"A course of observations on the solar spots, and on the remarkable
features which from time to time appear on the sun's surface, which I
have examined with considerable assiduity for several years, had in the
first place led me to entertain the following conclusion:  namely, that
whatever be the nature of solar light, its main source appears to
result from an action induced on the exterior surface of solar
sphere,-- a conclusion in which I doubt not all who have attentively
pursued observations on the structure of the sun's surface will agree.

"Impressed with the correctness of this conclusion, I was led to
consider whether we might not reasonably consider the true source of
the latent element of light to reside, not in the solar orb, but in
space itself; and that the grand function and duty of the sun was to
act as an agent for bringing forth into vivid existence its due portion
of the illuminating or luciferous element, which element I suppose to
be diffused throughout the boundless regions of space, and which in
that case must be exhaustless.

Assuming, therefore, that the sun's light is the result of some
peculiar action by which it brings forth into visible existence the
element of light, which I conceive to be latent in, and diffused
throughout space, we have but to imagine the existence of a very
probable condition, namely, the unequal diffusion of this
light-yielding element, to catch a glimpse of a reason why our sun may,
in common with his solar brotherhood, in some portions of his vast
stellar orbit, have passed, and may yet have to pass, through regions
of space, in which the light-yielding element may either abound or be
deficient, and so cause him to beam forth with increased splendour,
or fade in brilliancy, just in proportion to the richness or poverty of
this supposed light-yielding element as may occur in those regions of
space through which our sun, in common with every stellar orb,
has passed, is now passing, or is destined to pass, in following up
their mighty orbits.

"Once admit that this light-yielding element resides in space, and that
it is not equally diffused, we may then catch a glimpse of the cause of
the variable and transitory brightness of stars,and more especially of
those which have been known to beam forth with such extraordinary
splendour, and have again so mysteriously faded away; many instances of
which abound in historical record.

"Finally, in reference to such a state of change having come over our
sun, as indicated by the existence of a glacial period, as is now
placed beyond doubt by geological research, it appears to me no very
wild stretch of analogy to suppose that in such former periods of the
earth's history our sun may have passed through portions of his stellar
orbit in which the light-yielding element was deficient, and in which
case his brilliancy would have suffered the while, and an arctic
climate in consequence spread from the poles towards the equator,
and thus leave the record of such a condition in glacial handwriting on
the everlasting walls of our mountain ravines, of which there is such
abundant and unquestionable evidence.  As before said, it is the
existence of such facts as we have in stars of transitory brightness,
and the above named evidence of an arctic climate existing in what are
now genial climates, that renders some adequate cause to be looked for.
I have accordingly hazarded the preceding remarks as suggestive of a
cause, in the hope that the subject may receive that attention which
its deep interest entitles it to obtain.

"This view of the source of light, as respects the existence of the
luciferous element throughout space, accords with the Mosaic account of
creation, in so far as that light is described as having been created
in the first instance before the sun was called forth."
Dr Siemens read a paper before the Royal Society in March 1882,
on "A New Theory of the Sun".  His views in many respects coincided
with mine.*
 [footnote...
Interstellar space, according to Dr. Siemens, is filled with
attenuated matter, consisting of highly rarefied gaseous bodies--
including hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and aqueous vapour;
that these gaseous compounds are capable of being dissociated by
radiant solar energy while in a state of extreme attenuation; and that
the vapours so dissociated are drawn towards the sun in consequence of
solar rotation, are flashed into flame in the photosphere, and rendered
back into space in the condition of products of combustion.
With respect to the influence of the sun's light on geology, Dr. Siemens
says: "The effect of this continuous outpour of solar materials could
not be without very important influences as regards the geological
conditions of our earth.  Geologists have long acknowledged the
difficulty of accounting for the amount of carbonic acid that must have
been in our atmosphere at one time or another in order to form with
lime those enormous beds of dolomite and limestone of which the crust
of our earth is in great measure composed.  It has been calculated that
if this carbonic acid had been at one and the same time in our
atmosphere it would have caused an elastic pressure fifty times that of
our present atmosphere; and if we add the carbonic acid that must have
been absorbed in vegetation in order to form our coal-beds we should
probably have to double that pressure.  Animal life, of which we had
abundant traces in these 'measures,' could not have existed under such
conditions, we are almost forced to the conclusion that the carbonic
acid must have been derived from an external source."
 ...]

Soon after my paper was read, Lord Murray of Henderland, an old friend,
then a Judge on the Scottish Bench, wrote to me as follows: --"I shall
be much obliged to you for a copy, if you have a spare one, of your
printed note on Light.  It is expressed with great clearness and
brevity.  If you wish to have a quotation for it, you may have recourse
to the blind Milton, who has expressed your views in his address to
Light: --

 "'Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven first-born
 Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam
 May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
 And never but in unapproached light
 Dwelt from eternity--dwelt then in thee,
 Bright effluence of bright essence increate!"'

About the same time Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor General of Australia,
communicated his notions on the subject.  "My dear Sir," he wrote,
"Your kind and valuable communications are as welcome to me as the
sun's light, and I now thank you most gratefully for the last, with its
two enclosures.  These, and especially your views as to the source of
light, afford me new scope for satisfactory thinking--a sort of
treasure one can always carry about, and, unlike other treasures,
is most valuable in the solitude of a desert.  The beauty of your
theory as to the nature of the source of light is, that it rather
supports all preconceived notions respecting the soul, heaven, and an
immortal state."

I still continued the study of astronomy.  The sun, moon, and planets
yielded to me an inexhaustible source of delight.  I gazed at them with
increasing wonder and awe.  Among the glorious objects which the
telescope reveals, the most impressive is that of the starry heavens in
a clear dark night.  When I directed my 20-inch reflecting telescope
almost at random to any part of the firmament, especially to any
portion of the Milky Way, the sight of myriads of stars brought into
view within the field of the eye-piece was overpoweringly sublime.

When it is considered that every one of these stars which so
bewilderingly crowd the field of vision is, according to rational
probability, and, I might even say, absolute certainty, are Suns as
vast in magnitude as that which gives light to our globe, and yet
situated so inconceivably deep in the abyss of space as to appear
minute points of light even to the most powerful telescope, it will be
felt what a sublime subject appears before us.  Turn the telescope to
any part of the heavens, it is the same.

Let us suppose ourselves perched upon the farthest star which we are
enabled to see by the aid of the most powerful telescope.  There, too,
we should see countless myriads of Suns, rolling along in their
appointed orbits, and thus on and on throughout eternity.  What an idea
of the limitless extent of Creative Power--filling up infinite space
with the evidences of His Almighty Presence!  The human mind feels its
utter impotency in endeavouring to grasp such a subject.

I also turned my attention to the microscope.  In 1851 I examined, by
the aid of this instrument, the infusoria in the Bridgewater Canal.
I found twenty-seven of them, of the most varied form, colour,
and movements.  This was almost as remarkable a revelation as the
mighty phenomena of the heavens.  I found these living things moving
about in the minutest drop of water.  The sight of the wonderful range
of creative power--from the myriads of suns revealed by the
telescope, to the myriads of moving organisms revealed by the
microscope--filled me with unutterably devout wonder and awe.

Moreover, it seemed to me to confer a glory even upon the instruments
of human skill, which elevated man to the Unseen and the Divine.
When we examine the most minute organisms, we find clear evidence in
their voluntary powers of motion that these creatures possess a will,
and that such Will must be conveyed by a nervous system of an
infinitesimally minute description.  When we follow out such a train of
thought, and contrast the myriads of suns and planets at one extreme,
with the myriads of minute organised atoms at the other, we cannot but
feel inexpressible wonder at the transcendent range of Creative Power.

Shortly after, I sent to the Royal Astronomical Society a paper on
another equally wonderful subject, "The Rotatory Movements of the
Celestial Bodies.  As the paper is not very long, and as I endeavoured
to illustrate my ideas in a familiar manner, I may here give it entire:

"What first set me thinking on this subject was the endeavour to get at
the reason of why water in a basin acquires a rotatory motion when a
portion of it is allowed to escape through a hole in the bottom.
Every well-trained philosophical judgment is accustomed to observe
illustrations of the most sublime phenomena of creation in the most
minute and familiar operations of the Creator's laws, one of the most
characteristic features of which consists in the absolute and wonderful
integrity maintained in their action whatsoever be the range as to
magnitude or distance of the objects on which they operate.

"For instance, the minute particles of dew which whiten the grass-blade
in early morn are moulded into spheres by the identical law which gives
to the mighty sun its globular form!

"Let us pass from the rotation of water in a basin to the consideration
of the particles of a nebulous mass just summoned into existence by the
fiat of the Creator--the law of gravitation coexisting.  "The first
moment of the existence of such a nebulous mass would be inaugurated by
the election of a centre of gravity, and, instantly after, every
particle throughout the entire mass of such nebulae would tend to and
converge towards that centre of gravity.

"Now let us consider what would be the result of this.  It appears to
me that the inevitable consequence of the convergence of the particles
towards the centre of gravity of such a nebulous mass would not only
result in the formation of nucleus, but by reason of the physical
impossibility that all the converging particles should arrive at the
focus of convergence in directions perfectly radial and diametrically
opposite to each other, however slight the degree of deviation from the
absolute diametrically opposite direction in which the converging
particles coalesce at the focus of attraction, a twisting action would
result, and Rotation ensue, which, once engendered, be its intensity
ever so slight, from that instant forward the nucleus would continue to
revolve, and all the particles which its attraction would subsequently
cause to coalesce with it, would do so in directions tangential to its
surface, and not diametrically towards its centre.

"In due course of time the entire of the remaining nebulous mass would
become affected with rotation from the more rapidly moving centre, and
would assume what appears to me to be their inherent normal condition,
namely, spirality, as the prevailing character of their structure;
and as that is actually the aspect which may be said to characterise the
majority of those marvellous nebulae, as revealed to us by Lord Rosse's
magnificent telescope, I am strongly impressed with the conviction that
such reasons as I have assigned have been the cause of their spiral
aspect and arrangement.

"And by following up the same train of reasoning, it appears to me that
we may catch a glimpse of the primeval cause of the rotation of every
body throughout the regions of space, whether they be nebulae, stars,
double stars, or planetary systems.

"The primary cause of rotation which I have endeavoured to describe in
the preceding remarks is essentially cosmical, and is the direct and
immediate offspring of the action of gravitation on matter in a
diffused, nebulous, and, as such, highly mobile condition.

"It will be obvious that in the case of a nebulous mass, whose matter
is unequally distributed, that in such a case several sub-centres of
gravity would be elected, that is to say, each patch of nebulous matter
would have its own centre of gravity; but these in their turn
subordinate to that of the common centre of gravity of the whole
system, about which all such outlaying parts would revolve.
Each of the portions above alluded to would either be attracted by the
superior mass, and pass in towards it as a wisp of nebulous matter,
or else establish perfect individual and distinct rotation within
itself, and finally revolve about the great common centre of gravity of
the whole.

"Bearing this in mind, and referring to some of the figures of the
marvellous spiral nebulae which Lord Rosse's telescope has revealed to
us, I shall now bring these suggestions to a conclusion.
I have avoided expanding them to the extent I feel the subject to be
worthy and capable of; but I trust such as I have offered will be
sufficient to convey a pretty clear idea of my views on this sublime
subject, which I trust may receive the careful consideration its nature
entitles it to.  Let any one carefully reflect on the reason why water
assumes a rotatory motion when a portion of it is permitted to escape
from an aperture in the bottom of the circular vessel containing it;
if they will do so in the right spirit, I am fain to think they will
arrive at the same conclusion as the contemplation of this familiar
phenomenon has brought me to.

" BRIDGEWATER FOUNDARY, June 7, 1855."

I was present at a meeting of the Geological Society at Manchester in
1853, in the discussions of which I took part.

I was much impressed by an address of the Rev. Dr. Vaughan
(then Principal of the Independent College at Manchester), which is as
interesting now as it was then.  After referring to the influence which
geological changes had produced upon the condition of nations, and the
moral results which oceans, mountains, islands, and continents have had
upon the social history of man, he went on to say:  "Is not this island
of ours indebted to these great causes?  Oh, that blessed geological
accident that broke up a strait between Calais and Dover!  It looks but
a little thing; it was a matter to take place; but how mighty the moral
results upon the condition and history of this country, and, through
this country's influence, upon humanity!  Bridge over the space between,
and you have directly the huge continental barrack-yard system all over
England.  And once get into the condition of a great continental
military power, and you get the arbitrary power; you cramp down the
people, and you unfit them from being what they ought to be--FREE And
all the good influences together at work in this country could not have
secured us against this, but for that blessed separation between this
Isle and the Continent."

In 1853 I was appointed a member of the Small Arms Committee for the
purpose of re-modelling and, in fact, re-establishing the Small Arms
Factory at Enfield.  The wonderful success of the needle gun in the war
between Prussia and Denmark in 1848 occasioned some alarm amongst our
military authorities as to the state of affairs at home.  The Duke of
Wellington to the last proclaimed the sufficiency of "Brown Bess" as a
weapon of offence and defence; but matters could no longer be deferred.
The United States Government, though possessing only a very small
standing army, had established at Springfield a small arms factory,
where, by the use of machine tools specially designed to execute with
the most unerring precision all the details of muskets and rifles,
they were enabled to dispense with mere manual dexterity, and to
produce arms to any amount.  It was finally determined to improve the
musketry and rifle systems of the English army.  The Government
resolved to introduce the American system, by which Arms might be
produced much more perfectly, and at a great diminution of cost.
It was under such circumstances that the Small Arms Committee was
appointed.

Colonel Colt had brought to England some striking examples of the
admirable machine tools used at Springfield, and he established a
manufactory at Pimlico for the production of his well-known revolvers.
The committee resolved to make a personal visit to the United States
Factory at Springfield.  My own business engagements at home prevented
me accompanying the members who were selected; but as my friend John
Anderson (now Sir John), acted as their guide, the committee had in him
a most able and effective helper.  He directed their attention to the
most important and available details of that admirable establishment.
The United States Government acted most liberally in allowing the
committee to obtain every information on the subject; and the heads of
the various departments, who were intelligent and zealous, rendered
them every attention and civility.

The members of the mission returned home enthusiastically delighted
with the results of their inquiry.The committee immediately proceeded
with the entire re-modelling of the Small Arms Factory at Enfield.
The workshops were equipped with a complete series of special machine
tools, chiefly obtained from the Springfield factory.
The United States Government also permitted several of their best and
workman and superintendents to take service under the English Government.
Such was the origin of the Enfield rifle.  The weapon came as near to
absolute perfection as possible, It was perfect in action, durable and
excellent in every respect even in it's conversion to the breechloader
it is still one of the best weapons.  It is impossible to give too much
praise to Sir John Anderson and Colonel Dixon for the untiring and
intelligent zeal with which they carried out the plans, as well as for
the numerous improvements which they introduced.  These have rendered
the Enfield Small Arms Factory one of the most perfect and best
regulated establishments in the kingdom.


CHAPTER 20.  Retirement from Business.

I had been for some time contemplating the possibility of retiring
altogether from business.  I had got enough of the world's goods, and
was willing to make way for younger men.  But I found it difficult to
break loose from old associations.  Like the retired tallow-chandler,
I might wish to go back "on melting days."  I had some correspondence
with my old friend David Roberts, Royal Academician, on the subject.
He wrote to me on the 2d June 1853, and said:

"I rejoice to learn, from the healthy tone that breathes throughout
your epistle, that you are as happy as every one who knows you wishes
you to be, and as prosperous as you deserve.  Knowing, also, as I do,
your feeling for art and all that tends to raise and dignify man,
I most sincerely congratulate you on the prospect of your being able to
retire, in the full vigour of manhood, to follow out that sublime
pursuit, in comparison with which the painter's art is but a faint
glimmering.  'The Landscape of other worlds' you alone have sketched
for us, and enlightened us on that with which the ancient world but
gazed upon and worshipped in the symbol of Astarte, Isis, and Diana.
We are matter-of-fact now, and have outlived childhood.  What say you
to a photograph of those wonderful drawings?  It may come to that."*
 [footnote...
It did indeed "come to that," for I shortly after learned the art of
photography, chiefly for this special purpose.
 ...]

But I had something else yet to do in my special vocation.
In 1854 I took out a patent for puddling iron by means of steam.
Many of my readers may not know that cast-iron is converted into
malleable iron by the process called puddling.  The iron, while in a
molten state, is violently stirred and agitated by a stiff iron rod,
having its end bent like a hoe or flattened hook, by which every
portion of the molten metal is exposed to the oxygen of the air,
and the supercharge of carbon which the cast iron contains is
thus "burnt out."  When this is effectually done the iron becomes
malleable and weldable.

This state of the iron is indicated by a general loss of fluidity,
accompanied by a tendency to gather together in globular masses.
The puddler, by his dexterous use of the end of the rabbling bar,
puts the masses together, and, in fact, welds the new-born particles of
malleable iron into puddle-balls of about three-quarters of a
hundredweight each.  These are successively removed from the pool of
the puddling furnace, and subjected to the energetic blows of the steam
hammer, which drives out all the scoriae lurking within the spongy
puddle-balls, and thus welds them into compact masses of malleable iron.
When reheated to a welding heat, they are rolled out into flat bars or
round rods, in a variety of sizes, so as to be suitable for the consumer.

The manual and physical labour of the puddler is tedious, fatiguing,
and unhealthy.  The process of puddling occupies about an hour's
violent labour, and only robust young men can stand the fatigue and
violent heat.  I had frequent opportunities of observing the labour and
unhealthiness of the process, as well as the great loss of time
required to bring it to a conclusion.  It occurred to me that much of
this could be avoided by employing some other means for getting rid of
the superfluous carbon, and bringing the molten cast-iron into a
malleable condition.

The method that occurred to me was the substitution of a small steam
pipe in the place of the puddler's rabbling bar.  By having the end of
this steam pipe bent downwards so as to reach the bottom of the pool,
and then to discharge a current of steam beneath the surface of the
molten cast iron, I thought that I should by this simple means supply a
most effective carbon-oxidating agent, at the same time that I produced
a powerful agitating action within the pool.  Thus the steam would be
decomposed and supply oxygen to the carbon of the cast-iron, while the
mechanical action of the rush of steam upwards would cause so violent a
commotion throughout the pool of melted iron as to exceed the utmost
efforts of the labour of the puddler.  All the gases would pass up the
chimney of the puddling furnace, and the puddler would not be subject
to their influence.  Such was the method specified in my patent of
l854*
 [footnote...
Specification of James Nasmyth--Employment of steam in the process of
puddling iron.  May 4, 1854; No. 1001.
 ...]

My friend, Thomas Lever Rushton, proprietor of the Bolton Ironworks,
was so much impressed with the soundness of the principle, as well as
with the great simplicity of carrying the invention into practical
effect, that he urged me to secure the patent, and he soon after gave
me the opportunity of trying the process at his works.  The results
were most encouraging.  There was a great saving of labour and time
compared with the old puddling process; and the malleable iron
produced was found to be of the highest order as regarded strength,
toughness, and purity.  My process was soon after adopted by several
iron manufacturers with equally favourable results.  Such, however,
was the energy of the steam, that unless the workmen were most careful
to regulate its force and the duration of its action, the waste of iron
by undue oxidation was such as in a great measure to neutralise its
commercial gain as regarded the superior value of the malleable iron
thus produced.

Before I had time or opportunity to remove this commercial difficulty,
Mr. Bessemer had secured his patent of the l7th of October, 1855.
By this patent he employed a blast of air to do the same work as I had
proposed to accomplish by means of a blast of steam, forced up beneath
the surface of the molten cast iron.  He added some other improvements,
with that happy fertility of invention which has always characterised
him.  The results were so magnificently successful as to totally
eclipse my process, and to cast it comparatively into the shade.
At the same time I may say that I was in a measure the pioneer of his
invention, that I initiated a new system, and led to one of the most
important improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel that has
ever been given to the world.

Mr. Bessemer brought the subject of his invention before the meeting of
the British Association at Cheltenham in the autumn of 1856.  There he
read his paper "On the Manufacture of Iron into Steel without Fuel."*
 [footnote...
On the morning of the day on which the paper was to be read,
Mr. Bessemer was sitting at breakfast at his hotel, when an ironmaster
(to whom he was unknown) said, laughing, to a friend within his
hearing, "Do you know that there is somebody come down from London to
read us a paper on making steel from cast iron without fuel?  Did you
ever hear of such nonsense?" The title of the paper was perhaps a
misnomer, but the correctness of the principles on which the pig iron
was converted into malleable iron, as explained by the inventor,
was generally recognised, and there seemed every reason to anticipate
that the process would before long come into general use.
 ...]

I was present on the occasion, and listened  to his statement with
mingled feelings of regret and enthusiasm--of regret, because I had
been so clearly superseded and excelled in my performances; and of
enthusiasm--because I could not but admire and honour the genius who
had given so great an  invention to the mechanical world.
I immediately took the opportunity of giving my assent to the
principles which he had propounded.  My words were not reported at the
time, nor was Mr. Bessemer's paper printed by the Association, perhaps
because it was thought of so little importance but, on applying to
Mr. (now Sir Henry) Bessemer, he was so kind as to give me the following
as his recollection of the words which I used on the occasion.

"I shall ever feel grateful," says Sir Henry, "for the noble way in
which you spoke at the meeting at Cheltenham of my invention.
If I remember rightly, you held up a piece of my malleable iron, saying
words to this effect:  'Here is a true British nugget!  Here is a new
process that promises to put an end to all puddling; and I may mention
that at this moment there are puddling furnaces in successful operation
where my patent hollow steam Rabbler is at work, producing iron of
superior quality by the introduction of jets of steam in the puddling
process.  I do not, however, lay any claim to this invention of
Mr. Bessemer; but I may fairly be entitled to say that I have advanced
along the road on which he has travelled so many miles, and has
effected such unexpected results that I do not hesitate to say that I
may go home from this meeting and tear up my patent, for my process of
puddling is assuredly superseded.'"

After giving an account of the true origin of his process, in which he
had met with failures as well as successes, but at last recognised the
decarburation of pig iron by atmospheric air, Sir Henry proceeds to
say:

"I prepared to try another experiment, in a crucible having no hole the
the bottom, but which was provided with an iron pipe put through a hole
in the cover, and passing down nearly to the bottom of the crucible.
The small lumps and grains of iron were packed around fit, so as nearly
to fill the crucible.  A blast of air was to be forced down the pipe so
as to rise up among the pieces of granular iron and partially
decarburise them.  The pipe could then be withdrawn, and the fire urged
until the metal with its coat of oxyde was fused, and cast steel
thereby produced.

"While the blowing apparatus for this experiment was being fitted up,
I was taken with one of those short but painful illnesses to which I
was subject at that time.  I was confined to my bed, and it was then
that my mind, dwelling for hours together on the experiment about to be
made, suggested that instead of trying to decarburise the granulated
metal by forcing the air down the vertical pipe among the pieces of
iron, the air would act much more energetically and more rapidly if I
first melted the iron in the crucible, and forced the air down the pipe
below the surface of the fluid metal, and thus burn out the carbon and
silicum which it contained.

"This appeared so feasible, and in every way so great an improvement,
that the experiment on the granular pieces was at once abandoned, and,
as soon as I was well enough, I proceeded to try the experiment of
forcing the air under the fluid metal.  The result was marvellous.
Complete decarburation was effected in half an hour.  The heat produced
was immense, but, unfortunately more than half the metal was blown out
of the pot.  This led to the use of pots with large hollow perforated
covers, which effectually prevented the loss of metal.
These experiments continued from January to October 1855.  I have by me
on the mantelpiece at this moment, a small piece of rolled bar iron
which was rolled at Woolwich arsenal, and exhibited a year later at
Cheltenham.

"I then applied for a patent, but before preparing my provisional
specification (dated October 17, 1855), I searched for other patents to
ascertain whether anything of the sort had been done before.
I then found your patent for puddling with the steam rabble, and also
Martin's patent for the use of steam in gutters while molten iron was
being conveyed from the blast furnace to a finery, there to be refined
in the ordinary way prior to puddling.

"I then tried steam in my cast steel process, alone, and also mixed
with air.  I found that it cooled the metal very much, and of itself
could not be used, as it always produced solidification.
I was nevertheless advised to claim the use of steam as well as air in
my particular process (lest it might be used against me), at the same
time disclaiming its employment for any purpose except in the
production of fluid malleable iron or steel.  And I have no doubt it is
to this fact that I referred when speaking to you on the occasion you
mention.  I have deemed it best that the exact truth--so far as a
short history can give it--should be given at once to you, who are so
true and candid.  Had it not been for you and Martin I should probably
never have proposed the use of steam in my process, but the use of air
came by degrees, just in the way I have described."

It was thoroughly consistent with Mr. Bessemer's kindly feelings
towards me, that, after our meeting at Cheltenham, he made me an offer
of one-third share of the value of his patent.  This would have been
another fortune to me.  But I had already made money enough.
I was just then taking down my signboard and leaving business.
I did not need to plunge into any such tempting enterprise,
and I therefore thankfully declined the offer.

Many long years of pleasant toil and exertion had done their work.
A full momentum of prosperity had been given to my engineering business
at Patricroft.  My share in the financial results accumulated with
accelerated rapidity to an amount far beyond my most sanguine hopes.
But finding, from long continued and incessant mental efforts, that my
nervous system was beginning to become shaken, especially in regard to
an affection of the eyes, which in some respects damaged my sight,
I thought the time had arrived for me to retire from commercial life.

Some of my friends advised me to "slack off," and not to retire
entirely from Bridgewater Foundry.  But to do so was not in my nature.
I could not be indifferent to any concern in which I was engaged.
I must give my mind and heart to it as before.  I could not give half
to leisure, and half to business.  I therefore concluded that a final
decision was necessary.  Fortunately I possessed an abundant and
various stock of hobbies.  I held all these in reserve to fall back
upon.  They would furnish me with an almost inexhaustible source of
healthy employment.  They might give me occupation for mind and body as
long as I lived.  I bethought me of the lines of Burns:
                              
 "Wi' steady aim some Fortune chase;
 Keen hope does ev'ry sinew brace;
 Thro' fair, thro' foul, they urge the race,
 And seize the prey:
 Then cannie, in some cosy place,
 They close the day."

It was no doubt a great sorrow for me and my dear wife to leave the
Home in which we had been so happy and prosperous for so many years.
It was a cosy little cottage at Patricroft.  We had named it "Fireside."
It was small, but suitable for our requirements.
We never needed to enlarge it, for we had no children to accommodate.
It was within five minutes' walk of the Foundry, and I was scarcely
ever out of reach of the Fireside, where we were both so happy.
It had been sanctified by our united love for thirteen years.
It was surrounded by a nice garden, planted with trees and shrubs.
Though close to the Bridgewater Canal, and a busy manufacturing
population was not far off, the cottage was perfectly quiet.
It was in this garden, when I was arranging the telescope at night,
that I had been detected by the passing boatman as "The Patricroft Ghost"

When we were about to leave Patricroft, the Countess of Ellesmere,
who, as well as the Earl, had always been our attached friends,
wrote to my wife as follows:  "I can well understand Mr. Nasmyth's
satisfaction at the emancipation he looks forward to in December next.
But I hope you do not expect us to share it! for what is so much
natural pleasure to you is a sad loss and privation to us.
I really don't know how we shall get on at Worsley without you.
You have nevertheless my most sincere and hearty good wishes that the
change may be as grateful to you both as anything in this world can be."

Yet we had to tear ourselves away from this abode of peace and
happiness.  I had given notice to my partner*
 [footnote...
The "Partner" here referred to, was my excellent friend Henry Garnett,
Esq., of Wyre Side, near Lancaster.  He had been my sleeping partner or
"Co." for nearly twenty years, and the most perfect harmony always
existed between us.
 ...]
that it was my intention to retire from business at the end of 1856.
The necessary arrangements were accordingly made for carrying on the
business after my retirement.  All was pleasantly and satisfactorily
settled several months before I finally left; and the character and
prosperity of the Bridgewater Foundry have been continued to the
present day.

But where was I to turn to for a settled home?  Many years before I had
seen a charming picture by my brother Patrick of "A Cottage in Kent"
It took such a hold of my memory and imagination that I never ceased to
entertain the longing and ambition to possess such a cottage as a cosy
place of refuge for the rest of my life. Accordingly, about six months
before my final retirement, I accompanied my wife in a visit to the
south.  In the first place we made a careful selection from the
advertisements in the Times of "desirable residences" in Kent.
One in particular appeared very tempting.  We set out to view it.
It seemed to embody all the conditions that we had pictured in our
imagination as necessary to fulfil the idea of our "Cottage in Kent."
It had been the property of F. R. Lee, the Royal Academician.
With a few alterations and additions it would entirely answer our
purpose.  So we bought the property.

I may mention that when I retired from business, and took out of it the
fortune that had accumulated during my twenty-two years of assiduous
attention and labour, I invested the bulk of it in Three per cent
Consols.  The rate of interest was not high, but it was nevertheless
secure.  High interest, as every one knows, means riskful security.
I desired to have no anxiety about the source of my income, such as
might hinder my enjoying the rest of my days in the active leisure
which I desired.  I had for some time before my retirement been
investing in consols, which my dear wife termed "the true antibilious
stock," and I have ever since had good reason to be satisfied with that
safe and tranquillising investment.  All who value the health-conserving
influence of the absence of financial worry will agree with me that
this antibilious stock is about the best.

The "Cottage in Kent" was beautiful, especially in its rural
surroundings.  The view from it was charming, and embodied all the
attractive elements of happy-looking English scenery.  The noble old
forest trees of Penshurst Park were close alongside, and the grand old
historic mansion of Penshurst Place was within a quarter of a mile's
distance from our house.  There were many other beautiful parks and
country residences in our neighbourhood; the railway station, which was
within thirty-five minutes' pleasant walk, enabling us to be within
reach of London, with its innumerable attractions, in little more than
an hour and a quarter.  Six acres of garden-ground at first surrounded
our cottage, but these were afterwards expanded to sixteen; and the
whole was made beautiful by the planting of trees and shrubs over the
grounds.  In all this my wife and myself took the greatest delight.

[Image]  Hammerfield, Penshurst.

From my hereditary regard for hammers--two broken hammer-shafts being
the crest of our family for hundreds of years--I named the place
Hammerfield; and so it remains to this day.   The improvements and
additions to the house and the grounds were considerable.  A greenhouse
was built, 120 feet long by 32 feet wide.  Roomy apartments were added
to the house.  The trees and shrubs planted about the grounds were
carefully selected.  The coniferae class were my special favourites.
I arranged them so that their natural variety of tints should form the
most pleasing contrasts.  In this respect I introduced the beech-tree
with the happiest effect.  It is bright green in spring, and in the
autumn it retains its beautiful ruddy-tinted leaves until the end of
winter, when they are again replaced by the new growth.

The warm tint of the beech contrasts beautifully with the bright green
of the coniferae, especially of the Lawsoniania and the Douglassi--
the latter being one of the finest accessions to our list of conifers.
It is graceful in form, and perfectly hardy.  I also interspersed with
these several birch-trees, whose slender and graceful habit of growth
forms so fine a contrast to the dense foliage of the conifers.
To thus paint, as it were, with trees, is a high source of pleasure in
gardening.  Among my various enjoyments this has been about the greatest.

During the time that the alterations and enlargements were in progress
we rented a house for six months at Sydenham, close to the beautiful
grounds of the Crystal Palace.  This was a most happy episode in our
lives, for, besides the great attractions of the place, both inside and
out, there were the admirable orchestral daily concerts, at which we
were constant attendants.  We had the pleasure of listening to the
noble compositions of the great masters of music, the perfectly trained
band being led by Herr Manns, who throws so much of his fine natural
taste and enthusiastic spirit into the productions as to give them
every possible charm.

From a very early period of my life I have derived the highest
enjoyment from listening to music, especially to melody, which is to me
the most pleasing form of composition.  When I have the opportunity of
listening to such kind of music, it yields me enjoyment that transcends
all others.  It suggests ideas, and brings vividly before the mind's
eye scenes that move the imagination.  This is, to me, the highest
order of excellence in musical composition.  I used long ago, and still
continue, to whistle a bit, especially when engaged in some pleasant
occupation.  I can draw from my mental repository a vast number of airs
and certain bits of compositions that I had once heard.  I possess that
important qualification for a musician--"a good ear;" and I always
worked most successfully at a mechanical drawing when I was engaged in
whistling some favourite air.  The dual occupation of the brain had
always the best results in the quick development of the constructive
faculty.  And even in circumstances where whistling is not allowed I
can think airs, and enjoy them almost as much as when they are
distinctly audible.  This power of the brain, I am fain to believe,
indicates the natural existence of the true musical faculty.  But I had
been so busy during the course of my life that I had never any
opportunity of learning the practical use of any musical instrument.
And here I must leave this interesting subject.

So soon as I was in due possession of my house, I had speedily
transported thither all my art treasures--my telescopes, my home
stock of tools, the instruments of my own construction, made from the
very beginning of my career as a mechanic, and associated with the most
interesting and active parts of my life.  I lovingly treasured them,
and gave them an honoured place in the workshop which I added to my
residence.  There they are now, and I often spend a busy and delightful
hour in handling my tools.  It is curious how the mere sight of such
objects brings back to the memory bygone incidents and recollections.
Friends long dead seem to start up while looking at them.  You almost
feel as if you could converse with the departed.  I do not know of
anything so touchingly powerful in vividly bringing back the treasured
incidents and memories of one's life as the sight of such humble
objects.  Every one has, no doubt, a treasured store of such material
records of a well-remembered portion of his past life. These strike,
as it were, the keynote to thoughts that bring back in vivid form the
most cherished remembrances of our lives.  On many occasions I have
seen at sale rooms long treasured hoards of such objects thrown
together in a heap as mere rubbish.  And yet these had been to some the
sources of many pleasant thoughts and recollections, But the last final
break-up has come, and the personal belongings of some departed kind
heart are scattered far and wide.  These touching relics of a long
life, which had almost become part of himself, are "knocked down" to
the lowest class of bidders.  It is a sad sight to witness the uncared
for dispersion of such objects--objects that had been lovingly stored
up as the most valued of personal treasures. I could have wished that,
as was the practice in remote antiquity, such touching relics were
buried with the dead, as their most fitting repository.  Then they
might have left some record, instead of being desecrated by the harpies
who wait at sales for such "job lots."

Behold us, then, settled down at Hammerfield for life.  We had plenty
to do.  My workshop was fully equipped.  My hobbies were there,
and I could work them to my heart's content.  The walls of our various
rooms were soon hung with pictures, and other works of art, suggestive
of many pleasant associations of former days.  Our library book-case
was crowded with old friends, in the shape of books that had been read
and re-read many times, until they had become almost part of ourselves.
Old Lancashire friends made their way to us when "up in town,"
and expressed themselves delighted with our pleasant house and its
beautiful surroundings.

The continuous planting of the shrubs and trees gave us great pleasure.
Those already planted had grown luxuriantly, fed by the fertile soil
and the pure air.  Indeed, in course of time they required the
judicious use of the axe in order to allow the fittest to survive and
grow at their own free will.  Trees contrive to manage their own
affairs without the necessity of much labour or interference.
The "survival of the fittest" prevails here as elsewhere.  It is always
a pleasure to watch them.  There are many ordinary old-fashioned
roadside flowering plants which I esteem for their vigorous beauty,
and I enjoy seeing them assume the careless grace of Nature.

The greenhouse is also a source of pleasure, especially to my dear
wife.  It is full of flowers of all kinds, of which she is devotedly
fond.  They supply her with subjects for her brush or her needle.
She both paints them and works them by her needle in beautiful forms
and groups.  This is one of her many favourite hobbies.  All this is
suitable to our fireside employments, and makes the days and the
evenings pass pleasantly away.


CHAPTER 21.  Active leisure.

When James Watt retired from business towards the close of his useful
and admirable life, he spoke to his friends of occupying himself with
"ingenious trifles," and of turning "some of his idle thoughts" upon
the invention of an arithmetical machine and a machine for copying
sculpture.  These and other useful works occupied his attention for
many years.

It was the same with myself.  I had good health (which Watt had not)
and abundant energy.  When I retired from business I was only
forty-eight years old, which may be considered the prime of life.
But I had plenty of hobbies, perhaps the chief of which was Astronomy.
No sooner had I settled at Hammerfield than I had my telescopes brought
out and mounted.  The fine clear skies with which we were favoured,
furnished me with abundant opportunities for the use of my instruments.
I began again my investigations on the Sun and the Moon, and made some
original discoveries, of which more anon.

Early in the year 1858 I received a pressing invitation from the
Council of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society to give a lecture before
their members on the Structure of the Lunar Surface.  As the subject
was a favourite one with me, and as I had continued my investigations
and increased my store of drawings since I had last appeared before an
Edinburgh audience, I cheerfully complied with their request.
I accordingly gave my lecture before a crowded meeting in the
Queen Street Lecture Hall.

The audience appeared to be so earnestly interested by the subject that
I offered to appear before them on two successive evenings and give any
viva voce explanations about the drawings which those present might
desire.  This deviation from the formality of a regular lecture was
attended with the happiest results.  Edinburgh always supplies a
highly-intelligent audience, and the cleverest and brightest were ready
with their questions.  I was thus enabled to elucidate the lecture and
to expand many of the most interesting points connected with the moon's
surface, such as might formerly have appeared obscure.  These questioning
lectures gave the highest satisfaction.  They satisfied myself as well
as the audience, who went away filled with the most graphic information
I could give them on the subject.

But not the least interesting part of my visit to Edinburgh on this
occasion was the renewed intercourse which I enjoyed with many of my
old friends.  Among these were my venerable friend Professor Pillans,
Charles Maclaren (editor of the Scotsman), and Robert Chambers.
We had a long  dander together through the Old Town, our talk being in
broad Scotch.  Pillans was one of the fine old Edinburgh Liberals,
who stuck to his principles through good report and through evil.
In his position as Rector of the High School, he had given rare
evidence of his excellence as a classical scholar.  He was afterwards
promoted to be a Professor in the University.  He had as his pupils
some of the most excellent men of my time.  Amongst his intimate
friends were Sydney Smith, Brougham, Jeffrey, Cockburn--men who gave
so special a character to the Edinburgh society of that time.

We had a delightful stroll through some of the most remarkable parts of
the Old Town, with Robert Chambers as our guide.  We next mounted
Arthur's Seat to observe some of the manifestations of volcanic action,
which had given such a remarkable structure to the mountain.
On this subject, Charles Maclaren was one of the best living expounders.
He was an admirable geologist, and had closely observed the features of
volcanic action round his native city.  Robert Chambers then took us to
see the glacial grooved rocks on another part of the mountain.
On this subject he was a master.  It was a vast treat to me to see
those distinct evidences of actions so remotely separated in point of
geological time--in respect to which even a million of years is a
humble approximate unit*
 [footnote...
"It is to our ever-dropping climate, with its hundred and fifty-two days
of annual rain, that we owe our vegetable mould with its rich and
beauteous mantle of sward and foliage.  And next, stripping from off
the landscape its sands and gravels, we see its underlying boulder-clays,
dingy and gray, and here presenting their vast ice-borne stones,
and there its iceberg pavements.  And these clays in turn stripped away,
the bare rocks appear, various in colour and uneven in surface,
but everywhere grooved and polished, from the sea level and beneath it,
to the height of more than a thousand feet, by evidently the same agent
that careered along the pavements and transported the great stones.