JAMES

See also:

• JAMES BRINDLEY (1716-1772)

BRINDLEY (1716-1772)  , English engineer, was born at Thornsett, Derbyshire, in 1716 . His parents were in. very humble circumstances, and he received little or no education . At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a millwright near Macclesfield, and soon after completing • his apprenticeship he set up in business for himself as a wheelwright at Leek, quickly becoming known for his ingenuity and skill in repairing all kinds of machinery . In 1752 he designed and set, up an engine for draining some coal-pits at Clifton in Lancashire . Three years later he extended his reputation by completing the 'machinery for a silk-mill at Congleton . In 1754, when the duke of Bridge-water was anxious to improve the outlets for the coal on his estates, Brindley advised the construction of a canal from Worsley to Manchester . The difficulties in the Way were great, but all were surmounted by his genius, and his. crowning %riumph was the construction of an aqueduct to carry the canal at an elevation of 39 ft. over the river Irwell at Barton . The great success of this canal encouraged similar projects, and Brindley was soon engaged in extending his first work to the Mersey, at Runcorn . He then designed and nearly completed what he called the Grand Trunk Canal, connecting the Trent and Humber with the Mersey . The Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Oxford and the Chester-field Canals were also planned by him, and altogether he laid out over 36o m. of canals . He died at Turnhurst, Staffordshire, on the 3oth of September 1772 . Brindley retained to the last a peculiar roughness of character and demeanour; but his innate power of thought more than compensated for his lack of training .

It is told of him that when in any difficulty he used to retire to

bed, and there remain thinking out his problem until the solution became clear to him . His mechanical ingenuity and fertility of resource were very remarkable, and he undoubtedly possessed the engineering faculty in a very high degree . He was an enthusiastic believer in canals, and his reported answer, when asked the use of navigable rivers, " To feed canals," is characteristic, if not altogether authentic .