industry and mechanism that I was
+brought up.  As a youth, I was slow at my lessons; preferring to
+watch and assist workmen when I had an opportunity of doing so,
+even with the certainty of having a thrashing from the
+schoolmaster for my neglect.  Thus I got to know every workshop
+and every workman in the town.  At any rate I picked up a
+smattering of a variety of trades, which afterwards proved of the
+greatest use to me.  The chief of these was wooden shipbuilding,
+a branch of industry then extensively carried on by Messrs.
+William and Robert Tindall, the former of whom resided in London;
+he was one of the half-dozen great shipbuilders and owners who
+founded "Lloyd's."  Splendid East Indiamen, of some 1000 tons
+burden, were then built at Scarborough; and scarcely a timber was
+moulded, a plank bent, a spar lined off, or launching ship-ways
+laid, without my being present to witness them.  And thus, in
+course of time, I was able to make for myself the neatest and
+fastest of model yachts.
+
+At that time, I attended the Grammar School.  Of the rudiments
+taught, I was fondest of drawing, geometry, and Euclid.  Indeed,
+I went twice through the first two books of the latter before I
+was twelve years old.  At this age I was sent to the Edinburgh
+Academy, my eldest brother William being then a medical student
+at the University.  I remained at Edinburgh two years.  My early
+progress in mathematics would have been lost in the classical
+training which was then insisted upon at the academy, but for my
+brother who was not only a good mathematician but an excellent
+mechanic.  He took care to carry on my instruction in that branch
+of knowledge, as well as to teach me to make models of machines
+and buildings, in which he was himself proficient.  I remember,
+in one of my journeys to Edinburgh, by coach from Darlington,
+that a gentleman expressed his wonder what a screw propeller
+could be like; for the screw, as a method of propulsion, was then
+being introduced.  I pointed out to him the patent tail of a
+windmill by the roadside, and said, "It is just like that!"
+
+In 1844 my mother died; and shortly after, my brother having
+become M.D., and obtained a prize gold medal, we returned to
+Scarborough.  It was intended that he should assist my father;
+but he preferred going abroad for a few years.  I may mention
+further, with relation to him, that after many years of
+scientific research and professional practice, he died at Hong
+Kong in 1858, when a public monument was erected to his memory,
+in what is known as the "Happy Valley."
+
+I remained for a short time under the tuition of my old master. 
+But as the time was rapidly approaching when I too must determine
+what I was "to be" in life.  I had no hesitation in deciding to
+be an engineer, though my father wished me to be a barrister. 
+But I kept constant to my resolution; and eventually he
+succeeded, through his early acquaintance with George Stephenson,
+in gaining for me an entrance to the engineering works of Robert
+Stephenson and Co., at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  I started there as a
+pupil on my fifteenth birthday, for an apprenticeship of five
+years.  I was to spend the first four years in the various
+workshops, and the last year in the drawing-office.
+
+I was now in my element.  The working hours, it is true, were
+very long,--being from six in the morning until 8.15 at night;
+excepting on Saturday, when we knocked off at four.  However, all
+this gave me so much the more experience; and, taking advantage
+of it, I found that, when I had reached the age of eighteen, I
+was intrusted with the full charge of erecting one side of a
+locomotive.  I had to accomplish the same amount of work as my
+mate on the other side, one Murray Playfair, a powerful,
+hard-working Scotchman.  My strength and endurance were sometimes
+taxed to the utmost, and required the intervals of my labour to
+be spent in merely eating and sleeping.
+
+I afterwards went through the machine-shops.  I was fortunate
+enough to get charge of the best screw-cutting and brass-turning
+lathe in the shop; the former occupant, Jack Singleton, having
+just been promoted to a foreman's berth at the Messrs.
+Armstrong's factory.  He afterwards became superintendent of all
+the hydraulic machinery of the Mersey Dock Trust at Liverpool. 
+After my four years had been completed, I went into the
+drawing-office, to which I had looked forward with pleasure; and,
+having before practised lineal as well as free-hand drawing, I
+soon succeeded in getting good and difficult designs to work out,
+and eventually finished drawings of the engines.  Indeed, on
+visiting the works many years after, one of these drawings was
+shown to me as a "specimen;" the person exhibiting it not knowing
+that it was my own work.
+
+In the course of my occasional visits to Scarborough, my
+attention was drawn to the imperfect design of the lifeboats of
+the period; the frequent shipwrecks along the coast indicating
+the necessity for their improvement.  After considerable
+deliberation, I matured a plan for a metal lifeboat, of a
+cylindrico-conical or chrysalis form, to be propelled by a screw
+at each end, turned by sixteen men inside, seated on
+water-ballast tanks; sufficient room being left at the ends
+inside for the accommodation of ten or twelve shipwrecked
+persons; while a mate near the bow, and the captain near the
+stern in charge of the rudder, were stationed in recesses in the
+deck about three feet deep.  The whole apparatus was almost
+cylindrical, and watertight, save in the self-acting ventilators,
+which could only give access to the smallest portion of water.  I
+considered that, if the lifeboat fully manned were launched into
+the roughest seas, or off the deck of a vessel, it would, even if
+turned on its back, immediately right itself, without any of the
+crew being disturbed from their positions, to which they were to
+have been strapped.
+
+It happened that at this time (the summer of 1850) his Grace the
+late Duke of Northumberland, who had always taken a deep interest
+in the Lifeboat Institution, offered a prize of one hundred
+guineas for the best model and design of such a craft; so I
+determined to complete my plans and make a working model of my
+lifeboat.  I came to the conclusion that the cylindrico-conical
+form, with the frames to be carried completely round and forming
+beams as well, and the two screws, one at each end, worked off
+the same power, by which one or other of them would always be
+immersed, were worth registering in the Patent Office.  I
+therefore entered a caveat there; and continued working at my
+model in the evenings.  I first made a wooden block model, on the
+scale of an inch to the foot.  I had some difficulty in procuring
+sheets of copper thin enough, so that the model should draw only
+the correct amount of water; but at last I succeeded, through
+finding the man at Newcastle who had supplied my father with
+copper plates for his early road locomotive.
+
+The model was only 32 inches in length, and 8 inches in beam; and
+in order to fix all the internal fittings, of tanks, seats, crank
+handles, and pulleys, I had first to fit the shell plating, and
+then, by finally securing one strake of plates on, and then
+another, after all inside was complete, I at last finished for
+good the last outside plate.  In executing the job, my early
+experience of all sorts of handiwork came serviceably to my aid. 
+After many a whole night's work--for the evenings alone were not
+sufficient for the purpose--I at length completed my model; and
+triumphantly and confidently took it to sea in an open boat; and
+then cast it into the waves.  The model either rode over them or
+passed through them; if it was sometimes rolled over, it righted
+itself at once, and resumed its proper attitude in the waters. 
+After a considerable trial I found scarcely a trace of water
+inside.  Such as had got there was merely through the joints in
+the sliding hatches; though the ventilators were free to work
+during the experiments.
+
+I completed the prescribed drawings and specifications, and sent
+them, together with the model, to Somerset House.  Some 280
+schemes of lifeboats were submitted for competition; but mine was
+not successful.  I suspect that the extreme novelty of the
+arrangement deterred the adjudicators from awarding in its
+favour.  Indeed, the scheme was so unprecedented, and so entirely
+out of the ordinary course of things, that there was no special
+mention made of it in the report afterwards published, and even
+the description there given was incorrect.  The prize was awarded
+to Mr. James Beeching, of Great Yarmouth, whose plans were
+afterwards generally adopted by the Lifeboat Society.  I have
+preserved my model just as it was; and some of its features have
+since been introduced with advantage into shipbuilding.[1]
+
+The firm of Robert Stephenson and Co. having contracted to build
+for the Government three large iron caissons for the Keyham
+Docks, and as these were very similar in construction to that of
+an ordinary iron ship, draughtsmen conversant with that class of
+work were specially engaged to superintend it.  The manager,
+knowing my fondness for ships, placed me as his assistant at this
+new work.  After I had mastered it, I endeavoured to introduce
+improvements, having observed certain defects in laying down the
+lines--I mean by the use of graduated curves cut out of thin
+wood.  In lieu of this method, I contrived thin tapered laths of
+lancewood, and weights of a particular form, with steel claws and
+knife edges attached, so as to hold the lath tightly down to the
+paper, yet capable of being readily adjusted, so as to produce
+any form of curve, along which the pen could freely and
+continuously travel.  This method proved very efficient, and it
+has since come into general use.
+
+The Messrs. Stephenson were then also making marine engines, as
+well as large condensing pumping engines, and a large tubular
+bridge to be erected over the river Don.  The splendid high-level
+bridge over the Tyne, of which Robert Stephenson was the
+engineer, was also in course of construction.  With the
+opportunity of seeing these great works in progress, and of
+visiting, during my holidays and long evenings, most of the
+manufactories and mines in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, I
+could not fail to pick up considerable knowledge, and an
+acquaintance with a vast variety of trades.  There were about
+thirty other pupils in the works at the same time with myself;
+some were there either through favour or idle fancy; but
+comparatively few gave their full attention to the work, and I
+have since heard nothing of them.  Indeed, unless a young fellow
+takes a real interest in his work, and has a genuine love for it,
+the greatest advantages will prove of no avail whatever.
+
+It was a good plan adopted at the works, to require the pupils to
+keep the same hours as the rest of the men, and, though they paid
+a premium on entering, to give them the same rate of wages as the
+rest of the lads.  Mr. William Hutchinson, a contemporary of
+George Stephenson, was the managing partner.  He was a person of
+great experience, and had the most thorough knowledge of men and
+materials, knowing well how to handle both to the best advantage.
+
+His son-in-law, Mr. William Weallans, was the head draughtsman,
+and very proficient, not only in quickness but in accuracy and
+finish.  I found it of great advantage to have the benefit of the
+example and the training of these very clever men.
+
+My five years apprenticeship was completed in May 1851, on my
+twentieth birthday.  Having had but very little "black time," as
+it was called, beyond the half-yearly holiday for visiting my
+friends, and having only "slept in" twice during the five years,
+I was at once entered on the books as a journeyman, on the "big"
+wage of twenty shillings a week.  Orders were, however, at that
+time very difficult to be had.
+
+Railway trucks, and even navvies' barrows, were contracted for in
+order to keep the men employed.  It was better not to discharge
+them, and to find something for them to do.  At the same time it
+was not very encouraging for me, under such circumstances, to
+remain with the firm.  I therefore soon arranged to leave; and
+first of all I went to see London.  It was the Great Exhibition
+year of 1851.  I need scarcely say what a rich feast I found
+there, and how thoroughly I enjoyed it all.  I spent about two
+months in inspecting the works of art and mechanics in the
+Exhibition, to my own great advantage.  I then returned home;
+and, after remaining in Scarborough for a short time, I proceeded
+to Glasgow with a letter of introduction to Messrs. J. and G.
+Thomson, marine engine builders, who started me on the same wages
+which I had received at Stephenson's, namely twenty shillings a
+week.
+
+I found the banks of the Clyde splendid ground for gaining
+further mechanical knowledge.  There were the ship and engine
+works on both sides of the river, down to Govan; and below there,
+at Renfrew, Dumbarton, Port Glasgow, and Greenock--no end of
+magnificent yards--so that I had plenty of occupation for my
+leisure time on Saturday afternoons.  The works of Messrs. Robert
+Napier and Sons were then at the top of the tree.  The largest
+Cunard steamers were built and engined there.  Tod and Macgregor
+were the foremost in screw steamships--those for the Peninsular
+and Oriental Company being splendid models of symmetry and works
+of art.  Some of the fine wooden paddle-steamers built in Bristol
+for the Royal Mail Company were sent round to the Clyde for their
+machinery.  I contrived to board all these ships from time to
+time, so as to become well acquainted with their respective
+merits and peculiarities.
+
+As an illustration of how contrivances, excellent in principle,
+but defective in construction, may be discarded, but again taken
+up under more favourable circumstances, I may mention that I saw
+a Hall's patent surface-condensor thrown to one side from one of
+these steamers, the principal difficulty being in keeping it
+tight.  And yet, in the course of a very few years, by the
+simplest possible contrivance--inserting an indiarubber ring
+round each end of the tube (Spencer's patent)--surface
+condensation in marine engines came into vogue; and there is
+probably no ocean-going steamer afloat without it, furnished with
+every variety of suitable packings.
+
+After some time, the Messrs. Thomson determined to build their
+own vessels, and an experienced naval draughtsman was engaged, to
+whom I was "told off" whenever he needed assistance.  In the
+course of time, more and more of the ship work came in my way. 
+Indeed, I seemed to obtain the preference.  Fortunately for us
+both, my superior obtained an appointment of a similar kind on
+the Tyne, at superior pay, and I was promoted to his place.  The
+Thomsons had now a very fine shipbuilding-yard, in full working
+order, with several large steamers on the stocks.  I was placed
+in the drawing-office as head draughtsman.  At the same time I
+had no rise of wages; but still went on enjoying my twenty
+shillings a week.  I was, however, gaining information and
+experience, and knew that better pay would follow in due course
+of time.  And without solicitation I was eventually offered an
+engagement for a term of years, at an increased and increasing
+salary, with three months' notice on either side.
+
+I had only enjoyed the advance for a short time, when Mr. Thomas
+Toward, a shipbuilder on the Tyne, being in want of a manager,
+made application to the Messrs. Stephenson for such a person. 
+They mentioned my name, and Mr. Toward came over to the Clyde to
+see me.  The result was, that I became engaged, and it was
+arranged that I should enter on my enlarged duties on the Tyne in
+the autumn of 1853.  It was with no small reluctance that I left
+the Messrs. Thomson.  They were first-class practical men, and
+had throughout shown me every kindness and consideration.  But a
+managership was not to be had every day; and being the next step
+to the position of a master, I could not neglect the opportunity
+for advancement which now offered itself.
+
+Before leaving Glasgow, however, I found that it would be
+necessary to have a new angle and plate furnace provided for the
+works on the Tyne.  Now, the best man in Glasgow for building
+these important requisites for shipbuilding work was scarcely
+ever sober; but by watching and coaxing him, and by a liberal
+supply of Glenlivat afterwards, I contrived to lay down on paper,
+from his directions, what he considered to be the best class of
+furnace; and by the aid of this I was afterwards enabled to
+construct what proved to be the best furnace on the Tyne.
+
+To return to my education in shipbuilding.  My early efforts in
+ship-draughting at Stephensons' were further developed and
+matured at Thomsons' on the Clyde.  Models and drawings were more
+carefully worked out on the 1/4-in. scale than heretofore.  The
+stern frames were laid off and put up at once correctly, which
+before had been first shaped by full-sized wooden moulds.  I also
+contrived a mode of quickly and correctly laying off the
+frame-lines on a model, by laying it on a plane surface, and
+then, with a rectangular block traversing it--a pencil in a
+suitable holder being readily applied over the curved surface. 
+This method is now in general use.
+
+Even at that time, competition as regards speed in the Clyde
+steamers was very keen.  Foremost among the competitors was the
+late Mr. David Hutchinson, who, though delighted with the
+Mountaineer, built by the Thomsons in 1853, did not hesitate to
+have her lengthened forward to make her sharper, so as to secure
+her ascendency in speed during the ensuing season.  The results
+were satisfactory; and his steamers grew and grew, until they
+developed into the celebrated Iona and Cambria, which were in
+later years built for him by the same firm.  I may mention that
+the Cunard screw steamer Jura was the last heavy job with which I
+was connected while at Thomsons'.
+
+I then proceeded to the Tyne, to superintend the building of
+ships and marine boilers.  The shipbuilding yard was at St.
+Peter's, about two and a-half miles below Newcastle.  I found the
+work, as practised there, rough and ready; but by steady
+attention to all the details, and by careful inspection when
+passing the "piece-work" (a practice much in vogue there, but
+which I discouraged), I contrived to raise the standard of
+excellence, without a corresponding increase of price.  My object
+was to raise the quality of the work turned out; and, as we had
+orders from the Russian Government, from China, and the
+Continent, as well as from shipowners at home, I observed that
+quality was a very important element in all commercial success. 
+My master, Mr. Thomas Toward, was in declining health; and, being
+desirous of spending his winters abroad, I was consequently left
+in full charge of the works.  But as there did not appear to be a
+satisfactory prospect, under the circumstances, for any material
+development of the business, a trifling circumstance arose, which
+again changed the course of my career.
+
+An advertisement appeared in the papers for a manager to conduct
+a shipbuilding yard in Belfast.  I made inquiries as to the
+situation, and  eventually applied for it.  I was appointed, and
+entered upon my duties there at Christmas, 1854.  The yard was a
+much larger one than that on the Tyne, and was capable of great
+expansion.  It was situated on what was then well known as the
+Queen's Island; but now, like the Isle of Dogs, it has been
+attached by reclamation.  The yard, about four acres in extent,
+was held by lease from the Belfast Harbour Commissioners.  It was
+well placed, alongside a fine patent slip, with clear frontage,
+allowing of the largest ships being freely launched.  Indeed, the
+first ship built there, the Mary Stenhouse, had only just been
+completed and launched by Messrs. Robert Hickson and Co., then
+the proprietors of the undertaking.  They were also the owners of
+the Eliza Street Iron Works, Belfast, which were started to work
+up old iron materials.  But as the works were found to be
+unremunerative, they were shortly afterwards closed.
+
+On my entering the shipbuilding yard I found that the firm had an
+order for two large sailing ships.  One of these was partly in
+frame; and I at once tackled with it and the men.  Mr. Hickson,
+the acting partner, not being practically acquainted with the
+business, the whole proceeding connected with the building of the
+ships devolved upon me.  I had been engaged to supersede a
+manager summarily dismissed.  Although he had not given
+satisfaction to his employers, he was a great favourite with the
+men.  Accordingly, my appearance as manager in his stead was not
+very agreeable to the employed.  On inquiry I found that the rate
+of wages paid was above the usual value, whilst the quantity as
+well as quality of the work done were below the standard.  I
+proceeded to rectify these defects, by paying the ordinary rate
+of wages, and then by raising the quality of the work done.  I
+was met by the usual method--a strike.  The men turned out.  They
+were abetted by the former manager; and the leading hands hung
+about the town unemployed, in the hope of my throwing up the post
+in disgust.
+
+But, nothing daunted, I went repeatedly over to the Clyde for the
+purpose of enlisting fresh hands.  When I brought them over,
+however, in batches, there was the greatest difficulty in
+inducing them to work.  They were intimidated, or enticed, or
+feasted, and sent home again.  The late manager had also taken a
+yard on the other side of the river, and actually commenced to
+build a ship, employing some of his old comrades; but beyond
+laying the keel, little more was ever done.  A few months after
+my arrival, my firm had to arrange with its creditors, whilst I,
+pending the settlement, had myself to guarantee the wages to a
+few of the leading hands, whom I had only just succeeded in
+gathering together.  In this dilemma, an old friend, a foreman on
+the Clyde, came over to Belfast to see me.  After hearing my
+story, and considering the difficulties I had to encounter, he
+advised me at once to "throw up the job!"  My reply was, that
+"having mounted a restive horse, I would ride him into the
+stable."
+
+Notwithstanding the advice of my friend, I held on.  The
+comparatively few men in the works, as well as those out, no
+doubt observed my determination.  The obstacles were no doubt
+great; the financial difficulties were extreme; and yet there was
+a prospect of profit from the work in hand, provided only the men
+could be induced to settle steadily down to their ordinary
+employment.  I gradually gathered together a number of steady
+workmen, and appointed suitable foremen.  I obtained a
+considerable accession of strength from Newcastle.  On the death
+of Mr. Toward, his head foreman, Mr. William Hanston, with a
+number of the leading hands, joined me.  From that time forward
+the works went on apace; and we finished the ships in hand to the
+perfect satisfaction of the owners.
+
+Orders were obtained for several large sailing ships as well as
+screw vessels.  We lifted and repaired wrecked ships, to the
+material advantage of Mr. Hickson, then the sole representative
+of the firm.  After three years thus engaged, I resolved to start
+somewhere as a shipbuilder on my own account.  I made inquiries
+at Garston, Birkenhead, and other places.  When Mr. Hickson heard
+of my intentions, he said he had no wish to carry on the concern
+after I left, and made a satisfactory proposal for the sale to me
+of his holding of the Queen's Island Yard.  So I agreed to the
+proposed arrangement.  The transfer and the purchase were soon
+completed, through the kind assistance of my old and esteemed
+friend Mr. G. G. Schwabe, of Liverpool; whose nephew, Mr. G. W.
+Wolff, had been with me for a few months as my private assistant.
+
+It was necessary, however, before commencing for myself, that I
+should assist Mr. Hickson in finishing off the remaining vessels
+in hand, as well as to look out for orders on my own account. 
+Fortunately, I had not long to wait; for it had so happened that
+my introduction to the Messrs. Thomson of Glasgow had been made
+through the instrumentality of my good friend Mr. Schwabe, who
+induced Mr. James Bibby (of J. Bibby, Sons & Co., Liverpool) to
+furnish me with the necessary letter.  While in Glasgow, I had
+endeavoured to assist the Messrs. Bibby in the purchase of a
+steamer;  so I was now intrusted by them with the building of
+three screw steamers the Venetian, Sicilian, and Syrian, each 270
+feet long, by 34 feet beam, and 22 feet 9 inches hold; and
+contracted with Macnab and Co., Greenock, to supply the requisite
+steam-engines.
+
+This was considered a large order in those days.  It required
+many additions to the machinery, plant, and tools of the yard.  I
+invited Mr. Wolff, then away in the Mediterranean as engineer of
+a steamer, to return and take charge of the drawing office.  Mr.
+Wolff had served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Joseph Whitworth
+and Co., of Manchester, and was a most able man, thoroughly
+competent for the work.  Everything went on prosperously; and, in
+the midst of all my engagements, I found time to woo and win the
+hand of Miss Rosa Wann, of Vermont, Belfast, to whom I was
+married on the 26th of January, 1860, and by her great energy,
+soundness of judgment, and cleverness in organization, I was soon
+relieved from all sources of care and anxiety, excepting those
+connected with business.
+
+The steamers were completed in the course of the following year,
+doubtless to the satisfaction of the owners, for their delivery
+was immediately followed by an order for two larger vessels.  As
+I required frequently to go from home, and as the works must be
+carefully attended to during my absence, on the 1st of January,
+1862, I took Mr. Wolff in as a partner; and the firm has since
+continued under the name of Harland and Wolff.  I may here add
+that I have throughout received the most able advice and
+assistance from my excellent friend and partner, and that we have
+together been enabled to found an entirely new branch of industry
+in Belfast.
+
+It is necessary for me here to refer back a little to a screw
+steamer which was built on the Clyde for Bibby and Co. by Mr.
+John Read, and engined by J. and G. Thomson while I was with
+them.  That steamer was called the Tiber.  She was looked upon as
+of an extreme length, being 235 feet, in proportion to her beam,
+which was 29 feet.  Serious misgivings were thrown out as to
+whether she would ever stand a heavy sea.  Vessels of such
+proportions were thought to be crank, and even dangerous. 
+Nevertheless, she seemed to my mind a great success.  From that
+time, I began to think and work out the advantages and
+disadvantages of such a vessel, from an owner's as well as from a
+builder's point of view.  The result was greatly in favour of the
+owner, though entailing difficulties in construction as regards
+the builder.  These difficulties, however.  I thought might
+easily be overcome.
+
+In the first steamers ordered of me by the Messrs. Bibby, I
+thought it more prudent to simply build to the dimensions
+furnished, although they were even longer than usual.  But, prior
+to the precise dimensions being fixed for the second order, I
+with confidence proposed my theory of the greater carrying power
+and accommodation, both for cargo and passengers, that would be
+gained by constructing the new vessels of increased length,
+without any increase of beam.  I conceived that they would show
+improved qualities in a sea-way, and that, notwithstanding the
+increased accommodation, the same speed with the same power would
+be obtained, by only a slight increase in the first cost.  The
+result was, that I was allowed to settle the dimensions; and the
+following were then decided on: Length, 310 feet; beam, 34 feet;
+depth of hold, 24 feet 9 inches; all of which were fully
+compensated for by making the upper deck entirely of iron.  In
+this way, the hull of the ship was converted into a box girder of
+immensely increased strength, and was, I believe, the first ocean
+steamer ever so constructed.  The rig too was unique.  The four
+masts were made in one continuous length, with fore-and-aft
+sails, but no yards,--thereby reducing the number of hands
+necessary to work them.  And the steam winches were so arranged
+as to be serviceable for all the heavy hauls, as well as for the
+rapid handling of the cargo.
+
+In the introduction of so many novelties, I was well supported by
+Mr. F. Leyland, the junior partner of Messrs. Bibby's firm, and
+by the intelligent and practical experience of Captain Birch, the
+overlooker, and Captain George Wakeham, the Commodore of the
+company.  Unsuccessful attempts had been made many years before
+to condense the steam from the engines by passing it into
+variously formed chambers, tubes, &c., to be there condensed by
+surfaces kept cold by the circulation of sea-water round them, so
+as to preserve the pure water and return it to the boilers free
+of salt.  In this way, "salting up" was avoided, and a
+considerable saving of fuel and expenses in repairs was effected.
+
+Mr. Spencer had patented an improvement on Hall's method of
+surface condensation, by introducing indiarubber rings at each
+end of the tubes.  This had been tried as an experiment on shore,
+and we advised that it should be adopted in one of Messrs.
+Bibby's smallest steamers, the Frankfort.  The results were found
+perfectly satisfactory.  Some 20 per cent. of fuel was saved;
+and, after the patent right had been bought, the method was
+adopted in all the vessels of the company.
+
+When these new ships were first seen at Liverpool, the "old
+salts" held up their hands.  They were too long! they were too
+sharp! they would break their backs!  They might, indeed, get out
+of the Mersey, but they would never get back!  The ships,
+however, sailed; and they made rapid and prosperous voyages to
+and from the Mediterranean.  They fulfilled all the promises
+which had been made.  They proved the advantages of our new build
+of ships; and the owners were perfectly satisfied with their
+superior strength, speed, and accommodation.  The Bibbys were
+wise men in their day and generation.  They did not stop, but
+went on ordering more ships.  After the Grecian and the Italian
+had made two or three voyages to Alexandria, they sent us an
+order for three more vessels.  By our advice, they were made
+twenty feet longer than the previous ones, though of no greater
+beam; in other respects, they were almost identical.  This was
+too much for "Jack."  "What!" he exclaimed, "more Bibby's
+coffins?"  Yes, more and more; and in the course of time, most
+shipowners followed our example.
+
+To a young firm, a repetition of orders like these was a great
+advantage,--not only because of the novel design of the ships,
+but also because of their constructive details.  We did our best
+to fit up the Egyptian, Dalmatian, and Arabian, as first-rate
+vessels.  Those engaged in the Mediterranean trade finding them
+to be serious rivals, partly because of the great cargos which
+they carried, but principally from the regularity with which they
+made their voyages with such surprisingly small consumption of
+coal.  They were not, however, what "Jack" had been accustomed to
+consider "dry ships."  The ship built Dutchman fashion, with her
+bluff ends, is the driest of all ships, but the least steady,
+because she rises to every sea.  But the new ships, because of
+their length and sharpness, precluded this; for, though they rose
+sufficiently to an approaching wave for all purposes of safety,
+they often went through the crest of it, and, though shipping a
+little water, it was not only easier for the vessel, but the
+shortest road.
+
+Nature seems to have furnished us with the finest design for a
+vessel in the form of the fish: it presents such fine lines--is
+so clean, so true, and so rapid in its movements.  The ship,
+however, must float; and to hit upon the happy medium of velocity
+and stability seems to me the art and mystery of shipbuilding. 
+In order to give large carrying capacity, we gave flatness of
+bottom and squareness of bilge.  This became known in Liverpool
+as the "Belfast bottom;" and it has been generally adopted.  This
+form not only serves to give stability, but also increases the
+carrying power without lessening the speed.
+
+While Sailor Jack and our many commercial rivals stood aghast and
+wondered, our friends gave us yet another order for a still
+longer ship, with still the same beam and power.  The vessel was
+named the Persian; she was 360 feet long, 34 feet beam, 24 feet 9
+inches hold.  More cargo was thus carried, at higher speed.  It
+was only a further development of the fish form of structure. 
+Venice was an important port to call at.  The channel was
+difficult to navigate, and the Venetian class (270 feet long) was
+supposed to be the extreme length that could be handled here. 
+But what with the straight stem,--by cutting the forefoot away,
+and by the introduction of powerful steering-gear, worked
+amidships,--the captain was able to navigate the Persian, 90 feet
+longer than the Venetian, with much less anxiety and
+inconvenience.
+
+Until the building of the Persian, we had taken great pride in
+the modelling and finish of the old style of cutwater and
+figurehead, with bowsprit and jib-boom; but in urging the
+advantages of greater length of hull, we were met by the fact of
+its being simply impossible in certain docks to swing vessels of
+any greater length than those already constructed.  Not to be
+beaten, we proposed to do away with all these overhanging
+encumbrances, and to adopt a perpendicular stem.  In this way the
+hull might be made so much longer; and this was, I believe, the
+first occasion of its being adopted in this country in the case
+of an ocean steamer; though the once celebrated Collins Line of
+paddle steamers had, I believe, such stems.  The iron decks, iron
+bulwarks, and iron rails, were all found very serviceable in our
+later vessels, there being no leaking, no caulking of deck-planks
+or waterways, nor any consequent damaging of cargo.  Having found
+it impossible to combine satisfactorily wood with iron, each
+being so differently affected by temperature and moisture, I
+secured some of these novelties of construction in a patent, by
+which filling in the spaces between frames, &c., with Portland
+cement, instead of chocks of wood, and covering the iron plates
+with cement and tiles, came into practice, and this has since
+come into very general use.
+
+The Tiber, already referred to, was 235 feet in length when first
+constructed by Read, of Glasgow, and was then thought too long;
+but she was now placed in our hands to be lengthened 39 feet, as
+well as to have an iron deck added, both of which greatly
+improved her.  We also lengthened the Messrs. Bibby's Calpe--also
+built by Messrs. Thomson while I was there--by no less than 93
+feet.  The advantage of lengthening ships, retaining the same
+beam and power, having become generally recognised, we were in
+trusted by the Cunard Company to lengthen the Hecla, Olympus,
+Atlas, and Marathon, each by 63 feet.  The  Royal Consort P.S.,
+which had been lengthened first at Liverpool, was again
+lengthened by us at Belfast.
+
+The success of all this heavy work, executed for successful
+owners, put a sort of backbone into the Belfast shipbuilding
+yard.  While other concerns were slack, we were either
+lengthening or building steamers as well as sailing-ships for
+firms in Liverpool, London, and Belfast.  Many acres of ground
+were added to the works.  The Harbour Commissioners had now made
+a fine new graving-dock, and connected the Queen's Island with
+the mainland.  The yard, thus improved and extended, was surveyed
+by the Admiralty, and placed on the first-class list.  We
+afterwards built for the Government the gun vessels Lynx and
+Algerine, as well as the store and torpedo ship Hecla, of 3360
+tons.
+
+The Suez Canal being now open, our friends the Messrs. Bibby gave
+us an order for three steamers of very large tonnage, capable of
+being adapted for trade with the antipodes if necessary.  In
+these new vessels there was no retrograde step as regards length,
+for they were 390 feet keel by 37 feet beam, square-rigged on
+three of the masts, with the yards for the first time fitted on
+travellers, as to enable them to be readily sent down; thus
+forming a unique combination of big fore-and-aft sails, with
+handy square sails.  These ships were named the Istrian, Iberian,
+and Illyrian, and in 1868 they went to sea; soon after to be
+followed by three more ships--the Bavarian, Bohemian, and
+Bulgarian--in most respects the same, though ten feet longer,
+with the same beam.  They were first placed in the Mediterranean
+trade, but were afterwards transferred to the Liverpool and
+Boston trade, for cattle and emigrants.  These, with three
+smaller steamers for the Spanish cattle trade, and two larger
+steamers for other trades, made together twenty steam-vessels
+constructed for the Messrs. John Bibby, Sons, & Co.; and it was a
+matter of congratulation that, after a great deal of heavy and
+constant work, not one of them had exhibited the slightest
+indication of weakness,--all continuing in first-rate working
+order.
+
+The speedy and economic working of the Belfast steamers, compared
+with those of the ordinary type, having now become well known, a
+scheme was set on foot in 1869 for employing similar vessels,
+though of larger size, for passenger and goods accommodation
+between England and America.  Mr. T. H. Ismay,of Liverpool, the
+spirited shipowner, then formed, in conjunction with the late Mr.
+G. H. Fletcher, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited;
+and we were commissioned by them to build six large Transatlantic
+steamers, capable of carrying a heavy cargo of goods, as well as
+a full complement of cabin and steerage passengers, between
+Liverpool and New York, at a speed equal, if not superior, to
+that of the Cunard and Inman lines.  The vessels were to be
+longer than any we had yet constructed, being 420 feet keel and
+41 feet beam, with 32 feet hold.
+
+This was a great opportunity, and we eagerly embraced it.  The
+works were now up to the mark in point of extent and appliances. 
+The men in our employment were mostly of our own training: the
+foremen had been promoted from the ranks; the manager, Mr. W. H.
+Wilson, and the head draughtsman, Mr. W. J. Pirrie (since become
+partners), having, as pupils, worked up through all the
+departments, and ultimately won their honourable and responsible
+positions by dint of merit only--by character, perseverance, and
+ability.  We were therefore in a position to take up an important
+contract of this kind, and to work it out with heart and soul.
+
+As everything in the way of saving of fuel was of first-rate
+importance, we devoted ourselves to that branch of economic
+working.  It was necessary that buoyancy or space should be left
+for cargo, at the same time that increased speed should be
+secured, with as little consumption of coal as possible.  The
+Messrs. Elder and Co., of Glasgow, had made great strides in this
+direction with the paddle steam-engines which they had
+constructed for the Pacific Company on the compound principle. 
+They had also introduced them on some of their screw steamers,
+with more or less success.  Others were trying the same principle
+in various forms, by the use of high-pressure cylinders, and so
+on; the form of the boilers being varied according to
+circumstances, for the proper economy of fuel.  The first thing
+absolutely wanted was, perfectly reliable information as to the
+actual state of the compound engine and boiler up to the date of
+our inquiry.  To ascertain the facts by experience, we dispatched
+Mr. Alexander Wilson, younger brother of the manager who had been
+formerly a pupil of Messrs. Macnab and Co., of Greenock, and was
+thoroughly able for the work--to make a number of voyages in
+steam vessels fitted with the best examples of compound engines.
+
+The result of this careful inquiry was the design of the
+machinery and boilers of the Oceanic and five sister-ships.  They
+were constructed on the vertical overhead "tandem" type, with
+five-feet stroke (at that time thought excessive), oval
+single-ended transverse boilers, with a working pressure of sixty
+pounds.  We contracted with Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field, of
+London, for three of these sets, and with Messrs. George
+Forrester and Co., of Liverpool, for the other three; and as we
+found we could build the six vessels in the same time as the
+machinery was being constructed; and, as all this machinery had
+to be conveyed to Belfast to be there fitted on board, whilst the
+vessels were being otherwise finished, we built a little
+screw-steamer, the Camel, of extra strength, with very big
+hatchways, to receive these large masses of iron; and this, in
+course of time, was found to work with great advantage; until
+eventually we constructed our own machinery.
+
+We were most fortunate in the type of engine we had fixed upon,
+for it proved both economical and serviceable in all ways; and,
+with but slight modifications, we repeated it in the many
+subsequent vessels which we built for the White Star Company. 
+Another feature of novelty in these vessels consisted in placing
+the first-class accommodation amidships, with the third-class aft
+and forward.  In all previous ocean steamers, the cabin
+passengers had been berthed near the stern, where the heaving
+motion of the vessel was far greater than in the centre, and
+where that most disagreeable vibration inseparable from proximity
+to the propeller was ever present.  The unappetising smells from
+the galley were also avoided.  And last, but not least, a
+commodious smoking-saloon was fitted up amidships, contrasting
+most favourably with the scanty accommodation provided in other
+vessels.  The saloon, too, presented the novelty of extending the
+full width of the vessel, and was lighted from each side. 
+Electric bells were for the first time fitted on board ship.  The
+saloon and entire range of cabins were lighted by gas, made on
+board, though this has since given place to the incandescent
+electric light.  A fine promenade deck was provided over the
+saloon, which was accessible from below in all weathers by the
+grand staircase.
+
+These, and other arrangements, greatly promoted the comfort and
+convenience of the cabin passengers; while those in the steerage
+found great improvements in convenience, sanitation, and
+accommodation.  "Jack" had his forecastle well ventilated and
+lighted, and a turtle-back over his head when on deck, with
+winches to haul for him, and a steam-engine to work the wheel;
+while the engineers and firemen berthed as near their work as
+possible, never needing to wet a jacket or miss a meal.  In
+short, for the first time perhaps, ocean-voyaging, even in the
+North Atlantic, was made not only less tedious and dreadful to
+all, but was rendered enjoyable and even delightful to many. 
+Before the Oceanic, the  pioneer of the new line, was even
+launched, rival companies had already  consigned her to the
+deepest place in the ocean.  Her first appearance in Liverpool
+was therefore regarded with much interest.  Mr. Ismay, during the
+construction of the vessel, took every pains to suggest
+improvements and arrangements with a view to the comfort and
+convenience of the travelling public.  He accompanied the vessel
+on her first voyage to New York in March, 1871, under command of
+Captain, now Sir Digby Murray, Brt.  Although severe weather was
+experienced, the ship made a splendid voyage, with a heavy cargo
+of goods and passengers.  The Oceanic thus started the
+Transatlantic traffic of the Company, with the house-flag of the
+White Star proudly flying on the main.
+
+It may be mentioned that the speed of the Oceanic was at least a
+knot faster per hour than had been heretofore accomplished across
+the Atlantic.  The motion of the vessel was easy, without any
+indication of weakness or straining, even in the heaviest
+weather.  The only inducement to slow was when going head to it
+(which often meant head through it), to avoid the inconvenience
+of shipping a heavy body of "green sea" on deck forward.  A
+turtle-back was therefore provided to throw it off, which proved
+so satisfactory, as it had done on the Holyhead and Kingstown
+boats, that all the subsequent vessels were similarly
+constructed.  Thus, then, as with the machinery, so was the hull
+of the Oceanic, a type of the succeeding vessels, which after
+intervals of a few months took up their stations on the
+Transatlantic line.
+
+Having often observed, when at sea in heavy weather, how the
+pitching of the vessel caused the weights on the safety-valves to
+act irregularly, thus letting puffs of steam escape at every
+heave, and as high pressure steam was too valuable a commodity to
+be so wasted, we determined to try direct-acting spiral springs,
+similar to those used in locomotives, in connection with the
+compound engine.  But as no such experiment was possible in any
+vessels requiring the Board of Trade certificate, the alternative
+of using the Camel as an experimental vessel was adopted.  The
+spiral springs were accordingly fitted upon the boiler of that
+vessel, and with such a satisfactory result that the Board of
+Trade allowed the use of the same contrivance on all the boilers
+of the Oceanic and every subsequent steamer, and the contrivance
+has now come into general use.
+
+It would be too tedious to mention in detail the other ships
+built for the White Star line.  The Adriatic and Celtic were made
+17 feet 6 inches longer than the Oceanic, and a little sharper,
+being 437 feet 6 inches keel, 41 feet beam, and 32 feet hold. 
+The success of the Company had been so great under the able
+management of Ismay, Imrie and Co., and they had secured so large
+a share of the passengers and cargo, as well as of the mails
+passing between Liverpool and New York, that it was found
+necessary to build two still larger and faster vessels--the
+Britannic and Germamic: these were 455 feet in length; 45 feet in
+beam; and of 5000 indicated horse-power.  The Britannic was in
+the first instance constructed with the propeller fitted to work
+below the line of keel when in deep water, by which means the
+"racing" of the engines was avoided.  When approaching shallow
+water, the propeller was raised by steam-power to the ordinary
+position without any necessity for stopping the engines during
+the operation.  Although there was an increase of speed by this
+means through the uniform revolutions of the machinery in the
+heaviest sea, yet there was an objectionable amount of vibration
+at certain parts of the vessel, so that we found it necessary to
+return to the ordinary fixed propeller, working in the line of
+direction of the vessel.  Comfort at sea is of even more
+importance than speed; and although we had succeeded in four
+small steamers working on the new principle, it was found better
+to continue in the larger ships to resort to the established
+modes of propulsion.  It may happen that at some future period
+the new method may yet be adopted with complete success.
+
+Meanwhile competition went on with other companies.  Monopoly
+cannot exist between England and America.  Our plans were
+followed; and sharper boats and heavier power became the rule of
+the day.  But increase of horse-power of engines means increase
+of heating surface and largely increased boilers, when we reach
+the vanishing point of profit, after which there is nothing left
+but speed and expense.  It may be possible to fill a ship with
+boilers, and to save a few hours in the passage from Liverpool to
+New York by a tremendous expenditure of coal; but whether that
+will answer the purpose of any body of shareholders must be left
+for the future to determine.
+
+"Brute force" may be still further employed.  It is quite
+possible that recent "large strides" towards a more speedy
+transit across the Atlantic may have been made "in the dark."
+
+The last ships we have constructed for Ismay, Imrie and Co. have
+been of comparatively moderate dimensions and power--the Arabic
+and Coptic, 430 feet long; and the Ionic and Boric, 440 feet
+long, all of 2700 indicated horse-power.  These are large cargo
+steamers, with a moderate amount of saloon accommodation, and a
+large space for emigrants.  Some of these are now engaged in
+crossing the Pacific, whilst others are engaged in the line from
+London to New Zealand; the latter being specially fitted up for
+carrying frozen meat.
+
+To return to the operations of the Belfast shipbuilding yard.  A
+serious accident occurred in the autumn of 1867 to the mail
+paddle-steamer the Wolf, belonging to the Messrs. Burns, of
+Glasgow.  When passing out of the Lough, about eight miles from
+Belfast, she was run into by another steamer.  She was cut down
+and sank, and there she lay in about seven fathoms of water; the
+top of her funnel and masts being only visible at low tide.  She
+was in a dangerous position for all vessels navigating the
+entrance to the port, and it was necessary that she should be
+removed, either by dynamite, gunpowder, or some other process. 
+Divers were sent down to examine the ship, and the injury done to
+her being found to be slight, the owners conferred with us as to
+the possibility of lifting her and bringing her into port. 
+Though such a process had never before been accomplished, yet
+knowing her structure well, and finding that we might rely upon
+smooth water for about a week or two in summer, we determined to
+do what we could to lift the sunken vessel to the surface.
+
+We calculated the probable weight of the vessel, and had a number
+of air-tanks expressly built for her floatation.  These were
+secured to the ship with chains and hooks, the latter being
+inserted through the side lights in her sheer strake.  Early in
+the following summer everything was ready.  The air-tanks were
+prepared and rafted together.  Powerful screws were attached to
+each chain, with hand-pumps for emptying the tanks, together with
+a steam tender fitted with cooking appliances, berths and stores,
+for all hands engaged in the enterprise.  We succeeded in
+attaching the hooks and chains by means of divers; the chains
+being ready coiled on deck.  But the weather, which before seemed
+to be settled, now gave way.  No sooner had we got the pair of
+big tanks secured to the after body, than a fierce
+north-north-easterly gale set in, and we had to run for it,
+leaving the tanks partly filled, in order to lessen the strain on
+everything.
+
+When the gale had settled, we returned again, and found that no
+harm had been done.  The remainder of the hooks were properly
+attached to the rest of the tanks, the chains were screwed
+tightly up, and the tanks were pumped clear.  Then the tide rose;
+and before high water we had the great satisfaction of getting
+the body of the vessel under weigh, and towing her about a
+cable's length from her old bed.  At each tide's work she was
+lifted higher and higher, and towed into shallower water towards
+Belfast; until at length we had her, after eight days, safely in
+the harbour, ready to enter the graving dock,--not more ready,
+however, than we all were for our beds, for we had neither
+undressed nor shaved during that anxious time.  Indeed, our
+friends scarcely recognised us on our return home.
+
+The result of the enterprise was this.  The clean cut made into
+the bow of the ship by the collision was soon repaired.  The crop
+of oysters with which she was incrusted gave place to the scraper
+and the paintbrush.  The Wolf came out of the dock to the
+satisfaction both of the owners and underwriters; and she was
+soon "ready for the road," nothing the worse for her ten months'
+immersion.[2]
+
+Meanwhile the building of new iron ships went on in the Queen's
+Island.  We were employed by another Liverpool Company--the
+British Shipowners' Company, Limited--to supply some large
+steamers.  The British Empire, of 3361 gross tonnage, was the
+same class of vessel as those of the White Star line, but fuller,
+being intended for cargo.  Though originally intended for the
+Eastern trade, this vessel was eventually placed on the Liverpool
+and Philadelphia line; and her working proved so satisfactory
+that five more vessels were ordered like her, which were
+chartered to the American Company.
+
+The Liverpool agents, Messrs. Richardson, Spence, and Co., having
+purchased the Cunard steamer Russia, sent her over to us to be
+lengthened 70 feet, and entirely refitted--another proof of the
+rapid change which owners of merchant ships now found it
+necessary to adopt in view of the requirements of modern traffic.
+
+Another Liverpool firm, the Messrs. T. and J. Brocklebank, of
+world-wide repute for their fine East Indiamen, having given up
+building for themselves at their yard at Whitehaven, commissioned
+us to build for them the Alexandria, and Baroda, which were
+shortly followed by the Candahar and Tenasserim.  And continuing
+to have a faith in the future of big iron sailing ships, they
+further employed us to build for them two of yet greater tonnage,
+the Belfast and the Majestic.
+
+Indeed, there is a future for sailing ships, notwithstanding the
+recent development of steam power.  Sailing ships can still hold
+their own, especially in the transport of heavy merchandise for
+great distances.  They can be built more cheaply than steamers;
+they can be worked more economically, because they require no
+expenditure on coal, nor on wages of engineers; besides, the
+space occupied in steamers by machinery is entirely occupied by
+merchandise, all of which pays its quota of freight.  Another
+thing may be mentioned: the telegraph enables the fact of the
+sailing of a vessel, with its cargo on board, to be communicated
+from Calcutta or San Francisco to Liverpool, and from that moment
+the cargo becomes as marketable as if it were on the spot.  There
+are cases, indeed, where the freight by sailing ship is even
+greater than by steamer, as the charge for warehousing at home is
+saved, and in the meantime the cargo while at sea is negotiable.
+
+We have accordingly, during the last few years, built some of the
+largest iron and steel sailing ships that have ever gone to sea. 
+The aim has been to give them great carrying capacity and fair
+speed, with economy of working; and the use of steel, both in the
+hull and the rigging, facilitates the attainment of these
+objects.  In 1882 and 1883, we built and launched four of these
+steel and iron sailing ships--the Waiter H. Wilson, the W. J.
+Pirrie, the Fingal, and the Lord Wolseley--each of nearly 3000
+tons register, with four masts,--the owners being Mr. Lawther, of
+Belfast; Mr. Martin, of Dublin; and the Irish Shipowners Company.
+
+Besides these and other sailing ships, we have built for Messrs.
+Ismay, Imrie and Co. the Garfield, of 2347 registered tonnage;
+for Messrs. Thomas Dixon and Son, the Lord Downshire (2322); and
+for Messrs. Bullock's Bay Line, the Bay of Panama (2365).
+
+In 1880 we took in another piece of the land reclaimed by the
+Belfast Harbour Trust; and there, in close proximity to the
+ship-yard, we manufacture all the machinery required for the
+service of the steamers constructed by our firm.  In this way we
+are able to do everything "within ourselves"; and the whole land
+now occupied by the works comprises about forty acres, with ten
+building slips suitable for the largest vessels.
+
+It remains for me to mention a Belfast firm, which has done so
+much for the town.  I mean the Messrs. J.P. Corry and Co., who
+have always been amongst our best friends.  We built for them
+their first iron sailing vessel, the Jane Porter, in 1860, and
+since then they have never failed us.  They successfully
+established their "Star" line of sailing clippers from London to
+Calcutta, all of which were built here.  They subsequently gave
+us orders for yet larger vessels, in the Star of France and the
+Star of Italy.  In all, we have built for that firm eleven of
+their well-known "Star" ships.
+
+We have built five ships for the Asiatic Steam Navigation
+Company, Limited, each of from 1650 to 2059 tons gross; and we
+are now building for them two ships, each of about 3000 tons
+gross.  In 1883 we launched thirteen iron and steel vessels, of a
+registered tonnage of over 30,000 tons.  Out of eleven ships now
+building, seven are of steel.
+
+Such is a brief and summary account of the means by which we have
+been enabled to establish a new branch of industry in Belfast. 
+It has been accomplished simply by energy and hard work.  We have
+been well-supported by the skilled labour of our artisans; we
+have been backed by the capital and the enterprise of England;
+and we believe that if all true patriots would go and do
+likewise, there would be nothing to fear for the prosperity and
+success of Ireland.
+
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter XI.
+
+[1] Although Mr. Harland took no further steps with his lifeboat,
+the project seems well worthy of a fair trial.  We had lately the
+pleasure of seeing the model launched and tried on the lake
+behind Mr. Harland's residence at Ormiston, near Belfast.  The
+cylindrical lifeboat kept perfectly water-tight, and though
+thrown into the water in many different positions--sometimes
+tumbled in on its prow, at other times on its back (the deck
+being undermost), it invariably righted itself.  The screws fore
+and aft worked well, and were capable of being turned by human
+labour or by steam power.  Now that such large freights of
+passengers are carried by ocean-going ships, it would seem
+necessary that some such method should be adopted of preserving
+life at sea; for ordinary lifeboats, which are so subject to
+destructive damage, are often of little use in fires or
+shipwrecks, or other accidents on the ocean.
+
+[2] A full account is given in the Illustrated London News of the
+21st of October, 1868, with illustrations, of the raising of the
+Wolf; and another, more scientific, is given in the Engineer of
+the 16th of October, of the same year.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+ASTRONOMERS AND STUDENTS IN HUMBLE LIFE:
+
+A NEW CHAPTER IN THE 'PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES.'
+
+"I first learnt to read when the masons were at work in your
+house.  I approached them one day, and observed that the
+architect used a rule and compass, and that he made calculations.
+
+I inquired what might be the meaning and use of these things, and
+I was informed that there was a science called Arithmetic.  I
+purchased a book of arithmetic, and I learned it.  I was told
+there was another science called Geometry; I bought the necessary
+books, and I learned Geometry.  By reading, I found there were
+good books in these two sciences in Latin; I bought a dictionary,
+and I learned Latin.  I understood, also, that there were good
+books of the same kind in French; I bought a dictionary, and I
+learned French.  It seems to me that one does not need to know
+anything more than the twenty-four letters to learn everything
+else that one wishes."--Edmund Stone to the Duke of Argyll. 
+('Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties.')
+
+"The British Census proper reckons twenty-seven and a half
+million in the home countries.  What makes this census important
+is the quality of the units that compose it.  They are free
+forcible men, in a country where life is safe, and has reached
+the greatest value.  They give the bias to the current age; and
+that not by chance or by mass, but by their character, and by the
+number of individuals among them of personal ability."--Emerson:
+English Traits.
+
+From Belfast to the Highlands of Scotland is an easy route by
+steamers and railways.  While at Birnam, near Dunkeld, I was
+reminded of some remarkable characters in the neighbourhood. 
+After the publication of the 'Scotch Naturalist' and 'Robert
+Dick,' I received numerous letters informing me of many
+self-taught botanists and students of nature, quite as
+interesting as the subjects of my memoirs.  Among others, there
+was John Duncan, the botanist weaver of Aberdeen, whose
+interesting life has since been done justice to by Mr. Jolly; and
+John Sim of Perth, first a shepherd boy, then a soldier, and
+towards the close of his life a poet and a botanist, whose life,
+I was told, was "as interesting as a romance."
+
+There was also Alexander Croall, Custodian of the Smith Institute
+at Stirling, an admirable naturalist and botanist.  He was
+originally a hard-working parish schoolmaster, near Montrose. 
+During his holiday wanderings he collected plants for his
+extensive herbarium.  His accomplishments having come under the
+notice of the late Sir William Hooker, he was selected by that
+gentleman to prepare sets of the Plants of Braemar for the Queen
+and Prince Albert, which he did to their entire satisfaction.  He
+gave up his school-mastership for an ill-paid but more congenial
+occupation, that of Librarian to the Derby Museum and Herbarium. 
+Some years ago, he was appointed to his present position of
+Custodian to the Smith Institute--perhaps the best provincial
+museum and art gallery in Scotland.
+
+I could not, however, enter into the history of these remarkable
+persons; though I understand there is a probability of Mr. Croall
+giving his scientific recollections to the world.  He has already
+brought out a beautiful work, in four volumes, 'British Seaweeds,
+Nature-printed;' and anything connected with his biography will
+be looked forward to with interest.
+
+Among the other persons brought to my notice, years ago, were
+Astronomers in humble life.  For instance, I received a letter
+from John Grierson, keeper of the Girdleness Lighthouse, near
+Aberdeen, mentioning one of these persons as "an extraordinary
+character."  "William Ballingall," he said, "is a weaver in the
+town of Lower Largo, Fifeshire; and from his early days he has
+made astronomy the subject of passionate study.  I used to spend
+my school vacation at Largo, and have frequently heard him
+expound upon his favourite subject.  I believe that very high
+opinions have been expressed by scientific gentlemen regarding
+Ballingall's attainments.  They were no doubt surprised that an 
+individual with but a very limited amount of education, and whose
+hours of labour were from five in the morning until ten or eleven
+at night, should be able to acquire so much knowledge on so
+profound a subject.  Had he possessed a fair amount of education,
+and an assortment of scientific instruments and books, the world
+would have heard more about him.  Should you ever find yourself,"
+my correspondent concludes, "in his neighbourhood, and have a few
+hours to spare, you would have no reason to regret the time spent
+in his company." I could not, however, arrange to pay the
+proposed visit to Largo; but I found that I could, without
+inconvenience, visit another astronomer in the neighbourhood of
+Dunkeld.
+
+In January 1879 I received a letter from Sheriff Barclay, of
+Perth, to the following effect:  "Knowing the deep interest you
+take in genius and merit in humble ranks, I beg to state to you
+an extraordinary case.  John Robertson is a railway porter at
+Coupar Angus station.  From early youth he has made the heavens
+his study.  Night after night he looks above, and from his small
+earnings he has provided himself with a telescope which cost him
+about 30L.  He sends notices of his observations to the
+scientific journals, under the modest initials of 'J.R.' He is a
+great favourite with the public; and it is said that he has made
+some observations in celestial phenomena not before noticed.  It
+does occur to me that he should have a wider field for his
+favourite study.  In connection with an observatory, his services
+would be invaluable."
+
+Nearly five years had elapsed since the receipt of this letter,
+and I had done nothing to put myself in communication with the
+Coupar Angus astronomer.  Strange to say, his existence was again
+recalled to my notice by Professor Grainger Stewart, of
+Edinburgh.  He said that if I was in the neighbourhood I ought to
+call upon him, and that he would receive me kindly.  His duty, he
+said, was to act as porter at the station, and to shout the name
+of the place as the trains passed.  I wrote to John Robertson
+accordingly, and received a reply stating that he would be glad
+to see me, and inclosing a photograph, in which I recognised a
+good, honest, sensible face, with his person inclosed in the
+usual station porter's garb, "C.R. 1446."
+
+I started from Dunkeld, and reached Coupar Angus in due time.  As
+I approached the station, I heard the porter calling out, "Coupar
+Angus! change here for Blairgowrie!"[1]  It was the voice of John
+Robertson.
+
+I descended from the train, and addressed him at once:  after the
+photograph there could be no mistaking him.  An arrangement for a
+meeting was made, and he called upon me in the evening.  I
+invited him to such hospitality as the inn afforded; but he would
+have nothing.  "I am much obliged to you," he said; "but it
+always does me harm."  I knew at once what the "it" meant.  Then
+he invited me to his house in Causewayend Street.  I found his
+cottage clean and comfortable, presided over by an evidently
+clever wife.  He took me into his sitting-room, where I inspected
+his drawings of the sun-spots, made in colour on a large scale. 
+In all his statements he was perfectly modest and unpretending. 
+The following is his story, so far as I can recollect, in his own
+words:--
+
+"Yes; I certainly take a great interest in astronomy, but I have
+done nothing in it worthy of notice.  I am scarcely worthy to be
+called a day labourer in the science.  I am very well known
+hereabouts, especially to the travelling public; but I must say
+that they think a great deal more of me than I deserve.
+
+"What made me first devote my attention to the subject of
+astronomy?  Well, if I can trace it to one thing more than
+another, it was to some evening lectures delivered by the late
+Dr. Dick, of Broughty Ferry, to the men employed at the Craigs'
+Bleachfield Works, near Montrose, where I then worked, about the
+year l848.  Dr. Dick was an excellent lecturer, and I listened to
+him with attention.  His instructions were fully impressed upon
+our minds by Mr. Cooper, the teacher of the evening school, which
+I attended.  After giving the young lads employed at the works
+their lessons in arithmetic, he would come out with us into the
+night--and it was generally late when we separated--and show us
+the principal constellations, and the planets above the horizon. 
+It was a wonderful sight; yet we were told that these hundreds
+upon hundreds of stars, as far as the eye could see, were but a
+mere vestige of the creation amidst which we lived.  I got to
+know the names of some of the constellations the Greater Bear,
+with 'the pointers' which pointed to the Pole Star, Orion with
+his belt, the Twins, the Pleiades, and other prominent objects in
+the heavens.  It was a source of constant wonder and surprise.
+
+"When I left the Bleachfield Works, I went to Inverury, to the
+North of Scotland Railway, which was then in course of formation;
+and for many years, being immersed in work, I thought
+comparatively little of astronomy.  It remained, however, a
+pleasant memory.  It was only after coming to this neighbourhood
+in 1854, when the railway to Blairgowrie was under construction,
+that I began to read up a little, during my leisure hours, on the
+subject of astronomy.  I got married the year after, since which
+time I have lived in this house.
+
+"I became a member of a reading-room club, and read all the works
+of Dr. Dick that the library contained:  his 'Treatise on the
+Solar System,' his 'Practical Astronomer,' and other works. 
+There were also some very good  popular works to which I was
+indebted for amusement as well as instruction:  Chambers's
+'Information for the People,' Cassell's ' Popular Educator,' and
+a very interesting series of articles in the 'Leisure Hour,' by
+Edwin Dunkin of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.  These last
+papers were accompanied by maps of the chief constellations, so
+that I had a renewed opportunity of becoming a little better
+acquainted with the geography of the heavens.
+
+"I began to have a wish for a telescope, by means of which I
+might be able to see a little more than with my naked eyes.  But
+I found that I could not get anything of much use, short of 20L. 
+I could not for a long time feel justified in spending so much
+money for my own personal enjoyment.  My children were then young
+and dependent upon me.  They required to attend school--for
+education is a thing that parents must not neglect, with a view
+to the future.  However, about the year 1875, my attention was
+called to a cheap instrument advertised by Solomon--what he
+called his '5L. telescope.' I purchased one, and it tantalised
+me; for the power of the instrument was such as to teach me
+nothing of the surface of the planets.  After using it for about
+two years, I sold it to a student, and then found that I had
+accumulated enough savings to enable me to buy my present
+instrument.  Will you come into the next room and look at it?"
+
+I went accordingly into the adjoining room, and looked at the new
+telescope.  It was taken from its case, put upon its tripod, and
+looked in beautiful condition.  It is a refractor, made by Cooke
+and Sons of York.  The object glass is three inches; the focal
+length forty-three inches; and the telescope, when drawn out,
+with the pancratic eyepiece attached, is about four feet.  It was
+made after Mr. Robertson's directions, and is a sort of
+combination of instruments.
+
+"Even that instrument," he proceeded, "good as it is for the
+money, tantalises me yet.  A look through a fixed equatorial,
+such as every large observatory is furnished with is a glorious
+view.  I shall never forget the sight that I got when at Dunecht
+Observatory, to which I was invited through the kindness of Dr.
+Copeland, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres' principal
+astronomer.
+
+"You ask me what I have done in astronomical research?  I am
+sorry to say I have been able to do little except to gratify my
+own curiosity; and even then, as I say, I have been much
+tantalised.  I have watched the spots on the sun from day to day
+through obscured glasses, since the year 1878, and made many
+drawings of them.  Mr. Rand Capron, the astronomer, of Guildown,
+Guildford, desired to see these drawings, and after expressing
+his satisfaction with them, he sent them to Mr. Christie,
+Astronomer Royal, Greenwich.  Although photographs of the solar
+surface were preferred, Mr. Capron thought that my sketches might
+supply gaps in the partially cloudy days, as well as details
+which might not appear on the photographic plates.  I received a
+very kind letter from Mr. Christie, in which he said that it
+would be very difficult to make the results obtained from
+drawings, however accurate, at all comparable with those derived
+from photographs; especially as regards the accurate size of the
+spots as compared with the diameter of the sun.  And no doubt he
+is right.
+
+"What, do I suppose, is the cause of these spots in the sun? 
+Well, that is a very difficult question to answer.  Changes are
+constantly going on at the sun's surface, or, I may rather say,
+in the sun's interior, and making themselves apparent at the
+surface.  Sometimes they go on with enormous activity; at other
+times they are more quiet.  They recur alternately in periods of
+seven or eight weeks, while these again are also subject to a
+period of about eleven years--that is, the short recurring
+outbursts go on for some years, when they attain a maximum, from
+which they go on decreasing.  I may say that we are now (August
+1883) at, or very near, a maximum epoch.  There is no doubt that
+this period has an intimate connection with our auroral displays;
+but I don't think that the influence sun-spots have on light or
+heat is perceptible.  Whatever influence they possess would be
+felt alike on the whole terrestrial globe.  We have wet, dry,
+cold, and warm years, but they are never general.  The kind of
+season which prevails in one country is often quite reversed in
+another perhaps in the adjacent one.  Not so with our auroral
+displays.  They are universal on both sides of the globe; and
+from pole to pole the magnetic needle trembles during their
+continuance.  Some authorities are of opinion that these
+eleven-year cycles are subject to a larger cycle, but sun-spot
+observations have not existed long enough to determine this
+point.  For myself, I have a great difficulty in forming an
+opinion.  I have very little doubt that the spots are depressions
+on the surface of the sun.  This is more apparent when the spot
+is on the limb.  I have often seen the edge very rugged and
+uneven when groups of large spots were about to come round on the
+east side.  I have communicated some of my observations to 'The
+Observatory,' the monthly review of astronomy, edited by Mr.
+Christie, now Astronomer Royal,[2] as well as to The Scotsmam,
+and some of our local papers.[3]
+
+"I have also taken up the observation of variable stars in a
+limited portion of the heavens.  That, and 'hunting for comets'
+is about all the real astronomical work that an amateur can do
+nowadays in our climate, with a three-inch telescope.  I am
+greatly indebted to the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, who
+regularly sends me circulars of all astronomical discoveries,
+both in this and foreign countries.  I will give an instance of
+the usefulness of these circulars.  On the morning of the 4th of
+October, 1880, a comet was discovered by Hartwig, of Strasburg,
+in the constellation of Corona.  He telegraphed it to Dunecht
+Observatory, fifteen miles from Aberdeen.  The circulars
+announcing the discovery were printed and despatched by post to
+various astronomers.  My circular reached me by 7 P.M., and, the
+night being favourable, I directed my telescope upon the part of
+the heavens indicated, and found the comet almost at once--that
+is, within fifteen hours of the date of its discovery at
+Strasburg.
+
+"In April, 1878, a large meteor was observed in broad daylight,
+passing from south to north, and falling it was supposed, about
+twenty miles south of Ballater.  Mr. A. S. Herschel, Professor of
+Physics in the College of Science, 'Newcastle-on-Tyne, published
+a letter in The Scotsmam, intimating his desire to be informed of
+the particulars of the meteor's flight by those who had seen it. 
+As I was one of those who had observed the splendid meteor flash
+northwards almost under the face of the bright sun (at 10.25
+A.M), I sent the Professor a full account of what I had seen, for
+which he professed his strong obligations.  This led to a very
+pleasant correspondence with Professor Herschel.  After this, I
+devoted considerable attention to meteors, and sent many
+contributions to 'The Observatory' on the subject.[4]
+
+"You ask me what are the hours at which I make my observations? 
+I am due at the railway station at six in the morning, and I
+leave at six in the evening; but I have two hours during the day
+for meals and rest.  Sometimes I get a glance at the heavens in
+the winter mornings when the sky is clear, hunting for comets. 
+My observations on the sun are usually made twice a day during my
+meal hours, or in the early morning or late at evening in summer,
+while the sun is visible.  Yes, you are right; I try and make the
+best use of my time.  It is much too short for all that I propose
+to do.  My evenings are my own.  When the heavens are clear, I
+watch them; when obscured, there are my books and letters.
+
+"Dr. Alexander Brown, of Arbroath, is one of my correspondents. 
+I have sent him my drawings of the rings of Saturn, of Jupiter's
+belt and satellites.  Dr. Ralph Copeland, of Dunecht, is also a
+very good friend and adviser.  Occasionally, too, I send accounts
+of solar disturbances, comet a within sight, eclipses, and
+occultations, to the Scotsman, the Dundee Evening Telegraph and
+Evening News, or to the Blairgowrie Advertiser.  Besides, I am
+the local observer of meteorology, and communicate regularly with
+Mr. Symons.  These things entirely fill up my time.
+
+"Do I intend always to remain a railway porter?  Oh, yes; I am
+very comfortable! The company are very kind to me, and I hope I
+serve them faithfully.  It is true Sheriff Barclay has, without
+my knowledge, recommended me to several well-known astronomers as
+an observer.  But at my time of life changes are not to be
+desired.  I am quite satisfied to go on as I am doing.  My young
+people are growing up, and are willing to work for themselves. 
+But come, sir," he concluded, "come into the garden, and look at
+the moon through my telescope."
+
+We went into the garden accordingly, but a cloud was over the
+moon, and we could not see it.  At the top of the garden was the
+self-registering barometer, the pitcher to measure the rainfall,
+and the other apparatus necessary to enable the "Diagram of
+barometer, thermometer, rain, and wind" to be conducted, so far
+as Coupar Angus is concerned.  This Mr. Robertson has done for
+four years past.  As the hour was late, and as I knew that my
+entertainer must be up by six next morning, I took my leave.
+
+A man's character often exhibits itself in his amusements.  One
+must have a high respect for the character of John Robertson, who
+looks at the manner in which he spends his spare time.  His
+astronomical work is altogether a labour of love.  It is his
+hobby; and the working man may have his hobby as well as the
+rich.  In his case he is never less idle than when idle.  Some
+may think that he is casting his bread upon the waters, and that
+he may find it after many days.  But it is not with this object
+that he carries on his leisure-hour pursuits.  Some have tried--
+sheriff Barclay among others[5]--to obtain appointments for him
+in connection with astronomical observation; others to secure
+advancement for him in his own line.  But he is a man who is
+satisfied with his lot--one of the rarest things on earth. 
+Perhaps it is by looking so much up to the heavens that he has
+been enabled to obtain his portion of contentment.
+
+Next morning I found him busy at the station, making arrangements
+for the departure of the passenger train for Perth, and evidently
+upon the best of terms with everybody.  And here I leave John
+Robertson, the contented Coupar Angus astronomer.
+
+Some years ago I received from my friend Mr. Nasmyth a letter of
+introduction to the late Mr. Cooke of York, while the latter was
+still living.  I did not present it at the time; but I now
+proposed to visit, on my return homewards, the establishment
+which he had founded at York for the manufacture of telescopes
+and other optical instruments.  Indeed, what a man may do for
+himself as well as for science, cannot be better illustrated than
+by the life of this remarkable man.
+
+Mr. Nasmyth says that he had an account from Cooke himself of his
+small beginnings.  He was originally a shoemaker in a small
+country village.  Many a man has risen to distinction from a
+shoemaker's seat.  Bulwer, in his 'What will He do with It?' has
+discussed the difference between shoemakers and tailors.  "The
+one is thrown upon his own resources, the other works in the
+company of his fellows:  the one thinks, the other communicates.
+
+Cooke was a man of natural ability, and he made the best use of
+his powers.  Opportunity, sooner or later, comes to nearly all
+who work and wait, and are duly persevering.  Shoemaking was not
+found very productive; and Cooke, being fairly educated as well
+as self-educated, opened a village school.  He succeeded
+tolerably well.  He taught himself geometry and mathematics, and
+daily application made him more perfect in his studies.  In
+course of time an extraordinary ambition took possession of him:
+no less than the construction of a reflecting telescope of six
+inches diameter.  The idea would not let him rest until he had
+accomplished his purpose.  He cast and polished the speculum with
+great labour; but just as he was about to finish it, the casting
+broke! What was to be done?  About one-fifth had broken away, but
+still there remained a large piece, which he proceeded to grind
+down to a proper diameter.  His perseverance was rewarded by the
+possession of a 3 1/2 inch speculum, which by his rare skill he
+worked into a reflecting telescope of very good quality.
+
+He was, however, so much annoyed by the treacherously brittle
+nature of the speculum metal that he abandoned its use, and
+betook himself to glass.  He found that before he could make a
+good achromatic telescope it was necessary that he should
+calculate his curves from data depending upon the nature of the
+glass.  He accordingly proceeded to study the optical laws of
+refraction, in which his knowledge of geometry and mathematics
+greatly helped him.  And in course of time, by his rare and
+exquisite manipulative skill, he succeeded in constructing a
+four-inch refractor, or achromatic telescope, of admirable
+defining power.
+
+The excellence of his first works became noised abroad. 
+Astronomical observers took an interest in him; and friends began
+to gather round him, amongst others the late Professor Phillips
+and the Rev. Vernon Harcourt, Dean of York.  Cooke received an
+order for a telescope like his own; then he received other
+orders.  At last he gave up teaching, and took to telescope
+making.  He advanced step by step; and like a practical,
+thoughtful man, he invented special tools and machinery for the
+purpose of grinding and polishing his glasses.  He opened a shop
+in York, and established himself as a professed maker of
+telescopes.  He added to this the business of a general optician,
+his wife attending to the sale in the shop, while he himself
+attended to the workshop.
+
+Such was the excellence of his work that the demand for his
+telescopes largely increased.  They were not only better
+manufactured, but greatly cheaper than those which had before
+been in common use.  Three of the London makers had before
+possessed a monopoly of the business; but now the trade was
+thrown open by the enterprise of Cooke of York.  He proceeded to
+erect a complete factory--the Buckingham Street works.  His
+brother took charge of the grinding and polishing of the lenses,
+while his sons attended to the mechanism of the workshop; but
+Cooke himself was the master spirit of the whole concern. 
+Everything that he did was good and accurate.  His clocks were
+about the best that could be made.  He carried out his
+clock-making business with the same zeal that he devoted to the
+perfection of his achromatic telescopes.  His work was always
+first-rate.  There was no scamping about it.  Everything that he
+did was thoroughly good and honest.  His 4 1/4-inch equatorials
+are perfect gems; and his admirable achromatics, many of them of
+the largest class, are known all over the world.  Altogether,
+Thomas Cooke was a remarkable instance of the power of Self-Help.
+
+Such was the story of his Life, as communicated by Mr. Nasmyth. 
+I was  afterwards enabled, through the kind assistance of his
+widow, Mrs. Cooke, whom I saw at Saltburn, in Yorkshire, to add a
+few particulars to his biography.
+
+"My husband," she said, "was the son of a working shoemaker at
+Pocklington, in the East Riding.  He was born in 1807.  His
+father's circumstances were so straitened that he was not able to
+do much for him; but he sent him to the National school, where he
+received some education.  He remained there for about two years,
+and then he was put to his father's trade.  But he greatly
+disliked shoemaking, and longed to get away from it.  He liked
+the sun, the sky, and the open air.  He was eager to be a sailor,
+and, having heard of the voyages of Captain Cook, he wished to go
+to sea.  He spent his spare hours in learning navigation, that he
+might be a good seaman.  But when he was ready to set out for
+Hull, the entreaties and tears of his mother prevailed on him to
+give up the project; and then he had to consider what he should
+do to maintain himself at home.
+
+"He proceeded with his self-education, and with such small aids
+as he could procure, he gathered together a good deal of
+knowledge.  He thought that he might be able to teach others. 
+Everybody liked him, for his diligence, his application, and his
+good sense.  At the age of seventeen he was employed to teach the
+sons of the neighbouring farmers.  He succeeded so well that in
+the following year he opened a village school at Beilby.  He went
+on educating himself, and learnt a little of everything.  He next
+removed his school to Kirpenbeck, near Stamford Bridge; and it
+was there," proceeded Mrs. Cooke, "that I got to know him, for I
+was one of his pupils."
+
+"He first learned mathematics by buying an old volume at a
+bookstall, with a spare shilling.  That was before he began to
+teach.  He also got odd sheets, and read other books about
+geometry and mathematics, before he could buy them; for he had
+very little to spare.  He studied and learnt as much as he could.
+
+He was very anxious to get an insight into knowledge.  He studied
+optics before he had any teaching.  Then he tried to turn his
+knowledge to account.  While at Kirpenbeck he made his first
+object-glass out of a thick tumbler bottom.  He ground the glass
+cleverly by hand; then he got a piece of tin and soldered it
+together, and mounted the object-glass in it so as to form a
+telescope.
+
+"He next got a situation at the Rev. Mr. Shapkley's school in
+Micklegate, York, where he taught mathematics.  He also taught in
+ladies' schools in the city, and did what he could to make a
+little income.  Our intimacy had increased, and we had arranged
+to get married.  He was twenty-four, and I was nineteen, when we
+were happily united.  I was then his pupil for life.
+
+"Professor Phillips saw his first telescope, with the
+object-glass made out of the thick tumbler bottom, and he was so
+much pleased with it that my husband made it over to him.  But he
+also got an order for another, from Mr. Gray, solicitor, more by
+way of encouragement than because Mr. Gray wanted it, for he was
+a most kind man.  The object-glass was of four-inch aperture, and
+when mounted the defining power was found excellent.  My husband
+was so successful with his telescopes that he went on from
+smaller to greater, and at length he began to think of devoting
+himself to optics altogether.  His knowledge of mathematics had
+led him on, and friends were always ready to encourage him in his
+pursuits.
+
+"During this time he had continued his teaching at the school in
+the day-time; and he also taught on his own account the sons of
+gentlemen in the evening: amongst others the sons of Dr. Wake and
+Dr. Belcomb, both medical men.  He was only making about 100L. a
+year, and his family was increasing.  It was necessary to be very
+economical, and I was careful of everything.  At length my uncle
+Milner agreed to advance about 100L. as a loan.  A shop was taken
+in Stonegate in 1836, and provided with optical instruments.  I
+attended to the shop, while my husband worked in the back
+premises.  To bring in a little ready money, I also took in
+lodgers.
+
+"My husband now devoted himself entirely to telescope making and
+optics.  But he took in other work.  His pumps were considered
+excellent; and he furnished all those used at the pump-room,
+Harrogate.  His clocks, telescope-driving[6] and others, were of
+the best.  He commenced turret-clock making in 1852, and made
+many improvements in them.  We had by that time removed to Coney
+Street; and in 1855 the Buckingham Works were established, where
+a large number of first-rate workmen were employed.  A place was
+also taken in Southampton Street, London, in 1868, for the sale
+of the instruments manufactured at York."
+
+Thus far Mrs. Cooke.  It may be added that Thomas Cooke revived
+the art of making refracting telescopes in England.  Since the
+discovery by Dollond, in 1758, of the relation between the
+refractive and dispersive powers of different kinds of glass, and
+the invention by that distinguished optician of the achromatic
+telescope, the manufacture of that instrument had been confined
+to England, where the best flint glass was made.  But through the
+short-sighted policy of the Government, an exorbitant duty was
+placed upon the manufacture of flint glass, and the English trade
+was almost entirely stamped out.  We had accordingly to look to
+foreign countries for the further improvement of the achromatic
+telescope, which Dollond had so much advanced.
+
+A humble mechanic of Brenetz, in the Canton of Neufchatel,
+Switzerland, named Guinaud, having directed his attention to the
+manufacture of flint glass towards the close of last century, at
+length succeeded, after persevering efforts, in producing masses
+of that substance perfectly free from stain, and therefore
+adapted for the construction of the object-glasses of telescopes.
+
+Frauenhofer, the Bavarian optician, having just begun business,
+heard of the wonderful success of Guinaud, and induced the Swiss
+mechanic to leave Brenetz and enter into partnership with him at
+Munich in 1805.
+
+The result was perfectly successful; and the new firm turned out
+some of the largest object-glasses which had until then been
+made.  With one of these instruments, having an aperture of 9.9
+inches, Struve, the Russian astronomer, made some of his greatest
+discoveries.  Frauenhofer was succeeded by Merz and Mahler, who
+carried out his views, and turned out the famous refractors of
+Pulkowa Observatory in Russia, and of Harvard University in the
+United States.  These last two telescopes contained
+object-glasses of fifteen inches aperture.
+
+The pernicious impost upon flint glass having at length been
+removed by the English Government, an opportunity was afforded to
+our native opticians to recover the supremacy which they had so
+long lost.  It is to Thomas Cooke, more than to any other person,
+that we owe the recovery of this manufacture.  Mr. Lockyer,
+writing in 1878, says: "The two largest and most perfectly
+mounted refractors on the German form at present in existence are
+those at Gateshead and Washington, U.S.  The former belongs to
+Mr. Newall, a gentleman who, connected with those who were among
+the first to recognise the genius of our great English optician,
+Cooke, did not hesitate to risk thousands of pounds in one great
+experiment, the success of which will have a most important
+bearing upon the astronomy of the future."[7]
+
+The progress which Mr. Cooke made in his enterprise was slow but
+steady.  Shortly after he began business as an optician, he
+became dissatisfied with the method of hand-polishing, and made
+arrangements to polish the object-glasses by machinery worked by
+steam power.  By this means he secured perfect accuracy of
+figure.  He was also able to turn out a large quantity of
+glasses, so as to furnish astronomers in all parts of the world
+with telescopes of admirable defining power, at a comparatively
+moderate price.  In all his works he endeavoured to introduce
+simplicity.  He left his mark on nearly every astronomical
+instrument.  He found the equatorial comparatively clumsy; he
+left it nearly perfect.  His beautiful "dividing machine," for
+marking divisions on the circles, four feet in diameter and
+altogether self-acting--which divides to five minutes and reads
+off to five seconds is not the least of his triumphs.
+
+The following are some of his more important achromatic
+telescopes.  In 1850, when he had been fourteen years in
+business, he furnished his earliest patron, Professor Phillips,
+with an equatorial telescope of 6 1/4 inches aperture.  His
+second (of 6 1/8) was supplied two years later, to James
+Wigglesworth of Wakefield.  William Gray, Solicitor, of York, one
+of his earliest friends, bought a 6 1/2-inch telescope in 1853. 
+In the following year, Professor Pritchard of Oxford was supplied
+with a 6 1/2-inch.  The other important instruments were as
+follows: in 1854, Dr. Fisher, Liverpool, 6 inches; in 1855, H. L.
+Patterson, Gateshead, 7 1/4 inches; in 1858, J. G. Barclay,
+Layton, Essex, 7 1/4 inches; in 1857, Isaac Fletcher,
+Cockermouth, 9 1/4 inches; in l858, Sir W. Keith Murray,
+Ochtertyre, Crieff, 9 inches; in 1859, Captain Jacob, 9 inches; 
+in 1860, James Nasmyth, Penshurst, 8 inches; in 1861, another
+telescope to J. G. Barclay, 10 inches; in 1864, the Rev. W. R. 
+Dawes, Haddenham, Berks, 8 inches; and in 1867, Edward Crossley,
+Bermerside, Halifax, 9 3/8 inches.
+
+In 1855 Mr. Cooke obtained a silver medal at the first Paris
+Exhibition for a six-inch equatorial telescope.[8]  This was the
+highest prize awarded.  A few years later he was invited to
+Osborne by the late Prince Albert, to discuss with his Royal
+Highness the particulars of an equatorial mounting with a clock
+movement, for which he subsequently received the order.  On its
+completion he superintended the erection of the telescope, and
+had the honour of directing it to several of the celestial
+objects for the Queen and the Princess Alice, and answered their
+many interesting questions as to the stars and planets within
+sight.
+
+Mr. Cooke was put to his mettle towards the close of his life.  A
+contest had long prevailed among telescope makers as to who
+should turn out the largest refracting instrument.  The two
+telescopes of fifteen inches aperture, prepared by Merz and
+Mahler, of Munich, were the largest then in existence.  Their
+size was thought quite extraordinary.  But in 1846, Mr. Alvan
+Clark, of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, U.S., spent his leisure
+hour's in constructing small telescopes.[9] He was not an
+optician, nor a mathematician, but a portrait painter.  He
+possessed, however, enough knowledge of optics and of mechanics,
+to enable him to make and judge a telescope.  He spent some ten
+years in grinding lenses, and was at length enabled to produce
+objectives equal in quality to any ever made.
+
+In 1853, the Rev. W. E. Dawes--one of Mr. Cooke's customers --
+purchased an object-glass from Mr. Clark.  It was so satisfactory
+that he ordered several others, and finally an entire telescope. 
+The American artist then began to be appreciated in his own
+country.  In 1860 he received an order for a refractor of
+eighteen inches aperture, three inches greater than the largest
+which had up to that time been made.  This telescope was intended
+for the Observatory of Mississippi; but the Civil War prevented
+its being removed to the South; and the telescope was sold to the
+Astronomical Society of Chicago and mounted in the Observatory of
+that city.
+
+And now comes in the rivalry of Mr. Cooke of York, or rather of
+his patron, Mr. Newall of Gateshead.  At the Great Exhibition of
+London, in 1862, two large circular blocks of glass, about two
+inches thick and twenty-six inches in diameter, were shown by the
+manufacturers, Messrs. Chance of Birmingham.  These discs were
+found to be of perfect quality, and suitable for object-glasses
+of the best kind.  At the close of the Exhibition, they were
+purchased by Mr. Newall, and transferred to the workshops of
+Messrs. Cooke and Sons at York.  To grind and polish and mount
+these discs was found a work of great labour and difficulty.  Mr.
+Lockyer says, "such an achievement marks an epoch in telescopic
+astronomy, and the skill of Mr. Cooke and the munificence of Mr.
+Newall will long be remembered."
+
+When finished, the object-glass had an aperture of nearly
+twenty-five inches, and was of much greater power than the
+eighteen-inch Chicago instrument.  The length of the tube was
+about thirty-two feet.  The cast-iron pillar supporting the whole
+was nineteen feet in height from the ground, and the weight of
+the whole instrument was about six tons.  In preparing this
+telescope, nearly everything, from its extraordinary size, had to
+be specially arranged.[10]  The great anxiety involved in these
+arrangements, and the constant study and application told heavily
+upon Mr. Cooke, and though the instrument wanted only a few
+touches to make it complete, his health broke down, and he died
+on the l9th of October, 1868, at the comparatively early age of
+sixty-two.
+
+Mr. Cooke's death was felt, in a measure, to be a national loss. 
+His science and skill had restored to England the prominent
+position she had held in the time of Dollond; and, had he lived,
+even more might have been expected from him.  We believe that the
+Gold Medal and Fellowship of the Royal Society were waiting for
+him; but, as one of his friends said to his widow, "neither worth
+nor talent avails when the great ordeal is presented to us."  In
+a letter from Professor Pritchard, he said: "Your husband has
+left his mark upon his age.  No optician of modern times has
+gained a higher reputation; and I for one do not hesitate to call
+his loss national; for he cannot be replaced at present by any
+one else in his own peculiar line.  I shall carry the
+recollection of the affectionate esteem in which I held Thomas
+Cooke with me to my grave.  Alas! that he should be cut off just
+at the moment when he was about to reap the rewards due to his
+unrivalled excellence.  I have said that F.R.S. and medals were
+to be his.  But he is, we fondly trust, in a better and higher
+state than that of earthly distinction.  Best assured, your
+husband's name must ever be associated with the really great men
+of his day.  Those who knew him will ever cherish his memory."
+
+Mr. Cooke left behind him the great works which he founded in
+Buckingham Street, York.  They still give employment to a large
+number of skilled and intelligent artizans.  There I found many
+important works in progress,--the manufacture of theodolites, of
+prismatic compasses (for surveying), of Bolton's range finder,
+and of telescopes above all.  In the factory yard was the
+commencement of the Observatory for Greenwich, to contain the
+late Mr. Lassell's splendid two feet Newtonian reflecting
+telescope, which has been presented to the nation.  Mr. Cooke's
+spirit still haunts the works, which are carried on with the
+skill, the vigour, and the perseverance, transmitted by him to
+his sons.
+
+While at York, I was informed by Mr. Wigglesworth, the partner of
+Messrs. Cooke, of an energetic young astronomer at Bainbridge, in
+the mountain-district of Yorkshire, who had not only been able to
+make a telescope of his own, but was an excellent photographer. 
+He was not yet thirty years of age, but had encountered and
+conquered many difficulties.  This is a sort of character which
+is more often to be met with in remote country places than in
+thickly-peopled cities.  In the country a man is more of an
+individual; in a city he is only one of a multitude.  The country
+boy has to rely upon himself, and has to work in comparative
+solitude, while the city boy is distracted by excitements.  Life
+in the country is full of practical teachings; whereas life in
+the city may be degraded by frivolities and pleasures, which are
+too often the foes of work.  Hence we have usually to go to
+out-of-the-way corners of the country for our hardest
+brain-workers.  Contact with the earth is a great restorer of
+power; and it is to the country folks that we must ever look for
+the recuperative power of the nation as regards health, vigour,
+and manliness.
+
+Bainbridge is a remote country village, situated among the high
+lands or Fells on the north-western border of Yorkshire.  The
+mountains there send out great projecting buttresses into the
+dales; and the waters rush down from the hills, and form
+waterfalls or Forces, which Turner has done so much to
+illustrate.  The river Bain runs into the Yore at Bainbridge,
+which is supposed to be the site of an old Roman station.  Over
+the door of the Grammar School is a mermaid, said to have been
+found in a camp on the top of Addleborough, a remarkable
+limestone hill which rises to the south-east of Bainbridge.  It
+is in this grammar-school that we find the subject of this little
+autobiography.  He must be allowed to tell the story of his
+life--which he describes as ' Work: Good, Bad, and Indifferent'
+--in his own words:
+
+"I was born on November 20th, 1853.  In my childhood I suffered
+from ill-health.  My parents let me play about in the open air,
+and did not put me to school until I had turned my sixth year. 
+One day, playing in the shoemaker's shop, William Farrel asked me
+if I knew my letters.  I answered 'No.'  He then took down a
+primer from a shelf, and began to teach me the alphabet, at the
+same time amusing me by likening the letters to familiar objects
+in his shop.  I soon learned to read, and in about six weeks I
+surprised my father by reading from an easy book which the
+shoemaker had given me.
+
+"My father then took me into the school, of which he was master,
+and my education may be said fairly to have begun.  My progress,
+however, was very slow partly owing to ill-health, but more, I
+must acknowledge, to carelessness and inattention.  In fact,
+during the first four years I was at school, I learnt very little
+of anything, with the exception of reciting verses, which I
+seemed to learn without any mental effort.  My memory became very
+retentive.  I found that by attentively reading half a page of
+print, or more, from any of the school-books, I could repeat the
+whole of it without missing a word.  I can scarcely explain how I
+did it; but I think it was by paying strict attention to the
+words as words, and forming a mental picture of the paragraphs as
+they were grouped in the book.  Certain, I am, that their sense
+never made much impression on me, for, when questioned by the
+teacher, I was always sent to the bottom of the class, though
+apparently I had learned my exercise to perfection.
+
+"When I was twelve years old, I made the acquaintance of a very
+ingenious boy, who came to our school.  Samuel Bridge was a born
+mechanic.  Though only a year older than myself, such was his
+ability in the use of tools, that he could construct a model of
+any machine that he saw.  He awakened in me a love of mechanical
+construction, and together we made models of colliery
+winding-frames, iron-rolling mills, trip-hammers, and
+water-wheels.  Some of them were not mere toys, but constructed
+to scale, and were really good working models.  This love of
+mechanical construction has never left me, and I shall always
+remember with affection Samuel Bridge, who first taught me to use
+the hammer and file.  The last I heard of him was in 1875, when
+he passed his examination as a schoolmaster, in honours, and was
+at the head of his list.
+
+"During the next two years, when between twelve and fourteen, I
+made comparatively slow progress at school.  I remember having to
+write out the fourth commandment from memory.  The teacher
+counted twenty-three mistakes in ten lines of my writing.  It
+will be seen from this, that, as regards learning, I continued
+heedless and backward.  About this time, my father, who was a
+good violinist, took me under his tuition.  He made me practice
+on the violin about an hour and a half a day.  I continued this
+for a long time.  But the result was failure.  I hated the
+violin, and would never play unless compelled to do so.  I
+suppose the secret was that I had no 'ear.'
+
+"It was different with subjects more to my mind.  Looking over my
+father's books one day, I came upon Gregory's 'Handbook of
+Inorganic Chemistry,' and began reading it.  I was fascinated
+with the book, and studied it morning, noon, and night--in fact,
+every time when I could snatch a few minutes.  I really believe
+that at one time I could have repeated the whole of the book from
+memory.  Now I found the value of arithmetic, and set to work in
+earnest on proportion, vulgar and decimal fractions, and, in
+fact, everything in school work that I could turn to account in
+the science of chemistry.  The result of this sudden application
+was that I was seized with an illness.  For some months I had
+incessant headache; my hair became dried up, then turned grey,
+and finally came off.  Weighing myself shortly after my recovery,
+at the age of fifteen, I found that I just balanced fifty-six
+pounds.  I took up mensuration, then astronomy, working at them
+slowly, but giving the bulk of my spare time to chemistry.
+
+"In the year 1869, when I was sixteen years old, I came across
+Cuthbert Bede's book, entitled 'Photographic Pleasures.' It is an
+amusing book, giving an account of the rise and progress of
+photography, and at the same time having a good-natured laugh at
+it.  I read the book carefully, and took up photography as an
+amusement, using some apparatus which belonged to my father, who
+had at one time dabbled in the art.  I was soon able to take fair
+photographs.  I then decided to try photography as a business.  I
+was apprenticed to a photographer, and spent four years with
+him--one year at Northallerton, and three at Darlington.  When my
+employer removed to Darlington, I joined the School of Art there.
+
+"Having read an account of the experiments of M. E. Becquerel, a
+French savant, on photographing in the colours of nature, my
+curiosity was awakened.  I carefully repeated his experiments,
+and convinced myself that he was correct.  I continued my
+experiments in heliochromy for a period of about two years,
+during which time I made many photographs in colours, and
+discovered a method of developing the coloured image, which
+enabled me to shorten the exposure to one-fortieth of the
+previously-required time.  During these experiments, I came upon
+some curious results, which, I think, might puzzle our scientific
+men to account for.  For instance, I proved the existence of
+black light, or rays of such a nature as to turn the
+rose-coloured surface of the sensitive-plate black--that is, rays
+reflected from the black paint of drapery, produced black in the
+picture, and not the effect of darkness.  I was, like Becquerel,
+unable to fix the coloured image without destroying the colours;
+though the plates would keep a long while in the dark, and could
+be examined in a subdued, though not in a strong light.  The
+coloured image was faint, but the colours came out with great
+truth and delicacy.
+
+"I began to attend the School of Art at Darlington on the 6th of
+March, 1872.  I found, on attempting to draw, that I had
+naturally a correct eye and hand; and I made such progress, that
+when the students' drawings were examined, previously to sending
+them up to South Kensington, all my work was approved.  I was
+then set to draw from the cast in chalk, although I had only been
+at the school for a month.  I tried for all the four subjects at
+the May examination, and was fortunate enough to pass three of
+them, and obtained as a prize Packett's 'Sciography.' I worked
+hard during the next year, and sent up seventeen works; for one
+of these, the 'Venus de Milo,' I gained a studentship.
+
+"I then commenced the study of human anatomy, and began
+water-colour painting, reading all the works upon art on which I
+could lay my hand.  At the May examination of 1873, I completed
+my second-grade certificate, and at the end of the year of my
+studentship, I accepted the office of teacher in the School of
+Art.  This art-training created in me a sort of disgust for
+photography, as I saw that the science of photography had really
+very little genuine art in it, and was more allied to a
+mechanical pursuit than to an artistic one.  Now, when I look
+back on my past ideas, I clearly see that a great deal of this
+disgust was due to my ignorance and self-conceit.
+
+"In 1874, I commenced painting in tempora, and then in oil,
+copying the pictures lent to the school from the South Kensington
+Art Library.  I worked also from still life, and began sketching
+from nature in oil and water-colours, sometimes selling my work
+to help me to buy materials for art-work and scientific
+experiments.  I was, however, able to do very little in the
+following year, as I was at home suffering from sciatica.  For
+nine months I could not stand erect, but had to hobble about with
+a stick.  This illness caused me to give up my teachership.
+
+"Early in 1876 I returned to Darlington.  I went on with my art
+studies and the science of chemistry; though I went no further in
+heliochromy.  I pushed forward with anatomy.  I sent about
+fifteen works to South Kensington, and gained as my third-grade
+prize in list A the 'Dictionary of Terms used in Art' by Thomas
+Fairholt, which I found a very useful work.  Towards the end of
+the year, my father, whose health was declining, sent for me home
+to assist him in the school.  I now commenced the study of
+Algebra and Euclid in good earnest, but found it tough work.  My
+father, though a fair mathematician, was unable to give me any
+instruction; for he had been seized with paralysis, from which he
+never recovered.  Before he died, he recommended me to try for a
+schoolmaster's certificate; and I promised him that I would.  I
+obtained a situation as master of a small village school, not
+under Government inspection; and I studied during the year, and
+obtained a second class certificate at the Durham Diocesan
+College at Christmas, 1877.  Early in the following year, the
+school was placed under Government inspection, and became a
+little more remunerative.
+
+"I now went on with chemical analysis, making my own apparatus. 
+Requiring an intense heat on a small scale, I invented a furnace
+that burnt petroleum oil.  It was blown by compressed air.  After
+many failures, I eventually succeeded in bringing it to such
+perfection that in 7 1/2 minutes it would bring four ounces of
+steel into a perfectly liquefied state.  I next commenced the
+study of electricity and magnetism; and then acoustics, light,
+and heat.  I constructed all my apparatus myself, and acquired
+the art of glass-blowing, in order to make my own chemical
+apparatus, and thus save expense.
+
+"I then went on with Algebra and Euclid, and took up plane
+trigonometry; but I devoted most of my time to electricity and
+magnetism.  I constructed various scientific apparatus--a syren,
+telephones, microphones, an Edison's megaphone, as well as an
+electrometer, and a machine for covering electric wire with
+cotton or silk.  A friend having lent me a work on artificial
+memory, I began to study it; but the work led me into nothing but
+confusion, and I soon found that if I did not give it up, I
+should be left with no memory at all.  I still went an sketching
+from Nature, not so much as a study, but as a means of recruiting
+my health, which was far from being good.  At the beginning of
+1881 I obtained my present situation as assistant master at the
+Yorebridge Grammar School, of which the Rev. W. Balderston, M.A.,
+is principal.
+
+"Soon after I became settled here, I spent some of my leisure
+time in reading Emerson's 'Optics,' a work I bought at an old
+bookstall.  I was not very successful with it, owing to my
+deficient mathematical knowledge.  On the May Science
+Examinations of 1881 taking place at Newcastle-on-Tyne, applied
+for permission to sit, and obtained four tickets for the
+following subjects:-- Mathematics, Electricity and Magnetism,
+Acoustics, Light and Heat, and Physiography.  During the
+preceding month I had read up the first three subjects, but,
+being pressed for time, I gave up the idea of taking
+physiography.  However, on the last night of the examinations, I
+had some conversation with one of the students as to the subjects
+required for physiography.  He said, 'You want a little knowledge
+of everything in a scientific way, and nothing much of anything.'
+I determined to try, for 'nothing much of anything' suited me
+exactly.  I rose early next morning, and as soon as the shops
+were open I went and bought a book on the subject, 'Outlines of
+Physiography,' by W. Lawson, F.R.G.S.  I read it all day, and at
+night sat for the examination.  The results of my examinations
+were, failure in mathematics, but second class advanced grade
+certificates in all the others.  I do not attach any credit to
+passing in physiography, but merely relate the circumstance as
+curiously showing what can be done by a good 'cram.'
+
+"The failure in mathematics caused me to take the subject 'by the
+horns,' to see what I could do with it.  I began by going over
+quadratic equations, and I gradually solved the whole of those
+given in Todhunter's larger 'Algebra.' Then I re-read the
+progressions, permutations, combinations; the binomial theorem,
+with indices and surds; the logarithmic theorem and series,
+converging and diverging.  I got Todhunter's larger 'Plane
+Trigonometry,' and read it, with the theorems contained in it;
+then his 'Spherical Trigonometry;' his 'Analytical Geometry, of
+Two Dimensions,' and 'Conics.' I next obtained De Morgan's
+'Differential and Integral Calculus,' then Woolhouse's, and
+lastly, Todhunter's.  I found this department of mathematics
+difficult and perplexing to the last degree; but I mastered it
+sufficiently to turn it to some account.  This last mathematical
+course represents eighteen months of hard work, and I often sat
+up the whole night through.  One result of the application was a
+permanent injury to my sight.
+
+"Wanting some object on which to apply my newly-acquired
+mathematical knowledge, I determined to construct an astronomical
+telescope.  I got Airy's 'Geometrical Optics,' and read it
+through.  Then I searched through all my English Mechanic (a
+scientific paper that I take), and prepared for my work by
+reading all the literature on the subject that I could obtain.  I
+bought two discs of glass, of 6 1/2 inches diameter, and began to
+grind them to a spherical curve 12 feet radius.  I got them
+hollowed out, but failed in fining them through lack of skill. 
+This occurred six times in succession; but at the seventh time
+the polish came up beautifully, with scarcely a scratch upon the
+surface.  Stopping my work one night, and it being starlight, I
+thought I would try the mirror on a star.  I had a wooden frame
+ready for the purpose, which the carpenter had made for me. 
+Judge of my surprise and delight when I found that the star disc
+enlarged nearly in the same manner from each side of the focal
+point, thus making it extremely probable that I had accidentally
+hit on a near approach to the parabola in the curve of my mirror.
+
+And such proved to be the case.  I have the mirror still, and its
+performance is very good indeed.
+
+"I went no further with this mirror, for fear or spoiling it.  It
+is very slightly grey in the centre, but not sufficiently so as
+to materially injure its performance.  I mounted it in a wooden
+tube, placed it on a wooden stand, and used it for a time thus
+mounted; but getting disgusted with the tremor and inconvenience
+I had to put up with, I resolved to construct for it an iron
+equatorial stand.  I made my patterns, got them cast, turned and
+fitted them myself, grinding all the working parts together with
+emery and oil, and fitted a tangent-screw motion to drive the
+instrument in right ascension.  Now I found the instrument a
+pleasure to use; and I determined to add to it divided circles,
+and to accurately adjust it to the meridian.  I made my circles
+of well-seasoned mahogany, with slips of paper on their edges,
+dividing them with my drawing instruments, and varnishing them to
+keep out the wet.  I shall never forget that sunny afternoon upon
+which I computed the hour-angle for Jupiter, and set the
+instrument so that by calculation Jupiter should pass through the
+field of the instrument at 1h. 25m. 15s.  With my watch in my
+hand, and my eye to the eye-piece, I waited for the orb.  When
+his glorious face appeared, almost in a direct line for the
+centre of the field, I could not contain my joy, but shouted out
+as loudly as I could,--greatly to the astonishment of old George
+Johnson, the miller, who happened to be in the field where I had
+planted my stand!
+
+"Now, though I had obtained what I wanted--a fairly good
+instrument,--still I was not quite satisfied; as I had produced
+it by a fortunate chance, and not by skill alone.  I therefore
+set to work again on the other disc of glass, to try if I could
+finish it in such a way as to excel the first one.  After nearly
+a year's work I found that I could only succeed in equalling it. 
+But then, during this time, I had removed the working of mirrors
+from mere chance to a fair amount of certainty.  By bringing my
+mathematical knowledge to bear on the subject, I had devised a
+method of testing and measuring my work which, I am happy to say,
+has been fairly successful, and has enabled me to produce the
+spherical, elliptic, parabolic, or hyperbolic curve in my
+mirrors, with almost unvarying success.  The study of the
+practical working of specula and lenses has also absorbed a good
+deal of my spare time during the last two years, and the work
+involved has been scarcely less difficult.  Altogether, I
+consider this last year (1882-3) to mark the busiest period of my
+life.
+
+"It will be observed that I have only given an account of those
+branches of study in which I have put to practical test the
+deductions from theoretical reasoning.  I am at present engaged
+on the theory of the achromatic object-glass, with regard to
+spherical chromatism--a subject upon which, I believe, nearly all
+our text-books are silent, but one nevertheless of vital
+importance to the optician.  I can only proceed very slowly with
+it, on account of having to grind and figure lenses for every
+step of the theory, to keep myself in the right track; as mere
+theorizing is apt to lead one very much astray, unless it be
+checked by constant experiment.  For this particular subject,
+lenses must be ground firstly to spherical, and then to curves of
+conic sections, so as to eliminate spherical aberration from each
+lens; so that it will be observed that this subject is not
+without its difficulties.
+
+"About a month ago (September, 1883), I determined to put to the
+test the statement of some of our theorists, that the surface of
+a rotating fluid is either a parabola or a hyperbola.  I found by
+experiment that it is neither, but an approximation to the
+tractrix (a modification of the catenary), if anything definite;
+as indeed one, on thinking over the matter, might feel certain it
+would be--the tractrix being the curve of least friction.
+
+"In astronomy, I have really done very little beyond mere
+algebraical working of the fundamental theorems, and a little
+casual observation of the telescope.  So far, I must own, I have
+taken more pleasure in the theory and construction of the
+telescope, than in its use."
+
+Such is Samuel Lancaster's history of the growth and development
+of his mind.  I do not think there is anything more interesting
+in the 'Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties.' His life has
+been a gallant endeavour to win further knowledge, though too
+much at the expense of a constitution originally delicate.  He
+pursues science with patience and determination, and wooes truth
+with the ardour of a lover.  Eulogy of his character would here
+be unnecessary; but, if he takes due care of his health, we shall
+hear more of him.[11]
+
+More astronomers in humble life!  There seems to to be no end of
+them.  There must be a great fascination in looking up to the
+heavens, and seeing those wondrous worlds careering in the
+far-off infinite.  Let me look back to the names I have
+introduced in this chapter of autobiography.  First, there was my
+worthy porter friend at Coupar Angus station, enjoying himself
+with his three-inch object-glass.  Then there was the shoemaker
+and teacher, and eventually the first-rate maker of achromatic
+instruments.  Look also at the persons whom he supplied with his
+best telescopes.  Among them we find princes, baronets,
+clergymen, professors, doctors, solicitors, manufacturers, and
+inventors.  Then we come to the portrait painter, who acquired
+the highest supremacy in the art of telescope making; then to Mr.
+Lassell, the retired brewer, whose daughters presented his
+instrument to the nation; and, lastly, to the extraordinary young
+schoolmaster of Bainbridge, in Yorkshire.  And now before I
+conclude this last chapter, I have to relate perhaps the most
+extraordinary story of all--that of another astronomer in humble
+life, in the person of a slate counter at Port Penrhyn, Bangor,
+North Wales.
+
+While at Birnam, I received a letter from my old friend the Rev.
+Charles Wicksteed, formerly of Leeds, calling my attention to
+this case, and inclosing an extract from the letter of a young
+lady, one of his correspondents at Bangor.  In that letter she
+said: "What you write of Mr. Christmas Evans reminds me very much
+of a visit I paid a few evenings ago to an old man in Upper
+Bangor.  He works on the Quay, but has a very decided taste for
+astronomy, his leisure time being spent in its study, with a
+great part of his earnings.  I went there with some friends to
+see an immense telescope, which he has made almost entirely
+without aid, preparing the glasses as far as possible himself,
+and sending them away merely to have their concavity changed.  He
+showed us all his treasures with the greatest delight, explaining
+in English, but substituting Welsh when at a loss.  He has
+scarcely ever been at school, but has learnt English entirely
+from books.  Among other things he showed us were a Greek
+Testament and a Hebrew Bible, both of which he can read.  His
+largest telescope, which is several yards long, he has named
+'Jumbo,' and through it he told us he saw the snowcap on the pole
+of Mars.  He had another smaller telescope, made by himself, and
+had a spectroscope in process of making.  He is now quite old,
+but his delight in his studies is still unbounded and unabated. 
+It seems so sad that he has had no right opportunity for
+developing his talent."
+
+Mr. Wicksteed was very much interested in the case, and called my
+attention to it, that I might add the story to my repertory of
+self-helping men.  While at York I received a communication from
+Miss Grace Ellis, the young lady in question, informing me of the
+name of the astronomer--John Jones, Albert Street, Upper
+Bangor--and intimating that he would be glad to see me any
+evening after six.  As railways have had the effect of bringing
+places very close together in point of time--making of Britain,
+as it were, one great town--and as the autumn was brilliant, and
+the holiday season not at an end, I had no difficulty in
+diverging from my journey, and taking Bangor on my way homeward. 
+Starting from York in the morning, and passing through Leeds,
+Manchester, and Chester, I reached Bangor in the afternoon, and
+had my first interview with Mr. Jones that very evening.
+
+I found him, as Miss Grace Ellis had described, active, vigorous,
+and intelligent; his stature short, his face well-formed, his
+eyes keen and bright.  I was first shown into his little parlour
+downstairs, furnished  with his books and some of his
+instruments; I was then taken to his tiny room upstairs, where he
+had his big reflecting telescope, by means of which he had seen,
+through the chamber window, the snowcap of Mars.  He is so fond
+of philology that I found he had no fewer than twenty-six
+dictionaries, all bought out of his own earnings.  "I am fond of
+all knowledge," he said--"of Reuben, Dan, and Issachar; but I
+have a favourite, a Benjamin, and that is Astronomy.  I would
+sell all of them into Egypt, but preserve my Benjamin."  His
+story is briefly as follows:--
+
+"I was born at Bryngwyn Bach, Anglesey, in 1818, and I am
+sixty-five years old.  I got the little education I have, when a
+boy.  Owen Owen, who was a cousin of my mother's, kept a school
+at a chapel in the village of Dwyrain, in Anglesey.  It was said
+of Owen that he never had more than a quarter of a year's
+schooling, so that he could not teach me much.  I went to his
+school at seven, and remained with him about a year.  Then he
+left; and some time afterwards I went for a short period to an
+old preacher's school, at Brynsieneyn chapel.  There I learnt but
+little, the teacher being negligent.  He allowed the children to
+play together too much, and he punished them for slight offences,
+making them obstinate and disheartened.  But I remember his once
+saying to the other children, that I ran through my little lesson
+'like a coach.' However, when I was about twelve years old, my
+father died, and in losing him I lost almost all the little I had
+learnt during the short periods I had been at school.  Then I
+went to work for the farmers.
+
+"In this state of ignorance I remained for years, until the time
+came when on Sunday I used to saddle the old black mare for
+Cadwalladr Williams, the Calvinist Methodist preacher, at Pen
+Ceint, Anglesey; and after he had ridden away, I used to hide in
+his library during the sermon, and there I learnt a little that I
+shall not soon forget.  In that way I had many a draught of
+knowledge, as it were, by stealth.  Having a strong taste for
+music, I was much attracted by choral singing; and on Sundays and
+in the evenings I tried to copy out airs from different books,
+and accustomed my hand a little to writing.  This tendency was,
+however, choked within me by too much work with the cattle, and
+by other farm labour.  In a word, I had but little fair weather
+in my search for knowledge.  One thing enticed me from another,
+to the detriment of my plans; some fair Eve often standing with
+an apple in hand, tempting me to taste of that.
+
+"The old preacher's books at Pen Ceint were in Welsh.  I had not
+yet learned English, but tried to learn it by comparing one line
+in the English New Testament with the same line in the Welsh. 
+This was the Hamiltonian method, and the way in which I learnt
+most languages.  I first got an idea of astronomy from reading
+'The Solar System,' by Dr. Dick, translated into Welsh by Eleazar
+Roberts of Liverpool.  That book I found on Sundays in the
+preacher's library; and many a sublime thought it gave me.  It
+was comparatively easy to understand.
+
+"When I was about thirty I was taken very ill, and could no
+longer work.  I then went to Bangor to consult Dr. Humphrys. 
+After I got better I found work at the Port at 12s. a week.  I
+was employed in counting the slates, or loading the ships in the
+harbour from the railway trucks.  I lodged in Fwn Deg, near where
+Hugh Williams, Gatehouse, then kept a navigation school for young
+sailors.  I learnt navigation, and soon made considerable
+progress.  I also learnt a little arithmetic.  At first nearly
+all the young men were more advanced than myself; but before I
+left matters were different, and the Scripture words became
+verified-- "the last shall be first."  I remained with Hugh
+Williams six months and a half.  During that time I went twice
+through the 'Tutor's Assistant,' and a month before I left I was
+taught mensuration.  That is all the education I received, and
+the greater part of it was during my by-hours.
+
+"I got to know English pretty well, though Welsh was the language
+of those about me.  From easy books I went to those more
+difficult.  I was helped in my pronunciation of English by
+comparing the words with the phonetic alphabet, as published by
+Thomas Gee of Denbigh, in 1853.  With my spare earnings I bought
+books, especially when my wages began to rise.  Mr. Wyatt, the
+steward, was very kind, and raised my pay from time to time at
+his pleasure.  I suppose I was willing, correct, and faithful.  I
+improved my knowledge by reading books on astronomy.  I got,
+amongst others, 'The Mechanism of the Heavens,' by Denison
+Olmstead, an American; a very understandable book.  Learning
+English, which was a foreign language to me, led me to learn
+other languages.  I took pleasure in finding out the roots or
+radixes of words, and from time to time I added foreign
+dictionaries to my little library.  But I took most pleasure in
+astronomy.
+
+"The perusal of Sir John Herschel's 'Outlines of Astronomy,' and
+of his 'Treatise on the Telescope,' set my mind on fire.  I
+conceived the idea of making a telescope of my own, for I could
+not buy one.  While reading the Mechanics' Magazine I observed
+the accounts of men who made telescopes.  Why should not I do the
+same?  Of course it was a matter of great difficulty to one who
+knew comparatively little of the use of tools.  But I had a
+willing mind and willing hands.  So I set to work.  I think I
+made my first telescope about twenty years ago.  It was
+thirty-six inches long, and the tube was made of pasteboard.  I
+got the glasses from Liverpool for 4s. 6d.  Captain Owens, of the
+ship Talacra, bought them.  He also bought for me, at a
+bookstall, the Greek Lexicon and the Greek New Testament, for
+which he paid 7s. 6d.  With my new telescope I could see
+Jupiter's four satellites, the craters on the moon, and some of
+the double stars.  It was a wonderful pleasure to me.
+
+"But I was not satisfied with the instrument.  I wanted a bigger
+and a more perfect one.  I sold it and got new glasses from
+Solomon of London, who was always ready to trust me.  I think it
+was about the year 1868 that I began to make a reflecting
+telescope.  I got a rough disc of glass, from St. Helens, of ten
+inches diameter.  It took me from nine to ten days to grind and
+polish it ready for parabolising and silvering.  I did this by
+hand labour with the aid of emery, but without a lathe.  I
+finally used rouge instead of emery in grinding down the glass,
+until I could see my face in the mirror quite plain.  I then sent
+the 8 3/16 inch disc to Mr. George Calver, of Chelmsford, to turn
+my spherical curve to a parabolic curve, and to silver the
+mirror, for which I paid him 5L.  I mounted this in my timber
+tube; the focus was ten feet.  When everything was complete I
+tried my instrument on the sky, and found it to have good
+defining power.  The diameter of the other glass I have made is a
+little under six inches.
+
+"You ask me if their performance satisfies me?  Well; I have
+compared my six-inch reflector with a 4 1/4 inch refractor,
+through my window, with a power of 100 and 140.  I can't say
+which was the best.  But if out on a clear night I think my
+reflector would take more power than the refractor.  However that
+may be, I saw the snowcap on the planet Mars quite plain; and it
+is satisfactory to me so far.  With respect to the 8 3/16 inch
+glass, I am not quite satisfied with it yet; but I am making
+improvements, and I believe it will reward my labour in the end."
+
+Besides these instruments John Jones has an equatorial which is
+mounted on a tripod stand, made by himself.  It contains the
+right ascension, declination, and azimuth index, all neatly
+carved upon slate.  In his spectroscope he makes his prisms out
+of the skylights used in vessels.  These he grinds down to suit
+his purpose.  I have not been able to go into the complete detail
+of the manner in which he effects the grinding of his glasses. 
+It is perhaps too technical to be illustrated in words, which are
+full of focuses, parabolas, and convexities.  But enough may be
+gathered from the above account to give an idea of the wonderful
+tenacity of this aged student, who counts his slates into the
+ships by day, and devotes his evenings to the perfecting of his
+astronomical instruments.  But not only is he an astronomer and a
+philologist; he is also a bard, and his poetry is much admired in
+the district.  He writes in Welsh, not in English, and signs
+himself "Ioan, of Bryngwyn Bach," the place where he was born. 
+Indeed, he is still at a loss for words when he speaks in
+English.  He usually interlards his conversation with passages in
+Welsh, which is his mother-tongue.  A friend has, however, done
+me the favour to translate two of John Jones's poems into
+English.  The first is 'The Telescope':--
+
+"To Heaven it points, where rules the Sun 
+In golden gall'ries bright; 
+And the pale Moon in silver rays 
+Makes dalliance in the night.
+
+"It sweeps with eagle glances 
+The sky, its myriad throng, 
+That myriad throng to marshal 
+And bring to us their song.
+
+"Orb upon orb it follows 
+As oft they intertwine, 
+And worlds in vast processions 
+As if in battle line.
+
+"It loves all things created, 
+To follow and to trace; 
+And never fears to penetrate 
+The dark abyss of space."
+
+The next is to 'The Comet':-
+
+"A maiden fair, with light of stars bedecked, 
+Starts out of space at Jove's command; 
+With visage wild, and long dishevelled hair, 
+Speeds she along her starry course; 
+The hosts of heaven regards she not,-- 
+Fain would she scorn them all except her father Sol, 
+Whose mighty influence her headlong course doth all control."
+
+The following translation may also be given: it shows that the
+bard is not without a spice of wit.  A fellow-workman teased him
+to write some lines; when John Jones, in a seemingly innocent
+manner, put some questions, and ascertained that he had once been
+a tailor.  Accordingly this epigram was written, and appeared in
+the local paper the week after: "To a quondam Tailor, now a
+Slate-teller":--
+
+"To thread and needle now good-bye, 
+With slates I aim at riches; 
+The scissors will I ne'er more ply, 
+Nor make, but order, breeches."[12]
+
+The bi-lingual speech is the great educational difficulty of
+Wales.  To get an entrance into literature and science requires a
+knowledge of English; or, if not of English, then of French or
+German.  But the Welsh language stands in the way.  Few literary
+or scientific works are translated into Welsh.  Hence the great
+educational difficulty continues, and is maintained from year to
+year by patriotism and Eisteddfods.
+
+Possibly the difficulties to be encountered may occasionally
+evoke unusual powers of study; but this can only occur in
+exceptional cases.  While at Bangor Mr. Cadwalladr Davies read to
+me the letter of a student and professor, whose passion for
+knowledge is of an extraordinary character.  While examined
+before the Parliamentary Committee appointed to inquire into the
+condition of intermediate and higher education in Wales and
+Monmouthshire, Mr. Davies gave evidence relating to this and
+other remarkable cases, of which the following is an abstract,
+condensed by himself:--
+
+"The night schools in the quarry districts have been doing a very
+great work; and, if the Committee will allow me, I will read an
+extract from a letter which I received from Mr. Bradley Jones,
+master of the Board Schools at Llanarmon, near Mold, Flintshire,
+who some years ago kept a very flourishing night school in the
+neighbourhood.  He says: 'During the whole of the time (fourteen
+years) that I was at Carneddi, I carried on these schools, and I
+believe I have had more experience of such institutions than any
+teacher in North Wales.  For several years about 120 scholars
+used to attend the Carneddi night school in the winter months,
+four evenings a week.  Nearly all were quarrymen, from fourteen
+to twenty-one years of age, and engaged at work from 7 A.M. to
+5.30 P.M.  So intense was their desire for education that some of
+them had to walk a distance of two or even three miles to school.
+
+These, besides working hard all day, had to walk six miles in the
+one case and nine in the other before school-time, in addition to
+the walk home afterwards.  Several of them used to attend all the
+year round, even coming to me for lessons in summer before going
+to work, as well as in the evening.  Indeed, so anxious were some
+of them, that they would often come for lessons as early as five
+o'clock in the morning.  This may appear almost incredible, but
+any of the managers of the Carneddi School could corroborate the
+statement.'
+
+"I have now in my mind's eye," continues Mr. Bradley, "several of
+these young men, who, by dint of indefatigable labour and
+self-denial, ultimately qualified themselves for posts in which a
+good education is a sine qua non.  Some of them are to-day quarry
+managers, professional men, certificated teachers, and ministers
+of the Gospel.  Five of them are at the present time students at
+Bala College.  One got a situation in the Glasgow Post Office as
+letter-carrier.  During his leisure hours he attended the
+lectures at one of the medical schools of that city, and in
+course of time gained his diploma.  He is now practising as a
+surgeon, and I understand with signal success.  This gentleman
+worked in the Penrhyn Quarry until he was twenty years old.  I
+could give many more instances of the resolute and self-denying
+spirit with which the young quarrymen of Bethesda sought to
+educate themselves.  The teachers of the other schools in that
+neighbourhood could give similar examples, for during the winter
+months there used to be no less than 300 evening scholars under
+instruction in the different schools.  The Bethesda booksellers
+could tell a tale that would surprise our English friends.  I
+have been informed by one of them that he has sold to young
+quarrymen an immense number of such works as Lord Macaulay's,
+Stuart Mill's, and Professor Fawcett's; and it is no uncommon
+sight to find these and similar works read and studied by the
+young quarrymen during the dinner hour."
+
+"I can give," proceeds Mr. Cadwalladr Davies, "one remarkable
+instance to show the struggles which young Welshmen have to
+undertake in order to get education.  The boy in question, the
+son of 'poor but honest parents,' left the small national school
+of his native village when he was 12 1/2 years of age, and then
+followed his father's occupation of shoemaking until he was 16
+1/2 years of age.  After working hard at his trade for four
+years, he, his brother, and two fellow apprentices, formed
+themselves into a sort of club to learn shorthand, the whole
+matter being kept a profound secret.  They had no teachers, and
+they met at the gas-works, sitting opposite the retorts on a
+bench supported at each end with bricks.  They did not penetrate
+far into the mysteries of Welsh shorthand; they soon abandoned
+the attempt, and induced the village schoolmaster to open a night
+school.
+
+This, however, did not last long.  The young Crispin was
+returning late one night from Llanrwst in company with a lad of
+the same age, and both having heard much of the blessings of
+education from a Scotch lady who took a kindly interest in them,
+their ambition was inflamed, and they entered into a solemn
+compact that they would thenceforward devote themselves body and
+soul to the attainment of an academical degree.  Yet they were
+both poor.  One was but a shoemaker's apprentice, while the other
+was a pupil teacher earning but a miserable weekly pittance.  One
+could do the parts of speech; the other could not.  One had
+struggled with the pans asinorum; the other had never seen it.  I
+may mention that the young pupil teacher is now a curate in the
+Church of England.  He is a graduate of Cambridge University and
+a prizeman of Clare College.  But to return to the little
+shoemaker.
+
+"After returning home from Llanrwst, he disburthened his heart to
+his mother, and told her that shoemaking, which until now he had
+pursued with extraordinary zest, could no longer interest him. 
+His mother, who was equal to the emergency, sent the boy to a
+teacher of the old school, who had himself worked his way from
+the plough.  After the exercise of considerable diplomacy, an
+arrangement was arrived at whereby the youth was to go to school
+on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and make shoes during the
+remaining days of the week.  This suited him admirably.  That
+very night he seized upon a geography, and began to learn the
+counties of England and Wales.  The fear of failure never left
+him for two hours together, except when he slept.  The plan of
+work was faithfully kept; though by this time shoemaking had lost
+its charms.  He shortened his sleeping hours, and rose at any
+moment that he awoke--at two, three, or four in the morning.  He
+got his brother, who had been plodding with him over shorthand,
+to study horticulture, and fruit and vegetable culture; and that
+brother shortly after took a high place in an examination held by
+the Royal Horticultural Society.  For a time, however, they
+worked together; and often did their mother get up at four
+o'clock in the depth of winter, light their fire, and return to
+bed after calling them up to the work of self-culture.  Even this
+did not satisfy their devouring ambition.  There was a bed in the
+workshop, and they obtained permission to sleep there.  Then they
+followed their own plans.  The young gardener would sit up till
+one or two in the morning, and wake his brother, who had gone to
+bed as soon as he had given up work the night before.
+
+Now he got up and studied through the small hours of the morning
+until the time came when he had to transfer his industry to
+shoemaking, or go to school on the appointed days after the
+distant eight o'clock had come.  His brother had got worn out. 
+Early sleep seemed to be the best.  They then both went to bed
+about eight o'clock, and got the policeman to call them up before
+retiring himself.
+
+"So the struggle went on, until the faithful old schoolmaster
+thought that his young pupil might try the examination at the
+Bangor Normal College.  He was now eighteen years of age; and it
+was eighteen months since the time when he began to learn the
+counties of England and Wales.  He went to Bangor, rigged out in
+his brother's coat and waistcoat, which were better than his own;
+and with his brother's watch in his pocket to time himself in his
+examinations.  He went through his examination, but returned home
+thinking he had failed.  Nevertheless, he had in the meantime, on
+the strength of a certificate which he had obtained six months
+before, in an examination held by the Society of Arts and
+Sciences in Liverpool, applied for a situation as teacher in a
+grammar-school at Ormskirk in Lancashire.  He succeeded in his
+application, and had been there for only eight days when he
+received a letter from Mr. Rowlands, Principal of the Bangor
+Normal College, informing him that he had passed at the head of
+the list, and was the highest non-pupil teacher examined by the
+British and Foreign Society.  Having obtained permission from his
+master to leave, he packed his clothes and his few books.  He had
+not enough money to carry him home; but, unasked, the master of
+the school gave him 10s.  He arrived home about three o'clock on
+a Sunday morning, after a walk of eleven miles over a lonely road
+from the place where the train had stopped.  He reeled on the
+way, and found the country reeling too.  He had been sleeping
+eight nights in a damp bed.  Six weeks of the Bangor Session
+passed, and during that time he had been delirious, and was too
+weak to sit up in bed.  But the second time he crossed the
+threshold of his home he made for Bangor and got back his
+"position," which was all important to him, and he kept it all
+through.
+
+"Having finished his course at Bangor he went to keep a school at
+Brynaman; he endeavoured to study but could not.  After two years
+he gave up the school, and with 60L. saved he faced the world
+once more.  There was a scholarship of the value of 40L. a year,
+for three years, attached to one of the Scotch Universities, to
+be competed for.  He knew the Latin Grammar, and had, with help,
+translated one of the books of Caesar.  Of Greek he knew nothing,
+save the letters and the first declension of nouns; but in May he
+began to read in earnest at a farmhouse.  He worked every day
+from 6 A.M. to 12 P.M. with only an hour's intermission.  He
+studied the six Latin and two Greek books prescribed; he did some
+Latin composition unaided; brushed up his mathematics; and learnt
+something of the history of Greece and Rome.  In October, after
+five months of hard work, he underwent an examination for the
+scholarship, and obtained it; beating his opponent by
+twenty-eight marks in a thousand.  He then went up to the Scotch
+University and passed all the examinations for his ordinary M.A. 
+degree in two years and a half.  On his first arrival at the
+University he found that he could not sleep; but he wearily yet
+victoriously plodded on; took a prize in Greek, then the first
+prize in philosophy, the second prize in logic, the medal in
+English literature, and a few other prizes.
+
+"He had 40L. when he first arrived in Scotland; and he carried
+away with him a similar sum to Germany, whither he went to study
+for honours in philosophy.  He returned home with little in his
+pocket, borrowing money to go to Scotland, where he sat for
+honours and for the scholarship.  He got his first honours, and
+what was more important at the time, money to go on with.  He now
+lives on the scholarship which he took at that time; is an
+assistant professor; and, in a fortnight, will begin a course of
+lectures for ladies in connection with his university.  Writing
+to me a few days ago,[13] he says, 'My health, broken down with
+my last struggle, is quite restored, and I live with the hope of
+working on.  Many have worked more constantly, but few have
+worked more intensely.  I found kindness on every hand always,
+but had I failed in a single instance I should have met with
+entire bankruptcy.  The failure would have been ruinous.... I
+thank God for the struggle, but would not like to see a dog try
+it again.  There are droves of lads in Wales that would creep up
+but they cannot.  Poverty has too heavy a hand for them.'"
+
+The gentleman whose brief history is thus summarily given by Mr.
+Davies, is now well known as a professor of philosophy; and, if
+his health be spared, he will become still better known.  He is
+the author of several important works on 'Moral Philosophy,'
+published by a leading London firm; and more works are announced
+from his pen.  The victorious struggle for knowledge which we
+have recounted might possibly be equalled, but it could not
+possibly be surpassed.  There are, however, as Mr. Davies related
+to the Parliamentary Committee, many instances of Welsh students
+--most of them originally quarrymen--who keep themselves at
+school by means of the savings effected from manual labour, "in
+frequent cases eked out and helped by the kindness of friends and
+neighbours," who struggle up through many difficulties, and
+eventually achieve success in the best sense of the term.  "One
+young man"--as the teacher of a grammar-school, within two miles
+of Bangor, related to Mr. Davies-- "who came to me from the
+quarry some time ago, was a gold medallist at Edinburgh last
+winter;" and contributions are readily made by the quarrymen to
+help forward any young man who displays an earnest desire for
+knowledge in science and literature.
+
+It is a remarkable fact that the quarrymen of Carnarvonshire have
+voluntarily contributed large sums of money towards the
+establishment of the University College in North Wales--the
+quarry districts in that county having contributed to that fund,
+in the course of three years, mostly in half-crown subscriptions,
+not less than 508L. 4s. 4d.-- "a fact," says Mr. Davies, "without
+its parallel in the history of the education of any country;" the
+most striking feature being, that these collections were made in
+support of an institution from which the quarrymen could only
+very remotely derive any benefit.
+
+While I was at Bangor, on the 24th of August, 1883, the news
+arrived that the Committee of Selection had determined that
+Bangor should be the site for the intended North Wales University
+College.  The news rapidly spread, and great rejoicings prevailed
+throughout the borough, which had just been incorporated.  The
+volunteer band played through the streets; the church bells rang
+merry peals; and gay flags were displayed from nearly every
+window.  There never was such a triumphant display before in the
+cause of University education.
+
+As Mr. Cadwalladr Davies observed at the banquet, which took
+place on the following day: "The establishment of the new
+institution will mark the dawn of a new era in the history of the
+Welsh people.  He looked to it, not only as a means of imparting
+academical knowledge to the students within its walls, but also
+as a means of raising the intellectual and moral tone of the
+whole people.  They were fond of quoting the saying of a great
+English writer, that there was something Grecian in the Celtic
+race, and that the Celtic was the refining element in the British
+character; but such remarks, often accompanied as they were with
+offensive comparisons from Eisteddfod platforms, would in future
+be put to the test, for they would, with their new educational
+machinery, be placed on a footing of perfect equality with the
+Scotch and the Irish people."
+
+And here must come to an end the character history of my autumn
+tour in Ireland, Scotland, Yorkshire, and Wales.  I had not the
+remotest intention when setting out of collecting information and
+writing down my recollections of the journey.  But the persons I
+met, and the information I received, were of no small
+interest--at least to myself; and I trust that the reader will
+derive as much pleasure from perusing my observations as I have
+had in collecting and writing them down.  I do think that the
+remarkable persons whose history and characters I have
+endeavoured, however briefly, to sketch, will be found to afford
+many valuable and important lessons of Self-Help; and to
+illustrate how the moral and industrial foundations of a country
+may be built up and established.
+
+
+Footnotes for Chapter XII.
+
+[1] A "poet," who dates from "New York, March 1883," has
+published seven stanzas, entitled "Change here for Blairgowrie,"
+from which we take the following:--
+
+"From early morn till late at e'en, 
+John's honest face is to be seen, 
+Bustling about the trains between,
+Be 't sunshine or be 't showery; 
+And as each one stops at his door, 
+He greets it with the well-known roar 
+Of 'Change here for Blairgowrie.' 
+Even when the still and drowsy night 
+Has drawn the curtains of our sight, 
+John's watchful eyes become more bright, 
+And take another glow'r aye 
+Thro' yon blue dome of sparkling stars 
+Where Venus bright and ruddy Mars 
+Shine down upon Blairgowrie.  
+He kens each jinkin' comet's track, 
+And when it's likely to come back, 
+When they have tails, and when they lack-- 
+In heaven the waggish power aye; 
+When Jupiter's belt buckle hings, 
+And the Pyx mark on Saturn's rings, 
+He sees from near Blairgowrie."
+
+[2] The Observatory, No. 61, p. 146; and No. 68, p. 371.
+
+[3] In an article on the subject in the Dundee Evening Telegraph,
+Mr. Robertson observes:  "If our finite minds were more capable
+of comprehension, what a glorious view of the grandeur of the
+Deity would be displayed to us in the contemplation of the centre
+and source of light and heat to the solar system.  The force
+requisite to pour such continuous floods to the remotest parts of
+the system must ever baffle the mind of man to grasp.  But we are
+not to sit down in indolence: our duty is to inquire into
+Nature's works, though we can never exhaust the field.  Our minds
+cannot imagine motion without some Power moving through the
+medium of some subordinate agency, ever acting on the sun, to
+send such floods of light and heat to our otherwise cold and dark
+terrestrial ball; but it is the overwhelming magnitude of such
+power that we are incapable of comprehending.  The agency
+necessary to throw out the floods of flame seen during the few
+moments of a total eclipse of the sun, and the power requisite to
+burst open a cavity in its surface, such as could entirely
+engulph our earth, will ever set all the thinking capacity of man
+at nought."
+
+[4] The Observatory, Nos. 34, 42, 45, 49, and 58.
+
+[5] We regret to say that Sheriff Barclay died a few months ago,
+greatly respected by all who knew him.
+
+[6] Sir E. Denison Beckett, in his Rudimentary Treatise on clocks
+and Watches and Bells, has given an instance or the
+telescope-driving clock, invented by Mr. Cooke (p. 213).
+
+[7] J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S.--Stargazing, Past and Present, p. 
+302.
+
+[8] This excellent instrument is now in the possession of my
+son-in-law, Dr. Hartree, of Leigh, near Tunbridge.
+
+[9] An interesting account of Mr. Alvan Clark is given in
+Professor Newcomb's 'Popular Astronomy,' p. 137.
+
+[10] A photographic representation of this remarkable telescope
+is given as the frontispiece to Mr. Lockyer's Stargazing, Past
+and Present; and a full description of the instrument is given in
+the text of the same work.  This refracting telescope did not
+long remain the largest.  Mr. Alvan Clark was commissioned to
+erect a larger equatorial for Washington Observatory; the
+object-glass (the rough disks of which were also furnished by
+Messrs. Chance of Birmingham) exceeding in aperture that of Mr.
+Cooke's by only one inch.  This was finished and mounted in
+November, 1873.  Another instrument of similar size and power was
+manufactured by Mr. Clark for the University of Virginia.  But
+these instruments did not long maintain their supremacy.  In
+1881, Mr. Howard Grubb, of Dublin, manufactured a still larger
+instrument for the Austrian Government--the object-glass being of
+twenty-seven inches aperture.  But Mr. Alvan Clark was not to be
+beaten.  In 1882, he supplied the Russian Government with the
+largest refracting telescope in existence the object-glass being
+of thirty inches diameter.  Even this, however, is to be
+surpassed by the lens which Mr. Clark has in hand for the Lick
+Observatory (California), which is to have a clear aperture of
+three feet in diameter.
+
+[11] Since the above passage was written and in type, I have seen
+(in September 1884) the reflecting telescope referred to at pp. 
+357-8.  It was mounted on its cast-iron equatorial stand, and at
+work in the field adjoining the village green at Bainbridge,
+Yorkshire.  The mirror of the telescope is 8 inches in diameter;
+its focal length, 5 feet; and the tube in which it is mounted,
+about 6 feet long.  The instrument seemed to me to have an
+excellent defining power.
+
+But Mr. Lancaster, like every eager astronomer, is anxious for
+further improvements.  He considers the achromatic telescope the
+king of instruments, and is now engaged in testing convex optical
+surfaces, with a view to achieving a telescope of that
+description.  The chief difficulty is the heavy charge for the
+circular blocks of flint glass requisite for the work which he
+meditates.  "That," he says, "is the great difficulty with
+amateurs of my class."  He has, however, already contrived and
+constructed a machine for grinding and polishing the lenses in an
+accurate convex form, and it works quite satisfactorily.  Mr.
+Lancaster makes his own tools.  From the raw material, whether of
+glass or steel, he produces the work required.  As to tools, all
+that he requires is a bar of steel and fire; his fertile brain
+and busy hands do the rest.  I looked into the little workshop
+behind his sitting-room, and found it full of ingenious
+adaptations.  The turning lathe occupies a considerable part of
+it; but when he requires more space, the village smith with his
+stithy, and the miller with his water-power, are always ready to
+help him.  His tools, though not showy, are effective.  His best
+lenses are made by himself:  those which he buys are not to be
+depended upon.  The best flint glass is obtained from Paris in
+blocks, which he divides, grinds, and polishes to perfect form.
+
+I was attracted by a newly made machine, placed on a table in the
+sitting-room; and on inquiry found that its object was to grind
+and polish lenses.  Mr. Lancaster explained that the difficulty
+to be overcome in a good machine, is to make the emery cut the
+surface equally from centre to edge of the lens, so that the lens
+will neither lengthen nor shorten the curve during its
+production.  To quote his words:  "This  really involves the
+problem of the 'three bodies,' or disturbing forces so celebrated
+in dynamical mathematics, and it is further complicated by
+another quantity, the 'coefficient of attrition,' or work done by
+the grinding material, as well as the mischief done by capillary
+attractionand nodal points of superimposed curves in the path of
+the tool.  These complications tend to cause rings or waves of
+unequal wear in the surface of the glass, and ruin the defining
+power of the lens, which depends upon the uniformity of its
+curve.  As the outcome of much practical experiment, combined
+with mathematical research, I settled upon the ratio of speed
+between the sheave of the lens-tool guide and the turn-table;
+between whose limits the practical equalization of wear (or cut
+of the emery) might with the greater facility be adjusted, by
+means of varying the stroke and eccentricity of the tool.  As the
+result of these considerations in the construction of the
+machine, the surface of the glass 'comes up' regularly all over
+the lens; and the polishing only takes a few minutes' work--thus
+keeping the truth of surface gained by using a rigid tool."
+
+The machine in question consists of a revolving sheave or ring,
+with a sliding strip across its diameter; the said strip having a
+slot and clamping screw at one end, and a hole towards the other,
+through which passes the axis of the tool used in forming the
+lens,--the slot in the strip allowing the tool to give any stroke
+from 0 to 1.25 inch.  The lens is carried on a revolving
+turn-table, with an arrangement to allow the axis of the lens to
+coincide with the axis of the table.  The ratio of speed between
+the sheave and turn-table is arranged by belt and properly sized
+pulleys, and the whole can be driven either by hand or by power. 
+The sheave merely serves as a guide to the tool in its path, and
+the lens may either be worked on the turn-table or upon a chuck
+attached to the tool rod.  The work upon the lens is thus to a
+great extent independent of the error of the machine through
+shaking, or bad fitting, or wear; and the only part of the
+machine which requires really first-class work is the axis of the
+turn-table, which (in this machine) is a conical bearing at top,
+with steel centre below,--the bearing turned, hardened, and then
+ground up true, and run in anti-friction metal.  Other details
+might be given, but these are probably enough for present
+purposes.  We hope, at some future time, for a special detail of
+Mr. Lancaster's interesting investigations, from his own mind and
+pen.
+
+[12] The translations are made by W. Cadwalladr Davies, Esq.
+
+[13] This evidence was given by Mr. W. Cadwalladr Davies on the
+28th October, 1880.
+
+
+
+
+
+[End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of Men of Invention]
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