BRINDLEY, JAMES, a most uncommon genius
for mechanical inventions, and particularly excellent
in planning and conducting inland navigations, was
born, in 1716, at Tunsted in Derbyshire: Through the
mismanagement of his father (for there was some little
property in his house) his education was totally ne-
glected; and, at seventeen, he bound himself appren-
tice to a mill-wright, near Macclesfield, in Cheshire.
He served his apprenticeship, and, afterwards, setting
up for himself, advanced the mill-wright business, by
inventions and contrivances of his own, to a degree of
perfection which it had not attained before. His
fame, as a most ingenious mechanic, spreading widely,
his genius was no longer confined to the business of his
profession: for, in 1752, he erected a very extraordi-
nary water-engine at Clifton, in Lancashire, for the
purpose of draining coal-mines; and, in 1755, was em-
ployed to execute the larger wheels for a new silk mill,
at Congleton, in Cheshire. The potteries of Staffor-
dshire were also, about this time, indebted to him for
several valuable additions in the mills used by them
for grinding flint-stones. In 1756, he undertook to
erect a steam-engine near Newcastle under Line upon
a new plan; and it is believed that he would have
brought this engine to a great degree of perfection, if
some interested engineers had not opposed him.
His attention, however, was soon afterwards called
off to another object, which, in its consequences, hath
proved of high importance to trade and commerce;
namely, the projecting and executing "Inland naviga-
tions." By these navigations the expence of car-
riage is lessened; a communication is opened from one
part of the kingdom to another, and from each of these
parts to the sea; and hence products and manufactures
are afforded at a moderate price. The duke of Bridge-
water bath, at Worsley, about seven miles from Man-
chester, a large estate abounding with coal, which had
hitherto lain useless, because the expence of land-car-
riage was too great to find a market for consumption.
The duke, wishing to work these mines, perceived the
necessity of a canal from Worsley to Manchester; up-
on which occasion Brindley, now become famous, was
consulted; and declaring the scheme practicable, an
act for this purpose was obtained in 1758 and 1759.
It being, however, afterwards discovered, that the na-
vigation would be more beneficial, if carried over the
river Irwell to Manchester, another act was obtained
to vary the course of the canal agreeably to the new
plan, and likewise to extend a side-branch to Long-
ford bridge in Stretford. Brindley, in the mean time,
had begun these great works, being the first of the
kind ever attempted in England, with navigable sub-
terraneous tunnels and elevated aqueducts; and as, in
order to preserve the level of the water, it should be
free from the usual obstructions of locks, he carried
the canal over rivers, and many large and deep val-
leys. When it was completed as far as Barton, where
the Irwell is navigable for large vessels, he proposed
to carry it over that river, by an aqueduct of thirty-
nine feet above the surface of the water; and though
this project was treated as wild and chimerical, yet,
supported by his noble patron, he began his work in
Sept. 1760, and the first boat sailed over it in July
1761. The duke afterwards extended his ideas to Li-
verpool; and obtained, in 1762, an act for branch-
ing his canal to the tideway in the Mersey; this part
of the canal is carried over the rivers Mersey and Bol-
land, and over many wide and deep valleys.
The success of the duke of Bridgewater's undertak-
ings encouraged a number of gentlemen and manufac-
turers in Staffordshire, to revive the idea of a canal-
navigation through that county; and Brindley was,
therefore, engaged to make a survey from the Trent
to the Mersey. In 1766, this canal was begun, and
conducted under Brindley's direction as long as he liv-
ed; but finished after his death by his brother-in-law
Mr Marshall, of whom he had a great opinion, in
May 1777. The proprietors called it, "the canal
from the Trent to the Mersey;" but the engineer,
more emphatically, "the Grand Trunk Navigation,"
Brindley, on account of the numerous branches, which, as he justly supposed, would be extended every way from it. It is 93 miles in length; and, besides a large number of bridges over it, has 76 locks and five tunnels. The most remarkable of the tunnels is the subterranean passage of Harecastle, being 2880 yards in length, and more than 70 yards below the surface of the earth. The scheme of this inland-navigation had employed the thoughts of the ingenious part of the kingdom for upwards of 20 years before; and some surveys had been made: but Harecastle hill, through which the tunnel is constructed, could neither be avoided nor overcome by any expedient the most able engineers could devise. It was Brindley alone who surmounted this and other the like difficulties, arising from the variety of strata and quicksands, as no one but himself would have attempted to conquer.
Brindley was engaged in many other similar undertakings; for a fuller account of which, not being consistent with our plan, we refer the reader to the "Biographia Britannica;" or rather to a curious and valuable pamphlet, published some years since, and entitled, "The History of Inland Navigations, particularly that of the duke of Bridgewater." He died at Turnhurst in Staffordshire, September 27. 1772, in his 56th year; somewhat immaturely, as it should seem: but he is supposed to have shortened his days by too intense application, and to have brought on a hectic fever, which continued on him for some years before it consumed him. For he never indulged and relaxed himself in the common diversions of life, as not having the least relish for them; and though once prevailed on to see a play in London, yet he declared that he would on no account be present at another; because it so disturbed his ideas for several days after, as to render him unfit for business. With any extraordinary difficulty occurred to him in the execution of his works, he generally retired to bed; and has been known to lie there one, two, or three days, till he has surmounted it. He would then get up, and execute his design without any drawing or model: for he had a prodigious memory, and carried every thing in his head.
As his station in life was low, and his education totally neglected, so his exterior accomplishments were suitable to them. He could indeed read and write, but both very indifferently; and he was perhaps, in his way, as abnormis sapiens—"of mother-wit, and wise without the schools,"—as any man that ever lived. "He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors in the Peake, or one of his own carters: but when he speaks, all ears listen; and every mind is filled with wonder, at the things he pronounces to be practicable." The same author gives us also no ungracious idea of his moral make: "being great in himself, he harbours no contracted notions, no jealousy of rivals: he conceals not his method of proceeding, nor asks patents to secure the sole use of the machines, which he invents and exposes to public view. Sensible that he must one day cease to be, he selects men of genius, teaches them the power of mechanics, and employs them in carrying on the various undertakings in which he is engaged. It is not to the duke of Bridgewater only that his services are confined; he is of public utility, and employs his talents in rectifying the mistakes of despairing workmen, &c. His powers shine most
in the midst of difficulties; when rivers and mountains seem to thwart his designs, then appears his vast capacity, by which he makes them subservient to his will."