[40] “Essays by a Birmingham Manufacturer,” Vol. II., p. 188.
[41] This expression is not strictly correct, as it was impossible to maintain absolutely the same level throughout without using stools of an unmanageable height. What was done was to keep the rods in a right line until a new gradient was designedly taken; the angle of rise or fall being in each instance carefully measured, and the whole afterwards reduced by computation to the exact horizontal distance. It may be added, that in order to make due allowance for the elongation or contraction of the rods by change of temperature, thermometers were attached to the apparatus, and the rise and fall of the mercury duly recorded.
[42] “These manuscripts were unfortunately destroyed two years afterwards in a fire which will be mentioned hereafter, and with them perished not only my water alarum, but also my planispheres, and various other results of past labour.”
[43] Colonel Mudge’s “Report of the Trigonometrical Society of England and Wales.” Vol. III., p. 156.
[44] Alphabetical Index to the third volume of the “Report.”
[45] Prefatory Memoir.
[46] “Southey’s Life and Correspondence,” Vol. I., p. 39.
[47] “Plans for the Government and Liberal Instruction of Boys in Large Numbers. Drawn from Experience.” London: Printed for G. & W. B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria Lane, 1822. A second edition was published in 1825.
[48] He was speaking of the system as it was in his time. His only son, and all his grandsons, have been pupils of the school.
[49] “When Dr. Johnson read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted with the various obstructions thrown in his way to fortune and to fame, he burst into a passion of tears.”—“Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson.” By Madame Piozzi, p. 50.