328 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



firm of Sharp, Roberts and Co., of Atlas Works, took its 

 name. 



Mr. Roberts also made turret clocks. One is at the 

 works in Bridgewater Street, and one at St. Ann's Church. 

 Methods of cutting off the steam, and working it in an 

 engine expansively, received attention. Self-regulators 

 and locomotives all came under his improving hand, with 

 spinning and doubling of thread, and machines for grinding 

 corn. He invented apparatus for punching the plates of 

 the Menai Bridge so regularly, that if they were stacked, a 

 bar of iron could be passed through the holes from top 

 to bottom without interruption. This regularity has been 

 the cause of much greater strength. 



His greatest invention has been considered to be the 

 self-acting mule, causing that of Crompton's to change its 

 own motion, spontaneously going backwards and forwards. 



The centrifugal railway was constructed by him to 

 illustrate centrifugal force ; also a clock which was to 

 regulate other clocks connected by hollow tubes containing 

 air which was passed through at regular intervals. 



He constructed the blockade runner ' Flora ' and other 

 vessels, which by means of screws could turn in their own 

 length. He was consulted by Napoleon III. about turret 

 ships ; also by the Russian Government. The Emperor 

 Nicholas invited him to take up his residence at St. 

 Petersburg. Mr. Bailey says, ' I have endeavoured to 

 give some account of a man who has had an immense 

 influence on our prosperity and comfort ; a man who will 

 be classed in future records as one of the most remarkable 

 men of this century, crowded as its history is with the 

 names of great benefactors. His genius and the supremacy 

 of his intellect caused all those contemporaries who knew 



