James Nasmyth: Engineer | Page 6

Tootal's advice Friendliness
between engineering firms Small high-pressure engines Uses of waste
steam Improvements in calico-printing Improvements at Woolwich
Arsenal Enlargement of workshops Improved machine tools The gun
foundry and laboratories Orders for Spain and Russia Rope factory
machinery Russian Officers Grand Duke Constantine Lord Ellesmere's
visitors Admiral Kornileff
CHAPTER 18
Astronomical pursuits Hobbies at home Drawing Washington Irving
Pursuit of astronomy Wonders of the heavens Construction of a new
speculum William Lassell Warren de la Rue Home-made reflecting
telescope A ghost at Patricroft Twenty-inch diameter speculum
Drawings of the moon's surface Structure of the moon Lunar craters
Pico Wrinkles of age Extinct craters Landscape scenery of the moon
Meeting of British Association at Edinburgh The Bass Rock Professor

Owen Robert Chambers The grooved rocks Hugh Miller and boulder
clay Lecture on the moon Visit the Duke of Argyll Basaltic formation
at Mull The Giant's Causeway The great exhibition Steam hammer
engine Prize medals Interview with the Queen and Prince Consort Lord
Cockburn Visit to Bonally D. O. Hill
CHAPTER 19
More about Astronomy Sir David Brewster Edward Cowper's lecture
Cause of the sun's light Lord Murray Sir T. Mitchell The Milky Way
Countless suns Infusoria in Bridgewater Canal Rotary movements of
heavenly bodies Geological Society meeting Dr Vaugham
Improvement of Small Arms Factory, Enfield Generosity of United
States Government The Enfield Rifle
CHAPTER 20
Retirement from Business Letter from David Roberts, R. A. Puddling
iron by steam The process tried Sir Henry Bessemer's invention
Discussion at Cheltenham Bessemer's account Prepare to retire from
business The Countess of Ellesmere The "Cottage in Kent" The
"antibilious stock" Hammerfield, Penshurst Planting and gardening The
Crystal Palace Music Tools and telescopes The greenhouse
CHAPTER 21
Active leisure Astronomy Lecture on the Moon Edinburgh Old friends
Visit to the Continent--Paris, Chartres, Nismes, Chamounix Art of
photography Sir John Herschel Spots on the sun's surface E.J. Stone De
la Rue Visit from Sir John Herschel Cracking glass globe A million
spots and letters Geological diagram Father Secchi at Rome Lord
Lyndhurst Visit to Herschel His last letter Publication of The Moon
Philip H. Calderon Cardinal Manning Miss Herschel William Lassell
Windmill grinding of speculum The dial of life End of recollections
List of Inventions and Contrivances

Articles on the Sun-Ray origin of the Pyramids and Cuneiform
Character
[Image] Edinburgh Castle, From the Vennel
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
CHAPTER 1.
My Ancestry
Our history begins before we are born. We represent the hereditary
influences of our race, and our ancestors virtually live in us. The
sentiment of ancestry seems to be inherent in human nature, especially
in the more civilised races. At all events, we cannot help having a due
regard for the history of our forefathers. Our curiosity is stimulated by
their immediate or indirect influence upon ourselves. It may be a
generous enthusiasm, or, as some might say, a harmless vanity, to take
pride in the honour of their name. The gifts of nature, however, are
more valuable than those of fortune; and no line of ancestry, however
honourable, can absolve us from the duty of diligent application and
perseverance, or from the practice of the virtues of self-control and
self-help.
Sir Bernard Burke, in his Peerage and Baronetage Ed 1879 Pp 885-6,
gives a faithful account of the ancestors from whom I am lineally
descended. "The family of Naesymth, he says, "is one of remote
antiquity in Tweeddale, and has possessed lands there since the 13th
century." They fought in the wars of Bruce and Baliol, which ended in
the independence of Scotland.
The following is the family legend of the origin of the name of
Naesymth: --
In the troublous times which prevailed in Scotland before the union of
the Crowns, the feuds between the King and the Barons were almost
constant. In the reign of James III. the House of Douglas was the most
prominent and ambitious. The Earl not only resisted his liege lord, but

entered into a combination with the King of England, from whom he
received a pension. He was declared a rebel, and his estates were
confiscated. He determined to resist the royal power, and crossed the
Border with his followers. He was met by the Earl of Angus, the
Maxwells, the Johnstons, and the Scotts. In one of the engagements
which ensued the Douglases appeared to have gained the day, when an
ancestor of the Naesmyths, who fought under the royal standard, took
refuge in the smithy of a neighbouring village. The smith offered him
protection, disguised him as a hammerman, with a leather apron in
front, and asked him to lend a hand at his work.
While thus engaged a party of the Douglas partisans entered the smithy.
They looked with suspicion on the disguised hammerman, who, in his
agitation, struck a false blow with the sledge hammer, which broke the