444 JAMES WATT. 



To change the site of the establishment, could not even 



O ' 



be proposed ; they therefore thought of leading a fixed 

 conduit-pipe all across the river, along the bottom, the 

 mouth of which should always be in the midst of porta- 

 ble water ; but the construction of the wood-work to 

 support such a pipe, on its muddy, changeable, and un- 

 even bed, always covered with several metres of water, 

 seemed to require too heavy an outlay. Watt was con- 

 sulted. His solution was all ready ; having some days 

 before seen a lobster on the table, he sought and found 

 how mechanism might, with the aid of some iron, form a 

 series of articulations, which should have all the flexible 

 mobility of the tail of Crustacea ; he therefore proposed 

 an articulated conduit-pipe, susceptible of bending itself 

 to all the present and future inflections of the bed of the 

 river. According to the plans and designs of Watt, 

 therefore, the Glasgow' Company ordered this iron lob- 

 ster-tail to be made, sixty centimetres (nearly two feet) 

 in diameter, and above three hundred metres (1000 

 feet, English) in length ; and its success was complete. 



Those who had the happiness of being personally 

 acquainted with him, do not hesitate to assert that, in his 

 own house, the qualities of his heart shone even above 

 those of the philosopher. An infantine candour, the 

 greatest simplicity of manners, a love of justice carried 

 beyond every scruple, an inexhaustible benevolence, 

 these are the virtues that have given rise to indelible 

 recollections both in Scotland and England. Watt, 

 although so moderate and so gentle, became irritated 

 when in his presence an invention was not assigned to 

 its true author ; especially when any low flatterer wished 

 to enrich him at other men's expense. In his eyes, 

 scientific discoveries were the highest of all property. 



