76 



son's, the principal pieces having been both cast and worked by 

 Messrs Maudsley.* 



" To sum up here what may be said on Sir John's mechanical 

 talents, it may bo affirmed, that his intimate acquaintance with 

 Technology or the useful arts, was equalled by very few persons 

 living. Many persons who have been delighted by- the exquisite 

 specimens of handiwork produced by his own lathe, may have sup- 

 posed that his sagacity consisted in what may be called neat-handed- 

 ness. But it was so far from being limited to this, that he may be 

 said to have possessed a minute technical acquaintance with a host 

 of different trades ; and such combined knowledge is an uncommon 

 and valuable acquisition in itself. Any one who had occasion to 

 ask advice or information on any point of the numberless operative 

 professions into which modern ingenuity and modern luxury have 

 divided the comparatively few practical trades known a century ago, 

 were rarely disappointed in receiving from Sir John Robison a clear 

 and categorical answer as to the processes and materials in use, and 

 not unfrequently a suggestion for their extension or improvement. 

 I can safely say that for many years our late Secretary was to me 

 an unfailing referee upon such questions ; he formed a valuable link 

 between the men of theory and the men of practice of our time. 

 Amongst my own acquaintance, Mr Babbage and Professor Willis 

 are the only persons who could be brought into comparison with him 

 in this respect. 



" This extensive technical knowledge had several antecedents. 

 First, may be ranked a larger shai'e of theory than he ever took credit 

 for, or than any one would readily have supposed that he possessed ; 

 this I have only learned by casual circumstances : Secondly, a con- 

 tinual intercourse with well-informed persons in every department 

 of art, — not only with such men as the present Mr Watt, who has 

 kindly communicated to me his own testimony to the value set upon 

 Sir John Robison's talents and acquirements, not only by himself, 

 but by his illustrious father, and by Messrs Boulton and Murdoch 

 his coadjutors in the Solio establishment, or as Mr Peter Ewart, 

 formerly of Manchester, then of Woolwich, or as the late Mr Barton 

 of the Mint, or Mr Oldham of Dublin, who were his particular 

 friends, — but with the wholesale and retail manufacturers and engine- 

 makers of Birmingham, and more particularly of Manchester, where 



* I cannot affirm positively that Sir J. Robison's opinions were ori- 

 ginal to himself, but I understood tliem to be so; and I know that his 

 conversation with me lonij preceded the date of Mr Airy's paper. 



