entering into the service of foreign manufacturers, which is said to have had the best results. In May, 1782, he addressed to the Royal Society a communication on an instrument he had invented for measuring intense degrees of heat, called a pyrometer. This paper was printed in the 72nd volume of the Society's Transactions. He also planned and carried into execution a turnpike-road, ten miles in length, through the Potteries. He was, besides, the founder and one of the principal leaders of the association called "The General Chamber of the Manufacturers of Great Britain."

It is delightful to know that this admirable man was endeared among his intimates by his social virtues and genuine benevolence. The large fortune which he realized by his unwearied labours enabled him to indulge these amiable dispositions; and it is said of him, that he was never known to neglect the claims of any institution he thought likely to promote the good of his fellow-creatures. Especially we rejoice to learn that he consecrated the efforts of his inventive skill to the service of humanity, and rendered them promotive of the cause of freedom and progress. In this connection we may be allowed to notice two cameos of his manufacture,-one of a slave in chains, of which he distributed many hundreds, with a view of exciting the humane to assist in the abolition of the slavetrade; and the other a cameo of Hope, attended by Peace, Art, and Labour, which was made of argillaceous earth brought from Botany Bay, to which place

he sent many of them, in order to show what the native materials were capable of, and to encourage the industry of the inhabitants. Such graceful and lovely acts well merit the tribute paid to our great potter in the following lines :

"Whether, O Friend of Art! the gem you mould,
Rich with new taste, with ancient virtue bold,
Form the poor fetter'd slave on bended knee,
From Britain's sons imploring to be free;

Or, with fair Hope the bright'ning scenes improve,
And cheer the dreary wastes of Sydney Cove;
Or, bid Mortality rejoice and mourn,

O'er the fine forms on Portland's mystic urn ;-
Whether, O Friend of Art! your gems derive
Fine forms from Greece, and fabled gods revive;
Or bid from modern life the portrait breathe,
And bind round Honour's brow the laurel wreath ;—
Buoyant shall sail, with Fame's historic page,
Each fair medallion o'er the wrecks of age;
Nor time shall mar, nor steel, nor fire, nor rust,
Touch the hard polish of the immortal bust."

Mr. Wedgwood lived long enough to see the Staffordshire Potteries-in his boyhood a series of thinly-populated villages-in a fair way to become, what they now are, a chain of towns and manufactures, in which tens of thousands are constantly employed and supported. He died, universally regretted, in January, 1795, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and was buried in the parish church of Stoke. A monument is erected there to his memory; but his best memorial is the character which he left behind him, and for which he is still revered in the district.

RENNEQUIN, LAURENS, HARRISON,

GOBELIN, GED, AND OTHERS.

In this chapter are given a few short notices of men whose labours deserve mention, and most of whom were only deterred from producing greater results by the want of those aids which are now communicated to workmen of every grade, down to the most humble.

ONE of the greatest mechanical inventions of the time of Louis XIV. was the celebrated Marly machine, constructed for the purpose of raising the waters of the river Seine to the top of the Marly Mountain, and thence conveying them to Versailles. This admirable work was designed by a humble carpenter of Liege, named Swalm Rennequin, born in 1644. He followed the trade of his father, and was so entirely uneducated that he could not even read. He possessed, however, a truly wonderful genius for mechanics, and early showed skill in the invention of machinery; his attention being particularly directed to the subject of under-drainage, so important for the working of the mines and pits which abound in the Liegois territory.

When Louis XIV. had built the Château de Versailles, it was found necessary to devise some means for the supply of water, of which there was a deficiency. The royal minister, Colbert, by the command

of the monarch, turned his attention to the matter, and in the course of his inquiries applied to the Chevalier Deville, who was a landed proprietor, and owner of a château where Rennequin had been employed by him to construct a machine for raising water, which was of a similar description to that of Marly, and of which, it is said, some vestiges still remain. Deville went to Paris, accompanied by Rennequin, who formed his project and made some preliminary experiments, which proved sufficiently satisfactory to the Court, and the vast undertaking was commenced in 1675, and brought to a close in 1682. It is said to have cost above four millions of pounds sterling, and by its complicated machinery and many excellent contrivances, excited general surprise and admiration. It did not, however, raise all the water it might have done, because the maker was unacquainted with certain principles of mathematical science by which his inventive skill would have been seconded and rendered far more successful.

It awakens one's interest to learn that Rennequin's merit as the original inventor of this great work was disputed. M. Prony, his biographer, says that a portrait of Deville was engraved, bearing an inscription which ascribed the honour to him; but it is beyond question that he was merely the negotiator of the enterprise with the Minister and the Court. Professor Weidler, who was contemporary with Rennequin, and who visited and described his machine, says positively that he learned, on strict investigation, the

What far greater works would this man have effected had he enjoyed those helps which his successors have had!

He

Another mechanician deservedly celebrated for the skilful application of his art to the science of hydraulics, was Laurens, the son of a sluice-keeper of Bouchain, whose success was the more remarkable because he also was almost entirely without education. drained marshes in Flanders and Hainault which had been abandoned as impracticable, facilitated the navigation of the Scarpe, and constructed sluices in other rivers. The junction of the Escaut and the Somme presented seemingly insurmountable difficulties, but Laurens determined to master them, and he succeeded; effecting his purpose by means of a subterranean canal, three leagues in length, which united with the Escaut forty-five feet above its source, and with the Somme fifteen feet below its level.

Who has not heard of the celebrated Gobelin tapestry? Perhaps few are aware of the origin of the name, or have heard of the brothers Gobelin, who, in the reign of Francis I., introduced from Venice into France the art of dyeing scarlet, and established, for that purpose, extensive workshops upon the small river Bièvre, which bathes the southern extremity of the faubourg St. Marceau, in Paris. In the fourteenth