could not bear the details of business either, and so at the end of a year and a half he gave up the work. About this time, too, a bitter trial fell upon him in the loss of his beloved wife, who had shared all the trials of his poverty, and had cheerfully helped and encouraged him in all his undertakings.

Soon after this, Roebuck's two-third share of Watt's patent was handed over as a bad debt to Matthew Boulton, of the Soho Works, near Birmingham.

Boulton was the proprietor of and employed at Soho 1,000 hands. day, indefatigable in industry, a shrewd man of business-like habits, and proficient in many important branches of practical science. He became interested in the improvement of the steam-engine, the want of water-power being a serious defect in his arrangements at Soho, and therefore he commenced a correspondence on the subject with Watt, which eventually led to the establishment of a partnership between them.

This was the turning-point in the career of James Watt, and it came about in the very nick of time. Hitherto there had been no scope for his genius; he had always been cramped and thwarted, and unable to give his inventions practical application. Nine years had passed since his great discovery, endless study and labour had been expended in working out the details

of his engine, all the money he had gained had been spent upon it, and his fortunes were at their lowest ebb when Boulton undertook to relieve him of his difficulties. Watt was not a good business man, Boulton was; Watt was poor, Boulton rich; Watt was nervous, Boulton self-reliant; what each lacked the other supplied, and together these two men laboured, each in his sphere, but with one object before them-the perfecting of the steam-engine.

By Act of Parliament, the term of Watt's patent was extended for a period of seventeen years longer, and our hero applied himself with redoubled energy to the task of perfecting what he had begun. He constructed on a large scale his single-action steam-engine, and invented a variety of accessory improvements for steam work generally; amongst others, parallel motion, an invention of which he confessed he was more proud

than of anything he had hitherto done. Unfortunately, his idea, which was to remedy the irregularity of action caused by the suspension of the power of the engine during the ascent of the piston-rod, was pirated by a workman, and Watt was unable to use his own invention.

It would require too much technical description to tell of the wondrous things wrought out by his inventive genius. Suffice it to say that the turning-point in his career came with his introduction to Matthew Boulton. With comparative peace of mind he gained more robust health than he had ever before enjoyed. Engine after engine went out from the great Birmingham manufactory, and orders came in with such rapidity that it was impossible to keep pace with them. In course of time financial difficulties arose, in consequence of the enormous expenditure in the manufacture of the engines, and the Soho firm became embarrassed; but Boulton's tact and courage rose to the occasion, and the storm was weathered. Watt, too, became over-worked and over-worried, his "mental condition showing at what expense of suffering in mind and body the triumphs of genius are sometimes achieved." Difficulties also arose with the miners, who conceived that the steam-engine was their enemy and would deprive them of labour; but though Boulton was threatened with personal violence, and Watt was the victim of their wild and unreasoning clamour, this difficulty, like the other, was conquered.

As old age crept on he resigned his share of the business to his two sons, and retired into private life to enjoy repose without idleness. During this period he invented several useful machines, among others the copying press which is now in such common use. In 1819, at the advanced age of eighty-three, James Watt died. Remembering his

delicate health, his neglected education in youth, his long struggles with poverty, it is interesting to read what Lord Jeffrey said of this extraordinary man. "Perhaps no individual in his age possessed so much and such varied and exact information. . . He had infinite quickness of apprehension, a prodigious memory, and a certain rectifying and methodising power of understanding, which extracted something precious out of all that was presented to it. His stores of miscellaneous knowledge were immense, and yet less astonishing than the command he had at all times over them. It seemed as if every subject that was casually started in conversation with him had been that which he had been last occupied in studying and exhausting, such was the copiousness, the precision, and the admirable clearness of the information which he poured out upon it without effort or hesitation."

James Watt was one of our noblest heroes of patient, persevering toil for the world's advantage. On the statue erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey there is an inscription written by Lord Brougham, and never were more truthful words used in eulogy of a great man. He was, as Lord Brougham says, one "who, directing the force of an original genius, early exercised in philosophic research, to the improvement of the steam-engine, enlarged the resources of his country, increased the power of man, and rose to an eminent place among the illustrious followers of science and the real benefactors of the world."

"Now I'm a made man for life!" said a boy of sixteen when he received an appointment to work at a pumping-engine, with wages at twelve shillings a week.

His had been a rough, hard-working life. His father was a fireman, who earned only twelve shillings a week, out of which there was a wife and six children to keep; his home was a poor cottage, with a clay floor and unplastered walls. He had never been to school; but as soon as ever he was old

enough to do anything

he had to contribute to the general support. At first he earned twopence a day for looking after Widow Ainslie's cows; later on he received two shillings a week for minding horses; later on still, six shillings a week as assistant fireman to his father; and at the age of sixteen he was "made a man of for life," as he thought, by becoming

a fireman, with wages at twelve shillings a week. That boy was George Stephenson, who became one of the greatest men of his day, and who, as "the Father of Railways," will be held in grateful admiration all the world over for his mighty labours in connection with the locomotive engine.

At the age of eighteen Stephenson could neither read nor write; but he was a young man of an inquiring turn of mind, and, instead of wasting his time in the public-house or in idle pursuits, used to take his engine to pieces after working hours, so as to be familiar with all its parts. But as he sat by his engine fire and heard others read in the day's news of the exploits of Napoleon in Italy, he felt what a drawback his want of education was, and determined to attend a night-school, where he commenced with the A B C. At the age of nineteen he could work a few simple sums, write his own name, and spell out a few words from a book.

Stephenson was never idle, and what he did he did as thoroughly as it could possibly be done in the circle in which he was placed. He rose, as a workman, from fireman to plugman, and from plugman to engineman, and from engineman to brakesman; all the while he was making good progress in his education, and especially in those two most important branches of all useful knowledge-inquiry and observation.

At the age of twenty-one, having, in addition to his daily wages, managed to save a little money by making shoes and shoe-lasts, and having fallen in love with Fanny Henderson, a farmer's servant, he took a little cottage at Wellington Quay, to which he took home his young wife. A good wife she was to him-inspiring him to action and encouraging him towards success. Although he could not yet read, he could observe and think, and he devoted many spare evenings to the study of the principles of mechanics; and this led him into invention. He tried to discover perpetual motion, but failed. A clock in his house got damaged by fire, and he reconstructed it with such skill and ingenuity with the machinery used in his experiments in perpetual motion that he soon became the repairer of clocks for the neighbourhood.

In 1803 his only son (Robert) was born; and a few years after this he left Wellington to take a situation at West Moor Colliery, at Killingworth. Here he met with a terrible sorrow in the loss of his wife, with whom he had spent some of the happiest years of his life. Soon after this he was asked to go to Scotland to superintend one of Boulton-Watt's engines; there he remained for a year, saved twenty-eight pounds, and returning home, found that his father had met with an accident by which he became totally blind. George paid the old man's debts, settled his parents in a comfortable little cottage, and for the rest of their lives entirely supported them.

Patiently and perseveringly Stephenson toiled on, never losing an opportunity of adding to his little store of knowledge, and never relaxing in his one object of making himself master of everything appertaining to his beloved steam-engine, which he was constantly in the habit of taking to pieces in order to familiarise himself with its action. Moreover, feeling the loss to himself of a good education, he was determined that he would do his best for his boy Robert, and, at the cost of hard work and self-denial, gave him all the advantages of education his means would allow. When George Stephenson was in his twenty-ninth year the turning-point in his life came.

The story is so well told

GEORGE STEPHENSON'S FIRST TRIUMPH.

155

by Mr. Smiles, in his admirable "Life of George Stephenson," that we quote the incident in its entirety.

"In the year 1810 a new pit was sunk by the Grand Allies' (the lessees of the mines) at the village of Killingworth, now known as the Killingworth High Pit. An atmospheric or Newcomen engine, made by Smeaton, was fixed there for the purpose of pumping out the water from the shaft; but somehow it failed to clear the pit. As one of the workmen has since described the circumstance, She couldn't keep her jack-head in water; all the enginemen in the neighbourhood were tried, as well as Crowther of the Ouseburn, but they were clean bet.' The engine had been fruitlessly pumping for nearly twelve months, and began to be spoken of as a total failure. Stephenson had gone to look at it when in course of erection, and then observed to the over-man that he thought it was defective; he also gave it as his opinion that if there were much water in the mine the engine would never keep it under. Of course, as he was only a brakesman, his opinion was considered to be worth very little on such a point. He continued, however, to make frequent visits to the engine to see how she was getting on.' From the bank-head, where he worked his brake, he could see the chimney smoking at the High Pit; and as the men were passing to and from their work he would call out and inquire if they had gotten to the bottom yet?' And the reply was always to the same effect the pumping made no progress, and the workmen were still drowned out.'

"One Saturday afternoon he went over to the High Pit to examine the engine more carefully than he had yet done. He had been turning the subject over thoughtfully in his mind, and seemed to have satisfied himself as to the cause of the failure. Kit Heppel, one of the sinkers, asked him, 'Weel, George, what do you mak' o' her? Do you think you could do anything to improve. her?' Said George, 'I could alter her, man, and make her draw; in a week's time I could send you to the bottom.'

"Forthwith Heppel reported this conversation to Ralph Dodds, the head viewer, who, being now quite in despair, and hopeless of succeeding with the engine, determined to give George's skill a trial. At the worst he could only fail, as the rest had done. In the evening Dodds went in search of Stephenson, and met him on the road, dressed in his Sunday suit, on the way to the preaching' in the Methodist chapel which he attended. 'Well, George,' said Dodds, they tell me that you think you can put the engine at the High Pit to rights.' 'Yes, sir,' said George, 'I think I could.' 'If that's the case, I'll give you a fair trial, and you must set to work immediately. We are clean drowned out, and cannot get a step further. The engineers hereabouts are all bet; and if you really succeed in accomplishing what they cannot do, you may depend upon it I will make you a man for life.'

"Stephenson began his operations early next morning. The only condition that he made before setting to work was that he should select his own workmen. There was, as he knew, a good deal of jealousy amongst the 'regular' men that a colliery brakesman should pretend to know more about their engine than they themselves did, and attempt to remedy defects which the most skilled men of their craft, including the engineer of the colliery, had failed to do. But George made the condition a sine quá non. The workmen,' said he, 'must either be all Whigs or all Tories.' There was no help for it,