Fairbairn. 257 



Sir William Fairbairn^ Bart., F.R.S., &c. 



Sir William Fairbairn is the best known of the engineers 

 who have adorned the Society. He was born in Cold- 

 stream in 1789. His life by Dr. Pole, F.R.S., says that he 

 was born in Kelso, but the present writer had Coldstream 

 from Mr. Fairbairn himself. He was self-educated, and one 

 feels it a matter of great wonder that such a struggle as we 

 find depicted in his autobiography could have ended in 

 showing such a fine specimen of a man, such pleasant, gentle 

 manners, so much general knowledge. We cannot say 

 that he was a learned engineer, still he read much and had 

 good taste ; we cannot say that he had scientific knowledge 

 of an exact kind, indeed, he was sadly deficient in it, but 

 he had an instinct and an insight that was of more value 

 than any amount of education. A good mechanical head 

 will invent machinery without any exact knowledge of any 

 laws of physics, and calculate without any teaching in 

 algebra or mathematics. There is something which colleges 

 teach us to neglect, and that something was retained by 

 William Fairbairn. This wonderful instinct made him one 

 of the best known engineers, and led him to make improve- 

 ments in every department he touched. His work has 

 been so fully dwelt upon that it is only necessary to refer 

 to their published account, and to the great tubular bridge 

 at Menai, as well as the hundreds that have been built 

 since, of course some of them improved. Much more 

 would be said of Sir William Fairbairn could we not refer 

 to his own most interesting account of himself contained 

 in Dr. Pole's admirable volume. He was quite aware that 

 there were times when instinct required the aid of science, 



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