[1] Long after, when married and settled at Manchester, the fiddle,
which had been carefully preserved, was taken down from the shelf for
the amusement of the children; but though they were well enough pleased
with it, the instrument was never brought from its place without
creating alarm in the mind of their mother lest anybody should hear it.
At length a dancing-master, who was giving lessons in the
neighbourhood, borrowed the fiddle, and, to the great relief of the
family, it was never returned.  Many years later Mr. Fairbairn was
present at the starting of a cotton mill at Wesserling in Alsace
belonging to Messrs. Gros, Deval, and Co., for which his Manchester
firm had provided the mill-work and water-wheel (the first erected in
France on the suspension principle, when the event was followed by an
entertainment).  During dinner Mr. Fairbairn had been explaining to M.
Gros, who spoke a little English, the nature of home-brewed beer, which
he much admired, having tasted it when in England.  The dinner was
followed by music, in the performance of which the host himself took
part; and on Mr. Fairbairn's admiring his execution on the violin, M.
Gros asked him if he played.  "A little," was the almost unconscious
reply.  "Then you must have the goodness to play some," and the
instrument was in a moment placed in his hands, amidst urgent requests
from all sides that he should play.  There was no alternative; so he
proceeded to perform one of his best tunes--"The Keel Row."  The
company listened with amazement, until the performer's career was
suddenly cut short by the host exclaiming at the top of his voice,
"Stop, stop, Monsieur, by gar that be HOME-BREWED MUSIC!"

[2] "Although not a native of Newcastle," he then said, "he owed almost
everything to Newcastle.  He got the rudiments of his education there,
such as it was; and that was (something like that of his revered
predecessor George Stephenson) at a colliery.  He was brought up as an
engineer at the Percy Main Colliery.  He was there seven years; and if
it had not been for the opportunities he then enjoyed, together with
the use of the library at North Shields, he believed he would not have
been there to address them.  Being self-taught, but with some little
ambition, and a determination to improve himself, he was now enabled to
stand before them with some pretensions to mechanical knowledge, and
the persuasion that he had been a useful contributor to practical
science and objects connected with mechanical engineering."--Meeting of
the Institute of Mechanical Engineers at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1858.

[3] Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, 1860, p. 211.

[4] Lecture at Derby--Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, p.
212.

[5] One of the reasons which induced Kennedy thus early to begin the
business of mule-spinning has been related as follows.  While employed
as apprentice at Chowbent, he happened to sleep over the master's
apartment; and late one evening, on the latter returning from market,
his wife asked his success.  "I've sold the eightys," said he, "at a
guinea a pound."  "What," exclaimed the mistress, in a loud voice,
"sold the eightys for ONLY a guinea a pound!  I never heard of such a
thing."  The apprentice could not help overhearing the remark, and it
set him a-thinking.  He knew the price of cotton and the price of
labour, and concluded there must be a very large margin of profit.  So
soon as he was out of his time, therefore, he determined that he should
become a cotton spinner.

[6] The subject will be found fully treated in Mr. Fairbairn's own
work, A Treatise on Mills and Mill-Work, embodying the results of his
large experience.

[7] Lives of the Engineers, vol. iii. 416-40.  See also An Account of
the Construction of the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges.  By
William Fairbairn, C.E. 1849.

[8] Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, 225.  The mere list
of Mr. Fairbairn's writings would occupy considerable space; for,
notwithstanding his great labours as an engineer, he has also been an
industrious writer.  His papers on Iron, read at different times before
the British Association, the Royal Society, and the Literary and
Philosophical Institution of Manchester, are of great value.  The
treatise on "Iron" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica is from his pen, and
he has contributed a highly interesting paper to Dr. Scoffern's Useful
Metals and their Alloys on the Application of Iron to the purposes of
Ordnance, Machinery, Bridges, and House and Ship Building.  Another
valuable but less-known contribution to Iron literature is his Report
on Machinery in General, published in the Reports on the Paris
Universal Exhibition of 1855.  The experiments conducted by Mr.
Fairbairn for the purpose of proving the excellent properties of iron
for shipbuilding--the account of which was published in the Trans
actions of the Royal Society eventually led to his further experiments
to determine the strength and form of the Britannia and Conway Tubular
Bridges, plate-girders, and other constructions, the result of which
was to establish quite a new era in the history of bridge as well as
ship building.

[9] House of Commons Debate, 7th July, 1862.