[By Percival Skelton, after an original Drawing by T. Sutcliffe, Leeds.] CHAPTER VI. SMEATON'S PRIVATE LIFE-DEATH AND CHARACTER. WHILST Mr. Smeaton was thus extensively employed as an engineer throughout the three kingdoms, his home continued to be at Austhorpe, near Leeds, where he had been born. The mechanical experiments of his boyhood had been conducted there, as were also those of his maturer years. His father had allowed him the privilege of a workshop in an outhouse, which he long continued to enjoy; after which, when Austhorpe Lodge became his settled home, he erected a shop, study, and observatory, all in one, for his own special use. The building was in the form of a square tower, four stories high, standing apart from his dwelling, on the opposite side of the yard, as represented in the above engraving. The basement contained his forge; the first floor his lathe; the second his models; the third was his drawingroom and study; and the fourth was a sort of lumberroom and attic. From the little turreted staircase on the top, a door opened on to the leads. A vane was fixed on the summit, which worked the hands of a dial upon the ceiling of his drawing-room, so that by raising his head he could at any moment ascertain precisely which way the wind blew. When he entered his sanctum, strict orders were given that he was not to be disturbed on any account. No one was permitted to ascend the circular staircase that led to his study. When he heard a footstep below, he would call out and inquire what was wanted. His blacksmith, Waddington, was not allowed even to announce himself, but was ordered on such occasions to wait in the lower apartment until Mr. Smeaton came down; and as the smith was equally paid for his time, whether he was sitting there or blowing his forge, it was much the same to him. When not engaged in drawing plans or writing reports, much of the engineer's time was occupied with astronomical studies and observations. Even in the height of his professional career, and when fully employed, he continued to indulge in this solitary pleasure, and for many years was a regular contributor of papers on astronomical subjects to the Royal Society, of which he was a Fellow.' The instruments with which he The following are the papers reading the heavenly bodies out of the by him before the Royal Society, in addition to those previously mentioned:- Discourse concerning the Menstrual Parallax, arising from the mutual gravitation of the earth and moon, its influence on the observation of the sun and planets, with a method of observing it;' read before the Royal Society May 12th, 1768.-' Description of a new method of observ meridian; read May 16th, 1768.— was accustomed to illustrate his papers were of the most beautiful workmanship, all made by his own hands, which had by no means lost their cunning. Indeed, he was nowhere so happy as in his workshop amongst his tools, except, it might be, at his own fireside, where he was all but worshipped. His contrivances of tools were endless, and he was perpetually inventing and making new ones. There are large quantities of these interesting relics still in existence in the possession of the son of his blacksmith, who lives in the neighbourhood. When the author lately made inquiry after them, they were found laid in a heap in an open shed, covered with dirt and rust. One article, after having been well scrubbed with a broom, at length displayed the form of a jack-plane, the tool with which Smeaton himself had worked. Picked out from the heap were also found his drill, the bow formed of a thick piece of cane; his trace, his T square, his augers, his gouges, and his engraving tools. There was no end of curiously arranged dividers; pulleys in large numbers, and of various sizes; cog-wheels; brass hemispheres; and all manner of measured, drilled, framed, and jointed brass-work. His lathe is still in the possession of Mr. Mathers, engineer, Hunslet;' but many rant of altitude to a celestial globe, for the resolution of problems dependent on azimuth and altitude;' read November 20th, 1788.—' Description of a new hygrometer;' read before the same Society. velocity to heavy bodies from a statement in the application of the quadof rest; read April 25th, 1776.— 'New fundamental experiments on the collision of bodies;' read April 18th, 1782.-'Observations on the graduation of astronomical instruments;' read November 17th, 1785.'Account of an observation of the right ascension and declination of Mercury out of the meridian, near his greatest elongation, September, 1786, made by Mr. John Smeaton, with an equatorial micrometer of his own invention and workmanship, accompanied with an investigation of a method of allowing for refraction in such kind of observations ;' read June 27th, 1787.- Description of an improve The lathe stands on three legs, which are fastened together in such a way that they, as well as the rest of the framework, are still as firm as if they had been only just made, and yet the machine has been in use ever since Smeaton made it. The flywheel is of dark walnut-wood, and slightly inclines from the perpendicular, by which the driving-cord is allowed to be crossed and to play of the other interesting remains of the great engineer are equally worthy of preservation. To mechanics, there is a meaning in every one of them. They do not resemble existing tools, but you can see at once that each was made for a reason; and one can almost detect what the contriver was thinking about when he made them so different from those we are accustomed to see. Even in the most trifling matters, such as the kind of wood or metal used, the direction of the fibre of the wood, and such like, each detail has been carefully studied. Much even of the household furniture seems to have been employed in their fabrication, possibly to the occasional amazement of the ladies in Smeaton's house over the way. We are informed that so much "rubbish," as it was termed, was found in that square tower at his death, that a fire was kindled in the yard, and a vast quantity of papers, letters, books, plans, tools, and scraps of all kinds, were remorselessly burnt. SEATON'S LAIRE. We have said that Smeaton was a born mechanic; and a mechanic he remained to the last. He contrived and constructed for the pure love of it. Among the traditions which survive about him at Whitkirk, is this, that when new gates were erected at the entrances to Temple Newsam Park, near his house at Austhorpe, he volunteered to supply the designs, and they were made and hung after his plans. The people of the neighbourhood, however, think his most wonderful work with a greater amount of friction on the other wheels. The metal-work is of brass, iron, and steel, all nicely finished; and the whole is very compact, curious, and thoroughly Smeaton-like. is the ingenious hydraulic ram, by means of which the water is still raised in the grounds of Temple Newsam. His pursuits in his workshop, and at his desk, were varied by visits to his blacksmith's shop. One of his principal objects, on such occasions, was to experiment upon a boiler, the lower part copper and the upper part lead,-which he had fitted up in an adjoining building, for the purpose of ascertaining the evaporative power of different kinds of fuel, and other points connected with the then little understood question of steam power. He was on very familiar terms with the smith, and if he thought him not very handy about a piece of work he was engaged upon, he would take the tools himself and point out how it should be done. One of the maxims which he frequently quoted to his smith was, "Never let a file come where a hammer can go." When getting work done in other parts of the country, if a workman appeared to him unhandy, or at a loss how to proceed, he would pass him on one side, take up the tools, and finish the piece of work himself. "You know, Sir," observed the son of Smeaton's blacksmith, still living, "workmen didn't know much about drawings at that time a-day, and so when Mr. Smeaton wanted any queer-fangled thing making, he'd cut one piece out o' wood, and say to my father, 'Now, lad, go make me this.' And so on for ever so many pieces; and then he'd stick all those pieces o' wood together, and say, Now, lad, thou knows how thou made each part, go mak it now all in a piece.' And I've heard my father say, 'at he's often been cap't to know how he could tell so soon when owt ailed it, for before ever he set his foot at t' bottom of his twisting steps, or before my father could get sight of his face, if t' iron had been wrong, thear'd been an angry word o' some sort, but t' varry next words were, Why, my lad, thou s'ud a' made it so and so now go mak another.' Mr. Smeaton's professional engagements necessarily |