Triumphs of Invention and Discovery in Art and ScienceFyfe, J. Hamilton (James Hamilton)
History
Triumphs of Invention and Discovery in Art and Science
Fyfe, J. Hamilton (James Hamilton)
Inventions -- History; Inventors; Technology -- England -- 19th century
In a recent volume of memoirs by Mrs. Schimmel Pennick, we find the
following graphic sketch of this extraordinary man:--"He was one of the
most complete specimens of the melancholic temperament. His head was
generally bent forward or leaning on his hand in meditation, his
shoulders stooping, and his chest falling in, his limbs lank and
unmuscular, and his complexion sallow. His utterance was slow and
impassioned, deep and low in tone, with a broad Scotch accent; his
manners gentle, modest, and unassuming. In a company where he was not
known, unless spoken to, he might have tranquilly passed the whole time
in pursuing his own meditations. When he entered the room, men of
letters, men of science, many military men, artists, ladies, and even
little children, thronged around him. I remember a celebrated Swedish
artist being instructed by him that rat's whiskers made the most pliant
painting-brushes; ladies would appeal to him on the best modes of
devising grates, curing smoking chimneys, warming their houses, and
obtaining fast colours."
His reading was singularly extensive and diversified. He perused almost
every work that came in his way, and used to say that he never opened a
book, no matter what its subject or worth, without learning something
from it. He had a vivid imagination, was passionately fond of fiction,
and was a very gifted story-teller himself. When a boy, staying with his
aunt in Glasgow, he used every night to enthral the attention of the
little circle with some exciting narrative, which they would not go to
bed till they had heard the end of; and kept them in such a state of
tremor and excitement, that his aunt used to threaten to send him away.
Since Watt's time, innumerable patents have been taken out for
improvements in the steam engine; but his great invention forms the
basis of nearly all of them, and the alterations refer rather to details
than principles of action. The application of steam to locomotive
purposes, however, led to the construction of the high pressure engine,
in which the cumbrous condensing apparatus is dispensed with, and motion
imparted to the piston by the elastic power of the steam being greater
than that of the atmosphere.
The Manufacture of Cotton.
I.--KAY AND HARGREAVES.
II.--SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT.
III.--SAMUEL CROMPTON.
IV.--DR. CARTWRIGHT.
V.--SIR ROBERT PEEL.
The Manufacture of Cotton.
"Are not our greatest men as good as lost? The men who walk
daily among us, clothing us, warming us, feeding us, walk
shrouded in darkness, mere mythic men."--CARLYLE.
I.--KAY AND HARGREAVES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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