his nephew the sum of 10,000_l._, besides his house, furniture, and a
choice collection of pictures. Dr. Young was now entirely at liberty
to form his own scheme of life, and he determined to commence practice
as a physician, for which purpose, after having completed his terms of
residence at Cambridge, he took a house in Welbeck Street (No. 48),
which he continued to occupy for five-and-twenty years. His practice
as a physician, although respectable, was never large. He wanted
that confidence or assurance which is so necessary to the successful
exercise of the profession. He was perhaps too deeply informed, and
therefore too sensible of the difficulty of arriving at true knowledge
in the science of medicine ever to form a hasty judgment; while his
great love of, and adherence to truth, made him often hesitate where
others would have felt no difficulty in expressing an opinion. It
was perhaps a happy circumstance for the fame of Dr. Young that this
should be the case, as he was thereby enabled to devote a considerable
portion of his time to those literary and scientific studies in which
so few could compete with him. In 1799 he published his memoir entitled
'Outlines and Experiments respecting Sound and Light,' which was read
before the Royal Society and printed in their 'Transactions.' Other
papers, 'On the Theory of Light and Colours,' followed, which the
council of the Royal Society selected for the Bakerian lectures. In
the year 1801 Dr. Young accepted the office of Professor of Natural
Philosophy at the Royal Institution, which had been established the
year previously. The conducting of the journal of the Institution was
also entrusted to his care, in conjunction with his colleague Sir
Humphry Davy, at that time Professor of Chemistry. Dr. Young remained
at the Royal Institution two years, during which period he gave a
course of lectures on 'Natural and Experimental Philosophy,' a syllabus
of which he published in 1802, announcing for the first time his great
discovery of the general law of the interference of the undulations
of light. His lectures were not, however, popular; they embodied too
much knowledge to be intelligible to any considerable portion of his
hearers; and the matter was so abundant and the style so condensed,
that students tolerably versed in science might have found it extremely
difficult to follow him in his masterly discussions.
Dr. Young had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society as early as
the year 1794, when he had just completed his twenty-first year; he was
now appointed (1802) Foreign Secretary to the same Society, an office
which he held during the remainder of his life, and for which he was
well qualified by his knowledge of the principal languages of Europe.
In 1804 he married Eliza, the daughter of James Primrose Maxwell, of
Cavendish Square, and this union is said to have been attended with
uninterrupted happiness; his wife who survived him left no children.
In 1807 appeared his most elaborate and valuable work, 'A Course
of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts,' being
the embodiment of the sixty lectures delivered while at the Royal
Institution, together with the labour of three more years occupied in
further arranging and improving them. This work comprises a complete
system of natural and mechanical philosophy, drawn from original
sources, and is distinguished not only by the extent of its learning
and the accuracy of its statements, but by the beauty and originality
of the theoretical principles. It also contains a disquisition upon
the doctrine of interference in the undulatory theory of light
mentioned before, the general law of which he thus enunciates: "When
two undulations from different origins coincide, either perfectly or
very nearly in direction, their joint effect is a combination of the
motions belonging to each."[49] Sir John Herschel, speaking of this
discovery, says that it alone "would have sufficed to have placed its
author in the highest rank of scientific immortality, even were his
other almost innumerable claims to such a distinction disregarded."
Amongst other laborious and difficult matters of investigation, Dr.
Young made the first and most important steps in reading the Egyptian
Hieroglyphics, in which he preceded Champollion; and he afterwards, in
1823, published a work on this subject, under the title of 'An Account
of some recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature and Egyptian
Antiquities; including the author's original Alphabet as extended by
Mr. Champollion; with a Translation of five unpublished Greek and
Egyptian Manuscripts.' In the year 1808 Dr. Young was admitted a fellow
of the College of Physicians, and in 1810 was elected physician to St.
George's Hospital, a situation which he retained for the remainder of
his life. In 1813 he published 'An Introduction to Medical Literature,
including a system of practical Nosology intended as a guide to
Students and as an Assistant to Practitioners.' In 1816 Dr. Young was
appointed Secretary to the Commission empowered to ascertain the length
of the second's pendulum, and thereby establish an uniform system of
weights and measures. Two years subsequent to this he became secretary
to the Board of Longitude, and on the dissolution of that body, became
sole conductor of the 'Nautical Almanac.' Dr. Young at various times
contributed eighteen articles to the 'Quarterly Review,' of which nine
were on scientific subjects--the rest on medicine, languages, and
criticism. Between 1816 and 1823 he wrote sixty-three articles for the
'Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica,' Sixth Edition, of
which forty-six were biographical. In the year 1821 he made a short
tour in Italy with his wife, and, in August 1827, was elected one of
the eight Foreign associates of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, in
the place of Volta, who died in 1826; the other competitors for this
honour being the astronomers Bessel and Olbers, Brown the botanist,
Blumenback, Leopold, Von Buch, Dalton, and Plana the mathematician.
Dr. Young's course of life, considered apart from the variety of his
occupations, was remarkably uniform. He resided in London from November
to June, and at Worthing from July to the end of October, continuing
this regular change of residence for fourteen successive years. In the
year 1826 he removed from his house in Welbeck Street, where he had
resided for a quarter of a century, to another in Park Square, which
had been built under his own directions, and fitted up with great
elegance and taste. He continued to live here for the remainder of his
life. During the month of February, 1829, he began to suffer from what
he considered repeated attacks of asthma. His health gradually got
worse, but though thus under the pressure of severe illness, nothing
could be more striking than the entire calmness and composure of his
mind, or could surpass the kindness of his affections to all around
him. In the very last stage of his complaint, in an interview with
Mr. Gurney, his perfect self-possession was displayed in the most
remarkable manner. After some information concerning his affairs, and
some instructions concerning the hieroglyphical papers in his hands,
he said, that perfectly aware of his situation, he had taken the
sacrament of the Church on the day preceding; that whether he should
ever partially recover, or whether he were rapidly taken off, he could
patiently and contentedly await the issue. His illness continued, with
some slight variations, until the morning of the 10th of May, when he
expired without a struggle, having hardly completed his fifty-sixth
year. The disease proved to be an ossification of the aörta, the
large arterial trunk proceeding from the left ventricle of the heart.
It must have been in progress for many years, and every appearance
indicated an advance of age, not brought on probably by the natural
course of time, nor even by constitutional formation, but by unwearied
and incessant labour of mind from the earliest days of infancy. His
remains were deposited in the vault of his wife's family, in the church
of Farnborough, in Kent.--_Life of Thomas Young, M.D., &c., by Dr.
George Peacock, Dean of Ely._ London, 1855.--_Memoir by Dr. D. Irving_,
_Encyclopædia Britannica_, Eighth Edition.--_English Cyclopædia._
London, 1858.
APPENDIX.
JOSEPH BLACK, M.D.
PROFESSOR OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW.
Born 1728.[50] Died November 26, 1799.
Dr. Joseph Black was born at Bourdeaux, where his father, a native of
Belfast but of Scotch descent, was settled as a wine merchant; and
being a man of engaging disposition and extensive information was much
esteemed by his friends, among whom he reckoned Montesquieu, at that
time one of the presidents of the court of justice in the province
where Mr. Black resided. At the age of twelve Joseph Black was sent
to a school at Belfast, where he remained for some years. In 1746 he
was removed to the College at Glasgow and ever afterwards lived in
Scotland, which was, properly speaking, his native country. While at
the College of Glasgow he studied under the celebrated Dr. Cullen, then
professor of anatomy and lecturer on chemistry, and in the year 1751
removed to Edinburgh to complete the course of his medical studies.
In the following year Black made his first great discovery of the
cause of the causticity of lime, a property till then supposed to be
due to the absorption by the lime of some igneous agency. He placed
this question on a scientific basis by ascertaining the chemical
difference between quick-lime and other forms of the carbonate, and
first announced his discovery in a Latin Thesis upon the occasion
of his taking his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1754. It was not,
however, given in its fullest details until the year afterwards,
when he published his celebrated work entitled, 'Experiments on
Magnesia, Quick-lime, and other alkaline substances;' a work which
Lord Brougham describes as being incontestably the most beautiful
example of strict inductive investigation since the 'Optics' of Sir
Isaac Newton. In 1754, as has been mentioned, Black took his medical
degree at Edinburgh; in 1756 he was appointed to succeed Dr. Cullen as
professor of anatomy and lecturer on chemistry in the University of
Glasgow. Soon after, however, he exchanged this for the professorship
of medicine at the same university, as being more congenial to his
tastes. Dr. Black continued at the University of Glasgow for the next
ten years, and it was during this period, between the years 1759 and
1763, that he brought to maturity his speculations concerning _heat_,
which had occupied his attention from the very first commencement of
his philosophical investigations. His two great discoveries were the
doctrines of 'Latent Heat,' and 'Specific Heat.' The theory of 'Latent'
Heat, which mainly urged Watt to the adoption of improved arrangements
in the steam-engine, may be briefly described as the absorption of
heat by bodies passing from the solid to the fluid state, and from the
fluid to the aëriform, the heat having no effect on surrounding bodies
(being, therefore, insensible to the hand or thermometer), and only by
its absorption maintaining the body in the state which it has assumed,
and which it retains until the absorbed heat is given out and has
become again sensible, when the state of the body is changed back again
from fluid to solid, from aëriform to fluid.
The doctrine of 'Specific Heat,' or as it was called by Dr. Black
the _capacity_ of bodies for heat, is summed up in the facts, that
different bodies contain different quantities of heat in the same bulk
or weight; and different quantities of heat are required to raise
different bodies to the same sensible temperature. Thus it was found
that a pound of gold being heated to 150° and added to a pound of water
at 50° the temperature of both became not 100°, the mean between the
two but 55°, the gold losing 95° and the water gaining 5°, because the
capacity of water for heat is 19 times that of gold. So twice as much
heat is required to raise water to any given point of sensible heat as
to raise mercury, the volumes of the two fluids compared being equal.
The true doctrine of combustion, calcination of metals, and respiration
of animals, which Lavoisier deduced from the experiments of Priestly
and Scheele upon oxygen gas, and of Cavendish on hydrogen gas, was
founded mainly upon the doctrines of latent and specific heat; and it
was thus the singular felicity of Black to have furnished both the
pillars upon which modern chemistry reposes.
In 1766 Black succeeded Dr. Cullen in the professorship of chemistry at
the University of Edinburgh, and in the new scene on which he entered
his talents became more conspicuously and more extensively useful. Dr.
Robison thus characterises him as a lecturer--"He became one of the
principal ornaments of the university, his lectures were attended by
an audience which continued increasing from year to year; his personal
appearance and manners were those of a gentleman, and peculiarly
pleasing. His voice in lecturing was low but fine, and his articulation
so distinct that he was perfectly well heard by an audience consisting
of several hundreds. His discourse was so plain and perspicuous, his
illustration by experiment so apposite, that his sentiments on any
subject never could be mistaken even by the most illiterate." Dr.
Black continued to lecture at the University of Edinburgh for thirty
years; he then retired and died three years afterwards, in 1799. His
health, never robust, was precarious at all times from a weakness in
the bronchia and chest, but he prolonged life by a system of strictest
abstinence, frequently subsisting for days together on watergruel
and diluted milk. He was never married. He lived in a select circle
of friends, the most illustrious men of the times in science and in
letters; Watt, Hutton, Hume, Robertson, Smith; and afterwards with
the succeeding generation of Scottish worthies, Robison, Playfair,
and Stewart. He was extremely averse to publication, contemning the
impatience with which so many men of science hurry to the press, often
while their speculations are crude and their inquiries not finished. He
never published any work himself with the exception of his 'Experiments
on Magnesia, &c.,' and two papers, one in the 'London Philosophical
Transactions' for 1775 on the Freezing of boiled Water; the other in
the second vol. of the 'Edinburgh Transactions,' on the Iceland Hot
Springs.
Dr. Black expired in the seventy-first year of his age, without any
convulsion, shock, or stupor to announce or retard the approach of
death. Being at table with his usual fare, some bread, a few prunes,
and a measured quantity of milk diluted with water, and having the
cup in his hand when the last stroke of the pulse was given, he set
it down on his knees, which were joined together, and kept it steady
with his hand in the manner of a person perfectly at his ease; and in
this attitude he expired without a drop being spilt or a feature in his
countenance changed. His servant coming in saw him in this posture and
left the room, supposing him asleep. On returning soon after, he saw
him sitting as before and found that he had expired.--_Brougham's Lives
of Philosophers._ London and Glasgow, 1855.--_Encyclopædia Britannica_,
Eighth Edition.
HENRY CORT.
Born 1740. Died 1800.
The sad history of this great inventor, who has been well surnamed
"The Father of the iron trade," is comparatively soon told. Although
his discoveries in the manufacture of iron were so important as
to have been one of the chief causes in the establishment of our
modern engineering, little is known of the life of the unfortunate
inventor. He was born in 1740 at Lancaster, where his father carried
on the trade of a builder and brickmaker. In 1765, at the age of
twenty-five, he was engaged in the carrying on of the business of a
navy agent in Surrey Street, Strand, in which he is said to have
realized considerable profits. While conducting this business Cort
became aware of the inferiority of British iron in comparison with
that of foreign countries, and entered on a series of experiments
with the object of improving its manufacture. In 1775 he relinquished
his business as a navy agent and took a lease of some premises at
Fonltey, near Fareham, where he erected a forge and an iron-mill.
He afterwards took into partnership Samuel Jellicoe, son of Adam
Jellicoe, then deputy-paymaster of seamen's wages, a connection which
ultimately proved the cause of all Cort's subsequent misfortunes.
Ford in 1747, Dr. Roebuck in 1762, the brothers Cranege in 1766, and
Peter Onions, of Merthyr Tydvil, in 1783, had all introduced valuable
additions to the then known processes of iron manufacture. In 1783-4
Cort took out his two patents which, while combining the inventions
of his predecessors, specified so many valuable improvements of an
original character, that they established a new era in the history of
iron manufacture, and raised it to the highest state of prosperity.
Mr. Truran,[51] in speaking of Cort, remarks "The mode of piling iron
to form large pieces, as described in his inventions, is the one at
use in the present day."--"The method of puddling iron now in use is
the same as that patented by Henry Cort. There has been no essential
departure from his process. Iron bottoms have been substituted for
sand and by building the furnace somewhat larger, a second charge of
cast-iron is introduced and partially heated during the finishing
operations in the first, as conducted at the present day. All that has
been done in the last seventy-three years has been in the way of adding
to and perfecting Cort's furnaces, as experience has from time to time
suggested." Cort's method of passing the piled wedged-shaped bars of
iron through grooved rollers has been spoken of by another competent
authority as of "high philosophical interest, being scarcely less
than the discovery of a new mechanical power in reversing the action
of the wedge, by the application of force to four surfaces so as to
elongate the mass instead of applying force to a mass to divide the
four surfaces." The principal iron masters soon heard of the success
of Cort's new inventions, and visited his foundry for the purpose
of examining his process, and of employing it at their own works if
satisfied with the result. Among the first to try it were Richard
Crawshaw of Cyfartha, Samuel Homfray of Penydarran (both in South
Wales), and William Reynolds of Coalbrookdale. The two first-named at
once entered into a contract to work under Cort's patents at 10_s._
a ton royalty; and the quality of the iron manufactured by the new
process was found to be so superior to other kinds, that the Admiralty
directed it, in 1787, to be used for the anchors and other iron-work
in the ships of the Royal Navy. The merits of the invention were now
generally conceded, and numerous contracts for licenses were entered
into with Cort and his partner, by the manufacturers of bar-iron
throughout the country, and licenses were taken at royalties estimated
to yield 27,500_l._ to the owners of the patent. Cort himself made
arrangements for carrying on the manufacture on a large scale, and
with that object entered upon the possession of a wharf at Gosport
belonging to Adam Jellicoe, his partner's father, where he succeeded
in obtaining considerable government orders for iron made under his
patents. This period, apparently the crowning point of Cort's fortunes,
was but the commencement of his ruin. In August, 1789, Adam Jellicoe
died, and defalcations were found in his public accounts to the extent
of 39,676_l._ His papers and books were at once seized by Government,
and on examination it was found that a sum of 54,853_l._ was owing
to Jellicoe by the Cort partnership for moneys advanced by him at
different times to enable Cort to pursue his experiments, which were
necessarily of a very expensive character. Among the sums advanced by
Jellicoe to Cort was found one of 27,500_l._ entrusted to Jellicoe
for the payment of seamen and officers' wages. As Jellicoe had the
reputation of being a rich man, Cort had not the slightest suspicion
of the source from which the advances made to the firm were derived,
nor has any connivance whatever on the part of Cort been suggested.
The Government, however, bound to act with promptitude in such a
case, at once adopted extraordinary measures to recover their money.
The assignments of Cort's patents, which had been made to Jellicoe
in consideration of his advances, were taken possession of, but,
strange to say, Samuel Jellicoe, the son of the defaulter, was put
in possession of the properties at Fonltey and Gosport and continued
to enjoy them, to Cort's exclusion for a period of fourteen years.
Notwithstanding this, the patent rights seem never to have been levied
by the assignees, and the result was that the whole benefit of Cort's
inventions was made over to the ironmasters and to the public, although
there seems little reason to doubt, that had they been duly levied, the
whole of the debt due to the government would have been paid in the
course of a few years. As for Cort himself, on the death of Jellicoe
he left his iron works a ruined man. He subsequently made many appeals
to Government for the restoration of his patents, and offered to find
security for payment of the debt due by his firm to the Crown, but in
vain. In 1794 an appeal was made to Mr. Pitt by a number of influential
members of parliament, on behalf of the inventor and his destitute
family of twelve children, when a pension of 200_l._ was granted to
him, which he enjoyed until the year 1800, when, broken in health
and spirit, he died at the age of sixty. He was buried in Hampstead
Church, where a stone marks the date of his death and is still to be
seen; a few years ago it was illegible, but it has been restored by his
surviving son Richard Cort.
Mr. Smiles thus concludes a long and interesting account of Cort in his
'Industrial Biography:'--"Though Cort died in comparative poverty, he
laid the foundations of many gigantic fortunes. He may be said to have
been, in a great measure, the author of our modern iron aristocracy,
who still manufacture after the processes which he invented or
perfected, but for which they never paid him one shilling of royalty.
These men of gigantic fortunes have owed much, we might almost say
everything, to the ruined projector of 'the little mill at Fonltey.'
Their wealth has enriched many families of the older aristocracy, and
has been the foundation of several modern peerages. Yet Henry Cort,
the rock from which they were hewn, is already all but forgotten; and
his surviving children, now aged and infirm, are dependent for their
support upon the slender pittance,[52] wrung by repeated entreaty and
expostulation, from the state."--_Smiles's Industrial Biography._
London, 1863.--_Mechanics' Magazine_, 1859-60-61.
JAMES IVORY, F.R.S., &c.
Born 1765. Died September 21, 1842.