Men of Invention and Industry Part 20

[22] We are indebted to the obliging kindness of the Right Hon. Mr.

Fawcett, Postmaster-General for this return. The total number of depositors in the Post Office Savings banks in the Parliamentary borough of Belfast is 10,827 and the amount of their deposits, including the interest standing to their credit, on the 31st December, 1882, was 158,064L. 0s. 1d.

An important item in the savings of Belfast, not included in the above returns, consists in the amounts of deposits made with the various Limited Companies, as well as with the thriving Building Societies in the town and neighbourhood.

CHAPTER XI.

SHIPBUILDING IN BELFAST--ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS.

BY SIR E. J. HARLAND, ENGINEER AND SHIPBUILDER.

"The useful arts are but reproductions or new combinations by the art of man, of the same natural benefactors. He no longer waits for favouring gales, but by means of steam he realises the fable of AEolus's bag, and carries the two-and-thirty winds in the boiler of his boat."--Emerson.

"The most exquisite and the most expensive machinery is brought into play where operations on the most common materials are to be performed, because these are executed on the widest scale. This is the meaning of the vast and astonishing prevalence of machine work in this country: that the machine, with its million fingers, works for millions of purchasers, while in remote countries, where magnificence and savagery stand side by side, tens of thousands work for one. There Art labours for the rich alone; here she works for the poor no less. There the mult.i.tude produce only to give splendour and grace to the despot or the warrior, whose slaves they are, and whom they enrich; here the man who is powerful in the weapons of peace, capital, and machinery, uses them to give comfort and enjoyment to the public, whose servant he is, and thus becomes rich while he enriches others with his goods."--William Whewell, D.D.

I was born at Scarborough in May, 1831, the sixth of a family of eight.

My father was a native of Rosedale, half-way between Whitby and Pickering: his nurse was the sister of Captain Scoresby, celebrated as an Arctic explorer. Arrived at manhood, he studied medicine, graduated at Edinburgh, and practised in Scarborough until nearly his death in 1866. He was thrice Mayor and a Justice of the Peace for the borough.

Dr. Harland was a man of much force of character, and displayed great originality in the treatment of disease. Besides exercising skill in his profession, he had a great love for mechanical pursuits. He spent his leisure time in inventions of many sorts; and, in conjunction with the late Sir George Cayley of Brompton, he kept an excellent mechanic constantly at work.

In 1827 he invented and patented a steam-carriage for running on common roads. Before the adoption of railways, the old stage coaches were found slow and insufficient for the traffic. A working model of the steam-coach was perfected, embracing a mult.i.tubular boiler for quickly raising high-pressure steam, with a revolving surface condenser for reducing the steam to water again, by means of its exposure to the cold draught of the atmosphere through the interstices of extremely thin laminations of copper plates. The entire machinery, placed under the bottom of the carriage, was borne on springs; the whole being of an elegant form. This model steam-carriage ascended with perfect ease the steepest roads. Its success was so complete that Dr. Harland designed a full-sized carriage; but the demands upon his professional skill were so great that he was prevented going further than constructing the pair of engines, the wheels, and a part of the boiler,--all of which remnants I still preserve, as valuable links in the progress of steam locomotion.

Other branches of practical science--such as electricity, magnetism, and chemical cultivation of the soil--received a share of his attention. He predicted that three or four powerful electric lamps would yet light a whole city. He was also convinced of the feasibility of an electric cable to New York, and calculated the probable cost. As an example to the neighbourhood, he successfully cultivated a tract of moorland, and overcame difficulties which before then were thought insurmountable.

When pa.s.sing through Newcastle, while still a young man, on one of his journeys to the University at Edinburgh, and being desirous of witnessing the operations in a coal-mine, a friend recommended him to visit Killingworth pit, where he would find one George Stephenson, a most intelligent workman, in charge. My father was introduced to Mr.

Stephenson accordingly; and after rambling over the underground workings, and observing the pumping and winding engines in full operation, a friendship was made, which afterwards proved of the greatest service to myself, by facilitating my being placed as a pupil at the great engineering works of Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Co., at Newcastle.

My mother was the daughter of Gawan Pierson, a landed proprietor of Goathland, near Rosedale. She, too, was surprisingly mechanical in her tastes; and a.s.sisted my father in preparing many of his plans, besides attaining considerable proficiency in drawing, painting, and modelling in wax. Toys in those days were poor, as well as very expensive to purchase. But the nursery soon became a little workshop under her directions; and the boys were usually engaged, one in making a cart, another in carving out a horse, and a third in cutting out a boat; while the girls were making harness, or sewing sails, or cutting out and making perfect dresses for their dolls--whose houses were completely furnished with everything, from the kitchen to the attic, all made at home.

It was in a house of such industry and mechanism that I was brought up.

As a youth, I was slow at my lessons; preferring to watch and a.s.sist workmen when I had an opportunity of doing so, even with the certainty of having a thrashing from the schoolmaster for my neglect. Thus I got to know every workshop and every workman in the town. At any rate I picked up a smattering of a variety of trades, which afterwards proved of the greatest use to me. The chief of these was wooden shipbuilding, a branch of industry then extensively carried on by Messrs. William and Robert Tindall, the former of whom resided in London; he was one of the half-dozen great shipbuilders and owners who founded "Lloyd's."

Splendid East Indiamen, of some 1000 tons burden, were then built at Scarborough; and scarcely a timber was moulded, a plank bent, a spar lined off, or launching ship-ways laid, without my being present to witness them. And thus, in course of time, I was able to make for myself the neatest and fastest of model yachts.

At that time, I attended the Grammar School. Of the rudiments taught, I was fondest of drawing, geometry, and Euclid. Indeed, I went twice through the first two books of the latter before I was twelve years old. At this age I was sent to the Edinburgh Academy, my eldest brother William being then a medical student at the University. I remained at Edinburgh two years. My early progress in mathematics would have been lost in the cla.s.sical training which was then insisted upon at the academy, but for my brother who was not only a good mathematician but an excellent mechanic. He took care to carry on my instruction in that branch of knowledge, as well as to teach me to make models of machines and buildings, in which he was himself proficient.

I remember, in one of my journeys to Edinburgh, by coach from Darlington, that a gentleman expressed his wonder what a screw propeller could be like; for the screw, as a method of propulsion, was then being introduced. I pointed out to him the patent tail of a windmill by the roadside, and said, "It is just like that!"

In 1844 my mother died; and shortly after, my brother having become M.D., and obtained a prize gold medal, we returned to Scarborough. It was intended that he should a.s.sist my father; but he preferred going abroad for a few years. I may mention further, with relation to him, that after many years of scientific research and professional practice, he died at Hong Kong in 1858, when a public monument was erected to his memory, in what is known as the "Happy Valley."

I remained for a short time under the tuition of my old master. But as the time was rapidly approaching when I too must determine what I was "to be" in life. I had no hesitation in deciding to be an engineer, though my father wished me to be a barrister. But I kept constant to my resolution; and eventually he succeeded, through his early acquaintance with George Stephenson, in gaining for me an entrance to the engineering works of Robert Stephenson and Co., at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

I started there as a pupil on my fifteenth birthday, for an apprenticeship of five years. I was to spend the first four years in the various workshops, and the last year in the drawing-office.

I was now in my element. The working hours, it is true, were very long,--being from six in the morning until 8.15 at night; excepting on Sat.u.r.day, when we knocked off at four. However, all this gave me so much the more experience; and, taking advantage of it, I found that, when I had reached the age of eighteen, I was intrusted with the full charge of erecting one side of a locomotive. I had to accomplish the same amount of work as my mate on the other side, one Murray Playfair, a powerful, hard-working Scotchman. My strength and endurance were sometimes taxed to the utmost, and required the intervals of my labour to be spent in merely eating and sleeping.

I afterwards went through the machine-shops. I was fortunate enough to get charge of the best screw-cutting and bra.s.s-turning lathe in the shop; the former occupant, Jack Singleton, having just been promoted to a foreman's berth at the Messrs. Armstrong's factory. He afterwards became superintendent of all the hydraulic machinery of the Mersey Dock Trust at Liverpool. After my four years had been completed, I went into the drawing-office, to which I had looked forward with pleasure; and, having before practised lineal as well as free-hand drawing, I soon succeeded in getting good and difficult designs to work out, and eventually finished drawings of the engines. Indeed, on visiting the works many years after, one of these drawings was shown to me as a "specimen;" the person exhibiting it not knowing that it was my own work.

In the course of my occasional visits to Scarborough, my attention was drawn to the imperfect design of the lifeboats of the period; the frequent shipwrecks along the coast indicating the necessity for their improvement. After considerable deliberation, I matured a plan for a metal lifeboat, of a cylindrico-conical or chrysalis form, to be propelled by a screw at each end, turned by sixteen men inside, seated on water-ballast tanks; sufficient room being left at the ends inside for the accommodation of ten or twelve shipwrecked persons; while a mate near the bow, and the captain near the stern in charge of the rudder, were stationed in recesses in the deck about three feet deep.

The whole apparatus was almost cylindrical, and watertight, save in the self-acting ventilators, which could only give access to the smallest portion of water. I considered that, if the lifeboat fully manned were launched into the roughest seas, or off the deck of a vessel, it would, even if turned on its back, immediately right itself, without any of the crew being disturbed from their positions, to which they were to have been strapped.

It happened that at this time (the summer of 1850) his Grace the late Duke of Northumberland, who had always taken a deep interest in the Lifeboat Inst.i.tution, offered a prize of one hundred guineas for the best model and design of such a craft; so I determined to complete my plans and make a working model of my lifeboat. I came to the conclusion that the cylindrico-conical form, with the frames to be carried completely round and forming beams as well, and the two screws, one at each end, worked off the same power, by which one or other of them would always be immersed, were worth registering in the Patent Office. I therefore entered a caveat there; and continued working at my model in the evenings. I first made a wooden block model, on the scale of an inch to the foot. I had some difficulty in procuring sheets of copper thin enough, so that the model should draw only the correct amount of water; but at last I succeeded, through finding the man at Newcastle who had supplied my father with copper plates for his early road locomotive.

The model was only 32 inches in length, and 8 inches in beam; and in order to fix all the internal fittings, of tanks, seats, crank handles, and pulleys, I had first to fit the sh.e.l.l plating, and then, by finally securing one strake of plates on, and then another, after all inside was complete, I at last finished for good the last outside plate. In executing the job, my early experience of all sorts of handiwork came serviceably to my aid. After many a whole night's work--for the evenings alone were not sufficient for the purpose--I at length completed my model; and triumphantly and confidently took it to sea in an open boat; and then cast it into the waves. The model either rode over them or pa.s.sed through them; if it was sometimes rolled over, it righted itself at once, and resumed its proper att.i.tude in the waters.

After a considerable trial I found scarcely a trace of water inside.

Such as had got there was merely through the joints in the sliding hatches; though the ventilators were free to work during the experiments.

I completed the prescribed drawings and specifications, and sent them, together with the model, to Somerset House. Some 280 schemes of lifeboats were submitted for compet.i.tion; but mine was not successful.

I suspect that the extreme novelty of the arrangement deterred the adjudicators from awarding in its favour. Indeed, the scheme was so unprecedented, and so entirely out of the ordinary course of things, that there was no special mention made of it in the report afterwards published, and even the description there given was incorrect. The prize was awarded to Mr. James Beeching, of Great Yarmouth, whose plans were afterwards generally adopted by the Lifeboat Society. I have preserved my model just as it was; and some of its features have since been introduced with advantage into shipbuilding.[1]

The firm of Robert Stephenson and Co. having contracted to build for the Government three large iron caissons for the Keyham Docks, and as these were very similar in construction to that of an ordinary iron ship, draughtsmen conversant with that cla.s.s of work were specially engaged to superintend it. The manager, knowing my fondness for ships, placed me as his a.s.sistant at this new work. After I had mastered it, I endeavoured to introduce improvements, having observed certain defects in laying down the lines--I mean by the use of graduated curves cut out of thin wood. In lieu of this method, I contrived thin tapered laths of lancewood, and weights of a particular form, with steel claws and knife edges attached, so as to hold the lath tightly down to the paper, yet capable of being readily adjusted, so as to produce any form of curve, along which the pen could freely and continuously travel.

This method proved very efficient, and it has since come into general use.

The Messrs. Stephenson were then also making marine engines, as well as large condensing pumping engines, and a large tubular bridge to be erected over the river Don. The splendid high-level bridge over the Tyne, of which Robert Stephenson was the engineer, was also in course of construction. With the opportunity of seeing these great works in progress, and of visiting, during my holidays and long evenings, most of the manufactories and mines in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, I could not fail to pick up considerable knowledge, and an acquaintance with a vast variety of trades. There were about thirty other pupils in the works at the same time with myself; some were there either through favour or idle fancy; but comparatively few gave their full attention to the work, and I have since heard nothing of them. Indeed, unless a young fellow takes a real interest in his work, and has a genuine love for it, the greatest advantages will prove of no avail whatever.

It was a good plan adopted at the works, to require the pupils to keep the same hours as the rest of the men, and, though they paid a premium on entering, to give them the same rate of wages as the rest of the lads. Mr. William Hutchinson, a contemporary of George Stephenson, was the managing partner. He was a person of great experience, and had the most thorough knowledge of men and materials, knowing well how to handle both to the best advantage.

His son-in-law, Mr. William Weallans, was the head draughtsman, and very proficient, not only in quickness but in accuracy and finish. I found it of great advantage to have the benefit of the example and the training of these very clever men.

My five years apprenticeship was completed in May 1851, on my twentieth birthday. Having had but very little "black time," as it was called, beyond the half-yearly holiday for visiting my friends, and having only "slept in" twice during the five years, I was at once entered on the books as a journeyman, on the "big" wage of twenty shillings a week.

Orders were, however, at that time very difficult to be had.

Railway trucks, and even navvies' barrows, were contracted for in order to keep the men employed. It was better not to discharge them, and to find something for them to do. At the same time it was not very encouraging for me, under such circ.u.mstances, to remain with the firm.

I therefore soon arranged to leave; and first of all I went to see London. It was the Great Exhibition year of 1851. I need scarcely say what a rich feast I found there, and how thoroughly I enjoyed it all.

I spent about two months in inspecting the works of art and mechanics in the Exhibition, to my own great advantage. I then returned home; and, after remaining in Scarborough for a short time, I proceeded to Glasgow with a letter of introduction to Messrs. J. and G. Thomson, marine engine builders, who started me on the same wages which I had received at Stephenson's, namely twenty shillings a week.

I found the banks of the Clyde splendid ground for gaining further mechanical knowledge. There were the ship and engine works on both sides of the river, down to Govan; and below there, at Renfrew, Dumbarton, Port Glasgow, and Greenock--no end of magnificent yards--so that I had plenty of occupation for my leisure time on Sat.u.r.day afternoons. The works of Messrs. Robert Napier and Sons were then at the top of the tree. The largest Cunard steamers were built and engined there. Tod and Macgregor were the foremost in screw steamships--those for the Peninsular and Oriental Company being splendid models of symmetry and works of art. Some of the fine wooden paddle-steamers built in Bristol for the Royal Mail Company were sent round to the Clyde for their machinery. I contrived to board all these ships from time to time, so as to become well acquainted with their respective merits and peculiarities.

As an ill.u.s.tration of how contrivances, excellent in principle, but defective in construction, may be discarded, but again taken up under more favourable circ.u.mstances, I may mention that I saw a Hall's patent surface-condensor thrown to one side from one of these steamers, the princ.i.p.al difficulty being in keeping it tight. And yet, in the course of a very few years, by the simplest possible contrivance--inserting an indiarubber ring round each end of the tube (Spencer's patent)--surface condensation in marine engines came into vogue; and there is probably no ocean-going steamer afloat without it, furnished with every variety of suitable packings.

After some time, the Messrs. Thomson determined to build their own vessels, and an experienced naval draughtsman was engaged, to whom I was "told off" whenever he needed a.s.sistance. In the course of time, more and more of the ship work came in my way. Indeed, I seemed to obtain the preference. Fortunately for us both, my superior obtained an appointment of a similar kind on the Tyne, at superior pay, and I was promoted to his place. The Thomsons had now a very fine shipbuilding-yard, in full working order, with several large steamers on the stocks. I was placed in the drawing-office as head draughtsman.

At the same time I had no rise of wages; but still went on enjoying my twenty shillings a week. I was, however, gaining information and experience, and knew that better pay would follow in due course of time. And without solicitation I was eventually offered an engagement for a term of years, at an increased and increasing salary, with three months' notice on either side.

I had only enjoyed the advance for a short time, when Mr. Thomas Toward, a shipbuilder on the Tyne, being in want of a manager, made application to the Messrs. Stephenson for such a person. They mentioned my name, and Mr. Toward came over to the Clyde to see me. The result was, that I became engaged, and it was arranged that I should enter on my enlarged duties on the Tyne in the autumn of 1853. It was with no small reluctance that I left the Messrs. Thomson. They were first-cla.s.s practical men, and had throughout shown me every kindness and consideration. But a managership was not to be had every day; and being the next step to the position of a master, I could not neglect the opportunity for advancement which now offered itself.

Before leaving Glasgow, however, I found that it would be necessary to have a new angle and plate furnace provided for the works on the Tyne.

Now, the best man in Glasgow for building these important requisites for shipbuilding work was scarcely ever sober; but by watching and coaxing him, and by a liberal supply of Glenlivat afterwards, I contrived to lay down on paper, from his directions, what he considered to be the best cla.s.s of furnace; and by the aid of this I was afterwards enabled to construct what proved to be the best furnace on the Tyne.

To return to my education in shipbuilding. My early efforts in ship-draughting at Stephensons' were further developed and matured at Thomsons' on the Clyde. Models and drawings were more carefully worked out on the 1/4-in. scale than heretofore. The stern frames were laid off and put up at once correctly, which before had been first shaped by full-sized wooden moulds. I also contrived a mode of quickly and correctly laying off the frame-lines on a model, by laying it on a plane surface, and then, with a rectangular block traversing it--a pencil in a suitable holder being readily applied over the curved surface. This method is now in general use.

Even at that time, compet.i.tion as regards speed in the Clyde steamers was very keen. Foremost among the compet.i.tors was the late Mr. David Hutchinson, who, though delighted with the Mountaineer, built by the Thomsons in 1853, did not hesitate to have her lengthened forward to make her sharper, so as to secure her ascendency in speed during the ensuing season. The results were satisfactory; and his steamers grew and grew, until they developed into the celebrated Iona and Cambria, which were in later years built for him by the same firm. I may mention that the Cunard screw steamer Jura was the last heavy job with which I was connected while at Thomsons'.

I then proceeded to the Tyne, to superintend the building of ships and marine boilers. The shipbuilding yard was at St. Peter's, about two and a-half miles below Newcastle. I found the work, as practised there, rough and ready; but by steady attention to all the details, and by careful inspection when pa.s.sing the "piece-work" (a practice much in vogue there, but which I discouraged), I contrived to raise the standard of excellence, without a corresponding increase of price. My object was to raise the quality of the work turned out; and, as we had orders from the Russian Government, from China, and the Continent, as well as from shipowners at home, I observed that quality was a very important element in all commercial success. My master, Mr. Thomas Toward, was in declining health; and, being desirous of spending his winters abroad, I was consequently left in full charge of the works.

But as there did not appear to be a satisfactory prospect, under the circ.u.mstances, for any material development of the business, a trifling circ.u.mstance arose, which again changed the course of my career.

An advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared in the papers for a manager to conduct a shipbuilding yard in Belfast. I made inquiries as to the situation, and eventually applied for it. I was appointed, and entered upon my duties there at Christmas, 1854. The yard was a much larger one than that on the Tyne, and was capable of great expansion. It was situated on what was then well known as the Queen's Island; but now, like the Isle of Dogs, it has been attached by reclamation. The yard, about four acres in extent, was held by lease from the Belfast Harbour Commissioners. It was well placed, alongside a fine patent slip, with clear frontage, allowing of the largest ships being freely launched.

Indeed, the first ship built there, the Mary Stenhouse, had only just been completed and launched by Messrs. Robert Hickson and Co., then the proprietors of the undertaking. They were also the owners of the Eliza Street Iron Works, Belfast, which were started to work up old iron materials. But as the works were found to be unremunerative, they were shortly afterwards closed.

On my entering the shipbuilding yard I found that the firm had an order for two large sailing ships. One of these was partly in frame; and I at once tackled with it and the men. Mr. Hickson, the acting partner, not being practically acquainted with the business, the whole proceeding connected with the building of the ships devolved upon me.

I had been engaged to supersede a manager summarily dismissed.

Although he had not given satisfaction to his employers, he was a great favourite with the men. Accordingly, my appearance as manager in his stead was not very agreeable to the employed. On inquiry I found that the rate of wages paid was above the usual value, whilst the quant.i.ty as well as quality of the work done were below the standard. I proceeded to rectify these defects, by paying the ordinary rate of wages, and then by raising the quality of the work done. I was met by the usual method--a strike. The men turned out. They were abetted by the former manager; and the leading hands hung about the town unemployed, in the hope of my throwing up the post in disgust.