1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



425 



rived at without ;iny cliance of error, if the span of the instrument is 

 always the same and the indices are accurately made (agreeing with 

 that space) in the first instance. 



J. Bailey Denton. 

 9, Gray's Inn Square. 



MEMOIR OF THE LATE PETER NICHOLSON, ARCHITECT, 

 Born July 20, 17G5. Died June 18, 184-1. 



Peter Nicholson was born in the parish of Prestonkirk, in the 

 county of East Lothian, being the son of a stonemason. At the age 

 of nine, young Nicholson was sent to school, where he remained three 

 years under a master of the name of Richardson, brother to George 

 Richardson, an architect, who published a work in English and 

 French in 1787, on tlie Five Orders of Architecture. John Brown, 

 the celebrated agriculturist, and John Rennie, the great engineer, 

 were born within half a mile of the same locality, and attended Pres- 

 tonkirk school ; the former having just left, and the latter being on 

 the point of doing [so, when Nicholson entered the school. At the 

 age of twelve he assisted his father, but took a disrelish for the 

 business, and was bound for four years to a cabinet-maker at Linton, 

 after which ho went to Edinburgh, and worked for a short time as a 

 cabinet-maker. He then left for London, being in his twenty-fourth 

 year, working at his business, and teaching with success at an evening 

 school in Berwick-street, Soho, which ultimately raised him above the 

 necessity of following his trade as a journeyman, and afforded him 

 leisure for his inventive faculties, which he employed in engraving 

 with his own hand the plates for his first publication, " The Carpen- 

 ter's New Guide," 1792, which contains an original method for the 

 construction of groins and niches of complex forms, where curves of 

 double curvature exist. This publication was followed by the " Stu- 

 dent's Instructor," " The Joiner's Assistant," and " The principles of 

 Architecture," in 1797. 



Mr. Nicholson returned to Scotland in 1800, and stayed a few 

 months at his native village, and thence went to Glasgow, where he 

 practised as an architect until 1808. Among his works at Glasgow 

 are a Wooden Bridge over the Clyde — Carlton Place — Additions to 

 the College Buildings — and the Town of Ardrossan in Ayrshire, de- 

 signed for the Earl of Eglinton. He next removed to Carlisle, where, 

 through the recommendation of the celebrated Mr. Telford, he ob- 

 tained the situation of architect to the county of Cumberland, and 

 superintended the building of the New Court Houses. In 1810 he re- 

 turned to London, where he again commenced the labours of author- 

 ship, and produced " The Architectural Dictionary," " Mechanical 

 Exercises," and " The Builder and Workman's New Director," all 

 relating to the art of building; also, "The Method of Increments," 

 " Essays on the Combinatorial Analysis, " Essay on Involution and 

 Evolution," " Analytical and Arithmetical Essays," and " The Rudi- 

 ments of Algebra," pertaining to the science of analysis. For the 

 " Essay on Involution," he was honoured with the thanks of the 

 Acidemie des Sciences at Paris. During his stay at Carlisle he ob- 

 tained rewards from the Society of Arts for an improvement in Hand- 

 railing, and for the invention of an instrument named " the Centro- 

 linear," and for its further improvement, the first in April, 1814, the 

 Gold Isis Medal; the second in May, 1814, the sum of 20/. ; and the 

 third in 1815, the Silver Medal. 



Mr. Nicholson visited France in 1826, and on his return had ac- 

 quired a suflTicient knowledge of the language to enable him to trans- 

 late mathematical works. In 1827 he published a work called " The 

 School of Architecture and Engineering," which was intended to be 

 completed in twelve numbers, at Is. 65. each, but only five appeared, 

 in consequence of the failure of the publishers. This is the only work 

 commenced by him and left incomplete, and which was a great loss 

 both to the author and the public: it contained an original method of 

 describing an ellipse of great beauty and of easy simplicity, as re- 

 gards tlie manner. 



Mr. Nicholson, on account of his loss and the vexation arising out 

 of this failure, left London in 1829, and went to live at Morpeth in 

 Northumberland, where he had acquired a small properlv left him by 

 a relative; here he remained until 1832, when he left for Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne. During his stay at Morpeth, he produced a work on Dial- 

 ing, which contains a new method of drawing a meridian line, and on 

 the application of the forniiilfe derived from the trehedral to the 

 angle of pyramids, the regular solids ami roofs. This investigation 

 led him to dispute a r\de laid down by Dr. Lardner in book 2nd. of 

 bis " Elements of Euclid," viz. " that a solid figure will have as many 



edges as it has distinct pairs of faces," which Mr. Nicholson says is 

 not true, and is only correct in the tetrahedron, but that a solid will 

 have as many edges as it has distinct pairs of sides bounding its 

 faces, and that the formula of Dr. Lardner is only adapted to find the 

 number of combinations taken two and two of any given number of 

 things. The application of trigonometry to find the length of the hip 

 and common rafters from the angle of inclination of the eaves, is fully 

 carried out in this work, and it is illustrated wilh useful tables of the 

 lengths of the rafters requisite, by a variation of the angle of inclina- 

 tion of between 20° to 30" progressively for each intermediate degree. 



When at Morpeth, his wife Jane, died Aug. 10, 1832, aged 48 

 years, and to whom he erected a neat memorial in the ground of the 

 High Church. 



On arriving at Newcastle he settled in Carliol-street, and opened a 

 school in the Arcade, which he continued for three or four years, and 

 at the same time laboured as an author. In 1835 he was elected Pre- 

 sident of a Society in connection with the Newcastle Mechanics' In- 

 stitution, for the promotion of the Fine Arts, Architecture, and Civil 

 Engineering; and on the establishment in October, 183G, of the North 

 of England Society for the promotion of the Fine Arts, as a distinct 

 society, under the sanction of the Philosophical Society of Newcastle, 

 he was appointed its teacher. Almost immediately after his ariival 

 at Newcastle, he was elected the first honorary member of the Me- 

 chanics' Institute, and a very fine bust of him was modelled by Robert 

 Saddler Scott of Newcastle, and presented to the institution. The 

 Literary and Philosophical Society also complimented him by electing 

 him an honorary member. His pecuniary circumstances were to a 

 certain extent improved by the liberality of the inhabitants of New- 

 castle. A public meeting was held Jan. 31, 1834, to enter into a ge- 

 neral subscription to present him with an annuity, the eminent coal 

 viewer, John Buddie, being in the chair. Thos. Sopwith, the geo- 

 logist, was appointed secretary, and Rev. R. Green, treasurer. Some- 

 wliere about 320/. was collected, which was given to Mr. Nicholson, 

 being insufficient for the intended purpose. Another attempt for 

 his relief was made by a petition to the King to grant him a sum from 

 the privy purse. 



Mr. Nicholson left Newcastle Oct. 10, 1841, for Carlisle, after a re- 

 sidence of nine years, during which period he had produced " A 

 Treatise on Projection and Isometrical Drawing," which contains a 

 portrait of Mr. Nicholson, drawn from life, by Edward Train, the 

 original picture being in pen and ink, and in the possession of Mr. 

 John Glynn of Newcastle; also "The Guide to Railway Masonry, 

 being a Trea.ise on the Oblique Arch," which appeared Jan. 1, 1839, 

 and was the last of his works. Among his general contributions may 

 be noticed those to Dr. Brewster's " Edinburgh Encyclopffidia," also 

 to "Rees' Eneyclopaedia," and to the publications of the Society for 

 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. He contributed also several 

 plates and illustrations to the work of his friend Mr. Sopwith, on the 

 application of Isometrical drawing to Geology and Mining, especially 

 those introduced for the use of mathematical students, and which is 

 fully acknowledged in the preface. 



After leaving Newcastle, Mr. Nicholson did not long survive but 

 died at Carlisle, June 18, 1844, and was buried on the 25th in Christ's 

 Church, Carlisle. 



For nearly two years before his death he was very feeble, had diffi- 

 culty in breathing, and was unable to write, although he retained his 

 sight and hearing, and his perceptive faculties remained strong to the 

 last. He was supported in his latter days by the liberality of Thomas 

 Jamieson, Esq., of Newton, Northumberland, who was connected with 

 him by marriage, Mr. Nicholson himself having married into the same 

 family. Mr. Nicholson was twice married. By his first wife he had 

 one son, Michael Angelo, who died in 1842, leaving a numerous family; 

 he published in 1826 " The Carpenter and Joiner's Companion," illus- 

 trated with a portrait of his father, painted by Derby. By his second 

 marriage Mr. Nicholson had a daughter, Jessie, who married Mr. 

 Bovven, of Bridgewater, and has a family ; also a son, named Jamieson 

 T, Nicholson, who, through the kindness of Mr. Errington, is em- 

 ployed on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway. To Mr. Jamieson 

 Nicholson the writer of this memoir applied for information relative 

 to the life of his father, but he stated that he had very few manuscript 

 papers, and possessed no further information than was to be obtained 

 in the Introduction and Prefaces to his difTereut works. Before Mr. 

 Nicholson left Newcastle the writer of this applied to him for a list of 

 his works and obtained the titles of eighteen in his own handwriting, 

 but he was unable to complete it. The writer has, however, endea- 

 voured to supply the omissions in the list which is appended to this 

 memoir. "The Builder and Workman's New Director" is prefaced 

 bv a memoir supposed to be written by his son-in-law, and it is also 

 illustrated by a portrait by Heaphy, engraved by Armstrong. The 

 " Mechanics' Magazine"' vol. 4, 1825| is illustrated with an engraving 



