OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE FIRST EDITION.
ONCE A WEEK.
Accompanying the picture, &c., there is a volume by Mr. W. Walker, junior, giving a brief memoir of the salient points of each individual history. This is well executed, and forms a useful book of reference for those who would know more than the picture can tell.
ENGINEER.
Messrs. Walker's great historical engraving of the "Distinguished Men of Science," noticed some weeks ago in these columns, is accompanied by a well written and handsomely printed octavo volume of 228 pages, containing condensed biographical sketches of the fifty-one subjects of the picture itself. The book appears to have been first undertaken with the view of furnishing a mere outline of the life and achievements of these eminent men, but the inevitable delay attending the production of a large engraving, and the gradual accumulation of personal and historical details, at last led Mr. Walker, Jun., to revise and considerably extend the scope of his work, which now forms a very complete and desirable compendium of long-neglected, and, popularly speaking, almost inaccessible biography, of interest and value as well to those who cannot possess themselves of the picture as to the subscribers to that work. The whole is preceded by an introduction, not wanting in suggestive matter, from the pen of Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S.... There is probably no work, certainly none so well within the reach of the general public, which gives anything like as full and yet concise an account of the great men of science who lived and flourished half a century ago. The arrangement of the book is such as to facilitate the readiest reference to any part, and, while the matter is abundant, the style is clear and pleasing. We believe the book will be in large request.
MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.
In our notice last week of Mr. Walker's engraving of the distinguished men of science, we were only able to make a passing mention of the book of memoirs which accompanies it. As, however, this book is to be obtained separately, and has evidently been written with care, we will now speak further as to its deserts. In the preface the writer claims the merit only of a compiler, with one or two exceptions, and he expresses a hope that he may have performed his task with clearness and brevity, not neglecting, at the same time, to present his facts in a readable form. The combination of these three qualities is not often to be met with in a series of short biographies, and we are, therefore, glad to be able to say that Mr. W. Walker has, in a great measure, succeeded in accomplishing this. We would particularly call attention to the notices of Cavendish, Samuel Crompton, Dr. Jenner, Count Rumford, and Dr. Thomas Young, as instances of the successful manner in which good sketches of character have been interwoven with plain records of the facts occurring in the lives of these eminent men. The memoir of James Watt is also well put together, and it must have cost the writer considerable labour to compress into the space of six pages so clear an account of the numerous works of this great philosopher and engineer.
The biographies which claim particular notice, from containing original information, are those of Tennant, Maudslay, and Trevithick. The life of Charles Tennant, the founder of the celebrated chemical works at St. Rollox, Glasgow, gives to the public for the first time a sketch of the career of one whose inborn energy of character and clear intellect (to use the author's words), placed him among the foremost of those men who, by uniting science to manufactures, have entitled their occupations to be classed among the ranks of the liberal professions.
But the memoir the perusal of which will afford the greatest interest to engineers is that of Trevithick. Without pretending to anything like a life worthy of the genius of this extraordinary man, it is, notwithstanding, the most complete biographical notice which has yet been published of him. We trust the book may be extensively read, as it affords interesting information, in an easily accessible shape, of men, the memory of whose deeds is too liable to pass away.