332 



IUMNDLKY AS MASTKH \Y11EEL\Y1MGI1T 



perfect an engine with wooden hooped cylinders must 

 have been ; and we are not therefore surprised at the 

 entry which he honestly makes in his pocket-book 011 

 the 21st of April, immediately after the one last men- 

 tioned, when the engine had, doubtless, a second time 

 broken down, " to Bun about a Drinking, 0:1: 6." IVr- 

 haps he intended the entry to stand there as a warning 

 against giving way to future despair ; for he underlined 

 the words, as if to mark them with unusual emphasis. 1 



Brindley did not long give way to this mood, but set 

 to work upon the contrivance and erection of another 

 engine upon a new and improved plan. What his plan 

 was, may be learnt from the specification lodged in the- 

 Patent Office, on the 26th December, 1758, by "James 

 Brindley, of Leek, in the county of Stafford, Mill- 

 wright." 2 In the arrangement of this new steam-engine 

 he provided that the boiler should be made of brick or 

 stone arched over, and the stove over the fireplace of 

 cast-iron, fixed within the boiler. - The feeding-pipe for 

 the boiler was to be made with a clack, opening and 

 shutting by a float upon the surface of the water in the 

 boiler, which would thus be self-feeding. The great 

 chains for the segments at the extremity of the beams 

 were of wood ; and the pumps were also of wooden staves 

 strongly hooped together. Brindley seems, indeed, to 

 have long retained his early predilection as a millwright 

 for wood, and to have preferred it to iron wherever its 

 use was practicable. His plans were, however, snl>- 



1 We find the following memoran- 

 dum in Brindley's pockei>book,relating 

 to the expense of working the engine 

 in the year 1760 : 



Miss Clare Maria Broad* fire engine at fentan 



vivian. 

 First yeer's work and repare 



night and day 164 



Do. torn back .' 025 



Due for t e first yeer 139 



Due for the second veer 102 



2 He describes it as " A Fire-En- 

 gine for Drawing Water out of Mines, 

 or for Draining of Lands, or for Sup- 

 plying of Cityes, To wins, or (!ar- 

 dens with Water, or which may be 

 applicable to many other great and 

 usefull Purposes, in a better and more 

 effectual Manner than any Engine or 

 Machine that hath hitherto l>een made 

 or used for the like Purpose."' Speci- 

 fications of Patents,' No. 730. 



