[5] In the dedication of the 'Synopsis Plantarum Orbis Novi,' Roberto Brownio, Britanniarum Gloriæ atque Ornamento, totam Botanices Scientiam ingenio mirifico complectenti.
[6] At eleven years of age, Brunel's love of tools was so great that he once pawned his hat to buy them; and at the age of twelve he is said to have constructed different articles with as much precision as a regular workman.
[7] Brunel had scarcely left the shores of France when he found that he had lost his passport. This difficulty he, however, got over by borrowing a passport from a fellow-traveller, which he copied so exactly in every particular, down to the very seal, that it was deemed proof against all scrutiny. He had hardly completed his task when the American vessel was stopped by a French frigate, and all the passengers were ordered to show their passports. Brunel, with perfect self-possession, was the first to show his, and not the slightest doubt was aroused as to its authenticity.
[8] The total number of machines employed in the various operations of making a ship's block by this method was forty-four, and 16,000 blocks of various sizes could be turned out in the course of a year.
[9] Dr. Cartwright was the younger brother of Major John Cartwright, the well-known English Reformer of the reign of George III., to whose memory a bronze statue is erected in Burton Crescent, London.
[10] Dr. Cartwright was married twice. His first wife died in 1785, and in 1790 he married the youngest daughter of the Rev. Dr. Kearney.
[11] Pursuit of Knowledge, vol. 2.
[12] The other three being Hales, Black, and Priestly.
[13] Highs or Hays was a reedmaker at Leigh, and in 1767 took up the plan of attempting to spin by rollers running at different speeds, previously invented by Lewis Paul in 1738. Highs employed Kay to carry out his plans, from whom Arkwright obtained the requisite information.
[14] Mr. Lee, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. George Duckworth.