was a deep philologist—he talked with him on the origin of the
alphabet, as if he had been coeval with Cadmus; another a
celebrated critic—you would have said the old man had studied
political economy and belles lettres all his life. Of science it is
unnecessary to speak—it was his own distinguished walk. And yet,
Captain Clutterbuck, when he spoke with your countryman, Jedediah
Cleishbotham, you would have sworn he had been coeval with Claverse
and Burley, with the persecutors and persecuted, and could number
every shot the dragoons had fired at the fugitive Covenanters. In
fact, we discovered that no novel of the least celebrity escaped
his perusal, and that the gifted man of science was as much
addicted to the productions of your native country, in other words,
as shameless and obstinate a peruser of novels, as if he had been a
very milliner's apprentice of eighteen."
In the Edinburgh newspaper, called the _Scotsman_, of the 4th
September, 1819, immediately after the decease of Watt, the
following sketch was published from the pen of Lord Jeffrey:—
"This name fortunately needs no commemoration of ours; for he
that bore it survived to see it crowned with undisputed and
unenvied honours; and many generations will probably pass away
before it shall have gathered 'all its fame.' We have said
that Mr. Watt was the great _improver_ of the steam engine;
but, in truth, as to all that is admirable in its structure,
or vast in its utility, he should rather be described as its
_inventor_. It was by his inventions, that its action was so
regulated as to make it capable of being applied to the finest
and most delicate manufactures, and its power so increased, as
to set weight and solidity at defiance. By his admirable
contrivance, it has become a thing stupendous alike for its
force and its flexibility—for the prodigious power which it
can exert, and the ease, and precision, and ductility with
which it can be varied, distributed, and applied. The trunk of
an elephant, that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is as
nothing to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of
obdurate metal before it—draw out, without breaking, a thread
as fine as gossamer, and lift a ship of war like a bauble in
the air. It can embroider muslin, and forge anchors—cut steel
into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the
winds and waves. [Pg316]
"It would be difficult to estimate the value of the benefits
which these inventions have conferred upon this country. There
is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them;
and, in all the most material, they have not only widened most
magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a
thousand fold the amount of its productions. It is our
improved steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe,
and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous
contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same
great power which now enables us to pay the interest of our
debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are
still engaged (1819), with the skill and capital of countries
less oppressed with taxation. But these are poor and narrow
views of its importance. It has increased indefinitely the
mass of human comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and
accessible all over the world the materials of wealth and
prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short,
with a power to which no limits can be assigned; completed the
dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter;
and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of
mechanic power which are to aid and reward the labours of
after generations. It is to the genius of one man, too, that
all this is mainly owing; and certainly no man ever bestowed
such a gift on his kind. The blessing is not only universal,
but unbounded; and the fabled inventors of the plough and the
loom, who were deified by the erring gratitude of their rude
contemporaries, conferred less important benefits on mankind
than the inventor of our present steam engine.
"This will be the fame of Watt with future generations; and it is
sufficient for his race and his country. But to those to whom he
more immediately belonged, who lived in his society and enjoyed his
conversation, it is not, perhaps, the character in which he will be
most frequently recalled—most deeply lamented—or even most highly
admired. Independently of his great attainments in mechanics, Mr.
Watt was an extraordinary, and in many respects a wonderful man.
Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such varied
and exact information—had read so much, or remembered what he had
read so accurately and well. He had infinite quickness of
apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rectifying and
methodising power of understanding, which extracted something
precious out of all that was presented to it. His stores of
miscellaneous knowledge were immense; and yet less astonishing than
the command he had at all times over them. It seemed as if every
subject that was casually started in conversation with him, had
been that which he had been last occupied in studying and
exhausting;—such was the copiousness, the precision, and the
admirable clearness of the information which he poured out upon it
without effort or hesitation. Nor was this promptitude and compass
of knowledge confined in any degree to the studies connected with
his ordinary pursuits. That he should have been minutely and
extensively skilled in chemistry and the arts, and in most of the
branches of physical science, might perhaps have been conjectured;
but it could not have been inferred from his usual occupations, and
probably is not generally known, that he was curiously learned in
many branches of antiquity, metaphysics, medicine, and etymology;
and perfectly at home in all the details of architecture, music,
and law. He was well acquainted, too, with most of the modern
languages, and familiar with their most recent literature. Nor was
it at all extraordinary to hear the great mechanician and engineer
detailing and expounding, for hours together, [Pg317] the
metaphysical theories of the German logicians, or criticising the
measures or the matter of the German poetry.
"His astonishing memory was aided, no doubt, in a great measure,
by a still higher and rarer faculty—by his power of digesting,
and arranging in its proper place, all the information he
received; and of casting aside and rejecting, as it were
instinctively, whatever was worthless or immaterial. Every
conception that was suggested to his mind seemed instantly to
take its place among its other rich furniture, and to be
condensed into the smallest and most convenient form. He never
appeared, therefore, to be at all incumbered or perplexed with
the _verbiage_ of the dull books he perused, or to the idle talk
to which he listened; but to have at once extracted, by a kind
of intellectual alchemy, all that was worthy of attention, and
to have reduced it, for his own use, to its true value and to
its simplest form. And thus it often happened, that a great deal
more was learned from his brief and vigorous account of the
theories and arguments of tedious writers, than an ordinary
student could ever have derived from the most painful study of
the originals; and that errors and absurdities became manifest
from the mere clearness and plainness of his statement of them,
which might have deluded and perplexed most of his hearers
without that invaluable assistance.
"It is needless to say that, with those vast resources, his
conversation was at all times rich and instructive in no ordinary
degree: but it was, if possible, still more pleasing than wise; and
had all the charms of familiarity with all the substantial
treasures of knowledge. No man could be more social in his spirit,
less assuming or fastidious in his manners, or more kind and
indulgent toward all who approached him. He rather liked to
talk,—at least in his latter years; but though he took a
considerable share of the conversation, he rarely suggested the
topics on which it was to turn, but readily and quietly took up
whatever was presented by those around him, and astonished the idle
and barren propounders of an ordinary theme by the treasures which
he drew from the mine they had unconsciously opened. He generally
seemed, indeed, to have no choice or predilection for one subject
of discourse rather than another; but allowed his mind, like a
great cyclopædia, to be opened at any letter his associates might
choose to turn up, and only endeavoured to select from his
inexhaustible stores, what might be best adapted to the taste of
his present hearers. As to their capacity he gave himself no
trouble; and indeed such was his singular talent for making all
things plain, clear, and intelligible, that scarcely any one could
be aware of such a deficiency in his presence. His talk, too,
though overflowing with information, had no resemblance to
lecturing or solemn discoursing, but, on the contrary, was full of
colloquial spirit and pleasantry. He had a certain quiet and grave
humour which ran through most of his conversation; and a vein of
temperate jocularity, which gave infinite zest and effect to the
condensed and inexhaustible information which formed its main
staple and characteristic. There was a little air of affected
testiness, and a tone of pretended rebuke and contradiction, with
which he used to address his younger friends, that was always felt
by them as an endearing mark of his kindness and familiarity; and
prized, accordingly, far beyond all the solemn compliments that
ever proceeded from the lips of authority. His voice was deep and
powerful, though he commonly spoke in a low and somewhat monotonous
tone, which harmonised admirably with the weight and brevity of his
observations, and set off to the greatest advantage the pleasant
[Pg318] anecdotes, which he delivered with the same grave brow, and
the same calm smile playing soberly on his lips. There was nothing
of effort, indeed, or impatience, any more than of pride or levity,
in his demeanour; and there was a finer expression of reposing
strength, and mild self-possession in his manner, than we ever
recollect to have met with in any other person. He had in his
character the utmost abhorrence for all sorts of forwardness,
parade, and pretensions; and, indeed, never failed to put all such
impostures out of countenance, by the manly plainness and honest
intrepidity of his language and deportment.
"In his temper and dispositions, he was not only kind and
affectionate, but generous, and considerate of the feelings of
all around him; and gave the most liberal assistance and
encouragement to all young persons who showed any indications of
talent, or applied to him for patronage or advice. His health,
which was delicate from his youth upwards, seemed to become
firmer as he advanced in years; and he preserved, up almost to
the last moment of his existence, not only the full command of
his extraordinary intellect, but all the alacrity of spirit and
the social gaiety which had illumined his happiest days. His
friends in this part of the country never saw him more full of
intellectual vigour and colloquial animation—never more
delightful or more instructive—than in his last visit to
Scotland in autumn 1817. Indeed, it was after that time that he
applied himself, with all the ardour of early life, to the
invention of a machine for mechanically copying all sorts of
sculpture and statuary; and distributed among his friends some
of its earliest performances, as the productions of a young
artist just entering on his eighty-third year.
"This happy and useful life came, at last, to a gentle close.
He had suffered some inconvenience through the summer; but was
not seriously indisposed till within a few weeks of his death.
He then became perfectly aware of the event which was
approaching; and with his usual tranquillity and benevolence
of nature, seemed only anxious to point out to the friends
around him, the many sources of consolation which were
afforded by the circumstances under which it was about to take
place. He expressed his sincere gratitude to Providence for
the length of days with which he had been blessed, and his
exemption from most of the infirmities of age; as well as for
the calm and cheerful evening of life that he had been
permitted to enjoy, after the honourable labours of the day
had been concluded. And thus, full of years and honours, in
all calmness and tranquillity, he yielded up his soul without
pang or struggle; and passed from the bosom of his family to
that of his God."
The English nation has ever shown itself insensible to the claims
of genius and high intellectual endowments, except where the
results have been brought directly to bear in statesmanship or
war. Of this inability to appreciate the highest order of
intellectual excellence Watt affords a striking example. When it
was suggested to the British government by those better capable
than that government was of appreciating the genius of this great
man, that the nation would do itself honour by erecting a splendid
monument at his own [Pg319] cost to him to whom it was so deeply
indebted for the extension of its resources and the augmentation
of its power, the reply was that such a measure could not be
adopted as it might be drawn into a precedent in like cases
thereafter! A precedent in like cases!! When will the time arrive
when the world will produce a like case? The monument which has
been erected in Westminster Abbey was in fact raised by private
subscription, the nation having thus stigmatised itself through
the act of its government with the everlasting disgrace of
refusing the honour proposed to it. The other statues and
monuments which have been erected to this great man, have been for
the most part raised by the filial piety and the never-dying
affection and veneration of the present Mr. James Watt. A statue
has been presented by him to the University of Glasgow, and placed
in one of the halls of that college. The inhabitants of Greenock
have also erected a marble statue of Watt, for which, and for a
library, a building has been erected at the expense of about
3,500_l._ which has been defrayed by Mr. James Watt. A colossal
bronze statue has been erected on a handsome granite pedestal,
standing at one of the corners of George Square, Glasgow. The
monument in Westminster Abbey, erected by the subscription raised
at the public meeting already alluded to, is a colossal statue of
Carrara marble, by Chantrey.
Watt was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in
1784; of the Royal Society of London in 1785; a member of the
Batavian Society in 1787; and a corresponding member of the
Institut of France in 1808. The degree of Doctor of Laws was
conferred upon him by the University of Glasgow, in 1806; and in
1814, the highest scientific honour which can be attained by a
philosopher, was conferred on him by the Academy of Sciences of
the Institut of France, who nominated him one of its eight foreign
associates.
On the pedestal of the monument in Westminster Abbey is engraved
the following inscription from the pen of Lord Brougham:—
[Pg320]
NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL
ARTS FLOURISH, BUT TO SHOW THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNED TO HONOUR
THOSE WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE, THE KING HIS MINISTERS,
AND MANY OF THE NOBLES AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM RAISED THIS
MONUMENT TO
JAMES WATT,
WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS, EARLY EXERCISED
IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE STEAM
ENGINE, ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY, INCREASED THE
POWER OF MAN, AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE AMONG THE MOST
ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF
THE WORLD. BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI. DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN
STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX.
[Illustration: WATT'S CHAPEL IN HANDSWORTH CHURCH.]
FOOTNOTES:
[25] See Buchanan on the Economy of Fuel and Management of
Heat, especially as it relates to heating and drying by means
of Steam.
[26] See Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia, article
STEAM-DRYING MACHINE.
[27] The following are the words in which Watt makes this
remarkable announcement to Priestley:—
"Let us now consider what obviously happens in the deflagration
of the inflammable (hydrogen) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen).
These two kinds of air unite with violence; they become red hot,
and upon cooling, totally disappear. When the vessel is cooled,
a quantity of water is found in it equal to the weight of the
air employed. This water is then the only remaining product of
the process; and water, light, and heat are all the products.
"Are we not then authorised to conclude, that water is composed
of dephlogisticated air (oxygen) and phlogiston (hydrogen),
deprived of part of their latent or elementary heat; that
dephlogisticated or pure air (oxygen) is composed of water
deprived of its phlogiston (hydrogen), and united to elementary
heat and light; and that the latter are contained in it in a
latent state, so as not to be sensible to the thermometer or to
the eye; and if light be only a modification of heat, or a
circumstance attending it, or a component part of the
inflammable air (hydrogen), then pure or dephlogisticated air
(oxygen) is composed of water deprived of its phlogiston
(hydrogen), and united to elementary heat."
[28] Those who desire to investigate this controversy more in
detail will find very full information on the subject in the
Translation of Arago's Eloge, with notes and appendix by J. P.
Muirhead, Esq. Murray, London, 1839.
[29] An account of this remarkable apparatus, accompanied by an
engraving made from a drawing supplied by Watt, was communicated
by Sir John Robison to the _Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_ in
1820. _See_ vol. iii, p. 60.
[Pg321]
[Illustration]
CHAP. XI.
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES ON RAILWAYS.
NON-CONDENSING ENGINES. — LEUPOLD'S ENGINE.-TREVETHICK AND
VIVIAN. — EFFECTS OF RAILWAY TRANSPORT. — HISTORY OF THE
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. — BLENKINSOP. — MESSRS. CHAPMAN. — WALKING
ENGINE. — MR. STEPHENSON'S ENGINES AT KILLINGWORTH. —
LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. — EXPERIMENTAL TRIAL. — THE
ROCKET. — THE SANSPAREIL. — THE NOVELTY. — SUBSEQUENT
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE. — LARDNER'S EXPERIMENTS
IN 1832. — ADOPTION OF BRASS TUBES. — MR. BOOTH'S REPORT. —
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST IMPROVED LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES.
— POWER OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES. — EVAPORATION OF BOILERS. —
LARDNER'S EXPERIMENTS IN 1838. — RESISTANCE TO RAILWAY TRAINS.
— RESTRICTIONS ON GRADIENTS. — COMPENSATING EFFECT OF
GRADIENTS. — EXPERIMENT WITH THE HECLA. — METHODS OF
SURMOUNTING STEEP INCLINATIONS.
(180.) In the various modifications of the steam engine which we
have hitherto considered, the pressure introduced on one side of the
piston derives its efficacy either wholly or partially from the
vacuum produced by condensation on the other side. This always
requires a condensing apparatus, and a constant and abundant supply
of cold water. An engine of this kind must therefore necessarily
have considerable dimensions and weight, and is inapplicable to uses
in which a small and light machine only is admissible. If the
condensing apparatus be dispensed with, the piston will always be
resisted by a force equal to the atmospheric [Pg322] pressure, and
the only part of the steam pressure which will be available as a
moving power, is that part by which it exceeds the pressure of the
atmosphere. Hence, in engines which do not work by condensation,
steam of a much higher pressure than that of the atmosphere is
indispensably necessary, and such engines are therefore called
_high-pressure engines_.
We are not, however, to understand that every engine, in which
steam is used of a pressure exceeding that of the atmosphere, is
what is meant by an _high-pressure engine_; for in the ordinary
engines in common use, constructed on Watt's principle, the
safety-valve is loaded with from 3 to 5 lbs. on the square inch;
and in Woolf's engines, the steam is produced under a pressure of
40 lbs. on the square inch. These would therefore be more properly
called _condensing engines_ than _low-pressure engines_; a term
quite inapplicable to those of Woolf. In fact, by _high-pressure
engines_ is meant engines in which no vacuum is produced, and,
therefore, in which the piston works against a pressure equal to
that of the atmosphere.
In these engines the whole of the condensing apparatus, viz. the
cold-water cistern, condenser, air-pump, cold-water pump, &c., are
dispensed with, and nothing is retained except the boiler,
cylinder, piston, and valves. Consequently, such an engine is
small, light, and cheap. It is portable also, and may be moved, if
necessary, along with its load, and is therefore well adapted to
locomotive purposes.
(181.) High-pressure engines were one of the earliest forms of the
steam engine. The contrivance, which is obscurely described in the
article already quoted (7.), from the Century of Inventions, is a
high-pressure engine; for the power there alluded to is the
elastic force of steam working against the atmospheric pressure.
Newcomen, in 1705, applied the working-beam, cylinder, and piston
to the atmospheric engine; and Leupold, about 1720, combined the
working-beam and cylinder with the high-pressure principle, and
produced the earliest high-pressure engine worked by a cylinder
and piston. The following is a description of Leupold's engine:—
[Pg323]
[Illustration: _Fig._ 82.]
A (_fig._ 82.) is the boiler, with the furnace beneath it; C C are
two cylinders with solid pistons P P′, connected with the
working-beams B B′, to which are attached the pump-rods R R′, of
two forcing pumps F F′, which communicate with a great force-pipe
S; G is a _four-way cock_ (66.) already described. In the position
in which it stands in the figure, the steam issues from below the
piston P into the atmosphere, and the piston is descending by its
own weight; steam from the boiler is at the same time pressing up
the piston P′, with a force equal to the difference between the
pressure of the steam and that of the atmosphere. Thus the piston
R of the forcing-pump is being drawn up, and the piston P′ is
forcing the piston R′ down, and thereby driving water into the
force-pipe [Pg324] S. On the arrival of the piston P at the
bottom of the cylinder C, and P′ at the top of the cylinder C′,
the position of the cock is changed as represented in _fig._ 83.
The steam, which has just pressed up the piston P′, is allowed to
escape into the atmosphere, while the steam, passing from the
boiler below the piston P, presses it up, and thus P ascends by
the steam pressure, and P′ descends by its own weight. By these
means the piston R is forced down, driving before it the water in
the pump-cylinder into the force-pipe S, and the piston R′ is
drawn up to allow the other pump-cylinder to be re-filled; and so
the process is continued.
[Illustration: _Fig._ 83.]
A valve is placed in the bottom of the force-pipes, to prevent the
water which has been driven into it from returning. This valve
opens upwards; and, consequently, the weight of the water pressing
upon it only keeps it more effectually closed. On each descent of
the piston, the pressure transmitted to the valve acting upwards
being greater than the weight of the water resting upon it, forces
it open, and an increased quantity of water is introduced.
(182.) From the date of the improvement of Watt until the
commencement of the present century, non-condensing engines were
altogether neglected in these countries. In the year 1802, Messrs.
Trevethick and Vivian constructed the first non-condensing engine
of this kind which was ever brought into extensive practical use
in this kingdom. A section of this machine, made by a vertical
plane, is represented in _fig._ 84.