his metal cylinders with a wooden case, filling the intermediate space with wood-ashes; and by this means, and using no more injection of cold water than was necessary for the purpose of condensation, he succeeded in reducing the waste of steam by almost one-half.

Whilst busy with Mr. Broade's engine, we find from the entries in his pocket-book that Brindley occasionally spent several days together at Coalbrookdale, in superintending the making of the boiler-plates, the pipes, and other iron-work. Returning to Fenton Vivian, he proceeded with the erection of his engine-house and the fitting of the machinery, whilst, during five days more, he appears to have been occupied in making the hoops for the cylinders. It takes him five days to get the "great leavor fixed," thirty-nine days to put the boiler together, and thirteen days to get the pit prepared; and as he charges only workmen's wages for those days, we infer that the greater part of the work was done by his own hands. He even seems to have himself felled the requisite timber for the work, as we infer from the entry in his pocket-book of "falling big tree 34 days."

The engine was at length ready after about a year's work, and was set a-going in November, 1757, after which we find these significant entries: "Bad louk [luck] five days;" then, again, “Bad louk" for three days more; and, after that, “Midlin louk;" and so on with “Midlin louk” until the entries under that head come to an end. In the spring of the following year we find him again striving to get his " engon at woork," and it seems at length to have been fairly started on the 19th of March, when we have the entry "Engon at woork 3 days." There is then a stoppage of four days, and again the engine works for seven days more, with a sort of loud cheer" in the words added to the entry, of "driv a-Heyd!" Other intervals occur, until, on the 16th of April, we have the words "at woor good ordor 3 days," when the entries come to a sudden close.

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The engine must certainly have given Brindley a great

deal of trouble, and almost driven him to despair, as we now know how very imperfect an engine with wooden hooped cylinders must have been; and we are not therefore surprised at the entry which he honestly makes in his pocket-book on the 21st of April, immediately after the one last mentioned, when the engine had, doubtless, a second time broken down, "to Run about a Drinking, 0:16." Perhaps he intended the entry to stand there as a warning against giving way to future despair; for he underlined the words, as if to mark them with unusual emphasis.*

Brindley did not remain long in this mood, but set to work upon the contrivance and erection of another engine upon a new and improved plan. What his plan. was, may be learnt from the specification lodged in the Patent Office, on the 26th December, 1758, by "James Brindley, of Leek, in the county of Stafford, Millwright." † In the arrangement of this new steam-engine he provided. that the boiler should be made of brick or stone arched over, and the stove over the fire-place of cast-iron, fixed within the boiler. The feeding-pipe for the boiler was to be made with a clack, opening and shutting by a float upon the surface of the water in the boiler, which would thus be self-feeding. The great chains for the segments at the extremity of the beams were of wood; and the pumps were also of wooden staves strongly hooped together.

Brindley, as a millwright, seems to have long retained his early predilection for wood, and to have preferred it to iron wherever its use was practicable. His plans were, however, subjected to modification and improvement from time to time, as experience suggested; and in the course of a few years, brick, stone, and wood were alike discarded in favour of iron; until, in 1763, we find Brindley erecting a steam-engine for the Walker Colliery, at Newcastle, wholly of iron, manufactured at Coalbrookdale, which was pronounced the most "complete and noble piece of ironwork" that had up to that time been produced.* But by this time Brindley's genius had been turned in another direction; the invention of the steamengine being now safe in the hands of Watt, who was perseveringly occupied in bringing it to completion.

*Stuart's 'Anecdotes of Steam-Engines,' p. 626.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER BRINDLEY EMPLOYED AS THE ENGINEER OF HIS CANAL.

VERY little had as yet been done to open up the inland navigation of England, beyond dredging and clearing out in a very imperfect manner the channels of some of the larger rivers, so as to admit of the passage of small barges. Several attempts had been made in Lancashire and Cheshire, as we have already shown, to open up the navigation of the Mersey and the Irwell from Liverpool to Manchester. There were similar projects for improving the Weaver from Frodsham, where it joins the Mersey, to Winford Bridge above Northwich; and the Douglas, from the Ribble to Wigan. About the same time like schemes were started in Yorkshire, with the object of opening up the navigation of the Aire and Calder to Leeds and Wakefield, and of the Don from Doncaster to near Sheffield.

One of the Acts passed by Parliament in 1737 is worthy of notice, as the forerunner of the Bridgewater Canal enterprise we allude to the Act for making navigable the Worsley Brook to its junction with the river Irwell, near Manchester. A similar Act was obtained in 1755, for making navigable the Sankey Brook from the Mersey, about two miles below Warrington, to St. Helens, Gerrard Bridge, and Penny Bridge. In this case the canal was constructed separate from the brook, but alongside of it; and at several points locks were provided to adapt the canal to the level of the lands passed through.

The same year in which application was made to Parliament for powers to construct the Sankey Canal, the Corporation of Liverpool had under their consideration a much larger scheme-no less than a canal to unite the

V

Trent and the Mersey, and thus open a water-communication between the ports of Liverpool and Hull. It was proposed that the line should proceed by Chester, Stafford, Derby, and Nottingham. A survey was made, principally at the instance of Mr. Hardman, a public spirited merchant of Liverpool, and for many years one of its representatives in Parliament. Another survey was shortly after made at the instance of Earl Gower, afterwards Marquis of Stafford, and it was probably in making this survey that Brindley's attention was first directed to the business of canal engineering.

We find his first entry relating to the subject made on the 5th of February, 1758-"novocion [navigation] 5 days;" the second, a little better spelt, on the 19th of the same month-"a bout the novogation 3 days;" and afterwards" surveing the novogation from Long brigg to Kinges Milles 12 days." It does not, however, appear that the scheme made much progress, or that steps were taken at that time to bring the measure before Parliament; and Brindley continued to pursue his other employments, more especially the erection of "fire-engines" after his new patent. This continued until the following year, when we find him in close consultation with the Duke of Bridgewater relative to the construction of his proposed canal from Worsley to Manchester.

The early career of this distinguished nobleman was of a somewhat remarkable character. He was born in 1736, the fifth and youngest son of Scroop, third Earl and first Duke of Bridgewater, by Lady Rachel Russell. He lost his father when only five years old, and all his brothers died by the time that he had reached his twelfth year, at which early age he succeeded to the title of Duke of Bridgewater. He was a weak and sickly child, and his mental capacity was thought so defective, that steps were even in contemplation to set him aside in favour of the next heir to the title and estates. His mother seems almost entirely to have neglected him. In the first year