r miles on either side; and many instances of
much larger spots than these are on record."

[8] SIR JOHN HERSCHEL in Good Words for April, 1863.

CHAPTER XVI.

WILLIAM FAIRBAIRN.

"In science there is work for all hands, more or less skilled; and he
is usually the most fit to occupy the higher posts who has risen from
the ranks, and has experimentally acquainted himself with the nature of
the work to be done in each and every, even the humblest department."
J. D. Forbes.

The development of the mechanical industry of England has been so
rapid, especially as regards the wonders achieved by the machine-tools
above referred to, that it may almost be said to have been accomplished
within the life of the present generation. "When I first entered this
city," said Mr. Fairbairn, in his inaugural address as President of the
British Association at Manchester in 1861, "the whole of the machinery
was executed by hand. There were neither planing, slotting, nor
shaping machines; and, with the exception of very imperfect lathes and
a few drills, the preparatory operations of construction were effected
entirely by the hands of the workmen. Now, everything is done by
machine-tools with a degree of accuracy which the unaided hand could
never accomplish. The automaton or self-acting machine-tool has within
itself an almost creative power; in fact, so great are its powers of
adaptation, that there is no operation of the human hand that it does
not imitate." In a letter to the author, Mr. Fairbairn says, "The
great pioneers of machine-tool-making were Maudslay, Murray of Leeds,
Clement and Fox of Derby, who were ably followed by Nasmyth, Roberts,
and Whitworth, of Manchester, and Sir Peter Fairbairn of Leeds; and Mr.
Fairbairn might well have added, by himself,--for he has been one of
the most influential and successful of mechanical engineers.

William Fairbairn was born at Kelso on the 19th of February, 1787. His
parents occupied a humble but respectable position in life. His
father, Andrew Fairbairn, was the son of a gardener in the employment
of Mr. Baillie of Mellerston, and lived at Smailholm, a village lying a
few miles west of Kelso. Tracing the Fairbairns still further back, we
find several of them occupying the station of "portioners," or small
lairds, at Earlston on the Tweed, where the family had been settled
since the days of the Solemn League and Covenant. By his mother's
side, the subject of our memoi