320 BRINDLEY AS MASTER WHEELWRIGHT PART V. 



At first he kept neither apprentices nor journeymen, 

 but felled his own timber and cut it up himself, with 

 such assistance as he could procure on the spot. As his 

 business increased he took in an apprentice, and then a 

 journeyman, to carry on the work in the shop while he 

 was absent; and he w r as often called to a considerable 

 distance from home, more particularly for the purpose 

 of being consulted about any new machinery that was 

 proposed to be put up. Nor did he confine himself to 

 mill-w T ork. He was ready to undertake all sorts of ma- 

 chinery connected with the pumping of water, the 

 draining of mines, the smelting of iron and copper, and 

 the various mechanical arrangements connected with 

 the manufactures rising into importance in the adjoining 

 counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Whenever he was 

 called upon in this way, he endeavoured to introduce 

 improvements ; and to such an extent did he carry this 

 tendency, that he became generally known in the neigh- 

 bourhood by the name of " The Schemer." 



A number of Brindley 's memoranda books l are still 

 in existence, which show the various character of his 

 employment during this early part of his career. It 

 appears from the entries made in them, that he was not 

 only employed in repairing and fitting up silk-throwing 

 mills at Macclesfield, all of which were then driven by 

 water, but also in repairing corn-mills at Congleton, New- 

 castle-imder-Lyne, and various other places, besides 'those 

 in the immediate neighbourhood of Leek, where he lived. 

 We believe the pocket memoranda books, to which we 

 refer, were the only records which Brindley kept of his 

 early business transactions ; the rest he carried in his 

 memory, which by practice became remarkably retentive. 

 Whilst working as an apprentice at Macclesfield, he had 

 taught himself the art of writing ; but he never mastered 



1 In the possession of Joseph Mayer, 

 Esq., of Liverpool, who has kindly 

 permitted the author to inspect the 



whole of his valuable Brindley manu- 

 scripts, so curiously illustrative of the 

 early part of his career. 



