Part 19

Dr. Black expired in the seventy-first year of his age, without any convulsion, shock, or stupor to announce or retard the approach of death. Being at table with his usual fare, some bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of milk diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand when the last stroke of the pulse was given, he set it down on his knees, which were joined together, and kept it steady with his hand in the manner of a person perfectly at his ease; and in this attitude he expired without a drop being spilt or a feature in his countenance changed. His servant coming in saw him in this posture and left the room, supposing him asleep. On returning soon after, he saw him sitting as before and found that he had expired.--_Brougham's Lives of Philosophers._ London and Glasgow, 1855.--_Encyclopædia Britannica_, Eighth Edition.

HENRY CORT.

Born 1740. Died 1800.

The sad history of this great inventor, who has been well surnamed "The Father of the iron trade," is comparatively soon told. Although his discoveries in the manufacture of iron were so important as to have been one of the chief causes in the establishment of our modern engineering, little is known of the life of the unfortunate inventor. He was born in 1740 at Lancaster, where his father carried on the trade of a builder and brickmaker. In 1765, at the age of twenty-five, he was engaged in the carrying on of the business of a navy agent in Surrey Street, Strand, in which he is said to have realized considerable profits. While conducting this business Cort became aware of the inferiority of British iron in comparison with that of foreign countries, and entered on a series of experiments with the object of improving its manufacture. In 1775 he relinquished his business as a navy agent and took a lease of some premises at Fonltey, near Fareham, where he erected a forge and an iron-mill. He afterwards took into partnership Samuel Jellicoe, son of Adam Jellicoe, then deputy-paymaster of seamen's wages, a connection which ultimately proved the cause of all Cort's subsequent misfortunes. Ford in 1747, Dr. Roebuck in 1762, the brothers Cranege in 1766, and Peter Onions, of Merthyr Tydvil, in 1783, had all introduced valuable additions to the then known processes of iron manufacture. In 1783-4 Cort took out his two patents which, while combining the inventions of his predecessors, specified so many valuable improvements of an original character, that they established a new era in the history of iron manufacture, and raised it to the highest state of prosperity. Mr. Truran,[51] in speaking of Cort, remarks "The mode of piling iron to form large pieces, as described in his inventions, is the one at use in the present day."--"The method of puddling iron now in use is the same as that patented by Henry Cort. There has been no essential departure from his process. Iron bottoms have been substituted for sand and by building the furnace somewhat larger, a second charge of cast-iron is introduced and partially heated during the finishing operations in the first, as conducted at the present day. All that has been done in the last seventy-three years has been in the way of adding to and perfecting Cort's furnaces, as experience has from time to time suggested." Cort's method of passing the piled wedged-shaped bars of iron through grooved rollers has been spoken of by another competent authority as of "high philosophical interest, being scarcely less than the discovery of a new mechanical power in reversing the action of the wedge, by the application of force to four surfaces so as to elongate the mass instead of applying force to a mass to divide the four surfaces." The principal iron masters soon heard of the success of Cort's new inventions, and visited his foundry for the purpose of examining his process, and of employing it at their own works if satisfied with the result. Among the first to try it were Richard Crawshaw of Cyfartha, Samuel Homfray of Penydarran (both in South Wales), and William Reynolds of Coalbrookdale. The two first-named at once entered into a contract to work under Cort's patents at 10_s._ a ton royalty; and the quality of the iron manufactured by the new process was found to be so superior to other kinds, that the Admiralty directed it, in 1787, to be used for the anchors and other iron-work in the ships of the Royal Navy. The merits of the invention were now generally conceded, and numerous contracts for licenses were entered into with Cort and his partner, by the manufacturers of bar-iron throughout the country, and licenses were taken at royalties estimated to yield 27,500_l._ to the owners of the patent. Cort himself made arrangements for carrying on the manufacture on a large scale, and with that object entered upon the possession of a wharf at Gosport belonging to Adam Jellicoe, his partner's father, where he succeeded in obtaining considerable government orders for iron made under his patents. This period, apparently the crowning point of Cort's fortunes, was but the commencement of his ruin. In August, 1789, Adam Jellicoe died, and defalcations were found in his public accounts to the extent of 39,676_l._ His papers and books were at once seized by Government, and on examination it was found that a sum of 54,853_l._ was owing to Jellicoe by the Cort partnership for moneys advanced by him at different times to enable Cort to pursue his experiments, which were necessarily of a very expensive character. Among the sums advanced by Jellicoe to Cort was found one of 27,500_l._ entrusted to Jellicoe for the payment of seamen and officers' wages. As Jellicoe had the reputation of being a rich man, Cort had not the slightest suspicion of the source from which the advances made to the firm were derived, nor has any connivance whatever on the part of Cort been suggested. The Government, however, bound to act with promptitude in such a case, at once adopted extraordinary measures to recover their money. The assignments of Cort's patents, which had been made to Jellicoe in consideration of his advances, were taken possession of, but, strange to say, Samuel Jellicoe, the son of the defaulter, was put in possession of the properties at Fonltey and Gosport and continued to enjoy them, to Cort's exclusion for a period of fourteen years. Notwithstanding this, the patent rights seem never to have been levied by the assignees, and the result was that the whole benefit of Cort's inventions was made over to the ironmasters and to the public, although there seems little reason to doubt, that had they been duly levied, the whole of the debt due to the government would have been paid in the course of a few years. As for Cort himself, on the death of Jellicoe he left his iron works a ruined man. He subsequently made many appeals to Government for the restoration of his patents, and offered to find security for payment of the debt due by his firm to the Crown, but in vain. In 1794 an appeal was made to Mr. Pitt by a number of influential members of parliament, on behalf of the inventor and his destitute family of twelve children, when a pension of 200_l._ was granted to him, which he enjoyed until the year 1800, when, broken in health and spirit, he died at the age of sixty. He was buried in Hampstead Church, where a stone marks the date of his death and is still to be seen; a few years ago it was illegible, but it has been restored by his surviving son Richard Cort.

Mr. Smiles thus concludes a long and interesting account of Cort in his 'Industrial Biography:'--"Though Cort died in comparative poverty, he laid the foundations of many gigantic fortunes. He may be said to have been, in a great measure, the author of our modern iron aristocracy, who still manufacture after the processes which he invented or perfected, but for which they never paid him one shilling of royalty. These men of gigantic fortunes have owed much, we might almost say everything, to the ruined projector of 'the little mill at Fonltey.' Their wealth has enriched many families of the older aristocracy, and has been the foundation of several modern peerages. Yet Henry Cort, the rock from which they were hewn, is already all but forgotten; and his surviving children, now aged and infirm, are dependent for their support upon the slender pittance,[52] wrung by repeated entreaty and expostulation, from the state."--_Smiles's Industrial Biography._ London, 1863.--_Mechanics' Magazine_, 1859-60-61.

JAMES IVORY, F.R.S., &c.

Born 1765. Died September 21, 1842.

This distinguished mathematician was born at Dundee and received the elements of his education in the public schools of that town. His father was a watchmaker and intended that his son should become a clergyman of the church of Scotland, for which purpose he sent him, when fourteen years old, to the University of St. Andrews. Here Ivory remained for six years, and had for his fellow student, Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Leslie, with whom, at the end of the above period he removed to the University of Edinburgh, where he remained one year to complete the course of study required as a qualification for admission into the church of Scotland. Circumstances, however, seem to have prevented Ivory from carrying out the intentions of his father, for, on leaving the university in 1786, he became an assistant teacher in an academy at that time recently established in Dundee. After remaining at this academy for three years, Ivory, in company with several others, established a factory for spinning flax at Douglastown, in Forfarshire. In this apparently uncongenial occupation he remained for fifteen years (from 1789 to 1804), but the undertaking proved unsuccessful and in 1804 the company ceased to exist. Mr. Ivory then obtained the appointment to a professorship of mathematics in the Royal Military College at Marlow, in Buckinghamshire (afterwards removed to Sandhurst), with which establishment he remained until his retirement from public service. This was the most active period of his life, for while fulfilling assiduously the duties of his professorship he continued unremittingly his scientific studies. His earliest writings were three memoirs, which he communicated in the years 1796, 1799, and 1802, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The first of these was entitled, 'A New Series for the Rectification of the Ellipse;' the second, 'A New Method of Resolving Cubic Equations;' and the third, 'A New and Universal Solution of Kepler's Problem;' all of them evincing great analytical skill, as well as originality of thought. Mr. Ivory contributed fifteen papers to 'The Transactions of the Royal Society of London,' nearly all of them relating to physical astronomy, and every one containing mathematical investigations of the most refined nature. The first, published in the 'Transactions of 1809,' and entitled, 'On the Attractions of Homogeneous Ellipsoids,' is his most celebrated paper, in which he completely and definitely resolved the problem of attraction for every class of ellipsoidal bodies. Many of Ivory's remaining contributions, ranging through a period of nearly thirty years, related to the subject of the attraction of spheroids and the theory of the figure of the Earth, and some of them are considered masterpieces of analytical skill. One of the last subjects which occupied his attention was the possible equilibrium of a spheroid with three unequal axes when revolving about one of the axes, a fact which Jacobi had discovered. This Ivory demonstrates in the volume for 1838 of the 'Philosophical Transactions.' The volumes in 1823 and 1838, contain Ivory's two papers on the 'Theory of Atmospheric Refraction,' a subject which, next to the Theory of Attractions, engaged most seriously his attention on account of its great importance in astronomy and the curious mathematical difficulties which its investigation presents. For each of these papers he was awarded the Royal medal by the Society. Of all his contributions to the 'Transactions,' only one is purely mathematical; this is contained in the volume for 1831, and is entitled, 'On the Theory of Elliptic Transcendants.' Besides these contributions to the Royal Society, Ivory wrote several papers in the Philosophical Magazine of 1821-27; in Maseres's 'Scriptores Logarithmici;' in Leybourne's 'Mathematical Repository;' and in the Supplement to the sixth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In the beginning of 1819 Ivory, finding that his health began to decline under the great exertions which he made in carrying on his scientific researches, and performing his duties as professor, resigned his professorship at Sandhurst and retired into private life. In consideration, however, of his great merit, the pension due for the full period of service required by the regulations was granted to him, although that period had not been completed. After his retirement, Ivory devoted himself entirely to his scientific researches, living in or near London until his death. In 1814 he had received the Copley medal for his communications to the Royal Society; in 1815 he became a Fellow of the same society. He was also an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Cambridge Philosophical Society; a corresponding member of the Institute of France, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and of the Royal Society of Göttingen.

In the year 1831, in consideration of the great talent displayed in his investigations, Ivory was recommended by Lord Brougham, whom he had known in early life, to the notice of the King (Wm. IV.), who, with the Hanoverian Guelphic Order of Knighthood, gave him an annual pension of 300_l._, which he enjoyed during the rest of his life; and in 1839 he received the degree of Doctor in Laws from the University of St. Andrews.

Mr. Ivory attained the age of seventy-seven before his death; he was essentially a self-taught mathematician, and spent most of his leisure in retirement. He fathomed in private the profoundest writings of the most learned continental mathematicians, and at a period when few Englishmen were able to understand those difficult works; he even added to their value by many original contributions, and must always be remembered with special interest when the singular destitution of higher mathematical talent, which had reigned in this country for so long a period before his time, is considered.--_English Cyclopædia._ London, 1856.--_Encyclopædia Britannica._ Eighth Edition.

JOSEPH PRIESTLY, LL.D.

Born March 24, 1773. Died February 26, 1804.

Joseph Priestly was the son of a cloth-dresser at Burstal-Fieldhead, near Leeds. His family appear to have been in humble circumstances, and he was taken off their hands after the death of his mother by his paternal aunt, who sent him to a free school at Batley. There he learnt something of Greek, Latin, and a little Hebrew. To this he added some knowledge of other Eastern languages connected with Biblical literature; he made a considerable progress in Syriac and Chaldean, and began to learn Arabic; he also had a little instruction in mathematics, but in this science he did not make much proficiency. Indeed his whole education was exceedingly imperfect, and, excepting in Hebrew and Greek, he never afterwards improved it by any systematic course of study. Even in chemistry, the science which he best knew, and in which he made so important a figure, he was only half-taught, so that he presents one of the memorable examples of knowledge pursued, science cultivated, and even its bounds extended, by those whose circumstances made their exertions a continued struggle against difficulties which only genius like theirs could have overcome. After studying for some years at the Dissenting Academy founded by Mr. Coward at Daventry (afterwards transferred to London), Priestly quitted Daventry and became minister of a congregation at Needham Market, in Suffolk, where his salary never exceeded thirty pounds. He had been brought up in the strictest Calvinistic principles, but he very soon abandoned these, and his tenets continued in after life to be those of the moderate Unitarians, whose leading doctrine is the proper humanity of Christ, and who confine all adoration to one Supreme Being. Priestly's religious opinions proving distasteful to his congregation at Needham Market, caused him to remove in 1758 to Nantwich, in Cheshire, where he obtained a considerable number of pupils, which greatly increased his income and enabled him by strict frugality to purchase a scanty scientific apparatus, and commence a study of natural philosophy. In 1761, Priestly removed to Warrington, where he was chosen to succeed Dr. Aitken as tutor in the _belles lettres_ at that academy. On settling at Warrington he married the daughter of Mr. Wilkinson, an ironmaster in Wales, by whom he had several children. His literary career may be said to have commenced here, and having once begun to publish, his appeals to the press were incessant and on almost every subject. The universality and originality of his pursuits may be judged from his delivering at Warrington a course of lectures on anatomy, while his published works during the next seven or eight years comprise:--'The Theory of Language and Universal Grammar,' 1762; 'On Oratory and Criticism,' 1777; 'On History and General Policy,' 1788; 'On the Laws and Constitution of England,' 1772; 'On Education,' 1765; 'Chart of Biography,' 1765; 'Chart of History,' 1769. During the same period appeared, in 1767, his work entitled, 'A History of Electricity,' &c., which was so well received that it went through five editions. This was followed in 1772 by a 'History of Vision.' In 1767, on account of a dispute with the Warrington trustees, Priestly removed to Leeds, where he became minister of the Mill-Hill Chapel, and wrote many controversial books and pamphlets. In after times he wrote--'Letters to a Philosophical Institution;' 'An Answer to Gibbon;' 'Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit;' 'Corruptions of Christianity;' 'Early Opinions on Christ;' 'Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham;' 'Two different Histories of the Christian Church;' 'On Education;' 'Comparison of Heathen and Christian Philosophy;' 'Doctrine of Necessity;' 'On the Roman Catholic Claims;' 'On the French Revolution;' 'On the American War;' besides twenty volumes of tracts in favour of Dissenters and their Rights. His general works fill twenty-five volumes, of which only five or six are on scientific subjects; his publications being in all 141, of which only seventeen are scientific. When residing at Leeds Priestly's house immediately adjoined a brewery, which led him to make experiments upon the fixed air copiously produced during the process of fermentation. These experiments resulted in his discovering the important fact that atmospheric air, after having been corrupted by the respiration of animals, and by the burning of inflammable bodies, is restored to salubrity by the vegetation of plants; and that, if the air is exposed to a mixture of sulphur and iron-filings, its bulk is diminished between a fourth and a fifth, and the residue is both lighter than common air and unfit to support life; this residue he termed 'phlogistic air,' afterwards called azotic or nitrogen gas.[53] For these experiments the Copley medal was awarded to him in 1773 by the Royal Society. The following year to this, from experiments with nimium or red lead, Priestly made his great and important discovery of oxygen gas. This was followed by his discovering the gases of muriatic, sulphuric, and fluoric acids, ammonial gas and nitrous oxide gas. He also discovered the combination which nitrous gas forms suddenly with oxygen; diminishing the volume of both in proportion to that combination; and he thus invented the method of eudiometry or the ascertainment of the relative purity of different kinds of atmospheric air.

In considering the great merits of Priestly as an experimentalist, it must not be forgotten that he had almost to create the apparatus by which his processes were to be performed. He for the most part had to construct his instruments with his own hands, or to make unskilful workmen form them under his own immediate direction. His apparatus, however, and his contrivances for collecting, keeping, transferring gaseous bodies, and for exposing substances to their action, were simple and effectual, and they continue to be still used by chemical philosophers without any material improvement. Although Priestly was the first to discover oxygen, and thus give the basis of the true theory of combustion, he clung all his life with a wonderful pertinacity to the Phlogistic Theory,[54] and nothing in after life would make him give it up. In 1773 Priestly accepted an invitation from Lord Shelbourne (afterwards first Marquis of Lansdowne), to fill the place of librarian and philosophic companion, with a salary of 250_l._, reducible to 150_l._ for life should he quit the employment; 40_l._ a-year was also allowed him for the expense of apparatus and experiments, and homes were provided for his family in the neighbourhood both of Lord Shelbourne's town and country residence. Priestly remained with the Earl of Shelbourne for six or seven years, at the end of which period, in 1780, he settled at Birmingham and became minister of a dissenting body there. While residing at Birmingham he engaged fiercely in polemical writings and discussions, particularly with Gibbon and Bishop Horseley. He also displayed a warm interest in the cause of America at the time of the quarrel with the mother-country, and likewise took an active and not very temperate part in the controversy to which the French Revolution gave rise; and, having published a 'Reply' to Burke's famous pamphlet, he was in 1791 made a citizen of the French Republic. This gave considerable offence to the inhabitants of Birmingham, an ironical and somewhat bitter pamphlet against the high church party still further excited their feelings against him; and a dinner which was given on the 14th of July, to celebrate the anniversary of the attack upon the Bastile, became the signal for a general riot. The tavern where the party were assembled was attacked, and, although Dr. Priestly was not present, his house and chapel were immediately afterwards assailed, he and his family escaped, but his house, library, and manuscripts were burnt. Although his losses were made up to him partially by an action at law and partially by a subscription among his friends, Priestly felt that he could no longer live at Birmingham, he therefore removed to London and succeeded his friend Dr. Price as principal of the Hackney Academy. He, however, still found himself highly unpopular and shunned even by his former associates in silence. This determined Priestly to leave England, and in the spring of 1794 he withdrew with his family to America and settled at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania, where he purchased 300 acres of land. Here he remained the rest of his life, occupied in cultivating his land, in occasional preaching, and in scientific studies. He continued writing and publishing until his death, in February 1804, in the 72nd year of his age. He expired very quietly, and so easily that having put his hand to his face those who were sitting close to him did not immediately perceive his death.--_Brougham's Lives of Philosophers._ London and Glasgow, 1855.--_Encyclopædia Britannica._ Eighth Edition.

MEMOIRS OF

THE DISTINGUISHED MEN OF SCIENCE OF GREAT BRITAIN,

LIVING A.D., 1807-8.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE FIRST EDITION.

ONCE A WEEK.

Accompanying the picture, &c., there is a volume by Mr. W. Walker, junior, giving a brief memoir of the salient points of each individual history. This is well executed, and forms a useful book of reference for those who would know more than the picture can tell.

ENGINEER.