The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1898-07-23
SIR ISAAC HOLDEN.
LIFE OF THE MILL-BOY AND
MILLIONAIRE.
Born In a Golfers Cottage; Died n
Baronet-His Industry and Inventive
Genius Brought Him Wealth and
World Wide Fame. .


ed him as being good and doing
good In spite of a frail form, he
maintained his health through the
years of strenuous labor, toiled at his
numerous inventions, built up a gil
gantic business, and preserved to the
end his simplicity of manner and SYM
pathy with the needy. His life is a
romance of industry and generosity.
He was born in a Golfers cottage in
Scotland. George III. was king of
England, Jefferson was president of the
United States, and Bonaparte, who that
year declared Great Britain blockaded,
was the national boyle. His father was
a Cumberland man, who had married
a Scotch m The parents of both
had become Wesleyans under John
Wesley's personal guidance. The ia
ther, when quite young, worked in a
a mine. His little home in Cumber-
land is still standing. He then re-
moved to a Scotch village, and become
head man in a coal pit neal the Clyde.
Times were hard, wages low, and food
at famine prices. The collier had often
only two days work in the week.
Isaac, when 5 years old, began his
education in a little village school. Five
years later, when work at the pit
ceased, the family removed again. The
parents devoted all their savings to
send the boy to KiIbarchan grammar
school. But the wages again failed,
and food was SO dear that Isaac had
to go to work after he was 10 years
OF age, and this time as draw-boy to
two weavers. He went to school at
night. The sight of machinery became
MS constant inspiration. He was al
ways devising, even then, new plans
for saving labor. After a while he be-
came a fu~ll-fiedged mill-boy, and
worked fourteen hours a day.
When better days cam he left the
mill, and was sent to the school kept
by a Mr.. Fraser, who had known well
the poet Burns. This schoolmaster
was popularity called "Old Radical"
Sir Isaac was fond of telling, later, how
Old Radical had "a Mans a Man for
a. That" printed in large type and
mounted on boards for the boys at
school to look at and parse at sight.
When, in the year that George III.
died, 1920, 1saac's father removed to
Paisley, Isaac went to say goodbye to
Old Radical, who talked to him about
George Tvs accession, and said: "If
you want to study the new king, read
S%uetonius and Petronius. You will find
his counterpart in their works" Isaac
had been an apt pupil, and replied:
THE kings of the earth take counsel
together, but what is true and just
must live in spite of them"
The boy Of Is was placed with an
uncle at Paisley, to learn shawl+weav-
ing. Here his health broke down, so
that he could do little or no manual
labor. He then became assistant to
John Kennedy, a scientific lecturer,
with whom he studied Greek, Latin,
French and mathematics. Twice he
offered himself for the Wesleyan min
istry, and was accepted as a candidate,
but his feeble health closed this path
to him. When he was 10 he became
a mathematical tutor at Reading, and
formed a mathematical institute, CIV
Ing lectures in natural science and his
tory. Young Holden's lectures at
Reading were given to about 100 young
men, who dubbed together and fur
nished a little laboratory. In the
course of his chemical experiments, in
1929, he originated the idea Of the lu-
cifer-match, though he never patented
it nor derived any financial benefit
from it. But we shall hear him tell his
own story. Before a select committee
Of the House of Commons, appointed to
Inquire into the working of the patent
laws, he said:
In the morning I used to get I'D at
4 O'Clock in order to pursue my studies,
and / used at that time the flint and
steel, in the use of which | found very
great inconvenience. | gave lectures
In chemistry at the time at a very
large academy. OF course, | knew, as
other chemists did, the explosive ma
terial that was necessary in order to
produce instantaneous light; but it was
very difficult to obtain a light on wood
by that explosive material, and the
Idea occurred to me to put under the
explosive mixture sulphur. | did that,
and published it in my ext lecture,
and showed it. There was a young
man in the room whose father was a
chemist in London, and he Immediately
wrote to his father about 1t, and short
ly afterwards lucifer matches were is
sued to the world. | believe that was
the first occasion that we had the pres
ent lucifer match"
Mr.. Holden gave up teaching in 1880,
and obtained a place as b~ookkeeper at
C~ullingworth, near Keighley, to Messrs.
Townend Brothers, in which establish
ment he afterwards became manager.
From the time when he was a mill-boy
he had never lost sight of the need for
an improvement in the process of wool
eombing. He watched the hand-comb-
srs at work, and learned that many at
tempts had been made to treat the
ibre by machinery, but that the fibre
Itself was so delicate that every ex-
pertinent failed. He determined to try
again. At last he succeeded in the
production of the "square-motion
wool-comber," with action to initiate
that of the hands. In the same year
Holden invented a device for genappe
Tarns.
He next entered into partnership
with Mr.. Lister, now Lord Masham,
whom he bought IL at the end of ten
years by the payment of s 5000. He
improved his patents, extended his