Chapter II: Part 2

Robert Brown, whom Humboldt has designated as the "Prince of Botanists," was the second and only surviving son of the Rev. James Brown, Episcopalian Minister, of Montrose. Several generations of his maternal ancestors were, like his father, ministers of the Scottish Episcopalian Church, and from them he appears to have inherited a strong attachment to logical and metaphysical studies, the effects of which are so strikingly manifested in the philosophical character of his botanical investigations. At an early age he was sent to the grammar-school of his native town, and in 1787 entered at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he immediately obtained a Ramsay Bursary in philosophy. About two years afterwards, on his father quitting Montrose to reside in Edinburgh, he was removed to the University of that city, in which he continued his studies for several years; but without taking a degree, although destined for the medical profession.

In the year 1791, at the age of seventeen, Brown laid before the Natural History Society, of which he was a member, his earliest paper, which contained, together with critical notes and observations, an enumeration of such plants as had been discovered in North Britain subsequent to the publication of Lightfoot's "Flora Scotica." Although this paper was not intended for publication, it brought the young botanist into communication with Dr. Withering, and laid the foundation of a warm and intimate friendship between them. In the year 1795, soon after the embodiment of the Fifeshire Regiment of Fencible Infantry, Brown obtained in it the double commission of ensign and assistant surgeon, proceeding with the regiment to the north of Ireland, in various parts of which he was stationed until the summer of 1798, when he was detached to England on recruiting service.

Fortunately for himself and for science, this service enabled him to pass some time in London, where his already established botanical reputation secured him a cordial reception from Sir Joseph Banks, of whose library and collections he availed himself to the utmost. In 1799 he returned to his regimental duties in Ireland, from which he was finally recalled, in December of the following year, by a letter from Sir Joseph Banks, proposing for his acceptance the post of naturalist in the expedition for surveying the coasts of New Holland, then fitting out under the command of Captain Flinders.

In the summer of 1801 he embarked at Portsmouth and set out on this expedition. His absence from England lasted more than four years, during which period the southern, eastern, and northern coasts of New Holland, and the southern part of Van Diemen's Land were thoroughly explored; and he arrived in Liverpool, in the month of October, 1805, enriched with a collection of dried plants amounting to nearly 4000 species, a large proportion of which were not only new to science, but likewise exhibited extraordinary combinations of character and form. Immediately on his arrival in England, Brown was appointed librarian of the Linnean Society, of which he had been elected an associate in 1798. The materials which he had been indefatigable in collecting during this voyage, and the vast store of facts and observations in relation to their structure and affinities which he had accumulated, opened out to him new views upon a multitude of botanical subjects, which he was enabled by his position in the Linnean Society to enlarge, and to perfect, and ultimately to lay before the world in a series of masterly publications, which at once stamped upon him the character of the greatest and most philosophical botanist that England had ever produced.

In 1810 appeared the first volume of his 'Prodromus Floræ novæ Hollandiæ et Insulæ Van Diemen.' This important work, together with his memoirs on Proteaciæ and Asclepiadeæ, which immediately followed, and his 'General Remarks, Geographical and Systematical, on the Botany of Terra Australis,' appended to the 'Narrative of Captain Flinder's Voyage,' published in 1814, by displaying in the most instructive form the superior advantages of the Natural System, gave new life to that system, which had hitherto found little favour in France, and speedily led to its universal adoption. A series of memoirs followed the above works, chiefly in the Transactions of the Linnean Society, or in the appendices to various books of travel and survey, which gave fuller and more complete development to his views upon almost every department of botanical science, and induced the illustrious Humboldt not only to confer upon Brown the title mentioned at the beginning of this memoir, but also to designate him as the "Glory and Ornament of Great Britain."[5]

At the close of the year 1810, on the death of his learned and intimate friend Dryander, Mr. Brown succeeded to the office of Librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, who (on his death in 1820) bequeathed to him for life the use and enjoyment of his library and collections. These were subsequently, with Mr. Brown's consent, and in conformity with the provisions of Sir Joseph's will, transferred, in 1827, to the British Museum; and from this latter date, until his death, he continued to fill the office of Keeper of the Botanical Collections in the National establishment. In 1849 Mr. Brown was elected President of the Linnean Society, of which, soon after the death of Sir Joseph Banks, he had resigned the Librarianship, and had become a fellow.

In 1811 he had been made a fellow of the Royal Society; and in 1839 received its highest honour in the Copley medal, awarded to him "for his discoveries during a series of years on the subject of vegetable impregnation." In the meantime, honours and titles flowed in upon him from all quarters. In 1832 the University of Oxford conferred on him, in conjunction with Dalton, Faraday, and Brewster, the honorary degree of D.C.L.; and, in the succeeding year, he was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France, his name being selected from a list, including those of nine other savans of world-wide reputation, nearly every one of whom has since been elected to the same distinguished honour. During the administration of Sir Robert Peel, he received, in recognition of his great eminence in botanical science, a pension on the Civil List of 200_l_. per annum, and shortly afterwards the King of Prussia decorated him with the cross of the highest Prussian Civil Order--'Pour le Merite.'

Of Mr. Brown's later publications the most important are, his 'Botanical Appendix to Captain Burt's Expedition into Central Australia,' published in 1849; and his Memoir 'On Triplosporite, an undescribed Fossil Fruit,' published in the Linnean Transactions for 1851. The pervading and distinguishing character of all these writings, is to be found in the combination of the minutest accuracy of detail with the most comprehensive generalization; and no theory is propounded which does not rest for its foundation on the most circumspect investigation of all attainable facts. Among the most important anatomical and physiological subjects of which they treat, particular mention is due to the discovery of the nucleus of the vegetable cell, the development of the stamina, together with the mode of fecundation in Asclepiadeæ and Orchideæ; the development of the pollen and of the ovulum in Phœnogamous plants, and the bearing of these facts upon the general subject of impregnation; also the origin and development of the spores of mosses; and the discovery of the peculiar motions which take place in the "active molecules" of matter when seen suspended in a fluid under the microscope. Of structural investigations, the most important are those which establish the relation of the flower to the axis from which it is derived, and of the parts of a flower to each other, as regards both position and number; the analogy between stamina and pistilla; the neuration of the corolla of compositœ, their œstivation and inflorescence; and the structure of the stems of cycadeœ, both recent and fossil.

Mr. Brown was also strongly attached to the study of fossil botany, and, with a view to its prosecution, he formed an extensive and valuable collection of fossil woods, which he has bequeathed, under certain conditions, to the British Museum.

After the death of Sir Joseph Banks, who bequeathed to him his house in Soho Square, Mr. Brown continued to occupy that portion of it which opened upon Dean Street; and it was in the library of that illustrious man, the scene of his labours for sixty years, surrounded by his books and by his collections, that Robert Brown breathed his last, on the 10th of June, 1859, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.--_Memoir by John J. Bennett, F.R.S._, read at the Anniversary Meeting of the Linnean Society, May, 1859.

SIR M. ISAMBARD BRUNEL, V.P.R.S., &c.

Born April 25, 1769. Died December 12, 1849.

This celebrated engineer was born at Haqueville, in Normandy, where his family had for several centuries held an honourable position, numbering among its members the eminent French painter Nicholas Poussin. Brunel was educated at the seminary at Rouen, with the intention of his entering holy orders, but he displayed so decided a taste for mathematics and mechanics,[6] that by the advice of the superior of the establishment he was removed to follow a more congenial career.

His father then destined him for the naval service, which he entered on the appointment of the Mareschal de Castries, the Minister of Marine, and made several voyages to the West Indies. While in this position, although only fifteen years old, his mechanical talents showed themselves on many occasions, and he surprised his captain by the production of a sextant of his own manufacture, with which he took his observations.

In 1792 Brunel returned to France, where he found the revolution at its height, and, like all who entertained Royalist principles, was compelled to seek safety by flight, which with difficulty he effected,[7] taking refuge in the United States of America. Here, driven by necessity to the exercise of his talents, he followed the bent of his inclination, and became a civil engineer and architect. His first engagement in this capacity was on the survey of a tract of land near Lake Erie; he then became engaged in cutting canals, and was employed to erect an arsenal and cannon foundry at New York, where he erected several new and ingenious machines. He was also engaged to design and superintend the building of the Bowery Theatre, New York, since destroyed by fire, the roof of which was peculiar and original in its construction. Brunel now rose high in the estimation of the citizens of New York; they appointed him their chief engineer, and in that capacity he organized an establishment for casting and boring ordnance, which at that time was considered unsurpassed for its novelty of design and general practicability. Previously to this the idea of substituting machinery for manual labour in making ships' blocks had long occupied Brunel's mind, and in 1799, having matured his plans, he determined upon coming to England, finding that the United States were unable to afford full occupation for his inventive genius.

In the month of May of the same year Brunel took out his first patent in England, which was for a duplicate writing and drawing machine. His next invention was a machine for twisting cotton thread and forming it into balls; it measured the length of thread which it wound, and proportioned the size of the ball to its weight and firmness. This machine was not, however, patented, and it became rapidly and generally adopted without bringing any advantage to the inventor.

Brunel's next contrivance was a machine for trimmings and borders for muslins, lawns, and cambrics, somewhat of the nature of a sewing machine. Shortly after this he patented his famous block-machinery, which he submitted for the inspection of the Admiralty in 1801.

Earl St. Vincent was at that time at the head of the Admiralty, and after many delays and difficulties, which were ultimately overcome chiefly through the influence of Earl Spencer and Sir Samuel Bentham, Brunel's system was adopted; and he was enabled to erect the beautiful and effective machinery, which has continued until the present time, without any alteration or improvement, to produce nearly all the blocks used in the Royal Navy.[8] The construction of this block machinery, completed in 1808, was entrusted to the late Mr. Henry Maudslay, from whom Brunei had already derived considerable assistance in the execution of his models and working out of his designs. It was erected in Portsmouth Dockyard, and the economy produced by the first year's use of these machines was estimated at about 24,000_l._, two-thirds of which sum was awarded to the ingenious inventor, who was soon after engaged by the government to erect extensive saw mills, and carry out other improvements at Chatham and Woolwich. Brunel was essentially an inventor; besides the above-mentioned machines, he took out patents for "the manufacture of tin-foil," for "copying presses," for "stereotype printing plates," a contrivance for making the small boxes used by druggists, and a nail-making machine.

He likewise introduced the system of cutting veneers by circular saws of a large diameter, to which is mainly due the present extensive application of veneers of wood to ornamental furniture.

A short time before the termination of the war with France he devised a plan for making shoes by machinery, and under the countenance of the Duke of York the shoes so manufactured were introduced for the use of the army, on account of their strength, cheapness, and durability; but at the peace in 1815, the machines were laid aside, manual labour having become cheaper, and the demand for military equipments having in a measure ceased. Steam navigation also attracted Brunel's attention, and he became deeply interested in establishing the Ramsgate steam vessels, which were among the first that plied effectively on the River Thames. About this period, after much labour and perseverance, he induced the Admiralty to permit the application of steam for towing vessels to sea, the experiments being made chiefly at his own expense, a small sum in aid having been promised, but eventually withdrawn before the completion of the trials, the Admiralty considering the attempt too chimerical to be seriously entertained.

In the year 1824 Brunel, undeterred by the two previous failures of Dodd and Trevethick, commenced his great work--the Thames Tunnel. It is said that the original idea occurred to him as applied to the Neva at St. Petersburgh, in order to avoid the inconvenience arising from the floating ice; a plan which he offered to the Emperor Alexander, on the occasion of his visit to this country in 1814. During the above-mentioned year a company was formed for the execution of this work, under the auspices of the Duke of Wellington, who had always entertained a favourable view as to its practicability; and after numerous accidents, and frequent suspensions of the works, this great and novel undertaking was successfully accomplished, and opened to the public in the year 1843. In the prosecution of this undertaking Sir Isambard derived great assistance from his son, the late Mr. I. K. Brunel.

The shield, as it was termed, under shelter of which the excavation beneath the bed of the river was carried forward, required very peculiar contrivances to adapt it to its purpose. It was made in sections or compartments contained in a strong square frame, each section or compartment being moved forward by screws, as the men working in them proceeded with the excavation; the entire shield was thus enabled to be moved forward, and the brickwork, consisting of two tunnels, was built up to the extent that it had been advanced.

After the completion of the Tunnel, Brunel's health became seriously impaired from the labours he had undergone in its execution, and he was unable to mix in active life; he expired on the 12th of December, 1849, in his eighty-first year, after a long illness.

He received the honour of Knighthood in 1841, and the order of the Legion of honour in 1829; he was also a corresponding member of the French Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which he joined in the year 1823.--_Annual Report of the Institution of Civil Engineers._ December 17, 1850.--_Beamish's Life of Brunel._ London, 1862.

EDMUND CARTWRIGHT, D.D., F.R.S., &c.

Born April 24, 1743. Died October 30, 1823.

Dr. Cartwright, whose invention of the power-loom may be considered as one of the valuable elements of our national manufacturing superiority, was born at Marnham in Nottinghamshire, and was the youngest of three brothers, all of whom were remarkable men.[9] He was educated under Dr. Clarke, at the Grammar School of Wakefield, and had he been permitted to follow the bent of his own inclination in the choice of a profession, would have preferred the navy; but two of his brothers being already designed for that service, it was thought advisable that Edmund should enter the Church. Dr. Cartwright began his academical studies at University College, Oxford, where he was entered at fourteen years of age, and during the vacations was placed under the private tuition of Dr. Langhorne, the editor of 'Plutarch's Lives.'

In process of time he became distinguished for his literary abilities, and was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College. He likewise evinced a considerable taste for poetry, and published in 1770 a legendary tale, entitled 'Armine and Elvira,' which went through seven editions in little more than a year, and was greatly admired for its pathos and elegant simplicity. Some years subsequent to this, Cartwright wrote 'The Prince of Peace,' published in 1779, and was also for several years a principal contributor to the 'Monthly Review.'

In the year 1772 he married the daughter of Richard Whittaker, Esq., of Doncaster, and after his marriage resided first at Marnham, and afterwards at Brampton in Derbyshire, to the perpetual curacy of which he was presented by the Dean of Lincoln, Dr. Cust. It was while attending to his clerical duties at this latter place, that Cartwright discovered the application of yeast as a remedy for typhus fever. In 1779 he was presented to the living of Goadby Marwood in Leicestershire, and continued to reside there until the summer of 1796, when he removed with his family[10] to London, as being a situation more favourable for the cultivation of the scientific pursuits in which he had by that time become engrossed.

Dr. Cartwright had attained the mature age of forty, before his attention was drawn towards the subject of weaving, by the following accidental occurrence:--In the summer of 1784, he happened to be on a visit at Matlock, in Derbyshire, and in the company of some gentlemen from Manchester. The conversation turned upon Arkwright's spinning machinery; and fears were expressed by one of the company, that, in consequence of the recent improvements, so much cotton would soon be spun, that hands would not be found to weave it. To this the doctor replied, that the only remedy for such an evil would be to apply the power of machinery to weaving as well as spinning. The discussion which ensued upon the practicability of doing this, made such an impression on Cartwright's mind, that on returning home he determined to try and see what he could do.

His first attempts, as might be supposed, were very clumsy, but he at length succeeded in constructing a machine (for which he took out a patent in 1785), which, although rude and cumbersome in its action, was yet capable of weaving a piece of cloth. Up to this time he had never turned his mind to anything mechanical, either in theory or practice, and his invention was consequently susceptible of great improvement. To accomplish this, he now examined with care the contrivances already in use among the weavers, and availing himself of their general principles, produced in the year 1787 a far more complete and valuable machine, since known as the power-loom.

Shortly after he had brought his loom to perfection, a manufacturer who had called upon him to see it at work, after expressing his admiration at the ingenuity displayed in it, remarked, that wonderful as was Dr. Cartwright's skill, there was one thing that would effectually baffle him, and that was, the weaving of patterns in checks, or, in other words, the combining in the same web a pattern or fancy figure with the crossing colours which constitute the check. The doctor made no reply to this at the time; but some weeks afterwards, on receiving a second visit from the same person, he showed him a piece of muslin, of the description mentioned, beautifully executed by machinery, which so astonished the man, that he roundly declared his conviction that some more than human agency must have been called in on the occasion.[11]

Dr. Cartwright being precluded by his clerical character from entering himself into the manufacture of his machines, a weaving factory was erected at Doncaster, by some friends, with his licence, but it was unsuccessful; and another establishment, built at Manchester, containing 500 looms, was destroyed by an exasperated mob in 1790. Cartwright, however, still continued his inventions, and shortly afterwards contrived a wool-combing machine, which met with even fiercer opposition from the working-classes, who went the length of petitioning parliament to suppress all such obnoxious machines. Their great utility, however, caused them by degrees to be generally adopted; and at the time of Cartwright's death, steam-looms had increased so rapidly, that they were performing the work of 200,000 men.

Notwithstanding the great advantages which the cotton and wool manufacturers reaped from these inventions, their author had as yet obtained no emolument from them, but, on the contrary, had incurred a heavy loss. In consideration of this, and on the petition of several influential cotton-spinners, Parliament in 1810 made the doctor a grant of 10,000_l._--a sum which, although munificent as a present, hardly covered what he had expended in his experiments. Having received the sum awarded by Parliament, and being now sixty-six years of age, Dr. Cartwright was desirous of passing the remainder of his life in retirement and tranquillity, and for this purpose purchased a small farm at Hollenden, in Kent. At this place he spent the remainder of his life, occupied in various scientific and mechanical experiments.

Dr. Cartwright was the author of many other inventions in the arts and agriculture, for some of which he received premiums from the Board of Agriculture and Society of Arts. He also contrived an ingenious modification of the steam-engine, in which he made use of _surface condensation_, and metallic spring packing for the piston.

Till within a few days of his death, Dr. Cartwright retained full possession of his mental faculties, and attained, at the time of his decease in 1823, the age of eighty-one. His remains were interred in the church at Battle, in Sussex. _Memoir of Dr. Edmund Cartwright._ London, 1843.--_Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam-Engine._ London, 1829.

THE HON. HENRY CAVENDISH, F.R.S.

Born October 10, 1731. Died February 24, 1810.

Henry Cavendish, the third in order of time among the four great English pneumatic chemists of the eighteenth century,[12] was the younger son of Lord Charles Cavendish, whose father was the second Duke of Devonshire. His family trace back their descent in unbroken and unquestionable links to Sir John Cavendish, Lord Chief Justice during the reign of Edward III. The great majority of the distinguished chemists of Great Britain have sprung from the middle and lower ranks of the people, but in this respect Henry Cavendish presents a remarkable exception. He was moreover immensely wealthy, so much so, that it has been epigrammatically remarked of him, "That he was the richest of all wise men, and probably, too, the wisest of all rich men;" yet no one could well be more indifferent than he, to the external advantages which are conferred by birth and fortune. Few particulars are known of his early life. He was born at Nice, whither his mother, who died when he was two years old, had gone for the sake of her health.

In 1742 Cavendish became a pupil at Dr. Newcome's school at Hackney, continuing his studies there until he had reached his seventeenth year, when he went to Cambridge, where he matriculated in the first rank on the 18th of December, 1749. He remained at this university until 1753, but did not graduate.

After leaving Cambridge, the personal history of Cavendish becomes a blank for the next ten years. He joined the Royal Society in 1760, but did not contribute anything to its 'Transactions' until the year 1766, when he published his paper 'On Factitious Airs,' which contains the first distinct exposition of the properties of hydrogen, and the first full account of those of carbonic acid; and a paper published by him in the following year may be considered as a still further extension of his research into the properties of this acid.

For some considerable time after this, Cavendish appears to have laid aside Chemistry for other departments of physics. In 1771 he published an elaborate paper on the theory of the principal phenomena of electricity; and in 1776 appeared the curious and interesting account of his attempts to imitate the effects of the torpedo, by an apparatus constructed in imitation of the living fish, and placed in connection with a frictional electrical machine and a Leyden battery. In this imitation he succeeded so well, that all doubts were removed as to the identity of the torpedinal benumbing power with common electricity. In 1776 Cavendish was selected by the Royal Society, in whose 'Transactions' all his previous papers had been published, to describe the various meteorological instruments which were made use of in their apartments; and the succeeding year to this marks the period when he commenced his most important chemical researches, entitled 'Experiments on Air,' which were carried on with frequent and sometimes long interruptions until 1788, no part of them, however, having been published before the year 1783. They led to the discovery of the constant quantitative composition of the atmosphere, the compound nature of water, and the composition of nitric acid. To solve the important problems, whether the atmosphere is constant in its composition, and if so, what is its composition? Cavendish experimented in 1781 for some sixty successive days, making many hundred analyses of air. The honour of the discovery of the compound nature of water, by which perhaps his name has become most famous, is also claimed by James Watt. Cavendish, however, seems at all events entitled to the honour of having first supplied the data on which that discovery was founded, whilst Watt appears to have supplied the conclusion.

Between the years 1783 and 1788, Cavendish published his papers on 'Heat,' and his 'Experiments on Air;' the former are three in number, and relate chiefly to the phenomena of congelation, and embody some of the results of experiments made as early as the year 1764. The first of these papers refer to quicksilver, demonstrating the true freezing-point of this metal to be 39° or 40° below zero, while the second and third refer to the freezing of the mineral acids and of alcohol.

His experiments on air, which led to the important results already referred to, supplied materials for four papers, besides leading to the observation of many phenomena which were never made public. With the last of these papers published in 1788, Cavendish closed his chemical researches, his remaining publications referring to meteorology and astronomy.

In 1798 appeared the celebrated enquiry into the density of the earth, communicated by Cavendish, in a paper to the Royal Society, in which he determined, by means of an apparatus contrived by the Rev. John Mitchell, the density of our globe to be 5·4,--or, in other words, nearly five-and-a half times heavier than the same bulk of water would be. The experiments made with this apparatus consisted in observing, with many precautions, the movements of a long lever delicately suspended by the centre, so as to hang horizontally, and furnished at either extremity with small leaden balls. When two much larger and heavier balls of the same metal were brought near the smaller ones, the latter were attracted towards them with a certain force, the measurement of which supplied one essential datum for the determination of the mean density of the earth. No greater compliment to the accuracy of the 'Cavendish Experiment' (as the researches taken as a whole are generally called) can be afforded, than the slight difference which appeared when the experiment was repeated at a later period by Francis Baily, who, with extraordinary precautions to ensure a correct result, and with all the improvements which forty fertile years had added to mechanical contrivances, determined the density to be 5·6, or a little more than five-and-a-half times that of water.

The last paper which Cavendish published, on an improvement in the manner of dividing astronomical instruments, appeared in 1809,--a year before his death. His published papers give, however, but an imperfect notion of the great extent of ground over which he travelled in the course of his investigations, and of the success with which he explored it. He was an excellent mathematician, electrician, astronomer, meteorologist, and geologist, and a chemist equally learned and original. He lived retired from the world among his books and instruments; he never meddled with the affairs of active life, but passed his whole time in storing his mind with the knowledge imparted by former inquirers, and in extending its bounds. His dress was of the oldest fashion; his walk was quick and uneasy; he never appeared in London unless lying back in the corner of his carriage; and he probably uttered fewer words in the course of his life than any man who ever lived to fourscore years. His private character has been thus described by Dr. George Wilson, from whose comprehensive life of Cavendish the present memoir has been chiefly taken:--

"Morally it was a blank, and can only be described by a series of negations. He did not love, he did not hate, he did not hope, he did not fear, he did not worship as others do. He separated himself from his fellow men, and apparently from God. There was nothing earnest, enthusiastic, heroic or chivalrous in his nature; and as little was there anything mean, grovelling or ignoble. He was almost passionless. An intellectual head thinking, a pair of wonderfully acute eyes observing, and a pair of very skilful hands experimenting or recording, are all that I recognize in his memorials. His brain seems to have been but a calculating engine; his eyes inlets of vision, not fountains of tears; his hands instruments of manipulation, which never trembled with emotion, or were clasped together in adoration, thanksgiving or despair; his heart only an anatomical organ necessary for the circulation of the blood. A sense of isolation from his brethren made him shrink from their society and avoid their presence; but he did so as one conscious of an infirmity, not boasting of an excellence. He was like a deaf mute, sitting apart from a circle whose looks and gestures show that they are uttering and listening to music and eloquence, in producing or welcoming which he can be no sharer. Wisely therefore he dwelt apart. He was one of the unthanked benefactors of his race, who was patiently teaching and serving mankind, whilst they were shrinking from his coldness or mocking his peculiarities. He could not sing for them a sweet song, or create a 'thing of beauty,' which would be 'a joy for ever,' or touch their hearts, or fire their spirits, or deepen their reverence or their fervour. He was not a poet, a priest, or a prophet, but only a cold clear intelligence, raying down pure white light, which brightened everything on which it fell, but warmed nothing--a star of at least the second, if not of the first magnitude in the intellectual firmament."

As Cavendish had lived, so he died--alone. He died after a short illness, probably the first as well as the last under which he ever suffered. His habit of curious observation continued to the end; he was desirous of marking the progress of disease and the gradual extinction of the vital powers. With this view, that he might not be disturbed, he desired to be left alone. His servant returning sooner than he had wished was ordered again to leave the chamber of death, and when he came back a second time he found his master had expired. Although in many respects of a highly liberal character, so great was the frugality of his ordinary mode of living in comparison to his income, that at his death Cavendish left the enormous sum of 1,200,000_l._ to be divided among his relations.--_Life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, by George Wilson, M.D., F.R.S.E._ London, 1851.--_Brougham's Lives of Philosophers._ London and Glasgow, 1855.

WILLIAM CHAPMAN, M.R.I.A.

Born 1749. Died May 29, 1832.

William Chapman, Civil Engineer, was born at Whitby, in Yorkshire, of a respectable and wealthy family, who had resided in that town for several generations. He inherited the freedom of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from his father, who, in common with all the chief people of Whitby, was engaged in shipping, and was besides particularly distinguished for his attainments in mathematics and other scientific pursuits. William Chapman derived great advantage from his father's knowledge of these subjects, contracting a strong taste for similar occupations. After receiving a liberal education at different public schools, he was put in command, at the early age of eighteen, of a merchant vessel, in which he enjoyed the opportunity of visiting numerous harbours, both in Great Britain and other countries. He continued thus occupied for a period of three years, losing no opportunity of making himself acquainted with the circumstances of the various harbours he was in the habit of visiting, and he thus acquired that valuable practical knowledge on the subject of these works for which he became afterwards so highly distinguished.

After leaving the merchant service, Mr. Chapman was fortunate enough to become acquainted with James Watt, with his partner Matthew Boulton, and also with Mr. Wooller, Engineer to the Board of Ordnance. By these eminent men he was strongly advised to become an engineer, and follow as a profession that which he had already closely studied as an amusement. Chapman accordingly accompanied Mr. Boulton into Ireland, about the close of the year 1783, but although well introduced, was unable to obtain any employment of consequence in that country, until he had written a prize essay on the effects of the river Dodder on the Harbour of Dublin. Shortly after this, he was appointed resident engineer to the County of Kildare Canal, the works of which were carried on under the surveillance of the Duke of Leinster, the county members, and other leading men. In the execution of this undertaking, Mr. Chapman was requested not to alter the direction of the roads intersected by it, although one of them deviated from the right angle across the canal upwards of 50 deg. To meet this difficulty, and knowing that a bridge of the ordinary construction, with any obliquity, could not possibly stand, Chapman invented, and put into practice, the method of building oblique or skew bridges, which has since been so generally adopted throughout the country, in railway, canal, and other bridges. Before this period, (1787), whenever a road crossed the course of a canal or river, requiring the construction of a bridge, it had been usual to deviate the course, either of the road or the object it crossed, so that the crossing should be at right angles; a practice which occasioned a great waste of land and considerable expense as well as awkward and dangerous bends in the roads thus treated. In some few cases where the bridge was required to be of only a small opening, no alteration in the direction was made, but a bridge built of an oblique form, that is with abutments forming oblique angles with the road passing over it, the courses of the arch being built in lines parallel with the abutments, and the ends of the voussoirs bevelled off to coincide with the direction of the road. Bridges built in this manner consequently became highly dangerous when the span was great, or the obliquity considerable. The value of Chapman's invention consists in this, that he gave the means of building bridges on the skew principle, in any required situation, without altering the direction of the roads or wasting material, and at an expense little above that of ordinary rectangular bridges. This he accomplished by the principle of building the courses of voussoirs at right angles to the face of the arch, meeting the abutments at oblique angles, being the very reverse of the system previously practised.

During the progress of the Kildare Canal, Mr. Chapman, at the request of the Duke of Leinster, became overseer, conjointly with him and the Hon. Mr. Ponsonby Moore, for the building a bridge of five arches over the Liffey, to replace the former one which had been carried away by a flood. The bridge itself was a plain structure, but the means employed in forming and securing the foundations attracted general attention, and brought Mr. Chapman into still greater notice. From this time the number and importance of his professional engagements continued to increase, and he was engaged to survey and report upon several projects for the improvement of the navigations of various rivers, of which plans the most important was the navigation of the river Barrow, from Athy downwards. During this period he was appointed consulting engineer to the Grand Canal of Ireland, of which undertaking Mr. Jessop was directing engineer; and under the joint superintendence and surveys of these two gentlemen, the extension of the Grand Canal from Robarts Town to Tullamore was laid out, as well as the Dock between Dublin and Ringsend, and the canal of communication by the line of the circular road. The projected canal from near Tullamore passed through extensive bogs, some of which were thirty feet in depth, and in consequence of its difficulties was laid out by Mr. Chapman himself. The directors of the Grand canal had expended upwards of 100,000_l._ in a very short space of ground between Robarts Town and Bathangar, from not being acquainted with the extent of the subsidence of bogs under superincumbent weight, or when laid dry by drainage. Mr. Chapman, therefore, availed himself of their dearly bought experience, and adopted the following ingenious method of comparing different kinds of bogs and their relative subsidence. He provided himself with a cylindric implement of steel plate, sharp at the lower edges, and containing exactly one hundredth part of a cubic foot, and having divided the strata of the bogs into as many leading classes and subdivisions as were necessary, he filled the cylinders with a specimen of each, by twisting them round so as to cut the fibres of the bog. The samples thus taken were carefully cut off at the level of the cylindric guage, and their weight having been ascertained, they were left to dry during the space of several months; and when in a firm state and consequently greatly contracted, were again weighed, the result being that the originally wettest bog was found to have lost 10-11ths of its weight, and the firmest 2-3rds, the rest in due progression between. It therefore became a simple process to ascertain pretty nearly the extent of subsidence in any bog to be passed through, and of course to lay out the line of the canal with such levels, that after subsidence, its surface should be at the required depth below the surface of the bog.

Amongst Mr. Chapman's other extensive employments in Ireland, he caused, at the instance of the Irish Government, a survey to be made of the harbour of Dublin to beyond the Bar at Howth; and on this occasion projected a pier from the Clontarf shore to a due distance from the lighthouse, and then to the westward to a proper distance from the north wall, so as to confine all the tidal water covering that vast space, and to cause it to pass down the channel of Pool Beg, in place of being permitted to flow inwards and outwards over the North Bull.

In the year 1794 Mr. Chapman returned from Ireland, and fixed his general residence at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. About this time the great project of a canal communication between the German Ocean and the Irish Sea, was engaging general attention in the North of England, and Mr. Chapman was fixed upon to survey the line of country for this proposed canal between Newcastle and the Solway Firth. His reports on this subject, which were made during the years 1795 and 1796, are still extant; and although the work to which they relate was never executed, the documents connected with it are of a very interesting nature. In 1808 this project, which had lain dormant for many years, was again revived, and Mr. Telford was employed to survey and report upon the best line of canal between Carlisle and a suitable port on the Solway Firth. Although Mr. Telford's plan was highly approved of, the time had not yet arrived for the carrying out of even this small portion of the original great scheme; and it was not until the year 1818, when Mr. Chapman drew up a plan and report upon this line from Carlisle to Bowness, that a Bill was brought into Parliament, for which an act was obtained early in 1819. The canal which has been in successful operation for many years, is eleven-and-a-half miles in length, and cost about 120,000_l._ It commences on the south-eastern side of Carlisle, and falls into the sea, through a height of seventy feet, by means of nine locks.

About the year 1796 Mr. Chapman became a member of the Society of Civil Engineers, which at that time numbered amongst its members Watt, Jessop, and Rennie, and amongst its honorary associates Sir Joseph Banks, and other leading men of the day. In conjunction with Mr. Rennie, Chapman was then occupied in designing the London Docks, and subsequently the southern dock and basin at Hull. He was also engaged as engineer for the construction of Leith, Scarborough, and Seaham Harbours, the last named work being undertaken for the Marquis of Londonderry.

In addition to his regular professional occupations, Mr. Chapman devoted a portion of his time to the publication of works bearing on engineering. Amongst the most important of these were the following: 'A Treatise on the various inventions for effecting ascents in rivers;' 'Hints on the necessity of Legislative interference for registering the extent of workings in the Coal Seams, and preventing such accidents as arise from want of that knowledge;' 'An Essay on Cordage;' and 'A Treatise on the preservation of Timber from premature decay.' Mr. Chapman also took out a patent for an improvement upon Captain Huddart's system of manufacturing ropes. This method was successfully carried into effect in all the rope grounds on the river Tyne, and in some of those on the Wear and Tweed. His next invention was for an expeditious and easily practicable method of lowering coal waggons, with their contents, immediately over the hatchways of ships, so as to prevent the great breakage of coals which attended the usual method of shooting them through long spouts; this system, after the expiration of the patent became universal upon the Tyne.

Mr. Chapman possessed a robust constitution, and practised through life the most temperate habits; he was thus enabled to retain the full enjoyment of his faculties, and to continue employed upon various public works, in drainages, canals, and harbours, up till within a very short period of his decease, which occurred in 1832, in the eighty-third year of his age.--_Life of Chapman._ London, John Weale.

SIR WILLIAM CONGREVE, BART., F.R.S.

Born in Middlesex, May 20, 1772. Died May 3, 1828.

Sir William Congreve was the son of the first baronet, an Artillery officer of the same name. He entered early into the branch of military service his father had pursued, and, in 1816, attained in it the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was also at this time equerry to the Prince Regent, which office he retained on the occasion of his quitting the military service in 1820. Congreve very early distinguished himself by his inventions in the construction of missiles. He invented the rocket which bears his name in the year 1808, and succeeded in establishing this destructive engine of warfare as a permanent instrument in military and naval tactics, both at home and abroad. It was used by Lord Cochrane in his attack on the French squadron in the Basque roads, in the expedition against Walcheren, at Waterloo, and with most serviceable effect in the attack on Algiers. It was also used at the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and for its service on this occasion the Order of St. Anne was conferred on Sir William by the Emperor of Russia. Since that time the rocket has been much improved and modified, and has become an essential part of every armament, not in England alone, but universally.

Sir William Congreve was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the year 1811. In 1812 he became a Member of Parliament for Gatton, and in 1820 and 1826 for Plymouth. He succeeded his father as baronet in 1814. Besides the above important invention, Sir William wrote and published in 1812 an 'Elementary Treatise on the Mounting of Naval Ordnance,' and in 1815 'A Description of the Hydro-Pneumatic Lock.' During the course of the same year he obtained a patent for a new mode of manufacturing gunpowder. This invention consisted, first, of a machine for producing as perfect a mixture as possible of the ingredients; and, secondly, of an improved mode of passing the mill-cake under the press, and a new granulating machine. In 1819 a patent was granted to him for an improved mode of inlaying or combining different metals, and another for certain improvements in the manufacture of bank-note paper for the prevention of forgery.

The last public service performed by Sir William was the drawing up and publishing, in 1823, a very interesting report on the gaslight establishments of the metropolis. In 1826, he became mixed up in the speculative mania which prevailed at that period, and was ultimately compelled to seek refuge on the continent at Toulouse, where he shortly afterwards died at the age of fifty-six.--_Annual Register_, 1828.

SAMUEL CROMPTON.

Born December 3, 1753. Died June 26, 1827.

Few men, perhaps, have ever conferred so great a benefit on their country and reaped so little profit for themselves as Samuel Crompton, inventor of the Spinning Mule. He was born at Firwood, in the township of Tonge near Bolton, where his parents occupied a farm, and spent their leisure hours according to the custom of the period--in the operations of carding, spinning, and weaving. Soon after the birth of Samuel, the Cromptons removed to a cottage near Lower Wood in the same township, and afterwards, when their child was five years old, to a portion of the neighbouring ancient mansion called Hall-in-the-Wood. Almost immediately after this last removal Samuel's father died, at the early age of thirty seven, and he was left to be brought up under the care of his mother, a prudent and virtuous woman, who took care that her son should have the benefit of all available means of education. Samuel first attended the school of Mr. Lever in Church Street, Bolton, but was very early removed to the school of William Barlow, a master well known at that time for his success as a teacher of writing, arithmetic, and the higher branches of mathematics.

From the exigencies of her situation, Mrs. Crompton was compelled to take advantage of her son's assistance, as soon as she possibly could, and there is little doubt that Samuel's legs must have been accustomed to the loom almost as soon as they were long enough to touch the treddles. Little, however, is known of his early life until the year 1769. He was then sixteen years old, and continued to reside with his mother, occupied during the day at the loom and spending his evenings at a school in Bolton, where he advanced his knowledge of algebra, mathematics, and trigonometry. For some years previous to this period there had been a greatly increased demand for all kinds of cotton goods, particularly for imitations of the fine muslins imported from India; and many attempts were made by the manufacturers in Lancashire and Scotland to produce similar fabrics, but without success, for the handspun yarn of this country could not compete with the delicate filaments produced by Hindoo fingers. Still, the demand for fine cottons of various kinds was so considerable, that the weavers, for the sake of high wages, were stimulated to make great exertions. But they were continually impeded by the scarcity of yarn for weft, which often kept them idle half their time, or compelled them to collect it in small quantities from the cottages round about.

Another important cause of this scarcity had been the invention of the fly-shuttle, by Kay of Bury, in 1738, which by doubling the speed of the weaver's operations, had destroyed the arrangement which, up to that time, existed between the quantity of yarn spun and the weavers' demand for it. This natural balance, the fly-shuttle suddenly disturbed, and, notwithstanding the great efforts of others, it was not again adjusted until after Crompton's invention was in full operation. Such was the weavers' state of starvation for yarn, when, in 1767, Hargreaves invented the jenny, which enabled a number of threads to be spun at the same time.

It was on one of these machines with eight spindles, that Samuel Crompton was in the habit of spinning the yarn which he afterwards wove into quilting, and he continued thus occupied for the five following years. During this period, being debarred from company and accustomed to solitude, he began to show a taste for music; to gratify which he was led to the first trial of his mechanical skill in making a violin, upon which he commenced learning to play. With this musical friend Crompton would beguile many a long winter night, or during the summer evenings wander contemplatively among the green lanes, or by the margin of the pleasant brook that swept round the romantic old residence of Hall-in-the-Wood. He had, however, little leisure in general to spend with his favourite instrument; the necessities of his situation compelled him to perform daily a certain amount of weaving, and he only succeeded in performing this at the expense of much time lost in mending the ever breaking ends of the yarn spun on Hargreave's machine, which was of a very soft nature, and quite unfitted for warps or for the muslins so much in demand.

During this same period Arkwright had risen to eminence, by adopting and carrying into practice the ideas of Highs,[13] and one Kay a clockmaker, and had constructed his water-frame, which by means of rollers produced thread of a very superior texture and firmness. It remained, however, for Crompton to combine in his machine the improvements of Hargreaves and Arkwright, and hence was derived the name given to it of the Spinning-Mule.

Crompton commenced the construction of this machine, which for many years was known by the name of the 'Hall-i'-th'-Wood Wheels,' in the year 1774. His first spinning-mule was constructed chiefly in wood, by the aid of a scanty supply of tools which had been left by his father, who, enthusiastically fond of music, had shortly before his death commenced making an organ. With the help of these tools, and the assistance which a small wayside smithy afforded him, Samuel Crompton completed that invention which, from the extended benefits it has conferred upon our commerce, entitles him to rank amongst the greatest inventors Britain has ever produced. The important part of his invention was the spindle carriage, and the principle of there being no strain upon the thread until it was completed. This was accomplished by causing the carriage with the spindles to recede by the movement of the hand and knee, just as the rollers delivered out the elongated thread in a soft state, so that it would allow of a considerable stretch, before the thread had to encounter the stress of winding upon the spindle. "This," as the late Mr. Kennedy of Manchester truly said, "was the corner stone of his invention."

When Crompton was on the eve of completing his first mule, about the year 1779, the Blackburn spinners and weavers, who had previously driven Hargreaves from his home, again commenced their riotous proceedings, and began to destroy all the jennys round about, which had more than twenty spindles. Crompton, fearful lest his new machine should meet with a similar fate, took it to pieces and kept it hid in a loft above the ceiling of his room during several weeks. In the course of the same year, however, the Hall-i'-th'-Wood Wheel was completed, and the yarn spun on it proved fit for the manufacture of muslins of an extremely fine and delicate texture.