330 BRINDLEY AS MASTER WHEELWRIGHT TAUT V. 



Hampton ; and after considerable difficulties had been 

 experienced in its construction and working, the engine 

 was at length pronounced the most effective and econo- 

 mical that had yet been tried. Other engines of a similar 

 kind were shortly after erected in the coal districts of the 

 north of England, in the tin and copper mines of Corn- 

 wall, and in the lead mines of Cumberland, for the 

 purpose of pumping water from the pits. Brindley, like 

 other contrivers of power, felt curious about this new 

 invention, and proceeded to Wolverhampton to study 

 one of Newcomen's engines erected there. He was 

 greatly struck by its appearance, and, with the irrepres- 

 sible instinct of the inventor, immediately set about 

 contriving how it might be improved. He found the 

 consumption of coal so great as to preclude its use ex- 

 cepting where coal was unusually abundant and cheap, 

 as, for instance, at the mouth of a coal-pit, where the 

 fuel it consumed was the produce and often the refuse of 

 the mine itself; and he formed the opinion that unless the 

 consumption of coal could be reduced, the extended use 

 of the steam-engine was not practicable, by reason of its 

 dearness, as compared with the power of horses, wind, or 

 water. 



With this idea in his head, he proceeded to contrive 

 an improved engine, the main object of which was to 

 ensure greater economy in fuel. In 1756 we find him 

 erecting a steam-engine for one Mr. Broade, at Fenton 

 Vivian, in Staffordshire, in which he adopted the expe- 

 dient, afterwards tried by James Watt, of wooden cylin- 

 ders made in the manner of coopers' ware, instead of 

 cylinders of iron. He also substituted wood for iron 

 in the chains which worked at the end of the beam. 

 Like Watt, however, he was under the necessity of 

 abandoning the wooden cylinders ; but he surrounded 

 his metal cylinders with a wooden case, filling the in- 

 termediate space with wood-ashes ; and by this means, 

 and using no more injection of cold water than 



