The Project Gutenberg EBook of Industrial Biography, by Samuel Smiles
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Industrial Biography
Iron Workers and Tool Makers
Author: Samuel Smiles
Release Date: March 6, 2008 [EBook #404]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY ***
[Updater's note: The previous version's footnotes were embedded
into their respective paragraphs. In this version, each chapter's
footnotes have been renumbered sequentially and moved to the end
of their chapter.]
INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY
Iron Workers and Tool Makers
by Samuel Smiles
(This etext was produced from a reprint of the 1863 first edition)
PREFACE.
The Author offers the following book as a continuation, in a more
generally accessible form, of the Series of Memoirs of Industrial Men
introduced in his Lives of the Engineers. While preparing that work he
frequently came across the tracks of celebrated inventors, mechanics,
and iron-workers--the founders, in a great measure, of the modern
industry of Britain--whose labours seemed to him well worthy of being
traced out and placed on record, and the more so as their lives
presented many points of curious and original interest. Having been
encouraged to prosecute the subject by offers of assistance from some
of the most eminent living mechanical engineers, he is now enabled to
present the following further series of memoirs to the public.
Without exaggerating the importance of this class of biography, it may
at least be averred that it has not yet received its due share of
attention. While commemorating the labours and honouring the names of
those who have striven to elevate man above the material and
mechanical, the labours of the important industrial class to whom
society owes so much of its comfort and well-being are also entitled to
consideration. Without derogating from the biographic claims of those
who minister to intellect and taste, those who minister to utility need
not be overlooked. When a Frenchman was praising to Sir John Sinclair
the artist who invented ruffles, the Baronet shrewdly remarked that
some merit was also due to the man who added the shirt.
A distinguished living mechanic thus expresses himself to the Author on
this point:--"Kings, warriors, and statesmen have heretofore
monopolized not only the pages of history, but almost those of
biography. Surely some niche ought to be found for the Mechanic,
without whose skill and labour society, as it is, could not exist. I
do not begrudge destructive heroes their fame, but the constructive
ones ought not to be forgotten; and there IS a heroism of skill and
toil belonging to the latter class, worthy of as grateful record,--less
perilous and romantic, it may be, than that of the other, but not less
full of the results of human energy, bravery, and character. The lot
of labour is indeed often a dull one; and it is doing a public service
to endeavour to lighten it up by records of the struggles and triumphs
of our more illustrious workers, and the results of their labours in
the cause of human advancement."
As respects the preparation of the following memoirs, the Author's
principal task has consisted in selecting and arranging the materials
so liberally placed at his disposal by gentlemen for the most part
personally acquainted with the subjects of them, and but for whose
assistance the book could not have been written. The materials for the
biography of Henry Maudslay, for instance, have been partly supplied by
the late Mr. Joshua Field, F.R.S. (his partner), but principally by Mr.
James Nasmyth, C.E., his distinguished pupil. In like manner Mr. John
Penn, C.E., has supplied the chief materials for the memoir of Joseph
Clement, assisted by Mr. Wilkinson, Clement's nephew. The Author has
also had the valuable assistance of Mr. William Fairbairn, F.R.S., Mr.
J. O. March, tool manufacturer (Mayor of Leeds), Mr. Richard Roberts,
C.E., Mr. Henry Maudslay, C.E., and Mr. J. Kitson, Jun., iron
manufacturer, Leeds, in the preparation of the other memoirs of
mechanical engineers included in this volume.
The materials for the memoirs of the early iron-workers have in like
manner been obtained for the most part from original sources; those of
the Darbys and Reynoldses from Mr. Dickinson of Coalbrookdale, Mr.
William Reynolds of Coed-du, and Mr. William G. Norris of the former
place, as well as from Mr. Anstice of Madeley Wood, who has kindly
supplied the original records of the firm. The substance of the
biography of Benjamin Huntsman, the inventor of cast-steel, has been
furnished by his lineal representatives; and the facts embodied in the
memoirs of Henry Cort and David Mushet have been supplied by the sons
of those inventors. To Mr. Anderson Kirkwood of Glasgow the Author is
indebted for the memoir of James Beaumont Neilson, inventor of the hot
blast; and to Mr. Ralph Moore, Inspector of Mines in Scotland, for
various information relative to the progress of the Scotch iron
manufacture.
The memoirs of Dud Dudley and Andrew Yarranton are almost the only ones
of the series in preparing which material assistance has been derived
from books; but these have been largely illustrated by facts contained
in original documents preserved in the State Paper Office, the careful
examination of which has been conducted by Mr. W. Walker Wilkins.
It will thus be observed that most of the information embodied in this
volume, more especially that relating to the inventors of tools and
machines, has heretofore existed only in the memories of the eminent
mechanical engineers from whom it has been collected. The estimable
Joshua Field has died since the date at which he communicated his
recollections; and in a few more years many of the facts which have
been caught and are here placed on record would, probably, in the
ordinary course of things, have passed into oblivion. As it is, the
Author feels that there are many gaps yet to be filled up; but the
field of Industrial Biography is a wide one, and is open to all who
will labour in it.
London, October, 1863.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
IRON AND CIVILIZATION.
The South Sea Islanders and iron
Uses of iron for tools
The Stone, Bronze, and Iron ages
Recent discoveries in the beds of the Swiss lakes
Iron the last metal to come into general use, and why
The first iron smelters
Early history of iron in Britain
The Romans
Social importance of the Smith in early times
Enchanted swords
Early scarcity of iron in Scotland
Andrea de Ferrara
Scarcity of iron in England at the time of the Armada
Importance of iron for national defence
CHAPTER II.
BEGINNINGS OF THE IRON-MANUFACTURER IN BRITAIN.
Iron made in the Forest of Dean in Anglo-Saxon times
Monkish iron-workers
Early iron-smelting in Yorkshire
Much iron imported from abroad
Iron manufactures of Sussex
Manufacture of cannon
Wealthy ironmasters of Sussex
Founder of the Gale family
Extensive exports of English ordnance
Destruction of timber in iron-smelting
The manufacture placed under restrictions
The Sussex furnaces blown out
CHAPTER III.
IRON SMELTING BY PIT-COAL--DUD DUDLEY.
Greatly reduced production of English iron
Proposal to use pit-coal instead of charcoal of wood in smelting
Sturtevant's patent
Rovenson's
Dud Dudley; his family his history
Uses pit-coal to smelt iron with success
Takes out his patent
The quality of the iron proved by tests
Dudley's works swept away by a flood
Rebuilds his works, and they are destroyed by a mob
Renewal of his patent
Outbreak of the Civil War
Dudley joins the Royalists, and rises to be General of artillery
His perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes
His estate confiscated
Recommences iron-smelting
Various attempts to smelt with pit-coal
Dudley's petitions to the King
His death
CHAPTER IV.
ANDREW YARRANTON.
A forgotten patriot
The Yarranton family
Andrew Yarranton's early life
A soldier under the Parliament
Begins iron works
Is seized and imprisoned
His plans for improving internal navigation
Improvements in agriculture
Manufacture of tin plate
His journey into Saxony to learn it
Travels in Holland
His views of trade and industry
His various projects
His 'England's Improvement by Sea and Land'
His proposed Land Bank
His proposed Registry of Real Estate
His controversies
His iron-mining
Value of his labours
CHAPTER V.
COALBROOKDALE IRON WORKS--THE DARBYS AND REYNOLDSES.
Failure in the attempts to smelt iron with pit-coal
Dr. Blewstone's experiment
Decay of the iron manufacture
Abraham Darby
His manufacture of cast-iron pots at Bristol
Removes to Coalbrookdale
His method of smelting iron
Increased use of coke
Use of pit-coal by Richard Ford
Richard Reynolds joins the Coalbrookdale firm
Invention of the Craneges in iron-refining
Letter of Richard Reynolds on the subject
Invention of cast-iron rails by Reynolds
Abraham Darby the Second constructs the first iron bridge
Extension of the Coalbrookdale Works
William Reynolds: his invention of inclined planes for working canals
Retirement of Richard Reynolds from the firm
His later years, character, and death
CHAPTER VI.
INVENTION OF CAST STEEL--BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN.
Conversion of iron into steel
Early Sheffield manufactures
Invention of blistered steel
Important uses of cast-steel
Le Play's writings on the subject
Early career of Benjamin Huntsman at Doncaster
His experiments in steel-making
Removes to the neighbourhood of Sheffield
His laborious investigations, failures, and eventual success
Process of making cast-steel
The Sheffield manufacturers refuse to use it
Their opposition foiled
How they wrested Huntsman's secret from him
Important results of the invention to the industry of Sheffield
Henry Bessemer and his process
Heath's invention
Practical skill of the Sheffield artisans
CHAPTER VII.
THE INVENTIONS OF HENRY CORT.
Parentage of Henry Cort
Becomes a navy agent
State of the iron trade
Cort's experiments in iron-making
Takes a foundry at Fontley
Partnership with Jellicoe
Various improvers in iron-making: Roebuck, Cranege, Onions
Cort's improved processes described
His patents
His inventions adopted by Crawshay, Homfray, and other ironmasters
Cort's iron approved by the Admiralty
Public defalcations of Adam Jellicoe, Cort's partner
Cort's property and patents confiscated
Public proceedings thereon
Ruin of Henry Cort
Account of Richard Crawshay, the great ironmaster
His early life
Ironmonger in London
Starts an iron-furnace at Merthyr Tydvil
Projects and makes a canal
Growth of Merthyr Tydvil and its industry
Henry Cort the founder of the iron aristocracy, himself unrewarded
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SCOTCH IRON MANUFACTURE--Dr. ROEBUCK--DAVID MUSHET.
Dr. Roebuck, a forgotten public benefactor
His birth and education
Begins business as a physician at Birmingham
Investigations in metallurgy
Removes to Scotland, and begins the manufacture of chemicals, &c.
Starts the Carron Iron Works, near Falkirk
His invention of refining iron in a pit-coal fire
Embarks in coal-mining at Boroughstoness
Residence at Kinneil House
Pumping-engines wanted for his colliery
Is introduced to James Watt
Progress of Watt in inventing the steam-engine
Interviews with Dr. Roebuck
Roebuck becomes a partner in the steam-engine patent
Is involved in difficulties, and eventually ruined
Advance of the Scotch iron trade
Discovery of the Black Band by David Mushet
Early career of Mushet
His laborious experiments
His inventions and discoveries in iron and steel, and death
CHAPTER IX.
INVENTION OF THE HOT BLAST--JAMES BEAUMONT NEILSON.
Difficulty of smelting the Black Band by ordinary process until the
invention of the hot blast
Early career of James Beaumont Neilson
Education and apprenticeship
Works as an engine-fireman
As colliery engine-wright
Appointed foreman of the Glasgow Gas-works; afterwards manager
and engineer
His self-education
His Workmen's Institute
His experiments in iron-smelting
Trials with heated air in the blast-furnace
Incredulity of ironmasters
Success of his experiments, and patenting of his process
His patent right disputed, and established
Extensive application of the hot blast
Increase of the Scotch iron trade
Extraordinary increase in the value of estates yielding Black Band
Scotch iron aristocracy
CHAPTER X.
MECHANICAL INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS.
Tools and civilization
The beginnings of tools
Dexterity of hand chiefly relied on
Opposition to manufacturing machines
Gradual process of invention
The human race the true inventor
Obscure origin of many inventions
Inventions born before their time
"Nothing new under the sun"
The power of steam known to the ancients
Passage from Roger Bacon
Old inventions revived
Printing
Atmospheric locomotion
The balloon
The reaping machine
Tunnels
Gunpowder
Ancient firearms
The steam gun
The Congreve rocket
Coal-gas
Hydropathy
Anaesthetic agents
The Daguerreotype anticipated
The electric telegraph not new
Forgotten inventors
Disputed inventions
Simultaneous inventions
Inventions made step by step
James Watt's difficulties with his workmen
Improvements in modern machine-tools
Their perfection
The engines of "The Warrior"
CHAPTER XI.
JOSEPH BRAMAH.
The inventive faculty
Joseph Bramah's early life
His amateur work
Apprenticed to a carpenter
Starts as cabinet-maker in London
Takes out a patent for his water-closet
Makes pumps and ironwork
Invention of his lock
Invents tools required in lock-making
Invents his hydrostatic machine
His hydraulic press
The leathern collar invented by Henry Maudslay
Bramah's other inventions
His fire-engine
His beer-pump
Improvements in the steam-engine
His improvements in machine-tools
His number-printing machine
His pen-cutter
His hydraulic machinery
Practises as civil engineer
Altercation with William Huntington, "S.S."
Bramah's character and death
CHAPTER XII.
HENRY MAUDSLAY.
The Maudslays
Henry Maudslay
Employed as powder-boy in Woolwich Arsenal
Advanced to the blacksmiths' shop
His early dexterity in smith-work
His "trivet" making
Employed by Bramah
Proves himself a first-class workman
Advanced to be foreman of the works
His inventions of tools required for lock-making
His invention of the leathern collar in the hydraulic press
Leaves Bramah's service and begins business for himself
His first smithy in Wells Street
His first job
Invention of the slide-lathe
Resume of the history of the turning-lathe
Imperfection of tools about the middle of last century
The hand-lathe
Great advantages of the slide rest
First extensively used in constructing Brunel's Block Machinery
Memoir of Brunel
Manufacture of ships' blocks
Sir S. Bentham's specifications
Introduction of Brunel to Maudslay
The block-machinery made, and its success
Increased operations of the firm
Improvements in the steam-engine
Invention of the punching-machine
Further improvements in the slide-lathe
Screw-cutting machine
Maudslay a dexterous and thoughtful workman
His character described by his pupil, James Nasmyth
Anecdotes and traits
Maudslay's works a first-class school for workmen
His mode of estimating character
His death
CHAPTER XIII.
JOSEPH CLEMENT.
Skill in contrivance a matter of education
Birth and parentage of Joseph Clement
Apprenticed to the trade of a slater
His skill in amateur work
Makes a turning-lathe
Gives up slating, and becomes a mechanic
Employed at Kirby Stephen in making power-looms
Removes to Carlisle
Glasgow
Peter Nicholson teaches him drawing
Removes to Aberdeen
Works as a mechanic and attends College
London
Employed by Alexander Galloway
Employed by Bramah
Advanced to be foreman
Draughtsman at Maudslay and Field's
Begins business on his own account
His skill as a mechanical draughtsman
Invents his drawing instrument
His drawing-table
His improvements in the self-acting lathe
His double-driving centre-chuck and two-armed driver
His fluted taps and dies
Invention of his Planing Machine
Employed to make Babbage's Calculating Machine
Resume of the history of apparatus for making calculations
Babbage's engine proceeded with
Its great cost
Interruption of the work
Clement's steam-whistles
Makes an organ
Character and death
CHAPTER XIV.
FOX OF DERBY--MURRAY OF LEEDS--ROBERTS AND WHITWORTH OF MANCHESTER.
The first Fox of Derby originally a butler
His genius for mechanics
Begins business as a machinist
Invents a Planing Machine
Matthew Murray's Planing Machine
Murray's early career
Employed as a blacksmith by Marshall of Leeds
His improvements of flax-machinery
Improvements in steam-engines
Makes the first working locomotive for Mr. Blenkinsop
Invents the Heckling Machine
His improvements in tools
Richard Roberts of Manchester
First a quarryman, next a pattern-maker
Drawn for the militia, and flies
His travels
His first employment at Manchester
Goes to London, and works at Maudslay's
Roberts's numerous inventions
Invents a planing machine
The self-acting mule
Iron billiard-tables
Improvements in the locomotive
Invents the Jacquard punching machine
Makes turret-clocks and electro-magnets
Improvement in screw-steamships
Mr. Whitworth's improvement of the planing machine
His method of securing true surfaces
His great mechanical skill
CHAPTER XV.
JAMES NASMYTH.
Traditional origin of the Naesmyths
Alexander Nasmyth the painter, and his family
Early years of James Nasmyth
The story of his life told by himself
Becomes a pupil of Henry Maudslay
How he lived and worked in London
Begins business at Manchester
Story of the invention of the Steam Hammer
The important uses of the Hammer in modern engineering
Invents the steam pile-driving machine
Designs a new form of steam-engine
Other inventions
How he "Scotched" a strike
Uses of strikes
Retirement from business
Skill as a draughtsman
Curious speculations on antiquarian subjects
Mr. Nasmyth's wonderful discoveries in Astronomy
described by Sir John Herschel
CHAPTER XVI.
WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN.
Summary of progress in machine-tools
William Fairbairn's early years
His education
Life in the Highlands
Begins work at Kelso Bridge
An apprentice at Percy Main Colliery, North Shields
Diligent self-culture
Voyage to London
Adventures
Prevented obtaining work by the Millwrights' Union
Travels into the country, finds work, and returns to London
His first order, to make a sausage-chopping machine
Wanderschaft
Makes nail-machinery for a Dublin employer
Proceeds to Manchester, where he settles and marries
Begins business
His first job
Partnership with Mr. Lillie
Employed by Messrs. Adam Murray and Co.
Employed by Messrs. MacConnel and Kennedy
Progress of the Cotton Trade
Memoir of John Kennedy
Mr. Fairbairn introduces great improvements in the gearing, &c.
of mill machinery
Increasing business Improvements in water-wheels
Experiments as to the law of traction of boats
Begins building iron ships
Experiments on the strength of wrought iron
Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges
Reports on iron
On boiler explosions
Iron construction
Extended use of iron
Its importance in civilization
Opinion of Mr. Cobden
Importance of modern machine-tools
Conclusion
INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER I.
IRON AND CIVILIZATION.
"Iron is not only the soul of every other manufacture, but the main
spring perhaps of civilized society."--FRANCIS HORNER.
"Were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be
unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage
Americans; so that he who first made known the use of that contemptible
mineral may be truly styled the father of Arts and the author of
Plenty."--JOHN LOCKE.
When Captain Cook and the early navigators first sailed into the South
Seas on their voyages of discovery, one of the things that struck them
with most surprise was the avidity which the natives displayed for
iron. "Nothing would go down with our visitors," says Cook, "but
metal; and iron was their beloved article." A nail would buy a
good-sized pig; and on one occasion the navigator bought some four
hundred pounds weight of fish for a few wretched knives improvised out
of an old hoop.
"For iron tools," says Captain Carteret, "we might have purchased
everything upon the Freewill Islands that we could have brought away.
A few pieces of old iron hoop presented to one of the natives threw him
into an ecstasy little short of distraction." At Otaheite the people
were found generally well-behaved and honest; but they were not proof
against the fascinations of iron. Captain Cook says that one of them,
after resisting all other temptations, "was at length ensnared by the
charms of basket of nails." Another lurked about for several days,
watching the opportunity to steal a coal-rake.
The navigators found they could pay their way from island to island
merely with scraps of iron, which were as useful for the purpose as
gold coins would have been in Europe. The drain, however, being
continuous, Captain Cook became alarmed at finding his currency almost
exhausted; and he relates his joy on recovering an old anchor which the
French Captain Bougainville had lost at Bolabola, on which he felt as
an English banker would do after a severe run upon him for gold, when
suddenly placed in possession of a fresh store of bullion.
The avidity for iron displayed by these poor islanders will not be
wondered at when we consider that whoever among them was so fortunate
as to obtain possession of an old nail, immediately became a man of
greater power than his fellows, and assumed the rank of a capitalist.
"An Otaheitan chief," says Cook, "who had got two nails in his
possession, received no small emolument by letting out the use of them
to his neighbours for the purpose of boring holes when their own
methods failed, or were thought too tedious."
The native methods referred to by Cook were of a very clumsy sort; the
principal tools of the Otaheitans being of wood, stone, and flint.
Their adzes and axes were of stone. The gouge most commonly used by
them was made out of the bone of the human forearm. Their substitute
for a knife was a shell, or a bit of flint or jasper. A shark's tooth,
fixed to a piece of wood, served for an auger; a piece of coral for a
file; and the skin of a sting-ray for a polisher. Their saw was made
of jagged fishes' teeth fixed on the convex edge of a piece of hard
wood. Their weapons were of a similarly rude description; their clubs
and axes were headed with stone, and their lances and arrows were
tipped with flint. Fire was another agency employed by them, usually
in boat-building. Thus, the New Zealanders, whose tools were also of
stone, wood, or bone, made their boats of the trunks of trees hollowed
out by fire.
The stone implements were fashioned, Captain Cook says, by rubbing one
stone upon another until brought to the required shape; but, after all,
they were found very inefficient for their purpose. They soon became
blunted and useless; and the laborious process of making new tools had
to be begun again. The delight of the islanders at being put in
possession of a material which was capable of taking a comparatively
sharp edge and keeping it, may therefore readily be imagined; and hence
the remarkable incidents to which we have referred in the experience of
the early voyagers. In the minds of the natives, iron became the
representative of power, efficiency, and wealth; and they were ready
almost to fall down and worship their new tools, esteeming the axe as a
deity, offering sacrifices to the saw, and holding the knife in
especial veneration.
In the infancy of all nations the same difficulties must have been
experienced for want of tools, before the arts of smelting and working
in metals had become known; and it is not improbable that the
Phoenician navigators who first frequented our coasts found the same
avidity for bronze and iron existing among the poor woad-stained
Britons who flocked down to the shore to see their ships and exchange
food and skins with them, that Captain Cook discovered more than two
thousand years later among the natives of Otaheite and New Zealand.
For, the tools and weapons found in ancient burying-places in all parts
of Britain clearly show that these islands also have passed through the
epoch of stone and flint.
There was recently exhibited at the Crystal Palace a collection of
ancient European weapons and implements placed alongside a similar
collection of articles brought from the South Seas; and they were in
most respects so much alike that it was difficult to believe that they
did not belong to the same race and period, instead of being the
implements of races sundered by half the globe, and living at periods
more than two thousand years apart. Nearly every weapon in the one
collection had its counterpart in the other,--the mauls or celts of
stone, the spearheads of flint or jasper, the arrowheads of flint or
bone, and the saws of jagged stone, showing how human ingenuity, under
like circumstances, had resorted to like expedients. It would also
appear that the ancient tribes in these islands, like the New
Zealanders, used fire to hollow out their larger boats; several
specimens of this kind of vessel having recently been dug up in the
valleys of the Witham and the Clyde, some of the latter from under the
very streets of modern Glasgow.[1] Their smaller boats, or coracles,
were made of osiers interwoven, covered with hides, and rigged with
leathern sails and thong tackle.
It will readily be imagined that anything like civilization, as at
present understood, must have been next to impossible under such
circumstances. "Miserable indeed," says Carlyle, "was the condition of
the aboriginal savage, glaring fiercely from under his fleece of hair,
which with the beard reached down to his loins, and hung round them
like a matted cloak; the rest of his body sheeted in its thick natural
fell. He loitered in the sunny glades of the forest, living on wild
fruits; or, as the ancient Caledonians, squatted himself in morasses,
lurking for his bestial or human prey; without implements, without
arms, save the ball of heavy flint, to which, that his sole possession
and defence might not be lost, he had attached a long cord of plaited
thongs; thereby recovering as well as hurling it with deadly, unerring
skill."
The injunction given to man to "replenish the earth and subdue it"
could not possibly be fulfilled with implements of stone. To fell a
tree with a flint hatchet would occupy the labour of a month, and to
clear a small patch of ground for purposes of culture would require the
combined efforts of a tribe. For the same reason, dwellings could not
be erected; and without dwellings domestic tranquillity, security,
culture, and refinement, especially in a rude climate, were all but
impossible. Mr. Emerson well observes, that "the effect of a house is
immense on human tranquillity, power, and refinement. A man in a cave
or a camp--a nomad--dies with no more estate than the wolf or the horse
leaves. But so simple a labour as a house being achieved, his chief
enemies are kept at bay. He is safe from the teeth of wild animals,
from frost, sunstroke, and weather; and fine faculties begin to yield
their fine harvest. Inventions and arts are born, manners, and social
beauty and delight." But to build a house which should serve for
shelter, for safety, and for comfort--in a word, as a home for the
family, which is the nucleus of society--better tools than those of
stone were absolutely indispensable.
Hence most of the early European tribes were nomadic: first hunters,
wandering about from place to place like the American Indians, after
the game; then shepherds, following the herds of animals which they had
learnt to tame, from one grazing-ground to another, living upon their
milk and flesh, and clothing themselves in their skins held together by
leathern thongs. It was only when implements of metal had been
invented that it was possible to practise the art of agriculture with
any considerable success. Then tribes would cease from their
wanderings, and begin to form settlements, homesteads, villages, and
towns. An old Scandinavian legend thus curiously illustrates this last
period:--There was a giantess whose daughter one day saw a husbandman
ploughing in the field. She ran and picked him up with her finger and
thumb, put him and his plough and oxen into her apron, and carried them
to her mother, saying, "Mother, what sort of beetle is this that I have
found wriggling in the sand?" But the mother said, "Put it away, my
child; we must begone out of this land, for these people will dwell in
it."
M. Worsaae of Copenhagen, who has been followed by other antiquaries,
has even gone so far as to divide the natural history of civilization
into three epochs, according to the character of the tools used in
each. The first was the Stone period, in which the implements chiefly
used were sticks, bones, stones, and flints. The next was the Bronze
period, distinguished by the introduction and general use of a metal
composed of copper and tin, requiring a comparatively low degree of
temperature to smelt it, and render it capable of being fashioned into
weapons, tools, and implements; to make which, however, indicated a
great advance in experience, sagacity, and skill in the manipulation of
metals. With tools of bronze, to which considerable hardness could be
given, trees were felled, stones hewn, houses and ships built, and
agriculture practised with comparative facility. Last of all came the
Iron period, when the art of smelting and working that most difficult
but widely diffused of the minerals was discovered; from which point
the progress made in all the arts of life has been of the most
remarkable character.
Although Mr. Wright rejects this classification as empirical, because
the periods are not capable of being clearly defined, and all the three
kinds of implements are found to have been in use at or about the same
time,[2] there is, nevertheless, reason to believe that it is, on the
whole, well founded. It is doubtless true that implements of stone
continued in use long after those of bronze and iron had been invented,
arising most probably from the dearness and scarcity of articles of
metal; but when the art of smelting and working in iron and steel had
sufficiently advanced, the use of stone, and afterwards of bronze tools
and weapons, altogether ceased.
The views of M. Worsaae, and the other Continental antiquarians who
follow his classification, have indeed received remarkable confirmation
of late years, by the discoveries which have been made in the beds of
most of the Swiss lakes.[3] It appears that a subsidence took place in
the waters of the Lake of Zurich in the year 1854, laying bare
considerable portions of its bed. The adjoining proprietors proceeded
to enclose the new land, and began by erecting permanent dykes to
prevent the return of the waters. While carrying on the works, several
rows of stakes were exposed; and on digging down, the labourers turned
up a number of pieces of charred wood, stones blackened by fire,
utensils, bones, and other articles, showing that at some remote
period, a number of human beings had lived over the spot, in dwellings
supported by stakes driven into the bed of the lake.
The discovery having attracted attention, explorations were made at
other places, and it was shortly found that there was scarcely a lake
in Switzerland which did not yield similar evidence of the existence of
an ancient Lacustrine or Lake-dwelling population. Numbers of their
tools and implements were brought to light--stone axes and saws, flint
arrowheads, bone needles, and such like--mixed with the bones of wild
animals slain in the chase; pieces of old boats, portions of twisted
branches, bark, and rough planking, of which their dwellings had been
formed, the latter still bearing the marks of the rude tools by which
they had been laboriously cut. In the most ancient, or lowest series
of deposits, no traces of metal, either of bronze or iron, were
discovered; and it is most probable that these lake-dwellers lived in
as primitive a state as the South Sea islanders discovered by Captain
Cook, and that the huts over the water in which they lived resembled
those found in Papua and Borneo, and the islands of the Salomon group,
to this day.
These aboriginal Swiss lake-dwellers seem to have been succeeded by a
race of men using tools, implements, and ornaments of bronze. In some
places the remains of this bronze period directly overlay those of the
stone period, showing the latter to have been the most ancient; but in
others, the village sites are altogether distinct. The articles with
which the metal implements are intermixed, show that considerable
progress had been made in the useful arts. The potter's wheel had been
introduced. Agriculture had begun, and wild animals had given place to
tame ones. The abundance of bronze also shows that commerce must have
existed to a certain extent; for tin, which enters into its
composition, is a comparatively rare metal, and must necessarily have
been imported from other European countries.
The Swiss antiquarians are of opinion that the men of bronze suddenly
invaded and extirpated the men of flint; and that at some still later
period, another stronger and more skilful race, supposed to have been
Celts from Gaul, came armed with iron weapons, to whom the men of
bronze succumbed, or with whom, more probably, they gradually
intermingled. When iron, or rather steel, came into use, its
superiority in affording a cutting edge was so decisive that it seems
to have supplanted bronze almost at once;[4] the latter metal
continuing to be employed only for the purpose of making scabbards or
sword-handles. Shortly after the commencement of the iron age, the
lake-habitations were abandoned, the only settlement of this later
epoch yet discovered being that at Tene, on Lake Neufchatel: and it is
a remarkable circumstance, showing the great antiquity of the
lake-dwellings, that they are not mentioned by any of the Roman
historians.
That iron should have been one of the last of the metals to come into
general use, is partly accounted for by the circumstance that iron,
though one of the most generally diffused of minerals, never presents
itself in a natural state, except in meteorites; and that to recognise
its ores, and then to separate the metal from its matrix, demands the
exercise of no small amount of observation and invention. Persons
unacquainted with minerals would be unable to discover the slightest
affinity between the rough ironstone as brought up from the mine, and
the iron or steel of commerce. To unpractised eyes they would seem to
possess no properties in common, and it is only after subjecting the
stone to severe processes of manufacture that usable metal can be
obtained from it. The effectual reduction of the ore requires an
intense heat, maintained by artificial methods, such as furnaces and
blowing apparatus.[5] But it is principally in combination with other
elements that iron is so valuable when compared with other metals.
Thus, when combined with carbon, in varying proportions, substances are
produced, so different, but each so valuable, that they might almost be
regarded in the light of distinct metals,--such, for example, as
cast-iron, and cast and bar steel; the various qualities of iron
enabling it to be used for purposes so opposite as a steel pen and a
railroad, the needle of a mariner's compass and an Armstrong gun, a
surgeon's lancet and a steam engine, the mainspring of a watch and an
iron ship, a pair of scissors and a Nasmyth hammer, a lady's earrings
and a tubular bridge.
The variety of purposes to which iron is thus capable of being applied,
renders it of more use to mankind than all the other metals combined.
Unlike iron, gold is found pure, and in an almost workable state; and
at an early period in history, it seems to have been much more
plentiful than iron or steel. But gold was unsuited for the purposes
of tools, and would serve for neither a saw, a chisel, an axe, nor a
sword; whilst tempered steel could answer all these purposes. Hence we
find the early warlike nations making the backs of their swords of gold
or copper, and economizing their steel to form the cutting edge. This
is illustrated by many ancient Scandinavian weapons in the museum at
Copenhagen, which indicate the greatest parsimony in the use of steel
at a period when both gold and copper appear to have been comparatively
abundant.
The knowledge of smelting and working in iron, like most other arts,
came from the East. Iron was especially valued for purposes of war, of
which indeed it was regarded as the symbol, being called "Mars" by the
Romans.[6] We find frequent mention of it in the Bible. One of the
earliest notices of the metal is in connexion with the conquest of
Judea by the Philistines. To complete the subjection of the
Israelites, their conquerors made captive all the smiths of the land,
and carried them away. The Philistines felt that their hold of the
country was insecure so long as the inhabitants possessed the means of
forging weapons. Hence "there was no smith found throughout all the
land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them
swords or spears. But the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to
sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his
mattock." [7]
At a later period, when Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonians, one of
their first acts was to carry the smiths and other craftsmen captives
to Babylon.[8] Deprived of their armourers, the Jews were rendered
comparatively powerless.
It was the knowledge of the art of iron-forging which laid the
foundation of the once great empire of the Turks. Gibbon relates that
these people were originally the despised slaves of the powerful Khan
of the Geougen. They occupied certain districts of the mountain-ridge
in the centre of Asia, called Imaus, Caf, and Altai, which yielded iron
in large quantities. This metal the Turks were employed by the Khan to
forge for his use in war. A bold leader arose among them, who
persuaded the ironworkers that the arms which they forged for their
masters might in their own hands become the instruments of freedom.
Sallying forth from their mountains, they set up their standard, and
their weapons soon freed them. For centuries after, the Turkish nation
continued to celebrate the event of their liberation by an annual
ceremony, in which a piece of iron was heated in the fire, and a
smith's hammer was successively handled by the prince and his nobles.
We can only conjecture how the art of smelting iron was discovered.
Who first applied fire to the ore, and made it plastic; who discovered
fire itself, and its uses in metallurgy? No one can tell. Tradition
says that the metal was discovered through the accidental burning of a
wood in Greece. Mr. Mushet thinks it more probable that the discovery
was made on the conversion of wood into charcoal for culinary or
chamber purposes. "If a mass of ore," he says, "accidentally dropped
into the middle of the burning pile during a period of neglect, or
during the existence of a thorough draught, a mixed mass, partly earthy
and partly metallic, would be obtained, possessing ductility and
extension under pressure. But if the conjecture is pushed still
further, and we suppose that the ore was not an oxide, but rich in
iron, magnetic or spicular, the result would in all probability be a
mass of perfectly malleable iron. I have seen this fact illustrated in
the roasting of a species of iron-stone, which was united with a
considerable mass of bituminous matter. After a high temperature had
been excited in the interior of the pile, plates of malleable iron of a
tough and flexible nature were formed, and under circumstances where
there was no fuel but that furnished by the ore itself." [9]
The metal once discovered, many attempts would be made to give to that
which had been the effect of accident a more unerring result. The
smelting of ore in an open heap of wood or charcoal being found tedious
and wasteful, as well as uncertain, would naturally lead to the
invention of a furnace; with the object of keeping the ore surrounded
as much as possible with fuel while the process of conversion into iron
was going forward. The low conical furnaces employed at this day by
some of the tribes of Central and Southern Africa, are perhaps very
much the same in character as those adopted by the early tribes of all
countries where iron was first made. Small openings at the lower end
of the cone to admit the air, and a larger orifice at the top, would,
with charcoal, be sufficient to produce the requisite degree of heat
for the reduction of the ore. To this the foot-blast was added, as
still used in Ceylon and in India; and afterwards the water-blast, as
employed in Spain (where it is known as the Catalan forge), along the
coasts of the Mediterranean, and in some parts of America.
It is worthy of remark, that the ruder the method employed for the
reduction of the ore, the better the quality of the iron usually is.
Where the art is little advanced, only the most tractable ores are
selected; and as charcoal is the only fuel used, the quality of the
metal is almost invariably excellent. The ore being long exposed to
the charcoal fire, and the quantity made small, the result is a metal
having many of the qualities of steel, capable of being used for
weapons or tools after a comparatively small amount of forging. Dr.
Livingstone speaks of the excellent quality of the iron made by the
African tribes on the Zambesi, who refuse to use ordinary English iron,
which they consider "rotten." [10] Du Chaillu also says of the Fans,
that, in making their best knives and arrow-heads, they will not use
European or American iron, greatly preferring their own. The
celebrated wootz or steel of India, made in little cakes of only about
two pounds weight, possesses qualities which no European steel can
surpass. Out of this material the famous Damascus sword-blades were
made; and its use for so long a period is perhaps one of the most
striking proofs of the ancient civilization of India.
The early history of iron in Britain is necessarily very obscure. When
the Romans invaded the country, the metal seems to have been already
known to the tribes along the coast. The natives had probably smelted
it themselves in their rude bloomeries, or obtained it from the
Phoenicians in small quantities in exchange for skins and food, or tin.
We must, however, regard the stories told of the ancient British
chariots armed with swords or scythes as altogether apocryphal. The
existence of iron in sufficient quantity to be used for such a purpose
is incompatible with contemporary facts, and unsupported by a single
vestige remaining to our time. The country was then mostly forest, and
the roads did not as yet exist upon which chariots could be used;
whilst iron was too scarce to be mounted as scythes upon chariots, when
the warriors themselves wanted it for swords. The orator Cicero, in a
letter to Trebatius, then serving with the army in Britain,
sarcastically advised him to capture and convey one of these vehicles
to Italy for exhibition; but we do not hear that any specimen of the
British war-chariot was ever seen in Rome.
It is only in the tumuli along the coast, or in those of the
Romano-British period, that iron implements are ever found; whilst in
the ancient burying places of the interior of the country they are
altogether wanting. Herodian says of the British pursued by Severus
through the fens and marshes of the east coast, that they wore iron
hoops round their middles and their necks, esteeming them as ornaments
and tokens of riches, in like manner as other barbarous people then
esteemed ornaments of silver and gold. Their only money, according to
Caesar, consisted of pieces of brass or iron, reduced to a certain
standard weight.[11] It is particularly important to observe, says M.
Worsaae, that all the antiquities which have hitherto been found in the
large burying places of the Iron period, in Switzerland, Bavaria,
Baden, France, England, and the North, exhibit traces more or less of
Roman influence.[12] The Romans themselves used weapons of bronze when
they could not obtain iron in sufficient quantity, and many of the
Roman weapons dug out of the ancient tumuli are of that metal. They
possessed the art of tempering and hardening bronze to such a degree as
to enable them to manufacture swords with it of a pretty good edge; and
in those countries which they penetrated, their bronze implements
gradually supplanted those which had been previously fashioned of
stone. Great quantities of bronze tools have been found in different
parts of England,--sometimes in heaps, as if they had been thrown away
in basketfuls as things of little value. It has been conjectured that
when the Romans came into Britain they found the inhabitants,
especially those to the northward, in very nearly the same state as
Captain Cook and other voyagers found the inhabitants of the South Sea
Islands; that the Britons parted with their food and valuables for
tools of inferior metal made in imitation of their stone ones; but
finding themselves cheated by the Romans, as the natives of Otaheite
have been cheated by Europeans, the Britons relinquished the bad tools
when they became acquainted with articles made of better metal.[13]
The Roman colonists were the first makers of iron in Britain on any
large scale. They availed themselves of the mineral riches of the
country wherever they went. Every year brings their extraordinary
industrial activity more clearly to light. They not only occupied the
best sites for trade, intersected the land with a complete system of
well-constructed roads, studded our hills and valleys with towns,
villages, and pleasure-houses, and availed themselves of our medicinal
springs for purposes of baths to an extent not even exceeded at this
day, but they explored our mines and quarries, and carried on the
smelting and manufacture of metals in nearly all parts of the island.
The heaps of mining refuse left by them in the valleys and along the
hill-sides of North Derbyshire are still spoken of by the country
people as "old man," or the "old man's work." Year by year, from
Dartmoor to the Moray Firth, the plough turns up fresh traces of their
indefatigable industry and enterprise, in pigs of lead, implements of
iron and bronze, vessels of pottery, coins, and sculpture; and it is a
remarkable circumstance that in several districts where the existence
of extensive iron beds had not been dreamt of until within the last
twenty years, as in Northamptonshire and North Yorkshire, the remains
of ancient workings recently discovered show that the Roman colonists
were fully acquainted with them.
But the principal iron mines worked by that people were those which
were most conveniently situated for purposes of exportation, more
especially in the southern counties and on the borders of Wales. The
extensive cinder heaps found in the--Forest of Dean--which formed the
readiest resource of the modern iron-smelter when improved processes
enabled him to reduce them--show that their principal iron manufactures
were carried on in that quarter.[14] It is indeed matter of history,
that about seventeen hundred years since (A.D. 120) the Romans had
forges in the West of England, both in the Forest of Dean and in South
Wales; and that they sent the metal from thence to Bristol, where it
was forged and made into weapons for the use of the troops. Along the
banks of the Wye, the ground is in many places a continuous bed of iron
cinders, in which numerous remains have been found, furnishing
unmistakeable proofs of the Roman furnaces. At the same time, the iron
ores of Sussex were extensively worked, as appears from the cinder
heaps found at Maresfield and several places in that county, intermixed
with Roman pottery, coins, and other remains. In a bed of scoriae
several acres in extent, at Old Land Farm in Maresfield, the Rev. Mr.
Turner found the remains of Roman pottery so numerous that scarcely a
barrow-load of cinders was removed that did not contain several
fragments, together with coins of the reigns of Nero, Vespasian, and
Dioclesian.[15] In the turbulent infancy of nations it is to be
expected that we should hear more of the Smith, or worker in iron, in
connexion with war, than with more peaceful pursuits. Although he was
a nail-maker and a horse-shoer--made axes, chisels, saws, and hammers
for the artificer--spades and hoes for the farmer--bolts and fastenings
for the lord's castle-gates, and chains for his draw-bridge--it was
principally because of his skill in armour-work that he was esteemed.
He made and mended the weapons used in the chase and in war--the
gavelocs, bills, and battle-axes; he tipped the bowmen's arrows, and
furnished spear-heads for the men-at-arms; but, above all, he forged
the mail-coats and cuirasses of the chiefs, and welded their swords, on
the temper and quality of which, life, honour, and victory in battle
depended. Hence the great estimation in which the smith was held in
the Anglo-Saxon times. His person was protected by a double penalty.
He was treated as an officer of the highest rank, and awarded the first
place in precedency. After him ranked the maker of mead, and then the
physician. In the royal court of Wales he sat in the great hall with
the king and queen, next to the domestic chaplain; and even at that
early day there seems to have been a hot spark in the smith's throat
which needed much quenching; for he was "entitled to a draught of every
kind of liquor that was brought into the hall."
The smith was thus a mighty man. The Saxon Chronicle describes the
valiant knight himself as a "mighty war-smith." But the smith was
greatest of all in his forging of swords; and the bards were wont to
sing the praises of the knight's "good sword" and of the smith who made
it, as well as of the knight himself who wielded it in battle. The
most extraordinary powers were attributed to the weapon of steel when
first invented. Its sharpness seemed so marvellous when compared with
one of bronze, that with the vulgar nothing but magic could account for
it. Traditions, enshrined in fairy tales, still survive in most
countries, illustrative of its magical properties. The weapon of
bronze was dull; but that of steel was bright--the "white sword of
light," one touch of which broke spells, liberated enchanted
princesses, and froze giants' marrow. King Arthur's magic sword
"Excalibur" was regarded as almost heroic in the romance of
chivalry.[16] So were the swords "Galatin" of Sir Gawain, and
"Joyeuse" of Charlemagne, both of which were reputed to be the work of
Weland the Smith, about whose name clusters so much traditional glory
as an ancient worker in metals.[17] The heroes of the Northmen in like
manner wielded magic swords. Olave the Norwegian possessed the sword
"Macabuin," forged by the dark smith of Drontheim, whose feats are
recorded in the tales of the Scalds. And so, in like manner,
traditions of the supernatural power of the blacksmith are found
existing to this day all over the Scottish Highlands.[18] When William
the Norman invaded Britain, he was well supplied with smiths. His
followers were clad in armour of steel, and furnished with the best
weapons of the time. Indeed, their superiority in this respect is
supposed to have been the principal cause of William's victory over
Harold; for the men of both armies were equal in point of bravery. The
Normans had not only smiths to attend to the arms of the knights, but
farriers to shoe their horses. Henry de Femariis, or Ferrers,
"prefectus fabrorum," was one of the principal officers entrusted with
the supervision of the Conqueror's ferriery department; and long after
the earldom was founded his descendants continued to bear on their coat
of arms the six horse-shoes indicative of their origin.[19] William
also gave the town of Northampton, with the hundred of Fackley, as a
fief to Simon St. Liz, in consideration of his providing shoes for his
horses.[20] But though the practice of horse-shoeing is said to have
been introduced to this country at the time of the Conquest, it is
probably of an earlier date; as, according to Dugdale, an old Saxon
tenant in capite of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, named Gamelbere, held
two carucates of land by the service of shoeing the king's palfrey on
all four feet with the king's nails, as oft as the king should lie at
the neighbouring manor of Mansfield.
Although we hear of the smith mostly in connexion with the fabrication
of instruments of war in the Middle Ages, his importance was no less
recognized in the ordinary affairs of rural and industrial life. He
was, as it were, the rivet that held society together. Nothing could
be done without him. Wherever tools or implements were wanted for
building, for trade, or for husbandry, his skill was called into
requisition. In remote places he was often the sole mechanic of his
district; and, besides being a tool-maker, a farrier, and agricultural
implement maker, he doctored cattle, drew teeth, practised phlebotomy,
and sometimes officiated as parish clerk and general newsmonger; for
the smithy was the very eye and tongue of the village. Hence
Shakespeare's picture of the smith in King John:
"I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news."
The smith's tools were of many sorts; but the chief were his hammer,
pincers, chisel, tongs, and anvil. It is astonishing what a variety of
articles he turned out of his smithy by the help of these rude
implements. In the tooling, chasing, and consummate knowledge of the
capabilities of iron, he greatly surpassed the modern workman; for the
mediaeval blacksmith was an artist as well as a workman. The numerous
exquisite specimens of his handicraft which exist in our old gateways,
church doors, altar railings, and ornamented dogs and andirons, still
serve as types for continual reproduction. He was, indeed, the most
"cunninge workman" of his time. But besides all this, he was an
engineer. If a road had to be made, or a stream embanked, or a trench
dug, he was invariably called upon to provide the tools, and often to
direct the work. He was also the military engineer of his day, and as
late as the reign of Edward III. we find the king repeatedly sending
for smiths from the Forest of Dean to act as engineers for the royal
army at the siege of Berwick.
The smith being thus the earliest and most important of mechanics, it
will readily be understood how, at the time when surnames were adopted,
his name should have been so common in all European countries.
"From whence came Smith, all be he knight or squire,
But from the smith that forgeth in the fire?" [21]
Hence the multitudinous family of Smiths in England, in some cases
vainly disguised under the "Smythe" or "De Smijthe;" in Germany, the
Schmidts; in Italy, the Fabri, Fabricii, or Fabbroni; in France, the Le
Febres or Lefevres; in Scotland, the Gows, Gowans, or Cowans. We have
also among us the Brownsmiths, or makers of brown bills; the Nasmyths,
or nailsmiths; the Arrowsmiths, or makers of arrowheads; the
Spearsmiths, or spear makers; the Shoosmiths, or horse shoers; the
Goldsmiths, or workers in gold; and many more. The Smith proper was,
however, the worker in iron--the maker of iron tools, implements, and
arms--and hence this name exceeds in number that of all the others
combined.
In course of time the smiths of particular districts began to
distinguish themselves for their excellence in particular branches of
iron-work. From being merely the retainer of some lordly or religious
establishment, the smith worked to supply the general demand, and
gradually became a manufacturer. Thus the makers of swords, tools,
bits, and nails, congregated at Birmingham; and the makers of knives
and arrowheads at Sheffield. Chaucer speaks of the Miller of
Trompington as provided with a Sheffield whittle:--
"A Shefeld thwytel bare he in his hose." [22]
The common English arrowheads manufactured at Sheffield were long
celebrated for their excellent temper, as Sheffield iron and steel
plates are now. The battle of Hamildon, fought in Scotland in 1402,
was won mainly through their excellence. The historian records that
they penetrated the armour of the Earl of Douglas, which had been three
years in making; and they were "so sharp and strong that no armour
could repel them." The same arrowheads were found equally efficient
against French armour on the fields of Crecy and Agincourt.
Although Scotland is now one of the principal sources from which our
supplies of iron are drawn, it was in ancient times greatly distressed
for want of the metal. The people were as yet too little skilled to be
able to turn their great mineral wealth to account. Even in the time
of Wallace, they had scarcely emerged from the Stone period, and were
under the necessity of resisting their iron-armed English adversaries
by means of rude weapons of that material. To supply themselves with
swords and spearheads, they imported steel from Flanders, and the rest
they obtained by marauding incursions into England. The district of
Furness in Lancashire--then as now an iron-producing district--was
frequently ravaged with that object; and on such occasions the Scotch
seized and carried off all the manufactured iron they could find,
preferring it, though so heavy, to every other kind of plunder.[23]
About the same period, however, iron must have been regarded as almost
a precious metal even in England itself; for we find that in Edward the
Third's reign, the pots, spits, and frying-pans of the royal kitchen
were classed among his Majesty's jewels.[24]
The same famine of iron prevailed to a still greater extent in the
Highlands, where it was even more valued, as the clans lived chiefly by
hunting, and were in an almost constant state of feud. Hence the smith
was a man of indispensable importance among the Highlanders, and the
possession of a skilful armourer was greatly valued by the chiefs. The
story is told of some delinquency having been committed by a Highland
smith, on whom justice must be done; but as the chief could not
dispense with the smith, he generously offered to hang two weavers in
his stead!
At length a great armourer arose in the Highlands, who was able to
forge armour that would resist the best Sheffield arrow-heads, and to
make swords that would vie with the best weapons of Toledo and Milan.
This was the famous Andrea de Ferrara, whose swords still maintain
their ancient reputation. This workman is supposed to have learnt his
art in the Italian city after which he was called, and returned to
practise it in secrecy among the Highland hills. Before him, no man in
Great Britain is said to have known how to temper a sword in such a way
as to bend so that the point should touch the hilt and spring back
uninjured. The swords of Andrea de Ferrara did this, and were
accordingly in great request; for it was of every importance to the
warrior that his weapon should be strong and sharp without being
unwieldy, and that it should not be liable to snap in the act of
combat. This celebrated smith, whose personal identity[25] has become
merged in the Andrea de Ferrara swords of his manufacture, pursued his
craft in the Highlands, where he employed a number of skilled workmen
in forging weapons, devoting his own time principally to giving them
their required temper. He is said to have worked in a dark cellar, the
better to enable him to perceive the effect of the heat upon the metal,
and to watch the nicety of the operation of tempering, as well as
possibly to serve as a screen to his secret method of working.[26]
Long after Andrea de Ferrara's time, the Scotch swords were famous for
their temper; Judge Marshal Fatten, who accompanied the Protector's
expedition into Scotland in 1547, observing that "the Scots came with
swords all broad and thin, of exceeding good temper, and universally so
made to slice that I never saw none so good, so I think it hard to
devise a better." The quality of the steel used for weapons of war was
indeed of no less importance for the effectual defence of a country
then than it is now. The courage of the attacking and defending forces
being equal, the victory would necessarily rest with the party in
possession of the best weapons.
England herself has on more than one occasion been supposed to be in
serious peril because of the decay of her iron manufactures. Before
the Spanish Armada, the production of iron had been greatly discouraged
because of the destruction of timber in the smelting of the ore--the
art of reducing it with pit coal not having yet been invented; and we
were consequently mainly dependent upon foreign countries for our
supplies of the material out of which arms were made. The best iron
came from Spain itself, then the most powerful nation in Europe, and as
celebrated for the excellence of its weapons as for the discipline and
valour of its troops. The Spaniards prided themselves upon the
superiority of their iron, and regarded its scarcity in England as an
important element in their calculations of the conquest of the country
by their famous Armada. "I have heard," says Harrison, "that when one
of the greatest peers of Spain espied our nakedness in this behalf, and
did solemnly utter in no obscure place, that it would be an easy matter
in short time to conquer England because it wanted armour, his words
were not so rashly uttered as politely noted." The vigour of Queen
Elizabeth promptly supplied a remedy by the large importations of iron
which she caused to be made, principally from Sweden, as well as by the
increased activity of the forges in Sussex and the Forest of Dean;
"whereby," adds Harrison, "England obtained rest, that otherwise might
have been sure of sharp and cruel wars. Thus a Spanish word uttered by
one man at one time, overthrew, or at the leastwise hindered sundry
privy practices of many at another." [27] Nor has the subject which
occupied the earnest attention of politicians in Queen Elizabeth's time
ceased to be of interest; for, after the lapse of nearly three hundred
years, we find the smith and the iron manufacturer still uppermost in
public discussions. It has of late years been felt that our
much-prized "hearts of oak" are no more able to stand against the prows
of mail which were supposed to threaten them, than the sticks and
stones of the ancient tribes were able to resist the men armed with
weapons of bronze or steel. What Solon said to Croesus, when the
latter was displaying his great treasures of gold, still holds
true:--"If another comes that hath better iron than you, he will be
master of all that gold." So, when an alchemist waited upon the Duke
of Brunswick during the Seven Years' War, and offered to communicate
the secret of converting iron into gold, the Duke replied:--"By no
means: I want all the iron I can find to resist my enemies: as for
gold, I get it from England." Thus the strength and wealth of nations
depend upon coal and iron, not forgetting Men, far more than upon gold.
Thanks to our Armstrongs and Whitworths, our Browns and our Smiths, the
iron defences of England, manned by our soldiers and our sailors,
furnish the assurance of continued security for our gold and our
wealth, and, what is infinitely more precious, for our industry and our
liberty.
[1] "Mr. John Buchanan, a zealous antiquary, writing in 1855, informs
us that in the course of the eight years preceding that date, no less
than seventeen canoes had been dug out of this estuarine silt [of the
valley of the Clyde], and that he had personally inspected a large
number of them before they were exhumed. Five of them lay buried in
silt under the streets of Glasgow, one in a vertical position with the
prow uppermost, as if it had sunk in a storm.... Almost every one of
these ancient boats was formed out of a single oak-stem, hollowed out
by blunt tools, probably stone axes, aided by the action of fire; a few
were cut beautifully smooth, evidently with metallic tools. Hence a
gradation could be traced from a pattern of extreme rudeness to one
showing great mechanical ingenuity.... In one of the canoes a
beautifully polished celt or axe of greenstone was found; in the bottom
of another a plug of cork, which, as Mr. Geikie remarks, 'could only
have come from the latitudes of Spain, Southern France, or
Italy.'"--Sir C. LYELL, Antiquity of Man, 48-9.
[2] THOMAS WRIGHT, F.S.A., The Celt, The Roman, and The Saxon, ed. 1861.
[3] Referred to at length in the Antiquity of Man, by Sir C. Lyell, who
adopts M. Worsaae's classification.
[4] Mr. Mushet, however, observes that "the general use of hardened
copper by the ancients for edge-tools and warlike instruments, does not
preclude the supposition that iron was then comparatively plentiful,
though it is probable that it was confined to the ruder arts of life.
A knowledge of the mixture of copper, tin, and zinc, seems to have been
among the first discoveries of the metallurgist. Instruments
fabricated from these alloys, recommended by the use of ages, the
perfection of the art, the splendour and polish of their surfaces, not
easily injured by time and weather, would not soon be superseded by the
invention of simple iron, inferior in edge and polish, at all times
easily injured by rust, and in the early stages of its manufacture
converted with difficulty into forms that required proportion or
elegance."--(Papers on Iron and Steel, 365-6.) By some secret method
that has been lost, perhaps because no longer needed since the
invention of steel, the ancients manufactured bronze tools capable of
taking a fine edge. In our own time, Chantrey the sculptor, in his
reverence for classic metallurgy, had a bronze razor made with which he
martyred himself in shaving; but none were found so hardy and devoted
as to follow his example.
[5] It may be mentioned in passing, that while Zinc is fusible at 3
degrees of Wedgwood's pyrometer, Silver at 22 degrees, Copper at 27
degrees, and Gold at 32 degrees, Cast Iron is only fusible at 130
degrees. Tin (one of the constituents of the ancient bronze) and Lead
are fusible at much lower degrees than zinc.
[6] The Romans named the other metals after the gods. Thus Quicksilver
was called Mercury, Lead Saturn, Tin Jupiter, Copper Venus, Silver
Luna, and so on; and our own language has received a colouring from the
Roman nomenclature, which it continues to retain.
[7] I. Samuel xiii. 19, 20.
[8] II. Kings xxiv. 16.
[9] Papers on Iron and Steel, 363-4.
[10] Dr. Livingstone brought with him to England a piece of the Zambesi
iron, which he sent to a skilled Birmingham blacksmith to test. The
result was, that he pronounced the metal as strongly resembling Swedish
or Russian; both of which kinds are smelted with charcoal. The African
iron was found "highly carbonized," and "when chilled it possessed the
properties of steel."
[11] HOLINSHED, i. 517. Iron was also the currency of the Spartans,
but it has been used as such in much more recent times. Adam Smith, in
his Wealth of Nations (Book I. ch. 4, published in 1776), says, "there
is at this day a village in Scotland where it is not uncommon, I am
told, for a workman to carry nails, instead of money, to the baker's
shop or the alehouse."
[12] Primeval Antiquities of Denmark. London, 1849, p. 140.
[13] See Dr. Pearson's paper in the Philosophical Transactions, 1796,
relative to certain ancient arms and utensils found in the river Witham
between Kirkstead and Lincoln.
[14] "In the Forest of Dean and thereabouts the iron is made at this
day of cinders, being the rough and offal thrown by in the Roman time;
they then having only foot-blasts to melt the ironstone; but now, by
the force of a great wheel that drives a pair of Bellows twenty feet
long, all that iron is extracted out of the cinders which could not be
forced from it by the Roman foot-blast. And in the Forest of Dean and
thereabouts, and as high as Worcester, there ave great and infinite
quantities of these cinders; some in vast mounts above ground, some
under ground, which will supply the iron works some hundreds of years;
and these cinders ave they which make the prime and best iron, and with
much less charcoal than doth the ironstone."--A. YARRANTON, England's
Improvement by Sea and Land. London, 1677.
[15] M. A. LOWER, Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian,
and Metrical. London, 1854, pp. 88-9.
[16] This famous sword was afterwards sent by Richard I. as a present
to Tancred; and the value attached to the weapon may be estimated by
the fact that the Crusader sent the English monarch, in return for it,
"four great ships and fifteen galleys."
[17] Weland was the Saxon Vulcan. The name of Weland's or Wayland's
Smithy is still given to a monument on Lambourn Downs in Wiltshire.
The place is also known as Wayland Smith's Cave. It consists of a rude
gallery of stones.
[18] Among the Scythians the iron sword was a god. It was the image of
Mars, and sacrifices were made to it. "An iron sword," says Mr.
Campbell, "really was once worshipped by a people with whom iron was
rare. Iron is rare, while stone and bronze weapons are common, in
British tombs, and the sword of these stories is a personage. It
shines, it cries out--the lives of men are bound up in it. And so this
mystic sword may, perhaps, have been a god amongst the Celts, or the
god of the people with whom the Celts contended somewhere on their long
journey to the west. It is a fiction now, but it may be founded on
fact, and that fact probably was the first use of iron." To this day an
old horse-shoe is considered a potent spell in some districts against
the powers of evil; and for want of a horse-shoe a bit of a rusty
reaping-hook is supposed to have equal power, "Who were these powers of
evil who could not resist iron--these fairies who shoot STONE arrows,
and are of the foes to the human race? Is all this but a dim, hazy
recollection of war between a people who had iron weapons and a race
who had not--the race whose remains are found all over Europe? If these
were wandering tribes, they had leaders; if they were warlike, they had
weapons. There is a smith in the Pantheon of many nations. Vulcan was
a smith; Thor wielded a hammer; even Fionn had a hammer, which was
heard in Lochlann when struck in Eirinn. Fionn may have borrowed his
hammer from Thor long ago, or both may have got theirs from Vulcan, or
all three may have brought hammers with them from the land where some
primeval smith wielded the first sledge-hammer; but may not all these
'smith-gods be the smiths who made iron weapons for those who fought
with the skin-clad warriors who shot flint-arrows, and who are now
bogles, fairies, and demons? In any case, tales about smiths seem to
belong to mythology, and to be common property."--CAMPBELL, Popular
Tales of the West Highlands, Preface, 74-6.
[19] BROOK, Discovery of Errors in the Catalogue of the Nobility, 198.
[20] MEYRICK, i. 11.
[21] GILBERT, Cornwall.
[22] Before table-knives were invented, in the sixteenth century, the
knife was a very important article; each guest at table bearing his
own, and sharpening it at the whetstone hung up in the passage, before
sitting down to dinner, Some even carried a whetstone as well as a
knife; and one of Queen Elizabeth's presents to the Earl of Leicester
was a whetstone tipped with gold.
[23] The early scarcity of iron in Scotland is confirmed by Froissart,
who says,--"In Scotland you will never find a man of worth; they are
like savages, who wish not to be acquainted with any one, are envious
of the good fortune of others, and suspicious of losing anything
themselves; for their country is very poor. When the English make
inroads thither, as they have very frequently done, they order their
provisions, if they wish to live, to follow close at their backs; for
nothing is to be had in that country without great difficulty. There
is neither iron to shoe horses, nor leather to make harness, saddles,
or bridles: all these things come ready made from Flanders by sea; and
should these fail, there is none to be had in the country."
[24] PARKER'S English Home, 77
[25] The precise time at which Andrea de Ferrara flourished cannot be
fixed with accuracy; but Sir Waiter Scott, in one of the notes to
Waverley, says he is believed to have been a foreign artist brought
over by James IV. or V. of Scotland to instruct the Scots in the
manufacture of sword-blades. The genuine weapons have a crown marked
on the blades.
[26] Mr. Parkes, in his Essay on the Manufacture of Edge Tools, says,
"Had this ingenious artist thought of a bath of oil, he might have
heated this by means of a furnace underneath it, and by the use of a
thermometer, to the exact point which he found necessary; though it is
inconvenient to have to employ a thermometer for every distinct
operation. Or, if he had been in the possession of a proper bath of
fusible metal, he would have attained the necessary certainty in his
process, and need not have immured himself in a subterranean
apartment.--PARKES' Essays, 1841, p. 495.
[27] HOLINSHED, History of England. It was even said to have been one
of the objects of the Spanish Armada to get the oaks of the Forest of
Dean destroyed, in order to prevent further smelting of the iron. Thus
Evelyn, in his Sylva, says, "I have heard that in the great expedition
of 1588 it was expressly enjoined the Spanish Armada that if, when
landed, they should not be able to subdue our nation and make good
their conquest, they should yet be sure not to leave a tree standing in
the Forest of Dean."--NICHOLS, History of the Forest of Dean, p. 22.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY ENGLISH IRON MANUFACTURE.
"He that well observes it, and hath known the welds of Sussex, Surry,
and Kent', the grand nursery especially of oake and beech, shal find
such an alteration, within lesse than 30 yeeres, as may well strike a
feare, lest few yeeres more, as pestilent as the former, will leave
fewe good trees standing in those welds. Such a heate issueth out of
the many forges and furnaces for the making of iron, and out of the
glasse kilnes, as hath devoured many famous woods within the
welds,"--JOHN NORDEN, Surveyors' Dialogue (1607).
Few records exist of the manufacture of iron in England in early times.
After the Romans left the island, the British, or more probably the
Teutonic tribes settled along the south coast, continued the smelting
and manufacture of the metal after the methods taught them by the
colonists. In the midst of the insecurity, however, engendered by
civil war and social changes, the pursuits of industry must necessarily
have been considerably interfered with, and the art of iron-forging
became neglected. No notice of iron being made in Sussex occurs in
Domesday Book, from which it would appear that the manufacture had in a
great measure ceased in that county at the time of the Conquest, though
it was continued in the iron-producing districts bordering on Wales.
In many of the Anglo-Saxon graves which have been opened, long iron
swords have been found, showing that weapons of that metal were in
common use. But it is probable that iron was still scarce, as ploughs
and other agricultural implements continued to be made of wood,--one of
the Anglo-Saxon laws enacting that no man should undertake to guide a
plough who could not make one; and that the cords with which it was
bound should be of twisted willows. The metal was held in esteem
principally as the material of war. All male adults were required to
be provided with weapons, and honour was awarded to such artificers as
excelled in the fabrication of swords, arms, and defensive armour.[1]
Camden incidentally states that the manufacture of iron was continued
in the western counties during the Saxon era, more particularly in the
Forest of Dean, and that in the time of Edward the Confessor the
tribute paid by the city of Gloucester consisted almost entirely of
iron rods wrought to a size fit for making nails for the king's ships.
An old religious writer speaks of the ironworkers of that day as
heathenish in their manners, puffed up with pride, and inflated with
worldly prosperity. On the occasion of St. Egwin's visit to the
smiths of Alcester, as we are told in the legend, he found then given
up to every kind of luxury; and when he proceeded to preach unto them,
they beat upon their anvils in contempt of his doctrine so as
completely to deafen him; upon which he addressed his prayers to
heaven, and the town was immediately destroyed.[2]
But the first reception given to John Wesley by the miners of the
Forest of Dean, more than a thousand years later, was perhaps scarcely
more gratifying than that given to St. Egwin.
That working in iron was regarded as an honourable and useful calling
in the Middle Ages, is apparent from the extent to which it was
followed by the monks, some of whom were excellent craftsmen. Thus St.
Dunstan, who governed England in the time of Edwy the Fair, was a
skilled blacksmith and metallurgist. He is said to have had a forge
even in his bedroom, and it was there that his reputed encounter with
Satan occurred, in which of course the saint came off the victor.
There was another monk of St. Alban's, called Anketil, who flourished
in the twelfth century, so famous for his skill as a worker in iron,
silver, gold, jewelry, and gilding, that he was invited by the king of
Denmark to be his goldsmith and banker. A pair of gold and silver
candlesticks of his manufacture, presented by the abbot of St. Alban's
to Pope Adrian IV., were so much esteemed for their exquisite
workmanship that they were consecrated to St. Peter, and were the
means of obtaining high ecclesiastical distinction for the abbey.
We also find that the abbots of monasteries situated in the iron
districts, among their other labours, devoted themselves to the
manufacture of iron from the ore. The extensive beds of cinders still
found in the immediate neighbourhood of Rievaulx and Hackness, in
Yorkshire, show that the monks were well acquainted with the art of
forging, and early turned to account the riches of the Cleveland
ironstone. In the Forest of Dean also, the abbot of Flaxley was
possessed of one stationary and one itinerant forge, by grant from
Henry II, and he was allowed two oaks weekly for fuel,--a privilege
afterwards commuted, in 1258, for Abbot's Wood of 872 acres, which was
held by the abbey until its dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII. At
the same time the Earl of Warwick had forges at work in his woods at
Lydney; and in 1282, as many as 72 forges were leased from the Crown by
various iron-smelters in the same Forest of Dean.
There are numerous indications of iron-smelting having been conducted
on a considerable scale at some remote period in the neighbourhood of
Leeds, in Yorkshire. In digging out the foundations of houses in
Briggate, the principal street of that town, many "bell pits" have been
brought to light, from which ironstone has been removed. The new
cemetery at Burmandtofts, in the same town, was in like manner found
pitted over with these ancient holes. The miner seems to have dug a
well about 6 feet in diameter, and so soon as he reached the mineral,
he worked it away all round, leaving the bell-shaped cavities in
question. He did not attempt any gallery excavations, but when the pit
was exhausted, a fresh one was sunk. The ore, when dug, was
transported, most probably on horses' backs, to the adjacent districts
for the convenience of fuel. For it was easier to carry the mineral to
the wood--then exclusively used for smelting'--than to bring the wood
to the mineral. Hence the numerous heaps of scoriae found in the
neighbourhood of Leeds,--at Middleton, Whitkirk, and Horsforth--all
within the borough. At Horsforth, they are found in conglomerated
masses from 30 to 40 yards long, and of considerable width and depth.
The remains of these cinder-beds in various positions, some of them
near the summit of the hill, tend to show, that as the trees were
consumed, a new wind furnace was erected in another situation, in order
to lessen the labour of carrying the fuel. There are also deposits of
a similar kind at Kirkby Overblow, a village a few miles to the
north-east of Leeds; and Thoresby states that the place was so called
because it was the village of the "Ore blowers,"--hence the corruption
of "Overblow." A discovery has recently been made among the papers of
the Wentworth family, of a contract for supplying wood and ore for iron
"blomes" at Kirskill near Otley, in the fourteenth century;[3] though
the manufacture near that place has long since ceased.
Although the making of iron was thus carried on in various parts of
England in the Middle Ages, the quantity produced was altogether
insufficient to meet the ordinary demand, as it appears from our early
records to have long continued one of the principal articles imported
from foreign countries. English iron was not only dearer, but it was
much inferior in quality to that manufactured abroad; and hence all the
best arms and tools continued to be made of foreign iron. Indeed the
scarcity of this metal occasionally led to great inconvenience, and to
prevent its rising in price Parliament enacted, in 1354, that no iron,
either wrought or unwrought, should be exported, under heavy penalties.
For nearly two hundred years--that is, throughout the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries--the English market was principally supplied with
iron and steel from Spain and Germany; the foreign merchants of the
Steelyard doing a large and profitable trade in those commodities.
While the woollen and other branches of trade were making considerable
progress, the manufacture of iron stood still. Among the lists of
articles, the importation of which was prohibited in Edward IV.'s
reign, with a view to the protection of domestic manufactures, we find
no mention of iron, which was still, as a matter of necessity, allowed
to come freely from abroad.
The first indications of revival in the iron manufacture showed
themselves in Sussex, a district in which the Romans had established
extensive works, and where smelting operations were carried on to a
partial extent in the neighbourhood of Lewes, in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, where the iron was principally made into nails
and horse-shoes. The county abounds in ironstone, which is contained
in the sandstone beds of the Forest ridge, lying between the chalk and
oolite of the district, called by geologists the Hastings sand. The
beds run in a north-westerly direction, by Ashburnham and Heathfield,
to Crowborough and thereabouts. In early times the region was covered
with wood, and was known as the Great Forest of Anderida. The Weald,
or wild wood, abounded in oaks of great size, suitable for smelting
ore; and the proximity of the mineral to the timber, as well as the
situation of the district in the neighbourhood of the capital,
sufficiently account for the Sussex iron-works being among the most
important which existed in England previous to the discovery of
smelting by pit-coal.
The iron manufacturers of the south were especially busy during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their works were established near
to the beds of ore, and in places where water-power existed, or could
be provided by artificial means. Hence the numerous artificial ponds
which are still to be found all over the Sussex iron district. Dams of
earth, called "pond-bays," were thrown across watercourses, with
convenient outlets built of masonry, wherein was set the great wheel
which worked the hammer or blew the furnace. Portions of the adjoining
forest-land were granted or leased to the iron-smelters; and the many
places still known by the name of "Chart" in the Weald, probably mark
the lands chartered for the purpose of supplying the iron-works with
their necessary fuel. The cast-iron tombstones and slabs in many
Sussex churchyards,--the andirons and chimney backs[4] still found in
old Sussex mansions and farm-houses, and such names as Furnace Place,
Cinder Hill, Forge Farm, and Hammer Pond, which are of very frequent
occurrence throughout the county, clearly mark the extent and activity
of this ancient branch of industry.[5] Steel was also manufactured at
several places in the county, more particularly at Steel-Forge Land,
Warbleton, and at Robertsbridge. The steel was said to be of good
quality, resembling Swedish--both alike depending for their excellence
on the exclusive use of charcoal in smelting the ore,--iron so produced
maintaining its superiority over coal-smelted iron to this day.
When cannon came to be employed in war, the nearness of Sussex to
London and the Cinque Forts gave it a great advantage over the remoter
iron-producing districts in the north and west of England, and for a
long time the iron-works of this county enjoyed almost a monopoly of
the manufacture. The metal was still too precious to be used for
cannon balls, which were hewn of stone from quarries on Maidstone
Heath. Iron was only available, and that in limited quantities, for
the fabrication of the cannon themselves, and wrought-iron was chiefly
used for the purpose. An old mortar which formerly lay on Eridge
Green, near Frant, is said to have been the first mortar made in
England;[6] only the chamber was cast, while the tube consisted of bars
strongly hooped together. Although the local distich says that
"Master Huggett and his man John
They did cast the first cannon,"
there is every reason to believe that both cannons and mortars were
made in Sussex before Huggett's time; the old hooped guns in the Tower
being of the date of Henry VI. The first cast-iron cannons of English
manufacture were made at Buxtead, in Sussex, in 1543, by Ralph Hogge,
master founder, who employed as his principal assistant one Peter
Baude, a Frenchman. Gun-founding was a French invention, and Mr. Lower
supposes that Hogge brought over Baude from France to teach his workmen
the method of casting the guns. About the same time Hogge employed a
skilled Flemish gunsmith named Peter Van Collet, who, according to
Stowe, "devised or caused to be made certain mortar pieces, being at
the mouth from eleven to nine inches wide, for the use whereof the said
Peter caused to be made certain hollow shot of cast-iron to be stuffed
with fyrework, whereof the bigger sort for the same has screws of iron
to receive a match to carry fyre for to break in small pieces the said
hollow shot, whereof the smallest piece hitting a man would kill or
spoil him." In short, Peter Van Collet here introduced the manufacture
of the explosive shell in the form in which it continued to be used
down to our own day.
Baude, the Frenchman, afterwards set up business on his own account,
making many guns, both of brass and iron, some of which are still
preserved in the Tower.[7] Other workmen, learning the trade from him,
also began to manufacture on their own account; one of Baude's
servants, named John Johnson, and after him his son Thomas, becoming
famous for the excellence of their cast-iron guns. The Hogges
continued the business for several generations, and became a wealthy
county family. Huggett was another cannon maker of repute; and Owen
became celebrated for his brass culverins. Mr. Lower mentions, as a
curious instance of the tenacity with which families continue to follow
a particular vocation, that many persons of the name of Huggett still
carry on the trade of blacksmith in East Sussex. But most of the early
workmen at the Sussex iron-works, as in other branches of skilled
industry in England during the sixteenth century, were
foreigners--Flemish and French--many of whom had taken refuge in this
country from the religious persecutions then raging abroad, while
others, of special skill, were invited over by the iron manufacturers
to instruct their workmen in the art of metal-founding.[8]
As much wealth was gained by the pursuit of the revived iron
manufacture in Sussex, iron-mills rapidly extended over the
ore-yielding district. The landed proprietors entered with zeal into
this new branch of industry, and when wood ran short, they did not
hesitate to sacrifice their ancestral oaks to provide fuel for the
furnaces. Mr. Lower says even the most ancient families, such as the
Nevilles, Howards, Percys, Stanleys, Montagues, Pelhams, Ashburnhams,
Sidneys, Sackvilles, Dacres, and Finches, prosecuted the manufacture
with all the apparent ardour of Birmingham and Wolverhampton men in
modern times. William Penn, the courtier Quaker, had iron-furnaces at
Hawkhurst and other places in Sussex. The ruins of the Ashburnham
forge, situated a few miles to the north-east of Battle, still serve to
indicate the extent of the manufacture. At the upper part of the
valley in which the works were situated, an artificial lake was formed
by constructing an embankment across the watercourse descending from
the higher ground,[9] and thus a sufficient fall of water was procured
for the purpose of blowing the furnaces, the site of which is still
marked by surrounding mounds of iron cinders and charcoal waste. Three
quarters of a mile lower down the valley stood the forge, also provided
with water-power for working the hammer; and some of the old buildings
are still standing, among others the boring-house, of small size, now
used as an ordinary labourer's cottage, where the guns were bored. The
machine was a mere upright drill worked by the water-wheel, which was
only eighteen inches across the breast. The property belonged, as it
still does, to the Ashburnham family, who are said to have derived
great wealth from the manufacture of guns at their works, which were
among the last carried on in Sussex. The Ashburnham iron was
distinguished for its toughness, and was said to be equal to the best
Spanish or Swedish iron.
Many new men also became enriched, and founded county families; the
Fuller family frankly avowing their origin in the singular motto of
Carbone et forcipibus--literally, by charcoal and tongs.[10]
Men then went into Sussex to push their fortunes at the forges, as they
now do in Wales or Staffordshire; and they succeeded then, as they do
now, by dint of application, industry, and energy. The Sussex
Archaeological Papers for 1860 contain a curious record of such an
adventurer, in the history of the founder of the Gale family. Leonard
Gale was born in 1620 at Riverhead, near Sevenoaks, where his father
pursued the trade of a blacksmith. When the youth had reached his
seventeenth year, his father and mother, with five of their sons and
daughters, died of the plague, Leonard and his brother being the only
members of the family that survived. The patrimony of 200L. left them
was soon spent; after which Leonard paid off his servants, and took to
work diligently at his father's trade. Saving a little money, he
determined to go down into Sussex, where we shortly find him working
the St. Leonard's Forge, and afterwards the Tensley Forge near
Crawley, and the Cowden Iron-works, which then bore a high reputation.
After forty years' labour, he accumulated a good fortune, which he left
to his son of the same name, who went on iron-forging, and eventually
became a county gentleman, owner of the house and estate of Crabbett
near Worth, and Member of Parliament for East Grinstead.
Several of the new families, however, after occupying a high position
in the county, again subsided into the labouring class, illustrating
the Lancashire proverb of "Twice clogs, once boots," the sons
squandering what the father's had gathered, and falling back into the
ranks again. Thus the great Fowles family of Riverhall disappeared
altogether from Sussex. One of them built the fine mansion of
Riverhall, noble even in decay. Another had a grant of free warren
from King James over his estates in Wadhurst, Frant, Rotherfield, and
Mayfield. Mr. Lower says the fourth in descent from this person kept
the turnpike-gate at Wadhurst, and that the last of the family, a
day-labourer, emigrated to America in 1839, carrying with him, as the
sole relic of his family greatness, the royal grant of free warren
given to his ancestor. The Barhams and Mansers were also great
iron-men, officiating as high sheriffs of the county at different
times, and occupying spacious mansions. One branch of these families
terminated, Mr. Lower says, with Nicholas Barham, who died in the
workhouse at Wadhurst in 1788; and another continues to be represented
by a wheelwright at Wadhurst of the same name.
The iron manufacture of Sussex reached its height towards the close of
the reign of Elizabeth, when the trade became so prosperous that,
instead of importing iron, England began to export it in considerable
quantities, in the shape of iron ordnance. Sir Thomas Leighton and Sir
Henry Neville had obtained patents from the queen, which enabled them
to send their ordnance abroad, the consequence of which was that the
Spaniards were found arming their ships and fighting us with guns of
our own manufacture. Sir Walter Raleigh, calling attention to the
subject in the House of Commons, said, "I am sure heretofore one ship
of Her Majesty's was able to beat ten Spaniards, but now, by reason of
our own ordnance, we are hardly matcht one to one." Proclamations were
issued forbidding the export of iron and brass ordnance, and a bill was
brought into Parliament to put a stop to the trade; but, not
withstanding these prohibitions, the Sussex guns long continued to be
smuggled out of the country in considerable numbers. "It is almost
incredible," says Camden, "how many guns are made of the iron in this
county. Count Gondomar (the Spanish ambassador) well knew their
goodness when he so often begged of King James the boon to export
them." Though the king refused his sanction, it appears that Sir
Anthony Shirley of Weston, an extensive iron-master, succeeded in
forwarding to the King of Spain a hundred pieces of cannon.
So active were the Sussex manufacturers, and so brisk was the trade
they carried on, that during the reign of James I. it is supposed
one-half of the whole quantity of iron produced in England was made
there. Simon Sturtevant, in his 'Treatise of Metallica,' published in
1612, estimates the whole number of iron-mills in England and Wales at
800, of which, he says, "there are foure hundred milnes in Surry, Kent,
and Sussex, as the townsmen of Haslemere have testified and numbered
unto me." But the townsmen of Haslemere must certainly have been
exaggerating, unless they counted smiths' and farriers' shops in the
number of iron-mills. About the same time that Sturtevant's treatise
was published, there appeared a treatise entitled the 'Surveyor's
Dialogue,' by one John Norden, the object of which was to make out a
case against the iron-works and their being allowed to burn up the
timber of the country for fuel. Yet Norden does not make the number of
iron-works much more than a third of Sturtevant's estimate. He says,
"I have heard that there are or lately were in Sussex neere 140 hammers
and furnaces for iron, and in it and Surrey adjoining three or four
glasse-houses." Even the smaller number stated by Norden, however,
shows that Sussex was then regarded as the principal seat of the
iron-trade. Camden vividly describes the noise and bustle of the
manufacture--the working of the heavy hammers, which, "beating upon the
iron, fill the neighbourhood round about, day and night, with continual
noise." These hammers were for the most part worked by the power of
water, carefully stored in the artificial "Hammer-ponds" above
described. The hammer-shaft was usually of ash, about 9 feet long,
clamped at intervals with iron hoops. It was worked by the revolutions
of the water-wheel, furnished with projecting arms or knobs to raise
the hammer, which fell as each knob passed, the rapidity of its action
of course depending on the velocity with which the water-wheel
revolved. The forge-blast was also worked for the most part by
water-power. Where the furnaces were small, the blast was produced by
leather bellows worked by hand, or by a horse walking in a gin. The
foot-blasts of the earlier iron-smelters were so imperfect that but a
small proportion of the ore was reduced, so that the iron-makers of
later times, more particularly in the Forest of Dean, instead of
digging for ironstone, resorted to the beds of ancient scoriae for
their principal supply of the mineral.
Notwithstanding the large number of furnaces in blast throughout the
county of Sussex at the period we refer to, their produce was
comparatively small, and must not be measured by the enormous produce
of modern iron-works; for while an iron-furnace of the present day will
easily turn out 150 tons of pig per week, the best of the older
furnaces did not produce more than from three to four tons. One of the
last extensive contracts executed in Sussex was the casting of the iron
rails which enclose St. Paul's Cathedral. The contract was thought
too large for one iron-master to undertake, and it was consequently
distributed amongst several contractors, though the principal part of
the work was executed at Lamberhurst, near Tunbridge Wells. But to
produce the comparatively small quantity of iron turned out by the old
works, the consumption of timber was enormous; for the making of every
ton of pig-iron required four loads of timber converted into charcoal
fuel, and the making of every ton of bar-iron required three additional
loads. Thus, notwithstanding the indispensable need of iron, the
extension of the manufacture, by threatening the destruction of the
timber of the southern counties, came to be regarded in the light of a
national calamity. Up to a certain point, the clearing of the Weald of
its dense growth of underwood had been of advantage, by affording
better opportunities for the operations of agriculture. But the
"voragious iron-mills" were proceeding to swallow up everything that
would burn, and the old forest growths were rapidly disappearing. An
entire wood was soon exhausted, and long time was needed before it grew
again. At Lamberhurst alone, though the produce was only about five
tons of iron a-week, the annual consumption of wood was about 200,000
cords! Wood continued to be the only material used for fuel
generally--a strong prejudice existing against the use of sea-coal for
domestic purposes.[11] It therefore began to be feared that there
would be no available fuel left within practicable reach of the
metropolis; and the contingency of having to face the rigorous cold of
an English winter without fuel naturally occasioning much alarm, the
action of the Government was deemed necessary to remedy the apprehended
evil.
To check the destruction of wood near London, an Act was passed in 1581
prohibiting its conversion into fuel for the making of iron within
fourteen miles of the Thames, forbidding the erection of new ironworks
within twenty-two miles of London, and restricting the number of works
in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, beyond the above limits. Similar
enactments were made in future Parliaments with the same object, which
had the effect of checking the trade, and several of the Sussex
ironmasters were under the necessity of removing their works elsewhere.
Some of them migrated to Glamorganshire, in South Wales, because of the
abundance of timber as well as ironstone in that quarter, and there set
up their forges, more particularly at Aberdare and Merthyr Tydvil. Mr.
Llewellin has recently published an interesting account of their
proceedings, with descriptions of their works,[12] remains of which
still exist at Llwydcoed, Pontyryns, and other places in the Aberdare
valley. Among the Sussex masters who settled in Glamorganshire for the
purpose of carrying on the iron manufacture, were Walter Burrell, the
friend of John Ray, the naturalist, one of the Morleys of Glynde in
Sussex, the Relfes from Mayfield, and the Cheneys from Crawley.
Notwithstanding these migrations of enterprising manufacturers, the
iron trade of Sussex continued to exist until the middle of the
seventeenth century, when the waste of timber was again urged upon the
attention of Parliament, and the penalties for infringing the statutes
seem to have been more rigorously enforced. The trade then suffered a
more serious check; and during the civil wars, a heavy blow was given
to it by the destruction of the works belonging to all royalists, which
was accomplished by a division of the army under Sir William Waller.
Most of the Welsh ironworks were razed to the ground about the same
time, and were not again rebuilt. And after the Restoration, in 1674,
all the royal ironworks in the Forest of Dean were demolished, leaving
only such to be supplied with ore as were beyond the forest limits; the
reason alleged for this measure being lest the iron manufacture should
endanger the supply of timber required for shipbuilding and other
necessary purposes.
From this time the iron manufacture of Sussex, as of England generally,
rapidly declined. In 1740 there were only fifty-nine furnaces in all
England, of which ten were in Sussex; and in 1788 there were only two.
A few years later, and the Sussex iron furnaces were blown out
altogether. Farnhurst, in western, and Ashburnham, in eastern Sussex,
witnessed the total extinction of the manufacture. The din of the iron
hammer was hushed, the glare of the furnace faded, the last blast of
the bellows was blown, and the district returned to its original rural
solitude. Some of the furnace-ponds were drained and planted with hops
or willows; others formed beautiful lakes in retired pleasure-grounds;
while the remainder were used to drive flour-mills, as the streams in
North Kent, instead of driving fulling-mills, were employed to work
paper-mills. All that now remains of the old iron-works are the
extensive beds of cinders from which material is occasionally taken to
mend the Sussex roads, and the numerous furnace-ponds, hammer-posts,
forges, and cinder places, which mark the seats of the ancient
manufacture.
[1] WILKINS, Leges Sax. 25.
[2] Life of St. Egwin, in Capgrave's Nova Legenda Anglioe. Alcester
was, as its name indicates, an old Roman settlement (situated on the
Icknild Street), where the art of working in iron was practised from an
early period. It was originally called Alauna, being situated on the
river Alne in Warwickshire. It is still a seat of the needle
manufacture.
[3] The following is an extract of this curious document, which is
dated the 26th Dec. 1352: "Ceste endenture fait entre monsire Richard
de Goldesburghe, chivaler, dune part, et Robert Totte, seignour, dautre
tesmoigne qe le dit monsire Richard ad graunte et lesse al dit Robert
deuz Olyveres contenaunz vynt quatre blomes de la feste seynt Piere ad
vincula lan du regne le Roi Edward tierce apres le conqueste vynt
sysme, en sun parke de Creskelde, rendant al dit monsire Richard
chesqune semayn quatorzse soutz dargent duraunt les deux Olyvers avaunt
dist; a tenir et avoir al avaunt dit Robert del avaunt dit monsire
Richard de la feste seynt Piere avaunt dist, taunque le bois soit ars
du dit parke a la volunte le dit monsire Richard saunz interrupcione [e
le dicte monsieur Richard trovera a dit Robert urre suffisaunt pur lez
ditz Olyvers pur le son donaunt: these words are interlined]. Et fait
a savoir qe le dit Robert ne nule de soens coupard ne abatera nule
manere darbre ne de boys put les deuz olyvers avaunt ditz mes par la
veu et la lyvere le dit monsire Richard, ou par ascun autre par le dit
monsire Richard assigne. En tesmoigaunz (sic) de quenx choses a cestes
presentes endentures les parties enterchaungablement ount mys lour
seals. Escript a Creskelde le meskerdy en le semayn de Pasque lan
avaunt diste."
It is probable that the "blomes" referred to in this agreement were the
bloomeries or fires in which the iron was made; and that the "olyveres"
were forges or erections, each of which contained so many bloomeries,
but were of limited durability, and probably perished in the using.
[4] The back of a grate has recently been found, cast by Richard
Leonard at Brede Furnace in 1636. It is curious as containing a
representation of the founder with his dog and cups; a drawing of the
furnace, with the wheelbarrow and other implements for the casting, and
on a shield the pincers and other marks of the blacksmith. Leonard was
tenant of the Sackville furnace at Little Udimore.--Sussex
Archaeological Collections, vol. xii.
[5] For an interesting account of the early iron industry of Sussex see
M. A. LOWER'S Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiquarian, and
Metrical. London, 1854.
[6] Archaeologia, vol. x. 472.
[7] One of these, 6 1/2 feet long, and of 2 1/2 inches bore,
manufactured in 1543, bears the cast inscription of Petrus Baude Gallus
operis artifex.
[8] Mr. Lower says, "Many foreigners were brought over to carry on the
works; which perhaps may account for the number of Frenchmen and
Germans whose names appear in our parish registers about the middle of
the sixteenth century ."--Contributions to Literature, 108.
[9] The embankment and sluices of the furnace-pond at the upper part of
the valley continue to be maintained, the lake being used by the
present Lord Ashburnham as a preserve for fish and water-fowl.
[10] Reminding one of the odd motto assumed by Gillespie, the
tobacconist of Edinburgh, founder of Gillespie's Hospital, on whose
carriage-panels was emblazoned a Scotch mull, with the motto,
"Wha wad ha' thocht it,
That noses could ha' bought it!"
It is just possible that the Fullers may have taken their motto from
the words employed by Juvenal in describing the father of Demosthenes,
who was a blacksmith and a sword-cutler--
"Quem pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus,
A carbone et forcipibus gladiosque parante
Incude et luteo Vulcano ad rhetora misit."
[11] It was then believed that sea or pit-coal was poisonous when burnt
in dwellings, and that it was especially injurious to the human
complexion. All sorts of diseases were attributed to its use, and at
one time it was even penal to burn it. The Londoners only began to
reconcile themselves to the use of coal when the wood within reach of
the metropolis had been nearly all burnt up, and no other fuel was to
be had.
[12] Archaeologia Cambrensis, 3rd Series, No. 34, April, 1863. Art.
"Sussex Ironmasters in Glamorganshire."
CHAPTER III.
IRON-SMELTING BY PIT-COAL--DUD DUDLEY.
"God of his Infinite goodness (if we will but take notice of his
goodness unto this Nation) hath made this Country a very Granary for
the supplying of Smiths with Iron, Cole, and Lime made with cole, which
hath much supplied these men with Corn also of late; and from these men
a great part, not only of this Island, but also of his Majestie's other
Kingdoms and Territories, with Iron wares have their supply, and Wood
in these parts almost exhausted, although it were of late a mighty
woodland country."--DUDLEY's Metallum Martis, 1665.
The severe restrictions enforced by the legislature against the use of
wood in iron-smelting had the effect of almost extinguishing the
manufacture. New furnaces ceased to be erected, and many of the old
ones were allowed to fall into decay, until it began to be feared that
this important branch of industry would become completely lost. The
same restrictions alike affected the operations of the glass
manufacture, which, with the aid of foreign artisans, had been
gradually established in England, and was becoming a thriving branch of
trade. It was even proposed that the smelting of iron should be
absolutely prohibited: "many think," said a contemporary writer, "that
there should be NO WORKS ANYWHERE--they do so devour the woods."
The use of iron, however, could not be dispensed with. The very
foundations of society rested upon an abundant supply of it, for tools
and implements of peace, as well as for weapons of war. In the dearth
of the article at home, a supply of it was therefore sought for abroad;
and both iron and steel came to be imported in largely-increased
quantities. This branch of trade was principally in the hands of the
Steelyard Company of Foreign Merchants, established in Upper Thames
Street, a little above London Bridge; and they imported large
quantities of iron and steel from foreign countries, principally from
Sweden, Germany, and Spain. The best iron came from Spain, though the
Spaniards on their part coveted our English made cannons, which were
better manufactured than theirs; while the best steel came from Germany
and Sweden.[1]
Under these circumstances, it was natural that persons interested in
the English iron manufacture should turn their attention to some other
description of fuel which should serve as a substitute for the
prohibited article. There was known to be an abundance of coal in the
northern and midland counties, and it occurred to some speculators more
than usually daring, to propose it as a substitute for the charcoal
fuel made from wood. But the same popular prejudice which existed
against the use of coal for domestic purposes, prevented its being
employed for purposes of manufacture; and they were thought very
foolish persons indeed who first promulgated the idea of smelting iron
by means of pit-coal. The old manufacturers held it to be impossible
to reduce the ore in any other way than by means of charcoal of wood.
It was only when the wood in the neighbourhood of the ironworks had
been almost entirely burnt up, that the manufacturers were driven to
entertain the idea of using coal as a substitute; but more than a
hundred years passed before the practice of smelting iron by its means
became general.
The first who took out a patent for the purpose was one Simon
Sturtevant, a German skilled in mining operations; the professed object
of his invention being "to neale, melt, and worke all kind of metal
oares, irons, and steeles with sea-coale, pit-coale, earth-coale, and
brush fewell." The principal end of his invention, he states in his
Treatise of Metallica,[2] is to save the consumption and waste of the
woods and timber of the country; and, should his design succeed, he
holds that it "will prove to be the best and most profitable business
and invention that ever was known or invented in England these many
yeares." He says he has already made trial of the process on a small
scale, and is confident that it will prove equally successful on a
large one. Sturtevant was not very specific as to his process; but it
incidentally appears to have been his purpose to reduce the coal by an
imperfect combustion to the condition of coke, thereby ridding it of
"those malignant proprieties which are averse to the nature of
metallique substances." The subject was treated by him, as was
customary in those days, as a great mystery, made still more mysterious
by the multitude of learned words under which he undertook to describe
his "Ignick Invention" All the operations of industry were then treated
as secrets. Each trade was a craft, and those who followed it were
called craftsmen. Even the common carpenter was a handicraftsman; and
skilled artisans were "cunning men." But the higher branches of work
were mysteries, the communication of which to others was carefully
guarded by the regulations of the trades guilds. Although the early
patents are called specifications, they in reality specify nothing.
They are for the most part but a mere haze of words, from which very
little definite information can be gleaned as to the processes
patented. It may be that Sturtevant had not yet reduced his idea to
any practicable method, and therefore could not definitely explain it.
However that may be, it is certain that his process failed when tried
on a large scale, and Sturtevant's patent was accordingly cancelled at
the end of a year.
The idea, however, had been fairly born, and repeated patents were
taken out with the same object from time to time. Thus, immediately on
Sturtevant's failure becoming known, one John Rovenzon, who had been
mixed up with the other's adventure, applied for a patent for making
iron by the same process, which was granted him in 1613. His 'Treatise
of Metallica'[3] shows that Rovenzon had a true conception of the
method of manufacture. Nevertheless he, too, failed in carrying out
the invention in practice, and his patent was also cancelled. Though
these failures were very discouraging, like experiments continued to be
made and patents taken out,--principally by Dutchmen and
Germans,[4]--but no decided success seems to have attended their
efforts until the year 1620, when Lord Dudley took out his patent "for
melting iron ore, making bar-iron, &c., with coal, in furnaces, with
bellows." This patent was taken out at the instance of his son Dud
Dudley, whose story we gather partly from his treatise entitled
'Metallum Martis,' and partly from various petitions presented by him
to the king, which are preserved in the State Paper Office, and it runs
as follows:--
Dud Dudley was born in 1599, the natural son of Edward Lord Dudley of
Dudley Castle in the county of Worcester. He was the fourth of eleven
children by the same mother, who is described in the pedigree of the
family given in the Herald's visitation of the county of Stafford in
the year 1663, signed by Dud Dudley himself, as "Elizabeth, daughter of
William Tomlinson of Dudley, concubine of Edward Lord Dudley." Dud's
eldest brother is described in the same pedigree as Robert Dudley,
Squire, of Netherton Hall; and as his sisters mostly married well,
several of them county gentlemen, it is obvious that the family,
notwithstanding that the children were born out of wedlock, held a good
position in their neighbourhood, and were regarded with respect. Lord
Dudley, though married and having legitimate heirs at the time, seems
to have attended to the up-bringing of his natural children; educating
them carefully, and afterwards employing them in confidential offices
connected with the management of his extensive property. Dud describes
himself as taking great delight, when a youth, in his father's
iron-works near Dudley, where he obtained considerable knowledge of the
various processes of the manufacture.
The town of Dudley was already a centre of the iron manufacture, though
chiefly of small wares, such as nails, horse-shoes, keys, locks, and
common agricultural tools; and it was estimated that there were about
20,000 smiths and workers in iron of various kinds living within a
circuit of ten miles of Dudley Castle. But, as in the southern
counties, the production of iron had suffered great diminution from the
want of fuel in the district, though formerly a mighty woodland
country; and many important branches of the local trade were brought
almost to a stand-still. Yet there was an extraordinary abundance of
coal to be met with in the neighbourhood--coal in some places lying in
seams ten feet thick--ironstone four feet thick immediately under the
coal, with limestone conveniently adjacent to both. The conjunction
seemed almost providential--"as if," observes Dud, "God had decreed the
time when and how these smiths should be supplied, and this island
also, with iron, and most especially that this cole and ironstone
should give the first and just occasion for the invention of smelting
iron with pit-cole;" though, as we have already seen, all attempts
heretofore made with that object had practically failed.
Dud was a special favourite of the Earl his father, who encouraged his
speculations with reference to the improvement of the iron manufacture,
and gave him an education calculated to enable him to turn his
excellent practical abilities to account. He was studying at Baliol
College, Oxford, in the year 1619, when the Earl sent for him to take
charge of an iron furnace and two forges in the chase of Pensnet in
Worcestershire. He was no sooner installed manager of the works, than,
feeling hampered by the want of wood for fuel, his attention was
directed to the employment of pit-coal as a substitute. He altered his
furnace accordingly, so as to adapt it to the new process, and the
result of the first trial was such as to induce him to persevere. It
is nowhere stated in Dud Dudley's Treatise what was the precise nature
of the method adopted by him; but it is most probable that, in
endeavouring to substitute coal for wood as fuel, he would subject the
coal to a process similar to that of charcoal-burning. The result
would be what is called Coke; and as Dudley informs us that he followed
up his first experiment with a second blast, by means of which he was
enabled to produce good marketable iron, the presumption is that his
success was also due to an improvement of the blast which he contrived
for the purpose of keeping up the active combustion of the fuel.
Though the quantity produced by the new process was comparatively
small--not more than three tons a week from each furnace--Dudley
anticipated that greater experience would enable him to increase the
quantity; and at all events he had succeeded in proving the
practicability of smelting iron with fuel made from pit-coal, which so
many before him had tried in vain.
Immediately after the second trial had been made with such good issue,
Dud wrote to his father the Earl, then in London, informing him what he
had done, and desiring him at once to obtain a patent for the invention
from King James. This was readily granted, and the patent (No. 18),
dated the 22nd February, 1620, was taken out in the name of Lord Dudley
himself.
Dud proceeded with the manufacture of iron at Pensnet, and also at
Cradley in Staffordshire, where he erected another furnace; and a year
after the patent was granted he was enabled to send up to the Tower, by
the King's command, a considerable quantity of the new iron for trial.
Many experiments were made with it: its qualities were fairly tested,
and it was pronounced "good merchantable iron." Dud adds, in his
Treatise, that his brother-in-law, Richard Parkshouse, of Sedgeley,[5]
"had a fowling-gun there made of the Pit-cole iron," which was "well
approved." There was therefore every prospect of the new method of
manufacture becoming fairly established, and with greater experience
further improvements might with confidence be anticipated, when a
succession of calamities occurred to the inventor which involved him in
difficulties and put an effectual stop to the progress of his
enterprise.
The new works had been in successful operation little more than a year,
when a flood, long after known as the "Great May-day Flood," swept away
Dudley's principal works at Cradley, and otherwise inflicted much
damage throughout the district. "At the market town called
Stourbridge," says Dud, in the course of his curious narrative,
"although the author sent with speed to preserve the people from
drowning, and one resolute man was carried from the bridge there in the
day-time, the nether part of the town was so deep in water that the
people had much ado to preserve their lives in the uppermost rooms of
their houses." Dudley himself received very little sympathy for his
losses. On the contrary, the iron-smelters of the district rejoiced
exceedingly at the destruction of his works by the flood. They had
seen him making good iron by his new patent process, and selling it
cheaper than they could afford to do. They accordingly put in
circulation all manner of disparaging reports about his iron. It was
bad iron, not fit to be used; indeed no iron, except what was smelted
with charcoal of wood, could be good. To smelt it with coal was a
dangerous innovation, and could only result in some great public
calamity. The ironmasters even appealed to King James to put a stop to
Dud's manufacture, alleging that his iron was not merchantable. And
then came the great flood, which swept away his works; the hostile
ironmasters now hoping that there was an end for ever of Dudley's
pit-coal iron.
But Dud, with his wonted energy, forthwith set to work and repaired his
furnaces and forges, though at great cost; and in the course of a short
time the new manufacture was again in full progress. The ironmasters
raised a fresh outcry against him, and addressed another strong
memorial against Dud and his iron to King James. This seems to have
taken effect; and in order to ascertain the quality of the article by
testing it upon a large scale, the King commanded Dudley to send up to
the Tower of London, with every possible speed, quantities of all the
sorts of bar-iron made by him, fit for the "making of muskets,
carbines, and iron for great bolts for shipping; which iron," continues
Dud, "being so tried by artists and smiths, the ironmasters and
iron-mongers were all silenced until the 21st year of King James's
reign." The ironmasters then endeavoured to get the Dudley patent
included in the monopolies to be abolished by the statute of that year;
but all they could accomplish was the limitation of the patent to
fourteen years instead of thirty-one; the special exemption of the
patent from the operation of the statute affording a sufficient
indication of the importance already attached to the invention. After
that time Dudley "went on with his invention cheerfully, and made
annually great store of iron, good and merchantable, and sold it unto
diverse men at twelve pounds per ton." "I also," said he, "made all
sorts of cast-iron wares, as brewing cisterns, pots, mortars, &c.,
better and cheaper than any yet made in these nations with charcoal,
some of which are yet to be seen by any man (at the author's house in
the city of Worcester) that desires to be satisfied of the truth of the
invention."
Notwithstanding this decided success, Dudley encountered nothing but
trouble and misfortune. The ironmasters combined to resist his
invention; they fastened lawsuit's upon him, and succeeded in getting
him ousted from his works at Cradley. From thence he removed to Himley
in the county of Stafford, where he set up a pit-coal furnace; but
being without the means of forging the iron into bars, he was
constrained to sell the pig-iron to the charcoal-ironmasters, "who did
him much prejudice, not only by detaining his stock, but also by
disparaging his iron." He next proceeded to erect a large new furnace
at Hasco Bridge, near Sedgeley, in the same county, for the purpose of
carrying out the manufacture on the most improved principles. This
furnace was of stone, twenty-seven feet square, provided with unusually
large bellows; and when in full work he says he was enabled to turn out
seven tons of iron per week, "the greatest quantity of pit-coal iron
ever yet made in Great Britain." At the same place he discovered and
opened out new workings of coal ten feet thick, lying immediately over
the ironstone, and he prepared to carry on his operations on a large
scale; but the new works were scarcely finished when a mob of rioters,
instigated by the charcoal-ironmasters, broke in upon them, cut in
pieces the new bellows, destroyed the machinery, and laid the results
of all his deep-laid ingenuity and persevering industry in ruins. From
that time forward Dudley was allowed no rest nor peace: he was
attacked by mobs, worried by lawsuits, and eventually overwhelmed by
debts. He was then seized by his creditors and sent up to London,
where he was held a prisoner in the Comptoir for several thousand
pounds. The charcoal-iron men thus for a time remained masters of the
field.
Charles I. seems to have taken pity on the suffering inventor; and on
his earnest petition, setting forth the great advantages to the nation
of his invention, from which he had as yet derived no advantage, but
only losses, sufferings, and persecution, the King granted him a
renewal of his patent[6] in the year 1638; three other gentlemen
joining him as partners, and doubtless providing the requisite capital
for carrying on the manufacture after the plans of the inventor. But
Dud's evil fortune continued to pursue him. The patent had scarcely
been securedere the Civil War broke out, and the arts of peace must at
once perforce give place to the arts of war. Dud's nature would not
suffer him to be neutral at such a time; and when the nation divided
itself into two hostile camps, his predilections being strongly
loyalist, he took the side of the King with his father. It would
appear from a petition presented by him to Charles II. in 1660, setting
forth his sufferings in the royal cause, and praying for restoral to
certain offices which he had enjoyed under Charles I., that as early as
the year 1637 he had been employed by the King on a mission into
Scotland,[7] in the train of the Marquis of Hamilton, the King's
Commissioner. Again in 1639, leaving his ironworks and partners, he
accompanied Charles on his expedition across the Scotch border, and was
present with the army until its discomfiture at Newburn near Newcastle
in the following year.
The sword was now fairly drawn, and Dud seems for a time to have
abandoned his iron-works and followed entirely the fortunes of the
king. He was sworn surveyor of the Mews or Armoury in 1640, but being
unable to pay for the patent, another was sworn in in his place. Yet
his loyalty did not falter, for in the beginning of 1642, when Charles
set out from London, shortly after the fall of Strafford and Laud, Dud
went with him.[8] He was present before Hull when Sir John Hotham shut
its gates in the king's face; at York when the royal commissions of
array were sent out enjoining all loyal subjects to send men, arms,
money, and horses, for defence of the king and maintenance of the law;
at Nottingham, where the royal standard was raised; at Coventry, where
the townspeople refused the king entrance and fired upon his troops
from the walls; at Edgehill, where the first great but indecisive
battle was fought between the contending parties; in short, as Dud
Dudley states in his petition, he was "in most of the battailes that
year, and also supplyed his late sacred Majestie's magazines of
Stafford, Worcester, Dudley Castle, and Oxford, with arms, shot,
drakes, and cannon; and also, became major unto Sir Frauncis Worsley's
regiment, which was much decaied."
In 1643, according to the statement contained in his petition above
referred to, Dud Dudley acted as military engineer in setting out the
fortifications of Worcester and Stafford, and furnishing them with
ordnance. After the taking of Lichfield, in which he had a share, he
was made Colonel of Dragoons, and accompanied the Queen with his
regiment to the royal head-quarters at Oxford. The year after we find
him at the siege of Gloucester, then at the first battle of Newbury
leading the forlorn hope with Sir George Lisle, afterwards marching
with Sir Charles Lucas into the associate counties, and present at the
royalist rout at Newport. That he was esteemed a valiant and skilful
officer is apparent from the circumstance, that in 1645 he was
appointed general of Prince Maurice's train of artillery, and
afterwards held the same rank under Lord Ashley. The iron districts
being still for the most part occupied by the royal armies, our
military engineer turned his practical experience to account by
directing the forging of drakes[9] of bar-iron, which were found of
great use, giving up his own dwelling-house in the city of Worcester
for the purpose of carrying on the manufacture of these and other arms.
But Worcester and the western towns fell before the Parliamentarian
armies in 1646, and all the iron-works belonging to royalists, from
which the principal supplies of arms had been drawn by the King's army,
were forthwith destroyed.
Dudley fully shared in the dangers and vicissitudes of that trying
period, and bore his part throughout like a valiant soldier. For two
years nothing was heard of him, until in 1648, when the king's party
drew together again, and made head in different parts of the country,
north and south. Goring raised his standard in Essex, but was driven
by Fairfax into Colchester, where he defended himself for two months.
While the siege was in progress, the royalists determined to make an
attempt to raise it. On this Dud Dudley again made his appearance in
the field, and, joining sundry other counties, he proceeded to raise
200 men, mostly at his own charge. They were, however, no sooner
mustered in Bosco Bello woods near Madeley, than they were attacked by
the Parliamentarians, and dispersed or taken prisoners. Dud was among
those so taken, and he was first carried to Hartlebury Castle and
thence to Worcester, where he was imprisoned. Recounting the
sufferings of himself and his followers on this occasion, in the
petition presented to Charles II. in 1660,[10] he says, "200 men were
dispersed, killed, and some taken, namely, Major Harcourt, Major
Elliotts, Capt. Long, and Cornet Hodgetts, of whom Major Harcourt was
miserably burned with matches. The petitioner and the rest were
stripped almost naked, and in triumph and scorn carried up to the city
of Worcester (which place Dud had fortified for the king), and kept
close prisoners, with double guards set upon the prison and the city."
Notwithstanding this close watch and durance, Dudley and Major Elliotts
contrived to break out of gaol, making their way over the tops of the
houses, afterwards passing the guards at the city gates, and escaping
into the open country. Being hotly pursued, they travelled during the
night, and took to the trees during the daytime. They succeeded in
reaching London, but only to drop again into the lion's mouth; for
first Major Elliotts was captured, then Dudley, and both were taken
before Sir John Warner, the Lord Mayor, who forthwith sent them before
the "cursed committee of insurrection," as Dudley calls them. The
prisoners were summarily sentenced to be shot to death, and were
meanwhile closely imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster, with
other Royalists.
The day before their intended execution, the prisoners formed a plan of
escape. It was Sunday morning, the 20th August, 1648, when they seized
their opportunity, "at ten of the cloeke in sermon time;" and,
overpowering the gaolers, Dudley, with Sir Henry Bates, Major Elliotts,
Captain South, Captain Paris, and six others, succeeded in getting
away, and making again for the open country. Dudley had received a
wound in the leg, and could only get along with great difficulty. He
records that he proceeded on crutches, through Worcester, Tewkesbury,
and Gloucester, to Bristol, having been "fed three weeks in private in
an enemy's hay mow." Even the most lynx-eyed Parliamentarian must have
failed to recognise the quondam royalist general of artillery in the
helpless creature dragging himself along upon crutches; and he reached
Bristol in safety.
His military career now over, he found himself absolutely penniless.
His estate of about 200L. per annum had been sequestrated and sold by
the government;[11] his house in Worcester had been seized and his
sickly wife turned out of doors; and his goods, stock, great shop, and
ironworks, which he himself valued at 2000L., were destroyed. He had
also lost the offices of Serjeant-at-arms, Lieutenant of Ordnance, and
Surveyor of the Mews, which he had held under the king; in a word, he
found himself reduced to a state of utter destitution.
Dudley was for some time under the necessity of living in great privacy
at Bristol; but when the king had been executed, and the royalists were
finally crushed at Worcester, Dud gradually emerged from his
concealment. He was still the sole possessor of the grand secret of
smelting iron with pit-coal, and he resolved upon one more commercial
adventure, in the hope of yet turning it to good account. He succeeded
in inducing Walter Stevens, linendraper, and John Stone, merchant, both
of Bristol, to join him as partners in an ironwork, which they
proceeded to erect near that city. The buildings were well advanced,
and nearly 700L. had been expended, when a quarrel occurred between
Dudley and his partners, which ended in the stoppage of the works, and
the concern being thrown into Chancery. Dudley alleges that the other
partners "cunningly drew him into a bond," and "did unjustly enter
staple actions in Bristol of great value against him, because he was of
the king's party;" but it would appear as if there had been some twist
or infirmity of temper in Dudley himself, which prevented him from
working harmoniously with such persons as he became associated with in
affairs of business.
In the mean time other attempts were made to smelt iron with pit-coal.
Dudley says that Cromwell and the then Parliament granted a patent to
Captain Buck for the purpose; and that Cromwell himself, Major Wildman,
and various others were partners in the patent. They erected furnaces
and works in the Forest of Dean;[12] but, though Cromwell and his
officers could fight and win battles, they could not smelt and forge
iron with pit-coal. They brought one Dagney, an Italian glass-maker,
from Bristol, to erect a new furnace for them, provided with sundry
pots of glass-house clay; but no success attended their efforts. The
partners knowing of Dudley's possession of the grand secret, invited
him to visit their works; but all they could draw from him was that
they would never succeed in making iron to profit by the methods they
were pursuing. They next proceeded to erect other works at Bristol,
but still they failed. Major Wildman[13] bought Dudley's sequestrated
estate, in the hope of being able to extort his secret of making iron
with pit-coal; but all their attempts proving abortive, they at length
abandoned the enterprise in despair. In 1656, one Captain Copley
obtained from Cromwell a further patent with a similar object; and
erected works near Bristol, and also in the Forest of Kingswood. The
mechanical engineers employed by Copley failed in making his bellows
blow; on which he sent for Dudley, who forthwith "made his bellows to
be blown feisibly;" but Copley failed, like his predecessors, in making
iron, and at length he too desisted from further experiments.
Such continued to be the state of things until the Restoration, when we
find Dud Dudley a petitioner to the king for the renewal of his patent.
He was also a petitioner for compensation in respect of the heavy
losses he had sustained during the civil wars. The king was besieged
by crowds of applicants of a similar sort, but Dudley was no more
successful than the others. He failed in obtaining the renewal of his
patent. Another applicant for the like privilege, probably having
greater interest at court, proved more successful. Colonel Proger and
three others[14] were granted a patent to make iron with coal; but
Dudley knew the secret, which the new patentees did not; and their
patent came to nothing.
Dudley continued to address the king in importunate petitions, asking
to be restored to his former offices of Serjeant-at-arms, Lieutenant of
Ordnance, and Surveyor of the Mews or Armoury. He also petitioned to
be appointed Master of the Charter House in Smithfield, professing
himself willing to take anything, or hold any living.[15] We find him
sending in two petitions to a similar effect in June, 1660; and a third
shortly after. The result was, that he was reappointed to the office
of Serjeant-at-Arms; but the Mastership of the Charter-House was not
disposed of until 1662, when it fell to the lot of one Thomas
Watson.[16] In 1661, we find a patent granted to Wm. Chamberlaine
and--Dudley, Esq., for the sole use of their new invention of plating
steel, &c., and tinning the said plates; but whether Dud Dudley was the
person referred to, we are unable precisely to determine. A few years
later, he seems to have succeeded in obtaining the means of prosecuting
his original invention; for in his Metallum Martis, published in 1665,
he describes himself as living at Green's Lodge, in Staffordshire; and
he says that near it are four forges, Green's Forge, Swin Forge, Heath
Forge, and Cradley Forge, where he practises his "perfect invention."
These forges, he adds, "have barred all or most part of their iron with
pit-coal since the authors first invention In 1618, which hath
preserved much wood. In these four, besides many other forges, do the
like [sic ]; yet the author hath had no benefit thereby to this
present." From that time forward, Dud becomes lost to sight. He seems
eventually to have retired to St. Helen's in Worcestershire, where he
died in 1684, in the 85th year of his age. He was buried in the parish
church there, and a monument, now destroyed, was erected to his memory,
bearing the inscription partly set forth underneath.[17]
[1] As late as 1790, long after the monopoly of the foreign merchants
had been abolished, Pennant says, "The present Steelyard is the great
repository of imported iron, which furnishes our metropolis with that
necessary material. The quantity of bars that fills the yards and
warehouses of this quarter strikes with astonishment the most
indifferent beholder."--PENNANT, Account of London, 309.
[2] STURTEVANT'S Metallica; briefly comprehending the Doctrine of
Diverse New Metallical Inventions, &c. Reprinted and published at the
Great Seal Patent Office, 1858.
[3] Reprinted and published at the Great Seal Patent Office, 1858.
[4] Among the early patentees, besides the names of Sturtevant and
Rovenzon, we find those of Jordens, Francke, Sir Phillibert Vernatt,
and other foreigners of the above nations.
[5] Mr. Parkshouse was one of the esquires to Sir Ferdinando Dudley
(the legitimate son of the Earl of Dudley) When he was made Knight of
the Bath. Sir Ferdinando's only daughter Frances married Humble Ward,
son and heir of William Ward, goldsmith and jeweller to Charles the
First's queen. Her husband having been created a baron by the title of
Baron Ward of Birmingham, and Frances becoming Baroness of Dudley in
her own right on the demise of her father, the baronies of Dudley and
Ward thus became united in their eldest son Edward in the year 1697.
[6] Patent No. 117, Old Series, granted in 1638, to Sir George Horsey,
David Ramsey, Roger Foulke, and Dudd Dudley.
[7] By his own account, given in Metallum Martis, while in Scotland in
1637, he visited the Highlands as well as the Lowlands, spending the
whole summer of that year "in opening of mines and making of
discoveries;" spending part of the time with Sir James Hope of Lead
Hills, near where, he says, "he got gold." It does not appear,
however, that any iron forges existed in Scotland at the time: indeed
Dudley expressly says that "Scotland maketh no iron;" and in his
treatise of 1665 he urges that the Corporation of the Mines Royal
should set him and his inventions at work to enable Scotland to enjoy
the benefit of a cheap and abundant supply of the manufactured article.
[8] The Journals of the House of Commons, of the 13th June, 1642,
contain the resolution "that Captain Wolseley, Ensign Dudley, and John
Lometon be forthwith sent for, as delinquents, by the Serjeant-at-Arms
attending on the House, for giving interruption to the execution of the
ordinance of the militia in the county of Leicester."
[9] Small pieces of artillery, specimens of which are still to be seen
in the museum at Woolwich Arsenal and at the Tower.
[10] State Paper Office, Dom. Charles II., vol. xi. 54.
[11] The Journals of the House of Commons, on the 2nd Nov. 1652, have
the following entry: "The House this day resumed the debate upon the
additional Bill for sale of several lands and estates forfeited to the
Commonwealth for treason, when it was resolved that the name of Dud
Dudley of Green Lodge be inserted into this Bill."
[12] Mr. Mushet, in his 'Papers on Iron,' says, that "although he had
carefully examined every spot and relic in Dean Forest likely to denote
the site of Dud Dudley's enterprising but unfortunate experiment of
making pig-iron with pit coal," it had been without success; neither
could he find any traces of the like operations of Cromwell and his
partners.
[13] Dudley says, "Major Wildman, more barbarous to me than a wild man,
although a minister, bought the author's estate, near 200L. per annum,
intending to compell from the author his inventions of making iron with
pitcole, but afterwards passed my estate unto two barbarous brokers of
London, that pulled down the author's two mantion houses, sold 500
timber trees off his land, and to this day are his houses unrepaired."
Wildman himself fell under the grip of Cromwell. Being one of the
chiefs of the Republican party, he was seized at Exton, near
Marlborough, in 1654, and imprisoned in Chepstow Castle.
[14] June 13, 1661. Petition of Col. Jas. Proger and three others to
the king for a patent for the sole exercise of their invention of
melting down iron and other metals with coal instead of wood, as the
great consumption of coal [charcoal?] therein causes detriment to
shipping, &c. With reference thereon to Attorney-General Palmer, and
his report, June 18, in favour of the petition,--State Papers, Charles
II. (Dom. vol. xxxvii, 49.)
[15] In his second petition he prays that a dwelling-house situated in
Worcester, and belonging to one Baldwin, "a known traitor," may be
assigned to him in lieu of Alderman Nash's, which had reverted to that
individual since his return to loyalty; Dudley reminding the king that
his own house in that city had been given up by him for the service of
his father Charles I., and turned into a factory for arms. It does not
appear that this part of his petition was successful.
[16] State Papers, vol. xxxi. Doquet Book, p.89.
[17]
Pulvis et umbra sumus
Memento mori.
Dodo Dudley chiliarchi nobilis Edwardi nuper domini de Dudley filius,
patri charus et regiae Majestatis fidissimus subditus et servus in
asserendo regein, in vindicartdo ecclesiam, in propugnando legem ac
libertatem Anglicanam, saepe captus, anno 1648, semel condemnatus et
tamen non decollatus, renatum denuo vidit diadaema hic inconcussa
semper virtute senex.
Differt non aufert mortem longissima vita
Sed differt multam cras hodiere mori.
Quod nequeas vitare, fugis:
Nec formidanda est.
Plot frequently alludes to Dudley in his Natural History of
Staffordshire, and when he does so he describes him as the "worshipful
Dud Dudley," showing the estimation in which he was held by his
contemporaries.
CHAPTER IV.
ANDREW YARRANTON.
"There never have been wanting men to whom England's improvement by sea
and land was one of the dearest thoughts of their lives, and to whom
England's good was the foremost of their worldly considerations. And
such, emphatically, was Andrew Yarranton, a true patriot in the best
sense of the word."--DOVE, Elements of Political Science.
That industry had a sore time of it during the civil wars will further
appear from the following brief account of Andrew Yarranton, which may
be taken as a companion memoir to that of Dud Dudley. For Yarranton
also was a Worcester ironmaster and a soldier--though on the opposite
side,--but more even than Dudley was he a man of public spirit and
enterprise, an enlightened political economist (long before political
economy had been recognised as a science), and in many respects a true
national benefactor. Bishop Watson said that he ought to have had a
statue erected to his memory because of his eminent public services;
and an able modern writer has gone so far as to say of him that he was
"the founder of English political economy, the first man in England who
saw and said that peace was better than war, that trade was better than
plunder, that honest industry was better than martial greatness, and
that the best occupation of a government was to secure prosperity at
home, and let other nations alone." [1]
Yet the name of Andrew Yarranton is scarcely remembered, or is at most
known to only a few readers of half-forgotten books. The following
brief outline of his history is gathered from his own narrative and
from documents in the State Paper Office.
Andrew Yarranton was born at the farmstead of Larford, in the parish of
Astley, in Worcestershire, in the year 1616.[2] In his sixteenth year
he was put apprentice to a Worcester linendraper, and remained at that
trade for some years; but not liking it, he left it, and was leading a
country life when the civil wars broke out. Unlike Dudley, he took the
side of the Parliament, and joined their army, in which he served for
some time as a soldier. His zeal and abilities commended him to his
officers, and he was raised from one position to another, until in the
course of a few years we find him holding the rank of captain. "While
a soldier," says he, "I had sometimes the honour and misfortune to
lodge and dislodge an army;" but this is all the information he gives
us of his military career. In the year 1648 he was instrumental in
discovering and frustrating a design on the part of the Royalists to
seize Doyley House in the county of Hereford, and other strongholds,
for which he received the thanks of Parliament "for his ingenuity,
discretion, and valour," and a substantial reward of 500L.[3] He was
also recommended to the Committee of Worcester for further employment.
But from that time we hear no more of him in connection with the civil
wars. When Cromwell assumed the supreme control of affairs, Yarranton
retired from the army with most of the Presbyterians, and devoted
himself to industrial pursuits.
We then find him engaged in carrying on the manufacture of iron at
Ashley, near Bewdley, in Worcestershire. "In the year 1652", says he,
"I entered upon iron-works, and plied them for several years." [4] He
made it a subject of his diligent study how to provide employment for
the poor, then much distressed by the late wars. With the help of his
wife, he established a manufacture of linen, which was attended with
good results. Observing how the difficulties of communication, by
reason of the badness of the roads, hindered the development of the
rich natural resources of the western counties,[5] he applied himself
to the improvement of the navigation of the larger rivers, making
surveys of them at his own cost, and endeavouring to stimulate local
enterprise so as to enable him to carry his plans into effect.
While thus occupied, the restoration of Charles II. took place, and
whether through envy or enmity Yarranton's activity excited the
suspicion of the authorities. His journeys from place to place seemed
to them to point to some Presbyterian plot on foot. On the 13th of
November, 1660, Lord Windsor, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, wrote to
the Secretary of State--"There is a quaker in prison for speaking
treason against his Majesty, and a countryman also, and Captain
Yarrington for refusing to obey my authority." [6] It would appear
from subsequent letters that Yarranton must have lain in prison for
nearly two years, charged with conspiring against the king's authority,
the only evidence against him consisting of some anonymous letter's.
At the end of May, 1662, he succeeded in making his escape from the
custody of the Provost Marshal. The High Sheriff scoured the country
after him at the head of a party of horse, and then he communicated to
the Secretary of State, Sir Edward Nicholas, that the suspected
conspirator could not be found, and was supposed to have made his way
to London. Before the end of a month Yarranton was again in custody,
as appears from the communication of certain justices of Surrey to Sir
Edward Nicholas.[7] As no further notice of Yarranton occurs in the
State Papers, and as we shortly after find him publicly occupied in
carrying out his plans for improving the navigation of the western
rivers, it is probable that his innocence of any plot was established
after a legal investigation. A few years later he published in London
a 4to. tract entitled 'A Full Discovery of the First Presbyterian Sham
Plot,' which most probably contained a vindication of his conduct.[8]
Yarranton was no sooner at liberty than we find him again occupied with
his plans of improved inland navigation. His first scheme was to
deepen the small river Salwarp, so as to connect Droitwich with the
Severn by a water communication, and thus facilitate the transport of
the salt so abundantly yielded by the brine springs near that town. In
1665, the burgesses of Droitwich agreed to give him 750L. and eight
salt vats in Upwich, valued at 80L. per annum, with three-quarters of a
vat in Northwich, for twenty-one years, in payment for the work. But
the times were still unsettled, and Yarranton and his partner Wall not
being rich, the scheme was not then carried into effect.[9] In the
following year we find him occupied with a similar scheme to open up
the navigation of the river Stour, passing by Stourport and
Kidderminster, and connect it by an artificial cut with the river
Trent. Some progress was made with this undertaking, so far in advance
of the age, but, like the other, it came to a stand still for want of
money, and more than a hundred years passed before it was carried out
by a kindred genius--James Brindley, the great canal maker. Mr.
Chambers says that when Yarranton's scheme was first brought forward,
it met with violent opposition and ridicule. The undertaking was
thought wonderfully bold, and, joined to its great extent, the sandy,
spongy nature of the ground, the high banks necessary to prevent the
inundation of the Stour on the canal, furnished its opponents, if not
with sound argument, at least with very specious topics for opposition
and laughter.[10] Yarranton's plan was to make the river itself
navigable, and by uniting it with other rivers, open up a communication
with the Trent; while Brindley's was to cut a canal parallel with the
river, and supply it with water from thence. Yarranton himself thus
accounts for the failure of his scheme in 'England's Improvement by Sea
and Land':--"It was my projection," he says, "and I will tell you the
reason why it was not finished. The river Stour and some other rivers
were granted by an Act of Parliament to certain persons of honor, and
some progress was made in the work, but within a small while after the
Act passed[11] it was let fall again; but it being a brat of my own, I
was not willing it should be abortive, wherefore I made offers to
perfect it, having a third part of the inheritance to me and my heirs
for ever, and we came to an agreement, upon which I fell on, and made
it completely navigable from Stourbridge to Kidderminster, and carried
down many hundred tons of coal, and laid out near 1000L., and there it
was obstructed for want of money." [12]
Another of Yarranton's far-sighted schemes of a similar kind was one to
connect the Thames with the Severn by means of an artificial cut, at
the very place where, more than a century after his death, it was
actually carried out by modern engineers. This canal, it appears, was
twice surveyed under his direction by his son. He did, however,
succeed in his own time in opening up the navigation of the Avon, and
was the first to carry barges upon its waters from Tewkesbury to
Stratford.
The improvement of agriculture, too, had a share of Yarranton's
attention. He saw the soil exhausted by long tillage and constantly
repeated crops of rye, and he urged that the land should have rest or
at least rotation of crop. With this object he introduced clover-seed,
and supplied it largely to the farmers of the western counties, who
found their land doubled in value by the new method of husbandry, and
it shortly became adopted throughout the country. Seeing how commerce
was retarded by the small accommodation provided for shipping at the
then principal ports, Yarranton next made surveys and planned docks for
the city of London; but though he zealously advocated the subject, he
found few supporters, and his plans proved fruitless. In this respect
he was nearly a hundred and fifty years before his age, and the London
importers continued to conduct their shipping business in the crowded
tideway of the Thames down even to the beginning of the present century.
While carrying on his iron works, it occurred to Yarranton that it
would be of great national advantage if the manufacture of tin-plate
could be introduced into England. Although the richest tin mines then
known existed in this country, the mechanical arts were at so low an
ebb that we were almost entirely dependent upon foreigners for the
supply of the articles manufactured from the metal. The Saxons were
the principal consumers of English tin, and we obtained from them in
return nearly the whole of our tin-plates. All attempts made to
manufacture them in England had hitherto failed; the beating out of the
iron by hammers into laminae sufficiently thin and smooth, and the
subsequent distribution and fixing of the film of tin over the surface
of the iron, proving difficulties which the English manufacturers were
unable to overcome. To master these difficulties the indefatigable
Yarranton set himself to work. "Knowing," says he, "the usefulness of
tin-plates and the goodness of our metals for that purpose, I did,
about sixteen years since (i.e. about 1665), endeavour to find out the
way for making thereof; whereupon I acquainted a person of much riches,
and one that was very understanding in the iron manufacture, who was
pleased to say that he had often designed to get the trade into
England, but never could find out the way. Upon which it was agreed
that a sum of monies should be advanced by several persons,[13] for the
defraying of my charges of travelling to the place where these plates
are made, and from thence to bring away the art of making them. Upon
which, an able fire-man, that well understood the nature of iron, was
made choice of to accompany me; and being fitted with an ingenious
interpreter that well understood the language, and that had dealt much
in that commodity, we marched first for Hamburgh, then to Leipsic, and
from thence to Dresden, the Duke of Saxony's court, where we had notice
of the place where the plates were made; which was in a large tract of
mountainous land, running from a place called Seger-Hutton unto a town
called Awe [Au], being in length about twenty miles." [14]
It is curious to find how much the national industry of England has
been influenced by the existence from time to time of religious
persecutions abroad, which had the effect of driving skilled Protestant
artisans, more particularly from Flanders and France, into England,
where they enjoyed the special protection of successive English
Governments, and founded various important branches of manufacture.
But it appears from the history of the tin manufactures of Saxony, that
that country also had profited in like manner by the religious
persecutions of Germany, and even of England itself. Thus we are told
by Yarranton that it was a Cornish miner, a Protestant, banished out of
England for his religion in Queen Mary's time, who discovered the tin
mines at Awe, and that a Romish priest of Bohemia, who had been
converted to Lutheranism and fled into Saxony for refuge, "was the
chief instrument in the manufacture until it was perfected." These two
men were held in great regard by the Duke of Saxony as well as by the
people of the country; for their ingenuity and industry proved the
source of great prosperity and wealth, "several fine cities," says
Yarranton, "having been raised by the riches proceeding from the
tin-works"--not less than 80,000 men depending upon the trade for their
subsistence; and when Yarranton visited Awe, he found that a statue had
been erected to the memory of the Cornish miner who first discovered
the tin.
Yarranton was very civilly received by the miners, and, contrary to his
expectation, he was allowed freely to inspect the tin-works and examine
the methods by which the iron-plates were rolled out, as well as the
process of tinning them. He was even permitted to engage a number of
skilled workmen, whom he brought over with him to England for the
purpose of starting the manufacture in this country. A beginning was
made, and the tin-plates manufactured by Yarranton's men were
pronounced of better quality even than those made in Saxony. "Many
thousand plates," Yarranton says, "were made from iron raised in the
Forest of Dean, and were tinned over with Cornish tin; and the plates
proved far better than the German ones, by reason of the toughness and
flexibleness of our forest iron. One Mr. Bison, a tinman in Worcester,
Mr. Lydiate near Fleet Bridge, and Mr. Harrison near the King's Bench,
have wrought many, and know their goodness." As Yarranton's account was
written and published during the lifetime of the parties, there is no
reason to doubt the accuracy of his statement.
Arrangements were made to carry on the manufacture upon a large scale;
but the secret having got wind, a patent was taken out, or "trumpt up"
as Yarranton calls it, for the manufacture, "the patentee being
countenanced by some persons of quality," and Yarranton was precluded
from carrying his operations further. It is not improbable that the
patentee in question was William Chamberlaine, Dud Dudley's quondam
partner in the iron manufacture.[15] "What with the patent being in
our way," says Yarranton, "and the richest of our partners being afraid
to offend great men in power, who had their eye upon us, it caused the
thing to cool, and the making of the tin-plates was neither proceeded
in by us, nor possibly could be by him that had the patent; because
neither he that hath the patent, nor those that have countenanced him,
can make one plate fit for use." Yarranton's labours were thus lost to
the English public for a time; and we continued to import all our
tin-plates from Germany until about sixty years later, when a tin-plate
manufactory was established by Capel Hanbury at Pontypool in
Monmouthshire, where it has since continued to be successfully carried
on.
We can only briefly refer to the subsequent history of Andrew
Yarranton. Shortly after his journey into Saxony, he proceeded to
Holland to examine the inland navigations of the Dutch, to inspect
their linen and other manufactures, and to inquire into the causes of
the then extraordinary prosperity of that country compared with
England. Industry was in a very languishing state at home. "People
confess they are sick," said Yarranton, "that trade is in a
consumption, and the whole nation languishes." He therefore determined
to ascertain whether something useful might not be learnt from the
example of Holland. The Dutch were then the hardest working and the
most thriving people in Europe. They were manufacturers and carriers
for the world. Their fleets floated on every known sea; and their
herring-busses swarmed along our coasts as far north as the Hebrides.
The Dutch supplied our markets with fish caught within sight of our own
shores, while our coasting population stood idly looking on. Yarranton
regarded this state of things as most discreditable, and he urged the
establishment of various branches of home industry as the best way of
out-doing the Dutch without fighting them.
Wherever he travelled abroad, in Germany or in Holland, he saw industry
attended by wealth and comfort, and idleness by poverty and misery.
The same pursuits, he held, would prove as beneficial to England as
they were abundantly proved to have been to Holland. The healthy life
of work was good for all--for individuals as for the whole nation; and
if we would out-do the Dutch, he held that we must out-do them in
industry. But all must be done honestly and by fair means. "Common
Honesty," said Yarranton, "is as necessary and needful in kingdoms and
commonwealths that depend upon Trade, as discipline is in an army; and
where there is want of common Honesty in a kingdom or commonwealth,
from thence Trade shall depart. For as the Honesty of all governments
is, so shall be their Riches; and as their Honour, Honesty, and Riches
are, so will be their Strength; and as their Honour, Honesty, Riches,
and Strength are, so will be their Trade. These are five sisters that
go hand in hand, and must not be parted." Admirable sentiments, which
are as true now as they were two hundred years ago, when Yarranton
urged them upon the attention of the English public.
On his return from Holland, he accordingly set on foot various schemes
of public utility. He stirred up a movement for the encouragement of
the British fisheries. He made several journeys into Ireland for the
purpose of planting new manufactures there. He surveyed the River
Slade with the object of rendering it navigable, and proposed a plan
for improving the harbour of Dublin. He also surveyed the Dee in
England with a view to its being connected with the Severn. Chambers
says that on the decline of his popularity in 1677, he was taken by
Lord Clarendon to Salisbury to survey the River Avon, and find out how
that river might be made navigable, and also whether a safe harbour for
ships could be made at Christchurch; and that having found where he
thought safe anchorage might be obtained, his Lordship proceeded to act
upon Yarranton's recommendations.[16]
Another of his grand schemes was the establishment of the linen
manufacture in the central counties of England, which, he showed, were
well adapted for the growth of flax; and he calculated that if success
attended his efforts, at least two millions of money then sent out of
the country for the purchase of foreign linen would be retained at
home, besides increasing the value of the land on which the flax was
grown, and giving remunerative employment to our own people, then
emigrating for want of work. "Nothing but Sloth or Envy," he said,
"can possibly hinder my labours from being crowned with the wished for
success; our habitual fondness for the one hath already brought us to
the brink of ruin, and our proneness to the other hath almost
discouraged all pious endeavours to promote our future happiness."
In 1677 he published the first part of his England's Improvement by Sea
and Land--a very remarkable book, full of sagacious insight as
respected the future commercial and manufacturing greatness of England.
Mr. Dove says of this book that "Yarranton chalks out in it the future
course of Britain with as free a hand as if second-sight had revealed
to him those expansions of her industrial career which never fail to
surprise us, even when we behold them realized." Besides his extensive
plans for making harbours and improving internal navigation with the
object of creating new channels for domestic industry, his schemes for
extending the iron and the woollen trades, establishing the linen
manufacture, and cultivating the home fisheries, we find him throwing
out various valuable suggestions with reference to the means of
facilitating commercial transactions, some of winch have only been
carried out in our own day. One of his grandest ideas was the
establishment of a public bank, the credit of which, based upon the
security of freehold land,[17] should enable its paper "to go in trade
equal with ready money." A bank of this sort formed one of the
principal means by which the Dutch had been enabled to extend their
commercial transactions, and Yarranton accordingly urged its
introduction into England. Part of his scheme consisted of a voluntary
register of real property, for the purpose of effecting simplicity of
title, and obtaining relief from the excessive charges for law,[18] as
well as enabling money to be readily raised for commercial purposes on
security of the land registered.
He pointed out very graphically the straits to which a man is put who
is possessed of real property enough, but in a time of pressure is
unable to turn himself round for want of ready cash. "Then," says he,
"all his creditors crowd to him as pigs do through a hole to a bean and
pease rick." "Is it not a sad thing," he asks, "that a goldsmith's boy
in Lombard Street, who gives notes for the monies handed him by the
merchants, should take up more monies upon his notes in one day than
two lords, four knights, and eight esquires in twelve months upon all
their personal securities? We are, as it were, cutting off our legs and
arms to see who will feed the trunk. But we cannot expect this from
any of our neighbours abroad, whose interest depends upon our loss."
He therefore proposed his registry of property as a ready means of
raising a credit for purposes of trade. Thus, he says, "I can both in
England and Wales register my wedding, my burial, and my christening,
and a poor parish clerk is entrusted with the keeping of the book; and
that which is registered there is held good by our law. But I cannot
register my lands, to be honest, to pay every man his own, to prevent
those sad things that attend families for want thereof, and to have the
great benefit and advantage that would come thereby. A register will
quicken trade, and the land registered will be equal as cash in a man's
hands, and the credit thereof will go and do in trade what ready money
now doth." His idea was to raise money, when necessary, on the land
registered, by giving security thereon after a form which he suggested.
He would, in fact, have made land, as gold now is, the basis of an
extended currency; and he rightly held that the value of land as a
security must always be unexceptionable, and superior to any metallic
basis that could possibly be devised.
This indefatigable man continued to urge his various designs upon the
attention of the public until he was far advanced in years. He
professed that he was moved to do so (and we believe him) solely by an
ardent love for his country, "whose future flourishing," said he, "is
the only reward I ever hope to see of all my labours." Yarranton,
however, received but little thanks for his persistency, while he
encountered many rebuffs. The public for the most part turned a deaf
ear to his entreaties; and his writings proved of comparatively small
avail, at least during his own lifetime. He experienced the lot of
many patriots, even the purest--the suspicion and detraction of his
contemporaries. His old political enemies do not seem to have
forgotten him, of which we have the evidence in certain rare
"broadsides" still extant, twitting him with the failure of his
schemes, and even trumping up false charges of disloyalty against
him.[19]
In 1681 he published the second part of 'England's Improvement,'[20] in
which he gave a summary account of its then limited growths and
manufactures, pointing out that England and Ireland were the only
northern kingdoms remaining unimproved; he re-urged the benefits and
necessity of a voluntary register of real property; pointed out a
method of improving the Royal Navy, lessening the growing power of
France, and establishing home fisheries; proposed the securing and
fortifying of Tangier; described a plan for preventing fires in London,
and reducing the charge for maintaining the Trained Bands; urged the
formation of a harbour at Newhaven in Sussex; and, finally, discoursed
at considerable length upon the tin, iron, linen, and woollen trades,
setting forth various methods for their improvement. In this last
section, after referring to the depression in the domestic tin trade
(Cornish tin selling so low as 70s. the cwt.), he suggested a way of
reviving it. With the Cornish tin he would combine "the Roman cinders
and iron-stone in the Forest of Dean, which makes the best iron for
most uses in the world, and works up to the best advantage, with
delight and pleasure to the workmen." He then described the history of
his own efforts to import the manufacture of tin-plates into England
some sixteen years before, in which he had been thwarted by
Chamberlaine's patent, as above described,--and offered sundry queries
as to the utility of patents generally, which, says he, "have the
tendency to drive trade out of the kingdom." Appended to the chapter on
Tin is an exceedingly amusing dialogue between a tin-miner of Cornwall,
an iron-miner of Dean Forest, and a traveller (himself). From this we
gather that Yarranton's business continued to be that of an
iron-manufacturer at his works at Ashley near Bewdley. Thus the
iron-miner says, "About 28 years since Mr. Yarranton found out a vast
quantity of Roman cinders, near the walls of the city of Worcester,
from whence he and others carried away many thousand tons or loads up
the river Severn, unto their iron-furnaces, to be melted down into
iron, with a mixture of the Forest of Dean iron-stone; and within 100
yards of the walls of the city of Worcester there was dug up one of the
hearths of the Roman foot-blasts, it being then firm and in order, and
was 7 foot deep in the earth; and by the side of the work there was
found a pot of Roman coin to the quantity of a peck, some of which was
presented to Sir [Wm.] Dugdale, and part thereof is now in the King's
Closet." [21]
In the same year (1681) in which the second part of 'England's
Improvement' appeared, Yarranton proceeded to Dunkirk for the purpose
of making a personal survey of that port, then belonging to England;
and on his return he published a map of the town, harbour, and castle
on the sea, with accompanying letterpress, in which he recommended, for
the safety of British trade, the demolition of the fortifications of
Dunkirk before they were completed, which he held would only be for the
purpose of their being garrisoned by the French king. His 'Full
Discovery of the First Presbyterian Sham Plot' was published in the
same year; and from that time nothing further is known of Andrew
Yarranton. His name and his writings have been alike nearly forgotten;
and, though Bishop Watson declared of him that he deserved to have a
statue erected to his memory as a great public benefactor, we do not
know that he was so much as honoured with a tombstone; for we have been
unable, after careful inquiry, to discover when and where he died.
Yarranton was a man whose views were far in advance of his age. The
generation for whom he laboured and wrote were not ripe for their
reception and realization; and his voice sounded among the people like
that of one crying in the wilderness. But though his exhortations to
industry and his large plans of national improvement failed to work
themselves into realities in his own time, he broke the ground, he
sowed the seed, and it may be that even at this day we are in some
degree reaping the results of his labours. At all events, his books
still live to show how wise and sagacious Andrew Yarranton was beyond
his contemporaries as to the true methods of establishing upon solid
foundations the industrial prosperity of England.
[1] PATRICK EDWARD DOVE, Elements of Political Science. Edinburgh,
1854.
[2] A copy of the entries in the parish register relating to the
various members of the Yarranton family, kindly forwarded to us by the
Rev. H. W. Cookes, rector of Astley, shows them to have resided in that
parish for many generations. There were the Yarrantons of Yarranton,
of Redstone, of Larford, of Brockenton, and of Longmore. With that
disregard for orthography in proper names which prevailed some three
hundred years since, they are indifferently designated as Yarran,
Yarranton, and Yarrington. The name was most probably derived from two
farms named Great and Little Yarranton, or Yarran (originally
Yarhampton), situated in the parish of Astley. The Yarrantons
frequently filled local offices in that parish, and we find several of
them officiating at different periods as bailiffs of Bewdley.
[3] Journals of the House of Commons, 1st July, 1648.
[4] YARRANTON'S England's Improvement by Sea and Land. Part I.
London, 1677.
[5] There seems a foundation of truth in the old English distich--
The North for Greatness, the East for Health,
The South for Neatness, the West for Wealth.
[6] State Paper Office. Dom. Charles II. 1660-1. Yarranton afterwards
succeeded in making a friend of Lord Windsor, as would appear from his
dedication of England's Improvement to his Lordship, whom he thanks for
the encouragement he had given to him in his survey of several rivers
with a view to their being rendered navigable.
[7] The following is a copy of the document from the State
Papers:--"John Bramfield, Geo. Moore, and Thos. Lee, Esqrs. and
Justices of Surrey, to Sir Edw. Nicholas.--There being this day brought
before us one Andrew Yarranton, and he accused to have broken prison,
or at least made his escape out of the Marshalsea at Worcester, being
there committed by the Deputy-Lieuts. upon suspicion of a plot in
November last; we having thereupon examined him, he allegeth that his
Majesty hath been sought unto on his behalf, and hath given order to
yourself for his discharge, and a supersedeas against all persons and
warrants, and thereupon hath desired to appeal unto you. The which we
conceiving to be convenient and reasonable (there being no positive
charge against him before us), have accordingly herewith conveyed him
unto you by a safe hand, to be further examined or disposed of as you
shall find meet."--S. P. O. Dom. Chas. II. 23rd June, 1662.
[8] We have been unable to refer to this tract, there being no copy of
it in the British Museum.
[9] NASH'S Worcestershire, i. 306.
[10] JOHN CHAMBERS, Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire.
London, 1820.
[11] The Act for making the Stour and Salwarp navigable originated in
the Lords and was passed in the year 1661.
[12] Nash, in his Hist. of Worc., intimates that Lord Windsor
subsequently renewed the attempt to make the Salwarp navigable. He
constructed five out of the six locks, and then abandoned the scheme.
Gough, in his edition of Camden's Brit. ii. 357, Lond. 1789, says, "It
is not long since some of the boats made use of in Yarranton's
navigation were found. Neither tradition nor our projector's account
of the matter perfectly satisfy us why this navigation was
neglected..... We must therefore conclude that the numerous works and
glass-houses upon the Stour, and in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge,
did not then exist, A.D. 1666. ....The navigable communication which
now connects Trent and Severn, and which runs in the course of
Yarranton's project, is already of general use.... The canal since
executed under the inspection of Mr. Brindley, running parallel with
the river.... cost the proprietors 105,000L."
[13] In the dedication of his book, entitled Englands Improvement by
Sea and Land, Part I., Yarranton gives the names of the "noble
patriots" who sent him on his journey of inquiry. They were Sir Waiter
Kirtham Blount, Bart., Sir Samuel Baldwin and Sir Timothy Baldwin,
Knights, Thomas Foley and Philip Foley, Esquires, and six other
gentlemen. The father of the Foleys was himself supposed to have
introduced the art of iron-splitting into England by an expedient
similar to that adopted by Yarranton in obtaining a knowledge of the
tin-plate manufacture (Self-Help, p.145). The secret of the
silk-throwing machinery of Piedmont was in like manner introduced into
England by Mr. Lombe of Derby, who shortly succeeded in founding a
flourishing branch of manufacture. These were indeed the days of
romance and adventure in manufactures.
[14] The district is known as the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, and the
Riesengebirge or Giant Mountains, MacCulloch says that upwards of 500
mines are wrought in the former district, and that one-thirtieth of the
entire population of Saxony to this day derive their subsistence from
mining industry and the manufacture of metallic products.--
Geographical Dict. ii. 643, edit. 1854.
[15] Chamberlaine and Dudley's first licence was granted in 1661 for
plating steel and tinning the said plates; and Chamberlaine's sole
patent for "plating and tinning iron, copper, &c.," was granted in
1673, probably the patent in question.
[16] JOHN CHAMBERS, Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire.
London, 1820.
[17] Yarranton's Land Bank was actually projected in 1695, and received
the sanction of Parliament; though the Bank of England (founded in the
preceding year) petitioned against it, and the scheme was dropped.
[18] It is interesting to note in passing, that part of Yarranton's
scheme has recently been carried into effect by the Act (25 and 26
Vict. c. 53) passed in 1862 for the Registration of Real Estate.
[19] One of these is entitled 'A Coffee-house Dialogue, or a Discourse
between Captain Y---- and a Young Barrister of the Middle Temple; with
some Reflections upon the Bill against the D. of Y.' In this broadside,
of 3 1/2 pages folio, published about 1679, Yarranton is made to favour
the Duke of York's exclusion from the throne, not only because he was a
papist, but for graver reasons than he dare express. Another
scurrilous pamphlet, entitled 'A Word Without Doors,' was also aimed at
him. Yarranton, or his friends, replied to the first attack in a folio
of two pages, entitled 'The Coffee-house Dialogue Examined and Refuted,
by some Neighbours in the Country, well-wishers to the Kingdom's
interest.' The controversy was followed up by 'A Continuation of the
Coffee-house Dialogue,' in which the chief interlocutor hits Yarranton
rather hard for the miscarriage of his "improvements." "I know," says
he, "when and where you undertook for a small charge to make a river
navigable, and it has cost the proprietors about six times as much, and
is not yet effective; nor can any man rationally predict when it will
be. I know since you left it your son undertook it, and this winter
shamefully left his undertaking." Yarranton's friends immediately
replied in a four-page folio, entitled 'England's Improvements
Justified; and the Author thereof, Captain Y., vindicated from the
Scandals in a paper called a Coffee-house Dialogue; with some
Animadversions upon the Popish Designs therein contained.' The writer
says he writes without the privity or sanction of Yarranton, but
declares the dialogue to be a forgery, and that the alleged conference
never took place. "His innocence, when he heard of it, only provoked a
smile, with this answer, Spreta vilescunt, falsehoods mu st perish, and
are soonest destroyed by contempt; so that he needs no further
vindication. The writer then proceeds at some length to vindicate the
Captain's famous work and the propositions contained in it.
[20] This work (especially with the plates) is excessively rare. There
is a copy of it in perfect condition in the Grenville Library, British
Museum.
[21] Dr. Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, has thrown some doubts
upon this story; but Mr. Green, in his Historical Antiquities of the
city, has made a most able defence of Yarranton's statement (vol.i. 9,
in foot-note).
CHAPTER V.
COALBROOKDALE IRON WORKS--THE DARBYS AND REYNOLDSES.
"The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of
civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped,
and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country
far move than the most splendid victories of successful war."--C.
BABBAGE, The Exposition of 1851.
Dud Dudley's invention of smelting iron with coke made of pit-coal was,
like many others, born before its time. It was neither appreciated by
the iron-masters nor by the workmen. All schemes for smelting ore with
any other fuel than charcoal made from wood were regarded with
incredulity. As for Dudley's Metallum Martis, as it contained no
specification, it revealed no secret; and when its author died, his
secret, whatever it might be, died with him. Other improvements were
doubtless necessary before the invention could be turned to useful
account. Thus, until a more powerful blowing-furnace had been
contrived, the production of pit-coal iron must necessarily have been
limited. Dudley himself does not seem to have been able to make more
on an average than five tons a-week, and seven tons at the outside.
Nor was the iron so good as that made by charcoal; for it is admitted
to have been especially liable to deterioration by the sulphureous
fumes of the coal in the process of manufacture.
Dr. Plot, in his 'History of Staffordshire,' speaks of an experiment
made by one Dr. Blewstone, a High German, as "the last effort" made in
that county to smelt iron-ore with pit-coal. He is said to have "built
his furnace at Wednesbury, so ingeniously contrived (that only the
flame of the coal should come to the ore, with several other
conveniences), that many were of opinion he would succeed in it. But
experience, that great baffler of speculation, showed it would not be;
the sulphureous vitriolic steams that issue from the pyrites, which
frequently, if not always, accompanies pit-coal, ascending with the
flame, and poisoning the ore sufficiently to make it render much worse
iron than that made with charcoal, though not perhaps so much worse as
the body of the coal itself would possibly do." [1] Dr. Plot does not
give the year in which this "last effort" was made; but as we find that
one Dr. Frederic de Blewston obtained a patent from Charles II. on the
25th October, 1677, for "a new and effectual way of melting down,
forging, extracting, and reducing of iron and all metals and minerals
with pit-coal and sea-coal, as well and effectually as ever hath yet
been done by charcoal, and with much less charge;" and as Dr. Plot's
History, in which he makes mention of the experiment and its failure,
was published in 1686, it is obvious that the trial must have been made
between those years.
As the demand for iron steadily increased with the increasing
population of the country, and as the supply of timber for smelting
purposes was diminishing from year to year, England was compelled to
rely more and more upon foreign countries for its supply of
manufactured iron. The number of English forges rapidly dwindled, and
the amount of the home production became insignificant in comparison
with what was imported from abroad. Yarranton, writing in 1676, speaks
of "the many iron-works laid down in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and in the
north of England, because the iron of Sweadland, Flanders, and Spain,
coming in so cheap, it cannot be made to profit here." There were many
persons, indeed, who held that it was better we should be supplied with
iron from Spain than make it at home, in consequence of the great waste
of wood involved by the manufacture; but against this view Yarranton
strongly contended, and held, what is as true now as it was then, that
the manufacture of iron was the keystone of England's industrial
prosperity. He also apprehended great danger to the country from want
of iron in event of the contingency of a foreign war. "When the
greatest part of the iron-works are asleep," said he, "if there should
be occasion for great quantities of guns and bullets, and other sorts
of iron commodities, for a present unexpected war, and the Sound happen
to be locked up, and so prevent iron coming to us, truly we should then
be in a fine case!"
Notwithstanding these apprehended national perils arising from the want
of iron, no steps seem to have been taken to supply the deficiency,
either by planting woods on a large scale, as recommended by Yarranton,
or by other methods; and the produce of English iron continued steadily
to decline. In 1720-30 there were found only ten furnaces remaining in
blast in the whole Forest of Dean, where the iron-smelters were
satisfied with working up merely the cinders left by the Romans. A
writer of the time states that we then bought between two and three
hundred thousand pounds' worth of foreign iron yearly, and that England
was the best customer in Europe for Swedish and Russian iron.[2] By
the middle of the eighteenth century the home manufacture had so much
fallen off, that the total production of Great Britain is supposed to
have amounted to not more than 18,000 tons a year; four-fifths of the
iron used in the country being imported from Sweden.[3]
The more that the remaining ironmasters became straitened for want of
wood, the more they were compelled to resort to cinders and coke made
from coal as a substitute. And it was found that under certain
circumstances this fuel answered the purpose almost as well as charcoal
of wood. The coke was made by burning the coal in heaps in the open
air, and it was usually mixed with coal and peat in the process of
smelting the ore. Coal by itself was used by the country smiths for
forging whenever they could procure it for their smithy fires; and in
the midland counties they had it brought to them, sometimes from great
distances, slung in bags across horses' backs,--for the state of the
roads was then so execrable as not to admit of its being led for any
considerable distance in carts. At length we arrive at a period when
coal seems to have come into general use, and when necessity led to its
regular employment both in smelting the ore and in manufacturing the
metal. And this brings us to the establishment of the Coalbrookdale
works, where the smelting of iron by means of coke and coal was first
adopted on a large scale as the regular method of manufacture.
Abraham Darby, the first of a succession of iron manufacturers who bore
the same name, was the son of a farmer residing at Wrensnest, near
Dudley. He served an apprenticeship to a maker of malt-kilns near
Birmingham, after which he married and removed to Bristol in 1700, to
begin business on his own account. Industry is of all politics and
religions: thus Dudley was a Royalist and a Churchman, Yarranton was a
Parliamentarian and a Presbyterian, and Abraham Darby was a Quaker. At
Bristol he was joined by three partners of the same persuasion, who
provided the necessary capital to enable him to set up works at Baptist
Mills, near that city, where he carried on the business of malt-mill
making, to which he afterwards added brass and iron founding.
At that period cast-iron pots were in very general use, forming the
principal cooking utensils of the working class. The art of casting
had, however, made such small progress in England that the pots were
for the most part imported from abroad. Darby resolved, if possible,
to enter upon this lucrative branch of manufacture; and he proceeded to
make a number of experiments in pot-making. Like others who had
preceded him, he made his first moulds of clay; but they cracked and
burst, and one trial failed after another. He then determined to find
out the true method of manufacturing the pots, by travelling into the
country from whence the best were imported, in order to master the
grand secret of the trade. With this object he went over to Holland in
the year 1706, and after diligent inquiry he ascertained that the only
sure method of casting "Hilton ware," as such castings were then
called, was in moulds of fine dry sand. This was the whole secret.
Returning to Bristol, accompanied by some skilled Dutch workmen, Darby
began the new manufacture, and succeeded to his satisfaction. The work
was at first carried on with great secrecy, lest other makers should
copy the art; and the precaution was taken of stopping the keyhole of
the workshop-door while the casting was in progress. To secure himself
against piracy, he proceeded to take out a patent for the process in
the year 1708, and it was granted for the term of fourteen years. The
recital of the patent is curious, as showing the backward state of
English iron-founding at that time. It sets forth that "whereas our
trusty and well-beloved Abraham Darby, of our city of Bristol, smith,
hath by his petition humbly represented to us, that by his study,
industry, and expense, he hath found out and brought to perfection a
new way of casting iron bellied pots and other iron bellied ware in
sand only, without loam or clay, by which such iron pots and other ware
may be cast fine and with more ease and expedition, and may be afforded
cheaper than they can be by the way commonly used; and in regard to
their cheapness may be of great advantage to the poor of this our
kingdom, who for the most part use such ware, and in all probability
will prevent the merchants of England going to foreign markets for such
ware, from whence great quantities are imported, and likewise may in
time supply other markets with that manufacture of our dominions,
&c..... grants the said Abraham Darby the full power and sole privilege
to make and sell such pots and ware for and during the term of fourteen
years thence ensuing."
Darby proceeded to make arrangements for carrying on the manufacture
upon a large scale at the Baptist Mills; but the other partners
hesitated to embark more capital in the concern, and at length refused
their concurrence. Determined not to be baulked in his enterprise,
Darby abandoned the Bristol firm; and in the year 1709 he removed to
Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, with the intention of prosecuting the
enterprise on his own account. He took the lease of a little furnace
which had existed at the place for more than a century, as the records
exist of a "smethe" or "smeth-house" at Coalbrookdale in the time of
the Tudors. The woods of oak and hazel which at that time filled the
beautiful dingles of the dale, and spread in almost a continuous forest
to the base of the Wrekin, furnished abundant fuel for the smithery.
As the trade of the Coalbrookdale firm extended, these woods became
cleared, until the same scarcity of fuel began to be experienced that
had already desolated the forests of Sussex, and brought the
manufacture of iron in that quarter to a stand-still.
It appears from the 'Blast Furnace Memorandum Book' of Abraham Darby,
which we have examined, that the make of iron at the Coalbrookdale
foundry, in 1713, varied from five to ten tons a week. The principal
articles cast were pots, kettles, and other "hollow ware," direct from
the smelting-furnace; the rest of the metal was run into pigs. In
course of time we find that other castings were turned out: a few
grates, smoothing-irons, door-frames, weights, baking-plates,
cart-bushes, iron pestles and mortars, and occasionally a tailor's
goose. The trade gradually increased, until we find as many as 150
pots and kettles cast in a week.
The fuel used in the furnaces appears, from the Darby Memorandum-Book,
to have been at first entirely charcoal; but the growing scarcity of
wood seems to have gradually led to the use of coke, brays or small
coke, and peat. An abundance of coals existed in the neighbourhood: by
rejecting those of inferior quality, and coking the others with great
care, a combustible was obtained better fitted even than charcoal
itself for the fusion of that particular kind of ore which is found in
the coal-measures. Thus we find Darby's most favourite charge for his
furnaces to have been five baskets of coke, two of brays, and one of
peat; next followed the ore, and then the limestone. The use of
charcoal was gradually given up as the art of smelting with coke and
brays improved, most probably aided by the increased power of the
furnace-blast, until at length we find it entirely discontinued.
The castings of Coalbrookdale gradually acquired a reputation, and the
trade of Abraham Darby continued to increase until the date of his
death, which occurred at Madeley Court in 1717. His sons were too
young at the time to carry on the business which he had so successfully
started, and several portions of the works were sold at a serious
sacrifice. But when the sons had grown up to manhood, they too entered
upon the business of iron-founding; and Abraham Darby's son and
grandson, both of the same name, largely extended the operations of the
firm, until Coalbrookdale, or, as it was popularly called, "Bedlam,"
became the principal seat of one of the most important branches of the
iron trade.
There seems to be some doubt as to the precise time when pit-coal was
first regularly employed at Coalbrookdale in smelting the ore. Mr.
Scrivenor says, "pit-coal was first used by Mr. Abraham Darby, in his
furnace at Coalbrookdale, in 1713;" [4] but we can find no confirmation
of this statement in the records of the Company. It is probable that
Mr. Darby used raw coal, as was done in the Forest of Dean at the same
time,[5] in the process of calcining the ore; but it would appear from
his own Memoranda that coke only was used in the process of smelting.
We infer from other circumstances that pit-coal was not employed for
the latter purpose until a considerably later period. The merit of its
introduction, and its successful use in iron-smelting, is due to Mr.
Richard Ford, who had married a daughter of Abraham Darby, and managed
the Coalbrookdale works in 1747. In a paper by the Rev. Mr. Mason,
Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge, given in the 'Philosophical
Transactions' for that year,[6] the first account of its successful
employment is stated as follows:--"Several attempts have been made to
run iron-ore with pit-coal: he (Mr. Mason) thinks it has not succeeded
anywhere, as we have had no account of its being practised; but Mr.
Ford, of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, from iron-ore and coal, both got
in the same dale, makes iron brittle or tough as he pleases, there
being cannon thus cast so soft as to bear turning like wrought-iron."
Most probably, however, it was not until the time of Richard Reynolds,
who succeeded Abraham Darby the second in the management of the works
in 1757, that pit-coal came into large and regular use in the
blasting-furnaces as well as the fineries of Coalbrookdale.
Richard Reynolds was born at Bristol in 1735. His parents, like the
Darbys, belonged to the Society of Friends, and he was educated in that
persuasion. Being a spirited, lively youth, the "old Adam"
occasionally cropped out in him; and he is even said, when a young man,
to have been so much fired by the heroism of the soldier's character
that he felt a strong desire to embrace a military career; but this
feeling soon died out, and he dropped into the sober and steady rut of
the Society. After serving an apprenticeship in his native town, he
was sent to Coalbrookdale on a mission of business, where he became
acquainted with the Darby family, and shortly after married Hannah, the
daughter of Abraham the second. He then entered upon the conduct of
the iron and coal works at Ketley and Horsehay, where he resided for
six years, removing to Coalbrookdale in 1763, to take charge of the
works there, on the death of his father-in-law.
By the exertions and enterprise of the Darbys, the Coalbrookdale Works
had become greatly enlarged, giving remunerative employment to a large
and increasing population. The firm had extended their operations far
beyond the boundaries of the Dale: they had established foundries at
London, Bristol, and Liverpool, and agencies at Newcastle and Truro for
the disposal of steam-engines and other iron machinery used in the deep
mines of those districts. Watt had not yet perfected his steam-engine;
but there was a considerable demand for pumping-engines of Newcomen's
construction, many of which were made at the Coalbrookdale Works. The
increasing demand for iron gave an impetus to coal-mining, which in its
turn stimulated inventors in their improvement of the power of the
steam-engine; for the coal could not be worked quickly and
advantageously unless the pits could be kept clear of water. Thus one
invention stimulates another; and when the steam-engine had been
perfected by Watt, and enabled powerful-blowing apparatus to be worked
by its agency, we shall find that the production of iron by means of
pit-coal being rendered cheap and expeditious, soon became enormously
increased.
We are informed that it was while Richard Reynolds had charge of the
Coalbrookdale works that a further important improvement was effected
in the manufacture of iron by pit-coal. Up to this time the conversion
of crude or cast iron into malleable or bar iron had been effected
entirely by means of charcoal. The process was carried on in a fire
called a finery, somewhat like that of a smith's forge; the iron being
exposed to the blast of powerful bellows, and in constant contact with
the fuel. In the first process of fusing the ironstone, coal had been
used for some time with increasing success; but the question arose,
whether coal might not also be used with effect in the second or
refining stage. Two of the foremen, named Cranege, suggested to Mr.
Reynolds that this might be performed in what is called a reverberatory
furnace,[7] in which the iron should not mix with the coal, but be
heated solely by the flame. Mr. Reynolds greatly doubted the
feasibility of the operation, but he authorized the Cranege, to make an
experiment of their process, the result of which will be found
described in the following extract of a letter from Mr. Reynolds to Mr.
Thomas Goldney of Bristol, dated "Coalbrookdale, 25th April, 1766":--
.... "I come now to what I think a matter of very great consequence.
It is some time since Thos. Cranege, who works at Bridgenorth Forge,
and his brother George, of the Dale, spoke to me about a notion they
had conceived of making bar iron without wood charcoal. I told them,
consistent with the notion I had adopted in common with all others I
had conversed with, that I thought it impossible, because the vegetable
salts in the charcoal being an alkali acted as an absorbent to the
sulphur of the iron, which occasions the red-short quality of the iron,
and pit coal abounding with sulphur would increase it. This specious
answer, which would probably have appeared conclusive to most, and
which indeed was what I really thought, was not so to them. They
replied that from the observations they had made, and repeated
conversations together, they were both firmly of opinion that the
alteration from the quality of pig iron into that of bar iron was
effected merely by heat, and if I would give them leave, they would
make a trial some day. I consented, but, I confess, without any great
expectation of their success; and so the matter rested some weeks, when
it happening that some repairs had to be done at Bridgenorth, Thomas
came up to the Dale, and, with his brother, made a trial in Thos.
Tilly's air-furnace with such success as I thought would justify the
erection of a small air-furnace at the Forge for the more perfectly
ascertaining the merit of the invention. This was accordingly done,
and a trial of it has been made this week, and the success has
surpassed the most sanguine expectations. The iron put into the
furnace was old Bushes, which thou knowest are always made of hard
iron, and the iron drawn out is the toughest I ever saw. A bar 1 1/4
inch square, when broke, appears to have very little cold short in it.
I look upon it as one of the most important discoveries ever made, and
take the liberty of recommending thee and earnestly requesting thou
wouldst take out a patent for it immediately.... The specification of
the invention will be comprised in a few words, as it will only set
forth that a reverberatory furnace being built of a proper
construction, the pig or cast iron is put into it, and without the
addition of anything else than common raw pit coal, is converted into
good malleable iron, and, being taken red-hot from the reverberatory
furnace to the forge hammer, is drawn out into bars of various shapes
and sizes, according to the will of the workmen."
Mr. Reynolds's advice was implicitly followed. A patent was secured in
the name of the brothers Cranege, dated the 17th June, 1766; and the
identical words in the above letter were adopted in the specification
as descriptive of the process. By this method of puddling, as it is
termed, the manufacturer was thenceforward enabled to produce iron in
increased quantity at a large reduction in price; and though the
invention of the Craneges was greatly improved upon by Onions, and
subsequently by Cort, there can be no doubt as to the originality and
the importance of their invention. Mr. Tylor states that he was
informed by the son of Richard Reynolds that the wrought iron made at
Coalbrookdale by the Cranege process "was very good, quite tough, and
broke with a long, bright, fibrous fracture: that made by Cort
afterwards was quite different." [8] Though Mr. Reynolds's generosity
to the Craneges is apparent; in the course which he adopted in securing
for them a patent for the invention in their own names, it does not
appear to have proved of much advantage to them; and they failed to
rise above the rank which they occupied when their valuable discovery
was patented. This, however, was no fault of Richard Reynolds, but was
mainly attributable to the circumstance of other inventions in a great
measure superseding their process, and depriving them of the benefits
of their ingenuity.
Among the important improvements introduced by Mr. Reynolds while
managing the Coalbrookdale Works, was the adoption by him for the first
time of iron instead of wooden rails in the tram-roads along which coal
and iron were conveyed from one part of the works to another, as well
as to the loading-places along the river Severn. He observed that the
wooden rails soon became decayed, besides being liable to be broken by
the heavy loads passing over them, occasioning much loss of time,
interruption to business, and heavy expenses in repairs. It occurred
to him that these inconveniences would be obviated by the use of rails
of cast-iron; and, having tried an experiment with them, it answered so
well, that in 1767 the whole of the wooden rails were taken up and
replaced by rails of iron. Thus was the era of iron railroads fairly
initiated at Coalbrookdale, and the example of Mr. Reynolds was shortly
after followed on all the tramroads throughout the Country.
It is also worthy of note that the first iron bridge ever erected was
cast and made at the Coalbrookdale Works--its projection as well as its
erection being mainly due to the skill and enterprise of Abraham Darby
the third. When but a young man, he showed indications of that
sagacity and energy in business which seemed to be hereditary in his
family. One of the first things he did on arriving at man's estate was
to set on foot a scheme for throwing a bridge across the Severn at
Coalbrookdale, at a point where the banks were steep and slippery, to
accommodate the large population which had sprung up along both banks
of the river. There were now thriving iron, brick, and pottery works
established in the parishes of Madeley and Broseley; and the old ferry
on the Severn was found altogether inadequate for ready communication
between one bank and the other. The want of a bridge had long been
felt, and a plan of one had been prepared during the life time of
Abraham Darby the second; but the project was suspended at his death.
When his son came of age, he resolved to take up his father's dropped
scheme, and prosecute it to completion, which he did. Young Mr. Darby
became lord of the manor of Madeley in 1776, and was the owner of
one-half of the ferry in right of his lordship. He was so fortunate as
to find the owner of the other or Broseley half of the ferry equally
anxious with himself to connect the two banks of the river by means of
a bridge. The necessary powers were accordingly obtained from
Parliament, and a bridge was authorized to be built "of cast-iron,
stone, brick, or timber." A company was formed for the purpose of
carrying out the project, and the shares were taken by the adjoining
owners, Abraham Darby being the principal subscriber.[9]
The construction of a bridge of iron was an entirely new idea. An
attempt had indeed been made at Lyons, in France, to construct such a
bridge more than twenty years before; but it had entirely failed, and a
bridge of timber was erected instead. It is not known whether the
Coalbrookdale masters had heard of that attempt; but, even if they had,
it could have been of no practical use to them.
Mr. Pritchard, an architect of Shrewsbury, was first employed to
prepare a design of the intended structure, which is still preserved.
Although Mr. Pritchard proposed to introduce cast-iron in the arch of
the bridge, which was to be of 120 feet span, it was only as a sort of
key, occupying but a few feet at the crown of the arch. This sparing
use of cast iron indicates the timidity of the architect in dealing
with the new material--his plan exhibiting a desire to effect a
compromise between the tried and the untried in bridge-construction.
But the use of iron to so limited an extent, and in such a part of the
structure, was of more than questionable utility; and if Mr.
Pritchard's plan had been adopted, the problem of the iron bridge would
still have remained unsolved.
The plan, however, after having been duly considered, was eventually
set aside, and another, with the entire arch of cast-iron, was prepared
under the superintendence of Abraham Darby, by Mr. Thomas Gregory, his
foreman of pattern-makers. This plan was adopted, and arrangements
were forthwith made for carrying it into effect. The abutments of the
bridge were built in 1777-8, during which the castings were made at the
foundry, and the ironwork was successfully erected in the course of
three months. The bridge was opened for traffic in 1779, and proved a
most serviceable structure. In 1788 the Society of Arts recognised Mr.
Darby's merit as its designer and erector by presenting him with their
gold medal; and the model of the bridge is still to be seen in the
collection of the Society. Mr. Robert Stephenson has said of the
structure: "If we consider that the manipulation of cast-iron was then
completely in its infancy, a bridge of such dimensions was doubtless a
bold as well as an original undertaking, and the efficiency of the
details is worthy of the boldness of the conception." [10] Mr.
Stephenson adds that from a defect in the construction the abutments
were thrust inwards at the approaches and the ribs partially fractured.
We are, however, informed that this is a mistake, though it does appear
that the apprehension at one time existed that such an accident might
possibly occur.
To remedy the supposed defect, two small land arches were, in the year
1800, substituted for the stone approach on the Broseley side of the
bridge. While the work was in progress, Mr. Telford, the well-known
engineer, carefully examined the bridge, and thus spoke of its
condition at the time:--"The great improvement of erecting upon a
navigable river a bridge of cast-iron of one arch only was first put in
practice near Coalbrookdale. The bridge was executed in 1777 by Mr.
Abraham Darby, and the ironwork is now quite as perfect as when it was
first put up. Drawings of this bridge have long been before the
public, and have been much and justly admired." [11] A Coalbrookdale
correspondent, writing in May, 1862, informs us that "at the present
time the bridge is undergoing repair; and, special examination having
been made, there is no appearance either that the abutments have moved,
or that the ribs have been broken in the centre or are out of their
proper right line. There has, it is true, been a strain on the land
arches, and on the roadway plates, which, however, the main arch has
been able effectually to resist."
The bridge has now been in profitable daily use for upwards of eighty
years, and has during that time proved of the greatest convenience to
the population of the district. So judicious was the selection of its
site, and so great its utility, that a thriving town of the name of
Ironbridge has grown up around it upon what, at the time of its
erection, was a nameless part of "the waste of the manor of Madeley."
And it is probable that the bridge will last for centuries to come.
Thus, also, was the use of iron as an important material in
bridge-building fairly initiated at Coalbrookdale by Abraham Darby, as
the use of iron rails was by Richard Reynolds. We need scarcely add
that since the invention and extensive adoption of railway locomotion,
the employment of iron in various forms in railway and bridge
structures has rapidly increased, until iron has come to be regarded as
the very sheet-anchor of the railway engineer.
In the mean time the works at Coalbrookdale had become largely
extended. In 1784, when the government of the day proposed to levy a
tax on pit-coal, Richard Reynolds strongly urged upon Mr. Pitt, then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, as well as on Lord Gower, afterwards
Marquis of Stafford, the impolicy of such a tax. To the latter he
represented that large capitals had been invested in the iron trade,
which was with difficulty carried on in the face of the competition
with Swedish and Russian iron. At Coalbrookdale, sixteen "fire
engines," as steam engines were first called, were then at work, eight
blast-furnaces and nine forges, besides the air furnaces and mills at
the foundry, which, with the levels, roads, and more than twenty miles
of iron railways, gave employment to a very large number of people.
"The advancement of the iron trade within these few years," said he,
"has been prodigious. It was thought, and justly, that the making of
pig-iron with pit coal was a great acquisition to the country by saving
the wood and supplying a material to manufactures, the production of
which, by the consumption of all the wood the country produced, was
formerly unequal to the demand, and the nail trade, perhaps the most
considerable of any one article of manufactured iron, would have been
lost to this country had it not been found practicable to make nails of
iron made with pit coal. We have now another process to attempt, and
that is to make BAR IRON with pit coal; and it is for that purpose we
have made, or rather are making, alterations at Donnington Wood,
Ketley, and elsewhere, which we expect to complete in the present year,
but not at a less expense than twenty thousand pounds, which will be
lost to us, and gained by nobody, if this tax is laid upon our coals."
He would not, however, have it understood that he sought for any
PROTECTION for the homemade iron, notwithstanding the lower prices of
the foreign article. "From its most imperfect state as pig-iron," he
observed to Lord Sheffield, "to its highest finish in the regulating
springs of a watch, we have nothing to fear if the importation into
each country should be permitted without duty." We need scarcely add
that the subsequent history of the iron trade abundantly justified
these sagacious anticipations of Richard Reynolds.
He was now far advanced in years. His business had prospered, his
means were ample, and he sought retirement. He did not desire to
possess great wealth, which in his opinion entailed such serious
responsibilities upon its possessor; and he held that the accumulation
of large property was more to be deprecated than desired. He therefore
determined to give up his shares in the ironworks at Ketley to his sons
William and Joseph, who continued to carry them on. William was a man
of eminent ability, well versed in science, and an excellent mechanic.
He introduced great improvements in the working of the coal and iron
mines, employing new machinery for the purpose, and availing himself
with much ingenuity of the discoveries then being made in the science
of chemistry. He was also an inventor, having been the first to employ
(in 1788) inclined planes, consisting of parallel railways, to connect
and work canals of different levels,--an invention erroneously
attributed to Fulton, but which the latter himself acknowledged to
belong to William Reynolds. In the first chapter of his 'Treatise on
Canal Navigation,' published in 1796, Fulton says:--"As local
prejudices opposed the Duke of Bridgewater's canal in the first
instance, prejudices equally strong as firmly adhered to the principle
on which it was constructed; and it was thought impossible to lead one
through a country, or to work it to any advantage, unless by locks and
boats of at least twenty-five tons, till the genius of Mr. William
Reynolds, of Ketley, in Shropshire, stepped from the accustomed path,
constructed the first inclined plane, and introduced boats of five
tons. This, like the Duke's canal, was deemed a visionary project, and
particularly by his Grace, who was partial to locks; yet this is also
introduced into practice, and will in many instances supersede lock
canals." Telford, the engineer, also gracefully acknowledged the
valuable assistance he received from William Reynolds in planning the
iron aqueduct by means of which the Ellesmere Canal was carried over
the Pont Cysylltau, and in executing the necessary castings for the
purpose at the Ketley foundry.
The future management of his extensive ironworks being thus placed in
able hands, Richard Reynolds finally left Coalbrookdale in 1804, for
Bristol, his native town, where he spent the remainder of his life in
works of charity and mercy. Here we might leave the subject, but
cannot refrain from adding a few concluding words as to the moral
characteristics of this truly good man. Though habitually religious,
he was neither demure nor morose, but cheerful, gay, and humorous. He
took great interest in the pleasures of the young people about him, and
exerted himself in all ways to promote their happiness. He was fond of
books, pictures, poetry, and music, though the indulgence of artistic
tastes is not thought becoming in the Society to which he belonged.
His love for the beauties of nature amounted almost to a passion, and
when living at The Bank, near Ketley, it was his great delight in the
summer evenings to retire with his pipe to a rural seat commanding a
full view of the Wrekin, the Ercall Woods, with Cader Idris and the
Montgomeryshire hills in the distance, and watch the sun go down in the
west in his glory. Once in every year he assembled a large party to
spend a day with him on the Wrekin, and amongst those invited were the
principal clerks in the company's employment, together with their
families. At Madeley, near Coalbrookdale, where he bought a property,
he laid out, for the express use of the workmen, extensive walks
through the woods on Lincoln Hill, commanding beautiful views. They
were called "The Workmen's Walks," and were a source of great enjoyment
to them and their families, especially on Sunday afternoons.
When Mr. Reynolds went to London on business, he was accustomed to make
a round of visits, on his way home, to places remarkable for their
picturesque beauty, such as Stowe, Hagley Park, and the Leasowes.
After a visit to the latter place in 1767, he thus, in a letter to his
friend John Maccappen, vindicated his love for the beautiful in
nature:--"I think it not only lawful but expedient to cultivate a
disposition to be pleased with the beauties of nature, by frequent
indulgences for that purpose. The mind, by being continually applied
to the consideration of ways and means to gain money, contracts an
indifferency if not an insensibility to the profusion of beauties which
the benevolent Creator has impressed upon every part of the material
creation. A sordid love of gold, the possession of what gold can
purchase, and the reputation of being rich, have so depraved the finer
feelings of some men, that they pass through the most delightful grove,
filled with the melody of nature, or listen to the murmurings of the
brook in the valley, with as little pleasure and with no more of the
vernal delight which Milton describes, than they feel in passing
through some obscure alley in a town."
When in the prime of life, Mr. Reynolds was an excellent rider,
performing all his journeys on horseback. He used to give a ludicrous
account of a race he once ran with another youth, each having a lady
seated on a pillion behind him; Mr. Reynolds reached the goal first,
but when he looked round he found that he had lost his fair companion,
who had fallen off in the race! On another occasion he had a hard run
with Lord Thurlow during a visit paid by the latter to the Ketley
Iron-Works. Lord Thurlow pulled up his horse first, and observed,
laughing, "I think, Mr. Reynolds, this is probably the first time that
ever a Lord Chancellor rode a race with a Quaker!" But a stranger
rencontre was one which befel Mr. Reynolds on Blackheath. Though he
declined Government orders for cannon, he seems to have had a secret
hankering after the "pomp and circumstance" of military life. At all
event's he was present on Blackheath one day when George III. was
reviewing some troops. Mr. Reynold's horse, an old trooper, no sooner
heard the sound of the trumpet than he started off at full speed, and
made directly for the group of officers before whom the troops were
defiling. Great was the surprise of the King when he saw the Quaker
draw up alongside of him, but still greater, perhaps, was the confusion
of the Quaker at finding himself in such company.
During the later years of his life, while living at Bristol, his hand
was in every good work; and it was often felt where it was not seen.
For he carefully avoided ostentation, and preferred doing his good in
secret. He strongly disapproved of making charitable bequests by will,
which he observed in many cases to have been the foundation of enormous
abuses, but held it to be the duty of each man to do all the possible
good that he could during his lifetime. Many were the instances of his
princely, though at the time unknown, munificence. Unwilling to be
recognised as the giver of large sums, he employed agents to dispense
his anonymous benefactions. He thus sent 20,000L. to London to be
distributed during the distress of 1795. He had four almoners
constantly employed in Bristol, finding out cases of distress,
relieving them, and presenting their accounts to him weekly, with
details of the cases relieved. He searched the debtors' prisons, and
where, as often happened, deserving but unfortunate men were found
confined for debt, he paid the claims against them and procured their
release. Such a man could not fail to be followed with blessings and
gratitude; but these he sought to direct to the Giver of all Good. "My
talent," said he to a friend, "is the meanest of all talents--a little
sordid dust; but as the man in the parable who had but one talent was
held accountable, I also am accountable for the talent that I possess,
humble as it is, to the great Lord of all." On one occasion the case
of a poor orphan boy was submitted to him, whose parents, both dying
young, had left him destitute, on which Mr. Reynolds generously offered
to place a sum in the names of trustees for his education and
maintenance until he could be apprenticed to a business. The lady who
represented the case was so overpowered by the munificence of the act
that she burst into tears, and, struggling to express her gratitude,
concluded with--"and when the dear child is old enough, I will teach
him to thank his benefactor." "Thou must teach him to look higher,"
interrupted Reynolds: "Do we thank the clouds for rain? When the child
grows up, teach him to thank Him who sendeth both the clouds and the
rain." Reynolds himself deplored his infirmity of temper, which was by
nature hasty; and, as his benevolence was known, and appeals were made
to him at all times, seasonable and unseasonable, he sometimes met them
with a sharp word, which, however, he had scarcely uttered before he
repented of it: and he is known to have followed a poor woman to her
home and ask forgiveness for having spoken hastily in answer to her
application for help.
This "great good man" died on the 10th of September, 1816, in the 81st
year of his age. At his funeral the poor of Bristol were the chief
mourners. The children of the benevolent societies which he had
munificently supported during his lifetime, and some of which he had
founded, followed his body to the grave. The procession was joined by
the clergy and ministers of all denominations, and by men of all
classes and persuasions. And thus was Richard Reynolds laid to his
rest, leaving behind him a name full of good odour, which will long be
held in grateful remembrance by the inhabitants of Bristol.
[1] Dr. PLOT, Natural History of Staffordshire, 2nd ed. 1686, p. 128.
[2] JOSHUA GEE, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered,
1731.
[3] When a bill was introduced into Parliament in 1750 with the object
of encouraging the importation of iron from our American colonies, the
Sheffield tanners petitioned against it, on the ground that, if it
passed, English iron would be undersold; many forges would consequently
be discontinued; in which case the timber used for fuel would remain
uncut, and the tanners would thereby be deprived of bark for the
purposes of their trade!
[4] History of the Iron Trade, p. 56.
[5] See Mr. Powle's account of the Iron Works in the Forest of Dean
(1677-8), in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. ii. p. 418, where he
says, "After they have pounded their ore, their first work is to
calcine it, which is done in kilns, much after the fashion of ordinary
lime-kilns, These they fill up to the top with coal and ore, stratum
super stratum, until it be full; and so setting fire to the bottom,
they let it burn till the coal be wasted, and then renew the kilns with
fresh ore and coal, in the same manner as before. This is done without
fusion of the metal, and serves to consume the more drossy parts of the
ore and to make it friable." The writer then describes the process of
smelting the ore mixed with cinder in the furnaces, where, he says, the
fuel is "always of charcoal." "Several attempts," he adds, "have been
made to introduce the use of sea-coal in these works instead of
charcoal, the former being to be had at an easier rate than the latter;
but hitherto they have proved ineffectual, the workmen finding by
experience that a sea-coal fire, how vehement soever, will not
penetrate the most fixed parts of the ore, and so leaves much of the
metal unmelted"
[6] Phil. Trans. vol. xliv. 305.
[7] Reverberatory, so called because the flame or current of heated
gases from the fuel is caused to be reverberated or reflected down upon
the substance under operation before passing into the chimney. It is
curious that Rovenson, in his Treatise of Metallica of 1613, describes
a reverberatory furnace in which iron was to be smelted by pit-coal,
though it does not appear that he succeeded in perfecting his
invention. Dr. Percy, in his excellent work on Metallurgy, thus
describes a reverberatory furnace:--"It consists essentially of three
parts--a fireplace at one end, a stack or chimney at the other, and a
bed between both on which the matter is heated. The fireplace is
separated from the bed by a low partition wall called the fire-bridge,
and both are covered by an arched roof which rises from the end wall of
the fireplace and gradually dips toward the furthest end of the bed
connected with the stack. On one or both sides of the bed, or at the
end near the stack, may be openings through which the ore spread over
the surface of the bed may be stirred about and exposed to the action
of the air. The matter is heated in such a furnace by flame, and is
kept from contact with the solid fuel. The flame in its course from
the fireplace to the stack is reflected downwards or REVERBERATED on
the matter beneath, whence the name REVERBERATORY furnace."
[8] Mr. TYLOR on Metal Work--Reports on the Paris Exhibition of 1855.
Part II. 182. We are informed by Mr. Reynolds of Coed-du, a grandson
of Richard Reynolds, that "on further trials many difficulties arose.
The bottoms of the furnaces were destroyed by the heat, and the quality
of the iron varied. Still, by a letter dated May, 1767, it appears
there had been sold of iron made in the new way to the value of 247L.
14s. 6d."
[9] Among the other subscribers were the Rev. Mr. Harris, Mr. Jennings,
and Mr. John Wilkinson, an active promoter of the scheme, who gave the
company the benefit of his skill and experience when it was determined
to construct the bridge of iron. For an account of John Wilkinson see
Lives of the Engineers, vol. ii. 337, 356. In the description of the
first iron bridge given in that work we have, it appears, attributed
rather more credit to Mr. Wilkinson than he is entitled to. Mr. Darby
was the most active promoter of the scheme, and had the principal share
in the design. Wilkinson nevertheless was a man of great energy and
originality. Besides being the builder of the first iron ship, he was
the first to invent, for James Watt, a machine that would bore a
tolerably true cylinder. He afterwards established iron works in
France, and Arthur Young says, that "until that well-known English
manufacturer arrived, the French knew nothing of the art of casting
cannon solid and then boring them" (Travels in France, 4to. ed. London,
1792, p.90). Yet England had borrowed her first cannon-maker from
France in the person of Peter Baude, as described in chap. iii.
Wilkinson is also said to have invented a kind of hot-blast, in respect
of which various witnesses gave evidence on the trial of Neilson's
patent in 1839; but the invention does not appear to have been
perfected by him.
[10] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed. Art.
[11] PLYMLEY, General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire. "Iron
Bridges."
CHAPTER VI.
INVENTION OF CAST STEEL--BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN.
"It may be averred that as certainly as the age of iron superseded that
of bronze, so will the age of steel reign triumphant over iron."--HENRY
BESSEMER.
"Aujourd'hui la revolution que devait amener en Grande-Bretagne la
memorable decouverte de Benjamin Huntsman est tout a fait accomplie, et
chaque jour les consequetces sen feront plus vivement sentir sur le
confinent."--LE PLAY, Sur la Fabrication de l' Acier en Yorkshire.
Iron, besides being used in various forms as bar and cast iron, is also
used in various forms as bar and cast steel; and it is principally
because of its many admirable qualities in these latter forms that iron
maintains its supremacy over all the other metals.
The process of converting iron into steel had long been known among the
Eastern nations before it was introduced into Europe. The Hindoos were
especially skilled in the art of making steel, as indeed they are to
this day; and it is supposed that the tools with which the Egyptians
covered their obelisks and temples of porphyry and syenite with
hieroglyphics were made of Indian steel, as probably no other metal was
capable of executing such work. The art seems to have been well known
in Germany in the Middle Ages, and the process is on the whole very
faithfully described by Agricola in his great work on Metallurgy.[1]
England then produced very little steel, and was mainly dependent for
its supply of the article upon the continental makers.
From an early period Sheffield became distinguished for its manufacture
of iron and steel into various useful articles. We find it mentioned
in the thirteenth century as a place where the best arrowheads were
made,--the Earl of Richmond owing his success at the battle of Bosworth
partly to their superior length, sharpness, and finish. The
manufactures of the town became of a more pacific character in the
following centuries, during which knives, tools, and implements of
husbandry became the leading articles.
Chaucer's reference to the 'Sheffield thwytel' (or case-knife) in his
Canterbury Tales, written about the end of the fourteenth century,
shows that the place had then become known for its manufacture of
knives. In 1575 we find the Earl of Shrewsbury presenting to his
friend Lord Burleigh "a case of Hallamshire whittells, being such
fruites as his pore cuntrey affordeth with fame throughout the realme."
Fuller afterwards speaks of the Sheffield knives as "for common use of
the country people," and he cites an instance of a knave who cozened
him out of fourpence for one when it was only worth a penny.
In 1600 Sheffield became celebrated for its tobacco-boxes and
Jew's-harps. The town was as yet of small size and population; for
when a survey of it was made in 1615 it was found to contain not more
than 2207 householders, of whom one-third, or 725, were "not able to
live without the charity of their neighbours: these are all Begging
poor." [2] It must, however, have continued its manufacture of knives;
for we find that the knife with which Felton stabbed the Duke of
Buckingham at Portsmouth in 1628 was traced to Sheffield. The knife
was left sticking in the duke's body, and when examined was found to
bear the Sheffield corporation mark. It was ultimately ascertained to
have been made by one Wild, a cutler, who had sold the knife for
tenpence to Felton when recruiting in the town. At a still later
period, the manufacture of clasp or spring knives was introduced into
Sheffield by Flemish workmen. Harrison says this trade was begun in
1650. The clasp-knife was commonly known in the North as a jocteleg.
Hence Burns, describing the famous article treasured by Captain Grose
the antiquarian, says that--
"It was a faulding jocteleq,
Or lang-kail gully;"
the word being merely a corruption of Jacques de Liege, a famous
foreign cutler, whose knives were as well known throughout Europe as
those of Rogers or Mappin are now. Scythes and sickles formed other
branches of manufacture introduced by the Flemish artisans, the makers
of the former principally living in the parish of Norton, those of the
latter in Eckington.
Many improvements were introduced from time to time in the material of
which these articles were made. Instead of importing the German steel,
as it was called, the Sheffield manufacturers began to make it
themselves, principally from Dannemora iron imported from Sweden. The
first English manufacturer of the article was one Crowley, a Newcastle
man; and the Sheffield makers shortly followed his example. We may
here briefly state that the ordinary method of preparing this valuable
material of manufactures is by exposing iron bars, placed in contact
with roughly-granulated charcoal, to an intense heat,--the process
lasting for about a week, more or less, according to the degree of
carbonization required. By this means, what is called BLISTERED STEEL
is produced, and it furnishes the material out of which razors, files,
knives, swords, and various articles of hardware are manufactured. A
further process is the manufacture of the metal thus treated into SHEAR
STEEL, by exposing a fasciculus of the blistered steel rods, with sand
scattered over them for the purposes of a flux, to the heat of a
wind-furnace until the whole mass becomes of a welding heat, when it is
taken from the fire and drawn out under a forge-hammer,--the process of
welding being repeated, after which the steel is reduced to the
required sizes. The article called FAGGOT steel is made after a
somewhat similar process.
But the most valuable form in which steel is now used in the
manufactures of Sheffield is that of cast-steel, in which iron is
presented in perhaps its very highest state of perfection. Cast-steel
consists of iron united to carbon in an elastic state together with a
small portion of oxygen; whereas crude or pig iron consists of iron
combined with carbon in a material state.[3] Chief merits of
cast-steel consist in its possessing great cohesion and closeness of
grain, with an astonishing degree of tenacity and
flexibility,--qualities which render it of the highest value in all
kinds of tools and instruments where durability, polish, and fineness
of edge are essential requisites. It is to this material that we are
mainly indebted for the exquisite cutting instrument of the surgeon,
the chisel of the sculptor, the steel plate on which the engraver
practises his art, the cutting tools employed in the various processes
of skilled handicraft, down to the common saw or the axe used by the
backwoodsman in levelling the primeval forest.
The invention of cast-steel is due to Benjamin Huntsman, of
Attercliffe, near Sheffield. M. Le Play, Professor of Metallurgy in
the Royal School of Mines of France, after making careful inquiry and
weighing all the evidence on the subject, arrived at the conclusion
that the invention fairly belongs to Huntsman. The French professor
speaks of it as a "memorable discovery," made and applied with
admirable perseverance; and he claims for its inventor the
distinguished merit of advancing the steel manufactures of Yorkshire to
the first rank, and powerfully contributing to the establishment on a
firm foundation of the industrial and commercial supremacy of Great
Britain. It is remarkable that a French writer should have been among
the first to direct public attention to the merits of this inventor,
and to have first published the few facts known as to his history in a
French Government Report,--showing the neglect which men of this class
have heretofore received at home, and the much greater esteem in which
they are held by scientific foreigners.[4] Le Play, in his
enthusiastic admiration of the discoverer of so potent a metal as
cast-steel, paid a visit to Huntsman's grave in Atterclifle Churchyard,
near Sheffield, and from the inscription on his tombstone recites the
facts of his birth, his death, and his brief history. With the
assistance of his descendants, we are now enabled to add the following
record of the life and labours of this remarkable but almost forgotten
man.
Benjamin Huntsman was born in Lincolnshire in the year 1704. His
parents were of German extraction, and had settled in this country only
a few years previous to his birth. The boy being of an ingenious turn,
was bred to a mechanical calling; and becoming celebrated for his
expertness in repairing clocks, he eventually set up in business as a
clock maker and mender in the town of Doncaster. He also undertook
various other kinds of metal work, such as the making and repairing of
locks, smoke-jacks, roasting-jacks, and other articles requiring
mechanical skill. He was remarkably shrewd, observant, thoughtful, and
practical; so much so that he came to be regarded as the "wise man" of
his neighbourhood, and was not only consulted as to the repairs of
machinery, but also of the human frame. He practised surgery with
dexterity, though after an empirical fashion, and was held in especial
esteem as an oculist. His success was such that his advice was sought
in many surgical diseases, and he was always ready to give it, but
declined receiving any payment in return.
In the exercise of his mechanical calling, he introduced several
improved tools, but was much hindered by the inferior quality of the
metal supplied to him, which was common German steel. He also
experienced considerable difficulty in finding a material suitable for
the springs and pendulums of his clocks. These circumstances induced
him to turn his attention to the making of a better kind of steel than
was then procurable, for the purposes of his trade. His first
experiments were conducted at Doncaster;[5] but as fuel was difficult
to be had at that place, he determined, for greater convenience, to
remove to the neighbourhood of Sheffield, which he did in 1740. He
first settled at Handsworth, a few miles to the south of that town, and
there pursued his investigations in secret. Unfortunately, no records
have been preserved of the methods which he adopted in overcoming the
difficulties he had necessarily to encounter. That they must have been
great is certain, for the process of manufacturing cast-steel of a
first-rate quality even at this day is of a most elaborate and delicate
character, requiring to be carefully watched in its various stages. He
had not only to discover the fuel and flux suitable for his purpose,
but to build such a furnace and make such a crucible as should sustain
a heat more intense than any then known in metallurgy. Ingot-moulds
had not yet been cast, nor were there hoops and wedges made that would
hold them together, nor, in short, were any of those materials at his
disposal which are now so familiar at every melting-furnace.
Huntsman's experiments extended over many years before the desired
result was achieved. Long after his death, the memorials of the
numerous failures through which he toilsomely worked his way to
success, were brought to light in the shape of many hundredweights of
steel, found buried in the earth in different places about his
manufactory. From the number of these wrecks of early experiments, it
is clear that he had worked continuously upon his grand idea of
purifying the raw steel then in use, by melting it with fluxes at an
intense heat in closed earthen crucibles. The buried masses were found
in various stages of failure, arising from imperfect melting, breaking
of crucibles, and bad fluxes; and had been hid away as so much spoiled
steel of which nothing could be made. At last his perseverance was
rewarded, and his invention perfected; and though a hundred years have
passed since Huntsman's discovery, the description of fuel (coke) which
he first applied for the purpose of melting the steel, and the
crucibles and furnaces which he used, are for the most part similar to
those in use at the present day. Although the making of cast-steel is
conducted with greater economy and dexterity, owing to increased
experience, it is questionable whether any maker has since been able to
surpass the quality of Huntsman's manufacture.
The process of making cast-steel, as invented by Benjamin Huntsman, may
be thus summarily described. The melting is conducted in clay pots or
crucibles manufactured for the purpose, capable of holding about 34
lbs. each. Ten or twelve of such crucibles are placed in a
melting-furnace similar to that used by brass founders; and when the
furnace and pots are at a white heat, to which they are raised by a
coke fire, they are charged with bar steel reduced to a certain degree
of hardness, and broken into pieces of about a pound each. When the
pots are all thus charged with steel, lids are placed over them, the
furnace is filled with coke, and the cover put down. Under the intense
heat to which the metal is exposed, it undergoes an apparent
ebullition. When the furnace requires feeding, the workmen take the
opportunity of lifting the lid of each crucible and judging how far the
process has advanced. After about three hours' exposure to the heat,
the metal is ready for "teeming." The completion of the melting
process is known by the subsidence of all ebullition, and by the clear
surface of the melted metal, which is of a dazzling brilliancy like the
sun when looked at with the naked eye on a clear day. The pots are
then lifted out of their place, and the liquid steel is poured into
ingots of the shape and size required. The pots are replaced, filled
again, and the process is repeated; the red-hot pots thus serving for
three successive charges, after which they are rejected as useless.
When Huntsman had perfected his invention, it would naturally occur to
him that the new metal might be employed for other purposes besides
clock-springs and pendulums. The business of clock-making was then of
a very limited character, and it could scarcely have been worth his
while to pursue so extensive and costly a series of experiments merely
to supply the requirements of that trade. It is more probable that at
an early stage of his investigations he shrewdly foresaw the extensive
uses to which cast-steel might be applied in the manufacture of tools
and cutlery of a superior kind; and we accordingly find him early
endeavouring to persuade the manufacturers of Sheffield to employ it in
the manufacture of knives and razors. But the cutlers obstinately
refused to work a material so much harder than that which they had been
accustomed to use; and for a time he gave up all hopes of creating a
demand in that quarter. Foiled in his endeavours to sell his steel at
home, Huntsman turned his attention to foreign markets; and he soon
found he could readily sell abroad all that he could make. The merit
of employing cast-steel for general purposes belongs to the French,
always so quick to appreciate the advantages of any new discovery, and
for a time the whole of the cast-steel that Huntsman could manufacture
was exported to France. When he had fairly established his business
with that country, the Sheffield cutlers became alarmed at the
reputation which cast-steel was acquiring abroad; and when they heard
of the preference displayed by English as well as French consumers for
the cutlery manufactured of that metal, they readily apprehended the
serious consequences that must necessarily result to their own trade if
cast-steel came into general use. They then appointed a deputation to
wait upon Sir George Savile, one of the members for the county of York,
and requested him to use his influence with the government to obtain an
order to prohibit the exportation of cast-steel. But on learning from
the deputation that the Sheffield manufacturers themselves would not
make use of the new steel, he positively declined to comply with their
request. It was indeed fortunate for the interests of the town that
the object of the deputation was defeated, for at that time Mr.
Huntsman had very pressing and favourable offers from some spirited
manufacturers in Birmingham to remove his furnaces to that place; and
it is extremely probable that had the business of cast-steel making
become established there, one of the most important and lucrative
branches of its trade would have been lost to the town of Sheffield.
The Sheffield makers were therefore under the necessity of using the
cast-steel, if they would retain their trade in cutlery against France;
and Huntsman's home trade rapidly increased. And then began the
efforts of the Sheffield men to wrest his secret from him. For
Huntsman had not taken out any patent for his invention, his only
protection being in preserving his process as much a mystery as
possible. All the workmen employed by him were pledged to inviolable
secrecy; strangers were carefully excluded from the works; and the
whole of the steel made was melted during the night. There were many
speculations abroad as to Huntsman's process. It was generally
believed that his secret consisted in the flux which he employed to
make the metal melt more readily; and it leaked out amongst the workmen
that he used broken bottles for the purpose. Some of the
manufacturers, who by prying and bribing got an inkling of the process,
followed Huntsman implicitly in this respect; and they would not allow
their own workmen to flux the pots lest they also should obtain
possession of the secret. But it turned out eventually that no such
flux was necessary, and the practice has long since been discontinued.
A Frenchman named Jars, frequently quoted by Le Play in his account of
the manufacture of steel in Yorkshire,[6] paid a visit to Sheffield
towards the end of last century, and described the process so far as he
was permitted to examine it. According to his statement all kinds of
fragments of broken steel were used; but this is corrected by Le Play,
who states that only the best bar steel manufactured of Dannemora iron
was employed. Jars adds that "the steel is put into the crucible with
A FLUX, the composition of which is kept secret;" and he states that
the time then occupied in the conversion was five hours.
It is said that the person who first succeeded in copying Huntsman's
process was an ironfounder named Walker, who carried on his business at
Greenside near Sheffield, and it was certainly there that the making of
cast-steel was next begun. Walker adopted the "ruse" of disguising
himself as a tramp, and, feigning great distress and abject poverty, he
appeared shivering at the door of Huntsman's foundry late one night
when the workmen were about to begin their labours at steel-casting,
and asked for admission to warm himself by the furnace fire. The
workmen's hearts were moved, and they permitted him to enter. We have
the above facts from the descendants of the Huntsman family; but we add
the traditional story preserved in the neighbourhood, as given in a
well-known book on metallurgy:--
"One cold winter's night, while the snow was falling in heavy flakes,
and the manufactory threw its red glared light over the neighbourhood,
a person of the most abject appearance presented himself at the
entrance, praying for permission to share the warmth and shelter which
it afforded. The humane workmen found the appeal irresistible, and the
apparent beggar was permitted to take up his quarters in a warm corner
of the building. A careful scrutiny would have discovered little real
sleep in the drowsiness which seemed to overtake the stranger; for he
eagerly watched every movement of the workmen while they went through
the operations of the newly discovered process. He observed, first of
all, that bars of blistered steel were broken into small pieces, two or
three inches in length, and placed in crucibles of fire clay. When
nearly full, a little green glass broken into small fragments was
spread over the top, and the whole covered over with a closely-fitting
cover. The crucibles were then placed in a furnace previously prepared
for them, and after a lapse of from three to four hours, during which
the crucibles were examined from time to time to see that the metal was
thoroughly melted and incorporated, the workmen proceeded to lift the
crucible from its place on the furnace by means of tongs, and its
molten contents, blazing, sparkling, and spurting, were poured into a
mould of cast-iron previously prepared: here it was suffered to cool,
while the crucibles were again filled, and the process repeated. When
cool, the mould was unscrewed, and a bar of cast-steel presented
itself, which only required the aid of the hammerman to form a finished
bar of cast-steel. How the unauthorized spectator of these operations
effected his escape without detection tradition does not say; but it
tells us that, before many months had passed, the Huntsman manufactory
was not the only one where cast-steel was produced." [7]
However the facts may be, the discovery of the elder Huntsman proved of
the greatest advantage to Sheffield; for there is scarcely a civilized
country where Sheffield steel is not largely used, either in its most
highly finished forms of cutlery, or as the raw material for some home
manufacture. In the mean time the demand for Huntsman's steel steadily
increased, and in 1770, for the purpose of obtaining greater scope for
his operations, he removed to a large new manufactory which he erected
at Attercliffe, a little to the north of Sheffield, more conveniently
situated for business purposes. There he continued to flourish for six
years more, making steel and practising benevolence; for, like the
Darbys and Reynoldses of Coalbrookdale, he was a worthy and highly
respected member of the Society of Friends. He was well versed in the
science of his day, and skilled in chemistry, which doubtless proved of
great advantage to him in pursuing his experiments in metallurgy.[8]
That he was possessed of great perseverance will be obvious from the
difficulties he encountered and overcame in perfecting his valuable
invention. He was, however, like many persons of strong original
character, eccentric in his habits and reserved in his manner. The
Royal Society wished to enrol him as a member in acknowledgment of the
high merit of his discovery of cast-steel, as well as because of his
skill in practical chemistry; but as this would have drawn him in some
measure from his seclusion, and was also, as he imagined, opposed to
the principles of the Society to which he belonged, he declined the
honour. Mr. Huntsman died in 1776, in his seventy-second year, and was
buried in the churchyard at Attercliffe, where a gravestone with an
inscription marks his resting-place.
His son continued to carry on the business, and largely extended its
operations. The Huntsman mark became known throughout the civilised
world. Le Play the French Professor of Metallurgy, in his Memoire of
1846, still speaks of the cast-steel bearing the mark of "Huntsman and
Marshall" as the best that is made, and he adds, "the buyer of this
article, who pays a higher price for it than for other sorts, is not
acting merely in the blind spirit of routine, but pays a logical and
well-deserved homage to all the material and moral qualities of which
the true Huntsman mark has been the guarantee for a century." [9]
Many other large firms now compete for their share of the trade; and
the extent to which it has grown, the number of furnaces constantly at
work, and the quantity of steel cast into ingots, to be tilted or
rolled for the various purposes to which it is applied, have rendered
Sheffield the greatest laboratory in the world of this valuable
material. Of the total quantity of cast-steel manufactured in England,
not less than five-sixths are produced there; and the facilities for
experiment and adaptation on the spot have enabled the Sheffield
steel-makers to keep the lead in the manufacture, and surpass all
others in the perfection to which they have carried this important
branch of our national industry. It is indeed a remarkable fact that
this very town, which was formerly indebted to Styria for the steel
used in its manufactures, now exports a material of its own conversion
to the Austrian forges and other places on the Continent from which it
was before accustomed to draw its own supplies.
Among the improved processes invented of late years for the manufacture
of steel are those of Heath, Mushet, and Bessemer. The last promises
to effect before long an entire revolution in the iron and steel trade.
By it the crude metal is converted by one simple process, directly as
it comes from the blast-furnace. This is effected by driving through
it, while still in a molten state, several streams of atmospheric air,
on which the carbon of the crude iron unites with the oxygen of the
atmosphere, the temperature is greatly raised, and a violent ebullition
takes place, during which, if the process be continued, that part of
the carbon which appears to be mechanically mixed and diffused through
the crude iron is entirely consumed. The metal becomes thoroughly
cleansed, the slag is ejected and removed, while the sulphur and other
volatile matters are driven off; the result being an ingot of malleable
iron of the quality of charcoal iron. An important feature in the
process is, that by stopping it at a particular stage, immediately
following the boil, before the whole of the carbon has been abstracted
by the oxygen, the crude iron will be found to have passed into the
condition of cast-steel of ordinary quality. By continuing the
process, the metal losing its carbon, it passes from hard to soft
steel, thence to steely iron, and last of all to very soft iron; so
that by interrupting the process at any stage, or continuing it to the
end, almost any quality of iron and steel may be obtained. One of the
most valuable forms of the metal is described by Mr. Bessemer as
"semi-steel," being in hardness about midway between ordinary
cast-steel and soft malleable iron. The Bessemer processes are now in
full operation in England as well as abroad, both for converting crude
into malleable iron, and for producing steel; and the results are
expected to prove of the greatest practical utility in all cases where
iron and steel are extensively employed.
Yet, like every other invention, this of Mr. Bessemer had long been
dreamt of, if not really made. We are informed in Warner's Tour
through the Northern. Counties of England, published at Bath in 1801,
that a Mr. Reed of Whitehaven had succeeded at that early period in
making steel direct from the ore; and Mr. Mushet clearly alludes to the
process in his "Papers on Iron and Steel." Nevertheless, Mr. Bessemer
is entitled to the merit of working out the idea, and bringing the
process to perfection, by his great skill and indomitable perseverance.
In the Heath process, carburet of manganese is employed to aid the
conversion of iron into steel, while it also confers on the metal the
property of welding and working more soundly under the hammer--a fact
discovered by Mr. Heath while residing in India. Mr. Mushet's process
is of a similar character. Another inventor, Major Uchatius, an
Austrian engineer, granulates crude iron while in a molten state by
pouring it into water, and then subjecting it to the process of
conversion. Some of the manufacturers still affect secrecy in their
operations; but as one of the Sanderson firm--famous for the excellence
of their steel--remarked to a visitor when showing him over their
works, "the great secret is to have the courage to be honest--a spirit
to purchase the best material, and the means and disposition to do
justice to it in the manufacture."
It remains to be added, that much of the success of the Sheffield
manufactures is attributable to the practical skill of the workmen, who
have profited by the accumulated experience treasured up by their class
through many generations. The results of the innumerable experiments
conducted before their eyes have issued in a most valuable though
unwritten code of practice, the details of which are known only to
themselves. They are also a most laborious class; and Le Play says of
them, when alluding to the fact of a single workman superintending the
operations of three steel-casting furnaces--"I have found nowhere in
Europe, except in England, workmen able for an entire day, without any
interval of rest, to undergo such toilsome and exhausting labour as
that performed by these Sheffield workmen."
[1] AGRICOLA, De Re Metallica. Basle, 1621.
[2] The Rev. JOSEPH HUNTER, History of Hallamshire.
[3] MUSHET, Papers On Iron and Steel.
[4] M. Le Play's two elaborate and admirable reports on the manufacture
of steel, published in the Annales des Mines, vols. iii. and ix., 4th
series, are unique of their kind, and have as yet no counterpart in
English literature. They are respectively entitled 'Memoire sur la
Fabrication de l'Acier en Yorkshire,' and 'Memoire sur le Fabrication
et le Commerce des Fers a Acier dans le Nord de l'Europe.'
[5] There are several clocks still in existence in the neighbourhood of
Doncaster made by Benjamin Huntsman; and there is one in the possession
of his grandson, with a pendulum made of cast-steel. The manufacture
of a pendulum of such a material at that early date is certainly
curious; its still perfect spring and elasticity showing the scrupulous
care with which it had been made.
[6] Annales des Mines, vols. iii. and ix., 4th Series.
[7] The Useful Metals and their Alloys (p. 348), an excellent little
work, in which the process of cast-steel making will be found fully
described.
[8] We are informed that a mirror is still preserved at Attercliffe,
made by Huntsman in the days of his early experiments.
[9] Annales des Mines, vol. ix., 4th Series, 266.
CHAPTER VII.
THE INVENTIONS OF HENRY CORT.
"I have always found it in mine own experience an easier matter to
devise manie and profitable inventions, than to dispose of one of them
to the good of the author himself."--Sir Hugh Platt, 1589.
Henry Cort was born in 1740 at Lancaster, where his father carried on
the trade of a builder and brickmaker. Nothing is known as to Henry's
early history; but he seems to have raised himself by his own efforts
to a respectable position. In 1765 we find him established in Surrey
Street, Strand, carrying on the business of a navy agent, in which he
is said to have realized considerable profits. It was while conducting
this business that he became aware of the inferiority of British iron
compared with that obtained from foreign countries. The English
wrought iron was considered so bad that it was prohibited from all
government supplies, while the cast iron was considered of too brittle
a nature to be suited for general use.[1] Indeed the Russian
government became so persuaded that the English nation could not carry
on their manufactures without Russian iron, that in 1770 they ordered
the price to be raised from 70 and 80 copecs per pood to 200 and 220
copecs per pood.[2]
Such being the case, Cort's attention became directed to the subject in
connection with the supply of iron to the Navy, and he entered on a
series of experiments with the object of improving the manufacture of
English iron. What the particular experiments were, and by what steps
he arrived at results of so much importance to the British iron trade,
no one can now tell. All that is known is, that about the year 1775 he
relinquished his business as a navy agent, and took a lease of certain
premises at Fontley, near Fareham, at the north-western corner of
Portsmouth Harbour, where he erected a forge and an iron mill. He was
afterwards joined in partnership by Samuel Jellicoe (son of Adam
Jellicoe, then Deputy-Paymaster of Seamen's Wages), which turned out,
as will shortly appear, a most unfortunate connection for Cort.
As in the case of other inventions, Cort took up the manufacture of
iron at the point to which his predecessors had brought it, carrying it
still further, and improving upon their processes. We may here briefly
recite the steps by which the manufacture of bar-iron by means of
pit-coal had up to this time been advanced. In 1747, Mr. Ford
succeeded at Coalbrookdale in smelting iron ore with pit-coal, after
which it was refined in the usual way by means of coke and charcoal.
In 1762, Dr. Roebuck (hereafter to be referred to) took out a patent
for melting the cast or pig iron in a hearth heated with pit-coal by
the blast of bellows, and then working the iron until it was reduced to
nature, or metallized, as it was termed; after which it was exposed to
the action of a hollow pit-coal fire urged by a blast, until it was
reduced to a loop and drawn out into bar-iron under a common
forge-hammer. Then the brothers Cranege, in 1766, adopted the
reverberatory or air furnace, in which they placed the pig or cast
iron, and without blast or the addition of anything more than common
raw pit-coal, converted the same into good malleable iron, which being
taken red hot from the reverberatory furnace to the forge hammer, was
drawn into bars according to the will of the workman. Peter Onions of
Merthyr Tydvil, in 1783, carried the manufacture a stage further, as
described by him in his patent of that year. Having charged his
furnace ("bound with iron work and well annealed") with pig or fused
cast iron from the smelting furnace, it was closed up and the doors
were luted with sand. The fire was urged by a blast admitted
underneath, apparently for the purpose of keeping up the combustion of
the fuel on the grate. Thus Onions' furnace was of the nature of a
puddling furnace, the fire of which was urged by a blast. The fire was
to be kept up until the metal became less fluid, and "thickened into a
kind of froth, which the workman, by opening the door, must turn and
stir with a bar or other iron instrument, and then close the aperture
again, applying the blast and fire until there was a ferment in the
metal." The patent further describes that "as the workman stirs the
metal," the scoriae will separate, "and the particles of iron will
adhere, which particles the workman must collect or gather into a mass
or lump." This mass or lump was then to be raised to a white heat, and
forged into malleable iron at the forge-hammer.
Such was the stage of advance reached in the manufacture of bar-iron,
when Henry Cort published his patents in 1783 and 1784. In dispensing
with a blast, he had been anticipated by the Craneges, and in the
process of puddling by Onions; but he introduced so many improvements
of an original character, with which he combined the inventions of his
predecessors, as to establish quite a new era in the history of the
iron manufacture, and, in the course of a few years, to raise it to the
highest state of prosperity. As early as 1786, Lord Sheffield
recognised the great national importance of Cort's improvements in the
following words:--"If Mr. Cort's very ingenious and meritorious
improvements in the art of making and working iron, the steam-engine of
Boulton and Watt, and Lord Dundonald's discovery of making coke at half
the present price, should all succeed, it is not asserting too much to
say that the result will be more advantageous to Great Britain than the
possession of the thirteen colonies (of America); for it will give the
complete command of the iron trade to this country, with its vast
advantages to navigation." It is scarcely necessary here to point out
how completely the anticipations of Lord Sheffield have been fulfilled,
sanguine though they might appear to be when uttered some seventy-six
years ago.[3]
We will endeavour as briefly as possible to point out the important
character of Mr. Cort's improvements, as embodied in his two patents of
1783 and 1784. In the first he states that, after "great study,
labour, and expense, in trying a variety of experiments, and making
many discoveries, he had invented and brought to perfection a peculiar
method and process of preparing, welding, and working various sorts of
iron, and of reducing the same into uses by machinery: a furnace, and
other apparatus, adapted and applied to the said process." He first
describes his method of making iron for "large uses," such as shanks,
arms, rings, and palms of anchors, by the method of piling and
faggoting, since become generally practised, by laying bars of iron of
suitable lengths, forged on purpose, and tapering so as to be thinner
at one end than the other, laid over one another in the manner of
bricks in buildings, so that the ends should everywhere overlay each
other. The faggots so prepared, to the amount of half a ton more or
less, were then to be put into a common air or balling furnace, and
brought to a welding heat, which was accomplished by his method in a
much shorter time than in any hollow fire; and when the heat was
perfect, the faggots were then brought under a forge-hammer of great
size and weight, and welded into a solid mass. Mr. Cort alleges in the
specification that iron for "larger uses" thus finished, is in all
respect's possessed of the highest degree of perfection; and that the
fire in the balling furnace is better suited, from its regularity and
penetrating quality, to give the iron a perfect welding heat throughout
its whole mass, without fusing in any part, than any fire blown by a
blast. Another process employed by Mr. Cort for the purpose of
cleansing the iron and producing a metal of purer grain, was that of
working the faggots by passing them through rollers. "By this simple
process," said he, "all the earthy particles are pressed out and the
iron becomes at once free from dross, and what is usually called
cinder, and is compressed into a fibrous and tough state." The
objection has indeed been taken to the process of passing the iron
through rollers, that the cinder is not so effectually got rid of as by
passing it under a tilt hammer, and that much of it is squeezed into
the bar and remains there, interrupting its fibre and impairing its
strength.
It does not appear that there was any novelty in the use of rollers by
Cort; for in his first specification he speaks of them as already well
known.[4] His great merit consisted in apprehending the value of
certain processes, as tested by his own and others' experience, and
combining and applying them in a more effective practical form than had
ever been done before. This power of apprehending the best methods,
and embodying the details in one complete whole, marks the practical,
clear-sighted man, and in certain cases amounts almost to a genius.
The merit of combining the inventions of others in such forms as that
they shall work to advantage, is as great in its way as that of the man
who strikes out the inventions themselves, but who, for want of tact
and experience, cannot carry them into practical effect.
It was the same with Cort's second patent, in which he described his
method of manufacturing bar-iron from the ore or from cast-iron. All
the several processes therein described had been practised before his
time; his merit chiefly consisting in the skilful manner in which he
combined and applied them. Thus, like the Craneges, he employed the
reverberatory or air furnace, without blast, and, like Onions, he
worked the fused metal with iron bars until it was brought into lumps,
when it was removed and forged into malleable iron. Cort, however,
carried the process further, and made it more effectual in all
respects. His method may be thus briefly described: the bottom of the
reverberatory furnace was hollow, so as to contain the fluid metal,
introduced into it by ladles; the heat being kept up by pit-coal or
other fuel. When the furnace was charged, the doors were closed until
the metal was sufficiently fused, when the workman opened an aperture
and worked or stirred about the metal with iron bars, when an
ebullition took place, during the continuance of which a bluish flame
was emitted, the carbon of the cast-iron was burned off, the metal
separated from the slag, and the iron, becoming reduced to nature, was
then collected into lumps or loops of sizes suited to their intended
uses, when they were drawn out of the doors of the furnace. They were
then stamped into plates, and piled or worked in an air furnace, heated
to a white or welding heat, shingled under a forge hammer, and passed
through the grooved rollers after the method described in the first
patent.
The processes described by Cort in his two patents have been followed
by iron manufacturers, with various modifications, the results of
enlarged experience, down to the present time. After the lapse of
seventy-eight years, the language employed by Cort continues on the
whole a faithful description of the processes still practised: the
same methods of manufacturing bar from cast-iron, and of puddling,
piling, welding, and working the bar-iron through grooved rollers--all
are nearly identical with the methods of manufacture perfected by Henry
Cort in 1784. It may be mentioned that the development of the powers
of the steam-engine by Watt had an extraordinary effect upon the
production of iron. It created a largely increased demand for the
article for the purposes of the shafting and machinery which it was
employed to drive; while at the same time it cleared pits of water
which before were unworkable, and by being extensively applied to the
blowing of iron-furnaces and the working of the rolling-mills, it thus
gave a still further impetus to the manufacture of the metal. It would
be beside our purpose to enter into any statistical detail on the
subject; but it will be sufficient to state that the production of
iron, which in the early part of last century amounted to little more
than 12,000 tons, about the middle of the century to about 18,000 tons,
and at the time of Cort's inventions to about 90,000 tons, was found,
in 1820, to have increased to 400,000 tons; and now the total quantity
produced is upwards of four millions of tons of pig-iron every year, or
more than the entire production of all other European countries. There
is little reason to doubt that this extraordinary development of the
iron manufacture has been in a great measure due to the inventions of
Henry Cort. It is said that at the present time there are not fewer
than 8200 of Cort's furnaces in operation in Great Britain alone.[5]
Practical men have regarded Cort's improvement of the process of
rolling the iron as the most valuable of his inventions. A competent
authority has spoken of Cort's grooved rollers as of "high
philosophical interest, being scarcely less than the discovery of a new
mechanical Power, in reversing the action of the wedge, by the
application of force to four surfaces, so as to elongate a mass,
instead of applying force to a mass to divide the four surfaces." One
of the best authorities in the iron trade of last century, Mr.
Alexander Raby of Llanelly, like many others, was at first entirely
sceptical as to the value of Cort's invention; but he had no sooner
witnessed the process than with manly candour he avowed his entire
conversion to his views.
We now return to the history of the chief author of this great branch
of national industry. As might naturally be expected, the principal
ironmasters, when they heard of Cort's success, and the rapidity and
economy with which he manufactured and forged bar-iron, visited his
foundry for the purpose of examining his process, and, if found
expedient, of employing it at their own works. Among the first to try
it were Richard Crawshay of Cyfartha, Samuel Homfray of Penydarran
(both in South Wales), and William Reynolds of Coalbrookdale. Richard
Crawshay was then (in 1787) forging only ten tons of bar-iron weekly
under the hammer; and when he saw the superior processes invented by
Cort he readily entered into a contract with him to work under his
patents at ten shillings a ton royalty, In 1812 a letter from Mr.
Crawshay to the Secretary of Lord Sheffield was read to the House of
Commons, descriptive of his method of working iron, in which he said,
"I took it from a Mr. Cort, who had a little mill at Fontley in
Hampshire: I have thus acquainted you with my method, by which I am
now making more than ten thousand tons of bar-iron per annum." Samuel
Homfray was equally prompt in adopting the new process. He not only
obtained from Cort plans of the puddling-furnaces and patterns of the
rolls, but borrowed Cort's workmen to instruct his own in the necessary
operations; and he soon found the method so superior to that invented
by Onions that he entirely confined himself to manufacturing after
Cort's patent. We also find Mr. Reynolds inviting Cort to conduct a
trial of his process at Ketley, though it does not appear that it was
adopted by the firm at that time.[6]
The quality of the iron manufactured by the new process was found
satisfactory; and the Admiralty having, by the persons appointed by
them to test it in 1787, pronounced it to be superior to the best
Oregrounds iron, the use of the latter was thenceforward discontinued,
and Cort's iron only was directed to be used for the anchors and other
ironwork in the ships of the Royal Navy. The merits of the invention
seem to have been generally conceded, and numerous contracts for
licences were entered into with Cort and his partner by the
manufacturers of bar-iron throughout the country.[7] Cort himself made
arrangements for carrying on the manufacture on a large scale, and with
that object entered upon the possession of a wharf at Gosport,
belonging to Adam Jellicoe, his partner's father, where he succeeded in
obtaining considerable Government orders for iron made after his
patents. To all ordinary eyes the inventor now appeared to be on the
high road to fortune; but there was a fatal canker at the root of this
seeming prosperity, and in a few years the fabric which he had so
laboriously raised crumbled into ruins. On the death of Adam Jellicoe,
the father of Cort's partner, in August, 1789,[8] defalcations were
discovered in his public accounts to the extent of 39,676L, and his
books and papers were immediately taken possession of by the
Government. On examination it was found that the debts due to Jellicoe
amounted to 89,657L, included in which was a sum of not less than
54,853L. owing to him by the Cort partnership. In the public
investigation which afterwards took place, it appeared that the capital
possessed by Cort being insufficient to enable him to pursue his
experiments, which were of a very expensive character, Adam Jellicoe
had advanced money from time to time for the purpose, securing himself
by a deed of agreement entitling him to one-half the stock and profits
of all his contracts; and in further consideration of the capital
advanced by Jellicoe beyond his equal share, Cort subsequently assigned
to him all his patent rights as collateral security. As Jellicoe had
the reputation of being a rich man, Cort had not the slightest
suspicion of the source from which he obtained the advances made by him
to the firm, nor has any connivance whatever on the part of Cort been
suggested. At the same time it must be admitted that the connexion was
not free from suspicion, and, to say the least, it was a singularly
unfortunate one. It was found that among the moneys advanced by
Jellicoe to Cort there was a sum of 27,500L. entrusted to him for the
payment of seamen's and officers' wages. How his embarrassments had
tempted him to make use of the public funds for the purpose of carrying
on his speculations, appears from his own admissions. In a memorandum
dated the 11th November, 1782, found in his strong box after his death,
he set forth that he had always had much more than his proper balance
in hand, until his engagement, about two years before, with Mr. Cort,
"which by degrees has so reduced me, and employed so much more of my
money than I expected, that I have been obliged to turn most of my Navy
bills into cash, and at the same time, to my great concern, am very
deficient in my balance. This gives me great uneasiness, nor shall I
live or die in peace till the whole is restored." He had, however,
made the first false step, after which the downhill career of
dishonesty is rapid. His desperate attempts to set himself right only
involved him the deeper; his conscious breach of trust caused him a
degree of daily torment which he could not bear; and the discovery of
his defalcations, which was made only a few days before his death,
doubtless hastened his end.
The Government acted with promptitude, as they were bound to do in such
a case. The body of Jellicoe was worth nothing to them, but they could
secure the property in which he had fraudulently invested the public
moneys intrusted to him. With this object the them Paymaster of the
Navy proceeded to make an affidavit in the Exchequer that Henry Cort
was indebted to His Majesty in the sum of 27,500L. and upwards, in
respect of moneys belonging to the public treasury, which "Adam
Jellicoe had at different times lent and advanced to the said Henry
Cort, from whom the same now remains justly due and owing; and the
deponent saith he verily believes that the said Henry Cort is much
decayed in his credit and in very embarrassed circumstances; and
therefore the deponent verily believes that the aforesaid debt so due
and owing to His Majesty is in great danger of being lost if some more
speedy means be not taken for the recovery than by the ordinary process
of the Court." Extraordinary measures were therefore adopted. The
assignments of Cort's patents, which had been made to Jellicoe in
consideration of his advances, were taken possession of; but Samuel
Jellicoe, the son of the defaulter, singular to say, was put in
possession of the properties at Fontley and Gosport, and continued to
enjoy them, to Cort's exclusion, for a period of fourteen years. It
does not however appear that any patent right was ever levied by the
assignees, and the result of the proceeding was that the whole benefit
of Cort's inventions was thus made over to the ironmasters and to the
public. Had the estate been properly handled, and the patent rights
due under the contracts made by the ironmasters with Cort been duly
levied, there is little reason to doubt that the whole of the debt
owing to the Government would have been paid in the course of a few
years. "When we consider," says Mr. Webster, "how very simple was the
process of demanding of the contracting ironmasters the patent due
(which for the year 1789 amounted to 15,000L., in 1790 to 15,000L., and
in 1791 to 25,000L.), and which demand might have been enforced by the
same legal process used to ruin the inventor, it is not difficult to
surmise the motive for abstaining." The case, however, was not so
simple as Mr. Webster puts it; for there was such a contingency as that
of the ironmasters combining to dispute the patent right, and there is
every reason to believe that they were prepared to adopt that course.[9]
Although the Cort patents expired in 1796 and 1798 respectively, they
continued the subject of public discussion for some time after, more
particularly in connection with the defalcations of the deceased Adam
Jellicoe. It does not appear that more than 2654L. was realised by the
Government from the Cort estate towards the loss sustained by the
public, as a balance of 24,846L. was still found standing to the debit
of Jellicoe in 1800, when the deficiencies in the naval account's
became matter of public inquiry. A few years later, in 1805, the
subject was again revived in a remarkable manner. In that year, the
Whigs, Perceiving the bodily decay of Mr. Pitt, and being too eager to
wait for his removal by death, began their famous series of attacks
upon his administration. Fearing to tackle the popular statesman
himself, they inverted the ordinary tactics of an opposition, and fell
foul of Dundas, Lord Melville, then Treasurer of the Navy, who had
successfully carried the country through the great naval war with
revolutionary France. They scrupled not to tax him with gross
peculation, and exhibited articles of impeachment against him, which
became the subject of elaborate investigation, the result of which is
matter of history. In those articles, no reference whatever was made
to Lord Melville's supposed complicity with Jellicoe; nor, on the trial
that followed, was any reference made to the defalcations of that
official. But when Mr. Whitbread, on the 8th of April, 1805, spoke to
the "Resolutions" in the Commons for impeaching the Treasurer of the
Navy, he thought proper to intimate that he "had a strong suspicion
that Jellicoe was in the same partnership with Mark Sprott, Alexander
Trotter, and Lord Melville. He had been suffered to remain a public
debtor for a whole year after he was known to be in arrears upwards of
24,000L. During next year 11,000L. more had accrued. It would not
have been fair to have turned too short on an old companion. It would
perhaps, too, have been dangerous, since unpleasant discoveries might
have met the public eye. It looked very much as if, mutually conscious
of criminality, they had agreed to be silent, and keep their own
secrets."
In making these offensive observations Whitbread was manifestly
actuated by political enmity. They were utterly unwarrantable. In the
first place, Melville had been formally acquitted of Jellicoe's
deficiency by a writ of Privy Seal, dated 31st May, 1800; and secondly,
the committee appointed in that very year (1805) to reinvestigate the
naval accounts, had again exonerated him, but intimated that they were
of opinion there was remissness on his part in allowing Jellicoe to
remain in his office after the discovery of his defalcations.
the report made by the commissioners to the Houses of Parliament in
1805,[10] the value of Corts patents was estimated at only 100L.
Referring to the schedule of Jellicoe's alleged assets, they say "Many
of the debts are marked as bad; and we apprehend that the debt from Mr.
Henry Cort, not so marked, of 54,000L. and upwards, is of that
description." As for poor bankrupt Henry Cort, these discussions
availed nothing. On the death of Jellicoe, he left his iron works,
feeling himself a ruined man. He made many appeals to the Government
of the day for restoral of his patents, and offered to find security
for payment of the debt due by his firm to the Crown, but in vain. In
1794, an appeal was made to Mr. Pitt by a number of influential members
of Parliament, on behalf of the inventor and his destitute family of
twelve children, when a pension of 200L. a-year was granted him. This
Mr. Cort enjoyed until the year 1800, when he died, broken in health
and spirit, in his sixtieth year. He was buried in Hampstead
Churchyard, where a stone marking the date of his death is still to be
seen. A few years since it was illegible, but it has recently been
restored by his surviving son.
Though Cort thus died in comparative poverty, he laid the foundations
of many gigantic fortunes. He may be said to have been in a great
measure the author of our modern iron aristocracy, who still
manufacture after the processes which he invented or perfected, but for
which they never paid him a shilling of royalty. These men of gigantic
fortunes have owed much--we might almost say everything--to the ruined
projector of "the little mill at Fontley." Their wealth has enriched
many families of the older aristocracy, and has been the foundation of
several modern peerages. Yet Henry Cort, the rock from which they were
hewn, is already all but forgotten; and his surviving children, now
aged and infirm, are dependent for their support upon the slender
pittance wrung by repeated entreaty and expostulation from the state.
The career of Richard Crawshay, the first of the great ironmasters who
had the sense to appreciate and adopt the methods of manufacturing iron
invented by Henry Cort, is a not unfitting commentary on the sad
history we have thus briefly described. It shows how, as respects mere
money-making, shrewdness is more potent than invention, and business
faculty than manufacturing skill. Richard Crawshay was born at
Normanton near Leeds, the son of a small Yorkshire farmer. When a
youth, he worked on his father's farm, and looked forward to occupying
the same condition in life; but a difference with his father unsettled
his mind, and at the age of fifteen he determined to leave his home,
and seek his fortune elsewhere. Like most unsettled and enterprising
lads, he first made for London, riding to town on a pony of his own,
which, with the clothes on his back, formed his entire fortune. It
took him a fortnight to make the journey, in consequence of the badness
of the roads. Arrived in London, he sold his pony for fifteen pounds,
and the money kept him until he succeeded in finding employment. He
was so fortunate as to be taken upon trial by a Mr. Bicklewith, who
kept an ironmonger's shop in York Yard, Upper Thames Street; and his
first duty there was to clean out the office, put the stools and desks
in order for the other clerks, run errands, and act as porter when
occasion required. Young Crawshay was very attentive, industrious, and
shrewd; and became known in the office as "The Yorkshire Boy." Chiefly
because of his "cuteness," his master appointed him to the department
of selling flat irons. The London washerwomen of that day were very
sharp and not very honest, and it used to be said of them that where
they bought one flat iron they generally contrived to steal two. Mr.
Bicklewith thought he could not do better than set the Yorkshireman to
watch the washerwomen, and, by way of inducement to him to be vigilant,
he gave young Crawshay an interest in that branch of the business,
which was soon found to prosper under his charge. After a few more
years, Mr. Bicklewith retired, and left to Crawshay the cast-iron
business in York Yard. This he still further increased, There was not
at that time much enterprise in the iron trade, but Crawshay
endeavoured to connect himself with what there was of it. The price of
iron was then very high, and the best sorts were still imported from
abroad; a good deal of the foreign iron and steel being still landed at
the Steelyard on the Thames, in the immediate neighbourhood of
Crawshay's ironmongery store.
It seems to have occurred to some London capitalists that money was
then to be made in the iron trade, and that South Wales was a good
field for an experiment. The soil there was known to be full of coal
and ironstone, and several small iron works had for some time been
carried on, which were supposed to be doing well. Merthyr Tydvil was
one of the places at which operations had been begun, but the place
being situated in a hill district, of difficult access, and the
manufacture being still in a very imperfect state, the progress made
was for some time very slow. Land containing coal and iron was deemed
of very little value, as maybe inferred from the fact that in the year
1765, Mr. Anthony Bacon, a man of much foresight, took a lease from
Lord Talbot, for 99 years, of the minerals under forty square miles of
country surrounding the then insignificant hamlet of Merthyr Tydvil, at
the trifling rental of 200L. a-year. There he erected iron works, and
supplied the Government with considerable quantities of cannon and iron
for different purposes; and having earned a competency, he retired from
business in 1782, subletting his mineral tract in four divisions--the
Dowlais, the Penydarran, the Cyfartha, and the Plymouth Works, north,
east, west, and south, of Merthyr Tydvil.
Mr. Richard Crawshay became the lessee of what Mr. Mushet has called
"the Cyfartha flitch of the great Bacon domain." There he proceeded to
carry on the works established by Mr. Bacon with increased spirit; his
son William, whom he left in charge of the ironmongery store in London,
supplying him with capital to put into the iron works as fast as he
could earn it by the retail trade. In 1787, we find Richard Crawshay
manufacturing with difficulty ten tons of bar-iron weekly, and it was
of a very inferior character,[11]--the means not having yet been
devised at Cyfartha for malleableizing the pit-coal cast-iron with
economy or good effect. Yet Crawshay found a ready market for all the
iron he could make, and he is said to have counted the gains of the
forge-hammer close by his house at the rate of a penny a stroke. In
course of time he found it necessary to erect new furnaces, and, having
adopted the processes invented by Henry Cort, he was thereby enabled
greatly to increase the production of his forges, until in 1812 we find
him stating to a committee of the House of Commons that he was making
ten thousand tons of bar-iron yearly, or an average produce of two
hundred tons a week. But this quantity, great though it was, has since
been largely increased, the total produce of the Crawshay furnaces of
Cyfartha, Ynysfach, and Kirwan, being upwards of 50,000 tons of
bar-iron yearly.
The distance of Merthyr from Cardiff, the nearest port, being
considerable, and the cost of carriage being very great by reason of
the badness of the roads, Mr. Crawshay set himself to overcome this
great impediment to the prosperity of the Merthyr Tydvil district; and,
in conjunction with Mr. Homfray of the Penydarran Works, he planned and
constructed the canal[12] to Cardiff, the opening of which, in 1795,
gave an immense impetus to the iron trade of the neighbourhood.
Numerous other extensive iron works became established there, until
Merthyr Tydvil attained the reputation of being at once the richest and
the dirtiest district in all Britain. Mr. Crawshay became known in the
west of England as the "Iron King," and was quoted as the highest
authority in all questions relating to the trade. Mr. George Crawshay,
recently describing the founder of the family at a social meeting at
Newcastle, said,--"In these days a name like ours is lost in the
infinity of great manufacturing firms which exist through out the land;
but in those early times the man who opened out the iron district of
Wales stood upon an eminence seen by all the world. It is preserved in
the traditions of the family that when the 'Iron King' used to drive
from home in his coach-and-four into Wales, all the country turned out
to see him, and quite a commotion took place when he passed through
Bristol on his way to the works. My great grandfather was succeeded by
his son, and by his grandson; the Crawshays have followed one another
for four generations in the iron trade in Wales, and there they still
stand at the head of the trade." The occasion on which these words
were uttered was at a Christmas party, given to the men, about 1300 in
number, employed at the iron works of Messrs. Hawks, Crawshay, and Co.,
at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. These works were founded in 1754 by William
Hawks, a blacksmith, whose principal trade consisted in making
claw-hammers for joiners. He became a thriving man, and eventually a
large manufacturer of bar-iron. Partners joined him, and in the course
of the changes wrought by time, one of the Crawshays, in 1842, became a
principal partner in the firm.
Illustrations of a like kind might be multiplied to any extent, showing
the growth in our own time of an iron aristocracy of great wealth and
influence, the result mainly of the successful working of the
inventions of the unfortunate and unrequited Henry Cort. He has been
the very Tubal Cain of England--one of the principal founders of our
iron age. To him we mainly owe the abundance of wrought-iron for
machinery, for steam-engines, and for railways, at one-third the price
we were before accustomed to pay to the foreigner. We have by his
invention, not only ceased to be dependent upon other nations for our
supply of iron for tools, implements, and arms, but we have become the
greatest exporters of iron, producing more than all other European
countries combined. In the opinion of Mr. Fairbairn of Manchester, the
inventions of Henry Cort have already added six hundred millions
sterling to the wealth of the kingdom, while they have given employment
to some six hundred thousand working people during three generations.
And while the great ironmasters, by freely availing themselves of his
inventions, have been adding estate to estate, the only estate secured
by Henry Cort was the little domain of six feet by two in which he lies
interred in Hampstead Churchyard.
[1] Life of Brunel, p. 60.
[2] SCRIVENOR, History of the Iron Trade, 169.
[3] Although the iron manufacture had gradually been increasing since
the middle of the century, it was as yet comparatively insignificant in
amount. Thus we find, from a statement by W. Wilkinson, dated Dec. 25,
1791, contained in the memorandum-book of Wm. Reynolds of
Coalbrookdale, that the produce in England and Scotland was then
estimated to be
Coke Furnaces. Charcoal Furnaces.
In England ......73 producing 67,548 tons 20 producing 8500 tons
In Scotland......12 " 12,480 " 2 " 1000 "
---- ------ -- ----
85 " 80,028 " 22 " 9500 "
At the same time the annual import of Oregrounds iron from Sweden
amounted to about 20,000 tons, and of bars and slabs from Russia about
50,000 tons, at an average cost of 35L. a ton!
[4] "It is material to observe", says Mr. Webster, "that Cort, in this
specification, speaks of the rollers, furnaces, and separate processes,
as well known. There is no claim to any of them separately; the claim
is to the reducing of the faggots of piled iron into bars, and the
welding of such bars by rollers instead of by forge-hammers."--Memoir
of Henry Cort, in Mechanic's Magazine, 15 July, 1859, by Thomas
Webster, M.A., F.R.S.
[5] Letter by Mr. Truran in Mechanic's Magazine.
[6] In the memorandum-book of Wm. Reynolds appears the following entry
on the subject:--
"Copy of a paper given to H. Cort, Esq.
"W. Reynolds saw H. C. in a trial which he made at Ketley, Dec. 17,
1784, produce from the same pig both cold short and tough iron by a
variation of the process used in reducing them from the state of
cast-iron to that of malleable or bar-iron; and in point of yield his
processes were quite equal to those at Pitchford, which did not exceed
the proportion of 31 cwt. to the ton of bars. The experiment was made
by stamping and potting the blooms or loops made in his furnace, which
then produced a cold short iron; but when they were immediately
shingled and drawn, the iron was of a black tough."
The Coalbrookdale ironmasters are said to have been deterred from
adopting the process because of what was considered an excessive waste
of the metal--about 25 per cent,--though, with greater experience, this
waste was very much diminished.
[7] Mr. Webster, in the 'Case of Henry Cort,' published in the
Mechanic's Magazine (2 Dec. 1859), states that "licences were taken at
royalties estimated to yield 27,500L. to the owners of the patents."
[8] In the 'Case of Henry Cort,' by Mr. Webster, above referred to
(Mechanic's Magazine, 2 Dec. 1859), it is stated that Adam Jellicoe
"committed suicide under the pressure of dread of exposure," but this
does not appear to be confirmed by the accounts in the newspapers of
the day. He died at his private dwelling-house, No. 14, Highbury
Place, Islingtonn, on the 30th August, 1789, after a fortnight's
illness.
[9] This is confirmed by the report of a House of Commons Committee on
the subject Mr. Davies Gilbert chairman, in which they say, "Your
committee have not been able to satisfy themselves that either of the
two inventions, one for subjecting cast-iron to an operation termed
puddling during its conversion to malleable iron, and the other for
passing it through fluted or grooved rollers, were so novel in their
principle or their application as fairly to entitle the petitioners
[Mr. Cort's survivors] to a parliamentary reward." It is, however,
stated by Mr. Mushet that the evidence was not fairly taken by the
committee--that they were overborne by the audacity of Mr. Samuel
Homfray, one of the great Welsh ironmasters, whose statements were
altogether at variance with known facts--and that it was under his
influence that Mr. Gilbert drew up the fallacious report of the
committee. The illustrious James Watt, writing to Dr. Black in 1784,
as to the iron produced by Cort's process, said, "Though I cannot
perfectly agree with you as to its goodness, yet there is much
ingenuity in the idea of forming the bars in that manner, which is the
only part of his process which has any pretensions to novelty.... Mr.
Cort has, as you observe, been most illiberally treated by the trade:
they are ignorant brutes; but he exposed himself to it by showing them
the process before it was perfect, and seeing his ignorance of the
common operations of making iron, laughed at and despised him; yet they
will contrive by some dirty evasion to use his process, or such parts
as they like, without acknowledging him in it. I shall be glad to be
able to be of any use to him. Watts fellow-feeling was naturally
excited in favour of the plundered inventor, he himself having all his
life been exposed to the attacks of like piratical assailants.
[10] Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry. See also
Report of Select Committee on the 10th Naval Report. May, 1805.
[11] Mr. Mushet says of the early manufacture of iron at Merthyr Tydvil
that "A modification of the charcoal refinery, a hollow fire, was
worked with coke as a substitute for charcoal, but the bar-iron
hammered from the produce was very inferior." The pit-coal cast-iron
was nevertheless found of a superior quality for castings, being more
fusible and more homogeneous than charcoal-iron. Hence it was well
adapted for cannon, which was for some time the principal article of
manufacture at the Welsh works.
[12] It may be worthy of note that the first locomotive run upon a
railroad was that constructed by Trevithick for Mr. Homfray in 1803,
which was employed to bring down metal from the furnaces to the Old
Forge. The engine was taken off the road because the tram-plates were
found too weak to bear its weight without breaking.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SCOTCH IRON MANUFACTURE--DR. ROEBUCK DAVID MUSHET.
"Were public benefactors to be allowed to pass away, like hewers of
wood and drawers of water, without commemoration, genius and enterprise
would be deprived of their most coveted distinction."--Sir Henry
Englefield.
The account given of Dr. Roebuck in a Cyclopedia of Biography, recently
published in Glasgow, runs as follows:--"Roebuck, John, a physician and
experimental chemist, born at Sheffield, 1718; died, after ruining
himself by his projects, 1794." Such is the short shrift which the man
receives who fails. Had Dr. Roebuck wholly succeeded in his projects,
he would probably have been esteemed as among the greatest of
Scotland's benefactors. Yet his life was not altogether a failure, as
we think will sufficiently appear from the following brief account of
his labours:--
At the beginning of last century, John Roebuck's father carried on the
manufacture of cutlery at Sheffield,[1] in the course of which he
realized a competency. He intended his son to follow his own business,
but the youth was irresistibly attracted to scientific pursuits, in
which his father liberally encouraged him; and he was placed first
under the care of Dr. Doddridge, at Northampton, and afterwards at the
University of Edinburgh, where he applied himself to the study of
medicine, and especially of chemistry, which was then attracting
considerable attention at the principal seats of learning in Scotland.
While residing at Edinburgh young Roebuck contracted many intimate
friendships with men who afterwards became eminent in literature, such
as Hume and Robertson the historians, and the circumstance is supposed
to have contributed not a little to his partiality in favour of
Scotland, and his afterwards selecting it as the field for his
industrial operations.
After graduating as a physician at Leyden, Roebuck returned to England,
and settled at Birmingham in the year 1745 for the purpose of
practising his profession. Birmingham was then a principal seat of the
metal manufacture, and its mechanics were reputed to be among the most
skilled in Britain. Dr. Roebuck's attention was early drawn to the
scarcity and dearness of the material in which the mechanics worked,
and he sought by experiment to devise some method of smelting iron
otherwise than by means of charcoal. He had a laboratory fitted up in
his house for the purpose of prosecuting his inquiries, and there he
spent every minute that he could spare from his professional labours.
It was thus that he invented the process of smelting iron by means of
pit-coal which he afterwards embodied in the patent hereafter to be
referred to. At the same time he invented new methods of refining gold
and silver, and of employing them in the arts, which proved of great
practical value to the Birmingham trades-men, who made extensive use of
them in their various processes of manufacture.
Dr. Roebuck's inquiries had an almost exclusively practical direction,
and in pursuing them his main object was to render them subservient to
the improvement of the industrial arts. Thus he sought to devise more
economical methods of producing the various chemicals used in the
Birmingham trade, such as ammonia, sublimate, and several of the acids;
and his success was such as to induce him to erect a large laboratory
for their manufacture, which was conducted with complete success by his
friend Mr. Garbett. Among his inventions of this character, was the
modern process of manufacturing vitriolic acid in leaden vessels in
large quantities, instead of in glass vessels in small quantities as
formerly practised. His success led him to consider the project of
establishing a manufactory for the purpose of producing oil of vitriol
on a large scale; and, having given up his practice as a physician, he
resolved, with his partner Mr. Garbett, to establish the proposed works
in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. He removed to Scotland with that
object, and began the manufacture of vitriol at Prestonpans in the year
1749. The enterprise proved eminently lucrative, and, encouraged by
his success, Roebuck proceeded to strike out new branches of
manufacture. He started a pottery for making white and brown ware,
which eventually became established, and the manufacture exists in the
same neighbourhood to this day.
The next enterprise in which he became engaged was one of still greater
importance, though it proved eminently unfortunate in its results as
concerned himself. While living at Prestonpans, he made the friendship
of Mr. William Cadell, of Cockenzie, a gentleman who had for some time
been earnestly intent on developing the industry of Scotland, then in a
very backward condition. Mr. Cadell had tried, without success, to
establish a manufactory of iron; and, though he had heretofore failed,
he hoped that with the aid of Dr. Roebuck he might yet succeed. The
Doctor listened to his suggestions with interest, and embraced the
proposed enterprise with zeal. He immediately proceeded to organize a
company, in which he was joined by a number of his friends and
relatives. His next step was to select a site for the intended works,
and make the necessary arrangements for beginning the manufacture of
iron. After carefully examining the country on both sides of the
Forth, he at length made choice of a site on the banks of the river
Carron, in Stirlingshire, where there was an abundant supply of wafer,
and an inexhaustible supply of iron, coal, and limestone in the
immediate neighbourhood, and there Dr. Roebuck planted the first
ironworks in Scotland.
In order to carry them on with the best chances of success, he brought
a large number of skilled workmen from England, who formed a nucleus of
industry at Carron, where their example and improved methods of working
served to train the native labourers in their art. At a subsequent
period, Mr. Cadell, of Carronpark, also brought a number of skilled
English nail-makers into Scotland, and settled them in the village of
Camelon, where, by teaching others, the business has become handed down
to the present day.
The first furnace was blown at Carron on the first day of January,
1760; and in the course of the same year the Carron Iron Works turned
out 1500 tons of iron, then the whole annual produce of Scotland.
Other furnaces were shortly after erected on improved plans, and the
production steadily increased. Dr. Roebuck was indefatigable in his
endeavours to improve the manufacture, and he was one of the first, as
we have said, to revive the use of pit-coal in refining the ore, as
appears from his patent of 1762. He there describes his new process as
follows:--"I melt pig or any kind of cast-iron in a hearth heated with
pit-coal by the blast of bellows, and work the metal until it is
reduced to nature, which I take out of the fire and separate to pieces;
then I take the metal thus reduced to nature and expose it to the
action of a hollow pit-coal fire, heated by the blast of bellows, until
it is reduced to a loop, which I draw out under a common forge hammer
into bar-iron." This method of manufacture was followed with success,
though for some time, as indeed to this day, the principal production
of the Carron Works was castings, for which the peculiar quality of the
Scotch iron admirably adapts it. The well-known Carronades,[2] or
"Smashers," as they were named, were cast in large numbers at the
Carron Works. To increase the power of his blowing apparatus, Dr.
Roebuck called to his aid the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, the engineer, who
contrived and erected for him at Carron the most perfect apparatus of
the kind then in existence. It may also be added, that out of the
Carron enterprise, in a great measure, sprang the Forth and Clyde
Canal, the first artificial navigation in Scotland. The Carron
Company, with a view to securing an improved communication with
Glasgow, themselves surveyed a line, which was only given up in
consequence of the determined opposition of the landowners; but the
project was again revived through their means, and was eventually
carried out after the designs of Smeaton and Brindley.
While the Carron foundry was pursuing a career of safe prosperity, Dr.
Roebuck's enterprise led him to embark in coal-mining, with the object
of securing an improved supply of fuel for the iron works. He became
the lessee of the Duke of Hamilton's extensive coal-mines at
Boroughstoness, as well as of the salt-pans which were connected with
them. The mansion of Kinneil went with the lease, and there Dr.
Roebuck and his family took up their abode. Kinneil House was formerly
a country seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, and is to this day a stately
old mansion, reminding one of a French chateau. Its situation is of
remarkable beauty, its windows overlooking the broad expanse of the
Firth of Forth, and commanding an extensive view of the country along
its northern shores. The place has become in a measure classical,
Kinneil House having been inhabited, since Dr. Roebuck's time, by
Dugald Stewart, who there wrote his Philosophical Essays.[3] When Dr.
Roebuck began to sink for coal at the new mines, he found it necessary
to erect pumping-machinery of the most powerful kind that could be
contrived, in order to keep the mines clear of water. For this purpose
the Newcomen engine, in its then state, was found insufficient; and
when Dr. Roebuck's friend, Professor Black, of Edinburgh, informed him
of a young man of his acquaintance, a mathematical instrument maker at
Glasgow, having invented a steam-engine calculated to work with
increased power, speed, and economy, compared with Newcomen's; Dr.
Roebuck was much interested, and shortly after entered into a
correspondence with James Watt, the mathematical instrument maker
aforesaid on the subject. The Doctor urged that Watt, who, up to that
time, had confined himself to models, should come over to Kinneil
House, and proceed to erect a working; engine in one of the
outbuildings. The English workmen whom he had brought; to the Carron
works would, he justly thought, give Watt a better chance of success
with his engine than if made by the clumsy whitesmiths and blacksmiths
of Glasgow, quite unaccustomed as they were to first-class work; and he
proposed himself to cast the cylinders at Carron previous to Watt's
intended visit to him at Kinneil.
Watt paid his promised visit in May, 1768, and Roebuck was by this time
so much interested in the invention, that the subject of his becoming a
partner with Watt, with the object of introducing the engine into
general use, was seriously discussed. Watt had been labouring at his
invention for several years, contending with many difficulties, but
especially with the main difficulty of limited means. He had borrowed
considerable sums of money from Dr. Black to enable him to prosecute
his experiments, and he felt the debt to hang like a millstone round
his neck. Watt was a sickly, fragile man, and a constant sufferer from
violent headaches; besides he was by nature timid, desponding,
painfully anxious, and easily cast down by failure. Indeed, he was
more than once on the point of abandoning his invention in despair. On
the other hand, Dr. Roebuck was accustomed to great enterprises, a bold
and undaunted man, and disregardful of expense where he saw before him
a reasonable prospect of success. His reputation as a practical
chemist and philosopher, and his success as the founder of the
Prestonpans Chemical Works and of the Carron Iron Works, justified the
friends of Watt in thinking that he was of all men the best calculated
to help him at this juncture, and hence they sought to bring about a
more intimate connection between the two. The result was that Dr.
Roebuck eventually became a partner to the extent of two-thirds of the
invention, took upon him the debt owing by Watt to Dr. Black amounting
to about 1200L., and undertook to find the requisite money to protect
the invention by means of a patent. The necessary steps were taken
accordingly and the patent right was secured by the beginning of 1769,
though the perfecting of his model cost Watt much further anxiety and
study.
It was necessary for Watt occasionally to reside with Dr. Roebuck at
Kinneil House while erecting his first engine there. It had been
originally intended to erect it in the neighbouring town of
Boroughstoness, but as there might be prying eyes there, and Watt
wished to do his work in privacy, determined "not to puff," he at
length fixed upon an outhouse still standing, close behind the mansion,
by the burnside in the glen, where there was abundance of water and
secure privacy. Watt's extreme diffidence was often the subject of
remark at Dr. Roebuck's fireside. To the Doctor his anxiety seemed
quite painful, and he was very much disposed to despond under
apparently trivial difficulties. Roebuck's hopeful nature was his
mainstay throughout. Watt himself was ready enough to admit this; for,
writing to his friend Dr. Small, he once said, "I have met with many
disappointments; and I must have sunk under the burthen of them if I
had not been supported by the friendship of Dr. Roebuck."
But more serious troubles were rapidly accumulating upon Dr. Roebuck
himself; and it was he, and not Watt, that sank under the burthen. The
progress of Watt's engine was but slow, and long before it could be
applied to the pumping of Roebuck's mines, the difficulties of the
undertaking on which he had entered overwhelmed him. The opening out
of the principal coal involved a very heavy outlay, extending over many
years, during which he sank not only his own but his wife's fortune,
and--what distressed him most of all--large sums borrowed from his
relatives and friends, which he was unable to repay. The consequence
was, that he was eventually under the necessity of withdrawing his
capital from the refining works at Birmingham, and the vitriol works at
Prestonpans. At the same time, he transferred to Mr. Boulton of Soho
his entire interest in Watt's steam-engine, the value of which, by the
way, was thought so small that it was not even included among the
assets; Roebuck's creditors not estimating it as worth one farthing.
Watt sincerely deplored his partner's misfortunes, but could not help
him. "He has been a most sincere and generous friend," said Watt, "and
is a truly worthy man." And again, "My heart bleeds for him, but I can
do nothing to help him: I have stuck by him till I have much hurt
myself; I can do so no longer; my family calls for my care to provide
for them." The later years of Dr. Roebuck's life were spent in
comparative obscurity; and he died in 1794, in his 76th year.
He lived to witness the success of the steam-engine, the opening up of
the Boroughstoness coal,[4] and the rapid extension of the Scotch iron
trade, though he shared in the prosperity of neither of those branches
of industry. He had been working ahead of his age, and he suffered for
it. He fell in the breach at the critical moment, and more fortunate
men marched over his body into the fortress which his enterprise and
valour had mainly contributed to win. Before his great undertaking of
the Carron Works, Scotland was entirely dependent upon other countries
for its supply of iron. In 1760, the first year of its operations, the
whole produce was 1500 tons. In course of time other iron works were
erected, at Clyde Cleugh, Muirkirk, and Devon--the managers and
overseers of which, as well as the workmen, had mostly received their
training and experience at Carron--until at length the iron trade of
Scotland has assumed such a magnitude that its manufacturers are
enabled to export to England and other countries upwards of 500,000
tons a-year. How different this state of things from the time when
raids were made across the Border for the purpose of obtaining a store
of iron plunder to be carried back into Scotland!
The extraordinary expansion of the Scotch iron trade of late years has
been mainly due to the discovery by David Mushet of the Black Band
ironstone in 1801, and the invention of the Hot Blast by James Beaumont
Neilson in 1828. David Mushet was born at Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, in
1772.[5] Like other members of his family he was brought up to
metal-founding. At the age of nineteen he joined the staff of the
Clyde Iron Works, near Glasgow, at a time when the Company had only two
blast-furnaces at work. The office of accountant, which he held,
precluded him from taking any part in the manufacturing operations of
the concern. But being of a speculative and ingenious turn of mind,
the remarkable conversions which iron underwent in the process of
manufacture very shortly began to occupy his attention. The subject
was much discussed by the young men about the works, and they
frequently had occasion to refer to Foureroy's well-known book for the
purpose of determining various questions of difference which arose
among them in the course of their inquiries. The book was, however, in
many respects indecisive and unsatisfactory; and, in 1793, when a
reduction took place in the Company's staff, and David Mushet was left
nearly the sole occupant of the office, he determined to study the
subject for himself experimentally, and in the first place to acquire a
thorough knowledge of assaying, as the true key to the whole art of
iron-making.
He first set up his crucible upon the bridge of the reverberatory
furnace used for melting pig-iron, and filled it with a mixture
carefully compounded according to the formula of the books; but,
notwithstanding the shelter of a brick, placed before it to break the
action of the flame, the crucible generally split in two, and not
unfrequently melted and disappeared altogether. To obtain better
results if possible, he next had recourse to the ordinary smith's fire,
carrying on his experiments in the evenings after office-hours. He set
his crucible upon the fire on a piece of fire brick, opposite the
nozzle of the bellows; covering the whole with coke, and then exciting
the flame by blowing. This mode of operating produced somewhat better
results, but still neither the iron nor the cinder obtained resembled
the pig or scoria of the blast-furnace, which it was his ambition to
imitate. From the irregularity of the results, and the frequent
failure of the crucibles, he came to the conclusion that either his
furnace, or his mode of fluxing, was in fault, and he looked about him
for a more convenient means of pursuing his experiments. A small
square furnace had been erected in the works for the purpose of heating
the rivets used for the repair of steam-engine boilers; the furnace had
for its chimney a cast-iron pipe six or seven inches in diameter and
nine feet long. After a few trials with it, he raised the heat to such
an extent that the lower end of the pipe was melted off, without
producing any very satisfactory results on the experimental crucible,
and his operations were again brought to a standstill. A chimney of
brick having been substituted for the cast-iron pipe, he was, however,
enabled to proceed with his trials.
He continued to pursue his experiments in assaying for about two years,
during which he had been working entirely after the methods described
in books; but, feeling the results still unsatisfactory, he determined
to borrow no more from the books, but to work out a system of his own,
which should ensure results similar to those produced at the
blast-furnace. This he eventually succeeded in effecting by numerous
experiments performed in the night; as his time was fully occupied by
his office-duties during the day. At length these patient experiments
bore their due fruits. David Mushet became the most skilled assayer at
the works; and when a difficulty occurred in smelting a quantity of new
ironstone which had been contracted for, the manager himself resorted
to the bookkeeper for advice and information; and the skill and
experience which he had gathered during his nightly labours, enabled
him readily and satisfactorily to solve the difficulty and suggest a
suitable remedy. His reward for this achievement was the permission,
which was immediately granted him by the manager, to make use of his
own assay-furnace, in which he thenceforward continued his
investigations, at the same time that he instructed the manager's son
in the art of assaying. This additional experience proved of great
benefit to him; and he continued to prosecute his inquiries with much
zeal, sometimes devoting entire nights to experiments in assaying,
roasting and cementing iron-ores and ironstone, decarbonating cast-iron
for steel and bar-iron, and various like operations. His general
practice, however, at that time was, to retire between two and three
o'clock in the morning, leaving directions with the engine-man to call
him at half-past five, so as to be present in the office at six. But
these praiseworthy experiments were brought to a sudden end, as thus
described by himself:--
"In the midst of my career of investigation," says he,[6] "and without
a cause being assigned, I was stopped short. My furnaces, at the order
of the manager, were pulled in pieces, and an edict was passed that
they should never be erected again. Thus terminated my researches at
the Clyde Iron Works. It happened at a time when I was interested--and
I had been two years previously occupied--in an attempt to convert
cast-iron into steel, without fusion, by a process of cementation,
which had for its object the dispersion or absorption of the
superfluous carbon contained in the cast-iron,--an object which at that
time appeared to me of so great importance, that, with the consent of a
friend, I erected an assay and cementing Furnace at the distance of
about two miles from the Clyde Works. Thither I repaired at night, and
sometimes at the breakfast and dinner hours during the day. This plan
of operation was persevered in for the whole of one summer, but was
found too uncertain and laborious to be continued. At the latter end
of the year 1798 I left my chambers, and removed from the Clyde Works
to the distance of about a mile, where I constructed several furnaces
for assaying and cementing, capable of exciting a greater temperature
than any to which I before had access; and thus for nearly two years I
continued to carry on my investigations connected with iron and the
alloys of the metals.
"Though operating in a retired manner, and holding little communication
with others, my views and opinions upon the RATIONALE of iron-making
spread over the establishment. I was considered forward in affecting
to see and explain matters in a different way from others who were much
my seniors, and who were content to be satisfied with old methods of
explanation, or with no explanation at all..... Notwithstanding these
early reproaches, I have lived to see the nomenclature of my youth
furnish a vocabulary of terms in the art of iron-making, which is used
by many of the ironmasters of the present day with freedom and effect,
in communicating with each other on the subject of their respective
manufactures. Prejudices seldom outlive the generation to which they
belong, when opposed by a more rational system of explanation. In this
respect, Time (as my Lord Bacon says) is the greatest of all innovators.
"In a similar manner, Time operated in my favour in respect to the
Black Band Ironstone.[7] The discovery of this was made in 1801, when
I was engaged in erecting for myself and partners the Calder Iron
Works. Great prejudice was excited against me by the ironmasters and
others of that day in presuming to class the WILD COALS of the country
(as Black Band was called) with ironstone fit and proper for the blast
furnace. Yet that discovery has elevated Scotland to a considerable
rank among the iron-making nations of Europe, with resources still in
store that may be considered inexhaustible. But such are the
consolatory effects of Time, that the discoverer of 1801 is no longer
considered the intrusive visionary of the laboratory, but the
acknowledged benefactor of his country at large, and particularly of an
extensive class of coal and mine proprietors and iron masters, who have
derived, and are still deriving, great wealth from this important
discovery; and who, in the spirit of grateful acknowledgment, have
pronounced it worthy of a crown of gold, or a monumental record on the
spot where the discovery was first made.
"At an advanced period of life, such considerations are soothing and
satisfactory. Many under similar circumstances have not, in their own
lifetime, had that measure of justice awarded to them by their country
to which they were equally entitled. I accept it, however, as a boon
justly due to me, and as an equivalent in some degree for that
laborious course of investigation which I had prescribed for myself,
and which, in early life, was carried on under circumstances of
personal exposure and inconvenience, which nothing but a frame of iron
could have supported. They atone also, in part, for that
disappointment sustained in early life by the speculative habits of one
partner, and the constitutional nervousness of another, which
eventually occasioned my separation from the Calder Iron Works, and
lost me the possession of extensive tracts of Black Band iron-stone,
which I had secured while the value of the discovery was known only to
myself."
Mr. Mushet published the results of his laborious investigations in a
series of papers in the Philosophical Magazine,--afterwards reprinted
in a collected form in 1840 under the title of "Papers on Iron and
Steel." These papers are among the most valuable original
contributions to the literature of the iron-manufacture that have yet
been given to the world. They contain the germs of many inventions and
discoveries in iron and steel, some of which were perfected by Mr.
Mushet himself, while others were adopted and worked out by different
experimenters. In 1798 some of the leading French chemists were
endeavouring to prove by experiment that steel could be made by contact
of the diamond with bar-iron in the crucible, the carbon of the diamond
being liberated and entering into combination with the iron, forming
steel. In the animated controversy which occurred on the subject, Mr.
Mushet's name was brought into considerable notice; one of the subjects
of his published experiments having been the conversion of bar-iron
into steel in the crucible by contact with regulated proportions of
charcoal. The experiments which he made in connection with this
controversy, though in themselves unproductive of results, led to the
important discovery by Mr. Mushet of the certain fusibility of
malleable iron at a suitable temperature.
Among the other important results of Mr. Mushet's lifelong labours, the
following may be summarily mentioned: The preparation of steel from
bar-iron by a direct process, combining the iron with carbon; the
discovery of the beneficial effects of oxide of manganese on iron and
steel; the use of oxides of iron in the puddling-furnace in various
modes of appliance; the production of pig-iron from the blast-furnace,
suitable for puddling, without the intervention of the refinery; and
the application of the hot blast to anthracite coal in iron-smelting.
For the process of combining iron with carbon for the production of
steel, Mr. Mushet took out a patent in November, 1800; and many years
after, when he had discovered the beneficial effects of oxide of
manganese on steel, Mr. Josiah Heath founded upon it his celebrated
patent for the making of cast-steel, which had the effect of raising
the annual production of that metal in Sheffield from 3000 to 100,000
tons. His application of the hot blast to anthracite coal, after a
process invented by him and adopted by the Messrs. Hill of the Plymouth
Iron Works, South Wales, had the effect of producing savings equal to
about 20,000L. a year at those works; and yet, strange to say, Mr.
Mushet himself never received any consideration for his invention.
The discovery of Titanium by Mr. Mushet in the hearth of a
blast-furnace in 1794 would now be regarded as a mere isolated fact,
inasmuch as Titanium was not placed in the list of recognised metals
until Dr. Wollaston, many years later, ascertained its qualities. But
in connection with the fact, it may be mentioned that Mr. Mushet's
youngest son, Robert, reasoning on the peculiar circumstances of the
discovery in question, of which ample record is left, has founded upon
it his Titanium process, which is expected by him eventually to
supersede all other methods of manufacturing steel, and to reduce very
materially the cost of its production.
While he lived, Mr. Mushet was a leading authority on all matters
connected with Iron and Steel, and he contributed largely to the
scientific works of his time. Besides his papers in the Philosophical
Journal, he wrote the article "Iron" for Napiers Supplement to the
Encyclopaedia Britannica; and the articles "Blast Furnace" and "Blowing
Machine" for Rees's Cyclopaedia. The two latter articles had a
considerable influence on the opposition to the intended tax upon iron
in 1807, and were frequently referred to in the discussions on the
subject in Parliament. Mr. Mushet died in 1847.
[1] Dr. Roebuck's grandson, John Arthur Roebuck, by a singular
coincidence, at present represents Sheffield in the British Parliament.
[2] The carronade was invented by General Robert Melville [Mr. Nasmyth
says it was by Miller of Dalswinton], who proposed it for discharging
68 lb, shot with low charges of powder, in order to produce the
increased splintering or SMASHING effects which were known to result
from such practice. The first piece of the kind was cast at the Carron
Foundry, in 1779, and General Melville's family have now in their
possession a small model of this gun, with the inscription:--"Gift of
the Carron Company to Lieutenant-general Melville, inventor of the
smashers and lesser carronades, for solid, ship, shell, and carcass
shot, &c. First used against French ships in 1779."
[3] Wilkie the painter once paid him a visit there while in Scotland
studying the subject of his "Penny Wedding;" and Dugald Stewart found
for him the old farm-house with the cradle-chimney, which he introduced
in that picture. But Kinneil House has had its imaginary inhabitants
as well as its real ones, the ghost of a Lady Lilburn, once an occupant
of the place, still "haunting" some of the unoccupied chambers. Dugald
Stewart told Wilkie one night, as he was going to bed, of the unearthly
wailings which he himself had heard proceeding from the ancient
apartments; but to him at least they had been explained by the door
opening out upon the roof being blown in on gusty nights, when a
jarring and creaking noise was heard all over the house. One advantage
derived from the house being "haunted" was, that the garden was never
broken into, and the winter apples and stores were at all times kept
safe from depredation in the apartments of the Lady Lilburn.
[4] Dr. Roebuck had been on the brink of great good fortune, but he did
not know it. Mr. Ralph Moore, in his "Papers on the Blackband
Ironstones" (Glasgow, 1861), observes:--"Strange to say, he was leaving
behind him, almost as the roof of one of the seams of coal which he
worked, a valuable blackband ironstone, upon which Kinneil Iron Works
are now founded. The coal-field continued to be worked until the
accidental discovery of the blackband about 1845. The old coal-pits
are now used for working the ironstone."
[5] The Mushets are an old Kincardine family; but they were almost
extinguished by the plague in the reign of Charles the Second. Their
numbers were then reduced to two; one of whom remained at Kincardine,
and the other, a clergyman, the Rev. George Mushet, accompanied
Montrose as chaplain. He is buried in Kincardine churchyard.
[6] Papers on Iron and Steel. By David Mushet. London, 1840.
[7] This valuable description of iron ore was discovered by Mr. Mushet,
as he afterwards informs us (Papers on Iron and Steel, 121), in the
year 1801, when crossing the river Calder, in the parish of Old
Monkland. Having subjected a specimen which he found in the river-bed
to the test of his crucible, he satisfied himself as to its properties,
and proceeded to ascertain its geological position and relations. He
shortly found that it belonged to the upper part of the coal-formation,
and hence he designated it carboniferous ironstone. He prosecuted his
researches, and found various rich beds of the mineral distributed
throughout the western counties of Scotland. On analysis, it was found
to contain a little over 50 per cent. of protoxide of iron. The coaly
matter it contained was not its least valuable ingredient; for by the
aid of the hot blast it was afterwards found practicable to smelt it
almost without any addition of coal. Seams of black band have since
been discovered and successfully worked in Edinburghshire,
Staffordshire, and North Wales.
CHAPTER IX.
INVENTION OF THE HOT BLAST--JAMES BEAUMONT NEILSON.
"Whilst the exploits of the conqueror and the intrigues of the
demagogue are faithfully preserved through a succession of ages, the
persevering and unobtrusive efforts of genius, developing the best
blessings of the Deity to man, are often consigned to oblivion."--David
Mushet.
The extraordinary value of the Black Band ironstone was not at first
duly recognised, perhaps not even by Mr. Mushet himself. For several
years after its discovery by him, its use was confined to the Calder
Iron Works, where it was employed in mixture with other ironstones of
the argillaceous class. It was afterwards partially used at the Clyde
Iron Works, but nowhere else, a strong feeling of prejudice being
entertained against it on the part of the iron trade generally. It was
not until the year 1825 that the Monkland Company used it alone,
without any other mixture than the necessary quantity of limestone for
a flux. "The success of this Company," says Mr. Mushet, "soon gave
rise to the Gartsherrie and Dundyvan furnaces, in the midst of which
progress came the use of raw pit-coal and the Hot Blast--the latter one
of the greatest discoveries in metallurgy of the present age, and,
above every other process, admirably adapted for smelting the Blackband
ironstone." From the introduction of this process the extraordinary
development of the iron-manufacture of Scotland may be said to date;
and we accordingly propose to devote the present chapter to an account
of its meritorious inventor.
James Beaumont Neilson was born at Shettleston, a roadside village
about three miles eastward of Glasgow, on the 22nd of June, 1792. His
parents belonged to the working class. His father's earnings during
many laborious years of his life did not exceed sixteen shillings a
week. He had been bred to the trade of a mill-wright, and was for some
time in the employment of Dr. Roebuck as an engine-wright at his
colliery near Boroughstoness. He was next employed in a like capacity
by Mr. Beaumont, the mineral-manager of the collieries of Mrs.
Cunningham of Lainshaw, near Irvine in Ayrshire; after which he was
appointed engine-wright at Ayr, and subsequently at the Govan Coal
Works near Glasgow, where he remained until his death. It was while
working at the Irvine Works that he first became acquainted with his
future wife, Marion Smith, the daughter of a Renfrewshire bleacher, a
woman remarkable through life for her clever, managing, and industrious
habits. She had the charge of Mrs. Cunningham's children for some time
after the marriage of that lady to Mr. Beaumont, and it was in
compliment to her former mistress and her husband that she named her
youngest son James Beaumont after the latter.
The boy's education was confined to the common elements of reading,
writing, and arithmetic, which he partly acquired at the parish school
of Strathbungo near Glasgow, and partly at the Chapel School, as it was
called, in the Gorbals at Glasgow. He had finally left school before
he was fourteen. Some time before he left, he had been partially set
to work, and earned four shillings a week by employing a part of each
day in driving a small condensing engine which his father had put up in
a neighbouring quarry. After leaving school, he was employed for two
years as a gig boy on one of the winding engines at the Govan colliery.
His parents now considered him of fit age to be apprenticed to some
special trade, and as Beaumont had much of his father's tastes for
mechanical pursuits, it was determined to put him apprentice to a
working engineer. His elder brother John was then acting as engineman
at Oakbank near Glasgow, and Beaumont was apprenticed under him to
learn the trade. John was a person of a studious and serious turn of
mind, and had been strongly attracted to follow the example of the
brothers Haldane, who were then exciting great interest by their
preaching throughout the North; but his father set his face against his
son's "preaching at the back o' dikes," as he called it; and so John
quietly settled down to his work. The engine which the two brothers
managed was a very small one, and the master and apprentice served for
engineman and fireman. Here the youth worked for three years,
employing his leisure hours in the evenings in remedying the defects of
his early education, and endeavouring to acquire a knowledge of English
grammar, drawing, and mathematics.
On the expiry of his apprenticeship, Beaumont continued for a time to
work under his brother as journeyman at a guinea a week; after which,
in 1814, he entered the employment of William Taylor, coal-master at
Irvine, and he was appointed engine-wright of the colliery at a salary
of from 70L. to 80L. a year. One of the improvements which he
introduced in the working of the colliery, while he held that office,
was the laying down of an edge railway of cast-iron, in lengths of
three feet, from the pit to the harbour of Irvine, a distance of three
miles. At the age of 23 he married his first wife, Barbara
Montgomerie, an Irvine lass, with a "tocher" of 250L. This little
provision was all the more serviceable to him, as his master, Taylor,
becoming unfortunate in business, he was suddenly thrown out of
employment, and the little fortune enabled the newly-married pair to
hold their heads above water till better days came round. They took a
humble tenement, consisting of a room and a kitchen, in the Cowcaddens,
Glasgow, where their first child was born.
About this time a gas-work, the first in Glasgow, was projected, and
the company having been formed, the directors advertised for a
superintendent and foreman, to whom they offered a "liberal salary."
Though Beaumont had never seen gaslight before, except at the
illumination of his father's colliery office after the Peace of Amiens,
which was accomplished in a very simple and original manner, without
either condenser, purifier, or gas-holder, and though he knew nothing
of the art of gas-making, he had the courage to apply for the
situation. He was one of twenty candidates, and the fortunate one; and
in August, 1817, we find him appointed foreman of the Glasgow Gasworks,
for five years, at the salary of 90L. a year. Before the expiry of his
term he was reappointed for six years more, at the advanced salary of
200L., with the status of manager and engineer of the works. His
salary was gradually increased to 400L. a year, with a free
dwelling-house, until 1847, when, after a faithful service of thirty
years, during which he had largely extended the central works, and
erected branch works in Tradeston and Partick, he finally resigned the
management.
The situation of manager of the Glasgow Gas-works was in many respects
well suited for the development of Mr. Neilson's peculiar abilities.
In the first place it afforded him facilities for obtaining theoretical
as well as practical knowledge in Chemical Science, of which he was a
diligent student at the Andersonian University, as well as of Natural
Philosophy and Mathematics in their higher branches. In the next place
it gave free scope for his ingenuity in introducing improvements in the
manufacture of gas, then in its infancy. He was the first to employ
clay retorts; and he introduced sulphate of iron as a self-acting
purifier, passing the gas through beds of charcoal to remove its oily
and tarry elements. The swallow-tail or union jet was also his
invention, and it has since come into general use.
While managing the Gas-works, one of Mr. Neilson's labours of love was
the establishment and direction by him of a Workmen's Institution for
mutual improvement. Having been a workman himself, and experienced the
disadvantages of an imperfect education in early life, as well as the
benefits arising from improved culture in later years, he desired to
impart some of these advantages to the workmen in his employment, who
consisted chiefly of persons from remote parts of the Highlands or from
Ireland. Most of them could not even read, and his principal
difficulty consisted in persuading them that it was of any use to
learn. For some time they resisted his persuasions to form a Workmen's
Institution, with a view to the establishment of a library, classes,
and lectures, urging as a sufficient plea for not joining it, that they
could not read, and that books would be of no use to them. At last Mr.
Neilson succeeded, though with considerable difficulty, in inducing
fourteen of the workmen to adopt his plan. Each member was to
contribute a small sum monthly, to be laid out in books, the Gas
Company providing the members with a comfortable room in which they
might meet to read and converse in the evenings instead of going to the
alehouse. The members were afterwards allowed to take the books home
to read, and the room was used for the purpose of conversation on the
subjects of the books read by them, and occasionally for lectures
delivered by the members themselves on geography, arithmetic,
chemistry, and mechanics. Their numbers increased so that the room in
which they met became insufficient for their accommodation, when the
Gas Company provided them with a new and larger place of meeting,
together with a laboratory and workshop. In the former they studied
practical chemistry, and in the latter they studied practical
mechanics, making for themselves an air pump and an electrifying
machine, as well as preparing the various models used in the course of
the lectures. The effects on the workmen were eminently beneficial,
and the institution came to be cited as among the most valuable of its
kind in the kingdom.[1]
Mr. Neilson throughout watched carefully over its working, and exerted
himself in all ways to promote its usefulness, in which he had the
zealous co-operation of the leading workmen themselves, and the
gratitude of all. On the opening of the new and enlarged rooms in
1825, we find him delivering an admirable address, which was thought
worthy of republication, together with the reply of George Sutherland,
one of the workmen, in which Mr. Neilson's exertions as its founder and
chief supporter were gratefully and forcibly expressed.[2]
It was during the period of his connection with the Glasgow Gas-works
that Mr. Neilson directed his attention to the smelting of iron. His
views in regard to the subject were at first somewhat crude, as appears
from a paper read by him before the Glasgow Philosophical Society early
in 1825. It appears that in the course of the preceding year his
attention had been called to the subject by an iron-maker, who asked
him if he thought it possible to purify the air blown into the blast
furnaces, in like manner as carburetted hydrogen gas was purified. The
ironmaster supposed that it was the presence of sulphur in the air that
caused blast-furnaces to work irregularly, and to make bad iron in the
summer months. Mr. Neilson was of opinion that this was not the true
cause, and he was rather disposed to think it attributable to the want
of a due proportion of oxygen in summer, when the air was more
rarefied, besides containing more aqueous vapour than in winter. He
therefore thought the true remedy was in some way or other to throw in
a greater proportion of oxygen; and he suggested that, in order to dry
the air, it should be passed, on its way to the furnace, through two
long tunnels containing calcined lime. But further inquiry served to
correct his views, and eventually led him to the true theory of
blasting.
Shortly after, his attention was directed by Mr. James Ewing to a
defect in one of the Muirkirk blast-furnaces, situated about half a
mile distant from the blowing-engine, which was found not to work so
well as others which were situated close to it. The circumstances of
the case led Mr. Neilson to form the opinion that, as air increases in
volume according to temperature, if he were to heat it by passing it
through a red-hot vessel, its volume would be increased, according to
the well-known law, and the blast might thus be enabled to do more duty
in the distant furnace. He proceeded to make a series of experiments
at the Gas-works, trying the effect of heated air on the illuminating
power of gas, by bringing up a stream of it in a tube so as to surround
the gas-burner. He found that by this means the combustion of the gas
was rendered more intense, and its illuminating power greatly
increased. He proceeded to try a similar experiment on a common
smith's fire, by blowing the fire with heated air, and the effect was
the same; the fire was much more brilliant, and accompanied by an
unusually intense degree of heat.
Having obtained such marked results by these small experiments, it
naturally occurred to him that a similar increase in intensity of
combustion and temperature would attend the application of the process
to the blast-furnace on a large scale; but being only a gas-maker, he
had the greatest difficulty in persuading any ironmaster to permit him
to make the necessary experiment's with blast-furnaces actually at
work. Besides, his theory was altogether at variance with the
established practice, which was to supply air as cold as possible, the
prevailing idea being that the coldness of the air in winter was the
cause of the best iron being then produced. Acting on these views, the
efforts of the ironmasters had always been directed to the cooling of
the blast, and various expedients were devised for the purpose. Thus
the regulator was painted white, as being the coolest colour; the air
was passed over cold water, and in some cases the air pipes were even
surrounded by ice, all with the object of keeping the blast cold.
When, therefore, Mr. Neilson proposed entirely to reverse the process,
and to employ hot instead of cold blast, the incredulity of the
ironmasters may well be imagined. What! Neilson, a mere maker of gas,
undertake to instruct practical men in the manufacture of iron! And to
suppose that heated air can be used for the purpose! It was
presumption in the extreme, or at best the mere visionary idea of a
person altogether unacquainted with the subject!
At length, however, Mr. Neilson succeeded in inducing Mr. Charles
Macintosh of Crossbasket, and Mr. Colin Dunlop of the Clyde Iron Works,
to allow him to make a trial of the hot air process. In the first
imperfect attempts the air was heated to little more than 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, yet the results were satisfactory, and the scoriae from the
furnace evidently contained less iron. He was therefore desirous of
trying his plan upon a more extensive scale, with the object, if
possible, of thoroughly establishing the soundness of his principle.
In this he was a good deal hampered even by those ironmasters who were
his friends, and had promised him the requisite opportunities for
making a fair trial of the new process. They strongly objected to his
making the necessary alterations in the furnaces, and he seemed to be
as far from a satisfactory experiment as ever. In one instance, where
he had so far succeeded as to be allowed to heat the blast-main, he
asked permission to introduce deflecting plates in the main or to put a
bend in the pipe, so as to bring the blast more closely against the
heated sides of the pipe, and also increase the area of heating
surface, in order to raise the temperature to a higher point; but this
was refused, and it was said that if even a bend were put in the pipe
the furnace would stop working. These prejudices proved a serious
difficulty in the way of our inventor, and several more years passed
before he was allowed to put a bend in the blast-main. After many
years of perseverance, he was, however, at length enabled to work out
his plan into a definite shape at the Clyde Iron Works, and its
practical value was at once admitted. At the meeting of the Mechanical
Engineers' Society held in May, 1859, Mr. Neilson explained that his
invention consisted solely in the principle of heating the blast
between the engine and the furnace, and was not associated with any
particular construction of the intermediate heating apparatus. This,
he said, was the cause of its success; and in some respects it
resembled the invention of his countryman, James Watt, who, in
connection with the steam-engine, invented the plan of condensing the
steam in a separate vessel, and was successful in maintaining his
invention by not limiting it to any particular construction of the
condenser. On the same occasion he took the opportunity of
acknowledging the firmness with which the English ironmasters had stood
by him when attempts were made to deprive him of the benefits of his
invention; and to them he acknowledged he was mainly indebted for the
successful issue of the severe contests he had to undergo. For there
were, of course, certain of the ironmasters, both English and Scotch,
supporters of the cause of free trade in others' inventions, who sought
to resist the patent, after it had come into general use, and had been
recognised as one of the most valuable improvements of modern times.[3]
The patent was secured in 1828 for a term of fourteen years; but, as
Mr. Neilson did not himself possess the requisite capital to enable him
to perfect the invention, or to defend it if attacked, he found it
necessary to invite other gentlemen, able to support him in these
respects, to share its profits; retaining for himself only three-tenths
of the whole. His partners were Mr. Charles Macintosh, Mr. Colin
Dunlop, and Mr. John Wilson of Dundyvan. The charge made by them was
only a shilling a ton for all iron produced by the new process; this
low rate being fixed in order to ensure the introduction of the patent
into general use, as well as to reduce to a minimum the temptations of
the ironmasters to infringe it.
The first trials of the process were made at the blast-furnaces of
Clyde and Calder; from whence the use of the hot blast gradually
extended to the other iron-mining districts. In the course of a few
years every furnace in Scotland, with one exception (that at Carron),
had adopted the improvement; while it was also employed in half the
furnaces of England and Wales, and in many of the furnaces on the
Continent and in America. In course of time, and with increasing
experience, various improvements were introduced in the process, more
particularly in the shape of the air-heating vessels; the last form
adopted being that of a congeries of tubes, similar to the tubular
arrangement in the boiler of the locomotive, by which the greatest
extent of heating surface was provided for the thorough heating of the
air. By these modifications the temperature of the air introduced into
the furnace has been raised from 240 degrees to 600 degrees, or the
temperature of melting lead. To protect the nozzle of the air-pipe as
it entered the furnace against the action of the intense heat to which
it was subjected, a spiral pipe for a stream of cold water constantly
to play in has been introduced within the sides of the iron tuyere
through which the nozzle passes; by which means the tuyere is kept
comparatively cool, while the nozzle of the air-pipe is effectually
protected.[4]
This valuable invention did not escape the usual fate of successful
patents, and it was on several occasions the subject of protracted
litigation. The first action occurred in 1832; but the objectors
shortly gave in, and renewed their licence. In 1839, when the process
had become generally adopted throughout Scotland, and, indeed, was
found absolutely essential for smelting the peculiar ores of that
country--more especially Mushet's Black Band--a powerful combination
was formed amongst the ironmasters to resist the patent. The
litigation which ensued extended over five years, during which period
some twenty actions were proceeding in Scotland, and several in
England. Three juries sat upon the subject at different times, and on
three occasions appeals were carried to the House of Lords. One jury
trial occupied ten days, during which a hundred and two witnesses were
examined; the law costs on both sides amounting, it is supposed, to at
least 40,000L. The result was, that the novelty and merit of Mr.
Neilson's invention were finally established, and he was secured in the
enjoyment of the patent right.
We are gratified to add, that, though Mr. Neilson had to part with
two-thirds of the profits of the invention to secure the capital and
influence necessary to bring it into general use, he realized
sufficient to enable him to enjoy the evening of his life in peace and
comfort. He retired from active business to an estate which he
purchased in 1851 in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, where he is found
ready to lend a hand in every good work--whether in agricultural
improvement, railway extension, or the moral and social good of those
about him. Mindful of the success of his Workmen's Institution at the
Glasgow Gas-Works, he has, almost at his own door, erected a similar
Institution for the use of the parish in which his property is
situated, the beneficial effects of which have been very marked in the
district. We may add that Mr. Neilson's merits have been recognised by
many eminent bodies--by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the
Chemical Society, and others--the last honour conferred on him being
his election as a Member of the Royal Society in 1846.
The invention of the hot blast, in conjunction with the discovery of
the Black Band ironstone, has had an extra ordinary effect upon the
development of the iron-manufacture of Scotland. The coals of that
country are generally unfit for coking, and lose as much as 55 per
cent. in the process. But by using the hot blast, the coal could be
sent to the blast-furnace in its raw state, by which a large saving of
fuel was effected.[5] Even coals of an inferior quality were by its
means made available for the manufacture of iron. But one of the
peculiar qualities of the Black Band ironstone is that in many cases it
contains sufficient coaly matter for purposes of calcination, without
any admixture of coal whatever. Before its discovery, all the iron
manufactured in Scotland was made from clay-band; but the use of the
latter has in a great measure been discontinued wherever a sufficient
supply of Black Band can be obtained. And it is found to exist very
extensively in most of the midland Scotch counties,--the coal and iron
measures stretching in a broad belt from the Firth of Forth to the
Irish Channel at the Firth of Clyde. At the time when the hot blast
was invented, the fortunes of many of the older works were at a low
ebb, and several of them had been discontinued; but they were speedily
brought to life again wherever Black Band could be found. In 1829, the
year after Neilson's patent was taken out, the total make of Scotland
was 29,000 tons. As fresh discoveries of the mineral were made, in
Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, new works were erected, until, in 1845, we
find the production of Scotch pig-iron had increased to 475,000 tons.
It has since increased to upwards of a million of tons,
nineteen-twentieths of which are made from Black Band ironstone.[6]
Employment has thus been given to vast numbers of our industrial
population, and the wealth and resources of the Scotch iron districts
have been increased to an extraordinary extent. During the last year
there were 125 furnaces in blast throughout Scotland, each employing
about 400 men in making an average of 200 tons a week; and the money
distributed amongst the workmen may readily be computed from the fact
that, under the most favourable circumstances, the cost of making iron
in wages alone amounts to 36s. a-ton.[7]
An immense additional value was given to all land in which the Black
Band was found. Mr. Mushet mentions that in 1839 the proprietor of the
Airdrie estate derived a royalty of 16,500L. from the mineral, which
had not before its discovery yielded him one farthing. At the same
time, many fortunes have been made by pushing and energetic men who
have of late years entered upon this new branch of industry. Amongst
these may be mentioned the Bairds of Gartsherrie, who vie with the
Guests and Crawshays of South Wales, and have advanced themselves in
the course of a very few years from the station of small farmers to
that of great capitalists owning estates in many counties, holding the
highest character commercial men, and ranking among the largest
employers of labour in the kingdom.
[1] Article by Dugald Bannatyne in Glasgow Mechanic's Magazine, No. 53,
Dec. 1824.
[2] Glasgow Mechanic's Magazine, vol. iii. p. 159.
[3] Mr. Mushet described it as "a wonderful discovery," and one of the
"most novel and beautiful improvements in his time." Professor Gregory
of Aberdeen characterized it as "the greatest improvement with which he
was acquainted." Mr. Jessop, an extensive English iron manufacturer,
declared it to be "of as great advantage in the iron trade as
Arkwright's machinery was in the cotton-spinning trade"; and Mr.
Fairbairn, in his contribution on "Iron" in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, says that it "has effected an entire revolution in the iron
industry of Great Britain, and forms the last era in the history of
this material."
[4] The invention of the tubular air-vessels and the water-tuyere
belongs, we believe, to Mr. John Condie, sometime manager of the Blair
Iron Works.
[5] Mr. Mushet says, "The greatest produce in iron per furnace with the
Black Band and cold blast never exceeded 60 tons a-week. The produce
per furnace now averages 90 tons a-week. Ten tons of this I attribute
to the use of raw pit-coal, and the other twenty tons to the use of hot
blast." [Papers on Iron and Steel, 127.] The produce per furnace is
now 200 tons a-week and upwards. The hot blast process was afterwards
applied to the making of iron with the anthracite or stone coal of
Wales; for which a patent was taken out by George Crane in 1836.
Before the hot blast was introduced, anthracite coal would not act as
fuel in the blast-furnace. When put in, it merely had the effect of
putting the fire out. With the aid of the hot blast, however, it now
proves to be a most valuable fuel in smelting.
[6] It is stated in the North British Review for Nov. 1845, that "As in
Scotland every furnace--with the exception of one at Carron--now uses
the hot blast the saving on our present produce of 400,000 tons of
pig-iron is 2,000,000 tons of coals, 200,000 tons of limestone, and
#650,000 sterling per annum." But as the Scotch produce is now above a
million tons of pig-iron a year, the above figures will have to be
multiplied by 2 1/2 to give the present annual savings.
[7] Papers read by Mr. Ralph Moore, Mining Engineer, Glasgow, before
the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, Edin. 1861, pp. 13, 14.
CHAPTER X.
MECHANICAL INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS.
"L'invention nest-elle pas la poesie de la science? . . . Toutes les
grandes decouvertes portent avec elles la trace ineffacable d'une
pensee poetique. Il faut etre poete pour creer. Aussi, sommes-nous
convaincus que si les puissantes machines, veritable source de la
production et de l'industrie de nos jours, doivent recevoir des
modifications radicales, ce sera a des hommes d'imagination, et non
point a dea hommes purement speciaux, que l'on devra cette
transformation."--E. M. BATAILLE, Traite des Machines a Vapeur.
Tools have played a highly important part in the history of
civilization. Without tools and the ability to use them, man were
indeed but a "poor, bare, forked animal,"--worse clothed than the
birds, worse housed than the beaver, worse fed than the jackal. "Weak
in himself," says Carlyle, "and of small stature, he stands on a basis,
at most for the flattest-soled, of some half square foot, insecurely
enough; has to straddle out his legs, Jest the very wind supplant him.
Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals are a crushing load for him; the
steer of the meadow tosses him aloft like a waste rag. Nevertheless he
can use tools, can devise tools: with these the granite mountain melts
into light dust before him; he kneads glowing iron as if it were soft
paste; seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire his unvarying
steeds. Nowhere do you find him without tools: without tools he is
nothing; with tools he is all." His very first contrivances to support
life were tools of the simplest and rudest construction; and his latest
achievements in the substitution of machinery for the relief of the
human hand and intellect are founded on the use of tools of a still
higher order. Hence it is not without good reason that man has by some
philosophers been defined as A TOOL-MAKING ANIMAL.
Tools, like everything else, had small beginnings. With the primitive
stone-hammer and chisel very little could be done. The felling of a
tree would occupy a workman a month, unless helped by the destructive
action of fire. Dwellings could not be built, the soil could not be
tilled, clothes could not be fashioned and made, and the hewing out of
a boat was so tedious a process that the wood must have been far gone
in decay before it could be launched. It was a great step in advance
to discover the art of working in metals, more especially in steel, one
of the few metals capable of taking a sharp edge and keeping it. From
the date of this discovery, working in wood and stone would be found
comparatively easy; and the results must speedily have been felt not
only in the improvement of man's daily food, but in his domestic and
social condition. Clothing could then be made, the primitive forest
could be cleared and tillage carried on; abundant fuel could be
obtained, dwellings erected, ships built, temples reared; every
improvement in tools marking a new step in the development of the human
intellect, and a further stage in the progress of human civilization.
The earliest tools were of the simplest possible character, consisting
principally of modifications of the wedge; such as the knife, the
shears (formed of two knives working on a joint), the chisel, and the
axe. These, with the primitive hammer, formed the principal
stock-in-trade of the early mechanics, who were handicraftsmen in the
literal sense of the word. But the work which the early craftsmen in
wood, stone, brass, and iron, contrived to execute, sufficed to show
how much expertness in the handling of tools will serve to compensate
for their mechanical imperfections. Workmen then sought rather to aid
muscular strength than to supersede it, and mainly to facilitate the
efforts of manual skill. Another tool became added to those mentioned
above, which proved an additional source of power to the workman. We
mean the Saw, which was considered of so much importance that its
inventor was honoured with a place among the gods in the mythology of
the Greeks. This invention is said to have been suggested by the
arrangement of the teeth in the jaw of a serpent, used by Talus the
nephew of Daedalus in dividing a piece of wood. From the
representations of ancient tools found in the paintings at Herculaneum
it appears that the frame-saw used by the ancients very nearly
resembled that still in use; and we are informed that the tools
employed in the carpenters' shops at Nazareth at this day are in most
respects the same as those represented in the buried Roman city.
Another very ancient tool referred to in the Bible and in Homer was the
File, which was used to sharpen weapons and implements. Thus the
Hebrews "had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the
forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads." [1] When to these
we add the adze, plane-irons, the anger, and the chisel, we sum up the
tools principally relied on by the early mechanics for working in wood
and iron.
Such continued to be the chief tools in use down almost to our own day.
The smith was at first the principal tool-maker; but special branches
of trade were gradually established, devoted to tool-making. So long,
however, as the workman relied mainly on his dexterity of hand, the
amount of production was comparatively limited; for the number of
skilled workmen was but small. The articles turned out by them, being
the product of tedious manual labour, were too dear to come into common
use, and were made almost exclusively for the richer classes of the
community. It was not until machinery had been invented and become
generally adopted that many of the ordinary articles of necessity and
of comfort were produced in sufficient abundance and at such prices as
enabled them to enter into the consumption of the great body of the
people.
But every improver of tools had a long and difficult battle to fight;
for any improvement in their effective power was sure to touch the
interests of some established craft. Especially was this the case with
machines, which are but tools of a more complete though complicated
kind than those above described.
Take, for instance, the case of the Saw. The tedious drudgery of
dividing timber by the old fashioned hand-saw is well known. To avoid
it, some ingenious person suggested that a number of saws should be
fixed to a frame in a mill, so contrived as to work with a
reciprocating motion, upwards and downwards, or backwards and forwards,
and that this frame so mounted should be yoked to the mill wheel, and
the saws driven by the power of wind or water. The plan was tried,
and, as may readily be imagined, the amount of effective work done by
this machine-saw was immense, compared with the tedious process of
sawing by hand.
It will be observed, however, that the new method must have seriously
interfered with the labour of the hand-sawyers; and it was but natural
that they should regard the establishment of the saw-mills with
suspicion and hostility. Hence a long period elapsed before the
hand-sawyers would permit the new machinery to be set up and worked.
The first saw-mill in England was erected by a Dutchman, near London,
in 1663, but was shortly abandoned in consequence of the determined
hostility of the workmen. More than a century passed before a second
saw-mill was set up; when, in 1767, Mr. John Houghton, a London
timber-merchant, by the desire and with the approbation of the Society
of Arts, erected one at Limehouse, to be driven by wind. The work was
directed by one James Stansfield, who had gone over to Holland for the
purpose of learning the art of constructing and managing the sawing
machinery. But the mill was no sooner erected than a mob assembled and
razed it to the ground. The principal rioters having been punished,
and the loss to the proprietor having been made good by the nation, a
new mill was shortly after built, and it was suffered to work without
further molestation.
Improved methods of manufacture have usually had to encounter the same
kind of opposition. Thus, when the Flemish weavers came over to
England in the seventeenth century, bringing with them their skill and
their industry, they excited great jealousy and hostility amongst the
native workmen. Their competition as workmen was resented as an
injury, but their improved machinery was regarded as a far greater
source of mischief. In a memorial presented to the king in 1621 we
find the London weavers complaining of the foreigners' competition, but
especially that "they have made so bould of late as to devise engines
for working of tape, lace, ribbin, and such like, wherein one man doth
more among them than 7 Englishe men can doe; so as their cheap sale of
commodities beggereth all our Englishe artificers of that trade, and
enricheth them." [2]
At a much more recent period new inventions have had to encounter
serious rioting and machine-breaking fury. Kay of the fly-shuttle,
Hargreaves of the spinning-jenny, and Arkwright of the spinning-frame,
all had to fly from Lancashire, glad to escape with their lives.
Indeed, says Mr. Bazley, "so jealous were the people, and also the
legislature, of everything calculated to supersede men's labour, that
when the Sankey Canal, six miles long, near Warrington, was authorized
about the middle of last century, it was on the express condition that
the boats plying on it should be drawn by men only!" [3] Even improved
agricultural tools and machines have had the same opposition to
encounter; and in our own time bands of rural labourers have gone from
farm to farm breaking drill-ploughs, winnowing, threshing, and other
machines, down even to the common drills,--not perceiving that if their
policy had proved successful, and tools could have been effectually
destroyed, the human race would at once have been reduced to their
teeth and nails, and civilization summarily abolished.[4] It is, no
doubt, natural that the ordinary class of workmen should regard with
prejudice, if not with hostility, the introduction of machines
calculated to place them at a disadvantage and to interfere with their
usual employments; for to poor and not very far-seeing men the loss of
daily bread is an appalling prospect. But invention does not stand
still on that account. Human brains WILL work. Old tools are improved
and new ones invented, superseding existing methods of production,
though the weak and unskilled may occasionally be pushed aside or even
trodden under foot. The consolation which remains is, that while the
few suffer, society as a whole is vastly benefitted by the improved
methods of production which are suggested, invented, and perfected by
the experience of successive generations.
The living race is the inheritor of the industry and skill of all past
times; and the civilization we enjoy is but the sum of the useful
effects of labour during the past centuries. Nihil per saltum. By
slow and often painful steps Nature's secrets have been mastered. Not
an effort has been made but has had its influence. For no human labour
is altogether lost; some remnant of useful effect surviving for the
benefit of the race, if not of the individual. Even attempts
apparently useless have not really been so, but have served in some way
to advance man to higher knowledge, skill, or discipline. "The loss of
a position gained," says Professor Thomson, "is an event unknown in the
history of man's struggle with the forces of inanimate nature." A
single step won gives a firmer foothold for further effort. The man
may die, but the race survives and continues the work,--to use the
poet's simile, mounting on stepping-stones of dead selves to higher
selves.
Philarete Chasles, indeed, holds that it is the Human Race that is your
true inventor: "As if to unite all generations," he says, "and to show
that man can only act efficiently by association with others, it has
been ordained that each inventor shall only interpret the first word of
the problem he sets himself to solve, and that every great idea shall
be the RESUME of the past at the same time that it is the germ of the
future." And rarely does it happen that any discovery or invention of
importance is made by one man alone. The threads of inquiry are taken
up and traced, one labourer succeeding another, each tracing it a
little further, often without apparent result. This goes on sometimes
for centuries, until at length some man, greater perhaps than his
fellows, seeking to fulfil the needs of his time, gathers the various
threads together, treasures up the gain of past successes and failures,
and uses them as the means for some solid achievement, Thus Newton
discovered the law of gravitation, and thus James Watt invented the
steam-engine. So also of the Locomotive, of which Robert Stephenson
said, "It has not been the invention of any one man, but of a race of
mechanical engineers." Or, as Joseph Bramah observed, in the preamble
to his second Lock patent, "Among the number of patents granted there
are comparatively few which can be called original so that it is
difficult to say where the boundary of one ends and where that of
another begins."
The arts are indeed reared but slowly; and it was a wise observation of
Lord Bacon that we are too apt to pass those ladders by which they have
been reared, and reflect the whole merit on the last new performer.
Thus, what is hailed as an original invention is often found to be but
the result of a long succession of trials and experiments gradually
following each other, which ought rather to be considered as a
continuous series of achievements of the human mind than as the
conquest of any single individual. It has sometimes taken centuries of
experience to ascertain the value of a single fact in its various
bearings. Like man himself, experience is feeble and apparently
purposeless in its infancy, but acquires maturity and strength with
age. Experience, however, is not limited to a lifetime, but is the
stored-up wealth and power of our race. Even amidst the death of
successive generations it is constantly advancing and accumulating,
exhibiting at the same time the weakness and the power, the littleness
and the greatness of our common humanity. And not only do we who live
succeed to the actual results of our predecessors' labours,--to their
works of learning and of art, their inventions and discoveries, their
tools and machines, their roads, bridges, canals, and railways,--but to
the inborn aptitudes of blood and brain which they bequeath to us, to
that "educability," so to speak, which has been won for us by the
labours of many generations, and forms our richest natural heritage.
The beginning of most inventions is very remote. The first idea, born
within some unknown brain, passes thence into others, and at last comes
forth complete, after a parturition, it may be, of centuries. One
starts the idea, another developes it, and so on progressively until at
last it is elaborated and worked out in practice; but the first not
less than the last is entitled to his share in the merit of the
invention, were it only possible to measure and apportion it duly.
Sometimes a great original mind strikes upon some new vein of hidden
power, and gives a powerful impulse to the inventive faculties of man,
which lasts through generations. More frequently, however, inventions
are not entirely new, but modifications of contrivances previously
known, though to a few, and not yet brought into practical use.
Glancing back over the history of mechanism, we occasionally see an
invention seemingly full born, when suddenly it drops out of sight, and
we hear no more of it for centuries. It is taken up de novo by some
inventor, stimulated by the needs of his time, and falling again upon
the track, he recovers the old footmarks, follows them up, and
completes the work.
There is also such a thing as inventions being born before their
time--the advanced mind of one generation projecting that which cannot
be executed for want of the requisite means; but in due process of
time, when mechanism has got abreast of the original idea, it is at
length carried out; and thus it is that modern inventors are enabled to
effect many objects which their predecessors had tried in vain to
accomplish. As Louis Napoleon has said, "Inventions born before their
time must remain useless until the level of common intellects rises to
comprehend them." For this reason, misfortune is often the lot of the
inventor before his time, though glory and profit may belong to his
successors. Hence the gift of inventing not unfrequently involves a
yoke of sorrow. Many of the greatest inventors have lived neglected
and died unrequited, before their merits could be recognised and
estimated. Even if they succeed, they often raise up hosts of enemies
in the persons whose methods they propose to supersede. Envy, malice,
and detraction meet them in all their forms; they are assailed by
combinations of rich and unscrupulous persons to wrest from them the
profits of their ingenuity; and last and worst of all, the successful
inventor often finds his claims to originality decried, and himself
branded as a copyist and a pirate.
Among the inventions born out of time, and before the world could make
adequate use of them, we can only find space to allude to a few, though
they are so many that one is almost disposed to accept the words of
Chaucer as true, that "There is nothing new but what has once been
old;" or, as another writer puts it, "There is nothing new but what has
before been known and forgotten;" or, in the words of Solomon, "The
thing that hath been is that which shall be, and there is no new thing
under the sun." One of the most important of these is the use of
Steam, which was well known to the ancients; but though it was used to
grind drugs, to turn a spit, and to excite the wonder and fear of the
credulous, a long time elapsed before it became employed as a useful
motive-power. The inquiries and experiments on the subject extended
through many ages. Friar Bacon, who flourished in the thirteenth
century, seems fully to have anticipated, in the following remarkable
passage, nearly all that steam could accomplish, as well as the
hydraulic engine and the diving-bell, though the flying machine yet
remains to be invented:--
"I will now," says the Friar, "mention some of the wonderful works of
art and nature in which there is nothing of magic, and which magic
could not perform. Instruments may be made by which the largest ships,
with only one man guiding them, will be carried with greater velocity
than if they were full of sailors. Chariots may be constructed that
will move with incredible rapidity, without the help of animals.
Instruments of flying may be formed, in which a man, sitting at his
ease and meditating on any subject, may beat the air with his
artificial wings, after the manner of birds. A small instrument may be
made to raise or depress the greatest weights. An instrument may be
fabricated by which one man may draw a thousand men to him by force and
against their will; as also machines which will enable men to walk at
the bottom of seas or rivers without danger." It is possible that Friar
Bacon derived his knowledge of the powers which he thus described from
the traditions handed down of former inventions which had been
neglected and allowed to fall into oblivion; for before the invention
of printing, which enabled the results of investigation and experience
to be treasured up in books, there was great risk of the inventions of
one age being lost to the succeeding generations. Yet Disraeli the
elder is of opinion that the Romans had invented printing without being
aware of it; or perhaps the senate dreaded the inconveniences attending
its use, and did not care to deprive a large body of scribes of their
employment. They even used stereotypes, or immovable printing-types,
to stamp impressions on their pottery, specimens of which still exist.
In China the art of printing is of great antiquity. Lithography was
well known in Germany, by the very name which it still bears, nearly
three hundred years before Senefelder reinvented it; and specimens of
the ancient art are yet to be seen in the Royal Museum at Munich.[5]
Steam-locomotion by sea and land, had long been dreamt of and
attempted. Blasco de Garay made his experiment in the harbour of
Barcelona as early as 1543; Denis Papin made a similar attempt at
Cassel in 1707; but it was not until Watt had solved the problem of the
steam-engine that the idea of the steam-boat could be developed in
practice, which was done by Miller of Dalswinton in 1788. Sages and
poets have frequently foreshadowed inventions of great social moment.
Thus Dr. Darwin's anticipation of the locomotive, in his Botanic
Garden, published in 1791, before any locomotive had been invented,
might almost be regarded as prophetic:
Soon shall thy arm, unconquered Steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, and drive the rapid car.
Denis Papin first threw out the idea of atmospheric locomotion; and
Gauthey, another Frenchman, in 1782 projected a method of conveying
parcels and merchandise by subterraneous tubes,[6] after the method
recently patented and brought into operation by the London Pneumatic
Despatch Company. The balloon was an ancient Italian invention,
revived by Mongolfier long after the original had been forgotten. Even
the reaping machine is an old invention revived. Thus Barnabe Googe,
the translator of a book from the German entitled 'The whole Arte and
Trade of Husbandrie,' published in 1577, in the reign of Elizabeth,
speaks of the reaping-machine as a worn-out invention--a thing "which
was woont to be used in France. The device was a lowe kinde of carre
with a couple of wheeles, and the frunt armed with sharpe syckles,
whiche, forced by the beaste through the corne, did cut down al before
it. This tricke," says Googe, "might be used in levell and champion
countreys; but with us it wolde make but ill-favoured woorke." [7] The
Thames Tunnel was thought an entirely new manifestation of engineering
genius; but the tunnel under the Euphrates at ancient Babylon, and that
under the wide mouth of the harbour at Marseilles (a much more
difficult work), show that the ancients were beforehand with us in the
art of tunnelling. Macadamized roads are as old as the Roman empire;
and suspension bridges, though comparatively new in Europe, have been
known in China for centuries.
There is every reason to believe--indeed it seems clear that the Romans
knew of gunpowder, though they only used it for purposes of fireworks;
while the secret of the destructive Greek fire has been lost
altogether. When gunpowder came to be used for purposes of war,
invention busied itself upon instruments of destruction. When recently
examining the Museum of the Arsenal at Venice, we were surprised to
find numerous weapons of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
embodying the most recent English improvements in arms, such as
revolving pistols, rifled muskets, and breech-loading cannon. The
latter, embodying Sir William Armstrong's modern idea, though in a rude
form, had been fished up from the bottom of the Adriatic, where the
ship armed with them had been sunk hundreds of years ago. Even
Perkins's steam-gun was an old invention revived by Leonardo da Vinci
and by him attributed to Archimedes.[8] The Congreve rocket is said to
have an Eastern origin, Sir William Congreve having observed its
destructive effects when employed by the forces under Tippoo Saib in
the Mahratta war, on which he adopted and improved the missile, and
brought out the invention as his own.
Coal-gas was regularly used by the Chinese for lighting purposes long
before it was known amongst us. Hydropathy was generally practised by
the Romans, who established baths wherever they went. Even chloroform
is no new thing. The use of ether as an anaesthetic was known to
Albertus Magnus, who flourished in the thirteenth century; and in his
works he gives a recipe for its preparation. In 1681 Denis Papin
published his Traite des Operations sans Douleur, showing that he had
discovered methods of deadening pain. But the use of anaesthetics is
much older than Albertus Magnus or Papin; for the ancients had their
nepenthe and mandragora; the Chinese their mayo, and the Egyptians
their hachisch (both preparations of Cannabis Indica), the effects of
which in a great measure resemble those of chloroform. What is perhaps
still more surprising is the circumstance that one of the most elegant
of recent inventions, that of sun-painting by the daguerreotype, was in
the fifteenth century known to Leonardo da Vinci,[9] whose skill as an
architect and engraver, and whose accomplishments as a chemist and
natural philosopher, have been almost entirely overshadowed by his
genius as a painter.[10] The idea, thus early born, lay in oblivion
until 1760, when the daguerreotype was again clearly indicated in a
book published in Paris, written by a certain Tiphanie de la Roche,
under the anagrammatic title of Giphantie. Still later, at the
beginning of the present century, we find Thomas Wedgwood, Sir Humphry
Davy, and James Watt, making experiments on the action of light upon
nitrate of silver; and only within the last few months a silvered
copper-plate has been found amongst the old household lumber of Matthew
Boulton (Watt's partner), having on it a representation of the old
premises at Soho, apparently taken by some such process.[11]
In like manner the invention of the electric telegraph, supposed to be
exclusively modern, was clearly indicated by Schwenter in his
Delasements Physico-Mathematiques, published in 1636; and he there
pointed out how two individuals could communicate with each other by
means of the magnetic needle. A century later, in 1746, Le Monnier
exhibited a series of experiments in the Royal Gardens at Paris,
showing how electricity could be transmitted through iron wire 950
fathoms in length; and in 1753 we find one Charles Marshall publishing
a remarkable description of the electric telegraph in the Scots
Magazine, under the title of 'An expeditions Method of conveying
Intelligence.' Again, in 1760, we find George Louis Lesage, professor
of mathematics at Geneva, promulgating his invention of an electric
telegraph, which he eventually completed and set to work in 1774. This
instrument was composed of twenty-four metallic wires, separate from
each other and enclosed in a non-conducting substance. Each wire ended
in a stalk mounted with a little ball of elder-wood suspended by a silk
thread. When a stream of electricity, no matter how slight., was sent
through the wire, the elder-ball at the opposite end was repelled, such
movement designating some letter of the alphabet. A few years later we
find Arthur Young, in his Travels in France, describing a similar
machine invented by a M. Lomond of Paris, the action of which he also
describes.[12] In these and similar cases, though the idea was born
and the model of the invention was actually made, it still waited the
advent of the scientific mechanical inventor who should bring it to
perfection, and embody it in a practical working form.
Some of the most valuable inventions have descended to us without the
names of their authors having been preserved. We are the inheritors of
an immense legacy of the results of labour and ingenuity, but we know
not the names of our benefactors. Who invented the watch as a measurer
of time? Who invented the fast and loose pulley? Who invented the
eccentric? Who, asks a mechanical inquirer,[13] "invented the method of
cutting screws with stocks and dies? Whoever he might be, he was
certainly a great benefactor of his species. Yet (adds the writer) his
name is not known, though the invention has been so recent." This is
not, however, the case with most modern inventions, the greater number
of which are more or less disputed. Who was entitled to the merit of
inventing printing has never yet been determined. Weber and Senefelder
both laid claim to the invention of lithography, though it was merely
an old German art revived. Even the invention of the penny-postage
system by Sir Rowland Hill is disputed; Dr. Gray of the British Museum
claiming to be its inventor, and a French writer alleging it to be an
old French invention.[14] The invention of the steamboat has been
claimed on behalf of Blasco de Garay, a Spaniard, Papin, a Frenchman,
Jonathan Hulls, an Englishman, and Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, a
Scotchman. The invention of the spinning machine has been variously
attributed to Paul, Wyatt, Hargreaves, Higley, and Arkwright. The
invention of the balance-spring was claimed by Huyghens, a Dutchman,
Hautefeuille, a Frenchman, and Hooke, an Englishman. There is scarcely
a point of detail in the locomotive but is the subject of dispute.
Thus the invention of the blast-pipe is claimed for Trevithick, George
Stephenson, Goldsworthy Gurney, and Timothy Hackworth; that of the
tubular boiler by Seguin, Stevens, Booth, and W. H. James; that of
the link-motion by John Gray, Hugh Williams, and Robert Stephenson.
Indeed many inventions appear to be coincident. A number of minds are
working at the same time in the same track, with the object of
supplying some want generally felt; and, guided by the same experience,
they not unfrequently arrive at like results. It has sometimes
happened that the inventors have been separated by great distances, so
that piracy on the part of either was impossible. Thus Hadley and
Godfrey almost simultaneously invented the quadrant, the one in London,
the other in Philadelphia; and the process of electrotyping was
invented at the same time by Mr. Spencer, a working chemist at
Liverpool, and by Professor Jacobi at St. Petersburg. The safety-lamp
was a coincident invention, made about the same time by Sir Humphry
Davy and George Stephenson; and perhaps a still more remarkable
instance of a coincident discovery was that of the planet Neptune by
Leverrier at Paris, and by Adams at Cambridge.
It is always difficult to apportion the due share of merit which
belongs to mechanical inventors, who are accustomed to work upon each
other's hints and suggestions, as well as by their own experience.
Some idea of this difficulty may be formed from the fact that, in the
course of our investigations as to the origin of the planing
machine--one of the most useful of modern tools--we have found that it
has been claimed on behalf of six inventors--Fox of Derby, Roberts of
Manchester, Matthew Murray of Leeds, Spring of Aberdeen, Clement and
George Rennie of London; and there may be other claimants of whom we
have not yet heard. But most mechanical inventions are of a very
composite character, and are led up to by the labour and the study of a
long succession of workers. Thus Savary and Newcomen led up to Watt;
Cugnot, Murdock, and Trevithick to the Stephensons; and Maudslay to
Clement, Roberts, Nasmyth, Whitworth, and many more mechanical
inventors. There is scarcely a process in the arts but has in like
manner engaged mind after mind in bringing it to perfection. "There is
nothing," says Mr. Hawkshaw, "really worth having that man has
obtained, that has not been the result of a combined and gradual
process of investigation. A gifted individual comes across some old
footmark, stumbles on a chain of previous research and inquiry. He
meets, for instance, with a machine, the result of much previous
labour; he modifies it, pulls it to pieces, constructs and reconstructs
it, and by further trial and experiment he arrives at the long
sought-for result." [15]
But the making of the invention is not the sole difficulty. It is one
thing to invent, said Sir Marc Brunel, and another thing to make the
invention work. Thus when Watt, after long labour and study, had
brought his invention to completion, he encountered an obstacle which
has stood in the way of other inventors, and for a time prevented the
introduction of their improvements, if not led to their being laid
aside and abandoned. This was the circumstance that the machine
projected was so much in advance of the mechanical capability of the
age that it was with the greatest difficulty it could be executed.
When labouring upon his invention at Glasgow, Watt was baffled and
thrown into despair by the clumsiness and incompetency of his workmen.
Writing to Dr. Roebuck on one occasion, he said, "You ask what is the
principal hindrance in erecting engines? It is always the smith-work."
His first cylinder was made by a whitesmith, of hammered iron soldered
together, but having used quicksilver to keep the cylinder air-tight,
it dropped through the inequalities into the interior, and "played the
devil with the solder." Yet, inefficient though the whitesmith was,
Watt could ill spare him, and we find him writing to Dr. Roebuck almost
in despair, saying, "My old white-iron man is dead!" feeling his loss
to be almost irreparable. His next cylinder was cast and bored at
Carron, but it was so untrue that it proved next to useless. The
piston could not be kept steam tight, notwithstanding the various
expedients which were adopted of stuffing it with paper, cork, putty,
pasteboard, and old hat. Even after Watt had removed to Birmingham,
and he had the assistance of Boulton's best workmen, Smeaton expressed
the opinion, when he saw the engine at work, that notwithstanding the
excellence of the invention, it could never be brought into general use
because of the difficulty of getting its various parts manufactured
with sufficient precision. For a long time we find Watt, in his
letters, complaining to his partner of the failure of his engines
through "villainous bad workmanship." Sometimes the cylinders, when
cast, were found to be more than an eighth of an inch wider at one end
than the other; and under such circumstances it was impossible the
engine could act with precision. Yet better work could not be had.
First-rate workmen in machinery did not as yet exist; they were only in
process of education. Nearly everything had to be done by hand. The
tools used were of a very imperfect kind. A few ill-constructed
lathes, with some drills and boring-machines of a rude sort,
constituted the principal furniture of the workshop. Years after, when
Brunel invented his block-machines, considerable time elapsed before he
could find competent mechanics to construct them, and even after they
had been constructed he had equal difficulty in finding competent hands
to work them.[16]
Watt endeavoured to remedy the defect by keeping certain sets of
workmen to special classes of work, allowing them to do nothing else.
Fathers were induced to bring up their sons at the same bench with
themselves, and initiate them in the dexterity which they had acquired
by experience; and at Soho it was not unusual for the same precise line
of work to be followed by members of the same family for three
generations. In this way as great a degree of accuracy of a mechanical
kind was arrived at was practicable under the circumstances. But
notwithstanding all this care, accuracy of fitting could not be secured
so long as the manufacture of steam-engines was conducted mainly by
hand. There was usually a considerable waste of steam, which the
expedients of chewed paper and greased hat packed outside the piston
were insufficient to remedy; and it was not until the invention of
automatic machine-tools by the mechanical engineers about to be
mentioned, that the manufacture of the steam-engine became a matter of
comparative ease and certainty. Watt was compelled to rest satisfied
with imperfect results, arising from imperfect workmanship. Thus,
writing to Dr. Small respecting a cylinder 18 inches in diameter, he
said, "at the worst place the long diameter exceeded the short by only
three-eighths of an inch." How different from the state of things at
this day, when a cylinder five feet wide will be rejected as a piece of
imperfect workmanship if it be found to vary in any part more than the
80th part of an inch in diameter!
Not fifty years since it was a matter of the utmost difficulty to set
an engine to work, and sometimes of equal difficulty to keep it going.
Though fitted by competent workmen, it often would not go at all. Then
the foreman of the factory at which it was made was sent for, and he
would almost live beside the engine for a month or more; and after
easing her here and screwing her up there, putting in a new part and
altering an old one, packing the piston and tightening the valves, the
machine would at length begot to work.[17] Now the case is altogether
different. The perfection of modern machine-tools is such that the
utmost possible precision is secured, and the mechanical engineer can
calculate on a degree of exactitude that does not admit of a deviation
beyond the thousandth part of an inch. When the powerful oscillating
engines of the 'Warrior' were put on board that ship, the parts,
consisting of some five thousand separate pieces, were brought from the
different workshops of the Messrs. Penn and Sons, where they had been
made by workmen who knew not the places they were to occupy, and fitted
together with such precision that so soon as the steam was raised and
let into the cylinders, the immense machine began as if to breathe and
move like a living creature, stretching its huge arms like a new-born
giant, and then, after practising its strength a little and proving its
soundness in body and limb, it started off with the power of above a
thousand horses to try its strength in breasting the billows of the
North Sea.
Such are among the triumphs of modern mechanical engineering, due in a
great measure to the perfection of the tools by means of which all
works in metal are now fashioned. These tools are themselves among the
most striking results of the mechanical invention of the day. They are
automata of the most perfect kind, rendering the engine and
machine-maker in a great measure independent of inferior workmen. For
the machine tools have no unsteady hand, are not careless nor clumsy,
do not work by rule of thumb, and cannot make mistakes. They will
repeat their operations a thousand times without tiring, or varying one
hair's breadth in their action; and will turn out, without complaining,
any quantity of work, all of like accuracy and finish. Exercising as
they do so remarkable an influence on the development of modern
industry, we now propose, so far as the materials at our disposal will
admit, to give an account of their principal inventors, beginning with
the school of Bramah.
[1] 1 Samuel, ch. xiii. v. 21.
[2] State Papers, Dom. 1621, Vol. 88, No. 112.
[3] Lectures on the Results of the Great Exhibition of 1851, 2nd
Series, 117.
[4] Dr. Kirwan, late President of the Royal Irish Academy, who had
travelled much on the continent of Europe, used to relate, when
speaking of the difficulty of introducing improvements in the arts and
manufactures, and of the prejudices entertained for old practices,
that, in Normandy, the farmers had been so long accustomed to the use
of plough's whose shares were made entirely of WOOD that they could not
be prevailed on to make trial of those with IRON; that they considered
them to be an idle and useless innovation on the long-established
practices of their ancestors; and that they carried these prejudices so
far as to force the government to issue an edict on the subject. And
even to the last they were so obstinate in their attachment to
ploughshares of wood that a tumultuous opposition was made to the
enforcement of the edict, which for a short time threatened a rebellion
in the province.--PARKES, Chemical Essays, 4th Ed. 473.
[5] EDOUARD FOURNIER, Vieux-Neuf, i. 339.
[6] Memoires de l' Academie des Sciences, 6 Feb. 1826.
[7] Farmer's Magazine, 1817, No. ixxi. 291.
[8] Vieux-Neuf, i. 228; Inventa Nova-Antiqua, 742.
[9] Vieux-Neuf, i. 19. See also Inventa Nova-Antiqua, 803.
[10] Mr. Hallam, in his Introduction to the History of Europe,
pronounces the following remarkable eulogium on this extraordinary
genius:--"If any doubt could be harboured, not only as to the right of
Leonardo da Vinci to stand as 'the first name of the fifteenth century,
which is beyond all doubt, but as to his originality in so many
discoveries, which probably no one man, especially in such
circumstances, has ever made, it must be on an hypothesis not very
untenable, that some parts of physical science had already attained a
height which mere books do not record." "Unpublished MSS. by Leonardo
contain discoveries and anticipations of discoveries," says Mr. Hallam,
"within the compass of a few pages, so as to strike us with something
like the awe of preternatural knowledge."
[11] The plate is now to be seen at the Museum of Patents at South
Kensington. In the account which has been published of the above
discovery it is stated that "an old man of ninety (recently dead or
still alive) recollected, or recollects, that Watt and others used to
take portraits of people in a dark (?) room; and there is a letter
extant of Sir William Beechey, begging the Lunar Society to desist from
these experiments, as, were the process to succeed, it would ruin
portrait-painting."
[12] "16th Oct. 1787. In the evening to M. Lomond, a very ingenious
and inventive mechanic, who has made an improvement of the jenny for
spinning cotton. Common machines are said to make too hard a thread
for certain fabrics, but this forms it loose and spongy. In
electricity he has made a remarkable discovery: you write two or three
words on a paper; he takes it with him into a room, and turns a machine
inclosed in a cylindrical case, at the top of which is an electrometer,
a small fine pith ball; a wire connects with a similar cylinder and
electrometer in a distant apartment; and his wife, by remarking the
corresponding motions of the ball, writes down the words they indicate;
from which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of motions. As
the length of the wire makes no difference in the effect, a
correspondence might be carried on at any distance: within and without
a besieged town, for instance; or for a purpose much more worthy, and a
thousand times more harmless, between two lovers prohibited or
prevented from any better connexion. Whatever the use may be, the
invention is beautiful."--Arthur Young's Travels in France in 1787-8-9.
London, 1792, 4to. ed. p. 65.
[13] Mechanic's Magazine, 4th Feb. 1859.
[14] A writer in the Monde says:--"The invention of postage-stamps is
far from being so modern as is generally supposed. A postal regulation
in France of the year 1653, which has recently come to light, gives
notice of the creation of pre-paid tickets to be used for Paris instead
of money payments. These tickets were to be dated and attached to the
letter or wrapped round it, in such a manner that the postman could
remove and retain them on delivering the missive. These franks were to
be sold by the porters of the convents, prisons, colleges, and other
public institutions, at the price of one sou."
[15] Inaugural Address delivered before the Institution of Civil
Engineers, 14th Jan. 1862.
[16] BEAMISH'S Memoir of Sir I. M. Brunel, 79, 80.
[17] There was the same clumsiness in all kinds of mill-work before the
introduction of machine-tools. We have heard of a piece of machinery
of the old school, the wheels of which, when set to work, made such a
clatter that the owner feared the engine would fall to pieces. The
foreman who set it agoing, after working at it until he was almost in
despair, at last gave it up, saving, "I think we had better leave the
cogs to settle their differences with one another: they will grind
themselves right in time!"
CHAPTER XI.
JOSEPH BRAMAH.
"The great Inventor is one who has walked forth upon the industrial
world, not from universities, but from hovels; not as clad in silks and
decked with honours, but as clad in fustian and grimed with soot and
oil."--ISAAC TAYLOR, Ultimate Civilization.
The inventive faculty is so strong in some men that it may be said to
amount to a passion, and cannot be restrained. The saying that the
poet is born, not made, applies with equal force to the inventor, who,
though indebted like the other to culture and improved opportunities,
nevertheless invents and goes on inventing mainly to gratify his own
instinct. The inventor, however, is not a creator like the poet, but
chiefly a finder-out. His power consists in a great measure in quick
perception and accurate observation, and in seeing and foreseeing the
effects of certain mechanical combinations. He must possess the gift
of insight, as well as of manual dexterity, combined with the
indispensable qualities of patience and perseverance,--for though
baffled, as he often is, he must be ready to rise up again unconquered
even in the moment of defeat. This is the stuff of which the greatest
inventors have been made. The subject of the following memoir may not
be entitled to take rank as a first-class inventor, though he was a
most prolific one; but, as the founder of a school from which proceeded
some of the most distinguished mechanics of our time, he is entitled to
a prominent place in this series of memoirs.
Joseph Bramah was born in 1748 at the village of Stainborough, near
Barnsley in Yorkshire, where his father rented a small farm under Lord
Strafford. Joseph was the eldest of five children, and was early
destined to follow the plough. After receiving a small amount of
education at the village school, he was set to work upon the farm.
From an early period he showed signs of constructive skill. When a
mere boy, he occupied his leisure hours in making musical instruments,
and he succeeded in executing some creditable pieces of work with very
imperfect tools. A violin, which he made out of a solid block of wood,
was long preserved as a curiosity. He was so fortunate as to make a
friend of the village blacksmith, whose smithy he was in the practice
of frequenting. The smith was an ingenious workman, and, having taken
a liking for the boy, he made sundry tools for him out of old files and
razor blades; and with these his fiddle and other pieces of work were
mainly executed.
Joseph might have remained a ploughman for life, but for an accident
which happened to his right ankle at the age of 16, which unfitted him
for farm-work. While confined at home disabled he spent his time in
carving and making things in wood; and then it occurred to him that,
though he could not now be a ploughman, he might be a mechanic. When
sufficiently recovered, he was accordingly put apprentice to one
Allott, the village carpenter, under whom he soon became an expert
workman. He could make ploughs, window-frames, or fiddles, with equal
dexterity. He also made violoncellos, and was so fortunate as to sell
one of his making for three guineas, which is still reckoned a good
instrument. He doubtless felt within him the promptings of ambition,
such as every good workman feels, and at all events entertained the
desire of rising in his trade. When his time was out, he accordingly
resolved to seek work in London, whither he made the journey on foot.
He soon found work at a cabinet-maker's, and remained with him for some
time, after which he set up business in a very small way on his own
account. An accident which happened to him in the course of his daily
work, again proved his helper, by affording him a degree of leisure
which he at once proceeded to turn to some useful account. Part of his
business consisted in putting up water-closets, after a method invented
or improved by a Mr. Allen; but the article was still very imperfect;
and Bramah had long resolved that if he could only secure some leisure
for the purpose, he would contrive something that should supersede it
altogether. A severe fall which occurred to him in the course of his
business, and laid him up, though very much against his will, now
afforded him the leisure which he desired, and he proceeded to make his
proposed invention. He took out a patent for it in 1778, describing
himself in the specification as "of Cross Court, Carnaby Market [Golden
Square], Middlesex, Cabinet Maker." He afterwards removed to a shop in
Denmark Street, St. Giles's, and while there he made a further
improvement in his invention by the addition of a water cock, which he
patented in 1783. The merits of the machine were generally recognised,
and before long it came into extensive use, continuing to be employed,
with but few alterations, until the present day. His circumstances
improving with the increased use of his invention, Bramah proceeded to
undertake the manufacture of the pumps, pipes, &c., required for its
construction; and, remembering his friend the Yorkshire blacksmith, who
had made his first tools for him out of the old files and razor-blades,
he sent for him to London to take charge of his blacksmith's
department, in which he proved a most useful assistant. As usual, the
patent was attacked by pirates so soon as it became productive, and
Bramah was under the necessity, on more than one occasion, of defending
his property in the invention, in which he was completely successful.
We next find Bramah turning his attention to the invention of a lock
that should surpass all others then known. The locks then in use were
of a very imperfect character, easily picked by dexterous thieves,
against whom they afforded little protection. Yet locks are a very
ancient invention, though, as in many other cases, the art of making
them seems in a great measure to have become lost, and accordingly had
to be found out anew. Thus the tumbler lock--which consists in the use
of moveable impediments acted on by the proper key only, as
contradistinguished from the ordinary ward locks, where the impediments
are fixed--appears to have been well known to the ancient Egyptians,
the representation of such a lock being found sculptured among the
bas-reliefs which decorate the great temple at Karnak. This kind of
lock was revived, or at least greatly improved, by a Mr. Barron in
1774, and it was shortly after this time that Bramah directed his
attention to the subject. After much study and many experiments, he
contrived a lock more simple, more serviceable, as well as more secure,
than Barron's, as is proved by the fact that it has stood the test of
nearly eighty years' experience,[1] and still holds its ground. For a
long time, indeed, Bramah's lock was regarded as absolutely inviolable,
and it remained unpicked for sixty-seven years until Hobbs the American
mastered it in 1851. A notice had long been exhibited in Bramah's
shop-window in Piccadilly, offering 200L. to any one who should succeed
in picking the patent lock. Many tried, and all failed, until Hobbs
succeeded, after sixteen days' manipulation of it with various
elaborate instruments. But the difficulty with which the lock was
picked showed that, for all ordinary purposes, it might be pronounced
impregnable.
The new locks were machines of the most delicate kind, the action of
which depended in a great measure upon the precision with which the
springs, sliders, levers, barrels, and other parts were finished. The
merits of the invention being generally admitted, there was a
considerable demand for the locks, and the necessity thus arose for
inventing a series of original machine-tools to enable them to be
manufactured in sufficient quantities to meet the demand. It is
probable, indeed, that, but for the contrivance of such tools, the lock
could never have come in to general use, as the skill of hand-workmen,
no matter how experienced, could not have been relied upon for turning
out the article with that degree of accuracy and finish in all the
parts which was indispensable for its proper action. In conducting the
manufacture throughout, Bramah was greatly assisted by Henry Maudslay,
his foreman, to whom he was in no small degree indebted for the
contrivance of those tool-machines which enabled him to carry on the
business of lock-making with advantage and profit.
Bramah's indefatigable spirit of invention was only stimulated to fresh
efforts by the success of his lock; and in the course of a few years we
find him entering upon a more important and original line of action
than he had yet ventured on. His patent of 1785 shows the direction of
his studies. Watt had invented his steam-engine, which was coming into
general use; and the creation of motive-power in various other forms
became a favourite subject of inquiry with inventors. Bramah's first
invention with this object was his Hydrostatic Machine, founded on the
doctrine of the equilibrium of pressure in fluids, as exhibited in the
well known 'hydrostatic paradox.' In his patent of 1785, in which he no
longer describes himself as Cabinet maker, but 'Engine maker' of
Piccadilly, he indicated many inventions, though none of them came into
practical use,--such as a Hydrostatical Machine and Boiler, and the
application of the power produced by them to the drawing of carriages,
and the propelling of ships by a paddle-wheel fixed in the stern of the
vessel, of which drawings are annexed to the specification; but it was
not until 1795 that he patented his Hydrostatic or Hydraulic Press.
Though the principle on which the Hydraulic Press is founded had long
been known, and formed the subject of much curious speculation, it
remained unproductive of results until a comparatively recent period,
when the idea occurred of applying it to mechanical purposes. A
machine of the kind was indeed proposed by Pascal, the eminent
philosopher, in 1664, but more than a century elapsed before the
difficulties in the way of its construction were satisfactorily
overcome. Bramah's machine consists of a large and massive cylinder,
in which there works an accurately-fitted solid piston or plunger. A
forcing-pump of very small bore communicates with the bottom of the
cylinder, and by the action of the pump-handle or lever, exceeding
small quantities of water are forced in succession beneath the piston
in the large cylinder, thus gradually raising it up, and compressing
bodies whose bulk or volume it is intended to reduce. Hence it is most
commonly used as a packing-press, being superior to every other
contrivance of the kind that has yet been invented; and though
exercising a prodigious force, it is so easily managed that a boy can
work it. The machine has been employed on many extraordinary occasions
in preference to other methods of applying power. Thus Robert
Stephenson used it to hoist the gigantic tubes of the Britannia Bridge
into their bed,[2] and Brunel to launch the Great Eastern steamship
from her cradles. It has also been used to cut bars of iron, to draw
the piles driven in forming coffer dams, and to wrench up trees by the
roots, all of which feats it accomplishes with comparative ease.
The principal difficulty experienced in constructing the hydraulic
press before the time of Bramah arose from the tremendous pressure
exercised by the pump, which forced the water through between the solid
piston and the side of the cylinder in which it worked in such
quantities as to render the press useless for practical purposes.
Bramah himself was at first completely baffled by this difficulty. It
will be observed that the problem was to secure a joint sufficiently
free to let the piston slide up through it, and at the same time so
water-tight as to withstand the internal force of the pump. These two
conditions seemed so conflicting that Bramah was almost at his wit's
end, and for a time despaired of being able to bring the machine to a
state of practical efficiency. None but those who have occupied
themselves in the laborious and often profitless task of helping the
world to new and useful machines can have any idea of the tantalizing
anxiety which arises from the apparently petty stumbling-blocks which
for awhile impede the realization of a great idea in mechanical
invention. Such was the case with the water-tight arrangement in the
hydraulic press. In his early experiments, Bramah tried the expedient
of the ordinary stuffing-box for the purpose of securing the required
water tightness' That is, a coil of hemp on leather washers was placed
in a recess, so as to fit tightly round the moving ram or piston, and
it was further held in its place by means of a compressing collar
forced hard down by strong screws. The defect of this arrangement was,
that, even supposing the packing could be made sufficiently tight to
resist the passage of the water urged by the tremendous pressure from
beneath, such was the grip which the compressed material took of the
ram of the press, that it could not be got to return down after the
water pressure had been removed.
In this dilemma, Bramah's ever-ready workman, Henry Maudslay, came to
his rescue. The happy idea occurred to him of employing the pressure
of the water itself to give the requisite water-tightness to the
collar. It was a flash of common-sense genius--beautiful through its
very simplicity. The result was Maudslay's self-tightening collar, the
action of which a few words of description will render easily
intelligible. A collar of sound leather, the convex side upwards and
the concave downwards, was fitted into the recess turned out in the
neck of the press-cylinder, at the place formerly used as a
stuffing-box. Immediately on the high pressure water being turned on,
it forced its way into the leathern concavity and 'flapped out' the
bent edges of the collar; and, in so doing, caused the leather to apply
itself to the surface of the rising ram with a degree of closeness and
tightness so as to seal up the joint the closer exactly in proportion
to the pressure of the water in its tendency to escape. On the other
hand, the moment the pressure was let off and the ram desired to
return, the collar collapsed and the ram slid gently down, perfectly
free and yet perfectly water-tight. Thus, the former tendency of the
water to escape by the side of the piston was by this most simple and
elegant self-adjusting contrivance made instrumental to the perfectly
efficient action of the machine; and from the moment of its invention
the hydraulic press took its place as one of the grandest agents for
exercising power in a concentrated and tranquil form.
Bramah continued his useful labours as an inventor for many years. His
study of the principles of hydraulics, in the course of his invention
of the press, enabled him to introduce many valuable improvements in
pumping-machinery. By varying the form of the piston and cylinder he
was enabled to obtain a rotary motion,[3] which he advantageously
applied to many purposes. Thus he adopted it in the well known
fire-engine, the use of which has almost become universal. Another
popular machine of his is the beer-pump, patented in 1797, by which the
publican is enabled to raise from the casks in the cellar beneath, the
various liquors sold by him over the counter. He also took out several
patents for the improvement of the steam-engine, in which, however,
Watt left little room for other inventors; and hence Bramah seems to
have entertained a grudge against Watt, which broke out fiercely in the
evidence given by him in the case of Boulton and Watt versus Hornblower
and Maberly, tried in December 1796. On that occasion his temper seems
to have got the better of his judgment, and he was cut short by the
judge in the attempt which he then made to submit the contents of the
pamphlet subsequently published by him in the form of a letter to the
judge before whom the case was tried.[4] In that pamphlet he argued
that Watt's specification had no definite meaning; that it was
inconsistent and absurd, and could not possibly be understood; that the
proposal to work steam-engines on the principle of condensation was
entirely fallacious; that Watt's method of packing the piston was
"monstrous stupidity;" that the engines of Newcomen (since entirely
superseded) were infinitely superior, in all respects, to those of
Watt;--conclusions which, we need scarcely say, have been refuted by
the experience of nearly a century.
On the expiry of Boulton and Watt's patent, Bramah introduced several
valuable improvements in the details of the condensing engine, which
had by that time become an established power,--the most important of
which was his "four-way cock," which he so arranged as to revolve
continuously instead of alternately, thus insuring greater precision
with considerably less wear of parts. In the same patent by which he
secured this invention in 1801, he also proposed sundry improvements in
the boilers, as well as modifications in various parts of the engine,
with the object of effecting greater simplicity and directness of
action.
In his patent of 1802, we find Bramah making another great stride in
mechanical invention, in his tools "for producing straight, smooth, and
parallel surfaces on wood and other materials requiring truth, in a
manner much more expeditious and perfect than can be performed by the
use of axes, saws, planes, and other cutting instruments used by hand
in the ordinary way." The specification describes the object of the
invention to be the saving of manual labour, the reduction in the cost
of production, and the superior character of the work executed. The
tools were fixed on frames driven by machinery, some moving in a rotary
direction round an upright shaft, some with the shaft horizontal like
an ordinary wood-turning lathe, while in others the tools were fixed on
frames sliding in stationary grooves. A wood-planing machine[5] was
constructed on the principle of this invention at Woolwich Arsenal,
where it still continues in efficient use. The axis of the principal
shaft was supported on a piston in a vessel of oil, which considerably
diminished the friction, and it was so contrived as to be accurately
regulated by means of a small forcing-pump. Although the machinery
described in the patent was first applied to working on wood, it was
equally applicable to working on metals; and in his own shops at
Pimlico Bramah employed a machine with revolving cutters to plane
metallic surfaces for his patent locks and other articles. He also
introduced a method of turning spherical surfaces, either convex or
concave, by a tool moveable on an axis perpendicular to that of the
lathe; and of cutting out concentric shells by fixing in a similar
manner a curved tool of nearly the same form as that employed by common
turners for making bowls. "In fact," says Mr. Mallet, "Bramah not only
anticipated, but carried out upon a tolerably large scale in his own
works--for the construction of the patent hydraulic press, the
water-closet, and his locks--a surprisingly large proportion of our
modern tools." [6] His remarkable predilection in favour of the use of
hydraulic arrangements is displayed in his specification of the
surface-planing machinery, which includes a method of running pivots
entirely on a fluid, and raising and depressing them at pleasure by
means of a small forcing-pump and stop-cock,--though we are not aware
that any practical use has ever been made of this part of the invention.
Bramah's inventive genius displayed itself alike in small things as in
great--in a tap wherewith to draw a glass of beer, and in a hydraulic
machine capable of tearing up a tree by the roots. His powers of
contrivance seemed inexhaustible, and were exercised on the most
various subjects. When any difficulty occurred which mechanical
ingenuity was calculated to remove, recourse was usually had to Bramah,
and he was rarely found at a loss for a contrivance to overcome it.
Thus, when applied to by the Bank of England in 1806, to construct a
machine for more accurately and expeditiously printing the numbers and
date lines on Bank notes, he at once proceeded to invent the requisite
model, which he completed in the course of a month. He subsequently
brought it to great perfection the figures in numerical succession
being changed by the action of the machine itself,--and it still
continues in regular use. Its employment in the Bank of England alone
saved the labour of a hundred clerks; but its chief value consisted in
its greater accuracy, the perfect legibility of the figures printed by
it, and the greatly improved check which it afforded.
We next find him occupying himself with inventions connected with the
manufacture of pens and paper. His little pen-making machine for
readily making quill pens long continued in use, until driven out by
the invention of the steel pen; but his patent for making paper by
machinery, though ingenious, like everything he did, does not seem to
have been adopted, the inventions of Fourdrinier and Donkin in this
direction having shortly superseded all others. Among his other minor
inventions may be mentioned his improved method of constructing and
sledging carriage-wheels, and his improved method of laying
water-pipes. In his specification of the last-mentioned invention, he
included the application of water-power to the driving of machinery of
every description, and for hoisting and lowering goods in docks and
warehouses,--since carried out in practice, though in a different
manner, by Sir William Armstrong.[7] In this, as in many other
matters, Bramah shot ahead of the mechanical necessities of his time;
and hence many of his patents (of which he held at one time more than
twenty) proved altogether profitless. His last patent, taken out in
1814, was for the application of Roman cement to timber for the purpose
of preventing dry rot.
Besides his various mechanical pursuits, Bramah also followed to a
certain extent the profession of a civil engineer, though his more
urgent engagements rendered it necessary for him to refuse many
advantageous offers of employment in this line. He was, however, led
to carry out the new water-works at Norwich, between the years 1790 and
1793, in consequence of his having been called upon to give evidence in
a dispute between the corporation of that city and the lessees, in the
course of which he propounded plans which, it was alleged, could not be
carried out. To prove that they could be carried out, and that his
evidence was correct, he undertook the new works, and executed them
with complete success; besides demonstrating in a spirited publication
elicited by the controversy, the insufficiency and incongruity of the
plans which had been submitted by the rival engineer.
For some time prior to his death Bramah had been employed in the
erection of several large machines in his works at Pimlico for sawing
stone and timber, to which he applied his hydraulic power with great
success. New methods of building bridges and canal-locks, with a
variety of other matters, were in an embryo state in his mind, but he
did not live to complete them. He was occupied in superintending the
action of his hydrostatic press at Holt Forest, in Hants--where upwards
of 300 trees of the largest dimensions were in a very short time torn
up by the roots,--when he caught a severe cold, which settled upon his
lungs, and his life was suddenly brought to a close on the 9th of
December, 1814, in his 66th year.
His friend, Dr. Cullen Brown,[8] has said of him, that Bramah was a man
of excellent moral character, temperate in his habits, of a pious turn
of mind,[9] and so cheerful in temperament, that he was the life of
every company into which he entered. To much facility of expression he
added the most perfect independence of opinion; he was a benevolent and
affectionate man; neat and methodical in his habits, and knew well how
to temper liberality with economy. Greatly to his honour, he often
kept his workmen employed, solely for their sake, when stagnation of
trade prevented him disposing of the products of their labour. As a
manufacturer he was distinguished for his promptitude and probity, and
he was celebrated for the exquisite finish which he gave to all his
productions. In this excellence of workmanship, which he was the first
to introduce, he continued while he lived to be unrivalled.
Bramah was deservedly honoured and admired as the first mechanical
genius of his time, and as the founder of the art of tool-making in its
highest branches. From his shops at Pimlico came Henry Maudslay,
Joseph Clement, and many more first-class mechanics, who carried the
mechanical arts to still higher perfection, and gave an impulse to
mechanical engineering, the effects of which are still felt in every
branch of industry.
The parish to which Bramah belonged was naturally proud of the
distinction he had achieved in the world, and commemorated his life and
career by a marble tablet erected by subscription to his memory, in the
parish church of Silkstone. In the churchyard are found the tombstones
of Joseph's father, brother, and other members of the family; and we
are informed that their descendants still occupy the farm at
Stainborough on which the great mechanician was born.
[1] The lock invented by Bramah was patented in 1784. Mr. Bramah
himself fully set forth the specific merits of the invention in his
Dissertation on the Construction of Locks. In a second patent, taken
out by him in 1798, he amended his first with the object of preventing
the counterfeiting of keys, and suspending the office of the lock until
the key was again in the possession of the owner. This he effected by
enabling the owner so to alter the sliders as to render the lock
inaccessible to such key if applied by any other person but himself, or
until the sliders had been rearranged so as to admit of its proper
action. We may mention in passing that the security of Bramah's locks
depends on the doctrine of combinations, or multiplication of numbers
into each other, which is known to increase in the most rapid
proportion. Thus, a lock of five slides admits of 3,000 variations,
while one of eight will have no less than 1,935,360 changes; in other
words, that number of attempts at making a key, or at picking it, may
be made before it can be opened.
[2] The weight raised by a single press at the Britannia Bridge was
1144 tons.
[3] Dr. Thomas Young, in his article on Bramah in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, describes the "rotative principle" as consisting in making
the part which acts immediately on the water in the form of a slider,
"sweeping round a cylindrical cavity, and kept in its place by means of
an eccentric groove; a contrivance which was probably Bramah's own
invention, but which had been before described, in a form nearly
similar, by Ramelli, Canalleri, Amontons, Prince Rupert, and Dr. Hooke.
[4] A Letter to the Right Hon. Sir James Eyre, Lord Chief Justice of
the Common Pleas, on the subject of the cause Boulton and Watt v.
Hornblower and Maberly, for Infringement on Mr. Watt's Patent for an
Improvement of the Steam Engine. By Joseph Bramah, Engineer. London,
1797.
[5] Sir Samuel Bentham and Marc Isambard Brunel subsequently
distinguished themselves by the invention of wood-working machinery,
full accounts of which will be found in the Memoirs of the former by
Lady Bentham, and in the Life of the latter by Mr. Beamish.
[6] "Record of the International Exhibition, 1862." Practical
Mechanic's Journal, 293.
[7] In this, as in other methods of employing power, the moderns had
been anticipated by the ancients; and though hydraulic machinery is a
comparatively recent invention in England, it had long been in use
abroad. Thus we find in Dr. Bright's Travels in Lower Hungary a full
description of the powerful hydraulic machinery invented by M. Holl,
Chief Engineer of the Imperial Mines, which had been in use since the
year 1749, in pumping water from a depth of 1800 feet, from the silver
and gold mines of Schemnitz and Kremnitz. A head of water was
collected by forming a reservoir along the mountain side, from which it
was conducted through water-tight cast-iron pipes erected
perpendicularly in the mine-shaft. About forty-five fathoms down, the
water descending through the pipe was forced by the weight of the
column above it into the bottom of a perpendicular cylinder, in which
it raised a water-tight piston. When forced up to a given point a
self-acting stop-cock shut off the pressure of the descending column,
while a self-acting valve enabled the water contained in the cylinder
to be discharged, on which the piston again descended, and the process
was repeated like the successive strokes of a steam-engine. Pump-rods
were attached to this hydraulic apparatus, which were carried to the
bottom of the shaft, and each worked a pump at different levels,
raising the water stage by stage to the level of the main adit. The
pumps of these three several stages each raised 1790 cubic feet of
water from a depth of 600 feet in the hour. The regular working of the
machinery was aided by the employment of a balance-beam connected by a
chain with the head of the large piston and pump-rods; and the whole of
these powerful machines by means of three of which as much as 789,840
gallons of water were pumped out of the mines every 24 hours--were set
in operation and regulated merely by the turning of a stopcock. It
will be observed that the arrangement thus briefly described was
equally applicable to the working of machinery of all kinds, cranes,
&c., as well as pumps; and it will be noted that, notwithstanding the
ingenuity of Bramah, Armstrong, and other eminent English mechanics,
the Austrian engineer Holl was thus decidedly beforehand with them in
the practical application of the principles of hydrostatics.
[8] Dr. Brown published a brief memoir of his friend in the New Monthly
Magazine for April, 1815, which has been the foundation of all the
notices of Bramah's life that have heretofore appeared.
[9] Notwithstanding his well-known religious character, Bramah seems to
have fallen under the grievous displeasure of William Huntington, S.S.
(Sinner Saved), described by Macaulay in his youth as "a worthless ugly
lad of the name of Hunter," and in his manhood as "that remarkable
impostor" (Essays, 1 vol. ed. 529). It seems that Huntington sought
the professional services of Bramah when re-edifying his chapel in
1793; and at the conclusion of the work, the engineer generously sent
the preacher a cheque for 8L. towards defraying the necessary expenses.
Whether the sum was less than Huntington expected, or from whatever
cause, the S.S. contemptuously flung back the gift, as proceeding from
an Arian whose religion was "unsavoury," at the same time hurling at
the giver a number of texts conveying epithets of an offensive
character. Bramah replied to the farrago of nonsense, which he
characterised as "unmannerly, absurd, and illiterate that it must have
been composed when the writer was intoxicated, mad, or under the
influence of Lucifer," and he threatened that unless Huntington
apologised for his gratuitous insults, he (Bramah) would assuredly
expose him. The mechanician nevertheless proceeded gravely to explain
and defend his "profession of faith," which was altogether unnecessary.
On this Huntington returned to the charge, and directed against the
mechanic a fresh volley of Scripture texts and phraseology, not without
humour, if profanity be allowable in controversy, as where he says,
"Poor man! he makes a good patent lock, but cuts a sad figure with the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven!" "What Mr. Bramah is," says S.S., "In
respect to his character or conduct in life, as a man, a tradesman, a
neighbour, a gentleman, a husband, friend, master, or subject, I know
not. In all these characters he may shine as a comet for aught I know;
but he appears to me to be as far from any resemblance to a poor
penitent or broken-hearted sinner as Jannes, Jambres, or Alexander the
coppersmith!" Bramah rejoined by threatening to publish his
assailant's letters, but Huntington anticipated him in A Feeble Dispute
with a Wise and Learned Man, 8vo. London, 1793, in which, whether
justly or not, Huntington makes Bramah appear to murder the king's
English in the most barbarous manner.
CHAPTER XII.
HENRY MAUDSLAY.
"The successful construction of all machinery depends on the perfection
of the tools employed; and whoever is a master in the arts of
tool-making possesses the key to the construction of all machines.....
The contrivance and construction of tools must therefore ever stand at
the head of the industrial arts."--C. BABBAGE, Exposition of 1851.
Henry Maudslay was born at Woolwich towards the end of last century, in
a house standing in the court at the back of the Salutation Inn, the
entrance to which is nearly opposite the Arsenal gates. His father was
a native of Lancashire, descended from an old family of the same name,
the head of which resided at Mawdsley Hall near Ormskirk at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. The family were afterwards
scattered, and several of its members became workmen. William
Maudslay, the father of Henry, belonged to the neighbourhood of Bolton,
where he was brought up to the trade of a joiner. His principal
employment, while working at his trade in Lancashire, consisted in
making the wood framing of cotton machinery, in the construction of
which cast-iron had not yet been introduced. Having got into some
trouble in his neighbourhood, through some alleged LIAISON, William
enlisted in the Royal Artillery, and the corps to which he belonged was
shortly after sent out to the West Indies. He was several times
engaged in battle, and in his last action he was hit by a musket-bullet
in the throat. The soldier's stock which he wore had a piece cut out
of it by the ball, the direction of which was diverted, and though
severely wounded, his life was saved. He brought home the stock and
preserved it as a relic, afterwards leaving it to his son. Long after,
the son would point to the stock, hung up against his wall, and say
"But for that bit of leather there would have been no Henry Maudslay."
The wounded artilleryman was invalided and sent home to Woolwich, the
headquarters of his corps, where he was shortly after discharged.
Being a handy workman, he sought and obtained employment at the
Arsenal. He was afterwards appointed a storekeeper in the Dockyard.
It was during the former stage of William Maudslay's employment at
Woolwich, that the subject of this memoir was born in the house in the
court above mentioned, on the 22nd of August, 1771.
The boy was early set to work. When twelve years old he was employed
as a "powder-monkey," in making and filling cartridges. After two
years, he was passed on to the carpenter's shop where his father
worked, and there he became acquainted with tools and the art of
working in wood and iron. From the first, the latter seems to have had
by far the greatest charms for him. The blacksmiths' shop was close to
the carpenters', and Harry seized every opportunity that offered of
plying the hammer, the file, and the chisel, in preference to the saw
and the plane. Many a cuff did the foreman of carpenters give him for
absenting himself from his proper shop and stealing off to the smithy.
His propensity was indeed so strong that, at the end of a year, it was
thought better, as he was a handy, clever boy, to yield to his earnest
desire to be placed in the smithy, and he was removed thither
accordingly in his fifteenth year.
His heart being now in his work, he made rapid progress, and soon
became an expert smith and metal worker. He displayed his skill
especially in forging light ironwork; and a favourite job of his was
the making of "Trivets" out of the solid, which only the "dab hands" of
the shop could do, but which he threw off with great rapidity in first
rate style. These "Trivets" were made out of Spanish iron bolts--rare
stuff, which, though exceedingly tough, forged like wax under the
hammer. Even at the close of his life, when he had acquired eminent
distinction as an inventor, and was a large employer of skilled labour,
he looked back with pride to the forging of his early days in Woolwich
Arsenal. He used to describe with much gusto, how the old experienced
hands, with whom he was a great favourite, would crowd about him when
forging his "Trivets," some of which may to this day be in use among
Woolwich housewives for supporting the toast-plate before the bright
fire against tea time. This was, however, entirely contraband work,
done "on the sly," and strictly prohibited by the superintending
officer, who used kindly to signal his approach by blowing his nose in
a peculiar manner, so that all forbidden jobs might be put out of the
way by the time he entered the shop.
We have referred to Maudslay's early dexterity in trivet-making--a
circumstance trifling enough in itself--for the purpose of illustrating
the progress which he had made in a branch of his art of the greatest
importance in tool and machine making. Nothing pleased him more in his
after life than to be set to work upon an unusual piece of forging, and
to overcome, as none could do so cleverly as he, the difficulties which
it presented. The pride of art was as strong in him as it must have
been in the mediaeval smiths, who turned out those beautiful pieces of
workmanship still regarded as the pride of our cathedrals and old
mansions. In Maudslay's case, his dexterity as a smith was eventually
directed to machinery, rather than ornamental work; though, had the
latter been his line of labour, we do not doubt that he would have
reached the highest distinction.
The manual skill which our young blacksmith had acquired was such as to
give him considerable reputation in his craft, and he was spoken of
even in the London shops as one of the most dexterous hands in the
trade. It was this circumstance that shortly after led to his removal
from the smithy in Woolwich Arsenal to a sphere more suitable for the
development of his mechanical ability.
We have already stated in the preceding memoir, that Joseph Bramah took
out the first patent for his lock in 1784, and a second for its
improvement several years later; but notwithstanding the acknowledged
superiority of the new lock over all others, Bramah experienced the
greatest difficulty in getting it manufactured with sufficient
precision, and at such a price as to render it an article of extensive
commerce. This arose from the generally inferior character of the
workmanship of that day, as well as the clumsiness and uncertainty of
the tools then in use. Bramah found that even the best manual
dexterity was not to be trusted, and yet it seemed to be his only
resource; for machine-tools of a superior kind had not yet been
invented. In this dilemma he determined to consult an ingenious old
German artisan, then working with William Moodie, a general blacksmith
in Whitechapel. This German was reckoned one of the most ingenious
workmen in London at the time. Bramah had several long interviews with
him, with the object of endeavouring to solve the difficult problem of
how to secure precise workmanship in lock-making. But they could not
solve it; they saw that without better tools the difficulty was
insuperable; and then Bramah began to fear that his lock would remain a
mere mechanical curiosity, and be prevented from coming into general
use.
He was indeed sorely puzzled what next to do, when one of the hammermen
in Moodie's shop ventured to suggest that there was a young man in the
Woolwich Arsenal smithy, named Maudslay, who was so ingenious in such
matters that "nothing bet him," and he recommended that Mr. Bramah
should have a talk with him upon the subject of his difficulty.
Maudslay was at once sent for to Bramah's workshop, and appeared before
the lock-maker, a tall, strong, comely young fellow, then only eighteen
years old. Bramah was almost ashamed to lay his case before such a
mere youth; but necessity constrained him to try all methods of
accomplishing his object, and Maudslay's suggestions in reply to his
statement of the case were so modest, so sensible, and as the result
proved, so practical, that the master was constrained to admit that the
lad before him had an old head though set on young shoulders. Bramah
decided to adopt the youth's suggestions, made him a present on the
spot, and offered to give him a job if he was willing to come and work
in a town shop. Maudslay gladly accepted the offer, and in due time
appeared before Bramah to enter upon his duties.
As Maudslay had served no regular apprenticeship, and was of a very
youthful appearance, the foreman of the shop had considerable doubts as
to his ability to take rank alongside his experienced hands. But
Maudslay soon set his master's and the foreman's mind at rest.
Pointing to a worn-out vice-bench, he said to Bramah, "Perhaps if I can
make that as good as new by six o'clock to-night, it will satisfy your
foreman that I am entitled to rank as a tradesman and take my place
among your men, even though I have not served a seven years'
apprenticeship." There was so much self-reliant ability in the
proposal, which was moreover so reasonable, that it was at once acceded
to. Off went Maudslay's coat, up went his shirt sleeves, and to work
he set with a will upon the old bench. The vice-jaws were re-steeled
"in no time," filed up, re-cut, all the parts cleaned and made trim,
and set into form again. By six o'clock, the old vice was screwed up
to its place, its jaws were hardened and "let down" to proper temper,
and the old bench was made to look so smart and neat that it threw all
the neighbouring benches into the shade! Bramah and his foreman came
round to see it, while the men of the shop looked admiringly on. It
was examined and pronounced "a first-rate job." This diploma piece of
work secured Maudslay's footing, and next Monday morning he came on as
one of the regular hands.
He soon took rank in the shop as a first-class workman. Loving his
art, he aimed at excellence in it, and succeeded. For it must be
understood that the handicraftsman whose heart is in his calling, feels
as much honest pride in turning out a piece of thoroughly good
workmanship, as the sculptor or the painter does in executing a statue
or a picture. In course of time, the most difficult and delicate jobs
came to be entrusted to Maudslay; and nothing gave him greater pleasure
than to be set to work upon an entirely new piece of machinery. And
thus he rose, naturally and steadily, from hand to head work. For his
manual dexterity was the least of his gifts. He possessed an intuitive
power of mechanical analysis and synthesis. He had a quick eye to
perceive the arrangements requisite to effect given purposes; and
whenever a difficulty arose, his inventive mind set to work to overcome
it.
His fellow-workmen were not slow to recognise his many admirable
qualities, of hand, mind, and heart; and he became not only the
favourite, but the hero of the shop. Perhaps he owed something to his
fine personal appearance. Hence on gala-days, when the men turned out
in procession, "Harry" was usually selected to march at their head and
carry the flag. His conduct as a son, also, was as admirable as his
qualities as a workman. His father dying shortly after Maudslay
entered Bramah's concern, he was accustomed to walk down to Woolwich
every Saturday night, and hand over to his mother, for whom he had the
tenderest regard, a considerable share of his week's wages, and this he
continued to do as long as she lived.
Notwithstanding his youth, he was raised from one post to another,
until he was appointed, by unanimous consent, the head foreman of the
works; and was recognised by all who had occasion to do business there
as "Bramah's right-hand man." He not only won the heart of his master,
but--what proved of far greater importance to him--he also won the
heart of his master's pretty housemaid, Sarah Tindel by name, whom he
married, and she went hand-in-hand with him through life, an admirable
"help meet," in every way worthy of the noble character of the great
mechanic. Maudslay was found especially useful by his master in
devising the tools for making his patent locks; and many were the
beautiful contrivances which he invented for the purpose of ensuring
their more accurate and speedy manufacture, with a minimum degree of
labour, and without the need of any large amount of manual dexterity on
the part of the workman. The lock was so delicate a machine, that the
identity of the several parts of which it was composed was found to be
an absolute necessity. Mere handicraft, however skilled, could not
secure the requisite precision of workmanship; nor could the parts be
turned out in sufficient quantity to meet any large demand. It was
therefore requisite to devise machine-tools which should not blunder,
nor turn out imperfect work;--machines, in short, which should be in a
great measure independent of the want of dexterity of individual
workmen, but which should unerringly labour in their prescribed track,
and do the work set them, even in the minutest details, after the
methods designed by their inventor. In this department Maudslay was
eminently successful, and to his laborious ingenuity, as first
displayed in Bramah's workshops, and afterwards in his own
establishment, we unquestionably owe much of the power and accuracy of
our present self-acting machines.
Bramah himself was not backward in admitting that to Henry Maudslay's
practical skill in contriving the machines for manufacturing his locks
on a large scale, the success of his invention was in a great degree
attributable. In further proof of his manual dexterity, it may be
mentioned that he constructed with his own hands the identical padlock
which so severely tested the powers of Mr. Hobbs in 1851. And when it
is considered that the lock had been made for more than half a century,
and did not embody any of the modern improvements, it will perhaps be
regarded not only as creditable to the principles on which it was
constructed, but to the workmanship of its maker, that it should so
long have withstood the various mechanical dexterity to which it was
exposed.
Besides the invention of improved machine-tools for the manufacture of
locks, Maudslay was of further service to Bramah in applying the
expedient to his famous Hydraulic Press, without which it would
probably have remained an impracticable though a highly ingenious
machine. As in other instances of great inventions, the practical
success of the whole is often found to depend upon the action of some
apparently trifling detail. This was especially the case with the
hydraulic press; to which Maudslay added the essential feature of the
self-tightening collar, above described in the memoir of Bramah. Mr.
James Nasmyth is our authority for ascribing this invention to
Maudslay, who was certainly quite competent to have made it; and it is
a matter of fact that Bramah's specification of the press says nothing
of the hollow collar,[1] on which its efficient action mainly depends.
Mr. Nasmyth says--"Maudslay himself told me, or led me to believe, that
it was he who invented the self-tightening collar for the hydraulic
press, without which it would never have been a serviceable machine.
As the self-tightening collar is to the hydraulic press, so is the
steamblast to the locomotive. It is the one thing needful that has
made it effective in practice. If Maudslay was the inventor of the
collar, that one contrivance ought to immortalize him. He used to tell
me of it with great gusto, and I have no reason to doubt the
correctness of his statement." Whoever really struck out the idea of
the collar, displayed the instinct of the true inventor, who invariably
seeks to accomplish his object by the adoption of the simplest possible
means.
During the time that Maudslay held the important office of manager of
Bramah's works, his highest wages were not more than thirty shillings
a-week. He himself thought that he was worth more to his master--as
indeed he was,--and he felt somewhat mortified that he should have to
make an application for an advance; but the increasing expenses of his
family compelled him in a measure to do so. His application was
refused in such a manner as greatly to hurt his sensitive feelings; and
the result was that he threw up his situation, and determined to begin
working on his own account.
His first start in business was in the year 1797, in a small workshop
and smithy situated in Wells Street, Oxford Street. It was in an awful
state of dirt and dilapidation when he became its tenant. He entered
the place on a Friday, but by the Saturday evening, with the help of
his excellent wife, he had the shop thoroughly cleaned, whitewashed,
and put in readiness for beginning work on the next Monday morning. He
had then the pleasure of hearing the roar of his own forge-fire, and
the cheering ring of the hammer on his own anvil; and great was the
pride he felt in standing for the first time within his own smithy and
executing orders for customers on his own account. His first customer
was an artist, who gave him an order to execute the iron work of a
large easel, embodying some new arrangements; and the work was
punctually done to his employer's satisfaction. Other orders followed,
and he soon became fully employed. His fame as a first-rate workman
was almost as great as that of his former master; and many who had been
accustomed to do business with him at Pimlico followed him to Wells
Street. Long years after, the thought of these early days of
self-dependence and hard work used to set him in a glow, and he would
dilate to his intimate friends up on his early struggles and his first
successes, which were much more highly prized by him than those of his
maturer years.
With a true love of his craft, Maudslay continued to apply himself, as
he had done whilst working as Bramah's foreman, to the best methods of
ensuring accuracy and finish of work, so as in a measure to be
independent of the carelessness or want of dexterity of the workman.
With this object he aimed at the contrivance of improved machine-tools,
which should be as much self-acting and self-regulating as possible;
and it was while pursuing this study that he wrought out the important
mechanical invention with which his name is usually identified--that of
the Slide Rest. It continued to be his special delight, when engaged
in the execution of any piece of work in which he took a personal
interest, to introduce a system of identity of parts, and to adapt for
the purpose some one or other of the mechanical contrivances with which
his fertile brain was always teeming. Thus it was from his desire to
leave nothing to the chance of mere individual dexterity of hand that
he introduced the slide rest in the lathe, and rendered it one of the
most important of machine-tools. The first device of this kind was
contrived by him for Bramah, in whose shops it continued in practical
use long after he had begun business for himself. "I have seen the
slide rest," says Mr. James Nasmyth, "the first that Henry Maudslay
made, in use at Messrs. Bramah's workshops, and in it were all those
arrangements which are to be found in the most modern slide rest of our
own day,[2] all of which are the legitimate offspring of Maudslay's
original rest. If this tool be yet extant, it ought to be preserved
with the greatest care, for it was the beginning of those mechanical
triumphs which give to the days in which we live so much of their
distinguishing character."
A very few words of explanation will serve to illustrate the importance
of Maudslay's invention. Every person is familiar with the uses of the
common turning-lathe. It is a favourite machine with amateur
mechanics, and its employment is indispensable for the execution of all
kinds of rounded work in wood and metal. Perhaps there is no
contrivance by which the skill of the handicraftsman has been more
effectually aided than by this machine. Its origin is lost in the
shades of antiquity. Its most ancient form was probably the potter's
wheel, from which it advanced, by successive improvements, to its
present highly improved form. It was found that, by whatever means a
substance capable of being cut could be made to revolve with a circular
motion round a fixed right line as a centre, a cutting tool applied to
its surface would remove the inequalities so that any part of such
surface should be equidistant from that centre. Such is the
fundamental idea of the ordinary turning-lathe. The ingenuity and
experience of mechanics working such an instrument enabled them to add
many improvements to it; until the skilful artisan at length produced
not merely circular turning of the most beautiful and accurate
description, but exquisite figure-work, and complicated geometrical
designs, depending upon the cycloidal and eccentric movements which
were from time to time added to the machine.
The artisans of the Middle Ages were very skilful in the use of the
lathe, and turned out much beautiful screen and stall work, still to be
seen in our cathedrals, as well as twisted and swash-work for the
balusters of staircases and other ornamental purposes. English
mechanics seem early to have distinguished themselves as improvers of
the lathe; and in Moxon's 'Treatise on Turning,' published in 1680, we
find Mr. Thomas Oldfield, at the sign of the Flower-de-Luce, near the
Savoy in the Strand, named as an excellent maker of oval-engines and
swash-engines, showing that such machines were then in some demand.
The French writer Plumier[3] also mentions an ingenious modification of
the lathe by means of which any kind of reticulated form could be given
to the work; and, from it's being employed to ornament the handles of
knives, it was called by him the "Machine a manche de Couteau
d'Angleterre." But the French artisans were at that time much better
skilled than the English in the use of tools, and it is most probable
that we owe to the Flemish and French Protestant workmen who flocked
into England in such large numbers during the religious persecutions of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the improvement, if not the
introduction, of the art of turning, as well as many other arts
hereafter to be referred to. It is certain that at the period to which
we refer numerous treatises were published in France on the art of
turning, some of them of a most elaborate character. Such were the
works of De la Hire,[4] who described how every kind of polygon might
be made by the lathe; De la Condamine,[5] who showed how a lathe could
turn all sorts of irregular figures by means of tracers; and of Grand
Jean, Morin,[6] Plumier, Bergeron, and many other writers.
The work of Plumier is especially elaborate, entering into the
construction of the lathe in its various parts, the making of the tools
and cutters, and the different motions to be given to the machine by
means of wheels, eccentrics, and other expedients, amongst which may be
mentioned one very much resembling the slide rest and planing-machine
combined.[7] From this work it appears that turning had long been a
favourite pursuit in France with amateurs of all ranks, who spared no
expense in the contrivance and perfection of elaborate machinery for
the production of complex figures.[8] There was at that time a great
passion for automata in France, which gave rise to many highly
ingenious devices, such as Camus's miniature carriage (made for Louis
XIV. when a child), Degennes' mechanical peacock, Vancanson's duck, and
Maillardet's conjuror. It had the effect of introducing among the
higher order of artists habits of nice and accurate workmanship in
executing delicate pieces of machinery; and the same combination of
mechanical powers which made the steel spider crawl, the duck quack, or
waved the tiny rod of the magician, contributed in future years to
purposes of higher import,--the wheels and pinions, which in these
automata almost eluded the human senses by their minuteness,
reappearing in modern times in the stupendous mechanism of our
self-acting lathes, spinning-mules, and steam-engines.
"In our own country," says Professor Willis, "the literature of this
subject is so defective that it is very difficult to discover what
progress we were making during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries." [9] We believe the fact to be, that the progress made in
England down to the end of last century had been very small indeed, and
that the lathe had experienced little or no improvement until Maudslay
took it in hand. Nothing seems to have been known of the slide rest
until he re-invented it and applied it to the production of machinery
of a far more elaborate character than had ever before been
contemplated as possible. Professor Willis says that Bramah's, in
other words Maudslay's, slide rest of 1794 is so different from that
described in the French 'Encyclopedie in 1772, that the two could not
have had a common origin. We are therefore led to the conclusion that
Maudslay's invention was entirely independent of all that had gone
before, and that he contrived it for the special purpose of overcoming
the difficulties which he himself experienced in turning out duplicate
parts in large numbers. At all events, he was so early and zealous a
promoter of its use, that we think he may, in the eyes of all practical
mechanics, stand as the parent of its introduction to the workshops of
England.
It is unquestionable that at the time when Maudslay began the
improvement of machine-tools, the methods of working in wood and metals
were exceedingly imperfect. Mr. William Fairbairn has stated that when
he first became acquainted with mechanical engineering, about sixty
years ago, there were no self-acting tools; everything was executed by
hand. There were neither planing, slotting, nor shaping machines; and
the whole stock of an engineering or machine establishment might be
summed up in a few ill-constructed lathes, and a few drills and boring
machines of rude construction.[10] Our mechanics were equally backward
in contrivances for working in wood. Thus, when Sir Samuel Bentham
made a tour through the manufacturing districts of England in 1791, he
was surprised to find how little had been done to substitute the
invariable accuracy of machinery for the uncertain dexterity of the
human hand. Steam-power was as yet only employed in driving
spinning-machines, rolling metals, pumping water, and such like
purposes. In the working of wood no machinery had been introduced
beyond the common turning-lathe and some saws, and a few boring tools
used in making blocks for the navy. Even saws worked by inanimate
force for slitting timber, though in extensive use in foreign
countries, were nowhere to be found in Great Britain.[11] As
everything depended on the dexterity of hand and correctness of eye of
the workmen, the work turned out was of very unequal merit, besides
being exceedingly costly. Even in the construction of comparatively
simple machines, the expense was so great as to present a formidable
obstacle to their introduction and extensive use; and but for the
invention of machine-making tools, the use of the steam-engine in the
various forms in which it is now applied for the production of power
could never have become general.
In turning a piece of work on the old-fashioned lathe, the workman
applied and guided his tool by means of muscular strength. The work
was made to revolve, and the turner, holding the cutting tool firmly
upon the long, straight, guiding edge of the rest, along which he
carried it, and pressing its point firmly against the article to be
turned, was thus enabled to reduce its surface to the required size and
shape. Some dexterous turners were able, with practice and
carefulness, to execute very clever pieces of work by this simple
means. But when the article to be turned was of considerable size, and
especially when it was of metal, the expenditure of muscular strength
was so great that the workman soon became exhausted. The slightest
variation in the pressure of the tool led to an irregularity of
surface; and with the utmost care on the workman's part, he could not
avoid occasionally cutting a little too deep, in consequence of which
he must necessarily go over the surface again, to reduce the whole to
the level of that accidentally cut too deep; and thus possibly the job
would be altogether spoiled by the diameter of the article under
operation being made too small for its intended purpose.
The introduction of the slide rest furnished a complete remedy for this
source of imperfection. The principle of the invention consists in
constructing and fitting the rest so that, instead of being screwed
down to one place, and the tool in the hands of the workman travelling
over it, the rest shall itself hold the cutting tool firmly fixed in
it, and slide along the surface of the bench in a direction exactly
parallel with the axis of the work. Before its invention various
methods had been tried with the object of enabling the work to be
turned true independent of the dexterity of the workman. Thus, a
square steel cutter used to be firmly fixed in a bed, along which it
was wedged from point to point of the work, and tolerable accuracy was
in this way secured. But the slide rest was much more easily managed,
and the result was much more satisfactory. All that the workman had to
do, after the tool was firmly fitted into the rest, was merely to turn
a screw-handle, and thus advance the cutter along the face of the work
as required, with an expenditure of strength so slight as scarcely to
be appreciable. And even this labour has now been got rid of; for, by
an arrangement of the gearing, the slide itself has been made
self-acting, and advances with the revolution of the work in the lathe,
which thus supplies the place of the workman's hand. The accuracy of
the turning done by this beautiful yet simple arrangement is as
mechanically perfect as work can be. The pair of steel fingers which
hold the cutting tool firmly in their grasp never tire, and it moves
along the metal to be cut with an accuracy and precision which the
human hand, however skilled, could never equal.
The effects of the introduction of the slide rest were very shortly
felt in all departments of mechanism. Though it had to encounter some
of the ridicule with which new methods of working are usually received,
and for a time was spoken of in derision as "Maudslay's Go-cart,"--its
practical advantages were so decided that it gradually made its way,
and became an established tool in all the best mechanical workshops.
It was found alike capable of executing the most delicate and the most
ponderous pieces of machinery; and as slide-lathes could be
manufactured to any extent, machinery, steam-engines, and all kinds of
metal work could now be turned out in a quantity and at a price that,
but for its use, could never have been practicable. In course of time
various modifications of the machine were introduced--such as the
planing machine, the wheel-cutting machine, and other beautiful tools
on the slide-rest principle,--the result of which has been that
extraordinary development of mechanical production and power which is
so characteristic a feature of the age we live in.
"It is not, indeed, saying at all too much to state," says Mr.
Nasmyth,[12] a most competent judge in such a matter, "that its
influence in improving and extending the use of machinery has been as
great as that produced by the improvement of the steam-engine in
respect to perfecting manufactures and extending commerce, inasmuch as
without the aid of the vast accession to our power of producing perfect
mechanism which it at once supplied, we could never have worked out
into practical and profitable forms the conceptions of those master
minds who, during the last half century, have so successfully pioneered
the way for mankind. The steam-engine itself, which supplies us with
such unbounded power, owes its present perfection to this most
admirable means of giving to metallic objects the most precise and
perfect geometrical forms. How could we, for instance, have good
steam-engines if we had not the means of boring out a true cylinder, or
turning a true piston-rod, or planing a valve face? It is this alone
which has furnished us with the means of carrying into practice the
accumulated result's of scientific investigation on mechanical
subjects. It would be blamable indeed," continues Mr. Nasmyth, "after
having endeavoured to set forth the vast advantages which have been
conferred on the mechanical world, and therefore on mankind generally,
by the invention and introduction of the Slide Rest, were I to suppress
the name of that admirable individual to whom we are indebted for this
powerful agent towards the attainment of mechanical perfection. I
allude to Henry Maudslay, whose useful life was enthusiastically
devoted to the grand object of improving our means of producing perfect
workmanship and machinery: to him we are certainly indebted for the
slide rest, and, consequently, to say the least, we are indirectly so
for the vast benefits which have resulted from the introduction of so
powerful an agent in perfecting our machinery and mechanism generally.
The indefatigable care which he took in inculcating and diffusing among
his workmen, and mechanical men generally, sound ideas of practical
knowledge and refined views of construction, have rendered and ever
will continue to render his name identified with all that is noble in
the ambition of a lover of mechanical perfection."
One of the first uses to which Mr. Maudslay applied the improved slide
rest, which he perfected shortly after beginning business in Margaret
Street, Cavendish Square, was in executing the requisite tools and
machinery required by Mr. (afterwards Sir Marc Isambard) Brunel for
manufacturing ships' blocks. The career of Brunel was of a more
romantic character than falls to the ordinary lot of mechanical
engineers. His father was a small farmer and postmaster, at the
village of Hacqueville, in Normandy, where Marc Isambard was born in
1769. He was early intended for a priest, and educated accordingly.
But he was much fonder of the carpenter's shop than of the school; and
coaxing, entreaty, and punishment alike failed in making a hopeful
scholar of him. He drew faces and plans until his father was almost in
despair. Sent to school at Rouen, his chief pleasure was in watching
the ships along the quays; and one day his curiosity was excited by the
sight of some large iron castings just landed. What were they? How had
they been made? Where did they come from? His eager inquiries were soon
answered. They were parts of an engine intended for the great Paris
water-works; the engine was to pump water by the power of steam; and
the castings had been made in England, and had just been landed from an
English ship. "England!" exclaimed the boy, "ah! when I am a man I
will go see the country where such grand machines are made!" On one
occasion, seeing a new tool in a cutler's window, he coveted it so much
that he pawned his hat to possess it. This was not the right road to
the priesthood; and his father soon saw that it was of no use urging
him further: but the boy's instinct proved truer than the father's
judgment.
It was eventually determined that he should qualify himself to enter
the royal navy, and at seventeen he was nominated to serve in a
corvette as "volontaire d'honneur." His ship was paid off in 1792, and
he was at Paris during the trial of the King. With the incautiousness
of youth he openly avowed his royalist opinions in the cafe which he
frequented. On the very day that Louis was condemned to death, Brunel
had an angry altercation with some ultra-republicans, after which he
called to his dog, "Viens, citoyen!" Scowling looks were turned upon
him, and he deemed it expedient to take the first opportunity of
escaping from the house, which he did by a back-door, and made the best
of his way to Hacqueville. From thence he went to Rouen, and succeeded
in finding a passage on board an American ship, in which he sailed for
New York, having first pledged his affections to an English girl,
Sophia Kingdom, whom he had accidentally met at the house of Mr.
Carpentier, the American consul at Rouen.
Arrived in America, he succeeded in finding employment as assistant
surveyor of a tract of land along the Black River, near Lake Ontario.
In the intervals of his labours he made occasional visits to New York,
and it was there that the first idea of his block-machinery occurred to
him. He carried his idea back with him into the woods, where it often
mingled with his thoughts of Sophia Kingdom, by this time safe in
England after passing through the horrors of a French prison. "My
first thought of the block-machinery," he once said, "was at a dinner
party at Major-General Hamilton's, in New York; my second under an
American tree, when, one day that I was carving letters on its bark,
the turn of one of them reminded me of it, and I thought, 'Ah! my
block! so it must be.' And what do you think were the letters I was
cutting? Of course none other than S. K." Brunel subsequently
obtained some employment as an architect in New York, and promulgated
various plans for improving the navigation of the principal rivers.
Among the designs of his which were carried out, was that of the Park
Theatre at New York, and a cannon foundry, in which he introduced
improvements in casting and boring big guns. But being badly paid for
his work, and a powerful attraction drawing him constantly towards
England, he determined to take final leave of America, which he did in
1799, and landed at Falmouth in the following March. There he again
met Miss Kingdom, who had remained faithful to him during his six long
years of exile, and the pair were shortly after united for life.
Brunel was a prolific inventor. During his residence in America, he
had planned many contrivances in his mind, which he now proceeded to
work out. The first was a duplicate writing and drawing machine, which
he patented. The next was a machine for twisting cotton thread and
forming it into balls; but omitting to protect it by a patent, he
derived no benefit from the invention, though it shortly came into very
general use. He then invented a machine for trimmings and borders for
muslins, lawns, and cambrics,--of the nature of a sewing machine. His
famous block-machinery formed the subject of his next patent.
It may be explained that the making of the blocks employed in the
rigging of ships for raising and lowering the sails, masts, and yards,
was then a highly important branch of manufacture. Some idea may be
formed of the number used in the Royal Navy alone, from the fact that a
74-gun ship required to be provided with no fewer than 1400 blocks of
various sizes. The sheaved blocks used for the running rigging
consisted of the shell, the sheaves, which revolved within the shell,
and the pins which fastened them together. The fabrication of these
articles, though apparently simple, was in reality attended with much
difficulty. Every part had to be fashioned with great accuracy and
precision to ensure the easy working of the block when put together, as
any hitch in the raising or lowering of the sails might, on certain
emergencies, occasion a serious disaster. Indeed, it became clear that
mere hand-work was not to be relied on in the manufacture of these
articles, and efforts were early made to produce them by means of
machinery of the most perfect kind that could be devised. In 1781, Mr.
Taylor, of Southampton, set up a large establishment on the river
Itchen for their manufacture; and on the expiry of his contract, the
Government determined to establish works of their own in Portsmouth
Dockyard, for the purpose at the same time of securing greater economy,
and of being independent of individual makers in the supply of an
article of such importance in the equipment of ships.
Sir Samuel Bentham, who then filled the office of Inspector-General of
Naval Works, was a highly ingenious person, and had for some years been
applying his mind to the invention of improved machinery for working in
wood. He had succeeded in introducing into the royal dockyards
sawing-machines and planing-machines of a superior kind, as well as
block-making machines. Thus the specification of one of his patents,
taken out in 1793, clearly describes a machine for shaping the shells
of the blocks, in a manner similar to that afterwards specified by
Brunel. Bentham had even proceeded with the erection of a building in
Portsmouth Dockyard for the manufacture of the blocks after his method,
the necessary steam-engine being already provided; but with a singular
degree of candour and generosity, on Brunel's method being submitted to
him, Sir Samuel at once acknowledged its superiority to his own, and
promised to recommend its adoption by the authorities in his department.
The circumstance of Mrs. Brunel's brother being Under-Secretary to the
Navy Board at the time, probably led Brunel in the first instance to
offer his invention to the Admiralty. A great deal, however, remained
to be done before he could bring his ideas of the block-machinery into
a definite shape; for there is usually a wide interval between the
first conception of an intricate machine and its practical realization.
Though Brunel had a good knowledge of mechanics, and was able to master
the intricacies of any machine, he laboured under the disadvantage of
not being a practical mechanic and it is probable that but for the help
of someone possessed of this important qualification, his invention,
ingenious and important though it was, would have borne no practical
fruits. It was at this juncture that he was so fortunate as to be
introduced to Henry Maudslay, the inventor of the sliderest.
It happened that a M. de Bacquancourt, one of the French emigres, of
whom there were then so many in London, was accustomed almost daily to
pass Maudslay's little shop in Wells-street, and being himself an
amateur turner, he curiously inspected the articles from time to time
exhibited in the window of the young mechanic. One day a more than
ordinarily nice piece of screw-cutting made its appearance, on which he
entered the shop to make inquiries as to the method by which it had
been executed. He had a long conversation with Maudslay, with whom he
was greatly pleased; and he was afterwards accustomed to look in upon
him occasionally to see what new work was going on. Bacquancourt was
also on intimate terms with Brunel, who communicated to him the
difficulty he had experienced in finding a mechanic of sufficient
dexterity to execute his design of the block-making machinery. It
immediately occurred to the former that Henry Maudslay was the very man
to execute work of the elaborate character proposed, and he described
to Brunel the new and beautiful tools which Maudslay had contrived for
the purpose of ensuring accuracy and finish. Brunel at once determined
to call upon Maudslay, and it was arranged that Bacquancourt should
introduce him, which he did, and after the interview which took place
Brunel promised to call again with the drawings of his proposed model.
A few days passed, and Brunel called with the first drawing, done by
himself; for he was a capital draughtsman, and used to speak of drawing
as the "alphabet of the engineer." The drawing only showed a little
bit of the intended machine, and Brunel did not yet think it advisable
to communicate to Maudslay the precise object he had in view; for
inventors are usually very chary of explaining their schemes to others,
for fear of being anticipated. Again Brunel appeared at Maudslay's
shop with a further drawing, still not explaining his design; but at
the third visit, immediately on looking at the fresh drawings he had
brought, Maudslay exclaimed, "Ah! now I see what you are thinking of;
you want machinery for making blocks." At this Brunel became more
communicative, and explained his designs to the mechanic, who fully
entered into his views, and went on from that time forward striving to
his utmost to work out the inventor's conceptions and embody them in a
practical machine.
While still occupied on the models, which were begun in 1800, Maudslay
removed his shop from Wells-street, where he was assisted by a single
journeyman, to Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, where he had greater
room for carrying on his trade, and was also enabled to increase the
number of his hands. The working models were ready for inspection by
Sir Samuel Bentham and the Lords of the Admiralty in 1801, and having
been fully approved by them, Brunel was authorized to proceed with the
execution of the requisite machinery for the manufacture of the ship's
blocks required for the Royal Navy. The whole of this machinery was
executed by Henry Maudslay; it occupied him very fully for nearly six
years, so that the manufacture of blocks by the new process was not
begun until September, 1808.
We despair of being able to give any adequate description in words of
the intricate arrangements and mode of action of the block-making
machinery. Let any one attempt to describe the much more simple and
familiar process by which a shoemaker makes a pair of shoes, and he
will find how inadequate mere words are to describe any mechanical
operation.[13] Suffice it to say, that the machinery was of the most
beautiful manufacture and finish, and even at this day will bear
comparison with the most perfect machines which can be turned out with
all the improved appliances of modern tools. The framing was of
cast-iron, while the parts exposed to violent and rapid action were all
of the best hardened steel. In turning out the various parts, Maudslay
found his slide rest of indispensable value. Indeed, without this
contrivance, it is doubtful whether machinery of so delicate and
intricate a character could possibly have been executed. There was not
one, but many machines in the series, each devoted to a special
operation in the formation of a block. Thus there were various
sawing-machines,--the Straight Cross-Cutting Saw, the Circular
Cross-Cutting Saw, the Reciprocating Ripping-saw, and the Circular
Ripping-Saw. Then there were the Boring Machines, and the Mortising
Machine, of beautiful construction, for cutting the sheave-holes,
furnished with numerous chisels, each making from 110 to 150 strokes a
minute, and cutting at every stroke a chip as thick as pasteboard with
the utmost precision. In addition to these were the Corner-Saw for
cutting off the corners of the block, the Shaping Machine for
accurately forming the outside surfaces, the Scoring Engine for cutting
the groove round the longest diameter of the block for the reception of
the rope, and various other machines for drilling, riveting, and
finishing the blocks, besides those for making the sheaves.
The total number of machines employed in the various operations of
making a ship's block by the new method was forty-four; and after being
regularly employed in Portsmouth Dockyard for upwards of fifty years,
they are still as perfect in their action as on the day they were
erected. They constitute one of the most ingenious and complete
collections of tools ever invented for making articles in wood, being
capable of performing most of the practical operations of carpentry
with the utmost accuracy and finish. The machines are worked by a
steam-engine of 32-horse power, which is also used for various other
dockyard purposes. Under the new system of block-making it was found
that the articles were better made, supplied with much greater
rapidity, and executed at a greatly reduced cost. Only ten men, with
the new machinery, could perform the work which before had required a
hundred and ten men to execute, and not fewer than 160,000 blocks of
various kinds and sizes could be turned out in a year, worth not less
than 541,000L.[14]
The satisfactory execution of the block-machinery brought Maudslay a
large accession of fame and business; and the premises in Margaret
Street proving much too limited for his requirements, he again resolved
to shift his quarters. He found a piece of ground suitable for his
purpose in Westminster Road, Lambeth. Little more than a century since
it formed part of a Marsh, the name of which is still retained in the
adjoining street; its principal productions being bulrushes and
willows, which were haunted in certain seasons by snipe and waterfowl.
An enterprising riding-master had erected some premises on a part of
the marsh, which he used for a riding-school; but the speculation not
answering, they were sold, and Henry Maudslay became the proprietor.
Hither he removed his machinery from Margaret Street in 1810, adding
fresh plant from time to time as it was required; and with the aid of
his late excellent partner he built up the far-famed establishment of
Maudslay, Field, and Co. There he went on improving his old tools and
inventing new ones, as the necessity for them arose, until the original
slide-lathes used for making the block-machinery became thrown into the
shade by the comparatively gigantic machine-tools of the modern school.
Yet the original lathes are still to be found in the collection of the
firm in Westminster Road, and continue to do their daily quota of work
with the same precision as they did when turned out of the hands of
their inventor and maker some sixty years ago.
It is unnecessary that we should describe in any great detail the
further career of Henry Maudslay. The rest of his life was full of
useful and profitable work to others as well as to himself. His
business embraced the making of flour and saw mills, mint machinery,
and steam-engines of all kinds. Before he left Margaret Street, in
1807, he took out a patent for improvements in the steam-engine, by
which he much simplified its parts, and secured greater directness of
action. His new engine was called the Pyramidal, because of its form,
and was the first move towards what are now called Direct-acting
Engines, in which the lateral movement of the piston is communicated by
connecting-rods to the rotatory movement of the crank-shaft. Mr.
Nasmyth says of it, that "on account of its great simplicity and
GET-AT-ABILITY of parts, its compactness and self-contained steadiness,
this engine has been the parent of a vast progeny, all more or less
marked by the distinguishing features of the original design, which is
still in as high favour as ever." Mr. Maudslay also directed his
attention in like manner to the improvement of the marine engine, which
he made so simple and effective as to become in a great measure the
type of its class; and it has held its ground almost unchanged for
nearly thirty years. The 'Regent,' which was the first steamboat that
plied between London and Margate, was fitted with engines by Maudslay
in 1816; and it proved the forerunner of a vast number of marine
engines, the manufacture of which soon became one of the most important
branches of mechanical engineering.
Another of Mr. Maudslay's inventions was his machine for punching
boiler-plates, by which the production of ironwork of many kinds was
greatly facilitated. This improvement originated in the contract which
he held for some years for supplying the Royal Navy with iron plates
for ships' tanks. The operations of shearing and punching had before
been very imperfectly done by hand, with great expenditure of labour.
To improve the style of the work and lessen the labour, Maudslay
invented the machine now in general use, by which the holes punched in
the iron plate are exactly equidistant, and the subsequent operation of
riveting is greatly facilitated. One of the results of the improved
method was the great saving which was at once effected in the cost of
preparing the plates to receive the rivets, the price of which was
reduced from seven shillings per tank to ninepence. He continued to
devote himself to the last to the improvement of the lathe,--in his
opinion the master-machine, the life and soul of engine-turning, of
which the planing, screw-cutting, and other machines in common use, are
but modifications. In one of the early lathes which he contrived and
made, the mandrill was nine inches in diameter; it was driven by
wheel-gearing like a crane motion, and adapted to different speeds.
Some of his friends, on first looking at it, said he was going "too
fast;" but he lived to see work projected on so large a scale as to
prove that his conceptions were just, and that he had merely
anticipated by a few years the mechanical progress of his time. His
large removable bar-lathe was a highly important tool of the same kind.
It was used to turn surfaces many feet in diameter. While it could be
used for boring wheels, or the side-rods of marine engines, it could
turn a roller or cylinder twice or three times the diameter of its own
centres from the ground-level, and indeed could drive round work of any
diameter that would clear the roof of the shop. This was therefore an
almost universal tool, capable of very extensive uses. Indeed much of
the work now executed by means of special tools, such as the planing or
slotting machine, was then done in the lathe, which was used as a
cutter-shaping machine, fitted with various appliances according to the
work.
Maudslay's love of accuracy also led him from an early period to study
the subject of improved screw-cutting. The importance of this
department of mechanism can scarcely be overrated, the solidity and
permanency of most mechanical structures mainly depending on the
employment of the screw, at the same time that the parts can be readily
separated for renewal or repair. Any one can form an idea of the
importance of the screw as an element in mechanical construction by
examining say a steam-engine, and counting the number of screws
employed in holding it together. Previous to the time at which the
subject occupied the attention of our mechanic, the tools used for
making screws were of the most rude and inexact kind. The screws were
for the most part cut by hand: the small by filing, the larger by
chipping and filing. In consequence of the great difficulty of making
them, as few were used as possible; and cotters, cotterils, or
forelocks, were employed instead. Screws, however, were to a certain
extent indispensable; and each manufacturing establishment made them
after their own fashion. There was an utter want of uniformity. No
system was observed as to "pitch," i.e. the number of threads to the
inch, nor was any rule followed as to the form of those threads. Every
bolt and nut was sort of specialty in itself, and neither owed nor
admitted of any community with its neighbours. To such an extent was
this irregularity carried, that all bolts and their corresponding nuts
had to be marked as belonging to each other; and any mixing of them
together led to endless trouble, hopeless confusion, and enormous
expense. Indeed none but those who lived in the comparatively early
days of machine-manufacture can form an adequate idea of the annoyance
occasioned by the want of system in this branch of detail, or duly
appreciate the services rendered by Maudslay to mechanical engineering
by the practical measures which he was among the first to introduce for
its remedy. In his system of screw-cutting machinery, his taps and
dies, and screw-tackle generally, he laid the foundations of all that
has since been done in this essential branch of machine-construction,
in which he was so ably followed up by several of the eminent mechanics
brought up in his school, and more especially by Joseph Clement and
Joseph Whitworth. One of his earliest self-acting screw lathes, moved
by a guide-screw and wheels after the plan followed by the latter
engineer, cut screws of large diameter and of any required pitch. As
an illustration of its completeness and accuracy, we may mention that
by its means a screw five feet in length, and two inches in diameter,
was cut with fifty threads to the inch; the nut to fit on to it being
twelve inches long, and containing six hundred threads. This screw was
principally used for dividing scales for astronomical purposes; and by
its means divisions were produced so minute that they could not be
detected without the aid of a magnifier. The screw, which was sent for
exhibition to the Society of Arts, is still carefully preserved amongst
the specimens of Maudslay's handicraft at the Lambeth Works, and is a
piece of delicate work which every skilled mechanic will thoroughly
appreciate. Yet the tool by which this fine piece of turning was
produced was not an exceptional tool, but was daily employed in the
ordinary work of the manufactory.
Like every good workman who takes pride in his craft, he kept his tools
in first-rate order, clean, and tidily arranged, so that he could lay
his hand upon the thing he wanted at once, without loss of time. They
are still preserved in the state in which he left them, and strikingly
illustrate his love of order, "nattiness," and dexterity. Mr. Nasmyth
says of him that you could see the man's character in whatever work he
turned out; and as the connoisseur in art will exclaim at sight of a
picture, "That is Turner," or "That is Stansfield," detecting the hand
of the master in it, so the experienced mechanician, at sight of one of
his machines or engines, will be equally ready to exclaim, "That is
Maudslay;" for the characteristic style of the master-mind is as clear
to the experienced eye in the case of the finished machine as the
touches of the artist's pencil are in the case of the finished picture.
Every mechanical contrivance that became the subject of his study came
forth from his hand and mind rearranged, simplified, and made new, with
the impress of his individuality stamped upon it. He at once stripped
the subject of all unnecessary complications; for he possessed a
wonderful faculty of KNOWING WHAT TO DO WITHOUT--the result of his
clearness of insight into mechanical adaptations, and the accurate and
well-defined notions he had formed of the precise object to be
accomplished. "Every member or separate machine in the system of
block-machinery," says Mr. Nasmyth, "is full of Maudslay's presence;
and in that machinery, as constructed by him, is to be found the parent
of every engineering tool by the aid of which we are now achieving such
great things in mechanical construction. To the tools of which
Maudslay furnished the prototypes are we mainly indebted for the
perfection of our textile machinery, our locomotives, our marine
engines, and the various implements of art, of agriculture, and of war.
If any one who can enter into the details of this subject will be at
the pains to analyse, if I may so term it, the machinery of our modern
engineering workshops, he will find in all of them the strongly-marked
features of Maudslay's parent machine, the slide rest and slide
system--whether it be a planing machine, a slotting machine, a
slide-lathe, or any other of the wonderful tools which are now enabling
us to accomplish so much in mechanism."
One of the things in which Mr. Maudslay took just pride was in the
excellence of his work. In designing and executing it, his main object
was to do it in the best possible style and finish, altogether
irrespective of the probable pecuniary results. This he regarded in
the light of a duty he could not and would not evade, independent of
its being a good investment for securing a future reputation; and the
character which he thus obtained, although at times purchased at great
cost, eventually justified the soundness of his views. As the eminent
Mr. Penn, the head of the great engineering firm, is accustomed to say,
"I cannot afford to turn out second-rate work," so Mr. Maudslay found
both character and profit in striving after the highest excellence in
his productions. He was particular even in the minutest details. Thus
one of the points on which he insisted--apparently a trivial matter,
but in reality of considerable importance in mechanical
construction--was the avoidance of sharp interior angles in ironwork,
whether wrought or cast; for he found that in such interior angles
cracks were apt to originate; and when the article was a tool, the
sharp angle was less pleasant to the hand as well as to the eye. In
the application of his favourite round or hollow corner system--as, for
instance, in the case of the points of junction of the arms of a wheel
with its centre and rim--he used to illustrate its superiority by
holding up his hand and pointing out the nice rounded hollow at the
junction of the fingers, or by referring to the junction of the
branches to the stem of a tree. Hence he made a point of having all
the angles of his machine framework nicely rounded off on their
exterior, and carefully hollowed in their interior angles. In forging
such articles he would so shape his metal before bending that the
result should be the right hollow or rounded corner when bent; the
anticipated external angle falling into its proper place when the bar
so shaped was brought to its ultimate form. In all such matters of
detail he was greatly assisted by his early dexterity as a blacksmith;
and he used to say that to be a good smith you must be able to SEE in
the bar of iron the object proposed to be got out of it by the hammer
or the tool, just as the sculptor is supposed to see in the block of
stone the statue which he proposes to bring forth from it by his mind
and his chisel.
Mr. Maudslay did not allow himself to forget his skill in the use of
the hammer, and to the last he took pleasure in handling it, sometimes
in the way of business, and often through sheer love of his art. Mr
Nasmyth says, "It was one of my duties, while acting as assistant in
his beautiful little workshop, to keep up a stock of handy bars of lead
which he had placed on a shelf under his work-bench, which was of thick
slate for the more ready making of his usual illustrative sketches of
machinery in chalk. His love of iron-forging led him to take delight
in forging the models of work to be ultimately done in iron; and cold
lead being of about the same malleability as red-hot iron, furnished a
convenient material for illustrating the method to be adopted with the
large work. I well remember the smile of satisfaction that lit up his
honest face when he met with a good excuse for 'having a go at' one of
the bars of lead with hammer and anvil as if it were a bar of iron; and
how, with a few dexterous strokes, punchings of holes, and rounded
notches, he would give the rough bar or block its desired form. He
always aimed at working it out of the solid as much as possible, so as
to avoid the risk of any concealed defect, to which ironwork built up
of welded parts is so liable; and when he had thus cleverly finished
his model, he used forthwith to send for the foreman of smiths, and
show him how he was to instruct his men as to the proper forging of the
desired object." One of Mr. Maudslay's old workmen, when informing us
of the skilful manner in which he handled the file, said, "It was a
pleasure to see him handle a tool of any kind, but he was QUITE
SPLENDID with an eighteen-inch file!" The vice at which he worked was
constructed by himself, and it was perfect of its kind. It could be
turned round to any position on the bench; the jaws would turn from the
horizontal to the perpendicular or any other position--upside-down if
necessary--and they would open twelve inches parallel.
Mr. Nasmyth furnishes the following further recollections of Mr.
Maudslay, which will serve in some measure to illustrate his personal
character. "Henry Maudslay," he says, "lived in the days of
snuff-taking, which unhappily, as I think, has given way to the
cigar-smoking system. He enjoyed his occasional pinch very much. It
generally preceded the giving out of a new notion or suggestion for an
improvement or alteration of some job in hand. As with most of those
who enjoy their pinch, about three times as much was taken between the
fingers as was utilized by the nose, and the consequence was that a
large unconsumed surplus collected in the folds of the master's
waistcoat as he sat working at his bench. Sometimes a file, or a tool,
or some small piece of work would drop, and then it was my duty to go
down on my knees and fetch it up. On such occasions, while waiting for
the article, he would take the opportunity of pulling down his
waistcoat front, which had become disarranged by his energetic working
at the bench; and many a time have I come up with the dropped article,
half-blinded by the snuff jerked into my eyes from off his waistcoat
front.
"All the while he was at work he would be narrating some incident in
his past life, or describing the progress of some new and important
undertaking, in illustrating which he would use the bit of chalk ready
to his hand upon the slate bench before him, which was thus in almost
constant use. One of the pleasures he indulged in while he sat at work
was Music, of which he was very fond,--more particularly of melodies
and airs which took a lasting hold on his mind. Hence he was never
without an assortment of musical boxes, some of which were of a large
size. One of these he would set agoing on his library table, which was
next to his workshop, and with the door kept open, he was thus enabled
to enjoy the music while he sat working at his bench. Intimate friends
would frequently call upon him and sit by the hour, but though talking
all the while he never dropped his work, but continued employed on it
with as much zeal as if he were only beginning life. His old friend
Sir Samuel Bentham was a frequent caller in this way, as well as Sir
Isambard Brunel while occupied with his Thames Tunnel works[15] and Mr.
Chantrey, who was accustomed to consult him about the casting of his
bronze statuary. Mr. Barton of the Royal Mint, and Mr. Donkin the
engineer, with whom Mr. Barton was associated in ascertaining and
devising a correct system of dividing the Standard Yard, and many
others, had like audience of Mr. Maudslay in his little workshop, for
friendly converse, for advice, or on affairs of business.
"It was a special and constant practice with him on a workman's
holiday, or on a Sunday morning, to take a walk through his workshops
when all was quiet, and then and there examine the various jobs in
hand. On such occasions he carried with him a piece of chalk, with
which, in a neat and very legible hand, he would record his remarks in
the most pithy and sometimes caustic terms. Any evidence of want of
correctness in setting things square, or in 'flat filing,' which he
held in high esteem, or untidiness in not sweeping down the bench and
laying the tools in order, was sure to have a record in chalk made on
the spot. If it was a mild case, the reproof was recorded in gentle
terms, simply to show that the master's eye was on the workman; but
where the case deserved hearty approbation or required equally hearty
reproof, the words employed were few, but went straight to the mark.
These chalk jottings on the bench were held in the highest respect by
the workmen themselves, whether they conveyed praise or blame, as they
were sure to be deserved; and when the men next assembled, it soon
became known all over the shop who had received the honour or otherwise
of one of the master's bench memoranda in chalk."
The vigilant, the critical, and yet withal the generous eye of the
master being over all his workmen, it will readily be understood how
Maudslay's works came to be regarded as a first-class school for
mechanical engineers. Every one felt that the quality of his
workmanship was fully understood; and, if he had the right stuff in
him, and was determined to advance, that his progress in skill would be
thoroughly appreciated. It is scarcely necessary to point out how this
feeling, pervading the establishment, must have operated, not only in
maintaining the quality of the work, but in improving the character of
the workmen. The results were felt in the increased practical ability
of a large number of artisans, some of whom subsequently rose to the
highest distinction. Indeed it may be said that what Oxford and
Cambridge are in letters, workshops such as Maudslay's and Penn's are
in mechanics. Nor can Oxford and Cambridge men be prouder of the
connection with their respective colleges than mechanics such as
Whitworth, Nasmyth, Roberts, Muir, and Lewis, are of their connection
with the school of Maudslay. For all these distinguished engineers at
one time or another formed part of his working staff, and were trained
to the exercise of their special abilities under his own eye. The
result has been a development of mechanical ability the like of which
perhaps is not to be found in any age or country.
Although Mr. Maudslay was an unceasing inventor, he troubled himself
very little about patenting his inventions. He considered that the
superiority of his tools and the excellence of his work were his surest
protection. Yet he had sometimes the annoyance of being threatened
with actions by persons who had patented the inventions which he
himself had made.[16] He was much beset by inventors, sometimes sadly
out at elbows, but always with a boundless fortune looming before them.
To such as applied to him for advice in a frank and candid spirit, he
did not hesitate to speak freely, and communicate the results of his
great experience in the most liberal manner; and to poor and deserving
men of this class he was often found as ready to help them with his
purse as with his still more valuable advice. He had a singular way of
estimating the abilities of those who thus called upon him about their
projects. The highest order of man was marked in his own mind at 100
degrees; and by this ideal standard he measured others, setting them
down at 90 degrees, 80 degrees, and so on. A very first-rate man he
would set down at 95 degrees, but men of this rank were exceedingly
rare. After an interview with one of the applicants to him for advice,
he would say to his pupil Nasmyth, "Jem, I think that man may be set
down at 45 degrees, but he might be WORKED UP TO 60 degrees"--a common
enough way of speaking of the working of a steam-engine, but a somewhat
novel though by no means an inexpressive method of estimating the
powers of an individual.
But while he had much toleration for modest and meritorious inventors,
he had a great dislike for secret-mongers,--schemers of the close,
cunning sort,--and usually made short work of them. He had an almost
equal aversion for what he called the "fiddle-faddle inventors," with
their omnibus patents, into which they packed every possible thing that
their noddles could imagine. "Only once or twice in a century," said
he, "does a great inventor appear, and yet here we have a set of
fellows each taking out as many patents as would fill a cart,--some of
them embodying not a single original idea, but including in their
specifications all manner of modifications of well-known processes, as
well as anticipating the arrangements which may become practicable in
the progress of mechanical improvement." Many of these "patents" he
regarded as mere pit-falls to catch the unwary; and he spoke of such
"inventors" as the pests of the profession.
The personal appearance of Henry Maudslay was in correspondence with
his character. He was of a commanding presence, for he stood full six
feet two inches in height, a massive and portly man. His face was
round, full, and lit up with good humour. A fine, large, and square
forehead, of the grand constructive order, dominated over all, and his
bright keen eye gave energy and life to his countenance. He was
thoroughly "jolly" and good-natured, yet full of force and character.
It was a positive delight to hear his cheerful, ringing laugh. He was
cordial in manner, and his frankness set everybody at their ease who
had occasion to meet him, even for the first time. No one could be
more faithful and consistent in his friendships, nor more firm in the
hour of adversity. In fine, Henry Maudslay was, as described by his
friend Mr. Nasmyth, the very beau ideal of an honest, upright,
straight-forward, hard-working, intelligent Englishman.
A severe cold which he caught on his way home from one of his visits to
France, was the cause of his death, which occurred on the 14th of
February, 1831. The void which his decease caused was long and deeply
felt, not only by his family and his large circle of friends, but by
his workmen, who admired him for his industrial skill, and loved him
because of his invariably manly, generous, and upright conduct towards
them. He directed that he should be buried in Woolwich
parish-churchyard, where a cast-iron tomb, made to his own design, was
erected over his remains. He had ever a warm heart for Woolwich, where
he had been born and brought up. He often returned to it, sometimes to
carry his mother a share of his week's wages while she lived, and
afterwards to refresh himself with a sight of the neighbourhood with
which he had been so familiar when a boy. He liked its green common,
with the soldiers about it; Shooter's Hill, with its out-look over Kent
and down the valley of the Thames; the river busy with shipping, and
the royal craft loading and unloading their armaments at the dockyard
wharves. He liked the clangour of the Arsenal smithy where he had
first learned his art, and all the busy industry of the place. It was
natural, therefore, that, being proud of his early connection with
Woolwich, he should wish to lie there; and Woolwich, on its part, let
us add, has equal reason to be proud of Henry Maudslay.
[1] The words Bramah uses in describing this part of his patent of 1795
are these--"The piston must be made perfectly watertight by leather or
other materials, as used in pump-making." He elsewhere speaks of the
piston-rod "working through the stuffing-box." But in practice, as we
have above shown, these methods were found to be altogether inefficient.
[2] In this lathe the slide rest and frame were moveable along the
traversing-bar, according to the length of the work, and could be
placed in any position and secured by a handle and screw underneath.
The Rest, however, afterwards underwent many important modifications;
but the principle of the whole machine was there.
[3] PLUMIER, L'Art de Tourner, Paris, 1754, p. 155.
[4] Machines approuvees par l' Academie, 1719.
[5] Machines approuvees par l' Academie, 1733.
[6] L'Art de Tourner en perfection, 49.
[7] It consisted of two parallel bars of wood or iron connected
together at both extremities by bolts or keys of sufficient width to
admit of the article required to be planed. A moveable frame was
placed between the two bars, motion being given to it by a long
cylindrical thread acting on any tool put into the sliding frame, and,
consequently, causing the screw, by means of a handle at each end of
it, to push or draw the point or cutting-edge of the tool either
way.--Mr. George Rennie's Preface to Buchanan's Practical Essays on
Mill Work, 3rd Ed. xli.
[8] Turning was a favourite amusement amongst the French nobles of last
century, many of whom acquired great dexterity in the art, which they
turned to account when compelled to emigrate at the Revolution. Louis
XVI. himself was a very good locksmith, and could have earned a fair
living at the trade. Our own George III. was a good turner, and was
learned in wheels and treadles, chucks and chisels. Henry Mayhew says,
on the authority of an old working turner, that, with average industry,
the King might have made from 40s. to 50s. a-week as a hard wood and
ivory turner. Lord John Hay, though one-armed, was an adept at the
latter, and Lord Gray was another capital turner. Indeed the late Mr.
Holtzapffel's elaborately illustrated treatise was written quite as
much for amateurs as for working mechanics. Among other noble
handicraftsmen we may mention the late Lord Douglas, who cultivated
bookbinding. Lord Traquair's fancy was cutlery, and one could not come
to him in a more welcome fashion than with a pair of old razors to set
up.
[9] Professor WILLIS, Lectures on the Results of the Great Exhibition
of 1851, 1st series, p. 306.
[10] Address delivered before the British Association at Manchester in
1861; and Useful Information for Engineers, 1st series, p. 22.
[11] Life of Sir Samuel Bentham, 97-8.
[12] Remarks on the Introduction of the Slide Principle in Tools and
Machines employed in the Production of Machinery, in Buchanan's
Practical Essays on Mill Work and other Machinery. 3rd ed. p. 397.
[13] So far as words and drawings can serve to describe the
block-making machinery, it will be found very ably described by Mr.
Farey in his article under this head in Rees's Cyclopaedia, and by Dr.
Brewster in the Edinburgh Cyclopaedia. A very good account will also
be found in Tomlinson's Cyclopaedia of the Useful Arts, Art. "Block."
[14] The remuneration paid to Mr. Brunel for his share in the invention
was only one year's savings, which, however, were estimated by Sir
Samuel Bentham at 17,663L.; besides which a grant of 5000L. was
afterwards made to Brunel when labouring under pecuniary difficulties.
But the ANNUAL saving to the nation by the adoption of the block-making
machinery was probably more than the entire sum paid to the engineer.
Brunel afterwards invented other wood-working machinery, but none to
compare in merit and excellence with the above, For further particulars
of his career, see BEAMISH'S Memoirs of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, C.E.
London. 1862.
[15] Among the last works executed by the firm during Mr. Maudslay's
lifetime was the famous Shield employed by his friend Brunel in
carrying forward the excavation of the Thames Tunnel. He also supplied
the pumping-engines for the same great work, the completion of which he
did not live to see.
[16] His principal patent's were--two, taken out in 1805 and 1808,
while in Margaret Street, for printing calicoes (Nos. 2872 and 3117);
one taken out in 1806, in conjunction with Mr. Donkin, for lifting
heavy weights (2948); one taken out in 1807, while still in Margaret
Street, for improvements in the steam-engine, reducing its parts and
rendering it more compact and portable (3050); another, taken out in
conjunction with Robert Dickinson in 1812, for sweetening water and
other liquids (3538); and, lastly, a patent taken out in conjunction
with Joshua Field in 1824 for preventing concentration of brine in
boilers (5021).
CHAPTER XIII.
JOSEPH CLEMENT.
"It is almost impossible to over-estimate the importance of these
inventions. The Greeks would have elevated their authors among the
gods; nor will the enlightened judgment of modern times deny them the
place among their fellow-men which is so undeniably their
due."--Edinburgh Review.
That Skill in mechanical contrivance is a matter of education and
training as well as of inborn faculty, is clear from the fact of so
many of our distinguished mechanics undergoing the same kind of
practical discipline, and perhaps still more so from the circumstance
of so many of them passing through the same workshops. Thus Maudslay
and Clement were trained in the workshops of Bramah; and Roberts,
Whitworth, Nasmyth, and others, were trained in those of Maudslay.
Joseph Clement was born at Great Ashby in Westmoreland, in the year
1779. His father was a hand-loom weaver, and a man of remarkable
culture considering his humble station in life. He was an ardent
student of natural history, and possessed a much more complete
knowledge of several sub-branches of that science than was to have been
looked for in a common working-man. One of the departments which he
specially studied was Entomology. In his leisure hours he was
accustomed to traverse the country searching the hedge-bottoms for
beetles and other insects, of which he formed a remarkably complete
collection; and the capture of a rare specimen was quite an event in
his life. In order more deliberately to study the habits of the bee
tribe, he had a number of hives constructed for the purpose of enabling
him to watch their proceedings without leaving his work; and the
pursuit was a source of the greatest pleasure to him. He was a lover
of all dumb creatures; his cottage was haunted by birds which flew in
and out at his door, and some of them became so tame as to hop up to
him and feed out of his hand. "Old Clement" was also a bit of a
mechanic, and such of his leisure moments as he did not devote to
insect-hunting, were employed in working a lathe of his own
construction, which he used to turn his bobbing on, and also in various
kinds of amateur mechanics.
His boy Joseph, like other poor men's sons, was early set to work. He
received very little education, and learnt only the merest rudiments of
reading and writing at the village school. The rest of his education
he gave to himself as he grew older. His father needed his help at the
loom, where he worked with him for some years; but, as handloom weaving
was gradually being driven out by improved mechanism, the father
prudently resolved to put his son to a better trade. They have a
saying in Cumberland that when the bairns reach a certain age, they are
thrown on to the house-rigg, and that those who stick on are made
thatchers of, while those who fall off are sent to St. Bees to be made
parsons of. Joseph must have been one of those that stuck on--at all
events his father decided to make him a thatcher, afterwards a slater,
and he worked at that trade for five years, between eighteen and
twenty-three.
The son, like the father, had a strong liking for mechanics, and as the
slating trade did not keep him in regular employment, especially in
winter time, he had plenty of opportunity for following the bent of his
inclinations. He made a friend of the village blacksmith, whose smithy
he was accustomed to frequent, and there he learned to work at the
forge, to handle the hammer and file, and in a short time to shoe
horses with considerable expertness. A cousin of his named Farer, a
clock and watchmaker by trade, having returned to the village from
London, brought with him some books on mechanics, which he lent to
Joseph to read; and they kindled in him an ardent desire to be a
mechanic instead of a slater. He nevertheless continued to maintain
himself by the latter trade for some time longer, until his skill had
grown; and, by way of cultivating it, he determined, with the aid of
his friend the village blacksmith, to make a turning-lathe. The two
set to work, and the result was the production of an article in every
way superior to that made by Clement's father, which was accordingly
displaced to make room for the new machine. It was found to work very
satisfactorily, and by its means Joseph proceeded to turn fifes,
flutes, clarinets, and hautboys; for to his other accomplishments he
joined that of music, and could play upon the instruments that he made.
One of his most ambitious efforts was the making of a pair of
Northumberland bagpipes, which he finished to his satisfaction, and
performed upon to the great delight of the villagers. To assist his
father in his entomological studies, he even contrived, with the aid of
the descriptions given in the books borrowed from his cousin the
watchmaker, to make for him a microscope, from which he proceeded to
make a reflecting telescope, which proved a very good instrument. At
this early period (1804) he also seems to have directed his attention
to screw-making--a branch of mechanics in which he afterwards became
famous; and he proceeded to make a pair of very satisfactory
die-stocks, though it is said that he had not before seen or even heard
of such a contrivance for making screws.
So clever a workman was not likely to remain long a village slater.
Although the ingenious pieces of work which he turned out by his lathe
did not bring him in much money, he liked the occupation so much better
than slating that he was gradually giving up that trade. His father
urged him to stick to slating as "a safe thing;" but his own mind was
in favour of following his instinct to be a mechanic; and at length he
determined to leave his village and seek work in a new line. He
succeeded in finding employment in a small factory at Kirby Stephen, a
town some thirteen miles from Great Ashby, where he worked at making
power-looms. From an old statement of account against his employer
which we have seen, in his own handwriting, dated the 6th September,
1805, it appears that his earnings at such work as "fitting the first
set of iron loames," "fitting up shittles," and "making moddles," were
3s. 6d. a day; and he must, during the same time, have lived with his
employer, who charged him as a set-off "14 weaks bord at 8s. per weak."
He afterwards seems to have worked at piece-work in partnership with
one Andrew Gamble supplying the materials as well as the workmanship
for the looms and shuttles. His employer, Mr. George Dickinson, also
seems to have bought his reflecting telescope from him for the sum of
12L.
From Kirby Stephen Clement removed to Carlisle, where he was employed
by Forster and Sons during the next two years at the same description
of work; and he conducted himself, according; to their certificate on
his leaving their employment to proceed to Glasgow in 1807, "with great
sobriety and industry, entirely to their satisfaction." While working
at Glasgow as a turner, he took lessons in drawing from Peter
Nicholson, the well-known writer on carpentry--a highly ingenious man.
Nicholson happened to call at the shop at which Clement worked in order
to make a drawing of a power-loom; and Clement's expressions of
admiration at his expertness were so enthusiastic, that Nicholson,
pleased with the youth's praise, asked if he could be of service to him
in any way. Emboldened by the offer, Clement requested, as the
greatest favour he could confer upon him, to have the loan of the
drawing he had just made, in order that he might copy it. The request
was at once complied with; and Clement, though very poor at the time,
and scarcely able to buy candle for the long winter evenings, sat up
late every night until he had finished it. Though the first drawing he
had ever made, he handed it back to Nicholson instead of the original,
and at first the draughtsman did not recognise that the drawing was not
his own. When Clement told him that it was only the copy, Nicholson's
brief but emphatic praise was--"Young man, YOU'LL DO!" Proud to have
such a pupil, Nicholson generously offered to give him gratuitous
lessons in drawing, which were thankfully accepted; and Clement,
working at nights with great ardour, soon made rapid progress, and
became an expert draughtsman.
Trade being very slack in Glasgow at the time, Clement, after about a
year's stay in the place, accepted a situation with Messrs. Leys,
Masson, and Co., of Aberdeen, with whom he began at a guinea and a half
a week, from which he gradually rose to two guineas, and ultimately to
three guineas. His principal work consisted in designing and making
power-looms for his employers, and fitting them up in different parts
of the country. He continued to devote himself to the study of
practical mechanics, and made many improvements in the tools with which
he worked. While at Glasgow he had made an improved pair of die-stocks
for screws; and, at Aberdeen, he made a turning-lathe with a sliding
mandrill and guide-screws, for cutting screws, furnished also with the
means for correcting guide-screws. In the same machine he introduced a
small slide rest, into which he fixed the tool for cutting the
screws,--having never before seen a slide rest, though it is very
probable he may have heard of what Maudslay had already done in the
same direction. Clement continued during this period of his life an
industrious self-cultivator, occupying most of his spare hours in
mechanical and landscape drawing, and in various studies. Among the
papers left behind him we find a ticket to a course of instruction on
Natural Philosophy given by Professor Copland in the Marischal College
at Aberdeen, which Clement attended in the session of 1812-13; and we
do not doubt that our mechanic was among the most diligent of his
pupils. Towards the end of 1813, after saving about 100L. out of his
wages, Clement resolved to proceed to London for the purpose of
improving himself in his trade and pushing his way in the world. The
coach by which he travelled set him down in Snow Hill, Holborn; and his
first thought was of finding work. He had no friend in town to consult
on the matter, so he made inquiry of the coach-guard whether he knew of
any person in the mechanical line in that neighbourhood. The guard
said, "Yes; there was Alexander Galloway's show shop, just round the
corner, and he employed a large number of hands." Running round the
corner, Clement looked in at Galloway's window, through which he saw
some lathes and other articles used in machine shops. Next morning he
called upon the owner of the shop to ask employment. "What can you
do?" asked Galloway. "I can work at the forge," said Clement.
"Anything else?" "I can turn." "What else?" "I can draw." "What!"
said Galloway, "can you draw? Then I will engage you." A man who could
draw or work to a drawing in those days was regarded as a superior sort
of mechanic. Though Galloway was one of the leading tradesmen of his
time, and had excellent opportunities for advancement, he missed them
all. As Clement afterwards said of him, "He was only a mouthing
common-council man, the height of whose ambition was to be an
alderman;" and, like most corporation celebrities, he held a low rank
in his own business. He very rarely went into his workshops to
superintend or direct his workmen, leaving this to his foremen--a
sufficient indication of the causes of his failure as a mechanic.[1]
On entering Galloway's shop, Clement was first employed in working at
the lathe; but finding the tools so bad that it was impossible to
execute satisfactory work with them, he at once went to the forge, and
began making a new set of tools for himself. The other men, to whom
such a proceeding was entirely new, came round him to observe his
operations, and they were much struck with his manual dexterity. The
tools made, he proceeded to use them, displaying what seemed to the
other workmen an unusual degree of energy and intelligence; and some of
the old hands did not hesitate already to pronounce Clement to be the
best mechanic in the shop. When Saturday night came round, the other
men were curious to know what wages Galloway would allow the new hand;
and when he had been paid, they asked him. "A guinea," was the reply.
"A guinea! Why, you are worth two if you are worth a shilling," said
an old man who came out of the rank--an excellent mechanic, who, though
comparatively worthless through his devotion to drink, knew Clement's
money value to his employer better than any man there; and he added,
"Wait for a week or two, and if you are not better paid than this, I
can tell you of a master who will give you a fairer wage." Several
Saturdays came round, but no advance was made on the guinea a week; and
then the old workman recommended Clement to offer himself to Bramah at
Pimlico, who was always on the look out for first-rate mechanics.
Clement acted on the advice, and took with him some of his drawings, at
sight of which Bramah immediately engaged him for a month; and at the
end of that time he had given so much satisfaction, that it was agreed
he should continue for three months longer at two guineas a week.
Clement was placed in charge of the tools of the shop, and he showed
himself so apt at introducing improvements in them, as well as in
organizing the work with a view to despatch and economy, that at the
end of the term Bramah made him a handsome present, adding, "if I had
secured your services five years since, I would now have been a richer
man by many thousands of pounds." A formal agreement for a term of
five years was then entered into between Bramah and Clement, dated the
1st of April, 1814, by which the latter undertook to fill the office of
chief-draughtsman and superintendent of the Pimlico Works, in
consideration of a salary of three guineas a week, with an advance of
four shillings a week in each succeeding year of the engagement. This
arrangement proved of mutual advantage to both. Clement devoted
himself with increased zeal to the improvement of the mechanical
arrangements of the concern, exhibiting his ingenuity in many ways, and
taking; a genuine pride in upholding the character of his master for
turning out first-class work.
On the death of Bramah, his sons returned from college and entered into
possession of the business. They found Clement the ruling mind there
and grew jealous of him to such an extent that his situation became
uncomfortable; and by mutual consent he was allowed to leave before the
expiry of his term of agreement. He had no difficulty in finding
employment; and was at once taken on as chief draughtsman at Maudslay
and Field's where he was of much assistance in proportioning the early
marine engines, for the manufacture of which that firm were becoming
celebrated. After a short time, he became desirous of beginning
business on his own account as a mechanical engineer. He was
encouraged to do this by the Duke of Northumberland, who, being a great
lover of mechanics and himself a capital turner, used often to visit
Maudslay's, and thus became acquainted with Clement, whose expertness
as a draughtsman and mechanic he greatly admired. Being a man of
frugal and sober habits, always keeping his expenditure very
considerably within his income, Clement had been enabled to accumulate
about 500L., which he thought would be enough for his purpose; and he
accordingly proceeded, in 1817, to take a small workshop in Prospect
Place, Newington Butts, where he began business as a mechanical
draughtsman and manufacturer of small machinery requiring first-class
workmanship.
From the time when he took his first gratuitous lessons in drawing from
Peter Nicholson, at Glasgow, in 1807, he had been steadily improving in
this art, the knowledge of which is indispensable to whoever aspires to
eminence as a mechanical engineer,--until by general consent Clement
was confessed to stand unrivalled as a draughtsman. Some of the very
best drawings contained in the Transactions of the Society of Arts,
from the year 1817 downwards,--especially those requiring the
delineation of any unusually elaborate piece of machinery,--proceeded
from the hand of Clement. In some of these, he reached a degree of
truth in mechanical perspective which has never been surpassed.[2] To
facilitate his labours, he invented an extremely ingenious instrument,
by means of which ellipses of all proportions, as well as circles and
right lines, might be geometrically drawn on paper or on copper. He
took his idea of this instrument from the trammel used by carpenters
for drawing imperfect ellipses; and when he had succeeded in avoiding
the crossing of the points, he proceeded to invent the straight-line
motion. For this invention the Society of Arts awarded him their gold
medal in 1818. Some years later, he submitted to the same Society his
invention of a stand for drawings of large size. He had experienced
considerable difficulty in making such drawings, and with his
accustomed readiness to overcome obstacles, he forthwith set to work
and brought out his new drawing-table.
As with many other original-minded mechanics, invention became a habit
with him, and by study and labour he rarely failed in attaining the
object which he had bent his mind upon accomplishing. Indeed, nothing
pleased him better than to have what he called "a tough job;" as it
stimulated his inventive faculty, in the exercise of which he took the
highest pleasure. Hence mechanical schemers of all kinds were
accustomed to resort to Clement for help when they had found an idea
which they desired to embody in a machine. If there was any value in
their idea, none could be more ready than he to recognise its merit,
and to work it into shape; but if worthless, he spoke out his mind at
once, dissuading the projector from wasting upon it further labour or
expense.
One of the important branches of practical mechanics to which Clement
continued through life to devote himself, was the improvement of
self-acting tools, more especially of the slide-lathe. He introduced
various improvements in its construction and arrangement, until in his
hands it became as nearly perfect as it was possible to be. In 1818,
he furnished the lathe with a slide rest twenty-two inches long, for
the purpose of cutting screws, provided with the means of
self-correction; and some years later, in 1827, the Society of Arts
awarded him their gold Isis medal for his improved turning-lathe, which
embodied many ingenious contrivances calculated to increase its
precision and accuracy in large surface-turning.
The beautiful arrangements embodied in Mr. Clement's improved lathe can
with difficulty be described in words; but its ingenuity may be
inferred from a brief statement of the defects which it was invented to
remedy, and which it successfully overcame. When the mandrill of a
lathe, having a metal plate fixed to it, turns round with a uniform
motion, and the slide rest which carries the cutter is moving from the
circumference of the work to the centre, it will be obvious that the
quantity of metal passing over the edge of the cutter at each
revolution, and therefore at equal intervals of time, is continually
diminishing, in exact proportion to the spiral line described by the
cutter on the face of the work. But in turning metal plates it is
found very in expedient to increase the speed of the work beyond a
certain quantity; for when this happens, and the tool passes the work
at too great a velocity, it heats, softens, and is ground away, the
edge of the cutter becomes dull, and the surface of the plate is
indented and burnished, instead of being turned. Hence loss of time on
the part of the workman, and diminished work on the part of the tool,
results which, considering the wages of the one and the capital
expended on the construction of the other, are of no small importance;
for the prime objects of all improvement of tools are, economy of time
and economy of capital--to minimize labour and cost, and maximize
result.
The defect to which we have referred was almost the only remaining
imperfection in the lathe, and Mr. Clement overcame it by making the
machine self-regulating; so that, whatever might be the situation of
the cutter, equal quantities of metal should pass over it in equal
times,--the speed at the centre not exceeding that suited to the work
at the circumference,--while the workman was enabled to convert the
varying rate of the mandrill into a uniform one whenever he chose.
Thus the expedients of wheels, riggers, and drums, of different
diameters, by which it had been endeavoured to alter the speed of the
lathe-mandrill, according to the hardness of the metal and the diameter
of the thing to be turned, were effectually disposed of. These, though
answering very well where cylinders of equal diameter had to be bored,
and a uniform motion was all that was required, were found very
inefficient where a Plane surface had to be turned; and it was in such
cases that Mr. Clement's lathe was found so valuable. By its means
surfaces of unrivalled correctness were produced, and the slide-lathe,
so improved, became recognised and adopted as the most accurate and
extensively applicable of all machine-tools.
The year after Mr. Clement brought out his improved turning-lathe, he
added to it his self-adjusting double driving centre-chuck, for which
the Society of Arts awarded him their silver medal in 1828. In
introducing this invention to the notice of the Society, Mr. Clement
said, "Although I have been in the habit of turning and making
turning-lathes and other machinery for upwards of thirty-five years,
and have examined the best turning-lathes in the principal
manufactories throughout Great Britain, I find it universally regretted
by all practical men that they cannot turn anything perfectly true
between the centres of the lathe." It was found by experience, that
there was a degree of eccentricity, and consequently of imperfection,
in the figure of any long cylinder turned while suspended between the
centres of the lathe, and made to revolve by the action of a single
driver. Under such circumstances the pressure of the tool tended to
force the work out of the right line and to distribute the strain
between the driver and the adjacent centre, so that one end of the
cylinder became eccentric with respect to the other. By Mr. Clement's
invention of the two-armed driver, which was self-adjusting, the strain
was taken from the centre and divided between the two arms, which being
equidistant from the centre, effectually corrected all eccentricity in
the work. This invention was found of great importance in ensuring the
true turning of large machinery, which before had been found a matter
of considerable difficulty.
In the same year (1828) Mr. Clement began the making of fluted taps and
dies, and he established a mechanical practice with reference to the
pitch of the screw, which proved of the greatest importance in the
economics of manufacture. Before his time, each mechanical engineer
adopted a thread of his own; so that when a piece of work came under
repair, the screw-hob had usually to be drilled out, and a new thread
was introduced according to the usage which prevailed in the shop in
which the work was executed. Mr. Clement saw a great waste of labour
in this practice, and he promulgated the idea that every screw of a
particular length ought to be furnished with its appointed number of
threads of a settled pitch. Taking the inch as the basis of his
calculations, he determined the number of threads in each case; and the
practice thus initiated by him, recommended as it was by convenience
and economy, was very shortly adopted throughout the trade. It may be
mentioned that one of Clement's ablest journeymen, Mr. Whitworth, has,
since his time, been mainly instrumental in establishing the settled
practice; and Whitworth's thread (initiated by Clement) has become
recognised throughout the mechanical world. To carry out his idea,
Clement invented his screw-engine lathe, with gearing, mandrill, and
sliding-table wheel-work, by means of which he first cut the inside
screw-tools from the left-handed hobs--the reverse mode having before
been adopted,--while in shaping machines he was the first to use the
revolving cutter attached to the slide rest. Then, in 1828, he fluted
the taps for the first time with a revolving cutter,--other makers
having up to that time only notched them. Among his other inventions
in screws may be mentioned his headless tap, which, according to Mr.
Nasmyth, is so valuable an invention, that, "if he had done nothing
else, it ought to immortalize him among mechanics. It passed right
through the hole to be tapped, and was thus enabled to do the duty of
three ordinary screws." By these improvements much greater precision
was secured in the manufacture of tools and machinery, accompanied by a
greatly reduced cost of production; the results of which are felt to
this day.
Another of Mr. Clement's ingenious inventions was his Planing Machine,
by means of which metal plates of large dimensions were planed with
perfect truth and finished with beautiful accuracy. There is perhaps
scarcely a machine about which there has been more controversy than
this; and we do not pretend to be able to determine the respective
merits of the many able mechanics who have had a hand in its invention.
It is exceedingly probable that others besides Clement worked out the
problem in their own way, by independent methods; and this is confirmed
by the circumstance that though the results achieved by the respective
inventors were the same, the methods employed by them were in many
respects different. As regards Clement, we find that previous to the
year 1820 he had a machine in regular use for planing the triangular
bars of lathes and the sides of weaving-looms. This instrument was
found so useful and so economical in its working, that Clement
proceeded to elaborate a planing machine of a more complete kind, which
he finished and set to work in the year 1825. He prepared no model of
it, but made it direct from the working drawings; and it was so nicely
constructed, that when put together it went without a hitch, and has
continued steadily working for more than thirty years down to the
present day.
Clement took out no patent for his invention, relying for protection
mainly on his own and his workmen's skill in using it. We therefore
find no specification of his machine at the Patent Office, as in the
case of most other capital inventions; but a very complete account of
it is to be found in the Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1832,
as described by Mr. Varley. The practical value of the Planing Machine
induced the Society to apply to Mr. Clement for liberty to publish a
full description of it; and Mr. Varley's paper was the result.[3] It
may be briefly stated that this engineer's plane differs greatly from
the carpenter's plane, the cutter of which is only allowed to project
so far as to admit of a thin shaving to be sliced off,--the plane
working flat in proportion to the width of the tool, and its length and
straightness preventing the cutter from descending into any hollows in
the wood. The engineer's plane more resembles the turning-lathe, of
which indeed it is but a modification, working up on the same
principle, on flat surfaces. The tools or cutters in Clement's machine
were similar to those used in the lathe, varying in like manner, but
performing their work in right lines,--the tool being stationary and
the work moving under it, the tool only travelling when making lateral
cuts. To save time two cutters were mounted, one to cut the work while
going, the other while returning, both being so arranged and held as to
be presented to the work in the firmest manner, and with the least
possible friction. The bed of the machine, on which the work was laid,
passed under the cutters on perfectly true rollers or wheels, lodged
and held in their bearings as accurately as the best mandrill could be,
and having set-screws acting against their ends totally preventing all
end-motion. The machine was bedded on a massive and solid foundation
of masonry in heavy blocks, the support at all points being so complete
as effectually to destroy all tendency to vibration, with the object of
securing full, round, and quiet cuts. The rollers on which the
planing-machine travelled were so true, that Clement himself used to
say of them, "If you were to put but a paper shaving under one of the
rollers, it would at once stop all the rest." Nor was this any
exaggeration--the entire mechanism, notwithstanding its great size,
being as true and accurate as that of a watch.
By an ingenious adaptation of the apparatus, which will also be found
described in the Society of Arts paper, the planing machine might be
fitted with a lathe-bed, either to hold two centres, or a head with a
suitable mandrill. When so fitted, the machine was enabled to do the
work of a turning-lathe, though in a different way, cutting cylinders
or cones in their longitudinal direction perfectly straight, as well as
solids or prisms of any angle, either by the longitudinal or lateral
motion of the cutter; whilst by making the work revolve, it might be
turned as in any other lathe. This ingenious machine, as contrived by
Mr. Clement, therefore represented a complete union of the
turning-lathe with the planing machine and dividing engine, by which
turning of the most complicated kind might readily be executed. For
ten years after it was set in motion, Clement's was the only machine of
the sort available for planing large work; and being consequently very
much in request, it was often kept going night and day,--the earnings
by the planing machine alone during that time forming the principal
income of its inventor. As it took in a piece of work six feet square,
and as his charge for planing was three-halfpence the square inch, or
eighteen shillings the square foot, he could thus earn by his machine
alone some ten pounds for every day's work of twelve hours. We may add
that since planing machines in various forms have become common in
mechanical workshops, the cost of planing does not amount to more than
three-halfpence the square foot.
The excellence of Mr. Clement's tools, and his well-known skill in
designing and executing work requiring unusual accuracy and finish, led
to his being employed by Mr. Babbage to make his celebrated Calculating
or Difference Engine. The contrivance of a machine that should work
out complicated sums in arithmetic with perfect precision, was, as may
readily be imagined, one of the most difficult feats of the mechanical
intellect. To do this was in an especial sense to stamp matter with
the impress of mind, and render it subservient to the highest thinking
faculty. Attempts had been made at an early period to perform
arithmetical calculations by mechanical aids more rapidly and precisely
than it was possible to do by the operations of the individual mind.
The preparation of arithmetical tables of high numbers involved a vast
deal of labour, and even with the greatest care errors were unavoidable
and numerous. Thus in a multipltcation-table prepared by a man so
eminent as Dr. Hutton for the Board of Longitude, no fewer than forty
errors were discovered in a single page taken at random. In the tables
of the Nautical Almanac, where the greatest possible precision was
desirable and necessary, more than five hundred errors were detected by
one person; and the Tables of the Board of Longitude were found equally
incorrect. But such errors were impossible to be avoided so long as
the ordinary modes of calculating, transcribing, and printing continued
in use.
The earliest and simplest form of calculating apparatus was that
employed by the schoolboys of ancient Greece, called the Abacus;
consisting of a smooth board with a narrow rim, on which they were
taught to compute by means of progressive rows of pebbles, bits of bone
or ivory, or pieces of silver coin, used as counters. The same board,
strewn over with sand, was used for teaching the rudiments of writing
and the principles of geometry. The Romans subsequently adopted the
Abacus, dividing it by means of perpendicular lines or bars, and from
the designation of calculus which they gave to each pebble or counter
employed on the board, we have derived our English word to calculate.
The same instrument continued to be employed during the middle ages,
and the table used by the English Court of Exchequer was but a modified
form of the Greek Abacus, the chequered lines across it giving the
designation to the Court, which still survives. Tallies, from the
French word tailler to cut, were another of the mechanical methods
employed to record computations, though in a very rude way. Step by
step improvements were made; the most important being that invented by
Napier of Merchiston, the inventor of logarithms, commonly called
Napier's bones, consisting of a number of rods divided into ten equal
squares and numbered, so that the whole when placed together formed the
common multiplication table. By these means various operations in
multiplication and division were performed. Sir Samuel Morland,
Gunter, and Lamb introduced other contrivances, applicable to
trigonometry; Gunter's scale being still in common use. The
calculating machines of Gersten and Pascal were of a different kind,
working out arithmetical calculations by means of trains of wheels and
other arrangements; and that contrived by Lord Stanhope for the purpose
of verifying his calculations with respect to the National Debt was of
like character. But none of these will bear for a moment to be
compared with the machine designed by Mr. Babbage for performing
arithmetical calculations and mathematical analyses, as well as for
recording the calculations when made, thereby getting rid entirely of
individual error in the operations of calculation, transcription, and
printing.
The French government, in their desire to promote the extension of the
decimal system, had ordered the construction of logarithmical tables of
vast extent; but the great labour and expense involved in the
undertaking prevented the design from being carried out. It was
reserved for Mr. Babbage to develope the idea by means of a machine
which he called the Difference Engine. This machine is of so
complicated a character that it would be impossible for us to give any
intelligible description of it in words. Although Dr. Lardner was
unrivalled in the art of describing mechanism, he occupied twenty-five
pages of the 'Edinburgh Review' (vol.59) in endeavouring to describe
its action, and there were several features in it which he gave up as
hopeless. Some parts of the apparatus and modes of action are indeed
extraordinary and perhaps none more so than that for ensuring accuracy
in the calculated results,--the machine actually correcting itself, and
rubbing itself back into accuracy, when the disposition to err occurs,
by the friction of the adjacent machinery! When an error is made, the
wheels become locked and refuse to proceed; thus the machine must go
rightly or not at all,--an arrangement as nearly resembling volition as
anything that brass and steel are likely to accomplish.
This intricate subject was taken up by Mr. Babbage in 1821, when he
undertook to superintend for the British government the construction of
a machine for calculating and printing mathematical and astronomical
tables. The model first constructed to illustrate the nature of his
invention produced figures at the rate of 44 a minute. In 1823 the
Royal Society was requested to report upon the invention, and after
full inquiry the committee recommended it as one highly deserving of
public encouragement. A sum of 1500L. was then placed at Mr. Babbage's
disposal by the Lords of the Treasury for the purpose of enabling him
to perfect his invention. It was at this time that he engaged Mr.
Clement as draughtsman and mechanic to embody his ideas in a working
machine. Numerous tools were expressly contrived by the latter for
executing the several parts, and workmen were specially educated for
the purpose of using them. Some idea of the elaborate character of the
drawings may be formed from the fact that those required for the
calculating machinery alone--not to mention the printing machinery,
which was almost equally elaborate--covered not less than four hundred
square feet of surface! The cost of executing the calculating machine
was of course very great, and the progress of the work was necessarily
slow. The consequence was that the government first became impatient,
and then began to grumble at the expense. At the end of seven years
the engineer's bills alone were found to amount to nearly 7200L., and
Mr. Babbage's costs out of pocket to 7000L. more. In order to make
more satisfactory progress, it was determined to remove the works to
the neighbourhood of Mr. Babbage's own residence; but as Clement's
claims for conducting the operations in the new premises were thought
exorbitant, and as he himself considered that the work did not yield
him the average profit of ordinary employment in his own trade, he
eventually withdrew from the enterprise, taking with him the tools
which he had constructed for executing the machine. The government
also shortly after withdrew from it, and from that time the scheme was
suspended, the Calculating Engine remaining a beautiful but unfinished
fragment of a great work. Though originally intended to go as far as
twenty figures, it was only completed to the extent of being capable of
calculating to the depth of five figures, and two orders of
differences; and only a small part of the proposed printing machinery
was ever made. The engine was placed in the museum of King's College
in 1843, enclosed in a glass case, until the year 1862, when it was
removed for a time to the Great Exhibition, where it formed perhaps the
most remarkable and beautifully executed piece of mechanism the
combined result of intellectual and mechanical contrivance--in the
entire collection.[4]
Clement was on various other occasions invited to undertake work
requiring extra skill, which other mechanics were unwilling or unable
to execute. He was thus always full of employment, never being under
the necessity of canvassing for customers. He was almost constantly in
his workshop, in which he took great pride. His dwelling was over the
office in the yard, and it was with difficulty he could be induced to
leave the premises. On one occasion Mr. Brunel of the Great Western
Railway called upon him to ask if he could supply him with a superior
steam-whistle for his locomotives, the whistles which they were using
giving forth very little sound. Clement examined the specimen brought
by Brunel, and pronounced it to be "mere tallow-chandler's work." He
undertook to supply a proper article, and after his usual fashion he
proceeded to contrive a machine or tool for the express purpose of
making steam-whistles. They were made and supplied, and when mounted
on the locomotive the effect was indeed "screaming." They were heard
miles off, and Brunel, delighted, ordered a hundred. But when the bill
came in, it was found that the charge made for them was very high--as
much as 40L. the set. The company demurred at the price,--Brunel
declaring it to be six times more than the price they had before been
paying. "That may be;" rejoined Clement, "but mine are more than six
times better. You ordered a first-rate article, and you must be
content to pay for it." The matter was referred to an arbitrator, who
awarded the full sum claimed. Mr. Weld mentions a similar case of an
order which Clement received from America to make a large screw of
given dimensions "in the best possible manner," and he accordingly
proceeded to make one with the greatest mathematical accuracy. But his
bill amounted to some hundreds of pounds, which completely staggered
the American, who did not calculate on having to pay more than 20L. at
the utmost for the screw. The matter was, however, referred to
arbitrators, who gave their decision, as in the former case, in favour
of the mechanic.[5]
One of the last works which Clement executed as a matter of pleasure,
was the building of an organ for his own use. It will be remembered
that when working as a slater at Great Ashby, he had made flutes and
clarinets, and now in his old age he determined to try his skill at
making an organ--in his opinion the king of musical instruments. The
building of it became his hobby, and his greatest delight was in
superintending its progress. It cost him about two thousand pounds in
labour alone, but he lived to finish it, and we have been informed that
it was pronounced a very excellent instrument.
Clement was a heavy-browed man, without any polish of manner or speech;
for to the last he continued to use his strong Westmoreland dialect.
He was not educated in a literary sense; for he read but little, and
could write with difficulty. He was eminently a mechanic, and had
achieved his exquisite skill by observation, experience, and
reflection. His head was a complete repertory of inventions, on which
he was constantly drawing for the improvement of mechanical practice.
Though he had never more than thirty workmen in his factory, they were
all of the first class; and the example which Clement set before them
of extreme carefulness and accuracy in execution rendered his shop one
of the best schools of its time for the training of thoroughly
accomplished mechanics. Mr. Clement died in 1844, in his sixty-fifth
year; after which his works were carried on by Mr. Wilkinson, one of
his nephews; and his planing machine still continues in useful work.
[1] On one occasion Galloway had a cast-iron roof made for his
workshop, so flat and so independent of ties that the wonder was that
it should have stood an hour. One day Peter Keir, an engineer much
employed by the government--a clever man, though some what
eccentric--was taken into the shop by Galloway to admire the new roof.
Keir, on glancing up at it, immediately exclaimed, "Come outside, and
let us speak about it there!" All that he could say to Galloway
respecting the unsoundness of its construction was of no avail. The
fact was that, however Keir might argue about its not being able to
stand, there it was actually standing, and that was enough for
Galloway. Keir went home, his mind filled with Galloway's most
unprincipled roof. "If that stands," said he to himself, "all that I
have been learning and doing for thirty years has been wrong." That
night he could not sleep for thinking about it. In the morning he
strolled up Primrose Hill, and returned home still muttering to himself
about "that roof." "What," said his wife to him, "are you thinking of
Galloway's roof?" "Yes," said he. "Then you have seen the papers?"
"No--what about them?" "Galloway's roof has fallen in this morning,
and killed eight or ten of the men!" Keir immediately went to bed, and
slept soundly till next morning.
[2] See more particularly The Transactions of the Society for the
Encouragement of Arts, vol. xxxiii. (1817), at pp. 74, 157, 160, 175,
208 (an admirable drawing; of Mr. James Allen's Theodolite); vol.
xxxvi. (1818), pp. 28, 176 (a series of remarkable illustrations of Mr.
Clement's own invention of an Instrument for Drawing Ellipses); vol.
xliii. (1825), containing an illustration of the Drawing Table invented
by him for large drawings; vol. xlvi. (1828), containing a series of
elaborate illustrations of his Prize Turning Lathe; and xlviii. 1829,
containing illustrations of his Self-adjusting Double Driver Centre
Chuck.
[3] Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, vol.
xlix. p.157.
[4] A complete account of the calculating machine, as well as of an
analytical engine afterwards contrived by Mr. Babbage, of still greater
power than the other, will be found in the Bibliotheque Universelle de
Geneve, of which a translation into English, with copious original
notes, by the late Lady Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, was published
in the 3rd vol. of Taylor's Scientific Memoirs (London, 1843). A
history of the machine, and of the circumstances connected with its
construction, will also be found in Weld's History of the Royal
Society, vol. ii. 369-391. It remains to be added, that the perusal by
Messrs. Scheutz of Stockholm of Dr. Lardner's account of Mr. Babbage's
engine in the Edinburgh Review, led those clever mechanics to enter
upon the scheme of constructing and completing it, and the result is,
that their machine not only calculates the tables, but prints the
results. It took them nearly twenty years to perfect it, but when
completed the machine seemed to be almost capable of thinking. The
original was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. A copy of it
has since been secured by the English government at a cost of 1200L.,
and it is now busily employed at Somerset House in working out annuity
and other tables for the Registrar-General. The copy was constructed,
with several admirable improvements, by the Messrs. Donkin, the
well-known mechanical engineers, after the working drawings of the
Messrs. Scheutz.
[5] History of the Royal Society, ii. 374.
CHAPTER XIV.
FOX OF DERBY--MURRAY OF LEEDS--ROBERTS AND WHITWORTH OF MANCHESTER.
"Founders and senators of states and cities, lawgivers, extirpers of
tyrants, fathers of the people, and other eminent persons in civil
government, were honoured but with titles of Worthies or demi-gods;
whereas, such as were inventors and authors of new arts, endowments,
and commodities towards man's life, were ever consecrated amongst the
gods themselves."--BACON, Advancement of Learning.
While such were the advances made in the arts of tool-making and
engine-construction through the labours of Bramah, Maudslay, and
Clement, there were other mechanics of almost equal eminence who
flourished about the same time and subsequently in several of the
northern manufacturing towns. Among these may be mentioned James Fox
of Derby; Matthew Murray and Peter Fairbairn of Leeds; Richard Roberts,
Joseph Whitworth, James Nasmyth, and William Fairbairn of Manchester;
to all of whom the manufacturing industry of Great Britain stands in
the highest degree indebted.
James Fox, the founder of the Derby firm of mechanical engineers, was
originally a butler in the service of the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, of
Foxhall Lodge, Staffordshire. Though a situation of this kind might
not seem by any means favourable for the display of mechanical ability,
yet the butler's instinct for handicraft was so strong that it could
not be repressed; and his master not only encouraged him in the
handling of tools in his leisure hours, but had so genuine an
admiration of his skill as well as his excellent qualities of
character, that he eventually furnished him with the means of beginning
business on his own account.
The growth and extension of the cotton, silk, and lace trades, in the
neighbourhood of Derby, furnished Fox with sufficient opportunities for
the exercise of his mechanical skill; and he soon found ample scope for
its employment. His lace machinery became celebrated, and he supplied
it largely to the neighbouring town of Nottingham; he also obtained
considerable employment from the great firms of Arkwright and
Strutt--the founders of the modern cotton manufacture. Mr. Fox also
became celebrated for his lathes, which were of excellent quality,
still maintaining their high reputation; and besides making largely for
the supply of the home demand, he exported much machinery abroad, to
France, Russia, and the Mauritius.
The present Messrs. Fox of Derby, who continue to carry on the business
of the firm, claim for their grandfather, its founder, that he made the
first planing machine in 1814,[1] and they add that the original
article continued in use until quite recently. We have been furnished
by Samuel Hall, formerly a workman at the Messrs. Fox's, with the
following description of the machine:--"It was essentially the same in
principle as the planing machine now in general use, although differing
in detail. It had a self-acting ratchet motion for moving the slides
of a compound slide rest, and a self-acting reversing tackle,
consisting of three bevel wheels, one a stud, one loose on the driving
shaft, and another on a socket, with a pinion on the opposite end of
the driving shaft running on the socket. The other end was the place
for the driving pulley. A clutch box was placed between the two
opposite wheels, which was made to slide on a feather, so that by means
of another shaft containing levers and a tumbling ball, the box on
reversing was carried from one bevel wheel to the opposite one." The
same James Fox is also said at a very early period to have invented a
screw-cutting machine, an engine for accurately dividing and cutting
the teeth of wheels, and a self-acting lathe. But the evidence as to
the dates at which these several inventions are said to have been made
is so conflicting that it is impossible to decide with whom the merit
of making them really rests. The same idea is found floating at the
same time in many minds, the like necessity pressing upon all, and the
process of invention takes place in like manner: hence the
contemporaneousness of so many inventions, and the disputes that arise
respecting them, as described in a previous chapter.
There are still other claimants for the merit of having invented the
planing machine; among whom may be mentioned more particularly Matthew
Murray of Leeds, and Richard Roberts of Manchester. We are informed by
Mr. March, the present mayor of Leeds, head of the celebrated
tool-manufacturing firm of that town, that when he first went to work
at Matthew Murray's, in 1814, a planing machine of his invention was
used to plane the circular part or back of the D valve, which he had by
that time introduced in the steam-engine. Mr. March says, "I recollect
it very distinctly, and even the sort of framing on which it stood.
The machine was not patented, and like many inventions in those days,
it was kept as much a secret as possible, being locked up in a small
room by itself, to which the ordinary workmen could not obtain access.
The year in which I remember it being in use was, so far as I am aware,
long before any planing-machine of a similar kind had been invented."
Matthew Murray was born at Stockton-on-Tees in the year 1763. His
parents were of the working class, and Matthew, like the other members
of the family, was brought up with the ordinary career of labour before
him. When of due age his father apprenticed him to the trade of a
blacksmith, in which he very soon acquired considerable expertness. He
married before his term had expired; after which, trade being slack at
Stockton, he found it necessary to look for work elsewhere. Leaving
his wife behind him, he set out for Leeds with his bundle on his back,
and after a long journey on foot, he reached that town with not enough
money left in his pocket to pay for a bed at the Bay Horse inn, where
he put up. But telling the landlord that he expected work at
Marshall's, and seeming to be a respectable young man, the landlord
trusted him; and he was so fortunate as to obtain the job which he
sought at Mr. Marshall's, who was then beginning the manufacture of
flax, for which the firm has since become so famous.
Mr. Marshall was at that time engaged in improving the method of
manufacture,[2] and the young blacksmith was so fortunate or rather so
dexterous as to be able to suggest several improvements in the
machinery which secured the approval of his employer, who made him a
present of 20L., and very shortly promoted him to be the first mechanic
in the workshop. On this stroke of good fortune Murray took a house at
the neighbouring village of Beeston, sent to Stockton for his wife, who
speedily joined him, and he now felt himself fairly started in the
world. He remained with Mr. Marshall for about twelve years, during
which he introduced numerous improvements in the machinery for spinning
flax, and obtained the reputation of being a first-rate mechanic. This
induced Mr. James Fenton and Mr. David Wood to offer to join him in the
establishment of an engineering and machine-making factory at Leeds;
which he agreed to, and operations were commenced at Holbeck in the
year 1795.
As Mr. Murray had obtained considerable practical knowledge of the
steam-engine while working at Mr. Marshall's, he took principal charge
of the engine-building department, while his partner Wood directed the
machine-making. In the branch of engine-building Mr. Murray very
shortly established a high reputation, treading close upon the heels of
Boulton and Watt--so close, indeed, that that firm became very jealous
of him, and purchased a large piece of ground close to his works with
the object of preventing their extension.[3] His additions to the
steam-engine were of great practical value, one of which, the
self-acting apparatus attached to the boiler for the purpose of
regulating the intensity of fire under it, and consequently the
production of steam, is still in general use. This was invented by him
as early as 1799. He also subsequently invented the D slide valve, or
at least greatly improved it, while he added to the power of the
air-pump, and gave a new arrangement to the other parts, with a view to
the simplification of the powers of the engine. To make the D valve
work efficiently, it was found necessary to form two perfectly plane
surfaces, to produce which he invented his planing machine. He was
also the first to adopt the practice of placing the piston in a
horizontal position in the common condensing engine. Among his other
modifications in the steam-engine, was his improvement of the
locomotive as invented by Trevithick; and it ought to be remembered to
his honour that he made the first locomotive that regularly worked upon
any railway.
This was the engine erected by him for Blenkinsop, to work the
Middleton colliery railway near Leeds, on which it began to run in
1812, and continued in regular use for many years. In this engine he
introduced the double cylinder--Trevithick's engine being provided with
only one cylinder, the defects of which were supplemented by the
addition of a fly-wheel to carry the crank over the dead points.
But Matthew Murray's most important inventions, considered in their
effects on manufacturing industry, were those connected with the
machinery for heckling and spinning flax, which he very greatly
improved. His heckling machine obtained for him the prize of the gold
medal of the Society of Arts; and this as well as his machine for wet
flax-spinning by means of sponge weights proved of the greatest
practical value. At the time when these inventions were made the flax
trade was on the point of expiring, the spinners being unable to
produce yarn to a profit; and their almost immediate effect was to
reduce the cost of production, to improve immensely the quality of the
manufacture, and to establish the British linen trade on a solid
foundation. The production of flax-machinery became an important
branch of manufacture at Leeds, large quantities being made for use at
home as well as for exportation, giving employment to an increasing
number of highly skilled mechanics.[4] Mr. Murray's faculty for
organising work, perfected by experience, enabled him also to introduce
many valuable improvements in the mechanics of manufacturing. His
pre-eminent skill in mill-gearing became generally acknowledged, and
the effects of his labours are felt to this day in the extensive and
still thriving branches of industry which his ingenuity and ability
mainly contributed to establish. All the machine tools used in his
establishment were designed by himself, and he was most careful in the
personal superintendence of all the details of their construction. Mr.
Murray died at Leeds in 1826, in his sixty-third year.
We have not yet exhausted the list of claimants to the invention of the
Planing Machine, for we find still another in the person of Richard
Roberts of Manchester, one of the most prolific of modern inventors.
Mr. Roberts has indeed achieved so many undisputed inventions, that he
can readily afford to divide the honour in this case with others. He
has contrived things so various as the self-acting mule and the best
electro-magnet, wet gas-meters and dry planing machines, iron
billard-tables and turret-clocks, the centrifugal railway and the drill
slotting-machine, an apparatus for making cigars and machinery for the
propulsion and equipment of steamships; so that he may almost be
regarded as the Admirable Crichton of modern mechanics.
Richard Roberts was born in 1789, at Carreghova in the parish of
Llanymynech. His father was by trade a shoemaker, to which he
occasionally added the occupation of toll-keeper. The house in which
Richard was born stood upon the border line which then divided the
counties of Salop and Montgomery; the front door opening in the one
county, and the back door in the other. Richard, when a boy, received
next to no education, and as soon as he was of fitting age was put to
common labouring work. For some time he worked in a quarry near his
father's dwelling; but being of an ingenious turn, he occupied his
leisure in making various articles of mechanism, partly for amusement
and partly for profit. One of his first achievements, while working as
a quarryman, was a spinning-wheel, of which he was very proud, for it
was considered "a good job." Thus he gradually acquired dexterity in
handling tools, and he shortly came to entertain the ambition of
becoming a mechanic.
There were several ironworks in the neighbour hood, and thither he went
in search of employment. He succeeded in finding work as a
pattern-maker at Bradley, near Bilston; under John Wilkinson, the
famous ironmaster--a man of great enterprise as well as mechanical
skill; for he was the first man, as already stated, that Watt could
find capable of boring a cylinder with any approach to truth, for the
purposes of his steam-engines. After acquiring some practical
knowledge of the art of working in wood as well as iron, Roberts
proceeded to Birmingham, where he passed through different shops,
gaining further experience in mechanical practice. He tried his hand
at many kinds of work, and acquired considerable dexterity in each. He
was regarded as a sort of jack-of-all-trades; for he was a good turner,
a tolerable wheel-wright, and could repair mill-work at a pinch.
He next moved northward to the Horsley ironworks, Tipton, where he was
working as a pattern-maker when he had the misfortune to be drawn in
his own county for the militia. He immediately left his work and made
his way homeward to Llanymynech, determined not to be a soldier or even
a militiaman. But home was not the place for him to rest in, and after
bidding a hasty adieu to his father, he crossed the country northward
on foot and reached Liverpool, in the hope of finding work there.
Failing in that, he set out for Manchester and reached it at dusk, very
weary and very miry in consequence of the road being in such a wretched
state of mud and ruts. He relates that, not knowing a person in the
town, he went up to an apple-stall ostensibly to buy a pennyworth of
apples, but really to ask the stall-keeper if he knew of any person in
want of a hand. Was there any turner in the neighbourhood? Yes, round
the corner. Thither he went at once, found the wood-turner in, and was
promised a job on the following morning. He remained with the turner
for only a short time, after which he found a job in Salford at lathe
and tool-making. But hearing that the militia warrant-officers were
still searching for him, he became uneasy and determined to take refuge
in London.
He trudged all the way on foot to that great hiding-place, and first
tried Holtzapffel's, the famous tool-maker's, but failing in his
application he next went to Maudslay's and succeeded in getting
employment. He worked there for some time, acquiring much valuable
practical knowledge in the use of tools, cultivating his skill by
contact with first-class workmen, and benefiting by the spirit of
active contrivance which pervaded the Maudslay shops. His manual
dexterity greatly increased, and his inventive ingenuity fully
stimulated, he determined on making his way back to Manchester, which,
even more than London itself, at that time presented abundant openings
for men of mechanical skill. Hence we find so many of the best
mechanics trained at Maudslay's and Clement's--Nasmyth, Lewis, Muir,
Roberts, Whitworth, and others--shortly rising into distinction there
as leading mechanicians and tool-makers.
The mere enumeration of the various results of Mr. Roberts's inventive
skill during the period of his settlement at Manchester as a mechanical
engineer, would occupy more space than we can well spare. But we may
briefly mention a few of the more important. In 1816, while carrying
on business on his own account in Deansgate, he invented his improved
sector for correctly sizing wheels in blank previously to their being
cut, which is still extensively used. In the same year he invented his
improved screw-lathe; and in the following year, at the request of the
boroughreeve and constables of Manchester, he contrived an oscillating
and rotating wet gas meter of a new kind, which enabled them to sell
gas by measure. This was the first meter in which a water lute was
applied to prevent the escape of gas by the index shaft, the want of
which, as well as its great complexity, had prevented the only other
gas meter then in existence from working satisfactorily. The water
lute was immediately adopted by the patentee of that meter. The
planing machine, though claimed, as we have seen, by many inventors,
was constructed by Mr. Roberts after an original plan of his own in
1817, and became the tool most generally employed in mechanical
workshops--acting by means of a chain and rack--though it has since
been superseded to some extent by the planing machine of Whitworth,
which works both ways upon an endless screw. Improvements followed in
the slide-lathe (giving a large range of speed with increased diameters
for the same size of headstocks, &c.), in the wheel-cutting engine, in
the scale-beam (by which, with a load of 2 oz. on each end, the
fifteen-hundredth part of a grain could be indicated), in the
broaching-machine, the slotting-machine, and other engines.
But the inventions by which his fame became most extensively known
arose out of circumstances connected with the cotton manufactures of
Manchester and the neighbourhood. The great improvements which he
introduced in the machine for making weavers' reeds, led to the
formation of the firm of Sharp, Roberts, and Co., of which Mr. Roberts
was the acting mechanical partner for many years. Not less important
were his improvements in power-looms for weaving fustians, which were
extensively adopted. But by far the most famous of his inventions was
unquestionably his Self-acting Mule, one of the most elaborate and
beautiful pieces of machinery ever contrived. Before its invention,
the working of the entire machinery of the cotton-mill, as well as the
employment of the piecers, cleaners, and other classes of operatives,
depended upon the spinners, who, though receiving the highest rates of
pay, were by much the most given to strikes; and they were frequently
accustomed to turn out in times when trade was brisk, thereby bringing
the whole operations of the manufactories to a standstill, and throwing
all the other operatives out of employment. A long-continued strike of
this sort took place in 1824, when the idea occurred to the masters
that it might be possible to make the spinning-mules run out and in at
the proper speed by means of self-acting machinery, and thus render
them in some measure independent of the more refractory class of their
workmen. It seemed, however, to be so very difficult a problem, that
they were by no means sanguine of success in its solution. Some time
passed before they could find any mechanic willing so much as to
consider the subject. Mr. Ashton of Staley-bridge made every effort
with this object, but the answer he got was uniformly the same. The
thing was declared to be impracticable and impossible. Mr. Ashton,
accompanied by two other leading spinners, called on Sharp, Roberts,
and Co., to seek an interview with Mr. Roberts. They introduced the
subject to him, but he would scarcely listen to their explanations,
cutting them short with the remark that he knew nothing whatever about
cotton-spinning. They insisted, nevertheless, on explaining to him
what they required, but they went away without being able to obtain
from him any promise of assistance in bringing out the required machine.
The strike continued, and the manufacturers again called upon Mr.
Roberts, but with no better result. A third time they called and
appealed to Mr. Sharp, the capitalist of the firm, who promised to use
his best endeavours to induce his mechanical partner to take the matter
in hand. But Mr. Roberts, notwithstanding his reticence, had been
occupied in carefully pondering the subject since Mr. Ashton's first
interview with him. The very difficulty of the problem to be solved
had tempted him boldly to grapple with it, though he would not hold out
the slightest expectation to the cotton-spinners of his being able to
help them in their emergency until he saw his way perfectly clear.
That time had now come; and when Mr. Sharp introduced the subject, he
said he had turned the matter over and thought he could construct the
required self-acting machinery. It was arranged that he should proceed
with it at once, and after a close study of four months he brought out
the machine now so extensively known as the self-acting mule. The
invention was patented in 1825, and was perfected by subsequent
additions, which were also patented.
Like so many other inventions, the idea of the self-acting mule was not
new. Thus Mr. William Strutt of Derby, the father of Lord Belper,
invented a machine of this sort at an early period; Mr. William Belly,
of the New Lanark Mills, invented a second; and various other
projectors tried their skill in the same direction; but none of these
inventions came into practical use. In such cases it has become
generally admitted that the real inventor is not the person who
suggests the idea of the invention, but he who first works it out into
a practicable process, and so makes it of practical and commercial
value. This was accomplished by Mr. Roberts, who, working out the idea
after his own independent methods, succeeded in making the first
self-acting mule that would really act as such; and he is therefore
fairly entitled to be regarded as its inventor.
By means of this beautiful contrivance, spindle-carriages; bearing
hundreds of spindles, run themselves out and in by means of automatic
machinery, at the proper speed, without a hand touching them; the only
labour required being that of a few boys and girls to watch them and
mend the broken threads when the carriage recedes from the roller beam,
and to stop it when the cop is completely formed, as is indicated by
the bell of the counter attached to the working gear. Mr. Baines
describes the self-acting mule while at work as "drawing out, twisting,
and winding up many thousand threads, with unfailing precision and
indefatigable patience and strength--a scene as magical to the eye
which is not familiarized with it, as the effects have been marvellous
in augmenting the wealth and population of the country." [5]
Mr. Roberts's great success with the self-acting mule led to his being
often appealed to for help in the mechanics of manufacturing. In 1826,
the year after his patent was taken out, he was sent for to Mulhouse,
in Alsace, to design and arrange the machine establishment of Andre
Koechlin and Co.; and in that and the two subsequent years he fairly
set the works a-going, instructing the workmen in the manufacture of
spinning-machinery, and thus contributing largely to the success of the
French cotton manufacture. In 1832 he patented his invention of the
Radial Arm for "winding on" in the self-acting mule, now in general
use; and in future years he took out sundry patents for roving,
slubbing, spinning, and doubling cotton and other fibrous materials;
and for weaving, beetling, and mangling fabrics of various sorts.
A considerable branch of business carried on by the firm of Sharp,
Roberts, and Co. was the manufacture of iron billiard-tables, which
were constructed with almost perfect truth by means of Mr. Roberts's
planing-machine, and became a large article of export. But a much more
important and remunerative department was the manufacture of
locomotives, which was begun by the firm shortly after the opening of
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had marked this as one of the
chief branches of future mechanical engineering. Mr. Roberts adroitly
seized the opportunity presented by this new field of invention and
enterprise, and devoted himself for a time to the careful study of the
locomotive and its powers. As early as the year 1829 we find him
presenting to the Manchester Mechanics' Institute a machine exhibiting
the nature of friction upon railroads, in solution of the problem then
under discussion in the scientific journals. In the following year he
patented an arrangement for communicating power to both driving-wheels
of the locomotive, at all times in the exact proportions required when
turning to the right or left,--an arrangement which has since been
adopted in many road locomotives and agricultural engines. In the same
patent will be found embodied his invention of the steam-brake, which
was also a favourite idea of George Stephenson, since elaborated by Mr.
MacConnell of the London and North-Western Railway. In 1834, Sharp,
Roberts, and Co. began the manufacture of locomotives on a large scale;
and the compactness of their engines, the excellence of their
workmanship, and the numerous original improvements introduced in them,
speedily secured for the engines of the Atlas firm a high reputation
and a very large demand. Among Mr. Roberts's improvements may be
mentioned his method of manufacturing the crank axle, of welding the
rim and tyres of the wheels, and his arrangement and form of the
wrought-iron framing and axle-guards. His system of templets and
gauges, by means of which every part of an engine or tender
corresponded with that of every other engine or tender of the same
class, was as great an improvement as Maudslay's system of uniformity
of parts in other descriptions of machinery.
In connection with the subject of railways, we may allude in passing to
Mr. Roberts's invention of the Jacquard punching machine--a self-acting
tool of great power, used for punching any required number of holes, of
any pitch and to any pattern, with mathematical accuracy, in bridge or
boiler plates. The origin of this invention was somewhat similar to
that of the self-acting mule. The contractors for the Conway Tubular
Bridge while under construction, in 1848, were greatly hampered by
combinations amongst the workmen, and they despaired of being able to
finish the girders within the time specified in the contract. The
punching of the iron plates by hand was a tedious and expensive as well
as an inaccurate process; and the work was proceeding so slowly that
the contractors found it absolutely necessary to adopt some new method
of punching if they were to finish the work in time. In their
emergency they appealed to Mr. Roberts, and endeavoured to persuade him
to take the matter up. He at length consented to do so, and evolved
the machine in question during his evening's leisure--for the most part
while quietly sipping his tea. The machine was produced, the
contractors were enabled to proceed with the punching of the plates
independent of the refractory men, and the work was executed with a
despatch, accuracy, and excellence that would not otherwise have been
possible. Only a few years since Mr. Roberts added a useful companion
to the Jacquard punching machine, in his combined self-acting machine
for shearing iron and punching both webs of angle or T iron
simultaneously to any required pitch; though this machine, like others
which have proceeded from his fertile brain, is ahead even of this
fast-manufacturing age, and has not yet come into general use, but is
certain to do so before many years have elapsed.
These inventions were surely enough for one man to have accomplished;
but we have not yet done. The mere enumeration of his other inventions
would occupy several pages. We shall merely allude to a few of them.
One was his Turret Clock, for which he obtained the medal at the Great
Exhibition of 1851. Another was his Prize Electro-Magnet of 1845.
When this subject was first mentioned to him, he said he did not know
anything of the theory or practice of electro-magnetism, but he would
try and find out. The result of his trying was that he won the prize
for the most powerful electro-magnet: one is placed in the museum at
Peel Park, Manchester, and another with the Scottish Society of Arts,
Edinburgh. In 1846 he perfected an American invention for making
cigars by machinery; enabling a boy, working one of his cigar-engines,
to make as many as 5000 in a day. In 1852 he patented improvements in
the construction, propelling, and equipment of steamships, which have,
we believe, been adopted to a certain extent by the Admiralty; and a
few years later, in 1855, we find him presenting the Secretary of War
with plans of elongated rifle projectiles to be used in smooth-bore
ordnance with a view to utilize the old-pattern gun. His head, like
many inventors of the time, being full of the mechanics of war, he went
so far as to wait upon Louis Napoleon, and laid before him a plan by
which Sebastopol was to be blown down. In short, upon whatever subject
he turned his mind, he left the impress of his inventive faculty. If
it was imperfect, he improved it; if incapable of improvement, and
impracticable, he invented something entirely new, superseding it
altogether. But with all his inventive genius, in the exercise of
which Mr. Roberts has so largely added to the productive power of the
country, we regret to say that he is not gifted with the commercial
faculty. He has helped others in their difficulties, but forgotten
himself. Many have profited by his inventions, without even
acknowledging the obligations which they owed to him. They have used
his brains and copied his tools, and the "sucked orange" is all but
forgotten. There may have been a want of worldly wisdom on his part,
but it is lamentable to think that one of the most prolific and useful
inventors of his time should in his old age be left to fight with
poverty.
Mr. Whitworth is another of the first-class tool-makers of Manchester
who has turned to excellent account his training in the workshops of
Maudslay and Clement. He has carried fully out the system of
uniformity in Screw Threads which they initiated; and he has still
further improved the mechanism of the planing machine, enabling it to
work both backwards and forwards by means of a screw and roller motion.
His "Jim Crow Machine," so called from its peculiar motion in reversing
itself and working both ways, is an extremely beautiful tool, adapted
alike for horizontal, vertical, or angular motions. The minute
accuracy of Mr. Whitworth's machines is not the least of their merits;
and nothing will satisfy him short of perfect truth. At the meeting of
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Glasgow in 1856 he read a
paper on the essential importance of possessing a true plane as a
standard of reference in mechanical constructions, and he described
elaborately the true method of securing it,--namely, by scraping,
instead of by the ordinary process of grinding. At the same meeting he
exhibited a machine of his invention by which he stated that a
difference of the millionth part of an inch in length could at once be
detected. He also there urged his favourite idea of uniformity, and
proper gradations of size of parts, in all the various branches of the
mechanical arts, as a chief means towards economy of production--a
principle, as he showed, capable of very extensive application. To
show the progress of tools and machinery in his own time, Mr. Whitworth
cited the fact that thirty years since the cost of labour for making a
surface of cast-iron true--one of the most important operations in
mechanics--by chipping and filing by the hand, was 12s. a square foot;
whereas it is now done by the planing machine at a cost for labour of
less than a penny. Then in machinery, pieces of 74 reed
printing-cotton cloth of 29 yards each could not be produced at less
cost than 30s. 6d. per piece; whereas the same description is now sold
for 3s. 9d. Mr. Whitworth has been among the most effective workers in
this field of improvement, his tools taking the first place in point of
speed, accuracy, and finish of work, in which respects they challenge
competition with the world. Mr. Whitworth has of late years been
applying himself with his accustomed ardour to the development of the
powers of rifled guns and projectiles,--a branch of mechanical science
in which he confessedly holds a foremost place, and in perfecting which
he is still occupied.
[1] Engineer, Oct. 10th, 1862.
[2] We are informed in Mr. Longstaffe's Annals and Characteristics of
Darlington, that the spinning of flax by machinery was first begun by
one John Kendrew, an ingenious self-taught mechanic of that town, who
invented a machine for the purpose, for which he took out a patent in
1787. Mr. Marshall went over from Leeds to see his machine, and agreed
to give him so much per spindle for the right to use it. But ceasing
to pay the patent right, Kendrew commenced an action against him for a
sum of nine hundred pounds alleged to be due under the agreement. The
claim was disputed, and Kendrew lost his action; and it is added in
Longstaffe's Annals, that even had he succeeded, it would have been of
no use; for Mr. Marshall declared that he had not then the money
wherewith to pay him. It is possible that Matthew Murray may have
obtained some experience of flax-machinery in working for Kendrew,
which afterwards proved of use to him in Mr. Marshall's establishment.
[3] The purchase of this large piece of ground, known as Camp Field,
had the effect of "plugging up" Matthew Murray for a time; and it
remained disused, except for the deposit of dead dogs and other
rubbish, for more than half a century. It has only been enclosed
during the present year, and now forms part of the works of Messrs.
Smith, Beacock, and Tannet, the eminent tool-makers.
[4] Among more recent improvers of flax-machinery, the late Sir Peter
Fairbairn is entitled to high merit: the work turned out by him being
of first-rate excellence, embodying numerous inventions and
improvements of great value and importance.
[5] EDWARD BAINES, Esq., M.P., History of the Cotton Manufacture, 212.
CHAPTER XV.
JAMES NASMYTH.
"By Hammer and Hand
All Arts doth stand."
Hammermen's Motto.
The founder Of the Scotch family of Naesmyth is said to have derived
his name from the following circumstance. In the course of the feuds
which raged for some time between the Scotch kings and their powerful
subjects the Earls of Douglas, a rencontre took place one day on the
outskirts of a Border village, when the king's adherents were worsted.
One of them took refuge in the village smithy, where, hastily
disguising himself, and donning a spare leathern apron, he pretended to
be engaged in assisting the smith with his work, when a party of the
Douglas followers rushed in. They glanced at the pretended workman at
the anvil, and observed him deliver a blow upon it so unskilfully that
the hammer-shaft broke in his hand. On this one of the Douglas men
rushed at him, calling out, "Ye're nae smyth!" The assailed man seized
his sword, which lay conveniently at hand, and defended himself so
vigorously that he shortly killed his assailant, while the smith
brained another with his hammer; and, a party of the king's men having
come to their help, the rest were speedily overpowered. The royal
forces then rallied, and their temporary defeat was converted into a
victory. The king bestowed a grant of land on his follower "Nae
Smyth," who assumed for his arms a sword between two hammers with
broken shafts, and the motto "Non arte sed Marte," as if to disclaim
the art of the Smith, in which he had failed, and to emphasize the
superiority of the warrior. Such is said to be the traditional origin
of the family of Naesmyth of Posso in Peeblesshire, who continue to
bear the same name and arms.
It is remarkable that the inventor of the steam-hammer should have so
effectually contradicted the name he bears and reversed the motto of
his family; for so far from being "Nae Smyth," he may not
inappropriately be designated the very Vulcan of the nineteenth
century. His hammer is a tool of immense power and pliancy, but for
which we must have stopped short in many of those gigantic engineering
works which are among the marvels of the age we live in. It possesses
so much precision and delicacy that it will chip the end of an egg
resting in a glass on the anvil without breaking it, while it delivers
a blow of ten tons with such a force as to be felt shaking the parish.
It is therefore with a high degree of appropriateness that Mr. Nasmyth
has discarded the feckless hammer with the broken shaft, and assumed
for his emblem his own magnificent steam-hammer, at the same time
reversing the family motto, which he has converted into "Non Marte sed
Arte."
James Nasmyth belongs to a family whose genius in art has long been
recognised. His father, Alexander Nasmyth of Edinburgh, was a
landscape-painter of great eminence, whose works are sometimes
confounded with those of his son Patrick, called the English Hobbema,
though his own merits are peculiar and distinctive. The elder Nasmyth
was also an admirable portrait painter, as his head of Burns--the best
ever painted of the poet--bears ample witness. His daughters, the
Misses Nasmyth, were highly skilled painters of landscape, and their
works are well known and much prized. James, the youngest of the
family, inherits the same love of art, though his name is more
extensively known as a worker and inventor in iron. He was born at
Edinburgh, on the 19th of August, 1808; and his attention was early
directed to mechanics by the circumstance of this being one of his
father's hobbies. Besides being an excellent painter, Mr. Nasmyth had
a good general knowledge of architecture and civil engineering, and
could work at the lathe and handle tools with the dexterity of a
mechanic. He employed nearly the whole of his spare time in a little
workshop which adjoined his studio, where he encouraged his youngest
son to work with him in all sorts of materials. Among his visitors at
the studio were Professor Leslie, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, and
other men of distinction. He assisted Mr. Miller in his early
experiments with paddle-boats, which eventually led to the invention of
the steamboat. It was a great advantage for the boy to be trained by a
father who so loved excellence in all its forms, and could minister to
his love of mechanics by his own instruction and practice. James used
to drink in with pleasure and profit the conversation which passed
between his father and his visitors on scientific and mechanical
subjects; and as he became older, the resolve grew stronger in him
every day that he would be a mechanical engineer, and nothing else. At
a proper age, he was sent to the High School, then as now celebrated
for the excellence of its instruction, and there he laid the
foundations of a sound and liberal education. But he has himself told
the simple story of his early life in such graphic terms that we feel
we cannot do better than quote his own words:--[1]
"I had the good luck," he says, "to have for a school companion the son
of an iron founder. Every spare hour that I could command was devoted
to visits to his father's iron foundry, where I delighted to watch the
various processes of moulding, iron-melting, casting, forging,
pattern-making, and other smith and metal work; and although I was only
about twelve years old at the time, I used to lend a hand, in which
hearty zeal did a good deal to make up for want of strength. I look
back to the Saturday afternoons spent in the workshops of that small
foundry, as an important part of my education. I did not trust to
reading about such and such things; I saw and handled them; and all the
ideas in connection with them became permanent in my mind. I also
obtained there--what was of much value to me in after life--a
considerable acquaintance with the nature and characters of workmen.
By the time I was fifteen, I could work and turn out really respectable
jobs in wood, brass, iron, and steel: indeed, in the working of the
latter inestimable material, I had at a very early age (eleven or
twelve) acquired considerable proficiency. As that was the pre-lucifer
match period, the possession of a steel and tinder box was quite a
patent of nobility among boys. So I used to forge old files into
'steels' in my father's little workshop, and harden them and produce
such first-rate, neat little articles in that line, that I became quite
famous amongst my school companions; and many a task have I had excused
me by bribing the monitor, whose grim sense of duty never could
withstand the glimpse of a steel.
"My first essay at making a steam engine was when I was fifteen. I
then made a real working; steam-engine, 1 3/4 diameter cylinder, and 8
in. stroke, which not only could act, but really did some useful work;
for I made it grind the oil colours which my father required for his
painting. Steam engine models, now so common, were exceedingly scarce
in those days, and very difficult to be had; and as the demand for them
arose, I found it both delightful and profitable to make them; as well
as sectional models of steam engines, which I introduced for the
purpose of exhibiting the movements of all the parts, both exterior and
interior. With the results of the sale of such models I was enabled to
pay the price of tickets of admission to the lectures on natural
philosophy and chemistry delivered in the University of Edinburgh.
About the same time (1826) I was so happy as to be employed by
Professor Leslie in making models and portions of apparatus required by
him for his lectures and philosophical investigations, and I had also
the inestimable good fortune to secure his friendship. His admirably
clear manner of communicating a knowledge of the fundamental principles
of mechanical science rendered my intercourse with him of the utmost
importance to myself. A hearty, cheerful, earnest desire to toil in
his service, caused him to take pleasure in instructing me by
occasional explanations of what might otherwise have remained obscure.
"About the years 1827 and 1828, the subject of steam-carriages for
common roads occupied much of the attention of the public. Many tried
to solve the problem. I made a working model of an engine which
performed so well that some friends determined to give me the means of
making one on a larger scale. This I did; and I shall never forget the
pleasure and the downright hard work I had in producing, in the autumn
of 1828, at an outlay of 60L., a complete steam-carriage, that ran many
a mile with eight persons on it. After keeping it in action two
months, to the satisfaction of all who were interested in it, my
friends allowed me to dispose of it, and I sold it a great bargain,
after which the engine was used in driving a small factory. I may
mention that in that engine I employed the waste steam to cause an
increased draught by its discharge up the chimney. This important use
of the waste steam had been introduced by George Stephenson some years
before, though entirely unknown to me.
"The earnest desire which I cherished of getting forward in the real
business of life induced me to turn my attention to obtaining
employment in some of the great engineering establishments of the day,
at the head of which, in my fancy as well as in reality, stood that of
Henry Maudslay, of London. It was the summit of my ambition to get
work in that establishment; but as my father had not the means of
paying a premium, I determined to try what I could do towards attaining
my object by submitting to Mr. Maudslay actual specimens of my
capability as a young workman and draughtsman. To this end I set to
work and made a small steam-engine, every part of which was the result
of my own handiwork, including the casting and the forging of the
several parts. This I turned out in such a style as I should even now
be proud of. My sample drawings were, I may say, highly respectable.
Armed with such means of obtaining the good opinion of the great Henry
Maudslay, on the 19th of May, 1829, I sailed for London in a Leith
smack, and after an eight days' voyage saw the metropolis for the first
time. I made bold to call on Mr. Maudslay, and told him my simple
tale. He desired me to bring my models for him to look at. I did so,
and when he came to me I could see by the expression of his cheerful,
well-remembered countenance, that I had attained my object. He then
and there appointed me to be his own private workman, to assist him in
his little paradise of a workshop, furnished with the models of
improved machinery and engineering tools of which he has been the great
originator. He left me to arrange as to wages with his chief cashier,
Mr. Robert Young, and on the first Saturday evening I accordingly went
to the counting-house to enquire of him about my pay. He asked me what
would satisfy me. Knowing the value of the situation I had obtained,
and having a very modest notion of my worthiness to occupy it, I said,
that if he would not consider 10s. a week too much, I thought I could
do very well with that. I suppose he concluded that I had some means
of my own to live on besides the 10s. a week which I asked. He little
knew that I had determined not to cost my father another farthing when
I left-home to begin the world on my own account. My proposal was at
once acceded to. And well do I remember the pride and delight I felt
when I carried to my three shillings a week lodging that night my first
wages. Ample they were in my idea; for I knew how little I could live
on, and was persuaded that by strict economy I could easily contrive to
make the money support me. To help me in this object, I contrived a
small cooking apparatus, which I forthwith got made by a tinsmith in
Lambeth, at a cost of 6s., and by its aid I managed to keep the eating
and drinking part of my private account within 3s. 6d. per week, or 4s.
at the outside. I had three meat dinners a week, and generally four
rice and milk dinners, all of which were cooked by my little apparatus,
which I set in action after breakfast. The oil cost not quite a
halfpenny per day. The meat dinners consisted of a stew of from a half
to three quarters of a lb. of leg of beef, the meat costing 3 1/2d.
per lb., which, with sliced potatoes and a little onion, and as much
water as just covered all, with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper, by
the time I returned to dinner at half-past six furnished a repast in
every respect as good as my appetite. For breakfast I had coffee and a
due proportion of quartern loaf. After the first year of my employment
under Mr. Maudslay, my wages were raised to 15s. a week, and I then,
but not till then, indulged in the luxury of butter to my bread. I am
the more particular in all this, to show you that I was a thrifty
housekeeper, although only a lodger in a 3s. room. I have the old
apparatus by me yet, and I shall have another dinner out of it ere I am
a year older, out of regard to days that were full of the real romance
of life.
"On the death of Henry Maudslay in 1831, I passed over to the service
of his worthy partner, Mr. Joshua Field, and acted as his draughtsman,
much to my advantage, until the end of that year, when I returned to
Edinburgh, to construct a small stock of engineering tools for the
purpose of enabling me to start in business on my own account. This
occupied me until the spring of 1833, and during the interval I was
accustomed to take in jobs to execute in my little workshop in
Edinburgh, so as to obtain the means of completing my stock of
tools.[2] In June, 1834, I went to Manchester, and took a flat of an
old mill in Dale Street, where I began business. In two years my stock
had so increased as to overload the floor of the old building to such
an extent that the land lord, Mr. Wrenn, became alarmed, especially as
the tenant below me--a glass-cutter--had a visit from the end of a
20-horse engine beam one morning among his cut tumblers. To set their
anxiety at rest, I went out that evening to Patricroft and took a look
at a rather choice bit of land bounded on one side by the canal, and on
the other by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. By the end of the
week I had secured a lease of the site for 999 years; by the end of the
month my wood sheds were erected; the ring of the hammer on the smith's
anvil was soon heard all over the place; and the Bridgewater Foundry
was fairly under way. There I toiled right heartily until December
31st, 1856, when I retired to enjoy in active leisure the reward of a
laborious life, during which, with the blessing of God, I enjoyed much
true happiness through the hearty love which I always had for my
profession; and I trust I may be allowed to say, without undue vanity,
that I have left behind me some useful results of my labours in those
inventions with which my name is identified, which have had no small
share in the accomplishment of some of the greatest mechanical works of
our age." If Mr. Nasmyth had accomplished nothing more than the
invention of his steam-hammer, it would have been enough to found a
reputation. Professor Tomlinson describes it as "one of the most
perfect of artificial machines and noblest triumphs of mind over matter
that modern English engineers have yet developed." [3]
The hand-hammer has always been an important tool, and, in the form of
the stone celt, it was perhaps the first invented. When the hammer of
iron superseded that of stone, it was found practicable in the hands of
a "cunning" workman to execute by its means metal work of great beauty
and even delicacy. But since the invention of cast-iron, and the
manufacture of wrought-iron in large masses, the art of hammer-working
has almost become lost; and great artists, such as Matsys of Antwerp
and Rukers of Nuremberg were,[4] no longer think it worth their while
to expend time and skill in working on so humble a material as
wrought-iron. It is evident from the marks of care and elaborate
design which many of these early works exhibit, that the workman's
heart was in his work, and that his object was not merely to get it out
of hand, but to execute it in first-rate artistic style.
When the use of iron extended and larger ironwork came to be forged,
for cannon, tools, and machinery, the ordinary hand-hammer was found
insufficient, and the helve or forge-hammer was invented. This was
usually driven by a water-wheel, or by oxen or horses. The tilt-hammer
was another form in which it was used, the smaller kinds being worked
by the foot. Among Watt's various inventions, was a tilt-hammer of
considerable power, which he at first worked by means of a water-wheel,
and afterwards by a steam engine regulated by a fly-wheel. His first
hammer of this kind was 120 lbs. in weight; it was raised eight inches
before making each blow. Watt afterwards made a tilt-hammer for Mr.
Wilkinson of Bradley Forge, of 7 1/2 cwt., and it made 300 blows a
minute. Other improvements were made in the hammer from time to time,
but no material alteration was made in the power by which it was worked
until Mr. Nasmyth took it in hand, and applying to it the force of
steam, at once provided the worker in iron with the most formidable of
machine-tools. This important invention originated as follows:
In the early part of 1837, the directors of the Great Western
Steam-Ship Company sent Mr. Francis Humphries, their engineer, to
consult Mr. Nasmyth as to some engineering tools of unusual size and
power, which were required for the construction of the engines of the
"Great Britain" steamship. They had determined to construct those
engines on the vertical trunk-engine principle, in accordance with Mr.
Humphries' designs; and very complete works were erected by them at
their Bristol dockyard for the execution of the requisite machinery,
the most important of the tools being supplied by Nasmyth and Gaskell.
The engines were in hand, when a difficulty arose with respect to the
enormous paddle-shaft of the vessel, which was of such a size of
forging as had never before been executed. Mr. Humphries applied to
the largest engineering firms throughout the country for tenders of the
price at which they would execute this part of the work, but to his
surprise and dismay he found that not one of the firms he applied to
would undertake so large a forging. In this dilemma he wrote to Mr.
Nasmyth on the 24th November,1838, informing him of this unlooked-for
difficulty. "I find," said he, "there is not a forge-hammer in England
or Scotland powerful enough to forge the paddle-shaft of the engines
for the 'Great Britain!' What am I to do? Do you think I might dare to
use cast-iron?"
This letter immediately set Mr. Nasmyth a-thinking. How was it that
existing hammers were incapable of forging a wrought-iron shaft of
thirty inches diameter? Simply because of their want of compass, or
range and fall, as well as power of blow. A few moments' rapid thought
satisfied him that it was by rigidly adhering to the old traditional
form of hand-hammer--of which the tilt, though driven by steam, was but
a modification--that the difficulty had arisen. When even the largest
hammer was tilted up to its full height, its range was so small, that
when a piece of work of considerable size was placed on the anvil, the
hammer became "gagged," and, on such an occasion, where the forging
required the most powerful blow, it received next to no blow at
all,--the clear space for fall being almost entirely occupied by the
work on the anvil.
The obvious remedy was to invent some method, by which a block of iron
should be lifted to a sufficient height above the object on which it
was desired to strike a blow, and let the block fall down upon the
work,--guiding it in its descent by such simple means as should give
the required precision in the percussive action of the falling mass.
Following out this idea, Mr. Nasmyth at once sketched on paper his
steam-hammer, having it clearly before him in his mind's eye a few
minutes after receiving Mr. Humphries' letter narrating his
unlooked-for difficulty. The hammer, as thus sketched, consisted of,
first an anvil on which to rest the work; second, a block of iron
constituting the hammer or blow-giving part; third, an inverted
steam-cylinder to whose piston-rod the block was attached. All that
was then required to produce by such means a most effective hammer, was
simply to admit steam in the cylinder so as to act on the under side of
the piston, and so raise the block attached to the piston-rod, and by a
simple contrivance to let the steam escape and so permit the block
rapidly to descend by its own gravity upon the work then on the anvil.
Such, in a few words, is the rationale of the steam-hammer.
By the same day's post, Mr. Nasmyth wrote to Mr. Humphries, inclosing a
sketch of the invention by which he proposed to forge the "Great
Britain" paddle-shaft. Mr. Humphries showed it to Mr. Brunel, the
engineer-inchief of the company, to Mr. Guppy, the managing director,
and to others interested in the undertaking, by all of whom it was
heartily approved. Mr. Nasmyth gave permission to communicate his
plans to such forge proprietors as might feel disposed to erect such a
hammer to execute the proposed work,--the only condition which he made
being, that in the event of his hammer being adopted, he was to be
allowed to supply it according to his own design.
The paddle-shaft of the "Great Britain" was, however, never forged.
About that time, the substitution of the Screw for the Paddle-wheel as
a means of propulsion of steam-vessels was attracting much attention;
and the performances of the "Archimedes" were so successful as to
induce Mr. Brunel to recommend his Directors to adopt the new power.
They yielded to his entreaty. The great engines which Mr. Humphries
had designed were accordingly set aside; and he was required to produce
fresh designs of engines suited for screw propulsion. The result was
fatal to Mr. Humphries. The labour, the anxiety, and perhaps the
disappointment, proved too much for him, and a brain-fever carried him
off; so that neither his great paddle-shaft nor Mr. Nasmyth's
steam-hammer to forge it was any longer needed.
The hammer was left to bide its time. No forge-master would take it
up. The inventor wrote to all the great firms, urging its superiority
to every other tool for working malleable iron into all kinds of forge
work. Thus he wrote and sent illustrative sketches of his hammer to
Accramans and Morgan of Bristol, to the late Benjamin Hick and Rushton
and Eckersley of Bolton, to Howard and Ravenhill of Rotherhithe, and
other firms; but unhappily bad times for the iron trade had set in; and
although all to whom he communicated his design were much struck with
its simplicity and obvious advantages, the answer usually given
was--"We have not orders enough to keep in work the forge-hammers we
already have, and we do not desire at present to add any new ones,
however improved." At that time no patent had been taken out for the
invention. Mr. Nasmyth had not yet saved money enough to enable him to
do so on his own account; and his partner declined to spend money upon
a tool that no engineer would give the firm an order for. No secret
was made of the invention, and, excepting to its owner, it did not seem
to be worth one farthing.
Such was the unpromising state of affairs, when M. Schneider, of the
Creusot Iron Works in France, called at the Patricroft works together
with his practical mechanic M. Bourdon, for the purpose of ordering
some tools of the firm. Mr. Nasmyth was absent on a journey at the
time, but his partner, Mr. Gaskell, as an act of courtesy to the
strangers, took the opportunity of showing them all that was new and
interesting in regard to mechanism about the works. And among other
things, Mr. Gaskell brought out his partner's sketch or "Scheme book,"
which lay in a drawer in the office, and showed them the design of the
Steam Hammer, which no English firm would adopt. They were much struck
with its simplicity and practical utility; and M. Bourdon took careful
note of its arrangements. Mr. Nasmyth on his return was informed of
the visit of MM. Schneider and Bourdon, but the circumstance of their
having inspected the design of his steam-hammer seems to have been
regarded by his partner as too trivial a matter to be repeated to him;
and he knew nothing of the circumstance until his visit to France in
April, 1840. When passing through the works at Creusot with M.
Bourdon, Mr. Nasmyth saw a crank shaft of unusual size, not only forged
in the piece, but punched. He immediately asked, "How did you forge
that shaft?" M. Bourdon's answer was, "Why, with your hammer, to be
sure!" Great indeed was Nasmyth's surprise; for he had never yet seen
the hammer, except in his own drawing! A little explanation soon
cleared all up. M. Bourdon said he had been so much struck with the
ingenuity and simplicity of the arrangement, that he had no sooner
returned than he set to work, and had a hammer made in general
accordance with the design Mr. Gaskell had shown him; and that its
performances had answered his every expectation. He then took Mr.
Nasmyth to see the steam-hammer; and great was his delight at seeing
the child of his brain in full and active work. It was not, according
to Mr. Nasmyth's ideas, quite perfect, and he readily suggested several
improvements, conformable with the original design, which M. Bourdon
forthwith adopted.
On reaching England, Mr. Nasmyth at once wrote to his partner telling
him what he had seen, and urging that the taking out of a patent for
the protection of the invention ought no longer to be deferred. But
trade was still very much depressed, and as the Patricroft firm needed
all their capital to carry on their business, Mr. Gaskell objected to
lock any of it up in engineering novelties. Seeing himself on the
brink of losing his property in the invention, Mr. Nasmyth applied to
his brother-in-law, William Bennett, Esq., who advanced him the
requisite money for the purpose--about 280L.,--and the patent was
secured in June 1840. The first hammer, of 30 cwt., was made for the
Patricroft works, with the consent of the partners; and in the course
of a few weeks it was in full work. The precision and beauty of its
action--the perfect ease with which it was managed, and the untiring
force of its percussive blows--were the admiration of all who saw it;
and from that moment the steam-hammer became a recognised power in
modern mechanics. The variety or gradation of its blows was such, that
it was found practicable to manipulate a hammer of ten tons as easily
as if it had only been of ten ounces weight. It was under such
complete control that while descending with its greatest momentum, it
could be arrested at any point with even greater ease than any
instrument used by hand. While capable of forging an Armstrong
hundred-pounder, or the sheet-anchor for a ship of the line, it could
hammer a nail, or crack a nut without bruising the kernel. When it
came into general use, the facilities which it afforded for executing
all kinds of forging had the effect of greatly increasing the quantity
of work done, at the same time that expense was saved. The cost of
making anchors was reduced by at least 50 per cent., while the quality
of the forging was improved. Before its invention the manufacture of a
shaft of 15 or 20 cwt. required the concentrated exertions of a large
establishment, and its successful execution was regarded as a great
triumph of skill; whereas forgings of 20 and 30 tons weight are now
things of almost every-day occurrence. Its advantages were so obvious,
that its adoption soon became general, and in the course of a few years
Nasmyth steam-hammers were to be found in every well-appointed workshop
both at home and abroad. Many modifications have been made in the
tool, by Condie, Morrison, Naylor, Rigby, and others; but Nasmyth's was
the father of them all, and still holds its ground.[5]
Among the important uses to which this hammer has of late years been
applied, is the manufacture of iron plates for covering our ships of
war, and the fabrication of the immense wrought-iron ordnance of
Armstrong, Whitworth, and Blakely. But for the steam-hammer, indeed,
it is doubtful whether such weapons could have been made. It is also
used for the re-manufacture of iron in various other forms, to say
nothing of the greatly extended use which it has been the direct means
of effecting in wrought-iron and steel forgings in every description of
machinery, from the largest marine steam-engines to the most nice and
delicate parts of textile mechanism. "It is not too much to say,"
observes a writer in the Engineer, "that, without Nasmyth's
steam-hammer, we must have stopped short in many of those gigantic
engineering works which, but for the decay of all wonder in us, would
be the perpetual wonder of this age, and which have enabled our modern
engineers to take rank above the gods of all mythologies. There is one
use to which the steam-hammer is now becoming extensively applied by
some of our manufacturers that deserves especial mention, rather for
the prospect which it opens to us than for what has already been
actually accomplished. We allude to the manufacture of large articles
in DIES. At one manufactory in the country, railway wheels, for
example, are being manufactured with enormous economy by this means.
The various parts of the wheels are produced in quantity either by
rolling or by dies under the hammer; these parts are brought together
in their relative positions in a mould, heated to a welding heat, and
then by a blow of the steam hammer, furnished with dies, are stamped
into a complete and all but finished wheel. It is evident that
wherever wrought-iron articles of a manageable size have to be produced
in considerable quantities, the same process may be adopted, and the
saving effected by the substitution of this for the ordinary forging
process will doubtless ere long prove incalculable. For this, as for
the many other advantageous uses of the steam-hammer, we are primarily
and mainly indebted to Mr. Nasmyth. It is but right, therefore, that
we should hold his name in honour. In fact, when we think of the
universal service which this machine is rendering us, we feel that some
special expression of our indebtedness to him would be a reasonable and
grateful service. The benefit which he has conferred upon us is so
great as to justly entitle him to stand side by side with the few men
who have gained name and fame as great inventive engineers, and to whom
we have testified our gratitude--usually, unhappily, when it was too
late for them to enjoy it."
Mr. Nasmyth subsequently applied the principle of the steam-hammer in
the pile driver, which he invented in 1845. Until its production, all
piles had been driven by means of a small mass of iron falling upon the
head of the pile with great velocity from a considerable height,--the
raising of the iron mass by means of the "monkey" being an operation
that occupied much time and labour, with which the results were very
incommensurate. Pile-driving was, in Mr. Nasmyth's words, conducted on
the artillery or cannon-ball principle; the action being excessive and
the mass deficient, and adapted rather for destructive than impulsive
action. In his new and beautiful machine, he applied the elastic force
of steam in raising the ram or driving block, on which, the block being
disengaged, its whole weight of three tons descended on the head of the
pile, and the process being repeated eighty times in the minute, the
pile was sent home with a rapidity that was quite marvellous compared
with the old-fashioned system. In forming coffer-dams for the piers
and abutments of bridges, quays, and harbours, and in piling the
foundations of all kinds of masonry, the steam pile driver was found of
invaluable use by the engineer. At the first experiment made with the
machine, Mr. Nasmyth drove a 14-inch pile fifteen feet into hard ground
at the rate of 65 blows a minute. The driver was first used in forming
the great steam dock at Devonport, where the results were very
striking; and it was shortly after employed by Robert Stephenson in
piling the foundations of the great High Level Bridge at Newcastle, and
the Border Bridge at Berwick, as well as in several other of his great
works. The saving of time effected by this machine was very
remarkable, the ratio being as 1 to 1800; that is, a pile could be
driven in four minutes that before required twelve hours. One of the
peculiar features of the invention was that of employing the pile
itself as the support of the steam-hammer part of the apparatus while
it was being driven, so that the pile had the percussive action of the
dead weight of the hammer as well as its lively blows to induce it to
sink into the ground. The steam-hammer sat as it were on the shoulders
of the pile, while it dealt forth its ponderous blows on the pile-head
at the rate of 80 a minute, and as the pile sank, the hammer followed
it down with never relaxing activity until it was driven home to the
required depth. One of the most ingenious contrivances employed in the
driver, which was also adopted in the hammer, was the use of steam as a
buffer in the upper part of the cylinder, which had the effect of a
recoil spring, and greatly enhanced the force of the downward blow.
In 1846, Mr. Nasmyth designed a form of steam-engine after that of his
steam-hammer, which has been extensively adopted all over the world for
screw-ships of all sizes. The pyramidal form of this engine, its great
simplicity and GET-AT-ABILITY of parts, together with the circumstance
that all the weighty parts of the engine are kept low, have rendered it
a universal favourite. Among the other labour-saving tools invented by
Mr. Nasmyth, may be mentioned the well-known planing machine for small
work, called "Nasmyth's Steam Arm," now used in every large workshop.
It was contrived for the purpose of executing a large order for
locomotives received from the Great Western Railway, and was found of
great use in accelerating the work, especially in planing the links,
levers, connecting rods, and smaller kinds of wrought-iron work in
those engines. His circular cutter for toothed wheels was another of
his handy inventions, which shortly came into general use. In
iron-founding also he introduced a valuable practical improvement. The
old mode of pouring the molten metal into the moulds was by means of a
large ladle with one or two cross handles and levers; but many dreadful
accidents occurred through a slip of the hand, and Mr. Nasmyth
resolved, if possible, to prevent them. The plan he adopted was to fix
a worm-wheel on the side of the ladle, into which a worm was geared,
and by this simple contrivance one man was enabled to move the largest
ladle on its axis with perfect ease and safety. By this means the work
was more promptly performed, and accidents entirely avoided.
Mr. Nasmyth's skill in invention was backed by great energy and a large
fund of common sense--qualities not often found united. These proved
of much service to the concern of which he was the head, and indeed
constituted the vital force. The firm prospered as it deserved; and
they executed orders not only for England, but for most countries in
the civilized world. Mr. Nasmyth had the advantage of being trained in
a good school--that of Henry Maudslay--where he had not only learnt
handicraft under the eye of that great mechanic, but the art of
organizing labour, and (what is of great value to an employer)
knowledge of the characters of workmen. Yet the Nasmyth firm were not
without their troubles as respected the mechanics in their employment,
and on one occasion they had to pass through the ordeal of a very
formidable strike. The manner in which the inventor of the
steam-hammer literally "Scotched" this strike was very characteristic.
A clever young man employed by the firm as a brass founder, being found
to have a peculiar capacity for skilled mechanical work, had been
advanced to the lathe. The other men objected to his being so employed
on the ground that it was against the rules of the trade. "But he is a
first-rate workman," replied the employers, "and we think it right to
advance a man according to his conduct and his merits." "No matter,"
said the workmen, "it is against the rules, and if you do not take the
man from the lathe, we must turn out." "Very well; we hold to our
right of selecting the best men for the best places, and we will not
take the man from the lathe." The consequence was a general turn out.
Pickets were set about the works, and any stray men who went thither to
seek employment were waylaid, and if not induced to turn back, were
maltreated or annoyed until they were glad to leave. The works were
almost at a standstill. This state of things could not be allowed to
go on, and the head of the firm bestirred himself accordingly with his
usual energy. He went down to Scotland, searched all the best
mechanical workshops there, and after a time succeeded in engaging
sixty-four good hands. He forbade them coming by driblets, but held
them together until there was a full freight; and then they came, with
their wives, families, chests of drawers, and eight-day clocks, in a
steamboat specially hired for their transport from Greenock to
Liverpool. From thence they came by special train to Patricroft, where
houses were in readiness for their reception. The arrival of so
numerous, well-dressed, and respectable a corps of workmen and their
families was an event in the neighbourhood, and could not fail to
strike the "pickets" with surprise. Next morning the sixty-four
Scotchmen assembled in the yard at Patricroft, and after giving "three
cheers," went quietly to their work. The "picketing" went on for a
little while longer, but it was of no use against a body of strong men
who stood "shouther to shouther," as the new hands did. It was even
bruited about that there were more trains to follow! It very soon
became clear that the back of the strike was broken. The men returned
to their work, and the clever brass founder continued at his
turning-lathe, from which he speedily rose to still higher employment.
Notwithstanding the losses and suffering occasioned by strikes, Mr.
Nasmyth holds the opinion that they have on the whole produced much
more good than evil. They have served to stimulate invention in an
extraordinary degree. Some of the most important labour-saving
processes now in common use are directly traceable to them. In the
case of many of our most potent self-acting tools and machines,
manufacturers could not be induced to adopt them until compelled to do
so by strikes. This was the ease with the self-acting mule, the
wool-combing machine, the planing machine, the slotting machine,
Nasmyth's steam arm, and many others. Thus, even in the mechanical
world, there may be "a soul of goodness in things evil."
Mr. Nasmyth retired from business in December, 1856. He had the moral
courage to come out of the groove which he had so laboriously made for
himself, and to leave a large and prosperous business, saying, "I have
now enough of this world's goods; let younger men have their chance."
He settled down at his rural retreat in Kent, but not to lead a life of
idle ease. Industry had become his habit, and active occupation was
necessary to his happiness. He fell back upon the cultivation of those
artistic tastes which are the heritage of his family. When a boy at
the High School of Edinburgh, he was so skilful in making pen and ink
illustrations on the margins of the classics, that he thus often
purchased from his monitors exemption from the lessons of the day. Nor
had he ceased to cultivate the art during his residence at Patricroft,
but was accustomed to fall back upon it for relaxation and enjoyment
amid the pursuits of trade. That he possesses remarkable fertility of
imagination, and great skill in architectural and landscape drawing, as
well as in the much more difficult art of delineating the human figure,
will be obvious to any one who has seen his works,--more particularly
his "City of St. Ann's," "The Fairies," and "Everybody for ever!"
which last was exhibited in Pall Mail, among the recent collection of
works of Art by amateurs and others, for relief of the Lancashire
distress. He has also brought his common sense to bear on such
unlikely subject's as the origin of the cuneiform character. The
possession of a brick from Babylon set him a thinking. How had it been
manufactured? Its under side was clearly marked by the sedges of the
Euphrates upon which it had been laid to dry and bake in the sun. But
how about those curious cuneiform characters? How had writing assumed
so remarkable a form? His surmise was this: that the brickmakers, in
telling their tale of bricks, used the triangular corner of another
brick, and by pressing it down upon the soft clay, left behind it the
triangular mark which the cuneiform character exhibits. Such marks
repeated, and placed in different relations to each other, would
readily represent any number. From the use of the corner of a brick in
writing, the transition was easy to a pointed stick with a triangular
end, by the use of which all the cuneiform characters can readily be
produced upon the soft clay. This curious question formed the subject
of an interesting paper read by Mr. Nasmyth before the British
Association at Cheltenham.
But the most engrossing of Mr. Nasmyth's later pursuits has been the
science of astronomy, in which, by bringing a fresh, original mind to
the observation of celestial phenomena, he has succeeded in making some
of the most remarkable discoveries of our time. Astronomy was one of
his favourite pursuits at Patricroft, and on his retirement became his
serious study. By repeated observations with a powerful reflecting
telescope of his own construction, he succeeded in making a very
careful and minute painting of the craters, cracks, mountains, and
valleys in the moon's surface, for which a Council Medal was awarded
him at the Great Exhibition of 1851. But the most striking discovery
which he has made by means of big telescope--the result of patient,
continuous, and energetic observation--has been that of the nature of
the sun's surface, and the character of the extraordinary light-giving
bodies, apparently possessed of voluntary motion, moving across it,
sometimes forming spots or hollows of more than a hundred thousand
miles in diameter.
The results of these observations were of so novel a character that
astronomers for some time hesitated to receive them as facts.[6] Yet
so eminent an astronomer as Sir John Herschel does not hesitate now to
describe them as "a most wonderful discovery." "According to Mr.
Nasmyth's observations," says he, "made with a very fine telescope of
his own making, the bright surface of the sun consists of separate,
insulated, individual objects or things, all nearly or exactly of one
certain definite size and shape, which is more like that of a willow
leaf, as he describes them, than anything else. These leaves or scales
are not arranged in any order (as those on a butterfly's wing are), but
lie crossing one another in all directions, like what are called spills
in the game of spillikins; except at the borders of a spot, where they
point for the most part inwards towards the middle of the spot,[7]
presenting much the sort of appearance that the small leaves of some
water-plants or sea-weeds do at the edge of a deep hole of clear water.
The exceedingly definite shape of these objects, their exact similarity
one to another, and the way in which they lie across and athwart each
other (except where they form a sort of bridge across a spot, in which
case they seem to affect a common direction, that, namely, of the
bridge itself),--all these characters seem quite repugnant to the
notion of their being of a vaporous, a cloudy, or a fluid nature.
Nothing remains but to consider them as separate and independent
sheets, flakes, or scales, having some sort of solidity. And these
flakes, be they what they may, and whatever may be said about the
dashing of meteoric stones into the sun's atmosphere, &c., are
evidently THE IMMEDIATE SOURCES OF THE SOLAR LIGHT AND HEAT, by
whatever mechanism or whatever processes they may be enabled to
develope and, as it were, elaborate these elements from the bosom of
the non-luminous fluid in which they appear to float. Looked at in
this point of view, we cannot refuse to regard them as organisms of
some peculiar and amazing kind; and though it would be too daring to
speak of such organization as partaking of the nature of life, yet we
do know that vital action is competent to develop heat and light, as
well as electricity. These wonderful objects have been seen by others
as well as Mr. Nasmyth, so that them is no room to doubt of their
reality." [8]
Such is the marvellous discovery made by the inventor of the
steam-hammer, as described by the most distinguished astronomer of the
age. A writer in the Edinburgh Review, referring to the subject in a
recent number, says it shows him "to possess an intellect as profound
as it is expert." Doubtless his training as a mechanic, his habits of
close observation and his ready inventiveness, which conferred so much
power on him as an engineer, proved of equal advantage to him when
labouring in the domain of physical science. Bringing a fresh mind, of
keen perception, to his new studies, and uninfluenced by preconceived
opinions, he saw them in new and original lights; and hence the
extraordinary discovery above described by Sir John Herschel.
Some two hundred years since, a member of the Nasmyth family, Jean
Nasmyth of Hamilton, was burnt for a witch--one of the last martyrs to
ignorance and superstition in Scotland--because she read her Bible with
two pairs of spectacles. Had Mr. Nasmyth himself lived then, he might,
with his two telescopes of his own making, which bring the sun and moon
into his chamber for him to examine and paint, have been taken for a
sorcerer. But fortunately for him, and still more so for us, Mr.
Nasmyth stands before the public of this age as not only one of its
ablest mechanics, but as one of the most accomplished and original of
scientific observers.
[1] Originally prepared for John Hick, Esq., C.E., of Bolton, and
embodied by him in his lectures on "Self Help," delivered before the
Holy Trinity Working Men's Association of that town, on the 18th and
20th March, 1862; the account having been kindly corrected by Mr.
Nasmyth for the present publication.
[2] Most of the tools with which he began business in Manchester were
made by his own hands in his father's little workshop at Edinburgh, He
was on one occasion "hard up" for brass with which to make a wheel for
his planing machine. There was a row of old-fashioned brass
candlesticks standing in bright array on the kitchen mantelpiece which
he greatly coveted for the purpose. His father was reluctant to give
them up; "for," said he, "I have had many a crack with Burns when these
candlesticks were on the table." But his mother at length yielded;
when the candlesticks were at once recast, and made into the wheel of
the planing machine, which is still at work in Manchester.
[3] Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, ii. 739.
[4] Matsys' beautiful wrought-iron well cover, still standing in front
of the cathedral at Antwerp, and Rukers's steel or iron chair exhibited
at South Kensington in 1862, are examples of the beautiful hammer work
turned out by the artisans of the middle ages. The railings of the
tombs of Henry VII. and Queen Eleanor in Westminster Abbey, the hinges
and iron work of Lincoln Cathedral, of St. George's Chapel at Windsor,
and of some of the Oxford colleges, afford equally striking
illustrations of the skill of our English blacksmiths several centuries
ago.
[5] Mr. Nasmyth has lately introduced, with the assistance of Mr.
Wilson of the Low Moor Iron Works, a new, exceedingly ingenious, and
very simple contrivance for working the hammer. By this application
any length of stroke, any amount of blow, and any amount of variation
can be given by the operation of a single lever; and by this
improvement the machine has attained a rapidity of action and change of
motion suitable to the powers of the engine, and the form or
consistency of the articles under the hammer.--Mr. FAIRBAIRN'S Report
on the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855, p. 100.
[6] See Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Manchester, 3rd series, vol. 1. 407.
[7] Sir John Herschel adds, "Spots of not very irregular, and what may
be called compact form, covering an area of between seven and eight
hundred millions of square miles, are by no means uncommon. One spot
which I measured in the year 1837 occupied no less than three thousand
seven hundred and eighty millions, taking in all the irregularities of
its form; and the black space or nucleus in the middle of one very
nearly round one would have allowed the earth to drop through it,
leaving a thousand clear miles on either side; and many instances of
much larger spots than these are on record."
[8] SIR JOHN HERSCHEL in Good Words for April, 1863.
CHAPTER XVI.
WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN.
"In science there is work for all hands, more or less skilled; and he
is usually the most fit to occupy the higher posts who has risen from
the ranks, and has experimentally acquainted himself with the nature of
the work to be done in each and every, even the humblest department."
J. D. Forbes.
The development of the mechanical industry of England has been so
rapid, especially as regards the wonders achieved by the machine-tools
above referred to, that it may almost be said to have been accomplished
within the life of the present generation. "When I first entered this
city," said Mr. Fairbairn, in his inaugural address as President of the
British Association at Manchester in 1861, "the whole of the machinery
was executed by hand. There were neither planing, slotting, nor
shaping machines; and, with the exception of very imperfect lathes and
a few drills, the preparatory operations of construction were effected
entirely by the hands of the workmen. Now, everything is done by
machine-tools with a degree of accuracy which the unaided hand could
never accomplish. The automaton or self-acting machine-tool has within
itself an almost creative power; in fact, so great are its powers of
adaptation, that there is no operation of the human hand that it does
not imitate." In a letter to the author, Mr. Fairbairn says, "The
great pioneers of machine-tool-making were Maudslay, Murray of Leeds,
Clement and Fox of Derby, who were ably followed by Nasmyth, Roberts,
and Whitworth, of Manchester, and Sir Peter Fairbairn of Leeds; and Mr.
Fairbairn might well have added, by himself,--for he has been one of
the most influential and successful of mechanical engineers.
William Fairbairn was born at Kelso on the 19th of February, 1787. His
parents occupied a humble but respectable position in life. His
father, Andrew Fairbairn, was the son of a gardener in the employment
of Mr. Baillie of Mellerston, and lived at Smailholm, a village lying a
few miles west of Kelso. Tracing the Fairbairns still further back, we
find several of them occupying the station of "portioners," or small
lairds, at Earlston on the Tweed, where the family had been settled
since the days of the Solemn League and Covenant. By his mother's
side, the subject of our memoir is supposed to be descended from the
ancient Border family of Douglas.
While Andrew Fairbairn (William's father) lived at Smailholm, Walter
Scott was living with his grandmother in Smailholm or Sandyknowe Tower,
whither he had been sent from Edinburgh in the hope that change of air
would help the cure of his diseased hip-joint; and Andrew, being nine
years his senior, and a strong youth for his age, was accustomed to
carry the little patient about in his arms, until he was able to walk
by himself. At a later period, when Miss Scott, Walter's aunt, removed
from Smailholm to Kelso, the intercourse between the families was
renewed. Scott was then an Edinburgh advocate, engaged in collecting
materials for his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, or, as his aunt
described his pursuit, "running after the auld wives of the country
gatherin' havers." He used frequently to read over by the fireside in
the evening the results of his curious industry, which, however, were
not very greatly appreciated by his nearest relatives; and they did not
scruple to declare that for the "Advocate" to go about collecting
"ballants" was mere waste of time as well as money.
William Fairbairn's first schoolmaster was a decrepit old man who went
by the name of "Bowed Johnnie Ker,"--a Cameronian, with a nasal twang,
which his pupils learnt much more readily than they did his lessons in
reading and arithmetic, notwithstanding a liberal use of "the tawse."
Yet Johnnie had a taste for music, and taught his pupils to SING their
reading lessons, which was reckoned quite a novelty in education.
After a short time our scholar was transferred to the parish-school of
the town, kept by a Mr. White, where he was placed under the charge of
a rather severe helper, who, instead of the tawse, administered
discipline by means of his knuckles, hard as horn, which he applied
with a peculiar jerk to the crania of his pupils. At this school
Willie Fairbairn lost the greater part of the singing accomplishments
which he had acquired under "Bowed Johnnie," but he learnt in lieu of
them to read from Scott and Barrow's collections of prose and poetry,
while he obtained some knowledge of arithmetic, in which he proceeded
as far as practice and the rule of three. This constituted his whole
stock of school-learning up to his tenth year. Out of school-hours he
learnt to climb the ruined walls of the old abbey of the town, and
there was scarcely an arch, or tower, or cranny of it with which he did
not become familiar.
When in his twelfth year, his father, who had been brought up to
farm-work, and possessed considerable practical knowledge of
agriculture, was offered the charge of a farm at Moy in Ross-shire,
belonging to Lord Seaforth of Brahan Castle. The farm was of about 300
acres, situated on the banks of the river Conan, some five miles from
the town of Dingwall. The family travelled thither in a covered cart,
a distance of 200 miles, through a very wild and hilly country,
arriving at their destination at the end of October, 1799. The farm,
when reached, was found overgrown with whins and brushwood, and covered
in many places with great stones and rocks; it was, in short, as nearly
in a state of nature as it was possible to be. The house intended for
the farmer's reception was not finished, and Andrew Fairbairn, with his
wife and five children, had to take temporary refuge in a miserable
hovel, very unlike the comfortable house which they had quitted at
Kelso. By next spring, however, the new house was ready; and Andrew
Fairbairn set vigorously to work at the reclamation of the land. After
about two years' labours it exhibited an altogether different
appearance, and in place of whins and stones there were to be seen
heavy crops of barley and turnips. The barren years of 1800 and 1801,
however, pressed very hardly on Andrew Fairbairn as on every other
farmer of arable land. About that time, Andrew's brother Peter, who
acted as secretary to Lord Seaforth, and through whose influence the
former had obtained the farm, left Brahan Castle for the West Indies
with his Lordship, who--notwithstanding his being both deaf and
dumb--had been appointed to the Governorship of Barbadoes; and in
consequence of various difficulties which occurred shortly after his
leaving, Andrew Fairbairn found it necessary to give up his holding,
whereupon he engaged as steward to Mackenzie of Allengrange, with whom
he remained for two years.
While the family lived at Moy, none of the boys were put to school.
They could not be spared from the farm and the household. Those of
them that could not work afield were wanted to help to nurse the
younger children at home. But Andrew Fairbairn possessed a great
treasure in his wife, who was a woman of much energy of character,
setting before her children an example of patient industry, thrift,
discreetness, and piety, which could not fail to exercise a powerful
influence upon them in after-life; and this, of itself, was an
education which probably far more than compensated for the boys' loss
of school-culture during their life at Moy. Mrs. Fairbairn span and
made all the children's clothes, as well as the blankets and sheeting;
and, while in the Highlands, she not only made her own and her
daughters' dresses, and her sons' jackets and trowsers, but her
husband's coats and waistcoats; besides helping her neighbours to cut
out their clothing for family wear.
One of William's duties at home was to nurse his younger brother Peter,
then a delicate child under two years old; and to relieve himself of
the labour of carrying him about, he began the construction of a little
waggon in which to wheel him. This was, however, a work of some
difficulty, as all the tools he possessed were only a knife, a gimlet,
and an old saw. With these implements, a piece of thin board, and a
few nails, he nevertheless contrived to make a tolerably serviceable
waggon-body. His chief difficulty consisted in making the wheels,
which he contrived to surmount by cutting sections from the stem of a
small alder-tree, and with a red-hot poker he bored the requisite holes
in their centres to receive the axle. The waggon was then mounted on
its four wheels, and to the great joy of its maker was found to answer
its purpose admirably. In it he wheeled his little brother--afterwards
well known as Sir Peter Fairbairn, mayor of Leeds--in various
directions about the farm, and sometimes to a considerable distance
from it; and the vehicle was regarded on the whole as a decided
success. His father encouraged him in his little feats of construction
of a similar kind, and he proceeded to make and rig miniature boats and
ships, and then miniature wind and water mills, in which last art he
acquired such expertness that he had sometimes five or six mills going
at a time. The machinery was all made with a knife, the water-spouts
being formed by the bark of a tree, and the millstones represented by
round discs of the same material. Such were the first constructive
efforts of the future millwright and engineer.
When the family removed to Allengrange in 1801, the boys were sent to
school at Munlachy, about a mile and a half distant from the farm. The
school was attended by about forty barefooted boys in tartan kilt's,
and about twenty girls, all of the poorer class. The schoolmaster was
one Donald Frazer, a good teacher, but a severe disciplinarian. Under
him, William made some progress in reading, writing, and arithmetic;
and though he himself has often lamented the meagreness of his school
instruction, it is clear, from what he has since been enabled to
accomplish, that these early lessons were enough at all events to set
him fairly on the road of self-culture, and proved the fruitful seed of
much valuable intellectual labour, as well as of many excellent
practical books.
After two years' trial of his new situation, which was by no means
satisfactory, Andrew Fairbairn determined again to remove southward
with his family; and, selling off everything, they set sail from
Cromarty for Leith in June, 1803. Having seen his wife and children
temporarily settled at Kelso, he looked out for a situation, and
shortly after proceeded to undertake the management of Sir William
Ingleby's farm at Ripley in Yorkshire. Meanwhile William was placed
for three months under the charge of his uncle William, the parish
schoolmaster of Galashiels, for the purpose of receiving instruction in
book-keeping and land-surveying, from which he derived considerable
benefit. He could not, however, remain longer at school; for being of
the age of fourteen, it was thought necessary that he should be set to
work without further delay. His first employment was on the fine new
bridge at Kelso, then in course of construction after the designs of
Mr. Rennie; but in helping one day to carry a handbarrow-load of stone,
his strength proving insufficient, he gave way under it, and the stones
fell upon him, one of them inflicting a serious wound on his leg, which
kept him a cripple for months. In the mean time his father, being
dissatisfied with his prospects at Ripley, accepted the appointment of
manager of the Percy Main Colliery Company's farm in the neighbourhood
of Newcastle-on-Tyne, whither he proceeded with his family towards the
end of 1803, William joining them in the following February, when the
wound in his leg had sufficiently healed to enable him to travel.
Percy Main is situated within two miles of North Shields, and is one of
the largest collieries in that district. William was immediately set
to work at the colliery, his first employment being to lead coals from
behind the screen to the pitmen's houses. His Scotch accent, and
perhaps his awkwardness, exposed him to much annoyance from the "pit
lads," who were a very rough and profligate set; and as boxing was a
favourite pastime among them, our youth had to fight his way to their
respect, passing through a campaign of no less than seventeen pitched
battles. He was several times on the point of abandoning the work
altogether, rather than undergo the buffetings and insults to which he
was almost a daily martyr, when a protracted contest with one of the
noted boxers of the colliery, in which he proved the victor, at length
relieved him from further persecution.
In the following year, at the age of sixteen, he was articled as an
engineer for five years to the owners of Percy Main, and was placed
under the charge of Mr. Robinson, the engine-wright of the colliery.
His wages as apprentice were 8s. a week; but by working over-hours,
making wooden wedges used in pit-work, and blocking out segments of
solid oak required for walling the sides of the mine, he considerably
increased his earnings, which enabled him to add to the gross income of
the family, who were still struggling with the difficulties of small
means and increasing expenses. When not engaged upon over-work in the
evenings, he occupied himself in self-education. He drew up a scheme
of daily study with this object, to which he endeavoured to adhere as
closely as possible,--devoting the evenings of Mondays to mensuration
and arithmetic; Tuesdays to history and poetry; Wednesdays to
recreation, novels, and romances; Thursdays to algebra and mathematics;
Fridays to Euclid and trigonometry; Saturdays to recreation; and
Sundays to church, Milton, and recreation. He was enabled to extend
the range of his reading by the help of the North Shields Subscription
Library, to which his father entered him a subscriber. Portions of his
spare time were also occasionally devoted to mechanical construction,
in which he cultivated the useful art of handling tools. One of his
first attempts was the contrivance of a piece of machinery worked by a
weight and a pendulum, that should at the same time serve for a
timepiece and an orrery; but his want of means, as well as of time,
prevented him prosecuting this contrivance to completion. He was more
successful with the construction of a fiddle, on which he was ambitious
to become a performer. It must have been a tolerable instrument, for a
professional player offered him 20s. for it. But though he succeeded
in making a fiddle, and for some time persevered in the attempt to play
upon it, he did not succeed in producing any satisfactory melody, and
at length gave up the attempt, convinced that nature had not intended
him for a musician.[1]
In due course of time our young engineer was removed from the workshop,
and appointed to take charge of the pumps of the mine and the
steam-engine by which they were kept in work. This employment was more
to his taste, gave him better "insight," and afforded him greater
opportunities for improvement. The work was, however, very trying, and
at times severe, especially in winter, the engineer being liable to be
drenched with water every time that he descended the shaft to regulate
the working of the pumps; but, thanks to a stout constitution, he bore
through these exposures without injury, though others sank under them.
At this period he had the advantage of occasional days of leisure, to
which he was entitled by reason of his nightwork; and during such
leisure he usually applied himself to reading and study.
It was about this time that William Fairbairn made the acquaintance of
George Stephenson, while the latter was employed in working the
ballast-engine at Willington Quay. He greatly admired George as a
workman, and was accustomed in the summer evenings to go over to the
Quay occasionally and take charge of George's engine, to enable him to
earn a few shillings extra by heaving ballast out of the collier
vessels. Stephenson's zeal in the pursuit of mechanical knowledge
probably was not without its influence in stimulating William Fairbairn
himself to carry on so diligently the work of self-culture. But little
could the latter have dreamt, while serving his apprenticeship at Percy
Main, that his friend George Stephenson, the brakesman, should yet be
recognised as among the greatest engineers of his age, and that he
himself should have the opportunity, in his capacity of President of
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle, of making public
acknowledgment of the opportunities for education which he had enjoyed
in that neighbourhood in his early years.[2]
Having finished his five years' apprenticeship at Percy Main, by which
time he had reached his twenty-first year, William Fairbairn shortly
after determined to go forth into the world in search of experience.
At Newcastle he found employment as a millwright for a few weeks,
during which he worked at the erection of a sawmill in the Close. From
thence he went to Bedlington at an advanced wage. He remained there
for six months, during which he was so fortunate as to make the
acquaintance of Miss Mar, who five years after, when his wanderings had
ceased, became his wife. On the completion of the job on which he had
been employed, our engineer prepared to make another change. Work was
difficult to be had in the North, and, joined by a comrade, he resolved
to try his fortune in London. Adopting the cheapest route, he took
passage by a Shields collier, in which he sailed for the Thames on the
11th of December, 1811. It was then war-time, and the vessel was very
short-handed, the crew consisting only of three old men and three boys,
with the skipper and mate; so that the vessel was no sooner fairly at
sea than both the passenger youths had to lend a hand in working her,
and this continued for the greater part of the voyage. The weather was
very rough, and in consequence of the captain's anxiety to avoid
privateers he hugged the shore too close, and when navigating the
inside passage of the Swin, between Yarmouth and the Nore, the vessel
very narrowly escaped shipwreck. After beating about along shore, the
captain half drunk the greater part of the time, the vessel at last
reached the Thames with loss of spars and an anchor, after a tedious
voyage of fourteen days.
On arriving off Blackwall the captain went ashore ostensibly in search
of the Coal Exchange, taking our young engineer with him. The former
was still under the influence of drink; and though he failed to reach
the Exchange that night, he succeeded in reaching a public house in
Wapping, beyond which he could not be got. At ten o'clock the two
started on their return to the ship; but the captain took the
opportunity of the darkness to separate from his companion, and did not
reach the ship until next morning. It afterwards came out that he had
been taken up and lodged in the watch-house. The youth, left alone in
the streets of the strange city, felt himself in an awkward dilemma.
He asked the next watchman he met to recommend him to a lodging, on
which the man took him to a house in New Gravel Lane, where he
succeeded in finding accommodation. What was his horror next morning
to learn that a whole family--the Williamsons--had been murdered in the
very next house during the night! Making the best of his way back to
the ship, he found that his comrade, who had suffered dreadfully from
sea-sickness during the voyage, had nearly recovered, and was able to
accompany him into the City in search of work. They had between them a
sum of only about eight pounds, so that it was necessary for them to
take immediate steps to obtain employment.
They thought themselves fortunate in getting the promise of a job from
Mr. Rennie, the celebrated engineer, whose works were situated at the
south end of Blackfriars Bridge. Mr. Rennie sent the two young men to
his foreman, with the request that he should set them to work. The
foreman referred them to the secretary of the Millwrights' Society, the
shop being filled with Union men, who set their shoulders together to
exclude those of their own grade, however skilled, who could not
produce evidence that they had complied with the rules of the trade.
Describing his first experience of London Unionists, nearly half a
century later, before an assembly of working men at Derby, Mr.
Fairbairn said, "When I first entered London, a young man from the
country had no chance whatever of success, in consequence of the trade
guilds and unions. I had no difficulty in finding employment, but
before I could begin work I had to run the gauntlet of the trade
societies; and after dancing attendance for nearly six weeks, with very
little money in my pocket, and having to 'box Harry' all the time, I
was ultimately declared illegitimate, and sent adrift to seek my
fortune elsewhere. There were then three millwright societies in
London: one called the Old Society, another the New Society, and a
third the Independent Society. These societies were not founded for
the protection of the trade, but for the maintenance of high wages, and
for the exclusion of all those who could not assert their claims to
work in London and other corporate towns. Laws of a most arbitrary
character were enforced, and they were governed by cliques of
self-appointed officers, who never failed to take care of their own
interests." [3]
Their first application for leave to work in London having thus
disastrously ended, the two youths determined to try their fortune in
the country, and with aching hearts they started next morning before
daylight. Their hopes had been suddenly crushed, their slender funds
were nearly exhausted, and they scarce knew where to turn. But they
set their faces bravely northward, and pushed along the high road,
through slush and snow, as far as Hertford, which they reached after
nearly eight hours' walking, on the moderate fare during their journey
of a penny roll and a pint of ale each. Though wet to the skin, they
immediately sought out a master millwright, and applied for work. He
said he had no job vacant at present; but, seeing their sorry plight,
he had compassion upon them, and said, "Though I cannot give you
employment, you seem to be two nice lads;" and he concluded by offering
Fairbairn a half-crown. But his proud spirit revolted at taking money
which he had not earned; and he declined the proffered gift with
thanks, saying he was sorry they could not have work. He then turned
away from the door, on which his companion, mortified by his refusal to
accept the half-crown at a time when they were reduced almost to their
last penny, broke out in bitter remonstrances and regrets. Weary, wet,
and disheartened, the two turned into Hertford churchyard, and rested
for a while upon a tombstone, Fairbairn's companion relieving himself
by a good cry, and occasional angry outbursts of "Why didn't you take
the half-crown?" "Come, come, man!" said Fairbairn, "it's of no use
crying; cheer up; let's try another road; something must soon cast up."
They rose, and set out again, but when they reached the bridge, the
dispirited youth again broke down; and, leaning his back against the
parapet, said, "I winna gang a bit further; let's get back to London."
Against this Fairbairn remonstrated, saying "It's of no use lamenting;
we must try what we can do here; if the worst comes to the worst, we
can 'list; you are a strong chap--they'll soon take you; and as for me,
I'll join too; I think I could fight a bit." After this council of
war, the pair determined to find lodgings in the town for the night,
and begin their search for work anew on the morrow.
Next day, when passing along one of the back streets of Hertford, they
came to a wheelwright's shop, where they made the usual enquiries. The
wheelwright, said that he did not think there was any job to be had in
the town; but if the two young men pushed on to Cheshunt, he thought
they might find work at a windmill which was under contract to be
finished in three weeks, and where the millwright wanted hands. Here
was a glimpse of hope at last; and the strength and spirits of both
revived in an instant. They set out immediately; walked the seven
miles to Cheshunt; succeeded in obtaining the expected employment;
worked at the job a fortnight; and entered London again with nearly
three pounds in their pockets.
Our young millwright at length succeeded in obtaining regular
employment in the metropolis at good wages. He worked first at
Grundy's Patent Ropery at Shadwell, and afterwards at Mr. Penn's of
Greenwich, gaining much valuable insight, and sedulously improving his
mind by study in his leisure hours. Among the acquaintances he then
made was an enthusiastic projector of the name of Hall, who had taken
out one patent for making hemp from bean-stalks, and contemplated
taking out another for effecting spade tillage by steam. The young
engineer was invited to make the requisite model, which he did, and it
cost him both time and money, which the out-at-elbows projector was
unable to repay; and all that came of the project was the exhibition of
the model at the Society of Arts and before the Board of Agriculture,
in whose collection it is probably still to be found. Another more
successful machine constructed By Mr. Fairbairn about the same time was
a sausage-chopping machine, which he contrived and made for a
pork-butcher for 33l. It was the first order he had ever had on his
own account; and, as the machine when made did its work admirably, he
was naturally very proud of it. The machine was provided with a
fly-wheel and double crank, with connecting rods which worked a cross
head. It contained a dozen knives crossing each other at right angles
in such a way as to enable them to mince or divide the meat on a
revolving block. Another part of the apparatus accomplished the
filling of the sausages in a very expert manner, to the entire
satisfaction of the pork-butcher.
As work was scarce in London at the time, and our engineer was bent on
gathering further experience in his trade, he determined to make a tour
in the South of England and South Wales; and set out from London in
April 1813 with 7L. in his pocket. After visiting Bath and Frome, he
settled to work for six weeks at Bathgate; after which he travelled by
Bradford and Trowbridge--always on foot--to Bristol. From thence he
travelled through South Wales, spending a few days each at Newport,
Llandaff, and Cardiff, where he took ship for Dublin. By the time he
reached Ireland his means were all but exhausted, only three-halfpence
remaining in his pocket; but, being young, hopeful, skilful, and
industrious, he was light of heart, and looked cheerfully forward. The
next day he succeeded in finding employment at Mr. Robinson's, of the
Phoenix Foundry, where he was put to work at once upon a set of
patterns for some nail-machinery. Mr. Robinson was a man of spirit and
enterprise, and, seeing the quantities of English machine-made nails
imported into Ireland, he was desirous of giving Irish industry the
benefit of the manufacture. The construction of the nail-making
machinery occupied Mr. Fairbairn the entire summer; and on its
completion he set sail in the month of October for Liverpool. It may
be added, that, notwithstanding the expense incurred by Mr. Robinson in
setting up the new nail-machinery, his workmen threatened him with a
strike if he ventured to use it. As he could not brave the opposition
of the Unionists, then all-powerful in Dublin, the machinery was never
set to work; the nail-making trade left Ireland, never to return; and
the Irish market was thenceforward supplied entirely with English-made
nails. The Dublin iron-manufacture was ruined in the same way; not
through any local disadvantages, but solely by the prohibitory
regulations enforced by the workmen of the Trades Unions.
Arrived at Liverpool, after a voyage of two days--which was then
considered a fair passage--our engineer proceeded to Manchester, which
had already become the principal centre of manufacturing operations in
the North of England. As we have already seen in the memoirs of
Nasmyth, Roberts, and Whitworth, Manchester offered great attractions
for highly-skilled mechanics; and it was as fortunate for Manchester as
for William Fairbairn himself that he settled down there as a working
millwright in the year 1814, bringing with him no capital, but an
abundance of energy, skill, and practical experience in his trade.
Afterwards describing the characteristics of the millwright of that
time, Mr. Fairbairn said--"In those days a good millwright was a man of
large resources; he was generally well educated, and could draw out his
own designs and work at the lathe; he had a knowledge of mill
machinery, pumps, and cranes, and could turn his hand to the bench or
the forge with equal adroitness and facility. If hard pressed, as was
frequently the case in country places far from towns, he could devise
for himself expedients which enabled him to meet special requirements,
and to complete his work without assistance. This was the class of men
with whom I associated in early life--proud of their calling, fertile
in resources, and aware of their value in a country where the
industrial arts were rapidly developing." [4]
When William Fairbairn entered Manchester he was twenty-four years of
age; and his hat still "covered his family." But, being now pretty
well satiated with his "wandetschaft,"--as German tradesmen term their
stage of travelling in search of trade experience,--he desired to
settle, and, if fortune favoured him, to marry the object of his
affections, to whom his heart still faithfully turned during all his
wanderings. He succeeded in finding employment with Mr. Adam
Parkinson, remaining with him for two years, working as a millwright,
at good wages. Out of his earnings he saved sufficient to furnish a
two-roomed cottage comfortably; and there we find him fairly installed
with his wife by the end of 1816. As in the case of most men of a
thoughtful turn, marriage served not only to settle our engineer, but
to stimulate him to more energetic action. He now began to aim at
taking a higher position, and entertained the ambition of beginning
business on his own account. One of his first efforts in this
direction was the preparation of the design of a cast-iron bridge over
the Irwell, at Blackfriars, for which a prize was offered. The attempt
was unsuccessful, and a stone bridge was eventually decided on; but the
effort made was creditable, and proved the beginning of many designs.
The first job he executed on his own account was the erection of an
iron conservatory and hothouse for Mr. J. Hulme, of Clayton, near
Manchester; and he induced one of his shopmates, James Lillie, to join
him in the undertaking. This proved the beginning of a business
connection which lasted for a period of fifteen years, and laid the
foundation of a partnership, the reputation of which, in connection
with mill-work and the construction of iron machinery generally,
eventually became known all over the civilized world.
Although the patterns for the conservatory were all made, and the
castings were begun, the work was not proceeded with, in consequence of
the notice given by a Birmingham firm that the plan after which it was
proposed to construct it was an infringement of their patent. The
young firm were consequently under the necessity of looking about them
for other employment. And to be prepared for executing orders, they
proceeded in the year 1817 to hire a small shed at a rent of 12s. a
week, in which they set up a lathe of their own making, capable of
turning shafts of from 3 to 6 inches diameter; and they hired a strong
Irishman to drive the wheel and assist at the heavy work. Their first
job was the erection of a cullender, and their next a calico-polishing
machine; but orders came in slowly, and James Lillie began to despair
of success. His more hopeful partner strenuously urged him to
perseverance, and so buoyed him up with hopes of orders, that he
determined to go on a little longer. They then issued cards among the
manufacturers, and made a tour of the principal firms, offering their
services and soliciting work.
Amongst others, Mr. Fairbairn called upon the Messrs. Adam and George
Murray, the large cotton-spinners, taking with him the designs of his
iron bridge. Mr. Adam Murray received him kindly, heard his
explanations, and invited him to call on the following day with his
partner. The manufacturer must have been favourably impressed by this
interview, for next day, when Fairbairn and Lillie called, he took them
over his mill, and asked whether they felt themselves competent to
renew with horizontal cross-shafts the whole of the work by which the
mule-spinning machinery was turned. This was a formidable enterprise
for a young firm without capital and almost without plant to undertake;
but they had confidence in themselves, and boldly replied that they
were willing and able to execute the work. On this, Mr. Murray said he
would call and see them at their own workshop, to satisfy himself that
they possessed the means of undertaking such an order. This proposal
was by no means encouraging to the partners, who feared that when Mr.
Murray spied "the nakedness of the land" in that quarter, he might
repent him of his generous intentions. He paid his promised visit, and
it is probable that he was more favourably impressed by the individual
merits of the partners than by the excellence of their
machine-tools--of which they had only one, the lathe which they had
just made and set up; nevertheless he gave them the order, and they
began with glad hearts and willing hands and minds to execute this
their first contract. It may be sufficient to state that by working
late and early--from 5 in the morning until 9 at night for a
considerable period--they succeeded in completing the alterations
within the time specified, and to Mr. Murray's entire satisfaction.
The practical skill of the young men being thus proved, and their
anxiety to execute the work entrusted to them to the best of their
ability having excited the admiration of their employer, he took the
opportunity of recommending them to his friends in the trade, and
amongst others to Mr. John Kennedy, of the firm of MacConnel and
Kennedy, then the largest spinners in the kingdom.
The Cotton Trade had by this time sprung into great importance, and was
increasing with extraordinary rapidity. Population and wealth were
pouring into South Lancashire, and industry and enterprise were
everywhere on foot. The foundations were being laid of a system of
manufacturing in iron, machinery, and textile fabrics of nearly all
kinds, the like of which has perhaps never been surpassed in any
country. It was a race of industry, in which the prizes were won by
the swift, the strong, and the skilled. For the most part, the early
Lancashire manufacturers started very nearly equal in point of worldly
circumstances, men originally of the smallest means often coming to the
front--work men, weavers, mechanics, pedlers, farmers, or labourers--in
course of time rearing immense manufacturing concerns by sheer force of
industry, energy, and personal ability. The description given by one
of the largest employers in Lancashire, of the capital with which he
started, might apply to many of them: "When I married," said he, "my
wife had a spinning-wheel, and I had a loom--that was the beginning of
our fortune." As an illustration of the rapid rise of Manchester men
from small beginnings, the following outline of John Kennedy's career,
intimately connected as he was with the subject of our memoir--may not
be without interest in this place.
John Kennedy was one of five young men of nearly the same age, who came
from the same neighbourhood in Scotland, and eventually settled in
Manchester as cottons-pinners about the end of last century. The
others were his brother James, his partner James MacConnel, and the
brothers Murray, above referred to--Mr. Fairbairn's first extensive
employers. John Kennedy's parents were respectable peasants, possessed
of a little bit of ground at Knocknalling, in the stewartry of
Kirkcudbright, on which they contrived to live, and that was all. John
was one of a family of five sons and two daughters, and the father
dying early, the responsibility and the toil of bringing up these
children devolved upon the mother. She was a strict disciplinarian,
and early impressed upon the minds of her boys that they had their own
way to make in the world. One of the first things she made them think
about was, the learning of some useful trade for the purpose of
securing an independent living; "for," said she, "if you have gotten
mechanical skill and intelligence, and are honest and trustworthy, you
will always find employment and be ready to avail yourselves of
opportunities for advancing yourselves in life." Though the mother
desired to give her sons the benefits of school education, there was
but little of that commodity to be had in the remote district of
Knocknalling. The parish-school was six miles distant, and the
teaching given in it was of a very inferior sort--usually administered
by students, probationers for the ministry, or by half-fledged
dominies, themselves more needing instruction than able to impart it.
The Kennedys could only attend the school during a few months in
summer-time, so that what they had acquired by the end of one season
was often forgotten by the beginning of the next. They learnt,
however, to read the Testament, say their catechism, and write their
own names.
As the children grew up, they each longed for the time to come when
they could be put to a trade. The family were poorly clad; stockings
and shoes were luxuries rarely indulged in; and Mr. Kennedy used in
after-life to tell his grandchildren of a certain Sunday which he
remembered shortly after his father died, when he was setting out for
Dalry church, and had borrowed his brother Alexander's stockings, his
brother ran after him and cried, "See that you keep out of the dirt,
for mind you have got my stockings on!" John indulged in many
day-dreams about the world that lay beyond the valley and the mountains
which surrounded the place of his birth. Though a mere boy, the
natural objects, eternally unchangeable, which daily met his eyes--the
profound silence of the scene, broken only by the bleating of a
solitary sheep, or the crowing of a distant cock, or the thrasher
beating out with his flail the scanty grain of the black oats spread
upon a skin in the open air, or the streamlets leaping from the rocky
clefts, or the distant church-bell sounding up the valley on
Sundays--all bred in his mind a profound melancholy and feeling of
loneliness, and he used to think to himself, "What can I do to see and
know something of the world beyond this?" The greatest pleasure he
experienced during that period was when packmen came round with their
stores of clothing and hardware, and displayed them for sale; he
eagerly listened to all that such visitors had to tell of the ongoings
of the world beyond the valley.
The people of the Knocknalling district were very poor. The greater
part of them were unable to support the younger members, whose custom
it was to move off elsewhere in search of a living when they arrived at
working years,--some to America, some to the West Indies, and some to
the manufacturing districts of the south. Whole families took their
departure in this way, and the few friendships which Kennedy formed
amongst those of his own age were thus suddenly snapped, and only a
great blank remained. But he too could follow their example, and enter
upon that wider world in which so many others had ventured and
succeeded. As early as eight years of age, his mother still impressing
upon her boys the necessity of learning to work, John gathered courage
to say to her that he wished to leave home and apprentice himself to
some handicraft business. Having seen some carpenters working in the
neighbourhood, with good clothes on their backs, and hearing the men's
characters well spoken of, he thought it would be a fine thing to be a
carpenter too, particularly as the occupation would enable him to move
from place to place and see the world. He was as yet, however, of too
tender an age to set out on the journey of life; but when he was about
eleven years old, Adam Murray, one of his most intimate acquaintances,
having gone off to serve an apprenticeship in Lancashire with Mr.
Cannan of Chowbent, himself a native of the district, the event again
awakened in him a strong desire to migrate from Knocknalling. Others
had gone after Murray, James MacConnel and two or three more; and at
length, at about fourteen years of age, Kennedy himself left his native
home for Lancashire. About the time that he set out, Paul Jones was
ravaging the coasts of Galloway, and producing general consternation
throughout the district. Great excitement also prevailed through the
occurrence of the Gordon riots in London, which extended into remote
country places; and Kennedy remembered being nearly frightened out of
his wits on one occasion by a poor dominie whose school he attended,
who preached to his boys about the horrors that were coming upon the
land through the introduction of Popery. The boy set out for England
on the 2nd of February, 1784, mounted upon a Galloway, his little
package of clothes and necessaries strapped behind him. As he passed
along the glen, recognising each familiar spot, his heart was in his
mouth, and he dared scarcely trust himself to look back. The ground
was covered with snow, and nature quite frozen up. He had the company
of his brother Alexander as far as the town of New Galloway, where he
slept the first night. The next day, accompanied by one of his future
masters, Mr. James Smith, a partner of Mr. Cannan's, who had originally
entered his service as a workman, they started on ponyback for
Dumfries. After a long day's ride, they entered the town in the
evening, and amongst the things which excited the boy's surprise were
the few street-lamps of the town, and a waggon with four horses and
four wheels. In his remote valley carts were as yet unknown, and even
in Dumfries itself they were comparative rarities; the common means of
transport in the district being what were called "tumbling cars." The
day after, they reached Longtown, and slept there; the boy noting
ANOTHER lamp. The next stage was to Carlisle, where Mr. Smith, whose
firm had supplied a carding engine and spinning-jenny to a small
manufacturer in the town, went to "gate" and trim them. One was put up
in a small house, the other in a small room; and the sight of these
machines was John Kennedy's first introduction to cotton-spinning.
While going up the inn-stairs he was amazed and not a little alarmed at
seeing two men in armour--he had heard of the battles between the Scots
and English--and believed these to be some of the fighting men; though
they proved to be but effigies. Five more days were occupied in
travelling southward, the resting places being at Penrith, Kendal,
Preston, and Chorley, the two travellers arriving at Chowbent on Sunday
the 8th of February, 1784. Mr. Cannan seems to have collected about
him a little colony of Scotsmen, mostly from the same neighbourhood,
and in the evening there was quite an assembly of them at the "Bear's
Paw," where Kennedy put up, to hear the tidings from their native
county brought by the last new comer. On the following morning the boy
began his apprenticeship as a carpenter with the firm of Cannan and
Smith, serving seven years for his meat and clothing. He applied
himself to his trade, and became a good, steady workman. He was
thoughtful and self-improving, always endeavouring to acquire knowledge
of new arts and to obtain insight into new machines. "Even in early
life," said he, in the account of his career addressed to his children,
"I felt a strong desire to know what others knew, and was always ready
to communicate what little I knew myself; and by admitting at once my
want of education, I found that I often made friends of those on whom I
had no claims beyond what an ardent desire for knowledge could give me."
His apprenticeship over, John Kennedy commenced business[5] in a small
way in Manchester in 1791, in conjunction with two other workmen,
Sandford and MacConnel. Their business was machine-making and
mule-spinning, Kennedy taking the direction of the machine department.
The firm at first put up their mules for spinning in any convenient
garrets they could hire at a low rental. After some time, they took
part of a small factory in Canal Street, and carried on their business
on a larger scale. Kennedy and MacConnel afterwards occupied a little
factory in the same street,--since removed to give place to Fairbairn's
large machine works. The progress of the firm was steady and even
rapid, and they went on building mills and extending their
business--Mr. Kennedy, as he advanced in life, gathering honour,
wealth, and troops of friends. Notwithstanding the defects of his
early education, he was one of the few men of his class who became
distinguished for his literary labours in connexion principally with
the cotton trade. Towards the close of his life, he prepared several
papers of great interest for the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Manchester, which are to be found printed in their Proceedings; one of
these, on the Invention of the Mule by Samuel Crompton, was for a long
time the only record which the public possessed of the merits and
claims of that distinguished inventor. His knowledge of the history of
the cotton manufacture in its various stages, and of mechanical
inventions generally, was most extensive and accurate. Among his
friends he numbered James Watt, who placed his son in his establishment
for the purpose of acquiring knowledge and experience of his
profession. At a much later period he numbered George Stephenson among
his friends, having been one of the first directors of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, and one of the three judges (selected because
of his sound judgment and proved impartiality, as well as his knowledge
of mechanical engineering) to adjudicate on the celebrated competition
of Locomotives at Rainhill. By these successive steps did this poor
Scotch boy become one of the leading men of Manchester, closing his
long and useful life in 1855 at an advanced age, his mental faculties
remaining clear and unclouded to the last. His departure from life was
happy and tranquil--so easy that it was for a time doubtful whether he
was dead or asleep.
To return to Mr. Fairbairn's career, and his progress as a millwright
and engineer in Manchester. When he and his partner undertook the
extensive alterations in Mr. Murray's factory, both were in a great
measure unacquainted with the working of cotton-mills, having until
then been occupied principally with corn-mills, and printing and
bleaching works; so that an entirely new field was now opened to their
united exertions. Sedulously improving their opportunities, the young
partners not only thoroughly mastered the practical details of
cotton-mill work, but they were very shortly enabled to introduce a
series of improvements of the greatest importance in this branch of our
national manufactures. Bringing their vigorous practical minds to bear
on the subject, they at once saw that the gearing of even the best
mills was of a very clumsy and imperfect character. They found the
machinery driven by large square cast-iron shafts, on which huge wooden
drums, some of them as much as four feet in diameter, revolved at the
rate of about forty revolutions a minute; and the couplings were so
badly fitted that they might be heard creaking and groaning a long way
off. The speeds of the driving-shafts were mostly got up by a series
of straps and counter drums, which not only crowded the rooms, but
seriously obstructed the light where most required for conducting the
delicate operations of the different machines. Another serious defect
lay in the construction of the shafts, and in the mode of fixing the
couplings, which were constantly giving way, so that a week seldom
passed without one or more breaks-down. The repairs were usually made
on Sundays, which were the millwrights' hardest working days, to their
own serious moral detriment; but when trade was good, every
consideration was made to give way to the uninterrupted running of the
mills during the rest of the week.
It occurred to Mr. Fairbairn that the defective arrangements thus
briefly described, might be remedied by the introduction of lighter
shafts driven at double or treble the velocity, smaller drums to drive
the machinery, and the use of wrought-iron wherever practicable,
because of its greater lightness and strength compared with wood. He
also provided for the simplification of the hangers and fixings by
which the shafting was supported, and introduced the "half-lap
coupling" so well known to millwrights and engineers. His partner
entered fully into his views; and the opportunity shortly presented
itself of carrying them into effect in the large new mill erected in
1818, for the firm of MacConnel and Kennedy. The machinery of that
concern proved a great improvement on all that had preceded it; and, to
Messrs. Fairbairn and Lillie's new system of gearing Mr. Kennedy added
an original invention of his own in a system of double speeds, with the
object of giving an increased quantity of twist in the finer
descriptions of mule yarn.
The satisfactory execution of this important work at once placed the
firm of Fairbairn and Lillie in the very front rank of engineering
millwrights. Mr. Kennedy's good word was of itself a passport to fame
and business, and as he was more than satisfied with the manner in
which his mill machinery had been planned and executed, he sounded
their praises in all quarters. Orders poured in upon them so rapidly,
that they had difficulty in keeping pace with the demands of the trade.
They then removed from their original shed to larger premises in
Matherstreet, where they erected additional lathes and other
tool-machines, and eventually a steam-engine. They afterwards added a
large cellar under an adjoining factory to their premises; and from
time to time provided new means of turning out work with increased
efficiency and despatch. In due course of time the firm erected a
factory of their own, fitted with the most improved machinery for
turning out millwork; and they went on from one contract to another,
until their reputation as engineers became widely celebrated. In
1826-7, they supplied the water-wheels for the extensive cotton-mills
belonging to Kirkman Finlay and Company, at Catrine Bank in Ayrshire.
These wheels are even at this day regarded as among the most perfect
hydraulic machines in Europe. About the same time they supplied the
mill gearing and water-machinery for Messrs. Escher and Company's large
works at Zurich, among the largest cotton manufactories on the
continent.
In the mean while the industry of Manchester and the neighbourhood,
through which the firm had risen and prospered, was not neglected, but
had the full benefit of the various improvements which they were
introducing in mill machinery. In the course of a few years an entire
revolution was effected in the gearing. Ponderous masses of timber and
cast-iron, with their enormous bearings and couplings, gave place to
slender rods of wrought-iron and light frames or hooks by which they
were suspended. In like manner, lighter yet stronger wheels and
pulleys were introduced, the whole arrangements were improved, and, the
workmanship being greatly more accurate, friction was avoided, while
the speed was increased from about 40 to upwards of 300 revolutions a
minute. The fly-wheel of the engine was also converted into a first
motion by the formation of teeth on its periphery, by which a
considerable saving was effected both in cost and power.
These great improvements formed quite an era in the history of mill
machinery; and exercised the most important influence on the
development of the cotton, flax, silk, and other branches of
manufacture. Mr. Fairbairn says the system introduced by his firm was
at first strongly condemned by leading engineers, and it was with
difficulty that he could overcome the force of their opposition; nor
was it until a wheel of thirty tons weight for a pair of engines of
100-horse power each was erected and set to work, that their
prognostications of failure entirely ceased. From that time the
principles introduced by Mr. Fairbairn have been adopted wherever steam
is employed as a motive power in mills.
Mr. Fairbairn and his partner had a hard uphill battle to fight while
these improvements were being introduced; but energy and perseverance,
guided by sound judgment, secured their usual reward, and the firm
became known as one of the most thriving and enterprising in
Manchester. Long years after, when addressing an assembly of working
men, Mr. Fairbairn, while urging the necessity of labour and
application as the only sure means of self-improvement, said, "I can
tell you from experience, that there is no labour so sweet, none so
consolatory, as that which is founded upon an honest, straightforward,
and honourable ambition." The history of any prosperous business,
however, so closely resembles every other, and its details are usually
of so monotonous a character, that it is unnecessary for us to pursue
this part of the subject; and we will content ourselves with briefly
indicating the several further improvements introduced by Mr. Fairbairn
in the mechanics of construction in the course of his long and useful
career.
His improvements in water-wheels were of great value, especially as
regarded the new form of bucket which he introduced with the object of
facilitating the escape of the air as the water entered the bucket
above, and its readmission as the water emptied itself out below. This
arrangement enabled the water to act upon the wheel with the maximum of
effect in all states of the river; and it so generally recommended
itself, that it very soon became adopted in most water-mills both at
home and abroad.[6] His labours were not, however, confined to his own
particular calling as a mill engineer, but were shortly directed to
other equally important branches of the constructive art. Thus he was
among the first to direct his attention to iron ship building as a
special branch of business. In 1829, Mr. Houston, of Johnstown, near
Paisley, launched a light boat on the Ardrossan Canal for the purpose
of ascertaining the speed at which it could be towed by horses with two
or three persons on board. To the surprise of Mr. Houston and the
other gentlemen present, it was found that the labour the horses had to
perform in towing the boat was mach greater at six or seven, than at
nine miles an hour. This anomaly was very puzzling to the
experimenters, and at the request of the Council of the Forth and Clyde
Canal, Mr. Fairbairn, who had already become extensively known as a
scientific mechanic, was requested to visit Scotland and institute a
series of experiments with light boats to determine the law of
traction, and clear up, if possible, the apparent anomalies in Mr.
Houston's experiments. This he did accordingly, and the results of his
experiments were afterwards published, The trials extended over a
series of years, and were conducted at a cost of several thousand
pounds. The first experiments were made with vessels of wood, but they
eventually led to the construction of iron vessels upon a large scale
and on an entirely new principle of construction, with angle iron ribs
and wrought-iron sheathing plates. The results proved most valuable,
and had the effect of specially directing the attention of naval
engineers to the employment of iron in ship building.
Mr. Fairbairn himself fully recognised the value of the experiments,
and proceeded to construct an iron vessel at his works at Manchester,
in 1831, which went to sea the same year. Its success was such as to
induce him to begin iron shipbuilding on a large scale, at the same
time as the Messrs. Laird did at Birkenhead; and in 1835, Mr. Fairbairn
established extensive works at Millwall, on the Thames,--afterwards
occupied by Mr. Scott Russell, in whose yard the "Great Eastern"
steamship was erected,--where in the course of some fourteen years he
built upwards of a hundred and twenty iron ships, some of them above
2000 tons burden. It was in fact the first great iron shipbuilding
yard in Britain, and led the way in a branch of business which has
since become of first-rate magnitude and importance. Mr. Fairbairn was
a most laborious experimenter in iron, and investigated in great detail
the subject of its strength, the value of different kinds of riveted
joints compared with the solid plate, and the distribution of the
material throughout the structure, as well as the form of the vessel
itself. It would indeed be difficult to over-estimate the value of his
investigations on these points in the earlier stages of this now highly
important branch of the national industry.
To facilitate the manufacture of his iron-sided ships, Mr. Fairbairn,
about the year 1839, invented a machine for riveting boiler plates by
steam-power. The usual method by which this process had before been
executed was by hand-hammers, worked by men placed at each side of the
plate to be riveted, acting simultaneously on both sides of the bolt.
But this process was tedious and expensive, as well as clumsy and
imperfect; and some more rapid and precise method of fixing the plates
firmly together was urgently wanted. Mr. Fairbairn's machine
completely supplied the want. By its means the rivet was driven into
its place, and firmly fastened there by a couple of strokes of a hammer
impelled by steam. Aided by the Jacquard punching-machine of Roberts,
the riveting of plates of the largest size has thus become one of the
simplest operations in iron-manufacturing.
The thorough knowledge which Mr. Fairbairn possessed of the strength of
wrought-iron in the form of the hollow beam (which a wrought-iron ship
really is) naturally led to his being consulted by the late Robert
Stephenson as to the structures by means of which it was proposed to
span the estuary of the Conway and the Straits of Menai; and the result
was the Conway and Britannia Tubular Bridges, the history of which we
have fully described elsewhere.[7] There is no reason to doubt that by
far the largest share of the merit of working out the practical details
of those structures, and thus realizing Robert Stephenson's magnificent
idea of the tubular bridge, belongs to Mr. Fairbairn.
In all matters connected with the qualities and strength of iron, he
came to be regarded as a first-rate authority, and his advice was often
sought and highly valued. The elaborate experiments instituted by him
as to the strength of iron of all kinds have formed the subject of
various papers which he has read before the British Association, the
Royal Society, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Manchester. His practical inquiries as to the strength of boilers have
led to his being frequently called upon to investigate the causes of
boiler explosions, on which subject he has published many elaborate
reports. The study of this subject led him to elucidate the law
according to which the density of steam varies throughout an extensive
range of pressures and atmospheres,--in singular confirmation of what
had before been provisionally calculated from the mechanical theory of
heat. His discovery of the true method of preventing the tendency of
tubes to collapse, by dividing the flues of long boilers into short
lengths by means of stiffening rings, arising out of the same
investigation, was one of the valuable results of his minute study of
the subject; and is calculated to be of essential value in the
manufacturing districts by diminishing the chances of boiler
explosions, and saving the lamentable loss of life which has during the
last twenty years been occasioned by the malconstruction of boilers.
Among Mr. Fairbairn's most recent, inquiries are those conducted by him
at the instance of the British Government relative to the construction
of iron-plated ships, his report of which has not yet been made public,
most probably for weighty political reasons.
We might also refer to the practical improvements which Mr. Fairbairn
has been instrumental in introducing in the construction of buildings
of various kinds by the use of iron. He has himself erected numerous
iron structures, and pointed out the road which other manufacturers
have readily followed. "I am one of those," said he, in his 'Lecture
on the Progress of Engineering,' "who have great faith in iron walls
and iron beams; and although I have both spoken and written much on the
subject, I cannot too forcibly recommend it to public attention. It is
now twenty years since I constructed an iron house, with the machinery
of a corn-mill, for Halil Pasha, then Seraskier of the Turkish army at
Constantinople. I believe it was the first iron house built in this
country; and it was constructed at the works at Millwall, London, in
1839." [8]
Since then iron structures of all kinds have been erected: iron
lighthouses, iron-and-crystal palaces, iron churches, and iron bridges.
Iron roads have long been worked by iron locomotives; and before many
years have passed a telegraph of iron wire will probably be found
circling the globe. We now use iron roofs, iron bedsteads, iron ropes,
and iron pavement; and even the famous "wooden walls of England" are
rapidly becoming reconstructed of iron. In short, we are in the midst
of what Mr. Worsaae has characterized as the Age of Iron.
At the celebration of the opening of the North Wales Railway at Bangor,
almost within sight of his iron bridge across the Straits of Menai,
Robert Stephenson said, "We are daily producing from the bowels of the
earth a raw material, in its crude state apparently of no worth, but
which, when converted into a locomotive engine, flies over bridges of
the same material, with a speed exceeding that of the bird, advancing
wealth and comfort throughout the country. Such are the powers of that
all-civilizing instrument, Iron."
Iron indeed plays a highly important part in modern civilization. Out
of it are formed alike the sword and the ploughshare, the cannon and
the printing-press; and while civilization continues partial and
half-developed, as it still is, our liberties and our industry must
necessarily in a great measure depend for their protection upon the
excellence of our weapons of war as well as on the superiority of our
instruments of peace. Hence the skill and ingenuity displayed in the
invention of rifled guns and artillery, and iron-sided ships and
batteries, the fabrication of which would be impossible but for the
extraordinary development of the iron-manufacture, and the marvellous
power and precision of our tool-making machines, as described in
preceding chapters.
"Our strength, wealth, and commerce," said Mr. Cobden in the course of
a recent debate in the House of Commons, "grow out of the skilled
labour of the men working in metals. They are at the foundation of our
manufacturing greatness; and in case you were attacked, they would at
once be available, with their hard hands and skilled brains, to
manufacture your muskets and your cannon, your shot and your shell.
What has given us our Armstrongs, Whitworths, and Fairbairns, but the
free industry of this country? If you can build three times more
steam-engines than any other country, and have threefold the force of
mechanics, to whom and to what do you owe that, but to the men who have
trained them, and to those principles of commerce out of which the
wealth of the country has grown? We who have some hand in doing that,
are not ignorant that we have been and are increasing the strength of
the country in proportion as we are raising up skilled artisans." [9]
The reader who has followed us up to this point will have observed that
handicraft labour was the first stage of the development of human
power, and that machinery has been its last and highest. The
uncivilized man began with a stone for a hammer, and a splinter of
flint for a chisel, each stage of his progress being marked by an
improvement in his tools. Every machine calculated to save labour or
increase production was a substantial addition to his power over the
material resources of nature, enabling him to subjugate them more
effectually to his wants and uses; and every extension of machinery has
served to introduce new classes of the population to the enjoyment of
its benefits. In early times the products of skilled industry were for
the most part luxuries intended for the few, whereas now the most
exquisite tools and engines are employed in producing articles of
ordinary consumption for the great mass of the community. Machines
with millions of fingers work for millions of purchasers--for the poor
as well as the rich; and while the machinery thus used enriches its
owners, it no less enriches the public with its products.
Much of the progress to which we have adverted has been the result of
the skill and industry of our own time. "Indeed," says Mr. Fairbairn,
"the mechanical operations of the present day could not have been
accomplished at any cost thirty years ago; and what was then considered
impossible is now performed with an exactitude that never fails to
accomplish the end in view." For this we are mainly indebted to the
almost creative power of modern machine-tools, and the facilities which
they present for the production and reproduction of other machines. We
also owe much to the mechanical agencies employed to drive them. Early
inventors yoked wind and water to sails and wheels, and made them work
machinery of various kinds; but modern inventors have availed
themselves of the far more swift and powerful, yet docile force of
steam, which has now laid upon it the heaviest share of the burden of
toil, and indeed become the universal drudge. Coal, water, and a
little oil, are all that the steam-engine, with its bowels of iron and
heart of fire, needs to enable it to go on working night and day,
without rest or sleep. Yoked to machinery of almost infinite variety,
the results of vast ingenuity and labour, the Steam-engine pumps water,
drives spindles, thrashes corn, prints books, hammers iron, ploughs
land, saws timber, drives piles, impels ships, works railways,
excavates docks; and, in a word, asserts an almost unbounded supremacy
over the materials which enter into the daily use of mankind, for
clothing, for labour, for defence, for household purposes, for
locomotion, for food, or for instruction.
[1] Long after, when married and settled at Manchester, the fiddle,
which had been carefully preserved, was taken down from the shelf for
the amusement of the children; but though they were well enough pleased
with it, the instrument was never brought from its place without
creating alarm in the mind of their mother lest anybody should hear it.
At length a dancing-master, who was giving lessons in the
neighbourhood, borrowed the fiddle, and, to the great relief of the
family, it was never returned. Many years later Mr. Fairbairn was
present at the starting of a cotton mill at Wesserling in Alsace
belonging to Messrs. Gros, Deval, and Co., for which his Manchester
firm had provided the mill-work and water-wheel (the first erected in
France on the suspension principle, when the event was followed by an
entertainment). During dinner Mr. Fairbairn had been explaining to M.
Gros, who spoke a little English, the nature of home-brewed beer, which
he much admired, having tasted it when in England. The dinner was
followed by music, in the performance of which the host himself took
part; and on Mr. Fairbairn's admiring his execution on the violin, M.
Gros asked him if he played. "A little," was the almost unconscious
reply. "Then you must have the goodness to play some," and the
instrument was in a moment placed in his hands, amidst urgent requests
from all sides that he should play. There was no alternative; so he
proceeded to perform one of his best tunes--"The Keel Row." The
company listened with amazement, until the performer's career was
suddenly cut short by the host exclaiming at the top of his voice,
"Stop, stop, Monsieur, by gar that be HOME-BREWED MUSIC!"
[2] "Although not a native of Newcastle," he then said, "he owed almost
everything to Newcastle. He got the rudiments of his education there,
such as it was; and that was (something like that of his revered
predecessor George Stephenson) at a colliery. He was brought up as an
engineer at the Percy Main Colliery. He was there seven years; and if
it had not been for the opportunities he then enjoyed, together with
the use of the library at North Shields, he believed he would not have
been there to address them. Being self-taught, but with some little
ambition, and a determination to improve himself, he was now enabled to
stand before them with some pretensions to mechanical knowledge, and
the persuasion that he had been a useful contributor to practical
science and objects connected with mechanical engineering."--Meeting of
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1858.
[3] Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, 1860, p. 211.
[4] Lecture at Derby--Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, p.
212.
[5] One of the reasons which induced Kennedy thus early to begin the
business of mule-spinning has been related as follows. While employed
as apprentice at Chowbent, he happened to sleep over the master's
apartment; and late one evening, on the latter returning from market,
his wife asked his success. "I've sold the eightys," said he, "at a
guinea a pound." "What," exclaimed the mistress, in a loud voice,
"sold the eightys for ONLY a guinea a pound! I never heard of such a
thing." The apprentice could not help overhearing the remark, and it
set him a-thinking. He knew the price of cotton and the price of
labour, and concluded there must be a very large margin of profit. So
soon as he was out of his time, therefore, he determined that he should
become a cotton spinner.
[6] The subject will be found fully treated in Mr. Fairbairn's own
work, A Treatise on Mills and Mill-Work, embodying the results of his
large experience.
[7] Lives of the Engineers, vol. iii. 416-40. See also An Account of
the Construction of the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges. By
William Fairbairn, C.E. 1849.
[8] Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, 225. The mere list
of Mr. Fairbairn's writings would occupy considerable space; for,
notwithstanding his great labours as an engineer, he has also been an
industrious writer. His papers on Iron, read at different times before
the British Association, the Royal Society, and the Literary and
Philosophical Institution of Manchester, are of great value. The
treatise on "Iron" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica is from his pen, and
he has contributed a highly interesting paper to Dr. Scoffern's Useful
Metals and their Alloys on the Application of Iron to the purposes of
Ordnance, Machinery, Bridges, and House and Ship Building. Another
valuable but less-known contribution to Iron literature is his Report
on Machinery in General, published in the Reports on the Paris
Universal Exhibition of 1855. The experiments conducted by Mr.
Fairbairn for the purpose of proving the excellent properties of iron
for shipbuilding--the account of which was published in the Trans
actions of the Royal Society eventually led to his further experiments
to determine the strength and form of the Britannia and Conway Tubular
Bridges, plate-girders, and other constructions, the result of which
was to establish quite a new era in the history of bridge as well as
ship building.
[9] House of Commons Debate, 7th July, 1862.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Industrial Biography, by Samuel Smiles
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY ***
***** This file should be named 404.txt or 404.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
https://www.gutenberg.org/4/0/404/
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
https://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
[email protected]. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at https://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
[email protected]
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit https://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
https://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
