12 BENTHAM. 



yards, and it occurred to him that Brunei would be likely to influ- 

 ence the public in favour of machinery for working wood, and 

 therefore proposed that he should be engaged for that purpose, 

 recommending at the same time the adoption of his apparatus for 

 shaping blocks, to which Brunei's machines were solely confined* 

 a measure which has had the effect of giving almost the entire 

 merit of the Portsmouth machinery to Brunei. This statement is 

 made without any intention of detracting from Sir Isambard's well- 

 earned reputation, but simply in justice to Bentham, who, singu- 

 larly free from an inventor's jealousy, himself officially stated : 

 " In regard to the machinery, I was afterwards satisfied that Mr. 

 Brunei had skill enough to have contrived machinery to have 

 answered the same purposes, had he not found mine ready to his 

 hand." 



To describe all Bentham's subsequent improvements, not only in 

 machinery, but also in the economy of the management of the 

 dockyards, would take too much space. By his energetic efforts 

 and inventive genius, the wood mills, metal mills, and millwrights' 

 shop were established at Portsmouth. In 1800, he proposed to the 

 Admiralty a steam dredging-machine, of which he gave drawings, 

 similar to the ones now in such general use ; and the efficacy of 

 this invention has since realized the most sanguine hopes of its 

 designer. Notwithstanding the great value of Bentham's ser- 

 vices, he seems to have experienced little gratitude on the part of 

 the government. During the year 1805, he was requested by the 

 Admiralty to proceed to Russia, and commence building in that 

 country ships of war for the British navy. On his consenting, and 

 arriving at St. Petersburgh, he found, much to his surprise, that 

 nothing had been done to facilitate his mission ; and although per- 

 sonally received with great kindness by the emperor, he was unable 

 to obtain the required permission to build vessels of war for Great 

 Britain. 



Returning to England in 1807, he learnt that his office had been 

 abolished, and that henceforth he would be amalgamated with the 

 Naval Board. Nothing but the necessity of supporting his family, 

 made Bentham accept this new post, which gave him the title of 

 Civil Engineer and Architect of the Navy an employment for 

 which he had manifested peculiar talents, "although not educated 

 for it, but excluding him at the same time from all interference in 

 ship-building, for which he had served a regular apprenticeship, and 

 had subsequently manifested extraordinary talents. When this 

 office also was abolished, about the year 1812, Sir Samuel, by the de- 

 sire of Lord Melville, applied for some compensation for loss of office, 



* Mr. Samuel Bentham had amongst his other contrivances for shaping wood, 

 described one in his patent of 1793, for shaping the shells of blocks, but with a 

 singular degree of candour and generosity, he at once acknowledged the supe- 

 riority of Brunei's machinery. Smiles' s Industrial Biography. London, 1863. 



