Men of Invention and Industry
by Samuel Smiles
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman

by Samuel Smiles

"Men there have been, ignorant of letters; without art, without
eloquence; who yet had the wisdom to devise and the courage to
perform that which they lacked language to explain. Such men
have worked the deliverance of nations and their own greatness.
Their hearts are their books; events are their tutors; great
actions are their eloquence."--MACAULAY.

Contents.

Preface

CHAPTER I  Phineas Pett:
  Beginings of English Shipbuilding

CHAPTER II  Francis Pettit Smith:
  Practical introducer of the Screw Propeller

CHAPTER III  John Harrison:
  Inventor of the Marine Chronometer

CHAPTER IV  John Lombe:
  Introducer of the Silk Industry into England

CHAPTER V  William Murdock:
  His Life and Inventions

CHAPTER VI  Frederick Koenig:
  Inventor of the Steam-printing Machine

CHAPTER VII  The Walters of 'The Times':
  Inventor of the Walter Press

CHAPTER VIII William Clowes:
  Book-printing by Steam

CHAPTER IX  Charles Bianconi:
  A lession of Self-Help in Ireland

CHAPTER X  Industry in Ireland:
  Through Connaught and Ulster to Belfast

CHAPTER XI  Shipbuilding in Belfast:
  By Sir E. J. Harland, Engineer and Shipbuilder

CHAPTER XII  Astronomers and students in humble life:
  A new Chapter in the 'Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties'

PREFACE

I offer this book as a continuation of the memoirs of men of
invention and industry published some years ago in the 'Lives of
Engineers,' 'Industrial Biography,' and 'Self-Help.'

The early chapters relate to the history of a very important
branch of British industry--that of Shipbuilding. A later
chapter, kindly prepared by Sir Edward J. Harland, of Belfast,
relates to the origin and progress of shipbuilding in Ireland.

Many of the facts set forth in the Life and Inventions of William
Murdock have already been published in my 'Lives of Boulton and
Watt;" but these are now placed in a continuous narrative, and
supplemented by other information, more particularly the
correspondence between Watt and Murdock, communicated to me by
the present representative of the family, Mr. Murdock, C.E, of
Gilwern, near Abergavenny.

I have also endeavoured to give as accurate an account as
possible of the Invention of the Steam-printing Press, and its
application to the production of Newspapers and Books,--an
invention certainly of great importance to the spread of
knowledge, science, and literature, throughout the world.

The chapter on the "Industry of Ireland" will speak for itself.
It occurred to me, on passing through Ireland last year, that
much remained to be said on that subject; and, looking to the
increasing means of the country, and the well-known industry of
its people, it seems reasonable to expect, that with peace,
security, energy, and diligent labour of head and hand, there is
really a great future before Ireland.

The last chapter, on "Astronomers in Humble Life," consists for
the most part of a series of Autobiographies. It may seem, at
first sight, to have little to do with the leading object of the
book; but it serves to show what a number of active, earnest, and
able men are comparatively hidden throughout society, ready to
turn their hands and heads to the improvement of their own
characters, if not to the advancement of the general community
of which they form a part.

In conclusion, I say to the reader, as Quarles said in the
preface to his 'Emblems,' "I wish thee as much pleasure in the
reading as I had in the writing."  In fact, the last three
chapters were in some measure the cause of the book being
published in its present form.

London, November, 1884.

CHAPTER I.

PHINEAS PETT: BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH SHIP-BUILDING.

"A speck in the Northern Ocean, with a rocky coast, an ungenial
climate, and a soil scarcely fruitful,--this was the material
patrimony which descended to the English race--an inheritance
that would have been little worth but for the inestimable moral
gift that accompanied it. Yes; from Celts, Saxons, Danes,
Normans--from some or all of them--have come down with English
nationality a talisman that could command sunshine, and plenty,
and empire, and fame. The 'go' which they transmitted to us--the
national vis--this it is which made the old Angle-land a glorious
heritage. Of this we have had a portion above our brethren--good
measure, running over. Through this our island-mother has
stretched out her arms till they enriched the globe of the
earth....Britain, without her energy and enterprise, what would
she be in Europe?"--Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1870).

In one of the few records of Sir Isaac Newton's life which he
left for the benefit of others, the following comprehensive
thought occurs:

"It is certainly apparent that the inhabitants of this world are
of a short date, seeing that all arts, as letters, ships,
printing, the needle, &c., were discovered within the memory of
history."

If this were true in Newton's time, how much truer is it now.
Most of the inventions which are so greatly influencing, as well
as advancing, the civilization of the world at the present time,
have been discovered within the last hundred or hundred and fifty
years. We do not say that man has become so much wiser during
that period; for, though he has grown in Knowledge, the most
fruitful of all things were said by "the heirs of all the ages"
thousands of years ago.

But as regards Physical Science, the progress made during the
last hundred years has been very great. Its most recent triumphs
have been in connection with the discovery of electric power and
electric light. Perhaps the most important invention, however,
was that of the working steam engine, made by Watt only about a
hundred years ago. The most recent application of this form of
energy has been in the propulsion of ships, which has already
produced so great an effect upon commerce, navigation, and the
spread of population over the world.

Equally important has been the influence of the Railway--now the
principal means of communication in all civilized countries.
This invention has started into full life within our own time.
The locomotive engine had for some years been employed in the
haulage of coals; but it was not until the opening of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830, that the importance of
the invention came to be acknowledged. The locomotive railway
has since been everywhere adopted throughout Europe. In America,
Canada, and the Colonies, it has opened up the boundless
resources of the soil, bringing the country nearer to the towns,
and the towns to the country. It has enhanced the celerity of
time, and imparted a new series of conditions to every rank of
life.

The importance of steam navigation has been still more recently
ascertained. When it was first proposed, Sir Joseph Banks,
President of the Royal Society, said: "It is a pretty plan, but
there is just one point overlooked: that the steam-engine
requires a firm basis on which to work."  Symington, the
practical mechanic, put this theory to the test by his successful
experiments, first on Dalswinton Lake, and then on the Forth and
Clyde Canal. Fulton and Bell afterwards showed the power of
steamboats in navigating the rivers of America and Britain.

After various experiments, it was proposed to unite England and
America by steam. Dr. Lardner, however, delivered a lecture
before the Royal Institution in 1838, "proving" that steamers
could never cross the Atlantic, because they could not carry
sufficient coal to raise steam enough during the voyage. But
this theory was also tested by experience in the same year, when
the Sirius, of London, left Cork for New York, and made the
passage in nineteen days. Four days after the departure of the
Sirius, the Great Western left Bristol for New York, and made the
passage in thirteen days five hours.[1]  The problem was solved;
and great ocean steamers have ever since passed in continuous
streams between the shores of England and America.

In an age of progress, one invention merely paves the way for
another. The first steamers were impelled by means of paddle
wheels; but these are now almost entirely superseded by the
screw. And this, too, is an invention almost of yesterday. It
was only in 1840 that the Archimedes was fitted as a screw yacht.

A few years later, in 1845, the Great Britain, propelled by the
screw, left Liverpool for New York, and made the voyage in
fourteen days. The screw is now invariably adopted in all long
ocean voyages.

It is curious to look back, and observe the small beginnings of
maritime navigation. As regards this country, though its
institutions are old, modern England is still young. As respects
its mechanical and scientific achievements, it is the youngest of
all countries. Watt's steam engine was the beginning of our
manufacturing supremacy; and since its adoption, inventions and
discoveries in Art and Science, within the last hundred years,
have succeeded each other with extraordinary rapidity. In 1814
there was only one steam vessel in Scotland; while England
possessed none at all. Now, the British mercantile steam-ships
number about 5000, with about 4 millions of aggregate tonnage.[2]

In olden times this country possessed the materials for great
things, as well as the men fitted to develope them into great
results. But the nation was slow to awake and take advantage of
its opportunities. There was no enterprise, no commerce--no "go"
in the people. The roads were frightfully bad; and there was
little communication between one part of the country and another.

If anything important had to be done, we used to send for
foreigners to come and teach us how to do it. We sent for them
to drain our fens, to build our piers and harbours, and even to
pump our water at London Bridge. Though a seafaring population
lived round our coasts, we did not fish our own seas, but left it
to the industrious Dutchmen to catch the fish, and supply our
markets. It was not until the year 1787 that the Yarmouth people
began the deep-sea herring fishery; and yet these were the most
enterprising amongst the English fishermen.

English commerce also had very slender beginnings. At the
commencement of the fifteenth century, England was of very little
account in the affairs of Europe. Indeed, the history of modern
England is nearly coincident with the accession of the Tudors to
the throne. With the exception of Calais and Dunkirk, her
dominions on the Continent had been wrested from her by the
French. The country at home had been made desolate by the Wars
of the Roses. The population was very small, and had been kept
down by war, pestilence, and famine.[3] The chief staple was
wool, which was exported to Flanders in foreign ships, there to
be manufactured into cloth. Nearly every article of importance
was brought from abroad; and the little commerce which existed
was in the hands of foreigners. The seas were swept by
privateers, little better than pirates, who plundered without
scruple every vessel, whether friend or foe, which fell in their
way.

The British navy has risen from very low beginnings. The English
fleet had fallen from its high estate since the reign of Edward
III., who won a battle from the French and Flemings in 1340, with
260 ships; but his vessels were all of moderate size, being
boats, yachts, and caravels, of very small tonnage. According to
the contemporary chronicles, Weymouth, Fowey, Sandwich, and
Bristol, were then of nearly almost as much importance as
London;[4] which latter city only furnished twenty-five vessels,
with 662 mariners.

The Royal Fleet began in the reign of Henry VII. Only six or
seven vessels then belonged to the King, the largest being the
Grace de Dieu, of comparatively small tonnage. The custom then
was, to hire ships from the Venetians, the Genoese, the Hanse
towns, and other trading people; and as soon as the service for
which the vessels so hired was performed, they were dismissed.

When Henry VIII. ascended the throne in 1509, he directed his
attention to the state of the navy. Although the insular
position of England was calculated to stimulate the art of
shipbuilding more than in most continental countries, our best
ships long continued to be built by foreigners. Henry invited
from abroad, especially from Italy, where the art of shipbuilding
had made the greatest progress, as many skilful artists and
workmen as he could procure, either by the hope of gain, or the
high honours and distinguished countenance which he paid them.
"By incorporating," says Charnock, "these useful persons among
his own subjects, he soon formed a corps sufficient to rival
those states which had rendered themselves most distinguished by
their knowledge in this art; so that the fame of Genoa and
Venice, which had long excited the envy of the greater part of
Europe, became suddenly transferred to the shores of Britain."[5]

In fitting out his fleet, we find Henry disbursing large sums to
foreigners for shipbuilding, for "harness" or armour, and for
munitions of all sorts. The State Papers[6] particularize the
amounts paid to Lewez de la Fava for "harness;" to William Gurre,
"bregandy-maker;" and to Leonard Friscobald for "almayn ryvetts."

Francis de Errona, a Spaniard, supplied the gunpowder. Among the
foreign mechanics and artizans employed were Hans Popenruyter,
gunfounder of Mechlin; Robert Sakfeld, Robert Skorer, Fortuno de
Catalenago, and John Cavelcant. On one occasion 2,797L. 19s. 4
1/2d. was disbursed for guns and grindstones. This sum must be
multiplied by about four, to give the proper present value.
Popenruyter seems to have been the great gunfounder of the age;
he supplied the principal guns and gun stores for the English
navy, and his name occurs in every Ordnance account of the
series, generally for sums of the largest amounts.

Henry VIII. was the first to establish Royal dockyards, first at
Woolwich, then at Portsmouth, and thirdly at Deptford, for the
erection and repair of ships. Before then, England had been
principally dependent upon Dutchmen and Venetians, both for ships
of war and merchantmen. The sovereign had neither naval arsenals
nor dockyards, nor any regular establishment of civil or naval
affairs to provide ships of war. Sir Edward Howard, Lord High
Admiral of England, at the accession of Henry VIII., actually
entered into a "contract" with that monarch to fight his enemies.

This singular document is still preserved in the State Paper
office. Even after the establishment of royal dockyards, the
sovereign--as late as the reign of Elizabeth--entered into formal
contracts with shipwrights for the repair and maintenance of
ships, as well as for additions to the fleet.

The King, having made his first effort at establishing a royal
navy, sent the fleet to sea against the ships of France. The
Regent was the ship royal, with Sir Thomas Knivet, Master of the
Horse, and Sir John Crew of Devonshire, as Captains. The fleet
amounted to twenty-five well furnished ships. The French fleet
were thirty-nine in number. They met in Brittany Bay, and had a
fierce fight. The Regent grappled with a great carack of Brest;
the French, on the English boarding their ship, set fire to the
gunpowder, and both ships were blown up, with all their men. The
French fleet fled, and the English kept the seas. The King,
hearing of the loss of the Regent, caused a great ship to be
built, the like of which had never before been seen in England,
and called it Harry Grace de Dieu.

This ship was constructed by foreign artizans, principally by
Italians, and was launched in 1515. She was said to be of a
thousand tons portage --the largest ship in England. The vessel
was four-masted, with two round tops on each mast, except the
shortest mizen. She had a high forecastle and poop, from which
the crew could shoot down upon the deck or waist of another
vessel. The object was to have a sort of castle at each end of
the ship. This style of shipbuilding was doubtless borrowed from
the Venetians, then the greatest naval power in Europe. The
length of the masts, the height of the ship above the water's
edge, and the ornaments and decorations, were better adapted for
the stillness of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas, than for
the boisterous ocean of the northern parts of Europe.[7] The
story long prevailed that "the Great Harry swept a dozen flocks
of sheep off the Isle of Man with her bob-stay."  An American
gentleman (N.B. Anderson, LL.D., Boston) informed the present
author that this saying is still proverbial amongst the United
States sailors.

The same features were reproduced in merchant ships. Most of
them were suited for defence, to prevent the attacks of pirates,
which swarmed the seas round the coast at that time.
Shipbuilding by the natives in private shipyards was in a
miserable condition. Mr. Willet, in his memoir relative to the
navy, observes: "It is said, and I believe with truth, that at
this time (the middle of the sixteenth century) there was not a
private builder between London Bridge and Gravesend, who could
lay down a ship in the mould left from a Navy Board's draught,
without applying to a tinker who lived in Knave's Acre."[8]

Another ship of some note built at the instance of Henry VIII.
was the Mary Rose, of the portage of 500 tons. We find her in
the "pond at Deptford" in 1515. Seven years later, in the
thirtieth year of Henry VIII.'s reign, she was sent to sea, with
five other English ships of war, to protect such commerce as then
existed from the depredations of the French and Scotch pirates.
The Mary Rose was sent many years later (in 1544) with the
English fleet to the coast of France, but returned with the rest
of the fleet to Portsmouth without entering into any engagement.
While laid at anchor, not far from the place where the Royal
George afterwards went down, and the ship was under repair, her
gun-ports being very low when she was laid over, "the shipp
turned, the water entered, and sodainly she sanke."

What was to be done? There were no English engineers or workmen
who could raise the ship. Accordingly, Henry VIII. sent to
Venice for assistance, and when the men arrived, Pietro de
Andreas was dispatched with the Venetian marines and carpenters
to raise the Mary Rose. Sixty English mariners were appointed to
attend upon them. The Venetians were then the skilled "heads,"
the English were only the "hands."  Nevertheless they failed with
all their efforts; and it was not until the year 1836 that Mr.
Dean, the engineer, succeeded in raising not only the Royal
George, but the Mary Rose, and cleared the roadstead at
Portsmouth of the remains of the sunken ships.

When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558, the commerce and
navigation of England were still of very small amount. The
population of the kingdom amounted to only about five
millions--not much more than the population of London is now.
The country had little commerce, and what it had was still mostly
in the hands of foreigners. The Hanse towns had their large
entrepot for merchandise in Cannon Street, on the site of the
present Cannon Street Station. The wool was still sent abroad to
Flanders to be fashioned into cloth, and even garden produce was
principally imported from Holland. Dutch, Germans, Flemings,
French, and Venetians continued to be our principal workmen. Our
iron was mostly obtained from Spain and Germany. The best arms
and armour came from France and Italy. Linen was imported from
Flanders and Holland, though the best came from Rheims. Even the
coarsest dowlas, or sailcloth, was imported from the Low
Countries.

The royal ships continued to be of very small burthen, and the
mercantile ships were still smaller. The Queen, however, did
what she could to improve the number and burthen of our ships.
"Foreigners," says Camden, "stiled her the restorer of naval
glory and Queen of the Northern Seas."  In imitation of the
Queen, opulent subjects built ships of force; and in course of
time England no longer depended upon Hamburg, Dantzic, Genoa, and
Venice, for her fleet in time of war.

Spain was then the most potent power in Europe, and the
Netherlands, which formed part of the dominions of Spain, was the
centre of commercial prosperity. Holland possessed above 800
good ships, of from 200 to 700 tons burthen, and above 600 busses
for fishing, of from 100 to 200 tons. Amsterdam and Antwerp were
in the heyday of their prosperity. Sometimes 500 great ships
were to be seen lying together before Amsterdam;[9] whereas
England at that time had not four merchant ships of 400 tons
each! Antwerp, however, was the most important city in the Low
Countries. It was no uncommon thing to see as many as 2500 ships
in the Scheldt, laden with merchandize. Sometimes 500 ships
would come and go from Antwerp in one day, bound to or returning
from the distant parts of the world. The place was immensely
rich, and was frequented by Spaniards, Germans, Danes, English,
Italians, and Portuguese the Spaniards being the most numerous.
Camden, in his history of Queen Elizabeth, relates that our
general trade with the Netherlands in 1564 amounted to twelve
millions of ducats, five millions of which was for English cloth
alone.

The religious persecutions of Philip II. of Spain and of Charles
IX. of France shortly supplied England with the population of
which she stood in need--active, industrious, intelligent
artizans. Philip set up the Inquisition in Flanders, and in a
few years more than 50,000 persons were deliberately murdered.
The Duchess of Parma, writing to Philip II. in 1567, informed him
that in a few days above 100,000 men had already left the country
with their money and goods, and that more were following every
day. They fled to Germany, to Holland, and above all to England,
which they hailed as Asylum Christi. The emigrants settled in
the decayed cities and towns of Canterbury, Norwich, Sandwich,
Colchester, Maidstone, Southampton, and many other places, where
they carried on their manufactures of woollen, linen, and silk,
and established many new branches of industry.[10]

Five years later, in 1572, the massacre of St. Bartholomew took
place in France, during which the Roman Catholic Bishop Perefixe
alleges that 100,000 persons were put to death because of their
religions opinions. All this persecution, carried on so near the
English shores, rapidly increased the number of foreign fugitives
into England, which was followed by the rapid advancement of the
industrial arts in this country.

The asylum which Queen Elizabeth gave to the persecuted
foreigners brought down upon her the hatred of Philip II. and
Charles IX. When they found that they could not prevent her
furnishing them with an asylum, they proceeded to compass her
death. She was excommunicated by the Pope, and Vitelli was hired
to assassinate her. Philip also proceeded to prepare the Sacred
Armada for the subjugation of the English nation, and he was
master of the most powerful army and navy in the world.

Modern England was then in the throes of her birth. She had not
yet reached the vigour of her youth, though she was full of life
and energy. She was about to become the England of free thought,
commerce, and manufactures; to plough the ocean with her navies,
and to plant her colonies over the earth. Up to the accession of
Elizabeth, she had done little, but now she was about to do much.

It was a period of sudden emancipation of thought, and of immense
fertility and originality. The poets and prose writers of the
time united the freshness of youth with the vigour of manhood.
Among these were Spenser, Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, the
Fletchers, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson. Among the statesmen of
Elizabeth were Burleigh, Leicester, Walsingham, Howard, and Sir
Nicholas Bacon. But perhaps greatest of all were the sailors,
who, as Clarendon said, "were a nation by themselves;" and their
leaders--Drake, Frobisher, Cavendish, Hawkins, Howard, Raleigh,
Davis, and many more distinguished seamen.

They were the representative men of their time, the creation in a
great measure of the national spirit. They were the offspring of
long generations of seamen and lovers of the sea. They could not
have been great but for the nation which gave them birth, and
imbued them with their worth and spirit. The great sailors, for
instance, could not have originated in a nation of mere landsmen.

They simply took the lead in a country whose coasts were fringed
with sailors. Their greatness was but the result of an
excellence in seamanship which prevailed widely around them.

The age of English maritime adventure only began in the reign of
Elizabeth. England had then no colonies--no foreign possessions
whatever. The first of her extensive colonial possessions was
established in this reign. "Ships, colonies, and commerce "began
to be the national motto--not that colonies make ships and
commerce, but that ships and commerce make colonies. Yet what
cockle-shells of ships our pioneer navigators first sailed in!

Although John Cabot or Gabota, of Bristol, originally a citizen
of Venice, had discovered the continent of North America in 1496,
in the reign of Henry VII., he made no settlement there, but
returned to Bristol with his four small ships. Columbus did not
see the continent of America until two years later, in 1498, his
first discoveries being the islands of the West Indies.

It was not until the year 1553 that an attempt was made to
discover a North-west passage to Cathaya or China. Sir Hugh
Willonghby was put in command of the expedition, which consisted
of three ships,--the Bona Esperanza, the Bona Ventura (Captain
Chancellor), and the Bona Confidentia (Captain Durforth),--most
probably ships built by Venetians. Sir Hugh reached 72 degrees
of north latitude, and was compelled by the buffeting of the
winds to take refuge with Captain Durforth's vessel at Arcina
Keca, in Russian Lapland, where the two captains and the crews of
these ships, seventy in number, were frozen to death. In the
following year some Russian fishermen found Sir John Willonghby
sitting dead in his cabin, with his diary and other papers beside
him.

Captain Chancellor was more fortunate. He reached Archangel in
the White Sea, where no ship had ever been seen before. He
pointed out to the English the way to the whale fishery at
Spitzbergen, and opened up a trade with the northern parts of
Russia. Two years later, in 1556, Stephen Burroughs sailed with
one small ship, which entered the Kara Sea; but he was compelled
by frost and ice to return to England. The strait which he
entered is still called "Burrough's Strait."

It was not, however, until the reign of Elizabeth that great
maritime adventures began to be made. Navigators were not so
venturous as they afterwards became. Without proper methods of
navigation, they were apt to be carried away to the south, across
an ocean without limit. In 1565 a young captain, Martin
Frobisher, came into notice. At the age of twenty-five he
captured in the South Seas the Flying Spirit, a Spanish ship
laden with a rich cargo of cochineal. Four years later, in 1569,
he made his first attempt to discover the north-west passage to
the Indies, being assisted by Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick.
The ships of Frobisher were three in number, the Gabriel, of from
15 to 20 tons; the Michael, of from 20 to 25 tons, or half the
size of a modern fishing-boat; and a pinnace, of from 7 to 10
tons! The aggregate of the crews of the three ships was only
thirty-five, men and boys. Think of the daring of these early
navigators in attempting to pass by the North Pole to Cathay
through snow, and storm, and ice, in such miserable little
cockboats! The pinnace was lost; the Michael, under Owen
Griffith, a Welsh-man, deserted; and Martin Frobisher in the
Gabriel went alone into the north-western sea!

He entered the great bay, since called Hudson's Bay, by
Frobisher's Strait. He returned to England without making the
discovery of the Passage, which long remained the problem of
arctic voyagers. Yet ten years later, in 1577, he made another
voyage, and though he made his second attempt with one of Queen
Elizabeth's own ships, and two barks, with 140 persons in all, he
was as unsuccessful as before. He brought home some supposed
gold ore; and on the strength of the stones containing gold, a
third expedition went out in the following year. After losing
one of the ships, consuming the provisions, and suffering greatly
from ice and storms, the fleet returned home one by one. The
supposed gold ore proved to be only glittering sand.

While Frobisher was seeking El-Dorado in the North, Francis Drake
was finding it in the South. He was a sailor, every inch of him.

"Pains, with patience in his youth," says Fuller, "knit the
joints of his soul, and made them more solid and compact."  At an
early age, when carrying on a coasting trade, his imagination was
inflamed by the exploits of his protector Hawkins in the New
World, and he joined him in his last unfortunate adventure on the
Spanish Main. He was not, however, discouraged by his first
misfortune, but having assembled about him a number of seamen who
believed in him, he made other adventures to the West Indies, and
learnt the navigation of that part of the ocean. In 1570, he
obtained a regular commission from Queen Elizabeth, though he
sailed his own ships, and made his own ventures. Every
Englishman, who had the means, was at liberty to fit out his own
ships; and with tolerable vouchers, he was able to procure a
commission from the Court, and proceed to sea at his own risk and
cost. Thus, the naval enterprise and pioneering of new countries
under Elizabeth, was almost altogether a matter of private
enterprise and adventure.

In 1572, the butchery of the Hugnenots took place at Paris and
throughout France; while at the same time the murderous power of
Philip II. reigned supreme in the Netherlands. The sailors knew
what they had to expect from the Spanish king in the event of his
obtaining his threatened revenge upon England; and under their
chosen chiefs they proceeded to make war upon him. In the year
of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, Drake set sail for the
Spanish Main in the Pasha, of seventy tons, accompanied by the
Swan, of twenty-five tons; the united crews of the vessels
amounting to seventy-three men and boys. With this insignificant
force, Drake made great havoc amongst the Spanish shipping at
Nombre de Dios. He partially crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and
obtained his first sight of the great Pacific Ocean. He returned
to England in August 1573, with his frail barks crammed with
treasure.

A few years later, in 1577, he made his ever-memorable
expedition. Charnock says it was "an attempt in its nature so
bold and unprecedented, that we should scarcely know whether to
applaud it as a brave, or condemn it as a rash one, but for its
success."  The squadron with which he sailed for South America
consisted of five vessels, the largest of which, the Pelican, was
only of 100 tons burthen; the next, the Elizabeth, was of 80; the
third, the Swan, a fly-boat, was of 50; the Marygold bark, of 30;
and the Christopher, a pinnace, of 15 tons. The united crews of
these vessels amounted to only 164, gentlemen and sailors.

The gentlemen went with Drake "to learn the art of navigation."
After various adventures along the South American coast, the
little fleet passed through the Straits of Magellan, and entered
the Pacific Ocean. Drake took an immense amount of booty from
the Spanish towns along the coast, and captured the royal
galleon, the Cacafuego, laden with treasure. After trying in
vain to discover a passage home by the North-eastern ocean,
though what is now known as Behring Straits, he took shelter in
Port San Francisco, which he took possession of in the name of
the Queen of England, and called New Albion. He eventually
crossed the Pacific for the Moluccas and Java, from which he
sailed right across the Indian Ocean, and by the Cape of Good
Hope to England, thus making the circumnavigation of the world.
He was absent with his little fleet for about two years and ten
months.

Not less extraordinary was the voyage of Captain Cavendish, who
made the circumnavigation of the globe at his own expense. He
set out from Plymouth in three small vessels on the 21st July,
1586. One vessel was of 120 tons, the second of 60 tons, and the
third of 40 tons--not much bigger than a Thames yacht. The
united crews, of officers, men, and boys, did not exceed 123!
Cavendish sailed along the South American continent, and made
through the Straits of Magellan, reaching the Pacific Ocean. He
burnt and plundered the Spanish settlements along the coast,
captured some Spanish ships, and took by boarding the galleon St.
Anna, with 122,000 Spanish dollars on board. He then sailed
across the Pacific to the Ladrone Islands, and returned home
through the Straits of Java and the Indian Archipelago by the
Cape of Good Hope, and reached England after an absence of two
years and a month.

The sacred and invincible Armada was now ready, Philip II. was
determined to put down those English adventurers who had swept
the coasts of Spain and plundered his galleons on the high seas.
The English sailors knew that the sword of Philip was forged in
the gold mines of South America, and that the only way to defend
their country was to intercept the plunder on its voyage home to
Spain. But the sailors and their captains--Drake, Hawkins,
Frobisher, Howard, Grenville, Raleigh, and the rest--could not
altogether interrupt the enterprise of the King of Spain. The
Armada sailed, and came in sight of the English coast on the 20th
of July, 1588.

The struggle was of an extraordinary character. On the one side
was the most powerful naval armament that had ever put to sea.
It consisted of six squadrons of sixty fine large ships, the
smallest being of 700 tons. Besides these were four gigantic
galleasses, each carrying fifty guns, four large armed galleys,
fifty-six armed merchant ships, and twenty caravels--in all, 149
vessels. On board were 8000 sailors, 20,000 soldiers, and a
large number of galley-slaves. The ships carried provisions
enough for six months' consumption; and the supply of ammunition
was enormous.

On the other side was the small English fleet under Hawkins and
Drake. The Royal ships were only thirteen in number. The rest
were contributed by private enterprize, there being only
thirty-eight vessels of all sorts and sizes, including cutters
and pinnaces, carrying the Queen's flag. The principal armed
merchant ships were provided by London, Southampton, Bristol, and
the other southern ports. Drake was followed by some privateers;
Hawkins had four or five ships, and Howard of Effingham two. The
fleet was, however, very badly found in provisions and
ammunition. There was only a week's provisions on board, and
scarcely enough ammunition for one day's hard fighting. But the
ships, small though they were, were in good condition. They
could sail, whether in pursuit or in flight, for the men who
navigated them were thorough sailors.

The success of the defence was due to tact, courage, and
seamanship. At the first contact of the fleets, the Spanish
towering galleons wished to close, to grapple with their
contemptuous enemies, and crush them to death. "Come on!" said
Medina Sidonia. Lord Howard came on with the Ark and three other
ships, and fired with immense rapidity into the great floating
castles. The Sam Mateo luffed, and wanted them to board. "No!
not yet!"  The English tacked, returned, fired again, riddled the
Spaniards, and shot away in the eye of the wind. To the
astonishment of the Spanish Admiral, the English ships approached
him or left him just as they chose. "The enemy pursue me," wrote
the Spanish Admiral to the Prince of Parma; "they fire upon me
most days from morning till nightfall, but they will not close
and grapple, though I have given them every opportunity."  The
Capitana, a galleon of 1200 tons, dropped behind, struck her flag
to Drake, and increased the store of the English fleet by some
tons of gunpowder. Another Spanish ship surrendered, and another
store of powder and shot was rescued for the destruction of the
Armada. And so it happened throughout, until the Spanish fleet
was driven to wreck and ruin, and the remaining ships were
scattered by the tempests of the north. After all, Philip proved
to be, what the sailors called him, only "a Colossus stuffed with
clouts."

The English sailors followed up their advantage. They went on
"singeing the Ring of Spain's beard."  Private adventurers fitted
up a fleet under the command of Drake, and invaded the mainland
of Spain. They took the lower part of the town of Corunna;
sailed to the Tagus, and captured a fleet of ships laden with
wheat and warlike stores for a new Armada. They next sacked
Vigo, and returned to England with 150 pieces of cannon and a
rich booty. The Earl of Cumberland sailed to the West Indies on
a private adventure, and captured more Spanish prizes. In 1590,
ten English merchantmen, returning from the Levant, attacked
twelve Spanish galleons, and after six hours' contest, put them
to flight with great loss. In the following year, three merchant
ships set sail for the East Indies, and in the course of their
voyage took several Portuguese vessels.

A powerful Spanish fleet still kept the seas, and in 1591 they
conquered the noble Sir Richard Grenville at the Azores--fifteen
great Spanish galleons against one Queen's ship, the Revenge. In
1593, two of the Queen's ships, accompanied by a number of
merchant ships, sailed for the West Indies, under Burroughs,
Frobisher, and Cross, and amongst their other captures they took
the greatest of all the East India caracks, a vessel of 1600
tons, 700 men, and 36 brass cannon, laden with a magnificent
cargo. She was taken to Dartmouth, and surprised all who saw
her, being the largest ship that had ever been seen in England.
In 1594, Captain James Lancaster set sail with three ships upon a
voyage of adventure. He was joined by some Dutch and French
privateers. The result was, that they captured thirty-nine of
the Spanish ships. Sir Amias Preston, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir
Francis Drake, also continued their action upon the seas. Lord
Admiral Howard and the Earl of Essex made their famous attack
upon Cadiz for the purpose of destroying the new Armada; they
demolished all the forts; sank eleven of the King of Spain's best
ships, forty-four merchant ships, and brought home much booty.

Nor was maritime discovery neglected. The planting of new
colonies began, for the English people had already begun to
swarm. In 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert planted Newfoundland for
the Queen. In 1584, Sir Waiter Raleigh planted the first
settlement in Virginia. Nor was the North-west passage
neglected; for in 1580, Captain Pett (a name famous on the
Thames) set sail from Harwich in the George, accompanied by
Captain Jackman in the William. They reached the ice in the
North Sea, but were compelled to return without effecting their
purpose! Will it be believed that the George was only of 40 tons,
and that its crew consisted of nine men and a boy; and that the
William was of 20 tons, with five men and a boy? The wonder is
that these little vessels could resist the terrible icefields,
and return to England again with their hardy crews.

Then in 1585, another of our adventurous sailors, John Davis, of
Sandridge on the Dart, set sail with two barks, the Sunshine and
the Moonshine, of 50 and 35 tons respectively, and discovered in
the far North-west the Strait which now bears his name. He was
driven back by the ice; but, undeterred by his failure, he set
out on a second, and then on a third voyage of discovery in the
two following years. But he never succeeded in discovering the
North-west passage. It all reads like a mystery--these repeated,
determined, and energetic attempts to discover a new way of
reaching the fabled region of Cathay.

In these early times the Dutch were not unworthy rivals of the
English. After they had succeeded in throwing off the Spanish
yoke and achieved their independence, they became one of the most
formidable of maritime powers. In the course of another century
Holland possessed more colonies, and had a larger share of the
carrying trade of the world than Britain. It was natural
therefore that the Dutch republic should take an interest in the
North-west passage; and the Dutch sailors, by their enterprise
and bravery, were among the first to point the way to Arctic
discovery. Barents and Behring, above all others, proved the
courage and determination of their heroic ancestors.

The romance of the East India Company begins with an
advertisement in the London Gazette of 1599, towards the end of
the reign of Queen Elizabeth. As with all other enterprises of
the nation, it was established by private means. The Company was
started with a capital of 72,000L. in 50L. shares. The
adventurers bought four vessels of an average burthen of 350
tons. These were stocked with provisions, "Norwich stuffs," and
other merchandise. The tiny fleet sailed from Billingsgate on
the 13th February, 1601. It went by the Cape of Good Hope to the
East Indies, under the command of Captain James Lancaster. It
took no less than sixteen months to reach the Indian Archipelago.

The little fleet reached Acheen in June, 1602. The king of the
territory received the visitors with courtesy, and exchanged
spices with them freely. The four vessels sailed homeward,
taking possession of the island of St. Helena on their way back;
having been absent exactly thirty-one months. The profits of the
first voyage proved to be about one hundred per cent. Such was
the origin of the great East India Company--now expanded into an
empire, and containing about two hundred millions of people.

To return to the shipping and the mercantile marine of the time
of Queen Elizabeth. The number of Royal ships was only thirteen,
the rest of the navy consisting of merchant ships, which were
hired and discharged when their purpose was served.[11]
According to Wheeler, at the accession of the Queen, there were
not more than four ships belonging to the river Thames, excepting
those of the Royal Navy, which were over 120 tons in burthen;[12]
and after forty years, the whole of the merchant ships of
England, over 100 tons, amounted to 135; only a few of these
being of 500 tons. In 1588, the number had increased to 150, "of
about 150 tons one with another, employed in trading voyages to
all parts and countries." The principal shipping which frequented
the English ports still continued to be foreign--Italian,
Flemish, and German.

Liverpool, now possessing the largest shipping tonnage in the
world, had not yet come into existence. It was little better
than a fishing village. The people of the place presented a
petition to the Queen, praying her to remit a subsidy which had
been imposed upon them, and speaking of their native place as
"Her Majesty's poor decayed town of Liverpool."  In 1565, seven
years after Queen Elizabeth began to reign, the number of vessels
belonging to Liverpool was only twelve. The largest was of forty
tons burthen, with twelve men; and the smallest was a boat of six
tons, with three men.[13]

James I., on his accession to the throne of England in 1603,
called in all the ships of war, as well as the numerous
privateers which had been employed during the previous reign in
waging war against the commerce of Spain, and declared himself to
be at peace with all the world. James was as peaceful as a
Quaker. He was not a fighting King;- and, partly on this
account, he was not popular. He encouraged manufactures in wool,
silk, and tapestry. He gave every encouragement to the
mercantile and colonizing adventurers to plant and improve the
rising settlements of Virginia, New England, and Newfoundland.
He also promoted the trade to the East Indies. Attempts
continued to be made, by Hudson, Poole, Button, Hall, Baffin, and
other courageous seamen, to discover the North-West passage, but
always without effect.

The shores of England being still much infested by Algerine and
other pirates,[14] King James found it necessary to maintain the
ships of war in order to protect navigation and commerce. He
nearly doubled the ships of the Royal Navy, and increased the
number from thirteen to twenty-four. Their size, however,
continued small, both Royal and merchant ships. Sir William
Monson says, that at the accession of James I. there were not
above four merchant ships in England of 400 tons burthen.[15]
The East Indian merchants were the first to increase the size.
In 1609, encouraged by their Charter, they built the Trade's
Increase, of 1100 tons burthen, the largest merchant ship that
had ever been built in England. As it was necessary that, the
crew of the ship should be able to beat off the pirates, she was
fully armed. The additional ships of war were also of heavier
burthen. In the same year, the Prince, of 1400 tons burthen, was
launched; she carried sixty-four cannon, and was superior to any
ship of the kind hitherto seen in England.

And now we arrive at the subject of this memoir. The Petts were
the principal ship-builders of the time. They had long been
known upon the Thames, and had held posts in the Royal Dockyards
since the reign of Henry VII. They were gallant sailors, too;
one of them, as already mentioned, having made an adventurous
voyage to the Arctic Ocean in his little bark, the George, of
only 40 tons burthen. Phineas Pett was the first of the great
ship-builders. His father, Peter Pett, was one of the Queen's
master shipwrights. Besides being a ship-builder, he was also a
poet, being the author of a poetical piece entitled, "Time's
Journey to seek his daughter Truth,"[16] a very respectable
performance. Indeed, poetry is by no means incompatible with
ship-building--the late Chief Constructor of the Navy being,
perhaps, as proud of his poetry as of his ships. Pett's poem was
dedicated to the Lord High Admiral, Howard, Earl of Nottingham;
and this may possibly have been the reason of the singular
interest which he afterwards took in Phineas Pett, the poet
shipwright's son.

Phineas Pett was the second son of his father. He was born at
Deptford, or "Deptford Strond," as the place used to be called,
on the 1st of November, 1570. At nine years old, he was sent to
the free-school at Rochester, and remained there for four years.
Not profiting much by his education there, his father removed him
to a private school at Greenwich, kept by a Mr. Adams. Here he
made so much progress, that in three years time he was ready for
Cambridge. He was accordingly sent to that University at
Shrovetide, l586, and was entered at Emmanuel College, under
charge of Mr. Charles Chadwick, the president. His father
allowed him 20L. per annum, besides books, apparel, and other
necessaries.

Phineas remained at Cambridge for three years. He was obliged to
quit the University by the death of his "reverend, ever-loving
father," whose loss, he says, "proved afterwards my utter undoing
almost, had not God been more merciful to me."  His mother
married again, "a most wicked husband," says Pett in his
autobiography,[17] "one, Mr. Thomas Nunn, a minister," but of
what denomination he does not state. His mother's imprudence
wholly deprived him of his maintenance, and having no hopes of
preferment from his friends, he necessarily abandoned his
University career, "presently after Christmas, 1590."

Early in the following year, he was persuaded by his mother to
apprentice himself to Mr. Richard Chapman, of Deptford Strond,
one of the Queen's Master shipwrights, whom his late father had
"bred up from a child to that profession."  He was allowed 2L.
6s. 8d. per annum, with which he had to provide himself with
tools and apparel. Pett spent two years in this man's service to
very little purpose; Chapman then died, and the apprentice was
dismissed. Pett applied to his elder brother Joseph, who would
not help him, although he had succeeded to his father's post in
the Royal Dockyard. He was accordingly "constrained to ship
himself to sea upon a desperate voyage in a man-of-war."  He
accepted the humble place of carpenter's mate on board the
galleon Constance, of London. Pett's younger brother, Peter,
then living at Wapping, gave him lodging, meat, and drink, until
the ship was ready to sail. But he had no money to buy clothes.
Fortunately one William King, a yoeman in Essex, taking pity upon
the unfortunate young man, lent him 3L. for that purpose; which
Pett afterwards repaid.

The Constance was of only 200 tons burden. She set sail for the
South a few days before Christmas, 1592. There is no doubt that
she was bound upon a piratical adventure. Piracy was not thought
dishonourable in those days. Four years had elapsed since the
Armada had approached the English coast; and now the English and
Dutch ships were scouring the seas in search of Spanish galleons.

Whoever had the means of furnishing a ship, and could find a
plucky captain to command her, sent her out as a privateer. Even
the Companies of the City of London clubbed their means together
for the purpose of sending out Sir Waiter Raleigh to capture
Spanish ships, and afterwards to divide the plunder; as any one
may see on referring to the documents of the London
Corporation.[18]

The adventure in which Pett was concerned did not prove very
fortunate. He was absent for about twenty months on the coasts
of Spain and Barbary, and in the Levant, enduring much misery for
want of victuals and apparel, and "without taking any purchase of
any value."  The Constance returned to the Irish coast, "extreme
poorly."  The vessel entered Cork harbour, and then Pett,
thoroughly disgusted with privateering life, took leave of both
ship and voyage. With much difficulty, he made his way across
the country to Waterford, from whence he took ship for London.
He arrived there three days before Christmas, 1594, in a beggarly
condition, and made his way to his brother Peter's house at
Wapping, who again kindly entertained him. The elder brother
Joseph received him more coldly, though he lent him forty
shillings to find himself in clothes. At that time, the fleet
was ordered to be got ready for the last expedition of Drake and
Hawkins to the West Indies. The Defiance was sent into Woolwich
dock to be sheathed; and as Joseph Pett was in charge of the job,
he allowed his brother to be employed as a carpenter.

In the following year, Phineas succeeded in attracting the notice
of Matthew Baker, who was commissioned to rebuild Her Majesty's
Triumph. Baker employed Pett as an ordinary workman; but he had
scarcely begun the job before Baker was ordered to proceed with
the building of a great new ship at Deptford, called the Repulse.

Phineas wished to follow the progress of the Triumph, but finding
his brother Joseph unwilling to retain him in his employment, he
followed Baker to Deptford, and continued to work at the Repulse
until she was finished, launched, and set sail on her voyage, at
the end of April, 1596. This was the leading ship of the
squadron which set sail for Cadiz, under the command of the Earl
of Essex and the Lord Admiral Howard, and which did so much
damage to the forts and shipping of Philip II. of Spain.

During the winter months, while the work was in progress, Pett
spent the leisure of his evenings in perfecting himself in
learning, especially in drawing, cyphering, and mathematics, for
the purpose, as he says, of attaining the knowledge of his
profession. His master, Mr. Baker, gave him every encouragement,
and from his assistance, he adds, "I must acknowledge I received
my greatest lights."  The Lord Admiral was often present at
Baker's house. Pett was importuned to set sail with the ship
when finished, but he preferred remaining at home. The principal
reason, no doubt, that restrained him at this moment from seeking
the patronage of the great, was the care of his two sisters,[19]
who, having fled from the house of their barbarous stepfather,
could find no refuge but in that of their brother Phineas.
Joseph refused to receive them, and Peter of Wapping was perhaps
less able than willing to do so.

In April, 1597, Pett had the advantage of being introduced to
Howard, Earl of Nottingham, then Lord High Admiral of England.
This, he says, was the first beginning of his rising. Two years
later, Howard recommended him for employment in purveying plank
and timber in Norfolk and Suffolk for shipbuilding purposes.
Pett accomplished his business satisfactorily, though he had some
malicious enemies to contend against. In his leisure, he began
to prepare models of ships, which he rigged and finished
complete. He also proceeded with the study of mathematics. The
beginning of the year 1600 found Pett once more out of
employment; and during his enforced idleness, which continued for
six months, he seriously contemplated abandoning his profession
and attempting to gain "an honest and convenient maintenance" by
joining a friend in purchasing a caravel (a small vessel), and
navigating it himself.

He was, however, prevented from undertaking this enterprise by a
message which he received from the Court, then stationed at
Greenwich. The Lord High Admiral desired to see him; and after
many civil compliments, he offered him the post of keeper of the
plankyard at Chatham. Pett was only too glad to accept this
offer, though the salary was small. He shipped his furniture on
board a hoy of Rainham, and accompanied it down the Thames to the
junction with the Medway. There he escaped a great danger--one
of the sea perils of the time. The mouths of navigable rivers
were still infested with pirates; and as the hoy containing Pett
approached the Nore about three o'clock in the morning, and while
still dark, she came upon a Dunkirk picaroon, full of men.
Fortunately the pirate was at anchor; she weighed and gave chase,
and had not the hoy set full sail, and been impelled up the Swale
by a fresh wind, Pett would have been taken prisoner, with all
his furniture.[20]

Arrived at Chatham, Pett met his brother Joseph, became
reconciled to him, and ever after they lived together as loving
brethren. At his brother's suggestion, Pett took a lease of the
Manor House, and settled there with his sisters. He was now in
the direct way to preferment. Early in the following year
(March, 1601) he succeeded to the place of assistant to the
principal master shipwright at Chatham, and undertook the repairs
of Her Majesty's ship The Lion's Whelp, and in the next year he
new-built the Moon enlarging her both in length and breadth.

At the accession of James I. in 1603, Pett was commanded by the
Lord High Admiral with all possible speed to build a little
vessel for the young Prince Henry, eldest son of His Majesty. It
was to be a sort of copy of the Ark Royal, which was the flagship
of the Lord High Admiral when he defeated the Spanish Armada.
Pett proceeded to accomplish the order with all dispatch. The
little ship was in length by the keel 28 feet, in breadth 12
feet, and very curiously garnished within and without with
painting and carving. After working by torch and candle light,
night and day, the ship was launched, and set sail for the
Thames, with the noise of drums, trumpets, and cannon, at the
beginning of March, 1604. After passing through a great storm at
the Nore, the vessel reached the Tower, where the King and the
young Prince inspected her with delight. She was christened
Disdain by the Lord High Admiral, and Pett was appointed captain
of the ship.

After his return to Chatham, Pett, at his own charge, built a
small ship at Gillingham, of 300 tons, which he launched in the
same year, and named the Resistance. The ship was scarcely out
of hand, when Pett was ordered to Woolwich, to prepare the Bear
and other vessels for conveying his patron, the Lord High
Admiral, as an Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain, for the purpose
of concluding peace, after a strife of more than forty years.
The Resistance was hired by the Government as a transport, and
Pett was put in command. He seems to have been married at this
time, as he mentions in his memoir that he parted with his wife
and children at Chatham on the 24th of March, 1605, and that he
sailed from Queenborough on Easter Sunday.

During the voyage to Lisbon the Resistance became separated from
the Ambassador's squadron, and took refuge in Corunna. She then
set sail for Lisbon, which she reached on the 24th of April; and
afterwards for St. Lucar, on the Guadalquiver, near Seville,
which she reached on the 11th of May following. After revisiting
Corunna, "according to instructions," on the homeward voyage,
Pett directed his course for England, and reached Rye on the 26th
of June, "amidst much rain, thunder, and lightning."  In the
course of the same year, his brother Joseph died, and Phineas
succeeded to his post as master shipbuilder at Chatham. He was
permitted, in conjunction with one Henry Farvey and three others,
to receive the usual reward of 5s. per ton for building five new
merchant ships,[21] most probably for East Indian commerce, now
assuming large dimensions. He was despatched by the Government
to Bearwood, in Hampshire, to make a selection of timber from the
estate of the Earl of Worcester for the use of the navy, and on
presenting his report 3000 tons were purchased. What with his
building of ships, his attendance on the Lord Admiral to Spain,
and his selection of timber for the Government, his hands seem to
have been kept very full during the whole of 1605.

In July, 1606, Pett received private instructions from the Lord
High Admiral to have all the King's ships "put into comely
readiness" for the reception of the King of Denmark, who was
expected on a Royal visit. "Wherein," he says, "I strove
extraordinarily to express my service for the honour of the
kingdom; but by reason the time limited was short, and the
business great, we laboured night and day to effect it, which
accordingly was done, to the great honour of our sovereign king
and master, and no less admiration of all strangers that were
eye-witnesses to the same."  The reception took place on the 10th
of August, 1606.

Shortly after the departure of His Majesty of Denmark, four of
the Royal ships--the Ark, Victory, Golden Lion, and
Swiftsure--were ordered to be dry-docked; the two last mentioned
at Deptford, under charge of Matthew Baker; and the two former at
Woolwich, under that of Pett. For greater convenience, Pett
removed his family to Woolwich. After being elected and sworn
Master of the Company of Shipwrights, he refers in his
manuscript, for the first time, to his magnificent and original
design of the Prince Royal.[22]

"After settling at Woolwich," he says, "I began a curious model
for the prince my master, most part whereof I wrought with my own
hands."  After finishing the model, he exhibited it to the Lord
High Admiral, and, after receiving his approval and commands, he
presented it to the young prince at Richmond. "His Majesty (who
was present) was exceedingly delighted with the sight of the
model, and passed some time in questioning the divers material
things concerning it, and demanded whether I could build the
great ship in all parts like the same; for I will, says His
Majesty, compare them together when she shall be finished. Then
the Lord Admiral commanded me to tell His Majesty the story of
the Three Ravens[23] I had seen at Lisbon, in St. Vincent's
Church; which I did as well as I could, with my best expressions,
though somewhat daunted at first at His Majesty's presence,
having never before spoken before any King."

Before, however, he could accomplish his purpose, Pett was
overtaken by misfortunes. His enemies, very likely seeing with
spite the favour with which he had been received by men in high
position, stirred up an agitation against him. There may, and
there very probably was, a great deal of jobbery going on in the
dockyards. It was difficult, under the system which prevailed,
to have any proper check upon the expenditure for the repair and
construction of ships. At all events, a commission was appointed
for the purpose of inquiring into the abuses and misdemeanors of
those in office; and Pett's enemies took care that his past
proceedings should be thoroughly overhauled,--together with those
of Sir Robert Mansell, then Treasurer to the Navy; Sir John
Trevor, surveyor; Sir Henry Palmer, controller; Sir Thomas
Bluther, victualler; and many others.

While the commission was still sitting and holding what Pett
calls their "malicious proceedings," he was able to lay the keel
of his new great ship upon the stocks in the dock at Woolwich on
the 20th of October, 1608. He had a clear conscience, for his
hands were clean. He went on vigorously with his work, though he
knew that the inquisition against him was at its full height.
His enemies reported that he was "no artist, and that he was
altogether insufficient to perform such a service" as that of
building his great ship. Nevertheless, he persevered, believing
in the goodness of his cause. Eventually, he was enabled to turn
the tables upon his accusers, and to completely justify himself
in all his transactions with the king, the Lord Admiral, and the
public officers, who were privy to all his transactions. Indeed,
the result of the enquiry was not only to cause a great trouble
and expense to all the persons accused, but, as Pett says in his
Memoir, "the Government itself of that royal office was so shaken
and disjoined as brought almost ruin upon the whole Navy, and a
far greater charge to his Majesty in his yearly expense than ever
was known before."[24]

In the midst of his troubles and anxieties, Pett was unexpectedly
cheered with the presence of his "Master" Prince Henry, who
specially travelled out of his way from Essex to visit him at
Woolwich, to see with his own eyes what progress he was making
with the great ship. After viewing the dry dock, which had been
constructed by Pett, and was one of the first, if not the very
first in England,--his Highness partook of a banquet which the
shipbuilder had hastily prepared for him in his temporary
lodgings.

One of the circumstances which troubled Pett so much at this
time, was the strenuous opposition of the other shipbuilders to
his plans of the great ship. There never had been such a
frightful innovation. The model was all wrong. The lines were
detestable. The man who planned the whole thing was a fool, a
"cozener" of the king, and the ship, suppose it to be made, was
"unfit for any other use but a dung-boat!"  This attack upon his
professional character weighed very heavily upon his mind.

He determined to put his case in a staightforward manner before
the Lord High Admiral. He set down in writing in the briefest
manner everything that he had done, and the plots that had been
hatched against him; and beseeched his lordship, for the honour
of the State, and the reputation of his office, to cause the
entire matter to be thoroughly investigated "by judicious and
impartial persons."  After a conference with Pett, and an
interview with his Majesty,  the Lord High Admiral was authorised
by the latter to invite the Earls of Worcester and Suffolk to
attend with him at Woolwich, and bring all the accusers of Pett's
design of the great ship before them for the purpose of
examination, and to report to him as to the actual state of
affairs. Meanwhile Pett's enemies had been equally busy. They
obtained a private warrant from the Earl of Northampton[25] to
survey the work; "which being done," says Pett, "upon return of
the insufficiency of the same under their hands, and confirmation
by oath, it was resolved amongst them I should be turned out, and
for ever disgraced."

But the lords appointed by the King now interfered between Pett
and his adversaries. They first inspected the ship, and made a
diligent survey of the form and manner of the work and the
goodness of the materials, and then called all the accusers
before them to hear their allegations. They were examined
separately. First, Baker the master shipbuilder was called. He
objected to the size of the ship, to the length, breadth, depth,
draught of water, height of jack, rake before and aft, breadth of
the floor, scantling of the timber, and so on. Then another of
the objectors was called; and his evidence was so clearly in
contradiction to that which had already been given, that either
one or both must be wrong. The principal objector, Captain
Waymouth, next gave his evidence; but he was able to say nothing
to any purpose, except giving their lordships "a long, tedious
discourse of proportions, measures, lines, and an infinite rabble
of idle and unprofitable speeches, clean from the matter."

The result was that their lordships reported favourably of the
design of the ship, and the progress which had already been made.

The Earl of Nottingham interposed his influence; and the King
himself, accompanied by the young Prince, went down to Woolwich,
and made a personal examination.[26]  A great many witnesses were
again examined, twenty-four on one side, and twenty-seven on the
other. The King then carefully examined the ship himself: "the
planks, the tree-nails, the workmanship, and the cross-grained
timber."  "The cross-grain," he concluded, "was in the men and
not in the timber."  After all the measurements had been made and
found correct, "his Majesty," says Pett, "with a loud voice
commanded the measurers to declare publicly the very truth; which
when they had delivered clearly on our side, all the whole
multitude heaved up their hats, and gave a great and loud shout
and acclamation. And then the Prince, his Highness, called with
a high voice in these words: 'Where be now these perjured
fellows that dare thus abuse his Majesty with these false
accusations? Do they not worthily deserve hanging?"'

Thus Pett triumphed over all his enemies, and was allowed to
finish the great ship in his own way. By the middle of September
1610, the vessel was ready to be "strucken down upon her ways";
and a dozen of the choice master carpenters of his Majesty's navy
came from Chatham to assist in launching her. The ship was
decorated, gilded, draped, and garlanded; and on the 24th the
King, the Queen, and the Royal family came from the palace at
Theobald's to witness the great sight. Unfortunately, the day
proved very rough; and it was little better than a neap tide.
The ship started very well, but the wind "overblew the tide"; she
caught in the dock-gates, and settled hard upon the ground, so
that there was no possibility of launching her that day.

This was a great disappointment. The King retired to the palace
at Greenwich, though the Prince lingered behind. When he left,
he promised to return by midnight, after which it was proposed to
make another effort to set the ship afloat. When the time
arrived, the Prince again made his appearance, and joined the
Lord High Admiral, and the principal naval officials. It was
bright moonshine. After midnight the rain began to fall, and the
wind to blow from the southwest. But about two o'clock, an hour
before high water, the word was given to set all taut, and the
ship went away without any straining of screws and tackles, till
she came clear afloat into the midst of the Thames. The Prince
was aboard, and amidst the blast of trumpets and expressions of
joy, he performed the ceremony of drinking from the great
standing cup, and throwing the rest of the wine towards the
half-deck, and christening the ship by the name of the Prince
Royal.[27]

The dimensions of the ship may be briefly described. Her keel
was 114 feet long, and her cross-beam 44 feet. She was of 1400
tons burthen, and carried 64 pieces of great ordnance. She was
the largest ship that had yet been constructed in England.

The Prince Royal was, at the time she was built, considered one
of the most wonderful efforts of human genius. Mr. Charnock, in
his 'Treatise on Marine Architecture,' speaks of her as abounding
in striking peculiarities. Previous to the construction of this
ship, vessels were built in the style of the Venetian galley,
which although well adapted for the quiet Mediterranean, were not
suited for the stormy northern ocean. The fighting ships also of
the time of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth were too full of
"top-hamper" for modern navigation. They were oppressed by high
forecastles and poops. Pett struck out entirely new ideas in the
build and lines of his new ship; and the course which he adopted
had its effect upon all future marine structures. The ship was
more handy, more wieldy, and more convenient. She was
unquestionably the first effort of English ingenuity in the
direction of manageableness and simplicity. "The vessel in
question," says Charnock, "may be considered the parent of the
class of shipping which continues in practice even to the present
moment."

It is scarcely necessary to pursue in detail the further history
of Phineas Pett. We may briefly mention the principal points.
In 1612, the Prince Royal was appointed to convey the Princess
Elizabeth and her husband, The Palsgrave, to the Continent. Pett
was on board the ship, and found that "it wrought exceedingly
well, and was so yare of conduct that a foot of helm would steer
her."  While at Flushing, "such a multitude of people, men,
women, and children, came from all places in Holland to see the
ship, that we could scarce have room to go up and down till very
night."

About the 27th of March, 1616, Pett bargained with Sir Waiter
Raleigh to build a vessel of 500 tons,[28] and received 500L.
from him on account. The King, through the interposition of the
Lord Admiral, allowed Pett to lay her keel on the galley dock at
Woolwich. In the same year he was commissioned by the Lord
Zouche, now Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, to construct a
pinnace of 40 tons, in respect of which Pett remarks, "towards
the whole of the hull of the pinnace, and all her rigging, I
received only 100L. from the Lord Zouche, the rest Sir Henry
Mainwaring (half-brother to Raleigh) cunningly received on my
behalf, without my knowledge, which I never got from him but by
piecemeal, so that by the bargain I was loser 100L. at least."

Pett fared much worse at the hands of Raleigh himself. His great
ship, the Destiny, was finished and launched in December, 1616.
"I delivered her to him," says Pett, "on float, in good order and
fashion; by which business I lost 700L., and could never get any
recompense at all for it; Sir Walter going to sea and leaving me
unsatisfied."[29] Nor was this the only loss that Pett met with
this year. The King, he states, "bestowed upon me for the supply
of my present relief the making of a knight-baronet," which
authority Pett passed to a recusant, one Francis Ratcliffe, for
700L.; but that worthy defrauded him, so that he lost 30L. by the
bargain.

Next year, Pett was despatched by the Government to the New
Forest in Hampshire, "where," he says, "one Sir Giles
Mompesson[30] had made a vast waste in the spoil of his Majesty's
timber, to redress which I was employed thither, to make choice
out of the number of trees he had felled of all such timber as
was useful for shipping, in which business I spent a great deal
of time, and brought myself into a great deal of trouble."  About
this period, poor Pett's wife and two of his children lay for
some time at death's door. Then more enquiries took place into
the abuses of the dockyards, in which it was sought to implicate
Pett. During the next three years (1618-20) he worked under the
immediate orders of the Commissioners in the New Dock at Chatham.

In 1620, Pett's friend Sir Robert Mansell was appointed General
of the Fleet destined to chastise the Algerine pirates, who still
continued their depredations on the shipping in the Channel, and
the King thereupon commissioned Pett to build with all dispatch
two pinnaces, of 120 and 80 tons respectively. "I was myself,"
he says, "to serve as Captain in the voyage"--being glad, no
doubt, to escape from his tormentors. The two pinnaces were
built at Ratcliffe, and were launched on the 16th and l8th of
October, 1620. On the 30th, Pett sailed with the fleet, and
after driving the pirates out of the Channel, he returned to port
after an absence of eleven months.

His enemies had taken advantage of his absence from England to
get an order for the survey of the Prince Royal, his masterpiece;
the result of which was, he says, that "they maliciously
certified the ship to be unserviceable, and not fit to
continue--that what charges should be bestowed upon her would be
lost."  Nevertheless, the Prince Royal was docked, and fitted for
a voyage to Spain. She was sent thither with Charles Prince of
Wales and the Duke of Buckingham, the former going in search of a
Spanish wife. Pett, the builder of the ship, was commanded to
accompany the young Prince and the Duke.

The expedition sailed on the 24th of August, 1623, and returned
on the l4th of October. Pett was entertained on board the Prince
Royal, and rendered occasional services to the officers in
command, though nothing of importance occurred during the voyage.

The Prince of Wales presented him with a valuable gold chain as a
reward for his attendance. In 1625, Pett, after rendering many
important services to the Admiralty, was ordered again to prepare
the Prince Royal for sea. She was to bring over the Prince of
Wales's bride from France. While the preparations were making
for the voyage, news reached Chatham of the death of King James.
Pett was afterwards commanded to go forward with the work of
preparing the Prince Royal, as well as the whole fleet, which was
intended to escort the French Princess, or rather the Queen, to
England. The expedition took place in May, and the young Queen
landed at Dover on the 12th of that month.

Pett continued to be employed in building and repairing ships, as
well as in preparing new designs, which he submitted to the King
and the Commissioners of the Navy. In 1626, he was appointed a
joint commissioner, with the Lord High Admiral, the Lord
Treasurer Marlborough, and others, "to enquire into certain
alleged abuses of the Navy, and to view the state thereof, and
also the stores thereof," clearly showing that he was regaining
his old position. He was also engaged in determining the best
mode of measuring the tonnage of ships.[31] Four years later he
was again appointed a commissioner for making "a general survey
of the whole navy at Chatham."  For this and his other services
the King promoted Pett to be a principal officer of the Navy,
with a fee of 200L. per annum. His patent was sealed on the 16th
of January, 1631. In the same year the King visited Woolwich to
witness the launching of the Vanguard, which Pett had built; and
his Majesty honoured the shipwright by participating in a banquet
at his lodgings.

From this period to the year 1637, Pett records nothing of
particular importance in his autobiography. He was chiefly
occupied in aiding his son Peter--who was rapidly increasing his
fame as a shipwright--in repairing and building first-class ships
of war. As Pett had, on an early occasion in his life, prepared
a miniature ship for Prince Henry, eldest son of James I., he now
proceeded to prepare a similar model for the Prince of Wales, the
King's eldest son, afterwards Charles II. This model was
presented to the Prince at St. James's, "who entertained it with
great joy, being purposely made to disport himself withal."  On
the next visit of his Majesty to Woolwich, he inspected the
progress made with the Leopard, a sloop-of-war built by Peter
Pett. While in the hold of the vessel, the King called Phineas
to one side, and told him of his resolution to have a great new
ship built, and that Phineas must be the builder. This great new
ship was The Sovereign of the Seas, afterwards built by Phineas
and Peter Pett. Some say that the model was prepared by the
latter; but Phineas says that it was prepared by himself, and
finished by the 29th of October, 1634. As a compensation for his
services, his Majesty renewed his pension of 40L. (which had been
previously stopped), with orders for all the arrears due upon it
to be paid.

To provide the necessary timber for the new ship, Phineas and his
son went down into the North to survey the forests. They went
first by water to Whitby; from thence they proceeded on horseback
to Gisborough and baited; then to Stockton, where they found but
poor entertainment, though they lodged with the Mayor, whose
house "was only a mean thatched cottage!"  Middlesborough and the
great iron district of the North had not yet come into existence.

Newcastle, already of some importance, was the principal scene of
their labours. The timber for the new ship was found in Chapley
Wood and Bracepeth Park. The gentry did all they could to
facilitate the object of Pett. On his journey homewards (July,
1635), he took Cambridge on his way, where, says he, "I lodged at
the Falcon, and visited Emmanuel College, where I had been a
scholar in my youth."

The Sovereign of the Seas was launched on the l2th of October,
1637, having been about two years in building. Evelyn in his
diary says of the ship (l9th July, 1641):- "We rode to Rochester
and Chatham to see the Soveraigne, a monstrous vessel so called,
being for burthen, defence, and ornament, the richest that ever
spread cloth before the wind. She carried 100 brass cannon, and
was 1600 tons, a rare sailer, the work of the famous Phineas
Pett."  Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds says that she was
afterwards cut down, and was a safe and fast ship.[32]

The Sovereign continued for nearly sixty years to be the finest
ship in the English service. Though frequently engaged in the
most injurious occupations, she continued fit for any services
which the exigencies of the State might require. She fought all
through the wars of the Commonwealth; she was the leading ship of
Admiral Blake, and was in all the great naval engagements with
France and Holland. The Dutch gave her the name of The Golden
Devil. In the last fight between the English and French, she
encountered the Wonder of the World, and so warmly plied the
French Admiral, that she forced him out of his three-decked
wooden castle, and chasing the Royal Sun, before her, forced her
to fly for shelter among the rocks, where she became a prey to
lesser vessels, and was reduced to ashes. At last, in the reign
of William III., the Sovereign became leaky and defective with
age; she was laid up at Chatham, and being set on fire by
negligence or accident, she burnt to the water's edge.

To return to the history of Phineas Pett. As years approached,
he retired from office, and "his loving son," as he always
affectionately designates Peter, succeeded him as principal
shipwright, Charles I. conferring upon him the honour of
knighthood. Phineas lived for ten years after the Sovereign of
the Seas was launched. In the burial register of the parish of
Chatham it is recorded, "Phineas Pett, Esqe. and Capt., was
buried 21st August, l647."[33]

Sir Peter Pett was almost as distinguished as his father. He was
the builder of the first frigate, The Constant Warwick. Sir
William Symonds says of this vessel:-- "She was an incomparable
sailer, remarkable for her sharpness and the fineness of her
lines; and many were built like her."  Pett "introduced convex
lines on the immersed part of the hull, with the studding and
sprit sails; and, in short, he appears to have fully deserved his
character of being the best ship architect of his time."[34] Sir
Peter Pett's monument in Deptford Old Church fully records his
services to England's naval power.

The Petts are said to have been connected with shipbuilding in
the Thames for not less than 200 years. Fuller, in his 'Worthies
of England,' says of them--"I am credibly informed that that
mystery of shipwrights for some descents hath been preserved
faithfully in families, of whom the Petts about Chatham are of
singular regard. Good success have they with their skill, and
carefully keep so precious a pearl, lest otherwise amongst many
friends some foes attain unto it."

The late Peter Bolt, member for Greenwich, took pride in being
descended from the Petts; but so far as we know, the name itself
has died out. In 1801, when Charnock's 'History of Marine
Architecture' was published, Mr. Pett, of Tovil, near Maidstone,
was the sole representative of the family.

Footnotes for Chapter I.

[1] This was not the first voyage of a steamer between England
and America. The Savannah made the passage from New York to
Liverpool as early as 1819; but steam was only used occasionally
during the voyage, In 1825, the Enterprise, with engines by
Maudslay, made the voyage from Falmouth to Calcutta in 113 days;
and in 1828, the Curacoa made the voyage between Holland and the
Dutch West Indies. But in all these cases, steam was used as an
auxiliary, and not as the one essential means of propulsion, as
in the case of the Sirius and the Great Western, which were steam
voyages only.

[2] "In 1862 the steam tonnage of the country was 537,000 tons;
in 1872, it was 1,537,000 tons; and in 1882, it had reached
3,835,000 tons."--Mr. Chamberlain's speech, House of Commons,
19th May, 1884.

[3] The last visit of the plague was in 1665.

[4] Roll of Edward the Third's Fleet. Cotton's Library, British
Museum.

[5] Charnock's History Of Marine Architecture, ii. 89.

[6] State Papers. Henry VIII. Nos. 3496, 3616, 4633. The
principal kinds of ordnance at that time were these:--The
"Apostles," so called from the head of an Apostle which they
bore; "Curtows," or "Courtaulx"; "Culverins" and "Serpents";
"Minions," and "Potguns"; "Nurembergers," and "Bombards" or
mortars.

[7] The sum of all costs of the Harry Grace de Dieu and three
small galleys, was 7708L. 5s. 3d. (S.P.O. No. 5228, Henry VIII.)

[8] Charnock, ii. 47 (note).

[9] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 126.

[10] The Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and Industries,
in England and Ireland, ch. iv.

[11] Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, ii. 156.

[12] Ibid. ii. 85.

[13] Picton's Selections from the Municipal Archives and Records
of Liverpool, p. 90. About a hundred years later, in 1757, the
gross customs receipts of Liverpool had increased to 198,946L.;
whilst those of Bristol were as much as 351,211L. In 1883, the
amount of tonnage of Liverpool, inwards and outwards, was
8,527,531 tons, and the total dock revenue for the year was
1,273,752L.!

[14] There were not only Algerine but English pirates scouring
the seas. Keutzner, the German, who wrote in Elizabeth's reign,
said, "The English are good sailors and famous pirates (sunt boni
nautae et insignis pyratae)."  Roberts, in his Social History of
the Southern Counties (p. 93), observes, "Elizabeth had employed
many English as privateers against the Spaniard. After the war,
many were loth to lead an inactive life. They had their
commissions revoked, and were proclaimed pirates. The public
looked upon them as gallant fellows; the merchants gave them
underhand support; and even the authorities in maritime towns
connived at the sale of their plunder. In spite of
proclamations, during the first five years after the accession of
James I., there were continual complaints. This lawless way of
life even became popular. Many Englishmen furnished themselves
with good ships and scoured the seas, but little careful whom
they might plunder."  It was found very difficult to put down
piracy. According to Oliver's History of the city of Exeter, not
less than "fifteen sail of Turks" held the English Channel,
snapping up merchantmen, in the middle of the seventeenth
century! The harbours in the south-west were infested by Moslem
pirates, who attacked and plundered the ships, and carried their
crews into captivity. The loss, even to an inland port like
Exeter, in ships, money, and men, was enormous.

[15] Naval Tracts, p. 294.

[16] This poem is now very rare. It is not in the British
Museum.

[17] There are three copies extant of the autobiography, all of
which are in the British Museum. In the main, they differ but
slightly from each other. Not one of them has been published in
extenso. In December, 1795, and in February, 1796, Dr. Samuel
Denne communicated to the Society of Antiquaries particulars of
two of these MSS., and subsequently published copious extracts
from them in their transactions (Archae. xii. anno 1796), in a
very irregular and careless manner. It is probable that Dr.
Denne never saw the original manuscript, but only a garbled copy
of it. The above narrative has been taken from the original, and
collated with the documents in the State Paper Office.

[18] See, for instance, the Index to the Journals of Records of
the Corporation of the City of London (No. 2, p. 346, 15901694)
under the head of "Sir Walter Raleigh."  There is a document
dated the 15th November, 1593, in the 35th of Elizabeth, which
runs as follows:-- "Committee appointed on behalf of such of the
City Companies as have ventured in the late Fleet set forward by
Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, and others, to join with such
honourable personages as the Queen hath appointed, to take a
perfect view of all such goods, prizes, spices, jewels, pearls,
treasures, &c., lately taken in the Carrack, and to make sale and
division (Jor. 23, p. 156). Suit to be made to the Queen and
Privy Council for the buying of the goods, &c., lately taken at
sea in the Carrack; a committee appointed to take order
accordingly; the benefit or loss arising thereon to be divided
and borne between the Chamber [of the Corporation of the City]
and the Companies that adventured (157). The several Companies
that adventured at sea with Sir Waiter Raleigh to accept so much
of the goods taken in the Carrack to the value of 12,000L.
according to the Queen's offer. A committee appointed to
acquaint the Lords of the Council with the City's acceptance
thereof (167). Committee for sale of the Carrack goods appointed
(174). Bonds for sale to be sealed (196).... Committee to audit
accounts of a former adventure (224 b.)."

[19] There were three sisters in all, the eldest of whom
(Abigail) fell a victim to the cruelty of Nunn, who struck her
across the head with the fire-tongs, from the effects of which
she died in three days. Nunn was tried and convicted of
manslaughter. He died shortly after. Mrs. Nunn, Phineas's
mother, was already dead.

[20] It would seem, from a paper hereafter to be more
particularly referred to, that the government encouraged the
owners of ships and others to clear the seas of these pirates,
agreeing to pay them for their labours. In 1622, Pett fitted out
an expedition against these pests of navigation, but experienced
some difficulty in getting his expenses repaid.

[21] See grant S.P.O., 29th May, 1605.

[22] An engraving of this remarkable ship is given in Charnock's
History of Marine Architecture, ii. p. 199.

[23] The story of the Three, or rather Two Ravens, is as
follows:-- The body of St. Vincent was originally deposited at
the Cape, which still bears his name, on the Portuguese coast;
and his tomb, says the legend, was zealously guarded by a couple
of ravens. When it was determined, in the 12th century, to
transport the relics of the Saint to the Cathedral of Lisbon, the
two ravens accompanied the ship which contained them, one at its
stem and the other at its stern. The relics were deposited in
the Chapel of St. Vincent, within the Cathedral, and there the
two ravens have ever since remained. The monks continued to
support two such birds in the cloisters, and till very lately the
officials gravely informed the visitor to the Cathedral that they
were the identical ravens which accompanied the Saint's relics to
their city. The birds figure in the arms of Lisbon.

[24] The evidence taken by the Commissioners is embodied in a
voluminous report. State Paper Office, Dom. James I., vol. xli.
1608.

[25] The Earl of Northampton, Privy Seal, was Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports; hence his moving in the matter. Pett says he was
his "most implacable enemy."  It is probable that the earl was
jealous of Pett, because he had received his commission to build
the great ship directly from the sovereign, without the
intervention of his lordship

[26] This Royal investigation took place at Woolwich on the 8th
May, 1609. The State Paper Office contains a report of the same
date, most probably the one presented to the King, signed by six
ship-builders and Captain Waymouth, and counter signed by
Northampton and four others. The Report is headed "The Prince
Royal: imperfections found upon view of the new work begun at
Woolwich."  It would occupy too much space to give the results
here.

[27] Alas! for the uncertainties of life! This noble young
prince--the hope of England and the joy of his parents, from whom
such great things were anticipated--for he was graceful, frank,
brave, active, and a lover of the sea,--was seized with a serious
illness, and died in his eighteenth year, on the 16th November,
1612.

[28] Pett says she was to be 500 tons, but when he turned her out
her burthen was rated at 700 tons.

[29] This conduct of Raleigh's was the more inexcusable, as there
is in the State Paper Office a warrant dated 16th Nov., 1617, for
the payment to Pett of 700 crowns "for building the new ship, the
Destiny of London, of 700 tons burthen."  The least he could have
done was to have handed over to the builder his royal and usual
reward. In the above warrant, by the way, the title "our
well-beloved subject," the ordinary prefix to such grants, has
either been left blank or erased (it is difficult to say which),
but was very significant of the slippery footing of Raleigh at
Court.

[30] Sir Giles Overreach, in the play of "A new way to pay old
debts," by Philip Massinger. It was difficult for the poet, or
any other person, to libel such a personage as Mompesson.

[31] Pett's method is described in a paper contained in the
S.P.O., dated 21st Oct., 1626. The Trinity Corporation adopted
his method.

[32] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William
Symonds, Kt., p. 94.

[33] Pett's dwelling-house at Rochester is thus described in an
anonymous history of that town (p. 337, ed. l817):-- "Beyond the
Victualling Office, on the same side of the High Street, at
Rochester, is an old mansion, now occupied by a Mr. Morson, an
attorney, which formerly belonged to the Petts, the celebrated
ship-builders. The chimney-piece in the principal room is of
wood, curiously carved, the upper part being divided into
compartments by caryatydes. The central compartment contains the
family arms, viz., Or, on a fesse, gu., between three pellets, a
lion passant gardant of the field. On the back of the grate is a
cast of Neptune, standing erect in his car, with Triton blowing
conches, &c., and the date 1650."

[34] Symonds, Memoirs of Life and Services, 94.

CHAPTER II.

FRANCIS PETTIT SMITH: PRACTICAL INTRODUCER OF THE SCREW
PROPELLER.

"The spirit of Paley's maxim that 'he alone discovers who
proves,' is applicable to the history of inventions and
discoveries; for certainly he alone invents to any good purpose,
who satisfies the world that the means he may have devised have
been found competent to the end proposed."--Dr. Samuel Brown.

"Too often the real worker and discoverer remains unknown, and an
invention, beautiful but useless in one age or country, can be
applied only in a remote generation, or in a distant land.
Mankind hangs together from generation to generation; easy labour
is but inherited skill; great discoveries and inventions are
worked up to by the efforts of myriads ere the goal is
reached."--H. M. Hyndman.

Though a long period elapsed between the times of Phineas Pett
and "Screw" Smith, comparatively little improvement had been
effected in the art of shipbuilding. The Sovereign of the Seas
had not been excelled by any ship of war built down to the end of
last century.[1] At a comparatively recent date, ships continued
to be built of timber and plank, and impelled by sails and oars,
as they had been for thousands of years before.

But this century has witnessed many marvellous changes. A new
material of construction has been introduced into shipbuilding,
with entirely new methods of propulsion. Old things have been
displaced by new; and the magnitude of the results has been
extraordinary. The most important changes have been in the use
of iron and steel instead of wood, and in the employment of the
steam-engine in impelling ships by the paddle or the screw.

So long as timber was used for the construction of ships, the
number of vessels built annually, especially in so small an
island as Britain, must necessarily have continued very limited.
Indeed, so little had the cultivation of oak in Great Britain
been attended to, that all the royal forests could not have
supplied sufficient timber to build one line-of-battle ship
annually; while for the mercantile marine, the world had to be
ransacked for wood, often of a very inferior quality.

Take, for instance, the seventy-eight gun ship, the Hindostan,
launched a few years ago. It would have required 4200 loads of
timber to build a ship of that description, and the growth of the
timber would have occupied seventy acres of ground during eighty
years.[2]  It would have needed something like 800,000 acres of
land on which to grow the timber for the ships annually built in
this country for commercial purposes. And timber ships are by no
means lasting. The average durability of ships of war employed
in active service, has been calculated to be about thirteen
years, even when built of British oak.

Indeed, years ago, the building of shipping in this country was
much hindered by the want of materials.

The trade was being rapidly transferred to Canada and the United
States. Some years since, an American captain said to an
Englishman, Captain Hall, when in China, "You will soon have to
come to our country for your ships: your little island cannot
grow wood enough for a large marine."  "Oh!" said the Englishman,
"we can build ships of iron!"  "Iron?" replied the American in
surprise, "why, iron sinks; only wood can float!"  "Well! you
will find I am right."  The prophecy was correct. The Englishman
in question has now a fleet of splendid iron steamers at sea.

The use of iron in shipbuilding had small beginnings, like
everything else. The established prejudice--that iron must
necessarily sink in water--long continued to prevail against its
employment. The first iron vessel was built and launched about a
hundred years since by John Wilkinson, of Bradley Forge, in
Staffordshire. In a letter of his, dated the 14th July, 1787,
the original of which we have seen, he writes: "Yesterday week
my iron boat was launched. It answers all my expectations, and
has convinced the unbelievers, who were 999 in 1000. It will be
only a nine days' wonder, and afterwards a Columbus's egg."  It
was, however, more than a nine days' wonder; for wood long
continued to be thought the only material capable of floating.

Although Wilkinson's iron vessels continued to ply upon the
Severn, more than twenty years elapsed before another shipbuilder
ventured to follow his example. But in 1810, Onions and Son, of
Brosely, built several iron vessels, also for use upon the
Severn. Then, in 1815, Mr. Jervons, of Liverpool, built a small
iron boat for use on the Mersey. Six years later, in 1821, Mr.
Aaron Manby designed an iron steam vessel, which was built at the
Horsley Company's Works, in Staffordshire. She sailed from
London to Havre a few years later, under the command of Captain
(afterwards Sir Charles) Napier, RN. She was freighted with a
cargo of linseed and iron castings, and went up the Seine to
Paris. It was some time, however, before iron came into general
use. Ten years later, in 1832, Maudslay and Field built four
iron vessels for the East India Company. In the course of about
twenty years, the use of iron became general, not only for ships
of war, but for merchant ships plying to all parts of the world.

When ships began to be built of iron, it was found that they
could be increased without limit, so long as coal, iron,
machinery, and strong men full of skill and industry, were
procurable. The trade in shipbuilding returned to Britain, where
iron ships are now made and exported in large numbers; the
mercantile marine of this country exceeding in amount and tonnage
that of all the other countries of the world put together. The
"wooden walls"[3] of England exist no more, for iron has
superseded wood. Instead of constructing vessels from the
forest, we are now digging new navies out of the bowels of the
earth, and our "walls," instead of wood, are now of iron and
steel.

The attempt to propel ships by other means than sails and oars
went on from century to century, and did not succeed until almost
within our own time. It is said that the Roman army under
Claudius Codex was transported into Sicily in boats propelled by
wheels moved by oxen. Galleys, propelled by wheels in paddles,
were afterwards attempted. The Harleian MS. contains an Italian
book of sketches, attributed to the 15th century, in which there
appears a drawing of a paddle-boat, evidently intended to be
worked by men. Paddle-boats, worked by horse-power, were also
tried. Blasco Garay made a supreme effort at Barcelona in 1543.
His vessel was propelled by a paddle-wheel on each side, worked
by forty men. But nothing came of the experiment.

Many other efforts of a similar kind were made,--by Savery among
others,[4]--until we come down to Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton,
who, in 1787, invented a double-hulled boat, which he caused to
be propelled on the Firth of Forth by men working a capstan which
drove the paddles on each side. The men soon became exhausted,
and on Miller mentioning the subject to William Symington, who
was then exhibiting his road locomotive in Edinburgh, Symington
at once said, "Why don't you employ steam-power?"

There were many speculations in early times as to the application
of steam-power for propelling vessels through the water. David
Ramsay in 1618, Dr. Grant in 1632, the Marquis of Worcester in
1661, were among the first in England to publish their views upon
the subject. But it is probable that Denis Papin, the banished
Hugnenot physician, for some time Curator of the Royal Society,
was the first who made a model steam-boat. Daring his residence
in England, he was elected Professor of Mathematics in the
University of Marburg. It was while at that city that he
constructed, in 1707, a small steam-engine, which he fitted in a
boat--une petite machine d'un, vaisseau a roues--and despatched
it to England for the purpose of being tried upon the Thames.
The little vessel never reached England. At Munden, the boatmen
on the River Weser, thinking that, if successful, it would
destroy their occupation, seized the boat, with its machine, and
barbarously destroyed it. Papin did not repeat his experiment,
and died a few years later.

The next inventor was Jonathan Hulls, of Campden, in
Gloucestershire. He patented a steamboat in 1736, and worked the
paddle-wheel placed at the stern of the vessel by means of a
Newcomen engine. He tried his boat on the River Avon, at
Evesham, but it did not succeed, and the engine was taken on
shore again. A local poet commemorated his failure in the
following lines, which were remembered long after his steamboat
experiment had been forgotten:--

"Jonathan Hull,
With his paper skull,
Tried hard to make a machine
That should go against wind and tide;
But he, like an ass,
Couldn't bring it to pass,
So at last was ashamed to be seen."

Nothing of importance was done in the direction of a steam-engine
able to drive paddles, until the invention by James Watt, in
1769, of his double-acting engine--the first step by which steam
was rendered capable of being successfully used to impel a
vessel. But Watt was indifferent to taking up the subject of
steam navigation, as well as of steam locomotion. He refused
many invitations to make steam-engines for the propulsion of
ships, preferring to confine himself to his "regular established
trade and manufacture," that of making condensing steam-engines,
which had become of great importance towards the close of his
life.

Two records exist of paddle-wheel steamboats having been early
tried in France--one by the Comte d'Auxiron and M. Perrier in
1774, the other by the Comte de Jouffroy in 1783--but the notices
of their experiments are very vague, and rest on somewhat
doubtful authority.

The idea, however, had been born, and was not allowed to die.
When Mr. Miller of Dalswinton had revived the notion of
propelling vessels by means of paddle-wheels, worked, as Savery
had before worked them, by means of a capstan placed in the
centre of the vessel, and when he complained to Symington of the
fatigue caused to the men by working the capstan, and Symington
had suggested the use of steam, Mr. Miller was impressed by the
idea, and proceeded to order a steam-engine for the purpose of
trying the experiment. The boat was built at Edinburgh, and
removed to Dalswinton Lake. It was there fitted with Symington's
steam-engine, and first tried with success on the 14th of
October, 1788, as has been related at length in Mr. Nasmyth's
'Autobiography.' The experiment was repeated with even greater
success in the charlotte Dundas in 1801, which was used to tow
vessels along the Forth and Clyde Canal, and to bring ships up
the Firth of Forth to the canal entrance at Grangemouth.

The progress of steam navigation was nevertheless very slow.
Symington's experiments were not renewed. The Charlotte Dundas
was withdrawn from use, because of the supposed injury to the
banks of the Canal, caused by the swell from the wheel. The
steamboat was laid up in a creek at Bainsford, where it went to
ruin, and the inventor himself died in poverty. Among those who
inspected the vessel while at work were Fulton, the American
artist, and Henry Bell, the Glasgow engineer. The former had
already occupied himself with model steamboats, both at Paris and
in London; and in 1805 he obtained from Boulton and Watt, of
Birmingham, the steam-engine required for propelling his paddle
steamboat on the Hudson. The Clermont was first started in
August, 1807, and attained a speed of nearly five miles an hour.
Five years later, Henry Bell constructed and tried his first
steamer on the Clyde.

It was not until 1815 that the first steamboat was seen on the
Thames. This was the Richmond packet, which plied between London
and Richmond. The vessel was fitted with the first marine engine
Henry Maudslay ever made. During the same year, the Margery,
formerly employed on the Firth of Forth, began plying between
Gravesend and London; and the Thames, formerly the Argyll, came
round from the Clyde, encountering rough seas, and making the
voyage of 758 miles in five days and two hours. This was thought
extraordinarily rapid--though the voyage of about 3000 miles,
from Liverpool to New York, can now be made in only about two
days' more time.

In nearly all seagoing vessels, the Paddle has now almost
entirely given place to the Screw. It was long before this
invention was perfected and brought into general use. It was not
the production of one man, but of several generations of
mechanical inventors. A perfected invention does not burst forth
from the brain like a poetic thought or a fine resolve. It has
to be initiated, laboured over, and pursued in the face of
disappointments, difficulties, and discouragements.

Sometimes the idea is born in one generation, followed out in the
next, and perhaps perfected in the third. In an age of progress,
one invention merely paves the way for another. What was the
wonder of yesterday, becomes the common and unnoticed thing of
to-day.

The first idea of the screw was thrown out by James Watt more
than a century ago. Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, had proposed
to move canal boats by means of the steam-engine; and Dr. Small,
his friend, was in communication with James Watt, then residing
at Glasgow, on the subject. In a letter from Watt to Small,
dated the 30th September, 1770, the former, after speaking of the
condenser, and saying that it cannot be dispensed with, proceeds:
"Have you ever considered a spiral oar for that purpose
[propulsion of canal boats], or are you for two wheels?"  Watt
added a pen-and-ink drawing of his spiral oar, greatly resembling
the form of screw afterwards patented. Nothing, however, was
actually done, and the idea slept.

It was revived again in 1785, by Joseph Bramah, a wonderful
projector and inventor.[5]  He took out a patent, which included
a rotatory steam-engine, and a mode of propelling vessels by
means either of a paddle-wheel or a "screw propeller."  This
propeller was "similar to the fly of a smoke-jack"; but there is
no account of Bramah having practically tried this method of
propulsion.

Austria, also, claims the honour of the invention of the screw
steamer. At Trieste and Vienna are statues erected to Joseph
Ressel, on whose behalf his countrymen lay claim to the
invention; and patents for some sort of a screw date back as far
as 1794.

Patents were also taken out in England and America--by W.
Lyttleton in 1794; by E. Shorter in 1799; by J. C. Stevens, of
New Jersey, in 1804; by Henry James in 1811--but nothing
practical was accomplished. Richard Trevethick, the anticipator
of many things, also took out a patent in 1815, and in it he
describes the screw propeller with considerable minuteness.
Millington, Whytock, Perkins, Marestier, and Brown followed, with
no better results.

The late Dr. Birkbeck, in a letter addressed to the 'Mechanics'
Register,' in the year 1824, claimed that John Swan, of 82,
Mansfield Street, Kingsland Road, London, was the practical
inventor of the screw propeller. John Swan was a native of
Coldingham, Berwickshire. He had removed to London, and entered
the employment of Messrs. Gordon, of Deptford. Swan fitted up a
boat with his propeller, and tried it on a sheet of water in the
grounds of Charles Gordon, Esq., of Dulwich Hill. "The velocity
and steadiness of the motion," said Dr. Birkbeck in his letter,
"so far exceeded that of the same model when impelled by
paddle-wheels driven by the same spring, that I could not doubt
its superiority; and the stillness of the water was such as to
give the vessel the appearance of being moved by some magical
power."

Then comes another claimant--Mr. Robert Wilson, then of Dunbar
(not far from Coldingham), but afterwards of the Bridgewater
Foundry, Patricroft. In his pamphlet, published a few years ago,
he states that he had long considered the subject, and in 1827 he
made a small model, fitted with "revolving skulls," which he
tried on a sheet of water in the presence of the Hon. Capt.
Anthony Maitland, son of the Earl of Lauderdale. The experiment
was successful--so successful, that when the "stern paddles" were
in 1828 used at Leith in a boat twenty-five feet long, with two
men to work the machinery, the boat was propelled at an average
speed of about ten miles an hour; and the Society of Arts
afterwards, in October, 1882, awarded Mr. Wilson their silver
medal for the "description, drawing, and models of stern paddles
for propelling steamboats, invented by him."  The subject was, in
1833, brought by Sir John Sinclair under the consideration of the
Board of Admiralty; but the report of the officials (Oliver Lang,
Abethell, Lloyd, and Kingston) was to the effect that "the plan
proposed (independent of practical difficulties) is
objectionable, as it involves a greater loss of power than the
common mode of applying the wheels to the side."  And here ended
the experiment, so far as Mr. Wilson's "stern paddles" were
concerned.

It will be observed, from what has been said, that the idea of a
screw propeller is a very old one. Watt, Bramah, Trevethick, and
many more, had given descriptions of the screw. Trevethick
schemed a number of its forms and applications, which have been
the subject of many subsequent patents. It has been so with many
inventions. It is not the man who gives the first idea of a
machine who is entitled to the merit of its introduction, or the
man who repeats the idea, and re-repeats it, but the man who is
so deeply impressed with the importance of the discovery, that he
insists upon its adoption, will take no denial, and at the risk
of fame and fortune, pushes through all opposition, and is
determined that what he thinks he has discovered shall not perish
for want of a fair trial. And that this was the case with the
practical introducer of the screw propeller will be obvious from
the following statement.

Francis Pettit Smith was born at Hythe, in the county of Kent, in
1808. His father was postmaster of the town, and a person of
much zeal and integrity. The boy was sent to school at Ashford,
and there received a fair amount of education, under the Rev.
Alexander Power. Young Smith displayed no special characteristic
except a passion for constructing models of boats. When he
reached manhood, he adopted the business of a grazing farmer on
Romney Marsh. He afterwards removed to Hendon, north of London,
where he had plenty of water on which to try his model boats.
The reservoir of the Old Welsh Harp was close at hand--a place
famous for its water-birds and wild fowl.

Smith made many models of boats, his experiments extending over
many years. In 1834, he constructed a boat propelled by a wooden
screw driven by a spring, the performance of which was thought
extraordinary. Where he had got his original idea is not known.
It was floating about in many minds, and was no special secret.
Smith, however, arrived at the conclusion that his method of
propelling steam vessels by means of a screw was much superior to
paddles--at that time exclusively employed. In the following
year, 1835, he constructed a superior model, with which he
performed a number of experiments at Hendon. In May 1836, he
took out a patent for propelling vessels by means of a screw
revolving beneath the water at the stern. He then openly
exhibited his invention at the Adelaide Gallery in London. Sir
John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, inspected the model, and
was much impressed by its action. During the time it was
publicly exhibited, an offer was made to purchase the invention
for the Pacha of Egypt; but the offer was declined.

At this stage of his operations, Smith was joined by Mr. Wright,
banker, and Mr. C. A. Caldwell, who had the penetration to
perceive that the invention was one of much promise, and were
desirous of helping its introduction to general use. They
furnished Smith with the means of constructing a more complete
model. In the autumn of 1836, a small steam vessel of 10 tons
burthen and six horse-power was built, further to test the
advantages of the invention. This boat was fitted with a wooden
screw of two whole turns. On the 1st of November the vessel was
exhibited to the public on the Paddington Canal, as well as on
the Thames, where she continued to ply until the month of
September 1837.

During the trips upon the Thames, a happy accident occurred,
which first suggested the advantage of reducing the length of the
screw. The propeller having struck upon some obstacle in the
water, about one-half of the length of the screw was broken off,
and it was found that; the vessel immediately shot ahead and
attained a much greater speed than before. In consequence of
this discovery, a new screw of a single turn was fitted to her,
after which she was found to work much better.

Having satisfied himself as to the eligibility of the propeller
in smooth water, Mr. Smith then resolved to take his little
vessel to the open sea, and breast the winds and the waves.
Accordingly, one Saturday in the month of September 1837, he
proceeded in his miniature boat, down the river, from Blackwall
to Gravesend. There he took a pilot on board, and went on to
Ramsgate. He passed through the Downs, and reached Dover in
safety. A trial of the vessel's performance was made there in
the presence of Mr. Wright, the banker, and Mr. Peake, the civil
engineer. From Dover the vessel went on to Folkestone and Hythe,
encountering severe weather. Nevertheless, the boat behaved
admirably, and attained a speed of over seven miles an hour.

Though the weather had become stormy and boisterous, the little
vessel nevertheless set out on her return voyage to London.
Crowds of people assembled to witness her departure, and many
nautical men watched her progress with solicitude as she steamed
through the waves under the steep cliffs of the South Foreland.
The courage of the undertaking, and the unexpected good
performance of the little vessel, rendered her an object of great
interest and excitement as she "screwed" her way along the coast.

The tiny vessel reached her destination in safety. Surely the
difficulty of a testing trial, although with a model screw, had
at length been overcome. But no! The paddle still possessed the
ascendency; and a thousand interests--invested capital, use and
wont, and conservative instincts--all stood in the way.

Some years before--indeed, about the time that Smith took out his
patent--Captain Ericsson, the Swede, invented a screw propeller.
Smith took out his patent in May, 1836; and Ericsson in the
following July. Ericsson was a born inventor. While a boy in
Sweden, he made saw mills and pumping engines, with tools
invented by himself. He learnt to draw, and his mechanical
career began. When only twelve years old, he was appointed a
cadet in the Swedish corps of mechanical engineers, and in the
following year he was put in charge of a section of the Gotha
Ship Canal, then under construction. Arrived at manhood,
Ericsson went over to England, the great centre of mechanical
industry. He was then twenty-three years old. He entered into
partnership with John Braithwaite, and with him constructed the
Novelty, which took part in the locomotive competition at
Rainhill on the 6th October, 1829. The prize was awarded to
Stephenson's Rocket on the 14th; but it was acknowledged by The
Times of the day that the Novelty was Stephenson's sharpest
competitor.

Ericsson had a wonderfully inventive brain, a determined purpose,
and a great capacity for work. When a want was felt, he was
immediately ready with an invention. The records of the Patent
Office show his incessant activity. He invented pumping engines,
steam engines, fire engines, and caloric engines. His first
patent for a "reciprocating propeller" was taken out in October
1834. To exhibit its action, he had a small boat constructed of
only about two feet long. It was propelled by means of a screw;
and was shown at work in a circular bath in London. It performed
its voyage round the basin at the rate of about three miles an
hour. His patent for a "spiral propeller," was taken out in July
1836. This was the invention, to exhibit which he had a vessel
constructed, of about 40 feet long, with two propellers, each of
5 feet 3 inches diameter.

This boat, the Francis B. Ogden, proved extremely successful.
She moved at a speed of about ten miles an hour. She was able to
tow vessels of 140 tons burthen at the rate of seven miles an
hour. Perceiving the peculiar and admirable fitness of the
screw-propeller for ships of war, Ericsson invited the Lords of
the Admiralty to take an excursion in tow of his experimental
boat. "My Lords" consented; and the Admiralty barge contained on
this occasion, Sir Charles Adam, senior Lord, Sir William
Symonds, surveyor, Sir Edward Parry, of Polar fame, Captain
Beaufort, hydrographer, and other men of celebrity. This
distinguished company embarked at Somerset House, and the little
steamer, with her precious charge, proceeded down the river to
Limehouse at the rate of about ten miles an hour. After visiting
the steam-engine manufactory of Messrs. Seawood, where their
Lordships' favourite apparatus, the Morgan paddle-wheel, was in
course of construction, they re-embarked, and returned in safety
to Somerset House.

The experiment was perfectly successful, and yet the result was
disappointment. A few days later, a letter from Captain Beaufort
informed Mr. Ericsson that their Lordships had certainly been
"very much disappointed with the result of the experiment."  The
reason for the disappointment was altogether inexplicable to the
inventor. It afterwards appeared, however, that Sir William
Symonds, then Surveyor to the Navy, had expressed the opinion
that "even if the propeller had the power of propelling a vessel,
it would be found altogether useless in practice, because the
power being applied at the stern, it would be absolutely
impossible to make the vessel steer!"  It will be remembered that
Francis Pettit Smith's screw vessel went to sea in the course of
the same year; and not only faced the waves, but was made to
steer in a perfectly successful manner.

Although the Lords of the Admiralty would not further encourage
the screw propeller of Ericsson, an officer of the United States
Navy, Capt. R. F. Stockton, was so satisfied of its success, that
after making a single trip in the experimental steamboat from
London Bridge to Greenwich, he ordered the inventor to build for
him forthwith two iron boats for the United States, with steam
machinery and a propeller on the same plan. One of these
vessels--the Robert F. Stockton--seventy feet in length, was
constructed by Laird and Co., of Birkenhead, in 1838, and left
England for America in April 1839. Capt. Stockton so fully
persuaded Ericsson of his probable success in America, that the
inventor at once abandoned his professional engagements in
England, and set out for the United States. It is unnecessary to
mention the further important works of this great engineer.

We may, however, briefly mention that in 1844, Ericsson
constructed for the United States Government the Princeton screw
steamer--though he was never paid for his time, labour, and
expenditure.[6]  Undeterred by their ingratitude, Ericsson
nevertheless constructed for the same government, when in the
throes of civil war, the famous Monitor, the iron-clad cupola
vessel, and was similarly rewarded! He afterwards invented the
torpedo ship--the Destroyer--the use of which has fortunately not
yet been required in sea warfare. Ericsson still
lives--constantly planning and scheming--in his house in Beach
Street, New York. He is now over eighty years old having been
born in 1803. He is strong and healthy. How has he preserved
his vigorous constitution? The editor of Scribner gives the
answer: "The hall windows of his house are open, winter and
summer, and none but open grate-fires are allowed. Insomnia
never troubles him, for he falls asleep as soon as his head
touches the pillow. His appetite and digestion are always good,
and he has not lost a meal in ten years. What an example to the
men who imagine it is hard work that is killing them in this
career of unremitting industry!"

To return to "Screw" Smith, after the successful trial of his
little vessel at sea in the autumn of 1837. He had many
difficulties yet to contend with. There was, first, the
difficulty of a new invention, and the fact that the paddle-boat
had established itself in public estimation. The engineering and
shipbuilding world were dead against him. They regarded the
project of propelling a vessel by means of a screw as visionary
and preposterous. There was also the official unwillingness to
undertake anything novel, untried, and contrary to routine.
There was the usual shaking of the head and the shrugging of the
shoulders, as if the inventor were either a mere dreamer or a
projector eager to lay his hands upon the public purse. The
surveyor of the navy was opposed to the plan, because of the
impossibility of making a vessel steer which was impelled from
the stern. "Screw" Smith bided his time; he continued undaunted,
and was determined to succeed. He laboured steadily onward,
maintaining his own faith unshaken, and upholding the faith of
the gentlemen who had become associated with him in the
prosecution of the invention.

At the beginning of 1838 the Lords of the Admiralty requested Mr.
Smith to allow his vessel to be tried under their inspection.
Two trials were accordingly made, and they gave so much
satisfaction that the adoption of the propeller for naval
purposes was considered as a not improbable contingency. Before
deciding finally upon its adoption, the Lords of the Admiralty
were anxious to see an experiment made with a vessel of not less
than 200 tons. Mr. Smith had not the means of accomplishing this
by himself, but with the improved prospects of the invention,
capitalists now came to his aid. One of the most effective and
energetic of these was Mr. Henry Currie, banker; and, with the
assistance of others, the "Ship Propeller Company" was formed,
and proceeded to erect the test ship proposed by the Admiralty.

The result was the Archimedes, a wooden vessel of 237 tons
burthen. She was designed by Mr. Pasco, laid down by Mr.
Wimshurst in the spring of 1838, was launched on the 18th of
October following, and made her first trip in May 1839. She was
fitted with a screw of one turn placed in the dead wood, and
propelled by a pair of engines of 80-horse power. The vessel was
built under the persuasion that her performance would be
considered satisfactory if a speed was attained of four or five
knots an hour, where as her actual speed was nine and a half
knots. The Lords of the Admiralty were invited to inspect the
ship. At the second trial Sir Edward Parry, Sir William Symonds,
Captain Basil Hall, and other distinguished persons were present.

The results were again satisfactory. The success of the
Archimedes astonished the engineering world. Even the Surveyor
of the Royal Navy found that the vessel could steer! The Lords
of the Admiralty could no longer shut their eyes. But the
invention could not at once be adopted. It must be tested by the
best judges. The vessel was sent to Dover to be tried with the
best packets between Dover and Calais. Mr. Lloyd, the chief
engineer of the Navy, conducted the investigation, and reported
most favourably as to the manner of her performance. Yet several
years elapsed before the screw was introduced into the service.

In 1840 the Archimedes was placed at the disposal of Captain
Chappell, of the Royal Navy, who, accompanied by Mr. Smith,
visited every principal port in Great Britain. She was thus seen
by shipowners, marine engineers, and shipbuilders in every part
of the kingdom. They regarded her with wonder and admiration;
yet the new mode of navigation was not speedily adopted. The
paddle-wheel still held its own. The sentiment, if not the plant
and capital, of the engineering world, were against the
introduction of the screw. After the vessel had returned from
her circumnavigation of Great Britain, she was sent to Oporto,
and performed the voyage in sixty-eight and a half hours, then
held to be the quickest voyage on record. She was then sent to
the Texel at the request of the Dutch Government. She went
through the North Holland Canal, visited Amsterdam, Antwerp, and
other ports; and everywhere left the impression that the screw
was an efficient and reliable power in the propulsion of vessels
at sea.

Shipbuilders, however, continued to "fight shy" of the screw.
The late Isambard Kingdon Brunel is entitled to the credit of
having first directed the attention of shipbuilders to this
important invention. He was himself a man of original views,
free from bias, and always ready to strike out a fresh path in
engineering works. He was building a large new iron steamer at
Bristol, the Great Britain, for passenger traffic between England
and America. He had intended to construct her as a paddle
steamer; but hearing of the success of the Archimedes, he
inspected the vessel, and was so satisfied with the performance
of the screw that he recommended his directors to adopt this
method for propelling the Great Britain. His advice was adopted,
and the vessel was altered so as to adapt her for the reception
of the screw. The vessel was found perfectly successful, and on
her first voyage to London she attained the speed of ten knots an
hour, though the wind and balance of tides were against her. A
few other merchant ships were built and fitted with the screw;
the Princess Royal at Newcastle in 1840, the Margaret and Senator
at Hull, and the Great Northern at Londonderry, in 1841.

The Lords of the Admiralty made slow progress in adapting the
screw for the Royal Navy. Sir William Symonds, the surveyor and
principal designer of Her Majesty's ships, was opposed to all new
projects. He hated steam power, and was utterly opposed to iron
ships. He speaks of them in his journal as "monstrous."[7]  So
long as he remained in office everything was done in a
perfunctory way. A small vessel named the Bee was built at
Chatham in 1841, and fitted with both paddles and the screw for
the purposes of experiment. In the same year the Rattier, the
first screw vessel built for the navy, was laid down at
Sheerness. Although of only 888 tons burthen, she was not
launched until the spring of 1843. She was then fitted with the
same kind of screw as the Archimedes,that is, a double-headed
screw of half a convolution. Experiments went on for about three
years, so as to determine the best proportions of the screw, and
the proportions then ascertained have since been the principal
guides of engineering practice.

The Rattler was at length tried in a water tournament with the
paddle-steamer Alecto, and signally defeated her. Francis Pettit
Smith, like Gulliver, may be said to have dragged the whole
British fleet after him. Were the paddle our only means of
propulsion, our whole naval force would be reduced to a nullity.
Hostile gunners would wing a paddle-steamer as effectuaily as a
sportsman wings a bird, and all the plating in the world would
render such a ship a mere helpless log on the water.

The Admiralty could no longer defer the use of this important
invention. Like all good things, it made its way slowly and by
degrees. The royal naval authorities, who in 1833 backed the
side paddles, have since adopted the screw in most of the
ships-of-war. In all long sea-going voyages, also, the screw is
now the favourite mode of propulsion. Screw ships of prodigious
size are now built and launched in all the ship-building ports of
Britain, and are sent out to navigate in every part of the world.

The introduction of iron as the material for shipbuilding has
immensely advanced the interests of steam navigation, as it
enables the builders to construct vessels of great size with the
finest lines, so as to attain the highest rates of speed.

One might have supposed that Francis Pettit Smith would derive
some substantial benefit from his invention, or at least that the
Ship Propeller Company would distribute large dividends among
their proprietors. Nothing of the kind. Smith spent his money,
his labour, and his ingenuity in conferring a great public
benefit without receiving any adequate reward; and the company,
instead of distributing dividends, lost about 50,000L. in
introducing this great invention; after which, in 1856, the
patent-right expired. Three hundred and twenty-seven ships and
vessels of all classes in the Royal Navy had then been fitted
with the screw propeller, and a much larger number in the
merchant service; but since that time the number of screw
propellers constructed is to be counted by thousands.

In his comparatively impoverished condition it was found
necessary to do something for the inventor. The Civil Engineers,
with Robert Stephenson, M.P., in the chair, entertained him at a
dinner and presented him with a handsome salver and claret jug.
And that he might have something to put upon his salver and into
his claret jug, a number of his friends and admirers subscribed
over 2000L. as a testimonial. The Government appointed him
Curator of the Patent Museum at South Kensington; the Queen
granted him a pension on the Civil List for 200L. a year; he was
raised to the honour of knighthood in l87l, and three years later
he died.

Francis Pettit Smith was not a great inventor. He had, like many
others, invented a screw propeller. But, while those others had
given up the idea of prosecuting it to its completion, Smith
stuck to his invention with determined tenacity, and never let it
go until he had secured for it a complete triumph. As Mr.
Stephenson observed at the engineer's meeting: "Mr. Smith had
worked from a platform which might have been raised by others, as
Watt had done, and as other great men had done; but he had made a
stride in advance which was almost tantamount to a new invention.

It was impossible to overrate the advantages which this and other
countries had derived from his untiring and devoted patience in
prosecuting the invention to a successful issue."  Baron Charles
Dupin compared the farmer Smith with the barber Arkwright: "He
had the same perseverance and the same indomitable courage.
These two moral qualities enabled him to triumph over every
obstacle."  This was the merit of "Screw" Smith--that he was
determined to realize what his predecessors had dreamt of
achieving; and he eventually accomplished his great purpose.

Footnotes for Chapter II.

[1] In the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects
for 1860, it was pointed out that the general dimensions and form
of bottom of this ship were very similar to the most famous
line-of-battle ships built down to the end of last century, some
of which were then in existence.

[2] According to the calculation of Mr. Chatfield, of Her
Majesty's dockyard at Plymouth, in a paper read before the
British Association in 1841 on shipbuilding.

[3] The phrase "wooden walls" is derived from the Greek. When
the city of Athens was once in danger of being attacked and
destroyed, the oracle of Delphi was consulted. The inhabitants
were told that there was no safety for them but in their "wooden
walls,"--that is their shipping. As they had then a powerful
fleet, the oracle gave them rational advice, which had the effect
of saving the Athenian people.

[4] An account of these is given by Bennet Woodcraft in his
Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation, London,
1848.

[5] See Industrial Biography, pp. 183-197,

[6] The story is told in Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine,
for April 1879. Ericsson's modest bill was only $15,000 for two
years' labour. He was put off from year to year, and at length
the Government refused to pay the amount. "The American
Government," says the editor of Scribner, "will not appropriate
the money to pay it, and that is all. It is said to be the
nature of republics to be ungrateful; but must they also be
dishonest?"

[7] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William
Symonds, Kt., p. 332.

CHAPTER III.[1]

JOHN HARRISON: INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER.

No man knows who invented the mariner's compass, or who first
hollowed out a canoe from a log. The power to observe accurately
the sun, moon, and planets, so as to fix a vessel's actual
position when far out of sight of land, enabling long voyages to
be safely made; the marvellous improvements in ship-building,
which shortened passages by sailing vessels, and vastly reduced
freights even before steam gave an independent force to the
carrier--each and all were done by small advances, which together
contributed to the general movement of mankind.... Each owes all
to the others. The forgotten inventors live for ever in the
usefulness of the work they have done and the progress they have
striven for."--H. M. Hyndman.

One of the most extraordinary things connected with Applied
Science is the method by which the Navigator is enabled to find
the exact spot of sea on which his ship rides. There may be
nothing but water and sky within his view; he may be in the midst
of the ocean, or gradually nearing the land; the curvature of the
globe baffles the search of his telescope; but if he have a
correct chronometer, and can make an astronomical observation, he
may readily ascertain his longitude, and know his approximate
position--how far he is from home, as well as from his intended
destination. He is even enabled, at some special place, to send
down his grappling-irons into the sea, and pick up an electrical
cable for examination and repair.

This is the result of a knowledge of Practical Astronomy. "Place
an astronomer," says Mr. Newcomb, "on board a ship; blindfold
him; carry him by any route to any ocean on the globe, whether
under the tropics or in one of the frigid zones; land him on the
wildest rock that can be found; remove his bandage, and give him
a chronometer regulated to Greenwich or Washington time, a
transit instrument with the proper appliances, and the necessary
books and tables, and in a single clear night he can tell his
position within a hundred yards by observations of the stars.
This, from a utilitarian point of view, is one of the most
important operations of Practical Astronomy."[2]

The Marine Chronometer was the outcome of the crying want of the
sixteenth century for an instrument that should assist the
navigator to find his longitude on the pathless ocean. Spain was
then the principal naval power; she was the most potent monarchy
in Europe, and held half America under her sway. Philip III.
offered 100,000 crowns for any discovery by means of which the
longitude might be determined by a better method than by the log,
which was found very defective. Holland next became a great
naval power, and followed the example of Spain in offering 30,000
florins for a similar discovery. But though some efforts were
made, nothing practical was done, principally through the
defective state of astronomical instruments. England succeeded
Spain and Holland as a naval power; and when Charles II.
established the Greenwich Observatory, it was made a special
point that Flamsteed, the Astronomer-Royal, should direct his
best energies to the perfecting of a method for finding the
longitude by astronomical observations. But though Flamsteed,
together with Halley and Newton, made some progress, they were
prevented from obtaining ultimate success by the want of
efficient chronometers and the defective nature of astronomical
instruments.

Nothing was done until the reign of Queen Anne, when a petition
was presented to the Legislature on the 25th of May, 1714, by
"several captains of Her Majesty's ships, merchants in London,
and commanders of merchantmen, in behalf of themselves, and of
all others concerned in the navigation of Great Britain," setting
forth the importance of the accurate discovery of the longitude,
and the inconvenience and danger to which ships were subjected
from the want of some suitable method of discovering it. The
petition was referred to a committee, which took evidence on the
subject. It appears that Sir Isaac Newton, with his
extraordinary sagacity, hit the mark in his report. "One is," he
said, "by a watch to keep time exactly; but, by reason of the
motion of a ship, and the variation of heat and cold, wet and
dry, and the difference of gravity in different latitudes, such a
watch hath not yet been made."

An Act was however passed in the Session of 1714, offering a very
large public reward to inventors: 10,000L. to any one who should
discover a method of determining the longitude to one degree of a
great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. if it determined
the same to two-thirds of that distance, or 40 geographical
miles; and 20,000L. if it determined the same to one-half of the
same distance, or 30 geographical miles. Commissioners were
appointed by the same Act, who were instructed that "one moiety
or half part of such reward shall be due and paid when the said
commissioners, or the major part of them, do agree that any such
method extends to the security of ships within 80 geographical
miles of the shore, which are places of the greatest danger; and
the other moiety or half part when a ship, by the appointment of
the said commissioners, or the major part of them, shall actually
sail over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such port in the
West Indies as those commissioners, or the major part of them,
shall choose or nominate for the experiment, without losing the
longitude beyond the limits before mentioned."

The terms of this offer indicate how great must have been the
risk and inconvenience which it was desired to remedy. Indeed,
it is almost inconceivable that a reward so great could be held
out for a method which would merely afford security within eighty
geographical miles!

This splendid reward for a method of discovering the longitude
was offered to the world--to inventors and scientific men of all
countries --without restriction of race, or nation, or language.
As might naturally be expected, the prospect of obtaining it
stimulated many ingenious men to make suggestions and contrive
experiments; but for many years the successful construction of a
marine time-keeper seemed almost hopeless. At length, to the
surprise of every one, the prize was won by a village
carpenter--a person of no school, or university, or college
whatever.

Even so distinguished an artist and philosopher as Sir
Christopher Wren was engaged, as late in his life as the year
1720, in attempting to solve this important problem. As has been
observed, in the memoir of him contained in the 'Biographia
Britannica,'[3] "This noble invention, like some others of the
most useful ones to human life, seems to be reserved for the
peculiar glory of an ordinary mechanic, who, by indefatigable
industry, under the guidance of no ordinary sagacity, hath
seemingly at last surmounted all difficulties, and brought it to
a most unexpected degree of perfection."  Where learning and
science failed, natural genius seems to have triumphed.

The truth is, that the great mechanic, like the great poet, is
born, not made; and John Harrison, the winner of the famous
prize, was a born mechanic. He did not, however, accomplish his
object without the exercise of the greatest skill, patience, and
perseverance. His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes
apparently hopeless. Indeed, his life, so far as we can
ascertain the facts, affords one of the finest examples of
difficulties encountered and triumphantly overcome, and of
undaunted perseverance eventually crowned by success, which is to
be found in the whole range of biography.

No complete narrative of Harrison's career was ever written.
Only a short notice of him appears in the 'Biographia
Britannica,' published in 1766, during his lifetime'--the facts
of which were obtained from himself. A few notices of him appear
in the 'Annual Register,' also published during his lifetime.
The final notice appeared in the volume published in 1777, the
year after his death. No Life of him has since appeared. Had he
been a destructive hero, and fought battles by land or sea, we
should have had biographies of him without end. But he pursued a
more peaceful and industrious course. His discovery conferred an
incalculable advantage on navigation, and enabled innumerable
lives to be saved at sea; it also added to the domains of science
by its more exact measurement of time. But his memory has been
suffered to pass silently away, without any record being left for
the benefit and advantage of those who have succeeded him. The
following memoir includes nearly all that is known of the life
and labours of John Harrison.

He was born at Foulby, in the parish of Wragby, near Pontefract,
Yorkshire, in March, 1693. His father, Henry Harrison, was
carpenter and joiner to Sir Rowland Winn, owner of the Nostell
Priory estate. The present house was built by the baronet on the
site of the ancient priory. Henry Harrison was a sort of
retainer of the family, and long continued in their Service.

Little is known of the boy's education. It was certainly of a
very inferior description. Like George Stephenson, Harrison
always had a great difficulty in making himself understood,
either by speech or writing. Indeed, every board-school boy now
receives a better education than John Harrison did a hundred and
eighty years ago. But education does not altogether come by
reading and writing. The boy was possessed of vigorous natural
abilities. He was especially attracted by every machine that
moved upon wheels. The boy was 'father to the man.' When six
years old, and lying sick of small-pox, a going watch was placed
upon his pillow, which afforded him infinite delight.

When seven years old he was taken by his father to Barrow, near
Barton-on-Humber, where Sir Rowland Winn had another residence
and estate. Henry Harrison was still acting as the baronet's
carpenter and joiner. In course of time young Harrison joined
his father in the workshop, and proved of great use to him. His
opportunities for acquiring knowledge were still very few, but he
applied his powers of observation and his workmanship upon the
things which were nearest him. He worked in wood, and to wood he
first turned his attention.

He was still fond of machines going upon wheels. He had enjoyed
the sight of the big watch going upon brass wheels when he was a
boy; but, now that he was a workman in wood, he proposed to make
an eight-day clock, with wheels of this material. He made the
clock in 1713, when he was twenty years old,[4] so that he must
have made diligent use of his opportunities. He had of course
difficulties to encounter, and nothing can be accomplished
without them; for it is difficulties that train the habits of
application and perseverance. But he succeeded in making an
effective clock, which counted the time with regularity. This
clock is still in existence. It is to be seen at the Museum of
Patents, South Kensington; and when we visited it a few months
ago it was going, and still marking the moments as they passed.
It is contained in a case about six feet high, with a glass
front, showing a pendulum and two weights. Over the clock is the
following inscription:

"This clock was made at Barrow, Lincolnshire, in the year 1715,
by John Harrison, celebrated as the inventor of a nautical
timepiece,  or chronometer, which gained the reward of 20,000L.,
offered by the Board of Longitude, A.D. 1767.

"This clock strikes the hour, indicates the day of the month, and
with one exception (the escapement) the wheels are entirely made
of wood."

This, however, was only a beginning. Harrison proceeded to make
better clocks; and then he found it necessary to introduce metal,
which was more lasting. He made pivots of brass, which moved
more conveniently in sockets of wood with the use of oil. He
also caused the teeth of his wheels to run against cylindrical
rollers of wood, fixed by brass pins, at a proper distance from
the axis of the pinions; and thus to a considerable extent
removed the inconveniences of friction.

In the meantime Harrison eagerly improved every incident from
which he might derive further information. There was a clergyman
who came every Sunday to the village to officiate in the
neighbourhood; and having heard of the sedulous application of
the young carpenter, he lent him a manuscript copy of Professor
Saunderson's discourses. That blind professor had prepared
several lectures on natural philosophy for the use of his
students, though they were not intended for publication. Young
Harrison now proceeded to copy them out, together with the
diagrams. Sometimes, indeed, he spent the greater part of the
night in writing or drawing.

As part of his business, he undertook to survey land, and to
repair clocks and watches, besides carrying on his trade of a
carpenter. He soon obtained a considerable knowledge of what had
been done in clocks and watches, and was able to do not only what
the best professional workers had done, but to strike out
entirely new lights in the clock and watch-making business. He
found out a method of diminishing friction by adding a joint to
the pallets of the pendulum, whereby they were made to work in
the nature of rollers of a large radius, without any sliding, as
usual, upon the teeth of the wheel. He constructed a clock on
the recoiling principle, which went perfectly, and never lost a
minute within fourteen years. Sir Edmund Denison Beckett says
that he invented this method in order to save himself the trouble
of going so frequently to oil the escapement of a turret clock,
of which he had charge; though there were other influences at
work besides this.

But his most important invention, at this early period of his
life, was his compensation pendulum. Every one knows that metals
expand with heat and contract by cold. The pendulum of the clock
therefore expanded in summer and contracted in winter, thereby
interfering with the regular going of the clock. Huygens had by
his cylindrical checks removed the great irregularity arising
from the unequal lengths of the oscillations; but the pendulum
was affected by the tossing of a ship at sea, and was also
subject to a variation in weight, depending on the parallel of
latitude. Graham, the well-known clock-maker, invented the
mercurial compensation pendulum, consisting of a glass or iron
jar filled with quicksilver and fixed to the end of the pendulum
rod. When the rod was lengthened by heat, the quicksilver and
the jar which contained it were simultaneously expanded and
elevated, and the centre of oscillation was thus continued at the
same distance from the point of suspension.

But the difficulty, to a certain extent, remained unconquered
until Harrison took the matter in hand. He observed that all
rods of metal do not alter their lengths equally by heat, or, on
the contrary, become shorter by cold, but some more sensibly than
others. After innumerable experiments Harrison at length
composed a frame somewhat resembling a gridiron, in which the
alternate bars were of steel and of brass, and so arranged that
those which expanded the most were counteracted by those which
expanded the least. By this means the pendulum contained the
power of equalising its own action, and the centre of oscillation
continued at the same absolute distance from the point of
suspension through all the variations of heat and cold during the
year.[5]

Thus by the year 1726, when he was only thirty-three years old,
Harrison had furnished himself with two compensation clocks, in
which all the irregularities to which these machines were
subject, were either removed or so happily balanced, one metal
against the other, that the two clocks kept time together in
different parts of his house, without the variation of more than
a single second in the month. One of them, indeed, which he kept
by him for his own use, and constantly compared with a fixed
star, did not vary so much as one whole minute during the ten
years that he continued in the country after finishing the
machine.[6]

Living, as he did, not far from the sea, Harrison next
endeavoured to arrange his timekeeper for purposes of navigation.

He tried his clock in a vessel belonging to Barton-on-Humber; but
his compensating pendulum could there be of comparatively little
use; for it was liable to be tossed hither or thither by the
sudden motions of the ship. He found it necessary, therefore, to
mount a chronometer, or portable timekeeper, which might be taken
from place to place, and subjected to the violent and irregular
motion of a ship at sea, without affecting its rate of going. It
was evident to him that the first mover must be changed from a
weight and pendulum to a spring wound up and a compensating
balance.

He now applied his genius in this direction. After pondering
over the subject, he proceeded to London in 1728, and exhibited
his drawings to Dr. Halley, then Astronomer-Royal. The Doctor
referred him to Mr. George Graham, the distinguished horologer,
inventor of the dead-beat escapement and the mercurial pendulum.
After examining the drawings and holding some converse with
Harrison, Graham perceived him to be a man of uncommon merit, and
gave him every encouragement. He recommended him, however, to
make his machine before again applying to the Board of Longitude.

Harrison returned home to Barrow to complete his task, and many
years elapsed before he again appeared in London to present his
first chronometer.

The remarkable success which Harrison had achieved in his
compensating pendulum could not but urge him on to further
experiments. He was no doubt to a certain extent influenced by
the reward of 20,000L. which the English Government had offered
for an instrument that should enable the longitude to be more
accurately determined by navigators at sea than was then
possible; and it was with the object of obtaining pecuniary
assistance to assist him in completing his chronometer that
Harrison had, in 1728, made his first visit to London to exhibit
his drawings.

The Act of Parliament offering this superb reward was passed in
1714, fourteen years before, but no attempt had been made to
claim it. It was right that England, then rapidly advancing to
the first position as a commercial nation, should make every
effort to render navigation less hazardous. Before correct
chronometers were invented, or good lunar tables were
prepared,[7] the ship, when fairly at sea, out of sight of land,
and battling with the winds and tides, was in a measure lost. No
method existed for accurately ascertaining the longitude. The
ship might be out of its course for one or two hundred miles, for
anything that the navigator knew; and only the wreck of his ship
on some unknown coast told of the mistake that he had made in his
reckoning.

It may here be mentioned that it was comparatively easy to
determine the latitude of a ship at sea every day when the sun
was visible. The latitude--that is, the distance of any spot
from the equator and the pole--might be found by a simple
observation with the sextant. The altitude of the sun at noon is
found, and by a short calculation the position of the ship can be
ascertained.

The sextant, which is the instrument universally used at sea, was
gradually evolved from similar instruments used from the earliest
times. The object of this instrument has always been to find the
angular distance between two bodies--that is to say, the angle
contained by two straight lines, drawn from those bodies to meet
in the observer's eye. The simplest instrument of this kind may
be well represented by a pair of compasses. If the hinge is held
to the eye, one leg pointed to the distant horizon, and the other
leg pointed to the sun, the position of the two legs will show
the angular distance of the sun from the horizon at the moment of
observation.

Until the end of the seventeenth century, the instrument used was
of this simple kind. It was generally a large quadrant, with one
or two bars moving on a hinge,--to all intents and purposes a
huge pair of compasses. The direction of the sight was fixed by
the use of a slit and a pointer, much as in the ordinary rifle.
This instrument was vastly improved by the use of a telescope,
which not only allowed fainter objects to be seen, but especially
enabled the sight to be accurately directed to the object
observed.

The instruments of the pre-telescopic age reached their glory in
the hands of Tycho Brahe. He used magnificent instruments of the
simple "pair of compasses" kind--circles, quadrants, and
sextants. These were for the most part ponderous fixed
instruments of little or no use for the purposes of navigation.
But Tycho Brahe's sextant proved the forerunner of the modern
instrument. The general structure is the same; but the vast
improvement of the modern sextant is due, firstly, to the use of
the reflecting mirror, and, secondly, to the use of the telescope
for accurate sighting. These improvements were due to many
scientific men--to William Gascoigne, who first used the
telescope, about 1640; to Robert Hooke, who, in 1660, proposed to
apply it to the quadrant; to Sir Isaac Newton, who designed a
reflecting quadrant;[8] and to John Hadley, who introduced it.
The modern sextant is merely a modification of Newton's or
Badley's quadrant, and its present construction seems to be
perfect.

It therefore became possible accurately to determine the position
of a ship at sea as regarded its latitude. But it was quite
different as regarded the longitude that is, the distance of any
place from a given meridian, eastward or westward. In the case
of longitude there is no fixed spot to which reference can be
made. The rotation of the earth makes the existence of such a
spot impossible. The question of longitude is purely a question
of TIME. The circuit of the globe, east and west, is simply
represented by twenty-four hours. Each place has its own time.
It is very easy to determine the local time at any spot by
observations made at that spot. But, as time is always changing,
the knowledge of the local time gives no idea of the actual
position; and still less of a moving object--say, of a ship at
sea. But if, in any locality, we know the local time, and also
the local time of some other locality at that moment--say, of the
Observatory at Greenwich we can, by comparing the two local
times, determine the difference of local times, or, what is the
same thing, the difference of longitude between the two places.
It was necessary therefore for the navigator to be in possession
of a first-rate watch or chronometer, to enable him to determine
accurately the position of his ship at sea, as respected the
longitude.

Before the middle of the eighteenth century good watches were
comparatively unknown. The navigator mainly relied, for his
approximate longitude, upon his Dead Reckoning, without any
observation of the heavenly bodies. He depended upon the
accuracy of the course which he had steered by the compass, and
the mensuration of the ship's velocity by an instrument called
the Log, as well as by combining and rectifying all the
allowances for drift, lee-way, and so on, according to the trim
of the ship; but all of these were liable to much uncertainty,
especially when the sea was in a boisterous condition. There was
another and independent course which might have been
adopted--that is, by observation of the moon, which is constantly
moving amongst the stars from west to east. But until the middle
of the eighteenth century good lunar tables were as much unknown
as good watches.

Hence a method of ascertaining the longitude, with the same
degree of accuracy which is attainable in respect of latitude,
had for ages been the grand desideratum for men "who go down to
the sea in ships."  Mr. Macpherson, in his important work
entitled 'The Annals of Commerce,' observes, "Since the year
1714, when Parliament offered a reward of 20,000L. for the best
method of ascertaining the longitude at sea, many schemes have
been devised, but all to little or no purpose, as going generally
upon wrong principles, till that heaven-taught artist Mr. John
Harrison arose;" and by him, as Mr. Macpherson goes on to say,
the difficulty was conquered, having devoted to it "the assiduous
studies of a long life."

The preamble of the Act of Parliament in question runs as
follows: "Whereas it is well known by all that are acquainted
with the art of navigation that nothing is so much wanted and
desired at sea as the discovery of the longitude, for the safety
and quickness of voyages, the preservation of ships and the lives
of men," and so on. The Act proceeds to constitute certain
persons commissioners for the discovery of the longitude, with
power to receive and experiment upon proposals for that purpose,
and to grant sums of money not exceeding 2000L. to aid in such
experiments. It will be remembered from what has been above
stated, that a reward of 10,000L. was to be given to the person
who should contrive a method of determining the longitude within
one degree of a great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L.
within 40 geographical miles; and 20,000L. within 30 geographical
miles.

It will, in these days, be scarcely believed that little more
than a hundred and fifty years ago a prize of not less than ten
thousand pounds should have been offered for a method of
determining the longitude within sixty miles, and that double the
amount should have been offered for a method of determining it
within thirty miles! The amount of these rewards is sufficient
proof of the fearful necessity for improvement which then existed
in the methods of navigation. And yet, from the date of the
passing of the Act in 1714 until the year 1736, when Harrison
finished his first timepiece, nothing had been done towards
ascertaining the longitude more accurately, even within the wide
limits specified by the Act of Parliament. Although several
schemes had been projected, none of them had proved successful,
and the offered rewards therefore still remained unclaimed.

To return to Harrison. After reaching his home at Barrow, after
his visit to London in 1728, he began his experiments for the
construction of a marine chronometer. The task was one of no
small difficulty. It was necessary to provide against
irregularities arising from the motion of a ship at sea, and to
obviate the effect of alternations of temperature in the machine
itself, as well as the oil with which it was lubricated. A
thousand obstacles presented themselves, but they were not enough
to deter Harrison from grappling with the work he had set himself
to perform.

Every one knows the beautiful machinery of a timepiece, and the
perfect tools required to produce such a machine. Some of these
tools Harrison procured in London, but the greater number he
provided for himself; and many entirely new adaptations were
required for his chronometer. As wood could no longer be
exclusively employed, as in his first clock, he had to teach
himself to work accurately and minutely in brass and other
metals. Having been unable to obtain any assistance from the
Board of Longitude, he was under the necessity, while carrying
forward his experiments, of maintaining himself by still working
at his trade of a carpenter and joiner. This will account for
the very long period that elapsed before he could bring his
chronometer to such a state as that it might be tried with any
approach to certainty in its operations.

Harrison, besides his intentness and earnestness, was a cheerful
and hopeful man. He had a fine taste for music, and organised
and led the choir of the village church, which attained a high
degree of perfection. He invented a curious monochord, which was
not less accurate than his clocks in the mensuration of time.
His ear was distressed by the ringing of bells out of tune, and
he set himself to remedy them. At the parish church of Hull, for
instance, the bells were harsh and disagreeable, and by the
authority of the vicar and churchwardens he was allowed to put
them into a state of exact tune, so that they proved entirely
melodious.

But the great work of his life was his marine chronometer. He
found it necessary, in the first place, to alter the first mover
of his clock to a spring wound up, so that the regularity of the
motion might be derived from the vibrations of balances, instead
of those of a pendulum as in a standing clock. Mr. Folkes,
President of the Royal Society, when presenting the gold medal to
Harrison in 1749, thus describes the arrangement of his new
machine. The details were obtained from Harrison himself, who
was present. He had made use of two balances situated in the
same plane, but vibrating in contrary directions, so that the one
of these being either way assisted by the tossing of the ship,
the other might constantly be just so much impeded by it at the
same time. As the equality of the times of the vibrations of the
balance of a pocket-watch is in a great measure owing to the
spiral spring that lies under it, so the same was here performed
by the like elasticity of four cylindrical springs or worms,
applied near the upper and lower extremities of the two balances
above described.

Then came in the question of compensation. Harrison's experience
with the compensation pendulum of his clock now proved of service
to him. He had proceeded to introduce a similar expedient in his
proposed chronometer. As is well known to those who are
acquainted with the nature of springs moved by balances, the
stronger those springs are, the quicker the vibrations of the
balances are performed, and vice versa; hence it follows that
those springs, when braced by cold, or when relaxed by heat, must
of necessity cause the timekeeper to go either faster or slower,
unless some method could be found to remedy the inconvenience.

The method adopted by Harrison was his compensation balance,
doubtless the backbone of his invention. His "thermometer kirb,"
he himself says, "is composed of two thin plates of brass and
steel, riveted together in several places, which, by the greater
expansion of brass than steel by heat and contraction by cold,
becomes convex on the brass side in hot weather and convex on the
steel side in cold weather; whence, one end being fixed, the
other end obtains a motion corresponding with the changes of heat
and cold, and the two pins at the end, between which the balance
spring passes, and which it alternately touches as the spring
bends and unbends itself, will shorten or lengthen the spring, as
the change of heat or cold would otherwise require to be done by
hand in the manner used for regulating a common watch."  Although
the method has since been improved upon by Leroy, Arnold, and
Earnshaw, it was the beginning of all that has since been done in
the perfection of marine chronometers. Indeed, it is amazing to
think of the number of clever, skilful, and industrious men who
have been engaged for many hundred years in the production of
that exquisite fabric--so useful to everybody, whether scientific
or otherwise, on land or sea the modern watch.

It is unnecessary here to mention in detail the particulars of
Harrison's invention. These were published by himself in his
'Principles of Mr. Harrison's Timekeeper.' It may, however, be
mentioned that he invented a method by which the chronometer
might be kept going without losing any portion of time. This was
during the process of winding up, which was done once in a day.
While the mainspring was being wound up, a secondary one
preserved the motion of the wheels and kept the machine going.

After seven years' labour, during which Harrison encountered and
overcame numerous difficulties, he at last completed his first
marine chronometer. He placed it in a sort of moveable frame,
somewhat resembling what the sailors call a 'compass jumble,' but
much more artificially and curiously made and arranged. In this
state the chronometer was tried from time to time in a large
barge on the river Humber, in rough as well as in smooth weather,
and it was found to go perfectly, without losing a moment of
time.

Such was the condition of Harrison's chronometer when he arrived
with it in London in 1735, in order to apply to the commissioners
appointed for providing a public reward for the discovery of the
longitude at sea. He first showed it to several members of the
Royal Society, who cordially approved of it. Five of the most
prominent members--Dr. Bailey, Dr. Smith, Dr. Bradley, Mr. John
Machin, and Mr. George Graham--furnished Harrison with a
certificate, stating that the principles of his machine for
measuring time promised a very great and sufficient degree of
exactness. In consequence of this certificate, the machine, at
the request of the inventor, and at the recommendation of the
Lords of the Admiralty, was placed on board a man-of-war.

Sir Charles Wager, then first Lord of the Admiralty, wrote to the
captain of the Centurion, stating that the instrument had been
approved by mathematicians as the best that had been made for
measuring time; and requesting his kind treatment of Mr.
Harrison, who was to accompany it to Lisbon. Captain Proctor
answered the First Lord from Spithead, dated May l7th, 1736,
promising his attention to Harrison's comfort, but intimating his
fear that he had attempted impossibilities. It is always so with
a new thing. The first steam-engine, the first gaslight, the
first locomotive, the first steamboat to America, the first
electric telegraph, were all impossibilities!

This first chronometer behaved very well on the outward voyage in
the Centurion. It was not affected by the roughest weather, or
by the working of the ship through the rolling waves of the Bay
of Biscay. It was brought back, with Harrison, in the Orford
man-of-war, when its great utility was proved in a remarkable
manner, although, from the voyage being nearly on a meridian, the
risk of losing the longitude was comparatively small. Yet the
following was the certificate of the captain of the ship, dated
the 24th June, 1737: "When we made the land, the said land,
according to my reckoning (and others), ought to have been the
Start; but, before we knew what land it was, John Harrison
declared to me and the rest of the ship's company that, according
to his observations with his machine, it ought to be the
Lizard--the which, indeed, it was found to be, his observation
showing the ship to be more west than my reckoning, above one
degree and twenty-six miles,"--that is, nearly ninety miles out
of its course!

Six days later--that is, on the 30th June--the Board of Longitude
met, when Harrison was present, and produced the chronometer with
which he had made the voyage to Lisbon and back. The minute
states: "Mr. John Harrison produced a new invented machine, in
the nature of clockwork, whereby he proposes to keep time at sea
with more exactness than by any other instrument or method
hitherto contrived, in order to the discovery of the longitude at
sea; and proposes to make another machine of smaller dimensions
within the space of two years, whereby he will endeavour to
correct some defects which he hath found in that already
prepared, so as to render the same more perfect; which machine,
when completed, he is desirous of having tried in one of His
Majesty's ships that shall be bound to the West Indies; but at
the same time represented that he should not be able, by reason
of his necessitous circumstances, to go on and finish his said
machine without assistance, and requested that he may be
furnished with the sum of 500L., to put him in a capacity to
perform the same, and to make a perfect experiment thereof."

The result of the meeting was that 500L. was ordered to be paid
to Harrison, one moiety as soon as convenient, and the other when
he has produced a certificate from the captain of one of His
Majesty's ships that he has put the machine on board into the
captain's possession. Mr. George Graham, who was consulted,
urged that the Commissioners should grant Harrison at least
1000L., but they only awarded him half the sum, and at first only
a moiety of the amount voted. At the recommendation of Lord
Monson, who was present, Harrison accepted the 250L. as a help
towards the heavy expenses which he had already incurred, and was
again about to incur, in perfecting the invention. He was
instructed to make his new chronometer of less dimensions, as the
one exhibited was cumbersome and heavy, and occupied too much
space on board.

He accordingly proceeded to make his second chronometer. It
occupied a space of only about half the size of the first. He
introduced several improvements. He lessened the number of the
wheels, and thereby diminished friction. But the general
arrangement remained the same. This second machine was finished
in 1739. It was more simple in its arrangement, and less
cumbrous in its dimensions. It answered even better than the
first, and though it was not tried at sea its motions were
sufficiently exact for finding the longitude within the nearest
limits proposed by Act of Parliament.

Not satisfied with his two machines, Harrison proceeded to make a
third. This was of an improved construction, and occupied still
less space, the whole of the machine and its apparatus standing
upon an area of only four square feet. It was in such
forwardness in January, 1741, that it was exhibited before the
Royal Society, and twelve of the most prominent members signed a
certificate of "its great and excellent use, as well for
determining the longitude at sea as for correcting the charts of
the coasts."  The testimonial concluded: "We do recommend Mr.
Harrison to the favour of the Commissioners appointed by Act of
Parliament as a person highly deserving of such further
encouragement and assistance as they shall judge proper and
sufficient to finish his third machine."  The Commissioners
granted him a further sum of 500L. Harrison was already reduced
to necessitous circumstances by his continuous application to the
improvement of the timekeepers. He had also got into debt, and
required further assistance to enable him to proceed with their
construction; but the Commissioners would only help him by
driblets.

Although Harrison had promised that the third machine would be
ready for trial on August 1, 1743, it was not finished for some
years later. In June, 1746, we find him again appearing before
the Board, asking for further assistance. While proceeding with
his work he found it necessary to add a new spring, "having spent
much time and thought in tempering them."  Another 500L. was
voted to enable him to pay his debts, to maintain himself and
family, and to complete his chronometer.

Three years later he exhibited his third machine to the Royal
Society, and on the 30th of November, 1749, he was awarded the
Gold Medal for the year. In presenting it, Mr. Folkes, the
President, said to Mr. Harrison, "I do here, by the authority and
in the name of the Royal Society of London for the improving of
natural knowledge, present you with this small but faithful token
of their regard and esteem. I do, in their name congratulate you
upon the successes you have already had, and I most sincerely
wish that all your future trials may in every way prove
answerable to these beginnings, and that the full accomplishment
of your great undertaking may at last be crowned with all the
reputation and advantage to yourself that your warmest wishes may
suggest, and to which so many years so laudably and so diligently
spent in the improvement of those talents which God Almighty has
bestowed upon you, will so justly entitle your constant and
unwearied perseverance."

Mr. Folkes, in his speech, spoke of Mr. Harrison as "one of the
most modest persons he had ever known. In speaking," he
continued, "of his own performances, he has assured me that, from
the immense number of diligent and accurate experiments he has
made, and from the severe tests to which he has in many ways put
his instrument, he expects he shall be able with sufficient
certainty, through all the greatest variety of seasons and the
most irregular motions of the sea, to keep time constantly,
without the variation of so much as three seconds in a week, --a
degree of exactness that is astonishing and even stupendous,
considering the immense number of difficulties, and those of very
different sorts, which the author of these inventions must have
had to encounter and struggle withal."

Although it is common enough now to make first-rate
chronometers-- sufficient to determine the longitude with almost
perfect accuracy in every clime of the world--it was very
different at that time, when Harrison was occupied with his
laborious experiments. Although he considered his third machine
to be the ne plus ultra of scientific mechanism, he nevertheless
proceeded to construct a fourth timepiece, in the form of a
pocket watch about five inches in diameter. He found the
principles which he had adopted in his larger machines applied
equally well in the smaller, and the performances of the last
surpassed his utmost expectations. But in the meantime, as his
third timekeeper was, in his opinion, sufficient to supply the
requirements of the Board of Longitude as respected the highest
reward offered, he applied to the Commissioners for leave to try
that instrument on board a royal ship to some port in the West
Indies, as directed by the statute of Queen Anne.

Though Harrison's third timekeeper was finished about the year
1758, it was not until March 12, 1761, that he received orders
for his son William to proceed to Portsmouth, and go on board the
Dorsetshire man-of-war, to proceed to Jamaica. But another
tedious delay occurred. The ship was ordered elsewhere, and
William Harrison, after remaining five months at Portsmouth,
returned to London. By this time, John Harrison had finished his
fourth timepiece--the small one, in the form of a watch. At
length William Harrison set sail with this timekeeper from
Portsmouth for Jamaica, on November 18th, 1761, in the Deptford
man-of-war. The Deptford had forty-three ships in convoy, and
arrived at Jamaica on the l9th of January, 1762, three days
before the Beaver, another of His Majesty's ships-of-war, which
had sailed from Portsmouth ten days before the Deptford, but had
lost her reckoning and been deceived in her longitude, having
trusted entirely to the log. Harrison's timepiece had corrected
the log of the Deptford to the extent of three degrees of
longitude, whilst several of the ships in the fleet lost as much
as five degrees! This shows the haphazard way in which
navigation was conducted previous to the invention of the marine
chronometer.

When the Deptford arrived at Port Royal, Jamaica, the timekeeper
was found to be only five and one tenth seconds in error; and
during the voyage of four months, on its return to Portsmouth on
March 26th, 1762, it was found (after allowing for the rate of
gain or loss) to have erred only one minute fifty-four and a half
seconds. In the latitude of Portsmouth this only amounted to
eighteen geographical miles, whereas the Act had awarded that the
prize should be given where the longitude was determined within
the distance of thirty geographical miles. One would have
thought that Harrison was now clearly entitled to his reward of
20,000L.

Not at all! The delays interposed by Government are long and
tedious, and sometimes insufferable. Harrison had accomplished
more than was needful to obtain the highest reward which the
Board of Longitude had publicly offered. But they would not
certify that he had won the prize. On the contrary, they started
numerous objections, and continued for years to subject him to
vexatious delays and disappointments. They pleaded that the
previous determination of the longitude of Jamaica by
astronomical observation was unsatisfactory; that there was no
proof of the chronometer having maintained a uniform rate during
the voyage; and on the 17th of August, 1762, they passed a
resolution, stating that they "were of opinion that the
experiments made of the watch had not been sufficient to
determine the longitude at sea."

It was accordingly necessary for Harrison to petition Parliament
on the subject. Three reigns had come and gone since the Act of
Parliament offering the reward had been passed. Anne had died;
George I. and George II. had reigned and died; and now, in the
reign of George III.--thirty-five years after Harrison had begun
his labours, and after he had constructed four several marine
chronometers, each of which was entitled to win the full
prize,--an Act of Parliament was passed enabling the inventor to
obtain the sum of 5000L. as part of the reward. But the
Commissioners still hesitated. They differed about the tempering
of the springs. They must have another trial of the timekeeper,
or anything with which to put off a settlement of the claim.
Harrison was ready for any further number of trials; and in the
meantime the Commissioners merely paid him a further sum on
account.

Two more dreary years passed. Nothing was done in 1763 except a
quantity of interminable talk at the Board of Commissioners. At
length, on the 28th of March, 1764, Harrison's son again departed
with the timekeeper on board the ship Tartar for Barbadoes. He
returned in about four months, during which time the instrument
enabled the longitude to be ascertained within ten miles, or
one-third of the required geographical distance. Harrison
memorialised the Commissioners again and again, in order that he
might obtain the reward publicly offered by the Government.

At length the Commissioners could no longer conceal the truth.
In September,1764, they virtually recognised Harrison's claim by
paying him 1000L. on account; and, on the 9th of February,1765,
they passed a resolution setting forth that they were
"unanimously of opinion that the said timekeeper has kept its
time with sufficient correctness, without losing its longitude in
the voyage from Portsmouth to Barbadoes beyond the nearest limit
required by the Act l2th of Queen Anne, but even considerably
within the same."  Yet they would not give Harrison the necessary
certificate, though they were of opinion that he was entitled to
be paid the full reward!

It is pleasant to contrast the generous conduct of the King of
Sardinia with the procrastinating and illiberal spirit which
Harrison met with in his own country. During the same year in
which the above resolution was passed, the Sardinian minister
ordered four of Harrison's timekeepers at the price of 1000L.
each, at the special instance of the King of Sardinia "as an
acknowledgement of Mr. Harrison's ingenuity, and as some
recompense for the time spent by him for the general good of
mankind."  This grateful attention was all the more praiseworthy,
as Sardinia could not in any way be regarded as a great maritime
power.

Harrison was now becoming old and feeble. He had attained the
age of seventy-four. He had spent forty long years in working
out his invention. He was losing his eyesight, and could not
afford to wait much longer. Still he had to wait.

"Full little knowest thou, who hast not tried,
What hell it is in suing long to bide;
To lose good days, that might be better spent;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To spend to-day, to be put back to-morrow,
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow."

But Harrison had not lost his spirit. On May 30th, 1765, he
addressed another remonstrance to the Board, containing much
stronger language than he had yet used. "I cannot help
thinking," he said, "that I am extremely ill-used by gentlemen
from whom I might have expected a different treatment; for, if
the Act of the l2th of Queen Anne be deficient, why have I so
long been encouraged under it, in order to bring my invention to
perfection? And, after the completion, why was my son sent twice
to the West Indies? Had it been said to my son, when he received
the last instruction, 'There will, in case you succeed, be a new
Act on your return, in order to lay you under new restrictions,
which were not thought of in the Act of the l2th of Queen Anne,'
--I say, had this been the case, I might have expected some such
treatment as that I now meet with.

"It must be owned that my case is very hard; but I hope I am the
first, and for my country's sake I hope I shall be the last, to
suffer by pinning my faith upon an English Act of Parliament.
Had I received my just reward--for certainly it may be so called
after forty years' close application of the talent which it has
pleased God to give me--then my invention would have taken the
course which all improvements in this world do; that is, I must
have instructed workmen in its principles and execution, which I
should have been glad of an opportunity of doing. But how widely
different this is from what is now proposed, viz., for me to
instruct people that I know nothing of, and such as may know
nothing of mechanics; and, if I do not make them understand to
their satisfaction, I may then have nothing!

"Hard fate indeed to me, but still harder to the world, which may
be deprived of this my invention, which must be the case, except
by my open and free manner in describing all the principles of it
to gentlemen and noblemen who almost at all times have had free
recourse to my instruments. And if any of these workmen have
been so ingenious as to have got my invention, how far you may
please to reward them for their piracy must be left for you to
determine; and I must set myself down in old age, and thank God I
can be more easy in that I have the conquest, and though I have
no reward, than if I had come short of the matter and by some
delusion had the reward!"

The Right Honourable the Earl of Egmont was in the chair of the
Board of Longitude on the day when this letter was read--June 13,
1765. The Commissioners were somewhat startled by the tone which
the inventor had taken. Indeed, they were rather angry. Mr.
Harrison, who was in waiting, was called in. After some rather
hot speaking, and after a proposal was made to Harrison which he
said he would decline to accede to "so long as a drop of English
blood remained in his body," he left the room. Matters were at
length arranged. The Act of Parliament (5 Geo. III. cap. 20)
awarded him, upon a full discovery of the principles of his
time-keeper, the payment of such a sum, as with the 2500L. he had
already received, would make one half of the reward; and the
remaining half was to be paid when other chronometers had been
made after his design, and their capabilities fully proved. He
was also required to assign his four chronometers--one of which
was styled a watch--to the use of the public.

Harrison at once proceeded to give full explanations of the
principles of his chronometer to Dr. Maskelyne, and six other
gentlemen, who had been appointed to receive them. He took his
timekeeper to pieces in their presence, and deposited in their
hands correct drawings of the same, with the parts, so that other
skilful makers might construct similar chronometers on the same
principles. Indeed, there was no difficulty in making them;
after his explanations and drawings had been published. An exact
copy of his last watch was made by the ingenious Mr. Kendal; and
was used by Captain Cook in his three years' circumnavigation of
the world, to his perfect satisfaction.

England had already inaugurated that series of scientific
expeditions which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to
raise her naval reputation to so great a height. In these
expeditions, the officers, the sailors, and the scientific men,
were constantly brought face to face with unforeseen difficulties
and dangers, which brought forth their highest qualities as men.
There was, however, some intermixture of narrowness in the minds
of those who sent them forth. For instance, while Dr. Priestley
was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to join Captain
Cook's second expedition to the Southern Seas, as an astronomer.
Priestley gave his assent, and made arrangements to set out. But
some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment had
been cancelled, as the Board of Longitude objected to his
theology. Priestley's otherwise gentle nature was roused. "What
I am, and what they are, in respect of religion," he wrote to
Banks, in December, 1771, "might easily have been known before
the thing was proposed to me at all. Besides, I thought that
this had been a business of philosophy, and not of divinity. If,
however, this be the case, I shall hold the Board of Longitude in
extreme contempt."

Captain Cook was appointed to the command of the Resolution, and
Captain Wallis to the command of the Adventure, in November,
1771. They proceeded to equip the ships; and amongst the other
instruments taken on board Captain Cook's ship, were two
timekeepers, one made by Mr. Larcum Kendal, on Mr. Harrison's
principles, and the other by Mr. John Arnold, on his own. The
expedition left Deptford in April, 1772; and shortly afterwards
sailed for the South Seas. "Mr. Kendal's watch" is the subject
of frequent notices in Captain Cook's account. At the Cape of
Good Hope, it is said to have "answered beyond all expectation."
Further south, in the neighbourhood of Cape Circumcision, he
says, "the use of the telescope is found difficult at first, but
a little practice will make it familiar. By the assistance of
the watch we shall be able to discover the greatest error this
method of observing the longitude at sea is liable to."  It was
found that Harrison's watch was more correct than Arnold's, and
when near Cape Palliser in New Zealand, Cook says, "this day at
noon, when we attended the winding-up of the watches, the fusee
of Mr. Arnold's would not turn round, so that after several
unsuccessful trials we were obliged to let it go down."  From
this time, complete reliance was placed upon Harrison's
chronometer. Some time later, Cook says, "I must here take
notice that our longitude can never be erroneous while we have so
good a guide as Mr. Kendal's watch."  It may be observed, that at
the beginning of the voyage, observations were made by the lunar
tables; but these, being found unreliable, were eventually
discontinued.

To return to Harrison. He continued to be worried by official
opposition. His claims were still unsatisfied. His watch at
home underwent many more trials. Dr. Maskelyne, the Royal
Astronomer, was charged with being unfavourable to the success of
chronometers, being deeply interested in finding the longitude by
lunar tables; although this method is now almost entirely
superseded by the chronometer. Harrison accordingly could not
get the certificate of what was due to him under the Act of
Parliament. Years passed before he could obtain the remaining
amount of his reward. It was not until the year 1773, or
forty-five years after the commencement of his experiments, that
he succeeded in obtaining it. The following is an entry in the
list of supplies granted by Parliament in that year: "June 14.
To John Harrison, as a further reward and encouragement over and
above the sums already received by him, for his invention of a
timekeeper for ascertaining the longitude at sea, and his
discovery of the principles upon which the same was constructed,
8570 pounds 0s. 0d.

John Harrison did not long survive the settlement of his claims;
for he died on the 24th of March, 1776, at the age of
eighty-three. He was buried at the south-west corner of
Hampstead parish churchyard, where a tombstone was erected to his
memory, and an inscription placed upon it commemorating his
services. His wife survived him only a year; she died at
seventy-two, and was buried in the same tomb. His son, William
Harrison, F.R.S., a deputy-lientenant of the counties of Monmouth
and Middlesex, died in 1815, at the ripe age of eighty-eight, and
was also interred there. The tomb having stood for more than a
century, became somewhat dilapidated; when the Clock-makers'
Company of the City of London took steps in 1879 to reconstruct
it, and recut the inscriptions. An appropriate ceremony took
place at the final uncovering of the tomb.

But perhaps the most interesting works connected with John
Harrison and the great labour of his life, are the wooden clock
at the South Kensington Museum, and the four chronometers made by
him for the Government, which are still preserved at the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich. The three early ones are of great
weight, and can scarcely be moved without some bodily labour.
But the fourth, the marine chronometer or watch, is of small
dimensions, and is easily handled. It still possesses the power
of going accurately; as does "Mr. Kendal's watch," which was made
exactly after it. These will always prove the best memorials of
this distinguished workman.

Before concluding this brief notice of the life and labours of
John Harrison, it becomes me to thank most cordially Mr.
Christie, Astronomer-Royal, for his kindness in exhibiting the
various chronometers deposited at the Greenwich Observatory, and
for his permission to inspect the minutes of the Board of
Longitude, where the various interviews between the inventor and
the commissioners, extending over many years, are faithfully but
too procrastinatingly recorded. It may be finally said of John
Harrison, that by his invention of the chronometer--the
ever-sleepless and ever-trusty friend of the mariner --he
conferred an incalculable benefit on science and navigation, and
established his claim to be regarded as one of the greatest
benefactors of mankind.

POstscript.--In addition to the information contained in this
chapter, I have been recently informed by the Rev. Mr. Sankey,
vicar of Wragby, that the family is quite extinct in the parish,
except the wife of a plumber, who claims relationship with
Harrison. The representative of the Winn family was created Lord
St. Oswald in 1885. Harrison is not quite forgotten at Foulby.
The house in which he was born was a low thatched cottage, with
two rooms, one used as a living room, and the other as a sleeping
room. The house was pulled down about forty years ago; but the
entrance door, being of strong, hard wood, is still preserved.
The vicar adds that young Harrison would lie out on the grass all
night in summer time, studying the details of his wooden clock.

Footnotes to Chapter III.

[1] Originally published in Longmam's Magazine, but now rewritten
and enlarged.

[2] Popular Astronomy. By Simon Newcomb, LL.D., Professor U.S.
Naval Observatory.

[3] Biographia Britannica, vol. vi. part 2, p. 4375. This volume
was published in 1766, before the final reward had been granted
to Harrison.

[4] This clock is in the possession of Abraham Riley, of Bromley,
near Leeds. He informs us that the clock is made of wood
throughout, excepting the escapement and the dial, which are made
of brass. It bears the mark of "John Harrison, 1713."

[5] Harrison's compensation pendulum was afterwards improved by
Arnold, Earnshaw, and other English makers. Dent's prismatic
balance is now considered the best.

[6] See Mr. Folkes's speech to the Royal Soc., 30th Nov., 1749.

[7] No trustworthy lunar tables existed at that time. It was not
until the year 1753 that Tobias Mayer, a German, published the
first lunar tables which could be relied upon. For this, the
British Government afterwards awarded to Mayer's widow the sum of
5000L.

[8] Sir Isaac Newton gave his design to Edmund Halley, then
Astronomer-Royal. Halley laid it on one side, and it was found
among his papers after his death in 1742, twenty-five years after
the death of Newton. A similar omission was made by Sir G. B.
Airy, which led to the discovery of Neptune being attributed to
Leverrier instead of to Adams.

CHAPTER IV.

JOHN LOMBE: INTRODUCER OF THE SILK INDUSTRY INTO ENGLAND.

"By Commerce are acquired the two things which wise men accompt
of all others the most necessary to the well-being of a
Commonwealth: That is to say, a general Industry of Mind and
Hardiness of Body, which never fail to be accompanyed with Honour
and Plenty. So that, questionless, when Commerce does not
flourish, as well as other Professions, and when Particular
Persons out of a habit of Laziness neglect at once the noblest
way of employing their time and the fairest occasion for
advancing their fortunes, that Kingdom, though otherwise never so
glorious, wants something of being compleatly happy."--A Treatise
touching the East India Trade (1695).

Industry puts an entirely new face upon the productions of
nature. By labour man has subjugated the world, reduced it to
his dominion, and clothed the earth with a new garment. The
first rude plough that man thrust into the soil, the first rude
axe of stone with which he felled the pine, the first rude canoe
scooped by him from its trunk to cross the river and reach the
greener fields beyond, were each the outcome of a human faculty
which brought within his reach some physical comfort he had never
enjoyed before.

Material things became subject to the influence of labour. From
the clay of the ground, man manufactured the vessels which were
to contain his food. Out of the fleecy covering of sheep, he
made clothes for himself of many kinds; from the flax plant he
drew its fibres, and made linen and cambric; from the hemp plant
he made ropes and fishing nets; from the cotton pod he fabricated
fustians, dimities, and calicoes. From the rags of these, or
from weed and the shavings of wood, he made paper on which books
and newspapers were printed. Lead was formed by him into
printer's type, for the communication of knowledge without end.

But the most extraordinary changes of all were made in a heavy
stone containing metal, dug out of the ground. With this, when
smelted by wood or coal, and manipulated by experienced skill,
iron was produced. From this extraordinary metal, the soul of
every manufacture, and the mainspring perhaps of civilised
society--arms, hammers, and axes were made; then knives,
scissors, and needles; then machinery to hold and control the
prodigious force of steam; and eventually railroads and
locomotives, ironclads propelled by the screw, and iron and steel
bridges miles in length.

The silk manufacture, though originating in the secretion of a
tiny caterpillar, is perhaps equally extraordinary. Hundreds of
thousands of pounds weight of this slender thread, no thicker
than the filaments spun by a spider, give employment to millions
of workers throughout the world. Silk, and the many textures
wrought from this beautiful material, had long been known in the
East; but the period cannot be fixed when man first divested the
chrysalis of its dwelling, and discovered that the little yellow
ball which adhered to the leaf of the mulberry tree, could be
evolved into a slender filament, from which tissues of endless
variety and beauty could be made. The Chinese were doubtless
among the first who used the thread spun by the silkworm for the
purposes of clothing. The manufacture went westward from China
to India and Persia, and from thence to Europe. Alexander the
Great brought home with him a store of rich silks from Persia
Aristotle and Pliny give descriptions of the industrious little
worm and its productions. Virgil is the first of the Roman
writers who alludes to the production of silk in China; and the
terms he employs show how little was then known about the
article. It was introduced at Rome about the time of Julius
Caesar, who displayed a profusion of silks in some of his
magnificent theatrical spectacles. Silk was so valuable that it
was then sold for an equal weight of gold. Indeed, a law was
passed that no man should disgrace himself by wearing a silken
garment. The Emperor Heliogabalus despised the law, and wore a
dress composed wholly of silk. The example thus set was followed
by wealthy citizens. A demand for silk from the East soon became
general.

It was not until about the middle of the sixth century that two
Persian monks, who had long resided in China, and made themselves
acquainted with the mode of rearing the silkworm, succeeded in
carrying the eggs of the insect to Constantinople. Under their
direction they were hatched and fed. A sufficient number of
butterflies were saved to propagate the race, and mulberry trees
were planted to afford nourishment to the rising generations of
caterpillars. Thus the industry was propagated. It spread into
the Italian peninsula; and eventually manufactures of silk
velvet, damask, and satin became established in Venice, Milan,
Florence, Lucca, and other places.

Indeed, for several centuries the manufacture of silk in Europe
was for the most part confined to Italy. The rearing of
silkworms was of great importance in Modena, and yielded a
considerable revenue to the State. The silk produced there was
esteemed the best in Lombardy. Until the beginning of the
sixteenth century, Bologna was the only city which possessed
proper "throwing" mills, or the machinery requisite for twisting
and preparing silken fibres for the weaver. Thousands of people
were employed at Florence and Genoa about the same time in the
silk manufacture. And at Venice it was held in such high esteem,
that the business of a silk factory was considered a noble
employment.[1]

It was long before the use of silk became general in England.
"Silk," said an old writer, "does not immediately come hither
from the Worm that spins and makes it, but passes many a Climate,
travels many a Desert, employs many a Hand, loads many a Camel,
and freights many a Ship before it arrives here; and when at last
it comes, it is in return for other manufactures, or in exchange
for our money."[2]  It is said that the first pair of silk
stockings was brought into England from Spain, and presented to
Henry VIII. He had before worn hose of cloth. In the third year
of Queen Elizabeth's reign, her tiring woman, Mrs. Montagu,
presented her with a pair of black silk stockings as a New Year's
gift; whereupon her Majesty asked if she could have any more, in
which case she would wear no more cloth stockings. When James
VI. of Scotland received the ambassadors sent to congratulate him
upon his accession to the throne of Great Britain, he asked one
of his lords to lend him his pair of silken hose, that he "might
not appear a scrub before  strangers."  From these circumstances
it will be observed how rare the wearing of silk was in England.

Shortly after becoming king, James I. endeavoured to establish
the silk manufacture in England, as had already been successfully
done in France. He gave every encouragement to the breeding of
silkworms. He sent circular letters to all the counties of
England, strongly recommending the inhabitants to plant mulberry
trees. The trees were planted in many places, but the leaves did
not ripen in sufficient time for the sustenance of the silkworms.

The same attempt was made at Inneshannon, near Bandon, in
Ireland, by the Hugnenot refugees, but proved abortive. The
climate proved too cold or damp for the rearing of silkworms with
advantage. All that remains is "The Mulberry Field," which still
retains its name. Nevertheless the Huguenots successfully
established the silk manufacture at London and Dublin, obtaining
the spun silk from abroad.

Down to the beginning of last century, the Italians were the
principal producers of organzine or thrown silk; and for a long
time they succeeded in keeping their art a secret. Although the
silk manufacture, as we have seen, was introduced into this
country by the Huguenot artizans, the price of thrown silk was so
great that it interfered very considerably with its progress.
Organzine was principally made within the dominions of Savoy, by
means of a large and curious engine, the like of which did not
exist elsewhere. The Italians, by the most severe laws, long
preserved the mystery of the invention. The punishment
prescribed by one of their laws to be inflicted upon anyone who
discovered the secret, or attempted to carry it out of the
Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of all the
goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be
afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to
the gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name
and crime of the person, there to be continued for a perpetual
mark of infamy."[3]

Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave
all this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret. It may
be remembered with what courage and determination the founder of
the Foley family introduced the manufacture of nails into
England. He went into the Danemora mine district, near Upsala in
Sweden, fiddling his way among the miners; and after making two
voyages, he at last wrested from them the secret of making nails,
and introduced the new industry into the Staffordshire
district.[4]  The courage of John Lombe, who introduced the
thrown-silk industry into England, was equally notable. He was a
native of Norwich. Playfair, in his 'Family Antiquity' (vii.
312), says his name "may have been taken from the French Lolme,
or de Lolme," as there were many persons of French and Flemish
origin settled at Norwich towards the close of the sixteenth
century; but there is no further information as to his special
origin.

John Lombe's father, Henry Lombe, was a worsted weaver, and was
twice married. By his first wife he had two sons, Thomas and
Henry; and by his second, he had also two sons, Benjamin and
John. At his death in 1695, he left his two brothers his
"supervisors," or trustees, and directed them to educate his
children in due time to some useful trade. Thomas, the eldest
son, went to London. He was apprenticed to a trade, and
succeeded in business, as we find him Sheriff of London and
Middlesex in 1727, when in his forty-second year. He was also
knighted in the same year, most probably on the accession of
George II. to the throne.

John, the youngest son of the family, and half-brother of Thomas,
was put an apprentice to a trade. In 1702, we find him at Derby,
working as a mechanic with one Mr. Crotchet. This unfortunate
gentleman started a small silk-mill at Derby, with the object of
participating in the profits derived from the manufacture.

"The wear of silks," says Hutton, in his 'History of Derby,' "was
the taste of the ladies, and the British merchant was obliged to
apply to the Italian with ready money for the article at an
exorbitant price."  Crotchet did not succeed in his undertaking.
"Three engines were found necessary for the process: he had but
one. An untoward trade is a dreadful sink for money; and an
imprudent tradesman is still more dreadfuL. We often see
instances where a fortune would last a man much longer if he
lived upon his capital, than if he sent it into trade. Crotchet
soon became insolvent."

John Lombe, who had been a mechanic in Crotchet's silk mill, lost
his situation accordingly. But he seems to have been possessed
by an intense desire to ascertain the Italian method of
silk-throwing. He could not learn it in England. There was no
other method but going to Italy, getting into a silk mill, and
learning the secret of the Italian art. He was a good mechanic
and a clever draughtsman, besides being intelligent and fearless.

But he had not the necessary money wherewith to proceed to Italy.

His half-brother Thomas, however, was doing well in London, and
was willing to help him with the requisite means. Accordingly,
John set out for Italy, not long after the failure of Crotchet.

John Lombe succeeded in getting employment in a silk mill in
Piedmont, where the art of silk-throwing was kept a secret. He
was employed as a mechanic, and had thus an opportunity, in
course of time, of becoming familiar with the operation of the
engine. Hutton says that he bribed the workmen; but this would
have been a dangerous step, and would probably have led to his
expulsion, if not to his execution. Hutton had a great
detestation of the first silk factory at Derby, where he was
employed when a boy; and everything that he says about it must be
taken cum grano salis. When the subject of renewing the patent
was before Parliament in 1731, Mr. Perry, who supported the
petition of Sir Thomas Lombe, said that "the art had been kept so
secret in Piedmont, that no other nation could ever yet come at
the invention, and that Sir Thomas and his brother resolved to
make an attempt for the bringing of this invention into their own
country. They knew that there would be great difficulty and
danger in the undertaking, because the king of Sardinia had made
it death for any man to discover this invention, or attempt to
carry it out of his dominions. The petitioner's brother,
however, resolved to venture his person for the benefit and
advantage of his native country, and Sir Thomas was resolved to
venture his money, and to furnish his brother with whatever sums
should be necessary for executing so bold and so generous a
design. His brother went accordingly over to Italy; and after a
long stay and a great expense in that country, he found means to
see this engine so often, and to pry into the nature of it so
narrowly, that he made himself master of the whole invention and
of all the different parts and motions belonging to it."

John Lombe was absent from England for several years. While
occupied with his investigations and making his drawings, it is
said that it began to be rumoured that the Englishman was prying
into the secret of the silk mill, and that he had to fly for his
life. However this may be, he got on board an English ship, and
returned to England in safety. He brought two Italian workmen
with him, accustomed to the secrets of the silk trade. He
arrived in London in 1716, when, after conferring with his
brother, a specification was prepared and a patent for the
organzining of raw silk was taken out in 1718. The patent was
granted for fourteen years.

In the meantime, John Lombe arranged with the Corporation of the
town of Derby for taking a lease of the island or swamp on the
river Derwent, at a ground rental of 8L. a year. The island,
which was well situated for water-power, was 500 feet long and 52
feet wide. Arrangements were at once made for erecting a silk
mill thereon, the first large factory in England. It was
constructed entirely at the expense of his brother Thomas. While
the building was in progress, John Lombe hired various rooms in
Derby, and particularly the Town Hall, where he erected temporary
engines turned by hand, and gave employment to a large number of
poor people.

At length, after about three years' labour, the great silk mill
was completed. It was founded upon huge piles of oak, from 16 to
20 feet long, driven into the swamp close to each other by an
engine made for the purpose. The building was five stories high,
contained eight large apartments, and had no fewer than 468
windows. The Lombes must have had great confidence in their
speculation, as the building and the great engine for making the
organzine silk, together with the other fittings, cost them about
30,000L.

One effect of the working of the mill was greatly to reduce the
price of the thrown-silk, and to bring it below the cost of the
Italian production. The King of Sardinia, having heard of the
success of the Lombe's undertaking, prohibited the exportation of
Piedmontese raw silk, which interrupted the course of their
prosperity, until means were taken to find a renewed supply
elsewhere.

And now comes the tragic part of the story, for which Mr. Hutton,
the author of the 'History of Derby,' is responsible. As he
worked in the silk mill when a boy, from 1730 to 1737, he
doubtless heard it from the mill-hands, and there may be some
truth in it, though mixed with a little romance. It is this:-
Hutton says of John Lombe, that he "had not pursued this
lucrative commerce more than three or four years when the
Italians, who felt the effects from their want of trade,
determined his destruction, and hoped that that of his works
would follow. An artful woman came over in the character of a
friend, associated with the parties, and assisted in the
business. She attempted to gain both the Italian workmen, and
succeeded with one. By these two slow poison was supposed, and
perhaps justly, to have been administered to John Lombe, who
lingered two or three years in agony, and departed. The Italian
ran away to his own country; and Madam was interrogated, but
nothing transpired, except what strengthened suspicion."  A
strange story, if true.

Of the funeral, Hutton says:-- "John Lombe's was the most superb
ever known in Derby. A man of peaceable deportment, who had
brought a beneficial manufactory into the place, employed the
poor, and at advanced wages, could not fail meeting with respect,
and his melancholy end with pity. Exclusive of the gentlemen who
attended, all the people concerned in the works were invited.
The procession marched in pairs, and extended the length of Full
Street, the market-place, and Iron-gate; so that when the corpse
entered All Saints, at St. Mary's Gate, the last couple left the
house of the deceased, at the corner of Silk-mill Lane."

Thus John Lombe died and was buried at the early age of
twenty-nine; and Thomas, the capitalist, continued the owner of
the Derby silk mill. Hutton erroneously states that William
succeeded, and that he shot himself. The Lombes had no brother
of the name of William, and this part of Hutton's story is a
romance.

The affairs of the Derby silk mill went on prosperously. Enough
thrown silk was manufactured to supply the trade, and the weaving
of silk became a thriving business. Indeed, English silk began
to have a European reputation. In olden times it was said that
"the stranger buys of the Englishman the case of the fox for a
groat, and sells him the tail again for a shilling."  But now the
matter was reversed, and the saying was, "The Englishman buys
silk of the stranger for twenty marks, and sells him the same
again for one hundred pounds."

But the patent was about to expire. It had been granted for only
fourteen years; and a long time had elapsed before the engine
could be put in operation, and the organzine manufactured. It
was the only engine in the kingdom. Joshua Gee, writing in 1731,
says: "As we have but one Water Engine in the kingdom for
throwing silk, if that should be destroyed by fire or any other
accident, it would make the continuance of throwing fine silk
very precarious; and it is very much to be doubted whether all
the men now living in the kingdom could make another."  Gee
accordingly recommended that three or four more should be erected
at the public expense, "according to the model of that at
Derby."[5]

The patent expired in 1732. The year before, Sir Thomas Lombe,
who had been by this time knighted, applied to Parliament for a
prolongation of the patent. The reasons for his appeal were
principally these: that before he could provide for the full
supply of other silk proper for his purpose (the Italians having
prohibited the exportation of raw silk), and before he could
alter his engine, train up a sufficient number of workpeople, and
bring the manufacture to perfection, almost all the fourteen
years of his patent right would have expired. "Therefore," the
petition to Parliament concluded, "as he has not hitherto
received the intended benefit of the aforesaid patent, and in
consideration of the extraordinary nature of this undertaking,
the very great expense, hazard, and difficulty he has undergone,
as well as the advantage he has thereby procured to the nation at
his own expense, the said Sir Thomas Lombe humbly hopes that
Parliament will grant him a further term for the sole making and
using his engines, or such other recompense as in their wisdom
shall seem meet."[6]

The petition was referred to a Committee. After consideration,
they recommended the House of Commons to grant a further term of
years to Sir Thomas Lombe. The advisers of the King, however,
thought it better that the patent should not be renewed, but that
the trade in silk should be thrown free to all. Accordingly the
Chancellor of the Exchequer acquainted the House (14th March,
1731) that "His Majesty having been informed of the case of Sir
Thomas Lombe, with respect to his engine for making organzine
silk, had commanded him to acquaint this House, that His Majesty
recommended to their consideration the making such provision for
a recompense to Sir Thomas Lombe as they shall think proper."

The result was, that the sum of 14,000L. was voted and paid to
Sir Thomas Lombe as "a reward for his eminent services done to
the nation, in discovering with the greatest hazard and
difficulty the capital Italian engines, and introducing and
bringing the same to full perfection in this kingdom, at his own
great expense."[7]  The trade was accordingly thrown open. Silk
mills were erected at Stockport and elsewhere; Hutton says that
divers additional mills were erected in Derby; and a large and
thriving trade was established. In 1850, the number employed in
the silk manufacture exceeded a million persons. The old mill
has recently become disused. Although supported by strong wooden
supports, it showed signs of falling; and it was replaced by a
larger mill, more suitable to modern requirements.

Footnotes for Chapter IV.

[1] "This was equally the case with two other trades;-- those of
glass-maker and druggist, which brought no contamination upon
nobility in Venice. In a country where wealth was concentrated
in the hands of the powerful, it was no doubt highly judicious
thus to encourage its employment for objects of public advantage.

A feeling, more or less powerful, has always existed in the minds
of the high-born, against the employment of their time and wealth
to purposes of commerce or manufactures. All trades, save only
that of war, seem to have been held by them as in some sort
degrading, and but little comporting with the dignity of
aristocratic blood." Cabinet Cyclopedia--Silk Manufacture, p. 20.

[2] A Brief State of the Inland or Home Trade. (Pamphlet.) 1730.

[3] A Brief State of the Case relating to the Machine erected at
Derby for making Italian Organzine Silk, which was discovered and
brought into England with the utmost difficulty and hazard, and
at the Sole Expense of Sir Thomas Lombe. House of Commons Paper,
28th January, 1731.

[4] Self-Help, p. 205.

[5] The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, p. 94.

[6] The petition sets forth the merits of the machine at Derby
for making Italian organzine silk--"a manufacture made out of
fine raw silk, by reducing it to a hard twisted fine and even
thread. This silk makes the warp, and is absolutely necessary to
mix with and cover the Turkey and other coarser silks thrown
here, which are used for Shute,--so that, without a constant
supply of this fine Italian organzine silk, very little of the
said Turkey or other silks could be used, nor could the silk
weaving trade be carried on in England. This Italian organzine
(or thrown) silk has in all times past been bought with our
money, ready made (or worked) in Italy, for want of the art of
making it here. Whereas now, by making it ourselves out of fine
Italian raw silk, the nation saves near one-third part; and by
what we make out of fine China raw silk, above one-half of the
price we pay for it ready worked in Italy. The machine at Derby
contains 97,746 wheels, movements, and individual parts (which
work day and night), all which receive their motion from one
large water-wheel, are governed by one regulator, and it employs
about 300 persons to attend and supply it with work." In Bees
Cyclopaedia (art. 'Silk Manufacture') there is a full description
of the Piedmont throwing machine introduced to England by John
Lombe, with a good plate of it.

[7] Sir Thomas Lombe died in 1738. He had two daughters. The
first, Hannah, was married to Sir Robert Clifton, of Clifton, co.

Notts; the second, Mary Turner, was married to James, 7th Earl of
Lauderdale. In his will, he "recommends his wife, at the
conclusion of the Darby concern," to distribute among his
"principal servants or managers five or six hundred pounds."

CHAPTER V.

WILLIAM MURDOCK: HIS LIFE AND INVENTIONS.

"Justice exacts, that those by whom we are most benefited  
Should be most admired."--Dr. Johnson.

"The beginning of civilization is the discovery of some useful
arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The
necessity  or desire of preserving them leads to laws and social
institutions... In reality, the origin as well as the progress
and improvement of civil society is founded on mechanical and
chemical inventions."--Sir Humphry Davy.

At the middle of last century, Scotland was a very poor country.
It consisted mostly of mountain and moorland; and the little
arable land it contained was badly cultivated. Agriculture was
almost a lost art. "Except in a few instances," says a writer in
the 'Farmers' Magazine' of 1803, "Scotland was little better than
a barren waste."  Cattle could with difficulty be kept alive; and
the people in some parts of the country were often on the brink
of starvation. The people were hopeless, miserable, and without
spirit, like the Irish in their very worst times. After the
wreck of the Darien expedition, there seemed to be neither skill,
enterprise, nor money left in the country. What resources it
contained were altogether undeveloped. There was little
communication between one place and another, and such roads as
existed were for the greater part of the year simply impassable.

There were various opinions as to the causes of this frightful
state of things. Some thought it was the Union between England
and Scotland; and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, "The Patriot," as
he was called, urged its Repeal. In one of his publications, he
endeavoured to show that about one-sixth of the population of
Scotland was in a state of beggary-- two hundred thousand
vagabonds begging from door to door, or robbing and plundering
people as poor as themselves.[1] Fletcher was accordingly as
great a repealer as Daniel O'Connell in after times. But he
could not get the people to combine. There were others who held
a different opinion. They thought that something might be done
by the people themselves to extricate the country from its
miserable condition.

It still possessed some important elements of prosperity. The
inhabitants of Scotland, though poor, were strong and able to
work. The land, though cold and sterile, was capable of
cultivation.

Accordingly, about the middle of last century, some important
steps were taken to improve the general condition of things. A
few public-spirited landowners led the way, and formed themselves
into a society for carrying out improvements in agriculture.
They granted long leases of farms as a stimulus to the most
skilled and industrious, and found it to their interest to give
the farmer a more permanent interest in his improvements than he
had before enjoyed. Thus stimulated and encouraged, farming made
rapid progress, especially in the Lothians; and the example
spread into other districts. Banks were established for the
storage of capital. Roads were improved, and communications
increased between one part of the country and another. Hence
trade and commerce arose, by reason of the facilities afforded
for the interchange of traffic. The people, being fairly
educated by the parish schools, were able to take advantage of
these improvements. Sloth and idleness gradually disappeared,
before the energy, activity, and industry which were called into
life by the improved communications.

At the same time, active and powerful minds were occupied in
extending the domain of knowledge. Black and Robison, of
Glasgow, were the precursors of James Watt, whose invention of
the condensing steam-engine was yet to produce a revolution in
industrial operations, the like of which had never before been
known. Watt had hit upon his great idea while experimenting with
an old Newcomen model which belonged to the University of
Glasgow. He was invited by Mr. Roebuck of Kinneil to make a
working steam-engine for the purpose of pumping water from the
coal-pits at Boroughstoness; but his progress was stopped by want
of capital, as well as by want of experience. It was not until
the brave and generous Matthew Boulton of Birmingham took up the
machine, and backed Watt with his capital and his spirit, that
Watt's enterprise had the remotest chance of success. Even after
about twelve years' effort, the condensing steam-engine was only
beginning, though half-heartedly, to be taken up and employed by
colliery proprietors and cotton manufacturers. In developing its
powers, and extending its uses, the great merits of William
Murdock can never be forgotten. Watt stands first in its
history, as the inventor; Boulton second, as its promoter and
supporter; and Murdock third, as its developer and improver.

William Murdock was born on the 21st of August, 1754, at Bellow
Mill, in the parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire. His father, John,
was a miller and millwright, as well as a farmer. His mother's
maiden name was Bruce, and she used to boast of being descended
from Robert Bruce, the deliverer of Scotland. The Murdocks, or
Murdochs--for the name was spelt in either way--were numerous in
the neighbourhood, and they were nearly all related to each
other. They are supposed to have originally come into the
district from Flanders, between which country and Scotland a
considerable intercourse existed in the middle ages. Some of the
Murdocks took a leading part in the construction of the abbeys
and cathedrals of the North;[2] others were known as mechanics;
but the greater number were farmers.

One of the best known members of the family was John Murdock, the
poet Burns' first teacher. Burns went to his school at Alloway
Mill, when he was six years old. There he learnt to read and
write. When Murdock afterwards set up a school at Ayr, Burns,
who was then fifteen, went to board with him. In a letter to a
correspondent, Murdock said: "In 1773, Robert Burns came to
board and lodge with me, for the purpose of revising his English
grammar, that he might be better qualified to instruct his
brothers and sisters at home. He was now with me day and night,
in school, at all meals, and in all my walks."  The pupil even
shared the teacher's bed at night. Murdock lent the boy books,
and helped the cultivation of his mind in many ways. Burns soon
revised his English grammar, and learnt French, as well as a
little Latin. Some time after, Murdock removed to London, and
had the honour of teaching Talleyrand English during his
residence as an emigrant in this country. He continued to have
the greatest respect for his former pupil, whose poetry
commemorated the beauties of his native district.

It may be mentioned that Bellow Mill is situated on the Bellow
Water, near where it joins the river Lugar. One of Burns' finest
songs begins:--

   "Behind yon hills where Lugar flows."

That was the scene of William Murdock's boyhood. When a boy, he
herded his father's cows along the banks of the Bellow; and as
there were then no hedges, it was necessary to have some one to
watch the cattle while grazing. The spot  is still pointed out
where the boy, in the intervals of his herding, hewed a square
compartment out of the rock by the water side, and there burnt
the splint coal found on the top of the Black Band ironstone.
That was one of the undeveloped industries of Scotland; for the
Scotch iron trade did not arrive at any considerable importance
until about a century later.[3]  The little cavern in which
Murdock burnt the splint coal was provided with a fireplace and
vent, all complete. It is possible that he may have there
derived, from his experiments, the first idea of Gas as an
illuminant.

Murdock is also said to have made a wooden horse, worked by
mechanical power, which was the wonder of the district. On this
mechanical horse he rode to the village of Cumnock, about two
miles distant. His father's name is, however, associated with
his own in the production of this machine. Old John Murdock had
a reputation for intelligence and skill of no ordinary kind.
When at Carron ironworks, in 1760, he had a pinton cast after a
pattern which he had prepared. This is said to have been the
first piece of iron-toothed gearing ever used in mill work. When
I last saw it, the pinton was placed on the lawn in front of
William Murdock's villa at Handsworth.

The young man helped his father in many ways. He worked in the
mill, worked on the farm, and assisted in the preparation of mill
machinery. In this way he obtained a considerable amount of
general technical knowledge. He even designed and constructed
bridges. He was employed to build a bridge over the river Nith,
near Dumfries, and it stands there to this day, a solid and
handsome structure. But he had an ambition to be something more
than a country mason. He had heard a great deal about the
inventions of James Watt; and he determined to try whether he
could not get "a job" at the famous manufactory at Soho. He
accordingly left his native place in the year 1777, in the
twenty-third year of his age; and migrated southward. He left
plenty of Murdocks behind him. There was a famous staff in the
family, originally owned by William Murdock's grandfather, which
bore the following inscription: "This staff I leave in pedigree
to the oldest Murdock after me, in the parish of Auchenleck,
1745."  This staff was lately held by Jean Murdock, daughter of
the late William Murdock, joiner, cousin of the subject of this
biography.

When William arrived at Soho in 1777 he called at the works to
ask for employment. Watt was then in Cornwall, looking after his
pumping engines; but he saw Boulton, who was usually accessible
to callers of every rank. In answer to Murdock's enquiry whether
he could have a job, Boulton replied that work was very slack
with them, and that every place was filled up. During the brief
conversation that took place, the blate young Scotchman, like
most country lads in the presence of strangers, had some
difficulty in knowing what to do with his hands, and
unconsciously kept twirling his hat with them. Boulton's
attention was attracted to the twirling hat, which seemed to be
of a peculiar make. It was not a felt hat, nor a cloth hat, nor
a glazed hat: but it seemed to be painted, and composed of some
unusual material. "That seems to be a curious sort of hat," said
Boulton, looking at it more closely; "what is it made of?"
"Timmer, sir," said Murdock, modestly. "Timmer? Do you mean to
say that it is made of wood?"  "'Deed it is, sir."  "And pray how
was it made?"  "I made it mysel, sir, in a bit laithey of my own
contrivin'."  "Indeed!"

Boulton looked at the young man again. He had risen a hundred
degrees in his estimation. William was a good-looking
fellow--tall, strong, and handsome--with an open intelligent
countenance. Besides, he had been able to turn a hat for himself
with a lathe of his own construction. This, of itself, was a
sufficient proof that he was a mechanic of no mean skill.
"Well!" said Boulton, at last, "I will enquire at the works, and
see if there is anything we can set you to. Call again, my man."

"Thank you, sir," said Murdock, giving a final twirl to his hat.

Such was the beginning of William Murdock's connection with the
firm of Boulton and Watt. When he called again he was put upon a
trial job, and then, as he was found satisfactory, he was engaged
for two years at 15s. a week when at home, 17s. when in the
country, and 18s. when in London. Boulton's engagement of
Murdock was amply justified by the result. Beginning as an
ordinary mechanic, he applied himself diligently and
conscientiously to his work, and gradually became trusted. More
responsible duties were confided to him, and he strove to perform
them to the best of his power. His industry, skilfulness, and
steady sobriety, soon marked him for promotion, and he rose from
grade to grade until he became Boulton and Watt's most trusted
co-worker and adviser in all their mechanical undertakings of
importance.

Watt himself had little confidence in Scotchmen as mechanics. He
told Sir Waiter Scott that though many of them sought employment
at his works, he could never get any of them to become first-rate
workmen. They might be valuable as clerks and book-keepers, but
they had an insuperable aversion to toiling long at any point of
mechanism, so as to earn the highest wages paid to the
workmen.[4]  The reason no doubt was, that the working-people of
Scotland were then only in course of education as practical
mechanics; and now that they have had a century's discipline of
work and technical training, the result is altogether different,
as the engine-shops and shipbuilding-yards of the Clyde
abundantly prove. Mechanical power and technical ability are the
result of training, like many other things.

When Boulton engaged Murdock, as we have said, Watt was absent in
Cornwall, looking after the pumping-engines which had been
erected at several of the mines throughout that county. The
partnership had only been in existence for three years, and Watt
was still struggling with the difficulties which he had to
surmount in getting the steam engine into practical use. His
health was bad, and he was oppressed with frightful headaches.
He was not the man to fight the selfishness of the Cornish
adventurers. "A little more of this hurrying and vexation," he
said, "will knock me up altogether."  Boulton went to his help
occasionally, and gave him hope and courage. And at length
William Murdock, after he had acquired sufficient knowledge of
the business, was able to undertake the principal management of
the engines in Cornwall.

We find that in 1779, when he was only twenty-five years old, he
was placed in this important position. When he went into
Cornwall, he gave himself no rest until he had conquered the
defects of the engines, and put them into thorough working order.

He devoted himself to his duties with a zeal and ability that
completely won Watt's heart. When he had an important job in
hand, he could scarcely sleep. One night at his lodgings at
Redruth, the people were disturbed by a strange noise in his
room. Several heavy blows were heard upon the floor. They
started from their beds, rushed to Murdock's room, and found him
standing in his shirt, heaving at the bedpost in his sleep,
shouting "Now she goes, lads! now she goes!"

Murdock became a most popular man with the mine owners. He also
became friendly with the Cornish workmen and engineers. Indeed,
he fought his way to their affections. One day, some half-dozen
of the mining captains came into his engine-room at Chacewater,
and began to bully him. This he could not stand. He stript,
selected the biggest, and put himself into a fighting attitude.
They set to, and in a few minutes Murdock's powerful bones and
muscles enabled him to achieve the victory. The other men, who
had looked on fairly, without interfering, seeing the temper and
vigour of the man they had bullied, made overtures of
reconciliation. William was quite willing to be friendly.
Accordingly they shook hands all round, and parted the best of
friends. It is also said that Murdock afterwards fought a duel
with Captain Trevethick, because of a quarrel between Watt and
the mining engineer, in which Murdock conceived his master to
have been unfairly and harshly treated.[5]

The uses of Watt's steam-engine began to be recognised as
available for manufacturing purposes. It was then found
necessary to invent some method by which continuous rotary motion
should be secured, so as to turn round the moving machinery of
mills. With this object Watt had invented his original
wheel-engine. But no steps were taken to introduce it into
practical use. At length he prepared a model, in which he made
use of a crank connected with the working beam of the engine, so
as to produce the necessary rotary motion.

There was no originality in this application. The crank was one
of the most common of mechanical appliances. It was in daily use
in every spinning wheel, and in every turner's and
knife-grinder's foot-lathe. Watt did not take out a patent for
the crank, not believing it to be patentable. But another person
did so, thereby anticipating Watt in the application of the crank
for producing rotary motion.  He had therefore to employ some
other method, and in the new contrivance he had the valuable help
of William Murdock. Watt devised five different methods of
securing rotary motion without using the crank, but eventually he
adopted the "Sun-and-planet motion," the invention of Murdock.
This had the singular property of going twice round for every
stroke of the engine, and might be made to go round much oftener
without additional machinery. The invention was patented in
February, 1782, five Years after Murdock had entered the service
of Boulton and Watt.

Murdock continued for many years busily occupied in
superintending the Cornish steam-engines. We find him described
by his employers as "flying from mine to mine," putting the
engines to rights. If anything went wrong, he was immediately
sent for. He was active, quick-sighted, shrewd, sober, and
thoroughly trustworthy. Down to the year 1780, his wages were
only a pound a week; but Boulton made him a present of ten
guineas, to which the owners of the United Mines added another
ten, in acknowledgment of the admirable manner in which he bad
erected their new engine, the chairman of the company declaring
that he was "the most obliging and industrious workman he had
ever known."  That he secured the admiration of the Cornish
engineers may be obvious from the fact of Mr. Boaze having
invited him to join in an engineering partnership; but Murdock
remained loyal to the Birmingham firm, and in due time he had his
reward.

He continued to be the "right hand man" of the concern in
Cornwall. Boulton wrote to Watt, towards the end of 1782:
"Murdock hath been indefatigable ever since he began. He has
scarcely been in bed or taken necessary food. After slaving
night and day on Thursday and Friday, a letter came from Wheal
Virgin that he must go instantly to set their engine to work, or
they would let out the fire. He went and set the engine to work;
it worked well for the five or six hours he remained. He left
it, and returned to the Consolidated Mines about eleven at night,
and was employed about the engines till four this morning, and
then went to bed. I found him at ten this morning in Poldice
Cistern, seeking for pins and castors that had jumped out, when I
insisted on his going home to bed."

On one occasion, when an engine superintended by Murdock stopped
through some accident, the water rose in the mine, and the
workmen were "drowned out."  Upon this occurring, the miners went
"roaring at him" for throwing them out of work, and threatened to
tear him to pieces. Nothing daunted, he went through the midst
of the men, repaired the invalided engine, and started it afresh.

When he came out of the engine-house, the miners cheered him
vociferously and insisted upon carrying him home upon their
shoulders in triumph!

Steam was now asserting its power everywhere. It was pumping
water from the mines in Cornwall and driving the mills of the
manufacturers in Lancashire. Speculative mechanics began to
consider whether it might not be employed as a means of land
locomotion. The comprehensive mind of Sir Isaac Newton had long
before, in his 'Explanation of the Newtonian Philosophy,' thrown
out the idea of employing steam for this purpose; but no
practical experiment was made. Benjamin Franklin, while agent in
London for the United Provinces of America, had a correspondence
with Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, and Dr. Darwin, of
Lichfield, on the same subject. Boulton sent a model of a
fire-engine to London for Franklin's inspection; but Franklin was
too much occupied at the time by grave political questions to
pursue the subject further. Erasmus Darwin's speculative mind
was inflamed by the idea of a "fiery chariot," and he urged his
friend Boulton to prosecute the contrivance of the necessary
steam machinery.[6]

Other minds were at work. Watt, when only twenty-three years
old, at the instigation of his friend Robison, made a model
locomotive, provided with two cylinders of tin plate; but the
project was laid aside, and was never again taken up by the
inventor. Yet, in his patent of 1784, Watt included an
arrangement by means of which steam-power might be employed for
the purposes of locomotion. But no further model of the
contrivance was made.

Meanwhile, Cugnot, of Paris, had already made a road engine
worked by steam power. It was first tried at the Arsenal in
1769; and, being set in motion, it ran against a stone wall in
its way and threw it down. The engine was afterwards tried in
the streets of Paris. In one of the experiments it fell over
with a crash, and was thenceforward locked up in the Arsenal to
prevent its doing further mischief. This first locomotive is now
to be seen at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris.

Murdock had doubtless heard of Watt's original speculations, and
proceeded, while at Redruth, during his leisure hours, to
construct a model locomotive after a design of his own. This
model was of small dimensions, standing little more than a foot
and a half high, though it was sufficiently large to demonstrate
the soundness of the principle on which it was constructed. It
was supported on three wheels, and carried a small copper boiler,
heated by a spirit lamp, with a flue passing obliquely through
it. The cylinder, of 3/4 inch diameter and 2-inch stroke, was
fixed in the top of the boiler, the piston-rod being connected
with the vibratory beam attached to the connecting-rod which
worked the crank of the driving-wheel. This little engine worked
by the expansive force of steam only, which was discharged into
the atmosphere after it had done its work of alternately raising
and depressing the piston in the cylinder.

Mr. Murdock's son, while living at Handsworth, informed the
present writer that this model was invented and constructed in
1781; but, after perusing the correspondence of Boulton and Watt,
we infer that it was not ready for trial until 1784. The first
experiment was made in Murdock's own house at Redruth, when the
little engine successfully hauled a model waggon round the
room,--the single wheel, placed in front of the engine and
working in a swivel frame, enabling it to run round in a circle.

Another experiment was made out of doors, on which occasion,
small though the engine was, it fairly outran the speed of its
inventor. One night, after returning from his duties at the mine
at Redruth, Murdock went with his model locomotive to the avenue
leading to the church, about a mile from the town. The walk was
narrow, straight, and level. Having lit the lamp, the water soon
boiled, and off started the engine with the inventor after it.
Shortly after he heard distant shouts of terror. It was too dark
to perceive objects, but he found, on following up the machine,
that the cries had proceeded from the worthy vicar, who, while
going along the walk, had met the hissing and fiery little
monster, which he declared he took to be the Evil One in propria
persona!

When Watt was informed of Murdock's experiments, he feared that
they might interfere with his regular duties, and advised their
discontinuance. Should Murdock still resolve to continue them,
Watt urged his partner Boulton, then in Cornwall, that, rather
than lose Murdock's services, they should advance him 100L.; and,
if he succeeded within a year in making an engine capable of
drawing a post-chaise carrying two passengers and the driver, at
the rate of four miles an hour, that a locomotive engine business
should be established, with Murdock as a partner. The
arrangement, however, never proceeded any  further. Perhaps a
different attraction withdrew Murdock from his locomotive
experiments.  He was then paying attention to a young lady, the
daughter of Captain Painter; and in l785 he married her, and
brought her home to his house in Cross Street, Redruth.

In the following year,--September, 1786--Watt says, in a letter
to Boulton, "I have still the same opinion concerning the steam
carriage, but, to prevent more fruitless argument about it, I
have one of some size under hand. In the meantime, I wish
William could be brought to do as we do, to mind the business in
hand, and let such as Symington and Sadler throw away their time
and money in hunting shadows."  In a subsequent letter Watt
expressed his gratification at finding "that William applies to
his business."  From that time forward, Murdock as well as Watt,
dropped all further speculation on the subject, and left it to
others to work out the problem of the locomotive engine.
Murdock's model remained but a curious toy, which he took
pleasure in exhibiting to his intimate friends; and, though he
long continued to speculate about road locomotion, and was
persuaded of its practicability, he abstained from embodying his
ideas of the necessary engine in any complete working form.

Murdock nevertheless continued inventing, for the man who is
given to invent, and who possesses the gift of insight, cannot
rest. He lived in the midst of inventors. Watt and Boulton were
constantly suggesting new things, and Murdock became possessed by
the same spirit. In 1791 he took out his first patent. It was
for a method of preserving ships' bottoms from foulness by the
use of a certain kind of chemical paint. Mr. Murdock's grandson
informs us that it was recently re-patented and was the cause of
a lawsuit, and that Hislop's patent for revivifying gas-lime
would have been an infringement, if it had not expired.

Murdock is still better known by his invention of gas for
lighting purposes. Several independent inquirers into the
constituents of Newcastle coal had arrived at the conclusion that
nearly one-third of the substance was driven off in vapour by the
application of heat, and that the vapour so driven off was
inflammable. But no suggestion had been made to apply this
vapour for lighting purposes until Murdock took the matter in
hand. Mr. M. S. Pearse has sent us the following interesting
reminiscence: "Some time since, when in the West of Cornwall, I
was anxious to find out whether any one remembered Murdock. I
discovered one of the most respectable and intelligent men in
Camborne, Mr. William Symons, who not only distinctly remembered
Murdock, but had actually been present on one of the first
occasions when gas was used. Murdock, he says, was very fond of
children, and not unfrequently took them into his workshop to
show them what he was doing. Hence it happened that on one
occasion this gentleman, then a boy of seven or eight, was
standing outside Murdock's door with some other boys, trying to
catch sight of some special mystery inside, for Dr. Boaze, the
chief doctor of the place, and Murdock had been busy all the
afternoon. Murdock came out, and asked my informant to run down
to a shop near by for a thimble. On returning with the thimble,
the boy pretended to have lost it, and, whilst searching in every
pocket, he managed to slip inside the door of the workshop, and
then produced the thimble. He found Dr. Boaze and Murdock with a
kettle filled with coal. The gas issuing from it had been burnt
in a large metal case, such as was used for blasting purposes.
Now, however, they had applied a much smaller tube, and at the
end of it fastened the thimble, through the small perforations
made in which they burned a continuous jet for some time."[7]

After numerous experiments, Murdock had his house in Cross Street
fitted up in 1792 for being lit by gas. The coal was subjected
to heat in an iron retort, and the gas was conveyed in pipes to
the offices and the different rooms of the house, where it was
burned at proper apertures or burners.[8]  Portions of the gas
were also confined in portable vessels of tinned iron, from which
it was burned when required, thus forming a moveable gas-light.
Murdock had a gas lantern in regular use, for the purpose of
lighting himself home at night across the moors, from the mines
where he was working, to his home at Redruth. This lantern was
formed by filling a bladder with gas and fixing a jet to the
mouthpiece at the bottom of a glass lantern, with the bladder
hanging underneath.

Having satisfied himself as to the superior economy of coal gas,
as compared with oils and tallow, for the purposes of artificial
illumination, Murdock mentioned the subject to Mr. James Watt,
jun., during a brief visit to Soho in 1794, and urged the
propriety of taking out a patent. Watt was, however, indifferent
to taking out any further patents, being still engaged in
contesting with the Cornish mine-owners his father's rights to
the user of the condensing steam-engine. Nothing definite was
done at the time. Murdock returned to Cornwall and continued his
experiments. At the end of the same year he exhibited to Mr.
Phillips and others, at the Polgooth mine, his apparatus for
extracting gases from coal and other substances, showed it in
use, lit the gas which issued from the burner, and showed its
"strong and beautiful light."  He afterwards exhibited the same
apparatus to Tregelles and others at the Neath Abbey Company's
ironworks in Glamorganshire.

Murdock returned to Soho in 1798, to take up his permanent
residence in the neighbourhood. When the mine owners heard of
his intention to leave Cornwall, they combined in offering him a
handsome salary provided he would remain in the county; but his
attachment to his friends at Soho would not allow him to comply
with their request. He again urged the firm of Boulton and Watt
to take out a patent for the use of gas for lighting purposes.
But being still embroiled in their tedious and costly lawsuit,
they were naturally averse to risk connection with any other
patent. Watt the younger, with whom Murdock communicated on the
subject, was aware that the current of gas obtained from the
distillation of coal in Lord Dundonald's tar-ovens had been
occasionally set fire to, and also that Bishop Watson and others
had burned gas from coal, after conducting it through tubes, or
after it had issued from the retort. Mr. Watt was, however,
quite satisfied that Murdock was the first person who had
suggested its economical application for public and private uses.

But he was not clear, after the legal difficulties which had been
raised as to his father's patent rights, that it would be safe to
risk a further patent for gas.

Mr. Murdock's suggestion, accordingly, was not acted upon. But
he went on inventing in other directions. He thenceforward
devoted himself entirely to mechanical pursuits. Mr. Buckle has
said of him:-- "The rising sun often found him, after a night
spent in incessant labour, still at the anvil or turning-lathe;
for with his own hands he would make such articles as he would
not intrust to unskilful ones."  In 1799 he took out a patent
(No. 2340), embodying some very important inventions. First, it
included the endless screw working into a toothed-wheel, for
boring steam-cylinders, which is still in use. Second, the
casting of a steam-jacket in one cylinder, instead of being made
in separate segments bolted together with caulked joints, as was
previously done. Third, the new double-D slide-valve, by which
the construction and working of the steam-engine was simplified,
and the loss of steam saved, as well as the cylindrical valve for
the same purpose. And fourth, improved rotary engines. One of
the latter was set to drive the machines in his private workshop,
and continued in nearly constant work and in perfect use for
about thirty years.

In 1801, Murdock sent his two sons William and John to the Ayr
Academy, for the benefit of Scotch education. In the summer-time
they spent their vacation at Bellow Mill, which their grandfather
still continued to occupy. They fished in the river, and "caught
a good many trout."  The boys corresponded regularly with their
father at Birmingham. In 1804, they seem to have been in a state
of great excitement about the expected landing of the French in
Scotland. The volunteers of Ayr amounted to 300 men, the cavalry
to 150, and the riflemen to 50. "The riflemen," says John, "go
to the seashore every Saturday to shoot at a target. They stand
at 70 paces distant, and out of 100 shots they often put in 60
bullets!"  William says, "Great preparations are still making for
the  reception of the French. Several thousand of pikes are
carried through the town every week; and all the volunteers and
riflemen have received orders to march at a moment's warning."
The alarm, however, passed away. At the end of 1804, the two
boys received prizes; William got one in arithmetic and another
in the Rector's composition class; and John also obtained two,
one in the mathematical class, and the other in French.

To return to the application of gas for lighting purposes. In
1801, a plan was proposed by a M. Le Blond for lighting a part of
the streets of Paris with gas. Murdock actively resumed his
experiments; and on the occasion of the Peace of Amiens in March,
1802, he made the first public exhibition of his invention. The
whole of the works at Soho were brilliantly illuminated with gas.

The sight was received with immense enthusiasm. There could now
be no doubt as to the enormous advantages of this method of
producing artificial light, compared with that from oil or
tallow. In the following year the manufacture of gas-making
apparatus was added to the other branches of Boulton and Watts'
business, with which Murdock was now associated,--and as much as
from 4000L. to 5000L. of capital were invested in the new works.
The new method of lighting speedily became popular amongst
manufacturers, from its superior safety, cheapness, and
illuminating power. The mills of Phillips and Lee of Manchester
were fitted up in 1805; and those of Burley and Kennedy, also of
Manchester, and of Messrs. Gott, of Leeds, in subsequent years.

Though Murdock had made the uses of gas-lighting perfectly clear,
it was some time before it was proposed to light the streets by
the new method. The idea was ridiculed by Sir Humphry Davy, who
asked one of the projectors if he intended to take the dome of
St. Paul's for a gasometer! Sir Waiter Scott made many clever
jokes about those who proposed to "send light through the streets
in pipes;" and even Wollaston, a well known man of science,
declared that they "might as well attempt to light London with a
slice from the moon."  It has been so with all new projects--
with the steamboat, the locomotive, and the  electric telegraph.
As John Wilkinson said of the first vessel of iron which he
introduced, "it will be only a nine days' wonder, and afterwards
a Columbus's egg."

On the 25th of February, 1808, Murdock read a paper before the
Royal Society "On the Application of Gas from Coal to economical
purposes."  He gave a history of the origin and progress of his
experiments, down to the time when he had satisfactorily lit up
the premises of Phillips and Lee at Manchester. The paper was
modest and unassuming, like everything he did.

It concluded:-- "I believe I may, without presuming too much,
claim both the first idea of applying, and the first application
of this gas to economical purposes."[9]  The Royal Society
awarded Murdock their large Rumford Gold Medal for his
communication.

In the following year a German named Wintzer, or Winsor, appeared
as the promotor of a scheme for obtaining a royal charter with
extensive privileges, and applied for powers to form a
joint-stock company to light part of London and Westminster with
gas. Winsor claimed for his method of gas manufacture that it
was more efficacious and profitable than any then known or
practised. The profits, indeed, were to be prodigious. Winsor
made an elaborate calculation in his pamphlet entitled 'The New
Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,' from
which it appeared that the net annual profits "agreeable to the
official experiments" would amount to over two hundred and
twenty-nine millions of pounds!--and that, giving over
nine-tenths of that sum towards the redemption of the National
Debt, there would still remain a total profit of 570L. to be paid
to the subscribers for every 5L. of deposit! Winsor took out a
patent for the invention, and the company, of which he was a
member, proceeded to Parliament for an Act. Boulton and Watt
petitioned against the Bill, and James Watt, junior, gave
evidence on the subject. Henry Brougham, who was the counsel for
the petitioners, made great fun of Winsor's absurd
speculations,[10] and the Bill was thrown out.

In the following year the London and Westminster Chartered Gas
Light and Coke Company succeeded in obtaining their Act. They
were not very successful at first. Many prejudices existed
against the employment of the new light. It was popularly
supposed that the gas was carried along the pipes on fire, and
that the pipes must necessarily be intensely hot. When it was
proposed to light the House of Commons with gas, the architect
insisted on the pipes being placed several inches from the walls,
for fear of fire; and, after the pipes had been fixed, the
members might be seen applying their gloved hands to them to
ascertain their temperature, and afterwards expressing the
greatest surprise on finding that they were as cool as the
adjoining walls.

The Gas Company was on the point of dissolution when Mr. Samuel
Clegg came to their aid. Clegg had been a pupil of Murdock's, at
Soho. He knew all the arrangements which Murdock had invented.
He had assisted in fitting up the gas machinery at the mills of
Phillips & Lee, Manchester, as well as at Lodge's Mill, Sowerby
Bridge, near Halifax. He was afterwards employed to fix the
apparatus at the Catholic College of Stoneyhurst, in Lancashire,
at the manufactory of Mr. Harris at Coventry, and at other
places. In 1813 the London and Westminster Gas Company secured
the services of Mr. Clegg, and from that time forwards their
career was one of prosperity. In 1814 Westminster Bridge was
first lighted with gas, and shortly after the streets of St.
Margaret's, Westminster. Crowds of people followed the
lamplighter on his rounds to watch the sudden effect of his flame
applied to the invisible stream of gas which issued from the
burner. The lamplighters became so disgusted with the new light
that they struck work, and Clegg himself had for a time to act as
lamplighter.

The advantages of the new light, however, soon became generally
recognised, and gas companies were established in most of the
large towns. Glasgow was lit up by gas in 1817, and Liverpool
and Dublin in the following year. Had Murdock in the first
instance taken out a patent for his invention, it could not fail
to have proved exceedingly remunerative to him; but he derived no
advantage from the extended use of the new system of lighting
except the honour of having invented it.[11] He left the benefits
of his invention to the public, and returned to his labours at
Soho, which more than ever completely engrossed him.

Murdock now became completely identified with the firm of Boulton
& Watt. He assigned to them his patent for the slide-valve, the
rotary engine, and other inventions "for a good and valuable
consideration."  Indeed his able management was almost
indispensable to the continued success of the Soho foundry. Mr.
Nasmyth, when visiting the works about thirty years after Murdock
had taken their complete management in hand, recalled to mind the
valuable services of that truly admirable yet modest mechanic.
He observed the admirable system, which he had invented, of
transmitting power from one central engine to other small vacuum
engines attached to the several machines which they were employed
to work. "This vacuum method," he says, "of transmitting power
dates from the time of Papin; but it remained a dead contrivance
for about a century until it received the masterly touch of
Murdock."

"The sight which I obtained" (Mr. Nasmyth proceeds) "of the vast
series of workshops of that celebrated establishment, fitted with
evidences of the presence and results of such master minds in
design and execution, and the special machine tools which I
believe were chiefly to be ascribed to the admirable inventive
power and common-sense genius of William Murdock, made me feel
that I was indeed on classic ground in regard to everything
connected with the construction of steam-engine machinery. The
interest was in no small degree enhanced by coming every now and
then upon some machine that had every historical claim to be
regarded as the prototype of many of our modern machine tools.
All these had William Murdock's genius stamped upon them, by
reason of their common-sense arrangements, which showed that he
was one of those original thinkers who had the courage to break
away from the trammels of traditional methods, and take short
cuts to accomplish his objects by direct and simple means."

We have another recollection of William Murdock, from one who
knew him when a boy. This is the venerable Charles Manby,
F.R.S., still honorary secretary of the Institute of Civil
Engineers. He says (writing to us in September 1883), "I see
from the public prints that you have been presiding at a meeting
intended to do honour to the memory of William Murdock--a most
worthy man and an old friend of mine. When he found me working
the first slide valve ever introduced into an engine-building
establishment at Horsley, he patted me on the head, and said to
my father, 'Neighbour Manby, this is not the way to bring up a
good workman --merely turning a handle, without any shoulder
work.'  He evidently did not anticipate any great results from my
engineering education. But we all know what machine tools are
doing now,--and where should we be without them?"

Watt withdrew from the firm in 1800, on the expiry of his patent
for the condensing steam-engine; but Boulton continued until the
year 1809, when he died full of years and honours. Watt lived on
until 1819. The last part of his life was the happiest. During
the time that he was in the throes of his invention, he was very
miserable, weighed down with dyspepsia and sick headaches. But
after his patent had expired, he was able to retire with a
moderate fortune, and began to enjoy life. Before, he had
"cursed his inventions," now he could bless them. He was able to
survey them, and find out what was right and what was wrong. He
used his head and his hands in his private workshop, and found
many means of employing both pleasantly. Murdock continued to be
his fast friend, and they spent many agreeable hours together.
They made experiments and devised improvements in machines. Watt
wished to make things more simple.  He said to Murdock, "it is a
great thing to know what to do without. We must have a book of
blots--things to be scratched out."  One of the most interesting
schemes of Watt towards the end of his life was the contrivance
of a sculpture-making machine; and he proceeded so far with it as
to to able to present copies of busts to his friends as "the
productions of a young artist just entering his eighty-third
year."  The machine, however, remained unfinished at his death,
and the remarkable fact is that it was Watt's only unfinished
work.

The principle of the machine was to carry a guide-point at one
side over the bust or alto-relievo to be copied, and at the other
side to carry a corresponding cutting-tool or drill over the
alabaster, ivory, jet, or plaster of Paris to be executed. The
machine worked, as it were, with two hands, the one feeling the
pattern, the other cutting the material into the required form.
Many new alterations were necessary for carrying out this
ingenious apparatus, and Murdock was always at hand to give his
old friend and master his best assistance.  We have seen many
original letters from Watt to Murdock, asking for counsel and
help. In one of these, written in 1808, Watt says: "I have
revived an idea which, if it answers, will supersede the frame
and upright spindle of the reducing machine, but more of this
when we meet. Meanwhile it will be proper to adhere to the
frame, etc., at present, until we see how the other alterations
answer."  In another he says: "I have done a Cicero without any
plaits--the different segments meeting exactly. The fitting the
drills into the spindle by a taper of 1 in 6 will do. They are
perfectly stiff and will not unscrew easily. Four guide-pullies
answer, but there must be a pair for the other end, and to work
with a single hand, for the returning part is always cut upon
some part or other of the frame."

These letters are written sometimes in the morning, sometimes at
noon, sometimes at night. There was a great deal of
correspondence about "pullies," which did not seem to answer at
first. "I have made the tablets," said Watt on one occasion,
"slide more easily, and can counterbalance any part of their
weight which may be necessary; but the first thing to try is the
solidity of the machine, which cannot be done till the pullies
are mounted."  Then again: "The bust-making must be given up
until we get a more solid frame. I have worked two days at one
and spoiled it, principally from the want of steadiness."  For
Watt, it must be remembered, was now a very old man.

He then proceeded to send Murdock the drawing of a "parallel
motion for the machine," to be executed by the workmen at Soho.
The truss braces and the crosses were to be executed of steel,
according to the details he enclosed. "I have warmed up," he
concludes, "an old idea, and can make a machine in which the
pentagraph and the leading screw will all be contained in the
beam, and the pattern and piece to be cut will remain at rest
fixed upon a lath of cast iron or stout steel."  Watt is very
particular in all his details: "I am sorry," he says in one note,
"to trouble you with so many things; but the alterations on this
spindle and socket [he annexes a drawing] may wait your
convenience."  In a further note, Watt says. "The drawing for
the parallel lathe is ready; but I have been sadly puzzled about
the application of the leading screws to the cranes in the other.

I think, however, I have now got the better of the difficulties,
and made it more certain, as well as more simple, than it was. I
have done an excellent head of John Hunter in hard white in
shorter time than usual. I want to show it you before I repair
it."

At last Watt seems to have become satisfied: "The lathe," he
says, "is very much improved, and you seem to have given the
finishing blow to the roofed frame, which appears perfectly
stiff. I had some hours' intense thinking upon the machine last
night, and have made up my mind on it at last. The great
difficulty was about the application of the band, but I have
settled it to be much as at present."

Watt's letters to Murdock are most particular in details,
especially as to screws, nuts, and tubes, with strengths and
dimensions, always illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings. And
yet all this was done merely for mechanical amusement, and not
for any personal pecuniary advantage. While Watt was making
experiments as to the proper substances to be carved and drilled,
he also desired Murdock to make similar experiments. "The
nitre," he said in one note, "seems to do harm; the fluor
composition seems the best and hardest. Query, what would some
calcined pipe-clay do? If you will calcine some fire-clay by a
red heat and pound it,--about a pound,--and send it to me, I
shall try to make you a mould or two in Henning's manner to cast
this and the sulphur acid iron in. I have made a screwing tool
for wood that seems to answer; also one of a one-tenth diameter
for marble, which does very well."  In another note, Watt says:
"I find my drill readily makes 2400 turns per minute, even with
the large drill you sent last; if I bear lightly, a three-quarter
ferril would run about 3000, and by an engine that might be
doubled."

The materials to be drilled into medallions also required much
consideration. "I am much obliged to you," said Watt, "for the
balls, etc., which answer as well as can be expected. They make
great progress in cutting the crust (Ridgways) or alabaster, and
also cut marble, but the harder sorts soon blunt them. At any
rate, marble does not do for the medallions, as its grain
prevents its being cut smooth, and its semi-transparence hurts
the effect. I think Bristol lime, or shell lime, pressed in your
manner, would have a good effect. When you are at leisure, I
shall thank you for a few pieces, and if some of them are made
pink or flesh colour, they will look well. I used the ball quite
perpendicular, and it cut well, as most of the cutting is
sideways. I tried a fine whirling point, but it made little
progress; another with a chisel edge did almost as well as the
balls, but did not work so pleasantly. I find a triangular
scraping point the best, and I think from some trials it should
be quite a sharp point. The wheel runs easier than it did, but
has still too much friction. I wished to have had an hour's
consultation with you, but have been prevented by sundry matters
among others by that plaguey stove, which is now in your hands."

Watt was most grateful to Murdock for his unvarying assistance.
In January, 1813, when Watt was in his seventy-seventh year, he
wrote to Murdock, asking him to accept a present of a lathe "I
have not heard from you," he says, "in reply to my letter about
the lathe; and, presuming you are not otherwise provided, I have
bought it, and request your acceptance of it. At present, an
alteration for the better is making in the oval chuck, and a few
additional chucks, rest, etc., are making to the lathe. When
these are finished, I shall have it at Billinger's until you
return, or as you otherwise direct. I am going on with my
drawings for a complete machine, and shall be glad to see you
here to judge of them."

The drawings were made, but the machine was never finished.
"Invention," said Watt, "goes on very slowly with me now."  Four
years later, he was still at work; but death put a stop to his
"diminishing-machine." It is a remarkable testimony to the skill
and perseverance of a man who had already accomplished so much,
that it is almost his only unfinished work. Watt died in 1819,
in the eighty-third year of his age, to the great grief of
Murdock, his oldest and most attached friend and correspondent.

Meanwhile, the firm of Boulton and Watt continued. The sons of
the two partners carried it on, with Murdock as their Mentor. He
was still full of work and inventive power. In 1802, he applied
the compressed air of the Blast Engine employed to blow the
cupolas of the Soho Foundry, for the purpose of driving the lathe
in the pattern shop. It worked a small engine, with a l2-inch
cylinder and 18-inch stroke, connected with the lathe, the speed
being regulated as required by varying the admission of the
blast. This engine continued in use for about thirty-five years.

In 1803 Murdock experimented on the power of high-pressure steam
in propelling shot, and contrived a steam-engine with which he
made many trials at Soho, thereby anticipating the apparatus
contrived by Mr. Perkins many years later.

In 1810 Murdock took out a patent for boring steam-pipes for
water, and cutting columns out of solid blocks of stone, by means
of a cylindrical crown saw. The first machine was used at Soho,
and afterwards at Mr. Rennie's Works in London, and proved quite
successful. Among his other inventions were a lift worked by
compressed air, which raised and lowered the castings from the
boring-mill to the level of the foundry and the canal bank. He
used the same kind of power to ring the bells in his house at
Sycamore Hill, and the contrivance was afterwards adopted by Sir
Walter Scott in his house at Abbotsford.

Murdock was also the inventor of the well-known cast-iron cement,
so extensively used in engine and machine work. The manner in
which he was led to this invention affords a striking
illustration of his quickness of observation. Finding that some
iron-borings and sal-ammoniac had got accidently mixed together
in his tool-chest, and rusted his saw-blade nearly through, he
took note of the circumstance, mixed the articles in various
proportions, and at length arrived at the famous cement, which
eventually became an article of extensive manufacture at the Soho
Works.

Murdock's ingenuity was constantly at work, even upon matters
which lay entirely outside his special vocation. The late Sir
William Fairbairn informed us that he contrived a variety of
curious machines for consolidating peat moss, finely ground and
pulverised, under immense pressure, and which, when consolidated,
could be moulded into beautiful medals, armlets, and necklaces.
The material took the most brilliant polish and had the
appearance of the finest jet.

Observing that fish-skins might be used as an economical
substitute for isinglass, he went up to London on one occasion in
order to explain to brewers the best method of preparing and
using them. He occupied handsome apartments, and, little
regarding the splendour of the drawing-room, he hung the
fish-skins up against the walls. His landlady caught him one day
when he was about to bang up a wet cod's skin! He was turned out
at once, with all his fish. While in town on this errand, it
occurred to him that a great deal of power was wasted in treading
the streets of London! He conceived the idea of using the
streets and roadways as a grand tread-mill, under which the waste
power might be stored up by mechanical methods and turned to
account. He had also an idea of storing up the power of the
tides, and of running water, in the same way. The late Charles
Babbage, F.R.S., entertained a similar idea about using springs
of Ischia or of the geysers of Iceland as a power necessary for
condensing gases, or perhaps for the storage of electricity.[12]
The latter, when perfected, will probably be the greatest
invention of the next half century.

Another of Murdock's' ingenious schemes, was his proposed method
of transmitting letters and packages through a tube exhausted by
an air-pump. This project led to the Atmospheric Railway, the
success of which, so far as it went, was due to the practical
ability of Murdock's pupil, Samuel Clegg. Although the
atmospheric railway was eventually abandoned, it is remarkable
that the original idea was afterwards revived and practised with
success by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company.

In 1815, while Murdock was engaged in erecting an apparatus of
his own invention for heating the water for the baths at
Leamington, a ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above
his ankle, and severely injured him. He remained a long while at
Leamington, and when it was thought safe to remove him, the
Birmingham Canal Company kindly placed their excursion boat at
his disposal, and he was conveyed safely homeward. So soon as he
was able, he was at work again at the Soho factory.

Although the elder Watt had to a certain extent ignored the uses
of steam as applied to navigation, being too much occupied with
developing the powers of the pumping and rotary engine, the young
partners, with the stout aid of Murdock, took up the question.
They supplied Fulton in 1807 with his first engine, by means of
which the Clermont made her first voyage along the Hudson river.
They also supplied Fulton and Livingston with the next two
engines for the Car of Neptune and the Paragon. From that time
forward, Boulton and Watt devoted themselves to the manufacture
of engines for steamboats. Up to the year 1814, marine engines
had been all applied singly in the vessel; but in this year
Boulton and Watt first applied two condensing engines, connected
by cranks set at right angles on the shaft, to propel a steamer
on the Clyde. Since then, nearly all steamers are fitted with
two engines. In making this important improvement, the firm were
materially aided by the mechanical genius of William Murdock, and
also of Mr. Brown, then an assistant, but afterwards a member of
the firm.

In order to carry on a set of experiments with respect to the
most improved form of marine engine, Boulton and Watt purchased
the Caledonia, a Scotch boat built on the Clyde by James Wood and
Co., of Port Glasgow. The engines and boilers were taken out.
The vessel was fitted with two side lever engines, and many
successive experiments were made with her down to August, 1817,
at an expense of about 10,000L. This led to a settled plan of
construction, by which marine engines were greatly improved.
James Watt, junior, accompanied the Caledonia to Holland and up
the Rhine. The vessel was eventually sold to the Danish
Government, and used for carrying the mails between Kiel and
Copenhagen. It is, however, unnecessary here to venture upon the
further history of steam navigation.

In the midst of these repeated inventions and experiments,
Murdock was becoming an old man. Yet he never ceased to take an
interest in the works at Soho. At length his faculties
experienced a gradual decay, and he died peacefully at his house
at Sycamore Hill, on the l5th of November,1839, in his
eighty-fifth year. He was buried near the remains of the great
Boulton and Watt; and a bust by Chantrey served to perpetuate the
remembrance of his manly and intelligent countenance.

Footnotes for Chapter V.

[1] Fletcher's Political Works, London, 1737, p. 149,

[2] One of the Murdocks built the cathedral at Glasgow, as well
as others in Scotland. The famous school of masonry at Antwerp
sent out a number of excellent architects during the 11th, 12th,
and 13th centuries. One of these, on coming into Scotland,
assumed the name of Murdo. He was a Frenchman, born in Paris, as
we learn from the inscription left on Melrose Abbey, and he died
while building that noble work: it is as follows:--

"John Murdo sumtyme cait was I And born in Peryse certainly, An'
had in kepyng all mason wark Sanct Andrays, the Hye Kirk
o'Glasgo, Melrose and Paisley, Jedybro and Galowy. Pray to God
and Mary baith, and sweet Saint John, keep this Holy Kirk frae
scaith."

[3] The discovery of the Black Band Ironstone by David Mushet in
1801, and the invention of the Hot Blast by James Beaumont
Neilson in 1828, will be found related in Industrial Biography,
pp. 141-161.

[4] Note to Lockhart's Life of Scott.

[5] This was stated to the present writer some years ago by
William Murdock's son; although there is no other record of the
event.

[6] See Lives of Engineers (Boulton and Watt), iv. pp. 182-4.
Small edition, pp. 130-2.

[7] Mr. Pearse's letter is dated 23rd April, 1867, but has not
before been published. He adds that "others remembered Murdock,
one who was an apprentice with him, and lived with him for some
time--a Mr. Vivian, of the foundry at Luckingmill."

[8] Murdock's house still stands in Cross Street, Redruth; those
still live who saw the gas-pipes conveying gas from the retort in
the little yard to near the ceiling of the room, just over the
table; a hole for the pipe was made in the window frame. The old
window is now replaced by a new frame."--Life of Richard
Trevithick, i. 64.

[9] Philosophical Transactions, 1808, pp. l24-l32.

[10] Winsor's family evidently believed in his great powers; for
I am informed by Francis Galton, Esq., F.R.S., that there is a
fantastical monument on the right-hand side of the central avenue
of the Kensal Green Cemetery, about half way between the lodge
and the church, which bears the following inscription:--"Tomb of
Frederick Albert Winsor, son of the late Frederick Albert Winsor,
originator of public Gas-lighting, buried in the Cemetery of Pere
la Chaise, Paris. "At evening time it shall be light.--Zachariah
xiv. 7. "I am come a light into the world, that whoever
believeth in Me shall not abide in darkness.--John xii. 46."

[11] Mr. Parkes, in his well known Chemical Essays (ed. 1841, p.
157), after referring to the successful lighting up by Murdock of
the manufactory of Messrs. Phillips and Lee at Manchester in
1805, "with coal gas issuing from nearly a thousand burners,"
proceeds, "This grand application of the new principle satisfied
the public mind, not only of the practicability, but also of the
economy of the application; and as a mark of the high opinion
they entertained of his genius and perseverance, and in order to
put the question of priority of the discovery beyond all doubt,
the Council of the Royal Society in 1808 awarded to Mr. Murdock
the Gold Medal founded by the late Count Rumford."

[12] "Thus," says Mr. Charles Babbage, "in a future age, power
may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders, and of the
inhabitants of other volcanic districts; and possibly the very
process by which they will procure this article of exchange for
the luxuries of happier climates may, in some measure, tame the
tremendous element which occasionally devastates their
provinces."--Economy of Manufactures.

CHAPTER VI.

FREDERICK KOENIG: INVENTOR OF THE STEAM-PRINTING MACHINE.

"The honest projector is he who, having by fair and plain
principles of sense, honesty, and ingenuity, brought any
contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he pretends
to, picks nobody's pocket, puts his project in execution, and
contents himself with the real produce as  the profit of his
invention."--De Foe.

I published an article in 'Macmillan's Magazine' for December,
1869, under the above title. The materials were principally
obtained from William and Frederick Koenig, sons of the inventor.

Since then an elaborate life has been published at Stuttgart,
under the title of "Friederich Koenig und die Erfindung Der
Schnellpresse, Ein Biographisches Denkmal. Von Theodor Goebel."
The author, in sending me a copy of the volume, refers to the
article published in 'Macmillan,' and says, "I hope you will
please to accept it as a small acknowledgment of the thanks,
which every German, and especially the sons of Koenig, in whose
name I send the book as well as in mine, owe to you for having
bravely taken up the cause of the much wronged inventor, their
father-- an action all the more praiseworthy, as you had to write
against the prejudices and the interests of your own countrymen."

I believe it is now generally admitted that Koenig was entitled
to the merit of being the first person practically to apply the
power of steam to indefinitely multiplying the productions of the
printing-press; and that no one now attempts to deny him this
honour. It is true others, who followed him, greatly improved
upon his first idea; but this was the case with Watt, Symington,
Crompton, Maudslay, and many more. The true inventor is not
merely the man who registers an idea and takes a patent for it,
or who compiles an invention by borrowing the idea of another,
improving upon or adding to his arrangements, but the man who
constructs a machine such as has never before been made, which
executes satisfactorily all the functions it was intended to
perform. And this is what Koenig's invention did, as will be
observed from the following brief summary of his life and
labours.

Frederick Koenig was born on the 17th of April, 1774, at
Eisleben, in Saxony, the birthplace also of a still more famous
person, Martin Luther. His father was a respectable peasant
proprietor, described by Herr Goebel as Anspanner. But this word
has now gone out of use. In feudal times it described the farmer
who was obliged to keep draught cattle to perform service due to
the landlord. The boy received a solid education at the
Gymnasium, or public school of the town. At a proper age he was
bound apprentice for five years to Breitkopf and Hartel, of
Leipzig, as compositor and printer; but after serving for four
and a quarter years, he was released from his engagement because
of his exceptional skill, which was an unusual occurrence.

During the later years of his apprenticeship, Koenig was
permitted to attend the classes in the University, more
especially those of Ernst Platner, a physician, philosopher, and
anthropologist. After that he proceeded to the printing-office
of his uncle, Anton F. Rose, at Greifswald, an old seaport town
on the Baltic, where he remained a few years. He next went to
Halle as a journeyman printer,-- German workmen going about from
place to place, during their wanderschaft, for the purpose of
learning their business. After that, he returned to Breitkopf
and Hartel, at Leipzig, where he had first learnt his trade.
During this time, having saved a little money, he enrolled
himself for a year as a regular student at the University of
Leipzig.

According to Koenig's own account, he first began to devise ways
and means for improving the art of printing in the year 1802,
when he was twenty-eight years old. Printing large sheets of
paper by hand was a very slow as well as a very laborious
process. One of the things that most occupied the young
printer's mind was how to get rid of this "horse-work," for such
it was, in the business of printing. He was not, however,
over-burdened with means, though he devised a machine with this
object. But to make a little money, he made translations for the
publishers. In 1803 Koenig returned to his native town of
Eisleben, where he entered into an arrangement with Frederick
Riedel, who furnished the necessary capital for carrying on the
business of a printer and bookseller. Koenig alleges that his
reason for adopting this step was to raise sufficient money to
enable him to carry out his plans for the improvement of
printing.

The business, however, did not succeed, as we find him in the
following year carrying on a printing trade at Mayence. Having
sold this business, he removed to Suhl in Thuringia. Here he was
occupied with a stereotyping process, suggested by what he had
read about the art as perfected in England by Earl Stanhope. He
also contrived an improved press, provided with a moveable
carriage, on which the types were placed, with inking rollers,
and a new mechanical method of taking off the impression by flat
pressure.

Koenig brought his new machine under the notice of the leading
printers in Germany, but they would not undertake to use it. The
plan seemed to them too complicated and costly. He tried to
enlist men of capital in his scheme, but they all turned a deaf
ear to him. He went from town to town, but could obtain no
encouragement whatever. Besides, industrial enterprise in
Germany was then in a measure paralysed by the impending war with
France, and men of capital were naturally averse to risk their
money on what seemed a merely speculative undertaking.

Finding no sympathisers or helpers at home, Koenig next turned
his attention abroad. England was then, as now, the refuge of
inventors who could not find the means of bringing out their
schemes elsewhere; and to England he wistfully turned his eyes.
In the meantime, however, his inventive ability having become
known, an offer was made to him by the Russian Government to
proceed to St. Petersburg and organise the State printing-office
there. The invitation was accepted, and Koenig proceeded to St.
Petersburg in the spring of 1806. But the official difficulties
thrown in his way were very great, and so disgusted him, that he
decided to throw up his appointment, and try his fortune in
England. He accordingly took ship for London, and arrived there
in the following November, poor in means, but rich in his great
idea, then his only property.

As Koenig himself said, when giving an account of his
invention:-- "There is on the Continent no sort of encouragement
for an enterprise of this description.

The system of patents, as it exists in England, being either
unknown, or not adopted in the Continental States, there is no
inducement for industrial enterprise; and projectors are commonly
obliged to offer their discoveries to some Government, and to so
licit their encouragement. I need hardly add that scarcely ever
is an invention brought to maturity under such circumstances.
The well-known fact, that almost every invention seeks, as it
were, refuge in England, and is there brought to perfection,
though the Government does not afford any other protection to
inventors beyond what is derived from the wisdom of the laws,
seems to indicate that the Continent has yet to learn from her
the best manner of encouraging the mechanical arts. I had my
full share in the ordinary disappointments of Continental
projectors; and after having lost in Germany and Russia upwards
of two years in fruitless applications, I at last resorted to
England."[1]

After arriving in London, Koenig maintained himself with
difficulty by working at his trade, for his comparative ignorance
of the English language stood in his way. But to work manually
at the printer's "case," was not Koenig's object in coming to
England. His idea of a printing machine was always uppermost in
his mind, and he lost no opportunity of bringing the subject
under the notice of master printers likely to take it up. He
worked for a time in the printing office of Richard Taylor, Shoe
Lane, Fleet Street, and mentioned the matter to him. Taylor
would not undertake the invention himself, but he furnished
Koenig with an introduction to Thomas Bensley, the well-known
printer of Bolt Court, Fleet Street. On the 11th of March, 1807,
Bensley invited Koenig to meet him on the subject of their recent
conversation about "the discovery;" and on the 31st of the same
month, the following agreement was entered into between Koenig
and Bensley:-

"Mr. Koenig, having discovered an entire new Method of Printing
by Machinery, agrees to communicate the same to Mr. Bensley under
the following conditions:--

that, if Mr. Bensley shall be satisfied the Invention will answer
all the purposes Mr. Koenig has stated in the Particulars he has
delivered to Mr. Bensley, signed with his name, he shall enter
into a legal Engagement to purchase the Secret from Mr. Koenig,
or enter into such other agreement as may be deemed mutually
beneficial to both parties; or, should Mr. Bensley wish to
decline having any concern with the said Invention, then he
engages not to make any use of the Machinery, or to communicate
the Secret to any person whatsoever, until it is proved that the
Invention is made use of by any one without restriction of
Patent, or other particular agreement on the part of Mr. Koenig,
under the penalty of Six Thousand Pounds.

"(Signed) T. Bensley,
"Friederich Konig.
"Witness--J. Hunneman."

Koenig now proceeded to put his idea in execution. He prepared
his plans of the new printing machine. It seems, however, that
the progress made by him was very slow. Indeed, three years
passed before a working model could be got ready, to show his
idea in actual practice. In the meantime, Mr. Walter of The
Times had been seen by Bensley, and consulted on the subject of
the invention. On the 9th of August, 1809, more than two years
after the date of the above agreement, Bensley writes to Koenig:
"I made a point of calling upon Mr. Walter yesterday, who, I am
sorry to say, declines our proposition altogether, having (as he
says) so many engagements as to prevent him entering into more."

It may be mentioned that Koenig's original plan was confined to
an improved press, in which the operation of laying the ink on
the types was to be performed by an apparatus connected with the
motions of the coffin, in such a manner as that one hand could be
saved. As little could be gained in expedition by this plan, the
idea soon suggested itself of moving the press by machinery, or
to reduce the several operations to one rotary motion, to which
the first mover might be applied. Whilst Koenig was in the
throes of his invention, he was joined by his friend Andrew F.
Bauer, a native of Stuttgart, who possessed considerable
mechanical power, in which the inventor himself was probably
somewhat deficient. At all events, these two together proceeded
to work out the idea, and to construct the first actual working
printing machine.

A patent was taken out, dated the 29th of March, 1810, which
describes the details of the invention. The arrangement was
somewhat similar to that known as the platen machine; the
printing being produced by two flat plates, as in the common
hand-press. It also embodied an ingenious arrangement for inking
the type. Instead of the old-fashioned inking balls, which were
beaten on the type by hand labour, several cylinders covered with
felt and leather were used, and formed part of the machine
itself. Two of the cylinders revolved in opposite directions, so
as to spread the ink, which was then transferred by two other
inking cylinders alternately applied to the "forme" by the action
of spiral springs. The movement of all the parts of the machine
were to be derived from a steam-engine, or other first mover.

"After many obstructions and delays," says Koenig himself, in
describing the history of his invention, "the first printing
machine was completed exactly upon the plan which I have
described in the specification of my first patent. It was set to
Work in April, 1811. The sheet (H) of the new Annual Register
for 1810, 'Principal Occurrences,' 3000 copies, was printed with
it; and is, I have no doubt, the first part of a book ever
printed with a machine. The actual use of it, however, soon
suggested new ideas, and led to the rendering it less complicated
and more powerful"[2]

Of course! No great invention was ever completed at one effort.
It would have been strange if Koenig had been satisfied with his
first attempt. It was only a beginning, and he naturally
proceeded with the improvement of his machine. It took Watt more
than twenty years to elaborate his condensing steam-engine; and
since his day, owing to the perfection of self-acting tools, it
has been greatly improved. The power of the Steamboat and the
Locomotive also, as well as of all other inventions, have been
developed by the constantly succeeding improvements of a nation
of mechanical engineers.

Koenig's experiment was only a beginning, and he naturally
proceeded with the improvement of his machine. Although the
platen machine of Koenig's has since been taken up a new, and
perfected, it was not considered by him sufficiently simple in
its arrangements as to be adapted for common use; and he had
scarcely completed it, when he was already revolving in his mind
a plan of a second machine on a new principle, with the object of
ensuring greater speed, economy, and simplicity.

By this time, other well-known London printers, Messrs. Taylor
and Woodfall, had joined Koenig and Bensley in their partnership
for the manufacture and sale of printing machines. The idea
which now occurred to Koenig was, to employ a cylinder instead of
a flat Platen machine, for taking the impressions off the type,
and to place the sheet round the cylinder, thereby making it, as
it were, part of the periphery. As early as the year 1790, one
William Nicholson had taken out a patent for a machine for
printing "on paper, linen, cotton, woollen, and other articles,"
by means of "blocks, forms, types, plates, and originals," which
were to be "firmly imposed upon a cylindrical surface in the same
manner as common letter is imposed upon a flat stone."[3]  From
the mention of "colouring cylinder," and "paper-hangings,
floor-cloths, cottons, linens, woollens, leather, skin, and every
other flexible material," mentioned in the specification, it
would appear as if Nicholson's invention were adapted for
calico-printing and paper-hangings, as well as for the printing
of books. But it was never used for any of these purposes. It
contained merely the register of an idea, and that was all. It
was left for Adam Parkinson, of Manchester, to invent and make
practical use of the cylinder printing machine for calico in the
year 1805, and this was still further advanced by the invention
of James Thompson, of Clitheroe, in 1813; while it was left for
Frederick Koenig to invent and carry into practical operation the
cylinder printing press for newspapers.

After some promising experiments, the plans for a new machine on
the cylindrical principle were proceeded with. Koenig admitted
throughout the great benefit he derived from the assistance of
his friend Bauer. "By the judgment and precision," he said,
"with which he executed my plans, he greatly contributed to my
success."  A patent was taken out on October 30th, 1811; and the
new machine was completed in December, 1812. The first sheets
ever printed with an entirely cylindrical press, were sheets G
and X of Clarkson's 'Life of Penn.' The papers of the Protestant
Union were also printed with it in February and March, 1813. Mr.
Koenig, in his account of the invention, says that "sheet M of
Acton's 'Hortus Kewensis,' vol. v., will show the progress of
improvement in the use of the invention. Altogether, there are
about 160,000 sheets now in the hands of the public, printed with
this machine, which, with the aid of two hands, takes off 800
impressions in the hour"[4]

Koenig took out a further patent on July 23rd, 1813, and a fourth
(the last) on the 14th of March, 1814. The contrivance of these
various arrangements cost the inventor many anxious days and
nights of study and labour. But he saw before him only the end
he wished to compass, and thought but little of himself and his
toils. It may be mentioned that the principal feature of the
invention was the printing cylinder in the centre of the machine,
by which the impression was taken from the types, instead of by
flat plates as in the first arrangement. The forme was fixed in
a cast-iron plate which was carried to and fro on a table, being
received at either end by strong spiral springs. A double
machine, on the same principle,--the forme alternately passing
under and giving an impression at one of two cylinders at either
end of the press,--was also included in the patent of 1811.

How diligently Koenig continued to elaborate the details of his
invention will be obvious from the two last patents which he took
out, in 1813 and 1814. In the first he introduced an important
improvement in the inking arrangement, and a contrivance for
holding and carrying on the sheet, keeping it close to the
printing cylinder by means of endless tapes; while in the second,
he added the following new expedients: a feeder, consisting of an
endless web,--an improved arrangement of the endless tapes by
inner as well as outer friskets,--an improvement of the register
(that is, one page falling exactly on the back of another), by
which greater accuracy of impression was also secured; and
finally, an arrangement by which the sheet was thrown out of the
machine, printed by the revolving cylinder on both sides.

The partners in Koenig's Patents had established a manufactory in
Whitecross Street for the production of the new machines. The
workmen employed were sworn to secrecy. They entered into an
agreement by which they were liable to forfeit 100L. if they
communicated to others the secret of the machines, either by
drawings or description, or if they told by whom or for whom they
were constructed. This was to avoid the hostility of the
pressmen, who, having heard of the new invention, were up in arms
against it, as likely to deprive them of their employment. And
yet, as stated by Johnson in his 'Typographia,' the manual labour
of the men who worked at the hand press, was so severe and
exhausting, "that the stoutest constitutions fell a sacrifice to
it in a few years." The number of sheets that could be thrown off
was also extremely limited.

With the improved press, perfected by Earl Stanhope, about 250
impressions could be taken, or l25 sheets printed on both sides
in an hour. Although a greater number was produced in newspaper
printing offices by excessive labour, yet it was necessary to
have duplicate presses, and to set up duplicate forms of type, to
carry on such extra work; and still the production of copies was
quite inadequate to satisfy the rapidly increasing demand for
newspapers. The time was therefore evidently ripe for the
adoption of such a machine as that of Koenig. Attempts had been
made by many inventors, but every one of them had failed.
Printers generally regarded the steam-press as altogether
chimerical.

Such was the condition of affairs when Koenig finished his
improved printing machine in the manufactory in Whitecross
Street. The partners in the invention were now in great hopes.
When the machine had been got ready for work, the proprietors of
several of the leading London newspapers were invited to witness
its performances. Amongst them were Mr. Perry of the Morning
chronicle, and Mr. Walter of The Times. Mr. Perry would have
nothing to do with the machine; he would not even go to see it,
for he regarded it as a gimcrack.[5]  On the contrary, Mr.
Walter, though he had five years before declined to enter into
any arrangement with Bensley, now that he heard the machine was
finished, and at work, decided to go and inspect it. It was
thoroughly characteristic of the business spirit of the man. He
had been very anxious to apply increased mechanical power to the
printing of his newspaper. He had consulted Isambard Brunel--one
of the cleverest inventors of the day--on the subject; but
Brunel, after studying the subject, and labouring over a variety
of plans, finally gave it up. He had next tried Thomas Martyn,
an ingenious young compositor, who had a scheme for a self-acting
machine for working the printing press. But, although Mr. Walter
supplied him with the necessary funds, his scheme never came to
anything. Now, therefore, was the chance for Koenig!

After carefully examining the machine at work, Mr. Walter was at
once satisfied as to the great value of the invention. He saw it
turning out the impressions with unusual speed and great
regularity. This was the very machine of which he had been in
search. But it turned out the impressions printed on one side
only. Koenig, however, having briefly explained the more rapid
action of a double machine on the same principle for the printing
of newspapers, Mr. Walter, after a few minutes' consideration,
and before leaving the premises, ordered two double machines for
the printing of The Times newspaper. Here, at last, was the
opportunity for a triumphant issue out of Koenig's difficulties.

The construction of the first newspaper machine was still,
however, a work of great difficulty and labour. It must be
remembered that nothing of the kind had yet been made by any
other inventor. The single-cylinder machine, which Mr. Walter
had seen at work, was intended for bookwork only. Now Koenig had
to construct a double-cylinder machine for printing newspapers,
in which many of the arrangements must necessarily be entirely
new. With the assistance of his leading mechanic, Bauer, aided
by the valuable suggestions of Mr. Walter himself, Koenig at
length completed his plans, and proceeded with the erection of
the working machine. The several parts were prepared at the
workshop in Whitecross Street, and taken from thence, in as
secret a way as possible, to the premises in Printing House
Square, adjoining The Times office, where they were fitted
together and erected into a working machine. Nearly two years
elapsed before the press was ready for work. Great as was the
secrecy with which the operations were conducted, the pressmen of
The Times office obtained some inkling of what was going on, and
they vowed vengeance to the foreign inventor who threatened their
craft with destruction. There was, however, always this
consolation: every attempt that had heretofore been made to print
newspapers in any other way than by manual labour had proved an
utter failure!

At length the day arrived when the first newspaper steam-press
was ready for use. The pressmen were in a state of great
excitement, for they knew by rumour that the machine of which
they had so long been apprehensive was fast approaching
completion. One night they were told to wait in the press-room,
as important news was expected from abroad. At six o'clock in
the morning of the 29th November, 1814, Mr. Walter, who had been
watching the working of the machine all through the night,
suddenly appeared among the pressmen, and announced that "The
Times is already printed by steam!"  Knowing that the pressmen
had vowed vengeance against the inventor and his invention, and
that they had threatened "destruction to him and his traps," he
informed them that if they attempted violence, there was a force
ready to suppress it; but that if they were peaceable, their
wages should be continued to every one of them until they could
obtain similar employment. This proved satisfactory so far, and
he proceeded to distribute several copies of the newspaper
amongst them--the first newspaper printed by steam! That paper
contained the following memorable announcement:--

"Our Journal of this day presents to the Public the practical
result of the greatest improvement connected with printing since
the discovery of the art itself. The reader of this paragraph
now holds in his hand one of the many thousand impressions of The
Times newspaper which were taken off last night by a mechanical
apparatus. A system of machinery almost organic has been devised
and arranged, which, while it relieves the human frame of its
most laborious' efforts in printing, far exceeds all human powers
in rapidity and dispatch. That the magnitude of the invention
may be justly appreciated by its effects, we shall inform the
public, that after the letters are placed by the compositors, and
enclosed in what is called the forme, little more remains for man
to do than to attend upon and to watch this unconscious agent in
its operations. The machine is then merely supplied with paper:
itself places the forme, inks it, adjusts the paper to the forme
newly inked, stamps the sheet, and gives it forth to the hands of
the attendant, at the same time withdrawing the forme for a fresh
coat of ink, which itself again distributes, to meet the ensuing
sheet now advancing for impression; and the whole of these
complicated acts is performed with such a velocity and
simultaneousness of movement, that no less than 1100 sheets are
impressed in one hour.

"That the completion of an invention of this kind, not the effect
of chance, but the result of mechanical combinations methodically
arranged in the mind of the artist, should be attended with many
obstructions and much delay, may be readily imagined. Our share
in this event has, indeed, only been the application of the
discovery, under an agreement with the patentees, to our own
particular business; yet few can conceive--even with this limited
interest--the various disappointments and deep anxiety to which
we have for a long course of time been subjected.

"Of the person who made this discovery we have but little to add.

Sir Christopher Wren's noblest monument is to be found in the
building which he erected; so is the best tribute of praise which
we are capable of offering to the inventor of the printing
machine, comprised in the preceding description, which we have
feebly sketched, of the powers and utility of his invention. It
must suffice to say further, that he is a Saxon by birth; that
his name is Koenig; and that the invention has been executed
under the direction of his friend and countryman, Bauer."

The machine continued to work steadily and satisfactorily,
notwithstanding the doubters, the unbelievers, and the
threateners of vengeance. The leading article of The Times for
December 3rd, 1814, contains the following statement:--

"The machine of which we announced the discovery and our adoption
a few days ago, has been whirling on its course ever since, with
improving order, regularity, and even speed. The length of the
debates on Thursday, the day when Parliament was adjourned, will
have been observed; on such an occasion the operation of
composing and printing the last page must commence among all the
journals at the same moment; and starting from that moment, we,
with our infinitely superior circulation, were enabled to throw
off our whole impression many hours before the other respectable
rival prints. The accuracy and clearness of the impression will
likewise excite attention.

"We shall make no reflections upon those by whom this wonderful
discovery has been opposed,--the doubters and unbelievers,--
however uncharitable they may have been to us; were it not that
the efforts of genius are always impeded by drivellers of this
description, and that we owe it to such men as Mr. Koenig and his
Friend, and all future promulgators of beneficial inventions, to
warn them that they will have to contend with everything that
selfishness and conceited ignorance can devise or say; and if we
cannot clear their way before them, we would at least give them
notice to prepare a panoply against its dirt and filth.

"There is another class of men from whom we receive dark and
anonymous threats of vengeance if we persevere in the use of this
machine. These are the Pressmen. They well know, at least
should well know, that such menace is thrown away upon us. There
is nothing that we will not do to assist and serve those whom we
have discharged. They themselves can seethe greater rapidity and
precision with which the paper is printed. What right have they
to make us print it slower and worse for their supposed benefit?
A little reflection, indeed, would show them that it is neither
in their power nor in ours to stop a discovery now made, if it is
beneficial to mankind; or to force it down if it is useless.
They had better, therefore, acquiesce in a result which they
cannot alter; more especially as there will still be employment
enough for the old race of pressmen, before the new method
obtains general use, and no new ones need be brought up to the
business; but we caution them seriously against involving
themselves and their families in ruin, by becoming amenable to
the laws of their country. It has always been matter of great
satisfaction to us to reflect, that we encountered and crushed
one conspiracy; and we should be sorry to find our work half
done.

"It is proper to undeceive the world in one particular; that is,
as to the number of men discharged. We in fact employ only eight
fewer workmen than formerly; whereas more than three times that
number have been employed for a year and a half in building the
machine."

On the 8th of December following, Mr. Koenig addressed an
advertisement "To the Public" in the columns of The Times, giving
an account of the origin and progress of his invention. We have
already cited several passages from the statement. After
referring to his two last patents, he says: "The machines now
printing The Times and Mail are upon the same principle; but they
have been contrived for the particular purpose of a newspaper of
extensive circulation, where expedition is the great object.

"The public are undoubtedly aware, that never, perhaps, was a new
invention put to so severe a trial as the present one, by being
used on its first public introduction for the printing of
newspapers, and will, I trust, be indulgent with respect to the
many defects in the performance, though none of them are inherent
in the principle of the machine; and we hope, that in less than
two months, the whole will be corrected by greater adroitness in
the management of it, so far at least as the hurry of newspaper
printing will at all admit.

"It will appear from the foregoing narrative, that it was
incorrectly stated in several newspapers, that I had sold my
interest to two other foreigners; my partners in this enterprise
being at present two Englishmen, Mr. Bensley and Mr. Taylor; and
it is gratifying to my feelings to avail myself of this
opportunity to thank those gentlemen publicly for the confidence
which they have reposed in me, for the aid of their practical
skill, and for the persevering support which they have afforded
me in long and very expensive experiments; thus risking their
fortunes in the prosecution of my invention.

"The first introduction of the invention was considered by some
as a difficult and even hazardous step. The Proprietor of The
Times having made that his task, the public are aware that it is
in good hands."

One would think that Koenig would now feel himself in smooth
water, and receive a share of the good fortune which he had so
laboriously prepared for others. Nothing of the kind! His
merits were disputed; his rights were denied; his patents were
infringed; and he never received any solid advantages for his
invention, until be left the country and took refuge in Germany.
It is true, he remained for a few years longer, in charge of the
manufactory in Whitecross Street, but they were years to him of
trouble and sorrow.

In 1816, Koenig designed and superintended the construction of a
single cylinder registering machine for book-printing. This was
supplied to Bensley and Son, and turned out 1000 sheets, printed
on both sides, in the hour. Blumenbach's 'Physiology' was the
first entire book printed by steam, by this new machine. It was
afterwards employed, in l8l8, in working off the Literary
Gazette. A machine of the same kind was supplied to Mr. Richard
Taylor for the purpose of printing the 'Philosophical Magazine,'
and books generally. This was afterwards altered to a double
machine, and employed for printing the Weekly Dispatch.

But what about Koenig's patents? They proved of little use to
him. They only proclaimed his methods, and enabled other
ingenious mechanics to borrow his adaptations. Now that he had
succeeded in making machines that would work, the way was clear
for everybody else to follow his footsteps. It had taken him
more than six years to invent and construct a successful steam
printing press; but any clever mechanic, by merely studying his
specification, and examining his machine at work, might arrive at
the same results in less than a week.

The patents did not protect him. New specifications, embodying
some modification or alteration in detail, were lodged by other
inventors and new patents taken out. New printing machines were
constructed in defiance of his supposed legal rights; and he
found himself stripped of the reward that he had been labouring
for during so many long and toilsome years. He could not go to
law, and increase his own vexation and loss. He might get into
Chancery easy enough; but when would he get out of it, and in
what condition?

It must also be added, that Koenig was unfortunate in his partner
Bensley. While the inventor was taking steps to push the sale of
his book-printing machines among the London printers, Bensley,
who was himself a book-printer, was hindering him in every way in
his negotiations. Koenig was of opinion that Bensley wished to
retain the exclusive advantage which the possession of his
registering book machine gave him over the other printers, by
enabling him to print more quickly and correctly than they could,
and thus give him an advantage over them in his printing
contracts.

When Koenig, in despair at his position, consulted counsel as to
the infringement of his patent, he was told that he might
institute proceedings with the best prospect of success; but to
this end a perfect agreement by the partners was essential.
When, however, Koenig asked Bensley to concur with him in taking
proceedings in defence of the patent right, the latter positively
refused to do so. Indeed, Koenig was under the impression that
his partner had even entered into an arrangement with the
infringers of the patent to share with them the proceeds of their
piracy.

Under these circumstances, it appeared to Koenig that only two
alternatives remained for him to adopt. One was to commence an
expensive, and it might be a protracted, suit in Chancery, in
defence of his patent rights, with possibly his partner, Bensley,
against him; and the other, to abandon his invention in England
without further struggle, and settle abroad. He chose the latter
alternative, and left England finally in August, 1817.

Mr. Richard Taylor, the other partner in the patent, was an
honourable man; but he could not control the proceedings of
Bensley. In a memoir published by him in the 'Philosophical
Magazine,' "On the Invention and First Introduction of Mr.
Koenig's Printing Machine," in which he honestly attributes to
him the sole merit of the invention, he says, "Mr. Koenig left
England, suddenly, in disgust at the treacherous conduct of
Bensley, always shabby and overreaching, and whom he found to be
laying a scheme for defrauding his partners in the patents of all
the advantages to arise from them. Bensley, however, while he
destroyed the prospects of his partners, outwitted himself, and
grasping at all, lost all, becoming bankrupt in fortune as well
as in character."[6]

Koenig was badly used throughout. His merits as an inventor were
denied. On the 3rd of January, 1818, after he had left England,
Bensley published a letter in the Literary Gazette, in which he
speaks of the printing machine as his own, without mentioning a
word of Koenig. The 'British Encyclopaedia,' in describing the
inventors of the printing machine, omitted the name of Koenig
altogether. The 'Mechanics Magazine,' for September, 1847,
attributed the invention to the Proprietors of The Times, though
Mr. Walter himself had said that his share in the event had been
"only the application of the discovery;" and the late Mr. Bennet
Woodcroft, usually a fair man, in his introductory chapter to
'Patents for Inventions in Printing,' attributes the merit to
William Nicholson's patent (No. 1748), which, he said, "produced
an entire revolution in the mechanism of the art."  In other
publications, the claims of Bacon and Donkin were put forward,
while those of the real inventor were ignored. The memoir of
Koenig by Mr. Richard Taylor, in the 'Philosophical Magazine,'
was honest and satisfactory; and should have set the question at
rest.

It may further be mentioned that William Nicholson,--who was a
patent agent, and a great taker out of patents, both in his own
name and in the names of others,--was the person employed by
Koenig as his agent to take the requisite steps for registering
his invention. When Koenig consulted him on the subject,
Nicholson observed that "seventeen years before he had taken out
a patent for machine printing, but he had abandoned it, thinking
that it wouldn't do; and had never taken it up again."  Indeed,
the two machines were on different principles. Nor did Nicholson
himself ever make any claim to priority of invention, when the
success of Koenig's machine was publicly proclaimed by Mr. Walter
of The Times some seven years later.

When Koenig, now settled abroad, heard of the attempts made in
England to deny his merits as an inventor, he merely observed to
his friend Bauer, "It is really too bad that these people, who
have already robbed me of my invention, should now try to rob me
of my reputation."  Had he made any reply to the charges against
him, it might have been comprised in a very few words: "When I
arrived in England, no steam printing machine had ever before
been seen; when I left it, the only printing machines in actual
work were those which I had constructed."  But Koenig never took
the trouble to defend the originality of his invention in
England, now that he had finally abandoned the field to others.

There can be no question as to the great improvements introduced
in the printing machine by Mr. Applegath and Mr. Cowper; by
Messrs. Hoe and Sons, of New York; and still later by the present
Mr. Walter of The Times, which have brought the art of machine
printing to an extraordinary degree of perfection and speed. But
the original merits of an invention are not to be determined by a
comparison of the first machine of the kind ever made with the
last, after some sixty years' experience and skill have been
applied in bringing it to perfection. Were the first condensing
engine made at Soho--now to be seen at the Museum in South
Kensington--in like manner to be compared with the last improved
pumping-engine made yesterday, even the great James Watt might be
made out to have been a very poor contriver. It would be much
fairer to compare Koenig's steam-printing machine with the
hand-press newspaper printing machine which it superseded.
Though there were steam engines before Watt, and steamboats
before Fulton, and steam locomotives before Stephenson, there
were no steam printing presses before Koenig with which to
compare them, Koenig's was undoubtedly the first, and stood
unequalled and alone.

The rest of Koenig's life, after he retired to Germany, was spent
in industry, if not in peace and quietness. He could not fail to
be cast down by the utter failure of his English partnership, and
the loss of the fruits of his ingenious labours. But instead of
brooding over his troubles, he determined to break away from
them, and begin the world anew. He was only forty-three when he
left England, and he might yet be able to establish himself
prosperously in life. He had his own head and hands to help him.

Though England was virtually closed against him, the whole
continent of Europe was open to him, and presented a wide field
for the sale of his printing machines.

While residing in England, Koenig had received many
communications from influential printers in Germany. Johann
Spencer and George Decker wrote to him in 1815, asking for
particulars about his invention; but finding his machine too
expensive,[7] the latter commissioned Koenig to send him a
Stanhope printing press--the first ever introduced into Germany
--the price of which was 95L. Koenig did this service for his
friend, for although he stood by the superior merits of his own
invention, he was sufficiently liberal to recognise the merits of
the inventions of others. Now that he was about to settle in
Germany, he was able to supply his friends and patrons on the
spot.

The question arose, where was he to settle? He made enquiries
about sites along the Rhine, the Neckar, and the Main. At last
he was attracted by a specially interesting spot at Oberzell on
the Main, near Wurzburg. It was an old disused convent of the
Praemonstratensian monks. The place was conveniently situated
for business, being nearly in the centre of Germany. The
Bavarian Government, desirous of giving encouragement to so
useful a genius, granted Koenig the use of the secularised
monastery on easy terms; and there accordingly he began his
operations in the course of the following year. Bauer soon
joined him, with an order from Mr. Walter for an improved Times
machine; and the two men entered into a partnership which lasted
for life.

The partners had at first great difficulties to encounter in
getting their establishment to work. Oberzell was a rural
village, containing only common labourers, from whom they had to
select their workmen. Every person taken into the concern had to
be trained and educated to mechanical work by the partners
themselves. With indescribable patience they taught these
labourers the use of the hammer, the file, the turning-lathe, and
other tools, which the greater number of them had never before
seen, and of whose uses they were entirely ignorant. The
machinery of the workshop was got together with equal difficulty
piece by piece, some of the parts from a great distance,--the
mechanical arts being then at a very low ebb in Germany, which
was still suffering from the effects of the long continental war.

At length the workshop was fitted up, the old barn of the
monastery being converted into an iron foundry.

Orders for printing machines were gradually obtained. The first
came from Brockhaus, of Leipzig. By the end of the fourth year
two other single-cylinder machines were completed and sent to
Berlin, for use in the State printing office. By the end of the
eighth year seven double-cylinder steam presses had been
manufactured for the largest newspaper printers in Germany. The
recognised excellence of Koenig and Bauer's book-printing
machines--their perfect register, and the quality of the work
they turned out--secured for them an increasing demand, and by
the year 1829 the firm had manufactured fifty-one machines for
the leading book printers throughout Germany. The Oberzell
manufactory was now in full work, and gave regular employment to
about 120 men.

A period of considerable depression followed. As was the case in
England, the introduction of the printing machine in Germany
excited considerable hostility among the pressmen. In some of
the principal towns they entered into combinations to destroy
them, and several printing machines were broken by violence and
irretrievably injured. But progress could not be stopped; the
printing machine had been fairly born, and must eventually do its
work for mankind. These combinations, however, had an effect for
a time. They deterred other printers from giving orders for the
machines; and Koenig and Bauer were under the necessity of
suspending their manufacture to a considerable extent. To keep
their men employed, the partners proceeded to fit up a paper
manufactory, Mr. Cotta, of Stuttgart, joining them in the
adventure; and a mill was fitted up, embodying all the latest
improvements in paper-making.

Koenig, however, did not live to enjoy the fruits or all his
study, labour, toil, and anxiety; for, while this enterprise was
still in progress, and before the machine trade had revived, he
was taken ill, and confined to bed. He became sleepless; his
nerves were unstrung; and no wonder. Brain disease carried him
off on the 17th of January, 1833; and this good, ingenious, and
admirable inventor was removed from all further care and trouble.

He died at the early age of fifty-eight, respected and beloved by
all who knew him.

His partner Bauer survived to continue the business for twenty
years longer. It was during this later period that the Oberzell
manufactory enjoyed its greatest prosperity. The prejudices of
the workmen gradually subsided when they found that machine
printing, instead of abridging employment, as they feared it
would do, enormously increased it; and orders accordingly flowed
in from Berlin, Vienna, and all the leading towns and cities of
Germany, Austria, Denmark, Russia, and Sweden. The six hundredth
machine, turned out in 1847, was capable of printing 6000
impressions in the hour. In March, 1865, the thousandth machine
was completed at Oberzell, on the occasion of the celebration of
the fifty years' jubilee of the invention of the steam press by
Koenig.

The sons of Koenig carried on the business; and in the biography
by Goebel, it is stated that the manufactory of Oberzell has now
turned out no fewer than 3000 printing machines. The greater
number have been supplied to Germany; but 660 were sent to
Russia, 61 to Asia, 12 to England, and 11 to America. The rest
were despatched to Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Holland,
and other countries.

It remains to be said that Koenig and Bauer, united in life, were
not divided by death. Bauer died on February 27, 1860, and the
remains of the partners now lie side by side in the little
cemetery at Oberzell, close to the scene of their labours and the
valuable establishment which they founded.

Footnotes for Chapter VI.

[1] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814

[2] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814.

[3] Date of Patent, 29th April, 1790, No. 1748,

[4] Koenig's letter in The Times, 8th December, 1814.

[5] Mr. Richard Taylor, one of the partners in the patent, says,
"Mr. Perry declined, alleging that he did not consider a
newspaper worth so many years' purchase as would equal the cost
of the machine."

[6] Mr. Richard Taylor, F.S.A., memoir in 'Philosophical
Magazine' for October 1847, p. 300.

[7] The price of a single cylinder non-registering machine was
advertised at 900L.; of a double ditto, 1400L.; and of a cylinder
registering machine, 2000L.; added to which was 250L., 350L., and
500L. per annum for each of these machines so long as the patent
lasted, or an agreed sum to be paid down at once.

CHAPTER VII.

THE WALTERS OF THE TIMES: INVENTION OF THE WALTER PRESS.

"Intellect and industry are never incompatible. There is  more
wisdom, and will be more benefit, in combining them than scholars
like to believe, or than the common world imagine. Life has time
enough for both, and its happiness will be increased by the
union." --SHARON TURNER.

"I have beheld with most respect the man  
Who knew himself, and knew the ways before him,  
And from among them chose considerately,  
With a clear foresight, not a blindfold courage;  
And, having chosen, with a steadfast mind  
Pursued his purpose."  
HENRY TAYLOR--Philip van Artevelde.

The late John Walter, who adopted Koenig's steam printing press
in printing The Times, was virtually the inventor of the modern
newspaper. The first John Walter, his father, learnt the art of
printing in the office of Dodsley, the proprietor of the 'Annual
Register.' He afterwards pursued the profession of an
underwriter, but his fortunes were literally shipwrecked by the
capture of a fleet of merchantmen by a French squadron.
Compelled by this loss to return to his trade, he succeeded in
obtaining the publication of 'Lloyd's List,' as well as the
printing of the Board of Customs. He also established himself as
a publisher and bookseller at No. 8, Charing Cross. But his
principal achievement was in founding The Times newspaper.

The Daily Universal Register was started on the 1st of January,
1785, and was described in the heading as "printed
logographically."  The type had still to be composed, letter by
letter, each placed alongside of its predecessor by human
fingers. Mr. Walter's invention consisted in using stereotyped
words and parts of words instead of separate metal letters, by
which a certain saving of time and labour was effected. The name
of the 'Register' did not suit, there being many other
publications bearing a similar title. Accordingly, it was
re-named The Times, and the first number was issued from Printing
House Square on the 1st of January, 1788.

The Times was at first a very meagre publication. It was not
much bigger than a number of the old 'Penny Magazine,' containing
a single short leader on some current topic, without any
pretensions to excellence; some driblets of news spread out in
large type; half a column of foreign intelligence, with a column
of facetious paragraphs under the heading of "The Cuckoo;" while
the rest of each number consisted of advertisements.
Notwithstanding the comparative innocence of the contents of the
early numbers of the paper, certain passages which appeared in it
on two occasions subjected the publisher to imprisonment in
Newgate. The extent of the offence, on one occasion, consisted
in the publication of a short paragraph intimating that their
Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York had "so
demeaned themselves as to incur the just disapprobation of his
Majesty!"  For such slight offences were printers sent to gaol in
those days.

Although the first Mr. Walter was a man of considerable business
ability, his exertions were probably too much divided amongst a
variety of pursuits to enable him to devote that exclusive
attention to The Times which was necessary to ensure its success.

He possibly regarded it, as other publishers of newspapers then
did, mainly as a means of obtaining a profitable business in
job-printing. Hence, in the elder Walter's hands, the paper was
not only unprofitable in itself, but its maintenance became a
source of gradually increasing expenditure; and the proprietor
seriously contemplated its discontinuance.

At this juncture, John Walter, junior, who had been taken into
the business as a partner, entreated his father to entrust him
with the sole conduct of the paper, and to give it "one more
trial."  This was at the beginning of 1803. The new editor and
conductor was then only twenty-seven years of age. He had been
trained to the manual work of a printer "at case," and passed
through nearly every department in the office, literary and
mechanical. But in the first place, he had received a very
liberal education, first at Merchant Taylors' School, and
afterwards at Trinity College, Oxford, where he pursued his
classical studies with much success. He was thus a man of
well-cultured mind; he had been thoroughly disciplined to work;
he was, moreover, a man of tact and energy, full of expedients,
and possessed by a passion for business. His father, urged by
the young man's entreaties, at length consented, although not
without misgivings, to resign into his hands the entire future
control of The Times.

Young Walter proceeded forthwith to remodel the establishment,
and to introduce improvements into every department, as far as
the scanty capital at his command would admit. Before he assumed
the direction, The Times did not seek to guide opinion or to
exercise political influence. It was a scanty newspaper--nothing
more, Any political matters referred to were usually introduced
in "Letters to the Editor," in the form in which Junius's Letters
first appeared in the Public Advertiser. The comments on
political affairs by the Editor were meagre and brief, and
confined to a mere statement of supposed facts.

Mr. Walter, very much to the dismay of his father, struck out an
entirely new course. He boldly stated his views on public
affairs, bringing his strong and original judgment to bear upon
the political and social topics of the day. He carefully watched
and closely studied public opinion, and discussed general
questions in all their bearings. He thus invented the modern
Leading Article. The adoption of an independent line of politics
necessarily led him to canvass freely, and occasionally to
condemn, the measures of the Government. Thus, he had only been
about a year in office as editor, when the Sidmouth
Administration was succeeded by that of Mr. Pitt, under whom Lord
Melville undertook the unfortunate Catamaran expedition. His
Lordship's malpractices in the Navy Department had also been
brought to light by the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry. On both
these topics Mr. Walter spoke out freely in terms of reprobation;
and the result was, that the printing for the Customs and the
Government advertisements were at once removed from The Times
office.

Two years later Mr. Pitt died, and an Administration succeeded
which contained a portion of the political chiefs whom the editor
had formerly supported on his undertaking the management of the
paper. He was invited by one of them to state the injustice
which had been done to him by the loss of the Customs printing,
and a memorial to the Treasury was submitted for his signature,
with a view to its recovery. But believing that the reparation
of the injury in this manner was likely to be considered as a
favour, entitling those who granted it to a certain degree of
influence over the politics of the journal, Walter refused to
sign it, or to have any concern in presenting the memorial. He
did more; he wrote to those from whom the restoration of the
employment was expected to come, disavowing all connection with
the proceeding. The matter then dropped, and the Customs
printing was never restored to the office.

This course was so unprecedented, and, as his father thought, was
so very wrong-headed, that young Walter had for some time
considerable difficulty in holding his ground and maintaining the
independent position he had assumed. But with great tenacity of
purpose he held on his course undismayed. He was a man who
looked far ahead,--not so much taking into account the results at
the end of each day or of each year, but how the plan he had laid
down for conducting the paper would work out in the long run.
And events proved that the high-minded course he had pursued with
so much firmness of purpose was the wisest course after all.

Another feature in the management which showed clear-sightedness
and business acuteness, was the pains which the Editor took to
ensure greater celerity of information and dispatch in printing.
The expense which he incurred in carrying out these objects
excited the serious displeasure of his father, who regarded them
as acts of juvenile folly and extravagance. Another circumstance
strongly roused the old man's wrath. It appears that in those
days the insertion of theatrical puffs formed a considerable
source of newspaper income; and yet young Walter determined at
once to abolish them. It is not a little remarkable that these
earliest acts of Mr. Walter--which so clearly marked his
enterprise and high-mindedness--should have been made the subject
of painful comments in his father's will.

Notwithstanding this serious opposition from within, the power
and influence of the paper visibly and rapidly grew. The new
Editor concentrated in the columns of his paper a range of
information such as had never before been attempted, or indeed
thought possible. His vigilant eye was directed to every detail
of his business. He greatly improved the reporting of public
meetings, the money market, and other intelligence,--aiming at
greater fulness and accuracy. In the department of criticism his
labours were unwearied. He sought to elevate the character of
the paper, and rendered it more dignified by insisting that it
should be impartial. He thus conferred the greatest public
service upon literature, the drama, and the fine arts, by
protecting them against the evil influences of venal panegyric on
the one hand, and of prejudiced hostility on the other.

But the most remarkable feature of The Times that which
emphatically commended it to public support and ensured its
commercial success--was its department of foreign intelligence.
At the time that Walter undertook the management of the journal,
Europe was a vast theatre of war; and in the conduct of
commercial affairs--not to speak of political movements--it was
of the most vital importance that early information should be
obtained of affairs on the Continent. The Editor resolved to
become himself the purveyor of foreign intelligence, and at great
expense he despatched his agents in all directions, even in the
track of armies; while others were employed, under various
disguises and by means of sundry pretexts, in many parts of the
Continent. These agents collected information, and despatched it
to London, often at considerable risks, for publication in The
Times, where it usually appeared long in advance of the
government despatches.

The late Mr. Pryme, in his 'Autobiographic Recollections,'
mentions a visit which he paid to Mr. Walter at his seat at
Bearwood. "He described to me," says Mr.Pryme, "the cause of the
large extension in the circulation of The Times. He was the
first to establish a foreign correspondent. This was Henry Crabb
Robinson, at a salary of 300L. a year.... Mr. Walter also
established local reporters, instead of copying from the country
papers. His father doubted the wisdom of such a large
expenditure, but the son prophesied a gradual and certain
success, which has actually been realised."

Mr. Robinson has described in his Diary the manner in which he
became connected with the foreign correspondence. "In January,
1807," he says, "I received, through my friend J.D. Collier, a
proposal from Mr. Walter that I should take up my residence at
Altona, and become The Times correspondent. I was to receive
from the editor of the 'Hamburger Correspondenten' all the public
documents at his disposal, and was to have the benefit also of a
mass of information, of which the restraints of the German Press
did not permit him to avail himself. The honorarium I was to
receive was ample with my habits of life. I gladly accepted the
offer, and never repented having done so. My acquaintance with
Mr. Walter ripened into friendship, and lasted as long as he
lived."[1]

Mr. Robinson was forced to leave Germany by the Battle of
Friedland and the Treaty of Tilsit, which resulted in the naval
coalition against England. Returning to London, he became
foreign editor of The Times until the following year, when he
proceeded to Spain as foreign correspondent. Mr. Walter had also
an agent in the track of the army in the unfortunate Walcheren
expedition; and The Times announced the capitulation of Flushing
forty-eight hours before the news had arrived by any other
channel. By this prompt method of communicating public
intelligence, the practice, which had previously existed, of
systematically retarding the publication of foreign news by
officials at the General Post Office, who made gain by selling
them to the Lombard Street brokers, was effectually extinguished.

This circumstance, as well as the independent course which Mr.
Walter adopted in the discussion of foreign politics, explains in
some measure the opposition which he had to encounter in the
transmission of his despatches. As early as the year 1805, when
he had come into collision with the Government and lost the
Customs printing, The Times despatches were regularly stopped at
the outports, whilst those for the Ministerial journals were
allowed to proceed. This might have crushed a weaker man, but it
did not crush Walter. Of course he expostulated. He was
informed at the Home Secretary's office that he might be
permitted to receive his foreign papers as a favour. But as this
implied the expectation of a favour from him in return, the
proposal was rejected; and, determined not to be baffled, he
employed special couriers, at great cost, for the purpose of
obtaining the earliest transmission of foreign intelligence.

These important qualities--enterprise, energy, business tact, and
public spirit--sufficiently account for his remarkable success.
To these, however, must be added another of no small importance--
discernment and knowledge of character. Though himself the head
and front of his enterprise, it was necessary that he should
secure the services and co-operation of men of first-rate
ability; and in the selection of such men his judgment was almost
unerring. By his discernment and munificence, he collected round
him some of the ablest writers of the age. These were frequently
revealed to him in the communications of correspondents--the
author of the letters signed "Vetus" being thus selected to write
in the leading columns of the Paper. But Walter himself was the
soul of The Times. It was he who gave the tone to its articles,
directed its influence, and superintended its entire conduct with
unremitting vigilance.

Even in conducting the mechanical arrangements of the paper--a
business of no small difficulty--he had often occasion to
exercise promptness and boldness of decision in cases of
emergency. Printers in those days were a rather refractory class
of work men, and not unfrequently took advantage of their
position to impose hard terms on their employers, especially in
the daily press, where everything must be promptly done within a
very limited time. Thus on one occasion, in 1810, the pressmen
made a sudden demand upon the proprietor for an increase of
wages, and insisted upon a uniform rate being paid to all hands,
whether good or bad. Walter was at first disposed to make
concessions to the men; but having been privately informed that a
combination was already entered into by the compositors, as well
as by the pressmen, to leave his employment suddenly, under
circumstances that would have stopped the publication of the
paper, and inflicted on him the most serious injury, he
determined to run all risks, rather than submit to what now
appeared to him in the light of an extortion.

The strike took place on a Saturday morning, when suddenly, and
without notice, all the hands turned out. Mr. Walter had only a
few hours' notice of it, but he had already resolved upon his
course. He collected apprentices from half a dozen different
quarters, and a few inferior workmen, who were glad to obtain
employment on any terms. He himself stript to his shirt-sleeves,
and went to work with the rest; and for the next six-and-thirty
hours he was incessantly employed at case and at press. On the
Monday morning, the conspirators, who had assembled to triumph
over his ruin, to their inexpressible amazement saw The Times
issue from the publishing office at the usual hour, affording a
memorable example of what one man's resolute energy may
accomplish in a moment of difficulty.

The journal continued to appear with regularity, though the
printers employed at the office lived in a state of daily peril.
The conspirators, finding themselves baffled, resolved upon
trying another game. They contrived to have two of the men
employed by Walter as compositors apprehended as deserters from
the Royal Navy. The men were taken before the magistrate; but
the charge was only sustained by the testimony of clumsy,
perjured witnesses, and fell to the ground. The turn-outs next
proceeded to assault the new hands, when Mr. Walter resolved to
throw around them the protection of the law. By the advice of
counsel, he had twenty-one of the conspirators apprehended and
tried, and nineteen of them were found guilty and condemned to
various periods of imprisonment. From that moment combination
was at an end in Printing House Square.

Mr. Walter's greatest achievement was his successful application
of steam power to newspaper printing. Although he had greatly
improved the mechanical arrangements after he took command of the
paper, the rate at which the copies could be printed off remained
almost stationary. It took a very long time indeed to throw off,
by the hand-labour of pressmen, the three or four thousand copies
which then constituted the ordinary circulation of The Times. On
the occasion of any event of great public interest being reported
in the paper, it was found almost impossible to meet the demand
for copies. Only about 300 copies could be printed in the hour,
with one man to ink the types and another to work the press,
while the labour was very severe. Thus it took a long time to
get out the daily impression, and very often the evening papers
were out before The Times had half supplied the demand.

Mr. Walter could not brook the tedium of this irksome and
laborious process. To increase the number of impressions, he
resorted to various expedients. The type was set up in
duplicate, and even in triplicate; several Stanhope presses were
kept constantly at work; and still the insatiable demands of the
newsmen on certain occasions could not be met. Thus the question
was early forced upon his consideration, whether he could not
devise machinery for the purpose of expediting the production of
newspapers. Instead of 300 impressions an hour, he wanted from
1500 to 2000. Although such a speed as this seemed quite as
chimerical as propelling a ship through the water against wind
and tide at fifteen miles an hour, or running a locomotive on a
railway at fifty, yet Mr. Walter was impressed with the
conviction that a much more rapid printing of newspapers was
feasible than by the slow hand-labour process; and he endeavoured
to induce several ingenious mechanical contrivers to take up and
work out his idea.

The principle of producing impressions by means of a cylinder,
and of inking the types by means of a roller, was not new. We
have seen, in the preceding memoir, that as early as 1790 William
Nicholson had patented such a method, but his scheme had never
been brought into practical operation. Mr. Walter endeavoured to
enlist Marc Isambard Brunel--one of the cleverest inventors of
the day--in his proposed method of rapid printing by machinery;
but after labouring over a variety of plans for a considerable
time, Brunel finally gave up the printing machine, unable to make
anything of it. Mr. Walter next tried Thomas Martyn, an
ingenious young compositor, who had a scheme for a self-acting
machine for working the printing press. He was supplied with the
necessary funds to enable him to prosecute his idea; but Mr.
Walter's father was opposed to the scheme, and when the funds
became exhausted, this scheme also fell to the ground.

As years passed on, and the circulation of the paper increased,
the necessity for some more expeditious method of printing became
still more urgent. Although Mr. Walter had declined to enter
into an arrangement with Bensley in 1809, before Koenig had
completed his invention of printing by cylinders, it was
different five years later, when Koenig's printing machine was
actually at work. In the preceding memoir, the circumstances
connected with the adoption of the invention by Mr. Walter are
fully related; as well as the announcement made in The Times on
the 29th of November, 1814--the day on which the first newspaper
printed by steam was given to the world.

But Koenig's printing machine was but the beginning of a great
new branch of industry. After he had left this country in
disgust, it remained for others to perfect the invention;
although the ingenious German was entitled to the greatest credit
for having made the first satisfactory beginning. Great
inventions are not brought forth at a heat. They are begun by
one man, improved by another, and perfected by a whole host of
mechanical inventors. Numerous patents were taken out for the
mechanical improvement of printing. Donkin and Bacon contrived a
machine in 1813, in which the types were placed on a revolving
prism. One of them was made for the University of Cambridge, but
it was found too complicated; the inking was defective; and the
project was abandoned.

In 1816, Mr. Cowper obtained a patent (No.3974) entitled," A
Method of Printing Paper for Paper Hangings, and Other Purposes."

The principal feature of this invention consisted in the curving
or bending of stereotype plates for the purpose of being printed
in that form. A number of machines for printing in two colours,
in exact register, was made for the Bank of England, and four
millions of One Pound notes were printed before the Bank
Directors determined to abolish their further issue. The regular
mode of producing stereotype plates, from plaster of Paris
moulds, took so much time, that they could not then be used for
newspaper printing.

Two years later, in 1818, Mr. Cowper invented and patented (No.
4194) his great improvements in printing. It may be mentioned
that he was then himself a printer, in partnership with Mr.
Applegath, his brother-in-law. His invention consisted in the
perfect distribution of the ink, by giving end motion to the
rollers, so as to get a distribution crossways, as well as
lengthways. This principle is at the very foundation of good
printing, and has been adopted in every machine since made. The
very first experiment proved that the principle was right. Mr.
Cowper was asked by Mr. Walter to alter Koenig's machine at The
Times office, so as to obtain good distribution. He adopted two
of Nicholson's single cylinders and flat formes of type. Two
"drums" were placed betwixt the cylinders to ensure accuracy in
the register,--over and under which the sheet was conveyed in it
s progress from one cylinder to the other,--the sheet being at
all times firmly held between two tapes, which bound it to the
cylinders and drums. This is commonly called, in the trade, a
"perfecting machine;" that is, it printed the paper on both sides
simultaneously, and is still much used for "book-work," whilst
single cylinder machines are often used for provincial
newspapers.

After this, Mr. Cowper designed the four cylinder machine for The
Times,--by means of which from 4000 to 5000 sheets could be
printed from one forme in the hour. In 1823, Mr. Applegath
invented an improvement in the inking apparatus, by placing the
distributing rollers at an angle across the distributing table,
instead of forcing them endways by other means.

Mr. Walter continued to devote the same unremitting attention to
his business as before. He looked into all the details, was
familiar with every department, and, on an emergency, was willing
to lend a hand in any work requiring more than ordinary despatch.

Thus, it is related of him that, in the spring of 1833, shortly
after his return to Parliament as Member for Berkshire, he was at
The Times office one day, when an express arrived from Paris,
bringing the speech of the King of the French on the opening of
the Chambers. The express arrived at 10 A.M., after the day's
impression of the paper had been published, and the editors and
compositors had left the office. It was important that the
speech should be published at once; and Mr. Walter immediately
set to work upon it. He first translated the document; then,
assisted by one compositor, he took his place at the type-case,
and set it up. To the amazement of one of the staff, who dropped
in about noon, he "found Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berks, working in
his shirt-sleeves!"  The speech was set and printed, and the
second edition was in the City by one o'clock. Had he not
"turned to" as he did, the whole expense of the express service
would have been lost. And it is probable that there was not
another man in the whole establishment who could have performed
the double work--intellectual and physical--which he that day
executed with his own head and hands.

Such an incident curiously illustrates his eminent success in
life. It was simply the result of persevering diligence, which
shrank from no effort and neglected no detail; as well as of
prudence allied to boldness, but certainly not "of chance;" and,
above all, of highminded integrity and unimpeachable honesty. It
is perhaps unnecessary to add more as to the merits of Mr. Walter
as a man of enterprise in business, or as a public man and a
Member of Parliament. The great work of his life was the
development of his journal, the history of which forms the best
monument to his merits and his powers.

The progressive improvement of steam printing machinery was not
affected by Mr. Walter's death, which occurred in 1847. He had
given it an impulse which it never lost. In 1846 Mr. Applegath
patented certain important improvements in the steam press. The
general disposition of his new machine was that of a vertical
cylinder 200 inches in circumference, holding on it the type and
distributing surfaces, and surrounded alternately by inking
rollers and pressing cylinders. Mr. Applegath estimated in his
specification that in his new vertical system the machine, with
eight cylinders, would print about 10,000 sheets per hour. The
new printing press came into use in 1848, and completely
justified the anticipations of its projector.

Applegath's machine, though successfully employed at The Times
office, did not come into general use. It was, to a large
extent, superseded by the invention of Richard M. Hoe, of New
York. Hoe's process consisted in placing the types upon a
horizontal cylinder, against which the sheets were pressed by
exterior and smaller cylinders. The types were arranged in
segments of a circle, each segment forming a frame that could be
fixed on the cylinder. These printing machines were made with
from two to ten subsidiary cylinders. The first presses sent by
Messrs. Hoe & Co. to this country were for Lloyd's Weekly
Newspaper, and were of the six-cylinder size. These were
followed by two ten-cylinder machines, ordered by the present Mr.
Walter, for The Times. Other English newspaper proprietors--both
in London and the provinces--were supplied with the machines, as
many as thirty-five having been imported from America between
1856 and 1862. It may be mentioned that the two ten-cylinder
Hoes made for The Times were driven at the rate of thirty-two
revolutions per minute, which gives a printing rate of 19,200 per
hour, or about 16,000 including stoppages.

Much of the ingenuity exercised both in the Applegath and Hoe
Machines was directed to the "chase," which had to hold securely
upon its curved face the mass of movable type required to form a
page. And now the enterprise of the proprietor of The Times
again came to the front. The change effected in the art of
newspaper-printing, by the process of stereotypes, is scarcely
inferior to that by which the late Mr. Walter applied steam-power
to the printing press, and certainly equal to that by which the
rotary press superseded the reciprocatory action of the flat
machine.

Stereotyping has a curious history. Many attempts were made to
obtain solid printing-surfaces by transfer from similar surfaces,
composed, in the first place, of movable types. The first who
really succeeded was one Ged, an Edinburgh goldsmith, who, after
a series of difficult experiments, arrived at a knowledge of the
art of stereotyping. The first method employed was to pour
liquid stucco, of the consistency of cream, over the types; and
this, when solid, gave a perfect mould. Into this the molten
metal was poured, and a plate was produced, accurately resembling
the page of type. As long ago as 1730, Ged obtained a privilege
from the University of Cambridge for printing Bibles and
Prayer-books after this method. But the workmen were dead
against it, as they thought it would destroy their trade. The
compositors and the pressmen purposely battered the letters in
the absence of their employers. In consequence of this
interference Ged was ruined, and died in poverty.

The art had, however, been born, and could not be kept down. It
was revived in France, in Germany, and in America. Fifty years
after the discovery of Ged, Tilloch and Foulis, of Glasgow,
patented a similar invention, without knowing anything of what
Ged had done; and after great labour and many experiments, they
produced plates, the impressions from which could  not be
distinguished from those taken from the types from which they
were cast. Some years afterwards, Lord Stanhope, to whom the art
of printing is much indebted, greatly improved the art of
stereotyping, though it was still quite inapplicable to newspaper
printing. The merit of this latter invention is due to the
enterprise of the present proprietor of The Times.

Mr. Walter began his experiments, aided by an ingenious Italian
founder named Dellagana, early in 1856. It was ascertained that
when papier-mache matrices were rapidly dried and placed in a
mould, separate columns might be cast in them with stereotype
metal, type high, planed flat, and finished with sufficient speed
to get up the duplicate of a forme of four pages fitted for
printing. Steps were taken to adapt these type-high columns to
the Applegath Presses, then worked with polygonal chases. When
the Hoe machines were introduced, instead of dealing with the
separate columns, the papier-mache matrix was taken from the
whole page at one operation, by roller-presses constructed for
the purpose. The impression taken off in this manner is as
perfect as if it had been made in the finest wax. The matrix is
rapidly dried on heating surfaces, and then accurately adjusted
in a casting machine curved to the exact circumference of the
main drum of the printing press, and fitted with a terra-cotta
top to secure a casting of uniform thickness. On pouring
stereotype metal into this mould, a curved plate was obtained,
which, after undergoing a certain amount of trimming at two
machines, could be taken to press and set to work within
twenty-five minutes from the time at which the process began.

Besides the great advantages obtained from uniform sets of the
plates, which might be printed on different machines at the rate
of 50,000 impressions an hour, or such additional number as might
be required, there is this other great advantage, that there is
no wear and tear of type in the curved chases by obstructive
friction; and that the fount, instead of wearing out in two
years, might last for twenty; for the plates, after doing their
work for one day, are melted down into a new impression for the
next day's printing. At the same time, the original type-page,
safe from injury, can be made to yield any number of copies that
may be required by the exigencies of the circulation. It will be
sufficiently obvious that by the multiplication of stereotype
plates and printing machines, there is practically no limit to
the number of copies of a newspaper that may be printed within
the time which the process now usually occupies.

This new method of newspaper stereotyping was originally employed
on the cylinders of the Applegath and Hoe Presses. But it is
equally applicable to those of the Walter Press, a brief
description of which we now subjoin. As the construction of the
first steam newspaper machine was due to the enterprise of the
late Mr. Walter, so the construction of this last and most
improved machine is due in like manner to the enterprise of his
son. The new Walter Press is not, like Applegath and Cowper's,
and Hoe's, the improvement of an existing arrangement, but an
almost entirely original invention.

In the Reports of the Jurors on the "Plate, Letterpress, and
other modes of Printing," at the International Exhibition of
1862, the following passage occurs:-- "It is incumbent on the
reporters to point out that, excellent and surprising as are the
results achieved by the Hoe and Applegath Machines, they cannot
be considered satisfactory while those machines themselves are so
liable to stoppages in working. No true mechanic can contrast
the immense American ten-cylinder presses of The Times with the
simple calico-printing machine, without feeling that the latter
furnishes the true type to which the mechanism for newspaper
printing should as much as possible approximate."

On this principle, so clearly put forward, the Inventors of the
Walter Press proceeded in the contrivance of the new machine. It
is true that William Nicholson, in his patent of 1790, prefigured
the possibility of printing on "paper, linen, cotton, woollen,
and other articles," by means of type fixed on the outer surface
of a revolving cylinder; but no steps were taken to carry  his
views into effect. Sir Rowland Hill also, before he became
connected with Post Office reform, revived the contrivance of
Nicholson, and referred to it in his patent of 1835 (No. 6762);
and he also proposed to use continuous rolls of paper, which
Fourdrinier and Donkin had made practicable by their invention of
the paper-making machine about the year 1804; but both
Nicholson's and Hill's patents remained a dead letter.[2]

It may be easy to conceive a printing machine, or even to make a
model of one; but to construct an actual working printing press,
that must be sure and unfailing in its operations, is a matter
surrounded with difficulties. At every step fresh contrivances
have to be introduced; they have to be tried again and again;
perhaps they are eventually thrown aside to give place to new
arrangements. Thus the head of the inventor is kept in a state
of constant turmoil. Sometimes the whole machine has to be
remodelled from beginning to end. One step is gained by degrees,
then another; and at last, after years of labour, the new
invention comes before the world in the form of a practical
working machine.

In 1862 Mr. Walter began in The Times office, with tools and
machinery of his own, experiments for constructing a perfecting
press which should print the paper from rolls of paper instead of
from sheets. Like his father, Mr. Walter possessed an excellent
discrimination of character, and selected the best men to aid him
in his important undertaking. Numerous difficulties had, of
course, to be surmounted. Plans were varied from time to time;
new methods were tried, altered, and improved, simplification
being aimed at throughout. Six long years passed in this pursuit
of the possible. At length the clear light dawned. In 1868 Mr.
Walter ventured to order the construction of three machines on
the pattern of the first complete one which had been made. By
the end of 1869 these were finished and placed in a room by
themselves; and a  fourth was afterwards added. There the
printing of The Times is now done, in less than half the time it
previously occupied, and with one-fifth the number of hands.

The most remarkable feature in the Walter Press is its wonderful
simplicity of construction. Simplicity of arrangement is always
the beau ideal of the mechanical engineer. This printing press
is not only simple, but accurate, compact, rapid, and economical.

While each of the ten-feeder Hoe Machines occupies a large and
lofty room, and requires eighteen men to feed and work it, the
new Walter Machine occupies a space of only about l4 feet by 5,
or less than any newspaper machine yet introduced; and it
requires only three lads to take away, with half the attention of
an overseer, who easily superintends two of the machines while at
work. The Hoe Machine turns out 7000 impressions printed on both
sides in the hour, whereas the Walter Machine turns out 12,000
impressions completed in the same time.

The new Walter Press does not in the least resemble any existing
printing machine, unless it be the calendering machine which
furnished its type. At the printing end it looks like a
collection of small cylinders or rollers. The first thing to be
observed is the continuous roll of paper four miles long, tightly
mounted on a reel, which, when the machine is going, flies round
with immense rapidity. The web of paper taken up by the first
roller is led into a series of small hollow cylinders filled with
water and steam, perforated with thousands of minute holes. By
this means the paper is properly damped before the process of
printing is begun. The roll of paper, drawn by nipping rollers,
next flies through to the cylinder on which the stereotype plates
are fixed, so as to form the four pages of the ordinary sheet of
The Times; there it is lightly pressed against the type and
printed; then it passes downwards round another cylinder covered
with cloth, and reversed; next to the second type-covered roller,
where it takes the impression exactly on the other side of the
remaining four pages. It next reaches one of the most ingenious
contrivances of the invention--the cutting machinery, by means of
which the paper is divided by a quick knife into the 5500 sheets
of which the entire web consists. The tapes hurry the now
completely printed newspaper up an inclined plane, from which the
divided sheets are showered down in a continuous stream by an
oscillating frame, where they are met by two boys, who adjust the
sheets as they fall. The reel of four miles long is printed and
divided into newspapers complete in about twenty-five minutes.

The machine is almost entirely self-acting, from the pumping-up
of the ink into the ink-box out of the cistern below stairs, to
the registering of the numbers as they are printed in the
manager's room above. It is always difficult to describe a
machine in words. Nothing but a series of sections and diagrams
could give the reader an idea of the construction of this
unrivalled instrument. The time to see it and wonder at it is
when the press is in full work. And even then you can see but
little of its construction, for the cylinders are wheeling round
with immense velocity. The rapidity with which the machine works
may be inferred from the fact that the printing cylinders (round
which the stereotyped plates are fixed), while making their
impressions on the paper, travel at the surprising speed of 200
revolutions a minute, or at the rate of about nine miles an hour!

Contrast this speed with the former slowness. Go back to the
beginning of the century. Before the year 1814 the turn-out of
newspapers was only about 300 single impressions in an hour--that
is, impressions printed on only one side of the paper. Koenig by
his invention increased the issue to 1100 impressions. Applegath
and Cowper by their four-cylinder machine increased the issue to
4000, and by the eight-cylinder machine to 10,000 an hour. But
these were only impressions printed on one side of the paper.
The first perfecting press--that is, printing simultaneously the
paper on both sides--was the Walter, the speed of which has been
raised to 12,000, though, if necessary, it can produce excellent
work at the rate of 17,000 complete copies of an eight-page paper
per hour. Then, with the new method of stereotyping--by means of
which the plates can be infinitely multiplied and by the aid of
additional machines, the supply of additional impressions is
absolutely unlimited.

The Walter Press is not a monopoly. It is manufactured at The
Times office, and is supplied to all comers. Among the other
daily papers printed by its means in this country are the Daily
News, the Scotsmam, and the Birmingham Daily Post. The first
Walter Press was sent to America in 1872, where it was employed
to print the Missouri Republican at St. Louis, the leading
newspaper of the Mississippi Valley. An engineer and a skilled
workman from The Times office accompanied the machinery. On
arriving at St. Louis--the materials were unpacked, lowered into
the machine-room, where they were erected and ready for work in
the short space of five days.

The Walter Press was an object of great interest at the
Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876, where it was
shown printing the New Fork Times one of the most influential
journals in America. The press was surrounded with crowds of
visitors intently watching its perfect and regular action, "like
a thing of life."  The New York Times said of it: "The Walter
Press is the most perfect printing press yet known to man;
invented by the most powerful journal of the Old World, and
adopted as the very best press to be had for its purposes by the
most influential journal of the New World.... It is an honour to
Great Britain to have such an exhibit in her display, and a
lasting benefit to the printing business, especially to
newspapers.... The first printing press run by steam was erected
in the year 1814 in the office of The Times by the father of him
who is the present proprietor of that world-famous journal. The
machine of 1814 was described in The Times of the 29th November
in that year, and the account given of it closed in these words:
'The whole of these complicated acts is performed with such a
velocity and simultaneonsness of movement that no less than 1100
sheets are impressed in one hour.' Mirabile dictu! And the
Walter Press of to-day can run off 17,000 copies an hour printed
on both sides. This is not bad work for one man's lifetime."

It is unnecessary to say more about this marvellous machine. Its
completion forms the crown of the industry which it represents,
and of the enterprise of the journal which it prints.

Footnotes for Chapter VII.

[1] Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb
Robinson, Barrister-at-Law, F.S.A., i. 231.

[2] After the appearance of my article on the Koenig and Walter
Presses in Macmillan's Magazine for December, 1869, I received
the following letter from Sir Rowland Hill:-

"Hampstead"  January 5th, 1870.

"My dear sir,

"In your very interesting article in Macmillan's Magazine on the
subject of the printing machine, you have unconsciously done me
some injustice. To convince yourself of this, you have only to
read the enclosed paper. The case, however, will be strengthened
when I tell you that as far back as the year 1856, that is, seven
years after the expiry of my patent, I pointed out to Mr. Mowbray
Morris, the manager of The Times, the fitness of my machine for
the printing of that journal, and the fact that serious
difficulties to its adoption had been removed. I also, at his
request, furnished him with a copy of the document with which I
now trouble you. Feeling sure that you would like to know the
truth on any subject of which you may treat, I should be glad to
explain the matter more fully, and for this purpose will, with
your permission, call upon you at any time you may do me the
favour to appoint.
"Faithfully yours,

"Rowland Hill."

On further enquiry I obtained the Patent No. 6762; but found that
nothing practical had ever come of it. The pamphlet enclosed by
Sir Rowland Hill in the above letter is entitled 'The Rotary
Printing Machine.' It is very clever and ingenious, like
everything he did. But it was still left for some one else to
work out the invention into a practical working printing-press.
The subject is fully referred to in the 'Life of Sir Rowland
Hill' (i. 224,525). In his final word on the subject, Sir
Rowland "gladly admits the enormous difficulty of bringing a
complex machine into practical use," a difficulty, he says, which
"has been most successfully overcome by the patentees of the
Walter Press."

CHAPTER VIII.

WILLIAM CLOWES: INTRODUCER OF BOOK-PRINTING BY STEAM.

"The Images of men's wits and knowledges remain in Books,
exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual
renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called Images, because
they generate still, and cast their seeds in the minds of others,
provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding
ages; so that, if the invention of the Ship was thought so noble,
which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, and
consociateth the most remote Regions in participation of their
Fruits, how much more are letters to be magnified, which, as
Ships, pass through the vast Seas of time, and make ages so
distant to participate of the wisdom, illuminations, and
inventions, the one of the other?"--Bacon, On the Proficience and
Advancement of Learning.

Steam has proved as useful and potent in the printing of books as
in the printing of newspapers. Down to the end of last century,
"the divine art," as printing was called, had made comparatively
little progress. That is to say, although books could be
beautifully printed by hand labour, they could not be turned out
in any large numbers.

The early printing press was rude. It consisted of a table,
along which the forme of type, furnished with a tympan and
frisket, was pushed by hand. The platen worked vertically
between standards, and was brought down for the impression, and
raised after it, by a common screw, worked by a bar handle. The
inking was performed by balls covered with skin pelts; they were
blacked with ink, and beaten down on the type by the pressman.
The inking was consequently irregular.

In 1798, Earl Stanhope perfected the press that bears his name.
He did not patent it, but made his invention over to the public.
In 1818, Mr. Cowper greatly improved the inking of formes used in
the Stanhope and other presses, by the use of a hand roller
covered with a composition of glue and treacle, in combination
with a distributing table. The ink was thus applied in a more
even manner, and with a considerable decrease of labour. With
the Stanhope Press, printing was as far advanced as it could
possibly be by means of hand labour. About 250 impressions could
be taken off, on one side, in an hour.

But this, after all, was a very small result. When books could
be produced so slowly, there could be no popular literature.
Books were still articles for the few, instead of for the many.
Steam power, however, completely altered the state of affairs.
When Koenig invented his steam press, he showed by the printing
of Clarkson's 'Life of Penn' --the first sheets ever printed with
a cylindrical press--that books might be printed neatly, as well
as cheaply, by the new machine. Mr. Bensley continued the
process, after Koenig left England; and in 1824, according to
Johnson in his 'Typographia,' his son was "driving an extensive
business."

In the following year, 1825, Archibald Constable, of Edinburgh,
propounded his plan for revolutionising the art of bookselling.
Instead of books being articles of luxury, he proposed to bring
them into general consumption. He would sell them, not by
thousands, but by hundreds of thousands, "ay, by millions;" and
he would accomplish this by the new methods of multiplication--by
machine printing and by steam power. Mr. Constable accordingly
issued a library of excellent books; and, although he was
ruined--not by this enterprise, but the other speculations into
which he entered--he set the example which other enterprising
minds were ready to follow. Amongst these was Charles Knight,
who set the steam presses of William Clowes to work, for the
purposes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

William Clowes was the founder of the vast printing establishment
from which these sheets are issued; and his career furnishes
another striking illustration of the force of industry and
character. He was born on the 1st of January, 1779. His father
was educated at Oxford, and kept a large school at Chichester;
but dying when William was but an infant, he left his widow, with
straitened means, to bring up her family. At a proper age
William was bound apprentice to a printer at Chichester; and,
after serving him for seven years, he came up to London, at the
beginning of 1802, to seek employment as a journeyman. He
succeeded in finding work at a small office on Tower Hill, at a
small wage. The first lodgings he took cost him 5s. a week; but
finding this beyond his means he hired a room in a garret at 2s.
6d., which was as much as he could afford out of his scanty
earnings.

The first job he was put to, was the setting-up of a large
poster-bill--a kind of work which he had been accustomed to
execute in the country; and he knocked it together so expertly
that his master, Mr. Teape, on seeing what he could do, said to
him, "Ah! I find you are just the fellow for me."  The young man,
however, felt so strange in London, where he was without a friend
or acquaintance, that at the end of the first month he thought of
leaving it; and yearned to go back to his native city. But he
had not funds enough to enable him to follow his inclinations,
and he accordingly remained in the great City, to work, to
persevere, and finally to prosper. He continued at Teape's for
about two years, living frugally, and even contriving to save a
little money.

He then thought of beginning business on his own account. The
small scale on which printing was carried on in those days
enabled him to make a start with comparatively little capital.
By means of his own savings and the help of his friends, he was
enabled to take a little printing-office in Villiers Street,
Strand, about the end of 1803; and there he began with one
printing press, and one assistant. His stock of type was so
small, that he was under the necessity of working it from day to
day like a banker's gold. When his first job came in, he
continued to work for the greater part of three nights, setting
the type during the day, and working it off at night, in order
that the type might be distributed for resetting on the following
morning. He succeeded, however, in executing his first job to
the entire satisfaction of his first customer.

His business gradually increased, and then, with his constantly
saved means, he was enabled to increase his stock of type, and to
undertake larger jobs. Industry always tells, and in the
long-run leads to prosperity. He married early, but he married
well. He was only twenty-four when he found his best fortune in
a good, affectionate wife. Through this lady's cousin, Mr.
Winchester, the young printer was shortly introduced to important
official business. His punctual execution of orders, the
accuracy of his work, and the despatch with which he turned it
out soon brought him friends, and his obliging and kindly
disposition firmly secured them. Thus, in a few years, the
humble beginner with one press became a printer on a large scale.

The small concern expanded into a considerable printing-office in
Northumberland Court, which was furnished with many presses and a
large stock of type. The office was, unfortunately, burnt down;
but a larger office rose in its place.

What Mr. Clowes principally aimed at, in carrying on his
business, was  accuracy, speed, and quantity. He did not seek to
produce editions de luxe in limited numbers, but large
impressions of works in popular demand--travels, biographies,
histories, blue-books, and official reports, in any quantity.
For this purpose, he found the process of hand-printing too
tedious, as well as too costly; and hence he early turned his
attention to book printing by machine presses, driven by steam
power,--in this matter following the example of Mr. Walter of the
Times, who had for some years employed the same method for
newspaper printing.

Applegath & Cowper's machines had greatly advanced the art of
printing. They secured perfect inking and register; and the
sheets were printed off more neatly, regularly, and
expeditiously; and larger sheets could be printed on both sides,
than by any other method. In 1823, accordingly, Mr. Clowes
erected his first steam presses, and he soon found abundance of
work for them. But to produce steam requires boilers and
engines, the working of which occasions smoke and noise. Now, as
the printing-office, with its steam presses, was situated in
Northumberland Court, close to the palace of the Duke of
Northumberland, at Charing Cross, Mr. Clowes was required to
abate the nuisance, and to stop the noise and dirt occasioned by
the use of his engines. This he failed to do, and the Duke
commenced an action against him.

The case was tried in June, 1824, in the Court of Common Pleas.
It was ludicrous to hear the extravagant terms in which the
counsel for the plaintiff and his witnesses described the
nuisance--the noise made by the engine in the underground cellar,
some times like thunder, at other times like a thrashing-machine,
and then again like the rumbling of carts and waggons. The
printer had retained the Attorney-general, Mr. Copley, afterwards
Lord Lyndhurst, who conducted his case with surpassing ability.
The cross-examination of a foreign artist, employed by the Duke
to repaint some portraits of the Cornaro family by Titian, is
said to have been one of the finest things on record. The sly
and pungent humour, and the banter with which the counsel derided
and laughed down this witness, were inimitable. The printer won
his case; but he eventually consented to remove his steam presses
from the neighbourhood, on the Duke paying him a certain sum to
be determined by the award of arbitrators.

It happened, about this period, that a sort of murrain fell upon
the London publishers. After the failure of Constable at
Edinburgh, they came down one after another, like a pack of
cards. Authors are not the only people who lose labour and money
by publishers; there are also cases where publishers are ruined
by authors. Printers also now lost heavily. In one week, Mr.
Clowes sustained losses through the failure of London publishers
to the extent of about 25,000L. Happily, the large sum which the
arbitrators awarded him for the removal of his printing presses
enabled him to tide over the difficulty; he stood his ground
unshaken, and his character in the trade stood higher than ever.

In the following year Mr. Clowes removed to Duke Street,
Blackfriars, to premises until then occupied by Mr. Applegath, as
a printer; and much more extensive buildings and offices were now
erected. There his business transactions assumed a form of
unprecedented magnitude, and kept pace with the great demand for
popular information which set in with such force about fifty
years ago. In the course of ten years--as we find from the
'Encyclopaedia Metropolitana'--there were twenty of Applegath &
Cowper's machines, worked by two five-horse engines. From these
presses were issued the numerous admirable volumes and
publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge; the treatises on 'Physiology,' by Roget, and 'Animal
Mechanics,' by Charles Bell; the 'Elements of Physics,' by Neill
Arnott; 'The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties,' by G. L.
Craik, a most fascinating book; the Library of Useful Knowledge;
the 'Penny Magazine,' the first  illustrated publication; and the
'Penny Cyclopaedia,' that admirable  compendium of knowledge and
science.

These publications were of great value. Some of them were
printed in unusual numbers. The 'Penny Magazine,' of which
Charles Knight was editor, was perhaps too good, because it was
too scientific. Nevertheless, it reached a circulation of
200,000 copies. The 'Penny Cyclopaedia' was still better. It
was original, and yet cheap. The articles were written by the
best men that could be found in their special departments of
knowledge. The sale was originally 75,000 weekly; but, as the
plan enlarged, the price was increased from 1d. to 2d., and then
to 4d. At the end of the second year, the circulation had fallen
to 44,000; and at the end of the third year, to 20,000.

It was unfortunate for Mr. Knight to be so much under the
influence of his Society. Had the Cyclopaedia been under his own
superintendence, it would have founded his fortune. As it was,
he lost over 30,000L. by the venture. The 'Penny Magazine' also
went down in circulation, until it became a non-paying
publication, and then it was discontinued. It is curious to
contrast the fortunes of William Chambers of Edinburgh with those
of Charles Knight of London. 'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal' was
begun in February, 1832, and the 'Penny Magazine' in March, 1832.

Chambers was perhaps shrewder than Knight. His journal was as
good, though without illustrations; but he contrived to mix up
amusement with useful knowledge. It may be a weakness, but the
public like to be entertained, even while they are feeding upon
better food. Hence Chambers succeeded, while Knight failed. The
'Penny Magazine' was discontinued in 1845, whereas 'Chambers's
Edinburgh Journal' has maintained its popularity to the present
day. Chambers, also, like Knight, published an 'Encyclopaedia,'
which secured a large circulation. But he was not trammelled by
a Society, and the 'Encyclopaedia' has become a valuable
property.

The publication of these various works would not have been
possible without the aid of the steam printing press. When Mr.
Edward Cowper was examined before a Committee of the House of
Commons, he said, "The ease with which the principles and
illustrations of Art might be diffused is, I think, so obvious
that it is hardly necessary to say a word about it. Here you may
see it exemplified in the 'Penny Magazine.'  Such works as this
could not have existed without the printing machine."  He was
asked, "In fact, the mechanic and the peasant, in the most remote
parts of the country, have now an opportunity of seeing tolerably
correct outlines of form which they never could behold before?"
To which he answered, "Exactly; and literally at the price they
used to give for a song."  "Is there not, therefore, a greater
chance of calling genius into activity?"  "Yes," he said, "not
merely by books creating an artist here and there, but by the
general elevation of the taste of the public."

Mr. Clowes was always willing to promote deserving persons in his
office. One of these rose from step to step, and eventually
became one of the most prosperous publishers in London. He
entered the service as an errand-boy, and got his meals in the
kitchen. Being fond of reading, he petitioned Mrs. Clowes to let
him sit somewhere, apart from the other servants, where he might
read his book in quiet. Mrs. Clowes at length entreated her
husband to take him into the office, for "Johnnie Parker was such
a good boy."  He consented, and the boy took his place at a
clerk's desk. He was well-behaved, diligent, and attentive. As
he advanced in years, his steady and steadfast conduct showed
that he could be trusted. Young fellows like this always make
their way in life; for character invariably tells, not only in
securing respect, but in commanding confidence. Parker was
promoted from one post to another, until he was at length
appointed overseer over the entire establishment.

A circumstance shortly after occurred which enabled Mr. Clowes to
advance him, though greatly to his own inconvenience, to another
important post. The Syndics of Cambridge were desirous that Mr.
Clowes should go down there to set their printing-office in
order; they offered him 400L. a year if he would only appear
occasionally, and see that the organisation was kept complete.
He declined, because the magnitude of his own operations had now
become so great that they required his unremitting attention.
He, however strongly recommended Parker to the office, though he
could ill spare him. But he would not stand in the young man's
way, and he was appointed accordingly. He did his work most
effectually at Cambridge, and put the University Press into
thorough working order.

As the 'Penny Magazine' and other publications of the Society of
Useful Knowledge were now making their appearance, the clergy
became desirous of bringing out a religious publication of a
popular character, and they were in search for a publisher.
Parker, who was well known at Cambridge, was mentioned to the
Bishop of London as the most likely person. An introduction took
place, and after an hour's conversation with Parker, the Bishop
went to his friends and said, "This is the very man we want."  An
offer was accordingly made to him to undertake the publication of
the 'Saturday Magazine' and the other publications of the
Christian Knowledge Society, which he accepted. It is
unnecessary to follow his fortunes. His progress was steady; he
eventually became the publisher of 'Fraser's Magazine' and of the
works of John Stuart Mill and other well-known writers. Mill
never forgot his appreciation and generosity; for when his
'System of Logic' had been refused by the leading London
publishers, Parker prized the book at its rightful value and
introduced it to the public.

To return to Mr. Clowes. In the course of a few years, the
original humble establishment of the Sussex compositor, beginning
with one press and one assistant, grew up to be one of the
largest printing-offices in the world. It had twenty-five steam
presses, twenty-eight hand-presses, six hydraulic presses, and
gave direct employment to over five hundred persons, and indirect
employment to probably more than ten times that number. Besides
the works connected with his printing-office, Mr. Clowes found it
necessary to cast his own types, to enable him to command on
emergency any quantity; and to this he afterwards added
stereotyping on an immense scale. He possessed the power of
supplying his compositors with a stream of new type at the rate
of about 50,000 pieces a day. In this way, the weight of type in
ordinary use became very great; it amounted to not less than 500
tons, and the stereotyped plates to about 2500 tons the value of
the latter being not less than half a million sterling.

Mr. Clowes would not hesitate, in the height of his career, to
have tons of type locked up for months in some ponderous
blue-book. To print a report of a hundred folio pages in the
course of a day or during a night, or of a thousand pages in a
week, was no uncommon occurrence. From his gigantic
establishment were turned out not fewer than 725,000 printed
sheets, or equal to 30,000 volumes a week. Nearly 45,000 pounds
of paper were printed weekly. The quantity printed on both sides
per week, if laid down in a path of 22 1/4 inches broad, would
extend 263 miles in length.

About the year l840, a Polish inventor brought out a composing
machine, and submitted it to Mr. Clowes for approval. But Mr.
Clowes was getting too old to take up and push any new invention.

He was also averse to doing anything to injure the compositors,
having once been a member of the craft. At the same time he said
to his son George, "If you find this to be a likely machine, let
me know. Of course we must go with the age. If I had not
started the steam press when I did, where should I have been
now?"  On the whole, the composing machine, though ingenious, was
incomplete, and did not come into use at that time, nor indeed
for a long time after. Still, the idea had been born, and, like
other inventions, became eventually developed into a useful
working machine. Composing machines are now in use in many
printing-offices, and the present Clowes' firm possesses several
of them. Those in The Times newspaper office are perhaps the
most perfect of all.

Mr. Clowes was necessarily a man of great ability, industry, and
energy. Whatever could be done in printing, that he would do.
He would never admit the force of any difficulty that might be
suggested to his plans. When he found a person ready to offer
objections, he would say, "Ah! I see you are a difficulty-maker:
you will never do for me."

Mr. Clowes died in 1847, at the age of sixty-eight. There still
remain a few who can recall to mind the giant figure, the kindly
countenance, and the gentle bearing of this "Prince of Printers,"
as he was styled by the members of his craft. His life was full
of hard and useful work; and it will probably be admitted that,
as the greatest multiplier of books in his day, and as one of the
most effective practical labourers for the diffusion of useful
knowledge, his name is entitled to be permanently associated, not
only with the industrial, but also with the intellectual
development of our time.

CHAPTER IX.

CHARLES BIANCONI: A LESSON OF SELF-HELP IN IRELAND.

"I beg you to occupy yourself in collecting biographical notices
respecting the Italians who have honestly enriched themselves in
other regions, particularly referring to the obstacles of their
previous life, and to the efforts and the means which they
employed for vanquishing them, as well as to the advantages which
they secured for themselves, for the countries in which they
settled, and for the country to which they owed their birth."
--GENERAL MENABREA, Circular to Italian Consuls.

When Count Menabrea was Prime Minister of Italy, he caused a
despatch to be prepared and issued to Italian Consuls in all
parts of the world, inviting them to collect and forward to him
"biographical notices respecting the Italians who have honourably
advanced themselves in foreign countries."

His object, in issuing the despatch, was to collect information
as to the lives of his compatriots living abroad, in order to
bring out a book similar to 'Self-help,' the examples cited in
which were to be drawn exclusively from the lives of Italian
citizens. Such a work, he intimated, "if it were once circulated
among the masses, could not fail to excite their emulation and
encourage them to follow the examples therein set forth," while
"in the course of time it might exercise a powerful influence on
the increased greatness of our country."

We are informed by Count Menabrea that, although no special work
has been published from the biographical notices collected in
answer to his despatch, yet that the Volere e Potere ('Will is
Power') of Professor Lessona, issued a few years ago,
sufficiently answers the purpose which he contemplated, and
furnishes many examples of the patient industry and untiring
perseverance of Italians in all parts of the world. Many
important illustrations of life and character are necessarily
omitted from Professor Lessona's interesting work. Among these
may be mentioned the subject of the following pages,--a
distinguished Italian who entirely corresponds to Count
Menabrea's description--one who, in the face of the greatest
difficulties, raised himself to an eminent public position, at
the same time that he conferred the greatest benefits upon the
country in which he settled and carried on his industrial
operations. We mean Charles Bianconi, and his establishment of
the great system of car communication through out Ireland.[1]

Charles Bianconi was born in 1786, at the village of Tregolo,
situated in the Lombard Highlands of La Brianza, about ten miles
from Como. The last elevations of the Alps disappear in the
district; and the great plain of Lombardy extends towards the
south. The region is known for its richness and beauty; the
inhabitants being celebrated for the cultivation of the mulberry
and the rearing of the silkworm, the finest silk in Lombardy
being produced in the neighbourhood. Indeed, Bianconi's family,
like most of the villagers, maintained themselves by the silk
culture.

Charles had three brothers and one sister. When of a sufficient
age, he was sent to school. The Abbe Radicali had turned out
some good scholars; but with Charles Bianconi his failure was
complete. The new pupil proved a tremendous dunce. He was very
wild, very bold, and very plucky; but he learned next to nothing.

Learning took as little effect upon him as pouring water upon a
duck's back. Accordingly, when he left school at the age of
sixteen, he was almost as ignorant as when he had entered it; and
a great deal more wilful.

Young Bianconi had now arrived at the age at which he was
expected to do something for his own maintenance. His father
wished to throw him upon his own resources; and as he would soon
be subject to the conscription, he thought of sending him to some
foreign country in order to avoid the forced service. Young
fellows, who had any love of labour or promptings of independence
in them, were then accustomed to leave home and carry on their
occupations abroad. It was a common practice for workmen in the
neighbourhood of Como to emigrate to England and carry on various
trades; more particularly the manufacture and sale of barometers,
looking-glasses, images, prints, pictures, and other articles.

Accordingly, Bianconi's father arranged with one Andrea Faroni to
take the young man to England and instruct him in the trade of
print-selling. Bianconi was to be Faroni's apprentice for
eighteen months; and in the event of his not liking the
occupation, he was to be placed under the care of Colnaghi, a
friend of his father's, who was then making considerable progress
as a print-seller in London; and who afterwards succeeded in
achieving a considerable fortune and reputation.

Bianconi made his preparations for leaving home. A little
festive entertainment was given at a little inn in Como, at which
the whole family were present. It was a sad thing for Bianconi's
mother to take leave of her boy, wild though he was. On the
occasion of this parting ceremony, she fainted outright, at which
the young fellow thought that things were assuming a rather
serious aspect. As he finally left the family home at Tregolo,
the last words his mother said to him were these --words which he
never forgot: "When you remember me, think of me as waiting at
this window, watching for your return."

Besides Charles Bianconi, Faroni took three other boys under his
charge. One was the son of a small village innkeeper, another
the son of a tailor, and the third the son of a flax-dealer.
This party, under charge of the Padre, ascended the Alps by the
Val San Giacomo road. From the summit of the pass they saw the
plains of Lombardy stretching away in the blue distance. They
soon crossed the Swiss frontier, and then Bianconi found himself
finally separated from home. He now felt, that without further
help from friends or relatives, he had his own way to make in the
world.

The party of travellers duly reached England; but Faroni, without
stopping in London, took them over to Ireland at once. They
reached Dublin in the summer of 1802, and lodged in Temple Bar,
near Essex Bridge. It was some little time before Faroni could
send out the boys to sell pictures. First he had the leaden
frames to cast; then they had to be trimmed and coloured; and
then the pictures--mostly of sacred subjects, or of public
characters--had to be mounted. The flowers; which were of wax,
had also to be prepared and finished, ready for sale to the
passers-by.

When Bianconi went into the streets of Dublin to sell his mounted
prints, he could not speak a word of English. He could only say,
"Buy, buy!"  Everybody spoke to him an unknown tongue. When
asked the price, he could only indicate by his fingers the number
of pence he wanted for his goods. At length he learned a little
English,--at least sufficient "for the road;" and then he was
sent into the country to sell his merchandize. He was despatched
every Monday morning with about forty shillings' worth of stock,
and ordered to return home on Saturdays, or as much sooner as he
liked, if he had sold all the pictures. The only money his
master allowed him at starting was fourpence. When Bianconi
remonstrated at the smallness of the amount, Faroni answered,
"While you have goods you have money; make haste to sell your
goods!"

During his apprenticeship, Bianconi learnt much of the country
through which he travelled. He was constantly making
acquaintances with new people, and visiting new places. At
Waterford he did a good trade in small prints. Besides the
Scripture pieces, he sold portraits of the Royal Family, as well
as of Bonaparte and his most distinguished generals. "Bony" was
the dread of all magistrates, especially in Ireland. At Passage,
near Waterford, Bianconi was arrested for having sold a leaden
framed picture of the famous French Emperor. He was thrown into
a cold guard-room, and spent the night there without bed, or
fire, or food. Next morning he was discharged by the magistrate,
but cautioned that he must not sell any more of such pictures.

Many things struck Bianconi in making his first journeys through
Ireland. He was astonished at the dram-drinking of the men, and
the pipe-smoking of the women. The violent faction-fights which
took place at the fairs which he frequented, were of a kind which
he had never before observed among the pacific people of North
Italy. These faction-fights were the result, partly of
dram-drinking, and partly of the fighting mania which then
prevailed in Ireland. There were also numbers of crippled and
deformed beggars in every town,--quarrelling and fighting in the
streets,--rows and drinkings at wakes,--gambling, duelling, and
riotous living amongst all classes of the people,--things which
could not but strike any ordinary observer at the time, but which
have now, for the most part, happily passed away.

At the end of eighteen months, Bianconi's apprenticeship was out;
and Faroni then offered to take him back to his father, in
compliance with the original understanding. But Bianconi had no
wish to return to Italy. Faroni then made over to him the money
he had retained on his account, and Bianconi set up business for
himself. He was now about eighteen years old; he was strong and
healthy, and able to walk with a heavy load on his back from
twenty to thirty miles a day. He bought a large case, filled it
with coloured prints and other articles, and started from Dublin
on a tour through the south of Ireland. He succeeded, like most
persons who labour diligently. The curly-haired Italian lad
became a general favourite. He took his native politeness with
him  everywhere; and made many friends among his various
customers throughout the country.

Bianconi used to say that it was about this time when he was
carrying his heavy case upon his back, weighing at least a
hundred pounds--that the idea began to strike him, of some cheap
method of conveyance being established for the accommodation of
the poorer classes in Ireland. As he dismantled himself of his
case of pictures, and sat wearied and resting on the milestones
along the road, he puzzled his mind with the thought, "Why should
poor people walk and toil, and rich people ride and take their
ease? Could not some method be devised by which poor people also
might have the opportunity of travelling comfortably?"

It will thus be seen that Bianconi was already beginning to think
about the matter. When asked, not long before his death, how it
was that he had first thought of starting his extensive Car
establishment, he answered, "It grew out of my back!"  It was the
hundred weight of pictures on his dorsal muscles that stimulated
his thinking faculties. But the time for starting his great
experiment had not yet arrived.

Bianconi wandered about from town to town for nearly two years.
The  picture-case became heavier than ever. For a time he
replaced it with a portfolio of unframed prints. Then he became
tired of the wandering life, and in 1806 settled down at
Carrick-on-Suir as a print-seller and carver and gilder. He
supplied himself with gold-leaf from Waterford, to which town he
used to proceed by Tom Morrissey's boat. Although the distance
by road between the towns was only twelve miles, it was about
twenty-four by water, in consequence of the windings of the river
Suir. Besides, the boat could only go when the state of the tide
permitted. Time was of little consequence; and it often took
half a day to make the journey. In the course of one of his
voyages, Bianconi got himself so thoroughly soaked by rain and
mud that he caught a severe cold, which ran into pleurisy, and
laid him up for about two months. He was carefully attended to
by a good, kind physician, Dr. White, who would not take a penny
for his medicine and nursing.

Business did not prove very prosperous at Carrick-on-suir; the
town was small, and the trade was not very brisk. Accordingly,
Bianconi resolved, after a year's ineffectual trial, to remove to
Waterford, a more thriving centre of operations. He was now
twenty-one years old. He began again as a carver and gilder; and
as business flowed in upon him, he worked very hard, sometimes
from six in the morning until two hours after midnight. As
usual, he made many friends. Among the best of them was Edward
Rice, the founder of the "Christian Brothers" in Ireland. Edward
Rice was a true benefactor to his country. He devoted himself to
the work of education, long before the National Schools were
established; investing the whole of his means in the foundation
and management of this noble institution.

Mr. Rice's advice and instruction set and kept Bianconi in the
right road. He helped the young foreigner to learn English.
Bianconi was no longer a dunce, as he had been at school; but a
keen, active, enterprising fellow, eager to make his way in the
world. Mr. Rice encouraged him to be sedulous and industrious,
urged him to carefulness and sobriety, and strengthened his
religions impressions. The help and friendship of this good man,
operating upon the mind and soul of a young man, whose habits of
conduct and whose moral and religious character were only in
course of formation, could not fail to exercise, as Bianconi
always acknowledged they did, a most powerful influence upon the
whole of his after life.

Although "three removes" are said to be "as bad as a fire,"
Bianconi, after remaining about two years at Waterford, made a
third removal in 1809, to Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary.
Clonmel is the centre of a large corn trade, and is in water
communication, by the Suir, with Carrick and Waterford.
Bianconi, therefore, merely extended his connection; and still
continued his dealings with his customers in the other towns. He
made himself more proficient in the mechanical part of his
business; and aimed at being the first carver and gilder in the
trade. Besides, he had always an eye open for new business. At
that time, when the war was raging with France, gold was at a
premium. The  guinea was worth about twenty-six or twenty-seven
shillings. Bianconi  therefore began to buy up the hoarded-up
guineas of the peasantry. The loyalists became alarmed at his
proceedings, and began to circulate the report that Bianconi, the
foreigner, was buying up bullion to send secretly to Bonaparte!
The country people, however, parted with their guineas readily;
for they had no particular hatred of "Bony," but rather admired
him.

Bianconi's conduct was of course quite loyal in the matter; he
merely bought the guineas as a matter of business, and sold them
at a profit to the bankers.

The country people had a difficulty in pronouncing his name. His
shop was at the corner of Johnson Street, and instead of
Bianconi, he came to be called "Bian of the Corner."  He was
afterwards known as "Bian."

Bianconi soon became well known after his business was
established. He became a proficient in the carving and gilding
line, and was looked upon as a thriving man. He began to employ
assistants in his trade, and had three German gilders at work.
While they were working in the shop he would travel about the
country, taking orders and delivering goods--sometimes walking
and sometimes driving.

He still retained a little of his old friskiness and spirit of
mischief. He was once driving a car from Clonmel to Thurles; he
had with him a large looking-glass with a gilt frame, on which
about a fortnight's labour had been bestowed. In a fit of
exuberant humour he began to tickle the horse under his tail with
a straw! In an instant the animal reared and plunged, and then
set off at a gallop down hill. The result was, that the car was
dashed to bits and the looking-glass broken into a thousand
atoms!

On another occasion, a man was carrying to Cashel on his back one
of Bianconi's large looking-glasses. An old woman by the
wayside, seeing the odd-looking, unwieldy package, asked what it
was; on which Bianconi, who was close behind the man carrying the
glass, answered that it was "the Repeal of the Union!"  The old
woman's delight was unbounded! She knelt down on her knees in
the middle of the road, as if it had been a picture of the
Madonna, and thanked God for having preserved her in her old age
to see the Repeal of the Union!

But this little waywardness did not last long. Bianconi's wild
oats were soon all sown. He was careful and frugal. As he
afterwards used to say, "When I was earning a shilling a day at
Clonmel, I lived upon eightpence."  He even took lodgers, to
relieve him of the charge of his household expenses. But as his
means grew, he was soon able to have a conveyance of his own. He
first started a yellow gig, in which he drove about from place to
place, and was everywhere treated with kindness and hospitality.
He was now regarded as "respectable," and as a person worthy to
hold some local office. He was elected to a Society for visiting
the Sick Poor, and became a Member of the House of Industry. He
might have gone on in the same business, winning his way to the
Mayoralty of Clonmel, which he afterwards held; but that the old
idea, which had first sprung up in his mind while resting wearily
on the milestones along the road, with his heavy case of pictures
by his side, again laid hold of him, and he determined now to try
whether his plan could not be carried into effect.

He had often lamented the fatigue that poor people had to undergo
in travelling with burdens from place to place upon foot, and
wondered whether some means might not be devised for alleviating
their sufferings. Other people would have suggested "the
Government!"  Why should not the Government give us this, that,
and the other,--give us roads, harbours, carriages, boats, nets,
and so on. This, of course, would have been a mistaken idea; for
where people are too much helped, they invariably lose the
beneficent practice of helping themselves. Charles Bianconi had
never been helped, except by advice and friendship. He had
helped himself throughout; and now he would try to help others.

The facts were patent to everybody. There was not an Irishman
who did not know the difficulty of getting from one town to
another. There were roads between them, but no conveyances.
There was an abundance of horses in the country, for at the close
of the war an unusual number of horses, bred for the army, were
thrown upon the market. Then a tax had been levied upon
carriages, which sent a large number of jaunting-cars out of
employment.

The roads of Ireland were on the whole good, being at that time
quite equal, if not superior, to most of those in England. The
facts of the abundant horses, the good roads, the number of
unemployed outside cars, were generally known; but until Bianconi
took the enterprise in hand, there was no person of thought, or
spirit, or capital in the country, who put these three things
together horses, roads, and cars and dreamt of remedying the
great public inconvenience.

It was left for our young Italian carver and gilder, a struggling
man of small capital, to take up the enterprise, and show what
could be done by prudent action and persevering energy. Though
the car system originally "grew out of his back," Bianconi had
long been turning the subject over in his mind. His idea was,
that we should never despise small interests, nor neglect the
wants of poor people. He saw the mail-coaches supplying the
requirements of the rich, and enabling them to travel rapidly
from place to place. "Then," said he to himself, "would it not
be possible for me to make an ordinary two-wheeled car pay, by
running as regularly for the accommodation of poor districts and
poor people?"

When Mr. Wallace, chairman of the Select Committee on Postage, in
1838, asked Mr. Bianconi, "What induced you to commence the car
establishment?" his answer was, "I did so from what I saw, after
coming to this country, of the necessity for such cars, inasmuch
as there was no middle mode of conveyance, nothing to fill up the
vacuum that existed between those who were obliged to walk and
those who posted or rode. My want of knowledge of the language
gave me plenty of time for deliberation, and in proportion as I
grew up with the knowledge of the language and the localities,
this vacuum pressed very heavily upon my  mind, till at last I
hit upon the idea of running jaunting-cars, and for that purpose
I commenced running one between Clonmel and Cahir."[2]

What a happy thing it was for Bianconi and Ireland that he could
not speak with facility,--that he did not know the language or
the manners of the country! In his case silence was "golden."
Had he been able to talk like the people about him, he might have
said much and done little, --attempted nothing and consequently
achieved nothing. He might have got up a meeting and petitioned
Parliament to provide the cars, and subvention the car system; or
he might have gone amongst his personal friends, asked them to
help him, and failing their help, given up his idea in despair<