unrivalled degree of prosperity. Bri- His active disposition and superior tish ingenuity, supported by increas-abilities were not, however, long uning capital, and aided by these advan- noticed: their fame extended beyond tages, defied competition in the foreign the small village to which they were market. The sea-ports of Liverpool, consigned, and the humble apprenHull, Bristol, &c. progressively rose tice was continually consulted in prein importance, as their several ship- | ference to his more timber-headed ping and merchant services, the great master. Little mechanical contrivannurseries from which our fleets are ces, to accelerate the handicraft occusupplied with able and intrepid sea-pations of the district, and ingenious men, experienced increasing activity. In short, the British merchant, secure in the protection of his country's influence, has been enabled to carry his commercial enterprise into the remotest corners of the globe. No apology will therefore be required, even at this distant period, for introducing to the notice of our readers, and for recording in the pages of this publication, some brief notices of an individual whose enterprising genius secured to the community many of the above advantages; and whose name, associated with the undertakings by which it is perpetuated, is never mentioned but with a corresponding tribute of admiration. And were there not, at every time, in the history of highly-gifted persons, enough to justify an editor in reviving the memorial of their lives, by the READERS of the IMPERIAL MAGAZINE, with whom are the speaking monuments of Mr. Brindley's talent, this plate and memoir would scarcely be deemed inappropriate.* There is, moreover, this distinguishing feature in the character of Mr. Brindley; that the success which crowned his mechanical inventions must be attributed entirely to the native force of his genius, and the untutored energy of his mind. This celebrated individual was born at Tunsted, in the parish of Wormhill, and county of Derby, in the year 1716. Though his parents were in easy circumstances during the few first years of his life, the dissolute habits of the father prevented all attention to the necessary culture of his child; and in consequence, at an age when other boys are supposed at least to be acquainted with the common principles of writing and arithmetic, young Brindley was apprenticed to an obscure wheelwright, near Macclesfield, totally ignorant of either. The Imperial Magazine originated in Liverpool and its circulation is very extensive throughout Lancashire and Cheshire. alterations in several of the surrounding manufactories, led to their gradual development. It is recorded, that a machine of curious construction had been erected at some distance, containing, however, a defect, which rendered its operation useless. On the Saturday night, when the labours of the week were concluded, young Brindley set off on foot, of his own accord, and without any intimation of his design, to examine it. returned early on the Monday morning, and named the defect: it was remedied under his superintendence, and the engine shortly set to work. This was a voluntary journey of fifty miles on foot. He At the expiration of his apprenticeship, he met with very flattering encouragement; and, in the few succeeding years, acquired increased celebrity by divers improvements in enginery; especially by the erection of a curious water-engine for draining coal-works; of a new silk-mill, near Congleton; and of an improved machine for manufacturing printing paper. But his services were now to be devoted to a different undertaking; the execution of which was as creditable to his talent, as its completion was beneficial to the community. This was the planning and making a navigable canal from the populous town of Manchester to the late Duke of Bridgewater's valuable coal mines at Worsley. Brindley, as the event proved, was the very man for the Duke's purpose; since it is more than probable, that had the plan been submitted to an individual regularly inducted to the profession of a civil engineer, and guided more by rules of art than the force of genius, it would have been abandoned in the onset as altogether chimerical. Indeed, in reviewing the transactions of Mr. Brindley's active but contracted life, and that in particular which introduced him to the notice of his illustrious patron, the manly for Duke and his successors being obliged, for ever, to supply the town with that valuable commodity at 4d. per cwt. The act allowed 2s. 6d. per ton freightage for other produce. This first undertaking so fully realized the anticipations of its noble originator, that in 1762 another act was obtained for branching the canal to the tide-way of the Mersey, at Runcorn in Cheshire. It was declared to be "for improving the intercourse between Liverpool and Manchester;" it secured an uninterrupted intercourse at the lowest neap tides; and so decisive were the effects, that in a few weeks the rates of freightage by the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, were reduced from 12s. to 6s. per ton. This canal, also, is as nearly as possible rectilineal, and on an entire level; with the exception of a fall of 82 feet at the termination in Runcorn. It is obviated by ten locks, which immediately connect the navigation with the tide. way. The total level is therefore seventy-two miles; including a short branch of the Trent and Mersey, which was improved by Brindley under the second act, and forms a junction with the Bridgwater at Preston Brook. titude and patriotic perseverance of the latter, are scarcely superseded in interest by the native acuteness, the mental comprehension, and the unparalleled success, which throughout accompanied and distinguished the former. The Duke found that he must sacrifice a princely fortune for a remote contingency, in which, however splendid if secured, it was impossible for him to participate. The novelty of the undertaking increased the number of those whom interest or prejudice induced to oppose it. In and out of Parliament, the scheme was ridiculed, obstructed, and condemned; but his Grace most laudably persevered, and in the years 1758-9, the necessary powers for effecting it were definitively obtained. The plan had been previously digested by Mr. Brindley; who, relying upon his own resources, adopted the unprecedented idea of carrying the navigation as nearly as possible in a straight line, without the aid of locks; and of remedying by art the natural inequalities of surface. To do this, however, immense embankments were to be constructed-subterraneous tunnels excavated-and the then uncommon expedient of carrying a canal across a large navigable river,* was to be attempted. And here it may be well to remark upon a singular feature in Mr. Brindley's character. For this and for every other undertaking, how-level; but Brindley thought otherwise, ever extensive or complex, he never had recourse to calculation upon paper, nor to the construction of a model; but he retired to bed, where he would remain two or three days, till the minutest parts of his plan were methodized and adjusted; and then, without any text-book but his extensive and capacious memory, would proceed with exactness to its execution. The want of early education has by some been assigned as the reason for his doing so; but, in whatever cause it might originate, the fact affords a striking proof of the uncommon power of his mental faculties. In little more than a year the canal was publicly opened, and a cargo of coals conveyed to Manchester; the Brindley, when before a Committee of the House of Commons, was asked by a Member, What he considered rivers were intended for, as he spoke of them so lightly? After some pause, he replied "To feed navigable canals!" By the most experienced surveyors it was deemed impracticable to carry the navigation across Sale Moor, as it lay so much beneath the antecedent and succeeded. Across the whole valley at Stretford, it resembles rather a navigable river than an artificial canal. The embankment in these meadows is two thousand seven bundred feet long, fifty-one high, and three hundred and thirty-six wide at the base: its dimensions, however, are considerably exceeded by another upon the same line at Bollington in Cheshire. For these, vast wooden cases were constructed, and large piles sunk into the earth, for securing the mounds on each side. A portion being formed, the piles were moved onwards, answering again the same purpose, and the canal thus rapidly elongated. Where the channel was too deep, Mr. Brindley had a couple of boats fastened, within a foot of each other; above this intermediate opening, was placed a triangular trough, the bottom of which had trap-doors: this being filled with earth from some part of the embankment which required Viewed from the battlements of Barton Bridge, the interest of the scene is not unfrequently heightened by the Duke's pleasure packet being seen on the aqueduct above, at the moment when a large packet or lighter of the river-company is passing in full sail below it. These, with the enlivening twang of the boatmen's borns-the horses with their drivers on the towing-path of the conduit, fifty feet above the river-and a mill and waterfall some distance beyond it-present a very noble combination of nature and art. lowering, was conveyed by the boats | principle was reversed, the road was exactly over the place to be raised, gradually sunk on each side, and by and the trap-doors being suddenly turning a large arch, the canal conopened, its contents were precipitated veyed over it as well as the river! to the bottom. The scientific adoption of puddling to prevent leakage, originated also with Mr. Brindley; and it has not hitherto been superseded by any better appliance. His economy, skill, and foresight, shone conspicuously throughout the whole of this work; and were calculated to have lessened the expenses full £1000 per cent. The canal has furnished a model to succeeding celebrated engineers; and at this very period, when improved science and renewed opportunities might be supposed to advance considerably on the original, it is found that Brindley left little to amend. Indeed, the beautiful regularity of the navigation-its extentthe excellence of the towing-pathsthe magnitude and solidity of the embankments,* with the efficient provision for feeding it with water, and diverting superabundant supplies, elicit the approbation even of an unprofessional observer. The opinion entertained sixty years ago, of an aqueduct across the Irwell at Barton, may be gathered from the well-known remark of a celebrated surveyor, when interrogated as to the possibility of erecting it: "I have often been told (said he) of building castles in the air, but never before was shewn where any of them were to be erected." The "airy castle" was however raised; and in the short space of ten months: whilst, unlike the creations to which this witty gentleman alluded, it still remains. In September, 1760, it was commenced; and, in July, 1761, boats with coals sailed across it. The river which flows beneath it is wide and deep; the southern bank rocky and precipitous, and covered towards the summit with dense overhanging foliage. To raise the northern bank to a corresponding level was a work of considerable labour; and as a bridge of immense extent would have been required to carry the public road (which it intersects) above a canal raised artificially so much beyond the natural level, the One only gave way, by which a large barge, with sails spread, was floated into the middle of a hay-field. Query: Were the boatmen or the baymakers most astonisked? But the subterraneous tunnel, communicating with different shafts of the mine at Worsley, hewn out of the solid rock, and the first ever undertaken in this country for the purposes of navigation, is that which most powerfully excites the astonishment of a beholder. Little does he imagine, when seating himself in the small wherry at its entrance, to what diversified instances of human ingenuity and human perseverance he will shortly be introduced. Yet, had Virgil lived in our days, the opening to this invisible world might have furnished the idea of his "fauces graveolentis Averni." The boat is just large enough for the tunnel; which at this part does not exceed five feet in height, and six in width. A sootyvisaged guide, whose appearance is strangely in character with the objects around, propels it by means of rings fixed in the rock. As it slowly recedes from the entrance, the gloom increases, till the aperture gradually dwindles into a mere point of light; whilst the death-like stillness of the cavern is momentarily interrupted by the sound of the distant pick-the reechoed hail of the workmen--the tingling of the notice-bells, or the clatter of subterraneous machinery. At regular distances narrow perpendicular niches are cut through the rock from the upper surface; as well to ventilate the passage, as to lower men down, in case it be obstructed. Strong gates are placed at intervals, which close up weather. Arrived at the termination the arch in stormy and tempestuous of a level, a bell is rung, and the boat expeditiously laden with the useful |