steam-engine, by which he much simplified its parts and secured greater
directness of action. His new engine was called the Pyramidal, from its
form, and was the first move towards direct acting engines. In 1810,
finding his business getting too extensive for his premises in Margaret
Street, he removed to the more capacious ones in Westminster Road,
Lambeth. Here he for many years carried on a large business, embracing
the manufacture of all kinds of machinery, but more particularly of
marine engines, to the construction and improvement of which he early
directed his attention, foreseeing how important a branch of industry
they would eventually become; and it may be interesting to record, that
the engines (24 H. P.) of the 'Regent,' the first steamboat which ran
between London and Margate, were made at this yard in the year 1816.
Mr. Maudslay held for several years the contract for supplying the
Royal Navy with ship tanks, and this led to his making improved
machinery for punching and shearing the iron plates used in their
manufacture, reducing the cost of preparing the plates for receiving
the rivets from seven shillings, to ninepence, per Tank.
Mr. Maudslay has been described by his friend Mr. James Nasmyth as the
very beau-ideal of an honest, upright, straightforward, hardworking
intelligent Englishman: he died in his 60th year from a severe cold
which he had caught on his way home from a visit to France, and
was buried in Woolwich churchyard, in a vault he had caused to be
constructed there; the monument and tablet erected to his memory were
of cast iron, and were made from a design of his own. Maudslay married
when twenty years old Sarah Tindel, by whom he had four sons and
three daughters, of whom now survive only one daughter, and one son
Thomas Henry Maudslay.--_From particulars communicated by members of
the present firm of Maudslay, Sons and Field._--_Smile's Industrial
Biography._ London, 1863.
PATRICK MILLER.
Born in Scotland 1730. Died at Dalswinton House, near Dumfries, 1815.
Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, was originally a banker, and ultimately
became possessed of considerable independent property. At different
periods of his life he embarked in many schemes of great public
utility. He made considerable improvements in artillery and naval
architecture, and during the course of his various experiments expended
upwards of thirty thousand pounds. One of the immediate results of
his experiments in the first-named science was the invention of the
well-known carronade; while in the course of his experiments in naval
architecture, he constructed double and triple vessels, and was the
first to practically apply the present form of the paddle-wheels
now in ordinary use to their propulsion. Having satisfied himself
of the usefulness of his researches in this respect, by many costly
experiments undertaken at his own expense, Mr. Miller published at
Edinburgh, in 1787, a book in English and French, containing a full
account of them, and sent a copy of his work to every sovereign in
Europe, and also to the American States, inasmuch as he considered that
his inventions ought to be the property of the human kind.[26] The
paddle-wheels in these experiments (undertaken in the years 1786-7)
were turned by manual labour, and on the occasion of a severe contest
between one of his double boats and a Custom-house boat, reckoned to be
a fast sailer, the want of a more powerful force to turn the wheels was
greatly felt. Mr. James Taylor, at that time a tutor in Mr. Miller's
family, suggested steam power, and ultimately introduced Miller to Wm.
Symington, with whose aid Mr. Miller commenced and carried out those
experiments (in the years 1788-89) which have justly entitled him to
the honour of being the first to originate the present system of steam
navigation.[27]
It is much to be regretted that since the deaths of Mr. Miller and
Mr. Symington, statements have been made in which the _entire_
merit of first establishing steam navigation is claimed, on the one
hand, for Miller, by his eldest son, in a paper published in the
'Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' for July 1825; and on the other
for Symington, by Richard Bowie, in his pamphlet published in 1833;
whereas these two gentlemen appear to be inseparably connected with
the first introduction of this grand application of steam. As far
as it is possible to reconcile the conflicting statements, the
facts may be briefly stated thus. Patrick Miller was the first to
successfully propel vessels by paddle-wheels moved by manual labour.
He then, in conjunction with William Symington, applied steam to move
these paddle-wheels, and constructed two steam-boats, which were
publicly tried, on the Forth and Clyde Canal, in the years 1788-89.
Although these trials triumphantly proved the practicability of
steam navigation, further improvements were required before a really
successful steam-boat could be said to have been constructed. At this
point, unfortunately, Mr. Miller, having already spent large sums of
money in his experiments, let the matter drop; but Symington, about
ten years afterwards, under the patronage of Lord Dundas, succeeding
in constructing 'The Charlotte Dundas,' a steam-boat which, for the
first time, combined together those improvements which constitute
the present system of steam navigation. In the narrative written by
Patrick Miller, Jun., a good deal of praise, in regard to this matter,
is given to James Taylor, before referred to, who is considered by
some as having a just claim to participate in the honour awarded to
Miller and Symington. Mr. Taylor's merits, however, appear chiefly to
consist in having suggested, upon the occasion of a race between one
of Miller's boats and a Custom House boat, that they only required
the help of a steam-engine to beat their antagonists; also, in having
introduced Symington, whose steam-carriage had rendered him famous,
to the notice of Mr. Miller; and although Taylor assisted in the
subsequent experiments, he seems to have contributed little to their
practical success.--_Narrative of Facts relative to Invention and
Practice of Steam Navigation, &c., by Patrick Miller, Jun., 'Edinburgh
Philosophical Journal,'_ Vol. 13, July 1825.--_Narrative by R.
Bowie, proving William Symington the Inventor of Steam Land Carriage
Locomotion and of Steam Navigation._ London, 1833.--_Stuart's Anecdotes
of the Steam Engine._ London, 1829.--_Descriptive Catalogue of the
Museum of the Commissioners of Patents._
WILLIAM MURDOCK.
Born 1754. Died November 15, 1839.
William Murdock was born at Bellow Mill, near Old Cumnock, Ayrshire,
where his father carried on the business of a millwright and miller,
and likewise possessed a farm on the estate of the Boswell family of
Auchinleck. His mother's maiden name was Bruce, and she used to boast
of being lineally descended from Robert Bruce, of Scottish History.
Little is known of Murdock's life prior to his coming to England, and
joining, in the year 1777, Boulton and Watt's establishment at Soho,
at that time in its infancy. He must, however, have had some celebrity
in his native country, as he was employed to build a bridge over the
river Nith, in Dumfrieshire, a very handsome structure, and still in
existence. His talents were soon appreciated at Soho, particularly by
James Watt, with whom he continued on terms of the closest friendship
until Mr. Watt's death in 1819. After remaining two years at Soho,
Murdock was appointed by Messrs. Boulton and Watt to superintend the
erection, and undertake the general charge, of their new steam-engines
in Cornwall, where he erected the first engine, in that part of the
country, with a separate condenser. He continued to live in the
district for the space of nineteen years, giving great satisfaction to
the mining interest; so much so, that when it became known that he was
about to return to Soho, 1000_l._ a-year was offered him to remain in
Cornwall. During his residence there Murdock contrived and executed a
model locomotive, which, as early as the year 1784, he was in the habit
of showing to his friends in working order, and drawing a small waggon
round a room in his house at Redruth. He used to tell a story, that
while making experiments with this engine, he one night determined to
test its powers on a level road leading from his house to the church,
which was situated about a mile distant from the town; this road was
bounded on each side by high edges, and well suited for the purpose.
Murdock accordingly sallied out, and placing his engine on the ground,
lit the fire, or rather lamp, under the boiler; after a few minutes off
started the locomotive with the inventor full chase after it; after
continuing the pursuit for a short distance, he heard cries as of a
person in great distress; the night was too dark to perceive objects
afar off, but on going on, he found that the sounds proceeded from the
clergyman of the parish, who had set out for the town on business, and
being met on this lonely road by the fiery monster, had taken it for
the Evil One in person. This model locomotive was exhibited before a
meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1850, sixty-six
years after the date of its construction.
Mr. Murdock is, however, better known to the public by his application
of the light of coal gas to general purposes. Although this gas had
been well known, and obtained both naturally and artificially more
than half a century before his time, no attempt had as yet been made
to turn the discovery to any useful account. In the year 1792 Murdock
first employed coal gas for the purpose of lighting his house and
offices at Redruth; he made it serve also as a lantern, by attaching a
bladder with a tube mouthpiece under the bottom of a glass shade, which
contrivance used to light him across the moors when returning home
at night from the mining engines he was erecting in different parts
of the district. After various experiments which proved the economy
and convenience of light so obtained, he perfected his apparatus and
made a public exhibition of it by lighting up the front of Boulton
and Watt's manufactory at Soho, on the occasion of the general
illumination for the peace of Amiens, in 1802. He subsequently lighted
up some cotton mills at Manchester, beginning with Messrs. Phillips
and Lee's, and published a paper on the subject in the 'Philosophical
Transactions' of 1808, for which the Royal Society presented him with
the Rumford gold medal.
In 1798 Murdock returned to take up his permanent residence at Soho,
superintending the machinery there, and occasionally the erection of
engines at a distance, among which may be mentioned those of the New
River Head, Lambeth, Chelsea, Southwark, East London, West Middlesex,
and other waterworks. In the following year he took out a patent for
improvements in boring cylinders and in the manufacture of steam
casings; this patent also included the double =D= slide valve and a
rotary engine. Amongst other inventions and discoveries of Murdock's
are: a plan for boring stone pipes for water, and cutting columns
out of solid blocks of stone (for which he took a patent in 1810);
a pneumatic lift working by compressed air; and a cast iron cement,
which he was led to discover by the accidental observance of some iron
borings and sal-ammoniac, which had got mixed in his tool-chest and
rusted a sword blade nearly through. He also made use of compressed
air to ring the bells in his house; a plan which so pleased Sir
Walter Scott, to whom it had been described, that he had his house at
Abbotsford fitted up in a similar manner. Murdock likewise discovered
a substitute for isinglass, and when in London for the purpose of
explaining to the brewers the nature of his discovery, occupied
very handsome apartments. Being, however, at all times absorbed in
whatever subject he had in hand, he little respected the splendour
of his drawing-room, but proceeded with his experiments as if in the
laboratory at Soho, quite unconscious of the mischief he was doing.
This resulted in his abrupt dismissal from the apartments by the
enraged landlady, who one morning, on calling in to receive orders, was
horrified at seeing all her magnificent paper-hangings covered with
wet fish skins hung up to dry, and actually caught him in the act of
pinning up a cod's skin to undergo the same process.
In the year 1815, while Mr. Murdock was fitting up an apparatus of
his own invention for heating the water of the baths at Leamington, a
ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above the ankle, nearly
severing it in two. This severe accident laid him up for a long time,
and he never entirely recovered from the effects of it. During the
latter years of his life Murdock's faculties, both corporeal and
mental, experienced a gradual decay, causing him to live in complete
retirement. He died in 1839, aged eighty-five years, and his remains
were buried in Handsworth Church, near to those of Boulton and James
Watt.
Mr. Murdock married in the year 1785 the daughter of Captain Paynter,
of Redruth, Cornwall, who died at the early age of twenty-four, having
had four children.--_From a Paper read by Mr. William Buckle, of Soho,
before a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers_, October
23, 1850.
ROBERT MYLNE.
Born January 4, 1733. Died May 5, 1811.
Robert Mylne, the architect of Blackfriars Bridge, was born at
Edinburgh. His father was an architect, and magistrate of the city; and
his family, it has been ascertained, held the office of Master Masons
to the Kings of Scotland for a period of five hundred years, until the
union of the crowns of England and Scotland.
On arriving at man's estate, Mylne travelled for improvement; and his
enthusiastic prosecution of his art soon brought him into notice. In
1758 he became a candidate for the honours of the Academy of St. Luke
at Rome, and the chief prize in the highest class of architecture was
awarded to him; being the first instance of a native of Great Britain
obtaining that honour.
Mylne resided at Rome during a space of five years, and on his return
to England executed a design for Blackfriars Bridge, which was selected
from among twenty others. This bridge was commenced in 1760; and on the
occasion of the laying of the foundation-stone by the Lord Mayor, among
other medals deposited in the stone was a silver one, the memorial
of the young architect's first triumph, viz., the medal (one of two)
given him by the Academy at Rome. The bridge was completed in 1769; the
arches are elliptical in shape, and were the first instances in England
in which the form of an ellipse was substituted for a semicircle. The
total cost of the bridge itself, exclusive of the approaches, amounted
to 152,840_l._
Mylne's reputation was now established, and his services were employed
in the erection or improvement of many edifices throughout the United
Kingdom. He received at the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishop of London, and the Lord Mayor, the office of Surveyor of St.
Paul's Cathedral; and while holding this appointment, suggested the
famous inscription to Sir Christopher Wren--'_Si monumentum quæris
circumspice_.' He also held the office of Clerk of the Works at
Greenwich Hospital for fifteen years, and was Engineer to the New River
Water Works from the year 1762 until his death, in 1811, when he was
succeeded by his son.
Towards the close of the eighteenth century, he became acquainted with
Mr. John Rennie, whose celebrity as an engineer was then approaching
its height; and the two became from that time inseparable friends.[28]
Mr. Mylne was also an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, their
acquaintance having originated out of a controversy as to the form of
the arch for Blackfriars Bridge.
Mylne was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, by the side of his
illustrious predecessor, Sir Christopher Wren.--_Gateshead Observer_,
October 20, 1860.--_Encyclopædia Britannica._
ALEXANDER NASMYTH.
Born September 7, 1758. Died April 10, 1840.
Alexander Nasmyth, the distinguished Scotch landscape painter, and
known also as a man of science, was born at Edinburgh. He came early in
life to London, where he was for some time the pupil of Allen Ramsay,
painter to George III. He resided afterwards in Rome for several years,
during which time he studied portrait, history, and landscape painting.
From Rome, Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh, where he settled as a
portrait painter, and executed his well-known painting of Robert
Burns-the most authentic likeness of this great poet. Having, however,
a decided taste for landscape painting, he ultimately confined himself
to this branch of art; but much of his time was occupied in teaching,
in which he was very successful. His landscapes, which are very
numerous, were, many of them, reminiscences of Italian scenery, and
although wanting in originality and vigour, possess so much beauty
and grace as to have caused their author to acquire the name of the
'Scottish Claude.'
Mr. Nasmyth was a favourite in society, and was the leading teacher
in art of the highest classes in Scotland; during his later years
being commonly looked up to as the patriarch of Scottish art. He not
only took much interest in the proceedings of the artistic societies
of Edinburgh, but often raised an influential voice in respect to the
alterations making in that city; and was one of the three successful
competitors between whom the first prize offered for the best plan for
laying out and building the New Town of Edinburgh was equally divided.
Mr. Nasmyth spent much of his time in scientific experiments, and was
the inventor of 'bow and string bridges,' and of a method of driving
the screw-propellers of vessels by direct action, in front of the
rudder. Much of his leisure time was spent in a workshop which he
had fitted up for himself, and which proved the nursery of the early
mechanical genius of the present James Nasmyth, the celebrated engineer.
Soon after his return from Italy, Alexander Nasmyth married the sister
of Sir James Foulis of Woodhall Colinton, by whom he had a family of
three sons and five daughters, all of whom inherited more or less their
father's talents, while the eldest, Patrick, has acquired a separate
renown of no inconsiderable extent, for the beauty of his landscapes.
Alexander Nasmyth died in York Place, Edinburgh, at the age of
eighty-three, and was interred in the West Church burying-ground of
that city.--_English Cyclopædia._ London, 1857.--_Catalogue of Gallery
of Portraits of Inventors, &c., in the South Kensington Museum._
JOHN PLAYFAIR, F.R.S., L. and E.
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.
Born March 10, 1748. Died July 19, 1819.
John Playfair, a mathematician and philosopher of great eminence and
celebrity, was born at Benvie in Forfarshire, and was the eldest son of
the Rev. James Playfair, the minister of that place. Playfair resided
at home, under the domestic tuition of his father, until the age of
fourteen, when he entered the University of St. Andrew's, where he
became almost immediately distinguished, not merely for his singular
proficiency in mathematical learning, but also for the extent of his
general knowledge, the clearness of his judgment, and the dignity and
propriety of his conduct. A strong proof of his capabilities at this
time is given by the fact, that when Dr. Wilkie, the professor of
natural philosophy, was prevented by indisposition from delivering the
regular lectures, he used generally to delegate the task of instruction
to his youthful pupil, Playfair.
In 1769 Playfair removed to Edinburgh, and while residing there became
acquainted with Adam Smith, Drs. Robertson, Matthew Stewart, Black, and
Hutton, with all of whom he continued on terms of the utmost cordiality
during the whole period of their lives.
During the course of the year 1772, the death of his father suddenly
devolved upon Playfair the burden of supporting his family, and
compelled him in a measure to seek a livelihood by entering the
Church. Although he had been educated with a view to his entering this
profession, for which he was in every way qualified, his decided
predilection for science had hitherto made him hesitate about engaging
in a vocation, the duties of which, he felt, if conscientiously
discharged, would necessarily interfere greatly with the studies he was
loath to abandon. In this emergency, however, he considered himself no
longer entitled to indulge in these predilections, and therefore made
an application, which proved successful, to Lord Gray, the patron,
for a presentation to the livings of Liff and Benvie, which had been
previously held by his father. From this period until 1782, he was
constantly resident at Liff, occupied almost exclusively with the
pastoral duties of his office, and with the education of his younger
brothers.
In the year 1779 Playfair contributed to the 'Transactions' of the
Royal Society of London a paper on the 'Arithmetic of Impossible
Quantities,' which exhibits, within a very small compass, a striking
example of the rare and admirable talent of detaching the sound spirit
of science from what may be termed its mysticism. In the year 1782 he
was induced by very advantageous offers to resign his charge, and to
superintend the education of Ferguson of Raith, and his brother Sir
Ronald; an arrangement which restored him in a great measure to the
literary and scientific society of Edinburgh, and enabled him to visit
London, where he was gratified by a personal introduction to several of
the most eminent cultivators of science in that city.
Playfair was received into the University of Edinburgh during the
course of the year 1785, and, in consequence of an arrangement made
between Dr. Adam Ferguson and Mr. Dugald Stewart, was appointed
joint-professor of mathematics with Dr. Ferguson, whose delicate
state of health prevented him from discharging the active duties of
the professorship; Mr. Stewart filling the chair of moral philosophy,
previously held by Dr. Ferguson.
Previous to this, like Leslie, Playfair had been twice a candidate for
a similar honour, but unsuccessfully. On the first occasion, when only
eighteen years old, he had offered himself, with the approbation of
his instructors at St. Andrew's, as candidate for the professorship of
mathematics in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and had sustained with much
credit a competitive examination which lasted eleven days, and embraced
nearly the whole range of the exact sciences. Out of six competitors,
two only were judged to have surpassed him--the Rev. Dr. Trail, who was
appointed to the office, and Dr. Hamilton, who afterwards succeeded to
and long filled it with much reputation.
In 1788, Playfair published, in the 'Transactions' of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, a biographical account of Dr. Matthew Stewart, which also
contains a singularly clear and interesting account of the labours
of Dr. Simson in the restoration of ancient geometry. In this year
likewise appeared his paper 'On the Causes which affect the accuracy of
Barometrical Measurements,' which is written with all the perspicuity,
caution, and sagacity, that constitute the great excellence and the
great difficulty of such disquisitions, where scientific principles are
employed to give precision to physical observations. In 1790 appeared,
in the same 'Transactions,' a paper of still greater interest and
delicacy, 'On the Astronomy of the Brahmins,' the publication of which
attracted very general attention, both in Europe and in Asia, and gave
rise to much discussion and research. This was followed in 1794 by a
learned and very beautiful treatise on the 'Origin and Investigation
of Porisms,' in which the obscure nature of the very comprehensive
and indefinite theorems to which this name was applied by the ancient
geometers, is explained with the most lucid simplicity.