Donald Thomas Cochrane (v1.1) (epub)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Near the house itself, he had an experimental kiln which he decided to adapt in order to get rid of the unwanted fumes.In darkness, he fitted a gun barrel to the outlet pipe, carrying the vapour to a safe height.Then, as the process of extracting coal tar began, he held a light to the muzzle.Three miles away, on the other shore of the Firth, the inhabitants stared in amazement as the dark waters and distant coast blazed with light.But the Earl's head was bent to examine the dark and glossy coal tar on which he had set all his hopes.Above him, the gas lighting, which he had invented without realising it, blazed unheeded.It was William Murdoch, an employee of James Watt who saw the possibility latent in the one invention which might have saved Cul-ross.He developed it and it was later patented by Frederic Winsor in 1804.13But the Earl still had his coal tar and, taking young Lord Cochrane with him once more, he set off for London.He was about to present his great discovery to the Admiralty and their ship-repairers.It was not too much to hope that wealth and honour would be his at last.The Admiralty seemed disinclined at first to take any notice of the coal tar invention.But they relented and agreed to coat one side of a buoy at the Nore with the Earl's patent mixture.However, they insisted that it was to be done at the Earl's own expense, the Navy Board was not to be committed to any financial outlay.The inventor agreed and the buoy was prepared.He waited impatiently during the trial period and then went to receive the verdict of the Admiralty.Yes, the experiment had been a complete success, protecting the side of the buoy against the worm while the other side had rotted.No, the Admiralty was not interested in the invention.The Earl was dumbfounded by this reply.He had pacified his creditors, borrowed a further £22,400 and was irretrievably in debt unless coal tar were adopted.Why should it not be? Still with young Lord Cochrane in tow, he began to visit shipbuilders, to see if there was some special technical problem involved in using coal tar, some minor defect which he might be able to overcome.He received his answer at last from a shipbuilder in Limehouse."My lord," said the man, "we live by repairing ships as well as by building them, and the worm is our best friend.Rather than use your preparation, I would cover ships' bottoms with honey to attract worms."14Similar objections, wrote Lord Cochrane, were "everywhere encountered" among the shipbuilders."Neither they, nor any artisans in wood, would patronise a plan to render their work durable." As for the Admiralty and the Navy Board, it was common knowledge that many of the clerks in the King's dockyards also acted as agents for the private contractors.They were hardly likely to recommend to the Board a substance which would lead to a recession among those on whose behalf they acted and whose profits they shared.15Father and son returned, suitably chastened, to Culross.But though the Earl's fortunes had taken such a turn for the worse, he was confident that some other scientific development might yet secure the future of his family.To make assurance doubly sure, he began to work on a host of projects simultaneously.Perhaps it was his election to the Royal Society of Scotland which gave him the confidence to launch out in this manner, but the other members of the British Tar Company grew uneasy.Its future might be unpromising but at least it was not actually losing money.Joseph Black went to Culross and was alarmed to find that the Earl had lost his enthusiasm for coal tar and was now pottering about with experiments for manufacturing salt or attempting to produce sal ammoniac."I endeavoured to dissuade him from the pursuit of these for the present, and advised him to attend to the branches of his manufacture which had already succeeded and were bringing in money."16It was certainly true that the coal tar process was a scientific success, but the refusal of the Admiralty and the reluctance of shipbuilders to use it had put an end to its commercial use.Without such patronage, a return of £5000 a year on the £22,400 investment was impossible.Perhaps, then, the salvation of Culross lay in the manufacture of salt.The Earl published The Present State of the Manufacture of Salt Explained, only to find his time and enthusiasm expended in the literary snarling of a pamphlet-war with men who disagreed over his figures for the populations of Britain and France, or for the amount of salt imported.Meanwhile, the shadow of total ruin spread over Culross and its inhabitants.As he pottered about his experimental "salt-pan", the Earl noticed that the process produced a quantity of soda.But for the time being he was obsessed by salt-manufacture and the production of alkalis was an irrelevance.He had, without realising it, revolutionised the manufacture of soap and glass, as he discovered when other men took his soda, used it instead of scarce barilla, and made their fortunes.While his financial position grew worse, he spread his intellectual resources as widely as his borrowed capital.The bankrupt estate at Culross began to produce alumina for silk and calico printing, British gum as a substitute for imported gum Senegal, sal ammoniac, and white lead.The Earl himself began to experiment in making bread from potatoes, as an aid to the poor.Not one of these activities was on a scale sufficient to cover its own costs and, as the noble inventor dissipated his energies and abilities, his behaviour grew progressively odder [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne