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of Edinburgh , Session 1872-73. 
most elaborate machinery for its distribution. At this time Mr 
Thomson conceived the idea of the ribbon saw, afterwards worked 
out by other hands. The elliptic rotary steam-engine, to which he 
afterwards gave much time, was also then first conceived by him. 
He gained some experimental knowledge of chemistry and elec- 
tricity, and his successful application of these sciences in after 
years proves the rare judgment with which he directed his studies. 
A short practical apprenticeship in workshops at Aberdeen and 
Dundee formed the next step in his education. He had great 
pleasure in telling how the foreman at the end of the first fort- 
night’s work paid him more than he expected to receive, and when 
the apparent error was pointed out, told him that there was no 
mistake, “ he was worth it.” He was next employed by a cousin, 
Mr Lyon (the builder of the Dean Bridge), in connection with the 
blasting by which Dunbar Castle was blown down, and on this 
occasion conceived the happy idea of firing mines by electricity. 
Having brought his idea into a practical form, he went at the 
age of nineteen to London. Faraday, to whom the invention 
was shown, gave him hearty encouragement ; and Sir William 
Cubitt was so much struck by the idea that he at once gave him 
an important charge in connection with the blasting operations 
then in progress near Dover. About this time he was engaged 
with a civil engineer in Glasgow, and subsequently passed into the 
employment of the Stephensons. 
At the time of the railway mania, he was twenty-two years 
old, and began business on his own account, having a large staff, 
at ten guineas per diem, engaged in making plans and surveys 
for a line in the Eastern counties. He even achieved a triumph 
over Stephenson before a Parliamentary Committee, having refused 
to withdraw from competition at the instance of influential directors. 
The route he had chosen was ultimately adopted, although by other 
men, as the railway panic at the time stopped the undertaking. 
Debarred by the result of the panic from prosecuting his pro- 
fession as a business, Mr Thomson began again to invent, and 
devoted much time to the introduction of india-rubber tires, which 
he patented. The patent was not profitable, for the material was 
scarce and dear, and its manufacture ill understood ; but he was 
fortunately rewarded at a later date by finding an important and 
