ANNUAL ADDRESS. XXV. 



Mr. Dawson nearly half a century ago to enable the stern frame 

 of the General Screw Steam Shipping Oo's. ship "Croesus" to be 

 got at. This steamer arrived in Sydney harbour badly damaged 

 in the year 1853, at which time there was no graving dock in the 

 port and the repairs to this vessel were carried out by M r. Dawson 

 or "Dicky Dawson" as he was then generally called. The work 

 accomplished was thought so much of, that it was often talked 

 about after the author arrived in the colony two years later, and 

 an account of it is now republished as a notable event in the 

 annals of engineering and navigation. 



In the Sydney papers of October 10th, 1829, it was announced 

 that Mr. J. White who had lately arrived from England, was an 

 engineer of great experience, his place of business adjoining the 

 Royal Hotel in George-street. (This must have been on the north 

 side, as Blanch was on the south). Mr. White undertook all kinds 

 of engineer work and hydraulic pumps, and was equally at home 

 with weighing machines, engines, cranes, and w^ater closets. His 

 newly invented lamp for lighting the public streets was only to 

 be had direct from his works. He was evidently a large importer 

 of ironmonger's sundries, and was also an inventor. His adver- 

 tisement states that there is a filtering machine kept in use on his 

 premises for inspection by the public. Inventors of those days 

 were no more free from plagiarists and pirates than they are now, 

 for in a subsequent notification, Mr. White warns his friends that 

 there is a spurious imitation of his filtering machine in the 

 neighbourhood, and trusts that a discerning public will admit that 

 this is the highest praise that could be bestowed on the inventor. 

 He epigrammatically adds "Incapable of invention themselves they 

 descend to become copyists." The poor old Royal Hotel must have 

 been very uncomfortable between these two engineers, complaints 

 being frequent about the smoke from their furnaces, and on St. 

 Patrick's day 1840, a fire from Blanch's foundry extended and 

 burnt down the old building, together with Mr. Barnet Levey's 

 Theatre Royal, which was within its walls. 



