John Lombe's father, Henry Lombe, was a worsted weaver, and was twice
married.  By his first wife he had two sons, Thomas and Henry; and by
his second, he had also two sons, Benjamin and John.  At his death in
1695, he left his two brothers his "supervisors," or trustees, and
directed them to educate his children in due time to some useful trade.
Thomas, the eldest son, went to London.  He was apprenticed to a trade,
and succeeded in business, as we find him Sheriff of London and
Middlesex in 1727, when in his forty-second year.  He was also knighted
in the same year, most probably on the accession of George II. to the
throne.

John, the youngest son of the family, and half-brother of Thomas, was
put an apprentice to a trade.  In 1702, we find him at Derby, working
as a mechanic with one Mr. Crotchet.  This unfortunate gentleman
started a small silk-mill at Derby, with the object of participating in
the profits derived from the manufacture.

"The wear of silks," says Hutton, in his 'History of Derby,' "was the
taste of the ladies, and the British merchant was obliged to apply to
the Italian with ready money for the article at an exorbitant price."
Crotchet did not succeed in his undertaking. "Three engines were found
necessary for the process:  he had but one.  An untoward trade is a
dreadful sink for money; and an imprudent tradesman is still more
dreadful.  We often see instances where a fortune would last a man much
longer if he lived upon his capital, than if he sent it into trade.
Crotchet soon became insolvent."

John Lombe, who had been a mechanic in Crotchet's silk mill, lost his
situation accordingly.  But he seems to have been possessed by an
intense desire to ascertain the Italian method of silk-throwing.  He
could not learn it in England.  There was no other method but going to
Italy, getting into a silk mill, and learning the secret of the Italian
art.  He was a good mechanic and a clever draughtsman, besides being
intelligent and fearless.

But he had not the necessary money wherewith to proceed to Italy.

His half-brother Thomas, however, was doing well in London, and was
willing to help him with the requisite means.  Accordingly, John set
out for Italy, not long after the failure of Crotchet.

John Lombe succeeded in getting employment in a silk mill in Piedmont,
where the art of silk-throwing was kept a secret.  He was employed as a
mechanic, and had thus an opportunity, in course of time, of becoming
familiar with the operation of the engine.  Hutton says that he bribed
the workmen; but this would have been a dangerous step, and would
probably have led to his expulsion, if not to his execution.  Hutton
had a great detestation of the first silk factory at Derby, where he
was employed when a boy; and everything that he says about it must be
taken cum grano salis.  When the subject of renewing the patent was
before Parliament in 1731, Mr. Perry, who supported the petition of Sir
Thomas Lombe, said that "the art had been kept so secret in Piedmont,
that no other nation could ever yet come at the invention, and that Sir
Thomas and his brother resolved to make an attempt for the bringing of
this invention into their own country.  They knew that there would be
great difficulty and danger in the undertaking, because the king of
Sardinia had made it death for any man to discover this invention, or
attempt to carry it out of his dominions.  The petitioner's brother,
however, resolved to venture his person for the benefit and advantage
of his native country, and Sir Thomas was resolved to venture his
money, and to furnish his brother with whatever sums should be
necessary for executing so bold and so generous a design.  His brother
went accordingly over to Italy; and after a long stay and a great
expense in that country, he found means to see this engine so often,
and to pry into the nature of it so narrowly, that he made himself
master of the whole invention and of all the different parts and
motions belonging to it."

John Lombe was absent from England for several years.  While occupied
with his investigations and making his drawings, it is said that it
began to be rumoured that the Englishman was prying into the secret of
the silk mill, and that he had to fly for his life.  However this may
be, he got on board an English ship, and returned to England in safety.
He brought two Italian workmen with him, accustomed to the secrets of
the silk trade.  He arrived in London in 1716, when, after conferring
with his brother, a specification was prepared and a patent for the
organzining of raw silk was taken out in 1718.  The patent was granted
for fourteen years.

In the meantime, John Lombe arranged with the Corporation of the town
of Derby for taking a lease of the island or swamp on the river
Derwent, at a ground rental of 8L. a year.  The island, which was well
situated for water-power, was 500 feet long and 52 feet wide.
Arrangements were at once made for erecting a silk mill thereon, the
first large factory in England.  It was constructed entirely at the
expense of his brother Thomas.  While the building was in progress,
John Lombe hired various rooms in Derby, and particularly the Town
Hall, where he erected temporary engines turned by hand, and gave
employment to a large number of poor people.

At length, after about three years' labour, the great silk mill was
completed.  It was founded upon huge piles of oak, from 16 to 20 feet
long, driven into the swamp close to each other by an engine made for
the purpose.  The building was five stories high, contained eight large
apartments, and had no fewer than 468 windows.  The Lombes must have
had great confidence in their speculation, as the building and the
great engine for making the organzine silk, together with the other
fittings, cost them about 30,000L.

One effect of the working of the mill was greatly to reduce the price
of the thrown-silk, and to bring it below the cost of the Italian
production.  The King of Sardinia, having heard of the success of the
Lombe's undertaking, prohibited the exportation of Piedmontese raw
silk, which interrupted the course of their prosperity, until means
were taken to find a renewed supply elsewhere.

And now comes the tragic part of the story, for which Mr. Hutton, the
author of the 'History of Derby,' is responsible.  As he worked in the
silk mill when a boy, from 1730 to 1737, he doubtless heard it from the
mill-hands, and there may be some truth in it, though mixed with a
little romance.  It is this:--

Hutton says of John Lombe, that he "had not pursued this lucrative
commerce more than three or four years when the Italians, who felt the
effects from their want of trade, determined his destruction, and hoped
that that of his works would follow.  An artful woman came over in the
character of a friend, associated with the parties, and assisted in the
business.  She attempted to gain both the Italian workmen, and
succeeded with one.  By these two slow poison was supposed, and perhaps
justly, to have been administered to John Lombe, who lingered two or
three years in agony, and departed.  The Italian ran away to his own
country; and Madam was interrogated, but nothing transpired, except
what strengthened suspicion."  A strange story, if true.

Of the funeral, Hutton says:--"John Lombe's was the most superb ever
known in Derby.  A man of peaceable deportment, who had brought a
beneficial manufactory into the place, employed the poor, and at
advanced wages, could not fail meeting with respect, and his melancholy
end with pity.  Exclusive of the gentlemen who attended, all the people
concerned in the works were invited. The procession marched in pairs,
and extended the length of Full Street, the market-place, and
Iron-gate; so that when the corpse entered All Saints, at St. Mary's
Gate, the last couple left the house of the deceased, at the corner of
Silk-mill Lane."

Thus John Lombe died and was buried at the early age of twenty-nine;
and Thomas, the capitalist, continued the owner of the Derby silk mill.
Hutton erroneously states that William succeeded, and that he shot
himself.  The Lombes had no brother of the name of William, and this
part of Hutton's story is a romance.

The affairs of the Derby silk mill went on prosperously.  Enough thrown
silk was manufactured to supply the trade, and the weaving of silk
became a thriving business.  Indeed, English silk began to have a
European reputation.  In olden times it was said that "the stranger
buys of the Englishman the case of the fox for a groat, and sells him
the tail again for a shilling."  But now the matter was reversed, and
the saying was, "The Englishman buys silk of the stranger for twenty
marks, and sells him the same again for one hundred pounds."

But the patent was about to expire.  It had been granted for only
fourteen years; and a long time had elapsed before the engine could be
put in operation, and the organzine manufactured.  It was the only
engine in the kingdom.  Joshua Gee, writing in 1731, says:  "As we have
but one Water Engine in the kingdom for throwing silk, if that should
be destroyed by fire or any other accident, it would make the
continuance of throwing fine silk very precarious; and it is very much
to be doubted whether all the men now living in the kingdom could make
another."  Gee accordingly recommended that three or four more should
be erected at the public expense, "according to the model of that at
Derby."[5]

The patent expired in 1732.  The year before, Sir Thomas Lombe, who had
been by this time knighted, applied to Parliament for a prolongation of
the patent.  The reasons for his appeal were principally these: that
before he could provide for the full supply of other silk proper for
his purpose (the Italians having prohibited the exportation of raw
silk), and before he could alter his engine, train up a sufficient
number of workpeople, and bring the manufacture to perfection, almost
all the fourteen years of his patent right would have expired.
"Therefore," the petition to Parliament concluded, "as he has not
hitherto received the intended benefit of the aforesaid patent, and in
consideration of the extraordinary nature of this undertaking, the very
great expense, hazard, and difficulty he has undergone, as well as the
advantage he has thereby procured to the nation at his own expense, the
said Sir Thomas Lombe humbly hopes that Parliament will grant him a
further term for the sole making and using his engines, or such other
recompense as in their wisdom shall seem meet."[6]

The petition was referred to a Committee.  After consideration, they
recommended the House of Commons to grant a further term of years to
Sir Thomas Lombe.  The advisers of the King, however, thought it better
that the patent should not be renewed, but that the trade in silk
should be thrown free to all.  Accordingly the Chancellor of the
Exchequer acquainted the House (14th March, 1731) that "His Majesty
having been informed of the case of Sir Thomas Lombe, with respect to
his engine for making organzine silk, had commanded him to acquaint
this House, that His Majesty recommended to their consideration the
making such provision for a recompense to Sir Thomas Lombe as they
shall think proper."

The result was, that the sum of 14,000L. was voted and paid to Sir
Thomas Lombe as "a reward for his eminent services done to the nation,
in discovering with the greatest hazard and difficulty the capital
Italian engines, and introducing and bringing the same to full
perfection in this kingdom, at his own great expense."[7]  The trade
was accordingly thrown open.  Silk mills were erected at Stockport and
elsewhere; Hutton says that divers additional mills were erected in
Derby; and a large and thriving trade was established.  In 1850, the
number employed in the silk manufacture exceeded a million persons.
The old mill has recently become disused.  Although supported by strong
wooden supports, it showed signs of falling; and it was replaced by a
larger mill, more suitable to modern requirements.


Footnotes for Chapter IV.

[1] "This was equally the case with two other trades;--those of
glass-maker and druggist, which brought no contamination upon nobility
in Venice.  In a country where wealth was concentrated in the hands of
the powerful, it was no doubt highly judicious thus to encourage its
employment for objects of public advantage. A feeling, more or less
powerful, has always existed in the minds of the high-born, against the
employment of their time and wealth to purposes of commerce or
manufactures.  All trades, save only that of war, seem to have been
held by them as in some sort degrading, and but little comporting with
the dignity of aristocratic blood." Cabinet Cyclopedia--Silk
Manufacture, p. 20.

[2] A Brief State of the Inland or Home Trade. (Pamphlet.) 1730.

[3] A Brief State of the Case relating to the Machine erected at Derby
for making Italian Organzine Silk, which was discovered and brought
into England with the utmost difficulty and hazard, and at the Sole
Expense of Sir Thomas Lombe.  House of Commons Paper, 28th January,
1731.

[4] Self-Help, p. 205.

[5] The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered, p. 94.

[6] The petition sets forth the merits of the machine at Derby for
making Italian organzine silk--"a manufacture made out of fine raw
silk, by reducing it to a hard twisted fine and even thread.  This silk
makes the warp, and is absolutely necessary to mix with and cover the
Turkey and other coarser silks thrown here, which are used for
Shute,--so that, without a constant supply of this fine Italian
organzine silk, very little of the said Turkey or other silks could be
used, nor could the silk weaving trade be carried on in England.  This
Italian organzine (or thrown) silk has in all times past been bought
with our money, ready made (or worked) in Italy, for want of the art of
making it here.  Whereas now, by making it ourselves out of fine
Italian raw silk, the nation saves near one-third part; and by what we
make out of fine China raw silk, above one-half of the price we pay for
it ready worked in Italy.  The machine at Derby contains 97,746 wheels,
movements, and individual parts (which work day and night), all which
receive their motion from one large water-wheel, are governed by one
regulator, and it employs about 300 persons to attend and supply it
with work." In Bees Cyclopaedia (art. 'Silk Manufacture') there is a
full description of the Piedmont throwing machine introduced to England
by John Lombe, with a good plate of it.

[7] Sir Thomas Lombe died in 1738.  He had two daughters.  The first,
Hannah, was married to Sir Robert Clifton, of Clifton, co. Notts; the
second, Mary Turner, was married to James, 7th Earl of Lauderdale.  In
his will, he "recommends his wife, at the conclusion of the Darby
concern," to distribute among his "principal servants or managers five
or six hundred pounds."



CHAPTER V.

WILLIAM MURDOCK: HIS LIFE AND INVENTIONS.

"Justice exacts, that those by whom we are most benefited Should be
most admired."--Dr. Johnson.

"The beginning of civilization is the discovery of some useful arts, by
which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries.  The necessity  or
desire of preserving them leads to laws and social institutions... In
reality, the origin as well as the progress and improvement of civil
society is founded on mechanical and chemical inventions."--Sir Humphry
Davy.

At the middle of last century, Scotland was a very poor country. It
consisted mostly of mountain and moorland; and the little arable land
it contained was badly cultivated.  Agriculture was almost a lost art.
"Except in a few instances," says a writer in the 'Farmers' Magazine'
of 1803, "Scotland was little better than a barren waste."  Cattle
could with difficulty be kept alive; and the people in some parts of
the country were often on the brink of starvation.  The people were
hopeless, miserable, and without spirit, like the Irish in their very
worst times.  After the wreck of the Darien expedition, there seemed to
be neither skill, enterprise, nor money left in the country.  What
resources it contained were altogether undeveloped.  There was little
communication between one place and another, and such roads as existed
were for the greater part of the year simply impassable.

There were various opinions as to the causes of this frightful state of
things.  Some thought it was the Union between England and Scotland;
and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, "The Patriot," as he was called, urged
its Repeal.  In one of his publications, he endeavoured to show that
about one-sixth of the population of Scotland was in a state of
beggary--two hundred thousand vagabonds begging from door to door, or
robbing and plundering people as poor as themselves.[1] Fletcher was
accordingly as great a repealer as Daniel O'Connell in after times.
But he could not get the people to combine.  There were others who held
a different opinion.  They thought that something might be done by the
people themselves to extricate the country from its miserable condition.

It still possessed some important elements of prosperity.  The
inhabitants of Scotland, though poor, were strong and able to work.
The land, though cold and sterile, was capable of cultivation.

Accordingly, about the middle of last century, some important steps
were taken to improve the general condition of things.  A few
public-spirited landowners led the way, and formed themselves into a
society for carrying out improvements in agriculture. They granted long
leases of farms as a stimulus to the most skilled and industrious, and
found it to their interest to give the farmer a more permanent interest
in his improvements than he had before enjoyed.  Thus stimulated and
encouraged, farming made rapid progress, especially in the Lothians;
and the example spread into other districts.  Banks were established
for the storage of capital.  Roads were improved, and communications
increased between one part of the country and another.  Hence trade and
commerce arose, by reason of the facilities afforded for the
interchange of traffic.  The people, being fairly educated by the
parish schools, were able to take advantage of these improvements.
Sloth and idleness gradually disappeared, before the energy, activity,
and industry which were called into life by the improved communications.

At the same time, active and powerful minds were occupied in extending
the domain of knowledge.  Black and Robison, of Glasgow, were the
precursors of James Watt, whose invention of the condensing
steam-engine was yet to produce a revolution in industrial operations,
the like of which had never before been known.  Watt had hit upon his
great idea while experimenting with an old Newcomen model which
belonged to the University of Glasgow.  He was invited by Mr. Roebuck
of Kinneil to make a working steam-engine for the purpose of pumping
water from the coal-pits at Boroughstoness; but his progress was
stopped by want of capital, as well as by want of experience.  It was
not until the brave and generous Matthew Boulton of Birmingham took up
the machine, and backed Watt with his capital and his spirit, that
Watt's enterprise had the remotest chance of success.  Even after about
twelve years' effort, the condensing steam-engine was only beginning,
though half-heartedly, to be taken up and employed by colliery
proprietors and cotton manufacturers.  In developing its powers, and
extending its uses, the great merits of William Murdock can never be
forgotten.  Watt stands first in its history, as the inventor; Boulton
second, as its promoter and supporter; and Murdock third, as its
developer and improver.

William Murdock was born on the 21st of August, 1754, at Bellow Mill,
in the parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire.  His father, John, was a miller
and millwright, as well as a farmer.  His mother's maiden name was
Bruce, and she used to boast of being descended from Robert Bruce, the
deliverer of Scotland.  The Murdocks, or Murdochs--for the name was
spelt in either way--were numerous in the neighbourhood, and they were
nearly all related to each other.  They are supposed to have originally
come into the district from Flanders, between which country and
Scotland a considerable intercourse existed in the middle ages.  Some
of the Murdocks took a leading part in the construction of the abbeys
and cathedrals of the North;[2] others were known as mechanics; but the
greater number were farmers.

One of the best known members of the family was John Murdock, the poet
Burns' first teacher.  Burns went to his school at Alloway Mill, when
he was six years old.  There he learnt to read and write.  When Murdock
afterwards set up a school at Ayr, Burns, who was then fifteen, went to
board with him.  In a letter to a correspondent, Murdock said:  "In
1773, Robert Burns came to board and lodge with me, for the purpose of
revising his English grammar, that he might be better qualified to
instruct his brothers and sisters at home.  He was now with me day and
night, in school, at all meals, and in all my walks."  The pupil even
shared the teacher's bed at night.  Murdock lent the boy books, and
helped the cultivation of his mind in many ways.  Burns soon revised
his English grammar, and learnt French, as well as a little Latin.
Some time after, Murdock removed to London, and had the honour of
teaching Talleyrand English during his residence as an emigrant in this
country.  He continued to have the greatest respect for his former
pupil, whose poetry commemorated the beauties of his native district.

It may be mentioned that Bellow Mill is situated on the Bellow Water,
near where it joins the river Lugar.  One of Burns' finest songs
begins:--

   "Behind yon hills where Lugar flows."

That was the scene of William Murdock's boyhood.  When a boy, he herded
his father's cows along the banks of the Bellow; and as there were then
no hedges, it was necessary to have some one to watch the cattle while
grazing.  The spot  is still pointed out where the boy, in the
intervals of his herding, hewed a square compartment out of the rock by
the water side, and there burnt the splint coal found on the top of the
Black Band ironstone. That was one of the undeveloped industries of
Scotland; for the Scotch iron trade did not arrive at any considerable
importance until about a century later.[3]  The little cavern in which
Murdock burnt the splint coal was provided with a fireplace and vent,
all complete.  It is possible that he may have there derived, from his
experiments, the first idea of Gas as an illuminant.

Murdock is also said to have made a wooden horse, worked by mechanical
power, which was the wonder of the district.  On this mechanical horse
he rode to the village of Cumnock, about two miles distant.  His
father's name is, however, associated with his own in the production of
this machine.  Old John Murdock had a reputation for intelligence and
skill of no ordinary kind. When at Carron ironworks, in 1760, he had a
pinton cast after a pattern which he had prepared.  This is said to
have been the first piece of iron-toothed gearing ever used in mill
work.  When I last saw it, the pinton was placed on the lawn in front
of William Murdock's villa at Handsworth.

The young man helped his father in many ways.  He worked in the mill,
worked on the farm, and assisted in the preparation of mill machinery.
In this way he obtained a considerable amount of general technical
knowledge.  He even designed and constructed bridges.  He was employed
to build a bridge over the river Nith, near Dumfries, and it stands
there to this day, a solid and handsome structure.  But he had an
ambition to be something more than a country mason.  He had heard a
great deal about the inventions of James Watt; and he determined to try
whether he could not get "a job" at the famous manufactory at Soho.  He
accordingly left his native place in the year 1777, in the twenty-third
year of his age; and migrated southward.  He left plenty of Murdocks
behind him.  There was a famous staff in the family, originally owned
by William Murdock's grandfather, which bore the following inscription:
"This staff I leave in pedigree to the oldest Murdock after me, in the
parish of Auchenleck, 1745."  This staff was lately held by Jean
Murdock, daughter of the late William Murdock, joiner, cousin of the
subject of this biography.

When William arrived at Soho in 1777 he called at the works to ask for
employment.  Watt was then in Cornwall, looking after his pumping
engines; but he saw Boulton, who was usually accessible to callers of
every rank.  In answer to Murdock's enquiry whether he could have a
job, Boulton replied that work was very slack with them, and that every
place was filled up.  During the brief conversation that took place,
the blate young Scotchman, like most country lads in the presence of
strangers, had some difficulty in knowing what to do with his hands,
and unconsciously kept twirling his hat with them.  Boulton's attention
was attracted to the twirling hat, which seemed to be of a peculiar
make.  It was not a felt hat, nor a cloth hat, nor a glazed hat: but it
seemed to be painted, and composed of some unusual material.  "That
seems to be a curious sort of hat," said Boulton, looking at it more
closely; "what is it made of?" "Timmer, sir," said Murdock, modestly.
"Timmer?  Do you mean to say that it is made of wood?"  "'Deed it is,
sir."  "And pray how was it made?"  "I made it mysel, sir, in a bit
laithey of my own contrivin'."  "Indeed!"

Boulton looked at the young man again.  He had risen a hundred degrees
in his estimation.  William was a good-looking fellow--tall, strong,
and handsome--with an open intelligent countenance.  Besides, he had
been able to turn a hat for himself with a lathe of his own
construction.  This, of itself, was a sufficient proof that he was a
mechanic of no mean skill. "Well!" said Boulton, at last, "I will
enquire at the works, and see if there is anything we can set you to.
Call again, my man."

"Thank you, sir," said Murdock, giving a final twirl to his hat.

Such was the beginning of William Murdock's connection with the firm of
Boulton and Watt.  When he called again he was put upon a trial job,
and then, as he was found satisfactory, he was engaged for two years at
15s. a week when at home, 17s. when in the country, and 18s. when in
London.  Boulton's engagement of Murdock was amply justified by the
result.  Beginning as an ordinary mechanic, he applied himself
diligently and conscientiously to his work, and gradually became
trusted.  More responsible duties were confided to him, and he strove
to perform them to the best of his power.  His industry, skilfulness,
and steady sobriety, soon marked him for promotion, and he rose from
grade to grade until he became Boulton and Watt's most trusted
co-worker and adviser in all their mechanical undertakings of
importance.

Watt himself had little confidence in Scotchmen as mechanics.  He told
Sir Waiter Scott that though many of them sought employment at his
works, he could never get any of them to become first-rate workmen.
They might be valuable as clerks and book-keepers, but they had an
insuperable aversion to toiling long at any point of mechanism, so as
to earn the highest wages paid to the workmen.[4]  The reason no doubt
was, that the working-people of Scotland were then only in course of
education as practical mechanics; and now that they have had a
century's discipline of work and technical training, the result is
altogether different, as the engine-shops and shipbuilding-yards of the
Clyde abundantly prove.  Mechanical power and technical ability are the
result of training, like many other things.

When Boulton engaged Murdock, as we have said, Watt was absent in
Cornwall, looking after the pumping-engines which had been erected at
several of the mines throughout that county.  The partnership had only
been in existence for three years, and Watt was still struggling with
the difficulties which he had to surmount in getting the steam engine
into practical use.  His health was bad, and he was oppressed with
frightful headaches. He was not the man to fight the selfishness of the
Cornish adventurers.  "A little more of this hurrying and vexation," he
said, "will knock me up altogether."  Boulton went to his help
occasionally, and gave him hope and courage.  And at length William
Murdock, after he had acquired sufficient knowledge of the business,
was able to undertake the principal management of the engines in
Cornwall.

We find that in 1779, when he was only twenty-five years old, he was
placed in this important position.  When he went into Cornwall, he gave
himself no rest until he had conquered the defects of the engines, and
put them into thorough working order.

He devoted himself to his duties with a zeal and ability that
completely won Watt's heart.  When he had an important job in hand, he
could scarcely sleep.  One night at his lodgings at Redruth, the people
were disturbed by a strange noise in his room.  Several heavy blows
were heard upon the floor.  They started from their beds, rushed to
Murdock's room, and found him standing in his shirt, heaving at the
bedpost in his sleep, shouting "Now she goes, lads! now she goes!"

Murdock became a most popular man with the mine owners.  He also became
friendly with the Cornish workmen and engineers.  Indeed, he fought his
way to their affections.  One day, some half-dozen of the mining
captains came into his engine-room at Chacewater, and began to bully
him.  This he could not stand.  He stript, selected the biggest, and
put himself into a fighting attitude. They set to, and in a few minutes
Murdock's powerful bones and muscles enabled him to achieve the
victory.  The other men, who had looked on fairly, without interfering,
seeing the temper and vigour of the man they had bullied, made
overtures of reconciliation.  William was quite willing to be friendly.
Accordingly they shook hands all round, and parted the best of friends.
It is also said that Murdock afterwards fought a duel with Captain
Trevethick, because of a quarrel between Watt and the mining engineer,
in which Murdock conceived his master to have been unfairly and harshly
treated.[5]

The uses of Watt's steam-engine began to be recognised as available for
manufacturing purposes.  It was then found necessary to invent some
method by which continuous rotary motion should be secured, so as to
turn round the moving machinery of mills.  With this object Watt had
invented his original wheel-engine.  But no steps were taken to
introduce it into practical use.  At length he prepared a model, in
which he made use of a crank connected with the working beam of the
engine, so as to produce the necessary rotary motion.

There was no originality in this application.  The crank was one of the
most common of mechanical appliances.  It was in daily use in every
spinning wheel, and in every turner's and knife-grinder's foot-lathe.
Watt did not take out a patent for the crank, not believing it to be
patentable.  But another person did so, thereby anticipating Watt in
the application of the crank for producing rotary motion.   He had
therefore to employ some other method, and in the new contrivance he
had the valuable help of William Murdock.  Watt devised five different
methods of securing rotary motion without using the crank, but
eventually he adopted the "Sun-and-planet motion," the invention of
Murdock. This had the singular property of going twice round for every
stroke of the engine, and might be made to go round much oftener
without additional machinery.  The invention was patented in February,
1782, five Years after Murdock had entered the service of Boulton and
Watt.

Murdock continued for many years busily occupied in superintending the
Cornish steam-engines.  We find him described by his employers as
"flying from mine to mine," putting the engines to rights.  If anything
went wrong, he was immediately sent for.  He was active, quick-sighted,
shrewd, sober, and thoroughly trustworthy.  Down to the year 1780, his
wages were only a pound a week; but Boulton made him a present of ten
guineas, to which the owners of the United Mines added another ten, in
acknowledgment of the admirable manner in which he bad erected their
new engine, the chairman of the company declaring that he was "the most
obliging and industrious workman he had ever known."  That he secured
the admiration of the Cornish engineers may be obvious from the fact of
Mr. Boaze having invited him to join in an engineering partnership; but
Murdock remained loyal to the Birmingham firm, and in due time he had
his reward.

He continued to be the "right hand man" of the concern in Cornwall.
Boulton wrote to Watt, towards the end of 1782: "Murdock hath been
indefatigable ever since he began.  He has scarcely been in bed or
taken necessary food.  After slaving night and day on Thursday and
Friday, a letter came from Wheal Virgin that he must go instantly to
set their engine to work, or they would let out the fire.  He went and
set the engine to work; it worked well for the five or six hours he
remained.  He left it, and returned to the Consolidated Mines about
eleven at night, and was employed about the engines till four this
morning, and then went to bed.  I found him at ten this morning in
Poldice Cistern, seeking for pins and castors that had jumped out, when
I insisted on his going home to bed."

On one occasion, when an engine superintended by Murdock stopped
through some accident, the water rose in the mine, and the workmen were
"drowned out."  Upon this occurring, the miners went "roaring at him"
for throwing them out of work, and threatened to tear him to pieces.
Nothing daunted, he went through the midst of the men, repaired the
invalided engine, and started it afresh.

When he came out of the engine-house, the miners cheered him
vociferously and insisted upon carrying him home upon their shoulders
in triumph!

Steam was now asserting its power everywhere.  It was pumping water
from the mines in Cornwall and driving the mills of the manufacturers
in Lancashire.  Speculative mechanics began to consider whether it
might not be employed as a means of land locomotion.  The comprehensive
mind of Sir Isaac Newton had long before, in his 'Explanation of the
Newtonian Philosophy,' thrown out the idea of employing steam for this
purpose; but no practical experiment was made.  Benjamin Franklin,
while agent in London for the United Provinces of America, had a
correspondence with Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, and Dr. Darwin, of
Lichfield, on the same subject.  Boulton sent a model of a fire-engine
to London for Franklin's inspection; but Franklin was too much occupied
at the time by grave political questions to pursue the subject further.
Erasmus Darwin's speculative mind was inflamed by the idea of a "fiery
chariot," and he urged his friend Boulton to prosecute the contrivance
of the necessary steam machinery.[6]

Other minds were at work.  Watt, when only twenty-three years old, at
the instigation of his friend Robison, made a model locomotive,
provided with two cylinders of tin plate; but the project was laid
aside, and was never again taken up by the inventor.  Yet, in his
patent of 1784, Watt included an arrangement by means of which
steam-power might be employed for the purposes of locomotion.  But no
further model of the contrivance was made.

Meanwhile, Cugnot, of Paris, had already made a road engine worked by
steam power.  It was first tried at the Arsenal in 1769; and, being set
in motion, it ran against a stone wall in its way and threw it down.
The engine was afterwards tried in the streets of Paris.  In one of the
experiments it fell over with a crash, and was thenceforward locked up
in the Arsenal to prevent its doing further mischief.  This first
locomotive is now to be seen at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers
at Paris.

Murdock had doubtless heard of Watt's original speculations, and
proceeded, while at Redruth, during his leisure hours, to construct a
model locomotive after a design of his own.  This model was of small
dimensions, standing little more than a foot and a half high, though it
was sufficiently large to demonstrate the soundness of the principle on
which it was constructed.  It was supported on three wheels, and
carried a small copper boiler, heated by a spirit lamp, with a flue
passing obliquely through it.  The cylinder, of 3/4 inch diameter and
2-inch stroke, was fixed in the top of the boiler, the piston-rod being
connected with the vibratory beam attached to the connecting-rod which
worked the crank of the driving-wheel.  This little engine worked by
the expansive force of steam only, which was discharged into the
atmosphere after it had done its work of alternately raising and
depressing the piston in the cylinder.

Mr. Murdock's son, while living at Handsworth, informed the present
writer that this model was invented and constructed in 1781; but, after
perusing the correspondence of Boulton and Watt, we infer that it was
not ready for trial until 1784.  The first experiment was made in
Murdock's own house at Redruth, when the little engine successfully
hauled a model waggon round the room,--the single wheel, placed in
front of the engine and working in a swivel frame, enabling it to run
round in a circle.

Another experiment was made out of doors, on which occasion, small
though the engine was, it fairly outran the speed of its inventor.  One
night, after returning from his duties at the mine at Redruth, Murdock
went with his model locomotive to the avenue leading to the church,
about a mile from the town.  The walk was narrow, straight, and level.
Having lit the lamp, the water soon boiled, and off started the engine
with the inventor after it. Shortly after he heard distant shouts of
terror.  It was too dark to perceive objects, but he found, on
following up the machine, that the cries had proceeded from the worthy
vicar, who, while going along the walk, had met the hissing and fiery
little monster, which he declared he took to be the Evil One in propria
persona!

When Watt was informed of Murdock's experiments, he feared that they
might interfere with his regular duties, and advised their
discontinuance.  Should Murdock still resolve to continue them, Watt
urged his partner Boulton, then in Cornwall, that, rather than lose
Murdock's services, they should advance him 100L.; and, if he succeeded
within a year in making an engine capable of drawing a post-chaise
carrying two passengers and the driver, at the rate of four miles an
hour, that a locomotive engine business should be established, with
Murdock as a partner.  The arrangement, however, never proceeded any
further.  Perhaps a different attraction withdrew Murdock from his
locomotive experiments.   He was then paying attention to a young lady,
the daughter of Captain Painter; and in 1785 he married her, and
brought her home to his house in Cross Street, Redruth.

In the following year,--September, 1786--Watt says, in a letter to
Boulton, "I have still the same opinion concerning the steam carriage,
but, to prevent more fruitless argument about it, I have one of some
size under hand.  In the meantime, I wish William could be brought to
do as we do, to mind the business in hand, and let such as Symington
and Sadler throw away their time and money in hunting shadows."  In a
subsequent letter Watt expressed his gratification at finding "that
William applies to his business."  From that time forward, Murdock as
well as Watt, dropped all further speculation on the subject, and left
it to others to work out the problem of the locomotive engine.
Murdock's model remained but a curious toy, which he took pleasure in
exhibiting to his intimate friends; and, though he long continued to
speculate about road locomotion, and was persuaded of its
practicability, he abstained from embodying his ideas of the necessary
engine in any complete working form.

Murdock nevertheless continued inventing, for the man who is given to
invent, and who possesses the gift of insight, cannot rest.  He lived
in the midst of inventors.  Watt and Boulton were constantly suggesting
new things, and Murdock became possessed by the same spirit.  In 1791
he took out his first patent.  It was for a method of preserving ships'
bottoms from foulness by the use of a certain kind of chemical paint.
Mr. Murdock's grandson informs us that it was recently re-patented and
was the cause of a lawsuit, and that Hislop's patent for revivifying
gas-lime would have been an infringement, if it had not expired.

Murdock is still better known by his invention of gas for lighting
purposes.  Several independent inquirers into the constituents of
Newcastle coal had arrived at the conclusion that nearly one-third of
the substance was driven off in vapour by the application of heat, and
that the vapour so driven off was inflammable.  But no suggestion had
been made to apply this vapour for lighting purposes until Murdock took
the matter in hand.  Mr. M. S. Pearse has sent us the following
interesting reminiscence: "Some time since, when in the West of
Cornwall, I was anxious to find out whether any one remembered Murdock.
I discovered one of the most respectable and intelligent men in
Camborne, Mr. William Symons, who not only distinctly remembered
Murdock, but had actually been present on one of the first occasions
when gas was used.  Murdock, he says, was very fond of children, and
not unfrequently took them into his workshop to show them what he was
doing.  Hence it happened that on one occasion this gentleman, then a
boy of seven or eight, was standing outside Murdock's door with some
other boys, trying to catch sight of some special mystery inside, for
Dr. Boaze, the chief doctor of the place, and Murdock had been busy all
the afternoon.  Murdock came out, and asked my informant to run down to
a shop near by for a thimble.  On returning with the thimble, the boy
pretended to have lost it, and, whilst searching in every pocket, he
managed to slip inside the door of the workshop, and then produced the
thimble.  He found Dr. Boaze and Murdock with a kettle filled with
coal.  The gas issuing from it had been burnt in a large metal case,
such as was used for blasting purposes. Now, however, they had applied
a much smaller tube, and at the end of it fastened the thimble, through
the small perforations made in which they burned a continuous jet for
some time."[7]

After numerous experiments, Murdock had his house in Cross Street
fitted up in 1792 for being lit by gas.  The coal was subjected to heat
in an iron retort, and the gas was conveyed in pipes to the offices and
the different rooms of the house, where it was burned at proper
apertures or burners.[8]  Portions of the gas were also confined in
portable vessels of tinned iron, from which it was burned when
required, thus forming a moveable gas-light. Murdock had a gas lantern
in regular use, for the purpose of lighting himself home at night
across the moors, from the mines where he was working, to his home at
Redruth.  This lantern was formed by filling a bladder with gas and
fixing a jet to the mouthpiece at the bottom of a glass lantern, with
the bladder hanging underneath.

Having satisfied himself as to the superior economy of coal gas, as
compared with oils and tallow, for the purposes of artificial
illumination, Murdock mentioned the subject to Mr. James Watt, jun.,
during a brief visit to Soho in 1794, and urged the propriety of taking
out a patent.  Watt was, however, indifferent to taking out any further
patents, being still engaged in contesting with the Cornish mine-owners
his father's rights to the user of the condensing steam-engine.
Nothing definite was done at the time.  Murdock returned to Cornwall
and continued his experiments.  At the end of the same year he
exhibited to Mr. Phillips and others, at the Polgooth mine, his
apparatus for extracting gases from coal and other substances, showed
it in use, lit the gas which issued from the burner, and showed its
"strong and beautiful light."  He afterwards exhibited the same
apparatus to Tregelles and others at the Neath Abbey Company's
ironworks in Glamorganshire.

Murdock returned to Soho in 1798, to take up his permanent residence in
the neighbourhood.  When the mine owners heard of his intention to
leave Cornwall, they combined in offering him a handsome salary
provided he would remain in the county; but his attachment to his
friends at Soho would not allow him to comply with their request.  He
again urged the firm of Boulton and Watt to take out a patent for the
use of gas for lighting purposes. But being still embroiled in their
tedious and costly lawsuit, they were naturally averse to risk
connection with any other patent.  Watt the younger, with whom Murdock
communicated on the subject, was aware that the current of gas obtained
from the distillation of coal in Lord Dundonald's tar-ovens had been
occasionally set fire to, and also that Bishop Watson and others had
burned gas from coal, after conducting it through tubes, or after it
had issued from the retort.  Mr. Watt was, however, quite satisfied
that Murdock was the first person who had suggested its economical
application for public and private uses.

But he was not clear, after the legal difficulties which had been
raised as to his father's patent rights, that it would be safe to risk
a further patent for gas.

Mr. Murdock's suggestion, accordingly, was not acted upon.  But he went
on inventing in other directions.  He thenceforward devoted himself
entirely to mechanical pursuits.  Mr. Buckle has said of him:--"The
rising sun often found him, after a night spent in incessant labour,
still at the anvil or turning-lathe; for with his own hands he would
make such articles as he would not intrust to unskilful ones."  In 1799
he took out a patent (No. 2340), embodying some very important
inventions.  First, it included the endless screw working into a
toothed-wheel, for boring steam-cylinders, which is still in use.
Second, the casting of a steam-jacket in one cylinder, instead of being
made in separate segments bolted together with caulked joints, as was
previously done.  Third, the new double-D slide-valve, by which the
construction and working of the steam-engine was simplified, and the
loss of steam saved, as well as the cylindrical valve for the same
purpose.  And fourth, improved rotary engines.  One of the latter was
set to drive the machines in his private workshop, and continued in
nearly constant work and in perfect use for about thirty years.

In 1801, Murdock sent his two sons William and John to the Ayr Academy,
for the benefit of Scotch education.  In the summer-time they spent
their vacation at Bellow Mill, which their grandfather still continued
to occupy.  They fished in the river, and "caught a good many trout."
The boys corresponded regularly with their father at Birmingham.  In
1804, they seem to have been in a state of great excitement about the
expected landing of the French in Scotland.  The volunteers of Ayr
amounted to 300 men, the cavalry to 150, and the riflemen to 50.  "The
riflemen," says John, "go to the seashore every Saturday to shoot at a
target.  They stand at 70 paces distant, and out of 100 shots they
often put in 60 bullets!"  William says, "Great preparations are still
making for the  reception of the French.  Several thousand of pikes are
carried through the town every week; and all the volunteers and
riflemen have received orders to march at a moment's warning." The
alarm, however, passed away.  At the end of 1804, the two boys received
prizes; William got one in arithmetic and another in the Rector's
composition class; and John also obtained two, one in the mathematical
class, and the other in French.

To return to the application of gas for lighting purposes.  In 1801, a
plan was proposed by a M. Le Blond for lighting a part of the streets
of Paris with gas.  Murdock actively resumed his experiments; and on
the occasion of the Peace of Amiens in March, 1802, he made the first
public exhibition of his invention.  The whole of the works at Soho
were brilliantly illuminated with gas.

The sight was received with immense enthusiasm.  There could now be no
doubt as to the enormous advantages of this method of producing
artificial light, compared with that from oil or tallow.  In the
following year the manufacture of gas-making apparatus was added to the
other branches of Boulton and Watts' business, with which Murdock was
now associated,--and as much as from 4000L. to 5000L. of capital were
invested in the new works. The new method of lighting speedily became
popular amongst manufacturers, from its superior safety, cheapness, and
illuminating power.  The mills of Phillips and Lee of Manchester were
fitted up in 1805; and those of Burley and Kennedy, also of Manchester,
and of Messrs. Gott, of Leeds, in subsequent years.

Though Murdock had made the uses of gas-lighting perfectly clear, it
was some time before it was proposed to light the streets by the new
method.  The idea was ridiculed by Sir Humphry Davy, who asked one of
the projectors if he intended to take the dome of St. Paul's for a
gasometer!  Sir Waiter Scott made many clever jokes about those who
proposed to "send light through the streets in pipes;" and even
Wollaston, a well known man of science, declared that they "might as
well attempt to light London with a slice from the moon."  It has been
so with all new projects--with the steamboat, the locomotive, and the
electric telegraph. As John Wilkinson said of the first vessel of iron
which he introduced, "it will be only a nine days' wonder, and
afterwards a Columbus's egg."

On the 25th of February, 1808, Murdock read a paper before the Royal
Society "On the Application of Gas from Coal to economical purposes."
He gave a history of the origin and progress of his experiments, down
to the time when he had satisfactorily lit up the premises of Phillips
and Lee at Manchester.  The paper was modest and unassuming, like
everything he did.