AN ENGINEER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.* Tins is a volume which deserves, and

will, no doubt, obtain, an extensive circulation. It illustrates the moral to be drawn from Dr. Smiles's Self-help, and will prove of special interest to young readers, not only for the facts it contains, but for the energy and hopefulness it inspires. Some objection may be made to Mr. Nasmyth's definition of engineering as "common- sense applied to use-of materials." Common-sense is a valuable quality, almost invaluable, indeed, when combined with others, but alone it has never succeeded in producing a memorable achievement in engineering or architecture, any more than it lies been able to build up a great poem. Very early in life, Mr.

Nasmyth's unfaltering resolution and courage gave him all the success he desired ; but it must not be forgotten that these gifts were the servants of genius, and that without that undefinable power he would never have made the discoveries for which he is so justly-famed. It is not true that genius is only an infinite -capacity of taking pains, though it is undoubtedly true that genius without the painstaking is a useless possession.

This account of an intensely active life enchains the reader's attention from the opening page. Mr. Nasmyth, who was born in 1808, belongs to a family distinguished for ability.

Scotchman-like, he has a long pedigree, and we are told that among his ancient kinswomen was a certain Elspeth Naesmyth, who was burnt to death as a witch, chiefly because she kept four black cats, and read her Bible with two pairs of spectacles,—" a practice which shows that she possessed the spirit of an ex- perimental philosopher." His great-grandfather and grand- father were architects, and the latter built some of the earliest houses erected in the New Town of Edinburgh. He took special pride in the sound quality of his work, and the houses be built more than a century ago are said to be still in perfect condition. 'Those were the good old times, when the world was less troubled by scamped work. Is it a plain statement of fact, or a pleasing imagination, which leads the author to write P-

"Masters and men lived together in mutual harmony. There was a kind of loyal family attachment among them, which extended through many generations. Workmen had neither the desire nor the means for shifting about from place to place. On the contrary, they 'settled down with their wives and families in houses of their, own, close to the workshops of their employers. Work was found for them in the dull seasons, when trade was slack, and in summer they some- times removed to jobs at a distance from head-quarters. Much of this feeling of attachment and loyalty between workmen and their employers has now expired. Men rapidly remove from place to place. Character is of little consequence. The mutual feeling of good-will and zealous attention to work seems to have passed away. Sudden change, scamping, and shoddy have taken their place."

Mr. Nasmyth himself seems, on the whole, to have been for- tunate in the skill and attachment of his men, even in these

-days of " scamping ;" but more than once he had to fight 'with the Union, and fought successfully. His motto was "Free- 'trade in ability," and he observes, somewhat unfairly, that the 41 indolent equality which Union men aim at is one of the greatest • Jame, Nasnwth, Engineer , an Aufehiorraphy. Edited by Samuel Smiles, LL.D. With a Portrait and numerous Illustrations. London : John Murray. hindrances to industial progress." From this digression we must return to the beginning of the story. Alexander Nasmyth, the father, has more than one claim on our remembrance. As a portrait-painter he rose to eminence, and the best portrait of Burns is from his hand. In landscape, like his son Patrick, he

so excelled, that he has been called the father of landscape- painting in Scotland, and he was frequently employed by the Scottish nobility as a landscape gardener. He was also success- ful as a scene-painter, so successful that David Roberts called his art wonderful, and founded his style upon it. As an archi- tect, modeller, and mechanic, he showed originality, and, to illustrate the readiness of his resources, it may be mentioned that when the Duke of Athol wished the inaccessible summit of Craigybarns to be crowned with foliage, Alexander Nasmyth solved the difficulty by filling a number of canisters with seeds and firing them from a cannon. The elder Nasmyth was blessed with a large family. His six daughters possessed, in a greater or less degree, an innate love of art, and painted landscapes in oils. Of the six, we are not told which was the most successful, but Margaret might well make art her vocation, for the writer of this review possesses a charming picture from her hand which bears no traces of the amateur, and is worthy of her brother Patrick. Mr. Nasmyth's account of his boyhood in Edinburgh contains several graphic illustrations of the homely life led in those days by the citizens of "Auld Reekie." The greatest of those citizens was then in his prime, and the author relates that many times when taking a " dauuder " through the historic houses in the wynds and closes of the Old Town he met Scott, and listened to his deep, earnest voice, while narrating to his companions some terrible incident in regard to their former inhabitants. Here is one pleasant memory of Sir Walter,—but are not all memories of him pleasant ?—

" I remember one day, when sitting beside my father making a very careful drawing of a due bronze ccin of Augustus, that Sir Walter Scott entered the room. He frequently called upon my father, in order to consult him with respect to his architectural arrangements. Sir Walter caught sight of me, and came forward to look over the work I was engaged in. At his request, I had the plea- sure of showing him my little store of coin treasures, after which he took cut of his waistcoat-pocket a beautiful silver coin of the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, and gave it to me, as being his 'young brother antiquarian.' I- shall never forget the kind, fatherly way in which he presented it."

The boy had a strong taste for art, and became a skilled draughtsman. All through life he found the use of the pencil indispensable, but the bent of his genius was mechanical, and at the age of thirteen he learnt the earliest lessons of his craft'- in an iron-foundry. His eager passion for all mechanical work was displayed in many directions. At seventeen he was able to construct working models of steam-engines, one of which was used by a Professor of the Edinburgh University in his lectures on natural philosophy. There was a smithy belonging to an, engineer near his father's house, where a forge-fire and anvil were always placed at young Nasmyth's service, and in return he made his friend an engine to drive the large turning-lathe and the other machinery of his small foundry. The engineer afterwards told him "that the busy hum of the wheels, and the active, smooth, rhythmic sound of the merry little engine, had, through some sympathetic agency, so quickened the strokes of every hammer, chisel, and file in his workmen's hands, that it nearly doubled the output of work for the same wages." One mechanical success followed another; and at nineteen the young engineer constructed a road steam-carriage, which was used several times on the Queensferry Road. Nasmyth aimed at higher achievements than these, and set his heart on obtaining admission, no matter in how humble a capacity, to Maudsley's Works in London. There he felt sure he should learn as he could learn nowhere else the whole range of his profession. He had great obstacles to overcome. Mr. Maudsley had ceased to take pupils, nor could Nasmyth's father have paid the large premium required, had the firm been open to receive it. The young man, however, was not to be daunted. He executed several specimens of mechanical drawings, and made with special care a complete working model of a high-pressure engine. With these proofs of his craftsmanship he sailed for London with his father, in a Leith smack. The elder Nasmyth had been pre- viously introduced to Mandsley, and now father and son were shown over the works. James Nasmyth was astonished and delighted, and seeing a man cleaning out the ashes from under. the boiler furnace, he expressed a wish to serve the master engineer even in that humble capacity. "I shall never forget,"

he writes, "the keen but kindly look that be gave me.` said he, 'you are one of that sort, are you ?' I was inwardly

delighted at his words." Having obtained a ready permission to bring his drawings and models for inspection, on the following day he did so, and sprang at once into the position which was

the darling aim of his ambition. His post of honour was Mr. Maudsley's private workshop, and he was treated not as a work- man or an apprentice, but as a friend. A brilliant course was now before him, but one, it must not be forgotten, of severe manual as well as mental labour, for James Nasmyth was not

like one of the kid-glove apprentices so hateful to the engineer. Moreover, he was content with wages which a day-labourer would now disdain, and contrived to live in London upon ten shillings a week.. His dinner, he tells us, cost 411; his break- fast and tea, about 4d. each ; and his lodging, 3s. 6d. a week. In the following year, the thrifty Scotchman adds, "My wages were raised to fifteen shillings a week, and then I began to take butter to my bread." Such privation was but a trifle, for every day brought new knowledge, and "to be permitted to stand by and observe the systematic way in which Mr. Maudsley would irst mark or line-out his work, and the masterly manner in which he would deal with his materials, was a treat beyond all expression."

In his twenty-third year Mr. Nasmyth began business for himself in a workshop in Edinburgh, thence he went to Man- chester, and was introduced to the Messrs. Grant, the Brothers Cheeryble of Dickens, the elder of whom told him to keep his heart up, and "if," he added," on any Saturday night I wanted money to pay wages or other expenses, I would find a credit for 2500 at 3 per cent, at his office, and no security." Another friend and well-known banker offered him a credit of £1,000 at the usual bank-rate. But such help was not needed, thanks to the young engineer's economy and industry. Wherever Mr. Nasmyth went he was received with good-will, and we are not sur-

prised. to read that he has never known what it is to experience ingratitude or selfishness from the world, since it is generally selfish and ungrateful people who have most to complain of on this score. He was still quite young when he opened, on a small scale, the Bridgewater Foundry, destined ere long to become famous as a vast centre of industry. The chapter describing the beginning of the enterprise is one of the most interesting of the volume, and in curious harmony with the rest of the nar-

rative is Mr. Nasmyth's account of his courtship and marriage, written after forty-two happy years of married life. But we must pass on, with the remark that the simple way in which the story is told adds much.to its attraction.

Mr. Nasmyth kept a Scheme Book, which he opened freely to foreign visitors. One day, when the famous steam-hammer was invented, but before it was brought into existence, M. Schneider, proprietor of ironworks at Creuzot, called at the Bridgewater works, and in Mr. Nasmyth's absence looked over the drawings of the hammer. What was the inventor's sur- prise, some time later, upon visiting Crenzot, to find his hammer at work. It was time to take out a patent, and to construct the machine, which could be made to give so gentle a blow as

to crack the end of an egg placed in a wine-glass on the anvil, while the next blow might be "sensibly felt" at a distance of two miles. Far and wide the fame of the steam-hammer spread,

but Mr. Nasmyth had supplied twelve to the Russian Govern- ment before our Admiralty had ordered one. An order came at length, and by a stroke of good-fortune the Lords of the Admiralty, then on their annual tour of inspection, witnessed its action in the Dockyard at Devonport. The result was an order "to supply all the Royal Dockyard forge departments with a complete equipment of steam-hammers." Afterwards, the hammer was applied to pile-driving, with what success Mr. Nasmyth shall relate :—

"There was a great deal of curiosity in the, dockyard as to the action of the new machine. The pile-driving-machine men gave me a good-natured challenge to vie with them in driving down a pile. They adopted the old method, with two great pile logs of equal size and 1ength,—'70 ft. long and 18 ir.. square. At a given signal, we started together. I.let in the steam, and the hammer at once began to work. The four-ton block showered blows at the rate of eighty a minute, and in the course of four and a half minutes my pile was driven down to its required depth. The men working at the ordinary machine had only began to drive. It took them upwards of tweise hours to complete the driving of their pile."

The writer's vigorous life in England did not suffice for his activity. In the execution of orders and the acquisition of know- ledge, he travelled all over Europe, and laid up a store of haPpy memories, many of which are recorded in these pages. Apart from his extensive business, he had his home amusements, among which must be reckoned the study of astronomy and the construction of a telescope. For many years he pursued a care- ful and systematic study of the moon, and he is also known as the discoverer of willow-leaf-shaped objects on the sun's surface. A list of Mr. Nasmyth's inventions and technical contrivances. is given at the close of a volume, for which the public is probably indebted to Dr. Smiles. Without his prompting, it is unlikely that the now venerable inventor of the steam-hammer woulii have related his interesting story.