Though one of the most successful engineers of his age, Brindley was so
illiterate as to be scarcely able to read or to write. By his unrivalled
powers of abstraction and memory, he often executed his plans without
committing them to paper; and when he was engaged in any difficult or
complex undertaking, he was in the habit of retiring to bed, where he
often remained for two or three days, till he had thoroughly completed
his design. So singular, indeed, was the structure of his mind, that the
spectacle of a play in London, disturbed to such a degree the balance of
its mechanism, that he could not, for some time, resume his usual
pursuits.
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