Men of Invention and Industry Part 10

In the following year a German named Wintzer, or Winsor, appeared as the promotor of a scheme for obtaining a royal charter with extensive privileges, and applied for powers to form a joint-stock company to light part of London and Westminster with gas. Winsor claimed for his method of gas manufacture that it was more efficacious and profitable than any then known or practised. The profits, indeed, were to be prodigious. Winsor made an elaborate calculation in his pamphlet ent.i.tled 'The New Patriotic Imperial and National Light and Heat Company,' from which it appeared that the net annual profits "agreeable to the official experiments" would amount to over two hundred and twenty-nine millions of pounds!--and that, giving over nine-tenths of that sum towards the redemption of the National Debt, there would still remain a total profit of 570L. to be paid to the subscribers for every 5L. of deposit! Winsor took out a patent for the invention, and the company, of which he was a member, proceeded to Parliament for an Act.

Boulton and Watt pet.i.tioned against the Bill, and James Watt, junior, gave evidence on the subject. Henry Brougham, who was the counsel for the pet.i.tioners, made great fun of Winsor's absurd speculations,[10]

and the Bill was thrown out.

In the following year the London and Westminster Chartered Gas Light and c.o.ke Company succeeded in obtaining their Act. They were not very successful at first. Many prejudices existed against the employment of the new light. It was popularly supposed that the gas was carried along the pipes on fire, and that the pipes must necessarily be intensely hot. When it was proposed to light the House of Commons with gas, the architect insisted on the pipes being placed several inches from the walls, for fear of fire; and, after the pipes had been fixed, the members might be seen applying their gloved hands to them to ascertain their temperature, and afterwards expressing the greatest surprise on finding that they were as cool as the adjoining walls.

The Gas Company was on the point of dissolution when Mr. Samuel Clegg came to their aid. Clegg had been a pupil of Murdock's, at Soho. He knew all the arrangements which Murdock had invented. He had a.s.sisted in fitting up the gas machinery at the mills of Phillips & Lee, Manchester, as well as at Lodge's Mill, Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax.

He was afterwards employed to fix the apparatus at the Catholic College of Stoneyhurst, in Lancashire, at the manufactory of Mr. Harris at Coventry, and at other places. In 1813 the London and Westminster Gas Company secured the services of Mr. Clegg, and from that time forwards their career was one of prosperity. In 1814 Westminster Bridge was first lighted with gas, and shortly after the streets of St.

Margaret's, Westminster. Crowds of people followed the lamplighter on his rounds to watch the sudden effect of his flame applied to the invisible stream of gas which issued from the burner. The lamplighters became so disgusted with the new light that they struck work, and Clegg himself had for a time to act as lamplighter.

The advantages of the new light, however, soon became generally recognised, and gas companies were established in most of the large towns. Glasgow was lit up by gas in 1817, and Liverpool and Dublin in the following year. Had Murdock in the first instance taken out a patent for his invention, it could not fail to have proved exceedingly remunerative to him; but he derived no advantage from the extended use of the new system of lighting except the honour of having invented it.[11] He left the benefits of his invention to the public, and returned to his labours at Soho, which more than ever completely engrossed him.

Murdock now became completely identified with the firm of Boulton & Watt. He a.s.signed to them his patent for the slide-valve, the rotary engine, and other inventions "for a good and valuable consideration."

Indeed his able management was almost indispensable to the continued success of the Soho foundry. Mr. Nasmyth, when visiting the works about thirty years after Murdock had taken their complete management in hand, recalled to mind the valuable services of that truly admirable yet modest mechanic. He observed the admirable system, which he had invented, of transmitting power from one central engine to other small vacuum engines attached to the several machines which they were employed to work. "This vacuum method," he says, "of transmitting power dates from the time of Papin; but it remained a dead contrivance for about a century until it received the masterly touch of Murdock."

"The sight which I obtained" (Mr. Nasmyth proceeds) "of the vast series of workshops of that celebrated establishment, fitted with evidences of the presence and results of such master minds in design and execution, and the special machine tools which I believe were chiefly to be ascribed to the admirable inventive power and common-sense genius of William Murdock, made me feel that I was indeed on cla.s.sic ground in regard to everything connected with the construction of steam-engine machinery. The interest was in no small degree enhanced by coming every now and then upon some machine that had every historical claim to be regarded as the prototype of many of our modern machine tools. All these had William Murdock's genius stamped upon them, by reason of their common-sense arrangements, which showed that he was one of those original thinkers who had the courage to break away from the trammels of traditional methods, and take short cuts to accomplish his objects by direct and simple means."

We have another recollection of William Murdock, from one who knew him when a boy. This is the venerable Charles Manby, F.R.S., still honorary secretary of the Inst.i.tute of Civil Engineers. He says (writing to us in September 1883), "I see from the public prints that you have been presiding at a meeting intended to do honour to the memory of William Murdock--a most worthy man and an old friend of mine.

When he found me working the first slide valve ever introduced into an engine-building establishment at Horsley, he patted me on the head, and said to my father, 'Neighbour Manby, this is not the way to bring up a good workman--merely turning a handle, without any shoulder work.' He evidently did not antic.i.p.ate any great results from my engineering education. But we all know what machine tools are doing now,--and where should we be without them?"

Watt withdrew from the firm in 1800, on the expiry of his patent for the condensing steam-engine; but Boulton continued until the year 1809, when he died full of years and honours. Watt lived on until 1819. The last part of his life was the happiest. During the time that he was in the throes of his invention, he was very miserable, weighed down with dyspepsia and sick headaches. But after his patent had expired, he was able to retire with a moderate fortune, and began to enjoy life.

Before, he had "cursed his inventions," now he could bless them. He was able to survey them, and find out what was right and what was wrong. He used his head and his hands in his private workshop, and found many means of employing both pleasantly. Murdock continued to be his fast friend, and they spent many agreeable hours together. They made experiments and devised improvements in machines. Watt wished to make things more simple. He said to Murdock, "it is a great thing to know what to do without. We must have a book of blots--things to be scratched out." One of the most interesting schemes of Watt towards the end of his life was the contrivance of a sculpture-making machine; and he proceeded so far with it as to to able to present copies of busts to his friends as "the productions of a young artist just entering his eighty-third year." The machine, however, remained unfinished at his death, and the remarkable fact is that it was Watt's only unfinished work.

The principle of the machine was to carry a guide-point at one side over the bust or alto-relievo to be copied, and at the other side to carry a corresponding cutting-tool or drill over the alabaster, ivory, jet, or plaster of Paris to be executed. The machine worked, as it were, with two hands, the one feeling the pattern, the other cutting the material into the required form. Many new alterations were necessary for carrying out this ingenious apparatus, and Murdock was always at hand to give his old friend and master his best a.s.sistance.

We have seen many original letters from Watt to Murdock, asking for counsel and help. In one of these, written in 1808, Watt says: "I have revived an idea which, if it answers, will supersede the frame and upright spindle of the reducing machine, but more of this when we meet.

Meanwhile it will be proper to adhere to the frame, etc., at present, until we see how the other alterations answer." In another he says: "I have done a Cicero without any plaits--the different segments meeting exactly. The fitting the drills into the spindle by a taper of 1 in 6 will do. They are perfectly stiff and will not unscrew easily. Four guide-pullies answer, but there must be a pair for the other end, and to work with a single hand, for the returning part is always cut upon some part or other of the frame."

These letters are written sometimes in the morning, sometimes at noon, sometimes at night. There was a great deal of correspondence about "pullies," which did not seem to answer at first. "I have made the tablets," said Watt on one occasion, "slide more easily, and can counterbalance any part of their weight which may be necessary; but the first thing to try is the solidity of the machine, which cannot be done till the pullies are mounted." Then again: "The bust-making must be given up until we get a more solid frame. I have worked two days at one and spoiled it, princ.i.p.ally from the want of steadiness." For Watt, it must be remembered, was now a very old man.

He then proceeded to send Murdock the drawing of a "parallel motion for the machine," to be executed by the workmen at Soho. The truss braces and the crosses were to be executed of steel, according to the details he enclosed. "I have warmed up," he concludes, "an old idea, and can make a machine in which the pentagraph and the leading screw will all be contained in the beam, and the pattern and piece to be cut will remain at rest fixed upon a lath of cast iron or stout steel." Watt is very particular in all his details: "I am sorry," he says in one note, "to trouble you with so many things; but the alterations on this spindle and socket [he annexes a drawing] may wait your convenience."

In a further note, Watt says. "The drawing for the parallel lathe is ready; but I have been sadly puzzled about the application of the leading screws to the cranes in the other. I think, however, I have now got the better of the difficulties, and made it more certain, as well as more simple, than it was. I have done an excellent head of John Hunter in hard white in shorter time than usual. I want to show it you before I repair it."

At last Watt seems to have become satisfied: "The lathe," he says, "is very much improved, and you seem to have given the finishing blow to the roofed frame, which appears perfectly stiff. I had some hours'

intense thinking upon the machine last night, and have made up my mind on it at last. The great difficulty was about the application of the band, but I have settled it to be much as at present."

Watt's letters to Murdock are most particular in details, especially as to screws, nuts, and tubes, with strengths and dimensions, always ill.u.s.trated with pen-and-ink drawings. And yet all this was done merely for mechanical amus.e.m.e.nt, and not for any personal pecuniary advantage. While Watt was making experiments as to the proper substances to be carved and drilled, he also desired Murdock to make similar experiments. "The nitre," he said in one note, "seems to do harm; the fluor composition seems the best and hardest. Query, what would some calcined pipe-clay do? If you will calcine some fire-clay by a red heat and pound it,--about a pound,--and send it to me, I shall try to make you a mould or two in Henning's manner to cast this and the sulphur acid iron in. I have made a s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g tool for wood that seems to answer; also one of a one-tenth diameter for marble, which does very well." In another note, Watt says: "I find my drill readily makes 2400 turns per minute, even with the large drill you sent last; if I bear lightly, a three-quarter ferril would run about 3000, and by an engine that might be doubled."

The materials to be drilled into medallions also required much consideration. "I am much obliged to you," said Watt, "for the b.a.l.l.s, etc., which answer as well as can be expected. They make great progress in cutting the crust (Ridgways) or alabaster, and also cut marble, but the harder sorts soon blunt them. At any rate, marble does not do for the medallions, as its grain prevents its being cut smooth, and its semi-transparence hurts the effect. I think Bristol lime, or sh.e.l.l lime, pressed in your manner, would have a good effect. When you are at leisure, I shall thank you for a few pieces, and if some of them are made pink or flesh colour, they will look well. I used the ball quite perpendicular, and it cut well, as most of the cutting is sideways. I tried a fine whirling point, but it made little progress; another with a chisel edge did almost as well as the b.a.l.l.s, but did not work so pleasantly. I find a triangular sc.r.a.ping point the best, and I think from some trials it should be quite a sharp point. The wheel runs easier than it did, but has still too much friction. I wished to have had an hour's consultation with you, but have been prevented by sundry matters among others by that plaguey stove, which is now in your hands."

Watt was most grateful to Murdock for his unvarying a.s.sistance. In January, 1813, when Watt was in his seventy-seventh year, he wrote to Murdock, asking him to accept a present of a lathe "I have not heard from you," he says, "in reply to my letter about the lathe; and, presuming you are not otherwise provided, I have bought it, and request your acceptance of it. At present, an alteration for the better is making in the oval chuck, and a few additional chucks, rest, etc., are making to the lathe. When these are finished, I shall have it at Billinger's until you return, or as you otherwise direct. I am going on with my drawings for a complete machine, and shall be glad to see you here to judge of them."

The drawings were made, but the machine was never finished.

"Invention," said Watt, "goes on very slowly with me now." Four years later, he was still at work; but death put a stop to his "diminishing-machine." It is a remarkable testimony to the skill and perseverance of a man who had already accomplished so much, that it is almost his only unfinished work. Watt died in 1819, in the eighty-third year of his age, to the great grief of Murdock, his oldest and most attached friend and correspondent.

Meanwhile, the firm of Boulton and Watt continued. The sons of the two partners carried it on, with Murdock as their Mentor. He was still full of work and inventive power. In 1802, he applied the compressed air of the Blast Engine employed to blow the cupolas of the Soho Foundry, for the purpose of driving the lathe in the pattern shop. It worked a small engine, with a 12-inch cylinder and 18-inch stroke, connected with the lathe, the speed being regulated as required by varying the admission of the blast. This engine continued in use for about thirty-five years.

In 1803 Murdock experimented on the power of high-pressure steam in propelling shot, and contrived a steam-engine with which he made many trials at Soho, thereby antic.i.p.ating the apparatus contrived by Mr.

Perkins many years later.

In 1810 Murdock took out a patent for boring steam-pipes for water, and cutting columns out of solid blocks of stone, by means of a cylindrical crown saw. The first machine was used at Soho, and afterwards at Mr.

Rennie's Works in London, and proved quite successful. Among his other inventions were a lift worked by compressed air, which raised and lowered the castings from the boring-mill to the level of the foundry and the ca.n.a.l bank. He used the same kind of power to ring the bells in his house at Sycamore Hill, and the contrivance was afterwards adopted by Sir Walter Scott in his house at Abbotsford.

Murdock was also the inventor of the well-known cast-iron cement, so extensively used in engine and machine work. The manner in which he was led to this invention affords a striking ill.u.s.tration of his quickness of observation. Finding that some iron-borings and sal-ammoniac had got accidently mixed together in his tool-chest, and rusted his saw-blade nearly through, he took note of the circ.u.mstance, mixed the articles in various proportions, and at length arrived at the famous cement, which eventually became an article of extensive manufacture at the Soho Works.

Murdock's ingenuity was constantly at work, even upon matters which lay entirely outside his special vocation. The late Sir William Fairbairn informed us that he contrived a variety of curious machines for consolidating peat moss, finely ground and pulverised, under immense pressure, and which, when consolidated, could be moulded into beautiful medals, armlets, and necklaces. The material took the most brilliant polish and had the appearance of the finest jet.

Observing that fish-skins might be used as an economical subst.i.tute for isingla.s.s, he went up to London on one occasion in order to explain to brewers the best method of preparing and using them. He occupied handsome apartments, and, little regarding the splendour of the drawing-room, he hung the fish-skins up against the walls. His landlady caught him one day when he was about to bang up a wet cod's skin! He was turned out at once, with all his fish. While in town on this errand, it occurred to him that a great deal of power was wasted in treading the streets of London! He conceived the idea of using the streets and roadways as a grand tread-mill, under which the waste power might be stored up by mechanical methods and turned to account. He had also an idea of storing up the power of the tides, and of running water, in the same way. The late Charles Babbage, F.R.S., entertained a similar idea about using springs of Ischia or of the geysers of Iceland as a power necessary for condensing gases, or perhaps for the storage of electricity.[12] The latter, when perfected, will probably be the greatest invention of the next half century.

Another of Murdock's' ingenious schemes, was his proposed method of transmitting letters and packages through a tube exhausted by an air-pump. This project led to the Atmospheric Railway, the success of which, so far as it went, was due to the practical ability of Murdock's pupil, Samuel Clegg. Although the atmospheric railway was eventually abandoned, it is remarkable that the original idea was afterwards revived and practised with success by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company.

In 1815, while Murdock was engaged in erecting an apparatus of his own invention for heating the water for the baths at Leamington, a ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above his ankle, and severely injured him. He remained a long while at Leamington, and when it was thought safe to remove him, the Birmingham Ca.n.a.l Company kindly placed their excursion boat at his disposal, and he was conveyed safely homeward. So soon as he was able, he was at work again at the Soho factory.

Although the elder Watt had to a certain extent ignored the uses of steam as applied to navigation, being too much occupied with developing the powers of the pumping and rotary engine, the young partners, with the stout aid of Murdock, took up the question. They supplied Fulton in 1807 with his first engine, by means of which the Clermont made her first voyage along the Hudson river. They also supplied Fulton and Livingston with the next two engines for the Car of Neptune and the Paragon. From that time forward, Boulton and Watt devoted themselves to the manufacture of engines for steamboats. Up to the year 1814, marine engines had been all applied singly in the vessel; but in this year Boulton and Watt first applied two condensing engines, connected by cranks set at right angles on the shaft, to propel a steamer on the Clyde. Since then, nearly all steamers are fitted with two engines.

In making this important improvement, the firm were materially aided by the mechanical genius of William Murdock, and also of Mr. Brown, then an a.s.sistant, but afterwards a member of the firm.

In order to carry on a set of experiments with respect to the most improved form of marine engine, Boulton and Watt purchased the Caledonia, a Scotch boat built on the Clyde by James Wood and Co., of Port Glasgow. The engines and boilers were taken out. The vessel was fitted with two side lever engines, and many successive experiments were made with her down to August, 1817, at an expense of about 10,000L. This led to a settled plan of construction, by which marine engines were greatly improved. James Watt, junior, accompanied the Caledonia to Holland and up the Rhine. The vessel was eventually sold to the Danish Government, and used for carrying the mails between Kiel and Copenhagen. It is, however, unnecessary here to venture upon the further history of steam navigation.

In the midst of these repeated inventions and experiments, Murdock was becoming an old man. Yet he never ceased to take an interest in the works at Soho. At length his faculties experienced a gradual decay, and he died peacefully at his house at Sycamore Hill, on the 15th of November,1839, in his eighty-fifth year. He was buried near the remains of the great Boulton and Watt; and a bust by Chantrey served to perpetuate the remembrance of his manly and intelligent countenance.

Footnotes for Chapter V.

[1] Fletcher's Political Works, London, 1737, p. 149,

[2] One of the Murdocks built the cathedral at Glasgow, as well as others in Scotland. The famous school of masonry at Antwerp sent out a number of excellent architects during the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. One of these, on coming into Scotland, a.s.sumed the name of Murdo. He was a Frenchman, born in Paris, as we learn from the inscription left on Melrose Abbey, and he died while building that n.o.ble work: it is as follows:--

"John Murdo sumtyme cait was I And born in Peryse certainly, An' had in kepyng all mason wark Sanct Andrays, the Hye Kirk o' Glasgo, Melrose and Paisley, Jedybro and Galowy. Pray to G.o.d and Mary baith, and sweet Saint John, keep this Holy Kirk frae scaith."

[3] The discovery of the Black Band Ironstone by David Mushet in 1801, and the invention of the Hot Blast by James Beaumont Neilson in 1828, will be found related in Industrial Biography, pp. 141-161.

[4] Note to Lockhart's Life of Scott.

[5] This was stated to the present writer some years ago by William Murdock's son; although there is no other record of the event.

[6] See Lives of Engineers (Boulton and Watt), iv. pp. 182-4. Small edition, pp. 130-2.

[7] Mr. Pea.r.s.e's letter is dated 23rd April, 1867, but has not before been published. He adds that "others remembered Murdock, one who was an apprentice with him, and lived with him for some time--a Mr. Vivian, of the foundry at Luckingmill."

[8] Murdock's house still stands in Cross Street, Redruth; those still live who saw the gas-pipes conveying gas from the retort in the little yard to near the ceiling of the room, just over the table; a hole for the pipe was made in the window frame. The old window is now replaced by a new frame."--Life of Richard Trevithick, i. 64.

[9] Philosophical Transactions, 1808, pp. 124-132.

[10] Winsor's family evidently believed in his great powers; for I am informed by Francis Galton, Esq., F.R.S., that there is a fantastical monument on the right-hand side of the central avenue of the Kensal Green Cemetery, about half way between the lodge and the church, which bears the following inscription:--"Tomb of Frederick Albert Winsor, son of the late Frederick Albert Winsor, originator of public Gas-lighting, buried in the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise, Paris. At evening time it shall be light."--Zachariah xiv. 7. "I am come a light into the world, that whoever believeth in Me shall not abide in darkness."--John xii.

46.

[11] Mr. Parkes, in his well known Chemical Essays (ed. 1841, p. 157), after referring to the successful lighting up by Murdock of the manufactory of Messrs. Phillips and Lee at Manchester in 1805, "with coal gas issuing from nearly a thousand burners," proceeds, "This grand application of the new principle satisfied the public mind, not only of the practicability, but also of the economy of the application; and as a mark of the high opinion they entertained of his genius and perseverance, and in order to put the question of priority of the discovery beyond all doubt, the Council of the Royal Society in 1808 awarded to Mr. Murdock the Gold Medal founded by the late Count Rumford."

[12] "Thus," says Mr. Charles Babbage, "in a future age, power may become the staple commodity of the Icelanders, and of the inhabitants of other volcanic districts; and possibly the very process by which they will procure this article of exchange for the luxuries of happier climates may, in some measure, tame the tremendous element which occasionally devastates their provinces."--Economy of Manufactures.