of his undertakings, in some degree, impaired his usefulness. He fell into a kind of chronic fever, which, after continuing some years, with little intermission, at length wore out his frame, and put a period to his life, on September 27th, 1772, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He died at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, and was buried at New Chapel, in the same county. In appearance and manners, as well as in acquirements, Mr. Brindley was a mere peasant. Unlettered and rude of speech, it was easier for him to devise means for executing a design, than to communicate his ideas concerning it to others. Formed by nature for the profession he assumed, it was there alone that he was in his proper element; and so occupied was his mind with his business, that he was incapable of relaxing in any of the common amusements of life. As he had not the ideas of other men to assist him, whenever a point of difficulty in contrivance occurred, it was his custom to retire to his bed, where, in perfect solitude, he would lie, for one, two, or three days, pondering the matter in his mind, till the requisite expedient had presented itself. This is that true inspiration, which poets have almost exclusively arrogated to themselves, but which men of original genius, in every walk, are actuated by, when, from the operation of the mind, acting upon itself, without the intrusion of foreign notions, they create and invent. A remarkably retentive memory, was one of the essential qualities brought to his mental operations. This enabled him to execute all the parts of the most complex machine, in due order, without the help of models or drawings, provided he had once accurately settled the whole plan in his mind. In his calculations of the power of machines, he followed a plan peculiar to himself; but, indeed, the only one he could follow, He would work the question without instruction in the rules of art. some time in his head, and then set down the result in figures; then taking it up in this stage, he would again proceed by a mental operation to another result; and thus he would go on by stages, till the whole was finished, only making use of figures to mark the several results of his operations. But though, by the wonderful powers of. native genius, he was thus enabled to get over his want of artificial method, to a certain degree, yet there is no doubt, that when his concerns became extremely complicated, with accounts of various kinds to keep, and calculations of all sorts to form, he could not avoid that perplexity and embarrassment which a readiness in the processes carried on by pen and paper can alone obviate. His estimates of expense, have, generally, proved wide of reality; and he seems to have been better qualified to be the contriver, than the manager of a great design. His moral qualities were, however, highly respectable. He was far above envy and jealousy, and freely communicated his improvements to persons capable of receiving and executing them; taking a liberal satisfaction in forming a new generation of engineers, able to proceed with the great plans, in the success of which he was so deeply interested. His integrity and regard to the advantage of his employers, were unimpeachable. In fine, the name of Brindley will ever keep a place among the small number of mankind, who form eras in the art or science to which they devote themselves, by a large and durable extension of their limits. On an improved mode of preparing and employing Wood-Screws. By MR. JOHN FORD, Mechanist. It is well known that the points of wood-screws, are generally terminated by the thin shell of the worm; now this, especially in hard wood, frequently turns or yields, so as, in fact, instead of merely penetrating the wood, and leaving a thin screw-like passage for the worm of the screw, that blunted end bores a groove as wide as its own increased thickness, and thus considerably affects the firmness of the screw in the wood. Now, instead of this, Mr. Ford files the points of his wood-screws into a conical form, thus entirely removing that hurtful thin shell of the worm, and he also prepares another of the same sized screws, so as to serve the office of a tap, to open the hole in a screw-like manner; and he thus greatly facilitates the entrance of the screw itself into the hole afterwards. This he effects, by filing away the threads flat on four sides, into a square form, and with sharp angular edges to them; and also flattens or spreads the conical screw head broad, so as to serve to turn the tap so formed, more conveniently than if it had been left of its original conical shape. In using wood-screws endways of the grain of the wood, and particularly when the screws are to be frequently put in and taken out again, Mr. Ford finds this practice eminently useful; and that now we have published it, we have no doubt that it will be frequently adopted in practice. [Tech. Rep. An account of the improved modes of working hard Wood, Cast-Iron, Brass, &c. into shape; practised by MR. JOHN FORD, Engineer. By THOS. GILL, Esq., MR. FORD, who has frequent occasion for making models for casting from, in Spanish mahogany, or other hard as well as soft woods, has found that he can make much greater despatch in working it into shape, by employing the broader part of a coarsely toothed key-hole saw, about six inches long, and mounted in a handle, than by using rasps as usual; as every tooth of the saw, in the manner he uses it, cuts away a stripe of the wood, like the grooved and toothed planeirons used for hard woods, and it never clogs, as the teeth of rasps always do. In using this saw, he lays it nearly flat upon the wood, but with its back a little raised, and its toothed edge resting upon the wood; he then takes the end of the saw between the thumb and fingers of his left hand, his right hand grasping the handle of the saw, and carries it rapidly from the point to the heel, across the face of the wood, and back again; at the same time, also, moving its edge sideways, or obliquely to the right and left, and frequently crossing the strokes, or working the saw in the reverse directions, backwards and forwards over the surface he is working upon. In this curious mode of employing the saw, it is wonderful to see the despatch he makes. The higher he raises the back, the more rank, or coarse, the saw cuts; and, on the contrary, the nearer the blade is towards a horizontal posture, or flat upon the work, the smoother it works. And he can thus, from practice, work exceedingly true with it. We have, formerly, noticed Mr. Ford's curious mode of removing the outer hard crust from iron castings, by employing a coarse round file, termed a rat's tail file, much in the same manner as he here uses a saw on wood, but occasionally turning the file to a fresh part of its surface, when it had become dull from the wear of the hard iron and sand upon it. In this way, he very soon got through the hard crust, and down to the softer and inner part of the casting, when he worked it in the usual manner, but with much greater neatness and precision than is usually effected on cast-iron. clears away the scale on forged iron and steel, in the same manner. We have, in the preceding article, noticed Mr. Ford's improved mode of finishing the points of, and using, wood-screws. Mr. Ford also employs a cast-iron strike-block, or plane, in truly finishing the flat surfaces of his wood work, and with great advantages over the usual wooden planes, however well they may be made. He has fitted an upright wooden handle upon the end of the strike-block, and another upon the wedge of the plane-iron, and which he finds greatly conduce to the ease of working with it. We can, with great confidence, recommend this mode of employing the cast-iron strikeblock, upon the harder kinds of wood, as well as upon the brass, gun metal, or cast-iron surfaces, it is usually employed upon, and with so great an advantage, in point of truth and accuracy. Mr. Ford produces a beautiful surface upon his cast-iron, steel, and brass works, by means of emery sticks, and others coated with crocus; and which he prepares in the following superior manner: He usually mixes drying linseed oil, in the proportion of one-eighth part, with his glue, and with this he coats the surfaces of pieces of soft yellow pine, fir, or deal, without turpentine or knots, which are about eight inches long, and five-eighths of an inch square, and are nicely planed smooth. He first lays on a coat of thin glue, and when that is dry, another composed of glue mixed with the emery or crocus, and then instantly sifts over the wet surface, the emery, or crocus, in powder, by means of a sieve. He employs emery of different degrees of fineness, and has sticks thus coated with each, to be used in succession, to smoothen the work; and, lastly, uses those coated with glue and crocus, to give the finishing polish to it. These emery and crocus sticks, are very durable, and are equally useful, to be employed on works in the lathe, as well as upon flat surfaces, and are greatly superior to the glass, or emery, papers ordi narily used; and infinitely so to the employment of emery mixed with oil, and applied upon sticks in the common way of doing it. He usually removes the angles, for about three inches at one end of the stick, to round it and make it serve as a handle to hold it by; and coats only the other five inches with the emery or crocus. He, also, when they are become quite dry, as at the end of nine or ten days' time, rubs them over with sweet oil. He also, occasionally, uses oil with them, in smoothening his work, in the same manner as in using smooth files. He also, sometimes, makes the pieces of wood broader than as above stated, for particular purposes. [Ib. On the Manufacture of Iron and Steel (Wootz) in India: from "A Journey from Madras, through the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar." By FRANCIS BUCHANAN, M. D. [Continued from page 398, of Vol. 5.] NEAR Chin'-narayan'-durga, the country, for the most part, consists of a rugged valley, surrounded by hills; but the fields between the rocks were formerly cleared, and well cultivated, the rock enabling the soil to retain moisture. Among these rugged spots, the Amildar and myself visited some iron and steel forges, which had, indeed, induced me to come this way. The information procured on the subject, is as follows: Iron is smelted in various places of the following talues, or districts; Madhu-giri, Chin'-náráyan'-durga, Hagalawadi, and Dévaráya-durga. In the first two districts, the iron is chiefly made from the black sand, which the small torrents formed in the rainy season, bring down from the rocks. In the two latter districts, it is made from an ore, called here, Canay Callu, which is found on the hill Kindala Guda, near Muga-Nayakana-Cotay, in the Hagalawadi district. A little of the same iron ore, is, also, procured from a hill, called Kaymutty, near Muso-conda, in the district of Chica-Nayakana-Hully. The manner of smelting the iron ore and rendering it fit for the use of the blacksmith, is the same here as near Magadi. The people belonging to the smelting-house, are four bellows-men, three men who make charcoal, and three women and one man who collect and wash the iron sand. They work only during the four months in which the sand is to be found; and for the remainder of the year they cultivate the ground, or supply the inhabitants of towns with fire-wood. The four men relieve each other at the bellows; but the most skilful person takes out and manages the working of the iron, and builds up the furnace; on which account his allowance is greater. In each furnace, the workinan puts first a basket (about half a bushel) of charcoal. He then takes up as much of the black sand as he can lift with both his hands joined, and puts in double that quantity. He next puts in another basket of charcoal, and the fire is urged with the bellows. When the first charcoal that has been given burns down, he puts in the same quantity of sand, and one basket of charcoal; and does this again, so soon as the furnace will receive a farther supply. The whole quantity of sand put in at one smelting, measures six hundred and seventeen cubical inches, and weighs, when dry, about forty-two and a half pounds avoirdupois. This gives a mass of iron, which, when forged, makes eleven wedges, each intended to make a plough-share, and weighing fully one and eighty-two one-hundredths of a pound. The workman here, therefore, procure from the ore, about forty-seven per cent. of malleable iron; but, as usual in India, their iron is very impure. In the forging house, are required three hammermen, one man to manage the forceps (the tongs,) two bellows-men, and four men to supply charcoal, which, for this purpose, is always made of the bamboo. Every day three furnaces are smelted, and thirty-three wedges forged. The workmen are always paid by a division of the produce of their labour; and every fourth day, or when one hundred and thirty-two pieces have been prepared, the division is made as follows: To the proprietor To the panchála, who is the foreman at the forge To one of the bellows-men, who removes the ashes and dross 5 To two of the women who wash the sand, at five pieces each 10 To the remaining sixteen persons, at four pieces each 64 132 The panchála, or blacksmith, out of his wages, is bound to find all the iron instruments, such as the anvil, the hammers, and the forceps. The proprietor defrays all the other expenses; and these are Fanams. To the keeper of the forest, for permission to make charcoal 100 To the gauda or chief of the village, for leave to gather iron sand 40 To ditto, for furnace rent To the sunca, or collector of customs To two pair of bellows for the smelting-house To ditto for the forge To sacrifices To charity for the brachmans 15 30 42 24 15 10 Fanams 276 The buildings are so mean that they go for nothing; and at the beginning of the season, are put up by the workmen in the course of a day. The stone ore is made into iron, exactly in the same manner; the quantity put into the furnace, and the produce, being nearly the same. The iron from the stone ore, is reckoned better for all the purposes to which malleable iron is applied, but it sells lower than |