"Men there have been, ignorant of letters; without art, withouteloquence; who yet had the wisdom to devise and the courage to performthat which they lacked language to explain. Such men have worked thedeliverance of nations and their own greatness. Their hearts are theirbooks; events are their tutors; great actions are theireloquence."—MACAULAY.
PrefaceCHAPTER I Phineas Pett: Beginnings of English ShipbuildingCHAPTER II Francis Pettit Smith: Practical Introducer of the Screw PropellerCHAPTER III John Harrison: Inventor of the Marine ChronometerCHAPTER IV John Lombe: Introducer of the Silk Industry into EnglandCHAPTER V William Murdock: His Life and InventionsCHAPTER VI Frederick Koenig: Inventor of the Steam-printing MachineCHAPTER VII The Walters of 'The Times': Inventor of the Walter PressCHAPTER VIII William Clowes: Book-printing by SteamCHAPTER IX Charles Bianconi: A Lesson of Self-Help in IrelandCHAPTER X Industry in Ireland: Through Connaught and Ulster to BelfastCHAPTER XI Shipbuilding in Belfast: By Sir E. J. Harland, Engineer and ShipbuilderCHAPTER XII Astronomers and students in humble life: A new Chapter in the 'Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties'
I offer this book as a continuation of the memoirs of men of inventionand industry published some years ago in the 'Lives of Engineers,''Industrial Biography,' and 'Self-Help.'
The early chapters relate to the history of a very important branch ofBritish industry—that of Shipbuilding. A later chapter, kindlyprepared by Sir Edward J. Harland, of Belfast, relates to the originand progress of shipbuilding in Ireland.
Many of the facts set forth in the Life and Inventions of WilliamMurdock have already been published in my 'Lives of Boulton and Watt;'but these are now placed in a continuous narrative, and supplemented byother information, more particularly the correspondence between Wattand Murdock, communicated to me by the present representative of thefamily, Mr. Murdock, C.E., of Gilwern, near Abergavenny.
I have also endeavoured to give as accurate an account as possible ofthe Invention of the Steam-printing Press, and its application to theproduction of Newspapers and Books,—an invention certainly of greatimportance to the spread of knowledge, science, and literature,throughout the world.
The chapter on the "Industry of Ireland" will speak for itself. Itoccurred to me, on passing through Ireland last year, that muchremained to be said on that subject; and, looking to the increasingmeans of the country, and the well-known industry of its people, itseems reasonable to expect, that with peace, security, energy, and