Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/130

 elementary knowledge at the parish school. His father farmed three hundred acres for a time under Lord Seaforth with the assistance of the elder children, while William had to take care of his delicate brother, Peter [q. v.] To save the trouble of carrying the child he constructed a ‘wagon’ with a few simple tools, and then took to building boats and little mills. He afterwards had a little plain schooling at Mullochy, under a Mr. Donald Fraser, and then learnt book-keeping under an uncle who kept a school at Galashiels. When fourteen years old he joined his family at Kelso, where they had been settled by the father, who was managing a farm near Knaresborough. William got employment at 3s. a week, until he was laid up by an accident, upon a bridge then being built by Rennie.

Towards the end of 1803 the elder Fairbairn moved with his family to a farm near Newcastle-on-Tyne belonging to the Percy Main colliery. William was employed in the colliery, and on 24 March 1804 was apprenticed to John Robinson, a millwright. He spent his leisure in reading, three days in the week being systematically allotted to mathematical studies and the others to general literature. He also applied his mechanical ingenuity to the construction of an orrery. Being appointed to the care of the engines at the colliery he got more time for reading, and became a member of the Shields library. Here he became a friend of George Stephenson. At the end of his apprenticeship, in March 1811, he obtained employment as a millwright at Newcastle, and afterwards in the construction of some works at Bedlington, where he met his future wife. The works being finished, he sailed for London in December 1811 with a fellow-workman named Hogg. They obtained employment after some difficulties. A clergyman named Hall introduced Fairbairn to the Society of Arts and to Tilloch, the founder of ‘Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine,’ and employed him in the construction of a steam-engine for digging. The machine failed after absorbing some of Fairbairn's savings. He made something by a sausage-machine, and set out for Bath and Dublin, where by October 1813 he had finished a nail machine, and then went to Manchester. Soon afterwards he married Dorothy, youngest daughter of John Mar, a Kelso burgess. He was employed by a master with whom in 1817 he has some disagreement about a new Blackfriars bridge at Manchester, and thereupon set up in partnership with an old shopmate, James Lillie. They soon acquired a good reputation by providing the machinery for a cotton-mill, and their business rapidly increased. In 1824 Fairbairn went to Zurich to erect two water-mills. By an ingenious contrivance he surmounted the difficulties due to the irregular supply of water, and constructed wheels which worked regularly whatever the height of the river. By 1830 Fairbairn and Lillie had a clear balance of near 40,000l., and were able besides to increase their works so as to employ three hundred hands.

Fairbairn became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1830. He now began to investigate the properties of iron boats with a special view to improving the system of canal traction. His partner was not favourable to the experiments which he undertook for the Forth and Clyde Company. The publication of his results brought him the thanks of the institution, and the company employed him to construct a light iron passage-boat called the Lord Dundas, which ran for two years between Port Dundas, Glasgow, and Port Eglintoun, Edinburgh.

Fairbairn and Lillie lost much at this time in a speculation for starting a cotton-mill, which crippled their resources as millwrights and led to a dissolution of the partnership, Lillie setting up in opposition to Fairbairn. Fairbairn now devoted his energies to ship-building. He first built his ships in sections at Manchester, but in 1835 decided to take works at Millwall, Poplar, in partnership with an old pupil, Andrew Murray. He was supported by government and the East India Company, but found the strain too great and abandoned the Millwall establishment, where two thousand hands were employed. At Manchester he undertook many engineering schemes, experimented on the properties of iron, and, to meet a strike of his workmen, introduced the riveting machine, which has made a revolution in the manufacture of boilers. He took great interest in questions connected with boilers, and founded an association for the prevention of boiler explosions.

In 1839 he inspected the government works at Constantinople, and was decorated by the sultan, who also gave him a firman to be ‘chief fabricator’ of machinery for the Turkish government in England. He was consulted in 1840 upon the drainage of the Haarlem lake. In 1841 he gave advice to the English government upon the prevention of accidents by machinery. In 1842 he took out a patent (17 July, No. 9409) for improvements in the construction of iron ships, which proved too troublesome for general application. He read a paper on the prevention of smoke before the British Association at York in 1844. When Stephenson designed the