December I otJi, ipoi.] PROCEEDINGS, xiii 



The following paper was read : — 



"The Topographical Distribution of Mechanical 

 Inventions in the County of Lancaster, and their 

 Influence on some British and Foreign Industries." 



By Sir William H. Bailey, 

 [abstract.] 



There having been some controversy recently respecting the 

 topographical distribution of men of genius, it was considered 

 that it might be of interest to collect the names of Lancashire 

 men of mechanical genius who have assisted to found our 

 industries. To enable their influence to be measured and 

 appreciated, a short account is given of our industrial position 

 before their advent. 



In the first half of the seventeenth century Torricello invented 

 the barometer for indicating the pressure of the atmosphere ; we 

 had the thermometer, the pendulum, the telescope and the 

 microscope from Galileo ; and in this country, only a few years 

 afterwards, we received the experimental engines from the 

 Marquis of Worcester in 1663, and Savory's engine in 1698. 

 Newcomen invemed his simple vacuum or atmospheric engine 

 in 17 12, which we must not forget did useful work in this country 

 for a hundred years before James Watt's double-acting engine, 

 with the conical pendulum or governor balls for controlling it, 

 became popular. 



In 1700 we were not superior, nor even equal, to the manu- 

 facturers on the Continent. We had a small trade in iron in 

 London, Bristol, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Manchester, but we 

 bought all our bar iron from the Continent. All cooking pots 

 came from Holland, and we imported all our cast-iron hollow-ware. 

 We made a few anchors ourselves, we had a small trade in 

 wrought-iron pans and shovels in Wigan and in the Black 

 Country, and our chain smiths were very ingenious ; but the 

 iron bars came from abroad. Round and square iron was 

 hammered to shape laboriously on the anvil, or by swages and 

 tilt hammers, but it was of bad quality. 



In spinning and weaving, dyeing and bleaching, we were 

 inferior to the people of the Low Countries, and about this time 



