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CHAPTER III.

JOHN HARRISON (1693-1776): ENGLISH CLOCK-MAKER.
Picture: Internet Text Archive.

JOHN HARRISON:
INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER. [p.73]

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." [p.74]

    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 Hallay 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: £10,000, to any one who should discover a method of determining the longitude to one degree of a great circle, or 60 geographical miles; £15,000 if it determined the same to two-thirds of that distance, or 40 geographical miles; and £20,000, 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,' [p.77] "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 May 1693.  His father, Henry Harrison, was carpenter and joiner to Sir Rowland Wynne, owner of the Nostel 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 Wynne 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 when he was only twenty-two years old, 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 £20,000, offered by the Board of Longitude, A.D. 1767. [p.79]

    "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 clockmaker, 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. [p.82-1]

 Gridiron Pendulum: A: general external appearance of pendulum; B: schematic at normal temperature; C: schematic at higher temperature. [p.82-2]
Picture: Wikipedia.

    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. [p.82-3]

    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 time-keeper, 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 [p.83].  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 £20,000 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 the 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, [p.84-1] 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.

Marine sextant. [p.84-2]
Picture: Wikipedia (created by Joaquim Alves Gaspar).

    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 of two straight lines which are 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 two legs will be 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 bands 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; [p.85] and to John Hadley, who introduced it.  The modern sextant is merely a modification of Newton's or Hadley'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 [p.86-1].  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, [p.86-2] 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 £20,000 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 £2,000 to aid in such experiments.  It will be remembered from what has been above stated, that a reward of £10,000 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; £15,000 within 40 geographical miles; and £20,000 within 80 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 versâ; 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.

Harrison H1 Chronometer, 1735.
Picture: Internet Text Archive.

    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. Halley, 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 17th, 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 £500, to put him in a capacity to perform the same, and to make a perfect experiment thereof."

    The result of the meeting was that £500 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 £1,000, 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 £250 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.

Harrison H2 Chronometer, 1741.
Picture: Internet Text Archive.

    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 £500 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 £500 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, "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 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."

Harrison H3 Chronometer, 1758.
Picture: Internet Text Archive.

    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 19th of January, 1762, three days before the Beaver, another of His Majesty's ships-of-war, which had sailed from Portsmouth ten clays 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.

Harrison H4 Chronometer, 1761.
Picture: Internet Text Archive.

    When the Deptford arrived at Port Royal, Jamaica, the timekeepers 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 £20,000.

    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 £5,000 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 £1,000 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 12th 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 £1,000 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.

    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 might have expected a different treatment; for, if the Act of the 12th of Queen Anne be deficient, why have 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 12th of Queen Anne,'—I say, had this been the case, might have expected some such treatment as that 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 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 £2,500 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. Priestly was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to join Captain Cook's second expedition to the Southern Seas, as an astronomer.  Priestly gave his assent, and made arrangements to set out.  But some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment bad 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 time-keeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea, and his discovery of the principles upon which the same was constructed, £8,570 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-lieutenant 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.

Harrison H5 Chronometer, 1772.
Picture: Internet Text Archive.

    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.

――――♦――――

 
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 or 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 Cæsar, 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. [p.110-1]

    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." [p.110-2]  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 Huguenot 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." [p.112-1]

    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. [p.112-2]  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 grand 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 £8 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 £30,000.

    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." [p.118]

    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." [p.119]

    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 £14,000 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." [p.120]  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.

――――♦――――

 
CHAPTER V.

WILLIAM MURDOCK:

HIS LIFE AND INVENTIONS.

WILLIAM MURDOCK (1754-1839):
Scottish engineer and inventor
Picture: Wikipedia.
 

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. [p.122]  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; [p.124] 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. [p.125]  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 pinion 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 pinion 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 Joan 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 Walter 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. [p.128]  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 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. [p.130-1]

    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.

Murdoch's "Sun and Planet" gears. [p.130-2]
Picture: Wikipedia.

    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 had 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. [p.133]

    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.

Cugnot's road engine, 1769.

    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 Métiers 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 ¾-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 clone its work of alternately raising and depressing the piston in the cylinder.

Murdoch's model road engine, 1784.

    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 Murdoch'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 £100; 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 1785 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." [p.137-1]

    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. [p.137-2] 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, [p.139] 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 £4,000 to £5,000 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 Humphrey Davy, who asked one of the projectors if he intended to take the dome of St. Paul's for a gasometer!  Sir Walter 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."  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 promoter 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 nett 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 £570 to be paid to the subscribers for every £5 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, [p.142-2] 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. [p.144]  He left the benefits of his invention to the public, and returned to his labours at Soho, which more than ever completely engrossed him.

Gas lighting in the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, London.
Picture: Wikipedia

    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 employed his head and his hands in his private workshop, and found many means of enjoying 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 Hunterin 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 2,400 turns per minute, even with the large drill you sent last; if I bear lightly, a three-quarter ferril would run about 3,000, 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 12-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 hang 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 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 Sir Charles Babbage entertained a similar idea about using the hot springs of Ischia or of the Geysers of Iceland as a power necessary for condensing gases, or perhaps for the storage of electricity. [p.153]  The latter, when perfected, will probably be the greatest invention of the next half century.

    Another of Murdoch'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 £10,000.  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 15th 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.