overed. Before he died, he recommended me to try for a
schoolmaster's certificate; and I promised him that I would. I
obtained a situation as master of a small village school, not under
Government inspection; and I studied during the year, and obtained a
second class certificate at the Durham Diocesan College at Christmas,
1877. Early in the following year, the school was placed under
Government inspection, and became a little more remunerative.

"I now went on with chemical analysis, making my own apparatus.
Requiring an intense heat on a small scale, I invented a furnace that
burnt petroleum oil. It was blown by compressed air. After many
failures, I eventually succeeded in bringing it to such perfection that
in 7 1/2 minutes it would bring four ounces of steel into a perfectly
liquefied state. I next commenced the study of electricity and
magnetism; and then acoustics, light, and heat. I constructed all my
apparatus myself, and acquired the art of glass-blowing, in order to
make my own chemical apparatus, and thus save expense.

"I then went on with Algebra and Euclid, and took up plane
trigonometry; but I devoted most of my time to electricity and
magnetism. I constructed various scientific apparatus--a syren,
telephones, microphones, an Edison's megaphone, as well as an
electrometer, and a machine for covering electric wire with cotton or
silk. A friend having lent me a work on artificial memory, I began to
study it; but the work led me into nothing but confusion, and I soon
found that if I did not give it up, I should be left with no memory at
all. I still went an sketching from Nature, not so much as a study,
but as a means of recruiting my health, which was far from being good.
At the beginning of 1881 I obtained my present situation as assistant
master at the Yorebridge Grammar School, of which the Rev. W.
Balderston, M.A., is principal.

"Soon after I became settled here, I spent some of my leisure time in
reading Emerson's 'Optics,' a work I bought at an old bookstall. I was
not very successful with it, owing to my deficient mathematical
knowledge. On the May Science Examinations of 1881 taking place at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, applied for permission to sit, and obtained four
tickets for the following subjects:--Mathematics, Electricity and
Magnetism, Acoustics, Light and Heat, and Physiography. During the
preceding month I had read up the first three subjects, but, being
pressed for time, I gave up