Category: Biographies
The early chapters relate to the history of a very important branch of British industry--that of Shipbuilding. A later chapter, kindly prepared by Sir Edward J. Harland, of Belfast, relates to the origin and progress of shipbuilding in Ireland.
"I first learnt to read when the masons were at work in your house. I approached them one day, and observed that the architect used a rule and compass, and that he made calculat...
2. Chapter 2"A speck in the Northern Ocean, with a rocky coast, an ungenial climate, and a soil scarcely fruitful,--this was the material patrimony which descended to the English race--an i...
12. Chapter 12"The useful arts are but reproductions or new combinations by the art of man, of the same natural benefactors. He no longer waits for favouring gales, but by means of steam he r...
10. Chapter 10"I beg you to occupy yourself in collecting biographical notices respecting the Italians who have honestly enriched themselves in other regions, particularly referring to the ob...
6. Chapter 6"The beginning of civilization is the discovery of some useful arts, by which men acquire property, comforts, or luxuries. The necessity or desire of preserving them leads to la...
4. Chapter 4"No man knows who invented the mariner's compass, or who first hollowed out a canoe from a log. The power to observe accurately the sun, moon, and planets, so as to fix a vessel...
11. Chapter 11"One of the great questions is how to find an outlet for Irish manufactures. We ought to be an exporting nation, or we never will be able to compete successfully with our trade...
7. Chapter 7"The honest projector is he who, having by fair and plain principles of sense, honesty, and ingenuity, brought any contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he preten...
8. Chapter 8"Intellect and industry are never incompatible. There is more wisdom, and will be more benefit, in combining them than scholars like to believe, or than the common world imagine...
3. Chapter 3"The spirit of Paley's maxim that 'he alone discovers who proves,' is applicable to the history of inventions and discoveries; for certainly he alone invents to any good purpose...
5. Chapter 5"By Commerce are acquired the two things which wise men accompt of all others the most necessary to the well-being of a Commonwealth: That is to say, a general Industry of Mind...
9. Chapter 9"The Images of men's wits and knowledges remain in Books, exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual renovation. Neither are they fitly to be called Images, becau...
1. Chapter 1The early chapters relate to the history of a very important branch of British industry--that of Shipbuilding. A later chapter, kindly prepared by Sir Edward J. Harland, of Belf...