Few more remarkable men than Brindley have appeared in these latter times. He was not only the architect of his own fortune, but added enormously to the wealth of others, and to the public resources. In the acquirement of that knowledge which gave him the power of accomplishing great schemes, he had none of the appliances and facilities which competence furnishes and wealth commands; but he possessed advantages which were of more value to a man like him—a mind not to be startled at the prospect of its faculties being exerted—a resolution which, in the true spirit of industry, held difficulties at defiance—and a determination whose intellectual efforts circumstances could not baffle or subdue.

James Brindley was born in the year 1716, at Tunsted, within the county of Derby. His father had reduced himself to extreme poverty by habits of dissipation and extravagance. Accordingly, any education that Brindley received at school was, no doubt, of the very slightest and most limited description. It appears, however, that the statement of his inability to read and write is quite incorrect; several specimens of his penmanship having been produced. He is said never to have been instructed even in the first principles of mechanics, but was able by a peculiar process of his own invention, to make most accurate calculations. Besides, his memory adhered with amazing tenacity to any facts or information committed to its keeping: and by such means did this unquestioned benefactor of his kind countervail his deficiency of early training and scientific knowledge.

Having passed a few years in agricultural operations—plying with the flail or whistling at the plow—he was, at the age of seventeen, apprenticed to a millwright at Macclesfield, in Cheshire. In this situation his ideas were rapidly enlarged, and his faculties sharpened by experience in the trade which he had selected, probably from feeling that it would accord better with his tastes than the labors of the husbandman had done. His mechanical genius now began to develop itself, and to become perceptible; and so apparent was his progress in obtaining a knowledge of the business, that his employer frequently when absent from the mills, left him to execute pieces of work without finding it necessary to give any instruction in regard to them. Moreover, the different millers by whom they were employed soon discovered his superiority, and infinitely preferred his services to those of the master or any of the workmen belonging to the establishment. On approaching manhood, Brindley himself felt that he was destined for higher matters; and vague presentiments of better days in store occupied and agitated his powerful mind as he resolutely pursued his daily labors. Little could he imagine that he, the poor journeyman of a rural millwright, should, ere long, be the instrument of contributing materially to the national wealth; but it was ordered that it should be so.

Meantime his employer became so advanced in years, that he was incapable of working with effect. Brindley wisely seized the opportunity of applying his skill and ingenuity to the business, proved quite equal to the occasion, and exerted himself with so much success, that he not only kept it up against all competitors, but rendered it so flourishing a concern, that the old man and his family were enabled to live in comfortable circumstances. Indeed the apprentice was now the more skillful mechanic of the two, and he about this time gave proof of such being the case.

The aged worthy happened to be engaged in the construction of a paper-mill at some distance from his own workshop, and had proceeded to a considerable extent with the operation, when some one skilled in such matters observed that he was merely throwing his employer’s money away. This remark reached the ears of Brindley, who, though perhaps by no means so zealous for his master’s fame as the last minstrel was for that of the jovial harper who had taught him when a youth, resolved that it should be redeemed from such a reproach. He therefore determined to go and inspect the work in question; though that was not in any respect convenient, his time being otherwise occupied. But “where there’s a will there’s a way;” and one Saturday evening he set off on foot, without apprizing any one of his intended excursion, and, having obtained a sight of the object of his journey, returned on Monday morning in time for his work, after having walked a distance of fifty miles. He was altogether without the advantage of having seen a mill of the same kind before; but, nevertheless, was by this brief and cursory survey enabled to comprehend every thing necessary to its being properly completed. Taking the work under his superintendence, he brought it to a termination that gave the proprietor perfect satisfaction.

Brindley’s reputation after the success of this undertaking rose high in the neighborhood, and he was induced to commence business on his own account. His abilities soon became widely known and appreciated, and he was extensively employed. He reaped much credit from the erection of an engine intended to drain a coal-mine at Clifton, in that bustling Lancashire where the cries are ever “Onward!” and “Haste!” which was afterward the sphere of his scientific triumphs, and with the history of which his name is so honorably linked. Under his auspices this piece of work proceeded with unexpected and amazing rapidity, notwithstanding the difficulties by which it was encompassed.

About this period a silk mill was being erected at Congleton, in Cheshire. The more intricate machinery was intrusted to a more experienced person, and Brindley was engaged merely to furnish the larger wheels and coarser apparatus. It soon appeared, that in this division of labor the Derbyshire aspirant had been treated with less than justice. He was constantly compelled to point out and rectify the errors and blunders; and at length, tiring of the irksome and invidious task, he resolutely refused to remain in a subordinate capacity to a person whose inferiority, in all that related to the matter in hand, was proved incontestably by the experience of each succeeding day. Then his employers, seeing how the case really stood, and prudently considering that their own interests were concerned in Brindley’s services being retained, appointed him sole manager of the work; which he not only brought to a satisfactory conclusion, but added several improvements of no inconsiderable value or importance.

While his name was rising and his reputation increasing, he had the good fortune of becoming known to the Duke of Bridgewater. The latter was no ordinary man. The youngest of five children, who successively died off, he was, in boyhood, regarded as so sickly that his life was despaired of and his intellect doubted. On this account his education was for a time neglected. However, he was sent on a Continental tour, under the guidance of a traveling tutor, and no doubt used his eyes to better purpose than had been anticipated by his guardians, or than his immediate pursuits would have led them to suppose. On returning to England, he set about enjoying himself after the fashion of the day. He appeared as the owner of race-horses, as a gentleman-rider, as the frequenter of aristocratic assemblies, and as the successful suitor of a celebrated beauty. It was on the last point that his fate turned. Circumstances of a peculiar nature interfered with the matrimonial project, and prevented the union. The young duke vowed perpetual celibacy, declared he would never address another female in accents of gallantry, and abandoning fashionable society, with all its pains, and pleasures, and excitements, retired, with honor, to his estates in the county of Lancaster.

Fortunately this representative of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere was gifted with an ardent diligence which his illustrious progenitor might have envied, and he forthwith began to develop the resources which lay dormant in his hereditary possessions. Mr. Gilbert, a person who had been much engaged in mining operations, became his assistant, and exhibited a spirit of energy and perseverance kindred with that of his employer. Brindley’s provincial fame was now not inconsiderable, and he soon became acquainted with the young patrician, who had fled from the wiles of noble matrons, and the fascinations of their fairer daughters, to bleak coal-fields and barren moors.

The man who was now introduced to the then thin and slender duke, who had escaped from race-courses, ball-rooms, and gaming-tables, to earn for himself the proud and honorable title of the “Father of British Inland Navigation,” was plain in appearance and boorish in manners. But whenever he spoke bystanders listened with pleased surprise at the enterprising courage which his words betokened; and his conversation was in no small degree indicative of one of the strong, rough, resolute, master minds, whose workings—stern and independent—frequently benefit largely the human species, and minister to the civilization of the wide world. He was just such a man as the duke stood in need of for the carrying out of his plans of improvement, and he readily consented to take service with that view.

The first undertaking on which Brindley entered in his new position was the Bridgewater Canal. Having surveyed the ground, and reported that it presented no insuperable difficulties, an Act of Parliament was obtained, and the enterprise proceeded with under his superintendence. The self-taught engineer was branded by turns as an enthusiast, a madman, and a person unworthy of trust; but his intellectual courage and unshrinking confidence in the expedients of his own bold, powerful, and original mind defied all such assaults; and he remained unmoved by the sneers, scorn, and ridicule directed against his projects. His heart and soul were in the enterprise, and obstacles disappeared before his determined will. Strangers came from afar to view the gigantic operations, and marveled at the facility with which the plain, hard-headed, illiterate man, found means to handle huge rocks, and remove them at his pleasure. This pursuit completely monopolized his thoughts and occupied his attention; he cared not for recreation or amusement. Unceasing industry seemed the law of his being. When in London he was once persuaded to go to the theatre, but declared that the whole scene so confused his ideas, and unfitted him for business, that he would, on no consideration, repeat his visit.

He appears to have had no idea of the beauties of nature, nor any perception of the objects which make up fine scenery. When under examination by a committee of the House of Commons, he was asked for what purpose he conceived rivers to have been created? and, after a slight pause, replied,

“Undoubtedly to feed canals.”

To the end of his extraordinary career, this wonderful man was occupied in his favorite pursuits, and his application to the subject was intense throughout. While the Grand Trunk Navigation Canal, to which he devoted so much thought and energy, was progressing toward completion under his auspices, and he was feeding his mind with visions of the great things it was to accomplish, his death, hastened by mental exertion, took place at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, on the 27th of September, 1772.