474 



BRINDLEY'S DEATH CHARACTERISTICS. 



PART V. 



several parts and their relations to each other. His 

 method of calculating the powers of any machine in- 

 vented by him was peculiar to himself. He worked the 

 question for some time in his head, and then put down 

 the results in figures. After this, taking it up again at 

 that stage, he worked it further in his mind for a cer- 

 tain time, and set down the results as before. In the 

 same way he still proceeded, making use of figures only 

 at stated parts of the question. Yet the ultimate result 

 was generally true, though the road he travelled in 

 search of it was unknown to all but himself, and per- 

 haps it would not have been in his power to have shown 

 it to another." 



The statement about his taking to bed to study his 

 more difficult problems is curiously confirmed by Brind- 

 ley's own note-book, in which he occasionally enters 

 the words " lay in bed," as if to mark the period, though 

 he does not particularise the object of his thoughts on 

 such occasions. It was a great misfortune for Brindley, 

 as it must be to every man, to have his mental opera- 

 tions confined exclusively within the limits of his pro- 

 fession. He thought and lived mechanics, and never 

 rose above them. He found no pleasure in anything 

 else ; amusement of every kind was distasteful to him ; 

 and his first visit to the theatre, when in London, was 

 also his last. Shut out from the humanising influence 

 of books, and without any taste for the politer arts, his 

 mind went on painfully grinding in the mill of me- 

 chanics. "He never seemed in his element," said his 

 friend Bentley, " if he was not either planning or exe- 

 cuting some great work, or conversing with his friends 

 upon subjects of importance." To the last he was 

 full of projects, and full of work ; and then the wheels 



1 ' Biographia Britannica,' 2nd Ed. 

 Edited by Dr. Kippis. The mate- 

 rials of the article are acknowledged 

 to have been obtained principally 

 from Mr. Henshall by Messrs. Wedg- 



wood and Bentley, who wrote and 

 published the memoir in testimony of 



their admiration and respect for their 

 deceased friend, the engineer of the 

 ( irand Trunk Canal. 



