Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

150, 151, 186, 187, 188

Oblation of first-fruits

[blocks in formation]

6, 52, 53, 54, 117, 118, 120, 148, 149, Egyptian hieroglyphics.... 111, 112, 247

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

THE

VISITOR,

OR

MONTHLY INSTRUCTOR,

FOR 18 4 2.

[graphic]

From Chantrey's Monument of Watt in Westminster Abbey.
JAMES WATT.

THERE are three great discoveries which must always have a peculiar prominence in the past history of the world. The polarity of the needle, first observed by one whose name and birth-place are alike unknown, gave man the power to JANUARY, 1842.

traverse the stormy bosom of the ocean, more safely perhaps, and certainly with more punctuality, than the caravan performs its journey across the desert. Next in utility to the mariner's compass, must be placed the art of printing, the introduction of which, into England, is due to

B

William Caxton, who was born, according | to his own statement, in the Weald of Kent. With these discoveries, may properly be associated the power of steam, the full developement of which is traced to the genius of James Watt, of whom a slight sketch will now be given.

This remarkable man was born at Greenock in Scotland, in the early part of 1736. His father taught him writing and arithmetic, and his mother gave him his first lessons of reading. When his health permitted, he attended the grammar-school at Greenock, and when at home, he amused himself as he pleased. That his parents did not act injudiciously in allowing him to follow thus far his own inclinations, will appear from the following circumstances. One day, a gentleman who had called on Mr. Watt, observed his son, then six years old, stretched on the floor, and drawing with a piece of chalk various intersecting lines." "Why," he said, "do you allow this child to idle away his time in this manner? send him away to the public school." Mr. Watt replied, "You may find, sir, that you are mistaken: before you blame me, examine attentively what my son is about." The visitor did so, and saw that he was trying to solve a problem in geometry; and in putting various questions, was surprised at the intelligence and simplicity of his answers. Well might he say, "This is no common child."

:

Young Watt early showed a talent for mechanical art. He first made children's toys, and constructed a small electrical machine; even steam was a matter of his early experiments. Sitting one evening at the tea-table with his aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, she thus addressed him: "James Watt! I never saw such an idle boy! take a book, or employ yourself usefully for the last hour you have not spoken one word, but taken off the lid of that kettle, and put it on again; holding now a cup, and now a silver spoon over the steam; watching how it rises from the spout, and catching and connecting the drops it falls into. Are you not ashamed of spending your time in this way?" Little did the anxious aunt imagine that her idle little relative was making experiments on the condensation of steam, and that by similar inquiries he would hereafter earn an extensive and well-deserved celebrity.

At an early period, Watt appears to have had remarkable powers of expression as well as of thought. To give only one proof of this, it may be stated that his

mother took him to Glasgow, and left him on a visit to a friend. On returning to that city, some weeks after, this individual said, "You must take your son James home again; I can no longer bear the excitement in which he keeps me. I am worn out with want of sleep. Every evening, before our usual hour of retiring for rest, he adroitly contrives to engage me in conversation; then begins some striking tale, and whether it be humorous or pathetic, the interest is so overpowering, that all the family listen to him with breathless attention. Hour after hour strikes unheeded, but the next morning I feel quite exhausted. You must really take home your son.

The activity of mind thus displayed, continued to be manifested. Watt made progress wherever he went, and derived advantage from all circumstances. The banks of Loch Lomond developed his taste for the beauties of scenery, and the delightful pursuits of botany. As he rambled over lofty mountains, he did not fail to observe the inert crust of the earth, and became, in consequence, a mineralogist. Entering the cottages of the poor, he studied their characters, and acquired familiarity with their superstitions and traditions. When confined by illness to his father's house, he chiefly occupied himself with chemical experiments. His acquaintance with general physics was in this interval derived from Gravesande's Elements of Natural Philosophy; and like many invalids, he greedily devoured all the books on medicine and surgery he could procure. And yet he did not intend to devote himself to any one of these departments of study; his object was to increase the stores of a mind habitually intent on the acquisition of valuable knowledge.

When about nineteen years of age, Watt went to London, to place himself with a mathematical and nautical instrument maker, in Finch Lane, Cornhill, and while there, constructed with his own hands, those small and delicate, but beautiful reflecting sextants, to which the art of navigation owes its advancement. After passing a year in this employment, he returned to Glasgow, where his endeavour to set up a workshop encountered some opposition; but this was overcome by the intervention of the University, who gave him a small room in their own buildings, and the title of their mathematical instrument maker. There are still some instruments, it is said, of ex

« PreviousContinue »