\(s\nX pntm ©huristirtt % m.\ to 1303 Cornell University Library TA 1 40.89 1B36 Memoir of the life of Sir Marc Isambard 3 1924 021 902 774 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021902774 MEMOIE OF THE LIFE OF SIR lAEC ISAMBAED BEUNEL CIVIL ENGINEEE VICE-PEESIDENT OP THE EOTAL SOCIETY CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OP FRANCE &c. &c. &c. BY EICHARD BEAMISH, P.B..S. ^^xvta Cuj^^^ LONDON LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, AND EO BEETS 18G2 TO LADY HAWES THESE MEMOIRS OP TUIJ LIFE OP HEK EAIHER AE.E BESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY IIEB OliMGED AND SINCERE FRIEND THE AUTHOR PHEFACE. IN undertaking to place on record the leading events in the life of one of the greatest mechanists of the age, I am fiiHy sensible of the difficulties to be over- come, and of the dehcacy with which many passages in so eventfiil a hfe must be approached ; and it is only because no other hand has been extended to secure some of those fleeting notices of a personal nature, which time only too soon obhterates, that I would now endeavour to save from obhvion the labours of one to whom England stands largely indebted for her progress in the mechanical arts. True, on the one hand, our great morahst has laid it down, that " they only who hve with a man can ■\vrite his life with any genuine exactness and discri- mination ; " and from the long intimacy which I was permitted to enjoy with Sir Isambard Brunei, I am enabled so far to fulfil the condition required. But, on the other hand, when I caU to mind that the same celebrated authority has also declared, " that few people who have Hved with a man know what to remark about him," I should have been tempted to abandon my task, had not the too flattering confidence of the surviving relations of my esteemed friend placed at my disposal all the documents which they have been VIU PREFACE enabled to collect calculated to throw light upon his distinguished career. Whatever opinion may be adopted, I should not feel justified in dechning to accept the duty which has been thus assigned me. Amongst the manuscripts placed in my hands I find two short memoirs, one by the late M. de St. Amand, the other by the late Mr. Carhsle, Hbrarian to George IV. ; together with the pubhshed " Notice Historique" of M. Edouard Frere, addressed, "A r Academic des Sciences de Eouen." Between M. de St. Amand and the Brunei family there had existed a long and intimate friendship, cemented not only by a common sympathy of loyalty, but by that love for mechanical and scientific pursuits for which both were distinguished. Both were in the service of their unhappy king, Louis XVI., at the period of that fearful convulsion which tore France to pieces, and shook the whole fabric of European governments ; both fled from the horrors enacted in the name of liberty : Brunei to America, in the fiiU enjoyment of health and strength, and supported by hopeful antici- pations of the future ; M. de St. Amand to England, under circumstances of unusual difficulty, danger and despondency. He had received a severe wound on that memorable 5th of October, 1789, when, as one of the king's body-guard, he was hunted through the palace of Versailles. Having made his escape to the wood of Montmorenci, which could only afford tem- porary shelter, he dragged his disabled limbs to the coast, and ultimately succeeded in reaching this coun- try. Here, by a virtuous struggle against fallen cir- cumstances and an enfeebled constitution, he maintained PEEPACE IX a position amongst the good and great, alike honoiur- able to his intellectual attainments and to his moral worth. I may further add, that amongst many mechanical inventions of M. de St. Amand, an instrument for determining a ship's course is said to have possessed great merit, and to have deserved a better fate than room to moulder in the archives of the Admiralty. We may well understand with what deep interest M. de St. Amand's enthusiastic and sympathetic mind fol- lowed the development of Brunei's genius, and made him naturally sohcitous to place upon record the suc- cesses which his friend had achieved, that they might be preserved as well from the treacherous hand of the despoiler, as from the obhterating influence of time. For many of the anecdotes relating to Brunei's early life and social character I am, however, mainly in- debted to notes made by liis daughter. Lady Hawes ; to the valuable journal of the Eev. H. T. EUacombe ; to circumstantial and detailed notices by his own pen ; and to communications with which he, from time to time, favoured me during the daily, often hourly, con- fidential intercourse subsisting between us during the progress of the Thames Tunnel. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND YOUTH, 1769-1786. Sent to Gisors — Story of Dog — Punishment — Story of Portrait- Sent to St. Nicaise, Eouen — Dannecker — Talent for Drawing and Construction — Early Admiration of England — Constructs an Organ — Studies for the Navy — Constructs a Quadrant — Enters the Navy Page 1 CHAPTER II. 1786-1793, Peril at Paris — Miss Kingdom — Disturbances at Rouen — Quits France — Forges Passport — Insiirrection in St. Domingo — Lands at New York — Connection with M. Pharoux . . .14 CHAPTER III. 1793-1799. Miss Kingdom imprisoned — Travelling in America in 1793 — French emigrant Family — Ojibbeway Chief — Mr. Thurman — Engineering Talent — Plans for Senate House, Washington — Park Theatre, New York — Locomotive Windmill — Cannon Foundry — Death of M. Pharoux — Admitted Citizen of New York — Declines to return to France — Naval Successes of Eng- land — Block Machinery first suggested . . . .25 CHAPTER IV. 1799-1801. Quits America — Duke of Orleans — Lands at Falmouth — Prejudice against Foreigners — John Feltham — Machine for twisting Cotton XU CONTENTS and forming it into Balls — Machine for hemming and stitching — Machine for Card-shuffling — Designs for a Block Machinery — Edward, Lord Dudley — Slide Rest — Maudslay — Designs offered to Mr. Taylor — Rejected — Increase of the Navy — Sir Samuel Bentham ... . . Page 41 CHAPTER V. Brunei's Claims to be the Author of the Block Machinery vin- dicated ..... ... 55 CHAPTER VI. 1802-1803. Designs for Block Machinery adopted by Government — Question of Remuneration — Referred to Sir Samuel Bentham — Accepted by the Admiralty ....... 68 CHAPTER VII. 1802-1810. Difficulties in finding Workmen, 1802-5 — General Bentham sent to Russia, 1805 — Quantity of Timber required to construct a Seventy- four — Impediments to the Operations of the Machinery, 1807 — Machinery capable of supplying all the Blocks for the British Navy — Remuneration postponed — Nervous Fever, 1808 — Amount of Remimeration determined, 1810 — Letter from Lord St. Vincent, 1810 — Performance of the Block Machinery — Present Condition of the Machinery, March 1861 . . 78 CHAPTER VIII. 1805-1816. Apparatus for bending Timber, 1805 — Machinery for sawing Timber, 1805-18o"8 — Birth of a Son, 1806 — Machine for cutting Staves, 1807— Works at Woolwich, 1808— The Saw- Sketch of its History — Saw-mills, Battersea — Veneer Engine — Hat and Pill Boxes, 1808 — Improvements in Motive Power, 1810 — Comparison of Cost of sawing by Machinery and by Hand, 1811 — Designs for Chatham, 1812 — Difficulties — Description of Machinery — Bacon — Mr. EUacombe, 1S16 Present Stite of the Works, March 1861 . . 99 CONTENTS Xlll CHAPTEK IX. 1809-1814. Origin of the Shoe Machinery, 1809 — Neglected Condition of the British Army and Navy — Description of Shoe Machinery — Encouraged to establish a Manufactory of Shoes — Termination of the War, and Loss incurred, 1814 — Letter to Mr. Vansittart, 1819 Page 128 CHAPTEIi X. 1814-1819. Fellow of the Royal Society, 1814 — Double acting Marine Engine — Eeception at Margate, 1814 — Mr. Hyde — Plan for towing Vessels, 1816 — Knitting Machine, 1816 — Tinfoil, 1818— Con- nection with Mr. Shaw — Stereotype Printing, 1819 — Eetrospeot of the Art of Printing — Brunei's Improvements in the Printing Machine, 1819 . . 140 CHAPTER XL 1821-1831. Marriage of his eldest Daughter, 1820 — Machine for copying Letters, 1820 — Plans for a Bridge at Eouen, 1820 — Municipal System of England and France contrasted — Visit of the Em- peror of Russia to Portsmouth — Plan for a Timber Bridge 880 feet Span for St. Petersburg, 1821 — Why it was not erected — Autocratic and constitutional Governments contrasted in regard to commercial Improvements .... 155 CHAPTER XII. 1814-1821. SaAV-mills at Battersea — Burnt down, 1814 — Difficulties — Mr. Sansom — Arrested for Debt, 1821 — Efforts of influential Friends to obtain Relief — Government Assistance . . 165 CHAPTER XIH. 1821-1826. Supervision of the Works at Chatham, 1821 — Saw-mills for XIV CONTENTS Trinidad and Berbice, 1821-4 — Suspension Bridges for the Isle of Bourbon, 1821-3 — Difficulties with Contractors — Ma- rine Steam Engine, 1822 — Improvements of Paddle-wheel, 1823 Liverpool Docks, 1823 — Carbonic Acid Gas Engine, 1824 — Failure — Opinion on Transatlantic Steam Navigation — Isthmus of Panama, 1824 — South London Docks, 1824 — Railways in France, 1825 — Chester Bridge, Eubble Building, 1825 — Fowey and Padstow Canal, 1825 — Bridge at Totness, 1825 —Vigo Bay, 1825— Liverpool Floating Pier, 1826 . Page 176 CHAPTER XIV. 1824-1825. Thames Tunnel — Early Attempts — Dodd, 1798— Vazie, 1802 — Trevithick, 1807 — Hawkins — Teredo Navalis — Origin of the Shield — Formation of the Thames Tunnel Company, 1824 — Appointed Engineer — 'Construction of the Shaft, 1825 — De- scription of Shield — Nature of the Bed of the River . . 202 CHAPTER XV. 1825-1827. Shield in Place, 1825 — Piece-work — ' Isambard Brunei — Ex- ample of Difficulties — Hostility of the Chairman — Mr. Gravatt and Mr. Riley appointed Assistants — Panics — Strike — Diffi- culties increase — Death of Mr. Riley — First Irruption of the River, May 18th, 1827 . . .... 226 CHAPTER XVI. 1827-1828. Means used to ffil the Cavity in the Bed of the River — 111 Effects of Raft — Return to the Shield — Attempt of two Directors to visit the Shield — Melancholy Result — Fitzgerald's Dream — Increased Hostility of the Chairman — Effect on Brunei — Illness general, September 1827 — Dinner in the Tunnel, November 1827 — Meeting of Proprietors, November 20th, 1827— Mr. Giles's Proposition — ■ Visit of Don Miguel — Second Irruption, 12th January, 1828 — Melancholy Results — General Meeting of Proprietors — Works stopped — Frames blocked up, August 1828 249 CONTENTS XV CHAPTEE XVn. 1829-1831. Returns to the general Practice of his Profession — Plonours — Con- duct of the Directors — A new Plan entertained, 1829 — The Dulce of Wellington's Opinion — Comparative Cost of Drift- way and Thames Tunnel — New Plans referred to Professor Barlow, James Walker and Tierney Clark for Opinion, 1830 — Chairman's continued Hostility — Brunei resigns his Appoint- ment, 1831— Effects on his Health . . . Page 269 CHAPTEE XVni. 1831-1843. Clifton Bridge, 1830-32 — Death of Dr. Wollaston, 1831 — Ex- perimental Arch, 1832 — Anniversary of his 65th Birthday, 1834 — Treasury grants Funds for the Completion of the Tunnel on Brunei's Plan, 1834 — Visit to Haqueville — Passage of the Eiver Nile — Works of the Tunnel resumed, 1835 — Stringent Con- ditions of the Treasury Minute — Eemoval of old and Erection of new Shield — Difficulties presented by the Ground — Mr. Page — Third L'ruption of the Eiver, August 23rd, 1837 — Fourth Irruption, November 3rd, 1837 — Fifth Irruption, March 21st, 1838 — Sulphuretted Hydrogen Gas — Injurious Effects — Extraordinary Subsidence of the Ground over Shield — Sinking of the North Shaft at Wapping — Difficulties presented — Knighthood — Junction of Shaft and Tunnel, 1842 — Attacked by Paralysis — Eecovers — Tunnel opened to the Public, March 25th, 1843 282 CHAPTEE XIX. Personal, Domestic and Social Qualities — Flexibility of Joints — Eeligious Sentiments — Sensitiveness to Opinion — Simplicity — Love of Children — M. de Champillon — Dr. Spurzheim on the Development of his Son — M. Br^u^'s Opinion — His Son's Talent for Drawing — Admiration of Nature — Benevolence — Pump at Youghal — Sufferings of Mail-coach Horses — Au- gustus Pugin — Inventors — Schemers — Heathcote — Babbage a XVI CONTENTS — Facility of Eeply — Miniature Painting — Accuracy of De- signing General Charge of Departure from original Estimate unjust — Supposed Want of Candour — Confidence in the Value of Lines — Examples — Takes Charge of the Dover Packet in a Storm — Presence of Mind — Examples — Illustration of the Superiority of the Moderns over the Ancients — Knowledge of the Value of manufactured Work — Absence of Mind — Elasticity of Spirit— Summary by M. E. Frere — Unafiected Piety Page 305 CHAPTEE XX. 1843-1849. CONCLUSION. Professional Career terminated — Stacking Timber in Dockyards — Successes of his Son — Her Majesty's Visit to the Tunnel — Society of his Grandchildren — Second Attack of Paralysis, 1845 — Equanimity and Cheerfulness iinder physical Suffering — Death, 12th of December 1849 335 APPENDICES. A. Certificate of Citizenship, New York B. Description of the Block Machinery C. Copying Press .... D. Marine Steam Engine E. Story of the Green Koom F. List of Patents .... 341 342 345 347 349 356 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait of Sir M. I. Brunei . . . Frontispiece. Design for a Bridge at St. Petersburg 161 Bourbon Chain Bridge to face 180 Plan for a "Wet Dock to face 191 Original Design for Floating Pier and approach at Liverpool . 200 Section of Shaft for Thames Tunnel in process of being simk toface 213 Isometrical Sketch of one of the frames of the great shield used in excavating the Thames Tunnel .... 220 Section showing moveable stage and propelling screws . . 228 Cross section of Tunnel, and longitudinal section of river, show- ing the extent of cavity formed by first irruption to face 249 Operations from the Diving Bell .... toface 251 First visit to the shield after the first irruption of the river toface 252 The Thames Tunnel — West Archway .... 267 Cross sectional area of Driftway, 1808, represented by the centre figure, and that of the Thames Tunnel, 1825, by the whole plate ....... to face 275 Experimental Arch ........ 285 Mode of supporting the face and the top of the work . .291 Mode of supporting the sides of the work .... 292 Longitudinal section of the Thames Tunnel . . to face 303 EEEATA. Page 1 liae 1 for Ansthorpe rmd Austhorpe. 97 „ 5 „ £17,663 9«. lOd „ £17,093 18s. id. 110 „ 26 „ doctoring „ expedients. lil „ 19 „ Dr. ,. Mr. 176 „ 11 „ 1824 „ 1825. 184 „ 22 „ these „ those. . MEMOIR SIR MAEC ISAMBARD BRUNEL CHAPTER I. BIETH AND TOUTH, 1769-1786. SENT TO GISORS STORY OF DOG PUNISHMENT STORY OF POR- TRAIT SENT TO ST. NICAISE, RODEN DANNECKER TALENT FOR DRAWING AND CONSTRUCTION EARLY ADMIRATION OF ENGLAND CONSTRUCTS AN ORGAN STUDIES FOE THE NAVY CONSTRUCTS A QUADRANT ENTERS NAVY. MAEC ISAMBAED BEUNEL, the subject of tliis memoir, was born at Hacqueville on the 25th of April, 1769 ; an epocli rendered remarkable for the birth of many celebrated men — ■ the most conspicuous being Humboldt and Cuvier, Napoleon Bonaparte and our own illustrious Duke of WeUington. Hacqueville is situated near to Gisors, in that part of Normandy formerly called the "Vexin;" but which has since the revolution received the appellation of " the department of the Eure." The name of Brunei is found at every period in the ancient records of the province. The privilege of Maitre des Postes of the B T MEMOIR OF SIB M. I. BRUNEL district seems to have been an inheritance of the family. The Brunels enjoyed, however, the higher privilege of having given to their country an unusual number of men remarkable for their piety and learning. They have also the honour to claim, as one of their distin- guished members, the greatest painter which France has produced. Not far from Hacqueville, at Les Andelys, is the birth-place of Nicolas Poussin, whose mother was of the family of Brunei. The father of Sir Isambard was held m high esteem, not only for the simpHcity and openness of his character, but for the honourable frugahty Avith which he dispensed a narrow income, and the prudence, tenderness, and diligence with which he sought to educate a family of three children, viz., two sons, of whom Marc Isambard was the second, and one daughter. M. Flahaut, in an address to the civil engineers at Paris, speaks of the Brunels, Sir Isambard and his son, as having sprung from the worldng classes : " Sortis de la classe des artisans, ou meme des ouvriers, ils n'ont du qu'a eux-memes ce qu'ils ont appris." M. riahaut is in error, and though few contemplations are more gratifying, or more mstructive than the suc- cessful struggles of self-taught men of humble origin, yet we should be scarcely justified in excluding from the catalogue of fame, those who have had the moral courage to resist the various enervating influences which a recognised social position only too readily produce. Of the mother of Brunei, whose maiden name was Lefevre, I have been able to learn httle. That her early loss was long and severely felt, there seems to be no doubt. An attempt was made at the earUest period to impress Marc Isambard with the necessity of giving his mind to the acquirement of classical knowledge, being destined to succeed to a living in the gift of the family. STOEY OF A DOG o which would have secured to him a sure, though com- paratively humble provision. Accordingly, he was sent soon after his mother's death, and when he had attained his eighth year, to the College qf Gisorrf, but in vain ; literary studies possessed no charm for his tastes, and they therefore retained no hold on his affections. No efforts on the part of his teachers at school, no punish- ments inflicted by his father at home, could insure one half the attention to his classical studies that he spon- .taneously bestowed upon the carpenter's shop and the wheelwright's yard in his native village. An event may be here related which has been re- corded by Brunei, and preserved by Lady Hawes, in connection with Gisors, and which threatened to impvign his moral character at the very outset of life. His father had accompanied him to the school, after one of his vacations, taking with him the amount of the previous quarterly payment in crown pieces. The canvas bag containing the money being emptied upon the table, was counted to the master in presence of the boy, and a receipt given in due form. A conversation subsequently ensued, the money remained on the table, and was not removed until the father had taken his leave. Before the master placed it in his strong box, however, he again counted it, when behold, some pieces were missing. Young Brunei was questioned, but he stoutly denied all knowledge of the missing money — suggesting, at the same time, that Flore might have taken them. Now Flore was a little dog belonging to the Brunels, which had been taught many accomplishments, and which had accompanied the boy and his father to Gisors. " A dog to take money," exclaimed the master, " C'est un peu trop fort ! " Crown pieces he thought were as 4 MEMOIR OP SIR M. I. BRUNEL little capable of being swallowed as the fanciful im- plication of the boy, " Non, non, mon enfant, il n'est pas possible." Still the boy persisted in denying any knowledge of the moiaey, and begged that his father - should be sent for, and to mind and bring More. At length, with evident reluctance on the part of the master, a letter was despatched to Hacqueville, and in due course, father and dog made their appearance. The cause of summons ha\dng been explained, they were shown into the room where the money had been, counted on the previous day. Flore was now observed to drop her tail, and to betray symptoms of embajrrass- ment. " Cherche, Flore — cherche, cherche ! " cried papa ; but Flore would not comply. The master re- mained suspicious. The boy looked anxious ; the father a little angry. At length Flore seemed to relent ; the tail no longer drooped, — the dull eye brightened, and she began to '■^chercher'" in earnest. The master was in amazement — the boy regained his confidence — the father his good humour, when Flore producing the missing coins from the corner in which she had hidden them, solved the mystery, and at once vindicated the integrity of the poor boy, which her accomplishment had so nearly compromised. The hoUdays were devoted to drawing and carpentry. The old chateau, for centuries in the possession of the family, and the Chateau Gaillard, built by Eichard Coeur- de-Lion, as a frontier defence against Philippe Auguste, in thejieighbourhood of Les Andelys, were the favourite subjects of his pencil. This early exhibition of artistic and mechanical talent is, perhaps, only equalled by our own Smeaton, who, from the earhest period of his life, gave vmmistakeable evidence of mechanical aptitude, and to which the fish in the small ponds at STOEY OF PORTRAIT 5 Anstliorpe, his father's residence, not unfrequently fell victims ; the water being experimentally transferred from one pond to another for the gratification of the embryo engineer. For Smeaton, also, mechanical design and the construction of models had more interest than the drawing of deeds, or the engrossment of parchment, to which he had been destined by his father, but against which his nature also rebelled. Less disposed to be guided by circumstances than the elder Smeaton had been, the father of Brunei sought to compel obedience to his wishes by the infliction of various punishments, sohtary confinement being the most often employed. Of one room, selected for that purpose, the little recusant entertained something like horror. On the walls of that room hung a senes of family portraits. Amongst them was one of a grim old gentleman, the eyes of which appeared to be always turned towards him, with a frown so stern, menacing and forbidding, that fear and vexation took possession of his mind. No matter in what part of the room he took shelter, still those angry eyes were upon him ; nor could he resist their painful attraction, for look at them he must. His nervous temperament, becoming unable to bear the sort of persecution any longer, he one day, when nearly distracted, collected aU his strength to drag a table from one end of the room, and to place it immediately beneath the picture. Upon the table he contrived to lift a chair, and on this chair he climbed. Eegardless of consequences, he at once revengecj him- self for the misery he had endured by fairly cutting out the eyes from the canvas with the aid of his friendly pocket-knife. The early hfe of Dannecker, the celebrated sculptor, oiFers a similar example of the fruitless attempt to check, E 3 6 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL if not destroy, the early impulses of genius. With Dannecker it was no^ the wheelwright's, but the stone- mason's yard that proved the attraction. This yard was contiguous to his father's house, and there he found abundant facility for the gratiiication of his taste ; and there it was certain he would be found chipping stones when missed from home, or from the stables of the Duke of Wiirtemberg, where he was employed under his father. Punishment followed punishment to no purpose. SoHtary confinement was resorted to with as Httle success as it had been with Brunei. It is re- lated that, one morning, having made his escape through the window of his prison, he presented himself, with four companions, before the duke, to whom tliey pre- ferred a petition, praying that they might be permitted to enter a school, which the duke had recently estab- lished, for the benefit of the children of his servants, and in which drawing and music, as well as the ordi- nary elements of knowledge, were taught free of cost. To Dannecker's inexpressible joy his prayer was heard, and he was at once relieved from parental tyranny and ignorance ; which, although powerless to destroy the instinct of the boy, would have been productive of years of pain and sorrow to his ardent and sensitive nature. Less fortunate than Dannecker, Brunei continued to be subjected to every repressing infiuence. At eleven years of age he was sent to the seminary of St. JSTicaisc, at Eouen — one of the numerous establishments con- nected with the large ecclesiastical college of that town, — still with the hope of securing him for the church. But nature was not to be turned from her course. So strongly did his taste for drawing continue to exhibit itself, that the superior was unwiUing to TALENT FOR DRAWING 7 deprive him of the advantage of a master. His first lessons were directed to the deHjjeation of the human figure, — and more particularly of the human counte- nance. But, unable to endure the tedium of repetition, and the routine of copying each feature in detail, he produced one morning — no less to the astonishment of his master than the admiration of the superior — a finished portrait of an individual well-known, and m which the distinguishing traits were said to be admir- ably expressed. In this juvenile effort will be recognized the leading characteristics of Brunei's mind, — largeness, and com- prehensiveness of conception, combined with the utmost accuracy of detail. The several features, upon which routine would have pondered for weeks, as distinct and isolated facts, were at once combined, and made to subserve the general purposes of a portrait, which the young artist presented to his master, as the best vindi- cation he could offer for dechning any further instruction at his hands. His sources of amusement differed widely from those of other children of the same age. At a period when most children can scarcely manage an ordinary knife, young Brunei was familiar with the use of the greater part of the tools found in a carpenter's shop ; and so inveterate was his love of such tools, that he has been known to pawn his hat that he might possess one newly exhibited in a cutler's window at Eouen, though at the time un- acquainted with its special use. At the age of twelve he constructed various articles with as much precision and elegance as a regularly educated workman. Every day showed the rapidity with which Brunei could seize upon all combinations of material forms, and exhibited some new feature in his aptitude for mechanical pur- B 4 8 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BRUNEL suits. Tlie construction, the rigging, and tlie motive power of vessels early attracted his attention ; and the drawings which he executed at this period are said to have been models of form and detail. Of ah the mechanical operations which he vdtnessed in those early days, the one which excited the largest amount of interest, was the manner in which the tire of a wheel was fixed to its rim or felloe ; indeed, a carriage wheel seemed, to the latest period of his life, to excite in Brunei renewed dehght. Its simphcity, beauty, and perfect mechanical adaptation, always called forth his unqualified admiration. About this period, in one of his daily visits to the quay at Eouen, a locahty which had for him great attractions, his attention was more than usually excited by two cast-iron cylinders which had been just landed, and which, when compared with his own height, for he always formed a mental scale, seemed to him gigantic. What their use ? Whence they came ? Whither they were going ? were questions to which for some time he in vain sought repHes. At length, a boatman along- side the quay, interested in the lad's eagerness, beckoned him to descend, and promised to afibrd the wished for explanation. It may weU be conceived with what alacrity the hivitation was accepted, and how joyously that boat was entered. With what earnestness Brunei hstened to the explanations of the friendly boatman. How those cyhnders were part of a fire engine (then so called) for the purpose of raising water ; that they had just arrived from England, where many such things were made. " Oh ! " exclaimed Brunei, " quand je serai grand, j'irai voir ce pays-lJi." On another occasion the superiority of tlie work- TALENT FOE CONSTEUCTION 9 manship of the different parts of a carriage recently landed on the quay attracted his observation. " Ah ! " he exclaimed, " qu'ils sont habiles dans ce pays-1^ ; j'irai le voir quand je serai grand." With a mind so much ahve to everything into which construction entered, it was no wonder that Brunei's imagination should have been aroused by the mechanical arrangements of musical uistruments. Having taught himself the flute, and the construction of the harpsichord, the possibihty occurred to him of combining the effects of both in one mechanical arrangement, and this, vdthout any knowledge of the laws of sound, or the rules of art. He thus, uncon- sciously, rivalled the ingenious inventions of Vaucan- son, of whose name and success he was equally ignorant, and of the self-taught peasant who erected, at Moshuus, in Norway, an organ, described by Sir A. de Capell Brook as " perfect in its parts, and with a variety of stops." Our own Watt, in the early part of his career, and without any loiowledge of the science of music, or correct appreciation of musical intervals, turned his mechanical skill in a similar direction. " He con- structed guitars, flutes and viohns, and proposed a mode of playing on the musical glasses which should be independent of the wetted finger. In organ build- ing, also. Watt introduced many valuable improve- ments, such as dehcate indicators and regulators of the strength of the blast ; and ultimately he was en- abled to establish the theory of Daniel Bernouilli relative to the mechanism of the vibration of musical chords, and wliich explains the harmonious sounds that accompany all full musical notes." * * Life of Watt, by J. P. Muirhead, M.A. 10 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL Brunei, though he did not aspire to the construction of an organ, nor to the attainment of a knowledge of the theory of music, nor the principles of harmony, yet accomphshed what was, perhaps, a more wonderful feat, considering his age (eleven years), than even that which had been performed by Watt in his twenty- third year, after long experience as a professed me- chanist. Unfortunately, this interesting model of Brunei's musical machine no longer exists, and there- fore we have no means of determining how far it embraced the requirements of the beautiful and in- genious instrument kno^wn as the barrel organ. But these exhibitions of mechanical precocity afforded httle consolation to a parent whose mind was occupied with the grateful anticipation of seeing the family Hving stiU occupied by a Brunei. " Ah ! mon cher Isam- bard," he used to say, " si tu prends ce parti-lk, tu vegeteras toute ta vie." It must, however, be remem- bered, {hat at the period of which we speak, there was nothing to suggest the changes about to take place in the industrial arts ; nothing to indicate that rapid de- velopment which the apphcation of steam, as a motive power, was destined to produce. In Eouen there did not exist one cotton spinning-machine. The only one to be found in the country was at Louviers, although indeed it is recorded by Dr. Eoyle, in his " Productive Eesources of India," that the Eev. W. Lee, of St. John's College, Cambridge, the inventor of a machine for knitting and weaving stockings, was induced by Henry IV., just 200 years before, to establish himself at Eouen, because he received no encouragement at home. The populace of Eouen had, hoAvever, now, in their ignorance and blindness, opposed every at- tempt to introduce spinning-machines, or to erect STUDIES FOR THE NAVY 11 manufactories for muslin or muslinette. So late as 1787 cotton was spun by the hand in Eouen, and throughout the province. In 1789 some speculative persons ventured to import machinery from England, but it was quickly demoHshed by the artisans.* JSTo wonder that a father, entirely ignorant of the value of mechanical appliances, which were then, and long continued to be, unappreciated either by society or by government, but who was perfectly ahve to the secular as well as spiritual power of the clergy, should witness, with profound disappoiatment, the growing tendencies of his child. The efforts of his father, aided by zealous and accomphshed teachers, having failed to wean the young artist from his mechanical ptirsuits, he sohcited, and at length obtained permission to visit an old fr;end of the family at Eouen, — M. Francois Car- pentier, — under whose direction he systematically studied drawing and perspective. To these studies hydrography was added, with a view of qualifying him to enter the navy, a service for which he had * The rude self-protection wMcli urged the natives of Eouen to raise their hands against machinery tliat they believed was destined to rob them of their bread, can be better understood, and more readily justified, than the intolerance and learned bigotry of those claiming the highest social position and authority, in enlightened Scotland, in the early part of the eighteenth century. Amongst other examples of the profound ignorance of art, and the fierce religious fanaticism which characterised that period, Mr. Robert Chambers {Domestic Annals of Scotland) notices the manner in which the inventor of the first agricultural machine was received in 1737. It was denormced as the " new-fangled machine for dighting the com frae the chaff; thus impioiisly thwarting the will o' Divine Providence by raising wind by human art instead of soliciting it by prayer, or patiently waiting for whatever dispensation of wind Pro- vidence was pleased to send upon the shieling hill." 12 MEMOm OF SIR M. I. BBUNEL exhibited a strong predilection. The rehef which the new course of study afforded him was often alluded to in after life. Under M. Dulagne of Eouen, the learned author of a treatise on hydrography, which forms a supplement to those of MM. Bouguer and De la CaiUe, the propositions of EucHd had only to be stated to be understood : demonstration was neither asked for nor required. After the third lesson in trigonometry he proposed to his astonished and dehghted master to determine the height of the spire of the cathedral. "II I'admit," says Brunei in a letter to a friend, "je fis de suite un instrument, assez grossier k la verite, mais assez juste, pour confirmer la theorie et la pratique." His love for construction stiU continued to afford the highest gratification to his leisure hours, and the models of vessels which he produced are said to have possessed singular beauty of form and finish. His indtistry, his intelligence, the integrity of his mind, and the sweetness and loyalty of his disposition, endeared him to all with whom he became associated. So conscious had M. Dulagne become of his pupil's superiority, that he joyfuUy seized the opportunity to procure for him the notice of the Minister of Marine, the amiable Marechal de Castries, upon the occasion of his visit to Eouen, in the suite of Louis XVI., when on his return from Cherbourg, and upon whom Brunei made so favourable an impression, that the marshal was induced to nominate him " Volontaire d'honneur" before the usual time, to the corvette " Le Marechal de Castries." However painful the feehng of disap- pointment to his father may have been at the failure of his favourite project to secure so much talent to the church, that regret must have been gTeatly modi- fied in receiving from M. de Castries an assurance of CONSTRUCTS A QUADRANT IS protection for his chUd, and in knowing that the honour conferred upon him had only once before been granted, and that to M. de Bougainville, the cele- brated circumnavigator. As an illustration of the accuracy of the observing and constructive powers of Brunei at this early period, it may be here further stated that, when introduced to the cap- tain of the vessel in which he was to sail, an instrument on the table attracted his attention. This was a Had- ley's quadrant. He had never seen one before, and was now simply told its use. He did not touch it, but, walking round the table, carefully examined it. In a few days he produced an instrument of his own con- struction. " Assez grossier, k la v^rite," as he used to say ; "mais assez juste ;" his only theoretical guide being a description of the instrument, in a work on navigation, supplied to him by his master. But this first attempt only stimulated the young mechanist to further efforts, and, with the unwilling aid of a few crowns from his father, he executed another quadrant in ebony with so much accuracy that, during the whole period of his connection with the navy, he required no other. When it is remembered that this instrument demands in the constructor a knowledge not only of geometry, trigonometry and mechanics, but of optics, one Is filled with astonishment and admiration at the mtuitive sagacity which brought aU this knowledge to bear upon so dehcate and comphcated a construction. Wlien about to embark in the new career which his conduct and his talents had opened to him, Brunei was attacked with smaU-pox. Some months' delay seems however to have been the only drawback. Upon his re- covery he joined his vessel, destined for the West Indies, it may be presumed under the same favoiurable auspices. 14 'memoir of sir M. I. BRUNEL CHAPTER II. 1786-1793. PERIL AT PARIS — MISS KINGDOM DISTURBANCES AT ROUEN QUITS FRANCE FORGES PASSPORT INSURRECTION IN ST. DOMINGO — LANDS AT NEW YORK CONNECTION "WITH M. PHAROUX. T HE marine of France had attained to an unprece- dented pitcli of efSciency and power under the fostering care of Louis XVI. Her flourishing colonies in the Antilles still afforded a valuable nurseiy for her seamen. For although, at the close of the war of in- dependence (1763), there only remained to her, of all her great possessions in the west, the Island of St. Do- mingo, and a few of the lesser islands, yet in value they equalled, if they did not exceed, the colonial posses- sions of aU other nations taken together.* ■i From St. Domingo alone the exports amounted to 168,000,000 francs = £6,720,000 And the imports to . 250,000,000 francs = £10,000,000 £16,730,000 "While at the same period, the commerce of Great Britain with her American and West Indian colonies did not exceed £8,288,145. Exports. Imports. British America . 1,119,991 255,797 West Indies . 2,784,310 4,128,047 3,904,301 4,383,844 Total . . £8,288,145 FRENCH EEVOLUTIOiX 15 From 1786. to 1792 Brunei seems to have been ac- tively engaged in liis profession ; and from his intelli- gence, gaiety, amiability, and general refinement, to have endeared himself, as well to his superior officers as to his ruder companions. It may be said, indeed, that he was a universal favourite ; a jeu de mot upon his names offers some evidence of the light in which he was regarded. On board he always went by the title of Marquis (Marc I — sambard). It is much to be regretted that there remains no re- cord of the impressions which the susceptible mind of Brunei received of those countries and peoples with which, during the six years of his naval service, he must have been brought into contact. In January, 1793, we find him in Paris, his ship being paid off. There, events were succeechng each other ^\dth a ra- pidity and violence unparalleled, perhaps, in the annals of human passion ; and, on the very day when the Convention pronounced sentence against the unfor- tunate Louis XVI., Brunei was found defending his own loyal opinions in the colonnade of the Cafe de VEchelle, little consciou.s of the risk to which he sub- jected himself. In the heat of discussion, and in re- ply to some ferocious observations of an ultra-repub- lican, he more boldly than prudently exclaimed, " Vous aurez bientot k invoquer la protection de la Ste Vierge, comme autrefois ' k furore Formannorum libera nos Domine.' " * Fortunately for our young loyaHst, M. TaiUefer, a member of the Assembly, by committing an act of greater indiscretion, turned the attention of those pre- * Inscription on one of the Gates of Eouen, after the city had been taken by the French. 16 MEMOm OF SIR M. I. BRUNKL sent upon him, and, in the confusion which ensued, Brunei was enabled to effect his escape. That night he slept at the Petit Gaillard-bois next door, and the following morning at an early hour quitted Paris. At Eouen, where his family had been known to entertain moderate views, Brunei was enabled to re- main for a time undisturbed : but at a period when every species of despotism was exercised without a despot being acknowledged ; and when, "to stifle every emotion of sensibility," was, according to Eobespierre, the greatest proof which a man could give of devotion to his country, it was not possible that France could any longer offer Brunei a home. And though the death of Louis XVI., which took place four days after Brunei's escape from Paris (January 21st, 1793), was quickly followed by an indiscriminate and mutual massacre of the judges and executioners of that ill-fated prince, yet was there no safety, either for the loyalist or constitu- tionalist, under the then existing jealous and unprin- cipled government. At Eouen, Brunei again availed himself of the pro- tection of his relative, M. Carpentier, and it was when mider his hospitable roof that an event occurred which will be found to have exercised a marked influence upon Brunei's future career. In that house, for the first time, he met a young English lady, of the name of Kingdom, gifted with no ordinary personal attractions. This lady was the youngest of sixteen children, mne of whom only reached maturity. Her father, who had been an army and navy agent at Plymouth, was dead, and her widowed mothui', supported by the active interest of the member for Plymouth, who had been left guardian to her children, was enabled to secure provision for her sons in the navy office. Solicitous to obtain every ad- MISS KINGDOM 17 vantage for her favourite davighter Sophia, who had just attained her sixteenth year, she was induced to accept an invitation from some West India friends, M. and Madame de Longuemar, to permit the ypung lady to accompany them to Eouen, that she might acquire a practical knowledge of the French language. It might appear to be matter of some surprise that Miss Kingdom should have been permitted by her friends to enter France at aU at a period (1792) when everything was tending so rapidly to a political crisis, if we were not aware how httle was generally known in England as to the condition of pohtical parties in France. But already royalty was in captivity, and the most fearful cruelties were being committed in the name of hberty. Circulars had been addressed by the municipahty of Paris to the other cities of France, inviting them to imitate the massacres of the capital. At Eouen two young ladies, known to M. and Madame de Longuemar, were dragged into the street by the insensate mob, and with shouts of " k la lanterne " were actually murdered, because they had been heard to play a loyahst air on their pianoforte. The alarm thus created in Eouen hastened the departure of M. and Madame de Longuemar for the West Indies. Miss Kingdom would gladly have accom- panied them, had not a severe illness rendered her unable to encounter the inconveniences of a sea voyage, and she was in consequence left under the care of M. Carpentier, the American consul, the intimate friend of the Longuemars, himself married to an EngHsh lady, and, as we have seen, the relative and tried friend of Brunei. Here it was, then, that Brunei became ac- quainted with Miss Kingdom. Opportunities were not wanting for the cultivation of an acquaintance in which mutual sympathy awakened mutual admiration. For 18 MEMOIE OF Sm M. I. BEUNEL Brunei beauty of form possessed an irresistible attrac- tion. One day, while the young lady was admiring his first attempt at oil painting — still in existence, — and, in her graceful and winning manner, pointing out what parts pleased her most, he turned to Madame Carpentier, and whispered, " Ah ! ma cousine, quelle belle main !" " Oui," she replied, " mais elle n'est pas pour toi." Not long after this little event, an emeute of the republican party called out the royahsts to sup- press it : Brunei amongst the number. The excitement was tremendous — the danger great. It was no wonder, therefore, that love should take the place of admiration and sympathy ; and that a reciprocal avowal of passion should be the consequence. " Wlien all the houses of the respectable inhabitants had to be barricaded against the intrusions of the sans-culottes or bonnet rouges, — when the distant roll of the drum brought its mysteri- ous forebodings of some violent display of popular paroxysm, — or the clang of the tocsin summoned the loyal and well-disposed for the protection of property and life, — when surrounded, in short, by perils the most appalling, the thoughts of these two loving hearts would necessarily be concentrated each upon the other, and impressions would be received which neither time nor circumstances could ever efiace. Young Brunei's po- sition now became daily more critical ; a longer delay in Eouen might be dangerous. Already a new phase in the revolutionary development had presented itself. Provisions and pubhc money, destined for the army, had been intercepted, and everything portended another fearful catastrophe. The Jacobins had prevailed — the reign of terror had commenced — the Convention was prostrated — its power had passed to the committee of pubhc safety ! — to Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, QUITS FKANCE 19 CoUot, and " to the ignoble, sanguinary, and depraved Barere." A column of Federalists had issued from Britany and Normandy, with the view of marching upon Paris, while other columns from Bordeaux, and the basia of the Loire, — from Avignon and Languedoc, Grenoble, the Ain, and the Jura, were pressing forward towards the same point, with the avowed object of rescuing the republic from the sanguinary tyranny of its own children. Upon the plea that he was engaged to purchase com and flour for the army, Brunei with difficulty obtained a passport to America, its operation being hmited to one year. Wo time was to be lost. On the 7th July, 1793, he bade adieu to his native France; not, as we may well beheve, without feelings of deep and heartfelt sorrow. But his loyal spirit could never have alUed itself with those whose hands were imbrued in the blood of their sovereign. All hope of entering upon any other career than that of war was too far distant to afford any reasonable prospect of employment in his native country, and thus did the iniquity of her government deprive France of the services of one of her most gifted sons. The attachment, also, which Brunei had formed, while it tended still farther to embitter his farewell, must yet be regarded as adding another motive for en- tering upon that struggle for independence upon which he had resolved, and as offering a new and powerful stimulant to the exercise of faculties which he must have felt conscious of possessing, in the hope of ulti- mately winning a prize upon which his imagination and his affections had set the highest value. o 2 20 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL That Miss Kingdom was strongly impressed with the devotion which she had inspired, her constancy and fortitude, through many years of trial, afford the most unequivocal testimony. At Havre, Brunei found an American vessel called " Liberty," about to sail for the United States, in which he secured a passage. Scarcely had he congratulated himself upon his providential escape from tyranny and oppression, when he discovered that the passport, to obtain which he had devoted many anxious hours, had been forgotten. The first pang of disappointment passed, no time was given to vain regret ; a mind so full of resource as was that of Brunei, could scarcely fail to find some means by which the loss might be supplied ; a loss which, to any other, would have proved absolutely irreparable, and might have proved fatal. Having obtained from one of his fellow passengers the loan of his important credential, he very soon produced a copy, so admirably executed in every minute detail, even to the seal, that it was deemed proof against all scrutiny. To his cahgraphic sldll was he now indebted- for freedom, and perhaps for life. Scarcely was the ink dry, when a Erench frigate hove in sight. A signal was soon after made for aU the passengers on board the American vessel to parade on deck, that their passports might be examined. Any detected irre- gularity would have subjected Brunei to the humiha- tion of arrest, and his immediate transmission back to France as suspect. Confiding in his artistic skill, and feehng the importance of suppressing aU appear- ance of hesitation or misgiving, he was the first to present his bold but well simulated document, and to ST. DOMINGO 21 receive the necessary confirmation of its legaKty, not the slightest suspicion having been aroused as to its authenticity. Without farther let or hindrance, he landed in safety at New York on the 6th September, 1793. There, to his dismay, he found the French squadron which had conveyed all those who were so fortunate as to escape the fearful massacre at St. Domingo. It will be remembered that, in 1790, the Constituent Assembly had empowered each colony belonging to the repubUc to make known its wants, on the subject of a constitution, through its own assembly, to be elected by its own citizens. The mulatto population of St. Domingo naturally claimed to participate, as citizens, in the privilege thus heedlessly decreed, and as naturally was their claim resisted by the whites, who, as the proprietors of the greater portion of the property of tlie island, and the inheritors of the wealth, the luxury and the prejudices of their fathers, felt their dignity compromised and their power endangered by this insensate delusion of the Assembly. Though inferior in point of wealth, the mulattos were far superior in point of numbers, and under the name of Petit Blancs, were rising into social import- ance ; they therefore rejoiced in the opportunity now aflforded them to secure political position also. Absorbed by class and personal contentions and animosities, the condition of the slave population was entirely overlooked.* The effect of the energetic and * The relative proportion of the population given by Mackenzie as quoted by Alison, was, whites 40,000, mulattos 60,000, blacks 500,000. Annual Register gives, whites 42,000, mulattos 44,000, slaves 600,000. The ruinous effect of the mistaken legislation of the Constituent c 3 22 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BKUNEL active Jacobin missionaries upon the ardent and igno- rant minds of the negroes was not appreciated. More circumspect than had been their countrymen of Jamaica, when, in 1760, they sought to cast off the British yoke, the negroes of St. Domingo, under their able cliiefs Brass on, Toussaint, and Hyacinthe, successfully accom- phshed their project, and in June, 1793, after a series of atrocious cruelties. Cape Town, the last stronghold of the planters, was reduced to ashes, at the time when the whites and mulattos were actually engaged in civil contention upon a question of privilege and caste. " Thus fell the Queen of the Antilles," says Ahson {History of Europe), " the most stately monument of European opulence that had yet arisen in the New World ; and thus democratic France, by an improvi- dent and reckless encouragement of freedom, lost her most valuable West Indian possessions, as constitutional England lost her American colonies by an equally wilful, intolerant, and perverse legislation." The greater part of the fugitives from that devoted Assembly will be at once seen in the foUowing comparative com- mercial statistics of St. Domingo. A.D. 1789. A.D. 1832. Population . . . 686,000 . . . 280,000 Sugar exported : "White 47,516,531"! ,.. ,,00001 lu Brown 93,573;300J 141,089,831 lbs. Coffee . . 76,835,219 lbs. Cotton . . 7,004,274 lbs. Ships employed in Trade 1680 Seamen . . . 26,770 Indigo . . . 758,628 lbs. Besides many otKer articles, such as hides, molasses, and spirits, to the amount of 171,544,666 livres Annual Register. Exports to France . £6,720,000 . . . none Imports from do. . £9,890,000 . . . none Mackenzie's St. Domingo. none 32,000,000 none 1 MM. PIIAROUX AND DESJAEDINS 23 country had sought shelter in the United States, and however well disposed our young emigre may have felt to sympathise with their fallen fortune, his own personal safety called for all his attention and care. The crews of the French vessels Brunei used to describe as so many sets of banditti. Many of them came to witness the landing of their exiled countrymen, and with coarse jests and imprecations, threatened to hang them aU as a cargo of royahsts ; and as Brunei was personally known to many of the officers of the squadron, there was the additional apprehension that he might be recognised, treated as a deserter, and compelled, perhaps, to return to the country from which he had with so much difficulty succeeded in effecting his escape. Having found temporary protection in the lodging- house of " one Wdson," in Hanover Place, New York, Brunei lost no time in making his arrangements for quitting, the city. A stranger in the land, he knew not where to direct his steps. To free himself from his present difficulties was his great consideration. In his dilemma he fortu- nately called to mind that two of his compagnons de voyage, M. Pharoux and M. Desjardins had proceeded to Albany, for the purpose of organising, on the part of a French company, the survey of a large tract of laud near Lake Ontario, extending between the 44th parallel of latitude, and the course of the Black Eiver ; and comprehending upwards of 220,000 acres. Brunei resolved to seek them, in a vague hope that he might be permitted to bear a part in an expedition which promised abundant exercise for his enterprising spirit, and an ample field for the development of his genius : whilst it held out some prospect, if not of immediate c 4 24 MEMOIR OP SIE M. I. BRUNEL remuneration, yet of the means of permitting him to husband his hmited pecuniary resources for future emergencies. M. Pharoux, the director of the expedition, an architect and surveyor of considerable repute, received our adventurous emigre with all the courtesy of a kind and generous nature. During the voyage he had already been favourably impressed with the originahty of thought, and amiabihty of character which distinguished Brunei, and he at once felt the importance of seciuring the co-operation of one to whom difficulties and dangers promised to be only incentives to exertion, and the means of drawing forth natural resources of no ordi- nary kind. Accompanied by four Lidians, supplied with two tents, a few axes, and fowHng-pieces, these three enter- prising French gentlemen entered upon the arduous duty, not only of exploring, but of actually mapping a region hitherto scarcely known — a region where nature had for ages put forth unrestrained her power and her beauty — ere it had been brought within the bounds of civiHsation. The glories of the physical world were appreciated by Brunei in their widest extent, and the impressions made by the richness, variety and magni- tude of the vegetation of those primeval forests was ever remembered by him with renewed pleasure, mingled with a certain awe, when he called to mind the perils and the gloom by which his path had been so often compassed. Leaving our yornig adventurer to pursue his novel avocations, and to develope his newly discovered faculties, we shaU return to Eouen, where the reign of terror was holding its court. MISS KINGDOM IMPRISONED 25 CHAPTER III. 1793-1799. MISS KINGDOM IMPRISONED TEA YELLING IN AMERICA, 1793 FRENCH EMIGRANT FAMILY OJIBBEWAY CHIEF ME. THUR- MAN ENGINEERING TALENT PLANS FOR SENATE HOUSE, WASHINGTON PARK THEATRE, fTEW TORE LOCOMOTIVE WINDMILL CANNON FOUNDRY DEATH OF M. PHAROUX ADMITTED CITIZEN OF NEW YORK DECLINES TO RETURN TO FRANCE NAVAL SUCCESSES OP ENGLAND BLOCK MACHINERY FIRST SUGGESTED. NO sooner had England entered into the coahtion with the continental powers against France, than all communication between France and England was at once cut off, and the Enghsh then found on French soil were, without regard to sex or age, hurried away to prison. At Eouen, the house of the American consul was found to be no protection. Fortunately for Miss Kingdom, the prisons were already fuU to overflowing ; she was, therefore, with some others, conveyed to a convent, and placed under the surveillance of the nuns. The fare was wretched, and the lodging miserable. Black bread of the coarsest kind, with pieces of straw mixed with the dough, con- stituted the principal food ; while the beds were formed of boards, with a billet of wood for a pillow. Still, the sympathy and kindness exhibited by the poor nuns, and the relief which she experienced in having companions of her own sex, offered some compensation 26 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL to Miss Kingdom for so much physical discomfort and privation. The httle luxuries, also, which the friends of the nuns would, from time to time, convey within the walls, were appreciated at no ordinary value. The little cream jug, so often fiUed by the trusty old servant of the Macnamara family in the neighbourhood, when- ever opportunity offered, is stiU retained as a memorial of the sufferings and the sympathies of that iniquitous period. Much of the time not devoted to reUgious observances was employed by the nuns in the cultivation of the arts ; and Miss Kingdom was indebted to the instruc- tions she obtained in this convent for her dexterity in the manufacture of artificial flowers. Many times, during her confinement, had Miss King- dom to witness the loss of some of her companions, condemned to the guillotine, not knowing when her own turn might arrive. At length, the hope of rescue died out ; death was casting his dark shadow before him, and despair had taken possession of the hearts of the small remnant of her companions, when behold, one morning in July 1794, the doors of the convent were thrown open, and they were declared free to depart whither they would. Stunned by so unlocked for a reprieve, they were utterly unable to reahse the fact that the arch tyrant of the revolution no longer hved, and that the reign of terror had ceased. The joy of M. and Madame Carpentier was unbounded. With open arms they received their young friend, and, as the best service they could now render, they lost no time m obtaining for her a passport to her own country. Brunei, happUy unconscious of what was passing m France, continued to devote himself to the duties of TRAVELLING IN AMERICA ' 27 his own profession, stimulated and supported by the hope of one day placing himself in a condition to claim the object of his affections, for whose sake he desired to consecrate " In worthy deeds each moment that is told." Unfortunately, I have been unable to obtain any notes or correspondence relative to the eventful cowp d'essai of his engineering hfe. Communications with Europe were difficult, tedious, and expensive. I have, however, often heard Brunei speak of his sojourn in America as a period of plea- surable excitement, enhanced, perhaps, by the dangers as well as the difficulties overcome. The only channels of communication which at that time existed between New York and its northern and eastern frontier, were by Lakes Champlain and George ; and by the Mohawk and Wood's Creek Elvers, the Oneida Lake, and the Onandago Elver, to Fort Oswego, on Lake Ontario. At Albany, a hundred and forty-five miles from New York, the difficulties commenced. A waggon road for sixteen mUes brought the traveller to Shenectady. From thence up the Mohawk Elver to the httle falls, a distance of sixty-five miles, was performed in bateaux — fight flat-bottomed boats, pointed at the ends, weigh- ing about fifteen hundred-weight each, and worked by two men with paddles and setting poles. At the httle falls occurred the first portage, or land-carriage, which led over a marsh for about a mile. To accomplish this, the bateau was landed and placed on a sort of sledge — an adaptation by a German colony — and so drawn beyond the falls, where the water-carriage was again resumed for about fifty miles, when another 28 • MEMOm OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL portage of six to eight miles, dependent upon the sea- son, occurred. This brought the traveller to the Wood's Creek Eiver, where the labours of trans- port were remitted. For a distance of forty miles, this beautiful river pursues its gentle course to the Lake Oneida ; from the eastern end of which the turbulent Onandago breaks its way, for about thirty miles, over rapids and rocky falls to Fort Oswego, on the Lake Ontario. This fort was one of a chain of forts which extended from the source of the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, by which the French had, at one period, sought to deprive the Enghsh colonists of half their possessions. We have the testimony also of two English travellers, as to the condition of the pubhc thorough- fares about this period, south and north of New York. Mr. Francis Baily, one of the distinguished founders, if not the originator of the Eoyal Astronomical Society, describes in his journal, 1796-7, a journey from Balti- more to Philadelphia, in company with Mr. EUicot, the government surveyor of the United States, whose in- fluence appears to have first directed Mr. Baily's atten- tion from the sublunary interests of the Stock Exchange to the glorious contemplation of astronomical philoso- phy. The public conveyances seem to have been very similar in character to the char-a-lanc of the present day. " An open coach on springs, with leather cur- tains, fitted up with four seats placed one before the other, suspended from the top, capable of being raised or lowered, and each seat capable of accommodating four persons ; so that the whole of the passengers face the horses." The roads were almost impassable. " We did manage," says Mr. Baily, " to get twelve miles before breakfast ; about thirteen miles between TRAVELLING IN AMEEICA 29 breakfast and dinner ; and about twelve more miles before supper ; having walked nearly half the way, up to our ankles in mud." Occasionally the coach was fairly " bogged," and left for the night. Mr. Isaac Weld also, who travelled through the States in 1795-6-7, describes his journey ftom Albany to Lake Champlain, called by the Indians Caniad-eri Quarante, mouth, or door of the country. The carriage, which after much difficult negotiation • Mr. Weld and his companion were enabled to obtain, and which the proprietor boasted " was the veiy best in Albany," had no springs, and was httle better than a common waggon. The traces frequently broke, and the bridles as frequently slipped oiF the horses' hisads. In traversing one causeway, near Eort Edward, the over- taxed animals were unable, without assistance, to extri- cate the wheels of the vehicle from between the partially decayed trees, of which the road was formed. From Albany to Skenesborough, a distance of forty miles, occupied twelve hours, and the last twelve miles no less than Jive hours. Well may Mr. Weld speak of the contemplated connection of Lake Champlain with the north, or Hudson Eiver, by the improvement of the navigation of Wood's-Creek Eiver, aheady suggested by MM. Pharoux, Desjardins and Brunei, as the most important project of the day. If, then, the ordinary route presented difficulties, those to be overcome in the progress of exploration may be partially conceived. By indefatigable perse- verance, and the display of no common resources on the part of their young assistant, the object of MM. Pharoux and Desjardins was accomplished. During this exploration, a httle incident occurred which made a lively impression upon the mind of 30 MEMOIR OF SIK M. I. BRUNEL Brunei, and to whicli he never afterwards alluded but with emotion. As the party were rounding a small creek on the Black Eiver, in their canoe, where the rich luxuriant fohage kissed the surface of the water, and entirely shut out the banks from view, children's voices were dis- tinctly audible, " Viens papa — viens mamma, voUa un bateau." Who shall describe the effect of these simple sounds upon the hearts of the exiled travellers, as they broke the sUence of an American sohtude? What visions of home-recollections must have been presented to their affections, and with what eager interest they must have sought the dwelHng of their expatriated countrymen, may be conceived but cannot be described. There, in the back woods, was a family that had fled, as they had, from the horrors of the revolution, supporting themselves by the work of their own hands, and mdebted to the forbearance and kindly natural instincts of wild and lawless Indians, for that hfe and that peace which had been denied to them at home. The same confidence vdth which this family had been treated by the Indians, was extended to Brunei and his companions. The friendly character of this intercourse was curiously illustrated, so lately as 1845, upon the visit of some of those people to England ; when Lady Hawes (Sir Isambard's eldest daughter) took the opportunity of inquiring of the young Ojib- beway chief Ka-ge-ga-go-boo, whether he had ever heard of a wliite man called Brunei, who visited his country long ago. "No;" he repHed, "but I have heard my grandfather talk, -with pleasure, of a wonder- ful white man called Bru-ne." As these people always MB. TI-IURMAN' 31 drop the final consonant, the name would appear to be identical. Eeturning to Albany, the party took their passage on board a sloop for New York. The vessel was run upon a sand-bank, and detained two tides. When about to resume her voyage, " un homme sage," as Brunei described Mr. Thurman, an American loyalist and a merchant of New York, came on board. This gentleman had always exhibited a strong sym- pathy for the loyalists of France ; often solacing them in their sorrows, and ministering to their wants. With M. Pharoux and young Brunei he readily fraternized ; and ere the voyage to New York had been accom- plished, he had engaged them to survey a Hne for a canal to connect the Eiver Hudson with lake Champlain. The engagement with Mr. Thurman became, there- fore, the turning-poiat of Brunei's Hfe. He had intended to return to his own country, should tranquillity be restored, and a constitutional government be esta- blished ; but the fortuitous comiection with this " homme sage," determined his destiny. France, and her briUiant naval service, was abandoned for America, and the hmnble profession of a civil engineer. The name of Thurman is still remembered with reverence in New York, as that of one who, by pro- moting internal communications, tended best to de- velope the resources of his country. To M. Pharoiix was confided the conduct of the operations ; but as difiiculties accumulated, the superio- rity of Brunei's genius became so apparent, that with a mind as hberal as enlightened, M. Pharoux did not hesitate to resign the command into the hands of his more gifted companion ; and thus was Brunei, by the force of his character, and the influence of circum- 32 MEMOIR OF SIK M. I. BRUNKL Stances, — mysterious powers, which, under the name of accidents, are so often found to direct the destiny of human Hfe, — placed in the position best calculated to promote his own happiness, and to confer lasting benefit upon his kind. Brunei's attention was now directed, not only to the projection of canals, but the improvement of the navi- gation of rivers. His ingenuity soon suggested the means of freeing the beds from masses of rock and embedded trees ; and, by lateral cuts, of evading falls and cataracts, which rendered navigation not only dan- gerous but often impracticable. He may therefore be considered as the pioneer of those great inland communications, which have tended so largely to pro- mote the commercial prosperity of the States. The connection so auspiciously formed with Mi'. Thurman, opened to Brunei other and more briUiant opportimities for the exhibition of his constructive talents. Success attended all his efforts ; and thus, in the course of less than twelve months, he had achieved a name and secured an independence. The building which served as the great council- chamber of the nation at Washington possessed neither ■the accommodation which the increasing busmess of the States required, nor the architectural dignity which the majesty of Congress demanded. It was therefore resolved that architects should be invited to send in plans for a new structure, which would be subjected to competition. Amongst the competitors appeared Brunei and his friend M. Pharoux, an architect, it must be remembered, by profession ; but so superior in arrangement, elegance, and grandeur of design were the plans of Brunei, that the judges were reheved from all difficulty of selection. Principles of economy, 33 however, interfered ; and while they robbed the nation of a noble structure worthy of its greatness, they also deprived Brunei of that honour and those emoluments to which his attainments and his skill entitled him. Fortunately the time and talents which he had dis- played in this new field of art were not suffered to be lost. Plans were soon after demanded for a theatre in New York. With considerable modifications of the former design, Brunei's were accepted. M. Pharoux again entered into competition ; but so far from the success of his friend exciting the shghtest jealousy or ill-will, he was amongst the first to offer his congratulations, and to solicit as a favour that some of the decorative portion of the work might be accorded to him ; not only that the friendship which circumstances had so happily established might be perpetuated, but that he might also secure the privilege of " free admis- sion." Brunei and Pharoux were not the only " emigres " who contributed to the eclat of the Park Theatre. A French nobleman, the Baron de Eostaing, and a bar- rister, M. Savarin, were enabled to turn to account, both on the stage and in the orchestra, talents which in early Kfe they had cultivated only as soiu-ces of individual gratification and social amusement. An anecdote is related of the young architect during his connection with the theatre, illustrative not only of his ingenuity, but of his love of a joke. At a grand pubhc masquerade given to inaugurate the opening, an elegantly constructed locomotive windmill made its appearance on the stage, the only apparent opening to which was a window near the top. The singularity of the construction excited, naturally, a surprise, which was increased to astonishment when a voice was heard to issue from the machine, uttering a variety of D rt 4 MEMOIE OF SIE M. I. BBUNEL poKtical, as well as personal satires ; and exhibiting an intimate acquaintance with the social condition of New York. This could not be long endured. A call was made for the Thersites of the mill to shew himself, under a loud threat of summary chastisement by the demo- htion of the machine and the exposure of the frojideur. When the excitement was at its height, and the de- struction of the windmill seemed inevitable, the machine was gradually brought over one of the trap doors on the stage. Brunei, and the companion whose wit had led to the anticipated catastrophe, allowed themselves to drop gently through, and thus to effect their escape from the theatre undiscovered. The disappointment of those who had aheady breathed a vow of vengeance may be well conceived when the machine was found to be untenanted ; and as Brunei and his friend left New York that night for Philadelphia, the mystery remained unexplained. However weU calculated were the designs for this theatre to exliibit an unusual amount of talent and resource, and however the execution of them may have served as an introduction to more general architectural practice, the work failed to procure Brunei any direct pecuniary benefit. Unfortunately this building was burnt down in 1821, and there remain no authen- ticated drawings to shew the architectural novelties of its construction. The cupola by which it was sur- mounted is said to have resembled that in Paris over the Corn Market ; while in the boldness of its projec- tion and the hghtness of its construction it was far superior. So high had Brunei's talents raised him in the esti- mation of the citizens of New York, that they resolved to appoint him their Chief Engineer. In that capacity CANNON FOUNDRY 35 he was soon called upon to prepare designs for a can- non foundry. Up to Brunei's advent no establishment of that kind existed in the State ; nor does it appear that Brunei had ever directed his attention to that branch of engineering. At Douai, Euelle, and Stras- burg, the old method of loam-moulds, and partially hollow castings, with the subsequent apphcation of the cutters, or alesoirs, for boring, still prevailed ; but of this method Brunei had no practical knowledge, no more than 'he had of the impwDvements introduced into England, where, at that time, about 27,000 tons* of iron were being annually converted into cannons, mor- tars, carronades, shot and shells. If, however, the want of precedent brought a greater demand on his invention, it also reheved him from the paralysing influence of aiithority. Left free to solve the- problems presented to him, he very soon organised an establishment for casting and boring or-dnance, which, from its novelty, practicability and beauty, was considered, at that time, unrivalled ; and which in itself was sufficient to place its originator in thp fore- most rank of mechanical engineers. f Shortly after the completion of |he theatre at New York, Brunei was called upon to mourn the loss of his enhghtened patron and hberal friend, M. Pharoux, amicus usque ad aras. He had retiu-ned to his hydraulic avocations on the Black Eiver, one of the * Board of Ordnance 11,000 tons, East India Company 6000 tons, trading and other armed vessels 10,000 tons. ■\ " L'ing^nietix m^canisme qu'il imagina pour ex^ctiter I'op^ration du forage des canons, ses nouveaux aWsoirs, I'adaptation des mouve- mens par le moyen desqiiels il remuait, il faisait tourner facilement des masses si lonrdes, une foule d'inventions et d'id^es fecondes qu'il mit au jour, sufiiraient pour ^tablir sa c^l^brit^." — Notice his- torique par Frere. D.2 36 MEMOm OF SIE M. I. BEUNBL most turbulent of the northern streams. This river takes its rise on the western decHvity of the Essex Mountains, pursu.es a course of about 120 miles, some- times interrupted by cataracts, and sometimes hurried onward by rapids, until it ultimately discharges its waters into Lake Ontario, at Sachet's Harbour. In his attempt to cross the great falls of this river, M. Pharoux, and seven of his companions, perished; a fate to which, we almost shudder to think, Brunei might have been also exposed, had not his genius and a protecting Providence opened to him another and a safer path. New York seems to have been, at this time, con- siderably indebted to French genius for many of its most important works. The defence of the entrance to its land-locked bay had long been in contemplation. Between Staten Island and Long Island the bay contracts to the width of a mile, and receives the name of " Narrows." To a French officer of talent and experience, Major L'Enfant, the projection of the defence of this channel had been confided ; but the evidences which were so fast accu- mulating of Brunei's engmeering qualifications, scarcely justified the citizens hi neglecting to secure his opinion and assistance. Accordingly, plans were obtained from him which seem to have been those ultimately adopted. In 1796, we find Brunei admitted to the privileges of a citizen of New York. (See Appendix A.) Of the amount and variety of his labours, and the difficulties against which he had to struggle during his residence in that city, there remains, unfortunately, no record. We have, however, incidental testimony that his genius received but inadequate reward in America ; notwithstanding which, he resolutely de- DECLINES TO KETURN TO FRANCE 37 clined to entertain urgent and repeated invitations to return to his own country. France had now entered upon a new phase of her pohtical existence ; she had shaken off the yoke of the sanguinary monsters of the Eevolution, and had estabhshed an Executive Direc- tory which afforded some guarantee for good order and wise pohty ; her arms were eveiywhere trium- phant. Holland, imder the title of the Batavian Ee- public, had become her ally ; Eussia had deserted her coahtion with Austria ; and Austria herself, by the Treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797) had been compelled to acknowledge the power of France. Not- withstanding all this, Brrniel felt that his country offered no real security, either for personal or political freedom. He was still apprehensive that the leaders of the Eevolution were scarcely prepared to understand the .true principles for which they were contending, and were, therefore, httle likely to use with discretion the power with which they might become invested. He had learnt to think that freedom was of progressive growth, and that France, which had been so long deprived of the first elements of liberty, could not suddenly be brought to walk in the steps of America, when there was no sagacious and disinterested Wash- ington to guide her councils. Eespect for constitutional authority ever formed a leading characteristic of Brunei's mind ; no man more strongly condemned that disregard of moral feeling which so generally obtained in relation to the crimes of great military or pohtical usurpers. The formal censure which our Christianity passes upon usurpation and tyranny, had for- him a reahty — not to say a solemnity — of conviction. It was, therefore, no wonder that he should continue to resist every D 3 38 MEMOIR OP SIR M. I. BRUNEL temptation, even in after life, and when the imperial power had been firmly established, to take up his abode in France. At the period to which we now refer, Brunei one day received an invitation from Major-General Hamilton — the distinguished aide-de- camp and secretary to Washington — to meet at dinner a M. Delabigarre, recently arrived from England. The absorbing subject of conversation in all society was the triumphs achieved by the British navy at Cape St. Vincent and at Camperdown; at General Hamilton's table the naval prowess of England formed naturally an interesting matter of discussion, leading to a con- sideration of the principles of naval architecture and the supply of the materials of ships of war. M. Delabigarre seemed to have directed his special attention to these subjects, enlarging more particularly on the manufacture of ship's blocks. He described with accuracy the nature of the ma- chinery in use at Southampton by the Messrs. Taylor, and spoke of the large and increasing cost of those articles. Brunei hstened with attention and with interest, pointing out what occurred to him as defects in the manipulation, and suggesting that the mortises in the shells of the blocks might be readily cut with chisels, two and three at a time. There are no records to show how the suesestion here thrown out took root in his mind, developed into form, and ultimately expanded to proportions so great as to embrace the whole requirements of the British navy. A memorandum in one of his subsequent jour- nals simply states that " the shaping machine I con- ceived while I was roaming on the esplanade of Fort Montgomery ; then not a house was in sight, except at BLOCK MACHINERY SUGGESTED 39 the landing below and at Verplante Point." If, how- ever, Brunei laboured under the disadvantages of want of experience and example in the manner of accomphsh- ing his work, he was the more strongly impressed with the necessity of giving his whole mind to the questions presented to him. To investigate a problem upon its own merits is not always easy. To conceive the end to be accomplished requires a mind more comprehen- sive in its grasp, and is therefore more rare in its de- velopment, than that which exercises itself in the means to be employed ; but when both the imaginative and constructive faculties are happily united, we have the real inventor, him to whom antiquity accorded the highest honours. " Founders and senators of states and cities, lawgivers, extirpers of tyrants, fathers of the people, and other eminent persons in civil government," says Lord Bacon, " were honoured but with titles of worthies or demi-gods ; whereas, such as were inventors and au- thors of new arts, endowments and commodities towards man's life, were ever consecrated amongst the gods themselves : and justly, for the merit of the* former is confined vdthin a circle of an age or a nation, and is hke fruitful showers, wliich, though they be profit- able and good, yet serve but for that season, and for a latitude of ground where they fall ; but the other is, indeed, Hke the benefits of Heaven, which are perma- nent and universal, coming 'in aur4 leni,' without noise or agitation." * The influence of authority, which education is too well calculated to produce, while it tends to remove the asperities and smooth the irregularities which in- * Advancement of Learning. D 4 40 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL terrupt and sometimes endanger the interests of society, has the effect, also, of repressing originahty of thought and of weakening the faculty of invention. " Men there have been," says Macaulay, " ignorant of letters ; without wit, 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 dehverance of nations and their own greatness. Their hearts are their books ; events are their tutors ; great actions are their eloquence." " Les grands services font les grands hommes, car la vraie gloire n'appartient qu'aux idees fecondes." QUITS AMEEICA 41 CHAPTEE IV. 1799-1801. QUITS AMEEICA DUKE OF OHLEANS LAIOIS AT FALMOUTH — PREJUDICE AGAINST FOREIGNERS JOHN FELTHAM MACHINE FOR TWISTING COTTON AND FORMING IT INTO BALLS MACHINE FOR HEMMING AND STITCHING MACHINE FOE CARD SHUFFLING DESIGNS FOB A BLOCK MACHINERY — EDWARD, LORD DUDLEY SLIDE REST MAUDSLAT DESIGNS OFFERED TO MR. TAYLOR REJECTED INCREASE OF THE NAVY — SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. ON the 20th January, 1799, Brunei bade adieu to America, grateful for the freedom which her institutions had permitted him to enjoy ; for the en- couragement which her citizens had afforded to his expanding genius ; and for the opportunity which the requirements of its rudimentary condition offered for testing the practical value of his projections. The hope of his boyhood, once to visit England, and which foimd expression on the quay of Eouen, when he exclaimed, " Ah ! quand je serai grand, j'irai voir ce pays-Ik," was at length to be fulfilled ; and the unwavering constancy of a long-cherished attachment was now to meet with its reward. The reputation which he had acquired in America enabled him to procure valuable letters of introduction to individuals in this country, from men of learning and eminence in the United States. With H. RH, the Duke of Kent he had already formed a personal acquaintance in New York, where he also became 42 MEMOIR OF Sm M. I. BRUNEL known to the Duke of Orleans, afterwards King Louis Philippe ; and who, at a subsequent period, when en- tertakiing Brunei at the Palais Eoyal, seemed pleased to recall the circumstances connected with their first acquaintance. He would cheerfully remind Brunei how he and his brothers, the Duke de Montpensier and the Count Beaujolais, fared ; sometimes compelled to quit the only inn in a wild district in consequence of some unintentional offence offered to the landlord, and sometimes compelled to perform long journeys on foot, each with his luggage on his back. " Ah ! " said his Majesty, " c'etait vous Brunei qui y voyageait en grand Seigneur ; but I with my friends went through that country very differently ; obliged to support ourselves principally by our rifles, — the clouds of heaven our canopy, the trees of the forest our bed-curtains." In March 1799, Brunei landed at Falmouth, and shortly after was united to Miss Sophia Kingdom. It was now no longer the loved image only which, in the anxious yearning days of youthful exile, his faithful pencil had so often embodied ; but the hving, confiding woman that he now pressed to his heart, in ah. the flower of hfe ; — she who had, for his sake, steadily rejected many an ehgible suitor which her fascination and beauty had attracted. We may well beheve that her confidence and affection had nothing to regret when, with the dew of youth upon his heart, and the smile of truth upon his hps, he could write in his seventy-sixth year, and after forty-six years of wedded life, this touching acknowledgment, that " To you, my dearest Sophia, I am indebted for all my success." Truly says Jeremy Taylor, " She that is loved is safe, and he that loves is joyful." Necessity no more, than inclination would permit PREJUDICE AGAINST FOREIGNERS 43 Brunei to remain long unemployed, although a serious doubt might be well entertained as to the reception which would be accorded to him by the country. The hereditary feeUng of repugnance to everything French, and indeed the suspicion and jealousy with which everything foreign was regarded, attained in England an intensity, about that period, greater perhaps than at any other on record. The length to which these feelings were carried is curiously illustrated in a letter placed in my hands by Sir Benjamin Hawes, K. C. B., and addressed by Mr. John Feltham, a gentle- man well known and respected, to Sk Benjamin's father. " Bath, No. 12, Kingsmead Square, " 20th July, 1798. "Dear Sir, " You need not be alarmed when I tell you I am in custody, and my papers, writings, &c. &c., seized by order, I apprehend, of His Grace the Duke of Portland, in consequence of having a few weeks since given a poor Turk, or Persian, 2 s. 6d. and a breakfast. I could not understand a word he said ; but he was poor, and on foot. He brought me a letter of recommendation from Mr. Hoskins, who had, I suppose, relieved him ; and he desired me to copy a letter to give himto take on to London to Mr. Wilmot to give him 10s. 6d. in the Boro', — which letter has been seized, and the poor man taken up for a spy. " This letter of Mr. Hoskins, which I copied, mentioned the word ' citizen,' which it seems has caused the alarm. I have no doubt of the business proving highly honour- able to Mr. H. and myself : though I may possibly be brought to town. I underwent a long examination yesterday, and the Bench and Mayor behaved very much to their credit, and paid me some comphments 44 MEMOIR OF SIK M. I. BRUNEL for my conduct. I sent for Mr. Cruttwell, on whose word I am on the parole of honour. " Your affectionate friend, "John Feltham. "P.S. — ^Probably this httle act of benevolence has stopt ah. my letters. Adieu. God bless you. " To Mr. Benjn. Hawes." Brunei had indeed introduced his inventions from America, and it was at first supposed that they were of American origin, which may possibly have had the effect of modiiying feehng and opinion. Still he was unable to enter the gates of Portsmouth Dockyard without an official order or permit, even when engaged in superintending his own works. In May 1799, Brunei took out his first patent. This was for a duphcate writing and drawing machine. In principle it resembled the Pantograph, as described in the "Memoires de lAcademie des Sciences," 1743, though differing vsddely in the details. A machine for twisting cotton-thread and forming it into balls was also amongst the earliest of Brunei's inventions in this country. The impulse given by this machine to the employment of cotton can now scarcely be credited. The little balls were very elegant in form ; and from the manner in which the thread was Avound, they presented the appearance of net-work, or ribbons of lace. The machine measured the length of the thread which it wound, and proportioned the size of the ball to its weight and fineness. Unfortunately Brunei neglected to secure the benefit of his invention by patent, and it was therefore rapidly and generahy adopted ; and while thousands of pounds were reahsed WINDING COTTON AND STITCHING MACHINES 45 tlirougli its means, Brunei himself remained witliout remuneration. In his Journal of 1806, he notices a visit which he paid to the estabhshment of the Messrs. Strutt, at Belper (Derby), where, after remarking that there were 640 persons employed, he says, " I observed they had adopted my contrivance for winding cotton into balls. There were about twenty spindles on one swing." A lady, a friend of Brunei, having experienced the advantage of the httle cotton balls, while expressing her admiration to him, jokingly suggested that he ought to invent a means of reheving ladies from the wearisome employment of hemming and stitching. To any other, the observation would have passed as it was intended. It was certainly forgotten by the lady herself ; when, to her surprise, his patent for "trimmings and borders for muslins, lawns, and cambric " was shown to her, and in which she found her wishes more than fulfilled. The advantages of this invention are stated to be " that the operations of hemming, whipping, or otherwise securing from ravelhng the edges of trimmings cut in narrow shps out of border webs, as they have unavoid- ably been hitherto, are by this invention altogether saved." To this machine may perhaps be referred the origin of that recently introduced from America, and so largely employed in Belfast and the north of Ireland in hemming cambric handkerchiefs, stitching Unen drawers and jackets, and in making shirts. A very essential difference will be observed in the fate of the two machines. While the one remained neglected and unproductive, the other is a marked success, and the object of an important and remunera- tive trade. Brunei also invented, about this period, for the benefit of some feeble-handed card-player, a httle 46 MEMOIE OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL machine for shuffing cards ; but what the exact nature of its construction was, I have been unable to learn. The cards were placed in a box, a handle was turned, and in a few seconds the sides of the box opened, presenting the pack divided into four parts, and the cards most effectually mixed. This machine he pre- sented to Lady Spencer. In a note addressed to Lady Hawes by the Dowager Lady Littleton, she says that " she well recollects Sir Isambard bringing to her mother the httle instrument for shuffling cards, — and also the deep interest and admiration with which her parents always thought and spoke of him." Although these machines afforded no direct profit, they served as an introduction, and as offering valuable testimony of Brunei's mechanical genius and skill. It was, however, to a system of machines which should supply the whole British navy with blocks, that we must look for the estabhshment of his claim to occupy the first rank amongst inventors and mechanists. Owing to the fortuitous circumstance of Mrs. Brunei's brother being Under-Secretary to the Navy Board, Brunei was enabled, through him, to enter into negotiations with Messrs. Fox and Taylor, who ' had for many years enjoyed a monopoly for the supply of blocks to the British navy, and to whom Brunei first made offer of his ingenious inventions, — with what result we shall presently see. So long ago as 1775, Mr. Taylor took out a patent " for the improvement in coghing or bushing of cast iron or metal shivers for ships' blocks ; " and m 1781, another patent for " planking shivers with lignum vitis, or other hard wood, so that the pieces of plank let in on each side of the shivers to cross each other shall wear BLOCK MAKISG 47 on the pin head or endway of the grain with httle wear, and less noise or friction than heretofore." This patent included the bushing, boxing, coghing, or plating the shivers with hard wood for forming the rim or groove of shivers in cast metal ; the shivers to have spokes of lignum vit^, or other hard wood, and to be secured to the rim by screws or rivets ; and for boihng English wood shivers in oil or salt water " to render them more serviceable." Stni the most essential operations connected with block-making were performed by manual labour ; and upon the accuracy of the eye and hand of the work- man depended the execution of the work. This was, however, not only highly costly, but, from want of uniformity in the execution, disappointing and unsatis- factory. The difficulties which stood in the way of Watt might have postponed also the accompHshment of Brunei's project, had not the kindred inventive genius of Henry Maudslay supplied a highly important element of success ; and thus has it ever been that ideas are found to precede, sometimes for years, their prac- tical fulfilment. " The principle of the press," for example, " which bears the name of Bramah, was known," says Mr. Babbage, " about a century and a half before the machine to which it gave rise existed ; but the imper- fect state of mechanical art in the time of the dis- coverer would have effectually deterred him, if the application of it had occurred to his mind, from attempting to employ it in practice, as an instrument for exerting force."* In another department we have * History of Machinery and Manufactures, by Charles Babbage, F.E.S. 48 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL an example in the ruin to which Edward, Lord Dudley, was exposed, when, in 1619, he sought to realise his idea of applying pit coal in place of wood fuel to the smelting of iron ore, a process which, beyond all other, has gained for England her superiority in the me- chanical arts, but which the ignorance and the pre- judice of the people rejected for nearly one hundred years. In the case of Brunei, his mechanical conceptions could scarcely have been developed without the aid of the slide rest. Mr. Nasmyth has shewn*, that by the application of this instrument to the turning lathe, the whole condition of practical mechanism was changed. "A mechanical contrivance was made to take the place of the human hand for holding, applying, and direc- ting the motions of a cutting tool to the surface of the work to be cut, by which the tool is constrained to move along or across the surface of the object with such absolute precision, that with scarce any expendi- ture of force on the part of the workman, any figure, bounded by a line, a plane, a circle, a cyhnder, a cone or a sphere, may be executed with a degree of accu- racy, ease and rapidity, which, as compared with the old imperfect hand system, may well be considered a mighty triumph over matter." "It is to this instru- ment," says Mr. Nasmyth, " we owe the power of operating alike on the most ponderous or the most delicate pieces of machinery, with a degree of minute precision of which language cannot convey an idea." In estimating then the value of the vast change * Essay on Tools and Machines, appended to Buchanan's Mill Work, revised by George Eennie. HENEY MAUDSLAY 49 created in our dockyards by the genius of Brunei, we naust not forget how much is due to the able co- operation of Mr. Henry Maudslay, who, by a happy combination of industiy and genius, was enabled, from the humblest beginning, to build up an estabhshment which gave to the world such men as Field, ISTasmyth, and Whitworth to perpetuate its character, and to confer upon their country the highest mechanical benefit yet obtained. Perhaps no nobler monument has been raised to the invention, the skih, and the perseverance of an individual mind than that now exhibited in Cheltenham Place, Lambeth. When, in 1800, Maudslay was engaged upon the working model of the block machinery in WeUs Street, one assistant was found all-sufficient for his wants. In those workshops, which he, in conjunction with his respected, now venerable, partner, Mr. Field, estabhshed in Lambeth, there may be now seen upwards of 1200 mechanics, many of superior attainments and skill, carrying out some of those vast engineering appliances which the requirements of the country demand, and in the preparation of which some of the original construc- tions, if not inventions, of Maudslay, may be stiU seen to take an important part. The skill of Mr. Maudslay became first known to Brunei through a M. de Bacquancourt, a French emi- grant of considerable mechanical dexterity, and who, by some happy accident, had made the acquaintance of Maudslay. Between M. de Bacquancourt and Brunei there was a natural mechanical sympathy; but the disposition and the pohtics of M. de Bacquancourt, which were of the ultra Eoyahst stamp, prevented any very intimate connexion. By the early part of the year 1800, Brunei had not E 50 MEMom OF sm m. i. bkunel only completed his drawings of the principal parts of the block macliinery, but had made a working model of the mortising and boring engines, it is believed principally with his own hands, which left no doubt as to the practical value of his projection, and for which in 1801 he took out a patent. Under the impression that the contract still subsisting with Messrs. Fox and Taylor for supplying blocks to the navy would present a serious obstacle to the introduc- tion of his machinery, he naturally made, through Mr. Kingdom, an offer to those gentlemen of the results of his labours. The reply of Mr. Samuel Taylor is as follows : — " Southampton, March 5th, 1801. " Dear Eingdom, " I am favoured with your letter of the 2nd inst., and I should have replied yesterday but I had not time. " Your brother has certainly given proofs of great ingenuity, but he certainly is not acquainted with our mode of work. What he saw at Deptford is not as we work here. I wHl just describe ia a few words how we have made our blocks for upwards of twenty-five years — twenty years to my own knowledge. The tree of timber, from two to five loads' measurement, is drawn by the machine under the saw, where it is cut to its proper length. It is then removed to a round saw where the piece cut off is completely shaped, and only requiring to be turned under the saw. The one, two, or three, or four mortises are cut in by hand, wliich wholly completes the block, except with a broad chisel cutting out the roughness of the teeth of the saw, and the scores for the strapping of the rope. Every block we make (except more than four machines can make) is done in this way, and with great trvith and exactness. DESIGNS FOR BLOCK MACHINEKY EEJECTED 51 The shivers are wholly done by the engines, very httle labour is employed about our vs^orks, except the removing the things from one place to another. " My father has spent many hundreds a year to get the best mode, and most accurate, of making the blocks, and he certainly succeeded; and so much so, that / have no hope of anything ever better being discovered, and I am convinced there cannot. At the present time, were we ever so inchned, we could not attempt any alteration. We are, as you know, so much pressed, and especially as the machine your brother-ia-law has invented is wholly yet untried. Inventions of this kind are always so different in a model and in actual work. " Believe me, dear Kingdom, " Yours in great truth, " Samuel Taylor." I may here mention that the average supply of blocks during 1797-98-99, 1800 and 1801 was 100,000, the value of which, with the other articles of the block- maker's contract, amounted to about 34,000Z. In 1793 there were 153 ships of the line, and 411 below that rank. In 1803 there were 189 ships of the hne, and 781 below that rank. The tonnage had increased from 402,555 to 650,976, or 61 per cent.* It was no wonder then that the contractors for blocks were overpowered with work, and that to meet the increasing demand spme change was required to in- crease the supply, and check the cost. Brunei had now no hope of inducing the con- * According to the Eeport of the Surveyor-General of Land Kevemie and Roads and Forests, the Navy had increased in 1806 to 776,087 tons. E 2 52 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL tractors to adopt his inventions ; but having disco- vered that the valuable monopoly which they had so long enjoyed was about to expire, it became of the utmost importance that he should obtain an opportunity of laying his invention before the Government authorities. Fortunately for Brunei, and for the country, Lord Spencer had not yet left the Admiralty ; to him Brunei had brought an introduction from America, and now he was by Lady Spencer made known to Sir Samuel Bentham, K. S. G., who filled the important office of Lispector-General of JSTaval Works. This office had been specially created for Sir Samuel, that he might be freed from the control of the Navy Board, a govern- mental department to which the execution of works determined upon by the Admiralty was confided, but which seems to have been only calculated to enlarge patronage, decrease responsibility, and multiply the hnks in the official drag-chain of the naval service. It must be remembered that it was only under the administrations of Lord Spencer and Lord St. Vincent that for many years any improvement had been at- tempted in the naval department. The difficulties with which those men had to contend in overcoming the force of inertia and the spirit of routine, which from the end of the seventeenth to the commencement of the nineteenth century pervaded our naval administration, must have been enormous. The steam-engine had from the commencement of the eighteenth century been apphed to our large mining operations with increasing advantage. It had also, from 1780, rendered immense service to the manufacturing interests of the country ; yet, until 1798, it had been excluded from our dockyards. It was the same with regard to the application of SIE SAMUEL BENTHAM 53 machinery to the manufacture of cordage, anchors and blocks. Of this neglect no one was so conscious as Sir Samuel Bentham, and no one laboured more diligently than he to bring about the necessary reforms. With regard to the special improvement now proposed by Brunei, the very position occupied by Bentham might have proved the greatest impediment to its success. Bentham was himself an inventor and mechanist of the highest distinction. He had already conceived a system of machinery for making blocks. His name was known and his influence had been felt throughout Eussia. A personal friend of the Empress Catherine, he had been employed by her in a variety of important works, the Fontanka canal, the manufactories at Kritschev, the arsenal at Cherson, &c. He had been appointed Conseiller de la cour ; he had received mihtary rank, a gold-hilted sword, and above all, the cross of the order of St. George * ; still these honours induced no relaxation in his intellectual labours. The continuous efforts during fifty-seven years to reahse his enlarged me- chanical conceptions, show how deeply his mind was impressed with the importance of substituting machinery for the " uncertain dexterity of more expensive manual labour." It appears that, from 1773 to 1830, Sir Samuel's mind was constantly engaged in projections of mechanical utility, many of them anticipating the requirements of the age ; some only now adopted ■without acknowledgment, and some remaining still to be apphed. It was but natural to presume, that a mind so well impressed with its own superiority, as Bentham's might have been, would hesitate to admit the claims of a rival : but Sir Samuel's mind was not cast in a common * Memoirs of Sir Samuel Bentham by his widow. E 3 54 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL mould. Rising far above professional vanity and official jealousy, and consulting only his country's bene- fit, lie no sooner became satisfied of the superiority of Brunei's inventions than he at once abandoned his own less perfect conceptions, and with a candour worthy of aU praise, he did not delay an hour to forward Brunei's appHcation to the Admiralty ; thus seeking in a noble and generous spirit to reflect upon French genius some of that honour and protection which he had himself experienced when a sojourner in a foreign land. It is much to be regretted that no detailed memoir exists of the life of this remarkable man ; that published by his widow only whets the edge of our desire to know more of his inner self : of his trials as weU as of his triumphs. From what we do know, a curious and interesting parallel is suggested between Mm and his pi'otege ; — both so largely endowed with mechanical aptitudes ; both commencing their pubhc career far from their native land, and unsupported by the patriot's ardour ; both putting forth their best energies under the iafluence of their first attachments; and both closing their missions as the active and distinguished supporters of that mechanical progress, which is ever found to be so intimately connected with national superiority. BLOCK MACHINEEY 55 CHAPTEK V. brunel's claims to be the author of the block machinery vindicated. BEFOEE we continue the thread of our narrative, we are called upon to encounter claims of a most uncompromising character, which have been, I beheve, for the first time set up on behalf of Sir Samuel Ben- tham to the authorship of the block machinery. In the "Mechanic's Magazine" (AprU 3, 1852) assertions have been made which would have the effect of wrest- ing from Brunei the honour which is his due, and of bestowing it upon one whose nobleness of mind and disinterestedness of character never permitted him, while he hved, for one moment to appropriate to him- self the inventions of others. The efibrt to render justice to the emanations of original minds engaged in similar contemplations, and to assign to each the exact amount of merit due, is not always easy. Conflicting opinions are sometimes so nicely balanced, as almost to defy our industry and our penetration in arriving at a right conclusion ; and we are, therefore, bound, from our own habihty to err, to deal tenderly with any honest expression of opinion which may not entirely coincide with our ovra. Should it, however, be found, in the progress of investigation, that personal or partisan feehng had been permitted to usurp the place of patient and discriminating inquiry, leading to conclusions not consistent with the evi- 56 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL dence, then we are equally bound to exhibit the fallacy, and to dissipate the illusion to which such feelings inevitably give rise. The claim is comprehensive and unquaHfied ; and is repeated in Adcock's " Engineer's Pocket Book " for 1856. It includes " all the operations preparatory to the shaping of blocks, with the pleasing and conve- nient arrangement of the block machinery, whereby a regular sequence of operations is obtained ; " whUe it allows to Brunei " some few only of the operations requisite for the shaping and finishing the blocks ;" although, " in these instances, the means of performing the requisite operations were rarely other than those specified in Bentham's patents." According to this view, Brunei can be regarded only as draftsman or clerk of works to Bentham. This opinion, however, is in a subsequent paragraph so far modified as to allow " Brunei sonle share in the arrangement." — "It cannot be supposed that Bentham contrived every detaU ; that was Goodrich's particular duty, and Brunei had his share in the arrangements ; sometimes advantageously, at others introducing wheels that would not work, as appears from a pencil sketch now lying on the table." Without desiring to analyse too critically the fore- going paragraph, we shall only observe that detail is of the utmost importance to the success of constructions altogether new ; and so strongly was Brunei impressed with the necessity for this, that as we have seen he depended neither upon a pencil sketch, nor a finished drawing ; but was wilhng to incur the expense of working models where any difiiculty was likely to arise. Without knowledge it is easy to condemn. Wlien in 1807, and during Bentham's absence from BLOCK MACHINEET — BRUNEL'S CLAIMS 57 the country, a new engine was introduced at Ports- moutli for cutting copper bolts, the master ship- wright informed Brunei that it " was found incapable of performing its operation." Brunei at once pro- ceeded to inspect it. " I observed," says he, in his journal, " that the saw, or circular cutter, had no set ; that the moving frame was unmanageable ; and that the manner of laying the bolts was imperfect. " I gave directions to Barlow (Maudslay's mechanist) to put a counterpoise to support the weight of the swinging or moving frame, and to apply to the saw a proper set. " At half-past four o'clock in the afternoon I had it tried before the officers ; it produced its effect with the greatest celerity." JSToTE. — " Such a machine ought . to have been ac- companied by a person acquainted with the use of it." But this wholesale advocacy of the claims of Ben- tham, at the expense of Brunei, can scarcely be consi- dered as either becoming, or wise, where evidence was at hand, sufficient, at all events, to induce a candid mind to hesitate. Without justice there can be no honesty. Nihil honestum esse potest quod justitid vacat. It is asserted, that " Brunei's drawing was at that time (1802) confined to the shaping of a block shell ; while Bentham's machines were already in the dockyard in a working state." The itahcs are the writer's. They intimate very distinctly that Brunei had nothing but a drawing to offer in illustration of his project, and that that drawing was limited to a description of his intended mode of shaping a block shell. They also intimate that Bentham's machines were already in operation. But we shall find that neither of these assertions has any foundation in truth. 58 MEMOIE OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL We have already seen that before Brunei had ob- tained an introduction to Bentham — before, in fact, he had negotiated with the contractors, who were at the time " so much pressed that they could undertake no alteration in their system " — he had already prepared working models of two of the most important engines : viz. those for mortising and horing. But the simple statement now before me in Brunei's own handwriting — obviously never intended for pubhcation — shows what his real position was, with regard to Bentham. Being so far disappointed [in his apphcation to the contractors] " I intimated my intention of exhibiting the plans and models to General Bentham, who had in contemplation at that time the formation of a block- making establishment from machinery of his own. The steam engine was already up in Portsmouth dock- yard, and the building very far advanced. The steam engine was coupled with the pumps that were destined for the occasional service of draining the docks ; ample share of its power could therefore be employed in making the blocks for the navy, for which General Bentham had already made his arrangements and some of its parts. At the change of the administration to that of Lord St. Vincent, I had an opportunity of sub- mitting my plan to General Bentham, who came to see the chief parts. " On the production of the results, he admitted at once that I had left no room for any part of his plan, and promised to make the admission to the Lords of the Admiralty." In consequence of this candid ex- pression of opinion, Brunei addressed a letter, February, 1802, to Mr. Evan Nepean, Secretary to the Admi- ralty, of which the foUovdng is a copy : — BLOCK MACHINEEY — BEUNEL's CLAIMS 59 Sir, " Having been informed that it is the intention of Government to have the blocks for the use of the Eoyal Navy manufactured in H.M. dockyard at Ports- mouth by means of steam engines already erected there, and that workhouses for the reception and accommodation of machinery for that purpose are now erecting, it occurs to me as not an improper oppor- tunity for requesting permission to submit, through you, for their Lordships' consideration, the following tenders : " I have invented and executed new engines, by the operation of which blocks may be manufactured with infinitely more celerity and exactness than they can be done by the naachines at present in use. " I beg leave to represent that these engines cut the mortises, and shape the outside of the shells in such manner, that without requiring dexterity on the part of the workman, the shells of a determined fixed size cannot difier one from another, either in the proportion of the mortises, or in the shape and dimensions of the outside. " The inconveniences to which blocks are constantly liable by the friction of the cords against one or alter- nately both sides of the mortises, are remedied by introducing a sheet of metal, bent to the shape of the upper part of the mortise. This operation is also performed by a particular engine. " The shivers, with metal coaks made by these engines, are executed with precision and celerity, and any number of a determined size being gauged most minutely, it will be found that one does not difier from another, either in diameter or thickness, so that any one 60 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRDNEL of these shivers will suit equally well any shell of the size for which it was intended. " The engines, which I am the inventor of, extend no farther than for the making of the shells and shivers. The pins, either wood or iron, I propose should be made in the manner already in use. " The advantages which result from the use of these engines, consist in obtaining uniformity, exact- ness, and celerity, without relying on the dexterity of the workmen ; and owing to the pecuhar prin- ciple on which the blocks are shaped, they cannot be counterfeited — a circumstance to prevent embez- zlement. " / have executed a working model which I should be happy to have the honour of submitting to your inspection, and wiU send it to the Admiralty any day you will please to appoint. " I have the honour to be, " Your obedient servant, " I. Brunel." The Italics are ours. Brunei goes on to state in his journal; — "A few days after, I received an order to be at the Admiralty with my small models, which gave such satisfaction, that my proposition of making a block mill was adopted. Accordingly General B. took me to Ports- mouth. Having had occasion then of seeing what had already been done of the steam engine and build- ings, I made my disposition accordingly. But a most difficult task was to find some person fit for the execution of so extensive and so comphcated an ap- paratus. " So backward was the mechanical industry at the time that even English wrought iron was prohibited BLOCK MACHINERY — BEUNEL'S CLAIMS 61 from all Government supplies, and the cast-iron was of too brittle a nature for general use." So far then from Bentham's machines being in a " working state," nothing was found at Portsmouth but the steam engine and some buildings. On the 2nd April, 1802, Brunei addressed the fol- lowing letter to Sir Evan Nepean, Bt. : — "Sir, " Their Lordships having appeared satisfied with the model for making blocks which I had the honour of showing to them, I feel anxious to know whether it is their Lordships' intention to have them estabhshed for the use of H. Majesty's Navy. " The advantages which would be derived from an estabhshment of that kind, could not be pointed out or ascertained from a small model, but the machines I have executed on larger proportions, have, by their produce, enabled me to make the following estimates of the prices at which the various sizes of blocks could be manufactured. " The blocks made with the assistance of my ma- chines are executed with exactness and expedition, which will afford a considerable saving on the present cost, exclusive of the advantage of employing a great quantity of wood which is wasted in the yards. " The following estimate made on four sizes only, namely, eight inches, twelve, sixteen, and twenty-one, will evince the proof of what I asserted : — 8 In. 12 In. 16 In. 21 In. 8. d. s. d. s. d. R. d. Prices at which blocks may be made 1 8f 4 5 8 11^ 18 1| Prices allowed by Government . . Saving " I have the honour to be, &c." 2 ^ 6 Oi 13 6 27 OA 6| 1 7\ 4 H 8 10| 62 MEMOIE OF SIR M. I. BRUIfBL " The merit of the few operations requisite for the shaping and finishing of blocks," and the questionable share in " the arrangements " which had been, at first, conceded to Brunei by the writer in the " Mechanic's Magazine," is subsequently sought to be efiaced, by the institution of an invidious comparison between the limited purposes to which those operations could be applied, and the general applicability of Bentham's machines ; and a report, dated November 1804, is quoted, addressed by Mr. Samuel Goodrich, described as Bentham's mechanist, to his principal, from which a strange inference is obtained. The report is as follows : — " None of the existing machinery, more immediately belonging to the mortising, shaping, and boring of the shells of blocks, can be well applied to any other purpose as far as appears at present. "The circular saws, and up-and-down saws, can be applied to general purposes, and others may be intro- dvTced for cutting." The arbitrary and anomalous conclusion drawn is, " That the above communication seems in itself sufficient proof, that great part of the machinery comprised in that for block-making was, from the first, and still con- tinues to be, of Bentham's invention — not of Brunei's." Not only, then, is Brunei denied the honour of being an inventor, but also the credit of being a manipulator, and is at once degraded to the position of a plagiarist — an adapter of other men's designs, "having Ben- tham's patents before him," and every " opportunity of seeing the Bentham machinery in Queen's Square Place, and having farther secured the mechanical skill of Henry Maudslay, who made the machine after frequent consultation with Bentham, and examination of them BLOCK MACHINERY — BRUNKL'S CLAIMS 63 often whilst in progress of manufacture. Bentham, Goodrich, Burr (superintendent and draughtsman) — all of them discussed the suitableness for its destined work of every particular engine, each of them indicating means by which it might be more or less improved." It must be obvious that this statement proves too much, and implies that the block machinery, in place of being a beautiful and symmetrical system, emanating from one mind, being directed to one end, and consistent in all its parts, was but the result of a heterogeneous con- catenation of masters, mechanists, and inventors. The only machines of Bentham's construction really appU- cable to block-making were saws ; but they were soon found quite inadequate to fulfil the duty which the block-machinery of Brunei demanded. " The imperfection of the various mechanical contri- vances that had been invented for the purpose of sawing, led me," says Brunei in one of his communi- cations to the Admiralty, "to direct my views to the invention of such machinery as should be the means of obviating these difficulties, and I foresaw that a field would be opened to me of rendering service to the naval estabhshments of the kingdom, of a magnitude much exceeding those which had been derived from my improved system of making blocks." It appears that Mr. Burr, Bentham's draughtsman, had been appointed superintendent of the wood mill at Brunei's request. In October 1803, Bentham having expressed a wish that some experiment should be made with one of the saws, Brunei replies : " I am fearful that the means used for cutting lignum vit£e cannot be adapted to advantage for common wood. I will however try it. Mr. Burr is sohcitous to bring forward any of your inventions ; he will readily 64 MEMOm OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL assist me to make the experiment." The italics are ours. Had any of the block-machinery, properly so called, been due to Bentham, Brunei would scarcely have ven- tured to draw the distinction which he did between the value of meum and tuum in this as in other communications. It is further stated that " Brunei's machines were never sanctioned till drawings of them had been well considered and approved by Bentham." Official position is thus confounded with mechanical originality ; and an inference is erroneously drawn, that Brunei could have only acted in intellectual subordination to Ben- tham ; but any person at all conversant with official arrangements must be aware that every order, before it can be executed, must receive the sanction and signature of the head of the department from whence it issues. It has, however, been already shown, that not only were those drawings in existence before Brunei had even obtained an introduction to Bentham, and there- fore entirely independent of Bentham's consideration, suggestion, or improvement ; but models and machines, on an effectively working scale, had been also executed, from which results were obtained sufficient to justify the Admiralty in adopting Brunei's inventions. In this discussion the authority of Dr. Eees cannot be overlooked. He was the editor of the Cyclopcedia commenced in 1800 and completed in 1819, as an expansion of Chambers' work published in 1786. In that justly celebrated pubhcation there are not less than sixteen pages devoted to the description, and seven admirably executed plates in illustration of the block machinery ; because as the writer observes*, " they * Mr. John Farey, an engineer of recognised standing and eminence. BLOCK MACHINEEY — BRUNEL'S CLAIMS 65 are tlie most ingenious and complete system of ma- chinery for forming articles in wood of any this kingdom can produce ; " and " these machines" he dis- tinctly records, " are the invention of Mark Isambard Brunei." Now, as this work must have been in the hands of every scientific man who could borrow or purchase it, the question naturally arises how it hap- pened that a generation (thirty-three years) should have been permitted to elapse without any doubt or discredit having been cast on that article. I win now add the testimony of Sir Samuel Bentham himself. In his " Statement of Services relative to Im- provement of Manufactures requisite in Naval Arsenals" he defends himself from the accusation of having afforded encouragement to foreign talent by appeal- ing to the result. " Machinery has been applied, in the introduction of which I have been instrumental," he says, " that per- forms nearly all the operations requisite in making blocks, by which they are better made than hereto- fore," and " a saving to the country is effected of not less thanl6,631Z. per annum." . . . " Their lordships having determined that Mr. Brunei's machinery in ques- tion should be introduced in the manner I had suggested, Mr. Brunei employed himself in the perfectiag of his machinery in the adapting it to the particular demands of the navy, and, in concert with the mechanist (Mr. Goodrich), in contriving the best mode of putting it up at Portsmouth." Sir Samuel, in concluding his vindi- cation, says, " I cannot, therefore, but feel myself justi- fied in having recommended the engagiag Mr. Brunei's services." And in allusion to the remuneration to be given to Brunei, he thus writes : " For is it likely that any other mode of remuneration would have rendered F 66 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL these services so beneficial to tlie public as the parti- cular one I recommended, which combined his interest so intimately Avith that' of the pubhc." Here I might be well content to leave this contro- versy ; but as there remains still amongst us one who has borne no inconsiderable part in the mechanical move- ments of the age, I avail myself of his valuable testi- mony, and thus, once and for aU, terminate, I trust, this painful and unseemly discussion. Mr. Joshua Field, the venerable and respected mechanist, has assured me, that being engaged as me- chanical draftsman at Portsmouth Dockyard when Mr. Brunei was introduced by Sir Samuel Bentham, he has a perfect recollection of the condition in which the works were at that time, together with what was pro- posed to be done by Sir Samuel ; and as he was trans- ferred to General Bentham 's office at the Admiralty in 1804, and subsequently joined Mr. Mauds] ay in 1805, his evidence covers the whole period of the execution of the block machmery. His statement to me is as follows : " The works in progress, when Mr. Brunei arrived were a new steam eiigine and some buildings intejided for the reception of machinery, which General Bentham had proposed to erect, but had not erected. " The General had already mtroduced saws of various kinds, and machines for tongueing, grooving, and rab- betting timber ; but there was no machinery whatever especially apphcable to block making. "That was altogether the mvention of Mr. Brunei. The character of the drawings was different from any we ever had before — the proportion of the parts — the whole thing, in short ; and I never once heard, during all the time of my connection with the dock- yard, with General Bentham, with Mr. Goodrich, and BLOCK MACHINERY — BRUNEL'S CLAIMS 67 with Mr. Maudslay, that any one ventured to deny Mr. Brunei's claims to be the sole inventor of the block machinery." I would gladly have been relieved from the neces- sity of this long, and to some, I fear, tedious vindica- tion ; but it would not have been possible entirely to ignore the existence of claims so unguardedly put forward by those who may be supposed capable of influencing, to some extent, the opinion of the me- chanical world, and which, if admitted, would tend to rob Brunei, not only of his position as one of the first mechanists of the age, but of the yet higher privilege of occupying a place amongst the real benefactors of this his adopted country. r 2 68 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL. CHAPTEE Vr. 1802-1803. DESIGNS FOE BLOCK MACHINERT ADOPTED BY GOVERNMENT QUESTION OF REMUNERATION REFERRED TO SIR SAMUEL BEN- TEAM ACCEPTED BY THE ADMIRALTY. T TfR Government having consented to adopt Brunei's plans for a block macliinery, it became necessary to determine the nature and extent of the remunera- tion to which Brunei should become entitled. With this view, the following letter was addressed by him to the Lords of the Admiralty, in June, 1802 : — " I beg to inform their Lordships that the invention and execution of models, and of machines on a large scale, have been attended with considerable expense and labour ; and that my time for the two last years, has been almost entirely employed in bringing them to their present state of perfection. I wiU trust to their Lordships' Hberahty to decide on the remuneration which they may deem adequate to the merit of the discovery. " I hope their Lordships will take into consideration the time I have bestowed in making the several draw- ings which I have had the honour to lay before them ; and that the whole of my time will become indis- pensable in surveying and directing the execution of the machines till they are entirely completed." To this no immediate reply appears to have been BLOCK MACHINERY 69 made. The question was referred to Sir Samuel Ben- tham, who, in April 1803, sets forth at fuU length his views in the following communication addresssed to Sir Evan ]S[epean. "Admiralty, April 30tli, 1803. "Inspector-General's Office. « Sir, " Li answer to yours of the 7th instant, enclosing a letter from Mr. Brunei, soliciting some remuneration for the labour and expense which he has been at, in the invention and perfecting of his machinery for the manufacture of blocks for the use of His Majesty's Navy, and signifying the commands of my Lords of the Admiralty, that I shordd consider and report my opinion of what may be proper to be done in the subject of that application ; I would beg leave to state, for their Lordships' information, that having examiued the several articles of the machinery in question, and having seen them at work, I am fully satisfied that they are adequate to the making blocks more perfect in regard to accuracy and uniformity of shape, as well as at a much cheaper rate, than they could be made by any other means hitherto in use. " As to the particular blocks which Mr. Brunei has sent as specimens for their Lordships' inspection, they appear from their form and the proportion of their parts, to be better suited to their intended purpose, than the blocks in general use ; but although the par- ticular form which Mr. Brunei has adopted in the first instance, should, after farther consideration or ex- perience, be deemed anyvnse objectionable, the engines could, on any day, be set to any other form or propor- tions, which may be decided on as preferable ; and whatever that form or those proportions may be, there p 3 70 MBMOIK OF SEE M. I. BEUNEL will be no doubt but tliat the blocks manufactured by these engines -will, every one of them, be made in future of that exact form, until there be found reason to change it. " In regard to the compensation to which Mr. Brunei may seem entitled for the invention of these machines, considering the great ingenuity displayed in this in- vention, the length of time which it mrist have required to bring such an apparatus to its present state of per- fection ; and considering that although the saving of expense in the manufacturing of the article in question is the principal object of the invention, yet that the quahty of the article is at the same time improved ; considering also that Mr. Brunei has obtained a patent, giving him the exclusive right of affording the advan- tages of his invention on his own terms, which, although it gives him no power of preventing the use of it for His Majesty's service, yet leaves him good grounds for claiming from Government what may be deemed a reasonable compensation for the use of his mvention, I take for granted that their Lordships have no doubt respecting the expediency of allowing Mr. Brunei some compensation ; and, therefore, that it is respecting only the most ehgible mode of remuneration that their Lordships have been pleased to require my opinion. On this supposition, therefore, it seems incumbent on me to endeavour to devise such a mode, as should not only prove satisfactory on the present occasion, but which should also be calculated to afford encourage- ment to persons of ability in general for the production of other inventions tending to the diminution of dock- yard expenses ; while, at the same time, such remu- neration should not hold up a precedent whereon claims for compensation could be founded in any case ■BLOCK MACHINEEY 71 where the reality of the advantages had not been pre- viously ascertained. " In consequence of these considerations, and in con- formity to the above-mentioned objects, which seem requisite to be held in view, I am induced to propose as follows : " 1st. That the time for giving the compensation should be deferred until the savings on which the claims for compensation depend have actually been reahsed sufficiently to ascertain their extent. " 2nd. That the amount of the compensation be made equal to the amount (as near as can be esti- mated) of the savings which the pubhc will derive from the use of the invention during some specific period, such as their Lordships may be pleased to allow, and which I would venture to propose should not be less than one year. " 3rd. That for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the saving, the average number of blocks of each description which have been actually sup- plied every year by contract during the last five years, be considered as the average demand for blocks for one year. " 4th. That the cost of this average number, accord- ing to the prices of the last contract, be taken as one year's expenditure for blocks, accorduig to the present mode of obtaining them. " 5th. That as soon as Mr. Brunei's apparatus shall be reported by him to be in proper order, and the men who are to work it sufficiently trained to their work to affiDrd a fair specimen of the despatch, and thereby of the rate of expense at which the manufacture may be continued, the proper officers on the spot be directed to note accurately the whole of the expense which p 4 72 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUJfEL shall be found to attend the making, by means of this new apparatus, a certain number of the blocks of each description. " 6th. That in making out this expense there be noted, not only the current expense of men's labour and cost of materials, as well as of fuel for the steam engines, but also an addition of ten per cent, per annum on all the capital laid out in the machinery for giving it motion ; as also, in the way of rent, a hke per centage on the cost of so much of the building m which this manufacture is carried on as is occupied for that branch of service. " 7th. That according to the rate of expense so ascertained, there be calculated the total expense of making a sufficient number of blocks of the several descriptions requisite to supply the average yearly demand as above specified. " 8th. That this total of expense be considered as one year's expenditure for blocks manufactured accord- ing to Mr. Brunei's method. " 9th. That the difference between this yearly expen- diture according to Mr. Brunei's mode, and that according to the present mode, estimated as above- mentioned, be considered as the yearly rate of saving which will arise from the adoption of this new mode. " 10th. That although it appears advisable that the compensation should not be given tiU experience shall have afforded sufficient data for the true estima- tion of it ; yet, should this mode of compensation meet with their Lordships' approbation, it seems expedient that Mr. Brunei should forthwith be informed of the conditions of it, in order that he, being thereby assured that the amount of his compensation will depend entirely on the clear amount of the advantages which BLOCK MACHINERY 16 shall be derived from his invention, and that the time of his receiving that compensation will be no longer delayed than is necessary for the ascertaining that amount, he may have the strongest inducement to use his utmost endeavours for the completion of every part of his apparatus with the greatest despatch, as well as economy ; whereas were the conditions of the compen- sation left altogether undecided, he might, under the apprehension of not reaping the fruits of his labour, be led to direct his attention, in preference, to some other object. In favour of such a mode of compensation I would take the liberty of observing, that the greater the sum to which it may be found eventually to amount, the greater, in the same proportion, will be the advantage which the service will derive from the invention ; and the expense which such a com- pensation wotdd occasion to the public would be no new expense, but only the continuation for a short and hmited time of the same rate of expense which has heretofore been looked upon as necessary, and which, unless some such invention as this of Mr. Brunei's were to be introduced, must of course have been continued for a long and unlimited time, without any prospect of its diminution. It should also be observed, that the superior uniformity and accuracy of workmanship which would be given to the blocks manufactured by this apparatus is an ad- vantage which would be obtained immediately, as well as continued afterwards, in addition to that of the saving of expense as above mentioned. " In case their Lordships should thuik proper to adopt this mode of compensating Mr. Brunei for his invention, in giving their directions to that effect they would have only to decide on the period dming which 74 MEMom OF sm m. i. beunel tliey may be pleased to allow him tlie amount of the saving according to the yearly rate estimated as above. " With regard to Mr. Brunei's apphcation for some allowance for his time and travelling expenses since he has been engaged in the erection of his apparatus ; considering that, according to the mode of compen- sation which I have ventured to recommend, the amount of it cannot be ascertained for several months to come ; and that Mr. Brunei, in consequence of the satisfaction afforded to their Lordships by the in- spection of his apparatus in miniature, has been em- ployed since that time in directing the execution of this machinery here in town, as also in the superin- tending the erection of it at Portsmouth, I would recommend that he should be allowed at the rate of a guinea a day during the time he has actually been so employed ; as also travelling expenses at the rate of ten shillings a day, and coach hire for his journeys to Portsmouth ; which expense, in estimating after- wards the compensation, vdll of course be considered as capital sunk in the introduction of this invention. And though I look upon this rate of payment as the greatest which can be well allowed him, considering the extent of pay and allowances given to persons employed in and about the dock yards ; yet I cannot but look upon it as the least which Mr. Brunei is entitled to expect in consideration of the value which would be set upon the time of a person of his talents when employed in a private concern. " As to the period at which the allowance should take place, Mr. Brunei in his letter has mentioned the latter end of August ; but as, on questioning him on the subject, I find he has, since that period employed a portion of his time, amounting to about three weeks. BLOCK MACHINEEY 75 on another business of his own, I would purpose that the 16th September should be the period from which the allowance in question should commence. " I am Sir, your very obedient servant, " Samuel Bentham. " To Sir Evan Nepean, Bt. " Mr. Brunei's letter is herewith returned." In accordance with the suggestions made by General Bentham, the Admiralty issued the following instruc- tions to the Navy Board. " Admiralty Office, 7tli May, 1803. " Gentlemen, " Whereas upon our referring to Brigadier-General Bentham an apphcation we received from Mr. Brunei, soHciting some remuneration for the labour and ex- pense which he had been at in the invention and perfecting of his machinery for the manufacture of blocks for the use of his Majesty's Navy, the General has, in his letter to our secretary of the 30th of last month, represented, for our information, that having examined the several articles of the machinery in question, and having seen them at work, he is fully satisfied that they are adequate to the making of blocks more perfect in regard to accuracy and imiformity of shape, as well as at a much cheaper rate, than could be made by any other means hitherto in use, and he has in consequence suggested such means for ascer- taing the compensation to which Mr. Brunei might be entitled for the ingenuity and utihty of his invention as appeared to him the most eligible and which can only be fairly determined by a year's trial of the macliinery according to the experiments and calcula- 76 MEMom OF sm m. i. beunel tions of labour, materials, and other charges pointed out by the General. " That witli regard to Mr. Brunei's application for some allowance for his time and traveUing expenses since he has been engaged in the erection of the apparatus, the General has proposed, for the reasons he has set forth in his letter, that he should be allowed one guinea a day during the time he has actually been so employed; and also travelhng expenses, at the rate of ten shiLhngs a day, and coach hire for his journeys to Portsmouth ; and the General has further proposed, that the 16th of September last should be the period from which the allowance in question may commence. " We send you herewith the General's aforementioned letter, and do hereby desire and direct you (without admitting the principle recommended by the General for remunerating Mr. Brunei) to instruct the officers of the Portsmouth Dockyard, to keep account con- formably to the suggestion contained in General Ben- tham's letter ; and you are to report to us the particulars thereof as accurately as possible, in order that by the advantages derived to the pubhc from this invention, we may be enabled to form a judgment of the extent of the reward which may hereafter be proper to be given to Mr. Brunei for his ingenuity. And you are to make him an allowance of one guinea per diem during the time he may be employed in erecting his apparatus, to commence from the 16th of September last, agreeably to Brigadier-General Bentham's pro- posal ; and also an allowance of ten shilhngs per diem for extra expenses during his absence from town on the pubhc service ; together with the amount of coach- hire actually incurred on his journeys, to and from BLOCK MACHINEEY 77 Portsmouth, upon his producing certificates from the General, of the several journeys he may undertake in completing his work. " We are your affectionate friends, " T. Tkowbeidge. " J. Adams. (Copy-) " T. Markham." And at the same time the following communication was made to Bnmel. "Admiralty Office, 5th May, 1803. "Su-, " I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to acquaint you, that they have given orders that an allowance be made to you of one guinea per diem during the time you may be emj)loyed in erecting your machine for the manufacture of blocks in his Majesty's dockyard at Portsmouth, to commence from the 16th of September last, and to continue until the same shall be completed ; together with the amount of coach hire actually paid, or to be paid, by you in your journeys to and from that place ; and also, an allowance of ten shiUings per diem for extra expenses, during your absence from town ; and that their Lord- ships will consider what farther reward may be proper to be made to you for your invention, whenever the ex- tent of the advantages hkely to be derived by the pubhc from it, shall be fuUy ascertained. " I am, Sir, your very humble servant, (Copy.) "Evan ISTepean." 78 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL CHAPTER VII. 1802-1810. DIFFICULTIES IN FINDING WOEKMEN, 1802-1805 GENERAL BENTHAM SENT TO RUSSIA, 1805 QUANTITY OF TIMBER RE- QUIRED TO CONSTRUCT A SEVENTY-FOUR, 1806 IMPEDIMENTS TO THE OPERATIONS OF THE MACHINERY, 1807 MACHINERY CAPABLE OF SUPPLYING ALL THE BLOCKS FOE THE BRITISH NAVY REMUNERATION POSTPONED NERVOUS FEVER, 1808 — AMOUNT OF REMUNERATION DETERMINED, 1810 LETTER FROM LORD ST. VINCENT 1810 PERFORMANCE OF THE BLOCK MA- CHINERY. PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MACHINERY, MARCH 1861. THE recommendation of Sir Samuel Bentham having been accepted as the principle on which remunera- tion was to be made, Brunei proceeded to perfect his . projections, and Bentham was authorised by the Admiralty to permit him to procure "the whole of the machinery," which was " to be paid for in con- formity to the General's proposals, who is to be re- quhed to certify." It would appear to have been now not less to the advantage of the Government than to Brunei that every facility should be afforded to the fuU develop- ment of the accepted plans. On the contrary, the most vexatious impediments continued to be placed in the way ; and as Brunei's remuneration was to depend upon the amount of work which the machinery could accomplish in the course of one year, it was matter of the utmost importance that the test should BLOCK MACHINERY 79 be applied without any unnecessary delay. I shall, then, endeavour to follow the progress of Brunei's labours, that my readers may be in a condition to understand the nature of the difficulties with which he had to contend in estabhshing the amount of his claim to remuneration, and the grounds upon which that amount was so unreasonably modified The first impediment was the want of competent mechanics to construct the machinery ; for this, no blame could attach anywhere, since it arose from the backward condition of the mechanical arts in the country. In a letter to the Navy Board, September 20th, 1802, he says, " the difficulty I have met with in procuring a sufficient number of able workmen to execute the block machinery has occasioned my delaying to answer the order I have received from you." And to General Bentham, he says, "in order to execute Avith expedition the apparatus I am ordered to erect, I shall be under the necessity of dividing the several parts composing it to various persons. If you have any particularly able person whom I can trust witli some part of the machinery, I will be much obhged to you to inform me of it. " I take the liberty of pointing out Mr. Maudslay as a man whose abihties can be rehed upon for the execution of such part of the machinery that wiU require the greatest exactness." Notwithstanding the impediments presented by the want of competent workmen, Brunei, by the end of October, 1802, had been enabled to execute so much of the work as to allow him to solicit an advance of 300^. from the Navy Board. He concludes his letter thus : 80 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL " I liope that the Honourable Board will take into consideration, that I have bestowed considerable labour and expended a large sum of money in inventing and completing my first block machinery, and in obtaining the patent for it." On the 18th March, 1803, he begs to inform the Board that he had that day forwarded the most con- siderable part of the machinery "by the waggon of Clark," and requests a further advance of 300^. And on the 19th May, 1803, having " completed the parts com- posing the apparatus for making blocks from seven to ten inches inclusively," he requested a further payment of 150/., being, he says, "part of the sum remaining due, the balance of which I shall make apphcation for Avhen submitting before the Honourable Board the accounts of the extra expenses I have incurred by adding several parts to the apparatus specified in the drawings which I have had the honour to lay before the Lords of his Majesty's Admiralty Board." But now, although the machines were completed, competent hands could not be found to work them, and the Navy Board seemed incapable of seeing the necessity of procuring them. In September, 1803, Brunei, in writing to General Bentham, says : " In consequence of the letter I have had the honour to receive from you, I have applied to Mr. Diddams -for four block makers to assist in working the block machines. Mr. Diddams having referred my apphcation to the Navy Board, I have been informed that / must hire such men. " Being entirely unacquainted witli those people, and fearful of their not being continued in that business, I cannot promise any encouragement such as to induce good workmen to leave their work." BLOCK MACHINERY 81 In reply to an official application, October 7th, 1803, for an estimate of the number of blocks his machines could supply in the course of the four ensuing weeks, Brunei says, " that from the want of four block-makers, it would be impossible for him to form an estimate," and adds, " I cannot, therefore, answer but for what can be done by six labourers and two house-carpenters, who, if at work without interrup- tion, at the rate of nine hours and a half per day, will be able to make, in sis days, or a week, one thousand shells, and turn as many old shivers and pins. " I beg also to observe that such labourers, who have the management of some engines, and who are attached to some part of the work, being subject to the watch, occasion a loss of time, prejudicial when the machines are at work." By May, 1804, Brunei had obtained the assistance of two block-makers ; his apphcation to the ISTavy Board for a third "received no answer." "I have been under the necessity," he writes, May 20th, 1804, " of doing with the two men now employed ; but they cannot possibly complete the work produced daily by the machines, having. now another set; wliich, together with the first, are capable of making blocks from four to ten inches inclusive, of which size the number issued yearly, in time of war, is about 70,000." And that number, Brunei, writing to the Navy Board in March, declared his machines were' competent to furnish by the 1st August, " in case all the materials should be provided." In July, 1804, he again writes : " Though the engmes for making blocks of large size wiU, I expect, be ready to work by the beginning of the next month, yet the assistance of block-makers is absolutely indispensable." G 82 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL In the same commumcation, July, 1804, he com- plains " that the means for procuring brass coaks and shivers are not provided for, as they cannot be made by the present founder of the yard ; " and in August he announced to General Bentham that "without any authority from the Navy Board, he was compelled to procure them from Maudslay." In September no steps had been taken to supply a competent founder to cast the metal coaks ; and in October 6th, he again writes to the Navy Board : "The difficulties I have met with before I could obtain coaks cast with sufficient nicety, so as to fit without the least trimming, induces me to beheve that it will be almost impracticable to be supplied with them by any contractor." And again in November : " I humbly request the Honorurable Board to con- sider that the service will suffer materially, unless some means are adopted for supplying immediately the block manufactory with coaks." Li despite of the difficulties which were constantly presented to the completion of the manufactory at Portsmouth, Brunei was so satisfied that his machinery was capable of fulfiUing the purpose for which it was designed, that he addressed the following letter to General Bentham, January 7th, 1805 : — " I have the honour to submit to your consideration the project of an establishment which I think suffi- cient to carry on the block-making business, and capable of supplying the whole of his Majesty's navy, according to the information I have collected from accounts of the several articles issued from the six dockyards during the years 1797 — 1801. " The block-making has hitherto been managed so BLOCK MACHINERY 83 very badly, that it is not possible to ascertain exactly the price of every part, so as to determine the extent of the piecework of the labourers. " This bad manag'ement is entirely owing to the want of a steam engine keeper conversant with its parts, and capable of foreseeing accidents and guarding against them. " The present keepers are stopped by the least diffi- culty, and cannot point out the cause. The person who gives orders for pumping is the manager of the steam engine. Owing to his absolute ignorance, par- ticularly ui the management of the steam engine, the keepers are not able to point out any defects, and keep on tiU it stops entu-ely." Again, on January 22nd, he writes to General Bentham in allusion to the coak-maker. " The difficulties and delays which are experienced to procure anything wanted, make him lose as great a part of his time in applying for, as in getting them." At length, after ineffectual efforts to obtain a suffi- cient number of men to work the various machines, Brunei waited on General Bentham, and represented to him the injurious effect of certain arrangements intro- duced into the dockyard. " I represented to the General," writes Brunei, in his journal of May 19th 1805, " that the new regulations were incompatible with the authority necessary to me to accomphsh the work, and to enable me to derive all the advantage which I was entitled to for my invention. " I had represented the same several times before, but to no effect. " I thought of giving up the direction of the estab- hshment unless I was furnished with proper power. I G 2 84 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL continued, however, until I had put the large engines to work, in order not to distress the service. " After my representations to the General, he told me that I had the same power as before, yet he would not supply me with any written instructions." Brunei then naturally expresses his disappointment that the General, " after having given his approbation to all what was done by me, was introducing regula- tions without my knowing the least word, and vesting all power in Mr. Burr ; which circumstance awakened a strong suspicion that I must either give up every idea of reward, or submit to terms extremely injurious to my interest and credit." On May 25th, Brunei again sought, but in vain, to obtain from General Bentham official power to enable him to conduct the operations at Portsmouth to a suc- cessful issue, by which alone a just estimate could be formed of the saving effected to the country, and of the amount of remuneration to which he would become entitled. He therefore addressed to the General the following letter. " May 25th, 1805." " Sir, ^ " Whereas, in the course of conversation with you on the subject of the instructions and regulations you have furnished Mr. Burr with, you have expressed your determination to have the said regulations put in force before I have completed the estabhshmeut erected by me, and also before the year's trial for ascertaining the remuneration is elapsed. " I beg to represent to you. that, as my credit and interest are intimately concerned in the best manage- ment of the materials, machinery and men, I cannot take upon myself any responsibihty and any farther dii'cction of the block-maldng machinery, unless I am BLOCK MACHINERY 85 empowered, by instructions and regulations you will furnisli me with, to act as the chief of the estabhsh- ment, intrusted Avith the management of the materials, machinery and men, until the machinery has been reported by me in proper order, and the men who are to work at it sufficiently trained to their work to afford a fair specimen of the despatch thereby, of the rate of expense at which the manufactory may be continued, and also, until the time fixed by the Eight Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for ascertaining the amount of the saving has been completed. " I have the honour," &c. Brunei being unable to obtain any official recogni- tion of his position as chief of the estabhshment, de- chned at length to exercise any farther supervision. The want of his presence, however, was quickly felt. Mr. Goodrich and Mr. Eogers, two gentlemen who best appreciated the value of Brunei's inventions, and who attached the utmost importance to the manner in which the details should be carried out, waited upon Brunei to implore him to continue his attendance. Brunei writes in his journal. May 29th, " Mr. G. represented that nothing would go on at the wood-mills vsathout my immediate attendance, which I had refused to pay since my arrival. " As my resolution was not to distress either the General or the service, I had no objection to resume my functions, conditionally, that the General would supply me with some instructions on his return, or that he would not leave to Mr. Burr's option to object to anything suggested or ordered by me." The difficulties with which Brunei had to contend G 3 86 MEMOIR OP SIR M. I. BRUNEL may perhaps be less attributed to any changed feehngs on the part of General Bentham for him, than to a desu-e on the part of the Navy Board to see the growing estabhshment at Portsmouth assume an organised ap- pearance, and placed under " dockyard officers." That Board had declared itself incompetent to the superintendence of works of so great magnitude, and had placed them under General Bentham 's manage- ment ; it was therefore natural that the General, upon whom so heavy a responsibihty was thrown, should appoint his confidential servant Mr. Burr as general manager, while Brunei, on his part, could scarcely have felt otherwise than humbled, mitated and disappointed, to find that, however valuable as a draughtsman and overseer of workmen the individual thus selected to control his movements and over-ride his orders may have been, he was still an inexperienced mechanic, and an ilhterate man. The following extract from a letter addressed by him to Brunei, Sept. 16th, 1807, at once declares his social position : " Sir, I'll thank you if you will speak to Mr. G , for me, having them partitions across my cabin, as I spoke to you about." It has been asserted by the writer in the " Mechanic's Magazine," to whom we have before referred, that Brunei, from the unworthy motive of arrogating to himself inventions to which he had no title, ventm-ed (May 30th, 1805) to forbid Mr. Burr by written note, " to answer any queries respecting the blocks, or block- making, without his having previously communicated them to him." In Brunei's journal the following entry appears, May 30th, 1805. " This request was in consequence of Mr. Burr not BLOCK MACHINERY 87 being acquainted with what the engines are intended to perform." That the exercise of this delegated control on the part of Burr was not always judicious, may be found in the description of workmen he took upon himself to employ. While Brunei urged the necessity of obtaining the services of a few block-makers, who would readily learn how to apply the engines to the best advantage, Mr. Burr engaged on the 29 th May fifteen boys, with- out consulting Brunei ; and on the 1st July Brunei records, " since the addition of a number of boys " working at extra hours, "there are not more blocks made than at the time of short days, and less assistance ; and on the 3rd July, "since these boys were entered for the -wood-mill, the circular cutters of the old scoring engine were broken by the inexperience of these workmen." A further discreditable attempt is made to depreciate the character of Brunei, and to give undue importance to the position held^by Burr. " Brunei," it is stated, " being constantly on the spot, without any immediate need for personal occupation," was enabled to gratify his vanity in " caUing the attention of visitors to the machines of his own arrangement ; " and while he " had thus leisure, and opportunity for obtaining credit to himself. Burr's active and onerous duties debarred him from taking the place of a showman or vindicating Bentham's claims." That this assertion is as ungenerous as it is unjust, Brunei's j ournal affords sufficient proof Had he indeed no " personal occupation," who had embarked his present means and future prospects, — his personal cha- racter and professional reputation, hi operations so novel in conception and so difficult in execution, that G 4 ob MEMOIR OP Sm M. I. BRUIfEL but one mechanist in the whole country could be found competent to execute the designs his inventive genius had furnished ? " Non habet commercmm cum virtute voluptas." The reply of Milton to his detractors may well apply to those of Brunei. His mornings were occupied " not in sleeping, or concocting the surfeits of an irregular feast ; but up and stirring. In winter often ere the sound of any beU awoke men to labour or devotion : in summer as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier." No ! Brunei was no lounger ; and how- ever much he may have desired to have his inventions known, these intrusions were felt to be a serious tax upon his time, his thoughts, his courtesy, and his pecuniary interests. On the 29th of May 1805 he writes : — " This fre- quent admission of visitors is of great hinderance to the men at work " — and again July 1st, " The place was the whole morning crowded with visitors much to the annoyance of the service. " On the 12th went to Kentish Town to General Bentham, and represented to him the necessity of sur- rounding the wood-mUl with a fence to prevent in- truders." This constant intrusion, against which he protested, but which he seems not to have had the power to prevent, Mr. Burr being in command of the yard, induced him to take upon himself at length on the 27th July the responsibility of ordering " the west door of the wood-mUl to be shut," and to place a man at the entrance to prevent any persons behig admitted " except officers in uniform." In a sort of despair he addresses himself to Commissioner Grey. "The works carried BLOCK MACHINERY 89 on at the wood-mill are considerably impeded by the number of persons who are daily admitted into the place. No regularity can be obtained when the shops are crowded with strangers. The men cannot be over- looked, and kept in that state of activity so requisite in a manufactory; I therefore take the hberty of requesting you to adopt such measures as you may deem most effectual to remedy the evil." In July 1805, Sir Samuel Bentham was suddenly withdrawn from his duties as inspector-general of naval works, to undertake a mission to Eussia, for the purpose of superintending the building of ships of the hne and frigates for the British navy ; the demands of the service exceeding the capabihty of the Government estabhshments to furnish a supply.* Provided with a staff of offlfiers, mechanists, and tools, he arrived at St. Petersburg, where, to his amazement, disappoint- ment and disgust, he learnt that no provision had been made for his reception ; and where " even our am- bassador had not been apprised of his mission — diplo- matic assurances of readiness to obhge having been construed into a full acceptance of the proposal of our Government to build ships of war in Eussia." * According to the report of the surveyor-general, it was calcu- lated, that to- construct a 74-gun ship, it required 2000 tons of timber, or about 3000 loads ; and the average duration of a vessel was supposed to be 25 years. The oak trees, destined for the con- struction of ships of the line, are required to be of the full growth of 100 years; Such trees are calculated to yield a load and a half of timber each ; therefore, for a seventy-four, there would be required 2000 trees. Now an acre of land can sustain about forty oaks ; hence 50 acres are required to fijmish the supply for one vessel. But as the quantity of waste lands in the kingdom amounted, in 1806, to about 20,000,000 of acres, there ought to have been no difficulty in securing the necessary supply. 90 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL During Sir Samuel's absence, Mr. Goodrich, his mechanist, a gentleman who, we have already seen, fully appreciated the importance of Brunei's inventions, was appointed locum tenens at Portsmouth, to Brunei's obvious relief; for he at once writes to Mr. Goodrich, " Dear Sir, " I am very happy to hear that the management of the business of the General's office, and particularly of the several works at present in hand, has been in- trusted to you ; and hope that as soon as the bustle which has been created by the sudden departure of the General is entirely over, we shaU be able to consider upon the means requisite to complete the work under my direction." The necessity which at first justified the use of some of the older machines could no longer be urged. Ex- perience had shown that the alternate motion of a saw ixame could not be increased beyond a certain number of strokes in a given time, without endanger- ing the machinery. Brunei, therefore, abandoned that system, and adopted the rotatory. One chcular saw of his construction was found to do all the work of- twenty-four saws in six frames : elm logs 24 to 36 inches diameter were converted into various materials by a saw moving at the rate of 108 to 112 revolutions per minute. With the progress of the war the demand for blocks increased so rapidly that no ordinary means could have furnished the supply. Skilled workmen were few, and therefore costly, and the work was often dependent on their caprice. And although Brunei's machinery was really equal to the emergency, the full results could not be obtained. The steam engine fre- quently failed in its duty, and when capable of work- BLOCK MACHINERY 91 ing, "was constantly waiting for materials, and the orders sent to the mill could not be taken in hand." Again, wlien the supply of timber was obtained, the quality often proved inapplicable to blocks. " I have represented to the officer of the yard," writes Brunei, "that the ehn was too rough, and too strong ; and that the consequence would be, that the shells of blocks made out of such materials woidd shrink in seasoning, and could not be depended on in service. They informed me there was no other then to be had." On the 17th November, 1806, he writes to Mr. Goodrich, " The orders for blocks have not for several weeks been compHed with, for want of brass coaks of every size ; " and on May 11th, 1807, he writes, " The wood sent to me to be converted, having been used for other purposes before, is full of nails." As a consequence the saw was frequently deranged, the edge reduced y^-g- of an inch, and the work vexa- tiously delayed. On Oct. 4th, 1807, he complains of the want of brass coaks, and the irregularity to which the work is subject, " for the men being obHged to alter frequently their engines, cannot make their wages upon piece work, and the orders cannot be executed." Also, in a letter to the Navy Board, August 18th, 1808, he says, "I beg leave to inform the honourable Board that from want of proper supphes of lignum vitoe of large dimensions, the mill is working to considerable disadvantage. The necessity of making some articles in preference to others, prevents the wood from being appropriated and converted according to its size and soundness ; consequently, the quality of the work pro- duced is materially affected. On the other hand the machines, not being properly supphed with materials, are not kept regularly employed." 92 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BKUNEL As the credit of the machinery was thus invahdated, so in Hke manner its pecuniary vakie was sought to be depreciated by estimating the product, not according to prices of materials when the work was undertaken, and which were paid by the old contractors, but according to what those prices had become, after five years of hard struggle, against the ambition of Na- poleon, with wheat from 78 to 94 shillings a quarter, with elm timber at 100 shillings the load in place of 62s. 6(i., lignum vitce at 23Z. in place of hi. and 10/., brass at Is. Id. per lb., in place of hd., and the wages of skilled workmen at 3Z. 10s. to Al. a- week ! No wonder that the savings effected by Brunei's machines should have been variously estimated from 6,691/. to 26,000/. per annum. To Brunei's repeated apphcation for a settlement, the Navy Board excused itself by assigning as a reason (January, 1809), " the many additions and alterations which Brunei had found it necessary to make in his machinery," entirely overlooking the fact, as stated by Brunei in his reply, January 20th, 1809), " that it was in consequence of the increase in his Majesty's navy, that it became necessary to give such a disposition to the buildings and machinery as to enable it (the machinery) to supply a much greater proportion of work than was at first calculated," and that " the additions, altera- tions, and improvements were much more difiicult to be carried into execution than the first erection." Indeed, it is obvious that with the progress of the war, the value of the machinery became more apparent, " directions were therefore," as Brunei states, " con- stantly reiterated by every administration at the Ad- miralty, and every other channel of communication, that I was not to fail to possess the machinery with powers commensurate with the increasing exigencies of BLOCK MACHINERY 93 the service, and to secure Government against the accidsntal obhgation of having recourse to contractors for any article of the block manufacture, thereby enabhng the Kavy Board to supply the wants of the Ordnance Department, which it had been intimated to me they had iu contemplation." In point of fact, during the year 1808, the machinery actually furnished " 130,000 blocks of every size and species, and also a certain proportion of the articles com- prehended in the block-maker's contract ; " the value of these articles was estimated at 50,000/., and in January, 1809, it was found that the quantity manu- factured during the last three months of 1808 would give an average of 160,000 blocks annually, the value of which was estimated at not less than 54,000/. The machinery was complete, it was capable of furnishing all the blocks heretofore supphed by Portsmouth, Plymouth, Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, and Sheer- ness. The officers of the yard had so reported ; yet the genius which devised, and the skill which organised aU this, was stiU to be measured by a standard which the exigencies of the time had virtually destroyed, and he who had been his adopted country's benefactor, was doomed to suffer aU the misery of hope deferred, to have his claims to remuneration constantly postponed, and that recompense denied to which his originahty and his talents had so largely entitled him. The distress to which Brunei was reduced began seriously to affect his health. He was attacked with nervous fever, and for some weeks was unable to turn his attention to any business. " The duty of a father," he says in a letter to the Admiralty, " whose anxiety for the welfare of a young family prompts me to reiterate my solicitations, and at the same time to represent to their lordships the uncertain and unsettled 94 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL state I am kept in is, in every respect, extremely injurious to the interests of my family, being prevented from engaging in more extensive concerns." And to Lord Mulgrave lie writes, July 13tli, 1808, " engaged as I have been lately, merely in the pursuit of informa- tion on the fate of my late application respecting my remuneration for my past services, I find that the best part of days and weeks are wasted away without any appearance of success ; and that being thereby pre- vented from paying immediate attention to the apphca- tions I have been honoured with, I may lose a favourable opportunity of reaping some advantage from my abihties." At length, in August, 1808, the Admiralty directed the payment, not of the promised remuneration, but of one thousand pounds on account! Brunei was in despair. He had already expended more than double that sum upon " models, drawings, and experiments." On the 20th August, in acknowledging the receipt of this fraction of his just claim, he says, " I would humbly beg leave to represent to your lordships, that it would be an irretrievable loss to my family if I were obHged, from motives of prudence, to rehnquish my present pursuits, and a loss which I should feel still more acutely, if I were to reflect, that the whole fruit of my exertions and abilities in the service of the Govern- ment, could not procure me the means of securing the advantages of a concern*, in which I have lately engaged, being, at the time I entered into it, fully persuaded that nothing could prevent or delay the settlement of a remuneration already determined upon by your lordships ; " and to Mr. W. W. Pole (Admiralty), he says, June 13th, 1808, "I beg leave * Saw-mills on a large scale, erected under Brunei's direction at Chelsea, and in which he held a considerable share. BLOCK MACHINERY 95 to represent tliat the advances made by me for models, drawings, and experiments for the various objects upon which I have been employed in the service of Government, exceed the sums 1 have received, at the rate of one guinea a day, from the 16th Sep- tember, 1802, to this day ! " that is, for the six years during which his time and thoughts had been almost exclusively devoted to the service of the country. To the Messrs. Borthwick also, who had engaged him to supply designs for an extensive saw-mill at Leith, he writes, March 26th, 1810 — " You may imagine that I have made httle pro- gress in your plans. It is with great regret I find a considerable portion of my time still taken up in the settlement of my business with Government, to the very great detriment of my private concerns." How httle do those in authority sometimes reflect on the svifFering inflicted upon men of genius, of whose gifts they have availed themselves, in resisting or re- pudiating claims admitted to be just ; and thus, through thoughtlessness, or wilfulness, bringing perhaps ruin on the victim, and certainly discredit upon the country, of which they are supposed to be the honoured guardians. " Jull little knowest thou who hast not try'd, What hell it is in suing long to byde ; To lose good days that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent : To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; # * * * * To have thy asking yet wait many years, To fret thy soul with crosses, and with cares, To eat thy heart with comfortless despairs." * Spenser's Mother Hubbard's Tale. 96 MEMOm OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL At length the Admiralty consented to accept the following approximate estimate : Amount of all articles manufactured by the block machinery, and delivered into store between the Istof July and 31st of December 1808, computed £ s. d. on the contract arrangements .... 24,362 12 10 Brass work, shivers, &c., at 13^d. .... 1,023 15 8 25,386 8 6 Advance of 8 per cent. ...... 2,030 18 3 27,417 6 9 Deduction for fees, \\ per cent. .... 411 5 2 27,006 1 7 Amount of materials used : — £ s. d. Elm, 948 loads, @ £2 12 6 . . 2,488 10 Various materials . . . . 141 11 8 Brass, 50,878 lbs., @ 13d. . . 2,755 17 10 Brass, 18,544 lbs., @ 9-^d. . . 734 8 Lignum vitte, 205 t. 14 cwt. @ £21 4,319 14 Iron, 40t. 6cwt, 3qrs. lib., @£26 1,048 15 9 ■Wages 3,418 19 8 10 per cent, on £45,000 capital, for 6 months 2,250 Interest on £20,000 floating capital @ 5 per cent, for 6 months Coals for steam engine . Sundry expenses of steam engine Cordage, leather, bands, &c. DiiFerenoe .... Amount of offals obtained Savings for six months Savings for a year From this, however, nearly 6001. was stiU deducted, and ultimately, the total sum received by Brunei, August 21st, 1810, after seven years of labour, anxiety, expectation, vexation and disappointment, was 17,093/. 185. 4(i., in the following manner : 500 296 8 100 2 462 7 1 - 18,516 6 8 8,489 14 11 342 8,831 14 11 £17,663 19 BLOCK MACHINERY 97 £ s. d. 1808 .... 1,000 1808 1,000 1809 5,000 1810 10,093 18 4 J17,663 9 10 That those highest in authority sympathised with Brunei at the disappointment he was made to experi- ence at the hands of the Admiralty and Naval Board, there is good reason to beheve. Lord Spencer had more than once declared that the least amount of remuneration to which he was entitled, was 20,000^. ; and Lord St. Vincent, writing to him on September 3rd, 1810, after his mind had been reheved by the final settlement of his claims, says — " I am very much gratified by your letter of the 3rd, which had removed a good deal of apprehension from my mind, on account of the delay in granting to you the remuneration due to the services you have rendered. Am I to understand that you are no longer to superuitend the ingenious and useful work in Ports- mouth yard ? I much fear it wiU not prosper so well in other hands. Heartily wishing you success in all your undertakings, " I remain very much your humble servant, "St. Vincent. " Eacketts : September 5tli, 1810." For a description of the block machinery the reader is referred to Appendix B. We shall here only add that where fifty men were necessary to complete the shells of blocks previous to the erection of Brunei's machinery, four men only are now required ; and that H 98 MEMOIE OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL to prepare the sheaves, six men can now do the work which formerly demanded the labour of sixty. So that TEN" MEN, by the aid of this machinery, can accomphsh with uniformity, celerity, and ease, what formerly required the uncertain labour of ONE hundred AND TEN. When we call to mind that at the time these works were executed, mechanical engineering was only in its infancy, we are filled with amazement at the sagacity and skiU that should have so far anticipated the pro- gress of the age, as to leave scarcely any room during half a century, for the introduction of any improve- ment. Mx. W. Chisman, in a report to Admiral Grey, March 23rd, 1861, and forwarded by him to Lord Clarence Paget, who kindly handed it to Sir Benj. Hawes, K.C.B., says — "The block machinery is at present in good working order. The machinery, in every main particular, is as the inventor left it. Considered in an economical point of view, the value of the present block machinery is incalculable, and it Avill be found that, if the expense of blocks made at this yard is compared with the list of prices of Mr. Esdaile's block manufactories of London, it will not, in some sizes, amount to one half the cost." Mr. Chisman farther states, "that the superiority of these blocks over those made in the merchant service or used in foreign ships, is evident, as machmery is calculated to prevent the consequences of inaccurate workmanship when made by hand." APPARATUS FOR BENDmG TIMBER 99 CHAPTEE VIII. 1805-1816. APPARATUS FOB BENDING TIMBER, 1805 MACHINERY FOE SAW- ING TIMBER, 1805-8 BIRTH OF A SON, 1806 MACHINE FOR CUTTING STAVES, 1807 WORKS AT WOOLWICH, 1808 THE SAW SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY SAW MILLS, BATTEESEA. VENEER ENGINE, 1808 HAT AND PILL BOXES IMPROVE- MENTS IN MOTIVE POWER, 1810 COMPARISON OF COST OF SAW- ING BY MACHINERY AND BY HAND, 1811 DESIGNS FOR CHAT- HAM, 1 812 DIFFICULTIES DESCRIPTION OF MACHINERY BACON MR. ELLACOMBE, 1816 PRESENT STATE OF THE WORKS, MARCH 1861. IN 1805 Brunei suggested an apparatus for bending timber. " In the mode commonly practised," he says, " the plank or scantling, after being heated for a certain time, is taken from the kiln, and then moulded. It is obvious that the fibres, strained by this operation, and receiving no further assistance from the emoUient effect of the steam or water, are exposed to separate, and even to break." To obviate this, he proposed to erect an apparatus, by means of which, the timber would be completely softened by the action of steam or boihng water, and subsequently moulded by a slow process to any given form, " without being removed from the place during the operation." In this year also he took out a patent " for sawing timber " in an easy and expeditious manner. The im- provement consisted in the modes of laying, and hold- H 2 100 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BEUNBL ing the piece of wood in the carriage or drag ; in the facility of shifting the saw from one cut to another ; and in the practicabihty of sawing both ways, either towards or from the saw or saws." In 1806 Brunei patented his machine for cutting veneers or thin boards; and in 1808 he secured another patent for " Circular Saws." These saws were " intended to cut out thin boards, or sHps, with as httle waste as appears practicable." They were to possess the two es- sential quahties of a thin edge and great steadiness. In 1812 and 1813 he took out two other patents for im- provements in " Saw Mills." The improvements con- sisted : 1. In accurately fixing the saw or saws in the frame. 2. The preventing the heads of the frame being bent. 3. The adjusting the inclination of the frame so as to reheve the friction of the saws when ascending. 4. In allowing the saws to be shifted any distance from each other according to the nature of the work required to be done. 5. In keeping the cutting edge of the saw true ; and 6. In permitting all the saws in a frame to be whetted with an equal degree of precision by the apphcation of a special apparatus. These improvements completed his conceptions ofaU the requirements of a sawing machine. In 1806 Brunei entered into negotiations for the or- ganisation of a sawing establishment at Battersea, and for a blockmaking estabhshment which should be capa- ble of supplying the whole of the commercial shipping. The former of these only Avas carried into effect. He had taken out a patent for a circular knife for cutting ve- neers or thin boards. The application of this instrument BIRTH OF A SOX 101 proved most successful. Boards from one inch to the one sixtieth part of an inch in thickness could be cut from the timber without leaving any waste. The slabs thus cut presented a beautiful pohshed appear- ance and required no subsequent preparation. The memory of one event in this year was specially to be cherished. " On the 9th of April, and at five minutes before one o'clock in the morning," Brunei records in his journal, " my dear Sophia was brought to bed of a boy." His joy was however sadly dimmed by the heartless conduct of the government in vsdth- holding from him, as we have seen, his just reward, and thereby subjecting him to pecuniary difficulties and anxieties, against which his services ought to have been his protection. That which should have brought the highest happiness of which his domestic nature was capable, now only added another pang to his loving heart. Time, vdth heahng on its wings, opened to him at length a brighter day, when his fondest hopes were reahsed, and when, at an age at which others have scarcely passed their novitiate, this child, Isambard Kingdom, achieved a name, and attained a position, that placed him in the first rank of his profession. It may indeed be said that by the boldness and magnitude of his works he came ultimately to be con founded with his father, and to have quaHfications and successes assigned to him which he himself never claimed, and to which the father alone was preeminently entitled. In 1807 Brunei submitted to the VictuaUing Board designs and estimates for machmery apphcable to the cutting of staves for the use of the cooperage belong- ing to that department. The machinery was calculated 102 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL to cut about sixty thousand dozen staves, of various sizes, for dry and light casks, during the day of twelve hours, with tlie assistance of seven men and a saw- vsrhetter. In the following year he was called upon by the Ord- nance Department to furnish designs for saw-mills for Woolwich, a call which he at once obeyed ; and in ex- plaining his designs he says, " they are the result of ex- perience, and not merely copies of what I have already executed ; but are mostly original ideas peculiarly calculated to answer for the service of the gun carriage department, and adapted to the local disposition of the ground." He farther adds, " although I cannot claim the merit of original invention in the saw-mills, I would beg leave to observe, that saw-mills, such as those used on the Continent and in America, are confined to a uni- form work, and entirely to fir. They could not be used with any advantage m the service of the carriage department for which elm, ash and oak timber, varying in size, length and form, are indiscriminately used, and to be converted into scanthng of different dimensions." * Brunei's large saws were capable of cutting at the * The saw is of high antiqtdty. The inventor was honoured with a place amongst the gods in the mythology of the Greeks. According to Beckmann, saw mills were in operation at Augsburg in 1322, and in Norway about 1530, where they were called the " New Art of Manufacturing Timber." When a saw mill was intro- duced, about 1663, into England, by a Dutchman, it encountered an opposition as determined as that given to printing in Turkey, to the ribbon loom in the Roman States, and to the crane in Strasburg. A mill erected near London Was abandoned in consequence of a com- bination of sawyers. Subsequently, in 17G7-8, IMr. John Houghton, a wealthy merchant, erected a mill at Limehouse ; but a mob as- sembled and utterly destroyed the building and machines. WOOLWICH SAW-MILLS 103 rate of ten to twelve feet per minute, with the attendance of one person only. As a consequence, the price of saw- ing straight timber was at once reduced from 3s. per hundred to Qd., or one sixth ; and by applying the machine used at Portsmouth for making iron pins for blocks to the formation of the axles of gun carriages, which had heretofore been made by hand, he reduced the cost from 3s. to 3d. ; or one twelfth. This was a more brUhant result than that which has attended aU the improvements in another and justly extolled branch of industry, the making of pins *, and was so recognised by those in authority. For the valuable services which Brunei rendered to the Eoyal Arsenal at Woolwich he received a grant of 4500/. Li the spring of this year Brunei removed to Lindsey Eow, Chelsea. At Battersea, on the opposite bank of the river, he had erected saw-mills in which he had invested aU his available money, with the reasonable hope that he had secured, by so doing, a valuable provision for his increasmg family and his own declining years ; a hope, however, never to be reahsed. It was at these miUs that the process of rabbeting or grooving timber with profit, was first accomplished. By the common mode, the rabbet is cut out in chips, which were worthless. By means of the circular saw, the shp of wood, the removal of which forms the groove, is at once separated in its entirety, so as to be available for laths, rails, &c., the value of which exceeded the expense of the operation. Here also the veneer and conical engines, or plain and conical knives, were first tried and perfected. Slabs of hard wood, as mahogany for tables, and shavings for hat and pill boxes, were cut from the * Babbage, Economy of Machinery. H 4 104 MEMOIR OF SIB M. I. BEUNEL solid timber, forty and fifty to the inch, As a con- sequence, wood began to be substituted for paper in the manufacture of those articles. To these important economic advantages to the public was added the high gratification to Brunei himself of being able to employ children in the manufactory. The love of the young was a distinguishing and abiding feature in Brunei's character ; and now, after a few hours' instruction and one day's practice, he had the happi- ness to reflect, that for a large number of these special objects of his sympathy he had provided the means of earning for themselves an honest and sufficient liveh- hood. Four very important results may then be attributed to the apphcation of these engines. 1. The rediiction, at once, of the price of furniture made from costly woods. 2. The diminution of the consumption of paper. 3. The advantageous introduction of the labour of children in making boxes, &c. 4. The retention within the kingdom of the money heretofore paid for those articles in Holland, Germany, and the Tyrol, from whence they had for years been largely imported. In 1810 Brunei took out a patent for " Improvements in obtaining Motive Power." This was proposed to be effected by employing the inclined hollow screw (the screw of Archimedes) to force atmospheric air into a vessel of cold water, from which it was to escape into an inverted funnel, and thence through a pipe to be conveyed to another vessel containing hot water. In this vessel a bucket-wheel was to revolve ; the air conducted through the pipe, and rarefied in its passage through MACHINERY FOE DOCKYARDS 105 the heated water, to ascend beneath the buckets, and by its buoyancy to give motion to the wheel, as water operates upon an overshot wheel in the open air. In the words of the patent, " the ascending air, by being brought into contact with the hot water doth become greatly enlarged in its dimensions beyond the dimensions of the same air when forced down through the cold water, and that, in consequence thereof, the mechanical force communicated to the wheel by the ascending air is much greater than the force required to turn or give motion to the Archimedes screw, instrument or organ employed in forcing the same down when cold ; and that I do employ a part of the said greater force in giving motion to the said screw, instrument or organ, and the remaining part in giving motion to machinery." It does not appear that any practical result was ob- tained from this invention. In November 1811, Brunei submitted a comparative statement to the Navy Board, wliich exhibited in a strong Kght the importance of substituting machinery in our dockyards for the handwork then in use. In sawing wood 600 men were employed, or 300 pairs of sawyers. The wages paid were, to top men 3s. %d. per day, pitmen 2s. lO^d = 6s. ^\d. But, as these men iisuaUy worked bythe piece, they were enabled to reaUse 10s. per day, which would represent for each pair of sawyers 220 feet of sawed material ; and 220 x 300 would give 66,000 feet as the total quantity pro- duced daily, something more than three fifths of which, or 40,000 feet, was assumed as fit to be cut by a saw miU. It was found that a saw miU composed of eight saw frames and carrying an average of thirty-six saws, would produce twenty- one superficial feet of sawing per minute, 10 13i per cent. V 231 106 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL or 1260 feet per hour. Four mills, therefore, would supply all the requirements of Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, Woolwich, Sheerness, and Deptford. The average cost of one such mill was computed at 11,400^. Interest on capital, and wear and tear . Expenses of working, saws, files, &c. . Or say 2650Z. The average rate paid for sawing was 4s. 2d. per hundred feet. Say for 10,000 feet 201. 16s. 8d. per day, and for 300 days 6,250/. per annum. De- ducting the cost of the same amount of millwork, we have 6,250/., less 2,650/., equal to 3,600/. ; which, for four mUls, would give a total saving in this manufac- ture alone of 14,400/. per annum ! The success which attended Brunei's improvements in the construction of wood mills aroused not only the indignation of the sawyers — a large and influential class in those days — but the jealous passions of some of his contemporaries. Government was condemned for the encouragement it was affording to a foreigner whose mills were pronounced to be expensive, straphreaking , cranhhreaking machines, and an unfavourable com- parison was instituted between them and the cheap and efficient Scotch mills. The erection of one of these Scotch mills by Mr. Eennie, one of the first civil engi- neers of the day, at Eotherhithe, soon permitted the government to ascertain their real value. This mill had cost about 9,300/. : the building is described as " indifferent." A ten-horse steam engine worked four frames, and the week's produce was reported to be about 9500 feet of sawing, something less than the CHATHAM DOCKYARD, 1812 107 work of five pairs of sawyers : wMLe the smallest frame in tlie saw mill at Woolwich, a mill with six frames, employed upon timber similar to that supplied at the Eotherhithe miU, was cutting from 10,000 to 12,000 feet in the week. The building was of a neat, sub- stantial character, the machinery of the first class, the power 20 horses, and the cost 12,000/. The un- equivocal evidence which Brunei had afforded of his superiority as a mechanical engineer, again induced the government to secure his services in carrying out pro- posed improvements in the dock yard at Chatham. After various negotiations, an order was given to him, on the 31st January 1812, to provide the neces- sary machinery and steam engine. But it was not sufficient that his machinery was sanc- tioned ; he desired to adapt it, in the most economical manner, to the locality in which it was to be erected. Accordingly he visited Chatham with this view. Alter- ations and improvements had indeed been suggested there by some of the most celebrated engineers ; but they all contemplated an increase of space. When the plan last submitted was explained to Brunei by one of the officers, he observed, " Ah ! then, gentlemen, you would require the seven-league boots of the Marquis of Carabas to go from one end of the yard to the other."* After a careful examination of the ground, he suddenly exclaimed, " That hill must be bought ! " " Oh yes," rephed the officer he had before addressed, " govern- ment has been so recommended ; but the cost of the * " Lorsqu'il faut aller," says Baron Dupin {Force Navale de la Grande Bretagne), "plusieurs fois par jour, d'une extremite de ces vastes etablissements, a I'extr^niit^ opposee, Ton perd un temps infini ; Ton se trouve ^puis6 pour s'^tre rendu seulement sui- les lieux ou il importe de deployer la plus gi-ande, la plus constante activity." 108 MEilOm OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL removal of so great a mass of earth has deterred them." ' Eemove ! take away that noble hill — the most valu- able bit of ground in all the yard ! " rephed Brunei : " JSTo, no ! but buy it — buy it as quickly as possible." Little could those who witnessed this short dialogue, recounted to me by Brunei himself, with all the animation belong- ing to the expression of a new idea — little could they have predicted the important part which " that hill," would play in the hands of Brunei, or the transformation it was destined to imdergo at the touch of the magician's wand. We AviU pause for a moment to cast a retro- spective glance at the service of this yard at the time Brunei was called upon for his designs. The quantity of foreign timber required to be con- verted annually in Chatham yard was about 8000 loads. The logs were landed at the shps, and dragged to some convenient place for survey, where they re- mained till they were again dragged to any place where room for stacking them could be found. " For the landing of these 8000 loads of timber," says Brunei, in his report to the Admiralty, " there is required at least 6000 goings and comings of teams of horses, merely to lay the timber for survey — 6000 times to and from the stacks — at least as many more times one hundred yards in aiding the hfting on the stacks." Prom the stacks the timber had to be transferred to the saw mill, and again from the saw miU, when converted, to be stacked for use. " So that the expense attending the land carriage of 8000 loads of timber could not be es- timated at less than lOs. per load," and for the 8000 loads 4000L' Brunei proposed first to extend the use of a steam engine, to be erected to work his machmery, to the landing of foreign timber. WOEKS AT CHATHAM 109 2. To the carrying of the same and lajdng it for survey. 3. To the stacking of it. 4. To the taking it from the stack and conveying it to the mill ; and 5. To the removing of the scantling (wood when cut), after conversion to a convenient distance from the mill, so as to prevent any obstruction near it. Through " that hill" about 2000 feet in length and 200 in breadth, and which rose 38 feet immediately above the Medway at high water, Brunei proposed to sink an elliptical shaft, the diameters to be 90 feet, and 72 feet, to the level of the bed of the river, and from the bottom of this shaft to run a subterraneous canal, or tunnel through the mast pond to the river ; the bottom of the shaft therefore to become a reservoir into which the timber could be floated from the river, freed from the sand and gravel which it so plentifully collected in the dragging process through the yard, and which so largely impeded the operation of the saw. Bound the reservoir was to be a passage on a hne with the water. Above the reservoir he proposed to erect an apparatus having a communication with the top by steps, for ele- vating the logs to the highest point of the yard. At a short distance from thence the saw mill was to be pla- ced. From one side of the shaft and parallel to the boundary wall of the yard, an iron railway, supported on a double row of iron pillars, was to proceed, along the edge of which, beds were to be formed to receive the timber to be surveyed. It is worthy of remark that we have here a railway, the construction of which anticipated by ten years the enterprising project of Mr. Joseph Sanders at Liverpool, and which, curiously enough, was laid down on longitudinal timbers in the 110 SJEMOIK OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL manner subsequently adopted for the Great Western line. Below the saw mill were to proceed other rail- ways, on a gentle incline, to convey the timber, when cut, to the lower part of the yard, where it was to be stacked for use. A steam engine of 32-horse power was to be the moving force applied to these various opera- tions. In August 1812, Brunei's terms were accepted, and the work, as above detailed, was at once proceeded with. Much delay arose, however, from the want of skill and attention on the part of those to whom the execution of the tunnel, the reservoir, and great chimney of the steam engine were intrusted by the authorities ; those works being taken out of Brunei's hands. In the tunnel, his design had been altered without his sanction, and his instructions neglected. An eUiptical arch was substituted for a segmental, and the sides or abut- ments were built vertical, when they should have battered or inchned. The brick work also had been shamefully put together. It was no wonder, therefore, that it gave way. For a distance of 45 feet the arcli fell, killing one man, and injuring ten. The chimney, 120 feet in height, having been founded partly on clay and partly on chalk, settled irregularly, and continued to be to Brunei a source of anxiety for months, dming which it underwent a variety of doctoring to sustain its congenital weakness. On the 27th October 1813, Brunei writes to Mr. HoU (JSTavy Board) : " Mr. Vinall (Master Bricklayer at Chatham), expresses his confidence in its safety. I have nevertheless taken upon me to stop the progress untU you decide on it." Brunei also suggested "that a Idnd of ladder be formed inside the chimney, with wrought iron bars let into the angles, at 18 or 20 WORKS AT CHATHAM 111 inches apart, ia order to be able to reach the top of the chimney at any time when required." On the 2nd November, 1813, a report, signed by G. Parkin and P. Hellyer, and which had the concurrence of Sir Eobert Seppings (who more than once took upon him to ridicule Brunei for his chimney fears), was addressed to the Commissioners of the Navy. " We beg leave to state that the chimney is, in our opinion, in a state of perfect safety ; that it may be proceeded with without fear. In referring to Mr. Brunei's re- marks, we have to observe that the chimney stands on a firm foundation," &c. As a consequence of this report, Sir Eobert Barlow repHed, that " from what is therein set forth, added to my own observation on the actual state of the building, I should recommend pro- ceeding to the completion of it (the chimney), agreeably to the original design." ! ! The work was accordingly proceeded with. On the 18th of February following, Brunei records in his journal : " Observed that the chimney cracks very much, and continues to bulge out. Mr. Vinall is now sensible of it, and proposes to prop it by means of buttresses ; and I propose, in addition, some wrought-iron ties, which may be buried into the biick work." Not only was the chimney thus secured, and Brunei's observation and judgment vindicated, but a principle of building was suggested, which did not receive its full develop- ment until twenty years afterwards, when the experi- mental arch, to be hereafter described, was constructed. Fortunately for Brunei, the enormous cast-iron tanks, as provision against fire, erected over each wing of the saw mill, met with more consideration, or they might have shared the same fate as those at Deptford, which, from defective support, gave way. 112 MEMOIE OF Sm M. I. BEUNEL The faulty design of those tanks was often condemned by Brunei. The sides were upright, the water six feet deep. " Yes," he would say, " a good long winter's frost, and they will bring their own destruction." The tanks at Chatham were very different ; the sides in- chned at an angle of 30°, thus permitting the expansion of their contents without injury. Amidst these delays and discussions, upon matters in no way under Brunei's control, the hydrauhc apparatus for raising the timber from the reservoir had been erected. From the bottom of the basin rose two cast- iron standards, between which, on the same shaft or axle, were suspended what was termed an elevator and its counterpoise, by means of chains passing over pulleys at a height of sixty feet, and coiled round drum- wheels. The elevator consisted of a sort of platform, upon which the balks of timber were floated. The counterpoise was formed by a tank, capable of containing ten tons of water, and which worked into a small reservoir, divided from the larger one by a dwarf wall. The drums of the elevator were considerably larger than those of the counterpoise, and the chains stronger and heavier. When a balk had to be raised, the elevator was allowed to descend, raising at the same time the empty counterpoise tank, up to a point where it was supplied with the waste water from the steam- engine ; when the balk was brought upon the elevator, water was admitted to the counterpoise tank sufficient to overcome the weight of the balk to be raised ; the tank then descended and the balk rose. This duty accompHshed, the tank discharged its water into its own reservoir, to be again elevated in its turn. To effect this simple arrangement with precision and econumy, was not however an easy task. The supply CHATHAM WORKS 113 of fresh water was small, and to prevent any loss the following arrangement was made. Subterraneous tanks were formed to receive the waste water and steam from the steam-engine, in which they were condensed and cooled, and from which the water was conveyed to the counterpoise tanks. Having performed its function in the manner described, it was returned by a siphon, seven mches diameter, to the well of the steam-engine, to be once more con- verted into steam, and again conveyed to the counter- poise, to complete a continuous circle of economic duty. The regulation of the machinery, simple as it ap- peared, called for a further exercise of ingenuity. In the first operations, the chains of the counterpoise increasing in length and weight as they descended, and those of the elevator decreasing still more quickly as they ascended, caused the motion to be so much acce- lerated as to overpower the break, and allow the tim- ber to fly up with a fearful velocity. This was however speedily remedied by Mr. Ellicombe (so the name was then spelt), the accomplished resident eniiineer, of whom more hereafter. He suspended one end of a chain to the bottom of the timber car- riage or elevator, equal in weight to the two chains of the counterpoise, and the other end to a hook about half- way up one of the standards which carried the drums ; this had the effect of checking the acceleration, and of securing a uniform motion. A more elegant contri- vance was subsequently employed by Brunei : this was an apparatus similar to the governor of a steam- engine, which, being made to revolve in water, rendered the whole action of the machine as smooth as the motion of oiled surfaces upon one another. I 114 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL The largest as well as the smallest logs of timber were raised from the reservoir in precisely the same time, thirty seconds. Indeed, a balk sixty feet long and sixteen inches square has been raised in twenty seconds. Arrived at the top, the huge arm of a gigantic moveable crane, of a pecuhar construction, seized the log, descended the inchned railway by its own gravity, and gently deposited its burthen on the drying-beds to be surveyed; being drawn back by a chain passing round a drum worked by the steam-en- gine, if necessary with a rejected log, which it lowered to the reservoir by the same means with which it had been elevated, to be expelled to the mast pond and to the river. One man sufficed to direct all the operations of this enormous machine ; to move it, stop it, and turn its arms or jibs in any required direction. The same crane was also employed to convey the dried timber to the mill. This miU consisted of eight saw frames and two circular saw benehes, with the necessary windlasses and capstans, and was capable of accomphshing the work of fifty pairs of sawyers. When converted, the scantling or sawn timber was conveyed to any part of the yard on trucks, and piled for use, where it was so arranged along each side of inchned planes, that it might be examined with perfect ease, the sizes selected, and conveyed to the docks or sHps by single horse trucks, without in the slightest degree interfering with the other work in the yard. From the moment the timber was raised from the water, not a single piece required to be even turned, until placed on the trucks, to be forwarded in its manufactured state to its destination : ten to twelve men, witli the aid of this beautiful machinery, performing all the operations once so costly, and with a regularity, CHATHAM WORKS 115 precision and celerity never before attained in works of such character and magnitude. We can well understand the importance "which Brunei attached to the supervision of this novel and comprehensive system of machinery, and his anxious soHcitude that it should be placed in full and efficient operation, before it was handed over to dockyard officials, to whom its mechanical arrangements were but an innovation, and by whom its value was only partially understood. Certain it is, that long before the works were reported by the inventor as complete, an effort was made to deprive him of the services, first of Mr. Bacon, and subsequently, with more success, of Mr. EUicombe, two of his most able and confidential assistants. When his application to have Bacon ap- pointed to the charge of the saw miU was rejected, he was filled with anxiety and disappointment, dreading a repetition of what he had already experienced during the erection of the block machinery at Portsmouth. It was Bacon who appears to have been first sent to Scotland, in 1811, to superintend the saw miUs erected for the Messrs. Borthwick, from whom he received the highest character. It was through them he was sub- sequently transferred to Woolwich Arsenal and ulti- mately, in 1813, to Chatham; and on Bacon therefore he could imphcitly rely, not only for strict integrity and for a large amount of mechanical skill, but for full and accurate appreciation of the relation sub- sisting between the several parts of a well considered system. " It is frequently so long," Brunei writes to the KaVy Board (October 1st, 1814), "before untried com- binations can be brought to act in unison and harmony, that nothing should be left to chance, or as a tempta- I 2 116 MEMOm OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL tion to plead ignorance of the intentions of the pro- jector." His -soHcitations were at length acceded to, and the management of the saw-mill was placed in Mr. Bacon's hands " untU it shall be brought to that state that it may without risk be left to the management of others." That this was a wise conclusion we may well beheve, when we find difficulties occurriag in other quarters where his machinery was employed, but where com- petent supervision was neglected. In reply to the Messrs. Borthwick, of Leith, February 11th, 1815, relative to the use of straps for transferring motion, he says, " at Woolwich and at Chatham, I use nothing but straps, and I could not substitute any other means. The Chatham mill has many times worked with 20 and 24 saws upon one frame, cutting 30 to 40 feet in length so as to have produced as much as 900 feet out of one log ; with all that, no extraordinary tightness of strap is required." And again he says, " at the Woolwich mill, where they cut frequently with from 12 to 15 saws upon one frame through very large logs, and occasionally with 6 or 8 saws through the largest ash, they never have broken a crank nor a rod." " But," he concludes, " if the steam engine were to be let loose, I would not stand by any of the machinery." For upwards of thirty years, Bacon retained his situation, justifying in the fullest measure Brunei's recommendation, and exemphfying the economy of securing competent supervision over mechanical com- binations, such as those brought into operation at Chatham. In 1843 I find the steam engine is reported " to be working with the original brasses ; that neither the main shaft, running fifty-four revolutions per minute. MR. ELLACOMBE 117 nor the other shafts, were ever broken, nor the brasses worn out," but are all in as good a state as when first put to work in January, 1814. This is, I beUeve, unique : sawing hardwood being con- sidered the " most harassing work " to which machinery can be subjected, where the curvature of the timber is to be followed. The same is stated of the " waterworks," which have to raise from three to four hundred tons of water daily." In the case of Mr. EUicombe, ignorance of the value of responsible supervision of unusual mechanical opera- tions can alone extenuate, though it cannot justify, the conduct of the JSTavy Board towards that gentleman. In 1816 Brunei was called to France for a short time. On his return he found, to his dismay, that his resident engineer had been summarily dismissed. "Navy Office, May 9tli, 1816. " Mr. Brunei, " I have to inform you that we have desired Com- missioner Sir Eobert Barlow, to signify to Mr. EUicombe that his services are no longer required at Chatham to superintend the works connected with the saw mills, " We are your affectionate friends, "E. Sapping, " H. Legge, " Eiley Middleton." To this peremptory order Mr. EHicombe rephed, that being the agent of Mr. Brunei, he could not con- scientiously abandon the trust committed to him during his absence, or without his authority. To this the Navy Board rejoined, on the 15th May, 1816 : I 3 118 MEMOIR OF SIK M. I. BRUNEL " Sir, " The Commissioners of Navy have commanded me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th of this month, on the subject of your superinten- dence of the works connected with the saw-mills at Chatham, in which you state that you cannot give up your charge without Mr. Brunei's authority, and I am to acquaint you that your salary wiU not be continued longer than the 2nd of this month, being the day on which Sir Eobert Barlow stated that your services were no longer wanted. " (Signed) G. Smith." In his remonstrance to the Navy Board, Brunei na- turally expressed his " surprise at the nature as well as the manner " of the act. " If for so short a period," he says, " as two or three weeks, Mr. Elhcombe's exertions and labours have not been so actively and usefully em- ployed as they were before, it is because others have not been as expeditious in the execution of the works they had to perform as I had expected." " Mr. Elh- combe's services have not been continued by me solely for the purpose of superintending the saw mill, but for dhecting the execution of the works in general, and for giving them the effect they should arrive at before they can be left to the management of others. " No part of the work evinces greater proof of abihty and judgment, than the manner in which the timber- hfting apparatus has been put up and brought into action. " What remains to be fixed cannot be combined with the existing works, nor connected as it should be, unless I have the entire management of the concern, as I have hitherto had, nor unless I have the choice of ME. ELLACOMBE 119 instruments I think necessary to my purpose. Mr. Ellicombe being, from his superior education, hberal connections, and his uncommon acquirements, fitted in every respect, I trust that, if your honourable Board has no personal objection to him, he wiU. be allowed to continue where he is in the character of my confiden- tial agent in superintending my Chatham engagement until I shall have completed it. " Waiting for your honourable Board's directions and instructions, I have the honour to be, Sirs, " Your most obedient and most humble servant, " M. I. Bkunel." " Chelsea, May 15th, 1816. To Brunei's remonstrance, the commissioners ex- pressed their consent to Mr. Elhcombe remaining a fur- ther time in the superintendence of the works ; but in the bhnd eagerness for economy, they desired to be informed " how much longer it is Hkely that Mr. EUi- combe's attendance, at the pubhc expense, wiQ be absolutely necessary." But Mr. EUicombe had al- ready quitted Chatham in disgust. This, commu- nication was forwarded to him at Oxford, whither he had retired, with the determination to abandon the profession for which he appears to have been so admirably fitted, and to devote himself to the church, to which he had been early destined, but from which his mechanical aptitude and superior mathematical acquirements had for a time allured him. In his reply to the Navy Board, forwarded to Brunei, but for which Brunei substituted a commu- nication of his own, we learn how this accomphshed gentleman was induced to retire from a profession in which he gave the most undoubted promise of a bril- liant and successful career : not, as stated by the Kavy I 4 120 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BRUNEL Board to Brunei, 17th June, 1816, "from motives of self- advantage and convenience, in having withdrawn from his employment at Chatham, for the purpose of entering into Holy Orders," but, as he himself distinctly declares, " from a conviction that, if work and genius hke his (Brunei's) can meet with no better reward than has fallen to his share, it is not worth any man's while of ordinary abihties to exert and harass himself for such a trifling reward ; and therefore, having obtained Mr. Brunei's dismissal, I return to the profession of the chm-ch, for which I was originally intended." But what Brunei's feehngs were under this depriva- tion, his own words only too well express. In his letter to Mr. EUicombe, on the 31st May, after alluding to his dismissal and his reinstatement " in that situation fi'om which he had been dismissed in a most unwarrantable and ungentlemanly manner," he says, " few, my good friend, combine with a steadiness of mind those quahfi- cations and acquirements you are blessed with. Eew, indeed, unite in that moral composition, the advantages you possess. To divert all these talents from their use- ful course, is to deprive your country of the benefit that must have resulted from your labours, and yourself of that reward which would ultunately have been the share of your perseverance. To the five talents you have received shall you not have to say, in return, Ecce alia quinque ? As to myself, I must submit to the loss I cannot prevent, and which I feel most particularly at this time. Alone in the middle of the action, or at any rate, in the thickest part of it, a great deal stiU remains to be performed, before I can say I have closed the career in Chatham dock-yard. " The share I had assigned to you, left me at leisure to ponder upon what came next ; but now no one have I ME. ELLACOMBE 121 at the helm — none through whom I can convey my directions and ideas — and by the co-operation of whom I can proceed with confidence. If you still continue in your determination of returning to the Church, may you, my good friend, prove as great an ornament to it as you would have been in that most arduous career in which you leave your very sincere friend, with one of his lights out." Smarting under the injustice of seeing his confidential agent peremptorily dismissed from an important trust, during his short absence from the country, and only a few days previous to his return, without, as he says, allowing him the opportunity of justifying the cause of having retained Ellicombe, Brunei was induced to reiterate his complaints to the Navy Board, with no other effect than to excite an un- kindly feehng towards himself. He writes to Mr. Ellicombe : " You have had the op- portunity of getting an inside view of the troubles, vexations, dangers, and chances incident to the pro- fession of an engineer ; you are therefore completely cured of that vertigo which might at times have raised m your mind speculative ideas, and left there some regrets at not having followed the bent of your natural disposition." The wretched economy which could have induced an important government department thus remorselessly to lop off the right arm of him to whom the country already stood so largely indebted, — or, as he himself ex- pressed it, to put "one of his Hghts out," must have been poor indeed ; and the conception which must have been entertained by that department, of the necessity for skil- ful supervision, in the erection of works of such magni- tude as it had been called upon to sanction, must have been of the most circumscribed and imperfect character. 122 MEMOIE OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL One word more relative to Mr. Ellicombe, or Ellacombe, according to tlie early orthography now adopted. However much, the Church may have gained by the accession of an active and earnest minister, it is certain that the civil engineering profession lost a con- scientious and accomphshed member. Although removed from the busy haunts of men, and devoted to high and holy objects, Mr. Ellacombe had still recognised the benefits which a knowledge of the physical sciences is so well calculated to confer. Of a highly respectable family in Devonshire, directly descended from that Sir Hugh Myddelton, who, hke the last Duke of Bridgewater, expended all his means in the reahsation of a great and beneficent idea*, Mr. EUacombe was early destined to follow the steps of his father and grandfather, and to enter the Church. Already had he graduated at Oriel College, Oxford ; but inheriting with his distinguished brother. General Ellicombe, E.E., many of the engineering qualifications of their ancestor, he was unable to resist the impulses of his nature, and every hour which he could command from his more serious studies was devoted to mechanical drawing and the construction of models. While still at Oxford, an opportunity was afforded him of an introduction to Brunei, and to Brunei he submitted the result of his stolen hours. The delicacy, accuracy and beauty of the workmanship at once secured the favourable opinion of the great mechanist. * Sir Hugh constructed, at his own cost, the celebrated aqueduct called the New Elver, by which, through a distance of sixty miles, he conveyed the first wholesome supply of water to London, thereby conferring upon the metropolis of his country an incalculable blessing. That noble work was commenced in 1608, and completed in five years. AIE. ELLACOMBE 123 This was enhanced and confirmed by the simplicity of young Ellacombe's manners, and the superiority of his general attainments ; and he soon found himself, he scarce knew how, installed ia Brunei's ofiice ; from whence the transition was natural to the important position of his confidential assistant. Although, in consequence of the conduct of the Navy Board to Brunei, he was led, as we have seen, to abandon the profession for which his natural endow- ments so well fitted him, it is some consolation to know that his mechanical and constructive talents have not been lost to the country. As curate and vicar of Bitton, in Gloucestershire, for upwards of thirty years, and subsequently rector of Clyst St. George, in Devonshire, where he has within a few years entirely rebuilt the parish church, and erected spacious school-houses, he ofiers another illustration of the well known adage of the poet, " Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret." I cannot conclude this short notice of a most amiable and gifted gentleman, without recording the opinion of a stranger who, under the title of " The Bristol Church- goer," thus describes the value of some of Mr. Ella- combe's labours. Writing in 1849, he says — " The Vicar of Bitton is one of those men who, if you placed him in the desert of Arabia, would, Ibeheve, have half a dozen churches up about him in httle more than that number of years. I'm afraid to say how many he has built in the parish of Bitton, which was once as bad as Arabia ; but I think I am correct in stating that he found it with one, and that he has managed to add foiu- or five others, and by the time 124 MEMOIE, OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL he is gathered to his fathers, as many more Avill, I expect, stand as monuments of his untiring, his unconquerable zeal. Where he gets or got the ^oney for them all. Heaven knows, I don't ; but I should say he must have been a most intrepid beggar, and indefatigable man to do what he has done. He restored the mother church ; he rebuilt Oldland ; perched a pretty new chapel on Jefferie's Hill ; and planted another amongst the coal pits of Eangswood. "He rubs on, enlarging the borders of the Church, while others are squabbhng about her. Erecting altars, while others are fighting about turning their faces toward, or from them." We should form but an incomplete estimate of the real value of those beautiful arrangements at Chatham, if we permitted our views to be Kmited to the process of sawing only, economical as that undoubtedly was ; the fact being, that the Chatham works reaUy formed a new era m the economical management of timber. However painful it is, on the one hand, to record the nature and amount of vexation to which the sensitive mind of Brunei was subjected, it is, on the other, gratifying to find that there were those of superior attainments and position who had formed a true estimate of his genius and services. Sir Joseph Yorke, in a letter to Brunei, dated 16th January, 1821, referring to the interest which he took in Brunei's works, and the circumstances which enabled him to forward the successful operations at Chatham, while he had a seat at the Admiralty board, adds : — " Your talents and ingenuity, united to profound me- chanical knowledge, have placed you in the envied SIR JOSEPH YOKXE ' 125 situation of the projector of some of the most complete apparatus that has ever appeared, even in this mecha- nical country." ^ " That you may hve to reap the harvest of such well- earned success, as weU in pocket as in fame, is the sincere prayer of " Your sincere admirer and friend " J. YOEKB, " Vice Admiral." Kind Sir Joseph Yorke ; how httle he knew of those dark clouds already gathering on the horizon, — precur- sors of the storm about to overwhelm the fortunes of his friend ! There were others, also, qualified to estimate the value of Brunei's labours, who did not hesitate to express their opinions as to the sort of justice he had received at the hands of government. We have already seen in what light Lord Spencer viewed the concession made by the Admiralty, for the invention of the block machinery; nor was Lady Spencer less indignant. This lady, no less distinguished for her high social position than for her intellectual attainments, her moral virtues, and the sympathy for truth and goodness and genius which endeared her to all who had the privilege of her friendship, took from the first hour of her acquaintance with Brunei, and when his talents were scarcely recognised, the deepest interest in his career. She now, in his time of trouble, addressed to him one of her earnest letters. " I am in a sad hurry, or I should wish to tell you of a great desire I have, that you should just now make a very short and very clear statement of the case to 126 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BRUNEL the country ; both on the block-machines, and on the saw-mills, and their appendages at Chatham. I want you to draw up such a statement, from the documents which you must possess, as might be written on a large card, so that your advocates might instantly place before an ignorant age the wonderful result, and im- press the most stubborn, with a plain matter-of-fact which must place your pretensions on the most self- evident grounds, and so as to silence all other claims. I wish I could better explain what I mean ; but I think you may conceive my intentions. " Ever yours in haste " Lavinia Spencer. " Wimbledon, Saturday." In 1854 these valuable works were burnt down, but they were too important to admit of any delay on the part of government in their re-establishment. They were therefore rebuilt in 1855, and the only changes, as reported by Captain Superintendent Goldsmith to Lord Clarence Paget, March, 1861, were "alteration in the mode of driving, and the speed of the frames, which has been increased from 80 to 100 revolutions a minute." To this has been added, " two steam frames and three circular saw benches." * We thus see how far the value of Brunei's genius has received the testimony and seal of time. It is very certain that no mind shed more light on the practice, if not the principles, of constructive engineering. No hand performed more labour, no life rendered more * I am again indebted, through Sir Benjamin Hawes, K.C.B., to Lord C. Paget for a report upon the present state of the mills, which has enabled me to place their continued connection with Brunei upon record. PEESENT STATE OP CHATHAM SAW MILLS 127 consistent and essential service to the mechanical re- quirements of the country than his did ; and it is there- fore with feeUngs of deep regret and sympathy, that we are called upon to contemplate the anxieties and dis- appointments to which he was now subjected. 128 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL CHAPTEE IX. 1809—1819. ORIGIN OF THE SHOE MACHINEKY NEGLECTED CONDITION OF THE BEITISH ARMY AND NAVY DESCRIPTION OF SHOE MA- CHINERY ENCOURAGED TO ESTABLISH A MANUFACTORY OF SHOES TERMINATION OF THE WAR, AND LOSS INCURRED, 1814 — LETTER TO MR. VANSITTART, 1819. WHILE the works at Chatham and at Woolwich were in process of erection, the saw-mills esta- blished at Battersea by Brunei, in connection with Mr. -Fartliing, in 1808, had been brought to considerable perfection. Apphcations were also being received from private individuals to supply saw-mUls. From his Grace the Duke of Athol, I find a kind invitation to Dimkeld, where his Grace had proposed to erect mills. At Battersea, circular saws, from seven to eighteen feet in diameter, were performing work never before con- templated, with a rapidity and precision altogether un- equalled, and entirely independent of the mechanical supervision of the projector; while the estabhshment under ordinary, but faithful management, promised to secure an ample provision for his dechning years. Why it did not so prove, it will be our painful duty presently to narrate. The idea of applying machinery to everything which was calcidated to contribute to the utiUty, the economy, and the comfort of life, stimulated, as we have seen. SHOE MACHINE 129 Brunei's mind to devise the means of sewing and hem- ming. A higher motive now urged him to seek to supply, by machinery, boots and shoes for our soldiers, which should be independent of the shoemaker's wax and thread, and the contractor's cupidity and knavery. He had witnessed at Portsmouth, in 1809, the disem- barkation of some remnants of that gallant band which, under Sir John Moore,. had so gloriously sustained the honour of the British name, through difficulties and privations at that time almost without parallel. He had learnt how greatly the want of shoes had contri- buted to the losses which the army had sustained, and his kindliest, deepest sympathies, were at once enlisted as he looked upon those victims of cupidity and neglect, dragging their mutilated limbs along, shoe-less ; or with lacerated feet enveloped in filthy rags bound round with knotted strings. As the necessities of our navy had stimulated his constructive genius in 1797, so the sufferings of our army now awakened his philanthropic spirit to devise a remedy for a great and crying evil. For six years the average annual expense of shoes supplied to the army amounted to 150,000Z. ; and yet it is on record that those procured at such a cost had been found inadequate to one day's march : indeed the disgraceful manner in which the army contracts had been executed during the Peninsular war, had become the great scandal of the country. Clay was intro- duced between the soles to give weight, and therefore the appearance of great strength of leather. This, while in dry weather it produced extreme heat to the foot, in wet weather dissolved and left the unfortunate victim of cupidity in the most distressful condition. Little less disgraceful to the country, or perilous to the K 130 MEMOIR OF Sm M. I. BRUNEL interests of the service, was the character of the sail cloth permitted to be supplied to the navy. The cloth, like the leather, was also paid for by weight, and was composed of the most worthless ma- terials, to which the necessary quahfication was given, says Lord Dundonald, in his deeply interesting and instructive Autobiography of a Seaman, by "a composi- tion of flour and whitening, so that the first shower of rain oil a new sail completely white-washed the decks." " Of so flimsy a nature were the sails," adds his Lordship, " that when the composition was washed out, I have observed the meridian altitude of the sun through the fore-topsail, and by bringing it to the horizon, through the foresail, have ascertained the altitude as correctly as I could have done otherwise : " and he further says, " the enemy distinguishes our ships of war from foreign ships by the colour of the wretched canvas, and run away the moment they perceive our black sails rising above the horizon ; a circumstance to which they owe their safety, even more than to the open texture of the sails." * If the great bulwarks of the country were thus neg- lected, we cannot wonder that the internal economy of the service was utterly disorganised. Lord Dunfermhne in his " simple and scrupulous exposition " of the ser- vices of Sir Ealph Abercromby says : — " The troop ships, with very rare exceptions, were in a most wretched condition, deficient in anchors and stores of every kind ; the decks so leaky, that when it rained the men were constantly wet ; they were so much crowded, that the soldiers, with no other bedding than blankets, were obliged to lie on the deck." ■!• *Autobiography of a Seaman. f Memoir of Sir Ralph Abercromby, K.B., by his son James Lord Dunfermline. SHOE MACHINE 131 In 1810 Brunei devised his shoe machinery, and in February 1811, he had his patent enrolled. The soles were fastened to the upper leather or closing by means of " metallic pins or nails ; " leather, bone, whalebone, or catgut- might also be used. The upper leather was well stretched upon a cast iron last to which it was held close, by metal clamps ; the clamps being kept in place by pawls acting upon joints. The soles were cut to the proper size on an iron frame ; and the inner sole being laid upon the last, and the projecting edges flattened down, it was ready to receive the sole. The whole was united by naUs, by the operation of a vertical rod at- tached at the top to a lever worked by a treddle, and at the bottom to an awl and a hammer. By means of a guide, a moveable frame carried the last round with a uniform motion, presenting the rim of the shoe to the base of the rod. The faU of the rod forced the awl through the leathers, and at the same time struck in the nail which had been dropped into the hole previously made by the awl as the rod rose. Nothing but the usual trimming and polishing was required to complete the shoe before it was taken off the last. A special machine was added for making naUs ; as also a process for " rendering leather durable," more particularly ap- plicable to that " used for making the soles of shoes and boots." Forthis a patent was secured in September 1814. The process consisted " in studding the leather Avith small nails or pins, after it had been previously saturated with a composition of neat's-foot oil mixed with tar in the proportion of nine or ten to one." In the same patent reference is made to instruments devised for making the nails, and driving them into the leather, which formed part of the shoe machinery. The manufactory was divided, according to an entry 132 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL in Brunei's journal for 1814, into sixteen processes, and the' sizes of shoes into nine. The operations consisted of punching, tacking, welt- ing, cutting or trimming, nail-driving ; and the number of men employed was twenty-four. Fixing tHe heel ....... 4 Eubbers 10 Parers and trimmers . . . . . .10 24 The number of naUs I find given for two of the sizes, viz. No. 9 and No. 7. No. 9 required for Studding . . 177 Soles . J Tacking . 91 I 383 Long nails . . 115 555 : and for Heels. ■ Studding . Long nails . . 140" . 32 . 172 a pair 1110. The prices of these shoes and boots were as follows: — Common shoes . Water boots s. d. 9 6 a pair . 10 6 „ Half boots . . . 12 „ Superior shoes . Wellington boots . . . 16 „ . . . 20 „ and this at a time when iron was 345. a cwt ; leather Is. lid. per lb.; and wheat from 126s. 9. ' V^' :*:^.-- ". ii'i 1: Y, ?x ^•- > if i '<■ '.•«' «# -'»- '' ', ** ' i ■li V 1^ si m ^ p5rH -a I" COMPARATIVE COST OF DRIFT AND TUNNEL 275 the published documents of the Thames Tunnel, and the archway company of 1808 — " 1st. What each paid for excavating and removing a cubic yard of earth. " Expenses incurred in carrying on the works of The Driftway in 1809. The Thames Tunnel. Dimensions . 5 ft. high, 2ft. 9in. wide. 22ft. high, 38ft. wide. Total sum disbursed £13,319 111 £175,000 Cubic yards excavated , 817i 22,573 Cost per yard £16 6 £7 15 Deducting purchase of property and law ^^^^^^^^ charges, per cubic yd. gj^j^ -£13 8 6 £138,224 22,573 = £6 2 6 Deducting brickwork . (scarcely any used) £107,218 Cost per cubic yard £12 17 6 £4 5 " The difference is great, but the causes are easily explicable. " In a heading, as in the case of the archway com- pany, the miner has at every step to construct and fix in place a frame work to support the ground ; and if the soU is at all unfavourable, this operation is attended with considerable delay and risk, " Whereas in the Thames Tunnel this support is com- pletely effected by means of the shield, leaving the mhaer nothing to attend to but the more immediate working of the ground ; and by the space and protection af- forded to the workman, we are enabled to take full ad- vantage of that subdivision of labour so necessary to economy, and by the faciUty and certainty with which the ground is supported without interfering with the operations of the miners, the bricklayer, the pumper, and the labourer can proceed simultaneously, and with- out impeding each other. T 2 276 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL " The plan therefore which I have adopted, and which till now has been held out as the cause of our success in a work of acknowledged difficulty, is not, as stated in the report, an apparently ingenious but really expensive plan ; but has proved, what it was intended to be, simply a more safe, easier, and more economical mode of securing the ground during the excavation than the old one. " To pursue this comparison, — for it is not in my power to make another, — and it would be absurd to take ordinary canal tunneUing as a measure of the expense and difficulty of the tunnel under the Thames, — and passing through its loose alluvial bed, — it is worthy of remark that we have completed and secured the work as we proceeded, and that in spite of the difficulty we have encountered, we have never lost a single foot of what has been completed. We have a substantial struc- ture, the strength of which has been proved beyond a doubt ; whereas with regard to the driftway or heading of 1808, nothing remains but the recollection of it. " Dr. Hutton and Mr. Jessop, — two very high autho- rities who were consulted on the resumption of that work, after the eruption of the river, — gave it as their opinion, that although they could not pretend to say what means might hereafter be suggested, they considered, " that effecting a tunnel under the Thames by an underground excavation in the old mode was impracticable." " Yet it is to this old mode that you are now called upon to return, under the promise of economy, security, and despatch. " With what probability I leave you to judge, as the work with which I have made the comparison of ex- pense, was conducted by an engineer of honour, talent, and great experience ; and failure and abandonment of COMPARATIVE COST OF DEIFT AND TUNNEL 277 the experiment, and the subsequent opinions of compe- tent judges, whicli I have quoted, "wiD. give an idea of the praGticabihty. " Now with respect to expenditure merely, I beg to observe, that the company had a committee of works, and a committee of finance; and I am not aware of any proposition having proceeded from them by which any material saving was efiected. Two modes were at different times suggested to me by the directors, with a view to economise our fimds ; one was to get the work contracted for at a fixed price ; and the other was, to pay the men by piece work. With regard to contract work I have placed what observations I have to make upon it under another head. Piece work was tried ; but we soon found that the work was hastily and im- perfectly done, particularly when difficulties increased, and great waste of materials and time ensued in con- sequence. We were often obhged to do the same thing over twice, and, in consequence, it was given up. In fact, in a work like the tunnel, there must be no inducement held out to the workmen to conceal diffi- culties in the vain hope of avoiding them ; or to hide defects in their work in a situation where inspection must be imperfect. "As to the estimate : " On this subject I must remark, that when weight is laid on the expense of the works under my manage- ment, the proprietors ought to have been informed at the same time of the following facts : viz. that the tunnel, subsequent to the formation of the original estimate, was increased one third in its dimensions; and the brickwork, consequently, from a rod to nearly a rod and a half per foot run. " This alteration, made in concert with the directors T 3 278 MEMOIE OF SIE M. I BKUNEL for the greater convenience of traffic, was a very material enlargement of the origtaal plan, and neces- sarily induced a corresponding addition to the estimate. This was the first cause of deviation from the original estimate. " The next was the discrepancy between the real state of the ground, and that expected from the local information I had gathered together, after long con- tinued inquiry, and equally from the result from the first series of borings instituted by the company, and conducted by parties entirely unconnected with myself and uninterested in the future proceedings of the undertaking. " Besides all this, I am free to avow that the diffi- culties and uncertainties of the undertaking have ex- ceeded all anticipations. " The estimate for the future stands on pecuhar grounds ; it is an apphcation of the actual expences of the past to the future ; it is no calculation founded on data which may prove false, but an abstract from the books of the company. " With regard to the proposal to finish the works by contract under security : "I object strongly to contract work for an under- ground situation hke the tuanel. It is quite impossible to insure a sound and substantial structure. Work by contract is always done with as cheap materials and in as shght a way as can be admitted by the specification. The opinion of the committee of works, and confirmed by the directors, is already recorded in an elaborate report on this subject in March, 1827, 'in which the danger of the work being shghted, instead of being performed carefully and so as to ensure per- manent durabihty,' is assigned, amongst other reasons, COMPARATIVE COST OP DRIFT AND TUNNEL 279 for the determination to abandon all idea of contract work. " Contract work is but piece work on a larger scale, where the objections to the one apply, at an increasing rate, to the other ; it would be, in fact, most injudicious to apply either contract work or piece work to the tunnel. They may be usefully apphed where the eye can follow them ; but with us, where the consequences of a failure in any part might be fatal and irremedi- able, and would only be discovered when too late, there must be no inducement to shght the work for either profit or speed. " And when it is considered that the tunnel is in- tended to stand the wear and tear of the traffic of the metropohs, it is of the utmost importance that not a doubt should exist in thepubhc mind as to its sohdity; and it has acquired that confidence in the plan on which it has been carried on. " With regard to security for the performance of a contract, it is evident that it should be such as to compel a contractor to finish the work at aU hazards, and finish it substantially, whatever difficulties may arise to swell his expences beyond his calculation. Such securities must, moreover, cover the fuU value of the work done ; because it is only by the completion of the remainder, that this can be rendered profitable ; and it may therefore be totally lost by any serious accident occurring to the new work which might be too expensive to be worth remedying." December had now arrived, and yet no decision had been come to by the directors ; nor was it until the 30th of March, 1830, and after twelve months of ne- gotiations, vexations, and disappointments to Brunei, that the plan which claimed to supersede that of T 4 280 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL Brunei was referred to Professor Peter Barlow, and to Mr. James Walker and Mr. Tierney Clark, two of the leading civil engineers of the day, for an opinion as to its practicability. The report of these gentlemen was laid before a special general meeting of the proprietors on the 22nd June (1830). After stating that they had examined Mr. Brunei, jun., Mr. Gravatt, and several of the miners,-^perused various plans, the section of borings, the journal, and other documents, and having written to Messrs. Prit- chard and Hoof for specific information as to the mode in which they proposed to proceed, but without receiving any reply, — they give their " decided opinion that the plan submitted to them is by no means adapted for overcoming difficulties of the nature of those which have already been encountered, and which are Ukely still to present themselves. That there is therefore no probability of the tunnel being completed in the manner proposed ; and that it would, to say the least, be httle better than a waste of time and of money to attempt it." And after stating that it was unnecessary to trouble the board with the reasons which had directed their judgment, the report con- cludes thus : " Few professional questions have ever come before us which have admitted of a more decided solution than this did, after we had been informed of the nature of the ground and of the plan proposed." As the result of this clear and explicit opinion, a resolution was passed to the effect, that " no other plan be used than that of Mr. Brunei, and that an applica- tion be made to obtain the necessary funds from Government." On the 2nd July (1830), the proprietary were not a little surprised to learn that upon a pro- EESIGNATION OF APPOINTMENT 281 position being made by Lord Durham in the House of Lords to transfer to the Tunnel Company a loan then so- licited by a Canadian company, the Duke of Welhngton replied, that a loan had been already offered, but was refused by the Tunnel Company ! Thus were aU the exertions of the friends of the undertaking, and the sanguine anticipations of the proprietors, for the time, frustrated. Nor was this all. In despite of the very decided im- "compromising opinion of such men as Professor Barlow, Mr. Walker, and Mr. Tiemey Clark, the same plan which they had declared, after full information and de- liberation, to be totally inapplicable, was, the following year, again entertained by the directors, and a com- mittee named to negotiate the securities for its execu- tion. Mr. Brunei now resigned his appointment, feeling no longer able to contend against the spirit of hostility which had been exhibited towards him by the chair- man. " An extraordinary stiffness has come over me," he records in his journal, "and a nervous irritability such as I have never felt before ; " and again : " J'epreuve des douleurs au coeur depuis quelques jours." What to another would have proved a serious and probably protracted illness, the excellent constitution and elastic spirit of Brunei enabled him to overcome. 282 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL CHAPTER XVIII. 1830-1843. CLIFTON BRIDGE, 1830-2 — DEATH OP DE. "WOLLASTON, 1831 EXPERIMENTAL ARCH, 1832 ANNIVERSARY OP HIS SIXTY-riFTH BIRTHDAY, 1834 TREASURY GRANTS FUNDS FOE THE COMPLE- TION OF THE TUNNEL, 1834 — ^ VISIT TO HACQUEVILLE PAS- SAGE OF THE KIVEE NILE WOEKS OP THE TUNNEL RESUMED, 1835 STRINGENT CONDITIONS OF THE TREASURY MINUTE REMOVAL OF OLD, AND ERECTION OF NEW SHIELD DIFFICULTIES PRE- SENTED BY THE GROUND ■ — ME. PAGE THIRD lERUPTION OF THE RIVER, AUGUST 23RD, 1837 i?0 f/i? r/f lERUPTION, NOVEMBER 3RD, 1837 TIFTH IRRUPTION, 1L4.RCH 21ST, 1838 SUL- PHURETTED HYDROGEN GAS INJURIOUS EFFECTS EXTRAOBDI- NAEY SUBSIDENCE OF THE GROUND OVER SHIELD SINKING OF THE NORTH SHAFT AT WAPPING DIFFICULTIES PRESENTED KNIGHTHOOD JUNCTION OF SHAFT AND TUNNEL, 1 842 ATTACKED BY PARALYSIS EECOVEES TUNNEL OPENED TO THE PUBLIC, MARCH 25TH, 1843. FOETUNATELY tlie project of erecting a bridge across the Avon at Clifton, wliicli had begun to be agitated, and upon the subject of which he received, on the IStli of February (1830), a deputation of gentle- men from Bristol, seemed quite to restore him to him- self, and to act as a cordial to his bruised spirit. " I explained to them," he says, " how the lateral agitation may be prevented, and how the effects of the wind mirrht be counteracted." At the end of the year it ^vas determined to offer a premium for the best design. Amongst the candidates appeared the name of his son ; CLIFTON BBIDGE 283 and Brunei, bringing the experience of his Bourbon bridges to bear upon this new project, at once devoted his energies to render the mechanical arrangements for the Chfton bridge complete. On the 12th January (1831) he records in his journal : " Devised this day, for Isambard's bridge, a new mode for carrying the heads of the chains, and sent him a drawing of it to Manchester." And on the 20th : " Engaged this day on the mode of passing the chains of the bridge over the heads, with aU the combinations necessary for repairing, and like- wise for the compensation against dilatation." Through the months of February, March, and April, there were few days that he was not engaged upon that interesting work, determining the details and making the drawings with his own hands. On the 19 th of March his labour, his parental solici- tude, and his pride found their reward in the gratifying intelligence that Isambard had been appointed engineer to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The death of Dr. Wollaston came however to modify his joy. To the unswerving friendship of that distin- guished man, and to that of his amiable brother, he was often indebted for sympathy and support in his hours of trial and disappointment ; and Mr. Wollaston, writing in April (1831), in reference to the shares held by his late brother in the Thames Tunnel Company, and which, with the residue of his estate, passed to his sister Anna, says, " she desired me to present them to you in testimony of her regard, as well as in remembrance of our brother's admiration of your various works." So strong was the admiration excited on the conti- nent by the tunnel operations, and so feeble appeared to be the eiforts on the part of the company to com- 284 iJEMOiR OF sm m. i. brunel plete the undertaking, that a company in Paris, called the Paris association, offered to purchase the interest of the shareholders, for 250,000/. This offer, to the honour of the directors, was however at once declined. During the remainder of the year Brunei appears to have been principally engaged on designs for docks at Woolwich, and in perfecting those which had aheady been accepted for the suspension bridge at Chfton. When in April (1832) he had an opportunity of esti- mating by personal observation the commercial advan- tages to be derived from the bridge, he came to the con- clusion that the probability of its being erected was very remote. In his journal (April 20th) he notes that " the trustees of Chfton bridge had a meeting : though disposed to give their money gratis, I augur but indifferently of such liberahty. They have resolved to draw a prospectus, and to go round with it to invite the pubhc to subscribe. It may fairly be inferred that the project is sinking in pubhc estimation. Coupling the state of things (at Bristol) with the prospect of the trade with the West Indies, we may pronounce at once and unhesitatingly that the scheme of Clifton bridge is gone by." The final experiments with the carbonic acid gas engine were this year completed ; and which, as we have seen, failed to realise his anticipations, — not from want of skill, nor ingenuity to overcome the mechanical difficulties ; but from ignorance of the peculiar condi- tions under which the properties of the gas are de- veloped. The fortunate combination of iron ties with bricks and cement in tlie construction of the shaft of the Thames Tunnel suggested to him the ideaof estabhdiing a general principle of construction which should unite EXPERIMENTAL AECH 285 in an eminent degree utility with economy. He accord- ingly instituted a series of valuable experiments to see how far a cheaper material might be substituted for those materials usually adopted in the construction of arches ; and also to show how far the cumbersome and expensive apparatus of centring might be dispensed with. The first series of experiments had for its object to determine the force of cohesion between ties of various character and dimension, straw, the fibres of wood, hemp, reed, laths of fir and birch, as well as hoops of iron, were embedded, in lengths of from four to five feet, in cement mixed with sand (two parts of cement and one of sand) ; and an apparatus being arranged to draw these substances from the cement by a force acting in the direction of their lengths, results were obtained which seemed to justify a wide apphcation of this species of bond. In the yard of the Thames Tunnel, Brunei proceeded to test the value of his experiments by the erection of an arch without the aid of centring. In Mr. Francis, of the firm of Francis and White, cement manufacturers, he found a ready and kind sup- porter, who liberally supphed the principal part of the materials and labour, free of cost to Brunei. No special preparation had been made for the foundation of the pier, indeed no ground could have been less adapted for the purpose of sustaining a weighty structure than the 286 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BEUN'EL vegetable mould and loamy sand of the tunnel yard. The original intention was, to have constructed two semi and equilibrated arches of 25 to 30 feet span each, rest- ing on a pier 4 ft. x 3ft. 4^ inches ; but when it was deemed desirable to continue the experiment, it was found that the space would not admit of the extension of each arch beyond 40 ft. In order however to carry the principle of construction as far as circumstances would permit, one semi-arch only was advanced ; while, to secure equihbrium, weights were suspended from the other. In the first part of the experiment fir ties had been employed ; susbequently, hoop iron. The ultimate length obtained was sixty feet with an elevation or versed sine of only ten feet six inches, and the counterbalance requu'ed was 57,6001bs. When subsequently the semi-arch was stuccoed, the counter weight had to be increased to 62,700/^5. To many, the tunnel itself was not a greater object of in- terest than was this remarkable structure ; and though its apphcation, in its entirety, has never been adopted in practice, yet the introduction of hoop iron bonds is now common to a variety of engineering and architectural structures.* * Ties embedded in mortar composed of two parts of cement and one of sand : — o ■- C U -a a> «.S o S H m Fir lath ij 3 To •21 Half notched, half jagged. 1576 Jagged end suddenly broke. Ditto 2 1 4 •50 Notched every fourinehes on each side. 3093 Broke in di- rection of fibres. Fir lath from 1^ \ •375 Left rough 25C0 Drawn out. 'i:iw mills. VISITS IRELAND 287 In 1833 Brunei visited Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and ZiUarney, receiving everywhere the most marked atten- tion. Upon his mind this visit left the most gratifying recollections. This relaxation, and the successes which were being rapidly achieved by his son, seemed to in- spire him with a new hfe. It was with just pride that he saw him occupy, as it were, per saltum, that promi- nent position in the new branch of engineering from which he was himself, in consequence of the pecuharity of his engagements, excluded ; and although he saw that the public capital would be now enhsted in the more tempting speculation of Eailways, he also felt that the pubhc interest would not be the less strongly expressed in the fate of the Thames Tunnel, which had assumed the character and was regarded in the light of a national undertaking. That the government of the country should come forward, was the opinion expressed everywhere, and why it had so long hesitated to do so was incomprehensible to many. The shareholders at length discovered their error in supporting a chairman a i- III Materials. .S 1 Is H .9 1 Condition. Strain in lbs. 111 Results. Birch hoops, •26 Pitched and 4537 .31 Loaded eight aiea of. sanded. days. Iron hoops . 1^ A •0664 Pree from rust 2814 lej Drawn after forty-eight hours. Ditto . 1 A ■062 Faintly red- dened by rust. 2387 191 Drawn. Ditto . f 1 32 •0195 Paintly red- dened by rust. 2055 25 Drawn. Prom these experiments we fi nd that a square inch of iron, equal to thirty- six iron hoops though emheddet 1 only five feet in cement, would resist a force of 75,000 poui ids weight, or nea rly thirty-three and a half tons.' 288 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL whose views were opposed to those of a majority of his colleagues ; and they, therefore, at the annual general meeting on the 6th of March, 1832, declined to re- appoint Mr. Smith on the Direction. A unanimity of action being now given to their councils, the directors were enabled to press their claims upon the country with eifect. A bill was prepared, and in the follow- ing session it was introduced to the House. Brunei and his tunnel were again in everybody's mouth. Eoyalty felt the impulse, and His Majesty William IV. invited Brunei to give liim a full detail of all the operations. L'Academie de VIndustrie de Paris awarded him, as we have seen, a silver medal for the benefits which he had conferred upon practical science. A Tunnel Club was estabhshed, principally from amongst the Fellows of the Eoyal Society, and on the 25th of April, 1834, the sixty-fifth anniversary of Brunei's birthday was celebrated by the members, at the Crown and Anchor, by a magnificent entertainment. Curious to record, on the 29th of April, when the pe- tition of the Tunnel Company, which had cost so much time and labour to prepare, should have been presented to the House of Commons, it was nowhere to be found ; and what is yet more remarkable, never was recovered. It is not improbable but that another session might have been permitted to pass without result, had not Lord Althorp taken upon himself the responsibility of granting the necessary loan from the Treasury. Brunei, being now assured that means would be forth- coming, took the opportunity of paying a last visit to his native country. Passing through Hacqueville, he notes in his journal : " Je n'ai rencontre que Penchon le menuisier de ma connaissance. Penchon doit avoir an moins 72 ans maintenant. II ne me reconnut point VISITS HACQUEVILLE 289 lorsque je m'addressai k lui k sa fendtre. J'entrai par la fenetre k son grand ^tonnement, et je lui dis qui j'etais. 11 me montra une partie du premier montant d'un octant que j'ai tente, et enfin r^ussi de faire, ensuite quelques rouages, &c. " II appela sa femme, belle, il y a 50 ans, mais au- jourd'hui aussi vieUle que lui. Tout ebahie, elle me regardait longtemps sans parler. Enfin — Ah c'est Monsieur Isambard ! mais comme il est chang^ ! " On his return home he received an apphcation from the agent of the Viceroy of Egypt to furnish designs for eifecting a secure and permanent passage across the river Nile. It appears from his journal that Brunei devoted considerable time to the examination of all the records relative to the phenomena presented by the Nile, in the British Museum and elsewhere. He found, however, that without personal observation he would be unable to fulfil the expectations of the Viceroy ; and as his engagements did not permit him to make a jour- ney to Egypt, he was obhged to decline the commission, which was some years afterwards executed with so much ingenuity and skdl by Mr. Eobert Stephenson. The Government having consented to make a loan of 246,000Z. to the Tunnel Company, the first instalment of 30,000Z. was advanced in December 1834, under the condition that the money " should be solely applied in carrying on the tunnel itself, and that no advance should be apphed to the defraying any other expense, until that part of the undertaking which is most hazardous shall be secured." Isambard Brunei was now too deeply engaged at Bristol to permit of his resuming his tunnel labours ; and I therefore entered upon the duties of resident engineer, on the 22nd of January, 1835, with the assurance of being supphed with an efiicient stafi". u 290 MEMOIK OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL The four gentlemen selected as assistants by Mr. Brunei were, Mr. Lewis D. B. Gordon, Mr. Joseph Colthurst, Mr. Andrew Crawford and Mr. Thomas Page. That these gentlemen performed their duties entirely to the satisfaction of Mr. Brunei there is ample testi- mony, and though it does not enter within the hmits of this work to trace their subsequent career in the pro- fession which they stUl contimie to adorn, I cannot deny myself the opportunity to place on record the grateful sense which I have never ceased to entertain of the constancy, courage and ability exhibited by them throughout our short but eventful connection. Had the Treasury minute been less stringent in its conditions, much time, expense and anxiety would have been saved in the completion of the work. No addi- tional outlay would have been incurred in sinking the shaft, which ultimately had to be sunk ; no expensive preparation, which, inv.olving considerable anxiety and danger, would have been required for setting up the new shield ; while the cost of removing the excavated ground would have been reduced to a minimum, and the chances of panics almost entirely removed. In short, so strongly was Mr. Brunei's mind impressed with the unreasonableness of being compelled to adhere to the letter of the minute, that he was with some difficulty prevented from abandoning the enter- prise. To show that more than doubt existed as to the prac- ticabihty of removing the old shield, I may state that one of the directors declared, in my hearing, that " he would undertake to eat any part we dared remove." The difficulty was notwithstanding effectually overcome by the simple arrangements here shewn. PEEPARATION FOE THE REMOVAL OF OLD SHIELD 291 1 \^ ^;tj^Uk~. MODE OF SUPPORTING THE FACE AND THE TOP OF THE "WORK. 02 -292 MEMOIE OF SIK M. I. BKUNEL Not only was the ground completely supported, but ample space was allowed for the removal of the old shield, weighing eighty tons, and the introduction of the new shield, weighing 140 tons, in 9000 parts, fitted with jrODE OF SUPPOBTING THE SIDES OF THE WORK. all the precision required in the construction of a steam-engine. To effect this, 1656 square feet of surface had to be supported. To reheve the pressure of the ground in FORMATION OF EESEEVOIRS BENEATH INVERTS 293 front, flat iron piles, four inches broad and six feet long, and having a hole at the end, were driven into the ground in front. Into the hole a long, deep key was inserted, and the piles being driven close up so as to bring the keys against the poHngs, the screws which sustaiaed the polings were capable of being reheved, and ultimately removed. Three hundred of these pdes were thus employed with entire success. All these operations, however, were preceded by the construction of drains, without which it would have been almost impossible to proceed. Eeservoirs, six feet square, were formed below the inverted arches of the tunnel, and at a distance of twenty-five feet from the back of the shield. From these reservoirs drifts were run beneath the inverts to the frames, the reservoirs themselves being also united by a cross drift under the middle pier. This, though apparently a simple operation, offered considerable difiiculty. From eight to ten feet beneath, the borings entered the blowing sand, to which I have before al- luded. A pipe being introduced, the water rose with force to the crown of the arch of the tunnel. This determined the depth to which the reservoirs could be carried. Iron sheet piles with flanges were driven to within ten inches of the sand on three sides of the reservoirs, the drift ways occupying the fourth. This work was commenced on the 19th of March and com- pleted on the 7th of May. Pipes from the dandy pump drew the water to the great reservoir, and the face of the working was thus completely reheved. To the Messrs. Eennie was intrusted the construction of the new shield, in which considerable improvements were made. Shngs were introduced between the frames, which, by attaching one frame to another, u3 294 MEMOIR OP SIR M. I. BRUNEL contributed to prevent any one from sinking when the ground in the bottom became irregular. Quadrants also were attached to the middle floor-plates for the purpose of hmiting the action of the frames. Finally, the side staves were attached to the end frames by travelling puis, and each head of a frame carried two top staves in place of three. By November the old shield had been removed, and then it was that the extent of the excavation appeared in aU its magnitude. So formidable, indeed, was the cavity, that some of the directors, who were anxious to satisfy themselves that we were really prepared to receive the new shield (a fact which had been denied, and upon which the contractors for the new shield had not calculated), became so much alarmed, that after one look they turned and made the best of their way to the top of the shaft. I may here mention that Brunei had the gratification, in the summer of this year, of seeing his son miited to Miss Horsley, a connection which was productive of happmess to all parties. By the 1st of March, 1836, the new shield was in place : the only accident that had occurred was the jamming of one man's finger, and which was the result altogether of carelessness and in spite of warning ; and it was a source of heartfelt thankfulness to Mr. Brunei, and to those immediately connected with the supervision of the works, to find the success of the first important step recognised by the directors, in their report to the proprietors on the 1st of March, 1836, where they state that they " cannot here refrain from calling the especial attention of the proprietors to the fact, that, from the first removal of the old machinery to the erection in its place of the last portion of the new shield, under, at all SUCCESSFUL ERECTION OF NEW SHIELD 295 times, a vertical and lateral pressure of about three thousand tons, and under other circumstances of great diSiculty and danger, with which the proprietors are famihar, not only had no life been lost, but not an accident worth recording had occurred." The health of aU had however suffered : Mr. Colthurst was compelled to retire, and Mr. Crawford was ap- pointed in his place. By strictly adhering to the fundamental principle, that security should be the primary object, only slow pro- gress was made with the excavation ; but as everything was under command, all operations were performed with increasing confidence. On the 21st June, 1836, this was tested in a remarkable manner when, during a high tide, there was so great an influx of water into the works, that the pumps were overpowered, and had not the men stood to their posts, and unflinchingly obeyed every order with the utmost promptitude and coolness, the most serious consequences might have been the result. Kot less than 500 gallons of water per minute poured into the top boxes alone. The whole ground above and in front seemed to be in motion. Commencing at the west corner, it appeared to be propagated with a sweeping rushing sound over the top of the whole shield, and ultimately to concentrate its power on the east corner, until the tide began to faU, when rehef was obtained ; and before another tide had risen, a quantity of clay and gravel had been thrown into the river suf- ficient to secure the works. Notwithstanding the enor- mous and unequal pressure to which the shield had been subjected, no injury had been received, — not one fracture had occurred. For some days little progress was made, the ground in the front was too loose to permit of its being opened ; but by the skiU of Brunei, tj4 296 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL this difficulty was overcome. The middle and lower faces proving sufficiently sound, they were worked down, and flat iron plates or piles six inches wide were then driven vertically upwards from the front of the middle boxes beyond the polings of the top boxes tiU they came in contact with the top staves. These piles had the effect of cutting off a slice of ground which was subsequently removed without farther danger to the top, and in this manner a slow but safe progress was effected. By the end of August 655 feet had been secured, the centre of the river had been passed, the top boxes were almost free from water, and everything promised a rapid and safe progress ; faiUng health, how- ever, did not permit me to enjoy the gratification, or secure the triumph of conducting the work to its termi- nation. On the 24th August, 1836,1 was compelled to resign into other hands the conduct of the works. In Sep- tember Mr. Gordon's health broke down, and he was also compelled to retire, the principal supervision therefore was thus thrown upon Mr. Page, who met the diffi- culties which subsequently presented themselves with an amount of constancy, courage and ability worthy of aU praise, and which few situations have ever more rigorously or more persistently demanded. For some months the works continued to progress favourably ; but as the old bed of the river was again entered, the ground was found to be as treacherous as heretofore and while 19§ feet of tunnel were executed in September 1836, only 6| feet were with much diffi- culty accomphshed in January 1837. This was reduced to one foot in June. At the commencement of this year it was found necessary to make application to Parliament for a farther grant of money, in consequence SECOND ADVANCE OP MONEY BY GOVBENMENT 297 of the great increase of cost which the difficulty of ex- cavation entailed. After noticing the opinion of Mr. James Walker, C.E., -who had been employed by the Government to report upon the work generally, the Committee of the House of Commons close their report to the House thus : — " Looking to the importance of a work of this nature, for the first time now undertaken as a means of fixed communication to situations where no other of an equally permanent nature may be available, and also that the sum of 180,000?. has been aheady expended upon the work by the proprietors, and the farther sum of 72,000Z. by the pubhc, they are of opinion that it will be expedient to authorise the Treasury to continue the advances to the Thames Tunnel Company accord- ing to the Act of Parhament." Again was Brunei assured of the high opinion entertained by the country of the importance of the work : a gratification which was enhanced by the marriage just at this time of his youngest daughter to the Eev. Mr. George Harrison. Unfortunately his joy was but short-lived, for so greatly had the difficulties increased in the tunnel, that his thoughts became entirely absorbed by them. On the 23rd of August, the river, for the third time, broke into the works, for the third time to be expelled ; but only to return on the 3rd of November following. The only resource seemed to be in the artificial bed ; which, being passed through, the same extreme loose- ness of the ground would again arrest all progress. On the 21st March, 1888, the river, for the fifth time, made its way into the works ; and thus, in twenty weeks, and in a distance of twenty-six feet, no less than three irruptions of the river occurred; but by a careful adherence to the conservative principle of the shield, 298 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BHUNEL one life only was sacrificed, and that not from the want of sufficient time to escape. So bad, indeed, had the ground become, that any attempt to remove a pohng- board was followed by an irruption of semi-fluid matter. Brunei therefore directed that no polings should be removed at all ; but that they should be forced forward by their screws the required distance ; thus the ground was condensed, and the miners relieved from the great difficulty of replacing the poling-boards. But there were other enemies against which Brunei was now called on to contend, and for which no previous expe- rience had suggested to him to make provision. The water from the springs came largely impreg- nated with poisonous sulphuretted hydrogen gas ; the black mud which rolled in, spread its foul, noxious pestilential influence throughout the works. In vain Faraday and Taylor, and Babington and Murdock, suggested the apphcation of disinfecting agents. A sudden irruption of sixty cubic feet of this mud and water at once neutrahsed all such apphances. The only mode of modifying the effect upon the health of the men, was to hmit the number of hours of under- ground work, and to secure ventilation. Still the men gradually sunk under such overwhelming trials. In- flammation of the eyes, sickness, debility, and eruptions on the skin, were the most prevalent symptoms ; and if exertion were long continued, the men would fall senseless in the frames, often at a time when their efforts were most needed. An explosive gas, or fire- damp, also spread dismay amongst the labourers. Large puffs of fire would pass from twenty to twenty- five feet across the shield. Through all these dreadful physical trials, Mr. Page, though often compelled to EXTEAORDINAEY SUBSIDENCE OF GROUND 299 absent himself, that he might breathe for a time purer air, continued his valuable superintendence, receiving from time to time " the cordial thanks and approbation of the directors, for the presence of mind and excellent judgment which he displayed." In these weU merited acknowledgments, the services of Mr. Page's assistants, Mr. Francis and Mr. Mason, were included. On the 4th of April, 1840, when the works had ad- vanced within low- water mark on the north side of the river, and about ninety feet from the site of the proposed shaft, the ground over the shield was observed, during low water, gradually to sink. The utmost excitement prevailed. People ran in crowds to the wharfs and warehouses ; those that could obtain a boat pushed off to the nearest vessels on the river, with the vague idea that they might witness the destruction of the tunnel, and perhaps the struggles of those engaged in its execution. On an area of thirty feet diameter, the ground had gone down bodily, leaving a cavity thirteen feet in depth. Even by those who had the most con- fidence in the shield, the effect of this enormous dis- placement was viewed with an excited, anxious and painful feeling. What then had really occurred in the shield ? According to the report of the assistant on duty, a noise was heard, which he describes as like " the roaring of thunder ; " a rush of air immediately fol- lowed, every light was extinguished, and the men fled, amazed and bewildered, with the exception of a few of the veteran and experienced hands, who, although astounded at a convulsion which threatened conse- quences the most calamitous,but which they were unable to define, still preserved presence of mind, and patiently abided the result. It was with the appearance of water 300 MEMOIK OF SIK M. I. BRUNEL only that danger was connected in their minds, and as no water accompanied this unprecedented movement of the ground, they were unwilHng to yield themselves to the panic which drove their comrades so precipitately from the works. Their example had quickly the effect of dissipating the alarm created, and the men re- turned to the shield. The few displaced polings were restored, and an increased sense of security took the place of that consternation and terror, which, but a few minutes before had prevailed. The cavity formed by the extraordinary sinking of the ground was speedily filled, in the usual manner, vnth clay in bags, and time was permitted for the ground to become consohdated. In fact, during the two months of AprU and May, not more than five feet was added to the tunnel. Meantime preparations for sink- ing the shaft on the north shore were being made. Iron and timber curbs were laid in the manner described for the construction of the shaft on the south side. The company, from the want of funds, were compelled to limit their purchase of ground to a space contiguous to the wharf surrounded by buildings in a dilapidated condition, devoid of proper foundation, and many of them dependent upon shoring for their support. For any damage done to these buildings, which would be placed on the brink of an excavation 70 feet in depth, and 55 in breadth, the company became liable. Yielding to necessity, Brunei, on the 9th October, 1840, proceeded to clear the ground for the reception of the curbs of the shaft. Nothing could be more unfavour- able than the appearance which the locahty presented. On the 9th the excavation exposed a sort of timber floor, supported on piles ; the piles offering great resist- ance, whUe the ground was soft and' yielding, rendering CONSTRUCTION OF THE NORTHERN S]fAFT 301 it impossible to obtain an equal bearing. It soon became evident that the whole area had been at one period a ship-breaker's yard. All sorts of ma- terials and instrmnents common to the ship-breaker were fomid in jumbled, disorganised masses : wharf pilings of two distinct periods : walings (the strong side planking of ships), masts, iron ties, bolts, chains, tools — loose ship timber, and the wreck of a boat, Yet through all these impediments Brunei continued his labour — constantly subject to the complaints of the directors for the slowness of his movements though taxing his ingenuity to overcome difficulties without parallel. The shaft in its construction differed from the former one in being sunk the whole required depth without underpinning, by which time and expense were saved ; in being given a conical form, by which friction was greatly mitigated ; and being more hberaUy supplied with hoop-iron ties, by which its strength was greatly increased. Notwithstanding the severe cold of December 1840, and more particularly of January 1841, which interrupted aU operations, this stupendous structure, 55 feet in diameter, 70 feet in depth, and of 2000 tons weight, Avas executed in thirteen months — and with so much care and forethought, that not a single accident is recorded — nor had any serious dis- turbance of the contiguous ground taken place. In August 1840, the excavation for the tunnel had been suspended when within sixty feet of the north shaft, and before the work was resumed a drift way was opened from the culverts beneath the invert into the shaft, thus permitting the long looked-for commu- nication across the river to be accomphshed, and at once relieving the shaft from any accumulation of water. Before the excavation of the tunnel was resumed, 302 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL Brunei had received from the hands of his sovereign the honour of knighthood. Amongst the congratulations he most valued was one from his old and constant admirer and friend, Earl Spencer. Writing from Althorpe, 28th March, 1841, his Lordship says : " You have fairly earned your title by long continued and able services to the coimtry ; and it is a memorial of those services, and consequently highly honourable to you. I therefore most sincerely congratulate you upon receiving it." In July 1841, the shield resumed its functions, and by a careful and rigid adherence to the principle of its action, the ground vras prevented from running in, although the influx of water was never less than 450 gallons per minute. It is worthy of remark, that the pressure exercised by the shaft on the yielding ground being propagated to the shield, the most unlooked-for fractures were pro- duced, leaving, ultimately, the frame on the east side a complete wreck. On the 15th December, 1841, the last pohng-board was removed from Fo. 1 frame. The top staves had come into contact with the brickwork of the shaft, and aU that remained was to remove the brickwork, that the shield might be received, and Brunei's triumph realised. But this last, and apparently easy task, was not accomphshed without its own anxiety ; not from any apprehension as to the derangement of the shaft, through which an opening of 930 square feet had to be made for the admission of the shield, but from the difficulty of completing the junction of the tunnel with the shaft. But half an inch of opening remained, yet through that half inch the semi-fluid ground forced its way, and which, if permitted to exhaust itself, would have pro- duced settlements that would have compromised the ATTACK OF PARALYSIS 303 safety of the contiguous buildings, for which the company would be held responsible. The best efforts of the best hands had, therefore, up to the last, to be called into requisition. Nor was it until the 7th January, 1842, that the work was entirely secured. To stop the water- ways, and construct the staircase, occupied the re- mainder of the year. The influx of water, which in February amounted to 450 gallons a minute, was reduced in March to 288 ; in April to 150, and in May to 70. Now that the battle was won the effects of that ex- treme tension to which Brunei's sensitive mind had so long been subjected, began to exhibit itself in the dreaded form of paralysis, although but shghtly affect- ing his speech and features. This affliction was accepted by him as a beneficent warning, and with a calmness and resignation beautiful to contemplate. Patiently obeying, with almost child-like simplicity, the prescrip- tions of his medical advisers, he was enabled to ward off, in a wonderfully short time, the threatened evil, and with renovated strength to take part on the 25th March, 1843, in the ceremony of opening the tunnel to the public. " We were fearful," says Lady Hawes, " lest the excitement might prove injurious, and bring on another attack of illness ; but to our great rehef he received the congratulations of his friends and the cheers of the- multitude with a singular calmness, very unlike his former self; and though evidently gratified, was in no way elated." As some evidence of the strong hold which this work retained on the pubhc mind, it may be stated that from 6 o'clock on Saturday evening, the 26th March, to 9 o'clock on Sunday evening the 27th, or in the course of twenty -seven hours, not less \h.im. fifty thousand persons 304 MEMOIK OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL passed through the tunnel, all bearing testimony to the confidence which the structure inspired ; and though of those thousands, few perhaps could ever know or com- prehend the nature of the ordeal through which those who had been instrumental in its accomplishment had had to pass, still each seemed willing to oifer a tribute of admiration to the genius, the skill, the industry, the perseverance, and the courage of its gifted architect. On the 30th of April, upwards of 495,000 persons had visited this work, and in fifteen weeks fi^om the day on which it was opened to the public, upwards of one million of visitors, from almost aU the civihsed nations of the world, had done homage to the directing spirit, the genius loci of the Thames Tunnel.* * The following statement shows the total Eeceipts and Expendi- ture fi-om the commencement to the completion of the work. RECEIPTS. EXPENDITUBE. £ s. d. £ &. d. Amount received on 38 74 Purchase of property, shares 179,510 15 rent, taxes, Parliamen- By subscriptions . 1500 tary and law charges . 64,962 15 4 Exchequer Loan Com- Machinery and labour . 338,243 16 1 missioners 250,500 Salaries to engineers, se- Kents and wharfage 5,767 12 5 cretary, and clerks . 43,986 1 1 Old materials 3,450 14 7 Payments to directors . 7,618 1 3 Indemnity by loss from 454,810 13 9 fire . . 40 To pay interest on Ex- Interest on premium on chequer Bills, 31st Exchequer Bills 3,083 16 December, 1844 13,439 3 7 Visitors to view the Tunnel and sale of books to 31st Decem- ber, 1844 . 24,396 ;468,249 19 17 4 4 i £468,249 17 4 305 CHAPTER XIX. PERSONAL, DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL QUALITIES — ELEXIBILITY OF JOINTS RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS SENSITIVENESS TO OPINION SIMPLICITY LOVE OF CHILDREN M. DE C DR. SPURZHEIM ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS SON M. BEEGUET's OPINION HIS son's TALENT FOE DRAWING ADMIRATION OF NATURE BENEVOLENCE PUMP AT TOUGHAL SUFFEEINGS OF MAIL-COACH HORSES — AUGUSTUS PUGIN INVENTORS SCHEMERS HEATHCOTE BABBAGE FACILITY OF REPLY MINIATURE PAINTING ACCURACY IN DESIGNING DEPASTURE FROM ORIGINAL ESTIMATE CHARGE UNJUST SUPPOSED WANT OF CANDOUR CONFIDENCE IN THE VALUE OF GEOMETRICAL LINES EXAMPLES M. NAVIER TAKES CHARGE OF THE DOVER PACKET IN A STORM — PRESENCE OF MIND EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATION OF THE SUPERIORITY OF THE MODERNS OVER THE ANCIENTS KNOWLEDGE OF THE VALUE OF MANUFACTURED WORK ABSENCE OF MIND ELASTICITY OF SPIRIT SUMMARY BY M. FrArE UNAFFECTED PIETY. THE necessity of consecutively tracing the public career of Brunei, and of exemplifying the nature of his works, having left but little opportunity for illustrating his personal, social, and domestic quahties, I have thought it advisable to devote a special chapter to those objects. Brunei was below the middle stature, his head con- spicuously large, though without destroyhig the sym- metry of his person ; so striking, indeed, was his forehead, that an Irish friend of mine, after his first introduction, was tempted to exclaim, " Why, my dear feUow, that man's face is all head ! " X 306 MEMom OF sm. m. i. beunel His temperament was nervous, sanguine, lymphatic. The anterior and posterior lobes of his brain were unusually developed. The union between the percep- tive and reflective faculties was, with the exception of his gifted son, more complete than I have ever met, and, to adopt the nomenclature of the phrenologist, I may state that of the moral sentiments, benevolence, veneration and hope largely predonmiated. Of the selfish sentiments, love of approbation exercised the greater influence ; and of the protective, secretiveness. Brunei's joints and muscles were singularly flexible. Lady Hawes mentions two amusing examples of the use to which he turned this power. Upon his first arrival at Falmouth, he sent for a tailor to take his measure for a coat. He was in haste, he said, and the tailor promised to have the coat ready to be tried on the following day. True to his promise he appeared. The coat was tried ; but the right shoidder was discovered to be so much higher than the left, that to fit it was impossible. The poor man offered many apologies for not havmg ob- served the peculiarity, and promised to lose no time in correcting his error. In the evening he returned, when, to his dismay, he found the pecuHarity of for- mation was in the left shoulder, not in the right. He was perplexed, distracted, and utterly at a loss to account for his blunder. The coat would be useless. Time and money gone ! At length, when in a chmax of despair, Brunei undeceived Mm, and, pro- mising to compensate him for his trouble, the poor tailor joined heartily in applauding the joke. On another occayiciu a woman claimed his charity, which Avas indeed seldom withheld ; and almost forcing hei'self into the house, piteously bewailed the accident that had entirely deprived her of the use of her thumb, FLEXIBILITY OF JOINTS 307 and therefore of her needle, — nothing less, in short, than severe dislocation. The manner of the woman, how- ever, aroused Brunei's suspicion. He examined the thumb. " Ah ! " said he, "that is very curious ! Ahnost as curious as my thumbs," and, to the woman's amaze- ment, he exhibited both of his, precisely in the same condition as she pretended hers to be. He had dis- covered the cheat, and the impostor instantly quitted the house. His habits were in the highest degree simple and unostentatious. Instinctively conscious that no great- ness can be obtained without disinterestedness, he fol- lowed the natural impulses of his nature with a constancy and devotion from which no physical grati- fication could ever seduce him. When I was first favoured with his friendship, all he seemed to desire was leave to pursue the conceptions of his capacious and active mind in the quiet retirement of his study ; his drawing-board before him, and his ready hand giving a practical direction to the fertile suggestions of his teeming brain. Not that he was insensible to the charms of social intercourse : on the contrary, never perhaps did he appear so amiable, as in the society of educated women ; for in no one was there a stronger appreciation of that grace, dignity and refinement, which distinguish the higher ranks of female society m this country. His rehgious sentiments were hopeful and sincere. Although educated as a Eoman Cathohc, his mind was of far too expansive a nature to be " cabined, cribbed and confined," by forms which had usurped the place of devotion, and ceremonies which had lost their sym- bohcal significance. From the time of his landing m America, he never X 2 308 MEMOIE OF SIR M. I. BKUNEL entered a Eoman Catholic Churcli with a devotional object ; and in a letter to his friend Mr. EUicombe (June 20th, 1816), he says " Could I beheve what I saw on the stone on the borders of the Meuse, I might be tempted to try the charm of the oraison. Un- happily for me, my faith in such things is petrified, otherwise I should try the benefit of the invocation." A sketch of the stone was subjoined with the inscrip- tion : — " En disant trois Ave Maria, on gagne quarante jours d'indulgence." Diu:ing his long sojourn in this country, he was satisfied to adopt the forms of the Church of England, to which Mrs. Brunei was strongly attached. His know- ledge of the Scriptures was extensive, if not profound ; and certainly it was to the astonishment of many, that a Frenchman should be found so well read, and so unex- pectedly prepared to vindicate his theological opinions. We have seen how strongly his mind was impressed with the value of constitutional government. For in no one indeed did law and order, and intellectual pro- gress, form more entirely the true elements of social life. In society he was a great favourite, as well from the variety and accuracy of his knowledge, as from a naivete and humour of expression, which was much enhanced by his foreign accent ; and though not unwill- ing to enter into new topics of conversation, his natural disposition led him rather to indulge in anecdotes of the past. The serious and the gay often trod closely upon one another, in the mind of Brunei. Wiiting to his friend Mr. Ellicombe, under a deep sense of vexation and disappointment at Mr. Ellicombe's sudden and dis- SENSITIVENESS TO OPINION 309 courteous disntiissal from Chatham by the Navy Board, he says : " Continue to trudge on this stony road until you reach some resting-place, which, hke the stone I once saw on the barren mountains in Scotland, invited by its inscription the traveller to ' Rest and he thank- ful' -But what tliink you? this kind memento did frighten so much a tourist of my acquaintance, that he turned about, and measured back his steps aU the way to the capital — 160 miles from it ! " And when a few years after Mr. Ellicombe was vmited to Miss Nicholson, Brunei writes : — " It is a lucky thing that you are bom within the pale of the Protestant Church, for had your star cast you under the Eoman hierarchy, no such wife would you have been allowed to take to yourself, however virtuous, however exemplary. Your present partner even would have been excluded ! " If a too anxious desire for the good opinion of others sometimes robbed Bnmel of that dignity which the English mind desires to attach to high mental deve- lopment ; or if it sometimes excited a feeling of super- cihous contempt m those whose intellectual or moral powers were far inferior to his, it rendered his cha- racter more amiable, more lovable, and more tolerant, than if it had been under the dominion of that most uncompromising of aU the motive faculties — self- esteem. It cannot, however, be denied that this sensitiveness to the opinion of others was often productive of pain, and sometimes of an irrepressible expression of morti- fication. When engaged upon the works at Chatham, Mr. Seppings (afterwards Sir Eobert) ventured, as we have seen, to ridicule his fears as to the stability of a large chimney, which was then being erected — fears X 3 310 MEMOIK OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL which proved to be only too well founded. For a long tuiae the ridicule of Mr. Seppings produced a soreness and irritabihty, the expression of which was confined to his journal ; at length he could endure the recol- lection of what he looked upon as an indignity no longer, and could not resist addressing Mr. Seppings upon the subject. A protracted correspondence ensued ; which Seppings was obHged to close thus : " I trust that you wiU desist from again addressing me on this subject, it being unconnected with my pro- fession : at the same time I am ready to give you every assistance in my power on this and every other occasion, you still having my best wishes. — I remain, dear Sir, yours most truly, " E. Seppings." When in 1821 he was made the victim of the im- prudence, mismanagement, and dishonesty of others, and was actually imprisoned in the King's Bench, this " exquisite sensibility of contempt " seemed utterly to have overwhehned him. He writes to Lord Spencer July 24th : — " I have now been in this distressed situation ten weeks. I summoned as much fortitude as possible to support the misfortune ; but I find I can no longer bear up against what in the eyes of the world must appear a disgrace." Such acute sensibility to the opinion of others is most commonly found in connection with affectation and pretension. Not so with Brunei ; modesty and simpHcity characterised his intercourse, and gave to his society a pecuhar charm. Lady Hawes mentions his having been once invited to dine with His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Sussex at Kensington. He did not make his a])pearance until the company were already seated at LOVE OF CHILDREN 311 table. With the utmost ingenuousness he excused him- self, saying, that " it was the fault of the omniboos that would not bring him quicker." To the love of children we instinctively attach simpHcity, ingenuousness and purity. In Brunei these qualities shone with a constant and steady light. At Eotherhithe his study window opened to a court where young hfe aboimded. Into the same court, and nearly opposite the window of my friend, my window also looked — I had therefore ample opportunity of observing the activity of this affection. To most men of contemplative habits, the rude and noisy mirth of those ill-regulated, ill-clothed creatures would have proved distracting — not so to Brunei. To him it brought no disturbance, except when a cry of distress was heard. Then pen and pencil were aban- doned, and the venerable head and active body of Brunei might be seen rushing to the rescue. Not satisfied with raising the httle victim of petty tyranny from the gutter, he would sometimes bear it in his arms to his house, and never cease his caresses until its httle heart was comforted, and its sorrows effaced. He was in the habit of carrying halfpence in his pocket for poor children. A nice-looking child would always win from him a kiss, as well as the halfpenny, " for the clean face." A dirty chUd would also receive the halfpenny, if it promised to go home and ask its mother to wash its face. It may be in the recoUection of some of the savants who attended the meeting of the British Association at Plymouth in 1841, to have vdtnessed this love for the young carried so far as not only to test their gravity, but almost to compromise their dignity. One day, upon entering the author's lodgings, there, hke the great Edmund Burke, lay Brunei before them on the X 4 312 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL floor, in Ml romp of hide-and-seek with the author's children. Lady Hawes writes : " With young people generally he was full of fun ; amusing them with a variety of sleight-of-hand tricks, in which he possessed con- siderable skill, and with stories also of an exciting character." Amongst the emigrants who most constantly en- joyed her father's hospitahty, about the year 1800, was Monsieur de C, a gentleman of high family, agreeable manners, and considerable conversational powers. To these social recommendations was added that of being a hero of romance. " One remarkable passage in his early life was often recounted by my father to us," says Lady Hawes, " as the story of the Green Room." The incidents connected with this story were subsequently distorted into a melodrama for the Enghsh stage. But as the reahty may be found to possess more interest than the fiction, I venture to re- produce the tale in its integrity, in the Appendix E. To his own children he was a loving and devoted father, and much of the early success which attended the career of his distinguished son, must be attributed to the accuracy of the instruction and affectionate superintendence which that son received from his father during the early years of his hfe ; and of which we can offer no better proof than the fact, that when sent to school at eight years of age, young Isambard, was already familiar with the first books of Euclid, and had obtained some notions of the elements of mechanics. His mother, who had witnessed many of the uncer- tainties which are found to attend the profession of a civil engineer, sought to induce his father to select for him some other profession. . At the time the question ANTICIPATED GREATNESS OF ISAMBAED BEUNEL 313 was under discussion, Dr. Spurzheim, the plirenologist, became a visitor in the family ; his opinion was naturally sought. Upon an examination of the boy's develop- ment, he declared that it would be as useless to oppose the tendencies which they exhibited, as it was in his father's case. This prediction appears to have been subsequently confirmed by M. Breguet, the celebrated chronometer and watchmaker of Paris, in whose atelier young Isambard gave the most unquestionable evidence of his mechanical aptitude, and from whom he obtained, valuable instruction. Writmg to the father, November 1st, 1821, he says : " Je sens qu'il est important de cultiver chez lui les heureuses dispositions inventives qu'il doit k la nature, ou k I'^ducation, mais qu'il serait bien dommage de voir perdre." Such proficiency, indeed, had he obtained in drawing, that " alphabet of the engineer," that when in the following year the designs by his father for a bridge to span the Neva at St. Petersburg were placed in his hands, that he might supply a few figures as a scale, and so become identified with his father in the design, the drawing was soon returned — not with a few figures only, but actually peopled with illustrations of every manual operation. Indeed no opportunity was omitted by his father in pointing out how and where instruction was to be obtained. So late as 1823, and upon the anniversary of his birth, his father writes : — " J'espere, mon cher enfant, que tu emplois bien ton temps. Si tu es a Bowling, c'est Ik qu'il faut etudier la fabrique du fer, depuis le mineral jusqu'a une barre. Combien de charbon, de chaux, de mineral, combien de coke, enfin, chaque procede, avec toute la precision d'un chimiste. On ne te refusera rien Ik, et quand tu 314 MEMOIR OP SIE M. I. BRUNEL seras au fait tu pourras parler avec les fabriquants que tu verras par la suite. Aujourd'hui 17 ans ! Q,uel homme ! Aux ames bien nees la valeur n'attend point le uombre des annees. Oui, mon clier Isambard, tu as une carriere ouverte, il faut en tirer un bon parti. " Your dear nurse brought a very fine geranium : dear creature ! She thinks of no one but us and yourself." Brunei's instructions were not, however, confined to the engineer's office or the father's study, nor to one member of his family only. " Some of my most pleasing early recollections," says Lady Hawes, " are connected with comitry walks made with my dear father." In his fresh, warm admiration of nature, he more than sjmipathised with his children, while the knowledge which he was always ready to impart, by giving direction to their thoughts, added intensity to their wonder, and lead them ever more and more to hft their minds to the " wisdom and spirit of the universe." Nor was the instinctive kindness of his nature re- stricted to the young. It was during a visit to Ireland in 1833, and when travelhng by coach from Cork to Waterford, that he took advantage of the change of horses at Youghal to stroll through the town. Observing a number of poor people in a state of distraction around something in the middle of an open space, he asked the cause. " Sure, then, where wiU poor paple git the wather at all, at all, barring the salt wather from the say ? " was the reply. Some mischievous boys had injured the pubhc pump ; no water was to be had ; nor could any one be found either competent or wUHng to remedy the evil. Here was sufficient to excite the active sympathies of SYMPATHY WITH SUFFERING 315 Brunei. Impressed only by the misery before him, to which he beheved he could supply the remedy, he did not hesitate. His coat was instantly off. The pin of the handle of the pump was at once knocked out, the piston raised, and the choked valve rectified. In his dehght at witnessing the happiness which he had thus spread around him, he utterly forgot the coach and the object of his journey. He cheerfully accepted his position, however, and consoled himself in being afforded the opportunity of forming an acquaintance with an Irish car, in which he was obhged to continue his journey. The sufferings to which mail and stage-coach horses were subjected by the increase of speed exercised, he thought, a demorahsing influence. He often alluded to the inhuman sacrifices coach proprietors were com- pelled to make to meet the increasing demand of the public with unfeigned regret, and no one felt more strongly than he the benefits which railways were calculated to confer, not only upon the agricultural and commercial interests of the country, but upon the moral character of the people. " See," he wovild say, " there is Mr. Home with his four hundred horses; in three years his fast coaches and the mails kill all he supphes to them. In the stage coaches they only last six years. And there is Mr. Waterhouse, he must renew his stock of three hundred horses in four years, — it is shocking! By increasing the speed from eight miles an hour to ten, he loses a horse in every run of 200 miles. Cer- tainly," he would add, " to Mr. McAdam the poor horses are much mdebted. In Sussex, since Mr. Campbell improved the roads with but an indifferent material, the coachmasters say that they break only 316 MEIIOIR OF SIK M. I. BRUNEL one horse's knees now, where they used to break twenty." " In all the round Of being, is there aught in God's pure eye So blessed, so sanctified, as those kind thoughts That stir the bosom of Benevolence ? " The active interest which he exhibited in the pro-, ceedings of all societies having for their object the amelioration of the evils of life was well known. Eespect for the dead was also a characteristic of his mind, and he would often contrast the condition of our teeming churchyards and desecrated burial-grounds, with the reverential beauty of Pere-la-Chaise at Paris, its historical recollections, and its simple, tender and solemn inscriptions. With Mx. Augustus Pugin, who supplied a variety of beautiful designs for mortuary chapels, gateways and monuments, he, in 1825, endeavoured to organise a company for the establishment of a large cemetery, to be called the Necropolis of LoNDOisr ; but the idea of separating the place of burial from the place of worship was so much opposed to the habits and the prejudices of the people, that the project faUed at that time to enhst the pubhc sympathy ; nor until the evils and the horrors of intramural burial had been so ably exposed by Dr. Walker and others, were people's minds weaned from their time-honoured folly. Under an awakenmg sense of a sanitary necessity, a company was, some years after, formed, and Kensal Green now imperfectly fulfils, in its heterogeneous collection of monuments, the beautiful, symmetrical and classical project of Brunei and Pugin. The joint action of benevolence and love of appro- bation, which rendered Brunei courteous to all who VANITY OF INVENTORS 317 approached him, subjected him often to severe trials of patience and forbearance. Inventions of the most immature character were constantly presented to him for examination and opinion. Lady Hawes says : " I remember an Irishman once submitting to my father a drawing of a sort of hood ■for a carriage, which in fine weather was to hang under the body, ready for use. My father pointed out the impracticability of stowing away so large a mass in so small a space. The answer was ready, ' Oh ! then' it must be left at home in fine weather ! ' " At another time his attention was requested to an invention for sweeping chimneys that should dispense altogether with cHmbing boys. A broom was to be worked from above as well as from below. To the natural question, " How was the rope to be got to the top ? " the answer was, " Of course a little boy must go up with it first." To a pressing invitation from a M. le Comte de Bec- de-Lievre, to join him in a project which he declared was to produce extraordinary results, Brunei naturally required to know something of the process by which the Count's results were to be obtained, and also the nature of the results themselves. M. le Comte de- chning to satisfy him, he closed the correspondence thus : " Permettez-moi de vous dire franchement, que je ne puis m'occuper de votre proposition avant d'avoir des resultats, et avant de connaitre le precede ; " and he slily adds, " j'ai eu occasion de voir bien des inven- tions ou decouvertes tomber, malgre la confiance des auteurs." " Ah ! my friend," he would often say, " it is very easy to invent a machine, but it is not very easy to make it work." 318 JtEMOIK OF Sm M. I. BKUNBL However much these extreme cases of the vanity of inventors may have afforded subjects for social amuse- ment, yet there were many which, though less absurd, did not prove more practical, pressed upon his time, and were felt to be great and unjustifiable intrusions. But it was not enough that his courtesy should be thus abused. Schemes were placed before the pubhc falsely announced as being sanctioned by Brunei's opinion, and invested with Brunei's authority. A Mr. CoUier, in 1815, invented a new machine, which he denominated the criopyrite, or fixe-ram. The pubhc attention was enhsted, and a Dr. Thompson wrote to Mr. Ellicombe, then Brunei's resident en- gineer at Chatham, for particulars. The letter was forwarded to Brunei. He was indignant, and in reply to Mr. Elhcombe says : " You would obHge me by answering the application of Dr. Thompson, by stating, as coming from me, that nothing is more preposterous than the account which has been pubhshed respecting this engine which, it is added, consumes no more than one-twentieth part of the fuel required for a steam- engine of the hke power. " It is true that an attempt has been made with a view of obtaining all those advantages which the author of that engine anticipated as certain. Having been called upon to witness its action, and to give my aid in directing its power, I am able to state that the new engine, supposed to possess a power equal to twenty horses, has not yet, to my knowledge, moved without some external aid of two or three men. The account given out is, therefore, a gross imposition, which you will, I hope, correct under my sanction." Of works of real meiit, Brunei was alwa}"s a wilhng and judicious admirer. His perfect knowledge of me- MR. HEATHCOTE'S LACE MACHINE 319 chanical construction enabled him at once to appreciate the vakie of the objects sought to be obtained, and to estimate the difficulties which were overcome ; his opinion was, therefore, eagerly sought for, not only by the mere schemer, but by the real inventor and im- prover. " The pleasure he derived from the contem- plation of a well considered piece of mechanism," says Lady Hawes, " was intense, and his admiration honest and fervent ; never distorted by professional jealousy." Of Mr. Heathcote's beautiful machme, which was to supersede the laborious and comphcated operations of the lacemaker, as the stocking-loom had done that of the knitter, he used to speak with unqualified admira- tion ; and he did not hesitate to declare, when called upon to give evidence as to the validity of the patent, that it appeared to him " one of the most complete mechanical combinations," exhibiting " originahty and ingenuity," and displaying " uncommon powers of in- vention for the purpose of accomphshing a texture which had been attempted before, but to his knowledge without success ; " while to Mr. Heathcote, he pre- dicted that he should hve to see the day when lace, then sold at six guineas a square yard, would become as cheap as cahco. The first square yard of plain net was sold from the machine ior five pounds ; but for the last twenty-five years, the average price of a somewhat inferior quality has been five pence ! thus fuUy vindi- cating Brunei's anticipations. At a time when the labours of Mr. Babbage were httle appreciated, or indeed scarcely imderstood, Brunei did not hesitate to express his admiration for the originahty of conception, and the amount of mechanical invention exhibited by his friend in his machme, or difference engine, by means of which tabular numbers 320 MEMOIR OF SIE M. I. BRUNEL were not only to be computed, but the results actually impressed upon metal plates, from whicli they might be directly printed on paper without resorting to the use of ordinary types. He saw ^le immense service which Babbage was about to confer upon practical science, upon the astronomer and the navigator, the engineer and the actuary, by freeing numerical investi- gations from the accumulated — overwhelming labour which tabulated error involved, and from which no pubhshed table was exempt. He could appreciate in their entirety the scientific attainments, the mechanical skill, and the indomitable perseverance which such a work demanded. Indeed to the success of few inventions did Brunei look for- ward with more anxious sohcitude than he did to that of Mr. Babbage. Although the intercourse between these emment men was almost altogeij^er personal, yet the few communications which have been preserved, show how strongly Brunei's sympathies were enhsted. "Wlien will you call upon me," writes Brunei, July 1st, 1829, "or teU us in any way how you are going on. We feel for the success of your distin- guished labours ; we, therefore, wish to know whether we can forward your views." And when Mr. Babbage was negotiating with the Government for a locality wherein to erect his machinery, there was no one more actively zealous in his service than Brunei. "Your stoppage on the other day," he says, " did not lessen i\iQ perfect confidence I have in the machine. I shall be glad to have a little to say as to the future proceedmgs before I see Lord Althorp." That the sympathy whicli existed between these gifted men was great, I am assured by the sohcitude evinced by Mr. Babbage for the restoration to him of FACILITY OF REPLY 321 the treasured documents from which I have been per- mitted to make the above extracts. Nor was Brunei's interest confined to the application of mechanics to scientific questions, the arts also claimed his attention. Erard and other musical instru- ment makers not unfrequently benefited by his musical ear as well as mechanical skill, and friends on the Con- tinent and in America appHed habitually to him to select harps and pianos for them. Although he was never able to overcome the diffi- culties of the Enghsh accent, he succeeded in writing the language with a great degree of facihty and correctness. He could use it also in reply with perfect readiness. Lady Hawes mentions that when introduced to the Prince Eegent (George IV.) during a visit to Wool- wich, where Brunei had erected important works, the Prince observed, " / remember Mr. Brunei perfectly, but Mr. Brunei has forgotten me." "My father bowed respectfully, and expressed his regret that he should have been guilty of any omission or neglect. ' Yes,' continued the Prince, ' some years ago when you ex- plained to me the wonders of the block machinery at Portsmouth, you promised me a copying machine of your invention, but you forgot your promise, Mr. Brunei.' Without hesitation or loss of presence of mind, my father rejoined, 'Please your Eoyal Highness, I have unfortunately never been able to perfect the machine, so as to make it worthy of your Eoyal Highness's acceptance.' " Meeting one day an acquaintance of former years, he was saluted with pleased recognition, and with the exclamation, " Why, Brunei, how old you look ! but I suppose it must be ten years since we met." " Yes," said Brunei, " I have no doubt that it has been so long Y 322 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL a time, if I may judge by the change which has been made in you." Lady Hawes farther relates, that once when her father was called upon to give evidence in a court of justice relative to a patent right, it was expected that some effort would be made to cast discredit upon his testimony, because he was not only a foreigner but a Frenchman ; and the question was asked in a super- cilious tone, in anticipation of a petty triumph : " You are a foreigner, Mr. Brunei ? " " Yes," replied Brunei, " I am a Norman, and Normandy is a country from whence your oldest nobUity derive their titles." It is almost needless to add that this ready and spirited reply reheved Brunei from any farther impertinence. The following answer to the Messrs. Borthwick of Leith, upon the feasibility of applying a small water- power to a variety of machinery : sawing wood, cutting stone and marble, preparing oak bark, &c., is charac- terised by the same acuteness. Those gentlemen had expressed to Brunei their ap- prehension that he would consider their notions extra- vagant, if not ridiculous, if they asked him to design machinery for such a variety of purposes, where the moving force was so hmited. Brunei replied, "I see nothing ridiculous in your attemptuig to adapt a small power to many purposes, no more than to have many carts and only one horse. It is not expected you will fasten them all together when you want only the use of one." " Of works of art," says Lady Hawes, " whether in painting or in sculpture, my father was both an enthu- siastic admirer, and an admirable critic. He would point out to us the style, the beauties, and the relative merits of different artists." The few miniatures he has left of his own painting, CONFIDENCE IN ACCURATE DRAWING 323 bear ample testimony to his talent in that department of art. The truthfulness of expression, and the beauty and finish of manipulation which they exhibit, drew from one of our first miniature painters exclamations of astonishment, and the opinion that had Brunei pursued the art as a profession, he would have been one of the most distinguished miniature painters of the day. To his mind hnes acciu-ately represented forces, and of their relative value and position in a structure, he would always satisfy himself before accepting any numerical calculations. Hence the immense impor- taace he attached to correct drawing : always con- sidering it the true " alphabet of the engineer" without a knowledge of which he beheved no complete idea of construction could be reaUsed. The facihty which he had himself obtained in expressing his ideas by lines, he retained to a very late period of his Hfe ; and he often exhibited the accuracy of his dehneation, by de- scribing a circle with his hand only, and afterwards determining the centre with mathematical precision. He was unwilling to admit that this facihty of manipu- lation was altogether to be attributed to natural de- velopment. Constant persevering practice he deemed essential to attainment in every art. For mere inspira- tion of genius he entertained but httle respect. The constant striving after excellence which distinguished his own mind, never permitted him to rest satisfied with imperfect execution. Imitating nature in her productions, he seemed always willing to bestow his labour upon the smallest accessory as upon the most elaborate conception, upon the threads of a screw as upon the movements of the most comphcated machine, holding strongly to the Y 2 324 MEMOIR OF SIR M.. I. BRUNEL opiiiion of his relative, N. Poussiii, that " whatever was worth doing was worth doing well ; " and any improve- ment, however small, that occurred to his mind, was at once submitted to the test of projection, whether by- day or during the night. It therefore seldom occurred that he permitted himself to enjoy more than five hours' rest. " The height by great men reached, and kept, la not attained by sudden flight ; But they, while their companions slept, Were toUing upwards in the night." Lady Hawes mentions that one night this intellectual restlessness of her father saved the house from being plundered. He had risen to fix his conceptions, and whUe still occupied in his study, some burglars, who had entered the house to rob him of the products of his industry, became alarmed, left the greater part of their booty, and fled. It has been made matter of censure that Brunei never adhered to an original ■ estimate. The charge was urged at an early period by the Government, and more or less echoed by individuals ever after ; but this charge can scarcely be considered just. In many instances, those who consulted Brunei had such hmited conceptions of the nature of their own requirements, that they were led to anticipate a corresponding hmit in the cost of the work which they sought to have performed ; but where, with Brunei, excellence was the object, his suggestive and comprehensive mind induced an expansion of ideas in his employers, and, as a consequence, a desire to reaHse results which they could have never contemplated. These enlarged views demanded farther thought and more elaborate designs, but going so far beyond the original notions, they left SUPPOSED DISREGAED FOR ESTIMATES 325 an impression of Brunei's extravagance : where, how- ever, the real object was to secure completeness, then were the suggestions of Brunei accepted in all their i*itegrity without disappointment or regret. Connected with this phase of character is the accu- sation of want of candour, a certain reticence in con- veying his opinions, which created doubt as to his ultimate intentions, and which was by ordinary minds interpreted to be a want of truth. That this unwilhngness to come to a decision was characteristic of Brunei I entirely admit ; but that the cause was to be attributed to want of integrity of purpose I entirely deny. A better philosophy has taught me that the very faculty which in its exercise would prevent a hasty decision, forms really an impor- tant element in the constituents of genius as well as of wisdom. To restrain the influence of first impressions, to subdue any outward expression of emotion until ob- servation had secured all the necessary facts — the understanding had drawn the necessary inferences — and the constructive faculty had supphed the requisite means of accomphshing a given end, is the office of this faculty, which, not understood, assumes the form of want of candour. A great authority long ago said, " A fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it till afterwards." The rapid judgment which Brunei's* appreciation of the value of lines enabled him to pass upon the merits of any project, where he had the opportunity of examining the drawings, was most remarkable. I remember well the morning he received a longi- tudinal section of the first chain bridge thrown across the Seine at Paris by M. Navier, the premier Ing^- T 3 326 MEMOIR OF Sffi M. I. BRUNEL nieiir des Fonts et Chaussees of France, one of the earliest and best writers on suspension bridges, and a man distinguished for his physico-mathematical re- searches. " Look here," exclaimed Brunei, as he examined the drawing. "You woold not venture I think on that bridge unless you woold wish to have a dive ? " " No," he added, " that will not stand, that will tumble into the river." I observed that M. JSTavier had a high reputation for his mathematical knowledge and facihty in ai-ithmetical computations. " Ah, well ! " replied Brunei, " may be ; but this time he has left out the last nought in his calcula- tions." Not long after we received an account of the fall of the bridge, said at" first to have been caused by the bursting of a water-pipe, which softened the adjacent ground ; but afterwards acknowledged to have been the result of faulty construction. This anticipation, derived from his thorough confi- dence in geometrical projection, reminds me of a similar instance which occurred at Deptford, where a large store had been just completed, which we had to pass in our walk. As we approached the build- ing, Brunei hastened his steps, saying, " Come along, come along ; don't you see, don't you see ? " To my interrogation as to the cause of his alarm, his reply was, " There ! don't you see ? It will fall ! " What was about to happen was as palpable to his mind as if it had happened. He had observed the want of perpendicularity in the structure, and the conviction was as strong upon him that it could not stand, as if he POWER OF ANTICIPATING RESULTS 327 had seen it faR. The next morning we learnt that the building was a ruin. In 1826 the apphcation of cast iron was receiving an unusual attention from engineers. Mr. Maudslay determined to exhibit his confidence in the material by erecting a roof over his factory in Lambeth. But so strong was Brunei impressed with the insecurity of any structure of the kind unless well combined with ties of wrought iron, that when a rumour reached him on the morning of the 24th May, 1826, that a serious accident had occurred at Maudslay's, he at once exclaimed, " The roof ! the roof has fallen ! " And so it proved. His capacity of applying knowledge once obtained was very remarkable. The following anecdote, sup- phed by Lady Hawes, offers a striking illustration. Of the events recorded she was herself an anxious witness, and on her young mind they naturally made an indehble impression. Early in the year 1817 Brunei visited Paris, upon the invitation of an Enghsh com- pany, taking his family with him, in anticipation of a protracted sojourn. The object of this visit was to suggest the best means of supplying the city with water, and being personally known to the King, to carry on the necessary negotiations with the Govern- ment. Suffice it here to say, that much valuable time was expended to no purpose, and that Brunei found it necessary to hasten his return home. When, in the month of December, he arrived at Calais, a violent storm prevented any vessel from quitting the port, and for five weary days he was compelled to control his impatience as he could. On the sixth day he took advantage of some abatement in the weather to em- bark with his family on board the first vessel which offered to sail. This proved to be French, with very V 4 328 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL indifferent and totally insufficient accommodation. The vessel had not proceeded far to sea when the weather became again threatening, and as she approached the Enghsh coast, so bad, that serious alarm began to be entertained. The captain gave his orders with hesita- tion, confidence was shaken, and disciphne endangered. The proximity of Dover prompted him to run for that harbour, contrary to the experience of his best men, and to the strongly reiterated opinion of Brunei, that if he ventured so rash an attempt nothing could save the vessel from destruction ; still, in spite of all remon- sti^ance and a heavy south-west gale, he held on his course. Brunei had not for twenty-four years exercised in any way his early profession ; he had not, however, forgotten the lessons then received ; and during this fearful contest with the elements he had exhibited so much nautical knowledge, as well as physical courage, that all on board, sailors as well as passengers, prayed that he would take command. The obstinate, ignorant, and perverse captain re- sisted, until his cupidity was stimulated by a bribe, when Brunei was permitted to take the helm. " To Deal," he cried. The course was set, confidence was restored, his instructions were obeyed with cheerful- ness and alacrity, and the vessel, with its precious cargo, brought in safety to port. Some of the vessels which had also sailed that morning from Calais, having no Brunei to du^ect the course, were beating about the channel all night, while others were two days before they reached their destination. From the great difficulty which ^vas experienced in landing the passengers at Deal, it was ob\dous to those acquainted with the coast, what amount of danger PRESENCE OF MIND 329 would have been incurred had the attempt to reach Dover harbour been persisted in. The grateful acknowledgment of passengers and sailors repaid the courage and the skill which had thus rescued them in the hour of danger. Brunei's presence of mind and promptitude of action were early conspicuous. During his sojourn in America these valuable properties were often called forth. Once, for example, when employed on an island in Lake Champlain, he chanced to arouse the vindictive instincts of a rattlesnake. His companions lied, but Brunei stood his ground, and as the reptile approached he broke its back with a heavy stone skil- fully thrown. At a later period of his hfe, while in the act of in- specting the Birmingham railway, a train, to the horror of the bystanders, was observed to approach from either end of the hue with a velocity which in the early experience of locomotives, Brunei was unable to appreciate. Without attempting to cross the road, he at once buttoned his coat, brought the skirts close round him, and firmly placing himself between the two hues of rail, waited with confidence the issue. The trains swept past leaving Brunei unscathed. Impressed as Brunei's mind was with the superiority of modern civihsation, it was natural to suppose that he would be sometimes called upon to defend his opinions. When on a visit to the author in the neigh- bourhood of Cork in 1833, Mr. Joseph Leicester, the mayor, invited a select party to meet him at dinner. The conversation turned upon the comparative mecha- nical merits of the ancients and the moderns. A barrister of lou.d tone and pretentious manner, with whom the discussion originated, was the "laudator 330 MEMOIR OF BIK M. I. BEUKEL temporis acti." After expatiating a considerable time upon the wonderful productions of Grecian art and the architectural glories of Imperial Eome ; of the triumphs of Phidias and Praxiteles ; the boast of Augustus ; the magnificence of Vespasian ; the genius of Trajan ; the pubhc monuments of Hadrian ; and the munifi- cent patronage of the Antonines, Brunei quietly drew from his pocket a chronometer-watch, and holding it up, asked, " whether such a thing had ever been found at Athens, Herculaneum, or Pompeu." The question was so suggestive of the benefits which mechanical skill had conferred on navigation, of that union of commerce with science, without which there can be no bond of nations, that all felt the evidence to be conclusive, against any amount of forensic declamation. He then referred to one circumstance, as exhibiting a very low state of early civihsation, namely, the want of sympathy for the suffering poor. " There were no hospitals in those days," he exclaimed with a sigh. In fact the word hospital never once occurs in Gibbon's copious index to his " Decline and Fall." Although Brunei was not what is called a man of business, — much owing to the rehance he was con- stantly led to place on others in money matters, — much owing to the suggestive, rather than the conservative, character of his own mind — evidence the gentle re- monstrance from the Navy Office as to the uregularity of neglecting to furnish vouchers with his accounts ; and du-ecting that accounts of tradesmen should be opened directly with the Board, which undertook to settle them when approved by Brunei ; — yet his power of calculation was imusually rapid ; and to any work emanating from a manufacturer's hands he could almost at a glance assign its true value. ABSENCE O'P MIND 331 " I remember a lady," writes Lady Hawes, " once exhibiting to my mother a costly foreign lace, which she had just brought from the Continent, and which she prided herself upon having obtained a great bargain. My father examined it, and observing that the groundwork was formed of bobbin-net, executed by machinery, with which, as we have seen, he was al- ready well acquainted, he at once gave to it its real value, to the inexpressible mortification of the lady, who found on explanation, that she had secured no bargain." From one eccentricity, often found to characterise genius, Brunei was not free. The necessity of concen- trating certain faculties of the mind iipon one special object of thought, necessarily tends, for the time, so to weaken the influence of other faculties, that contact with the external world would seem to be retained only by a thread, and causing even atmospheric influences to be disregarded. This absorbing influence of thought in Sir Isaac Newton, would arrest him while about to rise, and retain him seated undressed on his bed for hours, in that profound contemplation which, accord- ing to his own admission, alone enabled him to wait the evolution of thought, and from the first dawn, " httle by httle, to attain to the full and clear light." Although excellence can be scarcely looked for without the power of abstraction ; yet it ofiers, more than any other tendency of the mind, examples of perversion to the ludicrous. Under its mfluence, it is related that Newton was tempted to use a lady's finger as a tobacco-stopper ; Dr. Eobert Hamilton, to take off his hat to his wife in the streets, and apologise for neglecting her salutation, as he had not the pleasure of her acquaintance ; the Eev. George Harvest, to go out gudgeon fishing when he should have appeared at the 332 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL. hymeneal altar with his bishop's daughter ; and Brunei to caress the hand of a lady to whom he was scarcely known, but who happened to be seated next laim at table, believing it to be that of his own wife. In these fits "of abstraction he would also mistake the day and hour of an invitation ; would go to the wrong house ; and, as once occurred at Lord Spencer's, actually subjected himself to be turned away from that hos- pitable door, because he sent up another person's card instead of his own. Many times ■ has he been known to take the wrong coach, and to find himself set down far in the country, when he ought to have been in town. Leaving his umbrella behind was an almost invariable occurrence. " On one occasion," says Lady Hawes, " having been specially reminded by my mother not to forget it, he kept it ui his hand during the whole time of a visit to a friend. Upon taking leave, his eye fell upon another umbrella in the room strongly resembhng his ; of that he took possession, and vdth it protected himself during his walk ; nor until he reached home was he once conscious that his own was under his arm." Brunei was, as I have said, often compelled to place his pecuniary interests in the hands of those whose want of capacity, or equivocal integrity, more than once brought him to the verge of ruin, from which he was only saved by an indomitable energy of mind, equanimity of temper, and incompressible elasticity of spirit, that no opposition could interrupt, and no mis- fortune subdue. Mr. Josiah Field mentioned to me that when the great saw-mills at Battersea were destroyed by fire, he was with Brunei at Cliatham when a messenger ELASTICITY OF MIND 333 arrived to announce the catastrophe, but who evidently dreaded to make the communication. Brunei, how- ever, asked only one question, " Is anybody hurt ? " The answer being in the negative, he turned to Mr. Field, and said, " I can make better machinery now." Like Audubon, the American ornithologist, who, though at first entirely overcome upon witnessing the havock which two Norway rats had made of two hundred of his original drawings, the labour of years, did not give way to despondence, but with hopeful cheerfulness took up his gun, his note-book, and his pencils, and went forth to the woods, feeling pleased that he " might now make better drawings than before." So Brunei, in the same spirit, could write in reply to a letter of condolence from Mr. Edgeworth, upon his losses at Bat- tersea. " The misfortune is not without its consolation, as I shall now have the opportunity of carrying out many improvements which I have often contemplated." And when congratulated upon having successfully overcome all those difhculties which beset him at the Tunnel, he would reply, " Neanmoins, si je I'avais a refaire je ferais mieux." Finally, it will, I think, be admitted that, notwith- standing all his weaknesses and peculiarities, Brunei possessed powerful elements of character, and none more striking than that constancy of purpose, and that steady confidence in his own resources, which never permitted him to doubt of ultimate success, often in despite of cruel disappointments and the heavy pres- sure of apparent defeat. In the summary which M. Edouard Frere has given of Brunei's hfe, he says : " Sir Isambard Brunei a merite par I'eclat de ses inventions ; par la dignite d'une car- riere vouee tout entiere au travail ; par I'^levation de ses 334 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL vertus privees, la celebrite qui entoure son nom, I'ad- miration de tous les hommes de savoir et de labeur, et le souvenir affectueux de tous ceux qui, assez heureux pour le connaitre personnellement, ont pu apprecier son caractere k la fois si simple et si noble." * To this just and discriminating resume, I shall only add that the unaflfected piety by which the close of his laborious Hfe was cheered as well as soothed left nothing more to be desired : a hfe honourable in itself, and rich in the practical benefits which it con- ferred upon the country of his adoption. * Notice liistorique sur la Vie et les Travaux de Marc Isambard Bi'unel, par Edouard Frere. 535 CHAPTEE XX. CONCLtJSION. 1842-1849. PROFESSIONAL CAREER TERMINATED, 1842 STACKING TIMBER IN DOCKYARDS SUCCESSES OF HIS SON HER MAJESTY'S VISIT TO THE TUNNEL, 1843 SOCIETY OF HIS GRANDCHILDREN SECOND ATTACK OF PARALYSIS, 1845 EQUANIMITY AND CHEERFULNESS UNDER PHYSICAL SUFFERING DEATH, 12TH DECEMBER, 1849. WITH the completion of the tunnel Brunei's profes- sional career must be considered to have ter- minated ; for with the exception of a plan for STACKiNa TIMBER IN DOCKYARDS, which had been suggested by him in 1824, and laid aside for the more important project of the tunnel, he steadily dechned all offers of employment connected with any of the great undertakings of the day. As the drawings which he submitted to the Admiralty, explanatory and illustrative of his plan, were, I under- stand, never returned, and as the beauty and economy of the arrangement were recognised by some in autho- rity, and more particularly by Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, as well as by the master shipwright at Portsmouth, it is possible that the attention of the Admiralty may yet be called to the subject. Sir Hyde Parker, in expressing his regret at " there not being a probabihty of its being carried into effect," though " quite certain it would have suited this dockyard (Portsmouth) admirably," 336 MEMOm OF SIR M. I. BEUNEL adds, "unfortunately prejudices take place witliout reason." Thus to the last, opposition continued to present itself to Bi'unel's progressive spirit ; but that spirit had learnt to look with tranquilhty upon disap- pointment. To become personally acquainted with some of those successes which had been achieved by his son, was now to Brunei his most gratifying relaxation. On the 19th of July, 1843, he had the pleasure to witness the launch of the Great Britain steamer, of 3500 tons, at Bristol ; in which, for the first time, the screw as a propeller was applied to a vessel of large burden. In his journal, Brunei, while noting his sympathy with this great progressive movement in naval archi- tecture, adds : " Many years ago I made trials of various means for propelling boats, and in order to ascertain the degrees of effect, I had a circular canal prepared, in which the various models could be made to operate with great precision : the screw was one of the means of propulsion." Duiing this excursion he was tempted to prolong Ids absence from London. He thereby failed to receive the announcement that her Majesty had ex- pressed her gracious intention to honour the Thames Tunnel with a visit. On the 26th, of July, 1843, and while Brunei was in Somersetshire, the Eoyal visit was made. It was felt as a grievous disappointment' to Brunei, that he had been deprived of tlie honour of receiving her Majesty, and of affording those explanations which would natur- rally have been required. And from the reference which he more tluin once makes in his journal to that eventful visit, it is evident that few rewards would liave been so highly prized by Brunei, as that of re- SECOND ATTACK OF PARALYSIS 337 ceiving from the lips of his sovereign the expression of her gracious approbation. Eeturned to London, he took up his residence in a small but cheerful house in Park Street, Westminster, fronting St. James's Park. Here he was cheered by the pious generosity of his son, and supported by the watchful and affectionate care of his devoted wife. He had lived to witness the happiness and prosperity of his children, and he was now gladdened by the com- panionship of his grandchildren, who became his con- stant companions. In his walks he would point out to them the wonders of nature, as he had done in earlier days to his own children, and feehng, it may be with deeper reverence, that " There is to him who reads the sacred page With knowledge, faith, humility, and love, A sweet and balmy influence in creation, ***** Winning the weary heart from earthly ills. Filling the mind with proofs of love divine, And pointing onWards to eternity." In 1845 he was deprived, by a second attack of paralysis, of that society which he so much loved — the society of children. Still his equanimity and thought- ftdness for others never forsook him. In him was, in deed, " that constant flow of love that knew no fall," cheerfully adopting every suggestion for fixing a pen in his powerless hand ; and only smiling at the failures, he resolutely set himself to work to render his left hand available, in which effort he to a considerable extent succeeded. " So free was he from peevishness or fretfulness, and so thankful was he for the smallest attention, that the nurse who attended him," says Lady Hawes, " often declared it a pleasure to serve him." z 338 MEMOIE OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL He now withdrew altogether from the excitement ot general society, perfectly contented with that of his own domestic circle. With the ruling passion strong to the end, he would strive to give expression to the thoughts ever working within him. The spirit was still there in undiminished integrity, but the power to reahse its conceptions was no more. Unconscious of all around him, his hands would move as though they were embodying his thoughts. Gradually his hold on the external world relaxed, and though utterance failed, it was not difScult to comprehend the elevation of " the spirit's noiseless prayer." On the 12th of December, 1849, and in the 81st year of his age, at peace with himself and all beside, he calmly sank to rest, leaving a name to be cherished so long as mechanical science shall be honoured. On the 17th of December his remains were depo- sited in Kensal Green Cemetery. Li thus tracing the career of this distinguished and amiable man, I have not sought to elevate him to a higher position in the temple of fame than I be- lieve his character and his works justified ; and though it may appear anomalous to speak indifferently of a man's power, and of his weakness, yet, if a true pic- tm-e is to be di'awn of human nature, we must be satisfied to forego ideal harmony and beauty in the portrait, for the more valuable element of truth in the dehneation. In the case of the subject of these me- moirs, to have cast any of his distinctive quahties into the shade, would have been to present some other character to the world than that of Maec Isambaed Beunbl. APPENDICES APPENDIX A. CERTIFICATE OF CITIZENSHIP— UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. "Be it remembered, that at a stated District Court of the United States, held for the District of New York, at the City of New York, in the said District of New York, on Tuesday, the second day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and niaety-sLs, Marc Isambard Brunei came into the said Court and applied to the said Court to be ad- mitted to becom.e a Citizen of the United States of America, pursuant to the directions of the Act of the Congress of the said United States, entitled: 'An Act to establish an uniform rule of naturalisation, and to repeal the Act heretofore passed on that subject;' and the said Marc Isambard Brunei having thereupon produced to the said Court such evidence, and made such declaration and renunciation as by the said Act is required, it was considered by the said Court that the said Marc Isambard Brunei be admitted, and he was accordingly admitted by the said Court to be a Citizen of the United States of America. " In testimony whereof the seal of the said Court is here- unto afSxed. " Witness, John Laurence, Esquire, Judge of the said Dis- trict, at the City of New York, in the said District of New York, this second day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-sis, and of the Inde- pendence of the said United States, the twenty-first." Z.3 342 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL APPENDIX B. DESCRIPTION OF THE BLOCK MACHINERY. The block machinery is divided into four classes. 1st. Sawing machineSj large and small, the former applied to convert elm timber into proper dimensions to be submitted to other specific machines ; and the latter to cut the lignum vitse for the sheaves. 2nd. Machines for the manufacture of the shell of the blocks. 3rd. Machines for forming the sheaves. 4th. Machines for forming the iron pins for the blocks. To these are added a large machine for boring parts of the very large blocks, called Tnade blocks, and which cannot be wholly executed by machinery, and two machines for turning dead-eyes, or blocks without sheaves, used to attach the ship's shrouds to her sides. The sawing machines are of two kinds, recvprocating and circular. The former may be viewed as a gigantic represen- tative of the carpenter's hand-saw ; the latter, with the cir- cular knife, is the subject of a special patent, and is an invention by means of which valuable woods, as mahogany, rosewood, &c. &c., are economised in an unlooked-for manner. By the substitution of veneers, or slips of those heavy woods glued on deal, for the cumbersome solid masses formerly used, the beauty of surface is secured, while the product is mul- tiplied fifty-fold. These~saws may be made to turn either in horizontal, vertical, or inclined planes, and are so arranged that all the APPENDIX B 343 pieces cut from the same log, may be produced precisely of the same thickness ; while the working of the machines, far from demanding the attention of the skilled workman, can |je consigned to that of an ordinary labourer. Next in order to the saw-cutting machine, comes the boring machine. Three of these acting simultaneously perforate the scantling or piece of timber prepared by the saw — and form the holes which are to contain the centre pin for the sheaves of the block, and which become the commencement of the several mortises to contain the sheaves. The blocks are now passed to the mortising machine, where the holes made by the boring machine are elongated to the required dimensions. Three circular saws now cut the angles of the blocks, and three shaping engines form ea/ih the outside surface of ten blocks at the same time. Two scoring engines next form the grooves round the blocks to receive the ropes or straps by which they are suspended. The blocks are smoothed and polished by hand. For making the sheaves there are fourteen machines. The tree of lignum vitse is first cut into pieces of the required thickness by what are termed converting machines, of which there are three, one a reciprocating saw, the two others cir- cular saws. Three pieces are made circular, and the centres pierced by two rounding and centring machines or trepan saws. A hole is then formed in the centre of each sheave to receive the coak or piece of brass or bell-metal to form the socket for the centre pin of the block. Two riveting hammers secure the coak in place. In some kinds of sheaves three holes are drilled through sheave and coak by a drilling machine, to receive short wire pins cut by thff cutting shears, which are riveted down by riveting hammers. The centre holes through the coaks are now broached out to a true cylinder by three broaching engines. And lastly, the faces and edges of the sheaves are turned to a flat surface in three fa/nng lathes, which also form the grooves round their eyes for the rope. z 4 344 MEMOIR OF Slit M. I. BEUNEL The iron pins are forged by two smiths in the usual man- ner ; the heated iron being placed between two tools called swages, each having a semi-cylindrical cavity, so that when hammered together they form a cylinder. The pin-turning lathe renders the pin true, and the polishing machine com- pletes the operation. For forming the dead-eyes there are two machines. Here we have forty-three machines constituting a system of machinery, each part executing its purpose with a precision, rapidity, delicacy and power never before exhibited. 345 APPENDIX C. COPYING PEESS, 1820. A WOODEN box contained the danvper, or small metallic cylin- der, around which a number of sheets of calico, fine linen, or other light material of the size of the paper used, was rolled. This cylinder was deposited in a tube, and kept moist. The press consisted of a gun-metal bottom having two standards, one at either end, of the same metal. To these standards were attached two levers, each having its fulcrum in the opposite standard. These levers acted uniformly on the head of a Wooden casing, with a convex top and flat bottom. To the centre of the top was attached, by a screw, a thin steel plate spring, curved so as to correspond with the convexity of the wooden casing, and which, therefore, retained the casing in an elevated position when not acted on by the levers ; this casing being free to move up and down between the standards, while the ends of the spring rested in apertures cut in the standards. By this arrangement, when the case was pressed down by the levers, the spring being kept up at each end was forced into a horizontal position, but ready as it resumed its curved form to raise the casing the instant the pressure was removed. The original writing being placed in a book, as many leaves of thin paper, to which it was to be transferred, as there were pages in the original writing were turned over it ; then from the cylinder of the damper, the same number of sheets of calico were unrolled and laid over the blank paper, and, finally, 346 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL on each of these was placed a sheet of oil paper. The book was now put into the transferring box beneath the case, the levers were brought to act upon the head of the screw, by which the steel spring was attached to the convex top of the case ; the case was pressed down, the book was drawn through, undergoing in its progress a succession of pressures, and thus the writing was transferred. 347 APPENDIX D. IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKINE STEAM ENGINES, 1822. The rotatory action was accomplished by placing the line of power of the engines at right angles with each other ; both piston-rods being made to act alternately on a solid crank by which they were connected. The regulation of the engine was effected by means of an hydraulic apparatus, consisting of a small pump connected with the condenser which worked a plug, ingeniously con- trived to modify the direct action of the governor, and thus effectually to prevent all shock to the engine ; while for the power of gravitation, by which the balls of the governor are usually closed, there was substituted centrifugal force, by means of a spring connecting the governor by a lever with the moderator. The third improvement was in providing and securing a constant supply of fresh water, by the use of a condenser, which should so economise the generated steam as to retain the first supply of water with scarcely any loss. This condenser consisted of a combination of pipes sur- rounded by cold water, and which collectively formed a spa- cious chamber. In the steam-pipe was placed a safety valve opening into the condenser, so that any excess of steam was at once secured; and as the waste-pipe also entered the condenser no steam was permitted to escape. The condensed water was returned in the usual manner to the boiler by a small pump. The pump of the moderator drew from the 348 MEMOIR OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL condenser, at every stroke, a certain quantity of the heated water, and allowed an equal portion of cold to enter. The condenser was also supplied with an air-pump, and thus, while the condensatien was carried on without waste, the vacuum was preserved. The boilers were cylindrical with spherical ends, and to prevent, as far as possible, the agitation of the water in them, when the vessel was at sea, they were always to be kept full. To the tops of the boilers " steam r 007ns" of sufficient capacity were adapted. By merely per- forating the tops of the boilers with small holes, the com- munication with the steam rooms was accomplished. The fourth improvement was in the manner of supplying coal to the fire. This was effected by means of revolving east-iron cylinders, connected with hoppers. The cylinders were pierced with apertures, through which a certain quantity of ground coals was distributed uniformly over the fire. 849 APPENDIX E. STORY OF THE GEEEN EOOM. MoNSiEtTR DE C related that, when a very young man, being on his return home to France, by the south of Italy, from a tour through the southern parts of Europe, he took the opportunity to pay a long promised visit to an uncle, an ecclesiastic. Although personally a stranger to his relative, his reception was full of kindness and cordiality, and so agreeably did the time pass, that from day to day he was induced to prolong his visit. At length his departure could no longer be deferred. Tra- velling at that period was a matter of physical difficulty. There were no public conveyances ; the roads were so bad as to be sometimes impassable; and the inns were execrable. The few travellers whom necessity, the love of knowledge, or of the marvellous tempted from home, performed their jour- neys on horseback, and on horseback, therefore, M. de C must travel. When he laid the programme of his route before his rela- tive, the good man shook his head. " You will scarcely reach your first day's halt before nightfall," said he. " The road is not safe ; the forest through which it passes is lonely, and no- torious for the boldness and cruelty of the bandits who infest it. To travel through it alone would be madness; in fact, I should consider myself responsible to your father if I gave my sanction to your arrangement." The idea of an adventure was, however, rather agreeable 350 MEMOIR OP SIK M. I. BRUNEL than otherwise to the young traveller— he assured his uncle that he had no fears ; that if attacked, he was well able to defend himself, and having already prolonged his absence be- yond the time fixed, his father would be greatly disappointed, and however much he must regret to quit his uncle's hos- pitable roof, a sense of duty urged him to delay no longer. The abbe at length unwillingly acceded to his nephew's wishes, but only on condition, that an old and trusty servant should accompany him. " True, it is long since Antonio cast off the uniform of a soldier," said the old gentleman, " but you may rely upon his courage and his prudence." To this condition there could be no objection, and accordingly, after having re- ceived the parting blessing of his uncle, the young man set out, well armed, and accompanied by the trusty Antonio. It was the spring of the year, and early flowers and budding leaves gave a charm to the landscape, and the delicious freshness of the air imparted elasticity and vigour to the travellers. " Sweet April, many a thought Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed, Nor shall they fail, till to its Autumn brought, Life's golden fruit is shed." Antonio proved an amusing and instructive companion. He had seen much of life; had passed through many a hard fought field, and had borne part in many a hair-breadth 'scape. Noon was some hours past, when, " still plodding through tangled forest, and through dangerous ways," the travellers found themselves, with horses tu-ed, and their distance from the town, at which they were to make their first night's halt, still unascertained. For the first time it occurred to the youth that the good uncle's anticipation might possibly be realised. Mile after mile was passed with increasing difficulty. The tall pines seemed about to close the way, now reduced to a mere path. The only sound which at long intervals reached their ears, was that of the woodman's axe. To obtain re- freshment for their horses, and shelter for themselves, became every moment matter of necessity. Hitherto there had been no indication of abode of ;uiy kind, APPENDIX E 351 and they had almost despaired of finding shelter, when a bluish smoke was observed rising, at no great distance, into the calm evening air, and offering to them a signal of relief. Turning off the direct track, they found themselves presently before what appeared to be an inn, though by no means of an inviting character. Whatever their disappointment, there was no room for choice, and they accepted the invitation of " mine host " to enter, while their horses should be baited, with the intention of reaching their destination before night. The landlord, affecting "a saucy roughness," expressed his fear that, however glad he'd be to forward the noble cavalier on his journey, seeing that his house could not offer the accommodation his distinguished guest must require ; yet, as his excellency seemed to be a stranger, and not well acquainted with the dangers of the road, or the distance to , he must forgive his bluntness if he ventured to say that some hours might be spent be- fore they could clear the forest, where they would be exposed to dangers the most fearful, against which neither their arms nor their courage could protect them, and from which he had himself more than once with difficulty escaped. These representations had their effect. M. de C took counsel of Antonio, who could only suggest that bad accom- modation and miserable fare were, at all events, to be pre- ferred to an unequal struggle, in a close bound forest, with an invisible but cruel and relentless enemy, who was seldom known to perpetrate the crime of robbery without adding to it that of murder. With ill-disguised reluctance the young man relinquished his intention to proceed ; so, after bestowing their first care on their horses, master and man returned to the house, resolved to accept cheerfully what could not be avoided. The only domestic who appeared was a girl, whose youthful, anxious countenance, naturally awakened a feeling of interest ia the heart of the young traveller. " Ninetta, you will show this noble gentleman to the Gh-een Room," said her master. Up a rough and dirty staircase ]y[_ (je C and Antonio followed their gentle guide, into a 352 ilEMOm OF SIR m. i. brunel room containing two comfortless looking bedsteads, the dingy curtains of which fell like palls around the beds. These, with a few chairs and an unplaned table, constituted the whole furniture of the apartment. Here the girl left them. The landlord was now heard to leave the house, and the girl re- turned to the room, where she busied herself in preparing the beds ; exhibiting, however, a restlessness of manner, and an evident desire to attract the attention of the young cavalier which could not be mistaken. M. de C— approached her. In a low whisper she warned him that the iatention was to rob and murder him and his servant, and in proof of her as- sertions she, in a hurried and trembling voice, told him that the landlord would immediately return to the house, to say that some travellers, who were in the habit of journeying that way, had just arrived, and having no other room to offer them, he would ask whether the cavalier would permit them to sup with him. Should he consent those supposed travellers would take the opportunity to send his servant out of the room, and in his absence would overpower, rob, and murder him : should he refuse they would effect their object during the night. She farther informed him that the distance from the town was only half a league, and which he might have easily reached ; but now it was too late, warning had been given to the band, and they must protect themselves. Then trembling at the thought of how she had endangered her own life, by di- vulging the secrets of the prison-house, she prayed him not to betray her. M. de C could only express his grateful thanks ■ — assuring her that nothing should induce him to compromise her — and thus reassured, she left the room. What was to be done ? Even if they succeeded in effecting their escape from the house, they would certainly be intercepted. The danger must therefore be met where they were. Assuming the girl's story to be true, Antonio recommended that they should take the initiative, and not defer their defence to the night. He suggested that the men should be admitted, and the seats so placed at table, that the most powerful of the band should be opposite to his young master, the two others on either side, and opposite one another. That he should not APPENDIX E 353 leave the room on any pretence whatsoever; and that after he had placed the cheese upon the table with the aessert, his master was to ask for a glass of water, when he would put his pistol into his hand, which he should at once discharge at uhe man opposite to him. " For the others,", said Antonio, " leave them to me." It may well be imagined that a youth of nineteen natu- rally recoiled from the idea of shedding blood under such equivocal circumstances. The girl's story might prove to be untrue. Would he not then himself be the guilty party ? What would his father, his uncle, think, if he were to return home with the stain of murder on his name ? As all these ideas crowded on his mind he hesitated to adopt Antonio's plan. The landlord's foot was now heard on the stairs, and en- tering the room, he apologised for his intrusion by stating that three travellers, old customers, who made a point, when journeying that way, to pass a night at his unworthy house, had just arrived, — that he was very unwilling to send them away at such a time of night, unrefreshed, — that he lamented to say he had no other room mth which to accommodate them, and prayed that his distinguished guest would permit the gentlemen to sup with him. Such condescension would render him ever grateful. The poor girl's story was but too faithfully corroborated. M. de C could no longer doubt. The real nature of their position became painfully apparent. The landlord's request was granted. The supper was placed on the table, and the ■three travellers were introduced. So forbidding was their aspect, that even without the previous warning they must have inspired distrust. The chairs were occupied as Antonio had arranged. The meal proceeded, but could not boast of many social elements. One observed that the young cavalier did not eat ; another discovered that he had left his snuff-box below, might not the servant fetch it ? Various clumsy ex- pedients were tried, but in vain, to rid themselves of the pre- sence of the stern-looking old soldier, which only tended to confirm in its full extent the prophetic warning of the girl, A A 354 MEMOIE OF SIE M. I. BEUNEL The only reply which Antonio condescended to make was to knock on the floor, that the landlord might execute the wishes of his friends. No landlord, however, appeared ; every action of the men tended to increase apprehension, and to satisfy the young man that he would be justified in following An- tonio's advice. Yet, as the time for taking the first dreaded step approached, he hesitated. There was, as yet, no proof to him of these men's intentions, nor of their previous guilt, to relieve him from the charge of deliberate murder. It was only the resolute appearance of Antonio, and the obvious col- lusion of the men, whose furtive glances were from time to time cast iipon him, which restored his self-possession and confirmed his resolution. The supper was nearly finished. The cheese and dessert were placed upon the table. The time for deliberation had passed, that for action had arrived. The glass of water was called for. Antonio slid the cocked pistol into his young mas- ter's hand ; — the trigger was pulled, and the most powerful of the three men fell ; the ball had pierced his heart. Mean- while Antonio, true to his promise, stepping close behind one of the other men, discharged his pistol at him who was op- posite, whom he mortally wounded ; and then throwing him- self upon the third, quickly disarmed him, and, with the aid of his young master, secured his hands and feet with cords, which were found in the apartment, and which were evidently intended to be used against themselves. Fearing a rescue, the pistols were quickly reloaded ; but all was still below. No landlord appeared to ascertain the cause of such violence, and the only sounds that broke the silence of the night were the groans of the wounded man, and the execrations of him who had been secured. To gain the neighbouring town, and to communicate with the authorities, was the next consideration. It was agreed, that while M. de C undertook to seek for aid, Antonio should remain to guard the prisoners. Cautiously descending the staircase, where danger might be still lurking, M. de C made his way to the stable. Neither landlord nor maid was to be seen. Not a sound disturbed the tranquil air, and being now assured of the direction and the distance. APPENDIX E 355 M. de C galloped to the town, which he found, as the girl had stated, to be but a short distance from the outskirts of the forest. He gave information, and the authorities, having only too much reason to believe the truth of his story, . at once directed gendarmes to accompany him to the inn. The three men were recognised as notorious brigands. The poor girl, who had hid herself in the loft over the stable, finding the young traveller safe, came from her hiding-place, willingly aided the investigations of the gendarmes, and was able to point out where thirteen travellers had been buried, after having been robbed and murdered by the very wretches, from whose hands she had been so instrumental in rescuing M. de C . The landlord was subsequently arrested, and his complicity being proved, his house was razed to the ground, and he, with the surviving bandit, hung. S56 MEMOIE OF SIR M. I. BRUNEL APPENDIX F. LIST OF PATENTS. A.D. 1799. Machine for Writing and Drawing. 1801. Ships' Blocks. 1802. Trimmings and Borders for Muslins, Lawns and Cambrics. 1805. Saws and Machinery for sawing Timber. 1806. Cutting Veneers. 1808. Circular Saws. 1810. Shoes and Boots. 1810. Obtaining Motive Power. 1812. Saw-mills. 1813. Saw-mills. 1814. Eendering Leather durable. 1816. Knitting Machine. 1818. Forming Tunnels, or Di-ifts, underground. 1818. Manufacture of Tinfoil. 1820. Copying Press. 1820. Stereotype Printing Plates. 1822, Marine Steam Engines. 1825,. Gas Encinea. tONDOIT PniNTED BY SPOTTISWOODP. AND CO. NEVY-STHKET SQUAKE INDEX A DMIKALTY, 54 America, internal communication (1793), 27 Andelys, department of tlie Enre, 2 Antilles, West Indies, 14; fate of, 22 Arch, experimental, 285 Army, neglected condition of, 129 DABBAGE, Mr., 319 Bacon, 116 Bacquancourt, M., 49 Baily, Mr. Francis, 28 Bandinel, Mr., 171 Battersea, saw-mills at, 101; difiBcnlties at, 165 Bentham, Sir Samuel, K.S.G., 52, 55, 69, 89 Black River, 23 Block machinery, origin of, 38; present condition of, 98 ; description of, Ap- pendix B Blocks, number required for the navy, 51; price of, 61, 99 Borthwick, Messrs., letter to, 95 Bougainville, 13 Bourbon, chain bridges for, 179 Brunel, Maro Isambard, birthplace and parentage, 1 ; early love of con- struction discouraged, 5; story of por- trait, 5 ; love of tools, 7 ; constructs an organ, 9; constnicts a quadrant, 13; enters the navy, 12; escape from Paris, 15 ; early attachment, 16 ; quits France for America, and forges pass- port, 20; connection with MM. Pharoux and Desjardins, 23 ; meets French fa- mily in the backwoods, 30; introduc- tion to Mr. Thurman, 31 ; engaged to make surveys, 32; furnishes designs for a senate house, Washington, 32 ; for a theatre, New York, 33 ; for a cannon foundry, 35; for defence of the Nar- rows, New York, 36; citizen of New York, 36; quits America for England, 41; marries, 42 ; invents a duplicate writing and drawing machine, 44 ; in- vents machine for twisting cotton, 44 ; for hemming and stitching, 45; for making blocks, 38 ; offers invention to Messrs. Fox and Taylor, 50 ; introduced to Sir Samuel Bentham, 52 ; claims to be the author of the Block machinery vindicated, 55-67; machinery adopted by Government, 68 ; question of com- pensation referred to Sir Samuel Ben- tham, 69; difficulty in finding work- men, 79 ; impediments to the completion of the work, 81-86; attempt to depre- ciate his character, 87; machinery completed (1808), 93 ; remuneration withheld, 95; opinion of Lord Spencer — ■ sympathy of Lord St. Vincent, 97 ; apparatus for bending timber, 100; sawing machines — -veneer engine, 101 ; machinery for cutting staves, 102; de- signs saw-mills for Woolwich, 103; Battersea saw-mills, 105 ; improve- ments in obtaining motive power, 105; designs for Chatham dockyard, 109; attempt to deprive him of his principal assistants, 116; shoe machinery, 131; Fellow of the Eoyal Society, 140; first steam-boat to Margate, 140; knitting machine, 143; tin foil, 144; metallic paper, 145; stereotype printing, 148; pocket copying press, 156; designs for a bridge at Bouen, 156; designs for a bridge over the Neva, St. Petersburg, 159; difficulties, 167; arrested, 170; liberated, 174; saw-mills for Trinidad and Berbice, 176; designs for chain bridges at the isle of Bourbon, 179; improvements in marine steam engines, 183; paddle-wheels, 184; carbonic acid gas engine, 185 ; rubble bridge for Chester, 193; designs for a canal from Fowey to Padstow, 196; crane for Vigo Bay expedition, 198; designs for a floating pier, Liverpool, 200; designs B B 358 INDEX BRU for Thames tunnel, 208 ; honours, 269 ; designs for chain bridge, Olifton, 282; experimental arch, 285; visits Ireland, 287 ; visits Hacqueville, 288 ; resumes Thames tunnel works, 289; personal, social, and domestic qualities, 305-334 ; attacked with paralysis, 337; death, 338 Brunel, Isambaed Kingdom, Mr., C.E., birth of, 102; M. Breguet and Dr. Spnrzheim's opinion of, 313; appointed resident engineer at Thames tunnel, 232 ; presence of mind of, 235 Burr, Mr., 63, 84, 86 Cafe de I'Echelle, 15 Canal, Fowey and Padatow, 197 Cannon foundry, 35 Card shuffler, 46 Carpentier, M. Francois, 11, 16 Carbonic acid gas engine, 185 Chateau Gaillard, 4 Chatham, works at, 110 Chester, designs for bridge, 193 Clifton, designs for chain-bridge, 282 Colthurst, Mr. Joseph, C.E., 290 Cotton, machine for twisting, 44 Crawford, Mr. Andrew, C.E,, 290 Criopyrite, 318 , Danneckee, anecdote of, 5 De Castries, Mardchal, 12 Delabigarre, M., 38 Desjardins, M., 23 Diving bell, operations in, 250 Dodd, Mr., C.E., 203 Dog, anecdote of, 3 Dulagne, M., 12 Dutens — Dupin,MM., municipal systems of France and England, 157, 163 Ellacombe, Eev. Mr., 118 ; Vicar of Bitton, 124 r eltham, Mr. John, 43 Field, Mr. Joshua, 66 Flahaut, M., 2 Floating pier, Liverpool, 20(1 Foreigners, prejudice against, 43 Francis, Mr., 299 French family in the backwoods of Ame- rica, 30 UAS, explosive, 298 Gisors, college of, 3 Goodrich, Mr. Samuel, 62 Gordon, Mr. Lewis D. B., C.E., 290 Gravatt, Mr., C.E., 236 Great Britain steamer, 336 Green-room, story of, Appendix E H ACQUEVILLE, 1 Harrison, Mr. George, 193 Hawes, Sir Benjamin, K.C.B., 155 Heathcote, Mr., 319 Hemming and stitching machine, 45 Honours, 269 Hyde, Lord Clarendon, anecdote of, 14 1 Kingdom, Miss, 16 ; imprisoned, 25 Knitting-machine, 143 Louis XVL, death of, 16 LoDguemar, 17 Margate, first steam boat to, 140; re- ception at, 141 Marine steam engine, improvements of. Appendix D Mason, Mr., C.E., 299 Maudslay, Mr. Henry, 49, 79 " Mechanics' Magazine," 55 Metallic paper, 145 Moshuus, Norway, organ at, 9 Municipal systems of Russia and France, 163 JXASMm-i, Mr., essay on tools and ma- chines, 48 Navy, neglected condition of, 130 Navy Board, 52 ; letter to, 79 ; difficulties presented by, 81 ; reasons for withhold- ing payment, 92 New York, French squadron at, 21; theatre at, 33 Nepean, Sir Evan, 69, 77 Nesselrode, Count, 159; letter from, 162 OjiBBEWAY Indians, 30 Organ, construction of, 9 ; by Watt, 9 Orleans, Duke of, 42 J ADDLE wheel, 184 Page, Ml-. Thomas, C.E., 290, 296 Panama, Isthmus of, 190 Pantograph, 44 Petits Blancs, 21 Pharoux, M., 23 Pocket copying press, 156 Portrait, story of, 5 Printing, origin of, 149; stereotype, 148 INDEX 359 PKI Printing press, improvements in, 151, 152, 153 Public works, mode of conducting in France, 157; in Russia, 162 UuESNEL, M., letter from, 156 a EES, Dr., 64 Riley, Mr., C.E., 236 Eostang, Baron de, 33 Rouen, Quay of, 8; opposition to machi- nery in, 10; disturbances at, 18; de- signs for, 156 Royal Society, Fellow of, 140 Rubble buildin?. 195 TOR Timber, machine for bending, 100 Tin foil, patent for, 1 44 Teredo navalis, 207 Thurman, Mr., 31 Transatlantic steam navigation, 188 Trees, number required to construct a 74-gnn ship, 89 Trevithick, Mr., C.E., 204 Tunnel, Thames, designs for, 207 ; com- pany formed, 209 ; shaft sunk, 211; shield, description of, 219; nature of the ground, 224; operations, 227 ; piece work, 231 ; first difficulty, 233 ; panics, 237 ; strike, 243 ; first irruption of river into, 245 ; return to shield, 252 ; dinner :r^ OR*?. ^,i^^r,A ;..l..^T^4-;^T. 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