BRINDLEY, JAMES, was one of the small numbe• of unlettered and uneducated men, who, sustained solely by the powers of their own minds, have used them with such wisdom and success, as to acquire not merely pa rochial or provincial celebrity, but to attract the admira tion of the age and nation in which they lived, and lea.‘c to posterity, in their productions, a lasting monument of their intellectual resources. • It was, indeed, fortunate for the subject of this memoir, as well as for his cotm try, that lie was cotemporary with a nobleman, the Duke of Bridgewater, whose liberality and science conferrer: distinction on his rank. Without such a concurrence. an opportunity might have been wanting to this inge nious projector, of convincing the world, that his pro jects, though bold and surprising, were not impractica ble. James Brindley was born at Twisted, in the parish of Wormhill in Derbyshire, in the year 1716. The total neglect of his education is attributed to domestic diffi culties, incurred, in a great measure, by his father's im prudent devotion to field-sports, though he possessed but a very small free-hold. Young Brindley, in conse quence of his father's indiscretion, was obliged to lend his childhood to such labour as it was equal to, instead of employing it in acquiring the elements of future im provement in letters, or in science. Having reached his seventeenth year, he bound himself apprentice to Mr Bennett, a millwright, near Macclesfield in Che shire ; in which employment he soon taught his master to confide in his judgment, and stood much above him in the opinion of the millers. Before the expiration of his apprenticeship, he had the satisfaction of seeing that his master, who was now grown old, derived a comforta ble subsistence for his family from his industry and re putation. Some opinion may be formed of his devotion to his favourite occupations from the following fact : Bennett having inspected an engine paper-mill, had un dertaken to erect one ; but, before its completion, a mill wright, who happened to see it, did not scruple to say, that it would never work as was proposed. Brindley, who appears to have doubted the correctness of his master's representation, took the pains to visit it at the distance of fifty miles, which he performed in the only interval that could be spared him, betwixt the Saturday evening and Monday morning following. His sugges tions are said to have enabled his master not merely to execute his promise, but to improve upon the original design.
As soon as he was free to act for himself, he professed the occupation of millwright on his own account ; and, before he had reached his fortieth year, his name was in the highest repute in all the counties in his vicinity. Some of the principal works to which he owed his re putation in those parts, were a water-engine, which he erected in the year 1752, at Clifton in Lancashire, for the purpose of draining some coal mines; a silk-mill, which he was employed to construct at Congleton in Cheshire ; and a steam-engine, the boiler of which was of brick and stone, and the cylinders of wood hooped to gether, which he erected near Newcastle-under-line. From this time his whole strength was directed to the improvement of inland navigation ; in which important design he co-operated with the Duke of Bridgewater. His Grace, having calculated the gains that might ac crue from a canal which should connect his estate at AVorslev, containing valuable coal-mines, with the popu lous and manufacturing town of Manchester, called in the advice and practical ability of Mr Brindley- After a careful survey, he pronounced the work, though diffi cult, not impracticable. The plan finally proposed, and for the execution of which an act of parliament was ob tained in 1759, was, to carry the canal over the river Irwell, near Barton Bridge, to Manchester, and to lead off a branch to Longford Bridge, in Stratford. This was to be accomplished without the aid of locks, by preserv ing the same level through the whole course of the ca nal. After many difficulties had been surmounted, of sufficient magnitude to have deterred an ordinary man from the undertaking, the great labour remained, which was, to carry the canal over the river at the height of thirty-nine feet above the surface of the water. Though Brindley was confident of the practicability of the de sign, he wished his Grace to take the opinion of some able engineer before the attempt was made. A gentle
man was accordingly consulted, to whom the scheme appeared to demand ridicule rather than deliberation. He is stated to have said, " that he had often heard of castles in the air, but was never before shorn where any of them might be erected." Neither Brindley's confidence, nor the Duke's acquiescence in his judg ment, was shaken by this declaration. The work was begun in September 1760, and in the July of the year following a boat floated along the aqueduct. The de sign extended with the progress of the work ; and anoth er branch was opened from the canal, which was to be carried over the rivers Mersey and Bollan, besides ma ny deep rallies, in its extension to the tideway in Mer sey. Here the obstruction of locks was also avoided. high mounds of earth were raised across the rallies, the ridges of which became the bed of the canal. In order to reduce the labour and cost of the work, Brindlcy sug gested the simple method of bringing boats filled with earth along the channel, as far as it was wrought ; at which point a caisson, or cistern made of timber, receiv ed the boat, and the bottom being opened, its load of earth descended, and gradually displaced the water. In consequence of the successful issue of this undertaking, the remainder of Mr Brindley's very useful life was chiefly employed in making surveys, laying out canals, and sometimes superintending the execution of his plans. Of this number, the most remarkable is the Grand Trunk Navigation, as he called it, which is car ried through a space of ninety-three miles, from the Trent to the Mersey. This design was completed in eleven years, five years after the decease of the projec tor. It was furnished with seventy-six locks, and con ducted through not less than five tunnels, one of which pierces through Air-Castle-hill, and is 2880 yards in length, and more than seventy yards below the surface of the earth. The counties of Durham, 'Westmoreland, Lancaster, York, Chester, Stafford, Worcester, War wick, Somerset, Sarum, Devon, Hants, and Oxford, have all derived local improvement and advantages, either from his surreys, plans, or superintendence of inland navigations. It is probable, that a man more unlettered than Brindley, never obtained distinction in any pursuit connected with science. If it is not true, as has been said, that he could neither read nor write, yet it is cer tain that his writing was confined to a few occasional letters to his friends, and his reading appears to have been almost as circumscribed as his writing.
So little did the operations of his mind depend upon the use of visible signs, that the combinations of his machinery were often formed without their aid ; and, when his employers have expressed no wish to see his plans delineated, they have ever been carried into exe cution without having even been expressed in figures. To aid the abstraction of his mind, when engaged in complex arrangements, he was accustomed to retire to his bed, and remain there till the design was mentally completed, sometimes as long as two or three days. His memory, which was never taught to distrust itself, and commit its possessions to paper, was in no danger of suffering any link in his mechanical arrangement to escape. Of this he was so confident from experience, that he often declared, if he had time enough to com plete his combinations, lie was perfectly secure of retain ing every part of the design, however complex.
Mr Thineley was endowed by nature with great pow ers of mind, but they never possessed that flexibility of application which might have been produced by the va rious exercises of a liberal education. He thought vi gorously and justly in his own particular sphere; but when placed in circumstances in which it was natural he should apply his reason to subjects of which lie had no knowledge, he expressed all that uneasiness which must arise in a mind fond of order in the midst of inextricable confusion. Hence it is related of him, that, after having once seen a play in London, he declared, that the specta cle produced such distraction of thought, as to unfit him for some time for his customary pursuits, and he never would repeat the experiment. During several of the last years of his life, Mr Brindley was afflicted with a hectic fever almost without intermission. Ile did not survive his fifty-sixth year. He died September 27, 1772, and was buried at New Chapel in Staffordshire. See Biografrh. Britan.