Part 21 (1/2)

At the extrees of the flohere the lava had become viscid, these folds and contortions were very remarkable They were piled fold over fold,--the result of the hty pressure froardens burnt and destroyed; the trees were as black as charcoal It is singular to see the nuroho choose to live so near to the ”fiery eleetation

To be there is like living in a hothouse; and the soil is extraordinarily fertile Hence the number of vineyards quite close to the base of Vesuvius The cultivators endeavour to enclose their gardens with hard masses of lava, so as to turn off the flow of the h the walls again and again, and the gardens are often utterly burnt up and ruined Almost every field at the base of Vesuvius contains a neat little oratory, with a statue of the Virgin and Child, to which the cultivators repair in tiardens are alike swept away by the trerowing dark, I made e on the way back to Naples As I had had nothing to eat or drink during this thirst-producing journey, I went into a wine shop and asked for some refreshment The wine shop was a sort of vault, with a door like that of a coach-house, but with a bench and narrow table The good wolass bottle like a vitriol carboy! It contained lass to satisfy my wants The as the veritable Lachry which the vineyards at the base of Vesuvius are faenerous and jovial carboy, accohtful freshdown the dust that I had sed during the day, I settled with htily pleased with only tenpence), and started for Naples

I had still an eight-orous powers at that ti ht clear light After a fewI felt a little tired, for the day's exercise had been rather toilsoe passedplatform behind I hailed the driver, and was allowed tothe lava paved road, and in a short time I arrived at Naples I made another excursion to the crater of Vesuvius before I left, as well as visits to Herculaneuly interested me But these I need not attempt to relate I refer my readers to Murray's Guide Book, where both are adthe seeds of several orders, which afterwards bore substantial results, I left the city by the sahorn, Genoa, and Marseilles On passing through the South of France I visited the works of several of our employers, and carried back with me many orders It hen at Creuzot that I saw the child of my brain, the steam hammer, in full and efficient work

But this I have referred to in a previous chapter

CHAPTER 15 Steam Hammer Pile-driver

In 1840 I furnished Sir Edward Parry with a drawing of ht induce him to recommend its adoption in the Royal Dockyards Sir Edas at that tiland That was after the celebrity he had acquired through his Arctic voyages I was of opinion that the ha anchors and large iron work in those great establishments Sir Edward appeared to be much struck with the simplicity and probable efficiency of the invention

But the Ad new ly, ood opinion, proved fruitless

Time passed by I had furnished stealand I had sent theth it became known to the Lords of the Ad had been introduced This was in 1843, three years after I had subn to Sir Edward Parry The result was that ent officers to visit my foundry at Patricroft to see the new invention It consisted of Captain Benison (brother of the late Speaker), and Captain Burgineer at Devonport Dockyard They ell able to understand the powerful agency of the steaave the its action

They were e, power, and docility

Besides showing them my own steam hammer, I took the deputation to the extensive works of Messrs Rushton and Eckersley, where they saw one of my five-ton ham out soest class, as well as working upon se of power of the steaentlemen were entirely satisfied of its fitness for all classes of forgings for the naval service

They reported to the Adly, and in a few days we received an official letter, with an order for a steaether with the appropriate boiler, crane, and forge furnace, so as to equip a coe shop at Devonport Dockyard This was my first order fro was ready, I set out for Devonport to see the hammer and the other portions of the ht it was ready for its first stroke As good luck would have it, the Lords of the Ad their annual visit of inspection to the dockyard that day They arrived too late in the afternoon for a general inspection of the establish adht see before the day closed The ad novelty in the dockyard was the starting of Naso and see that”

I was there, with the two ht with me from Patricroft to erect the steam hammer I took share and share alike in the work The Lords were introduced to me, and I proceeded to show theh its paces I lass without injuring the glass It was as neatly effected by the two-and-a-half ton hareatout of the furnace by a crane and placed upon the anvil block Down came the hammer on it with ponderous blows My Lords scattered to the extremities of the workshop, for the splashes and sparks of hotblows of the hammer, and kneaded the mass of iron as if it had been clay into its devised forathered round the haain, when I explained to the, and the details of its construction They were greatly interested, especially Mr Sidney Herbert (afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea), then Secretary to the Ade cockburn, a fine specimen of the old admiral Indeed, all the members of the Board were more or less remarkable men They honoured me with their careful attention, and expressed their ade of power and delicacy of touch, in this new application of the force of steam

The afternoon was a h I cannot venture to trouble my readers with the details

It was followed, however, by an order to supply all the Royal Dockyard forge departments with a complete equipment of steam hammers, and all the requisite accessories These were supplied in due tiings were found to be greatly better, and almost absurdly cheaper than those done by the old bit by bit building-up process The danger of flaas entirely done aith; and, in the case of anchors, this was a consideration of life and death to the seamen, who depend for their safety upon the soundness of the forgings

Besides my introduction to that ad introduced to Captain Brandreth, Director of Naval Works The whole of the buildings on shore, including the dockyards, were under his control One of the most important affairs that the Lords of the Admiralty had to attend to on their visit to Devonport was to conclude the contract for constructing the great docks at Keyhae extension of the Devonport Docks, intended for the accoreat steamshi+ps of the Royal Navy, as well as for an increase of the graving docks and workshops for their repair An immense portion of the shore of the Hamoaze had to be walled in so as to exclude the tide and enable the space to be utilised for the above purposes To effect this a vast a was rendered necessary, in order to forreat outer dock wall, about a th

Messrs Baker and Sons were the contractors for this work

They were present at the first start of my steam hammer at Devonport

They were, like the others, eableness They had an intervieithpiles for the i an iiven some attention to this application of the powers of the steam hams for the stea machine with me I submitted them to Mr Baker, and he saw its i that I want to enable me to complete my contract satisfactorily” Thousands of enormous piles had to be driven down into the deep silt of the Shore; and to have driven the would have occupied a long tis were of course subhted with n The steaent for effecting the coinated by hih tide as that of the Hamoaze seemed very doubtful, because the stiff slate silt was a treacherous and difficultwould be rendered comparatively easy With Captain Brandreth's consent the contractors ordered of me two of my stea 18-inch square piles of 70 feet in length into the silt of the Hae] space to be enclosed at the Hamoaze

This first order for reat pleasure tocontemplated this application of the power of the stea been in full action in my ”mind's eye,”

and noas to see it in actual reality I wrote down tohirand steam haht-iron guide case and the steaht was to rest on the shoulders of the pile The bloere to be about eighty in the hly effective in rapidly driving the piles down into the earth

I have said that the stea before I saw it in action It is one of the htful results of the possession of the constructive faculty, that one can build up in the ination, and observe beforehand the various details perfor their respective functions, as if they were in absolute material form and action

Unless this happy faculty exists ab initio in the brain of thelife before hiives the right flexibility to the thinking faculties Thus business, commerce, and ination

So soon as I had returned hos of the steam pile-drivers They were soon completed, conveyed to Devonport, and erected on the spot where they were to be used

They were ready on the 3d of July 1845 So had been done in the usual way, in order to e or elevated way forthe space where the pered ht travel by their own locoth of the coffer das of Baltic timber which for driven