The development of the mechanical
industry of England has been so rapid, especially as regards the wonders
achieved by the machine-tools above referred to, that it may almost be said
to have been accomplished within the life of the present generation. "When I
first entered this city, said Mr.Fairbairn, in his inaugural address as
President of the British Association at Manchester in 1861, "the whole of
the machinery was executed by hand. There were neither planing, slotting,
nor shaping machines; and, with the exception of very imperfect lathes and a
few drills, the preparatory operations of construction were effected
entirely by the hands of the workmen. Now, everything is done by
machine-tools with a degree of accuracy which the unaided hand could never
accomplish. The automaton or self-acting machine-tool has within itself an
almost creative power; in fact, so great are its powers of adaptation, that
there is no operation of the human hand that it does not imitate." In a
letter to the author, Mr. Fairbairn says, "The great pioneers of
machine-tool-making were Maudslay, Murray of Leeds, Clement and Fox of
Derby, who were ably followed by Nasmyth, Roberts, and Whitworth, of
Manchester, and Sir Peter Fairbairn of Leeds; and Mr. Fairbairn might well
have added, by himself,--for he has been one of the most influential and
successful of mechanical engineers.
William Fairbairn was born at Kelso on
the 19th of February, 1787. His parents occupied a humble but respectable
position in life. His father, Andrew Fairbairn, was the son of a gardener in
the employment of Mr. Baillie of Mellerston, and lived at Smailholm, a
village lying a few miles west of Kelso. Tracing the Fairbairns still
further back, we find several of them occupying the station of "portioners,"
or small lairds, at Earlston on the Tweed, where the family had been settled
since the days of the Solemn League and Covenant. By his mother's side, the
subject of our memoir is supposed to be descended from the ancient Border
family of Douglas.
While Andrew Fairbairn (William's
father) lived at Smailholm, Walter Scott was living with his grandmother in
Smailholm or Sandyknowe Tower, whither he had been sent from Edinburgh in
the hope that change of air would help the cure of his diseased hip-joint;
and Andrew, being nine years his senior, and a strong youth for his age, was
accustomed to carry the little patient about in his arms, until he was able
to walk by himself. At a later period, when Miss Scott, Walter's aunt,
removed from Smailholm to Kelso, the intercourse between the families was
renewed. Scott was then an Edinburgh advocate, engaged in collecting
materials for his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, or, as his aunt
described his pursuit, "running after the auld wives of the country gatherin'
havers." He used frequently to read over by the fireside in the evening the
results of his curious industry, which, however, were not very greatly
appreciated by his nearest relatives; and they did not scruple to declare
that for the "Advocate" to go about collecting "ballants" was mere waste of
time as well as money.
William Fairbairn's first schoolmaster
was a decrepit old man who went by the name of "Bowed Johnnie Ker,"--a
Cameronian, with a nasal twang, which his pupils learnt much more readily
than they did his lessons in reading and arithmetic, notwithstanding a
liberal use of "the tawse." Yet Johnnie had a taste for music, and taught
his pupils to SING their reading lessons, which was reckoned quite a novelty
in education. After a short time our scholar was transferred to the
parish-school of the town, kept by a Mr. White, where he was placed under
the charge of a rather severe helper, who, instead of the tawse,
administered discipline by means of his knuckles, hard as horn, which he
applied with a peculiar jerk to the crania of his pupils. At this school
Willie Fairbairn lost the greater part of the singing accomplishments which
he had acquired under "Bowed Johnnie," but he learnt in lieu of them to read
from Scott and Barrow's collections of prose and poetry, while he obtained
some knowledge of arithmetic, in which he proceeded as far as practice and
the rule of three. This constituted his whole stock of school-learning up to
his tenth year. Out of school-hours he learnt to climb the ruined walls of
the old abbey of the town, and there was scarcely an arch, or tower, or
cranny of it with which he did not become familiar.
When in his twelfth year, his father,
who had been brought up to farm-work, and possessed considerable practical
knowledge of agriculture, was offered the charge of a farm at Moy in
Ross-shire, belonging to Lord Seaforth of Brahan Castle. The farm was of
about 300 acres, situated on the banks of the river Conan, some five miles
from the town of Dingwall. The family travelled thither in a covered cart, a
distance of 200 miles, through a very wild and hilly country, arriving at
their destination at the end of October, 1799. The farm, when reached, was
found overgrown with whins and brushwood, and covered in many places with
great stones and rocks; it was, in short, as nearly in a state of nature as
it was possible to be. The house intended for the farmer's reception was not
finished, and Andrew Fairbairn, with his wife and five children, had to take
temporary refuge in a miserable hovel, very unlike the comfortable house
which they had quitted at Kelso. By next spring, however, the new house was
ready; and Andrew Fairbairn set vigorously to work at the reclamation of the
land. After about two years' labours it exhibited an altogether different
appearance, and in place of whins and stones there were to be seen heavy
crops of barley and turnips. The barren years of 1800 and 1801, however,
pressed very hardly on Andrew Fairbairn as on every other farmer of arable
land. About that time, Andrew's brother Peter, who acted as secretary to
Lord Seaforth, and through whose influence the former had obtained the farm,
left Brahan Castle for the West Indies with his Lordship,
who--notwithstanding his being both deaf and dumb -- had been appointed to
the Governorship of Barbadoes; and in consequence of various difficulties
which occurred shortly after his leaving, Andrew Fairbairn found it
necessary to give up his holding, whereupon he engaged as steward to
Mackenzie of Allengrange, with whom he remained for two years.
While the family lived at Moy, none of
the boys were put to school. They could not be spared from the farm and the
household. Those of them that could not work afield were wanted to help to
nurse the younger children at home. But Andrew Fairbairn possessed a great
treasure in his wife, who was a woman of much energy of character, setting
before her children an example of patient industry, thrift, discreetness,
and piety, which could not fail to exercise a powerful influence upon them
in after-life; and this, of itself, was an education which probably far more
than compensated for the boys' loss of school-culture during their life at
Moy. Mrs. Fairbairn span and made all the children's clothes, as well as the
blankets and sheeting; and, while in the Highlands, she not only made her
own and her daughters' dresses, and her sons' jackets and trowsers, but her
husband's coats and waistcoats; besides helping her neighbours to cut out
their clothing for family wear.
One of William's duties at home was to
nurse his younger brother Peter, then a delicate child under two years old;
and to relieve himself of the labour of carrying him about, he began the
construction of a little waggon in which to wheel him. This was, however, a
work of some difficulty, as all the tools he possessed were only a knife, a
gimlet, and an old saw. With these implements, a piece of thin board, and a
few nails, he nevertheless contrived to make a tolerably serviceable waggon-body.
His chief difficulty consisted in making the wheels, which he contrived to
surmount by cutting sections from the stem of a small alder-tree, and with a
red-hot poker he bored the requisite holes in their centres to receive the
axle. The waggon was then mounted on its four wheels, and to the great joy
of its maker was found to answer its purpose admirably. In it he wheeled his
little brother--afterwards well known as Sir Peter Fairbairn, mayor of Leeds
-- in various directions about the farm, and sometimes to a considerable
distance from it; and the vehicle was regarded on the whole as a decided
success. His father encouraged him in his little feats of construction of a
similar kind, and he proceeded to make and rig miniature boats and ships,
and then miniature wind and water mills, in which last art he acquired such
expertness that he had sometimes five or six mills going at a time. The
machinery was all made with a knife, the water-spouts being formed by the
bark of a tree, and the millstones represented by round discs of the same
material. Such were the first constructive efforts of the future millwright
and engineer.
When the family removed to Allengrange
in 1801, the boys were sent to school at Munlachy, about a mile and a half
distant from the farm. The school was attended by about forty barefooted
boys in tartan kilt's, and about twenty girls, all of the poorer class. The
schoolmaster was one Donald Frazer, a good teacher, but a severe
disciplinarian. Under him, William made some progress in reading, writing,
and arithmetic; and though he himself has often lamented the meagreness of
his school instruction, it is clear, from what he has since been enabled to
accomplish, that these early lessons were enough at all events to set him
fairly on the road of self-culture, and proved the fruitful seed of much
valuable intellectual labour, as well as of many excellent practical books.
After two years' trial of his new
situation, which was by no means satisfactory, Andrew Fairbairn determined
again to remove southward with his family; and, selling off everything, they
set sail from Cromarty for Leith in June, 1803. Having seen his wife and
children temporarily settled at Kelso, he looked out for a situation, and
shortly after proceeded to undertake the management of Sir William Ingleby's
farm at Ripley in Yorkshire. Meanwhile William was placed for three months
under the charge of his uncle William, the parish schoolmaster of Galashiels,
for the purpose of receiving instruction in book-keeping and land-surveying,
from which he derived considerable benefit. He could not, however, remain
longer at school; for being of the age of fourteen, it was thought necessary
that he should be set to work without further delay. His first employment
was on the fine new bridge at Kelso, then in course of construction after
the designs of Mr. Rennie; but in helping one day to carry a handbarrow-load
of stone, his strength proving insufficient, he gave way under it, and the
stones fell upon him, one of them inflicting a serious wound on his leg,
which kept him a cripple for months. In the mean time his father, being
dissatisfied with his prospects at Ripley, accepted the appointment of
manager of the Percy Main Colliery Company's farm in the neighbourhood of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, whither he proceeded with his family towards the end of
1803, William joining them in the following February, when the wound in his
leg had sufficiently healed to enable him to travel.
Percy Main is situated within two
miles of North Shields, and is one of the largest collieries in that
district. William was immediately set to work at the colliery, his first
employment being to lead coals from behind the screen to the pitmen's
houses. His Scotch accent, and perhaps his awkwardness, exposed him to much
annoyance from the "pit lads," who were a very rough and profligate set; and
as boxing was a favourite pastime among them, our youth had to fight his way
to their respect, passing through a campaign of no less than seventeen
pitched battles. He was several times on the point of abandoning the work
altogether, rather than undergo the buffetings and insults to which he was
almost a daily martyr, when a protracted contest with one of the noted
boxers of the colliery, in which he proved the victor, at length relieved
him from further persecution.
In the following year, at the age of
sixteen, he was articled as an engineer for five years to the owners of
Percy Main, and was placed under the charge of Mr. Robinson, the engine-wright
of the colliery. His wages as apprentice were 8s. a week; but by working
over-hours, making wooden wedges used in pit-work, and blocking out segments
of solid oak required for walling the sides of the mine, he considerably
increased his earnings, which enabled him to add to the gross income of the
family, who were still struggling with the difficulties of small means and
increasing expenses. When not engaged upon over-work in the evenings, he
occupied himself in self-education. He drew up a scheme of daily study with
this object, to which he endeavoured to adhere as closely as possible,--
devoting the evenings of Mondays to mensuration and arithmetic; Tuesdays to
history and poetry; Wednesdays to recreation, novels, and romances;
Thursdays to algebra and mathematics; Fridays to Euclid and trigonometry;
Saturdays to recreation; and Sundays to church, Milton, and recreation. He
was enabled to extend the range of his reading by the help of the North
Shields Subscription Library, to which his father entered him a subscriber.
Portions of his spare time were also occasionally devoted to mechanical
construction, in which he cultivated the useful art of handling tools. One
of his first attempts was the contrivance of a piece of machinery worked by
a weight and a pendulum, that should at the same time serve for a timepiece
and an orrery; but his want of means, as well as of time, prevented him
prosecuting this contrivance to completion. He was more successful with the
construction of a fiddle, on which he was ambitious to become a performer.
It must have been a tolerable instrument, for a professional player offered
him 20s. for it. But though he succeeded in making a fiddle, and for some
time persevered in the attempt to play upon it, he did not succeed in
producing any satisfactory melody, and at length gave up the attempt,
convinced that nature had not intended him for a musician. [footnote... Long
after, when married and settled at Manchester, the fiddle, which had been
carefully preserved, was taken down from the shelf for the amusement of the
children; but though they were well enough pleased with it, the instrument
was never brought from its place without creating alarm in the mind of their
mother lest anybody should hear it. At length a dancing-master, who was
giving lessons in the neighbourhood, borrowed the fiddle, and, to the great
relief of the family, it was never returned. Many years later Mr.Fairbairn
was present at the starting of a cotton mill at Wesserling in Alsace
belonging to Messrs. Gros, Deval, and Co., for which his Manchester firm had
provided the mill-work and water-wheel (the first erected in France on the
suspension principle, when the event was followed by an entertainment.
During dinner Mr. Fairbairn had been explaining to M. Gros, who spoke a
little English, the nature of home-brewed beer, which he much admired,
having tasted it when in England. The dinner was followed by music, in the
performance of which the host himself took part; and on Mr. Fairbairn's
admiring his execution on the violin, M. Gros asked him if he played. "A
little," was the almost unconscious reply. "Then you must have the goodness
to play some," and the instrument was in a moment placed in his hands,
amidst urgent requests from all sides that he should play. There was no
alternative; so he proceeded to perform one of his best tunes--"The Keel
Row." The company listened with amazement, until the performer's career was
suddenly cut short by the host exclaiming at the top of his voice, "Stop,
stop, Monsieur, by gar that be HOME-BREWED MUSIC!" ...]
In due course of time our young
engineer was removed from the workshop, and appointed to take charge of the
pumps of the mine and the steam-engine by which they were kept in work. This
employment was more to his taste, gave him better "insight," and afforded
him greater opportunities for improvement. The work was, however, very
trying, and at times severe, especially in winter, the engineer being liable
to be drenched with water every time that he descended the shaft to regulate
the working of the pumps; but, thanks to a stout constitution, he bore
through these exposures without injury, though others sank under them. At
this period he had the advantage of occasional days of leisure, to which he
was entitled by reason of his nightwork; and during such leisure he usually
applied himself to reading and study.
It was about this time that William
Fairbairn made the acquaintance of George Stephenson, while the latter was
employed in working the ballast-engine at Willington Quay. He greatly
admired George as a workman, and was accustomed in the summer evenings to go
over to the Quay occasionally and take charge of George's engine, to enable
him to earn a few shillings extra by heaving ballast out of the collier
vessels. Stephenson's zeal in the pursuit of mechanical knowledge probably
was not without its influence in stimulating William Fairbairn himself to
carry on so diligently the work of self-culture. But little could the latter
have dreamt, while serving his apprenticeship at Percy Main, that his friend
George Stephenson, the brakesman, should yet be recognised as among the
greatest engineers of his age, and that he himself should have the
opportunity, in his capacity of President of the Institute of Mechanical
Engineers at Newcastle, of making public acknowledgment of the opportunities
for education which he had enjoyed in that neighbourhood in his early years.
[footnote... "Although not a native of Newcastle," he then said, "he owed
almost everything to Newcastle. He got the rudiments of his education there,
such as it was; and that was (something like that of his revered predecessor
George Stephenson) at a colliery. He was brought up as an engineer at the
Percy Main Colliery. He was there seven years; and if it had not been for
the opportunities he then enjoyed, together with the use of the library at
North Shields, he believed he would not have been there to address them.
Being self-taught, but with some little ambition, and a determination to
improve himself, he was now enabled to stand before them with some
pretensions to mechanical knowledge, and the persuasion that he had been a
useful contributor to practical science and objects connected with
mechanical engineering."--Meeting of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers
at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1858....]
Having finished his five years'
apprenticeship at Percy Main, by which time he had reached his twenty-first
year, William Fairbairn shortly after determined to go forth into the world
in search of experience. At Newcastle he found employment as a millwright
for a few weeks, during which he worked at the erection of a sawmill in the
Close. From thence he went to Bedlington at an advanced wage. He remained
there for six months, during which he was so fortunate as to make the
acquaintance of Miss Mar, who five years after, when his wanderings had
ceased, became his wife. On the completion of the job on which he had been
employed, our engineer prepared to make another change. Work was difficult
to be had in the North, and, joined by a comrade, he resolved to try his
fortune in London. Adopting the cheapest route, he took passage by a Shields
collier, in which he sailed for the Thames on the 11th of December, 1811. It
was then war-time, and the vessel was very short-handed, the crew consisting
only of three old men and three boys, with the skipper and mate; so that the
vessel was no sooner fairly at sea than both the passenger youths had to
lend a hand in working her, and this continued for the greater part of the
voyage. The weather was very rough, and in consequence of the captain's
anxiety to avoid privateers he hugged the shore too close, and when
navigating the inside passage of the Swin, between Yarmouth and the Nore,
the vessel very narrowly escaped shipwreck. After beating about along shore,
the captain half drunk the greater part of the time, the vessel at last
reached the Thames with loss of spars and an anchor, after a tedious voyage
of fourteen days.
On arriving off Blackwall the captain
went ashore ostensibly in search of the Coal Exchange, taking our young
engineer with him. The former was still under the influence of drink; and
though he failed to reach the Exchange that night, he succeeded in reaching
a public house in Wapping, beyond which he could not be got. At ten o'clock
the two started on their return to the ship; but the captain took the
opportunity of the darkness to separate from his companion, and did not
reach the ship until next morning. It afterwards came out that he had been
taken up and lodged in the watch-house. The youth, left alone in the streets
of the strange city, felt himself in an awkward dilemma. He asked the next
watchman he met to recommend him to a lodging, on which the man took him to
a house in New Gravel Lane, where he succeeded in finding accommodation.
What was his horror next morning to learn that a whole family--the
Williamsons--had been murdered in the very next house during the night!
Making the best of his way back to the ship, he found that his comrade, who
had suffered dreadfully from sea-sickness during the voyage, had nearly
recovered, and was able to accompany him into the City in search of work.
They had between them a sum of only about eight pounds, so that it was
necessary for them to take immediate steps to obtain employment.
They thought themselves fortunate in
getting the promise of a job from Mr. Rennie, the celebrated engineer, whose
works were situated at the south end of Blackfriars Bridge. Mr. Rennie sent
the two young men to his foreman, with the request that he should set them
to work. The foreman referred them to the secretary of the Millwrights'
Society, the shop being filled with Union men, who set their shoulders
together to exclude those of their own grade, however skilled, who could not
produce evidence that they had complied with the rules of the trade.
Describing his first experience of London Unionists, nearly half a century
later, before an assembly of working men at Derby, Mr. Fairbairn said, "When
I first entered London, a young man from the country had no chance whatever
of success, in consequence of the trade guilds and unions. I had no
difficulty in finding employment, but before I could begin work I had to run
the gauntlet of the trade societies; and after dancing attendance for nearly
six weeks, with very little money in my pocket, and having to 'box Harry'
all the time, I was ultimately declared illegitimate, and sent adrift to
seek my fortune elsewhere. There were then three millwright societies in
London: one called the Old Society, another the New Society, and a third the
Independent Society. These societies were not founded for the protection of
the trade, but for the maintenance of high wages, and for the exclusion of
all those who could not assert their claims to work in London and other
corporate towns. Laws of a most arbitrary character were enforced, and they
were governed by cliques of self-appointed officers, who never failed to
take care of their own interests." [footnote... Useful Information for
Engineers, 2nd series, 1860, p. 211....]
Their first application for leave to
work in London having thus disastrously ended, the two youths determined to
try their fortune in the country, and with aching hearts they started next
morning before daylight. Their hopes had been suddenly crushed, their
slender funds were nearly exhausted, and they scarce knew where to turn. But
they set their faces bravely northward, and pushed along the high road,
through slush and snow, as far as Hertford, which they reached after nearly
eight hours' walking, on the moderate fare during their journey of a penny
roll and a pint of ale each. Though wet to the skin, they immediately sought
out a master millwright, and applied for work. He said he had no job vacant
at present; but, seeing their sorry plight, he had compassion upon them, and
said, "Though I cannot give you employment, you seem to be two nice lads;"
and he concluded by offering Fairbairn a half-crown. But his proud spirit
revolted at taking money which he had not earned; and he declined the
proffered gift with thanks, saying he was sorry they could not have work. He
then turned away from the door, on which his companion, mortified by his
refusal to accept the half-crown at a time when they were reduced almost to
their last penny, broke out in bitter remonstrances and regrets. Weary, wet,
and disheartened, the two turned into Hertford churchyard, and rested for a
while upon a tombstone, Fairbairn's companion relieving himself by a good
cry, and occasional angry outbursts of "Why didn't you take the half-crown?"
"Come, come, man!" said Fairbairn, "it's of no use crying; cheer up; let's
try another road; something must soon cast up." They rose, and set out
again, but when they reached the bridge, the dispirited youth again broke
down; and, leaning his back against the parapet, said, "I winna gang a bit
further; let's get back to London." Against this Fairbairn remonstrated,
saying "It's of no use lamenting; we must try what we can do here; if the
worst comes to the worst, we can 'list; you are a strong chap--they'll soon
take you; and as for me, I'll join too; I think I could fight a bit." After
this council of war, the pair determined to find lodgings in the town for
the night, and begin their search for work anew on the morrow.
Next day, when passing along one of
the back streets of Hertford, they came to a wheelwright's shop, where they
made the usual enquiries. The wheelwright, said that he did not think there
was any job to be had in the town; but if the two young men pushed on to
Cheshunt, he thought they might find work at a windmill which was under
contract to be finished in three weeks, and where the millwright wanted
hands. Here was a glimpse of hope at last; and the strength and spirits of
both revived in an instant. They set out immediately; walked the seven miles
to Cheshunt; succeeded in obtaining the expected employment; worked at the
job a fortnight; and entered London again with nearly three pounds in their
pockets. Our young millwright at length succeeded in obtaining regular
employment in the metropolis at good wages. He worked first at Grundy's
Patent Ropery at Shadwell, and afterwards at Mr. Penn's of Greenwich,
gaining much valuable insight, and sedulously improving his mind by study in
his leisure hours. Among the acquaintances he then made was an enthusiastic
projector of the name of Hall, who had taken out one patent for making hemp
from bean-stalks, and contemplated taking out another for effecting spade
tillage by steam. The young engineer was invited to make the requisite
model, which he did, and it cost him both time and money, which the
out-at-elbows projector was unable to repay; and all that came of the
project was the exhibition of the model at the Society of Arts and before
the Board of Agriculture, in whose collection it is probably still to be
found. Another more successful machine constructed By Mr. Fairbairn about
the same time was a sausage-chopping machine, which he contrived and made
for a pork-butcher for 33l. It was the first order he had ever had on his
own account; and, as the machine when made did its work admirably, he was
naturally very proud of it. The machine was provided with a fly-wheel and
double crank, with connecting rods which worked a cross head. It contained a
dozen knives crossing each other at right angles in such a way as to enable
them to mince or divide the meat on a revolving block. Another part of the
apparatus accomplished the filling of the sausages in a very expert manner,
to the entire satisfaction of the pork-butcher.
As work was scarce in London at the
time, and our engineer was bent on gathering further experience in his
trade, he determined to make a tour in the South of England and South Wales;
and set out from London in April 1813 with 7l. in his pocket. After visiting
Bath and Frome, he settled to work for six weeks at Bathgate; after which he
travelled by Bradford and Trowbridge --- always on foot--to Bristol. From
thence he travelled through South Wales, spending a few days each at
Newport, Llandaff, and Cardiff, where he took ship for Dublin. By the time
he reached Ireland his means were all but exhausted, only three-halfpence
remaining in his pocket; but, being young, hopeful, skilful, and
industrious, he was light of heart, and looked cheerfully forward. The next
day he succeeded in finding employment at Mr. Robinson's, of the Phoenix
Foundry, where he was put to work at once upon a set of patterns for some
nail-machinery.
Mr. Robinson was a man of spirit and
enterprise, and, seeing the quantities of English machine-made nails
imported into Ireland, he was desirous of giving Irish industry the benefit
of the manufacture. The construction of the nail-making machinery occupied
Mr. Fairbairn the entire summer; and on its completion he set sail in the
month of October for Liverpool. It may be added, that, notwithstanding the
expense incurred by Mr. Robinson in setting up the new nail-machinery, his
workmen threatened him with a strike if he ventured to use it. As he could
not brave the opposition of the Unionists, then all-powerful in Dublin, the
machinery was never set to work; the nail-making trade left Ireland, never
to return; and the Irish market was thenceforward supplied entirely with
English-made nails. The Dublin iron-manufacture was ruined in the same way;
not through any local disadvantages, but solely by the prohibitory
regulations enforced by the workmen of the Trades Unions.
Arrived at Liverpool, after a voyage
of two days--which was then considered a fair passage--our engineer
proceeded to Manchester, which had already become the principal centre of
manufacturing operations in the North of England. As we have already seen in
the memoirs of Nasmyth, Roberts, and Whitworth, Manchester offered great
attractions for highly-skilled mechanics; and it was as fortunate for
Manchester as for William Fairbairn himself that he settled down there as a
working millwright in the year 1814, bringing with him no capital, but an
abundance of energy, skill, and practical experience in his trade.
Afterwards describing the characteristics of the millwright of that time,
Mr, Fairbairn said--"In those days a good millwright was a man of large
resources; he was generally well educated, and could draw out his own
designs and work at the lathe; he had a knowledge of mill machinery, pumps,
and cranes, and could turn his hand to the bench or the forge with equal
adroitness and facility. If hard pressed, as was frequently the case in
country places far from towns, he could devise for himself expedients which
enabled him to meet special requirements, and to complete his work without
assistance. This was the class of men with whom I associated in early
life--proud of their calling, fertile in resources, and aware of their value
in a country where the industrial arts were rapidly developing."
[footnote...Lecture at Derby--Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series,
p.212....]
When William Fairbairn entered
Manchester he was twenty-four years of age; and his hat still "covered his
family." But, being now pretty well satiated with his "wandetschaft,"--as
German tradesmen term their stage of travelling in search of trade
experience,--he desired to settle, and, if fortune favoured him, to marry
the object of his affections, to whom his heart still faithfully turned
during all his wanderings. He succeeded in finding employment with Mr. Adam
Parkinson, remaining with him for two years, working as a millwright, at
good wages. Out of his earnings he saved sufficient to furnish a two-roomed
cottage comfortably; and there we find him fairly installed with his wife by
the end of 1816. As in the case of most men of a thoughtful turn, marriage
served not only to settle our engineer, but to stimulate him to more
energetic action. He now began to aim at taking a higher position, and
entertained the ambition of beginning business on his own account. One of
his first efforts in this direction was the preparation of the design of a
cast-iron bridge over the Irwell, at Blackfriars, for which a prize was
offered. The attempt was unsuccessful, and a stone bridge was eventually
decided on; but the effort made was creditable, and proved the beginning of
many designs. The first job he executed on his own account was the erection
of an iron conservatory and hothouse for Mr. J. Hulme, of Clayton, near
Manchester; and he induced one of his shopmates, James Lillie, to join him
in the undertaking. This proved the beginning of a business connection which
lasted for a period of fifteen years, and laid the foundation of a
partnership, the reputation of which, in connection with mill-work and the
construction of iron machinery generally, eventually became known all over
the civilized world.
Although the patterns for the
conservatory were all made, and the castings were begun, the work was not
proceeded with, in consequence of the notice given by a Birmingham firm that
the plan after which it was proposed to construct it was an infringement of
their patent. The young firm were consequently under the necessity of
looking about them for other employment. And to be prepared for executing
orders, they proceeded in the year 1817 to hire a small shed at a rent of
l2s. a week, in which they set up a lathe of their own making, capable of
turning shafts of from 3 to 6 inches diameter; and they hired a strong
Irishman to drive the wheel and assist at the heavy work. Their first job
was the erection of a cullender, and their next a calico-polishing machine;
but orders came in slowly, and James Lillie began to despair of success. His
more hopeful partner strenuously urged him to perseverance, and so buoyed
him up with hopes of orders, that he determined to go on a little longer.
They then issued cards among the manufacturers, and made a tour of the
principal firms, offering their services and soliciting work.
Amongst others, Mr. Fairbairn called
upon the Messrs. Adam and George Murray, the large cotton-spinners, taking
with him the designs of his iron bridge. Mr. Adam Murray received him
kindly, heard his explanations, and invited him to call on the following day
with his partner. The manufacturer must have been favourably impressed by
this interview, for next day, when Fairbairn and Lillie called, he took them
over his mill, and asked whether they felt themselves competent to renew
with horizontal cross-shafts the whole of the work by which the
mule-spinning machinery was turned. This was a formidable enterprise for a
young firm without capital and almost without plant to undertake; but they
had confidence in themselves, and boldly replied that they were willing and
able to execute the work. On this, Mr. Murray said he would call and see
them at their own workshop, to satisfy himself that they possessed the means
of undertaking such an order. This proposal was by no means encouraging to
the partners, who feared that when Mr. Murray spied "the nakedness of the
land " in that quarter, he might repent him of his generous intentions. He
paid his promised visit, and it is probable that he was more favourably
impressed by the individual merits of the partners than by the excellence of
their machine-tools--of which they had only one, the lathe which they had
just made and set up; nevertheless he gave them the order, and they began
with glad hearts and willing hands and minds to execute this their first
contract. It may be sufficient to state that by working late and early--from
5 in the morning until 9 at night for a considerable period--they succeeded
in completing the alterations within the time specified, and to Mr. Murray's
entire satisfaction.
The practical skill of the young men
being thus proved, and their anxiety to execute the work entrusted to them
to the best of their ability having excited the admiration of their
employer, he took the opportunity of recommending them to his friends in the
trade, and amongst others to Mr. John Kennedy, of the firm of MacConnel and
Kennedy, then the largest spinners in the kingdom. The Cotton Trade had by
this time sprung into great importance, and was increasing with
extraordinary rapidity. Population and wealth were pouring into South
Lancashire, and industry and enterprise were everywhere on foot.
The foundations were being laid of a
system of manufacturing in iron, machinery, and textile fabrics of nearly
all kinds, the like of which has perhaps never been surpassed in any
country. It was a race of industry, in which the prizes were won by the
swift, the strong, and the skilled. For the most part, the early Lancashire
manufacturers started very nearly equal in point of worldly circumstances,
men originally of the smallest means often coming to the front - work men,
weavers, mechanics, pedlers, farmers, or labourers--in course of time
rearing immense manufacturing concerns by sheer force of industry, energy,
and personal ability. The description given by one of the largest employers
in Lancashire, of the capital with which he started, might apply to many of
them: "When I married," said he, "my wife had a spinning-wheel, and I
had a loom--that was the beginning of our fortune." As an illustration of
the rapid rise of Manchester men from small beginnings, the following
outline of John Kennedy's career, intimately connected as he was with the
subject of our memoir--may not be without interest in this place. John
Kennedy was one of five young men of nearly the same age, who came from the
same neighbourhood in Scotland, and eventually settled in Manchester as
cottons-pinners about the end of last century. The others were his brother
James, his partner James MacConnel, and the brothers Murray, above referred
to--Mr. Fairbairn's first extensive employers. John Kennedy's parents were
respectable peasants, possessed of a little bit of ground at Knocknalling,
in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on which they contrived to live, and that
was all. John was one of a family of five sons and two daughters, and the
father dying early, the responsibility and the toil of bringing up these
children devolved upon the mother. She was a strict disciplinarian, and
early impressed upon the minds of her boys that they had their own way to
make in the world. One of the first things she made them think about was,
the learning of some useful trade for the purpose of securing an independent
living; "for," said she, "if you have gotten mechanical skill and
intelligence, and are honest and trustworthy, you will always find
employment and be ready to avail yourselves of opportunities for advancing
yourselves in life." Though the mother desired to give her sons the benefits
of school education, there was but little of that commodity to be had in the
remote district of Knocknalling. The parish-school was six miles distant,
and the teaching given in it was of a very inferior sort--usually
administered by students, probationers for the ministry, or by half-fledged
dominies, themselves more needing instruction than able to impart it. The
Kennedys could only attend the school during a few months in summer-time, so
that what they had acquired by the end of one season was often forgotten by
the beginning of the next. They learnt, however, to read the Testament, say
their catechism, and write their own names.
As the children grew up, they each
longed for the time to come when they could be put to a trade. The family
were poorly clad; stockings and shoes were luxuries rarely indulged in; and
Mr. Kennedy used in after-life to tell his grandchildren of a certain Sunday
which he remembered shortly after his father died, when he was setting out
for Dalry church, and had borrowed his brother Alexander's stockings, his
brother ran after him and cried, "See that you keep out of the dirt, for
mind you have got my stockings on!" John indulged in many day-dreams about
the world that lay beyond the valley and the mountains which surrounded the
place of his birth. Though a mere boy, the natural objects, eternally
unchangeable, which daily met his eyes--the profound silence of the scene,
broken only by the bleating of a solitary sheep, or the crowing of a distant
cock, or the thrasher beating out with his flail the scanty grain of the
black oats spread upon a skin in the open air, or the streamlets leaping
from the rocky clefts, or the distant church-bell sounding up the valley on
Sundays-- all bred in his mind a profound melancholy and feeling of
loneliness, and he used to think to himself, "What can I do to see and know
something of the world beyond this?" The greatest pleasure he experienced
during that period was when packmen came round with their stores of clothing
and hardware, and displayed them for sale; he eagerly listened to all that
such visitors had to tell of the ongoings of the world beyond the valley.
The people of the Knocknalling
district were very poor. The greater part of them were unable to support the
younger members, whose custom it was to move off elsewhere in search of a
living when they arrived at working years,--some to America, some to the
West Indies, and some to the manufacturing districts of the south. Whole
families took their departure in this way, and the few friendships which
Kennedy formed amongst those of his own age were thus suddenly snapped, and
only a great blank remained. But he too could follow their example, and
enter upon that wider world in which so many others had ventured and
succeeded. As early as eight years of age, his mother still impressing upon
her boys the necessity of learning to work, John gathered courage to say to
her that he wished to leave home and apprentice himself to some handicraft
business. Having seen some carpenters working in the neighbourhood, with
good clothes on their backs, and hearing the men's characters well spoken
of, he thought it would be a fine thing to be a carpenter too, particularly
as the occupation would enable him to move from place to place and see the
world. He was as yet, however, of too tender an age to set out on the
journey of life; but when he was about eleven years old, Adam Murray, one of
his most intimate acquaintances, having gone off to serve an apprenticeship
in Lancashire with Mr. Cannan of Chowbent, himself a native of the district,
the event again awakened in him a strong desire to migrate from Knocknalling.
Others had gone after Murray, James MacConnel and two or three more; and at
length, at about fourteen years of age, Kennedy himself left his native home
for Lancashire.
About the time that he set out, Paul
Jones was ravaging the coasts of Galloway, and producing general
consternation throughout the district. Great excitement also prevailed
through the occurrence of the Gordon riots in London, which extended into
remote country places; and Kennedy remembered being nearly frightened out of
his wits on one occasion by a poor dominie whose school he attended, who
preached to his boys about the horrors that were coming upon the land
through the introduction of Popery. The boy set out for England on the 2nd
of February, 1784, mounted upon a Galloway, his little package of clothes
and necessaries strapped behind him. As he passed along the glen,
recognising each familiar spot, his heart was in his mouth, and he dared
scarcely trust himself to look back. The ground was covered with snow, and
nature quite frozen up. He had the company of his brother Alexander as far
as the town of New Galloway, where he slept the first night. The next day,
accompanied by one of his future masters, Mr. James Smith, a partner of Mr.
Cannan's, who had originally entered his service as a workman, they started
on ponyback for Dumfries. After a long day's ride, they entered the town in
the evening, and amongst the things which excited the boy's surprise were
the few street-lamps of the town, and a waggon with four horses and four
wheels. In his remote valley carts were as yet unknown, and even in Dumfries
itself they were comparative rarities; the common means of transport in the
district being what were called "tumbling cars."
The day after, they reached Longtown,
and slept there; the boy noting ANOTHER lamp. The next stage was to
Carlisle, where Mr. Smith, whose firm had supplied a carding engine and
spinning-jenny to a small manufacturer in the town, went to "gate" and trim
them. One was put up in a small house, the other in a small room; and the
sight of these machines was John Kennedy's first introduction to cotton-
spinning. While going up the inn-stairs he was amazed and not a little
alarmed at seeing two men in armour--he had heard of the battles between the
Scots and English--and believed these to be some of the fighting men; though
they proved to be but effigies. Five more days were occupied in travelling
southward, the resting places being at Penrith, Kendal, Preston, and
Chorley, the two travellers arriving at Chowbent on Sunday the 8th of
February, 1784. Mr. Cannan seems to have collected about him a little colony
of Scotsmen, mostly from the same neighbourhood, and in the evening there
was quite an assembly of them at the "Bear's Paw," where Kennedy put up, to
hear the tidings from their native county brought by the last new comer. On
the following morning the boy began his apprenticeship as a carpenter with
the firm of Cannan and Smith, serving seven years for his meat and clothing.
He applied himself to his trade, and became a good, steady workman. He was
thoughtful and self-improving, always endeavouring to acquire knowledge of
new arts and to obtain insight into new machines. "Even in early life," said
he, in the account of his career addressed to his children, "I felt a strong
desire to know what others knew, and was always ready to communicate what
little I knew myself; and by admitting at once my want of education, I found
that I often made friends of those on whom I had no claims beyond what an
ardent desire for knowledge could give me." His apprenticeship over, John
Kennedy commenced business* [footnote...
One of the reasons which induced
Kennedy thus early to begin the business of mule-spinning has been related
as follows. While employed as apprentice at Chowbent, he happened to sleep
over the master's apartment; and late one evening, on the latter returning
from market, his wife asked his success. "I've sold the eightys," said he,
"at a guinea a pound." "What," exclaimed the mistress, in a loud voice,
"sold the eightys for ONLY a guinea a pound! I never heard of such a thing."
The apprentice could not help overhearing the remark, and it set him
a-thinking. He knew the price of cotton and the price of labour, and
concluded there must be a very large margin of profit. So soon as he was out
of his time, therefore, he determined that he should become a cotton
spinner....] in a small way in Manchester in 1791, in conjunction with two
other workmen, Sandford and MacConnel. Their business was machine-making and
mule-spinning, Kennedy taking the direction of the machine department. The
firm at first put up their mules for spinning in any convenient garrets they
could hire at a low rental.
After some time, they took part of a
small factory in Canal Street, and carried on their business on a larger
scale. Kennedy and MacConnel afterwards occupied a little factory in the
same street,--since removed to give place to Fairbairn's large machine
works. The progress of the firm was steady and even rapid, and they went on
building mills and extending their business--Mr. Kennedy, as he advanced in
life, gathering honour, wealth, and troops of friends. Notwithstanding the
defects of his early education, he was one of the few men of his class who
became distinguished for his literary labours in connexion principally with
the cotton trade. Towards the close of his life, he prepared several papers
of great interest for the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester,
which are to be found printed in their Proceedings; one of these, on the
Invention of the Mule by Samuel Crompton, was for a long time the only
record which the public possessed of the merits and claims of that
distinguished inventor. His knowledge of the history of the cotton
manufacture in its various stages, and of mechanical inventions generally,
was most extensive and accurate. Among his friends he numbered James Watt,
who placed his son in his establishment for the purpose of acquiring
knowledge and experience of his profession. At a much later period he
numbered George Stephenson among his friends, having been one of the first
directors of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and one of the three
judges (selected because of his sound judgment and proved impartiality, as
well as his knowledge of mechanical engineering) to adjudicate on the
celebrated competition of Locomotives at Rainhill. By these successive steps
did this poor Scotch boy become one of the leading men of Manchester,
closing his long and useful life in 1855at an advanced age, his mental
faculties remaining clear and unclouded to the last. His departure from life
was happy and tranquil--so easy that it was for a time doubtful whether he
was dead or asleep.
To return to Mr. Fairbairn's career,
and his progress as a millwright and engineer in Manchester. When he and his
partner undertook the extensive alterations in Mr. Murray's factory, both
were in a great measure unacquainted with the working of cotton-mills,
having until then been occupied principally with corn-mills, and printing
and bleaching works; so that an entirely new field was now opened to their
united exertions. Sedulously improving their opportunities, the young
partners not only thoroughly mastered the practical details of cotton-mill
work, but they were very shortly enabled to introduce a series of
improvements of the greatest importance in this branch of our national
manufactures. Bringing their vigorous practical minds to bear on the
subject, they at once saw that the gearing of even the best mills was of a
very clumsy and imperfect character. They found the machinery driven by
large square cast-iron shafts, on which huge wooden drums, some of them as
much as four feet in diameter, revolved at the rate of about forty
revolutions a minute; and the couplings were so badly fitted that they might
be heard creaking and groaning a long way off. The speeds of the
driving-shafts were mostly got up by a series of straps and counter drums,
which not only crowded the rooms, but seriously obstructed the light where
most required for conducting the delicate operations of the different
machines. Another serious defect lay in the construction of the shafts, and
in the mode of fixing the couplings, which were constantly giving way, so
that a week seldom passed without one or more breaks-down. The repairs were
usually made on Sundays, which were the millwrights' hardest working days,
to their own serious moral detriment; but when trade was good, every
consideration was made to give way to the uninterrupted running of the mills
during the rest of the week.
It occurred to Mr. Fairbairn that the
defective arrangements thus briefly described, might be remedied by the
introduction of lighter shafts driven at double or treble the velocity,
smaller drums to drive the machinery, and the use of wrought-iron wherever
practicable, because of its greater lightness and strength compared with
wood. He also provided for the simplification of the hangers and fixings by
which the shafting was supported, and introduced the "half-lap coupling" so
well known to millwrights and engineers. His partner entered fully into his
views; and the opportunity shortly presented itself of carrying them into
effect in the large new mill erected in 1818, for the firm of MacConnel and
Kennedy. The machinery of that concern proved a great improvement on all
that had preceded it; and, to Messrs. Fairbairn and Lillie's new system of
gearing Mr. Kennedy added an original invention of his own in a system of
double speeds, with the object of giving an increased quantity of twist in
the finer descriptions of mule yarn.
The satisfactory execution of this
important work at once placed the firm of Fairbairn and Lillie in the very
front rank of engineering millwrights. Mr. Kennedy's good word was of itself
a passport to fame and business, and as he was more than satisfied with the
manner in which his mill machinery had been planned and executed, he sounded
their praises in all quarters. Orders poured in upon them so rapidly, that
they had difficulty in keeping pace with the demands of the trade. They then
removed from their original shed to larger premises in Matherstreet, where
they erected additional lathes and other tool-machines, and eventually a
steam-engine. They afterwards added a large cellar under an adjoining
factory to their premises; and from time to time provided new means of
turning out work with increased efficiency and despatch. In due course of
time the firm erected a factory of their own, fitted with the most improved
machinery for turning out millwork; and they went on from one contract to
another, until their reputation as engineers became widely celebrated. In
1826-7, they supplied the water-wheels for the extensive cotton-mills
belonging to Kirkman Finlay and Company, at Catrine Bank in Ayrshire. These
wheels are even at this day regarded as among the most perfect hydraulic
machines in Europe. About the same time they supplied the mill gearing and
water-machinery for Messrs. Escher and Company's large works at Zurich,
among the largest cotton manufactories on the continent.
In the mean while the industry of
Manchester and the neighbourhood, through which the firm had risen and
prospered, was not neglected, but had the full benefit of the various
improvements which they were introducing in mill machinery. In the course of
a few years an entire revolution was effected in the gearing. Ponderous
masses of timber and cast-iron, with their enormous bearings and couplings,
gave place to slender rods of wrought-iron and light frames or hooks by
which they were suspended. In like manner, lighter yet stronger wheels and
pulleys were introduced, the whole arrangements were improved, and, the
workmanship being greatly more accurate, friction was avoided, while the
speed was increased from about 40 to upwards of 300 revolutions a minute.
The fly-wheel of the engine was also converted into a first motion by the
formation of teeth on its periphery, by which a considerable saving was
effected both in cost and power. These great improvements formed quite an
era in the history of mill machinery; and exercised the most important
influence on the development of the cotton, flax, silk, and other branches
of manufacture. Mr. Fairbairn says the system introduced by his firm was at
first strongly condemned by leading engineers, and it was with difficulty
that he could overcome the force of their opposition; nor was it until a
wheel of thirty tons weight for a pair of engines of 100-horse power each
was erected and set to work, that their prognostications of failure entirely
ceased. From that time the principles introduced by Mr. Fairbairn have been
adopted wherever steam is employed as a motive power in mills.
Mr. Fairbairn and his partner had a
hard uphill battle to fight while these improvements were being introduced;
but energy and perseverance, guided by sound judgment, secured their usual
reward, and the firm became known as one of the most thriving and
enterprising in Manchester. Long years after, when addressing an assembly of
working men, Mr. Fairbairn, while urging the necessity of labour and
application as the only sure means of self-improvement, said, "I can tell
you from experience, that there is no labour so sweet, none so consolatory,
as that which is founded upon an honest, straightforward, and honourable
ambition." The history of any prosperous business, however, so closely
resembles every other, and its details are usually of so monotonous a
character, that it is unnecessary for us to pursue this part of the subject;
and we will content ourselves with briefly indicating the several further
improvements introduced by Mr. Fairbairn in the mechanics of construction in
the course of his long and useful career.
His improvements in water-wheels were
of great value, especially as regarded the new form of bucket which he
introduced with the object of facilitating the escape of the air as the
water entered the bucket above, and its readmission as the water emptied
itself out below. This arrangement enabled the water to act upon the wheel
with the maximum of effect in all states of the river; and it so generally
recommended itself, that it very soon became adopted in most water-mills
both at home and abroad. [footnote... The subject will be found fully
treated in Mr. Fairbairn's own work, A Treatise on Mills and Mill-Work,
embodying the results of his large experience. ...]
His labours were not, however,
confined to his own particular calling as a mill engineer, but were shortly
directed to other equally important branches of the constructive art. Thus
he was among the first to direct his attention to iron ship building as a
special branch of business. In 1829, Mr. Houston, of Johnstown, near
Paisley, launched a light boat on the Ardrossan Canal for the purpose of
ascertaining the speed at which it could be towed by horses with two or
three persons on board. To the surprise of Mr. Houston and the other
gentlemen present, it was found that the labour the horses had to perform in
towing the boat was mach greater at six or seven, than at nine miles an
hour. This anomaly was very puzzling to the experimenters, and at the
request of the Council of the Forth and Clyde Canal, Mr. Fairbairn, who had
already become extensively known as a scientific mechanic, was requested to
visit Scotland and institute a series of experiments with light boats to
determine the law of traction, and clear up, if possible, the apparent
anomalies in Mr. Houston's experiments. This he did accordingly, and the
results of his experiments were afterwards published, The trials extended
over a series of years, and were conducted at a cost of several thousand
pounds. The first experiments were made with vessels of wood, but they
eventually led to the construction of iron vessels upon a large scale and on
an entirely new principle of construction, with angle iron ribs and
wrought-iron sheathing plates. The results proved most valuable, and had the
effect of specially directing the attention of naval engineers to the
employment of iron in ship building.
Mr. Fairbairn himself fully recognised
the value of the experiments, and proceeded to construct an iron vessel at
his works at Manchester, in 1831, which went to sea the same year. Its
success was such as to induce him to begin iron shipbuilding on a large
scale, at the same time as the Messrs. Laird did at Birkenhead; and in 1835,
Mr. Fairbairn established extensive works at Millwall, on the
Thames,--afterwards occupied by Mr. Scott Russell, in whose yard the "Great
Eastern" steamship was erected,-- where in the course of some fourteen years
he built upwards of a hundred and twenty iron ships, some of them above 2000
tons burden. It was in fact the first great iron shipbuilding yard in
Britain, and led the way in a branch of business which has since become of
first-rate magnitude and importance. Mr. Fairbairn was a most laborious
experimenter in iron, and investigated in great detail the subject of its
strength, the value of different kinds of riveted joints compared with the
solid plate, and the distribution of the material throughout the structure,
as well as the form of the vessel itself. It would indeed be difficult to
over-estimate the value of his investigations on these points in the earlier
stages of this now highly important branch of the national industry.
To facilitate the manufacture of his
iron-sided ships, Mr. Fairbairn, about the year 1839, invented a machine for
riveting boiler plates by steam-power. The usual method by which this
process had before been executed was by hand-hammers, worked by men placed
at each side of the plate to be riveted, acting simultaneously on both sides
of the bolt. But this process was tedious and expensive, as well as clumsy
and imperfect; and some more rapid and precise method of fixing the plates
firmly together was urgently wanted. Mr. Fairbairn's machine completely
supplied the want. By its means the rivet was driven into its place, and
firmly fastened there by a couple of strokes of a hammer impelled by steam.
Aided by the Jacquard punching-machine of Roberts, the riveting of plates of
the largest size has thus become one of the simplest operations in
iron-manufacturing.
The thorough knowledge which Mr.
Fairbairn possessed of the strength of wrought-iron in the form of the
hollow beam (which a wrought-iron ship really is) naturally led to his being
consulted by the late Robert Stephenson as to the structures by means of
which it was proposed to span the estuary of the Conway and the Straits of
Menai; and the result was the Conway and Britannia Tubular Bridges, the
history of which we have fully described elsewhere. [footnote...Lives of the
Engineers, vol. iii. 416-40. See also An Account of the Construction of the
Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges. By William Fairbairn, C.E. 1849....]
There is no reason to doubt that by
far the largest share of the merit of working out the practical details of
those structures, and thus realizing Robert Stephenson's magnificent idea of
the tubular bridge, belongs to Mr. Fairbairn. In all matters connected with
the qualities and strength of iron, he came to be regarded as a first-rate
authority, and his advice was often sought and highly valued. The elaborate
experiments instituted by him as to the strength of iron of all kinds have
formed the subject of various papers which he has read before the British
Association, the Royal Society, and the Literary and Philosophical Society
of Manchester. His practical inquries as to the strength of boilers have led
to his being frequently called upon to investigate the causes of boiler
explosions, on which subject he has published many elaborate reports. The
study of this subject led him to elucidate the law according to which the
density of steam varies throughout an extensive range of pressures and
atmospheres,--in singular confirmation of what had before been provisionally
calculated from the mechanical theory of heat. His discovery of the true
method of preventing the tendency of tubes to collapse, by dividing the
flues of long boilers into short lengths by means of stiffening rings,
arising out of the same investigation, was one of the valuable results of
his minute study of the subject; and is calculated to be of essential value
in the manufacturing districts by diminishing the chances of boiler
explosions, and saving the lamentable loss of life which has during the last
twenty years been occasioned by the malconstruction of boilers. Among Mr.
Fairbairn's most recent, inquiries are those conducted by him at the
instance of the British Government relative to the construction of
iron-plated ships, his report of which has not yet been made public, most
probably for weighty political reasons.
We might also refer to the practical
improvements which Mr. Fairbairn has been instrumental in introducing in the
construction of buildings of various kinds by the use of iron. He has
himself erected numerous iron structures, and pointed out the road which
other manufacturers have readily followed. "I am one of those," said he, in
his 'Lecture on the Progress of Engineering,' "who have great faith in iron
walls and iron beams; and although I have both spoken and written much on
the subject, I cannot too forcibly recommend it to public attention. It is
now twenty years since I constructed an iron house, with the machinery of a
corn-mill, for Halil Pasha, then Seraskier of the Turkish army at
Constantinople. I believe it was the first iron house built in this country;
and it was constructed at the works at Millwall, London, in 1839."
[footnote... Useful Information for Engineers, 2nd series, 225. The mere
list of Mr. Fairbairn's writings would occupy considerable space; for,
notwithstanding his great labours as an engineer, he has also been an
industrious writer. His papers on Iron, read at different times before the
British Association, the Royal Society, and the Literary and Philosophical
Institution of Manchester, are of great value. The treatise on "Iron" in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica is from his pen, and he has contributed a highly
interesting paper to Dr. Scoffern's Useful Metals and their Alloys on the
Application of Iron to the purposes of Ordnance, Machinery, Bridges, and
House and Ship Building. Another valuable but less-known contribution to
Iron literature is his Report on Machinery in General, published in the
Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855. The experiments conducted
by Mr. Fairbairn for the purpose of proving the excellent properties of iron
for shipbuilding--the account of which was published in the Trans actions of
the Royal Society eventually led to his further experiments to determine the
strength and form of the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges,
plate-girders, and other constructions, the result of which was to establish
quite a new era in the history of bridge as well as ship building....]
Since then iron structures of all
kinds have been erected: iron lighthouses, iron-and-crystal palaces, iron
churches, and iron bridges. Iron roads have long been worked by iron
locomotives; and before many years have passed a telegraph of iron wire will
probably be found circling the globe. We now use iron roofs, iron bedsteads,
iron ropes, and iron pavement; and even the famous "wooden walls of England"
are rapidly becoming reconstructed of iron. In short, we are in the midst of
what Mr. Worsaae has characterized as the Age of Iron.
At the celebration of the opening of
the North Wales Railway at Bangor, almost within sight of his iron bridge
across the Straits of Menai, Robert Stephenson said, "We are daily producing
from the bowels of the earth a raw material, in its crude state apparently
of no worth, but which, when converted into a locomotive engine, flies over
bridges of the same material, with a speed exceeding that of the bird,
advancing wealth and comfort throughout the country. Such are the powers of
that all-civilizing instrument, Iron."
Iron indeed plays a highly important
part in modem civilization. Out of it are formed alike the sword and the
ploughshare, the cannon and the printing-press; and while civilization
continues partial and half-developed, as it still is, our liberties and our
industry must necessarily in a great measure depend for their protection
upon the excellence of our weapons of war as well as on the superiority of
our instruments of peace. Hence the skill and ingenuity displayed in the
invention of rifled guns and artillery, and iron-sided ships and batteries,
the fabrication of which would be impossible but for the extraordinary
development of the iron-manufacture, and the marvellous power and precision
of our tool-making machines, as described in preceding chapters.
"Our strength, wealth, and commerce,"
said Mr. Cobden in the course of a recent debate in the House of Commons,
"grow out of the skilled labour of the men working in metals. They are at
the foundation of our manufacturing greatness; and in case you were
attacked, they would at once be available, with their hard hands and skilled
brains, to manufacture your muskets and your cannon, your shot and your
shell. What has given us our Armstrongs, Whitworths, and Fairbairns, but the
free industry of this country? If you can build three times more
steam-engines than any other country, and have threefold the force of
mechanics, to whom and to what do you owe that, but to the men who have
trained them, and to those principles of commerce out of which the wealth of
the country has grown? We who have some hand in doing that, are not ignorant
that we have been and are increasing the strength of the country in
proportion as we are raising up skilled artisans." [footnote...House of
Commons Debate, 7th July, 1862....]
The reader who has followed us up to
this point will have observed that handicraft labour was the first stage of
the development of human power, and that machinery has been its last and
highest. The uncivilized man began with a stone for a hammer, and a splinter
of flint for a chisel, each stage of his progress being marked by an
improvement in his tools. Every machine calculated to save labour or
increase production was a substantial addition to his power over the
material resources of nature, enabling him to subjugate them more
effectually to his wants and uses; and every extension of machinery has
served to introduce new classes of the population to the enjoyment of its
benefits. In early times the products of skilled industry were for the most
part luxuries intended for the few, whereas now the most exquisite tools and
engines are employed in producing articles of ordinary consumption for the
great mass of the community. Machines with millions of fingers work for
millions of purchasers--for the poor as well as the rich; and while the
machinery thus used enriches its owners, it no less enriches the public with
its products.
Much of the progress to which we have
adverted has been the result of the skill and industry of our own time.
"Indeed," says Mr. Fairbairn, "the mechanical operations of the present day
could not have been accomplished at any cost thirty years ago; and what was
then considered impossible is now performed with an exactitude that never
fails to accomplish the end in view." For this we are mainly indebted to the
almost creative power of modern machine-tools, and the facilities which they
present for the production and reproduction of other machines. We also owe
much to the mechanical agencies employed to drive them. Early inventors
yoked wind and water to sails and wheels, and made them work machinery of
various kinds; but modern inventors have availed themselves of the far more
swift and powerful, yet docile force of steam, which has now laid upon it
the heaviest share of the burden of toil, and indeed become the universal
drudge. Coal, water, and a little oil, are all that the steam-engine, with
its bowels of iron and heart of fire, needs to enable it to go on working
night and day, without rest or sleep. Yoked to machinery of almost infinite
variety, the results of vast ingenuity and labour, the Steam-engine pumps
water, drives spindles, thrashes corn, prints books, hammers iron, ploughs
land, saws timber, drives piles, impels ships, works railways, excavates
docks; and, in a word, asserts an almost unbounded supremacy over the
materials which enter into the daily use of mankind, for clothing, for
labour, for defence, for household purposes, for locomotion, for food, or
for instruction.