444 JAMES WATT. 
To change the site of the establishment, could not even 
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. 
