caused, at the instance of the Irish Government, a survey to be made of
the harbour of Dublin to beyond the Bar at Howth; and on this occasion
projected a pier from the Clontarf shore to a due distance from the
lighthouse, and then to the westward to a proper distance from the
north wall, so as to confine all the tidal water covering that vast
space, and to cause it to pass down the channel of Pool Beg, in place
of being permitted to flow inwards and outwards over the North Bull.
In the year 1794 Mr. Chapman returned from Ireland, and fixed his
general residence at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. About this time the great
project of a canal communication between the German Ocean and the
Irish Sea, was engaging general attention in the North of England,
and Mr. Chapman was fixed upon to survey the line of country for this
proposed canal between Newcastle and the Solway Firth. His reports on
this subject, which were made during the years 1795 and 1796, are still
extant; and although the work to which they relate was never executed,
the documents connected with it are of a very interesting nature. In
1808 this project, which had lain dormant for many years, was again
revived, and Mr. Telford was employed to survey and report upon the
best line of canal between Carlisle and a suitable port on the Solway
Firth. Although Mr. Telford's plan was highly approved of, the time
had not yet arrived for the carrying out of even this small portion of
the original great scheme; and it was not until the year 1818, when
Mr. Chapman drew up a plan and report upon this line from Carlisle to
Bowness, that a Bill was brought into Parliament, for which an act
was obtained early in 1819. The canal which has been in successful
operation for many years, is eleven-and-a-half miles in length, and
cost about 120,000_l._ It commences on the south-eastern side of
Carlisle, and falls into the sea, through a height of seventy feet, by
means of nine locks.
About the year 1796 Mr. Chapman became a member of the Society of
Civil Engineers, which at that time numbered amongst its members Watt,
Jessop, and Rennie, and amongst its honorary associates Sir Joseph
Banks, and other leading men of the day. In conjunction with Mr.
Rennie, Chapman was then occupied in designing the London Docks, and
subsequently the southern dock and basin at Hull. He was also engaged
as engineer for the construction of Leith, Scarborough, and Seaham
Harbours, the last named work being undertaken for the Marquis of
Londonderry.
In addition to his regular professional occupations, Mr. Chapman
devoted a portion of his time to the publication of works bearing on
engineering. Amongst the most important of these were the following: 'A
Treatise on the various inventions for effecting ascents in rivers;'
'Hints on the necessity of Legislative interference for registering the
extent of workings in the Coal Seams, and preventing such accidents
as arise from want of that knowledge;' 'An Essay on Cordage;' and
'A Treatise on the preservation of Timber from premature decay.'
Mr. Chapman also took out a patent for an improvement upon Captain
Huddart's system of manufacturing ropes. This method was successfully
carried into effect in all the rope grounds on the river Tyne, and in
some of those on the Wear and Tweed. His next invention was for an
expeditious and easily practicable method of lowering coal waggons,
with their contents, immediately over the hatchways of ships, so as to
prevent the great breakage of coals which attended the usual method of
shooting them through long spouts; this system, after the expiration of
the patent became universal upon the Tyne.
Mr. Chapman possessed a robust constitution, and practised through
life the most temperate habits; he was thus enabled to retain the full
enjoyment of his faculties, and to continue employed upon various
public works, in drainages, canals, and harbours, up till within a
very short period of his decease, which occurred in 1832, in the
eighty-third year of his age.--_Life of Chapman._ London, John Weale.
SIR WILLIAM CONGREVE, BART., F.R.S.
Born in Middlesex, May 20, 1772. Died May 3, 1828.
Sir William Congreve was the son of the first baronet, an Artillery
officer of the same name. He entered early into the branch of military
service his father had pursued, and, in 1816, attained in it the rank
of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was also at this time equerry to the Prince
Regent, which office he retained on the occasion of his quitting the
military service in 1820. Congreve very early distinguished himself by
his inventions in the construction of missiles. He invented the rocket
which bears his name in the year 1808, and succeeded in establishing
this destructive engine of warfare as a permanent instrument in
military and naval tactics, both at home and abroad. It was used by
Lord Cochrane in his attack on the French squadron in the Basque
roads, in the expedition against Walcheren, at Waterloo, and with
most serviceable effect in the attack on Algiers. It was also used at
the battle of Leipzig in 1813, and for its service on this occasion
the Order of St. Anne was conferred on Sir William by the Emperor
of Russia. Since that time the rocket has been much improved and
modified, and has become an essential part of every armament, not in
England alone, but universally.
Sir William Congreve was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the
year 1811. In 1812 he became a Member of Parliament for Gatton, and in
1820 and 1826 for Plymouth. He succeeded his father as baronet in 1814.
Besides the above important invention, Sir William wrote and published
in 1812 an 'Elementary Treatise on the Mounting of Naval Ordnance,' and
in 1815 'A Description of the Hydro-Pneumatic Lock.' During the course
of the same year he obtained a patent for a new mode of manufacturing
gunpowder. This invention consisted, first, of a machine for producing
as perfect a mixture as possible of the ingredients; and, secondly,
of an improved mode of passing the mill-cake under the press, and a
new granulating machine. In 1819 a patent was granted to him for an
improved mode of inlaying or combining different metals, and another
for certain improvements in the manufacture of bank-note paper for the
prevention of forgery.
The last public service performed by Sir William was the drawing up
and publishing, in 1823, a very interesting report on the gaslight
establishments of the metropolis. In 1826, he became mixed up in the
speculative mania which prevailed at that period, and was ultimately
compelled to seek refuge on the continent at Toulouse, where he shortly
afterwards died at the age of fifty-six.--_Annual Register_, 1828.
SAMUEL CROMPTON.
Born December 3, 1753. Died June 26, 1827.
Few men, perhaps, have ever conferred so great a benefit on their
country and reaped so little profit for themselves as Samuel Crompton,
inventor of the Spinning Mule. He was born at Firwood, in the township
of Tonge near Bolton, where his parents occupied a farm, and spent
their leisure hours according to the custom of the period--in the
operations of carding, spinning, and weaving. Soon after the birth of
Samuel, the Cromptons removed to a cottage near Lower Wood in the same
township, and afterwards, when their child was five years old, to a
portion of the neighbouring ancient mansion called Hall-in-the-Wood.
Almost immediately after this last removal Samuel's father died, at the
early age of thirty seven, and he was left to be brought up under the
care of his mother, a prudent and virtuous woman, who took care that
her son should have the benefit of all available means of education.
Samuel first attended the school of Mr. Lever in Church Street,
Bolton, but was very early removed to the school of William Barlow, a
master well known at that time for his success as a teacher of writing,
arithmetic, and the higher branches of mathematics.
From the exigencies of her situation, Mrs. Crompton was compelled to
take advantage of her son's assistance, as soon as she possibly could,
and there is little doubt that Samuel's legs must have been accustomed
to the loom almost as soon as they were long enough to touch the
treddles. Little, however, is known of his early life until the year
1769. He was then sixteen years old, and continued to reside with his
mother, occupied during the day at the loom and spending his evenings
at a school in Bolton, where he advanced his knowledge of algebra,
mathematics, and trigonometry. For some years previous to this period
there had been a greatly increased demand for all kinds of cotton
goods, particularly for imitations of the fine muslins imported from
India; and many attempts were made by the manufacturers in Lancashire
and Scotland to produce similar fabrics, but without success, for the
handspun yarn of this country could not compete with the delicate
filaments produced by Hindoo fingers. Still, the demand for fine
cottons of various kinds was so considerable, that the weavers, for the
sake of high wages, were stimulated to make great exertions. But they
were continually impeded by the scarcity of yarn for weft, which often
kept them idle half their time, or compelled them to collect it in
small quantities from the cottages round about.
Another important cause of this scarcity had been the invention of
the fly-shuttle, by Kay of Bury, in 1738, which by doubling the speed
of the weaver's operations, had destroyed the arrangement which,
up to that time, existed between the quantity of yarn spun and the
weavers' demand for it. This natural balance, the fly-shuttle suddenly
disturbed, and, notwithstanding the great efforts of others, it was not
again adjusted until after Crompton's invention was in full operation.
Such was the weavers' state of starvation for yarn, when, in 1767,
Hargreaves invented the jenny, which enabled a number of threads to be
spun at the same time.
It was on one of these machines with eight spindles, that Samuel
Crompton was in the habit of spinning the yarn which he afterwards wove
into quilting, and he continued thus occupied for the five following
years. During this period, being debarred from company and accustomed
to solitude, he began to show a taste for music; to gratify which he
was led to the first trial of his mechanical skill in making a violin,
upon which he commenced learning to play. With this musical friend
Crompton would beguile many a long winter night, or during the summer
evenings wander contemplatively among the green lanes, or by the margin
of the pleasant brook that swept round the romantic old residence of
Hall-in-the-Wood. He had, however, little leisure in general to spend
with his favourite instrument; the necessities of his situation
compelled him to perform daily a certain amount of weaving, and he
only succeeded in performing this at the expense of much time lost in
mending the ever breaking ends of the yarn spun on Hargreave's machine,
which was of a very soft nature, and quite unfitted for warps or for
the muslins so much in demand.
During this same period Arkwright had risen to eminence, by adopting
and carrying into practice the ideas of Highs,[13] and one Kay a
clockmaker, and had constructed his water-frame, which by means of
rollers produced thread of a very superior texture and firmness.
It remained, however, for Crompton to combine in his machine the
improvements of Hargreaves and Arkwright, and hence was derived the
name given to it of the Spinning-Mule.
Crompton commenced the construction of this machine, which for many
years was known by the name of the 'Hall-i'-th'-Wood Wheels,' in the
year 1774. His first spinning-mule was constructed chiefly in wood,
by the aid of a scanty supply of tools which had been left by his
father, who, enthusiastically fond of music, had shortly before his
death commenced making an organ. With the help of these tools, and
the assistance which a small wayside smithy afforded him, Samuel
Crompton completed that invention which, from the extended benefits
it has conferred upon our commerce, entitles him to rank amongst the
greatest inventors Britain has ever produced. The important part of his
invention was the spindle carriage, and the principle of there being no
strain upon the thread until it was completed. This was accomplished by
causing the carriage with the spindles to recede by the movement of the
hand and knee, just as the rollers delivered out the elongated thread
in a soft state, so that it would allow of a considerable stretch,
before the thread had to encounter the stress of winding upon the
spindle. "This," as the late Mr. Kennedy of Manchester truly said, "was
the corner stone of his invention."
When Crompton was on the eve of completing his first mule, about the
year 1779, the Blackburn spinners and weavers, who had previously
driven Hargreaves from his home, again commenced their riotous
proceedings, and began to destroy all the jennys round about, which
had more than twenty spindles. Crompton, fearful lest his new machine
should meet with a similar fate, took it to pieces and kept it hid in a
loft above the ceiling of his room during several weeks. In the course
of the same year, however, the Hall-i'-th'-Wood Wheel was completed,
and the yarn spun on it proved fit for the manufacture of muslins of an
extremely fine and delicate texture.
Shortly before this, Crompton had married Mary Pimlott, the daughter
of a gentleman residing at New Keys Hall, near Warrington. After
his marriage he lived in a cottage attached to the old Hall, though
he still continued to occupy part of the mansion, in one of whose
large rooms he now operated upon the mule with the utmost secrecy
and with perfect success, startling the manufacturing world by the
production of yarn which both in fineness and firmness had hitherto
been unattainable. This seems to have been the happiest portion of
Crompton's life. He was then twenty-seven years of age, and the
acknowledged inventor of a machine which, from the first hour of its
operation, altered the entire system of cotton manufacture in this
country. Its merit was universally acknowledged by all engaged in
the trade who had an opportunity to examine the yarn spun on it, or
the fabrics made from that yarn; but paradoxical as it may appear,
the very _perfection of his principle of spinning_, was in a measure
instrumental in depriving him of the harvest for which he had so
laboriously worked.
The demand for his yarn became so extensive and urgent, that the old
Hall was literally besieged by manufacturers and others from the
surrounding districts--many of whom came to purchase yarn, but many
more to try and penetrate the mystery of the new wheel, and to discover
if possible the principle of its operations. All kinds of stratagems
were practised in order to obtain admission to the house; and one
inquisitive adventurer is said to have ensconced himself for some days
in the cockloft, where he watched Samuel at work through a gimlet-hole
pierced through the ceiling.
Crompton, at length wearied out, and seeing the utter impossibility
of retaining his secret, or of spinning upon the machine with the
undisturbed secrecy he desired, yielded to the urgent solicitations,
and liberal but deceitful promises of numerous manufacturers, and
surrendered to them not only the secret of the principle upon which he
spun the much prized yarn, but likewise the machine itself. This he
did on the faith of an agreement drawn up by themselves, in which they
promised to subscribe certain sums as a reward for his improvement in
spinning. No sooner, however, was the mule given up to the public than
the subscriptions entirely ceased, and many of those who had previously
put down their names evaded or refused payment; some actually denounced
Crompton as an impostor, and when he respectfully put before them their
own written agreement, asked him how he dared to come on such an errand!
The gross sum of money realized by this subscription amounted to
between 50 and 100_l._ Mr. Crompton himself says:--"I received as
much by way of subscription as built me a new machine, with only
four spindles more than the one I had given up--the old one having
forty-eight, and the new one fifty-two spindles." This shameful
treatment rested in Crompton's memory through life, and to the morbid
distrust of his fellow-men, which it engendered, may be ascribed many
of the misfortunes which attended his succeeding life.
About the year 1785 Mr. Crompton removed from the 'Hall-in-the-Wood' to
a farmhouse at Oldhams, in the township of Sharples, about two miles
from Bolton. Here he farmed several acres of land, and kept three
or four cows; while in the upper story of the house was erected his
spinning mule, upon which he continued to spin with as much privacy
as possible. He was, nevertheless, still troubled by many curious
visitors, who were desirous of seeing the improvements he was supposed
to have made on it. Among others he received two visits from the first
Sir Robert Peel, then an eminent though untitled manufacturer, who
came with the hope of inducing Crompton to join his establishment, and
on his second visit made him an offer of partnership. It is much to
be regretted that this offer was declined, as Mr. Peel's enterprising
business character was exactly that most suited for supporting
Crompton's great inventive genius. Had these two men continued as
partners at this particular time, the successful development of the
cotton trade would have been hastened by at least twenty years, while a
large and well deserved fortune might have been secured to Crompton and
his children.
Excelling all other spinners in the quality and fineness of his yarn,
Crompton continued to obtain a high price for all he could produce,
but his production was restricted to the work of his own hands, (an
increasing family having deprived him of the aid of his wife); for
whenever he commenced to teach any new hands to assist him in his
work, no matter how strictly they were bound to serve him by honour,
by gratitude, or by law, as soon as they acquired a little knowledge
and experience under his tuition, they were invariably seduced from his
service by his wealthy competitors; so that he was ultimately compelled
to renounce the use of his mules, and betake himself to his original
occupation of weaving, or at least to spin only such yarn as he could
employ in his own looms as a small manufacturer.
In 1800 some gentlemen of Manchester, among whom ought to be mentioned
Mr. George Lee and Mr. Kennedy, sensible that Mr. Crompton had been
illused and neglected, agreed, without his knowledge, to promote a
subscription on such a scale as would result in a substantial reward
for his labours. But this scheme, although generous and noble in its
intention, in a great measure failed. Before it could be carried out,
the country suffered severe distress from a failure in the crops; in
addition to this the horrors of the French Revolution approached their
crisis; war broke out, and trade was all but extinguished. Ultimately,
all that could be realized amounted to about 450_l._, and this was
handed over to Crompton to enable him to increase his operations in
spinning and weaving.
In October, 1807, Mr. Crompton, in the hopes of gaining the patronage
of Sir Joseph Banks, wrote a letter to him, but unfortunately addressed
it to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Society of Arts, and it is
probable that Sir Joseph never read the letter, but transmitted it
to the Society to which it was addressed; in any case, no notice was
taken of this letter, and Crompton's too morbidly sensitive mind thus
received an additional wound.
Two or three years after this, his family circumstances became very
precarious, and in the undefined hope of yet obtaining some recompense
for his labours which might better his position, Crompton, in the
year 1811, commenced a statistical investigation into the results of
his invention. For this purpose he visited the various manufacturing
districts of Great Britain, and, from the information he obtained,
calculated that between four and five millions of mule spindles were
then in actual use. But this estimate was afterwards found to be much
too low, as it did not include any of the numerous mules used in the
manufacture of woollen yarn.
A story is told of Mr. Crompton, that, when at Glasgow engaged in
collecting this information, he was invited to a complimentary dinner,
but his courage was unable to carry him through so formidable an
ordeal; and so when the time came for going, to use his own words,
"rather than face up, I first hid myself and then fairly bolted from
the city."
Mr. Crompton laid the result of his investigation before some kind
friends[14] at Manchester, who undertook to draw up a memorial to
Parliament on his behalf. But in this matter Crompton's continued
ill-fortune was singularly displayed. When the time came for the
grant to be proposed to Parliament (May 11, 1812), Mr. Percival, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had intended proposing 20,000_l._ as
the sum to be awarded, was assassinated while entering the lobby of the
House of Commons. Crompton's petition was consequently postponed, and
ultimately 5000_l._ was all that was awarded to the _Inventor of the
Spinning-Mule_; and thus, after having haunted the lobby of the House
of Commons for five wearisome months, Samuel Crompton went back to
Bolton with this shadow of a national reward.
Late in life Mr. Crompton's family became dispersed, and as old age
crept on he became less and less fitted for business, and now for the
first time sank into actual poverty.
A noble effort was, however, made by some of the inhabitants of Bolton
to rescue him from his distressing position, and by their efforts an
annuity of 63_l._ per annum was secured to him for the remainder of his
life.
In the year 1827 Samuel Crompton's melancholy life came to an end. He
died at his house in King Street, Great Bolton, aged seventy-three,
of no particular complaint, but by the gradual decay of nature. His
body was placed in a grave near the centre of the parish churchyard,
underneath a flagstone with the following inscription:--"Beneath this
stone are interred the mortal remains of Samuel Crompton, of Bolton,
late of Hall-i'-th'-Wood, in the township of Tonge, inventor of the
spinning machine called the _Mule_; who departed this life the 26th day
of June, 1827, aged seventy-two years."[15]--_The Life and Times of
Samuel Crompton, &c., by Gilbert J. French, F.S.A., &c._ Manchester and
London, 1860.
JOHN DALTON, D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S., L. and E.
MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.
Born September 5, 1766. Died July 27, 1844.
John Dalton was born at Eaglesfield, a small village in Cumberland,
near Cockermouth. His father, Joseph Dalton, was a woollen-weaver, and
at the birth of his second son, John, gained but a scanty subsistence
by weaving common country goods. At the death of his elder brother,
however, he inherited a small estate of sixty acres, which enabled him
to give up weaving. John Dalton had consequently few opportunities of
obtaining a good education; he was emphatically self-taught, and from
his very childhood began to acquire those habits of stern self-reliance
and indomitable perseverance which in after life, rather than any
direct inspirations of genius (as Dalton himself used to affirm),
enabled him to work out his grand discovery of the 'Atomic Theory.'