n;<>M \V<U:SI,KY TO MANVUKSTKI:. 



350 



the forp-s. rising dams, and numerous other contrivances 



of \vi>l!-a<la|>t<'<l mechanism. At AVorsley lie erected a 

 steam-engine tor draining tliosr parts of the mine which 

 were beneath the level of the canal, and consequently 

 could not be drained into it ; and he is said to have erected, 

 at a cost of only 150/., an engine which until that time 

 no one had known how to construct for less than 500/. 

 Ai the mouth of one of the mines he erected a water- 

 hellmvs for the purpose of forcing fresh air into the 

 interior, and thus ventilating the workings. 1 At the 

 entrance of the underground canal he designed and built 

 a 1 1 < >\ -er-sl K >t mill of a new construction, driven by a wheel 

 twenty-four feet in diameter, which worked three pair of 

 stones for grinding corn, besides a dressing or boulting 

 mill, and a machine for sifting sand and mixing mortar. 2 

 Brindley's quickness of observation and readiness in 

 turning circumstances to account, were equally displayed 

 in the mode by which he contrived to obtain an ample 

 supply of lime for building purposes during the progress 

 of the works. We give the account as related by Arthur 

 Young : " In carrying on the navigation," he observes, 

 " a vast quantity of masonry was necessary for building 

 aqueducts, bridges, warehouses, wharves, &c., and the 

 want of lime was felt severely. The search that was 

 made for matters that would burn into lime was for a 

 long time fruitless. At last Mr. Brindley met with a 

 substance of a chalky kind, which, like the rest, he tried ; 

 hut found (though it was of a limestone nature lime- 



1 A writer in the ' St. James's 

 Chronicle,' under date the 30th of 



September, IT'i.'L nives tin- following 

 account of this apparatus, lon u 



removed : '' At the lilollth of the 



cavern is erected a water-bel lows, 

 U-iirj; the Itody of a tree, forming a 

 hollo\v cylinder, standing upri-lit. 

 Upon this a wooden bason is lixed, in 

 the ion n of a tunnel, which receives a 

 current of water from the higher 

 ground. This water falls into the 



cylinder, and issues out at the bottom 



of it, but at the same time carries a 

 quantify of air with it, which is re- 

 eeived into the pipes and forced to 

 the innermost nc.-sses of the coal- 

 pits, where it issues out as if from a 

 pair of IK-HOWS, and rarefies the body 

 of thick air, which would otherwise 

 prevent the workmen from subsisting 

 on the spot where the oials are diur." 

 2 Youiur's 'Six Months' Tour,' vol. 

 iii., p. -~*. 



