588 



aid of Mr. Wilks, who was then his partner, he produced the beau- 

 tiful machine now used at the Excise and Stamp Offices, and by the 

 East India Company at Calcutta. 



Amongst the many inventions and ingenious processes in the pro- 

 motion of which Mr. Donkin materially assisted, was the method of 

 preserving meats and vegetables in air-tight cases. His attention 

 was called to this subject in the year 1812, when he established a 

 considerable manufactory for this purpose in Bermondsey. The in- 

 troduction of this process has been of great public benefit ; and on 

 long sea voyages meat preserved in this way has become a necessary 

 part of the stores of every well-appointed vessel. 



Mr. Donkin was an early member of the Society of Arts, of 

 which he was one of the Vice-Presidents ; and as Chairman of the 

 Committee of Mechanics, an office he held for many years, the 

 soundness of his judgment and the urbanity of his manners made 

 him much esteemed and beloved. He received two gold medals 

 from the Society ; one for his invention of an instrument to 

 measure the velocity of rotation of machinery, the other for his 

 admirable counting engine. 



Although our space will not allow us to notice the various other 

 inventions and improvements in machinery due to Mr. Donkin, we 

 cannot pass over in silence his exquisite dividing and screw-cutting 

 engine. 



Mr. Donkin was much engaged during the last forty years of his 

 life as a civil engineer, and was one of the originators and a Vice- 

 President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which was founded 

 by one of his pupils, Mr. Henry Palmer, with a few other gentle- 

 men ; and Mr. Telford with Mr. Donkin obtained the Royal Charter 

 for that body. In 1838 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and repeatedly served on the Council. He was also a 

 member of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was held in such 

 esteem by that body, that they placed him in the Chair on the occasion 

 of receiving their Charter. He had, moreover, a small observatory 

 in his garden, where he spent much of his leisure time ; and it was 

 to his own transit that he first applied his novel and beautiful 

 level. 



For many years Mr. Donkin was a magistrate for the county of 

 Surrey, and, up to within a short time of his death, was very 



