consultation with you, but have been prevented by sundry matters

among others by that plaguey stove, which is now in your hands."
Watt was most grateful to Murdock for his unvarying assistance.

In January, 1813, when Watt was in his seventy-seventh year, he
wrote to Murdock, asking him to accept a present of a lathe "I

have not heard from you," he says, "in reply to my letter about
the lathe; and, presuming you are not otherwise provided, I have

bought it, and request your acceptance of it. At present, an
alteration for the better is making in the oval chuck, and a few

additional chucks, rest, etc., are making to the lathe. When
these are finished, I shall have it at Billinger's until you

return, or as you otherwise direct. I am going on with my
drawings for a complete machine, and shall be glad to see you

here to judge of them."
The drawings were made, but the machine was never finished.

"Invention," said Watt, "goes on very slowly with me now." Four
years later, he was still at work; but death put a stop to his

"diminishing-machine." It is a remarkabletestimony to the skill
and perseverance of a man who had already accomplished so much,

that it is almost his only unfinished work. Watt died in 1819,
in the eighty-third year of his age, to the great grief of

Murdock, his oldest and most attached friend and correspondent.
Meanwhile, the firm of Boulton and Watt continued. The sons of

the two partners carried it on, with Murdock as their Mentor. He
was still full of work and inventive power. In 1802, he applied

the compressed air of the Blast Engine employed to blow the
cupolas of the Soho Foundry, for the purpose of driving the lathe

in the pattern shop. It worked a small engine, with a l2-inch
cylinder and 18-inch stroke, connected with the lathe, the speed

being regulated as required by varying the admission of the
blast. This engine continued in use for about thirty-five years.

In 1803 Murdock experimented on the power of high-pressure steam
in propelling shot, and contrived a steam-engine with which he

made many trials at Soho, thereby anticipating the apparatus
contrived by Mr. Perkins many years later.

In 1810 Murdock took out a patent for boring steam-pipes for
water, and cutting columns out of solid blocks of stone, by means

of a cylindrical crown saw. The first machine was used at Soho,
and afterwards at Mr. Rennie's Works in London, and proved quite

successful. Among his other inventions were a lift worked by
compressed air, which raised and lowered the castings from the

boring-mill to the level of the foundry and the canal bank. He
used the same kind of power to ring the bells in his house at

Sycamore Hill, and the contrivance was afterwards adopted by Sir
Walter Scott in his house at Abbotsford.

Murdock was also the inventor of the well-known cast-iron cement,
so extensively" target="_blank" title="ad.广泛地，彻底地">extensively used in engine and machine work. The manner in

which he was led to this invention affords a striking
illustration of his quickness of observation. Finding that some

iron-borings and sal-ammoniac had got accidently mixed together
in his tool-chest, and rusted his saw-blade nearly through, he

took note of the circumstance, mixed the articles in various
proportions, and at length arrived at the famous cement, which

eventually became an article of extensive manufacture at the Soho
Works.

Murdock's ingenuity was constantly at work, even upon matters
which lay entirely outside his special vocation. The late Sir

William Fairbairn informed us that he contrived a variety of
curious machines for consolidating peat moss, finely ground and

pulverised, under immensepressure, and which, when consolidated,
could be moulded into beautiful medals, armlets, and necklaces.

The material took the most brilliantpolish and had the
appearance of the finest jet.

Observing that fish-skins might be used as an economical
substitute for isinglass, he went up to London on one occasion in

order to explain to brewers the best method of preparing and
using them. He occupied handsome apartments, and, little

regarding the splendour of the drawing-room, he hung the
fish-skins up against the walls. His landlady caught him one day

when he was about to bang up a wet cod's skin! He was turned out
at once, with all his fish. While in town on this errand, it

occurred to him that a great deal of power was wasted in treading
the streets of London! He conceived the idea of using the

streets and roadways as a grand tread-mill, under which the waste
power might be stored up by mechanical methods and turned to

account. He had also an idea of storing up the power of the
tides, and of running water, in the same way. The late Charles

Babbage, F.R.S., entertained a similar idea about using springs
of Ischia or of the geysers of Iceland as a power necessary for

condensing gases, or perhaps for the storage of electricity.[12]
The latter, when perfected, will probably be the greatest

invention of the next half century.
Another of Murdock's' ingenious schemes, was his proposed method

of transmitting letters and packages through a tube exhausted by
an air-pump. This project led to the Atmospheric Railway, the

success of which, so far as it went, was due to the practical
ability of Murdock's pupil, Samuel Clegg. Although the

atmospheric railway was eventuallyabandoned, it is remarkable
that the original idea was afterwards revived and practised with

success by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company.
In 1815, while Murdock was engaged in erecting an apparatus of

his own invention for heating the water for the baths at
Leamington, a ponderous cast-iron plate fell upon his leg above

his ankle, and severely injured him. He remained a long while at
Leamington, and when it was thought safe to remove him, the

Birmingham Canal Company kindly placed their excursion boat at
his disposal, and he was conveyed safelyhomeward. So soon as he

was able, he was at work again at the Soho factory.
Although the elder Watt had to a certain extent ignored the uses

of steam as applied to navigation, being too much occupied with
developing the powers of the pumping and rotary engine, the young

partners, with the stout aid of Murdock, took up the question.
They supplied Fulton in 1807 with his first engine, by means of

which the Clermont made her first voyage along the Hudson river.
They also supplied Fulton and Livingston with the next two

engines for the Car of Neptune and the Paragon. From that time
forward, Boulton and Watt devoted themselves to the manufacture

of engines for steamboats. Up to the year 1814, marine engines
had been all applied singly in the vessel; but in this year

Boulton and Watt first applied two condensing engines, connected
by cranks set at right angles on the shaft, to propel a steamer

on the Clyde. Since then, nearly all steamers are fitted with
two engines. In making this important improvement, the firm were

materially aided by the mechanicalgenius of William Murdock, and
also of Mr. Brown, then an assistant, but afterwards a member of

the firm.
In order to carry on a set of experiments with respect to the

most improved form of marine engine, Boulton and Watt purchased
the Caledonia, a Scotch boat built on the Clyde by James Wood and

Co., of Port Glasgow. The engines and boilers were taken out.
The vessel was fitted with two side lever engines, and many

successive experiments were made with her down to August, 1817,
at an expense of about 10,000L. This led to a settled plan of

construction, by which marine engines were greatly improved.
James Watt, junior, accompanied the Caledonia to Holland and up

the Rhine. The vessel was eventually sold to the Danish
Government, and used for carrying the mails between Kiel and

Copenhagen. It is, however, unnecessary here to venture upon the
further history of steam navigation.

In the midst of these repeatedinventions and experiments,
Murdock was becoming an old man. Yet he never ceased to take an

interest in the works at Soho. At length his faculties
experienced a gradual decay, and he died peacefully at his house

at Sycamore Hill, on the l5th of November,1839, in his
eighty-fifth year. He was buried near the remains of the great

Boulton and Watt; and a bust by Chantrey served to perpetuate the