326 L iterary an d Philosophica I Society. 



this we shall take such information as may seem most 

 characteristic. Mr. Roberts was well known in the great 

 firm of Sharpe, Roberts and Co., makers of engines in 

 Manchester. He was the inventor there ; he was a regular 

 attendant for a long time at the council meetings of our 

 Society, and displayed his remarkable instincts in matters 

 relating to mechanics. He is best known as the inventor 

 of the self-acting mule, but he informed the writer that 

 he had made three hundred distinct mechanical inven- 

 tions. It would be a long study to find out these, and 

 only a mechanician could describe them, so we shall leave 

 them to Mr. Bailey, who is well able to give an account 

 of them. He was another example of a tall and power- 

 ful man being an engineer ; he had not, however, the 

 natural or acquired refinement spoken of in connection 

 with others. 



Roberts was born at Carreghova, in the parish of Llany- 

 wynech. North Wales, about six miles from Oswestry, in 

 1789; still he had not the usual build of a Welshman, who 

 is seldom as tall as Mr. Roberts was, although of good 

 weight. It is marvellous from how low a social stratum 

 of society, as we are accustomed to express it, the first of 

 our Manchester men sprang in generations not long 

 gone by, as if the flowers had faded and new roots 

 were required on which to grow good fruit. There was 

 a very interesting attempt to prove the contrary, but it 

 was a failure, as we think, and only went to show that 

 men of talent were born of parents not below the average 

 in talent. Richard Roberts as a youth worked in the 

 mines and stone quarries, and dragged canal boats. Acci- 

 dent gave him an opportunity of working with a pole- 

 lathe, and he made his mother a spinning-wheel, a feat 



