James Burnley

“ GREEN, GEORGE SMITH (d. 1762) , author, was an eccentric eighteenth-century watchmaker of Oxford, with a turn for literary study. He published under the pseudonym of 'A Gentleman of Oxford,' in 1745, 'The State of Innocence and Fall of Man, described in Milton's "Paradise Lost." ”

“ In 1841 he gave advice to the English government upon the prevention of accidents by machinery. In 1842 he took out a patent (17 July, No. 9409) for improvements in the construction of iron ships, which proved too troublesome for general application. He read a paper on the prevention of smoke before the British Association at York in 1844. When Stephenson designed the tubular bridge at the Menai Straits he consulted Fairbairn, who made many experiments, and was ultimately appointed to superintend the construction of the bridge ‘in conjunction with’ Stephenson. ”

“ He was fond of wild-fowl shooting, and as the birds often escaped by diving at the flash of his flint-locked fowling-piece, he constructed a hood over the lock of his gun, with a sight along the barrel. ”

“ GREEN, RICHARD (1803–1863) , shipowner and philanthropist, born at Blackwall in December 1803, was the son of George Green, by his first marriage with Miss Perry, daughter of a shipbuilder of repute at Blackwall. On the introduction of the elder Green into Perry's business, he became a shipowner, and fitted out a number of vessels in the whaling trade, thus laying the foundation of the house which at the time of his son's admission to the firm was styled Green, Wigram, & Green. ”

“ Graham endeavoured to construct a pendulum which should not be affected by the weather. After many experiments upon the properties of metals when heated, he invented the exceedingly ingenious mercurial pendulum. It was so constructed that the expansion of a steel pendulum was exactly compensated by the expansion of the mercury in a jar connected with it, and the vibrating length of the whole thus preserved constant. ”

“ His name is first recorded in the patent office in 1835, as the inventor of a rivet machine. In 1836, jointly with John Gold, he patented a very successful glass-grinding and polishing machine; and, a year later, in collaboration with Samuel Evers of Cradley, he obtained a patent which greatly facilitated the making of hexagon nuts. In 1845 Griffiths patented a marked improvement in machinery for making bolts, railway spikes, and rivets. ”

“ Goadby was a strong whig, and made many enemies as well as friends by his plain speaking, though personally he was much respected. He was a great lover of botany and natural history, and bequeathed an endowment providing for the preaching of a sermon on the first Sunday of May in every year in Sherborne Church on the beauties of nature. As the endowment became too valuable for its purposes, provision for the poor was made with the surplus. He was a deeply religious man. ”

“ In 1822 Gray added a diagram, showing a number of suggested lines of railway connecting the principal towns of England, and another in like manner bringing together the leading Irish centres. Gray pressed his pet scheme, ‘a general iron road,’ upon the attention of public men of every position. ”

“ He thus gradually mastered the principle of the communication of electric power from native-electrics to other bodies. In 1729 Gray, after many fruitless attempts to make metals attractive by heating, rubbing, and hammering, recollected an earlier suspicion of his own, that as a tube communicated its light to various bodies when rubbed in the dark, it might possibly at the same time convey an electricity to them. ”

“ Gale descended at Auguilles. When the pony had been released from its slings, the peasants holding the balloon ropes, not understanding his directions, relaxed their hold, and Gale was carried up by the only partially exhausted machine. The car overturned, but he clung to the tackling for a time, and was borne out of sight. Next morning his body was found in a wood several miles away. He was buried at the protestant cemetery at Bordeaux on 11 Sept. Gale was a man of much courage and very sanguine. ”

“ Returning to England in 1783, Gower was taught for a short time by a navigation master at Edmonton, and upon rejoining his ship was called ‘the young philosopher.’ When he was twenty he devised an instrument which secured far greater accuracy than had before been obtainable in measuring a vessel's way through the water. ”

“ He seems to have been neglected through life, and could only leave a pension of 50l. a year to his family. Green was an officer of great mechanical ingenuity. In spite of constant discouragement he devoted the greater part of his life to the promotion of inventions and improvements connected with the service, many of which were so valuable as to be introduced throughout the navy. ”

“ The elder Gibb having died when John was only twelve, the son served an apprenticeship to a mechanical trade. After this he was employed as contractor's assistant, and later as subordinate engineer by his brother, then serving under John Rennie on the construction of the Lancaster and Preston canal. He afterwards went to Leith, being engaged by his father-in-law, Mr. Easton, in the making of the docks there. Commencing practice on his own account as a contractor, he gradually established a reputation for professional skill. ”

“ In 1852 Glass, who had a mechanical as well as a financial turn of mind, first adapted the wire-rope covering to submarine cables. It was first applied to the Dover and Calais cable, then partially completed. Afterwards the plan was adopted for many other cable services with great success. In the early days of submarine telegraphy Glass gave most valuable patronage and support to the enterprise by the manufacture of various descriptions of cable. ”

“ He was apprenticed as a boy to a Bradford woolstapling firm, and at twenty-one years of age started as a merchant in a small way in the same town, purchasing the clips of graziers in the neighbourhood, and sorting the wool for the manufacturers. He became interested in Australia, from its capacity of producing wool, and at length determined to emigrate. He first went to Adelaide, and finally settled in Melbourne in 1847. In 1848 he commenced business in a small weather-board building. He succeeded rapidly, and ultimately erected the large stores by the Market Square in Melbourne. ”

“ The experiments were very costly, and much litigation was required to protect the patent. When the invention was completed they had expended 60,000l., and became bankrupt. Parliament extended the Fourdriniers' letters patent for fourteen years, and the new system of paper-making was widely adopted, but the brothers were greatly hampered by the defective state of the law of patents. In 1814 the Emperor Alexander, while visiting England, was interested in Fourdriniers' machine. An agreement was made that the Fourdriniers should receive 700l. annually for the use of two machines for ten years. ”

“ He took an interest in inventions, especially those connected with steam and electricity. His want of thorough training was shown in some crude notions about galvanism and magnetism, which he believed to be capable of generating a new sense. His ingenuity found a more appropriate sphere in developing firearms. The French were unsuccessfully attempting to substitute chloride of potash for nitrate in gunpowder; Forsyth began experiments on the known detonating compounds. ”

“ He was employed by a master with whom in 1817 he has some disagreement about a new Blackfriars bridge at Manchester, and thereupon set up in partnership with an old shopmate, James Lillie. They soon acquired a good reputation by providing the machinery for a cotton-mill, and their business rapidly increased. In 1824 Fairbairn went to Zurich to erect two water-mills. ”

“ FABELL, PETER (fl. 15th cent.) , was a native of Edmonton, where he was known as a magician and dabbler in alchemy. His name appears as that of the ‘Merry Devil,’ the chief character in the play of the ‘Merry Devil of Edmonton,’ once attributed to Shakespeare. ”

“ On his return home he began to devote his attention to the subject of explosives, and during 1846, in which year he was commissioned quartermaster of the 10th battalion Royal Artillery, he invented an elaborate series of metal and wood fuzes for exploding live shells, both on 'concussion' and by 'time.' In 1847 he effected improvements on his original idea, and his fuzes were approved by the master-general of ordnance, and adopted in her majesty's service. ”

“ Some make him a fryer, others a lay gentleman, all a conceited person, who with his merry devices deceived the devil, who by grace may be resisted, not deceived by wit.’ In Brewer's pamphlet we are told that Fabell was of good descent, and that he was ‘a man either for his gifts externall or internall inferior to few.’ It speaks of his learning, affability, and liberality to the poor and needy. ”

“ With the help of an Aberdeen watchmaker he constructed a model of improved cannon, and prepared to take it to Flanders. Meanwhile he forwarded his model to his son David (1661-1708) [q. v.] , the Savilian professor, and to Newton. Newton held that it was only calculated for the diabolical purpose of increasing carnage, and urged the professor to break up the model, which was never afterwards found. During the rebellion of 1715 Gregory went a second time to Holland, returning when the trouble had subsided to Aberdeen. ”

“ He was the principal supporter of schools at Poplar, at which two thousand children were taught and partly clothed. To the Merchant Seamen's Orphan Asylum, the Dreadnought Hospital, the Poplar Hospital, and many other charities he was a great benefactor. ”

“ Fairbairn's energy soon made him independent of Marshall's support. Further improvements were introduced. He constructed woollen as well as flax machinery. Trade was stimulated by his improvements in machinery, and he became a notable force in the centre of Yorkshire manufactures. ”

“ His inventions included machines for preparing and spinning silk waste, and improvements in machinery for making rope yarn. The art of constructing engineering tools was afterwards included in the industrial fabrications of the Wellington foundry, and the Crimean war gave an impetus to this branch of the business. ”

“ In 1725 he took out a patent or privilege for a development of Van der Mey's method, which held the field until Carey of Paris supplied the idea of the matrix. At this period the best types were all imported from Holland at considerable cost, and only the coarser kinds were obtainable in London. ”

“ He will be best remembered, however, as the intimate friend and one of the earliest patrons of Turner, the artist. Turner had a welcome and a home at Farnley Hall, Fawkes's Wharfedale residence, whenever he chose to go, and used to spend months at a time there. Mr. Ruskin has borne eloquent testimony to the influence of Fawkes, Farnley, and Wharfedale on the genius of Turner, and the Turner collection still existing at Farnley Hall contains about two hundred of the artist's choicest works. Fawkes was also a keen agriculturist. ”

“ Hawkins returned to England, but Finch delayed his departure in order to make further explorations, visiting Byana and Lahore among other places. Finch made careful observations on the commerce and natural products of the districts visited. In 1612 the mogul emperor confirmed and extended the privileges he had promised to Finch and Hawkins, and the East India Company in that year set up their first little factory at Surat. Finch died at Babylon on his way to Aleppo from drinking poisoned water in August 1613. ”

“ Henry Fourdrinier succeeded his father as a paper manufacturer. In conjunction with his brother Sealy he devoted himself for many years to the invention and improvement of paper-making machinery. Their first patent was taken out in 1801. ”

“ Being much occupied by his practice by day, he retired to bed early, rose about 2 or 3 a.m., shut himself in with his books and instruments for several hours, and then had another hour's rest before breakfast. ”

“ He supplied the French Academy with the apparatus used for the measurement of a degree of the meridian, and constructed the most complete planetarium known at that time, in which the motions of the celestial bodies were demonstrated with great accuracy. ”

“ Donald Fraser, and then learnt book-keeping under an uncle who kept a school at Galashiels. When fourteen years old he joined his family at Kelso, where they had been settled by the father, who was managing a farm near Knaresborough. ”

“ The book gave a concise history of the progressive movements in the art of communication from the first beacon light to the telegraphy of the writer's day, with many valuable suggestions. Gamble, who was much esteemed in scientific circles, civil as well as military, died at Knightsbridge on 27 July 1811. ”

“ The Trinity House gave him handsome recognition, as did also the Society of Arts, and eventually government paid him 1,200l. in consideration of the value of his invention to the nation. Dr. Trotter, physician to the fleet, wrote an adulatory ode. ”

“ He was a man of varied intellectual gifts, a cultivated writer, and, above all, a great lover and patron of the fine arts. In 1810 he published ‘The Chronology of the History of Modern Europe,’ in 1812 a ‘Speech on Parliamentary Reform,’ and in 1817 ‘The Englishman's Manual ”

“ He afterwards engaged in business as an engineer, and executed many important harbour and canal works and river improvements. He also had a hand in the construction of some of the largest works on the Newcastle and Carlisle railway, and in part of the South-Western railway. ”