Having finished his five years' apprenticeship at Percy Main, by which
time he had reached his twenty-first year, William Fairbairn shortly
after determined to go forth into the world in search of experience.
At Newcastle he found employment as a millwright for a few weeks,
during which he worked at the erection of a sawmill in the Close.  From
thence he went to Bedlington at an advanced wage.  He remained there
for six months, during which he was so fortunate as to make the
acquaintance of Miss Mar, who five years after, when his wanderings had
ceased, became his wife.  On the completion of the job on which he had
been employed, our engineer prepared to make another change.  Work was
difficult to be had in the North, and, joined by a comrade, he resolved
to try his fortune in London.  Adopting the cheapest route, he took
passage by a Shields collier, in which he sailed for the Thames on the
11th of December, 1811.  It was then war-time, and the vessel was very
short-handed, the crew consisting only of three old men and three boys,
with the skipper and mate; so that the vessel was no sooner fairly at
sea than both the passenger youths had to lend a hand in working her,
and this continued for the greater part of the voyage.  The weather was
very rough, and in consequence of the captain's anxiety to avoid
privateers he hugged the shore too close, and when navigating the
inside passage of the Swin, between Yarmouth and the Nore, the vessel
very narrowly escaped shipwreck.  After beating about along shore, the
captain half drunk the greater part of the time, the vessel at last
reached the Thames with loss of spars and an anchor, after a tedious
voyage of fourteen days.

On arriving off Blackwall the captain went ashore ostensibly in search
of the Coal Exchange, taking our young engineer with him.  The former
was still under the influence of drink; and though he failed to reach
the Exchange that night, he succeeded in reaching a public house in
Wapping, beyond which he could not be got.  At ten o'clock the two
started on their return to the ship; but the captain took the
opportunity of the darkness to separate from his companion, and did not
reach the ship until next morning.  It afterwards came out that he had
been taken up and lodged in the watch-house.  The youth, left alone in
the streets of the strange city, felt himself in an awkward dilemma.
He asked the next watchman he met to recommend him to a lodging, on
which the man took him to a house in New Gravel Lane, where he
succeeded in finding accommodation.  What was his horror next morning
to learn that a whole family--the Williamsons--had been murdered in the
very next house during the night!  Making the best of his way back to
the ship, he found that his comrade, who had suffered dreadfully from
sea-sickness during the voyage, had nearly recovered, and was able to
accompany him into the City in search of work.  They had between them a
sum of only about eight pounds, so that it was necessary for them to
take immediate steps to obtain employment.

They thought themselves fortunate in getting the promise of a job from
Mr. Rennie, the celebrated engineer, whose works were situated at the
south end of Blackfriars Bridge.  Mr. Rennie sent the two young men to
his foreman, with the request that he should set them to work.  The
foreman referred them to the secretary of the Millwrights' Society, the
shop being filled with Union men, who set their shoulders together to
exclude those of their own grade, however skilled, who could not
produce evidence that they had complied with the rules of the trade.
Describing his first experience of London Unionists, nearly half a
century later, before an assembly of working men at Derby, Mr.
Fairbairn said, "When I first entered London, a young man from the
country had no chance whatever of success, in consequence of the trade
guilds and unions.  I had no difficulty in finding employment, but
before I could begin work I had to run the gauntlet of the trade
societies; and after dancing attendance for nearly six weeks, with very
little money in my pocket, and having to 'box Harry' all the time, I
was ultimately declared illegitimate, and sent adrift to seek my
fortune elsewhere.  There were then three millwright societies in
London:  one called the Old Society, another the New Society, and a
third the Independent Society.  These societies were not founded for
the protection of the trade, but for the maintenance of high wages, and
for the exclusion of all those who could not assert their claims to
work in London and other corporate towns.  Laws of a most arbitrary
character were enforced, and they were governed by cliques of
self-appointed officers, who never failed to take care of their own
interests." [3]

Their first application for leave to work in London having thus
disastrously ended, the two youths determined to try their fortune in
the country, and with aching hearts they started next morning before
daylight.  Their hopes had been suddenly crushed, their slender funds
were nearly exhausted, and they scarce knew where to turn.  But they
set their faces bravely northward, and pushed along the high road,
through slush and snow, as far as Hertford, which they reached after
nearly eight hours' walking, on the moderate fare during their journey
of a penny roll and a pint of ale each.  Though wet to the skin, they
immediately sought out a master millwright, and applied for work.  He
said he had no job vacant at present; but, seeing their sorry plight,
he had compassion upon them, and said, "Though I cannot give you
employment, you seem to be two nice lads;" and he concluded by offering
Fairbairn a half-crown.  But his proud spirit revolted at taking money
which he had not earned; and he declined the proffered gift with
thanks, saying he was sorry they could not have work.  He then turned
away from the door, on which his companion, mortified by his refusal to
accept the half-crown at a time when they were reduced almost to their
last penny, broke out in bitter remonstrances and regrets.  Weary, wet,
and disheartened, the two turned into Hertford churchyard, and rested
for a while upon a tombstone, Fairbairn's companion relieving himself
by a good cry, and occasional angry outbursts of "Why didn't you take
the half-crown?"  "Come, come, man!" said Fairbairn, "it's of no use
crying; cheer up; let's try another road; something must soon cast up."
They rose, and set out again, but when they reached the bridge, the
dispirited youth again broke down; and, leaning his back against the
parapet, said, "I winna gang a bit further; let's get back to London."
Against this Fairbairn remonstrated, saying "It's of no use lamenting;
we must try what we can do here; if the worst comes to the worst, we
can 'list; you are a strong chap--they'll soon take you; and as for me,
I'll join too; I think I could fight a bit."  After this council of
war, the pair determined to find lodgings in the town for the night,
and begin their search for work anew on the morrow.

Next day, when passing along one of the back streets of Hertford, they
came to a wheelwright's shop, where they made the usual enquiries.  The
wheelwright, said that he did not think there was any job to be had in
the town; but if the two young men pushed on to Cheshunt, he thought
they might find work at a windmill which was under contract to be
finished in three weeks, and where the millwright wanted hands.  Here
was a glimpse of hope at last; and the strength and spirits of both
revived in an instant.  They set out immediately; walked the seven
miles to Cheshunt; succeeded in obtaining the expected employment;
worked at the job a fortnight; and entered London again with nearly
three pounds in their pockets.

Our young millwright at length succeeded in obtaining regular
employment in the metropolis at good wages.  He worked first at
Grundy's Patent Ropery at Shadwell, and afterwards at Mr. Penn's of
Greenwich, gaining much valuable insight, and sedulously improving his
mind by study in his leisure hours.  Among the acquaintances he then
made was an enthusiastic projector of the name of Hall, who had taken
out one patent for making hemp from bean-stalks, and contemplated
taking out another for effecting spade tillage by steam.  The young
engineer was invited to make the requisite model, which he did, and it
cost him both time and money, which the out-at-elbows projector was
unable to repay; and all that came of the project was the exhibition of
the model at the Society of Arts and before the Board of Agriculture,
in whose collection it is probably still to be found.  Another more
successful machine constructed By Mr. Fairbairn about the same time was
a sausage-chopping machine, which he contrived and made for a
pork-butcher for 33l.  It was the first order he had ever had on his
own account; and, as the machine when made did its work admirably, he
was naturally very proud of it.  The machine was provided with a
fly-wheel and double crank, with connecting rods which worked a cross
head.  It contained a dozen knives crossing each other at right angles
in such a way as to enable them to mince or divide the meat on a
revolving block.  Another part of the apparatus accomplished the
filling of the sausages in a very expert manner, to the entire
satisfaction of the pork-butcher.

As work was scarce in London at the time, and our engineer was bent on
gathering further experience in his trade, he determined to make a tour
in the South of England and South Wales; and set out from London in
April 1813 with 7L. in his pocket.  After visiting Bath and Frome, he
settled to work for six weeks at Bathgate; after which he travelled by
Bradford and Trowbridge--always on foot--to Bristol.  From thence he
travelled through South Wales, spending a few days each at Newport,
Llandaff, and Cardiff, where he took ship for Dublin.  By the time he
reached Ireland his means were all but exhausted, only three-halfpence
remaining in his pocket; but, being young, hopeful, skilful, and
industrious, he was light of heart, and looked cheerfully forward.  The
next day he succeeded in finding employment at Mr. Robinson's, of the
Phoenix Foundry, where he was put to work at once upon a set of
patterns for some nail-machinery.  Mr. Robinson was a man of spirit and
enterprise, and, seeing the quantities of English machine-made nails
imported into Ireland, he was desirous of giving Irish industry the
benefit of the manufacture.  The construction of the nail-making
machinery occupied Mr. Fairbairn the entire summer; and on its
completion he set sail in the month of October for Liverpool.  It may
be added, that, notwithstanding the expense incurred by Mr. Robinson in
setting up the new nail-machinery, his workmen threatened him with a
strike if he ventured to use it.  As he could not brave the opposition
of the Unionists, then all-powerful in Dublin, the machinery was never
set to work; the nail-making trade left Ireland, never to return; and
the Irish market was thenceforward supplied entirely with English-made
nails.  The Dublin iron-manufacture was ruined in the same way; not
through any local disadvantages, but solely by the prohibitory
regulations enforced by the workmen of the Trades Unions.

Arrived at Liverpool, after a voyage of two days--which was then
considered a fair passage--our engineer proceeded to Manchester, which
had already become the principal centre of manufacturing operations in
the North of England.  As we have already seen in the memoirs of
Nasmyth, Roberts, and Whitworth, Manchester offered great attractions
for highly-skilled mechanics; and it was as fortunate for Manchester as
for William Fairbairn himself that he settled down there as a working
millwright in the year 1814, bringing with him no capital, but an
abundance of energy, skill, and practical experience in his trade.
Afterwards describing the characteristics of the millwright of that
time, Mr. Fairbairn said--"In those days a good millwright was a man of
large resources; he was generally well educated, and could draw out his
own designs and work at the lathe; he had a knowledge of mill
machinery, pumps, and cranes, and could turn his hand to the bench or
the forge with equal adroitness and facility.  If hard pressed, as was
frequently the case in country places far from towns, he could devise
for himself expedients which enabled him to meet special requirements,
and to complete his work without assistance.  This was the class of men
with whom I associated in early life--proud of their calling, fertile
in resources, and aware of their value in a country where the
industrial arts were rapidly developing." [4]

When William Fairbairn entered Manchester he was twenty-four years of
age; and his hat still "covered his family."  But, being now pretty
well satiated with his "wandetschaft,"--as German tradesmen term their
stage of travelling in search of trade experience,--he desired to
settle, and, if fortune favoured him, to marry the object of his
affections, to whom his heart still faithfully turned during all his
wanderings.  He succeeded in finding employment with Mr. Adam
Parkinson, remaining with him for two years, working as a millwright,
at good wages.  Out of his earnings he saved sufficient to furnish a
two-roomed cottage comfortably; and there we find him fairly installed
with his wife by the end of 1816.  As in the case of most men of a
thoughtful turn, marriage served not only to settle our engineer, but
to stimulate him to more energetic action.  He now began to aim at
taking a higher position, and entertained the ambition of beginning
business on his own account.  One of his first efforts in this
direction was the preparation of the design of a cast-iron bridge over
the Irwell, at Blackfriars, for which a prize was offered.  The attempt
was unsuccessful, and a stone bridge was eventually decided on; but the
effort made was creditable, and proved the beginning of many designs.
The first job he executed on his own account was the erection of an
iron conservatory and hothouse for Mr. J. Hulme, of Clayton, near
Manchester; and he induced one of his shopmates, James Lillie, to join
him in the undertaking.  This proved the beginning of a business
connection which lasted for a period of fifteen years, and laid the
foundation of a partnership, the reputation of which, in connection
with mill-work and the construction of iron machinery generally,
eventually became known all over the civilized world.

Although the patterns for the conservatory were all made, and the
castings were begun, the work was not proceeded with, in consequence of
the notice given by a Birmingham firm that the plan after which it was
proposed to construct it was an infringement of their patent.  The
young firm were consequently under the necessity of looking about them
for other employment.  And to be prepared for executing orders, they
proceeded in the year 1817 to hire a small shed at a rent of 12s. a
week, in which they set up a lathe of their own making, capable of
turning shafts of from 3 to 6 inches diameter; and they hired a strong
Irishman to drive the wheel and assist at the heavy work.  Their first
job was the erection of a cullender, and their next a calico-polishing
machine; but orders came in slowly, and James Lillie began to despair
of success.  His more hopeful partner strenuously urged him to
perseverance, and so buoyed him up with hopes of orders, that he
determined to go on a little longer.  They then issued cards among the
manufacturers, and made a tour of the principal firms, offering their
services and soliciting work.

Amongst others, Mr. Fairbairn called upon the Messrs. Adam and George
Murray, the large cotton-spinners, taking with him the designs of his
iron bridge.  Mr. Adam Murray received him kindly, heard his
explanations, and invited him to call on the following day with his
partner.  The manufacturer must have been favourably impressed by this
interview, for next day, when Fairbairn and Lillie called, he took them
over his mill, and asked whether they felt themselves competent to
renew with horizontal cross-shafts the whole of the work by which the
mule-spinning machinery was turned.  This was a formidable enterprise
for a young firm without capital and almost without plant to undertake;
but they had confidence in themselves, and boldly replied that they
were willing and able to execute the work.  On this, Mr. Murray said he
would call and see them at their own workshop, to satisfy himself that
they possessed the means of undertaking such an order.  This proposal
was by no means encouraging to the partners, who feared that when Mr.
Murray spied "the nakedness of the land" in that quarter, he might
repent him of his generous intentions.  He paid his promised visit, and
it is probable that he was more favourably impressed by the individual
merits of the partners than by the excellence of their
machine-tools--of which they had only one, the lathe which they had
just made and set up; nevertheless he gave them the order, and they
began with glad hearts and willing hands and minds to execute this
their first contract.  It may be sufficient to state that by working
late and early--from 5 in the morning until 9 at night for a
considerable period--they succeeded in completing the alterations
within the time specified, and to Mr. Murray's entire satisfaction.
The practical skill of the young men being thus proved, and their
anxiety to execute the work entrusted to them to the best of their
ability having excited the admiration of their employer, he took the
opportunity of recommending them to his friends in the trade, and
amongst others to Mr. John Kennedy, of the firm of MacConnel and
Kennedy, then the largest spinners in the kingdom.

The Cotton Trade had by this time sprung into great importance, and was
increasing with extraordinary rapidity.  Population and wealth were
pouring into South Lancashire, and industry and enterprise were
everywhere on foot.  The foundations were being laid of a system of
manufacturing in iron, machinery, and textile fabrics of nearly all
kinds, the like of which has perhaps never been surpassed in any
country.  It was a race of industry, in which the prizes were won by
the swift, the strong, and the skilled.  For the most part, the early
Lancashire manufacturers started very nearly equal in point of worldly
circumstances, men originally of the smallest means often coming to the
front--work men, weavers, mechanics, pedlers, farmers, or labourers--in
course of time rearing immense manufacturing concerns by sheer force of
industry, energy, and personal ability.  The description given by one
of the largest employers in Lancashire, of the capital with which he
started, might apply to many of them: "When I married," said he, "my
wife had a spinning-wheel, and I had a loom--that was the beginning of
our fortune."  As an illustration of the rapid rise of Manchester men
from small beginnings, the following outline of John Kennedy's career,
intimately connected as he was with the subject of our memoir--may not
be without interest in this place.

John Kennedy was one of five young men of nearly the same age, who came
from the same neighbourhood in Scotland, and eventually settled in
Manchester as cottons-pinners about the end of last century.  The
others were his brother James, his partner James MacConnel, and the
brothers Murray, above referred to--Mr. Fairbairn's first extensive
employers.  John Kennedy's parents were respectable peasants, possessed
of a little bit of ground at Knocknalling, in the stewartry of
Kirkcudbright, on which they contrived to live, and that was all.  John
was one of a family of five sons and two daughters, and the father
dying early, the responsibility and the toil of bringing up these
children devolved upon the mother.  She was a strict disciplinarian,
and early impressed upon the minds of her boys that they had their own
way to make in the world.  One of the first things she made them think
about was, the learning of some useful trade for the purpose of
securing an independent living; "for," said she, "if you have gotten
mechanical skill and intelligence, and are honest and trustworthy, you
will always find employment and be ready to avail yourselves of
opportunities for advancing yourselves in life."  Though the mother
desired to give her sons the benefits of school education, there was
but little of that commodity to be had in the remote district of
Knocknalling.  The parish-school was six miles distant, and the
teaching given in it was of a very inferior sort--usually administered
by students, probationers for the ministry, or by half-fledged
dominies, themselves more needing instruction than able to impart it.
The Kennedys could only attend the school during a few months in
summer-time, so that what they had acquired by the end of one season
was often forgotten by the beginning of the next.  They learnt,
however, to read the Testament, say their catechism, and write their
own names.

As the children grew up, they each longed for the time to come when
they could be put to a trade.  The family were poorly clad; stockings
and shoes were luxuries rarely indulged in; and Mr. Kennedy used in
after-life to tell his grandchildren of a certain Sunday which he
remembered shortly after his father died, when he was setting out for
Dalry church, and had borrowed his brother Alexander's stockings, his
brother ran after him and cried, "See that you keep out of the dirt,
for mind you have got my stockings on!"  John indulged in many
day-dreams about the world that lay beyond the valley and the mountains
which surrounded the place of his birth.  Though a mere boy, the
natural objects, eternally unchangeable, which daily met his eyes--the
profound silence of the scene, broken only by the bleating of a
solitary sheep, or the crowing of a distant cock, or the thrasher
beating out with his flail the scanty grain of the black oats spread
upon a skin in the open air, or the streamlets leaping from the rocky
clefts, or the distant church-bell sounding up the valley on
Sundays--all bred in his mind a profound melancholy and feeling of
loneliness, and he used to think to himself, "What can I do to see and
know something of the world beyond this?"  The greatest pleasure he
experienced during that period was when packmen came round with their
stores of clothing and hardware, and displayed them for sale; he
eagerly listened to all that such visitors had to tell of the ongoings
of the world beyond the valley.

The people of the Knocknalling district were very poor.  The greater
part of them were unable to support the younger members, whose custom
it was to move off elsewhere in search of a living when they arrived at
working years,--some to America, some to the West Indies, and some to
the manufacturing districts of the south.  Whole families took their
departure in this way, and the few friendships which Kennedy formed
amongst those of his own age were thus suddenly snapped, and only a
great blank remained.  But he too could follow their example, and enter
upon that wider world in which so many others had ventured and
succeeded.  As early as eight years of age, his mother still impressing
upon her boys the necessity of learning to work, John gathered courage
to say to her that he wished to leave home and apprentice himself to
some handicraft business.  Having seen some carpenters working in the
neighbourhood, with good clothes on their backs, and hearing the men's
characters well spoken of, he thought it would be a fine thing to be a
carpenter too, particularly as the occupation would enable him to move
from place to place and see the world.  He was as yet, however, of too
tender an age to set out on the journey of life; but when he was about
eleven years old, Adam Murray, one of his most intimate acquaintances,
having gone off to serve an apprenticeship in Lancashire with Mr.
Cannan of Chowbent, himself a native of the district, the event again
awakened in him a strong desire to migrate from Knocknalling.  Others
had gone after Murray, James MacConnel and two or three more; and at
length, at about fourteen years of age, Kennedy himself left his native
home for Lancashire.  About the time that he set out, Paul Jones was
ravaging the coasts of Galloway, and producing general consternation
throughout the district.  Great excitement also prevailed through the
occurrence of the Gordon riots in London, which extended into remote
country places; and Kennedy remembered being nearly frightened out of
his wits on one occasion by a poor dominie whose school he attended,
who preached to his boys about the horrors that were coming upon the
land through the introduction of Popery.  The boy set out for England
on the 2nd of February, 1784, mounted upon a Galloway, his little
package of clothes and necessaries strapped behind him.  As he passed
along the glen, recognising each familiar spot, his heart was in his
mouth, and he dared scarcely trust himself to look back.  The ground
was covered with snow, and nature quite frozen up.  He had the company
of his brother Alexander as far as the town of New Galloway, where he
slept the first night.  The next day, accompanied by one of his future
masters, Mr. James Smith, a partner of Mr. Cannan's, who had originally
entered his service as a workman, they started on ponyback for
Dumfries.  After a long day's ride, they entered the town in the
evening, and amongst the things which excited the boy's surprise were
the few street-lamps of the town, and a waggon with four horses and
four wheels.  In his remote valley carts were as yet unknown, and even
in Dumfries itself they were comparative rarities; the common means of
transport in the district being what were called "tumbling cars." The
day after, they reached Longtown, and slept there; the boy noting
ANOTHER lamp.  The next stage was to Carlisle, where Mr. Smith, whose
firm had supplied a carding engine and spinning-jenny to a small
manufacturer in the town, went to "gate" and trim them.  One was put up
in a small house, the other in a small room; and the sight of these
machines was John Kennedy's first introduction to cotton-spinning.
While going up the inn-stairs he was amazed and not a little alarmed at
seeing two men in armour--he had heard of the battles between the Scots
and English--and believed these to be some of the fighting men; though
they proved to be but effigies.  Five more days were occupied in
travelling southward, the resting places being at Penrith, Kendal,
Preston, and Chorley, the two travellers arriving at Chowbent on Sunday
the 8th of February, 1784.  Mr. Cannan seems to have collected about
him a little colony of Scotsmen, mostly from the same neighbourhood,
and in the evening there was quite an assembly of them at the "Bear's
Paw," where Kennedy put up, to hear the tidings from their native
county brought by the last new comer.  On the following morning the boy
began his apprenticeship as a carpenter with the firm of Cannan and
Smith, serving seven years for his meat and clothing.  He applied
himself to his trade, and became a good, steady workman.  He was
thoughtful and self-improving, always endeavouring to acquire knowledge
of new arts and to obtain insight into new machines.  "Even in early
life," said he, in the account of his career addressed to his children,
"I felt a strong desire to know what others knew, and was always ready
to communicate what little I knew myself; and by admitting at once my
want of education, I found that I often made friends of those on whom I
had no claims beyond what an ardent desire for knowledge could give me."

His apprenticeship over, John Kennedy commenced business[5] in a small
way in Manchester in 1791, in conjunction with two other workmen,
Sandford and MacConnel.  Their business was machine-making and
mule-spinning, Kennedy taking the direction of the machine department.
The firm at first put up their mules for spinning in any convenient
garrets they could hire at a low rental.  After some time, they took
part of a small factory in Canal Street, and carried on their business
on a larger scale.  Kennedy and MacConnel afterwards occupied a little
factory in the same street,--since removed to give place to Fairbairn's
large machine works.  The progress of the firm was steady and even
rapid, and they went on building mills and extending their
business--Mr. Kennedy, as he advanced in life, gathering honour,
wealth, and troops of friends.  Notwithstanding the defects of his
early education, he was one of the few men of his class who became
distinguished for his literary labours in connexion principally with
the cotton trade.  Towards the close of his life, he prepared several
papers of great interest for the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Manchester, which are to be found printed in their Proceedings; one of
these, on the Invention of the Mule by Samuel Crompton, was for a long
time the only record which the public possessed of the merits and
claims of that distinguished inventor.  His knowledge of the history of
the cotton manufacture in its various stages, and of mechanical
inventions generally, was most extensive and accurate.  Among his
friends he numbered James Watt, who placed his son in his establishment
for the purpose of acquiring knowledge and experience of his
profession.  At a much later period he numbered George Stephenson among
his friends, having been one of the first directors of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, and one of the three judges (selected because
of his sound judgment and proved impartiality, as well as his knowledge
of mechanical engineering) to adjudicate on the celebrated competition
of Locomotives at Rainhill.  By these successive steps did this poor
Scotch boy become one of the leading men of Manchester, closing his
long and useful life in 1855 at an advanced age, his mental faculties
remaining clear and unclouded to the last.  His departure from life was
happy and tranquil--so easy that it was for a time doubtful whether he
was dead or asleep.

To return to Mr. Fairbairn's career, and his progress as a millwright
and engineer in Manchester.  When he and his partner undertook the
extensive alterations in Mr. Murray's factory, both were in a great
measure unacquainted with the working of cotton-mills, having until
then been occupied principally with corn-mills, and printing and
bleaching works; so that an entirely new field was now opened to their
united exertions.  Sedulously improving their opportunities, the young
partners not only thoroughly mastered the practical details of
cotton-mill work, but they were very shortly enabled to introduce a
series of improvements of the greatest importance in this branch of our
national manufactures.  Bringing their vigorous practical minds to bear
on the subject, they at once saw that the gearing of even the best
mills was of a very clumsy and imperfect character.  They found the
machinery driven by large square cast-iron shafts, on which huge wooden
drums, some of them as much as four feet in diameter, revolved at the
rate of about forty revolutions a minute; and the couplings were so
badly fitted that they might be heard creaking and groaning a long way
off.  The speeds of the driving-shafts were mostly got up by a series
of straps and counter drums, which not only crowded the rooms, but
seriously obstructed the light where most required for conducting the
delicate operations of the different machines.  Another serious defect
lay in the construction of the shafts, and in the mode of fixing the
couplings, which were constantly giving way, so that a week seldom
passed without one or more breaks-down.  The repairs were usually made
on Sundays, which were the millwrights' hardest working days, to their
own serious moral detriment; but when trade was good, every
consideration was made to give way to the uninterrupted running of the
mills during the rest of the week.

It occurred to Mr. Fairbairn that the defective arrangements thus
briefly described, might be remedied by the introduction of lighter
shafts driven at double or treble the velocity, smaller drums to drive
the machinery, and the use of wrought-iron wherever practicable,
because of its greater lightness and strength compared with wood.  He
also provided for the simplification of the hangers and fixings by
which the shafting was supported, and introduced the "half-lap
coupling" so well known to millwrights and engineers.  His partner
entered fully into his views; and the opportunity shortly presented
itself of carrying them into effect in the large new mill erected in
1818, for the firm of MacConnel and Kennedy.  The machinery of that
concern proved a great improvement on all that had preceded it; and, to
Messrs. Fairbairn and Lillie's new system of gearing Mr. Kennedy added
an original invention of his own in a system of double speeds, with the
object of giving an increased quantity of twist in the finer
descriptions of mule yarn.

The satisfactory execution of this important work at once placed the
firm of Fairbairn and Lillie in the very front rank of engineering
millwrights.  Mr. Kennedy's good word was of itself a passport to fame
and business, and as he was more than satisfied with the manner in
which his mill machinery had been planned and executed, he sounded
their praises in all quarters.  Orders poured in upon them so rapidly,
that they had difficulty in keeping pace with the demands of the trade.
They then removed from their original shed to larger premises in
Matherstreet, where they erected additional lathes and other
tool-machines, and eventually a steam-engine.  They afterwards added a
large cellar under an adjoining factory to their premises; and from
time to time provided new means of turning out work with increased
efficiency and despatch.  In due course of time the firm erected a
factory of their own, fitted with the most improved machinery for
turning out millwork; and they went on from one contract to another,
until their reputation as engineers became widely celebrated.  In
1826-7, they supplied the water-wheels for the extensive cotton-mills
belonging to Kirkman Finlay and Company, at Catrine Bank in Ayrshire.
These wheels are even at this day regarded as among the most perfect
hydraulic machines in Europe.  About the same time they supplied the
mill gearing and water-machinery for Messrs. Escher and Company's large
works at Zurich, among the largest cotton manufactories on the
continent.

In the mean while the industry of Manchester and the neighbourhood,
through which the firm had risen and prospered, was not neglected, but
had the full benefit of the various improvements which they were
introducing in mill machinery.  In the course of a few years an entire
revolution was effected in the gearing.  Ponderous masses of timber and
cast-iron, with their enormous bearings and couplings, gave place to
slender rods of wrought-iron and light frames or hooks by which they
were suspended.  In like manner, lighter yet stronger wheels and
pulleys were introduced, the whole arrangements were improved, and, the
workmanship being greatly more accurate, friction was avoided, while
the speed was increased from about 40 to upwards of 300 revolutions a
minute.  The fly-wheel of the engine was also converted into a first
motion by the formation of teeth on its periphery, by which a
considerable saving was effected both in cost and power.

These great improvements formed quite an era in the history of mill
machinery; and exercised the most important influence on the
development of the cotton, flax, silk, and other branches of
manufacture.  Mr. Fairbairn says the system introduced by his firm was
at first strongly condemned by leading engineers, and it was with
difficulty that he could overcome the force of their opposition; nor
was it until a wheel of thirty tons weight for a pair of engines of
100-horse power each was erected and set to work, that their
prognostications of failure entirely ceased.  From that time the
principles introduced by Mr. Fairbairn have been adopted wherever steam
is employed as a motive power in mills.

Mr. Fairbairn and his partner had a hard uphill battle to fight while
these improvements were being introduced; but energy and perseverance,
guided by sound judgment, secured their usual reward, and the firm
became known as one of the most thriving and enterprising in
Manchester.  Long years after, when addressing an assembly of working
men, Mr. Fairbairn, while urging the necessity of labour and
application as the only sure means of self-improvement, said, "I can
tell you from experience, that there is no labour so sweet, none so
consolatory, as that which is founded upon an honest, straightforward,
and honourable ambition."  The history of any prosperous business,
however, so closely resembles every other, and its details are usually
of so monotonous a character, that it is unnecessary for us to pursue
this part of the subject; and we will content ourselves with briefly
indicating the several further improvements introduced by Mr. Fairbairn
in the mechanics of construction in the course of his long and useful
career.

His improvements in water-wheels were of great value, especially as
regarded the new form of bucket which he introduced with the object of
facilitating the escape of the air as the water entered the bucket
above, and its readmission as the water emptied itself out below.  This
arrangement enabled the water to act upon the wheel with the maximum of
effect in all states of the river; and it so generally recommended
itself, that it very soon became adopted in most water-mills both at
home and abroad.[6]  His labours were not, however, confined to his own
particular calling as a mill engineer, but were shortly directed to
other equally important branches of the constructive art.  Thus he was
among the first to direct his attention to iron ship building as a
special branch of business.  In 1829, Mr. Houston, of Johnstown, near
Paisley, launched a light boat on the Ardrossan Canal for the purpose
of ascertaining the speed at which it could be towed by horses with two
or three persons on board.  To the surprise of Mr. Houston and the
other gentlemen present, it was found that the labour the horses had to
perform in towing the boat was mach greater at six or seven, than at
nine miles an hour.  This anomaly was very puzzling to the
experimenters, and at the request of the Council of the Forth and Clyde
Canal, Mr. Fairbairn, who had already become extensively known as a
scientific mechanic, was requested to visit Scotland and institute a
series of experiments with light boats to determine the law of
traction, and clear up, if possible, the apparent anomalies in Mr.
Houston's experiments.  This he did accordingly, and the results of his
experiments were afterwards published, The trials extended over a
series of years, and were conducted at a cost of several thousand
pounds.  The first experiments were made with vessels of wood, but they
eventually led to the construction of iron vessels upon a large scale
and on an entirely new principle of construction, with angle iron ribs
and wrought-iron sheathing plates.  The results proved most valuable,
and had the effect of specially directing the attention of naval
engineers to the employment of iron in ship building.

Mr. Fairbairn himself fully recognised the value of the experiments,
and proceeded to construct an iron vessel at his works at Manchester,
in 1831, which went to sea the same year.  Its success was such as to
induce him to begin iron shipbuilding on a large scale, at the same
time as the Messrs. Laird did at Birkenhead; and in 1835, Mr. Fairbairn
established extensive works at Millwall, on the Thames,--afterwards
occupied by Mr. Scott Russell, in whose yard the "Great Eastern"
steamship was erected,--where in the course of some fourteen years he
built upwards of a hundred and twenty iron ships, some of them above
2000 tons burden.  It was in fact the first great iron shipbuilding
yard in Britain, and led the way in a branch of business which has
since become of first-rate magnitude and importance.  Mr. Fairbairn was
a most laborious experimenter in iron, and investigated in great detail
the subject of its strength, the value of different kinds of riveted
joints compared with the solid plate, and the distribution of the
material throughout the structure, as well as the form of the vessel
itself.  It would indeed be difficult to over-estimate the value of his
investigations on these points in the earlier stages of this now highly
important branch of the national industry.

To facilitate the manufacture of his iron-sided ships, Mr. Fairbairn,
about the year 1839, invented a machine for riveting boiler plates by
steam-power.  The usual method by which this process had before been
executed was by hand-hammers, worked by men placed at each side of the
plate to be riveted, acting simultaneously on both sides of the bolt.
But this process was tedious and expensive, as well as clumsy and
imperfect; and some more rapid and precise method of fixing the plates
firmly together was urgently wanted.  Mr. Fairbairn's machine
completely supplied the want.  By its means the rivet was driven into
its place, and firmly fastened there by a couple of strokes of a hammer
impelled by steam.  Aided by the Jacquard punching-machine of Roberts,
the riveting of plates of the largest size has thus become one of the
simplest operations in iron-manufacturing.

The thorough knowledge which Mr. Fairbairn possessed of the strength of
wrought-iron in the form of the hollow beam (which a wrought-iron ship
really is) naturally led to his being consulted by the late Robert
Stephenson as to the structures by means of which it was proposed to
span the estuary of the Conway and the Straits of Menai; and the result
was the Conway and Britannia Tubular Bridges, the history of which we
have fully described elsewhere.[7]  There is no reason to doubt that by
far the largest share of the merit of working out the practical details
of those structures, and thus realizing Robert Stephenson's magnificent
idea of the tubular bridge, belongs to Mr. Fairbairn.

In all matters connected with the qualities and strength of iron, he
came to be regarded as a first-rate authority, and his advice was often
sought and highly valued.  The elaborate experiments instituted by him
as to the strength of iron of all kinds have formed the subject of
various papers which he has read before the British Association, the
Royal Society, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Manchester.  His practical inquiries as to the strength of boilers have
led to his being frequently called upon to investigate the causes of
boiler explosions, on which subject he has published many elaborate
reports.  The study of this subject led him to elucidate the law
according to which the density of steam varies throughout an extensive
range of pressures and atmospheres,--in singular confirmation of what
had before been provisionally calculated from the mechanical theory of
heat.  His discovery of the true method of preventing the tendency of
tubes to collapse, by dividing the flues of long boilers into short
lengths by means of stiffening rings, arising out of the same
investigation, was one of the valuable results of his minute study of
the subject; and is calculated to be of essential value in the
manufacturing districts by diminishing the chances of boiler
explosions, and saving the lamentable loss of life which has during the
last twenty years been occasioned by the malconstruction of boilers.
Among Mr. Fairbairn's most recent, inquiries are those conducted by him
at the instance of the British Government relative to the construction
of iron-plated ships, his report of which has not yet been made public,
most probably for weighty political reasons.

We might also refer to the practical improvements which Mr. Fairbairn
has been instrumental in introducing in the construction of buildings
of various kinds by the use of iron.  He has himself erected numerous
iron structures, and pointed out the road which other manufacturers
have readily followed.  "I am one of those," said he, in his 'Lecture
on the Progress of Engineering,' "who have great faith in iron walls
and iron beams; and although I have both spoken and written much on the
subject, I cannot too forcibly recommend it to public attention.  It is
now twenty years since I constructed an iron house, with the machinery
of a corn-mill, for Halil Pasha, then Seraskier of the Turkish army at
Constantinople.  I believe it was the first iron house built in this
country; and it was constructed at the works at Millwall, London, in
1839." [8]

Since then iron structures of all kinds have been erected:  iron
lighthouses, iron-and-crystal palaces, iron churches, and iron bridges.
Iron roads have long been worked by iron locomotives; and before many
years have passed a telegraph of iron wire will probably be found
circling the globe.  We now use iron roofs, iron bedsteads, iron ropes,
and iron pavement; and even the famous "wooden walls of England" are
rapidly becoming reconstructed of iron.  In short, we are in the midst
of what Mr. Worsaae has characterized as the Age of Iron.

At the celebration of the opening of the North Wales Railway at Bangor,
almost within sight of his iron bridge across the Straits of Menai,
Robert Stephenson said, "We are daily producing from the bowels of the
earth a raw material, in its crude state apparently of no worth, but
which, when converted into a locomotive engine, flies over bridges of
the same material, with a speed exceeding that of the bird, advancing
wealth and comfort throughout the country.  Such are the powers of that
all-civilizing instrument, Iron."

Iron indeed plays a highly important part in modern civilization.  Out
of it are formed alike the sword and the ploughshare, the cannon and
the printing-press; and while civilization continues partial and
half-developed, as it still is, our liberties and our industry must
necessarily in a great measure depend for their protection upon the
excellence of our weapons of war as well as on the superiority of our
instruments of peace.  Hence the skill and ingenuity displayed in the
invention of rifled guns and artillery, and iron-sided ships and
batteries, the fabrication of which would be impossible but for the
extraordinary development of the iron-manufacture, and the marvellous
power and precision of our tool-making machines, as described in
preceding chapters.

"Our strength, wealth, and commerce," said Mr. Cobden in the course of
a recent debate in the House of Commons, "grow out of the skilled
labour of the men working in metals.  They are at the foundation of our
manufacturing greatness; and in case you were attacked, they would at
once be available, with their hard hands and skilled brains, to
manufacture your muskets and your cannon, your shot and your shell.
What has given us our Armstrongs, Whitworths, and Fairbairns, but the
free industry of this country? If you can build three times more
steam-engines than any other country, and have threefold the force of
mechanics, to whom and to what do you owe that, but to the men who have
trained them, and to those principles of commerce out of which the
wealth of the country has grown? We who have some hand in doing that,
are not ignorant that we have been and are increasing the strength of
the country in proportion as we are raising up skilled artisans." [9]

The reader who has followed us up to this point will have observed that
handicraft labour was the first stage of the development of human
power, and that machinery has been its last and highest.  The
uncivilized man began with a stone for a hammer, and a splinter of
flint for a chisel, each stage of his progress being marked by an
improvement in his tools.  Every machine calculated to save labour or
increase production was a substantial addition to his power over the
material resources of nature, enabling him to subjugate them more
effectually to his wants and uses; and every extension of machinery has
served to introduce new classes of the population to the enjoyment of
its benefits.  In early times the products of skilled industry were for
the most part luxuries intended for the few, whereas now the most
exquisite tools and engines are employed in producing articles of
ordinary consumption for the great mass of the community.  Machines
with millions of fingers work for millions of purchasers--for the poor
as well as the rich; and while the machinery thus used enriches its
owners, it no less enriches the public with its products.

Much of the progress to which we have adverted has been the result of
the skill and industry of our own time.  "Indeed," says Mr. Fairbairn,
"the mechanical operations of the present day could not have been
accomplished at any cost thirty years ago; and what was then considered
impossible is now performed with an exactitude that never fails to
accomplish the end in view."  For this we are mainly indebted to the
almost creative power of modern machine-tools, and the facilities which
they present for the production and reproduction of other machines.  We
also owe much to the mechanical agencies employed to drive them.  Early
inventors yoked wind and water to sails and wheels, and made them work
machinery of various kinds; but modern inventors have availed
themselves of the far more swift and powerful, yet docile force of
steam, which has now laid upon it the heaviest share of the burden of
toil, and indeed become the universal drudge.  Coal, water, and a
little oil, are all that the steam-engine, with its bowels of iron and
heart of fire, needs to enable it to go on working night and day,
without rest or sleep.  Yoked to machinery of almost infinite variety,
the results of vast ingenuity and labour, the Steam-engine pumps water,
drives spindles, thrashes corn, prints books, hammers iron, ploughs
land, saws timber, drives piles, impels ships, works railways,
excavates docks; and, in a word, asserts an almost unbounded supremacy
over the materials which enter into the daily use of mankind, for
clothing, for labour, for defence, for household purposes, for
locomotion, for food, or for instruction.