488 



centre. It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the great utility of this 

 invention, followed as it has been by the removal of many of the 

 difficulties which had rendered caoutchouc a substance imprac- 

 ticable to manage, so as now to admit of its application to many 

 useful purposes in the arts. Mr. Macintosh was also the inventor 

 of a mode of converting iron into steel by the application of coal-gas 

 in hermetically closed and heated vessels ; a beautiful process, by 

 which much time and labour is saved. 



The desire of acquiring useful information continued with Mr. 

 jNIacintosh to be a ruling passion ; in instance of which it may be men- 

 tioned, that when he placed his sons as students at the University of 

 Glasgow in the year 1805, he again re-entered himself as a student, 

 and regularly attended the lectures in Natural Philosophy of the now 

 venerable Professor Meikleham ; and still later in life, when his friend 

 Dr. Thomas Thomson was appointed Professor of Chemistry at 

 Glasgow, in 1818, Mr. Macintosh again became a student, and 

 regularly attended two courses of the Professor's lectures. Latterly, 

 Mr. Macintosh had resided for the most part in comparative retire- 

 ment in the country, where he took much interest and pleasure in 

 planting and improving his estate of Campsie. For several years 

 his heallli had been gradually declining, and he at length expired at 

 his house at Dunchattan, near Glasgow, on the 25th day of July, 

 1843. His end, for which he was quite prepared, was characterized 

 by the most perfect resignation, fortitude and composure, and in 

 unison with the virtuous and useful life which he had led. 



Mr. iNlacintosh married, in 1789, Miss Mary Fisher, the daughter 

 of Alexander Fisher, Esq., merchant in Glasgow, and whose ances- 

 tors were the possessors of the Barony of Cowden Knows, in Sel- 

 kirkshire, renowned in Scottish song, and commemorated in the 

 pages of Rousseau. 



Robert Alexander, Esq., was born at Halifax, in Yorkshire, 

 on the 18th of January, 1795, and was the son of Lewis Alexander, 

 Esq., of Hopwood, near that town. He was educated at the 

 flourishing Grammar-school of Hipperholm, and in due time was 

 entered as a student at Lincoln's-inn. In Michaelmas Term, 1820, 

 he was called to the bar, and immediately fixed on the Northern 

 Circuit as the scene of his future professional career. Here he 

 greatly distinguished himself, though surrounded by rivals of the 

 highest talents and eminence, and gradually attained, by his ability, 

 his industry, and his perseverance, the highest station. At the un- 

 usually early age of 40, he was raised to the rank of King's 

 Counsel, and, had his life been spared, would probably at some 

 future time have enjoyed the still higher honours of his profession. 

 Unhappily his labours appear to have undermined his constitution, 

 and he died on the 21st of last February, at the age of 48. He 

 was married in 1829 to jMiss Legard, but left no children. In 1835, 

 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, an honour of which 

 he always spoke with the greatest pride, and to which he alluded 

 with pleasure to the latest period of his life. 



