Few more remarkable men than Brindley have appeared in these latter
times. He was not only the architect of his own fortune, but added
enormously to the wealth of others, and to the public resources. In the
acquirement of that knowledge which gave him the power of accomplishing
great schemes, he had none of the appliances and facilities which
competence furnishes and wealth commands; but he possessed advantages
which were of more value to a man like him――a mind not to be startled
at the prospect of its faculties being exerted――a resolution which,
in the true spirit of industry, held difficulties at defiance――and a
determination whose intellectual efforts circumstances could not baffle
or subdue.
James Brindley was born in the year 1716, at Tunsted, within the county
of Derby. His father had reduced himself to extreme poverty by habits
of dissipation and extravagance. Accordingly, any education that
Brindley received at school was, no doubt, of the very slightest and
most limited description. It appears, however, that the statement of
his inability to read and write is quite incorrect; several specimens
of his penmanship having been produced. He is said never to have been
instructed even in the first principles of mechanics, but was able
by a peculiar process of his own invention, to make most accurate
calculations. Besides, his memory adhered with amazing tenacity to any
facts or information committed to its keeping: and by such means did
this unquestioned benefactor of his kind countervail his deficiency of
early training and scientific knowledge.
Having passed a few years in agricultural operations――plying with
the flail or whistling at the plow――he was, at the age of seventeen,
apprenticed to a millwright at Macclesfield, in Cheshire. In this
situation his ideas were rapidly enlarged, and his faculties sharpened
by experience in the trade which he had selected, probably from
feeling that it would accord better with his tastes than the labors
of the husbandman had done. His mechanical genius now began to
develop itself, and to become perceptible; and so apparent was his
progress in obtaining a knowledge of the business, that his employer
frequently when absent from the mills, left him to execute pieces
of work without finding it necessary to give any instruction in
regard to them. Moreover, the different millers by whom they were
employed soon discovered his superiority, and infinitely preferred his
services to those of the master or any of the workmen belonging to
the establishment. On approaching manhood, Brindley himself felt that
he was destined for higher matters; and vague presentiments of better
days in store occupied and agitated his powerful mind as he resolutely
pursued his daily labors. Little could he imagine that he, the poor
journeyman of a rural millwright, should, ere long, be the instrument
of contributing materially to the national wealth; but it was ordered
that it should be so.
Meantime his employer became so advanced in years, that he was
incapable of working with effect. Brindley wisely seized the
opportunity of applying his skill and ingenuity to the business, proved
quite equal to the occasion, and exerted himself with so much success,
that he not only kept it up against all competitors, but rendered it so
flourishing a concern, that the old man and his family were enabled to
live in comfortable circumstances. Indeed the apprentice was now the
more skillful mechanic of the two, and he about this time gave proof of
such being the case.
The aged worthy happened to be engaged in the construction of a
paper-mill at some distance from his own workshop, and had proceeded
to a considerable extent with the operation, when some one skilled in
such matters observed that he was merely throwing his employer’s money
away. This remark reached the ears of Brindley, who, though perhaps
by no means so zealous for his master’s fame as the last minstrel
was for that of the jovial harper who had taught him when a youth,
resolved that it should be redeemed from such a reproach. He therefore
determined to go and inspect the work in question; though that was
not in any respect convenient, his time being otherwise occupied. But
“where there’s a will there’s a way;” and one Saturday evening he set
off on foot, without apprizing any one of his intended excursion, and,
having obtained a sight of the object of his journey, returned on
Monday morning in time for his work, after having walked a distance of
fifty miles. He was altogether without the advantage of having seen
a mill of the same kind before; but, nevertheless, was by this brief
and cursory survey enabled to comprehend every thing necessary to its
being properly completed. Taking the work under his superintendence,
he brought it to a termination that gave the proprietor perfect
satisfaction.
Brindley’s reputation after the success of this undertaking rose high
in the neighborhood, and he was induced to commence business on his own
account. His abilities soon became widely known and appreciated, and he
was extensively employed. He reaped much credit from the erection of
an engine intended to drain a coal-mine at Clifton, in that bustling
Lancashire where the cries are ever “Onward!” and “Haste!” which was
afterward the sphere of his scientific triumphs, and with the history
of which his name is so honorably linked. Under his auspices this piece
of work proceeded with unexpected and amazing rapidity, notwithstanding
the difficulties by which it was encompassed.
About this period a silk mill was being erected at Congleton, in
Cheshire. The more intricate machinery was intrusted to a more
experienced person, and Brindley was engaged merely to furnish the
larger wheels and coarser apparatus. It soon appeared, that in this
division of labor the Derbyshire aspirant had been treated with less
than justice. He was constantly compelled to point out and rectify the
errors and blunders; and at length, tiring of the irksome and invidious
task, he resolutely refused to remain in a subordinate capacity to a
person whose inferiority, in all that related to the matter in hand,
was proved incontestably by the experience of each succeeding day.
Then his employers, seeing how the case really stood, and prudently
considering that their own interests were concerned in Brindley’s
services being retained, appointed him sole manager of the work; which
he not only brought to a satisfactory conclusion, but added several
improvements of no inconsiderable value or importance.
While his name was rising and his reputation increasing, he had the
good fortune of becoming known to the Duke of Bridgewater. The latter
was no ordinary man. The youngest of five children, who successively
died off, he was, in boyhood, regarded as so sickly that his life was
despaired of and his intellect doubted. On this account his education
was for a time neglected. However, he was sent on a Continental tour,
under the guidance of a traveling tutor, and no doubt used his eyes to
better purpose than had been anticipated by his guardians, or than
his immediate pursuits would have led them to suppose. On returning to
England, he set about enjoying himself after the fashion of the day.
He appeared as the owner of race-horses, as a gentleman-rider, as the
frequenter of aristocratic assemblies, and as the successful suitor of
a celebrated beauty. It was on the last point that his fate turned.
Circumstances of a peculiar nature interfered with the matrimonial
project, and prevented the union. The young duke vowed perpetual
celibacy, declared he would never address another female in accents of
gallantry, and abandoning fashionable society, with all its pains, and
pleasures, and excitements, retired, with honor, to his estates in the
county of Lancaster.
Fortunately this representative of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere was
gifted with an ardent diligence which his illustrious progenitor might
have envied, and he forthwith began to develop the resources which
lay dormant in his hereditary possessions. Mr. Gilbert, a person who
had been much engaged in mining operations, became his assistant, and
exhibited a spirit of energy and perseverance kindred with that of his
employer. Brindley’s provincial fame was now not inconsiderable, and he
soon became acquainted with the young patrician, who had fled from the
wiles of noble matrons, and the fascinations of their fairer daughters,
to bleak coal-fields and barren moors.
The man who was now introduced to the then thin and slender duke,
who had escaped from race-courses, ball-rooms, and gaming-tables,
to earn for himself the proud and honorable title of the “Father
of British Inland Navigation,” was plain in appearance and boorish
in manners. But whenever he spoke bystanders listened with pleased
surprise at the enterprising courage which his words betokened; and
his conversation was in no small degree indicative of one of the
strong, rough, resolute, master minds, whose workings――stern and
independent――frequently benefit largely the human species, and minister
to the civilization of the wide world. He was just such a man as the
duke stood in need of for the carrying out of his plans of improvement,
and he readily consented to take service with that view.
The first undertaking on which Brindley entered in his new position
was the Bridgewater Canal. Having surveyed the ground, and reported
that it presented no insuperable difficulties, an Act of Parliament was
obtained, and the enterprise proceeded with under his superintendence.
The self-taught engineer was branded by turns as an enthusiast, a
madman, and a person unworthy of trust; but his intellectual courage
and unshrinking confidence in the expedients of his own bold, powerful,
and original mind defied all such assaults; and he remained unmoved
by the sneers, scorn, and ridicule directed against his projects.
His heart and soul were in the enterprise, and obstacles disappeared
before his determined will. Strangers came from afar to view the
gigantic operations, and marveled at the facility with which the plain,
hard-headed, illiterate man, found means to handle huge rocks, and
remove them at his pleasure. This pursuit completely monopolized his
thoughts and occupied his attention; he cared not for recreation or
amusement. Unceasing industry seemed the law of his being. When in
London he was once persuaded to go to the theatre, but declared that
the whole scene so confused his ideas, and unfitted him for business,
that he would, on no consideration, repeat his visit.
He appears to have had no idea of the beauties of nature, nor any
perception of the objects which make up fine scenery. When under
examination by a committee of the House of Commons, he was asked for
what purpose he conceived rivers to have been created? and, after a
slight pause, replied,
“Undoubtedly to feed canals.”
To the end of his extraordinary career, this wonderful man was occupied
in his favorite pursuits, and his application to the subject was
intense throughout. While the Grand Trunk Navigation Canal, to which he
devoted so much thought and energy, was progressing toward completion
under his auspices, and he was feeding his mind with visions of the
great things it was to accomplish, his death, hastened by mental
exertion, took place at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, on the 27th of
September, 1772.