KY AS MASTK1I \VII KKLWIIK JUT, \T. :Ji;. 



CHAPTER II. 



BRINDLEY AS MASTER WHEELWRIGHT AND MILLWRIGHT. 



BKIXDLEY had now been nine years at his trade, seven 

 as apprentice and two as journeyman ; and he began 

 business as a wheelwright at Leek at the age of twenty- 

 six. He had no capital except his skill, and no influence 

 except that which his character as a steady workman 

 gave him. Leek w T as not a manufacturing place at the 

 time when Brindley began business there in 1742. It 

 was but a small market town, the only mills in the neigh- 

 bourhood being a few grist-mills driven by the streamlets 

 (lowing into the waters of the Dane, the Churnet, and 

 the Trent. These mills usually contained no more than 

 a single pair of stones, and they were comparatively rude 

 and primitive in their arrangement and construction. 



Brindley at first obtained but a moderate share of em- 

 ployment. His work was more strongly done, and his 

 charges were consequently higher, than was customary 

 in the district ; and the agricultural classes were as yet 

 too poor to enable them to pay the prices of the best 

 work. He gradually, however, acquired a position, and 

 became known for his skill in improving old machinery 

 or inventing any new mechanical arrangement that might 

 be required for any special purpose. He was very 

 careful to execute anything committed to him within the 

 stipulated time, and he began to be spoken of as a 

 thoroughly reliable workman. Thus his business gradu- 

 ally extended to other places at a distance from Leek, 

 and more especially into the Staffordshire Pottery dis- 

 tricts, shortly about to rise into importance under the 

 fostering energy of Josiah Wedgwood. 



