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Men of Invention and Industry-Part43_Samuel Smiles(1812-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Academy, my eldest brother William being then a medical student

at the University. I remained at Edinburgh two years. My early



progress in mathematics would have been lost in the classical

training which was then insisted upon at the academy, but for my



brother who was not only a good mathematician but an excellent

mechanic. He took care to carry on my instruction in that branch



of knowledge, as well as to teach me to make models of machines

and buildings, in which he was himself proficient. I remember,



in one of my journeys to Edinburgh, by coach from Darlington,

that a gentleman expressed his wonder what a screw propeller



could be like; for the screw, as a method of propulsion, was then

being introduced. I pointed out to him the patent tail of a



windmill by the roadside, and said, "It is just like that!"

In 1844 my mother died; and shortly after, my brother having



become M.D., and obtained a prize gold medal, we returned to

Scarborough. It was intended that he should assist my father;



but he preferred going abroad for a few years. I may mention

further, with relation to him, that after many years of



scientific research and professional practice, he died at Hong

Kong in 1858, when a public monument was erected to his memory,



in what is known as the "Happy Valley."

I remained for a short time under the tuition of my old master.



But as the time was rapidly approaching when I too must determine

what I was "to be" in life. I had no hesitation in deciding to



be an engineer, though my father wished me to be a barrister.

But I kept constant to my resolution; and eventually he



succeeded, through his early acquaintance with George Stephenson,

in gaining for me an entrance to the engineering works of Robert



Stephenson and Co., at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I started there as a

pupil on my fifteenth birthday, for an apprenticeship of five



years. I was to spend the first four years in the various

workshops, and the last year in the drawing-office.



I was now in my element. The working hours, it is true, were

very long,--being from six in the morning until 8.15 at night;



excepting on Saturday, when we knocked off at four. However, all

this gave me so much the more experience; and, taking advantage



of it, I found that, when I had reached the age of eighteen, I

was intrusted with the full charge of erecting one side of a



locomotive. I had to accomplish the same amount of work as my

mate on the other side, one Murray Playfair, a powerful,



hard-working Scotchman. My strength and endurance were sometimes

taxed to the utmost, and required the intervals of my labour to



be spent in merely eating and sleeping.

I afterwards went through the machine-shops. I was fortunate



enough to get charge of the best screw-cutting and brass-turning

lathe in the shop; the former occupant, Jack Singleton, having



just been promoted to a foreman's berth at the Messrs.

Armstrong's factory. He afterwards became superintendent of all



the hydraulic machinery of the Mersey Dock Trust at Liverpool.

After my four years had been completed, I went into the



drawing-office, to which I had looked forward with pleasure; and,

having before practised lineal as well as free-hand drawing, I



soon succeeded in getting good and difficult designs to work out,

and eventually finished drawings of the engines. Indeed, on



visiting the works many years after, one of these drawings was

shown to me as a "specimen;" the person exhibiting it not knowing



that it was my own work.

In the course of my occasional visits to Scarborough, my



attention was drawn to the imperfect design of the lifeboats of

the period; the frequent shipwrecks along the coast indicating






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