ABACO'S LIFE or JAMES WATT.

TUE admirers of the illustrious author of the modern steam- engine will consider this little volume an almost indispensable possession. It contains ABACO'S Memoir, written for the purpose of being read to the French Institute, of which JANtEs WATT was a member. A paper by the same author on the Effects of Ma- chinery upon the Condition of time Working Classes; JEFFREY'S Eulogium, or rather Character of WATT; and a Dissertation by 13aoronam on the Discovery of the Composition of Water, the chief merit of which ABAGO had justly claimed for the great engineer. The Life, in addition to being a very able memoir, is a remark- able piece of literary workmanship. It describes with brevity and distinctness the genealogy of WATT; it sufficiently narrates the leading events of his life ; and it fully brings out his mental qualities—time extraordinary variety of his studies and pursuits, the boundless fertility and readiness aids mind, his unceasing industry, and the simplicity and amiableness of his personal character. By a skilful artifice, it also embodies a history of the scientific dis- coveries with which WATT was connected. The tract contains an historical disquisition on the inventors of the steam-engine, and of the various improvements that machine has undergone, as well

as of the principles on which it rests. The overthrow of the ancient system of natural philosophy, by the discovery, first, that air was not an element, but a compound body, and second, that water equally consisted of separate bodies, is also told; the mode of the discoveries being narrated, and their nature expounded.

When ARAGO WBS in England, he made a pilgrimage to the various residences of WATT, and the family archives were placed at his disposal; besides which, he MI studied the career of the man, and was familiar with the scientific pursuits he was engaged upon. A less able author would have worked these advantages, and a goodly volume at least would have been filled with private correspondence, extracts from journals, a catalogue of his library, and quotations from his upholsterers' bills. But the Frenchman knew that excellence is attained by presenting to the mind the spirit of essential things, not the carcases of subordinate matters, or even long-drawn-out descriptions of principal affairs. Hence, time Life qf James Watt, by 31. AIWKO, reads more like a classical biography, or the work of one of our older authors. The reader, accustomed to modern diffuseness, will miss the minute anecdote and the desultory gossip which lend attraction fbr one perusal to the voluminous memoirs of' our day, and a little of which, in the work before us, might have afforded amusement or repose to the mind. An apparent unacquaintance with WATT himself has also deprived A RAGO'S Life of those exact touches which characterize the individual ; and WiliCh JEFFREY'S paper marks, in the massy cast and character of his features, time deep and powerful voice, used in a low and monotonous tone when discoursing, and the disposition in his later days to " talk."

The leading epochs of WATT'S life are too familiar to dwell upon; but they may be here a" ted for the sake of reference. He was born in 17:16, and died ir 1819. In 1755 Ite came to London, and placed himself with Mr. MonuAx, a mathematical and nautical instrument maker in Finch Lane, Cornhill. In 1757 he settled in Glasgow ; but the corporations molesting, him as an interloper, the University " protected him, by giving him a shop within their precincts, and by cont'erring on him the title of mathematical in- strument maker to the University." A few years after, he was required to perfect a model of one of NisweomEN's steam-engines, used by the Professor of Natural Philosophy in his lectures, which would scarcely ever work satisfactorily ; and his mind being turned to the subject, he completed his great invention in 1765. Some time elapsed, and some difficulties were encountered, before it could be brought into practical operation ; and then the inventor was harassed by piratical opponents, and by the opposition raised in Parliament to an extension of his patent ; which, however, he attained in 1775, for twenty-five years ; and on its expiration in 1800, he retired from business with an ample fitrtune.

Of the snore striking and characteristic traits of the man, a better idea will be conveyed by drawing from 31. ARAGO, than by any abridgment of ours.

WATT'S BOYISH EMPLOYMENTS.

Watt was so delicate that his parents did not venture to impose any thing in the shape of severe tasks upon him ; they left him very much at liberty in the choice of his occupations, and it will be seen he did not abuse the indul- gence. A gentleman one day calling upon Mr. Watt, observed the child bend-. beg over &marble hearth, with a piece of coloured chalk in his band; "Mr. witt,” said he, "you ought to send that boy to a public school, and not allow: him to trifle away bis time at home." "Look how my child is employed, be- fore you condemn him," replied the father. The gentleman then observed that the child had drawn mathematical lines and circles on the hearth. He put va- rious questions to the boy, and was astonished and gratified with the nnature of intelligence, quickness, and simplicity displayed an his answers: he was then trying to solve a problem of geometry. Influenced by his parental solicitude, lir. James Watt very early put a number of tools at the disposal of the young scholar, who very soon used them with the greatest possible address. He would take to pieces and again put together the various toys that came within his reach, and he was very active in making new ones. Somewhat later he undertook the construction of a small electrical machine, whose brilliant sparks became a lively source of amusement and surprise to his young companions. * *

tpon the whole, Mr. James Watt augured most favourably of the nascent powers of his child. Some other of his more distant relatives, less discerning, did not share in these hopes. His Aunt, Mrs. Muirhead, sitting with him one evening at the tea-table, said, "James, I never saw such an idle boy l Take a book or employ yourself usefully. For the last half-hour you have not spoken a word, but taken off the lid of that kettle and put it on again, holding now a cup and now a silver spoon over the steam; watching how it rises from the spout, and catching and counting the drops of water" formed by conden- sation.

THE VARIETY OF WATT'S YOUTIIFUL PURSI:ITS.

• James Watt had a younger brother, John, who, having determined to follow the career of his father, left the -other, according to the Scottish custom, at liberty to indulge his own taste in selecting his profession. In the present case, however, this was unusually difficult, for the young student prosecuted alfnost every branch of science with equal success. The banks of Loch Lo- mond, already so celebrated by the recollections of the historian Buchanan, and by those of the illustrious inventor of Logarithms, developed his taste for the beauties of nature and for botany. His rambles among the mountain- scenery of Scotland made him perceive that the inert crust of the globe was not lass worthy of attention, and he became a geologist. James also took advan- tage of his frequent intercourse with the humbler classes in those enchanting regions, for the purpose of deciphering their local traditions, their popular bal- . 1, and their wild prejudices. When his state of health confined him to his father's dwelling, it was chiefly chemistry which formed the subject of his in- vestigations. Gravesande's "Elements of Natural Philosophy" initiated him also into the thousand marvels of general physics; and finally, like all vuletu- ffinarians, he devoured such works on medicine and surgery as he could pro- Cute. These last sciences had so much excited his interest, that he was one day detected conveying into his room the head of a child which had died of some obscure disease, that he might take occasion to dissect it.

, FERTILITY AND READINESS OF WATT.

Every meeting of the Lunar Society gave fresh occasion to remark the un- common fertility of invention with which Watt was endowed. "I have thought," observed Dr. Darwin one evening, "of a kind of double pen, a pen with two points, by which one might write the same thing twice over at the same time, and thus supply himself at once with the original and with a copy." "I hope," replied Watt, almost immediately, "to discover a better method for accomplishing the same object. I will mature my ideas to-night, and corn- Municate them to you tomorrow." The Copying Press was invented the next day ; and even a small model was prepared, ready to show its powers. This Most useful instrument, now so generally adopted in all the offices and count- ing-rooms in England, has recently received some Alight modifications, of which various artists have assumed the credit to thernsiilves ; but I can truly affirm, that the present form was described and delineated as early as the year

1780 in the patent of our Asseciate. • *

A water-company in Glasgow had established, on the right bank of the river Clyde, great buildings and powerful machines, for the purpose of conveying water into every house in the town. When the works were completed, it was discovered that on the other side of the river there was a spring, or rather a kind of natural filter, which abundantly supplied water of a very superior quality. To remove the works was now out of the question ; but a question arose as to the practicability of drawing the water from wells on the left bank, by means of the pumping-engines then existing on the right bank, and through a main-pipe to be carried by some means across the river. In this emergency Watt was consulted ; and he was ready with a solution of the difficulty ; pointing to a lobster on the table, he showed in what manner a mechanist might, with iron, construct ajointed tube which would be endowed with all the mobility of the tail of the crustacea ; he accordingly proposed a complete jointed conduit-pipe, capable of bending and applying itself to all the inflections, present and future, of the bed of a great river; in fact, a lobster-tail of iron, two feet in diameter, and a thousand feet in length. Ile soon after furnished plans in detail, and drawings ; and the design was executed for the Glasgow Water Company, with the most complete success.

THE TNVENTION OP WATT.

Had our Associate been at all solicitous, he might easily have acquired a name among the writers of romance. In the circle of his more intimate ac- quaintances,he seldom failed to improve upon the anecdotes, whether frightful, affecting, or amusing, which he heard narrated. The minute details of his recitals, the proper names with which he interspersed them, the technical de- scriptions of castles and country houses, of forests and caves, to which the Scene was successively transported, gave to these improvisations SO COMOOIC an air of truth, that one could scarcely retain the slightest sentiment of disbelief. On ore occasion, however, Watt experienced considerable embarrassment in extricating his characters from the labyrinth in which he had somewhat impru- dently involved them. One of his friends, perceiving his difficulty, from the unwonted frequency with which he applied to his snuffbox, as if to explain his pauses, and gain time for reflection, said to him, "Are you at random, re- counting a tale of your own invention ?" "Your inquiry," replied the old man, "astonishes me ; during the twenty years I have been so happily spending my evenings with you, I have done nothing else. Surely you did not wish to make me the rival of Robertson and Hume, when the utmost of my preten- sions was to follow, at a humble distance, in the footsteps of the Princess Scheherazade, of" The Thousand and One Nights."

WATT'S MARRIAGES.

In the year 1764, Mr. Watt had married his cousin, Miss Miller. She was an accomplished person; and her wit, imperturbable sweetness, and cheerful- ness of disposition, speedily rescued the celebrated engineer from an oppression of lassitude, discouragement, and misanthropy, which a nervous attack and the injustice which he experienced, had well nigh rendered fatal. Without the cheering influence of his wife, Watt perhaps would never have published to the world his beautiful inventions. Of this marriage were born four children, two sons and two daughters. At an after period, Mrs. Watts expired in child- bed, and her infant did not survive her. Her husband at the time was absent, engaged in the north of Scotland with the plans of the Caledonian Canal. I

i shall here take the liberty of transcribing, n all their native simplicity, a few lines from the journal in which he was in the habit of recording daily his most private thoughts, his fears, and his Lopes. "I did what I could to force grief from my mind ; but feared to come home, where I had lost my kind welcomer. In her I lost the comfort of my life, a dear friend, und a faithful

wife." Here is a striking picture of heartfelt sorrow, which may serve ftj: shake the confidence of those system-makers, who, despite Of innumerable in. stances to the contrary, deny the free and kindly -play of thefeelings to every one whose intellect in ds its nourishment in the sublime and Imperishable truths of the exact sciences. After several years of widowhood, Mr. Watt hat the happiness to find in Miss Macgregor, a companion, rendered worthy. of. him by the variety of her talents, the soundness of her judgment, and the strength of her character.

;Cowards the close of his Memoir, M. ARAGO expresses his dj tasteful surprise that WATT was not raised from his own "caste" and made a Peer.of. The invariable answer, he says, he received in England was a sufficient one—" it is not the custom." A few silly persons might have shown the philosopher, if they happened to get

into his company, more respect, or rather more servility, had he ' been turned into a Lord, but a title would have procured him no additional veneration from his immediate friends, his contemporary

public, or from posterity. In saying this, we are attaching no - blame to M. ARAGO'S feeling "it is the custom" in France and elsewhere abroad, to reward scientific and literary merit by titles,— though it must be added, that a foreign nobleman is totally differ- ent, socially and politically, from an English Peer. If it should be alleged that M. ARAGO is taking higher ground than mere custom, . we must be pardoned for thinking, that abstractedly, the idea of

rewarding a philosopher by ribahs and titles seems something • more than ridiculous.

The disquisition on the history of the invention of the steam. engine, is a very valuable and learned paper; not so much elabo- rate, as the results of elaborate examination ; and though intro. duced into the heart of the biography, rather relieves and varies . than interrupts it. Throughout the whole, the author displays the leaning of a Frenchman ; but, taking the data as they stand before us, he has made out his case, that Frenchmen first discovered the principle of steam-power,) unless the heathen priests forestalled it,) as well as announced the theory of the two sorts of engines which were used previous to the time of WATT, though English. men first reduced these theories to practice. To follow the author through his examination, would be a long task, and an unnecessary one in the case of a volume so readily accessible : but we may take a few passages indicative of ADAGO'S mode of handling the subject.

A STEAM GOD. Chroniclers have informed us, that upon the banks of the Weser, the god of the ancient Teutonic race manifested his displeasure he a kind of thunderbolt, to which, immediately afterwards, succeeded a cloud that tilled the sacred en- closure. The image of the god Busterieh, discovered, it is said, in some excavations, clearly demonstrates the mode in which this prodigy was produced. The god was made of metal. The hollow head contained water to the amount of an amphora ; plugs of wood closed the mouth and lea- ther opening situated, under the forehead, and combustibles suitably placed in s v of the cranium gradually heated the liquid. Speedily the steam gene- rated: caused the plugs to spring with a loud report, and then escaped with vii. hence, forming a thick cloud between the god and his astonished worshippers. It appears also, that in the middle ages the monks found this to be a very va- luable invention, andthat the head of Busterich has performed before other assemblages besides those of the benighted Teutones.

FIRST PRACTICAL DrscovERY or rerams

In the year 1605, Florence Riven% a gentleman of the bedchamber to Henri the Fourth, and the preceptor of Louis the Thirteenth, discovered that an iron ball, or bomb, with very thick walls, and filled with water, exploded sooner or later when thrown into the fire, if its mouth were closed, or, in other words, if you prevented the free escape of the steam as it was generated. The power of steam MT here demonstrated by a precise proof, which, to a certain point, was susceptible of numerical appreciation, whilst at the same time it revealed itself as a dread- ful means of destruction.

The reader of ADAM SMITles exposition of the principle of the division of labour, will remember his allusion to a discovery made by a bow who wished to join his comrades at play. If, as is most likely, fie has often wished to know what the discovery was, hc will find it here.

EFFECTS or POTTER'S LOVE or PLAY.

The first machine of Newcomen required the most unremitting attention on the part of the intik idual who unceasingly opened and closed certain stop- cocks, first for the introduction of thee into the cylinder, and then for In. jecting the cold shower for its condensation. It happened on one occasion, that the person so employed was a boy named Henry Potter. His young com-

panions at their sports uttered cries of delight, which vexed. him beyond en-

durance. He was all impatience to join in their sport, but his required duties did not allow him half a minute's absence. His anxiety excited his ingenuity, and led him to observe relations he had never before thought of. Of the two stopcocks, the one required to be opened at the moment that the beam (which Newcomen first and so usefully introduced into his machines) terminated the descending oscillation, and required to be closed precisely at the termination of the opposite one. The management of the other stopcock was precisely the reverse. The positions, then, of the beam and of the stopcocks, had a necessary dependence upon each other. Potter seized upon this fact ; he perceived that the beam might serve to impart to the other parts of the machine all the re- quired movements ; and on the spur of the moment he realized. his cancer tions. Ile attached a number of cords to the stopcocks; some to the one end of the handle, and some to the other, and these he attached to the most suitable parts of the beam, so that in ascending it pulled one set of the cords, and in descending the other, and so effectually, that all the work of his hand was entirely superseded. For the first time, the steam-engine went by itself; and now no other workman was seen near it but the fireman, who from time to time fed the furnace under the boiler. For the cords of young Potter, the eiwincers soon substituted rigid vertical rods, which were fixed to the beam, and' armed with small pegs which either pressed from above downwards, or from below upwards, as required ; and thus turned the different stopcocks and valves. These rods themselves have sines been replaced by other combinations ; but, however humbling the avowal, all these expedients are nothing more than simple modifications of a contrivance suggested to a child by his desire to join in the gambols of his youthful com- panions.

The Memoir on the beneficial effects of Machinery upon the Working Classes, though argumentative and striking, and so far as it goes just, has no particular novelty to English readers, and is per-

Ea-p—s less conc1usve than some essays which have appeared a home. The "Historical Account" by Lord BROUGHAM, 1.4 merely ail exposition of the justice of the, conclusion to which his illustn- ous fellow member had come; treated, says M. Annoo, " with that scrupulous care, in some degree judicial, which might be expected from the former Lord Chancellor of Great Britain."