Part 2

The "Century" is little more than a Catalogue Raisonné, although each matter of invention is as fully and intelligibly stated as was required in the Patent office specifications of the period. To give some idea of its contents, we shall enumerate only the first twenty-five. 1. Seals abundantly significant; 2. private and particular to each owner; 3. a one line cipher; 4. reduced to a point; 5. varied significantly to all the 24 letters; 6. a mute and perfect discourse by colours; 7. to hold the same by night; 8. to level cannon by night; 9. a ship-destroying engine; 10. how to be fastened from aloof and under water; 11. how to prevent both; 12. an unsinkable ship; 13. false destroying decks; 14. multiplied strength in little room; 15. a boat driving against wind and tide; 16. a sea-sailing fort; 17. a pleasant floating garden; 18. an hour-glass fountain; 19. a coach-saving engine; 20. a balance waterwork; 21. a bucket fountain; 22. an ebbing and flowing river; 23. an ebbing and flowing castle clock; 24. a strength increasing spring; and 25. a double drawing engine for weight.

We find in the "Century" that three of the articles refer to improved seals and watches; two to games; two to arithmetic and perspective; six to automata, or self-acting mechanical contrivances; no less than twenty-three to ciphers, correspondence, and signals: in short, secret writing and telegraphs; ten to useful appliances in domestic affairs; nine are wholly mechanical; upwards of thirty-two were intended for use in naval and military affairs; and thirteen, including his Water-commanding Engine, were connected with hydraulics. It is singular that he professes "to have _tried and perfected_ all these," words of great import in all matters of novel invention.

That age was fond of patronizing what we should now-a-days be disposed to call "nic-nacs." Ingenious automata, curious toys and works of art, small fountains, singing birds, and similar curiosities attracted the serious attention of the virtuosi of the 17th century; so that we need not feel surprised that the Marquis set up a speaking Brazen Head; or that it should be of gigantic proportions, for he was always regardless of cost in such matters, and was never small where he could be great in developing his resources of ingenious contrivance. Wherever it was possible, he was magnificent--fortifications, embankments, ships rowing against wind and tide, great floating baths, and gardens, large cannon, in short, he was princely in his expenditure of his private fortune on whatever he undertook to perform, whether in war or in peace. It was thus he spent, lent, and lost for his King and country £918,000. He particularly notices that he laid out on buildings and experiments at Vauxhall, the sum of £59,000. But these items are far from representing his actual expenditure, although they indicate the scale of his operations; and taken at their value two centuries back such sums manifest marvellous munificence.

We have no certain key to any of his inventions, if we except two specimens of his cipher writing. One exists in the British Museum,[3] and there is a deciphered letter in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.[4]

[3] See engraving and account of it in _The Life, Times, and Scientific Labours of the Marquis of Worcester_, 8vo. p. 398. 1865.

[4] Ibid, page 180.

His noblest invention, that which must for ever embalm his memory in the breasts not alone of Englishmen, but of all classes throughout the civilized world, was in operation at Vauxhall from 1663 to 1667, during his life time, and appears to have been working as late as 1670. It was ordered by the Act granted him, "that a model thereof be delivered to the Lord Treasurer or Commissioners for the Treasury for the time being, at or before the 29th of September, 1663; and to be put into the Exchequer, and kept there." And in the 98th article of the "Century," alluding to this same engine he says--"I call this a _semi_-omnipotent engine, and do intend that a model thereof be buried with me." Yet, strange to say, neither the one model nor the other, although zealously searched for, has come to light: and so little attention did this invention, notwithstanding its surprising utility, excite in the 17th century, that all the account we have of it, besides that by the inventor himself, is the briefest possible notice given by two foreign travellers, Sorbière in 1663-4, and Cosmo the third, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1669. It is satisfactorily ascertained, however, that upwards of seventeen persons, all living in 1663, were more or less acquainted with the Marquis's mechanical operations at Vauxhall, and must have seen the great water-engine at work, if only as a novelty, and a matter of curiosity.

Returning to the "Century of Inventions," we find it to be a journal of the fruits of its noble author's study of mechanical philosophy for nearly forty years, so that in it we may almost trace the youth and age of his mental capacity. Viewed through a modern medium we might feel disposed to discredit the genius of a man who could contrive so many curious alphabets for secret writing as those he mentions, but such systems were extensively practised in political and private correspondence during the Civil war period to baffle the curiosity of political opponents. What may be called mechanical tricks were also much in vogue, such as singing and flying birds, artificial figures and horses, and curiously contrived watches, cabinets, locks, and keys. Unless we bear in mind the taste of the age, we shall read with surprise such an announcement as the following, in the 88th article in the "Century":--

"How to make a brazen or stone head, in the midst of a great field or garden, so artificial and natural, that though a man speak never so softly and even whispers into the ear thereof, it will presently open its mouth, and resolve the question in French, Latin, Welsh, Irish, or English, in good terms uttering it out of his mouth, and then shut it until the next question be asked."

No doubt the Marquis had in mind the history of the renowned Brazen Head attributed to Friar Bacon. The authors of the works on mechanical subjects published down to the 17th century, did not disdain to describe the way to manufacture automatic men, animals, and birds, with suitable joints, springs, weights, and bellows; and therefore, the Marquis did really no more than express the character of the times, without lowering his own superior intelligence. He was seeking the patronage of royalty, parliament, and the public, and if he offered occasionally such trifles as commanded the attention of the multitude, he never in the whole course of his chequered life lost sight of his more important occupations, the conceptions of a mind far in advance of that dismal and dark period. At the same time, that his age neglected to uphold applied science, and pertinaciously opposed whatever appeared to savour of innovation on time-honoured manufactures and trades, we cannot overlook the anomalous fact that it gave birth to Shakspeare, Bacon, and Milton; Sir Thomas Brown, Wallis, Hook, Newton, and Boyle, together with a brilliant constellation of luminaries who adorned every department of our general literature. Science alone stagnated, and the construction of public works was chiefly conducted by foreign aid. The establishment of the Royal Society in 1660, however, gave promise of that improvement which has steadily gone on year by year to the present day.

We have thus before us a broad outline of the Marquis of Worcester's birth, education, studies, and scientific pursuits. His tastes and employments were not suited to a successful political or military career, at a time when the rupture between the Crown and the Parliament rendered it necessary for every man to take the side either of the Cavaliers or the Roundheads. Both father and son displayed unbounded loyalty, although professing the Roman Catholic faith. Had they, like many other noble families, adopted the policy of taking opposite courses, the family might eventually have retained estates which were forfeited when the King was deposed, and were principally enjoyed by Cromwell. Raglan Castle was demolished, all that could be carried away was sold, the strong tower or citadel was partially blown up, its ditch left dry, and all that could be most readily spoiled was mutilated, even to the marble and alabaster monuments in Raglan Church, raised to the memory of ancestors of the family. Such ruthless destruction and pillage has failed, however, to obliterate the towers, walls, arches, chambers, and numerous vaults of that once princely residence.

From the year 1601 to 1641, (forty years of his life) was a period to which he refers as his "Golden Age" in the dedication of his "Century." While that from 1641 to 1647-8, (when he fled from Ireland to France,) was the most exciting, exhausting, and disastrous of his whole existence, and closed with utter ruin to himself and his family. He had then living his second wife, Henry, his son and heir, and two daughters. The family town mansion, Worcester House in the Strand, partly used as a State Paper Office, was eventually granted to the Marchioness of Worcester for her residence. The wearisomeness and distress attendant on his residence as a refugee in France during four years, was embittered by above two years imprisonment in the Tower, the result of his venturing to revisit London while proscribed by the Parliament as "an enemy and traitor to the Commonwealth," all such being threatened that they shall "die without mercy, whenever they shall be found within the limits of this nation." Burton, in his interesting Diary of Oliver Cromwell's Parliament, says in reference to the case of the Marquis on this occasion:--"It was urged he was an old man, had lain long in prison, and the small-pox then raging under the same roof where he lay; and he had not, as was said, done any actions of hostility, but only as a soldier; and in that capacity had always shown civilities to the English prisoners and Protestants. It was therefore ordered that he should be bailed out of prison." He was probably then about fifty-three years of age, but so harassed and so worn down by fatigue that he might well appear to be a prematurely "old man." He was not, however, too old to write his "Century" in 1655, and to re-write and publish it in 1663; to apply for and obtain an Act of Parliament for his great invention of a steam water-raising engine; and to get a working engine set up at Vauxhall, and project a public company for obtaining funds sufficient to extend its utility to the supply of towns, and canals, and for draining mines and marsh lands.

The Marquis of Worcester was sincerely impressed with the capabilities and great value of his invention; and it affords a striking proof of his high estimation and correct knowledge of the magnitude of his discovery, that he should have bowed himself before his Maker in humble adoration, acknowledging in a solemnly sublime strain his sense of obligation to the Supreme Source of all intelligence, for permitting him to become instrumental in the development of so great a mystery of nature. It is so short and significant that no apology can be required for quoting it entire:

"_The Lord Marquis of Worcester's ejaculatory and extemporary thanksgiving prayer when first with his corporal eyes, he did see finished a perfect trial of his Water-commanding Engine, delightful and useful to whomsoever hath in recommendation either knowledge, profit, or pleasure._

"Oh! infinitely omnipotent God whose mercies are fathomless, and whose knowledge is immense and inexhaustible, next to my creation and redemption I render Thee most humble thanks even from the very bottom of my heart and bowels, for thy vouchsafing me (the meanest in understanding), an insight in so great a secret of nature beneficial to all mankind, as this my Water-commanding Engine. Suffer me not to be puffed up, O Lord, by the knowing of it, and many more rare and unheard of, yea unparalleled inventions, trials, and experiments, but humble my haughty heart, by the true knowledge of my own ignorant, weak, and unworthy nature, prone to all evil. O most merciful Father, my Creator, most compassionating Son, my Redeemer, and Holiest of Spirits, the Sanctifier, three Divine persons and one God! grant me a further concurring grace with fortitude to take hold of thy goodness, to the end that whatever I do, unanimously and courageously to serve my king and country, to disabuse, rectify, and convert my undeserved, yet wilfully incredulous enemies, to reimburse thankfully my creditors, to remunerate my benefactors, to re-enhearten my distressed family, and with complacence to gratify my suffering and confiding friends may, void of vanity or self-ends, only be directed to thy honour and glory everlastingly. Amen."

Judging of the Marquis of Worcester's personal appearance from two family portraits, one when he was probably about twenty-five years of age, by Vandyck; the other when between forty and fifty years old, by Hanneman; he must have been rather of a delicate frame, and in stature somewhat under the average height; his face oval, with sharp bright eyes, and wearing a cheerful benignant aspect. His dress was, of course, the costume of the period of Charles the Second's reign, but its character has not been observed in either of the portraits just named, one of which represented him in armour, and the other, as was not then unusual with artists, attired as a Roman general. We infer that he laboured under a defect in his speech, from his remarking in a memorial addressed to the King that he penned it--"To ease your Majesty of a trouble incident to the prolixity of speech, and a _natural defect of utterance_ which I accuse myself of." It might be interesting to speculate how his sense of deficiency in physical strength, in eloquence of speech, and volubility of language might have contributed to the fostering of that disposition for intense application to scientific studies which became to him like a second nature.

During the first two years of the Restoration, the Marquis was in pretty regular attendance on his Parliamentary duties. In 1661, he was obliged to seek protection so that proceedings might not be taken against him by his creditors; and about the same time his forfeited estates were restored to him, but so encumbered and impoverished as to yield him a very insufficient income, if any. It was in the midst of such distractions as these that this talented inventor and noble benefactor to his species had to maintain his social position; and, at the same time, endeavour to convince the bigoted age in which he may be said rather to have existed than to have flourished, that he was master of a power of such magnitude for the abridging of human labour, as the mind of man had never before conceived.

It may be freely conceded that, _stupendous_ as he himself pronounced the parent engine to be, it was but as the acorn compared to the time-honoured monarch of the forest. Just as the existence of the plant is dependent on that of the seed, so if the Water-commanding Engine, the great Fire Water-work he constructed had never existed, we might have been unacquainted, to this day, with the mechanical application of steam, and should have been deprived in consequence of the manifold blessings it bountifully bestows on mankind.

ADDENDUM.

Evidence of the Marquis of Worcester's claim to the Invention of the Steam Engine.

1. His personal claim to have written a statement respecting it in 1655; his MS. being afterwards lost.

2. The Act of Parliament[5] which was granted him for the term of ninety-nine years, and which received the royal assent on the 3rd June, 1663.

[5] For lists of the names of members on the several Committees appointed on the occasion of this Act being applied for, see--"The Life, Times, &c.," 8vo. 1866, pages 254-5.

3. His "Century of Inventions," printed from a re-written copy of his lost notes of 1655; and which names in the Dedication, the granting of the above Act.

The following list[6] comprises upwards of seventeen persons all living in 1663:--

[6] From "Worcesteriana," 8vo. 1866, page viii.

4. CASPAR KALTOFF, a confidential workman, engaged by the Marquis as his engineer in 1628, who died about 1664, and is honourably mentioned in the "Century."

5. MARTHA KALTOFF, wife of Caspar Kaltoff, who is named in letters patent dated 1672, _as lately deceased_. Her family was--

CATHARINE, married to Claude Denis. CASPAR KALTOFF, and his unmarried sister-- ISABEL KALTOFF.

6. PETER JACOBSON, a sugar refiner, who married one of Kaltoff's daughters, had a portion of the buildings at Vauxhall, where the Water-commanding Engine was erected, and in operation from 1663, till at least to the year 1669, if not some years later.

7. WILLIAM LAMBERT, another workman, a founder at Vauxhall, in the reign of Charles I., "under the Marquis of Worcester, for gun and waterwork, or any other thing founded in brass," in 1647, and who was living in 1664-5.

8. CHRISTOPHER COPLEY, who had been a Colonel in the Parliamentary service, and was probably an iron master, having been the proprietor of four Iron Works. He assisted the Marquis at an early period and held a pecuniary interest in his invention of a Water-commanding Engine. Indeed it is highly probable that he was the "powerful friend" at whose instigation the "Century" was written in 1665.

9. The EARL OF LOTHERDALE, written to in January, 1660, had a copy of the "Definition" of the Engine sent to him, and is promised an ingeniously contrived box or cabinet. He was appointed as late as March, 1665, to be one of a Commission to report on the affairs of the Marquis, and must, therefore, have been familiar with all matters relating to the noble inventor.

10. DR. ROBERT HOOK, the eminent mathematician, was acquainted with Caspar Kaltoff, and early in 1667, went purposely to see the engine working at Vauxhall, having read the "Definition."

11. THE HONOURABLE ROBERT BOYLE received from Dr. Hook a copy of the "Definition," sent to him with a letter on the subject.

12. LORD BRERETON is specially mentioned by Dr. Hook, as being so confirmed in his doubts of the excellence of the Marquis's engine, that he had laid a wager on the subject.

13. HENRY SOMERSET, Lord Herbert, afterwards created first Duke of Beaufort, by Charles II., must have frequently seen the engine in operation. He died in 1699.

14. JAMES ROLLOCK, who wrote a poetic eulogy on the Engine about 1663, speaks of himself as "an ancient servant," having known his lordship forty years, dating back to 1623.[7]

[7] He was the author of a pamphlet now very rare, and which is absurdly enough attributed by Horace Walpole to the Marquis of Worcester. A reprint will be found in "The Life, Times, and Scientific Labours of the Marquis of Worcester," 8vo. 1866, page 559. It contains the following intimation to the reader:--

"I think it not amiss to give further notice in his Lordship's behalf, that he intends within a month or two, to erect an Office, and to entrust some very responsible and honourable persons with power to treat and conclude with such as desire at a reasonable rate, to reap the benefit of the same Water-commanding Engine."

So that it is manifest a public company was intended to be established in 1663-4, to extend operations with the engine then actually raising water at Vauxhall.

15. SAMUEL SORBIÈRE visited the works at Vauxhall, and published particulars of the engine he saw there in 1663.

16. LORD JOHN SOMERSET, the Marquis's eldest brother, appears latterly to have lived at Vauxhall, according to a warrant dated September, 1664; and would certainly be admitted into his brother's confidence.

17. COSMO THE THIRD, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in his Diary exactly describes the engine he saw at Vauxhall in 1669, "considered to be of _greater service to the public_ than the other machine near Somerset House."

18. WALTER TRAVERS, a Roman Catholic priest, names the engine in a letter which he wrote to the Dowager Marchioness of Worcester, in 1670.

19. DR. THOMAS SPRAT, F.R.S., published in 1665, a critical work on "M. Sorbière's Voyage into England," and could not therefore be ignorant of the Marquis's engine, as it was named by the French traveller, although Sprat omitted to notice it specially in his own "Observations."

20. Among his other contemporaries were Sir Samuel Morland, Dr. Wallis, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, and many more, who, however, (so far as is at present known,) are silent in regard to all matters relating to the Marquis.

II.

LECTURE DELIVERED ON THE 5TH NOVEMBER, 1868: BEING THE FIRST OR INAUGURAL LECTURE OF THE FREE LECTURES, AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM, ON CHIMERAS OF SCIENCE: ASTROLOGY, ALCHEMY, SQUARING THE CIRCLE, PERPETUUM MOBILE, ETC.

With Illustrative Diagrams.

AND RE-DELIVERED AT THE BIRKBECK LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION, 17TH FEBRUARY, 1869.

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, But drinking largely sobers us again."--POPE.

PREFACE.

The present Lecture, embodying a variety of subjects, under the general title of CHIMERAS OF SCIENCE, not only reviews them in succession, but expresses sentiments with regard to each which result from a long acquaintance with ancient and modern scientific authors; supported by an experimental, and, not unfrequently, by a practical acquaintance with several branches of natural philosophy. The consequence of this intimacy with various scientific studies, has been a thorough conviction of the necessity of possessing a knowledge of elementary principles, before professing a belief in new doctrines, whose only recommendation is their novelty, extravagance, and inutility. Without absolutely pretending to any golden road, or short path to learning, superficial but ambitious scholars are the first to seize on first impressions, build up some grand theory, lay down certain postulates, seek proselytes, and display a wonderful amount of enthusiasm in creating systems which, however beautiful in appearance, can boast of no solid foundation. Imperfectly educated, and shallow, but not unfrequently highly imaginative, men, if not themselves absolute charlatans, are the easily led dupes, who become the admirers and abettors of every "new wind of doctrine."