Indeed, years ago, the building of shipping in this country was much hindered by the want of materials.

The trade was being rapidly transferred to Canada and the United States. Some years since, an American captain said to an Englishman, Captain Hall, when in China, "You will soon have to come to our country for your ships: your little island cannot grow wood enough for a large marine." "Oh!" said the Englishman, "we can build ships of iron!" "Iron?" replied the American in surprise, "why, iron sinks; only wood can float!" "Well! you will find I am right." The prophecy was correct. The Englishman in question has now a fleet of splendid iron steamers at sea.

The use of iron in shipbuilding had small beginnings, like everything else. The established prejudice—that iron must necessarily sink in water—long continued to prevail against its employment. The first iron vessel was built and launched about a hundred years since by John Wilkinson, of Bradley Forge, in Staffordshire. In a letter of his, dated the 14th July, 1787, the original of which we have seen, he writes: "Yesterday week my iron boat was launched. It answers all my expectations, and has convinced the unbelievers, who were 999 in 1000. It will be only a nine days' wonder, and afterwards a Columbus's egg." It was, however, more than a nine days' wonder; for wood long continued to be thought the only material capable of floating.

Although Wilkinson's iron vessels continued to ply upon the Severn, more than twenty years elapsed before another shipbuilder ventured to follow his example. But in 1810, Onions and Son, of Brosely, built several iron vessels, also for use upon the Severn. Then, in 1815, Mr. Jervons, of Liverpool, built a small iron boat for use on the Mersey. Six years later, in 1821, Mr. Aaron Manby designed an iron steam vessel, which was built at the Horsley Company's Works, in Staffordshire. She sailed from London to Havre a few years later, under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir Charles) Napier, RN. She was freighted with a cargo of linseed and iron castings, and went up the Seine to Paris. It was some time, however, before iron came into general use. Ten years later, in 1832, Maudslay and Field built four iron vessels for the East India Company. In the course of about twenty years, the use of iron became general, not only for ships of war, but for merchant ships plying to all parts of the world.

When ships began to be built of iron, it was found that they could be increased without limit, so long as coal, iron, machinery, and strong men full of skill and industry, were procurable. The trade in shipbuilding returned to Britain, where iron ships are now made and exported in large numbers; the mercantile marine of this country exceeding in amount and tonnage that of all the other countries of the world put together. The "wooden walls"[3] of England exist no more, for iron has superseded wood. Instead of constructing vessels from the forest, we are now digging new navies out of the bowels of the earth, and our "walls," instead of wood, are now of iron and steel.

The attempt to propel ships by other means than sails and oars went on from century to century, and did not succeed until almost within our own time. It is said that the Roman army under Claudius Codex was transported into Sicily in boats propelled by wheels moved by oxen. Galleys, propelled by wheels in paddles, were afterwards attempted. The Harleian MS. contains an Italian book of sketches, attributed to the 15th century, in which there appears a drawing of a paddle-boat, evidently intended to be worked by men. Paddle-boats, worked by horse-power, were also tried. Blasco Garay made a supreme effort at Barcelona in 1543. His vessel was propelled by a paddle-wheel on each side, worked by forty men. But nothing came of the experiment.

Many other efforts of a similar kind were made,—by Savery among others,[4]—until we come down to Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, who, in 1787, invented a double-hulled boat, which he caused to be propelled on the Firth of Forth by men working a capstan which drove the paddles on each side. The men soon became exhausted, and on Miller mentioning the subject to William Symington, who was then exhibiting his road locomotive in Edinburgh, Symington at once said, "Why don't you employ steam-power?"

There were many speculations in early times as to the application of steam-power for propelling vessels through the water. David Ramsay in 1618, Dr. Grant in 1632, the Marquis of Worcester in 1661, were among the first in England to publish their views upon the subject. But it is probable that Denis Papin, the banished Hugnenot physician, for some time Curator of the Royal Society, was the first who made a model steam-boat. Daring his residence in England, he was elected Professor of Mathematics in the University of Marburg. It was while at that city that he constructed, in 1707, a small steam-engine, which he fitted in a boat—une petite machine d'un, vaisseau a roues—and despatched it to England for the purpose of being tried upon the Thames. The little vessel never reached England. At Munden, the boatmen on the River Weser, thinking that, if successful, it would destroy their occupation, seized the boat, with its machine, and barbarously destroyed it. Papin did not repeat his experiment, and died a few years later.

The next inventor was Jonathan Hulls, of Campden, in Gloucestershire. He patented a steamboat in 1736, and worked the paddle-wheel placed at the stern of the vessel by means of a Newcomen engine. He tried his boat on the River Avon, at Evesham, but it did not succeed, and the engine was taken on shore again. A local poet commemorated his failure in the following lines, which were remembered long after his steamboat experiment had been forgotten:—

"Jonathan Hull, With his paper skull, Tried hard to make a machine That should go against wind and tide; But he, like an ass, Couldn't bring it to pass, So at last was ashamed to be seen."

Nothing of importance was done in the direction of a steam-engine able to drive paddles, until the invention by James Watt, in 1769, of his double-acting engine—the first step by which steam was rendered capable of being successfully used to impel a vessel. But Watt was indifferent to taking up the subject of steam navigation, as well as of steam locomotion. He refused many invitations to make steam-engines for the propulsion of ships, preferring to confine himself to his "regular established trade and manufacture," that of making condensing steam-engines, which had become of great importance towards the close of his life.

Two records exist of paddle-wheel steamboats having been early tried in France—one by the Comte d'Auxiron and M. Perrier in 1774, the other by the Comte de Jouffroy in 1783—but the notices of their experiments are very vague, and rest on somewhat doubtful authority.

The idea, however, had been born, and was not allowed to die. When Mr. Miller of Dalswinton had revived the notion of propelling vessels by means of paddle-wheels, worked, as Savery had before worked them, by means of a capstan placed in the centre of the vessel, and when he complained to Symington of the fatigue caused to the men by working the capstan, and Symington had suggested the use of steam, Mr. Miller was impressed by the idea, and proceeded to order a steam-engine for the purpose of trying the experiment. The boat was built at Edinburgh, and removed to Dalswinton Lake. It was there fitted with Symington's steam-engine, and first tried with success on the 14th of October, 1788, as has been related at length in Mr. Nasmyth's 'Autobiography.' The experiment was repeated with even greater success in the charlotte Dundas in 1801, which was used to tow vessels along the Forth and Clyde Canal, and to bring ships up the Firth of Forth to the canal entrance at Grangemouth.

The progress of steam navigation was nevertheless very slow. Symington's experiments were not renewed. The Charlotte Dundas was withdrawn from use, because of the supposed injury to the banks of the Canal, caused by the swell from the wheel. The steamboat was laid up in a creek at Bainsford, where it went to ruin, and the inventor himself died in poverty. Among those who inspected the vessel while at work were Fulton, the American artist, and Henry Bell, the Glasgow engineer. The former had already occupied himself with model steamboats, both at Paris and in London; and in 1805 he obtained from Boulton and Watt, of Birmingham, the steam-engine required for propelling his paddle steamboat on the Hudson. The Clermont was first started in August, 1807, and attained a speed of nearly five miles an hour. Five years later, Henry Bell constructed and tried his first steamer on the Clyde.

It was not until 1815 that the first steamboat was seen on the Thames. This was the Richmond packet, which plied between London and Richmond. The vessel was fitted with the first marine engine Henry Maudslay ever made. During the same year, the Margery, formerly employed on the Firth of Forth, began plying between Gravesend and London; and the Thames, formerly the Argyll, came round from the Clyde, encountering rough seas, and making the voyage of 758 miles in five days and two hours. This was thought extraordinarily rapid—though the voyage of about 3000 miles, from Liverpool to New York, can now be made in only about two days' more time.

In nearly all seagoing vessels, the Paddle has now almost entirely given place to the Screw. It was long before this invention was perfected and brought into general use. It was not the production of one man, but of several generations of mechanical inventors. A perfected invention does not burst forth from the brain like a poetic thought or a fine resolve. It has to be initiated, laboured over, and pursued in the face of disappointments, difficulties, and discouragements.

Sometimes the idea is born in one generation, followed out in the next, and perhaps perfected in the third. In an age of progress, one invention merely paves the way for another. What was the wonder of yesterday, becomes the common and unnoticed thing of to-day.

The first idea of the screw was thrown out by James Watt more than a century ago. Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, had proposed to move canal boats by means of the steam-engine; and Dr. Small, his friend, was in communication with James Watt, then residing at Glasgow, on the subject. In a letter from Watt to Small, dated the 30th September, 1770, the former, after speaking of the condenser, and saying that it cannot be dispensed with, proceeds: "Have you ever considered a spiral oar for that purpose [propulsion of canal boats], or are you for two wheels?" Watt added a pen-and-ink drawing of his spiral oar, greatly resembling the form of screw afterwards patented. Nothing, however, was actually done, and the idea slept.

It was revived again in 1785, by Joseph Bramah, a wonderful projector and inventor.[5] He took out a patent, which included a rotatory steam-engine, and a mode of propelling vessels by means either of a paddle-wheel or a "screw propeller." This propeller was "similar to the fly of a smoke-jack"; but there is no account of Bramah having practically tried this method of propulsion.

Austria, also, claims the honour of the invention of the screw steamer. At Trieste and Vienna are statues erected to Joseph Ressel, on whose behalf his countrymen lay claim to the invention; and patents for some sort of a screw date back as far as 1794.

Patents were also taken out in England and America—by W. Lyttleton in 1794; by E. Shorter in 1799; by J. C. Stevens, of New Jersey, in 1804; by Henry James in 1811—but nothing practical was accomplished. Richard Trevethick, the anticipator of many things, also took out a patent in 1815, and in it he describes the screw propeller with considerable minuteness. Millington, Whytock, Perkins, Marestier, and Brown followed, with no better results.

The late Dr. Birkbeck, in a letter addressed to the 'Mechanics' Register,' in the year 1824, claimed that John Swan, of 82, Mansfield Street, Kingsland Road, London, was the practical inventor of the screw propeller. John Swan was a native of Coldingham, Berwickshire. He had removed to London, and entered the employment of Messrs. Gordon, of Deptford. Swan fitted up a boat with his propeller, and tried it on a sheet of water in the grounds of Charles Gordon, Esq., of Dulwich Hill. "The velocity and steadiness of the motion," said Dr. Birkbeck in his letter, "so far exceeded that of the same model when impelled by paddle-wheels driven by the same spring, that I could not doubt its superiority; and the stillness of the water was such as to give the vessel the appearance of being moved by some magical power."

Then comes another claimant—Mr. Robert Wilson, then of Dunbar (not far from Coldingham), but afterwards of the Bridgewater Foundry, Patricroft. In his pamphlet, published a few years ago, he states that he had long considered the subject, and in 1827 he made a small model, fitted with "revolving skulls," which he tried on a sheet of water in the presence of the Hon. Capt. Anthony Maitland, son of the Earl of Lauderdale. The experiment was successful—so successful, that when the "stern paddles" were in 1828 used at Leith in a boat twenty-five feet long, with two men to work the machinery, the boat was propelled at an average speed of about ten miles an hour; and the Society of Arts afterwards, in October, 1882, awarded Mr. Wilson their silver medal for the "description, drawing, and models of stern paddles for propelling steamboats, invented by him." The subject was, in 1833, brought by Sir John Sinclair under the consideration of the Board of Admiralty; but the report of the officials (Oliver Lang, Abethell, Lloyd, and Kingston) was to the effect that "the plan proposed (independent of practical difficulties) is objectionable, as it involves a greater loss of power than the common mode of applying the wheels to the side." And here ended the experiment, so far as Mr. Wilson's "stern paddles" were concerned.

It will be observed, from what has been said, that the idea of a screw propeller is a very old one. Watt, Bramah, Trevethick, and many more, had given descriptions of the screw. Trevethick schemed a number of its forms and applications, which have been the subject of many subsequent patents. It has been so with many inventions. It is not the man who gives the first idea of a machine who is entitled to the merit of its introduction, or the man who repeats the idea, and re-repeats it, but the man who is so deeply impressed with the importance of the discovery, that he insists upon its adoption, will take no denial, and at the risk of fame and fortune, pushes through all opposition, and is determined that what he thinks he has discovered shall not perish for want of a fair trial. And that this was the case with the practical introducer of the screw propeller will be obvious from the following statement.

Francis Pettit Smith was born at Hythe, in the county of Kent, in 1808. His father was postmaster of the town, and a person of much zeal and integrity. The boy was sent to school at Ashford, and there received a fair amount of education, under the Rev. Alexander Power. Young Smith displayed no special characteristic except a passion for constructing models of boats. When he reached manhood, he adopted the business of a grazing farmer on Romney Marsh. He afterwards removed to Hendon, north of London, where he had plenty of water on which to try his model boats. The reservoir of the Old Welsh Harp was close at hand—a place famous for its water-birds and wild fowl.

Smith made many models of boats, his experiments extending over many years. In 1834, he constructed a boat propelled by a wooden screw driven by a spring, the performance of which was thought extraordinary. Where he had got his original idea is not known. It was floating about in many minds, and was no special secret. Smith, however, arrived at the conclusion that his method of propelling steam vessels by means of a screw was much superior to paddles—at that time exclusively employed. In the following year, 1835, he constructed a superior model, with which he performed a number of experiments at Hendon. In May 1836, he took out a patent for propelling vessels by means of a screw revolving beneath the water at the stern. He then openly exhibited his invention at the Adelaide Gallery in London. Sir John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, inspected the model, and was much impressed by its action. During the time it was publicly exhibited, an offer was made to purchase the invention for the Pacha of Egypt; but the offer was declined.

At this stage of his operations, Smith was joined by Mr. Wright, banker, and Mr. C. A. Caldwell, who had the penetration to perceive that the invention was one of much promise, and were desirous of helping its introduction to general use. They furnished Smith with the means of constructing a more complete model. In the autumn of 1836, a small steam vessel of 10 tons burthen and six horse-power was built, further to test the advantages of the invention. This boat was fitted with a wooden screw of two whole turns. On the 1st of November the vessel was exhibited to the public on the Paddington Canal, as well as on the Thames, where she continued to ply until the month of September 1837.

During the trips upon the Thames, a happy accident occurred, which first suggested the advantage of reducing the length of the screw. The propeller having struck upon some obstacle in the water, about one-half of the length of the screw was broken off, and it was found that; the vessel immediately shot ahead and attained a much greater speed than before. In consequence of this discovery, a new screw of a single turn was fitted to her, after which she was found to work much better.

Having satisfied himself as to the eligibility of the propeller in smooth water, Mr. Smith then resolved to take his little vessel to the open sea, and breast the winds and the waves. Accordingly, one Saturday in the month of September 1837, he proceeded in his miniature boat, down the river, from Blackwall to Gravesend. There he took a pilot on board, and went on to Ramsgate. He passed through the Downs, and reached Dover in safety. A trial of the vessel's performance was made there in the presence of Mr. Wright, the banker, and Mr. Peake, the civil engineer. From Dover the vessel went on to Folkestone and Hythe, encountering severe weather. Nevertheless, the boat behaved admirably, and attained a speed of over seven miles an hour.

Though the weather had become stormy and boisterous, the little vessel nevertheless set out on her return voyage to London. Crowds of people assembled to witness her departure, and many nautical men watched her progress with solicitude as she steamed through the waves under the steep cliffs of the South Foreland. The courage of the undertaking, and the unexpected good performance of the little vessel, rendered her an object of great interest and excitement as she "screwed" her way along the coast.

The tiny vessel reached her destination in safety. Surely the difficulty of a testing trial, although with a model screw, had at length been overcome. But no! The paddle still possessed the ascendency; and a thousand interests—invested capital, use and wont, and conservative instincts—all stood in the way.

Some years before—indeed, about the time that Smith took out his patent—Captain Ericsson, the Swede, invented a screw propeller. Smith took out his patent in May, 1836; and Ericsson in the following July. Ericsson was a born inventor. While a boy in Sweden, he made saw mills and pumping engines, with tools invented by himself. He learnt to draw, and his mechanical career began. When only twelve years old, he was appointed a cadet in the Swedish corps of mechanical engineers, and in the following year he was put in charge of a section of the Gotha Ship Canal, then under construction. Arrived at manhood, Ericsson went over to England, the great centre of mechanical industry. He was then twenty-three years old. He entered into partnership with John Braithwaite, and with him constructed the Novelty, which took part in the locomotive competition at Rainhill on the 6th October, 1829. The prize was awarded to Stephenson's Rocket on the 14th; but it was acknowledged by The Times of the day that the Novelty was Stephenson's sharpest competitor.

Ericsson had a wonderfully inventive brain, a determined purpose, and a great capacity for work. When a want was felt, he was immediately ready with an invention. The records of the Patent Office show his incessant activity. He invented pumping engines, steam engines, fire engines, and caloric engines. His first patent for a "reciprocating propeller" was taken out in October 1834. To exhibit its action, he had a small boat constructed of only about two feet long. It was propelled by means of a screw; and was shown at work in a circular bath in London. It performed its voyage round the basin at the rate of about three miles an hour. His patent for a "spiral propeller," was taken out in July 1836. This was the invention, to exhibit which he had a vessel constructed, of about 40 feet long, with two propellers, each of 5 feet 3 inches diameter.

This boat, the Francis B. Ogden, proved extremely successful. She moved at a speed of about ten miles an hour. She was able to tow vessels of 140 tons burthen at the rate of seven miles an hour. Perceiving the peculiar and admirable fitness of the screw-propeller for ships of war, Ericsson invited the Lords of the Admiralty to take an excursion in tow of his experimental boat. "My Lords" consented; and the Admiralty barge contained on this occasion, Sir Charles Adam, senior Lord, Sir William Symonds, surveyor, Sir Edward Parry, of Polar fame, Captain Beaufort, hydrographer, and other men of celebrity. This distinguished company embarked at Somerset House, and the little steamer, with her precious charge, proceeded down the river to Limehouse at the rate of about ten miles an hour. After visiting the steam-engine manufactory of Messrs. Seawood, where their Lordships' favourite apparatus, the Morgan paddle-wheel, was in course of construction, they re-embarked, and returned in safety to Somerset House.

The experiment was perfectly successful, and yet the result was disappointment. A few days later, a letter from Captain Beaufort informed Mr. Ericsson that their Lordships had certainly been "very much disappointed with the result of the experiment." The reason for the disappointment was altogether inexplicable to the inventor. It afterwards appeared, however, that Sir William Symonds, then Surveyor to the Navy, had expressed the opinion that "even if the propeller had the power of propelling a vessel, it would be found altogether useless in practice, because the power being applied at the stern, it would be absolutely impossible to make the vessel steer!" It will be remembered that Francis Pettit Smith's screw vessel went to sea in the course of the same year; and not only faced the waves, but was made to steer in a perfectly successful manner.

Although the Lords of the Admiralty would not further encourage the screw propeller of Ericsson, an officer of the United States Navy, Capt. R. F. Stockton, was so satisfied of its success, that after making a single trip in the experimental steamboat from London Bridge to Greenwich, he ordered the inventor to build for him forthwith two iron boats for the United States, with steam machinery and a propeller on the same plan. One of these vessels—the Robert F. Stockton—seventy feet in length, was constructed by Laird and Co., of Birkenhead, in 1838, and left England for America in April 1839. Capt. Stockton so fully persuaded Ericsson of his probable success in America, that the inventor at once abandoned his professional engagements in England, and set out for the United States. It is unnecessary to mention the further important works of this great engineer.

We may, however, briefly mention that in 1844, Ericsson constructed for the United States Government the Princeton screw steamer—though he was never paid for his time, labour, and expenditure.[6] Undeterred by their ingratitude, Ericsson nevertheless constructed for the same government, when in the throes of civil war, the famous Monitor, the iron-clad cupola vessel, and was similarly rewarded! He afterwards invented the torpedo ship—the Destroyer—the use of which has fortunately not yet been required in sea warfare. Ericsson still lives—constantly planning and scheming—in his house in Beach Street, New York. He is now over eighty years old having been born in 1803. He is strong and healthy. How has he preserved his vigorous constitution? The editor of Scribner gives the answer: "The hall windows of his house are open, winter and summer, and none but open grate-fires are allowed. Insomnia never troubles him, for he falls asleep as soon as his head touches the pillow. His appetite and digestion are always good, and he has not lost a meal in ten years. What an example to the men who imagine it is hard work that is killing them in this career of unremitting industry!"

To return to "Screw" Smith, after the successful trial of his little vessel at sea in the autumn of 1837. He had many difficulties yet to contend with. There was, first, the difficulty of a new invention, and the fact that the paddle-boat had established itself in public estimation. The engineering and shipbuilding world were dead against him. They regarded the project of propelling a vessel by means of a screw as visionary and preposterous. There was also the official unwillingness to undertake anything novel, untried, and contrary to routine. There was the usual shaking of the head and the shrugging of the shoulders, as if the inventor were either a mere dreamer or a projector eager to lay his hands upon the public purse. The surveyor of the navy was opposed to the plan, because of the impossibility of making a vessel steer which was impelled from the stern. "Screw" Smith bided his time; he continued undaunted, and was determined to succeed. He laboured steadily onward, maintaining his own faith unshaken, and upholding the faith of the gentlemen who had become associated with him in the prosecution of the invention.

At the beginning of 1838 the Lords of the Admiralty requested Mr. Smith to allow his vessel to be tried under their inspection. Two trials were accordingly made, and they gave so much satisfaction that the adoption of the propeller for naval purposes was considered as a not improbable contingency. Before deciding finally upon its adoption, the Lords of the Admiralty were anxious to see an experiment made with a vessel of not less than 200 tons. Mr. Smith had not the means of accomplishing this by himself, but with the improved prospects of the invention, capitalists now came to his aid. One of the most effective and energetic of these was Mr. Henry Currie, banker; and, with the assistance of others, the "Ship Propeller Company" was formed, and proceeded to erect the test ship proposed by the Admiralty.

The result was the Archimedes, a wooden vessel of 237 tons burthen. She was designed by Mr. Pasco, laid down by Mr. Wimshurst in the spring of 1838, was launched on the 18th of October following, and made her first trip in May 1839. She was fitted with a screw of one turn placed in the dead wood, and propelled by a pair of engines of 80-horse power. The vessel was built under the persuasion that her performance would be considered satisfactory if a speed was attained of four or five knots an hour, where as her actual speed was nine and a half knots. The Lords of the Admiralty were invited to inspect the ship. At the second trial Sir Edward Parry, Sir William Symonds, Captain Basil Hall, and other distinguished persons were present.

The results were again satisfactory. The success of the Archimedes astonished the engineering world. Even the Surveyor of the Royal Navy found that the vessel could steer! The Lords of the Admiralty could no longer shut their eyes. But the invention could not at once be adopted. It must be tested by the best judges. The vessel was sent to Dover to be tried with the best packets between Dover and Calais. Mr. Lloyd, the chief engineer of the Navy, conducted the investigation, and reported most favourably as to the manner of her performance. Yet several years elapsed before the screw was introduced into the service.

In 1840 the Archimedes was placed at the disposal of Captain Chappell, of the Royal Navy, who, accompanied by Mr. Smith, visited every principal port in Great Britain. She was thus seen by shipowners, marine engineers, and shipbuilders in every part of the kingdom. They regarded her with wonder and admiration; yet the new mode of navigation was not speedily adopted. The paddle-wheel still held its own. The sentiment, if not the plant and capital, of the engineering world, were against the introduction of the screw. After the vessel had returned from her circumnavigation of Great Britain, she was sent to Oporto, and performed the voyage in sixty-eight and a half hours, then held to be the quickest voyage on record. She was then sent to the Texel at the request of the Dutch Government. She went through the North Holland Canal, visited Amsterdam, Antwerp, and other ports; and everywhere left the impression that the screw was an efficient and reliable power in the propulsion of vessels at sea.

Shipbuilders, however, continued to "fight shy" of the screw. The late Isambard Kingdon Brunel is entitled to the credit of having first directed the attention of shipbuilders to this important invention. He was himself a man of original views, free from bias, and always ready to strike out a fresh path in engineering works. He was building a large new iron steamer at Bristol, the Great Britain, for passenger traffic between England and America. He had intended to construct her as a paddle steamer; but hearing of the success of the Archimedes, he inspected the vessel, and was so satisfied with the performance of the screw that he recommended his directors to adopt this method for propelling the Great Britain. His advice was adopted, and the vessel was altered so as to adapt her for the reception of the screw. The vessel was found perfectly successful, and on her first voyage to London she attained the speed of ten knots an hour, though the wind and balance of tides were against her. A few other merchant ships were built and fitted with the screw; the Princess Royal at Newcastle in 1840, the Margaret and Senator at Hull, and the Great Northern at Londonderry, in 1841.

The Lords of the Admiralty made slow progress in adapting the screw for the Royal Navy. Sir William Symonds, the surveyor and principal designer of Her Majesty's ships, was opposed to all new projects. He hated steam power, and was utterly opposed to iron ships. He speaks of them in his journal as "monstrous."[7] So long as he remained in office everything was done in a perfunctory way. A small vessel named the Bee was built at Chatham in 1841, and fitted with both paddles and the screw for the purposes of experiment. In the same year the Rattier, the first screw vessel built for the navy, was laid down at Sheerness. Although of only 888 tons burthen, she was not launched until the spring of 1843. She was then fitted with the same kind of screw as the Archimedes, that is, a double-headed screw of half a convolution. Experiments went on for about three years, so as to determine the best proportions of the screw, and the proportions then ascertained have since been the principal guides of engineering practice.

The Rattler was at length tried in a water tournament with the paddle-steamer Alecto, and signally defeated her. Francis Pettit Smith, like Gulliver, may be said to have dragged the whole British fleet after him. Were the paddle our only means of propulsion, our whole naval force would be reduced to a nullity. Hostile gunners would wing a paddle-steamer as effectually as a sportsman wings a bird, and all the plating in the world would render such a ship a mere helpless log on the water.

The Admiralty could no longer defer the use of this important invention. Like all good things, it made its way slowly and by degrees. The royal naval authorities, who in 1833 backed the side paddles, have since adopted the screw in most of the ships-of-war. In all long sea-going voyages, also, the screw is now the favourite mode of propulsion. Screw ships of prodigious size are now built and launched in all the ship-building ports of Britain, and are sent out to navigate in every part of the world.

The introduction of iron as the material for shipbuilding has immensely advanced the interests of steam navigation, as it enables the builders to construct vessels of great size with the finest lines, so as to attain the highest rates of speed.

One might have supposed that Francis Pettit Smith would derive some substantial benefit from his invention, or at least that the Ship Propeller Company would distribute large dividends among their proprietors. Nothing of the kind. Smith spent his money, his labour, and his ingenuity in conferring a great public benefit without receiving any adequate reward; and the company, instead of distributing dividends, lost about 50,000L. in introducing this great invention; after which, in 1856, the patent-right expired. Three hundred and twenty-seven ships and vessels of all classes in the Royal Navy had then been fitted with the screw propeller, and a much larger number in the merchant service; but since that time the number of screw propellers constructed is to be counted by thousands.

In his comparatively impoverished condition it was found necessary to do something for the inventor. The Civil Engineers, with Robert Stephenson, M.P., in the chair, entertained him at a dinner and presented him with a handsome salver and claret jug. And that he might have something to put upon his salver and into his claret jug, a number of his friends and admirers subscribed over 2000L. as a testimonial. The Government appointed him Curator of the Patent Museum at South Kensington; the Queen granted him a pension on the Civil List for 200L. a year; he was raised to the honour of knighthood in 1871, and three years later he died.

Francis Pettit Smith was not a great inventor. He had, like many others, invented a screw propeller. But, while those others had given up the idea of prosecuting it to its completion, Smith stuck to his invention with determined tenacity, and never let it go until he had secured for it a complete triumph. As Mr. Stephenson observed at the engineer's meeting: "Mr. Smith had worked from a platform which might have been raised by others, as Watt had done, and as other great men had done; but he had made a stride in advance which was almost tantamount to a new invention. It was impossible to overrate the advantages which this and other countries had derived from his untiring and devoted patience in prosecuting the invention to a successful issue." Baron Charles Dupin compared the farmer Smith with the barber Arkwright: "He had the same perseverance and the same indomitable courage. These two moral qualities enabled him to triumph over every obstacle." This was the merit of "Screw" Smith—that he was determined to realize what his predecessors had dreamt of achieving; and he eventually accomplished his great purpose.

Footnotes for Chapter II.

[1] In the Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects for 1860, it was pointed out that the general dimensions and form of bottom of this ship were very similar to the most famous line-of-battle ships built down to the end of last century, some of which were then in existence.

[2] According to the calculation of Mr. Chatfield, of Her Majesty's dockyard at Plymouth, in a paper read before the British Association in 1841 on shipbuilding.

[3] The phrase "wooden walls" is derived from the Greek. When the city of Athens was once in danger of being attacked and destroyed, the oracle of Delphi was consulted. The inhabitants were told that there was no safety for them but in their "wooden walls,"—that is their shipping. As they had then a powerful fleet, the oracle gave them rational advice, which had the effect of saving the Athenian people.

[4] An account of these is given by Bennet Woodcraft in his Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation, London, 1848.

[5] See Industrial Biography, pp. 183-197,

[6] The story is told in Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine, for April 1879. Ericsson's modest bill was only $15,000 for two years' labour. He was put off from year to year, and at length the Government refused to pay the amount. "The American Government," says the editor of Scribner, "will not appropriate the money to pay it, and that is all. It is said to be the nature of republics to be ungrateful; but must they also be dishonest?"

[7] Memoirs of the Life and Services of Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds, Kt., p. 332.



CHAPTER III.[1]

JOHN HARRISON: INVENTOR OF THE MARINE CHRONOMETER.

"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's actual position when far out of sight of land, enabling long voyages to be safely made; the marvellous improvements in ship-building, which shortened passages by sailing vessels, and vastly reduced freights even before steam gave an independent force to the carrier—each and all were done by small advances, which together contributed to the general movement of mankind.... Each owes all to the others. The forgotten inventors live for ever in the usefulness of the work they have done and the progress they have striven for."—H. M. Hyndman.

One of the most extraordinary things connected with Applied Science is the method by which the Navigator is enabled to find the exact spot of sea on which his ship rides. There may be nothing but water and sky within his view; he may be in the midst of the ocean, or gradually nearing the land; the curvature of the globe baffles the search of his telescope; but if he have a correct chronometer, and can make an astronomical observation, he may readily ascertain his longitude, and know his approximate position—how far he is from home, as well as from his intended destination. He is even enabled, at some special place, to send down his grappling-irons into the sea, and pick up an electrical cable for examination and repair.

This is the result of a knowledge of Practical Astronomy. "Place an astronomer," says Mr. Newcomb, "on board a ship; blindfold him; carry him by any route to any ocean on the globe, whether under the tropics or in one of the frigid zones; land him on the wildest rock that can be found; remove his bandage, and give him a chronometer regulated to Greenwich or Washington time, a transit instrument with the proper appliances, and the necessary books and tables, and in a single clear night he can tell his position within a hundred yards by observations of the stars. This, from a utilitarian point of view, is one of the most important operations of Practical Astronomy."[2]

The Marine Chronometer was the outcome of the crying want of the sixteenth century for an instrument that should assist the navigator to find his longitude on the pathless ocean. Spain was then the principal naval power; she was the most potent monarchy in Europe, and held half America under her sway. Philip III. offered 100,000 crowns for any discovery by means of which the longitude might be determined by a better method than by the log, which was found very defective. Holland next became a great naval power, and followed the example of Spain in offering 30,000 florins for a similar discovery. But though some efforts were made, nothing practical was done, principally through the defective state of astronomical instruments. England succeeded Spain and Holland as a naval power; and when Charles II. established the Greenwich Observatory, it was made a special point that Flamsteed, the Astronomer-Royal, should direct his best energies to the perfecting of a method for finding the longitude by astronomical observations. But though Flamsteed, together with Halley and Newton, made some progress, they were prevented from obtaining ultimate success by the want of efficient chronometers and the defective nature of astronomical instruments.

Nothing was done until the reign of Queen Anne, when a petition was presented to the Legislature on the 25th of May, 1714, by "several captains of Her Majesty's ships, merchants in London, and commanders of merchantmen, in behalf of themselves, and of all others concerned in the navigation of Great Britain," setting forth the importance of the accurate discovery of the longitude, and the inconvenience and danger to which ships were subjected from the want of some suitable method of discovering it. The petition was referred to a committee, which took evidence on the subject. It appears that Sir Isaac Newton, with his extraordinary sagacity, hit the mark in his report. "One is," he said, "by a watch to keep time exactly; but, by reason of the motion of a ship, and the variation of heat and cold, wet and dry, and the difference of gravity in different latitudes, such a watch hath not yet been made."

An Act was however passed in the Session of 1714, offering a very large public reward to inventors: 10,000L. to any one who should discover a method of determining the longitude to one degree of a great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. if it determined the same to two-thirds of that distance, or 40 geographical miles; and 20,000L. if it determined the same to one-half of the same distance, or 30 geographical miles. Commissioners were appointed by the same Act, who were instructed that "one moiety or half part of such reward shall be due and paid when the said commissioners, or the major part of them, do agree that any such method extends to the security of ships within 80 geographical miles of the shore, which are places of the greatest danger; and the other moiety or half part when a ship, by the appointment of the said commissioners, or the major part of them, shall actually sail over the ocean, from Great Britain to any such port in the West Indies as those commissioners, or the major part of them, shall choose or nominate for the experiment, without losing the longitude beyond the limits before mentioned."

The terms of this offer indicate how great must have been the risk and inconvenience which it was desired to remedy. Indeed, it is almost inconceivable that a reward so great could be held out for a method which would merely afford security within eighty geographical miles!

This splendid reward for a method of discovering the longitude was offered to the world—to inventors and scientific men of all countries—without restriction of race, or nation, or language. As might naturally be expected, the prospect of obtaining it stimulated many ingenious men to make suggestions and contrive experiments; but for many years the successful construction of a marine time-keeper seemed almost hopeless. At length, to the surprise of every one, the prize was won by a village carpenter—a person of no school, or university, or college whatever.

Even so distinguished an artist and philosopher as Sir Christopher Wren was engaged, as late in his life as the year 1720, in attempting to solve this important problem. As has been observed, in the memoir of him contained in the 'Biographia Britannica,'[3] "This noble invention, like some others of the most useful ones to human life, seems to be reserved for the peculiar glory of an ordinary mechanic, who, by indefatigable industry, under the guidance of no ordinary sagacity, hath seemingly at last surmounted all difficulties, and brought it to a most unexpected degree of perfection." Where learning and science failed, natural genius seems to have triumphed.

The truth is, that the great mechanic, like the great poet, is born, not made; and John Harrison, the winner of the famous prize, was a born mechanic. He did not, however, accomplish his object without the exercise of the greatest skill, patience, and perseverance. His efforts were long, laborious, and sometimes apparently hopeless. Indeed, his life, so far as we can ascertain the facts, affords one of the finest examples of difficulties encountered and triumphantly overcome, and of undaunted perseverance eventually crowned by success, which is to be found in the whole range of biography.

No complete narrative of Harrison's career was ever written. Only a short notice of him appears in the 'Biographia Britannica,' published in 1766, during his lifetime'—the facts of which were obtained from himself. A few notices of him appear in the 'Annual Register,' also published during his lifetime. The final notice appeared in the volume published in 1777, the year after his death. No Life of him has since appeared. Had he been a destructive hero, and fought battles by land or sea, we should have had biographies of him without end. But he pursued a more peaceful and industrious course. His discovery conferred an incalculable advantage on navigation, and enabled innumerable lives to be saved at sea; it also added to the domains of science by its more exact measurement of time. But his memory has been suffered to pass silently away, without any record being left for the benefit and advantage of those who have succeeded him. The following memoir includes nearly all that is known of the life and labours of John Harrison.

He was born at Foulby, in the parish of Wragby, near Pontefract, Yorkshire, in March, 1693. His father, Henry Harrison, was carpenter and joiner to Sir Rowland Winn, owner of the Nostell Priory estate. The present house was built by the baronet on the site of the ancient priory. Henry Harrison was a sort of retainer of the family, and long continued in their Service.

Little is known of the boy's education. It was certainly of a very inferior description. Like George Stephenson, Harrison always had a great difficulty in making himself understood, either by speech or writing. Indeed, every board-school boy now receives a better education than John Harrison did a hundred and eighty years ago. But education does not altogether come by reading and writing. The boy was possessed of vigorous natural abilities. He was especially attracted by every machine that moved upon wheels. The boy was 'father to the man.' When six years old, and lying sick of small-pox, a going watch was placed upon his pillow, which afforded him infinite delight.

When seven years old he was taken by his father to Barrow, near Barton-on-Humber, where Sir Rowland Winn had another residence and estate. Henry Harrison was still acting as the baronet's carpenter and joiner. In course of time young Harrison joined his father in the workshop, and proved of great use to him. His opportunities for acquiring knowledge were still very few, but he applied his powers of observation and his workmanship upon the things which were nearest him. He worked in wood, and to wood he first turned his attention.

He was still fond of machines going upon wheels. He had enjoyed the sight of the big watch going upon brass wheels when he was a boy; but, now that he was a workman in wood, he proposed to make an eight-day clock, with wheels of this material. He made the clock in 1713, when he was twenty years old,[4] so that he must have made diligent use of his opportunities. He had of course difficulties to encounter, and nothing can be accomplished without them; for it is difficulties that train the habits of application and perseverance. But he succeeded in making an effective clock, which counted the time with regularity. This clock is still in existence. It is to be seen at the Museum of Patents, South Kensington; and when we visited it a few months ago it was going, and still marking the moments as they passed. It is contained in a case about six feet high, with a glass front, showing a pendulum and two weights. Over the clock is the following inscription:

"This clock was made at Barrow, Lincolnshire, in the year 1715, by John Harrison, celebrated as the inventor of a nautical timepiece, or chronometer, which gained the reward of 20,000L., offered by the Board of Longitude, A.D. 1767.

"This clock strikes the hour, indicates the day of the month, and with one exception (the escapement) the wheels are entirely made of wood."

This, however, was only a beginning. Harrison proceeded to make better clocks; and then he found it necessary to introduce metal, which was more lasting. He made pivots of brass, which moved more conveniently in sockets of wood with the use of oil. He also caused the teeth of his wheels to run against cylindrical rollers of wood, fixed by brass pins, at a proper distance from the axis of the pinions; and thus to a considerable extent removed the inconveniences of friction.

In the meantime Harrison eagerly improved every incident from which he might derive further information. There was a clergyman who came every Sunday to the village to officiate in the neighbourhood; and having heard of the sedulous application of the young carpenter, he lent him a manuscript copy of Professor Saunderson's discourses. That blind professor had prepared several lectures on natural philosophy for the use of his students, though they were not intended for publication. Young Harrison now proceeded to copy them out, together with the diagrams. Sometimes, indeed, he spent the greater part of the night in writing or drawing.

As part of his business, he undertook to survey land, and to repair clocks and watches, besides carrying on his trade of a carpenter. He soon obtained a considerable knowledge of what had been done in clocks and watches, and was able to do not only what the best professional workers had done, but to strike out entirely new lights in the clock and watch-making business. He found out a method of diminishing friction by adding a joint to the pallets of the pendulum, whereby they were made to work in the nature of rollers of a large radius, without any sliding, as usual, upon the teeth of the wheel. He constructed a clock on the recoiling principle, which went perfectly, and never lost a minute within fourteen years. Sir Edmund Denison Beckett says that he invented this method in order to save himself the trouble of going so frequently to oil the escapement of a turret clock, of which he had charge; though there were other influences at work besides this.

But his most important invention, at this early period of his life, was his compensation pendulum. Every one knows that metals expand with heat and contract by cold. The pendulum of the clock therefore expanded in summer and contracted in winter, thereby interfering with the regular going of the clock. Huygens had by his cylindrical checks removed the great irregularity arising from the unequal lengths of the oscillations; but the pendulum was affected by the tossing of a ship at sea, and was also subject to a variation in weight, depending on the parallel of latitude. Graham, the well-known clock-maker, invented the mercurial compensation pendulum, consisting of a glass or iron jar filled with quicksilver and fixed to the end of the pendulum rod. When the rod was lengthened by heat, the quicksilver and the jar which contained it were simultaneously expanded and elevated, and the centre of oscillation was thus continued at the same distance from the point of suspension.

But the difficulty, to a certain extent, remained unconquered until Harrison took the matter in hand. He observed that all rods of metal do not alter their lengths equally by heat, or, on the contrary, become shorter by cold, but some more sensibly than others. After innumerable experiments Harrison at length composed a frame somewhat resembling a gridiron, in which the alternate bars were of steel and of brass, and so arranged that those which expanded the most were counteracted by those which expanded the least. By this means the pendulum contained the power of equalising its own action, and the centre of oscillation continued at the same absolute distance from the point of suspension through all the variations of heat and cold during the year.[5]

Thus by the year 1726, when he was only thirty-three years old, Harrison had furnished himself with two compensation clocks, in which all the irregularities to which these machines were subject, were either removed or so happily balanced, one metal against the other, that the two clocks kept time together in different parts of his house, without the variation of more than a single second in the month. One of them, indeed, which he kept by him for his own use, and constantly compared with a fixed star, did not vary so much as one whole minute during the ten years that he continued in the country after finishing the machine.[6]

Living, as he did, not far from the sea, Harrison next endeavoured to arrange his timekeeper for purposes of navigation.

He tried his clock in a vessel belonging to Barton-on-Humber; but his compensating pendulum could there be of comparatively little use; for it was liable to be tossed hither or thither by the sudden motions of the ship. He found it necessary, therefore, to mount a chronometer, or portable timekeeper, which might be taken from place to place, and subjected to the violent and irregular motion of a ship at sea, without affecting its rate of going. It was evident to him that the first mover must be changed from a weight and pendulum to a spring wound up and a compensating balance.

He now applied his genius in this direction. After pondering over the subject, he proceeded to London in 1728, and exhibited his drawings to Dr. Halley, then Astronomer-Royal. The Doctor referred him to Mr. George Graham, the distinguished horologer, inventor of the dead-beat escapement and the mercurial pendulum. After examining the drawings and holding some converse with Harrison, Graham perceived him to be a man of uncommon merit, and gave him every encouragement. He recommended him, however, to make his machine before again applying to the Board of Longitude.

Harrison returned home to Barrow to complete his task, and many years elapsed before he again appeared in London to present his first chronometer.

The remarkable success which Harrison had achieved in his compensating pendulum could not but urge him on to further experiments. He was no doubt to a certain extent influenced by the reward of 20,000L. which the English Government had offered for an instrument that should enable the longitude to be more accurately determined by navigators at sea than was then possible; and it was with the object of obtaining pecuniary assistance to assist him in completing his chronometer that Harrison had, in 1728, made his first visit to London to exhibit his drawings.

The Act of Parliament offering this superb reward was passed in 1714, fourteen years before, but no attempt had been made to claim it. It was right that England, then rapidly advancing to the first position as a commercial nation, should make every effort to render navigation less hazardous. Before correct chronometers were invented, or good lunar tables were prepared,[7] the ship, when fairly at sea, out of sight of land, and battling with the winds and tides, was in a measure lost. No method existed for accurately ascertaining the longitude. The ship might be out of its course for one or two hundred miles, for anything that the navigator knew; and only the wreck of his ship on some unknown coast told of the mistake that he had made in his reckoning.

It may here be mentioned that it was comparatively easy to determine the latitude of a ship at sea every day when the sun was visible. The latitude—that is, the distance of any spot from the equator and the pole—might be found by a simple observation with the sextant. The altitude of the sun at noon is found, and by a short calculation the position of the ship can be ascertained.

The sextant, which is the instrument universally used at sea, was gradually evolved from similar instruments used from the earliest times. The object of this instrument has always been to find the angular distance between two bodies—that is to say, the angle contained by two straight lines, drawn from those bodies to meet in the observer's eye. The simplest instrument of this kind may be well represented by a pair of compasses. If the hinge is held to the eye, one leg pointed to the distant horizon, and the other leg pointed to the sun, the position of the two legs will show the angular distance of the sun from the horizon at the moment of observation.

Until the end of the seventeenth century, the instrument used was of this simple kind. It was generally a large quadrant, with one or two bars moving on a hinge,—to all intents and purposes a huge pair of compasses. The direction of the sight was fixed by the use of a slit and a pointer, much as in the ordinary rifle. This instrument was vastly improved by the use of a telescope, which not only allowed fainter objects to be seen, but especially enabled the sight to be accurately directed to the object observed.

The instruments of the pre-telescopic age reached their glory in the hands of Tycho Brahe. He used magnificent instruments of the simple "pair of compasses" kind—circles, quadrants, and sextants. These were for the most part ponderous fixed instruments of little or no use for the purposes of navigation. But Tycho Brahe's sextant proved the forerunner of the modern instrument. The general structure is the same; but the vast improvement of the modern sextant is due, firstly, to the use of the reflecting mirror, and, secondly, to the use of the telescope for accurate sighting. These improvements were due to many scientific men—to William Gascoigne, who first used the telescope, about 1640; to Robert Hooke, who, in 1660, proposed to apply it to the quadrant; to Sir Isaac Newton, who designed a reflecting quadrant;[8] and to John Hadley, who introduced it. The modern sextant is merely a modification of Newton's or Badley's quadrant, and its present construction seems to be perfect.

It therefore became possible accurately to determine the position of a ship at sea as regarded its latitude. But it was quite different as regarded the longitude that is, the distance of any place from a given meridian, eastward or westward. In the case of longitude there is no fixed spot to which reference can be made. The rotation of the earth makes the existence of such a spot impossible. The question of longitude is purely a question of TIME. The circuit of the globe, east and west, is simply represented by twenty-four hours. Each place has its own time. It is very easy to determine the local time at any spot by observations made at that spot. But, as time is always changing, the knowledge of the local time gives no idea of the actual position; and still less of a moving object—say, of a ship at sea. But if, in any locality, we know the local time, and also the local time of some other locality at that moment—say, of the Observatory at Greenwich we can, by comparing the two local times, determine the difference of local times, or, what is the same thing, the difference of longitude between the two places. It was necessary therefore for the navigator to be in possession of a first-rate watch or chronometer, to enable him to determine accurately the position of his ship at sea, as respected the longitude.

Before the middle of the eighteenth century good watches were comparatively unknown. The navigator mainly relied, for his approximate longitude, upon his Dead Reckoning, without any observation of the heavenly bodies. He depended upon the accuracy of the course which he had steered by the compass, and the mensuration of the ship's velocity by an instrument called the Log, as well as by combining and rectifying all the allowances for drift, lee-way, and so on, according to the trim of the ship; but all of these were liable to much uncertainty, especially when the sea was in a boisterous condition. There was another and independent course which might have been adopted—that is, by observation of the moon, which is constantly moving amongst the stars from west to east. But until the middle of the eighteenth century good lunar tables were as much unknown as good watches.

Hence a method of ascertaining the longitude, with the same degree of accuracy which is attainable in respect of latitude, had for ages been the grand desideratum for men "who go down to the sea in ships." Mr. Macpherson, in his important work entitled 'The Annals of Commerce,' observes, "Since the year 1714, when Parliament offered a reward of 20,000L. for the best method of ascertaining the longitude at sea, many schemes have been devised, but all to little or no purpose, as going generally upon wrong principles, till that heaven-taught artist Mr. John Harrison arose;" and by him, as Mr. Macpherson goes on to say, the difficulty was conquered, having devoted to it "the assiduous studies of a long life."

The preamble of the Act of Parliament in question runs as follows: "Whereas it is well known by all that are acquainted with the art of navigation that nothing is so much wanted and desired at sea as the discovery of the longitude, for the safety and quickness of voyages, the preservation of ships and the lives of men," and so on. The Act proceeds to constitute certain persons commissioners for the discovery of the longitude, with power to receive and experiment upon proposals for that purpose, and to grant sums of money not exceeding 2000L. to aid in such experiments. It will be remembered from what has been above stated, that a reward of 10,000L. was to be given to the person who should contrive a method of determining the longitude within one degree of a great circle, or 60 geographical miles; 15,000L. within 40 geographical miles; and 20,000L. within 30 geographical miles.

It will, in these days, be scarcely believed that little more than a hundred and fifty years ago a prize of not less than ten thousand pounds should have been offered for a method of determining the longitude within sixty miles, and that double the amount should have been offered for a method of determining it within thirty miles! The amount of these rewards is sufficient proof of the fearful necessity for improvement which then existed in the methods of navigation. And yet, from the date of the passing of the Act in 1714 until the year 1736, when Harrison finished his first timepiece, nothing had been done towards ascertaining the longitude more accurately, even within the wide limits specified by the Act of Parliament. Although several schemes had been projected, none of them had proved successful, and the offered rewards therefore still remained unclaimed.

To return to Harrison. After reaching his home at Barrow, after his visit to London in 1728, he began his experiments for the construction of a marine chronometer. The task was one of no small difficulty. It was necessary to provide against irregularities arising from the motion of a ship at sea, and to obviate the effect of alternations of temperature in the machine itself, as well as the oil with which it was lubricated. A thousand obstacles presented themselves, but they were not enough to deter Harrison from grappling with the work he had set himself to perform.

Every one knows the beautiful machinery of a timepiece, and the perfect tools required to produce such a machine. Some of these tools Harrison procured in London, but the greater number he provided for himself; and many entirely new adaptations were required for his chronometer. As wood could no longer be exclusively employed, as in his first clock, he had to teach himself to work accurately and minutely in brass and other metals. Having been unable to obtain any assistance from the Board of Longitude, he was under the necessity, while carrying forward his experiments, of maintaining himself by still working at his trade of a carpenter and joiner. This will account for the very long period that elapsed before he could bring his chronometer to such a state as that it might be tried with any approach to certainty in its operations.

Harrison, besides his intentness and earnestness, was a cheerful and hopeful man. He had a fine taste for music, and organised and led the choir of the village church, which attained a high degree of perfection. He invented a curious monochord, which was not less accurate than his clocks in the mensuration of time. His ear was distressed by the ringing of bells out of tune, and he set himself to remedy them. At the parish church of Hull, for instance, the bells were harsh and disagreeable, and by the authority of the vicar and churchwardens he was allowed to put them into a state of exact tune, so that they proved entirely melodious.

But the great work of his life was his marine chronometer. He found it necessary, in the first place, to alter the first mover of his clock to a spring wound up, so that the regularity of the motion might be derived from the vibrations of balances, instead of those of a pendulum as in a standing clock. Mr. Folkes, President of the Royal Society, when presenting the gold medal to Harrison in 1749, thus describes the arrangement of his new machine. The details were obtained from Harrison himself, who was present. He had made use of two balances situated in the same plane, but vibrating in contrary directions, so that the one of these being either way assisted by the tossing of the ship, the other might constantly be just so much impeded by it at the same time. As the equality of the times of the vibrations of the balance of a pocket-watch is in a great measure owing to the spiral spring that lies under it, so the same was here performed by the like elasticity of four cylindrical springs or worms, applied near the upper and lower extremities of the two balances above described.

Then came in the question of compensation. Harrison's experience with the compensation pendulum of his clock now proved of service to him. He had proceeded to introduce a similar expedient in his proposed chronometer. As is well known to those who are acquainted with the nature of springs moved by balances, the stronger those springs are, the quicker the vibrations of the balances are performed, and vice versa; hence it follows that those springs, when braced by cold, or when relaxed by heat, must of necessity cause the timekeeper to go either faster or slower, unless some method could be found to remedy the inconvenience.

The method adopted by Harrison was his compensation balance, doubtless the backbone of his invention. His "thermometer kirb," he himself says, "is composed of two thin plates of brass and steel, riveted together in several places, which, by the greater expansion of brass than steel by heat and contraction by cold, becomes convex on the brass side in hot weather and convex on the steel side in cold weather; whence, one end being fixed, the other end obtains a motion corresponding with the changes of heat and cold, and the two pins at the end, between which the balance spring passes, and which it alternately touches as the spring bends and unbends itself, will shorten or lengthen the spring, as the change of heat or cold would otherwise require to be done by hand in the manner used for regulating a common watch." Although the method has since been improved upon by Leroy, Arnold, and Earnshaw, it was the beginning of all that has since been done in the perfection of marine chronometers. Indeed, it is amazing to think of the number of clever, skilful, and industrious men who have been engaged for many hundred years in the production of that exquisite fabric—so useful to everybody, whether scientific or otherwise, on land or sea the modern watch.

It is unnecessary here to mention in detail the particulars of Harrison's invention. These were published by himself in his 'Principles of Mr. Harrison's Timekeeper.' It may, however, be mentioned that he invented a method by which the chronometer might be kept going without losing any portion of time. This was during the process of winding up, which was done once in a day. While the mainspring was being wound up, a secondary one preserved the motion of the wheels and kept the machine going.

After seven years' labour, during which Harrison encountered and overcame numerous difficulties, he at last completed his first marine chronometer. He placed it in a sort of moveable frame, somewhat resembling what the sailors call a 'compass jumble,' but much more artificially and curiously made and arranged. In this state the chronometer was tried from time to time in a large barge on the river Humber, in rough as well as in smooth weather, and it was found to go perfectly, without losing a moment of time.

Such was the condition of Harrison's chronometer when he arrived with it in London in 1735, in order to apply to the commissioners appointed for providing a public reward for the discovery of the longitude at sea. He first showed it to several members of the Royal Society, who cordially approved of it. Five of the most prominent members—Dr. Bailey, Dr. Smith, Dr. Bradley, Mr. John Machin, and Mr. George Graham—furnished Harrison with a certificate, stating that the principles of his machine for measuring time promised a very great and sufficient degree of exactness. In consequence of this certificate, the machine, at the request of the inventor, and at the recommendation of the Lords of the Admiralty, was placed on board a man-of-war.

Sir Charles Wager, then first Lord of the Admiralty, wrote to the captain of the Centurion, stating that the instrument had been approved by mathematicians as the best that had been made for measuring time; and requesting his kind treatment of Mr. Harrison, who was to accompany it to Lisbon. Captain Proctor answered the First Lord from Spithead, dated May 17th, 1736, promising his attention to Harrison's comfort, but intimating his fear that he had attempted impossibilities. It is always so with a new thing. The first steam-engine, the first gaslight, the first locomotive, the first steamboat to America, the first electric telegraph, were all impossibilities!

This first chronometer behaved very well on the outward voyage in the Centurion. It was not affected by the roughest weather, or by the working of the ship through the rolling waves of the Bay of Biscay. It was brought back, with Harrison, in the Orford man-of-war, when its great utility was proved in a remarkable manner, although, from the voyage being nearly on a meridian, the risk of losing the longitude was comparatively small. Yet the following was the certificate of the captain of the ship, dated the 24th June, 1737: "When we made the land, the said land, according to my reckoning (and others), ought to have been the Start; but, before we knew what land it was, John Harrison declared to me and the rest of the ship's company that, according to his observations with his machine, it ought to be the Lizard—the which, indeed, it was found to be, his observation showing the ship to be more west than my reckoning, above one degree and twenty-six miles,"—that is, nearly ninety miles out of its course!

Six days later—that is, on the 30th June—the Board of Longitude met, when Harrison was present, and produced the chronometer with which he had made the voyage to Lisbon and back. The minute states: "Mr. John Harrison produced a new invented machine, in the nature of clockwork, whereby he proposes to keep time at sea with more exactness than by any other instrument or method hitherto contrived, in order to the discovery of the longitude at sea; and proposes to make another machine of smaller dimensions within the space of two years, whereby he will endeavour to correct some defects which he hath found in that already prepared, so as to render the same more perfect; which machine, when completed, he is desirous of having tried in one of His Majesty's ships that shall be bound to the West Indies; but at the same time represented that he should not be able, by reason of his necessitous circumstances, to go on and finish his said machine without assistance, and requested that he may be furnished with the sum of 500L., to put him in a capacity to perform the same, and to make a perfect experiment thereof."

The result of the meeting was that 500L. was ordered to be paid to Harrison, one moiety as soon as convenient, and the other when he has produced a certificate from the captain of one of His Majesty's ships that he has put the machine on board into the captain's possession. Mr. George Graham, who was consulted, urged that the Commissioners should grant Harrison at least 1000L., but they only awarded him half the sum, and at first only a moiety of the amount voted. At the recommendation of Lord Monson, who was present, Harrison accepted the 250L. as a help towards the heavy expenses which he had already incurred, and was again about to incur, in perfecting the invention. He was instructed to make his new chronometer of less dimensions, as the one exhibited was cumbersome and heavy, and occupied too much space on board.

He accordingly proceeded to make his second chronometer. It occupied a space of only about half the size of the first. He introduced several improvements. He lessened the number of the wheels, and thereby diminished friction. But the general arrangement remained the same. This second machine was finished in 1739. It was more simple in its arrangement, and less cumbrous in its dimensions. It answered even better than the first, and though it was not tried at sea its motions were sufficiently exact for finding the longitude within the nearest limits proposed by Act of Parliament.

Not satisfied with his two machines, Harrison proceeded to make a third. This was of an improved construction, and occupied still less space, the whole of the machine and its apparatus standing upon an area of only four square feet. It was in such forwardness in January, 1741, that it was exhibited before the Royal Society, and twelve of the most prominent members signed a certificate of "its great and excellent use, as well for determining the longitude at sea as for correcting the charts of the coasts." The testimonial concluded: "We do recommend Mr. Harrison to the favour of the Commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament as a person highly deserving of such further encouragement and assistance as they shall judge proper and sufficient to finish his third machine." The Commissioners granted him a further sum of 500L. Harrison was already reduced to necessitous circumstances by his continuous application to the improvement of the timekeepers. He had also got into debt, and required further assistance to enable him to proceed with their construction; but the Commissioners would only help him by driblets.

Although Harrison had promised that the third machine would be ready for trial on August 1, 1743, it was not finished for some years later. In June, 1746, we find him again appearing before the Board, asking for further assistance. While proceeding with his work he found it necessary to add a new spring, "having spent much time and thought in tempering them." Another 500L. was voted to enable him to pay his debts, to maintain himself and family, and to complete his chronometer.

Three years later he exhibited his third machine to the Royal Society, and on the 30th of November, 1749, he was awarded the Gold Medal for the year. In presenting it, Mr. Folkes, the President, said to Mr. Harrison, "I do here, by the authority and in the name of the Royal Society of London for the improving of natural knowledge, present you with this small but faithful token of their regard and esteem. I do, in their name congratulate you upon the successes you have already had, and I most sincerely wish that all your future trials may in every way prove answerable to these beginnings, and that the full accomplishment of your great undertaking may at last be crowned with all the reputation and advantage to yourself that your warmest wishes may suggest, and to which so many years so laudably and so diligently spent in the improvement of those talents which God Almighty has bestowed upon you, will so justly entitle your constant and unwearied perseverance."

Mr. Folkes, in his speech, spoke of Mr. Harrison as "one of the most modest persons he had ever known. In speaking," he continued, "of his own performances, he has assured me that, from the immense number of diligent and accurate experiments he has made, and from the severe tests to which he has in many ways put his instrument, he expects he shall be able with sufficient certainty, through all the greatest variety of seasons and the most irregular motions of the sea, to keep time constantly, without the variation of so much as three seconds in a week,—a degree of exactness that is astonishing and even stupendous, considering the immense number of difficulties, and those of very different sorts, which the author of these inventions must have had to encounter and struggle withal."

Although it is common enough now to make first-rate chronometers—sufficient to determine the longitude with almost perfect accuracy in every clime of the world—it was very different at that time, when Harrison was occupied with his laborious experiments. Although he considered his third machine to be the ne plus ultra of scientific mechanism, he nevertheless proceeded to construct a fourth timepiece, in the form of a pocket watch about five inches in diameter. He found the principles which he had adopted in his larger machines applied equally well in the smaller, and the performances of the last surpassed his utmost expectations. But in the meantime, as his third timekeeper was, in his opinion, sufficient to supply the requirements of the Board of Longitude as respected the highest reward offered, he applied to the Commissioners for leave to try that instrument on board a royal ship to some port in the West Indies, as directed by the statute of Queen Anne.

Though Harrison's third timekeeper was finished about the year 1758, it was not until March 12, 1761, that he received orders for his son William to proceed to Portsmouth, and go on board the Dorsetshire man-of-war, to proceed to Jamaica. But another tedious delay occurred. The ship was ordered elsewhere, and William Harrison, after remaining five months at Portsmouth, returned to London. By this time, John Harrison had finished his fourth timepiece—the small one, in the form of a watch. At length William Harrison set sail with this timekeeper from Portsmouth for Jamaica, on November 18th, 1761, in the Deptford man-of-war. The Deptford had forty-three ships in convoy, and arrived at Jamaica on the 19th of January, 1762, three days before the Beaver, another of His Majesty's ships-of-war, which had sailed from Portsmouth ten days before the Deptford, but had lost her reckoning and been deceived in her longitude, having trusted entirely to the log. Harrison's timepiece had corrected the log of the Deptford to the extent of three degrees of longitude, whilst several of the ships in the fleet lost as much as five degrees! This shows the haphazard way in which navigation was conducted previous to the invention of the marine chronometer.

When the Deptford arrived at Port Royal, Jamaica, the timekeeper was found to be only five and one tenth seconds in error; and during the voyage of four months, on its return to Portsmouth on March 26th, 1762, it was found (after allowing for the rate of gain or loss) to have erred only one minute fifty-four and a half seconds. In the latitude of Portsmouth this only amounted to eighteen geographical miles, whereas the Act had awarded that the prize should be given where the longitude was determined within the distance of thirty geographical miles. One would have thought that Harrison was now clearly entitled to his reward of 20,000L.

Not at all! The delays interposed by Government are long and tedious, and sometimes insufferable. Harrison had accomplished more than was needful to obtain the highest reward which the Board of Longitude had publicly offered. But they would not certify that he had won the prize. On the contrary, they started numerous objections, and continued for years to subject him to vexatious delays and disappointments. They pleaded that the previous determination of the longitude of Jamaica by astronomical observation was unsatisfactory; that there was no proof of the chronometer having maintained a uniform rate during the voyage; and on the 17th of August, 1762, they passed a resolution, stating that they "were of opinion that the experiments made of the watch had not been sufficient to determine the longitude at sea."

It was accordingly necessary for Harrison to petition Parliament on the subject. Three reigns had come and gone since the Act of Parliament offering the reward had been passed. Anne had died; George I. and George II. had reigned and died; and now, in the reign of George III.—thirty-five years after Harrison had begun his labours, and after he had constructed four several marine chronometers, each of which was entitled to win the full prize,—an Act of Parliament was passed enabling the inventor to obtain the sum of 5000L. as part of the reward. But the Commissioners still hesitated. They differed about the tempering of the springs. They must have another trial of the timekeeper, or anything with which to put off a settlement of the claim. Harrison was ready for any further number of trials; and in the meantime the Commissioners merely paid him a further sum on account.

Two more dreary years passed. Nothing was done in 1763 except a quantity of interminable talk at the Board of Commissioners. At length, on the 28th of March, 1764, Harrison's son again departed with the timekeeper on board the ship Tartar for Barbadoes. He returned in about four months, during which time the instrument enabled the longitude to be ascertained within ten miles, or one-third of the required geographical distance. Harrison memorialised the Commissioners again and again, in order that he might obtain the reward publicly offered by the Government.

At length the Commissioners could no longer conceal the truth. In September,1764, they virtually recognised Harrison's claim by paying him 1000L. on account; and, on the 9th of February,1765, they passed a resolution setting forth that they were "unanimously of opinion that the said timekeeper has kept its time with sufficient correctness, without losing its longitude in the voyage from Portsmouth to Barbadoes beyond the nearest limit required by the Act 12th of Queen Anne, but even considerably within the same." Yet they would not give Harrison the necessary certificate, though they were of opinion that he was entitled to be paid the full reward!

It is pleasant to contrast the generous conduct of the King of Sardinia with the procrastinating and illiberal spirit which Harrison met with in his own country. During the same year in which the above resolution was passed, the Sardinian minister ordered four of Harrison's timekeepers at the price of 1000L. each, at the special instance of the King of Sardinia "as an acknowledgement of Mr. Harrison's ingenuity, and as some recompense for the time spent by him for the general good of mankind." This grateful attention was all the more praiseworthy, as Sardinia could not in any way be regarded as a great maritime power.

Harrison was now becoming old and feeble. He had attained the age of seventy-four. He had spent forty long years in working out his invention. He was losing his eyesight, and could not afford to wait much longer. Still he had to wait.

"Full little knowest thou, who hast not tried, What hell it is in suing long to bide; To lose good days, that might be better spent; To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To spend to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow."

But Harrison had not lost his spirit. On May 30th, 1765, he addressed another remonstrance to the Board, containing much stronger language than he had yet used. "I cannot help thinking," he said, "that I am extremely ill-used by gentlemen from whom I might have expected a different treatment; for, if the Act of the 12th of Queen Anne be deficient, why have I so long been encouraged under it, in order to bring my invention to perfection? And, after the completion, why was my son sent twice to the West Indies? Had it been said to my son, when he received the last instruction, 'There will, in case you succeed, be a new Act on your return, in order to lay you under new restrictions, which were not thought of in the Act of the 12th of Queen Anne,'—I say, had this been the case, I might have expected some such treatment as that I now meet with.

"It must be owned that my case is very hard; but I hope I am the first, and for my country's sake I hope I shall be the last, to suffer by pinning my faith upon an English Act of Parliament. Had I received my just reward—for certainly it may be so called after forty years' close application of the talent which it has pleased God to give me—then my invention would have taken the course which all improvements in this world do; that is, I must have instructed workmen in its principles and execution, which I should have been glad of an opportunity of doing. But how widely different this is from what is now proposed, viz., for me to instruct people that I know nothing of, and such as may know nothing of mechanics; and, if I do not make them understand to their satisfaction, I may then have nothing!

"Hard fate indeed to me, but still harder to the world, which may be deprived of this my invention, which must be the case, except by my open and free manner in describing all the principles of it to gentlemen and noblemen who almost at all times have had free recourse to my instruments. And if any of these workmen have been so ingenious as to have got my invention, how far you may please to reward them for their piracy must be left for you to determine; and I must set myself down in old age, and thank God I can be more easy in that I have the conquest, and though I have no reward, than if I had come short of the matter and by some delusion had the reward!"

The Right Honourable the Earl of Egmont was in the chair of the Board of Longitude on the day when this letter was read—June 13, 1765. The Commissioners were somewhat startled by the tone which the inventor had taken. Indeed, they were rather angry. Mr. Harrison, who was in waiting, was called in. After some rather hot speaking, and after a proposal was made to Harrison which he said he would decline to accede to "so long as a drop of English blood remained in his body," he left the room. Matters were at length arranged. The Act of Parliament (5 Geo. III. cap. 20) awarded him, upon a full discovery of the principles of his time-keeper, the payment of such a sum, as with the 2500L. he had already received, would make one half of the reward; and the remaining half was to be paid when other chronometers had been made after his design, and their capabilities fully proved. He was also required to assign his four chronometers—one of which was styled a watch—to the use of the public.

Harrison at once proceeded to give full explanations of the principles of his chronometer to Dr. Maskelyne, and six other gentlemen, who had been appointed to receive them. He took his timekeeper to pieces in their presence, and deposited in their hands correct drawings of the same, with the parts, so that other skilful makers might construct similar chronometers on the same principles. Indeed, there was no difficulty in making them; after his explanations and drawings had been published. An exact copy of his last watch was made by the ingenious Mr. Kendal; and was used by Captain Cook in his three years' circumnavigation of the world, to his perfect satisfaction.

England had already inaugurated that series of scientific expeditions which were to prove so fruitful of results, and to raise her naval reputation to so great a height. In these expeditions, the officers, the sailors, and the scientific men, were constantly brought face to face with unforeseen difficulties and dangers, which brought forth their highest qualities as men. There was, however, some intermixture of narrowness in the minds of those who sent them forth. For instance, while Dr. Priestley was at Leeds, he was asked by Sir Joseph Banks to join Captain Cook's second expedition to the Southern Seas, as an astronomer. Priestley gave his assent, and made arrangements to set out. But some weeks later, Banks informed him that his appointment had been cancelled, as the Board of Longitude objected to his theology. Priestley's otherwise gentle nature was roused. "What I am, and what they are, in respect of religion," he wrote to Banks, in December, 1771, "might easily have been known before the thing was proposed to me at all. Besides, I thought that this had been a business of philosophy, and not of divinity. If, however, this be the case, I shall hold the Board of Longitude in extreme contempt."