Part 9

Principal Barclay is the son of the Rev. James Barclay, minister of Unst, Shetland, and was born in the year 1792. After having been educated at King's College, Aberdeen, which he entered in the year 1808, and where he distinguished himself by carrying off the highest bursary, young Barclay proceeded to London, pending his appointment to a ministerial charge in the Church of Scotland. A spirit of adventure and enterprise induced him to take this step. He could not brook the idea of spending any of his time in a state of comparative idleness. Through the influence of some friends, he succeeded shortly after his arrival in the metropolis in getting an appointment as Parliamentary reporter to the _Times_, and he continued in the gallery of the House of Commons in that capacity during the four years commencing with 1818. It is not too much to say that these four years embraced one of the most eventful and exciting periods of England's history. The Reform agitation was being carried on with a bitterness that almost eclipsed all subsequent attempts to establish the five points of the Charter as the law of the land. In these years, too, the memorable trial of Queen Caroline took place, and it is one of Principal Barclay's most interesting reminiscences that during his connection with the _Times_ he had occasion to report not only a considerable amount of the evidence taken in the House of Lords during the Queen's trial, but also the memorable speech of Lord Brougham in defence of the unfortunate lady--a speech which has only been eclipsed in point of length by the recent address of the Attorney-General in the Tichborne trial, and by Burke's speech in connection with the trial of Warren Hastings. Among his _collaborateurs_ on the _Times_, Principal Barclay can recall the names of Collier, so well known for his knowledge and criticism of Shakespeare's works; Barnes, who subsequently distinguished himself as the sub-editor and leader-writer of the leading journal; and Tyas, who afterwards introduced that special feature for which the _Times_ has long been noted--the abridgement of the Parliamentary debates. The routine of a reporter's duties at that time was pretty much the same as it is at the present day, the main difference being that the work was, if anything, more difficult and arduous at a period when shorthand was in its infancy, and when the staff employed on the daily journals was much less numerous than it is in our own day. Another feature that tended to make more difficult the Parliamentary reporters' duties at that period, was the long "takes" which they had to supply--a "take" being the share of the work which each member of the reporting staff has individually alloted to his charge. At that time every reporter who entered the gallery was compelled to write out the proceedings of a whole hour, and he had to do this with so much celerity and amplitude that the report had to be as complete as the Parliamentary reports of the _Times_ have ever been. It has since been found, however, that the labour of an hour is far too much for one man, if he is to do himself or the report anything like justice; and hence the "take" of reporters became very much shortened, until they now seldom exceed a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Another negative phase of Dr. Barclay's journalistic career which may be noticed, is the fact that he never fell foul of the Sergeant-at-Arms, into whose custody many an unlucky reporter, who was accused of having misstated the speeches of legislators, was given. Despite the fact that Collier was at that time the only shorthand writer on the staff of the _Times_, it was his misfortune to undergo this ordeal. He was summoned to the bar of the House, and, having fully vindicated his report, he was immediately discharged from custody. The fee of the Sergeant-at-Arms (eighty guineas) was paid by Mr. Walter. On another occasion a complaint was made in the House of a report by a Mr. Ross, one of the _Times'_ staff. The occasion was a speech delivered by Canning, and the sentence which he was said to have misreported was to the effect that the subject had never been under the consideration of the Cabinet above five minutes. Ross, however, had the satisfaction of receiving a letter from Canning himself, in which the great statesman vindicated the accuracy of the report. Mr. Barclay was never a shorthand writer. He was accustomed to use abbreviated longhand, and he became so expert in the use of this system, that he could report without difficulty any average speaker. After leaving the _Times_, which he did at the close of the year 1821, Mr. Barclay received a call to Dunrossness, in Shetland, and he continued to minister in that parish until the year 1827, when he was translated to Lerwick, a parish in the same remote region. Subsequently, in 1843, he was removed to Petercoulter, in Aberdeenshire; and his fourth and last charge was Currie, in Mid Lothian, to which he was translated in 1844. It was while he was in the latter charge that the Principalship of the Glasgow University became vacant, owing to the death of the late Principal Macfarlan, and the office was conferred by the Government, with whom the patronage lay, upon Dr. Barclay. The appointment was a good deal discussed at the time, and it was said in some circles that it was scarcely judicious, the fact being that Mr. Barclay's claims and qualifications for such a high position were not fully known. But he had really earned the honour by his ability and scholarship. It is questionable whether any man in Scotland has a more extensive acquaintance with languages, both modern and ancient. He is particularly conversant with Icelandic literature, which very few people have studied, but which is specially worthy of study, both for its historical interest and its poetry. Indeed, from the Mediterranean to Iceland there is, perhaps, no language spoken that Principal Barclay does not understand. Besides this, however, he has devoted much attention to Biblical criticism, and he was long distinguished as one of the ablest and staunchest of the few advocates of reform and liberalism that during his ministerial career adorned the Church Courts. Hence, although they might be comparatively unknown, Dr. Barclay was not without due qualifications for the office. One of the leading journals, in referring to Principal Barclay's appointment, which was made in December, 1857, declared "that to stand up as he did against a mass of brethren in matters on which the _esprit de corps_ is morbidly strong, requires not only the exercise of some of the higher moral and intellectual powers, but the sacrifice of some of the weaknesses especially incident to the clerical character, and those who in the Established Church Courts perform such a duty in the interests of justice, of progress, and of the public, have much need of the sympathy and encouragement that can be given from without. Hitherto, however, there has been a sort of impression that the support of liberal measures formed rather an obstacle than a recommendation to the good offices of even liberal dispensers of patronage, and there is matter for congratulation in so much being done towards the destruction of this impression by the fact of Dr. Barclay, being a Liberal in Church and State not having been allowed to act as a counterbalance to his other qualifications for the high office to which he is about to be raised." Principal Barclay enjoys in his present capacity an _otium cum dignitate_ to which, after the labours of a long life, he is well entitled. Although verging on his eightieth year, he is still hale, hearty, and vigorous, and able to converse intelligently on the most abstruse and recondite subjects. Principal Barclay was married in 1820 to Mary, the daughter of the late Captain Adamson of Kirkhill. They have had a large family, but only two daughters and one son survive. Both the former are married, and the latter is following the medical profession in China.

PROFESSOR RANKINE.

The Clyde is indissolubly connected with the history and progress of naval architecture. It was on the Clyde that steam navigation was first successfully applied. The Clyde may almost be said to be the cradle of iron shipbuilding; and it is to Clyde engineers and shipbuilders that the compound marine engine, and other improvements that have rendered ocean navigation more easy, safe, and practicable, are mainly due. But while the earlier history of naval architecture is bound up with that of the Clyde, its ultimate development and its present high state of perfection were brought about by the sustained and unflagging energy, enterprise, and ability of men like Professor Rankine, Robert Napier, and John Elder, who exerted themselves to maintain the pre-eminence which, thanks to their discoveries and exertions, the Clyde has never lost. The two latter gentlemen carried out in practice what the former demonstrated in theory. Never having been directly engaged in commercial pursuits, Professor Rankine could not earn the credit of building those leviathans that have directly contributed to our commercial prosperity; but in another, and not less essential way, he has assisted to build up and consolidate our industrial supremacy, and his numerous writings and discoveries in the science of mechanics will ever cause him to be regarded as a pioneer, not less than Henry Bell or Robert Napier, of a trade that has proved a source of untold wealth to the West of Scotland.

Professor William John Macquorn Rankine was born in Edinburgh. His father was an officer in the Rifle Brigade, and afterwards a railway manager and director. After receiving his education at Edinburgh University, he studied engineering under his father, and afterwards under Sir John M'Neill, who subsequently became Professor of Practical Engineering in Trinity College, Dublin, and at the opening of the railway from Dublin to Drogheda, which he constructed in 1844, received the honour of knighthood from Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. When we remember that Sir John was no less able as a teacher than as an author, and that his knowledge of engineering was not bounded by mere theory alone, we get a clue to the eminently practical turn of mind which characterised his illustrious pupil. In 1844 Mr. Rankine commenced business as a civil engineer in Edinburgh. His residence in Edinburgh was unrelieved by any event worthy of being recorded in his biography, if we except a project, which he brought before the authorities and zealously promoted, for obtaining a more efficient supply of water. After a two or three years' residence in Edinburgh, Mr. Rankine determined to remove to Glasgow, where a more congenial sphere appeared ready to receive him. Entering into partnership with Mr. John Thomson, he took an active part in all great schemes of a scientific or mechanical nature; and it was while here engaged in private practice that he again called attention to the admirable source of water supply afforded by Loch Katrine, thus reviving a project which had been originated in 1845 by Messrs. Gordon and Hill. It was reserved for others to carry to a successful issue the scheme thus earnestly advocated by Rankine; but to him belongs the merit none the less of having urged it upon the authorities of that day. After the lapse of several years, during which he no doubt improved his time and opportunities by laying the foundation of that series of text books which he produced with remarkable fecundity in a marvellously short space of time, Mr. Rankine was appointed in 1855 to the Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in Glasgow University. This Chair, we may explain, was instituted by Queen Victoria in 1840, and is in the gift of the Crown. Its first occupant was Louis D. B. Gordon, C.E., who subsequently devoted his whole time and attention to the practical business of civil engineering and to telegraphy, in connection with which subjects he has made a great reputation. The curriculum of study imparted by Professor Rankine includes the stability of structures; the strength of materials; the principle of the actions of machines; prime movers, whether driven by animal strength, wind, or the mechanical action of heat; the principles of hydraulics; the mathematical principles of surveying and levelling; the engineering of earthwork, masonry, carpentry, structures in iron, roads, railways, bridges, and viaducts, tunnels, canals, works of drainage and water supply, river works, harbour works, and sea coast works. The engineering school of the University of Glasgow was approved by the Secretary of State for India in Council as one in which attendance for two years would qualify a student who had fulfilled the other required conditions to compete for admission to the engineering establishments of India. This recognition, however, came to an end when the Cooper's Hill College was established. It is worth while noticing that although Professor Rankine started on his academic career with only some half-a-dozen pupils, his class now numbers between 40 and 50. This is to be ascribed in a great measure to the establishment by the authorities of the University in 1862 of a systematic course of study and examination in engineering science, embracing the various branches of mathematical and physical science which have a bearing on engineering. While attending to his University duties he still continued to carry on a private practice, and was frequently called in to consult upon engineering schemes of great magnitude, in this and other countries, and upon matters relating to shipbuilding and marine engineering.

Mr. Rankine's literary career commenced while he was in Edinburgh with the publication of a series of papers on the mechanical action of heat. His theory of the development of heat as one of the forces of thermo-dynamics was propounded simultaneously with that of Professor Clausius of Berlin, in 1849, and supplied the only link that was wanted to make the theory of the steam engine a perfect science. For his researches on this subject he received the Keith Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1852. Of miscellaneous literature connected with the science of mechanics he has been a most voluminous writer. He has contributed a number of valuable papers to the Institution of Naval Architects, of which for many years he has been a prominent member. In 1864 he read before that Society papers on "The Computation of the Probable Engine Power and Speed of Proposed Ships," "On Isochronous Rolling Ships," and on "The Uneasy Rolling of Ships." In the following year he read a paper on "A Proposed Method of Bevelling Iron Frames in Ships;" and, in 1866, he read two papers--one of them demonstrating the means of finding the most economical rates of expansion in steam engines, and the other describing a balanced rudder for screw steamers. But he did not confine his contributions to one Institution, or even to one medium of publication, for we find that he read a number of papers before the Philosophical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, while he wrote occasionally at the same time for the _Philosophical Magazine_, the _Journal of the Royal United Service Institution_, and other leading publications. His first appearance in the pages of the _Philosophical Magazine_ was made in 1842, when he wrote a paper on an experimental inquiry into the advantages attending the use of cylindrical wheels on, with an explanation of the theory of adopting curves for these wheels, and its application to practice, and an account of experiments showing the easy draught and safety of carriages with cylindrical wheels. From this time, until he made his _debut_ at the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1853, he had been working most assiduously at his theory of the development of heat, and one of his first papers to the Royal Society was entitled "A Review of the Fundamental Principles of the Mechanical Theory of Heat, with Remarks on the Thermic Phenomena of Currents of Elastic Fluids, as Illustrating those Principles." In 1858 he published "A Manual of Applied Mechanics and other Prime Movers," in 1859 he produced another masterly work on "Civil Engineering," and in 1866 "Useful Rules and Tables Relating to Mensuration" came from his prolific pen. In 1865 he published, in conjunction with his friends Mr. James R. Napier, Mr. Isaac Watts, C.B., and Mr. F. K. Barnes, of the Constructors' Department of the Royal Navy, a treatise on "Shipbuilding, Theoretical and Practical," which has since taken a foremost place among the mechanical works of the day. Besides these, he wrote, in 1857, the article on "Applied Mechanics" for the eighth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, and in 1870 he published "A Manual of Machinery and Mill work." From the time that Mr. Rankine's maiden efforts at the literature of mechanical science appeared in the _London Philosophical Magazine_, he has attracted the attention and commanded the esteem of scientific men throughout the world. One of the most remarkable features in his career is the rapid succession with which he produced the text books of mathematical formulae which bear his name. Not a little of the contents of his works can claim the merit of originality, and where he has drawn upon previously ascertained facts, he has carried out his plan in such an able and judicious manner as to secure for his publications the confidence of the whole profession. Although each of his works is, in its way, equally valuable, the "Manual of Applied Mechanics," which forms the real basis of the others, maybe regarded as the standard, and so universal has its use become that the young engineer who has not mastered its contents is considered to have learned only half of his profession.

With his ample and varied experience in the qualities and requirements of sea-going vessels, Mr. Rankine was very appropriately selected a few months ago as one of the members of the Committee on Designs for Ships of War. This, we may add, is not the only instance in which he has been entrusted by Government with a responsible and honourable commission. For a number of years Mr. Rankine has held the honorary post of Consulting Engineer to the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. In 1859 he raised the Glasgow University Company of Rifle Volunteers, and served with that corps as Captain and Major for nearly five years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh; an LL.D. of Dublin University; and a member of several learned societies, including the British Association for the Advancement of Science, over the Mechanical Section of which he has more than once been called to preside.

Special reference should be made to Professor Rankine's connection with the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, with which the Association of Shipbuilders was ultimately incorporated. Of that Society Mr. Rankin was an earnest promoter, and he was suitably elected to be its first president. In recognition of the services which he rendered to the cause of mechanical science generally, and to this Institution in particular, he was presented with his bust at a conversazione held in the Corporation Galleries on 19th August, 1870, when the North of England Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers held a series of joint meetings with the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. The presentation was made by Mr. David Rowan, president, who read on the occasion an address prepared by the Council of the Association, in which the following passages occurred:--"The valuable assistance which you have constantly given for the advancement of the Institution since its foundation in the year 1757, the admirable manner in which, during three sessions, you presided over its deliberations, the distinction which your papers, and the part you have taken in the discussions, imparted to the proceedings, have placed the Institution under a debt of gratitude to you that we all feel cannot be adequately repaid by anything that it is in our power to do. These, however, are not the only reasons for the great esteem with which we all regard you. These may be said to be on our part selfish reasons; but there are others vastly more important why you merit--why you irresistibly attract--not only from us that great regard which we all feel to be an honour to ourselves to bestow, but from all who possess an acquaintance with your works, and who possess a knowledge of the value of exact science. Your work on 'Applied Mechanics' is a great illustration of your power to grasp, to connect, and to apply the definite principles of exact science with the less definite known elements of practical problems. Abstract principles are valueless, except in application to the wants of man, and this work occupies that field with great eminence. Your work on the 'Steam Engine and other Prime Movers' deals with the principles involved in that important subject in a masterly manner, that renders comparison with any other similar work impossible. In this work the first elements of the science upon which these machines depend are traced in their operation through their material embodiment, and the laws which govern the principle of pure science connected definitely with the varied construction of the machines. Your works on Civil Engineering, Machinery, and Millwork, &c., each exhibit the powerful intellect that is invariably found in all your productions, and that place them on an eminence peculiarly your own. All your books possess a value which we, who are practical men engaged in performing many of the varied works which fall to engineers, feel to be of the very highest importance. Each of these works is a text book on the subject to which it relates, and an authority established in the estimation of those engaged in these pursuits. The labour and mental power required for the production of these works place the author on an eminence rarely attainable. But great as is the distinction which the authorship of these works proclaim, there is yet another and grander achievement for which science is indebted to you. The new science of modern times which embraces the relation of all physical energy is largely your own. It is to you that we chiefly owe the development of that branch of the science called Thermo-dynamics, which has revolutionised the theory of heat and the principles of all the machines dependent on that theory. The steam engine, the most important instrument, I believe, in existence, is now placed on two principles. Its operation before the development of this science was to a considerable extent obscure, and although there are some features that still require consideration, you have done more than was ever done before to instruct us in its true principle and operation. Your development of thermo-dynamics, coupled with the great discovery of Joule of the numerical relation of heat and dynamic effect, or the quantity of the one that is equal to a quantity of the other, places within our reach the numerical result to be obtained from assumed elements of heat--prime movers. Your name, and that of Clausers, and Joule, and our distinguished friend Thomson, will ever be associated with this science, which has done much towards explaining important laws of nature."