Part 18

In the year 1798, the Elector appointed him his ambassador to the court of Great Britain; but on arriving in London, Rumford, much to his mortification, found that, as a British subject he could not hold that office. Shortly after this, in 1799, his friend and patron the Elector Charles Theodore died. Deeply grieved by the loss he had sustained, Rumford contemplated returning to his native country, in compliance with a formal invitation which he had received from the United States government. He was, however, led to change this design, and remain for several years in London, during which period he devoted the greatest portion of his time to the interests of the Royal Institution, of which he may be considered the founder. The objects of this institution, now one of the recognised scientific establishments of the world, and which can boast of having given employment to such men as Young, Davy, Brande, and Faraday, were "to diffuse the knowledge and facilitate the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements, and to teach by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments the application of science to the useful purposes of life." Such an institution was precisely the one which Rumford was qualified to superintend; and in its early history, the influence of his peculiar habits of thought is discernible, in the choice of subjects for investigation by the members. Rumford's name will ever be connected with the progress of science in England, from the establishment of this institution, and also from the foundation by him of a perpetual medal and prize in the gift of the Royal Society, for the reward of discoveries connected with light and heat.

During the latter portion of his life, Count Rumford, retaining an income of 1200l. a year from the Bavarian court, resided chiefly at Auteuil, a small villa near Paris. Here he was married again to the widow of the eminent French chemist Lavoisier, his former wife having died in 1792. Rumford's death took place at Auteuil, on the 21st of August, 1814, in the sixty-second year of his age. His only daughter by his first wife inherited the title of Countess of Rumford, with the continuation of her father's Bavarian pension. She married Cuvier the naturalist, and survived until a few years ago, forming a link between the age of Lavoisier and those of the middle of the nineteenth century.--Chambers' Miscellany, No. 161.--Encyclopædia Britannica, eighth edition.--Voyage de trois mois en Angleterre, en Ecosse, &c., par Marc-Auguste Pictet, F.R.S., &c. Geneva, 1802.

DANIEL RUTHERFORD, M.D.

Born November 3, 1749. Died November 15, 1819.

Daniel Rutherford was born at Edinburgh and educated at the University of his native city. He took his degree of M.D. in 1772, and in the Thesis which he published upon this occasion, entitled 'De Aëre Fixo,' he pointed out for the first time a new gaseous substance, since distinguished by the name of Azote or Nitrogen. On the 6th of May, 1777, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and in a paper on Nitre, read before the Philosophical Society in 1778, he described, under the name of Vital Air, what is now called Oxygen gas.

On the death of Dr. John Hope in 1786, Rutherford was elected Professor of Botany and Keeper of the Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh, a duty which he discharged until the time of his death, in 1819, at the age of seventy.--Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. 3. May 1820.

WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D.

Born March 23, 1769. Died August 28, 1839.

William Smith, the 'Father of English Geology,' was born at Churchill, a village in Oxfordshire. His father died when he was eight years old, and his mother marrying again, William was brought up under the care of his uncle, to part of whose property he was heir. From this kinsman, who had little sympathy with his nephew's early displayed taste for collecting specimens of the various stones in the neighbourhood, young Smith with difficulty obtained money for the purchase of a few books fit to instruct a boy in the rudiments of geometry and surveying. He, however, continued to prosecute these studies without instruction or sympathy, but still with ardour and success until the year 1787, when, having attained the age of eighteen, and being tolerably versed in the geometry and calculations at that time thought sufficient for engineers and surveyors, he became assistant to Mr. Edward Webb, of Stow-on-the-Wold, who had been appointed to make a complete survey of the parish of Churchill. Being speedily entrusted with the management of all the ordinary business of a surveyor, Mr. Smith traversed in continual activity the counties of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire, carefully noticing all the varieties of soil over which he passed, and comparing them with the general aspect and character of the country. Between the years 1791 and 1793, he also made minute subterraneous surveys of the High Littleton collieries, which afforded him an opportunity of confirming views previously conceived as to the regularity in formation of the different strata composing the earth's crust. At this period the services of civil engineers were in great request, and the duties entrusted to them were such as Mr. Smith was well qualified to perform. Several gentlemen in the neighbourhood interested themselves in forwarding his professional career, and he obtained an engagement to make surveys and levels for a proposed line of canal in Somersetshire. In the course of these operations, Smith discovered that the strata lying above coal were not laid horizontally, but inclined in one direction--viz., to the eastward; resembling on a large scale the ordinary appearance of superposed slices of bread and butter. This fact he had previously imagined to be the case, and it was now proved to be true.

In 1794 the Canal Bill on which he was engaged received the sanction of Parliament, and one of the first steps taken by the committee of management was to depute two of their members to accompany Mr. Smith, their engineer, on a tour of investigation as to the construction and management of other navigations in England and Wales. This journey extended altogether through 900 miles of country, and occupied the space of one or two months; the party reached Newcastle by one route, and returned by another, through Shropshire and Wales to Bath. During the whole tour Mr. Smith seized every opportunity of observing all local peculiarities as to the aspect and structure of the country passed through, and was able to verify on a large scale his pre-conceived generalizations regarding a settled order of succession, continuity of range at the surface, and general declination eastward of the different strata. During the next six years he was engaged in setting out and superintending the works on the Somersetshire coal canal; being able, from the knowledge he had acquired, to inform the contractors what would be the nature of the ground to be cut through, and what parts of the canal would require particular care to be kept water-tight. He also discovered, during the formation of this work, that each stratum contained organised fossils peculiar to itself, by examination of which, it might in cases otherwise doubtful be recognised and discriminated from others like it, but in a different part of the series. This fact was subsequently still further investigated by him, and he proved that whatever stratum was found in any part of England, the same remains would be found in it and no other.

Mr. Smith was now (1795) twenty-six years old, and at this period removed from the village of High Littleton to Bath, in the vicinity of which city he shortly afterwards purchased a small but beautiful estate. In the following year he first contemplated publishing his discoveries in geology, but it was not until the year 1799, after his engagement with the Coal Canal Company had ceased, that he made public his intention of publishing a work on the Stratification of Britain, and prosecuting an actual survey of the Geological structure of England and Wales. About this time he became acquainted with the Rev. Benjamin Richardson and the Rev. Jos. Townsend, two gentlemen thoroughly competent to estimate the truth and value of his views, and who, in conjunction with him, drew up a tabular statement of the order of the strata, with their imbedded organic remains, in the vicinity of Bath. Copies of this document were extensively distributed, and it remained for a long period the type and authority for the descriptions and order of the superposition of the strata near Bath. The original document, in Mr. Richardson's handwriting, drawn up from Smith's dictation, was presented to the Geological Society in 1831. Mr. Smith now turned all his energies to the prosecution of his profession, and the tracing out the courses of the strata through districts as remote from Bath as his means would permit. In 1799 an unusual amount of rain prevailed, producing in the neighbourhood of Bath an extraordinary phenomenon. Vast mounds of earth, displaced by the augmented force of the springs and the direction of water into new channels below the surface, were sliding down the sides of the hills, bearing away with them houses, trees, lawns, and fields. To remedy such disasters and prevent their recurrence was exactly what Smith had learnt from Geology, and many operations of this kind were placed under his care and successfully accomplished. His reputation for success in draining on new principles became established, carrying him into Gloucestershire, the Isle of Purbeck, Wiltshire, &c., and for the next few years he was almost daily occupied in various parts of the country, first in draining land, and secondly in irrigating it when drained. In 1801 he accomplished the effectual drainage of Prisley Bog, a work which had often been attempted before, but without success. Mr. Smith thoroughly deprived the bog of its stagnant water, and converted this hitherto worthless waste into valuable meadows, by conducting a running stream over its surface. For the performance of this undertaking he received in 1805 the medal of the Society of Arts. Another great work, on which he was engaged more or less during the space of nine years (1800-1809), was the draining of the marsh lands in East Norfolk, between Yarmouth and Happisburgh. These lands were continually liable to be flooded by inundations from the German Ocean, which poured in through breaches in the sand-hills lining the coast, and forming a natural barrier against these inroads. Mr. Smith at once saw that the first thing to be done, to prove an effectual remedy, must be the stopping out the sea from the whole region of marsh land. This he accomplished by filling up the vast breaches (amounting altogether to one mile in length) with artificial embankments made of pebbles and sand as like as possible to the natural barriers thrown up by the sea. This simple and effective plan, requiring almost nothing but labour for its accomplishment, entirely succeeded; and the sea now being effectually kept out, he was able to suggest to the proprietors proper methods for draining and improving the marshes.

In 1806 Mr. Smith's first published work appeared, being entitled, 'A Treatise on the Construction and Management of Watermeadows.' Several years previous to this he had been repeatedly urged by his friends (among whom he now counted Francis, Duke of Bedford, Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Crawshaw, Thomas W. Coke, of Norfolk, and the Rev. B. Richardson, before mentioned) to put in force his intention of publishing his discoveries. Many difficulties had, however, occurred; his means were continually exhausted by his scientific investigations; and an attempt, first made in 1801, to publish by subscription a work on the natural order of the strata of England and Wales, failed, partially from the deaths of his patrons the Duke of Bedford and Mr. Crawshaw, and ultimately from his proposed publisher, Debrett, falling into difficulties.

From this period until late in life, Mr. Smith continued unceasingly his professional occupations. In 1809 he began to execute the Ouse navigation in Sussex; in 1810 he restored the hot springs of Bath, which had failed; in 1811 he examined into the causes of leakage on the Kennet and Avon Canal, and reported on trials for coals in Buckinghamshire; and in 1812-1814 executed the Minsmere drainage in Suffolk. During these and a hundred other engagements of a like nature, which furnished him with the means and occasion for incessant travelling, Mr. Smith lost no opportunity of committing to paper the result of the day's observations on the direction, dip, and aspect of the rocks he passed over during his various journies. In 1812, receiving proposals from Mr. Cary to publish his map of the strata of England and Wales, Mr. Smith recommenced his efforts to produce the great work on which he had been occupied for the space of twenty years. This map was at length published on the 1st of August, 1815, being dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks, and he received from the Society of Arts the premium of 50l., which had long been offered for a work of this description. The fame of its author as a great original discoverer in English geology was now secured, but it brought Mr. Smith little pecuniary benefit. Geology had kept him poor all his life by consuming his professional gains; and an unfortunate speculation, which he at this time entered into, entirely failed, and compelled him to sell the property at Bath which he had purchased in 1798. A load of debt still remained to be discharged, and in order to liquidate this he proposed selling the valuable geological collection he had been making during his past life. This collection, of which the number of species was 693, and of specimens 2657, was purchased by Government for the British Museum for a total sum of 700l. In 1818 Mr. Smith's claims on public notice were fairly and fully advocated by Dr. Fitton, and it was chiefly from the favourable light in which this gentleman placed his long and solitary labours, that public interest for him was stimulated, and the Geological Society, who had hitherto passed him over, was at length roused to an impartial estimate of the value of his works. This resulted in the passing of a resolution in February, 1831, "That the first Wollaston medal be given to Mr. William Smith, in consideration of his being a great original discoverer in English Geology; and especially for his having been the first in this country to discover and to teach the identification of strata, and to determine their succession by means of their imbedded fossils." The following year he received from the Crown a pension of 100l. a-year. Previous to this, however, the state of Mr. Smith's finances compelled him to be unceasingly occupied in various professional engagements; and on one of these occasions, being engaged by Colonel Braddyll to make a general mining survey of some estates belonging to that gentleman, he drew the Colonel's attention to the great probability of there being coal at an attainable depth on part of his property situated at Haswell, in Durham. This ultimately led to the foundation of the magnificent works, called the South Hetton Colliery, which rival the greatest establishments of the Lambtons, Vanes, and Russels.

During the last few years of his life Mr. Smith lived principally at Scarborough, where, unfettered by any but temporary engagements, he devoted his mind to a review of the circumstances of his life, and the arrangement of his observations and opinions. In 1835 he received the degree of LL.D., which was conferred on him by the members of Trinity College, Dublin. Between the years 1837 and 1838 he was appointed by Government to join Sir Charles Barry and Sir Henry De la Beche in making a tour through a great part of England and Wales, to select the most suitable stone for building the Houses of Parliament. The stone ultimately selected for this purpose was the firm yellow granular magnesian limestone, of Bolsover Moor, in Derbyshire. This was the last scientific work on which Dr. Smith was engaged; a cold caught the following year brought on diarrhœa, which terminated fatally. He died on the 28th of August, in his seventy-first year, and was buried at Northampton, at the west end of the church of All Saints, in which, at the suggestion of Dr. Buckland, a tablet was erected to his memory, the expense of which was defrayed by a subscription among geologists.--Memoirs of William Smith, LL.D., by his nephew, John Phillips, F.R.S., F.G.S. London, 1844.

EARL STANHOPE, F.R.S.

Born August 3, 1753. Died December 17, 1816.

Charles Stanhope, third earl of that name, was born at Chevening in Kent, and was sent at a very early period to Eton; but at the age of ten he removed with his family to Geneva, where he was placed under the tuition of M. Le Sage, a well-known man of letters in that place. There can be but little doubt that the whole political career of Earl Stanhope was deeply influenced by the circumstance of his receiving his early education in this republican city; and to this may be ascribed the extreme views which he entertained in after life respecting civil liberty and other points affecting the welfare of great communities.

While acquiring these sentiments, Lord Stanhope was at the same time pursuing a course of training which subsequently made him so remarkable, as a man of science and letters. Natural philosophy was his chief study; and the knowledge which he acquired of this subject was decisively shewn by his gaining, at the early age of eighteen, a prize offered by the Stockholm Society of Arts for the best essay, written in French, on the pendulum; and this essay was the more remarkable, as being the fruit not only of mere reading, but of numerous original experiments, performed by him in person.

Shortly after attaining his majority, Lord Stanhope, together with his family, left Geneva amidst the regrets of the whole population, while crowds of poor people assembled to take a last look on the noble English residents who had long been their generous benefactors. On reaching England, the family rank and influence of the young nobleman speedily procured him a seat in the House of Commons, which he occupied until his succession to the Stanhope title called him to the Upper House of Parliament. Here it was that he became famous as a politician. Honesty and straightforwardness were the grand features of his statesmanship; his views, however, although now entertained by even moderate politicians, were at that time considered extreme, and subsequently led to a separation of the earl from his family.

But it is chiefly as a man of science, and as an inventor in the field of practical mechanics, that Earl Stanhope has rendered himself celebrated. Shortly after leaving the Continent, about the year 1775, he turned his attention to devising some means whereby forgeries in coins and bank-notes might be prevented; this resulted in his publishing a pamphlet on that subject, in which various processes calculated to prevent forgeries on the mint are recommended.

In the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1778, Lord Stanhope gives a full account of experiments performed by him, on a large scale, in presence of the Lord Mayor and members of the Royal Society, showing that wood could be rendered fireproof, by coating it with a species of stucco or plaster of his own invention. The practical efficiency of this was still more decisively shown by a fire which broke out in the earl's mansion at Chevening. Having had occasion to rebuild this some time previously, Earl Stanhope had taken care to make use of his new discovery; a portion of the offices, however, remained unsecured, and here the fire originated; but on reaching the protected portion, it was at once arrested, and the mansion saved from destruction.

Among other works of Lord Stanhope which attracted most attention at that time are his experiments on electricity, his improvements in shipbuilding and navigation, a calculating machine, and the Stanhope printing-press, which to this day bears his name. He has also been called the inventor of stereotype printing, and had at all events the merit of greatly improving this most important process, and of introducing it into general use. The application of steam to navigation was another favourite study of Earl Stanhope; and, in concert with him, Fulton the American entered into an extensive series of experiments to prove its practicability. Although unsuccessful in this last pursuit, canal navigation owes much to the earl; the value of his improvements in canal-locks being felt to this day throughout the whole land. He lived in constant pursuit of these philosophical enquiries till the age of sixty-three, when he died of dropsy, at his seat in Kent.

Lord Stanhope was essentially a practical man, of a firm, upright, and independent character; and it is related of him, that when advising his children to pursue some useful calling, he remarked of himself, that "Charles Stanhope, as a carpenter, blacksmith, or millwright, could in any country, or at any time, preserve his independence, and bring up his family to honest and industrious courses, without soliciting either the bounty of friends or the charity of strangers." He merits the grateful remembrance of posterity, not only for the practical results of his genius, but for the indirect influence of his noble example exerted on others, and for the generous patronage he bestowed on many poorer fellow-labourers in the same great field.--Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, No. 392, August 3, 1839.--Stuart's Anecdotes of the Steam-Engine. London, 1829.

WILLIAM SYMINGTON.

Born in 1763. Died March 22, 1831.

William Symington, claimant conjointly with Patrick Miller to the honour of originating the present system of steam navigation, was a native of Leadhills, in the county of Lanark, Scotland. He was originally destined for the church, but an early predilection for mechanical philosophy led him to abandon his theological studies, and pursue with ardour those connected with his favourite science. His genius soon attracted the notice, and secured the patronage of Gilbert Meason, a gentleman at that time connected with the Wanlock Head lead mines. Before completing his twenty-first year, Mr. Symington made several improvements on the steam-engine, for which he took out patents, and continued for some time to construct and introduce engines on his principle, in various parts of England and Scotland.

In the year 1784, the idea first occurred to him that steam might be advantageously employed for the propulsion of carriages; and in 1786 he succeeded in producing a working model of a steam-carriage, which he submitted to the inspection of the professors and other scientific gentlemen in Edinburgh. Although this steam-carriage afforded proofs of considerable capability, it was never proceeded further with, on account of the state of the roads in Scotland at that period, and the difficulty of procuring fuel and water.

In the meanwhile Patrick Miller, a gentleman of property residing on his estate at Dalswinton, Dumfriesshire, had for some time been engaged in making various experiments for the improvement of naval architecture, and had constructed a double or twin-boat, with paddle-wheels, to be moved by manual labour. At this point Miller was informed by Mr. James Taylor, a tutor in his family, of Symington's model steam-carriage, and they both called at Mr. Meason's house in Edinburgh to see it. During the course of conversation with Symington, the practicability of advantageously employing steam for the purposes of navigation was talked about, and it was ultimately arranged that Symington should endeavour to construct a steam-engine to be fitted on board Miller's twin-boat, and capable of moving the paddle-wheels. This was accomplished in the autumn of 1788, when a trial was made, in the presence of Mr. Miller and various others, of so satisfactory a nature, that it was immediately determined to commence another experiment, upon a larger scale. It may, however, be satisfactory to state here, that this, the parent engine of steam navigation, after enduring many vicissitudes, was ultimately rescued from destruction by Mr. Bennet Woodcroft, and contributed by him for exhibition in the South Kensington Museum.