the Count de Seze replied to an eloquent discourse of Cuvier, he stated that, "since the Restoration, Cuvier was the second example of fortunate combination of literature and science, and that he had been preceded only by that illustrious geometer, (the Marquis de Laplace), whom we may call the Newton of France." In referring to the European reputation of Cuvier, and to the vast extent and variety of his knowledge, he applied to him the happy observation which Fontenelle made respecting Leibnitz—that while the ancients made one Hercules out of several, we might, out of one Cuvier, make several philosophers.
FALSE ESTIMATE OF RAILWAY SPEED.
The ordinary speed of George Stephenson's Killingworth engine, in 1814, was four miles an hour. In 1825, Mr. Wood, in his work on Railways, took the standard at six miles an hour, drawing 40 tons on a level; and so confident was he that he gauged the power of the locomotive, that he asserted—"nothing could do more harm towards the adoption of railways than the promulgation of such nonsense as that we shall see locomotive engines travelling at the rate of 12, 16, 18, and 20 miles an hour." The promulgator of such nonsense was George Stephenson. In 1829, it was estimated that, at 15 miles an hour, the gross load was 9–½ tons, and the net load very little; and that, therefore, high speed, if attainable, was perfectly useless. Before the end of that year, George Stephenson got with "the Rocket" a speed of 29–½ miles an hour, carrying a net load of 9–½ tons. In 1831, his engines were to draw 90 tons on a level, at 20 miles an hour.
When the speed of the locomotive was set beyond question, prejudice then took the alarm about safety, and a very strong stand was from time to time made for a limitation of speed. Even after the year 1849, the London and Birmingham Directors considered that 20 miles an hour was enough; but the vigour of the broad gauge advocates has tripled the working power of the locomotive, and given us 60 miles an hour where we might have been lingering at 20.
THE CRAWSHAYS OF MERTHYR TYDVIL.
Mr. Crawshay, of the Cyfarthfa Works, at a dinner given to him in 1847, by the people of Merthyr, related the following account of the rise of his family of "Iron Kings," as they are called.
"My grandfather was the son of a most respectable farmer in Normanton, Yorkshire. At the age of 15, father and son differed. My grandfather, an enterprising boy, rode his own pony to London, then an arduous task of some fifteen or twenty days' travelling. On getting there, he found himself perfectly destitute of friends. He sold his pony for 15l.; and during the time that the proceeds of the pony kept him, he found employment in an iron warehouse of London, kept by Mr. Bicklewith. He hired himself for three years for 15l., the price of his pony. His occupation was to clean the counting-house, to put the desks in order, and to do anything else that he was told. By industry, integrity, and perseverance, he gained his master's favour, and was termed 'the Yorkshire Boy.' He had a very amiable and good master; and, before he had been two years in his place, he stood high in this just man's confidence. The trade in which he was engaged was only a cast-iron warehouse, and his master assigned to him, 'the Yorkshire Boy,' the privilege of selling flat irons—the things with which our shirts and clothes are flattened. The washerwomen of London were sharp folks; and when they bought one flat iron, they stole two. Mr. Bicklewith thought that the best person to cope with them would be a man working for his own interest—and a Yorkshireman at the same time. That was the first matter of trading that ever my grandfather embarked in. By honesty and perseverance, he continued to grow in favour. His master retired in a few years, and left my grandfather in possession of his cast-iron business in London, which was carried on on the very site where I now spend my days—in York Yard. My grandfather left his business in London, and came down here; and my father, who carried it on, supplied him with money almost as fast as he spent it here; but not quite so fast. What occurred subsequently, this company knows perfectly well. Who started with humbler prospects in life than my grandfather? No man in this room is so poor but that he can command 15l. Depend upon it, any man who is industrious, honest, and persevering, will be respected in any class of life he may move in. Do you, think, gentlemen, there is a man in England prouder than I am at this moment? What is all the world to me, unless they know me?"
WEIGHING MACHINE AT THE BANK OF ENGLAND.
The most interesting place connected with the machinery of the Bank of England is the Weighing-Office, which was established about 1840. In consequence of a proclamation concerning the gold circulation, it became very desirable to obtain the most minute accuracy, as coins of different weight were plentifully offered. Many complaints were made, that sovereigns which had been issued from one office were refused at another; and though these assertions were not, perhaps, always founded on truth, yet it is indisputable that the evil occasionally occurred. Every effort was made by the Directors to remedy this, some millions of sovereigns being weighed separately, and the light coins divided from those which were full weight. Fortunately, the Governor for the time being, (Mr. W. Cotton), before whom the complaints principally came, was attached to scientific pursuits; and he at once turned his attention to discover the causes which operated to prevent the attainment of a just weight. In this he was successful, and the result of his inquiry was, a machine, remarkable for an almost elegant simplicity. About 80 or 100 light and heavy sovereigns are placed indiscriminately in a round tube; as they descend on the machinery beneath, those which are light receive a slight touch, which moves them into their proper receptacle; while those which are the legitimate weight, pass into their appointed place. The light coins are then defaced by a sovereign-cutting machine, remarkable alike for its accuracy and rapidity. By this, 200 may be defaced in one minute; and, by the weighing machinery, 35,000 may be weighed in one day.
An eminent member of the Royal Society mentioned to the writer, that, amongst scientific men, it is a question whether the Weighing-Machine of Mr. Cotton is not the finest thing in Mechanics; and that there is only one other invention—the envelope-machine of De la Rue—to be named with it.—Francis's History of the Bank of England.
CHILDHOOD OF PASCAL.
Pascal, the celebrated French philosopher and divine, (whose life, Bayle affirms, is worth a hundred sermons), evinced such early ardour for knowledge, that, at the age of eleven, he was ambitious of teaching as well as learning; and he then composed a little treatise on the refractions of the sounds of vibrating bodies when touched by the finger. One day he was found alone in his chamber, tracing, in lines of coal, geometrical figures on the wall; and, on another occasion, he was surprised by his father, just when he had succeeded in obtaining a demonstration of the 32nd proposition of the first book of Euclid—that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. Astonished and overjoyed, his father rushed to his friend, M. Pailleur, to announce the extraordinary fact; and the young geometer was instantly permitted to study, unrestrained, the Elements of Euclid, of which he soon made himself master, without any extrinsic aid. From the geometry of planes and solids he passed to the higher branches of the science; and, before he was sixteen years of age, he composed a treatise on the Conic Sections, which evinced the most extraordinary sagacity. When scarcely 19 years of age, too, Pascal contrived a machine to assist his father in making the numerical calculations which his official duties in Upper Normandy required.
In later life, Pascal found researches in geometry an occupation well fitted to give serenity to a heart bleeding from the wounds of his beloved associates. He
