170 Master Minds of Modern Science 



at the top. A tiny hole no wider than a hair was made in 

 the glass, and the depth of water was recorded by the 

 amount of water that entered the tube through this tiny 

 aperture. Though still a boy of twelve, Charles Parsons 

 had actually anticipated the principle of the sounding- 

 machine afterward constructed by the famous Lord 

 Kelvin. Sir Robert Ball, the great astronomer, was a friend 

 of Lord Rosse, and when he cruised with the family on 

 their yacht helped the boy inventor to make soundings 

 with this machine. 



Later, Charles Parsons went to Cambridge, where the 

 engineering school was just starting under Professor 

 James Stewart. Charles Parsons was one of Stewart's 

 first six students, and when he left Cambridge in 1876 was 

 Eleventh Wrangler. He was also a first-class rowing man, 

 for he had won his college pair of oars. Then he went to 

 Armstrong's, at Elswick, where he served his apprentice- 

 ship, and from there went to Kitson's, at Leeds, in 

 whose shops he began to work on high-speed steam 

 engines. 



It was in the eighties of the last century that competi- 

 tion for the Atlantic record had become fast and furious. 

 The Inman and White Star Lines had been striving with 

 one another for years, then the Guion Line struck in, and 

 in 1879 their Arizona crossed the Atlantic in seven days 

 ten hours and a few minutes. Three years later the 

 Alaska of the same line beat this record by four hours, 

 and in June 1884 the National liner America was the first 

 vessel to cross in under seven days, only to be beaten a 

 few weeks later by the Oregon, afterward mysteriously 

 sunk off Fire Island. 



Then the Cunard bestirred itself and built the Etruria 

 and Umbria, each of about eight thousand tons and 

 eighteen knots speed. The writer, crossing the Atlantic 

 in 1886, in the old National liner Egypt, saw the Umbria 

 coming up astern and watched her pass and race away 



