The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-14 00:00:00

THE MILLWRIGHT OF OLDEN DAYS.

The millwright of former days was to a great extent the
sole representative of mechanical art, and was looked upon
as the authority in all the applications of wind and water,
under whatever conditions they were to be used, as a motive
power for the purposes of manufacture. He was the en-
gineer of the district in which he lived, a kind of Jack-of-
all-trades, who could with equal facility work at the lathe,
the anvil, or the carpenter's bench. In country districts,
far removed from towns, he had to exercise all these profes-
sions, and he thus gained the character of an ingenious,
roving, rollicking blade, able to turn his hand to anything,
and, like other wandering tribes in days of old, went about
the country from mill to mill, with the old song of "kettles
to mend" reapplied to the more important fractures of
machinery. _ _

Thus the millwright of the last century was an itinerant
engineer and mechanic of high reputation. He could
handle the axe, the hammer, and the plane with equal skill
and precision ; he could turn, bore, or forge with the ease
and despatch of one brought up to these trades, and he
could set out and cut in the furrows of a millstone with an
accuracy equal or superior to that of the miller himself.
These various duties ho was called upon to exercise, and
seldom in vain, as in the practice of his profession he had
mainly to depend upon his own resources. Generally-, he
was a fair arithmetician, knew something of geometry,
levelling, and mensuration, and in some cases possessed a
very competent knowledge of practical mathematics. He
could calculate the velocities, strength, and power of ma-
chines : could draw in plan and section, and could construct
buildings, conduits, or watercourses, in all the forms and
under all the conditions required in his professional prac-
tice ; he could build bridges, cut canals, and perform a
variety of work now done by civil engineers. Such was the
character and condition of the men who designed and car-
ried out most of the mechanical work of this country, up to
the middle and end of the last century. Living in a more
primitive state of society than ourselves, there probably
never existed a more useful and independent class of men
than the country millwrights. The whole mechanical
knowledge of the country was centered amongst them, and,
wherever sobriety was maintained and self-improvement
aimed at, they were generally looked upon as men of supe-
rior attainments and of considerable intellectual power. It,
however, too frequently happened that early training, con-
stant change of scene, and the temptations of jovial com-
panions, led the young millwright into excesses which almost
paralysed his good qualifications. His attainments as a
mechanic, and his standing in the useful arts, were apt to
make him vain ; and with a rude independence he would
repudiate the idea of working with an inferior craftsman, or
even with another as skilful as himself, unless he was born
and bred a millwright. I remember an old millwright who,
in palliation of an offence with which his employer charged
him, urged that he ought not to forget that he had conde-
scended to work even with carpenters to please him.

Mr. Fairbairn commences with the early history of
mills, and step by step, as he advances up to
th© present time, he explains the various construc-
tion of water, steam, and other mills, together with
the requisite formulae to regulate their mechanism.
We have also several plates illustrating different
mills which he has erected in various parts of the
country, demonstrating the peculiarities of the
principles on which they are built. The various
forms of boilers are considered in chapter 8 ; and
chapter 9 is devoted to windmills, the consideration
of the causes of their limited list, the forms and
proportions of sails, and the regulation of speed.
The volume is concluded by a series of experiments
upon the efficiency of the vortex wheel.

THE POLES AND THEIR PRlSON.—Eighteen
miles from-Warsaw stands the largest fortress in the world,
a fortress with casemated and bomb-proof barracks for
40,000 men, and with a circumference of 11 miles. Whe-
ther this fact is generally known or not, it is certain that
very few Englishmen—very few persons of any country but
Russia—have been allowed the opportunity of inspecting
this wondrous stronghold. Nor, I believe, is our Govern-
ment at present in possession of any plan or sketch of the
immense works; and as evideneeof the jealousy withwhieh
it is hidden from the eyes of strangers, I may mention that
special permission from the Czar is requisite to enable
any foreigner to enter it. The fortress is called Modlin, or
the New Georgien, in Russian, Novo-Giorgievski—Oneg
eek.