Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles: Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI. JAMES WATT, MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENT MAKER.
When James Watt, a youth of eighteen, went to Glasgow in 1754 to learn his trade, the place was very different from the Glasgow of to-day. Not a steam-engine was then at work in the town; not a steam-boat disturbed the quiet of the Clyde. There was a rough quay along the Broomielaw, then, as the name implies, partly covered with broom. The quay was furnished with a solitary crane, for which there was very little use, as the river was full of sandbanks, and boats and gabberts of only six tons burden and under could then ascend the Clyde. [1] Often for weeks together not a single masted vessel was to be seen in the river. The principal buildings in the town were the Cathedral and the University. The west port, now in the centre of Glasgow, was then a real barrier between the town and the country. The ground on which Enoch-square stands consisted chiefly of gardens. A thick wood occupied the site of the present Custom-house and of that part of Glasgow situated behind West Clyde-street. Blythswood was grazing-ground. Not a house had yet been erected in Hutchinson-town, Laurieston, Tradeston, or Bridgeton. The land between Jamaica-street on the east, and Stobcross on the west, and south from Anderston-road to the river, now the most densely populated parts of Glasgow, consisted of fields and cabbage-gardens. The town had but two main streets, which intersected each other at the Cross or Market-place, and the only paved part of them was known as "The Plainstanes," which extended for a few hundred yards in front of the public offices and the Town-hall. The two main streets contained some stately well-built houses — Flemish-looking tenements with crow-stepped gables, the lower stories standing on Doric columns, under which were the principal booths or sloops - small, low-roofed, and dismal. But the bulk of the houses had only wooden fronts and thatched roofs, and were of a very humble character. The traffic along the unpaved streets was so small, that the carts were left standing in them at night. The town was as yet innocent of police; [2] it contained no Irish immigrants, and very few Highlanders. The latter then thought it beneath them to engage in any pursuit connected with commerce; and Rob Roy's contempt for the wabsters of Glasgow, as described by Sir Walter Scott in the novel, was no exaggeration. No Highland gentleman, however poor, would dream of condemning his son to the drudgery of trade; and even the poorest Highland cottar would shrink with loathing from the life of a weaver or a shopkeeper. He would be a hunter, a fisher, a cattle-lifter, or a soldier but trade he would not touch — that he left to the Lowlanders. [3]
The principal men of business in Glasgow at the time of which we speak were the tobacco lords — importers of that article from the plantations in Virginia, [4] - who were often to be seen strutting along the Plainstanes, dressed in scarlet cloaks, cocked hats, and powdered wigs; the "boddies" who kept the adjoining shops eying them over their half-closed doors, and humbly watching for a nod of recognition from the mighty potentates. Yet even the greatest of the tobacco lords only lived in flats, entering from a common stair and the domestic accommodation was so scanty and so primitive, that visitors were of necessity received in the bedrooms. This circumstance seems to have had some influence in the formation of the Clubs, [5] which then formed a curious feature of society in most Scotch towns. They consisted of knots of men of like tastes and pursuits, who met in the evenings at public-houses for purposes of gossip and social drinking. There they made new and cultivated old acquaintanceships, and exchanged news with each other. The Club combined the uses of the newspaper and the newsroom, which now accomplish the same objects without the drinking. But Glasgow had then no newspaper and a London news-sheet of a week old was looked upon as a novelty. There was no coffee-room nor public library in the town; no theatre [6] nor place of resort open, except the "Change-house;" so that the Club was regarded as a social necessity. The drinking was sometimes moderate, and sometimes "hard." The better class confined themselves to claret and other French wines, which were then cheap, being free from duty. Those disposed to indulge in more frugal fare confined themselves to oat-cake and small-beer. It was not until heavy taxes were laid on foreign wines and malt that the hard whisky-drinking of Scotland set in. Whisky was introduced from the Highlands shortly after the "Forty-five;" and it soon became the popular drink. By 1780 the drinking of raw whisky in Glasgow at midday had become general. [7]
When young Watt arrived in Glasgow he carried with him but a small quantity of baggage; the articles in his trunk including amongst other things a quadrant, —probably a specimen of his own handiwork, a leather apron, about a score of carpenters' and other tools, and ‘a pair of bibels.’ On making inquiry for a proper master, under whom to learn the business of mathematical instrument making, it was found that there was no such person in Glasgow. There was, however, a mechanic in the town, who dignified himself with the name of "optician," under whom Watt was placed for a time. He was a sort of Jack-of-all-trades, who sold and mended spectacles, repaired fiddles, tuned spinets, made and repaired the simpler instruments used in mechanical drawing, and eked out a slender living by making and selling fishing-rods and fishing-tackle. Watt was as handy at dressing trout and salmon flies as at most other thing's, and his master, no doubt, found him useful enough, but there was nothing to be learnt in return for his services. Though his master was an ingenious workman, in a small way, and could turn his ready hand to anything, it soon became clear to Watt's relations, the Muirheads, with whom he lived during his stay, that the instructions of such an artist were little likely to advance him in mathematical instrument making. Among the gentlemen to whom Watt was introduced by his relatives was Dr. Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy in Glasgow College, who strongly recommended him to proceed to London, and there place himself under the instruction of some competent master. Watt consulted his father on the subject, who readily gave his sanction to the proposal and, with a letter of introduction from Dr. Dick in his pocket, he set out for the great city accordingly.
No stage-coach then ran between Glasgow and London so it was determined that young Watt should proceed on horseback, then the most convenient and speedy mode of travelling. His chest was sent by sea. Old Mr. Watt's memorandum-book at Heathfield contains the following entry, under date the 6th June, 1755:—
To send James Watt's chist to the care of Mr. William Oman, Ventener in Leith, to be shypt for London to ye care of Captain William Watson, at the Hermitage, London.
- Pd 3s. 6d. for wagon carage to Edenbrough of chist.
- Pd to son James £2-2s.
- Pd Plaster and Pomet, 1s. 4d.
- Pd 4 doz. pencels, 1s. 6d.
The "plaster and pomet" may possibly have been provided in view of the long journey on horseback and its contingencies. It was arranged that the youth should travel in the company of a relative, Mr. Marr, a sea-captain, who was on his way to join his ship, then lying in the Thames. They set out on the 7th of June, travelling by way of Coldstream and Newcastle, where they joined the great north road, then comparatively practicable to the south of Durham. They reached London safely on the 19th, having been about a fortnight on the road.
Mr. Marr immediately proceeded to make inquiries for a mathematical instrument maker with whom to place his young friend. But it was found that a serious obstacle presented itself in the rules of the trade, which prescribed that those employed must either be apprentices serving under a seven years' apprenticeship, or, if journeymen, that they should have served for that term. Watt, however, had no intention of binding himself to serve for so long a period, and be had no pretensions to rank as a journeyman. His object was to learn the business in the shortest possible time, and then return to Glasgow and set up for himself. The two went about from shop to shop, but only met with rebuffs. "I have not yet got a master," Watt wrote to his father about a fortnight after his arrival "we have tried several, but they all made some objection or other. I find that, if any of them agree with me at all, it will not be for less than a year; and even for that time they will be expecting some money."
Mr. Marr continued to exert himself on behalf of the youth. Anxious to be employed in any way rather than not at all, Watt offered his services gratuitously to a watchmaker named Neale, with whom Mr. Marr did business, and he was allowed to occupy himself in his shop for a time, cutting letters and figures in metal. At length a situation of a more permanent character was obtained for him and he entered the shop of Mr. John Morgan, a respectable mathematical instrument maker in Cornhill, on the terms of receiving a year's instruction in return for a fee of twenty guineas and the proceeds of his labour during that time. He soon proved himself a ready learner and skilful workman. That division of labour, the result of an extensive trade, which causes the best London carriages to be superior to any of provincial construction, was even then applied to mathematical instruments. "Very few here," wrote Watt, "know any more than how to make a rule, others a pair of dividers, and such like." His first employment was in making brass scales, rules, parallels, and the brass-work of quadrants and by the end of a month he was able to finish a Hadley's quadrant in better style than any apprentice in the shop. From rule and quadrant making he proceeded to azimuth compasses, brass sectors, theodolites, and the more delicate kinds of instruments. At the end of the year he wrote home to his father that he had made "a brass sector with a French joint, which is reckoned as nice a piece of framing-work as is in the trade;" and he expressed the hope that he would soon be able to work for himself, and earn his bread by his own industry.
Up to this time he had necessarily been maintained by his father, on whom he drew from time to time. Mr. Watt's memorandum-books show that on the 27th of June he remitted him £10 on the 24th of August following he enters: "Sent George Anderson by post £8 to buy a bill of £7 or £8 to send Wheytbread and Gifferd, and ballance of son's bill, £2-2s-3d, for which ame to remite him more;" and on the 11th September following, the balance was forwarded through the same channel. On the 24th October, £4-10s was in like manner sent to George Anderson "on son James's second bill;" and on the 31st December, £10 was remitted, "to be put to the credit of son James's last bill." To relieve his father as much as possible for the cost of his maintenance in London, Watt lived in a very frugal style, avoiding all unnecessary expenses. His living cost him only eight shillings a week and he could not reduce it below that, he wrote to his father, "without pinching his belly." He also sought for some remunerative work on his own account and when he could obtain it he sat up at night to execute it.
During Watt's stay in London he was in a great measure prevented from stirring abroad by the hot press for sailors which was then going on. As many as forty pressgangs were at work, seizing all able-bodied men they could lay hands on. In one night they took not fewer than a thousand men. Nor were the kidnappers idle. These were the agents of the East India Company, who had crimping-houses in different parts of the city for receiving the men whom they had seized upon for service in the Indian army. Even when the demand for soldiers abated, the kidnappers continued their trade, and sold their unhappy victims to the planters in Pennsylvania and other North American colonies. Sometimes severe fights took place between the pressgangs and the kidnappers for possession of those who had been seized, the law and police being apparently powerless to protect them. "They now press anybody they can get," Watt wrote in the spring of 1756, "landsmen as well as seamen, except it be in the liberties of the city, where they are obliged to carry them before the Lord Mayor first and unless one be either a prentice or a creditable tradesman, there is scarce any getting off again. And if I was carried before my Lord Mayor, I durst not avow that I wrought in the city, it being against their laws for any unfreeman to work even as a journeyman within the liberties." [8] What a curious glimpse does this give us into the practice of man-hunting in London in the eighteenth century!
Watt's enforced confinement, together with his sedentary habits and unremitting labour, soon told upon his weak frame. When he hurried to his lodgings at night, his body was wearied, and his nerves exhausted, so that his hands shook like those of an old man; yet he persevered with the extra work which he imposed upon himself, in order to earn a little honest money to help to pay for his living. His seat in Mr. Morgan’s shop being placed close to the door, which was often opened and shut in the course of the day, he caught a severe cold in the course of the winter and he was afflicted by racking cough and severe rheumatic pains, from the effects of which he long continued to suffer. Distressed by a gnawing pain in his back, and greatly depressed in spirits, he at length, with his father's sanction, determined to return to Greenock, to seek for renewal of health in his native air. His father made him a further remittance to enable him to purchase some of the tools required for his trade, together with materials for making others, and a copy of Bion's work on the construction and use of Mathematical Instruments. Having secured these, he set out on his return journey for Scotland, and reached Greenock in safety in the autumn of 1756. There his health soon became sufficiently restored to enable him to return to work; and with the concurrence and help of his father, he shortly after proceeded to Glasgow, in his twentieth year, to begin business on his own account.
In endeavouring to establish himself in his trade, Watt encountered the same obstacle which in London had almost prevented his learning it. Although there were no mathematical instrument makers in Glasgow, and it must have been a public advantage to have so skilled a mechanic settled in the place, Watt was opposed by the corporation of hammermen on the ground that he was neither the son of a burgess nor had served an apprenticeship within the borough. [9] Failing in his endeavours to open a place of business, he next tried to prevail on the corporation to allow him to make use of a small workshop wherein to make experiments; but this also was peremptorily refused. The hammermen were doubtless acting in a very narrow spirit, in thus excluding the young mechanic from the privileges of citizenship; but such was the custom of the times, — those who were within the favoured circles usually putting their shoulders together to exclude those who were without. Watt had, however, already been employed by Dr. Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy, to repair some mathematical instruments which had been bequeathed to the University by a gentleman in the West Indies; and the professors, having an absolute authority within the area occupied by the college buildings, determined to give him an asylum there, and thus free him from the incubus of the guilds.
In the heart of old Glasgow city, not far from the cathedral of St. Mungo, which Knox with difficulty preserved from the fury of the Scotch iconoclasts, stands the venerable University, a curiously black and sombre building, more than 400 years old. Inside the entrance, on the right-hand side, is a stone staircase, guarded by fabulous beasts in stone. The buildings consist of several quadrangles; but there is not much regularity in their design, each part seeming to stand towards the other parts, in a state of independent crookedness and irregularity. There are turrets in the corners of the quadrangles, — turrets with peaked tops, like witches' caps. In the inner quadrangle, entered from the left-hand side of the outer court, a workshop was found for our mechanician, in which he was securely established by the midsummer of 1757. The apartment appropriated to Watt by the professors is still to be seen in nearly the same rude state in which he left it. It is situated on the first floor of the range of building forming the northwest side of the inner quadrangle, immediately under the gallery of the Natural Philosophy class, with which it communicates. It is lighted by three windows, two of which open into the quadrangle, and the third, at the back, into the Professors' court. There is a small closet in the corner of the room, where some students have cut their names in the plaster, —date "1713." The access to the room used to be from the court by a spiral stone staircase but that entrance is now closed. The apartment is only about twenty feet square but it served Watt, as it has since served others, for high thinking and noble working. [10]
In addition to his workshop under the Natural Philosophy class, a shop for the sale of his instruments was also appropriated to Watt by the Professors. It formed the ground-floor of the house situated next to the Principal's Gate, being part of the University Buildings, and was entered directly from the pavement of the High Street. It has been described to us, on the authority of Professor Fleming, as an old house, with a sort of arcade in front, supported on pillars. In making some alterations in the building the pillars were too much weakened, and the house, excepting the basement, had to be taken down. The shop occupied by Watt is the little tenement shown on the right hand of the following engraving; but the lower story of the building has since been altered and repaired, and is now totally different from what it was in Watts time.
Though his wants were few, and he lived on humble fare, Watt found it very difficult to earn a subsistence by his trade. His father sent him remittances from time to time; but the old man had suffered serious losses in his own business, and had become much less able to help his son with money. After a year's trial, Watt wrote to his father, that ‘unless it be the Hadley's instruments there is little to be got by it, as at most other jobs I am obliged to do the most of them myself; and, as it is impossible for one person to be expert it everything, they often cost me more time than they should do." Of the quadrants, he could make three in a week, with the help of a lad but the profit upon the three was not more than £40. The customers for these were very few in number, as Seagoing ships with their captains could not yet reach Glasgow. [11]
Failing sufficient customers for his instruments, Watt sent those which he had made to Port Glasgow and Greenock, where his father helped him to dispose of them. He also bethought him of taking a journey to Liverpool and London, for the purpose of obtaining orders for instruments; though, for some reason or other - most probably because was averse to ‘pushing’, and detested the chaffering of trade — his contemplated journey was not undertaken. He therefore continued to execute only such orders as came to him, so that his business remained very small. He began to fear that he must give up the trade that would not keep him, and he wrote to his father: "If this business does not succeed, I must fall into some other". To eke out his income, he took to map and chart selling, and, amongst other things, offered for sale the Map of the River Clyde, [12] originally surveyed by his uncle John.
It is well for the world at large that Watt's maps and quadrants remained on his hands unsold. The most untoward circumstances in life have often the happiest results. It is not Fortune that is blind, but man. Had his instrument-making business prospered, Watt might have become known as a first-class maker of quadrants, but not as the inventor of the condensing steam-engine. It was because his own special business failed that he was driven to betake himself to other pursuits, and eventually to prosecute the invention on which his fame mainly rests. At first he employed part of his leisure in making chemical and other experiments but as these yielded him no returns in the shape of money, he was under the necessity of making some sort of article that was in demand, and for which he could find customers. Although he had no ear for music, and scarcely knew one note from another, he followed the example of the old spectacle-maker, his first master, in making fiddles, flutes, and guitars, which met with a readier sale than his quadrants. These articles were what artists call "pot-boilers," and kept him in funds until a maintenance could be earned by higher-class work. We are informed, through a lady at Glasgow, that her father bought a flute from Watt, who said to him, in selling it: "Woe be to ye, Tam, if you're no guid luck; for this is the first I've sold!"
His friend Dr. Black, probably to furnish him with some profitable employment, asked Watt to make a barrel-organ for him, which he at once proceeded to construct. Watt was not the man to refuse work of any kind requiring the exercise of constructive skill. He first carefully studied the principles of harmony, — making science, in a measure, the substitute for want of ear, [13] and took for his guide the profound but obscure work on 'Harmonics,' published by Dr. R. Smith of Cambridge. He next made a model of the instrument after which he constructed the organ, which, when finished, was considered a great success. About the same time the office-bearers of a Mason's Lodge in Glasgow sent to ask him if he would undertake to build for them a finger-organ. As he had successfully repaired an instrument of the same kind, besides making the barrel-organ, he readily accepted the order. Watt was always, as he said, dissatisfied with other people's work, as well as his own and this habit of his mind made him study to improve upon whatever came before him. Thus, in the process of building this organ, he devised a number of novel expedients, such as a sustained monochord, indicators and regulators of the strength of the blast, means of tuning the instrument according to any system of temperament, with sundry contrivances for improving the efficiency of the stops. The qualities of the organ when finished are said to have elicited the surprise and admiration of musicians. [14]
The leisure time which Watt did not occupy with miscellaneous work of this sort, he spent in reading. He did not want for books, as the College library was near at hand and the professors as well as students were willing to lend him from their stores. He was not afraid of solid, heavy, dry books, provided he could learn something from them. All were alike welcome and one of his greatest pleasures was in devouring a novel, when it fell in his way. He is even said to have occupied himself in writing tales and verses when he had nothing else to do. As none of his attempts have been preserved, we cannot offer an opinion upon them; but it is doubtful whether Watt's poetry and fiction would display the same originality and power of invention as his steam-engine. The only youthful exercises of his which have been preserved are anything but poetical. One of them, at Heathfield, is a ‘Treatise on Practical Megethometry’ and another is a ‘Compendium of Definitions,' in Latin, by Gerard de Vries, both written in a neat round hand.
Like most of the Glasgow citizens of that time, Watt occasionally visited his club, where he cultivated the society of men of greater culture and experience than himself. [15] As he afterwards observed to a friend, "Our conversations then, besides the usual subjects with young men, turned principally on literary topics, religion, morality, belles-lettres, etc.; and to those conversations my mind owed its first bias towards such subjects, in which they were all much my superiors, I never having attended a college, and being then but a mechanic."
There was another circumstance connected with his situation at this time which must have been peculiarly agreeable to a young man of his character, aspirations, and thirst for knowledge. His shop, being conveniently situated within the College, was a favourite resort of the professors and the students. They were attracted by the ingenious instruments and models which the shop contained, and the pleasure always felt in witnessing the proceedings of a skilful mechanic at his work, but more particularly by the easy, unaffected, and original conversation of Watt himself. Though a comparative youth, the professors were usually glad to consult him on points of mechanical knowledge and practice; and the acuteness of his observation, the accuracy of his knowledge, and the readiness with which he communicated what he knew, soon rendered him a general favourite. Among his most frequent visitors were Dr. Joseph Black, the distinguished professor of chemistry, who there contracted a friendship with Watt which lasted, uninterrupted, for a period of forty years, until the Doctor's death; Professor Simson, one of the most eminent men of his day, whom Lord Brougham has described as the restorer of the science of geometry; Dr. Dick, the Professor of Natural Philosophy; and Professor Anderson. [16] Dr. Moor and Dr. Adam Smith were also frequent callers. But of all Watt's associates, none is more closely connected with his name and history than John Robison, then a student at Glasgow College, and afterwards Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh.
Robison was nearer Watt's age than the rest, and stood in the intimate relation to him of bosom friend, as well as fellow inquirer in science. He was handsome and prepossessing in appearance, frank and lively, full of fancy and humour, and a general favourite in the College. He was a capital talker, an accomplished linguist, and a good musician; yet, with all his versatility, he was a profound thinker and a diligent student, especially in mathematical and mechanical science, as he afterwards proved in his elaborate System of 'Mechanical Philosophy,' edited by Sir David Brewster, and his many able contributions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, of which he was the designer and editor.
Robison's introduction to Watt has been described by himself. After feasting his eyes on the beautifully-finished instruments in his shop, Robison entered into conversation with him. Expecting to find only a workman, he was surprised to discover a philosopher. "I had the vanity," says Robison, "to think myself a pretty good proficient in my favourite study (mathematical and mechanical philosophy), and was rather mortified at finding Mr. Watt so much my superior. But his own high relish for these things made him pleased with the chat of any person who had the same tastes with himself; and his innate complaisance made him indulge my curiosity, and even encourage my endeavours to form a more intimate acquaintance with him. I lounged much about him, and, I doubt not, was frequently teasing him. Thus our acquaintance began."
In Watt's workshop also, Robison first met Dr. Black, and there initiated a friendship which ended only with death. "My first acquaintance with him," Robison afterwards wrote Watt, "began in your rooms when you were rubbing up Macfarlane's instruments. He used to come in, and, standing with his back to us, amuse himself with Bird's quadrant, whistling softly to himself, in a manner that thrilled me to the heart."
In 1757 Robison applied for the office of assistant to Dr. Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy, in the place of the son of that gentleman, who had just died; but though he had already taken the degree of Master of Arts, he was thought too young to hold so important an office, being only about nineteen years old. His friends wished him to study for the church; but, preferring some occupation in which his mechanical tastes might be indulged, he turned his eyes to London. Furnished with letters from Professor Dick and Dr. Simson, he obtained an introduction to Admiral Knowles, who engaged him to take charge of his son's instruction while at sea. In that capacity he sailed from Spithead in 1759, with the fleet which assisted the land forces in the taking of Quebec; he and his pupil being rated as midshipmen in the Admiral's ship. Robison was on duty in the boat which carried Wolfe to the point where the army scaled the heights of Montcalm the night before the battle and as the sun was setting in the west, the General, doubtless from an association of ideas suggested by the dangers of the coming struggle, recited, in an under tone, Gray's ‘Elegy on a Country Churchyard’ and when he had finished, said, "Now, gentlemen, I would rather have been the author of that poem than take Quebec."
When Robison returned from his voyagings in 1763, a travelled man, — having had the advantage, during his absence, of acting as confidential assistant of Admiral Knowles in his marine surveys and observations, — he reckoned himself more than on a par with Watt; but he soon found that, during the period of his absence from Glasgow, his friend had been even busier than himself. When they entered into conversation, he found Watt continually striking into new paths where he was obliged to be his follower. The extent of the mathematical instrument maker's investigations was no less remarkable than the depth to which he had pursued them. Not only had he mastered the principles of engineering, civil and military, but diverged into studies in antiquity, natural history, languages, criticism and art. Every pursuit became science in his hands, and he made use of his subsidiary knowledge for the purpose of helping him towards his favourite objects.
Before long, Watt became to be regarded as one of the ablest men about college. "When to the superiority of knowledge in his own line," said Robison, "which every man confessed, there was joined the naïve simplicity and candour of his character, it is no wonder that the attachment of his acquaintances was so strong. I have seen something of the world," he continued, "and I am obliged to say that I never saw such another instance of general and cordial attachment to a person whom all acknowledged to be their superior. But this superiority was concealed under the most amiable candour, and liberal allowance of merit to every man. Mr. Watt was the first to ascribe to the ingenuity of a friend things which were very often nothing but his own surmises followed out and embodied by another. I am well entitled to say this, and have often experienced it in my own case."
There are few traits in biography more charming than this generous recognition of merit mutually attributed by the one friend to the other. Arago, in quoting the words of Robison, has well observed that it is difficult to determine whether the honour of having thus recorded them be not as great as that of having inspired them.
See Also
- Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles
- Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles: Chapter 5
- Lives of Boulton and Watt by Samuel Smiles: Chapter 7
Foot Notes
- ↑ According to Smeaton's report in 1755, there were in spring tides only 3 feet 8 inches water at Pointhouse Ford. Measures were taken to deepen the river, and operations with that object were begun in 1768. Salmon abounded in the Clyde, and was so common that servants and apprentices were accustomed to stipulate that they should not have salmon for dinner more than a certain number of days in the week.
- ↑ The "middens" in the street were sometimes complained of as a nuisance and in 1776, the magistrate threatened a penalty of 5s. if middens of which complaint had been made were not removed within 48 hours.
- ↑ The Highland gentry and people regarded the Lowlanders as their natural enemies, fair subjects for plunder at all times as opportunities offered. The Lowlanders, on their part, regarded the Highlanders very much as the primitive settlers of North America regarded the Cherokee and Chocktaw Indians. Sometimes a band of uncouth half-clad Highlandmen would suddenly rush down upon the Lowlands, swoop up all the cattle within their reach, and drive them off into the mountains. Hence the Lowlanders and the Highlanders were always in a state of feud. Long after the '45 a Highlandman would "thank God that he had not a drop of Lowland blood in his veins."
- ↑ The only trade which Glasgow carried on with foreign countries previous to the Union, was in coal, grindstones, and fish, — Glasgow-cured herrings being in much repute abroad. After the Union partnerships were formed; vessels were built down the Clyde, and chartered for carrying on the trade with Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. The first honest vessel crossed the Atlantic from the Clyde in 1719; in 1735 the Virginia merchants in Glasgow had fifteen vessels engaged in the trade, and the town shortly after became the great mart for tobacco. Of the 90,000 hogsheads imported into the United Kingdom in 1772, Glasgow alone imported 49,000, or more than one-half. The American Revolution had the effect of completely ruining the tobacco trade of Glasgow, after which the merchants were compelled to turn to other fields of enterprise and industry. The capital which they had accumulated from tobacco enabled them to enter upon their new undertakings with spirit, and the steam-engine which had by that time been invented by their townsman James Watt, proved their best helper in advancing the prosperity of modern Glasgow. The rapidity of its progress may be inferred from the following facts. In 1735, though the Glasgow merchants owned half the entire tonnage of Scotland, it amounted to only 5,600 tons. In that year the whole shipping of Scotland was only one-fortieth part of that of England: it is now about one-fifth. From 1752 to 1770 the total tonnage dues of the harbour of Glasgow amounted to only £147, or equal to an average of about £8 per annum. In 1780, the Clyde having been deepened in the interval, they reached £1,515; and in 1854, they amounted to £86,580. The increase has been quite as great in later years. In point of value of exports, Glasgow ranks fourth among the ports of the United Kingdom and Greenock now takes precedence of Bristol.
- ↑ For many curious particulars of Old Glasgow and its society, see Dr. Strang's ‘Glasgow and its Clubs.'
- ↑ A temporary wooden theatre was run up in 1752, but the religious prejudices of the population were violently excited by the circumstance, and the place was attacked by a mob and seriously damaged. The few persons who went there had to be protected from insults. In 1762, when some persons proposed to build a theatre, not a single individual who had ground within the burgh would grant them a site. Two years later the theatre was erected outside the precincts, and on the night on which it was opened it was wilfully set on fire by some persons instigated by the preaching of a neighbouring methodist, when it narrowly escaped destruction.
- ↑ When the Lowlanders want to drink a cheering cup, they go to the public-house, called the Change-house, and call for a chopin of twopenny, which is their yeasty beverage, made of malt, not quite so strong as the table-beer of England. . . . . The Highlanders, on the contrary, despise the liquor, and regale themselves with whisky, or malt spirit, as strong as Geneva, which they swallow in great quantities, without any signs of inebriation: they are used to it from the cradle, and find it an excellent preservative against the winter cold, which must be extreme on these mountains. — Smollett, ‘Expedition of Humphry Clinker.'
- ↑ Letter to his father quoted in Muirhead's ‘Life of Watt,' p. 39.
- ↑ The following "letter of Guildry" embodied the local regulations which existed for the purpose of preventing, "loss and skaith" to the burgesses and craftsmen of Glasgow by the intrusion of "strangers":— "The Dean of Guild and his Council shall have full power to discharge, punish, and unlaw all persons, unfreemen, using the liberty of a freeman within the burgh, as they shall think fit, ay and while the said unfreemen be put off the town, and restrained, or else be made free with the town and their crafts; and sic like, to pursue, upon the judges competent, all persons dwelling within this burgh, and usurping the liberty thereof, obtain decrets against them, and cause the same to be put to speedy execution."
- ↑ When we visited the room some years since, we found laid there the galvanic apparatus employed by Professor Thomson for perfecting the invention of his delicate process or signalling through the wires of the Atlantic Telegraph.
- ↑ The author of ‘Glasgow, Past and Present' thus writes:— "Last week (Nov. 1851) I was crossing the ferry at the west end of Tradeston, and in the course of our passage over we turned round the bow of a large ship. The ferryman, looking up to her leviathan bulwarks, exclaimed, ‘She came up here yesterday, drawing- eighteen feet water!’ Now, upon this very spot seventy years ago, when a very little boy, I waded across the river, my feet never being off the ground, and the water not reaching above my arm-pits. The depth at that time could not have been much more than three feet.’"
- ↑ The ‘Glasgow Courant’ of Oct. 22, 1759, contains the following advertisement "Just Published," And to be Sold by James Watt, at his Shop in the College of Glasgow, price 2s. ed., A large Sheet Map of the River Clyde, from Glasgow to Portincross, from an Actual 'Survey. "To which is added, "A Draught of Part of the North Channel, with the Frith of Clyde according to the best authorities."
- ↑ General T. Perronet Thompson is another remarkable instance of a person without ear for music, who has mastered the principles of harmony and applied them in the invention of his "Enharmonic Organ."
- ↑ Watt seems to have made other organs besides those above mentioned. Not long since a barrel-organ of his construction was offered for sale at Glasgow. It was originally in the form of a table, about three feet square, having no appearance of a musical instrument externally. At this table, when Watt and his friends were seated, he would set the concealed mechanism in action, and surprise them with the production of the music. It has since been mounted with an organ front and sides, with gilt pipes. When in proper tune it is of considerable power and pleasing harmony; and continues orthodox in its psalm tunes, which range from "Martyrs" to the "Old Hundred." A correspondent writes as follows:— "A large organ made and used by Watt when he had his shop in Glasgow, was disposed of by him, when he finally left this city. It came into the possession of the late Mr. Archibald M`Lellan, coach-builder, Miller Street, Glasgow, and he had it fitted up in his elegant residence in that fine old street. I have heard it played by Mr. M`Lellan. After his death it was sold, and purchased by Mr. James G. Adam of the Denny print-works. Mr. Adam died, and the organ was advertised for sale, in 1864, and purchased for £10, by Adam Sim, Esq., of Coulter Mains, in whose possession it now is. Mr. Sim has authentic documents to prove that this organ was really James Watt's."
- ↑ The club he frequented was called the Anderston Club, of which Mr. (afterwards Professor) Millar, Dr. Robert Simson, the mathematician, Dr. Adam Smith, Dr. Black, and Dr. Cullen, were members. The standing dish of the club was broth, consisting of a decoction of ‘how-towdies’ (fowls), thickened with black beans, and seasoned with pepper. Dr. Strang says Professor Simson was in the habit of counting the steps from his house to the club, so that he could tell the distance to the fraction of an inch. But it is not stated whether he counted the steps on his return, and found the number of steps the same.
- ↑ John Anderson was a native of Greenock, and an intimate friend of James Watt. He was appointed professor of Hebrew in his twenty-seventh year, and succeeded Dr. Dick as professor of Natural Philosophy in 1757. Watt spent many of his evenings at his residence within the College, and had the free use of his excellent private library. Professor Anderson is entitled to the honour of being the first to open classes for the instruction of working men — "anti-toga classes," as he called them — in the principles of Natural Philosophy; and at his death he bequeathed his property for the purpose of founding an institution with the same object. The Andersonian University was opened in 1796, long before the age of Mechanics' Institutes.
Note on the View of Glasgow College
The illustration does not show the Inner Quadrangle, situated to the left of the Main Court, that part of the building having been added since the view was published.