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Invents the steam pile…driving machine

Designs a new form of steam…engine

Other inventions How he 〃Scotched〃 a strike

Uses of strikes

Retirement from business

Skill as a draughtsman

Curious speculations on antiquarian subjects

Mr。 Nasmyth's wonderful discoveries in Astronomy

  described by Sir John Herschel





CHAPTER XVI。



WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN。



Summary of progress in machine…tools

William Fairbairn's early years

His education

Life in the Highlands

Begins work at Kelso Bridge

An apprentice at Percy Main Colliery; North Shields

Diligent self…culture

Voyage to London

Adventures

Prevented obtaining work by the Millwrights' Union

Travels into the country; finds work; and returns to London

His first order; to make a sausage…chopping machine

Wanderschaft

Makes nail…machinery for a Dublin employer

Proceeds to Manchester; where he settles and marries

Begins business

His first job

Partnership with Mr。 Lillie

Employed by Messrs。 Adam Murray and Co。

Employed by Messrs。 MacConnel and Kennedy

Progress of the Cotton Trade

Memoir of John Kennedy

Mr。 Fairbairn introduces great improvements in the gearing; &c。

  of mill machinery

Increasing business Improvements in water…wheels

Experiments as to the law of traction of boats

Begins building iron ships

Experiments on the strength of wrought iron

Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges

Reports on iron

On boiler explosions

Iron construction

Extended use of iron

Its importance in civilization

Opinion of Mr。 Cobden

Importance of modern machine…tools

Conclusion







INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY。





CHAPTER I。



IRON AND CIVILIZATION。



〃Iron is not only the soul of every other manufacture; but the main

spring perhaps of civilized society。〃FRANCIS HORNER。



〃Were the use of iron lost among us; we should in a few ages be

unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage

Americans; so that he who first made known the use of that

contemptible mineral may be truly styled the father of Arts and the

author of Plenty。〃JOHN LOCKE。





When Captain Cook and the early navigators first sailed into the

South Seas on their voyages of discovery; one of the things that

struck them with most surprise was the avidity which the natives

displayed for iron。  〃Nothing would go down with our visitors;〃 says

Cook; 〃but metal; and iron was their beloved article。〃  A nail would

buy a good…sized pig; and on one occasion the navigator bought some

four hundred pounds weight of fish for a few wretched knives

improvised out of an old hoop。



〃For iron tools;〃 says Captain Carteret; 〃we might have purchased

everything upon the Freewill Islands that we could have brought away。

A few pieces of old iron hoop presented to one of the natives threw

him into an ecstasy little short of distraction。〃  At Otaheite the

people were found generally well…behaved and honest; but they were

not proof against the fascinations of iron。  Captain Cook says that

one of them; after resisting all other temptations; 〃was at length

ensnared by the charms of basket of nails。〃  Another lurked about for

several days; watching the opportunity to steal a coal…rake。



The navigators found they could pay their way from island to island

merely with scraps of iron; which were as useful for the purpose as

gold coins would have been in Europe。  The drain; however; being

continuous; Captain Cook became alarmed at finding his currency

almost exhausted; and he relates his joy on recovering an old anchor

which the French Captain Bougainville had lost at Bolabola; on which

he felt as an English banker would do after a severe run upon him for

gold; when suddenly placed in possession of a fresh store of bullion。



The avidity for iron displayed by these poor islanders will not be

wondered at when we consider that whoever among them was so fortunate

as to obtain possession of an old nail; immediately became a man of

greater power than his fellows; and assumed the rank of a capitalist。

〃An Otaheitan chief;〃 says Cook; 〃who had got two nails in his

possession; received no small emolument by letting out the use of

them to his neighbours for the purpose of boring holes when their own

methods failed; or were thought too tedious。〃



The native methods referred to by Cook were of a very clumsy sort;

the principal tools of the Otaheitans being of wood; stone; and

flint。  Their adzes and axes were of stone。  The gouge most commonly

used by them was made out of the bone of the human forearm。  Their

substitute for a knife was a shell; or a bit of flint or jasper。

A shark's tooth; fixed to a piece of wood; served for an auger;

a piece of coral for a file; and the skin of a sting…ray for a

polisher。  Their saw was made of jagged fishes' teeth fixed on the

convex edge of a piece of hard wood。  Their weapons were of a

similarly rude description; their clubs and axes were headed with

stone; and their lances and arrows were tipped with flint。  Fire was

another agency employed by them; usually in boat…building。  Thus; the

New Zealanders; whose tools were also of stone; wood; or bone; made

their boats of the trunks of trees hollowed out by fire。



The stone implements were fashioned; Captain Cook says; by rubbing

one stone upon another until brought to the required shape; but;

after all; they were found very inefficient for their purpose。  They

soon became blunted and useless; and the laborious process of making

new tools had to be begun again。  The delight of the islanders at

being put in possession of a material which was capable of taking a

comparatively sharp edge and keeping it; may therefore readily be

imagined; and hence the remarkable incidents to which we have

referred in the experience of the early voyagers。  In the minds of the

natives; iron became the representative of power; efficiency; and

wealth; and they were ready almost to fall down and worship their new

tools; esteeming the axe as a deity; offering sacrifices to the saw;

and holding the knife in especial veneration。



In the infancy of all nations the same difficulties must have been

experienced for want of tools; before the arts of smelting and

working in metals had become known; and it is not improbable that the

Phoenician navigators who first frequented our coasts found the same

avidity for bronze and iron existing among the poor woad…stained

Britons who flocked down to the shore to see their ships and exchange

food and skins with them; that Captain Cook discovered more than two

thousand years later among the natives of Otaheite and New Zealand。

For; the tools and weapons found in ancient burying…places in all

parts of Britain clearly show that these islands also have passed

through the epoch of stone and flint。



There was recently exhibited at the Crystal Palace a collection of

ancient European weapons and implements placed alongside a similar

collection of articles brought from the South Seas; and they were in

most respects so much alike that it was difficult to believe that

they did not belong to the same race and period; instead of being the

implements of races sundered by half the globe; and living at periods

more than two thousand years apart。  Nearly every weapon in the one

collection had its counterpart in the other;the mauls or celts of

stone; the spearheads of flint or jasper; the arrowheads of flint or

bone; and the saws of jagged stone; showing how human ingenuity;

under like circumstances; had resorted to like expedients。  It would

also appear that the ancient tribes in these islands; like the New

Zealanders; used fire to hollow out their larger boats; several

specimens of this kind of vessel having recently been dug up in the

valleys of the Witham and the Clyde; some of the latter from under

the very streets of modern Glasgow。*

 'footnote。。。

〃Mr。John Buchanan; a zealous antiquary; writing in 1855; informs us

that in the course of the eight years preceding that date; no less

than seventeen canoes had been dug out of this estuarine silt 'of the

valley of the Clyde'; and that he had personally inspected a large

number of them before they were exhumed。  Five of them lay buried in

silt under the streets of Glasgow; one in a vertical position with

the prow uppermost; as if it had sunk in a storm。。。。  Almost every one

of these ancient boats was formed out of a single oak…stem; hollowed

out by blunt tools; probably stone axes; aided by the action of fire;

a few were cut beautifully smooth; evidently with metallic tools。

Hence a gradation could be traced from a pattern of extreme rudeness

to one showing great mechanical ingenuity。。。。  In one of the canoes a

beautifully polished celt or axe of greenstone was found; in the

bottom of another a plug of cork; which; as Mr。 Geikie remarks;

'could only have come from the latitudes of Spain; Southern France;

or Italy。'〃 Sir C。 LYELL; Antiquity of Man; 48…9。

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