76 



SMEATON'S P1UVATE LIFE- 



PART VI. 



was accustomed to illustrate his papers were of the most 

 beautiful workmanship, all made by his own hands, 

 which had by no means lost their cunning. Indeed, he 

 was nowhere so happy as in his workshop amongst his 

 tools, except, it might be, at his own fireside, where he 

 was all but worshipped. 



His contrivances of tools were endless, and he was 

 perpetually inventing and making new ones. There 

 are large quantities of these interesting relics still in 

 existence in the possession of the son of his blacksmith, 

 who lives in the neighbourhood. When the author 

 lately made inquiry after them, they were found laid in 

 a heap in an open shed, covered with dirt and rust. 

 One article, after having been well scrubbed with a 

 broom, at length displayed the form of a jack-plane, the 

 tool with which Smeaton himself had worked. Picked 

 out from the heap were also found his drill, the bow 

 formed of a thick piece of cane ; his trace, his T square, 

 his augers, his gouges, and his engraving tools. There 

 was no end of curiously arranged dividers ; pulleys in 

 large numbers, and of various sizes ; cog-wheels ; brass 

 hemispheres; and all manner of measured, drilled, 

 framed, and jointed brass-work. His lathe is still in the 

 possession of Mr. Mathers, engineer, Hunslet ; ] but many 



velocity to heavy bodies from a state 

 of rest;' read April 25th, 1776. 

 'New fundamental experiments on 

 the collision of bodies;' read April 

 18th, 1782. 'Observations on the 

 graduation of astronomical instru- 

 ments;' read November 17th, 1785. 

 ' Account of an observation of the 

 right ascension and declination of 

 Mercury out of the meridian, near his 

 greatest elongation, September, 1786, 

 made by Mr. John Smeaton, with an 

 equatorial micrometer of his own in- 

 vention and workmanship, accom- 

 panied with an investigation of a me- 

 thod of allowing for retraction in such 

 kind of observations ;' read June 27th, 

 1787. ' Description of an improve- 



ment in the application of the quad- 

 rant of altitude to a celestial globe, 

 for the resolution of problems de- 

 pendent on azimuth and altitude ;' 

 read November 20th, 1788. ' De- 

 scription of a new hygrometer ;' read 

 before the same Society. 



1 The lathe stands on three legs, 

 which are fastened together in such a 

 way that they, as well as the rest of 

 the framework, are still as firm as if 

 they had been only just made, and 

 yet the machine has been in use ever 

 since Smeaton made it. The fly- 

 wheel is of dark walnut-wood, and 

 slightly inclines from the perpen- 

 dicular, by which the driving-cord is 

 allowed to be crossed and to play 



