280 M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of Jatnes Watt. 



ticability of drawing the water from wells on the left bank, by 

 means of the pumping-engines then existing on the right bank, 

 and through a main-pipe to be carried by some means across 

 the river. In this emergency Watt was consulted ; and he was 

 ready with a solution of the difficulty ; pointing to a lobster 

 on the table, he shewed in what manner a mechanist might, 

 with iron, construct a jointed tube which would be endowed 

 with all the mobility of the tail of the Crustacea; he accordingly 

 proposed a complete jointed conduit-pipe, capable of bending 

 and applying itself to all the inflections, present and future, of 

 the bed of a great river ; — in fact, a lobster-tail of iron, two feet 

 in diameter, and a thousand feet in length. He soon after fur- 

 nished plans in detail, and drawings ; and the design was exe- 

 cuted for the Glasgow Water Company, with the most com- 

 plete success.* 



Those who were favoured with the personal acquaintance 

 of our honoured associate, have not hesitated to declare, that 

 in him the invaluable qualities of the heart were even superior 

 to those of his head. His singular candour, his child-like sim- 

 plicity of manners, his most scrupulous love of justice, and his 

 inexhaustible benevolence, have left in Scotland, and through- 

 out Britain, recollections which will never be effaced. But 

 with all this disposition, so moderate and gentle, Mr Watt 

 writhed when he heard an invention ascribed to any other 

 than the true author, and especially when some base flatterer 

 would attempt to enrich him, at the expense of another. In 

 his eyes, scientific discoveries were property of the highest 

 order ; and whole hours of discussion he considered well spent, 

 if he succeeded in doing justice to modest men, whose in- 

 ventions had been filched from them by plagiarists, or who 

 were merely overlooked by an ungrateful public. 



The memory of Watt might be cited as prodigious, even 

 in comparison of all the wonders which have been narrated 



* We have thought it necessary to alter somewhat the version of this ac- 

 count given in the original, as M. Arago seems to have misapprehended the 

 facts which were stated to him regarding the Glasgow Water Company. 

 A full account of the flexible Water-Main, by Sir John Eobison, together 

 with an illustrative plate, will be found in the Edinburgh Pkilotoi)hkal Jour- 

 nal, vol. iii. 60. — Edit. 



