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jects connected with mill-work, water-pumping, and engineering of every description,-flour-mills and powder-mills, wind-mills and water-mills, fulling-mills and flint-mills, blade-mills and forgehammer mills. From a list left by him in his own handwriting, it appears that he designed and erected forty-three water-mills of various kinds, besides numerous wind-mills. Water-power was then used for nearly all purposes for which steam is now applied, such as grinding flour, sawing wood, boring and hammering iron, fulling cloth, rolling copper, and driving all kinds of machinery." Smeaton also bestowed much attention on the development of the wonderful powers of the steam-engine, then only in its infancy. In order to experimentalize upon it, he erected a model engine, on Newcomen's principle, near his house at Austhorpe; and his fertile genius soon devised a variety of improvements which added to its utility. His Chacewater engine of 150 horsepower was looked upon as the finest and most powerful of its kind which had until then been erected. In this field of invention, however, it must be owned that he was completely surpassed by James Watt, the superior merit of whose condensing engine notwithstanding the time and

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A LESSON FOR THE READER.

labour Smeaton had bestowed on the development of Newcomen's-he frankly acknowledged. After inspecting Watt's engine, he said at once : "That the old engine, even when made to do its best, was now driven from every place where fuel could be considered of any value."

During many years the opinion of Smeaton was considered of so much authority, that no engineering works of any importance were undertaken throughout the kingdom except on his advice, or under his superintendence. He was constantly consulted in Parliament, and was regarded as an arbiter or ultimate referee on all difficult questions connected with his profession.

And it should be added, for the benefit of the young reader, that he was never in a hurry to give his opinion; and that he never gave it until he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the subject on which it was sought. He was above all petty artifices, and never laid claim to the possession of universal knowledge. He did not pretend to be able to decide off-hand on a question he had not considered, but studied it thoroughly and patiently before he ventured on offering an opinion. Hence it was always re

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ALWAYS THOROUGH."

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ceived with the utmost deference, and the most implicit confidence was placed in his proved integrity.

Smeaton possessed the gift of fluent and clear description. He could make difficult points of engineering science intelligible even to non-professional readers or hearers; and in the courts of law he was frequently complimented by Lord Mansfield and the other judges for the light he so ingeniously threw upon abstruse and very difficult subjects. His secret was, his thorough knowledge of what he wrote or spoke about. He was always thorough, and hence he always spoke with the decision and confidence of a master. It is only imperfect knowledge which ever blunders into obscurity.

HILE Smeaton was thus reaping the reward of his diligent life and con

scientious industry, he continued to make his home and resting-place at Austhorpe, near Leeds, where he had been born. There he carried on the mechanical experiments in which he had ever felt so intense a delight. His father had allowed him the privilege of a workshop in an outhouse, and he occupied it for many years ; afterwards, when the house had become his settled. residence, he erected an atelier, a study, and an observatory, all in one, for his own use. This building assumed the form of a square tower, four stories high. It stood apart from the house, on the opposite side of the court or green, and on the bank of a pleasant pool. Shrouded in ivy, and

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embowered among trees, it now forms a picturesque feature in the landscape. The ground-floor was devoted to his forge; the first floor contained his lathe; the second, his models; the third, his study; while the fourth was a sort of lumber-room and attic. From the little turreted staircase on the top a door opened upon the leads. A vane was fixed on the summit, and so arranged that it set in motion the hands of a dial on the ceiling of his drawing-room, and showed at any moment the precise direction in which the wind blew.

As soon as the engineer retired to his study, strict orders were issued that he was not to be disturbed on any account. No person was suffered to ascend the circular staircase which led to his retreat. If he heard a step below, he would immediately raise his voice to know the intruder's business. Even his smith, Waddington, was prohibited from trespassing on the sanctuary, and required, on such occasions, to wait in the lower apartment until Mr. Smeaton came down.

When he was neither evolving plans nor drawing up reports, Smeaton delighted to occupy his leisure with astronomical studies and observations; and this scientific pastime he continued to indulge in even in the flush of his prosperous professional