determined him to commence his career as a mathematical instrument maker. For this purpose he set out for Glasgow in 1754, but owing to the limited resources of the town at that period, he finally decided on going to London, where, after great difficulty, he was apprenticed for a twelvemonth to an instrument maker in Finch Lane. At the end of his apprenticeship Watt, having become enfeebled from over attention to work, repaired to Greenock to recruit his health, and ultimately returned to Glasgow, where he was established by the authorities, within the precincts of the college as mathematical instrument maker to the University. In process of time Watt's shop became a favourite resort for professors as well as students, and he counted among his visitors Professor Simson, Drs. Black, Dick, and Moor;* but his most intimate friend, and the one most closely connected with his after life, was John Robison, a student at Glasgow, afterwards Professor of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University, to whom the honour is due of having first directed Watt's attention to the steam-engine. The event which actually led to the commencement of his invaluable discoveries on this subject, was the entrusting to him the repair of a small model of Newcomen's engine, which the college possessed. In his endeavours to put this engine into working order, Watt was led to investigate thoroughly the properties of steam upon which its action depended; and ultimately in the spring of 1765, after many trials and untiring perseverance, he arrived at the great and simple idea of a separate condenser, into which the steam expanded; thereby preventing that wasteful expenditure of heat, which was the necessary result of the old plan of condensing the steam in the working cylinder, by admitting a jet of cold water directly under the piston. In addition to this Watt surrounded the cylinder with a second casing to be filled with the surplus steam, for the purpose of preventing radiation of heat, and closed in the top (which in Newcomen's engine had been left open for the sake of the pressure of the atmosphere upon the piston) by putting a cover on, with a hole and stuffing box for the piston rod to slide through; a plan which enabled steam pressure to be used in place of atmospheric. Newcomen's

During his residence at Glasgow, a Mason's Lodge were desirous of possessing an organ, and Watt was asked to build it. He was totally destitute of a musical ear, and could not distinguish one note from the other, but he nevertheless accepted the offer; for having studied the philosophical theory of music, he found that science would be a substitute for want of ear. He commenced by building a small one for Dr. Black, and then proceeded to the large one, in the building of which he devised a number of novel expedients, such as indicators and regulators of the strength of the blast, with various contrivances for improving the efficiency of the stops. The qualities of this organ when finished are said to have elicited the surprise and admiration of musicians. During this period of his life Watt used likewise to construct and repair guitars, flutes, and violins, and had the same success as with his organ.-Quarterly Review, October, 1858.

engine, at this time used only for pumping out water in mines, thus became a true steam-engine of immense power, capable of being worked with economy, and of being turned to the various uses to which science has since applied it. For these great improvements a patent, dated January 5, 1769, was taken out by Watt and Dr. Roebuck, the founder of the Carron iron works, with whom Watt had become acquainted. Little, however, was done for some years in manufacturing engines on a large scale; Roebuck fell into difficulties, while Watt, harassed, depressed in spirits, and in want of money, was forced to obtain employment as a civil engineer and land-surveyor. Among the many works that he was engaged on in this capacity may be mentioned: the Crinan Canal, afterwards completed by Rennie; the deepening of the river Clyde; improvements in the harbours of Ayr, Port Glasgow, and Greenock; the building of bridges at Hamilton and Rutherglen; and lastly, surveying and estimating a line of canal between Fort William and Inverness, which was subsequently executed by Telford on a larger scale than was then proposed, under the name of the Caledonian Čanal. In the latter half of the year 1773 Roebuck's affairs came to a crisis; and Watt, through the agency of Dr. Small, having been brought into relation with Mr. Boulton, a man possessing an intimate knowledge of business, with extended views and a liberal spirit of enterprise, an arrangement was entered into between them, and the firm of Boulton and Watt established at Soho. This was the turning point in Watt's fortunes; under the vigorous management of Boulton, his great invention at length began to be appreciated, and the saving of fuel was found to be nearly three-fourths of the quantity consumed by Newcomen's engine. In 1775 an extension of the original patent until the year 1800 was obtained. This gave a fresh stimulus to Watt's fertile brain, and resulted in patents being taken out, between the years 1781-1785, for the rotatory motion of the sun and planet wheels (the crank having been pirated by Wasbrough), the expansive principle of working steam; the double engine; the parallel motion; the smokeless furnace; the float to regulate the supply of water into the boiler; and the governor. At a later period Watt also invented the indicator, by means of which the actual horse power of an engine could be ascertained. This beautiful series of inventions in a measure may be said to have perfected the machine, and at the present time the condensing steam engine differs in no material respect from the engine as Watt left it.

While residing at Birmingham, Mr. Watt's house became the resort of many learned men. In the meetings of the Lunar Society, held at Soho House, originated his experiments on water, and between him and Cavendish is the honour divided of having first promulgated the theory of its composition. During the dispute which arose upon this subject, Watt's reply, on a friend regretting that another should have carried off this honour, is worth recording, as

showing the modest dignity of his character: "It matters not," said he, "whether Cavendish discovered this or I, it is discovered."

In the year 1800 Mr. Watt, having acquired an ample competency, ceased to take an active part in the business of the firm, and the remainder of his life was spent in retirement; but his active mind, still unwearied, continued to follow its natural bent. On two occasions afterwards, in 1811 and 1812, he gave proofs of the undiminished powers of his inventive genius. In the one instance he was induced, by his grateful recollections of his residence in Glasgow, to assist the proprietors of the waterworks there with a plan for supplying the town with better water, by means of a suction pipe laid across the Clyde to reach to the other side, where water of a very superior quality might be procured. This pipe was formed of cast iron, with flexible joints, after the manner of a lobster's tail, so as to accommodate itself to the bed of the river, and fully answered the purpose for which it was designed. In the other instance he was prevailed upon, by the earnest solicitation of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to attend a deputation of the Navy Board, and to give, with his friend Captain Huddart and Mr. J. Jessop, an opinion upon the works then carrying on at Sheerness Dockyard, and the further ones projected by Messrs. Rennie and Whitby. On this occasion he no less gratified the gentlemen associated with him by the clearness of his general views, than by his knowledge of the details; and he received the thanks of the Admiralty for his services. In 1814 he yielded to the wishes of his friends, of Dr. Brewster especially, and undertook a revision of Professor Robison's articles on steam and steam-engines for an early edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, which he enriched with valuable notes, containing his own experiments on steam, and a short history of his principal improvements upon the engine itself. Among other mechanical contrivances of Mr. Watt's may be mentioned: a machine for copying letters; an instrument for measuring the specific gravity of fluids; a regulator lamp; a plan for heating buildings by steam; and a contrivance for drying linen. In his eighty-third year, Mr. Watt was still occupied in inventing a machine for copying statues, but this remained unfinished, death arrested his hand; he died in the year 1819, at Heathfield, in Staffordshire; and thus, full of years and honours, ended the life of a man who, though born in a secluded village town, and reared in comparative poverty, was yet enabled, by persevering industry and the happy gifts of nature) to contribute so greatly to the commercial prosperity of the world.

Mr. Watt was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1784, of the Royal Society of London in 1785, and a corresponding member of the Batavian Society in 1787. In 1806 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the spontaneous and unanimous vote of the Senate of the University of

Glasgow; and in 1808 he was elected, first a corresponding, and afterwards a foreign member of the Institute of France. A few years before his death it was intimated to him, by a message from Sir Joseph Banks, that, to use the words of Mr. Muirhead, the highest honour usually conferred in England on men of literature and science-namely a baronetcy, was open to him, should he desire it; but, although Watt felt flattered by this intimation, he determined, after consulting with his son, to decline the honour.

Five statues have been erected to the memory of this illustrious man, of which number the one in Westminster Abbey, by Chantrey, bears on its pedestal the famous inscription by Lord Brougham:

NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME

WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH BUT TO SHEW

THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNT TO HONOUR THOSE

WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE

THE KING

HIS MINISTERS AND MANY OF THE NOBLES

AND COMMONERS OF THIS REALM

RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO

JAMES WATT

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 MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE
AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD

BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI

DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX.

-Muirhead's Translation of Arago's Historical Eloge of James Watt. London, 1839.-Memoir, by his son J. Watt, Encyclopædia Britannica.-Quarterly Review, October, 1858.

WILLIAM H. WOLLASTON, M.D., P.R.S. &c.

Born August 6, 1766. Died December 22, 1828.

William Hyde Wollaston was born at East Dereham, a village sixteen miles from Norwich. His father was an astronomer of some eminence, who in the year 1800 published an extensive catalogue of the northern circumpolar stars. After a preparatory education, Wollaston entered at Caius College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.B. in 1787, and that of M.D. in 1793; soon afterwards he became a Tancred Fellow. During his residence at Cambridge, he devoted himself more to the study of astronomy than any other science.

On leaving Cambridge in 1789, he settled at Bury St. Edmunds, and began to practise as a physician, but met with so little success, that he soon removed to London. Shortly after his arrival, he became a candidate for the office of Physician to St. George's Hospital, but was defeated by the election of his principal opponent, Dr. Pemberton. It is stated that this circumstance had such an effect on Wollaston, that he declared, in a moment of pique, he would abandon the profession, and never more write a prescription, were it for his own father. This statement is, however, contradicted in a biographical notice of him, contained in the reports of the Astronomical Society, where it is affirmed that he continued to practise physic in London to the end of the year 1800, when an accession of fortune determined him to relinquish a profession he never liked, and to devote himself entirely to science,

On the 9th of May, 1793, Wollaston was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; and in June, 1797, appeared his first contribution to the Philosophical Transactions,' being a paper On Gouty and Urinary Concretions.' From this period until his decease, Wollaston was a constant contributor to the 'Transactions,' as well as to various scientific journals. His papers in the 'Philosophical Transactions' amount to thirty-nine, and, in addition to strictly chemical subjects, include memoirs in astronomy, optics, mechanics, acoustics, mineralogy, crystallography, physiology, and botany.

On the 30th of November, 1804, he was elected Junior Secretary to the Royal Society; and on the death of Sir Joseph Banks, in June, 1820, succeeded him in the President's chair, until the anniversary, November 30th of the same year, when he retired in favour of Sir Humphry Davy, to whom, at the election, he gave the whole weight of his influence.

In the years 1804-5 Wollaston first made known to the world the existence of the two metals, palladium and rhodium, which he found