326 BRINDLEY AS MASTER WHEELWRIGHT TAUT Y. 



enterprise which he had undertaken. At first he endea- 

 voured to assuie them that all was going right; hut at 

 last, after various efforts, he was ohliged to confess his 

 incompetency and his inability to complete the work. 



The proprietors, becoming alarmed, then sent for 

 Brindley and told him of their dilemma. " Would he 

 undertake to complete the works ? " He asked to see the 

 model and plans which the superintendent engineer had 

 proposed to follow out. But on being applied to, the 

 latter positively refused to submit his designs to a com- 

 mon millwright, as he alleged Brindley to be. The 

 proprietors were almost in despair, and their only reliance 

 now was on Brindley's genius. " Tell me," he said, 

 " what is the precise operation that you wish to perform, 

 and I will endeavour to provide you with the requisite 

 machinery for doing it ; but you must let me carry out 

 the work in my own way." To this they were only too 

 glad to assent; and having been furnished with the 

 requisite powers, he forthwith set to work. His intelli- 

 gent observation of the process of manufacture in the 

 various mills he had inspected, his intimate practical 

 knowledge of machinery of all kinds then in use, and his 

 fertility of resources in matters of mechanical arrange- 

 ment, enabled him to perform- even more than he had 

 promised ; and he not only finished the mill to the com- 

 plete satisfaction of its owners, but added a number of 

 new and skilful improvements in detail, which afterwards 

 proved of the greatest value. For instance, lie adapted 

 lifts to each set of rollers and swifts, by means of wliicli 

 the silk was enabled to be wound upon the bobbins 

 equably, instead of in wreaths as in other mills ; and he so 

 arranged the shafting as to throw out of gear arid stop 

 either the whole or any part of the machinery at will 

 an arrangement subsequently adopted in the throstle of 

 the cotton-spinning machine, and though common enough 

 now, then thought perfectly marvellous. And, in order 

 that the tooth-arid-pinion wheels should fit with perfect 



